Monday, May 16, 2011

The Most Powerful Muscle-Building Tool Obtainable

By Ala Lewis


The bodybuilding debates will never end. The endless arguments over how an effective muscle-building program ought to be structured will in all probability continue 'till the end of your time. Just scour the Internet message boards, scan through any muscle magazine or speak with the sales person at the local supplement store. Regardless of who you speak with or that which you read, it seems that most people are a specialist nowadays. If everyone is a specialist, confident in their own ideas and beliefs, how can the average beginner possibly know who to listen to? He or she is instantly confronted by endless questions that seem to have no clear-cut answer.

How many days should I train per week? How many sets should I perform for each muscle group? What type of rep range should I be using? What are the most effective exercises for stimulating muscle growth? How long should my workouts last? These questions go on and on until he or she is eventually led to believe that building muscle is an infinitely complex process involving rocket-science precision and an intimate understanding of human physiology. I mean, that's what takes to build muscle, right? Wrong! Believe me, there are answers to these important questions, and if you are willing to put in the time and effort you will most definitely find them. But that's not what this article is about.

You see, amidst all of the confusion and endless debating, the majority of lifters end up losing sight of the big picture. Beyond all of the specific workout principles, such as rep range and exercise selection, remains one crucial principle, a principle that lies at the very heart of the muscle growth process. If this principle is not given full attention, or even worse, completely ignored, building muscle becomes next to impossible.

The end result is that muscles grow as they adapt to stress. When you go to a fitness center and strength train, you create "micro-tears" within the muscle tissue. Your body perceives this like a potential threat to its survival and reacts accordingly by helping the size and strength of the muscle fibers in order to force away a possible future "attack". Therefore, in order to continually increase the size and strength of the muscles, you must focus on progressing each week by either lifting slightly more weight or performing an extra rep or two. In this way, your body will continue to evolve and grow to the ever-increasing stress.

Every time you go to the gym you must write down exactly what you accomplished and then strive to improve upon it the following week. If you aren't always getting better, then you're either staying the same or getting worse. Every week you should have an exact plan of attack ready to be executed. You absolutely cannot afford to start throwing weights around aimlessly without a clear-cut goal in mind.




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