Page 14 - Top Cover Issue 6

14 TOP COVER ISSUE 6

“A normal 170 lb male can

store about 350-500 grams of

total glycogen in his muscles”

training principle associated with positive growth factors! Don’t extra 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch over the other guy, because the extra
forget the power of rest on the body’s ability to recover and grow. volume taxes the energy stores in his arms to a greater degree and
Although the 20 rep set is longer in duration, you are in effect just the body adapts to that by increasing the amount of energy that
doing one, all out set for those body parts and then walking away, can be stored in his arms. So, their arms will be the same size from
not the multiple reps and sets from a regular routine that really a muscle fibre perspective and likely be the same strength wise
take it out of your central nervous system and deplete muscle to but the 2nd guy will have more glycogen storage, which makes his
such an extent that full recovery is nearly impossible without two muscles look bigger. A person with a 20 inch solid arm who trains
weeks off!! with low volume might be able to add a full inch by increasing his
Finally, research has proved that higher volume training, which this volume. That’s not to say that someone training with higher reps
obviously is, can prove far more effective in the growth of muscle can’t build plenty of functional strength and size in the process. As
size, if not functionality and strength, merely by promoting the long as he trains with progressive resistance his myofibrils (muscle
muscle to hold more ‘energy’ in the form of glycogen. This in turn fibres) will increase in size just as well as the guy on lower reps, he’s
makes the muscle look fuller although it may be no stronger than just more likely to have a nearly immediate extra gain from the
if trained at a lower volume. The science behind it goes like this; increased glycogen storage in addition to that. With higher volume
A normal 170 lb male can store about 350-500 grams of total training, the average trainee might be able to gain 5-10 lbs or so of
glycogen in his muscles. A 170 lb male whose muscles are trained muscle growth across his entire body over what he would gain on
at fairly high volume can store about double that, or up to 1000 lowervolume protocols. So there you
grams! Each gram of glycogen attracts 3 grams of water with it, have it. The 20 reps, set routine – if you
so 500 grams of extra muscle glycogen above average will add haven’t tried it yet, give it a go! You
an extra 2000 grams of total weight above normal, or about 4.5 really do have nothing to lose
lbs. This 4.5 pounds of extra glycogen and fluid will be stored in but will have a lot to gain. Be
the muscles and will “appear” to be solid muscle weight, but it’s warned though, in order to make this
really nothing more than energy and water. 4.5 pounds may not regime work you need to put in the work,
sound like a lot but take a look at a 4.5 lb steak next time you’re it isn’t easy but the results will keep you
in the supermarket and you can see that’s a considerable amount. inspired and motivated to carry on with this
For example, take 2 people with 15 inch arms who train with fairly assault!
low volume, so their energy stores are never really taxed. They do
something like 5 sets of 3-5 reps for biceps and triceps twice per
week. You keep one of them on low volume and put the other one
on high volume, something like the 20 rep routine. The guy on the
higher volume protocol might see his arms immediately go up an