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Moment of Bodybuilding Zen 26: Doug Brignole, 59-year-old Mr. Universe

Our friend and colleague Doug Brignole just won the 2019 Drug-Free Mr. Universe Open division at age 59. Very impressive [photo courtesy of Doug Brignole ]… [Read more…]

Moment of Bodybuilding Zen 21: Arnold’s Delts

Arnold was revered for his arms, particularly his sky-high biceps—but check out Arnold’s delts in the photo below. They were really popping that day. [Read more…]

Moment of Bodybuilding Zen 18: Dorian Yates

Dorian Yates ushered in the mass-monster era of bodybuilding with his 1992 Mr. Olympia victory. Even the Mr. O before him, Lee Haney, who was massive in his own right, knew that Dorian was a new breed of sheer mass and density. [Read more…]

Moment of Bodybuilding Zen 7: Arnold & Son

Check out Arnold in his prime below and his son Joseph, age 21. The resemblance is uncanny. Are genetics important in bodybuilding? Absolutely, as is the case in most sports. 

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Max-Muscle-Size Study: Rest Between Sets—is short or long best?

Q: Your 4X mass method has 35 to 45 seconds rest between sets. I’ve seen research that longer rests between sets can be better for strength and muscle growth. What’s your take on that?

A: Legendary trainer Vince Gironda, the Iron Guru who trained Mr. Olympias as well as Hollywood stars to build muscle fast, first got us into reducing rest between sets for muscle growth—he called it Density Training…

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Step Back to Move Your Muscle Mass Forward

Q: I’m super impressed! I’ve been on the Size Surge workout for four weeks, and I’ve gained 7 pounds. My shirts are tighter with no increase in my waist, so it seems to be all muscle. The program calls for a back-off, or low-intensity, week between the two training phases. Is that really necessary, or can I go right into Phase 2? I don’t want to lose any mass. Any time I’ve taken a week off or even reduced my training, I’ve gotten smaller.

A: No, do not go right into Phase 2. The back-off week (#6) between the two phases has a definite purpose. It will allow your nervous system to recharge and your muscles to completely recover so you can push into the next phase with more intensity. And during that downshift week, you should get bigger, not smaller, despite what you thought you experienced in the past. Here is what hypertrophy researcher Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D., says about the process… [Read more…]

Study: Forgotten Muscle-Mass Trigger

It’s becoming clear that muscle elongation is very important for accelerating hypertrophy to a new level. 

In other words, loaded stretching can provide another layer of freaky size quickly.

An older study that we often reference showing that was performed by Jose Antonio, Ph.D., et al.—and it produced incredible muscle size increases. Here’s what he said about it:  [Read more…]

Anabolic Phasing: Muscle Hypertrophy Tsunami

Q: I’ve been following the current bodybuilding training trend of hitting each muscle once a week with lots of sets. Growth has been slow, but you’d think that with so much volume and intensity at one workout, it should take a full week for that muscle to completely recover, right?

Well, training each muscle with lots of volume once a week will produce some growth—if intensity is high enough to produce significant damage. The question is how much is enough?

Less volume for each muscle but with more frequent body part hits has proven a better, more sure-fire method for optimal hypertrophy in most cases and works as a sort of anabolic phasing… [Read more…]

Volumizing Muscle Tissue (significant size increases)

Q: So glad you clarified many of the hypertrophic requirements for muscle size in Anabolic Reload [progression, exercise rotation, metabolic stress, etc.]. One that really got me thinking was volumization. I believe it was Vince Gironda who said that more work done in the same or less time creates mass quickly. My question is, What do you think about drop sets instead of rest/pause as the volume addition to each exercise? Seems like you get more work in the same time frame.

A: The drop-set method is one of the best hypertrophic tactics around because it does condense workload into a short time frame. Studies verify the [Read more…]