THE MUSCLE EVO MUSCLE
BUILDING CHEAT SHEET
TODAY, I am going to show you exactly how to go
about building muscle.
If what you’re doing at the moment isn’t working,
please pay attention. What I have to say might be just what
you need to get better, faster results.
STEP 1: GET REAL
The first step is to make sure you have realistic
expectations about how much muscle can be built and how
fast you can build it.
You’ll come across a lot of wild claims about how much
muscle it’s possible to gain naturally, as well as the length of
time it’ll take to build it.
Here’s the truth:
If you have 20-30 pounds more muscle than an average,
untrained, fully-grown man of your height and frame, you’re
doing extremely well. Women can cut those numbers in half.
That’s about as much as most people can realistically
expect to gain over the course of their training lifetime.
Am I saying that’s the absolute upper limit for every
single human being that has, or ever will, set foot on this
planet?
No. But I am saying for most people, it’s going to be
there or thereabouts.
How long will it take to get within shooting distance of
your maximum muscular potential?
Most people will need to train for somewhere between 3
and 5 years before they get anywhere close to their physical
limits as far as muscle size is concerned. That’s 3-5 years of
hard work, proper training and good nutrition.
It’s not something you can do in 30 days, 12 weeks or
even 12 months.
Claims that you can gain 18 pounds of muscle in two
weeks, 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, or whatever else, are
total BS.
Eat enough food, and it’s possible to gain a large
amount of weight in a relatively short period of time. But
most of that weight is going to be in the form of fat rather
than muscle.
Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, who combined great
genetics and a Herculean work ethic with more than a little
pharmaceutical assistance, was very happy when he gained 25
pounds (11.4 kilograms) in weight over the course of a year.
Here’s what he wrote in Arnold: The Education of a
Bodybuilder:
“Many people regret having to serve in the Army. But it
was not a waste of time for me. When I came out I weighed
225 pounds. I’d gone from 200 to 225. Up to that time, this
was the biggest change I’d ever made in a single year.”
To repeat, that was 25 pounds in weight, and not just
muscle.
If one of the greatest bodybuilders in history is saying
that 25 pounds was as much as he ever gained in one year (and
not all of this was muscle), there’s no way that a drug-free,
genetically average guy can expect to do the same thing in a
fraction of the time.
STEP 2: TRAINING FREQUENCY
One of the most important decisions you can make
when you’re setting up your training program is how often
each muscle group should be trained.
Training a muscle once a week can and will make that
muscle bigger. However, for most people at least, it’s probably
the least effective way to train.
If you want your muscles to grow as quickly as possible,
you should be training them at least twice a week.
Why is that?
There’s a ceiling, or upper limit on the amount of
stimulation your muscles can respond to in any given
workout. And the closer you get to this ceiling, the smaller the
return on your investment of time and effort becomes.
As an example, let’s say that doing 6 sets rather than 3
sets per muscle group speeds up growth by 25%. But going
from 6 sets to 9 sets might increase growth by 10%. A further
increase from 9 sets to 12 sets might have no effect at all, with
those extra sets representing so-called “junk volume.”
In this particular example, you’d be better off doing 6
sets twice a week, rather than 12 sets once a week.
In short, when you train a muscle group directly only
once per week, the muscles might spend a few days “growing”
after the workout. But if you leave an entire week between
training each muscle group, you’re missing out on an
additional opportunity to stimulate growth.
STEP 3: TRAIN HARD AND PUSH YOURSELF
Many people take the view that muscle growth is
triggered by progressive overload. That is, adding weight to
the bar, or doing more reps with the same amount of weight,
is the key to building muscle.
But it’s actually the other way around.
Your ability to add weight to the bar, or to do more reps
with the same amount of weight, is the result of your muscles
adapting, rather than the cause of it.
Put differently, your muscles don’t grow because you’re
overloading them. You’re able to add reps and weight because
your muscles have adapted. If your muscles hadn’t adapted,
they wouldn’t be able to do the extra work.
Think about it.
Let’s say that you go to the gym on Monday and bench
press 100 pounds for five reps, with that fifth rep being the
last one you’re able to do. On Wednesday, you go back to the
gym and try the same thing again. This time, you’re able to do
six reps.
The reason you’re able to complete that extra rep is
because your body has adapted. If there had been no
adaptation, and your body literally hadn’t changed in any way,
you would still only be able to lift 100 pounds for five reps.
So, what is it that stimulates growth? What makes your
muscles bigger?
The key stimulus for growth is to train hard and push
yourself in each set. There’s no need to overcomplicate things
by using a rating of perceived exertion or reps in reserve.
Just take each work set to (or very close to) the point
where you’re unable to do another rep using good form.
That will send the “make me bigger” signal to your
muscles, and you’ll come back to the gym with a little more
muscle than you had before.
STEP 4: EXERCISE SELECTION
Some say that certain exercises, such as the squat,
deadlift, bench press and so on, are “essential” for building
muscle. These exercises work large numbers of muscles,
making them a very efficient use of your training time. I like
them a lot.
However, they’re not always the most “joint friendly”
options out there. The last thing you want is to feel constantly
nagged by various aches and pains in your knees, elbows,
shoulders or back.
If you find that a particular exercise makes your joints
flare up, don’t be afraid to ditch it and find a similar one that
doesn’t. There is no single “must do” exercise that can’t be
replaced with something else.
Your muscles can be stimulated just as well with
alternatives (many of which I show you in my MX4 training
program) that don’t cause the same level of pain or
discomfort.
STEP 5: SETS & REPS
As far as sets go, there is a “dose-response” relationship
between the number of sets you do for a muscle and the speed
at which that muscle grows.
In other words, the more sets you do – up to a point at
least – the faster your muscles will grow. However, there is a
point at which doing more sets becomes counterproductive.
In other words, there’s a theoretical “optimal” number
of sets per muscle group, above and below which gains in size
will be slower than they otherwise would be.
As a rough guide, 10-12 sets per muscle group per week
is a good starting point. Then, you can adjust the number of
sets upwards or downwards based on how your body
responds.
As far as reps go, conventional wisdom has it that
training with light weights and high reps builds muscular
endurance, but makes little contribution to gains in size.
Heavy weights and lower reps has long been the
accepted “best way” to build muscle. That’s because lifting
heavy weights places tension on a large number of muscle
fibers, which in turn sends the “make me bigger” signal to
those fibers.
However, lifting heavy weights isn’t the only way to put
a large number of muscle fibers under tension.
Training with lighter weights and higher reps – where
you “go for the burn” and your muscles feel like they’re
pumped up and about to explode – generates a large amount
of metabolic stress, which has also been shown to increase the
activation of muscle fibers.
In fact, lighter weights and higher reps do a surprisingly
good job at stimulating muscle growth, which gives you a lot
more choice about the type of training you do.
For example, joint issues or injuries may mean that
lifting heavy weights causes pain in your shoulders, elbows,
knees or wrists.
The solution is very simple. If going heavy on certain
exercises causes you pain, just go light instead. You can make
the switch from heavy weights and low reps to low weights
and high reps without missing out on any gains.
Maybe you just prefer using lighter weights on certain
exercises, and heavier weights on others. Again, you can do so
quite happily without worrying that you’re putting the brakes
on muscle growth.
As long as you train hard and push yourself, high reps
(15-20), medium reps (12-15) and low reps (5-8) can all be
used successfully to build muscle.
STEP 6: STICK WITH IT
Once you have a decent training and nutrition program
set up, the key to long-term success is to stick with it.
Forget about the latest muscle-building bandwagon that
everyone else is jumping on, no matter now tempting it might
look. Don’t worry about complicated training routines, exotic
muscle-building supplements or fancy diets.
There’s no need to become an expert on every single diet
and training method known to man. Just choose one path and
stay on it.
Only allow yourself access to the information you need
in order to stay on that path, and be ruthless about blocking
out all the other noise and distractions.
Concentrate on training hard and eating right. Set
challenging but realistic goals for yourself and work as hard as
you can towards achieving them. Do that and the size will
come.
NEED A WORKOUT PLAN THAT DOES ALL OF THIS?
For a complete science-based training program that will
give you more muscle than you have right now without
wrecking your body or beating up your joints, check out
MX4 at the link below now:
https://muscleevo.com/MX4