Well, I figured it was about time I consolidated the complete Maximizing your Gains Series into one complete set. Nothing better than a boxed set. I don't see how you can fail (assuming nutrition is spot on) building muscle if you adhere to these principles. Just to recap, what I am going to try to dissect in this series of training articles is what I see most people doing wrong in the gym and excuses they are making that are stagnating their growth (and frankly driving me crazy). They are lifting like chickens with their heads cut off day in and day out and getting nowhere but frustrated. Then they think they have to turn to drugs to make any progress. Once these training principles have been mastered, then AAS can come into the picture. There will just be a little intro to each series and then you can click on the link to read its entirety. First let me recycle the 10 commandments I go over before I step into the gym:

https://www.eroids.com/forum/training-nutrition-diet/workout-exercise/10...

I received this in an email from Ben Pakulski who is an IFBB pro. I have been incorporatating alot of his training principles and it is really making a difference. I have really been able to put on some quality mass following his principles and philosophy which you can probably notice if you look at some of my earlier pictures compared to now. Before every rep and set these 10 rules are in the back of mind.

The bottom line I take from this is that it is NOT how MUCH you lift but HOW you lift that separates the big dogs from the puppies.

THE 10 UNIVERSAL RULES FOR BUILDING MUSCLE!

By Ben Pakulski

1) A muscle is WEAKEST at its EXTREMES of the range. SO, learn to isolate these points of the strength curve and make it stronger. As a result you will become proportionally stronger in the mid-range and GROWTH WILL OCCUR!

2) Always try to work a muscle through its complete CONTROLLABLE Range of Motion (ROM), although that may not be possible within ONE exercise. It is always possible within a given workout!

3) Muscles DO NOT recognize weight! Muscle recognize TENSION! Increase tension, increase growth!

4) Focus on training DISADVANTAGES, not advantages. Training disadvantages = bigger muscles. Every workout you should be learn how to make every exercise HARDER by manipulating body position, slowing the movement down, maintaining tension in both directions… BEFORE you even think about adding weight. Often times, adding weight just leads to your body seeking out training advantages, in other words, cheating.

5) ALWAYS INITIATE with the working muscle! (if you're training your delts, the first movement MUST come from the delt, not somewhere else or momentum!)

6) CONTROL through the entire range is a must. A negative (eccentric) rep should be under such conscious control that you can change direction at ANY point of that ROM, and start coming back up (concentric). Control is the CURRENCY of muscle growth. If you can’t control the muscle, you can’t challenge it.

7) Larger muscle require more stimulus to reach exhaustion. But also take longer to recover between workouts. Smaller muscle groups can recover faster so can be trained more frequently.

8) KNOW which muscle are PRIMARILY fast twitch and which are PRIMARILY slow -twitch! This will ALWAYS affect the number of reps, sets, loads and rest periods.

9) Work a variety of rep ranges within each workout. Different rep ranges allow you to vary your TUT (time under tension), and ensure you're working all types of muscle fibers.

10) SQUEEZE IT LIKE IT OWES YOU MONEY!! (my personal favorite! ;)) Another way to say this is to “Contract AGAINST the resistance.” You can fatigue a muscle simply be contracting the life out of it and often times more weight only stresses your joints than your muscles.

Now on to the series

Maximizing Your Gains - Part 1: Tension

What happens when you are lifting too heavy of weight is that in order to get that heavy weight to move you are using every muscle around your target muscle along with momentum to get the weight up. The TENSION is shifting everywhere except the target muscle and your range of motion is much smaller. We have all seen this before. Classic example is the bozo doing barbell curls that is leaning way back and swinging the weight up (nice shoulder and back workout dude – to bad your arms are never going to grow.) Then the dude is complaining he just can’t seem to get his biceps to burn and he just can’t feel it.

https://www.eroids.com/forum/training-nutrition-diet/workout-exercise/ma...

Maximizing Your Gains – Part 2: Density Training

What I mean by DENSITY is the amount of work that you are doing in a set timeframe. By changing the density of your workout you will increase your lean body mass and most likely burn more fat in the process.

https://www.eroids.com/forum/training-nutrition-diet/workout-exercise/ma...

Maximizing Your Gains – Part 3: Embrace the Burn

The burn we are talking about here is the buildup of lactic acid in your muscles. If you have never felt that burn in your muscles, you need to step it up a notch or get a different workout routine. The lowdown on lactic acid is that it is a byproduct of cellular energy production. So what is happening here is that when you experience an increased demand for oxygen and energy (which will happen with an intense weightlifting set) your body pumps out lactic acid. It is your body’s way of signaling that what you are doing is taking a hell of a lot of energy and you aren’t going to be able to sustain what you are doing for very much longer

https://www.eroids.com/forum/training-nutrition-diet/workout-exercise/ma...

Part 3A: Embrace the Burn - (The Workout)

I figured I might as well put up a workout that maximizes this concept of lactic acid and Part 3 of the series. Be prepared for some grueling giant sets. These workouts are a surefire way to get your muscles burning. The program is designed to be run over the course of one month.

https://www.eroids.com/forum/training-nutrition-diet/workout-exercise/pa...

Maximizing your Gains – Part 4: Learning Proper Anatomical Muscle Function

The Problem: You are unaware how to maximally lengthen and shorten your target muscle. Grab a protein shake and get ready to learn.

https://www.eroids.com/forum/training-nutrition-diet/workout-exercise/ma...

Maximizing Your Gains – Part 5: Wave Loading

Strength training is obviously an essential component of any effective muscle building program. Here is why: when you get stronger you are able to use greater loads (i.e. heavier weights) and, as you should all be aware of now after reading parts 1-4, putting greater loads on the muscle will force that muscle to grow. Boom, pretty simple

https://www.eroids.com/forum/training-nutrition-diet/workout-exercise/ma...

Maximizing Your Gains – Part 6: Tips for Killer Quads

Do You Suffer From CLS – Chicken Leg Syndrome

https://www.eroids.com/forum/training-nutrition-diet/workout-exercise/ma...

Maximizing Your Gains – Part 7: Don’t Blame it on Genetics

The problem: You think you have genetically inferior body parts

Just let me warn you ahead of time that what I am going to talk about here may seem a little abstract, but if you stick with me I think you will have a new perspective on the term Genetics

Obviously we all have our strong bodyparts that just seem to grow on their own. You don’t even really have to think about them when you train, there is just that natural feel and groove to training that body part that makes it grow easily. For me it is my biceps. Nobody is going to match my biceps on stage this year. For you it may be something else, but you know what it is because it just naturally responds to your training.

Now the million dollar question is why do certain body parts just seem to grow so easily? I am going to say the G word, Genetics. The definition of Genetics here is the mechanical advantage some muscles have and that other muscles do not. Makes sense right. That is why some muscles are just so much easier to train than others. Your body is set up in a way that gives those muscles a mechanical advantage which allows them to develop quicker.

https://www.eroids.com/forum/training-nutrition-diet/workout-exercise/ma...

Maximizing Your Gains – Part 8: Slow Twitch vs Fast Twitch Muscle Fibers

Your muscles are composed of two types of muscle fibers. These are slow twitch and fast twitch fibers. On average the human body is split pretty even (50/50) between these two types of fibers, but this is not always the case. Look at your elite marathon/endurance athletes. It is has been shown that they can have up to 80% slow twitch fibers. On the other extreme are sprinters and I would also dare say bodybuilders. These individuals excel at what they do because of a preponderance of type 2 fibers. Is sprinting more your deal or are you more of an endurance athlete? Answering that should give you an indication of the predominant type of fibers you have. Here is more scientific method of determining your predominant muscle fibers. It is call the 80% test.

https://www.eroids.com/forum/training-nutrition-diet/workout-exercise/ma...

Maximizing Your Gains – Part 9: Progressive Overload

This is probably one of the most important reasons why your routine is doomed to fail or why you are making gains while your buddies are left behind. If your workout routine doesn’t contain some type of progressive overload component, you are just spinning your wheels. You are just going through the motions doing the same thing day in and day out and not forcing your body to adapt and grow. Even introducing AAS into the equation here will not make up for a program lacking in progressive overload. So then, what actually is progressive overload? Let’s look at my textbook version first and then I’ll try to break it down into something meaningful.

https://www.eroids.com/forum/training-nutrition-diet/workout-exercise/ma...

Maximizing Your Gains – Part 10: Rest Pause Training

I’ll get right to the point here. Rest pause training is a great way to break through a plateau and a safe way to get stronger without lifting heavy weight. The other hidden gem with rest pause training is that it is an excellent form of hypertrophy training also. There are not many training methods where you get the benefits of both worlds equally (strength and hypertrophy), but this is one of them. In part 5, if you recall, I talked about wave loading. That is a balls to the wall all out strength program with little in the way of hypertrophy. Rest pause training is hypertrophy based with a good dose of strength training mixed in. As you well know now, once you are stronger that means you can lift heavier weights which is going to translate into bigger muscles once you go back to your normal hypertrophy training. I also like rest pause training because it is just a blast to do. Let’s get to it.

https://www.eroids.com/forum/training-nutrition-diet/workout-exercise/ma...

There you have it, the complete boxed set.

Pair this info with a solid diet plan and you should reach your goal in no time.