EFFECTIVE TRAINING

Heavy or light weights, high reps or low reps, machines or free weight, 6 sets per body art or 16 sets, short rest between sets or long rest between sets, super strict form or controlled cheating, full range of motion or partial reps, dumbbells or barbells, each body part once a week or twice a week, 3 days on 1 day off, 2 days on 1 day off, Weider principles or Mike Mentzer’s heavy duty approach?????

The list of training methods seems endless and sometimes intimidating even to the most experienced gym goers. Well which is the right way you ask? The truth of the matter is that there are many "right ways" of training, which will all yield good results. Nevertheless, through my own personal experience as a drug free athlete along with my dealings over the years with numerous other successful athletes, I now firmly believe in keeping it simple. At the end of the day when all is said and done, effective training is actually quite simple no matter what some (usually those with vested interests) would have you believe. To effectively build muscle you must do three things:

• Overload the muscle
  
  Training to failure i.e. until you cannot possibly perform another rep, is crucial to stimulating maximum growth. Theoretically you could achieve failure by using a light weight and performing a hundred reps. That quite obviously is not the most effective way of overloading the muscle. A better approach is to train with heavier weights, and fewer reps, which is far more effective in terms of your focus, energy and time. Try to stay within the 4-8 rep range. If you can do more that 8 reps - then the weight is too light. If you can't do 4 reps - then the weight is too heavy. Remember, progressively overloading the muscle is what stimulates hypertrophy (muscle growth). You should increase your training poundage's whenever possible.
  
  
• Proper Recuperation
  
  After training a particular muscle group heavily and with sufficient intensity, you need to let your muscles fully recover before blasting them again. Research indicates that it takes muscles at least 72-96 hours to recover from intense weight training. I personally recommend that you train each of your major body parts no more that once a week.
  
  
• Proper Nutrition
  
  It is critical to the recovery process that you employ good nutritional habits, and place a high priority on consuming sufficient high quality protein in your daily diet. It is important to the recovery process that you maintain these good habits on a daily basis, throughout the week and throughout the month. Consistency is essential.

Building muscle really is that simple. The hard part is being persistent and actually following through on a constant basis with those strategies - without looking for an easier answer. Keep in mind that bodybuilding mags would go out of business if they printed the same old boring things month after month. Everybody is looking for something new and improved, so don't blame the mags or the "training experts" who preach their worth therein. They know what their readers want!

DETERMINING THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF SETS & REPS

Sets

I'm not going to try to tell you exactly how many sets you should use to train each body part effectively. It really depends on your level of training intensity and only you know what your level of training intensity really is. I do, however, believe that if you truly train with super high intensity, then you will need to do fewer sets per body part. If, on the other hand, you train with less intensity you may need more sets. Since I believe that training with utmost intensity is the key to optimal gains, my personal approach is as follows: After warming up sufficiently, I perform no more that two to three intense working sets per exercise & I perform two to three exercises for smaller body parts (eg. arms, calves, abs) and three to four exercises for larger body parts (eg. Chest, Legs, Back). With 100% intensity put into each and every set it is extremely difficult for me to add any extra volume to my work out.

Reps

If you asked a few different people what the right amount of reps are, chances are you may get a few different answers. Some may suggest 10-12 reps while others will insist that 6-8 reps are the ideal amount. As I say, the key to stimulating optimum gains is to train heavily and with maximum intensity. This type of training requires extreme focus and concentration. The less time you are forced to focus and concentrate, the better your focus and concentration will be. Therefore I believe that you should aim for 4 -8 repetitions per set. It's easier to train at a higher level of intensity and to lift a heavier amount of weight if you aim for 4 -8 reps rather that shooting for 12-15 (note: it has been my experience that some people respond better to slightly higher repetitions for leg training i.e. 10 - 15 reps per set).

In Summary:

I recommend that you stick to the following training guidelines to ensure optimum and long-term progress:

• Train heavy (most of the time) - muscles need to be regularly & progressively overloaded in order to continue to grow.
  
  
• Regularly challenge yourself to lift more weights.
  
  
• Decrease your training volume and increase your intensity. After performing a couple of warm up sets with the first exercise for a particular body part, don't waste time or energy performing unnecessary warm up sets on the following exercises for that body part. Go straight to the heavier weight.
  
  
• Perform your exercises with reasonably good form using controlled cheating where necessary. Never cheat to reduce intensity. Controlled cheating should only be used as a means of increasing intensity i.e. to get one or two more reps out of a set after reaching positive failure. If the weight is too heavy your form will be too sloppy to be effective. If on the other hand the weight is too light, you may use great form, but remember that you can't progress without the challenge of incrementally lifting more weight.
  
  
• Perform every set (except warm ups) to absolute failure.
  
  
• Keep total number of sets to a minimum, 4-6 (excluding warm ups) on smaller muscle groups and 6-10 on larger ones.
  
  
• Ensure adequate rest before training a muscle again. Train each body part no more that once a week and always take a day or two off during the week to ensure adequate recuperation.
  
  
• Back up your training with good nutrition and pay particular attention to adequate protein intake.
  
  
• Back up your training with good supplementation. Self-education in the field of sports supplementation is essential so that you can take advantage of the tremendous advances in this area.
  
  
• Be consistent and persistent. "Rome wasn't built in a day." Developing a physique to be proud of is a long-term endeavour. Impatience with the body building process is the greatest threat to you ever achieving your goals.