Gaining Muscular Size and Strength: What Does the Research Show? by Jerry Brainum 4/22

 

How do you determine the best training techniques to develop added muscular size and strength? One obvious answer would be the time-honored trial and error technique. What this entails is trying various styles of training until you find the particular plan that works best for you. The truth is that there is no one size fits all techniques for bodybuilding and fitness training. Due to various factors, such as genetics, people vary in their response to exercise. As was discussed in a recent article in Applied Metabolics, some gain muscle mass and strength far faster than others. In other cases, people are born with favorable genetics related to body structure and muscle mass that predisposes them to ultimately greater success in bodybuilding or in the development of added muscular size and strength. At this juncture, you may be thinking that genetics and training efficacy are not that important when anyone can simply resort to using various anabolic drugs, such as testosterone, growth hormone, and others. While such anabolic drugs without question can influence muscle gains (inducing 76% greater muscle mass than not using them), not everyone who uses the drugs winds up with a physique good enough to compete in a professional bodybuilding contest.

But not everyone wants to be a professional bodybuilder. Indeed, those that do are in a tiny minority. Most people who begin to lift weights or engage in resistance exercise just want to build added muscular size and strength and just look good. But no matter what your goal is, it still takes a good amount of experimentation with various training techniques and styles to figure out what works best for you. A number of elite bodybuilding champions have recorded all their training information (and in some cases nutrition information) in journals. Doing so allows you to discern patterns, where you have a history of what has worked for you. Among those who have kept such training journals are Bill Pearl, a 4-time Mr.Universe winner, who has recorded every workout he ever did since he first touched a weight. Pearl used this information to produce a massive training guide called Keys to the Inner Universe in 1979. This book contains all of the exercises that Pearl used over the years to develop his physique. I would say that it remains the most comprehensive guide to weight-training exercises ever published. The advantage of a book such as this is that it provides you with a wide variety of exercises to keep your training enthusiasm at a high level. Other notable bodybuilders who maintained training journals include Frank Zane, who similarly to Pearl recorded all of his workouts, then later published them in a book. Zane used the information that he recorded in his training journals to create a training blueprint that allowed him to win the coveted Mr.Olympia title three times in 1977, 1978, and 1979.

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