15 years ago, I would have said impossible to gain anymore than
10 pounds of muscle in a year! This is certainly not the case anymore.
In fact, it is proven!
Based on a 35 year learning curve in
bodybuilding competition and what I know about anaerobic exercise and
diet now, this would certainly seem impossible from where I was back
then. However, as the saying goes... "If I only knew then what I know
now!"
Back in the 70s I was training comparatively much less than anyone else on the scene except for a man named Mike Mentzer and his brother Ray. I was training 3 days a week, doing one half the body on one workout, and the other half on the other! I was doing maybe 7-8 sets per workout while all others were doing 20-30 sets and doing those sets twice a day, 6 days a week. I was still training too much even with the 7 sets I was doing! More is not better when building muscle.
It was very refreshing to see how Mike had changed the way bodybuilders conduct their business, meaning, building muscle. Mike approached it from a scientific point of view. With the help and time spent with his mentor Arthur Jones, who is the creator of Nautilus, Mike became known in that time as the Thinking Man's bodybuilder! Although Mike is no longer with us, due to an undetected condition unrelated to bodybuilding, I still consider him one of the greatest minds in bodybuilding science and moreover in this era.
Back in the early to middle 90s, I had the pleasure of Mike's knowledge first hand. I contacted him for phone consults for myself and in that we developed a friendship where he helped me forge my thought process, which has allowed me to guide my clients' progress without guessing or hoping, they might make progress. They just do! At the time Mike had been building his own personal training business (and he helped me with mine) and was doing an awful lot of research on building muscle. He admitted as I just have, even though he was training less than anyone else, he was still training too much!
GENETICS
As with all human beings, we are physically not that different. If we were, doctors could not treat symptoms, perform surgery and help us heal our illnesses if they are present. A good example is with an anesthesiologist. This doctor knows exactly how much anesthesia to give you when performing his craft. He doesn't guess! It is a science. In being a science much like any other science that has exact disciplines, there are certain proven theories. If this was not the case, NASA would never have been able to send an astronaut into space and have him come back safely. It would be a crap shoot! But, it isn't.
Genetics is a factor in the mix. As are there different individuals who have tolerance to sunlight, i.e. albinos at one end of the spectrum and Negros at the other, there are those who have different tolerance to exercise within a specific spectrum. Meaning, they can only be EXPOSED to a certain volume and frequency. I have a good friend that is a Negro who has no problem being out in the hot August sun for an hour or more, however his wife, who is a red head, fair and freckled, can not withstand a fraction of the same that he can, without incurring a nasty burn.
There is no question that high intensity training, like the sun, is nothing more than a stress that nudges the body to adapt and compensate for that stress. Once it compensates for the added stress, it overcompensates. The overcompensation that occurs by intense training is the laying down of additional muscle and the overcompensation that occurs in being in the hot August sun is the laying down a tan, darkening the skin.
Here is a great analogy... like working in the garden, and getting a callus on your hands, you never get a callus on your hands by setting the table.
THE INVERSE
You can train hard or you can train long, but you can't train hard and long. The harder you train, the shorter the duration must be! It is specific to the outcome.
No one really knows how much intensity it takes to turn on the growth mechanism of the body. Is it 50, is it 70, is it 85 or is it 100%? No one knows. So the most logical place to start is at 100%. There are those who tout cycle training or periodization, where you increase and back off of the intensity in a cycle fashion. This is malarkey! All they are doing is trying to compensate for the exhaustive effects of the workout. If done properly this is unnecessary!
SYSTEMIC RECOVERY FIRST
The body does not recover based on your body parts...meaning, if you train chest and arms today it does not mean that your system has recovered to train shoulders and back tomorrow, wait a day, train legs, then eyebrows and fingernails (just kidding) etc. The body recovers systemically. It recovers as a whole. If you short circuit the process in the mean time by training again before you have compensated and then overcompensated, you will experience very little gain if any and quite possibly back slide or loose muscle in the long run.
Did you ever notice as a beginner bodybuilder you make gains right off the bat no matter what you do. However, as you get bigger and stronger, your gains slow down? Once your progress slows the usual response is the more is better theory. Those trying to build a more muscular body go to the nearest guru muscle magazine, search through all the routines to find out what the most current Mr. Olympia is doing and then switch to that routine! REDICULOUS! Then they thumb through to see the most recent magic potion that will help them gain muscle while they train!! STOP WASTING PRECIOUS TIME!
First off, the Mr. Olympia's of today and yesteryear use and used, huge amounts of drugs like growth hormone, insulin, steroids to name a few. All of these drugs step up the body's recovery systems and put them into hyperspace. The problem is two fold, they are very expensive and they are illegal. Now there is question if I agree with their legality as I believe in free choice but the fact still remains that they aid in warp speed recovery. Most of us choose to gain muscle based on our genetic ability and not with drugs.
Building muscle is much like building a mountain. When you train, the stimulation or stress, as long as it is intense enough to turn on the growth mechanism in the body, is much like digging a ditch. Before you can build a mountain, you must first fill the ditch. Once the ditch is filled, then and only then, can you put more earth on top of the filled hole to create the mountain. OK, here is the clincher!!
You body only has 100 shovel fulls or points (I will call it that) of recovery ability. It doesn't matter if you have a 12 inch arm or an 18 inch arm... that is all you have no matter what level of development you are at. If you use those up during your workout there is nothing left for recovery or growth.
The problem is that an 18 inch arm able to curl 200 lbs can contract more intensely than a 12 inch arm that can curl 50 lbs. THIS MEANS that the more intense contraction of the 18 inch arm uses more of those 100 shovel fulls and more of the recovery ability than the 12 inch arm. REMEMBER, training is always a negative. If we could stimulate muscle growth without training...this would be perfect as we could use those 100 shovel fulls in the compensation (or recovery) stage and then the overcompensation stage which is muscle growth. Reiterating again, the body must first recover from the exhaustive effects of the workout or compensate, fill the ditch, then anything left over goes into overcompensation or building muscle, building the mountain. Recovery can take up to several days if not weeks!
MANAGING VOLUME AND FREQUENCY
Have you ever noticed after a layoff whether forced or voluntary, you always come back even stronger? I have noticed this myself and throughout my bodybuilding career and with my clients. These are the findings...
1. We know that it is the intensity of effort that stimulates the body to turn on the growth mechanism. We also know that as you grow bigger and stronger the contraction must be more intense to further stimulate growth.
2. We know there is an inverse of working hard and long, thus our workouts must be brief.
3. We know that a well designed bodybuilding program is really a strength program. As you get stronger you will experience a muscular gain. Strength gains precede bodyweight gains.
4. We know that the body recovers and grows systemically
5. We know that the body has limited resources and as we grow bigger and stronger those resources are further taxed.
THE PERFECT WORKOUT
We spoke about a number of things so far, let me give you an example that will interest you...
Peter, who is an RU Serious avid student started on a workout I prescribed over the phone to him 13 weeks ago. He was doing 3 sets, 2 separate workouts, training once every 7-8 days for about 15 minutes. Peter has been a bodybuilder but until recently, has not had the desire to put on an extreme amount of lean body tissue. Furthermore, he tells me that he is planning, with my revised routine, on doubling his gains so far. We will see! His stats are below.
****Client - Peter
****Profession - LMT
****Age - 41 years Old
****Height - 5'6"
****Beginning Bodyweight - 159 - 10% body fat
****Bodyweight 13 weeks later - 190 - 10% body fat
****Lean Muscle Gain 13 weeks - 31 pounds
****Goal Bodyweight - 220 - 10% body fat
As you can see, it does not take much in volume to stimulate muscle growth. In fact, the stronger you become the less frequent and the less volume should you implement regarding your workouts.
I am actually going to recommend for Peter to reduce his sets from 3 per workout to 2 per workout and train every 8-10 days in order for him to reach his goal set. Until my change in his routine 13 weeks ago, Peter has not experienced this sort of growth. Again, genetics, volume, frequency, exercise tolerance. Bodybuilding is a science if you adhere to certain principals and theories. The trick is being able to manage increased intensity and decreased volume and frequency.
My clients experience gains each and every workout and do not have to wonder if they are progressing or not. If you are doing this right, you should experience progress each and every workout and reach your genetic potential within a year and at max two!
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Sahli
Back in the 70s I was training comparatively much less than anyone else on the scene except for a man named Mike Mentzer and his brother Ray. I was training 3 days a week, doing one half the body on one workout, and the other half on the other! I was doing maybe 7-8 sets per workout while all others were doing 20-30 sets and doing those sets twice a day, 6 days a week. I was still training too much even with the 7 sets I was doing! More is not better when building muscle.
It was very refreshing to see how Mike had changed the way bodybuilders conduct their business, meaning, building muscle. Mike approached it from a scientific point of view. With the help and time spent with his mentor Arthur Jones, who is the creator of Nautilus, Mike became known in that time as the Thinking Man's bodybuilder! Although Mike is no longer with us, due to an undetected condition unrelated to bodybuilding, I still consider him one of the greatest minds in bodybuilding science and moreover in this era.
Back in the early to middle 90s, I had the pleasure of Mike's knowledge first hand. I contacted him for phone consults for myself and in that we developed a friendship where he helped me forge my thought process, which has allowed me to guide my clients' progress without guessing or hoping, they might make progress. They just do! At the time Mike had been building his own personal training business (and he helped me with mine) and was doing an awful lot of research on building muscle. He admitted as I just have, even though he was training less than anyone else, he was still training too much!
GENETICS
As with all human beings, we are physically not that different. If we were, doctors could not treat symptoms, perform surgery and help us heal our illnesses if they are present. A good example is with an anesthesiologist. This doctor knows exactly how much anesthesia to give you when performing his craft. He doesn't guess! It is a science. In being a science much like any other science that has exact disciplines, there are certain proven theories. If this was not the case, NASA would never have been able to send an astronaut into space and have him come back safely. It would be a crap shoot! But, it isn't.
Genetics is a factor in the mix. As are there different individuals who have tolerance to sunlight, i.e. albinos at one end of the spectrum and Negros at the other, there are those who have different tolerance to exercise within a specific spectrum. Meaning, they can only be EXPOSED to a certain volume and frequency. I have a good friend that is a Negro who has no problem being out in the hot August sun for an hour or more, however his wife, who is a red head, fair and freckled, can not withstand a fraction of the same that he can, without incurring a nasty burn.
There is no question that high intensity training, like the sun, is nothing more than a stress that nudges the body to adapt and compensate for that stress. Once it compensates for the added stress, it overcompensates. The overcompensation that occurs by intense training is the laying down of additional muscle and the overcompensation that occurs in being in the hot August sun is the laying down a tan, darkening the skin.
Here is a great analogy... like working in the garden, and getting a callus on your hands, you never get a callus on your hands by setting the table.
THE INVERSE
You can train hard or you can train long, but you can't train hard and long. The harder you train, the shorter the duration must be! It is specific to the outcome.
No one really knows how much intensity it takes to turn on the growth mechanism of the body. Is it 50, is it 70, is it 85 or is it 100%? No one knows. So the most logical place to start is at 100%. There are those who tout cycle training or periodization, where you increase and back off of the intensity in a cycle fashion. This is malarkey! All they are doing is trying to compensate for the exhaustive effects of the workout. If done properly this is unnecessary!
SYSTEMIC RECOVERY FIRST
The body does not recover based on your body parts...meaning, if you train chest and arms today it does not mean that your system has recovered to train shoulders and back tomorrow, wait a day, train legs, then eyebrows and fingernails (just kidding) etc. The body recovers systemically. It recovers as a whole. If you short circuit the process in the mean time by training again before you have compensated and then overcompensated, you will experience very little gain if any and quite possibly back slide or loose muscle in the long run.
Did you ever notice as a beginner bodybuilder you make gains right off the bat no matter what you do. However, as you get bigger and stronger, your gains slow down? Once your progress slows the usual response is the more is better theory. Those trying to build a more muscular body go to the nearest guru muscle magazine, search through all the routines to find out what the most current Mr. Olympia is doing and then switch to that routine! REDICULOUS! Then they thumb through to see the most recent magic potion that will help them gain muscle while they train!! STOP WASTING PRECIOUS TIME!
First off, the Mr. Olympia's of today and yesteryear use and used, huge amounts of drugs like growth hormone, insulin, steroids to name a few. All of these drugs step up the body's recovery systems and put them into hyperspace. The problem is two fold, they are very expensive and they are illegal. Now there is question if I agree with their legality as I believe in free choice but the fact still remains that they aid in warp speed recovery. Most of us choose to gain muscle based on our genetic ability and not with drugs.
Building muscle is much like building a mountain. When you train, the stimulation or stress, as long as it is intense enough to turn on the growth mechanism in the body, is much like digging a ditch. Before you can build a mountain, you must first fill the ditch. Once the ditch is filled, then and only then, can you put more earth on top of the filled hole to create the mountain. OK, here is the clincher!!
You body only has 100 shovel fulls or points (I will call it that) of recovery ability. It doesn't matter if you have a 12 inch arm or an 18 inch arm... that is all you have no matter what level of development you are at. If you use those up during your workout there is nothing left for recovery or growth.
The problem is that an 18 inch arm able to curl 200 lbs can contract more intensely than a 12 inch arm that can curl 50 lbs. THIS MEANS that the more intense contraction of the 18 inch arm uses more of those 100 shovel fulls and more of the recovery ability than the 12 inch arm. REMEMBER, training is always a negative. If we could stimulate muscle growth without training...this would be perfect as we could use those 100 shovel fulls in the compensation (or recovery) stage and then the overcompensation stage which is muscle growth. Reiterating again, the body must first recover from the exhaustive effects of the workout or compensate, fill the ditch, then anything left over goes into overcompensation or building muscle, building the mountain. Recovery can take up to several days if not weeks!
MANAGING VOLUME AND FREQUENCY
Have you ever noticed after a layoff whether forced or voluntary, you always come back even stronger? I have noticed this myself and throughout my bodybuilding career and with my clients. These are the findings...
1. We know that it is the intensity of effort that stimulates the body to turn on the growth mechanism. We also know that as you grow bigger and stronger the contraction must be more intense to further stimulate growth.
2. We know there is an inverse of working hard and long, thus our workouts must be brief.
3. We know that a well designed bodybuilding program is really a strength program. As you get stronger you will experience a muscular gain. Strength gains precede bodyweight gains.
4. We know that the body recovers and grows systemically
5. We know that the body has limited resources and as we grow bigger and stronger those resources are further taxed.
THE PERFECT WORKOUT
We spoke about a number of things so far, let me give you an example that will interest you...
Peter, who is an RU Serious avid student started on a workout I prescribed over the phone to him 13 weeks ago. He was doing 3 sets, 2 separate workouts, training once every 7-8 days for about 15 minutes. Peter has been a bodybuilder but until recently, has not had the desire to put on an extreme amount of lean body tissue. Furthermore, he tells me that he is planning, with my revised routine, on doubling his gains so far. We will see! His stats are below.
****Client - Peter
****Profession - LMT
****Age - 41 years Old
****Height - 5'6"
****Beginning Bodyweight - 159 - 10% body fat
****Bodyweight 13 weeks later - 190 - 10% body fat
****Lean Muscle Gain 13 weeks - 31 pounds
****Goal Bodyweight - 220 - 10% body fat
As you can see, it does not take much in volume to stimulate muscle growth. In fact, the stronger you become the less frequent and the less volume should you implement regarding your workouts.
I am actually going to recommend for Peter to reduce his sets from 3 per workout to 2 per workout and train every 8-10 days in order for him to reach his goal set. Until my change in his routine 13 weeks ago, Peter has not experienced this sort of growth. Again, genetics, volume, frequency, exercise tolerance. Bodybuilding is a science if you adhere to certain principals and theories. The trick is being able to manage increased intensity and decreased volume and frequency.
My clients experience gains each and every workout and do not have to wonder if they are progressing or not. If you are doing this right, you should experience progress each and every workout and reach your genetic potential within a year and at max two!