Definitive Guide On How To Create Denser Muscles
This is gonna be a doozy...
In bodybuilding, the goal is to create bigger muscles. But, a downside of this is that it can create bigger muscles that are not actually solid. They might be big, but they're puffy. It's almost like they're filled with air. Yes it's attractive to be in shape and healthy regardless of how you look, but why settle when you can be even more attractive to the opposite sex (or same, whatever your preference)? When you create denser muscles, you are more likely to spark that animalistic attraction that will make them want to just rip your clothes off and bang right there (sadly I have no concrete scientific proof to backup my claim, all of my research has been self tested. I have been doing this training for about six months now, and while I'm not going to post a picture of myself, I can say that my sex life with my girlfriend has picked up tremendously. I work at a gym and I catch girls staring at me a couple times a day, I've had girls try to give me their numbers, and a few have even bluntly told me I'm "fucking hot." Okay enough humble bragging
).
It's the best of all worlds, really. Being big like a bodybuilder, as strong as a powerlifter, ripped like an athlete, and the endurance of a marathon runner is essentially what we were biologically designed to be. Using a hybrid style of training to hit all rep ranges, instead of big, puffy muscles, you create hard, dense and solid muscles. AKA sexy muscles
Also, as a side note, in constantly changing the way you workout will consistently give you results AND help you burn fat by confusing your body as in how to react. And, when complimenting these workouts with only two cardio days, your body will increase its metabolic rate, therefore consuming more calories, THEREFORE burning more fat, ya dig?
Here's the breakdown:
Your body has two cardiovascular systems: aerobic and anaerobic. Aerobic means "with oxygen" and anaerobic means "without oxygen." These refer to the way your body consumes and uses oxygen while exercising. Think of it this way: aerobic is like a marathon runner, and anaerobic is like a sprinter. IF you really want to, you are absolutely able to only do sprints, but why not get the best of both worlds?
In rep schemes, the amount of reps you're going to perform is based entirely on your end goal. But, by combining all rep schemes, we can get the benefits of all areas of training and reach our genetic limit by obtaining the type of body we were biologically meant to have.
1-5 reps = maximal strength (think powerlifting)
3-7 reps = power (think olympic lifting)
8-12 reps = hypertrophy (think bodybuilding)
15+ reps = strength endurance (think distance running)
In exercise types, there's three different types of muscle contractions:
Isotonic = There's two subdivisions of isotonic contractions: concentric and eccentric. Concentric is when a muscle contracts (think biceps curl, the raising of the hands from your hips to your shoulder, the muscle attachments become closer and the muscle becomes "flexed"). Eccentric is when a muscle develops tension while lengthening (think negatives, as with a bench press it's slowing down the movement of lowering the bar to your chest, usually for a set amount of time, then exploding the bar back up. During the lowering phase, your muscle stretches out preparing for a contraction while tension is being placed on it). You'll never train eccentric exercises after the beginning of a workout because of the greater risk of injury.
Isokinetic = the muscle changes length during the exercise like isotonic, however the movement and speed are determined by outside forces (think of any strength machine at the gym)
Isometric = the muscle develops tension to overcome but without any changes in length. You don't allow your muscles to contract or extend (think doing a push-up and holding it at the bottom phase with your nose almost touching the ground).
There will be four lifting days: a power day (full body), a push day (chest, shoulders, triceps and light rotator cuff work), pull (back, biceps, traps), and legs. The power day is designed to help build a leaner and more athletic body while increasing explosiveness.
So what I've done is I've taken all of these elements and combined them into one. After 3-4 weeks, your body begins to adapt to the training you place on it. This is called the overload principle. So we'll have three 4-week cycles. Starting with Cycle 1 muscular endurance, spend 4 weeks doing muscular endurance activity for your given day. Next, move into Cycle 2, which is hypertrophy. Finally, Cycle 3 is a powerlifting cycle. After you've completed Cycle 3, you move that day back to Cycle 1 and repeat the process. You'll have one of the three days (push, pull, legs) in each of the three cycles. You'll always have the full body power day, and you can progress it as you seem fit. If you've never trained in any explosive work, start with the absolute basics.
An example training week could look like:
Day 1: Power
Day 2: Muscular Endurance - Push
Day 3: Hypertrophy - Pull
Day 4: Active Rest day
Day 5: Maximal Strength - Legs
Day 6: HIIT/Hybrid Circuit
Day 7: Aerobic Exercise
So you'd do 4 weeks of muscular endurance exercises for your chest, triceps and shoulders. 4 weeks of bodybuilding for your back, biceps and traps. 4 weeks of powerlifting for your legs.
After 4 weeks, Push, Pull, and Legs rotate:
Day 1: Power
Day 2: Muscular Endurance - Legs
Day 3: Hypertrophy - Push
Day 4: Rest day
Day 5: Maximal Strength - Pull
Day 6: HIIT/Hybrid Circuit
Day 7: Aerobic Exercise
Then after another 4 weeks, you would rotate again. Got it? Gewd. I always have a rest day before my Maximal Strength day to give my body a chance to recover from the week so far and I can really hit the weights hard and dominate the iron. On my rest days I like to do 20-30 minutes of yoga to help my recovery and flexibility.
Ya ready?! Yeah you are!
Here's the template:
Day 1: Power
-Olympic lift (or if you can't do an olympic lift, break it down into it's components like front squat, power shrugs, jump shrugs, etc) 4x3
-Box jumps 4x5
-Medicine ball throw 4x5
-Weighted carry 4xDistance
-Speed, agility, and quickness drills
-Core strength work
Day 2: Muscular Endurance
-Here, do anything where you do more than 15 reps. You can have supersets, giant sets, circuits, etc. The goal is to have a very high volume (volume = sets x reps).
-One thing I like to do is perform a few sets of 15 reps with only 30 seconds to a minute for rest, then do a burn set. A burn set is where you do the same exercise, possibly lower the weight a little, then do as many reps as possible doing AT LEAST 30 reps. Adding a burn set to a few exercises for the day is a sure way to jack up your volume. Mix it up doing bodyweight burnouts, free weight burnouts, and machine burnouts.
-Perform a bodyweight isometric for 4 sets of 30 seconds.
-If weight loss is the goal, add 15-30 minutes of aerobic exercise (activities like jogging, elliptical, or rowing) at the end of the workout.
Day 3: Hypertrophy
-You can pick any bodybuilding routine you want to hit the muscles here. There are plenty of routines at bodybuilding.com that you can pick and plug into your own routine.
-Add negatives
-Base your routines around free weights and bodyweight. Mostly compound movements. But add in an exercise of two of cable exercises and/or machine exercises to help isolate the muscle and force growth.
-If weight loss is the goal, add 10 minutes of high intensity interval training (anaerobic activities such as sprints) at the end of the workout
Day 4: Active Rest Day
-Optional yoga
-Definitely still get up, move and stretch to reduce soreness and increase recovery.
Day 5: Maximal Strength Day
To train in powerlifting, you need to know your one rep max (1MR) in each of the following lifts: flat bench press (push day), back squat (leg day), and deadlift (pull day). Try taking a week and give a day to each of these to find out, or have an assumed 1MR. Say you know you can bench 185 for 5, your assumed 1RM would be somewhere around 215. From there, we'll work in percentages. When you do any sets working towards your percentage for the day, these are called working sets. We will not count these in the prescribed sets and reps for the day. Say you are doing Week 1 (which is a 5x5), and you need to bench 185 for 5 sets of 5. Working sets might include a set of the bar (45 pounds) for 20, 95x5, 135x5, 155x5 until finally you hit 185. Your actual 5x5 starts when you get to that 185. Make sure you take your time, because you don't want to fly through this and tire yourself out. Take 2-4 minutes of rest between every set, working sets included.
So the powerlifting workout is as follows:
Week 1: 5x5 of 70% 1RM
Week 2: 6x3 of 80% 1RM
Week 3: 7x1 of 90% 1RM
Week 4: 5x5,5,3,1+,5 of 65,75,85,95,55% 1RM
In Week 4, you'll see the rep scheme has 1+ in it. Here, you'll hit 95% of your max for as many reps as you can. Then, you'll further progress your lifts by adding weight to your 1RM based on how many reps you did and on what lift you did them. Then, next Maximal Effort cycle for that lift, you'll use the new assumed 1RM.
1-2 reps: add 10 pounds to your deadlift, 5 pounds to your squat, 5 pounds to your bench
3-4 reps: add 15 to deadlift, 10 to squat, and 5 to bench
5+ reps: add 20 to deadlift, 15 to squat, and 10 to bench
I'm going to go ahead and give you the workouts for Max Effort day because people tend to over-think and thus overdo these workouts. This leads to overtraining and injuries. The goal is to keep the volume low but the intensity high. Also, we do an exercise called weighted isometrics. It's exactly what it sounds like. For example, an isometric bench press would be where you unrack the weight, lower it exactly like you normally would, except pause at the bottom of the lift for the prescribed set of time, then press it back up and rack it. That's it. You won't be doing these for reps, you'll be doing these for time. You get the time and sets for how many reps you're doing that day on your main lift. If you're in week one, since you're doing 5 reps, you'll be doing 5 sets of 5 seconds. Week two, 3 sets of 3 seconds. Week three, one set of one second. Week four and pull days, no weighted isometric. There'll be no weighted isometrics in week four because you're already taxing your body enough with the 1+ rep testing.
Push day:
-Flat Bench Press: follow table guidelines
-Weighted Isometric Bench Press
-Dumbbell or Barbell Military Presses: 3x5
-Skull Crushers: 3x5
or
-Close Grip Incline Bench Press: 3x5
Pull day:
-Deadlift: follow table guidelines
-Isometric Hyperextension: 3x15 seconds
-Shrugs: 3x5
-Cheat Curls: 3x5
Leg Day:
-Squats: follow table guidelines
-Weighted Isometric Squat
-Lunges: 3x6
-Step-ups: 3x6
Day 6: Anaerobic Activity Day
This can be things like High Intensity Interval Training, circuits, etc. Anything that has a high burst of all out intensity and energy, followed by a set period of rest.
Example:
-Sprints: Find a track. Sprint the long way and walk/jog the curved end. Around the whole track (2 sprints) = 1 rep. Do 10 reps.
Or
Circuit: repeat this circuit 3-5 times
-Barbell Thrusters: 10 reps
-Chin-ups: 10 reps
-Kettlebell or dumbbell swings: 20 reps
-100 yard sprint or deadmill sprint
Or
Circuit: repeat this circuit 3-5 times
-Jumping Jacks: 50 reps
-Body Lunges: 20 reps
-Pushups: 20 reps
-Mountain Climbers: 50 reps
-Bodyweight Squats: 20 reps
-Planks: 30 seconds
-Burpees: 10 reps
Day 7: Aerobic Activity Day
-Simply put: 20-60 minutes of aerobic exercise.
Personally, I like to go trail running. It's easier on my knees than a treadmill or cement. Plus, I get to be outside which is cool. Because of the low intensity level, I honestly consider this as one of my rest days because of how my body is already accustomed to the overload I already place on it.
Other Notes:
-Eat Clean. Don't diet, don't even use the word diet. Just change the way you eat little by little. First start drink more water. Then start eating vegetables with every meal. After that eat some form of protein to every meal.
-Meditate. It gets you out of your head, and into your body. Helps with the mind-muscle connection.
-Stretch religiously.
-Warm up before every workout: perform a couple minutes of aerobic exercise, do a handful of dynamic stretches, and do a set or two of light weight of the first exercise you're about it hit.
-Cool down after every workout: walk around for a few minutes, perform a handful of passive stretches that stretch your entire body.
-Read. Read about exercising, strength training, life, sex, love, etc. It can open your mind to something you never would have even thought about. Maybe reading will open you to yoga, and you'll become an avid yogi. Ya never know
-Sleep. Get enough sleep every night. 7-9 hours. And don't let anything get in the way of your sleep. You'll be more charged, more energetic, more focused, and better off.
-Don't skip breakfast. You've heard it before, but a healthy breakfast is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Balance it out with protein, fats, and carbs. My favorite breakfast meal: three scrambled eggs with sauteed red peppers, green peppers, garlic and onions, 100% whole wheat toast with guacamole, a handful of blueberries, and a cup of green tea.
-Stretch when you wake up. It boosts circulation, digestions and eases pain.
-Be smart about your supplements. Do you really need that calcium pill? Unless your doctor told you to take it, ditch it. Our bodies aren't biologically designed to intake supplements, so learn your own deficiencies and ways to counteract it with natural ways. I don't take anything anymore, I stopped taking protein, preworkout, and health pills... And it was the best decision I've ever made. We're not designed to take in all these lab engineered substances, so just quit it. You need a protein shake after a workout? Drink chocolate milk and eat a banana. Then, 20-30 minutes later, eat some damn grilled chicken, broccoli, nuts, and brown rice. Need a preworkout? A nice cup of green tea or black coffee will do the trick. Our society is over stimulated with shit we don't need.
-Drink enough water. Actually, drink a lot of water. Have it with every meal. Have it between meals. Have a glass the second you wake up (you'll notice a difference, really).
-Stop smoking. Again, back to biology, we're not designed to smoke.
-Sex. Have it. A lot. Why? Well besides it being awesome, it's really good for you. It reduces your chance of getting sick, increases testosterone, increases mental clarity, etc.
-Coldness. Exposing yourself to cold aides in muscle recovery and acts as a natural thermogenic. It increases your core temperature because it has to warm up your body, using more calories as its energy source, therefore also burning fat. Take a cold shower after every workout, it's amazing the difference you'll see in how you feel.
-Listen to your body. Don't push yourself too hard. Push yourself, hard, but know when to relax and just rest. It's the day of your powerlifting workout and you're sleepy... Wah. Get in there and fucking workout. But, if your back is killing you, you can hardly walk, take the day off and don't feel bad. It's better than going in, hurting yourself and not being able to workout for a month.
The main lifts you should try to hit (you don't have to hit all of theses in a given workout, obviously):
Power - olympic lifts (snatch, power clean, clean and jerk, power shrug, etc.), box jumps (progress after a few weeks), medicine ball throws (also progress), weighted carries
Push - bench press and its variations (dumbbells, incline, decline, weighted pushups, etc.), dips, flyes, military presses, front raises, lateral raises, bent over flyes, triceps dips, pushdowns
Pull - deadlifts, any rowing movement/variation, lat pulldowns, pull-ups, any curling motion, shrugs
Legs - squats, front squats and lunges should be the bread and butter of any leg workout, straight leg deadlifts, leg curls, any squat variation, stay away from the smith machine, calf raises
Also, don't call this Crossfit. Crossfit is fucking stupid. The idea of it is great in theory and I'm all for it, but in reality what they do is one of the worst things I've ever seen (as a strength coach/personal trainer in training). Those of us that do this kind of exercising, call it hybrid training.
This is a basic template, if you don't like any part of it you're more than welcome to change it for yourself, obviously. This is the cultivation of my own findings, from 12 years of working out, strength training and exercising. Hope this helps! If you like it, cool. If you don't, cool. Let me know of your thoughts and comments if you do try it!
Cheers
CHAT