6 COMMANDMENTS OF NATURAL MUSCLE GROWTH

 

 

1. EAT TO GROW! Feed your body the necessary calories required to add muscle. Your trying to gain weight; to add muscle tissue...this is not possible if your chronically under-eating. Rice cakes and chicken will not cut it 24/7.

 

2. INTENSITY IS EVERYTHING! Stop farting around and start training like its your job. 15 rep sets with a weight that you could do 25 reps with will not cause serious growth. Embrace pain - learn to love it!! 

 

3. FOCUS ON WHATS IMPORTANT! Stop worrying about stuff that doesn't matter....how many meals are optimal/what type of carbs should one eat/how many sets should one do? Just DO something, its never going to be 100% optimal.

 

4. PATIENCE! Unless you have amazing genetics to build muscle its going to take years. Accept it and your training will benefit from that. Stop looking for a shortcut, supplement or a secret training formula that will get you to where you want quicker.....leave that for those who want to use drugs.

 

5. TRAIN HEAVY! To build a big natural physique your going to have to lift heavy! Ive never seen a BIG natural who trained with light weights exclusively. Include compounds lifts (multiple muscle movements; bench/deadlift/squat/overhead press/pullups and dips etc.) in your training. Focus on getting stronger over time on these lifts and they will act as a catalyst for your training and physique.

 

6. VARIETY ISN'T ESSENTIAL! Variety for the sake of it is far too common. Why change exercises when the basics have not been mastered. TOO much variety will hinder progress. Muscles do not need exercise surprises, bludgeon them into growth with variations of volume (how much training, sets and reps)/frequency (how many times per training cycle) and intensity (weight and or overload techniques) instead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ross - Natural Aesthetics

 

 



 

 

 



 

 

The Decline of Boybuilding and the art of Posing.





 

Its my humble opinion that the physiques of top tier bodybuilders have been getting worse since the 1990's. Mass is obviously the order of the day, but with little regard to shape, balance, aesthetics and quality of posing. Don't get me wrong, there are some fantastic physiques out there but it seems that for guys to push into the top tier (IFBB) they have to add so much mass to compete that it ruins the balance and aesthetics that made them good in the first place.





 

 

There is far less emphasis on the athletes individual posing routines nowadays. Top IFBB bodybuilders nowadays cannot pose as well as the bodybuilders 30 years ago. This is not just because their heavily muscled physiques are not suited to many of the artistic poses but also because the judging doesn't seem to care for it or at least encourage it during shows. Kai Greene is an exception (he is a master in posing). Only the mandatory poses (essential) seem relevant now.

 

 

 

 

The increasing dosages of drugs, as well as the introduction of other drugs/compounds (namely HGH and insulin) have ruined top tier bodybuilding. The physiques are impressive; massive behemoths with striated glutes - yet very few of them can perform side poses that well and none of them can perform a vacuum (sucking your abs in to make the waist like tiny from the front/side). What is the point of having an extra 20kg of muscle on the frame but adding another 3+inches to the waist?! This destroys the purpose of having more muscle because it looks far less impressive!  

 

 

 

 

Top tier bodybuilders nowadays seem to present a collection of fantastic body parts, rather than a flowing, strong entire physique. A lot of these athletes (not all of them) train mostly with machines now and it shows in their body shape and presentation. Unfortunately with the drugs available its clear that heavy, intense training with free weights isn't needed to build a massive physique when these compounds are used. Many top tier natural bodybuilders still train very heavy with mostly free weights and achieve fantastic results, whilst keeping a narrow waist!     

 
 

 

 



More Blog articles coming soon.
Ross Newham - Natural Aesthetics

The Optimal Rep for Muscle Building.

During my last Bench Press session I did my usual working sets, steadily easing back into moderate/heavy loads. I had lightly strained my pec a couple of weeks back so I'm not quite back up to full strength levels. I finished up with 110kg for 5 reps; the speed was good but well below what I'd been doing 2-3 weeks ago. I'm startling to add more frequency of training to the bench again so it should be up to 120kg+ for 5 in 2 weeks. 

After the regular training sets, myself and my training partner for this particular session opted for some band work. We looped one side of the band around the barbell and the other around a heavy dumbell placed directly under the bar on the floor. We could then create more tension by twisting the dumbell around to create extra loops in the bands.  

We did a few sets, progressively adding more weight to the bar and extra loops to the bands. For the last set I asked my trainer partner to push down on the negative portion of the rep. So not only was the band adding more tension towards the easier half of the positive phase of movement (lockout), the negative phase of the movement was also made more difficult by the extra load.

Remember, one can handle a lot more weight during the negative phase of the lift than the positive phase; between 120-140%. It would be a waste not to incorporate 'forced negatives' into your training routine at some point, although bear in mind that they are extremely taxing so use sparingly!! 

During the positive phase of movement, the lockout is generally far easier to execute than the bottom half. By adding bands this is no longer true as the tension is increased the further the bar moves away from the chest. Added to forced Negatives this makes a brutal combination; perhaps in terms of tension, as close to optimal as your ever going to get! 

Ross - Natural Aesthetics