A Phase 2 weight lifter is defined as some one who has developed a solid base of lifting experience and uniform muscle mass on their entire body AND has made the decision to take the muscle building process to a higher level.

I define a solid base of lifting experience to be at the minimum 60 days of uninterrupted muscle building. If you followed my phase 1 plan this would mean that you have from 25-30 full body workouts under your belt, depending on age. If you are serious about changing your bodies appearance enough to consider phase 2, these workouts would have been completed in such a manner as to clearly show YOU what is required to train. In other words, good training habits have been developed. Things like:

Consistency:

You can not build muscle efficiently and consistently taking steps back every few days. The whole concept of building muscle centers on retraining body parts at precisely the right time.

Discipline:

If you’ve developed consistency then you have learned discipline as well.

Finally being consistent and showing discipline in your workouts, you will have added muscle mass during the first phase IF you learned the final good training habit:

Effort = Muscle

IF you used 5 pyramided sets of 6 reps, using appropriately heavy weight of the original 5 compound exercises, stayed consistent and used the discipline to PUT FORTH MAXIMUM EFFORT each set, you have added muscle mass. Guaranteed. How much will depend on a ton of variables. Recovery rate, nutrition, age, gender, genetics, to name some.

The point is without learning and creating the good training habits in phase 1, trying to do more would be a waste of effort. Remember, there are solid, concrete reasons why an individual DOES NOT add muscle weight lifting because it has been proven scientifically that EVERYONE can. The single biggest reason is they never learned how and what it takes. You have.

So all that remains is that you have to decide that you want to go to the next level. Phase 1 lifting techniques will continue to add muscle on most people. There needs to be periodic variations made, as in substituting different types of compound moves for the original 5. Or at least modifying them. You can refer to the "How To's" to get variations of all 5. And for 100% of people phase 1 will allow you to maintain what you have for as long as you continue to work out, which may be your goal if you are an over 40 or 50 person.

But if the next level of lifting knowledge and muscle building interests you (and for most I hope it does, you can NEVER be too strong), let's learn how to build even more muscle!

This site is solely for informational and educational purposes. It is not intended as medical advice.
Consult a physician before beginning any new exercise, nutrition or supplementation program....Disclaimer

Copyright 2007-2008 Steve R. Robbins. All rights reserved.