Tips of the week A specialization program for the latissimus

The rules of specialization vary from muscle group to muscle group, but the basic concept is to increase the volume for that muscle group. You can do this by increasing the number of sets per training session or by training that muscle group more frequently.

Here's a good trick for latissimus specialization:

• Train heavy on Monday with 4 to 6 repetitions per set
• On Tuesday, use other latissimus exercises and perform 8 to 10 repetitions
• On Wednesday, use other exercises again and even higher repetition numbers in the range of 15 to 20 repetitions per set to extract every last milligram of glycogen from your muscles.

Your goal is to overtrain your latissimus. Give your latissimus four days' rest before training it again.

Here is an example program:

Monday (full recovery between sets)

	Exercise	Sets		Tempo	Pause
A1	Pull-ups with close parallel grip	5	4-6	4011	120 sec.
A2	Dips	5	4-6	4110	120 sec.
B1	One-arm dumbbell rowing	5	6-8	3012	120 sec.
B2	Dumbbell incline bench press	5	6-8	32X0	120 sec.

Tuesday (incomplete rest intervals)

	Exercise	Sets		Tempo	Pause
A	Lat pulldown with close parallel grip	4	8-10	2011	60 sec.
B	Rowing seated on the cable to the neck	4	8-10	2012	60 sec.

Wednesday (mega sets)

	Exercise	Sets		Tempo	Pause
A1	Pull-ups with medium-wide grip	3	6-8	30X0	10 sec.
A2	Lat pulldown with two single handles with parallel grip	3	8-10	30X0	10 sec.
A3	45-degree lat pulldown	3	10-12	20X0	10 sec.
A4	Lat pulldown with wide grip	3	12-15	20X0	10 sec.
A5	Iron cross lat pulldown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXPJ0wp9ElA	3	15-20	10X0	10 sec.

Avoid direct lat pulldown training from Thursday to Sunday.

This system does not work with every muscle group. For example, a better method for the calves is to pair them with a strong muscle group like the arms. So you do a set of bicep curls and instead of taking a normal break afterwards, you just pause for 10 seconds (or as long as it takes to go to the calf machine), do a set for the calves, pause again for 10 seconds while you go back to where you were doing curls, do your next set of curls and repeat.

Calves can also be trained every other day - every 48 hours - which no sane person would attempt with a larger muscle group.

Build your pecs with dumbbell squeeze presses

This exercise may look strange, but it works great for building bigger pecs(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtVdL77e2qc)

By Christian Thibaudeau

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-build-your-pecs-with-the-squeeze-press

Your body is designed to survive - not to look balanced and aesthetically pleasing. When you move weights, you stimulate your muscles to get bigger and stronger. This is an adaptive response to physical work.

However, simply performing an exercise does not guarantee that you are stimulating growth in the muscle you want to maximize. When you bench press, your body doesn't know that your goal is to build bigger pecs. All it knows is that a heavy weight is threatening to crush you and that you will die if you don't push it up.

In the interest of your survival, your body will use the muscles that are best suited to get you out of this predicament. If your triceps or shoulder muscles are stronger than your chest muscles, then your chest will not be fully stimulated by the bench press as the nervous system will shift more of the work to the stronger muscles. This is the reason why some exercisers build a muscular chest simply by bench pressing, while others only build their triceps or shoulders using this exercise.

Just because you're doing something traditionally known as a chest exercise doesn't automatically mean you're going to stimulate maximum pec growth. Sometimes you need to force your body to use the muscles you want to stimulate. This is exactly what squeeze presses do.

Dumbbell squeeze presses

Squeeze presses are a variation of dumbbell bench presses with one slight difference: the dumbbells remain in contact with each other throughout the exercise and you actively push them inwards against each other as hard as you can. This simple variation will shift the load onto the chest muscles.

It is very important to understand this point: You should push the dumbbells against each other as hard as you can during every inch of every repetition. This is what makes this exercise effective. You must use hexagonal dumbbells for this exercise and the palms must be facing each other. This is easier on the wrists and trains the part of the chest muscles running towards the sternum to a greater extent. If you don't have hexagonal dumbbells, you can also simply place a foam pad between two regular dumbbells.

Use these 5 types of supersets

Here's everything you need to know about supersets

By Christian Thibaudeau

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-use-5-types-of-supersets

This is one of the first high-intensity training methods a beginner learns when they start training seriously with weights. Unfortunately, most people use supersets in the wrong way, randomly pairing exercises together without thinking about the underlying logic of such an exercise pairing.

A superset is the execution of two exercises one right after the other with no rest between sets (you only rest as long as it takes to move from one exercise to the next). There are several intelligent ways to perform supersets.

1 - Pre-fatigue

This refers to a pairing of two exercises for the same muscle group. The first exercise is an isolation exercise (an exercise where the target muscle does most of the work alone) and the second exercise is a multi-joint exercise. An example for the chest would be performing a set of flying movements with dumbbells immediately followed by a set of bench presses.

The underlying logic is that in a multi-joint exercise, the target muscle does not work alone and therefore is not necessarily fully stimulated at the end of the set. By pre-fatiguing the chest with an isolation exercise, you will feel your chest muscles more during the subsequent bench press, which will help you to focus on these muscles. The downside is that you won't be able to use as much weight as you normally would on the multi-joint exercise, which is the better mass building exercise of the two.

2 - Post-fatigue

Here the exercise order is reversed: you start with the multi-joint exercise and then perform the isolation exercise. This allows you to fully stimulate the target muscle but does not affect the amount of weight you can use on the heavy multi-joint exercise.

3 - Compound sets

This is the type of superset I like the least and rarely use. Such a superset consists of a pairing of two multi-joint exercises for the same muscle group (e.g. bench press and dips for the pecs). The problem is that this doesn't help you focus on the target muscle group.

In the case of bench presses and dips, if your triceps are stronger than your pecs, then you will still rely mainly on your triceps for both exercises and your pecs may well continue to be under-stimulated. The only advantage of a superset consisting of multi-joint exercises is that you can train more than one part of the muscle during the same set. However, you can achieve this better with isolation exercises.

4 - Supersets that consist of isolation exercises

This type of superset combines two isolation exercises for the same muscle group. The purpose of this is to focus on multiple areas of the target muscle at the same time. For the biceps, for example, you could combine an exercise that focuses primarily on the long head of the biceps with an exercise that focuses primarily on the short head of the biceps.

This is where it gets a little tricky. For this technique to work, you need to choose exercises that train different parts of the target muscle. If you choose two exercises that target the same area, then you won't get maximum benefit from this technique.

5 - Antagonistic supersets

In this variation, you pair two exercises for opposite (antagonistic) muscles. As with other supersets, there is no pause between the first and second exercise. With this approach, you can combine exercises for these muscles:

• Chest and back
• Biceps and triceps
• Quadriceps and hamstrings
• Lateral/front shoulder muscles and rear shoulder muscles
• Abdominals and lower back

Perform lean-away side raises

Expand your range of motion and achieve better results

By Christian Thibaudeau

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-lean-away-lateral-raises

Compared to other variations of the side raise, this variation puts the shoulder muscles under tension over a larger range of motion, making each repetition more effective. In addition, the shoulder muscles are more overloaded at the highest point of the movement.

Lean-away side raise(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u8s1E7cxK0)

As the lean-away side raise is a unilateral exercise (performed with only one arm), it promotes the recruitment of motor units with a high stimulus threshold in trainees with a strength deficit, in beginners and in trainees with long arms.

The 500 repetition bench press in 11 minutes challenge

It's time to test your mettle and your muscles

By Christian Thibaudeau

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-bench-press-500-reps-in-11-minutes

Alex Vigneault is a CrossFit Games athlete I work with. Alex is a real workhorse and doesn't seem to know such a thing as lactic acid buildup in the muscles. He can perform repetition after repetition like a machine. You can't take this guy down! So I challenged him to see how much work he could do without rest on a simple, non-technical exercise that practically everyone knows: the bench press.

Don't let the weight (or lack thereof) fool you. Very few people will be able to complete this challenge - no matter how strong they are.

The challenge

The challenge consists of 500 repetitions with the empty bar on the bench press (a 20 kilo bar for men and a 15 kilo bar for women). All repetitions must be performed without interruption. This means that you are not allowed to put the bar down during the set.

You may pause during the set, but only with the bar held at arm's length. You may not place the bar on your chest during the challenge.

Why should you accept this challenge?

First, to prove that you are tough enough to endure the pain. To test your mental strength.

This challenge will also have an impact on your muscle mass. Alex had sore muscles in his chest and triceps for three days after this challenge. And while muscle soreness is not necessarily a sign that a training session was optimal, it did indicate that this training session had a significant impact on the muscles.

This method will lead to the release of a lot of growth factors and will have a positive effect on the tendons. It could even be helpful for people with nagging shoulder problems.

500 repetitions in 11 minutes

How did Alex do? He completed 500 full reps in exactly 11 minutes. The next question is how you will perform. Will you have the strength to take on this challenge?

Perform drag curls for bigger biceps

Do you need a better biceps exercise? Yes, you do. Try this one out!

By Christian Thibaudeau

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-the-drag-curl-for-bigger-biceps

This is an excellent exercise to grow your biceps, but it's rarely used - probably mainly because it doesn't allow for as much weight to be moved, which many strength athletes' egos can't handle. Additionally, this exercise requires the use of perfect form and control - things that the average exerciser does not have.

Drag curls emphasize the brachialis and the outer portion of the biceps (the long head). The most important rule is this: deliberately contract your biceps extra hard at the highest point of the movement. Drag curls are performed as follows(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj3ysKvp08Q):

1. Start the movement with the bar in contact with your upper thigh. Keep your shoulders, hips and knees in line.
2. Bring your elbows back slightly as you curl the weight upwards. The bar remains in contact with your body throughout the movement. You are literally pulling the bar up along your torso.
3. The range of motion for this exercise is shorter than for regular curls, especially if you have muscular upper arms. Compensate for this by deliberately tensing the biceps hard at the highest point of the movement.
4. Lower the weight in the same way, keeping it in contact with your body throughout the movement. You can use both a regular and reverse grip for this exercise.

For this exercise to be effective, you should use a controlled tempo. You will need to use less weight than with regular curls - so leave your ego in the locker room.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-49