Muscle hypertrophy (muscle cell enlargement) is an area of great debate in the fitness industry. Everyone has their opinion on how to overload the muscular system to produce growth and there are new studies coming out every week proving one method is better then another. But how do you resistance train if your goal is to get stronger and leaner while avoiding that overly developed bodybuilding look? Most of my personal training clients want more of that ripped athletic look but also want to be as strong as possible.

There are two basic ways a muscle cell gets bigger. One is called sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and the other is called myofibrillar hypertrophy. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is when there is an increase of fluid and noncontractile connective tissue within the muscle while myofibrillar hypertrophy is an increase in the size of the contractile muscle fiber (actine and myosin).

Traditional body builders do higher volume resistance training while lifting moderately heavy weights for 10 to 12 reps. It is not uncommon for a body builder to spend 30 to 40 minutes just training their chest while a power lifter will lift very heavy weights for only 1,2 or 3 reps.

A typical body builder is more muscular then a power lifter but not as strong; therefore, the higher rep and higher volume of training will contribute more to sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Now keep in mind that there is always some carry over. Whenever you resistance train you will get both sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and myofibrillar hypertrophy.

The secret to getting strong and lean is using the right combination of sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and myofibrillar hypertrophy. A good friend of mine Rusty Moore did a great video explaining the whole concept below.

Rusty is known for his fitness blog called Fitness Black Book which gets over 300,000 visitors per month.  The whole site is devoted to a training approach that will teach you how to get the lean “Hollywood Look”.

Let me know what you think about the video and if you checked out Rusty’s site.

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Best – Mike Cola

Fitness Blog

Weight training for women is not that much different than weight training for men. The principles of resistance training are the same for both sexes. What would determine the type of resistance program would have to do more with a person’s goals and not necessarily their sex. What I have found though, is that women generally have different weight training goals than men.

Women’s Weight Training Goals

The biggest fundamental difference between women’s and man’s weight training goals is that most women never want to get bigger. Whenever a new female personal training client comes to me, one of the first things she says is “ I don’t want weight lifting to make me bigger”. They all want a strong, firm, slim and shapely body but are concerned that if they lift heavy weights their legs will get bigger. Years ago I have had clients who refused to train their legs at all for fear that they would get larger.

Now most men and women acknowledge that resistance training is good for them. They have heard that it makes your bones stronger and having more muscle on your body will firm you up and speed up your metabolism.

How Can Women Lift Weights and Not Get Bigger?

The basic truth is that all forms of resistance training will make the muscle cell bigger (Myofibrillar Hypertrophy) to some degree but you can train and eat in a manner that will maximize your strength but not the size of your muscles. For example, most bodybuilders train for size by lifting moderately heavy weights and pumping themselves up with set after set of exercises that make the workout sessions last for a long period of time. It’s not unheard of for a bodybuilder to spend over an hour just training their legs. A bodybuilder might do 5 sets of squats, 3 sets of leg presses, 3 sets of lunges, 3 sets of leg extensions, 3 sets of leg curls, 3 sets of hyperextensions, and do this all in the same training session.

When you do high volume weight training like a bodybuilder not only do you make the actual muscle cell bigger (Myofibrillar Hypertrophy) and stronger but you also add to the size of your muscles through fluid transfer and carbohydrate storage. When you pump yourself up with set after set of an exercise on the same body part, two things happen. First, there is blood and other fluids rushing into the working muscle and making them bigger (sarcoplasmic hypertrophy) and second, your body has to adapt to the long tedious workouts by storing more carbohydrates (Glycogen Super compensation) into the muscle for future similar workouts. This is the type of training you want to avoid if you don’t want to make your legs bigger.

A good friend of mine Rusty Moore did a great video explaining the whole concept below.

Women Should Train for Strength Not Size

Females need to train for strength not size by doing full body workouts and keeping the volume down. One work set per exercise is all you need to put some healthy, shapely muscle on, without making yourself any bigger. One good set of lunges will firm up your legs, make you stronger, while not swelling them up with carbohydrates and fluids. What you want to do is make the muscles stronger and a little bigger so you get all the benefits of weight training without a significant increase in size.

There is a program that I really like that explains and shows you exactly how to build muscle while minimizing muscle size, it’s called Visual Impact for Women. If you want to lift weights but are worried about bulking up and want more of a movie star body, check out the web site.

I hope this article helps women weight train without getting bigger. Make sure you come back to my site in the future for a follow up article about how women should eat to minimize their size while resistance training.

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Best – Mike Cola

Health and Fitness Blog

Resistance Band Exercises are a great way to workout at home, in the gym or when you’re on vacation. They are inexpensive, don’t take up any room in your suitcase or home and can be used in any room in your house, office or hotel. In some ways resistance bands can be more effective than free weights or machines for creating the optimal amount of resistance which is why I use them at the gym all the time instead of the more expensive popular equipment.

What makes the bands more effective then other forms of resistance to achieve a specific goal has to do with the properties of the elastic band. When the bands are stretched or elongated they produce more resistance. In other words, when you pull on them the longer they get the more resistance they provide. Obviously, when they are fully stretched they will not produce any more additional resistance but no one trains with them fully elongated.

How to make resistance band exercises more effective:

One way the resistance band can be more effective are exercises where you are weaker at a point in the movement where the bands are not stretched and stronger at a point where the bands are elongated. An example of this would be the squat. You may have seen people in the gym squatting with metal chains hanging from the bar. They are doing this because when you squat down to 90 degrees in your hips and knees (the bottom of the movement) you are at your weakest point in the exercise. As you lift your body up you become stronger. By putting chains on the bar; therefore, the bar gets heavier as more chain lifts off the ground. The chains  put more weight on the bar when you are stronger and less weight when you are weaker. Resistance bands can be used the same way as chains in the squatting example. You can hold the resistance band next to your shoulders and stand on the band and add some resistance where you want it during your squat workout while at home or on vacation without having to deal with free weights for added resistance.

The biggest advantage to the bands is that they are so versatile. You can create resistance from just about any angle. They can be attached to any high, middle or low point in a doorway and one can perform an endless amount of exercises. They work great for slow controlled movements as well as explosive exercises.

The types of resistance bands I use most in my gym are made by SPRI. They have been around for a long time and they make quality bands for $10 to $15 a piece. The thicker the band the more resistance it provides.  As such, the manufacturers sell them in different colors based on thickness.

Next time you’re at the gym pick up some resistance bands and play around with them. You will be surprised at how effective they can be. If you need some help with specific exercises you can do with the bands leave a comment and I will try to make a few videos.

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Best – Mike Cola

Fitness Contrarian – Fitness Blog

When I’m teaching a new client how to lift a weight and perform proper repetitions (reps) within a set, I like to break it down into three parts. Most new trainees don’t think too much about lowering the weight or slowing it down before changing direction and raising the weight. Most of their efforts are spent trying to raise the weight. Afterwards they just let the weight fall without control before raising it again. I have found that many weight-training injuries occur at the transformation point of lowering to raising the weight.

When lifting weights (and that includes your body weight, as well) for the goal of increased muscular strength, endurance and hypertrophy; breaking down a rep into three parts can prevent injury and produce better results.

The three parts to a safe rep are:

1. Eccentric Speed: Lower the weight relatively slowly. I like to start clients out with a five second eccentric or lowering speed. By lowering the weight slowly, you are in more control and can decelerate the weight safely at the transformation point to pause and change direction to then lift the weight.
2. Transformation Pause: This is the point where injury is most likely to take place if the weight is being lowered out of control and you have to quickly change direction with it. Make sure you are in control of the weight to slow down and pause for a second before changing direction.
3. Concentric Speed: You can raise the weight a little faster then you lower the weight. I like to start clients out with a three second concentric speed when raising the weight. But be careful not to go too fast because there is also a point of transformation when it’s time to lower the weight.

If you are relatively new to resistance training or just want to be smart about how you lift weights, follow the guidelines above. Building your body up and staying injury free should go hand-in-hand. Don’t take risks in the gym. Try my three-part rep technique and let me known if it works for you.

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Best – Mike Cola

Helping People Build Healthy Bodies

In general, people either like to work out or they don’t. I spend a lot of my time as a personal trainer either motivating clients to work out or holding back other clients from exercising too much. When you don’t like to work out it’s hard to understand how some people love to exercise and only feel they are training properly, if they consistently spend many hours per week doing long and hard workouts.

When I was in my twenties, I loved to train long and hard. I would train hard every day. Spending 60 minutes just training my chest and back was normal for me followed by a five mile hard run.  I felt that the only way I could look how I wanted to look and be in top physical shape was to go all out on every  workout every day. Recovering from a workout was not on my mind. Looking back now I think I was chronically sore for 10 years.

Unfortunately I see a lot of people still making the same over training mistakes I made over 20 years ago. I see people all the time take a 75 minute hard spinning class and then train 60 minutes with a personal trainer doing resistance work. If you like to train long and hard you have to start thinking about why you are doing it. Is it helping you achieve your health and fitness goals or do you think it’s the only way to stay lean and be in shape? If you’re an athletic you can read my article, Why Athletes Have to Over Train, but for everyone else going all out every workout is asking for trouble.

Here are some rules for How Hard and Long to Work-Out:

• Control your weight with your diet, not long hard workouts. Eighty percent of how lean you are depends on your diet.
• The older you are the more recovery time you need between workouts.
• If you’re training very hard it has to be short and infrequent. If you’re  40 or older, one hard 20 minute interval workout per week is enough.
• If you like to train long to release stress, try long easy workouts like walking or easy biking for 60 minutes. You will still get some aerobic benefit and you will not be overtaxing your body.
• Keep your strength workouts short. Full body workouts with warm-up and cool-down should be no longer than 45 minutes.
• One hard work set per exercise is all it takes to create a response and strengthen any muscle group.
• Vary how long, hard and often you workout. If you do a hard interval workout one day, follow it by an easy workout the next day. If you did a hard resistance workout and are sore the next day, take a day off and rest.
• If any movement or exercise hurts, don’t do it. Instead, modify it to a point where it does not hurt.
• Whenever you’re exercising you should  always be building yourself up not breaking yourself down.

When you like to work out, I know how easy it is to think that more is better or the harder the better. You can easily get mentally addicted to long hard workouts and wind up breaking your body down thinking that you’re doing everything right. If you’re training long and hard all the time, take a step back and see if it really makes sense for your health and fitness goals.

How long and hard do you workout? Let me know if you think you are over training?

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Best – Mike Cola

Helping  People Build Healthy Bodies