Want to know how bodybuilders maintain muscle size and peak muscle throughout the year? Check out the Seven Pro's Secret Ways. Before giving seven ways to maintain muscle mass, it should be said that you should check the quality of your rest and especially sleep, as well as your nutrition program. If you don't get enough rest or eat right, then you can't count on progress.
When your performance has declined, you should check for symmetry, mobility, and stability. Also, review your training program again, maybe there are mistakes in it. Most often, athletes do not pay enough attention to basic exercises, focusing on isolated exercises.
The second, no less common mistake is the lack of progress in the working scales. You need to gradually pester the weights. Perhaps the most effective method for overcoming muscle congestion is doing the opposite of what you have done before. For example, your training program used split workouts a lot. Try to start training the muscles of the whole body.
Or if you did three sets of eight reps, now do eight sets of three reps. If you have problems with exercise technique, introduce auxiliary movements into the training program. So to increase the strength when performing the deadlift, you can use exercises with various sports equipment, or perform front squats, with a pause.
If your progress has stalled and the muscles no longer increase in volume, then it is probably time to take a step back. We will now present seven ways to maintain muscle mass.
Method # 1: check the basics of your training
In bodybuilding, there are several basics that must always be followed. Before you start looking for causes and solutions to your problems, you need to reconsider some points of your approach to the training process. First, pay attention to the exercises you are doing. They must be effective.
If the performance does not increase when performing them, then you should probably change them. Not all exercises are equally effective for every athlete and need to be tailored individually.
Method # 2: Check symmetry, mobility and stability
These are quite important parameters and you should pay attention to them. There are times when progress is stalled for fear of the body being damaged. You want to put more stress on the joints, and he starts to resist because the ligaments are not strong enough for the new load. Stagnation can be a warning to your body that you should stop and fix the problem. Take photos of yourself from different angles and make sure your body develops symmetrically. You should also pay attention to the performance of power movements. Let's say look at how much weight you use when pressing dumbbells on an incline bench. Then try to roll over and do the same movement with the same weight and number of repetitions.
Be sure to pay attention to joint mobility. All movements should be easy.
Method number 3: keep it simple
Now on the net you can find a large number of different methods and training programs. This is good on the one hand, but it can also confuse you. Remember that there are two main points to watch out for:
- Choose only those exercises that are suitable for solving your problems.
- Get the most out of them by increasing your working weight.
The more complex your training program, the further from your goal you will be.
Method number 4: Develop strength indicators
Muscle mass and strength development should always go together. The more strength your muscles have, the more weight you can use. This statement is true not only for gaining mass, but also, for example, if you need to burn excess fat.
Strength training should be done at least once a week. It must be said that such classes will not take much time. You just need to do 2-4 exercises in 3-5 sets with that many repetitions.
Method # 5: Recover momentum and use cycling
If you find yourself stagnant, then reduce the working weights by 10-20 percent and start again. With this step, you can improve your exercise technique and give your body a new boost. Losing weight advice may sound terrible to you, but sometimes it's better to take a step back and then start progressing again.
With a regular progressive load, you can progress for quite a long time, but if you use cycling, then the effectiveness will increase significantly. In this case, cycling can be used in relation to a specific exercise.
Method number 6: do the opposite
Often it will be very effective to use another path to achieve your goal. To put it simply, just do the opposite in training. For example, you used a low volume, high intensity workout. Now you should try increasing the volume while lowering the intensity at the same time.
Method # 7: Temporarily focus on another goal
Perhaps you should just leave your old task alone for now and focus on another. After a certain time, you will again return to your original goal. For example, if you have lost progress in mass training, focus on increasing strength indicators.
If the body has ceased to effectively burn fat, then start working on muscle mass. This will increase the metabolism and make future drying training more effective. You need to constantly evaluate your achievements. Of course, by switching your attention to another task, you will somewhat delay the achievement of the original goal, but in the end you will be able to achieve it much earlier.
If you find yourself in a state of muscle stagnation, then use these seven ways to maintain muscle mass.
For more details on how to maintain muscle mass after a course, see this video:
