Lift Heavier Weights With These Tricks
Lifting heavy weights in the gym is a symbol of badassery. The people who lift heavy weights are generally looked upon with respect. Many bros lift heavy with the worst form imaginable to get attention.
With the advent of social media, people try to push their limits to set new PRs (personal records). If your goal is to lift heavier, you can do it without risking an injury. The tricks we’re about to share with you were only known to the pros until now.
1. Gym Gear
1. Gym Gear
Lifting heavier weights combined with a balanced diet and recovery can help you achieve your desired goals faster. Using gym gear like lifting straps, wrist wraps, weightlifting belt, and chalk can help you lift heavier weights.
The idea of using these types of equipment is to eliminate the recruitment of secondary muscles and focus on the primary muscle. In the case of bent over rows, you might not be able to go heavier because of your grip strength. By using lifting straps, you can lift heavier weights and build more muscle while eliminating your grip strength.
2. Natural Performance Enhancers
No, we’re not talking about steroids here. You can lift heavier weights by using natural performance enhancing supplements like pre-workouts. Pre-workouts can provide you with the energy, mental focus, and stamina to crush the weights.
You could also use ammonia (smelling salts) to spike your performance and lift heavier weights. Ammonia is used by weightlifters right before they go into their set. While ammonia can improve your performance, you shouldn’t become overly dependent on it as it can have harmful effects on your body in the long run.
3. Irradiation
When you activate one muscle, you radiate tension and neural activity to nearby areas and unlock more strength; when you activate all your muscles, you’ll unleash your maximum potential. Irradiation is the technique of unleashing strength by flexing your muscles.
Let’s see how to use irradiation while squatting. While squatting, squeeze the bar with your hands, your core and your glutes as tight as you can. This will help you lift heavier weights and complete more reps. You’ll be surprised with the results when you try this technique.
4. Heavy Warmups
Most people warm up for long durations of time. They do somewhere between 3-5 sets of warmups before going into the working sets. If you follow such a warm-up routine, you’ll be tired before you start your actual workouts.
If your goal is to lift heavier weights, you should do shorter but heavier warmups. Before challenging your bench press PR, your warmup should be doing a single set of three reps with 75% of your PR weight on the bar. Doing anything more will be counterproductive as you will face muscle fatigue.
5. Gain Bodyweight
Many pro wrestlers and boxers use this technique. The weigh-in is usually a day before the fight. Most wrestlers meet the weight requirements on the weigh-ins and gain weight for the fight day. Doing this helps them in overpowering their opponents.
The amount of weight you can lift depends on your own bodyweight. Let’s assume there are two guys with same training experience but one weighs 50 lbs and the other weighs 100 lbs. It’ll be harder for the 50 lbs guy to lift 100 lbs as compared to the guy weighing 100 lbs.
What is your bench press PR? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.
