So what does this mean to you?
Well, if your goal is to increase your STRENGTH for sports requiring a lot of short
term power such as powerliting, sprinting, or if your main goal is to impress your
friends with how much you can bench press, stick to heavy weights and low reps which
focus mainly on your fast twitch muscle fibers.
But if SIZE is what you're looking for, you need to go for the pump!
And here's why...
While the actual size increase you feel from the pump is only temporary, you're
literally "training" your type 1 muscle fibers to adapt to the increased
demand of blood flow.
Over time, engorging your muscles with blood during your workouts will force your
slow twitch muscle fibers to react by increasing in thickness while increasing the
number, density and size of your capillaries in order to handle the increase in
blood supply you're calling for through high intensity exercise.
In other words, if you're training for muscle SIZE...yes...the pump
counts!
So here's how to maximize the activation of your Type 1, slow twitch muscle
fibers to pump up YOUR muscle gains to the next level.
1. Keep your training reps between 8-12 (if you can't do at least 8 repetitions,
drop some of the weight off so you can reach muscular exhaustion at the higher reps)
2. Perform 4 sets per body part with a 1-2 minute rest between each set (to resupply
fast twitch fibers with creatine phosphate to supply ATP power to your reps.
3. At the peak maximum contraction point, pause and SQUEEZE the target muscle for
1-2 seconds to force more blood into that area and get a better pump
4. End your training by dropping the amount of weight you're using slightly
and knocking out 15 targeted reps to finish out your sets with a huge pump.
That's all there is to it so now you can really take pride in that pumped
up, skin stretching feeling without the mislaid guilt that you're just fooling
yourself into thinking you've stimulated growth.
Go for the pump...feel great...and watch your gains start to skyrocket!