Bigger Leaner Stronger

by Michael Matthews

The Ultimate Workout Plan for Men – Strength Training

  Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings.

  —PROVERBS 22:29

  If you’re like most guys, you want a very specific type of body.

  You want to be muscular and athletic but not hulking.

  You want abs, vascularity, and whole-body muscle definition.

  You want a chest and back and arms that stretch your shirts.

  You want strong, cut legs that balance your upper body but still allow you to wear jeans.

  Well, you can have all these things. You don’t need top-shelf genetics or a lifetime of training to look like a million bucks.

  You have to know what you’re doing, though, because you don’t become a “Greek god” by cutting your carbs and doing “functional training.”

  Instead, you need to take a completely different approach in the gym than most men, and believe it or not, a much healthier, more enjoyable, and sustainable one at that.

  We’re going to break it all down in this chapter, and it begins with a simple formula that looks like this:

  2–3 | 4–6 | 9–15 | 2–4 | 3–5 | 1–2 | 8–10

  No, that isn’t a secret code that you have to break, but it does contain the “secrets” to building the body you’ve always wanted.

  As you know, my Bigger Leaner Stronger program revolves mostly around smart and effective weightlifting, and this formula outlines the protocol you’re going to follow.

  There are many other types of weightlifting blueprints out there, and some are far better than others. But if you’re like most guys, this one is all you need to grab your brass ring because it’s simple, straightforward, and delivers head-turning results, and fast.

  Once you’re rocking your best body ever, if you want to take your strength and fitness to the next level, there’s a lot more you can learn about effective training, but we can save that for another time and another book.

  For now, I want to keep things as practical as possible, and I want to guarantee you rapid and remarkable results. That’s why I’m going to give you a very specific training prescription that follows the numeric recipe above.

  Let’s go through it one piece at a time, followed by several other essential training components, including progression, exercise tempo, and more.

  2–3

  Train 2 to 3 Major Muscle Groups Per Workout

  There are many different ways to organize your workouts.

  For instance, you can train your entire body several times per week (“full-body split”), your upper and lower body on different days (“upper/lower split”), or different major muscle groups on different days (“body-part split”).

  Bigger Leaner Stronger utilizes what’s known as a “push-pull-legs” or “PPL” split, which has you train two to three major muscle groups per workout.

  This type of routine has stood the test of time for several reasons:

  It trains all major muscle groups.

  It allows plenty of time for recovery.

  It can be easily tailored to fit different training goals, schedules, and histories.

  It’s easy to understand, too. At bottom, a push-pull-legs routine separates your major muscle groups into three different workouts:

  Chest, shoulders, and triceps (push)

  Back and biceps (pull)

  Legs (including calves, usually)

  And this routine has you train anywhere from three to six times per week, depending on how much your body can take, what you’re looking to achieve with your physique, and how much time you can spend in the gym.

  4–6

  Do 4 to 6 Reps Per Hard Set

  First, some clarification on the lingo.

  “Rep” is short for “repetition,” which is a single raising and lowering of a weight.

  For example, if you’re doing dumbbell biceps curls and curl the weights up from your sides and then lower them back to their starting positions, you’ve done one rep.

  A “set” is a fixed number of repetitions of a particular exercise.

  For instance, if you do six reps of biceps curls and stop, you’ve done one set (of six reps).

  And a “hard set” is a heavy, muscle- and strength-building set that’s taken close to technical failure (the point where you can no longer continue with proper form).

  Bigger Leaner Stronger is going to have you work in the rep range of four to six reps, meaning that most of your hard sets are going to entail doing at least four reps but not more than six.

  For most men, this means working with weights that are around 80 to 85 percent of their one-rep max.

  Why this rep range? Two reasons:

  Research shows that it’s highly effective for gaining muscle and strength.1

  It’s heavy but not so heavy that you’re going to struggle to control the weights properly.

  Chances are Bigger Leaner Stronger will have you lifting much heavier weights than you’re used to, which is exactly what we want.

  Many weightlifting programs for men involve lifting lighter weights for high amounts of reps. This can result in muscle growth, but research shows it’s far less practical than lifting heavier weights for fewer reps.

  For instance, a meta-analysis (an in-depth examination of a number of studies) conducted by scientists at Lehman College and Victoria University reviewed 21 studies that compared training with heavier weights (60-plus percent of one-rep max) and lower reps versus lighter weights (less than 60 percent of one-rep max) and higher reps.2

  The scientists found that both styles of training caused similar amounts of muscle growth, but training with heavier weights caused greater increases in strength.

  One of the researchers, a friend and fellow author named James Krieger, also pointed out in an interview I did with him on my podcast (www.muscleforlifepodcast.com) that training with lighter weights only resulted in significant muscle growth when sets were taken to or close to muscle failure (the point where you can no longer keep the weight moving).3

  This can be done, of course, but it’s extremely difficult. If you want to get a taste of what it’s like, do a 20-rep set of barbell squats that ends a rep or two shy of muscle failure. And then imagine having to do a couple more sets, and then having to do it all again in a few days.

  In other words, higher-rep training can be effective for muscle gain, but it requires a level of masochism that most of us just don’t care to embrace.

  Fortunately, we don’t need to because we can simply train with heavier weights, which is equally (if not more) effective for muscle gain, and far less grueling.

  You probably noticed that I said four to six reps for most of your hard sets but not all.

  We’ll get into the specifics soon, but ultimately, it’s going to come down to four to six reps for everything but a number of isolation exercises that don’t lend themselves to heavier loads, like the dumbbell side and rear raise (shoulders), cable fly (chest), and cable crunch (abs).

  9–15

  Do 9 to 15 Hard Sets Per Workout

  Each Bigger Leaner Stronger workout will have you warm up and perform 9 to 15 hard sets.

  This isn’t as minimalist as some programs out there, but it’s a lot less than many guys are used to. For example, poke around magazines and websites and you’ll find workout after workout for men that call for 25 to 30 sets.

  I’m not going to ask you to do anywhere near that many sets in each workout because when you’re lifting heavy weights and pushing close to technical failure in each set, you don’t need to do as much to produce a powerful muscle-building stimulus, and you can only do so much before it becomes counterproductive.

  2–4

  Rest 2 to 4 Minutes in Between Hard Sets

  Most people are in the gym to move and sweat, so sitting aro
und in between sets seems like a waste of time.

  This is why they tend to keep rest periods as short as possible or, in some cases, eliminate them altogether, preferring to always stay in motion.

  Short or no rest periods is fine if you’re looking to merely burn calories, but if you’re there to build muscle and get stronger, it’s a mistake.

  Strength training involves pushing your muscles to their limits, and resting enough in between sets is a vital part of this process because it prepares your muscles to exert maximum effort in each set.

  This has been clearly demonstrated in a number of studies.

  For instance, scientists at the Federal University of Parana (Brazil) found that when people performed the bench press and squat with two-minute rest intervals, they were able to perform significantly more reps per workout than when rest intervals were shortened in 15-second increments (1:45, 1:30, 1:15, and so forth).4

  This is significant because the total amount of reps performed over time is a major contributor to muscle growth.5

  Additionally, an extensive review of weightlifting studies conducted by scientists at the State University of Rio de Janeiro found the following:

  In terms of acute responses, a key finding was that when training with loads between 50% and 90% of one repetition maximum, 3-5 minutes’ rest between sets allowed for greater repetitions over multiple sets.

  Furthermore, in terms of chronic adaptations, resting 3-5 minutes between sets produced greater increases in absolute strength, due to higher intensities and volumes of training. Similarly, higher levels of muscular power were demonstrated over multiple sets with 3 or 5 minutes versus 1 minute of rest between sets.6

  Similar findings were demonstrated in a study conducted by scientists at Eastern Illinois University.7 In this case, researchers concluded the following:

  The findings of the present study indicate that large squat strength gains can be achieved with a minimum of 2 minutes’ rest between sets, and little additional gains are derived from resting 4 minutes between sets.

  I could go on, but the evidence is clear: when you’re lifting heavy weights to gain muscle and strength, you want to rest around three minutes in between each hard set.

  The reason why this piece of the formula is “2–4” and not just “3” is you can rest slightly less (two minutes) in between hard sets for smaller muscle groups like the biceps, triceps, and shoulders, and slightly more (four minutes) in between hard sets for your larger muscle groups like your back and legs if your heart rate hasn’t settled down, or if you simply feel you need a little more time before you can give maximum effort on your next hard set.

  If you’re used to mainstream weightlifting programs for men, this is going to feel very strange at first. You might even feel a bit guilty, like you’re sitting around more than you’re actually working out.

  This is normal, and once you see how well your body responds to this type of training, you’ll stop worrying and start enjoying your downtime. If I’m working out alone, I like to read on my phone (Kindle app) in between sets. I can get through an extra 15 to 25 pages per day this way!

  3–5

  Train Most Major Muscle Groups Once Every 3 to 5 Days

  Many people think that training frequency is a major factor in muscle building.

  To them, it’s black and white: if you’re not directly training every major muscle group in your body two to three times per week, you’re not going to get very far.

  This makes for good tweets and YouTube snippets, but it also misses the forest for the trees. How frequently you can and should train each major muscle group depends on several things:

  Your workout schedule

  Your physique goals

  Your workout intensity (how heavy the weights are)

  Your workout volume (how many hard sets you do)

  For instance, if you can lift weights three days per week and are more interested in developing your upper body than your lower body, it doesn’t make sense to do three whole-body workouts per week.

  Instead, you’ll want to focus the majority of your time and effort on your upper body.

  The relationship between intensity, volume, and frequency is fairly complicated, and there are many viable ways to design a workout routine, but here’s an overarching, nonnegotiable rule that will govern the results:

  The higher the intensity and volume of the individual workouts, the less frequently you can do them.8

  So yes, you can squat or bench press three times per week, but you can’t do 10 heavy sets of each per workout.

  Furthermore, and more importantly, really, when it comes to gaining muscle and strength, research shows that training frequency isn’t nearly as important as how heavy the weights generally are and how many hard sets you generally perform each week.9

  In other words, so long as you’re lifting heavy weights, frequency is mostly a tool you use to reach your target weekly volume for each major muscle group. Whether you reach that volume target in one workout or three has a far smaller effect on muscle growth than many people realize.

  As you’ll see, in Bigger Leaner Stronger, you’re going to train your upper body more frequently than your lower body because if you’re like, well, every guy I’ve ever known, it’s going to take a lot more work to get the chest, shoulders, and arms you want than the legs and glutes you desire.

  Don’t worry, though—your lower body isn’t going to fall behind or look underdeveloped. The weekly volume for your lower body will be more than enough to develop plenty of muscle definition in everything below the waist.

  1–2

  Take 1 to 2 Days Off Per Week

  Search the hashtag #nodaysoff, and you’ll see a lot of very fit people bragging about their undying dedication and determination.

  While I applaud the effort, for most of us, training seven days per week is a one-way street to physical and psychological burnout (especially when cutting).

  Heavy weightlifting can feel pretty brutal at times. Hard sets are hard. Your muscles take a beating. Your joints and tendons ache. Your nervous system is regularly redlined.

  All this is healthy and a necessary part of the adaptation process that makes your muscles stronger and more defined. It also accumulates nonmuscular fatigue in the body, however, that leads to reductions in speed, power, and the ability to perform technical movements and exercises.10

  In layman’s terms: intense training wears you out.

  Some research indicates that this may be more of a sensation or emotion rather than a purely physical phenomenon, but it’s real, and you need to know how to deal with it.11

  If you ignore it and keep forging ahead, you can develop a number of symptoms related to overtraining, including:12

  Soreness, fatigue, and weakness that doesn’t go away with rest

  Trouble sleeping

  Loss of appetite and unintended weight loss

  Irritability, anxiety, impatience, and restlessness

  Irregularly slow or fast heart rate

  Inability to focus

  Depression

  This is why I recommend no more than six days of serious exercise per week (resistance training and higher-intensity cardio), with one day of no intense physical activity whatsoever (very low-intensity cardio or sports, however, like swimming, walking, or golf is fine).

  I also recommend two days off resistance training per week when in a calorie deficit.

  8–10

  Take It Easy Every 8 to 10 Weeks

  Another effective way to avoid symptoms related to overtraining is dialing back your workouts every so often. There are two easy ways to do this:

  Periodically reduce your workout intensity or volume (known as deloading).

  Periodically take five to seven days off weightlifting.

  In Bigger Leaner
Stronger, I’m going to have you try both and see which works best for you. And don’t worry—a week off the weights isn’t going to cause fat gain or muscle loss.

  Now that we’ve gone through the entire formula I introduced you to earlier, let’s discuss several other vital aspects of Bigger Leaner Stronger training.

  The Double Progression Model

  As you learned in chapter 10, one of the most important aspects of weightlifting is progression.

  No matter how much thought you put into frequency, intensity, volume, or any other factor related to workout programming, if you don’t get progression right, you won’t make it very far.

  It’s the key to avoiding stagnation and breaking through the many training plateaus that will occur throughout your fitness journey.

  There are a number of ways to progress in your weightlifting workouts, but one of my favorite models is known as double progression.

  In double progression, you work with a given weight in a given rep range, and once you hit the top of that rep range for a certain number of hard sets (one, two, or three, usually), you increase the weight.

  Then, if you can at least come to within a rep or two of the bottom of your rep range in your first hard set with the new, heavier weight, you work with that weight until you can hit the top of your rep range again.

  If you can’t get to within at least a rep or two of the bottom of your rep range with that new weight, however, you have a couple of options that we’ll discuss later in this book.

  With this model of progression, you work to increase your reps, and then “cash in” that progress to increase your weights. Hence, “double progression.”

  To see how this works in action, let’s say you’re squatting in the four-to-six-rep range, and on your first (or second) hard set of your workout, you get six reps with 225 pounds.

  In Bigger Leaner Stronger, you’re going to progress after hitting six reps for one hard set, so that means it’s time to increase the weight!

  You then add 10 pounds to the bar, rest a few minutes, and get four reps on your next hard set.

  Hooray! The progression succeeds and you now work with 235 pounds until you can squat it for one hard set of six reps, move up in weight, and so on.