dont miss the winter golden period for muscle gain 8 training tips for you

Looking back at my2018,365 days,I recorded exercise on a total of272 days, including 219 days of pure equipment fitness, running a total of 502.74 km, averaging one full marathon per month.

In the new year's January, I made my2019 plan:including life, travel, study, career, and of course, exercise plans: increase aerobic exercise to improve cardiovascular health and control body fat. What about your2019? Why not make a plan too.

Back to the main topic, today we are going to talk about muscle gain in winter.Many fitness enthusiasts choose to gain muscle in winter and do aerobic exercises in summer to lose fat.

Why is that? The reason is actually quite simple: because the body's metabolism is slower in winter, energy consumption is also reduced.

For example, when you exercise in winter, you sweat less than in summer. Slower metabolism means that stored energy is more easily used for muscle repair and growth, making winter a golden time for muscle gain.

Now that we know when to gain muscle, the question is, how do we gain muscle? I have compiled some important tips to share with you.

Many newcomers see"experts" lifting heavy weights and think this is the embodiment of strength and beauty, so they focus heavily on the weight and number of repetitions, not paying much attention to whether the formis standard or if it is distorted, leading to many injuries.

If the form is distorted or not standard, the targeted muscles do not get fully engaged, reducing the effectiveness of the training and even causing deviations. Therefore,the correctness of the form is always the most important.It's better to lift lighter weights with proper form than heavier weights with improper form to avoid leveraging. Don't compare yourself to others, don't live in others' eyes, better light than fake.

In bodybuilding,RM represents the maximum number of repetitions one can do with a certain load. For example, if a practitioner can only lift a weight 5 times continuously, then that weight is 5RM.

1-5RM load training can increase muscle thickness, strength, and speed;

6-10RM load training can increase muscle size, strength, and speed, but endurance improvement is not significant;

10-15RM load training does not significantly increase muscle fiber thickness, but improves strength, speed, and endurance;

30RM load training increases the number of capillaries in the muscles, improving endurance, but does not significantly improve strength and speed.

Therefore,5-10RM load weight, low repetitions are suitable for bodybuilding training to increase muscle size.

Many friends just do it when they feel like it, go to the gym when they are in a good mood, exercise for 20-30 minutes, do2-3 sets, which is useless. You must spend 60-90 minutes, 10-15 sets of different exercises, to focus on a specific area to fully stimulate the muscles, and of course, the longer the muscle recovery time needed.

Slow speed and proper form actually complement each other, lifting slowly and lowering slowly not only does not disturb others in the gym but also provides stronger muscle stimulation, fully stimulating the muscles.

Rest between sets should not be too long, otherwise, the muscles will"cool down", within 1 minute is appropriate. To quickly increase muscle size, rest less and frequently stimulate the muscles.

After finishing a set, you can stretch the trained muscles, never let them relax, always reach complete exhaustion. The longer the range of motion during muscle work, the deeper the muscle stimulation. So, whether it's rowing, bench press, shoulder press, or bicep curls, always lower the dumbbells as much as possible and then lift them as high as possible.

The peak contraction training principle is a specification and method proposed for exercise technique, referring to deliberately maintaining and further contracting the muscle when it reaches its most tense position during an exercise, keeping the muscle in a1-3 seconds of complete contraction state.Peak contraction is a major training method to highlight muscle definition.

Concentrating not only avoids unnecessary injuries but also focuses on the training area, achieving a mind-muscle connection. For example, when training triceps, watching the muscle contraction in the mirror gives a better feeling. No wonder there is a"naked" gym in the Netherlands, it should be very effective.

Even experienced gym-goers can hit a"plateau". At this time, you can make some changes to your training plan or add some new "play styles".

A super set refers to doing two exercises continuously without any rest in between. Note that it is continuous training without rest, and it involves two exercises. To further increase training intensity, you can even do three different continuous exercises without rest, also known as a tri-set. You can also do four continuous exercises without rest, which is called a giant set.

A super set consists of two exercises performed back-to-back without rest in between. The only requirement is to minimize the rest time between the two exercises, switching from one exercise to the next as quickly as possible. After completing one combination, rest90 seconds to 3 minutes. You can freely combine, for example:

Combination one, bench press+ seated row;

Combination two, barbell squat+ stiff-legged deadlift;

Combination three, dumbbell shoulder press+ dumbbell lateral raise,

and so on.

Nutritional supplementation for fitness is extremely important. As the saying goes, three parts training, seven parts eating. If your diet can't keep up, no matter how hard you train, it will be half the effort with twice the result.During fitness, pay attention to water and electrolyte supplementation.

Before exercise, eat foods rich in natural sugars and a small amount of protein to ensure you have enough energy to perform during exercise. Eat something simple, like fruits and oatmeal. Bananas are a good choice.

After exercise, protein and carbohydrate supplementation is particularly important.After each workout, muscle sensitivity to protein lasts for24-48 hours, so it's not necessary to consume protein immediately within 20 minutes after finishing. The effect of protein intake decreases over the entire recovery process, meaning the closer to the end of the recovery period, the less effective protein intake is. This is why there is a saying about consuming whey protein within 20 minutes to an hour after a workout.

During exercise, blood is concentrated in the muscles being trained, and the muscles are in a congested state. At this time, directly consuming food is not particularly conducive to digestion. You should let your body calm down for30 minutes to an hour. When the body's blood returns to a balanced state, it's better to consume food.

I usually eat a banana after finishing my workout. Bananas are high in potassium, and low potassium levels can inhibit the formation of protein in the body, affecting muscle growth. When I get home, I eat boiled chicken breast+ broccoli + egg whites. The simplest way is to drink whey protein powder, which is also a good choice.

After training a specific muscle group, it needs48-72 hours of rest before the next training session. If you do high-intensity strength training, even 72 hours may not be enough for large muscle groups.

However, abs are an exception. Unlike other muscle groups, abs can be frequently stimulated, trained 4 times a week, each session about 15-20 minutes; choose three exercises that are most effective for you, do only 3 sets, each set 20-25 reps, all to failure; rest time between sets should be short, not exceeding 1 minute.

Adequate sleep allows muscles to recover, as the best recovery time for muscles is during sleep. Lack of sleep will result in poor muscle recovery. Additionally, research shows that people with sleep deprivation are more prone to mistakes, increasing the risk of injury. Everyone knows that if you're injured, you can't start training. Therefore, make sure to get7-8 hours of sleep.

Warming up before exercising in winter is especially important. Lower body temperature reduces the elasticity and extensibility of muscles and joint soft tissues, making muscles tense and increasing the risk of injury! Warming up means getting your body warm. I recommend jumping rope and jumping jacks, which not only quickly raise body temperature but also help activate the nervous system quickly.

The scientific fitness sequence should be: warm-up-stretch-train-stretch-relax.Stretching should be integrated throughout our fitness training. Don't think that stretching before and after workouts is a waste of time.

Some people can't wait to start lifting heavy weights as soon as they enter the gym without doing any warm-up or stretching exercises. When muscle soreness or muscle strain occurs, they start complaining about why they didn't do some stretching exercises, which greatly affects their training. Each stretching exercise should last for 30 seconds, don't rush.

The above are the tips I have compiled for friends who want to gain muscle in the cold winter. As always,the most important thing in fitness is not what you achieve, but how long you can maintain this excellent version of yourself.Keep it up, fitness friends.