Ronnie Coleman - One of the greatest off all time

HITTING A PLATEAU

In the last post we discussed the forms of workout schedule. Let's elaborate a bit more on the workout plan. Sticking to a particular workout schedule for long often results in tapering down of results. Our body has this great adaptive mechanism, when subjected to similar kinds of stress over a period of time, body accalimatizes to the schedule and hence the results are not as pronounced as seen earlier.
When you start a workout regime(be it weightloss or weight gain), people often see good results in the beginning. But gradually the results taper off. This is known as hitting the plateau in the sense that growth first follows an upward path and then becomes stagnant. The reason that the growth halts is that body becomes used to the regime and metabolism rate tends to get set according to that particular schedule.
Hence it is very important to keep a close tab on your progress. When a stagnation point is reached, this is a signal to change your workout plan. Give your body a shock every now and then. Force it to behave as if something new has happened. e.g: I have seen good bodybuilders doing only pushups(in the range of 200-300) on a day just to induce the muscle into growth. Similarly for cardio having the same intensity workout for a long period of time will not give optimum results. Change the intensity and form of workout at regular periods to keep the body guessing.
Also changing the diet is necessary so that MBR does not get set. This can be achieved through 'Cheat Days', a concept explained in earlier posts.



Unless you change how you are, you will always have what you've got!!!

BENEFITS OF HAVING A WORKOUT PARTNER

Moving onto an important factor that can greatly enhance your progress in pursuit of your fitness goal. one of the biggest mistake that one can do is to set out alone in order to achieve a sculpted physique. Having a partner in gym can go a long way in this respect.

The biggest benefit of exercising with a partner is that you never get fed up with the sometimes monotonous nature of the workout schedule. It's quite unnatural for anyone to be in high spirits all the time. So a training partner can actually push you to not miss workout on such low energy days. Knowing that someone is waiting for you at gym drives many people to not miss their workout.

However a training partner should be such that he provides a lot of energy to your workout, drives you to do one more repetition, makes you run 1 extra min etc. One should choose people as his/her training partner who have similar fitness goals, and are close to your fitness levels. e.g: a pro working out with a beginner wouldn't make much sense, since right from the weights they lift to their fitness regime everything might be like north and south pole.

Arnold Schwarzenegger used to train with Franco Columbo and Dave Draper, both great bodybuilders and participants in Mr. Olympia themselves. Arnold himself has written in his book, The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, that choosing a training partner is a lot like a marriage, and you want to marry somebody who is an addition to your life, who makes it better, not somebody who causes you to say, 'Whew, this marriage stuff. What did I get myself into?"




ARNOLD WITH DAVE DRAPER


ARNOLD WITH FRANCO

So guys find out the right person in your gym and start working out. As they say - Two heads are better than one, I would say Two fitness freaks working together are than all!!!

Workout Plan Dilemma

Jet had posted this query in the last post;
" I have a query, What should be an ideal exercise schedule. I take two muscle parts a day, the muscle group should be two big muscles say chest n Back, or one big muscle + one small, say chest+ tricep , so on.... how to make out for an ideal combination."

This is a good topic that he has come up with. Many people are often anxious to know what kind of workout combination is best. So let's dig into little detail on this issue:

Combination of muscle group/day is something that varies a lot gym to gym. You might have noticed people doing chest+shoulder , chest+back or chest+ bicep. Out of these two i personally prefer alternating between the last two combinations from time to time.

There is a set of antagonistic muscles in the body:
1. Chest + Back
2. Bicep + Tricep
3. Thighs + Hamstrings


So a antagonist muscle workout would look like as:

DAY 1. CHEST + BACK
DAY 2. SHOULDER + CALVES
DAY 3. CARDIO + ABS
DAY 4. BACK + BICEP
DAY 5. LEGS + ABS
DAY 6. CARDIO
DAY 7. REST

Now when one muscles contracts the other extends and vice versa. For example, when bending the elbow and doing bicep curls, the biceps muscle contracts and is the agonist; the triceps muscle stretches and is the antagonist. When the movement is reversed and the elbow is extended, the triceps muscle contracts (is the agonist) and the biceps muscle lengthens (is the antagonist). Antagonistic pairs are needed in the body because muscles can only exert a pulling force, and can't push themselves back into their original positions.To push them back, the antagonistic counterpart is needed. This workout schedule is particularly beneficial for gaining serious strength. However since both the muscles are exercised on the same day, there is quite a considerable gap between two consecutive workouts of the same muscle group(7 days). Whenever we work out one muscle, the antagonist muscle is worked out to some extent. Again, doing chest and back on the same day can be energy sapping as both are big muscles.





Second classification is done on the basis of push n pull muslce types.
1. CHEST + TRICEP + SHOULDER : Push muscles ( most of the exercises involve push movements instead of pull movements)
2. BICEP + BACK: Pull Muscles ( Most of exerices involve pull motion)


So it's a good idea to combine a push exerice with a pull exercise. with this we can also maintain the balance that we do not workout two big muscles on a the same day. This also saves the timelag between two antagonist muscles being trained. So a workout based on this would look like the following:

DAY 1 Chest + Biceps
DAY 2 Legs + calfs
DAY 3 Cardio
DAY 4 Back + Abs
DAY 5 Shoulder + triceps
DAY 6 Cardio + Abs
DAY 7 Rest


However, different workout schedules may work out differently for different people. If the healing time for the body is more, then antagonist approach seems to be a better idea while if the muscles heal quickly, the second approach has more weight on its side.
However sticking to one schedule for a long time may actually slow down the growth. More on this in the next post.


Till then happy gyming!!!!!