If you knew that you could maximize your muscle growth and strength in less than 5 minutes per workout, would you be more inspired and dedicated to train those 5 minutes? Would you ever miss a workout that only takes 5 minutes? Would you even have the nerve to make up an excuse for missing such a short but incredibly effective workout?
Most people make weight training a lot more difficult than it really is. They actually make their workouts obstacles on the way to their goals. It isn’t like this and shouldn’t be viewed as such.
To get the most results from your workouts you need to view them as opportunities not obstacles. Opportunities for muscle growth. Opportunities to get one step closer to your muscle-building goal.
So how do you turn a workout into an irresistible activity and not a dreaded necessity? Simple, you view it for what it is – 5 short minutes of maximum intensity. What could be easier?
Now I know you are saying to yourself, “What kind of workout are you going to do in 5 minutes?” My answer to you is – the most effective muscle-building workout there is.
If you have followed any of my work you will know that over the past 15 years I have been developing a training program called Max-OT. Since the release of the principles and techniques of Max-OT, tens of thousands of athletes around the world have accelerated their gains in muscle growth and strength like no other training program before. And they have done so by training less! That’s right! Train less and gain more.
Okay, that’s my pitch for Max-OT. To learn more about this incredible program just follow the link, and to start packing on muscle fast sign up for the 12-Week program. It’s FREE for a limited time. The Max-OT Training Manual will also be available soon.
Only 5 short minutes to maximum muscle growth!
Most people that don’t train with weights think that it is the most grueling and painful way to spend leisure time. And even the most dedicated lifter prides himself on the gut wrenching self induced pain they have to endure to get the results they want. It’s a sort of masochism if you will that separates those that train from those that don’t.
This exaggerated willingness to accept pain for the ultimate result is what some lifters feel puts them in an elite club only few dare to join. Oh, there are many that will stop in to an occasional meeting but few sign up for a lifetime membership. It’s this club of exclusiveness that reinforces to the dedicated lifter how truly tough they really are.
Well guess what? We are not that tough. Lifting is not that tough. Forget the “no-pain, no-gain” moniker. This is a smoke shield. Lifting is easy. In fact, it’s probably the easiest sport there is. Well, maybe badminton is easier but not by much.
Now before you get all pissed off and stick out your chest and start trying to convince yourself just how tough and grueling you are, and how tough lifting is, hear me out. The purpose of this article is to reveal to you just how easy and painless by comparison weight training is so that you can eliminate the deep rooted “fear” that sits in your gut, in the gut of everyone that seriously trains with weights. The fear that causes you to train with less than 100% intensity. The fear that makes you talk yourself into missing workouts. The fear that keeps you away from the squat rack. You know the fear that I’m talking about. It’s in each and every one of us. We can run from it but we can’t hide. It’s there and here’s how to get rid of it, or at the very least deal with it.
To illustrate the 5 minute workout I’m going to analyze a mass building chest workout.
First off, you should never train more than 40 minutes. There is no need. It’s counter-productive to building muscle. Learn this and live this.
Training chest as well as any other muscle group for maximum muscle fiber stimulation and subsequent growth requires no more than 6 to 9 total heavy sets. That’s it. Any more than this and you’re doing more harm than good. More than this and you’re crossing the maximum muscle fiber stimulation plane and stepping into the ever so real and destructive land of over-training.
Ideal rep range on your heavy sets is 4 to 6. This means the weight you use allows you to get at least four solid reps, but is too heavy to allow more than 6. This amount of overload maximizes muscle fiber recruitment, maximizes muscle fiber stimulation and eliminates muscle fatigue as a limiting factor for overload. So here we are with the ground rules – 6 to 9 heavy sets and 4 to 6 reps per set. Nothing to it. Piece of cake.
A set of 6 reps will take you no longer than 16 to 20 seconds. That’s it! You are under maximum overload, exerting maximum intensity, enduring maximum pain for no more than 20 seconds per set!
A total of 9 heavy sets at a maximum of 20 seconds per set and you are looking at a minuscule 3 minutes total overload time. Three minutes! That’s all the time you’ll be enduring the pain of the intensity and the overload. Three short, walk in the park minutes. This is pure child’s play. Tell me how tough you have to be to handle this. And then tell me what possible excuse you could come up with to justify blowing off a workout because you are in fear of 3 tiny minutes of pain. Even if you were training completely wrong and did double the amount of sets, you are still looking at a measly 6 minutes of total training intensity. That’s if you trained way too much.
Can you tell me of any activity, any sport, where maximum physical and mental exertion encompasses such a tiny amount of time? Can you tell me of an easier sport in the world? I don’t think so.
When you take weight training and you break it down by the numbers and really dissect what is involved from a physical exertion and intensity standpoint – it’s laughable. It’s almost a joke. It’s easy, it’s simple and by comparison it’s a painless activity. And, there is no other sport that yields such staggering results from the little amount of time, effort and intensity that’s involved. Now none of this is meant to belittle weight training in any way. It simply lays out the cold hard fact that we are not involved in anything even remotely tough. So there you have it. That’s the amount of intensity, of pain, of effort that it take to build muscle during a workout. Did you even realize that you actually put forth such little effort for such huge returns?
If training is so easy then why the fear? It’s because we make so much more out of the effort than there really is. By doing this as a way to stroke our egos, we are actually sabotaging our abilities to achieve our goals.
Next time you even consider the idea of skipping a workout, remember this article. Realize what little actual pain you are trying to avoid. Realize this and you get rid of the fear.
