Weight Lifting Tips and Tricks

Weight lifting tips and tricks are designed to help you get through a weight lifting program successfully. The body builders and weight trainers know that there are little tricks that help their students to achieve the results they desire. You can have those weight lifting tips and tricks available to you as well.

No matter what your lifting goals, everyone benefits from learning to do things the right way. Our bodies were built in a certain manner and when you work with the program, instead of against it, you are able to make stronger gains and achieve better results.

The first thing to remember, is that you have to have a plan. Nothing is achieved without a plan. Incorporate the weight lifting tips and tricks into your plan for better results. But without a plan you are destined to fail.

Find your reason ‘why’ you are training. This is the thing that will get you through the rough spots when you just want to quit. And there will be rough spots. We are only human. We come to points of failure or disappointment and sometimes can’t see past them. But with a strong reason ‘why’ to weight lift you’ll power past your disappointment and keep moving forward.

Train intensely each session. You must work hard each day at the gym, each session of weight lifting and each repetition. You don’t stop at a certain number of repetitions if you are capable of doing more. Your body builds muscle based on stress and challenge. If the body is challenged then it will burn fat and gain muscle. Challenging the muscle is hard work – do it!

You can’t work out long and hard. You have to work out hard and therefore your workouts must be brief. You should be able to get in an intense workout in just an hour. If you are staying longer you aren’t working hard enough or you are being a social butterfly. There isn’t anything wrong with being social – but you won’t see results from talking.

Use good form, each and every time, and each and every lift. When you lift the weight incorrectly you don’t gain the benefits of the move and risk injuring yourself, and potentially your spotter. Keep your eye on your form and your head in the game. This isn’t the time to brainstorm ideas for your new business plan. This is the time to focus on your weight lifting form.

Your body needs time to recover. You can easily over train, risking injury, illness and poor performance. The body needs time to adapt to the stresses and grow more muscle. If you go back to the gym before you are completely recovered you’ll risk over training and won’t add new muscle. Keeping at least 48 hours between working a muscle group is only a general rule of thumb. It seems that your body has a greater capacity to grow stronger when it has more time between weight sessions. You judge how long you need to recover. It will take more time to recover from benching 300 pounds than 50.

When you train progressively you shouldn’t add weight and repetitions in the same week. Add weight one week and keep the same number of reps. Increase the number of repetitions the following weeks. When you want to add more weight take the repetitions down to 10, add weights and work the reps back up to 15.

Don’t train to failure at the beginning. Instead, understand how to do each lift correctly. Then begin by training to failure only on some sets. Only after training for 2-3 months should you train to failure on most, increasing your intensity. At this point consider only training 2 times per week to give your body enough time to recover.

Keep a journal of your progress and your training. This will help you look back to determine what was working and what wasn’t.

Set realistic goals. Most of us want something today and aren’t willing to wait for the results. Unfortunately weight lifting is a time based sport. You’ll get your results when you get them and not before. If you are too impatient you may not stick it out until you see the progress you want.

Prevent imbalances in your program. You’ll find that you may be tempted to build your biceps because they are most visible, but don’t forget the triceps – the opposing muscle group. If you don’t train balanced you risk injury and an imbalanced body.

Resources:

BodyBuilding: 10 Awesome Weight Training Tips

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mdlabs1.htm

Mens Health: Define Yourself

http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/weight-lifting-tips-muscle-definition

PowertoChange: Top 10 Tips for Weightlifting Beginners

http://powertochange.com/life/weightlifting/

Fitness: 5 Ways to Fast-Track Your Strength Training

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/tips/quick-tricks/strength-training-workout-tips/

Shape: 8 Tricks to Make Weight Training More Effective

http://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/8-tricks-make-weight-training-more-effective

Men’s Fitness: Perfect Your Weight Workout to Build Muscle