By: Sean Nalewanyj
Submitted: 2009-10-29 02:09:03 | Word Count: 759
If you put the maximum work into something, you will get better results.
This truth holds good for most areas of life.
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The harder you study, the better grades you will achieve.
If you focus on your athletic skills, you will be a better athlete.
If you put in more time in practicing an instrument, you will be a better musician.
So, it's only a logical deduction to think you can get massive muscles if you put in more time at the gym, isn't it?
Contrary to what you might think, the answer to this question is a gigantic, definite, absolute no!
It is in this area of bodybuilding that conventional wisdom goes straight out the window, down the street, and around the corner.
I can understand what you're thinking…
"Seriously? Spending less time in the gym will actually allow me to get massive muscles?"
It's true!
If you really examine the muscle-growth process from its most basic roots, you will see how you can get massive muscles by doing less.
Everything that your body does is to keep you in the best state of health and ultimately, to keep you alive.
The human body is a fine-tuned organism designed to adapt to its external environment through millions of years of evolution.
We feel uncomfortable if we are hungry or thirsty, we get tanned if we get too much sun, our skin gets callused if it is frequently irritated, and so forth.
What about when we break down muscle tissue in the gym?
If you answered something to the effect of "you get massive muscles", then congratulations!
You are absolutely correct.
By battling against resistance beyond the muscle's present capacity we have posed a threat to the musculature.
The body recognizes this as potentially harmful and as a natural adaptive response the muscles will hypertrophy (increase in size) to protect the body against this threat.
So, the way to get massive muscles is to keep your body in a state where it is continuously forced to adapt; you can do this by increasing your weight or reps consistently every week.
Sound simple?
It is easy to understand, although you must keep in mind that this only works if you give your muscles sufficient recovery time.
If you don't allow enough time for recovery, your muscles won't grow in strength or size.
Your goal in the gym should be to train with the minimum amount of volume needed to yield an adaptive response that allows you to get massive muscles.
Once you have triggered your body's natural adaptive response by training with a high level of intensity, get out of the gym and rest.
Any more stress to the muscles only ensures that they take longer to recover.
Most people train way too often and with far more sets than they really need to, in order to get massive muscles.
Most people underestimate the strain of high intensity weight training.
You don't want to create a workout program that hinders your gains and prevents you from achieving your goals.
Work with these 3 guidelines to get massive muscles:
1) Training more than 3 days per week is a no-no.
2) Don't let your workouts go on for longer than 60 minutes.
3) Perform 5-7 sets for large muscle groups (chest, back, thighs) and 2-4 sets for smaller muscle groups (shoulders, biceps, triceps, calves, abs).
You want to do all your sets to concentric muscular failure and be sure to add more weights or increase the reps every week.
If you're training consistently with full intensity, then further increasing the frequency or duration of your workout will be detrimental to your gains.
