Bursts

Who (is it for), what (is it), why (do it-benefits), where-when-how (the workout plan)

Quick workouts

Esp for older and naturals

Hollywood transformations not sustainable

build the exercise habit

Discipline > motivation

Better focus/form/effort

practice makes body better at something (CNS and fiber recruitment)

Everything else is fitness add and burnout

Daily circulation for health and recovery/pulse GH/Glut4/stem cells

Why do you train? For a stress response and growth.

MED for strength/stress adaption

Old school daily

Gymnasts, bodyweigth (prison, indian wrestlers). trade workers, farm strength

Old school strongmen (Saxxon)

Millo and the bull

Arnold did full body 3x a week

Arthur Jones full body 2-3x a week

Bro splits came out with more steroids (and volume)

Reps

30% vs 80%

Muscle fiber recruitment

Occlusion studies

Take to failure

Sets

2-3 sets >1 but no real diff with more

Rest pause for volume and time efficient

MPS

MPS lasts 24-48 hours. Longer in newbie gains 72 hr (baseline) Source

MPS lasts 3 hours (even with elevated BCAAs up to 5 hours) Source

Workout goal is to stimulate/stress for adaption/super compensation

Older and natural 24-36 hours (vs anabolic assistance 24/7). Body adapts. Need more stress.

Still need full body recovery (CNS, etc) and adaption/super compensation (could be another day?)

As you get stronger, the stress/load becomes more.

Eating enough protein in one sitting (20 v 40g) Source

Getting enough protein overcomes older MPS (acts like young MPS response). 30g? Source

Aim for 1.6 g/kg (lean)

Frequency

Splitting up volume better?

one set of six contractions a day for 5 days a week vs 1 day.small number of eccentric contractions 5 days a week is more effective for increasing muscle strength than performing a larger volume of eccentric contractions once a week. However, it appears that training volume is a factor for muscle hypertrophy in a short-term training.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/sms.14220

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220815085707.htm

Notes: single jointed = less CNS stress (which requires more recovery)

Studies:

Yes, one long session a week can improve strength and muscle……but you can also get the same results in shorter (and more frequent) workouts assuming the volume is the same for both overall. The choice is of course yours

Progression

main goal. How often to train based on recovery.

Keep it simple.

There is muscle recovery and systemic recovery

Recovery

Lifestyle

stress and hormesis

Benefits

Master the habit. 5 min a day more realistic than 1 hour a week.

Strength is s akill (practice with ample recovery)

Discipline > MotivationBuilding the habit of being active

– Increasing circulation (recovery, fat loss and health)
– Focusing on exercises that give best bang for buck
– Practicing movements to be better at (skill)
– Learning to listen to your body (and adjust intensity as needed)
– Increasing daily energy and focus

 

 

Disclaimer and
Waiver of Liability

The full content of this document are for informational purposes only and does not provide any medical advice. Statements within have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

This content is intended for use only by healthy adult individuals.

All individuals are advised to seek professional medical advice prior to initiating any form of exercise or nutritional program.

The author does not accept any responsibility or liability for damages of any kind from any actions you take from the information provided. By continuing to read this book you agree to all terms as stated above.

To sum up, use any information at your own risk!

The IF Life. Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

Introduction:
Master the Habit

 

Focus on what matters. 80/20. Getting stronger. Master the daily habit. Progression and consistency. Get in and out. Focus on short bursts of intensity.

Don’t chase motivation with goals, master the process.

Little f’n vistories

Years in the making. Instead of writing another book decided to put this out here for everyone. Short and to the point.

Don’t forget to also sign up for all updates below

Daily benefits may include increase circulation, recovery, nutrient delivery, FFA oxidation (GH intensity), less chance of burnout and injury.

Disclaimer: Many ways can work, until they stop working. Then things may need to be changed up. I’m here to just give a template for you to use. Do whatever you like.

The Fitness Habit

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Recruiting Muscle Fibers

The body is made up of several kinds of muscle fibers (slow and fast twitch) with most muscles being an even mix of both.

Fast twitch are generally used for more power and strength (but tire quickly) while slow twitch are used for more endurance (but have lower strength output).

When doing resistance training, your muscles are recruited from the smallest (slow twitch) to largest (fast twitch).

This is also known as Henneman’s size principle.

Slow twitch fibers, which are low force and more endurance focused, are activated first. If the activity is lower in intensity, they should get the job done.

However when intensity is higher (or heavier), the fast twitch fibers are called upon to be activated.

Heavy Weights Vs High Reps

When it comes to increasing muscle size (hypertrophy), fast twich fibers have a greater potential.

As seen with the size principle, as the slow twitch fibers fatigue or can’t handle a higher intensity then the fast twich fibers come into play.

How does that relate to the number or reps or weight used?

Well one study (Mitchell, 2012) measured hypertrophy in groups lifting:

The 30% x 3 sets produced the same amount of muscle growth as the 80% x sets (with larger increase in strength in the 80% groups).

Figure: Mitchell, 2012

Another study (Burd, 2010) showed that training at 30% 1RM to failure increased MPS (muscle protein synthesis) to the same level as 90% 1RM to failure.

So as long as reps are worked to failure, higher reps (or lighter weights) can be useful for muscle size.

“The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow.” ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger

More research:

Conclusion:

Using up to 30 reps (more in untrained) can produce good results when the effort is high (close to fatigue/failure). Strength seems to be better in the lower rep range (heavier lbs).

 

Reps and Weights

 

Or how much lbs

Old school train of thought on reps

It is often recommended that heavier training intensities (∼70%–80% of maximal strength) be lifted to maximize muscle growth. However ACSM 8-12 reps

rapid recruitment of FT fibers, is the large driving force behind the skeletal muscle hypertrophy seen with blood flow restriction, skeletal muscle hypertrophy can be achieved at low intensities without blood flow restriction when taken to muscular failure, the overall volume of work required is much greater than that needed with blood flow restriction.(Loenneke, 2011)

Venous blood flow restriction (VBFR) combined with low intensity resistance exercise (20-30% concentric 1-RM) has been observed to result in skeletal muscle hypertrophy, increased strength, and increased endurance. (Loenneke, 2012)

Body made up of all different kinds of muscle fibers (slow and fast).Most muscles are around 50% slow-twitch, 50% fast-twitch,

When you lift weights, muscle fibers are “recruited”, which means that as repetitions continue and become more difficult, the body demands that more muscle fibers come into play and perform work. At the final repetition, the point of failure, all muscle fibers possible are recruited, and this is the most important step in muscle growth (hypertrophy).

Size Matters

Size principle of recruitment

Henneman’s size principle states that under load, motor units are recruited from smallest to largest. In practice, this means that slow-twitch, low-force, fatigue-resistant muscle fibers are activated before fast-twitch, high-force, less fatigue-resistant muscle fibers. In low-intensity activity, most muscle force is generated by slow-twitch fibers. As the intensity increases, fast-twitch fibers are recruited, and at the higher intensities, the fast-twitch fibers are activated.

when a muscle contracts, metabolic byproducts are created. In addition, during a contraction or any time a muscle is under tension, blood flow to and from the muscle is restricted, and the metabolites are cleared more slowly. When the metabolite production is greater than the cardiovascular system’s ability to remove them, the concentration increases and begins to interfere with muscle contraction.

As intensity increases, the fast twitch fibers are activated.

sets must be high effort to recruit and fatigue all fibers. During any set in which you lift a weight to failure, your nervous system will first recruit small/slow motor units and then begin to recruit larger and faster motor units until the force demands are met

hypertrophy in a constant tug of war are mechanical tension and metabolic stress. (Schoenfeld, 2010).

“The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow.” ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger

80% vs 30%

The same amount of muscle growth and protein synthesis occurred with 3 sets to failure using 30% and 3 sets to failure using 80% of your maximum load.

80% (8-12 reps), 30% (30-40 reps)

30%-3, 80%-1 , and 80%-3. resulted in similar hypertrophy as a heavy load lifted to failure.Both the 80%-1 and 80%-3 conditions demonstrated a larger increase in 1RM strength compared with the 30%-3 group. (Mitchell, 2012) (graph used)

Figure: Mitchell, 2012

The second study showed that training at 30% 1RM to failure increased MPS to the same level as 90% 1RM to failure/

90% of repetition maximum (1RM) until volitional failure (90FAIL), 30% 1RM work-matched to 90%FAIL (30WM), or 30% 1RM performed until volitional failure (30FAIL)

The increase in the rate of protein synthesis in MIX and MYO at 4 h post-exercise with 90FAIL and 30FAIL was greater than 30WM, with no difference between these conditions; (Burd, 2010)

and there are other examples

We have a lot of evidence showing similar per-set hypertrophy with loads ranging from 30% to ~85% of 1RM, but dipping down to 20% (60 reps) may just be too low to create adequate muscle tension to maximize growth. (Lasevicius, 2018)

Loads ≤50% 1 RM increases in strength and hypertrophy in untrained individuals, heavier (60+%) loading for trained

Rep range does not matter for hypertrophy (at least up to 30 reps/set for trained lifters and 100 reps/set for untrained old people), so long as the effort per set is equal.

we have reported that intensities as low as 30% of maximum strength, when lifted to volitional fatigue/failure , are equally effective at stimulating muscle protein synthesis rates during resistance exercise recovery.

Strength increases are highly specific to the rep ranges used

Now free to choose the weight that best suits you, you can feel the muscle working and is safe. High reps will suck ass to do though

Wrap Up

Heavy lbs not needed (although better for strength gains, but not hypertrophy). Training close to failure more important for lighter weights and more adv trainees.

Strength is load dependent. Lift in the range/load

Chapter 2:
Sets and Rest

 

Berger 1962: Training 3x/wk. 1, 2, 3 sets. The results showed that three sets (3% increase) and six repetitions per set were best for improving strength. (Berger, 1962)

Also add in rest periods

1vs 3 set: Myofibril protein synthesis (MPS) was increased 5 hours post exercise for both 1 set and 3 sets, but remained up at 29 hours post exercise only for 3 sets. (70% RM) (Burd, 2010)

Figure: Burd NA, 2010

1 SET, 3 SETS, 5 SETS, or control group. 3x/wk. 6months. Results demonstrate a dose-response benefit size/strength/endurance for the number of sets per exercise with 5>3>1. (Radaelli, 2015)

3-set > 1-set for strength/size in legs but not upper body.(Rønnestad, 2007)

Is more better? Are there dimnishing returns?

2 to 3 sets per exercise are associated with 40% greater strength gains than 1 set, in both trained and untrained subjects. There was no significant difference between 2-3 sets per exercise and 4-6 sets per exercise. (Krieger, 2010)

2-3 sets per exercise to be associated with a greater ES than 1 set, and a trend for 4-6 sets per exercise to be associated with a greater ES than 1 set. There was no significant difference between 2-3 sets per exercise and 4-6 sets per exercise.” ~ (Krieger 2010)

Meta: Weekly sets 5, 5-9, 10+, 5 sets = 5.4%, 5-9 = 6.6%, 10+ = 9.8%

The findings indicate a graded dose-response (each additional set performed produces an increased gain of 0.37%.) relationship whereby increases in RT volume produce greater gains in muscle hypertrophy. (Schoenfeld, 2016)

Using rest pause gets results and is more time efficient for multiple sets (esp when using higher reps).

 

As get older and more advanced (not newbie) you need a higher stress signal (volume or load…but load will plateau). Either more sets or higher focus on going to failure with bigger loads (eccentric). This creates more stress and more time for recovery.

Conclusion

2-3 sets seems to have better MPS responses than 1. Using rest pause is a time efficient way to get more sets in. Of course you can still do less sets and get results in a more time efficient manner.

Traditional bro wisdom holds short rest periods of 1-3 minutes are optimal

Rest-pause and drop-sets are good ways of accumulating fatigue quickly. For example, if you are short on time in the gym you could drastically reduce training time and still get in the same amount of total training volume (Prestes et al., 2017). This may not be ideal if you want to work at a high intensity (%1RM), but for hypertrophy it could be enough.

Rest pause

Tempo

Dont need fast or slow tempo, More about TUT for hypertrophy.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8310485/

Frequency

Purpose of training is to stimulate a MPS response

Untrained may not need higher freq compared to well trained (MPS response)

Norwegean freq project. 3 v 6x a week. Not to failure. Same volume. 6x better strength and size. Less fatigue in shorter workouts. More force production.

https://www.strongerbyscience.com/high-frequency-training-for-a-bigger-total-research-on-highly-trained-norwegian-powerlifters/

 

3 v 6x a week compariable results

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30363041/

 

5x vs 2x a week full body. 5x better esp for arms and quads. (link)

2x a day training may help reduce overtraining

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19124903/

 

6x a week vs 1 day (biceps)

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220815085707.htm

 

 

Workout Plans

list plans

list sample exercises

Recovery Lifestyle

hormesis

Higher reps can act as an increased recovery from higher stress days (esp tendons which need more blood flow). See rehab.

Wrap Up

Thanks. Share. etc

References

Studies