by admin | Apr 10, 2022 | Fitness
Muscle building 101 | Part 5 – How many sets and reps to do?
If your goal is to build muscle, odds are you are wondering what rep range and how many sets you should use for best results. Well, there is no concrete answer, rather than options that lead to slightly different end results. In this article, we’ll have a look over those different options and help you choose what to focus on, relative to your goal.
Consider Intensity
If you look at a workout objectively, the level of intensity is what determines how many repetitions you can do. Of course, by intensity, we mean the working weight you use during your sets and how close it is to your maximum strength capabilities.
For instance, if you work at 85-100% intensity, you will be able to do 1-5 repetitions. The lower the training intensity, the more repetitions you can do. However… More isn’t always better because you can’t grow a big chest by always benching 40 kilograms, right? Your sets have to be challenging and as a matter of fact, they have to be PROGRESSIVELY more challenging.
If your goal is to gain as much strength as possible, your main focus should be on the 1-5 rep range, also known as the powerlifting training rep range. On the other hand, if your main goal is to have a bodybuilder-like physique, you are best off focusing on the 6-15 rep range. The higher rep ranges will allow your body to tap into its muscle glycogen reserves, leading to sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and thus, increased bulk muscle growth.
Consider Volume
Intensity is a training factor that determines how challenging your workouts are. The thing is that it also has a close relationship with your training volume. Training volume is basically the total amount of weight lifted, for a given set, exercise, or workout.
The more intensity grows, the more volume decreases, because you can do fewer repetitions. For instance, if you do 5 repetitions with 100 kg, that would be a volume of 500 kilograms. However, if you use 75 kg and do 10 repetitions, that would yield a volume of 750 kilograms. Ultimately, both types of work can be utilized, to create a stimulus for different types of development.
Number of sets – Beginners
If you are just starting out in the gym, you are blessed to experience what we refer to as “Newbie gains”. This is basically the period when you grow quickly, even if you don’t know anything about your approach to training.
If that is the case, then take this advice – Start off with 5-6 working sets per muscle group, per week. Make those sets challenging and allow each muscle to rest at least 48-72 hours before you train it again.
Number of sets – Novice/Intermediate
As you exit the newbie gains phase, you will notice that you have to be more mindful of your workouts to achieve good results. This is when you have to give the body a new challenge, which can be created by manipulating your training variables.
One of the best ways to do that is to bump up your training volume and intensity. As you advance, increase the number of sets to 10+ per muscle group, per week. Again, make the sets challenging, use different weights for both low and high reps and overall, diversify your workouts!
Number of sets – Advanced
As you gain more and more training experience and physical improvements, you will start to notice that the total amount of muscle gained significantly decreases over time. Especially if you are a natural athlete, you won’t see massive changes in your weight like you did during the newbie gains phase.
This is when you continue giving the body new and new challenges in the workouts, even if that means doing one more repetition or one more set. As an advanced trainee, you should also consider that visual changes can appear even if you are not gaining much weight.
The more your muscles go through those challenging workouts and the more workouts they go through, the more they mature. A mature musculature is well-defined, separated, and round. So just give it time and make sure to do challenging workouts throughout that time!
Conclusion
The number of sets and reps you should do in your workouts depends on your goals. If you want to gain maximum strength and build muscle, you should focus on the 1-5 rep range. Oppositely, if you are more bodybuilder-minded, you should focus on the 6-15 rep range, while still incorporating the 1-5 rep range to stimulate strength gains.
Training volume forms at 5-20+ challenging sets, per muscle group, per week, depending on your training experience. That volume grows the more you advance in your training, as it is one of the best ways to realize the main principle of muscle growth, which is progressive overload.
by admin | Mar 24, 2022 | Fitness
Muscle Building 101 | Part 1 – Measuring your workout
When the task at hand is to build as much quality muscle mass as possible, there are two things you should look at: Your training and your nutrition. Muscle gaining is technically a process of stimulus, followed by a period of recovery. At its very essence, muscle gaining is just your body preparing for bigger challenges, ahead of time.
In this series of articles, we’ll take you through everything you need to know, in order to create your PERFECT muscle-building blueprint. The first part of the series goes over one of the most important things for the goal, namely, analyzing, measuring and setting up your workout.
Now let’s get to it
How to measure a workout
If you think about it, when you are in the gym, you’re working with weights… Those weights are numbers and when we have numbers, there is a certain level of mathematics involved. That is to say… There’s actually a mathematical formula for muscle gains!
Your workout can be measured by 3 main variables:
- Intensity
- Volume
- Density
Intensity is a measure of how close you get to your maximum strength capabilities. The closer you get, the higher your intensity is, meaning that it increases as your working weight goes up.
Volume is a measure of your total working weight, for all of your exercises, sets, and reps. You can measure volume using this formula: Weight * Sets * Reps = Volume For instance, using 100 kg for 2 sets of 10 would create a volume of 2000 kg (100*2*10=2000 kg)
Last but not least, we have density, which is a measure of your volume, related to the total time needed for its completion, including rest times. To measure density, you use this formula: Volume / Total completion time = Density (kg per minute) For instance, if those 2 sets of 10 with 100 kg take you 2 minutes to complete, this would be a density of 1000 kg/min.
But How Do You Measure Intensity?
Alright, so far you learned the following:
- Volume = Weight * Sets * Reps
- Density = Volume / Total completion time
But how exactly can you measure intensity…? Well, here comes the practical part!
To get an idea of what 100% intensity looks like for you, for a certain exercise, you have to find out the weight you can lift for one single repetition – This will show you your maximum strength capabilities.
To do this, you will use the “One repetition maximum” method. Again, this method implies using a weight that will take your muscles to failure after one single rep, meaning that you will not be able to complete a second rep unassisted.
How to test your 1 rep max
Before we get to the actionable steps, if you are a beginner, avoid testing your one-rep max, as it may lead to injuries. Instead, use the same scheme but go for a 5 rep max instead, where you use a weight that takes your muscles to failure at around the 5th repetition.
Here are the steps to testing your one-rep max:
- Warm-up well – 3-5 minutes of light cardio
- Do a brief dynamic stretching routine to get each joint through its range of motion
- Do a set of 8-10 repetitions with no weight on the bar
- Rest for a minute
- Load the bar with a decent weight and do 6-8 repetitions
- Rest for 2 minutes
- Load the bar with a weight that will allow you to do 3 challenging repetitions
- Rest for 3 minutes
- Load the bar and attempt a one-rep max
- If successful, rest for 3-5 minutes and increase the weight
- Keep doing steps 9 and 10 until you reach the weight which is certainly your one-rep max
This same scheme can be used by beginners for the 5 rep max method.
Why you need to know this
Alright, this important bit of information we just gave you, is part of what will allow you to create your muscle-building blueprint. The reason why this is important is that the ratio of these variables is what will determine how the muscles work, what type of energy it uses, and thus, how it develops.
In the next article, we’ll explain to you exactly how these variables affect the way the body provides energy.
See you in part 2!
by admin | Mar 22, 2022 | Fitness
Muscle Building 101 | Part 2 – How the body provides energy
In the first part of the muscle-building series, you learned that the way you set up the variables in a workout, will practically change the end result. For instance, training closer to maximum intensity will primarily result in improvements in maximum strength. On the other hand, workouts that are moderately high in intensity will increase bulk muscle growth along with strength endurance.
In this article, we are going to have a look at how the body provides energy for activity of different parameters. Without further ado, let’s get to it!
ATP – The Body’s Main Energy Source
Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the purest source of biological energy for all living beings. ATP is technically used in every bodily process in most living beings, as this is a pure source of energy that can be used right away. During intense activity like weight training, however, the ATP stores get depleted fairly quickly, due to the demanding nature of the intense activity. Once depleted, the body needs to regenerate ATP, in order to continue the muscular activity.
To do so, the body utilizes 3 main energy systems:
- The ATP-Creatine system
- The anaerobic glycogen system
- The aerobic system
Now let’s have a look at each of those!
The ATP-Creatine system
This first energy system is the most powerful, but least sustainable energy system that the body uses. As mentioned, during intense activity, ATP gets depleted in about 5-6 seconds of work. Upon use, ATP gets broken down into ADP (adenosine diphosphate).
To recover ATP, the body uses its stores of creatine, joining a phosphate molecule from it with ADP and thus regenerating ATP for another 10 seconds of activity. That is to say, creatine is not just a supplement – It is the body’s natural, secondary energy reserve!
Think of the ATP-Creatine system as something utilized during a 60-100 meter sprint.
The Anaerobic Glycogen system
Once you are past the 15-second mark of your exercise, intensity naturally drops due to the low amounts of ATP & creatine.The body then needs to again, regenerate ATP to ensure energy for sustained muscular activity. To do so, the body starts tapping into its muscle glycogen.
Muscle glycogen is basically the stored form of blood sugar, which is derived from the consumption of carbohydrates. Through a process called “Anaerobic glycolysis”, the body restores ATP for another 90 seconds, without the need to use oxygen (this is what anaerobic means).
Think of the Anaerobic glycogen system as something utilized during a 200-400 meter sprint.
The Aerobic System
Now, the more you continue your activity after the 2-minute mark, the more intensity naturally drops and the more oxygen starts helping you to regenerate energy. mThe aerobic system uses muscle and liver glycogen, as well as fatty acids, to release energy and regenerate ATP, at the presence of oxygen.
This energy system is used to sustain low-intensity, prolonged activities.
As such, the aerobic energy system can be used for hours on end, unlike the first two (i.e you can run at a low pace for hours on end, but you can only sprint 200-400 meters at a time).
Think of the aerobic energy system as something utilized during a 5000-meter cross run.
Why This Is Important…
If you are trying to build muscle, you MUST know the best fuel you can provide your body with…And now, before we even got through the basic physiology of muscle building, there are two things you can take and use for your nutrition and supplementation:
- If you are primarily strength training, you can make use of a creatine supplement, which will saturate your muscles and increase output
- If you are primarily doing bodybuilding training, you can and should consume plenty of carbohydrates, as that will improve your overall performance
- If you are primarily doing endurance, cardio training, you can and should consume plenty of carbohydrates and fats, in order to optimize endurance
Ultimately, we can say that the ratios of the parameters in a workout, will determine which energy systems & active components get triggered and thus, determine the end result. Those active components we refer to are namely your muscle fibers. In the next article of this series, we will give you more insight into the types of muscle fibers, which your body activates, depending on how the training parameters are set.
See you there!
by admin | Feb 24, 2022 | Health, Fitness
Motivation VS Discipline | The Truth About Fitness
Have you ever felt like getting up from the couch and going to the gym is the hardest thing in the world? Well, such experiences are usually blamed on the “lack of motivation” … But what is motivation, really?
Does it have to be the driving force and reasoning behind all your actions, or is there something more to that? In this article, we’re going to give you our take on motivation and how you can use it to enhance your fitness results.
What is Motivation?
Motivation is defined as the reason of an individual, to do something that will help them achieve a certain goal. And it’s very simple – If you don’t have the motivation, you won’t have the energy to do the things you have to do. Motivation is generally divided into two subtypes – External & Internal motivation.
Ever tried to get in shape just to impress your ex…? This is external motivation – When you are doing certain things for something OUTSIDE of yourself.
Then oppositely, you have internal motivation, which is the realization that what you’re doing is ultimately better for your OWN greater good. External motivation is usually less sustainable because it is less controllable. This is exactly why you have to rely on internal motivational factors, which will give you things no one could ever take away from you.
Finding Your Inner Motivation
For some of you, it may be that finding the inner motivation is something far-fetched and not even remotely doable… However, we are here to suggest to you that you can find motivation in discipline! If you rely on motivation entirely, you will certainly know that when you’re tired, you won’t do what you have to do (because you don’t have motivation).
Oppositely, if you establish discipline, you’ll do what it takes, whenever. And discipline is made out of habits! There is a tendency for people to attach meaning to things that give them results. And when it comes to your fitness and wellbeing, here are the things that will make that impact:
#1 Creating a sustainable nutrition plan
Your health is NOTHING without the nutrients it needs on a day-to-day basis. You are responsible for giving your body those nutrients, through well-selected food sources. It is highly recommended that you AVOID following trends and instead, apply principles in your nutrition plan.
For instance, if you’re trying to lose weight, don’t follow the keto diet, but rather create a caloric deficit. Ultimately, the best nutrition plan is the one you can adhere and stick to. You feel good eating little to no carbs? Fine, do it! You feel okay with the carnivore diet and can stick to it long-term? Sure thing, go-ahead.
Choose what you can stick to and make sure you are giving the body all essential nutrients that it needs (proteins, fats, carbs, vitamins and minerals).
#2 Focus on the right things
The reason why many people lose motivation is that they focus on the wrong things during their fitness journey. For instance, measuring your fitness just based on how much you weigh can be FATAL for your motivation levels. The weight scale is the single most dangerous tool that can ruin your day, mood, and feeling of progress.
While tracking your weight, make sure to also track things like:
- Mood
- Energy levels
- How you look
- How your clothes fit
- How you sleep
- Athletic performance
In doing all of this, you will find other aspects to give meaning to and thus, increase your motivation in the long term
#3 Focus on Discipline
Most people view the fitness journey as something with a start and end date. Like if once you achieved your fitness goal, you won’t have to do anything to the rest of your life to maintain it. The harsh truth is it really isn’t ANYTHING like this… Training & nutrition are HABITS you should develop to take care of your body and increase the overall quality of your life.
You should not require motivation to do those things but instead, as we said, develop them as habits and stay disciplined towards them
This is the only way to maximized long-term progress.
Conclusion
Motivation can be both amazing for you and on the flipside, something that can actually ruin your long-term progress. The feeling of a motivation spike that keeps tight hold of you is like nothing else, but the truth is that it is not eternal, just like everything else in this life. For that exact reason, solely relying on motivation means you are doomed eventually.
When it comes to working on your health, wellbeing and physical development, motivation should not exist.
Discipline should.
by admin | Jan 9, 2022 | Mind, Fitness
Wishing Things Into Existence
Part I – Priming The Brain
We all know of the law of attraction – positive and negative thoughts bring correspondingly good and bad experiences. This, in essence, means that whatever you manifest into the world, the same type of thing you’ll end up finding in the world around you. What you probably didn’t know is that you can use your brain’s powerful abilities to make sure this works in your favor. In this series, we explain how and why this works both on a personal and universal level.
So without further ado, let’s get to it already!
First Steps
Alright, alright, before you jump right into becoming a warlock who turns around just to see his 1-second old thought manifested, there are some logical things to do.
Let’s have a look at the baby steps everyone should take when considering to develop the skill of wishing things into existence.
#1 Figure Out What You Want
In order to get anywhere, first, you need a destination. Although this seems self-explanatory, many people aren’t all that sure as to what they really want. This is by no means is a bad state because it allows you to achieve pretty much anything. However, to actually fulfill any sort of journey, you first have to know where you currently are and where you want to go. Try asking yourself what some of the core things that make you happy are – they might be places, activities, people, qualities you have.
The list is endless. Don’t limit yourself either with quantity or size here – daring to dream of something is the only possible path to obtaining it. For example, if NASA had worried about how far the moon actually is, Neil Armstrong would have probably never set off, let alone land. And just look at where we are now! Remember that limits primarily exist in your mind and nowhere else.
#2 Identify Ways To Achieve Your Dreams
Once you’re sure you’ve set a goal (or ten;), you can then move on to the next step.
It’s essential to look at the big things first. If you’re planning a vacation, you tend to first figure out where you’ll sleep and how you’ll get there and then worry about parking spaces and restaurant reservations. The same rules apply for any sort of plan – you make sure you have the basics down, and only then do you start sussing out the details. Personally, I find it really useful to write down my initial core ideas because it helps me visualize them easier and see my strengths and weaknesses.
However, if this doesn’t sound like your type of thing, it is in no way necessary.
#3 Believe That You’re Capable Of Anything
Some of you might find this part tricky, but it’s crucial to progress. The moment you trust you can do something, you can hold yourself accountable and start working towards it.
Think about it – if you need something done, you rely on the people that you believe can actually achieve it, not the ones you doubt could manage.
The same thing applies to you personally – if you trust your own abilities, you know the goal is possible, and therefore you’re responsible for its successful fulfillment.
The important word here, “responsible”, may sound a bit scary at first, but it’s a part of the means which get you to your destination.
As an added bonus, the sense of fulfillment once you’ve done something you held yourself accountable for is much sweeter than pretty much any other feeling in the same ballpark.
How The Magic Happens
Alright, so you have all these things aligned in your brain, but how and when does the magic happen?
Let’s have a look!
The Brain Wants To Prove Itself Right
When you have formulated a statement, your brain’s innate desire is to prove it correct. This means that it will do everything in its power to get you to that specific point. And, this happens both consciously and subconsciously and is a process on which certain evolutionary improvements have occurred.
Strengthening The Connections Between Certain Neurons
The easiest way to explain this is through neurological connections. “Neurons that fire together, wire together” is the simplified explanation of this phenomenon. Picture this as one neuron being responsible for the statement and the other for the action itself.
The stronger their connection, the easier the process – this means that by repeating the statement and supporting it with small activities, which prove it right, more significant positive outcomes will be much more attainable.
Fight Alongside Instead Of Against Yourself
Once your brain is working in the right direction, it is pretty much impossible to experience any form of self-sabotage. Everything is simpler, faster, and more enjoyable when the connection itself between affirmation and action has become a fact. This also means that you will grow to recognize and appreciate any progress, which will build up your self-esteem and allow you to aim higher and achieve bigger goals.
It’s basically a positive feedback loop, which you, yourself, program inside your brain. Priming your brain with the right ideas is essential to getting yourself to where you want to be.
Final Thoughts
However it is one of the two main parts responsible for the success of the process. In the following article, we tackle how the rest of the outside world conforms to that to create your personal vision. The entire universe can work in your favor and how this happens is incredibly curious. With that in mind, we invite you on an adventure far bigger than us as individuals, but one that is still aimed at improving each of us separately and more to the point, one in which we steer the ship.
And so, are you ready to have a look at the more metaphysical aspect of this?
Read on in part two!
by admin | Jan 9, 2022 | Diet, Fitness
The Yo Yo Effect | Part 2 – How To Lose Fat & Keep It Off
The Most Important Things For Sustained Weight Loss
#1 A Moderate Caloric Deficit
A caloric deficit is the first and most important requirement for any fat loss diet to work – It implies consuming fewer calories than your body needs to maintain its body weight. (Find that number by clicking HERE.)
And though a caloric deficit means looking and feeling better in your own skin, for the body it means ‘controlled starvation.’
Through this starvation, the body tries to adapt by lowering our energy output as a response to the deficit of energy.
This is why a caloric deficit must be moderate – This will allow you to still have energy for any daily mental and physical activities, as well as healthy functioning of all internal systems.
Furthermore, a moderate caloric deficit will allow you to retain your lean body mass (all tissues in the body except fat), which you inevitably lose during a period of time eating in a caloric deficit.
Set your daily caloric deficit at around 400-500 calories lower than your maintenance needs, or aim to lose around 1-2 lbs per week.
#2 Eat Plenty Of Protein & Fats!
Alright, a few paragraphs ago, we said that carb consumption isn’t the primary cause for weight loss.
Now you may be thinking, “Does that mean I can eat cakes and still lose fat?”.
And the answer is – Yes, absolutely!
As long as you’re in a deficit, you will lose weight, regardless of the content of food.
HOWEVER, the content of your foods will determine how your body composition changes, which is why the majority of your calories should come from quality food sources.
As we mentioned above, you will inevitably lose lean body mass during the process of weight loss.
But that can be minimized with the help of protein & fats (and weight training, which we’ll talk about in a bit).
As you may or may not know, dietary protein & fats are the two essential nutrients that our bodies need but can’t produce on their own.
This is why deriving them from quality food sources during a period of fat loss is essential for you to feel, look and perform better!
Set your daily protein at 0.8-1g per lb of body weight and your fats at 0.35-0.45g per lb of bodyweight!
#3 Don’t Forget Carbs!
Yes, carbs aren’t really your worst enemy on a weight loss diet plan!
Even more so, they can actually BENEFIT your weight loss and lean body mass retention.
How and why?
Well, it’s quite simple – Carbohydrates are the BEST source of energy for high-intensity training!
Better performance means a greater energy output and better stimulus for the muscles.
This makes it far easier for you to get in a deficit and furthermore, gives a reason for your body to retain the muscle mass.
After calculating your proteins and fats, give the rest of the calories to carbohydrates from quality sources, such as sweet potatoes, normal potatoes, starchy veggies, fruits, and honey!
#4 Train, Train Hard!
If you want to sculpt your body like a Greek sculpture during a period of fat loss, there is nothing better than combining the above-mentioned things with some hard-ass weight training.
Not only will intense training give your body a reason to retain the muscle mass, but it will also produce a myriad of benefits for your health… And make you look great.
Even more so, if you are a beginner or someone who has a lot of weight to lose, you might even gain some muscle WHILE losing fat.
Gaining muscle while losing fat is called body re-compositioning and is generally impossible for people with long training experience.
However, it can be done because re-compositioning is something reserved for beginners, people getting back to training after a lay-off, or individuals who are obese/overweight.
After The Diet Ends…
Alright, it’s been five months of vigorous dieting and training – You’re finally at your desired weight. Hooray!
What now? Can you ditch it all and go back to your old habits?
Well… It’s not recommended, really! That’s how the yo-yo effect kicks in.
You must realize that weight loss is the result of new, properly established habits.
The best you can do to keep the fat off afterward is simply maintain those habits.
Here are 5 must-dos after a successful weight loss phase:
- Gradually increase food
- Gradually increase training
- Keep making good nutritional choices
- Stay active
- Accept your new look & life!
Conclusion
The yo-yo effect of dieting is a common problem that people face.
There are many ways to avoid this, but it’s important not to go on an extreme diet and starve your body of the nutrients it needs.
Instead, try eating healthy foods in a caloric deficit and include plenty of training!
You can also look into how you live day to day – do you have time for yourself? Do you work too much or sleep enough?
These things all contribute towards weight loss, and how you feel, so be sure to think about them before going on a restrictive diet plan again!
Stay active and eat well without starving yourself! Find what’s sustainable.
Do you have any more questions? Feel free to ask by contacting us over at ______
