The Bigger Leaner Stronger training
Program follows a formula that looks like this:
1–2 | 4–6 | 9–12 | 3–4 | 60–65 | 5–7 | 8–10
No, that isn’t a secret code that you have to break. Let’s go through this formula one piece at a time.
1–2
TRAIN 1 TO 2 MUSCLE GROUPS PER DAY
To achieve maximum overload and muscle stimulation, you will train one or two muscle groups per workout (per day).
While upper/lower and full-body splits can work if programmed correctly, they come with several drawbacks.
The first is the fact that training multiple major muscle groups in one workout is very hard when you’re focusing on heavy, compound weightlifting. When you do six sets of heavy chest pressing and then try to move on to heavy shoulder pressing, you simply won’t lift as much as you would if you saved your shoulder work for another day.
By training only one or two muscle groups per day, you’ll be able to give your workouts 100 percent focus and intensity and train hard without struggling through the systemic and muscular fatigue that comes with trying to do too much in a workout.
Training several major muscle groups in one workout also takes a lot of time. I used to do long, 1.5 to 2-hour workouts and, quite frankly, didn’t look forward to many of them. I’m now in and out in no more than an hour and find that much more enjoyable, which helps me stick with the program for the long haul.
4–6
DO SETS OF 4 TO 6 REPS FOR NEARLY ALL EXERCISES
You knew I was going to have you lifting a lot of heavy weight, and here’s what it comes down to: working in the 4- to 6-rep range for nearly all exercises (we’ll go over the exceptions soon).
This means that you’re going to be using weights that allow for at least 4 reps but no more than 6 reps (if you can’t get 4 reps, it’s too heavy; if you can get 6 or more, it’s too light). Generally speaking, this is about 85 percent of your 1RM for each exercise.
You won’t be doing burnout sets, supersets, drop sets, or anything else but controlled, heavy sets. Leave the light weight, muscle confusion routines to the amateurs, and it will only be a matter of time before they come to you, baffled as to how you’re gaining so much by doing “so little.”
The emphasis of heavy, compound weightlifting is a vitally important aspect of the program and is the “heart” of the whole training approach. It’s also one of the more “controversial” recommendations in the book as the “optimal” rep range for muscle growth is still a subject of heated debate rather than scientific certainty.
That said, I didn’t choose this rep range willy-nilly—it’s based on a considerable amount of both clinical and anecdotal evidence, and before we go on, I’d like to share some of that here so you have a better understanding as to why I don’t recommend the more traditional “hypertrophy” rep range of 10 to 12 reps.
A large review of weightlifting studies was published in 2007 by researchers from Goteborg University, and it contained two key findings for our purposes:
1. Training with weights between 70 percent and 85 percent of 1RM produced maximum hypertrophy in subjects, although lower and higher loads also produced marked results.
2. A moderate training volume of 30 to 60 reps per workout produced maximum hypertrophy in subjects. As the load decreased, the optimal number of reps increased (that is, the lighter the weights you’re using, the more reps you want to do to maximally stimulate muscle growth).
The American College of Sports Medicine published a paper in 2002 that, based on the study of hundreds of subjects, concluded that training with weights that allowed no more than 5 to 6 reps is most effective for increasing strength and that resting up to 3 minutes in between sets is optimal when training in this fashion.
Researchers from Arizona State University reviewed 140 other weightlifting studies and concluded that training with weights that are 80 percent of your 1-rep max produces maximal strength gains.
Yet another sign of the effectiveness of lifting heavy weights is found in a study published by scientists from Ohio University, who had 32 untrained men lift weights for eight weeks.
They were split into three groups: one worked in the range of 3 to 5 reps, another in the range of 9 to 11 reps, and the last in the range of 20 to 28 reps. By the end of the eight-week period, the group working in the 3- to 5-rep range made significantly more gains in both strength and muscle than the other two groups.
Now, if you’re well read in the fitness world, you’ve undoubtedly come across studies with findings contrary to those above. For instance, there are at least two studies I know of commonly used to sell people on the belief that lifting light weights is as effective in building muscle as lifting heavy weights, so long as you train to failure.
There are major problems with these findings, however, because they don’t jibe with real-world observations.
Namely, the people who have built impressive physiques using high-rep “burnout” training almost always were chemically enhanced at some point along the way. And on the flip side, nearly every person you’ll meet who has built a strong, muscular body naturally will have done it by focusing on heavy weightlifting. They may now maintain their physique with higher-rep training, but they didn’t get there with it.
I went through this with my own body. Nearly eight years of grueling high-rep training got me no more than 25 to 30 pounds of lean mass, with at least half of that coming in the first three years. Eventually, I sunk into a rut and made no real gains to speak of for several years.
I was able to progress again by applying what I’m teaching you in this book: lifting heavy weights and regulating and balancing my food intake. Since making these changes, my strength has exploded, and my physique has dramatically changed—I’ve increased my weights on every lift by 50 to 100 percent and went from about 197 pounds at 16 percent body fat to my current 187 pounds at 7 percent, which I maintain with ease.
I’ve also had the opportunity to work directly with thousands of people, and the results are the uniform from person to person regardless of age, genetics, or training history. Every day I e-mail with guys who were stuck in the same rut I was and who are now making gains again by focusing on heavy lifting and proper dieting.
So don’t worry if people question your approach and tell you to lighten the load and increase the reps. There’s no universally accepted answer just yet as to what is truly the absolute most effective way to train for both strength and hypertrophy, and there may never be one. The subject is just incredibly complicated with a staggering number of variables to consider and control for.
But know this: every well-designed, well-executed study I’ve seen agrees that training with 70 to 85 percent of your 1RM works. At this point, I can say with absolute certainty that there’s just something “special” about emphasizing heavy, compound weightlifting in your training.
I’m in good company here as well. Many of the most respected people in this industry, such as Brad Schoenfeld, Mark Rippetoe, Layne Norton, Alan Aragon, Lyle McDonald, and Pavel Tsatsouline, also advocate the same style of training for maximal results in the gym.
And the best part is that you don’t have to take my word on all of this. If you just follow the workout routine laid out in this book and in the bonus report, you will make startling strength and size gains.
9–12
DO 9 TO 12 HEAVY SETS PER WORKOUT
Regardless of which exercises you do, the workouts on this program will call for 9 to 12 heavy (or working) sets per workout, which are your muscle-building sets that you’ll be doing after warming up.
As you’ll see, the workouts in the 5- and 4-day plans will always contain 9 working sets for the major muscle group being trained, but will also provide 3 additional optional sets that you can do if you’re feeling up to it. If you’re brand new to weightlifting and are pretty spent after 9 sets, don’t feel like you have to do the final 3. If you’re more experienced or just have plenty of energy at the end of 9 sets, feel free to do the 3 extras.
Don’t get overzealous and do more than this in each workout, though, even if you feel like you can keep going after 12 working sets. Doing more isn’t going to help you build more muscle and can eventually lead to overtraining.
If you’re used to spending a couple of hours in the gym every day, pounding out set after set after set, this style of training is going to feel strange to you. In fact, at first you’ll probably feel like you’re being lazy or barely even working out (that’s how I felt at least). You’re probably going to doubt that you can bigger and stronger than ever by working out less than everyone else. But don’t worry—it won’t require any great leap of faith. Trust in the program and it will deliver. Suspend your disbelief for just a few weeks, and the results will speak for themselves.
Research and anecdotal evidence has shown me that 50 to 70 heavy reps performed with each major muscle group every five to seven days is a “sweet spot” for getting the most out of natural weightlifting.
3–4
REST 3 TO 4 MINUTES IN BETWEEN SETS
When you lift weights, a staggering number of physiological activities are taking place to enable you to perform the exercise. For a muscle to contract, it requires cellular energy, oxygen, certain chemical reactions, and many other molecular processes, and as you perform each rep, you deplete your muscles’ capacity to contract forcefully.
When you lift heavy weights, you push your muscles to their full contraction capacity. Sufficient recovery time in between sets is what allows you to repeat this process enough to achieve the optimum amount of muscle overload to stimulate and force new growth.
Basically, the whole point of resting between sets is to prepare your muscles to lift maximum weight in the next set. This isn’t just theory, either—clinical research has correlated intraset rest times and gains in both strength and muscle size.
For instance, one study conducted by researchers at the Federal University of Parana in Brazil found that when subjects performed the bench press and squat with 2-minute rest intervals, they were able to perform significantly more repetitions per workout than when rest intervals were shortened to 15-second increments (1:45, 1:30, 1:15, and so forth).
This is significant because, as you know, total workout volume is a major factor in achieving overload and stimulating muscle growth. Thus, it’s not surprising that a study conducted by researchers at Kennesaw State University found that subjects gained more muscle when training to failure with 2.5-minute rest periods as opposed to 1-minute periods.
Due to the amount of weight you’re using in Bigger Leaner Stronger workouts, you should rest for 3 to 4 minutes in between your working sets. That might sound excessive, but that timing wasn’t chosen randomly—it’s based on clinical research.
For instance, an extensive review of weightlifting studies conducted by researchers at State University of Rio de Janeiro found the following:
“In terms of acute responses, a key finding was that when training with loads between 50 percent and 90 percent of one repetition maximum, 3-5 minutes’ rest between sets allowed for greater repetitions over multiple sets.
“Furthermore, in terms of chronic adaptations, resting 3-5 minutes between sets produced greater increases in absolute strength, due to higher intensities and volumes of training. Similarly, higher levels of muscular power were demonstrated over multiple sets with 3 or 5 minutes versus 1 minute of rest between sets.”
These findings were echoed by another study conducted by scientists at Eastern Illinois University with resistance-trained men:
“The findings of the present study indicate that large squat strength gains can be achieved with a minimum of 2 minutes’ rest between sets, and little additional gains are derived from resting 4 minutes between sets.”
In another paper, the same research team analyzed bench press performance with the same subjects and found the following:
“When the training goal is maximal strength development, 3 minutes of rest should be taken between sets to avoid significant declines in repetitions. The ability to sustain repetitions while keeping the intensity constant may result in a higher training volume and consequently greater gains in muscular strength.”
Just like the shorter workouts will feel strange at first, the longer rest times are going to feel really weird. You’re going to feel like you’re sitting around more than you’re working out.
But again, let the results speak for themselves. You’ll notice that you retain your strength much better set after set when you use proper rest periods, which is crucial for continuing to recruit maximal muscle fibers with each set.
Some days you’ll feel energized and ready to lift again after 3 minutes, but other days you’ll feel a bit slower and will need the full 4 minutes. The test isn’t whether you want to do the next set, by the way; it’s whether your body’s heart rate has come down since the last set and you feel like you have the energy to do another.
60–65
TRAIN FOR 60 to 65 MINUTES
If your workouts are going much longer than an hour, something is wrong. You should be able to finish every Bigger Leaner Stronger workout in 60 to 65 minutes.
Long workouts are not only unnecessary but are often counterproductive as well. As you know, despite their grueling nature, extremely high-volume workouts are just a recipe for stagnation.
When workout intensity is high, as it is with this program, workout volume needs to be moderate or you’ll wind up overtraining. This means shorter workouts.
Time your rest periods and keep the chatting to a minimum and you’ll get through your workouts efficiently, which will help you stay focused on your workouts and give them 100 percent.
5–7
TRAIN EACH MUSCLE GROUP ONE TO TWO TIMES EVERY 5 TO 7 DAYS
The amount of time you give a muscle group to rest before training it again plays a vital role in the process of muscle growth.
Quite a few training programs have you performing two to three full workouts for every major muscle group every week, often alternating between very heavy and lighter weights.
Some of these programs are based on good scientific research, but they fall short in one area: recovery.
Recovery, both muscular and nervous systemic, is what makes or breaks all of the work you put in to get you the body you want. If you don’t allow your body to fully recover from a workout before you subject the same muscles to overload again, it doesn’t matter how strictly you follow your diet or this training protocol—eventually you will struggle to make progress, and you will feel physically worse and worse over time.
If you continue training with insufficient recovery for too long, you can lose strength and muscle as well as all motivation for working out. You can also wind up with depressive and chronic fatigue-like symptoms, lose your appetite and sex drive, sleep poorly, and experience other negative effects.
One for one, natural weightlifters I’ve spoken with who have tried various two- or three-a-week programs have run into these types of recovery problems, especially when they’re dieting for weight loss, as a calorie deficit makes it even easier to become overtrained.
Well, you’re not going to run into any of these problems if you stick to the Bigger Leaner Stronger training schedule, which carefully balances training frequency, volume, and intensity and recovery.
As you’ll see, each week on the program is going to involve hitting every major muscle group in the body with one primary, heavy, intense workout with some additional lighter (but not light!) upper-body work to ensure it doesn’t fall behind and the option of additional lower-body work if it’s needed.
8–10
DIAL IT BACK EVERY 8 TO 10 WEEKS
Heavy weightlifting can feel pretty brutal at first. It takes quite a bit of physical effort and mental concentration. Your muscles will ache. Your joints and tendons will have to adapt.
As if all that weren’t enough, there’s more: it puts the central nervous system under tremendous stress as well, which manifests in subtle ways. Although there are contradictory theories as to what is truly going on here physiologically, what we know for sure is repeated bouts of weightlifting cause a nonmuscular fatigue to develop in the body.
This, in turn, leads to reductions in speed, power, and the ability to perform technical movements or exercises.
Some research indicates that this may be more of a sensation or emotion rather than a true physical issue, but the bottom line is that it will affect you, so you need to know how to deal with it.
And the easiest way to “refresh” your entire body is to periodically reduce the intensity of your training or take a week off the weights altogether.
Thus, between each of its eight-week phases, the Bigger Leaner Stronger program includes a choice between what is known as a deload week and several days, or even an entire week, off the weights. We’ll talk about how exactly the deload week works soon, but it simply involves lower-intensity training for a week.
The choice between a deload week and taking a short break from the weights is up to you. I recommend that you start with deload weeks, but if you don’t feel reinvigorated by the end of them and physically and mentally ready to hit the heavy weights again, then I recommend that you try no training whatsoever for at least four to five days before getting back to it.
Many guys fear that they are going to shrink or come back weaker if they take a week or even a few days off the weights, but this simply isn’t the case. Research has shown that even in the elderly, significant strength loss isn’t seen until about five weeks of no exercise.
In terms of how to eat on your deload week or week off the weights, if you’re bulking, you can reduce your calories to a maintenance level, and if you’re cutting, you don’t have to change anything.
Program follows a formula that looks like this:
1–2 | 4–6 | 9–12 | 3–4 | 60–65 | 5–7 | 8–10
No, that isn’t a secret code that you have to break. Let’s go through this formula one piece at a time.
1–2
TRAIN 1 TO 2 MUSCLE GROUPS PER DAY
To achieve maximum overload and muscle stimulation, you will train one or two muscle groups per workout (per day).
While upper/lower and full-body splits can work if programmed correctly, they come with several drawbacks.
The first is the fact that training multiple major muscle groups in one workout is very hard when you’re focusing on heavy, compound weightlifting. When you do six sets of heavy chest pressing and then try to move on to heavy shoulder pressing, you simply won’t lift as much as you would if you saved your shoulder work for another day.
By training only one or two muscle groups per day, you’ll be able to give your workouts 100 percent focus and intensity and train hard without struggling through the systemic and muscular fatigue that comes with trying to do too much in a workout.
Training several major muscle groups in one workout also takes a lot of time. I used to do long, 1.5 to 2-hour workouts and, quite frankly, didn’t look forward to many of them. I’m now in and out in no more than an hour and find that much more enjoyable, which helps me stick with the program for the long haul.
4–6
DO SETS OF 4 TO 6 REPS FOR NEARLY ALL EXERCISES
You knew I was going to have you lifting a lot of heavy weight, and here’s what it comes down to: working in the 4- to 6-rep range for nearly all exercises (we’ll go over the exceptions soon).
This means that you’re going to be using weights that allow for at least 4 reps but no more than 6 reps (if you can’t get 4 reps, it’s too heavy; if you can get 6 or more, it’s too light). Generally speaking, this is about 85 percent of your 1RM for each exercise.
You won’t be doing burnout sets, supersets, drop sets, or anything else but controlled, heavy sets. Leave the light weight, muscle confusion routines to the amateurs, and it will only be a matter of time before they come to you, baffled as to how you’re gaining so much by doing “so little.”
The emphasis of heavy, compound weightlifting is a vitally important aspect of the program and is the “heart” of the whole training approach. It’s also one of the more “controversial” recommendations in the book as the “optimal” rep range for muscle growth is still a subject of heated debate rather than scientific certainty.
That said, I didn’t choose this rep range willy-nilly—it’s based on a considerable amount of both clinical and anecdotal evidence, and before we go on, I’d like to share some of that here so you have a better understanding as to why I don’t recommend the more traditional “hypertrophy” rep range of 10 to 12 reps.
A large review of weightlifting studies was published in 2007 by researchers from Goteborg University, and it contained two key findings for our purposes:
1. Training with weights between 70 percent and 85 percent of 1RM produced maximum hypertrophy in subjects, although lower and higher loads also produced marked results.
2. A moderate training volume of 30 to 60 reps per workout produced maximum hypertrophy in subjects. As the load decreased, the optimal number of reps increased (that is, the lighter the weights you’re using, the more reps you want to do to maximally stimulate muscle growth).
The American College of Sports Medicine published a paper in 2002 that, based on the study of hundreds of subjects, concluded that training with weights that allowed no more than 5 to 6 reps is most effective for increasing strength and that resting up to 3 minutes in between sets is optimal when training in this fashion.
Researchers from Arizona State University reviewed 140 other weightlifting studies and concluded that training with weights that are 80 percent of your 1-rep max produces maximal strength gains.
Yet another sign of the effectiveness of lifting heavy weights is found in a study published by scientists from Ohio University, who had 32 untrained men lift weights for eight weeks.
They were split into three groups: one worked in the range of 3 to 5 reps, another in the range of 9 to 11 reps, and the last in the range of 20 to 28 reps. By the end of the eight-week period, the group working in the 3- to 5-rep range made significantly more gains in both strength and muscle than the other two groups.
Now, if you’re well read in the fitness world, you’ve undoubtedly come across studies with findings contrary to those above. For instance, there are at least two studies I know of commonly used to sell people on the belief that lifting light weights is as effective in building muscle as lifting heavy weights, so long as you train to failure.
There are major problems with these findings, however, because they don’t jibe with real-world observations.
Namely, the people who have built impressive physiques using high-rep “burnout” training almost always were chemically enhanced at some point along the way. And on the flip side, nearly every person you’ll meet who has built a strong, muscular body naturally will have done it by focusing on heavy weightlifting. They may now maintain their physique with higher-rep training, but they didn’t get there with it.
I went through this with my own body. Nearly eight years of grueling high-rep training got me no more than 25 to 30 pounds of lean mass, with at least half of that coming in the first three years. Eventually, I sunk into a rut and made no real gains to speak of for several years.
I was able to progress again by applying what I’m teaching you in this book: lifting heavy weights and regulating and balancing my food intake. Since making these changes, my strength has exploded, and my physique has dramatically changed—I’ve increased my weights on every lift by 50 to 100 percent and went from about 197 pounds at 16 percent body fat to my current 187 pounds at 7 percent, which I maintain with ease.
I’ve also had the opportunity to work directly with thousands of people, and the results are the uniform from person to person regardless of age, genetics, or training history. Every day I e-mail with guys who were stuck in the same rut I was and who are now making gains again by focusing on heavy lifting and proper dieting.
So don’t worry if people question your approach and tell you to lighten the load and increase the reps. There’s no universally accepted answer just yet as to what is truly the absolute most effective way to train for both strength and hypertrophy, and there may never be one. The subject is just incredibly complicated with a staggering number of variables to consider and control for.
But know this: every well-designed, well-executed study I’ve seen agrees that training with 70 to 85 percent of your 1RM works. At this point, I can say with absolute certainty that there’s just something “special” about emphasizing heavy, compound weightlifting in your training.
I’m in good company here as well. Many of the most respected people in this industry, such as Brad Schoenfeld, Mark Rippetoe, Layne Norton, Alan Aragon, Lyle McDonald, and Pavel Tsatsouline, also advocate the same style of training for maximal results in the gym.
And the best part is that you don’t have to take my word on all of this. If you just follow the workout routine laid out in this book and in the bonus report, you will make startling strength and size gains.
9–12
DO 9 TO 12 HEAVY SETS PER WORKOUT
Regardless of which exercises you do, the workouts on this program will call for 9 to 12 heavy (or working) sets per workout, which are your muscle-building sets that you’ll be doing after warming up.
As you’ll see, the workouts in the 5- and 4-day plans will always contain 9 working sets for the major muscle group being trained, but will also provide 3 additional optional sets that you can do if you’re feeling up to it. If you’re brand new to weightlifting and are pretty spent after 9 sets, don’t feel like you have to do the final 3. If you’re more experienced or just have plenty of energy at the end of 9 sets, feel free to do the 3 extras.
Don’t get overzealous and do more than this in each workout, though, even if you feel like you can keep going after 12 working sets. Doing more isn’t going to help you build more muscle and can eventually lead to overtraining.
If you’re used to spending a couple of hours in the gym every day, pounding out set after set after set, this style of training is going to feel strange to you. In fact, at first you’ll probably feel like you’re being lazy or barely even working out (that’s how I felt at least). You’re probably going to doubt that you can bigger and stronger than ever by working out less than everyone else. But don’t worry—it won’t require any great leap of faith. Trust in the program and it will deliver. Suspend your disbelief for just a few weeks, and the results will speak for themselves.
Research and anecdotal evidence has shown me that 50 to 70 heavy reps performed with each major muscle group every five to seven days is a “sweet spot” for getting the most out of natural weightlifting.
3–4
REST 3 TO 4 MINUTES IN BETWEEN SETS
When you lift weights, a staggering number of physiological activities are taking place to enable you to perform the exercise. For a muscle to contract, it requires cellular energy, oxygen, certain chemical reactions, and many other molecular processes, and as you perform each rep, you deplete your muscles’ capacity to contract forcefully.
When you lift heavy weights, you push your muscles to their full contraction capacity. Sufficient recovery time in between sets is what allows you to repeat this process enough to achieve the optimum amount of muscle overload to stimulate and force new growth.
Basically, the whole point of resting between sets is to prepare your muscles to lift maximum weight in the next set. This isn’t just theory, either—clinical research has correlated intraset rest times and gains in both strength and muscle size.
For instance, one study conducted by researchers at the Federal University of Parana in Brazil found that when subjects performed the bench press and squat with 2-minute rest intervals, they were able to perform significantly more repetitions per workout than when rest intervals were shortened to 15-second increments (1:45, 1:30, 1:15, and so forth).
This is significant because, as you know, total workout volume is a major factor in achieving overload and stimulating muscle growth. Thus, it’s not surprising that a study conducted by researchers at Kennesaw State University found that subjects gained more muscle when training to failure with 2.5-minute rest periods as opposed to 1-minute periods.
Due to the amount of weight you’re using in Bigger Leaner Stronger workouts, you should rest for 3 to 4 minutes in between your working sets. That might sound excessive, but that timing wasn’t chosen randomly—it’s based on clinical research.
For instance, an extensive review of weightlifting studies conducted by researchers at State University of Rio de Janeiro found the following:
“In terms of acute responses, a key finding was that when training with loads between 50 percent and 90 percent of one repetition maximum, 3-5 minutes’ rest between sets allowed for greater repetitions over multiple sets.
“Furthermore, in terms of chronic adaptations, resting 3-5 minutes between sets produced greater increases in absolute strength, due to higher intensities and volumes of training. Similarly, higher levels of muscular power were demonstrated over multiple sets with 3 or 5 minutes versus 1 minute of rest between sets.”
These findings were echoed by another study conducted by scientists at Eastern Illinois University with resistance-trained men:
“The findings of the present study indicate that large squat strength gains can be achieved with a minimum of 2 minutes’ rest between sets, and little additional gains are derived from resting 4 minutes between sets.”
In another paper, the same research team analyzed bench press performance with the same subjects and found the following:
“When the training goal is maximal strength development, 3 minutes of rest should be taken between sets to avoid significant declines in repetitions. The ability to sustain repetitions while keeping the intensity constant may result in a higher training volume and consequently greater gains in muscular strength.”
Just like the shorter workouts will feel strange at first, the longer rest times are going to feel really weird. You’re going to feel like you’re sitting around more than you’re working out.
But again, let the results speak for themselves. You’ll notice that you retain your strength much better set after set when you use proper rest periods, which is crucial for continuing to recruit maximal muscle fibers with each set.
Some days you’ll feel energized and ready to lift again after 3 minutes, but other days you’ll feel a bit slower and will need the full 4 minutes. The test isn’t whether you want to do the next set, by the way; it’s whether your body’s heart rate has come down since the last set and you feel like you have the energy to do another.
60–65
TRAIN FOR 60 to 65 MINUTES
If your workouts are going much longer than an hour, something is wrong. You should be able to finish every Bigger Leaner Stronger workout in 60 to 65 minutes.
Long workouts are not only unnecessary but are often counterproductive as well. As you know, despite their grueling nature, extremely high-volume workouts are just a recipe for stagnation.
When workout intensity is high, as it is with this program, workout volume needs to be moderate or you’ll wind up overtraining. This means shorter workouts.
Time your rest periods and keep the chatting to a minimum and you’ll get through your workouts efficiently, which will help you stay focused on your workouts and give them 100 percent.
5–7
TRAIN EACH MUSCLE GROUP ONE TO TWO TIMES EVERY 5 TO 7 DAYS
The amount of time you give a muscle group to rest before training it again plays a vital role in the process of muscle growth.
Quite a few training programs have you performing two to three full workouts for every major muscle group every week, often alternating between very heavy and lighter weights.
Some of these programs are based on good scientific research, but they fall short in one area: recovery.
Recovery, both muscular and nervous systemic, is what makes or breaks all of the work you put in to get you the body you want. If you don’t allow your body to fully recover from a workout before you subject the same muscles to overload again, it doesn’t matter how strictly you follow your diet or this training protocol—eventually you will struggle to make progress, and you will feel physically worse and worse over time.
If you continue training with insufficient recovery for too long, you can lose strength and muscle as well as all motivation for working out. You can also wind up with depressive and chronic fatigue-like symptoms, lose your appetite and sex drive, sleep poorly, and experience other negative effects.
One for one, natural weightlifters I’ve spoken with who have tried various two- or three-a-week programs have run into these types of recovery problems, especially when they’re dieting for weight loss, as a calorie deficit makes it even easier to become overtrained.
Well, you’re not going to run into any of these problems if you stick to the Bigger Leaner Stronger training schedule, which carefully balances training frequency, volume, and intensity and recovery.
As you’ll see, each week on the program is going to involve hitting every major muscle group in the body with one primary, heavy, intense workout with some additional lighter (but not light!) upper-body work to ensure it doesn’t fall behind and the option of additional lower-body work if it’s needed.
8–10
DIAL IT BACK EVERY 8 TO 10 WEEKS
Heavy weightlifting can feel pretty brutal at first. It takes quite a bit of physical effort and mental concentration. Your muscles will ache. Your joints and tendons will have to adapt.
As if all that weren’t enough, there’s more: it puts the central nervous system under tremendous stress as well, which manifests in subtle ways. Although there are contradictory theories as to what is truly going on here physiologically, what we know for sure is repeated bouts of weightlifting cause a nonmuscular fatigue to develop in the body.
This, in turn, leads to reductions in speed, power, and the ability to perform technical movements or exercises.
Some research indicates that this may be more of a sensation or emotion rather than a true physical issue, but the bottom line is that it will affect you, so you need to know how to deal with it.
And the easiest way to “refresh” your entire body is to periodically reduce the intensity of your training or take a week off the weights altogether.
Thus, between each of its eight-week phases, the Bigger Leaner Stronger program includes a choice between what is known as a deload week and several days, or even an entire week, off the weights. We’ll talk about how exactly the deload week works soon, but it simply involves lower-intensity training for a week.
The choice between a deload week and taking a short break from the weights is up to you. I recommend that you start with deload weeks, but if you don’t feel reinvigorated by the end of them and physically and mentally ready to hit the heavy weights again, then I recommend that you try no training whatsoever for at least four to five days before getting back to it.
Many guys fear that they are going to shrink or come back weaker if they take a week or even a few days off the weights, but this simply isn’t the case. Research has shown that even in the elderly, significant strength loss isn’t seen until about five weeks of no exercise.
In terms of how to eat on your deload week or week off the weights, if you’re bulking, you can reduce your calories to a maintenance level, and if you’re cutting, you don’t have to change anything.
Thnks d'or jour informations
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