1 Set for Muscle Growth! Was Mike Metnzer Wrong???

Was Mike Mentzer Wrong?

The 1 Set for Muscle Growth Debate



The late Mike Mentzer was a modern-day philosopher; he was an outside-the-box thinker and went against the traditional bodybuilding of performing high-volume exercise. Heavy Duty Training was Mentzer's first book, in which he detailed the principles of high-intensity weight training. Weight training, he insisted, had to be brief, infrequent, and intense, in order to attain the best results in the shortest amount of time.

Mentzer's early 1990 Heavy Duty Training program involved 7-9 sets per workout on a three-day-per-week schedule. He ultimately modified that routine until most of his clients were doing only 2-5 sets per workout and training once every four to eight days. One former Mentzer pupil reports doing 1 set per week, with the whole body trained by only three movements over three weeks. To this day, bodybuilders and trainers are still debating: is 1 set to maximum failure enough for muscle growth, or do bodybuilders need more?

Interesting, when talking to Dorian Yates about this, he told us he did fewer sets than most people, but he did more than 1 set per body part. Dorian is a high-intensity disciple, as he does a few warm-up sets of the exercise in a pyramid fashion, and then he goes directly into his heavy set; after 1 heavy set, he would move to another exercise.

Dorian also believed that after you have annihilated that muscle after 1 set to absolute failure, there was no need to do another set. An interesting quote Dorian shared was, “I have great genetics; I think high-volume exercise would have made me a great bodybuilder, but it was high-intensity principles that allowed me to achieve the Olympia crown six years in a row!”

So was Mentzer's theory of doing few sets for muscle growth infrequently correct? It seems like there is confusion, as some bodybuilders swear by the high-volume principles and there are others like Branch Warren who live and die by high-intensity exercise. So what does the research suggest?

Well, first, if you examine the impact of 1 set verses multiple sets for strength there is some controversy. In some studies, no significant difference between single and multiple sets has been observed.1,2,3 However, evidence from a number of more recent studies supports greater strength gains with multiple sets.4,5 However, a recent meta-analysis (i.e., a sum collection of all the studies) reported that training with multiple sets yielded a 46 percent greater gain in strength, compared to single sets.6

Although studies examining strength gains have shown multiple sets to be better for strength gains than single sets, the verdict for single versus multiple sets for muscle growth has been unclear. Some studies have shown greater hypertrophy with multiple sets,7 whereas others have not.8,9 So was Mentzer correct in that all that was needed is 1 set to maximum failure for muscle growth?

Single versus Multiple Sets for Muscle Growth Scrutinized...

In the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, a meta-analysis was performed to examine the sum of all the literature on single versus multiple sets for muscle growth. Researchers wanted to examine if single sets were as effective as multiple sets for muscle growth, after examining the previous studies published. When all the studies were calculated, there was a 40 percent greater gain in muscle mass with multiple sets, compared to single sets.

Although single sets did result in an increase in muscle hypertrophy, multiple sets resulted in a greater effect size. The author hypothesized that protein synthesis responds in a similar manner to the number of sets (i.e., an increasing response as the number of sets are increased, until a plateau is reached), although he mentioned that there is there is no research examining this.

Very interestingly, he reported that there was a trend. The response appeared as to how many sets yield the greatest impact on muscle hypertrophy started to level off around 4-6 sets, as the difference between 2-3 sets and 4-6 sets was smaller than the difference between 1 set and 2-3 sets. So the study suggests that 4-6 sets per body part was the maximum stimulus needed and that more sets did not necessarily yield greater results.

Interestingly, these results are similar to a previous meta-analysis on strength, where there was an increasing response to an increasing number of sets, with an apparent plateau around 4-6 sets per exercise.6 So it seems Mike Menzer was right in at least one respect: bodybuilders may need fewer sets than they think to build muscle. There seems to be somewhere between 4 and 6 sets per body part, based on what the researchers found, but this is subjective for all people, as some people are fast responders whereas others are hard gainers.

References:

1. Hass, CJ, Garzarella, L, De Hoyos, D, and Pollock,ML. Single versus multiple sets in long-term recreational weightlifters. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 32: 235-242, 2000.

2. Ostrowski, KJ, Wilson, GJ, Weatherby, R, Murphy, PW, and Lyttle, AD. The effect of weight training volume on hormonal output and muscular size and function. J Strength Cond Res, 11: 148-154, 1997.

3. Starkey, DB, Pollock, ML, Ishida, Y, Welsch, MA, Brechue, WF, Graves, JE, and Feigenbaum, MS. Effect of resistance training volume on strength and muscle thickness. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 28: 1311-1320, 1996.

4. Humburg, H, Baars, H, Schro¨ der, J, Reer, R, and Braumann, K-M. 1- set vs. 3-set resistance training: a crossover study. J Strength Cond Res, 21: 578-582, 2007.

5. Kemmler, WK, Lauber, D, Engelke, K, and Weineck, J. Effects of single- vs. multiple-set resistance training on maximum strength and body composition in trained postmenopausal women. J Strength Cond Res, 18: 689-694, 2004.

6. Krieger JW. Single versus multiple sets of resistance exercise: a meta-regression. J Strength Cond Res, 2009 Sep;23(6):1890-901.

7. Rønnestad, BR, Egeland, W, Kvamme, NH, Refsnes, PE, Kadi, F, and Raastad, T. Dissimilar effects of one- and three-set strength training on strength and muscle mass gains in upper and lower body in untrained subjects. J Strength Cond Res, 21: 157-163, 2007.

8. Munn, J, Herbert, RD, Hancock, MJ, and Gandevia, SC. Resistance training for strength: effect of number of sets and contraction speed. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 37: 1622-1626, 2005.

9. Ostrowski, KJ, Wilson, GJ, Weatherby, R, Murphy, PW, and Lyttle, AD. The effect of weight training volume on hormonal output and muscular size and function. J Strength Cond Res, 11: 148-154, 1997.

EAT MORE - WEIGH LESS! Part 1 of 3.

EAT MORE - WEIGH LESS!  

Part 1 of 3.

So many of us get so caught-up in losing weight we fail to completely understand the consequences of not eating enough food each day. You see it's not so much of caloric restriction as it is calorie management. So many times we feel like if I just stop eating I will lose weight. Well I wish it were that easy, if it were we would all be in great shape.

The trick to dropping unwanted body-fat may sound a bit confusing at first but once you understand how the metabolism works you will have a much better understanding.

Here's the facts

First we must understand why we eat and when we eat.

The obvious, "I'M HUNGRY" is NOT why you should eat. In fact if you wait until you are hungry you have waited far to long to eat and proper caloric management is disrupted.

(GOLDEN RULE: EAT FOR WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO DO, NOT FOR WHAT YOU HAVE JUST DONE)

I'm sure you've all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day....and this is true. But have you ever really wondered why?

Let's examine the word, "breakfast" separate the word and you have two words and it simply means, "break the fast"!

Most people will eat their last meal between 5-8PM and then we relax a while and typically go to bed between 10PM and 12AM. Then we sleep between 6-8 hours. In many cases allot of us have not eaten for 10-12 hours by the time we have gotten out of bed in the morning.

Understand this, if you have a healthy metabolism your blood sugar will be very low in the morning because you have not eaten for a long time. We are not always hungry simply because there is no caloric demand from waking up. Your body has been is a resting and rebuilding phase while you were asleep.

We all get our day started by waking up and hitting the floor with both feet just like everyone else does. But in many cases that's where the similarity stops. What everyone should do upon waking up is break the fast they have been in before they get hungry and keep feeding the body all day long so it never gets hungry and the facts are you will melt body-fat away.

However if you are like many Americans you will skip breakfast grab a drug called caffeine and get your day started with a stimulant. So let me tell you what happens when you chose either situation.

First lets go with the benefits of breaking the fast and eating breakfast.
1. (And this is KEY throughout the day) You will elevate your blood sugar to normal ranges. You see by not eating for 6-14 hours your glycogen storage will be low, yes you do still burn calories while you sleep. (I will get into that later) So it is important to get blood sugar into normal ranges first thing in the morning and maintain normal blood sugar levels all day long.

2. It prevents your body from going into the catabolic phase. Providing the body with proper nutrients upon wake-up will prevent the body from pulling nutrients from muscle tissue. You see our body behaves much like us, the last thing it wants to eat is fat, the nutrients your body craves are all found in the lean muscle tissue throughout our body. Once you blood sugar has bottomed out the body goes into starvation mode and will start wasting muscle tissue. The saddest thing about this over a long period of time is you are destroying your metabolism because muscle tissue and it's activity is the only thing that burns calories. Think about it for a minute, how many of you have had a steak with a ring of fat on the side and purposely eaten the fat first because you love fat? The answer is very few if any at all! The body acts the same way, just for different reasons. You see fat is our reserve energy source and if you do not feed the body the first thing that will happen is the body starts reducing its need for more calories by getting rid of the cause for more calories and that is your muscle tissue.
Here is the biggest problem we have, our body is very efficient at saving itself from us (LOL) by being able to store fat so easily and in many cases we are our own worst enemy and we aid our bodies into hanging onto stored body fat by starving ourselves.

3. Eating breakfast automatically elevates your metabolism for the rest of the day!

4. Eating breakfast also aids in brain function and sets the tone for a better day. Yes eating breakfast stimulates a hormonal release to energize your day.

The key is keep blood sugar in normal ranges and it becomes impossible to store body-fat.

Tomorrow I will explain why it's more calorie management than it is calorie restriction.

Here is what you will need to know more about.

1. The Glycemic index and how you can use it to maintain your blood sugar.

2. Proteins and the Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER)

3. Fats and their key role to a healthy metabolism

4. Feeding the lean body mass, not total body weight (your true BMR)

Food for thought, is resistance exercise the key to maintaining low body fat more so than cardiovascular exercise???