Training

The legendary bodies of yesteryear are still the gold standard of body development. Few of today's bodybuilders manage to combine mass and symmetry as perfectly as these classic bodybuilders did. And today's weightlifting competitions are rarely as impressive as those of the old school strongmen.

History is the best teacher - but only if we are willing to learn its lessons instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. Simplify things with these tried and tested lessons.

George Hackenschmidt

"Health can never be separated from strength."

For decades, fitness focused on jogging, walking, cycling and other methods of improving aerobic endurance. Fortunately, the tide has turned in favor of strength training. Old school wrestler and strongman George Hackenschmidt has emphasized the importance of strength and longevity throughout his 90 years of life - and today, science is finally backing up his words.

One example is a 44-year cohort study of 2239 men that looked at the relationship between grip strength and longevity. For those who lived the longest, grip strength in midlife was in the top third. These men did not smoke, were physically active outdoors and had mothers who had lived a long time.

There is no doubt that biological factors play an important role in longevity. But smart lifestyle choices such as staying active and building strength also provide a protective mechanism against age-related strength and muscle loss. Heavy strength training will lead to a longer and better life.

Reg Park

"Too many bodybuilders spend too much time training the smaller muscle groups like the biceps at the expense of the larger muscle groups like the thighs. And then they wonder why they never see gains in muscle mass and strength."

Best known as the original Hercules and mentor to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Reg Park was an absolute monster in the weight room and hell-bent on building as much strength and symmetrical muscle mass as possible. Today, his simple training style will work for virtually anyone.

Limit your isolation training until further notice. Focus on the basic exercises first to train your biggest muscles. And then aim for stronger muscles if you have any hope of growing them.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold may be known for his high-volume split training by muscle group, but don't be fooled. Arnold's original training was based on a foundation of heavy weight training and full body training programs, in fact, Arnold only began to modify his training program to focus on the insane volume with muscle group splits that he is known for today when he added performance enhancing substances to his training and began to focus full time on bodybuilding.

Arnold recommends that beginners start with a full-body training program like his "Golden Six" program, which is performed three times a week. This program looks like this:

1. Squats: 4x10
2. Barbell bench press with wide grip: 3x10
3. Pull-ups: 3 x maximum number of repetitions
4. Neck press: 4x10
5. Barbell curls: 3x10
6. Sit-ups with bent knees: 3-4 x maximum number of repetitions

If you're a beginner, it's easy to be tempted to train like a professional bodybuilder's pre-competition workout. Don't. You don't have the basic skills, the banned performance-enhancing substances or the ability to focus your whole lifestyle on your training to cope with the demands of these workouts.

Learn a lesson from history: "Almost every damn legendary body was built on a foundation of heavy full-body training with basic exercises."

Lee Haney

"Stimulate instead of destroy."

Lee Haney, the eight-time Mr. Olympia champion, dominated bodybuilding in the eighties and early nineties. His words "stimulate rather than destroy" serve as words of caution for those who want to build strength and muscle: there is a fine line between training hard with maximum recovery and an increased risk of injury combined with a risk of overtraining with all its negative consequences.

Push yourself hard - but if you notice that you feel exhausted and your training quality is decreasing from training session to training session, then back off a little. Train hard, increase the weight on the bar and feel your muscles doing the work, but don't chase muscle failure as your sole goal.

Sig Klein

"Use the clean and press with two dumbbells."

Sig Klein was known from his twenties to his forties for his Herculean strength. His feats of strength were extraordinary for a man who was just 138 centimetres tall and weighed 67 kilos. Klein performed overhead presses with over 105 kilos and strict form, one-arm snatches with 73 kilos and one-arm deadlifts with 95 kilos.

Klein is known for his love of the dumbbell deadlift - a true total body and power exercise. At his peak, Sig said that fewer than 12 men in all of America could perform 12 repetitions of the deadlift with 35-pound dumbbells. Even today, this is still a challenge: try to do 12 repetitions of the deadlift with 35 kilo dumbbells. If you can do this with good form, then you are one of the chosen few.

During Klein's time, leg training was not particularly widespread. He noticed that most men only trained their upper body and some even only trained their arms (sound familiar?). He is often referred to as the first "fitness professional" to recommend plenty of leg and back training to build true strength.

Eugen Sandow

"Life is movement. As soon as you stop moving, you are dead. Choose to live."

Eugen Sandow, who was born in 1867, is known as the father of modern bodybuilding. The trophy awarded today to the winner of the Mr. Olympia title is a statue of Sandow.

His message makes more sense today than ever: move more. Compared to bodybuilders of today, the old school strength athletes were known for their amazing strength and aesthetic body development, as well as their health and well-being.

Working out with weights and maintaining strength is essential for both appearance and longevity, but simply doing four workouts with weights a week shouldn't be all you do. Get outside for a walk. Do the occasional physical work or take part in a competition or challenge outside the gym. Training with weights is great, but as Emerson said, health is the real wealth. Don't just look after your strength and performance, look after your health too.

Ronnie Coleman

"Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to move brutally heavy weights!" Even if you don't have to train at Coleman's insane intensity, heed this message: big muscles require heavy weights.

Heavy training elicits an anabolic hormonal response to build muscle while improving central nervous system function and muscle fiber recruitment. This means that heavy training creates the hormonal environment, overload and muscle fiber recruitment needed for maximum muscle growth. The message is that building strength allows you to generate more stress on the body during your training sessions and drive muscle growth.

Vince Gironda

"If you don't like what you see in the mirror, what difference does it make what the scale says?"

Men and women alike are obsessed with the number their scales tell them. However, what they should really be focusing on is their true body composition. The mirror is the ultimate judge - not your weight.

Most men who want to look more muscular should start by getting lean - the ideal would be 10% body fat or less. This alone will make you look better and also make building pure muscle exponentially more effective.

If you are a naturally lean guy, be realistic about your expectations. Can you expect to build the body of an American football player? In most cases, the average 175- to 185-pound man with a body weight of 75 to 85 kilos will look much better with a body fat percentage of 8 to 12% than with a weight of 100 kilos or more, with a body fat percentage of 15% or more.

If fat loss is your goal, measure the circumference of your waist, chest, arms and thighs every two weeks and take photos in your underwear to compare your progress. The scale will rarely cooperate. Most guys end up losing lean muscle mass and fat at the same time. They see that the weight on the scale doesn't change and throw in the towel.

Use other tools to assess your progress - especially the mirror. This may be humbling at first, but you'll be amazed at how little the weight on the scale means when you're transforming your body.

Dorian Yates

"If I'd listened to my instincts, I'd be in a pub picking up women instead of under a barbell doing squats at 200 kilos."

The six-time Mr. Olympia is best known for his HIT style training and performing only one maximum work set per exercise to build his amazing body. Nevertheless, the above quote is important. To radically change your body, maximum intensity in the gym alone is not enough. You need to be extremely disciplined and focused on your goals.

One excellent hour in the gym cannot make up for 23 hours of modest eating, drinking beer and watching TV all night or partying instead of sleeping. For most, the workout is the easy part. But if you want to maximize your efforts in the gym, then you need to focus as much on your diet, lifestyle and sleep as you do on what you do with the weights.

Dan John

"Everything will work - but only for a while."

As important as it is for beginners to master the basic movement patterns, there will come a time for everyone to make changes to their training. For fat loss, the most effective exercises are usually the exercises you are least efficient at. In other words, the exercise you are worst at will generally give you the best results.

But what about building strength and muscle mass? There's a fine line between jumping back and forth between different training programs and making subtle changes to your technique to prevent overuse and generate a new stimulus. If you reach a plateau in your training, try changing your stance, your grip or the tempo of your exercises for a few weeks. This is usually enough to change the neural recruitment patterns in your exercises for a "new" stimulus without having to start a completely new training program.

Or consider a daily undulated periodization (DUP) approach. One such example was popularized by Charles Poliquin in 1988 when he theorized that strength training programs lose their effectiveness after just two weeks. He supported two-week cycles of training blocks, alternating between volume and strength blocks.

Poliquin emphasized that alternating volume and strength blocks eliminates the physiological and psychological stagnation that comes from over-emphasizing specialization in volume or intensity.

While leaving the exercises unchanged, you could simply alternate your intensity and repetition patterns for a new stimulus.

This fluctuation of intensity and volume is enough to improve strength and mass gains, as well as keep your training stimulus fresh and new enough.

References:

1. Poliquin C. Five steps to increasing the effectiveness of your strength training program. National Strength and Conditioning Association. 10(3). 1988.
2. Rantanen, T., Masaki, K., He, Q., Ross, W., Willcox, B., & White, L. (2011). Midlife muscle strength and human longevity up to age 100 years: a 44-year prospective study among a decedent cohort. American Aging Association, Jun (34), 3rd ser., 563-570. doi:10.1007/s11357-011-9256-y

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/10-lessons-from-the-strength-legends

By Erich Bach

Neurotype 3 - The damage avoider

Part 1 of this article series included an introduction to neurotyping. In a nutshell, the baseline levels of 3 neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine) significantly influence your personality, dictating how you should train and how you should eat to achieve the best possible results. Part 2 covered the first neuroprofile: the constant seeker of novelty. Part 3 dealt with the second neuroprofile: The Reward Addict.

In this part, we'll cover the best training, nutrition and supplement plan for Type 3 - the type associated with low serotonin levels and who doesn't like change, but loves to master a routine activity. "Tech freaks" fall into this pro. In the field of psychology, this type is also known as harm avoiders.

Optimal training for neurotype 3

1 - Training preparation

Type 3 can be held back by fear of injury and tends to be more sensitive to pain. If anxiety is too high, this can lead to tension, particularly affecting the flexors (anterior shoulder muscles, pectorals, leg flexors, biceps and abdominals), which can impair movement mechanics and make these exercisers more susceptible to injury. Both of these elements - pre-workout anxiety and tension - can cause these exercisers to shut down when it's time to train.

The key to training preparation is to reduce the feeling of pain and convince this type of exerciser that they can perform the desired training session without risk. These exercisers also need to work more on their parasympathetic nervous system. Dr. John Rusin's dynamic warm-up is great for them, and they need to emphasize phase 1 and 2 the most. They also need to do more myofascial release work (fascia roll, etc.), as well as flexibility training.

Activation training is not as important for them. If you do too much of this, it can even have a negative impact by making you more susceptible to stress and increasing cortisol levels even further. They may even forgo activation training altogether.

Basically, this type doesn't need to rev themselves up at all before training - nor should they. This will only further increase anxiety, flexor tension and cortisol release during the training session.

When it comes to the heavy basic exercise of the day, this type needs more preparation sets than activation sets to feel confident in their technique. For these exercisers, I recommend a technique called compensating tension (CTT). Here, the lack of weight is compensated for by increasing muscle tension. It's basically about making a light weight feel heavy. This is achieved by generating as much tension as possible against a light weight.

With squats, for example, this could look like this:

• Press your feet firmly into the floor. Try to turn your hips outwards.
• Push the bar as hard as you can.
• Consciously tense your upper back hard.
• Tighten your abdominal muscles hard. Imagine that you are about to get punched in the stomach.

Then go down while maintaining maximum tension. Keep these muscles tensed during the entire upward movement. Make each repetition as heavy as possible.

Perform 4 to 5 sets of this type with progressively heavier weights and then move on to your warm-up sets. For your working sets, you're still using tension at the beginning, but now you're focusing on using excellent technique and not on making each repetition heavier.

The whole thing would look like this

Preparation sets:

• Set 0: bar x 10
• Set 1: 165 x 5 reps
• Set 2: 195 x 5 repetitions
• Set 3: 215 x 5 repetitions
• Set 4: 235 x 5 repetitions
• Set 5: 255 x 5 repetitions

All these sets are performed at a slow pace and with maximum tension.

Work sets:

• Set 6: 275 x 5 repetitions
• Set 7: 275 x 5 repetitions
• Set 8: 275 x 5 repetitions
• Set 9: 275 x 5 repetitions

2 - Training variation

Neurotype 3 exercisers do not need much variety. For them, variety itself can be a stressor. Also, if the workout doesn't turn out the way they expected - like if the trainer suddenly changes the program or they can't perform the planned exercises - then this will throw them out of the training zone and increase their anxiety, which in turn will lead to an increase in cortisol levels.

The actual exercises should remain the same over a long period of time (for up to 12 weeks), which is especially true for the heavy basic exercises. If variation is necessary to prevent habituation, then it is best to change what will cause the least sensation of change: Pause intervals, tempo, exercise order and set/repetition patterns - in that order.

Other changes need to be made very carefully, little by little. Don't change everything at once. Start with support exercises that require less complex skills and pose less of a threat.

This neurotype copes better when the training schedule is stable - which also means training on the same days at the same time.

3 - Training frequency

Neurotype 3 is prone to stress and an overproduction of cortisol...and a training session is a stressor. This type also tends to get muscle soreness more easily, which is normal as high cortisol levels make you catabolic, reducing the speed at which muscle damage can be repaired.

Neurotype 3 exercisers are not negatively affected by non-training days as they have normal/high dopamine levels. Unlike neurotype 1, they can continue to perform well even after a few training-free days.

The best training frequency for this type is 4 training days per week, using an upper body/lower body split. The optimal weekly training program would look like this:

• Day 1: Lower body
• Day 2: Upper body
• Day 3: No training
• Day 4: Lower body
• Day 5: No training
• Day 6: Upper body
• Day 7: Training-free

Some exercisers of this type may need even more training-free days if they have a stressful life or a physical job. These two things will increase their baseline cortisol levels. Too much training can even prevent these exercisers from building muscle mass and getting leaner. Therefore, a training frequency of 3 training days per week makes more sense in this case.

If this type wants to use a higher training frequency - e.g. 5 days per week, which is a lot for him - then he needs to further divide the muscle groups of his body and use a lower training frequency per muscle group and schedule at least one "light" training session per week, such as an arm day or a cardio/calf/abdominal day.

4 - Training volume

Remember that this neurotype tends to produce too much cortisol. The main function of cortisol during exercise is to mobilize stored energy. So the more volume this exerciser performs, the more energy is required and the more cortisol will be released.

This is true for everyone, but in the case of neurotype 3, this cortisol response is more pronounced. Incidentally, this could be one of the reasons why these people are good at endurance activities: they are efficient when it comes to mobilizing stored energy.

When it comes to hypertrophy training, these exercisers are better off with a lower volume approach where a few work sets are performed to near the point of technical muscle failure without going to the point where the form of the exercise execution deteriorates. Two to three progressively heavier warm-up sets and 1 to 2 work sets per exercise are best.

When it comes to strength training/heavy training, this guy is better off with training that focuses on technique - submaximal sets at 75 to 85% of max weight for 6 sets of 2 to 3 reps with a focus on correct technique - rather than maximal effort workouts. The latter increases cortisol levels too much due to fear of injury. A weight that is close to or above 90% of the 1RM will cause this exerciser to simply stop due to an increasing fear of injury.

Exercisers of this type do really well with conditioning training because of their high dopamine to serotonin ratio, because they don't get bored with such training and because they won't run out of energy due to high cortisol levels. However, too much conditioning training will affect their muscle development far more than it does for other neurotypicals.

5 - Training intensity

Remember that type 3 exercisers can become demotivated if they feel unsure about performing an exercise. Therefore, intensity zones that may look optimal on paper can lead to poor progress due to anxiety (conscious or subconscious).

When it comes to hypertrophy, this neurotype is better off with slightly higher repetition numbers - 8 to 15. When training for strength, he will do better with sets of 4 to 6 repetitions if the RM system is used and the focus is on technique. This trainee should focus on technique in the heavy exercise of the training session and use 75% to 85% of the 1RM for submaximal training with 2 to 3 repetitions and many sets. He should use a low-volume RM system, using the highest weight with which he can perform 4 to 6 repetitions with perfect technique for one to two work sets followed by 2 to 3 warm-up sets with increasing weight.

Big motivation killers are feeling an exercise in your joints or in the wrong places, as well as not having the feeling of perfect control. This is why this type should focus on precision, perfect technique and slow eccentric movements (negative repetitions).

6 - Equipment, methods & strategies

Neurotype 3 exercisers respond better to changes in equipment, methods and strategies than to changes in exercises. Let's first take a quick look at the definitions of these terms:

Equipment

Training tools used in the execution of a movement pattern. Using a bar with a large diameter grip instead of a regular bar is a change in equipment. Other examples include special bars, chains and bands, dumbbells, kettlebells and cable pulleys.

Methods

This refers to how the individual repetitions are performed. Examples of changes in methods include changing the speed of the concentric (lifting) or eccentric (lowering) phase of the movement, using isometric pauses during a phase of the movement, using partial repetitions, etc.

Strategies

This term refers to how the sets are organized (sets x repetitions), as well as a use of intensity techniques such as descending sets, rest/pause, etc.

Type 3 exercisers respond best to changes in strategies: Changes in the work/pause ratio, variations in the load pattern, or changes in the exercise sequence.

The methods can also be changed, but this should not be done as often as with the strategies and not for all exercises at once. Small changes such as changing the speed of movement or adding isometric pauses should be the first choice - and not intensification approaches such as rest/pause, descending sets and the like.

Equipment modifications should be used infrequently and reserved for advanced exercisers with solid technique. This applies in particular to chains, bands and similar aids, which should only be used infrequently. The bars used (barbell bar, dumbbell bar, etc.) can be changed, but this should be done less frequently than changes in methods and strategies (perhaps once every 6 weeks).

In terms of load pattern, this type does best when using the same number of repetitions with the same weight on all working sets of an exercise.

7 - Exercise sequence

When we talk about the exercise sequence, we are only talking about the actual training itself. Proper training preparation is not considered, but assumed.

This neurotype has the capacity to perform well even at the end of a training session on the heavy basic exercises. In fact, they can often even perform excellently if they perform the heavy exercise of the day at the end of the training session. They feel better, are less tense, are better prepared and this approach also reduces some of their inhibitions and anxiety.

Exercisers of this type can even perform well with weights if they have previously performed an endurance activity. For example, I once had a powerlifter as a client who set a personal best in deadlift shortly after cross-country skiing. I've also had CrossFit athletes set a personal best in the snatch after a 5 kilometer run (of course, it all looks very different when someone is out of shape).

Neurotype 3 does better when the heavy exercise of the day is placed further back in his training session. In the beginning, his performance might drop off due to fatigue, but once he has adapted to this, he can perform really well with this setup.

8 - Progression model

This neurotype is overly cautious when it comes to increasing weight and can be thrown off balance by not knowing whether to do so. He does not need much variation. He is detail-oriented and constantly has the risk of injury in the back of his mind, which is why he tends to stay conservative in his choice of weights.

He can get good results with periodization programs where the weights are planned months in advance (5/3/1, 915, Sheiko) because these programs force him to increase the weight on the bar. And because he knows a long time in advance when he needs to increase the weight, this makes him more confident in increasing the weight. This helps him eliminate his inhibitions and perform better, while also reducing the cortisol response.

Pre-planned programs give this neurotype security and peace of mind. As a result, they will train harder. This neurotype does better when given a precise task, such as performing 4 sets of 4 repetitions with 80% of 1RM weight. The more vague the task is (e.g. 4 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 repetitions with 80 to 85% of the 1RM weight), the more insecure they become and the harder it will be for them to train hard. This type needs specific guidelines.

In terms of phase-to-phase progression, exercisers of this neurotype respond better to a model where you start with more volume and gradually increase the intensity over time. Intensity (the amount of weight used) is a stress factor for these exercisers, so they need to work up to it, gradually getting used to it.

Optimal nutrition for neurotype 3

• This neurotype needs a small amount of carbohydrate at each meal to feel good during a diet. On very low carbohydrate diets, these exercisers may experience depressive symptoms as they have low baseline serotonin levels. A low-carb diet can lower serotonin levels even further, which will make this type lethargic, increase their sensitivity to pain and lead to a reduction in motivation and willpower.
• Exercisers of this type also need carbohydrates due to their overproduction of cortisol. One of the functions of cortisol is to mobilize stored energy/glycogen - and the more glycogen you need to mobilize, the more cortisol needs to be released. By consuming carbohydrates before training, you can reduce your cortisol production during training.
• If cortisol levels are constantly elevated, the conversion of T4 to T3 decreases, which can lower the metabolic rate. T4 is the inactive thyroid hormone, while T3 is the thyroid hormone that plays a major role in metabolic rate and energy expenditure. Low T3 levels lower the metabolic rate, making it harder to lose fat. In addition, carbohydrates are needed for optimal conversion of T4 to T3. Putting this type, who already has high cortisol levels to begin with, on a low carbohydrate diet can result in a significant slowdown in fat loss by reducing T3 levels.
• Although this type should eat a small amount of carbohydrate at each meal, there are two times when carbohydrate is particularly important - especially if muscle building is the goal. The first is before training, as carbohydrates will lower cortisol levels at this time. As serotonin levels are low and dopamine levels are high, carbohydrates before training will not affect training motivation and focus. The second time is the last meal of the day to boost serotonin levels when it matters most: during the night to promote restful sleep, reduce anxiety and aid recovery.
• The amount of carbohydrate needed depends on insulin sensitivity, body mass and activity level. A good starting point would be 2.5 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight if the goal is fat loss and 4.5 grams per kilogram of body weight if the goal is muscle gain. This amount should be adjusted depending on how the body reacts to this.
• This neurotype copes better with a lower calorie deficit over a longer period of time. In other words, a diet of longer duration with only a slightly reduced calorie intake will be best. This type does not do well with extreme, short-term diets with a high calorie deficit.
• Exercisers of this neurotype do not need regular refeeds. If they do refeed, it should consist of healthy foods that they are used to eating and not junk food.

In the next part of this article series, we will take a closer look at training sessions for each of these neurotypes and also look at mixed neurotypes.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/never-ending-natural-gains-neuro-type-3

By Christian Thibaudeau

Getting really strong is a marathon. There are lessons you need to learn, injuries you need to recover from and time you need to invest to get the most weight on the bar.

The good news? You can significantly reduce the time it takes to achieve some really good strength numbers if you're willing to learn, focus and act smart instead of overzealous... and all of this will also require you to accept some of the boredom that accompanies it.

Not every training session will set you on fire, but every single training session is a stone that will help you build a foundation and a mighty house that will eventually stand on that foundation. Here are some of the foundation stones you need to lay.

1 - Simplify your training sessions

If you can't move 150 kilos doing squats, then you probably don't need to do safety bar box squats with chains. It's quite possible that you just need to perfect your squat technique and spend a lot of time doing squats.

The exercises will do a great job of building yourself up - especially as your technique improves. Trying to add variations of variations of these exercises to your training is time poorly spent.

Strength has a strong neural component and the more often you perform an exercise, the more efficient you will become. The more variations you use, the less time you can spend in the neural zone getting better at your primary exercises.

Choose the exercises you want to get good at and work from a minimalist's point of view when it comes to exercise selection. If your strength is stagnant and your technique is pretty solid, ask yourself if you've been doing too many variations - or too many exercises in general - during your training.

2 - Perfect your technique

Before you try to improve your weak points, you need to ask yourself the most important question of all: Does my technique need to be corrected?

Even if you are using technically sound form in an exercise, it may not be serving you in the way you want it to. Why? Because there's a difference between making a muscle work harder or making it move maximum weights. To emphasize one is to not emphasize the other. These two goals require opposite intentions and physical approaches:

• If you want to make a muscle work harder, then you need to increase the tension in a specific area. To achieve this, you have to put the muscle in a less favorable position in terms of leverage. People who do this (bodybuilders) try to make a light weight feel heavy.
• If you want to move maximum weights, then you need to use synergy. Engage as many muscles as possible. To achieve this, you need to be in a more leveraged position relative to the bar so that it becomes easier to move. People who do this (powerlifters and strength athletes) try to make a heavy weight feel light.

To optimize the lever ratios relative to the bar, the trainee must first be aware of where they are strongest or more dominant from a muscular perspective.

Examples: An exerciser who has massive quadriceps but weak hips might benefit from squats with a higher bar position that are more quadriceps dominant. An exerciser with strong gluteus and strong hamstrings might find that they can move more weight in deadlifts using a sumo stance than using a normal stance.

And what about weak points? Okay, sure, it's important to bring your weaker muscle areas up to par with the rest of your body, but your weak points will always be weaker compared to your stronger areas due to natural leverage ratios and your ability to recruit certain muscles better.

You also need to analyze your technique to make sure you're not on the best path to future injury. Critical self-assessment is important for this - and you will only develop this after a few years under the barre or under the eye of a very good coach. Here are a few generally recognized technical corrections for the heavy basic exercises:

• Conventional deadlift (starting position) - shins vertical, spine neutral, elbows back to activate the latissimus, load on the middle of the foot (this will feel more like the weight is on your heels, which is fine)
• Sumo deadlift (starting position) - vertical shins, hips as close to the bar as possible, neutral spine position.
• Bench press - wrists and elbows are in line, shoulders pulled back (shoulder blades pulled together), heels behind the knees at the level of the buttocks (move your feet back until your back is under so much tension that you feel like your spine is about to snap in half)
• Squats - the shoulder blades are pulled together, the spine is in a neutral position, the weight is over the middle of the foot.

This is not an all-inclusive list, but it should have a cascading effect when it comes to getting you into certain positions or evaluating your positioning against the bar so that you can figure out what leverage ratios feel most natural for your body type and allow you to move the most weight.

The other part is cues and clues and understanding the reason for those cues. There are internal cues (which refer to what the muscles should be doing) and external cues (which refer to what the body should be doing in relation to an external source, such as the floor, the bench on the bench press, or the bar itself).

For example, the cue "push through the floor" when deadlifting is an external cue.

The cue "push through the hips" is an internal cue. Remembering these cues - both external and internal - is crucial to maintaining proper form.

3 - Attack the bar with all your might

This is not about hitting your head on the bar before the exercise, but about moving the bar at the highest speed you are capable of from the beginning to the end of the movement. Moving the bar aggressively is a form of compensatory acceleration training or CAT (compensatory acceleration training).

However, it is important to remember the "from start to finish of the movement" part. When most exercisers perform an exercise with a weight that is close to their maximum weight - like 90% of 1RM or more - they start the movement with a lot of force and acceleration. Then, when they get past the critical point of the movement - or the part of the movement where they realize they're really going to be able to do the repetition - they strain less and move the weight slower and looser through the rest of the range of motion.

With CAT, you continue to accelerate once you have passed the critical point of the movement. You train yourself to push the weight much harder through the critical range of motion and because you train this, you will learn that you don't need to push as hard as you thought you did at the beginning of the movement.

The speed at which you accelerate the weight from the start of the movement is one of the most important components when it comes to overcoming or failing at the critical point of the movement. If the speed is too slow to help you get the bar through the transition phase of the movement, then you will fail that repetition. This is why it is so important to start the movement with as much acceleration as possible and CAT will teach you to move the weight more powerfully as it hammers it into you to accelerate the weight from start to finish of the movement.

Squats and deadlifts tend to respond very well to CAT using percentages in the 60 to 75% range with higher volume and low to moderate reps. We are talking 4 to 5 sets of 3 to 5 repetitions.

On the bench press, the same set and repetition scheme will work well, though the percentages should be slightly higher in the 80 to 85% range.

This is reminiscent of what most people think of as speed training (speed work). However, to be effective, a speed workout must not be so light that it doesn't carry over to maximum weights, while also not being so heavy that the speed of the bar slows down significantly. This is where CAT can differ slightly from what is known as speed training or 'speed work' (which often uses 50% of 1RM weight).

4 - Choose appropriate maximum weights when training

Let's be honest, when you talk about max weights on social media, it's usually more about praise and attention than actually getting stronger. And if you're playing high poker, you can't get mad when you're challenged.

So you should reconsider this kind of maximum weight or do like Ed Coan. When asked about his max weights, Ed Coan said "I don't know, I never test my max weight during training. I save my best performances for competitions."

You can get as strong as you're ever going to be and you can achieve this without ever performing a true max repetition during training. That being said, there is a smart way to reach your max weight that isn't energy sapping. Think of it as determining an EDM (every day maximum) - a maximum weight you can reach every day.

Your EDM is the maximum weight you can reach even if you're having a bad day, if you're feeling a little sickly and even if you're in a bit of overtraining. This max weight takes into account potential fatigue and helps you establish a feasible baseline - which is especially important if you're using a training system based on percentages of 1RM. Use your EDM as a basis for planning your training.

If you have an outstanding day and set a new personal best and then base your training on that best, you will have days where you will miss the number of reps you planned. Eventually, you'll realize that your max reps will decrease because you've set yourself up for failure by training in a constant state of overreaching.

If you use your EDM, on the other hand, you will never fail an exercise or fail to complete all repetitions of a set. This will build confidence, a greater strength base to work with and allow you to use weights that will help you to underpin correct technique on a consistent basis. All of these are good things when it comes to developing maximum strength.

5 - Learn to value individuality

One of the biggest mistakes that beginners and somewhat advanced athletes make is that they see a really strong guy and think that they should do all the things he did to achieve what he achieved. However, this only makes sense up to a point.

The really strong guy has learned the basics of good technique, but he also tends to do things that intuitively worked well for him as an individual. These individually different things cannot be replicated with the same success.

In fact, apart from genetics and work ethic, the strongest people share a common trait. They have a very well-developed intuition about what will and will not work for them. This is an innate ability that makes them gravitate towards the types of exercises and set/repetition schemes that will work for them. They have the ability to manipulate even the smallest details of their training to overcome plateaus.

But even though the strongest people on the planet have a lot in common, they also have a lot of differences and they have had to figure out for themselves what works for them.

Caution: Jumping from training session to training session and believing that there is some sort of holy grail of training out there is a great way to get nowhere. You need to commit to different things, but experiment at the same time. You'll eventually find what speaks to your training soul while still benefiting from the philosophies that have stood the test of time.

Then you can manipulate small variables to see how they affect your training performance and how much you like them. Liking something while training is one of the main components of getting better at it, because if you don't really like something, you won't do it with passion and dedication.

6 - Periodize your training

There's no denying that it works. Too many exercisers - both the genetically blessed and the less blessed - have used it with great success. Yet when most people think of periodization, they think of a bunch of spreadsheets with percentages and training cycles planned around competitions. And this can also be part of a periodization, but you also need to periodize your entire training blocks from time to time and move some things a little more to the background while prioritizing others.

Within each macrocycle (a year or two) of training, there should be mesocycles (lasting a few weeks or months) and microcycles (up to a week) during which certain things go into maintenance mode and other things become a priority.

Exercisers often make the mistake of trying to develop too many exercises at once. For example, they will say that their bench press is going great, they are maintaining their performance on squats, but that their deadlift performance has been stagnant for a long time. But why are they still training bench press and deadlift with full commitment if they are stagnating in deadlift?

Do you have mesocycles within your annual macrocycle where you prioritize the following?

• hypertrophy
• Injury prevention
• weak points
• Squats
• Bench press and/or variations
• Deadlift
• Competition

Each of these mesocycles plays an important role in developing maximal strength and they can't all be maximized at the same time. So use some periodization to figure out what should be prioritized at certain points in your annual macrocycle.

7 - Use transferable additional exercises

After nearly three decades of training, I can tell you that any "similar" exercise variation that allows you to use more than 100% of the weight you use on the main exercise is probably not transferable to that main exercise.

Many exercisers love rack pulls (deadlifts with a bar elevated on a rack) because they think they can improve their deadlift performance. But if you're not in the same mechanical position for rack pulls as you are for deadlifts, then your rack pull performance probably won't translate to your deadlift performance.

Often with exercise variations, we put ourselves in lever positions that allow us to use substantially heavier weights than the main exercise. Think of rack pulls. You can't be in the same position when performing regular deadlifts, which means the performance gains in rack pulls won't transfer to your deadlift performance.

"But I did rack pulls and my deadlift weights went up!"

Yes, I've heard this before - and one or two things have played a role here:

1. You increased your upper back strength with this exercise.
2. You were actually performing rack pulls from the same position as you do regular deadlifts.

I still recommend the 10% load rule. If an exercise variation allows you to move more than 10% more than the maximum weight you can use in the main exercise, then don't do that exercise. Choose exercises that are similar enough to allow you to transfer the strength gains from the exercise variation to the main exercise.

For squats, these are often front squats or safety bar squats. For bench presses, you can try incline bench presses or overhead press variations. For deadlifts, deadlifts with straight legs and barbell rows work very well.

You'll notice that the exercise variations I've listed don't really allow for heavier weights than the main exercise - and that's a good thing.

8 - Strengthen your weak points

This primarily applies to those who have already built up a good strength base and have good technique. Beginners just need to focus on getting stronger overall as their weak points are all over the place.

This is primarily a muscular issue and the reason why hypertrophy training should always exist within the framework of general strength training. The areas that are most neglected in strength athletes are often the result of overcompensation by neighboring stronger and larger muscle groups. Let's look at some of these:

Common weak muscle groups and why you need to strengthen them:

• Weak lower trapezius - Train this for better shoulder stability, which is essential if you want to improve at any form of pressing.
• Weak hamstrings - train these to stabilize your knees, which is necessary if you want to continue doing heavy squats without hurting your knees.
• Weak biceps - train these to improve your elbow stability, which is very important for the bench press.

Remember that exercises that isolate individual muscle groups are not just for aesthetic purposes, but can also give you an edge in your strength development.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/the-8-rules-of-maximal-strength

By Paul Carter