Beyond Brawn - The Insider's Encyclopedia on How to Build Muscle && Might

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workout when you are ready. is aspect of conservatism especially applies
once you are in your thirties, and older.

. Remember, safety first, at all times. Patience, conservatism, and training lon-
gevity will serve you best over the long term. Haste and short cuts invariably
backfire.

Little gems
. Most trainees try to increase their training poundages too quickly. is is
almost inevitable because most gyms do not have very small discs. Here is
what commonly happens. Say your recent best barbell curling is  reps with
 pounds, and that was darn hard work. You felt exhilarated but burned
out at the end of the cycle, and now decide to target  pounds.

. If you are headstrong and impatient you may decide to keep the cycle going
another two weeks, adding  pounds to the bar each week. What will hap-
pen is that the  will feel like a ton and you will have trouble getting  or 
reps out in good form. You will relax your form, cheat and throw the weights
to get all  reps out. You may do that without hurting yourself; so next week,
on goes another  pounds—to . at feels like a boulder has been added
to the bar and you cannot get even one good rep out. So you cheat right
from the start and give your lower back, elbows and deltoids a real battle.
A shoulder starts aching, an elbow bothers you and there is something not
quite right in your lower back. You now need to recover from injury before
starting another training cycle.

. As an alternative way of coping with the excessive poundage increments you
may go the forced rep route—you get someone to assist, and you perform a
set almost entirely of forced reps. is pseudo progress may fire you on for
another week or few. is type of training is hard work, though how hard
depends on how much of the work your partner does. e forced set may
wipe you out and exceed your ability to recuperate. is sets you up for
overtraining and injury as you exceed what your connective tissue can toler-
ate. Forget that way.

. Get your own set of little discs, or make improvisations, and then you will
be able to make very small poundage increments, and thus slowly, safely and
surely accumulate success.
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