Get Bigger and Stronger With These Gym Hacks
If you’re like most people, you weight train to get stronger and muscular. Sticking to the vanilla training techniques might work in the long run but why stick to the slower path when you can speed up the progress by making a few tweaks in your training?
As you incorporate the hacks in your workouts, you’ll feel an instant effect on your muscles. With the tips mentioned in the article, you can train smarter and make your workouts more effective.
Use Fat Grips
Fat grips can add to the bar width which can make it harder to hold. The difficulty in holding onto the bar recruits your forearms which can spark arm development. Although most people use the fat grip for their arm workouts, you can throw them onto the bar in almost every bar exercise like the bench press, rows, side lateral raises, etc.
A thicker bar can result in an even distribution of pressure throughout your palm which could mean lower stress on joints like the shoulders and elbows. You’ll have no choice but to acknowledge the pump using thicker grips has on your muscles.
Tweak Your Deadlifts
If you’re tall or have longer legs, deadlifting with the orthodox stance might not be the most effective technique for you. While training, you need to remember there is no “one technique fits all”. You need to experiment with the form until you find the one which works the best for you.
A tall person has to bend more as compared to a shorter guy while deadlifting. For people with longer legs, a normal deadlift might feel like what deficit deadlifts are for average height people. Performing sumo squats or using a trap bar is a better alternative for the normal deadlifts for tall people. The two variations of the deadlift are also great for people with lower back problems.
Go Beyond Failure Every Day
Most people misunderstand the concept of “overtraining” and don’t push the boundaries when it comes to training to failure. If a person is overtrained, his nervous system breakdowns, and he’ll have problems recovering from workouts or an illness.
Most people will never be able to reach the “overtrained” state even if they wanted to. While hitting failure in every workout is important, you don’t need to do so in every working set. You can train to failure in the last set of an exercise. So you’ll be hitting failure in five sets if you’re performing five different exercises in a chest workout.
Perform Pin Presses
Pin presses are one of the most effective and yet underutilized training techniques. People with shoulder rotator problem or stiff shoulder blades will have a problem in performing the compound pressing movements like bench press, military presses, etc.
Performing pin presses can reduce the tension on your joints as you can limit the range of motion to your liking. Pin presses can also help you lift heavier weights without the risk of an injury. You can also perform the pin presses on the leg exercises like barbell squats.
When in Doubt, Go Heavy
If you are a weight room regular, chances are that you regularly find yourself in a position where you don’t know how much weight to lift. In such a situation, most people make the mistake of using lighter weights in their first set.
Using weights that are too easy to lift can mean you have wasted your first set. You should always go for the challenging (read intimidating) weight. If you fail to perform the exercise with heavier weights only then you should drop down the weight. In case your first set was too easy, consider the set to be a warm-up and have a go at it again with heavier weights.
Have you ever tried pin presses in your workouts? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.