FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS SECTION

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 ARE FREE WEIGHTS SUPERIOR TO MACHINES?
Two schools of thought

Free-weights are superior Machines are at least as good

Greater CNS stimulation Machines make it easier to isolate a muscle

More muscle recruitment due to increased need Tension is tension

for stabilization
Machines provide a more constant loading
More muscle damage (???)
Easier to use compensation with free-weights
Machines are not suited for every body type
You can go to failure with less possible
drawbacks

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CAN YOU BUILD MUSCLE WITH THE OLYMPIC
LIFTS?

Muscle damage? Small amount (lack of eccentric, low time

under load)

Muscle fatigue? No

mTOR activation? Not significant

Growth factors release? No

Lactic acid? Not with traditional olympic lifting training

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CAN YOU BUILD MUSCLE WITH THE OLYMPIC
LIFTS?

Do mostly lifts from the hang

Stay under tension for 20 sec/set (4-6 reps from the

hang, complexes)

Finish the set by lowering the bar slowly to the ground

(slow eccentric)

Use hybrid lifts like high pulls and push presses

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CAN YOU BUILD MUSCLE WITH BODY WEIGHT
TRAINING?

Muscle damage? Yes, exercise-dependant

Muscle fatigue? Yes, if TUT is sufficient

mTOR activation? Possible

Growth factors release? If TUT is sufficient

Lactic acid? If TUT is sufficient

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CAN YOU BUILD MUSCLE WITH BODY WEIGHT
TRAINING?

If you can load a muscle for 40-60 seconds per set on a

body weight exercise and reach a point close to failure in
that range, you can stimulate growth just as well as with
lifting exercises.

If after 40-60 seconds under load you can still keep

going, then you will not stimulate maximum growth.

With body weight exercise you can increase the difficulty

by changing the leverage or
adding weight.

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CAN YOU BUILD MUSCLE WITH BODY WEIGHT
TRAINING?

LIMITATIONS OF BODY WEIGHT TRAINING

• More neurologically demanding (especially higher skills)

• Harder to isolate a specific muscle
• Require more motor skills
• Can be hard to overload for some people

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CAN YOU BUILD MUSCLE TRAINING LIKE A
POWERLIFTER?

There is more than one way to train « like a powerlifter »

Russian powerlifters who mostly the competitive lifts for low

reps and little assistance work very similar to olympic lifters)
righ up to the Westside Barbell methodology that do 80% of
their volume in the form of hypertrophy work.

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 CAN YOU BUILD MUSCLE TRAINING LIKE A
POWERLIFTER?
LOW REPS TRAINING AND HYPERTROPHY So the question becomes…
PROS CONS

Possible to cause muscle damage The amount of volume required to Can you build muscle with
get FT fiber fatigue might be too mostly
Improvement in neural efficiency hard neurologically for a lot to
leading to better motor-unit handle
very low reps work
recruitment over time
Low time under load per set
Can cause inflammation which
might trigger adaptation No growth factors release

Can cause fast twitch fiber No lactate

fatigue with enough volume

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 CAN YOU BUILD MUSCLE TRAINING LIKE A
POWERLIFTER?
To answer the question:

It is possible to build muscle with only low reps.

But it requires doing a high number of sets to accumulate enough volume

to fatigue the fibers enough to grow or to cause enough muscle damage.

So it can work well only with those who recover fast from muscle damage (ACTN3
RR genotype, or taking anabolics) and who have the neurological capacity to
handle a lot of heavy work.

Every body else will not be able to build muscle optimally while only doing sets of 1-
4 reps/set.

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 WHEN TRAINING FOR MUSCLE GROWTH SHOULD
WOMEN TRAIN DIFFERENTLY?
Exercises selection
Same training focus? Different « desired » muscle groups. Different structure

Reps
Difference in muscle fiber recruitment? Is it still true? Why?

Sets
Work capacity difference. To role of estrogen in muscle damage/recovery

Load
Upper and lower body difference

Rest intervals
Recovery capacity between sets, neurologically and physiologically

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 WHAT IS A REALISTIC MUSCLE GROWTH
EXPECTATION?
« Bro, I gained 20lbs in 2 months by using Monster Mass XL »

« Dude, I added 12lbs of granite hard muscle since I started my new

program a month ago »

We are bombarded with crazy numbers that muddles what is possible when it comes to adding size. It leads to
irrealistic expectations which can make you lose motivation or even stop training.

• Steroids
• Genetic outliers
• Mistaking water retention, glycogen storage and fat gain for muscle growth
• Rare periods of enhanced rate of gains (regaining lost muscle, beginner)

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 WHAT IS A REALISTIC MUSCLE GROWTH EXPECTATION?

• 30-40lbs dry muscle gain potential above your « normal adult weight » in your « career » for men
(10-20lbs for women).
• Note that each pound of dry muscle will also come with around 0.25lbs to 0.5lbs of added weight
from water, glycogen, capilaries, intramuscular fat, etc.
• So a man can naturally add 37-60lbs of lean mass during his training life.
• E.g. If I look at my older brother who has the same body type as I do but doesn’t strength train,
he is 173lbs on 5’9’’, I am 218lbs at the same height (45lbs difference which puts me close to the
limit of the amount of muscle I can gain)
• The maximal (for the average person) rate of growth when everything is done optimally will be
around 0.25-0.5lbs of dry muscle weight per week for men and half that for women.
• So for men adding 12-25lbs of muscle in a year is very good and 6-10lbs for women. And even
then, except for the first year of training, pretty much nobody (except genetic freaks) will be
close to the top end of the range.
• The more experienced you are, the slower the rate will be to a point where adding 2-3lbs of
muscle (for men) will be all of what you can expect.

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 HOW CAN I FIX A LAGGING MUSCLE?

Mind-muscle connection Isolate. Integrate Stimulate

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 HOW CAN I FIX A LAGGING MUSCLE?

CORRECTING A LAGGING MUSCLE

Mind-Muscle Isolate Integrate Stimulate
Connection
Lighter weights Similar to MMC but Pre-fatigue Back to regular
less frequency (part supersets training for the
Slower tempos of normal workout) lagging muscle
and more weight. Pre-fatigue workout
Isolation structure Post-fatigue

Contracting a muscle Regular compound Specialization phase

against a resistance, lifts with lighter
not lifting weights weights and focusing
on contracting the
Very high frequency target muscle

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 THANK YOU !

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