2-3-5, 7-11
To Be Alive,
and Livin' in Heaven

Summary
The right kind of weight training can grow muscle in very little time. The 2-3-5, 7-11 program gives you maximum benefit in as little as 20 minutes every 7 to 10 days.

Eric Armstrong

What does it mean to be "alive"? Well, for starters it means being active. It means:

• Having a favorable strength-to-weight ratio that makes it possible to be active.
• Having the low fear of injury that lets you "go for it".

Whether your goal is to stay alive in a dodgeball game, to keep your team alive in a tournament, to catch a jackrabbit for dinner, or to live your golden years, rather than merely existing through them, the right kind of weight training is a vital part of that process.

With weight training, you:

• Build the strength you need to be active
  If you're overweight to the point that exercise is difficult, then weight training is the first and most important thing you need to do. As your strength improves, you'll be able to move your body more and more easily, and engage in the kinds of activities that keep body weight down.
• Build the strength you need for endurance
  As you get stronger, your endurance improves. It seems odd, because we don't tend to think of weight training as an activity that builds endurance. But as your muscles grow stronger, the same activities require less effort, which translates directly to endurance. In addition, stronger muscles stay in the aerobic zone longer, so a level of activity that previously had you out of breath becomes comfortably aerobic. So even though weight training is an anerobic activity (without oxygen, good for short bursts of intense efforts) it helps to prepare you for aerobic activity (with oxygen, good for long term sustained efforts).
• Build fast twitch muscle fiber
  Whether you're dodging a ball or chasing a jackrabbit, speed is the key. And fast muscular actions come from fast twitch muscle fibers. The right kind of weight training actually improves your speed even more than it improves your endurance. And that becomes even more important as we age. While slow twitch fibers tend to stay with us throughout our lives, fast twitch fibers disappear over time -- unless we work to grow them and maintain them. Weight training is ideal for that purpose -- but only the right kind of weight training.
• Build bone mass
  The fear of injury is another impediment to activity that increases as we age, because bones get weaker and take longer to heal. But weight training applies the kinds of forces to the bones that are required for bone growth. Without those forces, bones invariably become weaker and more porus. With those forces, bone mass is maintained and even improved. So weight training is vital not only for keeping fast twitch muscle fibers, but also for maintaining bone mass.
• Improve healing
  The healing process requires growth hormone, which signals the body to repair itself. The right kind of weight training promotes the release of growth hormone which, like a rising tide, raises all of the ships in the harbor. So strenuously exercising one part of the body can help to heal another part. And strenuously exercising the muscles can help to promote the internal grwoth and repair of internal organs and other parts of the bodily system.

Clearly, weight training is an important component of any exercise program. It's not the only part -- you still need cardiovascular training, endurance training, stretching, and the skills training that is relevant to your sport or activity -- but the right kind of weight training is a vital part of your overall training program.

Kind of Training
--free weights and cable machines
--build stabilizing muscles and coordination
--want to work multiple muscle groups together, the way you do in life

Goal: Grow muscle. Need to do enough to stress the muscle and promote release of growth hormone that produces the result

2-3-5
--no more than 2 reps in each warm up set as you work up to your target weight

--no more than 3 warm up sets (ex: 2 at 50%, 1 at 85%, 1 @95%)

--3 to 5 reps
--1 rep is most effective, but also has highest risk of injury
--2 reps is better, but still a fairly high risk
--3-5 produces maximum growth, with minimum risk
--more is waste.
--creatine levels, 10 second max, 100 yard sprint,
--makes bigger muscles, because they retain more water to combat the soreness, but not stronger muscles

--everything else just increases soreness, without building muscle

7-11
--7 to 10 days recovery time

--I find that after 14 days, I'm still lifting heavier weight than the last time -- a sign that I'm fully recovered and "overbuilt"
--but then I'm really sore, after the weight training session, too.
--maybe the muscle will be more ready for activity in that 7-10 day window. Have to see

Copyright © 2004 by Eric Armstrong. All rights reserved.
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