Smarter, Not Harder

They’re a lot of old adages that I agree with, “Make hay while the sun doth shine”, “always wear clean underwear”, and my personal favorite “Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining.” But despite the wisdom of our forefathers, there’s something to be said for the new school way of thinking. One of the biggest things to come out of the new school is the concept of working smarter not harder, and your training regimen should be no different. This is why the “primer” is so beneficial to today’s bodybuilder.

Priming works exactly as it sounds. Before you perform any major exercise (or before you take on a particular muscle group), you do an explosive plyometric movement that fires up the muscles you plan on hitting before the heavy lifting occurs. Essentially priming your muscles for the heavy load. This type of training will boost the effectiveness of the exercises you’re already doing from a 6 to a 10. By effectiveness we mean boost strength and muscle gains by a significant amount with the same amount of input.

For example, if you’re planning on doing some mean deadlifts today and beating your legs into jelly, try doing some broad jumps, or kettlebell swings to prime your legs for the assault they’re about to take. stretching, priming, and then heavy lifting, it’s just like anything else, “there’s levels to this sh*t.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTjUnwFBEjk

So before your next workout try a 5 minute priming routine that will recruit more muscle fibers, prepare your body for speed and power, and increase athleticism. Here are a few more primers for some of the major compound exercises that should be in every builder’s repertoire.

Squatting or cleaning: Squat Jump

Bench Press: Incline pushups or clap pushups

Perform 3-4 sets of 3-5 reps. Focus on max intensity and execution on each rep. Rest 1-2 minutes between sets. Remember, you want to explode into these exercises, the faster you can contract the muscles, the more muscle fibers are recruited and the stronger you’ll become.

The exercises above are just suggestions as you can be creative with whatever gets you primed before the big lift. Get your body primed for about 5 minutes before you start your workout and watch your body transform into a lean, mean, and massive lifting machine .

Apply these tips and tell us what you think! Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.