We all differ greatly from one another and that appears to be the reason why different people have different speed of progress. There are some unique persons who gain muscle mass very easy. Rather often they are not serious about their trainings and nevertheless they succeed without even slightest understanding of with how much nature endowed them. Almost all professional bodybuilders are in this group; but the majority of ordinary people (like we are) have to work hard to succeed.
Genetically gifted professionals can workout according to any system or technique; they will grow anyway. That is why the majority of modern bodybuilding workout systems are composed exactly for such lucky people. Professionals can make whatever mistakes and still their muscles will go on growing.
An ordinary person who is not endowed with extraordinary genetics has to take absolutely all training factors into consideration in order to achieve the goals of muscle bulding and body perfection; and the quantity of these factors for an ordinary person is also higher than for a professional.
I believe that your genetic potential influence only the speed of your progress but not the very possibility to make it. Professional bodybuilding knows a lot of sportsmen who were not genetically gifted but who managed to achieve extraordinary results.
Still, it would be absolutely not true to state that genetics in bodybuilding means nothing. Exactly due to this mistake lots of beginners choose methods and systems that are absolutely not appropriate and not efficient for them; they choose methods that bring them to a dead end.
In order to increase the size of any muscle group one needs to workout it strictly in accordance with its genetics. What does it mean? – Muscles of each particular person consist of different muscle fibers that perform different types of work.
Some fibers perform power activity; the others are responsible for endurance. That is why it’s not possible to prescribe the quantity of reps in a set that would do for everyone. The average working diapason differs from 5 to 15 reps. This ‘reps corridor’ is rather broad; that’s why it’s quite easy to make a mistake.
For example, in your pectoral muscles fast contractive anaerobic fibers but you workout them by means of intensive training with numerous repetitions. Or it can be just the opposite.
But how is it possible to define your own ‘reps corridor’?
You need to test all your muscle groups to find out what type of fibers prevails in each of them. The test exercise for upperparts is Barbell Curls without cheating; for underparts – Leg Extensions.
Let’s take biceps as an example to illustrate the method: after a good warm-up you need to define the maximum weight you can manage performing one repetition of Barbell Curls (for example, 100 lbs). It’s better to use the EZ-barbell because it is safer for such curls. In a couple of days, right after a warm-up you need to equip the barbell with 80% of your maximum weight (80 lbs in our case) and do the maximum quantity of reps.
Reps mean that:
If you managed to complete less than 7 reps
it means that 75% of arm training must be performed in power style (no more than 6-8 reps) and 25% of the total arm training must be devoted to many-repetition training (10-15 reps). Arm trainings should be no often than once six days.
If you managed to complete 7-13 reps
you’ll have to divide the amount of power and many-repetition trainings into equal parts; power trainings are to be once six days, many-repetition ones – once four days.
If you managed to complete more than 13 reps
power and many-repetition trainings are divided respectfully: 25% of power training once five days and 75% of many-repetition one twice a week.
If you are an absolute beginner in bodybuilding it could be rather dangerous for you to define your one-time maximum weight. To avoid the danger, I advise you to workout for at least a week in a usual regime of 6-10 reps in order to feel deeply exercise movement biomechanics and barbell weight. Only after this you can try defining your ‘reps corridor’. Before beginning it’s obligatory to prepare the muscle with the help of light warm-up reps. Use a very light weight and do 2-3 sets with high quantity of reps till your muscles warm up.
This technique is just brilliant! Usually bodybuilders spend years to understand their muscles and to feel intuitively the quantity of reps they need to perform. You have the possibility to save your time trying to find it and make your trainings effective from the very beginning. Good luck!
source:gymper.com