More Effective Muscle Building Workouts
Why is it that almost all of the muscle
building workouts you read about advocate body-part splits?
Monday is chest day, Tuesday is back, Thursday is legs and
Friday is arms…or something like that, I guess.
Why does everyone just do what everyone
else is doing and follow the herd like a bunch of sheep without
stopping to ever consider why?
You need to understand that most forms of muscle building
workouts have just been passed down for decades from one
generation to the next, without the inclusion of rational
thought. Sometime in the 60’s, sensible muscle building
workouts started becoming less and less prevalent with the
rapidly growing usage of anabolic steroids.
In the days of old, men like Steve Reeves and Paul Anderson
trained with far more reasonable, lower volume programs.
Unfortunately these smarter muscle building workouts started to
disappear during the 60’s. By the time Arnold got to Gold’s Gym
in Venice for the first time, high volume, body-part splits
were the widely accepted way for everyone to train for size and
strength.
These types of muscle building workouts are not based on
deductive reasoning but just on the fact that “it’s what
everyone else is doing.” The proponents of these training
methods will always blindly tell you that “higher volume
training is needed for hypertrophy gains.” Says who? I can tell
you for a fact that the University of Chicago isn’t wasting
time examining the effects of Jay Cutler’s marathon workouts.
There are no studies saying that you need 8-12 sets per
body-part to grow. In fact there are studies that show the
opposite; that one set is just as effective as three.
The proponents of this type of training will also tell you that
higher volume training is associated with higher levels of
growth hormone secretion. What they don’t tell you is that the
level of GH increase is not enough to make any difference at
all. In fact, almost anything you do elevates GH. Extreme
temperatures elevate GH but my biceps don’t get bigger every
time I take a shower. The increased GH secretion from training
is so minimal that it is not enough to make the slightest
difference whatsoever.
For the drug free lifter who does not possess muscle building
genetics quite up to par with the current Mr. Olypia, training
this way is a huge mistake. Not only does it drain your amino
acid pool and glycogen stores but it dramatically enhances your
recovery time between workouts. If you do 8-12 sets for chest
on Monday you can not recover from that workout and be able to
train again for seven days. So you are only getting one growth
stimulus per week or fifty two per year. Now if you reduce your
volume to the point where you can recover faster and more
efficiently without draining your amino acid pool and glycogen
stores so greatly, you can train bodyparts twice per week
instead of once. Now instead of 52 muscle building workouts per
year for each bodypart, you can now do 104. In fact, if your
volume is kept low you can even get away with training
bodyparts three times a week in certain situations. Now, which
do you think will be more effective; 156 muscle building
workouts per year or 52?
To train more often you absolutely have to lower your training
volume. The total sets per workout should be kept low and the
total sets per exercise should be even lower. There is no need
to hit four sets of incline presses, flat bench presses and
decline presses for your chest workout. Doing that is a form of
neuroses; you think that you need to hit every angle and do and
endless amount of sets to stimulate every last muscle fiber,
but this is simply not the case.
The reason these types of muscle building workouts remain
popular is because nobody wants to be told that they are wrong.
Admitting your mistakes is something many people can’t do. It
is why when something radically different is proposed, the high
volume proponents get upset and offended. Nobody likes to have
their ego bruised so they keep on doing and promoting the same
old high volume workouts that they always have.
That’s fine, let them continue to do what they choose;
personally I have way more important things to do than spend
all of my waking hours in the gym. If I can get better results
in a fraction of the time with short, highly effective muscle
building workouts, I will choose that option every time.
Cut your volume down, up your weights and intensity and get
ready for the “what are you on” questions to start rolling
in.
Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is
renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as
humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s
Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column
dedicated to muscle building. For More Effecive Muscle Building
Workout tips, check out Muscle Gaining
Secrets.
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