Max-OT Week-1

The Ultimate Muscle Building Approach

Welcome to the AST Sports Science 12 week Max-OT On-Line Training Course. We are about to embark on a 12-week journey that will change the way you approach building muscle forever. The goal here is to teach you the principles and techniques involved in Max-OT training. Learning these techniques and how to apply them will give you the most efficient tools for building the maximum amount of muscle in the shortest amount of time.

Max-OT Will Work for Everyone

If you’re not the most genetically gifted person, Max-OT will accelerate muscle growth and strength faster than any other training method. If you are one of the few genetic elites, Max-OT will take advantage of your genetics and propel muscle growth much faster than “normal” training methods. Male or female – it doesn’t matter. Simply put, for building muscle Max-OT is the most effective way to train.

Whether you’re looking to pack on a massive 50 pounds of muscle or a trim and tight 5 pounds, Max-OT is the most effective way to accomplish this. From the highest level competitor to the most casual lifter, Max-OT is the most sensible approach to reaching your goals in the shortest amount of time.

Not only will I cover training methods extensively, but I will also unravel the mental aspect of building muscle. I will dissect the psychological roadblocks that are responsible for derailing most people who train from ultimately reaching their goals and show you how the very structure of Max-OT eliminates these obstacles. We will get rid of bad habits and condition ourselves for efficiency, making everything we do a means to an end.

This will not be a “positive-thinking / positive attitude” brainwashing, but programming your mind for success can’t be ignored. The last thing I want to do is build a following of positive thinkers that spend all their time, energy, and money “learning” how to be positive but never producing. However, I want you to get results. I will present the psychological portion in a manner that will invoke action and produce these results.

Training For Results

Max-OT is all about training and getting results; making the most progress in the least amount of time. I’m sure all will agree that if you were given the choice of gaining 10 pounds of muscle in 2 months or 2 years, you would opt for the 2 months. Working out is fun, but let’s not kid ourselves, what makes it all worth it are the results Max-OT produces. More results – more enjoyment – greater motivation. Fewer results – less enjoyment, frustration, lost motivation, missed workouts, and many times, quitting altogether.

Breaking this down even further, if you can fully stimulate a muscle for maximum growth in 30 minutes versus 90 minutes, which would you rather do? Let me tell you, I like working out, but if I can get better results in 1/3 of the time – that’s what I’m going to do. That is Max-OT. Far greater results in much less time.

One thing unique about this program is that it will be 12 weeks long. Just like a class in college. Each week you will read a new chapter that will further expand on the Max-OT principles and techniques. This approach will break down the entire program step by step for easy digestion. This way you have a greater chance of completing this course. It will be interactive in a way that will make you accountable to the most important person – yourself.

Now don’t get antsy. We will dive right into training – even in this first session. But as you proceed through the course you’ll progressively learn more and more about how to make Max-OT work for you. How to get bigger, stronger, leaner, and smarter – the fastest way possible.

The muscle-building principles you are about to learn, no matter how experienced you may be, will give you a completely new outlook on training and building muscle as well as how you prioritize the activities of your life to achieve the results you’re looking for.

Forget What You Think You Know About Working Out

This might be the most difficult part.

Max-OT is different, but it’s not a bunch of new exercises that have never been done before. The approach is new and unique, but you’ll be doing many of the same exercises you’ve always done – just differently. You will approach training with a new mindset, a new vigor, and most importantly a new “certainty.”

Let’s Go Back

Now I want you to think for a minute. In all the time that you have been training, at what point did you make the most impressive gains?

My guess is that you made your most impressive gains when you first started. Or should I say, when you first committed yourself to training on a regular basis. It’s not uncommon for someone to gain 10 pounds of muscle the first month they start training. And another 25 to 30 pounds their first year! Why is this?

Let’s analyze this. When you are a beginner, you certainly don’t know “how to” train. Your form sucks, you’re cheating in most exercises, and chances are you are always trying to see “how much” you can lift. Not only that, in most cases, you wanted results yesterday. You probably have some serious motivation working for you. Crude, but serious.

So, if you didn’t know how to train and you did most of the exercises wrong, why did you make such impressive gains? But wait, let’s look deeper into this question. Why did your gains slow down as you become more experienced at training? Shouldn’t it be just the opposite? Shouldn’t the more you learn about training mean, the more progress you make?

Learn More – Get Fewer Results

It’s kind of funny and kind of sad. For awhile you’re content doing the basic movements – bench press, straight bar curls, squats, and leg presses. You’re making great gains, and everybody is taking notice. Well, as you become more “experienced” you decide to read up a little – first mistake. You grab the latest magazine – and I use that term very loosely – and start learning all about the “training methods” the pro bodybuilders use.

Now, I’m here to tell you it’s not a coincidence that right about the same time you started “getting smarter” and using the advanced training programs, was just about the same time gaining muscle became a lot more difficult, a much slower process. It’s also the same time the nagging injuries started to happen more often too. That’s right, and it’s not a coincidence that the more “intelligently” you approached your training, the less effective it became.

Now it’s not the fact that you tried to increase your knowledge of training that is the problem. It’s more of a combination of where you obtained your educational material and your abandonment of the basic training methods for a more “sophisticated” training approach that has suddenly stalled your gains.

As crazy as this sounds, this is the primary reason most people stop making gains. They deviate from the basic, most effective training methods and start using “advanced” training methods.

Friends – Trainers – Magazines – Forums

Where do most people learn about “how to workout”? Chances are you learned from one or all of these four sources – friends, a trainer at a gym, or, God forbid, out of the bodybuilding magazines. You’re not any different from anyone else. That’s just how it is.

You see, working out is not an organized sport with coaches and assistant coaches and organized practices and training drills. It doesn’t work like that. You have to learn it on your own, and the resources available to learn from are pretty slim, and just about all are wrong (well maybe not wrong, but certainly not right). In fact, the “experts” that write the learning material were educated the same way you were, they were just articulate enough (this can be argued) to write about it in an organized format.

Sad to say, chances are you have been taught and are training wrong. And if not “wrong” certainly not the best way to maximize muscle growth. Max-OT will change this.

The most difficult part about Max-OT is ridding yourself of all the bad training knowledge that you have learned over the years.

You have to not only re-educate yourself but forget all the “bad” methods and approaches that you have done for so long. If you’re new to working out, then you are lucky. You will be learning the best training method right from the start. You will be fortunate enough not to have to break all the “bad” training habits.

An Open Mind And a Desire for Results

So I’m asking you to approach Max-OT with a fresh and open mind. You want to avoid the “shouldn’t I do this,” and “what about that” comments. Especially during these first few weeks. I am the teacher, and no matter how long you have been training or how big and strong you are or how much “experience” you have, you are the student. This is critical in extracting the most from this program. Most people who train with weights, at one time or another, have gone through an ego-driven phase. Now is the time to set that aside.

With this hierarchy understood, it will allow you to establish the best foundation for learning and practicing Max-OT principles and techniques that I guarantee will allow you to build muscle and strength at a rate and to an extent you never knew possible.

The Max-OT Basics

Max-OT follows a specific and proven set of parameters that are key to maximizing muscle growth. These specific parameters are the underlying core of Max-OT’s physiological impact on muscle.

If you remember one thing from this lesson remember this – a muscle will only adapt (grow) if it is forced to do so. The mechanics of Max-OT’s are designed to force your muscles to grow each and every workout. As far as I am concerned, if you aren’t growing from each workout, you’re wasting your time.

In a nutshell, but nowhere near complete, you can summarize Max-OT like this:

Train only 1 or 2 muscle groups per workout/day.
Do 4 to 6 reps per set.
Do 6 to 9 total heavy sets per muscle group.
Rest 2 to 3 minutes between sets. (STR)
Each workout should last approximately 30 to 45 minutes.
Train each muscle group once every 5 to 7 days. (ITR)
Take a 1-week break from training every 8 to 10 weeks.

As you can see, there is a small bit of leeway in each of these rules. A very small bit. Max-OT is designed specifically around these parameters.

To be completely successful and get the maximum benefits from Max-OT, you must follow these rules exactly as they are presented

You cannot adapt the rules you like and discard the ones you don’t. Each parameter depends on and works with the other parameters.

30 to 45 minutes

Each workout should last approximately 30 to 45 minutes

If your workouts are lasting more than 45 minutes, something is wrong. In fact, they should be much closer to 30 minutes than 45 minutes.

Now I understand there are situations at certain gyms – crowds – that make this a tough proposition, but it’s very important that your workout is completed in this duration of time. If that means finding another gym to train at then start looking. If you are training with more than one workout partner and this extra man is stretching your workout then you need to make adjustments – lose the third wheel.

Max – O • T (maks’ ô’ tê)
1: maximum overload training 2: the act of building maximum muscle in minimum time 3: the ultimate muscle-building, fat burning, strength developing, power increasing approach to weight training ever conceived – adj. to pack on lean muscle – syn. intensity

This imposed time limit fits neatly into Max-OT’s fundamental principle – Intensity. Max-OT defines intensity as: “Maximum muscle overload in the minimum amount of time.”

The 30 to 45-minute workout offers the following benefits:

It’s much more feasible to maintain maximum mental and physical intensity for 30 to 45 minutes than for 90 minutes. In fact, after 30 minutes mental focus and intensity start to decline rapidly.
Training for 30 to 45 minutes maximizes hormonal spikes related to high-intensity training. Max-OT training maximizes key hormonal output based on intensity and duration.
Training for 30 to 45 minutes optimizes the “anabolic-window” high-intensity training provides. Going beyond the 45-minute threshold places you outside the optimum hormonal response time.
Training beyond 45 minutes increases the risk of over-training and increases catabolic hormone secretion. As you drift outside the “anabolic-window,” you enter a detrimental “catabolic” phase. Training beyond 45 minutes decreases anabolic activity.

So as you can see, there are physiological advantages to keeping your workout in the 30 to 45-minute range. And there are definite physiological disadvantages to training beyond 45 minutes.

Max-OT is all about efficiency. You’ll see the word efficiency used many times throughout this course.

Train Only 1 or 2 Muscle Groups per Workout Each Day

Max-OT training involves maximum muscle fiber stimulation and overload in a minimum amount of time. To accomplish this, adjustments must be made to achieve these objectives within the desired “optimal-time” parameter.

Training one major muscle group per workout is paramount to the Max-OT principles as it optimizes key physiological and psychological high-points designed to extract the greatest effect from your training. Every time you train the Max-OT way, you leave the gym fully confident that you performed a workout that will result in muscle growth.

The Max-OT “one body-part per day” principle takes advantage of the “duration of maximum intensity” that occurs both physically and mentally when you train. By pre-establishing in your mind that you will only be training 1 muscle group you can generate much greater mental focus and intensity. This psychological “edge” directly and favorably impacts physical intensity output. Bottom line, you train each muscle group much harder, achieve greater muscle fiber contraction, greater overload, and spark more muscle growth by establishing 100% physical intensity and 100% mental focus.

Do 6 to 9 Total Heavy Sets per Muscle Group

6 to 9 Sets

For each muscle group you train, Max-OT principles stipulate between 6 and 9 total “heavy” sets. That’s total heavy sets. No matter how many exercises you do, you will only do between 6 and 9 total heavy sets per muscle group.

What’s a Max-OT “heavy-set”?

A Max-OT heavy-set is a set done with a weight that will allow at least 4 reps, but no more than 6 reps. This is very important and fundamental to Max-OT.

What’s a Max-OT set?

A Max-OT set is a set performed to “positive-failure” with a heavy weight for 4 to 6 reps. In other words, a warm-up set is not a “Max-OT set”. It is a warm-up set and that’s it. So don’t count your warm-up sets as part of your 6 to 9 sets per body part. This is important.

What’s “Positive-Failure”?

Positive failure is when a set is performed to the positive limit of muscle exhaustion. In other words, you are done with a set when you are no longer able to complete a rep on your own.

Positive-failure should occur between the fourth and sixth rep

Max-OT does not employ forced reps beyond maybe partial help on the last rep of a set.

Contrary to what most have been led to believe, forced reps are counterproductive to building muscle. They artificially fatigue the muscle, deplete muscle energy stores, and produce non-progressive overload just to name a few.

How many times have you seen people in the gym training and one guy’s spotting another and yelling in his face to do two more reps when he really should have stopped two reps ago. Do not do forced reps.

Do 4 to 6 Reps per Set

This is the heart of Max-OT. You will do 4 to 6 reps on virtually all lifts. There will be some lifts that you will do a little more reps on, but only a few. The 4 to 6 rep range is important and critical to your success of Max-OT. We will go deeper into the understanding of this further in the course, but for right now you need to ingrain this “4 to 6 reps” into your mind.

What is meant by 4 to 6?

When I say to do between 4 and 6 reps, this means that you will use a weight that is light enough to allow you to get at least 4 reps, but is also heavy enough to where you cannot do any more than 6 reps. If you can’t do 4 reps, then the weight is too heavy. If you can do more than 6 reps, then the weight is too light.

This is important and is a critical component of Max-OT. 4 to 6 reps is the “ideal” rep scheme for building muscle. It allows maximum muscle fiber overload, maximum muscle fiber recruitment, and optimal volume for maximum growth stimulation.

Intensity

A big advantage (aside from the physiological benefits) is that it’s much easier to mentally focus your energy on a set of 4 to 6 reps than it is on a set of 10 to 12 reps. Knowing that your set will be short and intense will allow you to generate maximum mental intensity, maximum muscle contraction, and maximum muscular force. Max-OT, in itself, is a more productive muscle-building approach that acts synergistically with each technique, component, and principle to exponentially accelerate your results.

Once you understand that lifting with a heavy amount of weight is the most potent stimulus for muscle growth, you will continue to strive for greater overload. You will continue to get bigger and stronger in less time.

Rest 2 to 3 Minutes Between Sets – STR

Max-OT, as its name inspires, is all about maximum intensity and maximum overload for maximum results. Building on the principle of lifting with maximum intensity and overload for 4 to 6 reps, between set recovery is very important. I call this “Short Term Recovery” – STR.

As you perform reps with heavy weight, many physiological reactions are taking place to make all this happen. Muscle contraction takes cellular energy, oxygen, chemical reactions within the cells, and a host of other molecular activities. As each rep is performed, you deplete your muscles’ capacity to contract with the same force as with the first rep. By the time you get to the 5th rep, you have tapped out your muscle intra-cellular energy capacity.

This is Max-OT. It’s pushing a muscle to this extreme (overload not fatigue) that produces results. Recovery between sets allows you to repeat this process until enough overload volume has been performed to stimulate and force new muscle growth.

The idea of maximum recovery between sets is to maximize your muscle’s ability to lift maximum weight during the next set. Notice the word “maximum” used a lot here?

Between set recovery should last about 2 to 3 minutes. This amount of time allows the muscle to recover its intra-cellular energy stores and flush any lactate out of the muscle that’s hanging around from the previous set to restore its anaerobic capacity.

Now, between set recovery will vary between individuals. Some people just recover much faster than others. As I pointed out earlier you want to strive for is the recovery that will allow you to lift the maximum amount of weight for your next set. For some this is 90 seconds, for others, it’s the entire 3 minutes – sometimes even longer.

It’s important to be fully recovered before your next set because your ability to maximize the overload on the muscle will directly reflect in the muscle growth it produces

This critical between set recovery phase (STR) is exactly why Max-OT does not incorporate “super-sets,” “pre-exhaustion,” or other fatigue generating techniques. We’ll get deeper into this later, but realize right now that fatigue does not build muscle – overload builds muscle. Fatigue simply fatigues. Once a muscle is fatigued it can’t be properly overloaded.

Never let fatigue hinder overload.

Train Each Muscle Group Once Every 5 to 7 days

Here we go from “Short-Term” between-set muscle recovery (STR) to “Muscle-Specific” recovery (MSR) – the recovery between training sessions of the same muscle group. Example: The time between one leg workout until your next leg workout.

This recovery is very, very important and one of the major components responsible for maximizing the muscle growth process.

Recovery. How many times have you heard this word? Do you understand what it means and what impact it has on muscle growth?

I can answer that with one word – everything. Complete recovery of each muscle group after a Max-OT training session before the same muscle group is subjected to overload again is of equal importance to the overall results as the actual training itself.

Recuperation is everything.

There are many things you can do to enhance recovery. Nutritional advances have made this a “no-brainer” and almost foolproof process. We will get into that in greater detail later. Right now we are primarily concerned with the “time” between workouts to allow for full muscle recovery.

Most training programs have you training way too often. This habit is hard to break. Building muscle is an “excess-endeavor.” You always want more. This being a major motivation, it’s against normal thought to – do less to get more.

The muscle growth process does not occur in the gym. Let me repeat; muscle growth does not occur in the gym. Muscle growth occurs during the recovery period – the critical time between workouts of the same muscle groups.

As a result of overload, the muscle must adapt to compensate for future overload.

The recovery period is the time when muscle is recuperating, growing, and becoming stronger in preparation for more overload – adapting

If a muscle is not allowed to fully recover between workouts, muscle growth will be impeded, over-training will occur, and muscle breakdown will be inevitable. You will become stagnated. Muscle mass and strength will more than likely decrease. Energy levels will dwindle, appetite will lessen, and motivation will disappear.

Most lifters confuse fatigue with overload. This will take some logical thinking on your part to separate the two – again because of all the misinformation published in the magazines. Things like “feel the burn” are not what building muscle is about.

Recuperation

As you can see, recovery between workouts is absolutely critical for muscle growth success as well as for optimal health and well-being. This is why a major component of Max-OT training is to optimize recovery between workouts.

Allowing 5 to 6 full days between the training of the same muscle group is essential for full and complete recuperation. Recuperating fully leads to maximum muscle growth. Incomplete recuperation leads to muscle and strength breakdown.

As I said earlier, most training programs have you training far too much. The days of training the same muscle group on Thursday that you trained on Monday are long gone. Max-OT takes the elements of intensity and overload and maximizes the recovery the implementation of these two growth-promoting elements requires.

Every part of Max-OT is designed to potentiate and synergistically work with the program as a whole. The longer recovery time is necessary to allow for full recovery from the higher than normal muscle fiber recruitment and stimulation that Max-OT generates. Max-OT style training places much greater demands on muscle recovery. Greater muscle fiber stimulation and maximum recovery generate maximum muscle growth and strength increases. This is what Max-OT is all about.

Take a 1 Week Break From Training Every 8 to 10 Weeks

Make no mistake about it. Max-OT is a brutal form of training. It’s heavy. It’s intense. It’s result producing. It encompasses a total approach. It’s not just the training part of the equation. It’s the mental approach, the nutritional approach, the timing aspect, the exercise techniques all rolled into one.

Understand that muscle growth and strength enhancement doesn’t happen by accident. All in all, muscles beyond maturity do not want to grow. You must force a muscle to grow. Muscles must be subjected to a stimulus that compels it to adapt and grow. There must be a reason for a muscle to grow or it won’t. And, the more effectively you nurture this growth, the greater the results you will experience.

As I discussed earlier, recuperation is of vital importance to muscle growth. Recuperation will determine how well your muscles respond to Max-OT training. There are 4 important “time-spans” of recuperation:

Short Term Recuperation (STR) – Between sets during a workout
Intermediate Term Recuperation (ITR) – Between workouts
Muscle Specific Recuperation (MSR) – Between workouts of the same muscle group
Cyclical Recuperation (CR) – Between Max-OT Training cycles

Taking a week off from training every 8 to 10 weeks is very important for overall recuperation and muscle growth.

Many people have a psychological barrier to taking time off from training.

They feel like they are going to shrink. Not so. In fact, with Max-OT, after your week off for CR, you will usually come back bigger and stronger.

This week off allows your body to repair and grow. You are recovering from 8 or 10 straight weeks of heavy training. Fed properly, your body during this CR phase will be in a very high “anabolic” state. Muscle growth and repair will be constant 24 hours a day.

One very important thing, well, actually two. Do not do any strenuous aerobic or anaerobic activity during this week. You don’t have to be a slug but refrain from any exhausting or physically taxing activities. This is a recuperation week that is a key element in Max-OT.

Also, you should consume plenty of lean protein during this CR as well. When you take a week off from training, you still need to eat and supplement properly for growth to occur. In fact, is vitally important during this phase.

A Max-OT Routine to Get Things Started

I know everyone is very anxious to get started with the training, but understanding the complete Max-OT approach is paramount to getting the most from this program. Over the length of this course, we will go much more in-depth into the various elements of Max-OT, so you will be able to extract every drop from your training, your nutrition, and your determination.

As you’re finding out, building muscle goes way beyond reps and sets. Max-OT incorporates the most effective set and rep scheme and integrates it with precise nutrition, recuperation, intensity, and mental focusing techniques that, when correctly combined, will produce muscle and strength enhancement like no other program in existence. Max-OT is a program containing different elements with each one depending upon the other to form what I like to call “Max-OT Synergy.”

This program is designed to educate and not just instruct. I want to build an understanding as to why each element of Max-OT exists. After you complete this course, you’ll no longer just go through the movements and hope for the best. You’ll know exactly why you do everything.

The next few pages will detail a very effective Max-OT routine to get you accustomed to training the Max-OT way. Follow it to a “T”. This is a very effective Max-OT routine. Later in the course I will put together over 25 different Max-OT training routines as well as a complete 6-month Max-OT cycling program that will guarantee new muscle growth day in and day out. I will detail the exact Max-OT mechanics of each exercise to show you how to get more overload – more muscle growth – from each rep you do.

Now let’s proceed to the first Max-OT routine.

Monday: Legs

You guessed it. Squats. I recommend doing legs on Monday mainly because at most gyms everyone does chest on Mondays. This leaves free reign of the leg equipment. No waiting.

First, you need to make sure you warm-up properly. This is very, very important. It’s important to prevent injury and it’s important for Max-OT as it is an area everyone gets wrong. Learning to warm-up properly will have a major impact on muscle growth. Next week I will detail proper warm-up techniques that will add up to 30 pounds to your bench – the first day!

Make sure that your warm-up sets are just that, warm-up sets. Do not warm-up to exhaustion. Never do a set that approaches failure before you get to your “heavy” sets. We will go deeper into this a bit later. It’s very important. The sets listed in the workout below do not include warm-up sets.

Exercise	Sets	Reps *
Squats	3	4 to 6
Leg Press	2	4 to 6
Stiff Leg Deadlifts	2	6
Standing Machine Calf Raises	2	6 to 8
45 degree Leg Press Calf Raises	2	6 to 8