The Pump and Muscle Growth

It was Arnold Schwarzenegger who first said that getting that "pump"
is better than coming in his "Pumping Iron" movie that was made
almost 40 years ago.

Arnold is famous for a lot of things but one of his sayings that has
been quoted many times is "Getting a pump feels fantastic. It's as
satisfying to me as coming is." - Arnold

Although there seems to still be a difference of opinion about this
there is no doubt that the "pump" that you get when you are training
is having an anabolic effect on your body. The pump shows you that
your body and the cells in your muscles are well hydrated and ready
to grow.

If you have been training for more than a year then you will know
very well that there are some days that you simply cannot get that
"pump" no matter how hard you train. The reason could be quite
complicated and range from not being fully recovered from your
last workout to simply not drinking enough fluids.

One thing that is clear is that this "pump" that you might get when
you are training will be delivering tons of high nutrient blood to
your muscles that will increase your amino acid uptake and have an
anabolic effect on your body. There is no doubt that this will
increase your ability to get stronger and put on more muscle as a
result.

The trick in making the "pump" work for you is to get this pump
when doing heavy weights. If everything is right with your body you
will easily get this "pump" by just doing 50 push-ups and we all
know that the chances of this putting on good quality muscle are
very small.

So the answer is to get that feeling of the "pump" you should do
some heavy pressing with only 6 to 8 reps and then finish with a
few lighter reps sets of 10 to 12. Another option is that you can
simply increase your intensity by reducing the rest that you take
between your sets.

But after all that said it is important not to make the getting of
tte "pump" as your main focus when doing your workouts. That
illusive pump should be something that you are pleased to get but
should never be the main objective because as mentioned above
there are many ways that you can just get a pump.