In doubt about doing a cheating exercise or choosing a pure style of execution? Technique violation: fatal mistake or additional stimulus for muscle growth? Muscle feeling is inextricably linked to cheating, as the goal of training is to create as much stress as possible on the target muscles. It is also important that the load is progressive, which can be achieved in different ways. The muscles that can be seen in photographs of famous bodybuilders are essentially the result of the body's adaptation to strength training. It is for this reason that it is very important not only to trieve the muscles hard, but also to give them enough time to recover.
Probably everyone has heard of cheating and exercise techniques. At the same time, someone may use cheating, and other athletes are advised to concentrate on the technical side of the issue. This is due to the concept of muscle feeling.
When an athlete trains, at the initial stage of his career, the neural connections between the muscles and the brain are still poorly developed. For this reason, the commands given by the central nervous system are not carried out by the muscles as well as necessary. Gradually, connections are forging, and this progress is especially clearly visible in the first couple of months of classes. You will be able to effectively use cheating in bodybuilding for local muscle growth only after establishing the connection between the brain and muscles.
Ways to Increase Muscle Sense and Cheating
The main reason for the need to train neuromuscular connections should already be clear to you. However, with a developed muscle sense, you can not only increase the effectiveness of the training, but also focus the load on the desired muscle or muscle group.
Equally important is the fact that with a developed muscular sense, you will significantly reduce the risk of injury. Let's take a look at methods for improving neuromuscular connections.
Warm up
If you think that warm-up is a simple waving of your arms, then you are deeply mistaken. In order for the warm-up to bring the desired result, you need to follow certain rules:
- Warm-up begins with smooth and slow movements;
- Start the warm-up from the head and move smoothly towards the legs;
It should be noted that it does not matter at all which part of the body you should train according to the plan today, stretch the whole body. When the general warm-up is complete and the muscles and joints are warmed up, it's time to move on to doing the exercises. But before the start of the working sets, you should do one approach with an empty bar at a slow pace. You need to feel your muscles.
Correct technique
As you improve your exercise technique, you will passively develop muscle feeling. You don't have to do anything. And just try to do each exercise in accordance with the classical technique. The main task of the athlete is to turn off the accessory muscles and shift the focus to the target muscles.
The main thing is that all the movements you make are correct. Arnie recalled that at the beginning of his career, he closed his eyes and imagined how the muscle he was training fills the whole room and tried to focus on muscle contraction.
Stimulating exercises
This does not mean new training methods, but simple exercises performed before going to bed and without weights. For maximum effect, load one muscle at a time. For example, do the bench press with one hand first and then the other. Do these exercises for 10-15 minutes daily at a very slow pace.
Cheating for local muscle growth
If the word cheating is translated from English, it means deception. So the athlete, using elements of cheating in his training, tries to deceive the body. We have already said above that without a sufficiently developed neuromuscular connection, you will not be able to successfully apply cheating.
Cheating is used primarily by bodybuilders, as in powerlifting, athletes have different challenges. They need to show results in competitions, lifting as much weight as possible. Bodybuilders, in turn, need to create the maximum possible stress in the muscles, thereby achieving tissue hypertrophy. There are a large number of techniques for this, and cheating is one of them.
This method will be most effective during a plateau, when other methods no longer work and muscle growth has stopped. It is very important to note that we are talking about muscle stasis now, and not a state of overtraining. When old methods stop working, you need to look for new ones and cheating can be very useful to you.
You should understand that cheating cannot be used in all exercises, however, where possible, it will be a very effective way of getting through positive rejection. Again, it is necessary to emphasize that cheating is not one of the training methods, but a way to overcome muscle failure. In other words, you should not use cheating for the entire set, but only once and a maximum of two repetitions. For example, to train your biceps, you do a dumbbell lift. After doing 9 reps, you managed to achieve muscle failure, and with the help of cheating, you do another repetition.
To load the target muscle, you need a developed muscle sense. Also, cheating is good because you do not need a belaying companion, and you can work on your own. For example, when doing forced reps, the partner may put in more effort than is required of him and as a result, you will not work the target muscle as much as you would like.
In conclusion, it should be reiterated that cheating will only be effective if you have developed muscle sense well enough. Otherwise, the load will be distributed between different muscles, and you will not get the expected effect.
For more information on cheating for local muscle growth, see here:
