I am often accosted in the gym by trainees frustrated by their lack of progress, often they have been training naturally for a number of years and are disappointed with their current physical condition. They have followed all the advice gleaned from the magazines, tried all of the pro’s workouts and taken most of the supplements on the market.
And there lies the root of their problem.
Enhancement methods used by the pros massively increase the body’s recuperative ability, allowing one to train longer and harder. To put it simply, any increase in intensity or duration can be offset by a subsequent increase in illegal substances, allowing the body to tolerate and recuperate from insane workouts which would leave the natural trainee drastically over trained and under recuperated.
So without the advantages of the drug aided athlete, adequate recuperation should be the primary concern of every natural trainee. If you choose to go the natural route, the first thing you need to look at is your current training program.
Ask yourself these questions
- How long does your workout last (Is it generally longer than an hour)?
- How many sets do you do per exercise?
- Do you always train to failure?
- Do you end each session feeling totally wiped out?
- How much cardio do you do and how often?
- Are you getting enough rest?
- Are you doing too many exercises per body part?
- Do you follow the training advice of the pros or the steroid using guys at your gym?
- Are you training harder and harder and getting poorer and poorer results?
Shorten your workout
The duration of your workout plays a very important role in determining the success of your training efforts. Try shortening your workout to no more than one hour.
Cut down on unnecessary sets
Once you have fully warmed up a body part, there is no need for subsequent warm-up sets with each additional exercise. For example, if you are training chest and you have just done four sets of bench press, you do not need to do a thorough warm up on your incline presses as the area is already warm and one or two heavy sets will suffice.
Only train to failure on your last set
Once again as a natural trainer, you need to guard against overtraining.
Stick to your scheduled workout
Monitor your level of fatigue and avoid the temptation to do “one more”
Do your cardio on alternate days
Keep your weight training and cardio separate. This will help to keep your workouts short and sharp and help you avoid overtraining.
Keep It Simple
Cut back on the number of exercises you do per body part and the number of body parts you train in one session
Be careful who you listen to
Find yourself a mentor who has successfully built his physique without the aid of drugs or who at least knows the difference between the training needs of the drug trained and the natural athlete.
If you are serious about building muscle try these natural bodybuilding methods, they could save you a lot of wasted effort and help you pack some new muscle on your physique.