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Periodise your workouts; alternate intense workouts with moderate ones
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Gym routine Make science your training partner
The benefits of weight training may appear so obvious that they need no emphasising, but many people are still hesitant to enrol in gyms. Some keep away because of the attitude of ill-informed trainers, who push their clients too hard every single wo
rkout.
This is not to say that workouts should be so easy as to be totally painless. What one has to realise is that training with all-out intensity seven days a week all 365 days a year should be avoided. Even world champion bodybuilders do not train that way.
Three-time Mr. Olympia Frank Zane says that he splits his training into three or four phases every year. Each module has a specific goal: putting on an inch of muscle on a select body part or losing a couple of inches around the waist and so on. The regimen that immediately follows the world championship (Mr. Olympia) would be a moderate one.
Founder/director of the International Sports Sciences Association Fredrick Hatfield calls this the ‘periodisation’ technique.
Several research papers have pointed that periodisation guarantees results, irrespective of whatever your goals are – losing a little fat, training for better sports performance or building massive muscles.
According to a recent issue of the Strength Conditioning Journal: “Inadequate recovery interferes with force-generating capacity of the muscles and training adaptation. Periodisation uses a variety of sets and repetition ranges, and rest intervals between sets. It also juggles the amount of weights used in each phase. This ensures optimum recovery and trains all types of muscle fibres, ensuring better development in muscle strength, tone, performance and mass. The ideal combination of exercise and rest depends on the goal of the programme and the adaptability of the athlete (the ability to make gains from weight training).”
By keeping each module different, every three months’ workout routine places a different kind of demand on the body. This ensures all-round improvement. Talk to your trainer about your goals and draw up a sound battle plan. Making science your training partner at the gym is the in thing.
C . LAKSHMI KUMAR
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