MUSCLE BUILDING COURSE

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PART 2 - CHOOSING YOUR MUSCLE

BUILDING WORKOUT
We know you’re pumped to start building muscle and what better way to kick things off than
talking about training? Today, you’ll learn everything you need to know about choosing a
workout that fits your experience level, lifestyle, and will help you build muscle mass.

What you’ll learn today:

• The basics on what makes up a muscle building workout

• How to choose the workout that’s right for you
• How to apply basic training principles to get the most out of your workouts
• How to incorporate cardio into your muscle building workout
• When to determine it’s time to move onto a new workout routine

BASICS OF A MUSCLE BUILDING WORKOUT

All muscle building workouts cause muscle hypertrophy aka skeletal muscle growth. To
achieve muscle hypertrophy, all 3 of the following mechanisms must be present in your
workouts:

1. Mechanical Tension
2. Muscle Damage
3. Metabolic Stress

Mechanical tension is muscle tension produced by generating force and stretching the
muscle as seen in lifting heavy weights.

Muscle damage is damage to muscle tissue during a workout which generates a

hypertrophic response. The higher the amount of volume (amount of reps/sets) in a workout,
the more muscle damage you create.

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Metabolic stress is when metabolites have built up due to the build-up of blood and an
oxygen deprivation in the muscle. You’ve probably experienced this and don’t even realize it.
It’s what most bodybuilders call “the pump”.

The trick to building muscle is having the right amount of mechanical tension, metabolic
stress, and muscle damage during your workouts to cause muscle protein synthesis. Muscle
protein synthesis is essential to the body’s ongoing growth, repair, and maintenance of
muscle.

CHOOSING THE PERFECT WORKOUT FOR YOU

When selecting a workout routine, you must take into account these 6 factors:

1. Experience level
2. Work schedule and career type
3. Family and social obligations
4. Recreational hobbies
5. Sleep schedule
6. Eating habits

Let’s start with how to appropriately gauge your experience level. Many new lifters looking to
build muscle mass have a tendency to jump right into a workout that is designed for
someone with significant experience lifting weights.

Workouts are usually divided into 3 experience levels:

Beginner Intermediate Advanced

3+ years lifting weights

0 - 1 years of training 1 - 3 years experience lifting without any long-term layoffs
experience weights (longer than a few weeks
away from the gym)

Next time you search for a workout, keep this information in the back of your mind. If you’re
just starting out, there’s a minimal long-term benefit to selecting a workout that a Mr. Olympia,
professional athlete or Hollywood action hero is currently taking on. You’ve got to build a
foundation for long-term success.

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The remaining factors for selecting a workout can be summed up with the following key
bullet points:

• Time commitments outside of the gym (work, social, familial) affect the number of days
you can commit to the gym.
• Activities outside of the gym (work & recreational) add to the amount of muscle
damage/stress you accumulate and must be accounted for when selecting a workout.
• An inefficient sleep schedule negatively affects your ability to build muscle and recover
from workouts.
• Eating habits fuel performance and aid in recovery/growth.

Now the fun part can begin. Keeping in mind those factors we discussed, you can select the
perfect workout to help build muscle.

The first step is deciding how many days you can commit to going to the gym. Then you can
begin to think about which kind of split you will want to perform during those days:

Can you commit 3 days to working out?

• Appropriate Splits: Full body workouts or a three-day push/pull/legs split

• This would be perfect for those with busier schedules or lifestyles which affect
recovery.

Can you commit 4 days to working out?

• Appropriate Splits: Upper/lower split, push/pull/legs split with a full body day,
or body part specific splits.
• Working out 4 days per week is practical for most general fitness enthusiasts.

Can you commit 5+ days to working out?

• Appropriate Splits: Body part split, a push/pull/legs split, upper/lower split, etc.
• Perfect if you have plenty of time to hit the gym & recover.
• Your workout plan options are only limited by your experience level here.

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GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR WORKOUTS

Progressive overload is the key to ongoing success. Progressive overload is continuing to
challenge your muscles by changing one or more of the following variables in your workout
over time:

1. Weight used
2. Reps or Sets performed
3. Workout Frequency
4. Rep Tempo
5. Rest periods in between sets and exercises
6. Exercise Variation

The most common way trainees achieve progressive overload is by increasing the amount of
total volume moved during the course of their workouts. Three easy ways to achieve this are:

• Increasing the weight used during an exercise

• Increasing the number of reps per set
• Increasing the number of sets per exercise

The main point here is:

Sets X Reps X Weight Lifted = Total Volume

So long as that Total Volume continues to trend upward over time and you’re maintaining
good form, you’ll build muscle mass.

Another method used to achieve progressive overload is increasing the frequency in which
the muscle is worked.

The thought is training multiple times a week increases training-induced muscle protein
synthesis. However, doing this efficiently entails that you make sure you’ve recovered
sufficiently in between training bouts. Think of it like this 7 step process:

1. You train chest on Monday

2. Muscle protein synthesis is elevated for the next 48 hours
3. After 48 hours-72 hours, you’ve completely recovered from Monday’s training session

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4. You hit chest again on Thursday

5. Muscle protein synthesis is elevated for the next 48 hours
6. After 48-72 hours you’ve completely recovered from Thursday’s session
7. Repeat

The third method we’ll touch on involves rep tempo. Most trainees begin with a rep tempo
of 1 second lowering the weight (eccentric), 0 seconds holding the weight at the midpoint
(isometric), and 1 second lifting the weight (concentric). In a rep tempo program format,
this would look like 1/0/1. Some schools include an additional isometric portion to their rep
tempo for any holds at the top of the movement. In this case, it would look like 1/0/1/0.

You can manipulate any of these motions by increasing the time under tension to look like:

• 2/0/1
• 1/0/2
• 2/0/2
• 2/1/2

All the way up to however many seconds you want on any given portion of the lift. When you
increase the duration of the rep, you increase the amount of time under tension and muscle
damage of the muscle group you’re targeting.

The next variable we’ll discuss is rest periods in between sets and exercises. When it comes
to rest, you may want to alter it in the following ways to promote muscle growth: All of the
workouts you can download on Muscle & Strength include guidance on the rest periods you
should take.

Decrease rest time Increase rest time

• Forces muscle to recover faster and
increases time under tension during
the workout.
• 30 - 60 second breaks between sets
is a good amount to aim for.
• Gives muscles time to recover so you
can move more weight to increase
mechanical tension.
• 2 - 5 minutes is a good goal during
your strength building lifts.

Last on the list of variables is changing the actual version of the lift being performed. By
changing this variable, you can shift the emphasis of the exercise to target the muscle
differently and unlock new gains.

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Below is a list of staple exercises every program should include and variations of the lift that
can be substituted for it:

Staple Exercise Variations

Deadlift Sumo deadlift, Romanian deadlift, trap bar deadlift

Squat Back squat, front squat, goblet squat

Bench Press Dumbbell bench press, incline barbell press, decline bench press

Overhead Press Dumbbell press, barbell press, Arnold press

Pull-Ups Chin up, neutral grip pull-up

Dips Bench dips, close grip bench press

Rows Barbell row, dumbbell row, inverted row

INCORPORATING CARDIO INTO YOUR WORKOUTS

It’s not uncommon for trainees to completely abandon cardio the minute they adopt the goal
of putting on muscle. However, cardio can be extraordinarily important in building muscle and
maintaining long-term overall health.

• Cardio keeps your heart healthy.

• LISS (low-intensity steady state) cardio can aid in muscle recovery.
• Increases caloric expenditure on rest days to limit fat gain.
• HIIT (high-intensity interval training) cardio is great for fat loss, making those new gains
visible.
• Some forms of cardio can actually help build muscle
• Sprints
• Rowing
• Sled work
• Loaded Carries

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It’s in your best interest to do at least some form of cardio throughout the week while adding
muscle mass. Use this 4 step plan when trying to decide on that form:

1. Pick a form of cardio you actually enjoy - adherence is key here.

2. Make sure that form of cardio doesn’t hinder your performance in the gym.
3. Make sure it doesn’t negatively affect your recovery outside of the gym.
4. Aim to do LISS on designated rest days to aid in recovery & HIIT on workout days for a
quick cardio bout.

WHEN SHOULD YOU CHANGE UP YOUR WORKOUT?

You’ve probably heard at some point in your life that muscle confusion is important for
muscle growth. However, as mentioned above, progressive overload should be your main
concern.

To accomplish progressive overload, you must have some consistency in your workout from
week to week so you can gauge your progress.

When should you change up your workout?

Most workouts are designed to be performed from anywhere between 4-16 weeks. A good
rule of thumb is to perform a workout for 6-8 weeks before taking a week to deload.

Note: Each workout found on Muscle & Strength was designed to be performed for a certain
amount of weeks. If you’re unsure about how long to perform a workout, follow our guidance.

You have several options you can use as a form of deloading during that week:

1. You can use half the weight you’d normally use for each set of each exercise.
2. You could perform half the reps and sets of your workout while keeping the weight the
same or similar.
3. Or, you could change your form of exercise or exercise selection for a week.

While you’re deloading ask yourself these 3 questions:

• Is this program still aligned with my goals?

• Am I still making progress towards those goals with this workout?
• Am I still enjoying performing this workout?

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If you answered yes to all of those questions, keep performing the workout you are on. If you
answered no to any one of them, it’s time to look for something new to try.

By picking a workout that fits your lifestyle, consistently achieving progressive overload, and
constantly reevaluating your program to ensure you enjoy and have fun with what you’re
doing, you’ll set yourself up for muscle building success.

Join us again tomorrow and we’ll show you how to set up your nutrition to promote lean
muscle mass.

- M&S

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