Intensity and effort is the key to building muscle. Without it, you couldn't use progressive overload, forced reps, or any other advanced lifting techniques.
Muscle growth depends on constantly increased intensity and overload. Not only that, there's such a feeling of complete joy and exuberation after completing a killer, intense workout.
You feel good, you feel strong, and you feel confident. There's nothing like training with complete, 100% intensity. And it's the most important part of building muscle consistently.
The truth is, if anything is worth doing, you have to give it all you've got, or you probably shouldn't even do it to begin with.
There's something incredibly intense about lifting 400 pounds on the bench press. Feeling a power in you as you push the weight with all you've got.
Not only does this intense, heavy lifting help you to build muscle, but it will also increase your confidence and self-esteem over time.
Intense efforts result in increases in muscle size and strength. The closer you come to using 100% intensity, the greater the chances of building muscle.
But it's impossible to use peak intensity for long duration when training. After all, you can't use max intensity when doing long-distance running.
As a result, the longer-duration but less intense activities you do will result in less muscle stimulation and growth. That's why brief, intense bursts of exercise is most important for building muscle.
Those interested in the most muscle growth possible must regularly exercise at the 100% intensity level. Anything less than that and you will not see the best results.
But the problem is, intense efforts require motivation. It's tough to lift with max intensity all the time. It can be very draining and it places huge demands on the body.
I'm sure you've felt, at one time or another, that you didn't want to do anything too intense. You went to the gym, but didn't feel like working out. Or you felt really tired and sluggish. Didn't you find it tough to use any intensity at all?
Believe me, it takes motivation and determination to keep training at an intense level. But if building muscle is that important to you, you'll find ways to keep upping the intensity.That's why it's important to have strong reasons for working out, goals that you really want to achieve. It's amazing how much intensity you can use if you're really after a particular goal.