The indicators of intensity after every workout.

Listen, you’ve probably gotten the point by now, but I really, really have to nail this home
because so few guys really understand it:

The absolute harder you work in the gym, and the more intensity you apply to every single
workout, the greater you will grow.

The problem is, though, that “working hard” is a vague description. Everyone knows they have
to “work hard” to see muscle grow, but very few people know what that actually means. I’m
going to try my best to clear this up for you.

Chances are that, right now, no matter what you think, you are nowhere near pushing
yourself hard enough… and you will never see significant muscle growth until you learn
how to do it!

This is a lesson that every guy who sees huge growth in a short period of time eventually
realizes. Most guys who think they’re putting in 100% effort in every workout are really
operating closer to about 50% to 60% effort. I know, because I used to be one of them.

The problem is that these guys don’t know what 100% feels like – and have never been beyond
50% to 60%, which they confuse for 100%.

Muscle doesn’t grow just from lifting weights up and down. Muscle grows proportionately to
how thoroughly you stress a muscle with those weights. The more stress you place on the
muscle, the more it will grow.

Hollywood Hypertrophy Training is designed to make it easy to maximize that stress and
maximize growth, but just following the rules (3 to 10 deep breaths maximum, perfect form,
slow movements, etc) isn’t enough. There’s an emotional and mental component that isn’t
rational, and that you must produce yourself for full results.

I’ve listed out the clear, rational rules of training for you earlier in this section. Now I’m going to
list out the not-so-rational side of things.

What you’re about to read is how you should physically and mentally feel after every single
workout, if you’re applying the proper amount of intensity.

Some of these may seem weird. Some of them may not seem right. But every person who really
pushes himself in the gym and succeeds on this program experiences every single one of these
sensations after every workout, without fail:

 You should never once have room for any kind of rational thought in your head
during a workout. You’re either sneaking in 3 to 10 deep breaths between sets… or
focusing singularly on making your muscle contract as hard as possible against the
weight you’re lifting. That’s it. That’s what all your time in the weight room is spent
doing. There could be a guy in a bright pink spandex leotard having a brutal pillow fight
with a fully-grown gorilla five feet away from you, and you wouldn’t notice because you
are so “in the zone”. (A buddy of mine and I once worked out in a gym that was full of
mosquitoes. In the middle of every set, multiple mosquitoes would land on us and start
sucking away on our delicious blood. While every other guy was swatting them off and
 getting distracted by them, we never even noticed – until the workout was over and we
were covered in mosquito bites.)
 You get nervous before every single workout. This one is huge. A common experience
among every person who performs these workouts correctly is that he gets extremely
nervous right before. This is a completely natural “fight or flight” defense mechanism.
It’s the same reason elite athletes get butterflies in their stomach before competition –
your body instinctively knows it’s about to be pushed to its absolute limits. This is
something that can’t be turned off, and can’t be forced. It’s purely instinctual.
 After every workout, you should think back 10 minutes and say, “Holy crap – did I
seriously just do that?!” Astound yourself with how hard you push yourself. You
should be able to rationally think back on the gym session you just finished and wonder
to yourself, “Was that really me who lifted all that weight that intensely?” Most guys just
finish their workouts and move on with their day, but every person who really sees
results finds themselves naturally in awe of what they just accomplished.
 Your time in the gym is an absolute blur. These workouts, done perfectly, will last
about 18 to 20 minutes maximum on average. But during the workout, it’ll feel more like
you only spent about 5 minutes total. You’ll have no idea where the time went. Again,
you’ll be “in the zone” – with not a thought in the world other than breathing deep for
rest and progressively fatiguing your muscles as deep as possible.
 Your brain is nearly more fatigued than your muscles by the end. Truly intense
workouts fatigue your brain more than anything. Yes, your muscles will be nearly dead
and unable to move properly – but after every great workout, you’ll have to sit down or
lay down for 5 to 10 minutes just to recompose your thoughts and get back to normal
mental functioning again. If you feel like you can safely operate heavy machinery or hold
a rational conversation immediately after a workout, then you didn’t work out hard
enough. (But remember – you’ll still feel mentally alert afterward, with adrenaline
running through your veins still. You just won’t be able to think rationally very well.)

If you feel that you can maybe push yourself a little harder in the gym – do it. And then do it
again the next workout. And then the next. And so on.

Keep pushing yourself harder and harder in your workouts, working out absolutely over your
head (while strictly following the Unbreakable Rules of Hollywood Hypertrophy Training), until
you experience the sensations listed above.

Once you do, there’s a good chance that your definition of “100% effort” and “hard work” and
“intensity” will have changed drastically from when you started – and so will have the look and
size of your muscles.