After reading the article, beginners and experienced athletes can improve their training program by building the desired muscle corset. High-intensity training is stressful for the body. How does he adapt to such activities? In the article you will learn a lot of interesting things regarding this topic.
The need for high-intensity workouts
After prolonged sessions with high intensity, at some point there is a slowdown in growth or even a stop. And you shouldn't panic here. It is enough to understand exactly how the body adapts to high-intensity training. In addition, you should pay attention to the duration of the rest. And then everything will work out - progress will resume.
If a bodybuilder trains regularly for two to three years, then his muscles get used to the high intensity of training, which means that he needs to switch to a more powerful tool, the level should now be even more impressive.
Intense training affects the growth rate of skeletal muscle. Thanks to efforts, stress arises in the muscles, which forces the body to adapt to impressive loads. As a result, both the size of the muscles and their strength increase. But for constant progression, it is necessary to constantly increase the load from training to training. So, novice athletes, while performing basic, traditional workouts, increase the intensity of the exercise.
The point is that exercising that does not stress the body will not stimulate progress. After all, muscle growth is nothing more than the body's response to stress during overload. If the efforts generated are not intense enough for the body to defend itself and adapt, then growth stops.
If we talk about beginners, then any training has a sufficient load for them. This means that the adaptation will be excellent, muscle strength grows quickly enough. To create an overload for the body, it is enough to go from complete inactivity to training with moderate or even low intensity in this case.
By increasing the working weight, novice athletes manage to progress. The same goes for reducing rest time between sets. But when a beginner reaches a more advanced stage, the training scheme becomes more complicated, because there are already acquired physiological changes that are associated with muscle growth.
The more muscle, the more impressive the pressure on recovery ability. The same applies to the body's reserves, which are used during intense muscle contractions. The average athlete is able to increase strength and intensity generating capacity by about three hundred percent, while recovery capacity can only increase by fifty percent. It turns out that getting stronger and bigger increases the risk of overtraining.
Rest-Pause High Intensity Training Method
Many athletes, instead of increasing the intensity and shortening the duration of their workouts, reduce the intensity and lengthen the duration. They think it is possible to extend the training time this way. But as a result, it does not happen at all as we would like. The intensity of sessions decreases, and progress slows down or stops altogether.
Features of the "Rest-pause" method
With this training technique, it becomes possible to acquire strength and muscle volume. This form of training is used in bodybuilding and powerlifting. Now athletes can work with the heaviest weights for certain muscle groups.
Bodybuilders, trying to increase the intensity of their training, use supersets and dropsets, as well as forced reps. The Rest-Pause technique also belongs to this list. With its help, it is possible to break one large approach into several small ones - there is a short rest between them.
There are two main ways to perform this technique - it all depends on the goal and how impressive the weight used in training is. The first method is aimed at muscle hypertrophy - here they train to muscle failure. As for the second, it is more aimed at increasing strength. Refusal is optional here.
Before exercising with this method, you should warm up in order to warm up the muscles. Otherwise, negative consequences are possible. Basic exercises with free weights are most suitable for this form of training.
This technique is not used in every workout - you can only use it once a week. At the same time, you can make one lesson as difficult as possible for a particular muscle group.
This form of training should not be used alone. During the exercise, there must be an assistant nearby who will insure you.
When lifting the maximum weight, you must make a huge mental effort. The same applies to concentration - it should be maximum. As a result, it becomes possible to achieve the ultimate calculation in one single approach.
Rest-pause is a very effective form of training. But only for experienced athletes. The thing is that for beginners, the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems are not adapted to single extreme and overlimiting loads. For those who are just starting to engage in bodybuilding, this method is not suitable, as it can lead to injury in this case.
Hypertrophy training
Features of this method:
- Begin your set with six to ten reps. In doing so, use the maximum possible weight.
- Next, you need to rest for fifteen seconds, take a deep breath and exhale, and then continue the approach with the same weight to failure.
- Repeat the second point as many times as necessary. More often than not, a couple of times is enough.
Despite the fact that you will be able to perform no more than two or three repetitions, the effect of them will be impressively greater than from ordinary repetitions.
You should not perform several approaches in a row in this technique. In one lesson, one approach is enough using the rest-pause method for each muscle group.
This is an excellent exercise option for muscle hypertrophy - here you can achieve the maximum level of muscle fatigue. In addition, it becomes possible to overcome the plateau - the muscles are exposed to impressive stress and respond to it. Therefore, the next time during the execution of the usual approach, it is possible to do a few more repetitions.
Strength training
Consider how the workouts are performed:
- Pick a weight between eighty-five and ninety-five percent of your one-rep maximum.
- Do one repetition with this load.
- Further rest is necessary - from thirty to forty-five seconds is quite enough.
- Repeat six to ten times.
As a result of extreme muscle tension, microtraumas are formed in the muscles. Clogging of the muscle with protein breakdown products is observed, its strength decreases. This method should be accompanied by long breaks between repetitions in order for the blood to clear the muscles of decay products.
Infitonic training methodology
This is an even more high-intensity method than rest-pause - they are basically the same. In the case of infitonic training, maximum effort is generated in each repetition. Also, negative repetitions are at their maximum in this case. That is, it turns out that with this method, the usual maximum repetition is performed in a rest-pause style, you lower the weight slowly, and here your partner helps you, albeit slightly.
What is repetitive training
Skeletal muscles have 3 levels of strength: positive - lifting the weight, static - holding the load, negative - lowering the weight.
Each of the levels corresponds to one or another type of abbreviation. It can be concentric or static, or it can be eccentric. Thanks to the latter method of increasing the intensity, it is possible to develop efforts in each type of contraction. The same goes for repetitions. This is a multi-contraction training.
With every workout, you can experiment with all three methods of increasing intensity.
Staggered approaches
This principle is quite specific, therefore it is often called dropping. From the name, you can understand that the essence lies in the sharp transition from heavy to light weight. Here two assistants are needed who will simultaneously take off the weight from both ends of the bar when the athlete cannot squeeze the bar any further. Then a few more repetitions are done above the norm.
Thanks to the weight dropped on time, it is possible to extend the approach and increase the intensity of the exercises. This is a difficult technique, so you can use it no more than once in one workout.
Basic requirements for high-intensity training
Consider the requirements for high-intensity training:
- It is necessary to approach the exercise deliberately, under control. Throwing or beating heavy weights can injure joints. Therefore, this cannot be done. Injuries are possible due to jerks and rebounds, as well as the use of momentum. The very same lifting of impressive loads does not hurt.
- Focus on negative reps. According to experts, it is this phase that helps to achieve the greatest effect during super strength training.
- The number of sets must be limited to a maximum of three sets per body part. When you see progress, then of course, you will want to do more sets, because enthusiasm and energy will grow. But self-restraint is very important here: it is necessary to do everything possible to restore the body, which cannot be with a large number of high-intensity sets.
- You cannot train more than once in four to seven days. If after applying the rest-pause technique there are no results, then you are not allowing the body to recover - you are not providing the necessary time for this. With enough intensity, lack of recovery is the only factor holding back progress.
Basic Principles of High Intensity Training
Let's get to know in more detail what the principles of high-intensity training are:
- Shocking the musculature … This program is pretty monotonous. As a result of such training, it is possible to quickly get used to it and stop progress. In order to avoid this, it is worth making sure that the body does not have time to fully adapt to the new weights. Stress is required to achieve muscle growth. Therefore, you should change not only the number of repetitions, but also the weight. The same goes for the angles at which the muscles work. Change the exercises, do not make the exercises monotonous. Only in this way the muscles will not have time to adapt to the loads during training.
- Work to failure … This is one of the especially important conditions that must be observed in order for muscle growth to occur quite impressively. Give your all one hundred percent during training, and then the processes of muscle growth will start to work.
- A priority … First of all, it is necessary to work out weak muscle groups - when energy reserves are at their maximum level.
- Cheating … This is a great way to add extra workload. It is necessary to give the muscles more work. Therefore, this technique is used only as a supplement to the main exercises. If necessary, additional forces are included to complete the exercise, cheating is performed by connecting other muscle groups to those already trained.
- Super Series Principle … This is the execution of two exercises in a row - they are worked out by groups of antagonist muscles. It turns out that you perform the two approaches together with a short pause or without it.
- Constant voltage principle … Due to the fact that working at a high pace with weights is often not very effective, slow movements help to create constant tension in the muscles. In addition, meaningfulness in action and concentration are important. This will be a great boost for further muscle development.
- The principle of quality training … Over time, the breaks between sets are reduced to a minimum. At the same time, the loads with each next workout increase in comparison with earlier exercises. If you follow this rule, it is possible to obtain a venous drawing and improve the definition of muscle tissue.
Watch a video about high-intensity training:
Everyone can achieve their goal - the main thing is to strive for it and not give up. If you build a training scheme correctly, it will become possible to increase muscles, noticeably change in a positive direction and strength growth.
