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We
know that no single
factor by itself will influence our muscle
development unless the other factors are applied properly as well, yet
we continuously try to establish “the one” which reins supreme above all
others. So in order to satisfy your need to find that golden “muscle
building nugget” I present you with what I believe to be thee
key factor for forging new muscle and a compelling case for why it
really is most important.
The key factor…time!
Time plays a crucial role in
every significant aspect of muscle development. No matter what you do
or how you do it, if your timing is not right all your efforts could be
for not—or at the very least you will not get the most from your
efforts. Think about that for a moment. Think about all the energy you
pour into your training and not getting anything from it. Pretty
disheartening I know, but an unfortunate fact for many trainees.
However if the time is
right…you will be able to optimize your muscular development! Let’s
examine the role of time in the muscle building equation.
(TUT = Time
Under Tension) = MUSCLE
There are three major areas
where time is the determining factor in how effective you are in
stimulating gains. The first is in the gym in the form of training
efficiency and time under tension (TUT). Some people spend way too much
time in the gym and too much of that time is spent inefficiently. If
you want to get the most from your body you must train in a way that
will not waste valuable energy and resources on non-productive
activity. Understand that you could literally workout for 20 minutes
and do more to encourage muscle growth than you could working out for an
hour if you use those 20 minutes effectively. This is where TUT comes
into play. Unless your sets are lasting long enough and performed with
enough intensity to maximize muscle fiber recruitment and exhaust the
muscle’s resources (i.e. ATP, glycogen), based on their predominate
fiber type and rate of fatigue, then you are not getting as much out of
them as you should. The consequence of this is two-fold. First you
will need to perform more overall work (exercises/sets) to impose the
level of demands needed to stimulate muscle growth. Secondly, by having
to perform more overall work to satisfy the muscles needs you invariably
place greater stress on your entire system (including your joints,
tendons, CNS, and endocrine system) which will negatively affect the
next major area of muscle development…recovery!
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"Some people spend way too much time in the gym
and too much of that time is spent inefficiently" |
You’ve undoubtedly heard it
before. It is only during the time you are recovering that you are
actually growing. As self explanatory as this seems it is seldom fully
understood. There are different phases of recovery—compensation and
overcompensation—and there are two things that we must recover from.
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Local stress (muscles and
joints) and
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Systemic stress (CNS,
endocrine system, lymphatic system, etc.)
Compensation
is when your level of strength and function returns to what it was prior
to your workouts. Overcompensation is the phase of recovery where your
strength and function exceeds what it was prior to your workouts.
If you do not allow for
enough time to fully recover and overcompensate both locally and
systemically, from the demands of training you will not
grow, no
matter how hard or how often you train. Just because you are not
training the same muscle groups on consecutive days or training each
muscle group more than once a week, does not mean you are getting
enough quality recovery. The more workouts you are performing (no matter
the muscle group) the more systemic stress you are incurring on top of
the stress you incur from daily living. As stress accumulates and
compounds, your need for more time between workouts and/or periodic
lay-offs from training increases. An extra day or two between training
sessions or an entire week off from training might just be what your
body needs to permit new muscle growth.
The third “area of
importance” is
nutrient timing. If you want to take advantage of your
efficient workouts, if you want to get the most out of every minute you
spend recovering then you must make sure that you are getting the proper
nutrients at the proper time. The
proteins, carbs, fats, aminos, and
supplements you take in before, during, after and in-between workouts is
critical to maintaining an anabolic state. Failing to pay attention to
your timing in this one area can not only result in muscle ‘unrealized’
but muscle ‘lost’ as you drift into a catabolic state.
As a general
recommendation never allow for more than 2 ½ to 3 hours to pass—from the
time you wake up to the time you go to bed—without ingesting some form
of protein, so that you can maintain a positive nitrogen balance.
Be sure to have some
carbs (preferably complex, low to moderate GI) at least an hour to
two-hours before you train and within an hour after training (ideally
these should be fast absorbing, high GI carbs). During your training a
mix of aminos and fast absorbing carbs (i.e. dextrose) can be consumed
as well.
If you are not realizing the
muscle growth you think should be possible or your muscle growth has
stagnated despite all the time you have put into its attainment then
it’s time to examine time itself. Are using your time in the gym
as efficiently and effectively as possible? If not you might want to
start with how you spend your time performing each set. Are you getting
everything you can from your muscles every time you touch a weight or
are you spending your time doing a lot of sets that do little to
stimulate growth (i.e. low to moderate intensity, not-to-failure sets)?
What about
when you leave the gym. Can you stay away long enough to allow for
overcompensation or do you give in to your insatiable need to “do
something” even though it could be working against you? Is your
nutrient intake timely enough to support a muscle building environment
or do you sabotage your efforts by letting catabolism sneak up on you?
The implications of time to amassing muscle are great. Use it wisely.
Michael
Lipowski
Natural
Bodybuilding at its Finest - Lift for Life.com |
