Five Tips About High Intensity Training

I often see people in the gym working out hard, sweating and reaching the limits of their body endurance. Is this wrong? The answer isn't that simple. High Intensity Training known as HIT or any other variation of training where you aim muscle failure can make the difference in muscle development.

Many great bodybuilders adopted such training methods and achieved to become champions. However, what many of us fail to understand is that there isn't any training method that will bring results if you keep doing it forever. The key to understand the way to build the body of your dreams is to acknowledge two important things about muscles: Firstly, that they adapt to every workout routine and secondly, they need resting or low intensity periods to recover.

High intensity training actually shocks your muscles to trigger muscle growth. If you keep training in that pace for more than eight weeks the development not only ceases, but you might end up with an injury. Here, I give you five tips so that you will get the maximum out of HIT:

1) No More than Eight Weeks
As mentioned above after about eight weeks of working out in full intensity, alter your training routine to something where you consume about 70% of your energy so that you don't leave the gym like a total rack.

2) Take a Vacation
Once or twice a year take a vacation from the gym for two weeks and clear your mind and your body from anything that involves weights, training, bodybuilding, supplements and proper nutrition. I know that many of you will be wondering what in earth, I'm talking about. You won't believe how beneficial this is for your body and your spirit. Everything in life that is being done without a break, no matter how much we love it, can become boring. You shouldn't worry that you will lose muscles. As long as you are back in the gym in two weeks, there is no harm done. Personally, I prefer to take a break from the gym for a week in the summer and one week around Christmas.

3) Single Muscle Groups
It is not always possible for many of you due to lack of time, to work out five times a week, but it has been proven that HIT works best if performed on one muscle group a day. Whenever you reach muscle failure, massive amounts of blood are concentrating around the muscle you are working on triggering its growth and giving this special pump feeling, which sometimes lasts for many hours after your training. If you divide your training in two different muscle groups, it's easy to understand that those effects described above will be reduced.

4) HIT Only when Feeling Fit
Training intensively in a certain day where you are not feeling OK will only have the opposite results than the ones you aim for. It is preferable to do a lighter workout or even stay home.

5) HIT Requires Muscle Recovery Supplements
High Intensity Training puts a lot of pressure in your muscle, the skeletal and endurance system way more than in an average person. Your body needs certain assistance in order to develop muscle.

Muscle recovery supplements like Protein Powders, BCAAs, Glutamine and Creatine are necessary.

Follow these five simple rules and you will witness yourself how effective High Intensity training can be.

Keep those muscles pumping!

Chris G Pap
Since 1993 involved in bodybuilding and fitness area.Visit the following link for more info about bodybuilding, supplementation, workout routines and nutrition.
http://www.strengthtrainingmuscle.com/

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Shoulder Press: Everything You Wanted To Learn About It

A lot of people have been asking lately the same question: why can't they develop their deltoid muscles properly? The answer is simple: because nowadays, people are more tempted to use machines and cables instead of free weights. Fact that definitely leads to the lack of progress.

Basically, the shoulder workout should be based on the shoulder press. Why? Because it is the most complete exercise and the most efficient when it comes to shoulder development. There are many variations of the overhead press: for instance, there are exercises like seated dumbell press, behind neck shoulder press, one arm press, etc. Still, even though the shoulder press is supposed to bring visible results, this does not mean that the regular overhead press will bring the same results for everybody.

The first rule of bodybuilding tells that if something works for one athlete, it doesn't mean that it will work the same for some other bodybuilder. This is why, coming back to the military press, in order to see which of the above mentioned exercises works best for them, young bodybuilders have to experiment each of them for at least one month. For example, in order to see what exercise brings the best results, people should schedule the shoulders workout at the begging of the week, preferably after 1-2 days of rest. The workout should have only one press exercise and no more than 5 sets/per exercise, including the warm up sets. Of course, as the shoulders are considered to be a small muscle group, no more than 18 sets of 10-12 repetitions (including the warm up sets) should be made. This means that the shoulder press should me the most important exercise from of the deltoids workout, followed closely by lateral raises and upright rows.

From my personal experience, the most efficient exercise is the one that people like to call "military press". Unlike the seated deltoid exercises, at this one the athlete must stand in his feet. This means that he can use a little bit of leg drive in order to increase the intensity of his/her workout. However, in order to get the best results, the leg drive must not be exceedingly big, as the main target of the shoulder press are the shoulders and not the legs. Make 6 sets of 8 to 12 reps at every deltoid workout, and it is impossible to not see the results.

Don't forget to eat and sleep properly!

Matei Iurea is a professional powerlifter that has been involved in bodybuilding and powerlifting for more than 10 years. You can find more about the shoulder press visiting http://www.shoulder-press.info/

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