Here is a short summary...

1. Any exercise that is performed poorly is dangerous.
2. There are better conditioning tools than high repetition Olympic weightlifting exercises like pulling or pushing a weightlifting sled.
3. They're not the best way to get strong, but if you carefully control the speed of the bar and schedule enough maximum effort training with them, they can help you develop strength.

You can read it in big and bold letters in many places: the Olympic

weightlifting exercises will make you strong and explosive and help you build a monstrous trapezius, but they should not be performed with high repetitions. Any trainer or fitness system that claims otherwise is misinformed. Olympic weightlifting exercises with high reps will ultimately hurt you and will never make you strong, but is this really a fair assessment? You can walk into any CrossFit gym anywhere in America or Europe and you'll see some variation of Olympic weightlifting exercises performed with high reps and terrible technique, but you'll probably also see some high repetition, high quality training - not to mention some very well toned bodies.

And it's not like Golds Gym is a prime example of exceptional training technique. Look around you. What's the ratio of people performing squats with ego weights compared to exercisers performing squats through the full range of motion? Ten to one?

Is it really that clear and simple?

Instead of rhetorically preaching from our strength training and bodybuilding ivory tower, we decided to let both sides give their honest opinions on the subject so that you can form your own opinion on this contentious topic.

Beat 1

Olympic weightlifting exercises with high repetitions are dangerous

Exercises such as snatches, high pulls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFznMk35-EQ) and deadlifts are very technical exercises and as such require significantly more practice and athletic ability than barbell curls. These exercises are not inherently dangerous, but in an exhausted state - such as after 10 repetitions with a demanding weight - it can start to get dicey, which is especially true for beginners and recreational athletes. "If an experienced Olympic weightlifter wants to use snatching or deadlifting to improve his conditioning or as a test of courage, then this is not a problem," says Mark Rippetoe, author of Starting Strength. "He's had the proper back position and technique hammered into him long enough that these factors won't diminish as much when he gets tired."

Olympic weightlifting coach Will Fleming agrees, saying that context is key when watching CrossFit athletes master impressive sets. "Watch the CrossFit Games and you'll see dozens of athletes who have no problem completing 30 reps of deadlifts or 30 reps of snatches in an amazing amount of time," he says. "However, these same athletes can probably do 150+ kilos on a single repetition clean and jerk. These guys are strong, so 70 kilos is not much more than an extended warm-up for them in these exercises," says Fleming.

Counterpunch

Any heavy exercise that is performed poorly is dangerous

A highly technical exercise performed poorly is obviously dangerous, but that's true of any heavy exercise in the weight room, not just Olympic weightlifting exercises. "Bad technique comes from a bad coach regardless of the exercise itself," says Chris Matsui of Fusion Performance Training. "Take squats as an example. If an exerciser is using poor exercise execution form and performing a max repetition, then it's obviously dangerous. It doesn't matter if you do a max repetition, 3 repetitions, 5 repetitions or 15+ repetitions. It's ultimately about the right posture," says Matsui. "Because the weights are light, what we see most often in Olympic weightlifting exercises with high reps is a lapse in technique and not necessarily an injury," he says. "It's like squats, deadlifts, presses or any other exercise where the reps increase. You need good instruction and a good technical base."

Jacob Tsypkin of CrossFit Monterey likes to use a gradual progression of exercises so beginners don't try to do too much too soon. For example, new clients don't perform Olympic weightlifting exercises with high reps at all, but instead spend their time learning how to snatch and clean and jerk properly. Other modifications include using push presses (standing shoulder presses with momentum from the legs) instead of power thrusts. "As they become more competent, then they can incorporate some snatching and pushing into their workouts, but usually from a hanging position," says Tsypkin. "They don't perform full Olympic weightlifting exercises during their training sessions until they are sufficiently competent at these exercises."

Stroke 2

Performing Olympic weightlifting exercises with high repetitions promotes poor motor movement patterns

As correct form of exercise execution tends to diminish in the presence of fatigue, the body is forced to recruit other muscles or develop other compensatory mechanisms to complete the set. This promotes a faulty motor pattern, which is similar to getting into a bad habit, and leads to progressively worse exercise technique. "With each lapse in technique that occurs in Olympic weightlifting exercises, there will be a compensatory pattern that rears its ugly head," says Will Fleming. "In this case, perhaps the legs are fatigued and instead of recruiting the quadriceps when lifting the bar off the ground, the athlete begins a pulling motion that starts in the lower back. Spinal flexion like this against a weight - especially a weight that is not directly against the body - means more gravitational forces acting on the spine, which can quickly become problematic."

According to Dan Trink of Peak Performance NYC, this doesn't just apply to beginners. "Even for high-level strength athletes who have already internalized the correct movement patterns through thousands of repetitions, the form of the exercise execution deteriorates when they perform these exercises with high repetitions," he says. "If it's important to you to develop and maintain good training form, then high repetition workouts are a bad idea."

Counterpunch

Bad movement patterns? The ability to perform technically demanding exercises with heavy weights is a valuable skill.

The counter-argument goes along the lines that the ability to perform technically demanding exercises with relatively heavy weights when fatigued is also a valuable skill - a skill that can be improved very effectively through Olympic weightlifting exercises with high repetitions. "The barbell allows us to use more weight and activate more muscles than any other piece of training equipment, inducing a stronger training effect," says Jacon Tsypkin. "This is just as true for really improving conditioning as it is for building maximum strength."

CrossFit coach Ron Turner of CrossFit V02 Max emphasizes that the whole concept of motor movement patterns can be avoided through simple coaching. "Olympic weightlifting exercises with high reps don't make you a lousy strength athlete - poor technique and a bad coach make you a lousy strength athlete," he says. "I wouldn't dispute the general observation that there is a decline in form during Olympic weightlifting exercises with high repetitions, but it is the responsibility of the trainer to choose the weight correctly so that the trainee can maintain proper form."

One way to achieve this is to have an experienced trainer on hand to monitor exercise execution and, perhaps more importantly, to develop a culture where proper form comes before anything else. "For example, when performing the Grace WOD, don't allow your form to go down the drain. Stiffen your spine, lower your hips and perform a good pull from the floor," explains Fleming. "I believe that if the ego is left at the checkroom and it's not about getting to a sub 1:30 time, then this workout can be done in a relatively safe way."

Stroke 3

Olympic weightlifting exercises with high reps are a poor conditioning tool

Performing a ton of reps on the snatch and clean and jerk with high reps and light weights will send your heart rate into the stratosphere. While this may seem like a great thing for athletes who care about their conditioning, there are criticisms. The first is the improvement in fitness itself. According to coaches like Rippetoe, you shouldn't try to get strong and improve your conditioning at the same time - at least not if you want optimal results - because conditioning training interferes with strength development.

"If improving your conditioning is important to you, being strong should be more important and getting strong will take longer if you're trying to improve your conditioning," says Rip. "You'll have time to improve your fitness later. After you get strong." The solution, according to Rippetoe, is to not use the Olympic weightlifting exercises at all to improve conditioning. "Push the weight sled, run up some hills or do some sprints," says Rip. "These exercises are easier to dose accurately and they won't make you look like an inexperienced fool."

Backlash

And who cares if Olympic weightlifting exercises with high reps are a poor conditioning tool? There are safer and more effective conditioning tools - so what? The average exerciser wants to lose fat and get a little stronger, which is why improving conditioning is a higher priority. "Olympic weightlifting exercises with high repetitions can be very effective for improving conditioning in the normal population," Tsypkin says. Few people enjoy pushing or pulling a weight sled, and most working people don't have the time for multiple daily workouts or a variety of athletic activities. In addition, people like this type of workout - as evidenced by the popularity of fitness systems like CrossFit among average citizens - even if they know it's not ideal.

"Olympic weightlifting exercises with high reps are somewhat inferior to pulling a weight sled," Turner says. "As boring as they may be, weight sleds allow for safe, undemanding hard work that elicits a strong metabolic response."

Beat 4

It won't make you a better Olympic weightlifter

Olympic weightlifting exercises with high repetitions are counterproductive if your goal is to compete in Olympic weightlifting competitions. Performing these exercises well enough to compete requires perfect training and any repetition performed with less than perfect form will be detrimental to this goal.

The fact is that a strength athlete with excellent technique can typically beat a stronger and more explosive strength athlete with poorer technique. So if your goal is to compete, any type of training that doesn't improve your technique is a waste of time.

And remember this: Weightlifting is a specific sport in which an athlete performs two exercises - snatches and deadlifts - and tries to move the greatest amount of weight possible for each repetition. So Olympic weightlifting with high repetitions is not really weightlifting.

"It would be like calling a set of squats with 10 to 12 reps powerlifting or a marathon a sprint," says Trink. "Just because the exercises look the same doesn't mean they're the same sport."

Counterpunch

It doesn't matter that Olympic weightlifting exercises with high reps don't make you better at Olympic weightlifting - it's a sport! The notion that Olympic weightlifting exercises don't make you a better Olympic weightlifter is pretty much the weakest argument against CrossFit. High repetition Olympic weightlifting exercises are an absolute necessity for CrossFit competitive athletes because they are essential to their sport. CrossFit is not a weightlifting competition - it's about performing the most reps or a given number of reps as fast as possible. That is the sport. Not training for it would violate the law of specificity - not to mention it would make absolutely no sense.

"If you're a CrossFitter, then CrossFit is your sport and you should prepare for it like any sport," says Matsui. The bottom line is that the goal should dictate the training method. Train with high reps to excel at CrossFit WODs or conditioning sports and train with standard Olympic weightlifting parameters if you want to excel at Olympic weightlifting.

"If you want to be a competitive-level weightlifter, snatching and deadlifting with 30 reps and 65 kilos is obviously not going to help you," says Tsypkin.

Stroke 5

Olympic weightlifting with high reps won't make you strong Olympic weightlifting with high reps might get you in shape and burn some fat, but it won't make you strong. This goes back to the basic theory of weightlifting. "The key to the strength quality of weightlifting is the maximal release of power - not something you're going to achieve with sets of low weights and high reps where you're not moving a large amount of weight and where the speed decreases as you fatigue," says Trink.

Coach Fleming agrees. "Olympic weightlifting exercises are about releasing force, whereas sets that are 6 reps or more are less about releasing force and more about controlling energy systems. Control of the energy systems is something that experienced Olympic weightlifters are not inherently good at, and people who are good at controlling their energy systems are typically not people who are extremely strong," he says.

Counterpunch

Strength isn't always the goal, which is why it's okay if Olympic weightlifting won't make you strong

"This is a dead issue," Turner says. "I've never heard any expert claim that Olympic weightlifting with high reps is better than single reps at max weight when it comes to building strength." "However, if you achieve the correct speed of the bar, the correct weight on the bar and maintain the correct position, then you can get stronger even with high reps - if this training is combined with the right volume of training with maximum effort."

"I see Olympic weightlifting with high reps as a dynamic component of strength training when used correctly," says Turner. "But no matter how fast you perform snatches with a 65 kilo barbell, you're not going to magically snatch 130 kilos." But as Tsypkin points out, there are many very strong CrossFitters. "Rich Froning (the three-time CrossFit Games winner) deadlifts 170 kilos and snatches 140 kilos at a bodyweight of 98 kilos - and most people talk nonsense about CrossFitters not being strong."

The summary

Summing it all up for those who are still undecided:

• If you're competing in CrossFit competitions or high repetition Olympic weightlifting competitions, train with high repetition Olympic weightlifting exercises.
• Olympic weightlifting exercises are not inherently dangerous for exercisers who have good technique. However, they are terrible for exercisers with poor technique and at some point even very good weightlifters will forget about good technique.
• Doing anything half-heartedly or in a severely fatigued state is dangerous. So stop hating on those who choose to train this way and stop playing the know-it-all who has to constantly emphasize how dangerous it is.
• The best approach would be to work with a qualified Olympic weightlifting coach to learn proper form of exercise execution. You should be fanatical about good technique and not even think about performing these exercises with high reps until your technique is solid.
• If you aspire to compete in Olympic weightlifting competitions, do not perform Olympic weightlifting exercises with high repetitions at all.
• You can get strong with Olympic weightlifting exercises with high repetitions, but this is not the ideal method. The best of both worlds would be a periodized or mixed approach that combines high reps and maximum effort training.
• Unless you are a competitive CrossFitter, you should stop using Olympic weightlifting exercises with high repetitions to improve your conditioning. This is not worth the risk and there are many other safer and more effective alternatives.
• If you really want to use Olympic weightlifting exercises as part of your conditioning program, another alternative preferred by Will Fleming is to perform these exercises in the form of complexes. Perform the exercises with the highest technical demands first and finish the complex with something simple like squats or lunges.

tBy Bryan Krahn
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/crossfit-and-high-rep-olympic-lifting

Monster structure

Part 3

3 months on the road to personal bests and new muscle mass

Mirror time!

During the last 2 months of our Monster training program, we have focused mainly on strengthening the nervous system and muscles at the expense of balanced muscle growth for an aesthetically pleasing appearance. That's okay. Let's face it, heavy foundational training will build a ton of overall mass, but it can lead to unbalanced development.

Why? By primarily using multi-joint exercises, we tend to focus more on our strengths, rather than our weaknesses. And this is because our bodies were made for survival - not to look good on the beach.

When you perform a set of bench presses, your body doesn't know that you want to build big pecs - it just knows that there's a damn heavy piece of iron in a dangerous position over your chest and that if you don't push it up, it's going to smash your ribcage.

Because of its survival instinct, your body relies on the muscles that are best suited to accomplish this task. If your triceps and shoulder muscles are stronger than your pecs, then they will do more of the work and be stimulated to grow more than your chest.

Phase 3 of the Monster Building Program will be the mirror phase in more ways than one. First of all, this phase will be the mirror image of what we have done so far: the training we will use will be the exact opposite of the other phases (lower frequency, more volume per muscle group, higher reps, more intense training techniques, less rest). This phase will also be the mirror phase because this is the phase during which we train to look good.

The training split

As I mentioned in the previous parts of this program, if you are training mainly for muscle growth, you will train each muscle group less often but with a higher training volume. On the other hand, if you are training for neural improvements, then it is best to increase the frequency with which you train each muscle group while reducing the daily volume.

Since this phase focuses only on maximizing muscle growth, each muscle group is trained once a week, but with more volume (about 12 to 16 sets per muscle group).

To get the most out of this program, we will use an antagonistic split with alternating sets. This involves training opposing muscle groups during the same training session, alternating one set for each of these antagonists. For example, if you are training chest and back on day 1, then the first exercise pairing could be dumbbell incline bench presses (A1) and pull-ups with additional weight (A2). In this case, you would perform a set of exercise A1 (press) alternating with a set of exercise A2 (pull-ups), which could look like this:

First set of A1
60 seconds rest
First set of A2
60 seconds rest
Second set of A1
60 seconds rest
Second set of A2
60 seconds rest
Third set of A1
60 seconds rest
Third set of A2
...etc.

The training split will then look like this:

Day 1: Torso (chest and back)
Day 2: Lower body
Day 3: Workout-free
Day 4: Arms (biceps and triceps)
Day 5: Workout-free
Day 6: Shoulders (front/side shoulders and rear shoulders/trapezius)
Day 7: Workout-free

The benefits of this type of training split are as follows:

• It ensures balanced development of opposing muscle groups. This reduces the risk of injury while changing your appearance for the better.
• It allows for greater neural activation of the trained muscle groups. Contracting a muscle after its antagonist has been contracted increases neural drive and thus maximizes muscle fiber recruitment. This leads to a greater force production potential and a stronger stimulation of muscle growth.
• It minimizes reciprocal inhibition. If you exhaust a muscle group, then it will not present as much resistance when you train its antagonist. For example, when you perform a curl, you are not only fighting against the resistance of the weight, but also against the partial activation of the triceps. If you exhaust the triceps, they will be more fatigued and therefore not provide as much resistance for the biceps.
• It increases the training density (more volume in less time) without affecting the recovery time of the trained muscle groups. This promotes the onset of an anabolic state, which is conducive to muscle growth.

The methods used

Each training session consists of 3 exercises for each of the target muscle groups. The first exercise is the basic exercise, which we perform with relatively heavy weights. After all, powerful contractions stimulate muscle growth and we want to be strong, not just look strong. Not to mention that heavy training increases myogenic tone, which will make your muscles look denser and harder even at rest.

The first exercise pairing is quite heavy. We use an undulating 7/5/3 load pattern for 6 sets (one set of 7 reps, one set of 5 reps, one set of 3 reps, one set of 7 reps, one set of 5 reps, one set of 3 reps).

Our second exercise pairing involves the primary support exercises, which are still basic exercises and not isolation exercises. For this we will use a reverse pyramid of 5 sets. Two sets of 10 repetitions, two sets of 8 repetitions and one set of 6 repetitions).

The final exercise pairing is the finishing touch - isolation training, which aims to ensure that the target muscles are properly stimulated. For this pairing we will use a specific training technique. Depending on the exercise, this could be regular sets to muscle failure plus additional partial repetitions, double contraction repetitions or isodynamic contrast repetitions. Three sets of this exercise pairing will be performed.

The program

This is a recommended program. You can make substitutions as long as they are in line with the philosophy of the program (in other words, you should not replace bench presses with crossover cable pulls).

Day 1: Torso

Day 2: Lower body

Day 3: No training

Day 4: Arms

Day 5: No training

Day 6: Shoulders

Cardio and abdominal muscle training

I can hear it now:

"Can I do cardio on this program?"
"Is HIIT okay?"
"Can I keep training my abs?"

The answers are: yes, yes and yes, as long as it's not at the expense of your goals for this program.

When it comes to cardio, you should understand that the more cardio you do, the harder it will be for you to build muscle. This 12 week program is not a fat loss program - it's a muscle building program. If your main goal is to lose fat and get defined, then this is not the program for you. To grow, you need a lot of nutrients beyond your body's basic needs. To lose fat optimally, you need to generate a deficit.

These two goals are therefore mutually exclusive. You can lose fat and build muscle at the same time, which is especially true if you are transitioning from a modest diet to a good diet. In this case, simply transitioning from junk food with little protein to a diet high in protein and high quality foods will allow you to build muscle and lose fat at the same time - at least for a while. The right supplement program can increase your chances of building muscle while losing fat.

However, if you want to build a large amount of muscle, you can't lose a significant amount of fat. Anything you do to lose fat (calorie deficit, tons of cardio, etc.) will drastically reduce your chances of building new muscle. Since the sole purpose of this system is to build as much muscle as possible, then excessive cardio is something stupid. Doing cardio more than twice a week will dramatically reduce the benefits of this program.

As for an abdominal workout, you can do some ab work during each training session. Either at the end of the training session (in this case I would use an abdominal circuit workout) or spread out between the sets of the planned workout.

Supplements to support this phase

As I mentioned in the first two parts of this article series, supplements, although not essential, can drastically increase the efficiency of each training phase.

In Phase 3, the final phase of our 12-week program, the goal is maximum hypertrophy. During this phase you should continue to use the basic supplements (fish oil, a high quality protein powder, fast digesting carbohydrates and post-workout BCAAs ), which I would consider to be concentrated food rather than supplements.

During this phase, it is very beneficial to increase the body's testosterone levels to maximize muscle growth. A high-quality testosterone booster is ideal for this.

Additional magnesium has also proven to be extremely effective during this phase. Taking it in the evening and at night is the best strategy (90 to 95% of all hard training individuals suffer from a magnesium deficiency and this can severely affect recovery, insulin sensitivity and testosterone levels).

I'll say it again: you don't necessarily have to use these supplements to grow, but if you're serious about reaching your full potential, then you should consider these as effective weapons in your arsenal.

Conclusion

As I mentioned in Part 2, the program described in this series of articles has been developed as a 12 week program and it will give you the best possible results when used in this way. However, if you wish, you can use this third phase on its own. However, you should be aware that in this case most of the gains will be hypertrophy gains. If you are interested in maximizing both your strength and muscle mass, then you should follow the entire program and also use the nutrients necessary for growth.

By Christian Thibaudeau

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/beast-building-part-3

Monster structure

Part 1

3 months on the road to personal bests and new muscle mass

Some time ago I said that I hate writing articles about specific programs. I feel that a better approach for me as a trainer is to explain concepts and techniques rather than simply show implementation.

Well, I'm going to contradict myself because this article is the first part of a mini-series that will transform you into a muscular, ferocious monster within 3 months. Prepare to need new t-shirts and more weight plates.

As an added bonus, the first part of this article series will cover a lot of interesting information so that even if you choose not to do this program right away, you'll still feel like you've learned something.

So without any further ado, let's get straight to the point.

Phase 1

The aim of this first phase is to prepare your body for the subsequent training phases. Basically, we want to increase the efficiency of your nervous system so that you will be much better at recruiting the all-important high threshold motor units (HTMUs), sometimes referred to as fast contracting fibers.

This phase also aims to strengthen your tendons. Tendon stability and integrity can be a limiting factor in your training. As the tendons are the structures through which your muscles are connected to your bones, weak tendons will usually prevent muscle growth beyond a certain level and also limit the amount of force you can produce. We should see this as a protective mechanism of the body that prevents injury.

Last but not least, we want to increase the activation threshold of the body's protective reflexes, which is especially true for the Golgi tendon organs. These inhibit the force production of a muscle when they determine that the amount of force produced exceeds what you can tolerate without harm. Unfortunately, this protective mechanism is somewhat overprotective, which is why the average person can only use about 30% of their strength potential.

Yes, it is important that you protect yourself from muscle tears due to excessive force production, but if the protective mechanism already intervenes in the safety zone, then you are giving away a large part of your strength potential.

So after this first phase, you should be able to expect rapid strength gains due to an improvement in the neural factors involved in strength production. When it comes to muscle mass, you should be aware that building muscle mass takes much longer than improving the function of the nervous system, as new structures need to be built. However, this phase will lead to increased muscle density and thickness, as well as increased myogenic tone.

In simple terms, you will look more like a brick wall than a flabby cup of goo.

Characteristics of the training phase

When I give seminars, I often tell people that the more emphasis you put on developing the central nervous system, the more often you need to train a muscle group. And the more emphasis you want to place on the development of a muscle group, the less often you should train each muscle.

The reason for this is simple: CNS development is similar to motor learning and not structural remodeling. In the area of strength training, CNS development can be described as learning how to use your muscles optimally.

If you want to become a better golfer, you need to train your swing. If you are allowed to hit 700 balls a week, then it is much more effective to hit 100 balls a day instead of 700 balls once a week. This is the first rule of motor learning: frequency of practice is the key to learning a skill.

You need to realize that activating your muscles, ensuring optimal recruitment patterns and optimizing intramuscular coordination is a skill, not a physical capacity. To improve this optimally, you need to treat it like the process of learning a skill - and this requires a high frequency of training.

Muscle development, on the other hand, requires eliciting significant amounts of muscle damage, as well as stimulating an increased release of anabolic hormones and growth factors. It takes time for this muscle damage to be repaired and the body's response, which is to make the muscle fibers stronger and larger, takes even more time. This is why you can't train your muscles as often.

Let's get back to the CNS. One of the principles of motor learning is to perform as many specific and technically correct repetitions with the target muscle as possible without significant accumulation of fatigue.

The former Soviet weightlifting coaches found that exercises performed at less than 80% of maximum weight have a different recruitment pattern than exercises performed at maximum weights. This means that if you want to maximize motor learning in the context of increasing strength, you need to work with 80% or more of your maximum weight on the respective exercises.

And to maximize motor learning, each repetition must be performed with as little accumulated fatigue as possible. This means that you should finish each set before reaching muscle failure. It is important to understand that choosing training methods that place an emphasis on the nervous system will already place a heavy load on the structures involved. Going to muscle failure, which by the way is unnecessary for optimal neural development, is just another stress factor for the CNS. In this specific case, training to muscle failure will make it much harder to progress during this phase.

Don't get me wrong, muscle failure doesn't always have to be avoided, but only when the focus is on CNS development.

The three types of torture

This phase includes three different training sessions, one of which is performed twice a week. The first is called 'motor skill acquisition' and revolves around performing a large number of repetitions at 80% or more of your maximum weight on a given exercise.

The second type of training is called isometric/explosive contrast training. Isometric and explosive exercises increase the activation of motor units through different mechanisms.

The final type of training session is the overload and tendon strengthening day, where the goal is to slowly reduce the inhibitory response that prevents high levels of force production.

Training session 1 and 3 - Acquiring motor skills

This first type of training is performed twice a week. Ideally, these two days should be Monday and Thursday. The goal is to perform as many repetitions as possible with a weight of 80% or more of your maximum weight. However, this is done without causing significant accumulation of fatigue.

We will use what I call the giant cluster. Here you have a specific time window (in our case 20 minutes) and your goal is to perform as many repetitions as possible within this time window. The number of repetitions per set will vary depending on the load used.

Week 1:

You use 80% of your max weight and perform as many sets of 3 reps as possible within 20 minutes. I have found that sets of 3 repetitions at 80% of the maximum weight are optimal. More reps per set will result in faster accumulation of fatigue, which means you have to take longer rests between sets and can perform fewer total reps. Less than 3 repetitions will not contribute to a significant reduction in fatigue and generally will not increase the total number of repetitions performed (maybe the total number of sets, but not the total number of repetitions).

Week 2:

You increase the weight to 85% of your maximum weight and perform as many sets of 2 repetitions as possible within 20 minutes. Due to the increase in weight, it is necessary to reduce the number of repetitions to two in order to maintain a high quality of training with a high power release.

Week 3:

You increase the weight to 90% of your maximum weight and perform as many sets of 1 repetition as possible within 20 minutes. As these are near maximal efforts, performing more than one repetition per set would reduce the quality of exercise execution, which is unacceptable when the focus is on motor learning.

Week 4:

This is an unloading week. You keep the intensity high (90%), but instead of trying to perform as many sets as possible within 20 minutes, you simply perform half the repetitions you achieved in week 3. For example, if you were able to perform 12 sets in week three, perform 6 sets at 90% of your maximum weight in week 4. You can also use longer rests.

Exactly how many sets should you do? This depends on your condition, your work capacity and your muscle fiber composition, but anything between 8 to 12 sets within 20 minutes is the norm. Really efficient athletes will be able to achieve 12 to 15 sets. The most important thing, however, is that every repetition is performed perfectly.

As I mentioned earlier, you will perform two of these workouts per week. In each of these workouts, you use three primary exercises, resulting in a total workout time of 60 minutes. You have two options: either you use the same three exercises in each training session or you use different exercises.

The first option (same exercises during both workouts) is optimal if you are trying to maximize your strength with these three exercises. It's a bit like Bulgarian weightlifting - these athletes only train snatches, deadlifts and squats. The fewer exercises you have, the more practice you'll have with them and the more efficient you'll become. It's like someone who wants to become a good tennis player. He will get better at his sport if he concentrates only on tennis instead of playing tennis raquetball and squash.

The second option (different exercises) is more effective if you are more interested in a more general increase in strength. Most people are better off with the second option, while powerlifters and Olympic weightlifters are generally better off with the first option.

Regardless of which option you choose, the exercises you choose will remain the same for the four weeks of training:

If you choose the Three Exercises then you must choose the following exercises:

• One upper body press exercise
• One lower body exercise
• One upper body pull exercise

A good example would be:

1. Incline bench press
2. Sumo deadlift
3. Barbell rowing bent over

Yes, I am aware of the fact that barbell rowing bent over has gotten a bad reputation as a mass building exercise for the upper back. This is because the neural drive of the latissimus and rhomboid muscles is reduced as you also need to recruit the lower back to maintain good posture. This is a disadvantage for a muscle building phase, but for a phase involving CNS development this is an advantage as it leads to a stronger overall neural output.

Here is a list of excellent exercises to choose from:

Upper Body Press Exercises:

Bench Press, Incline Bench Press, Reverse Incline Bench Press, Standing Shoulder Press, Push Press, Dumbbell Bench Press, Dumbbell Incline Bench Press, Reverse Dumbbell Incline Bench Press.

Lateral incline bench presses are slightly inferior in this specific case because not as much total muscle mass is involved due to the relative inactivity of the shoulder muscles compared to other pressing exercises.

Lower body exercises:

Sumo deadlifts, snatch grip deadlifts, deadlifts standing on an elevation, conventional deadlifts, classic squats, front squats, overhead bar squats.

I generally prefer deadlifts to squats as more muscle groups - especially lower body muscle groups - are involved. In this case, sumo deadlifts, snatch grip deadlifts and deadlifts on an elevation are better choices as they work the lower body more than other variations of deadlifts. This is not to say that squats are not a good choice, quite the opposite. For example, you could do deadlifts on Monday and squats on Thursday.

Upper body pulling exercises:

Barbell rowing bent over, one-arm dumbbell rowing, T-bar rowing, rowing bent over with dumbbells, rowing with supported chest, T-bar rowing with supported chest, pull-ups with additional weight.

Normally you choose a pulling exercise that trains the antagonists of the chosen pushing exercise. If you have chosen a horizontal pressing exercise (bench press), then you are better off with a horizontal pulling exercise (bent-over rowing). Similarly, it is best to combine a vertical pressing exercise (standing shoulder press) with a vertical pulling exercise (pull-ups). If you choose a push exercise on an incline bench, then both types of pulling exercises are acceptable.

A special note on frequency

Motor skill training is not overly demanding because none of the sets are demanding. That is the goal. Since it is not a very demanding training session, you can even do such a workout twice a day if there are 6 hours between the two training sessions.

However, do not add extra training days as this would disrupt the design of the training week.

Benefits of isometric exercises

Since our second type of training session involves the use of isometric exercises, we'll first look at the science behind their effectiveness. Here's an excerpt from my latest book, High Threshold Muscle Building:

• Isometric strength, or the capacity to produce force during a static muscle action, turns out to be higher than concentric (lifting) strength. For most people, isometric strength is 10 to 15% higher than concentric strength (Schmidtbleicher, 1995). This force production can be used to stimulate positive neural adaptations that can lead to a significant increase in strength. Remember that the more force you produce, the more high threshold motor units are recruited.

• For most people, more high threshold motor units are recruited during a maximal isometric action than during a regular exercise movement. This is especially true for beginners. In this regard, isometric training can be used to develop the nervous system's capacity to recruit these high threshold motor units. As your CNS becomes more efficient at recruiting more high threshold motor units during isometric actions, the overall capacity for using these powerful fibers also increases. As a result, you will ultimately become more efficient at recruiting high threshold motor units during regular muscle actions. More recruited high threshold motor units equate to greater muscle growth and strength gains.

• Isometric exercises can be used as a potentiating method. Potentiation in this context is the process of making an exercise more efficient by combining it with a previous activity. Potentiation can be stimulated either by an explosive movement or by a maximum contraction. The latter is also known as post-tetanic potentiation. Tetanic refers to a state of muscle activation that occurs during a prolonged or very intense muscle contraction. The tetanic contraction can be explained as the summation of all available motor units.

It has been found that the contractile force of a muscle fiber increases after a short maximal isometric contraction. This effect is still present 5 minutes after the contraction (O'Leary et al. 1997, Gullich and Schmidtbleicher 1995). During a maximal isometric contraction lasting seven seconds, the ability to exert force decreases by 15%, whereas this capacity is increased by 28% one minute after the contraction, by 33% two minutes later and by 25% five minutes later (O'Leary et al. 1997). The capacity to produce force thus appears to be higher two to three minutes after the end of the isometric contraction.

This increase in the capacity to produce force following a particular stimulation is referred to as post-tetanic potentiation (PTP). The most effective way to promote a strong PTP is to stimulate a muscle intensely through a maximal effort/maximal contraction of 5 to 10 seconds duration (Brown and von Euler, 1938, Vandervoort et al. 1983).

PTP can increase contractile force, which is particularly true for rapidly contracting muscle fibers (Bowman et al. 1969, Standeart, 1964). PTO also improves the rate of force development (Abbate et al, 2000). It can therefore be used to potentiate both heavy training and explosive movements (Gullich and Schmidtbleicher 1997).

PTP works by increasing the phosphorylation of myosin light chains, which makes the actin-myosin junctions more sensitive to calcium during subsequent contraction (Grange et al. 1993, Palmer and Moore 1989, O'Leary et al. 1997). It's not so important that you know all the details, but if you're interested, you can find more on the filament glide theory of muscle contraction in the scientific literature to see how this can increase the capacity of force production.

To cut a long story short, maximal isometric contractions seem to be the best way to use the PTP phenomenon to your advantage for a number of reasons:

1. Force production is higher during an isometric action. More force produced equals more potentiation.
2. Isometric exercises are less exhausting than regular concentric exercises. As a result, potentiation (which improves performance) is increased, while exhaustion (which reduces performance) is not significantly increased. The end result is a greater improvement in the potential to produce power.
   To use this method to your advantage, you should perform 5 to 10 seconds of maximal isometric action about two to three minutes before a heavy (or explosive) set of a regular exercise. This potentiating effect can be used to further increase gains in strength, speed and muscle mass.
3. Isometric exercises can be used to get stronger at a weak point in an exercise. The strength you build through an isometric exercise is position specific, meaning that you increase strength primarily at the position you are training (there is a carryover of about 15 degrees). This can be seen as both a limitation and an advantage. It is a limitation because you have to train at least three positions of the movement isometrically in order to increase the strength over the entire range of motion. The advantage, on the other hand, is that isometric exercises can be used to increase strength at a specific weak point in the movement.
   For example, if your weak point in the bench press is in the mid-range of concentric motion, then you can perform isometric training in that specific position to strengthen your weak point without increasing fatigue or significantly extending the necessary recovery time after training.
4. Isometric strength is important for several athletic actions. Any movement that requires an athlete to hold a predetermined position (e.g. the bent-knee position for alpine skiers) requires high isometric strength. Actions that involve a rapid reversal from eccentric to concentric movement (running, changing direction) also require isometric strength, as the corresponding resistance must be overcome before this reversal can take place, which requires both eccentric and isometric strength.
5. In dynamic exercises, maximum intramuscular tension is only achieved for a short period of time. This is mainly due to the fact that the resistance includes a speed and acceleration component. With isometric exercises, however, you can maintain this maximum tension over a longer period of time.
   For example, instead of maintaining a maximum intramuscular tension for 0.25 to 0.5 seconds during the concentric part of a dynamic movement, you can maintain this tension for 3 to 6 seconds during an isometric exercise. Strength is strongly influenced by the time under tension. If you can add ten to twenty seconds of maximum intramuscular tension per training session, you will increase your potential for strength and especially mass gains.

Training session 2 - Isometric/explosive contrast

Let's get back to our training program. By using isometric exercises, you can increase the recruitment of motor units and your strength in the subsequent exercises.

This training session with isometric/explosive contrast is performed either the day after the first training session (Tuesday) or two days later. In the latter case, you have a rest day between the two training sessions. I only recommend doing this workout the day after the first workout of the week if you only did one workout the day before. If you did two training sessions on the first training day, then you should wait until Wednesday to do this training session.

The weekly training plan could look like this:

• Monday: Learning motor skills (one training session)
• Tuesday: Isometric/explosive contrast
• Wednesday: No training
• Thursday: Learning motor skills
• Friday: No training
• Saturday: Overload
• Sunday: No training

Or like this:

• Monday: Learning motor skills (two training sessions)
• Tuesday: No training
• Wednesday: Isometric/explosive contrast
• Thursday: Learning motor skills
• Friday: No training
• Saturday: Overload
• Sunday: No training

It should be noted that the isometric/explosive contrast workouts do not cause muscle damage, so they can be performed the day before or the day after another workout.

In these workouts we will use a combination of two exercises - one isometric and one explosive exercise per movement pattern. The first exercise (isometric) is used to increase the recruitment of the motor units and to increase performance in the following explosive exercise. The explosive exercise is used to develop strength and neural efficiency.

Ideally, you would incorporate the following movement patterns into your training session:

• Upper body press exercise
• Lower body exercise
• Upper body pull exercise

However, with this sequence, it can be quite difficult to perform a correct explosive exercise after an isometric exercise. In reality, I would therefore recommend the following scheme:

• Full body exercise
• Lower body exercise
• Upper body press exercise

The full body section requires you to be able to perform the Olympic weightlifting exercises at least reasonably efficiently. If you are not able to do this you can use dumbbell swings.

Some of my favorite exercise pairings are:

• Conventional deadlift as an isometric hold and power deadlift from the hanging position
• Squats as an isometric hold and jump squats with 20 to 30% of your maximum weight in squats
• Bench press as an isometric hold and speed bench press with 45 to 55% of your maximum bench press weight

If you prefer a vertical press exercise, you can also do the following:

• Standing shoulder press as an isometric hold and Push Press (standing shoulder press with some momentum from the legs) with 65 to 75% of your maximum weight on standing shoulder press

Sets of the isometric exercise are performed for 6 to 9 seconds, pushing as hard as humanly possible. Do not go beyond the 10 second threshold as the ATP-CP stores will be quite depleted after 10 to 12 seconds, which will lead to a drop in maximal force production. This is bad for neuronal development. However, longer phases of isometric holding can be used during hypertrophy phases.

In explosive exercise, the goal is to achieve a very high degree of acceleration with each repetition. For this reason, you should limit the number of repetitions to the following values:

• 3 to 5 for the variations of Olympic weightlifting exercises and the speed versions of traditional weightlifting exercises (bench press, squats, etc.)
• 6 to 8 for jumping exercises with additional weight (jump squats, jump lunges, etc.)
• 8 to 10 for regular jumping exercises, medicine ball throws and plyometric push-ups

Each exercise pairing is called a "complex" and is performed with 90 to 120 seconds rest between the first and second exercise. Here is an example:

• A1. isometric bench press Hold
  maximum force for 6 to 9 seconds, 90 to 120 seconds rest
• A2. Speed bench press
  3 to 5 repetitions with maximum acceleration, 90 to 120 seconds rest

Each complex is performed 6 to 8 times

Training session 4 - Overload and tendon strengthening

The third type of training session of the week is also the most challenging. This is because this training session is performed after a rest day and you should take another rest day afterwards. This means that this training session is performed between two rest days.

The aim of this training session is to use heavier weights than you would normally use when training basic movement patterns. This is achieved by performing partial repetitions and emphasized eccentric repetitions.

Another method used on this day is super high repetition sets. The tendons can be strengthened by a supramaximal load, but they require a very high number of repetitions to adapt optimally to the training. This is due to the fact that the tendons are supplied with very little blood. Eastern European athletes have been using super high repetition sets (100 to 200) for decades to improve the structural integrity and recovery of their tendons.

All in all, this training session will desensitize your inhibitory reflexes, which will allow you to use a higher percentage of your strength. It will also improve the structural integrity of your tendons, as well as the efficiency of your nervous system.

The first part of the training session is the actual overload training. Just like learning motor skills, you will train these basic movement patterns:

• Upper body press
• Lower body
• Upper body pull

This time, however, we will use two exercises per movement pattern. The two exercises must be from the same movement pattern (e.g. horizontal press: bench press), where the first exercise is trained with partial repetition, while the second exercise emphasizes the eccentric movement. Both exercises are performed alternately (i.e. one set of exercise A1, two minutes rest, one set of exercise A2, two minutes rest, one set of exercise A1, etc.)

Good exercise pairings include:

Upper body press:

Partial bench press in the power rack (the bar is above the critical point of the movement at the beginning of the movement) plus manual eccentric bench press

In the manual eccentric technique, you use 70 to 80% of your maximum weight. Your training partner exerts pressure on the bar during the eccentric/lowering phase of the movement. The aim is to lower the bar within 5 seconds. As long as you can lower the bar in 5 seconds, your partner can apply pressure. If the bar moves down faster, they should reduce the pressure. At the end of the eccentric phase, your training partner lets go and you push it back to the starting position. For manual eccentric repetitions, three sets of 5 repetitions are performed. Your training partner adjusts the resistance depending on your level of fatigue.

Lower body:

Partial sumo deadlift in the power rack (the bar can be anywhere from the middle of the shin to just above the knee at the starting point of the movement) plus pure eccentric repetitions deadlifts

The pure eccentric repetitions in the deadlift were one of Olympic weightlifting coach Pierre Roy's favorite exercises. Use a weight in the range of 90 to 110% of your maximum weight when deadlifting. Heavier weights are dangerous and not more productive. Take the bar from a pair of blocks (so that you barely have to lift the bar to get it into the starting position of the movement) and take two steps backwards to get away from the blocks. Then lower the bar to the floor as slowly as humanly possible. Aim for an eccentric movement lasting at least 5 seconds, although seven to ten seconds is better. It is very important that you lower the bar using perfect body position and technique - arched lower back, chest out, hips back and down. You can use either a sumo stand or a conventional stand. In this type of exercise, only one repetition is performed.

Upper body pull up:

Partial pull-ups and negative pull-ups

For partial pull-ups, start in the lowest position and pull yourself up as far as you can. Choose a weight (if you are working with additional weight) that only allows you to pull yourself half way up.

Use about 10% more weight for the negative pull-ups than for the partial pull-ups. Use a bench to get into the top position of a pull-up and lower yourself as slowly as humanly possible into the bottom position of pull-ups. As this exercise is technically easier than eccentric deadlifts, you should aim to lower yourself in at least ten seconds, with 15 seconds being better. If you can lower yourself in a controlled manner in 15 seconds, then use more weight. Again, only one repetition is performed. In the partial exercise, you perform sets of 3 to 5 repetitions with as much weight as possible. Then rest for 90 to 120 seconds before moving on to the eccentric exercise.

You perform four to five sets of each pairing (complex).

The second part of the training session is much easier. You choose an exercise for the above movement patterns and perform 100 to 200 total repetitions. That is all.

These repetitions do not necessarily have to be performed without rest. You can allow yourself short breaks of five to ten repetitions during the set. You should choose a very light weight for these exercises. The aim is not to achieve muscle failure, as this is not a muscle-building exercise. The purpose of the exercise is simply to increase blood flow and improve the integrity of the tendons.

You could choose the following exercises:

• Upper body press exercise: bench press, reverse incline bench press, dumbbell press, dumbbell incline bench press, chest machine press (choose one exercise)
• Lower body: squats without additional weight, leg presses, Hackenschmidt squats, squats without additional weight with feet wide apart (choose one exercise)
• Upper body pull exercise: seated rowing on cable, rowing on machine, T-bar rowing with supported chest, dumbbell rowing with supported chest, lat pulldown (choose one exercise)

What about isolation training?

It's pretty easy to see how this first phase of training will build a lot of strength. It's also fairly obvious to most that this increase in strength will also lead to gains in overall muscle thickness and density. But what about the arms? Sure, there's no isolation training for the biceps (or other muscle groups), but fear not, isolation exercises will make a comeback in Phase II and especially Phase III.

In the meantime, you won't lose any mass on your arms on this program. Heck, you'll be pulling and pressing heavy weights four times a week! Is that enough to make your arms grow? For some people, yes, for others, no. But one thing is for sure, it's enough to maintain your arm mass for the duration of this phase.

However, if you're one of those people who goes crazy if they don't get their curls, feel free to add 10 to 15 minutes of "beach training" to the end of the second motor skills training session.

The plan would then look like this:

• Monday: Learning motor skills (one training session)
• Tuesday: Isometric/explosive contrast
• Wednesday: No training
• Thursday: Learning motor skills plus 10 to 15 minutes of beach training
• Friday: No training
• Saturday: Overload
• Sunday: No training

Or

• Monday: Learning motor skills (two training sessions)
• Tuesday: No training
• Wednesday: Isometric/explosive contrast
• Thursday: Learning motor skills plus 10 to 15 minutes of beach training
• Friday: No training
• Saturday :Overload
• Sunday: No training

During this time you can use any exercise or training technique that suits your goals. However, you must not extend this period under any circumstances (yes, use a timer). If you overdo it with isolation training, it will reduce the efficiency of this first phase.

Supplements to support this phase of training

This phase of training relies heavily on the nervous system and heavy training puts stress on your joints. For this reason, the best supplements for this phase are the following:

• A pre-workout supplement with fast-digesting protein or amino acids and fast-digesting carbohydrates before and during your workout to provide your muscles with key nutrients
• Acetyl-L-tyrosine before training to stimulate your nervous system
• A fish oil supplement to support the reduction of inflammation
• Fast-digesting protein and carbohydrates after training to support recovery
• Creatine to increase the rate of ATP-CP recovery. Creatine is particularly effective on training days aimed at improving motor skills, as this supplement will allow you to perform more quality sets.

It must be said

I know someone will ask if this is a good program for a definition and diet phase. My answer is "Do you think you can run faster than the buckshot I'm going to shoot up your ass?"

This would probably be the dumbest thing you could do. This three-month program is designed with the goal of turning you into a walking brick wall. To achieve this, you need to move mountains of weights and provide your body with enough nutrients to grow. Simply put, this program cannot be used for a diet phase.

Until next time

As you will see in the next part of this article series, each phase is the step to the next phase. And this first phase is the foundation of the entire program - your end result will depend on how well this phase went.

By Christian Thibaudeau

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/beast-building-1