Table of Contents
T
HE SCIENCE BEHIND MUSCLE GROWTH; WHY AND
HOW DO MUSCLES GROW.
2
1.
2.INTRODUCTION TO HIGH INTENSITY TRAINING. 5
WHY HIGH INTENSITY?
5
3.TECHNIQUE;
HOW TO PERFORM THE PERFECT REP.
11
11
4.FORCED REPS
21
5.DURATION ;
25
25
HOW LONG SHOULD A TYPICAL WORKOUT LAST?
6.DROP SETS .
28
28
ARE THEY NECESSARY?
7.THE QUESTION ON MACHINES VS FREE WEIGHTS 31
8.IDEAL WORKOUT ROUTINES
34
9.THE QUESTION ON MUSCLE SORENESS.
48
10.
WHAT NO
50
ONE IS TELLING YOU ABOUT FAT LOSS.
1
THE SCIENCE BEHIND MUSCLE GROWTH;
Why
and how do muscles grow.
For you to grasp the concepts of High Intensity
training, you must first understand the basic
concepts of muscle growth, the biology
surrounding muscle growth.
In my experience, understanding the basic
structure of muscles and the science that goes
behind its growth makes workouts that much
more fun since I actually know what I’m doing in
the gym and not just wasting precious time.
That being said, let’s go straight into it.
It has been repeated time and time again that
anaerobic training (weight training), builds muscle,
i.e. moving a certain weight from point A to point B
under significant resistance. THIS IS AN
IRREFUTABLE FACT. You might have also heard
of the term ‘Hypertrophy’ severally which is simply
what happens when your muscle fibers experience
microscopic tears as a result of resistance training,
this results to an overall increase in muscle size as
a compensatory measure against similar attacks
on it in the future.
The muscles ,in this case seem to have a mind of
their own as they automatically initiate several biochemical reactions that rebuild the muscle fibers
bigger and thicker .
2
IMG 1;After Intense training, microscopic tears
occur in the muscle, this forces the muscle to
grow bigger and stronger to prevent similar
attacks to it. All this provided that your diet
and rest is on point.
3
In all routines involving bodybuilding and muscle gain,
this happens to be the primary principle. Doesn’t
matter who you’re getting training from or what
level of expertise you’re at in terms of your
bodybuilding journey, you’ll want to have this
principle as your key driver to success.
You will however, need to understand how to
execute the motions right so as to get the most
out of your workout .You need to understand what
overtraining is and how detrimental it is. You
ignore some of these basic principles, you’ll be
trekking along a very difficult and disappointing
path where the gains will elude you like the
plague
4
INTRODUCTION TO HIGH
INTENSITY TRAINING.
Why high intensity?
Before you embark on this journey, you might be
asking yourself, ‘Why High Intensity?’ . If you have
any rough knowledge of HIT you’d know that
some of the most successful bodybuilders such as
Arnold Schwarzenegger , Sergio Oliva or even
Phil Heath never predominantly carried out this
mode of training. As a matter of fact the Gold’s
Gym Venice crew back in the Golden Era were
known to train for long hours ,twice a day. Yet
here we have Mike Mentzer and his crew
advocating for only a 30 minute workout , 3 times
a week MAX. Was Mike Mentzer crazy when he
started this movement? Going against the greats
of bodybuilding at that period? The short answer is
NO. Mike knew exactly what he was doing and
knew the damaging effects of prolonged workouts
and just in case you never knew. MOST if not all
Pro Bodybuilders have used or are currently using
STEROIDS whose effects counteracts the
degrading and costly effects of long-duration,
high-frequency workouts. Mike even goes further
to state that “they would have developed further
and faster, and reached their present physiques
sooner had they trained accordingly using High
Intensity Training (HIT).”
5
Let me get one thing clear. HIT is extremely brutal,
having used this system myself for quite some
time. It’s not your average workout where you get
your workout buddy to help you out here and
there. HIT will drain you like a bitch and leave you
on the floor in a couple of minutes as you’ll see for
yourself. BE WARNED
6
IMG 2; The brutal nature of HIT will not let you
carry a workout beyond 45Minutes. PERIOD
*DISCLAIMER; I have nothing at all against
steroid use as long as it is done in a safe ,
legal and controlled manner under direction of
a certified physician.
Again I repeat, bodybuilders that compete at a
higher level i.e. The Olympia and the Arnold
Classics all use steroids . There’s absolutely
nothing wrong with that .
7
The results of their use makes the sport
thrilling and fun to watch.
8
So let’s cut to the chase here. What is High
Intensity Training (H.I.T)? Simply put, this is a
method of training whereby you should work out a
muscle to ABSOLUTE FAILURE. By absolute
failure I mean you should not be able to move the
weight in all three motions ;
1;THE POSITIVE (CONCENTRIC MOTION); which is the
ability to raise a weight
2;CONTRACTION; which is the
holding/squeezing phase at the top of a rep
3;THE NEGATIVE (ECCENTRIC MOTION); which is the
ability to lower a weight.(Which happens to be the
most vital movement as we’ll see shortly)
Only after you’ve exhausted your momentary
ability to conduct all three of these movements in
perfect form (we’ll talk about partial reps later) is
when you can
confidently say that you’ve conducted a High Intensity
Workout.
9
IMG 3;Most people assume that they’ve
hit failure when they can no longer lift the weight
A.K.A performing a positive rep. This should
never be the case as you’d be surprised at the
amount of energy you have left to LOWER the
weight . In fact lowering the weight does the
most damage to the muscle thus stimulating it
more to growth.
10
TECHNIQUE;
How to perform the perfect rep.
Now, this is where stuff gets interesting. The very
essence of HIT is performing perfect reps, if
you’re just going through the motions, yes you
might hit failure but have you worked the muscle?
You might be doing the bench press hoping that
you’re working your chest only to find out the
following day that your Front Delts and Triceps
are sore but not your chest .I’ve been
caught in this situation enough times and as
frustrating as it is you must understand one thing
:MIND MUSCLE CONNECTION IS VERY
IMPORTANT. I can’t stress this enough .
So here I’ll teach you a simple trick that will ensure
that you hit the SPECIFIC muscle you’re training
with intensity . Let’s go.
The muscles in the body respond to stretching .
Before a muscle contracts maximally ,it must
stretch first . The same way that for you to stand
up you must be seated to begin with. So in our
case here , for you to perform the perfect lift
ensure that you’ve stretched the targeted muscle
as much as you can before you push
the weight up. Let’s take the biceps as an
example. Before curling the weight to the top
ensure that the weight goes as downwards as
your joints can allow thus stretching the bicep. NO
HALF REPS. As you perform the positive rep
from that stretched position
11
,you’ll notice that you will be feeling you biceps being
12
worked as opposed to if you started the motion
halfway through. Try it with all workouts and you
will be guaranteed to feel the muscle you’re
working on.
13
IMG 4; On the bench-press,
ensure that before pushing the weight
upwards, you stretch the chest at the bottom
of the rep. If your joints allow, you should feel
a slight or major stretch across your chest
depending on the individual . After the stretch
is felt , push the weight upwards.
14
IMG 5; Same applies to the
rowing movements, after feeling a stretch
while lowering the weight, proceed with the
positive rep
15
This technique works like magic , I’m surprised
that not so many people are aware of it. I however
do understand that some people might not have
the greatest range of motion maybe due to a joint
defect or some sort of injury. This is unfortunate
as this method requires you to be relatively
flexible. I highly recommend that you see a
certified physician so as to rectify any possible
underlying problem that could be hindering you
from achieving a full range of motion.
16
Once you got your mind-muscle connection in
check, the second vital aspect of HIT that you
have to keep in mind is; Time Under Tension
(T.U.T) also known as Cadence but we’ll go by
T.U.T here.T.U.T is indispensable and very
important when it comes to HIT. For you to put
enough stress on a muscle for it to stimulate
growth, the muscle MUST be put under as much
tension as necessary . This simply means that the
execution of all your exercises should be
conducted at a relatively slow pace whilst
maintaining active tension. NEVER and I repeat
NEVER let momentum get in the way of your reps.
I want you to understand one thing , once the
speed at which you conduct a rep exceeds a
certain point, momentum takes over and the
amount of muscle you’ll be using to perform that
rep will be greatly reduced thus making the
exercise essentially useless.
By avoiding momentum I mean ; you should not
use another muscle other than the one you’re
working on to assist you in a lift unless the biomechanics of your body forces you to do so. Don’t
bounce weights off surfaces like your chest or
specific types of bouncy floors. Doing so will take
away the stress and the tension off your muscle,
which is not what you want.
17
IMG 6; Resist the urge to
bounce the weight as it induces momentum
which will reduce T.U.T
NEVER LET MOMENTUM GET IN THE
WAY , THE MUSCLE SHOULD BE DOING
ALL THE WORK.
18
The final step towards performing a perfect rep
should be pretty obvious but I see many people
falter in this particular aspect. The amount of
weight used in a particular exercise should be
sufficient enough to require the muscle to contract
MAXIMALLY. A landmark 1975 study by Etlinger
et al. has shown that skeletal muscles can
undergo rapid growth in response to muscle
contraction induced by increased workload.
Again let’s take the example of the bicep curl.
After fully extending your bicep with the weight on
the negative rep, slowly lift the weight up to a point
where you can feel the bicep contract. I describe
the feeling as a feeling of almost bursting,
however, DO NOT force the contraction to a point
of feeling a sharp pain as you run the risk of
actually ripping the muscle, not microscopically ,
but ACTUALLY tearing the muscle.
19
IMG 7;You run a greater risk of tearing
a muscle if you go overboard with the
contractions . BE CAUTIOUS.
20
To sum up all these steps, during each rep, aim
for as great of a range of motion as possible. That
is ;from a point of full extension to a point of full
contraction .By doing this you will be taking the
muscle out of what its accustomed to thus
signaling it to grow bigger and stronger.
21
FORCED REPS
So you’re done with the ‘easy’ part , you’ve
performed the perfect rep and now you want to dip
into your muscle reserves and squeeze out every
ounce of
growth stimulus available. That’s where forced
reps come in. The essence of Mentzer’s High
Intensity Training and Dorian Yates’ Blood and
Guts. This where all the gritting of teeth and
grunting happens.
After you’re done with your working reps and you
cannot perform another rep under a full range of
motion and in perfect form, you can have someone
assist you only slightly in lifting the weight ,
preferably with only three fingers or even two
(You’ll find out that the help is actually more
psychological than physical since the mind gives
up faster than the body ). Have
the help you until as Mentzer put it , “You can barely
complete the rep with an all-out gut-busting effort.”
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL
Having done that, you have only achieved failure
on the positive reps and the contraction at the top
of the rep. You however haven’t achieved failure
on the NEGATIVE REPS which are arguably
even more important than the positive. That being
said, you cannot claim to have worked a muscle
to absolute
22
failure if you haven’t exhausted your strength on
performing the negative reps too . In perfect form.
Having completed your forced positive reps and
working negatives , you now must work on your
forced negatives. How do you do this ? Let’s get
right in to it.
Get your workout buddy to lift the weight to the top
contracted position so that you can lower the
weight all by yourself . What you’ll realize is that
you will still have strength left to perform the
negatives after obliterating yourself on the
positives. (NOTE ; At this point , you will be
getting TOTAL assistance performing the
positives as your partner will push the weight
up for you, all you need to do is lower the
weight.)
As you progress further with your negative reps,
the weight will begin to drop down faster until a
point where you will have absolutely no control of
the weight and it is at that point where you can
say with conviction that you have achieved
TOTAL MOMENTARY MUSCLE FAILURE.
23
*Forced reps however do come with a caveat. In
technical exercises such as squats and heavy
deadlifts , you should be extra cautious . As a
matter of fact , I DO NOT recommend negative reps
to failure on squats as you risk crashing with the
weights on your back (similar to what happened to
JP Fux in that infamous photoshoot). This is
because with large muscles such as the
quadriceps, by the time you realize you’re about to
achieve muscular failure, it would be too late and
you won’t be able to get back up with the weight
and you risk debilitating injuries . BE CAUTIOUS
24
IMG 8; Some of you might be familiar with
this image of JP Fux in the infamous
photoshoot. I do not recommend negative reps
to failure as you’re never sure when that
moment of failure comes. You might fail to
make it through the positive even with
assistance from a training partner thus
crashing to the ground with the weight.
CAUTION IS REQUIRED.
25
DURATION ;
How long should a typical workout last?
Now you might be wondering , how long does a typical
H.I.T workout last , why is time even important
while conducting H.I.T ? The simple answer to that
is SHORT , VERY SHORT . As a matter of fact I
have gone through several workout sessions that
only lasted for 25 minutes that left me sore for
days. This is due to three main reasons .
1. Performing H.I.T is extremely
grueling and draining thus
carrying it out for extended
periods of time means
you’re doing something wrong
2. ;Extending a HIT workout is
counterintuitive due to its
effects on hormones.
3. The ‘PIT Phenomenon’ which we’ll
cover shortly.
You know, when I was a beginner in HIT, I always
got the temptation of doing one more set to failure
. I had convinced myself if one set to failure will
stimulate my muscles to grow, then two sets will
stimulate them even more. I later came to realize
that I was making a huge mistake and being
100% drug free, I wasn’t able to counteract the
damaging effects of overtraining as mentioned
earlier. Let’s discuss the above points in more
detail.
26
 The grueling nature of HIT.
As you have seen in all the points I’ve made
about performing that perfect rep and forced
reps, H.I.T is not easy at all . It could as well
be the most brutal form of physical exercise.
Having that in
mind, if you follow all the steps I’ve shown you
, how long do you think you can last in the
gym? I’ll leave that for you to answer.
 Negative effect towards hormones
I assume as a gym-goer, you are well versed
with the hormone Testosterone and its
antagonist Cortisol AKA ; the stress hormone.
Overtraining has been shown in several
studies to cause a sharp spike in cortisol
levels as a defense mechanism.
Carrying out HIT beyond a certain window of
time is guaranteed to be classed as
overtraining it’s that simple. As a matter of fact
training using this method as a natural (drugfree) athlete beyond the 45 minute mark could
easily be classified as overtraining thus
cortisol will dominate.
Remember if the effects of Testosterone are
hampered by other antagonistic hormones
such as Cortisol and/or estrogen, it doesn’t
matter how you train ,eat or sleep. YOU WILL
NOT GAIN MUSCLE. Avoid overtraining
27
 The ‘Pit Phenomenon’
This is actually a phenomenon that the GOAT
covered in his seminars but he referred to it as
the ‘inroad phenomenon’, but here, I’ll just call
it the Pit Phenomenon as it is more
understandable.
So what is it? For those of you who are new
to it, this is simply the ability of the body to
recover from a workout depending on how
much stress you place upon it. Let me
expound a little further
.You see, for muscles to repair themselves
and grow, they must first and foremost regain
the energy reserves that were consumed
during the gruesome workout. There are levels
to this thing. I want you to picture this in your
mind, you’ve dug a rubbish pit , after serving
its purpose the first thing you should do is
cover the pit with soil, then later maybe you
can make a small hill out if . You don’t make a
hill without covering the hole first . Same
principle applies with muscle, after stimulating
your muscle to grow through a workout, the
muscle must heal and regain its lost energy
reserves first ,then grow.
Having this in mind, if you spend hours in the
gym training, most of your body’s resources
will be directed towards recovering lost
energy reserves and healing . NOT
TOWARDS GROWTH. Stimulate don’t
annihilate as Lee Haney said . Perform
28
workouts that are just enough to stimulate
growth.
Once you’re done stimulating the muscle just
enough , WALK OUT OF THE GODDAMN GYM.
Your work for the day is done.
To quote the GOAT, “If you train as hard
as possible within each set, the fewer
sets you will be able to do before fatigue
obliterates you.”
*The logic here will slightly differ if you’re on
Performance Enhancing Drugs due to the
physiological edge they give you.
DROP SETS .
Are they necessary?
Short answer is NO. You should achieve total
failure with the weight you stated working
with. Do not pull off plates then proceed to
failure with a weight lower than what you
began with . Why is this so?
There are 4 main reasons why this is
discouraged while performing HIT.
1;A significant reduction of the weight will not
require you to output maximum intensity to
the particular set
29
2; The main barometer of progress in the gym
in ALL muscle-gaining programs not only HIT
,is an increase in strength, by doing drop sets
you’ll be shortchanging yourself and you
won’t have a surefire way of knowing whether
your making strength gains i.e. through lifting
heavier weight and not reducing the weight.
3;With drop sets , you are not limited to the
amount of sets you perform , you can perform
as little as 2 drop sets to as many as 6. That
being said, it is VERY easy to over train
without even realizing it . The immense fatigue
you experience say after a leg day which
incorporated drop sets can easily be
characterized as overtraining. You know what
I’m talking , the sense of lethargy and lack of
motivation that precedes such workouts.
We’ve already covered the detrimental effects
of overtraining and this is exacerbated with
workouts majoring on drop sets.
4; While performing drop sets, the propensity
to lockout is greatly increased. As we’ve
discussed earlier lockouts while performing
HIT are highly counterintuitive. They take
stress away from the working muscle and can
lead to debilitating injuries. The period where
you pause and strip the
30
weights away in certain movements such as
the leg press and bench press can trigger a
lockout effect which you want to avoid at all
cost.
It is also worth noting that the intensity of your
working set will actually dip below the level of
you last forced rep that you completed . It
becomes a case of making two steps forward
and one step backwards simultaneously .
31
THE QUESTION ON MACHINES
VS FREE WEIGHTS
So here comes the age old question , which
one works better for muscle growth
stimulation ; machines or free weights. We all
know of some phenomenal bodybuilders such
as Frank Zane , Phil Heath and Dexter
Jackson who never shied away from machine
dominant workouts . On the other hand,
bodybuilders such as Ronnie Coleman and
Luke Sandoe were and are known for their
somewhat manic approach to free weights .
So
who’s right and who’s not. Short answer; no
one as both have pros and cons which will be
covered below.
Pros of free weights
As for free weights the pros are pretty obvious.
1;Free weights maintain better stress on the
muscle being worked. How so? ,through the
reduction of momentum that you might get
from machines
2;With free weights, it’s rather difficult to lockout
.Lockout is greatly reduced while using free
weights because most of your muscular facets
will be used to control the weight as opposed
to using machine weights where majorly you
32
will not be
33
required to stabilize the weight as that is
taken care of already. With machine weights,
you may feel a sense of safety while using
say, a smith machine thus you may be
inclined to lockout.
Pros of machines
1; First and most important . Machines are
extremely essential in contracting the muscle.
As we’ve covered earlier , the contractile
motion of a rep is vital when it comes to
hypertrophy. Machine workouts take the effort
required to stabilize a movement and direct it
to contracting the muscle in positive reps . For
instance, while performing a bench-press on a
smith machine, the weight is already stabilized
as all you are tasked with doing is to lift the
weight, squeeze the muscle at the top without
locking out and finally slowly lowering the
weight. Do this till absolute momentary failure
and you will be good.
2; Machines are vital for controlling
mechanical overload.
This comes is especially handy for beginners
or competitors nearing a show. Why is this
so? This is because certain lifts require the
recruitment of multiple joints , under the
circumstance that
there’s even a slight issue or tweak with one
of the joints, a serious injury can occur.
Because exercise machines control the path
34
of motion and place the
35
greatest amount of tension where the
muscle is strongest, it can be a safe way to
apply the overload necessary to stimulate
hypertrophy whilst preventing injury.
General Consensus
The use of both machines and free weights
comes with pros and cons. That being said,
incorporating both into your workouts is highly
recommended. However, for beginners and
competitors nearing a competition, the use of
machines should be the go-to so as to avoid
costly injuries.
36
IDEAL WORKOUT ROUTINES
Now let’s get down to the actual workouts
which you are meant to act upon. It is worth
noting that the workouts mentioned in this
chapter are not for the faint of heart.
Remember also that to get the most from your
workout , you must STIMULATE the muscle
,not ANNHILATE . Generations of world
famous bodybuilders from Mentzer to Lee
Haney have gone by this mantra . So what
does this actually mean? This means that the
routine must not be so long to a point where it
causes the body to use up all its recuperative
capacity in order to achieve normalcy from the
intense and exhaustive effects of your workout
session (recall the ‘Pit Phenomenon’).That
being said, your main objective in the gym
should be to
1;Stimulate hypertrophy then walk out
of the gym.
2;Avoid the urge to overtrain as this will use up
the body’s recuperative reserve to restore
the body to normalcy instead of using
these reserves for growth.
37
SESSION 1; SHOULDERS, CALVES, ABS
PART
WORKOU
T
SHOULDE Pre
RS
Exhaust
with
seated
shoulder
press
Side
lateral
raises
using
dumbbell
Bent
over
lateral
raises
38
SETS
REPS
1
10-18
1
8-12
1
8-12
PART
WORKOUT SETS
REPS
CALVES
Seated
calf
raises
Standing
calf raises
1
10-18
1
10-18
39
PART
ABS
WORKOU SETS
T
Straight
1
hanging
leg raises
Hanging 1
leg raises
at
different
angles for
obliques
REST FOR 3-5 DAYS.
40
REPS
Failure
Failure
SESSION 2; BICEPS, FOREARMS,
TRICEPS , TRAPS
PART
BICEPS
WORKOU
T
Preexhaust
with
barbell
curls
Standing
EZ bar
curls
Preach
er curls
41
SETS
REPS
1
12-16
1
8-12
1
8-12
PART
WORKOU SETS
REPS
T
FOREARM Hammer 1
8-12
curls or
S
reverse
grip
barbell
curls
Most people can do without this as grip
strength can be very effective in
developing powerful forearms . Just make
sure you keep the use of assistive grip
gear to a minimum and use your bear
hands.
42
PART
WORKOUT
SETS
REPS
TRICEPS
Skull
crusher
Cable
pushdow
n
1
8-12
1
8-12
Dips
1
8-12
43
PARTS
TRAPS
WORKOUT SETS
Pre Exhaust 1
shrugs
using a hexbar or
barbell
REPS
12-16
Dumbbe
ll
shrugs
8-12
REST FOR 3-5 DAYS
44
1
SESSION 3; CHEST AND BACK
PART
CHEST
WORKOU SETS
REPS
T
Pre1
12-16
exhaust
with smith
machine
benchpress
Dumbbell 1 on each 8-12
flyes at
all three
angles
incline,
flat
, decline
45
PART
BACK
WORKOUT SETS
Pre1
exhaust
set of rack
pulls
Pull ups/
1
lat pull
downs
REPS
12-20
Deadlifts
8-10
REST FOR 3-5 DAYS.
46
1
8-10
SESSION 4;
QUADS/HAMSTRINGS(LEGS) AND
ABS
PART
WORKOUT
SETS
REPS
LEGS
Squats
1
8-10
Leg
extensio
ns
1
12-20
Stiff
legged
deadlifts
1
8-10
47
PART
WORKOUT
SETS
REPS
ABS
Sit ups
at
differen
t angles
1
Failure
Leg raises
1
Failure
REST FOR 3-5 DAYS THEN REPEAT THE
CYCLE.
48
IMPORTANT NOTES
 ALWAYS remember that one set to failure
(aside from the pre-exhaust set) is all you
need to stimulate strength and size gains. A
lot of gym- goers seem to have a problem
accepting this, what you have to realize is that
‘more is not necessarily better,’ as Mentzer
puts it . That’s just an economic principle
which holds no value in bodybuilding training.
 All reps should be performed in a strict
manner. This means using a slow and
controlled cadence; 4 seconds on your way
up, a two second squeeze at the top and 4
seconds on your way down. NEVER let
momentum take control or assist you in any
way. This is essential in maximizing the stress
on the muscle thus yielding a growth-stimulus.
 Select a weight that you can use to perform
the amount of reps indicated above to failure ,
increase the weight as you get stronger to
perform the number of reps indicated
 Ensure you keep a progress record so as to
track your strength progression in all your lifts
, this ensures that each workout is planned
out and that you are actually making progress
. Stronger
49
muscles are big muscles and big
muscles are strong muscles , always
keep that in mind.
50
THE QUESTION ON MUSCLE SORENESS.
We all have experienced this type of soreness.
Shall I say a sweet, dull pain that we all look
forward to the day after an intense workout.
Well, for those of you who don’t know, this is
actually a common phenomenon known as
‘Delayed Onset Muscle
Soreness’ ,DOMS in short. So what causes it?
Contrary to popular belief, DOMS is not caused
by lactic acid buildup . The primary cause of
DOMS is inflammation caused by microscopic
tears in the muscle fibers, these tears are majorly
as a result of the eccentric movement of the
weight. KEYWORD; ECCENTRIC. This means
that most of the damage caused to a muscle is as
a result of the negative rep where the muscle
lengthens . This brings me back to the point where
I said that achieving muscular failure on the
negatives is just as important if not more important
than on the positive. As a matter of fact, several
studies have shown that eccentric activities
induce micro-injury at a greater frequency and
severity than other types of muscle actions.
Having that in mind, we can conclusively say that
the soreness serves as the body’s indicator to
avoid any form of training of the sore muscle as
this will lead to further damage.
Is DOMS an indicator of muscle growth? While it
is an indicator of adequate stress on a muscle as
a growth
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stimulus, by itself it will not cause muscle
growth if factors such as diet and sleep are not
optimized.
However, more often than not , prior to stimulating
your muscle with a weight it is not accustomed to,
you will experience DOMS due to the micro-tears
within the muscle fibers from the heavier weights.
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WHAT NO ONE IS TELLING YOU
ABOUT FAT LOSS.
I could as well call this a secret for the single
reason that, the concept I am about to explain
does not receive as much attention as it needs.
You don’t need to go any further than Instagram to
see all these fitness models advocating fasted
cardio as the most effective mode of fat loss, this
is a very pertinent falsehood that needs to be
debunked. The reasoning behind this
rationale being that ‘the low glycogen levels that
your body experiences during a fasted state
,cause your body to shift energy utilization away
from carbs, therefore allowing for greater
mobilization of fat for fuel’ this is according to a
Brad Schoenfeld article (2011). Schoenfeld goes
on to state that, the concept of looking at fat loss
during a SINGLE exercise session is highly
flawed. This is due to the dynamic nature of the
human body and the fact that fat utilization in the
human body is reliant on several factors including
hormones and enzymes as opposed to what
happens in a single cardio session. That being
said, if you are in a premise of losing body fat
outside the competitive realm (Contest Prep) i.e.
not using any PEDs you should aim to lose body
fat constantly for the most part of the day. As you
will see down below, once you perform fasted
cardio, your fat burning capabilities end a few
moments after your workout. Is that what you
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want?
Or do you want to be a fat burning machine than burns
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fat even at rest . If that’s what you are aiming for, let’s
get right into it.
Muscle mass and fat loss
Muscle mass is the single MOST
IMPORTANT factor when it comes to
incinerating fat in your body. Having that in
mind, you should prioritize weight training
over cardio. I know this comes as a surprise
to many people, well, you shouldn’t be. Let
me explain.
Several ground breaking scientific including
the landmark Stiegler study of 2006 has
stated that , “Given that fat-free mass (FFM)
represents a key determinant of the
magnitude of resting metabolic rate (RMR), it
follows that a decrease in lean tissue could
hinder the progress of weight
loss”. In this case FFM simply stands for
muscle mass and RMR simply means, the
ability of the body to burn fat at rest,
WITHOUT ANY FORM OF CARDIO. Thus ,
an increase in muscle mass will
increase the body’s ability to burn fat at a
constant rate even in your sleep. I don’t
about you , but this is what you should be
aiming for. Other studies including the
Jacquet et al. (1998) study have shown that
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there is a positive relation between the
reduction of thermogenesis (fat
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burning capability through heat production)
and the degree of fat mass depletion during
states of food deprivation A.K.A fasted
states. This simply means that, while
attempting cardio in a fasted state over an
extended period of time, the body auto
regulates its use of fat as an energy source
through lowering the body’s metabolism .
This means that your body stops burning fat
and you become caught up in a state of zero
progress.
Let me expound further on some concepts of
increased muscle mass in relation to fat loss.
1;Adding more muscle to your frame will
increase your metabolism thus leading to
fat loss 2; The process of recovering from
a grueling workout will use up energy in
two ways
 Through the food you’ve
consumed thus leaving little of it
to be stored as fat.
 Through you adipose(fat)
reserves thus reducing body
fat
3;Weight training burns fuel in the same ways
mentioned above
4;More muscle improves insulin sensitivity
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Having all these pointers in mind, it is easy to
conclude that focusing on weight training is
mire beneficial when it comes to fat loss than
the
common ‘fasted cardio’ scheme . This is the
same reason why golden era bodybuilders
almost never performed fasted cardio
because it holds barely any scientific proof of
effect. It’s literally that simple.
It’s very easy to fall for what the
bodybuilders who endorse fasted cardio say,
but you have to understand one thing, THEY
ALREADY HAVE THE MUSCLE so they’ll
be burning fat at rest whether or not they
perform fasted cardio.
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