Tag: exercise

  • How Many Sets Per Week to Maximize Muscle Building

    How Many Sets Per Week to Maximize Muscle Building

    How many sets should we have per muscle group each week to make the most progress in the gym? There is significant scientific data suggesting that at least 10 sets per muscle group per week is sufficient to make significant progress with weight training. What we do not currently know is the extent to which increasing this number beyond 10 has on our progress parameters – and requires further scientific investigation. This does not however, mean we should only do 10 sets per muscle group per week.

    If we are truly aiming to maximize the results we see from our training sessions, we can start a training phase at 10 sets per muscle group and add 1 or possibly 2 sets each week until we find what it is we can still recover from. It is easy for us to think that muscle soreness is indicative of recovery but unfortunately this is not the case. Muscle soreness resembles disruption to the muscle cell – once this disruption has passed and has been recovered from, we no longer feel muscle soreness. At this point, our muscles are recovered but full recovery comes from our whole body, not just our muscles.

    Our central nervous system accumulates fatigue every rep of every set. This is why our level of soreness may make us feel like we have recovered but are unable to progress in the gym week to week. Our muscles are actually continuing to make progress with strength and size, we just can’t see it in our performance because our central nervous system is too fatigued for our performance to improve.

    What we should do to combat this as briefly mentioned above, is add 1-2 sets per muscle group per week until we find our maximum recoverable volume (MRV) – in other words, finding the absolute maximum amount of training volume (sets and reps) we can handle in one week, while still being able to be fully recovered by the next time we train that muscle group. Taking a full training program (4-6 weeks) to increase sets each week until we find our MRV can be incredibly useful to prevent ourselves from overtraining and getting injured in the future.

    The intensity of each set we perform heavily influences the amount of fatigue we accumulate throughout a training program. We discussed relative intensity in detail in our “How to Train for Muscle Growth” but will briefly discuss how we can manipulate intensity so we can still recover week to week.

    We want to have at least one set per exercise where we are within 5 reps until failure (5 reps in reserve or RIR) 5 RIR has been shown to be about 90% as effective for muscle building as going all the way until technical failure (0 RIR) but with significantly less fatigue accumulation.

    We can start a new training program with 10 sets per muscle group per week, with our last set of every exercise done within 5 RIR. The next week we can increase from 10 sets to 11 and now get our last 2 sets done within 5 RIR and so on. When calculating sets per muscle group per week it’s very important we first have a good understanding of what muscles are used throughout various movement patterns.

    A quick example is body weight dips: this may seem like it as an exclusive chest exercise but we must remember that sets of dips also count towards our weekly totals for tricep and front deltoid involvement. Even if the chest is the primary mover, we will still factor these in as full tricep, shoulder, AND chest sets in our weekly totals. If this is done incorrectly, it can be very easy to miscalculate our weekly totals and begin overtraining.

    If you want more information on what you can do if you think or know you are overtraining, give our article titled: “What to do When you Stop Making Progress in the Gym ” a read as it goes into detail with various strategies you can take to overcome this.

    If you or anyone you know is interested in taking their training or athletic performance to the next level, give us a call (312-666-7147) or send us an email (info@performancetrainingsystems.com) and one of our many qualified professionals will be eager to help in any way we can!

     

    References:

    • Helms, 2015
    • McNaughten, 2016
    • Schoenfeld, 2016
    • Tang, 2009
  • How to Eat to Maximize Muscle Mass and Gain Strength-Part 3 and 4

    How to Eat to Maximize Muscle Mass and Gain Strength-Part 3 and 4

    Part 3

    We digest protein into amino acids which are transported through our bloodstream to repair our damaged muscles. Amino acids circulating in our bloodstream need to be let into the cells they are trying to repair to do their job – our bodies must secrete insulin in order for this to happen. For example, if we were to drink some branched chain amino acids (BCAA’s) we immediately absorb these into our bloodstream, but without producing an insulin secretion, we cannot use these BCAA’s to repair our muscles. Our previous recommendation for BCAA consumption prior to fasted training works because resistance training elicits an insulin response.

    Once amino acids are circulating in our bloodstream, it takes about 3-4 hours for this amino acid concentration to reach baseline again. Once we reach baseline, we will not be repairing our muscles anywhere close to what we were right after eating. For this reason, it is best practice to eat at least 25g protein every 3-4 hours (25g has been found to be the minimum threshold to “maximally” stimulate MPS). Protein sources that come from animals are our best bet, as we know our bodies produce more testosterone (testosterone is the MOST useful hormone with regards to strength improvements and body fat loss) by eating animal fats. It can be difficult to always have access to animal sources of protein, so we recommend eating something easy to prepare like a protein bar, Greek yogurt, or drinking a protein shake when we are unable to get a full meal at this 3-4 hour mark.

    If you are someone who truly wants to maximize their nutrition and recovery strategies, at this point you may be wondering “if we want to always keep MPS elevated above baseline by eating a minimum of 25g protein every 3-4 hours, aren’t we wasting a large portion of the day by not keeping these levels elevated when we sleep?” The answer is: yes, we are wasting time. In order to combat this, we can use casein protein right before bed. Whey protein is very similar to animal sources of protein where MPS remains elevated for ~3-4 hours but casein actually doubles this to 6-8 hours before MPS returns to baseline – almost a full night of sleep! This slower circulation also comes with a slower absorption rate so while 25g of whey “maximally” stimulates MPS, you need twice as much casein (50g) to accomplish the same goal. Drinking a protein shake with 50g of casein right before bed will allow us to keep MPS elevated for most if not all of the time we spend sleeping – this way we can actually be consistently recovering for every minute of every day. Although for different reasons, this process of slower nutrient digestion and absorption also occurs when we eat large meals.

    As previously mentioned, 25g of whey protein maximally stimulates MPS. This elevation in bloodstream amino acids lasts for 3-4 hours – the same applies for 25g of protein (3 Oz.) from chicken breast. This changes when we eat anything other than just protein in a meal. Most of the time we eat we are not exclusively eating protein. When our stomach needs to concentrate its efforts to digest carbs and fat in addition to protein, this process takes slightly longer and the increase in MPS is smaller in magnitude (this means we do not “maximally” stimulate MPS). So what this means for us, is that on average, when eating well-balanced meals consisting of protein, carbs, and fat, we should aim to eat between 45-70g of protein as this will allow us to still maximally stimulate MPS regardless of our bodies rate of absorption. When eating meals with mixed nutrient absorption, the previously mentioned MPS elevation of 3-4 hours, now changes to 4-5 hours. This is something we need to consider for instances like fueling strategies where if we eat too much too soon before an activity, our performance can decrease due to nausea and stomach cramps.

    To this point we have discussed how much protein to eat but only briefly mentioned which protein sources and how often we should be trying to eat. Piecing together the information presented above, we should be trying to eat at least 25g of protein per meal to maximally stimulate MPS (45 – 70g protein for larger meals). We want to try to eat every 3-4 hours with any size meal. Even though MPS does not reach baseline at 3 hours with larger meals, we still want to keep MPS elevated as much as we can throughout the day. If you are someone who has a hard time eating every 3-4 hours, a good strategy is to alternate what you eat with each protein “feeding”. We can have a full meal, then around the 3-4 hour mark, if we are not hungry, we can have a protein snack like a protein bar, shake, or Greek yogurt (as long as it has at least 25g of protein). This way, we can keep MPS elevated throughout the day and don’t let our hunger stop us from meeting our goals! The amount of protein we eat in a day might be the most important part of eating for strength gain or muscle growth, but the type of protein we eat is also incredibly important.

     

    Part 4

    Our body digests protein sources into amino acids that are circulated through the bloodstream. Of the 20 amino acids, 9 are essential, meaning that our bodies cannot make these on its own. Because of this, we need to ensure we consume protein sources with complete amino acid profiles (consisting of essential amino acids). For the most part, it is relatively easy to get plenty of complete protein sources because all animal sources of protein have complete amino acid profiles. Specifically, leucine and isoleucine are the two most important amino acids we need to make sure we are eating – without these, our body will not understand how to utilize these amino acids to repair our muscle cells. Most of us will not have a hard time eating plenty of complete proteins but for those who practice a vegetarian or vegan diet, it can be tricky.

    When investigating plant sources of protein, it can be easy to think that we are getting some protein in because we are literally eating protein. The difficult part comes when we realize that the protein source we just ate does not contain leucine or isoleucine. Below is a list of some of the protein sources that are either complete or incomplete to help guide your decision-making process:

    Incomplete:

    • Nuts
    • Seeds
    • Whole Grains
    • Legumes (lentils, peas)
    • Beans
    • Rice
    • Vegetables

    Complete:

    • Meat
    • Poultry
    • Fish
    • Eggs
    • Dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese)
    • Whey

    Complete Vegan/Vegetarian Options:

    • Soy
    • Buckwheat
    • Quinoa
    • Chia seed
    • Spirulina
    • Tempeh
    • Amaranth

    This is not an exhaustive list, but a good place to start. Just because protein sources are incomplete, that does not mean we cannot complete them ourselves. For example, let’s say for lunch you eat rice and chicken. If you were to eat the rice alone, our body would be unable to utilize those amino acids to repair our muscle cells, however, if we were to eat the same amount of rice in addition to chicken, the leucine and isoleucine from the chicken will then allow us to utilize the amino acids from the rice to repair our muscles and make us stronger. For those who do not eat meat, we can still utilize the same strategy of completing our amino acid profiles ourselves, but this will require considerable knowledge of amino acid profiles regarding a wide range of vegan and vegetarian food options. An easy way to complete our amino acid profiles is to make sure that we are eating at least 1 complete protein source with each meal (reference list above). To this point, we have discussed general timing strategies, but what nutritional strategies can we take before and after our training sessions to maximize our recovery?

    In the past article titled: “Pre- and Post-Workout Nutrition Strategies for Strength Training” we discussed why it is a good idea to train in the “fed state” and how we have increased nutrient absorption following exercise. For these reasons, we recommend that you have a meal before training to begin recovery at the onset of training (25g protein and ~33g carbs -1 hour before training, for full meals, give at least 2-2.5 hours). We experience increased nutrient absorption, much like how MPS remains elevated, for 3-4 hours depending on the intensity of our training. This timing works out perfectly because if we have a protein shake immediately following training, MPS level will begin to dissipate around 3 hours so we can get two “protein feedings” in this “anabolic window” following exercise.

    If we implement all the nutritional strategies discussed in this article, we will ensure that we are maximizing your recovery with what we eat! If you or anyone you know wants to improve their training, diet, or body composition, give us a call (312-666-7147) or send us an email (info@performancetrainingsystems.com) and one of our many qualified professionals will be happy to help in any way we can!

  • How To Lose Body Fat While Keeping Muscle Part 1

    How To Lose Body Fat While Keeping Muscle Part 1

    Have you ever tried to lose body fat with initial success but just struggle to keep the weight off long term? In this 2 part article we will discuss the physiological differences in losing body fat quickly, and slowly and what that means in regards to our individual goals. First of all, if you have not yet read the article on our website titled “How to Begin a Fat Loss Diet Plan” you should quickly read that before continuing to this one.

    When we think of what it means to “lose weight” most of us have the desired goal of losing body fat while keeping, if not increasing, our muscle mass. With this in mind, if we were to eat too few calories (more than 500 calories under maintenance intake), our bodies will begin to take energy from not only our fat stores, but our force producing components of our muscles as well.

    Because our bodies are constantly adapting to the stress of everyday life, being too low on calorie intake for an extended period of time (longer than 1 week) will cause our bodies to lower our energy consumption throughout the day in an effort to save energy; this can lead to metabolic syndrome – a condition which increases our risk for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Metabolic syndrome also exhibits insulin resistance and can cause our bodies to make every effort possible to conserve energy and preserve fat stores – leading to very “stubborn” areas of body fat (low back, low abs, and love handles) that can be increasingly difficult to get rid of as time goes on. This may sound contradictory but the most important aspect of losing weight is to make sure you are eating enough!

    The strategy we should take to make sure we are eating enough and avoiding these negative health complications while preserving muscle mass and losing body fat is to take our calorie deficit nice and slow – no more than 500 calories below our BMR. Once we know our BMR, we can use the protein recommendations from the “How to Prevent the Age Related Loss of Muscle Mass (Sarcopenia)” and “Differences in Losing Body Weight With and Without Exercise” articles to find how much protein we should be eating to support our resistance training (at least 2.2grams protein per kg of body weight – 180lb or 81.6kg person would eat at least 180g protein per day). There has been recently published scientific data exhibiting a dose response relationship with protein (the more protein we eat, the more strength gains we get), however the full extent to the benefit of having more carbohydrates vs. protein under calorie restrictions requires further investigation. We will discuss this more in depth in future articles which will investigate nutrient intake for muscle growth – stay tuned for that but for now we should aim for at least 2.2g/kg body mass to lose body fat and keep muscle.

    Part 2 of this article will discuss how to implement the information discussed above into your own diet plan created to meet your unique and individual goals.

    References:
    – Wilkinson, 2016
    – Helms, 2022
    – Antonio, 2018
    – MacNaughton, 2016