5 Techniques to Speed Up Muscle Growth!

to many people's surprise muscle growth is actually not a linear process when first starting out it's not uncommon to pack on two to three pounds of muscle per month as a true beginner then as an intermediate lifter that number goes down to only one to two pounds of muscle per month and finally as an advanced lifter that's been training consistently and properly for years you'll be lucky if you can gain anywhere from zero to half a pound of muscle per month the good news however is that regardless of what stage you're currently at there are useful training techniques that you can use to help promote muscle growth break through plateaus and ultimately build muscle faster and the very first powerful technique that i want to start with is known as eccentric overloading with eccentric overloading you would make the eccentric or the muscle lengthening portion of the exercise which is usually when you're lowering the weight you would purposely make that portion of the exercise harder than the concentric portion which is when your muscle is shortening which usually happens when you're lifting the weight up the benefit of eccentric overloading is that muscles can generally produce about 20 to 60 percent more force during the eccentric as opposed to the concentric portion of the contraction that's because during eccentric contractions a component of the muscle called titan activates and produces a passive elastic force due to its stiffness this leads to an increased amount of tension on the muscle fibers which is how it contributes to muscle growth so to put it simply eccentric overloading allows you to reach higher levels of muscle activation than you would with traditional sets leading to more muscle growth and we see this playing out in a number of studies that show that training with machines that have eccentric overloading capabilities produce more muscle growth than training with regular consistent resistance training machines now the problem with these machines is that they're pretty rare in gyms because they're so expensive but the good news is that there are other options for example if you have a partner you can select a weight load that would normally be too challenging to rep out by yourself and then you would lower that weight down as slowly as you could for the eccentric portion and then as you get to the bottom have your partner fully help you all the way up then repeat by slowly lowering down again another option is to lift weights with two limbs and then lower back down with one this works very well on certain machines like the leg extension leg curl calf raise chest press and the overhead press keep in mind this won't work on the unilateral machines where each side will move independently it will only work on the machines where both the left and the right sides are connected another way to incorporate eccentric overloading is to cheat during the concentric phase to be able to overload the weight back down so an example of this would be to push press a barbell over your head by using the momentum from your legs and then slowly lower the weight back down using only your arms then repeat for reps now it's important to note that eccentric overloading is more taxing on your body than regular sets so you will need more time to recover that's why you should only use this technique occasionally definitely do not use it on all or even most of your exercises because it could put too much stress on your body especially your joints another advanced technique that you can use is known as a cluster set to do these you would rest between every rep or every cluster of reps instead of resting only between complete sets for example you would do two reps of deadlifts then rest for 10 seconds do another two reps then rest for another 10 seconds and finally do two last reps after which you would rest for three to four minutes and then repeat the cycle so many of you are probably wondering why would you choose to do cluster sets instead of simply doing all your reps in one shot well this is because studies show that cluster sets are actually better than straight sets for developing strength and power researchers also found that you experience those benefits without compromising muscle growth in other words with cluster sets you can build the same amount of muscle while gaining more strength and power in the process cluster sets are so beneficial for strength and power because they lead to a higher total training volume since you're allowed to take short breaks in the middle of each of your sets you should be able to squeeze out extra reps with a heavier weight load leading to more total volume now there are two important things to keep in mind first it's not practical to use a cluster set for certain exercises especially those that require constant racking and unracking of the weights examples include the bench press dumbbell overhead press or the back squat instead reserve your cluster sets for exercises like deadlifts or weighted chin ups since those kinds of exercises don't require you to rack and unrack the weights constantly the second thing to remember is that cluster sets seem to only be effective when training with high weight loads for example one study compared three to five sets of ten reps performed either with or without a thirty second break halfway through the set and they found that the traditional straight set protocol resulted in more strength and muscle development so how do you set up your cluster sets effectively well just like i mentioned earlier i recommend doing only two reps per cluster for a total of six to eight reps per set remember to take a 10 second break in between each cluster and then take a three to five minute break in between each set for our next technique we have something known as post activation potentiation or pap pap refers to the phenomenon that you can perform better after first generating a high level of muscle activation to be more specific a technique known as the 1-6 method is one of the more common pap methods used you would set it up by first performing a very heavy one rep set then you would strip some of the weight off the bar rest for three to four minutes and then do another heavy set this time aiming for six reps while i do have to mention that this doesn't work for everybody many people do notice that their performance is better after they've done a heavy single a couple minutes before their regular set this is especially true for really strong trainees with a decent amount of gym experience under their belt researchers were even able to observe this in a lab setting now i'm not saying that you should use the 1-6 method on all your exercises but you may want to take advantage of it on your big compound movements like the squat deadlift bench press and the overhead press as an added benefit working up to a heavy single or a one rep max can by itself help you gain more strength over time which in turn means you can use more weight during your exercises leading to more tension on your muscle fibers and more muscle growth moving on we now come to blood flow restriction training or bfr this is also known as katsu and it was developed by a japanese sports scientist whose legs went numb while sitting on the floor in the traditional japanese seated position at a buddhist memorial service as he was massaging his calves to relieve the pain he realized that his blood circulation was blocked in his calves because the weight of his body was pressing directly down and due to that blood flow restriction he experienced a similar pump in his calves that he would feel when doing calf exercises at the gym which led him to question if you could replicate lifting heavy weights by instead using light weights in combination with blood flow restriction and when testing this hypothesis not only did he notice enhanced muscle growth while experimenting on himself by using bicycle tubes ropes and bands to restrict the blood flow of many different muscle groups throughout his body but other scientists were also able to confirm these results in lab settings for example a 2017 systematic review found that using blood flow restriction training with intensities as low as twenty percent of your one rep max can produce similar muscle growth as heavy strength training twenty percent of your one rep max is a very very light weight load guys they also notice that blood flow restriction training is effective for promoting strength and muscle gains in different populations ranging from athletes all the way to individuals with severe chronic diseases now just to clarify the researchers didn't find that blood flow restriction training causes more muscle growth than heavy resistance training but even though it's not superior it's very impressive that it can produce similar results since you can use lighter weights with this training technique it can be especially beneficial if you have achy joints or you're recovering from an injury or you're simply older according to the evidence using lower intensities for your exercises will place much less strain on your joints tendons and ligaments so to set up bfr training you don't need fancy or expensive equipment even though you can buy bfr specific wraps you can also just use something like power lifting knee wraps since wrapping those around your limbs can work just as well there are also two main sites that you want to wrap around for the upper body you'll wrap them right under your shoulders above the biceps and for the lower body you'll wrap them at the top of your thighs under your glutes remember when wrapping your limbs you don't want to completely block the blood flow so wrap them tight but don't exceed a pressure of about a seven on a scale of one to ten now even though you can use extremely light weights for the best results it's recommended that you use at least thirty percent of your one rep max so this is a weight that's light but heavy enough for you not to be able to do more than around 30 reps with normally if you're using anything lighter than that make sure you move up in weight since most research uses rest periods ranging between 30 to 60 seconds in length and it's been proven to work stick to that same exact rest protocol also based on the research it doesn't matter whether you keep the wraps on or take them off in between your sets you'll still experience similar results and finally if you're wondering whether blood flow restriction training is safe the answer is yes data indicates that this training method is very safe for your muscles and for your cardiovascular system last but not least let's move on to our fifth advanced training method called staggered sets a staggered set can be set up by alternating between exercises that train opposing muscle groups for example your biceps flex your elbows while your triceps extend them so biceps and triceps are considered opposing muscle groups some others include chest and back and quads and hamstrings so an example of a staggered set for biceps and triceps would be performing bicep curls and then immediately performing tricep extensions with no break in between the exercises then resting for a minute and then repeating the two exercises together again for sets now the main benefit that you'll get from this is more training volume within a given period of time without interfering with your performance since your triceps won't be impacted by bicep curls you can perform a set for your triceps immediately after those curls allowing you to spend less time in the gym while still making optimal gains in fact stagger sets are so great that they may even boost your gains for example research shows that performing a whole body workout with staggered sets increases work capacity compared to doing straight sets it also shows that performing rows before an explosive chest exercise increases power output and doing rows immediately after the bench press improves performance in both exercises so to set up staggered sets correctly the main thing you want to be sure of is that the exercises that you're combining don't wind up interfering with each other so don't combine an overhead press with something like a bench press since both exercises are taxing on the shoulders which would lead to impaired performance in both a couple examples of exercises that you can in fact combine include dumbbell chest presses with dumbbell rows chin ups with overhead presses bicep curls with tricep extensions and finally leg extensions with leg curls another option is to simply alternate between a lower body exercise like the squat and an upper body one like the bench press but this can be a little tougher to get right because even if two movements seem unrelated they can still stimulate similar muscle groups for example both the squat and the bench press requires the use of your core for stabilization and they both also require your leg strength so just be aware of these things when setting up your sets so that about wraps it up guys i really hope that you enjoyed this video if you have make sure you subscribe to the channel and if you want to skip all the trial and error and plateaus that come with packing on muscle and burning fat then visit my website and try my program it provides a done-for-you step-by-step plan that details exactly what you should be eating and exactly what you should do either at the gym or at home to get into the best shape of your life with a full video exercise library a recipe book and a dedicated personal coach included building muscle and burning fat is made easier than ever and that's why so many of my clients are able to get into such amazing shape in just six short weeks to find out more click the link below in the description or you can visit my website directly at gravitytransformation.com i'll see you guys soon [Applause] you

Channel: Gravity Transformation - Fat Loss Experts

Views: 1,457,393

Rating: 4.9436474 out of 5

Keywords: training techniques to help you grow, training techniques to build muscle faster, how to bulk up fast, advanced training strategies, gym methods for muscle growth, how to build muscle faster, blood flow restriction training, speed up muscle growth, training methods, gain weight and build muscle, gain weight as a skinny hardgainer, hardgainer, supersets, eccentrics, cluster sets, get bigger muscles, best exercises to build muscle, faster muscle growth, build muscle with lightweight

Id: qf1M7Ud3yX8

Length: 12min 59sec (779 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 17 2021