Training Experience: 9 years

Throughout his college year and after graduation, he trained in a circuit-style, moving from machine to machine, from upper body to lower body segments, taking as little rest as possible. He had been performing 3 sets of 12-20 reps with moderate speed (2-3s per rep) in each exercise 3x week of full body training, but each set was not performed to a muscular failure (but closer to a failure at the end of workout). He had also performed aerobic exercises with stair-masters and bike for a total of 30-45 min per session 3x week. He wanted to gain some weight, but his body weight remained around 135 lbs during that time

It was about 4 months ago (late 2000) that David came to ask me for suggestions for gaining lean muscle. He was somehow attracted to my style of training that he heard from my clientele. I briefly informed him that why each repetition needs to be in slow motion and told him to do the IART fatigue testing to discover his ideal training scheme. I thought that the test was appropriate since he had been lifting weight for the previous several years (although he still looked skinny). He has been training with mostly Nautilus equipment and some free weights, so I had him perform the testing with Nautilus equipment.

As results of the muscle fiber fatigue tests, he has:

While his back/biceps and major thigh muscle groups are fast-twitch fibers, his skinny body did not appear to reflect those findings. At this time, I suggested him to train full-body once in 7 days by thinking that he might have slow recovery rate and to limit aerobic exercise to only 15-20 min per session. The training procedure, which he followed the next 4 months was as follows:

David alternated programs 1 and 2, and this was the first time he actually performed each set to muscular (concentric-only) failure. Over the next 4 months, he increased his body wt to 138 lbs but the increase only occurred in the first month and remained stagnant thereafter, although he was happy for his strength gain during this period. His total (7-site) skinfold thickness was 66.1mm.

Upon February 11th, he agreed to undergo a case study. His motivation for increasing muscle mass was high, but as the I.A.R.T. psychological questionnaires showed, he has less confident in his current physique and in completion of an exercise task before a workout due to high anxiety levels. His anxiety usually disappeared and the confidence grew further after a workout.

His diet was not very good at this time: he ate 2-3 times a day, consisted of occasional protein shake or smoothies, some snack, and cereal at night (sometimes-large and sometimes-small portions depending on time availability. He works at a car dealership from 9am-6pm . He also smoked 10-20 cigarettes per day. Since smoking increases basal metabolic rate, and thinking that he needs to conserve energy to gain lean muscles, I suggested he cut back his smoking gradually, starting from 8-18 cigarettes a day in next two weeks to an eventually lesser amount or even none. But by given approximately 12-16 weeks to finish the case study, it was probably not feasible to cut back his smoking to a significant level as he has been smoking for long period, since his college years. Therefore, his choice was to increase total food intake to compensate for his increased metabolic rate due to the smoking. I had him increase his meal frequency to 5 times a day of small portions for the next month. I did not choose his particular food consumptions, but I generally recommended he eat a larger ratio of vegetables, grains, seeds & nuts, some fruit as compared to simple or starchy carbohydrate, meat, and daily products and to reduce or avoid eating cereal/pasta/rice before going to bed. This created an immediate problem with him since he was not used to eating these varieties of food, or cooking and preparing them for the day of work. I recommended he purchase protein bars or to consider supplementation to make easy food preparations. I also recommended he take a daily multi-vitamin to make sure he was getting enough anti-oxidants to encounter the effect of smoking since the latter increases a damage to living cells, such as inside the arterial wall increasing risk of heart disease.

A training routine generally consisted of dividing upper and lower body for a total of twice per week. He wanted to workout more frequently since he had been training once per week, so I increased a frequency of his workout to keep his motivation high but still each body part was locally exercised once per week. I added additional exercises for his weaker triceps and shoulders. Although he was anxious, training to a muscular failure or hard training was not a big problem. He went through training variables, like forced reps, with no major mental fatigue during a set and throughout the remaining period of the case study (but he hated working out evenings because his anxiety level grew as the day progressed). Since his body has been used to training to a concentric muscular failure for almost 4 months prior to a case study, I included several variables in the first few weeks to increase exercise demands right away. As a result, at his second physical assessments on March 12th, he increased his body wt to 142.8 lbs. He added 1.3 inches around the shoulders, 0.7 inches around the chest, and 0.8 inches in hip girth while the rest of other parts of body remained unchanged. Upper arm and thigh lean tissues increased slightly since skinfold thickness decreased by approx 2mm while maintaining the same girth. However, the skin thickness of his abdomen increased slightly. Still, he smoked 10-15 cigarettes a day but came down a little.

For the next month, I changed his training demand to concentric-only failure with variables every 3rd workout. However, at the third assessment on April 14th, his body weight came down to 141 lbs while some circumference (trunk, arm, and calf) came down also; shoulder and upper torso size did not change; he lost some body fat as well as lean tissues. He did not appear to be overtraining: his resting heart rate every morning was stable during this period; exercise-ending heart rate was quick to come down after 1 min of rest; he was at least training to a concentric failure; and he did not feel sluggishness or fatigue. I could only reason that his total caloric intake was not enough (since he lost some body fat and lean tissue) and his meal frequency was not consistent as his daily food log indicated (there were many ups and downs). He still smoked 10-15 cigarettes a day. Also, it was around this time that he started dating his new girlfriend, which decreased his free time and increased his life demands. This somehow made his focus deviate from his fitness goal. I had to rev him up to eat more consistent regular meals.

For the last month period, he made an extra effort to consume meals of 6 times a day and regulate smoking to 10-12 daily cigarettes. At the last day of assessment for the case study, on May 24th, he increased his body weight to 146 lbs. Most of his body circumferences increased since April: shoulder by 1 inch, upper arm by a half inch, upper torso by a half inch, and thigh by half inch. He also gained body fat slightly in trunk area: abdomen by 2mm, and suprailium by 3.5mm; and skinfold thickness in other parts of body was almost the same. Total 7-site skinfold thickness from the February 11th to May 24th was slightly decreased (66.1 mm to 64.6mm: probably, not significant) while body wt increased from 138 lbs to 146 lbs. Although not satisfactory results, considering his body wt was almost stagnant for several years of training, and months of hard training, this increase was still an advancement in his physique, and he was happy for the gain.

To contact Yasunobu Imamura for fitness consultation, e-mail: yasoodotkom@triad.rr.com