Vince Delmonte - Non Nonsense Muscle Building HRT-1 Protocol

DISCLAIMER NOTICE The advice and information contained in this workout component may not be appropriate for all individuals. Therefore, the author, employees, company, affiliates, or any other parties involved in the creation or promotion of this workout and nutrition program are not responsible for any injuries or health conditions that may result from advice, opinions, and workouts contained in any Vince Del Monte workout and nutrition system. The information in this workout and nutrition program are the opinions of the author and are not a replacement for medical advice. You should consult a physician before starting any diet or exercise program. If you choose to follow the workout and nutrition program without consulting your physician, you are doing so at your own risk. We claim no responsibility for any injuries you might sustain. Exercises include tutorials and detailed descriptions to give you the information you need to be able to perform the exercise with proper form. However, it is your responsibility to warm up properly, determine the weight you will use, perform each movement correctly, get professional supervision if you’re unsure of an exercise technique and ultimately to decide whether or not you are capable of performing the exercise/ workout without sustaining injury. Copyright © 2016 – Vince Del Monte and VinceDelMonteFitness.com. All rights are reserved. You may not distribute this report in any way. You may not sell it, or reprint any part of it without written consent from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

QUICK START GUIDE: WHAT IS HRT(Z)ONE? I had a lot of fun coming up with the name for this unique protocol. HRT(z) ONE is a single set (hence “ONE”) of Hypertrophy Recomposition Training (HRT; meaning this protocol releases hormones that help build muscle and burn fat), that puts you into the HURT ZONE in record time. A whole-body lactic acid maximization protocol. HRT(z)ONE is a single

set that you will do for 60, 90, or 120 seconds (for fast, mixed, and slow fiber-type guys, respectively) before every workout to maximize lactic acid and growth hormone. This is an ALL-OUT set for time— you’ll pick one of several exercises provided and “go ‘til ya blow!” We chose these exercises because they engage a lot of musculature which

means more lactic acid, more growth hormone, and more results! Just like Gollum’s preciousss, HRT(z) ONE is the one set to rule them all, making you lord and master over YOUR gains domain. And don’t be surprised if your friends start calling you Gandalf (or, more accurately, Gaindalf), because these sets work like magic.

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WHY IS HRT(Z) ONE SO EFFECTIVE? HRT(z)ONE is specifically designed to maximize the output of lactic acid— and thus maximize growth hormone1—to help build muscle and burn fat (i.e., “recomp” your physique). I designed the HRT(z)ONE protocol to heavily tax your body’s glycolytic energy system, the system where you produce the greatest amount of lactic acid2 which leads to the increasingly painful burning sensation in the working muscles. The harder you work during this allout set, the bigger the burn. And the bigger the burn, the better! In fact, we know that growth hormone levels are very closely correlated with acidity (i.e., that lactic acid burn) in the muscles. And growth hormone helps you build muscle and strength3 in addition to burning fat4. Simply put, the deeper you dive into the hurt zone, the better your results will be. This is the perfect example of that old adage, “no pain, no gain.”

In addition to these physiological benefits, HRT(z)ONE will provide a massive psychological boost at the beginning of every single training session—just when you need it most so you can fully capitalize on each and every rep, set and workout in your No-Nonsense Muscle Building 2.0 program. What better way to mentally prepare yourself for the workout ahead than to work your ass off before that workout officially begins? HRT(z)ONE will force you to discover a new threshold for discomfort, whether you like it or not. Get ready to break a sweat before your main workout even begins, and prepare to maintain that same level of intensity throughout the entire workout. I guarantee, after you’ve gone through a couple workouts and a couple HRT(z)ONE sets, you’re going to find new gears on more than a few exercises and think, “Man, I’ve really been sandbagging it on a lot of my sets.” In short, finding these new gears is going to lead to new growth as you’ll be squeezing more out of every single session—all because of a SINGLE set done at the beginning of each workout!

HOW HRT(Z)ONE IS DONE Detailed directions are provided below, but here’s the gist: choose an exercise from the menu below, use a weight/ resistance where you’ll fail at the very end of the set, focus on performing as many quality concentric contractions as possible, and try your best to do more work on each exercise every time you use it. 1) After completing your usual warmup routine, prepare for your HRT(z)ONE set by performing as many warm-up/ rehearsal sets as you need to maximize your performance on the all-out set. The goal here is to get some blood into the working muscles and feel completely confident with the movement without doing so much that you prematurely fatigue the muscles. Note that since fast-twitch guys are going to lift the heaviest weights, they’ll typically require more warm-up sets.

Just like your main NNMB 2.0 workout, your specific HRT(z)ONE set duration is determined by your primary musclefiber type:

PRIMARY MUSCLE FIBER TYPE HRT(z)ONE Duration

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FAST TWITCH

MIXED FIBER

SLOW TWITCH

60 secs

90 secs

120 secs

NO NONSENSE MUSCLE BUILDING 2.0 HRT(z)ONE

2) Choose a weight or resistance level that will allow you to achieve muscular failure at the very end of your set (initially, this will require some trial and error). Using a fast-twitch guy doing the exercise bike as an example, he should aim to have his legs lock up from lactic acid to the extent that any further pedaling becomes impossible right at that 60-second mark. In another example, a slow-twitch guy on the leg press should fail (i.e., be completely unable to perform another concentric rep) as the timer reaches 120 seconds. 3. Focus on performing the most controlled concentric contractions possible in the time allotted. While I normally prescribe relatively slow, controlled eccentrics, concentric contractions generate the most lactic

acid5. As such, your goal is to perform the most (quality) concentric contractions possible. Therefore, you’ll spend as little time on the eccentric as possible. At the same time, don’t go wildly out of control—we want it to hurt as a result of metabolic stress, not joint stress from uncontrolled movements. 4. Do your best to increase the density of your HRT(z)ONE sets each time you repeat an exercise. Density equals the total work performed divided by the amount of time you spent performing that work (d = work/time). Since the time stays constant from workout to workout, this means you’ll simply need to do more work to increase density. You can use more weight/resistance, perform more reps/ steps/revolutions, or both, to increase density.

Helpful Hints 1) When choosing your initial weight or resistance level, think “go big or go home.” It’s better to choose something that’s a bit too challenging and squeeze out partial reps to complete the set (or even just fail completely before the timer goes off) than to pick something that’s on the lighter side and end up with reps in the tank at the end of the set. 2) Don’t pace yourself. HRT(z)ONE is an all-out, maximum effort set from start to finish. Take your balls out of your purse and put every ounce of effort into this set. I guarantee you can work harder than you think you can. 3) As always, be sure to track your performance so you know what you have to beat the next time you rotate around to that exercise. What gets measured gets managed; and what gets managed gets multiplied!

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HRT(Z)ONE EXERCISE MENU Simply rotate between the following movements:

1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18184755 2. https://books.google.com/books?id=rk3SX8G5Qp0C

»» Stairmaster »» Treadmill with incline (8 to 12

3. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22628373

»» Exercise Bike (with clips/straps

5. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11472073

degrees)

securing feet to pedals)

»» Battle Ropes »» Leg Press »» Leg Extension »» Lying Leg Curl »» Bent Over Barbell Row (use

lifting straps if grip strength hinders your performance)

»» Supinated Lat Pulldown (use lifting straps if grip strength hinders your performance)

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REFERENCES:

NO NONSENSE MUSCLE BUILDING 2.0 HRT(z)ONE

4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19240267

EVERYTHING

YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE HRT(Z)ONE PROTOCOL When you train, you have mechanical stress (i.e., muscle tension) and metabolic stress—the infamous painful, burning sensation you experience (especially from relatively longer sets with constant tension on the target muscles). The burning sensation is a result of increasing acidity in the muscles due to hydrogen (H+) ions (and while not technically correct, this is commonly referred to as lactic acid, and we’ll use that terminology for the remainder of this article) that are produced by your

body’s glycolytic energy system1. The longer we sustain exercise, especially with constant tension on the target muscle, the more lactic acid accumulates in the muscle cells, and the cells become increasingly acidic. In the gym, we experience this as an increasingly intense burning, painful sensation, that eventually makes it impossible to continue working.

In fact, high levels of lactic acid can lead to increases in muscle size and strength as well as fat metabolism. The graphs on the next page—from a study where researchers measured muscle growth and strength in response to increasing acidity in muscle cells—provide a great visual to drive this point home.

So why do we care about lactic acid? Well, as it turns out, the old saying “no pain, no gain” is quite accurate.

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As we can see, there is a very strong relationship between acidity and the change in participants’ muscle cross sectional area (i.e., increased muscle size), and a fairly strong relationship between acidity and the change in participants’ one-rep max (i.e., maximal strength)2. In addition to this correlational study, we have direct evidence which shows lactic acid plays a key role in muscle growth. In an in vitro study, researchers took muscle cells and added lactic acid to them. As a result, protein synthesis (the major process that makes muscle grow) increased3. In short, more lactic acid equals more muscle! So what’s going on here? How does that massive burning sensation you experience lead to better gains? As it turns out, there is a high correlation between lactic acid and growth

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hormone (i.e., more lactic acid means more growth hormone), thus lactic acid plays a major role in the exercise-induced growth hormone response in humans4. Growth hormone is a powerful chemical that helps build muscle and strength5 in addition to releasing greater amount of free fatty acids for energy6 (thus increasing your fat-burning potential). Lactic acid, then, rather than being directly responsible for boosting your gains, is simply a means to an end, playing a supporting role to growth hormone. Even so, we can’t have growth hormone without lactic acid, and lactic acid gives us a powerful feedback system to determine how much growth hormone we’re producing. Specifically, if your muscles are burning like a five-alarm fire, you know

NO NONSENSE MUSCLE BUILDING 2.0 HRT(z)ONE

you’re skyrocketing growth hormone. What’s more, growth hormone doesn’t just assist the specific muscles you’re working, but has a systemic (total-body) effect7. It circulates through your bloodstream to all of your muscles, boosting the muscle-building and fat-burning potential of your entire body. Armed with the knowledge about the power of growth hormone for promoting favorable body composition changes, I couldn’t help but wonder— how can I harness this phenomenon to get more out of every workout? Specifically, I wanted to find a way to flood my muscle cells with growth hormone BEFORE the workout even begins.

INTRODUCING HRT(Z)ONE SETS I had a lot of fun coming up with the name for this unique protocol. HRT(z) ONE is a single set (hence “ONE”) of Hypertrophy Recomposition Training (HRT; meaning this protocol releases hormones that help build muscle and burn fat), that puts you into the HURT ZONE in record time. The HRT(z)ONE protocol allows you to achieve a big surge of growth hormone at the beginning of every workout in order to boost the muscle-building and fat-burning potential of every rep and set of your No-Nonsense Muscle Building 2.0 program. To develop the HRT(z)ONE protocol I set out to determine what training mechanisms produce the greatest amount of growth hormone. I examined several different training variables, including exercise selection, loading, repetition range (i.e., time under tension), and contraction type (eccentric vs. concentric).

Exercise Selection

simply trained arms on their own9. Remember, the growth hormone elevation you achieve is going to have a “trickle-down” effect on the smaller muscles. As such, and somewhat counter-intuitively, sticking with movements that engage a lot of musculature is going to help smaller muscles grow to a greater extent than using movements that isolate those particular muscles. In other words, using this technique on the leg press will give you a bigger boost to your biceps growth compared to using it with barbell curls. Based on these findings, the exercises I selected for your HRT(z)ONE sets (see the Quick Start Guide) are those that engage a significant amount of musculature, with a particular focus on the large muscles of your back and legs.

Rep Range (Time Under Tension) You’ve probably heard about different rep ranges and the different theoretical adaptations that each produces. Five or less reps builds strength, six to twelve reps builds muscle, and anything more than that enhances endurance. While these rep ranges oversimplify things, there is a lot of truth to them. At the same time, there is considerable overlap between ranges, and all of them actually contribute to muscle growth.

When it comes to lactic acid and growth hormone production, size matters. Researchers compared guys who trained only their arm muscles with guys who trained leg muscles in addition to arms and found that the latter group produced significantly more growth hormone and also achieved a While it’s common to discuss the pogreater increase in isometric strength8. tential for strength work to boost your muscle-building capabilities, we don’t In a similar study, researchers found often discuss endurance training. Even that guys who trained their arms after so, it turns out that endurance training training their legs achieved greater inis quite the unsung hypertrophy hero! creases in muscle size than guys who

Research shows that endurance protocols (higher repetitions and thus longer times under tension) are superior to hypertrophy or strength work when it comes to increasing growth hormone. In fact, an endurance protocol resulted in a growth hormone response 30 times greater than baseline levels—more than twice as much growth hormone than a hypertrophy protocol and six times as much growth hormone as the strength protocol10. We can boil the increased effectiveness of endurance training down to one simple variable: volume. The goal of HRT(z)ONE training is to accumulate the greatest amount of volume during the time allotted. The amount of work (volume) you perform in a specific amount of time is known as density (density = work/time, where work = resistance x repetitions). The set lengths (that range from one to two minutes, according to your primary muscle fiber type) are specifically chosen to facilitate maximum density. As you progress through your NNMB 2.0 program, your goal will be to increase the density of your HRT(z) ONE sets, resulting in even more growth hormone output. It all comes down to this: Better Density = More Lactic Acid = More Growth Hormone = Faster Gains

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Loading In our quest to maximize lactic acid and growth hormone, remember to “go big or go home.” If you have anything left in the tank at the end of your HRT(z)ONE set, you didn’t choose a challenging enough weight (for the lifting exercises) or resistance level (for cardio machine exercises). Researchers had participants perform sets of ten repetitions and found that maximal loading (using a weight that allowed them to barely squeeze out that tenth rep) trumped submaximal loading (finishing the set with reps left “in the tank”) and resulted in a much greater concentration of lactic acid and growth hormone11. So, given our need to with a maximal load, the goal is to choose a weight or resistance level that allows us to perform quality work through the entire duration of our set, but no longer. In other words, when that timer beeps, your tank should be totally empty. This is easier said than done—if you chose a challenging enough weight, you’re going to want to use your safe word (rapamycin?) long before that timer goes off. You’ll think, “I’ve worked as hard as I can, I don’t have anything left to give.” Leave that BS attitude at home, take your balls out of your purse, and prepare to set a new personal best every time you enter the HRT(z)ONE.

Contraction Type Focus on performing the most controlled concentric contractions possible in the time allotted. While I normal-

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ly prescribe relatively slow, controlled eccentrics, concentric contractions generate significantly more lactic acid12. As such, your goal is to perform the greatest amount of (quality) concentric contractions possible. Therefore, you’ll spend as little time in the eccentric phase as possible. At the same time, don’t go wildly out of control—we want it to hurt as a result of metabolic stress, not joint stress from uncontrolled movements.

The Perfect Protocol: Summarizing The Science The HRT(z)ONE protocol maximizes lactic acid and growth hormone at the beginning of each and every workout—thus increasing your potential to make gains from each and every rep and set you perform—by adhering to our science-based guidelines: 1. Choose exercises that engage the greatest amount of musculature. The exercises provided in the Quick Start Guide all engage the large muscles of the legs or back. 2. Choose a rep range/time under tension that challenges endurance and facilitates maximum density. As you’ll see in the Quick Start Guide, the duration of your particular set depends on your primary muscle fiber type (since, unsurprisingly, guys with more slowtwitch—i.e., endurance—fibers can work longer before fatiguing).

NO NONSENSE MUSCLE BUILDING 2.0 HRT(z)ONE

3. Maximal loading is critical—if you haven’t chosen a weight or resistance level that makes you think about quitting long before the set ends and barely allows you to finish the set, you’re doing it wrong. When in doubt, challenge yourself; you’ll be surprised how much work you can do when you put everything you’ve got into a single set. 4. Concentric contractions are king. For now, forget about slow, controlled negatives and simply perform as many quality concentric contractions (focusing on moving the weight with the working muscle, not just going through the motions) as possible. Just make sure you don’t go through the eccentric so quickly that you’re risking injury or bouncing the weight off the bottom through any of the concentric portion.

READY FOR ACTION To sum it all up, we’ve delved deep into the science, discovered that lactic acid is a powerful stimulator of exercise-induced growth hormone response, and found that “no pain, no gain” isn’t just a catchy saying. We scoured the research to find the exact variables that affect lactic acid and growth hormone levels, and developed the perfect protocol— HRT(z)ONE—to maximize the levels of these powerful chemicals at the beginning of each and every workout, such that every rep and set we perform becomes more effective in our quest to Build Faster. But, keep in mind that just knowing these things won’t get you anywhere. Your next step is to head over to the Quick Start Guide where you’ll find more detailed instructions and helpful hints to make the most of your HRT(z) ONE sets and, most importantly, start using HRT(z)ONE at the start of your next workout, and every workout thereafter!

REFERENCES:

1. https://books.google.com/books?id=rk3SX8G5Qp0C 2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22628373 3. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15947720 4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18184755 5. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22628373 6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19240267 7. http://jap.physiology.org/content/88/1/61.long 8. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11782267 9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21327794 10. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12391130 11. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16095404 12. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11472073

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