J
JimmyRustler
long post incoming, later half should help some with your wanting to gain muscle mass
Every time I perform a lift, I brace my entire core to ensure proper spinal alignment. It doesn't matter which exercise, I do this with every single exercise to some degree. Even walking, which is in a all the time thing, I make sure to keep proper posture and at all times and move as I should. But for your question, to give another example that I think is closer to what you're trying to figure, I will describe how I approach dumbbell chest presses. My goal has always been muscle hypertrophy just bigger muscles so my points of emphasis are a bit different in comparison to someone who wants to train for endurance, strength, or power for instance but this is how I perform the lift to strictly gain more muscle. Before I even perform one strenuous rep of course, I am warmed up properly, but for a working set, before I even perform the rep I know in my mind that a lot of mental effort must be dedicated towards focusing that I perform all the cues to perfection - every single one of them. This will allow me to work the muscles as I deliberately aim to train them, which is strictly for hypertrophy. I generate a great deal of tension in my chest before I even begin to move the dumbbells much; basically flexing hard before I even decide to push through the concentric phase of the movement. As I begin to move the weights, I further increase the tension in my muscles being used in my chest, and squeeze even harder with those muscles if that makes any sense. During the eccentric phase of the movement (lowing of the weights) I purposely slow my tempo down at least a couple of seconds, keeping it extremely controlled and steady while trying to keep as much tension as I can still within the muscles. Before I ever fully get a second's rest I am beginning the concentric phase of the second rep, slow eccentric after that, repeating. I am constantly braced throughout this entire set, all cues are being run through my mind and I constantly make adjustments throughout the set to maintain perfect form as much as I can during said set, tension produced within my muscles is high all throughout the set, and time under tension is kept very high since the goal is hypertrophy
I do the same as you with abs exercises, always contracting everything and remembering to breathe. Same with walking, except I contract everything in a much more relaxed way almost as if I am barely doing so since walking is an all day activity and it would be tiresome and detrimental to forcefully contract your abs all day. I used to do that, thinking it would lead to stronger abs. But forcefully contracting your abs and walking around with the stomach tucked in all day caused me pain near the ribs, an overworked transversus abdominus, and sometimes even it felt like I injured my abdominal muscles near the ribs
Your shoulder could have been rounded during the lift at some point(s) maybe and that could have potentially caused the pain. It could have been that you weren't gripping the kettlebell firmly enough or as tightly as you should be as well. It could be a lot of things. But in the past, those were two things that caused me trouble and some pain in the past: bad form (rounding of the shoulders slightly on some reps performed) as well as using a more relaxed grip which was a mistake several times I'm sure, in my case at least
You can gain a lot of muscle and not really be all that strong or vice versa; it's all depending on how you train. Just briefly though, TUT (time under tension) is your friend if muscle gain is what you're after. A lot of lengthy negatives or eccentric portion of each movements will help as well. Sometimes I would even set my tempo to a very taxing 7-0-2-0 or 7-0-1-0 to achieve my goals. For my triceps to grow I needed a hell of a lot of effort going into those negatives because for some reason they had a tough time growing without that kind of excessive stimuli. Maybe you need to start focusing more on negatives as well, it could be that. But usually I never sweated it, I kept time under tension well past 60 seconds most sets and that was enough to ensure growth. It's killer, but it's the way to go if you want to pack on some size / muscle. Try focusing on keeping each set you perform lasting 60-90 seconds for a while, that's sure to pack on some muscle. To reach that much time under tension (TUT) you'll no doubt be putting a lot of time into your negatives, which is supposedly going to tear down 40% more tissue than the concentric phase of a movement according to this one doctor I knew. And if that's true, then it'll equate to thicker muscle fibers. Try looking into that kind of training if you haven't already. I know with me, my arms, neck, traps, and forearms have to be absolutely massacred if I am to see any muscle gains. I worked like a fucking maniac in the gym for years to grow my chest, back, and legs towards the physique I am trying to achieve
To get a massive chest, it took a ton of grinding. So many reps of dips, constant pushups, dumbbell bench press from all angles. Sometimes I had to work solely my chest for 45-60 minutes if I wanted to see any gains. That's WITH the entire session being filled with lengthy negatives as well. I had to murder my chest with negatives in the form of negative pushups and db presses for at least 45 min every time. Until my arms wouldn't work and I knew my joints were about to fail me. Used to knock out sets after basketball. Used to perform sets during breaks. When I decided I wanted to grow my lats a great deal more around about 2013, I would perform DB rows and pullups and the negatives were just grueling. During the rows, I would sometimes shoot for 15-20 reps in a set, each with at least a 4-5 second negative. For as many sets as I could do which was usually around 6-8 sets each side. The bench and area were covered in pools of sweat, the entire bench was fucking slippery, I left the area not even being able to see straight because I was constantly straining for more and more TUT and the sweat was obliterating my eyes after 30-40 minutes of that. I built my legs with the same principles, a ton of work performed and a lot of time under tension. My warm up was typically cardio for 20-30 min, about 100-200 lunges again with a crazy amount of TUT, then I'd either perform more lunges with weights, leg press heavy, or squat. Add to that, I stayed active in basketball, walked a ton, would run a bit each week, sometimes I'd sprint if my schedule allowed for the proper amount of recovery time and I didn't have any strenuous leg workouts at least a couple of days beforehand. Same with growing the calves, it took constant tension. Used to work on those fuckers for like 15 minutes taking them straight to hell every single set. Long, grueling sets with 15-25 reps as heavy as they could comfortably move through the full ROM in a highly controlled fashion. Training for muscle gain is all about the mind muscle connection and what you bring to the table to fry your muscles into oblivion
It's all something you put together and keep shooting towards with a relentless attitude IMO, gaining muscle takes a hell of a lot of motivation and work but it basically boils down to TUT and desire how bad you want it and are willing to stay in that discomfort rep after rep set in set out, workout after workout, and finding the motivation to put everything you have into your recovery with excellent meal planning and rest and what not. Prolonged negatives, upwards to seven seconds each rep, are a game changer and should get the job done if you want to pack on muscle. Negatives + 50-90 seconds TUT each set is bound to work for most when it comes to hypertrophy