It’s a bold statement, but it’s true. Most people just don’t know how to work out properly to build muscle, and we see examples of this every single day.
And it’s not like they aren’t trying - because they are! They’re putting in the effort. It’s just that what they’re doing in the gym won’t bring them any closer to their goals.
If you’re not getting the results you want from your workouts, it’s likely that you fall into one of two categories:
a) You don’t have a plan and just wander aimlessly from one exercise to another.
Clearly, this is a recipe for failure.
Every time you work out, you need to have a concrete plan of attack - you must know exactly what you’re going to be doing for each and every workout. If you’re one of these aimless wandering types, don’t worry, because we’re going to help you fix that.
b) You follow a useless workout program that you found online, in a magazine, or given to you from a friend.
The vast majority of workouts you come across won’t be effective for you - that’s a fact.
You’ve got the super high-volume workout plans designed for genetic freaks and roid heads that will leave you weak, overtrained, and exhausted…
...or even more popular, the endless variety of trendy workout plans that rely on tricks, gimmicks, and silly equipment to fool you into thinking you’re following the next best thing, when really you’re just wasting your time and energy.
(Think stuff like supersets, drop sets, circuit training, Bosu ball exercises, TRX workouts, etc.)
The truth of the matter is that building muscle is actually a lot more simple than most fitness professionals would have you believe.
Here's the secret…
TRAIN FOR STRENGTH AND SIZE WILL FOLLOW
Have you ever seen someone who can bench 250 pounds but has a small chest?
What about someone who can squat 350 pounds but walks around with tiny chicken legs?
Nope. It’s just not gonna happen.
That’s because when you start training for STRENGTH - and you put all of your focus on getting STRONGER - you will see that size comes naturally. And it’s this shift of focus that is going to make all the difference in your training results.
To understand why, let’s take a look at what makes muscles grow…
You already know that for your muscles to grow, you need to lift weights or do some type of resistance training. But why?
Well, when you lift heavy weights, it causes tiny tears in your muscles called micro-tears. The body then repairs these tears, but because you’ve now given your muscles more work to do, the body thinks,
""Hey, I’m lifting heavier stuff now. I must adapt to get stronger and be able to handle this weight."
And so the body responds by growing your muscles, so that the next time you reach for that same heavy weight, it will be easier to lift!
This process is called muscle overload, because the muscles are "overloaded" with a heavy amount of resistance. Lifting heavy weights overloads the muscle, causes micro-tearing, and stimulates new muscle growth.
The key here is that you have to use weights that are heavy enough to initiate micro-tearing.
THE MAGIC OF 4-6
So if lifting with heavy weights is the key to getting stronger and building more muscle, how do we put this into practical use in the gym?
The answer is that we usually recommend keeping your weight training workouts in the 4-6 rep range for most exercises.
In other words, you want to choose a weight that is light enough so you can lift it at least 4 times, but heavy enough so that you can’t lift it more than 6.
By lifting in the 4-6 rep range, you’re lifting weight that is heavy enough to cause micro-tearing in your muscle and FORCES your body to adapt and get stronger.
And you know what that means? BIGGER MUSCLES.
Many people make the mistake of working in higher rep ranges, like 10-12 reps or higher, because when you lift with higher repetitions like this, you get a big satisfying "muscle pump" and you feel like you’re getting a good workout.
But let’s deconstruct this...
The "muscle pump" you get comes from blood flowing to the muscles. It feels great, it makes you look bigger (temporarily) as you check yourself out in the mirror, and it tricks you into thinking that you’ve properly worked out your muscles in a way that will cause them to grow.
Do NOT fall for this trick…
The muscle pump has NOTHING to do with getting your muscles to grow. It’s a trick that has fooled people into wasting time with useless workouts for years without making any real progress.
What about the second part? Don’t you feel like you’re getting a great workout when you lift with high reps and bounce around from one set to the next with barely any rest in between?
Yep, but this is no different than the feeling you get when you’re exhausted after playing basketball, going for a long run, sprinting up the stairs, or any other cardio activity.
That’s right, this type of lifting is better classified as CARDIO.
You may be exhausted, and you may have burned some calories, but you’ve done NOTHING to actually get your muscles to grow.
Remember, in order for your muscles to grow, you have to lift weight that is HEAVY enough to cause micro-tearing so your body is forced to adapt and increase the size of the muscle to handle a more demanding load the next time you lift.
Anything else is just spinning your wheels.
OK, well I think that’s enough for one day! I still have a lot of myth-busting to do, and we don’t want to give you too much all at once.
Tomorrow, you can look forward to receiving Day 2 of THE 7 DAY REBOOT, when we’re going to teach you about a little-known Japanese philosophy called "kaizen", and why it’s the key to making consistent size and strength gains every single week.
Images sourced from Pixabay