FINALChapter Two

7/27/2019 FINALChapter Two

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1Chapter Two

Muscle Growth Philosophy and Weight Lifting Theory

Muscle 101

Don't even think about skipping this chapter, because here's where you're

going to learn some basic information that will offer you greater rewards and

success when it comes to muscle building and weight gain through muscle

mass.

Think of it this way. Would you consider souping up your car without

knowing the basics of how it works? In order to make improvements in a car

engine, you have to know about spark plug and distributor gaps, timing

chains, fuel lines and starters.

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For improving muscle mass and strength, you have to know how your

muscles work, as well as what drives them to expand and contract and best

of all,grow.

Did you ever wonder how your muscles work? Do you know how they

develop and grow? Did you know there's a right way and a wrong way to try

to increase muscle mass? Well, there is.

I'm not only going to tell you how you can safely increase muscle mass, but

I'll also tell you about things like micro-tears, resistance training and

important stuff like concentric muscular failure and muscular hypertrophy.

Don't groan! These things aregoodthings that you need to know and

understand about your own body so that you can follow your progress not

only by how you look, but also by how your muscles feel.

So lets get started on the basics. I promise, this will only take a few minutes

and then we'll move on.

Basically, there are three different types of muscle tissue: skeletal muscle,

cardiac muscle and smooth muscle tissues.

Skeletal muscle tissue attaches to our bone structure through ligaments,

tendons and fibers that help hold us in position. Without muscle tissue, we'd

be flopping all over the place. In the most basic sense, muscle is bone's

partner. Without muscle, you would not be able to move.

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Cardiac muscle tissue is the muscular tissue that makes up the heart wall.

As such, your heart muscle is just as important as any other muscle in your

body. It needs proper amounts of protein and exercise to work well, every

second of your lifespan. While you can't exclusively put your cardiac muscle

through a workout, in a sense, working out will strengthen your heart

muscle.

Smooth muscle tissue lines the inside of some of your organs and provides

support for your abdominal and pelvic organs.

Ligaments and tendons hold muscle to bone. There are more complicated,

medical terms for these, in addition to several others, but we're just sticking

to basics here, so these will suffice for the groundwork.

So here I am, a six-foot tall dude, and I sometimes lift weights with a much

shorter guy, one around five foot six or so. We can lift the same amount of

weight, at the same speed and intensity, and yet, that little dude often out-

lifts me. What gives? It's called physics. The smaller guy's arm is shorter, so

he doesn't have to lift as far. It's simple, really.

I'm just saying that you don't have to be tall or huge to be able to out-lift

someone else, so don't be surprised if someone smaller than you progresses

faster than you do.

You also have to take into consideration personal differences. The tendon in

my forearm may be shorter than the same tendon in yours. It's just the way

we're built. Again, because your tendon is a little shorter, you may be able to

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lift more weight, in faster progressions than I do. No big deal! I'm telling

you this now so that you don't get discouraged later on down the line, okay?

Just remember: We are notcreated equal! We may have the same parts, but

we are all individuals. So just remember that and don't get discouraged if

you find yourself taking a little longer to show progress than someone else.

Okay, moving right along.

Muscle tissue contracts in a response to stimulation. This provides

movement. Each muscle is comprised of two parts that work opposite of

each other to produce movement. When one side of the muscle contracts, the

other side lengthens.

When I lift something with my hand, I feel a stretch along the front of my

upper arm, and if the weight is heavy enough, in my lower arm as well. Try

this experiment. Let's use your bicep muscle as an example to explain and

describe how every muscle in your body works.

Okay, pick up something, like a gallon of milk. You'll feel the slight tension

in your arm as you hold it. Why didn't you drop the gallon of milk? Because

your bicep (the muscle in the front of your upper arm), stretched and then

contracted to adapt to the weight of the milk.

Without getting too technical, nerve impulses imbedded in your bicep

muscle fibers sent messages to your brain telling you to flex your arm. So

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your bicep contracted in response. Stretching, the first reflex, leads to action,

such as lifting and balancing the weight in your hand.

Don't worry, I won't give you an anatomy lesson here, but knowing the very

basics on how muscles work will be of great benefit to you when it comes

time to start lifting those weights.

It doesn't matter whether you're male or female. Pound for pound, women

are just as capable of increasing strength as men. Still, it's a medical fact that

men have a larger percentage of lean muscle tissue, which means less body

fat, which gives men greater potential for strength.

Such strength has nothing to do with muscle quality. Every human, male and

female, has the same muscles, with just a few variances for gender. Men are

generally stronger because of their increases muscle quantity.

That being said, women can use the same weight training and exercise

programs as men or vice versa.

Micro Tears and Working to Failure

When the human body performs any action, it uses muscles. When the

muscles begin to work, they strain to accomplish the task at hand. The larger

the strain, the more energy the muscles are going to need. As they exert

more force, the muscles tear.

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If you remember your high school coach hollering, Feel the burn! then

you know what I'm talking about. That burning sensation means you're

working the muscle hard enough to do some good. We're not talking about

pain here, so know the difference between 'burn' and 'pain'.

When lifting weights, the standard practice and method is to work to muscle

failure, or the greatest point of muscle fatigue. That means not being able to

lift that weight one more time. Depending on your condition, it may take a

few or a lot of repetitions to reach your own personal point of 'failure'.

Working to failure creates tiny fissures, or tears, in your muscle fibers that

are called micro tears. While these may sound alarming, they are not. These

tears are caused by breakdown of muscle tissue.

Your body is a wonderful machine. If your body thinks it's under attack or

being damaged, it sends help to the area in question. We won't go into

physiological mumbo jumbo here, but take my word for it; when your

muscle experiences any damage, or breakdown, such as that caused by micro

tears, it will send help.

Your body, without you even asking it to, will start to repair the damage

done to that muscle tissue that you just brought to 'failure'. That burn is a

good indication that you're there; that and the tremble in your arm or leg

when completing that last rep.

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The amazing thing is that your body repairs that damaged area by making

that muscle tissue biggerandstrongerthan it was before! Cool, huh? This is

your body's way of protecting it against further damage.

Ergo, the more intensity you put into your workouts, the greater your

benefits.

As soon as the damage stops, the body automatically starts to repair that

damage. Think of it like the chicken pox. When you get the chicken pox,

your body is compromised. As you recover, your body provides ways to

protect you from getting the chicken pox again. So go ahead, think of muscle

building and increased strength like what happens in the case of the chicken

pox.

The harder your body has to work to protect itself from damage, the stronger

you become. It doesn't matter whether your body is fighting the chicken pox,

or a muscle strain of flu. Repeated exposure means increased immunity, or

strength.

The only difference in this analogy is that while you can't watch T-cells

battling invisible viruses inside your body without the use of a microscope,

you can see your muscles mass and strength increasing as your body

protects itself from micro tears.

I'll guide you on how to reach 'failure' without severely injuring yourself in

the next chapter.

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Concentric Muscular Failure

Don't be alarmed. That's just a big name for what we just talked about.

However, before we even go any further, let's make a distinction here. There

is a big difference between reaching failure and stepping over the line and

injuring yourself.

You do want to train to concentric or isometric or eccentric failure, but you

don't want to lose control of your muscles or your body. Pushing yourself toperform that last rep while lifting that bar over your head may not be a good

idea if you've already reached the point of failure.

Remember that common sense must be applied to the physical theory behind

muscle training.

There are three different types of muscular contractions:

Concentric Muscle shortens.

Isometric Static contraction but no movement of muscle.

Eccentric Muscle lengthens.

So, concentric muscular failure is the process by which your muscle, no

matter whether it's the bicep, the large muscle in your upper arm, or your

quadriceps or the muscle on the front of your thigh, they all perform the

same way. They contract and expand, or lengthen. While one side of the

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muscle shortens, or contracts, the other side of the muscle lengthens, or

expands.

Concentric contraction may be initiated, for example, by curling a barbell

from waist height to your chest.

Hanging onto hand weights, for example, and not doing anything with them,

brings about isometric contractions. Your muscles are tensed for the period

of time that you are holding the weights.

So, by lifting the barbell, you are performing a concentric, or muscle

shortening, contraction in your biceps muscle. By holding it steady, you are

performing an isometric contraction. By lowering the barbell, you are

performing an eccentric, or muscle lengthening, contraction.

Also keep in mind that you don't want to perform the same moves, the same

number of reps and use the same poundage every time you lift. An increase

of muscle mass and strength should be a very gradual process. This is one

time when you don't want to rush things!

So, now you know the basics about different types of muscular contraction

and how breaking down muscle tissue can actually help you achieve

reaching greater muscle mass and strength. Now we're ready to move on to

other necessary terms.

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Intensity and Duration

Depending on whom you ask, there are two different schools of thought on

this subject, so I'll just briefly describe each of them. Most bodybuilders will

define intensity as the amount of effort used to complete a lift.

For example, if I were to use a leg press set at 300 pounds, it would be a lot

more difficult to complete a set of reps than if I had set the machine at 250

pounds.

A sport therapist or doctor will define intensity as the difficulty of the

specific work to be performed. They call this RM, which stands for

'repetition maximum'. That means that if a lifter has a 1RM of 300 pounds in

a leg press, a singlesetperformed with 250 pounds will be more intense than

the same lift using 200 pounds, no matter how many reps he completes.

To further illustrate this point, it is necessary to explain the difference

between the effects of the different number of reps and the muscle's response

to those numbers. For example, you can have a low, medium or high number

of reps within any given set of exercises. A general range for these is 1 to 5

for low reps, 6 to 12 for a medium range of reps and 13 to 20 or more reps

for a high number of reps.

Training with a low number of repetitions makes your stronger. This is

because the effect on muscles is more neurological more muscle fibers are

involved, which stimulates muscle fibers that might not be involved or

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activated with higher sets of reps. With a low rep program however, the size

increase of muscle fibers in minimal, though you will bestronger. Who says

size isn't everything? We do.

Below is a chart that will show projected results for a wide variety of rep

ranges.

Rep

Range

Percent of 1 Rep

Max

Effect of Training Goal

1-5 85 100% Neurological Strength and

Power, but little

increase in

muscle size

6 - 8 75 85% Neurological and

Metabolic

Strength and

increased muscle

size

9 - 12 70 75% Neurological and

Metabolic

Increased muscle

size and some

increased

strength

13 - 20 60 70% Metabolic Endurance, and

some increased

muscle size, but

little strength

For the sake of this book, we're going to stick to the bodybuilder's definition

of intensity.

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Duration

Believe it or not, you don't have to spend hours working out in the gym or at

home every day to build muscle mass and strength. As a matter of fact, you

have to watch that you don't over-train.

The most important thing to remember when setting out on a muscle

building journey is to pace yourself and your muscles in order to achievemaximum potential and benefits. Working your muscles to the point of

injury will get you nowhere, fast.

Sure, you have to give each workout 100 percent, but that doesn't mean you

have to train a specific amount or length of time on a daily basis. Actually,

you'll make better progress if you limit your weight lifting workouts to

roughly 3-4 hours a week.

No, I'm not kidding.

Weight training gets the muscle tissues hot and initiates the growth process,

which we discussed at the beginning of this chapter. It has been proven that

your body must receive an adequate amount of time to recuperate in order

for your muscle-building efforts to succeed.

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If you don't rest muscle groups in between workouts, not only do you open

yourself up to injury, but your workouts will be counter-productive and a

waste of time.

In this case, 'less is more'. Unlike other sports, it's not the practice that makes

perfect; it's the quality and intensity of your individual workouts that make

the difference between success and failure when it comes to building

muscle.

Take it from me, and thousands of other guys and gals who have tried to get

around that little lesson. Not only will daily and hours-long weight lifting

workouts nothelp you achieve your goals, but you'll likely end up hurting

yourself and tearing a ligament or tendon or cause joint damage.

Over training is one of the most common errors that new students to any

form of exercise make.

Progression of Intensity

If you only train your muscles to the point of fatigue, you wont 'damage'

your muscle tissue enough for your body to view the damage as threatening.

In that case, your body won't rush to the rescue and make that muscle tissue

stronger and bigger. Remember when we talked about concentric muscle

failure?

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If you work to concentric failure, then maximum muscular damage will

occur, therefore causing a greater need for repair. The greater the need for

repair, the stronger the body will rebuild the muscle tissue, leading to larger

increases in muscle mass in a shorter time frame.

However, do notI repeat, do notoverwork yourself, as mentioned before,

because you'll just be wasting your time. The progression of intensity means

slowly increasing both the amount of weights you're lifting or using, and the

number of repetitions and sets you complete for each muscle group you're

working.

For example, if you bench-pressed 175 pounds for six repetitions yesterday,

dont jump to 225 the next day, or even the day after that. You want to work

up slowly, meaning 5-pound increments.

Remember that bout of chicken pox? If you get a bad enough case of the

chicken pox, it can kill you. Now, I'm not saying that lifting too much

weight is going to kill you, but it definitely won't help you reach your goals

any faster. If you injure yourself, it will take even longer to get where you

want to go, so take your time and go slow.

If you work your muscles too much, you will have little to show for all of

that work but a shortage of vitamins and sore, aching muscles. So no matter

what, dont overwork yourself. If you can already bench 175, then bump it

up 5 pounds each week. That way, your body will adapt to the new weight.

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The law of intensity states that in order for muscles to grow, the intensity

(the force exerted on muscles within a set) must be enough to damage the

muscles to the point that repairs will cause excess muscle growth. An

example, again using the bench press, would be to increase the before

mentioned 175 pounds andsix repetitions to 175 pounds and eight

repetitions. This increase may seem very slight to you, but the higher

intensity will start that muscle repair process that creates bigger and stronger

muscles.

The law of progression states that in order for muscles to grow, the body

must progress from one intensity level to a higher intensity level. Once

more, again using the bench press example, you could increase the 175

pounds and eight repetitions to 180 pounds and eight repetitions. Or you

could simply increase the amount of repetitions performed.

Another simple way of looking at the law of progression is as a continuation

of the law of intensity; intensity must be increased in order to produce a

change in muscular tissue damage, which in turn triggers muscle growth.

Keep in mind that a one-time change in intensity is not enough. Both

weights and repetitions within sets must be increased at regular intervals in

order to continue producing muscle-building results.

The most important thing to remember is that your body requires time to

repair muscle tissue. Likewise, if your body puts forth all of its energy into

building muscle, you will not see results, because your body is undergoing

continuous muscular damage and repair. It is putting forth all of its energy

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toward repairing damage rather than preventing it. When the damage

continues before healing can take place, extra tissue will not be formed.

Muscular Hypertrophy

No, it has nothing to do with awards or trophies and it's not a disease. The

term hypertrophy is just a fancy, medical way of saying 'increased bulk'. In

this case, the term is related to muscle fibers.

Keep in mind however, that merely lifting heavier weights will not

necessarily make youstronger. While your best potential for maximum

growth depends on working specific muscles to 'failure' or 'overload', you

also need to make sure that you don't let those muscles get bored by

performing the same old routines every time you lift.

You need to keep those muscles guessing, and expose them to different

moves, poundage and repetitions. You can also do this by decreasing rest

time in between sets, as well 'shocking' the muscles by pushing them a little

harder once in a while.

Another way to keep your muscles primed for growth is to do away with the

negative aspect of a lifting motion. Let's use the bench press example again.

Go ahead and lift the weight up, but then let your spotter take the weight and

set it in the rack. This way, your muscles work on the eccentric muscle

contraction only.

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Just like any physical process, muscle building takes time, so the most

important virtue for any aspiring muscle builder to have is patience. As

stated before, muscle building takes dedication, and if you dont have the

dedication and patience to see this process through, then you may as well

stop here.

However, if you feel yourself up to the challenge, then we will continue to

the next chapter, which will teach you how to properly structure your

workout.

Remember:

1) Always try to train with enough effort and intensity to trigger the

breakdown of muscle tissue, which in turn makes the muscles grow even

bigger and stronger.

2) Gradually increase the poundage you lift on a weekly or bi-weekly basis,

as well as the number of reps you perform in any given set.

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