Wednesday, 31 December 2014

The Super-Short Workout and Other Fitness Trends - NYTimes.com

The Super-Short Workout and Other Fitness Trends - NYTimes.com













Photo
Credit Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times, Willie Davis for The New York TImes and Buda Mendes/Getty Images
The big story in exercise science this year was the super-short workout.


In one particularly
useful study from May, scientists found that three brief sessions per
day of interval-style exercise — consisting of one minute of brisk
walking followed by another minute of strolling, repeated six times —
allowed people at risk of diabetes to control their blood sugar better
than a continuous 30-minute walk.
Just as important, these short “exercise snacks,”
as the scientists called the condensed sessions, were more popular with
the study’s participants than the single, longer walk, the scientists
reported. They liked finishing quickly.
That sentiment likewise explains the popularity of the “Scientific 7-Minute Workout,” which I first wrote about in 2013 and updated this fall with an advanced version and a related app. Similarly, many of you were intrigued by a July study detailing how running as little as five minutes a day
might add years to someone’s life span. “Most people can fit in five
minutes a day” of exercise, one of the study’s authors told me.
But should even that time commitment seem excessive, scientists obligingly developed and tested a one-minute workout
this year, with three 20-second intervals of very hard exercise leading
to robust improvements in the endurance and health of the study’s
overweight, out-of-shape volunteers.
There is naturally a
catch to such truncated workouts, however. In each of these studies, the
exertion involved was intense. The volunteers panted and strained,
albeit briefly. Their strenuous exercise seemed to invoke “more potent”
physiological responses than gentler activity, one of the researchers
involved in the exercise-snacking study said.
A nifty June study helps to explain why. In that experiment,
mice that were pushed to run hard on running wheels developed
distinctly different biochemical responses within their muscle cells
than other animals and these differences translated into larger,
healthier muscles. The study’s lesson, its lead author concluded, is
that sometimes you need to “get out of your body’s comfort zone.” But
only, thankfully, for a minute or five.

Wednesday, 24 December 2014

Activate The Chest When You Bench Press | NattyOrNot.com

Activate The Chest When You Bench Press | NattyOrNot.com



On paper the bench press is supposed to
be a chest, triceps and shoulder exercise. However, since it’s a
compound movement that involves many muscle group, sometimes one of the
muscles will be lagging and performing less work. Often that’s the
chest. Many people develop bigger arms
and shoulders from bench presses alone, but there chests remain flat
and underdeveloped. In this article we will show you how to activate
your chest when doing the bench press.
1.Lower the amount of weight you are lifting
You ego may hate it, but in order to
learn proper technique you need to lower the weight. If the weight is
too heavy, chances are you will focus mainly on lifting the barbell in
anyway possible. This is called ego lifting and is the reason why your dominant body parts take over. Lower the weight and start working on your bench press technique.
Pectoralis major muscle

Pectoralis major muscle
2.Grab the bar really hard
When you hold the bar as hard as you can
you are forming a strong base and increase the muscle tension. In this
case that’s good because unlike sports such as swimming lifting weights
is about strength, and tension is required. When you hold the bar harder
you immediately improve your strength because less of it is lost in the
nothingness when you push-up. You will feel tension going down from
your forearms, into your biceps and even in your chest by just holding
the bar tight.
Squeeze!
3.Lower the bar under control


Don’t just let the bar crash on your
chest. Hold it tight and lower it under control. A great deal of people
only care about the lifting part but the negative (lowering) is just as
important since it prepares you for the actual pushing phase. If you are
not tight and don’t lower the weight under control, you are losing
strength. Your joints are also compromised. Be in control of the weight
as much as it allows you.
4.Stick your chest out, arch your back
Excessive arching of your spine is
counter productive. However, you need some of it to stretch your chest
and sort of pre-load it. Stick your chest out, keep your shoulders
pressing against the bench and flex your lats in order to stabilize the
shoulder blades in place. Keep your shoulders tight all the time. If you
let your shoulder lose its tightness, you are putting it in a
compromised position where it’s separated from your torso. That’s
weakness and possible injury may occur. If you do the bench press
correctly, you will feel your lats working really hard to stabilize the
weight, keep the arch and reduce the unnecessary mobility of the
shoulder joint.
5.Don’t keep your elbows too close to your body
You shouldn’t keep your elbows your
elbows too close to your body. Flare your elbows to the sides a little.
This will keep the stretch of the pectoral muscles. If your elbows are
tucked too close to your body, you are sort of reducing the tension on
your chest muscles and placing more of the load on the front deltoids
and upper arms. However, don’t flare your arms too much either because
flared elbows and wide grip will kill your shoulders in a heartbeat. Somewhere in the middle is the best.
6.On the way up imagine that you are trying to bring your arms together
Activate your chest bench performing the bench press

While all other points are important,
this one makes all the difference. When you are pushing the weight up
imagine that you are trying you bring your hands together. DON’T
ACTUALLY DO IT! Just imagine it. It helps if you visualize a spring
being squeezed between your hands. If you do this technique correctly,
it will give you a great chest pump. You can even do it when you are
performing other exercises such as push-ups and dumbbell bench presses.

Combining Bodyweight And Weight Training | NattyOrNot.com

Combining Bodyweight And Weight Training | NattyOrNot.com

Instead of wondering what’s better: bodyweight exercises or weight
training, why not combine both? Bodyweight exercises can build
a super strong upper body and abs, as seen among gymnasts,
while full body barbell exercises build the hips and the legs.
Combination of both is one of the most effective ways to do business on
the muscle exchange market. It saves you money while keeping the value
high. Muscles traders have no choice but to love it.

As we’ve said many times exercises like push-ups, dips, pull-ups,
muscle-ups and their advanced forms such as planche push-ups, front
levers…etc. can really develop a muscular upper body. You can truly
reach your genetic potential
without ever doing a single bench press set or a barbell row. The
classic bodyweight exercises are more than enough to make the chest,
arms, back, abs and lower back as strong as naturally possible.

However, the downside of bodyweight training is that there are no
exercises such as the deadlift, for example, which works 90% of the
musculature in your body at the same time. While movements like the
glute ham raise are cute, the hips can benefit a lot from true overload
that can only be achieved through exercises such as squats, deadlifts
and their friends.

Even the skeletal system benefits from the heavy iron. People who
squat have extremely dense femur bones and overall skeletal system. When
you’re young you may not care about bones density, but sooner or later
we all get worn out. It may be hard to see it right now, but in about 50
years Justin Bieber will be an old man too.

The classical approach to do this gangsta mix is to remove all upper
body exercises you do in the gym, and go there only for squats, Romanian
deadlifts, deadlifts, leg presses…etc.
This will save you a lot of money from gym memberships and
transportation. An example routine would look something like this:

****

Day 1: Upper Body;

Dips – 5 sets;

Push-ups – 5 sets;

Leg raises – 5 sets;

Day 2: Rest;

Day 3: Lower body and hips

Squat – 5 sets;

Leg press – 5 sets;

Calves – 5 sets;

Day 4: Rest;

Day 5: Upper body;

Pull-ups – 5 sets;

Horizontal rows – 5 sets;

Back hyper-extensions – 5 set;

Day 6 & 7: Rest;

****

The above routine does not have weak links. Everything is worked
pretty hard and you’re in the gym only once a week. Of course, there are
many ways to mix things. If you are more advanced, you may add some weighted pull-ups and chin-ups to your gym sessions. Here’s another example routine:

****

Ex. 1 (no squats)

Day 1: Back/Deadlift day

Deadlift – 1-2 working sets;

Weighted pull-ups – 3 sets;

Dumbbell rows – 5 sets;

Day 2: Rest;

Day 3: Chest/Pushing day

Dips – 5 sets; (take a backpack with you);

Push-ups – 5 sets;

Leg raises – 5 sets;

Day 4: Rest;

Day 5: Lower body speed training;

Sprints/Plyometrics

Day 6 & 7: Rest;

****

Ex. 2 (squats and deadlifts)

Day 1: Squat/Leg day

Squats – 5 sets;

Leg press – 5 sets;

Day 2: Rest;

Day 3: Chest/Pushing day

Dips – 5 sets; (take a backpack with you);

Push-ups – 5 sets;

Leg raises – 5 sets;

Day 4: Rest;

Day 5: Back/Deadlift day

Deadlift – 1-2 working sets;

Weighted pull-ups – 3 sets;

Dumbbell rows – 5 sets;

Day 6 & 7: Rest;

****

In order to come up with a routine that works for you, you first need
to set your current goals straight and write a plan that allows
adequate recovery. You may be able to do a lot more than what the
described above routine suggest. However, if you feel you are not
recovering, don’t be afraid to remove a few sets/exercises or add a
couple of rest days as described here.

I never write routines with intention that they will work for
everybody. In fact, I think that most routines I write suck big time,
but I just use them to illustrate the principles I present to you.


FAQ:

What about the bench press?

When you are doing heavy dips, muscle-ups and working on advanced
skills such as the planche, there is about zero need to do bench presses
unless you are a powerlifter or just want to have a really strong bench
press for some other reason. If that’s the case, you should use the
bodyweight drills only as assistance exercises while treating the bench
press as your main lift.

To summarize:

– Bodyweight exercises are the best when it comes to upper body training.

– The hips can benefit a lot from heavy weight exercises like the deadlift and the squat.

– Counting on bodyweight exercises to build your upper body will reduce your gym membership and transportation costs.

– You can use your gym days to do weighted dips and pull-ups.

Tuesday, 9 December 2014

Rep Ranges 101 – What You Need To Know To Grow | How To Beast

Rep Ranges 101 – What You Need To Know To Grow | How To Beast



Rep Ranges 101 – What You Need To Know To Grow




The following is a guest post from SJ at www.IgnoreLimits.com.
I really like his style – honest, straightforward advice that’s geared
towards real people (ie. not steroided-up bodybuilders). For more from
SJ, check out his site at www.IgnoreLimits.com.




10 reps?

It seems to be the magic number, if you’ve hired a personal trainer,
read a workout regime in a men’s health or bodybuilding magazine chances
are you were told to do X number of sets, each set containing 10 reps.

Now, here’s the thing…

As a natural gym-goer (aka. Someone who does not ‘supplement’ with anabolic steroids) there’s a far more efficient way to train and progress.



Train in the single digit rep ranges !

If you’re like me – a normal guy with average genetics, looking to
build both size and strength naturally you cannot go past the 4 – 7 rep
range for your major compound lifts (squat, deadlift, bench, overhead
press etc.)

You’re probably thinking that’s all well and good but…



“What about when I want to get shredded, should I be doing 12 – 15 reps per set?”

women_lifting_light_weights

Regardless of whether you are in a cutting or bulking phase your
workout does not need to change at all, you won’t get increased
vascularity or striations by performing a higher number of repetitions,
that’s a load of crap. I keep my rep structure the same all year round
and simply manipulate my caloric intake based on whether I want to gain
mass (calorie surplus) or burn fat (calorie deficit).

Performing higher reps when attempting to lose fat is a surefire way
to lose muscle mass, in order to preserve as much mass as possible you
need to lift HEAVY. 



I’m certainly not the first person to advocate lifting heavy for fewer reps…

“If you must use dumbbells for daily training, use heavy ones
with fewer repetitions rather than light bells with numerous
repetitions”
Arthur Saxon, 1906

Now, you may still think high reps are beneficial, but let me tell you they’re far from it.



High repetitions result in increased stress on your CNS, increase in localized inflammation and increased soreness.

one

This ideology dates back a long way

“Movements or exercises that do not give the muscle the required
resistance, but are the kind that involve a great number of repetitions,
never break down any tissue, to speak of. These movements involve a
forcing process that cause the blood to swell up the muscle, and simply
pump them up”
– 



George F. Jowett, 1926

I highly recommend you give low rep training a try! If you’re new to
low rep training it’s worth noting that you will not get the immense
‘pumps’ you may be used to from performing hi rep training.

So you have an idea of exactly what a low rep workout regime may look
like, here’s a sample of the chest workout I performed a couple of
hours ago:



Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

5 sets x 4 – 6 reps



Flat Barbell Bench Press

5 sets x 4 – 6 reps



For an addictive training routine and dietary approach to building more muscle and burning more fat check out my new book “Shredded Beast”.

Sunday, 16 November 2014

Is Lifting Super Heavy Weights Needed For Big Muscles? -

Is Lifting Super Heavy Weights Needed For Big Muscles? -:



The Answer Is Somewhere In The Middle
If your goal is to simply build muscle mass, doing reps under 5 is absolutely not needed unless your routine is part of a system that focuses more on total workload rather than sets and reps.
If you goal is strength, performing sets of 3 is also the lowest you need to go before maxing out in a competition. Usually people are able to do between 10-30 lbs over their 3 reps maximum. This depends on the exercise and the individual.
Bottom line: Maxing out does not build strength. It tests it. Lifting moderate weight with good form is where it’s at. Get strong, safely!

"Keto" Diet in Taekwando Athletes: Good for Performance, Less Beneficial for Body Composition - Non-Sign. Higher Muscle & Lower Fat Loss in 25% Deficit vs. Balanced Diet - SuppVersity: Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

"Keto" Diet in Taekwando Athletes: Good for Performance, Less Beneficial for Body Composition - Non-Sign. Higher Muscle & Lower Fat Loss in 25% Deficit vs. Balanced Diet - SuppVersity: Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone:



Bottom line: Overall, the results of the study at hand suggests that ketogenic diets can have significant performance conserving effects in taekwondo athletes and others who have to cut weight periodically. 

The commonly heard claim that ketogenic dieting would lead to significantly more beneficial improvements in body composition in dieting athletes, on the other hand, is clearly falsified by the results of the study at hand. If anything, the loss of muscle mass is more and the loss of fat mass less pronounced than it would be with a balanced medium-to-high carbohydrate diet | Comment on Facebook.

Thursday, 13 November 2014

Pro Bodybuilders Don't Even Train Without Steroids

Pro Bodybuilders Don't Even Train Without Steroids -:



Professional bodybuilders see no point in working out without taking steroids. To them training as a natural is a complete waste of time. Often IFBB pros completely stop training when their drug intake is interrupted for whatever reason.

anabolic-steroids-syringe

Saturday, 18 October 2014

Most people involved in bodybuilding are pathological liars

Bodybuilders Don't Hire Coaches. They Hire Chemists. -:


"In order to be politically correct and keep the sponsors the bodybuilders and their coaches always keep their mouth shut while pushing supplements as the key to growth. Most people involved in bodybuilding are pathological liars since this is one of the requirements to be accepted by the industry. There are women that look like men and talk like men and yet they tell you: ‘We are natty, bro! Protein powder only bodybuilders!’."

Biceps curls are easy. Pinning them glutes is where it's at.

Have you ever wondered why professional bodybuilders hire the so-called prep-coaches? After all those guys have been training for decades and know how to train already. Why would they waste money on coaches? Do you really need somebody to scream in your ears: ‘Just one more rep. Motherfucker!”? The truth is that those so-called coaches have a different purpose. They are not training coaches but rather drug coaches.
bodybuilding-anabolic-steroids
Everybody can do biceps curls. Pinning them glutes properly is where the magic is.
Bodybuilding is a relatively straight forward beauty contest. You don’t need more than 6 months to a 1 year to learn the basics. What’s really hard, however, is creating drug cycles and nutritional plans. This is why bodybuilders rely on coaches. All successful bodybuilding coaches are really informed on the drug topic and know what to take and when.
When a bodybuilder expresses satisfaction with the services of a coach, it means that the latter has solid knowledge of the creation of anabolic cocktails.
You can’t expect from young bodybuilders to know everything about drugs. This is why they rely on the expertise of other people who have been in the sport for a longer period of time.
#shaddy deals
Quite often the coach not only makes the cycles but also provides the steroids and the growth hormone. Many people want to be ‘coached’ by a certain individual just to get access to the good stuff and not just to learn how to squat. The coaches act as drug dealers and are essentially the middle man.
Professional bodybuilding is not about training. It’s about drugs.
Professional bodybuilding has less to do with training and much more to do with drugs and implants. As a natural bodybuilder your training schedule is almost irrelevant since what makes all the difference are your genetics and drug intake.
You can follow super fancy training protocols promising sexy muscle, but if you don’t have the genetics and the drugs on your side, it ain’t happening.
Every pro bodybuilder loves talking about how they have the secret to muscle growth. Some say volume, others H.I.T. – whatever the case they all know very well that without the needle in their glutes growth just ain’t happening.
Drugs have always been a large part of bodybuilding since the very beginning. The large jumps in size reported during the history of the sport have been achieved solely through drugs. Don’t believe the propaganda about training and nutritional science. The things that are known today as far as bodybuilding is concerned have been known decades ago. If anything, people back in the day knew how to train and didn’t waste time Tweeting in between their workouts. Today, we have delusional clowns who think somebody cares about how many sets of biceps curls they did on the Hammer strength machines. We’ve said it many times and will continue to say it again – nobody cares. People only see themselves everywhere they look.
Focusing on the small details that don’t really matter.
If you watch any mainstream bodybuilding video, you will see that most of the time the bodybuilder and his coach talk about relatively unimportant things. Who cares whether you do chin-ups or pull-ups? Who cares whether you do 3 or 5 sets? Who cares which is your favorite biceps exercise? Virtually every bodybuilding video consists of a muscle behemoth doing the same exercises over again. Most of the time the focus is on the minuscule details that in the end of the day do not matter one bit.
In order to be politically correct and keep the sponsors the bodybuilders and their coaches always keep their mouth shut while pushing supplements as the key to growth. Most people involved in bodybuilding are pathological liars since this is one of the requirements to be accepted by the industry. There are women that look like men and talk like men and yet they tell you: ‘We are natty, bro! Protein powder only bodybuilders!’.
#yeah, right!

Friday, 5 September 2014

Against Mike Mentzer's High Intensity Workout - Masters Training Course

Masters Training Course

 

Mike Mentzer's High Intensity Workout and his training ideas:  
ALSO KNOW AS HIT (High Intensity Training).

Mike Mentzer's training
theory is well described in his book, "High Intensity Training",
printed in 2003 and very well written by Mike and John Little.
You would be well served to read this book. It really makes you
think. He backs up his training ideas with a lot of medical evidence.
The crux of his workout theory is: train super hard, and briefly--the
more advanced you get the less you train (as you make inroads into
your limited recovery ability)--and then you REST. A minimum 4-6
days and up to 14 days between workouts to allow maximum recovery.
Upward progress is constant as you simply rest more and train harder,
workout by workout.


In the book Mentzer
states: I f you stop making progress stop training for 2 weeks and
resume again. The idea is to recuperate, from intense training and
always return to the gym stronger. A never ending upward spiral
of success as long as you can induce a maximum contraction on the
muscle as that is the trigger (and the only trigger according to
Mike) to make the muscle grow, and then REST to allow that growth
to take place. Got it?


It sounds very scientific
and and makes sense. The harder you work the more you rest. Sounds
logical. And I can agree on that point but unfortunently not on
much else.


The body doesn't work that way.



Mike gives us tomes
of empirical, evidence to back up his claims. Yet I can tell you
from years of experience, that truthfully, the body does not respond
that way to exercise.


Mike is one of my favorite
bodybuilders. I have read almost every article and every book
he
has written. I have trained using one set only to failure (and beyond)
on 9 exercises for almost a year. Here is what I learned: I got
very strong on those exercises. Very strong. I didn't grow. I got
hurt a lot (and so did my partner).


Yes the sad fact is I
didn't get any bigger and weighed the same. Yes I could leg curl
nearly 60lbs more than the year before, but I was no bigger. Zip.
Nothing. Nada.


Injuries

I got hurt. A lot. High
intensity as described by Mike is very dangerous. Pushing yourself
super hard is bad for you. I don't care how much you rest between
training sessions.


How bad is bad? Let me
tell you: I was doing negative only training and tore my shoulder
out of the socket. I was leg pressing and was pushing so hard with
so much weight I broke bones in my ankle. I puked quite often during
my training and I blacked out once during a set. I trained very
hard. We would tie our hands to the lat pull (on every set so you
couldn't lose your grip and quit) with 6 foot boxing straps and
pulled till our arms nearly popped out of the sockets! And finally
during one set of mega squats I ruptured my stomach wall and had
to visit the hospital for an operation. And this is not the entire
list of injuries!


The fact is as you become
advanced (strong) you can push yourself beyond your limits very
easily. You can and will, injure yourself. Pushing yourself too
hard, too often, is not good for you.


THE SET THING.

The moment I returned
to multiple sets training (which I did to see what might happen)
with less intensity (let's call it normal intensity or hard work)
I grew. I'll never forget it. The evidence was irrefutable. One
set to failure may make you stronger, but it does not build a physique,
and it's dangerous. And resting weeks between workouts is no way
to become strong and fit. Though I have to admit I never have tried
taking weeks off between workouts unless I was very hurt or sick.


Yes, I was stronger
from the one set stuff as I stated earlier, (I gained what I usually
gain in strength training) and using that strength in multiple set
training was a plus, but NOT TILL I RETURNED to MULTIPLE NORMAL
SETS without training ot all out failure--did I start to hypertrophy
again. Maybe it's the blood flow. Maybe it's the high and low reps,
maybe it's the frequency, maybe the cenetral nervous system recovers
better when you are not training to failure all the time--maybe
it's all of it! All I can tell you is --it works.


It's possible, in fact
very easy, to get hurt doing things like negatives and forced
reps and rest pause techniques,especially if you train like that
ALL the time
(instead of very infrequently
using high intensity, as I suggest---week 3 of your monthly cycle
during phase 3 of your yearly training--maxing only once a year.)
Mike has the athlete maxing out all the time and beyond!
It's not good for you unless your joints
and tendons are made of steel.


The body isn't meant
to do "forced reps", or all negative reps with a weight
you can't normally lift (there is a reason you can't lift it--it's
too heavy!)
. It damages your tendons, it puts you at risk.
And if you do it for several high intensity workouts in a row, maxing
out at every workout on every exercise--YOU WILL BECOME INJURED.


Mike says you won't get
hurt. You just need to rest more. I don't care how much REST you
take. 4 days, 14 days (even worse) walk in that gym and start maxing
out every workout and you're finished.
In
no time you will be injured. I would bet money on it. Then you can
really rest as you wait to grow new tendons.


Let's just say that you
didn't get hurt? Would it work? Nope. 2 reasons: One: You need more
frequent exercise to get into good shape for one thing. Once a week
training (for 12 minutes to an hour) or less is not enough time,
training wise, to produce a fit healthy muscular body. I will admit
one hour of training a week can have marvelous benefits and it works
to build size, however to become Mr. America it is not enough training.
You
need weights at least twice a week (training hard and progressively)
and more to really progress, and you need to do some sort of aerobics
and ab work. The second thing is you can't kill yourself year round
in the gym.It just doesn't work. Your central nervous system and
glands are overloaded from constant high stress. You must work hard
enough to improve, and progression means adding small amounts of
wieght to the bar on a consistent basis. You don't have to train
to failure to get stronger or 2 one or two more reps each week.
You have to work hard, or at least exert yourself, but you don't
have to kill yourself to make progress.


Training to failure each
time you lift is like running a sprint 100% till you drop each time
you run. It's not practical or needed to improve. Training with
all out intensity all the time can be very detrimental. You overload
your body (and mind) and you can't recover any more, growth stops
and you will probably shrink, you "go stale" as it were.
The body has a defense mechanism that after a few weeks of high
stress, kicks in and basically shuts itself down. I have seen it
over and over in my own life and in other trainers. Classic
signs of being stale beside being weak are:
You
can't sleep, feel nervous, no appetite, tired, and usually you may
get a cold or flu as well. It's your bodies way of slowing you down
one way or another.


Athletes that go to the
Olympics to run for example, don't run fast all year round. They
build up to it. They peak themselves. They train and run a little
faster each month and then at the Olympics they give 100%. Then
back off and do it again next year, with a new training cycle It's
the best way to prepare to be your best. No one runs the 4 minute
mile every day. You build up to it, do it, then back off. To run
a 4 minute mile every day would be impossible, even if you rested
2 weeks between runs you would still find yourself slowing down.
The body can only run at maximum for a short time then it needs
down time to attempt that pace again. You can't stay at a peak.
It's very difficult and prone to injury (after all, now you are
at your physical limits) as you ride the razors edge.


Mike's theory is based
on hard work and then rest. This is the basic idea behind conventional
training as well, however you max out very infrequently ( using
conventional training ) and the work is carried out over a year's
time.


Mike completely discounts
periodization
and that is the major flaw in his training theory
(besides way too much rest between training sessions). You simply
can't kill yourself all the time in the gym. The nervous system
and endocrine systems can only take a few weeks of this, at best,
and then you go VERY VERY STALE. So even if your elbows and shoulders
don't get ripped from doing negative benches your nervous system
will overload very quickly from constant high intensity training.


Remember I am not knocking
Mike Mentzer. Mike was a great guy. His books are very informative
and influenced me to train both harder and for less time. I just
can't get behind the entire High Intensity Training (HIT) training
program. For me, and others, it was a dead end.





Thursday, 4 September 2014

HEAVY TRAINING - Masters Training Course

Masters Training Course

 

HEAVY TRAINING

The tendons that connect all your bones and muscles are very strong, yet fragile. As your muscles get stronger they will contract at greater levels, increasing the load on your tendons and recovery ability. The tendons recover very slowly, almost invisibly, it takes so long. We cannot feel it, yet we know it is there. Well, once you injure a tendon you will know it is there! But is there a way to avoid this injury?

Train heavy, at most once a month, and only once a year to a max. Train using "cycles". Build up to a peak of strength, then back off and do it again. Use monthly cycles inside larger yearly cycles.

Now, heavy is relative..if your max bench is 100lbs for 6 reps it would be safe to perform that once a month. However, if you are really training heavy don't go heavy all the time. Train in cycles (periodization),as shown in this book. It is not needed, you won't recover from your workouts, and constant heavy training will take years off the life of your joints. When you do train heavy though..you go all out. You warm up well..get mentally excited, and push as hard as you can in good form.

How Often Should you train?

Individuals with extreme vitality can train daily and make good physical progress. These people are rare. Also they take years building into and adapting to intense daily exercise. People like Jack LaLane, Olympic gymnasts and so on. I am one of those people. But I have seen many who are not. Most people make the best progress in gaining size and strength from training 2 times a week progressively on basic exercises. It's not fancy, but it works 90% of the time.


Train as often as you can but not more than you can tolerate. If you can't recover from your training, you can't make progress. 1 to 2 hours of training a day would be fine for full time athletes and people with high vitality, but most of us cannot do that nor can most people recover properly from such a program. Learn what amount of exercise you can recover from and work with in those limits. If you are training 5 to 4 times a week and not getting anywhere, cut back. If 3 times a week is too much, cut back.

Train as frequently as per your training cycle, but again within your limits. Some people can handle split training, some can't. When I return to high volume training after a strength cycle, I gradually add more sets and reps and exercises over the entire 4 month cycle. So should you. If you have to make an error in judgment be conservative. If you find the volume is too much and you feel run down, or your joints are very sore, cut back.

My advice is to do abs and cardio every other morning, even if only for 10 to 20 minutes. After work in the evening do your weight training 2 or more times per week for at least 45 minutes to 2 hours. If you train for 2 hours eat something during your training to keep the energy up. Also eat the moment you are done training. If you are moving into contest mode or higher volume work you can do your split training or secondary exercises, on the weekends. During the week when you are working, just train once on a training day following a basic routine.

During the conditioning phase you will train with a higher volume of exercises and train more frequently, perhaps 2 or 3 times a day even ( taking the next day off ). During your strength phase you will back off to 2 or 3 days a week or every 2 weeks ( resting 4 to 5 days between workouts ) depending on how difficult the workouts are to recover from, and reduce the training volume to the basic heavy exercises. At the end of the strength cycle you might be down to training once every 4th day or longer (it takes that long to recover from very heavy training such as heavy deadlifts, squats and so on ). So it depends what phase you are in as to how often you will train.

How Often and How Long Should you train?: part 2.

I think my advice on training frequency needs to be explored in additional depth. Most of us are training to get bigger or stronger. These are very special tasks. Different than being super fit, or a triathlete. If gaining muscle and getting stronger is your goal read the following advice very carefully. I tell you exactly what to do.

The danger when training hard with weights, is too train too frequently. Besides progression in the core lifts--You must recover between workouts to GROW muscles. Every day or every other day training is too much exercise for the individual trying to gain strength. You need to recover completely between workouts to benefit from your efforts.

HOW LONG SHOULD YOU TRAIN?

A hard 30 to 45 minute workout with true intensity of effort is all that is required. Long workouts, above 45 minutes of hard training, is counter productive. Don't do it. Follow a hard workout with 2 or 3 or 4 days of rest and you will have allowed yourself enough time to grow.

Daily training is too much for MOST people. In fact the great majority of people who are trying to GAIN muscle would be better served training each body part once or twice a week, or twice every 2 weeks.

Is resting 3 to 4 days between workouts too much rest? The answer is no if you are training hard.

You must recover your entire body between workouts. If you do legs on Monday and do them hard, and then train upper body on Tuesday (or Wednesday) you are not allowing any time to grow and recover from Mondays workout.

Better to train once or twice or three times on a single day and then take several days off completely--than to train once every day on a split routine. This allows your body to recover fully from the workout day.

Train no more than 30 to 45 minutes if you can arrange it. Two, 45 minute workouts (done on the same day) are better than one long 90 minute workout. Eat and rest between each workout.

How do we split up the body to train both upper body and lower body and allow enough rest to grow? Here are some good schedules:

Train legs and uppers in 2 separate workouts on one day, then rest 3 to 4 days, then repeat this cycle. So Monday AM would be leg training, Monday PM would be upper body, rest 3 to 4 days, train again.

Here is another good schedule: Train legs on Monday and upper body on Friday. Repeat the following week. Or train upper and lowers on Monday and repeat Friday.

No time to train twice a day? Try this routine: Train uppers on Monday and lowers on Tuesday or Wednesday. Rest 2 or 3 days and repeat the cycle.

I can tell you one thing about this routine and it's variations. It works. Don't spin your wheels with daily workouts if you are not already very big and strong.

The bottom line is REST 2 or 3 days between hard workouts. This type of training frequency works when nothing else will. And it works for almost everyone. Serious about gaining muscle? Rest several days between hard workouts.

Training every day is great for fitness, being lean, and doing detail work. Training every day is NOT productive for GAINING muscles.

How Hard Should You Train? (HARD ENOUGH TO MAKE PROGRESS)

How hard should you train? At least 80% intensity (with a mind focused on progressing in weight or reps on your core exercises) and sometimes even more. Keep it enjoyable and train like you mean it. 2 good sets are worth 200 half hearted sets. FOCUS on your set. Push yourself. When the muscles start to fail be sure it really is failure. Speaking of which..I always advise my clients to train super super hard ( I mean till the sweat is shooting out of your eyes) but stop your sets 1 or 2 reps before failure (except for once or twice a month during the super hard or peak workout for that month). It sounds like conflicting advice but it is really the best way to avoid injury and over training and it works.

Hard is a relative term. It means different things to different people. Remember to workout progressively and you can't miss. You don't have to kill yourself to make progress.

Another good tip is to follow a hard effort workout with a lighter workout. Even on your all out heavy week (week three of the monthly cycle) you still don't train 100% every day. Save it for one or two days on those special lifts that make you big and strong (like squats and rows). 100% effort, can burn you out fast. Train hard but don't leave the gym with your hands shaking...that's too much. You have wracked your nervous system and that is not the idea. Always train within your limits, even as they expand year after year.

Here is an important note. Just training hard is not the goal of training. Killing yourself in the gym is not a guarantee of growth. Burning out on set after set does very little to make you bigger if you are lifting the same weights week after week. Many of us have heard you must have 100% intensity to get anywhere. It is not practical or necessary to kill yourself at each and every workout. It will hinder your progress.

You can be sure you are lifting hard enough IF YOU ARE MAKING PROGRESS in weight or reps on your core exercises. Here is an example of a typical workout. You squat 15 reps with 300lbs. Previously your best squat performance was 15 reps with 290lbs. You finish the set with the 300lb and you realize it felt easy, you are hardly breathing hard. You feel like you can do even more. DON'T. Hold back. Progress is enough. Save the energy to grow on. Add weight next time. Don't do any lighter sets to failure or for a burn, just stop. You got stronger, that's enough. Let the weights work their magic. Your job now is to eat, rest and grow.

It's not necessary to grind yourself into the ground to make progress. Train hard, hard enough to improve, but not so hard you burn out.

Hard work is important but do it intelligently without haste. Train within your limits. You should not train so hard you become fearful of your workouts. Train hard enough to progress but do not train so hard you cannot properly recover from the workouts. Always leave the gym with energy.

Rep speed

The fact is you have to do several rep schemes in your overall training. Super slo reps and medium reps are two examples of rep schemes.

There are slo reps. Super slo reps. Medium reps. Fast reps done with force. Smooth reps with a hold at the end. Stutter reps, rest pause reps, negative reps, assisted reps, and isometric reps. All of these have a place in your training. Give each one a fair chance, and you will come to understand that each one has something to offer. The bottom line is no matter what rep scheme you are using you must:

Lift progressively. Add weight to the bar; i.e. get stronger.

Contract your muscles hard with multiple sets of both high and low reps (not always at the same workout). A good contraction, is very important.

Lift intensely but not so hard you overtrain yourself.

Personally I go slow for the first 4 reps of a set, intentionally trying to let the muscles really feel those first reps and to be careful, then for the next reps I try to mentally explode and or speed up the reps, however the speed of the rep still looks smooth and slow as now I am tired from the first slow reps. Though I am trying to push hard and fast on the reps now, the bar is still moving slow. It takes practice but this is a great way to get the most out of every set. If the bar starts to move to fast, just slow down. You have to try to get as much out of each rep and each set as possible.

Sometimes once I am warmed up I might mix it up: I like doing 15 high rep squats with a medium speed, then end with 5 super slo reps. That really kicks up the intensity. Experiment with all rep schemes.

For the most part do slow to medium reps. Never jerk or bounce the reps. Better slower than faster.

Super Slow TRAINING

Like other cycles and methods of training Super Slo training is enjoying a big reassugance as of this writing in 2004. There are even super slo gyms. I await the day for the return of PLYOMETRIC gyms. Anyway..

Super slow reps are just another way to approach a rep. It can be valuable and fun.

The standard protocol is 10 to 20 second positives with 5 to 10 second negatives. NO stopping, you do the rep slowly and smoothly. It takes practice to perform correct super slow reps.

I like to do my slow reps SUPER SLOW. Much slower than the norm (I do the normal ones too). I have found that reps with a 30 to 50 second positives and 20 to 30 second negatives, combined with stutter reps and static holding (just stopping for a few seconds) can be very effective. 2 or 3 reps like this can be more than enough for 1 set.

I find Super Slo a valuable tool in the bodybuilder's arsenal of tactics, but it is not a magic routine. Do it for a few weeks or once in a while do a super slo workout, it's excellent to use it with other rep combinations. It's painful and takes real concentration to perform correctly (like most good weight lifting) so give it several weeks if you decide to practice this technique. Super slow training can be fun. I get very intense contractions using it.