Right then, quality muscle. Lets quickly focus on when you’re in the gym using the equipment. Technique! Technique is massive and put simply, it’s the difference between training your biceps and training your quads in extreme/stupid cases. The solution is dead simple, use a mirror and/or a partner and you yourself or the partner will be able to tell if you’re doing it right just by looking. Chances are, if you’re lifting a dumbbell bending your knees and springing up every time you do a curl, you ain’t doing it right.
Techniques to Avoid Muscular Imbalance
As well as technique, make sure you’re training all muscles, avoid the ‘beach bod workout’ i.e. pecs, bi’s and abs. This can cause a muscular imbalance, having an imbalance can be the foundation of any injury, in fact work looking at the FA’s audit of injuries found that 87% of all injuries occurred in the lower limb. They then proceeded to explain that these injuries were often the result of musculoskeletal imbalances. Speak to Michael Owen, possibly the most bubble-wrapped footballer in history, I guarantee you he spends most of his gym time ironing out those imbalances, making sure he doesn’t get injured… again.
Machines or Free Weights?
Now you’ve sorted out your technique you can happily get on that bench and start pumping some iron, but what equipment should you use- free weights or the Smith machine? Is one going to get you those gains quicker? Well, one particular study used the bench press to compare the two; looking at 1RM performance and measured muscular activity using electromyography (EMG). The study found that at 60% of 1RM there was significantly more muscular activity using free weights. In fact, the only condition where the Smith machine produced higher muscular activity was during the descent phase of a bench press in the triceps and biceps, but if you wanted to work them, you’d probably do curls or tricep extensions, right?
My local bodybuilder told me, “Decrease carbs, increase protein, simples mate.” The only grammatically and factually correct part of that sentence was the quotation marks I used. Lowering carb intake post workout lowers your muscle glycogen stores, the very same muscle glycogen that contributes up to 26% towards your total energy expenditure. Also, lowering your carb intake slows the ingestion process, so the supplements you fill your body with become worthless and a waste of money. As well as this, insulin increases the stimulation of amino acid uptake and facilitates proteins after exercise by putting your body into ‘growth mode’.
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