Increase Muscle Weight
High intensity bodybuilding for
muscle mass building is contrary to what most in the “industry” have come to
accept. Generally it’s always said that long-duration, low-intensity training is
best for building muscle and losing fat, as the common belief is that all
high-intensity work only burns carbohydrates.
Before understanding why this
isn’t always the case, you need to understand the difference between low and
high intensity work. Low-intensity exercise of any kind (whether it be body
building or cardio) is defined as working at a heart rate of about 65% of your
maximum. High-intensity exercise is defined as working at around 75%-85% of your
maximum heart rate. You’ll need to calculate your particular heart rate to
determine what your personal high and low heart rate numbers are.
Low intensity bodybuilding gets
a lot of attention because it’s easy. Really pushing the body, especially when
it comes to weight lifting, will leave your heart beating fast. Which is good!
This kind of bodybuilding is also low risk, meaning that even the most basic
bodybuilder can most likely do a workout, with the proper training, and not
suffer injury. Working at a low intensity also burns more calories from fat.
So you’re probably wondering
how and why high-intensity bodybuilding works so well! Well for starters, high
intensity bodybuilding can burn more fat, and therefore help you shed that layer
covering up those great muscles. How? Low-intensity training burns about 50% fat
for energy while high-intensity training burns about 40% fat for energy. Once
you begin to incorporate intervals into your bodybuilding training, you can
actually burn more fat than using low-intensity training alone.
Not only that, but
high-intensity bodybuilding continues to boost your metabolism even after you
leave the gym (and up to 24 hours following the session, depending on the
duration). That means you can technically be burning calories all day long, even
when you aren’t working out.
The easiest way to start
incorporating high-intensity bodybuilding into your current workout is to treat
the routine much like you would any other high-intensity workout. You start with
a warm-up set (which is a great way to ready your muscles for heavy lifting),
and then quickly switch to faster reps of heavier weights for a short burst of
time. Then drop back down to a lower level of lifting, giving your body a brief
rest, before going right back into a high intensity lifting session again.