So we're here to discover and learn more about the best methods to build muscle with a long-term perspective. No matter what the type of fitness regime you want to implement, if want it to work, then it would have to comprise of, atleast these elements. So here we discuss the 3E's or "Eight Essential Elements" that are important for every schedule, regardless of whether you are a beginner or an advanced strength athlete.
1. Volume
One of the most important factors for muscle building is
volume. Volume means the amount of work sets and repetitions you perform per
muscle group. For example 5 work sets of 10 repetitions (5x10) for the chest.
With insufficient volume, the training stimulus is lacking to stimulate muscle
growth. If the volume is too much, the trained muscle groups can be trained
less often and you need longer recovery time from the extra fatigue and
inflammation.
Research has shown that per training 4 to 8 work sets per
muscle group is sufficient for building muscle mass. Everyone has their own
optimum volume and it is possible that someone has an optimal training effect
when 4 work sets are performed for the chest, while another athlete needs more
work sets for the chest. This depends on various factors such as age, gender,
recovery capacity, physique, lifestyle pattern, sports history, sleep rhythm,
genes, stress level, and so on.
To determine the volume, it is especially important to
investigate which training category (beginner / intermediate / advanced) you
fall into. Beginners advance optimally with 8 work sets per week. Intermediate
(1-3 years experience with strength training) need 16-18 work sets per week to
develop muscle mass and advanced (4> years experience with strength
training) even more than 20 work sets per week.
2. Effort / intensity
For muscle building it is not necessary to always train to
muscle failure. Training to fail -means that you fail with the last repetition
of a toolbox. Training to fail can lower the quality of the training, because
you are limited by the extra acidification and fatigue that the failure
entails. This means you have less power and less volume can be performed.
The amount of recovery needed by you is getting bigger (less training can be done) and there is more rapid decline in technique. This can lead to an
injury in the short / long term. Hence, a good guideline is to keep 0-1 repetition (s)
with most work sets. You can then recover better and the quality of your
training remains high.
It is important to continue the training effort in the long
term. Your muscle fibers have no incentive at a given time if you always use
the same schedule. The foundation of muscle growth is an increase in strength
with the exercises you use (progressive overload).
Sometimes there are also trainings that you are less taxable
than normal. It is then wise to adjust your training accordingly, so that you
are better recovered for the next training session. By properly managing the
intensity of your training (auto-regulating) you get to know the body well and
you have better results in the long term.
For beginners, a minimum intensity of 60% of the current 1RM
(1 rep max) is required to activate all muscle fibers. By training with an
effort of 30% of the current 1RM, not all muscle fibers can be activated.
Intermediate and advanced people need an intensity of 70-95% in order to
properly load all muscle fibers and to allow the muscles to grow faster.
3. Exercise selection
For maximum muscle building, it is recommended that you
train the entire body and divide the volume in the early years about the muscle
groups (unless you really have muscle groups that dominate other muscle
groups). It is important that you perform a supine and upright pressure (push /
press) and vertical and horizontal pulling movement (pull / row) for the upper
body. For the lower body a knee flexion (squat / lunge) and hip extension
(deadlift / hip extension).
In addition, extra exercises can be added that match your
goals. Remember that small muscle groups such as the arms and shoulders are for
a large part co-trained with the large muscle groups. For the small muscle
groups, therefore, less specialization is generally required. It is important
to spend most of the time in the important compound movements (exercise that
loads multiple muscle groups at the same time).
a) Compound exercises
Compound exercises are more important than isolation exercises.
Isolation exercise is a workout in
which only one muscle group is charged. Compound exercises activate more muscle
groups / muscle fibers, are often friendly to the joints and tendons and have a
greater impact hormonal and cardio-respiratory than isolation exercises.
Compound exercises can also be more efficient in terms of time and provide a
better training effect. For example, doing chin-ups is more effective for the
back and biceps than barbell curls and straight pull downs.
b) Tax the muscle group(s) you want to load
The muscle group you train must be the limiting muscle group
in an exercise (first to become acidic or tired). If during an exercise you are
limited by your grip, balance, acidification or fatigue of other muscle groups,
you will not achieve an optimal training effect for the muscle group you want
to train.
When you perform a squat and you feel more like your lower
back than your legs or you do not feel your chest during the bench press, it
may be the technique or the exercise is not suitable for your physique. It is
therefore important to check whether a particular exercise is suitable for
optimally stressing certain muscle groups.
c) A regular exercise selection
Often 2-3 exercises per muscle group are sufficient to
properly load all muscle fibers. The less advanced you are, the fewer exercises
you need in principle. It is important not to vary much with the large compound
exercises. It is also difficult to keep track of progress if different
exercises are performed each time.
4. Technique
With a defective execution of the exercise it is not possible to activate all muscle fibers and put them in tension. Because of this you do not use the full potential of the muscle. Below you will find a number of important tips to optimize your technique.
a) Full ROM (Range-of-Motion)
For building muscle mass there is a lot of evidence that training with a full movement path (full ROM) is preferable to training with a shorter movement path. By training with full ROM, the muscles are addressed over the entire length (with the correct exercise selection). So more muscle fibers are activated.
Stretching a muscle under a load is also a strong incentive
for muscle growth. It results in the addition of sarcomeres (Sarcomeres are composed of long, fibrous
proteins as filaments that slide past each other when a muscle contracts or
relaxes) in series and in parallel. This creates a longer and thicker
muscle. A combination of activation and stretching under load is therefore
optimal to develop a larger and stronger muscle. For every push and pull
movement it is therefore important to touch the body.
In terms of grip width, the ROM is the largest when you take
the exercises around shoulder width. The body is also made to move the weight
and a narrower or wider grip is less fine for the shoulders and wrists. The
progression is also easier to keep track of when the path is identical for
every training session.
The entire path is different per person. Some people really
cannot squat around in parallel or complete a bench press and dead-lift. This
has mainly to do with the structure of your body. It is therefore important to
check what your (active) full ROM is.
b) Dynamic contraction
For the development of muscle mass, a concentric (pushing
away or pulling) and an eccentric phase (lowering or restoring) is necessary.
It is especially important not to neglect the eccentric phase if maximum muscle
growth is the goal. For example, if you do a bicep curl, it is important that
you do not swing the weight upwards or drop the weight back after the
concentric phase. Otherwise, you limit the potential to stimulate muscle
growth.
During a leg exercise such as a squat, you lower yourself to
the deepest position and try to squeeze up explosively from there. It is
therefore not the intention that you go for a very slow concentric or eccentric
phase. The total load is decreasing and it becomes difficult to address all
muscle fibers.
c) Tempo
For more force increase it helps to carry out the concentric
phase as quickly / explosively as possible. A faster concentric phase forces
the muscles to generate maximum strength, activating the largest / strongest
muscle fibers. When a weight is moved slowly, it is not necessary for the body
to activate the strongest or all muscle fibers. During the eccentric phase, it
is important not to lower the weight slower than necessary so that you can
switch to an explosive concentric phase.
d) Rest break
Strength athletes who place the emphasis on muscle building
should take about 30 to 45 seconds of rest between the series. Longer rest
breaks of a few minutes is mainly intended for athletes who want to focus on
muscle strength instead of muscle building. Research shows that shorter breaks
have stronger anabolic (muscle building) effects.
5. Periodization
Periodization is a form or resistance training that may be
defined as strategic implementation of specific training phases. These training
phases are based upon increasing and decreasing both volume (which is reps
multiplied by sets) and intensity when designing a training program.
The body can quickly adapt to a specific training system. If
you always do work sets of 10 repetitions, you will reach your ceiling at a
given moment. You cannot optimize hypertrophy if you stick to a certain
repetition sequence of, for example, 8-12 repetitions. It then helps to
increase the repetition range by training with a different intensity. Think of
work sets between 3-20 repetitions.
Periodization is necessary when the increase of a jump in
intensity is too great to allow your body to adjust to a training session. By
systematically periodizing, you will continue to make progress in the long
term. Several periods of adaptation are then needed to make real progress.
Linear periodization can be applied, but this is a sub-optimal approach.
Programs that use, almost exclusively, volume for progressive overload are not
optimal. A good program has incorporated multiple forms of periodization.
Consider, for example, double-wavy periodization in which you spread the
progressive over 2 trainings.
6. Realism
It is important to know that something exists as a genetic
potential. In your 1st year of training it is possible to put on 8-12kg muscle
mass (women 4-6kg). Then this potential to grow per year is halved. After 4-5
years of strength training you have reached about 80% of your genetic potential
and you can be happy if you can put on 0.5-1kg of muscle mass per year. If you
still get a lot at that stage, it means that a lot of body fat is put on.
It may seem contradictory to your perception with regard to
what is naturally feasible. However, this is the reality and it is important to
remain realistic. I do not discourage you not to train hard, but to be
realistic. It is also not possible to build a complete physical within 1-3
years.
For most people it takes about 5 years to build a good
physical. The fact is that as an average natural you cannot become very big and
dry. Only with good genes or the use of AAS can faster and more muscle growth
be realized. Be realistic and keep in mind that it takes more than 3-4 years to
build a good physique.
After 4-5 years of strength training, further muscle
building is limited and it is important to have patience and to train sensibly
in order to make further progress. Gaining knowledge, consistency (good
training, eating and recovery) and patience are the important factors for more
muscle mass.
7. Frequency
The best results can be achieved by training three times a
week. This is especially true for a beginner. Advanced people are physically
able to train more than three times a week in a responsible manner. If you
barely respond to this, all the hard work in the gym can be counter-productive.
In the long term, regression (the reverse of progression) can occur.
8. Rest
The classic example is to train on Monday, Wednesday and
Friday so that you always have at least one rest day in between. Regardless of
which strength training schedule you choose, make sure you take at least 48-72
hours of rest between the training sessions. The general recommendation is to
focus on two muscle groups with each training session.
You need rest in order to grow. You no longer develop muscle
mass in the gym. The changes occur at home, long after your last set. During
the training you "break them off", so that they come back in a larger
form.
Note: Not only do
muscles need rest to recover, but also your bones, joints, tendons and of
course your nervous system.
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