I want to talk to you today about the best way to build muscle.
If what you’re doing at the moment isn’t working, please pay attention.
What I have to say might be just what you need to get better, faster results.
Step one is to decide how many days a week you’re going to train.
The first option is to train your whole body three times a week on
alternate days, normally Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Tuesday, Thursday
and Saturday or Wednesday, Friday and Sunday will work just as well.
Monday: Whole Body
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Whole Body
Thursday: Off
Friday: Whole Body
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
Option two is to train four days a week using an upper/lower split.
You hit the upper body on Monday, lower body on Tuesday, then take
Wednesday off. Thursday is upper body, Friday is lower body and you have
the weekend off. Each muscle group is trained twice a week. Of all the
training splits I’ve used over the years, this one is my favorite.
Monday: Lower Body
Tuesday: Upper Body
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Lower Body
Friday: Upper Body
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Off
The third option is something called the push/pull/legs split. You
train either four or five days a week, doing the pushing movements
(chest, shoulders, and triceps) on Monday, the pulling movements (back
and biceps) on Tuesday.
Then you take a day off before training legs on Thursday, followed by
another day off on Friday. On Saturday you go back to the beginning and
do the push workout again.
Week 1
Monday: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
Tuesday: Back, Biceps
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Legs
Friday: Off
Saturday: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
Sunday: Back, Biceps
Week 2
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Legs
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
Friday: Back, Biceps
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Legs
So you train for two days, take a day off, followed by one day of
training, followed by another day off. Each muscle group is trained
every fifth day. Because you don’t train on the same days each week,
you’ll need a very flexible schedule to pull this one off.
While there are literally thousands of different routines available,
these are the ones that will pack on the maximum amount of muscle in the
shortest possible time.
It’s often said that beginners should avoid split routines
and stick with full-body workouts that involve working each muscle group
three times per week.
That’s mainly because they can’t recruit as many muscle fibers in
each workout, don’t create as much muscle damage, and so can recover
more quickly.
But as long as their training program and diet are set up correctly,
beginners can still make good progress on split routines that involve
training 4-5 days per week.
In this Baylor University
study, a group of beginners gained 12 pounds of muscle in just 10 weeks using a 4-day split routine.
A 12-week
trial,
this time using untrained beginners on a 5-day split routine, shows
that guys using milk as a post-exercise supplement gained almost nine
pounds of muscle with no additional fat.
In much the same way that beginners can make impressive gains using a
split routine, anyone who has moved past the beginner stages of
training can still add a substantial amount of size by working their
whole body three times a week.
University of Alabama researchers, for example,
found
that a group of men who had been lifting weights for several years
gained almost 10 pounds of muscle on a full-body routine performed three
days per week for three months.
As a rule, the heavier you train, the
longer it will take
to recover. So if you’re using a weight that limits you to 3-5
repetitions per set, you will need more rest between workouts for the
same muscle group. With lighter weights and higher repetitions (10-15),
you can often repeat a workout for that same body part 2-3 days later.
The next step is to train very hard and concentrate on getting strong at pressing, pulling and squatting.
Make sure to choose big, compound exercises. The best exercises for each movement category are as follows:
Horizontal push (flat/30-degree incline barbell bench press, flat/30-degree incline dumbbell bench press, suspension trainer push-ups)
Horizontal pull (seated row, dumbbell row, inverted bodyweight row)
Vertical pull (chin-up, close grip front lat pulldown, wide grip front lat pulldown )
Vertical push (standing barbell press, standing dumbbell press, seated dumbbell press)
Knee dominant (squat, split squat, leg press)
Hip dominant (deadlift, sumo deadlift, rack pulls)
If there is a secret to building muscle, it’s to keep on getting
stronger in the 5 to 15 repetition range on a few basic exercises for
each major body part. If you’re not getting stronger, there’s a good
chance you’re not getting bigger either.
A total of 20-25 “work sets” per workout (excluding warm-up sets) is
more than enough to trigger rapid gains in strength and size. That’s not
25 sets per muscle group, that’s 20 sets in total for the entire
workout, divided across 1-3 exercises for each muscle group. There is
rarely a need to do more.
Most of your training should be done using heavy weights in the 5-8
repetition range. For maximum muscle growth, you should also include
some higher rep (10-15) sets in your workouts.
There are numerous different ways to do this, from higher rep sets
(10-15) and short (30-60 seconds) inter-set rest periods to a couple of
back-off sets at the end of a series of heavy sets. Even just using a
light weight and slowing your reps right down will
make your muscles grow.
Don’t get carried away with all the advanced techniques you read about in the magazines.
Blitzing your muscles with lots of forced reps and descending sets
might leave you feeling sore. It also leads to a greater stress on the
neuromuscular system, which is going to extend your recovery time. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to grow any faster.
There’s
no proven link between soreness and growth,
and no rule that says you have to annihilate each muscle group in order
to make it grow. And contrary to what you might think after watching
this trailer for Pain and Gain, wearing a unitard or tank top is
not a requirement for building muscle. So please don’t do it.
To repeat, building a decent amount of muscle means that you will
need to get strong. There is no such thing as big without strong. Don’t
let anyone try to kid you otherwise.
You will also need to get into the habit of planning your workouts in
advance. Before you even set foot in the gym it’s vital that you know
exactly what you’re doing when you get there. If you’re serious about
gaining muscle, just “winging it” won’t be good enough anymore. That’s
why I highly recommend keeping a training diary.
Probably the most important benefit of a training diary, and the
single biggest reason why most people don’t use one, is that it will
force you to face facts. Is what you’re doing delivering results? Or are
you doing nothing more than simply repeating the same workout over and
over again in the hope that it’ll suddenly start working?
It’s also a good idea to include some kind of deload or light week for every 3-9 weeks of hard training.
Yes, I know you’re worried that taking your foot off the gas will
leave you smaller and weaker, especially if you’re the type who sees any
amount of time off as a wasted opportunity for progress. But your body
isn’t a machine and will benefit from a rest now and again, especially
as you get older. I know it’s a cliché, but sometimes you do need to
take a step back in order to take two steps forward.
What you do in the gym is only half the story when it comes to
gaining muscle mass. Without enough food, much of your muscle-building
efforts in the gym will go to waste. Here’s a quick and simple way to
work out your calorie needs for building size:
- Firstly, calculate your lean bodyweight. For example, if you weigh
175 pounds at 20% body fat, you have 35 pounds of fat and a lean
bodyweight of 140 pounds.
- Multiply your lean bodyweight by 20. Using a lean bodyweight of 140 pounds, that gives you 2800 calories per day.
If you find that you’re not gaining any weight, increase your calorie
intake by around 250 calories per day until the scale starts moving in
the right direction.
I know that might not sound like much, especially when you compare it
with some of the 5000 calorie “bulking” diets out there. But you can’t
force your muscles to grow faster simply by stuffing yourself with food.
That’s because there’s an upper limit on the amount of nutrients you
can take in and turn into muscle. If you’re currently eating below this
upper limit, then you’ll build muscle faster by increasing your nutrient
take.
But once you hit your maximal rate of muscle gain, simply adding more
calories won’t automatically lead to a faster rate of growth. All
that’ll happen is that you get fat.
Once you have a decent training and nutrition program set up, the key to
building muscle as fast as humanly possible is to stick with it. Frequently I read that you should keep changing your routine every few weeks to “confuse” your muscles and make them grow.
For most people, this is a mistake. There is no point in variety for
the sake of variety, and the best way to make absolutely no progress at
all is to keep jumping around from one routine to the next.
Forget about your body type or your genetics. You can’t change them,
so there’s no point even thinking about them. Set challenging but
realistic goals for yourself and work as hard as you can towards
achieving them.
SHAMELESS PLUG:
Muscle Evo is a
complete science-based training system that will turn you into a lean,
mean strength machine with less than four hours a week in the gym.
Click here now to learn more.
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About Christian Finn
Christian
Finn holds a master's degree in exercise science, is a certified
personal trainer and has been featured on BBC TV and radio, as well as
in Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Fit Pro, Zest and
other popular fitness magazines.
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