Gone are the days when increasing muscle mass was solely an aim for aspiring bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts. Nowadays, muscle mass growth can bring immense benefits for individuals of all shapes, sizes, and ages. Dr. Mike Israetel recently mulled over this subject.
In a conversation with Dr. Mike Varshavski, the exercise scientist listed various techniques to kickstart muscle mass increase in individuals. The prerequisite to the aim was adapting to working with weights at the gym to head towards this goal.
Right off the bat, the first thing that Dr. Israetel wanted was for gym-goers, who lift weights, to hit the machines at least two to four times a week. Once in the gym, they need to exercise for anywhere between thirty minutes to an hour to ensure that they work their muscles sufficiently.
The next thing is to focus on the kind of exercises that would stimulate the growth mechanism in muscles. He recommended various forms of presses like shoulder presses, deadlifts, upward rows, squats, etc. These exercises will help work on multiple muscles at once, thus optimizing one’s training session.
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“They hugely modify how you look and how you feel.”
Dr. Israetel also assured that one didn’t have to worry about the amount of weights they were lifting. Instead, it was integral to focus on the technique and get an intuitive feeling of how the weights behaved. If it wasn’t too challenging, he asked individuals to go up on the scale gradually, and if not, he wanted them to practice with the same weights till they got hold of it.
“If the weight on the bar increase is pretty tough, and your technique’s unstable, keep the weight the same for a few weeks, untill you feel you’re in command of it again.”
The goal was to focus on increasing gains with the correct technique and weight combination. One must not go super easy but they should also avoid inflicting injuries on themselves. Working with less weight wasn’t a crime, and Dr. Israetel talked about it once.
Dr. Mike Israetel reveals how to maximize gains with less weight
Sometimes, it isn’t possible for everyone to go heavy on the weights they’re working with, and instead, have to work with what they have. In such cases, it is a good idea to practice and upskill on other factors that influence muscle mass increase.
Dr. Israetel wanted individuals to focus on five important aspects of a workout, especially when working with weights. These include range of motion, eccentric, utilizing other muscle groups that don’t need work, muscles working as a limiting factor, and joint usage.
The goal is to exert a deep range of motion to get every muscle fiber to work, using controlled movements for a better burn, avoiding cheating by using other sets of muscles to work for the target group, getting the target muscle set to act as a limiting factor while going to failure, and going easy on the joints while exercising to avoid injuries.
