Here are 3 proven techniques that reveal EXACTLY how you increase your muscle size and strength and strip away fat… for your best transformation EVER!
By WBFF Pro Fitness Model Vince Del Monte
Did you know that, whether you’re a beginner or seasoned veteran to weight training, science has confirmed three critical mechanisms of muscle growth?
Most importantly, each of these three mechanisms holds equal importance and you’ll need a plan that optimizes all three, not just one or even two, if you want to achieve your best body.
This is not theory nor fantasy talk.
A 2010 paper in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research by Brad Schoenfeld identified these three mechanisms of rapid muscle growth as – mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and muscle damage [1].
Intentional or not, most guys do apply different degrees of these mechanisms to their workouts, so why do they continue to look the same month after month, and even year after year?
The problem is that these mechanisms are being applied in a haphazard and randomized manner which leads to a negative chain reaction of consequences that can wreak havoc on your hormones, lead to overtraining and even injury.
In short, despite your hardest efforts in the gym, you can kiss your gains goodbye.
So even if you’re aware of these three mechanisms, and you’re incorporating them into your workouts in a haphazard and randomized way, it’s simply not enough. You have to have STRATEGY.
If you don’t know exactly how to organize and cycle the three critical mechanisms into a step-by-step, strategic training program, you’ll ultimately cause more harm than good.
And chances are you’ll end up being that guy who gets asked, “Do you even lift, bro?” unless you learn how to apply the three proven techniques I reveal below.
Fortunately, you’re in luck, because that’s exactly what this article is all about—revealing three little-known and challenging techniques to increase mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and muscle damage, so that your hard efforts in the gym no longer go to waste.
Below, you’ll find the three proven techniques you need to follow.
And you’ll also discover how you can organize and cycle these three techniques into a proven “periodized” plan, so you can achieve your own standard of “the perfect body” that deserves to be yours.
Ready to take your transformation to the next level? Here we go…
Technique Number 1 – Maximize Metabolic Stress With Constant Tension Timed Sets (STOP counting reps; rep counting is killing your muscle growth)
Metabolic stress is all about chasing that skin-stretching pump and going until it burns.
The name of the game is constant tension, avoiding pauses in between reps and avoiding pauses at the top or bottom of the movement [2].
Essentially, keep the weight moving with a continuous cadence while squeezing your muscles like they owe you money.
The result: a ton of metabolic stress, simply described as the pump!
This is that truly amazing and powerful feeling caused when your muscles swell up with an excessive amount of blood during your workout, filling them like a water balloon.
This leaves you looking full, tight and pumped up.
The best way to maximize metabolic stress is to stop counting reps — at least for your next 6-week training cycle.
Counting reps is not the “wrong” thing to do; however, it’s not an accurate tool to maximize metabolic stress because studies have shown that the metabolic stress must last longer than 40 seconds to stimulate muscle gains.
Typical bodybuilding programs recommend 6-8 or 8-12 reps without a prescribed tempo (speed you move the weight) which results in sets that hardly last 25 seconds, which is great for muscle strength but not for muscle size.
With constant tension-timed sets, you focus on the actual amount of time under tension rather than the number of reps.
And time under tension is one of the training elements that maximize metabolic stress and dramatically increases your muscle gains.
HOWEVER, because this technique is so intense, your body can only handle it for six weeks, tops, before transitioning to the next technique… which leads us to Transformation Technique #2…
Technique Number 2 – Maximize Mechanical Tension With Cluster Sets (STOP trying to just lift heavier and heavier)
Mechanical tension simply boils down to moving some heavy-ass weight. The name of the game is to achieve the greatest external force production possible with strict and safe form.
The problem is that most guys think that the heavier you lift, the more mechanical tension, but adding additional weight doesn’t necessarily increase mechanical tension and you often shift it away from the desired muscles and onto passive joint structures, which leads to trashing your joints and painful injuries.
And this is not a matter of opinion.
A 2013 study by Pinto, et. al, discovered that maximal force production topped off at 90% during an isometric bench press task, which suggests you are better off working at less than 90% of your max, allowing you to perform more reps with the same or higher tension, thereby producing more time under maximum tension, and faster (and safer) progress [3].
The best way to maximize mechanical tension on the targeted muscles, is to stop trying to just lift heavier and heavier and start using Cluster Sets, which incorporate strategic intra-set rest periods within a set.
Not only does this increase mechanical tension but it stimulates recruitment of Type 2 fast-twitch muscle fibers (the ones with the highest potential for bigger muscles) before you fatigue the muscle.
These intra-set rest periods enable you to do more reps than you ordinarily would and to stimulate the Type 2 fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are usually not recruited until after the Type 1 muscle fibers have been fatigued during traditional programs that promote just lifting heavier and heavier [4].
With this type of strategic set-up, cluster sets will not only get you serious results as far as size, but improve the efficiency of your neuromuscular communication, making it easier to continue a faster rate of growth compared to guys who don’t know this technique.
But just like the last technique, this one too has a 6-week expiry date because this technique is very demanding on your central nervous system… which leads us to our final Transformation Technique…
Technique Number 3 – Maximize Muscle Damage With Omni Sets (AVOID excessive muscle damage and seek out the sweet spot)
Remember the last time your body was crazy sore? Pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for achieving muscle damage.
The name of the game here is selective variety, and to utilize specific intensity techniques such as slow speed negatives, increased range of motion, intense tension in the stretched portion of the muscle and incorporating a variety of exercises with multiple angles.
The problem is that most guys associate muscle soreness with more is better, but this is not necessarily true.
Excessive muscle damage can actually make you weaker and smaller, causing delayed recovery and can result in lackluster workouts, burnout and injury.
Omni Sets are a unique and fun way to achieve muscle damage, without the overkill that occurs from the ineffective more is better approach, and can induce a lesser but still significant degree of muscle damage to ensure your body is healed and recovered to train again, resulting in long-term progress.
With Omni Sets, we change the stimuli from set to set, which means we could change the grip width, feet position, body position or angle of the bench.
The key is to not do this randomly but to change the stimuli so that you’re giving your body a mechanical advantage from set to set, thus, allowing you to sustain a greater degree of effort and muscle damage in the end.
This proven technique, along with the other two discussed above, are outlined in a complete transformation program.
What’s Next?
Start following the exact Beta Version workouts from my upcoming masterpiece, No-Nonsense Muscle Building 2.0 (NNMB 2.0), which is based around the three proven mechanisms above.
The best part is that the Beta Version workouts have delivered jaw-dropping results from a test group of 63 regular people… as you’ll see from their crazy before and after pictures on the next page.…
Listen, because the three mechanisms of muscle growth build off one another, it’s best to organize them into three strategic 6-week phases for week-after-week results until you don’t recognize yourself in the mirror anymore…. just click the next page. button below and I’ll show you how to get started today…
So, if you’re ready to experience proven, unique and fun transformation techniques, solidified into a tested and proven body transformation system that destroys plateaus, blows away your expectations and sculpts a rock-hard, eye-popping physique with six-pack abs… then click the next page. button below to get after your new body ready to be revealed…
RESULTS DISCLAIMER: If you’re content “winging it” in the gym and experimenting with unproven bro-science techniques then get content with the same mediocre results you’re already getting. And if you’re OK looking “average,” without a desire to stand out in the crowd, then you’re definitely not ready for the Beta Version workouts of NNMB 2.0. The results you’re about to see on the next page are only deserving of SERIOUS and COMMITTED students ready to WORK HARD.
References:
1. Schoenfeld, B. J. (2010). The mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and their application to resistance training. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 24(10), 2857-2872.
2. Pollen, T., Contreras, B., The 3 Essential Workout Methods for Muscle (2015) T-Nation
3. Burd, N. A., Andrews, R. J., West, D. W., Little, J. P., Cochran, A. J., Hector, A. J., … & Phillips, S. M. (2012). Muscle time under tension during resistance exercise stimulates differential muscle protein sub‐fractional synthetic responses in men. The Journal of physiology, 590(2), 351-362.
4. Pinto, R., Cadore, E., Correa, C., da Silva, B., Alberton, C., Lima, C., & de Moraes, A. (2013). Relationship between workload and neuromuscular activity in the bench press exercise. Medicina Sportiva, 17(1), 1-6.
5. de Salles, B. F., Simao, R., Miranda, F., da Silva Novaes, J., Lemos, A., & Willardson, J. M. (2009). Rest interval between sets in strength training. Sports Medicine, 39(9), 765-777.
