When it comes to building upper body muscle quickly, many gym-goers find themselves hitting plateaus. While there is no magic bullet, certain scientifically-backed strategies can help accelerate your gains.
This article outlines three key methods to force muscle growth twice as fast by focusing on proven training techniques. By leveraging mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and progressive overload, you can optimize your upper body workouts for maximum muscle hypertrophy.
Understanding Muscle Hypertrophy
Before diving into the methods, it’s essential to understand the concept of muscle hypertrophy—the enlargement of muscle fibres due to resistance training. Hypertrophy is driven by mechanical tension, muscle damage, and metabolic stress. Mechanical tension refers to the force exerted on muscles during contraction. Muscle damage occurs when tiny tears are created in muscle fibres, which then repair and grow back stronger. Metabolic stress is the build-up of lactate and other by-products during exercise, creating a favourable environment for muscle growth.
Studies consistently show that optimising these three factors through various training techniques can drastically enhance muscle hypertrophy . The following methods are designed to maximise these elements and ensure faster growth.
1. Utilise Eccentric Overload Training
The Science Behind Eccentric Overload
Eccentric training, or “negatives”, focuses on the lowering phase of a lift, where the muscle lengthens under load. Research suggests that the eccentric portion of the lift is more effective at causing muscle damage than the concentric (lifting) phase . When performed correctly, eccentric overload can increase mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and muscle fibre recruitment, all of which contribute to hypertrophy.
In a study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, participants who engaged in eccentric overload training experienced a significant increase in muscle growth compared to those focusing solely on concentric training . The reasoning is simple: muscles can handle more weight during the eccentric phase, allowing for greater tension and micro-tears in muscle fibres, which leads to faster repair and growth.
How to Incorporate Eccentric Overload
- Extended Eccentric Phase: During exercises like the bench press, shoulder press, or bicep curls, slow down the lowering phase of the lift to around 4-6 seconds. This extended tension forces the muscle to adapt and grow.
- Eccentric-Only Sets: Incorporate eccentric-only sets, where you focus solely on the lowering portion of the movement. For example, in a chin-up, you could jump to the top position and slowly lower yourself over 6-10 seconds. This approach maximises mechanical tension.
- Assisted Eccentrics: For heavier lifts like the bench press, have a partner help you lift the weight during the concentric phase and lower it under control yourself during the eccentric phase. This allows you to use heavier loads safely, triggering more growth.
Scientific Support
Several studies support the effectiveness of eccentric overload training for hypertrophy. A 2019 meta-analysis concluded that eccentric training resulted in greater strength gains and muscle growth than traditional training methods . Additionally, eccentric overload causes more muscle fibre recruitment, which means you’re activating a larger portion of the muscle during your workouts, leading to faster growth.
2. Increase Training Volume with Rest-Pause Sets
Why Rest-Pause Sets Work
Training volume—defined as the total amount of weight lifted in a session—is a critical factor in muscle growth. One of the most effective ways to increase volume without overtraining is through rest-pause sets. Rest-pause sets involve breaking down one set into smaller mini-sets with short rest periods in between. This method allows you to push past fatigue and increase the number of reps you can perform with a given weight, leading to greater metabolic stress and muscle growth .
Research published in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that rest-pause sets led to significantly greater hypertrophy compared to traditional straight sets . By pushing your muscles to failure multiple times in a single set, you create the conditions necessary for accelerated growth.
How to Implement Rest-Pause Sets
- Choose a Compound Lift: Exercises like the bench press, overhead press, or rows work best with rest-pause sets because they recruit multiple muscle groups, increasing the overall stress on your upper body.
- Perform a Heavy Set to Failure: Begin by selecting a weight that you can lift for 6-8 reps. Perform the set until failure.
- Rest 15-20 Seconds: After reaching failure, rest for 15-20 seconds to allow partial recovery.
- Perform Additional Reps: After the short rest, perform as many additional reps as possible (typically 2-4). Rest for another 15-20 seconds and repeat the process until you’ve completed 2-3 mini-sets.
Rest-pause sets maximise time under tension, another crucial factor for hypertrophy, by prolonging the set duration and increasing metabolic stress. By using heavier weights and pushing to failure multiple times, you’re able to trigger muscle growth more efficiently.
Scientific Support
The benefits of rest-pause training are well-documented. A study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology showed that rest-pause sets resulted in greater muscle size and strength gains compared to traditional sets . The study found that participants who used rest-pause methods could lift more total volume in their workouts without significantly increasing their workout time, making it an ideal strategy for those looking to accelerate gains.
3. Incorporate Myo-Reps for Enhanced Muscle Activation
What Are Myo-Reps?
Myo-reps are an advanced technique that capitalises on the principle of muscle fibre recruitment. During traditional sets, the body tends to recruit only a portion of muscle fibres, gradually bringing more into play as the set progresses and fatigue sets in. Myo-reps aim to skip this “warm-up” phase by using a heavy activation set followed by multiple mini-sets with minimal rest. This ensures that you are working the muscle under a state of fatigue, maximising muscle fibre recruitment from the start.
Myo-reps have been shown to produce similar, if not better, muscle growth compared to traditional training methods, while reducing the overall workout time . This makes them a highly efficient method for forcing muscle growth in less time.
How to Perform Myo-Reps
- Choose a Moderate Weight: Select a weight that allows you to perform 10-15 reps to near failure.
- Perform an Activation Set: Start with a traditional set of 10-15 reps, taking the set close to failure.
- Rest for 5-10 Seconds: After completing the activation set, rest for just 5-10 seconds.
- Perform Mini-Sets: After the short rest, perform 3-5 additional reps. Rest for another 5-10 seconds and repeat this process for 3-5 mini-sets, or until you can no longer complete 3 reps with good form.
The combination of fatigue and short rest periods creates a high degree of metabolic stress and forces the muscle to recruit more muscle fibres. This method is particularly effective for exercises like the dumbbell bench press, overhead press, and lat pulldown.
Scientific Support
A study published in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine found that Myo-reps increased muscle activation compared to traditional straight sets . The study concluded that Myo-reps were highly effective for increasing muscle size and strength due to the enhanced recruitment of muscle fibres during the fatigue state. By incorporating Myo-reps, you can force muscle growth in a shorter amount of time, maximising your gains.
Conclusion
Building upper body muscle twice as fast requires a targeted approach that maximises mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and muscle fibre recruitment. Eccentric overload, rest-pause sets, and Myo-reps are three scientifically-backed methods that can accelerate muscle growth. By incorporating these techniques into your upper body workouts, you can break through plateaus and achieve faster gains. Consistency, combined with these advanced training techniques, will lead to noticeable improvements in muscle size and strength.
Key Takeaways
References
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