Yes you read that title correctly – subjects apparently gained an average of 3.3lbs of muscle in 6 days. And I’ll show you what they did.

It became known as “The Nautilus North Study”.

Published in the November 2005 issue of Ironman magazine, the results from 11 subjects were as follows:

Subject	Change in Lean Tissue	Number of Days it Took To Produce Peak Gain after Workout
1	3.9 lb	10 days
2	2.1 lb	5 days
3	4.9 lb	1 days
4	2.4 lb	6 days
5	1.9 lb	1 days
6	2.1 lb	7 days
7	1.5 lb	10 days
8	2.2 lb	11 days
9	1.7 lb	5 days
10	9.3 lb	6 days
11	3.3 lb	9 days
Average	3.2 lb	6.5 days
Range	1.5 – 9.3 lbs	1 – 11 days

 

NOTE: It was only a single workout. Subjects were then placed in a Bodpod every day afterwards to see what happened to their lean mass weight. You will note that it took an average of 6.5 days for peak gains to be produced after the workout.

Why?

Building muscle is BI-PHASIC i.e. it occurs in 2 phases. The workout only STIMULATES the recovery and growth process to begin, it does not PRODUCE growth.

Growth is produced in the rest period between workouts. And the muscle must be left undisturbed in order to let the growth process fully complete.

That’s what the guys in this subject did. 1 workout, then rest. Followed by daily Bodpod readings to see what was happening inside the body.

Remember that if you work a muscle again before this recovery and growth process has finished, you’ll get nowhere. You accomplish nothing and make no gains. This is the definition of overtraining – doing too much work too soon. For more, see my article, ‘Yes CT Fletcher, You Can Overtrain‘.

 

 

SO HOW DID THEY TRAIN?

They used a lifting technique called Max Contraction. You can get the book on Max Contraction and this study here.

Actually, it’s not really a “lifting” technique at all, since there is no lifting involved.

The idea is to select an exercise for each body part and bring the weight into the position of maximum contraction. Then you merely statically contract against it. No lifting. No lowering.

The weight for each exercise in this study was so heavy that the subjects could only statically contract against the load for 1-6 seconds.

As an example. Take a Cable Preacher Curl for the biceps. You might use 100lbs for 10 reps to failure normally.

If you did not do the lifting and lowering portion on the rep, you could use a much heavier weight to statically contract against. Now imagine taking it a step further and finding a weight that you could only statically contract against for a maximum of 6 seconds.

You’d have to get a training partner to help you get the weight into position (the top of the rep). But once it’s there, it’s all you. And the muscle fibers of your biceps are contracting against a load they have NEVER before experienced.

A set of 8-12 reps to failure is around 60-85% of your 1 rep max. But here, we aren’t even using your 1 rep max (100%). Since it’s not a lift, but a static contraction, you could be using 150%, if not more, of your 1 rep max!

The intensity of this muscular contraction is simply beyond anything you have ever been exposed to before.

 

WHY IS IT EFFECTIVE?

Firstly, am I skeptical about these gains? Very. The Bodpod can show increased water weight as lean gains. Not to mention I don’t believe this study was actually published in any journal.

However, advanced techniques can ignite new gains, of that there is no doubt.

The fact is…when you create a MASSIVE jump in intensity levels – beyond what you’ve ever experienced – you will stimulate new gains.

And I mean intensity levels well above 100% – I call it “hyperintensity”.

Here’s what I mean…

Before you ever started training, what sort of intensity of effort was your body exposed to? Well your daily activities probably never caused you to work any muscle beyond 20% – 30% intensity of effort. And of course, since there was no reason for your body to change, your muscle mass levels remained the same (or even atrophied).

So you start training, and let’s assume you used a science-based routine like THT. Going to failure each set in a the 8-12 rep range is training at up to 85% of your one rep max. That’s 85% as a percentage of 1 rep max and taking every set to 100% (failure), which has been shown in study after study to be optimal for size gains.

So what happens when you go from 30% to 85% – BANG! – The “Newbie Gains” phenomenon. The drastic change in intensity that your muscles are exposed to forces your body to adapt! How? More muscle mass.

But what if you could create a workout that actually caused you to work above 100%? I’m talking levels of ~150% of your 1 rep max?

Well again…your body will be forced to adapt to this massive change in intensity. How? More muscle mass.

Training above 100% is what I am calling “HYPERINTENSE” training.

 

HOW TO TRY IT

First, I must say that it is advanced techniques like this that form the basis of my experimental protocols – The Chest Blast, Arms Blast and Leg Blast workouts They are designed to take you far beyond normal training and normal results – you’ll LOVE these programs. They contain strategies like the above (and more you’ve never heard of). In fact, many trainees report to me, “I’ve never trained like this before!”.

If you want to try some max contractions, you’ll need to do them at the start of your workout (after warming up).

Only at the start will you have 100% of your strength and be able to train above 100% of your 1 rep max.

For this to work, the intended muscle needs to be brought into a position of maximum contraction. This means using isolation exercises, and only a few are suitable.

For example, the position of max contraction for the quads is full extension at the leg extension machine. For the biceps, it’s the top of the rep of a cable preacher curl or machine curl.

Here are examples of the best exercises for max contraction:

Quadriceps: Leg Extensions

Hamstrings: Leg Curls

Biceps: Cable Preacher Curls

Triceps: Cable Kickback (almost fully extended position)

Chest: Pec Deck

Lats: Pullover Machine

Calves: Standing Calf Raises

 

Additionally, if you love advanced techniques, make sure you don’t miss my recent article, ‘6 Advanced Techniques To Build Muscle That You’ve Never Head Of‘.

 

Now, if you aren’t training correctly, you just need to start growing – today! Download free, science-based THT training. You can always throw in the heavy artillery later if you want.

 

See the results other guys have achieved here. NOTE: You don’t have to go to your email to confirm anything. Once you click the button, you’ll be taken straight to the download page 😀 I operate a ‘Strictly Zero Spam‘ policy.

 

If you have any questions or comments, just talk to me below. I’m always happy to help.

 

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Train With Intensity!

Mark