Fast Gains

By Marshall Brown. B.Sc. Ph.D.

Training techniques: the importance of training the largest muscle groups.

In order to create a highly anabolic environment within the body, it is important that the largest muscles of the body (primarily those that are involved in the squat, deadlift, and even leg-pressing to a large extent, i.e. the muscles of the thigh, hip and lower back) are trained and stimulated to grow. Why? Since these muscles comprise such a large amount of the total muscle mass on the human body, any training stress of sufficient intensity to cause these muscles to grow will also place great stress on the body overall.

These muscles are an integral part of the physiology and mechanisms of your entire body, i.e. they do not work on their own, and the ENTIRE body is placed under stress and the need for growth and recuperation is generated; for example, you need the digestion in your stomach to supply your muscles with nutrients, and their will be a greater demand for nutrients from very large growing muscles, and so your stomach, for example, could well adapt and become more efficient at digesting food, i.e. the entire body adapts including the muscles. The effects of training ARE that far-reaching.
The stress thus placed on your body is obviously greatest from expending enough time and intensity training the largest muscles of your body. This creates a highly anabolic environment in the entire body, due to the need created in the body for extensive growth and repair of muscle tissue, which will translate into greater gains from the training of your smaller muscle groups, since the body works as a whole, and not in separate, isolated parts.

The Importance of Protein and Water
In order for your body to adapt to training stress, it is vital that you are ingesting enough protein and carbohydrate, and as I mentioned in the previous article, most people find that a high protein diet, with lower relative carbohydrate levels, is better for them: this is something that you have to experiment with for yourself.

Also as I have mentioned before, water is a vital component in the diet, and you can't really get enough of it when in heavy training and consuming plenty of protein. Not only does it serve the most important purpose of being the most abundant constituent of muscle (muscle cells are 70% water, with the rest being mostly protein), but large amounts of water also helps to flush waste products from your system, and helps avoid stress on the kidneys in this way. Also, water can be used to help flush nutrients (e.g. amino acids, vitamins etc.) through your body, which enables these nutrients to bathe all your tissues optimally and ensure their optimum health, which is vital for good gains: this could not be achieved in a low water intake environment. It's also important to note that the amino acid L-glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in muscle tissue, and so it's well worthwhile to supplement your diet with extra L-glutamine.

The importance of a good multi-vitamin and mineral supplement cannot be overlooked either, as the growth processes cannot proceed unless all factors necessary for growth are present, and these include vitamins and
minerals, in addition to the necessary amino acids supplied from dietary protein, and other dietary constituents.

With and Without Steroids?
As I have written before in previous articles, as much as possible should be gained from natural training before steroids are used, and this can mean as many as 8 or 10 years of natural training (i.e. without anabolic drugs).
When steroids are used and the body is already very fit from years of training in the gym, then the steroids have a much greater and more beneficial effect than they would have on a previously untrained body, and this is due to the difference in initial fitness between the two: the fitter and stronger the body is to begin with, then the better it can use the steroids and other anabolic drugs that may be used.