WarriorFX

Building a stronger, more muscular body requires synergy between many systems. Strength athletes appreciate the need to promote a strong mind-muscle connection, since a mature neuromuscular system allows enhanced motor control for intense contractions. The muscle-bone connection is less understood but equally important. Without a strong musculoskeletal system, pulling or pushing 10 pounds would be impossible – not to mention a couple hundred!

Professional arm wrestlers provide a magnificent glance into musculoskeletal demands of intense physical activities. These athletes are highly dependent on strong bones, tendons, ligaments and cartilage – to withstand the build up of internal pressure during a competition. With the roar of a cheering crowd and the lure of cash rewards, many arm wresters’ generate enough pressure to snap bones. Open fractures are not uncommon. Technique and arm strength play major rolls in winning, but frail bones can abruptly terminate a gridlock. In bodybuilding, flimsy bones can lead to premature failure during heavy exercises – perhaps severe injury. Read more

In general, overloading is the practice of applying a load greater than what a power-producing source is capable of withstanding. In machinery, this excessive burden can result in equipment failure. In the human body, this application results in adaptation to subsequently withstand even greater demands. When an athlete’s muscles are exposed to extreme tensions, an over compensation effect can occur. Fueled with proper rest and nutrition, bodybuilders routinely apply progressive overloads on their muscular systems to induce hypertrophy, or growth – to build their body.

Bodybuilding routines consist of several sets of exercise to induce a training stimulus that overloads a muscle’s functional capabilities. Within the structure of a multiple-set workout, there are five frequently used loading patterns: pyramids, inverted pyramids, double pyramids, flat pyramids and wave loading. Read more

It’s easy for new fitness enthusiasts to walk into a gym and get lost in all the tangled steel, chains and dumbbells. Even experienced strength athletes often find themselves learning new movements for many years – or how to perform old ones more effectively. Proper exercise execution is critical with increases in strength, to avoid injury while promoting further progression. The fundamentals of exercise selection, structure and sequence must also be understood to optimize a progressive program design. Read more

Bodybuilders should take advantage of what science provides to create an optimal training program. Through research and personal experience, an ultimate program is created. The creation of new movements compels athletes to question the validity and effectiveness of previous routines. Bodybuilders and powerlifters want to know what exercises will produce the quickest, most effective and safest results. The real answer is: there is no best exercise or training technique, since each has an appropriate time and place in an athlete’s program.

Exercise selection inevitably depends on the phase of training along with the anatomical and physiological properties of the exercise. The first step toward proper exercise selection is the classification of all exercises according to their specific physiological response. Read more