Your body would rather NOT build muscle.

In fact, your body wants to save energy at all costs to help you survive easier.

So in order to convince your body to spend precious calories building muscle, you need…

1. Stimulus
2. Recovery

If you nail these, you’ll build lots of muscle.

A powerful physique will come to you easily with consistent training eventually, so keep going! But remember there is more than just physical results in this pot of gold at the end of the rainbow…

Movement practice also delivers dramatic benefits to the psychological health. Training can be a moving meditation that makes you feel more connected to the source of life itself.

So with that in mind, last month I released Primal Athleticism, a fully modular daily practice for peace, power, and connection.

It represents a total deviation from the typical strength and conditioning program and focuses instead on hyper-effective micro training blocks in 15 specific categories.

But the goal of that program is not to purely maximize muscle growth.

Now don’t get me wrong, you’ll build a lot of muscle by doing Primal Athleticism, but that is not the main goal. The main goal of Primal Athleticism is to achieve physical and mental freedom so you may do as you like without fear.

But TODAY I want to specifically talk about maximizing muscle gain.

It’s not your typical fitness magazine “8-week arm-training” program. In fact, what I want to share with you isn’t even a program, it’s the key to understanding rather than mimicking.

These are Muscle Building Principles.

Principle #1: Optimize Key Variables

Stimulus Variables:

Force:
Speed:
Range Of Motion:
Time Under Tension:
Frequency:
Volume:
Density:
Novelty:
Mind-Muscle Connection:

Recovery Variables:

Sleep:
Walking:
Nutrition:
Attitude/Mindset/Vision:
Measurement:


Write down that list and keep it in mind when you are creating a plan. In this Muscle Building Principles series, we are going to explore these key variables, and exactly how to implement them for maximum muscle gain.

By understanding and manipulating these variables, you and I could build serious muscle using nothing but a broomstick.

In fact, you can actually accomplish a lot just SQUEEZING MINDFULLY. This is actually a good first step toward getting serious about muscular development.

And the skill of squeeze can be further broken down into isolation (squeeze only one specific muscle) or compound isometrics (squeeze everything).

Go ahead and try it now. Can you squeeze ONLY your Latissumus Dorsi? How about your pec without contracting the biceps? Most people will NEVER build the ability to contract muscles in isolation–but it is well worth the effort!

If you want to get more out of ANY plan for building muscle, include isometrics every day, and squeeze HARD!

This is your homework until we get to part two. Practice isometrics (both isolated and compound) every day.

 

 

Strongly recommend using a mirror and your hands to verify whether you have fully contracted your desired muscle(s).

5 minutes per day, every day, no exceptions. (or admit that building muscle is not that important to you right now–which is also fine!).

SQUEEZE! Build that mind-muscle connection! It will serve you well.

As an extra bonus, here’s a PDF of the great Maxick for those interested in studying this topic more deeply: https://archive.org/details/MuscleControl/mode/1up

Final thoughts (for now):

Genetics matter–some folks are born built like a barrel…others are born built like a beanpole.

Since this is out of your control, don’t sweat it. Focus on the process.

If you are truly committed to building muscle, train daily and track your progress.

Lastly, play the long game.

The psychological benefit of building a capable and muscular physique is worth the effort alone…but don’t be in a hurry to get there. Enjoy the process.

Squeeze hard, squeeze often, and get a pump, every day.

Then use those muscles for something cool, like wrestling, surfing, tennis, attracting a mate, etc…

Stay tuned for part 2 and beyond…

Better every day,

-Max

PS: The M3 Academy will be devoting all of July to M3 MASS. If you want to join our tribe and focus on building serious muscle, sign up before July 1st.