To Build Muscle You Must Train For Strength, Not Endurance

What many don’t realise is that building muscle is actually quite simple. All that you have to do is get stronger. Generally, the stronger you get, the more muscle you will build.

If you continually subject your body to progressively heavier weights, your body will have no choice but to adapt and grow larger, to withstand the stress we are putting it under. It really is that simple.

Problem is, many programs out there are so confusing and complex, you need to be a rocket scientist to understand them. It doesn’t need to be this complex. So let’s break muscle building down to its most basic level, which is to train for strength.

How do we train for strength?

To explain this to you, I want to give you a basic, overview of our energy timeline.

When we exercise we have 3 different types of energy systems. The first system, which is basically the first 0-15 seconds of an explosive activity, is the phosphate region. In this energy range there is very little lactic acid built up. Training in the phosphate system is most beneficial for strength and fast twitch muscle fibres. A typical exercise would be to sprint any distance up to 100m.

The second system, which ranges from 20 seconds to approximately 2 minutes, is known as the lactate region. This is obviously where you build up a lot of lactic acid. This results in that burning sensation in your muscles. Training in this range is ideal for endurance, improving your lactate tolerance, and increasing your anaerobic threshold. The lactate region has very low muscular activation and stimulates more slow twitch muscle fibres. A perfect example would be a 200-400 meter sprint.

The third region, aerobic, is basically from 5 minutes onwards. Training in this range helps improve your aerobic conditioning. It stimulates slow twitch muscle fibres and improves your endurance. It doesn’t build up lactic acid as much as training in the lactate range. An example would be going for a 20-30 minute jog or walk.

Now, to train for muscle growth, we want to train for strength, and to stimulate your fast twitch fibres.  So obviously, you want to train within the phosphate region. To do this, you don’t want to have your muscles under tension for more than 20 seconds.

To do this, 5-12 reps per set is ideal. Doing any more will start to creep into the lactate region, which promotes more endurance than size and strength.

Forget about all those routines that you see in the muscle magazines. Many of these contain way too many sets and reps to ever enable you to get stronger. Many of those bodybuilders get results no matter what they do because they have some special little helpers!

Before steroids, bodybuilders were freakishly strong. I know bodybuilders are strong now too, but not considering how heavy they were. Guys half there weight can lift as much as they do. Many of the old time bodybuilders were some of the strongest people in the world, pound for pound.

As a matter of fact, undefeated bodybuilding champion John Grimek also competed in the 1936 Olympics for weightlifting.

So to gain muscle, forget all those confusing routines and simply train to get stronger. To do this, strive to lift more weight each week, sticking in-between the 5-12 rep range.

Good luck :-)