From Geek to Freak: How I Gained 34 lbs. of Muscle in 4 Weeks

Do you have to rest 3 minutes after each exercise? I rest only about 1 min and a half maybe. Also, did you do any flat bench, or was it only incline bench? Thanks.

Good job. I'd say you've already learned more than the other 99% of meathead-bodybuilders out there blindly following any and every training protocol there is. Intensity is what matters the most, with an adequate rest period between workouts. Also, don't be afraid to eventually add an additional rest day or two as you get stronger.

I agree with what Jim says. There is so much crap out there. Another thing to look into is HST (Hypertrophy Specific Training). It works pretty well.

Please post your 4 week training log. I'd love to see the specifics.

(Changed my name to "Jim (PFT/SCT)" because it seems there's another Jim posting comments.) To Bjorn: I don't think I really timed the rest between my exercises. One issue I have (and it hit me again last night, details below) is that it doesn't take much for me to overdo it. And when I overdo it, I get warning signals, such as a sense that if I continue doing this, I'll hurl my biscuits, or I get lightheaded, or my hearing gets a bit quieter (or gets a sort of slow-ish 'buffeting' effect, like the effect helicopter blades make, only much much slower). So while I push myself like mad during the set, I make sure my body is damn ready for the next exercise, otherwise I could end up faceplanting. Right or wrong, last night I warmed up with a 5 min run on the treadmill, followed by a 5 min walk on the treadmill. Then, off to the Smith machine to do the hack squat. I'd recently read about drop sets, so I did 140×16 followed by 90×12. The one difference in how I'm doing these now compared to a while back, is that I'm not doing "strongest range" training (big focus of PFT/SCT). And it might be worth noting that I'm just getting "back on the horse" so to speak. At any rate, after I'd finished these up, I had to take a LONG rest, and during that rest I pondered whether I was going to do any more exercises at all. I ended up getting off a set of Yates rows, then 2 sets of dips before calling it a night (the gym was closing, so I had to get my butt out of there). Feeling decent today though, no soreness in my legs/butt (already went through that a couple weeks back). From what I recall from many similar past experiences, this could just be my body getting used to intense exercises again. Over time, I expect I'll be able to do more during a workout; I'll just need to play it smart and not try to do too many exercises during a workout. Last night I had plans to do hack squats, shrugs, Yates rows, pullovers, dead lifts and dips. That seems to cover everything, or…? So while I'm sure others can do their next set after 3 mins, and yet others can do it after 1 min, I personally let common sense be my guide. If I thought I could knock off another set after 1 min without making myself feel like crap, I'd do it. And to those who recognize that the rest period between workout days is crucial, this is exactly what I've got from reading Sisco's stuff. If anything, it seems the stronger one gets, the longer one needs to rest between workouts. If you haven't read his stuff, then you might not be familiar with how he could work out once a month and *still* make gains. Seems counterintuitive, but he makes a strong case for taking that rest.

I can't wait to try this plan. Years ago I went from 130 to 150 LBS in 3 months, my first time ever weightlifting, and it was with a plan kind of like this. Recently I was trained by the champion bodybuilder in our province who I met at the YMCA by chance. His program for me was just 2 body parts a day, very isolated. It didn't work for me because I didn't enjoy it so I just didn't do it! Doing an intense whole body workout gets me mentally pumped and motivated. That's the workout I love, so I do it, and get the results! THANKS TIM!

The following is from Tim Ferriss….hope he doesn't mind me reposting: "here's what I recommend: "Check out the most recent books by Ellington Darden, and also check out any writing by Ken Hutchins of "Super Slow". "For exercise sequence, I recommend doing one or two exercises upper body to prep the nervous system, then go legs. If you are really serious, and you haven't trained much before, I recommend splitting the week into three workouts: pushing movements, pulling movements, and legs. Take one day between workouts for the first two weeks, then two days between them. It works like gangbusters. My favorite movements for pure mass, in the order I recommend, are below. Don't forget about 3-5 minutes between exercises (just one set for each exercise): "Push: Incline bench, weighted dips, close-grip shoulder press (never behind neck) Pull: Machine pull-over, Yates bent row (google it), close grip supinated (palms facing you) pulldowns, SLOW shrugs with dumbbells (pause for 2 seconds at the top) Legs: Leg press with feet shoulder width (do higher reps on this; at least 120 seconds before failure), adduction maching (bringing legs together like Suzanne Sommers – sp?), hamstring curl, leg extension, seated calf raises "Those are your three workouts. Simple and very effective. "To minimize leg soreness, so about 5 minutes of light stationary biking after finishing the "legs" workout. "Most people fail because they work out too often and eat too little, usually due to skipping breakfast. Never skip breakfast, as you've already been fasting for 6-12 hours. Take 2 scoops of NOXplode upon getting to work or 30 minutes after breakfast, and again before workouts. Drink one of those disgusting post-workout drinks they sell at the gyms within 20 minutes of working out (I actually mix one with water and sip about 50% of the bottle between sets, polishing off the rest after the workout). "Check out Ken Hutchins' and Darden's stuff — they give other sample routines. I like my routine above. You'll gain at least 10 pounds in 4 weeks if you eat and sleep enough. For gaining, I'll eat at: 9am (breakfast), 12pm, 4pm, 8 or 9pm, then again before bed. Take some before and after pics or you'll be kicking yourself later! Train HARD & eat often"

I will be starting a diet/workout regimen shortly but was curious about eating: if I only workout 2 days/week, do I still consume the 3300 calories/day even on the off days as well? I won't be burning 3300 calories on the days that I'm recovering and not working out. Any comments regarding this? You guys make for some excellent reading. Thanks!

That's awesome. Great work! Can you send your program and protein/carb intake via email? Cheers

Thanks alot Jim for the information, I want to keep this thread going, I'm over all the bodybuilding threads talking about volume and 5-6 days a week workouts. I'm doing 7 exercises, 1 set till failure 3-4 seconds to raise and 3-4 seconds to lower the weight. I do Flat BB Bench, Bent-over BB Rows Reverse Grip, Seated BB Military Press, Standing BB Curls, Weighted Dips, Weighted Pull-ups, Squats or Deadlifts. I do 5 sessions every two weeks. I'm kind of following Don Lemmons principles, he's the first person I have heard of doing the 1 set til complete failure. He has a website and everything www.DonLemmon.com he gained 90lbs in less than a year doing the 1 set routine and his routine only lasted 15-20 mins two to three times a week, depending how strong and how good he did on those workouts either adding more reps, or more weight. I have his books. I was wondering though if I should alternate between Incline and Flat Bench. Which one would be better for overall chest development? Or Should I focus on Flat bnehc for a while then switch to Incline for a while and repeat. Thanks for all the help. I hope Tim can come back and give us some more detailed info. but I know he's super busy.

I just need to eat more. I think thats my main problem, I'm getting the workout down, I hope. It's just eating so much clean food is hard to do. It's easier to eat junk food to get calories in. I'm trying to eat canned tuna alot more and instant oatmeal mixed with some brown sugar, honey, and raisens. And a 700-800 protein type shake which includes whey, peanut butter, milk, oatmeal, and a banana.

To Bjorn: Working out 5-6 days a week? Ouch. And you haven't plateaued yet? As for which bench to do, I seem to recall reading somewhere that to recruit all the fibres in the pectoralis, the ideal lift will be a slight incline. I'd say the choice is really yours to make, and I'm not convinced that making a 'bad' decision will qualify as a setback. So long as you haven't injured yourself and you're not bored, work with whatever brings you the gains. Which brings me to a personal observation. There's quite a bit of diversity in available exercises. For example, let's take the basic bench press. Well, it may be basic, but you could do it wide- or narrow-grip. Or incline. Or decline. Or switch to a machine. Or do dumbbell flyes. Or dumbbell presses. I'm sure if any one of us gave it some thought, we could invent new ways to exercise the same muscle(s), maybe invent new machines to help realize those goals. But why? Why do this? Well, it makes something which could turn out to be fundamentally boring into a more creative/diverse activity. It also creates access to a wider audience. For example, I'm not too keen on the vertical row, because my right wrist does a nasty click towards the top of the row. So I'll do something else. Accessibility. As a bit of a tangent, do some Googling on the CoreControl RTX Glove. There are various articles (including on Wired) which describe how to increase your workout performance. Thing is, I'm not quite prepared to drop the kind of money required to buy the device. Not yet, anyway. So I figure I'll work out some alternative, some combo of crushed ice with water, I guess. Dunk my hands in that between sets (thus quickly cooling my core temp), and get going to the next set. Cheers.

I'm going to stick to the one set til failure training through August or September. I want to see what kind of results I can get, hopefully they will be better than some type of split routine everyone and their brother does. I enjoy doing full body and my workouts are over in 15-20 minutes. Are these workouts toward trying to lift heavier weight in proper form? Trying to add 5lbs to the bar whenever you can? Or at least strive for more reps then the last workout, making each workout harder then the last, then add weight to the bar?

Hi Tim – you really ought to do a whole book about this. I actually found this by googling a comment you made in your talk with Marci Alboher at Google, about cutting your weight dramatically. Between cutting your weight dramatically, increasing your muscle dramatically, and lowering your cholesterol dramatically, you have a whole book there. Also – you have a whole book there which could seriously improve my personal life expectancy. I want my life expectancy to improve! I personally will be massively indebted to you if you document the methods and theory behind these astonishing transformations. I need to make similar transformations, both for superficial reasons and for important ones.

I have been following this protocol for the past 12 days and am tracking the results here: http://www.sethigherstandards.com/seattle-experiment-check-in/ Overall, I am impressed with how I feel after the workouts, and definitely getting stronger. So far, I have had 3 training sessions. However, my bodyfat and overall weight are not moving much. I'll keep it up and let you know how it goes.

Can you say about the everday food to eat? How many meals per day? Thanks.

http://www.sethigherstandards.com/one-set-to-failure-training-protocol/ Did my fourth workout (in two weeks) using this training protocol and it has been going really well. Posted some details of the exercises I am using in case anyone is interested. If anyone else is followin this program, please let me know…I'm interested to hear how it is going for you! Thanks. Ravi in Seattle, WA – USA

Tim – you have GOT to make this a book!

No one here makes any mention of abs! Tim: Do these compound exercises hit the abs or what?

Look at this guy carefully. For one…he is a short guy and in particular with stubby little legs. To start with nothing and end up gaining that kind of mass over time is no surprise really. And I would know because I have done the same thing. Before I started lifting I was five eight and 165-170. All I had done was run and some pushups before. Now at 225 I had the same kind of gains. In fact this guy's arms are rather long so he isn't getting the development on top he could. Most people with muscle lust don't realise much of it comes down to limb length, bone size, and stature. The one place guys who are average or short height can flourish is in the gym. Its that simple. Eat a clean diet, rest, and simply be consistent over a long scale than a few months and even four hours will yield significant results if you have the right bone structure and symmetry. If you are tall, long limbed and or small boned well…there is always crew, steroids, or cycling. Look at it this way in almost every other way sportswise height , limblength and being lighter are a positive. Only in the gym do guys like this guy and I excell. What he has done is simply maximising genetic potential. The iron snail

Man this is awesome. I definitely need to get back into shape and this looks like a well built routine. I mainly need to work out to rebuild my strength because I got into a bike wreck. Thanks!!

Where's the video diary of the workout events?

Hey Ravi. I'm following the workout. Except I don't do the 5/5 cadence, I only do around 3 seconds up and 3 seconds down. A litter faster, but still to failure and writing down my weight/reps, etc. I do 7 exercises all compound mulit-joint exercises except barbell curls. I'm done in around 20 minutes give or take. I don't really rest much inbetween exercises either. Only about a min and a half, just enough time to get the barbell ready with the weight and a little breather. Is working out only 2 times a week better then 3? I know recovery is the best thing for your muscles, just wandering. All my friends follow the pro bodybuilding trend (5-6 workouts a week, one body-part per day, 14-16 sets per bodypart).

I'd love to see your actual routine (exercises and reps) that you used to accomplish this.

All about diet. So everyone is mentioning how important the diet is, but I would love some more specific advice. I started on this workout plan a few days ago and its going well. I'm a fishitarian (I eat fish, eggs, dairy products, but no other meats). Here's my diet: Morning 1 whole egg, 2 egg whites, 1 can of tuna or sardines. Some refried beans. Water Lunch Brown rice, heaps of beans, mixed veggies, 1 egg. Water. Snack Nothing yet. Dinner Grilled fish, rice and beans or pasta and tuna with mayo and an egg or tuna pizza Also drink 4 whey protein shakes throughout the day. 1 extra on training days. I am on the right track? I have no idea how many calories I am getting, but I surely hope there are enough proteins in my diet. Any other food suggestions are very welcome!

How's it going Tim? Let me just first congratulate you on successfully completing this incredible gain in muscle mass. I'm surprised you didn't sustain any injury from such intense workouts. Now, like everyone else, I'd love to try this out and I happen to have a couple questions for you. Hope you don't mind. 1. I'd like to know more about the types of exercises you performed each workout period that would include negative work, full range, rotary form, auto variable, direct resistance. Figured I could adapt to your workout regime. 2. I suppose through full range motion exercises, the need to stretch prior or afterwards is negligible? 3. I was wondering about "protein uptake downregulation." I'm not in favour of dropping my calories for a day. Anyway, your post was wonderful and I hope to reap the benefits of this little program. Thanks for the great insight Tim! Andrew

Jim and Bjorn, I have really appreciated your thread. I am just getting started with this plan and am wondering if you guys do cardio or not? I am lugging around a pretty good amount of baby weight, so fat loss is also key for me. Also, diet-wise, do you feel that nuts and/or fruit have any place in your plan? Thanks for your posts, they are very helpful.

Bjorn said: "I’m following the workout. Except I don’t do the 5/5 cadence, I only do around 3 seconds up and 3 seconds down. A litter faster, but still to failure and writing down my weight/reps, etc. I do 7 exercises all compound mulit-joint exercises except barbell curls. I’m done in around 20 minutes give or take. I don’t really rest much inbetween exercises either. Only about a min and a half, just enough time to get the barbell ready with the weight and a little breather." Sounds pretty good to me! I wouldn't worry *too* much about it being a 3/3 cadence, but if you are, and you're finding the 5/5 cadence to be too much, clearly you've got too much weight on there. Try knocking off 5-10% of the weight and seeing if that makes a difference. And above all else, don't compromise your form just to add more weight and stroke the ego; really focus the mind on crisp form even at the expense of lesser weight. If you find you can do 15 reps, you should have done more weight, and if you can't even do 5, you've got too much on there. While you *could* do another set, theoretically you've already exhausted your muscles. Save it for another day, there will be plenty more of them to come! That said, I had an absolutely brilliant workout this past Tuesday, which was 6 days after my previous workout. To recap, I'd had a workout on May 6th where I felt like I was going to hurl, most likely because I had the braniac idea of doing a short run first. I'll get into the details of this past Tuesday May 15 in a bit. Bjorn said: "Is working out only 2 times a week better then 3? I know recovery is the best thing for your muscles, just wandering. All my friends follow the pro bodybuilding trend (5-6 workouts a week, one body-part per day, 14-16 sets per bodypart). I'll re-reference the PFT/SCT approach, and harp on recovery being your limiting factor. Simply put, if your muscles haven't had time to recover, you won't be able to add more weight to the bar. So your friends are working out like their lives depended on it. So how's that working out for them thus far? 14-16 sets per bodypart just seems excessive to me. So what does this mean? Did they not succeed in exhausting the bodypart within the first 2-3 sets? If not, are they just spending all that time with lighter weights just because they love living in the gym? Personally, I've got better things to do. Yeah, I love seeing the eye candy there too, and have in the past been approached and chatted up by a couple of cute thangs who were either genuinely interested in the exercise I was doing (ie, dips) or were just looking for an excuse to chat me up. (My cluefulness when it comes to chatting up women is close to zero, so it may have been the latter case.) So if you're there just for the eye candy opportunities, feel free to stretch out your workout as long as you like. Andrew said: "I suppose through full range motion exercises, the need to stretch prior or afterwards is negligible?" Form should always be your priority. If you have to sacrifice form just to get that extra bit of weight aloft, you risk injury. That said, let common sense be your guide. In my case, I like to do a quick stretch (if you can call it that) of my knees and ankles before doing squats, get them to crack first so they don't do an amplified crack in the middle of the lift. If you feel the need to stretch first, by all means do it. But then there's the question of warming up the muscles first. Ultimately it turns into a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem: warm up first or stretch first? If you warm up first, should you just do the set, or do you do the same exercise but at a greatly reduced weight? Yeah, I'm probably getting off on a wild tangent here. 🙂 So, my workout this past week: – hack squats – 180 x 10 – Yates rows – 160 x 8 – bench press – 90 x 15 – deadlift – 230 x 20 – barbell shrugs – 180 x 20 – T-bar rows – 45 x 15 – dips (unweighted) – 12 x 2 sets – bicep (dumbbell) curls – 25 x 11 As you can see, it wasn't exactly optimal. I didn't have enough weight on the deadlift, so I'll add at least 10% to that next time out. I did the T-bar rows because the Yates rows just didn't feel right to me. I felt I could have done quite a bit more on the T-bar, but was mainly interested in how it felt; easily could have done 90 lbs, and theoretically those muscles were already exhausted. As much as possible, I focused on putting my all into the contractions, and did 3-5 secs on the relaxing movement. And while everyone always says to breathe in on the contraction, I feel there is one exception: if the exercise means that your elbows are moving up (towards your head/shoulders) or back/rearwards, it's far more natural to be breathing in with that move. And while I do try to breathe with every exercise, the one thing I've read (think it was entitled something like Bodybuilding Anatomy 101 — no time to look it up at the moment) is the concept of creating a 'block' by taking a deep breath and making your chest/back rigid, which usually means holding one's breath, albeit briefly. After re-reading about the similarities and differences of the hack squat vs. regular squat, I think I'll be focusing more on the regular squat. Anyway, no time to go any further with this. Need to head out for a couple hours.

This is very interesting and compelling to me. I put myself on a 25 week challenge to lose 80 pounds (210 to 130). I am on week 20 now and have lost 55 pounds so far, and I was stressing a bit thinking I would not be able to lose the last 25 pounds in the last 5 weeks. I probably won't change my diet any because my goal was/is to learn how to eat without overeating, and I want to stick with that at least until the 25 weeks are up. But at least I know the option is out there and there is a healthy way to do such quick weight loss. I didn't think such a thing was possible.

Thanks for helping me out with all of this Jim. Are you a personal trainer? Just wandering. Also, is it better to follow the 5/5 cadence? It just sucks that my weight will have to be dropped alot, but if that doesn't matter for my muscles, I want my muscles to work as hard as they can. I workout at home so I don't have no ego about weight haha. Would 5/5 cadence be better than my 3/3 cadence. Sometimes I only do 2 seconds on raising the weight and 3 on the way down(the negative part) since that is the most beneficial part of the exercise. Thanks for the help. Tim needs to get up on here more often haha, but I know he's busy.

Excellent gains, but this is nothing new…… As you've stated, as well as many others who've visited this site, this is simply H.I.T. advocated by Arthur Jones and Ellington Darden. Darden has written many books on the subject including "The New High-Intensity Training" and "The new Bodybuilding for old-school results", both of which outline many routines in a step-by-step fashion as well as nutritional guidelines for an increase in mass.

Hi Bjorn, Nope, not a personal trainer. But I've taken various vectors on it for… geez, 25 years now. I would say I'm not what you would call genetically gifted. Although, back when we lived at the last apartment, they had a decent gym there, and doing the PFT/SCT approach and doing shrugs, I eventually had to switch from dumbbells to the barbell, and the Smith machine was the safest approach there. (Trying to lift a couple of 100 lb dumbbells off the ground can be a bit challenging.) One day I looked in the mirror and noticed these strange humps to the side/rear of my neck. I was like, "What the…?" and on closer inspection, realized it was bona fide muscular development! It was definitely noticeable. I was stunned, because in all my years, I'd never had that sort of a pleasant surprise regarding muscular development. It seems there are two keys here. First, you need to exercise the muscle to failure. And there seem to be a number of different ways to get there. I'm not going to debate the relative merits of each, because I don't have several years of experience with each approach. But I think it's safe to assume that working the muscle to failure is far better than taking it so easy that you can still knock off another 10-12 sets hitting that same muscle. The second key is to ensure you give your muscle adequate recovery time. If your muscle is still hurting from the previous workout, it's still too early. If you find at your next workout that you're not able to lift as much as your previous workout, you haven't given enough time to recover. So in this case, if you waited 3 days since your last workout but today's exercises aren't doing as well as the last one (and of course you're keeping a log, right?), wait more time before your next workout. And I don't mean wait 4 days instead of 3. Try doubling the time, or just round up to a nice even week. Next time you hit that plateau, bump it up to 10-11 days, then the time after that, 2 weeks, etc. If you're giving it your all each workout and your job forces you to take off 3-4 weeks, don't freak out. Just give it your all next time you get to the gym, and don't be surprised if you do at least as well as your last visit, if not better. Oh, yeah, there's that 3rd vector of nutrition. Protein good, junk food bad. I don't really follow this too closely, which I'm sure will cause others to roll their eyes. But I listen to my body. If I'm thirsty, I drink water. If I'm starved, I eat lots. If I'm not hungry, I'm not going to force myself to be miserable and cram unwanted food into my face. Recently I was at Chipotle and after having their Burrito Barbacoa Bol, I was surprised that I wasn't feeling overstuffed, which is the more typical conclusion. I went and had a snack after that. I don't think anyone was more surprised than I. As for 5/5 vs 3/3 vs anything else, don't over-analyze it, unless you're terribly bored and are looking for some variation. Maybe you start out doing 5/5, but by the end of the set you're doing 3/3 because you can feel the imminent failure at around 10 reps. No biggie. But go until you can't lift the bar anymore. If you'd like to do another rep but you're convinced you won't be able to lift it after the next rep, then just make that last lowering of the bar as slow as possible. Heck, just hold it in mid-contraction on the way down until your muscle totally gives it up (with a big F-you to you). (To any newbies reading this: I strongly recommend you ease into it and don't jump into this level of intensity from the get-go, or you'll hate me for anywhere from 2 to 7 days, you'll think this approach is a total crock, etc. Seriously, if your muscles aren't used to it, be nice to them the first few workouts. If they're 'shuddering', that (I've been told before) is the neural pathways getting established. This isn't me talking down to you, this is me talking as someone who has been dumb enough to overdo it more than once after being away from it for an extended period.) I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but one tidbit of wisdom I read recently was that when you leave the gym, you should feel like you could have done a bit more. That's a good sign. Conversely, feeling like you just want to hurl your biscuits, curl up in a ball and die, that's a sign of overdoing it. One of these days, I'm going to try bringing some crushed ice in water (and maybe a modest handful of salt for enhanced effect) to the gym, and soak my hands between sets to help bring down my core temp. This inspiration is based on some stuff I've read on the CoreControl glove (except that mine will a) be cheap, and b) won't have any vacuum). Disclaimer: This is my current approach. If you have excellent results training 6 days a week, 2-3 hours a day, kudos to you. That approach has never worked for me. Ever.

Thanks Jim. This type of training is just what Don Lemmon says. You can read all about him and get his books, I have 3 of them and they are exactly what Tim says. www.DonLemmon.com He says all about the 1 set til failure, training 2-3 days a week and as you get stronger you need more rest days,always full body workouts, 15-20 minute workouts, etc. He gained 90lbs drug free in less than a year doing this approach.

I do wish you would have edited those pictures to scale yourself the same size each time. They make the changes seem a bit deceptive. (How did you shrink a foot in 4 weeks?) I'd also love it if it had been layed out better into a pdf or something more portable. After reading your book, I'm limiting my time online and wish I could get the most important stuff faster! The other thing is that you have two articles, one on how to lose weight, the other on how to gain it. I really want to stay about the same, but lose the fat and gain the muscle. The secret can't all be in the amount of rest between sets, can it?

Ok so I just max out my work out right? using cadesnes and till msucle failure set? Ok Im 6"3(and 75kg!) me and my friend gonna try this whole thing. One month from now I'll give you my weight gain!

I'm actually ecstatic with my results, though they were nothing near our hero's. I'm 33 and live a sedentary lifestyle. I started out 5'10" and about 168 lbs, yet flabby abdomen, undefined, small arms, chest and shoulders. Previously, I only ate 1 meal a day (dinner) and occassionally 2 if work necessitated having lunch with a client. I was out of shape and felt like crap most of the time. I extended the 'experiment' idea and eliminated one more variable: I didn't change my diet during the 28-day experiment, except for eating more beef for dinner than I normally did. Though I missed a couple workouts, as I approach the end, I definitely notice a difference. After the 2nd workout, I noticed an increase in energy and an increased attention span (during those long, boring meetings). Throughout, I've been able to increase the resistance (I use a BowFlex) to keep my able-reps in the 8-12 range. I came home from a business trip today and put on some jeans that fit a month ago to find I can't keep them up without a belt. Though I still weigh 168-170 lbs, I've lost 2 inches off my waist! My shirts definitely bit better too (noticeable chest, arm and shoulder improvements). So, now that the experiment is almost done, I think I'll reduce doing a "HIT" to once a week and introduce more cardio and toning exercises. I think the most valuable thing I've gained from this experience is momentum. I mean, it was so hard before to exercise at all. But this program has shown me what a little exercise can do for my own physical and mental well-being. Now, I'm hooked.

What about warm up sets? Do you need to do them? If so, how do you do the warm ups? Thanks! John

I want to waer the bikinis I design! Can I do this? Or will I bulk up? I don't want to be too muscular…

Hey ho, I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd share an update. First, I haven't really gained much in the way of weight. So far, my best weight (these past few weeks) has been 170 lbs. Which is actually the best it's been in a while. Thing is, I've slipped back down to around 166. I blame my lack of disciplined protein consumption for that. That said, I *have* made steady strength increases. Here's the latest (from May 29/07): – Description – weight (lbs) x reps – Previous week's results – regular squat – 200 x 12 – 200 x 7 – dead lift – 270 x 17 – 250 x 14 – shrugs – 230 x 12 – 200 x 18 – T-bar row – 110 x 8 – 100 x 10 – bench press – 130 x 12 – 110 x 12 – bicep curls (machine) – 100 x 13 – 95 x 13 – dips (unweighted) – 15/15/10 – 15/12/7 I should point out the following: 1. A gain is a gain. So if the weight was the same as the prior workout, but the # of reps was greater, then it's a gain. Assuming one works out to failure in ALL cases, of course. 2. I did try the Yates rows in the beginning. Didn't think they were for me, so I switched to the T-bar row. I don't think that's my thing either (ie, I'm only getting a partial flex in all cases… perhaps I need to drop the weight down to a lower point and focus on form through to full movements). I was considering switching to the seated cable row, as I've always been a fan of that one. Perhaps the lat pull-down. Undecided at this point. 3. If you noticed that some of my reps are on the high side, you would be right. But I still aimed to doing the set to failure. "One set to failure", remember? So instead of trying a second set and skewing the results, better to kick up the weight next trip to the gym. 4. My wife is also working out with me. She's presently unable to do all the exercises, because of a problem with her right knee. So for now, she avoids squats and dead lifts. She does like the T-bar row, though. And yes, she's making slow but steady gains each time. (She's also elected to do the thigh adductor/abductor exercises, which isn't in my plan.) Tonight is another night, unless we get derailed! 🙂

Tim I wanted to know what you thought about Dr. Campbell's book The China Study? For those of you who are unfamiliar the book is a culmination of a 20-year partnership of Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine. Distilling the book to its essence: the greater amount of protein you eat by way of meat (all kinds) the greater the risk you have for cancer. Curious as to how you view the book and its impressive research with respect to your high protein diet…-Rich *For us science geeks out there…the study found that the lower protein intake, the lower the amount of aflatoxin_DNA adducts. The evidence impressively indicated that the lower protein intake could markedly decrease enzyme activity and prevent dangerous carcinogens binding to DNA http://www.thechinastudy.com/about.html

The China Study has been pretty thoroughly debunked (the cancer claims in particular are debunked at the bottom of the linked page): http://www.beyondveg.com/billings-t/comp-anat/comp-anat-8e.shtml I'm continuing to get good results with Tim's plan…not quite the results he saw, but I'm not his age, either.

This sounds interesting. Ive never done HIT before. In my early days i bought into the whole musclemag advice and train how the pros train and not really accomplished much. This was before they were all getting busted for steriod use. From what i read, i can believe Tim has achieved this. But i have my reservations too. Has anyone actually tried this and what results did you receive. Regardless im going to try it. I know Mike M. pushed this as part of his Heavy Duty, but then he was also taking steroids. Thats why i never did. Can anyone share their results please? thanks Sonny

Hi everyone, I am doing this program, and I am recording my results in detail. I am tracking every thing I eat, how much I sleep, and the exact details of my workout. I have created a blog to track everything and you can follow it here: http://www.4weekstofit.com Hope it helps some of you. Darren

Hi, I just read another article about HIT training. And this particular article split the workout over 4 days doing 3 exercises for a total of 3 set taken to failure. Even tho this can be accomplished in under 15-20 mins.. im wondering if the "recovery" variable is still possible going from a 2 day workout to 4 day workout but still totals 1 hour per week. For example, (mon)Day1- chest/back/Shoulders, (wed)Day2- legs, (Fri)Day3- arms. Thanks, Sonny

Just to add to my previous comment the actual routine is: Monday: Deadlift 1 x 20 (5 seconds rest after each rep) Shrugs (DB or bar) 1 x 10 Chins 2 x 6-8 Tuesday: Bench Press (DB or Bar) 2 x 4-6 Shoulder press (DB or bar) 1 x 10 Lateral raise 1 x 15 Wednesday: Squats 2 x 4-6 Leg curls 1 x 15 Calf Raises (seated or standing) 2 x 15 Friday: Close Grip Bench lockouts 1 x 6-8 Pushdowns 1 x 10 Barbell curls 1 x 10 Incline Dumbell curls 1 x 6-8 Crunches 2 x 15 Is this too much. Because i know the recovery is important in any HIT routine.. Im not sure going to 4 days is providing the required recovery thanks, Sonny

This post isn't so nearly impressive when you consider that Tim weighed 193lbs back in 1999 for a kickboxing competition (according to Tim's 4-Hour Workweek Book). Two word's spring to mind… Muscle Memory.

It's awesome Tim.

Chris, That's very valuable information that was left out, thanks for posting it. I'd like to note this from the colorado experiment: "So both of the subjects have demonstrated the potential for greater than average muscular mass and BOTH SUBJECTS WERE REBUILDING PREVIOUSLY EXISTING LEVELS OF MUSCULAR SIZE." In other words: If you at one point were extremely muscular and lost it, then this is the exercise routine to GET IT BACK, not gain new muscle.

Chris and Joe, You hit the nail on the head. I just finished 30 days of the program and I think I lost 2 pounds of fat and gained 4 pounds of muscle. Tim's gains can only be attributed to muscle memory. I actually followed the program very strictly. I never missed a workout and I followed the diet almost perfectly. I just posted my results here: http://www.4weekstofit.com/2007/06/21/sleep-diet-workout/day-30-status-report/ I carefully recorded every detail of my diet and my workouts on my daily blog, so you can see for yourself that I followed the program almost perfectly. While I didn't see the gains that Tim saw, I have however incorporated healthy eating and regular exercise into my lifestyle. It's only a matter of time before I reach my fitness goals.

Hmmmm, in your before shots your posture is poor and youre not tensing muscle properly, you dont show your legs and are hairy and pale. In your after shots you are tensed properly, shaved tanned and showing your legs. Its typical of what adverts do in bodybuilding mags, they make the before and after pics look as extreme as possible to try and make the 'transformation' look more impressive than it actually is. As for the 34Ibs of muscle in four weeks I would SERIOUSLY doubt that this happend unless you were the biggest genetic freak on the planet (which looking at you, you arent). It would be extremely difficult to put on that much quality muscle (which you have in your shots) even with steroids and from your pictures you dont look like youve gained that much either. To put on 34Ibs of muslce mass whilst simultaneously reducing your body fat by 4.49% in four weeks is in my opinion nigh on impossible. All in all you've done well and should be proud but I dont think the transformation is as magical as youre making out and for anyone reading this page, I would take this all with a pinch of salt. Hopefully you'll leave this comment on to give a balanced, multi-sided view.

A friend pointed me to this article a month ago. While I haven't added 34lbs of muscle I have been giddy with the weight loss. I started at 234, 17.5 neck 46 chest 34 waist As of today I'm down to 218, 18 neck 47 chest and a 32 waist. Can't complain. I've been a weight lifter since 1993 and been stuck in a rut for over a year with no appreciable gains. After following the slow cadence reps and cutting down from 4 workouts to 2, the weight I can move at a slow cadence and the "normal" 2 down 1.5 up cadence has gone way way up. (Sets of 10) Tricep extensions from 90/130 bicep from 70/110 Bench from 185/235 Even without the blubber loss I'm giddy about that. thanks so much.

I just posted my before and after shots. I look pretty much exactly the same! For anyone out there who wants to give this program a serious shot, this is what you can expect: http://www.4weekstofit.com/2007/06/23/sleep-diet-workout/after-photos-and-conclusions/ And yes, I did follow the diet and workout routine very strictly.

My gains were also much less than Ferriss', yet were still far better than I've gotten with other regimens. In fact, last week a girl was feeling my (very unimpressive) biceps and asked me, "Do you work out?" No one has EVER before asked me that question in my entire life. It was a blast. So do I look like Ferriss? No, not even close. But I'll keep plugging away because it works better than anything I've tried before.

Tim advocates "as much diet cola as you'd like", which of course I don't take to mean literally, but I have heard of studies examining how tricking the brain with a sweet-tasting but calorie-barren substance like aspartame, sucrose, even stevia, causes carbohydrate cravings. How closely are cravings corellated with insulin surges. I'm just wondering if liberal diet cola use could actually spike insulin while on this diet, meaning neutral or worse benefit from the carbohydrate restriction. Any thoughts?

Hey All, I have a couple of questions, and maybe somebody has some sage advice. I started the one-set-to-failure today and the diet yesterday. I am a vegan, so I am going hard on the brown rice protein and the soy, different kinds of beans and whatever else I can find without killing anything. I am a martial artist, have been training for over 30 years, and had started a weightlifting routine a couple of years ago, along with bag work, step intervals and just major-bloody-insane workouts, with mixed results. Main issue, of course overtraining. The fact is, for me martial arts is a life choice rather than a just workout, and although I would make it to the gym 2x/week, I was still training at the dojo 3-4x/week and have been too exhausted to do it all with the kind of intensity necessary for major muscle growth. Here are my issues, and I wonder if anybody has any intelligent thoughts about them: (1) 5/5 or 3/3 seconds is going to seriously mess with my speed. In my prior weight training, I was exploding the weight up and letting it down slowly. Since April 2004, my karate speed has increased significantly because of it. Will I find similar muscle gains doing 1-set-failure-reps and this kind of explosive movement? Or am I pretty much not going to reap the benefits without slow movements? (2) Am I completely going to miss the boat by training karate 3x/week as well? The fact is, I have to go to the dojo, and when I'm there I have to train hard. So yes, going to the gym twice/week and giving myself adequate muscle recovery time is great…but I don't really have the luxury of being one of the senior students and not showing up for a month in order to bulk up. Sincerely, Erik

Daniel, I also have had problems with diet soda triggering massive late-night carb cravings (and elevated hunger all day long.) For me, diet soda is not the easy win it seems to be for Tim. Erik, I read on ArthurDevany.com an article where he discusses why doing multiple sets causes you to lose fast-twitch response (the fast-twitch IIa & IIb fibers will start to convert to slow-twitch if they are worked too many sets), but I can't find the entry where he discusses how cadence affects fiber variation. But maybe you can, and his site is informative and well-worth poking around. Here's an article that's at least somewhat relevant: http://www.arthurdevany.com/2005/05/intermittent_tr.html

You know im coming to the conclusion that this routine works, maybe not to a degree as Tims, but it works because of the long recovery period. Nowadays people want to work out 4-6 times a week, which is way too much. In fact Vince Gironda stated in his book (the wild physique) that working out 2 days a week will give faster results then one might imagine and as always you cant go wrong with the 3 day workout (upper body, lower body, upper body) and lets not forget there are no quick fixes– its all about being consistent. So when i see articles like this where the author claims 34 pounds of muscle in 4 weeks i get a a little dubious. In fact its always 4 weeks, 8 weeks or 12 weeks. Why not 3 weeks or 6 weeks, or 9 weeks. Bodybuilding has become so complicated with all the supplements and various training programs delivering quick results. This is why it is a billion dollar industry. Dont give into the hype- Just eat good and train hard and give yourself enough time to "recover" and your goal will come. Im not against this routine. I think people should change their routine every 6-8 weeks. And if you havent tried this, then try it it may help and shock your body into growth or do nothing. But at the end of it at least you know what works and doesnt work for YOU!!! Sorry dont mean to preach but thats my 2 cents… thnx Sonny

Great tips

I also have a similar question as Erik, I'm doing kickboxing twice a week and I'm wondering how that affects myt training and results if I'm going to the gym twice a week for HIT? Do the muscles have enough of a resting period or should i cut down the gym to once a week (not going to cut down on the kickboxing). Thanks for some great tips! Regards MÃ¥rten

A quick comment on diet soda: There's a weekly local radio show called A New You which is dedicated to folks wanting to improve their health (mainly geared towards folks trying to lose weight). Not long ago one nutrition expert was on and commented on how artificial sweeteners (eg, Aspartame) was recently discovered to have some sort of negative effect on the brain. Sorry for not remembering more details. But that was enough for me, as I've largely avoided artificial sweeteners for years. I figure if a man-made molecule tried to do better than nature, there's got to be something fundamentally wrong. As the old saying goes, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. You never get something for nothing. To MÃ¥rten: I've recently switched from 1 day a week at the gym to 2 days a week (in order to split my exercise routine up — I was feeling too drained and lightheaded to do it all in one session), and I also go to Aikido class 2 days of the week (3 if you include Saturday noon-ish). Granted I think kickboxing is far more cardio-intense than Aikido. (I need to get back to hitting the treadmill a couple times a week.) Bottom line, just listen to your body. If you have sore muscles from one (weights or KB) and you plan to use those same muscles in the current session (KB or weights) then you're probably pushing it. Sore is a good indicator. To all: I should post my latest, but it's late and I'm tapped. Suffice it to say I'm still gaining strength. I've switched some exercises for ones which feel more effective *for me*. Others may work better for you. For example, I went from the Yates row to the t-bar (with chest pad) row to the seated cable row (one of my all-time fave) and lat pulldowns (another all-time fave). If anything, I'm increasing the exercises I do. I'll either do one set to failure, or a drop set (only two sets for a given exercise). In the case of biceps, I'll do machine preacher curls (hands are angled at 45 degrees) then do dumbbell curls (holding barbell vertical to better hit the brachiradialis. I was having troubles with Smith machine bench press, but found a seated machine where you press forwards and the hands draw together the farther out they go. The left is independent from the right; you put the plates on thick pins which are near the ground. Don't recall the name of the machine, but I've made surprising gains with it that I wasn't making with traditional bench. Guess what I'll be sticking with for the foreseeable future? 🙂 Strength gains aside, my weight has remained perfectly stable. I'm still around 165 lbs, which is driving me batty. I've even upped my protein intake. Grr. I'll try to post my latest gains sometime this week.

Im currently a little over 2 weeks into this routine. Im 21 years old. I weighed 178lbs when I started, today I weighed in at 188.5lbs. Some of that is most likely fat as Im just eating whatever is around, not following a strict diet, I am eating 6 meals a day as suggested. I am using whey protein as a supplement 2-3 scoops a day (20g/scoop). I do have to say that this isnt my first time working out. I have been on and off for a few years now. Im just not good at keeping it consistent. So these gains could be due to the fact that I havent worked out for a few months and now Ive started again (muscle memory as mentioned by someone above). My routine is a little different then what is described above: I am working out day 1. Then I have 2 days rest, and then I go back to day 1 again. I am doing this to get as many workouts as possible within the month, while still maintaining a good rest period. I also havent been doing any cardio for a long time, so I have been doing 20mins of cardio on day 3. Here are todays workouts results: regular squat – 7.5×90 dead lift – 5.5×90 shrugs – 9×105 T-bar row – 8×105 bench press – 8.5×90 bicep curls – 7.5×40 When I started, I was only doing 5-6 reps to failure a set though, then I reread the instructions and realized it said 8-12, so I started to do a weight that allowed 8 reps just today. So far I gotta say that Its been a good overall program, especially for someone getting back into weightlifting such as myself. I think that after a certain time this workout wont be as good as a more advanced plan. That is why I have bought Arnold Schwarzeneggers Encyclopedia of bodybuilding to use after this month is done…Im hoping reading that will motivate me to keep my workouts consistent. I will return here after the month is over (July 20th) with some before and after shots.

I'm more of a volume trainer. I love Arnolds book. Right now I'm following a split routine. Day 1 – Chest & Back Day 2 – Legs Day 3 – Off/Cardio Day 4 – Shoulders/Arms Day 5 – Off Day 6 – Repeat Chest & Back I superset like Arnold does. Flat Bench / Wide Pull-ups Incline BB Bench / Single Arm Rows Weighted Dips / Weighted Chin-ups Pull-overs Burnout Failure

If you guys want more info on his transformation, check this his article out on the bodybuilding.com transformation of the month. He goes into greater detail. One thing he mentioned that stuck out to me, is that he didn't count calories. He gave a list of foods and said to eat as much as you want of them. He also only ate four times a day.

"4. Eat enormous quantities of protein " I have previously tried that, and it does work to a degree. However, I'm surprised you don't qualify your statement. For some people, "enormous" amounts of protein can cause diarrhea, if they don't spread intake over the day. And excess protein can cause acne as well.

To Calle has the same question I had: "#4 on this page states that you “drop calories by 50% one day per weekâ€?. But rule #4 in the post you link to (your current fat-loss diet) stats that you have a “Dieters Gone Wildâ€?-day. That means you have 5 regular days, one ultra-slim day and one eat-all-you-can day per week right? Or am I misunderstanding you?" Here is Tim's response: "I only cut calories 50% one day a week if I'm principally trying to gain weight. If the primary goal is fat-loss, I will use the one "free" day — I use Saturday — instead. It's one or the other, but not both"

So hey, this might sound a bit gay… but I'm totally straight. Why did you decide to shave you chest? And how do you do it? I'm curious.

i wanna gain 20 pounds atleast to attract the girls. im a really in need

Sorry but it is impossible to gain this sort of weight within 4 weeks. Tim, I like your book a lot and think you're a smart guy but articles such as this make you look slightly stupid UNLESS you know full well that it's impossible but are relying on creating some chit-chat and traffic to your site. "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story' etc. If that's the case then you've succeeded! The workout and diet though is generally a good one but I say that if someobody were to do exactly as indicated they'd still struggle to put on 30 lbs in a year. 20lbs is more likley but even that's a pretty good result for most people. As for Ahmed's post above. 20 lbs won't mean you'll get the girls my friend.

Hello again, I posted above saying how I was doing this program. I stopped doing it 2 workouts before the end. I weighed 190lbs at the end.. If anyone wants to see pics let me know, I dont think theres enough of a noticeable difference. I just started arnolds training program from his book..all I gotta say is that it feels good to be sore 🙂

Pchor, which routine of Arnolds? I love his routines, but they just take so freaking long. So many sets and exercises per muscle group.

I am starting the Basic Training Guide Level I in his book: The modern encyclopedia of bodybuilding. I have to agree with the length, monday wasnt too bad at about 1h10min. But today, tuesday, it took me just about 2hrs to get through the whole thing! I am loving it though, cant wait for the massive gains 🙂 This book is a definite must buy if you are a person who wants to get a lot of wonderful tips from the very beginning all the way to competition level training.

Your doing this routine… Monday/Thursday – Chest/Back Tuesday/Friday – Shoulders/Arms Wednesday/Saturday – Legs Sunday – Off How many sets/reps do you do per exercise?

Yes, thats the workout plan Im doing. I am following his recommendations in the basic training principles: For the amount of sets, he recommends 4 sets with the first being a warmup of 15 reps, then the next a 12 rep, the 3rd a 8-10 rep and the last set is a power set of 6 reps. There are some exercises in the program where he specifically tells you how many sets/reps to do for that exercise, so I follow that as well. This is usually for the power exercises where you do 3 sets of 6/4/2 reps sometimes a bit more. Also for abs in this program, they are done everyday and its 5 sets of 25reps.

Yeah. Awesome man. Tell me how its working for you later on down the road. I'm going to try it soon.

High Intensity Training rules! Here's how to do your cardio properly (this is my running routine, so I'll be using words like jog, run and sprint, but you can substitute them for cycling or swimming equivalents, though swimming needs some afterthought): 1. 5-10 minutes warm-up. Sweat is a good sign. 2. 2-3 minutes dynamic stretching. Dynamic stretching is when you apply pressure to tendons, muscles and joints for just a moment, but repeatedly. For running, stretch (at least) calves, hamstrings and quads. 3. Do the following 15 times in succession: Sprint for 30 seconds at the maximum speed you can maintain for 30 seconds, then rest for 30 seconds (walk or jog if you can). 4. 5-10 minutes warm-down. For me, warm up is jogging to the park, so warm-down is jogging back home. 5. Static stretching. This is the regular kind of stretching where you apply pressure until pain or near pain for 20-30 seconds per posture. Now, do this just twice a week, with at least 48 hours in-between, and you'll be happy ever after. These 15 minutes of active training (as you would do the warm-up, warm-down and stretching parts for any other cardio exercise as well) are superior to at least 45 minutes of regular cardio activity. In addition to getting in better shape, you also burn more fat (in grams) and increase muscle mass. There's actually a lot of research promoting this since the 80's, but I'll just point you to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training and you can look further from there. I train martial arts and I used to run for 45-55 minutes 2-3 times a week, but switching to the HIIT scheme above twice a week, has completely transformed my sparring performance (to the better! And I also beat my old track records!). Try this at home!

Here is the link to Tim Ferriss's article on bodybuilding.com, which has a few more details: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/timothyf.htm

If i do this a the age of 15, will it cause damage to my ligaments? As you only exercise twice a week for 30 minute sessions they will have time to repair, but ligaments are different in adults than adolesants. Is it safe for me to try this program? And this is very, very impressive by the way.

Hello Tim, I like your book, and would encourage people to consider your precepts. There are some serious obstacles, however, to having a 4-hour work week. They are: 1. it seems to me that the 4-hour work week is primariy for small business proprietors who alread have a successful small business (such as yours) up and running. Starting up a new small business requires lots of time, as you know. And, as you also know, it takes a significant amount of time and hard work before a small business can achieve the status of a "going concern," i.e., a healthy business. 2. 80% to 85% of all new businesses fail within the first five years of doing business–a risky proposition at best. Don't take my comments as naysaying. You have good ideas, but there are some very high hurdles one must clear before structuring his/her business and lifestyle into a 4-hour work week. Your readers deserve to know about these hurdles, and possibly you should give some ideas for clearing them. But that is a subject for another book. Keep up the good work, Tim!!! Sincerely, Jim Sullivan

Since everybody else has done this, I'm gonna throw my hat into the ring too. I posted an article on my Myspace BLOG because I'm going to aim for some great results in a short time.

A couple of years ago I put on quite a bit muscle doing a very similar program. But it was much simpler. I worked out once a week. I did one set of a pulling movement (weighted pull ups) , a pushing movement (weighted dips) and a leg movement (dead lifts). The one set for each was done just one rep shy of failure. Total work out time was 20 minutes or less a week. The rest of week allowed me to recover. It's a great protocol for those of us with limited time to work out.

I feel like a freak for liking the before photographs better…but I'm glad you're eating well. No fruit though? O.o

Mike Mentzer is another proponent of High Intensity Training. I used this system for a number of months and I have to say that for the most part, Tim may have actually been overtraining a little bit too by allowing himself 30 minutes in the gym. At it's truest form, a lot of the super intense workouts can last as little as 13-15 minutes. But the results are truly amazing and Tim's results are something anyone can achieve if they are willing to throw their entire being into the exercises.

Great stuff! I started this week but have a couple of questions on your workouts. 1) Do you do any cardio? If so, how long and how often? 2) Do you lift the same muscle groups each time and how often? 3) What do you mean when you say "drop calories by 50% one day per week to prevent protein uptake downregulation." Does that mean if I normally eat 3000 calories I need to pick one day per week and only eat 1500? Thanks again for the help!! -M

This workout is definately something I am going to try starting September. Letting everyone know so they can bug me if i dont do it. I did the body-for-life program last september for 12 weeks and went from 22% body fat to only 9.5%. I also gained 7 pounds of muscle and lost 22 lbs of fat. That took 6 workouts a week for 12 weeks. long time but worth it. So if this program can do triple that (muscle) in 4 weeks. It will change my life. 1 hour a week!!! thats incredible. Let you know when im done!

Interesting concept. I'm 35 and have added a little around the midsection. May try this for my new workout. Thanks!

Reminds me of The Slow Burn Fitness Revolution by Fredrick Hahn and Michael Eades, M.D. That emphasizes a "one set to failure" mode, maybe as much weight per exercise as will cause failure at 6 to 8 reps. The whole workout is 30 minutes, doing once every 5 days. Twice a week? A pound of muscle growth in a week is pretty good; that's an increase of 48 lbs. in a year, which is maybe what a football player could do, going from high school to college. 34 lbs in 24 days seems rather, ummm, illusory.

This sounds like an effective application of the Mike Mentzer method. Congratulations.

That some impressive stats. It would be interesting to know if you have maintained the gains?

Hey Tim, I´m kind of new at hypertrophy, I´ve been working out for 3 months now. I´ve seen some muscle growth, but, I was wondering if you could give me tips on exercises or how many times I should be working out during the week. I appreciate the help. Thanks.

Hey, in the article on bodybuilding.com, it says Tim used a lot of supplements. This isn't said above and could make quite a difference.

any chance you might give us a little more detail on the workout routine/principle? I went to the colorado experiment link but they give a bunch of stats on the results, not what working out to the point of failure means or what routine they used, etc…

So the only thing I havn't caught onto yet is if this a single set per workout or the classic 3. This seems like a very interesting workout, one I will surely try.

Is this something one could do using circuit-training machines?

The workout is "1" set per exercise til complete failure. You pick the rep range you want to lift in. Be it 6-8 reps or 10-12. Once you can reach 8 reps, or 12 reps in good form, next workout up the weight by 5 lbs. You grow when you rest, not when your in the gym. I personally like 2 sets over 1. I'm not saying 1 doesn't work, I just feel better doing 2 sets per exercise with around 2 minutes of rest between sets. For instance. This workout can be done 2-3 times a week. I like 5 sessions every 2 weeks. Week 1 M-W-F, Week 2 M-Th. The rest of the days are for resting/eating and cardio if you want. 1-3 sets per exercise. You pick. 1) Full squats, 15 to 20 reps 2) Pullovers, 10 reps 3) Standing Press, 10 reps 4) Chins, 10 reps 5) Weighted Dips, 12 reps 6) Barbell Curls, 10 reps 7) Shrugs, 15 reps 8) Stiff-Legged Deadlifts, 15 reps "If you could get to the point where you're squatting 400 pounds for 20 reps, stiff-legged deadlifting 400 pounds for 15 reps, curling 200 pounds for 10 reps, pressing 200 pounds for 10 reps, doing 10 dips with 300 pounds around your waist, and chinning with 100 pounds around your waist, don't you think you would be big – I mean awfully big? And strong?"

Bjorn: Its an interesting workout that you put together. But I have to say that I did follow two different high intensity programs over the years and I think yours might actually lead to overtraining rather quickly if you train to total muscular failure. I do like the exercises you picked, but I would suggest breaking up the body and only working out 2-3s a week, so that you don't overtrain. The other thing that I might suggest is that you cut down on your reps just a touch, shoot for the 6-8 rep range. Once you get too far past 8 reps, you start to tax your body a tad too much.

If the data shows that one set to failure builds more muscle than two, why would you do two?

You mention that you train elite powerlifters a dehydration technique. What is it? and also how often can you do it? Is there a lot of muscle loss?

i am very interested in this workout i would just like to know whats the workout rotine? and best work out for my inner chest?

Thanks for a great book! BUT this article about gaining 34 lbs. of Muscle in 4 weeks is misleading. First I was very excited but after consulting one of the best fitness instructors in Denmark I now understand that this is only possible for people with a generic error. Yes, that’s right, for most of us its impossible to gain that much muscle. 6-7 Lbs. in 3 months is the realistic. But some people (only very few) has a generic error that means you can gain extremely much muscle in a very short time. It looks like Tim Ferries is one of them. I hope Tim reads this and will make a note to his article so people won’t get the wrong idea that they can copy his experiment. J. Christian Andersen

He gave you a routine. Just pick a handful of compound exercises and lift them heavy with strict form. For instance. Monday and Thursday..all other days are Rest days. Full Squats 1 x 15-20 Reps Slow Bench Press or Dips 1-2 x 6-8 Reps Reverse Grip Yates Rows or Chin-ups 1-2 x 6-8 Reps Standing Military Press 1-2 x 6-8 Reps Stiff Legged Deadlift 1 x 6-8 Reps Calves 1-2 x 15-20 Reps Abs 2-3 x 12-30 Reps If you did just these exercises, you would grow ALL over your entire body. Isolation exercises aren't going to make you bigger. Get your foundation/strength down, then you can add in isolation exercises once you have all the mass you want.

The China Study has been shown to be extensively flawed and overwhelmingly biased. T Colin Campbell is himself a vegan.

According to Arthur Jones, this IS a cardio workout. It's all explained in the link Tim provided above. Here it is again: https://baye.com/colorado-experiment/