Here are some tips to help you should you find yourself in the awful situation of no progress in your bodybuilding efforts. At all costs you should avoid over-training which is believed to be one of the most common causes of hitting a plateau. Frequent colds or illness, aching muscles and joints, low energy and motivation and sleeplessness are indicators of over-training. Should you find yourself experiencing these ailments then it means you are over-training and your body is letting you know that it needs a break. By taking a couple of days off your body will be allowed to completely rejuvenate itself before easing back into training.

For each muscle group endeavor to perform exercises which vary. For example, you can use shoulder presses with a straight bar in a set then change to dumbbell shoulder presses in another set. Although this might seem to be a simple change, a different stress will be placed on the shoulder muscles which will help to break through a plateau in shoulder development. The aim is to vary the exercise so that a novel stress is placed on the targeted muscle group. This will help you by making the muscles grow as well as keeping you interested in the workouts. (more…)

This includes doing the reps in a very slow fashion; push the weight up in 10 seconds then pause a little while the slowly down the weight in 5 seconds. This concept is used to add extra pressure on the muscle fiber resulting in increasein strength and size. It has also been credited as one of the safest lifting technique. This technique requires one to have full focus and alot of intensity. Many bodybuilders have coined in that this technique has no inflammation effects on the joints.

Slower reps are performed with the point of achieving various goals. These reps find their way in the following roles:

To display strength as opposed to building strength

There is general confusion between displaying strength and building the same. For a weightlifter lifting a heavy weight may be described as displaying strength. This display is often compared to a display of power a person has although power is described as work done per unit time, it is thought one has more power if lift a weight in very little time. However, the question lingers if this quick lifting is the best way to build strength.

For a weight lifter who lifts a weight off the floor then pauses at the shoulder level then jerks the weight up into the air; this is definately using more technique and a great amount of momentum to get the weight lifted over the head. The use of technique and momentum is good for entertainment since this is an actual display of shher strength. Thistechnique needs one to fully understand his or her neuromascular tendancies to make the lifting more efficient and easier.

The slower motions reduce the momentum of lifting considerably. This has the effect of using the muscles only to lift and no external forces. In this process the muscles experience higher levels of stimuli and tension.

The intensity aspect

Many exercise literatures point to intensity as having a major role in strength gained and even the muscle mass. Training with high number of the set and reps produces significant results only when high intensity is involved. If even the state of muscle fatigue is reached without the adequate intensity, the result may still not be forthcoming.

The muscle fibers response

The outcome of various training techniques is largely dependent on the mechanism defined by the size principle. The principle goes ahead to say that the (smaller) short muscles are synchronized before the (larger) long twitch muscles. This statement simply put, says the muscle fibers tend to be synchronized starting from the smallest to the biggest fiber. According to this principle, while the short muscles are getting fatigued, the longer muscles are just getting started and finally the whole collection of muscle fiber is fully activated. Even in fatigue the fibers are still active but they produced little forces progressively until the training stops.

With slow movements and slightly heavy load, one can attain the muscle fatigue state with say 5 reps.The intensity involved in such an exercise serves to activate the long fibers into action. Thereby the notion of fast movements in order to activate the long fibers may be laid to rest.

One may not be able to gauge the intensity of the exercise since no method has been invented yet. One may use a stop watch to check the onset of fatigue and compare it to other sessions to determine whether the intensity is increased or not.

Dane Fletcher is the world’s most prolific bodybuilding and fitness expert and is currently the executive editor for BodybuildingToday.com. If you are looking for more bodybuilding tips or information on weight training, or supplementation, please visit www.BodybuildingToday.com, the bodybuilding and fitness authority site with hundreds of articles available FREE to help you meet your goals.