Shift your focus from the
mirror to your legs and
make total-body gains
in time for your holidayGET BEACH
READY IN
ONE SESSION
I
t’s that time of year again. The
annual panic sets in as you realise
your summer body plans are more
than a tad behind schedule. And,
as the mercury rises, Instagram is flooded
with quick-fix workouts promising you
a superhero physique before you board
the plane. However, these “short cuts”
invariably start from the wrong spot. Curls
and lateral raises are not the answer. The
one muscle group you need to target for
total-body results is your legs^1.
The mirror-muscle workouts that
become so popular at this time of year
consist almost exclusively of single-joint
exercises. These attempt to isolate specific
muscles: usually your biceps brachii
and superficial six-pack muscles. (Turn
to page 34 to find out exactly why that
is a waste of time.)
Though some
single-joint
exercisesdo have their place in my
clients’ programmes, I refer
to them as accessories. Their
place is to assist you in doing
other, fundamental movements
more effectively. On their own, they’re too
specific to have any lasting effect when
time is at a premium. Which, with just a
few weeks until take-off, is clearly the case.
A 2012 study in the Journal of
Physiology showed that the greater the
time under tension a muscle experiences,
the greater the rate of protein synthesis for
up to 30 hours after exercise^2. If rapid
muscle gain is the goal, exercises that
cause the most stress across the greatest
volume of muscle tissue are your go-to.
Compound exercises are multi-joint
activities, and the most effective – such
as squats and deadlifts – target your legs.
By hitting several joints at once, these
movements place significantly more
muscle tissue under tension than
single-joint moves, earning you a greater
level of hypertrophy, or muscle gain.
The tired gym trope of “legs day” can
put people off but, in reality, it’s the
training equivalent of an all-inclusive
package deal. It’s not glamorous,
but it’ll give you much more
for your efforts than trying to
piece things together, one
bicep curl at a time.
And it won’t just help you
look good in shorts. A front
squat, for example, doesn’t
simply sculpt Speedo-ready
quads^3 : every rep will
also hammer your coreand build a powerful upper back to
broaden your shoulders. A study published
in Frontiers in Physiology compared the
physiological benefits of single-joint
and multi-joint training and found
that members of the multi-joint group
improved their cardiovascular fitness by
12.5%, compared to
5.1% for the single-joint
group. They also
showed a 30% increase
in maximum strength.
When a separate
team of Portuguese
scientists compared the calorie-burning
effects of a variety of exercises, squats won
out, burning an average of 35kcal per
minute, while curls crawled in dead last.
Which is worth keeping in mind if it’s
excess body fat, not core strength, that’s
sabotaging your six-pack ambitions.
The science doesn’t lie. Regularly invest
in legs day in the run-up to summer and
you’ll actually hit your body goals on time.
Just remember to pack your short shorts.MEN’S HEALTH 23
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IOLOGY“Most mirror-muscle
workouts are too
specific to have
any lasting effect”THOSE DOING BICEP
CURLS FOR THE BEACH
DON’T KNOW SQUATTHE DEVIL’S
ADVOCATE
> THE DEVIL’S DETAILS(^2) WEIGHT
FOR THE DROP
Lowering weights
under tension for three
extra seconds can elicit
gains equal to lifting
far heavier weights*.
(^3) GAINS
FOR LOSSES
In a study, those who
gained 1kg of muscle
boosted their daily
metabolic rate by as
much as 263kcal**.
(^1) AGAINST
THE CLOCK
In a Baylor University
study, a group of
beginners gained
more than 5kg of
muscle in 10 weeks.