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Solution #1 to Doubling Your Muscle Gains: Tension! Tension! Tension! Not Heavy Weight; Introducing Intentions

Here is a great series of articles from my friend and top IFBB Pro Ben Pakulski who shares some VALUABLE knowledge that all of us can apply IMMEDIATELY in order to double our gains. Using Ben’s advice I have been able to gain over 10-lbs of solid muscle in the last 6 months (something I thought was impossible for someone at my level). Thus, pay attention to what Ben has to say 🙂

 

Bodybuilding Mistake: Being Obsessed With Lifting Heavy!

by Ben Pakulski, IFBB Pro
Creator of the www.mi-40.com program.

Ever notice that you FEEL the muscle better on your warm up sets than you do on your “working sets”? Isn’t it so true that the lighter weights often burn way more than the heavy ones? Why do you think that is?

Well, one of the main reasons is that you’re not focusing all your attention on stabilizing a weight and barely moving it from point A to point B, likely using every muscle in the general vicinity to get it to move and the range is WAY smaller than it was with the lighter weight. The PROBLEM here is that the TENSION has SHIFTED everywhere BUT the working muscle!

“Heavy weights are useless if you can’t FEEL tension on the target muscle!”

Your body adapts and starts using anything it can to keep itself safe. You can continue lifting heavy weights, all day long, but without optimal muscle tension, don’t expect to see any improvement in your skinny arms and legs! If you can’t “feel” your muscles then you won’t be able to exhaust them enough to illicit the hormonal, metabolic and nervous system response for muscle growth.

Let’s go through this again.

You will NEVER build a muscle you can’t FEEL.

At some point in your muscle-building journey, you have all heard the term “Mind/ Muscle Connection.” But REALLY, what the heck does that mean!?

We’ve all heard someone say, “You’ve got to squeeze” or “If you don’t squeeze it, you will never build muscle”.

BUT how many of us REALLY know what that means? Or how to do it?

The truth is: not many!

QUESTION: If we’ve all heard it, and we all know we NEED to be doing it, why aren’t more people doing it?
Because IT’S NOT EASY TO DO! Or is it?

ANSWER: It’s VERY easy to do! But in order for you to do it, you must first know HOW to do it! What an amazing concept. This brings us to…

 

Solution #1 to Doubling Your Muscle Gains: Tension! Tension! Tension! Not Heavy Weight; Introducing Intentions

Many of you who follow my training advice have heard it before. Muscles communicate in terms of TENSION! Muscles have NO idea how much weight you’re lifting. They only recognize how much TORQUE is going through them. What does this all mean to you? THE best news you will hear ALL DAY:

YOU can build JUST AS MUCH MUSCLE USING a 20lb weight as you can using an 80lb weight!!!

“BPak, YOU’RE CRAZY!”

Nope, it’s true. IF you learn how to apply intention to as many exercises as you can, you will learn to manipulate the amount of weight you’re using, in your favor! You’re probably thinking a few things right now, like…

“But I heard big weights build big muscles!”

WRONG. That’s what I call meathead math.

Increased TENSION builds muscle. Or maybe you’re thinking, “The guys at my gym with big muscles use big weights!” Ya, they do! Most guys that carry any muscle at all are older and have been training for years. They’ve tried every type of training under the sun and really have NO clue WHAT built the muscle they have; they just threw enough randomness at the wall and something stuck along the way.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to build the PHYSIQUE YOU WANT in half the time? Knowing that you’re doing the right thing each and every time you step in the gym….YUP! No-brainer. It’s probably the COOLEST thing I’ve ever come across. No ONE thing changed my life and my physique like INTENTION has. Imagine now being able to create as MUCH tension, or as little tension, as you want, whenever you want, completely at will.

GET THIS: Increased Time Under TENSION = GROW TIME!

Imagine now going to the gym and not having to worry whether you’re going to feel great, or feel terrible, or whether you’re strong that day, or weak, or whether or not you will FEEL the muscle that day! You will never doubt your ability to create MAXIMUM tension and, therefore, have mind-blowing workouts! THIS SOUNDS AMAZING TO ME! And trust me when I tell you that once you “get it”, you will never want to train without it. So what does Intention look like in
action?

I want you to try something sitting there at home, and the next time you go to the gym try it out. Stand in your doorway facing sideways, extend your arms out in front of you like you might do if you were about to grab a barbell out in front of you to bench press. With one arm on either side of the wall (i.e., wall is between your arms), keeping your arms straight and locking your arms out, try to “shove” or push into the wall with both hands.
What happened? Your chest contracted, didn’t it? You didn’t even think about contracting your chest; it just happened on its own. Hmmm….”How can I apply this to chest training?” you ask yourself. (If you’re not, you should!).

On a bench press, grab the bar, and apply a small amount of force inward. Without actually moving your hands, try to shove them toward each other. Try doing this on a bench press next time you’re in the gym — the feeling and
results will blow your mind. Keep in mind it takes some time for your body to override the old way you used
to do bench press. Don’t worry, you won’t be needing that anymore!

WANT BETTER LEGS IN A FEW DAYS?!

One of the most common things I hear from guys is “I want to increase my ‘sweep’” or ladies, “I need to tighten up my saddle bags”. Sound familiar? Yup you all know you’ve said it, or at least heard someone say it. People become
obsessed with this area because it completely dictates how we look in a pair of jeans.

Nobody wants a squishy pillow back there, flapping in the wind when you walk. We all want a tight round bum to attract the opposite sex. No doubt. Well, it’s a lot more simple than you think once you understand this simple
‘intention’ trick.

I see so many people doing glute “kickbacks” or sidekicks or adductor/abductor machines, to try to tighten and build these areas. The truth is that BIG muscles require large amounts of tension. Little “cutesy” movements aren’t doing “squat” for those big muscles.

Yes, even leg extensions can build size with sufficient tension! You need to squat! But you need to squat with intention!

I want you to stand up. Take a shoulder- width stance like you would if you were going to squat. Now before you squat, I want you to just lightly shove your feet out against the ground (without moving obviously, just try to push
them out). What happened? The entire outside of your leg just contracted, didn’t it? COOL! Now I can control EXACTLY
where all the tension falls during ANY exercise in the gym.

DING DING DING! We have a winner!!

Control the tension, control the size you build your legs!

Guess what? This stuff exists for basically every body part! Over the next week, I’m going to reveal how to explode new muscle off your entire frame.

Until then, set you goals high and reach for the stars!

Go to Part 2 => Solution #2 to Doubling Your Muscle Gains: Breaking Crappy Lifting Technique, & ReTraining Movement Patterns

Ben Pakulski, IFBB Pro
Creator of the www.mi-40.com program.

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