There are many training methods, but athletes often forget about even the simplest ones. Learn about alternating exercises to increase strength and muscle mass. Now there are a huge number of different programs for building muscle mass. For example, a program of training one body part per day is quite popular. It involves six training days during the week, and you have to work only on one muscle group every day. But today we are going to talk about alternating exercises to increase strength and muscle mass. This is a very simple and effective technique.
Principles of Alternating Exercise Technique
This technique is one of the options for supersets. As you probably know, the essence of supersets is to train antagonist muscles, in which there is no pause between exercises. On the contrary, our technique makes it possible to fully recover after each series of movements.
Simply put, the athlete should alternate exercises aimed at developing antagonist muscles or those groups that perform directly opposite functions. An example is the deltoids and traps or biceps - triceps. Admittedly, alternating exercises to increase strength and muscle mass are not new and have been used by many bodybuilding stars.
As mentioned above, most athletes perform the same exercises in supersets, trying not to take long pauses between exercises. Let's give an example again. Let's say your superset consists of a bench press and chin-ups. Once you have completed the press to failure, you should move on to pull-ups as soon as possible. Rest is possible only after completing the second exercise.
With the alternating exercise method, a rest pause is scheduled after each exercise for 1 to 2 minutes. If we talk about the above example, then after the bench press you have to rest, after which you need to perform pull-ups. After that, rest again and the series begins anew.
Benefits of Alternating Exercise Technique
The first advantage of this technique is the ability to handle large weights. Since you will rest after each exercise, the muscles will have the opportunity to restore their energy resources.
The next advantage is the ability to remain strong enough with each movement. This is due to the fact that when working on one muscle, its antagonist also partially works and its recovery is accelerated. In this case, a comparison with walking after an intense run will be very relevant. You will recover significantly faster while walking than if you lay down on the ground.
Perhaps someone will not believe that doing pull-ups after pressing triceps, and the pectoral muscles will recover faster. Just try it and you can be sure of it.
The situation is similar with other antagonist muscles. By alternating exercises to develop them, they will be significantly more recent, which will give you the opportunity to work them out effectively. When using the method of training individual body parts, which was discussed at the very beginning of this article, your muscles will be strong when you do the first two or a maximum of three exercises. Gradually fatigue will accumulate in them, and by the fourth exercise you will not be able to use a lot of weight. In turn, by using alternating exercises to increase strength and muscle mass, you will be strong enough until the very last set.
Our methodology will be very relevant for athletes who conduct their training sessions in one day. This allows the body to fully recover and, as a result, increase the efficiency of your activities. If your body can easily overtrain, then we recommend changing your training days every week. For example, you first trained on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. In this case, your training days next week will be Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Then go back to the original schedule. It should be noted that not every muscle has its own antagonist, for example, the calf muscles. But there is a way out, just alternate standing and sitting on your toes. You can also alternate, for example, exercises for the press and lower back.
Sample workout program
Here is an example of a lesson for working out the muscles of the chest and broadest muscles, as well as the lower back.
- Bench press - 4 sets of 12, 10, 8, and 6 reps.
- Pull-ups, wide grip - 4 sets with maximum reps.
- Incline Dumbbell Press - 4 sets, and the number of repetitions is reduced from 12 to 6.
- Bent-over barbell row - 4 sets, the number of repetitions is the same as in the previous movement.
- Dips - 3 sets, maximum reps.
- T-bar deadlift - 3 sets of 10, 8, and 6 reps.
- Breeding dumbbells in a prone position -3 sets of 12, 10 and 8 repetitions.
- High pulldown, tight grip - 3 sets of 15, 12, and 10 reps.
- Crossing arms on the block - 2 sets of 15 repetitions.
- Hyperextensions - 3 to 4 sets of 15-20 reps.
- Crunchy - 3 to 4 sets with the maximum number of repetitions.
If you want to focus on large weights, you need to pause for at least two minutes to rest. In the final sets, it must be at least three minutes long. If you want to pay more attention to muscle mass, then the duration of rest should be reduced to one minute.
Alternation is also possible here. For example, you focus on mass for two months, and then work as hard as possible for the same amount of time. The technique of alternating exercises for increasing strength and muscle mass is very flexible and each athlete can adjust it to their own training style and goals.
Learn more about weight and strength exercises in this video:
