Go hard or go home

I only go to the gym twice a week because of time constraints. Now you are probably saying that this is just not enough, well I'll let you in on a little secret, when it comes to exercising, frequency is not all there is to it. What you need to focus on is intensity and consistency. There are people who go to the gym everyday but only perform mild workouts, well that's not bad but chances are that they won't get their desired results  fast enough. Another group only go a few times a week but when they are there, they give it their all; needless to say, a I belong to that group.

As I write this post, my glutes are in pain and so are my quads, biceps, triceps, anterior deltoids as well as traps. Yes, I am all sore and I have to say that it feels awesome! No it's not about deriving pleasure from pain but rather understanding the fact that the soreness you feel after a workout means that your body has had to to work harder than usual. The consequence of this of course is growth.

My gym days are Thursday and Saturday. On Thursday my areas of focus are the chest, back and abdominal muscles. On this day I usually work out for about two and a half hours. Saturday is my leg, arms and shoulder day (I finish off with ab workouts); this is when I take it to a whole new level with the session lasting up to four hours. I honestly can't remember the last time I worked out in the gym and didn't feel sore for the next two days.

Now it is important to understand that there is good and bad pain. Good pain is basically the soreness I have just mentioned; where your muscles feel as though someone is constantly pumping lactic acid into them.Bad pain on the other hand feels unnatural and I guess the best way to differentiate between the two is by looking at the period of time they last. Bad pain will persist for more than just a few days while normal muscle soreness will rarely go beyond three or four days depending on how conditioned you are as well as the intensity of the workout.

Someone once told me that if you are not sweating in the gym then you are just not working hard enough, and it's true because sweating means that you are expending energy which is the whole point behind working out. If you really want to get a workout going, a good idea would be to superset. This basically means moving from one workout to the other without resting.  Do this when working two different muscle groups for example biceps and triceps; chest and back; quads and hamstrings etc. This will really get the lactic going and according to research this causes the body to release a certain hormone (can't remember the name) that promotes muscle growth.

So don't be afraid of a little pain, it's good for you; it builds character and of course; muscle. Simply put, go hard or go home.