NO-BODY IS PERFECT: BUILDING UP YOUR WEAK POINTS

Generation Iron Phil Heath Weak Points

5 tips to help build up those weak areas.

No-body is perfect and no one knows that better than the dedicated bodybuilder. On the journey to building the ultimate body, most bodybuilders will discover their strengths and weaknesses. Even the great Arnold Schwarzenegger had weak points that he had to overcome to transform himself into a champion. In the early days Arnold’s most glaring weakness was undoubtedly his undeveloped calves. They were virtually nonexistent. The Austrian neglected the body part as it was a muscle group that wasn’t deemed a priority in the European circuit at the time. But in order to overcome this weakness Arnold had to attack the muscle group like a man possessed. So what can be done to pump up your weak points? Let’s take a look.
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Honesty

The first and perhaps most important rule to follow is being truthful about what you lack. Understanding your strengths and weaknesses will go a long way to attacking your weak points. If you look in the mirror and think that you’re perfect, while ignoring your lowly defined triceps and puny traps, well chances are you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
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Prioritize

It’s best to start your workouts by focusing on your weak point. If you have underdeveloped quads then your first priority should be to attack that muscle group before training any of your other body parts. By doing this you have full concentration, strength, and effort focused on the weak point. This means you’ll be more focused on the right technique and contractions to develop the muscle.

Increase Frequency

Now hold on for a sec. Increasing the training frequency in which you work a muscle group doesn’t necessarily mean going overboard and doing 20 sets of 100 reps to develop your weak area. Simply, it means increase the volume in a reasonable fashion. If you do 3 sets of 15 reps then try increasing the sets to 4 or 5 of 15 reps. Maintaining your schedule is important to avoid overtraining. Training the same muscle everyday isn’t the best recommendation.
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More Volume

Sometimes you have no other choice but to go big to get bigger results. Adding more weight to your reps will help in building up your weaker muscle groups. There’s no getting around it, if you want to build mass you can’t stick to lifting the same amount of weight. The increase in weight is the perfect way to add bulk.
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Compound Sets

By using your superset to train the same muscle group you can potentially double your gains. For instance, if you want to build up your thighs you can perform squats then immediately do leg presses with no rest in between. The idea is to regulate the frequency of the workout. If you don’t give your muscles the right amount of rest, you risk overworking them and defeating the purpose.

 

So what weak points do you think you need to work on? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Jonathan Salmon
Managing editor of Generation Iron, Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor, and geek culture enthusiast. He has been writing about bodybuilding, combat sports, and strength sports for over 8 years. Check out his YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Sound Cloud for in-depth MMA analysis.