Maximum weight or Maximum contraction?

Personal Training for Weight lifting

bill lutz

Weight lifters and bodybuilders have long debated whether muscle growth is initiated and maintained through maximum lifts, or maximum muscle contractions.  There seems to be merit in both theories.
Heavy lifts are necessary to tear muscle fibers and initiate the process of hypertrophy, which is the enlargement of muscle fibers.  This growth of type two fast twitch fibers needs adequate force to tear the cross bridging attachment between contracting muscle fibers.  The constant reoccurring process of lifting and tearing results in larger muscles, through the growth of muscle cells.
The bodybuilding concept of maximum contraction results in transient hypertrophy, or the increase in blood fluids and a corresponding rise in blood pressure.  The contractions also stretch the muscle fascia which is the membranous tissue surrounding muscle bundles.  This repeated stretching of the fascia can result in the ability to have a greater “pump “because of the aforementioned stretching of the surrounding tissue around the muscle fibers themselves.
My advice as a personal trainer and a lifter is:  Work with heavy weight in a safe fashion to build larger muscles.  Work with lighter poundage’s with maximum contractions when the body needs rest to recover from heavy lifting.  Older lifters will find they need more “pump” sessions and less heavy lifting to allow the body to recover.
The theory of periodization covers much of these concepts.

http://www.fitperf.com/maximum-weight-or-maximum-contraction


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Soft-core approach does not = Hard-core results.

Image
Too many "would be" bodybuilders expect to have size and strength with minimal efforts and a copy of Muscle Fitness Magazine. Following a three hour, massive volume, low intensity workout may work wonders for steroid fed athletes with an adequate base. These forementioned "pump worouts" do little for regular weight lifting trainees. If there is not sufficient force to tear a muscle fiber (myofibral) there is not sufficient stimuli to initiate change in that muscles structure. Training to get big and stronger is all about sufficient stimulation. Many successful bodybuilders have laid the foundation to their musculature with an athletic based, strength programs. When asked, off hand how to get bigger I typically respond, lift to you puke. Many former high school and college football players remember fondly, with languishing agony, the hours spent under a squat bar or pulling an unmovable weight in the deadlift. Following periodization techniques that allow for sti
Read more

Where to start with Exercises

Image
Reaching your Fitness Goals How to start an exercise program can be daunting task if one does not know where to start. To quote a line from the Wizard of Oz “it is best to start in the beginning”. To evaluate where one needs to go one must first honestly ascertain and evaluate that individual’s health and fitness level. This is definitely the time one may want to enlist the services of a competent personal trainer. A personal trainer will accurately gauge your fitness abilities through fitness testing or from observation of exercise performance. Using the fore mentioned methods of evaluation a fitness trainer can then select appropriate exercises, exercise order rest periods and other exercise prescription variables. The Fitness Performance blog article from November 8, 2012 “What is Fitness?” enumerates on the various components of fitness, this article can be used as a template for the lay person to evaluate their health and fitness needs. When first embarking on a health an
Read more

Psychological and Sociological barriers to proper eating

Image
It is not mine, it is my mother’s fault I’m fat Over eating goes back to primitive times.  Primeval man had no way to maintain or store fresh meat.  The storage of meat through the use of salting goes back centuries.  Salting removes the water content and turns meat into a storable form of, tasteless shoe leather.  The killing of livestock was timed around the eating and use of the animal.  Societies had feasting ceremonies where copious amounts of animal flesh were consumed over a period of days.  These aforementioned feasting ceremonies are what we call holidays.  Along with the gluttonous consumption of food came the overzealous drinking of alcoholic beverages.  How could one celebrate without a good “buzz” on? Starting to see how overindulgence might be programmed into our DNA, as socially expected behavior.  When we were children and we were “good” what did our parents, or grandparents give us in reward?  Cookies or candies were given to us reinforcing our socially accepted
Read more