Dedicated to Your Physical Transformation
This newsletter often waves the caution flag about muscle damage and how it can prolong recovery and even derail growth.
When you create a lot of damage during your workout, which most bodybuilders do continuously, that damage must be repaired before hypertrophy can happen.
And therein may lie the answer to why muscle growth is so slow for most—if anabolic drugs aren’t involved. [Read more…]
I recently saw an IG post explaining that muscle soreness does not equate to muscle hypertrophy.
True. While muscle soreness is usually caused by micro-tears in muscle and connective tissue, it merely means you did something your muscles aren’t used to… [Read more…]
Q: I’m on the Size Surge 2.0. I’m loving it! Feeling bigger already, but I have a question about shrugs. I started with dumbbell shrugs, 4X style. Then I went to barbell shrugs and got a whole new soreness in my upper back. The exercises don’t feel that different. Why did I get so sore?
A: Amazing how one little tweak to an exercise can trigger new soreness. It’s all about angle of pull and restriction vs. non-restriction. [Read more…]
Q: I did all of my most recent workout with negative-accentuated sets as you suggested, and I’m very, very sore. Is that good for muscle growth?
A: Whoa! We never suggested doing an entire workout, every work set, in negative-accentuated (NA) style—that is, one second up on the positive and six seconds down on the negative. If you do all work sets that way, you will induce a lot of muscular trauma due to EXCESSIVE negative emphasis. The negative stroke induces the most soreness, so it will take many days to repair… [Read more…]
Q: I get sore muscles after almost every workout, and then I’m still sore the next time I go to the gym. Is it bad to train a muscle when it’s still sore?
A: Scientists believe that sore muscles are caused by micro-tears in the fibers. In other words, it’s damage. Training a muscle hard while it’s still sore is like scratching the scab off of a wound before it’s completely healed. It impairs the healing process and can cause damage that retards proper recovery.
[Read more…]
