You may have seen some bodybuilders say to stop analyzing your workouts—just do plenty of sets on the big exercises, and you’ll grow.
That may work if you’re young and/or on anabolic drugs. But as you age, you must get more analytical to continue making progress as well as avoid injury…
Muscle growth is slow enough when you’re under 40. After that, it can start to drag significantly, stop completely, or reverse if you’re not careful.
And even if you’re young, you may be less than blessed in the bodybuilding genetics department. That means your workout analysis should be analytical as well because recovery is a challenge. Trust me—story of my training life.
What do I mean by “analysis”?
For one, your choice of exercises. It’s taken me decades to realize there’s nothing magical about heavy overhead presses, squats, bench presses, and deadlifts…
In fact, I’ve been injured doing every one of those exercises—and I’m still suffering the consequences. To put it bluntly, they are inefficient and dangerous, especially if you’re older…
There’s no need to compress your spine like an accordion to load your quads or glutes. And there’s no need to ram a heavy weight overhead and crunch your shoulder capsule to grow your delts…
In fact, those inefficient, joint pounding exercises force your body to release more cortisol, a stress hormone that smothers testosterone and cannibalizes muscle. Yikes.
Familiarize yourself with some biomechanics, including muscle line of force and proper joint alignment (Plug: see Old Man, Young Muscle).
You’ll not only build more muscle faster but avoid lifelong pain and funding another orthopedic surgeon’s Tesla purchase.
When it comes to joint strain, less pain equals more muscle gain.
Your Efficient Mass-Building Handbook: For complete mass workouts that include Speed Sets, the ideal exercise for each muscle, and the best stretch and contracted add-on moves, get your copy of Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
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