As a person that lifts weights on a regular basis I often get a lot of questions about how to best lift weights and what is important or not important.
Well to this end I have decided to answer a few of those questions so that you can do just a little bit better in the gym and outside.
Should I eat right before I workout?
Well this is an easy one. Yes, and no. You need to make sure that you have sufficient carbohydrates to fuel your workout but at the same time you do not want to eat too much beforehand.
A sports drink of some kind would be great and if you would like, even a coffee will do. The main thing is to make sure you are well hydrated and that you are not hungry or bloated before your workout.
Do I need to do 12 or 16 sets per muscle group?
It is important not to do a lot of sets for each muscle group. This will lead to overtraining and will make you actually lose muscle as your body tries to get healed between workouts but can’t it is much better to do a workout where you are doing only three or four sets per muscle group but taking these to exhaustion.
The big muscle magazines have been showing the pros doing this for at least 20 years now and it is unrealistic to workout that hard for us mere mortals.
Should I take Creatine to increase my muscles?
Creatine is still popular and works very well to help you gain muscle mass. For a beginning weightliter it is really overkill and you can likely wait a few months though
Actually the way that Creatine works is that it forces more water into your muscles which makes them look bigger but also helps to take lactic acid away and helps you get better workouts and recover faster.
The nice thing is that Creatine is not very cheap to buy. Try cycling this with 6 weeks on and then 6 weeks off so that you can have your muscle not get too used to the Creatine.
Is there a good time to workout during the day?
This is something that you will really need to experiment with. I have always found that if I workout in the morning i feel great afterwards for the rest of the morning.
I have better concentration and get a lot more done. When I work out in the afternoon I feel that my workout is better and I can lift heavier.
If I work out in the evening I have a bit of trouble falling asleep and of course if you go to a gym this is the most crowded part of the day. It is really up to you to experiment and see what works best for you
Thanks for the useful info. It’s so interesting