Training
If you're like most exercisers, you had two simple goals when you started exercising:
- Big pecs
- Big biceps
And if you're a woman, there's a good chance that defined and shapely arms have always been high on your list of priorities.
If you're reading this article, it's likely that you either don't yet have the biceps development you want, or that you're looking for something new for your biceps training.
And in both cases I will help you further.
The anatomy of the biceps muscles
When most people talk about the biceps, they are referring to a muscle called the biceps brachii. This is a muscle with two muscle heads that looks like this:
This is the muscle that most biceps exercises emphasize.
However, if you want to achieve exceptional arm development, there is another muscle associated with the biceps that you should know about:
This muscle is the biceps brachialis, which lies underneath the biceps brachii and supports it when flexing the arm.
This muscle looks like this:
The significance of this muscle is that it does two things when it is well developed:
1. it provides separation between the biceps and triceps.
2. it pushes the biceps brachii upwards and makes it look bigger.
There are exercises that emphasize the biceps brachii and there are exercises that emphasize the biceps brachialis.
I will have you do both.
The simple science of effective bicep training
There are a lot of theories about the best way to train your biceps.
Some say that you should focus on high repetition workouts to really feel the muscle burn.
Others say that you should train your biceps several times a week.
Still others say that you shouldn't do any direct bicep training at all and instead focus on multi-joint exercises.
I've tried all of this and more and I've worked with thousands of clients and here's what I've learned:
1.Most people need to train their biceps directly to achieve the muscle mass and definition they desire
Heavy back training will build biceps, but it's rarely enough to build the mass and definition most people want.
2. heavy barbell and dumbbell curls are best for building strength and mass
You can also include high repetition cable curls in your training program, but these cannot replace heavy curls with free weights.
3. one heavy bicep workout per week is generally sufficient
A crucial part of your bicep training is the correct volume or total number of repetitions you perform per week.
This is especially important if you do a lot of heavy training in general, as the general rule is this:
The heavier the reps, the fewer reps you can perform per week without experiencing symptoms of overtraining.
This is especially true for multi-joint exercises like deadlifts and squats - the heavier weights you use, the more time your body needs to recover from them. I have tried many different training splits and training frequency schemes and what has proven best has also been proven by two extensive study reviews on the subject (1, 2).
If you train primarily with heavy weights (80 to 85%+ of your 1RM weight), the optimal volume appears to be 60 to 70 repetitions every 5 to 7 days.
This applies not only to the biceps, but also to any other major muscle group. In the case of the biceps, we have to take into account that they are heavily involved in pulling exercises.
If you are doing say 60 reps of heavy pulling for your back, then an extra 60 reps of bicep training is probably too much.
I have worked with thousands of people and found that 30 to 40 repetitions of direct bicep training per week (in addition to pulling) is sufficient. However, occasionally I come across people whose biceps are very stubborn and I have them do the following each week:
- 9 sets of heavy pulling/rowing (4 to 6 reps) plus 3 sets of bicep curls with a repetition range of 8 to 10 reps.
- 6 heavy sets of bicep curls several days later.
This slight increase in weekly volume isn't a magical solution, but it does help break through stubborn plateaus.
Now that we've got the basic training theory out of the way, it's time to look at the best biceps exercises.
The best biceps exercises
Ignore the bodybuilding magazines. You don't need to perform 50 different types of curls to build impressive biceps.
In fact, of the multitude of biceps exercises you could perform, only a handful are really necessary. These are..:
1. barbell curls
Barbell curls have been around since Sandow's day and are still one of the best all-round biceps building exercises you can perform.
2. dumbbell curls
The SZ bar variation of barbell curls is an effective biceps building exercise and great for giving your wrists and elbows a break from barbell curls.
3. alternating dumbbell curls
Just like barbell curls, alternating dumbbell curls have been used to train the biceps since the birth of bodybuilding.
4. dumbbell hammer curls
Hammer curls are my favorite exercise for building the biceps brachialis, which is why many bodybuilders use this exercise to improve the peak of their biceps.
5. pull-ups with an underhand grip
Pull-ups with an underhand grip are a functional exercise that puts a lot of stress on the biceps. As you get stronger, you can increase the difficulty by using a dip belt or weight vest.
Progressive overload is the key
So much for the best bicep exercises. These are all the exercises you need to build the biceps you want.
Before we talk about biceps workouts, however, I want to make sure you understand a crucial part of training with weights in general:
The key isn't just the execution of exercises - it's the progression in those exercises. For steroid-free exercisers, the most important type of progression is overload. This means increasing the weight you can move over time.
The reality is that if you want a part of your body to get bigger, you need to make that part stronger.
That is your absolute priority, an increase in weight on the bar over time. If you do this and eat enough, your muscles will grow.
The ultimate bicep training session
A good biceps training session does the following:
- It includes exercises that emphasize the biceps brachii.
- It includes exercises that emphasize the biceps brachialois.
- It focuses on heavy weights.
I would like to give you a simple bicep training program so that you can see how my advice works for you.
For the next 8 weeks, perform the following bicep training session once every 5 to 7 days:
- Barbell curls: warm up and 3 sets of 4 - 6 repetitions
- Dumbbell hammer curls: 3 sets of 4 - 6 repetitions
- Dumbbell curls: 3 sets of 6 - 8 repetitions
That's all. Just 9 sets for your entire training session.
And just in case you're not familiar with how the repetition ranges work, here's a simple explanation:
- If you are able to perform more reps than the upper limit of your repetition range dictates, then the weight is too light and needs to be increased.
- If you are unable to perform the number of repetitions specified by the lower limit of your repetition range, then the weight is too heavy and needs to be reduced.
So if you can perform 8 repetitions of barbell curls with a certain weight, but your plan specifies 4 to 6 repetitions as the repetition range, then you need to increase the weight.
And if you put 10 kilos more on the bar and then only manage 2 repetitions, then you need to reduce the weight.
As soon as you reach the upper limit of the repetition range for a set, you increase the weight.
So, for example, if you can do 6 reps on your first set of barbell curls, you increase the weight by 2.5 kilos on your next set and work with this weight until you can do 6 reps, at which point the game starts all over again.
Your weekly goal is to increase the number of repetitions in your exercises, which will lead to an increase in weight over time.
The bottom line on bicep training
In many ways, building impressive biceps is like building any other muscle group in your body:
- You need to do the right exercises
- You need to move heavy weights.
- You need to use sufficient training volume.
- You need to be patient.
This last point is particularly important with biceps. If biceps are not one of your genetic strengths, it will take time to see results.
I would say one year of training to fill the sleeves of your shirt, two years to get regular compliments and three years to look like a fitness model.
Something else I've seen over the years while working with countless clients is that many people simply can't build muscle mass around the biceps unless they do a mass-building phase.
They may see significant beginner gains in all other areas of the body, but cannot build significant mass in their biceps until they are in a caloric surplus.
So train hard, stay consistent, eat right and you will build the kind of biceps you desire.
Refrences:
Source: https://legionathletics.com/best-biceps-workout/
By Michael Matthews
Ronnie Coleman once said that the best way to build muscle fast is to get a pump with fairly heavy weights. This may sound simplistic, but it says a lot about the choice of weights when training.
The bottom line? You need to use weights that are heavy enough for you but still create the muscle tension needed to generate a pump.
There are two ways to mess this up:
Problem 1: Using weights that are too heavy
This will not give you a solid pump. There is a point at which, if you increase the weight, you can still perform the exercise but you won't feel the target muscles doing the work. The tension is shifted and distributed to other muscles.
Moving maximal or near-maximal weights that do not generate a pump and during which you do not directly feel the load on the target muscles can be used to increase strength and muscle hardness. However, this type of training cannot be your primary approach if your goal is mainly to build muscle mass.
Problem 2: Using weights that are too light.
This will not lead to maximum muscle growth if used as a primary training method. Using very light weights can allow you to perform repetitions with constant tension: You move the weight slowly and consciously tense the target muscles. You can also perform high repetitions, descending sets and supersets and achieve a huge pump. However, the weight is not heavy enough to achieve maximum tension.
Using light weights to achieve a skin-bursting pump can support muscle growth by stimulating an increase in nutrient uptake and activation of mTOR. However, it cannot be your primary training strategy if you are training to build maximum muscle mass.
Try to find someone who has built an impressive body with only light pump training. These people exist, but they are often older and used to train with heavy weights for a long time. If you already have a lot of muscle, then you don't need as much heavy training to keep improving. But don't look at what the big guys are doing now - look at what they've been doing all their lives to get to where they are now.
Challenge yourself without losing the sense of muscle contraction. This is the key to building muscle mass.
To challenge yourself, perform between 4 and 8 hard repetitions per set, with a focus on 6 to 8 repetitions. This is hard enough to load the muscles properly, but not so hard that the tension shifts away from the target muscle. This approach will also let you do enough mechanical work to generate the muscle fiber exhaustion necessary for growth.
Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and temporary gains
When scientists studied strength athletes who trained to muscle failure, they found similar gains between those who used 30% of their maximum weight and those who used 80% of their maximum weight. However, the same study also concluded that those who trained at 80% saw roughly double the strength gains of those who only trained at 30% of their maximum weight.
This should tell us one or two things: either training with lighter weights stimulates more sarcoplasmic hypertrophy (an increase in cell volume without a growth in muscle fibers) OR the neural factors were not trained as much. Both scenarios include a major disadvantage.
Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy can be lost more quickly than hypertrophy of the actual muscle fibers. Although you can increase your sarcoplasmic hypertrophy to improve your overall package, the lion's share of your training should be aimed at increasing the size of your muscle fibers, which will make your muscles bigger AND stronger.
Neural efficiency
Neural efficiency is also important. The more efficient you are at recruiting your muscle fibers, the less fatigue your body needs to build the maximum amount of fibers. The faster you can recruit fast-twitch fibers during a set, the further you can stay away from muscle failure and the easier your body can recover, allowing you to use more volume or a higher frequency.
Tip: Train conservatively until muscle failure
Training to the point where you can't perform another repetition can build muscle - but only if you plan wisely. Here are the details you need to know.
By Christian Thibaudeau
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-train-to-failure-conservatively/
Find the right dose
In the right circumstances and at the right dose, it can be useful to perform your repetitions to muscle failure. But this isn't the only stimulus for growth - and it may not even be the best.
Yes, there is some research that shows that the weight used is not as important as going to muscle failure when it comes to hypertrophy. One experiment even showed that a light weight in the 30% of max range can lead to similar hypertrophy as a heavy weight in the 80% of max range.
This would suggest that muscle failure is needed to stimulate muscle growth. But nothing is ever that simple. You can't ignore all the bodybuilders and athletes who have built a lot of muscle mass without going to muscle failure.
Are you really going to muscle failure?
So is training to muscle failure really the stimulus for growth? Or is it just the result of what is needed for maximum growth?
Here's why training to muscle failure seems to work: when you reach the point of muscle failure, you've exhausted your muscle fibers so much that they can no longer produce enough force to move the weight. But the reason for muscle failure is not always exhaustion of the muscle fibers
Muscle failure can also be caused by a depletion of energy reserves (phosphagen or glycogen in the muscle) and mitochondrial failure can also occur at very high repetition rates.
Another common cause of muscle failure is hyperacidity in the muscle. Lactate (lactic acid) and hydrogen ions accumulate in the muscle as a result of mechanical work. This impairs the contraction of the muscle fibers - and if this impairment is too severe, muscle failure occurs.
If you perform sets lasting 40 to 60 seconds (12 to 20 repetitions), this is probably what causes muscle failure. In addition, people with primarily fast-twitch muscle fibers reach this point faster because these fibers produce more lactic acid. A person with more rapidly contracting muscle fibers can therefore reach muscle failure from acidosis or contractile impairment in as little as 25 to 30 seconds.
So reaching muscle failure does not necessarily mean that you have exhausted as many muscle fibers as you could have. Furthermore, in many exercises, muscle failure does not mean that the target muscle has reached the point of muscle failure. Other factors are more likely here: the muscles involved cannot produce enough force, correct posture and training mechanics cannot be maintained, which reduces efficiency, or the CNS is exhausted.
Conclusion
Training to muscle failure can be useful for certain types of training and for certain individuals, but it should not be used universally for all exercises. Sure, you can go to muscle failure to recruit more muscle fibers without having to use heavy weights. The nervous system practically always recruits the slowly contracting muscle fibers first. If the weight is too heavy for the strength of these fibers alone, your body will bring the medium-fast contracting muscle fibers into play. And if the weight becomes even heavier, the fast-twitch muscle fibers will also be called into action.
Muscle failure or not - try to achieve maximum muscle fiber recruitment
The average person needs to use about 80-85% of their maximum weight. People with a strong predominance of rapidly contracting muscle fibers or high neural efficiency may be able to achieve this with only 65-70% of their maximum weight. This of course applies to normal repetitions. If you perform explosive repetitions, you can also recruit the fast-twitch muscle fibers with a lighter weight.
The other way to recruit the fast-twitch muscle fibers is to use muscle fatigue to make the weight heavier. In a normal set, you lose 1 to 4% of your strength per repetition. The longer the set lasts, the more your strength decreases from repetition to repetition.
For example, in a set of 20 repetitions, your strength decreases more from repetition 19 to repetition 20 than from repetition 1 to repetition 2. This is because more fast-twitch muscle fibers are recruited during the later repetitions, which exhaust more quickly. There is also a greater accumulation of lactic acid (lactate).
And after several repetitions with 60% of your maximum weight, you can recruit as many muscle fibers as if you were using 80% of your maximum weight, because the weight becomes heavier relative to your current strength potential as you fatigue. During a set of 15 repetitions at 60% of your maximum weight, each repetition will feel like this:
Parameter at 60% of your 1RM weight:
- Repetition 1: feels like 60%
- Repetition 2: feels like 62%
- Repetition 3: feels like 63%
- Repetition 4: feels like 64%
- Repetition 5: feels like 65%
- Repetition 6: feels like 66%
- Repetition 7: feels like 67%
- Repetition 8: feels like 68%
- Repetition 9: feels like 70%
- Repetition 10: feels like 72%
- Repetition 11: feels like 74%
- Repetition 12: feels like 76%
- Repetition 13: feels like 78%
- Repetition 14: feels like 80%
- Repetition 15: feels like 83%
Remember that maximum muscle fiber recruitment occurs at 80 to 85% of your maximum weight. At repetition 14, the accumulated fatigue makes 60% of your maximum weight feel like 80%.
At the time of repetition 13 or 14, you will recruit all available muscle fibers due to accumulated fatigue. What would happen if we continued the 15 reps at 60% of max weight until muscle failure? Here is an overview of what the repetitions would feel like:
- Repetition 15: feels like 83%
- Repetition 16: feels like 85%
- Repetition 17: feels like 88%
- Repetition 18: feels like 91%
- Repetition 19: feels like 95%
- Repetition 20: feels like 100%
Muscle failure would probably occur on repetition 20. The first 13 repetitions, at the end of which the weight will feel like 78%, prepare the body for the repetitions that stimulate hypertrophy and build the fatigue that forces your body to recruit the higher threshold muscle fibers. Repetitions 14 to 18 are the repetitions during which you have achieved full muscle fiber recruitment and can stimulate the muscle fibers with the greatest growth potential.
The final repetitions are the danger zone where you are likely to reach the point of muscle failure. They put more stress on the central nervous system and affect your capacity to do more work. Think of each set where you reach the point of muscle failure as a set that you perform with your maximum weight for one repetition.
It is important to understand the following: Going to muscle failure has the same neurological effects as a set at your max weight because when you reach muscle failure, the relative weight of the resistance is slightly higher than your maximum strength potential at that moment. In other words, the repetition at which you reach the point of muscle failure is the repetition at which you can no longer move the weight upwards despite maximum effort.
Training to the point of muscle failure when building muscle is like always training with maximum weights when powerlifting. From a neurological point of view, this has the same effects because the last repetition is always a repetition with maximum effort: it can be very effective, but you will also burn out quickly.
Going to muscle failure is just a kind of insurance policy. It helps you ensure that you recruit as many muscle fibers as possible. The downside to an insurance policy is that it costs you something. The cost here is neuronal exhaustion and ultimately hormonal exhaustion.
If you want to do it anyway, then you should know which exercises it is okay to go to muscle failure on. Only do this with exercises that have low neurological demands - mainly isolation exercises and exercises performed on machines. Avoid going to muscle failure in multi-joint exercises.
Tip: Don't just get tired - get better
This is one of the most important lessons you can learn when it comes to choosing a training plan or a trainer.
By Joe DeFranco
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-dont-just-get-tired-get-better/
Any trainer can make you tired, but it takes a professional to make you stronger, faster and more agile. Athletes need to be aware of this fact when it comes to choosing a new class or training program. Unfortunately, they don't always distinguish between just getting tired and getting better.
An example
Let's say we have two performance coaches training two different athletes to improve their 40 meter sprint times.
Coach A spends an hour teaching his athlete the correct starting position and first step technique, while Coach B has his athlete perform jumping jacks for an hour without a break.
The athlete who has been doing jumping jacks for an hour will be more exhausted than the other athlete after training, but the other athlete will have improved during their training session.
The lesson
Athletes need to be careful when hiring a coach. There are a lot of ignorant trainers who make up for their lack of knowledge by completely beating their athletes up. A lot of personal trainers do the same thing and sell ebooks and online courses on top of that.
Don't get me wrong, I'm always in favor of hard work. I just like to make sure that hard work has a reason and a purpose.
Tip: Perform blitz cycles for your abs
Here's a way to plan your ab workouts for better results
By Christian Thibaudeau
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-blitz-cycles-for-abs/
Abs are made in the kitchen ... And in the gym
Your abs are like any other muscle group: for you to see them, you need to build them. In other words, you need to make them grow. It's not just about losing fat. Thick abs will be visible even if your body fat percentage increases. So what really works when it comes to training abs? Blitz cycles.
2 week blitz cycles
Train your abs with short, concentrated cycles that last two weeks. The rest of the time you don't train them directly. (Don't worry, they will still be stimulated by other exercises.) Why? Because abdominal muscles abruptly stop responding to exercise after two weeks.
The whole thing looks like this:
- 2 week blitz cycle: train your abs every day. Perform 4 to 5 sets of a superset consisting of one exercise with weight and one exercise without weight.
- 4-6 weeks without abdominal muscle training: Do not perform any direct abdominal muscle training during this time.
Blitz exercises with and without weight
Choose the abdominal exercises that you feel the most. Choose one exercise in which you can use external resistance and one exercise that you perform without additional weight.
Here is an example:
- A1. Cable crunches 8-10 repetitions
- A2. Swiss ball crunches, max reps (slow tempo, keep your abs tight for the whole set)
This is a superset in which you first perform the exercise with weight and then perform the exercise without additional weight without a break. Perform this superset three to five times.
- B1. Pullover crunches 8-10 repetitions
- B2. Hanging knee raises, maximum repetitions, slow tempo Perform this superset three to five times.
Bonus effect
Using blitz cycles for your abs will also help you build a better mind-muscle connection with your abs, making them more responsive to training in the future.
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-choose-the-right-weight/
By Christian Thibaudeau
Blood flow restriction training (BFR training for short), also known as occlusion training, has been causing a stir in the world of strength training and bodybuilding for some time now.
It sounds new, it sounds scientific and some describe it as revolutionary.
At first glance, it sounds like just another marketing ploy like many others, designed to sell magazines, equipment, pills and powders.
And if you're skeptical, that's fine - you should be.
The more time you spend educating yourself about muscle building, the clearer something will become: If something sounds too good to be true - if it sounds too easy, too effective and too innovative - it usually is.
But what about BFR training? What is it, how is it supposed to work and how effective is it? Is it perhaps even dangerous? And how do you do it correctly?
This article will give you answers to these questions and more. By the end of the article, you should have enough knowledge to decide whether BFR training is right for you and be able to use this training technique safely and effectively.
What is Blood Flow Restriction Training?
Blood Flow Restriction Training involves restricting the venous blood flow of a muscle group while it is being trained. This training technique is also known as occlusion training or KAATSU training.
The first thing you need to know about BFR training is that the goal is not to completely cut off the blood supply to the trained muscle. Rather, the goal is to slow the rate at which blood from that muscle returns to the heart.
This results in the blood remaining in the exercised muscle longer than normal, which - as you will see in a moment - affects muscle physiology in several ways.
How does Blood Flow Restriction Training work?
Blood is the body's delivery system for oxygen, nutrients, glucose, hormones, and other compounds that you need to stay alive, move weights, run, jump, and so on. For this reason, your muscles need a continuous supply of blood. Your heart pumps blood to your muscles via arteries - large veins whose walls themselves contain muscles. Blood is returned to your heart via veins, which are a different type of vein that runs through your entire body.
When you do resistance training - especially in a higher repetition range - the amount of blood that is pumped from your heart to your muscles exceeds the amount of blood that is transported from your muscles back to your heart. This is one of the reasons why you feel a pump when you train with weights.
The pump decreases when you rest between sets, as the arterial blood flow to the muscles decreases and the blood slowly flows back to the heart from the overcrowded muscles.
The aim of a BFR workout is to prolong this pump. This is achieved by tying a band around the exercising arm or leg during the workout, which allows blood to continue to flow to the muscle but restricts the return flow of blood.
The pump is great, of course, but how can it affect muscle growth? Read on to find out.
Can blood flow restriction training increase muscle growth?
The short answer is yes and there are several ways through which this happens. Let's look at these one by one.
When you exercise, your muscle cells burn energy at a much higher rate than they do at rest. As they do this, metabolic products of this process accumulate faster than the body can remove or break them down and some of these molecules act as anabolic signals, telling your body to increase muscle mass and strength.
From a technical perspective, this process is also known as metabolic stress, which is one of the three primary mechanical pathways to stimulate muscle growth (progressive overload and muscle damage are the other two).
Because BFR training reduces the rate at which these waste products are removed from the muscles, it allows them to remain in the muscle longer and have a greater anabolic effect on the muscle cells. In other words, this enhances the muscle-building effect of metabolic stress.
Resistance training also causes the muscle cells to fill with fluid and nutrients and enlarge. This cellular swelling acts as a further signal to stimulate muscle growth (1).
Occlusion training enhances the muscle-building effect of this effect by prolonging the time your muscle cells remain swollen (1). Scientific research shows that restricting blood flow can enhance the effects of certain genetic pathways involved in muscle growth.
As you can see, your body uses a complex network of chemical messengers to signal your cells to grow or shrink.
One of these growth signals is a protein known as mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR for short) and one of the signals that inhibits muscle growth is the protein myostatin. Studies have shown that BFT training increases mTOR levels while decreasing myostatin levels, creating an environment in the body that is conducive to muscle growth (2, 3).
Restricting blood flow can also stimulate muscle cells to release their own anabolic hormones via a process known as autocrine signaling (4) - and by keeping blood in the muscles for longer, these hormones have more time to interact with muscle cells.
Another way in which BFT training can help you build muscle faster has to do with what happens when you stress your muscles to the point of muscle failure, where you simply can't perform any more repetitions.
You may have heard that muscles only grow in response to the last reps of a set - the hard reps that make your muscles burn. While that's not entirely true, it's not completely wrong either.
One of the easiest ways to ensure continuous overload, damage and exhaustion of your muscles is to regularly stress them to the point of muscle failure - or close to the point of muscle failure (you finish the set one or two reps before reaching muscle failure).
When you do this, you activate a greater amount of muscle tissue than with lighter sets and this has positive effects on muscle development (5). This is why loading your muscles regularly to the point of muscle failure - or close to the point of muscle failure - is an important aspect of building muscle and strength.
In a normal set, you only reach this point at the very end of your set, after you have already performed several repetitions.
So if you want to increase the frequency with which your muscles reach muscle failure, you need to do more sets and many more repetitions. That's all well and good, but you can only do a certain amount of work per muscle group per week before you exceed your body's recovery capacity and overtraining symptoms occur. This is especially true if your training consists primarily of heavy multi-joint exercises.
BFR training is helpful in this regard because while it does not increase muscle activation levels more than normal training, it allows you to achieve a higher overall level of muscle activation during a training session with less muscle damage than normal training (6).
It is similar to rest-pause training in that it tricks your muscles into 'believing' you are using much heavier weights than is actually the case (7).
To summarize, these are the benefits of BFR training:
- Using lighter weights puts less stress on your ligaments, tendons and joints, allowing you to complete more volume with less risk of injury and overtraining (8). This can also be helpful if you are dealing with an injury or nagging pain. A BFR workout allows you to train more efficiently with lighter weights that (hopefully) won't aggravate your existing problems. Being able to achieve a useful muscle building stimulus with lighter weights can also be useful if you are training in a poorly equipped gym.
- Assuming you are relatively new to training with weights, scientific research shows that BFR sets in combination with heavy traditional sets can increase strength better than heavy sets alone (8).
- If you are de-loading or taking an extended time off from training, then you can use BFR training to maintain your level of development with far less muscle damage and fatigue.
- If, for whatever reason, you don't feel ready for a heavy training session, then you can use BFR Training to complete a less strenuous training session.
As you can see, there are numerous reasons to use this unusual training method.
The biggest question, however, is safety.
Is Blood Flow Restriction Training dangerous?
At first glance, restricting the supply of blood to the muscles during exercise sounds like a bad idea - something that could have a long list of unwanted side effects.
Surprisingly, however, scientific research shows that there is no evidence that BFR training could be dangerous (10). This makes sense when you realize that this technique only reduces blood flow out of the muscles and does not inhibit the flow of blood to the muscles, which would be dangerous.
This means that you need to make sure that the bands/straps are not too tight, but as you will see in a moment, this is not difficult to achieve. If they are so tight that they can cause problems, then they will be very uncomfortable and you will lose feeling in the relevant limbs, which you will definitely notice.
And even if you're one of those 'no pain, no gain' types who ignores any discomfort, scientific research suggests that even if the blood supply is completely cut off, it would take around two hours before nerve and muscle damage occurs (11). So you would have to go out of your way to harm yourself to make BFR training dangerous.
Another common concern is that attempting to artificially increase the pump and the muscle recruitment could damage the muscles in some way. This is not the case.
Here you should remember that the same effect occurs when you perform many repetitions to muscle failure. BFR training just makes it last longer.
How to perform Blood Flow Restriction Training correctly
The first thing you need to know about BFR training is that it is only suitable for training arms and legs. There is no viable way to restrict blood flow to other muscle groups.
And the first thing you need to do is find a way to restrict blood flow.
For the arms you can use the medical bandages used for blood donation and intravenous injections and for the legs you can use the bandages you normally use to bandage the knees. There are now also numerous bandages specially developed for BFR training, which you can find online in many stores.
When putting on the supports, you should make sure that they sit as close as possible to the base of the arms and legs. For the arms, this means as close as possible to the shoulder and for the legs as close as possible to the hip.
As far as the tightness of the ligaments is concerned, this should be in the range of 9 out of 10 for the arms and 7 out of 10 for the legs. (Translator's note: Studies on the subject have shown that a tightness of 4 to 6 out of 10 is completely sufficient and is significantly safer and more effective than bands that are too tight).
Once you have the right tools and know how to use them, you can start your BFR training. There are a few things you should know:
Continue your current strength training program
Remember that BFR is a training technique that should be integrated into a well-planned training program. It should not be all you do.
Save BFR training for your supporting exercises
You should continue to start your training sessions with heavy multi-joint exercises. These are the primary building exercises that nothing can replace, which is why you should save BFR training for later in your training session.
More specifically, you should use BFR training with your supporting exercises, which are usually isolation exercises that you can safely perform to muscle failure. Examples would be dumbbell curls, leg extensions, tricep presses and leg curls.
Start with 3 to 5 BFR sets per training session with a weight that allows you 20 to 30 repetitions (about 50% of your 1RM weight)
I also recommend a 2-0-2 cadence, which means 2 seconds to lower the weight, no rest, and 2 seconds to lift the weight.
That's all you need to know about training execution.
Avoid these 4 BFR mistakes
As simple as BFR training can be, there are plenty of ways to mess it up. Here are the four most common mistakes I see when it comes to BFR training.
Mistake #1: Using BFR training before it's really beneficial
Studies have shown that beginners don't benefit from BFR training as much as experienced exercisers (12). The reason for this is simple:
When you've just started training with weights, your body responds very well to any training. It already reaches its anabolic maximum through proper nutrition and training, which makes BFR training superfluous.
For this reason, you can safely do without BFR training as long as you have less than one year of training experience. Stick to traditional training. Injuries are of course an exception here. If you are injured as a beginner, you can of course use BFR training to add some volume to your training while you recover from your injury.
Mistake #2: Tightening the bandages too tightly
Remember that you shouldn't be trying to cut off the blood supply. Instead, you just want to reduce the blood flow back to the heart. For this, the optimal range for tightness is 7 to 9 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Mistake #3: Using weights that are too heavy
You'll probably be surprised at how quickly you run out of steam when you do BFR training for the first time. For this reason, it's better to use too little weight than too much. Start light and gradually increase the weight until it is in the optimal range.
Mistake #4: Using BFR training exclusively instead of heavy training.
BFR training is not a substitute for traditional training with weights. Even though it produces more metabolic stress, it doesn't lead to much muscle damage or overload, both of which are more potent stimuli for building muscle.
And then there's the problem of exercise limitations. If you want to build a strong and muscular body as quickly as possible, then you need to focus on heavy key exercises such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses and shoulder presses, and BFR training is only possible with squats.
The bottom line on blood flow restriction training
Bodybuilding magazines love to recycle old training methods as groundbreaking news to help you build muscle faster than ever before. Most of these are overrated or of uncertain effectiveness.
BFR training, however, is a legitimate, science-based way to get more muscle out of your workouts.
On its own, it can produce results similar to those of traditional training methods - and when combined with traditional training, the overall results will be enhanced.
However, BFR training is not worth the effort if you are new to training with weights, as it will not have any noticeable effects.
However, if you are an experienced exerciser or if you are recovering from an injury or have limited equipment available, then you may benefit from this type of training.
References:
- http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0052843
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20150565
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21900845
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25249278
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17326698
- http://jap.physiology.org/content/88/1/61
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24188499
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16871002
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24476782
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21410544
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2660095/
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21360203
Source: https://legionathletics.com/blood-flow-restriction-occlusion-training/
By Michael Matthews
Train your abs like a woman and not like a man
Before all the women point their fingers at the screen and condemn me for my supposed sexism, I would like to qualify this statement.
If you are a powerlifter, then you should indeed train your abs like a man. If you are a female athlete who uses weights to improve her performance on the field, then train your abs like a man. The same applies if you're a woman who doesn't care about social conventions and just wants to get as strong as possible.
However, most women want as small a waist as possible and do everything possible to achieve that coveted 7 to 10 waist to hip ratio that is so revered in Western society. For this reason, they are obsessed with toning their midsection. This becomes particularly problematic when they begin to spend a disproportionate amount of time training their midsection. They often perform hundreds or thousands of repetitions of crunches or side bends.
Don't train so heavy
Furthermore, in the pursuit of their wasp waist, many of these women start using more and more resistance, while forgetting that the abdominal muscles and other muscles of the midsection are like all other muscles and grow in response to volume and resistance.
Many women, and a lot of men too, have the strange notion that extra reps or extra resistance will somehow slim their waistline and shrink excess fat to reveal a beautiful six-pack of protruding rectus abdominus. Why these people think that the muscles of the midsection should somehow behave differently than other skeletal muscles of the body is a mystery.
Similarly, many of these ultimately beefy-looking people will hang enormous weights at their sides - as if they were carrying buckets of steel rivets to the 33rd floor of a skyscraper their crew is working on - and perform side bends in misguided efforts to expose their lateral abs.
If you train your abs or core with excessive volume or resistance, you will develop a manly waistline - it will get bigger in every direction. Of course, you may eventually develop a six-pack (underneath all that fat you're trying to shrink), but any of those muscles will be the size of a beer can in a very prominent six-pack, which probably has nothing to do with that slightly raised band of visible abs you're trying to achieve.
Do this instead
Minimal to moderate resistance. Reps in the 15 to 20 range, not the 500 to 1000 range, for 10 minutes instead of 60.
The rest of your body? That's the stuff you should train like a man.
Tip: What natural trainers can learn from Arnold
No, natural trainers shouldn't train like Schwarzenegger, but they should take a leaf out of Arnold's book.
By Christian Thibaudeau
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-what-natural-lifters-can-learn-from-arnold/
The magic of training frequency
Arnold was known for training his training partners to the ground. He is one of the rare exceptions to have an extremely resilient nervous system and muscle fiber type that allowed him to be really strong and still have amazing set-to-set endurance. He also had an unparalleled pain tolerance.
Arnold was one of the rare exceptions who could go to muscle failure on 2 or 3 sets of an exercise and then continue to train and make the fifth set the best set of the session. He could also tolerate training for several hours, performing up to 60 work sets.
I don't recommend Arnold's high-volume approach, but the high-frequency approach is golden - especially for natural exercisers. Arnold routinely trained each muscle three times a week, which may very well be the optimal frequency for maximizing growth and muscle maintenance while dieting.
The benefits of high frequency training
1. a steroid-free exerciser must use their training to stimulate protein synthesis. The more workouts you do (that provide sufficient stimulus to stimulate this process), the more you will grow. The trick is to stimulate protein synthesis/anabolism in a muscle as often as possible without doing too much work, which would lead to excessive muscle damage (from which steroid-free exercisers cannot recover as quickly), excessive depletion of muscle glycogen stores (glycogen is highly anti-catabolic) and an increase in cortisol levels (which suppresses protein synthesis).
2. training a muscle more frequently also makes you better at recruiting that muscle. Muscle fiber recruitment is a motor skill, and like any other motor skill, the frequency of training is most important - and more important than the quality. If you are better at recruiting a muscle and its fibers, all your sets will stimulate a lot more growth.
However, you should realize that for a steroid-free bodybuilder, volume and frequency are inversely proportional to each other. You should not use high volume and high frequency at the same time. Even advanced exercisers who choose a high frequency are well advised to reduce their volume.
What you should do
Use either a full body approach 4 days a week or an upper body/lower body split 6 days a week. With such a high frequency, you only need one exercise per muscle group and three sets per exercise: a moderate intensity set to prepare, a demanding set with conservative effort and then a heavy set.
Use different training methods or set/repetition schemes (and exercises) for the 3 to 4 different training sessions.
Tip: Don't blindly follow a trainer's program
Be the boss, think for yourself and stop being the doormat
By Dani Shugart
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-dont-blindly-follow-any-program-or-coach/
Don't think for a second that every training session has to be done as planned and if you're working with a trainer, remember that trainers aren't omniscient either. They can't know what's going on in your body. They can't feel your pain and they don't know your energy levels. All they can use as a guide is the way you move and what you tell them.
Speak up or modify yourself. This advice applies whether you're following a WOD, an online program, a highly detailed plan from your competition coach, or even training directly with a personal trainer.
If something doesn't feel right and you still go all out to follow your coach's instructions or feel 'hardcore', then you risk injury. Overdo it too often and you'll end up with a chronically weakened immune system, which isn't exactly super hardcore. Nothing will set you back further than having to train around this crap - especially if you get sick for weeks at a time.
The problem of wanting to please everyone
This type of person wants to make their coach proud. They worry about being perceived as too lazy, so they try to push themselves harder, do more reps, get faster, have perfect technique and move heavier and heavier weights - even when their energy stores are completely depleted and they sense something is wrong. These people strive to remain stoic and dedicated when their bodies are beginning to fall apart.
If you recognize yourself in this description, take a step back and examine your motives. Find out what is really the most important thing. Is it making sure you're a badass in the present moment? Or is it to make incremental progress on a path that will keep you doing iron sports your whole life?
Don't fall for the former. And if you have a certain type of personality, then you need to exercise restraint. Remind yourself not to push yourself to your limits at every opportunity that comes your way.
Be the boss
If you're working with a hard bone of a coach who pushes you to shake everything, realize that YOU are the boss. You know when you are giving it your all.
You do this for his satisfaction. You are not an Olympic athlete. And your job probably doesn't depend on it either. So take some pressure off your shoulders. Training should make your life better, not worse.
If you pay someone to train you, then you can easily fire that person. And that trainer will respect you more if you tactfully remind him or her of this from time to time. Don't be his doormat or his trophy. Your coach works for you. So have those tough conversations without being passive aggressive and ask for what you need.
There are a lot of excellent coaches who want you to improvise in your workouts when necessary. Find one of these. This is the kind of trainer who trusts you to put in the effort - regardless of the training session. If you're already a dedicated and experienced exerciser, you probably won't need a militaristic coach cracking the whip. And really, no one needs a patronizing coach.
Tip: Don't train like a competitive figure class athlete
Here's why mimicking your favorite athlete breaks many female exercisers, plus a better approach.
By Christian Thibaudeau
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-dont-train-like-a-figure-competitor/ Time for a reality check
We tend to imitate those who look and are the way we would like to be. Some women see a fitness athlete and assume that she knows the secret to getting in shape.
In reality, the majority of these women look the way they do not because of the way they work out, but because their desire to look good is more important to them than enjoying their lives.
They are good at following diets that are closer to starving than nourishing and they also often resort to drugs (for fat loss and muscle gain), risking their long-term health.
I know many who do 90-120 minutes of cardio first thing in the morning - and that's in addition to the 90-120 minutes of exercise later in the day. And while I admire that dedication, few women can pull that off in their daily lives.
Are CrossFit women better?
I coach a lot of CrossFit competitors and enthusiasts, and the average CrossFit woman looks significantly leaner and in better shape than the average wannabe fitness athlete.
Look at CrossFit women and female athletes and you'll see women who, on an average day, are in better shape than would-be gym class athletes are - and without insane dietary restrictions. In fact, these women are often in better shape than real fitness athletes who are not preparing for a competition. And do you only want to look good for three months of the year?
I'm not suggesting that all women should take up CrossFit. Yes, it's better than the average fitness class athlete's workout, but it comes with its own set of problems.
My wife is a good example. She loves CrossFit and since she started doing it, she doesn't want to do any other workout. The problem is that she hasn't been able to work out for more than 3 weeks at a time for the past 3 years. Injuries keep forcing her to take breaks. This is not good for consistent progress.
The solution? Train for performance
Use an approach inspired by CrossFit. This could look like this:
- Use high density workouts (short rest intervals, like complexes or circuits)
- Concentrate mainly on heavy multi-joint exercises: Squats, front squats, deadlifts, shoulder presses and the like. Don't be afraid to increase the weights as long as you can maintain good exercise form.
- Learn the Olympic weightlifting exercises
- Work on being able to perform unassisted dips and pull-ups.
- Practice loaded carries like farmer's walks.
- Pull or push a weight sled
- Use full body workouts or an upper body/lower body split and forget about more complex training splits.
Tip: How to improve your mobility and stability during squats
One exercise will help you with both. The result? Heavier and better squats.
By Jesse Irizarry
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-how-to-improve-squat-mobility-stability/
Start from the lowest position
Coaches often talk about muscle tension and posture at the highest point of the movement, when you're already standing upright. Yet despite their best efforts, athletes who perform well at the highest point of the movement look terrible when they go all the way down or move from the bottom to the top.
While mobility and stability exercises are traditionally used to address this problem, improving a movement requires practicing that movement while pushing yourself to your limits. Bottom-up squats teach you to hold the tight position at the lowest point of the movement while forcing mobility and stability changes.
If you can learn to generate as much tension and stability at the lowest position as you do at the highest point of the movement while increasing your strength at the beginning of the movement, you will be able to move more weight during conventional squats.
Bottom Up Squats
- Set the safety rack in a position that is below the one that allows your mobility and stability. The goal is to test your limits, but poor execution will never produce the desired results.
- Get under the bar, making sure you feel pressure on your entire foot and press into the floor to generate tension in your hips and glutes.
- Breathe deeply into your abdomen, exhale forcefully, tighten your abdominal muscles and then breathe again into your tight core.
- Move upwards with perfect form while driving the movement with your hips.
- Take your time in the lowest position and make sure to exhale and inhale in the tensed position before each repetition.
Tip: How to sprint without injuring yourself
Sprinting is like jogging for people who want to look good naked. Here we show you how to get started without hurting yourself.
By Lee Boyce
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-how-to-sprint-without-getting-injured/
Sprint with caution
The bigger and heavier you are, the more power you can potentially develop against resistance. Intense exercises like sprints require extremely aggressive concentric and eccentric contractions, which is especially true if you're not used to going all out on the cinder track.
Sprinting can lead to strains and even tears in muscles, regardless of technique. Here's one way to prevent this.
How to sprint safely
- Always leave something in the tank. You're sprinting to improve your fitness and to reap the athletic and health benefits, not to compete. A trained sprinter knows that there is a big difference between sprinting at 90% effort and maximum effort. Staying at 90% will keep you significantly more relaxed and promote smoother movements.
- Stick to longer sprint distances. 30 and 40 meter distances will tempt you to tense up more and just go for a mad sprint regardless. Sprinting at 85 to 90% of your maximum speed is still sprinting. Give yourself a little more time and do a few 100 to 150 meter sprints. Not only will this help you take bigger strides, but it will also give you more time under tension and really push your fitness.
- For a good sprint training session, perform appropriate agility drills, stretches and warm-up sprint drills. After a few preparatory 30 to 40 meter sprints (with as much rest as necessary in between), perform 2 x 80m, 2 x 100m and 4 x 120m sprints. Take your time walking back to your start line between sprints and pause for another 30 to 60 seconds before starting the next sprint.
- Use a 'falling' start rather than exploding from complete rest (https://youtu.be/5PY-V0jFipo). Gradually changing the angles of the joints will make it easier for you to get into a suitable position and less likely to 'shock' the muscles during the first few strides. If you want to be on the safe side, start the sprint after 5 to 10 steps of jogging.
Can't I just use the treadmill?
It's not ideal. Sprinting on a treadmill has a speed limit in the range of 15 to 18 km/h, which is simply not sprinting. Elite athletes can reach almost 40 km/h in a 100 meter sprint. Even if you are probably not an elite athlete, it is still realistic to assume that you can exceed the maximum speed of a treadmill.
In addition, instead of active hip extension, the band pulls your leg through the movement. It's best to learn good sprinting form and get out there.
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-ladies-stop-training-abs-like-a-man/
From TC Luoma
1. you do not have a training log
If you don't have a training log, then get one. Here's why.
You trained your chest last Monday. You did 9 reps with 120 kilos on the bench. Now it's time for the next chest training session. You check your trusty logbook in case you forgot the numbers to hit today. It tells you,
"Here are your miserable numbers from your last training session. I really hope you don't slack off today like you did last time."
At least that's the theory behind a training log, and that's definitely what mine said the last time I opened it. I knew that I couldn't be as rubbish as last time. And that if I wasn't going to be less bad, I was going to be even worse than last time.
Then I performed 10 reps at 120 kilos and it said, "that's better, but still bad..."
This is the way I grow. My training log expects me to perform better to get better. To train harder and surpass my previous performances.
One of the most satisfying things in the world is opening my training log to find out what my damn numbers were, because when I wrote them down, my hands were shaking with exertion. The other most satisfying feeling was writing down bigger numbers than last time.
If your training log tells you in six months that your numbers haven't gotten any bigger, then you won't look any different than you do now.
2. you suffer from training ADHD
One of the most unproductive things you can do is look at a mega-muscular guy's training and somehow come to the conclusion that his current training style is responsible for how he looks today.
Anyone who has achieved a body or strength level that is admirable has usually gone through an evolution that has molded his or her training into what it is today. I was lucky because in my early years I picked up some really basic principles regarding building muscle and strength - principles that became ingrained in my mind. Pick up the weight and do reps with it. Do more reps the next week than the previous week. And do this with a handful of basic exercises. Do this for years and you will become more muscular.
And that's exactly what I did. I picked a weight that I could do 8 reps with. Then every week I tried to do more reps with that weight. When I could do 12 reps, I increased the weight.
That's all I did for 90% of my first decade of training. I may have changed a few things here and there, but for the most part this was my training. My exercises of choice at the time were:
- Squats
- Deadlifts with straight legs
- Pull-ups with an underhand grip
- T-bar or barbell rows
- Bench press
- Dumbbell incline bench press
- Overhead press (dumbbell and barbell)
I added the usual mix of curls, tricep workouts, dips, pull-ups, etc., but I stuck with progressive overload on these exercises. I knew I would become more muscular if I could increase from 8 reps with 35 kilo dumbbells to 12 reps with 45 kilo dumbbells. I knew that if I could go from 8 reps with 115 kilos of dumbbells to 8 reps with 150 kilos of dumbbells, my back would get bulkier.
That was it. For a decade or more. Today, you will have a hard time getting a trainee to stick with a program for 2 weeks.
If you want to grow - and I mean really grow - then you need to stick to tried and tested principles of muscle growth and a few selected exercises that you will perform for the next 10 years. There. There is no magic workout program out there that will turn you into a beast overnight.
3. you are married to modest, unproductive exercises
During my growing years, I limited myself to a few exercises and did them for a long time. These were exercises that felt natural to me and that I really enjoyed.
Because these exercises felt good to me and because I enjoyed doing them, I made fairly consistent progress. And because I was able to make fairly consistent progress, I achieved good gains.
I mention this because I must get a thousand emails a month with questions like "Can I do this or should I do that?"
I don't know. Can you? Should you? These are questions I can't answer. But my question to you is "Why don't you try it?" This way you will find out. This is the way I found out which exercises I needed to focus on in my training.
I didn't have to ask anyone for permission. Heck, there was no one I could have asked. I didn't take a piece of paper to write a letter to Dorian Yates after reading the latest flex assignment and ask his permission to do an exercise he recommended.
Here are two questions you should ask yourself to make your decision easier - without having to ask permission:
a. Does this exercise have a high potential for progressive overload?
Tight bench presses, for example, have a much greater potential for increasing weight than kickbacks. If you're a beginner or somewhat advanced trainee, why on earth would you choose kickbacks as your favorite triceps exercise to build up if you're using a weak 60 kilos on a close bench press? You still have a lot of work to do on the close bench press.
b. Do you enjoy performing the exercise
Not everyone likes squats. Some people have body mechanics that make squats uncomfortable regardless of how they are performed, which is why they don't enjoy the exercise. Squats on the multi press or leg press, on the other hand, feel more natural to many of these exercisers and they also feel this exercise better in their thighs. I don't give much weight to the opinions of some guys on the internet who claim that the alternatives I just mentioned are worthless when I don't even know if these people have ever entered a gym.
Anyway, if you throw the answers to these two questions together, you have a nice cocktail for gains. Stop doing junk that you hate or that is generally unproductive and that you only use because someone on the internet says you have to use it.
4. you focus on insignificant stuff
I feel sorry for many beginners who really want to grow. They live in a time where there is more information about training than ever before and yet people are more confused than ever when it comes to getting more muscular and stronger.
A big part of this has to do with the fact that sects of the training community love to present information in a way that reads like an excerpt from a Chinese nuclear science course. In many cases, I would have no idea what these people are talking about if I didn't have a video on the subject.
Let's take side lifting. Do you really think that making sure your pinky is in a certain position is the key to solving your problems with lagging shoulder muscles? Probably not. I'm not saying that exercise execution isn't important. It is. But it doesn't have to be so damn complicated either. Here's a pretty simple way to know if your exercise execution is good:
- When you perform an exercise, can you feel the target muscle working?
- Do you achieve a strong maximum contraction?
- Do you initiate the start of the movement with the target muscle?
If your answer to all of the above questions is yes, then you are probably doing everything right. If you don't feel the target muscle contracting powerfully, then there is probably a reason for this. In most cases it is one of the following:
- You're using too heavy a weight to maintain the mind-muscle connection.
- Another muscle group is overly dominant and is doing a lot of the work in this exercise.
- You are not initiating the exercise with the target muscle, which is probably related to the first problem.
The answer to all these questions is really simple: use a lighter weight or choose a different exercise.
5. you have no idea what brutally hard training is
"Volume is the driver of muscle growth."
"There are studies that show that..."
I know many haven't realized it yet, but there are some things that studies can't account for. Studies rarely look at subjects who are advanced enough in their training to effectively train to muscle failure.
Training with brutally hard effort is a lost art. Not to mention that training brutally hard will naturally limit your training volume and eliminate unnecessary volume. Even though I keep harping on it, training brutally hard has benefits like time efficiency and metabolic benefits that you won't get from volume training.
Forget the studies, because every study has its limitations. They usually even admit this in the end. A group of college students with 1 to 2 years of training experience in the weight room who trained for 8 weeks has no relevance to advanced exercisers.
Instead, I'm going to show you the results of real-world training programs that don't fit so perfectly into a study, but still build mountains of muscle. Doggcrapp training, for example, has probably produced more mass monsters than any other training methodology.
Do you know what this training is based on? Train brutally hard for a few rest-pause sets, increasing reps and weights with each session.
I asked a bunch of really advanced guys how many real work sets they do for specific muscle groups during a training week. The average for legs? Six to eight sets in a training week. In total. And that's quadriceps and hamstrings combined. Certainly not twenty, as studies and "learned" trainers recommend.
If you are a beginner or somewhat advanced, then you may not have developed the ability to train at this extreme effort yet. And you will probably need more volume to compensate.
But you should still develop the ability to have that kind of "grow or die" mentality whenever you enter the weight room - and not focus on a certain number of sets because some study recommends it.
6. you pay too much attention to every gram
It's strange what social media has done to the world of weight training. It's nothing unusual to find a group of ridiculous clowns with a full film crew in a gym blocking off entire workout areas to perform stupid exercises for the sake of a social media post.
Their equally stupid followers who see this post then do exactly what they see: they imitate what their idols claim they do.
A few decades ago, a powerlifter could compete at a very high level for a very long time because there was an off-season during which he reduced the weights on the bar and focused on sets with more reps to preserve his joints.
Longevity is not something many people think about these days, which is why you often see athletes who dominate in weight training for a while and then disappear from the scene due to recurring injuries. It's hard to take your foot off the gas when every single training session is based on "likes" and "views".
In fitness and bodybuilding, there are men and women who basically follow a competition diet all year round to stay in shape for their Instagram photos. For those with massive amounts of followers, I can understand that. It becomes a profession and you earn a lot of money from it.
I don't blame anyone here for trying to make a living, but if you're a second-rate guy who weighs just 65 kilos and tries to keep his definition to the gram, then that's exactly why you're not growing.
With a few exceptions, I have yet to see a single person with impressive body development who hasn't spent time stuffing serious amounts of food into themselves. Show me a guy who is a lean 90 to 100 kilos and I'll show you a guy who has spent a significant amount of his training life struggling to find the energy to tie his shoes.
My two strongest growth spurts in terms of muscle growth were characterized by eating so much that I hated my life. It's true that you can't force muscle growth to any degree by eating more food, but at some point you should give that good old college approach a shot.
Accumulating more and more muscle protein over time is a slow and arduous process. And that process is even slower and more frustrating if you're caught in the no man's land between "I want to look like an animal but eat like a lean model".
If you're in your forties like me, then this is probably not an intelligent or viable option. It's not my fault that you've wasted the last few years hitting the gym or eating like a model. However, if you're a teenager or in your twenties and you're not eating in a way that puts the fear of God into little kids, then you're missing out on a window of opportunity for accelerated growth.
I've described some of my eating phases from my Fat Boy days in previous articles and received snide comments that they would bring on diabetes and heart attacks. I never said it was healthy. There's nothing healthy about pushing your limits on food and barbells when you're trying to maximize your genetic potential. But that's why I now weigh 110 kilos with visible abs, while no one recognizes that you're training with weights when you're wearing a T-shirt.
At the time I was building this foundation, there was no Facebook or Instagram. My training and nutrition were focused on my desires and goals - not on the approval of a bunch of stranger voyeurs.
7 You're overlooking what matters most.
Here's what matters most if you want to get better:
Break personal records for working out, break personal records for eating, and break personal records for sleeping. Get used to being uncomfortable when it's time to eat and exercise.
Stop switching from exercise program to exercise program every 3 weeks. Find 6 or 8 basic exercises that have a high potential for progressive overload and get brutally strong on those exercises.
Stop worrying about what others are doing or not doing. It has no relevance to your training. It's none of your business. You should be too damn busy eating, sleeping and training to even notice.
Are you looking for motivation? Do you need to clear your head when lack of progress demotivates you? One of my favorite quotes about what it takes to get better comes from Dr. Ken Leistner:
"I like to tell doubting exercisers that it's simply a matter of increasing the weight on the bar or doing one extra repetition. If you get to the point where you can do 20 squats at 180 kilos, 15 reps of deadlifts with your legs straight at 180 kilos, 10 reps of curls at 90 kilos, 10 reps of shoulder presses at 180 kilos, 10 dips at 140 kilos around your waist and pull-ups at 50 kilos, don't you think you'll be muscular? I mean terribly muscular. AND strong? Obviously!"
That's all it takes.
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/7-reasons-youre-stuck-at-medium/
By Paul Carter
