Thursday, December 25, 2008

Having a Pump Does Not Mean You Will Gain Muscle

By Ricardo d Argence

Your back is firmly planted on the bench as you wrap your chalked hands around the cold, steel bar. Your training partner helps you un-rack the weight as you power the bar up and down, squeezing your chest and triceps on each grueling rep. You complete your 6 repetitions, re-rack the bar and stand up. Your chest feels tight and engorged with blood. You take a look in the mirror, thrilled with how full and vascular your pecs appear. You feel strong, powerful, healthy and motivated to blast through the rest of your workout with your newly achieved "pump".

So, what's exactly a pump? It's nothing but the tight, blood-congested feeling in a muscle after it has been intensely trained. Is the feeling that you get as blood becomes trapped inside your muscle. And it's a great, great feeling. But you don't go to the gym and perform all that effort for hours just for that feeling. And that feeling does not guarantee you'll achieve your gain muscle goal.

Don't worry if you achieve a pump during your workout, it's not a bad thing. It's nothing but the natural result of intense weight training. Its blood running trough your veins, that's all. But, if you go to the gym to get that feeling instead of focus on gain muscle, well, if you think that's the right way to get the look you desire, let me tell you one thing: you are wasting your time (and money), and you are completely wrong...

On countless occasions I've heard lifters raving about the massive pumps they get in the gym as they share methods for achieving the best pump possible. "Dude, this will give you a crazy pump!" If you have already been working out for a decent amount of time then you know exactly what I'm talking about. While a pump does feel extremely satisfying, just remember that it means very little in terms of muscle stimulation and growth.

A pump is just the blood flowing to the area. You can get a good pump without working all that hard. Giving your body no reason to grow. But you can get the greatest pump, and it does'nt mean your muscles will grow the most. If muscle pumps meant muscle growth, then super light weight, ultra high rep programs would be the most effective way to grow. And i think you'll agree with me when i say that will never work. So, how can i know if i'm in the right way? It's nothing complex.

This is the way it should be: if you keep a record of your workouts and week after week you are increasing the weight you lift, if you can perform some rextra reps, you are in your way to that huge muscles you desire, even if you were far to achieve a pump. Remember that pump blood into your muscle tissue is not the goal.

Building muscle mass and strength is all about training with 100% intensity on every given set and then striving to improve from week to week. If you are able to consistently achieve this, your muscle size and strength will increase faster than you ever thought possible, with or without a pump.

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