Building Muscle Workouts: What Are Realistic Muscle Gains

Good Morning,

I have been telling you about Vince Del Monte's new program Maximize Your Muscle and a number of you have made a very smart move by taking advantage of the $1 trial. Some other's have been on the fence and I'm sorry to say missed the $1 trial. But Vince is now offering a $10 trial (plus shipping and handling). Still a great deal so go check it out.

Okay so let's move on. What are realistic expectations of how much muscle anyone can expect to gain?

I am about to give you the “muscle geek” answer because you have been lied to by the bodybuilding supplements mafia, magazines and fitness industry as to what is actually possible…

They are making it impossible to build a body that gets better treatment by society.

Understanding the truth about muscle is your first step before dealing with your struggle of looking and feeling average and not living in a body you deserve.

Is it 5 lbs of muscle a month? 10 lbs a month? 20 lbs a month?

Why am I asking you this question? Well I just finished a debate with this guy from my gym on “How much muscle can you really build?”

He didn’t believe that I gained 41 pounds of lean muscle in six months and accused me of taking drugs. In his words, “Whatever dude… there is no way you gained 41 pounds of muscle in six months unless you’re taking something…”

I don`t blame the dude for being skeptical. I would be too.

Reliable bodybuilding and nutrition information isn’t that easy to find. Too often, eager for the quick gain, the inexperienced bodybuilder gets caught in the trap of exaggerated claims from the magazines and supplement companies, but I hope that over the next few days you’ll begin to trust me and see that I have your best interests in mind.

Next time this subject comes up with your friends, you will be able to help them set a realistic goal.

Click PLAY To Learn How Much Muscle YOU Can Really Build




Does that make sense? I trust that lesson cleared up that subject once and for all. If for some reason, you can’t watch the video, I teach the lesson below for more clarity:


How Much Muscle Can YOU Really Build?

Most gym rats expect to build LOTS of muscle really fast.

This is a myth. You can NOT build muscle really FAST. The majority of readers, customers and clients I work with have completely unrealistic expectations when it comes to quick muscle building.

I can’t put an exact number on how much you can gain but most people believe that they can build 20 pounds of muscle in three months…

…it’s amazing how many frustrated customers I get emailing me after their first month of training complaining that they only gained 5 or 10 pounds. I’m thinking to myself, “That’s fantastic, what are you complaining about?!”

There is no doubt you can gain 20 pounds of WEIGHT in 3 months, or even one month, but we are not talking about *weight* – we are talking about *DRY MUSCLE.*

Pure muscle tissue. Not water weight. Not glycogen weight.

Pure muscle weight!

There is not a chance in heaven that you will gain 5 or even 10 pounds of dry muscle in one month or even 3 months – not even close. I hate to be the messenger of this bad news but unless you are using growth enhancing drugs…

… it’s IMPOSSIBLE.

Many of you might be upset or discouraged about the TRUTH of how much you can actually build, but this knowledge will help you to eat and train with a more realistic perspective.

So how much muscle can your body actually manufacture?

Under the BEST possible circumstances (training, diet, supplementation, recovery) the average male body can create between *0.25 and 0.50* pounds of dry muscle tissue per week.

That’s the natural amount that your body chemistry will allow. So you’re looking at 1-2 pounds of dry muscle each month. Not much?

Well consider what your body will look like 12 months from now with an extra 12-24 pounds of muscle?!?!

Starting to see the importance of consistency?

The Skinny Vinny Transformation Story

Let me put my “Skinny Vinny” transformation into perspective if you’re still skeptical like the dude at my gym. From the first year of high school to the last day of University I lived as a long distance runner. I ran from 50-80 miles a week, was never exposed to heavy weight training and was undernourished eating low quality calories.

Now watch the extreme I went to. I went from running 50-80 miles a week to running 0 miles a week. I went from never doing weights to high weight training three times a week. I went from eating around 2,000 low-quality calories to a 4,000 calorie, high-quality, mass plan.

Going from a scrawny long distance runner to hard core bodybuilder is pretty extreme, and it’s going to produce some extreme results, which is exactly what I experienced. I trust that puts any skepticism in a new light. Also, I did not gain 41 pounds of DRY MUSCLE in six months.

The 41 pounds also factored in the increased muscle which was accompanied by increased glycogen and water storage in the muscles. More muscle equals more glycogen.

Most people can maintain up to 40 grams of glycogen per 100g of muscle tissue. So if you’re gaining 10 pounds of new muscle you’ll consequently increase glycogen storage by around four pounds.

So if you gain 10 pounds of muscle, your scale gain will actually be closer to 14 pounds (if you didn’t gain any fat).

And rarely will someone not gain any fat if they are gaining more than three pounds per month.

So, when you set your goals, clarify in your mind that if “20 pounds of muscle” is your *weight gain* goal or your *dry muscle* goal.

And then put realistic time frames on these goals based on the info I just shared.

If you simply focus on keeping your body fat between 10-13% fat while gaining around 5 pounds per month then it is safe to say you are gaining 1-2 pounds of dry muscle a month with 1-2 pounds of glycogen and water, and hopefully no more than a pound of fat.

Train hard and expect success,

Vince DelMonte, Maximize Your Muscle  $10.00 trial ends on Monday.

I am going to add another point here. What a lot of people don't realize is the difference in your appearance even small amounts of muscle gain have. If you are replacing fat with muscle doing the correct exercises even a 3-5 pound gain in muscle can give you the appearance of adding 10 -15 pounds of muscle.

Think about your waist is smaller (adding muscle burns more fat) add even a very small amount of size to your delts and bang people will take notice trust me.

Jag252

Maximize Your Muscle Building

Maximize Your Efficiency: Three "Tweaks" That Will Revolutionize Your Workout

By Charles Staley, B.Sc, MSS
Director, Staley Training Systems
http://www.staleytraining.com

Here I present three methods which, when used consistently, will help you spend less time in the gym while getting better results at the same time.

Only applied knowledge is power, so don’t just read, but apply!

Front Loading

Efficient people instinctively try to get the majority of their work done early in the day (this also applies to week or month). The rationale is simple: you have more energy early in the day than you do later on.

Therefore, when I create training programs for my clients, I rarely indicate a standard amount of rest between each set. Instead, I’ll indicate a time-frame for all sets to be completed in (for example, 8 sets of 3 repetitions to be performed in 15 minutes - you might recognize Escalating Density Training (http://www.staleytrainingprograms.com) parameters in this example!).

In this way, my client will instinctively attempt to get a “head start” by taking shorter rests between the initial sets, which will permit longer rest intervals for later sets.

Since fatigue accumulates over the duration of a workout, front loading is far more efficient than using standard rest intervals between sets, which is how 99% of all people organize their workouts. Interested in joining the one-percent club? Apply this concept to your workouts starting today— the rewards will be significant and immediate.


Use Antagonistic Pairings

Every muscle in your body has a “partner” (called the antagonist) which is capable of opposing it’s contractile forces. For example, when you perform a biceps curl, the biceps muscle would be termed the “agonist” and the tricep would be the “antagonist.” (the easy way to remember these terms is to think that the agonist is the one that is in agony because it’s performing the work).

As you curl the weight, the motor cortex of your brain signals the triceps to relax in order to allow the biceps to contract. This phenomenon is called Sherrington’s Law of Reciprocal Inhibition. Here’s how we can take advantage of this phenomenon in a very practical way:

You first perform a set of barbell curls, and then rest perhaps 1-2 minutes. For set two, you perform a set of lying dumbbell triceps extensions. As you do so, the biceps muscles are “inhibited.”

The triceps contraction actually forces the biceps to de-activate, which simply means they will recover faster as a result of having performed the set of triceps extensions. You then rest, go back to the curls, and back and forth until all sets for both exercises are completed.

There are three additional benefits to the use of antagonistic pairings:

If you perform (for example) 5 sets of biceps curls one after the other using two minutes of rest between each set, you obviously get two minutes of rest between each set. However, if you perform a set of curls, then rest two minutes, then perform a set of triceps extensions, rest two minutes, etc., you now achieve more than four minutes of rest between two sets of the same exercise, even though the total workout duration remains the same.


Training muscles in antagonistic pairs ensures equal (or at least similar) strength development around both sides of the joint. This is very important for overall size and strength gains, because if the strength ratio between agonist and antagonist is significantly disparate, the brain will reduce your strength levels in an effort to protect your joints.


In the preceding example, as you perform your biceps curls, you are keeping the involved joint warm for your next set of triceps extensions. Over time, this can be very meaningful in terms of joint integrity and health.
Here are a few examples of muscle pairings which correspond to the principles
I’ve just discussed:

Lats & Pecs

Biceps & Triceps

Quads & Hamstrings

Abdominals and Low Back Musculature

Lats & Triceps (biceps are usually heavily involved during most lat exercises)

Pecs & Biceps (triceps are usually heavily involved during most pec exercises)

Use Submaximal Accelerative Efforts

If your best bench press for one rep is 300 pounds, then obviously the most amount of tension you can place on the targeted muscles will be just slightly more than 300 pounds.

However, Soviet force-plate research has shown that a load corresponding to 65% of your maximum capability (195 pounds in this example) can also result in 300 pounds worth of tension, provided that the weight is maximally accelerated. You might argue that there is no advantage either way, since both methods produce approximately the same amount of force.

However, there are distinct advantages to using “submaximal accelerative efforts” as opposed to the maximal weights method:

Using the above example, if you use 300 pounds, you can only perform one rep, and then you’re done. If you use 195 pounds for sets of three using maximum acceleration, you can perform multiple sets— usually between 8 and 12 sets can be performed before there is a significant decline in lifting speed. This allows far more total volume within a session.


When using submaximal accelerative efforts as described above, you’ll always have several reps in reserve on any given set, which means you can dramatically reduce the need for a spotter (although using a competent spotter is still a good idea when using unfamiliar exercises).


Our bodies are essentially hard-wired to accelerate whenever performing difficult motor tasks such as running, lifting, or jumping. In fact, people have to be taught to move slowly, since it is far more efficient (and instinctive) to take advantage of momentum when performing motor tasks such as lifting heavy weights.
If these ideas seem unusual to you, let me stress that the most successful people in life are open-minded.

Have you ever adopted a new habit that ended up having a significant positive impact on your life? The three concepts I’ve presented here have had that effect on my own training, and on the results I’ve achieved for my clients. I’m confident they’ll produce similar results for you as well.


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About The Author

Charles Staley...world-class strength/performance coach...his colleagues call him an iconoclast, a visionary, a rule-breaker. His clients call him “The Secret Weapon” for his ability to see what other coaches miss. Charles calls himself a “geek” who struggled in Phys Ed throughout school. Whatever you call him, Charles’ methods are ahead of their time and quickly produce serious results.

Click here to visit Charles' site and grab your 5 FREE videos that will show you how to literally FORCE your body to build muscle, lose fat and gain strength with "Escalating Density Training," Charles' revolutionary, time-saving approach to lifting that focuses on performance NOT pain.

http://www.staleytrainingprograms.com

Build Lean Muscle And Burn Bodyfat

Training With Weights vs "Weight Training"



Just a word of warning:

I will be using the term "bodybuilder" or "bodybuilding" to refer to anyone who wants to build lean muscle and burn bodyfat in this article.

That means you.

Yep... you are a "bodybuilder." That does not mean you want to look like a monster on stage and pose in front of thousands of people wearing nothing but your undies.

That means you want more lean muscle and less bodyfat -- that's it.

With that in mind, here's something you have to know:

Bodybuilders do not "lift weights" -- we "train" with weights.

We use weights as a tool like a sculptor uses a hammer and chisel.

The object of the game is not to lift some heavy weight from Point A to Point B and back. That's weight lifting. "Bodybuilding" is about making the muscle you want to change do all the work.

Here's two ways to do it:

1. Lower the weight and focus: Most people are just concerned with the lift itself. "Get this weight off of me!" seems to be the unconscious mantra. This will not get the job done. In fact you may end up looking bulky rather than sleek... or just not change at all. Instead, lower the weight slightly, slow the pace down (especially on the descent of the movement) and picture the muscle in your mind doing ALL of the work. Literally put your mind in the muscle. You will be amazed at how different the same exercise feels with this degree of concentration,.

2. Contract, hold, release: At the top of any movement, contract the muscle hard. Hold that contraction for a second or two, then release it and lower the weight slowly. This will not only cause faster muscle growth (that is a good thing) but also demand that you use less weight to get the job done. This means your joints -- shoulders, knees, elbows -- will last a lifetime. At 45 my joints are in perfect health. Protect yours at all costs.

Just remember: You are not just lifting weights when you train for muscle shape and "tone" -- you are a sculptor. Treat your tools and your body with that degree of care.

I cover many more tips on how to build lean muscle and burn bodyfat faster in my book "7 Minute Muscle".

Read more here:

7 minute muscle <--- more muscle in far less time