Am I Training Correctly

Gaspari Athlete: AJ Dill

Everything in this article is advice solely based on methods I have used and my

own experiences, but always remember we are all different so LISTEN to your

body it is most important when training!

Let's start with the difference between the three:

Your muscle is made up of 2-3 different types of muscle fibres. Type 1, Type 2a

and Type 2b. Type 1 will be your slow twitch muscle fibres. These are

relatively small but there are a lot of them! The more Type 1 muscle fibres

recruited to the muscle, the more congested the muscle gets, causing it to grow

to fit the extra fibres in. The way we recruit these fibres is through

Hypertrophy training (higher reps). Your Type 2a & 2b fibres have less

fibres in the muscle but these are much bigger and are known as your fast

twitch muscle fibres. These do not multiply when stimulated instead they grow

in size and are what help you gain strength, power and explosiveness.

Hypertrophy training (muscle building)

The general guideline for hypertrophy training is a rep range of about 8-12

reps on 3-4 working sets. You want to be using a weight where you are failing

towards the 8th rep on your first 2 working sets and then drop the weight so

you are failing on your 12th rep of your 3rd set, finally finishing with a

burnout of reps on the final set. With this type of training you will always

want to be going to failure on working sets to optimise muscle stimulation and

cause more fibres to be recruited. This sort of training can also be known as

volume training as you will be hitting higher repetitions with shorter rest

times and less working sets allowing more exercises to be performed throughout

this session. It is important to focus on form and mind to muscle connection throughout

each rep of every set! These muscle fibres also rely heavily on oxygen which

will recover faster causing shorter rest periods.

Strength training:

Now if you're looking to get Olympic power lifter strong we are talking about a

whole different approach to training. Here is where you will be using those

fast twitch muscle fibres. The key purpose of these fibres is to provide you

with the power strength and explosiveness to lift those heavy loads. With

general strength training, you will be looking to perform a 4-6 rep range with

longer rest periods. These fibres use mainly creatine phosphate as their energy

source. Now the reason why your rest periods will be longer is because your

creatine phosphate stores will take a lot longer to recover. Also, you will be

doing a lower range of repetitions due to the fact that your creatine phosphate

supply will only last anywhere from 5-10secs (rough estimate) before burning

out. This is where the supplement Qualitine will come in handy as it is a pure

creatine monohydrate. So, to sum this up… want to get stronger? You need to

lift heavy (with good form of course)!

Retaining muscle:

Now this will be a short one as it's a very basic one. So, you've spent months

maybe years building your muscle to the size it wants to be. Your body adapts

to whatever you do and will remember all stresses you have put on it. So very

simply, keep doing whatever you're doing at the moment to retain what you have.

However, you need to give the muscle you have just built a reason to stay there

or else your body will no longer think it requires it and will slowly begin to

not rely on it anymore. Now that said, if you happen to stop training for a

while and come back to it, your body will remember that stress and you will

notice your strength and size will creep back a lot faster than when you first

started training.

I hope this article helps you decide whether or not you are using the right

intensity and weight while training. One thing to always keep in mind is that

you will need the right nutrition to make any sort of changes. But for now,

just lift smart and train hard!!

5 Top Tips

Gaspari Ambassador: AJ Dill

1 - Consistency, as many know is key! One thing to remember is your body is

made to survive and adapt to what ever it is doing. By having a consistent

training regime along with nutrition will allow your body to do what's

necessary to cope with whatever training you are putting it through. For

example... you may not be able to do a push-up today but if you were to

practice doing that push-up everyday for the next week your body will say

"ok jerry wants to do a push-up so let's recruit some muscle tissue in the

areas required to do a push-up (chest, arms delts) so he can do that

push-up". So remember consistency is key!

2 - First thing to know is when you are training in the gym you are

breaking the muscle down not building it up. You grow when you rest. Rest is

not only vital for recovery but also injury prevention. This is where sleep is

immensely important and you must make sure you are getting a good nights sleep

as this is the time where your body will be making the most repairs to the

muscles you just broke down! So sleep like a baby!

3 - How can you know you're progressing in the gym if you don't know what

you've done in the sessions before?? Monitoring gym performance is very

important not just for setting new records but also for helping you understand

if you need to make changes in nutrition, sleep and manage stress. Loads of

variables come with training that you need to consider but monitoring your gym

performance will definitely be a great tool to have. If you go into the gym and

your lifts are regressing you will know that something needs to change whether

that be your nutrition, sleep or possibly stress management.

4 -  Now this is a massive point which I will keep short and to the point.

Think of your body as a car.....in order for a car to run it needs fuel and for

it to run properly and to the best of its capabilities it needs the right fuel.

Your body is the same. Your nutrition is your fuel and without it or without

the right fuel it's only a matter of time before your body will stop working.

Now things like timings and what specific foods to eat for different goals is a

topic for another post as it will be long!

5 - Last but not least is you have to enjoy your training. Train smart yes but

do exercises that you both like and help you progress towards your goals.

Training should not be a chore you should look forward to training and be

excited for the results that are coming to you. When it is no longer

enjoyable you need to take a break and re-gather yourself and go back once you

are ready and motivated to train! At the end of the day if you do not enjoy

something you will find excuses not to go or will realise it's not worth

it anymore. So enjoy what you do and do what you enjoy!

Those are my 5 simple ways on how you can ensure you keep progressing on what

ever fitness journey you are on! Hope it was helpful and if you have any

questions feel free to get in contact and I will help the best I can!

Remember all it takes is 1 more!

Beginners Gym Essentials

Gaspari Athlete: Adrian Grey

First of all have the right mindset walking into a gym as it's not a

competition. You are just starting out and you need to understand that it will

take time to achieve you goal physique. Patience is imperative.

When you are a beginner you cannot compare yourself to anybody else in the gym.

If you are training at a gym with a high level of bodybuilders  remember

they may have had many years experience. So run your own race as you are your

only competition.

If you don't know something, just ask for advice. Nobody expects you as a

beginner to know everything. Talk to people with more experience and see what

works for them. You will get a lot of people that will tell you to do specific

things, however if there physique is not showing the results that you want

you should not pay too much attention to those people.

Above all, have fun in the gym as it is therapeutic for many people and people

sometimes lose sight of this. When you enter forget all the stresses that may

be weighing you down and have fun with structure.

There are many websites out there that can

give you advice on repetitions and exercises. Just do a little bit of

investigating on what body part you are trying to develop. Make a small routine

or workout plan and follow this. If something is not for you, you can change it

as you are in control.

Hypertrophy Training or Ego Training?

Gaspari Athlete: Neil Ashley

The most important questions you need to ask yourself when entering the gym

are: What are your goals? What are you trying to achieve? Do you want to build

muscle to look good on the beach and maybe get on stage, or do you want to be a

strong man competitor? Even if you've been training for years, sometimes you

need to check yourself and remind yourself what your goals are, why you are

putting all this time and effort into your training.

As for myself, I'm a bodybuilder, so it's all about growing new muscle tissue

in the area's of my physique that I'm targeting so I can improve every time I

step on stage.

Growing new muscle tissue is a very fickle process. There are many elements you

need to have in order to ensure growth but the top 3 are training, food intake,

rest/recovery. If you go to the gym and train with weights to stimulate muscle

growth, you need to consume enough quality calories to provide your body with

the ingredients it needs to grow and you need to rest and recover so your body

can repair itself to grow bigger and stronger.

This blog is aimed at the weight training aspect of muscle growth and

bodybuilding, no doubt I'll cover food intake and rest/recovery in future

blogs.

One of the first weight training phrases I learnt when I started bodybuilding

was "leave your ego at the door". In order to stimulate muscle growth

you need to overload the muscle with heavier weights than normal to give your

body a reason to grow. If you're lifting the same weights week in week out,

then you're only going to progress so far. I'm a big fan of the overload

principle and keeping a training log book to ensure I'm always pushing forward

and trying to lift harder and heavier. But this has to be in a controlled

manner. You need to engage your brain and think about the mechanics of the

exercises you are performing so you hit the muscles you are targeting.

The most common mistake I see in the gym and on Instagram is swinging the

weights, using momentum to move weights from A to B instead of the muscles

being targeted. This is usually done performing bicep curls, side or front

dumbbell raises or swinging the weight stack down on lat pulldowns with your

lower back then throwing your chest up to the bar as it comes down. Doing any

of these will put more stress on your lower back than your biceps, delts or

lats.

Another common one is shoulder pressing. I see lads all the time with the back

rest at too great an angle on the bench and then they'll have their backside a

good 6 inches from the back rest just so they can lift more weight. All these

little tweaks are changing the angle of their body as they sit on the bench and

therefore changing the muscle group used to push the weight up, the movement

goes from a seated shoulder press to a high incline chest press!

As a bodybuilder, I feel that a big pair of delts make a huge impact on your

physique on stage. It's one of the three main focal points that draw the eye as

you're being judged. You can't afford to cheat yourself on delt training.

I myself usually compete every 2 years in order to give myself enough time to

grow, so that's about 104 weeks of training between shows. Taking into account

a 16 week contest prep and summer holidays abroad, that number comes down to

around 84 weeks of muscle building training (as you don't grow during a prep or

on holiday unless your off season is in absolute disarray!).

That's 84 weight training sessions per body part to grow (assuming your food

intake and rest & recovery is on point 24/7) which is not a lot in the

grand scheme of things, as growing new muscle tissue is a very slow process. If

you're competing every year then that number comes down to around 32 muscle

building training sessions, which is no time at all!

So what I am saying is, don't waste your time on ego training, train with your

brain instead. Think about what you're doing in the gym and how you're

training...then you will progress so much more!