10 Exercise Myths that Won’t Die, Debunked by Science

March 29, 2012

"No pain, no gain!" "You’ll never bulk up without supplements." "Crunches are the key to six-pack abs!" It seems there are more questions and half-truths in the market about healthy exercise than there are clear, definitive facts—but the exercise industry is a multi-billion dollar business in the United States alone, built partially on selling gadgets [...]

Why Weight Lifting Is An Exercise That Delivers Top Health Benefits

June 18, 2009

Why Weight Lifting Is An Exercise That Delivers Top Health Benefits By Vince DelMonte While some individuals are strictly interested in obtaining muscle for aesthetics, for most people, this isn’t an interest. Instead, you’re more interested in knowing what health benefits weight lifting will have for you… Far too many people overlook the many health [...]

5 Ways to Cut Your Workout Time

February 9, 2009

5 Ways to Cut Your Workout Time By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS www.TurbulenceTraining.com Do you know the 2 biggest reasons men and women stop exercising? 1) Lack of time 2) Lack of motivation Let’s tackle “Lack of Time” today with 5 ways you can get your workouts done faster. After all, no one should spend [...]

6 Week Muscle Gaining Program

December 29, 2008

Are you a natural bodybuilder and want a natural bodybuilding program to gain muscle mass fast without muscle building supplements? Vince del Monte of www.VinceDelMonteFitness.com shows you how. In this video, Vince shows you a weight training routine without muscle building supplements. You can do it: With no dangerous steroids. This means your body’s getting [...]

The Skinny Guy’s Guide To Gaining Weight

December 18, 2008

The Skinny Guy’s Guide To Gaining Weight By Vince DelMonte How would you like to learn how to gain weight fast? If the title of this article caught your attention, there is a good chance you are sick and tired of not seeing the weight on the scale budge. Most likely you just got home [...]

The Big Picture of Permanent Weight Loss – Part 3

August 12, 2008

The Big Picture Of Permanent Weight Loss, Part 3 Part 1 can be found here Part 2 can be found here The researchers concluded: results suggest that psychological factors may provide some explanation as to why many people with obesity regain weight following successful weight loss.” This particular study was done on women, so it [...]

The Big Picture of Permanent Weight Loss – Part 2

August 12, 2008

The Big Picture Of Permanent Weight Loss, Part 2 Part 1 can be found here Part 3 can be found here Teach a man to Fish… A well known Chinese Proverb is; Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a [...]

The Big Picture of Permanent Weight Loss – Part 1

August 12, 2008

The Big Picture Of Permanent Weight Loss, Part 1 Part 2 can be found here Part 3 can be found here Most people who read my articles and e-books know me as a science guy who likes to quote studies and apply research to everyday problems such as weight loss, bodybuilding, and other health/fitness related [...]

The Magic Number for Building Muscle

August 1, 2008

The Magic Number for Building Muscle

By Jason Ferruggia

When looking at most popular muscle building workouts you need to understand that most forms of training have just been passed down for decades from one generation to the next, without the inclusion of rational thought. Sometime in the 60’s sensible muscle building programs started becoming less and less prevalent with the rapidly growing usage of anabolic steroids.

In days gone by, men like Steve Reeves and Paul Anderson trained with far more sensible, lower volume muscle building programs, but these started to disappear during the 60’s. By the time Arnold got to Gold’s Gym in Venice for the first time, high volume, bodypart splits were the widely accepted way for everyone who wanted to build muscle and gain strength to train.

This type of training is not based on rational thinking but just on the fact that “it’s what everyone else is doing.” The proponents of these training methods will always blindly tell you that “higher volume training is needed to build muscle.” Says who? I can tell you for a fact that the University of Chicago isn’t wasting time examining the effects of Jay Cutlers workouts. There are no studies saying that you need 8-12 sets per bodypart to build muscle. However, there are, in fact, studies that show the exact opposite; that one set is just as effective as three when it comes to building muscle.

The proponents of this type of training will also tell you that higher volume training is associated with higher levels of growth hormone secretion. What they don’t tell you is that almost anything you do elevates GH. Extreme temperatures elevate GH but my biceps don’t get bigger every time I take a shower. The increased GH secretion is not enough to make the slightest difference whatsoever in the muscle building process.

For the drug free lifter who does not possess muscle building genetics quite up to par with the Austrian Oak, training this way is a huge mistake. Not only does it drain your amino acid pool and glycogen stores but it dramatically increases your recovery time between workouts. If you do 8-12 sets for chest on Monday you can not recover from that workout and be able to train again for seven days. So you are only getting one growth stimulus per week or fifty two per year. Now if you reduce your volume to the point where you can recover faster and more efficiently without draining your amino acid pool and glycogen stores so greatly, you can train bodyparts twice per week instead of once. Now instead of 52 growth stimulating workouts per year for each bodypart, you can now do 104.

To train more often you absolutely have to lower your training volume. The total sets per workout should be kept low and the total sets per exercise should be even lower. Contrary to what a lot of the popular programs out there today prescribe, there is rarely a need to do more than two sets per exercise when you are trying to build muscle. If you can’t get the job done with two sets you probably aren’t training hard enough. In theory you should be able to get the job done with just one set but I like to use two just to be safe and make sure all bases are covered. The second set is basically an insurance set.

The are only a few times you should do more than two sets per exercise. If you are a raw beginner who needs more sets just to practice and perfect your form then you should probably do more than two sets. If you are doing speed exercises such as cleans or box jumps you should also do a few more sets. Finally, if you are varying the reps and weights, you can do more than two sets. For example if you are doing two sets of three with 315, a set of five with 295 and a set of eight with 275, you can get away with more than two sets. But other than that, you should never do more than two sets of any exercise with the same weight for the same reps.

There are a few different approaches you can take to doing your two sets. The first approach is to go balls out on your first set and then drop the weight a little bit on your second set and use it as a sort of backoff set. Theoretically this will allow you to give your most effort when you are freshest on your first set. The second approach is to hold a little something back on your first set and instead use it as a hard, working warm up set. Then you go balls to the wall on the second set. It has been suggested that a heavy, but not all out set, before your money set can serve as a neural primer and arouse your nervous system thus making the second set even more effective. The third option is to not take neither set to the limit but instead just do two very hard sets to clean failure. Each option works very well but you will have to experiment to see which is best for you. The most demanding method would be to do two all out death sets to failure. This can work but may be a bit hard for most people to recover from.

Whatever option you choose will be far better than the normal, mindless nonsense of doing 4-6 sets per exercise and you will get far better results. Better muscle gains with far less work? Sounds like an unbeatable plan to me.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during the course of his 14 years as a professional fitness coach, including over 500 athletes from 20 different sports. Jason has written hundreds of training articles for top ranked magazines and websites and has authored four books. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com

Craig Ballantyne Weight Training Routine

July 28, 2008

For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

In this video, Criag describes the 3 best exercises you can do at home with dumbells and bodyweight to burn fat and sculpt your body…

Here is the video on YouTube

>> Click here to download the Turbulence Training 4-week ebook