Edited by Massimiliano Ratta
What you are about to read, may seem at first glance rather obvious, at least theoretically, but I assure you that it is not, precisely because it deals with an issue that inextricably links personal objectives, to the attitude on the principle of the progression of loads.
The goals are achieved (in training as in every aspect of life) with the right attitude, which must include: commitment, passion, patience, planning, determination, graduality. Specifically, I add "micro graduality", precisely because it concerns weight training.
Often these (objectives), at least in neophytes, are not followed by a consequential attitude, for the most varied reasons such as: the haste to increase loads, the desire to emulate the "bench" neighbor who raises loads much heavier than our (without knowing that perhaps the neighbor of the bench has been training for over 10 years and has gradually increased its loads always following a rational and sensible progression ...), the desire to satisfy the ego, not least the simple inexperience.
With this short article we will try to highlight the importance, in achieving the final objective, of planning more micro-objectives, or intermediate objectives, with the application of the principle of "micro graduality".
Therefore, once a goal is planned, it will work to achieve it, with the utmost commitment, training hard certainly! But it will have to be done, respecting a principle of graduality, which must be applied in every aspect of training, starting with workloads.
Now let's see in practice how to apply this principle in the gym, in our training, since, if it is important to go step by step, displaying short-term goals, it is equally important that the training is consistent with this philosophy.
At this point it is necessary to cite an example: if we begin a bench press exercise with 75 kg in the first series by performing 8 repetitions carried to exhaustion, in the second series it would not make sense to increase the load by 10 kg as long as we do not want to do do a series of chin-ups to the partner who assists us ...
Therefore it is more feasible and feasible, to increase 2-2.5 kg in the second series, 1 kg in the third and maybe 250500 g in the last set.
In this way we could work to the maximum of our abilities, bringing each series to the limit, making the partner intervene with some forced repetition only in case of necessity and anyway for very few repetitions (personally I recommend using this technique very sparingly).
Following this method of increase, the muscle fibers will adapt more easily and quickly to small increases in load due to the principle of "micro graduality" (remember that even an increase of only 100 grams is still a step forward), and above all we will give time to tendinous and articular structures to adapt to the "new" load thus minimizing the risk of trauma.
Always remember that tendons take longer to adapt to load increases than muscles.
Once the condition has been reached to carry out the required repetitions with a greater load, proceed with the same principle: start with 76 kg in the first series, then change to 77, 500 in the second, then 78, 250 in the third to reach maybe 78.750 in last series, and so on as the program progresses; of course this is just an example, everyone will adapt their increase to the starting load and to their own adaptive responses.
Well, when the load is not within our reach or we do 12 reps. alone and the other 67 are made by those who assist us, the muscle does not have the ability to adapt, tendons and joints are subjected to heavy work, which in most cases can lead to serious trauma.
I have seen many people over the years, stubbornly continue to put 100 kg on the bench balance, despite not being able to do more than two repetitions alone and in fact, in addition to not gaining strength and muscle mass, they are always or almost incurring trauma more or less serious.
In the same way I have seen people, fortunately many, have surprising results by adopting the simple principle of "micro graduality", precisely because they have worked with consistency, programming and rationality.
Needless to add that an impeccable executive style, free of artifices, dangerous impulses or rebounds, must in any case constitute the main basis of our training philosophy. It is enormously more profitable to make a series of horizontal bench with 70 kg, in a fluid and clean style, reaching exhaustion alone in 810 repetitions, than not doing a series of the same exercise with a disproportionate load, performing one or two repetitions through dramatic and dangerous back buckles, and arrive at the number of repetitions provided, forcing the assistant on duty to do extra shoulder training, with a series of heavy chin pulls ... (excuse the ironic juxtaposition, but there it's all!).
The principle of "micro graduality" is the fastest and most effective way to get results, keep motivations high and above all, the best prevention to avoid traumas (remember that a trauma often involves a forced suspension of training, so a slowdown in achievement of desired results).
