How Do Muscles Get Bigger And Stronger From Weight Training?
How do I get my muscles bigger and stronger from weight training without using drugs? That was the main question in my mind when I walked into a gym for the first time as a scrawny 125 lb teenager. The idea of building muscle to the point of creating a truly impressively muscled physique then seemed to be as unlikely as reaching the summit of Mount Everest with a hundred pound knapsack on my shoulder and no oxygen. Initially I was truly confused as I was surrounded by a cacophony of often contradictory information on the subject of muscle building. Everyone had their ideas for best practices, and my problem was that doing the 5-6 day a week, one hour a day training routines didn’t yield much to me in the way of results. At first it didn’t make sense that I was not progressing as quickly as some of the other guys in the gym who trained every day and seemed to sprout new muscles every time I saw them. I blamed my lack of progress on bad genetics, and believed that if I just stuck to the program and was patient, and stuck to my diet with complete dedication, that I would eventually get my muscles bigger to the point where I looked just like the superheroes in the comic books. (Which was and always has been my goal). As time went on and I was accepted and indoctrinated to the culture of the gym, I learned that all of my childhood bodybuilding heroes used steroids and that without using steroids, there was only so far you could go in terms of building muscle. Apparently everyone in the muscle magazines competing as a professional bodybuilder from the 1950’s onwards were using steroids in some form. Even more disheartening, was that almost all of the guys in the gym who had the look I was aiming for, either were on drugs or used performance enhancing drugs at some point in time. I would learn that even one cycle of anabolic steroids was enough to forever increase your muscle cells to the point where you would always be more muscular than someone who never used drugs in the first place. On one hand though, it was a relief. It didn’t make sense to me physiologically that people could train in such diverse ways and still build such impressive amounts of muscle. In the end, I saw that it didn’t really make a difference how people trained. As long as you were on the juice and putting in enough time in the gym with even a not picture perfect diet and training with moderate intensity, results would be significant. Seeing this, I did what any nerdy kid would do. I stopped listening to the well meaning advice of the guys in the gym who were training sometimes as much as twice a day and building muscle while using drugs, and instead took it upon myself to start doing real research.
I stopped reading bodybuilding books and magazines, as they were all about peddling protein powders and supplements that they claimed would make you look like the champions in their pages. We didn’t have the internet, but we did have Joe Weider and a slew of other supplement selling muscle magazines that made it just as confusing as it can be today with all the bodybuilding websites and their supplement marketing based messages. I left it all behind to focus instead on the science of how the human body actually works. It wasn’t easy, reading books and studies on muscle building back then. I couldn’t go online to look things up if I didn’t understand something in a physiology textbook, I had to find and ask someone who actually knew something about the subject which looking back I can say was to my advantage. With the help of some great mentors and my thirst for marketing free knowledge, I was able to develop my own method of high intensity training which helped me compete successfully as one of the top natural bodybuilders of my time going to as high as 225 lbs with a body fat percentage in the single digits. And most importantly, I was able to do it without using steroids or any other kind of hormones or performance enhancing drugs. I even stopped using protein shakes and supplements as I could clearly see that they didn’t work and distracted me from the important tenet that I didn’t need anything outside of myself to attain my goals, just an intricate understanding of how muscles get bigger and stronger. I went on to establish a successful career as a personal trainer NYC and have had the honor of being the first lifetime natural bodybuilder with a successful DVD on the market (it’s still selling on Amazon today) and working with some of the top natural bodybuilders, bikini and figure competitors over the years. My work as a trainer in helping hundreds of men and women achieve their fitness goals over the past 27 years has also gone a long way in giving me an even deeper understanding of how muscle growth really occurs and in the following article I hope to pass on what I have learned from my now three decades of lifting experience. It might sound very different from what you are used to hearing about how muscles get bigger and stronger, but give its principles a try and you will be as amazed by how well it works as I have been for all these years.
How Do Muscles Get Bigger & Stronger- The Role Of Stress
The first and key element required for our muscles to get bigger or stronger is stress. Physiologist Walter Cannon came up with the term ‘homeostasis’ to explain the way in which our body does its best to always stay within a comfortable operating range where our cells can function optimally. The concept is that while external forces can sometimes bring about drastic changes in our body, it always reverts to a default position. Your heart rate is a good example of homeostasis as it beats constantly within a set range under ordinary conditions, but that rate can either go up or down depending on what type of activity you are doing. In spite of these fluctuations, as long as you are healthy, your heart rate will always return to its regular resting rate. Stress is a key reason for your body to change, and having observed soldiers returning from World War One he coined the oft used phrase ‘fight or flight’ to describe the hormonal reactions in our body in response stress. In addition to life threatening situations, more mundane activities such as exercise also evoke a homeostatic response. A Polish endocrinologist named Hans Seyle furthered these concepts when he discovered in his experiments that rats who were exposed to certain chemicals all suffered the same failure of several major organ systems in a way that could be reproduced no matter what chemical was used. He called it, the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) and it encompasses the state of an organism in relation to how it adapts to its environment. The systematic organ failure he saw in the rats was a failure to adapt to stress. He found that there were three clearly defined stages within this particular syndrome, the first being the ‘alarm reaction’, very similar to the ‘fight or flight’ response described by Walter Cannon. The second stage being an adaptive response- where the organism tries to adapt to the stress as a form of resistance. Finally if the stress is too large for the organism to handle, the exhaustion phase where cell death occurs.
As negative a connotation that the word ‘stress’ carries for us today, the reality is that it is an extremely important stimulus in our daily lives as it allows us to adapt to our surrounding environment. Without stress, we wouldn’t exist and in many ways it can be a very positive thing as it is how the body acts to remove or minimize the effect of a stressful stimulus. A common example of stress at work is a callus. If you wear shoes that are a bit too tight and it rubs repeatedly against a part of your foot, if the action isn’t so strong as to form a blister (the exhaustion phase) As long as the action is not strong enough to create a blister (exhaustion stage) over time the layers of skin that rub against the inside of your shoe will begin to harden. The skin will continue to get thicker and harder until a callus is formed. The callus then, serves as a way your body protects the deeper layers of skin tissue from being destroyed by the action of rubbing against your shoe. In essence adaptation works to minimize the effect of stress on the body.
How Do Muscles Get Bigger & Stronger- Adaptation
The way in which our muscles get bigger and stronger is a prime example of the General Adaptation Syndrome. Understanding how it works can help you make the most out of your workouts. Let’s look at the most ubiquitous of muscles: the biceps. Your biceps are responsible for any movement involving elbow flexion such as a biceps curl. Now your body, over the years is already adapted to the weight of your arm and the regular activities that you do on a daily basis, so you could do lots of biceps curls with no weight and your arms would not get bigger or stronger. You’d get tired, the way you would by performing any kind of calisthenics, but your muscles wouldn’t increase in strength. In order for your muscles to get bigger and stronger, you would have to apply overload. To overload means that the muscle experiences a load above and beyond what it previously adapted to in order to trigger the sequence of a new adaptation.
So in a way, it sounds pretty straightforward- put some weights on a barbell, more than you have ever done, but not so much as to bring about injury and do some curls to increase the strength and size of your biceps. But there are some more principles involved, if not everyone that picked up a barbell and did some curls would have arms like Arnold Schwarzenegger! Our muscles, and our body in general tries its best to remain in homeostasis (remember that word?). So, in a way our body is reluctant to adapt and when it does adapt to a particular stimulus, it will stay where it is until there is a greater degree of stimulation. It is very similar to the way most people do their jobs, if you think about it. We tend to do just what is required of us to get the job done and if the minimum amount of effort works the first time around, then everything is fine. Only if it doesn’t do we increase our efforts incrementally, not in leaps and bounds until the job is done. Our body works exactly the same way, and you might even say it is a bit on the lazy side.
How Do Muscles Get Bigger And Stronger? The Role Of Overload
So, back to our biceps curl. When you subject your biceps to the overload of lifting weights they undergo a cascade of cellular events that lead to an increased production of contractile proteins. This process, called anabolism, also increases the size of the muscle. As the muscle gets larger the mechanical stress from the adaptation is spread out over a larger surface area and consequently places a smaller stress on the muscle. To sum it up, increased size equals increased strength. Physiologists will say that increase in contractile proteins is an expression of the muscles’ capacity to generate force. The strength of a muscle, therefore is often relative to its cross sectional area. Now, that doesn’t mean that if you keep lifting weights your muscles would continually get bigger and stronger until you could lift a Honda with one arm, as there are limits determined by our gender and hormones. Men have more testosterone than women, and so will have bigger and stronger muscles, and women not using anabolic steroids or hormones have little chance of naturally developing male sized muscles, no matter how hard they train.
Now after doing the bicep curl with an overload high enough to trigger an adaptation, a number of hormonal and chemical events occur. Among them are factors that bring about adaptive anabolic muscle building. These chemical actions, along with the mechanical stress to the point of overload leads to increase in muscle size, which we call hypertrophy. But, and this is important- the adaptation does not happen while you are training, but while you are at rest! What does that mean? It means that if you really want to maximize your results in terms of strength and muscle size you need to do three things:
1. Always train to a point where your muscles are seriously taxed- as if you do not, there will not be adequate stimulation for the adaptation response to be triggered.
2. Always keep changing the exercises you do and the way you do them so your muscles do not adapt too quickly to the work you are doing.
3. Make sure that you spend more time resting that you do training. Physiologically, training is about breaking down your muscles, while resting is about building them up, so if you are serious about increasing your results, you should train harder but less frequently. My rule has always been, train three days- rest and grow for four days.
What Can Stop Muscles From Getting Bigger & Stronger- Overtraining & The Importance Of Adequate Rest
Say the words ‘Train less’ to most serious exercise enthusiasts and they will look at you as if you have two heads, but it makes perfect sense. Remember the General Adaptation response model? If the action is too great and the organism is unable to adapt to the stress, it results in the exhaustion phase, where on a cellular level instead of a building (or anabolic) action, there is a destructive action (catabolic). This, in terms of exercise stress, is what is called overtraining and is defined as a physical, behavioral, and sometimes emotional condition that occurs when the volume and intensity of your exercise exceeds your body’s capacity to recover. You stop making progress and in many cases find yourself getting weaker more fatigued and generally less motivated as time goes on. Overtraining can also lower your immune system and increase the incidence of injury. (See figure 1)
In my experience, the number one reason why most people don’t make the progress they expect in the gym is overtraining. Having put on over 100 lbs of muscle using short high intensity workouts lasting from ten to thirty minutes in duration three days a week, I can say with authority that less is indeed more. Unfortunately, many look to the examples set by those using anabolic steroids as an example of how they should train. In doing so, they fail to take into account that one of the primary advantages of steroid use are faster recovery times and that overtraining is no longer an issue. It is an issue, however for those of us who train without the benefit of such potentially dangerous drugs and while it may be hard for many to consider training less frequently and for shorter times, it is hard to argue with the results it can bring.
My Budget Home Gym Setup Recommendations
Anyone following along knows that I have a pretty impressive home gym setup, but as nice as it is to have all this equipment, the fact is that you don't need very much in order to make progress if you are training at home.
Which is why my number one recommendation is a pair of dumbbells. Maybe a barbell as well, but that's really all you need.
I trained for about a year during the lockdowns with just a pair of dumbbells and a barbell and was able to make tremendous progress, and to this day I universally recommend and provide dumbbells to my online training clients and they have made some great gains as well.
So if you are thinking about training at home, start small and keep it simple. Thanks as always for watching and as always, Excelsior!!! #naturallyintense
#homegymsetup #dumbbells #trainathome #trainingathome #naturalbodybuilding #naturalbodybuilder #naturalbodybuildingvideos #homegymlife #homegymequipment #homegymrat #homegymideas #homegym #personaltrainer
High Intensity Training- Negative Leg Extensions!
The negative, or eccentric, phase of any resistance movement creates the most micro trauma and thus stimulates the most growth and strength increases.
As such having someone pushing down in the lowering phase can REALLY up the intensity of your training.
This was my last set and my training partner and Naturally Intense Personal Training Senior Trainer @egcitrin is pushing down as I lower the weight and (and is it just me or is she pushing more and more as I go along?)
But I don't stop there.
On the 12th rep I execute an isometric hold for a count of 5 seconds with Erika actively pushing down before ending with nine punishing final reps!
I think I was sore for at least a full week after this but still training and hope you are too!
And as always, Excelsior!!! #naturallyintense
#naturalbodybuilding #naturalbodybuilder #highintensitytraining #highintensitytrainingtips #hometraining #homeworkout #fitover40 #naturalbodybuildingvideos #naturalbodybuildingtraining #naturalbodybuildingtips #naturalbodybuildingmotivation #legextensions #legday #legworkout #powertec #legdayworkout
Avoiding Injury As A Natural Athlete- Just Do This!
As a natural athlete, whether your goal is bodybuilding or body transformation, everything happens slowly and over very long stretches of time.
To that end, it is of the utmost importance that you prioritize not getting injured, as an injury can slow if not completely curtail your ability to realize your goals.
That being said, most people, when something hurts, just power through it, as there is this misplaced belief that there are some exercises that you need to do.
Squats, deadlifts, barbell bench presses and the like may be excellent exercises, but if it hurts, don't do it.
Or better yet, do something else to build yourself up to a point where you can do them, but there are times when some of those mainstay movements simply might not be for you.
Now for some, saying everyone can't squat or deadlift is heresy punishable by ridicule, but they won't be with you at the physical therapy sessions, and they will still be training while you are out.
If it hurts, don't do it, even if your favorite influencer swears it's a necessity. There are hundreds of alternatives, and your job is to find what doesn't hurt while recruiting the most muscular activation and sticking with it.
Do that and you'll save yourself a lot of pain and you'll realize your goals much faster as well. Stay safe while training and as always, Excelsior!!! #naturallyintense
#naturalbodybuilding #bodytransformation #nodrugs #weighttraining #listentoyourbody #avoidinginjury #naturalbodybuildingtips #naturalbodybuilder #fitness #fitnesstips #nosquats #injury #injuryprevention #trainsmart #sustainabletraining #nosteroids #naturalbodybuildingvideos #excelsior #highintensitytraining #fitover40 #personaltrainer #bodybuilding
Why Exercises Won't Get You A 6 Pack!
One of the most common questions I get asked is what exercises I do for my abs and my response of
"Absolutely none whatsoever" is often received with some sense of disbelief, but it's the honest truth.
I don't do any direct exercises for my abs and haven't since the mid to early 1990's because I already had a foundation from years of truly grueling ab work and having a six pack is directly proportional to what I eat, not what exercises I do.
My abs get plenty of work from the squats, rows, deadlifts and other compound movements that I do and I can prove, having not done crunches, leg raises, planks and any of that for the past 28 years or so that it's 100% diet.
If you want to have great abs, the exercise you need to master is walking away from the foods you shouldn't be eating.
My diet is and has been one of precision for a very long time, and it's what I eat and how I eat that allows me to always have a six pack, nothing else.
The good news is that everyone already has a six pack, you just have to get rid of the fat deposits above it for them to show, and if you put your mind to it, stay disciplined and avoid processed foods entirely, it can certainly happen.
So watch what you eat and focus on your diet if you really want that six pack and Excelsior!!! #naturallyintense
#sixpack #sixpackabs #6pack #6packabs #absmadeinthekitchen #everyonehasa6pack #abs #noabworkout #naturalbodybuilding #personaltrainer #drugfreebodybuilding #naturalbodybuildingtips #naturalbodybuildingmotivation #muscularity #naturalbodybuilder #timededicationsacrifice #excelsior #focusontheprocess #dothework #diet #abs
I Only Train Three Days a Week.
That's right.
Just three days a week with short high intensity training based workouts and it allowed me to compete successfully as a natural bodybuilder, and it's how I have trained and how my personal training clients have trained for the past 30 years.
The biggest problem in training is a lack of dedicated experimenting.
Everyone goes along with the training programs espoused by the most popular, without questioning the fact that the top figures in the fitness industry are all on steroids, and as such their methods may not always be best for natural athletes.
There are many reasons to consider low volume training but most importantly is that it allows for training sustainability.
Three days a week is far more doable long term than 4, 5, 6 or 7 days a week.
And I can tell you for a fact that it has been tested time and time again, and it works if you work it.
So give training less some consideration and as always, Excelsior!!! #naturallyintense
#train3xaweek #highintensityworkouts #naturalbodybuilder #trainlessexcelmore #trainsmart #sustainabletraining #competeatthehighestlevels #nosteroids #naturalbodybuilding #naturalbodybuildingvideos #naturalbodybuildingtips #excelsior #highintensitytraining
Lever Arm Presses 595 for 28 Reps!
High Intensity Home Training.
The (Titan Fitness) @betitanfit Lever Arm setup on my @roguefitness Monster Lite Rack and my @powertecfitness Utility Bench is a godsend in terms of adding variety to my home training.
It feels very much like a Hammer Strength Machine Press and the best part is that you can not only angle it to get the most out of the pectoral contraction, but that you can put the weight up at a point where it really feels heavy all to but the end of the movement.
For this movement I pyramided up to the most weight I could put on and decided just to go. No plan in terms of reps, just get to that point where it really starts to scorch and then keep going!
I don't think I ever got this many reps in before but I felt strong at the start and what I do know is that I was unnaturally sore for at least a full week afterwards!!!
Still training, hope you are too and Excelsior!!! #naturallyintense
#naturalbodybuilding #naturalbodybuilder #highintensitytraining #highintensitytrainingtips #roguefitness #betitanfit #UnleashYourTitan #ryourogue #hometraining #homeworkout #roguerack #fitover40 #naturalbodybuildingvideos #naturalbodybuildingtraining #naturalbodybuildingtips #naturalbodybuildingmotivation #leverarms #chestday #chestworkout #powertec
New Video: Why I Stopped Training In Public Gyms!
Click on my bio link to find out why!
In March 2020 after 31 years of training in gyms, I began training at home and have been training here ever since. Which is surprising for someone like me given how much I benefited from training in a gym environment, but over the years things have changed and not necessarily for the best.
Commercial gyms are a far cry from what they used to be and I began to feel over time that training in a public gym was starting to be detrimental to my overall progress.
Yes, it's more convenient to train at home.
Yes, there's no commute involved.
And yes, I can collapse on the floor after a workout and not have to move (which is really nice, by the way!!!)
But that's not the main reason why I stopped going to gyms and I can honestly say that I may never set foot in a commercial gym again.
Click on my bio link to see the full video and find out why!
Thanks as always for taking the time to look at my work and Excelsior!!! #naturallyintense
#gymlife #homeworkouts #fitness #trainathome #gymalternative #nomoregyms #gainsathome #naturalbodybuilding #naturalbodybuilder #naturalbodybuildingtips #fitover40 #naturalbodybuildingmotivation #homegym #hometraining #homegymlife #homegymsetup
How Long Does It Take To Look Like A Natural Bodybuilder?
The journey to get that muscular physique you see on an impressive looking natural bodybuilders isn't easy and it doesn't happen overnight.
It takes years of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice even with good genetics.
It took me well over 12 years to do it myself, but the best part is that YOU CAN DO IT!
You don't need drugs, you don't need supplements, you just need dedication and consistency.
But you have to keep in mind the fact that it won't happen overnight.
So, as I always say focus on the process. do the work and Excelsior! #naturallyintense
#naturalbodybuilding #personal trainer #drugfreebodybuilding #natura;lbodybuildingtips #naturalbodybuildingmotivation #muscularity #naturalbodybuilder #timededicationsacrifice #excelsior #focusontheprocess #dothework #tenyears
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Featured everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to CBS News, Personal trainer New York City Kevin Richardson’s Naturally Intense High Intensity Training have helped hundreds lose weight and transform their bodies with his 10 Minute Workouts. One of the top natural bodybuilders of his time, Kevin is also the international fitness consultant for UNICEF and a 5 time Best of Manhattan Award Winner for Personal Training
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Featured everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to network TV, Kevin Richardson is the international fitness consultant for UNICEF, natural bodybuilding champion, creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training and 5 time winner of the Best of Manhattan Awards for Personal Training.
