How do you build muscle and get ripped by lifting in the gym? Intensity is what is the answer to it all. Activating your fast twitch muscle fibers and going as intense as possible during your workouts by going to failure is what provides you with results. But how exactly do we go about achieving intensity? Intensity, in the sense of the word that I’m referring to, means contracting every muscle fiber in a specific body part to the point of failure. By reaching failure, you exhaust the muscle to the point of stimulation for it to grow.

So, how do you reach failure? This is a very touchy topic and one that is always continually debatable, however, many people think that failure means the point that you cannot complete another rep for the weight you have in your hands. For instance, if you have 225 pounds on the barbell bench press and you can’t get it up for #6, people constitute failure as being rep #5. Nevertheless, this is not failure. That, I would constitute as mental failure.

After you complete 5 reps of 225 pounds, you can probably do another rep of 215 pounds, and then after that, 200 pounds for another couple of reps, and then 190 pounds, etc…all the way down the line. So, theoretically, failure actually occurs at the point when you cannot do one more rep of one pound for that particular body part. Now, if you can envision this properly, then you’d understand how incredibly intense of a set this is. Basically you would have to perform dozens of sets consisting of your One Rep Max (1RM- or the most amount of weight performing only one rep with perfect form) directly after another. Now, there is no machine that can do this for you, so you have to be actively thinking throughout your sets of trying to achieve this type of intensity. This is the theory of failure, and you can come pretty close to doing it by implementing strip sets and drop sets to reach that point of failure that I’m referring to. We will get into more about how to exactly achieve this in the next section, but I want to attack a more direct topic first. Most gym-goers (even the advanced ones) approach training the completely wrong way, thinking they go intense, but never actually doing so. Intensity in this realm is an entirely new way of thinking than what you are used to.

Have you ever looked at a sprinter compared to a marathon runner?

The sprinter certainly has the more attractive physique, and it’s the idea of intensity that provides that difference. Volume trainees are the marathon runners, going for long periods of time in the gym using minimal weight throughout their routine for a longer period of time. The intensity training guys are the sprinters, compacting an incredibly intense session in a shorter period of time.

The type of intensity training that I’m referring to is “High Intensity Stimulation Training”. H.I.S.T., as I call it, is going to complete failure so you achieve the intensity similar to a sprinter.

Powerlifters take a similar approach. If you look at powerlifters, their method of training allows them to get stronger every single week. Their sole purpose is to increase the poundages that they can handle and that means dealing with maximal weights, mainly in the rep range of 4-6 reps through each of their sets. Most professional 200 pound powerlifters, who do not partake in performance enhancing drugs, can lift more weight than 300 pound bodybuilders who are at significantly lower body fat percentages. Most people who lift regularly very rarely increase their strength week to week, yet powerlifters do it on a week-to-week basis. This type of training works to help you grow stronger without the use of performance enhancing drugs. A lot of professional bodybuilders perform volume training, but when you have anabolic steroids doing a large portion of the work for you outside of the gym, practically the slightest form of stimulation will work. High Intensity Stimulation Training will help with muscular development naturally.

It is true that most powerlifters that you are thinking of don’t have the bodies of a sprinter. Nevertheless, there is a recognizable difference here that creates the difference in physique between powerlifters and sprinters: Body fat percentage. Powerlifters have just as much muscle mass as their counterparts. However, A) their diet is not conducive to staying lean, and B) their training consists of intense sets, but not intense workout sessions.

Yet, if you really search within the powerlifting community, the really great ones develop more muscle mass than natural bodybuilders ever could with their typical form of volume training.

Dorian Yates, a 6x Mr. Olympia, used to train with incredible intensity for one to two sets per body part, making sure he gave 100% effort throughout that one set and resting adequately before he attacked his next set so he could give 100% again. Dorian said, “Rest periods between sets are as long as I feel is required. Many bodybuilders think training is 50% aerobic and 50% anaerobic. That is a mistake. They don't rest enough between sets; their body is not able to regenerate enough energy to exhaust that muscle to absolute fatigue, which is the point at which optimal muscle growth begins…I perform a set with 100% energy to 100% failure--then beyond, to 100% fatigue--and I won't do another set until I feel that the muscles have recuperated 100%, however long that takes. For example, when I take squats or leg presses to total fatigue, I know from experience that it's likely to be at least five or six minutes before I'll be able to even think about what my address or name is, let alone do another set."

Nevertheless, High Intensity Stimulation Training does not replicate that of a powerlifter or a sprinter. It takes the best of both worlds and replicates a modification of a sprinter’s intensity workout and a bodybuilder’s volume stimulation workout together in one to provide awe-inspiring results in the shortest period of time to build strength and power while getting you ripped in the process.

The well-known "all or nothing" principle of muscular-fiber function states that individual muscle-fibers perform work by contracting, by reducing their length, and that they are incapable of performing various degrees of work; that is to say, they are either working as hard as possible, or not at all. When a light movement is performed, it does not involve a slight effort on the part of a large number of muscular fibers; instead, only the exact number of fibers that are required to perform that particular movement will be involved at all, and they will be working to the limit of their momentary ability. The other, nonworking fibers may get pushed, pulled, or moved about by the movement, but they will contribute absolutely nothing to the work being performed. This is why steady pace cardio exercise does not build muscle. Muscle increases your metabolic process and burns fat. If you want to lose fat, and keep it off, you have to develop muscle.

So it becomes clear to all of us who wish to develop our muscles, for whatever purpose, in order to involve all of the muscle fibers in the work, the resistance must be so heavy that all of the fibers are required to move it.

Think of exercise as a drug. When you take medicine, they give you the MED (Minimum Effective Dose); nothing more or less than you need for the best result. Anyone who takes more or less will suffer in one way or the other. It is the same thing with muscular development. You need to just do only what is required and nothing more. The bodybuilding magazines that preach spending several hours in the gym are tailoring their program to a select few individuals who take drugs to help stimulate their development. This will eventually cause them illness. It is counter intuitive to believe that more is better. Without the drugs, these super bodybuilders would make minimal to no gains because their muscles are overtrained and have no ability to recover naturally. Just take a peek at what happens when they stop the steroid cycle.

So what’s the formula? Work out to maximum intensity with as much weight as possible (without hurting yourself) for a short burst and go home. Come back to the gym only when you are fully recovered. That is it! You will make gains you never dreamed of.

Some unscientific minds would like to think that when a muscle is fully contracted all of the muscle fibers contract at the same time. Although a fully contracted muscle requires all of the muscle fibers to shorten at the same time, it does not follow that even at full contraction under a light load; all of the muscle fibers will be involved in the work. It is scientifically proven that only the muscle fibers required to meet the load will be called into action. This is great for body movement, not so great for muscular development.

Thus, in order to involve 100% of the fibers in a particular movement, two conditions are required:

1) The muscle (and its related body part) must be in a position of full contraction; AND

2) A load must be imposed in that position that is heavy enough to require the work of all of the individual fibers.