by Al Graven

Created on: January 30, 2007   Last Updated: April 20, 2007

Gaining muscle mass is a quest that has sold a lot of magazines, supplements, gym memberships, and hopes and dreams. And yet, for all the reams of paper and gallons of ink that have been expended on the subject, it's really very simple.

In response to stress, the body builds more muscle, strengthens tendons, and builds bone. Period. Whether that stress is from bodyweight, a barbell, a rock, a cable or a spring, the body really doesn't know the difference. But some methods are far better than others for inducing such stresses.

There are a few rules for this stress:

1) It must be outside the range of what is usual for the body. If you can curl 50lb with no problems, then guess what, doing curls with 50lb will not build an ounce of muscle.

2) It must be unusual to you. There are two reasons for this. The first is that the body is ruthlessly efficient at maintaining the status quo. If you do the same routine "year in, year out" you will not notice as many gains as you would notice if you change up what kind of stress you put your body under.

3) Though it should be difficult, there is a law of diminishing returns. Technically, when you lift something really heavy, your body pumps out growth hormone but also cortisol. Growth hormone and testosterone build you up, cortisol eats away at you. If you do brief, intense workouts, you maximize the creation of the former and minimize the creation of the latter, with longer workouts, the opposite occurs. In terms of builds, look at Olympic sprinters and long distance runners. The sprinters look like cart horses with large muscles, whereas the distance runners look like quails and can barely carry their own luggage.

There's also a law of diminishing returns in that your central nervous system, after two straight weeks of the same routine at full capacity (e.g. 100% or close to it of your maximum), won't let you give 100% - it will suffer a form of burnout and ratchet back how hard it will let your muscles work.

4) Just as how you can't "spot reduce", you can't build some muscles without building others and vice versa. You cannot get 21 inch biceps on a 110 lb frame, no matter how many curls you do. Consequently, I was once asked what I did for my eighteen and a half inch arms, to which I simply and honestly responded heavy squats and deadlifts. I did no bicep work, but mine were quite large as a result of the other stuff I was doing. The chemicals your body releases to induce muscular growth will benefit all your muscles, and the

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