Skip La Cour’s
TRAINING
BODYBUILDING TIPS
which way is the right way to build muscle?
K.I.S.S.
by Skip Lacour
Six-Time National Bodybulding Champion
and Success Coach
B
asic 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.
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
Training with heavier weight, with less reps, would be far more
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
50
Natural Muscle Magazine
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.
Holiday 2016
MASTERPIECES TAKE TIME
When will I get it all together?
Do you sometimes ask yourself this question as you work toward
the physique you desire? If you have, you are not alone! I’ve asked
myself the same