In 1989, personal performance coach, Stephen Covey released his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. The groundbreaking book identified basic principles to propel readers to new levels of personal success. The book also spawned a handful of follow-ups and companion guides. It grew into such a phenomenon that one felt as if they weren't really trying to be successful if they didn't have a copy of the book on their nightstands.
But what about the bodybuilder? With our unique lifestyle, goals and values are these cookie-cutter standards adequate? I think not. After all, goals like single-digit bodyfat or the ability to deadlift three times our bodyweight require more specialized guidelines. With this in mind, I felt it was important to put together some guiding maxims directed towards hardcore lifters. With apologies to Stephen Covey, here is my bodybuilder's version of the Seven Habits.
Habit One:
Push for More Plates on the Bar
In order to build muscle, we need to impose an increasingly greater demand on our existing muscle tissue. This can be accomplished by increasing the overall workload, increasing our pace (less rest between sets), changing to more difficult exercises (or just exercises we are less accustomed to) or increasing the amount of resistance we use. All of these options should be a part of your yearly training cycle. Of these options, lifting heavier weights is both the simplest and most rewarding way to enhance your workouts.
It is possible to increase strength without getting bigger. This can be accomplished by improving the neurological efficiency or biomechanics of particular movements. This is often a goal for elite wrestlers, boxers, weightlifters or other weight-class differentiated athletes for which bodyweight increase would be a detriment. These cases exempted, it is an undeniable truth that progressively increasing the resistance applied to your muscles in basic, multi-joint movements lies at the very core of bodybuilding success. If you were to question any top level bodybuilder about the period in which they made the greatest mass gains of their training career, you will also find that this was also the period in which they simultaneously had their greatest surge in strength.
This being said, the prime directive of your ongoing mission in the gym should be to increase the amount of weight used in all of your exercises - particularly your basic power movements. (Habits Four and Six will be crucial to helping you to achieve this.)
