THE 3 SCIENTIFIC LAWS OF MUSCLE GROWTH
Fortunately, there is a solution, and it’s not performing multiple sets of whatever cable Kegel exercise is being pushed as ‘The Answer.’ Just a little hard, smart, basic work.
— JIM WENDLER
The laws of muscle growth are as certain, observable, and irrefutable as those of physics.
When you throw a ball in the air, it comes down. When you take the correct actions inside and outside the gym, your muscles grow. It’s that simple, regardless of whether your genetics are “good” or “bad.” There’s no such thing as the hopeless “hardgainer”—there are only people who don’t know and act in accordance with the laws contained in this and the previous chapters.
These principles have been known and followed for decades by people who built some of the greatest physiques we’ve ever seen, going all the way back to the likes of Steve Reeves and Roy “Reg” Park, and even further back, to the pioneering “father of modern bodybuilding,” Eugen Sandow.
Some of these laws will contradict things you’ve read or heard, but fortunately, they require no leaps of faith or meditation. They are practical. Follow them, and you get immediate results.
Once these rules have worked for you, you will know they’re true and will never be lured away from them.
THE FIRST LAW OF MUSCLE GROWTH
PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD OVER ALL
As you know, the “burn” you feel is simply an infusion of lactic acid in the muscle, which is a by-product of muscles burning their energy stores. It does little to induce muscle growth.
A big “pump” is also not a good predictor of future muscle growth. The pump you feel when training is the result of blood being “trapped” in the muscles, and while it’s a good psychological boost and studies have shown that it can help with protein synthesis (the process by which cells build proteins), it’s not a primary driver of growth.1
What drives muscle growth, then?
The answer is known as progressive tension overload, which means progressively increasing tension levels in the muscle fibers over time. That is, lifting progressively heavier and heavier weights.
You see, muscles must be given a powerful reason to grow, and nothing is more convincing than subjecting them to more and more mechanical stress and tension.2
This makes good intuitive sense—to adapt to handling heavier and heavier weights, the muscles must grow larger—and it’s also supported by science.
For example, in a meta-analysis of 140 related studies, researchers from Arizona State University found that a progression in resistance optimizes strength gains and muscle growth.3 Researchers also found that working in the 4- to 6-rep range (80 percent of one-rep max, or 1RM) is most effective for those who train regularly.
The conclusion of this research is simple: the best way to build muscle and strength is to focus on heavy weightlifting and increase the weight lifted over time.
Well, that’s not just theory—that’s fact. And that’s what the Bigger Leaner Stronger program is all about: lifting heavy weights and doing short, intense sets of relatively low numbers of reps.
Leave the drop sets, giant sets, and supersets prescribed in the magazines to the magazine readers. Those training methods are as ineffective for building muscle as they are grueling. It’s a lot of work for little reward.
Instead, from now on, you’re going to train differently. You’re going to spend more time resting than you’re used to, you’re going to perform exercises you’re probably not used to, and you’re going to lift a lot more weight than you thought possible.
But the payoff is huge. You’re not only going to come to love your workouts, but you’re also going to love how your body changes even more.
THE SECOND LAW OF MUSCLE GROWTH
PROPER REST IS JUST AS IMPORTANT IS PROPER TRAINING
One of the most common problems with the many weightlifting programs out there is they simply have you doing too much, whether in individual workouts or in total weekly training volume.
They play into the common misconception that building muscle is simply a matter of pounding your body into submission through excessive amounts of training. People who have fallen into this bad habit need to realize that if they did less of the right thing, they would get more.
You see, when you lift weights, you cause tiny tears in the muscle fibers, known as microtears, which the body then repairs. This is part of the process by which muscles grow (scientifically termed hypertrophy).4
One of the things you want to achieve with your workouts is an optimal amount of microtearing in the muscles. Not so much that your body falls behind with repair, as this stunts muscle growth, but not so little that you miss out on potential gains.
While many guys undertrain and thus underdamage their muscles, many more overtrain and overdamage them. That is, the individual workouts they do result in too much microtearing, or they wait too few days before training a muscle group again given the extent of the muscle damage caused in the previous workout.
Studies have shown that, depending on the intensity of your training and your level of fitness, it takes the body two to seven days to fully repair muscles subjected to weight training.5 Considering the volume and intensity of the Bigger Leaner Stronger program, we can safely assume full muscle recovery is going to take four to six days.
THE THIRD LAW OF MUSCLE GROWTH
MUSCLES WILL GROW ONLY IF THEY’RE PROPERLY FED
You could do the perfect workouts and give your muscles the perfect amount of rest, but if you don’t eat correctly, you won’t grow—period. It is that cut and dry.
A proper diet isn’t particularly complicated, but it does have several moving parts that you need to know how to coordinate.
Sure, we all know to eat protein, but how much? How many times per day? Which kinds?
What about carbs? Are they good for muscle growth? Which kinds are best? How much? When should you eat them to maximize your gains?
And dietary fats? What role do they play? How much do we need, and what are the best ways to get them?
And last but not least, how many calories should we eat every day and why? When do we adjust this and by how much?
Well, these are all good questions, and in this book, you’re going to find definitive answers to all of them and more so that you never make a diet mistake again.
Fortunately, there is a solution, and it’s not performing multiple sets of whatever cable Kegel exercise is being pushed as ‘The Answer.’ Just a little hard, smart, basic work.
— JIM WENDLER
The laws of muscle growth are as certain, observable, and irrefutable as those of physics.
When you throw a ball in the air, it comes down. When you take the correct actions inside and outside the gym, your muscles grow. It’s that simple, regardless of whether your genetics are “good” or “bad.” There’s no such thing as the hopeless “hardgainer”—there are only people who don’t know and act in accordance with the laws contained in this and the previous chapters.
These principles have been known and followed for decades by people who built some of the greatest physiques we’ve ever seen, going all the way back to the likes of Steve Reeves and Roy “Reg” Park, and even further back, to the pioneering “father of modern bodybuilding,” Eugen Sandow.
Some of these laws will contradict things you’ve read or heard, but fortunately, they require no leaps of faith or meditation. They are practical. Follow them, and you get immediate results.
Once these rules have worked for you, you will know they’re true and will never be lured away from them.
THE FIRST LAW OF MUSCLE GROWTH
PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD OVER ALL
As you know, the “burn” you feel is simply an infusion of lactic acid in the muscle, which is a by-product of muscles burning their energy stores. It does little to induce muscle growth.
A big “pump” is also not a good predictor of future muscle growth. The pump you feel when training is the result of blood being “trapped” in the muscles, and while it’s a good psychological boost and studies have shown that it can help with protein synthesis (the process by which cells build proteins), it’s not a primary driver of growth.1
What drives muscle growth, then?
The answer is known as progressive tension overload, which means progressively increasing tension levels in the muscle fibers over time. That is, lifting progressively heavier and heavier weights.
You see, muscles must be given a powerful reason to grow, and nothing is more convincing than subjecting them to more and more mechanical stress and tension.2
This makes good intuitive sense—to adapt to handling heavier and heavier weights, the muscles must grow larger—and it’s also supported by science.
For example, in a meta-analysis of 140 related studies, researchers from Arizona State University found that a progression in resistance optimizes strength gains and muscle growth.3 Researchers also found that working in the 4- to 6-rep range (80 percent of one-rep max, or 1RM) is most effective for those who train regularly.
The conclusion of this research is simple: the best way to build muscle and strength is to focus on heavy weightlifting and increase the weight lifted over time.
Well, that’s not just theory—that’s fact. And that’s what the Bigger Leaner Stronger program is all about: lifting heavy weights and doing short, intense sets of relatively low numbers of reps.
Leave the drop sets, giant sets, and supersets prescribed in the magazines to the magazine readers. Those training methods are as ineffective for building muscle as they are grueling. It’s a lot of work for little reward.
Instead, from now on, you’re going to train differently. You’re going to spend more time resting than you’re used to, you’re going to perform exercises you’re probably not used to, and you’re going to lift a lot more weight than you thought possible.
But the payoff is huge. You’re not only going to come to love your workouts, but you’re also going to love how your body changes even more.
THE SECOND LAW OF MUSCLE GROWTH
PROPER REST IS JUST AS IMPORTANT IS PROPER TRAINING
One of the most common problems with the many weightlifting programs out there is they simply have you doing too much, whether in individual workouts or in total weekly training volume.
They play into the common misconception that building muscle is simply a matter of pounding your body into submission through excessive amounts of training. People who have fallen into this bad habit need to realize that if they did less of the right thing, they would get more.
You see, when you lift weights, you cause tiny tears in the muscle fibers, known as microtears, which the body then repairs. This is part of the process by which muscles grow (scientifically termed hypertrophy).4
One of the things you want to achieve with your workouts is an optimal amount of microtearing in the muscles. Not so much that your body falls behind with repair, as this stunts muscle growth, but not so little that you miss out on potential gains.
While many guys undertrain and thus underdamage their muscles, many more overtrain and overdamage them. That is, the individual workouts they do result in too much microtearing, or they wait too few days before training a muscle group again given the extent of the muscle damage caused in the previous workout.
Studies have shown that, depending on the intensity of your training and your level of fitness, it takes the body two to seven days to fully repair muscles subjected to weight training.5 Considering the volume and intensity of the Bigger Leaner Stronger program, we can safely assume full muscle recovery is going to take four to six days.
THE THIRD LAW OF MUSCLE GROWTH
MUSCLES WILL GROW ONLY IF THEY’RE PROPERLY FED
You could do the perfect workouts and give your muscles the perfect amount of rest, but if you don’t eat correctly, you won’t grow—period. It is that cut and dry.
A proper diet isn’t particularly complicated, but it does have several moving parts that you need to know how to coordinate.
Sure, we all know to eat protein, but how much? How many times per day? Which kinds?
What about carbs? Are they good for muscle growth? Which kinds are best? How much? When should you eat them to maximize your gains?
And dietary fats? What role do they play? How much do we need, and what are the best ways to get them?
And last but not least, how many calories should we eat every day and why? When do we adjust this and by how much?
Well, these are all good questions, and in this book, you’re going to find definitive answers to all of them and more so that you never make a diet mistake again.
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