Got a great guest article here from my friend
and colleague Chad Waterbury, creator of
the High Frequency Training system.

In it, he explains the reasons why high frequency training is one
of the BIG missing ingredients that most people miss when it
comes training.

And as you saw in that 12-a-week total body program I sent you
yesterday, I'm totally on board with this high frequency approach.

If you've never really looked at a high-frequency approach, this is
going to really open your eyes!

Nick

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NO-FAIL Muscle Growth Through
High-Frequency Training
By Chad Waterbury

Training more frequently is as close to a no-fail approach to
muscle growth as you’ll find. It’s pretty tough to screw it up,
unless you try to deadlift or squat heavy every day. We all
know how jacked guys get in prison by knocking off daily
pull-ups and push-ups, and I’m fairly certain most of them don’t
have a CSCS from the NSCA. And they definitely don’t have
steroids.

The mechanisms that stimulate protein synthesis for muscle
growth, and all the physiology involved, are still a mystery.
Resistance training is obviously a trigger for hypertrophy, so
it makes perfect, irrefutable sense that training more frequently
can lead to faster muscle gains. And I’m not alone with that
sentiment.

Pavel Tsatsouline, chairman of StrongFirst.com, is a strength-
building savant and one of the smartest guys I know when it
comes training. I’ve been fortunate to have many insightful
discussions with him over the years. This is what Pavel had to
say about high frequency training:

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The main reason it is beneficial to train more frequently is
because you can perform a higher volume of quality work.

And here is why volume matters.

First, there is a correlation between the training volume and
muscle hypertrophy (Roman, 1986). We could speculate why -
or just accept it as an established fact and move on.

And it is a lot easier - and safer - to peform 40 reps of the
same exercise in the morning session and 60 in the evening
than 100 at once. In addition, having recovered, you will be
able to train at a higher intensity as it takes longer to clear
the by-products of muscle metabolism than most athletes
realize.

Second, every time you repeat a perfect lift you make
yourself stronger through motor learning and neurological
mechanisms. The skill practice aspect is obvious to most,
but “skill” goes beyond inter-muscular coordination. You
are literally making the muscles more responsive to
command by “greasing the groove” (synaptic faciliation
and myelination).

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[Note from Nick...this is right along the same lines as my
Daily Specialization program where you do one set of
one exercise every single day, twice a day]


And I definitely can’t pass up this opportunity to mention
the greatest bodybuilder of all-time, Arnold
Schwarzenegger.

His calf development was so poor in his early training days
that he stood in water to get photographed, less the world
see his “girly man” calves. So he upped the frequency he
trained them and the rest is bodybuilding history: his calves
ended up being one of his most impressive body parts.

Arnold’s insights for muscle development still stand as
some of the most valuable wisdom that exists.

However, the most intriguing aspect of Arnold’s training
book, Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, was something
I didn’t catch when I wrote the original HFT. This is Arnold’s
quote from the section I’m referring to:

...my left arm used to be slightly smaller than my right arm.
I noticed that whenever I was asked to show my biceps, I
would automatically flex my right arm. So I consciously made
an effort to flex my left arm as much or more than my right,
to work on that weak point instead of trying to ignore it, and
eventually I was able to make my left biceps the equal of
my right.

Think about that: Arnold equalled his biceps size by merely
flexing his smaller arm more often. Now, I don’t want to put
too much emphasis on that point because it’s possible that
he might have done extra work for his left biceps in the gym
as well. But he didn’t mention it.

Last fall I spent five months under the tutelage of Chris Powers,
Ph.D, at his Movement Performance Institute in Los Angeles
where he hooked me up to his EMG electrodes and let me
perform all sorts of crazy moves and exercises.

I was shocked at how much motor unit recruitment I could
achieve by simply squeezing a muscle without any weight
in hand. Oftentimes, it was just as high as when I performed
a maximal contraction with heavy weights or a strong
resistance band.


And this brings me to an essential point about HFT2:

it’s not necessary to add more training hours to your current
program in order to reap the benefits of high frequency training.
You don’t need to go the gym more often and overly stress
your joints by adding sets of heavy barbell exercises.

The extra workouts you need to trigger growth can sometimes
be as simple as performing an isometric exercise using
nothing by your body weight.

HFT2 consists of three different types of contractions, or sets,
to stimulate hypertrophy. I’ll go over each and explain my logic...


This story is continued in the High Frequency Training 2 manual,
where you'll learn the best ways to perform this style of training
for maximum impact on stubborn, individual muscles in addition
to total-body high frequency training.

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[This is Nick here again]

I think one of the KEY elements with regards to training
frequency lies in what Pavel was talking about...and that is
recovery.

When you blast out an hour-long workout on a single muscle,
almost the ENTIRE workload (except for the first sets) is done
at sub-par strength levels.

All you're doing is breaking down and fatiguing a muscle,
NOT improving performance or growth.

By training more frequently but with less volume in each
session, you're always training a FRESHER, STRONGER
muscle.

The performance benefits carry over directly to muscle growth....
you'll be able to load your exercise heavier, and build more
muscle more easily.

If you've hit a plateau in your muscle-building training and
aren't sure where to go from here...THIS is where to go from
here. Seriously.

Nick Nilsson
The "Mad Scientist of Muscle"