Fasting For Muscle Building

The Bulking Diet Delusion by John Meadows really lit a fire under my heinie.  It reminded me of all those people that tell me they’re in bulking mode but never seemed to be in cutting mode.

So basically what you want to tell me is that you’re fat and too damn lazy to do anything about it?  But you still want to tell all the girls that you’re a bodybuilder, right?  As you stuff your face with pizza.  Come on now, you can do better than that.

What You Need To Know

• Intermittent fasting won’t burn your hard earned muscle.  That’s not an excuse anymore.
• Insulin sensitivity is the key to both muscle building and fat loss.
• Lifting weights but being fat all year round doesn’t make your a bodybuilder or an athlete it just means you’re fat and lazy.  Pony Up.

Fasting for Muscle Building

Slow down buddy, pick your jaw back up from the keyboard and try not to scream needless profanities at me through a computer screen, tough guy.  You read it right; fasting for muscle building.

I’m about to tell you how fasting CAN help you build muscle and of course burn fat.  OK, think logically for a second.  To build muscle you need to be in a caloric surplus, correct?  So right away I haven’t a hope in hell of explaining to you how not eating can help you build muscle do I?

That’s because it can’t.  But, now pay close attention, what it will do is prime your body for muscle building.  Here’s how young Padawon;

You know all about blood sugar.  Do you know about insulin though?

If you give a hoot about building muscle and given that you’re a Critical Bench follower then you’ve at least heard of insulin before.  I’m going to give you a quick crash course anyway.  When you eat you break down the food in to sugar.

That sugar likes to hang out in your blood until you do something about it.  You really better do something about it though because just like a bunch of kids hanging out on the corner, all that can happen after a while is trouble.  You’re just going to get fat.

You use insulin to take the sugar out of your blood and shuttle it around your body.  Treat insulin right and it will make you look like Hercules.

Points to remember:

1. Every time you eat you spike your blood sugar and in turn your blood insulin.
2. If you have insulin in your blood you cannot burn fat.
3. Eating too often will cause insulin resistance.  Insulin resistance means you will get fat, become sick and not build muscle.*

*insulin resistance means your body has to secrete more insulin than normal to take less sugar from your blood.

That can’t be that big of a deal for muscle building, can it?  Oh it can my dear friend, it can.  You know all those guys that claim they are bulking all year round for years on end?  Well my bet is they have f****d with insulin so much that they literally can’t burn fat.

The same goes for their muscle building quest.  Have they gotten any bigger this year?  My guess is they haven’t.  Why?  Because insulin isn’t working as effectively as it could.

Moral of the story; make friends with insulin.  I mean cuddle up and get real cosy.

How Fasting Can Help

Intermittent fasting is the cure for those of you that have been mean to insulin for quite a while.  It’s like the judge in a divorce hearing; it will decide who gets what. Fasting is the perfect fix for insulin resistance.  It works by giving your body a break from eating and constantly secreting insulin.

If you stop secreting insulin for a while your body is going to get the chance to catch up with itself and start being more efficient when you eat.  Think about it this way; if you were asked to work overtime every night for a month would you be as productive?  No way, you would just burn out.

It’s the same for insulin.  If you keep acting like your beak can hold more than your belly can then insulin is going to burn out.

It’s not going to be able to shuttle your post workout drink in to your muscle cells as effectively as before.  Fast every so often and give your body a break and things are about to start looking a whole lot different for you.

The more sensitive you are to insulin (which you will be from fasting) the more likely your body is to respond well to you and start slapping pounds of muscle on to your frame rather than mounds of fat.

Basically you will reset your insulin switch.  You will thank your lucky stars you read this article when you see the difference it will make to your muscle building.

I just had to include this picture.  It doesn’t exactly have a whole lot to do with fasting or muscle building, but it’s hot and I love strong women.

How to Fast for Muscle

I’m going to give you two options, both of which are very effective.

Option #1:  Fast Once Per Week

This will sound like hell on earth to a lot of you but I urge you to give it a go.  Once per week you will fast, ideally not a workout day.  Yes that means you eat NOTHING.  You can drink water, black tea and black coffee.  That’s it.

There are no more rules.  If you’re hungry suck it up, you shouldn’t have ate like an elephant for the last ten years.

Option #2:  16/8 Intermittent Fasting           

This is a more long term method and it works great.  It’s going to really force you to burn fat while simultaneously resetting your insulin switch for muscle building.

As the name suggests you will fast for 16 hours each day leaving you with an 8 hour eating window.  Trust me you’ll be able to get in the amount of calories you need in 8 hours.

Just make sure to take full advantage of your new friend insulin and eat like a pig** directly after your workout.

Get a protein and carb drink in to you immediately and then 1-2 BIG carb and protein meals afterwards.

Why? Well your muscles want energy at this time and now that you’re friends with insulin it’s going to help you like a best friend should and take all those calories in to your muscle cells and your muscle energy stores.

This method will work a lot faster than option #1. I like fasting until noon each day and eating until 8pm.  Figure out what hours fit your schedule and do that.  Just remember that if you workout in the morning your 8 hour eating window has to start in the morning so that you can take full advantage of your post workout meals.

** Now listen closely. The whole point of this article was to get you to stop eating like a pig.  I was being facetious here.  Do however eat a lot.  Just make sure it’s good wholesome muscle building food.

Stay Healthy,

Andrew Beatty

 

About Andrew

Andrew was born and bred in Ireland. Having the stature of a leprechaun he forced himself to learn how to build muscle and burn fat.  As a muscle building and fat burning expert he studies the most cutting edge nutrition and training practices to deliver the best muscle building, fat burning results to his clients and to YOU.

Discover The “Holy Grail” Nutrient Timing System That Builds Mounds Of Rock Solid Muscle in LESS Than 3 Hours a Week

Band Specialization: MAXIMIZE These Four Key Principles to BOOST Muscularity & Achieve STRONGER Lifts

Band Specialization: MAXIMIZE These Four Key Principles to BOOST Muscularity & Achieve STRONGER Lifts

By Chris Wilson

The idea of “band” training has been around for years.  Back in the day, before all of the oversized rubber bands and green, red and blue tubes we see everywhere, there were Expander Cables.  Remember…they were those triple steel coiled objects that had handles at each end?  Ads for these were usually found in the back pages of all muscle and strength magazines.

Yes, old school indeed!

Expander Cables were common place at the gym and used in addition to free weight training and machines.  They were a great alternative for bodybuilders but they did have one huge drawback…they pinched your skin on certain exercises, like pectoral flyes to name one.

Not that today’s bands aren’t capable of pinching and rubbing your flesh a bit much or pulling out some arm hair here and there…but the coils were just downright painful and had limits to what they could do.  However, the concept was revolutionary at the time and the expander cables did a great job at incorporating FOUR KEY principles in weight training:

Time under Tension (TUT)

Accommodating Resistance

Range of Motion (ROM)

Speed Work

The rubber bands, tubing and straps that have grown in popularity in recent years, commonly known as bands to most powerlifters and bodybuilders, do an equally good job of delivering results for all four of those above mentioned principles.

Plus, they are much more versatile, travel easier, come in a variety of resistances and are relatively cheap when it’s time to replace them.

To be clear, there are powerlifting bands that powerlifters in particular use regularly to help with strength and speed on their lifts.  These bands are used in conjunction with mostly barbell and dumbbell exercises and they are like giant rubber bands.

Most of the other bands you will find in the marketplace either have the handles at each end (or not) and can be used along with free weights or by themselves.  They can also be anchored to stationary objects making them user friendly.  Regardless of the brand or type, these prominent strength tools function extremely well on their own.

While these rubber strength bands and colorful exercise bands have their differences, the concepts of what they do for the body is very much the same.

With that being said, let’s touch on WHY applying the aforementioned principles in your bands is so effective for helping you gain muscle size, strength or both.  I will touch on the nuances of those variables later on.

FOUR Key Principles

Time under Tension or (TUT) is by no means a new approach to weight training and if you’re reading this and unsure of what time under tension means, it’s simply the amount of time your muscles are under tension or in a state of contraction during an exercise.  To manipulate this time can completely change the reaction your body has to the resistance.

Using bands in your training, regardless of the load you’re working with, can create a terrific prolonged stimulus to the muscles you’re targeting and deliver “the burn” that many gym goers are looking for.  This burn (without getting all scientific on you) is due to the increased blood flow and buildup of lactic acid in the targeted muscle group resulting in or approaching muscular failure.

Keep in mind that the powerlifters out there aren’t going for this burn like the bodybuilders.  In fact, many of them don’t ever really feel the burn….it’s not the focus of why they train.

The Founder of Critical Bench, Mike Westerdal, told me flat out that for years during his competitive powerlifting career (2007-10), he NEVER got the ‘muscle burn’ during his workouts.  Lifting maximum loads with all-out effort and 5-10 minute rest intervals just didn’t provide that kind of reaction for the body.

Remember…..

Muscle Strengthening and Muscle Building/Shaping are TWO Different Goals

A powerlifter trains for a 1RM (repetition max – max effort lift) strength while the bodybuilder trains for volume to help swell the muscles and cause them to grow in size.

I understand how this can be quite confusing for some but simply, you’re either trying to get stronger in the gym or you’re trying to look better.  Now there is the hybrid ‘powerbuilder’ that wants both and that particular category of lifter has certainly gained momentum in recent years. It is important to understand these differences and know why YOU are in the gym to begin with.

What GOALS do you have and how do you want to implement band training?

Goal for Lifter A:  Muscle Tone, Size and Fat Loss (bodybuilder)

Goal for Lifter B: Strength (powerlifter)

Goal for Lifter C: All of the Above (powerbuilder)

Once those very important variables have been considered, you can now proceed with your band training.  Having direction in the gym is paramount in the search for improvement.

This very nicely brings us into another fantastic aspect of band training and something that has had dramatic results for guys looking to gain strength and that is Accommodating Resistance.  My definition of this term is simply adding additional, external tension through a specific range of motion to a desired lift.  As the weight is moved through its range of motion, it actually increases in difficulty due to the bands elasticity or slingshot-like effect.

This concept alone has produced some astounding lifts the world over using not only bands but chains (similar concept).

Accommodating Resistance really targets strength and demands that you work harder as you go through as much range of motion as possible.  Adding additional bands or increasing the girth of the tubes/straps you’re using can help you decrease the rep work while devoting even more effort to sets of only 3-5 reps, thus having dramatic impact on Max Effort Lifts.  But keep in mind that this approach can be helpful with isolation lifts too like curls, side raises and arm extensions.

Again, know your reasons for using bands.

Reverse band training can also be super beneficial for making strength gains.  At many gyms, you will see bands hanging from the tops of squat racks and power cages.  When doing movements like pull-ups for example, bigger lifters and those struggling to gain strength are able to get in rep work for all kinds of pull-up variations.  This method can also be applied to the bench press, bent over rows and overhead press to name a few.

Range of Motion (ROM) is often a topic of conversation at the gym.  Some guys need to add some more, some need to decrease and some are on the money (kinds of sounds like the Three Little Bears).

One thing is for sure, everyone’s body is different and due to those unique differences, the ROM will vary.

If I’ve learned anything about the human body in my over 15 years of working with clients, it’s that everyone’s skill set is distinct and you must find a way to maximize their individual ability in the gym while addressing their needs.

Band training can be terrific for stretching the muscles under moderate resistance allowing for improved range of motion while remaining safe and controlled.  This can be done very slowly with pauses incorporating the TUT principle from above.

That is precisely why bands of all kinds have become so widely used in rehab facilities, hardcore gyms, fitness centers and especially at home.

Listen, bands are not SCARY.  At least, not on the surface.  Ask any powerlifter and he may tell you that some of his hardest days in the gym were using rubber bands but just looking at and holding a band is not frightening or disconcerting.

Now just about any athlete has heard the phrase, “speed kills.”  Using bands for Speed Work is highly effective at not only making lifters more explosive in their desired lifts BUT it also helps to maintain the integrity of the joints being used.

Moving free weight or machine weight rapidly can certainly be done smartly but over time if the control element is ignored (which we’ve all seen in the gym), injuries can come quickly!

With the use of bands, explosive reps or speed reps can allow the muscles to fire at an accelerated rate while remaining relatively safe.  The movement becomes smoother.  The idea behind this is that the lifter is working with sub-maximal loads and demanding the fast twitch fibers of the muscles to dominate the lift.  This method or style of training actually translates very well to gaining strength with heavier loads for less reps.

Just like a 400 meter sprinter (one time around the track) may spend a significant amount of time on just exploding out of the block, the powerlifter works on speed to help with being more explosive at the most crucial point in the lift, the bottom.  Recruiting every single muscle fiber to fire hard and fast making the contraction optimal for a max effort attempt.

Implementing all FOUR of the above mentioned principles when using bands will assuredly allow for muscle growth and strength.  Just know your GOALS and stick to a game plan based on those goals in the gym.

BONUS Applications of Band Training

Hey, want a few more PROVEN training techniques with band training that can help with gaining strength and size…sure you do!

Here you go:

• Band training allows you to not only train to failure safely but by decreasing your rest time you can have dramatic impact on your muscle pumping quest. This can be an alternative to increasing resistance by using multiple bands or going to harder/heavier ones. Just cut down your rest periods and work harder!

• Bands can easily be combined with complex strength movements using super-sets or they can sometimes be used FIRST implementing the pre-exhaustion principle.  Do multiple sets of band specific exercises BEFORE hitting your traditional barbell and dumbbell exercises.  Now you’re really working hard without having to increase the weights.

Old School Muscle Building Method Reveals The
#1 Tip to Develop Weak Body Parts

 

30 Day 50 / 50 Counter-Split Specialization

By Dennis B. Weis

Smash through training barriers and make “phenomenal progress” with the amazing 30 Day 50 / 50 Counter-Split Specialization.

One of the most radical, but muscle producing methods of specialization we have come across is, the old-school 30-Day Fifty / Fifty Counter-Split Specialization.

This is a little known training secret that many top bodybuilders have used for years as a means of forcing rapid gains in size and strength and urging along improved muscle shape, naturally.

Basically it is a counter-split which consists of priority training a lagging muscle group SIX-DAYS-A-WEEK.  Here’s how it works.

The muscle (segment) group needing specialization is trained for muscle size and strength on Monday-Wednesday and Friday.  Countering (hence the term “counter-split) those training days the muscle (segment) group is shape trained on the intervening days (Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday).

Fifty percent of specialization training will be for the development of muscle size and strength and can be performed on three alternate days per week.

Muscle Bulk & Strength Mon-Wed-Fri

Using the biceps for an example choose one multiple joint or compound exercise which will work the belly of the muscle.

Do 4 to 9 sets each and low reps of (9-3) prevail; using maximal weight on each set of an exercise. Here’s how it works:

1st Week – Begin the program by doing the Standing Barbell Curl for 4 sets x 9 reps on each training day.

2nd Week – Do a total of 5 sets x 7 reps of the Seated and/or kneeling Barbell Curl on each training day.

3rd Week – Do 6 sets x 5 reps of the Standing Alternating Dumbbell Curls, on each training day

4th Week – Do 7 sets x 3 reps of the Standing Barbell Curl on each training day during this final week of training.

This 4 week progressive sets outline is generally adaptable for the intermediate bodybuilder.  Super advanced bodybuilders can begin with 5 sets per a major or minor muscle group, needing specialization, each workout day during the first week of priority training. Do 7 sets the second week of training and 9 sets the third and fourth weeks.  Very few super advanced bodybuilders will ever need more than nine sets of one exercise per muscle group each workout session.

Rest-pause between sets 2-5 minutes.

Shape Train Tue-Thur-Sat

The remaining fifty percent of specialization you will shape train (training is structured for the development of blade sharp separation and granite hardness in a muscle sector).

Choose one muscle specific or isolation exercise which will target the (major or minor) muscle group needing specialization. Do 4 to 9 sets each and high reps of (9-12) prevail; using light to moderate poundage on each set of an exercise.

1st Week – Begin the program by doing the Preacher Bench Barbell Curl for 4 sets x 9 reps, on each training day.

2nd Week – Do Dumbbell Hammer Curls for a total of 5 sets x 10 reps, on each training day.

3rd Week – Do One-Dumbbell Concentration Curls for 6 sets x 11 reps, on each training day

4th Week – Do the Gironda Body Drag Curl for 7 sets x 12 reps, on each training day during this final week of training.

Rest-pause between sets 45 – 90 seconds.

For the 30-Day Fifty/Fifty Counter-Split Specialization program, or any other training protocol’s to be successful Impeccable Exercise Form is a must for accelerating the muscle gain and strength factors and derailing the onset of training injuries.

Always be concerned with doing an exercise correctly for the prescribed number of reps rather than how much poundage you can use in an uncontrolled (i.e. “jerking” or “bouncing” movements) manner.  Here’s a unique way you can accomplish impeccable exercise form and increase exercise poundage logically.

Impeccable Exercise Form:

Biomechanical changes with regard to the speed of the negative (eccentric) and positive (concentric) phase of consecutive reps in a set is important to your progress and success in specialization training procedures.

Perhaps every third workout it is a good idea to do the first half of your reps in a set super slow where it takes you ten seconds in the positive phase and five seconds per rep in the negative phase.

Or decrease to eight seconds during the concentric (peak contraction) phase and four seconds in the negative phase.  This procedure should only be done for one set and two at the very most on a scheduled training day.

Poundage Increase Logic:

Use what is called The “Kaizen” Method (The Japanese word Kaizen means “constant and never-ending improvement.”) in the poundage’s used, for a particular rep scheme (9-3 or 9-12), at the beginning of each training week. Add 1 ¼ -2 ½ pounds to each side of a barbell and as little as ¼ -½ pounds per dumbbell used.

(Tip: Add 1 1/8th inside diameter cast iron flat washers and/or magnetic PlateMates on the barbell or dumbbells to accomplish the weight jump factors.)

While the above increases may seem unremarkable it makes the weight of the barbell and/or dumbbell(s) physiologically and psychologically easier to use, each and every week, as opposed to say adding 10 pounds to a bar and almost instantly hitting a plateau and not being able to add poundage for weeks at a time.

Note: Concluding this overview of the old-school 30-Day Fifty/Fifty Counter-Split Specialization suggests to us that training six days per week is a bit much for the full recovery of the muscles and nervous system.

I think a modified training approach where-in the MUSCLE BULK AND STRENGTH PROGRAM is performed on Monday and Friday and the MUSCLE SHAPE PROGRAM on Tuesday and Saturday, to be more muscle friendly.  Another variation to this training option would be to train on Monday and Tuesday, rest & recovery on Wednesday, then train on Thursday and Friday and rest & recovery on Saturday and Sunday.

And if the above weekly 4 day modified training frequency still wasn’t accommodating rest & recovery then the MUSCLE BULK AND STRENGTH PROGRAM  should be done on Monday, Wednesday and Friday that is if the priority training is geared slightly more towards the increase of muscle bulk & strength and the MUSCLE SHAPE PROGRAM on Saturday only.

Further modifications would suggest that if the priority training was accented toward muscle shape stimulation, then do the muscle bulk & strength training on Monday only and the muscle shape training on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The 30-Day Fifty/Fifty Counter-Split Specialization technique is somewhat similar to ‘Zane’s and Schwarzenegger’s method of specialization (consecutive training days etc.) with the main difference being that it lasts twice as long for improving a lagging muscle (segment) group.

As with any regular and/or specialization training program you will experience low level time factored training results where it seemed like your body is on “strike” (over-trained) so after this intense 30-day specialization program is completed, stop, take a 7 day layoff from all training and then go back onto a regular training schedule of sets and reps for the previously lagging muscle (segment) group.

Old School Muscle Building Method Reveals The
#1 Tip to Develop Lagging Body Parts

Daily Specialization Training: Transform Your Weakest Muscle Groups Into Your STRONGEST Muscle Groups!

“Experience the power of extremely targeted, high-frequency training. It literally has the power to turn your weakest muscle groups into your best!”

– By Nick Nilsson

Everybody has them but nobody wants them. What are they? Stubborn, hard-to-develop muscle groups. For me, it’s shoulders, calves and biceps. For you, it may be chest and triceps or perhaps hamstrings and quadriceps. No matter what the part, the solution to it remains the same: specialization!

Specialization is a technique that provides highly-targeted training overload to one or more muscle groups. This can be in the form of additional training volume and/or training frequency, i.e. do more sets for it and/or train it more often. Just like medical doctors specialize in certain areas of medicine, you will learn how to specialize on a particular muscle group and excel with it.

I’m going to show you a particular specialization program that I’ve found to be EXTREMELY useful for developing stubborn muscle group. It’s not hard to do and it doesn’t take long to do but it has the potential to shatter plateaus in hard-to-develop muscle groups like a brick through a plate glass window.

How To Do Daily Specialization:

The name of the program is Daily Specialization and, as the name implies, it’s done on a daily basis. In a nutshell, you will do just 1 set of 1 exercise for 1 muscle group twice a day, every day. It’s very simple but very powerful and it can be done with any muscle group you like!

I will use dips as an example here but you can use any exercise you like. Choose an exercise you can do at home for your selected muscle group to make it easier and more convenient to do (chances are, you’re not going to be going to the gym twice a day to do 1 set of 1 exercise!).

If you have weights at home, it will broaden your selection but I find that bodyweight exercises (that use your bodyweight for resistance, e.g. dips, chin-ups, push-ups, etc.) are most effective.

Using dips as the example, on Day 1, very soon after you wake up, do as many dips as you can. Go to failure, doing as many reps as you can then stop. That’s your morning workout. You’re done.

Do everything else in your day as you normally would, even your regular workouts for that muscle group if they’re on your schedule. This program exists completely outside your regular workout schedule.

At night before you go to bed, do another set of dips to failure. That’s it. When you wake up the next day, do another set of dips to failure, just like on Day 1. Keep this up for as long as you like – anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, depending on the results you want and whether you want to switch to another muscle group or not.

This is the entire program! As a quick note, you can add a third set in the middle of the day on non-training days in order to speed results. It will give your body a little extra stimulus for that muscle group. Also, do only one muscle group at a time with this program. If you add in more parts, you will dilute the training stress and diminish the effects of the program.

The key to success with this program is consistency. You MUST do it consistently every day, twice a day, without fail to provide that constant training stimulus to the body. Even if you don’t feel like it, do it. Even if you’re tired and you don’t get nearly as many reps as usual, do it. Even if your muscles are sore, do it. The only exception to this rule is if you’re sick or injured. Do this, and you WILL get results.

How to Do Daily Specialization With Free Weight Exercises:

With THIS version, you will use an exercise that allows you to increase the resistance by small amounts on a regular basis.

You will still do an exercise to failure for one set twice a day, but rather than using the same resistance every time (as with bodyweight exercises), we will force even greater adaptation by increasing the resistance slowly but steadily.

Ideally, you’ll want to have a way to increase the resistance easily, such as using a barbell or dumbbells. If you don’t have barbells or dumbbells at home, you still have options for increasing resistance while using bodyweight exercises, such as:

1. You can change body positions in ways that make the exercise harder. For example, if you’re using Bench Dips and you start with your knees bent 90 degrees and your feet flat on the floor, you will move your feet further away from the bench, then set them up on a chair/bench, then place them on something that is higher than what your hands are setting on.

2. The other way to easily add resistance to a bodyweight exercise is to get yourself a sturdy backpack and gradually load it with heavy objects such as books or water bottles filled with sand. The more heavy things you put in the pack, the more resistance you’ll get.

For the first 4 days, start with a resistance that allows you to get around 10 to 15 reps for your one set. Your body will rapidly start adapting to this new stress. You may experience some initial soreness from working your muscles far more frequently than they’re used to. Four days should be enough time to allow your body to effectively start adapting.

Now we’re going to start adding resistance, realizing the full power of incremental progressive resistance. Increase the resistance by the smallest amount you can and keep the twice-daily schedule going.

Add 2 1/2 lb plates to your barbells/dumbbells. Shift your body position a small amount if using a bodyweight exercise. Add one heavy book to your backpack, etc.

Use this resistance for at least 2 days to allow your body time to adapt to the slightly higher workload. After 2 days on this resistance level, note how many reps you’re able to do with that weight. If your reps are 5 or less on this resistance, stay at that weight for one more day. This will be your rule of thumb for increasing resistance levels.

From this point on, your goal is to increase the resistance you are using very slightly every 2 days. Follow the 5 rep rule of thumb where if your reps are 5 or less, use that resistance for one more day. As well, continue to stay at that resistance for as long as your reps stay below 5 or less. Don’t reduce the weight, just add days on until you can do more than 5 reps with it.

Over the course of weeks and months, you are going to force some serious adaptation in your target muscle group.

This small but continuous increase in resistance, which allows your body a chance to adapt and focus on it, can result in extremely large strength increases and add plenty of muscle mass to your target muscle group.

The best exercises to use with this type of training are the basics – the exercises that use the most muscle for your target muscle group. This could be Barbell: bench presses, curls, deadlifts, presses overhead, rows & weighted dips, etc. Good bodyweight exercises include pull-ups, dips, bench dips, push-ups, etc.

I’m a big fan of having some basic training equipment at home, even if it’s just a set of adjustable dumbbells, and I highly recommend investing in those if you’d like to try this program. Sporting goods stores or garage sales are your best bets for free weights (don’t order online as you will be hit with HUGE shipping charges). Weights at home are not absolutely necessary but they definitely help!

If and when you do try this program, be sure to keep track of your resistance levels and muscle group measurements so you can gauge exactly how effective the program is for you.

Why Daily Specialization Training Works:

Physiologically speaking, the body becomes its function. If you run long distances, your body will have a tendency to become smaller and lighter to be better able to cope with the stress. If you lift weights, your body will have a tendency to become more muscular in order to deal with the resistance.

We target this highly-efficient adaptation process by training stubborn muscle groups with very high frequency. Your body quickly learns it needs to build up that muscle group in response to this constant workload. Your body will very quickly start allocating recovery resources towards rebuilding that part bigger and stronger.

You keep working it and your body will keep building it. This program harnesses the adaptive power of your body and channels it into a specific muscle group for maximum results. The results are consistent and phenomenal!

You also get incredible nervous system “practice” using this technique.  Because you’re performing a single exercise with very high frequency, your nervous system becomes very adept at the exercise, learning the exact best activation pattern.  Strength gains come through muscle AND through nervous system learning with this technique.

Let me give you my experience with Daily Specialization. I used this program for my shoulders, doing handstand push-ups. At a bodyweight of 200 pounds, when I started I couldn’t do a single full rep, only a few partial reps.

After 12 weeks of consistently doing handstand push-ups morning and night, I was able to perform 40 full reps at the very same bodyweight. If you think about this for a moment, it’s actually quite shocking! Could you imagine barely being able to bench press your bodyweight one day then, 3 months later, being able to press it 40 times!

The results came little by little but on a consistent and daily basis. Over the 3 months (which were going to go by anyway, regardless of whether I did this program or not) this resulted in HUGE gains in muscle development and also carried over to strength in exercises such as shoulder press and bench press.

You can easily achieve powerful results like this with the Daily Specialization Program.

One of the greatest benefits I found with this program wasn’t even the improvement in strength and muscle development. Working the stubborn muscle group twice a day to failure actually made my stubborn shoulders not stubborn anymore!

The constant workload, in addition to building strength and muscle mass, also greatly increased the circulation/capillarization in the muscles. Poor blood circulation is one of the biggest causes of lagging muscle development. This greatly-improved circulation meant more nutrients could get into the muscles more easily, which means easier muscle growth in the long-term.

Not a bad result for a few minutes of effort every day!

And if you’re worried about overtraining and getting weaker, don’t be.  Yes, you will be training with very high frequency, and yes you won’t be achieving complete recovery between training sessions but here’s the thing…the volume is VERY low.  Just one set.  Within a few days, your body will get the idea and start getting very efficient at channeling recovery resources to that worked muscle group.  Your recovery window will decrease and your strength and muscle development will take off!

What Arnold Knew About Building Muscle
That No other Bodybuilder Did at the Time