Weight Lifting Programs

Efficiency is the key to Success for a Weightlifting program

Why Training Efficiency is Ten Times More Important Than You Think

Have you ever seen the guy in the gym who pumps iron for two or three hours every day? You see him every time you go to the gym and no matter how long you stay, he stays longer.

You might be impressed by this guy…but you shouldn’t be. He’s a guy who uses the lowest possible technology and intellect to solve a simple problem. He does twenty hours of work when fifteen minutes would do the job better.

The sole purpose of any weightlifting program is to trigger muscle build up and to shed fat at the same time. This happens when muscles are forced to operate at a higher intensity than normal. Intensity is measured by amount of work performed during a given time period.

So all you have to do is get each muscle group to hoist more weight per minute than you did the last time. And even if that intensity lasts a maximum of only five seconds, it will trigger the desired muscle growth. In fact, those five seconds will trigger more growth than working out the same twenty sets for same five exercises using the same amount of weights as your last workout.

Here are three ways to get most out of your weight lifting program:

Use the one exercise that allows you to hoist the most weight for that muscle group. For example, to work the quadriceps you could do squats or hack squats or leg extensions or the leg press. But if you experiment you’ll discover that you can use the most weight on a leg press. Do that. Perform one all out set on the leg press then move to the next muscle group.

If you can’t increase the weight on a particular exercise, use a power rack or a Smith machine to reduce the range of motion and lift the weight in only your strongest range. The muscle building stimulus works whether you move a weight one inch or two feet. After all, it’s still your muscle that is forced to hoist that weight, the distance is not the most important factor, the weight is.

Divide your workouts into an A and B routine that each involves half of the muscle groups. This allows you to work harder each time you visit the gym because you do fewer exercises.

Write down what weight you use on each exercise so you can be certain to add a bit more each time. Four hours in the gym is meaningless if the intensity of overload does not increase.

Less Wear and Tear

Exercise is stress. Every time you do a workout your body must fully recover before any growth will take place. It’s obvious that recovering from hours and hours in the gym will take longer than recovering from five or six exercises that last two minutes or less each. This point is completely missed on the Neanderthal who never fully recovers and – because he insists on working out every day – has to decrease the intensity of his workouts in order to complete them.

If you think of exercise as medicine, this issue becomes crystal clear. Suppose you had high blood pressure and needed to take a medication for it. You’d want the lowest possible dose that would place your blood pressure within the acceptable range. You would never subject your body to five or ten times the dose necessary to achieve that goal because it places unnecessary stress on your body. But the Neanderthal would. He just uses the “more is better” philosophy and in doing so he exposes himself to more wear and tear on his body and greater risk of injury.

When you walk into the gym, ask yourself what the minimum dose of exercise is that will trigger a strength increase in your quads, chest, biceps or whatever muscle groups you are working that day. Take the minimum dose and leave the gym.