It’s not even a question about whether we want to build muscle quickly or not. Of course we want to, we want everything quick. Given the choice, why would we ever want something to take longer than it needs to? With as much effort as it takes to build muscle and lose fat, the sooner we see results, the better.
If you look at the average person you will see that they don’t build muscle quickly. They build muscle either very slowly or not at all. The average gym may be one of the most inefficient and non-productive places on the planet! If you think of building a body the same as building a house, the average person would most likely be homeless because the damn thing would never get built. The majority of people spend their time at the gym like hamsters on a wheel. They put forth some effort, but don’t actually make any progress. The days and months go by and they usually look pretty much the same as they did when they started.
[Ryan Reynolds is the perfect example of being in great shape without being too bulky. I would rather have this look than the bulky, steroid head look that so many young guys are after. The only problem with this though is that with a shirt on, he doesn't look all that muscular. With a shirt off, you can see that he is very lean and also has a decent amount of muscle. The majority of woman would rather their guys look like this anyways, which is an added bonus! Don't believe me? Ask your wife or girlfriend what look they like better, Ryan Reynolds or Ronnie Coleman. ]
I don’t want you to waste your time with your workouts. I want your time in the gym to be time well spent and I want you to see results. I am going to go over why I feel that most people’s workouts are not productive and what can be done to change this.
There was a time shortly after quitting my job as a carpenter to give my business my full attention, that I slacked off from working out. I was so busy and something had to give in order to get everything done. I was too tired to get up early and lift and I was too busy at night to train. After taking a month or so off, I felt really shitty and needed to get back in the gym. I couldn’t stay away for too long, but I also couldn’t waste time either! I decided that if I was going to put the time in, I needed to actually get results. I lifted for years and pretty much just maintained where I was at. I didn’t get any bigger and I didn’t get any stronger. I was like a see-saw. I would get stronger for a while and then a little weaker, then a little stronger, etc.
It was like pissing in the wind! I was doing the work, but it wasn’t very effective. . . . and I needed to take a shower afterward! 
As I thought about what it takes to build muscle quickly, I finally realized why me and most of the people around me where not making progress. I am natural, as in drug-free, and always have been. Of course if I wanted to build muscle quickly, I could of took steroids, but I never did. This post is written with the other natural athletes in mind. (I doubt that there are any steroid heads reading this blog anyways. They don’t need to learn how to build muscle quickly, it just comes natural. . . . Uh, well not natural. How about it just comes easy? Besides they are too busy cutting their shirts in to string tank tops and going shopping for skull caps!)
The main reason for my lack of progress was that I was not following the principle of progressive resistance on a consistent basis.
Okay, I can here you saying. “So that’s the big secret, Kelly? Progressive resistance? Everybody knows about this already. I thought I was going to learn something here and you bust out with progressive resistance?!!!”
Bear with me, because if you are not making consistent gains and you are truly being honest with yourself, I can tell you that you aren’t doing as good a job at it as you think. In order for you to trigger the growth mechanism that causes muscle growth, you need to force your body by consistently doing more than you did the last time. Whether it is another rep, more weight, an increase in the number of sets, a decrease in rest between sets, etc. You have to do more or your body will not grow. It has no reason to, you haven’t done anything to cause it to grow. Just showing up and mulling around the gym with no set purpose or plan isn’t going to cut it. Thousands of people in gyms around the world are proof of that.
The best advice that I can give you is to get a workout journal. A spiral notebook works great, although anything that you can use to write down your workout is fine. Write down everything that you do every workout. Write down the exercise that you did, the weight, how many reps, how many sets, everything. It only takes an extra minute or so to write it down, just do it. Once you have everything down on paper, you can use this to set goals for your next workout, and guarantee that you will do more than you did last workout. If you did eight reps your last workout for a set, this time do nine. Your mind is an incredible tool if you use it properly. If you set a certain number of reps as a goal in your mind, you will most likely get it. If you don’t write down what you did, you will never remember from workout to workout, and you will most likely quit before you push your body far enough.
[There are so many things wrong with this! Where do we begin? I love how the people beside this wackadoo don't even look over at her. She does have a great Elvis move though at about 40 seconds in!]
Without having a record of what you did, you will not know what you should do for your next workout. The progression doesn’t have to be that much. It just needs to be more and it needs to be consistently more each workout. If you actually take my advice and train with a purpose and a set goal in mind, you are going to gain muscle. If you force your body to grow, it will grow. Hard work in the gym isn’t a guarantee that you will build muscle. People train hard in the gym everyday, but people don’t consistently gain muscle everyday. It’s the little differences that make all of the difference. It may be one rep here, another five pounds there, less rests between sets this workout, etc. The small changes are going to make the big gains. Try this and as long as you are getting enough rest in between workouts and are eating properly, I guarantee that you will build muscle quickly.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent point for all to remember is that a progression makes the difference from yesterday.
I was lucky when I started to weight train 2 years ago that my first program was Vince Delmonte and he insisted to not only write everything down but also time the whole workout even the rest periods so I know exactly my power output throught the session and this made a huge difference, as I can see many people at the gym who started at the same time as me they still look the same.
You should also apply this progression to cardio machines.
I know that girl in the video looks a bit wacky but when I compare the people next to her mindlessly walking (they should be doing that outside) with no intensity moving like that I’d say she would have burnt more calories, raised her heart rate, some flexibility training, needed some co-ordination and possibly had more fun … saying that I’d personally stick to sprinting haha …but she probably should save that for a Zumba class.
Raymond
Raymond-ZenMyFitness´s last [type] ..What Type of Mindset is needed to be Successful in MMA
Progression is key. So many people get stuck in a rut and don’t make the effort to get out of it. At its worst, some people resort to steroids. Yikes. Going for a sustainable long-term solution is much more effective. That’s why I like barbell training. If you use a training log, you can easily add 5-10 lbs to your lifts every week.
Darrin – Lean, Mean, Virile Machine´s last [type] ..4 Fitness Lessons You Can Learn from The Rocky Films
Kelly,
Great point about having a workout journal. For the longest time I never kept a workout journal and just went with what I felt that day. After awhile of this nonsense it started to feel like the movie “Groundhog Day” doing the same thing over and over with no result and getting burned out. That was also going to the gym 5 days a week, 1 1/2 hr workouts a day. Then I had a moment of clarity or divine intervention…I started keeping a workout journal and planning my workouts. What a huge difference! Now I am going to the gym 3 days a week with a plan and purpose each day and seeing great results. I write everything down and like you said shorten my rest periods, increase weight if need be, and add reps etc. I find my self looking back to the week prior to my current workout and making such adjustments. Now I don’t get bored and look forward to my next workout.
BTW, You think the girl in the video is a barbie girl in a barbie world?
Tim
Kelly, some real good stuff here. I do have a slight disagreement though. I think, with a shirt on, you should be able to tell that you life weights. That’s just my opinion maybe. As a powerlifter, I’m less concerned with having “ripped abs” and more so with being able to move serious weight. Really, my muscularity is a side effect of that.
I do agree however with the importance of a training journal. When I got into powerlifting, I was amazed at how precise everyone was, down to the percentages of their 1rm they would use on a given lift, in a given day.
This kind of precision keeps you on point and ensures you are always making progress. Cheers!
Raymond,
I’m sure she burnt more calories than the zombies beside her. I’m kind of a hoser and like to point out things that are funny to me. It’s all in fun, but you’re right, at least she was having fun and getting a better workout!
Darrin,
I have kept a workout journal for years and I really think that it has helped me to stay focused. It also keeps you accountable for your workouts, because when you are writing it down, you don’t want to have the record show that you were slacking!
Tim,
I always look back to what I did at the previous workout and use that as a goal for what I am doing at this workout. It gives you a benchmark to try and beat. I am amazed that more people don’t take the time to write their workouts down.
Josh,
Thanks for stopping by. It really depends on what you are wearing, I guess. If I have a tight t-shirt on, I will look muscular. With some looser clothes though, I don’t look all that big. I am 41 and don’t care as much as I did about who thinks I am big or not. Of course, it matters some, but I don’t worry as much as when I was in my twenties. I am healthier than ever, leaner than ever, and have a wife and three kids that don’t care how big my arms are or if I can still deadlift over 600!
I am a past powerlifter also, I competed in the 181′s and loved the mental part of lifting heavy and pushing your body past what you think you can do. That was over ten years ago though, and I don’t train the same way as I used. I do have every workout documented in a training journal though and love to look back on the past workouts. Back when I was strong! lol.
-Kelly
Great post Kelly,
I burst out laughing when you said “So that’s the big secret, Kelly? Progressive resistance???” But it is, like you said, something that is essential if you want to actually make progress. For a long time I never wrote down the weight I used and even though I was sure I would remember, I never did when the next workout came around.
Definitely, worth whipping out the big bucks (like $2) and getting yourself a note pad dedicated to tracking your progress. It’s the simple things we tend to overlook, and often make the most difference.
David´s last [type] ..Footwear Of The Future- Today
Kelly,
I definitely agree that tracking your training is key to growth. One of the challenges I find is that I change routines every 6-8 weeks and it’s hard to compare 3 set of 3 reps with 2 minutes rest to 5 sets of 10 reps with 45 seconds rest. Another point I’d make is that even though you want to progress each workout, you don’t necessarily need to train to failure.
Dave
David,
It’s the little differences that make all of the differences. My training partner does the same thing with never writing anything down and he never knows what he did from workout to workout. We are pretty close in strength though, so I can usually keep him on track!
Dave,
I still think it would help to keep track of everything though. Even if you don’t do the same workout for a year or so, it is good to look back and see what you did. I like to look back to the days when I was powerlifting in the mid 90′s and reminisce about when I was actually strong! Pretty sad to be living in the past, I know!
I agree about not always training to failure. I learned that from Yavor in his post about increasing the amount of pullups and chinups and it helped me to do more total reps.
-Kelly
Good points all. In addition I would like to share with you and your readers this link to a study that shows that more brief but intense workouts help to stimulate your body to release more growth hormone which builds more muscle. Getting into the gym and then getting out of it may actually be the key to building more muscle. The study found that chronic workouts, specifically cardio routines tend to decrease the body’s ability to build muscle.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12797841
Bryan – Workouts Without Weights´s last [type] ..George St Pierre Returns To The Octagon
Bryan,
Thanks for the link to that study. It’s nice to see some scientific proof to back up what guys like us have been preaching!
-Kelly
Kelly,
I’m glad you mentioned keeping a workout journal. I track all of my workouts in Excel with the progression goal in mind. I like to write down exercises, sets, and reps before I workout so that I have a plan in mind beforehand and I’m not just going into my workouts without any direction.
Alykhan
Alykhan – Fitness Breakout´s last [type] ..My Favorite Healthy Fast Food Choices
Alykhan,
That’s a great way to do it. This is actually a form of visualization that you are doing. When you look over and plan what you want to do, you set it in motion in your mind. There are numerous studies that show that this will help you to do the weight and reps that you plan. If more people would plan what they are going to do each workout, they would make much better progress.
-Kelly
A Workout journal is almost a must, at least for me. I only started making consistent gains, once I got a workout journal. makes a huge difference to know where you left off and where you need to be, at the same time if today you are able to push more weight you can prepare for your next workouts by increasing the weight that you start with.
Great points, plus I like the video. That girl is practicing her dance dance revolution!
Alejandro “The Fittest Vegan”´s last [type] ..Visual Impact AKA Body Transformation 101 The Results
Hi!
Ive added your blog to my website http://www.quakefitness.com. A link to this post has been published on the website!
Just found your blog, keep up the good work!
Quake Fitness – Connecting Fitness and Health Blogs!
I genuinely need to develop some muscle as well as eliminate some of my belly fat since I haven’t been looking so good recently. This information will probably finally guide me to consider genuine action to accomplish my goals in the next couple of months.
yes, a workout journal is a must, since progressive overload is the key principle to muscle hypertrophy. Can I suggest knowing your calories count too? I think it will help a lot, because if you assume/estimate your calories and you are wrong, you will always be wrong and will never realise it. Just my 2 cents
I couldn’t agree more with using a workout journal. I didn’t for the longest time but a good friend of mine convinced me to start using one and I never looked back. One thing that struck me in your comments was setting goals and the power of your mind. This I think was the most important part of your post. I learned a little trick when I was trying to hit 225 on the bench press. I had such a mental block that I convinced myself that I wasn’t going to be able to do it and sure enough I wouldn’t. I promised myself that I was going to stay away from the bench for two weeks. I was going to replace the bench with an intense push up routine then I would get back on the bench and push the 225. Setting that goal and giving myself a break from the stress of getting on the bench was crucial. I am not saying the push ups didn’t help but setting the goal and giving my mind a break from obsessing was key. The mind can be our most powerful ally or can be our worst enemy it’s up to you.
Lew@ectomorph workout´s last [type] ..The Ectomorph Workout plan That Packs On Muscle
Well, i’ve been using a workout journal since i’ve started working out last year and it is really enjoyable that you always record what you do on that day. It’s one of the best way to keep track of the time, exercise you have done and the reps you have executed.