Learn what exercises to do to build good lean muscle mass. For the muscles to look aesthetically pleasing, it is necessary to do body relief exercises and use an appropriate nutritional program. The main task of such training is fat burning and among the builders this process is called "drying". By reducing the amount of subcutaneous adipose tissue, the body acquires aesthetic appeal.
Today we will tell you which exercises for body relief are the most effective, but first it is worth considering the basic principles of building the training process during the drying period. Note that in bodybuilding, there are two main stages that each builder goes through: mass-gaining and drying. Today we will talk about the second one and hope that our tips will help you to acquire excellent relief in a short time.
What is called a high-quality body relief?
We will talk about exercises for body relief a little below, but now it is worth paying attention to the terminology so that novice athletes can imagine what task they will have to solve in the future. There are three characteristics that can be used to describe a high-quality relief:
- A small percentage of subcutaneous adipose tissues does not exceed 10%.
- Stiff muscles.
- Definition as well as separation.
The most important of these three characteristics is the body fat percentage. Anyone can have well-built muscles, but often they are simply not visible under a layer of fat. Thus, the main task that an athlete needs to solve during relief training is the burning of excess fat.
After this, the muscles should be stiffened. This is what will make your muscles attractive from an aesthetic point of view. When you gain mass, your muscles contain a lot of water, and they have a loose appearance.
The final challenge is to improve separation, depth, and definition. However, if you train for yourself, then you do not need this, since these properties are important in bodybuilding tournaments. In addition, to solve this problem, you will have to use methods that are not consistent with the concept of a healthy lifestyle.
And now we are not even talking about the use of AAS, but about those dietary nutrition programs that pro-athletes use for this. As a rule, athletes during this period of time do not consume carbohydrates, fats, as well as micronutrients that contribute to fluid retention in the body, such as salt.
Principles of organizing relief training during drying
Since you have to actively fight fats, training during drying will be as similar as possible to those exercise programs that are used for weight loss. To activate the processes of fat burning, cardio loads are the most effective. This is because, unlike strength training, cardio uses energy from aerobic glycolysis.
Moreover, the duration of cardio sessions can vary significantly. By performing strength movements, the athlete burns the glycogen store in one or a maximum of two minutes. After that, the strength to continue the exercise is no longer left. At the same time, during strength training, adipose tissue is not burned. If you decide to do a drying cycle, then you cannot do without cardio sessions.
The duration of aerobic activity depends on your condition and can be 20 minutes or more each day. For cardio sessions, you can use any aerobic exercise equipment or just jogging in the fresh air, which looks more attractive. The main thing during cardio training is to ensure that the heart rate (pulse) is between 60 and 80 percent of the maximum value.
Although the training program used during the drying period is quite complex, all the exercises for body contouring are very familiar to you. We advise you to practice at least five times a week. The program includes basic movements that can be supplemented with isolated ones to improve the relief. In each workout, you will work on one or a maximum of two muscle groups.
When working on the relief, you should increase the intensity of the training. To do this, you should increase the number of repetitions in each set, which will allow you to spend more energy. You should also pay attention to pumping. To do this, after working with the main weight of the weights, it should be reduced so that you can perform another 10 to 30 repetitions. This is a very effective way to fight body fat. The drying cycle is usually 4-9 weeks.
Here are the basic principles for creating a terrain training program:
- When doing body relief exercises, you should use medium weights.
- Use supersets.
- Pay attention to pumping, and for this, dropsets should be introduced into the training program.
- Rest between sets should be 1.5 to 2 minutes.
- Getting enough sleep every day is very important.
The best body sculpting exercises
Squats are probably the best exercise in bodybuilding and are equally effective in gaining mass and drying out. When doing it, a huge number of body muscles are involved, including the muscles of the core. You should remember that the best body sculpting exercises are those that can use the maximum amount of muscles in the work.
By using different types of squats, you can focus on the muscle group you need. The classic exercise mostly involves the hamstrings and muscles of the buttocks, and the frontal ones emphasize the load on the quadriceps.
The situation is similar with the setting of the legs:
- Narrow - quads are used as much as possible.
- Wide - Most of the load falls on the buttocks and hamstrings.
- Sumo - the adductor muscles are heavily loaded.
Also, some of the most effective relief exercises are recognized:
- Deadlift. This is another great body sculpting exercise that loads your back, glutes, core, abdomen, hamstrings, and quadriceps muscles. Also, spinal column straighteners are involved in the work. The latter fact is very important, since in most people the muscles of the lumbar spine are poorly developed.
- Lifting the barbell to the chest. In many ways, this movement is similar in efficiency to the previous one, but in this case you will not be able to use large weights. Performing this exercise on the relief of the body, you will be able to work out the lower legs, quadriceps, buttocks, as well as the upper back and delta muscles. Note that from a technical point of view, lifting the barbell to the chest is a rather difficult movement and you have to thoroughly master its technique.
- Bench presses. One of the most (if not the most) popular strength training exercises. It allows you to use the muscles of the chest, triceps and anterior deltas. There are several options for performing this movement, allowing you to emphasize the load on the desired muscles. Thanks to working on a horizontal bench, you can perfectly work out the middle section of the chest muscles. If the exercise is performed on an inclined bench with the head down, then the upper part of the pectoral muscles, as well as the dentate muscles, are actively involved in the work. If you sit with your head down on an incline bench, then accentuate the load on the lower chest muscles. Do not forget that by changing the grip width you can also emphasize the load on some muscles.
- Tilt rod rods. The back muscles are one of the largest groups in the entire body. They start at the thigh and stretch up to the trapezoid. The barbell row in an inclined position allows you to qualitatively work out this particular group and it can be called the antipode of the previous exercise on the body relief, aimed at developing the muscles of the chest. If you use the lower grip when performing the deadlift, you will be able to work out more muscles. At the same time, the upper grip will also be effective, because it allows you to change the width of the arms and shift the emphasis of the load on those muscles that you need to work out in more detail. The wide upper grip shifts the load to the rhomboid and lats muscles, while the narrow one actively uses only the rhomboid.
- Pull-ups. This is a great exercise for the muscles of the back, with which only the reclined deadlift can be compared in effectiveness. Using different types of pull-ups, you can perfectly work out all the muscles of the back.
- Army press. The overhead press (army) allows you to work out the deltas perfectly, and it is better to perform this exercise on the body relief in a standing position. In this situation, you can also load your core muscles. You can use both dumbbells and a barbell to perform the exercise. However, the most preferable is the second sports equipment. This is because working with dumbbells can lead to imbalances in muscle development. In addition, one should remember about the existence of other variants of this movement: from the chest and from behind the head. The last type of movement should be performed only by experienced athletes.
- Dips on the uneven bars. This movement works great for the triceps. If you are just starting out, then you can do reverse push-ups. To do this, you need to lean on the bench with your hands, placing them behind your back, and stretch your legs in front of you. Experienced builders should only do this movement on the uneven bars.
You can work at any pace, you will be able to work out the muscles of the arms with high quality and after performing the movement you should feel a burning sensation. If you want to pump only triceps, then the body must be kept in a strictly vertical plane. If the torso is tilted forward, then the muscles of the chest will also come into play. Thanks to push-ups on the uneven bars, you can increase your strength indicators in the bench press.
Relief training with Konstantin Bublikov in the following video:
