For years, that meant thinking of resistance exercise in absolute terms. A workout wasn’t a success unless I could no longer move my muscles at the end of a session, even if I needed a spotter to save me from being crushed by a barbell (yeah, that happened). 

But, what if I told you that pushing your muscles to the point that they can’t lift a weight isn’t the point? 

Whether you’re trying to add muscle mass, improve a few muscle groups, or are just using resistance training to improve your overall health, the idea of seeking failure is misunderstood and misapplied, and a big reason why many people don’t see amazing results from their workouts.

There’s a big difference between breaking a muscle down so it can grow, and demolishing it to the point that it’s harder to recover. 

Muscle growth is directly connected to muscle fatigue. But, if you want to build stronger muscle fibers or add muscle mass, failure is best used sparingly.

In fact, in most cases, the best approach for both short- and long-term growth is about finding a way to push yourself hard, add reps, sets, and weights, without hitting that point where your muscles stop working. (And that’s separate from injuries, which are much more likely when training to failure.)

To help you understand how hard to push and the right intensity for your workouts, we turned to Jordan Syatt, owner of Syatt Fitness. In this post, he provides 5 different questions that you should consider to help you build a more effective approach to your workouts. -AB

Should You Train to Failure?

By Jordan Syatt

Think back to the first time you ever lifted weights. What did you do?

You probably walked up to a dumbbell rack, picked up the heaviest weight you could hold, and performed some exercise movement — heck, any exercise movement — to the best of your ability. Rep after rep after rep. And you did so until you could no longer move the weight. 

Then you rested, probably until you felt fresh again, and repeated the process. Sometimes, a little naivety and simplicity is a good thing.

But, that simplicity is also why so many people are frustrated by what they do in the gym. Beyond the exercises you perform and the frequency and volume of your workouts, most people don’t know how hard to push on any given set. 

They don’t know how to build muscle. And they don’t know how to build strength. What they do know how to do is perform exercises listed in their training session.

There’s an important distinction. The results you see from your time spent in the gym is a combination of many factors. For muscle growth, it’s a matter of muscular tension, metabolic stress, and muscular damage. There are many ways to manipulate those variables, but most people assume that pushing every set to the last rep where your muscles are aching is what needs to be done.

It’s the reason why “training to failure” is one of the most highly debated topics in the fitness industry and, truth be told, it’s extremely misunderstood.

I’ve spent enough time studying the topic to know that there’s no simple answer. Some people swear that taking every set to failure is the secret to success while others insist it’s a recipe for guaranteed injury and “overtraining.”

The answer, as most things in life, depends entirely on the individual as well as their needs, goals, and preferences.

If you’re going to commit to training sessions, you might as well make sure you’re personalizing those workouts as much as possible. 

So, before you take another set to muscle failure, here’s what you need to consider. 

Question 1: Is Training to Failure Necessary for Muscle Growth?

Research on training to failure is, unfortunately, scarce. Increasing muscle hypertrophy is often necessary for physique competitors and strength athletes to improve performance. Since training to failure “may activate a greater number of motor units” and potentially enhance muscle hypertrophy, training to failure is often warranted among these individuals.[2] 

Willardson et al. is perhaps the highest quality review of the literature pertaining to failure-based training. After examining the data, the authors concluded that training to failure is a valid method to use in order to enhance muscle hypertrophy, facilitate maximal strength gains, and break through plateaus.

However, it’s important to note that Willardson also stated “training to failure should not be performed repeatedly over long periods, due to the high potential for overtraining and overuse injuries. Therefore, the training status and the goals of the lifter should guide the decision-making process on this issue.”

Linnamo et al. found that training to failure resulted in a significantly greater increase in the secretion of growth hormone compared to non-failure based training. While this finding in no way, shape, or form proves that training to failure is better than other methods, it may lend credence to the success so many athletes, bodybuilders, and fitness enthusiasts have had with failure-based training.

There are other studies, but what really what matters is, how does this apply to you?

So let’s start there: You. After all, it’s your goals and training style that will play the biggest role in determining if and when you should push your body to failure. And that decision comes down to asking 5 questions.

Question 2: Are you Breaking the 90-Percent Max Rule?

Training intensity is perhaps the single most important factor in deciding whether or not training to failure is effective or even appropriate. Training intensity refers to the percentage of weight being lifted in relation to an individual’s 1-repetition maximum (1-RM).

In my opinion, training to failure at intensities at, or above 90 percent of your 1-RM should be avoided. 

Training to failure with such heavy weights will do very little (if anything) to enhance muscle hypertrophy and may actually hamper strength gains. If you’re going to hit absolute or complete failure, you don’t want to do it with the maximum amount of weight you can push, press, deadlift, or squat. 

Furthermore, training to failure with near maximal weights will almost inevitably result in a breakdown of technique, drastically increasing the likelihood of injury. Don’t get it twisted: weightlifting is a lifetime activity, but you need to be smart about the risks you take. 

Generally speaking, training to failure should be reserved for training percentages ranging from 50 percent to 85 percent of your 1-rep max. 

While I rarely prescribe training to failure at either of these end-ranges, I believe that they are appropriate guidelines to follow for a majority of intermediate and advanced trainees.

Keep in mind, though, training to failure at 50 percent of your 1-RM can take an inordinate amount of time to complete and may not be well suited for those with time restrictions. On the other hand, 85 percent of your 1-RM is still heavy weight and the use of a spotter is strongly encouraged.

Question 3: How Often Should You Train to Failure? (Check Your Training Age)

There are three major categories signifying the current “level” of a given trainee. I call this “the trainee continuum” and they are: beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

An individual’s training status will determine what they need, and therefore someone who is a beginner might require unique methods of training that may substantially differ from someone who is at an intermediate or advanced stage.

For example, beginner trainees must, first and foremost, work on developing proper form and technique in compound movements such as the squat, bench press, deadlift, and chin-up.

Consequently, training beginners to absolute failure would likely do more harm than good as maintaining proper form becomes exceedingly difficult in a fatigued state. 

In other words, if you’re a beginner and haven’t been training for, at least, 2 years consistently, then you’re likely best off not pushing to muscle failure, even when you’re below 90 percent of your 1-RM.

What to do instead? You can try the “reps in reserve” (or RIR) method. RIR is great for beginners and also incredibly effective for advanced lifters. 

Instead of pushing towards complete failure, you want to push to a different level of fatigue. For example, you’ll set a goal rep range (say, 8 reps) and make sure you have 2 reps in reserve (2 RIR). This way, you’re able to work towards a level of intensity that challenges your muscles, but you’re purposely leaving a number of reps in the tank. 

It can take trial-and-error to figure out how many reps you truly have in reserve, but — when you do — it’s a great way to add reps, weight, and more sets, while mastering form, fatigue, and recovery. 

If you’re not a beginner, intermediate and advanced trainees can push to failure more often. If you’re following the 90-percent rule, and sticking between 60 to 85 percent of your 1-rep max, you can train to failure between 2-4 times per week. 

How do you know how often you should push? Glad you asked because that will depend on your goal and the exercises you perform. 

Question 4: What is Your Goal?

An individual’s desired goal will dictate numerous components of their program, not least of which includes whether or not they should train to muscular failure.

Take, for example, the differences between powerlifters and bodybuilders. Powerlifters are focused on maximal strength development (including training their nervous system to handle more weight). Consequently, they train at relatively high intensities of their 1-RM. Additionally, powerlifter’s place a distinct emphasis on full-body, compound movements, which require a great deal of skill to maintain proper form.

In bodybuilding, the goal is muscle growth and, as a result, train at comparatively lower intensities of their 1-RM because strength is not always the answer. What’s more, bodybuilders tend to emphasize smaller, isolation movements designed to target individual body parts, which require less skill to maintain proper technique.

Because of these different approaches and the types of exercises performed, bodybuilders are able to train to failure more frequently than powerlifters. 

It’s important to note, however, that many elite powerlifters also train to failure on a regular basis. In fact, as a world record powerlifter myself, I regularly utilize failure-based training within my programs. That being said, I rarely train to failure in big, compound movements and almost exclusively use intensities between 60 percent to 80 percent of my 1-RM.

Question 5: What Exercises Are You Performing?

The more skill required for a lift, the less frequently it should be performed to failure. Conversely, the less skill required to perform a lift the more acceptable it becomes to train to failure.

Snatches, for example, are arguably the single-most complex lift and training them to failure is dangerous. Simpler multi-joint movements, such as variations of the chin-up, bench press, and lunge, are suitable for failure-based training but should be performed with extreme caution. Same can be said for exercises like squats.

Finally, single-joint exercises, including bicep curls, triceps extensions, and calf raises, are the least complex of movements and are far more appropriate to train to failure.

Question 6: What is Your Mindset?

Failure occurs when an individual is unable to complete another full repetition. This tends to happen due to the onset of fatigue.

Fatigue, however, is a truly subjective term and is nearly impossible to quantify. Based on pain tolerance, willpower, and other psychological factors, what constitutes muscular failure for one individual may only be slight discomfort to someone else. As such, it’s difficult to know whether a given individual is training to true muscular failure or simply cutting the set short.

Furthermore, it’s important to note that while some individuals derive pleasure from training to failure, others do not and attempting to force them may, in fact, deter them from strength training. Understanding the psychology of your clients (or yourself) and how they respond to training is of the utmost importance to long-term program adherence.

While it’d be easy to make a blanket statement about training to failure, ultimately it depends on your answers to the questions above. Failure-based training is a valuable tool in your training arsenal when applied correctly. If it fits your goals, needs, and preferences then use it wisely and with caution

Stop Failing. Start Succeeding

At Born Fitness, we help you make sense of fitness and nutrition information. If you want to create a plan for your life, here’s how you can stop guessing and start living healthier.

READ MORE: 

3 Rules for Building Bigger Arms

Faster Fat Loss: How to Add Workout Finishers

How Low Should You Squat, Really?

Works Cited

[1] Aragon, Alan. “Training to Failure.” Alan Aragon Research Review. Alan Aragon, Mar 2009. Web. Web. 9 Mar. 2013.

[2] Schoenfeld, Brad. “The Mechanisms of Muscle Hypertrophy and Their Application to Resistance Training.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 24.10 (2010): 2857-2873. Web. 10 Mar. 2013. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20847704>.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Training to Failure: 5 Questions You Need to Answer appeared first on Born Fitness.

It’s not great genetics.

(Good genes help, but plenty of people have gotten huge without having been blessed with it at birth.)

It’s not that they all just live at the gym and do nothing else, or follow some magical workout. (When it comes to building muscle, many different approaches — low rep/high weight, high rep/low weight, straight sets, supersets, and on and on — can work. There is no one that’s “best.”)

And it’s not that they’re on performance-enhancing drugs. (You can pack on plenty of muscle naturally — look no further than any drug-free bodybuilding competition for proof.)

The thing they all have in common is this:

Patience.

Not the answer you expected? Here’s why being patient is so important.

The Problem with Bulking and Cutting

First, when most people set out to build muscle, they go through a phase where they eat a lot and train a lot. You’ve probably heard it called “bulking.”

Then, after a few weeks or months, they switch. Maybe they get self-conscious about the size the gained. Or maybe they think they’re starting to look fat. So they trim back on calories and change their training to try and burn the fat off. This phase is called “cutting.”

Most people bounce back and forth between these two phases — bulking and cutting, bulking and cutting — without making any real progress. Why? Because each new phase undoes the success of the last.

On our website, we’ve talked about Set Point Theory. It’s the idea that the body identifies with a certain weight and then becomes resistant to change. In our previous article, we discussed how it applied to weight loss. It’s one of the reasons why losing weight — and keeping it off — can be so hard.

But the concept also applies to muscle gain. Your body is used to being a certain weight. When you change that through strength training, it will take measures to go back to how it was — unless you teach it that this more muscular weight is it’s new normal.

You teach your body that through what’s called a maintenance phase. In a lecture on his site Renaissance Periodization, Dr. Mike Israetel discusses how people hold themselves back if they do not include this phase in their training. (The content itself is paywalled, but totally worth buying if you like to nerd out on the science of muscle-building.)

I don’t want to give too much away or do violence to the quality and depth of his explanation. So I’ll summarize it like this: During a maintenance phase, you ease up on training a little bit. And you aim to eat what’s called an isocaloric diet, meaning you try to eat as many calories as you’d need, but not more.

Sample Muscle-Building Macronutrient Formula

This formula from Adam’s Great Abs Experiment will help:

For Total Calories Per Day:

Take the body weight you wish to maintain and multiply it by 10 if you are training 1 hour or less per week. For each additional hour you train per week, add 1 to the multiplier. So if you’d muscled up to 200 pounds, and trained 4 hours per week, you’d multiply 13 by 200 and get 2,600 calories per day as your mark. You can split that total across however many meals per day you prefer to eat (two, three, four, five, whatever).

Protein:

Eat at least 1 gram per pound of bodyweight. So if you were 200 pounds, you’d aim for 200 grams of protein (800 calories total) per day.

Fat:

Eat half a gram of fat per pound of bodyweight. So at 200 pounds, you’d target 100 grams of fat (900 calories) per day.

Carbohydrates:

Determine how many carbohydrates to eat by subtracting the protein and fat calories from your daily total, and then dividing the remainder by 4. To continue the example we’ve been using here, it would be 2,600 calories total minus 800 calories (protein) and 900 calories (fat), leaving you with 900 calories for carbs. Divide that by 4 and you get 225 calories of carbs per day.

While the length of your maintenance phase can vary, you’d want to approach it as if it were something you could do for several months or even years. Why? Because — again — you want this to be your new normal.

You want to think of building muscle not in terms of days and weeks, but months and years. The biggest, most muscular people in the world are the ones who show up for training, again and again, for years on end.

READ MORE: 

Adding Muscle At Any Age: Defying Genetics And Designing The Muscle Building Workout

The New Rules Of Specialization: How To Add Muscle Mass

How To Master The Art Of “Old School” Muscle Building

5 Muscle Building Mistakes (And How To Make Gains)

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post How To Look More Muscular appeared first on Born Fitness.

From New York Times best sellers to one that fell far short of expectations, I’ve realized that while many books have some good information, they overcomplicate the message that really needs to be spread. I’ve read books on everything from why we gain fat to how to build muscle, low-carb diets to “magic bullet” protein trends, and even how to live longer and fight disease.

What I learned was that despite some great information, we were missing the bigger picture. So I put together the world’s simplest book proposal, which has been rejected over…and over…and over again.

A big reason so many people struggle with diet and exercise is because the majority of diet and exercise books have overcomplicated the real issues.

At first, I thought it was me. Maybe my ideas are stupid. Then again, three of my books have been “best sellers,” and one of them even hit #4 of the New York Times best seller list.

Then I saw this message the other day on Facebook.

And I realized that some people don’t need another book. They just need information, some clarity and direction, and the occasional cheese sandwich.

Because no one will publish my simple book concept (which works), I’m sharing the lessons for free to fight back against ideas like activated charcoal (no, it won’t detox your body) and every other ridiculous, money-driven cause that has a terrible ROI for your health.

Solving The Diet Book Crisis

The hook: A big reason so many people struggle with diet and exercise is because the majority of diet and exercise books have overcomplicated the important issues, resulting in more stress and worry, billions of dollars spent on supplements, and creating inaccurate scapegoats (Carbs, dietary fat, gluten, lactose, “toxins”, laziness, dessert, etc.) that inevitably lead to diet failure and learned helplessness.

The result: too many people feel their bodies are broken, nothing can change, and internally they struggle with how they look and feel.

Want a better, healthier life? Forget what you’ve learned and just apply these 10 simple lessons. 

1. Sleep.

2. Smile.

3. Eat proteins, vegetables, and fats.

4. Drink water.

5. Ignore all detoxes, cleanses, and magic pills. Save your $$

6. Accept that there is NOT “one problem” that causes weight gain or makes weight loss difficult.

7. Have sex.

8. Move/exercise to fight stress—the type of exercise is your choice, but do it often.

9. Be good to others.
   

10. Embrace imperfection, with diet, exercise, and even your appearance. It’s OK. You’re human. Bad days happen. -Repeat often.

Sure, it’s short. But when the advice is applied to my clients, I’ve seen crazy results. Since no publisher wants it, you can take it for free. Try it out and tell me how it works.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post The Diet Book No One Will Write (So I’m Sharing It For Free) appeared first on Born Fitness.

In an age where the latest technology is favored over time-tested advice, and “get fit quick” infomercials clog our expectations with smoke and mirror sales pitches, we have a tendency to overlook the best advice simply because it’s old.

Some watches are old. Some cars are old. Hell, some might even consider Arnold old (not me, boss). But we can all agree that sometimes the most valuable things in life are those that have age, character, and a track record you can trust. Nowhere is this more accurate than the sage muscle building advice from yesteryear’s bodybuilders. As the great Mark Twain once said: “Age is just an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

As you work to give your extra 1% this year—whether that’s starting your journey to a better body or be better than ever—one place you should not ignore the are the history books. Here are some of the best bodybuilding tips developed back-in-the-day that today’s best fitness coaches think could use a refresh in the gym. Add these to your fitness plan—including a favorite technique from Arnold—and the only thing that will be old is the body you used to have.

The Expert: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Muscle Building Technique: The Strip Method

“Without stripping there is no excitement,” says Arnold. Before you get the wrong idea, the legendary bodybuilder is referring to mega-drop sets that he used to quickly and efficiently challenge his body. The idea is simple and an instant way to shock your system and pack on muscle.

Here was Arnold’s approach in his bodybuilding days, with the dumbbell overhead press as an example:

1)      Use 100-pound dumbbells for 6 reps

2)      Immediately grab 90-pound dumbbells and do another 6 reps.

3)      Complete this pattern—without rest—until he reached 40 pounds

“By the time you’re on the lower weights, the burning is so intense that 40 pounds would feel like 110,” says Arnold.

It’s time efficient, and your muscle activation increases as fatigue sets in. But one of the biggest benefits comes from using less weight. You don’t need to use heavy weights to see results and have an incredible workout. “Even if you started with 15 pounds and worked down to 5, it’s a great way to work your muscles quickly and always keep them guessing.”

The Expert: Rob Sulaver
Muscle Building Technique: The Pump

“The greatest feeling you can get in a gym, or the most satisfying feeling you can get in the gym is… The Pump.” -Arnold

One of Arnold’s most famous lines captures the incredible feeling and reason that many people lift weights. “Anyone who’s ever had a tough resistance training session knows the feeling well – massive, engorged, tight vascular muscles,” says Rob Sulaver, owner of Bandana Training.

While a little vanity is fine, training for a pump actually has benefits for your body that go beyond the “most satisfying feeling.” In a scientific sense, the pump is the vasodilation of your capillaries, says Sulaver.

This means that you’re increasing blood flow to your body tissues, which helps transport the nutrients in your body more efficiently, and can improve your recovery. On a hormonal level, the pump can help increase testosterone and growth hormone naturally; this potent cocktail means more muscle and less fat.

What’s more, the pump also triggers feel-good endorphins and enkephalins—nature’s painkiller. “That’s why the pump is associated with wonderful, euphoric superhero feelings of invincibility and extremely good looks,” says Sulaver.

You can receive a pump in a variety of ways. Try combining heavy movements like squats and bench presses (3 to 6 reps per exercise) with bodyweight movements (think pushups and lunges) for higher reps (8 to 12). Or, you can simply keep all exercises in the 3 to 10 range (a mix of lower and higher reps), but shorten your rest periods to about 30 seconds to create the pump.

Whatever your choice, training for the pump isn’t the only key in the muscle building process, but it does play a role in packing on size and reminding you of the work you’re putting in.

The Expert: Tony Gentilcore
Muscle Building Technique: Wave Training (PAP)

One of the fundamental aspects of adding muscle is becoming stronger. For most people, this can be a frustrating process. That’s why wave training was so useful. Scientifically speaking, wave training is a technique known as “post-activation potentiation.” (Now you can see why bodybuilders used a different name.)

The technique involves alternating sets of low rep training with sets of higher reps, says strength coach Tony Gentilcore.

The low rep set (with a heavy weight) activates more muscle fibers so that when you do the higher rep set, you can lift more weight than you normally would.

For example: After a proper warmup, perform 1 rep of squats at 225 pounds. Rest 2 to 3 minutes, and then lift 185 pounds 5 times. The 185 pounds should feel lighter because the heavier set activates more of your motor units (the trigger in your body that causes your muscle fibers to fire), which allows you to move more weight, says Gentilcore.

From there, you can then do another set at 225 or maybe even 230, rest another 2 to 3 minutes, and then try to do a set of 5 reps with 190 pounds—your goal being to increase weight with each set.

And remember—don’t get caught up on the weights. Progress at your own level, and while this might seem like magic, you’ll experience real instant strength gains, which will lead to faster results.

The Expert: Jim “Smitty” Smith
Muscle Building Technique: Partial Reps

In general, focusing on giving only 50 percent on anything is a formula for failure. But when it comes to lifting weights, it might be one of the best ways to improve your workouts. Partial reps—where you focus on a limited range of motion—can help spark muscle building, improve your weaknesses and add serious strength, says strength coach Jim Smith, owner of Diesel Strength & Conditioning.

To start, you need to determine you sticking point—the area in an exercise where you struggle and the weight doesn’t seem to move. On the bench press, this is usually the point where the bar is about 3 to 6 inches above your chest.

Partial reps allows you to use heavier weights because you have to move the weight a shorter distance, which allows you to “feel” what it’s like to handle heavier loads, says Smith. For this reason alone, it builds confidence that you can become stronger.

On the bench press, you can perform board presses or pin presses. On board presses, you place different size wooden boards on your chest, which limits your range of motion. This is best performed with a partner. Don’t have a training buddy? Then do pin presses in a power rack. Set pins to the area of your sticking point (say 6 inches above your chest), and perform reps where you are only pressing out at the top of the exercise.

It might seem like cheating, but when you return to the full range of motion, you’ll discover that your weak point is now stronger, and you can begin making progress again.

The Expert: Clifton Harski
Muscle Building Technique: Pre-exhaust

Basic logic would tell you that a tired muscle won’t “work” as well as a fresh muscle. And yet, bodybuilders were notorious for a technique known as “pre-exhausting,” where they would purposely fatigue a muscle with an isolation exercise, and then follow with a compound (multi-muscle) exercise to cause more growth, says strength coach Clifton Harski.

Here’s how to make it work: Pick an isolation exercise. If you’re working your chest, you’d do a series of chest flys for 8 to 12 reps. That would exhaust your pecs. Then, follow that with a compound exercise like an incline chest press for another 8 to 12 reps.

You might have to use less weight on the incline chest press, but your muscle fibers should be working more in your chest, and as an added benefit, your triceps will work harder because your tired chest requires your arms to assist more with the lift, says Harski.

Use this technique with any of your major muscle groups to help jump-start a stalled program, or simply to help you “feel” the muscles you should be working and improve your focus.

The Expert: Brad Pilon
Muscle Building Technique: Forearm Training

“One traditional muscle building method that is absolutely essential for naturally skinny guys looking to build a powerful physique is direct forearm training,” says Brad Pilon, author of Eat Stop Eat. Before you insert your favorite forearm joke, remember that all the bodybuilding greats—Arnold, Lee Haney, Dorian Yates, and Ronnie Coleman—had meaty, well-trained forearms.

And for good reason: big forearms don’t just make you look impressive, they help you perform better too. Everything from direct arm work like biceps curls, to your presses and pulls that build a stronger, healthier body start with your ability to grip the weight.

“Somewhere in the early 2000’s we got the idea that the muscles of the forearm got enough stimulation from ‘grip training’ like heavy deadlifts, and that we didn’t need to do any direct training for forearms,” adds Pilon. But nothing could be farther from the truth—especially for people who have trouble becoming stronger.

Begin with a few sets of direct forearms work, such as forearm curls, and then add more weight and volume as you become stronger.

Putting It All Together

Adding any of these techniques to your workout can help provide the spark that you need to push forward, feel better, and look the way you want. But like anything in life, too much can be a bad thing. So start with one of these techniques and give it a try for 4 to 6 weeks.

Once you see progress, then try another to keep you heading in the right direction. If we all start practicing these techniques, we’ll make sure that the classics of yesteryear are not only preserved–but also reestablish the foundation of success for the future.

More Great Advice Catered To Your Goals

Why settle for general fitness advice when you can have advice sent specifically for your goals and needs? Find out how to build your plan for free.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post How to Master the Art of “Old School” Muscle Building appeared first on Born Fitness.

Yes, you understand that resistance builds muscle. And that rest and recovery are essential to growth.

But in most situations, you’re thinking about what to do to build muscle. That’s only half of the puzzle. The other part–the one where frustration and stalled progress remains locked away–is a matter of how muscle is built.

There are three primary mechanisms of muscle growth: Muscle tension, metabolic stress, and muscle damage.

It’s a process. One that starts fast when you first begin training, and then inevitably slows down for everyone. And yet that slowed progress doesn’t have to be the “no progress” experienced by many.

Whether you’ve been lifting for 10 days or 10 years, three rules can help make the difference between a “muscle building workout” that turns you into a gainer, as opposed to the one that only makes you a gawker. Do you see progress on your own body, or helplessly look at others and wonder why they have more success?

While genetics inevitable do make a difference, your genetics are not preventing you from adding on pounds of muscle. There are three rules of a muscle building workout that you must respect if you want to transformation your body.

Rule #1: Building muscle is a science. Your best bet is to follow the basic principles of hypertrophy (more on this in a moment) to increase your likelihood of seeing results from your muscle building workout. You can build muscle in many ways, but some approaches will work better than others and make a big different in the long run.

Rule #2: Every body is different. Two people can be on the exact same program and experience different results. Some can get jacked on bodyweight movements, other have long, lean defined muscles after some TLC from the dumbbells. This is an important reminder for copycat behaviors. You can choose to follow the practices of the biggest guy or fittest female in the gym, but what works for them might not be the best for your body or could very well violate rule number one. Which leads to…

Rule #3: Knowledge is not set in stone. Science is an ongoing process, and new studies are guaranteed to do one thing — provide us with new questions to ask. Use rules one and two to help build the best muscle building workout for your body, but remember we’re always learning and improving our understanding of what works best.

Now that we’re on the same page and have exhausted any potential excuses, here’s what we know can turn you into a muscle-building machine, even if mom and dad never flexed a moment in their life.

The Curious Case of Paul T. and Extreme Muscle Growth

Paul is probably the last guy you’d expect to gain double-take muscle. At 44 years old, he is the farthest thing from a beginner. After more than 20 years in the gym, his solid, lean body would appear to have already pushed its genetic limits.

Paul was fit by every standard imaginable. Except his own.

So when we starting working together, the goals started with a vision he knew he could achieve: dropping body fat and becoming shredded. Paul had tried for years to gain muscle with different muscle building workouts without success. So instead of pushing in the same failed direction, he shifted towards his apparent innate body type.

After 4 months, success was measured in single digits. Paul worked his way down to 8 percent body fat (from a starting point of 14 percent). And yet the question remained: what’s next?

We decided to build muscle for the long haul, despite 20 years of frustration suggesting otherwise.

And yet, seven months later, Paul achieved the impossible: his weight shot up to 180 pounds, while his body fat only increased to 10 percent body fat.

More impressive is when you consider what happened with one calendar year. Below you’ll see actual results of his DEXA body composition scan (before he hit 180 pounds, topping out at 175).

The Beginning

• Starting total weight: 167 pounds
• Body fat: 14%
• Lean mass: 143 pounds

5-month Fat Loss Plan (Shredded)

• Total Weight: 153 pounds
• Body fat: 8%
• Lean mass: 140 pounds

7-month Muscle Gain Plan

• Total Weight: 175 pounds
• Body fat: 10%
• Lean mass: 156

During his fat loss quest, Paul actually lost muscle mass, which factored in our decision to build him back up bigger and stronger than ever.

And then over the course of the year, with a specific muscle building workout designed for his body, he increased his lean mass and gain 13 pounds of muscle (from his starting point), all while dropping 4 percent body fat.

Don’t forget: this happens at 44 years of age and with more than 20 years of training.

Extreme by all measures? Yes. I wouldn’t call Paul’s results ordinary. In fact, they are far from average for someone with his lifting experience.

In general, experience and science (dealing with non-steroid aided trainees) suggest that anyone with more than 5 years of training experience should expect someone between a maximum of 4 and 10 pounds of muscle gained in a year.

The exception: Those who clearly have been stalled at a plateau that is actually far below their genetic ceiling, which might explain Paul’s above average growth.

Paul’s process was partly influenced by his extremely lean nature but then was enhanced by dramatic changes made to his muscle building workout (or more appropriately, integrating a long-term design for success; see below) and adjustments to his diet that allowed him to slowly gain more muscle without gaining fat. [Editor’s note: his consistency and tenacity with both diet and training has been an undeniable factor.]

More importantly, Paul started seeing the bigger picture and stopped trading the desire for quick gains for an approach that would offer some staggering results.

[Editor’s note: Getting Paul to share his results was not difficult, but they came with a caveat; he insisted that I make it clear that this is still a work in progress. We’re currently pushing the scales and aiming for 190 pounds.]

Muscle Building Mistakes

The process of adding muscle to your body is known as hypertrophy. For years people tried to separate hypertrophy into two different types: myofibrillar vs. sarcoplasmic. In the simplest sense, myofibrillar refers to increasing the size of your muscle fibers, whereas sarcoplasmic refers to an increase in the volume of fluid in your muscles. The latter is oftentimes known as “the pump” as it refers to the fluid in and around your muscles, which consists of water, minerals, and carbohydrates (glycogen).

But if you believe the work of Stuart Philips, Ph.D, one of the most esteemed researchers in muscle building, you really don’t need to worry about differentiating between types of muscle growth. That’s because the factors that lead to building bigger biceps or more defined legs are intertwined.

In other words, when your fibers grow, so do your muscles. Research has found that the size of your muscles (myofibrillar growth) won’t stay stagnant with an increase in sarcoplasm.

So instead of trying to figure out how to “hack” more size on your body or figure out what type of fiber to attack, it’s better to take a comprehensive approach with any muscle building workout, which means focusing on the primary factors that lead to more mass.

The 3 Laws of Building Muscle

According to the exercise physiologist Brad Schoenfeld, there are three primary mechanisms of muscle growth: Muscle tension, metabolic stress, and muscle damage.

Oftentimes all of these factors are correlated with the amount of weight you lift. But you only need to compare powerlifters and bodybuilders to know that’s not the case.

Powerlifters are typically much stronger and can lift more weight, but it’s bodybuilders who look significantly more muscular, despite being weaker. That example is one very important reason why you might want to shift your focus to how you’re lifting weights.

Learning how to create muscle tension appears to drive all three factors, and it’s probably the area most people struggle to understand and execute in the gym.

That is, if you’re just lifting a weight and trying to push for a certain number (let’s say bench pressing 225 pounds for one rep), this isn’t necessarily the best way to build muscle.

When you try to move a weight using any means possible, your form might fault, ligaments and joints can take on a greater load, and while you might get the job done, your muscles aren’t necessarily carrying as much of the load as you want for growth.

So how should you look at it differently? Instead of thinking of pushing or pulling a weight, try to focus on a full range of motion that creates constant tension on the working muscle.

Your job is to make sure that while performing reps your muscles do not take a break. It’s a constant process of stretching the muscle (the eccentric) and squeezing the muscle (the concentric).

While it’s not a hard rule, constant tension usually means stopping your lifts just short of lockout on the concentric portion (think of flexing your bicep), and then a little short of the “bottom” of the lift to maximize the stretch (when lowering the dumbbell or barbell to the point that you feel a stretch in your bicep, but not to where you lock out your elbow.).

In other words, it tends to be about 90 percent of the range of motion on both ends, which ensures non-stop tension and an environment for building muscle.

When you understand “tension,” it makes it easier to apply the other mechanisms of muscle growth. Metabolic stress tends to be that “feeling” you get when your muscles become exhausted. Call it the pump or a burn, this process (which includes a lack of oxygen going to your muscles and metabolic byproducts like lactate building up along with blood), doesn’t just remind you that you’re training hard, it also plays a role in hypertrophy. This is where the importance of the pump occurs.

Metabolic stress triggers a process that ultimately results in your muscle cells being “turned on” for growth, potentially increases in cellular swelling and more water being pulled into the muscle cell.

As for muscular damage, this happens in many ways. In the simplest sense, just lifting weights will cause damage (the good kind) that forces your muscle to repair itself and grow back bigger and denser. But after you’ve been weightlifting for a while, you’ll need to repeatedly find ways to challenge your muscles if you want them to keep growing. The way to continue creating that damage is either by:

1. Lifting heavier weights.
2. Doing something new and different (such as training a muscle from a different angle).
3. Focusing on the eccentric portion of the lift.
4. Stretching your muscles while they’re being activated.

Muscle damage won’t just continue on its own — lifters will have to become stronger by employing a variety of techniques, such as changing tempo (how fast you move the weight) or just subbing in new exercises.

But most importantly, all three aspects of muscle growth are interrelated. Muscle tension with heavier weights can cause fiber damage that allows for swelling and metabolic stress to occur.

Muscle tension with lighter weights and more time under tension triggers metabolic stress, during which blood can’t escape your muscles quick enough, and helps promote growth. And then tension with moderate weight for more reps or different exercises ignites both metabolic reactions and damage.

If you want to grow, you need to look at the big picture when you design any muscle building workout and use several tactics, not just hope that showing up in the gym will translate to bigger biceps.

Creating the Ultimate Muscle Building Program

Remember rule number two, that everyone builds muscle differently? Well, this is where personalization comes into play. Some people might see incredible progress with only lifting heavy weights, whereas others might see it with moderate weight for more reps.

If you want to really focus in on building muscle — and not just becoming stronger or being able to train harder — then variety is your best friend.

The key is to focus on low (1-5), medium (6-12) and high (15+) rep ranges to ensure that you’re triggering all of the processes of muscle growth. Because some exercises are best for gaining strength, while others are ideal for tension, or creating the pump, you’ll want to include diversity in your training plans.

This doesn’t mean altering up your workouts every day, but it does mean going through cycles where you rotate your reps and the movements you perform.

Exercises for strength will include the “big lifts” like squats, deadlifts, presses and rows. Variations of these lifts from different angles (such as an incline press) or in ways that create different stressors (like doing sumo deadlifts or Bulgarians split squats) will challenge your muscles in new ways that force growth.

Even “isolation” exercises, such as curls, shoulder raises, leg curls and cable exercises, will help create more tension at lighter weights that will allow for the pump and growth. Rest periods should be cycled, too, with longer recovery periods to help you lift greater loads, and shorter rest periods to fire up the metabolic damage.

The final layer? Slowly do more. Volume (sets x rep x weight) is an important part of gaining muscle. But most people just try to do more, more, more.

If this were a diet and you just ate a lot more immediately, you wouldn’t gain muscle, you’d become fat. While more volume won’t make you fat, it can slow or stunt your progress.

Instead, the goal is to add a little volume week over week. The result: Constant progress, changes you can see, and avoiding the dreaded plateau.

Your Personalized Muscle Plan

Want concierge coaching and  personalized workouts and diet designed around your body and goals? You can apply to have a Born Fitness coach work with you 24/7 and created a plan around your lifestyle. Click here to learn more. 

READ MORE: 

Mom’s Got Abs: How Kristen Shed the Baby Weight

The Tension Weightlifting Technique: How to Make Every Exercise More Effective

The Abs Workout: How to Transform Your Midsection

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Add Muscle At Any Age: Designing the Muscle Building Workout appeared first on Born Fitness.