You saw some of the problems in getting giant leaps in muscle mass for the average drug-free bodybuilder…
The fact is that there are many factors involved in the ideal time when your next workout should occur. When you hit the gym, you want damage to be repaired and supercompensation (growth) to have occurred.
But it’s not just the volume and intensity of your previous workout that determine the right recovery time between muscle hits…
Nutrition, life stresses, and sleep all play a role as well…
Add to that the fact that Mother Nature thinks lots of lean muscle tissue could endanger your survival. That’s because big muscles take more energy (food) to maintain and are not really necessary.
Fat, on the other hand, is stored energy and can carry you over during a famine, which is why it’s damn hard to lose…
So as far as Mother Nature goes, body fat good, big muscles not so much…
So what’s the answer to getting your best muscle gains possible—other than using dangerous drugs or going back in time and convincing your mom to marry Steve Reeves or Arnold?
1) Add reps or weight to an exercise when you can—without degrading your form. Don’t try to force it—strength progression will be a slow process once you exit the beginner stage…
2) Train each muscle twice a week, using 10 to 15 sets per muscle per week (ideal volume is specific to the individual). If you’re older, you should probably do even fewer.
3) Emphasize the “ideal” exercise for each muscle for the majority of your sets; use an add-on exercise for one or two sets to get unique fiber recruitment.
4) Take sets close to failure, but they should not be nervous-system-draining, underwear-staining “seizure” sets. Remember, you want some muscle damage but not excessive trauma that takes three or four days to repair.
5) Get seven to eight hours of restful sleep a night, eat enough calories to meet your energy needs with around a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight, don’t slam high balls every night, and use meditation and positive self-talk to minimize stress.
6) To compensate for slow strength gains, vary your workouts often with the best change-to-gain tactics (you can see most of these in the Old Man, Young Muscle workouts)…
- Exercise switch
- Altered rep speed
- Stretch overload
- More or less rest between sets
- Exercise shuffle
- Rep-range change
Bottom line: You have to be in this for the long haul and continue to “massage” your workouts. Experiment in the gym…
It’s not easy; if it were, everyone would look like Frank Zane (my excuse to show this motivating shot of him—not sure who took it)…
Latest Release: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
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