Anyone who spends anytime in the gym expects some sort of tangible and visible results from all the strenuous efforts put in.
Even if you're simply going for power and strength rather than bodybuilding or fitness, you still want to your muscles to be noticed.
Whereas diet and cardio are the common and most effective answers to enhance muscle definition, I've found that flexing between exercises and sets really helps your striations come through, shaping your muscles.
For the most part, you should really be concentrating on the squeeze at the top of each rep to begin with.
However, your big lifts such as bench press, squats, and deadlifts, are more for mass and strength so you may not always get the peak contractions from these.
And if you're training for any kind of muscle mass and size, then you need to be incorporating these lifts.
I don't recommend flexing between sets of major lifts, simply because you need to be fully rested before diving into the next heavy set to maximize power output.
However, most of your following exercises for that body part should be more focused on building and shaping the muscle.
These are the exercises you can implement flexing between sets.
A sample back routine with flexing between sets is listed below.
Deadlifts: 4 sets of 12, 10, 8, 6 reps - no flexing between sets Dumbbell Rows: 3 sets of 12, 10, 8 reps - flex back muscles between each set Hammer Strength Rows: 3 sets of 12, 10, 8 reps - flex back muscles between each set Lat Pulldowns: 3 sets of 12, 10, 8 reps - flex back muscles between each set This doesn't mean you'll flex your muscles the entire time between each set.
Rather, just tighten up whatever muscles your working for a few seconds right after each set.
You don't want to overstrain yourself to the point where you can't put 100% effort into your next set.
It's almost as if you're getting small pumps between sets.
It can be just a few contractions for a couple seconds then rest until the next set.
Try this during your workouts for a couple weeks and see if you notice a difference I the shape of your muscles.