Shanghai Personal Training Article #1: Muscle Gain
February 2, 2009
Whether a person trains alone, has a personal trainer, attends group fitness classes, or plays sports, the same fitness principles apply. People are always looking for that new gimmick, the quick fix, the six pack abs cure, the next weight loss miracle. But our bodies are no different today than they were a thousand years ago. The same food that nourished our ancestors will nourish us. The same physical conditioning exercises that made them strong will make us strong. Our bodies require a healthy diet for weight control and peak performance, cardiovascular exercise for a healthy heart, and resistance training in order to build muscle. It’s this last point I’d like to focus on.
First off, let me define resistance training. Resistance training is adding resistance or weight to a movement. Weightlifting, Plyometrics, Isometrics, Calisthenics, Bodyweight Training, and Static Contraction training all fall under this umbrella. All of these approaches to strength training will add muscle to your body if done properly. The degree to which they do so depends upon how well you adhere to the basic principles of weight gain. I’ll lay those out for you here.
Progressive Overload and Muscle Gain
The most important element of strength training for muscle gain is progressive overload. This is the idea that successive workouts must surpass the previous workouts in terms of their intensity if strength and muscle gain is to be stimulated. Muscle gain is an adaptive response to excessive stress. If I bench 150 pounds for three sets, 10 reps per set this week, the theory of progressive overload dictates that I’ll need to either increase the amount of weight lifted for the same workload, increase the number of reps per set, or add sets with the same amount of weight. This has an important corollary that often goes overlooked.
Measuring Time and Quantifying Intensity
When one is concerned with the intensity of their workout, there must be some form of measurement in order to determine if/how they are stronger than they were before. Counting the amount of weight is the first method, but it alone is not sufficient to determine strength gains. I must also measure the amount of time it requires me to lift a certain muscle group, as well as the length of the entire workout. If you disregard the amount of time it takes you to complete a muscle group, you’ll never be able to quantify progress.
Question, who is stronger (and thus bigger), the man who can squat 200 pounds 5 times in one minute, or the man who can squat 150 pounds 10 times in one minute? Many will look at the higher weight and consider that lifter the strongest. But the man who lifted 150 pounds 10 times lifted 500 more pounds in the same period of time. His training intensity is higher. He is the stronger man.
The Inverse Relationship Between Intensity and Duration
A corollary to this is the principle that increased intensity ought to be accompanied by a decrease in duration. In other words, it does me no good to lift weights for long periods of time. You’ll see gym rats spend three hours a day training and make no progress. How can you put your body through a more intense workout if you’re spreading your energy out over three hours? You can’t…I’ve tried. I personally don’t believe in spending more than an hour to an hour and a half PER WEEK weight training. That either means three to four sessions per week lasting 20 to 30 minutes each, or two sessions per week lasting 30 to 45 minutes each.
Compound Lifts Equal Greater Intensity Equals Muscle Gain
If it takes me longer than that to complete my workout, than I am not lifting enough weight, or the exercises and techniques I’m using are ineffective. In order to meet this time constraint, one should keep to compound lifts (lifts that require many muscles, muscle networks, to perform an action) like bench press, squat, pullups, rows, and deadlift to name a few. These lifts work large and small muscle groups to failure without the need for time consuming isolation exercises like curls or leg extensions. This allows for maximum intensity and minimum duration. Muscle growth is stimulated by short, very intense training sessions. Think of a sprinter’s physique as opposed to that of a marathon runner.
Combining this principle with the one before it, we can combine lifts into 2 to 4 exercises within a set known as supersets or circuits. This provides a temendous amount of intensity. You will not be able to lift nearly as much weight using circuit or superset training methods, but your entire system is working much harder to complete the set. A superset might start with a bench press or pushups for 6 to 10 reps followed immediately by a set of squats for 6 to 10 reps. Rest for one to two minutes (the shorter the better) and repeat for two to three more sets. Another superset could be pull-ups or rows followed by a shoulder press. These two sets together done 2 times per week would be a high intensity full body workout that takes 20 to 30 minutes, meeting both time and intensity objectives.
The Inverse Relationship Between Intensity and Recovery Time
The next principle of weight gain is that as a person becomes stronger, and their bodies require more intensive training to break down their muscles, the amount of rest time required between workouts must increase. Larger muscles require greater stress to break down (weightlifting is actually a destructive process, it breaks down muscle. It is during rest that our bodies build muscle after recovering from effective training sessions), and consequently longer periods of rest to recover. Overtraining occurs when the trainee enters the gym prior to full recovery. He attempts his ordinary lifts and is unable to complete them. Additionally he feels tired all the time. It’s because he’s focusing on the deconstructive element of training and his body hasn’t had the chance to build the muscle he’s worked so hard for.
Everyone who has attempted to gain muscle has experienced this phenomenon. Newbies make great gains for 1 to 3 months of training, and then plateau for months if not years, or look for drugs to help them out. Typically they have not tried to alter one of the factors above. They have not quantified their strength and determined what they need to lift to methodically progress, or they have not allowed their bodies enough time to recover and grow stronger after training. Rest is extremely important for muscle growth. If you were making gains in the beginning with 3 days of lifting a week and then plateau, then reducing the frequency of training while increasing the intensity ought to be the first thing you try to break through it. This is very difficult for people that are addicted to training or can’t believe that growing occurs during sleep, which it does, and not when you’re lifting heavy weights above your head (which is the process of breaking down your body).
Diet and Muscle Gain
And the final component for muscle gain, diet. This ought to go without saying, but you need to eat well if you want your body to function well. I’m not a die hard protein advocate or in favor of binge eating for calories. For me the equation is simple. I accept that real lean muscle takes time to acquire. If today I weigh 165 pounds and I have a relatively steady diet and not too much body fat, then I know I need to add just a little bit to my caloric intake, ideally protein, to provide enough energy for my body to add muscle. If your weight is relatively steady, then increasing your caloric intake will result in weight gain (if you stimulate muscle gain, then that weight gain will result in new muscle, if you don’t, it will result in fat) and decreasing your caloric intake will result in weight loss.
You don’t need to be a fanatic (unless your passion is body building and you want inhuman size) about your protein intake. Try to consume protein with every meal, ideally 20 to 40 grams, three to five times a day. If you are training heavily (6 days a week, both resistance and endurance training), try to consume one gram of protein per pound of body weight. This is very difficult for me living here in China, and I don’t meet this number very often. I am still able to build muscle despite that, though I am tired once and a while. And despite common conception, a person can loose fat and build muscle at the same time. Train properly. Eat well.
To sum up our principles of muscle gain:
1. Progressive overload ellicits an adaptive response resulting in muscle gain
2. Progressive overload requires increasing intensity
3. Intensity can be quantified by dividing weight lifted per unit of time
4. As your workouts increase in intensity they should decrease in duration
5. As your workouts increase in intensity they should decrease in frequency
6. Caloric Intake must increase
I hope this article has provided you with something useful. If you know what you’re doing in the gym, perhaps focusing on these principles will help you make consistent progress. And if you’re new to fitness or strength training, look for a good personal trainer, a knowledgeable friend, or some good books that can provide you with specific exercises designed to build your body safely. Good Training!
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