In order to increase your maximum bench press, should you bench close to your max or just do less weight for gradually more reps?

In order to increase your maximum bench press, should you bench close to your max or just do less weight for gradually more reps?

Blog
Increasing your Bench Press will mean that you are able to Bench more weights and/or Bench More Reps or both. We discuss some basics here, to facilitate understanding about how this works. Bench More Weights (Intensity) You will need to get Stronger. Assuming you are a relative Newbie, the BEST and EASIEST way to do this, is through Linear Progression. This means thatfFor every session at the Gym, you need to Increase Weight Gradually and Consistently. For the Bench Press and for the (Overhead) Press, these Increases are Little (like 1 or 2 kilograms every workout) AND, after a VERY SHORT TIME, you will need to lower the increases to even less (0.5 kgs, 0.25 kgs etc). The way this works is through General Adaption Syndrome that your body goes…
Read More
What is muscle quality?

What is muscle quality?

Blog
Two things you usually look for in muscles (especially, Skeletal Muscles): 1) Strength 2) Hypertrophy (Size) You could (up to a point) increase Strength without much if any, increase in Size. But, increase in Size is eventually going to happen. Also, Hypertrophy (Increase in Size) does not Necessarily translate into Strength. Two kinds of Hypertrophy... Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy (build-up of Sarcoplasmic Fluid in the muscles, give them their Increased Size), does not in itself, translate to any meaningful increase in Strength. For instance, if you use low weights and high reps (6, 8 and more repetitions) in your exercises, you will end up with this kind of (Sarcoplasmic) Hypertrophy. Certainly will be stronger than a person with Sedentary Lifestyle. However.... The other kind of Hypertrophy is MyoFibrillar Hypertrophy. Here, there are…
Read More
Fitness for fast bowler: Structure of a Strength & Conditioning session

Fitness for fast bowler: Structure of a Strength & Conditioning session

Blog
A couple of pointers on Fundamentals that might help the understanding: 1. Light Weight Heavy Reps build size…(Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy)…and some amount of Strength 2. Heavy Weight…and, 5 or fewer Reps…builds Strength and some Hypertrophy…(MyoFibrillar Hypertrophy) 3. For any Sport, Practicing the Sport a Lot, is obviously quite Essential, and Builds Skill in the Sport. And, increases Strength to some extent. 4. Being Stronger will, a. Cause less Injuries b. Improve Performance 5. Workouts that get anyone/everyone Stronger are neither Person nor Sports Specific. The Fundamentals of Progressive Overload and Linear Progression (initially) when rightly applied, will get anyone (Sports persons and others) Quite a Bit Stronger…Fairly Quickly. 6. By Strength, we do NOT mean it as a Specialization. A Stronger Cricketer will have Far Less Injuries and can Perform Drastically…
Read More