Add these tips to your life

17 little tips to enhance your training and gains

Variety is the spice of life
Mixing your rep counts increases bench press by approx 28% in one month. Try sets of 12 one day, sets of 3 the next

Bean me up scotty
Kidney bean enzymes stop carb breakdown. Meaning nailing some chilli con carne helps your body burn fat around your abs. Have it post workout with brown rice

Negative Nigel
The lowering (negative) phase of a move is where real size and conditioning increases. Build negative lifting into your workouts

Choc-a-holic
Epicatechin in dark chocolate boots muscle energy

Twitch
The main fibres in muscle with the potency for growth are fast twitch ones. Incorporate plyometric moves like clap press / box jumps to target them

Handle it
Do your press ups on handles – it activates more muscles than just the standard ones

Ride hard and slow
Low cadence cycling on a turbo (static bike) builds huge leg muscle and conditioning. Hard resistance, slow and feel the burn

Cheese fiend
Quark cheese contains more casein than other diary. Casein is a type of protein that your body can only break down slowly, which consistently and continually feeds your worn out muscles over a long period of time

Booooost
2 -4 sets of 8 – 15 reps increases testosterone and growth hormones more than most other rep/set ranges

Grow row
Similarly according to The British Journal of Sports Medicine rowing quadruples the release of growth hormones. Try 1 min 50% intensity – 1 min all out intensity. Repeat for 15 min

Don’t be dumb
Dumbbell presses stimulate more pec muscle than barbell due to the range of motion

Rest easy
Keep rests under 5 min . This will avoid your temperature dropping which in turn affects performance

Get high
HIT (high intensity training) three times a week builds more muscle and drops nine times more fat than just lifting alone

Yog won’t hurt
Eating Greek yoghurt regularly, ups muscle growth

Flood
Drop sets flood your muscles with blood, supplying them with plenty of nutrient when done at the end of a session followed quickly by eating

Slowly does it
Rushing sets is pointless, focus on form, the full exercise and short rest periods

Farmer joe
Build overall strength with farmers walks. Walk back and forth holding dumbbells half your body weight

Sources
Jon d’Silvia – PT
British journal of sports medicine
Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism
Nick Mitchel – Conditioning expert
James King – PT
Journal of strength and conditioning
University of North Carolina
Medicine and science in sports and exercise journal
The international society of sports nutrition