Posted on 24th Jan 2010 @ 1:46 PM

Rule No 2: Building Muscle - The Training Programme – Make it Intense

Article submission number 3 By www.Cheapdiscountsupplements.com

If routine is the primary foundation that we need to build lean muscle then making each workout intense is steadfast in sculpting your physique.  Making your workout intense is about more than just effort.

When it comes to training your muscles intensely it requires significant muscular exertion where it be dumbbell curls, barbell press or drop setting.  No matter what 100% commitment for the selected muscle group is what is required to sculpt or build lean muscle.

The training myths and gym gurus would recommend that you need to ascertain the all important 100% intensity if you want to see or get results.  Remember intensity does not mean staying in the gym for 4 hours.

My view on intensity is somewhat different to that of the Gym and locker room gurus.  For me, intensity whilst being applied to the physics of muscular development, which after all is what we are all trying to achieve through reading this programme, is variation. Rather than view intensity as 100% effort on each individual session, why not monitor your intensity based on results over a period of time.

This can be done by selecting a specific muscle group each week and giving that chosen muscle group 100%, then apply rule no.1 “Variation” on week 2 and apply that same effort level, but to a different muscle group.  If you monitor this over a 4 week period you will unbelievable gains in each muscle area and the gains that you see will be balanced gains.

You can also apply rule no1 “variation” to rule no2 “intensity” at any stage in any rep, so you can apply 100% all out effort on rep 4 of 8 by upping the weight “to build muscle” or by dropping the weight to ascertain “lean Muscle”.

The fact of the matter is this, as long as you adopt “intensity” be it for a specific muscle group, or at a specific repetition stage in your workout, then gains will be noticed faster than you have ever seen before.

For maximum muscle intensity your muscle needs to be exposed to immense effort, 100% effort. This significant effort is to be adopted for only a short period of time.  There is a window on two different levels as mentioned above that when applied combined with effort creates the window where we build or encourage Lean muscle growth.

With intensity ensure you adopt the all important optimum time level of the “training set”.  Most people including myself would suggest that the window for growth within any given set ranges from 15 45 seconds.  Meaning each set that you do should fall within this timescale.

You should also be aware of how long your training session lasts (how long you workout for) and this is another area that is crucial in optimizing Muscle Development.  The Gym is not a social club.  Sure we all have friends, but say your hellos, put your I-pod headphones back in and get on with it.  If not you are depleting the effort put in on previous sets.  Apart from risking injury from muscular cooling  the most important scientific and biological reason  for keeping your workout short, planned, and intense, is that the  body’s natural growth hormone  begins  after approximately 45-Minutes of training.  The ideal duration of your workout in my opinion should be between 50-60 minutes.  Adopting cardio thereafter is separate and will be down to you, this should not interfere with your growth window.  It is also advised to consume recovery (post workout recovery drink) after each workout, to set you up for your next session.