Exercises To Define Muscles

This was a hard pill to swallow when I eventually learned the truth about this matter. I remember, back in the day, when my friends and I would attend the gym, we would have specific days where we did our definition exercises. Those exercises that were going to separate the muscles and give them that well polished look and that "cut" appearance. Well, some years and education later and I learned that there is no such thing as definition exercises.

There is exercise and there is hard exercise. One will keep you healthy and one will build lean muscle mass that will supercharge your metabolism and improve your overall health for years to come. The truth of the matter and I don't want to drag this out, is that there are no particular exercises that will define your muscles beyond what your body fat will allow to be seen.

Defined muscles, as it were, are well developed muscles with very little adipose or fat tissue around them which gives that really awesome toned look. Getting defined muscles has nothing to do with specific defining exercises but more with a reduced calorie diet to drop excess fat and a good training routine that builds muscle. Now if we were to actually entertain this idea and look at possible exercises that could cause muscles to be defined then we'd have to look no further than the exercises given in the monthly routines that are found on this blog.

Compound movements call more muscles into action which means that more energy is required and more muscle is developed as a result. So doing squats, deadlifts, chin ups etc, all the exercises we hate because they're difficult, are actually the exercises that build the most overall muscle. Other exercises can be implemented to target specific muscle groups but only after a solid base has been built.

Eat a clean diet, train hard and watch the definition come.

Muscle Confusion

This is an interesting one and I hear it all the time when I chat to people about their training programmes. "The key is to keep your muscles guessing Justin. If you want to see great development in your body, you must confuse the muscle." I have thought about this one for a while now because my initial response would have been very different to what I will write today.

There are many things that sound good to say but that have no real bearing in real life. I'm walking on sunshine. There's gold in my veins. I confused my muscle. These are all terms that are used for effect. They work very well in conversation in exaggerating an effect or to bring a point creatively across but that's about where it ends.

Who would survive if they had gold in their veins? Who would manage to walk on sunshine? We use these words to give our conversations a great and interesting flavour but that's about it. When it comes to building muscle there's something that we need to understand. Muscle is tissue. Who of us has ever played a trick on our hands by holding up three fingers and telling our hands that we've got five up? I know that that sounds very dumb but I'm trying to illustrate a point here.

Muscle is inanimate. It does not have the capacity to think. Our minds do that for us. Our bodies respond to what our minds dictate. If our minds say that we need to preserve energy because we're not receiving meals frequently enough then our bodies slow down our metabolism to store energy. If our minds tell our bodies that there is an unusual amount of stress being placed on our bodies and that we need to grow bigger muscles to handle that stress then that is what our bodies do.

This whole idea of muscle confusion is a very creative way to promote varied training strategies over a period of time. An example of this would be a muscle building programme for one month and then perhaps a calisthenics programme for another month followed by a cardio programme for the last month. That could also be considered cross training where various methods are employed. The truth about this scenario is that it is not so much what is being done but the fact that a programme is consistently adhered to.

It is not the exercises as much as the consistency of doing the exercise regularly. If an overweight person walked around the block everyday for 30 days, there would be a definite change in weight. Not because of the exercise but because of the consistency of doing something physical. What is great about the training routines I teach is that they cover all of the bases and keep us doing exactly what is necessary to achieve a specific result without wasting time or inordinate amounts of money.

So just to bring everything to a close, you cannot confuse your muscles because they have no capacity to think therefore they cannot be confused. Muscles respond to stress or the lack thereof and whichever one is being given at the time will determine the physical state the person will find themselves in. Train hard and follow a good programme and you will build a body that will last you 80 or 90 years. Do as little as possible and cash in your chips early.

Train smart, train hard and be consistent. You will get out what you put in and more later on.