The 4S Muscle Building Tips
Hey Pursuit Fam! Coach Choi (or David) here with your ‘4S Muscle Building’ tips when lifting weights.
I’m sure many of you want to build more muscle as quickly as possible.
With more muscle, you can:
Achieve your desired physique
Burn more calories at rest
Perform better at sports
Feel healthier
Feel stronger
Look leaner
Although you can’t increase muscle mass overnight, you sure can accelerate the process by doing the right things in the gym. It’s great that you are consistently lifting weights, but are you doing it as efficiently as you could? Use these 4 simple tips that can completely change your results.
1. Slow It Down
If you’re someone who wants to build specific muscle tissue but always rush and use momentum to complete your reps, then this is for you. Your goal shouldn’t just be to move the weight from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’, but to have the muscle experience the most amount of tension possible as you move the weight. Slowing down the lengthening portion of an exercise is one of many methods to increase muscle mass. For example, during a bicep curl, control the weight on the way down instead of just letting it fall. There are definitely instances when you actually want to move weight fast such as when working on power, strength, or even on the way up for a bicep curl. But for people who speed through exercises, slowing it down can help create more tension and ensure good technique.
2. Stretch It Out
What I mean by “stretch it out” is to go through a full range of motion with each rep. More specifically, lengthen the muscle as much as you can to get that full stretch. This will allow the muscle to get a lot of tension which will help with muscle growth. For example, during a bicep curl, lock out your elbows on the way down instead of stopping mid way. Also, picking variations of exercises that allow for MORE stretch can help. For example, doing a bicep curl lying on an inclined bench will put your biceps in a more lengthened position because your arms are now behind your body at the bottom of the movement. It’s not necessary to only do these types of variations, but adding them to your program can help.
3. Sets To Failure
Alright, a couple *asterisks* for this one…The majority of your sets should be CLOSE to failure while having some sets go to complete failure. My point is to use enough intensity and effort that you only have 1-2 reps left in the tank at the end of a set. And then occasionally, you can definitely push to complete failure with 0 reps left in the tank. And also, when I say “failure” that means muscular failure, not terrible-form-just-to-get-the-weight-up failure. When you can’t move the weight anymore WITH GOOD FORM, then you have achieved true muscular failure. If you’re in the camp of usually not getting close to failure, use more weight or do more reps. If you’re in the camp of always using more weight but your form breaks down, make sure you’re stopping at true muscular failure.
4. Step It Up
You want to make sure to use progressive overload throughout your workout program. This could mean stepping up the intensity or volume of an exercise in order to make progress. If a weight begins to feel easier, bump up the weight, reps, or sets to give your muscles a reason to keep growing. For example, if in week 1 of your program you used 25 lbs for your bicep curls, try 27.5 lbs in week 2 or shoot for 10 reps instead of 8. Progress will not always be linear and you may be stuck for a period of time before adaptations occur. But putting in the effort to step it up over time will allow the opportunity for improved results.
If you need more help, shoot me an email (david@onthepursuit.fit), DM me on Instagram (@choiceps), or pull aside any of the coaches if you’re already at Pursuit!
