I have been fortunate enough to be working with Dr. Miles rehabbing (if there is such a word…) my back and knee, but had to stop due to personal circumstances. In the meantime I got
tennis arm but it is getting better quite faster than I expected and I think next month I will be working with him again towards my rehab, then hopefully in another two or three months I will
be ready to finally train again.
In the meantime, I am just educating myself and I would like to ask a few questions, which will help me plan my training in the future. My goal is to simply add as much lean muscle mass
as possible (nothing like a pro bodybuilder, though), to look good in the beach (as vain as this is). I don’t really care about being strong (if it comes as a byproduct, fine) or how much weight
I have on the bar, as long I am growing
So, my questions are :-
Based on what I read on the internet, it looks like I will make most of my muscle gains on my first year of training, some more on my second year and very little (kind of nothing) afterwards. Is it really true?
The last (and only) time I trained with weights was on and off between 2009 and 2010 and I remember at that time the personal trainer told me that due to my genetics, I would never
get big (not even with steroids…), as somehow my muscles would get very strong but not big. Does it make any sense?
Although I already bought the beginners template, I was wondering what program should I follow in a few months when I will hopefully start training again. Should I do the beginners template, the bridge and then the hypertrophy templates afterwards or go straight for the hypertrophy templates?
Not really, no. You can only gain so much muscle at a time and provided the environment is ripe for muscle gain, e.g. nutrition, training, etc. I would expect muscle gain to take place over many years and not just the first year.
I’m not sure that I’d expect you to get way stronger than is expected compared to muscle size, no.
I probably wouldn’t run The Bridge after the beginner template, so you could go with the hypertrophy template.
Thanks Jordan.
It is quite a relief that I can forget about this magical one or two years window of opportunity where most of my gains will take place. I was even considering to postpone weight training and focusing on diet and cardio until I am both injury free and lean enough before going back to weights.
Considering the next year or two after I finish the beginners template, do you think I should stick to the hypertrophy / BB templates all the time or switch between them and strength templates?
If you believe I should keep switching, which other templates do you recommend me and how long should I stick to each one?
If you don’t care about strength outcomes, I don’t see a good reason to spend a significant amount of time specializing in 1RM performance as you would on a strength-focused template.
