I ran across a blog from someone who summarizes the workout we do. I thought it would be worthwhile to read as a sort of refresher course. — Jeff Grossman
Dr. Doug McGuff's “Body by Science” Workout
It is recommended that you perform each repetition as slowly as you possibly can, while still moving smoothly – without stops and starts. That should be somewhere between 10 to 20 seconds per round trip-the same amount of time for the positive and the negative.
You’re only doing one set per exercise, and you should to go to total muscle failure in each set.
The protocol calls for measuring the amount of time you can move the weight before reaching total muscle failure. It is recommended that you work with a weight which brings you to total muscle failure within somewhere between forty-five and ninety seconds.
The protocol is built around the mountain of evidence showing that high-intensity exercise is far more effective per unit of time invested than steady-state training, such as jogging on a treadmill for thirty minutes. For example, Dr. McGuff cites a McMaster University study that found that, “six minutes of pure, hard exercise once a week could be just as effective as an hour of daily moderate activity.”
The workout is very high intensity; that’s why you’re going to total muscle failure, and that’s why you’re taking as little rest as possible between sets.
Instead of working one or two muscle groups per workout, with this protocol you’re doing the entire body. This helps increase the intensity of the workout, but it also helps stimulate the release of myokines. Myokines are like hormones released by your muscles that may stimulate growth or reduce inflammation.
Dr. McGuff recommends that you do this workout, and then rest for anywhere from five to seven days.
Rather than free weights, machines are used because they reduce the chance of injury. Our machines have some kind of strength curve management built in. This is helpful for achieving maximum muscle fatigue and makes it so you can go to complete failure with much less risk of injury.
We are working with the 5 machines that Dr. McGuff recommends. The recommended order is: Seated Row, Chest Press, Pull Down, Shoulder Press, and end with the Leg Press. He recommends that the Leg Press be last because it’s the most draining movement. This workout only takes about 20 minutes.
Keeping track of time is a must for following this protocol; that’s how we measure progress. Again, you’re measuring time under load, trying to achieve total failure within a minute or two. Dr. McGuff says the optimal range is somewhere between forty-five and ninety seconds.
One of the keys of this protocol is to reach total muscle failure. What exactly is failure? Some people will stop when it gets hard. Dr. McGuff stresses that you have to push past your psychological stopping point. He warns that you may feel a sense of panic pushing that hard.
He also recommends that when you can’t do any more positive reps, and you reach a point where you can’t push the weight any further, to then hold it in place for up to 10 seconds before allowing it to lower as your muscles fatigue further.
Remember, you’re going super slow and trying to achieve failure within a minute or two. Your muscles don’t care how much weight or how long. This protocol is designed to help you reach maximum fatigue in the right muscle fibers while greatly reducing your chance of injury.