Motivational Speaker

At some stage in every Alpha-male warrior’s evolution, there is an attempt (usually unsuccessful) to create a bigger, more muscular, more athletic version of himself. Driven by images of childhood heroes he is overtaken by the desire to have shoulders like a barn door, arms like Conan the Destroyer and abs like an Olympic gymnast. For some this phase can last for weeks, for other tragics like myself, it might stretch to decades. You’d think by forty-three I’d be over it. Sadly not; I’m still mesmerized by big lats, massive guns and garden-hose veins.

One of the challenges for the would-be Mr Universe is sorting through the eight million training philosophies, nine billion get-big-quick diets and ten trillion get-ripped-in-no-time pills, powders and bars. If you started researching today to find the best way to create your very own Superhero body, there’s a reasonable chance that a year from now you’d be no closer, kind of confused and really frustrated. The truth is that getting big ain’t that tough if you understand a few basic scientific principles, so let’s keep it simple and look at the key variables in the ‘getting big’ process:

Things like age and genetics also play a part in what we can and can’t achieve but we can’t change those, so let’s focus on the stuff we can.

Your body will only get bigger and stronger if you stimulate it the right way. Hypertrophy is a physiological response to stress (in this instance lifting weights) and your body will only gain muscle if you give it a reason to do so. In order for that to happen you need to do a few things.

1. Follow a program which is progressive in design; that is more weight, more reps, more volume, more variety, less recovery (between sets) or a combination of all variables. If the program is not progressive our body will adapt for a short while and then plateau. Too many people in too many gyms (and garages) do the same things, the same way, day in, day out and then wonder why their body doesn’t change.
2. If you are starting out, focus your weight sessions on compound (multi-joint) exercises. These are the movements which will stack on the beef.
3. Once you have a training base (four to six weeks), start to train harder and heavier. Don’t put yourself at risk or let your ego get the better of you, but lifting relatively heavy weights with good form is the key to stimulating your muscles to grow. If you want to be big, lift big.