Time underneath pressure doesn’t all the time equate to muscle development.
Final up to date on April 2nd, 2025
Bodybuilding is the art of utilizing resistance training to construct large and aesthetically pleasing muscles. Whereas the aim is evident, many differing opinions exist on one of the best approaches to coaching and vitamin in bodybuilding.
Lately, three specialists — Dr. Mike Israetel, Eric Janicki, and Jared Feather — got here collectively to debunk three widespread bodybuilding myths:
3 Bodybuilding Myths
- Extra time underneath pressure (TUT) all the time means extra muscle development
- Train novelty is critical for muscle development
- Extra units all the time equal extra muscle development
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Extra Time Below Stress Means Extra Muscle Progress
For a lot of, the TUT debate is about what TUT means. When approaching it as the entire time it takes to do an train, Janicki doesn’t imagine this essentially interprets to development.
The set that takes two or three minutes doesn’t make it extra growth-promoting than one which takes 25 seconds.
—Eric Janicki
That seemingly issues the stimulus high quality throughout that TUT slightly than simply cumulative time. A 2011 research printed in The Journal of Physiology highlights the potential significance of the time muscle mass spend underneath pressure throughout train in maximizing muscle development. (1)
Train Novelty Is Needed for Muscle Progress
Dr. Israetel distinguished between vital and optimum for switching up train routines. Introducing selection into exercises advantages psychological engagement, joint and connective tissue well being, and combating boredom.
“Change it up as soon as a mesocycle [or] hold squats in a excessive bar as a result of they really feel good for a yr or two,” Dr. Israetel stated. “However when your physique tells you, ‘I hate this, I haven’t seen development shortly, and my joints damage,’ don’t connect your flag to the I by no means change my workout routines.”
Janicki believes train novelty isn’t important for development, significantly for beginners, who typically discover a couple of actions that resonate. Challenges come up when people follow the identical workout routines for too lengthy.
Over time, these workout routines’ effectiveness might have diminishing returns. Selection would possibly assist continued progress. Analysis helps incorporating superior coaching strategies, akin to drop sets, supersets, and cluster sets, to interrupt by way of training monotony. (2)
A part of the enjoyable is utilizing totally different variants; angles on a cable, totally different machines, including vary of movement, or a foam block. All of this stuff have made the gymnasium a lot extra fulfilling.
—Eric Janicki
Extra Units Equal Extra Muscle Progress
Efficient exercises generally embrace components like working near failure, participating a number of muscle mass, full range of motion, and incorporating eccentrics. Janicki argued that performing as much as six working units for the biceps typically ends in “junk quantity” with little profit. Nevertheless, again coaching can profit from considerably extra units — Janicki recommends the “golden rule” of six arduous units for bigger muscle teams.
Then again, Feather highlighted the person nature of quantity tolerance, suggesting that many individuals can deal with larger training volumes. Limiting oneself to 2 to 6 units might not all the time be vital. Feather advocated benefiting from extra units in the event that they contribute to muscle development.
Dr. Israetel identified that superior, robust, and well-conditioned people may even see diminishing, and even no, returns from performing greater than six advanced units per muscle in a single session. Nevertheless, going past six units can profit many. Analysis exhibits that performing 15 arduous units for quads over three weeks outperforms 5 to 10 units, suggesting a pattern favoring six to eight working units per muscle per session as a great vary for most individuals.
Dr. Israetel suggested that if somebody persistently exceeds the six-to-eight set vary in a single session, they might obtain higher outcomes by distributing these units throughout extra frequent periods to optimize the stimulus-to-fatigue ratio.
References
- Burd, N. A., Andrews, R. J., West, D. W., Little, J. P., Cochran, A. J., Hector, A. J., Cashaback, J. G., Gibala, M. J., Potvin, J. R., Baker, S. Ok., & Phillips, S. M. (2012). Muscle time underneath pressure throughout resistance train stimulates differential muscle protein sub-fractional artificial responses in males. The Journal of physiology, 590(2), 351–362. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2011.221200
- Krzysztofik, M., Wilk, M., Wojdała, G., & Gołaś, A. (2019). Maximizing Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Evaluate of Superior Resistance Coaching Strategies and Strategies. Worldwide journal of environmental analysis and public well being, 16(24), 4897. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16244897
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