To build muscle effectively, the duration of a workout is less important than the intensity and effort applied, specifically by training to muscular failure and employing advanced techniques to maximize stimulus.
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So, how long does a workout have to be
in order to build muscle? My question to
you would first be, how hard are you
willing to train? Guys, if you look at
the first thing, let's say a dumbbell
bench press. Now, if I were to just
simply ask you to perform a set to
failure, which I always do. I've been
asking you for 15 years to perform your
sets to failure, and I've been
consistent with that for a reason
because I know that you need an adequate
level of stimulus for that muscle to
even want to change. Right? There's an
old saying, if you don't challenge
yourself, you won't change yourself.
Well, let's just say we're getting
towards, let's say, a set of 12. And
your last two reps look like this.
That's a 10, 11,
11, and
and
12, right?
That's not enough. For every one of
those sets that you perform below
failure, you're going to need to perform
more of them in order to reach an
adequate level of volume or stimulus to
change. What I'd rather see is a set
that looks like this.
So, I'll kind of fast forward to the end
of the set for you and simulate what I'm
talking about. When I get towards those
final few reps, they should look like this.
this.
I'm really grinding through
here now.
Really fight to get up to the top here.
A lot of you would say, "There's no way
I can do another repetition on this.
There's no way I can get another
concentric." Try. The exercise has
built-in safety net here. You can always
drop the dumbbells if you have to, but
try. Go down again. Realize that there's
only a sticking point from here to about
here that you have to get through. And
you might surprise yourself that once
you do, the weights will go up again for
another repetition. Now, go down again
because each time I go down, I'm getting
at least another eccentric repetition.
And I know that I've got more eccentrics
in me than concentrics on any set
because I'm stronger that way. So now I
go up again. And if I can't get any
more, I can at least do a few
repetitions down here trying.
And finally, I reach failure. What did
that do? The weight that was in my hands
created tension. The time that I was
pushing in these elongated states, these
more stretched positions of the pec,
caused tension. There's no magic to
lengthen partials. That's nonsense.
That's not what that's about. It's a
matter of accumulating total tension.
And because you have two factors there,
stretching a muscle, that's tension, and
loading a muscle, that's tension. Those
are going to be more productive. So, by
giving myself a few additional eccentric
repetitions, more tension, and by giving
a few different partial repetitions,
more tension, I can guarantee that you
reach failure. And that's the key. I
don't know subjectively looking at you
how short of failure you actually were.
You thought one, I bet you it was four.
If you took Chris Bumpstead's brain or
mine with people that have experienced
training and we put it in your head at
the moment that you reach that first set
that I showed you and you said, "Yeah,
I'm done." I guarantee Bumpstead's
pushing four or five more than that. And
I'm likely pushing three or four because
I'm no bumpstead, right? But the fact is
there's more in you. And if you had the
brain and the willpower that knew what
you were capable of, you would do and
push more and get more out of that set.
When you do that, the volume comes down
because remember this, you either train
long or you train hard, but you cannot
do both. So as you increase the
difficulty level of the sets, then you
decrease the time you need to spend
doing them. Let me show you something
else. We have a technique here that we
call effective reps. What this means is
if I can get more of those effective
reps out, then again, I can shorten the
time that I have to do an exercise or
even a workout in general. So, if I took
the bench press again and I took a set
to failure all the way up and I go,
let's say, getting down towards the end
of the set, and I'm talking true muscle
failure, which means again, getting that
last rep, testing myself again. Can I
get another one? Maybe this time I
can't. Maybe I can't even get past that
sticking point. And I try another rep or
two. Just I can't. I can't. I've
reinforced that I've reached failure.
Great. The rest time. Now, if I keep
this rest time short, 30 seconds at
most, when I get back into this set
again, I am not going to need to go
through the third, the fourth, the
fifth, the sixth repetition to get to
those more difficult repetitions. I go
back into it now. first rep out of the
box, it's already difficult, right?
These are the ones that feel like the
ones that came at 9, 10, 11, and 12 on
the last set. Now, they're already
feeling like that on reps one, two, and
three. And therefore, these are those
growthinducing end of set, highintensity
repetitions that cause that growth.
That's an effective rep. I don't care
that my overall rep count went down. I
rest again 30 seconds. I get back into
it again. What happens? Fewer
repetitions for sure. But each one of
them at that high end, right? That one
that has the high effort required to
perform them. Now I'm accumulating a lot
more of these effective repetitions and
in doing so increasing the intensity and
shortening the length of the workout.
There are other techniques where you can
actually slow down the reps a little bit
to increase the overall intensity.
You've probably heard of time under
tension, but you have to be careful
there, too. Because slowing down or
manipulating your time to an exaggerated
amount where it actually starts to limit
the amount of weight that you can
actually use on the exercise is going to
not really result in more muscle
hypertrophy because you're taking down
both of those stimuli. Number one, I
said the amount of weight in your hand
creates the tension on the muscle. So,
if you get too light in order to
accommodate whatever technique you're
doing, then you're not going to build
muscle. The same token, you do want to
try to accelerate as much as possible on
the concentric part of the lift in
general when you're trying to maximize
hypertrophy because it recruits those
type two fibers, the ones that grow
bigger and stronger. So, by manipulating
a slow speed and by lightening the
weight because you do that, you're going
to actually compromise that. However, I
don't just focus always on, let's say,
building bigger muscles because I know
that part of this game is not just
looking better, but feeling better. As a
physical therapist, I know how important
it is with all the considerations people
have like joint issues. How do we still
train and still get the benefits of
intensity and therefore shorter
workouts? Well, there's a technique that
we use called a trap set where you would
take that weight, right? Something
between your 10 and 12 rep max. And what
you do is you do apply a tempo here
where you press up at one second and
come down at one second. And the second
rep is up for two seconds. So a little
bit slower, come down for two seconds.
Right? Go up for 3 seconds
and come down for 3 seconds. And then
we're going to peek out at 4 seconds. So
one, two, three, four, and come down.
One, two, three, four. Then you just
reverse your way back down again. Going
to four, two, three, four. And down.
Two, three, four. Up and three. And down
in three. Right. Up and two.
And down in two, and then faster at the
end. Up in one, and down in one. So,
what that's doing is it's still allowing
us to experience the faster repetition
starting and ending that set, but we're
grading that muscle recruitment because
people that do have injuries don't have
necessarily the ability to do that
safely. So, when you allow that to grade
up, you're able to have the protection
of the joint in the process and still
have a high intensity set. Again, even
some of the slower repetitions,
especially eccentrically, are providing
more stimulus because that same weight
is being applied over a longer period of
time and spending more time in those
high tension areas where they're more
stretched. So the bottom line is that
technique is perfect for somebody that
has some issues, some joint issues or
pains where they can go a little bit
more slowly, but not where they're
sacrificing the weight so much in the
process that they're actually completely
eliminating the stimulus for growth. So
there's different techniques for
different people that will allow you to
grow, but you got to know which ones to
use. But the intensity techniques ensure
failure. And failure is going to be the
only objective way to sort of level the
playing field so that I know you're
working out at a hard enough level of
intensity. And when you do that, yes,
the workouts can be short. The only way
they're going to be short though is if
you're bringing that effort. And it's
what we've been preaching here forever.
We don't bounce back and forth at
Athlete X in terms of whether it's good
or whether it's not good. We've always
said if you train hard, you do not have
to train long because you can only do
one of them. If you're going to train
hard with intensity techniques like
this, you're going to be able to train
for a much shorter period of time. If
you're looking guys, we have programs
that have incorporated this since the
very beginning of time. All of them with
safety as one of the factors we look at
always as a physical therapist. You can
find our programs including our new
athlet program coming this week over at
ax.com. All right, guys. I hope you
found it helpful. Make sure you're doing
something to increase the intensity of
your workouts if you want to get more
from them. All right, guys. See you soon.
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