“Fast Muscles”
Author: Rob Maraby
Recommended For:
Beginner-Intermediate
Price: $107
Format: Hardcopy Manual
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Two things that Rob Maraby advertises for this program made me curious (skeptical).
First, in the headline for one of his sales pages, he states that he can help you gain 20-30 lbs. of muscle with your “usual 3 meals a day.” Second, he suggests that his system is going to build new muscle fiber for you (hyperplasia).
Big gains without increased eating seems a ridiculous assertion and hyperplasia is a controversial topic. So I wanted to see how he addressed these topics, how he backed up his claims.
What did I get? Predictably annoyed.
He doesn’t even try to back up his “usual 3 meals a day” assertion. In fact, he recommends 6 days a meal repeatedly. He allows that you can gain muscle with 3 meals but that you must still eat to caloric surplus. He has an appendix which has a 3 meal a day plan but it also includes 3 shakes (which, to me, is 6 meals a day).
How the heck any of that qualifies as the “usual 3 meals a day” is beyond my grasp.
“Fast Muscles” does outline a hyperplasia training phase…
Note: Muscle hyperplasia is the production of new muscle fibers while hypertrophy is the enlargement of existing fibers. We know hypertrophy happens. Muscle hyperplasia in humans hasn’t been proven to occur but it has been shown to occur in animals.
It is a pretty tough thing to test on humans. You can take 50 rats, pick 25 at random and dissect them. You can count and average out their fibers. Then you can subject the other 25 rats to whatever stimulus and then kill and dissect them. If it turns out the second group had more muscle fibers then the first group, you can reasonably conclude that muscle hyperplasia has taken place.
In today’s world, similar tests on humans are discouraged. So, we can’t say for sure if muscle hyperplasia occurs in humans.
Does it likely occur? Maybe. Probably. But anyway, if your goal is the common one, to increase strength and enlarge the appearance of your muscles, you probably don’t care whether you are enlarging existing fibers or creating new ones.
Most responsible people who talk muscle building simply stick to what is known: hypertrophy. Or at least have the self-control to call their hyperplasia theories what they are – theories.
Rob Maraby isn’t doing that, he is telling people he has discovered a way to stimulate new fiber growth. Forget the fact that if we can’t even tell if it occurs, we certainly don’t know what makes it occur. That alone should tell you that Maraby is trying to put one over on you.
But if you are going to state that, shouldn’t you at least offer up some evidence that backs up your claim?
Maraby does not offer up anything like that in the book. Somewhere, on one of his many sales pages, Maraby mentions some stuff about studies he did on African athletes.
Yeah, whatever.
As a whole, Maraby’s training recommendations aren’t that bad (not good, just not that bad). With the possible exception of his “hyperplasia training phase” (which has to be a little unusual to make the obvious BS palatable), his workouts steer trainers away from overtraining. Combine that with the emphasis he places on eating large quantities of food (despite what the sales copy leads you to believe) and you have the basic recipe for impressive mass gain.
I always say, convince the typical trainer to eat more and train less, wait 3 months and you’ll have someone who thinks you’re a genius.
But if you get gains from following “Fast Muscles” it will be because of the two factors above, not due to his “scientific” breakthroughs. You’re no more likely to achieve muscle hyperplasia from this program than any other that adheres to the basic principles of mass gain.
In fact, you’re less likely because this program is extremely poorly written and organized. It references things that aren’t there, it seldom gets past a sentence or two without a glaring typo and it is bizarrely repetitive. You’ll have to be a very patient person to suffer through the whole thing. I simply can’t imagine many people who could come away from it with a clear approach to muscle building.
A good point is that it does come in hardcopy, a disappearing trend in the bodybuilding program field. Maraby provides the promise of lifetime email consulting. Included is a CD which has his bonus materials on it, reports on arm, leg and calve training and some printable log sheets.
You can’t criticize this program on its total words – there are a lot of words here. However, the value and coherence of all those words is lacking.
1 of 5 Stars: Maraby has many bodybuilding programs he is marketing. They are all sold via sales pages characterized by his trademark typos and sometimes unusual use of the English language.
“Fast Muscles” seems to be his main emphasis. He sells programs for the biceps and calves and he sells programs written by “Jack Deaner” (who, most likely, is really Rob Maraby). He makes outrageous claims (hyperplasia and “African Bodybuilding Secrets” appear to be his favorites).
It seems he’ll say anything to get a sale. You’d be wise to make sure that sale doesn’t come from you.
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