Building Muscle Fast With Training Variables

The general idea behind training for muscle building is to find workable solutions for improving your physique, energy and confidence. Depending on your end goal, your training program may be mild, moderate, or intense.

It goes without saying that bodybuilding for strong and well defined visible muscles calls for intense training. However, no matter how hard you are training and no matter how good the results are, you tend to get frustrated at some point because nothing seems to be going right at times.

The fact is that your body adapts to the workouts and you are liable to reach a bodybuilding plateau or a stable state of little change. Another factor that is responsible for such plateau periods is wearisome constancy, routine, and lack of variety.

Workouts tend to become boring if you keep performing the same exercises in a given routine time and again. You experience a similar situation when you strictly adhere to a diet. Ask any dietician, and you will be told that occasional overeating is good for your health for getting out of such plateau periods.

If you want to avoid this frustration, you need to open your mind and be creative. Bring some variety to your workout by working on some of the variables that are inherent in any training program.

When it comes to changing routines in a workout, you naturally think of sets, reps, and the cardio routine, but there are many other variables that have a dramatic effect and allow you to get out of a workout plateau. Try making changes in the following aspects of workouts for better results.

• Order in which you perform exercises
• Exercise grouping
• Range of motion
• Speed at which you perform reps
• Type of exercises: multi joint or single joint and free weight or machine exercises
• Resistance level
• Tension time
• Number of exercises that you perform in a workout
• Stability base: standing, seated, one-legged or stability ball
• Work volume: sets multiplied by reps multiplied by distance moved
• Duration and frequency of workout
• The angle at which you perform an exercise: flat, inclined, declined or upright

Getting out of a workout plateau is about making changes in any or every aspect of a workout. You may even change the period of rest that you allow yourself between sets. One of the roles that a personal trainer has to assume is to ensure that your interest is maintained so that the training routine does not become stale.

Here are some examples that will help you understand how to get out of a body building plateau:

• The general routine is something like this: 3 sets of 10-15 reps of every exercise, with 2-3 minutes rest between each set. Change that to 10 sets of 3 reps with only 20-second rest between sets.

• Instead of the usual routine, try a moderately heavier weight; do 6 sets of 6 reps with a 3-minute treadmill sprint between sets.

• Lift a near maximum weight and do 10 sets with 1 rep and 30-second rest. 

• Reduce the normal weight that you lift and do 1 set of 50 reps. Do this for all the exercises that you perform in a workout.

• In a workout, perform only one exercise (barbell clean and press or dumbbell squat and press) for twenty minutes. While exercising, make changes as suggested above and moderately increase the weight, decrease the number of sets and/or reps, or reduce the weight and increase sets/reps.

• Every now and then, complete a workout with the exercises you like doing best.

• Perform the reps at a faster than normal speed one day and then at a super-slow speed during the next workout.

These are but some examples. As you go along, you will be able to identify more such variables to keep your workout regime more interesting.

The underlying idea is to maintain the intensity of your workout in whatever way you can and also ensure that you are lifting more weights and performing more sets and reps in subsequent workouts.