One of the most frustrating things is to feel like you’re training consistently, giving maximum effort, and dieting correctly but you’ve seemed to plateau and not seeing the growth in the mirror to match your effort. It can almost make you want to give up. Well I’m going to provide you with a different training format to help prevent that from happening.
When most people think about building muscle mass, the first thing most assume is lifting max weight for short sets and repetitions. Which isn’t completely incorrect. But the negative on that is you will run the high risk of good muscle growth but high loss of muscle functionality. Not in all cases, but typically the individual you see walking around as big as a door way but struggles to do simple functional exercises and struggles with basic stretches has been training in that exact manner. So what other way is there to train to ensure muscle growth and maintain good ROM (Range of Motion) and muscle functionality.
Maximum effort and maximum weight are completely different when it comes to training. So to reach your goal in lean mass growth, the key is putting the muscle under constant tension. TUT (Time Under Tension) refers to the amount of time you put your muscle under strain within a set. So by utilizing the FST (Fascia Strength Training) method what it does is for typically a 2-3 minute window you get that solid TUT. How this is set up is you will maintain 8-10 repetitions for 6-7 sets. Why 8-10 ? 8-10 reps is the standard reps necessary to promote muscle growth. Once you go past that number you are working toward more of leaning or toning the muscle group focused, more so than it simply gaining size. Now you’re probably wondering how much weight you should be using with so many sets and pretty moderate amount of reps. The training effort percentage you should be looking to maintain is about 70% of 1MR (Max Rep). Whichever exercise performing, figure out or estimate what you 1MR and do about 70% of that for all the sets. The main goal is to maintain that weight throughout all sets. With that said be sure that once muscle exhaustion starts to set in to not sacrifice form for weight. Do not make yourself susceptible to injury. The key that makes this format effective is your rest period. You will only take 25 second breaks between sets. Nothing less, nothing more. By doing this it brings the concept back around full circle, TUT. The short recovery helps ensure you’re training to muscle failure. While maintaining 70% 1MR the weight is heavy enough to get effective training value and 8-10 reps promotes good muscle growth you’re looking for.
Now mind, this format does not have to nor is it necessary to use for every exercise that you’re performing on that training day. Complete 2-3 exercises in your normal format whether it 5 sets of 5 repetitions or 4 sets of 8-10 repetitions, whatever it is for you . Then throw a FST in to really shock and tear that muscle group down to build it up. Then repeat for another block. Give it a try and hopefully this can be an effective addition to your training program to keep the motivation and drive high to reach your fitness goals and aspirations.
