Your weapon to gain muscle

If our goal is to gain muscle or muscle mass, we must design a training plan that provokes the appropriate hormonal response. In that sense, if we want to hypertrophy our muscles we will need to increase protein synthesis and, for this to happen, a series of hormones - such as testosterone, IGF-1 and growth hormone - are necessary. There are various determining factors when it comes to provoking the appropriate hormonal response that practically no one in conventional gyms takes into account. We tend to think that to gain muscle mass it is only necessary to become exhausted after moving the maximum possible weight. If you are one of these, you couldn’t be more wrong. Good hypertrophy training has nothing to do with strength training and, therefore, is not related to being able to move more or less weight. If I had to order the different factors based on their potential to provoke a greater hormonal response, they would be the following:

1. Rest time between sets

The most important and most neglected factor. Only a few in the training rooms control the rest time between sets. If they knew their importance, their potential, we would all go with a stopwatch in our hands. If you want the maximum hormonal response, make sure you never rest for more than 90 seconds.

2. Intensity:

This is the percentage of the weight used compared to the maximum that we would be able to use for a single repetition with the appropriate technique. There is a curve called 1RM Continuum that relates each intensity to a number of repetitions that we will be able to perform and that is suitable for the majority of amateur athletes, without extensive experience in strength training. In that sense, the intensity that will provoke the greatest hormonal response is those that are around 70% of our maximum weight. This 70%, according to the curve I mentioned previously, is equivalent to 10-12 maximum repetitions. A weight that allows you to do more than 12 repetitions, or with which you cannot reach 10, will be out of range and the hormonal response will not be as pronounced as it could be. It is important to note that these 10 repetitions cannot be performed as you want. We must ensure that the technique is correct and to do so, we must control that the range is the maximum possible, the plane described is correct - always the same - and the tempo is the prescribed one.

3. Time

It is crucial to control the eccentric phase of the movement, the one in which the main muscle generates tension while it is stretched, and which usually coincides, but not always, with the phase of the movement in which the load is lowered. This phase is the one with the greatest potential to generate a hormonal response and, therefore, it is crucial that its duration is never less than 3 seconds.

4. Time under tension (TUT)

To maximize the hormonal response, we need the series to last at least 40 seconds. Analyzing the above data, we see how the eccentric phase should never be less than 3 seconds, the concentric phase can be from as fast as possible to two seconds long, and we may even add a one-second pause at the point of mechanical advantage. If we add to this that for a greater hormonal response we must work with a weight that allows us to do between 10 and 12 repetitions, we see how the 40 seconds mentioned previously, which seemed crazy, are not crazy at all. If you are not able to reach 40 seconds, you have overweight.

5. Complex exercises better than monoarticular exercises

The greater muscle mass involved during training, the greater the hormonal response. This is why exercises that involve a large amount of muscle mass such as squats, pull-ups, deadlifts or bench presses, among others, will always provoke a greater hormonal response than single-joint exercises such as knee extension/flexion, lateral raises, biceps curls, or elbow extensions.

6. Series

Those who claim that a single series of each exercise is enough are wrong. Although it is true that the series are governed by the “Law of diminishing results”, which basically says that each more series you do will obtain a lesser response than the previous one, the post-workout hormonal secretion is greater depending on the number of series performed.

7. Better dumbbells than bars

And the previous ones are much better than the misnamed bodybuilding machines. If we take point number 5 into account, we conclude that it is more interesting to involve as much muscle mass as possible. Dumbbell exercises such as presses when working in an open chain force us to stabilize the movement, recruiting greater muscle mass than in a barbell bench press, and much more than the same exercise performed on a machine.

8. Rank

The greater the range of motion, the greater the hormonal response. In that sense, we will always get a greater response if we work with full ranges and dumbbells than with bars. Now that you know which factors are decisive, you will observe how many of them prevent you from working with the maximum possible weight. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Analyze your training, examine your conscience, think about everything you are not doing, and you will find the reason why you are surely not getting the desired results.