As a Manhattan personal trainer I typically get asked “How can I build muscle FAST?!” While it’s pretty subjective to the persons exercise history, needs, strengths etc… there are principles that do encompass pretty much every demographic. Now, I can give out a bad ass 5 week program to get ripped, it won’t teach you much and will only last 5 weeks. Hold tight though, even though I won’t give you a specific program, I will give you muscle building principles that’ll far outweigh any “5 week muscle building program”. The more knowledge you gain the better your workouts and programming will be = gain lean muscle mass faster! Teach a man to fish, right? So let’s jump into it:
Time Under Tension
When it comes to building lean muscle mass, we have to talk about the principle of time under tension (TUT). TUT is the length of time you put your body under stress. Put simply, TUT is when you’re really pushing your body to get that “pump” and burning sensation in your muscles. With programming this is generally called the “Hypertrophy” (def: to build skeletal muscle mass) phase where the focus is on high repetitions i.e. x 12+ reps. The higher the repetition the greater the time under tension, but that doesn’t mean the intensity or load (weight) should dramatically decrease either.
THIS clearly is not going to challenge her.
Intensity
When it comes to Time Under Tension, a lot of fitness enthusiast focus on the sets and reps but forget about a key factor = INTENSITY! Without intensity, higher volume and repetitions per set won’t mean much. For example, if you were to pick up a 5lb db and curl it for x10 reps vs. 20lbs x10 repetitions, clearly the pink dumbbells wouldn’t be enough tension and intensity to really challenge the muscles. In the end the basic premise is to push yourself enough to get a sweat and pump going but also to feel the muscle being worked.
Focus on da pump
You’ll hear a lot of NYC personal trainers and fitness enthusiasts talk about focusing on the muscle being worked i.e during a curl, focus on the bicep both on the concentric and eccentric…basically the whole time :). This is to be sure that whatever muscle you’re working is actually being contracted and fired. Some lifters can go through the exercise but compensate by contracting other muscles that the trainer didn’t want you to focus on. For Example: Dumbbell Pec Fly, you maybe feeling it more in the shoulders and bicep, when generally speaking the focus should be on the pecs. Not feeling it in the main muscle group could be due to many variables from positioning or the weight being too heavy. If you are truly focused on the muscle being worked, you’ll be able to adjust accordingly (based on the suggestion mentioned or from the personal trainer)until you start to feel the exercise in the pecs.
Isolation vs Compound Exercises
When to comes to building muscle, generally speaking, you should focus on foundational or compound movements first and then move into isolation movements- this is especially true if you’re just starting out. By doing so you’ll help build a strong base to push heavier weights = more muscle. For example, Overhead Pressing 225lb x12 vs. 135lbs x12, the 225lb press for x12 will have a greater impact on the body than 135lbs x12.
Example Workout Day Set Up
- 1A) Squat 5×6+
- 2A)Bench Press 3×5+
- 2B) Pull Ups 3×12+
- 3A) Incline Press 2xfailure (1st set leave 5 reps in the take, 2nd set go ALL OUT aim for 15+)
- 4A) Rows 3×15
- 4B) Reverse Flyx 3×20
- 5A) Cable Curls 3x20sec
- 5B) Cable Tricep Push downs 3x20ec
- 6A) Weighted Planks
*(+) indicates to surpass the minimum rep count. ex: 5×6+ go for 8 or more reps.
Breakdown
In the above workout example, we go from compound movement to more isolation and targeted exercises. The squat is a medium intensity with medium volume, you’ll get a good pump in the glutes and quads here. The bench press is a medium intensity with high volume in the pull ups. As we trickle down you’ll notice that the reps and time under tension increases with the lower exercise selections. This is called concurrent training where we’re building multiple focuses at once, in this case strength and hypertrophy. It’s also key to note exercise selection 4- Rows + reverse flys, this is a complex that’ll create a LOT of tension on the upper back. You can do various complexes to focus on hypertrophy that’ll give you a great pump such as pec fly + incline db press, tricep push downs + push ups, squats + leg press, etc…
Final Point
In the end the key to building muscle mass is eating clean, follow the basic principles stated above, and to push yourself! Muscle doesn’t come easy, gotta work for it.
Stay strong,
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