12-MINUTE MUSCLE

Get more muscle and more spare time with this super-fast session
Men's Health 20.4.2011
Build your perfect body
You dont have to spend every waking hour in the gym to guarantee results. Theres
a school of thought that believes high-volume training 3 day split, 3-5 sets, dozens
of exercises isnt just a waste of time but detrimental to gains. In fact, just 1 set of
an exercise, done with perfect, slow form until you are unable to perform another rep
is all thats required.
Dr Doug McGuff, author of Body By Science, is an advocate of high intensity, lowvolume training (LVT) and prescribes just 12 minutes of resistance training per
week.
Having monitored over 150,000 training hours hes concluded that gaining muscle
boils down to finding the precise balance between the catabolic state (the breaking
down of muscle) and the anabolic state (rebuilding to a greater size).
The optimal training dose, says McGuff, is The Big 5, a series of exercises performed
one after the other with minimal rest, for just 1 set each. Its tough but its over
before you know it, leaving you with not only larger muscles but also the time to
show them off. Music to the ears of any gym-goer.
Worth the weight: Theres no prescribed number of reps instead move the weight
slowly, without rest, until you cant lift it any more. When you reach failure, make a
note of how long you managed, aka Time Under Load (TUL). This should be
between 40 seconds and 2 minutes.
1. Leg press (machine) or squat (free weights)
Training tip 1: If youre leg pressing, set the seat so that your legs are
perpendicular to the ceiling in the flexed position.
Training tip 2: Avoid the desire to blast the plate at the start, and instead
focus on a slow, even, fluid movement of 5-10 seconds.
Training tip 3: Dont lock out and pause at the end. Instead, immediately
begin the slow and steady, return to the starting position. Dont arch your
back.
Shaking all over: The aim of this workout is catabolism, or muscle breakdown
with muscle growth taking place during the recovery days and weeks. The

negative contraction of each exercise, when done slowly, with control, is the main
cause of the damage. With the leg press, thats the slow return phase, rather than
the pushing phase. As far as breathing goes, do as much as you can. Never hold
your breath: it causes an unnecessary rise in blood pressure. Also youll shake
during all the exercises and thats good. McGuff likens this to a car engine
gradually having its spark plugs pulled out, but it means youre working hard and
huge gains will follow as a result.
2. Seated row (machine) or barbell row (free weights)
Training tip 1: Dont pause when the arms are extended: return smoothly.
If using a barbell, keep the knees slightly bent and aim for the same
smoothness and pause at the top point.
Training tip 2: As elsewhere, smooth is the key here: aim for a jerk-free 510 seconds pulling back, then pause for 3-5 seconds in the fully contracted
(pulled back) position, then 5-10 seconds smooth return.
Training tip 3: If youre using a machine, have a palms facing grip and try
not to let the elbows flare out.
How heavy is heavy? So what is the ideal weight you should be lifting for HighIntensity Training (HIT)? Doug McGuffs prescription is to lift between 50% and
85% of your one rep max. Aim for moderately heavy: too light a weight and your
slow twitch fibres will keep recovering, rather than being wiped out and allowing the
fast twitchers to have their turn. Do your sums before you hit the gym youll have
plenty of time to work on your maths with all your new-found free-time.
3. Chest press (machine) or bench press (free weights)
Training tip 1: Dont lock out the elbows: McGuff calls this the bone on
bone tower it steals effort from your muscles. Go for the same timings
on the return phase.
Training tip 2: Aim for a starting point with the palms level with the front
of the chest, and try for a smooth, jerk-free movement lasting 5-10 seconds.
Training tip 3: If youre using free weights, definitely have a spotter with
you.
Daily fibre: As with all The Big 5 moves, orderly recruitment of the different types
of muscle fibres takes place during the set. First, your slow twitch fibres, the ones
that support aerobic activity, are recruited. As they tire, your intermediate fibres are
brought into play, and finally, when theyre fatigued, your fast twitch fibres (the ones
that support anaerobic activity) do their thing for anything between 2 and 20
seconds. If you were lifting quickly and using momentum, and/or aiming for an

arbitrary number of reps, or stopping at the moment discomfort kicked in, you
wouldnt be working all those fibres.

4. Shoulder press (machine) or standing shoulder press (free weights)

Training tip 1: If possible, use a parallel, palms-facing grip, and move the
arms overhead in front of you rather than to the sides.
Training tip 2:Try not to flare your elbows out or arch your back. As with
the Bench Press, dont lock the elbows out at the top of the movement.
Training tip 3: Aim for 5-10 seconds during the lifting, and the same for
the lowering, focusing on smoothness all the way.
Positive failure: With all these exercises, there are three types of failure. Positive
failure is when you cant complete the pushing or pulling phase. With the shoulder
press thats the upward movement. Static failure is when you cant manage that
phase at all youre stuck, basically. And negative failure occurs when you cant
control the lowering/return portion of the exercise. With the shoulder press this
means an inability to stop the weight from plummeting downwards (with a crash
that will startle your fellow gym goers). Positive or static failure is usually the
aim. Your muscles cant tell whether its a machine weight, a barbell, or a wild
animal thats bearing down on you, so plenty of adrenaline is produced, resulting in
less fat.
5. Lat pulldown (machine) or deadlift (free weights)
Training tip 1: Use an overhand grip, with hands a little narrower than
shoulder width apart.
Training tip 2: Without shrugging the shoulders, slowly and smoothly pull
the bar down for a count of 5-10 seconds. Pause for 3-5 seconds when the
hands are at the top of the chest, slowly return to the start position.
Training tip 3: To fully work the lats, imagine youre pushing your hands
outwards during the return phase. If youre deadlifting, dont pause at any
point of the movement.
Mountain of strength: With all the exercises in this programme, the aim is to make
inroads. Lets say you can do one good quality rep of 100kg on the lat pulldown.
Use 80% of that weight (80kg) here. Initially itll feel easy, but when you reach a
point of positive failure, an inability to shift that 80kg at all, then youve
temporarily weakened yourself to a strength level of 79kg. This amounts to a 20%
inroad. Think of the inroad as a hole that youve dug. A week or sos rest, and the

hole will have been refilled and heres the good bit a small (but very significant)
mountain will have been built on top of it, to prepare for any future digging. That
small mountain is your increase in strength. Stick with this programme and itll soon
be a much bigger one.