Training

Sep 04, 2018

From 0 to 100: Know your percentages!

Here is a brief summary:

Knowing the effects of each training zone will allow you to make the best choices when it comes to putting together your training plans.
Each training zone from 0 to 100% of your 1RM weight has a specific effect on speed, muscle hardness, muscle density and hypertrophy.
Percentages cannot always be followed to the letter. Some days 80% will feel like 90%, but these general guidelines will help you plan your training to get the results you're after.

Although training percentages will vary depending on how you feel on a given day, they can still be extremely useful. If you know the specific training effect of different levels of load, then you can choose the weight that is most appropriate for your goals. Here's something you'll rarely find: a list of different percentages of 1RM weight that explains what each type of training load has to offer and what kind of body development it can give you.

0 percent of 1RM (body weight)

Using only your own bodyweight is great for developing explosive power and speed. Unsurprisingly, the two are closely linked. In almost all cases, those who can jump the highest are also those who can sprint the fastest (by this I mean "run", and not necessarily a 40 meter sprint, which is a very technical test of ability). I live in a fairly cold climate with snow for 5 months of the year and this makes running problematic. However, I have found that improving my maximum jump capacity during the winter months allows an athlete to get faster without doing much actual sprint training.

Very few people are truly explosive and utilizing jumps and sprints is the best way to solve this problem. Trying to move weights explosively when you are not capable of moving fast is counterproductive. So if you lack the capacity to move a barbell explosively, then you should first focus on being able to move more explosively in jumps and sprints. However, you should be aware of the fact that even if you are not moving weights, jumps and sprints - if you give them your all - are a very high-intensity type of work that demands a lot from your nervous system. Therefore, the volume should be at the lower end of the spectrum and training sessions where you go all out should be limited to twice a week.

Bodyweight training can be used to develop strength endurance with exercises such as pull-ups and dips. It can even be used to develop strength in more complex exercises, although it is not the best tool for these purposes due to the technical skill component involved.

Effects on performance: Increases explosive power and speed and improves strength endurance.

Effects on muscles: Improves muscle hardness

10 percent of the 1 RM

This percentage is a bit low for lower body strength speed/ballistic training, but appropriate for ballistic upper body training. The best example of using 10% of RM for ballistic upper body training is different types of medicine ball throws - e.g. throws with 10% of your 1RM weight for standing shoulder presses, overhead throws and throws from the chest with 10% of your 1RM weight for bench presses. For me, medicine ball throws are on the same level as jumps. They are great for teaching your body to explode and are a very important tool for a strong athlete who wants to learn to develop the capacity to be able to move heavy weights at high speed.

Being powerful requires you to be both strong and explosive. If you are already strong, then the key to success is to work on your contraction speed using throws and jumps.

Effects on performance: builds upper body contraction speed.

Effects on muscles: improves muscle hardness.

20 percent of the 1 RM

This is the lower end of the optimal load zone for ballistic movements of the lower body. Jump squats (either with a barbell on your shoulders or with dumbbells in your hands or a kettlebell held between your legs or goblet squats) are best performed in a training zone that starts at 20% of your maximum weight for squats.

For example, if your 1 RM weight for squats is 200 kilos, then a weight of 40 kilos (20 percent) is the minimum load with which you will achieve maximum results from this exercise. You can achieve this by using a 40 kilo barbell on your shoulders, a 20 kilo dumbbell in each hand or a 40 kilo kettlebell held between your legs.

This lower end of the optimal spectrum is the best option for people who have little experience with explosive movements and who are much stronger than they are fast. Good exercises you can use for this include jumping squats, jumping lunges and the jumping version of Romanian deadlifts.

Effects on performance: builds lower body contraction speed.

Effects on muscles: improves muscle hardness.

30 percent of the 1 RM

This is the upper end of the optimal load zone for ballistic lower body training. Speed production is about the same as at 20% of 1RM, but speed is slightly lower, while power production is a touch higher. This is more appropriate for individuals who already have significant experience with explosive training.

Remember that when performing explosive training, you cannot use the same approach as you would for regular exercises with weights. You should not aim to use the heaviest weight you can jump with, but instead try to increase explosiveness with a specific weight.

Effects on performance: builds lower body contraction speed.

Effects on muscles: improves muscle hardness.

40 percent of the 1 RM

This is the weight limit that only the most extreme freaks should use for explosive training with ballistic exercises. Remember that the goal when performing ballistic training is not to see how much weight you can jump with, but to become maximally explosive. 40% is the maximum a highly trained athlete should use for ballistic exercises. As evidence of this, it should be mentioned that sports scientists from the Soviet Union found a strong correlation between jumping performance with 40% of maximum weight in squats and maximum weight in snatches.

Effects on performance: upper weight limit for improving speed, lower end of the range for increasing explosiveness and speed.

Effects on muscles: too low to stimulate hypertrophy.

50 percent of the 1 RM

This is what I consider to be the best load for speed training with regular strength exercises. This is the range where maximum speed/power is 90% of the population. Training at maximum power will improve recruitment of fast-twitch muscle fibers and dramatically increase muscle hardness and density.

Remember that if you choose to perform speed training, you should not go near exhaustion/muscle failure. You need to be explosive on ALL repetitions. We are talking about 3 to 5 repetitions per set, and you should try to perform each repetition as explosively as possible.

Effects on performance: builds explosiveness and power/speed.

Effects on muscles: dramatically increases muscle hardness and density.

60 percent of the 1 RM

This is the maximum load that has a significant muscle-building effect. To achieve this effect, you should either

Perform emphasized eccentric repetitions (a very slow lowering of the weight) to maximally activate mTOR. With this technique, you do not have to go to muscle failure to achieve gains.

Perform as many repetitions until you reach a point close to muscle failure.

60% is not a sufficient mechanical load to have an impact on growth without causing a significant amount of metabolic fatigue and a significant accumulation of metabolic waste products. Therefore, performing a set that is completed 2 to 3 repetitions before reaching muscle failure will not do much in terms of muscle growth (although it will work with heavier weights).

For performance training, 60% of the 1RM is the maximum load you should use for speed training with regular strength exercises, although only people who are naturally very explosive should use this weight.

Effects on performance: the heaviest weight you should use to build explosiveness and power/speed.

Effects on muscles: builds muscle to a certain extent

70 percent of the 1 RM

This is the lower end of the optimal range when it comes to stimulating hypertrophy. This can be achieved either by performing regular sets to near muscle failure (with around 10 reps per set) where you focus on the quality of the contractions or by performing a high density workout - where you try to perform a total of 30 reps in the shortest possible time (performing 4 to 6 reps at a time with very short rest intervals).

70% of the 1RM is also the optimal load to build explosiveness when using variations of Olympic weightlifting exercises (power snatches, power thrusts, push presses, etc.), although in this case you should not perform so many repetitions that you fatigue and lose speed. Three to five repetitions is an adequate range for most people.

Effects on performance: optimal range for developing explosiveness in Olympic weightlifting exercises.

Effects on muscles: lower end of the range for stimulating hypertrophy.

80 percent of the 1 RM

This is the upper end of the optimal range when it comes to stimulating hypertrophy. Similar to the 70% range, hypertrophy can be achieved by performing straight sets to near the point of muscle failure (with around 6 repetitions per set) or by performing high density training - trying to perform 30 total repetitions in the shortest possible time (performing sets of 2 to 3 repetitions with very short rest intervals).

80% of the 1RM is also the best range to build strength if you don't want to impair your recovery too much. In this case, multiple sets of 3 to 5 repetitions (usually for 3 to 5 sets) are the right load pattern. When performing variations of Olympic weightlifting exercises, 80% of the 1RM is the load that will build both power and strength (70% of the 1RM will build more speed/speed and 90% of the 1RM will build more strength).

Effects on performance: best percentage for building strength .

Impact on muscle: top end of the range for building muscle.

90 percent of the 1RM

This is what I would consider the upper end of the optimal zone for strength. I used to recommend that strength athletes train frequently in the 90 to 100% range, but over time I've found that even though this range is very effective for quick strength gains (which is basically learning to show what strength you have), it's not the best range to really build strength.

Furthermore, you can't train in the 90 to 100% range for too long or achieve a sufficient training volume to consolidate strength gains without risking neuronal exhaustion. If you train in this range, 2 to 5 sets of 1 to 3 repetitions are ideal.

Effects on performance: optimal range for rapid increases in strength.

Effects on the muscles: increases muscle hardness and density.

100 percent of the 1 RM

Training with more than 90% of the 1RM is best performed in the form of short training cycles designed to demonstrate the strength you have built up by training in the 80 to 90% range of the 1RM. Training in the 92 to 100% range of the 1RM can lead to rapid strength gains in well-trained individuals, but these are mainly based on improvements in neural factors.

Recent experiments have led me to conclude that training in the 92 to 100% range of the 1RM should be limited to short periods (of 2 to 3 weeks duration) to maximize strength performance, and such periods are not intended as a way to build strength.

Although an occasional single repetition at 92 to 97% of your 1RM is fine, true training in the 92 to 100% range should be limited to 2 to 3 weeks out of 12 weeks and only used for 3 to 4 single repetitions per training session.

Effects on performance: rapidly increases strength via neural factors.

Effects on the muscles: increases muscle hardness and muscle density.

An overview of the individual areas and their effects

Load in % 1RM	Effects on performance	Effects on the muscles
0-10	Speed training through plyometric exercises/jumps or medicine ball throws	Will improve muscle hardness
20-40	Ballistic training (jumps with additional weight) to maximize power/speed development	Will improve muscle hardness
40-60	Regular strength exercises performed explosively to develop power production	Minimum effective load to stimulate growth (60%)
70	Optimal weight to develop speed strength with variations of Olympic weightlifting exercises (70%)	Lower end of the best zone to stimulate growth
80	Best load to develop maximum strength without impairing recovery	Upper end of the best zone to stimulate growth. In my experience, 75-80% is best for hypertrophy
90	Optimal training load to maximize strength development (85-90%)	Will improve muscle hardness and density
100	Training load best for learning how to demonstrate maximal strength (92-100%)	No additional benefits compared to 90%

I'm the first to point out that you can't always follow percentages to the letter. 80% may feel like 90% some days because you're tired or sick, but knowing the effects of training in each training zone will allow you to make the best choices when developing your training plans.

By Christian Thibaudeau

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/from-0-to-100-know-your-percentages

Sep 03, 2018

How not to lose your gains

The real science behind muscle and strength loss

If you're used to working out regularly at the gym, then you might think that two weeks without training can turn you into an asparagus tartan. However, that's not the realistic picture of the link between a training break and lost gains.

From a physiological point of view, what happens when you stop training? How long can you extend such a training break before strength and muscle mass will start to decline? Fortunately, scientists have taken a closer look at these things and can give us a pretty good idea of what to expect.

The science of atrophy

Since muscle mass is quite "expensive" for our bodies to maintain from a metabolic standpoint, our bodies are programmed to get rid of "excess" muscle mass when it is no longer needed. If you take time off from training, then the stimulus that maintains your muscle mass and strength will no longer be there and your body will start to break down unnecessary, energy-consuming mass.

We know that hypertrophy is an active process where strength training activates a number of anabolic pathways and this stimulus is what causes a growth response. Atrophy (muscle wasting) was previously believed to be the exact opposite - a passive process in the body where the absence of physical activity does not activate these pathways. These were known as "atrophy pathways" or mechanisms, but about 15 years ago scientists began to study these processes a little more closely and gained new insights.

Do you have UPP? Of course not

The processes that initiate atrophy are always the same - regardless of what sets them in motion. Atrophy can come about as a result of calorie restriction, inactivity, metabolic diseases, etc. The catabolic processes are called proteolytic(protein degrading) and part of the response is the activation of the signaling pathway known as the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway (UPP).

Figuratively speaking, activation of the UPP sticks little "destroy me" tags on muscle protein. This protein is then transported through a barrel-shaped tunnel where it is broken down into small pieces and released as amino acids. The two main villains in this bodybuilding nightmare are atrogin1 and muRF1.

Studies have been conducted with rats in which these genes were eliminated and as a result a clearly measurable absence of atrophy was observed. Since the discovery of these two villains in 2001, a number of other accomplices including a synergist called erg1a.

The catabolism cure that didn't really work

There used to be an antihistamine on the market called astemizole, which inhibits erg1a and thus also acts as an atrophy retardant. Unfortunately, this formula also inhibited erg1a in the heart, causing heart problems. Astemizole was therefore withdrawn from the market in 1999.

Since then, scientists working on atrophy have been working to develop astemizole so that it only affects erg1a in striated skeletal muscle and not in the heart. And they are trying to find methods to inhibit the erg1a gene and thus also the ubiquitin-proteasome signaling pathway.

Body fat, tendon strength and other effects of a training break

In addition to atrophy, a number of other changes can be observed when you take time out from training. You will often see a reduction in the amount of capillaries. This is most commonly observed when taking time out from cardio training.

Scientists have observed a reduction in the number of capillaries as early as 2 to 3 weeks after stopping a cardio workout. They also observed a rapid decrease in oxidative enzymes, leading to reduced ATP production in the mitochondria.

An increase in body fat can often be observed during a training break. And as far as strength training is concerned, you will see a reduction in strength and a decrease in tendon stiffness. The number of satellite cells may also decrease slightly.

In some cases, growth hormone levels decrease at rest, while cortisol levels increase. Other studies have found that the levels of these hormones and the number of satellite cells remained unchanged. The latter (the maintenance of satellite cells) is a large part of what is known as muscle memory.

In general, the fitter you were before you started training, the greater the decrease in muscle mass, strength and performance will be if you take too long a break from training. Why? Because it costs the body an enormous amount of energy to be extremely fit. The body will then take every opportunity to reduce this performance in order to save energy.

Strength athletes seem to have an advantage over endurance athletes because cardio fitness is degraded faster than strength and the ability to produce power.

A concrete example

In the table below you can see the changes that occurred in an elite powerlifter when he stopped training for 7 months.

	Trained	After 7 months off training
Weight	121 kg	94 kg
Body fat	25,2%	14,8%
Thigh circumference	82 cm	66 cm
VO2 Max	32.6 ml/kg/min	49.1 ml/kg/min
Maximum heart rate	200	198
Muscle cross-sectional area Type I fibers Type IIa fibers Type IIb fibers	5.625 µm2 9.618 µm2 8,539 m2	3.855 µm2 5,835 m2 5,07 m2

The powerlifter has dramatically reduced his weight. This was based on a massive reduction in body fat, but also on an enormous reduction in muscle mass. His type II fibers have significantly decreased in cross-sectional area.

How quickly do you lose strength?

The degree of strength you will lose during a training break will depend on your genetic predispositions, your age, your training experience, the muscles we are talking about, how long the training break is and whether it is a complete training break (no training) or a reduction.

The longer the training break, the more strength you will certainly lose. But taking a week or two off doesn't seem to matter much in the big picture of things.

Here's what else studies have to say on the subject:

A study conducted by Hortobagyi et al. showed that strength was maintained in strength athletes even after a 2 week break from training.
Scientists have found that strength is maintained for up to four weeks. There are also studies that show that if you don't take a complete break from training and do occasional short training sessions, you can even get away with up to 6 weeks off without significantly losing strength.
In studies carried out with untrained test subjects, there was a 31% increase in strength after four weeks of training. This was followed by 2 weeks without training, during which strength fell by only 5% and 24% of the strength gains were maintained.
In Olympic weightlifters, a 10% reduction in squat strength was observed after four weeks without training.
In a study conducted by Lemmer et al., strength increased by 34% in a group of 20 to 30 year old subjects after nine weeks of training and by 28% in a group of 65 to 75 year old subjects. After a break of 31 weeks, strength had decreased by 14% in the younger group and by 8% in the older group. Regardless of age, strength decreased only slightly during the first 12 weeks, while the greatest decrease in strength was observed in weeks 13 to 31.
In young people who are still growing, breaks in training appear to be less catastrophic, as these individuals "naturally" become stronger as a result of the general maturation process, including an increase in testosterone levels. Older people, on the other hand, lose strength faster than younger people when they stop training, especially if the training break is long. In a study conducted with 68-year-old subjects, six weeks without training resulted in a 15% decrease in strength.

How quickly do you lose muscle mass?

Since there is a correlation between strength and muscle fiber size, a decrease in strength will in most cases result in a decrease in muscle mass. However, the loss of strength that can be observed during the first few weeks of a training break is believed to be primarily related to a reduced neural drive - a weakening of the nervous system's activation system, while a loss in muscle fiber size takes slightly longer.

Some studies have observed the onset of muscle atrophy as early as two weeks after the end of training. Other studies have concluded that atrophy does not occur after such a short period of time. As with strength, the degree of atrophy is related to how active you are during the training break and how fit you were before the break.

This is worth repeating: more mass is associated with more pronounced atrophy. And the older you are, the more aggressive this atrophy seems to be. This could be linked to the fact that younger people are generally more physically active than older individuals, as inactivity is one of the most important factors in the onset of atrophy.

In one study, subjects increased their cross-sectional muscle area in the thighs by 10% after three months of training. However, after three months without training, these increases had completely disappeared again.

In another study, subjects experienced a 26% increase in muscle cross-sectional area and a strength increase of up to 40% during a 24-week training program. After 12 weeks without training, the muscle cross-sectional area had returned to its initial value, while strength had only decreased by 30%.

This indicates that the neuronal adaptations have not completely disappeared despite a rather aggressive atrophy. Under normal circumstances, hypertrophy in type II muscle fibers is more pronounced when you perform a strength training program and it is further believed that type II muscle fibers atrophy more readily than type I muscle fibers.

Bodybuilders often have very large type II muscle fibers and unfortunately, these are also the fibers that lose their size the fastest.

How you can minimize your losses

If a training break is unavoidable, there are certain things you can do to minimize unwanted physical changes:

1. try to squeeze in some training when possible. Some exercise is better than no exercise

If it is possible, you can gain a lot by continuing to train at a reduced volume or frequency during the training break. Scientists have observed that full maintenance of strength is possible with just one set of the 1RM weight for a series of exercises once a week. Studies have also shown that gains achieved by training three days per week over a 16-week period could be more or less maintained over an 8-week period with just one training session per week.

Furthermore, a reduction in training from two to three times a week to once or twice a week did not result in a reduction in strength after 12 weeks of training at this reduced rate. Similarly, it was observed that a complete cessation of training resulted in a significant decrease in strength, while only one training session every two weeks resulted in a significantly lower decrease in strength.

If reducing your training to one or two sessions per week is an option, then you can dramatically reduce the loss of gains compared to a complete cessation of training.

2. train harder before the training break

A study conducted by Fatouros showed that high training intensity not only contributed to greater strength gains during the training phase, but also to better strength maintenance during the non-training phase.

In this study, subjects were divided into three groups who trained at three different intensities: 40% of 1RM, 60% of 1RM and 80% of 1RM. Their bench press strength increased by 34%, 48% and 75% after 6 months of training, while their leg strength increased by 38%, 53% and 63%.

After six months of training, the subjects took a 6-month break from training, after which their bench press strength decreased by 98%, 50% and 29%, and their leg strength decreased by 70%, 44% and 27%. The higher the intensity during the training phase, the lower the subsequent loss of strength.

3. use some planned overreaching right before your training break

If you train the same muscles two or three days in a row before a training break, or push yourself to your limits during a hard training week with 6 to 7 training days, your training break will serve as a much-needed recovery break. Due to supercompensation, you may even be stronger after your training break than before.

By: Brian Henneberg

Source https://www.t-nation.com/training/how-not-to-lose-your-gains

References:

Mujika Iker and Sabino Padilla. "Muscular characteristics of detraining in humans." Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, vol. 33, no. 8, 2001, pp. 1297-1303, doi:10.1097/00005768-200108000-00009.
Ingrid M. Egner, Jo C. Bruusgaard, Einar Eftest¿l and Kristian Gundersen. A cellular memory mechanism aids overload hypertrophy in muscle long after an episodic exposure to anabolic steroids. The Journal of Physiology. Volume 591, Issue 24, pages 6221-6230, December 2013
Williams Caroline. Muscles: Don't use them, don't lose them. New Scientist. September 2, 2006. issue 2567.
Fleck, Steven J.; Kraemer, William J. Designing resistance training programs. Fourth edition. Human Kinetics 2014.
Sandri, Marco. Signaling in Muscle Atrophy and Hypertrophy. American Physiological Society. Physiology. June 1, 2008, Vol. 23, no. 3, 160-170
Bonaldo P, Sandri M. Cellular and molecular mechanisms of muscle atrophy. Disease Models & Mechanisms. 2013 Jan;6(1):25-39.
Bruusgaard JC, Johansen IB, Egner IM, Rana ZA, Gundersen K. Myonuclei acquired by overload exercise precede hypertrophy and are not lost on detraining. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Aug 24;107(34):15111-6.
Taaffe DR, Marcus R. Dynamic muscle strength alterations to detraining and retraining in elderly men. Clin Physiol. 1997 May;17(3):311-24.

Aug 30, 2018

Shoulder training: The Mountain Dog way

"Shoulders make up body development" is a common statement in the bodybuilding world.

And if I have the opportunity to expand on that statement, I would add "and if your shoulder development is reminiscent of Larry King's, then your shoulder training sessions require serious pain tolerance, perseverance, strength of character and a healthy dose of creativity."

Okay, that may not be the most elegant piece of prose ever written, but it sums up my approach to training stubborn shoulders pretty well. Let me share some background on my experience with this pesky muscle group.

My shoulder genetics are pretty lousy - made worse by the fact that I'm genetically blessed in terms of my neck muscles. My neck had a circumference of 47 centimeters in high school and 53 centimeters after college - and that's without any direct training. So during my early days, my body development was dominated by this thick neck that transitioned into narrow shoulders that hung down - basically, all I was missing was a pair of long arms for a true caveman look.

To top it all off, I have quite short collarbones and if you combine all this with a fairly wide pelvic belt, you have someone who will find it very difficult to look wide and trim-waisted.

As with my back, I've spent many years trying out the standard shoulder training programs you'll find in Muscle & Fiction. You know those programs: a lot of overhead pressing - which will bulk up your shoulders - and a lot of side raises - which will broaden your shoulders.

I regularly performed numerous variations of the shoulder press and incorporated enough side raises into my training to achieve the shoulder development of a champion, but somehow I couldn't seem to develop any significant mass or width in my shoulders.

My lower body grew and I was quite successful in bodybuilding competitions only because of my legs and ability to achieve good definition. However, when I saw the huge round and thick shoulder muscles of these guys at national level championships, I knew I had to find a way to achieve this look.

There was a moment that completely changed my shoulder training philosophy and made me realize that what I had been doing wasn't working for me and that I needed to get creative. It wasn't a program in some magazine, it wasn't anatomical studies, and it wasn't Eastern Bloc theories on muscle hypertrophy.

I was working out at the old Golds Gym in Columbus and Nick - an old friend of mine - came over for a chest and shoulder training session. If you've read any of my previous articles, you know that Nick was the guy who often competed in a powerlifting competition and a bodybuilding competition on the same day. I probably don't need to mention that he was a real animal: muscular and defined.

At the time, I was preparing for the national championships and when he saw me, he said these exact words: "Johnny, where are your shoulders?"

I didn't know what to say. Your mind is in a very fragile state before a competition, so I became quite disillusioned.

Then Nick asked me about my reps and the weight I was using in my shoulder workouts. I started babbling about doing sets of 8 reps with 25 kilos on side raises and 50 kilos on dumbbell shoulder presses, which didn't really seem to impress him, considering his next comment: "That's not going to do you shit."

Agonizing times

My shoulder training education began

Nick told me to grab the 7.5 kilo dumbbells and head to the incline bench so we could start doing incline bench barbell presses and training for the rear shoulder muscles.

Rear shoulders? I wasn't sure what he had up his sleeve as apart from the occasional set of heavy side raises for the rear shoulders that I'd read about in some magazine, I hadn't done much for the rear shoulders before.

We started with a few reps of presses on the incline bench to warm up. After this came his instructions: Just do sets of 5 reps of presses on the bench and then lie prone on the incline bench and do a set of side raises for the back shoulders with 7.5 kilo dumbbells and 60 reps.

Yes, 60 reps!

I thought he was joking - all the textbooks say that growth comes from 8 to 12 reps and that all high repetition training does is activate the slow contracting muscle fibers and turn me into a marathon runner. But I humbled myself and performed this set.

It was agonizing. I had never felt pain like this in my back shoulder muscles before in my life. Next, we increased the weight on the incline bench to 125 kilos. I did another set of 5 reps and noticed that it suddenly felt heavy. This was followed by another set of side raises for the rear shoulders with 60 repetitions.

The first set of 60 reps was extremely painful, but this one was even worse - it must have taken five minutes to complete. After a short break, it was back to the incline bench. This time I was almost crushed by 140 kilos. Nick found the whole thing quite funny and made his comments about how weak my shoulders were and how they no longer worked as stabilizers. And yet he made me do the last set of 60 reps.

After those three sets, my rear shoulder muscles were incredibly swollen and pumped up, but Nick had only just started. "Do you want to train with heavy weights now?" he asked me. I replied with an enthusiastic yes and he told me to grab the 27 kilo dumbbells.

"That'll be easy," I thought. Shoulder presses with 27 kilo dumbbells - those were baby weights for me - or so I thought.

"Heavy weights, high reps," he barked - the same message Tom Platz had tried to hammer into us during a seminar. Platz had said to forget these heavy weights for low reps and low weights for high reps philosophies and instead use a heavy weights and high reps approach for ultimate intensity.

We performed "swings" with the 27 kilo dumbbells. This was standing side raises with a very limited range of motion with a heavy weight. You simply put your head back and perform these swinging movements until you reach the set number of reps and we performed sets of 35 reps. Nick performed his reps with ease and laughed when he saw how much I was struggling with my reps - but I lasted all three sets.

That was the end of that training session and the next day I had probably the worst shoulder muscle soreness of my life. But even the fact that I felt soreness in my shoulders was something amazing for me, as it had always been very difficult for me to provoke any soreness in that area. I have used this lesson ever since in my approaches to high reps from different angles for the shoulder muscles.

Other things that have happened over the years have steered me towards my current shoulder training philosophies, many of which will be very different from what you are used to. However, you should remember that this is what has worked for me and I'm not saying that shoulder presses or regular repetition ranges are useless. I'm simply saying that sometimes you need to be creative in order to reach your full potential, which is exactly what I did.

First, let's look at my key concepts for shoulder training.

Training for the posterior shoulder muscles

My first piece of advice is to train the back shoulder muscles. Just training your back is not enough to develop really big posterior shoulder muscles unless you are hugely blessed genetically. The development of the rear shoulder muscles is crucial for the side view. When the rear shoulder muscles are fully developed, you get that thick 3-D look that sets you apart from everyone else.

Train the rear shoulder muscles with high reps - at least most of the time

I've found over the years that the rear shoulder muscles respond very well to high reps. This can be very painful and test your willpower, but if you can do it, they will grow. Try the repetition pattern below for a month and you'll see what I mean.

Four weeks typically looks like this for a chosen posterior shoulder exercise (the exercise can change from week to week):

Week 1 - 4 sets of 35 reps.
Week 2 - 4 sets of 20-25 reps.
Week 3 - 4 sets of 12-15 reps.
Week 4 - 4 sets of a traditional reverse pyramid: 35 reps, 25 reps, 15-20 reps, and then 8-12 reps. Increase the weight on each of these sets.

Use a heavy weight with high reps once a month to shock your muscles:

How do you do this with the rear shoulder muscles? I use the following once a month during the off-season and twice a month during competition preparation:

Finish your shoulder workout with a "destruction set" of hang and swings(https://youtu.be/vlmk1qiVFP4). This exercise is similar to the standing swing I described above, but now you lie prone on an incline bench and let the dumbbells hang down. Use a pair of heavy dumbbells and handles.

Here is the repetition pattern for the set:

Perform 60 repetitions with heavy reps over the partial repetition range of Hang and Swing.
After performing 60 reps, drop the dumbbells and grab a pair of dumbbells that are half the weight. Perform 30 more repetitions of Hang and Swing.
Drop the dumbbells again and grab a pair of dumbbells half the weight. Perform 10 repetitions with these through the full range of motion, engaging your rear shoulder muscles hard for 2 seconds at the highest point of the movement.

Training for the lateral/middle shoulder muscles

There are some excellent intensity techniques that are safe and will help you achieve amazing results with the lateral shoulder muscles.

Use heavy eccentric weights in side raises on the machine:

This exercise is phenomenal. The correct way to perform this exercise is to perform the positive/concentric portion of the exercise alone, while a training partner applies additional pressure during the eccentric phase as you try to resist this pressure to the maximum.

I love this technique because, unlike many other negative repetition protocols, it can be performed safely (which most negative repetitions are not) and works the lateral, middle muscle fibers of the shoulders hard.

Use heavy weights for high reps:

This brings me back to the standing side raise, where I used the swing technique from the lowest position with very heavy weights. Your arms should only be minimally bent while performing this exercise. Sets of 25 to 35 repetitions seem to be optimal.

Descending sets of side raises:

This is one of the exercises you probably already use, so I won't spend much time describing it. You can do these on a machine or with dumbbells.

Combined training for the front/side shoulder muscles

I don't usually do much isolation training for the anterior shoulder muscles and instead focus on exercises that work both the anterior and lateral shoulder muscles.

Perform weekly incline bench presses:

If you remember my chest training article, you'll know that I like incline bench presses for shoulder width. I've noticed that my shoulders lose width and volume from the side when I stop doing incline bench presses. This is very obvious. I like a standard pyramid workout with this exercise and don't lower the weight all the way to my chest to avoid putting unnecessary strain on my rotator cuff. I like to train shoulders and chest on the same day.

Perform "Six Ways" (https://youtu.be/U-ae6DzQ0OI):

This is just one of those combination exercises that really delivers. You do seated side raises and swing your arms in front of your body during the contracting phase. Then raise them above your head before reversing the movement. Bring your arms back in front of your body, swing them to the side and lower the weight back to the starting position. This entire movement is considered one repetition.

I use 5 kilo dumbbells in this exercise - so don't think you'll be able to use heavy weights. I typically perform sets of 10 repetitions.

Use shoulder presses sparingly

Doing heavy shoulder presses every week had devastating effects on my joints and I will never do them again. I use shoulder presses occasionally for fun as I think it can be effective, but it's just too easy to overdo it with this exercise. Remember that a big part of my philosophy has to do with staying healthy and in one piece. There are 3 variations of the shoulder press that I particularly like:

Overhead and back(https://youtu.be/7cELqhOeiSU):

As the name suggests, you press the barbell from behind your head, just over your head in front of your body and then reverse this movement. Overhead forward, lower and back corresponds to one repetition. Perform this exercise standing and use a repetition range of 8 to 12 repetitions. This exercise is similar to the Bradford Press.

Super wide shoulder press:

This exercise is a standing shoulder press where the hands are placed far to the side of the bar and the bar is lowered all the way down to the chest.

This exercise may feel uncomfortable at first as your shoulder muscles are not used to this range of motion, but as they loosen up, you may even enjoy this movement. Super wide shoulder presses are heavy and you won't need a lot of weight for this one. I like to do sets of 12 to 15 repetitions with only 30 to 35 kilos of weight.

Shoulder press in the rack (https://youtu.be/l1SbZ8av4nw):

This exercise is similar to standing shoulder presses, but performed in a rack. The difference is that you push the bar against the rack and upwards. This provides additional resistance but a fixed range of motion.

At the highest point of the movement, lean forward and consciously tense your shoulder muscles. A group of powerlifters at Westside Barbell taught me this exercise and I still use it occasionally. This exercise is also excellent for the trapezius.

Training volume

I keep the volume lower for shoulders than for larger muscle groups such as legs or back. Using the intensity techniques described, and bearing in mind that the shoulder muscles are relatively small, I don't think you need as many sets as with the legs.

As with all muscle groups, I prefer to gradually increase the training volume for the shoulders and then train with this volume for six weeks before reducing the volume again. The intensity doesn't change, but the changes in volume provide a kind of built-in periodization.

In terms of volume, my 12 week training program for shoulders looks like this:

Phase 1 - Weeks 1-3:

Use a medium volume approach. The number of sets ranges from 6 to 8 sets. In general, you should focus on two or maybe three exercises, one of which should always be for the posterior shoulder muscles. Use the intensity techniques described above.

Phase 2 - Week 4-9:

Use a high volume approach. Now we start to increase the volume from week to week. Your body will have become accustomed to the intensity from phase 1, which we will compensate for by increasing the volume and total tonnage over the course of these 6 weeks. The number of sets usually ranges from 9 to 12, with more high-intensity sets added each week. Again, use 2 to 3 exercises. During this phase you will work hard for 6 weeks.

Phase 3 - Week 10-12:

Use a medium volume approach using almost exclusively high intensity sets. The number of sets will range from 4 to 6. The overall volume will decrease in terms of the number of sets, but these sets will be the hardest sets you've ever done in your life. I generally recommend using two exercises during this phase.

Unloading phase - 2 weeks:

As with any heavy program, there is an unloading phase that you will benefit from in the long run as there will be a rebound effect of the cumulative neuronal fatigue that accompanies high intensity training.

However, everyone is different and I have had exercisers do this phase after as little as 6 weeks, while others can train at extreme intensity for over 30 weeks and still make steady progress. Two weeks of light training is my general recommendation after a brutal 12 weeks.

Example workouts

Here is a typical shoulder training session from Phase 1 of my program (8 sets total). Remember that I train chest first with barbell incline bench presses to help my shoulder development.

Heavy side raises (partial reps): Grab a pair of very heavy dumbbells and let your arms hang straight down beside your body. Perform small swings. Perform 4 sets of 35 repetitions. Tilt your head back when performing this exercise and keep your arms straight. Make sure that the lateral muscle head of your shoulders moves the weight upwards.
Rear shoulder muscles on the machine (reverse butterfly): 3 sets of 35 repetitions. Move the weight as far back as possible to maximize the range of motion.
Side raises for the rear shoulder muscles on an incline bench: 1 destruction set. Grab heavy dumbbells and perform 60 partial repetitions. Drop the weight, grab two dumbbells of half the weight and perform the next set of 30 partial repetitions. Halve the weight again and perform 10 repetitions through the full range of motion, pausing for 2 seconds at the highest point of the movement.

Here is a typical shoulder workout from Phase II of my program (12 sets). I consider this to be high volume for a small muscle group like the shoulders.

Barbell overhead press and back press: 4 sets of 12 reps. Hold the barbell in front of your body and press it up to just above your head and release it behind your head. Immediately afterwards, press the barbell back up to just above your head and then lower it towards your chest. This is one repetition. Don't overdo it with the weight and don't bash your head in when you get tired.
Training for the rear shoulder muscles on the cable pulley: Pass the cable pulls over the top pulley and pause in the contracted position for 2 seconds on each repetition. Perform 4 sets of 25 repetitions.
Six Ways: Just in case there's any life left in your shoulder muscles. Perform 4 sets of 10 repetitions.

Summary

I've never had the best hand when it comes to shoulder genetics. Instead, I had to experiment, trick and push my creativity - as well as my joke tolerance - to the absolute limit before I could start building serious muscle mass in the shoulders. However, this doesn't mean you have to take my long and winding road.

Remember that there will always be genetic freaks who will grow through practically anything, but I think you'll find my approach great if you're not one of those lucky people. I hope some of these techniques can help you as much as they have helped me.

From John Meadows

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/shoulder-training-the-mountain-dog-way

Aug 29, 2018

How you can improve your body composition: Optimizing fat loss and muscle gain

This article contains specific advice for individuals who are currently carrying around some unwanted body fat on how to approach the fat loss and muscle building process.

Introduction to improving body composition

The goal of most people who work out in a gym is to improve their body composition. The tricky thing is that improving body composition is a process of give and take. For years, many have debated the idea that you can't lose fat and build muscle at the same time because building muscle requires a caloric surplus and losing fat requires a caloric deficit, and you can't be in a state of caloric deficit and caloric surplus at the same time.

This is why the "traditional" approach that many exercisers use to improve their body composition is to alternate between phases of muscle building and fat loss. These phases are also referred to as the mass phase and the definition phase.

So you might think that the overall process is like a seesaw between building muscle and losing fat - if you increase one, the other must be reduced. This is probably the biggest dilemma that competitive bodybuilding and figure class athletes have faced since they first set foot in the iron asylum. Without the use of pharmacological doses of performance enhancing compounds, trying to optimize muscle hypertrophy and fat loss at the same time is a very tedious affair. The other option is a maintenance phase during which you neither gain nor lose muscle or fat).

Applying the above quandary to individuals who are already overweight, it seems intuitive to work on reducing body fat first. While this may be the right approach in some cases, it is not always the ideal way and some overweight people may in fact benefit from working on building muscle first before trying to lose their excess fat.

With this in mind, this guide will cover possible approaches to improving body composition and applying these protocols to overweight (or even obese) individuals. We'll also briefly talk about what the term body composition actually means, take a look at some of the physiology that underlies the breakdown of fat and the building of muscle, and address the need for things like cardio training, resistance training, and proper nutrition.

What is body composition and how can you improve it?

In fitness and bodybuilding terms, body composition is the percentage that fat tissue makes up of your total body mass. At first glance, this seems quite simple, but when it comes to improving body composition, things get a little more complicated.

One thing that people seem to overlook when setting a new fitness or body development goal is the fact that body weight alone is not a sufficient measure of their progress. There are some scenarios where a person's only goal may be to lose or gain weight, but in most cases it is more goal-oriented to focus on improving body composition regardless of overall body mass.

In an ideal world, we would optimize fat burning and muscle building at the same time. But unfortunately, as has already been mentioned, these two goals are essentially contradictory and more or less mutually exclusive. However, this does not mean that you cannot improve your body composition at any given time.

Improving your body composition simply means improving your ratio of muscle mass to body fat tissue (i.e. lowering your body fat percentage). For example, if we take Mr. Shredded and add 5 pounds of muscle but only 2 pounds of fat to his body, then we have improved his body composition. Also, a loss of 5 pounds of fat, with a loss of only one pound of muscle would result in an improvement in body composition.

So to recap, we want to maximize muscle hypertrophy (while minimizing fat gain) or maximize fat burning (while minimizing muscle catabolism).

Optimizing muscle gain

When we look at the goal of building muscle, it's useful to understand what constitutes a state of muscle anabolism/hypertrophy. Basically, this can be reduced to what is known as net protein turnover, which is a quantitative measure of muscle protein synthesis vs. muscle protein breakdown.

If muscle protein synthesis is higher than muscle protein breakdown, this is an indicator of muscle hypertrophy (i.e. an anabolic state) and vice versa. A variety of factors such as training, diet, disease, immune responses, gene expression, pharmaceutical agents, supplements, etc. cause fluctuations in this ratio

So to optimize or maximize muscle gain, we ideally want to maintain a higher rate of muscle protein synthesis compared to muscle protein breakdown (which means muscle protein turnover in favor of anabolism). So it's all very simple. Wait, not so fast - muscle protein synthesis is tightly controlled and regulated via a protein encoded by the FRAP1 gene known as Mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR). (1)

The mTOR protein acts as the backbone of the mTOR protein complex (i.e. mTORC1 and mTORC2) that activates protein synthesis when the necessary cellular conditions are met (and ultimately induces cellular growth and proliferation). (2) As mentioned above, the regulation of the protein synthesis pathway is very complex (and a detailed description is beyond the scope of this article), but it can still be helpful to have this rudimentary knowledge of how muscle cells grow.

The activity of the mTOR protein complex depends on the energy status of the cell, circulating growth factors and hormones (especially insulin), nutrient availability and oxidative stress. Under this premise, the goal for maximizing/optimizing muscle gain is to enhance these factors to upregulate muscle protein synthesis.

Optimizing fat loss

On the fat loss side of things, the mechanisms that are conducive to the process of fat burning are more or less direct antagonists of the mechanisms involved in muscle building (and vice versa). Fat breakdown is regulated in large part by the enzyme adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPk), a trimeric protein produced in many tissue types in the body.

You will probably be aware that adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the body's energy currency and that the breakdown of ATP produces adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and free energy. AMPk is activated when the cell is in a state of energy deficiency (i.e. the ATP : ADP ratio decreases). This occurs during periods of nutrient deprivation (especially glucose deprivation), ischemia (a lack of blood supply to an organ), during exercise and/or the use of certain chemicals/medications.

In contrast, things like eating and excessive glycogen levels inhibit AMPk activity (as the ATP : ADP ratio is increased).

What does all this mean in the grand scheme of fat loss? Well, AMPk enhances lipolysis, increases fat oxidation, improves glucose uptake into muscle tissue and inhibits lipogenesis (fat breakdown). (3). Basically, AMPk is the metabolic switch for the activation of fat burning.

AMPk and mTOR: a give-and-take relationship

So now we know the importance of mTOR and AMPk when it comes to improving body composition, but the problem is that they are activated by antagonistic mechanisms. Even though AMPk is great for activating fat burning, it also inhibits mTOR (and therefore protein synthesis). (4) Conversely, mTOR inhibits AMPk, which means that fat burning is inhibited when muscle protein synthesis is activated.

If you think about this rationally, this should not be surprising as cellular energy levels at any given time are only either sufficient or too low in terms of ATP : ADP ratio. Although this is a very simplistic way of describing these pathways, it at least gives you an idea of why you can't achieve maximum muscle gain and maximum fat loss at the same time.

However, this doesn't mean you can't switch back and forth between these two states - and in fact, certain protocols such as intermittent fasting, refeed protocols and yo-yo dieting are based on this idea. To improve body composition, it would theoretically be best to activate each of these pathways (AMPk/mTOR) sufficiently, even if only temporarily.

Where should an overweight or obese person start?

While there will always be individual variables at play when it comes to the perfect plan for overweight individuals, there are some general tips to consider if improving body composition is the primary goal. Overweight is a somewhat misleading term, as it does not necessarily mean that a person is excessively fat. This advice is therefore aimed more specifically at people with a high body fat percentage (particularly those above the 20% mark).

You will need to assess yourself honestly and objectively and then decide whether you have a useful base of muscle mass to work with, or whether you need to develop that base first. Some heavier people may already have a reasonable amount of muscle mass but also be too fat (imagine the "traditional" heavyweight powerlifter), while others may be too fat while lacking muscle mass.

Create metabolic leeway for yourself

When it comes to improving body composition, the most important requirement is to increase your metabolic rate as much as possible. One way to achieve this is to first increase your metabolic rate so that you have more room to work with when you reduce your calorie intake. There are several factors that can help you increase your metabolic rate, but the main one we will focus on is building more muscle mass (as muscle tissue requires more energy than fat tissue).

Intuitively, the higher your baseline metabolic rate, the more efficient the process of improving body composition will be. The main reason we want to increase the capacity of your metabolism early on is that prolonged energy restriction will slow down your metabolic rate so that you will eventually reach a plateau and your fat loss will stall.

For this reason, it is crucial to rev up your metabolism before you start shedding excess fat. This doesn't mean that you can't lose fat without working on building muscle first - but such an approach will be less effective in the long run and make the process more difficult both physiologically and psychologically.

How you should approach body composition improvement if you are overweight

Case 1: Fat but useful amount of muscle mass

In the case of a fat but muscular person, it may be appropriate to focus on fat loss first, interspersing temporary periods of maintenance or muscle building. Because such a person has a useful amount of muscle mass, they have a higher metabolic capacity. These people have more leeway to work with when it comes to reducing calories.

As noted earlier, metabolic rate slows down when you remain in an energy deficit, which is why short periods of calorie surplus can help you avoid fat loss plateaus (while allowing you to enjoy the extra food for a while). This is the point at which you need to assess your progress and make adjustments.

Some people may be able to maintain consistent fat loss for months without ever needing a refeed phase, while for others fat loss may stall after just a few weeks. Since I can't provide a plan that is optimal for everyone, here is just a sample diet plan for a person in this category who is trying to improve their body composition:

Phase 1 - Fat loss with the goal of losing roughly 5% weight per month or until weight loss stops. A good starting point to achieve this is to reduce calorie intake by 500 kcal below maintenance calories.
Phase 2 Once weight loss has stopped, increase your calorie intake back to your maintenance calorie level for 1 to 2 weeks, or possibly to the point of a slight calorie surplus. You may gain a little weight during this phase - but don't panic.
Phase 3 - Continue the weight loss phase as described in phase 1. Repeat phases 1 and 2 until you have reached your target body fat percentage.

Case 2: Fat and no significant amount of muscle mass

If a person lacks muscle mass and is too fat, then there is a dilemma here as energy expenditure is likely to be quite low from the outset and this person will need to reduce their calorie intake significantly in order to lose small amounts of weight. In addition, most of the body mass lost with a large reduction in energy intake in these cases will be muscle mass, so the weight will decrease but the body fat percentage will not. This usually manifests itself in what is called "skinny fat" syndrome, which describes a person who is both thin and flabby at the same time.

Therefore, if you fall into this category, it is generally wise to consider either eating maintenance calories or maintaining a slight calorie deficit and focusing on training with weights.

Most people will probably think it's insane to recommend that an obese/overweight person not focus on weight loss and a ton of cardio training, but I would argue that a focus on building and maintaining reasonable amounts of muscle mass and strength will help that person achieve more efficient fat loss in the longer term at this point. Don't be blinded by short-term results.

Also, keep in mind that I am not saying that these individuals should start a maximum fat loss phase and pretend that this is the best thing for them. If you give yourself time, stay consistent and focus on resistance training, then even a slight calorie deficit (or even the maintenance calorie amount) will be conducive to improving body composition as you slowly shed fat while maintaining strength and muscle mass.

This is not to say that you shouldn't incorporate cardio into your program, just that it's not necessary (or helpful) to do hours of cardio unless you're primarily sacrificing muscle mass (which you already don't have much of to begin with if you fall into this category).

As mentioned above, for people who fall into this category, there is no one-size-fits-all scheme, so here is an example (which is not too different from the one for people in the first category):

Phase 1 - Maintain a slight deficit or eat your maintenance calorie intake with the aim of losing a small amount of weight (e.g. 250 to 500 grams per week). A good starting point to achieve this is to stay within your maintenance calorie range. You can also choose to stay a few hundred kcal below your maintenance calorie intake if you are not seeing any visible weight loss.
Phase 3 - As in case 1: continue the diet phase as described in phase 1. Repeat phases 1 and 2 until you have reached your target body fat percentage.

Phase 2 - Same as phase 1 for the other category: as soon as the fat/weight loss comes to a halt (or you notice a noticeable decrease in your strength), increase your calorie intake back to the maintenance calorie level or possibly above for 1 to 2 weeks. You may gain a little weight during this phase - but don't panic.

In the case of overweight teenagers

The dilemma of being overweight as a teenager can be quite complicated. These individuals usually do more harm than good for their bodies by focusing on extreme calorie restriction. If you're an overweight teenager, here's the hard truth: you need to figure out what made you overweight and change those habits.

Extreme weight loss during crucial stages of development can have devastating effects on your metabolic health and hormonal system. Many overweight teens take their fat loss efforts too far and risk a variety of health problems just to get the weight off the scale.

For this reason, overweight teens are more likely to benefit from the recommendations for Case 2 and should focus on changing their unhealthy eating habits and building strength and muscle mass through resistance training.

What about macronutrient ratios?

Although micromanaging your macronutrient intake down to the last gram can have some value, overweight people need to focus primarily on eating less. Having said that, in the long run, it's probably best for most overweight individuals to focus on a balance of fat, protein and carbohydrates rather than sticking to extreme protocols such as a ketogenic diet.

The reason for this is that a focus on moderate intake of all macronutrients and calorie control not only allows these people more freedom while dieting, but also doesn't restrict them or give them the idea that certain foods are off limits.

Final words

The reason most people don't stick with a plan is because they are far too concerned with short-term results (or lack thereof) and completely forget that improving health, fitness and body composition is a lifelong endeavor. You can't accelerate this process at will - it will take concerted effort and consistency on your part to achieve the body and level of fitness you desire. If at any point you feel like you're not making progress, take a step back, look at your long-term goals and make any necessary changes to your current habits to continue your journey successfully.

You need to understand what has made you overweight and change those habits. Simply doing this and implementing a solid, consistent diet and exercise program will reduce many of the negative health consequences associated with obesity. Don't make this more complicated than it needs to be.

https://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/body-composition-fat-loss-muscle-building

References:

1. Tokunaga C, Yoshino K, Yonezawa K (2004). "mTOR integrates amino acid- and energy-sensing pathways". Biochem Biophys Res Commun 313 (2): 443-6. doi:10.1016/j.bbrc.2003.07.019. PMID 14684182.

2 Wullschleger S, Loewith R, Hall MN (February 2006). "TOR signaling in growth and metabolism". Cell 124 (3): 471-84. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2006.01.016. PMID 16469695.

3 Ruderman NB et. al. Minireview: Malonyl CoA, AMP-activated protein kinase, and adiposity. Endocrinology (2003) 144: 5166-5171.

4 Bolster, DR. AMP-activated protein kinase suppresses protein synthesis in rat skeletal muscle through down-regulated mammalian target of rapomyacin (mTOR) signaling. J Biol Chem (2002) 277: 23977-23980.

Aug 27, 2018

Chest annihilation: Mountain Dog style

Chest training was always a challenge for me. This wasn't because my genetics were modest (as was the case with my back) or because of the pain associated with training (as was the case with leg training). For me, the hardest part of chest training was simply staying healthy: I had suffered so many strains over the years that were just a touch away from actual muscle fiber tears, and so many rotator cuff issues that required hours of treatment, that I was ultimately forced to examine my training style and creatively adapt it in order to continue to grow. The other alternative would have been to just keep plowing forward like an idiot and eventually sustain a serious injury.

Interestingly, exercising with some "fear" eventually led me to what worked best for me in terms of muscle growth - with the added bonus that I no longer had to suffer from pulled muscles or an irritated rotator cuff. It's been said before, but it really can't be said enough: the pursuit of building muscle is a marathon, not a sprint.

Why did I suffer from strain after strain? Because I was a dedicated student of the bodybuilding magazines and followed the classic training programs consisting of barbell bench presses followed by incline bench presses and then flying movements.

It starts with how you start

Whenever I started my training sessions with barbell bench presses, it was estimated that 25% of the time I would pull at least a minor pectoral muscle strain when using even the slightest amount of heavy weights. It was always the same: I'd make good progress and then, after a few weeks of feeling good - Bam, and I'd pulled something again.

Then I switched to doing incline bench presses first and unfortunately experienced the same thing. It was really frustrating as I wasn't doing extremely heavy sets of two or three reps, but sets of 6 to 8 reps. And again, this meant more strains, further aggravation and more treatments. When my physiotherapist's BMW salesman sent me a Christmas card, I knew something was going wrong.

People around me were also pulling and tearing pectoral muscles more frequently. A former Mr. Ohio and a couple of world champion powerlifter friends of mine had all suffered major pec tears that required surgery and this made me question my methods. Was I heading in the same direction? I was stubborn and always thought about how difficult it would be to build a truly gigantic chest if I couldn't bench press or incline bench press as my first exercises. After all, that was the way to do it, wasn't it?

It was hard for me to break free from this paradigm. I had heard many bodybuilders say that you get the best gains by doing a heavy barbell multi-joint exercise as your first exercise. I had also read several studies that supported this view. I had never questioned these studies and still don't, but I also know that there is always more than one way to achieve your goals if you are creative enough.

So how did my training evolve into something that allowed me to make extraordinary gains without injury?

Exercise sequence

In my experience, the exercises that regularly led to strains were barbell bench presses and barbell incline bench presses. The fact is, I still love doing these exercises and I certainly wanted to keep them in my training program - but I needed to figure out how to do them safely. After much experimentation, these were the conclusions I came to:

Bench press as the third or even fourth exercise of the training session:

You may not be able to set any new personal bests, but try to use what you do at this point as a new reference. For example, let's say you can do 6 reps of the bench press at 150 kilos if you do the bench press as your first exercise, but you can only do 6 reps at 130 kilos if you use the bench press as your third or fourth exercise. Make the 130 kilos your new reference and try to exceed this weight - but now with the certainty that you are sufficiently warmed up and will not injure your chest muscles in this attempt.

All those junkies addicted to personal bests will be fascinated to see how much of their "lost" strength returns after they get used to this new sequence. You may not get back to the 6 reps at 150 kilos right away, but 140 to 145 kilos will probably be doable within a few weeks of training.

Incline bench press as second or third exercise

You should be on the safe side if you perform this exercise as the second or third exercise of your chest workout if you use the technique I will describe later in this article.

Push angle

Slight angles work better than excessive angles. Dorian Yates believes in a slight angle on incline bench presses and bench presses on the reverse incline bench and he was certainly on to something. For me, a slight incline bench angle seems to work the entire chest without that burning sensation in the shoulders that I sometimes experience on incline bench presses with a greater incline of the pad.

Honestly, standard incline bench presses are one of my favorite shoulder width exercises. I've noticed that if I don't use this exercise for a while, my shoulders take on a narrower appearance and my upper chest looks visibly flatter.

It's as if my genetic predisposition for "droopy shoulders" comes into play here. I therefore consider regular incline bench presses to be an excellent exercise for building my shoulders while also training my upper chest (I train the chest along with the shoulders, so this combination works well as a complete training day).

As for bench presses on the reverse incline bench, this exercise completely destroys my rotator cuff. This exercise is probably the most uncomfortable exercise I've ever done. I believe this was also due to the benches I was using - the angles were just too extreme.

The solution is to find a bench where you can adjust the pad to a slight incline. I like to use a sit-up bench with just a slight incline for this. This is the perfect angle for natural contractions. You can of course also use this setup for dumbbell exercises.

Try the following if you have trouble feeling your chest: Use a very small angle on the multi press for bench presses on the reverse incline bench. Grip the bar with a wide grip and start doing repetitions where you lower the bar to your chest and then push it up to only 75% of the maximum range of motion before lowering the bar again - we want continuous tension on the pecs at this point. Do a few sets and your chest will literally be on fire.

Even with incline bench presses, slight angles are better than more extreme ones. They seem to feel more "natural" and allow me to use more of my pecs and less of my shoulder muscles. I think this subtle difference compared to the angles used in regular incline bench presses has had the biggest impact on my chest development and the chest development of the majority of the guys I've worked with.

And what about training the different muscle heads of the pecs? For example, can you really isolate the area that attaches to the collarbone and the area that attaches to the sternum? That's a good question. There are a lot of really smart people who say that this is not possible and that flat bench presses, for example, train your entire chest. Their logic is sound, but here's what matters: sometimes we overcomplicate things, but sometimes we oversimplify.

I know that when I do bench presses on the reverse incline bench on the multi press, flying movements on the flat bench, and barbell bench presses, I feel more soreness in my lower and outer pecs the next day than I do in my upper pecs. If I do tons of flying movements on the machine and dumbbell incline bench presses, I feel a lot of muscle soreness in my upper chest the next day. And if I do a lot of flying movements on the machine with a good stretch and a good contraction, then the next day I feel the muscle fibers in the sternum area very clearly.

So in this simplistic way, I believe that different angles stress different areas of the muscle to a greater extent. I know this isn't really groundbreaking, but many of my colleagues would disagree with me.

Range of motion

By making adjustments to your range of motion, you can accomplish several things. These adjustments can keep you healthy and they can lead to greater growth. But how can you know when you should move the weight all the way up, when you should achieve a strong stretch, or when the weight should touch your chest? Let's look at a few exercises that you should perform with a limited range of motion and others that you should perform with a full range of motion.

Barbell incline bench press

Don't touch your chest. Finish the downward movement 5 to 7 centimeters above your chest and then push the weight back up. Do not overstretch your arms at the highest point of the movement so that you maintain continuous tension on your pecs throughout the range of motion used and you will reap the benefits.

This range of motion has saved my rotator cuff from regular strains, my pectoral attachments from potential muscle tears and allowed me to feel my chest while working out. As mentioned above, I believe this is also one of the best exercises for shoulder width, making this exercise a valuable tool in your toolbox.

Dumbbell Twist and Press (https://youtu.be/Km1fsCmsY6M)

In the twist and press, you start at the lowest point of the movement with a regular grip. As you move upwards, twist your hands inwards until you reach an underhand grip at the highest point and the dumbbells form a line.

Regardless of the angle used, this exercise should always be performed with a full stretch at the lowest point of the movement, which is the main advantage of using dumbbells over a barbell. There are also variations in the execution of this exercise that can help you achieve a more intense contraction.

Bench press on the chest machine

You can get really creative with these exercises and use a variety of ranges of motion. On the Hammer Strength press, I like to set the seat low enough to push the weight up in more of an arc. The key is to move the weight all the way down, pause there and then explosively push the weight up.

You can also use partial ranges of motion in the lower and upper ranges in a safe way with good results. A good way to incorporate this into your training program is to train through the full range of motion until muscle failure is reached and then perform a few partial repetitions in the style of Tom Platz.

Flying movements

I occasionally start my chest workout with flying movements on the machine. I use a good stretch and try to achieve a full contraction. If you push yourself hard, you will achieve an intense burn in the sternum area that is difficult to achieve with other exercises. You should be careful though - only go back until your arms are to the side of you or slightly behind your body. I have seen many strains due to an exaggerated range of motion. For safety reasons, I would not recommend maximum stretching during this exercise.

Pressing and stretching

One of my friends, John Quint, a myofascial therapist, taught me this. He's a massive guy with one of the most massive chest developments I've ever seen. In between sets, take a stretchy band or something similar and perform presses and stretches as seen at the end of this video: (https://youtu.be/9fVytuZvINE)

When I first started doing this stretch, it was scary how bad my mobility was in my shoulders, but it got better every week. The cool thing about this is that your pump will reach insane levels if you do this exercise between sets. I prefer to do it later in the workout when my pecs are already pumped with blood and stretch them as much as possible.

Work with higher repetitions on the multi press

This is something I had to try on several people before I could believe it. You can build muscle mass and thickness with higher reps on the multi press. I used sets like this when preparing for a competition and I noticed that I and all my training partners who trained like this became more muscular - even while dieting. I'm talking about sets of 15 to 25 repetitions. This is one of those things that every book will tell you won't work, but I'm convinced it pays off.

Training volume

In terms of volume, my 12 week chest program is slightly behind what you would use for legs or back as the pecs are not as big.

Phase 1 - Week 1-3

Use a medium volume approach. The total number of sets ranges from 10 to 12 sets. A medium volume approach will be sufficient to start with as the intensity and variety of training angles will be enough to shock your muscles.

Phase 2 - Week 4-9

Use a high volume approach. Now we start to increase the volume each week. Your body will adapt to the intensity you challenged it with in the beginning and we will continue to push it to regain its balance through more total volume and total tonnage moved over the next 6 weeks. The number of sets will range from 13 to 16, with more high-intensity sets added each week. You will need to work hard during the six weeks of this phase.

Phase 3 - Week 10-12

Use a low to medium volume approach with almost exclusively high-intensity sets (before which you perform an adequate warm-up). The number of sets will range from 8 to 10. The total volume will be lower, but the sets you will perform will be the hardest sets of your life.

Unloading phase - week 13-14

As with any hard program, there is an unloading phase that will benefit you in the long run and during which there will be a rebound from the cumulative neuronal fatigue that accompanies high-intensity training. In this respect, exercisers are very different from each other. I've seen exercisers who needed a rebound after just 6 weeks, while others can train at maximum intensity for over 30 weeks and still make steady progress.

How do you know when you should take these 2 weeks? You might have an increased heart rate at rest or you might notice that you can't release as much power during your heavy multi-joint exercises. Maybe you can't sleep or maybe you're suddenly in a bad mood all the time. At the end of the day, you either need to work with someone who knows your capacity or you need to use self-observation to know when you need a lower intensity phase.

Intensity techniques for the chest muscles

Rest/pause

With rest/pause, you pause for a few seconds and then perform another repetition, after which you pause again, and so on. Rest/pause works well with press exercises on machines like the Hammer Strength machine. I also love doing regular flat bench presses this way. You don't have to worry about injury from pausing and then explosively lifting the weight if you do these exercises later in your workout. Dumbbell exercises can also be performed this way, but I think machines (Hammer Strength, Multipress, Cybex, etc.) along with the barbell exercises are best for this technique.

Continuous tension

In almost all chest exercises where you use a barbell, you should focus on lowering the weight at a controlled pace and then only moving it ¾ of the way up before lowering it again without pausing. I mainly use this technique for bench press variations with barbells and on the multi press.

Partial repetitions

I occasionally perform partial repetitions from the stretched position in machine exercises, but I'm still not really comfortable with partial repetitions in standard barbell exercises. I also like to do partial repetitions from the contracted position on machines. For example, I do a normal set of 10 reps on the Hammer Strength chest machine and then another 6 partial reps at the top end of the range of motion.

You could also do 10 full reps followed by 10 partial reps across the bottom of the range of motion for increased blood flow. When I perform partial repetitions across the lower part of the range of motion, I usually aim for a repetition range of 20 to 30 repetitions. It's impossible to do this if you're doing partial reps in the upper part of the range of motion. Here you are more likely to be in the 4 to 8 repetition range.

Descending sets

I love descending sets on machines like the multi press, Hammer Strength and Cybex, but I'm not a fan of descending sets with barbells or dumbbells as your arms give up too quickly, rendering this technique useless. You're after deep stimulation of the pecs, not stimulation of the triceps.

3 second negative repetitions

Just like with the legs, I like to perform heavy multi-joint exercises like barbell flat bench presses or barbell incline bench presses with 3-second negative reps. I don't like this with machines. Intuitively, the triceps seem to do too much of the work for me.

Let's put it all together

Now that you know the details of my approach to chest training, I'd like to take a look at two example workouts:

Sample workout for Phase 1

Exercise	Sets	Flat bench dumbbell press with rotation
	3	10
It's all about maximum contraction. Lie flat on a flat bench (or on a slightly inclined incline bench) with 2 dumbbells. Lower the dumbbells so that you achieve a good stretch in your chest at the lowest point of the movement. As you then move the weight upwards, turn your hands inwards and consciously contract your chest muscles to the maximum at the highest point of the movement. You won't be able to use as much weight as with a regular dumbbell bench press, but you will achieve a very good contraction. Once you have found the right weight, perform 3 sets of 10 repetitions.
Barbell incline bench press	2 warm-up sets 3 - 5	8 8
Do two warm-up sets of 8 repetitions and then increase the weight in a pyramid with sets of 8 repetitions - e.g. 100, 110, 120, 130. Continue until you can no longer do 8 repetitions. You should reach this point after 4 sets. Only lower the weight to 5 centimeters above your chest and only move it 75% of the way up.
Press and stretch on the machine	3	10 + 10
Perform 10 repetitions on a chest machine and perform the stretch described above after each set. Perform a stretch for each repetition of presses.

Example training session phase 2

Exercise	Sets	Dumbbell incline bench press
	4	8
Nothing special here, just a good pyramid. Make sure you achieve a good stretch at the lowest point and push the weight all the way up and consciously tighten the chest muscles at the highest point of the movement. Increase the weight from set to set until you reach a weight where you reach muscle failure after 8 repetitions. Don't use a weight that is so heavy that you can no longer manage to tense your chest muscles to the maximum at the highest point. If you can do 8 repetitions with 40 kilos, your work sets could look like this: 32.5 x 8, then 35 x 8, then 37.5 x 8, then 40 x 8. Not all sets are performed until muscle failure, but only the last one.
Bench press on the reverse incline bench on the multi press	4 4 4 4	25 20 12 8 -10
Use constant tension: go all the way down until the bar touches your chest, but only push the weight 75% of the way up. Use a medium weight for 25 repetitions and get your chest muscles burning. Then perform another set with slightly more weight and 20 repetitions. Then increase the weight again and perform a solid set of 12 reps with perfect form. And now for the mastery set. Start with a weight you think you can do 8 to 10 reps with and go to muscle failure. Do not perform a single repetition with poor form. If your form starts to deteriorate, reduce the weight significantly and perform as many repetitions with perfect form as possible. For the final descending set, use a significantly wider grip and again perform as many reps with perfect form as possible. After that, your chest should be on fire.
Flat bench press	4	4 Rest/pause
Rest/pause time. Perform 4 rest/pause sets of 6 repetitions. Lower the weight in a controlled manner, pause on the chest for 2 seconds and move the weight up explosively. Use perfect form, but perform the upward movement explosively.
Pec Minor Dips (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IerK6jDwJN0)	3	Muscle failure
This is another exercise I love for the chest. It's a modified version of classic dips performed for the pectoralis minor. Keep your arms straight and lower your body to a full stretch. Then push yourself up using your chest muscles. Remember to keep your arms straight throughout the exercise. Use as much additional weight as possible.

Final thoughts

I hope you appreciate the direction my chest workout is taking and why. Sometimes we have to find new ways to achieve our goals when we can't get anywhere the traditional way. For this reason, I was forced to deviate from the exercise sequences described in all the popular muscle magazines. Fortunately, my fear of injury led me down a path that I believe has given me the best results for my chest development.

I would still say that this program remains very basic in nature. I don't use inverse cable crossover pulls on a Bosu Ball or anything along those lines. Instead, the basic and proven chest exercises are performed in what I consider to be the safest and most productive way. Try it out for yourself.

by John Meadows

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/chest-obliteration-mountain-dog-style

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