When it comes to working out, most influencers have their own idea of what you need to do and what you should do. For someone who’s just starting in the gym or looking to improve their lifts, this information can become overwhelming and confusing.
I remember after I used to research how to improve in the gym I’d be left even more confused than before I started. And on top of that feeling like I was doing everything wrong.
It is important to keep in mind that everyone has a different body and different experiences, so what worked for them is not necessarily the key to what will work for you.
To simplify all of this, I’ve summed it up to three main keys that I’ve found most important when it comes to performing and growing in the gym.
Intensity
The first key element to growing in the gym is your intensity. By intensity I mean how hard you train. There are different ways to train with intensity and everyone may prefer something different.
Some people may prefer to train with more reps and a lower/middle weight, and others may prefer less reps and higher weight. You can train either way and still train with intensity, but you may choose one way over the other depending on your goals or your personal preference.
For me, training intensely means training as close to failure as possible. This means I’m not stopping when I hit a certain number of reps and I’m not stopping when my mind says I’m too tired.
I stop when my muscle group that I’m targeting for the specific exercise physically cannot do any more reps, or when I’m as close to this point as possible.
Believe it or not, the reps closest to failure are the most important reps of your set. These are the reps that will bring about the most growth in your muscles. This is because the closer you are to the point of failure, the more your muscles will tear. Once your muscles tear, then they can recover.
Diet
The second most imperative part of your life style to produce the maximum growth in the gym is your diet.
This is where things can get complicated depending on what information you take in. There’s so many people telling you what diet you need to go on, what you can’t eat, what supplements to take etc., etc. When most of what they’re telling you is unnecessary.
The most important part of your diet to focus as someone who lifts is your protein intake. If you’re more curious about why you need protein to grow, you can read my other post about the importance of protein when trying to build muscle.
To keep it short and sweet, protein is what your muscles will use to repair themselves. When it comes to building muscle, repair means growth.
Your main focus should be getting in lot’s of quality protein (chicken, beef, turkey, and eggs are some of my favorites) everyday. I like to do this by centering each of my meals around a protein source. For example I may have eggs with breakfast, a yogurt bowl with lunch, and chicken with dinner.
Protein will help give your muscles the amino acids they need in order to repair themselves.
Of course, protein isn’t the only thing you need to include in your diet. You should also have lots and lots of carbs for energy, healthy fats, fruits and veggies.
I’ve found for myself that a high protein diet has been what helped me achieve the most muscle growth.
Now, there’s one other key element that I’d like to include along with diet: water! You’re water intake is especially crucial when you are someone who is active in the gym.
Think about it, your body is about 60% water and a lot of that goes towards supporting lean tissue.
Water will hydrate your muscles leaving them fuller, able to recover easier, and stronger. I reccomend drinking as close to a gallon a day as possible.
I know that seems like a lot, I used to struggle to drink hardly any water a day. I talk more about strategies on how I increased my daily water intake in my post about how to drink more water everyday.
Rest
The final most important part of growing muscles is rest. Believe it or not, rest is just as, if not more important than the actual work out. Why? Because rest is when your body recovers and grows.
When you’re working out and lifting weights, your muscles are tearing. Small tears are being made in your muscles with each set and rep.
The way your body grows is by repairing these tears. When the tears are repaired, the muscle is repaired a little bit bigger than it was before.
Your body is constantly in a cycle of tear, repair, grow, and this repeats everytime you workout. Now think about it, what if you didn’t give your body the time it needs to repair and grow? All that would be left is tear.
Your muscles would constantly be tearing and over time this could lead to serious damage or injury. Not just to your muscles but to surrounding ligaments, joints, and bones.
So yes, rest is important for growth but it’s also important for your health.
I live by and follow these three fairly straightforward rules when it comes to lifting to avoid over complicating things for myself. I can confidently say that since I started implementing these strategies, my strength and performance improved tremendously.