The Best 5 High Intensity Strength Training Tips to Build Muscle

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These high intensity strength training tips can help you get maximum benefit in minimum training time. Do you want to build more strength and develop more muscle in the most effective and efficient way? Are you spinning your wheels at the gym and getting very little benefit from your workouts? If you are frustrated in your workout efforts then you should pause to take a look at your training program, learn some of these high intensity strength training tips and then apply what you have learned to your workouts. You may find that you are amazed at the results.




1. High intensity strength training can help you get better results in less time. One of the most important points to remember about weight training exercise is that the benefit does not come directly from the exercise but rather from the recovery and rebuilding that takes place between workouts. The key for muscle development is brief and infrequent high intensity workout sessions that stimulate your muscles and then you MUST allow yourself sufficient recovery to rebuild and adapt to the stress. That is how you get stronger. The harder you train the more recovery is needed. 72 to 96 hours between workouts often works very well although up to a full week can sometimes yield excellent strength building results. Mentally it can sometime be difficult to adjust your attitude to the fact that you must limit the training time and number of workouts which can dramatically improve your strength training results.
2. Push your muscles to fatigue and muscle failure - To really stimulate your muscles to get stronger it is important that you use all the available muscle fibers. This is done by continuing to perform a weight training exercise until you reach the point of muscle failure. Actually very few people train with this much effort. Momentary muscle failure occurs when you can no longer complete another repetition in good form. This strenuous, high intensity exercise will be the stimulus for muscle growth. It is hard to train this way and it requires discipline to push yourself to muscle failure but it is the way to really get the best muscle strengthening results.
3. Much scientific research has shown that performing just one set of a muscle building exercise is extremely beneficial for getting good results. This is one of the most important strength training tips to build muscle and will reduce your training time and improve your results if done properly. Each exercise should be a 100% effort. Once you have completely fatigued one muscle group simply move onto another exercise and perform another set with a 100% effort. More is not better - higher intensity in good form is better!
4. Variety in your workouts is another useful high intensity strength training tip. If you always do the same group of exercises your muscles will eventually get used to them and slow down your results. In order to avoid such slumps it is a good idea to regularity change up the specific exercises your perform. This also helps prevent mental boredom. How often you switch things around can also vary. You may want to change some exercises every week or two, some athletes will change every workout or you can keep things the same for a month or so and then change all the exercises you do. The important thing is too keep things fresh and to train hard.
5. Use proper form - Unfortunately the vast number of folks who weight train with free weights or weight machine use poor technique and bad form. Most people perform their reps in a relatively fast manner just to get them over with or to be able to use more weight. If you really want to greatly increase the benefit of the muscle building exercise you need to lift slowly, pause briefly, and then lower the weight back down slowly. 5 to 10 seconds per repetition works very well. This will reduce the momentum used, increase muscle fiber recruitment, increase safety and make you work much harder. Doing your reps fast will simply do the exact opposite of these things and as a result provide poor results. Do not allow your ego to dictate the amount of weight you use. You DO want to be progressive and gradually increase the resistance but you always want to train hard and in proper strict form. Never sacrifice good form just so you can use more weight.


If you want to get Maximum Benefit from your weight training workouts than you should read The Fitness Center Handbook. (Kindle Version) which is now available! In addition you can learn more about High Intensity Strength Training at SuperMuscular.com.
David Waters has a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education from the University of Massachusetts and is the author of The Fitness Center Handbook. He is also a founding member of The Nahanni Camping and Fishing Club.