This is the point in the article where I could go into a long and unusually boring dissertation
about muscle physiology: Muscle fiber types, controversies over whether the muscle gets
larger or divides into new muscle cells, or both.

Number of reps, volume of training, concentric, eccentric, isometric, etc.: this is important
information for the research scientist, but not all that relevant to the hard training bodybuilder.
I mean, what are we looking for here? In a nut shell, what we want is the correct level of
stimulation to a muscle to make it larger, right? Too little stimulus and the muscle won’t grow.

Too much stimulus and the muscle doesn't grow, or worse yet, gets smaller due to injury or
inability to recuperate. The proper stimulus within a given period of time is what we are looking
for.

This brings me to another point. It is not the amount of actual weight that is the most important
factor to muscle growth, but the actual amount of stress or tension the muscle must endure
during the rep that is the crucial stimulus for growth. But some might ask “ Doesn't using
more weight mean more stress on the muscle?”

The answer is no.

If you take 405 lbs. off the rack when bench pressing and bring it down quickly without control,
bounce it off your chest and lock the elbows out hard at the top for one rep, are you
creating more stimulus to the pec muscles than if you took 300 lbs. off the rack and brought it
down with full control, pressed it up without any bounce or momentum, and did not lock the
elbows out at the top for ten reps?

I think the answer to that question is obvious, and we will examine this particular topic in the
coming sections.

The point I am trying to make here is that weight is only a factor within the variable of how

the rep itself is performed. All things being equal (i.e., each rep is performed correctly for that
exercise) weight does matter.

The more weight you can use in a given exercise, with correct form, in a given time period, for
a specified number of reps, the more stimulus for growth the muscle will experience. However,
using more weight for the sheer sake of using more weight, not taking into account how
the rep is performed, does NOT equal more stress on the muscle.

When we talk about a stimulus for growth, we must look beyond the simple micro-environment
of the muscle fiber in question. This is where bodybuilders and scientists often fall short
when trying to examine the topic of muscle growth. An examination at the level of the muscle
fiber, where the actual damage occurs, is obviously important for any study of why and how
muscles grow from weight training.

However, it is not the only factor involved leading to the increase in size and/or number of
muscle fibers in response to weight training.

When we train with weights using sufficient loads and intensity, we cause micro-trauma to
the muscle fiber(s). That is, at the level of the fiber itself, we have caused a certain amount of
controlled damage to the fibers involved.

However, muscle growth is far more involved than simple breakdown and repair. This is the
point in the report where we need to look at the concept known as the “metabolic cost of exercise.”
This concept, though complex if you map it all out, can still be reduced to its most basic
definition: Muscle growth is not a local event that happens exclusively at the level of the
muscle fiber, but is ultimately a systemic response to exercise that leads to muscle growth.

So what exactly is meant by “systemic?”

It means that when we lift a weight several things happen. At the level of the muscle, there
is controlled damage to the myofiber during muscular contraction. This damage (known as
micro-trauma) leads to remodeling (growth) of the muscle predominantly takes place during
the eccentric (negative) part of the rep.

Simply put, at the local level of the muscle fiber, it is the lowering
(negative) part of the exercise that is responsible for most of the
damage to the fiber that (hopefully) leads to muscle hypertrophy
and increases in strength.

From this information we can conclude that a controlled rep,
where the weight is lowered under full control, is a particularly
important part of a properly executed rep.

Now this is what is happening at the local level of the muscle fiber,
but as I said before, muscle growth is ultimately controlled by
the effects exercise has on the entire system. For example, as any
bodybuilder knows, growth hormone is one of several anabolic
hormones important for increasing muscle mass and shedding
body fat.

Growth hormone is a key anabolic and lipolytic (fat mobilizing) hormone that many bodybuilders
are injecting pre-contest and off season to build additional mass and burn fat. However,
growth hormone (GH), insulin, human growth factor one (IGF-1), and to a lesser degree
testosterone, can be partially manipulated by diet and exercise, so don’t think an elephant
pituitary extract enema is the only way you will ever add new muscle!

The metabolic costs of exercise can be shown in this example: When we lift weights we cause
a rise in lactic acid. Research suggests that the signal to release growth hormone in response
to exercise is related to the level of lactic acid in the blood. It is a system-wide response to the
exercise (i.e. the increasing level of lactic acid in the blood) that causes growth hormone to
be released.

In fact, the body produces many metabolites and metabolic byproducts in response to weight
lifting that contribute to the growth of lean tissues being trained.
What does this tell us?

It tells us that weight training does not just cause controlled damage to muscle fibers to stimulate
growth but has a systemic effect. It suggests weight training has a high metabolic cost
that stimulates the entire body to respond to the exercise in a positive way.

Another example of a systemic response to weight training is not commonly appreciated.

When a person first starts to train with weights, their strength climbs rather quickly, yet they
put on relatively little muscle. What is going on here? Scientists have postulated that this early
rise in strength in response to weight lifting takes place from an improved efficiency of the
nervous system, that it is a neural adaptive response.

Personally, I believe that the efficiency of the nervous system continues to play an important
role in the process of building muscle even after many years of training, but that’s another
story.

You see, this is an example that demonstrates it is not only what happens to the muscles
themselves when we train, but what happens to our entire system when we train. The nervous
system becomes more efficient, the endocrine system responds, and various enzymatic pathways
are affected. The body’s response to weight training is clearly not a local event relegated
simply to its direct effects on muscle fiber but is actively promoting a systemic response.
These are a few examples of how the systemic response to exercise leads to increases in size
and strength. The metabolic cost of exercise probably plays as crucial a role in muscle growth
as does the local stimulation to the muscles (i.e. myofiber damage caused by intense muscle
contraction).

When it comes to building muscle I like to keep things simple. It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of hot new products and exercises that promise to be the next best thing in muscle building. Theses fancy exercises and products use long “scientific like” words and explanations to show you they work to build the most muscle.

In this article I am going to get back to basics. I am going to show your three muscle building exercises you can’t afford not to do and why you should be doing them. These three exercises are the grass roots of building muscle and are essential for any serious training program.

You might find it hard to believe, but with these three exercises alone you can pack on a serious amount of muscle. I refer to these exercises as the “core” to any good program. When I start planning I muscle building program for a client I always start with these three basic exercises and build the program around them.

3 core muscle building exercises:

Squat

parallel squat (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The squat is the biggest exercise for packing on serious poundage. There’s no argument about it. The squat is primarily a leg building exercise. You start the exercise with a barbell resting across your shoulders standing straight up. Then bending at the knees and hips you lower the barbell down until your thighs are almost parallel to the floor. And then push the barbell back to the starting position.

The main muscle groups pulled into action for the squat are your quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes. Secondary muscle groups include the lower back, adductors and to a certain extent your shoulder muscles. As you can see many muscle groups are recruited for this exercise making it the biggest exercise and biggest potential muscle builder.
Like all the core muscle building exercises, you should make the squat the first exercise you do on your leg training day. Because it’s the biggest exercise you want your legs to be fresh and ready. If muscle building is your goal, aim for about 8-12 reps on the squat. Because you’ll be lifting heavy weights a good warm up is vital. Squatting is very stressful for the lower body, especially the knees, so 5-10 minutes on the treadmill and some lights squats first up are recommended.

English: an exercise of chest (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bench Press

The bench pres is the king of upper body building exercises. For years the bench press has been used to measure a lifter’s strength. How many times have you been asked “how much do you bench?” I bet you’ve never been asked how much do you squat or how many chin ups can you do.

The bench is a simple yet extremely powerful exercise that targets the entire chest (pectorals), front shoulders (deltoids) and triceps. To perform a bench press you must lie on your back on a flat bench, grip the barbell at slightly wider than shoulder grip and press the bar straight down to your chest.

The bench press is the biggest upper body builder because it allows you to move the most amount of weight possible. This is its advantage over the dumbbell press. With the help of a spotter you can also push yourself to lift heavier weights. There are also other advanced bench press techniques like board presses, bench press negatives and chain presses. See our link at the bottom for more details.

Wide grip Chin Up

If you were only going to do one exercise to work your back this would be it. The wide grip chin up is the ultimate test of a lifters power to weight ratio. This muscle building exercise is very demanding on the body.

English: an exercise of upper back and biceps (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The wide grip chin up primarily hits the lats, but also targets the entire upper back, biceps and forearms. To execute this exercise you need a chin up bar or assisted chin up machine. Hold the bar in a wide grip (greater than shoulder width) with your palms facing away from your body. Start in a “hanging” position with your arms fully extended. Pull yourself up until your can get your chin over the bar and lower back to starting position.

Most people will not be able to do wide grip chin ups without some lat/back training first. You can use the assisted chin up machine or lat pull down machine to strengthen your lats before attempting wide grip chin ups. This is the most demanding back exercise you can do so it must be the first exercise in your session.

When you should be doing these exercises

Like I mentioned previously in this article, these exercises are the biggest muscle builders and also the most taxing on your body so they must be done at the beginning of your workout to get the maximum benefits. I recommend that you do up to 5 sets on each exercise and vary the way you perform these sets each week. For example, the first week you do pyramid up sets, the second week you pyramid down and the third week you do straight sets. This keeps your muscles from getting accustomed to your routine. Good luck packing on some serious pounds!

What Should I be Doing in the Gym?

What are “Compound Lifts”?

How Often Should I Lift Weights?

How Many Sets and Reps Should I Do During Workouts to Build Muscle?

It's an unfortunate reality that throughout the years there has been a growth of strength training techniques that have no scientific proof to back them up. Have a look at the facts presented in this outline of muscle gain principles and make up your own mind.

Below you will find Scientific Guidelines for strength training that have always been around but are not followed by many training systems these days.


1. Limited Energy Level

A strength-training program should be short and simple as you only have a limited amount of energy per training session.

Scientific studies reveal that blood sugar levels (energy) start to deplete after 30 mins, so exercise selection and the time taken to perform them is crucial.

What you should be aiming for is stimulating as many muscle fibres in the shortest period of time available.

Your blood sugar levels deplete after high intensity training (usually between 20 - 30 minutes) and remember that you need energy to recuperate after the workout.

The trick is to give yourself a high intensity workout before your blood sugar level depletes, and then you will have given your body the exercise that it requires to gain the maximum amount of muscle possible.


2. Progressive Overload

Progressive Overload is the main exercise principle you need to be aware of in order to get the results that you're after with strength training.

The two most important points are:

 Complete your exercise with perfect technique
 Push to total failure when doing a set and overload the weight on the bar progressively. (Overload your targeted muscles to beyond what there used to)

Basically this means that when the body is stressed by high intensity training    beyond its normal demands, the body will adapt to these new demands of improved strength.

When I say "normal demands," I mean what level of stress/strength your body is used to now.

An example: The set that you performed last week using the same technique and weight, your body will now have adapted to. If you stay at this level your muscles will not become stronger or bigger, so this is where the Progressive Overload plays a major part.

Once your muscles have adapted to a particular weight then it'll be time to overload them further (add more weight, speed, repetitions). You'll need to keep on repeating this process of overload if you want to become stronger.

Remember to always use GOOD TECHNIQUE. Technique must never be sacrificed for extra load.


3. Training Frequency

The sad reality is that the popular high volume type of training that you find in bodybuilding books and magazines (and used by the stars) is irrelevant to the majority of the population and has a shocking failure rate.

What is good for Joe Star is probably not good for you. Everybody has different genetics; most of us have poor genetics and are not taking steroids like the stars.

The only way the majority of us can make any gains at all is to perform short intense workouts followed by long periods of rest so that we don't overtrain.


4. Over-Compensation

Many studies conducted around the world have shown clearly that recuperation from strength training requires far more rest time than previously thought.

Infrequent, short, high intensity weight training sessions, followed by the required amount of time to recover and become stronger is necessary for you to increase your functional muscle.

Here's what you need to do - allow your body enough recuperation time for over compensation to take place, so that the muscles can adjust to their new strength and growth.


5. Exercise selection for intensity

I can't stress enough of how exercise selection is absolutely crucial. There are only a few exercises that you really need to perform. These exercises consist of multi-joint movements.

These particular exercises are far superior to that of isolation exercises (working 1 muscle group at a time) because you are required to use more muscles from every muscle group.

By using these exercises your whole body will be worked hard.

6. Visualization

Over my 20 years in the industry, I've noticed that this area is by far the most neglected by mainstream health and fitness professionals...

Most books or courses concentrate on the physical side of muscle gain or fat loss and completely neglect the mental side of things.

By training your mental state as well as your physical body you can even further progress in muscle growth.

In part 1, I touched on general weight gain rules and reasons why you can't gain weight. Now it's time to get into workout specifics...

WORKOUT RULES



4. Stop listening to every ridiculous piece of advice you hear in the gym or read on a message board.

Recently a client of mine informed me that someone in the gym stated that he was training all wrong and he needed to train 5-6 days a week, and aim for more reps during his workout. Somewhere in the range of 15-20 reps per set.

The person giving the advice was quite confident about his recommendations, and he had an impressive physique that typically elevates him to the elusive "listen to me if you want to look like me" level in the gym. He was bigger than my client, so even though my client's "intellectual" mind knows that advice is absurd; his "unrealistic dreamer" mind took this information very seriously. So seriously that he changed his program and didn't inform me until a week or so later. This particular person had been making great progress on his current program, yet he allowed this one person’s comment to overshadow that progress and convince him that his program was inadequate. This is a mistake and it showed in his lack of further progress.

In addition, don't judge the validity of what a person says by how they look. Just because the guy is huge doesn't mean he is spewing pertinent advice for you. Many people that have big physiques are big despite of their training, not because of it. I know some huge guys that know very little about training and dieting correctly. They can do whatever and still gain muscle; unfortunately we are not that way, so we much approach things in a more intelligent way.

5. Workout Infrequently

This is the most difficult concept for many to grasp simply because it involves less action, instead of more. When we get motivated and start a new program, it’s natural to want to do something. We want to train and train and train. Thinking all along that the more you train, the more muscle you will build. Unfortunately, this could not be farther from the truth.

More training does not equal more muscle growth. Understand that the purpose of weight training is to stimulate muscle growth. That takes very little time. Once that has been done, the muscle needs to be repaired and new muscle needs to be built. That only happens when you are resting. You do not build muscle in the gym, you build muscle when resting! If you never give your body any essential “non active” time, when will it have a chance to build muscle? Think about that.

Now, add in the fact that you have a difficult time gaining weight and the importance of rest increases. Individuals who are naturally thin and have difficulty building muscle tend to require less training and more rest.

6. Focus on Multi-Jointed Lifts

Multi-jointed exercises are those that stimulate the most amounts of muscle fibers. Unlike isolation exercises which only work individual muscles, multi-jointed lifts work many different muscle groups simultaneously. For those needing to gain weight, this is ideal because these lifts put your body under the most amount of stress. This is the stress that will shock your nervous system and cause the greatest release of muscle building hormones. This results in increased muscle gain all over the body.

You can still do some isolation work; however it should not be the focus of your workouts, and should only come after your multi-jointed lifting is complete.

7. Focus on Using Free Weights

Free weights are preferred over machines for many reasons, but most importantly because they allow the stimulation of certain supporting muscle groups when training. Stimulating these stabilizer and synergistic muscles will allow you go get stronger, and ultimately build more muscle faster. Yes, some can most likely still build large amounts of muscle using machines, but why make it more difficult if you already have a difficult time gaining weight?

8. Lift a weight that is challenging for you

Building mass involves lifting relatively heavy weight. This is necessary because the muscle fibers that cause the most amount of muscle size growth (called Type IIB) are best stimulated by the lifting of heavy weight. A heavy weight as one that only allows you to perform 4-8 reps before your muscles fail.

Using a lighter weight and doing more reps can stimulate some Type IIB fibers, but again if you have a difficult time gaining weight, why make it more difficult? You need to try and stimulate as many as you can with the use of heavy weights.

9. Focus more on the eccentric portion of the exercise.

When you lift a weight, it can be divided into three distinct periods. The positive, the negative and midpoint. The concentric or “positive” motion usually involves the initial push or effort when you begin the rep. The midpoint is signaled by a short pause before reversing and returning to the starting position. The eccentric, or “negative” portion of each lift is characterized by your resistance against then natural pull of the weight.

For example, when doing push-ups, the positive motion is the actual pushing up motion. Once you have pushed all the way up, you hit the mid point. The negative motion begins when you start to lower yourself back down. Most would simply lower themselves as fast as they pushed up, but I recommend extending and slowing down this portion. Slowing down the eccentric part of the lift will help to stimulate more muscle growth. It actually activates more of the Type IIB fibers mentioned about in Rule 7.

10. Keep your workout short but intense.

Your goal should be to get in, stimulate your muscles and then get out as quickly as possible. It is not necessary to do large amounts of exercisers per body part trying to target every muscle and hit every “angle”. This should only be a concern of someone with an already developed, mature physique who is trying to improve weak areas.

If you have no pec, don’t concern yourself with trying to target inner, outer, upper, lower or whatever. Just work your chest. You should do no more than 2-3 exercises per body part. That’s it. Doing more than that won’t build more muscle, faster. In fact it could possibly lead to muscle loss. Long training sessions cause catabolic hormone levels to rise dramatically. Catabolic hormones are responsible for breaking down muscle tissue resulting in MUSCLE LOSS. While at the same time, long training sessions suppress the hormones that actually build muscle.

If you don’t want to lose muscle during your workouts, I suggest limiting your sessions to no more than 60-75 minutes MAXIMUM. Less if you can.

11. Limit your aerobic activity and training

Honestly, I do not do any aerobic activity when I am trying to gain weight. This is mainly because it interferes with the important “non-active” time my body needs for muscle building and recovery. I do understand that people have lives and other activities that they don't want to give up, so it must be kept to a minimum. It won’t hurt your progress as long as you don’t over do it. If you find that you are doing more aerobic activity weight training, that’s overdoing it.

I also don’t recommend it because people tend do it for the wrong reasons. Many start aerobic activity because they believe it will help them to lose fat. While that is true, it won’t do so on a high calorie mass diet. To lose fat, you need to be eating fewer calories.

12. Don’t program hop

Here’s how it usually happens. You’ve just read about a new exercise or workout that is supposed to pack on the mass. Now, even though you had already started another training program a few weeks ago, you are tired of it and really want to start this routine instead because it sounds better.

I call these people, “program hoppers”. They are very enthusiastic when starting a new program, but they never follow it long enough to actually see any results. They are easily distracted and love to drop whatever they may be doing to follow the latest "hot" workout or exercise.

My advice is don’t do it. This is a bad habit that never leads to a positive outcome. Understand that it takes time for any program to work. To be successful, you must follow your program consistently. Yes, there are many different training methods and interesting routines out there, but you can’t do them all at the same time and jumping around won’t allow enough time for any of them to actually be effective for you. Pick one that is focused on your current goal and stick with it. There will be plenty of time to try the others later, but NOT NOW.

Good Enough to Eat - Cuisine (Photo credit: ZagatBuzz)

getting-huge.jpg (Photo credit: ericmcgregor)

Bronze statue of Eros sleeping, 3rd century BC–early 1st century AD (Photo credit: Wikipedia)