3 Principles you need to know to build muscle.
These are tried and true pillars of strength training guaranteed to help you develop more muscle.
People all over the world are waking up to the realization that increasing muscle (coupled with sound nutrition baselines) is the most effective weight loss strategy. We love to explain why this happens, and in this article, we will explain how it happens.
What principles, or common threads in lifting weights are most effective at increasing muscle? What is it that people are doing to pack on muscle and as a result lose fat? Well, beyond showing up and being consistent here are three principles that build muscle: Progressive Overload, Tempo, and Time Under Tension.
Let’s dig into these topics together.
Progressive Overload
You could call this doing more than last time. Ideally, it is more intentional than that but that is it simply put. More weight, more reps, more sets, more effort, these are doing more. If resistance doesn’t increase, the adaptation response in the muscles will stagnate, and you will struggle to see progress.
The progression should begin at the right place.
A common mistake with progressive overload is not starting at an appropriate weight or moving to heavier weights too quickly. Hence, the name Progressive. A focus on moving to the next, or heavier weight instead of a focus on mastering the current weight is a common mistake among beginners. As a newer lifter, I recommend using the same weights for the same exercises for 4-6 weeks at a time. During those 4-6 weeks you can use the upcoming techniques to develop muscle before increasing the weight you’re using. Progressive overload should be viewed over the course of a year (or at least months, let’s get away from the Get strong overnight idea) Developing muscle takes time, and rushing the process only impedes progress and develops bad form from trying to move weights that are too heavy.
If you are not a rookie and are considering a starting point, I recommend about 65% of your one-rep max for that exercise. This is a good starting point for a 6-8 week progression. Take, for example, the Bench Press. If your 1RM is 275 lbs you can begin in week one working sets at 180 lbs, which is roughly 65%. Each week you can add 5-10 lbs, performing as many quality reps as you can for your sets. After 6-8 weeks you will be in the 90-100% 1RM range. Whether you take a few days of very low intensity and then test a new max or just get some work done at a high intensity is up to you and the goals of your program. Either way, muscular development and strength gains will occur.
Tempo Training
One of the most effective ways to stimulate muscle growth is to be intentional about the tempo you use. So, what is tempo? Simply put, this refers to how quickly or slowly you move the weights, to include pauses. Manipulating tempo allows us to increase the difficulty of an exercise without increasing the weight. If you perform a bicep curl and let the weight fall back down to the starting position and it takes half a second to get there that will be easier than if you take 5 seconds to lower the weight to the starting position. Not only does training with a slower tempo on parts of a lift make it more difficult for the muscles, but it also improves proficiency of the exercise.
Tempo training will make you better at lifting weights. Listen to this analogy a clinical psychologist once used to describe how we re-train our brain in a relationship and see if it clicks. Imagine a vast field of golden brown, breezy wheat about 4 feet tall. The first time you take a walk through it you will barely leave a trail. The more times you walk that same path, the more pronounced it becomes. Each time you travel the path you spend time on that path further creating a clear and distinct route. The same applies to tempo training, except that considering each time you walk through it, consider how long you spend walking through it. If the path you are creating is your proficiency and ability to perform lifts well and with intensity Tempo training forces you to spend more time in the path, expediting how quickly the path develops into a full-blown road.
How can you apply this to getting stronger or developing muscle? Choose an exercise to apply this to, and you can progress the difficulty (and as a result, the payout) of a specific lift. Let’s say a Goblet Squat, for example. Using the same weight, the same sets and the same number of reps for three weeks. For simplicity’s sake, let’s call it 3 sets of 10 reps wo to three times a week. For week one, use a full 2 second lowering (or negative, or eccentric) with each repetition. Week two: increase that tempo to a 3 second lower. Week three: you guessed it, 4 second negative for each rep. If you are new to Tempo Training, chances are you will notice a difference immediately between week one and week two. You will feel more in control of the weight, and your squat movement as a whole. Don’t forget, this is not just making you better at one exercise, the Goblet Squat, but is improving your ability to squat in any fashion. You have recruited innumerably more muscle fibers and created much more time under tension (we’ll talk about that soon).
Tempo when it matters. Tempo helps us to be more intentional when the weights change direction. Take for example the Bench Press. As the bar touches the chest it next changes direction and is pressed up. This change of direction moment is known as the amortization phase. Some of the heaviest bench presses in the world are performed by people who spend a lot of time in and around this phase. Pausing at the bottom of the press drastically increases the amount of time spent in this phase, which results in huge gains in strength and proficiency of the lift. Why all the gains? Because typically this phase of the lift is sped through. In a set of 6 reps of bench press breezing through the turnaround point (the weight briefly touches your chest, or worse bounces off of it and immediately goes up) only nets roughly one second total spent there, for the whole set! If a pause of one second is added to each rep, you increase the time spent in the amortization phase by 500%. So, the pro tip is to use a controlled tempo, and slow down to dial in on the change of the direction as it happens. This can be done with nearly any exercise and is why pause reps are great for developing strength at crucial points in the lift.
Time Under Tension
Simply put, this is how long the muscle is forced to work during one set of an exercise. For example, let’s say you do ten Dumbbell Hammer Curls, and it takes 20 seconds to complete. Set done. Utilizing a slower tempo, we can create a longer time under tension. Do the same set of ten curls with a 2 second negative and a pause at the top and your time under tension starts to look like 40 seconds per set. This is a significant difference that research supports. Data from the Journal of Physiology (J. Physiol 590.2, pp. 351-362) suggests that an increase in time under tension will lead to greater increases in muscular protein synthesis. These increases occurred in mitochondrial and sarcoplasmic protein synthesis with a delayed increase in myofibrillar protein synthesis. Boom. Science.
Easily apply this to your training. Here is how. Instead of doing a workout for x number of reps each set, perform the lifts for x amount of time. Instead of four sets of twelve reps do four sets of :40 seconds and see how different it feels. Chances are that the end of your last set will be a welcome rest! You may be surprised at how much intensity you have been leaving on the table in your workouts.
These are simple, tried, and true methods to develop muscle and increase strength. I have been using these, and more, with my clients to carve out significant progress in their physiques and performance. Techniques like this helped us to put thousands of pounds on clients’ lifts. The Forever Fit Formula is one Bridget and I use with all our clients, and it works. Bringing intentionality and intensity to weight training builds muscle. Learning how to eat to fuel your body expedites these gains. Plus, our nutrition plan is one that is sustainable and unique to you, your life, and your favorite foods. This means it will always line up with your goals and have you on the path of progress. If you have dieted before and it didn’t stick, or if you struggle to keep an enthusiastic routine in your training hit us up right away. Let’s talk.