Q: Why is high-intensity exercise best for stimulating muscular growth?

High-intensity exercise is best for several reasons. First, it is by far the safest way to train. Training injuries occur when a muscle exerts a pulling force that exceeds the breaking strength of some part of the muscular structure. By performing 10 repetitions, as opposed to heavy maximum attempts, the intensity is high and the force is low. Second, high-intensity exercise produces faster results with less training time. Ten sets of any exercise terminated two repetitions short of a point of momentary failure will not produce results anywhere close to those that can be produced by one properly performed set carried to a point of failure. When the intensity of exercise is increased, the amount of exercise must be reduced. A full routine for the major muscles of the body can be completed in less than 30 minutes. Training properly, it is not uncommon for an average trainee to double his overall body strength in less than a year’s time. Third, high-intensity training makes less demands on a trainee’s recovery ability than traditional training methods. Recovery ability is related to the system as a whole. Long, grueling workouts constantly force the recovery ability to work as hard as possible merely to replace the large amount of energy that is required. As a result, very little is left as a reserve for growth and strength increases. High-intensity training and a large amount of training are mutually exclusive factors. A trainee can have one or the other, but never both. Therefore, for stimulating muscular growth, practice the exercise in a high-intensity fashion, but keep it brief and infrequent.

Q: What is the difference between fat and muscle?

If we chemically analyzed a pound of fat and a pound of muscle, we would discover some interesting facts. Both fat and muscle contain water, lipids (fats), and protein, in varying amounts as follows:

	Water	Lipids	Protein
Muscle	70%	7%	22%
Fat	22%	72%	6%

Calorically speaking, a pound of fat has 3,500 calories while a pound of muscle contains only 600 calories. Most of muscle is water, whereas fatty tissue is mainly composed of fat. To gain body fat, all an individual has to do is sat 1,000 extra calories a day and he will gain two pounds a week. To gain a pound of muscle a week, it is necessary first to stimulate muscular growth through several high-intensity workouts, and then add an additional 100 calories each day to the diet.

Q: What about women? Can they develop large muscles?

Most women cannot develop large muscles, at least not to the extent that men can. It is no accident that men develop a larger, more defined muscle mass. This effect is the direct result of the male hormone, testosterone, upon the growth mechanism of the male’s muscles. Before puberty there is little difference between the muscular size and strength of boys and girls. With the onset of puberty, testosterone from the boy’s testes and estrogen from the girl’s ovaries enters the blood stream, and triggers the development of the appropriate secondary sexual characteristics. Thus, it takes a certain amount of testosterone within the blood stream to influence muscular growth. There are, however, a small percentage of women who have large muscles, particularly in their legs. There are two reasons for this result. One, these women have inherited larger than average muscles. Two, they have an above average amount of testosterone in their systems. The adrenal gland, within both men and women, secretes a small amount of the non-dominant hormone. As a result, there are a few women who have inherited larger than average muscles and at the same time have an extra amount of testosterone in their systems. These women do have the potential to develop larger than average muscles. (There are also men who have an extra amount of estrogen in their systems, which tends to give them a feminine-like appearance.) Generally speaking, however, 99 percent of our women could not develop large muscles if their lives depended on it. But proper exercise is worthwhile for a woman because it tones and conditions her muscles, which in turn keeps fat and skin from sagging.

Q: Why does fat tend to accumulate around my waist?

There are individual tendencies to develop a high density of fat-storage cells in different body areas. This is an inherited characteristic that cannot be altered. Some people naturally accumulate noticeable fat on their legs and hips, others on their back and neck; but generally speaking, most people (especially after the age of 30), tend to store fat around the waist. The average male college student has approximately 18 per cent of his body weight in the form of fat, and the average female college student has about 26 per cent. About half of this body fat is right under the skin, and a large portion of the other half is around the inner organs.

Q: If I want to reduce my percentage of body fat, I should do a large amount of sit-ups and leg raises, right?

Wrong! Sit-ups and leg raises will develop the abdominal muscles, but they will do little or nothing to reduce the percentage of body fat. In order to reduce the percentage of body fat, it is necessary to force the body to burn its own fat as a source of energy. To do this, the daily caloric intake must be kept below the maintenance level. Consuming 1,000 less calories a day than the maintenance level will require the body to burn several pounds of body fat a week as a source of energy. But even then, the fat will come from all over the body, not just one spot.

Q: Is it impossible to spot-reduce?

Yes, that is right. On a reducing diet, fat is mobilized out of the multiple fat cells all over the body, then carried by the blood stream to the individual active cells in the body, and burned for energy. Thus, fat stores are withdrawn from the total body fat cells and not from any one isolated location.

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