Contraction dependent muscle growth (also called work induced muscle growth) is “Non-Uniform Muscle growth”. Using new measurement techniques we are finding regional differences in muscle activation along a muscle during exercise – and where this activation occurs seems to be dependent on the exercise of choice.

Meaning weight training can affect different parts of the same muscle in different ways – as an example if you do bicep curls you don’t stimulate growth equally along your entire bicep..some parts get ‘hit’ more than others.

From what I have found the difference seems to be along the ‘length’ of the muscle – so sometimes the effect is more ‘proximal’ and sometimes it’s more in the middle.

As an example – if you were to train Biceps 3 times a week, for 12 weeks and I were to graph the Cross Sectional Area of you Biceps before and after those 12 weeks, the graph would look like this -

The largest changes happen in the middle of the muscle.  As a more illustrated example we can use the picture below – most of the growth would occur at “B”

This regional difference seems to be dependent on the muscle and the exercise – sometimes the majority of the growth is right in the middle, sometimes it’s closer to the shoulder.

So what does this all have to do with steroids?

Well, we now have some pretty concrete evidence that contraction induced muscle growth causes non-uniform muscle growth – parts of the muscle (typically the middle) grow MORE than others when stimulated by contractions (Weight training).

So here’s my theory – With steroid use, especially at high doses, you are essentially BATHING the muscle in anabolic signals for days and weeks and months.

The WHOLE muscle gets the anabolic signal.

Thus, you may get a different muscle growth pattern when using steroids.

Back to our bicep example – a steroid user may see a more uniform growth in his Bicep. So not only would the middle of the muscle increase in size (B), so would that parts closer to the shoulder AND the parts closer to the elbow (A & C).

My bet is that steroid use creates a different ‘look’ than people who are just weight training. It may also explain why steroid users can simply get ‘bigger’ than the non-users – it could just be that they are getting more growth in areas of the muscle that simply will not grow much without steroid use – while this doesn’t sound like much if you are only thinking ‘biceps’ but consider the same scenario using every muscle in the body..that’s some serious untapped growth potential.

This is all hypothetical of course, and it’s confounded by the fact that the vast majority of steroid users also weight train (so they still get the growth at ‘B’) … But the fact remains that steroid use seems to create a ‘fuller’ looking muscle and now we may know why.

BP

If you’ve been sitting on the fence about getting a copy of How Much Protein, now is the time!

I’ve just released the New and Expanded version of How Much Protein!

With over 50 extra references, and over 150% larger, this expanded version covers some exciting new information – including the role that satellite cells and genetics play in your ability to build muscle AND the difference between Juvenile and Work Induce muscle growth.

I also cover the amount of protein you need to eat to build muscle, as well as the rare exceptions to this rule!

If you want a great reference that gives you clear guidelines on how much protein you need to eat, and a thorough explanation of the science that explains these recommendations then this is the book for you!

To Get your copy of the New Expanded version please go here:

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BP

PS- As always, if you already have a copy of ‘How Much Protein’ then please email me and I will take care of you.

IMPORTANT – The post is written under the assumption that Mike, and the rest of the top bodybuilders of his era, used steroids. If you don’t like this assumption, please don’t read the rest of the post.

Mike Mentzer  may have been the smartest body builder of all time – or at least of his generation.

He seemed to have realized something that none of the other trainers of his day realized – Time is extremely valuable.

And, Mike may have also realized that he could let the anabolic nature of steroids do the majority of the growth inducing work – That there was a MAXIMAL rate (speed) at which his muscle could grow or increase in size. And once that rate was hit by using the right combination of intramuscular tension, recovery and anabolic steroids, all the bench presses, dead lifts and squats in the world were not going to speed it up to any noticeable degree.

Think about it. The general consensus is that Mike spent very little time in the gym….somewhere between 3 days per week to less than an hour a day every 7 to 14 days (Forgive me – I don’t know the exact claim).

Many of his competitors spent 2-3 hours in the gym 5-6 days per week. And say what you will about Mike, but you have to admit, his build was at par with the rest of the top competitors of his time.

So to me, he was smart enough to know he could train intensely then let the hormones do the work that they do. Essentially guiding growth  with infrequent intense workouts. And as we discussed previously on this blog (Infrequent training and muscle growth), he could have done absolutely no work and still would have probably grown better than anyone who was training hard, but not using drugs.

When you compare his results to a number of his peers at the time (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Zane, Boyer Coe and Chris Dickerson to name few.), and if you assume the steroid dosages were roughly equal in effectiveness and health risks, you begin to wonder- why spend all that time working out if you didn’t have too?

Two hours a day, 5 times a week, that’s 10 hours that could have been spent doing something else.

Next, when you consider long term health, and the wear and tear on the body, Mentzer may have also been one step ahead of his peers. It is easy to reason that with much more recovery time between workouts Mike most likely would have had much less joint and tendon wear and tear.
Bottom line. Mike Menzter did less work but achieved similar results as his peers. This is likely due to a combination of awesome genetics, anabolic steroids and a unique style of training.

Now here in lies the conundrum with this theory: Is it better for long term health, use of time, and overall happiness, to not use steroids and be in the gym for multiple hours per week, or to use steroids and hardly be in the gym ever?

The obvious answer is the quick “steroids are bad” retort, but I think this warrants further investigation – Especially when we throw ‘low dose steroids’ into the mix – The amount that would mimic the build of a highly dedicated natural trainer, with a fraction of the time and wear and tear required.

More of a ramble today than a concise thought, but there are some things worth considering here.

BP

People on steroids who are NOT training have the ability to gain more muscle weight and muscle size then those who are not on steroids but who ARE training.

In other words, by being on steroids you can gain more by sitting on the couch playing playstation than your buddy can by busting his ass in the gym.

If you take that into account while reading HIT reviews, it illustrates that steroids MAY (note: I’m not saying are) be a confounder.

In this bar graph the people on the left were not working out. First bar is placebo. Second bar is people taking testosterone.

The people on the right were working out. First bar is placebo, second bar was taking testosterone.

Notice the Testosterone no exercise bar is higher than the exercise with no testosterone bar (bar 2 versus bar 3)

Here’s the same study looking at the size of the subjects triceps:

Check out bar 2 versus bar 3.

Something to consider next time someone tells you the key to building muscle is to train for 15 minutes once every other week.

“The simplest explanation is likely the correct one”

BP

(graphs from N Engl J Med 1996;335:1-7.)

It was a comment that stung a bit.

I took it to suggest that the way I look was more ‘genetics’ then it was hard work and and Eat Stop Eat.

Funny thing –> It was RIGHT.

Since the conversation in question was actually about my arms, I will use then as our example:

My Arms are roughly 16 inches in circumference. That means that 80% of my arms would be 13 inches.. About the size you would expect on an untrained guy my height (5’10″) who wasn’t overly fat.

So yes, 80% is genetic, but the 20% that counts – that comes from years of hard work.

Bottom line – there are two ways of l0oking at this (both positive)

1 – It’s the last 20% that counts…and this is all that separates the successful from the unsuccessful when it comes to changing your body.

2 – Even if you haven’t done one thing to change your body, but you want to start now..don’t worry, you are already 80% of the way there.

Finally, remember that no matter what your starting 80% looks like, you can always make improvement that will impress people enough that they make comments like the one that started this post!

BP

PS – There are 7 days in a week, and I’m asking you to fast for one or two of them…since 20% of 7 is 1.5 days, it could be said that even with diet..it’s the 20% that really counts

Train more, Eat less and try Fasting for weight loss

“Eat 10,000 calories a day, train hard with lots of rest, don’t do any cardio and sleep 12 hours a night and you will build muscle”

Which to me is very similar to telling people the secret to getting rich is:

“Work 5 full times jobs, live in a shack for 8 years, only spend 3 dollars a day on food and have no possessions and you’ll get rich”

OK..maybe not the best analogy, but you get the idea.

The fact is by adding a ton of body fat you can’t really tell how or where you are gaining your muscle.

And if you are a skinny guy (or girl) to begin with, it’ll actually FEEL like you are adding muscle.

But this is an aimless way approach to building muscle. There’s no true road map, no goals other than ‘weight’.

I’m not a fan of this approach (Obviously)

I’ve bulked up from 190 to 216 when I was in my twenties, just to cut back down to the low 180′s.

I didn’t gain, nor lose any muscle during this entire process (measured by BodPod & Skin Calipers)

To me, bulking is nothing more than a great way for a personal trainer to make you think you are making progress, when really..you’re just getting fat.

So here’s my alternative.

Let’s use a hypothetical situation.

You are a 31 year old male with 8 years training experience who wants to build some more muscle.

You are 6’2″ and weigh in at 205-208 pounds, not lean, not skinny. People can tell you workout, but your right in the middle of being ‘big’ and being ‘lean’, you’re probably around 16-17% body fat

Meaning you have about 170 pounds of Lean Body Mass of which 85 to 90 pounds would be Skeletal Muscle

Old way of thinking would be to eat 5,000 to 10,000 calories every day for the next couple months, then spend 3 months dieting preparing to display your new muscle in the summer.

New way of thinking is a bit more….Tactical.

From the principles from the Adonis Effect I can say that at a natural 6’2″ with an average build (nothing freaky):

You should be able to hold about 180 pounds of Lean Body Mass (of which, 90 to 100 pounds would be actual muscle).

Which at about 10% body fat would put you roughly at 200 pounds.

(So you would need to increase your skeletal muscle mass by about 10% and decrease body fat by about 40%.)

At this Height, weight and body comp you should have a waist that is roughly 33 inches, and a shoulder circumference that should be above 50 inches and closing in on 53.5 inches.

Lastly assuming a ‘drop’ of 7 inches from your shoulders you should be looking at about a 46 inch chest.

So I’d use that as your ‘body road map’ – something to aim for while doing everything possible in the gym to gain strength.

Remember Muscle mass follows strength. For anyone other than beginner athletes, you can’t get stronger at a lift without the muscle involved in that lift getting at least a little larger.

So take your measurements now, then test some basic lifts in the gym..shoulder press, squat, bench, dead, weighted chin, maybe weighted dips… Then Track and test and test and track.

When it comes to overeating, it would completely be up to you.  You can get as fat as you like…but it won’t change the facts that this is most likely what will be ‘underneath’ everything.

At this age and training experience I”m just not sure that eating a massive surplus is going to help (unless you plan on taking steroids, then overeating and high protein may do the trick).

But the very easiest solution is to take your waist measurement now, maybe 2 inches below belly button, at belly button and 2 inches above…and then track.

If these measurements start going up you know you are eating more than you need to and you can dial back a bit (it doesn’t make sense that you would need to store fat in order to build muscle –> they are two completely different physical processes)

Now this road map is by no means perfect…you could be a genetic freak who can hold 210 pounds of lean mass at 6’2″, or you may have naturally narrow shoulders and will never be able to hit 53.5 inches…but it’s a start, and it’s better than having no direction at all.

That’s what the Adonis Effect is all about…tactical muscle building.

Same goes for the Venus Effect for women.

BP

PS- Click the pic of Below for a special “Holiday discount” on the Adonis Effect..

John Barban Creator of the Adonis Effect

]]> http://bradpilon.com/muscle-building/my-approach-to-building-muscle/feed/ 21 http://bradpilon.com/muscle-building/muscle-building-and-lay-offs/ http://bradpilon.com/muscle-building/muscle-building-and-lay-offs/#comments Wed, 24 Nov 2010 20:06:03 +0000 Brad Pilon http://bradpilon.com/?p=1757 One last muscle building post for this week.

Obvious fact…unplanned breaks from working out suck.

(Mostly because they typically happen as a result of an injury).

But here’s the truth about lay offs – They can actually help you build … Read More

I’d like to expand on my “What we can learn from Ryan Reynolds” muscle building blog post and really explore the idea of “Wave Theory Muscle Building”.

Basically, the idea is as follows:

Very few of us can go all out all the time. Real life tends to get in the way of our workouts and muscle building. Things like job stress, money stress, lack of sleep, colds, flu’s, car accidents, all of this stuff will demand some of our time and energy.

Not only this, but as most of us have discovered, muscle growth doesn’t happen linearly.

It takes some time to ramp up, then it happens, then no matter how hard you push in the gym, it slows to a crawl…especially if you continue to follow the same workout routine or patterns.

Whether it’s satellite cell availability, some sort of downstream regulator in the mTOR pathway..what ever the case may be something slows muscle building (A term I call Anabolic Slow Down)

So here’s my solution.

Hit it hard while you are growing, but once growth has slowed…adopt a wave theory approach to training.

Basically, hit it HARD for 3-4 periods once or twice a year max.

The rest of the time, do the minimum amount of work needed.

This is the basic theory I explained in “The Elimination Experiment” and “Anabolic Again”.

Now this seems to be where the confusion has set in.

By ‘do the minimum’ I do NOT mean don’t workout. Nor do I mean, take it easy in the gym.

I still want you lifting heavy. Just with lower volume and frequency than other times.

(Granted, this confusion is mostly my fault for not including workouts in the “Elimination Experiment” the way I did in “Anabolic Again”.)

Luckily, this problem may have been solved for me.

This morning I received a ‘tweet’ from Jason Ferruggia about his “Brand new Minimalist Training ebook being released today.”

It sounded interesting so I shot him a quick email, he replied and I spent the morning reviewing the workouts.

Turns out, Jason has saved me a lot of time.

The workouts he suggests in his Minimalist Muscle Building Ebook are exactly along the lines of what I would have suggested if I had wrote an expanded version of the elimination workout…mind you, I wouldn’t have used terms like “The Menage” or “The Kinky Threesome” to describe my workouts…but I’m boring that way

So thanks to Jason, I can explain my Wave theory of muscle building with a bit of a clearer vision.

My thought or idea is this.

Once or twice a year follow an intense workout program like Anabolic Again or the Adonis Effect. Then take it down a notch and use one of the workouts in Jason’s program. The reduced volume and frequency will be a nice change, and who knows, you may end up growing during your ‘down time’, because you are still working hard, you’ve just reduced the total demand on your body.

Bottom Line: I think we can learn from Pro BodyBuilders and movie stars and realize that you may need some down time in between periods of building muscle AND you may need to come to terms with the fact that after an intensive 3-6 month training program you may not gain much more lean body mass on the workout program you were following.

The anabolic effects of any one workout tend to diminish with time.

So the point of this blog post:  For 3-4 months a year go ALL OUT, get all the gains you can, but once the gains start to slow, don’t be afraid to take some down time and lower the volume and frequency… and, Jason Ferruggia’s new program is one that I can EASILY endorse for this purpose.

Jason’s new workouts endorsed by me ==>

BP

Now, normally I don’t ‘report’ on this kind of thing, but I really, really liked this email.

Why?

Because it made me realize that I’m NOT taking crazy pills!

See when I wrote Anabolic Again and was doing my research behind Anabolic Slow Down I felt like I was the only one who cared about this phenomena…but now seeing that big time fitness people like Vince Delmonte are also recognizing that their is something putting the breaks on muscle growth in experienced lifters…well it makes me happy in a weird sorta way.

Now, Vince’s theories and solutions are muc different then mine, but at least it proves a point.

If you take a look at this page http://bhlikes.it/mymb the message is obvious: Muscle growth eventually slows down.

But it’s not just the slow down I’m intrigued with.

It’s the different RATES (or speeds) that people seem to inately have for muscle growth…

Have you ever wondered why there is such a DIFFERENCE in the way people respond to their workouts?

Why some people ‘grow like weeds’ while others train as hard as they can for months on end and don’t see any progress.

This is one of my main areas of interest when it comes to muscle growth..

And I know the answer ISN’T protein!

That’s not to say that protein doesn’t have ANYTHING to do with your muscle building (because it does), but the point is that adding MORE protein doesn’t necessarily mean MORE muscle.

In a recently published trial using a very interesting method, this exact point was driven home in my mind.

60 subjects were put through a 16 week long, 3 day per week workout.

After the workout the subjects were divided into three groups based on the increase in their muscle cross sectional area.

Non responders saw no change or even negative change (-16 um2)

Moderate responders saw some decent gains (+1,111 um2)

Extreme responders…well they would make most of us really jealous (+2,475 um2)

(That’s 123% larger then the moderate people!)

After the groups were divided up the researchers looked for some explanation for the differences in size gains.

So what did they find?

Well…

• There was no difference in protein intake (fell right in  the range I recommend in How Much Protein)
• There was no difference in Essential Amino Acid intake
• No difference in BCAA intake
• No Difference in Leucine intake
• No difference in Calories.

Furthermore,

• There was no difference inr reported training volume
• There was no difference in reported training intensity.

So what can we conclude for this research.

1. It’s not the calories you eat or the protein (within reason).
2. It’s not even how MUCH you workout (again within reason).

This leaves me with only two real conclusions when it comes to what decides the rate at which you can build muscle:

The first is genetics, which unfortunately, you really can’t control.

Genetics may be the amount of receptors your muscles have, the amount of certain hormones you have, or even the amount of satelitte cells you have available for muscle growth.

Sadly, most, if not all of these things are decided at or near birth.

The second is the quality of your workout.

This is the only part you can control. If it’s not nutrition (again within reason) then it must have to do with the quality, design or implementation of your workout program…

Unfortunately this is also the part I don’t have an answer for.

Because everyone is different.

If you want something super advanced I have Anabolic Again, and if you are looking for something really targeted I have the Adonis
Index.

But if you are just looking for what will work BEST for you then I have to give you the following advice:

TRIAL AND ERROR.

Honestly, it would be SUPER EASY for me to tell you that my workouts are the best and all the rest are garbage, but really this wouldn’t be true.

So here’s the trick…

The thing that sets people apart in the gym…people who see success and people who don’t…is Metrics.

Try something and measure it. If you are improving then stick with it for as long as you keep improving.

If you are not improving then BE HONEST with yourself and LET IT GO.

Don’t worry about the marketing or pseudoscience or the arguments in forums about what is right and what is wrong, just get a workout and give it a try.

Find something that works then stick with it until it stops working.

I really can’t give any better advice then that (when it comes to muscle buiding)

If muscle building is your goal (and steroids are not an option for you) then why not try every workout you can get your hands on until you find what works for you…because as we learned above, what works for some people DOESN’T WORK AT ALL for others…and vice versa.

And since you can’t control the genetics part, you may as well do everything you can to control the work out part…

Just be sure to keep measurements so you can actually track progress.

Without metrics, all the work and trial and error is pointless.

As my friend ‘Pip’ said:

‘try and test’ the info and then ‘keep or reject’

BP