Phil Heath’s 3 Methods To Build Muscle Without Lifting Heavy
If you want to build muscle, you need two things — a will and a way. If you’re on the hunt for every tip and trick you can get to maximize your time in the weight room, you’ve got the will. Phil Heath has the ways; more specifically, three of them.
- Heath, dubbed “the Gift” for his incredible genetic propensity to build muscle, was the most prolific bodybuilding athlete of the 2010s, winning the Mr. Olympia competition seven times in a row.
Gymgoers who have graduated past their white belts know that lifting heavier over time is a direct, and effective, means of driving progressive overload and the muscle mass that comes with it.
Lifting heavier isn’t always possible, though. Here are 3 methods from Heath to keep making gains:
Phil Heath’s 3 Methods to Build Muscle
“Some of the most beneficial aspects of growth come from simply slowing things down, removing ego, breathing, and focusing on quality over quantity,” Heath said on Nov. 10, 2024.
It’s a fair jab at the seductively straightforward, but potentially dangerous, method of adding more and more weight to build muscle. You can’t add weight in perpetuity — you’ll either run out of weights, run out of space on your bar, or win the World’s Strongest Man competition.
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To that end, Heath offered three alternative methods to level up the intensity of your bodybuilding workouts:
- Technique: “Before you go up in weight, make sure your technique is good,” Heath advised.
Forcing yourself to lift heavier and heavier weights tends to degrade your form over time. Staying at the same weight for multiple weeks and gradually refining your execution will make the lift more difficult, and thus, more valuable.
- Tempo: “You can go slower if you like,” Heath said while mimicking a three-seconds-down eccentric tempo.
Slowing down your eccentric tempo — how slowly you lower the weights — is one of the most high-value decisions you can make to build muscle. Beyond ensuring you get more tension when the muscle is stretched, while also augmenting your strength. (1)(2)
- Time Under Tension: “The longer you can hold on with good form, the more muscle you build,” Heath explained.
He’s on the mark here, too. Slowing down your rep tempo also adds time under tension, but Heath suggested incorporating some brief pauses at the start or end of your repetitions as well.
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References
- Pedrosa GF, Lima FV, Schoenfeld BJ, Lacerda LT, Simões MG, Pereira MR, Diniz RCR, Chagas MH. Partial range of motion training elicits favorable improvements in muscular adaptations when carried out at long muscle lengths. Eur J Sport Sci. 2022 Aug;22(8):1250-1260. doi: 10.1080/17461391.2021.1927199. Epub 2021 May 23. PMID: 33977835.
- Franchi MV, Reeves ND, Narici MV. Skeletal Muscle Remodeling in Response to Eccentric vs. Concentric Loading: Morphological, Molecular, and Metabolic Adaptations. Front Physiol. 2017 Jul 4;8:447. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2017.00447. PMID: 28725197; PMCID: PMC5495834.
Featured Image: @philheath / Instagram
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