The Most Important Muscle Building Item in the Gym is the Least Used
People walk right past what could and should be the most important item in the gym everyday without even realizing that it is a key to mass building success. If you use this every time you workout you will actually begin to obtain the body that you think you are building, but probably aren’t, and can’t figure out why.
The entire field of muscle building boils down to one very simple concept. Break the muscle down with X amount of weight so that when it recovers it can do that same amount of work the next time without breaking down again. So to get bigger, you must use X plus weight to break the muscle down, it recovers to handle this amount and on and on.
Now there are many variables that factor in to this process. Things like nutrition, supplements, amount of rest and so on. But the concept is fixed. Many things affect the process but only by understanding the concept and then following through with it again and again can you even have a chance at muscle mass gains. It’s obvious that you can do all the variable things involved in muscle building, but if you don’t hit the gym and understand this concept, there will be no gain.
Understanding this concept then means lifting X plus weight in every workout for the same body part right? Do you? Probably not. Why? Well lots of reasons. But the REAL reason is ego, and not REALLY understanding the concept of muscle building. If you can bench 200 today for x reps and x sets. Your goal for the very next chest workout is what? It should be x reps and x sets at 200 PLUS! So the most important part is the PLUS! Which leads me to the most important item in the gym.
The 1 pound weight plate.
Do you EVER use it? I didn’t think so. Using the bench example, when you tear the muscle down with 200 and it recovers to handle the same load again do you need to tear it down with 210? 225? 245? Let’s say 225. When it recovers in a couple days and you work chest again can you handle the 225 easy? So this workout let’s use 250 and then 275 and then 300. See, it doesn’t work that way. If it did you would be benching tons in months. So why lift that way?
So why don’t people use 1 pound weights? Not impressive enough? The reason I hear a lot is that they are TOO light and don’t make any difference. They can’t even tell they are on the bar. Isn’t that the POINT? If you add a 1 pound plate to each side every workout, and you train chest at least ONCE a week, in a year you’ll be benching a 100 pounds more than today, a realistic and attainable goal for 99.9% of muscle builders.
Are you benching 100 pounds more today than a year ago? Why again are you in the gym?