Muscle growth occurs from lifting heavy

If you’re waiting for me to follow up on that statement, it isn’t coming.

That’s as hard and as easy as it gets.

Lifting heavier weight for lower reps over time will add more muscle and strength than anything else you do.

The only “If” I’m going to throw in there is “if” you eat sportively and healthy.

You can’t implement these training tips I give you and then go out and eat Ring Dings and Doritos and then curse the ground I walk on.

But let me assure you, the changes you make here will blow you away if you give them your all and stick to them long enough to work.

Now, I’m going to simplify this for you because, well, its pretty simple stuff.

Don’t make things harder than they have to be.

Here it goes…

To get big, you must lift big.

In order to cause muscle growth and strength increase to occur, you must force your body to adapt to heavier demands (more weight).

If you continued to lift the same old weight over time and time again, your body has no need to create new muscle growth and strength.

It can already handle what it’s doing with what you have.

So, to get bigger and stronger, you must force your body to do so, it doesn’t happen by itself.

For example, when you stop lifting for a month or more (like I’m sure we all have done for one reason or another) what happens?

You got it; we get smaller and less muscular.

It’s because we haven’t been “forcing” our body to adapt and get bigger/stronger.

When you go through a “layoff” where you stop lifting weights, your muscles do not have to handle any additional workload and stress caused by lifting.

So your muscles get smaller as a result.

To keep muscle size going up and to keep strength increasing, you absolutely must keep stressing and overloading those muscles.

You MUST lift progressively heavier weights over time.

But what is an instant way you can lift more weight, without having to wait weeks or months.

Well, let me give you a hint.

If you can lift 100 pounds 10 times, shouldn’t you be able to lift more weight, say 150 pounds, if you only have to do it 5 times.

By cutting the reps in half, you immediately raise the amount of weight you lift.

Sounds simple, but this is one of the most effective steps you can ever take in your muscle building and strength routine.

The days of lifting 3 sets of 10 reps are over–at least they should be.

When you begin to lower your reps and begin to lift more weight, good things happen (more muscle and strength).

So how many reps?  

Between 4 reps and 6 reps is your rep range for heavy sets.

Let me repeat that because its one of the most important things you’ll read in this entire program.

On all of your heavy sets, you will do between 4 and 6 reps.

If you cannot handle and get 4 reps, the weight is too heavy and you need to drop down a little.

If you can handle more than 6 reps, the weight is too light and you need to increase the weight you are lifting in order to force muscle growth and strength increase to occur.

This rep range will never, ever change if you want to keep gaining size.

And it should be done for every single exercise (maybe the exception being abs, dips, and chin-ups, you can use 10-15 reps for abs)

Squats:  4-6 reps Bicep curls 4-6 reps Shoulder presses 4-6 reps 1 arm dumbbell rows 4-6 reps

How many reps for bench press?

Yup, you guessed it, 4 to 6 reps.

Here’s what you do, for all exercises.

You start with a nice light set of 10 reps.

**Side note**

If it’s your first set of your second exercise for the same muscle group, you do not have to start at 10 reps again–you’re already warmed up.

For example, say you just competed your last heavy set of flat bench press and you’re getting ready to do incline dumbbell presses.

You should not warm up with a light set of 10 reps again, you’re already warmed up and you are wasting precious energy needlessly.

Start your incline dumbbell presses with a moderately heavy set of 6-8 reps.

We’ll cover warm-ups more later.

***End side note***

Okay, we started our exercise with a set of 10 reps.

Rest 2 minutes and it’s time for the next set.

Put a little more weight on and do a set of 8 reps.

Wait 2 minutes.

Put a little more weight on and do 6 reps.

Do not go to failure on any of these warm ups sets, they are just that, to warm up.

***You should only go to failure on your heavy sets, never on warm-ups.***

You should be pretty well warmed up by now.

Now it’s time for your 2 (3 tops) heavy sets.

These 2 (or 3) heavy sets should be done with enough weight where you hit failure between 4 and 6 reps.

Again, if you cannot get 4 reps, go down in weight and work your way up.

If you can get 6 or more easily, go up in weight a bit for the next set if there is one of make a note to go up the next workout.

***Side note****

Always, always, always keep a written journal or log for your workouts.

If you are at all serious about building muscle and increasing strength–this is a must.

It’s the only way you can keep track of your lifts and know when its time to go up in weight.

Just use a small pocket notebook and write all your lifts and weights used in it.

Please do this–it’s that important.

Let’s say you didn’t use a notebook and decided to go by memory.

Say that you had a great bench day and ended up going up 5 pounds in weight.

But you fail to write it down and think, “I’ll remember that I went up.”

Now, a week goes by and you’ve totally forgotten the weight you used last bench day, so bench time comes around again and you’re scratching your head, wondering what it is you last did for weight.

Chances are you’re going to put on your old weight, not the new weight (that you added 5 pounds to).

When that happens, you went backwards and have lost the progress you made.

Believe me, forgetting your weights happen.

You have 30 or so exercises to keep track of, it’s easy to forget one or two of your weights.

And if you forget a weight and do the same weight again when you should have went up, you just wasted your time and energy. You just did something you were already capable of doing and have missed the chance to increase the overload you were using (and in turn, the muscle and strength that would have come with the new overload).

Please use a journal for your workouts.

***End side note***

So, if you get nothing else from this report, please get this.

Stop doing 10 reps for your heavy sets and begin increasing the weight and decreasing the reps.

If muscle growth and strength increase occurs from lifting more weight, what will work better for that?

Set 1: 100 pounds for 10 reps Set 2: 120 pounds for 10 reps Set 3: 130 pounds for 10 reps Set 4: 140 pounds for 10 reps

Or:

Set 1: 100 pounds for 10 reps Set 2: 140 pounds for 8 reps Set 3: 160 pounds for 6 reps Set 4: 180 pounds for 4-6 reps

What will create more overload and hence more muscle growth and strength increase:  140 pounds or 180 pounds.

Exactly, the 180 pounds.

So please keep this simple.

The only thing that causes muscle growth and strength increase is overload to the muscles.

Overload occurs by lifting more weight over time.

This is achieved by cutting down the number of reps you lift from 10 reps on your heavy sets to the range of 4-6 reps on your heavy sets.

CONT TO – Take this to heart and you will achieve great things with your body