What Are You Weighting For? Strength or Size [Part 2: Size]
By Beau:
Ok, so back where we took off. Now that we have gone over being strong its time to get SWOLE. As I have noticed a lot lately the whole body building culture is on the rise and the appeal to be as aesthetically pleasing to the eye is a number one priority in the gym scene. There are so many different sciences on what works for getting big, how many sets, how many reps, when you train, what you take etc. It doesn’t have to be that complicated, especially for people who are beginning a training routine.
Mass/size gaining is all about the capillarisation of the muscles, where the blood vessels around the myofibril increase with sarcoplasm and which then increase muscle density and makes them larger.
Sarcoplasmic training comes after Myofibril training, in its natural progression. The normal amount of reps completed in a set are 8-15. Typically I will use strength training first in a session then move on to mass training after. This mainly depends on the type of muscles that would be used in the session. For instance lets say we are doing chest. First I would start it off with a compound exercise like bench press for my strength, then I would follow it up with a more isolated exercise like a fly and move focus on getting size through that and have it super-setted with an incline press. Then move on though until the reps are at the height of their rep range. I usually aim for 3 sets on each exercise and 6 different exercises in a session.
How many reps do you need to do for each exercise? This comes down to what you want to achieve out of the session. The bigger a muscles mass is the less reps you need. So lets say we have a back session, I would do: Chin Ups – Works: Lats, Biceps, Traps, Rhomboids (3-7 reps) Bent Over Bar Bell Row – Works: Traps (6-10 reps) Wide Grip Lat Pull – Works: Lats & Rhomboids (10-14 reps) Seated Row - Works: Rhomboids & Erecta Spinae (14-18 reps) Reverse Cable Fly – Works: Rhomboids & Rear Delts (16-20 reps)
That’s the way I would break down and focus on different parts of the back and work them at different loads so they can define through strength, mass and muscle endurance.
Recovery time is usually very limited from 30 secs to 1 min, and depending on where you are try and make sure the machines you use if you are super setting are close and not in demand by others, other wise just focus on the one exercise and move on. Through the end of the session you should be experiencing “The Pump” muscles are swelling and filling with sarcoplasm which is the energy source of ATP, creatine, water and glycogen.
Training for size takes a lot of dedication, and requires mental toughness to push through long sets of high intensity weights. The burn is what deters most people from training and becomes very hard, so I encourage muscle endurance sets, mainly sets that have higher than 20 reps and go until you burn out. These are pretty much cardio but through hypertrophy. Along with high carb diets with in your metabolic window gaining mass wont be as hard as you think, it just takes time and effort and to stick through.
Remember to stretch and finish it off with a protein shake!
#behyperactive