Why Bodybuilding Training Sucks for Athletes

You WILL NOT improve your sports performance by training like a bodybuilder, if you are currently training like a meathead then READ THIS!

Lifting weights is good.

Lifting weights to get bigger muscles is good.

Here comes the shocker…..most bodybuilding type training is completely useless as it overemphasises a way of growing your muscles through basically filling out the spaces between muscle fibres, without really making any positive change to the fibres themselves. This is one of the reasons why you see HUUUGGEEE guys lifting tiny weights in the gym!

Submaximal weights performed for the ‘pump’ can have a place in an athlete’s routine, but for the most part stay well away.

Heavy weights performed for the ‘pump’ are what you MUST do to build BIG, SOLID and USEFUL muscle mass.

Ever heard of the 5 X 5 program? There is a reason that little program got so famous. Your muscles are under tension for 25 total reps with HEAVY weights.

Ever heard of the 20 rep squat program? 20 reps with a weight you can only lift 10 times! Your 10 rep max is a HEAVY weight, now maximise the tension with TEN EXTRA REPS! Not hard to see why it’s a classic muscle builder.

Still wanna feel the burn and get a pump? Then do some heavy farmers walks! Drag a sled and start sprinting! IT IS A MYTH THAT YOU CAN ONLY GET A PUMP FROM LIGHT WEIGHTS……JUST TRAIN HARDER!

I know that some athletes also can’t afford to get heavier, such as boxers in a weight class, 100m sprinters. You guys still need to lift heavy weights, but just use a lower total volume…. a heavy 3 X 3 or 2 X 5 after a warm-up will help you do this.

Athletes have to train and improve every single muscle fibre on their bodies. Any useless muscle filler will just slow you down. Packing out the muscle with dense, strong and fast muscle fibres will make you faster and harder to stop.

So lift heavy weights, in Zatsiorsky’s brilliant text, the science and practice of strength, he recommends you lift in the 5-7 rep range to build some mass. Now those weights are gonna be MUCH heavier than whatever the regular Joes are curling over in the corner. Now get to it! Pack out the muscle rather than pumping up with pink lady weights!

Any comments just drop em below!

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