What's going on nation? I'm Scott from muscularstrength.com and as you know,
I decided to experiment with nuclei overload training to try to spark more
growth in my biceps. Now compared to all my other muscles,
I've always just felt like my biceps are lagging and if what I've been doing
wasn't working, trying something out seemed like the best alternative.
So I decided to give nuclei overload training a shot.
And what I did was perform one a hundred dumbbell bicep curls a day for 30 days
straight.
Some days were harder than others and the weights varied from 35 to
50 depending on how sore I was. Also,
I wasn't pumping out 100 reps in a row. Okay.
I was completing 100 reps as fast as I could,
usually in 10 sets of 10 repetitions.
And the reason is because I didn't want to have to go too light,
call me stubborn, but even though I'm loading up on volume,
I still felt like I needed a bit more stimulation then curling like five or 10
pound dumbbells 100 times in a row as fast as I could. But who knows?
Maybe that could be a follow up video comparison in the future if done correctly
though,
it should only take about 15 to 20 minutes to complete and let's say I started
with fifties when my arms began to fatigue a lot, which did happen,
I would just drop the weight to 45 or to 40 or to 35 whatever I
needed to do to keep the rest periods under one minute.
But the real question is why did I wait so long to show you guys my results as I
did this from October 10th through November 10th well,
the holidays were a big part of it.
I had all kinds of family visiting from Brazil for Thanksgiving for Christmas
and new years and because I'm also building a pool,
the last three weeks have been full of design work,
lots of shoveling to redo my irrigation lines and just random BS.
We really don't need to get into. However,
the biggest reason is that a huge part of Nuclei overload training is the
recovery after the 30 days.
And I want it to be able to talk about that as well as have the time to do a bit
more research on nuclei overload training as well. And to be honest,
I want to continue with this series for other body parts,
but always use this video as a point of reference so I don't have to re-explain
everything every time. But before we get STAHHTED
training hard is great,
but you need to make sure you're hitting your macros if you expect to recover,
especially protein. So I'm giving away two bottles of BSN Syntha6,
Coldstone Creamery flavored protein and I'll let the winners decide on the
flavor they want as we have quite a few to choose from. But to enter,
all you have to do is two things. Number one,
follow BSN on Instagram and post Scott's big bicep
sent me on their most recent post. And the second thing you have to do,
and this is the most important guys,
is leave a fun comment below talking about which lagging body pot you would like
to try Nuclei training on and why and have fun with this.
I'll pick my two favorite comments as my winners by the end of the week and if
you're looking to stock up, sure. To use my code, Scott15
for 15% off and free shipping on gobsn.com all right,
so first things first, did my biceps actually grow?
Well based on all the comments from you guys I've been getting lately,
I'd say yes they did. In fact,
I noticed about a quarter inch difference from what I measured from day one to
30 days later and still retain that difference even now. Also,
when I first mentioned I was going to try Nuclei overload training,
a few people commented that any size difference would just be inflammation,
not real growth, and would go away after a long rest period.
So at face value I can say to those people, hell yeah,
nuclei overload training does work,
but that wouldn't be very scientific would it? Let me explain guys,
there's a lot more to this than just seeing growth. Okay.
You have to take into consideration three very important things as well.
Number one, newbie gains, which doesn't really apply to me,
but should still be noted. Number two, muscle memory,
which does apply to me and I'll explain why and number three,
actual growth obtained from additional nuclei in the muscle.
Now,
I did quite a bit of research on nuclei overload training and for the most part
a lot of people are saying the same exact things. In fact,
a really great video for you guys to check out later is by Jonathan Meagan of
called the best video ever on how to build muscle naturally.
Where he talked a lot about real life examples of nuclei overload training and goes
over a lot of recent studies that now prove it does have truth based in science,
but some of my favorite parts of the video include real life examples where he
talks about being a kid growing up in West Africa and seeing merchants who would
ride bikes up and down Hills every single day with all their merchandise
basically strapped to their back and even though they were under-eating most
likely and pretty thin in their upper body,
their legs were still really developed, especially their quads.
He then goes on to talk quite a bit about West African fishermen and how they
developed such dense muscle because every single day they're rowing,
they're casting nets,
they're bringing fish in and swimming to the bottom of the river to bring up 30
pound buckets of sand to sell, and they do this every single day,
which if most of you did this amount of work,
even with getting the right amount of food,
you'd most likely categorize it as over-training, right? Let's be honest,
but this is just life for them. And don't pull the,
it's because they have black genetics card because that's just ignorant guys.
And not everyone in West Africa is born shredded with super dense muscle mass.
In fact, even the creator of the video,
Jonathan makes the statement because he was also born in West Africa himself.
So definitely check out that video. But think about it guys,
some other real life examples of nuclei overload training include things like
power lifters.
They have huge neck and traps that cause a lot of their daily training
involves farmers walks, carries, rack pulls, deadlift, shoulder pressing,
and the list goes on. They don't just train these movements once a week.
Dancers have insane legs, glutes and calves from daily dancing.
Gymnasts have incredible shoulders back and biceps from all the bar ringwork
they do daily.
Olympic skaters have some of the biggest legs that I've ever seen from skating
every single day.
And even Arnold said that to bring up his calves because they were his lagging
body part that he trained them daily. And yes,
I know Arnold used steroids and we know testosterone increases nuclei
content. However, that doesn't mean nuclei overload won't work for us
Natty lifters too, so getting back to my list,
let's start with number one which is newbie gains and I'm going to do my best to
keep my explanations as simple as possible. Take a look at this image.
What it shows is that as a new lifter you will accrue more nuclei from
surrounding satellite cells because satellite cells activate in response to
muscle damage and then donate their nuclei to help with repairs which
increases overall nuclei in the muscle.
It can also be said that if you're untrained,
which means that you don't really exert yourself too much in your day to day
life, it's more than likely that you're going to be way below your maximum
nuclei domain limit compared to someone who is active,
maybe not a bodybuilder, but play sports or has a labor intensive job.
This is why new lifters grow more quickly.
There's actually a really interesting talk about nuclei domain theory and
hypertrophy on the stronger by science podcast
with Greg that I will post a link to in my pin comment below if you
guys want to check it out. But basically, myonuclear domain theory is, well,
it states that how large a muscle can get it to some degree is constrained by
the number of myonuclei it has. Basically,
this means that your muscles can only get so big because your body regulates
what it can sustain.
And a single nucleus can only maintain a given amount of sarcoplasm and that if
the muscle fiber expands too much,
then things would start to break down and function less efficiently.
So if we were to introduce more myonuclei into a muscle,
it would be able to sustain more muscle mass because the amount of cytoplasm
within a muscle fiber controlled by a single myonucleus won't reach its
thresholds.
But how do you accomplish this once the newbie gains phase is over or to be more
specific,
how do you surpass this naturally once you reach your natural limit?
Well, let me post this question to all of you.
Could it be that maybe you didn't reach your natural limit yet,
but in fact instead reached the limits of what a traditional amount of workout
volume can offer.
What if untapped growth is a byproduct of us thinking our bodies can't adapt
well and the true culprit holding us back is the fear of over-training,
a compelling argument, right? But before we move into that,
which is number three on my list, actual growth obtained,
let's first discuss number two muscle memory.
Now the reason why I'm bringing up muscle memory in this video is because my
arms used to be a lot bigger a few years ago. In fact,
even though I was 10 pounds lighter,
then I looked thicker all over and it's only recently that I feel like I'm getting
back to where I was. For example,
take this video filmed back in June of 2013 I look much thicker in my chest,
arms and shoulders, and it's for a few reasons. Number one,
I had an incredible pump when I filmed that video.
I remember like it was yesterday. I literally did a hardcore upper body workout,
looked in the mirror and I said, I need to film a video right now,
and I had Erika get the camera, but number two,
I was also training a lot more frequently back then and I really don't want to
use that as an excuse,
but life happens and a lot's changed in my life since then. Not bad things,
just overall healthy adult life growth. But back to my point,
if we refer to the photo from earlier after the growth stage,
the muscle is not only bigger but also contains much more myonuclei.
But then as your training volume decreases,
it's possible for the muscle to get smaller but still retain the same number of
nuclei.
And that's because the loss of muscle size doesn't come from loss of myonuclei.
It comes from loss of muscle proteins.
Of course a muscle atrophy is always a fear as well. But I didn't stop training.
I just wasn't nearly as consistent as I was back then. So in my case,
I would say the last six or seven months have been the best dedication.
to training I've had in years and I know I can still do even better.
So did my biceps really grow a quarter inch or did my overall arms just
reinflate due to more training volume and muscle memory kicking in?
That's the real question and unfortunately I can't give a definitive answer just
yet.
Mainly because I can't without a doubt tell you exactly how big my arms were in
that video that was filmed back in 2013 I know I weighed around 172 pounds and
I'm 183 to 185 pounds right now,
but I don't want to lie to you guys for the sakes of views on a video. However,
this does lead us into number three on my list,
which is actual attain growth from additional myonuclei in the muscle,
and this is where the science behind the long rest period comes in and why I
waited so long to make this video. You see,
there's quite a bit of research that talks about the effects of detrain
your muscles with time off in order to resensitize yourself to muscle damage.
It's believed that by taking time off to resensitize your muscles to training,
you can undo many of the adaptations that result in the repeated bouts effect
or RBE
which is when similar acentric exercise results in less damage over time.
Remember guys,
your body is smart and is always trying to become more efficient with repetitive
tasks. It doesn't know that you're lifting weights trying to get bigger.
Your body just knows that it needs to grow and get stronger
to handle a task that it keeps repeating week after week and expend less
energy while doing it. So the theory is that if you take time off,
your muscles will be more susceptible to damage and as a result,
more prone to accumulating new myonuclei and prime for greater total
hypertrophy.
Just take a look at some of these recent studies in 2018 this study shows that
age, sex, and muscle fiber type doesn't matter if you begin to train,
you are increasing myonuclear content.
And another study in 2018 by Brad Schoenfeld demonstrates that high frequency
training is more optimal in terms of hypertrophy gain than training once a week.
So basically full body splits versus bro splits,
which is something that the majority of us already know and accept to be true.
But then the information collected was taken one step further and a more recent
study in 2019 where two groups of men were given the same amount of training
volume, but one group consisted of traditional split training with the other,
did full body workouts.
The results showed that more hypertrophy gains were noticed in full body.
And just to make things clear,
this means that if you were to complete 20 sets of say bench on Monday,
but I were to complete 20 sets spread out across the course of the week,
such as maybe five sets a day across four days,
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday for example,
I would grow at a much faster rate, but what does this really mean?
Should we all just start going to the gym and train everything every day for a
set period of time and then take a long break to detrain from that overloading
training stimulus in order to resensitize ourselves to muscle damage? Well,
it kind of looks like Jonathan may have hit the nail on the head back in the day
and it's only now that the science is catching up to his claims.
At the end of the day.
I feel like we are way too quick to classify a hardcore workout as
over-training. To be honest.
I just think too many people are lazy and it's easier to say over-training than
just to go and put the work in guys.
Muscle protein synthesis peaks after 24 to 48 hours,
so it makes sense that in order to see more growth,
we need to train the same muscle groups multiple times a week,
like in full body. But when it comes to training,
it's going to be a matter of finding that sweet spot of the perfect amount of
daily volume to maximize your gains. For example, in my experiment,
I was completing one a hundred reps a day for one body part to try to spark
additional growth because I've already been training for a very long time.
So in my case,
maybe a full body program combined with additional work,
like the 100 bicep curls a day challenge could help me bring up lagging areas
quicker while also focusing on overall growth.
Or maybe I should just focus on high volume techniques in my workouts,
like drop sets for all muscle groups and another study by Schoenfeld.
He shows that basically you could perform three sets of 10 reps and get the same
muscle gain as someone doing one drop set. But what does that mean? Well,
for one, you can get the work done faster.
Instead of resting between your sets of 10 repetitions,
you just drop the weight and keep going until all 30 reps are complete.
It also means you can achieve the same gains with lighter weight,
which means less chance of an injury as well. I know guys,
there's a lot to take in in this video, but if I'm being honest,
I'm excited in a way that I haven't felt in a long time.
Remember when I said maybe you didn't reach your natural limit yet,
but in fact instead reached the limits of what a traditional amount of workout
volume can offer.
Well then maybe that means that a lot more hope for myself and my fellow natural
athletes out there who want to take their training and gains to the next level.
And the equation looks simple enough.
Train like Vegeta for a month straight after rest or de-load for a solid 12 to
14 days to detrain your body. Then right back to more intense training.
Also,
if you can truly build the same amount of muscle utilizing techniques like drop
sets, then that means you can get the same results using less weight,
which equates the less chance of an injury as well.
And if we learn anything today, it's that the nuclei don't leave.
Also known as muscle memory and what they call over training.
We're going to call from now on nuclei overload. Oh,
and one last thing.
Since completing the one a hundred reps a day from my biceps,
whenever I train back or perform biceps movements,
the pump and mind muscle connection has been better than ever.
And what I mean is it's super noticeable both visually and physically inside my
own body. So I plan on trying the hundred reps challenge again,
but this time I'm going to attack traps and calves.
Remember that building muscle is an adaptive process.
That's why we're only doing this for 30 days.
So if you didn't get it on biceps,
let's hit traps and calves together with power shrugs and barbell calf raises.
I already created a new forum thread and posted my before photos there and I
would love for you guys to do the same thing and we can keep each other
motivated with our weekly results and stories of pain and suffering.
Be sure to tap that like button and comment below if you enjoyed the video,
it's likes and comments that boost the YouTube algorithm.
So even if you just commented something like, thanks for the video,
I'd really appreciate that and as always more good stuff coming soon.
See you guys,
I really hope you guys enjoyed today's video and I'm really excited to take on
another journey with all of you with more nuclei overload training,
and if you want to be able to access the forums directly from your phone,
all you gotta do is click the link below and download my app.
I'll see you there.