Quote Originally Posted by ttwarrior1 View Post
Once muscular growth has been stimulated, it can't be stimulated anymore than what it is. Anymore than the exact precise amount is overtraining. There is no such thing as stimulating the muscles further by doing a 2nd set after doing one set to failure. The stimulus responsible for increasing size and strength is the last rep of a set carried to failure, and that last rep has to be progressive resistance or overload. Aka , one more rep than your previous best or more weight, or more time under tension. A 2nd, 3rd set or more does absolutely nothing but go into your recovery ability causing you not to gain as much muscle or strength that you could have. Mr Olympia dorian yates, 1st mr olympia larry scott, 4 certification programsmt the editor of ironman magazine, the inventor of nautilus and medex and cybex all agree with what i posted. Either growth is stimulated or it isn't.
For the dumb folk that are stubborn or have been brainwashed into believing something else i will explain more.

Think of your muscles as dirt on the ground and building muscle as the mountain on top of the dirt.
You do a set and a hole is dug into the dirt, aka the muscle.

Example: you do a set of standing barbell curls to failure where you can't do another rep. You have damaged, aka , contracted muscle cells.
This is like digging a hole into the ground.
Now by doing a 2nd set or 3rd and so on, all your doing is making the whole deeper and deeper. You do not want to make the whole deeper. By doing the 1 set to failure in the curl you have stimulated growth. Not too many people know , but the exact same chemicals in the body that are used for recovery are the exact same chemicals used for muscular growth.
By doing a 2nd or 3rd set or more after you have done 1 set to failure all your doing is digger a deeper hole , now your body has to use up your resources that would be used for muscular growth. They now have to be used for recovery when they could of been used for growth.
The very 1st thing the body needs to do to grow is to recover. The muscle cannot gain muscle or strength until it has recovered. Aka filling up the hole that was dug. After the hole is filled up, if growth was stimulated, the body then overcompensates and builds dirt on top of the ground, aka, making your muscles bigger.
A set you can normaly perform 10 reps with and for some reason you only did 1 rep, would you ever grow or gain strength? No. Why? Because the intensity of effort on that rep is low and your muscles are not fatigued and have no reason to expand beyond its existing compacity.
If you only did 7 or 8 or 9 reps you still would not grow because your body knows it can do 10 reps . After each rep you do the body contracts more and more muscle cells until it can no longer do another rep. If you do 10 reps your body still would not grow because you can curl the weight ten times.
In order to grow you have to do what you haven't done before and that is an 11th rep . Not 2 or 3 or 4 sets, but 1 set and one set to failure where you can't do another rep and you do that 11th rep.
This goes for all exercises. If you can incline dumbell press 80 pound dumbells for 5 reps, the next workout you either have to do
1. go up in weight or
2. Do the 80 pound dumbells for 6 reps , or more.
No growth can be stimulated by doing a 2nd set or 3rd, or 4th or 5th or 6th set. Once growth has been stimulated by doing that 11 rep on the curl or doing that 6th rep in the dumbell press. No 2nd set is needed or should be even desired. Any more sets goes into your recovery ability and is overtraining.
This is why people can lift weights for years or everybody can do a routine and people can see various results.
They all stimulated growth if they went up in weight or reps, but people are seeing different results only because some people can tolerate more exercise or have different recovery abilities. The fact that you feel like you can do more doesn't mean you should do more and it shouldn't.

I said it earlier in this post and I'll say it again. THE ONE AND ONLY STIMULUS RESPONSIBLE FOR INCREASING SIZE AND STRENGTH IS THE LAST REP OF A SET CARRIED TO FAILURE AS LONG AS PROGRESSIVE RESISTANCE OR PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD IS APPLIED. ALL THE OTHER REPS OF A SET DO NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BUT WARMUP REPS UNTIL YOU DO YOUR LAST REP WHERE GROWTH CAN BE STIMULATED.

The body was not meant to lift weights. God did not itend for the body to be used for weightlifting. This is only done for various reasons, like getting better at sports, wanting to big build bigger or stronger muscles for whatever your own personal reasons are.
The body has week links when lifting. Like when doing bench presses. The front deltoids and triceps are being worked much more then the chest. Or when doing pulldowns the biceps and shoulders are being worked. This is why people complain when lifting that they feel nothing in a certain area they think they are working.
This is why you should use great form and slow your repititions down so you can get a muscular contraction in the muscle group you are training. Many times it is also necessary to pre exhaust the muscle to remove the week links.
Example: When doing pulldowns you 1st need to warmup your muscles. Do a light set of pulldowns for a few reps, not to failure with a light weight, then do a medium set, aka a slightly heavier set not to failure .
Then go over to the pullover machine and do 1 set to failure in the pullover or in the dumbell pullover with a weight you can do for around 10 reps.
As soon as you cannot do another rep. Walk over to the pulldown and do 1 set to failure in the pulldown. For the very 1st time in your life you may of experienced something you have felt before. The feeling of having to stop your set because you are getting a cramp in your lat or feel it so much in your lats you feel like they are going to explode. You have stimulated real muscle growth without having week links like the biceps and shoulders involved.
No 2nd set is needed . A 2nd set would do nothing but go into your recovery ability causing you not to gain as much strength and muscles as your genetics allows.

The proper way to train has been out for year right in people's faces for everyone to see for years but along the way people have tried to sabbotage it with other various workouts, beliefs, aka, like religious beliefs or economic beliefs to make you believe that something else is the truth, when in fact, the exact opposite may be true, and usually is.

What about certification programs? Anyone can become a certified trainer. In fact you can become a certified trainer online in less than 3 hours. You purchase the program online. You then click the option that you have read the material and are ready to take the test. You then take the test online. You then get graded. 3 hours later you are a certified trainer. Now guess what. Did you know most cerification programs don't even really grade you? Why? Because they want your money. They are not going to flunk anyone for the most part because if they do , then they can't take your money and send you a certification certificate. Most certification programs are exactly alike with some modification so they don't copy other programs. This is how and why anyone can start a certification program. Its all about the money.
So who certifies the cerifier? Who certifies them? The answer is noone. Anyone can be a certified trainer and anyone can start their own certification program. In fact if you wanted to start your own certification program tommorrow, you could and for very little cost.
As an experiment, i stopped writing this and became a certified trainer again in less than 30 minutes. Not hard at all. There are several hundred certification programs and they all have one goal. Get you certified and take your money. Then out of the blue, you need to send more money in a year to remain certified. Did i lose training knowledge in that year that i have to send money to regain it?
The moral is, most certification programs are crap , in fact horrendous just like most training programs people are on.
Most certified trainers don't even know the basic fundementals of their field. This goes for alot of our leaders in various fields. The best trainer at your gym could be the strongest guy , but i doubt it, but could easily be someone that has never touched a weight. You don't gain knowlege by lifting weights. You gain it from learning by reading, and observing and having an open mind. Of course not many knowledgable people have never not touched a weight, but listening to someone with great genes, or on growth hormone or says listen to them because they are certified may not be the way to go either.
This reminds me as a child when i never touched a weight and overheard someone recommend for someone to do 4 sets of 8 on a certain exercise. I was only 4 years old, but i remember asking why not 3 sets of 8 or 5 sets of 8 or 3 sets of 7 or 3 sets of 9.
I never got an answer , except for a mean look. I doubt anyone can clearly answer this, with the exception of myself and a few other individuals. Being a genious that didnt talk much as a child that was known to be shy, such a response by me then was probaly too much for the gym trainer to handle.
Congrats if you read all this. You may have finally learned something this year. This will be posted and has been posted on various forums. Even been offered a job at an online bodybuilding site because of it. Yes its true, im eating doritos as i write this. But we all have things to learn and our own weeknesses.
Goal + plan + motivation is the key to success.



If anyone really want to learn how to lift weights, learn something of value or to finally gain some real muscle, strength, or get in shape or better at there sport. How about contacting someone that will tell you the truth?
Im already training over 400 people across the country online with near 100 percent success rate. All free, I"ll never charge anyone that needs help..
You can contact me, owner of Bluegrass fitness



Join my yahoo group. Groups.yahoo.com/group/Heavy_Duty
I also highly recommend everyone join high intensity nation here on facebook if you want to learn more about training.
Wow that's a lot of words. But I think I get what you are saying. Basically if you are doing a 200 lb leg press and have been doing one set of 12 reps, try and get in the 13th?