Men’s Health writer Lou Schuler does away with the complexity of muscle-building and comes up with a no-fuss approach.
The usual body-building regimes require an endocrinologist to fully understand, with 70 genes and a long list of hormones involved in the process. The idea is to hasten muscular growth while slowing down growth-inhibiting processes. The workouts are punishing and the progress is often painfully slow.
Push Yourself
MAX Muscle Plan author Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D. suggests that better results could be achieved by doing a little beyond the usual volume of work. He adds that volume and hypertrophy follow a dose-response relationship. The principle is quite straightforward – increase the input and you’ll have much-improved results.
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Beginners, or lifters returning after a considerable hiatus, will multiply benefits by doing more sets as suggested by the dose-response relationship. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends the following advice: muscle growth will be faster with two sets of exercise instead of one. If you’re currently doing two, level up and perform three. After that, do four sets to further improve.
Increase Frequency
Frequency can be increased in the same logic, too. If your normal frequency is one workout per week, increase it to two. Subsequently increase frequency, and reap more benefits.
Past the beginner stage, the principle of dose-response relationship continues to be of practical use. According to the ACSM position stand, performing routines up to six sets at a frequency of twice per week continue to be effective.
Guys who’ve been into lifting longer and are closer to their genetic potential for muscular size and strength, find increasingly good results with dose-response. They can do from 9 to 12 sets of exercise per week, spread over 2 to 3 workouts a week.