Bio-Nutrics

  Weight Gain

Now We Can All Have It!

No more messing around, it’s time to get serious. Let’s face it, most guys step into the gym with one thing in mind – more hardcore muscle mass! Why is it that most fail and few succeed? There is one very simple, but important rule for bodybuilding that few individuals really grasp and implement in their training. This simple rule is so basic that it can be summed up in one word – ADAPTATION.

When I mention this word to guys at the gym I usually receive a look of confusion, but occasionally some will look at me as if a light has just been switched on.

Let’s stop and think for one moment. Remember when you first walked into the gym, feeling a little nervous, but were also excited and had an optimistic outlook with an expectation of results. Remember how your body made good gains in the first few months? Your biceps were suddenly tighter, your chest had more shape and you were feeling pretty good about yourself.

We’ve all seen, or experienced great muscle and strength gains when we first started training, but after a few months it became more difficult to achieve gains or they stopped coming all together. When you first start weight training you are breaking new ground, heading into uncharted territory.

So why did these results and gains slow down, motivation petered off and training becomes less consistent? Simple – ADAPTATION! Our bodies have become accustomed to the training, the intensity and the resistance.

When you initially start pumping iron your muscles suddenly find that they are being induced with stress, having to lift, push and pull some strange foreign resistance which they are not normally accustomed to. When you apply the stress of weight training the body adapts, that’s right, it changes and alters with its endeavours to accommodate for this new and abnormal resistance that the muscles are confronted with. In short, the results are increased muscle size and strength.

In order for your muscles to continually adapt, to generate new strength and muscularity, you need to constantly “shock the system” and confuse the muscles.

What I mean by this is to trick your body so that it never gains an opportunity to get into a comfort zone. When you walk out of the gym have your body saying “wow that was something new”.

It’s up to you to change the rules and have your body trying to catch up with your training.

Changing your training is not as confusing as many will have you think, there are many factors that can be altered – the weight lifted, repetitions, training volume and intensity. Changing the patterns of implied stress keeps the neuromuscular system from completely adapting, in turn preventing your training from becoming stale and protecting you from injury.

Next time you walk out of the gym take a few seconds to think how, or what you could have done to improve your training. You will soon find that there are multiple ways to improve your training, which may be as simple as avoiding conversations between sets, or pre-planning your workouts to maintain focus.