8 Weight Training Tips You Must Know About

Now that you have started weight training, can you be sure that you are moving on the right path? If the clouds of indecisiveness are still looming around then this simple guide to move up in your weight training can come handy for you!
Though an experienced bodybuilder and weightlifter is well acquainted with his weight training success pattern, it becomes a little difficult for the newbie to identify the right technique to move up in the weight training program. To combat the confusion, we have created this comprehensive weight training progress guide to help you understand you can move up in your weight training program.

8 Weight Training Tips

1. Maintain The Consistency 
Weight training is all about consistency and those who are training themselves week in and week out are sure to experience some steady muscularity and gains over the time. The lifter who is lifting weights twice a week consistently for 52 weeks will see long term results as compared to the lifter who is lifting weights five times a week for just 20 weeks consistently. If you are expecting that you will hit the gym once in a while and will see the progress, then you are wrong. Same way, training sporadically throughout the year will also not give you any long term results. Short term blast might seem effective, but the results that you will gain from consistency will be far better.

2. Work Smart, Work Hard
Pushing yourself to train hard is good, but you must focus on training smart as well. Combine both the approaches efficiently, and you will be surprised by the results.

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Sure you need to train hard, but that does not mean you will kill yourself to the core in a single session. Push yourself to workout hard but also listen to your body’s requirements every day and accommodate those needs as required. Also, try to be experimental with your weight training to identify what works best for you.

3. Stimulate The Entire Body
Muscle stimulation requires regular lifting of heavy weights for every part of the body. But you should also focus on fixing the weak points of all the muscle groups. If a particular muscle is not being active, then its chances of growth will be minimal. If you want to make a muscle grow, then you have to simulate it on a regular basis. For example, a deadlift stimulates multiple muscles throughout the body at a time, like your forearms, lats, spinal extensors, hamstrings, glutes core and even quad muscles get activated during deadlifts. This example is enough to prove why deadlift is such a great exercise for every bodybuilder.

Must Read – Bench, Deadlift and Squat- The Big Three

However, it doesn’t mean that you will keep on doing deadlifts only. Your biceps, pecs, and delts will reach their full hypertrophy potential only if you combine other exercises with deadlifts.
If you are looking forward to getting the muscle mass at any particular body part, then you should focus on the exercises that elicit the activation in that specific muscle.

4. Improve Basic Strength with Compound Exercises
If you ask what is the most important aspect of your strength game? Then would be progressive overload. If you have embarked on the strength training journey but are unable to get stronger, then you will not gain any muscle as well. You must become comfortable lifting heavier loads with more reps rate over the time.

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Experienced bodybuilders may not always train heavy, but during their initial years of the training life, they all have worked upon building strength with heavy weights. The strength that they form during that period forms the foundation stone for other areas like power production to move a step ahead in their training program. You should start doing something related to heavy lifting but at a moderate speed so that you can increase the same rapidly. Strength is something that you cannot ignore and to do that you must do something specific for strength endurance.

Once you start getting more acquainted with the gym, you will start noticing some dramatic progress in your strength training. Now you have moved on from beginner level to a moderate level for a squat variation, deadlift variation, upper body press and pull and more. If you are aiming to become your absolute best in deadlifts, bench press, squats, etc. then it would be great if you perform the lifts consistently. In case you fail to do so, you may get nothing but the unachieved progress.

5. Warm-ups Are Essential
If you are not taking your warm-ups seriously, then you are headed for nothing but a disaster.  You cannot simply saunter around the weight lifting room to pick up a bunch of heavy bars or plates with minimum reps to gain the strength. Beginning the workout without warm-up will not only increase the risk of injury but will also hamper your mobility. Those who indulge themselves in 20 to 30 minutes of warm-up session find themselves in a better place to weight train as compared to those who do not spend time in the warm-up. A warm-up is important to get the blood flowing and also to prepare joints and muscles for some heavy duty work.

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Though some lifts like hip thrust and row variations do not ask for specific warm-up, still you can do a 5 to 10 min gig for waking your muscles. You do not need to warm up before every movement for the similar muscle groups. Beginners get to learn the importance of the warm up only after some time, that too the hard way if they keep ignoring it initially.

6. Make Use Of Good Form
Your form is crucial for your weight training, but at some moment of time you could loosen up a bit to go heavier in your training program. When you walk into the weights room, you will find people reaching the either end of the technique spectrum. Some lifters even go for too strict weights because of their blind dedication to robotic technique, while some will be lifting with better progress. The one’s lifting with better progress has significantly reduced the number of weights they were lifting and are no longer relying on the momentum.

It has been shown that the slight momentum can help in increasing the torque requirement and muscle aviation. Your form will face a breakdown, even if it’s a little bit when you will try to max out your strategic points during the year. If you think that your one rep max has gone too far and too good, then you must have gone a bit heavier in your lifting. But, it is advised to remain a bit strict with your exercise form if you are willing to learn about the different types of forms for your body using a variety of lifts. This becomes true in the context of bigger exercises like squats and deadlifts where the risk of injury is higher as compared to exercises like dumbbell curls. If you fail to pay attention to your technique, you may end up with pain or injury, which will only hinder your progress.

7. Take A Look At Your Daily Nutritional Habits

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If you are following the best workout plan in the world but have crappy diet habits, then all your hard work is going in vain. The hours you are spending in the gym will be rendered pointless if your diet lacks proper nutrition.
For good physique and optimum performance, nutrition and diet must be taken very seriously. Include the right amount of calories in your daily diet which should be blended with micronutrients required for meeting your goals and physiology. Nobody is asking you to stay perfect all the time, but eating unhealthy food day in and day out will only stop you from reaching your potential and will also prevent you from seeing your strength and gains.
Supplement your diet strategically with the right amount of protein powders and other essential fatty acids which are required for muscle recovery and also for setting the growth path for your body.

8. Sleep Well To Avoid Distress
The benefits of sleeping have been discussed several times; still, we tend to play around with our sleeping hours to do chores which are not that important. Not sleeping well can leave you mentally stressed and your psychology will start working against you. Some people need more sleep as compared to others so that they can perform well in every area of their life. Thus, it is important that you give enough importance to your sleep and make it a priority. For some serious results in your weight training, you need to be highly consistent with your sleep patterns. Failure in doing so will only hinder your pursuit for strength.
When it comes to stress, you should not be focusing on eliminating it completely, instead, you should look into get it optimized. It is good to keep yourself challenged in life, but you need to understand the fine line between positive stress and negative stress. Aim to stay in positive stress condition for maximizing your results.

So, take a step back, analyze your choices and lifestyle habits and identify the area that needs your immediate attention to get positive results.