Title: Best Muscle Building Tips Author: Jim Smith, CPPS | dieselsc.com Overview: When trying to optimize muscular growth and/or strength development, the major factor is trying to challenge and stress the muscles via progressive overload. There has to be an appreciable amount of tension (amount of weight used for an exercise), metabolic stress (dependent upon volume, intensity, and time under tension), and damage (microtrauma to the working muscle groups) to ultimately expose the muscles to sufficient time under tension in order to force adaptation or growth. Tip 1: Program More Variety When trying to build muscle fast, your workouts should include a variety of rep ranges and loads (heavy weight : low reps AND moderate weight : higher reps), a variety of loads (% of your 1RM), a variety of exercises (barbell, machine, bodyweight, etc.), and a variety of movement patterns (or angles) (narrow, shoulder-­‐width, wide-­‐grip, sumo, conventional): § Variety of Rep Ranges and Loads (TENSION): Combining heavy weights with low weights (powerlifting, ex. 8 sets x 3 reps with 85%+ of 1RM) for your primary exercise and following that with higher volume supplemental or accessory lifts (bodybuilding, ex. 4-­‐5 sets x 15-­‐20 reps with 70-­‐85% of 1RM) – typically referred to a ‘powerbuilding’ – in the same workout, can unlock your ultimate potential for adding strength and muscle mass very fast. § Variety of Exercises: Compound exercises engaging multiple muscle groups and multiple joints at the same time, along with a variety of supplemental exercises that target the same movement pattern, will give you many options to stress the lifter’s muscles through a range of motion and create the tension, stress, and damage required for growth, ex. barbell bench press supplemented with dumbbell bench presses and high volume push-­‐ups. § Variety of ‘Tools: Utilize every option you have available to you in the gym, i.e., barbell, bodyweight, (cable, hammer, nautilus) machines, dumbbells, elastic bands, strongman, sandbags, or kettlebells. § Variety of Movement Patterns / Variety of Angles: When tyring to maximize development of a muscle group or multiple muscle groups, changing the angle can provide a different stimulus and attack the muscle in a different way – i.e., sumo vs. conventional deadlifts, wide-­‐
grip bench vs. close-­‐grip bench, front squats vs. back squats. 5 Critical Muscle Building Methods www.defrancoinsider.com Tip 2: Increase Metabolic Stress Through Greater TUT (STRESS) In my best-­‐selling program, Diesel MASS, I detail how effective extending the time under tension for a set is for developing greater muscle mass faster than I ever seen before – especially for lifters who have been training for many years or have reached a plateau. If you understand the concept of tempo and how each repetition contains 3 different phases: lowering (eccentric) phase, pause (isometric or amortization) phase, and drive (concentric) phase, you can start to calculate how long each of your sets take. Example: Exercise: Barbell Bench Press § You take 2 seconds to lower the weight to your chest § You pause the barbell on your chest for 1 second § You drive the bar back to lockout in 1 second Total: Each repetition takes 4 seconds If you are supposed to perform 8 repetitions, that means the entire set will take 32 seconds: 8 reps x 4 sec/rep = 32 seconds When changing the tempo, the most effective way to increase microtrauma (DAMAGE) to the working muscles is to focus on the eccentric phase of the lift. In our example above, simply increasing the eccentric (lowering) phase by 1 more second, increases the total time under tension by 8 seconds to 40 total seconds: 8 reps x 5 sec/rep = 40 seconds So, what other ways can you extend your sets and increase the time under tension: Other Advanced Extended Set Protocols: § Rest-­‐Pause Training: Short, pre-­‐defined rest periods working with greater percentage of 1RM, 70-­‐85% of 1RM or 12RM, 5 total sets shooting for 20-­‐25 total reps, only resting 15 sec rest between sets. § Supersets: Performing two non-­‐competing exercises (non-­‐competing exercises means that you perform two exercises back-­‐to-­‐back that don’t utilize the exact same muscle groups in the same way or the same movement pattern -­‐ so you’re able to continue moving from one exercise to another without a decrease in your ability to perform reps and keep good form). Supersets are typically written as 1A and 1B where you perform 1A) and 1B) back-­‐to-­‐back with no rest. You only rest after the 2nd exercise is done: Example: 1A) Barbell Bench Press, 3 sets x 6-­‐8 reps, no rest 1B) Pull-­‐ups, 3 sets x 8-­‐12 reps, rest 90 seconds 5 Critical Muscle Building Methods www.defrancoinsider.com §
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Giant Sets: Performing three (or more) exercises (1A, 1B), and 1C), back-­‐to-­‐back with no rest. You only rest after the last exercise is done: Example: 1A) Sumo Deadlifts, 5 sets x 3-­‐5 reps 1B) KB Swings, 5 sets x 20 reps 1C) Split Squats, 5 sets x 6-­‐8 reps/leg Dropsets: Performing an exercise with a moderate-­‐to-­‐heavy amount of weight and then immediately, with no rest, performing the same exercise OR a similar exercise with the SAME movement pattern with less weight to failure or near failure. Example: 1A) Pull-­‐ups, 3 sets x 6-­‐8 reps 1B) Lat Pull Downs, 3 sets x 15-­‐20 reps Reps-­‐Based Sets: You will pick a target number of repetitions for a particular exercise, load up a moderate-­‐to-­‐heavy weight (typically 12-­‐20RM or approx. 50-­‐
75% of your 1RM) and perform the exercise, stopping as short as possible utilizing a rest-­‐pause (15-­‐20 seconds rest ONLY between attempts) protocol until you hit the target repetitions. Example: Dumbbell Tricep Extensions, Target: 100 repetitions: Pick a weight you can perform 20 repetitions with to start the set. For Set 1, you will perform as many repetitions with good form as you can, rest no longer than 15-­‐20 seconds, and repeat until you get to 100 reps. Time-­‐Based Sets: Pick a target time, typically 30-­‐45 seconds, and perform an exercise for the entire time period. When utilizing time-­‐based sets, a slow eccentric (lowering) is typically perform and exercise form is very strict. If the target time period is low, i.e., 30 seconds, a heavier weight is used. If the time period is longer, a moderate weight is used. Both time-­‐based sets and reps-­‐based sets can be utilized with a dropset or giant set -­‐ with multiple exercises – to further enhance the muscle-­‐building effect and optimize the training effect in the workout. Tempo Modifications: In the slower eccentric example above, by extending the eccentric phase, we will introduce more microtrauma into the working muscles and extend the total time under tension of the entire set. 5 Critical Muscle Building Methods www.defrancoinsider.com Tip 3: Constant Tension Sets vs. Heavy Compound sets In the legendary strength and conditioning text, Supertraining, Mel Siff described a technique for increasing an athlete’s muscle building (hypertrophy) potential, called continuous tension sets. Continuous tension sets is actually a technique is actually very common amongst high-­‐
level competitive bodybuilders. It involves keeping the tension on the working muscle (groups) by never resting the weight at lockout or midway through the repetition. The repetition stays in the mid-­‐range of the movement, i.e., from right before lockout to right before the bottom end-­‐range. The idea is that if you relax at lockout or the bottom range of the lift, the muscle comes off tension and you lose intensity of the muscular contraction. I’ve found the continuous tension sets work very well for supplemental lifts where you’re not lifting a maximal (max effort) amount of weight with a heavy compound exercise (ex. bench, deadlift, squat, military press). This technique should be reserved for sub-­‐maximal supplemental lifts. As a point of clarification, when performing heavier maximal lifts -­‐ of greater than 90% of your 1RM for a 1-­‐5RM -­‐ with the goal of increasing absolute strength, locking out the weight can ensure that you’re using optimal technique with each repetition in every set – and keeping your bracing and technique as optimal as possible. As a coaching cue, the lifter is typically instructed to turn the max effort set into multiple ‘singles’, i.e., not thinking of performing 3 repetitions, but rather 3 single reps. 5 Critical Muscle Building Methods www.defrancoinsider.com Tip 4: Perfect Your Technique Every exercise you perform in the gym requires a very specific technique. And you should be always trying to improve your technique for every lift – regardless of the weight used – to ensure you can move through the full range of motion required for the lift, you can maintain good position (neutral or straight spine for heavy ground-­‐based compound exercises), and you can maintain tension throughout the exercise. Unfortunately, due to never stretching and training for many years, most lifters are very tight in the ankles, hips, upper back, chest and shoulders. This will prevent them from having optimal technique for certain exercises and will put their joints in a bad position when they’re training. This can be a big issue especially when they’re under tension, which can lead to injury, muscle pulls, or even tears. If the goal is to build muscle and get stronger, improving your technique first starts with opening up your ‘tight’ areas and ensuring you always perform a comprehensive warm-­‐
up before you start loading the bar up. A good warm-­‐up always includes some type of self-­‐myofascial release (or SMR), dynamic mobility drills (improve ROM for tight areas), and activation exercises (to target the muscle groups you will be using in the workout). Typical Tight SMR Mobility Activation Areas Ankles Foam rolling* on calves and front of shins Foam roll the glutes, hamstrings, adductors, and IT band Ankle mobility drills, calve raise stretch Striders, Rear foot elevated hip flexor stretch Upper Back Foam roll the upper back and perform upper back extension over the foam roller Lat stretches on power cage Shoulders/Chest Foam roll the lats, chest, shoulders, and triceps Chest and shoulder stretches on power cage Hips Calve raises, pogo jumps Hip thrusts, dumbbell swings, back extensions, glute bridges Face pulls, band pull aparts, dumbbell posterior flyes, Y,T,W,L, inverted rows Push-­‐ups, light dumbbell military press * Foam rolling – make sure you roll slowly and deliberately. If you don’t have a foam roller, you can use a medicine ball, tennis ball, or lacrosse ball. 5 Critical Muscle Building Methods www.defrancoinsider.com Tip 5: Greater Focus on Recovery The biggest misconception in the fitness industry is that strength training makes you stronger. This is false! Strength training makes you weaker and breaks your body down. Strength and greater muscle mass comes from your body recovering from the actual training. And, your ability to train intensely every single time you step into the gym is directly related to how well you recover between training sessions. Focus on your recovery as soon as the very last repetition in your workout is done, and you will begin the rebuilding process to be able to train optimally in your next workout. As a special note, the very same ‘better movement’ exercises and drills you perform in your warm-­‐up to get ready for the workout, can also be used as a form of active recovery during an extra workout you perform at the opposite end of the day from a workout or during an “off” day – to help speed up your recovery. Other Methods of Recovery: Static stretching, deep breathing drills (box breathing), sleep, hydration, extra low intensity workouts, sled dragging, aerobic conditioning/cardio, Epsom salt baths, contrast showers, ART, sauna, good nutrition, vitamin D, fish oil. SCIENTIFIC STUDIES: Landmark Muscle Building Study detailing the importance of variety of rep ranges (low vs. high) and loads (heavy vs. moderate) and the ‘Big 3’ for optimizing hypertrophy – tension, stress, and damage: Schoenfeld, BJ. The mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and their application to resistance training. Journal of Strength Conditioning Research. 2010 Oct;24(10):2857-­‐72. Benefits of Isometrics: Schott, J, McCully, K, and Rutherford, OM. The role of metabolites in strength training. II. Short versus long isometric contractions. European Journal of Applied Physiology. 71: 337-­‐341, 1995. Benefits of Ultra-­‐High Volume Sets: Burd NA, West DWD, Staples AW, Atherton PJ, Baker JM, Moore DR, et al. Low-­‐load high volume resistance exercise stimulates muscle protein synthesis more than high-­‐load low volume resistance exercise in young men. PLoS ONE. 2010;5(8):e12033. PMCID: PMC2918506 Increased Vitamin D, Increases Muscle Building Potential Holick, M.F. Vitamin D Deficiency. New England Journal of Medicine. 2007. 357(3), 266-­‐281. Boland, R. The role of vitamin D in skeletal muscle function. Endocrine Reviews. 1986. 7(4), 434-­‐
448. 5 Critical Muscle Building Methods www.defrancoinsider.com