Muscle pre-wasting is a way to speed up mass gain. Find out how to properly use this in bodybuilding. What are the features of different types of fatigue? Before talking about the use of muscle wasting in bodybuilding, you should understand what it is. Fatigue (exhaustion) is a state of the body in which performance is temporarily reduced. Of course, exhaustion can be caused not only by intense training, but also by other factors, for example, training in conditions of high temperature and humidity. However, we are interested in the physiological side of this phenomenon.
It is worth noting that the athlete's emotional state plays a great role here. Fatigue sets in much faster when there is little interest in the training process. In general, exhaustion is the body's response to external factors aimed at preventing the depletion of the central nervous system. There are several theories about the causes of muscle fatigue. Some scientists assume that the whole point is in the muscles themselves, in which, during intense work, a large number of metabolic products accumulate, primarily lactic acid. As a result, the muscles at a certain point are simply physically unable to continue to work.
In addition, there is the so-called central nervous theory of fatigue. She suggests that fatigue occurs not only in the muscles themselves, but also in the nerve centers. It is based on the concept of influencing the nerve centers of impulses from working muscles. It is because of the prolonged exposure to these centers that fatigue accumulates in the nerve centers, which is then transmitted to the muscles.
Types of muscle fatigue
In total, scientists distinguish four types of fatigue:
- Lung - develops after physical activity of low intensity and at the same time performance does not decrease;
- Acute - occurs at a single maximum load, causing a sharp decrease in performance;
- Overstrain - occurs at extreme physical exertion and causes a decrease in the functional capabilities of the body;
- Overtraining - most often the reasons for this condition are an improper training program, insufficient time for rest, etc.
Pre-wasting muscle in bodybuilding
When the concept of exhaustion has become more clear, you can consider how it can be used by athletes. It should be said right away that this training principle was introduced by Joe Weider. Thanks to the use of this technique, athletes can quickly overcome "dead spots" in the development of muscles and get out of a state of stagnation.
This method is based on depleting the main muscle with an isolated exercise and then connecting to the work of the auxiliary muscles using the main movement. To make this all clear, consider training the hip extensors as an example. First, the exercise is done on the quads machine, which depletes the muscles. After this, squats with a barbell are performed. Let's take a look at the example above:
- First exercise is isolated and aimed at working out the quadriceps. Other muscles do not take part in the work, and the main task is to bring the hip extensors to exhaustion. The exercise should be performed with as many repetitions and approaches as the athlete can no longer perform.
- In the second stage the athlete performs squats, which involve not only the quadriceps, but also other auxiliary muscles. Since they had a rest before, they have a sufficient supply of energy for work. However, the quads, which were already depleted in the first isolated exercise, should also work when squatting, which allows the athlete to "finish off" the target muscle.
Simply put, thanks to the work of fresh muscles, the target muscle is finalized. As you can see, everything is quite simple. To consolidate all of the above, we can give a second example.
Let's say the athlete's task is to pump the biceps brachialis muscle. The complex in this case will look like this:
- Flexion of the arms in the block on the Scott bench - 4 sets of 10 repetitions;
- Barbell Curl Biceps Curl - 3 sets of 8 reps.
As in the first example, due to the isolated exercise, it heavily loads the biceps, but the muscles of the back and deltas have not yet worked and have the necessary supply of energy. With the help of curls in a standing position, the biceps continue to train, although they are already in a state of exhaustion. Also, in the final stage of the second exercise, you can add elements of cheating and thanks to the rocking of the body and the use of inertia of movement, the target muscles are perfectly pumped.
It should also be noted that the optimal use of muscle wasting in bodybuilding is to train the most difficult muscles to train - the forearms and lower legs. These muscles do not train well enough using conventional methods, and using such forced techniques will help you make significant progress in their development. Of course, muscle wasting in bodybuilding applies to any muscle. In conclusion, I would like to talk about another technique called post-exhaustion. This is one of the varieties of the superset, similar to the method described above. The main difference between post-exhaustion and pre-exhaustion is that the main exercise is done first, and then the isolation exercise. Thus, the target muscle is brought to a state of exhaustion by the basic exercise, and then with the help of the isolating one "achieves".
For example, for the quadriceps, a similar complex might look like this:
- Barbell squats are the main exercise;
- Extension of the legs on the machine is an isolating movement.
Both training methods are very effective and will help athletes to significantly improve their performance.
Learn more about the essence of pre-fatigue in this video:
