Throughout history, close observation of small details has given place to not a few discoveries or has come to explain phenomena. Newton discovered the gravity force by the simple observation of a fruit's fall. Darwin proved in small common details in animals on his 'Evolution of the species' theory and that blew away the Genesis doctrine for the creation of Men and Universe.

Einstein explained his Theory of Relativity after a simple observation and, despite thousands of hours spent by scientists, usually the big discoveries of science emerge by accident, by the observation of seemingly unimportant things.

Have you ever wonder how many details, supposed to have no importance, could improve our progresses in a substantial way?

Yes, I know that in theory you perfectly use all the known game rules, but: what if you are missing the details? What is not important? You are making a huge mistake thinking that way.

Let me check with you some details related with training, recovery, food and supplementation which, for me, are truly relevant. 

TRAINING

If you ever attended to a big muscle star's training, surely you might have seen for yourself how they make certain moves in a particular way, which sometimes change the conventional execution of an exercise. These are not free changes and they all have a reason.

They also act, occasionally, as if they have tics or manias for gestures or practices; it is always about actions aimed to get better results.

Let's see some curiosities:

* Stretching before weight training is not a waste of time; on the contrary, it relaxes muscles, improves blood flow, neuronal response of tendons and ligaments and stretches the fascia, or conjunctive tissue surrounding the muscles. The result is longer and fuller movements and less risk of injury.

* Stretching between sets have another primary role: it allows major blood flow, as the evacuation of metabolic wastes resulted from the effort, which rises the threshold of effort during training and that, leads to substantial improvements.

* Other bodybuilders tend to pose the muscle they are training between sets. The fact of tensing and contracting it in the interval improves the bloodstream and the lactic acid elimination, at the same time it greatly reinforces the neuromuscular connection and boosts the sense of congestion. This practice leads to a major muscular control and provides more detail and highlight.

* The acceleration of the positive phase of the repetitions implies a major regrouping of the necessary motor units to perform the weightlifting and, the more motor units recruited, the major number of muscular fibres implied which means, more muscular growth. Explosive-controlled exercises increase strength and muscular size.

* The slowdown of the negative phase of a repetition is not a free action. Lowering a weight slowly and in a controlled way not only protects from potential injuries, but boosts the cellular growing effect, since it has been scientifically proved that the elongation of muscle fibres under a load resistance causes more hypertrophy than shortening it under the same conditions.

* Short movements, as you can usually see certain athletes do, have also its reason. When the motion is not performed until the full articular extension, muscle's resting -which occurs in that moment- is banned, forcing it to be completely used till the end of the set, without any single pause until the set is fulfilled.

Tension keeps constant and its effects are devastating.

Try to stop a squat, press, triceps extension or military press two centimetres before the blocking point of the articulation and go back in the motion, you will feel an unsuspected muscular burning. This is another way of increasing the intensity of the training, without increasing weight, the number of repetitions or reducing resting times. Growing is granted.

* Cheat repetitions. Watching a bodybuilder move weight without respecting its mechanics orthodoxy may be at least confusing. Dos he not know how to properly move it? Or maybe, is he lifting more weight than he can really lift out of a huge ego? Neither of them. He is hardly that big without knowing how to move weights properly and surely he gives a damn abut figures, but the size of his muscles. When you know how to use or apply cheat repetitions correctly, they become an efficient way of increasing intensity and forcing the muscle to contract beyond fail. They are not meant to do repetitions easier to perform, but on contrary, to make it harder and, as a consequence, more effective.

* Repetitions with stop. If you have seen someone doing them you may think it is for resting, but that is false. When making a pause at the beginning of the repetition, you can completely cut off inertia which lessens effort and overshadows pure muscle work. When making a full stop, the raise must be done by pure muscle contraction which provides strength and volume.

* Long sets. Have you spotted that bodybuilder unable to complete a set without stopping to breathe several times? It would be easy to think he is not capable of fulfil a set accurately, but don't get it wrong. That is another effective way of increasing the threshold of intensity because he is lifting so much weight that he can't reach eight or ten repetitions without stopping.

You will see, in a conventional set, the last two or three really hard repetitions are the effective progress-makers, because is in that moment when you need to do your utmost and gather al muscle's fibres to complete that last hardest repetitions; the previous ones are nothing but the preparation for reaching that point. However, those initial reps consume energy and deplete. That set prolongation, achieved by some breathing stops, is intended to generate a set in which all repetitions are as effective as the last hard ones on a conventional set.

Imagine you are able to do a brutal set of 8 repetitions so hard that after two of them you have to stop for 8 or 10 seconds to breathe deeply, before going on with other two reps. At the end, you will have got the same stimulating growing effect than with four conventional sets in which only two repetitions are fruitful.

Think about it, 8 repetitions versus 40, the same stimulation but with three times less physical weathering; which increases the recovery capacity and that is what the muscle needs in order to grow.

* The way to grab the bar, placing the thumb above it or surrounding it. In the press motions, not surrounding the bar with your thumb leaves aside anterior deltoid's participation; and doing the same on traction exercises leads to a reduction of biceps in the action.

* Rotating the wrists in biceps movements using dumbbells means more participation of the brachial and brachioradialis, very important for the size and quality of the arm. Remember, biceps does not only make the arm bend but also turns the wrist, so if you increase weight and rotate the wrist at the same time, you will be working out more muscles than if you only do a simple curl.

* Pay attention to the huge variety of angles and trajectories of the exercises. Usually, a slight change in the path takes major importance in the development of a specific part of the muscle. The most evident thing is the pectoral's work in the flat plane, inclined or declined to affect the middle zone, upper or inferior of the chest. But those same changes can be used on biceps, triceps, deltoids or back workout. Watch carefully those details because all of them have their importance. 

RECOVERY

It is supposed we all know how to recover, and that resting is enough for that, but it is not so easy.

* After a rigorous legs training, rest with feet up or sleep with a pillow under the feet, or something under the lower part of the mattress. Doing this you will be emphasizing the return blood circulation and with it you will eliminate all the metabolic wastes the effort left. The result will be less twinges and a better recovery.

* Sleep eight hours at night and, if you can, add a little daily nap or a resting period with relaxing background music.

* Try to avoid practising other sports because that would lessen your recovery.

* Do not do any physical activity after eating.

* Take a very hot shower before going to sleep. 

FEEDING

There are many details regarding feeding which are worth to know and put into practise.

* If you have small appetite, eat proteic foods first to assure you are taking all the proteins you need in case you feel satisfied before finishing the meal.

* If, on the contrary, you have a voracious appetite, but you want to loose some weight, start each food with a couple of glasses of water and a huge salad. That will help you feel satisfied, without adding calories to your food intake.

* Do not take simple carbohydrates before training or you will experiment a drop in energy and lethargy.

* Drink lot of water between meals.

* Take the major quantity of carbs when you get up and after training.

* If you need to gain weight, try to assure the enough intake of starchy carbohydrates and essential fatty acids.

* If you want definition, reduce starchy carbohydrates and change them for fibrous, but do not reduce the intake of essential fatty acids.

* Ideal feeding comprises mixing different origin proteins and carbs in each food because the body assimilates and metabolizes them in a better way.

* You should follow a relatively high-fat diet providing they are from a healthy origin, as MCT oil, flax seed oils, or fish oil. Fats saveguard carbohydrates and they preserve proteins, so, indirectly, a high coefficient of fats assures the body does not burn the proteins and save them to build muscle.

* Chew and salivate food properly before swallowing it and you will be making digestion easier.

* Do not use microwave for cooking proteic foods because proteins are denatured and then they cannot be efficiently digested.

* Eat all raw vegetable foods you can as they are loaded of enzymes as well as vitamins and minerals.