Find answers to some of the most common questions about resistance training (strength training; aka bodybuilding) to ensure that you are training correctly. Here you can ask questions about muscle-building exercises, training programs and principles, basic and advanced training techniques, etc.
What is muscle pump?
It’s simple to explain, but simply magical to experience. When you exercise a particular muscle, you pump extra blood into it, which helps nourish the tissue immediately. When you’re finished, that muscle remains filled with blood, and is measurably larger – and it stays that way for several hours. It’s a great change of pace for your circulatory system, and there’s no getting around this, it makes you feel high. It is most definitely habit-forming. And unlike most practices of that nature, this one will do you nothing but good. There is no point to bodybuilding without achieving the pump. Not only does it do wonders for your head, but it’s physiologically essential if you’re to make good progress. You must be aware of it while you’re training and be alert for the point when it begins to decrease.
Can bodyweight exercises like push-ups and sit-ups be as effective as lifting weights?
Yes, but only in the beginning. The key weakness of bodyweight training is the following: as you get stronger, the weight you’re lifting stays the same (or perhaps even decreases, if you’re lucky!), which makes it hard to continue progressing.
Of course, there are ways to adjust the difficulty of classic exercises like the push-up. You can put your feet up on a chair or use only one arm at a time to increase the difficulty. Adjusting the distance between your hands also changes which muscles are emphasized: if they’re closer together than your shoulders, you increase the load on your triceps and deltoids; spreading them farther apart shifts the emphasis to your chest.
However, if you’re a bodybuilder trying to sculpt a Schwarzenegger-esque body, these sorts of adjustments won’t be enough to replace the highly specific exercises that you can do at the gym.