Muscle building 101 for men
Today we are talking about intensity but more importantly, how intensely focused you are on the goal that you're saying that you are. If you're trying to build muscle, how really committed are you to it? and it starts with a plan because if you don't have that, you're not getting there, I can guarantee you that.
Think about how many times you've seen people who walk into the gym, and they accidentally think that just by swiping that gym card they somehow earn their man card. Okay I did it I showed up, I'm building muscle. No you're not, you've been doing anything yet, you've just showed up.
Step 1 : have a plan
When you go to the gym you have to have some sort of a plan for that day, and how it's going to get you closer to that goal. And then how it relates in the bigger picture to where you're going. From there how's that single workout set you up for the next one.
You see, far too many times I see people walk into the gym and they're doing what they like to call, instinctive training. instinctive training doesn't mean like I'm gonna do this machine because it's next to this machine realizing that this is abductor machine for my thighs and this is bicep curl machine. And sure you might be on that buns and guns program or whatever it is that you're defiling at the moment.
And maybe it's justified in that case, but most of the time they're not, they're just walking around the gym doing whatever is close to each other with no real plan that's instinctive but not in a good way or they're like well I know better than that, I'll just do back exercises all right I'm gonna do a pull down, I'm gonna doing pull-ups, and they're all back exercise.
So I'm actually approaching this very scientifically maybe not because what you're looking at here is doing a bunch of vertical pulling exercises where you working in horizontal pulling when you changing the planes around. Are you actually just over lapping strength curves? Should you be mixing in cables with dumbbells because you can get strength curves that actually are going to complement each other?
So there's more to it than that,and if your goal here is hypertrophy you also have to understand that there's an element of strength that needs to lay at the base of that.
You have to be willing to commit to the basics the compound movements and rely on progressive overload to build that foundation and strength because you're going to need the strength to ultimately help you get as big as possible.
But we know that there's elements here that people overlook all the time because they don't have a plan. You need to have a plan and everything starts from there.
Step 2 : Bring your "A" effort
So the plan is in place now but now you actually have to do something, and this is where the second big focus comes in and that is on your effort. What are you actually doing how much effort are you exerting when you actually go to pick up the weights. And this is your biggest opportunity because if you blow this I can tell you you're not going to grow.
Don't go into the set thinking that there's a specific number that you have to hit, throw the numbers out the window, the numbers are there for a guideline, the hypertrophy range is in the 10 to 12 rep, It could go 7, 8 or 9.
People can grow muscle in any of those ranges if the effort level is there, but in the generally accepted range of 10 to 12 how are you approaching this? Are you stopping just because you hit a number? That's a major mistake!
Instead let your effort guide you push as hard as you can. Try to accomplish something in this set that you've never accomplished before if possible and I realize that that's not always necessary. Some people are gonna say: well, what if I want to train for volume? If I'm training for volume here, I'm going to be doing sub-maximal training so every set is gonna be a little bit sub max.
Well let me tell you this about volume training. If the accrual, the addition, the additive effect of all of those sub-maximal sets isn't in and of itself a stressor, or a stimulus for a growth, then guess what? All you're doing is a bunch of shitty warm-up sets.
You need to have that accrual of all that volume to become a stressor, if it's going to provide the intensity needed to create overload. So you need to bring whatever it is that you're training for, bring the effort and intensity to every single thing you do, and that is where you start to see those noticeable changes from your hard work.
Step 3: Add set intensifier techniques
I like to add set intensifiers and for me I rely on a rest-pause technique here, something that allows me to rest for a brief moment to regroup to get back a little bit of strength, so I can push through another couple reps, because every single additional rep that I can kick out, every bit of extra effort that I can put out and this set is going to be a stimulus for overload. And it doesn't just have to be this it could be a superset it could be a drop set, there's a lot of other techniques that you can use, but I really highly encourage you to not just quit when you think it's over, because you'll be surprised at how much your body is holding back.
Your mind is way stronger than what your body is willing to give it. For once let your mind be in charge, let it say hey you know what? get your ass back on the bench and give me another couple reps, and you'll be surprised at what will come out of your body, I can guarantee you this.
So use these set intensifying techniques if you want to see more from your workouts.
Okay! so you had the plan, you exert the effort, you went the extra mile here with the set intensifier and the set is over, now what happens? well if you're doing it the right way, you're going to respect your rest or you're gonna take out your phone and you're gonna start looking for what's going on on Instagram, or maybe checking out what's going on on Facebook, but that's not what you want to do when you're training instead.
Step 4: respect your interest rest times
The only thing you should be taking this phone out for is to set the timer and make sure that you're getting your ass back on the bench again to do the next set exactly when the timer tells you to, because if you're training for hypertrophy, I always like to say you can train harder, you can train long, but you can't do both.
If you're training for hypertrophy, get yourself back in there 60 to 90 seconds rest, and you'll be surprised for those guys that like to go on the phone, how fast that comes around.
I want you prepared and ready for the next set so that when the timer hits you're going into the next set. And that's a very short period of time, if you actually start to hold yourself accountable to that, if you're trained for strength on the other side of the coin you might be trying to extend those rest periods more, three to five minutes neurologically allowing your body to recover and regroup, so you can come back and attack maybe that next set to your one two three rep max with a lot more intensity, but don't train for hypertrophy and rest for strength, and don't train for strength rest for hypertrophy.
You have to have just as much of a plan for your rest as you did for your work set as you do for your overall workout it's all part of the equation.
Okay last but not least not by a long shot if you're a natural lifter you are trying to build muscle.
When it comes to learning the basics here, you must respect your recovery just as much if not more than everything else you did up to this point, because you can get it almost all right, but if you screw up your recovery you're never gonna build muscle.
It's just like the guy who walks over the tightrope he holds that balance beam right he's doing great. Except when he gets right to about I don't know maybe 90% of the way there if he falls off then guess what he is he's dead, not close, he's dead.
You need to approach your recovery the very same way that means you need to take seriously your sleep your nutrition your supplementation your management of your own stress levels all the things that will dramatically impact your ability to either really recover from your training or not recover from your training at all, and just because it's the part that's inactive, the part where you're not doing the pushing, or the pulling, or the squatting, the stuff that seems boring, it is just as impactful on the overall picture as that element of your training.
So make sure you're getting a recovery right.
so there you have it. it really isn't that complicated but it's also not easy because it does take a lot of effort it's going to require above anything else that intensity and it's also going to require that you are intensely focused on making sure that you are not overlooking any of those elements.
