Jim Stoppani has been lifting weights Most fitness influencers are living longer.
“I’ve been training since I was a little kid, maybe 7 or 8 years old,” he told Business Insider. “My dad built an amazing gym in our basement and I wanted to hang out with my dad, so I was there learning the principles of weightlifting.”
Now at age 58, with a PhD in exercise physiology, his own supplement brand, and a renowned research career, Stoppani has learned from decades of scientific study and first-hand experience what it takes to strengthen lean muscle.
He recommends three strategies that everyone should know to make the most of each workout for optimal gains.
Diversify your fitness portfolio
One thing Stoppani has learned during her years in fitness is that progress will be stagnant — unless you make smart training decisions and plan ahead.
The human body has natural limits to how much strength or muscle mass we can gain. As you work out and get stronger, you’ll get closer to those limits, but it will be more difficult to make additional gains.
Instead of fighting for diminishing returns, Diversify your fitness With different elements like strength, agility, mobility and stamina to get the most of your money in the gym.
“I’m not going to be able to gain 20 pounds of muscle at my age and with all these years of training,” Stoppani said. “So why should I come here and train like a bodybuilder every day?”
Building muscle is just one part of the health equation. Overall fitness can help you live a longer and better life. milanmarkovic/Getty Images
To free up time to work on different skills without losing gains, Stoppani often uses The technique is called superset. Supersets involve alternating between two exercises that recruit different muscles, with little or no rest in between. Doing this allows one muscle group to rest while another is worked, reducing your free time at the gym (and potentially burning more fat in the process).
Stoppani uses the extra time to work on yoga, stretching and cardio to avoid any weakness in his fitness.
“As you get older, what I recommend is that you become less single-minded and more broad in your goals,” he said.
hit the right intensity
According to Stoppani, a concept called “reps in reserve” can help make sure you’re working hard enough to get the most out of your workout.
At the end of each set, think about how many more reps you could do if you really had to.
There are too many reps in reserve, and you’re leaving profits on the table. For example, if you complete a set of 10 reps, and you feel you can easily do 10 more, you should increase your weight or repetitions until it no longer feels challenging.
However, you don’t need to reach your absolute limit with every set. working to total muscle failureLifting more than you can possibly do comes with the risk of injury, and is not necessary if you are not a competitive athlete.
For the average gym goer, The sweet spot for muscle building One to three deputies are in reserve, Stoppani said.
He recommends waiting until the last set to approach failure, and ending the set when you are too tired to complete the exercise with proper form.
“The key to turning on muscle growth is to get close to muscle failure,” he said.
Change your delegate scope
Forget what you’ve seen from fitness influencers. There is no magic number when it comes to making your muscles bigger or “toning” them.
build muscle According to Stoppani, it’s all about challenging your body, whether you’re lifting heavy weights for a few repetitions, or light weights for a lot of repetitions.
You can build muscle with heavy weights or light weights, as long as they are challenging, but their results may be slightly different. Dusanpetkovic/Getty Images
But your choice of weight may yield slightly different results over time: heavier weights are ideal for getting stronger, while lighter weights help maximize the signal to muscle tissue to grow.
As a result, using different strategies can help you make better progress in the long run.
“The biggest misconception is that you can just use one rep range and stick to it forever,” Stoppani said. “Eventually you’ll stop getting the same results because you’re providing the same stress to the body over and over again.”
Prevent your profits from stagnating with periodization planning, breaking your training In sections of 6 to 12 weeks each. For example, you might start out with sets of six to eight repetitions, focusing on increasing strength, and after two months, switch to sets of 10 to 12 repetitions to help promote muscle growth.
“The best way to build muscle is variation,” Stoppani said.
