Brad Pilon.com » Weight Training

Low-Weight High-Volume Training

Brad Pilon — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:40:15 +0000

Let’s talk research.

Now, I’m not going to review this latest trial showing ‘near equivalent’ anabolic signaling between a Low Weight high Volume Training protocol and a High Weight Low Volume protocol, because it has already been done all over the internet.

For a complete review check here –> http://evidencebasedfitness.blogspot.com/2010/08/if-youre-going-to-claim-to-improve.html

And to read the actual paper –> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2918506/?tool=pubmed

So the point isn’t a review as much as it is presenting an Alternative Conclusion.

If you look around on-line what you will find is mostly a collection of arguments against the study design, or the claims being made by the researchers, but what I would like to present is a little different…

Assumptions:

I’m going to assume that for the most part the results found were correct and the methods were acceptable.

I’m also going to assume that the typical “BroScience” is correct. You know…the notion that the 5-15 rep range will build more muscle mass than the 20-50 rep range, regardless of whether or not the workload is equal.

In other words I’m going with the assumption that doing 5 sets of 5 reps with 425 pounds on the Squat is more ‘Anabolic’ then doing 5 sets of 25 reps with 85 pounds, even though the total amount of work done is the same (10,625 total pounds lifted).

What this study found was that Low-Weight High-Volume training caused the same changes in markers of muscle growth as High-Weight Low-Volume training as long as total work was the same.

So the alternative conclusion is this:

This research provides further evidence that there is a disassociation between the measures of Anabolic protein signaling (Such as the mTOR pathway) and actual long-term measurable muscle growth.

So even though we all enjoy reading about things like mTOR, AKT, and amino acid incorporation, these markers do not necessarily reflect long term changes in muscle growth.

Something else regulates the growth of muscle.

Something ‘down stream’ or something that happens at a later time.

In my opinion if you look at this study from this vantage point it becomes incredibly important because it shows us that while measuring these markers is extremely important in understanding human physiology, it only gives us a small fraction of the total muscle building story.

Food for thought.

Exercise Addiction

Brad Pilon — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:00:11 +0000

Here’s an interesting article from Details magazine on the concept of ‘Exercise Addiction’

–> http://tinyurl.com/exerciseorexia

My comments are in the members section here –> http://bradpilon.com/content-exclusive/exercise-addiction/

BP… Read More

Working Out with Eat Stop Eat

Brad Pilon — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:10:44 +0000

“Eat Stop Eat and Resistance Training”

“Eat Stop Eat combined with Working Out”

“Eat Stop Eat and hitting the weights”

Admittedly, I am starting to sound like a broken record.

And while the benefits that weight training has on the effects of fasting are nothing short of remarkable, it is time for me to change it up.

In fact, I’m going to go in a whole new direction.

let’s talk about…

“Resistance training and Eat Stop Eat.”

(feel free to roll your eyes)

There are chapters in Eat Stop Eat on my theories on how resistance training benefits intermittent fasting, but we’ve never really talked about how Eat Stop Eat can benefit resistance training.

First and foremost..the obvious: All that work in the gym is almost pointless if the muscle you are building is covered by a inch-thick layer of fat.

Nobody buys a new Ferrari to keep hidden in a garage. You take that baby out and show it off.

(Just wrap it up and put it in my garage, I wouldn’t want anyone to see it)

Be proud of the muscle you built, don’t keep it locked away in a fat dungeon.

Secondly, (and this just a personal observation) I have great workouts while fasted.

Seriously.

I’m not a giant fan of volume..I love progression, I love heavy, but volume…bores me.

However, I can handle high volume workouts much better when fasted then when just fed.

I used to eat two snickers bars before every workout (don’t ask..I was a wannabe power-lifter for a while)

I can tell you now that a full stomach really interferes with high volume..especially squats and deads.

So, in my humble opinion…fasting helps.

Lastly, it will help get rid of the ‘calorie crutch’…

By admitting that almost all of your muscle building results come from the gym (and not gorging yourself in the kitchen) you’ll put your effort in the right place.

But mostly, it’s because building muscle only to have it hidden it under fat just doesn’t make sense.

PS – thanks to @jon404 here is an example of the fat dungeon… it’s literally a person trapped inside a layer of fat.

Always start with Body Weight Exercises

Brad Pilon — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:05:44 +0000

“Always start beginners with body weight exercises”

Sounds good in theory…However something just dawned on me…

More precisely, something nearly crushed me.

I was just in my basement doing a workout consisting mostly of weighted pushups.

I had about 100 pounds of chain wrapped around me and I was struggling to get ten good solid reps.

Then it dawned on me – I weight 175 pounds, with the chain I weigh 275 pounds.

So this crushing feeling I have of BARELY making it to ten reps on my third set..this would be what simple BODY WEIGHT push-ups would feel like to a man or women who weighs 275 pounds.

SO WHY WOULD YOU EVER START AN OBESE PERSON ON BODY WEIGHT EXERCISES?

Just doesn’t make sense to me.

A good guideline but NOT a rule

I’m OK with average weight or slightly heavy people starting with body weight work, but use some common sense.

If you are more than 50 or so pounds over your ideal weight and just starting into wieght training…maybe start with dumbbells.

The Invictus Workout

Brad Pilon — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:26:23 +0000

Haven’t heard of it yet?

Don’t worry, you will.

Invictus is a new movie that is coming out soon that stars Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman.

So why does it get it’s own workout? Well Matt Damon plays Francois Pienaar, the Captain of South Africa’s Rugby team in the early to mid 1990′s. And, at minute 0:57 of the trailer for Invictus, you see Matt with his shirt off for about 1.5 seconds.

Sounds silly but this is the equation:

Male Hollywood Celebrity Appears “Jacked” in a movie = On-line Hysteria over “How he did it”.

Think the Christian Bale Batman Workout, the Gerard Butler 300 Workout, or the Hugh Jackman Wolverine workout.

It works every time, without fail. Hollywood Celeb gets jacked, someone tries to cash in.

So I’m going to Preempt everyone with this one:

I know EXACTLY how Matt Damon got in shape for this movie…It’s the exact same way Hugh Jackman got in shape, which is the exact same way Gerard Butler got in shape and the same way Christian Bale gets in shape.

They dedicated themselves to Hard work and some form of resistance training.

We should all realize by now that there IS NO SECRET.

It doesn’t matter if you are lifting giant rocks, kettle bells, dumbbells or small barnyard animals.

It’s the hard work that gets the results, not the trendy tools.

Matt, Gerard, Christian, they are no different then you or me…well, other than the lifestyle and money part.

They work hard, they stay dedicated and consistent and they get results. It’s not some secret new workout of the start that until now was kept secret…It’s hard work.

So there you go… If you want to look like a Movie Star, the secret is hard work.

The trick to it all? Next time you are in the gym imagine there is a 10 million dollar movie role on the line. You get in shape, you get the role.

PS- you can see the trailer here ==> http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/invictus/

Building Muscle

Brad Pilon — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:59:59 +0000

3 guys sign up for a research study on the muscle building effects of weight training.

None of them have ever lifted weights before, and all three are between the ages of 20 and 21.

At the start of the study they weighed between 130 and 143 pounds (light by North American Standards)

Guy A – 130 pounds
Guy B – 138 pounds
Guy C – 143 pounds

For their given age and weight, each guy has about normal to slightly below average levels of lean body mass (I’m assuming the guys were between 5’6″ and 5’8″).

Guy A – LBM = 121 pounds (about 10% BF)
Guy B – LBM = 118 pounds (about 10% BF)
Guy C – LBM = 132 pounds (about 7.5% BF)

These numbers also make each guy exceptionally lean.

For their given age and weight, each guy has lower than expected levels of skeletal muscle mass. (We would expect about 50% of LBM to be skeletal Muscle).

Guy A -45 pounds Skeletal Muscle (about 37% of LBM!!!) Expected would be about 60 pounds.
Guy B – 43 pounds Skeletal Muscle (about 36% of LBM!!!) Expected would be about 59 pounds.
Guy C – 55 pounds Skeletal Muscle (about 41% of LBM!!!) Expected would be about 66 pounds.

Each guys bench press max confirms that this is their first time weight training.

Guy A – 95 pounds
Guy B – 90 pounds
Guy C – 130 pounds

So, these three guys who are light by North American Standards, with incredibly low levels of Body Fat and incredibly low levels of Skeletal muscle mass start a weight training program consisting of 3 workouts a week for 4 months.

Their workout program looked like this:

Squats 3 sets of 8-12 reps
Leg Extensions 3 sets of 8-12 reps
Hamstring Curls 3 sets of 8-12 reps
Bench Press 3 sets of 8-12 reps
Lat Pull downs 3 sets of 8-12 reps

As they progressed through their workouts their weights were increased to make sure they failed on each set within the 8-12 rep range.

At the end of the four month period all three guys increased their body weight and Lean Body Mass by about 5.5 pounds…which is pretty close to the average found in most research trials studying weight training for this length of time.

Now, here is where things get a little quirky.

These numbers seemed plausible, given the fact that these 3 men were underweight, under-muscled and new to weigh training.

But what doesn’t make sense is the following…Two of these guys gained MORE muscle then they did Lean Body Mass!

Guy A gained 9 pounds of muscle while only gaining 4.5 pounds of LBM.
Guy B gained 11 pounds of muscle while only gaining 4.5 pounds of LBM.
Guy C gained 7.7 pounds of muscle while gaining 7.7 pounds of LBM.

So, even with their impressive gains in muscle, their muscle mass is still below where it should be (50% of lean body mass) and somewhere along the way two of them lost around 5 pounds of LBM…liver removed maybe?

Bottom line – you have to be skeptical of muscle building research. Obviously this group of 3 guys are not a good subset of the rest of the population. Specifically, they are probably not a good representation of you or I.

They are were their early twenties, were very light, were very lean, and had very little muscle mass at the start of this research study. Their workout was far form extraordinary but they did manage to gain almost exactly the amount of weight, LBM and strength that we would expect from a 4 month long supervised workout program.

Despite this their was obviously some discrepancy in the measures of skeletal muscle mass…this discrepancy either caused

A) Exceptionally low measurements of skeletal muscle at the beginning of the study.

B) Exceptionally high measurement of skeletal muscle at the end of the study.

The only other possible scenario is that two of the subjects somehow lost between 5-6 pounds of LBM somewhere during the weight training process.

Obviously…something is up.

But this is extremely important, and is a great example of why you need to ANALYZE every study that you read.

Otherwise, you could quickly go over the abstract of this study and say that “Research proves that full body weight training 3 times per week can cause you to gain up to 11 pounds of pure muscle in 4 months!”

PS – Interestingly, this study was performed by the same people who are finding amazing muscle gaining results from ‘blood flow occlusion training”…makes you wonder.

PPS – There is one last thing missing from this study..has to do with the small number of subjects…something that would be next to impossible to calculate with only three subjects….Can you guess?

Abe T. Br J Sports Med, 2003.

My Attempt to explain the Adonis Index

Brad Pilon — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:29:41 +0000

Plus, a whole new way of looking at transformations contests!

Here’s a quick video that (hopefully) gives a detailed explanation of the Adonis Index…

Now, to learn more about the Adonis 10 Week Transformation Contest (starts October 5th) this Thursday at 9pm.

Just click here to go over to the teleseminar page and ask any question you want.

Oh, and one last thing… what sounds better to you?

A “Transformation” Contest… or

A “Reconstruction” Contest…

Let me know in the comments, please

PS – How’s this for great feed back that people beleive in Eat Stop Eat? -

Comments: My doctor suggested that I purchase your book about intermittent fasting

How Much Protein in One Meal

Brad Pilon — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:40:30 +0000

Brad,

I’m following your recommend information on how much protein to build muscle along with an “intense” enough work out program. It is working well for me, but a couple questions loom in my mind. I’ve read in articles on the internet that a person cannot “absorb” more than 30 grams of protein in one meal. Is this true? If it is true, does this mean if I ate the recommended daily intake of protein to build muscle in one meal, I wouldn’t be meeting your recommended requirement? I don’t consume that much protein in one meal, but I am curious to know if I eat a meal with 40g does the 10 grams go to “waste”?

Thanks, Jeremy

Hi Jeremy,

There is strong scientific evidence showing that you are able to adapt to the amount of protein you ingest. Meaning, as you eat more (or less) protein your digestive system learns to ‘digest and assimilate’ more (or less) protein at a given time or meal.

This means whether it’s over a 24 hour period or in one single meal, you will learn to utilize the amount of protein you provide to your body, as long as this new intake is consistent.

Of course, this also means you will learn to oxidize any surplus protein (basically use any protein you aren’t using for building new tissues as a fuel). All that extra protein isn’t simply turning into tons of new muscle (I wish it was that easy).

PS – If you are interest in a more in depth answer to how much protein you need to build muscle, visit How Much Protein

How to get rid of Muscle

Brad Pilon — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:03:50 +0000

How do I get rid of muscle?

It’s an odd question I know, and one I have tackled before, but it seems people are still confused about what makes them gain and lose muscle.

We all know that people who are bedridden and on a low calorie diet lose muscle.

When I first starting writing Eat Stop Eat, and was running the idea past several dietitians for input, they all brought up stories of muscle loss in their patients who were bedridden and on a low calorie diet.

And since I am constantly saying that simple caloric restriction does NOT cause you to lose muscle if you are working out, then that leaves being ‘bedridden’ (or ‘disuse’ as they say in research) as the cause of muscle loss.

And this is exactly what research suggests as well.

Ever break your arm and have to wear a cast, or know someone who did?

Do you remember how skinny that arm was when the cast finally came off?

The arm in the cast got the EXACT same nutrition as the arm that wasn’t in the cast. The only change was in the amount that the muscles were used.

In fact, ‘casting’ is so effective at causing muscle loss that it has been used in research to study something called ‘disuse atrophy’ or muscle loss from lack of use.

In a study conducted at the University of Nottingham, 22 male and female studies had casts put on their right leg for two weeks. Their diets didn’t change, yet after only two weeks the cross sectional area of their quadriceps (the big muscles in your thigh) decreased by 10%.

NO CHANGE IN DIET…but the muscle still decreases in size by 10%.

And the decrease was across ALL muscle fiber types. From slow twitch to fast twitch, they all decreased in diameter when they were not being used.

In other words – Your muscles are not ‘storage units’ like fat cells, they are contractile units.

So while your fat cells respond to what (or more correctly- how much) you eat by storing or releasing energy in the form of fat. Muscle responds to stress and challenge.

Your muscles will always try to match the challenge that is placed on them.

No challenge = no increase in muscle size.

No challenge for a long enough time = decreases in muscle size.

This is why as long as you are working out, and meeting some sort of caloric minimum (studies have gone as low as 80 grams of protein and 800 Kcals a day for several weeks), you won’t lose muscle.

However, if you don’t use the muscle, then it really doesn’t matter what you are eating, the muscle is going to shrink.

Bottom Line – Forget those people who push multiple meals and protein at every meal as the secret to ‘not losing muscle’ the best way to prevent yourself from losing muscle is to exercise that muscle.

Or, if you are trying to lose muscle (not something I suggest) simple stop using it.

Awesome Triceps Exercise

Brad Pilon — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:45:27 +0000

Here’s a great triceps exercise that I’ve been using to boost my triceps strength in my quest to hit 225 pounds on the standing shoulder press.

I’m not a kettle bell expert by any means, but using a bell does make this exercise a lot better (harder) then using a traditional dumbbell.

Be sure not to drop the kettlebell on your head!

Awesome Triceps Exercise