Effective Chest Training, Like Everything Else,
Begins With The Proper Mindset
An attitude of always wanting more, never being
satisfied, is a key element in becoming successful
in whatever you do. There's always a higher level
of development to achieve—if you're constantly
searching for it.
Having that mindset is essential to lasting
success. It's also the cornerstone of the habits
you need to develop if you want to maximize your
chest training. You'll also need to cultivate such
winning characteristics as optimism, patience,
perseverance, determination and flexibility.
A number of physical factors can also affect your
mental attitude, including the frequency of your
chest workouts, the number of sets you use, the
number of repetitions you set out to perform on
every set, the amount of weight you use and the
length of time you spend in the gym. When you
overtrain physically it gives your mental well
being a serious blow, too.
Train to Absolute Failure The ultimate goal of
every single set in your chest workout must be to
train to absolute failure.
By that I mean you must give 100 percent effort
during every set. You shouldn't have anything left
in reserve at the end of the set. This is very
taxing, mentally and physically, which is why you
can't withstand many sets and why you need to work
on your mindset. You need to control or get rid
of that litte voice in your head that is always
telling you to settle.
That requirement is crucial to efficient chest
training.
Obviously, you'll need a training partner, or
the proper equipment such as a power rack, a
machine, or using dumbbells, if you're going to
train to absolute failure and train safely.
For now, let's throw out any well-known, legitimate
reason you could come up with that takes your
training success or failure out of your own hands.
Whatever program you use, the important thing is
to put all the effort you can into your training.
One thing that is very important is to go over what
it is you are trying to accomplish. I briefly review
in my head what I want before I do each set of my
workout. What's my goal in the set? What will
accomplishing the set goal mean to my other goals?
Now, about that intensity - you probably think you
know what intensity is, right? You train hard, right?
But is training hard the same as training with 100%
intensity of effort? If you polled the people in your
gym, 99% of them would tell you they workout extremely
hard.
I'm the same way. And yet when I look back on my
workouts, I always realize I could've trained a
little harder. But that's okay, because I am
constantly improving my effort every time I workout.
I'm always striving for a higher level of effort and
increasing the quality of each workout.
You Can Increase the htensity of Your Chest
Training Now
Before we can achieve more we must constantly
be raising our own standards.
Train Your Chest Less Frequently
I know, the thought of training less worries
many people that they will not only stop progresssing
but will lose what they have. This just isn't so.
Use it as a powerful motivating tool. The thought
of training your chest less frequently creates a
feeling of uneasiness, or what I call a sense of
urgency. It dramatically increases the magnitude
of every workout.
The benefits have a far greater effect than just
bolstering my mindset.
Training less gives you adequate time to recover
from your intense workouts.
Use Fewer Sets
Knowing that you're going to do only a few sets
in your chest workout creates this same sense of
urgency, allowing you to bring a lot more focus
into each rep and set that you do.
Although I always change things up from time to
time, a typical chest workout for me is as follows:
After warming up sufficiently and doing two heavy
sets of bench presses, I complete my chest workout
by doing one set each of three different chest exercises.
Many lifters give themselves two, three or even
four sets of a particular exercise to get it right.
If you give yourself four chances at anything,
you'll have less of a sense of urgency to get it
right the first time. You will pace yourself and
hold back for those other sets. It's only human
nature.
Anything less than 100 percent effort is a
wasted set in my opinion. Have you ever noticed
that when you get yourself in the right mind-set,
you can pump out more reps on the last set of an
exercise than you did on the first one?
It should be just the opposite. If you were really
giving your all during the first couple of sets,
you wouldn't have nearly as much energy left to
meet or exceed that rep range on the last one.
If you truly train with the proper mindset, then
you'll need less training to build your chest.
If your training is less than animal-like, you'll
need more sets. Be honest with yourself. Only you
can determine what's best for you.
Spend Less Time in the Gym on Chest Training
The ability to focus and put forth your best
effort in chest workout after chest workout, month
after month is what will bring you results.
The less time you spend in the gym, the easier
it becomes to focus, and because you're training
chest less frequently, using fewer sets and fewer
reps, your time in the gym will be much shorter.
It will surely make it a lot easier to focus on
building an awesome chest. Now, all you have to
do is shut up and train!
Proper Recovery Is Critical
Recuperation is probably the most important
yet most-often-neglected component of
building muscle efficiently. Recuperation means
to recover fully from your intense
workouts. Only when your muscles have fully
recuperated are they ready to grow larger and
stronger. If you train again before this process
is complete, you will short circuit the growth/recover
mechanism and your gains will come to a
screeching halt and that’s exactly what you want
to avoid.
Develop your new chest routine with these steps
in mind and see if you don’t ignite new growth
and more strength in your chest.
Written by: Gregg Gillies, www.buildleanmuscle.com
Gregg Gillies is the founder of http://www.buildleanmuscle.com where he publishes a free newsletter available. He is the author or two books, as well as being a regular contributor to Body Talk magazine. His writing has also appeared in Ironman Magazine.
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