ony to rawny - Amazon S3But if you follow everything I teach in this guide, you will go from scrawny weakling to jacked and shredded in a matter of weeks! Not to mention, you’re

©2015 Muscle Monsters LLC All Rights Reserved | www.MuscleMonsters.com Page 2

Bony to Brawny

Copyright Notice Published by:

Muscle Monsters LLC Copyright © 2015 All material in this guide is, unless otherwise stated, the property of Alain Gonzalez

and Muscle Monsters LLC. Copyright and other intellectual property laws protect these materials. Reproduction or retransmission of the materials, in whole or in part, in any manner, without the prior

written consent of the copyright holder, is a violation of copyright law.


Legal Disclaimer

Warning: All the information presented in “Bony to Brawny" is for educational and

resource purposes only. It is not a substitute for or in addition to any advice given to you by your physician or health care provider.

Consult your physician before making any changes to your lifestyle, diet, or exercise

habits. You are solely responsible for the way information in “Bony to Brawny" is perceived and utilized and so, you do so at your own risk.

In no way will Alain Gonzalez or any persons associated with “Bony to Brawny” be held

responsible for any injuries or problems that may occur due to the use of this book or the advice contained within.

Personal Disclaimer

We are not doctors, nor do we possess a degree in nutrition. The advice we give is based on years of practical application, dealing with the needs of our own health and physiques

as well as the needs of others. Any recommendations we may make to you regarding diet, including, supplements and herbal or nutritional treatments must be discussed between

you and your doctor/s.

Muscle-Building Disclaimer

Required Legal Disclaimer: Due to recent laws from the FTC, it is required that all companies identify what a “typical” result is. The truth is that most people never do

anything when it comes to trying building muscle. They might buy a million products, including this one, but never do anything with the information they have in hand. The

testimonials that you saw were of people who took action, followed a healthy lifestyle, exercised, and ate a balanced nutritional diet. If you want results like them, you should

do this too.


Intro Just imagine that in just three short months, your arms and chest will be busting out of

your shirts. You will turn heads in every room you walk into and be looked at as a man. Your friends and family are not going to believe what they’re seeing as you continue to

grow almost right before their eyes. It’ll be a pleasure for you to go shirtless at any time and have hot women unable to help themselves from drooling over your jacked phy-

sique.

This is not another “I hope this works” attempt at transforming your body. This is the real deal. The methods in this guide are guaranteed to give you extraordinary results.

You will no longer be mistaken for someone’s little brother. You will no longer have to

shop in the boys section for clothes that fit. You will no longer have to live with the inse-curities of not being respected because of your bony frame. AND you will no longer have

to worry about whether or not your training is yielding results as you will see noticeable changes week after week.

You want to gain a little bit of weight and put on some muscle to look like a man instead

of a boy?

That’s fine, this program can do that.

But if you follow everything I teach in this guide, you will go from scrawny weakling to jacked and shredded in a matter of weeks!

Not to mention, you’re going to do it all without taking any supplements or spending more than 3-4 hours in the gym per week.

This program is going to show you the most effective methods to building large amounts

of muscle mass fast for your skinny body type. I am going to go straight into the “meat and potatoes” without boring you to death with fancy terminology or useless anatomy


talk. I promise that this guide will skip all the useless information and will be completely fluff free to ensure you are not overwhelmed or confused.

All I need from you is one thing.

I need a commitment, one that agrees to give this program 110% so that you too can transform your physique spend your life in the body of your dreams.


5 Fail Proof Steps To Guarantee Success

1. Find Your Motivation I need you to dig deep down inside and find your one true motivation. I need you to find

that one person/thing/outcome that will light a fire under your ass when you’re sitting at home debating on whether or not skipping a meal or a training day will be a big deal.

Like anything else in life, you will only get out what you put in.

With that being said, I need you to answer a few very important questions.

What is your motivation?

Who or what are you doing this for?

What is the ultimate prize you will get from succeeding with this program?

Without motivation, this journey can become a lot longer and much more strenuous than it needs to be. It is very important that you keep your eye on the prize if you want

to achieve your goals.

2. Forget Everything You Think You Know WARNING: This program is going to go against everything you have ever heard about

building muscle.

Why?

Because you have a very specific body type that has a very specific need. The biggest mistake you can ever make when trying to follow a program is, following a program that

is NOT customized to your goals. This is why you must forget all that silly advice that was created by and for bodybuilders on steroids. If you fail to eliminate all the nonsense you’ve read about building muscle, you’re going to waste your time trying to tweak the


program to fit your “knowledge”. Now although you may see results with your own ver-sion of this program, my methods are proven to work wonders for guys and I am 100%

sure that my way works for best results.

3. Get a Log Book The key to continuous growth is constant pro-

gression. Every day that we walk into the gym, we should have one simple goal in mind. That

goal is to outperform your last performance. If you are training day in and day out without any

clue of your total workload or intensity, your chances of putting enough strain on the given

muscle to increase anabolic hormone produc-tion is like hitting the lottery. Not to mention your body will adapt to the strain and find no

need to get bigger or stronger to handle the workload. This will undoubtedly result in you be-

coming a victim of the treacherous plateau.

Plateau: A point during your exercise program where your body fails to respond.

This can easily be avoided by bringing a log book with you to the gym. This will allow you

to have a set goal of how hard you must train in order to keep your body growing. If you can continue to increase your workload, your body will adapt and be forced to grow

continuously as it attempts to handle the load.

I have provided you some printable workout sheets that will allow you to track your workouts to simplify the process.

In this log book you will also keep track of your physical progress on a weekly basis. This

will allow you to see accurate progress regularly. This is very important for the simple fact that progress yields motivation and motivation yields results.


4. Know Where You’re Starting The Next step of your journey starts on the scale.

How can we know how far we’ve come if we don’t know where we started?

1. Step on the Scale and take your weight

2. Take your measurements 4. Snap a “before” picture

5. Grab a picture of your ideal body (one that inspires you) and post it on your fridge

5. Set an Outcome Goal The next step is to come up with an outcome goal for this 12 week program. Give it a

good amount of detail and be specific as to what YOU want to get out of this.

For example: After 12 weeks of this program I will…

Gain 20 lbs of lean mass, add 2 inches to my arms, and decrease my waist by 1 inch. Add 10 lbs of lean muscle to my frame and decrease my body fat percentage by 3%

Pack on 30 lbs to my current frame and have a visible six pack. Yes, these goals may change as you progress. However, you always want to have an out-

come goal, you can’t get somewhere without knowing where you’re going.

Once you have created your outcome goal, you will choose one day out of the week. Every week on that day, you will take your weight, calculate your body fat percentage,

take your measurements, and snap a progress picture.

Now that you know where you want to go, I am going to show you how to get there.


Are You a True Hardgainer?

The word “hardgainer” has been thrown around by fitness “experts” all over the internet for as long as I can remember.

Heck…I was one of those “experts”.

The idea has always been that if you’re a naturally skinny guy who doesn’t seem to gain

weight very quickly, you’re a hardgainer.

This has led to countless excuses from naturally skinny guys about why they can’t put on muscle mass.

On the other end of the spectrum you have the, what I call, “internet fitness know-it-

alls”. These are the guys who think that if you ate as much as them and trained as hard as they did, you could achieve the same results.

The internet fitness know-it-alls can typically be found on bodybuilding forums saying

things like “Hardgainers don’t exist. It’s just an excuse for not putting in work!”

Truth is...they’re both wrong…and right…at the same time.

Confused yet?

Here’s the deal. Hardgainers do in fact exist.

However, just because you’re a naturally skinny guy does not automatically make you a hardgainer. But being a true hardgainer doesn’t give you an excuse for not getting re-

sults.


So I actually want to answer two questions in this section.

▪ What makes someone a true hardgainer?

▪ Can hardgainers gain muscle just as fast as anyone else?

So let’s jump right in!

What is a true hardgainer?

There are 2 main things that make someone a hardgainer. Bone Density

A pound of bone can support up to 5 pounds of muscle. Guys with bigger bones can expect to put on much more muscle mass than someone with a very low bone density

(You can add bone mass with a good strength program.)

The big-boned boys can also (because they can carry more muscle) expect to get stronger, faster. The ability to gain strength quicker also aids in adding muscle mass.

Being big-boned is basically a recipe for gains.

Now although guys with lower bone density tend to be those “skinny guys” we men-

tioned before, being skinny doesn’t automatically mean you have smaller bones. So here’s one reason we should never assume we’re hardgainers just because we have been

skinny our whole lives. In fact, most skinny guys have average bone-density and have been skinny their entire lives because of their energy expenditure: energy consumption

ratio.

NEAT Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis – Calories burned through conscious or uncon-

scious movement (i.e. moving in our sleep, brushing our teeth, etc.)

So if you’re truly eating thousands of calories per day and are resilient toward weight gain, you are what Lou Schuler calls a “NEAT freak” in his book “The Lean Muscle Diet”.

Simply put, a true hardgainer will burn much more calories throughout the day from non-exercise activity than the average person.


However, before you jump to conclusions and assume you are a “NEAT freak”, you first

must track your intake diligently and ensure you truly are getting in as many calories as you think. In most cases, guys think they’re eating a ton of calories until they actually

track their macros. Then they realize they’re not eating nearly enough to stay in a con-sistent surplus and viola! Gains are being made.

Are hardgainers doomed?

I know what you’re thinking.

“Damn, if I have low bone density and am a “NEAT freak”, then I will never build muscle mass!”

Sorry (kind of), but this is actually a bad excuse for not putting in work and/or getting

results.

You see, although a true hardgainer may seem doomed, they actually can still put on muscle mass as fast as the average person.

They may just have to go about it slightly different than most.

I’ll cover each “hurdle” one-by-one.

Increasing bone density: First, low bone density does not mean you can’t build muscle

at a normal rate. It simply means your frame can’t hold as much muscle as someone with a higher bone density. This is why some guys get stuck at a certain size and others can

continue to get bigger. Lucky for you, bone density is something that can be increased by following a proper strength program. One that focuses on heavy compounds and

strength progression.

Increasing your calories: Burning more calories via non-exercises activity thermogenesis only means one thing. Your caloric maintenance is higher than you though and thus you’ll

have to eat more than most people to be in a surplus. It’s a gift and a curse. For me, is a


huge advantage when dieting down because it allows me to get absolutely shredded without ever starving myself.

With this in mind, yes, a hardgainer can expect to gain muscle at the same rate as anyone

else. They may be slightly more limited to the total amount of muscle they can build, but the stronger they get, the denser the bones become, the more muscle they can continue

to put on.


The Massive Growth Factors In this guide I will be going over what I like to call “The Massive Growth Factors”. These factors are made up of a few crucial components that are 100% responsible for continu-

ous muscle gains while avoiding the “plateau effect” and over-training. Without follow-ing these, it will become inevitable that your gains will slow down drastically and even-

tually stop you dead in your tracks.

These components are the key to any successful strength training program and have been around for decades.

By following these growth factors you will allow your body to build muscle consistently

and notice incredible gains week by week.

Without further ado, I present to you,

“The Massive Growth Factors”…


Massive Growth Factor #1 – Progressive Overload

This is the gradual increase of stress placed upon the body during exercise training. This

component is recognized as a fundamental principle for success in fitness training.

A common goal for anyone following a fitness training program is to increase strength or muscle mass. In order to achieve new results (instead of maintaining the current strength

capacity), the muscles need to be overloaded, which stimulates the natural adaptive pro-cesses of the body, which develops to handle the new demands placed on it.

The Simple Science

When you put stress on your muscles from a weight lifting session, your body’s natural reaction is to want to create bigger and stronger muscles in order to handle the stress

the next time. If you walk into the gym on your next scheduled training day and perform the same exact exercises using the same amount of stress, your body will find no reason

to change because it has already adapted.

How to assure we don't adapt (and continue to grow)? I am sure you have figured it out by now. Simply continue to add more stress to the

muscle than the body is used to. Naturally it will attempt to build bigger and stronger muscles in hopes to handle the new stress. Like I mentioned before, your main focus

when you step foot in the gym should be to outperform your last performance by in-creasing volume, intensity, or both.

“How can I increase volume and/or intensity?”

▪ Increase the amount of repetitions without sacrificing the amount of weight used

▪ Increase the amount of sets (there will be diminishing returns at some point) ▪ Increase the amount of weight used without sacrificing the repetitions or sets

▪ Decrease the amount of rest time in between sets


This is where your printable workout sheets come into play. In order to simplify the pro-cess of increasing volume, we must track our workouts and bring our previous workout

sheet with us to the gym in order to ensure progress.

What Exactly Should You Keep Track Of?

1. The workout performed

2. The amount of weight you are working with

3. The amount of repetitions performed per set

4. The amount of sets performed

Once your training session is over and you have collected all the information needed in your workout log, it is time to add up your workload.

For Example: Flat Bench Press

Set 1 - 135 x 10 = 1,350 lbs

Set 2 - 135 x 8 = 1,080 lbs

Set 3 - 135 x 8 = 1,080 lbs

Set 4 - 135 x 6 = 810 lbs

Total Workload = 4320 Total lbs

Next time you step in the gym and are performing a Flat Bench Press, the main goal is to increase the “Total Workload” by using one of the methods listed above for increased

volume.


Massive Growth Factor #2 – Periodization

This is an organized approach to training that involves progressive cycling of various as-pects of a training program during a specific period of time. It is a way of alternating

training to its peak.

Periodized training is another key to continuous muscle growth for skinny guys. Instead of doing the same routine month after month, you change your training routine at reg-

ular intervals or periods to keep your body working harder, while still giving it adequate rest.

A very important component to this program is ensuring ongoing adaptations while in-

creasing workload (as mentioned in the progressive overload section). This is why this system is broken up into three training phases.

Preparatory Phase: This phase is the building block for future workouts. The power-

ful, strong, and solid foundation you’re going to be laying down in these 4 weeks will catapult your recovery and force your body to build muscle faster than before. First,

you’ll start out with the Preparatory Phase, which builds immense tensile strength for

your tendons, ligaments and connective fibers. Preparing them for phase 2.

Aggressive Phase: For this phase of training, you’re going to be increasing the intensity

of your workouts. This is where the fun really begins. Now that you’ve laid a solid foun-

dation down, it’s time to really crank it up a notch.

This is personally one of my favorite workouts. Imagine being able to lift heavy, to feel

like a beast in the gym while stimulating sleeve-ripping muscle growth? That’s the

beauty of the Aggressive Phase.

Evolution Phase: And last, but not least Evolution Phase! Can you smell the end? You’ve come this far so there’s no going back anymore. The last phase of workouts that will test

your strength, grit and gusto inside of the gym. Give it all you’ve got in this last phase and leave nothing left in the tank because once you’re done, nobody will be able to rec-ognize you!


Massive Growth Factor #3 – Recovery

Rest in reality has many definitions, but what does rest really mean to you and this pro-gram. The following are the few definitions we will be using for our benefit. Rest can be

doing absolutely nothing, rest can be sleeping, or rest can be doing something physically that still allows your body to recover. That is what we are going to cover in this chapter

as well as why rest is so important to reach the goals that you are looking to achieve.

Why rest? Resting is a crucial part of the growing process due to the fact that this is the point in

time where your body will grow. That’s right, it’s not when you’re in the gym training and lifting those heavy weights that your muscles grow, as a matter of fact this is when

they are being broken down. Since your muscles are broken down in the gym it is im-portant to get the proper rest required in order for them to repair and grow. Without

proper rest you will reduce your body’s ability to grow and have the probability of making your gym efforts counter-productive.

How should I rest?

There are three ways to let the body rest, sleep, inactive recovery, and active recovery. Sleep is a given automatically but the method of recovery you choose is entirely up to you and will determine how fast you will recover. Either way it is still the individuals’

responsibility to be at 100% for future workouts. If not resting properly you can indirectly affect performance which in turn can reduce results. How long should someone rest?

About 24-48 hours before targeting the same muscle group and no longer than that (more on this later).

Sleep

Sleep is an inevitable recovery process, but it must be done right in order to achieve results. Sleep is when your body builds muscle the most. So what’s the trick with sleep?

The trick is to sleep the right way, comfortably and for a good period of time. Typically 7 to 9 hours of sleep per day is sufficient for anyone doing this program. Also, if you can

sneak a nap in your day, it can also be very beneficial toward your gains.


Inactive Recovery When you’re not sleeping or exercising your body will naturally go through inactive re-

covery when outside of the gym. Inactive recovery can be anything from bed rest to go-ing about your day like normal. The only real goal with inactive recovery is to do it long

enough so that your muscles fully recover before you get back in the gym. If you have some free time, a trip to the sauna or hot tub is good for this scenario because it helps

relax the muscles faster speeding up the inactive recovery process. Getting a full body massage is also a great inactive recovery method that you can enjoy and is beneficial to

the process. Active Recovery

Now if you really want to make sure you’re at 100% for your next workout, the best thing you can do for your body is to engage in active recovery. Though you are taking a break

from the strenuous activity that you would perform in the gym it is very important to the recovery of your muscles and gives you’re body the ability to bounce back to peak per-

formance levels faster. A good active recovery has many benefits that actual rest may not provide at certain points in your routine. Active recovery is where your body is re-

covering but you still endure light physical activity.

Active recovery activities include but are not limited to: ▪ Jogging or Walking

▪ Performing Yoga or Pilates ▪ Light game of basketball

▪ Light or no weight exercises

These activities will keep your blood flowing and your muscles active but not encroach on the growing process. Believe it or not your body will actually lower lactate levels more

rapidly which will prepare your body for physical activity faster. Some studies have even shown that active recovery methods can even be beneficial mentally.

Some of the benefits of active recovery include:

▪ Higher power output throughout your workouts ▪ Faster physiological recovery and reduced stress levels

▪ Speedy muscle recovery


Not only is it beneficial to perform these light physical activities on days of rest, it is even great to do directly after any high intensity training. Even if you just completed a

heavy workout, following it up with some light physical activity will give you all these benefits due to faster blood circulation. Stretching is also a good light physical activity

that will benefit you after a workout and is great to do when your muscles are warm.


Massive Growth Factor #4 – Intensity

What is Intensity?

Intensity is not about how much you sweat or how many ugly faces you make during

your training. Intensity weight training refers to the amount of weight used relative to your 1 rep max.

For example: Someone with a max bench press of 200 lbs. whom is training with 150 lbs.

is working with an intensity of 75%.

What is Hypertrophy?

Muscle hypertrophy involves an increase in size of skeletal muscle through an increase in the size of its component cells. Hypertrophy can be broken down into two types of

categories: myofibril and sarcoplasmic. Each of these specific types of muscle hypertro-phy will result in increasing size of cells, but not of equal effect. Sarcoplasmic hypertro-

phy is focused on increasing the actual size of the muscle, and less on increasing strength. Myofibril hypertrophy will focus more on strength increase and less on an increase in the size of the skeletal muscle.

Rep Range Percent of 1RM Training Effect Outcome

1-5 85-100 Neural Strength, Power, and Some Size

6-8 75-85 Neural and Metabolic Strength and Some Size

9-12 70-75 Metabolic and Neural Size and Some Size

12-15 60-70 Metabolic Size and Muscular

Endurance


Types of Muscle Hypertrophy

Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy (8-15): This is the type of hypertrophy that bodybuilders will typically aim for. It is responsible for increasing the size of the muscle cells in order for

them (the cells) to increase the amount of water and glycogen they can store. This is great and is the main contributor to a bigger and more muscular physique.

Myofibrillar Hypertrophy (1-6): This is the type of hypertrophy that is triggered from

power lifting/strength training and is responsible for increased strength and increased size of certain muscle fibers.

Myofibrillar Hypertrophy for Increased Muscle Density

Someone who has never trained with a heavy load in a lower rep range, consistently, will usually be able to increase strength quite fast. And even when the increase in strength slows down, it will always be faster than someone who does no strength training at all.

Now, although training with heavy weight all the time on the bench press may do very little to enhance your physique, focusing on strength training will make it much easier to

increase your workload, intensity, and disrupt homeostasis. Training with heavier weight for low reps will also make it easier to increase your total workload during your sacro-

plasmic hypertrophy training. The more you progress your workload in a sacroplasmic hypertrophy rep range, the more you’ll grow.

More Benefits of Strength Training

Lifting heavy, too often will get a bad rep. People (even fitness trainers) will argue that heavy lifting is horrible for the joints and can lead to serious injury. And this is true…if

done incorrectly. In fact, strength training when done correctly is extremely beneficial for injury prevention and joint stability.

You see, not only does lifting heavy (with proper form) improve muscle tissue itself, but

it also strengthens the tendons and ligaments associated with the lift. Strengthening the muscles that support the given joints will also improve form which will in turn decrease

the chance of injury. It is also worth mentioning that stronger joints, ligaments, tendons, and better form will all aid in muscle building directly.


Massive Growth Factor #5 – Stimulate not Annihilate

Progression NOT Regression

As mentioned in Massive Growth Factor #1, the real goal of training is to better your performance by increasing your total work capacity and workload.

Why you should NOT train to failure… ▪ It will reduce performance and or ability to progress. ▪ It will not maximize muscle fiber recruitment.

▪ Maximum muscle activation with any exercise happens a couple of reps short of mus-cular failure.

Why you should use the R.P.E scale

▪ Avoiding muscular exhaustion this will increase performance. ▪ Being primed will maximize force. (More Force = More Muscle Fiber Recruitment =

More Muscle) ▪ Having more energy for each set will maximize muscle activation.

What is force? Force = Mass x Acceleration

Acceleration = the concentric movement of the lift Mass = the amount of weight used

What is an R.P.E scale?

The RPE scale makes it simpler and more accurate by allowing you to regulate training based on how hard a weight feels on any given day. By using an RPE, you can regulate

training more effectively and do so in a way that automatically takes into account recov-ery, sleep, good days and bad days, etc.


The R.P.E Scale

R.P.E.

10 No Reps Left - Max

9 1 Rep Left – With Struggle

8 Bar Speed Slower – 2 Reps In The Tank

7 Good Bar Speed – Moves Quickly with Max Force

6 Light Weight – Moves Quickly with Moderate Force

5 Warm Up Weight

4 Can be performed for 20 reps – Not Hard

3, 2, 1 Will Not Be Used

If we can train in a potentiated state as oppose to being tired and fatigued, increasing

force regularly becomes much easier. We know that increasing workload recruits more total muscle fibers. With that said, the more potentiated we are when we train, the eas-

ier it will be to increase load, and ultimately the faster we will force our body to build muscle and gain strength.

Note:

I am not saying that we should NEVER train to failure. I am simply suggesting that if you want to optimize your gains, training to failure too frequently can hinder results. This is especially true in regards to big, heavy compound lifts.


Massive Growth Factor #6 – Training Frequency

Training Frequency: The number of times per week for training a muscle group.

When it comes to natural bodybuilding, frequency is one of the key factors for new mus-cle growth. Without adequate frequency, we are leaving a lot of room for growth on the

table. Despite what the workout routines in bodybuilding magazines might suggest, breaking your workouts down into one training session per week, per muscle, is not go-

ing to produce optimal results. This is simply due to two major factors. These are also the two reasons why higher frequency training (if done correctly) is far superior to the

modern, over emphasized, body part split.

Muscle Protein Synthesis Muscle Protein Synthesis is critical to the body's ongoing growth, repair, and mainte-

nance of its skeletal muscle. Proteins: the compounds comprised of amino acids—the building blocks of tissue for-

mation within the body. The synthesis of protein is the method by which muscle is built.

In any trainee, the muscle protein synthesis is related to how the muscles are being ex-ercised. Other than the ongoing repair and maintenance of existing muscle tissues that

may be damaged through the course of daily living, new muscle will not be created with-out muscular activity (weight training). This is a prerequisite of meaningful muscle devel-

opment, built on protein synthesis.

All forms of physical activity will direct stress into a muscle. For example, with distance running, the stresses are cumulative, the combined effect of repetitive movements that

are at a relatively lower level of intensity. On the other hand, activities that involve ex-plosive and powerfully focused movements, the forces directed against the muscle are

much more significant, and they occur over a much faster.

In each situation, the muscle will naturally break down, a process known as "catabolism." The repair of the damaged muscle is "anabolism," the building up and the growth of the

existing and previously damaged fiber. Protein synthesis is the mechanism by which the


body affects this repair and muscle growth: as a very general rule of thumb, when the body synthesizes more protein than it breaks down, muscle growth occurs.

Maximizing Protein Synthesis

Research has taught us that muscle protein synthesis is elevated for roughly 48 hours following a weight lifting session. This muscle protein synthesis elevation is in conjunc-

tion with the muscle that was trained. For example, if you trained your chest on Monday, then protein synthesis occurs (for the given fibers) for 48 hours and then comes back

down to baseline. So for an athlete who trains with a body part split, he will train his chest directly, 1 time

per week, elevating protein synthesis just 1 time (for the chest fibers).

For an athlete who trains at a higher frequency, say a full-body split, he will bench press 3 times throughout the week, elevating protein synthesis 3x as much as the athlete on

the body-part split.

The Repeated Bout Effect

Are you training your legs or chest once per week? Do they still get extremely sore following your training?

I am sorry to inform you that if you have muscle groups that are still getting extremely

sore, it’s not because you “killed it” in the gym. This is actually due to a slow and ineffi-cient recovery. You see, after performing an unaccustomed eccentric exercise and ex-

hibiting severe soreness, the muscle rapidly adapts to reduce further damage from the same exercise. However, if this is not the case, then your body is simply not adapting to

the stress. If it is not adapting, not only will it become harder to increase your intensity, but new muscle will come much slower (if at all).

You have probably read, at some time or another, that training a large muscle group

more than once per week will lead to overtraining. This is old bodybuilding methodology that has been debunked by a recently discovered process called “The Repeated Bout

Effect”.


Although this effect does still require an adequate rest period between bouts, training more frequently (using practical programming) will increase your ability to recover and

adapt. More efficient recovery and adaptation makes for extended progression without a plateau, strength increases, and more overall muscle growth.


Massive Growth Factor #7 – Rest Periods

The Importance of Rest In Between Sets Although the appropriate rest times in between sets are important, I do not expect eve-

ryone to time their rest periods accurately. I do, however, recommend that you use your best judgment as to when you’re ready for your next set while staying in the vicinity of

the prescribed rest period.

How much should I rest in between sets? When training at a high intensity (80%+), complete recovery does not occur for as long

as 3-7 minutes. When you are training with a higher intensity (heavy), the prescribed rest amount is 3 minutes. However, some may not be fully recovered and primed for another

heavy set for another few minutes (following the prescribed 3 minutes). If this is the case, feel free to prolong your rest period until you are ready for another heavy set.

When training with a lower intensity, rests of about 60 seconds would be more optimal.

An additional 30-60 seconds (if needed) is also fine..

Rests periods during a warm up Warm up sets are used to prepare you for the heavier work sets. With that said, the lightest warm ups will not be heavy enough to produce fatigue and thus will not require

much more than the time it takes to load the bar for the next warm up set. As the warm up sets get heavier, the rest periods should increase, but never to the extent of a work

set.

Do Not Over Complicate Appropriate rest in between sets is important but should not be over-thought. The rest

periods for each exercise will be listed in the workout guides in order to eliminate the guess work. Also, timing the rest in between every single set can get tedious and over-

whelming and although I recommend it to anyone who can manage it, it is not critical.

Do not be afraid of depending on your internal clock. Your body will always let you know when you are ready.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alain Gonzalez is a former skinny guy turned jacked fitness professional. He’s a personal trainer, consultant, and has written for

some of the most prestigious online fitness magazines.

His transformation has been featured in articles on websites all over the internet and has given hope to countless “hardgainers” all over

the world.

He is the founder of www.MuscleMonsters.com, a free fitness website dedicated to helping guys (and gals) to build muscle,

get lean, and achieve a physique they never thought possible.

Over the years, Alain has helped thousands of naturally

skinny guys to finally move the scale and pack on pounds of rock hard muscle mass, regardless of their genetics, and he

hopes to do the same for you.

Stay In Touch!

http://www.musclemonsters.com/

https://www.facebook.com/MuscleMonsters/

https://www.youtube.com/musclemonsters

https://www.instagram.com/musclemonsters/

https://twitter.com/musclemonsters

Documents

ony to rawny - Amazon S3But if you follow everything I teach in this guide, you will go from scrawny weakling to jacked and shredded in a matter of weeks! Not to mention, you’re