Quaranturnt Day 33 - Shoulder Than Dirt

​Hey Quaranturnt Crew,

Today we get more from the beautiful mind of Max Fredkin. To preface his discussion, I’ll say that muscle growth comes from 3 foundational stimuli: Metabolic Stress, Mechanical Tension, Muscle Damage. I’ll dive into these individual concepts and how they play out in Max’s training another time, but Max walks us through how he thinks about training. Enjoy his thoughts!


Time Under Tension: The Science of Exercise

Despite my discussion in yesterday’s post, science does exist, and you may already be eating well and exercising regularly; so let's dig into some fitness science. 

You may be wondering, do low reps with heavy weight get you mass whereas high reps with light weight give you definition? Is medium weight for hypertrophy and heavy weight for strength? What about building muscular power? There is a lot to explain here but let's start with the basics.

Building muscle = quality time under tension; you must break down your muscle by any means necessary. Think of sand: gentle waves crashing onto boulders makes sand over long periods of time, but so does a jacked prisoner slamming a hammer into rocks one afternoon. It doesn't much matter how you get there, as long as you do get there. Increase the reps or increase the weight, you shouldn't care too much. “But Max, what about muscular endurance vs strength vs power output? There must be a difference!?” 

Keep your eyes on the goal: You want to maximize blood flow. In your training, think about squeezing the muscle at the top of each rep and feeling a stretch in the muscle fibers at the bottom. You will feel tightness as you work the blood into the muscle, you will see the muscles expanding, and you will become addicted to this bodybuilding sensation known as the “pump”. This is harder to do with heavy weight, but not impossible. In any case, you need to work that mind-body connection - really focus your mind on using the relevant muscle here - and always be in sync with how you are moving. This is maximizing the benefit from your time under tension.