How To Gain Muscles In Four Weeks.
Overview
Hypertrophy. Jacked. Ripped.
Diesel. Project Swolification. Whatever your preferred descriptor phrase
or word of choice, adding appreciable size in the form of muscle mass
is at the top of most trainees' goals list.
Certainly there are health
benefits to consistently lifting weights and increasing muscle mass --
improved bone health and density, improved immune function, increased
energy, reduced risk of injury, improved insulin sensitivity and a vast
decrease in the incidence of metabolic syndrome, just to name a few. But
at the end of the day, what really matters for many trainees is being
able to walk down the street in a medium T-shirt on and know they look
yoked, with large, protruding muscles.
The problem is that while having
biceps the size of Kansas and a chest that can deflect bullets are
common goals for most guys -- and quite a few girls too -- many will
never come close to achieving "the look.
.
Replace Stagnation With Progression
A muscle will increase in size relative to
the load that is placed upon it. It's as simple as that. If you want to
get bigger, you need to make a concerted effort to lift more weight on a
weekly basis.
Far too often, people use the same
weight week in and week out. Then they're left dumbfounded when they
look exactly the same as they did when they started going to the gym --
three years ago.
But the truth is, to make a muscle
grow, you need to throw it a curve ball. You need to challenge it and
make it do more work. Even if you only add 5 pounds to the bar, those
additional pounds are moving you forward.
If there's one common mistake that
many trainees make, though, it's assuming that training to failure on
each and every set is, somehow, a way to make progress. These lifters
believe that because they're training with such "intensity" -- so much
so they're reaching the point of missing reps -- they will experience
much more muscle growth.
This is flawed thinking.
It's true that at some point, adding
five to 10 pounds every week will become a limiting factor. But when
this happens, make use of the "two-rep window," which allows for some
flexibility in your repetitions.
As an example, imagine that your
program calls for 10 repetitions, but the weight you're using is proving
to be a real challenge. Instead of missing reps, consciously shoot for
eight to 10 repetitions. Likewise, if your exercise calls for five
repetitions, the "two-rep window" would mean you would shoot for three
to five repetitions.
So if you want to bench press five reps at 225 pounds, your first week might look something like this:
Set 1: 225x5
Set 2: 225x5
Set 3: 225x4
Set 4: 225x4
Set 5: 225x3
You can see that by Set 3, you are cutting your sets short because of fatigue or poor technique.
In this case, your progress challenge
would be to try, in the following session, to hit the reps you
previously left in the tank. So it may look something like this:
Week Two
Set 1: 225x5
Set 2: 225x5
Set 3: 225x5
Set 4: 225x5
Set 5: 225x4
Compared with the first week, the
lifter did three extra reps in the second week -- to the tune of 675
additional pounds -- 225 times 3.
In the following weeks, the
hypothetical lifter would continue with this weight until he was able to
complete all the reps successfully. Once he accomplished it, he'd give
someone a high five, up the weight and repeat the process.
Replace Isolation Exercises With Compound Movements
When it comes to building muscle, popular
belief says that following a body-part-per-day split is the most
efficient use of your time. Monday, therefore, is generally known as
"National Bench Press Day," with many trainees targeting their chests on
that day. The rest of the week is then broken down in a similar
fashion, working one or two muscle groups each day. So a typical week's
grouping might be as follows:
Monday: Chest
Tuesday: Back and biceps
Wednesday: Shoulders and triceps
Thursday: Hamstrings
Friday: Quads
Weekend: Off
But body-part splits are actually an
inefficient approach. After all, you're only stimulating or targeting a
muscle once every seven to 10 days. What's more, you're actually
limiting the gains you could be making in the long run.
If you want to build slabs of muscle
on your frame, you need to incorporate movements that not only utilize
as much muscle mass as possible, but also provide the impetus your body
needs to grow.
Instead of body parts, focus on
compound, multijoint movements. Take it a step further: Instead of
designating a particular day as "arm day," for example, make it a
"chinup" day.
Nick Tumminello, a personal trainer
and founder of Performance University in Baltimore, Maryland, noted that
"movements like chin-ups or deadlifts force your body to use a lot of
muscle mass to get the job done. As such, common sense tells you that
the more muscle mass you recruit, the more potential there is for future
muscle growth."
For a specific example, take a popular
exercise like dumbbell bicep curls and add an average trainee wanting
muscle growth. He's looking to put on some size -- any size -- and he's
faced with two exercise options: an exercise that limits him to
25-pound. curls targeting one, fairly tiny muscle roughly the size of a
tennis ball or chin-ups that not only force him to use much more weight,
but also recruit muscles from his entire body. It's obvious the chinups
are the more logical choice to meet his goal.
Another benefit of focusing on
compound movements is that, by default, you'll be hitting certain body
parts several times per week instead of only once, giving the muscles
more opportunities to increase.
So nix the isolation exercises and
focus more on compound movements. Instead of targeting specific muscles,
target specific movements. Start each training session with a main
movement, such as a squat variation, a deadlift variation or a bench
press variation, then complement that particular movement for the
remainder of your workout.
Include a Sets-and-Reps Inversion
Another aspect of building muscle that's
often overlooked is the inversion of sets and reps. That is, instead of
performing three sets of 10 repetitions on every exercise -- which, for
some reason, has become the established golden rule of strength training
-- you would perform 10 sets of three repetitions.
As strength coach Chad Waterbury, a
neurophysiologist and author of "Muscle Revolution," noted, "In essence,
you'll still be performing the same volume -- as dictated by the total
number of sets and reps completed -- but now you'll be increasing the
total tonnage of your workout, which will not only have a profound
effect on the central nervous system -- and hence, strength gains -- but
will also lead to unparalleled muscle gains as well."
So take the dumbbell bicep curls mentioned earlier and compare them with chin-ups.
Isolation Dumbbell Bicep Curl:
Weight Used: 25 lbs.
Sets: 3
Reps: 10
Total Volume: 30 repetitions
Total Tonnage: 30 reps x 25 lbs. = 750 lbs.
Chin-Ups:
Weight Used: 155 lbs. of bodyweight
Sets: 10
Reps: 3
Total Volume: 30 repetitions
Total Tonnage: 30 reps x 155 lbs. = 4,650 lbs.
A look at the numbers confirms the chin-up option will certainly lead to more muscle growth than the dumbbell bicep curls.
This does not mean, though, that you
will apply this to every exercise you're performing in a day. For one
thing, it would take an inordinate amount of time to train if you
inverted the sets and reps for every exercise in your session.
Apply this inversion technique only to
the main movement for that day -- in this case, chin-ups. Perform 10
sets of three reps of chin-ups, then use the more traditional
set-and-rep scheme for the accessory movements.
Control and Explode to Grow
Generally the eccentric, or lowering,
portion of the lift is considered the money component because that's the
part that elicits the most muscular disturbance, the microscopic damage
that prompts muscle growth. Using a controlled, slow eccentric leads to
increased microtears in the muscle, which, in turn, provide the
stimulus the body needs to repair and lay down new, stronger muscle
tissue.
Consequently, many trainees
automatically assume they should be performing the concentric, or
lifting, portion of the exercise at a slow, deliberate pace as well.
This is not true. It's best to explode, lifting the bar quickly.
Lifting with intent and purpose is a
frequently ignored component of muscle growth. Unfortunately, that means
many trainees leave untapped muscle growth on the table by not paying
attention to how they perform the lift. But when they are cognizant of
bar speed and focus on explosiveness while trying to exert force on a
load, trainees will see increased strength gains as well as additional
muscle mass.
Because of heavy weights, the actual
lift of the bar won't always appear to be at high speed. But as long as
the "intent" to be fast is there, the central nervous system will
trigger your body to recruit more high-threshold motor units to get the
job done.
And it's those same high-threshold
motor units that have the greatest propensity for muscle growth. So for
lifters who want an increase in mass, it's a win-win situation..
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Thanks for review.