By Michael Krueger
The formula for muscle growth is simple: work it, feed it, and rest it. It’s important to do all three equally, and there are many effective ways to do just that. The one thing that links all three together is that it takes a lot of effort to be successful across the board. It’s easy to do one or even two, but it’s hard to work out regularly, eat well, and get enough sleep on a regular basis.
It doesn’t matter if you are just starting out or if you have been at it for years; consistent effort is still the key to success.
How It Works
Let’s start with a foray into the science regarding sets, reps, and effort as it applies to building muscle.
Go into the gym and watch people work out. You will see any number of programs with a variety of rep and set schemes. There are 5 sets of 5, 3 sets of 8, 8 sets of 10, pyramids, ladders, breakdown sets–you name it, and you’ll see it.
There are more arguments revolving around how to exercise than there are exercises, and that’s saying something. If you are trying to sell a program, then you have to be able to show that it’s superior to all others. That’s a stretch, to say the least. The fact is, each program will work for any trainee and at any given time, depending on far too many factors to go into here. That being said, they will all work if you put forth superior effort.
So there is it again: effort. We’ve all see people lifting who do not generate enough intensity to break a sweat, much less elicit a training effect of any sort. It’s not that it’s all that complicated, either. All that’s needed is that the last rep or two be very difficult and that if you continued you probably wouldn’t make another in good form. It doesn’t matter if that is rep number 5, 10, or 20. Muscles can’t count; they just respond to effort.
There is much good science behind the “effort equals muscle” equation, but I’m not going to bore you with that. The simple explanation is that when you train, muscle fibers are recruited from the smallest to the largest until they are mostly all in use. Small ones are slow twitch, so they have great endurance; large ones are fast twitch, so they can produce a lot of force but only for a short time.
You can lift quickly or slowly, heavy or light; it doesn’t really matter. Different lifting protocols activate muscles in slightly different ways, but so long as the last rep is “the last rep,” then you have, through your effort, sufficiently fatigued the muscle and it will grow.
Just remember that it’s the effort and the results that matter, not the science.
More Science Anyway
Have you ever heard of Milo of Croton? In Greek mythology, he was the guy who lifted a calf every day, and as the calf grew, he got stronger until eventually the calf became a fully grown bull and he could still lift it. This is a fanciful but somewhat accurate example of how progressive resistance works.
Many protocols call for lifting a particular percentage of your one-rep maximum for a specific number of reps. I’m not a big fan of those programs, because in my experience the prediction tables aren’t particularly accurate. So unless you are going to actually test for your one-rep max, you are still going to be messing around with a lot of trial and error. Besides, there are a lot of single joint exercises where you cannot safely measure your one-rep max. In fact, most of us need never test for a true one-rep max on any lift. The risk of injury is far too great for the benefit of knowing your one-rep max. Besides, I have never met anyone (outside of competition) who is really capable of pushing to that limit; it’s just too hard.
The function of weight in resistance training is to give you something to move and to limit total repetitions. In its simplest form, it doesn’t matter what the weight you’re lifting is made of and you wouldn’t need to know the exact poundage either. You could be lifting chunks of iron, sandbags, hay bales, your body weight, or a bull calf. As you lift over time, you train your muscles to work in a coordinated way, and they grow and you get stronger.
The interesting part is that if you do it right, it never really gets “easier.” Let’s say you started out squatting 100 pounds 10 times and that was a max effort on your part. After months and years of squatting, your max effort is now 225 pounds 10 times. If you could really remember how the original 100 x 10 felt, you’d realize that the 225 x 10 felt no different. The effort was the same; you have just conditioned your nervous system, toughened your mind, and built larger muscles, but it’s still your max effort. Effort is effort whether applied to 100 pounds or 300 pounds, 1 rep or 10; it’s all relative to your current abilities. That’s why it’s important to push your limits every time you train. You won’t get better doing today what you could already do yesterday.
There is scant evidence that particular rep ranges will illicit significantly bigger muscles or improved strength. You may have heard that 10-15 reps is for muscular endurance, 6-10 is for muscular hypertrophy, and 1-5 is for strength. I have quoted those numbers myself, but in reality there isn’t a ton of good science behind them. It is mostly anecdotal and mythological “evidence” that has kept them alive. After a while, you may find that one protocol seems to work better for you than another or that you simply prefer a specific range. If that range is bringing you closer to your goals, I think that’s a good enough reason to continue using it.
As you can see, there isn’t only one way to succeed. There isn’t any magic, only effort. You spend your time in the gym fighting for that next rep, in the kitchen fueling for the next workout, constantly training your mind and your body, getting tougher every day, and never giving up.
There are a lot of ways to succeed, and they all involve effort, but none of them involve quitting.
Continued Progression
So, you’ve trained for years; you’ve met or exceeded the goals you set so many workouts ago. You’re looking good and feeling healthy and strong. You’ve worked hard and have been successful, but now your gains have slowed to a trickle. You’re also feeling a little stale, and you haven’t logged a new personal record in a long time. It’s getting more than just a little frustrating; what do you do now?
Just a word of caution: Don’t even think about drug use to jumpstart gains; there’s nothing but pain and heartache down that road. If you think you have a problem (is “low-T” advertising ringing a bell?), see your doctor for a physical to be sure everything is working right.
This the point that some people decide to back off from the iron game and take up golf or knitting or something. If that’s what you choose to do, that’s cool; enjoy yourself.
For those who aren’t ready to move to the recliner, there is only one course of action: Stick with what got you this far–hard training, solid nutrition, and an overall healthy lifestyle. It’s time to review your log books, check your diet and recovery, and then take a look in the mirror. Do you like what you see? I’m not just talking physically, but do you respect the person gazing back at you?
You won’t find the answer in a new gym or a new workout. The answer lies in seeing how far you’ve come and being proud of that but not satisfied. So set a new goal, even a crazy, scary big one, one that will take more effort than you’ve ever given to anything before, and then see how much farther you can go.
Final Words
Yep, that’s all there is to it. There’s no magic, just hard work, discipline, and patience. Just for a moment, though, take a look back and remember how different you were when you set out on this journey. You’ve accomplished so much already
…but of course you didn’t come this far to only come this far.
The big difference is that you have learned to apply a greater intensity to your effort.
Michael Krueger is an NSCA-certified personal trainer. He got his start in fitness training while serving in the United States Coast Guard. He works with firefighters and others in and around Madison, Wisconsin. He is available to fire departments, civic organizations, and athletic teams for training, consulting, and speaking engagements. He has published numerous articles on fitness, health, and the mind-body connection and was a featured speaker at the IAFC’s FRI 2009 Health Day in Dallas, Texas. E-mail him at MKPTLLC@gmail.
