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Ive been doing this for a month now on maintenance cals, ahve done no cardio, and leaned up to 225 @ 6.3 bf%, my lowest since my "entertaing" days. Muscles have become much denser, and no cardio is needed. Its not for those with big egos who like to push a lot of weight to impress people. Heres a post from Rob explaining it.
The ROB approach is nothing new, though I often explain it in a way that makes it sound different.
In a nutshell, the ROB approach revolves around the concept of 'more work, less time'.
If you ask a high school physics teacher what 'work' is, they'll probably say something like 'moving a force over a distance'.
When you perform a squat or a bench press, you are lifting a weight over a distance (e.g., one full repetition of that exercise). Thus, you are performing work. The more weight you lift over that distance --provided you do it in the same amount of time!!-- the more work you are performing in that unit of time.
Power = work divided by time. Thus, the more work you perform in a given unit of time, the higher your power output. However, I prefer to use the phrase "work rate" in preference to "power output."
The higher the work rate you make your muscles sustain, the more metabolic and electrochemical 'disturbances' they encounter. Calcium (Ca2+), Hydrogen ions (H+; a.k.a. 'acid'), lactate, sodium (Na+) --these and other things accumulate within your muscle fibers as you make them pump iron. As your muscle fibers perform more work/time, these things accumulate progressively.
The ROB approach dictates that in order to build bigger muscles, you MUST make your muscles sustain an uncomfortably high work rate. 'Uncomfortably high' because the muscles encounter so much electrochemical and metabolic disturbance that they basically say "Enough! You win! You're working us so hard that it's worth spending the energy to make ourselves bigger. That way, the next time you ask us to perform this high a work rate, it won't cause so much of a disturbance."
How do you achieve as high a work rate as possible? You do this by lifting a heavy enough weight and Resting Only Briefly (hence "ROB") between sets. When you strike that magical combination of load and rest interval length, and you keep it up for enough sets, your muscles achieve that 'optimal' work rate that makes them grow like crazy.
Of course, next time, you try to make your muscles sustain an even higher work rate by using heavier weights. This way they continue to increase in size.
What's a 'heavy enough' weight? Who short a between-set rest interval is 'Resting Only Briefly'?
I've found that lifting as heavy a weight as you can for 5-8 reps (sometimes as much as 10) and resting 20 seconds between sets, works fantastic for most muscle groups (though not necessarily all --see below).
True, if you lift as much as you can for 5-8 reps and rest 2-3 minutes between sets, you will be able to generate a lot more force (i.e., lift heavier weights). But over the course of many sets, your average work rate will be less because of the slower pace. Your muscles will still grow, but not as quickly as they could.
These are the basic elements of the ROB approach:
(1) For all exercises, lift as heavy a weight as you can for 5-8 reps.
(2) Rest only 20 seconds between sets. For some people, I suggest resting 50-60 seconds for quads (squats, leg presses). Why? Go to this link and scroll down until you see my post about slow-twitch fibers and my communications with Dr. Robert Fitts: http://forum.avantlabs.com/index.php?act=ST&f=9&t=5025
(3) Do 8-20 sets per muscle group, depending on your goals, level of experience, and frequency of training (how many times you hit each muscle group per week).
(4) Try to hit each muscle group at least 2 times per week.
Go check out my threads on the "ROB approach" and my dieting threads at Avant Labs' forum. Also, you can read about my training approach in Planet Muscle. The latest issue has one of my articles "Heavy and Slow? Not to Grow!".
Let me know how the ROB approach works for you.
And thank you very much for your interest.
Appreciatively,
Rob
Rob Thoburn
The ROB approach is nothing new, though I often explain it in a way that makes it sound different.
In a nutshell, the ROB approach revolves around the concept of 'more work, less time'.
If you ask a high school physics teacher what 'work' is, they'll probably say something like 'moving a force over a distance'.
When you perform a squat or a bench press, you are lifting a weight over a distance (e.g., one full repetition of that exercise). Thus, you are performing work. The more weight you lift over that distance --provided you do it in the same amount of time!!-- the more work you are performing in that unit of time.
Power = work divided by time. Thus, the more work you perform in a given unit of time, the higher your power output. However, I prefer to use the phrase "work rate" in preference to "power output."
The higher the work rate you make your muscles sustain, the more metabolic and electrochemical 'disturbances' they encounter. Calcium (Ca2+), Hydrogen ions (H+; a.k.a. 'acid'), lactate, sodium (Na+) --these and other things accumulate within your muscle fibers as you make them pump iron. As your muscle fibers perform more work/time, these things accumulate progressively.
The ROB approach dictates that in order to build bigger muscles, you MUST make your muscles sustain an uncomfortably high work rate. 'Uncomfortably high' because the muscles encounter so much electrochemical and metabolic disturbance that they basically say "Enough! You win! You're working us so hard that it's worth spending the energy to make ourselves bigger. That way, the next time you ask us to perform this high a work rate, it won't cause so much of a disturbance."
How do you achieve as high a work rate as possible? You do this by lifting a heavy enough weight and Resting Only Briefly (hence "ROB") between sets. When you strike that magical combination of load and rest interval length, and you keep it up for enough sets, your muscles achieve that 'optimal' work rate that makes them grow like crazy.
Of course, next time, you try to make your muscles sustain an even higher work rate by using heavier weights. This way they continue to increase in size.
What's a 'heavy enough' weight? Who short a between-set rest interval is 'Resting Only Briefly'?
I've found that lifting as heavy a weight as you can for 5-8 reps (sometimes as much as 10) and resting 20 seconds between sets, works fantastic for most muscle groups (though not necessarily all --see below).
True, if you lift as much as you can for 5-8 reps and rest 2-3 minutes between sets, you will be able to generate a lot more force (i.e., lift heavier weights). But over the course of many sets, your average work rate will be less because of the slower pace. Your muscles will still grow, but not as quickly as they could.
These are the basic elements of the ROB approach:
(1) For all exercises, lift as heavy a weight as you can for 5-8 reps.
(2) Rest only 20 seconds between sets. For some people, I suggest resting 50-60 seconds for quads (squats, leg presses). Why? Go to this link and scroll down until you see my post about slow-twitch fibers and my communications with Dr. Robert Fitts: http://forum.avantlabs.com/index.php?act=ST&f=9&t=5025
(3) Do 8-20 sets per muscle group, depending on your goals, level of experience, and frequency of training (how many times you hit each muscle group per week).
(4) Try to hit each muscle group at least 2 times per week.
Go check out my threads on the "ROB approach" and my dieting threads at Avant Labs' forum. Also, you can read about my training approach in Planet Muscle. The latest issue has one of my articles "Heavy and Slow? Not to Grow!".
Let me know how the ROB approach works for you.
And thank you very much for your interest.
Appreciatively,
Rob
Rob Thoburn
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