Once again, Men’s Health (a magazine I really enjoy) is catching up with TheDailyFit. That’s a little tongue-in-cheek; to be fair they shared lots of stuff I didn’t know but this happens to be one area which I have spent a considerable amount of time researching.
April 2010, page 36, “Fast Muscle” says, “Use supersets for super gains. Researches in Australia and Canada have found that alternating between a back exercise and chest exercises boosts strength more than working just one muscle group at a time does.”
Awesome! So what I’ve been doing and saying for years (Not only me, but others as well) is even now being proved out (more) true.
Men’s health recommends trying 6 reps on a dumbbell row, resting 60 seconds, then 6 reps on a bench press, rest again and repeat several times. That’s a great protocol if you have some heavy weights, if you have light weights go 60 seconds effort and 60 seconds rest or 30/60 combo. By now we’re starting to look a lot like the workouts we do at TheDailyFit.
The article goes on to say, “researchers don’t know why this approach yields better results”. I submit that the increase in stress on the system increases growth hormone – the mother of all (natural) muscle gain and fat loss hormones. It’s the same reason high intensity interval training (HIIT) and sprint interval training (which I believe will soon be the “new” high intensity interval training) produce faster results in less time: they produce a significant hormone response and force huge adaptation on the muscles and muscle building molecular pathways. OK, I’ll now remove my pocket protector and get back to normal English.
TURN BACK ONE PAGE to page 34 and a (seemingly) unrelated article talks about how 10K runners took an entire minute off their 10 k times with less running. How did they do it? “Runners slashed an average of 1 full minute off their 10K times by switching to “speed endurance regimen” of fewer miles combined with intense intervals (emphasis mine).” That's right, mixing distance running with sprinting makes your distance running faster!
How does all this apply to you? Let’s assume you have the exercises you like to do in the gym: keep those exercises but each week change up the way you do them. Sometimes use heavy weight and other times use lighter weights. Just make sure to do your exercises as a circuit. (Minimum of 20 minutes) Example:
Week 1: every workout is 60 seconds of effort with 60 seconds of rest, then switch exercises.
Week 2: every workout is 30 seconds of effort with 30 seconds of rest, then switch exercises.
Week 3: every workout is 20 seconds of effort with 10 seconds of rest (let me tell you, this is rough)
Week 4: every workout is 30 seconds of effort with 3:30 minutes of rest (the 30 seconds for each set should be ALL OUT effort).
Week 2: every workout is 30 seconds of effort with 30 seconds of rest, then switch exercises.
Week 3: every workout is 20 seconds of effort with 10 seconds of rest (let me tell you, this is rough)
Week 4: every workout is 30 seconds of effort with 3:30 minutes of rest (the 30 seconds for each set should be ALL OUT effort).
Start over!
That is a simple way to grab all the benefits of each different protocol I have read about recently.
Good luck!
Get strong!,
Brian
Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment