Monday is for Muscle Mass Building: Water - The Most Overlooked Component In The Quest For Muscle

FACT: There's a very good chance that you will die if you don't drink water within three days.

This is because aside from the air we breathe, water is the most crucial thing to human beings. Blood would not be blood without water. Even bones are made up of a lot of water. Most importantly, muscles and all our organs are composed mainly of water. Our muscles, in particular, are made up of 70% water. It has been stated in studies that once our bodies get dehydrated, even by just 3%-4% in the body's natural levels can cause premature muscle weakness and fatigue. Imagine a 10%- 20% diminished muscular contraction. Yikes! Bad news for muscle building!

If you have read the previous post about creatine, it should be mentioned that creatine also help increase muscle size by increasing the volume of the muscle. Obviously, what's being driven in the muscle is made up of water. Another thing to consider is that while water shuttles in the nutrients to the muscles, it also helps in getting the waste product out. In fact, everything in our body relies on water, even our brain functions.

Probably, the most obvious question to ask now is, how much water do you need to support your body functions and your muscle building effort?

Sean Nalewanyj wrote in his report, 8 Things You Must Do To Build Maximum Muscle, a calculation of how much is enough in terms of water consumption. In his report he stated that for every pound of bodyweight, we need about 0.60 ounces of water. This means that if you weigh 160 pounds, you multiply that by 0.6

160 lbs x .6= 96 ounces or 2.9 liters.

Now, I don't know about you, but from where I come from, the sun shines so hot and I sweat so much from workouts that I can't survive and push my muscles to grow. It's hard to focus when you're dehydrated. This figure seems low for me, and I imagine it's true for others.

Another approach is from Stuart McRobert's Beyond Brawn. In it, Stuart suggests a more unique way to judge your hydration, your urine color. His recommendation of 4 clear urinations a day is way more valid to me. This is aside from other urinations you might have which is slightly or darkly colored. Even if you are taking multivitamins/minerals, the first few hours after ingestion will definitely reflect on your urine's color, but not for the rest of the day. If you are using any other medication which causes your urine to be colored, try judging it in terms of urine frequency and volume. Also, adjust accordingly to your performance in the gym.

Monday Is For Muscle Mass Building: Use The Countdown Method To Increase Power and Size

Some bodybuilders can't seem to wrap their head around using periodization techniques. In their heads, it's always about going for that final push, that final rep. The blood and guts mindset is so deeply ingrained in the bodybuilding psyche that it is so common to see taking "every set to failure" whenever someone writes down their workout routines. What most people don't realize is that this type of training actually burns most people out, both physically and mentally, thus leading to diminishing muscular gains with every workout. If you are trying to look for something new to recharge your mind and body, try the Countdown Method.

What is the Coundown Method?

The Countdown Method was first printed by John McKean in the 1960's. This is a tried and tested technique that most fitness buff have forgotten or ignored. Simply put, it is doing 5 consecutive sets where the trainer decreases the number of reps by one while increasing the weight. For example, if one were to do this on the clean and press, it might look like 170 lbs x5 reps, 180 lbs x 4reps, 190 lbs by 3 reps, 200 lbs x 2 reps and 210 lbs x 1 rep. A 10 lbs increase per set is ideal for most. This has been used with great success on  exercises like bench press, deadlift, squat, the Olympic lifts, and other compound lifts. Coupled with a smart periodization plan, this will help bust through PR plateau to most of your big time lifts.

Advantages of The Countdown Method

If you know anything about the strength and conditioning world, you can already sense that this is somewhat suited more for powerlifters and Olympic weightlifters than the do-or-die bodybuilders.

While this might be true, I dare you to look at powerlifters. Most of them pack on mass that the average gym rat will never gain in his lifetime.In addition, this method offers these unique benefits:

a. It overloads the muscles and nervous system without wearing them out.This is probably due to the fact that the trainer looks forward to the lesser repetitions to perform.

b. It offers a mini-cycle of weight loading within one workout. The human body just cannot keep gaining muscle if it is often pounded to the ground and given no chance to recover. I have nothing against training to failure, it's just that mainstream bodybuilding took the whole concept too far. If you don't have drugs or genetic predisposition to back you up, most of the workout plans that involve constant sets to failures will end up failing the trainer's muscle building gains.

c. It teaches the maximum recruitment of muscle fibers for power. While power style training won't directly  help build a vein popping physique, it can help build necessary strength for sub-maximal weights for more reps. More weight for the higher rep range with good form equals more stimulation and more muscle pumps for bigger gains

Some Complaints Regarding This Technique

As you may guessed already, those who go for the pump in their weight training programs tend to shy away from low reps as they can't feel their muscles working and getting the proper stimulation. One way to combat this is by adding one back off set with higher repetition at the end of the exercise, similar to what the great Franco Columbu did during his days as both a strongman and a bodybuilder. Just make sure you don't overdo it or else you risk making the back off sets more stressful than the actual workout sets.