About thirty seconds into the the exercise I knew the next minute was going to be a very long one. At around forty seconds my legs began shaking. At sixty seconds I was contracting as hard as possible just to keep the chain taut. By seventy the chain was slack and it took everything I had just to stay up. I barely made eighty seconds before my legs failed I could no longer hold myself up. Afterwards, I could barely walk.

Compared to these even the SuperSlow bodyweight squats don’t seem quite so bad.

If you want to try these all you need is a good chin up/dip belt and an inexpensive and easy to construct platform. The platform took me less than fifteen minutes to build and I estimate the total materials cost at around $25. I already had the eye bolt, washers, nuts, and carabiner and spent around $15 on the rest. You could also build one with a hook bolt instead of an eye bolt which would make hooking and unhooking the belt strap or chain easier.

If you have a chin/dip belt with a chain I also suggest buying an extra carabiner so you can adjust the chain to the exact length required for your thighs to be close to parallel.

Materials:

• One eight foot piece of 2×12 lumber
• Six #12 x 2-1/2″ wood screws
• One 1/4″ hook or eye bolt with a 2-1/4″ to 2-1/2″ thread length
• Two nuts
• Two washers
• Large carabiner (if using eye bolt)

Tools:

• Saw
• Drill with 1/4″ and 1/8″ bits
• Screwdriver (or screwdriver bit)
• 9/16 wrench and ratchet
• Tape measure
• Pencil

Construction

Cut the 2×12 into one 36″ and two 30″ pieces. Many stores will do this for you free of charge, saving you time and making the lumber easier to fit in your vehicle if you are driving a car.

Drill a 1/4″ hole in the center of the 36″ piece.

Line up the 30″ feet so they are centered and flush with the edges of the top piece as shown.

Drill six 1/8″ pilot holes for your screws; four approximately three inches in from the corners and two about eight inches from the ends on center. Fasten with wood screws.

Place a bolt and washer on the hook or eye bolt all the way at the top of the threads and insert through the center hole. Fasten on the other side with the second washer and bolt. The actual thickness of 2×12 lumber is only 1-1/2″ and the wood will compress slightly when the nuts are tightened so 2-1/4″ to 2-1/2″ is long enough.

Performing Timed Static Contraction Hip Belt Squats

Adjust the strap or chain on your belt so when you hook or clip it your thighs are near parallel when your feet are about shoulder width. Position your belt so it is just over your hips and not riding too high on your back.

Start your stopwatch or timer and place it in front of the platform where you can easily see it.

Stand on the platform with your feet approximately shoulder width and center them front-to-back. Squat down and hook or clip your belt.

Attempt to stand, contracting your hip and thigh muscles against the belt as follows:

1-30 seconds: moderate effort

31-60 seconds: almost as hard as you dare

61-90 seconds: as hard as you dare

When instructing subjects in timed static contraction we say “dare” instead of “can” because it although highly unlikely if performed properly it is possible for some subjects to contract hard enough to injure themselves and it’s best to err conservatively with this at first. Considering what we are finding about inroading during TSC with the RenEx iMachines I suspect if TSC hip belt squats are done correctly you will find it hard just to keep the chain taut during the last thirty seconds, so this may be irrelevant.

Update: I talked with Ken Hutchins about this yesterday and he suggested a higher position, around 30 to 40 degrees above parallel. Doing so will be less difficult initially but just as intense towards the end and allows for your hips to be tilted posteriorly or “tucked under” engaging your glutes and hamstrings more.

If your belt has a chain you might want to wrap a towel or other cushion around it where it contacts the thighs or it can dig in uncomfortably. Or click here for a chin up/dip belt with a strap

Other Exercises

The platform can be used for several other TSC exercises in addition to hip belt squats with an extra length of chain and carabiner and the belt and various cable attachments including heel raises (chin/dip belt), arm curls (bar attachment), and lateral raises (split strap handle attachment or two individual handle attachments and extra chain).

Give it a try and share your experience in the comments.

Last April I mentioned SuperSlow bodyweight squats in a comment on the post Time. A reader asked about the difference in weight one would use when switching from performing squats at a 2/2 cadence to to a 10/10 cadence and I suggested he try them with just his bodyweight to get a feel for how much harder it is when moving that slowly. A lot of people gave them a try and I’ve also had a few in-the-gym and phone clients do these and the response has been interesting. One person who tried them and has incorporated them in his sons’ workouts told me his family refers to them as “damned fucking hell squats”.

If you haven’t experienced them you might be wondering if they’re really that intense. You probably won’t believe me if you don’t try it, so stand up right now, move your chair out of the way or set your phone or iPad down and try this. Ladies, if you’re wearing heels take ’em off.

• Stand with your feet approximately shoulder width, toes angled out slightly.
• Look straight ahead, chin slightly down. Breathe through your mouth.
• Hold your arms straight out in front of you with your hands at shoulder height.
• Bend your knees slightly and tuck your hips under (this is fine when squatting with body weight or a hip belt).
• Settle back so your weight is slightly more over your heels than the balls of your feet.
• Very slowly squat down until the tops of your thighs are slightly below your knees. This should take at least ten seconds.
• As you approach the bottom gradually slow to a stop, do not stop suddenly.
• Hold the bottom position motionless for at least three seconds. Do not sit on your calves or rest in any way.
• Do not lean forwards onto the balls of your feet or sit back too far onto your heels. Keep your weight just slightly more over your heels.
• Very slowly begin to stand back up. Barely move at first, taking a few seconds just to rise the first inch.
• As you begin to rise, focus on contracting your glutes and keeping your hips tucked under.
• Continue to rise very slowly, only going back up about half way. Your knees should still be bent around 45 degrees at the top. This should take at least ten seconds.
• Do not pause at the top. Immediately but slowly turnaround and begin the negative.
• Repeat for as many repetitions as possible in strict form. When you are no longer capable of positive (upwards) movement continue to hold for another five to ten seconds.

If you’re not sure about the cadence go to Metronome Online and set the metronome to 60 bpm. Make sure your volume is on.

If you really want a challenge next time you workout start with these, then do the same for chin ups, push ups, inverted rows, half dive-bomber push ups (similar movement to overhead presses), and heel raises. On the chin ups and inverted rows hold for three seconds at the top of the first two reps, then starting with the third repetition hold and squeeze for five; use the squeeze to “empty out” your biceps, back, and rear delts. Turnaround just shy of lockout at the bottom of the pulling movements and the top of the push ups; no resting! On heel raises hold the stretch at the start and hold (first two reps) then squeeze at the top (starting with the third).

When you reach momentary muscular failure keep contracting for five to ten seconds then immediately move to the next exercise. You should move slowly during the exercises but very quickly between them.

A few months ago I resumed alternating bodyweight workouts on the UXS with my regular workouts and I started training on it exclusively in July when I started working on a new design and HIT-based bodyweight program to go with it. I’ve come up with dozens of workouts and variations, but the following is a favorite and might interest those wanting to focus more on arm development:

• Timed Static Contraction Arm Curls followed immediately by…
• Chin Ups
• Timed Static Contraction Triceps Extensions followed immediately by…
• Push Ups
• Squats

If you give it a try let me know what you think in the comments.

How you perform each repetition of an exercise is far more important than how many or your time under load. In fact, while it might sound contradictory, the better you are at an exercise the fewer repetitions you should be able to complete or the shorter your TUL with a given resistance.

This is because the real goal of an exercise is not to make the weight go up and down for some number of repetitions or seconds; that’s just a means to an end. Your real goal is to use the weight to place the greatest possible demand on the muscles worked by the exercise. Rather than think of exercise as being about using your muscles to move the weight, think of it as using the weight to inroad and intensely work your muscles.

If you want to get the most out of your workouts you have to adopt what I call the “high intensity mindset”. From the start of the first rep your goal is not to see how much you can lift, how many reps, seconds, or whatever, but to make every second and every inch of movement as difficult as possible for the muscles being worked. You should be trying to inroad the working muscles as deeply and quickly as possible, trying to achieve momentary muscular failure as efficiently as you can. Your goal is to get to failure so you can continue to contract for another five to ten seconds after and send your body the “message” your environment is making a demand on it that exceeds your current capability and it had better adapt so it can handle it better the next time. Ideally, you also want to get there as safely and efficiently as possible; without excessive wear or injury and without using any more energy than necessary to get to that point.

When you focus more on the numbers than the muscles you will tend to do the exercise in a way that makes it easier to do more reps or go longer – the exact opposite of what you want. When you are able to do more repetitions or go longer it should be because you’ve gotten strong enough that despite your best effort to achieve momentary muscular failure earlier you exceed your upper repetition or time guide number, not because you’ve done things to make it easier.

The majority of form errors people make are because they are focusing on the numbers instead of the muscles;

• Moving too quickly
• Throwing or swinging the weight instead of lifting it
• Dropping the weight instead of lowering it
• Setting the weight down and unloading between reps
• Locking out and resting at the end point during pushing movements
• Altering your body position or movement to reduce the resistance or shift some of it to other muscles
• Avoiding or rushing through harder portions of the range of motion
• Pausing or moving too slowly through easier portions of the range of motion (AKA “sandbagging”)
• Quickly alternating backing off or dropping then heaving at the weight in an attempt to elicit a stretch reflex (AKA “off-onning”)

All of these make it easier to do more reps or go longer but less demanding for the muscles and less effective for the real goal of exercise: stimulating increases in muscular strength and size and through them improvements in the other trainable factors of functional ability. By increasing the length of time it takes to get there they also cause you to waste more energy in the process. While a demand on energy systems is necessary to stimulate some of the improvements we want from exercise there is a point of diminishing returns beyond which you begin to interfere with your body’s ability to recover from and adapt to exercise. Many of these also involve increases in acceleration or changes in leverage which may increase the risk of injury or result in increased wear over time.

If you list the opposites of the above form errors you get the start of a pretty good list of things you should do during exercise:

• Move in a slow and controlled manner
• Lift the weight, don’t swing or throw it
• Lower the weight under strict control, don’t drop it
• Do not set the weight down or unload between repetitions
• Do not lock out and rest at the end point during pushing movements
• Do not alter your body position or movement to reduce the resistance or shift some of it to other muscles
• Do not avoid or rush through harder portions of the range of motion, “mine” them
• Do not pause or move too slowly through easier portions of the range of motion, or avoid them altogether
• Maintain continuous, even tension on the working muscles, do not back off then heave at the weight

When you focus on these things instead of the numbers those numbers actually become more meaningful. When you go up in reps or time despite doing your best to inroad as efficiently as possible you will know it’s because you have gotten stronger. Don’t think of the upper repetition count or time under load numbers as goals; think of them as guides for keeping the resistance high enough to allow you to achieve momentary muscular failure within a reasonable time frame.

To put it as simply as possible, the high intensity mindset involves focusing on your muscles, not the numbers.  Don’t think of exercise as something you do to the weights with your muscles – think of it as something you do to your muscles with the weights.

Question:

If I keep try to keep accurate records, such as doing a certain weight for 4 reps (i.e, 80 seconds), I tend to start getting sloppy in my form just so I can lift that weight longer or use a heavier weight for the same number of reps. I seem to get a “better” workout if I just pick a weight that I can lift for somewhere between 1 and 2 minutes and just concentrate on lifting it with the best form I can until I cannot lift it anymore. This way I just concentrate on working the muscle and not on beating my lift from before.

Some workouts I use a weight that I can do for about a minute, and other workouts I use a lighter weight that takes more like 2 minutes. I do keep mental notes on how much I lifted before so I know in general I’m increasing over time, but I find it hard to do every workout without sacrificing form. How do you keep accurate records without sacrificing form?

Answer:

Part of the reason many High Intensity Training and SuperSlow instructors switched from counting reps to recording time under load (TUL) was the belief it would encourage subjects to move more slowly and reduce or eliminate certain form discrepancies. While people do tend to move more slowly overall when being timed rather than counting reps there is a tendency to rush through harder portions of the range of motion while “sand bagging” in the easier portions to increase set duration.

In both cases the problem is focusing on the measurement – reps or TUL – rather than the real objective of efficiently inroading the target muscles and working them as intensely as possible. The solution is to not count a repetition or subtract it’s duration from the total TUL if you don’t perform it well. You’ll be less tempted to loosen your form or cheat on a rep when you know it won’t count or be added to your time if you do.

Question:

I appreciate all the helpful information in your blog. I understand that experiencing soreness is not important as far as a determinant of a successful workout. The question then, is it an indicator of the least amount I should rest before the next workout?

I currently train HIT as taught by Mike Mentzer (3 to 4 exercises per workout, mostly compound movements with roughly 7 days of rest between workouts). I always experience soreness and it persists for a good 4 days. For example I trained legs and torso on Tuesday and my quads/abs are still sore. I would like to train twice a week, but my next workout has deadlifts (so in my mind it seems counterproductive to train before the soreness has gone away). Does this concern have merit or would I be ok to attempt the next workout after 3 – 4  days of rest even if I’m still sore in bodyparts that are involved in the exercises of that workout?

Answer:

You are correct that soreness is not an indicator of exercise or workout effectiveness. Although most people experience some degree of muscular burning during and soreness shortly after exercise it varies considerably between individuals, between muscle groups, and over time.

Likewise, the presence or degree of delayed onset muscle soreness or DOMS – usually experienced from two to four days after a workout – is not an indicator of workout recovery. You can experience DOMS and have recovered enough to work out again productively, or you can have little or no muscle soreness at all but still need more rest days. The best way to determine how much recovery time you need between workouts is to keep accurate records on workout charts or in a training journal. Assuming you are training intensely enough, keeping your workouts brief, and getting adequate nutrition and rest you should be making consistent progress. If not you may need to increase recovery time between workouts.

Since the late 1990’s CrossFit has been gaining popularity as a way of training for “functional” fitness or general physical preparedness. According to the CrossFit web site, CrossFit is,

“…a core strength and conditioning program. We have designed our program to elicit as broad an adaptational response as possible. CrossFit is not a specialized fitness program but a deliberate attempt to optimize physical competence in each of ten recognized fitness domains. They are Cardiovascular and Respiratory endurance, Stamina, Strength, Flexibility, Power, Speed, Coordination, Agility, Balance, and Accuracy.”

The program consists of constantly varying routines incorporating a mix of so-called “functional” movements such as various gymnastic and body weight exercises, plyometrics, Olympic lifts and other compound/multi-joint free weight exercises, and activities like running, cycling and rowing performed for varying durations to target different metabolic pathways. Workouts typically last well under an hour, and the recommended frequency is six days on, one day off.

While CrossFit will no doubt stimulate improvements in fitness, the same or better results can be achieved much more safely and efficiently with a proper, high intensity strength training program.

Speed and Power

CrossFit places a heavy emphasis on the use of Olympic lifts and other explosive exercises, claiming they are necessary to improve various qualities like power and speed and that these qualities will transfer to other activities. While these exercises will improve power and speed in other activities, it is not because they are performed at high speed or with high power output. It is due to the increases in strength they produce. Strength increases which could be achieved more safely using exercises performed at a more controlled speed of movement and which work the targeted muscle groups more effectively.

Muscular strength can be increased by training at any speed as long as the training is hard and progressive. Regardless of the speed strength is developed at, the more force a muscle is capable of producing the faster it can accelerate a given load, meaning more power production. Even the rate of force development can be improved training at slower speeds, provided the intended speed is fast. If the weight being used is heavy enough, after the first few repetitions of a set a very fast speed will be impossible with strict form. After this point the intent should be to move the weight as fast as possible (without compromising form and offloading onto other muscle groups), although the actual speed will be anything but.

If you train to become as strong as you possibly can you will also become as fast and powerful as you can, regardless of whether you train at fast or slow speeds or somewhere in between. However, you will be less likely to injure yourself using a more controlled speed of movement.

“Functional” Versus “Non-Functional” Exercises

CrossFit training discourages the use of machines or isolation exercises because they believe these are somehow not “functional”. They claim since machine or isolation exercises do not mimic motor recruitment patterns similar to various activities of daily life that they are not “functional” and are somehow less effective at improving functional ability or transferring to improved performance in other activities. This is wrong.

An exercise does not have to mimic the motor recruitment pattern of another activity for the strength gained from that exercise to transfer to it. If you strengthen the muscles involved in performing some activity, performance in that activity will improve regardless of the equipment used or exercises performed. There is no transfer of skill from an exercise to any other movement, no matter how similar. Skill is highly specific. If you want to improve the skill in performing a specific movement or activity, you need to practice the proper performance of that movement or activity. Performing exercises that mimic a movement will certainly develop strength in the muscles involved, but there will be no positive transfer of skill, and no benefit over doing other exercises that effectively work the same muscles.

That being said, free weight and body weight exercises may provide certain psychological benefits that can’t be obtained from machine training. While both are effective for increasing muscular strength, the more concrete experience of free weight and body weight training may provide a better estimate of and confidence in one’s actual physical ability than the more abstract experience of machine training. It is harder to relate the weight you use on a lower back or trunk extension machine to your ability to pick heavy things up off the ground than the weight you deadlift. Certain free weight exercises also teach proper body mechanics for other movements – someone who learns to deadlift properly is more likely to move in a safer more effective manner when picking up other things.

It is also important to consider many commercial exercise machines are poorly designed. While a properly designed machine provides advantages over free weights and body weight an improperly designed machine can reduce the safety or effectiveness of an exercise. You are better off performing free weight or body weight exercises than using machines with incorrect biomechanics, poor adjustability, high friction or other design flaws. Ultimately the equipment you train with is not as important as how you use it, however.

Cardiovascular and Metabolic Conditioning

CrossFit routines often incorporate running, cycling or rowing for cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning. While it is necessary to run, cycle, or row if your goal is to improve the specific skills of running, cycling, and rowing, if your goal is general cardiovascular conditioning high intensity strength training is a better option. During an interview with Dr. Stephen Langer on the show Medicine Man in the early 1980’s, Arthur Jones said,

“…the lifting of weights is so much superior for the purpose of improving the cardiovascular condition of a human being that whatever is in second place is not even in the running, no pun intended. That is to say, running is a very poor, a very dangerous, a very slow, a very inefficient, a very nonproductive method for eventually producing a very limited, low order of cardiovascular benefit. Any, ANY, result that can be produced by any amount of running can be duplicated and surpassed by the proper use of weight lifting for cardiovascular benefits. Now I realize that there are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people in this country who don’t understand that, who don’t believe that, who will not admit that. Now these people are simply uninformed. Certainly, it’s possible to run with no benefit, it’s possible to lift weights with no benefit. I’m talking about the proper use of weight lifting; and properly applied, weight lifting will improve your cardiovascular benefit to a degree that is impossible to attain with any amount of running.”

When compound exercises or even simple exercises involving larger muscle groups are performed with a high level of intensity and little or no rest is allowed between exercises the demand on the cardiovascular system can be as high or higher than any other activity performed for the purpose of cardiovascular conditioning. A six-month study conducted at Philipps University in Marburg Germany in 2003 demonstrated equivalent improvements in cardiovascular conditioning between high intensity training using a Nautilus-style circuit routine and traditional cardiovascular training of equal duration and frequency (Maisch B, Baum E, Grimm W. Die Auswirkungen dynamischen Krafttrainings nach dem Nautilus-Prinzip auf kardiozirkulatorische Parameter und Ausdauerleistungsfähigkeit (The effects of resistance training according to the Nautilus principles on cardiocirculatory parameters and endurance). Angenommen vom Fachbereich Humanmedizin der Philipps-Universität Marburg am 11. Dezember 2003).

From a Feb 2005 article on the study in Internal Medicine News,

“A 6-month structured Nautilus weightlifting program resulted in improvements in cardiocirculatory fitness to a degree traditionally considered obtainable only through endurance exercises such as running, bicycling, and swimming, said Dr. Baum, a family physician at Philipps University, Marburg, Germany.

“This opens up new possibilities for cardiopulmonary-oriented exercise besides the traditional stamina sports,” she noted. New exercise options are desirable because some patients just don’t care for endurance exercise, which doesn’t do much to improve muscular strength and stabilization.

A more recent review paper published in the Journal of Exercise Physiology states, “…the key factor in determining physiological adaptations to promote cardiovascular fitness is intense muscular contraction” and that “…these adaptations are, for the most part, a result of resistance training at high intensity (i.e., performed to failure).” (Steele J, Fisher J, McGuff D, Bruce-Low S, Smith D. Resistance Training to Momentary Muscular Failure Improves Cardiovascular Fitness in Humans: A Review of Acute Physiological Responses and Chronic Physiological Adaptations. JEPonline 2012;15(3):53-80.)

Regarding metabolic conditioning, research suggests that while moderate-intensity aerobic training may improve maximal aerobic power it does not improve anaerobic capacity, however high intensity interval training will improve both anaerobic and aerobic performance. High intensity strength training performed with compound/multi-joint exercises for moderate to high repetitions and short rest intervals can be used to accomplish the same goals, along with improvements in muscular strength.

Coordination, Agility, Balance, Accuracy, etc.

Coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy are not aspects of fitness or factors of functional ability themselves, but dependent on the general factors of muscular strength and endurance and specific motor skills.

Coordination is the efficient interaction of different muscle groups in producing movement. Agility is how efficiently and quickly you are able to move and change direction. Balance is your ability to keep your center of gravity over your base. Accuracy is your ability to move with precision. Since all of these are dependent on strength and endurance they can be improved in general by getting stronger and improving cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning. However, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy in the performance of specific movements involves specific motor skills which are not improved by performing other movements or activities. The extent to which CrossFit or any other exercise program would improve these as general qualities, as opposed to the specific skills of a particular movement or activity is entirely a matter of improving the general factors mentioned above.

Doing CrossFit will improve your coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy more in the specific drills and movements done regularly as part of the workouts, but there is nothing about CrossFit which makes it better than other strength and conditioning methods for improving these qualities in general. The only thing CrossFit is the best at making you better at is CrossFit.

If you are a real athlete or work in a physically demanding profession you should avoid CrossFit to minimize the risk of injuries which can interfere with or prevent you from practicing and competing in your sport or performing your job. If you want to become more coordinated, agile, etc. in the movements of your sport or profession then devote time to learning and practicing those specific skills instead.

Total Conditioning; Faster, Safer and More Efficiently

If your goal is to maximize your functional ability you can do so more quickly, safely and efficiently with a proper high intensity training program following a few basic guidelines:

• Perform one set of one or two exercises for all major muscle groups (favoring compound/multi-joint movements), using a weight which allows for the performance of at least one but not more than three minutes of continuous, slow, strict repetitions.
• Perform each exercise to the point of momentary muscular failure, then continue to contract the target muscles isometrically for five to ten seconds.
• Perform exercises in order of largest to smallest muscle groups worked.
• Move from one exercise to the next as quickly as possible; allow no rest in between.
• Perform no more than three workouts per week on non-consecutive days. Many people get better results training less, depending on individual recovery ability.
• Maximize recovery and adaptation by getting adequate sleep each night, minimizing stress, and eating well (lots of beef, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit, and nuts, minimize intake of hyper palatable, highly processed foods).

Earlier today I received an email from a reader mentioning an article I wrote for Cyberpump back in 1998 called “Less is More”. He wrote,

“…I have an article in front of me now I printed on 4/4/98 titled ’Less is More‘ by Andrew M Baye. That article was a turning point for me in my approach to weight training. I made the best gains of my life using HIT.”

After reading the e-mail I decided to repost the article here with minor edits to improve readability.

A concept people unfamiliar with proper exercise principles find difficult to understand is that exercise, to be productive, must be brief and infrequent. It is unfortunate people have been led to believe that more is better, that performing more sets of more exercises more often is the key to increased muscular strength and size, as this has resulted in hundreds and thousands of wasted hours for such people, and the frustration of having achieved little or no meaningful progress to show for it. The three biggest mistakes people make with their exercise programs are doing too much, too often, and not nearly as hard as they should. Doing more exercise will not produce better results, can actually prevent results from being produced, and, if taken far enough, will cause a loss of muscular strength and size. The erroneous belief that more is better is primarily based on a misunderstanding of what exercise is, and what it can do.

Exercise does not directly produce any improvements in one’s overall physical condition. It merely acts as a stimulus which causes the body to produce the improvements. People who fail to make this distinction, who believe that the very act of performing exercise produces improvements in their body, naturally assume that more exercise equals a greater degree of improvement. People who have blindly accepted the word of the bodybuilding media and of certain self-proclaimed “experts” and “scientific” organizations may find it difficult to believe it is not necessary to perform a minimum of  twenty sets per body part, and train at least five days a week to achieve a meaningful results. This is not the way the body sees it, however.

The reason the body responds to exercise by producing improvements in it’s physical condition, or functional ability, is that exercise is a negative thing, a tremendous stress on the body’s ability to perform a function vital to it’s survival: movement. The adaptations produced by the body in response to exercise are a protective measure against possible future exposures to that stress.

This is extremely important, so it deserves repeating; the reason the body produces an adaptive response to exercise is because it is something negative.

To stimulate the body to produce an improvement in its physical condition, or functional ability, it is necessary that the demand placed upon the its ability to produce movement (primarily the force producing capacity of the muscles and secondly the efficiency of all the supporting systems) exceeds the level it is currently capable of meeting. No amount of work which does not demand the body to perform at a level which exceeds its current capabilities will do anything to stimulate the body to improve those capabilities. It may maintain the current physical condition of the body, but it will do nothing to improve it.

Muscle is a very highly metabolically expensive tissue, the production and maintenance of which is costly in terms of energy and resources. Your body will not maintain any more than is perceived to be minimally necessary for survival. You need to give your body a very good reason to produce an increase in a tissue which uses up such a large amount of valuable resources. When you perform proper high intensity strength training, you are sending a message to your body that its current physical condition is inadequate to meet some demands the environment is making upon it, and that its survival requires an improvement in its ability to meet those demands. To be effective, exercise must be incredibly intense.

The amount of energy and resources used increases in proportion to the intensity, or percentage of momentary effort. The process of recovery from and adaptation to exercise is also very metabolically expensive, requiring significant energy and resources. Thus, it is necessary to limit the volume of exercise to the minimal amount required to stimulate the desired improvements, lest you waste energy and resources which the body could have otherwise used for recovery and adaptation. For this reason, any more exercise than is minimally necessary to stimulate the body to produce the desired response is counterproductive. As Arthur Jones has stated, “It is only logical to use that which exists in limited supply as economically as possible.”

What is the minimal amount of exercise necessary to stimulate the body to produce an improvement in the strength and size of a particular muscle or group of muscles? One properly performed set per exercise, of only one or two exercises for each major muscle or group of muscles. Any more than that and you quickly reach a point of diminishing returns. What about warm-up sets? If you are exercising properly, using a slow speed of movement to minimize force (approximately ten seconds lifting, ten seconds lowering), additional warm-up sets are an unnecessary waste of time and energy. (Exceptions to this exist in certain cases of physical rehabilitation.)

If you perform an exercise correctly the first time, you will not be capable of performing a second set, much less a third or fourth without a significant reduction in resistance or reps. If one is capable of performing a high volume of work, it is because they are not training with a meaningful level of intensity, in which case they are not stimulating their body to produce any significant improvements. Even if the body was stimulated to produce some slight improvement, it would be left with very little adaptive energy and resources to do so. Unless one goes to the gym for the sake of entertaining themselves, and has no interest in improving their physical condition, this is a complete waste of time. Such people are not exercising, they are merely playing with the equipment.

How often should one exercise? Only as frequently as allows the body adequate time to fully recover and produce the desired adaptations between consecutive workouts. How frequently is this? It varies from person to person, and within a particular person it will vary depending on a wide variety of factors. If a person is training intensely, but not making significant progress in their training on a workout to workout basis, it is usually because they are not allowing their body adequate time between workouts to produce the improvements stimulated during the workout.

The amount of time required for the body to fully recover from and produce the maximal amount of adaptation stimulated by proper exercise is more than most people suspect. In some people, as much as a week or more of rest between workouts may be necessary for the body to complete this process. However, many people are hesitant to reduce their training frequency because they believe that if they wait too long between workouts, they may lose muscle tissue. This is highly unlikely. Why would the body go through the tremendous expense of producing such a metabolically active tissue such as muscle, only to allow it to atrophy after a couple of days? Answer: it wouldn’t. Unless you’re exposing your body to some other stress which would cause a loss of muscle tissue, it would take weeks before decompensation would occur after training ceased.

If in doubt of the amount of time your body requires to completely recover and adapt between workouts, it is better to allow for more time than to train too soon and interrupt the recovery process, preventing the body from producing the fullest possible response. You are not going to lose any muscle by taking an extra couple of days off between workouts, and may even gain more. If you train too frequently, you will constantly interrupt the recovery process and prevent the production of the improvements stimulated by the workout. Don’t underestimate the importance of allowing adequate time for recovery.

A helpful analogy is the process of stimulating the formation of a callous. A major function of your skin is to protect your body’s internal environment from harmful factors in the external environment. Your body will respond to any stresses upon the skins ability to perform this function, such as producing a thickness in the skin, a callous, in areas which are exposed to frequent abrasion or friction, if an adequate stimulus exists, and the body is allowed adequate time for recovery and response.

Suppose we desire to produce a callous on the skin of the back of your hand. No amount of light stroking with a feather is going to produce any significant amount of friction or abrasion, hardly enough to warrant an increase in the thickness of the skin in that area. However, if we use a more abrasive object, such as a metal file, very little hard rubbing is required to cause a significant amount of abrasion. Realize that the act of rubbing the skin with the file does not directly produce any thickness in the skin, it merely stimulates the body to do so. Any amount of filing past the minimal amount necessary to significantly abrade the skin will significantly damage it, and if done long enough, it is possible to actually saw through the skin, tendons, muscle, and bones in your hand, and literally cut it in half. This is hardly necessary to stimulate the body to produce a callous though. Once the skin has been abraded, it must be left alone to respond to the stimulus.

Now that the body has been stimulated to produce the callous, it is necessary to allow it adequate time to do so. If the file is applied again before the skin has fully recovered from the first application, the skin will only be further abraded, and damaged. If adequate time is allowed for recovery, but the file is applied before the body has produced the adaptation, an increase in the thickness of the skin, then the maximal increase in skin thickness stimulated by the original filing may not be produced. If the body is to produce the adaptation to the stimulus, it is essential that the body be allowed adequate time to do so between exposures to the stimulus. Anything less, and the full response will not be produced.

The same principles apply to exercise. Rather than try to find out how much exercise you can tolerate, try to find the minimal volume and frequency necessary to stimulate your body to improve. You’ll most likely discover it to be far less than you think.

If your primary goal is bigger muscles and you’re not making regular gains in strength and size you’re probably making one or more of the following common training mistakes. These are some of the biggest mistakes a bodybuilder can make, and correcting them can often make the difference between outstanding gains and none at all:

1. Not Training Hard Enough

To stimulate muscular strength and size increases you have to work your muscles harder than they are accustomed to, and the harder the better.

Specifically, you should perform each exercise until it is impossible to continue in good form, using a heavy enough weight that you are only able to perform between five and twenty slow, controlled reps (by slow I mean taking at least three seconds to lift and three seconds to lower the weight, and reversing direction between the lifting and lowering movements without bouncing, yanking, or jerking the weight).

The exercise is not over when the muscles start to burn or when things start to become uncomfortable. The real valuable work is just starting. The exercise isn’t even over when your muscles feel like they’re on fire and your heart is pounding through your chest, you’re just getting to the best part. The greatest stimulus for muscular strength and size increases occur during the last few hardest reps, and if you give up at any point short of an all-out effort, you aren’t going to get nearly the same growth stimulation.

2. Not Training Progressively

As you become stronger you must attempt to lift progressively heavier weights to stimulate further improvement. If you continue to use the same weights on all your exercises despite increasing in strength, the weights will no longer be challenging enough to stimulate further improvements. Assuming you are using very strict form, attempt to either perform more repetitions or use a slightly heavier weight on every exercise, every time you train.

3. Doing Too Many Exercises and Sets

It is the intensity of muscular work that stimulates strength and size increases, not the volume. Doing any more exercise than minimally necessary will reduce rather than improve gains, by interfering with the process of recovery and adaptation.

In most cases, all you need is one hard set of only one or two exercises per major muscle group. More is rarely necessary, and usually counterproductive.

4. Training Too Frequently

The body must be allowed adequate time between workouts to fully recover and adapt, or gains will not occur. Exercise does not produce any improvements in the body, exercise can only stimulate the body to produce the improvements, if it is intense enough, or prevent the improvements from being produced, if it too much is performed, too often. The body produces the muscular strength and size increases stimulated by exercise, but only if it allowed adequate time between workouts to do so.

5. Not Keeping A Workout Journal or Progress Charts

Proper adjustment of training volume and frequency to avoid overtraining requires objective evaluation of progress. If you’re not keeping accurate records of your workouts, you can not objectively evaluate the effectiveness of your program and make the necessary changes to keep gaining or get your progress back on track.

6. Using Sloppy Form

Poor form reduces the effectiveness of an exercise and increases the likelihood of injury. While an entire book could be written on the specifics of proper exercise form, one of the most effective ways to improve exercise form in general can be summed up in two words: slow down. Moving more slowly makes it easier to maintain proper positioning and alignment, and allows for better focus on performing the exercise correctly and on intensely contracting the target muscles.

7. Switching Exercises or Routines Too Frequently

Real gains are made by consistent progress on the basic exercises over time. Changing routines too frequently prevents the body from getting past the initial, primarily neural/skill adaptation stage and into the more productive training that follows.

The belief that one must change their routines regularly to avoid plateaus because the muscles become resistant to further improvement with specific exercises is based on the observation that the fastest improvements in performance on an exercise routine occur over the first six to eight weeks after which it begins to slow down, and that changing the routine appears to solve this problem.

During the first several weeks performing a new exercise or routine a larger percentage of the improvements in exercise performance are due to neural or skill adaptations. After this initial period of neural adaptation, performance improvements slow down and the majority of adaptation is occurring in the muscles. This is where the real progress starts, however, and it is important to not change the routine at this point. It will be slower than during the initial six to eight weeks, but you will make progress if you properly adjust your workout volume and frequency.

Contrary to bodybuilding myth and uninformed opinion, the muscles do not stop adapting to a particular exercise, method, or routine – if there is sufficient overload a muscle will be stimulated to grow, and as long as volume and frequency are not excessive, and adequate rest and nutrition are provided, and one hasn’t already reached the limits of their potential, it will grow stronger and larger.

If you only performed a few, basic barbell exercises, covering all the major muscle groups, and trained hard and progressively you would eventually become as big and as muscular as your genetics allow. There is no need to constantly switch up angles, rep methods, or anything else.

8. Not Training Legs

Heavy leg work,  squats, deadlifts, leg presses, etc., can be brutal when done properly, and as a result many would-be bodybuilders avoid it, preferring to focus on the relatively easier upper body exercises. This is a huge mistake, as heavy leg work appears to have a beneficial effect on growth throughout the entire body, particularly squats and deadlifts.

Do not skip training legs. Doing so robs you of potential full-body size increases, and having a well developed upper body and chicken legs looks stupid.

9. Not Eating Enough Quality Food

Your body requires both material and energy to produce new muscle tissue. Often, when skinny guys complain they have a hard time gaining muscle mass, it turns out they simply aren’t eating enough food in general or protein in particular to support the growth they stimulate during their workouts. If you want to get big, you have to eat big. This doesn’t mean pigging out, but getting enough quality food and protein daily to add at least a few pounds per month, but not so much your waist size or abdominal skinfold increases significantly.

Just like your workouts, you have to keep track of your eating and make adjustments based on how your body responds.

10. Wasting Money on Bogus Bodybuilding Supplements

While stopping wasting your money on supplements might not make your muscles suddenly start growing, it will stop your wallet from shrinking.

There are a few supplements which have proven to be beneficial, but most provide little or no benefit. If you want to know which supplements work and which don’t, don’t read about them in the bodybuilding magazines – they make a large amount of their money selling advertising to supplement companies and are hardly unbiased sources of information on the subject. Almost everything you read in muscle magazines is bullshit. If you want reliable information on supplements or their ingredients, read the scientific journals, and even then, do so critically.

“The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want right now” – Zig Ziglar

Many choices we make daily affect our health, fitness and appearance, either helping or hurting us. Some decisions affect us more directly and immediately, others more indirectly and over a longer period of time. We often make decisions that hurt us fully aware of the consequences, rationalizing them based on some immediate, short-term benefit.

“I knew eating/drinking this will make me feel horrible later and slow down my fat loss, but it tastes so good!”

“I know if I buy this TV I will be late paying bills, but the game is going to look great on it!”

“I really should wear a condom…”

When deciding between different courses of action we usually have some idea what the consequences might be, which can be evaluated based on our values. If you value being strong, fit, healthy, and looking your best more than you value the brief gustatory pleasure a particular unhealthy food provides you should choose to not eat it.

But, many times people choose to eat it any way.

It is common to rationalize having a little occasionally won’t hurt, and in some cases that is true, however if your idea of “a little” and “occasionally” is a serving or two a few times a week it is going to hurt you and/or your progress towards your goals.  If you find yourself doing this, when you are trying to decide whether to eat a particular item and weighing how much you value that experience against the potential negative effects don’t think of the negative effect of the single instance, but consider the negative effect of making it a habit over time.

Before eating or drinking something, ask yourself:

Is eating or drinking this going to help or hurt you in the long run, or help or hinder you in accomplishing your goals?

Are you really hungry or thirsty, or just bored or eating out of habit?

If you really are hungry or thirsty could you make a healthier choice?

If you value being strong, fit and healthy and looking good over the temporary enjoyment of eating or drinking certain things make a commitment to thinking and acting in accordance with those values. Post reminders to yourself. Ask friends and relatives for support. Hire a personal trainer.

A few weeks ago I talked about this with a client who wants to lose more fat before summer. In addition to the usual recommendation to purge the house of anything she shouldn’t be eating I suggested she have a photo taken in her swimsuit and post it on her refrigerator door. She says the reminder helps, and it shows. She’s gotten consistently leaner and is well on her way to looking great in a swimsuit this summer.

Whenever I am out with family or friends if I’m tempted to eat or drink something counterproductive to my goals I think about how the enjoyment of a food or drink is temporary while the effect on my body is long lasting. While it might increase my happiness momentarily, it will reduce my overall happiness by negatively affecting the higher value of having a fit, healthy and attractive physique.

A similar choice occurs during exercise. Properly performed high intensity training produces a variety of very uncomfortable sensations – painful muscular burning, significantly elevated heart rate, labored breathing, and even slight dizziness and nausea on occasion – which must be worked through for the best possible results. You can choose to quit when it starts getting hard and avoid the worst of the discomfort, or you can choose to work through it and train as hard as possible.

Which do you value more, being comfortable and avoiding transient and harmless physical discomfort, or getting the best possible results from your workouts?

Which do you value more, the temporary enjoyment a particular food or drink provides, or feeling and looking your best?

Think before you act and choose accordingly.