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How to
Build Muscle: Keep It Simple!
By Skip La
Cour
2x NPC Team Universe Overall Winner
4x NPC Team Universe Heavyweight Champion
 Basic
exercises or compound exercises; Heavy weight, light weight, or rotating between heavy and
light weight; Forced reps or partial reps; Very strict form, cheating, or somewhere in
between strict form and cheating; accentuating the concentric part of the movement or
accentuating the eccentric part of the movement.
12 to 15 reps, 10 to 12 reps, or 4 to 6
reps; Supersets, trisets, or giant sets; Dumbbells or barbells; Free weights, Nautilus
machines, or those gadgets on television; Feel the burn, feel the pump, or feel the pain;
Short rest between sets or long rest between sets; routines for hardgainers, routines for
the genetically-gifted, or routines for the Average Joe.
Predominately fast-twitch muscle
fibers or predominately slow-twitch muscle fibers; different training variables for those
who are steroid-enhanced or variables for those who are drug-free; AST Sports Science
Max-OT Training, Weider Principles, Poliquin Principles; or Heavy Duty; 3 on/1 off, 2 on, 1 off, 2
on, or one-body-part once-a-week……………….the list of training
variables, philosophies, and theories seems endless, doesn’t it?
Which way is the right way to build
muscle?
Keep it simple! In order to build muscle, you must
do three things:
1. Overload
the muscle. Training until complete failure, or until you just can’t
do any more repetitions during a particular set, is absolutely mandatory! If you wanted,
you could actually do that with a 10-pound dumbbell! It may take you 1,000 reps—but
you could eventually overload the muscle with light weight and a whole bunch of reps.
There is a better and more efficient way, however.
Training with heavier weight, with less reps, would be far more
efficient with your energy and time. I try to stay within the 4 to 6 rep range. If I can
do more than six reps—then the weight is too light. If I can’t do four
reps—then the weight is too heavy. Remember, overloading the muscle creates
hypertrophy, or in other words, muscle growth.
2. Recuperate completely. After a workout
when you’ve overloaded the muscle, it will not benefit from any more intense training
until it has fully recuperated. Why are steroids so effective in building muscle? They
help you recover from your workout faster, and thereby, enable you to effectively train
the muscle again in a shorter time period.
It takes me a full seven days before I can EFFECTIVELY train a
particular muscle again.
3. Help your body recuperate with good nutritional habits.
While you are waiting to be able to train a particular muscle group again, help your
body’s recovering ability by eating properly. It’s important to the recuperation
process that you maintain these good habits throughout the day, throughout the week, and
throughout the month. Consistency is essential!
As you help your body recuperate through good nutritional habits, be
certain to place a high priority on high-quality protein consumption. Protein is
muscle. Muscle is protein. I eat eight meals and do so every day—four
"regular" food meals and four meal replacements. With every regular food meal, I
have one scoop (24 grams) of AST Sports Science’s VP2. Every meal replacement is one
of their Ny-Tro Pro-40’s. Does that sound like a blatant advertisement? So what! I
busting my butt to share with you the exact strategies that have worked for me and
have help me take my physique to a whole new level. What am I supposed to do, tell you to
buy someone else’s product that I have absolutely no clue if it’s any good? I
won’t do it! I’m going to give it to you straight.
Can building muscle
really be that easy? Yes!
 The hard part is doing everything you can to follow through with
those strategies—without constantly looking for an easier answer or making excuses
for your lack of persistence, discipline, patience, or faith.
Am I saying that there is no merit in any of the other training
philosophies? No, that’s not what I’m saying. It’s just important for you
to have a strong foundation of solid training habits before you get "fancy" with
other programs.
Keep in mind that the bodybuilding and fitness magazines won’t
sell a lot of subscriptions—and therefore advertisers won’t buy space—if
they print the same, old, boring things month after month.
Everybody’s looking for something new, improved, or
revolutionary. Everyone is looking for a shortcut. So don’t blame the magazines! They
know what their readers want!
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