How To Force Muscle Growth

[aDw32]

Hey guys! I absolutely love Ryan and his approach—not only is it educational, but it’s also super entertaining!

As we all know, there’s no one-size-fits-all method, and everyone is different (just like the study from the video where each leg was trained with a different frequency, and the results were... well, different! ).

I wanted to ask you—how did you manage to bring up lagging muscle groups? (I’m not talking about overall low muscle mass as we know people tend to think they have lagging body part but it's actually entire body with low muscle mass, but specific muscle groups that just wouldn’t grow).

What finally worked for you? Did you reduce volume? Increased it? Changed technique? Adjusted frequency? Something else? Let me know how it was in your case!

 

[buck]

When i needed to get my upper body to catch up with my lower, i backed way off on training legs and focused that energy, nutrition and recovery for the legs. Kept training the saem
To bring up my biceps i lowered the weight and focused on form.
For chest i found that at my peak 8 work sets a week was all that i could manage wit out stalling my progress.
I found different things were needed for different body parts.

 

[KingOfSushi]

First address the quality of my training. Am I actually fully recruiting and stimulating the target muscle maximally with my sets? Or am I struggling to feel it where I want and not getting the most out of my movements? If it’s the latter, I’d work on that first.

If everything is in place in those regards and I’m recovering well, I’d add more volume or frequency.

 

[hawkmoon]

I wanted to ask you—how did you manage to bring up lagging muscle groups? (I’m not talking about overall low muscle mass as we know people tend to think they have lagging body part but it's actually entire body with low muscle mass, but specific muscle groups that just wouldn’t grow).

When I returned to competition in 2018 I wanted to bring up my back as I felt I could use it to beat my competitors on stage.
My legs weren't responding so I had to attempt to overwhelm elsewhere, and back was the place.

The singular change was focus of effort, energy and perfection of movement in all back work, every session without fail.
Heavy as possible with perfect form and execution.
I made ever rep of every set work, which was mentally as well as physically exhausting.

Being honest with ourselves this is very very hard to do for a long time and on more than one bodypart at a time.

 

[Liter O' Test]

reducing range of motion to fit your own leverages and insertions

 

[Mute]

My lower body is light years ahead my upper body. My arms lag so much do to having bad tricep inserts similar to Urs Kalenciski. Getting them to grow is quite depressing lol.

 

[3BILLS]

Seo and praying

 

[madg]

Like CT fletcher you need every rep yelling “ I COMMAND YOU TO GROW “

 

[Flocci]

If i knew, my physique wouldnt be so small and pathetic despite putting in all the work.

 

[kadafi2]

The FST 7 method is good for breaking through stagnation in a stubborn part - my arms finally grew after some time of torturing them with this method. I will experiment with other parts, because it is an interesting type of training.

 

[AllOkJumpmaster]

Specialization Cycles are a requirement for an advanced trainee to grow a body part.

Pick two body parts that you focus on for about an 8 week cycle, everything else gets trained at maintenance. Obviously you are going to pick two parts don't conflict so something like back and hams (not quads and hams).

2 week submax run up
6 week hammering the specialized body part
2 week taper while bridging your sub max run up for the next body part being specialized.

You won't lose anything on the body parts being trained at maintenance.

Diet can play a role here too, for some at least. Keeping more carbs in the peri workout window, and also shifting higher calories in on days training those body parts.

I can post a much much more nuanced example of this later and how I have seen success with it, if any one cares.

 

[Reno911]

Grymkowski said the key was to push the dosages to 6-7 grams to force the receptors open.

 

[headtrainer]

Consistency, using a progressive overload with good form and the right amount of training volume for your body is the only thing you can do training wise to bring up lagging body parts. There’s no such thing as shocking muscles into more growth, just prioritization.

 

[KingOfSushi]

The FST 7 method is good for breaking through stagnation in a stubborn part - my arms finally grew after some time of torturing them with this method. I will experiment with other parts, because it is an interesting type of training.

I have also had good results with FST7

 

[madg]

Vince gironda 8x8

 

[d4ve]

Anyone talking about frequency, set & rep schemes, tempo, etc. before addressing exercise execution just doesn't know what they're talking about. Doing more of something ineffective just gives you more of what you're getting...which is nothing.

Or it gets you slightly better gains, which isn't saying much if the current gains are shit. I think this is why the "back requires a lot of volume" trope has come about. Lats are the hardest muscle for a lot of people to stimulate, so their stimulus in any given set or session sucks - but it's not zero - so they think the only way to make appreciable gains back there is to just do a shitton of work.

Addressing execution can be a can of worms because there are sometimes limitations in mobility that have to be addressed to even get a good lengthening and contraction on the target muscle under load. But aside from that consideration, connecting with the muscle and generating tension is basically everything. Which also means you need to be relatively pain-free during those movements. Even if you think you're tough, pain during a movement is almost always going to inhibit force production within the target muscle.

Think about the body parts that grow on you the easiest - They're probably the ones that get a pump super easily, that you always feel, and that you can get sore with just a few good sets. And they've probably progressed the most when the relevant joints aren't bothering you.

Figuring out the above is the kicker, and it's rarely a short process. Higher frequency can hasten it because you're basically giving yourself more "practice" in addition to more stimulus, assuming you're "practicing" properly.

All that said, I'll take frequency over more volume in a session any day. If you can actually train the body part well, you're only going to be able to do so many productive sets in a session, anway.

And then that's where trade-offs come into play because it seems that muscle growth is rate-limited on a system / whole-body level. I.e. you're going to have to back off the volume on other muscles if you're playing catchup with others. I think this is what a lot of us come to realize after years and years of training, big eating, and PED use...there's no cheating good recovery, no matter how much you eat or take.

 

[KingOfSushi]

First address the quality of my training. Am I actually fully recruiting and stimulating the target muscle maximally with my sets? Or am I struggling to feel it where I want and not getting the most out of my movements? If it’s the latter, I’d work on that first.

If everything is in place in those regards and I’m recovering well, I’d add more volume or frequency.

Anyone talking about frequency, set & rep schemes, tempo, etc. before addressing exercise execution just doesn't know what they're talking about. Doing more of something ineffective just gives you more of what you're getting...which is nothing.

Or it gets you slightly better gains, which isn't saying much if the current gains are shit. I think this is why the "back requires a lot of volume" trope has come about. Lats are the hardest muscle for a lot of people to stimulate, so their stimulus in any given set or session sucks - but it's not zero - so they think the only way to make appreciable gains back there is to just do a shitton of work.

Addressing execution can be a can of worms because there are sometimes limitations in mobility that have to be addressed to even get a good lengthening and contraction on the target muscle under load. But aside from that consideration, connecting with the muscle and generating tension is basically everything. Which also means you need to be relatively pain-free during those movements. Even if you think you're tough, pain during a movement is almost always going to inhibit force production within the target muscle.

Think about the body parts that grow on you the easiest - They're probably the ones that get a pump super easily, that you always feel, and that you can get sore with just a few good sets. And they've probably progressed the most when the relevant joints aren't bothering you.

Figuring out the above is the kicker, and it's rarely a short process. Higher frequency can hasten it because you're basically giving yourself more "practice" in addition to more stimulus, assuming you're "practicing" properly.

All that said, I'll take frequency over more volume in a session any day. If you can actually train the body part well, you're only going to be able to do so many productive sets in a session, anway.

And then that's where trade-offs come into play because it seems that muscle growth is rate-limited on a system / whole-body level. I.e. you're going to have to back off the volume on other muscles if you're playing catchup with others. I think this is what a lot of us come to realize after years and years of training, big eating, and PED use...there's no cheating good recovery, no matter how much you eat or take.

Exactly what I was trying to say with my first post. Agreed completely.

 

[control]

Anyone talking about frequency, set & rep schemes, tempo, etc. before addressing exercise execution just doesn't know what they're talking about. Doing more of something ineffective just gives you more of what you're getting...which is nothing.

Or it gets you slightly better gains, which isn't saying much if the current gains are shit. I think this is why the "back requires a lot of volume" trope has come about. Lats are the hardest muscle for a lot of people to stimulate, so their stimulus in any given set or session sucks - but it's not zero - so they think the only way to make appreciable gains back there is to just do a shitton of work.

Addressing execution can be a can of worms because there are sometimes limitations in mobility that have to be addressed to even get a good lengthening and contraction on the target muscle under load. But aside from that consideration, connecting with the muscle and generating tension is basically everything. Which also means you need to be relatively pain-free during those movements. Even if you think you're tough, pain during a movement is almost always going to inhibit force production within the target muscle.

Think about the body parts that grow on you the easiest - They're probably the ones that get a pump super easily, that you always feel, and that you can get sore with just a few good sets. And they've probably progressed the most when the relevant joints aren't bothering you.

Figuring out the above is the kicker, and it's rarely a short process. Higher frequency can hasten it because you're basically giving yourself more "practice" in addition to more stimulus, assuming you're "practicing" properly.

All that said, I'll take frequency over more volume in a session any day. If you can actually train the body part well, you're only going to be able to do so many productive sets in a session, anway.

And then that's where trade-offs come into play because it seems that muscle growth is rate-limited on a system / whole-body level. I.e. you're going to have to back off the volume on other muscles if you're playing catchup with others. I think this is what a lot of us come to realize after years and years of training, big eating, and PED use...there's no cheating good recovery, no matter how much you eat or take.

Sometimes I only let myself do 1-2 exercises per body part. If I know that's all I'm doing, I get really dialed in because I have to get everything I can out of that exercise. If I know I've got 4 more exercises left, I might not focus as hard

 

[M@NU]

Sometimes I only let myself do 1-2 exercises per body part. If I know that's all I'm doing, I get really dialed in because I have to get everything I can out of that exercise. If I know I've got 4 more exercises left, I might not focus as hard

you never really need more than 4-6 sets per bodypart per session. @d4ve post is absolutely spot on. FInd your recoverable volume per session while hitting the muscle after 48hours or 72hours again. I usually rotate between true Push/Pull and Push/Pull/Legs.
if i hit the muscle again after 48 hours, 3 good sets for chest or 5 good sets for back is my sweet spot. if i go with 72hours, i can do 5sets chest or 7sets back.
make those few sets absolutely quality sets, use a log book and try to progress over time (of course its not possible to progress ever single session) and you will grow