Exercise Tips subpage

Some individuals (mostly beginners & hardgainers) will respond/build muscle best by doing only 1(or 2) sets while others (mostly advanced) will respond best to 4-6+ sets just as some individuals (mostly light-skinned) will respond best to short (only 10-20 minutes) durations of sun/ultraviolet exposure while others (mostly dark-skinned) will need long durations (40-60+ minutes) of sun/ultraviolet exposure.

Just as too much/long exposure to sun/ultraviolet light causes bad sunburn, too much/many sets will cause *overtraining*. Overtraining severely impairs muscle growth. Not only can it impair/lower the immune system (leading to mild infections such as zits/colds to serious ones such as pneumonia), overtraining can also cannibalize muscle tissue. Overtraining can also arise if you train while sick (a runny nose is nothing, but a fever or other flu-like symptoms/aches indicate more rest (without exercise) is needed--your body can't grow muscle effectively while trying to fight off an infection).

Once you have grown past the beginner stage (only 1-2 sets before overtraining sets in), your new recuperative powers will allow you to do the moderate-to-advanced workouts of 3-4+ set per exercise without causing you to overtrain.

For moderate-to-advanced workouts, you should weightlift 3-4 times a week every other day (muscles require 48 to 72+ hours to recuperate/rebuild--use a 1 day on/1 off, 2 on/1 off, etc. or similar pattern) and do 3-5 sets per exercise and 2-4 exercises per bodypart (WORK THE LARGER BODYPARTS/EXERCISES FIRST) for a total of about 9-16 sets per body part (the larger muscle groups such as chest and legs need more sets while the smaller muscle groups such as biceps need less). Each workout should be INTENSE. (HIT is fine--beginners do best with 1-2 sets while moderate lifters do best 3-4+ sets per exercise--VARY THE SETS, TEMPO, DAYS ON/OFF, EXERCISES, ETC. every month or so to get results to "shock" the muscles--they need new stimuli to grow & adapt)

(If you're past or approaching middle-age or have not yet reached puberty or have a medical condition that lowers your testosterone levels, do less sets to prevent overtraining due to your lower testosterone levels).

Note that individuals do vary in terms of the proportion of fast-twitch to slow-twitch muscle fibers in each bodypart, but in general, muscle groups that are primarily made up of fast-twitch fibers (such as chest and quads) respond better to low reps (8 and under) while muscles parts that are primarily made up of slow-twitch fibers (such as hamstrings, stabilizers of the deltoids) repsond better to higher reps (10-12).

Generally, each set should be done to failure at 6-10 reps (women may respond better with 8-12 reps since most have more slow-twitch/endurance fibres). Each rep should performed slowly (it should take 3-4 seconds to complete) and emphasize the negative/eccentric contractions).

For maximum muscle growth/size development: the eccentric/lowering part of the lift/rep should be performed slowly(at least 3 seconds) and the concentric/lifting part of the rep should also be performed slowly(at least 1 second).

For SPEED-POWER development (for jumping, tumbling, martial arts, tennis, gymnastics, track, & other explosive/power sports,etc.): the eccentric/lowering part of the lift should also be performed slowly but the concentric/lifting part should be performed as explosively/quickly as possible.Click here for MORE on SPEED POWER DEVELOPMENT for MARTIAL ARTS-GYMNASTICS-TRACK-TENNIS-POWER SPORTS-ETC.

Weights should be heavy enough so that only the specified number of reps can be performed:
For Strength: 3-4 reps
For Size: 6-8 reps
For Endurance: 10-15+ reps
Also, vary the number of reps every couple of months to shock the system.

The following exercises are the most important ones and should be the foundation for your program:

Chest: Benchpress (barbells/dumbbells are best)
Legs: Squats & Lunges
Biceps: Bicep curls
Shoulders: Military press & lateral raises
Lats/Back: Pull-ups

Do the above compound exercises first before adding any isolation exercises (for example, don't bother with leg extensions until you do squats/lunges). Compound exercises will work more muscle fibers and adjacent/stabilizer muscles and are much more effective for building muscle. Use isolation exercises for toning and shaping afterwards.

Because your muscles will grow only if forced to adapt to new and greater stresses and it can adapt as quickly as 3 weeks, you should vary/change your routines/reps/sets/order of exercises/etc. every 3 weeks or slightly change them every week.

Active weightlifting (or any other strenuous exercise/cardio) should last no more than 1.5 hours because circulating testosterone and growth hormone levels increase 30 minutes into the workout but can start to drop as soon as after 45 minutes to low sub-average levels after 1.5 hours of exercise (causing overtraining).

YOU GROW MUSCLE RESTING AND SLEEPING OUT OF THE GYM, NOT WORKING OUT IN IT! WORKING OUT IS ONLY FOR OVERSTRESSING/BREAKING DOWN THE MUSCLES SO THAT THEY WILL GROW BACK STRONGER AND BIGGER (OR TONED IN THE CASE OF WOMEN)

Click on my SIX-PACK subpage for an abs workout routine to give you the chiseled abs everyone wants :)

Work one bodypart (plus abs) per session (such as chest on Mondays, back on Wednesdays, shoulders on Thursdays, etc.). It takes 5-9 days for intensely worked muscle (and it has to be intensely worked if you want muscular growth) to fully heal/be at full strength so work each bodypart(except for abs which you can do more often) only about once or twice per week. Larger bodyparts such as chest and legs require up to 7-9 days while smaller parts such as biceps/triceps need only 5 (or even 3) days so you can work arms more often if you need to.

If a bodypart is still sore, then DON'T exercise it again until it's no longer sore--it still needs to rest/recuperate another day or more . Also, give yourself at least 1 to 2 days per week of timeoff/rest (I usually take weekends off) with no exercise so as to give your body/adrenal glands a chance to recover and avoid overtraining.

For maximum muscle growth (not necessarily fatloss), it's very important that you consume some protein (20-50+ grams)and carbs (25-100+ grams) within 1-2 hours(the sooner, the better--15 minutes or so) after your workout session to replenish your muscles because they are now just screaming for nutrients to rebuild and recuperate (your body is secreting extra glucophage, making this brief period the best time for absorbing/uptaking nutrients into muscle cells).

Some of the carbs should be simple (high-glycemic glucose/sucrose are best but low-glycemic fructose is fine too) to create a big insulin surge (this is one of the FEW times where simple high-glycemic sugars are better than complex carbs--normally, low-glycemic carbs are best for eating throughout the day).

Also, 25% of your daily protein requirement should be part of your immediate post-exercise meal.

To maximumally grow muscle, you need to consume 25-40 grams of protein every 3-4 hours to provide a stable insulin environment and prevent your amino acid(protein) pool&blood glucose levels from depleting (when blood glucose levels are to low your body will start secreting cortisol to break down your muscle protein/amino acids for use as fuel.

It's best to eat 5-6 small meals a day (instead of 3 big meals) throughout the day (every 3-4 hours) to supply your body with a steady stream of protein and nutrients because the amino acid(protein) pool/blood glucose levels in your body gets depleted every 3-4 hours without food, causing your cortisol levels to rise.

Cortisol rises during times of mental and physical stress (such as long endurance workouts or going without food for more than 3-4 hours), causing you to break down muscle tissue/protein into amino acids to be used as fuel as well as preventing amino acids from joining together to form new protein/muscle tissue (humans evolved cortisol as a survival mechanism since it's more important to mobilize the body's resources for fuel for running/fighting/surviving against predators during lean times as part of the "fight or flight" reaction) than it is to be muscular and aesthetically pleasing. Thus, anytime cortisol rises, muscle ceases any growth and starts to become cannibalized.

Follow this training program for at least a couple of months and you'll easily do double-layouts and planches with flair :)!

SPECIAL NOTE IF YOU'RE MIDDLE-AGE OR OLDER OR HAVE NOT YET REACHED PUBERTY OR HAVE A MEDICAL CONDITION THAT CAUSES YOU TO HAVE LOW TESTOSTERONE LEVELS:
Because of your lower testosterone levels, you should do less sets and take more rest between workout days. Depending on your testosterone levels, only 1-3 sets per exercise and 2-3 exercises per bodypart is sufficient (any more and you will likely be overtraing and cannibalizing muscle tissue). I would seek HRT (hormone-replacement therapy) to be prescribed to me from a knowledgeable doctor for more energy, muscle growth, libido, etc if I was approaching or past middle-age.

SPECIAL NOTE FOR WOMEN:
Even though men produce 20-40 times the testosterone of women (men produce up to 10 mg/day whereas women produce 0.25 grams/day), you can still lift about the same number of sets and reps due to your relatively high estrogen levels (but not if you're into/past menopause).

An interesting tidbit: a certain proportion (as well as any excess) of testosterone in men is converted/aromatized into estrogen. Both estrogen and testosterone (the more anabolic of the two) help block the catabolic effects of cortisol.

If you have low estrogen levels (such as post-menopausal or due to overtraining), supplement with triphasic estrogen pills (hormone-replacement therapy). Such pills will mimic your natural estrogen cycle and help prevent overtraining (overtraining will cause your natural estrogen levels to drop, causing poor skin, hairy/facial growth, bad hair, etc.) Cut down/eliminate sodium from your diet to minimize/stop any possible water retention/bloating (which is the cause for the possible weight-gain(it's mostly water weight) experienced by some women while on triphasic estrogen pills).

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