Now that our office and gym is renovated, the holiday hours at the local gym can’t ruin my workouts for the week. It’s pretty nice to have the freedom to workout any time I want without having to work around the busy time at the gym, or holiday hours etc.

Consistency with your workout is the cornerstone of achieving real muscle growth, and getting the look and shape you desire.

Each Workout Adds to the Last

This got me thinking of how inconsistent most people really are with their workouts.

When I talk to people about working out, it seems rare to find an individual who has been working out seriously for more than a few years without a major layoff of some sort.

In some cases it’s a major injury, or some other physical ailment that has put them on the sidelines. But for the most part people just don’t stick with it, they’re just not consistent.

It’s more common to find people who workout for a year or two, then fall off the wagon for a year or two than it is to find someone who is dedicated and consistently going to the gym year in and year out with no major time off.

Part of this consistency is also a consistency with the style of the workout and the goal of the workout. Some people abandon muscle building for other forms of training like athletic training, or they get into running and the like.

In other words, being consistently inconsistent doesn't count!

These departures from muscle building are fine if you really want to explore those other styles of training.

But in the end, the more consistent you are with your training, and specifically moving towards a goal of building your best body the better your results will be.

It seems that there is at least some cumulative effect to training. In other words, the number of sets and reps you do each workout matter…and the number of workouts you do each week matter…and each month, but also each year.

If two people of the same general height and size set out to gain as much muscle as they can…10 years later the person with the better results is likely the person who simply was more consistent with getting their workouts done week after week, month after month, and year after year.

It really is a lifestyle and not a phase that you just go through at some point in your life.

This doesn’t mean it has to take over you life and become your identity, but rather it’s just a small part of what makes up what you are.

I’m going to try and hit the gym today. It’s been 6 days since I’ve done any weight training while I was sick from food poisoning.

This is a good experiment on muscle atrophy and strength gain/loss.

During the past week I’ve been dehydrated, I”ve eating very little food and almost zero protein. My average protein intake per day has probably been under 25 grams.

By conventional fitness and bodybuilding wisdom I should be all but completely wasted to nothing by now considering I haven’t had a chance to eat a full days worth of protein yet or hit the gym.

The reality is I’ll probably be no different than I was 6 days ago (besides a bit leaner from eating less)

If you’re consistently weight training your muscles will not atrophy if you take a week off. It’s just not that big of a deal, and in many cases it might be a welcome rest and recovery period.

Once I finish my workout I’ll report in on strength and energy vs a regular workout and we’ll see how close I am to normal.

John

I’ve been getting questions about strength and specifically how much weight should be lifted for a particular body size. This is a difficult question to answer because there are multiple factors that go into measuring and building strength.

Muscle size is only one of the factors correlated to strength. Here is a list of other factors that play a role in strength:

1. Years of training experience

2. Intensity of training

3. The specific design of the training program followed

4. Pain tolerance

5. Age

6. Muscle pennation

7. Tendon Insertion

8. Limb Length

9. Length of tendon vs muscle belly

10. Neuromuscular efficiency

11. Injuries (acute and chronic)

12. Joint laxity

13. The specific exercise being tested

14. Exercise technique

15. Exercise technique coaching

16. Drug use

17. Supplements

…and I’m sure I’m missing a few others

As you can see there are many factors other than muscle size that determine how strong you are in any one particular exercise. Judging your strength vs mine in a particular exercise doesn’t really tell you much about the size or condition of that muscle if we don’t account for all the factors above as well.

You can use strength as a general guideline as bigger muscle are indeed stronger. But keep in mind this is only a general rule and cannot be drilled down to a more specific relationship.

John