Changing Focus to Work the Muscle

Hello all,
I’ve been lifting for 6-7 years now of course by no means i am massive or huge and i want to change some of the stuff that i’ve been doing so far.

I am all time natural i can bench around 250, squat 360 and dead 360 as well. Truth be told i do lift very intensively, i try to follow sound programs, i guess you can say i have an ok body to show for it and i have put 25 lean pounds on my frame. Yet i train more based on function that asthetics, i do martial arts and play a lot of soccer.

Ive been reading about stop training the lift vs training the muscle. See i always see these very muscle bound guys btw i am really scrawny in comparisson. I weigh about 170 at 5’11 and i can lift so much more than them of course using strict form and yet they seem to “suffer” a lot more on the sets and their muscles are twice mine.

I dont want to point the “s” word. Instead i believe they know more than me, how do you “focus” on the muscle?
Thx

Btw i am doing book of muscle intermediate at the moment

I have never seen these so called “very muscle bound guys” who couldn’t bench 250 (which isn’t strong). So I smell bs all over this post.

[quote]sam_sneed wrote:
I have never seen these so called “very muscle bound guys” who couldn’t bench 250 (which isn’t strong). So I smell bs all over this post.[/quote]

Exactly.

There isn’t even a single question in the entire post. It’s just another rant about how people who use steroids are cheaters. Whatever

Well, first of all…

[quote]hectorulises wrote:
I’ve been lifting for 6-7 years now of course by no means i am massive or huge
[/quote]

Why is this “of course”?

I would hope that if somebody has been lifting seriously for 6-7 years, they’d be pretty big. Apparently that isn’t the case here.

[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
It’s just another rant about how people who use steroids are cheaters. [/quote]

I bet those cheating bastards use straps too. Fuckers.

And I have to imagine that the OP’s “strict” form is superior to the cheater form these dudes with large, disgusting muscles use.

Disgusting, I tell you, disgusting. All Hail the functional lifter!

Here we have two more functional lifters that this young woman has so graciously decided to model for us.

[quote]countingbeans wrote:
BONEZ217 wrote:
It’s just another rant about how people who use steroids are cheaters.

I bet those cheating bastards use straps too. Fuckers.

And I have to imagine that the OP’s “strict” form is superior to the cheater form these dudes with large, disgusting muscles use.

Disgusting, I tell you, disgusting. All Hail the functional lifter![/quote]

You have no idea how many guys are injecting straps into their asses these days… They should be banned from lifting weights, no?

[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
They should be banned from lifting weights, no? [/quote]

Or at least take a break for like 35 years while OP catches up to them.

hahaha wow you guys have no pity! I think he is just a bit misguided…

OP: why no just ask THEM the question…

[quote]sam_sneed wrote:
I have never seen these so called “very muscle bound guys” who couldn’t bench 250 (which isn’t strong). So I smell bs all over this post.[/quote]

Ryan kennely benches around 600-700 raw. 1075 with bench shirt and he still isnt “muscle bound”

[quote]BeastKing wrote:
sam_sneed wrote:
I have never seen these so called “very muscle bound guys” who couldn’t bench 250 (which isn’t strong). So I smell bs all over this post.

Ryan kennely benches around 600-700 raw. 1075 with bench shirt and he still isnt “muscle bound”[/quote]

LOL.

…wait, you are joking right?

pity is not the word. this post is complete bs.

Sorry mates. I did not wiSh for this to sound at all like a rant. I don’t feel bad cause some people can put more muscle than i can. I was trying not to sound pretencious and it came out as a rant.
Now my question.
How do you focus on your muscles on the squat(to say one exercise) and not on lifting the weight? Less weight and slower tempos? What is the key?

[quote]hectorulises wrote:
Sorry mates. I did not wiSh for this to sound at all like a rant. I don’t feel bad cause some people can put more muscle than i can. I was trying not to sound pretencious and it came out as a rant.
Now my question.
How do you focus on your muscles on the squat(to say one exercise) and not on lifting the weight? Less weight and slower tempos? What is the key?[/quote]

If you’re serious, I think you’re looking at this backwards.

You should focus on lifting more weight if you want to add muscle as your strength isn’t at all impressive for someone who has been training as long as you have.

In your case, lifting lighter weights probably isn’t going to make you any bigger.

[quote]hectorulises wrote:
Hello all,
I’ve been lifting for 6-7 years now of course by no means i am massive or huge and i want to change some of the stuff that i’ve been doing so far.

I am all time natural i can bench around 250, squat 360 and dead 360 as well. Truth be told i do lift very intensively, i try to follow sound programs, i guess you can say i have an ok body to show for it and i have put 25 lean pounds on my frame. Yet i train more based on function that asthetics, i do martial arts and play a lot of soccer.

Ive been reading about stop training the lift vs training the muscle. See i always see these very muscle bound guys btw i am really scrawny in comparisson. I weigh about 170 at 5’11 and i can lift so much more than them of course using strict form and yet they seem to “suffer” a lot more on the sets and their muscles are twice mine.

I dont want to point the “s” word. Instead i believe they know more than me, how do you “focus” on the muscle?
Thx

Btw i am doing book of muscle intermediate at the moment [/quote]

Yup, I’m sure you can lift “so much more” than me, this muscle is just for show. Not to mention As soon as I stop taking steroids I’ll probably shrink down to 125 pounds…if I’m lucky.

NEXT!

You are missing the point about working the muscle and not the weight. I’ll use the bench press as an example because it is easier to visualize. (Lets assume nutrition is perfect in each case) Many people do the barbell bench press and build a good amount of pressing strength from it. Some of these people will grow much bigger pec muscles than others. The people with less responsive pecs have to be generating the strength from somewhere else; likely the delts and triceps.

There is nothing a shoulder dominant bench presser can do to make the barbell bench press more effective at building pec muscles. The barbell bench press simply isn’t the right tool to build bigger pecs. To an extent there are changes that can be made to the whole routine (such as pre-exhaust techniques) that can make the barbell bench better, but it will never be best for a shoulder dominant presser.

Your question about the squat is entirely too vague. Which muscle in particular are you talking about? There are a lot of muscles in your upper leg. Backsquatting will hit quads, hams and glutes to an extent. What is squatting not achieving for you?

[quote]sam_sneed wrote:
BeastKing wrote:
sam_sneed wrote:
I have never seen these so called “very muscle bound guys” who couldn’t bench 250 (which isn’t strong). So I smell bs all over this post.

Ryan kennely benches around 600-700 raw. 1075 with bench shirt and he still isnt “muscle bound”

LOL.

…wait, you are joking right?[/quote]

Actually, I’m reasonably sure that he could beat Mendelson’s 715 raw bench record (is that still the record, anyway?) if he were to concentrate on raw benching for some time…
And then you get Hoornstra, who competes in the 242’s and has done 700 touch and go in the gym already. Just imagine that guy weighing as much as Mendelson and Kennelly… His raw bench will be like 785 by then or something :slight_smile:

Essentially, I think what you’re asking is should you train muscles rather than movements?

Well for muscular development, yes you should. Basic example is when performing an exercise, you are not focusing on ‘getting the weight up’ you are focussing on working the muscle.

But if you’re into martial arts and sports then I think training like a bodybuilder probably wont suit your needs, unless you want to start training for aesthetics

[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
You are missing the point about working the muscle and not the weight. I’ll use the bench press as an example because it is easier to visualize. (Lets assume nutrition is perfect in each case) Many people do the barbell bench press and build a good amount of pressing strength from it. Some of these people will grow much bigger pec muscles than others. The people with less responsive pecs have to be generating the strength from somewhere else; likely the delts and triceps.

There is nothing a shoulder dominant bench presser can do to make the barbell bench press more effective at building pec muscles. The barbell bench press simply isn’t the right tool to build bigger pecs. To an extent there are changes that can be made to the whole routine (such as pre-exhaust techniques) that can make the barbell bench better, but it will never be best for a shoulder dominant presser.

Your question about the squat is entirely too vague. Which muscle in particular are you talking about? There are a lot of muscles in your upper leg. Backsquatting will hit quads, hams and glutes to an extent. What is squatting not achieving for you? [/quote]

actually i was just using it as an example. I love squats and i do some variations atg, paralell, front squats whatever the routine calls for.
It is a rather hard to pin point subject.
Say you are lifting the squat. What do you focus on? I gotta get this god damn barbell up or what are my quads feeling right now?
Me? I only think i gotta get this bitch up!

If you’re asking about mind-muscle connection, what I’ve found to be helpful is to really concentrate and think about the muscles you’re working as you’re lifting. This sort of focus, for me anyway, really helps to make sure that particular muscle is working and contracting optimally. Does that make sense?

While I find this to normally work better on isolation movements, I have had some success with compound movements, namely feeling hamstrings working on dead lifts. You probably will have to use lighter weights to get it down, so as you can dial in the right form to most effectively target the desired muscles, so maybe use it later in the workout after the big money movements if you’re still in pursuit of getting stronger.