muscle building

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In this article, we talked about how the 10×3 training protocol can really help in jacking up your muscle mass. However, there are two things that one needs to remember when incorporating this kind of training into your workout.

The 10×3 protocol, if overused, can quickly lead to over-training.

The 10×3 protocol is very conducive for lifting very heavy weights, simply because you are less number of reps in a set. This is great for muscle building. But it also comes with a cost. It can really put a lot of stress on your muscles (obviously), but also your nervous system. The more heavy weights you lift, the more recovery time you need.

So lifting super-heavy weights can really bite you in the back, if done too frequently without proper rest.

The 10×3 protocol is most effective if used for compound exercises.

Compound exercises (like squats, deadlifts, benchpresses, pull-ups etc) are exercises where you can pile on a lot of weight, when compared to single-joint exercises. What I mean is – you can lift much more weight when doing a bench press, than let’s say a tricep kickback. As a result, when doing these compound exercises, you are putting much much load, and hence these are extremely useful (if not downright essential) to pack on new muscle.

Use the 10×3 lifting protocol for compound exercises. They are much more bang for buck for single joint exercises.

With the above two points in mind, let us take a look at a sample exercise regimen, which will incorporate the 10×3 training protocol.

Monday (Lower body, Abs) – Week 1

Squats OR Dead lifts (not both), 10×3
Leg extensions, 3×10
Leg curls, 3×10
bodyweight crunches, till failure
Front raises, till failure

Wednesday (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps) – Week 1

Any variation of the benchpress, 3×10
Military-press, 3×10
Side shoulder raises, 3×10
Tricep pushdowns (OR) skull crushers, 3×10

Friday (Back, Biceps) – Week 1

Barbell rows, 10×3
Weighted pull ups, 3×10
Lateral shoulder raises, 3×10
Bicep curls, 3×10

Monday (Lower body, Abs) – Week 2

Squats OR Dead lifts (not both), 3×10
Leg extensions, 3×10
Leg curls, 3×10
bodyweight crunches, till failure
Front raises, till failure

Wednesday (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps) – Week 2

Any variation of the bench press, 10×3
Military-press, 3×10
Side shoulder raises, 3×10
Tricep pushdowns (OR) skull crushers, 3×10

Friday (Back, Biceps) – Week 1

Barbell rows, 3×10
Weighted pull ups, 10×3
Lateral shoulder raises, 3×10
Bicep curls, 3×10

In Week 3, give your body a break from the 10×3. All workouts should be 3×10.

Week 4, repeat the cadence …

And you’re welcome! Try it, and let me know how it works out (no pun intended).

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It is a very well-known fact in body building circles that in order to gain muscle mass, you need to keep increasing the work load that said muscle is subjected to. So much that this ‘truism’ has been drilled into the head of every average Joe/Jane who has stepped into a gym to build more muscle.

In other words – To build more and more muscle, you need to keep increasing the weight that you lift. Otherwise, the body does not have any incentive to increase its muscle mass.

But it is not as simple as that. If the amount of weight lifted was all that mattered, we could do one single all-out rep of our favorite exercise, and go home and sit on the couch, while our muscles grow happily. Obviously, that does not happen. So what gives?

It turns out that not only does the amount of weight matter, but you also need to consider the amount of reps that you do in your workout. More specifically, it is the amount of time that the muscle is being worked out … because your muscles do not know (nor care) about the concept of reps, they only knows how long they are being subjected to a beating!

To put it in a simplified fashion, the following conditions must be satisfied if you want to put on more muscle:

The weight you lift must be above a certain threshold, otherwise the body is not challenged enough to grow.
The number of reps of your exercise should also be above a certain threshold, otherwise the growth-promoting factors are not activated.

All of this begs the question – what is the ideal rep and set range for building mass?

Most article and gym trainers recommend a 3×10 training regimen for beginners – 3 sets of 10 repetitions each, for every exercise. This is totally fine for as long as you are a beginner. A beginner’s body is so unused to physical exercise that it will grow on any crappy exercise regimen.

But as you become more and more advanced, or if you are a hardgainer (someone who has a lot of trouble building muscle), the 3×10 routine will not cut it anymore. If you are finding yourself in a situation where the gains are extremely slow, or have come to a complete stop, try the following:

Just invert the reps and sets for your exercises. Try a 10×3 routine – 10 sets of 3 repetitions each. What does this do?

You are still doing 30 reps for your exercise, but you are lifting a much heavier weight because of the lower number of reps per set. That will really jack up the intensity of your workout. Granted that your workout is longer because of the more number of breaks that you are taking in between sets, but the extra weight that you are lifting more than makes up for it.

Try a 10×3 cadence for your compound exercises first (squat, deadlift, bench press, pull ups etc), because they are more conducive to lifting heavier weights. Stick to a more conventional 3×10 cadence for your single-joint exercises like dumbbell curls or tricep pushdowns.

But do go easy on the 10×3 routine, because it is more stressful on your nervous system, as there are heavier weights involved. This will definitely impact recovery time from your workouts, and can potentially lead to over-training if done too frequently.

In part 2 of this article, we will go through a sample workout plan.

References

https://www.t-nation.com/training/science-of-10-x-3

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The 10×3 training protocol – a sample workout

The 10×3 workout, for huge muscle gain