In a rut? Climb out of it!

If you’ve been reading the posts here, you know that I’m an advocate of training every other day, using a split routine. Something like Monday – Legs, Wednesday – Torso, Friday – Legs, following week Torso on M and F, Legs on W.

But once in a while, you have to change things up a bit. I’ve read stories about “shocking your muscles” is not necessary and I agree for the most part.

However, muscle building is often more about the mind than it is about the muscle. So, in that light, whenever you get in a rut or aren’t improving (use your logs as the barometer), try this:

Work out 2 days in a row

Now, I’m not talking about doing legs and then torso on the next day. I’m talking about training legs two days in a row. Or arms. Or back, chest, or shoulders.

Yes, it’s not something I prescribe for the long-term, maybe just once or twice to get out of a rut. It can work wonders! Not only for the muscles, but for the mind.

If you do try this, I suggest doing a different set of exercises, sets, and reps. Maybe do 3×10 Squats one day, 2×20 Leg Presses the next.

Make sense? Give it a try.

Welcome to the March 2, 2009 edition of the Hardgainer Blog Carnival.

Sore Muscles

Many weight trainers have the belief that being sore the day after a workout means that you worked out really hard and that you’ll derive some benefits from the workout.

But this is not necessarily the case.

You see, you can get sore from doing 100 reps of an exercise. Or too many sets. Or from some extreme stretching. Or maybe you have some after-effects of cramping?

There are many reasons for soreness a day or two after a workout. But there’s only one good reason:

You pushed your muscles far enough to elicit muscle growth

And getting really sore, like I am right now, can keep you from wanting to workout at the frequency you might need. I know, I just had a killer workout and I have no motivation to get myself out of my desk chair and GO DO SOMETHING!!!

Which, actually, is the worst part of all!

So, here’s what I have to say in conclusion:

Work out hard enough to force your muscles to respond, but no more. Being sore after a muscle-stimulating workout is the best motivator and a pretty good progress meter for knowing whether your workout was productive.

But if you’re sore beyond 2 days, you probably worked out too hard or your workout wasn’t very effective.

Weight Gain

This will be a quick one, but I’m experimenting with a new split. Rather than split the body two ways (I typically do legs & arms, and back, chest, and shoulders) on an ever-other-day split (like Monday, Wednesday, Friday).

I’m sticking to the M-W-F, but I’ve split 3 ways: Legs, Torso, and then Shoulders & Arms. Each one gets only one workout per week rather than the occasional two, but my upper body is always getting two workouts and my legs are only getting one.

So, how is this working out? Too early to tell. But some of the shoulder pain I’ve been having has already gotten better because I’m not pressing so much (pressing only for benches, not for shoulders – doing lots of laterals for the side heads of the delts).

Plus, my leg workout can be of a lot higher intensity as well as a lot higher volume, so I can really crush them and I get a week to recover. Plus, my legs in the past have usually responded better to growth stimulation than my upper body (i.e., they grow faster).

I’ll let you know how I progress. You may want to give this split a try.