Training

I am one of those people who likes to have fun and enjoy a good time.

People who know me will find this hard to believe as it seems like I spend so much time on bodybuilding forums, writing articles and books and training other athletes that I couldn't have a life of my own.

I agree in that I may not have a lot of free time, but I couldn't live without my daily dose of humor. And I've found a brand new way to amuse myself at the gym. I refer to this activity as humiliating macho wannabes. Every gym and weight room on earth seems to be populated with a few macho wannabes who think of themselves as the living incarnation of tough guys from some movie (even though there's plenty of visual evidence to the contrary). You know who I'm talking about: guys who play the tough guy at the gym, which is especially the case when there are no "real" bodybuilders or strength athletes around to embarrass them.

They literally lie in wait for beginners and act superior and condescending towards them. In short, I can't stand these guys.

But I love putting these douchebags in their place. I'm not talking about outweighing them by a million pounds at this point. They know I'm stronger than them. No, I'm talking about a real lesson in humiliation: I have one of my figure skaters training at the same time as these guys.

One of these girls is just 16 years old. She is a competitive level figure skater and not what you would call a physical muscle monster. However, this girl has a special passion...in her spare time she competes in Olympic weightlifting. As a result, she can use weights in the deadlift and clean and jerk that most of these macho guys can barely handle in the deadlift, and she can move the same weight in the power snatch that these guys bench press. And their deadlift...well, let's just say that these macho guys would probably have to add up their weight on bench press and squat to match their weights on deadlift.

I'm telling you, seeing the looks on these guys' faces when that 155 centimeter short girl literally rams them into the ground in the gym is worth more than winning the lottery. Honestly, this is what I would call a gigantic, hard psychological erection! And you know what makes it even worse for these douchebags? This girl looks very feminine and is extremely pretty. If she was some kind of 110 kilo hermaphrodite, then the humiliated former machos could at least make jokes about her to regain a small remnant of their masculinity (it's funny how insecure guys always use the most insignificant detail to put you down in the hope of regaining the upper hand). But no, we're talking about a pretty, feminine and shapely girl who has them beat by a mile

In the words of many popular sports reporters, "Ouch, that hurt!"

Clearly this girl has great potential combined with a good sporting background. So her performance is understandable. But there is a lesson to be learned here...women can become strong, muscular and fit while remaining very attractive and feminine. Women shouldn't be afraid to move heavy weights and use typical (mislabeled) macho/male exercises like deadlifts, squats, deadlifts, deadlifts, snatches, etc.

In this article (yes, after all the digression, there will actually be another article) I will explain why women are often afraid of what I call serious strength training and why they shouldn't be. I'll also explain the slight differences in planning training programs for male and female athletes. I'm not the biggest fan of feminist extremism - you know, the type of person who claims that men and women are equal in everything. This is simply not true. Men and women have different strengths and weaknesses, as well as different needs. Your training programs should reflect this.

Why women are afraid of moving heavy weights

Since the dawn of time, muscular male bodies and strength have been seen as such a close association that many women believe that if they get stronger, they would build a bulky, masculine body. Those of us who are a little more enlightened know that an increase in strength can be linked to both neural and muscular factors. In other words, this means that if a woman builds a lot of strength, it doesn't mean she has to look like Jay Cutler with boobs. Here's why: First of all, women have much lower testosterone levels than men.

In fact, they only have 10% of the testosterone that men have. Since testosterone is known to increase protein synthesis and muscle size, it should be obvious that women are much less likely to build muscles as huge as their male counterparts if they engage in intense strength training. I firmly believe that the neural factors of strength production are significantly less developed in female beginners than in male beginners. This is perhaps because boys are traditionally more active than girls. As a result, women will be able to improve this function to a greater extent than men.

This is not to say that women can't build a muscular body. Look at pictures of Patricia Smith and you will see a muscular woman who still has a very feminine figure. And the world of sport is full of such examples. Women can build muscle through training, but not to the same degree as their male counterparts. Their potential for strength improvement, on the other hand, is similar or higher than men's, mainly due to the fact that their starting point is lower than that of men. Strength coach Jennifer Blomquist agrees that women can sometimes build strength faster than men:

"I've found that to be the case - especially when women have gotten past their 'I don't want to get muscular' and finally give it their all.

It is obvious that most men find it difficult to build 7 to 12 kilos of muscle within a year (in my opinion, such an increase in muscle mass will lead to significant visible changes). Therefore, women should not worry about turning into the Incredible Hulk in a very short space of time! I would say that a woman could build 3 to 5 kilos of quality muscle mass in a year (once she's past the beginner level), which will give her a nice toned body.

And to quote Patricia Smith:

"I firmly believe that most women would look better with an extra 2.5 to 5 kilos of lean body mass anyway. And the current trend of looking too skinny needs to end anyway."

Jennifer Blomquist goes in the same direction when she talks about women's fear of becoming too muscular:

"I've always told my clients that they're not going to wake up one morning and scream 'Oh my God, I overdid it at the gym yesterday and now I'm bulky and out of shape!!!'"

Another fear of women (and their stupid trainers) is that they might hurt themselves. I don't know why, but most people seem to think that women are more prone to injury than men. There is no scientific data to suggest that women are generally more prone to weight training related injuries. We need to dispel this myth that women are delicate and fragile!

However, we have seen an increase in ALC (anterior cruciate ligament) injuries in female athletes in recent years. This could indicate that women are more susceptible to such injuries (due to the configuration of their hips and legs) or that women are more active today and therefore the risk of injury increases. This is another reason to do strength training. Strengthening the leg muscles - especially the vastus medialis - will improve knee stability and therefore reduce the risk of sports injuries to the knees.

Why women should do strength training

Women can benefit enormously from strength training. The benefits that such training can bring to them include the following:

1. A reduced risk of osteoporosis in later years: The mechanical stress placed on the body structure during strength training (especially exercises performed from the floor) will help increase bone density and prevent calcium loss, as well as increased bone fragility in later years.
2. Reduced risk of sports injuries: While women are not more prone than men to injuries associated with strength training, it is true that women who exercise are often more prone to injury than their male counterparts. This is likely due to the fact that men traditionally do more serious strength training during the off-season than women, which can help reduce the risk of injury. A woman who exercises a lot will have a lower risk of injury if she is serious about training in the weight room.
3. Changes in body composition: With proper strength training, a woman will gain more lean body mass and lose fat mass. In addition, serious strength training during a calorie-restricted diet will prevent loss of muscle mass and also counteract the infamous yo-yo effect, which results in gaining back all the weight lost - and more.
4. More strength for the demands of daily life or sporting activities: When a woman builds strength in the muscles she needs for daily life tasks, she will only need to expend a smaller proportional amount of available strength for these activities and will be able to perform these tasks more efficiently and with less resulting fatigue as a result.
5. Better self-esteem: An increase in strength will increase self-confidence and self-esteem and make a woman feel sexier.

How women should train

The table above gives a good overview for planning training programs for women. You need to understand that women can move relatively heavy weights, that they can handle a higher volume of work than previously believed (they actually have a higher tolerance for volume than most men) and that they should focus on multi-joint exercises.

Basically, women should train almost exactly the same as men, although there are a few minimal differences:

1. Slightly more repetitions per set: women do not have the ability to recruit as many motor units as men. Therefore, they need 1 to 2 more repetitions to fully stimulate their muscles. When it comes to training for strength, a man should use between 1 and 5 repetitions, while a woman will benefit more from 3 to 6 repetitions. When it comes to training for muscle gains, men will benefit from performing 5 to 10 repetitions, while women should stick to 7 to 12 repetitions.
2. Slightly more sets per exercise: The reason for this is the same as point 1, most women will need to perform 1 to 2 more sets per exercise to achieve the same level of muscle stimulation as a man due to their lower activation of motor units.
3. Slightly less intensity: This is not to say that women are not as strong as men. But since they need a few more reps per set and a few more sets, the relative intensity needs to be reduced slightly to allow for proper progression.

Good exercises

Since women have lower neural efficiency to begin with, I recommend using exercises that intensely challenge the nervous system. Complex exercises such as power deadlifts from hanging position/blocks from/to the floor, power snatches from hanging position/blocks from/to the floor, lunges, deadlifts, squats and standing shoulder press with leg swing (push press) are all very good choices.

I believe that the Olympic weightlifting exercises have two major advantages for women:

1. These are not exercises where you feel a localized pump. As a result, women will not get the impression that they are building mass. Obviously this is a subjective and psychological benefit, but if it keeps them interested in working out, then it's a good thing.
2. These exercises boost self-confidence and self-esteem more than any other exercise. There is nothing more satisfying than picking a weight up off the floor and moving it up over your head in a powerful and fluid motion.

Jennifer Blomquist told me the following:

When I started training with the Olympic weightlifting exercises, I experienced a sense of joy and motivation about my training that I had never known before and within a short period of time my body looked better than ever, felt better than ever and was stronger than ever!

Women also benefit from ballistic training such as throwing medicine balls from different positions and jumping exercises. They should also include exercises for problem areas such as triceps, gluteus, leg flexors, vastus medialis and abdominals in their training program.

Conclusion

There is a French movie called "L'homme parfait est une femme comme les autres" (The perfect man is a woman like any other). We could use the same title for this article: The perfect woman is a guy like any other, which means that when it comes to training, both genders can and should train the same way aside from minor modifications.

Don't kid yourself, those workout videos of Hollywood stars have got to go.

by Christian Thibaudeau | 03/28/03
Source:https://www.t-nation.com/training/fun-with-women

A brief summary:

1. To bring your chest forward, you should perform flying movements in the superset with bench presses. Fatigue the chest muscles with flying movements and then immediately challenge them with bench presses without a break.
2. The pullover/rowing combo also uses the pre-fatigue technique. Fatigue your latissimus with pull-ups on the reverse incline bench (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za09siYuPQg) and then immediately switch to barbell rowing.
3. The squat/lunge superset combines two multi-joint exercises. The quadriceps will reach momentary muscle failure, which will lead to adaptive benefits - more muscular legs!

Latissimus, chest, quadriceps: make them more muscular!

A smart strength athlete knows when it's time to address lagging muscle groups and build them up. These proven supersets will do just that.

1. Flying movements + bench press

Do you need a little more muscle fullness in your pecs? Perform flying movements in the superset with barbell bench press in this order. Even though you'll be embarrassed by how little weight you can bench press after performing flying movements, you'll ultimately be shocked by the results.

Logical rationale

This superset involves what's called pre-fatigue. Basically, we isolate and exhaust the pecs using an isolation exercise (flying movements). When you then move on to multi-joint exercise (bench press), you ensure that it is the pecs that fatigue first - and not the triceps or front shoulder muscles. Regardless of the repetition range, training a muscle to the point of failure/exhaustion is by far the best way to elicit an adaptive response - i.e. muscle growth. This superset works over a prolonged period of time under tension and an increase in the metabolic load on the pectoral muscles, both of which will lead to a hypertrophy response.

Execution

After a proper warm-up, grab a pair of dumbbells with which you can perform 8 to 10 repetitions of flying movements - and no more. Feel free to vary the stimulus occasionally and go up to a 6 RM weight or down to a 12 RM weight. The same recommendation applies to the transition to barbell bench presses. Typically use your 6 to 10 RM weight. The tricky thing here, however, is this: we're talking about your 6 to 10 RM weight on the bench press after you've performed a set of flying movements to the point of muscle failure. By "muscle failure" I mean that you perform as many repetitions through the full range of motion and with good form as possible. This is also known as momentary muscle failure or concentric muscle failure.

Most people tend to overestimate the weight they can use on the bench press. If your self-esteem and how many people see you bench pressing are closely related, then this superset may not be right for you. Remember that your pecs are already pre-fatigued. Tip: Perform these two exercises on the same bench so that you can move from flying movements to bench presses as quickly as possible. Ultimately, a superset is not so great if you rest between exercises.

2. dumbbell pull-ups on the reverse incline bench + barbell rows with an underhand grip

Are you the owner of a latissimus that is lagging behind in its development? If so, this superset will point you in the right direction.

Logical basic principle

This pullover/rowing combo also uses the pre-fatigue technique. First you fatigue the latissimus dorsi with pull-ups on the reverse incline bench and then move directly to barbell rowing with an underhand grip.

If you perform barbell rows with an underhand grip, there is a chance that your upper back (middle area of the trapezius and rhomboids) will reach the point of muscle failure first, especially if you tend to have upper back dominance. If it is not the upper back that fails first, it could be fatigue in the posterior shoulder muscles, the biceps or even the back extensors that is the limiting factor in this exercise. Rest assured that if you perform pull-ups on the reverse incline bench first, pushing your muscles hard and taking them to muscle failure (or very close to it), your latissimus will be severely challenged when rowing with an underhand grip. This will probably result in a latissimus pump that you haven't felt for a long time!

I say "very close to muscle failure" here because dumbbell deadlifts are an exercise where you should use some common sense. The weight of the dumbbell and its lever arm in the extended position put a lot of stress on your shoulder joint. Don't use this as an excuse for half-hearted efforts, but use your common sense.

Execution

Use a weight that is in the range of your 8 to 10 RM weight for the pull-ups. You can occasionally go up in reps and use a 12 RM weight, but I wouldn't recommend using more than your 8 RM weight on dumbbell pull-ups as heavier weights may put too much stress on your shoulder joints. If pull-ups acutely overload your shoulders in the extended position, then it is likely that you are suffering from impingement problems. Of course, you can shorten the range of motion and probably avoid irritation, but instead you should focus on getting your impingement syndrome under control rather than simply training around it.

Tip for form: Even though you shouldn't fully extend your elbows, you should also avoid bending your elbows too much when you move the dumbbell down, otherwise you'll turn this exercise into too much of a triceps exercise. Speaking of the triceps, if you haven't done any pull-ups for a while, you will probably feel some soreness in the triceps - and especially in the long head of the triceps - a day or two later.

This is completely normal and does not necessarily mean that you have performed the exercise incorrectly. Rather, it is due to the fact that the long head of the triceps not only crosses the elbow joint, but also the shoulder joint. This means that it is stretched quite a lot and suffers from some microtraumas afterwards, which can lead to delayed onset muscle soreness. Note on variations: You can also perform this superset with traditional pull-ups on a flat bench, but if you have access to a reverse incline bench, you should use this as it increases the range of motion.

3. barbell squats and walking lunges

This combo is extremely effective when it comes to maximizing quadriceps and gluteus. Even if you're not looking to build muscle and are training more for fat loss benefits, you'll find that a lighter version of this superset is amazingly beneficial due to the high metabolic demands of using a large amount of muscle mass at once. In other words, you will get really out of breath, but it will be worth the effort!

Logical rationale

This squat/lunge superset combines two amazingly effective

multi-joint exercises for the lower body. By combining these two exercises, it is very likely that your quadriceps will be maximally stimulated to the point of momentary muscle failure, which will lead to adaptive benefits. Even though these exercises are quadriceps dominant, they also work the gluteus quite well.

Execution

For barbell squats, you should aim for a weight in the range of your 8 to 12 RM weight, although you should not hesitate to use a weight outside of this range as squats are effective in pretty much any repetition range. Before we talk about repetition ranges for walking lunges, let's talk about lunges with dumbbells vs. lunges with a barbell. Anecdotal evidence tells me that walking lunges with a barbell on the upper back are slightly better than walking lunges with dumbbells held next to the body. I therefore recommend performing walking lunges with a barbell whenever possible. I realize that in some gyms it may be much more user-friendly to perform the dumbbell version of this exercise. If this is the case, then don't worry too much about it. Both versions are fine. And depending on your strength and conditioning, this could be a purely theoretical consideration. It's quite possible that you won't need any additional weight at all after performing squats with lunges.

In terms of repetition range for walking lunges, you should typically use a weight in the range of your 8 to 12 RM weight, meaning 8 to 12 repetitions with each leg. If you're looking for more of a conditioning/endurance effect, you can go up to 20 reps or so. Form Tip: To ensure you are working your gluteus, you should use full range of motion on both of these exercises. For squats, a full range of motion means performing squats to the point where your hip joint is level with your knee joint or a touch lower.

For walking lunges, a full range of motion means

1. taking a sufficiently wide step so that your knee does not go far beyond your toes at the lowest position
2. walking down to the point where your kneecap almost touches the ground on the back leg, which should bring your thigh parallel to the ground on the front leg.

Note: Walking lunges are an excellent movement-based way to stretch your likely stiff hip flexors. To achieve this benefit, make sure you take wide enough steps and go down low enough. You should also avoid bending your torso forward as you approach the bottom position of the movement. You will probably have a tendency to bend forward if your hips are tight.

By Clay Hyght
Source:https://www.t-nation.com/training/3-supersets-for-big-pecs-lats-and-quads

If you're lean and weak, this article will either hurt your feelings or help you become more muscular and stronger.

The 4 reasons you can't build mass

Why can't you build muscle mass? Well, it's probably because you suck at eating and exercising. Here's what you can do to change that and finally build some muscle.

1 - You're bad at eating right

Meal frequency is important. You need to use different strategies to eat more calories. In addition to this, you need to stop this intermittent fasting bullshit.

Guys who are weak and skinny all think they're eating a lot, but they're actually very bad at eating right. Oh, you once ate two large pizzas in one sitting? Okay, did you do that six times a day? No? You only ate one more meal? And for the rest of the week you ate like an anorexic model? Scrawny guys have the same misguided perception when it comes to food as fat guys have when it comes to how muscular they are. Neither has anything to do with reality. The fat guy always thinks he only needs to lose 15 pounds to be hard and defined, when in reality it's more like 50 pounds. And the skinny guy thinks he's eating a lot, even though in reality he's eating way too little.

For a while, Intermittent Fasting (IF) was all the hype. Why? I have no idea. If you're trying to build as much muscle mass as possible, how are extended periods without food intake going to help in any way? Spare me the "fasting increases growth hormone production" bullshit. Fasting won't increase growth hormone production enough to make a difference. I've seen a lot of guys who followed IF diets. They were all really lean. And they all weighed no more than 70 kilos. Nobody cares about your abs, if you weigh 70 kilos then this is not the kind of diet you are looking for.

Admittedly, there are a lot of studies that say that meal frequency has no effect on fat loss or weight gain. Well, I've been in this sport for 26 years and every muscular and massive person I've ever met has eaten a lot of food at every meal, in addition to eating a lot of meals per day. If you eat four meals a day, what do you think happens with the fifth meal? You will of course consume more calories. A sixth meal? More calories. Seventh meal?

I know you're having trouble understanding the destruction of the tactical nuclear knowledge bomb I just detonated, but I swear to you it's that simple. This seems like really basic knowledge, but you'd be surprised by how many guys cling to a study that says meal frequency doesn't matter and then ignore every muscular and massive guy who eats a lot of meals a day. At what point does 30 years during which high meal frequency has produced legions of muscular strength athletes outweigh a couple studies?

"But I have trouble eating a lot." To be honest, I have the same problem. And I'm not asking you to wake up on a Monday morning and start stuffing 10,000 kcal into you if you've only been used to eating 2,000 kcal a day. It's no different to training goals. You don't set yourself the goal of lifting 400 kilos if your personal best is currently 250 kilos. You will try to reach 260 kilos, then 270 kilos, and so on.

An easy way to help your body get used to eating more food:

Drink a shake after every meal or between all meals. Even if you only eat three meals a day, an extra shake after each meal is an easy way to increase your calorie intake. If you add a tablespoon of olive oil to each shake, that's another 119 kcal per shake. If you drink 3 shakes a day, that's an extra 357 kcal just from the olive oil.

If you use two scoops of protein powder, this equates to around 220 kcal. Together with the 119 kcal from the olive oil, that's a total of 339 kcal per shake. With three shakes a day, that's over 1000 extra kcal per day. If you find it difficult to drink a shake after every meal, then drink your shakes between meals. However you do it, that's an extra 1000 kcal and drinking calories is easier than eating them.

Mix one large shake a day. We used to make all our shakes with a blender. The protein powder available at the time made this necessary, but it also made it easy to add a lot of different ingredients to create a delicious shake. Try it out. Buy a blender, add protein powder, egg whites, peanut butter, bananas, milk, etc. until the blender cup is almost overflowing. Drink this shake in sips throughout the day. Set yourself the goal of having drunk every last drop of the shake by the end of the day. If you're being really pedantic and controlling your macronutrients, then add up what you put in the shake.

When I was 17, I used the following recipe to go from about 80 kilos to 95 kilos in the course of a summer. Of course, I ate almost to the point of vomiting at every meal (and every two hours), but I still managed to have the following shake every day:

• 2 cups of milk
• 3 raw eggs
• 2 scoops protein powder
• 1 tablespoon of peanut butter
• Hershey's chocolate syrup
• 1 banana
• 2 tablespoons Karo syrup

If your reaction to this shake is that it looks like you're practically begging for type 2 diabetes, then you're probably one of those really skinny guys who can't gain weight and whose muscles disappear when they put on a T-shirt. If you weigh 65 kilos and have a negative body fat percentage, then you most likely won't have to worry about getting diabetes because of your sugar intake. You should be more worried about the fact that girls half your size are moving heavier weights than you in gyms all over the world.

Eat sandwiches with peanut butter and jam. Make yourself three and eat one between meals. You can take them with you wherever you go. And if you don't like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, then you're probably a sociopath or you have freedom - most likely both.

2 - Your workout intensity is crappy

Put on your gym face. Add intensity techniques to your training program I can't tell you how many times someone has told me something like, "I saw you working out at my gym yesterday. I actually wanted to say hi to you, but you looked kind of pissed off." I'm not pissed off, I'm working out. I'm at the gym to work out - not to chat. And my training requires a lot of concentration. Your "gym face" should reflect your attitude towards your workout. You don't put on your "gym face" at the disco and you don't put on your "disco face" at the gym. However, in between my sentences, I do pay attention to what's going on around me...sometimes. And I see a lot of people at the gym wearing their "disco face", chatting with other people and having a great time. And if that's what you're here for, then that's totally fine, As long as you don't get in the way of me working out, I don't care. Not everyone wants to build as much muscle mass as possible or maximum strength.

However, if you want to achieve the latter, then you need to train accordingly and take your time in the gym or weights room seriously. People often lose focus because they do very mindless training programs that they don't really need to focus on. In other words, there's no reason to focus or put on your "gym face" because the program doesn't require it. Or you suck at training really hard.

Once upon a time, high repetition training was one of the mainstays of leg training. Squat sets with 20 reps and leg presses with 50 reps. You know, tough shit. These guys were using techniques to extend their sets like descending sets, rest/pause, and all other kinds of techniques that stretch the set out as much as possible to generate a tremendous amount of metabolic stress. They didn't even know what metabolic stress was. All they knew was that if they trained really hard, they built muscle.

Today, I see sayings all over the web like "anything over three reps is cardio." Folks, even the hardest max set of three reps is not comparable to a set of squats with many reps to absolute muscle failure. It's not that three reps isn't hard, but those two things just aren't comparable. At some point in your training career, you're going to have to come to the realization that if you want to make real progress, you're going to have to work your ass off.

The fact is, almost all of us get into a rut of complacency or lose the desire to train really hard. A great way to break this rut is to incorporate a few intensity techniques into your training that force you to set personal goals with each training session. My two favorite techniques are the following:

50% sets

The working set of this intensity technique gives you something of a "built-in goal." After warming up, perform a set to complete muscle failure. Pause for 60 seconds and perform a second set, trying to do at least half the repetitions of the first set. So if you performed 10 to 12 repetitions with 150 kilos in the first set, you must try to perform at least 5 to 6 repetitions with the same weight in your second set. This technique works well with push and pull exercises.

Goal-oriented rest/pause sets

The goal each week is to exceed the total reps of your last training session with rest/pause sets. If you don't know what rest/pause training is, here's a quick summary: you perform a set, pause for about 30 seconds, perform a second set, pause for 30 seconds and then perform a final set. If you did 15 repetitions on your first set, 9 repetitions on your second set and 5 repetitions on your final set, that's a total of 29 repetitions. The goal for the following week is to exceed these 29 repetitions. I prefer these two intensity techniques to all others (descending sets, supersets, megasets etc.) as they encompass one goal. You can perform a conventional descending set without pushing yourself hard, but if there is a number you need to reach or exceed, this will greatly increase your focus and intensity.

At some point, the weight on the bar needs to be increased or more reps need to be performed with the same weight. This does not mean that you should sacrifice the form of the exercise to the weight on the bar. It simply means that progressive overload should be the cornerstone of your training ideology - and this is especially true for the lean and weak.

3 - You suck at the exercises you hate

The best way to progress is to do exercises you don't like. This is especially true for someone who has gotten into a rut with their training. Let's face it - in the gyms of the world, an infinitely greater amount of curls are performed compared to squats. The reason is quite simple - squats are strenuous, culs less so. But aside from that, one reason people don't grow and improve is because they do all the things they love while avoiding everything they hate. If your goal is to get muscular and strong, then you need to sit down and make a list of all the exercises you hate that can build muscle mass. Why do you really hate these exercises? Because they are exhausting and hard. Why are they exhausting and hard? Because the muscles involved in performing these exercises are small and weak.

4 - You're not progressing because you're not training enough

Overtraining is rare. The truth is that most people don't train often enough. If you can't move a lot of weight, then it's completely impossible for you to get into the realm of overtraining. In reality, it's hard for even an advanced strength athlete to get into overtraining territory if diet and sleep are right. One of the most popular training splits of the old days was the 3 training days followed by a non-training day split. Lee Haney popularized this training split in the eighties and nineties and because he won the Mr. Olympia title eight times, people believed there was something to this split. It has been shown time and time again that training frequency is the most important factor in terms of hypertrophy. So why are you only training your chicken breast once a week with a maximum weight of 85 kilos on the bench press when you should be training it at least twice a week?

The "not sh...eid" training program

For the first three days of this program, there is one rule you must follow: only choose exercises that you hate. If you suck at an exercise, then you have to do it.

Day 1 - Chest/shoulders/triceps

A) Chest press exercise using the 50% method
B) Chest isolation exercise using the rest/pause method
C) Shoulder press exercise using the 50% method
D) Shoulder isolation exercise using the rest/pause method
E) Triceps exercise (multi-joint exercise) using the 50% method
F) Triceps exercise (isolation exercise) using the rest/pause method

Note: Examples of triceps multi-joint exercises include dips and close bench presses, while triceps isolation exercises include exercises such as kickbacks and cable triceps presses.

Day 2 - Back/Biceps

A) Vertical pull exercise using the 50% method
B) Another vertical pull exercise using the rest/pause method
C) Horizontal pull exercise using the 50% method
D) Another horizontal pull exercise using the rest/pause method
E) 2 biceps exercises (pretty much all variations of curls), one using the 50% method, one using the rest/pause method

Day 3 - Quadriceps/leg curls/calves

A) Quadriceps isolation exercise using the rest/pause method
B) Quadriceps multi-joint exercise using the 50% method
C) Leg flexor isolation exercise using the rest/pause method
D) Leg flexor multi-joint exercise using the 50% method
E) 2 calf exercises with 2 sets of 20 repetitions per exercise. Straight sets without intensity techniques.

Day 4 - Training free

Use the same program for the next three days, but use exercises that you want. Only use exercises that you really like, but use intensity techniques on these exercises too.

Day 5 - Chest/shoulders/triceps

A) Chest press exercise using the 50% method
B) Chest isolation exercise using the rest/pause method
C) Shoulder press exercise using the 50% method
D) Shoulder isolation exercise using the rest/pause method
E) Triceps exercise (multi-joint exercise) using the 50% method
F) Triceps exercise (isolation exercise) using the rest/pause method

Day 6 - Back/biceps

A) Vertical pull exercise using the 50% method
B) Another vertical pull exercise using the rest/pause method
C) Horizontal pull exercise using the 50% method
D) Another horizontal pull exercise using the rest/pause method
E) 2 biceps exercises (pretty much all variations of curls), one using the 50% method, one using the rest/pause method

Day 7 - Quadriceps/leg curls/calves

A) Quadriceps isolation exercise using the rest/pause method
B) Quadriceps multi-joint exercise using the 50% method
C) Leg flexor isolation exercise using the rest/pause method
D) Leg flexor multi-joint exercise using the 50% method
E) 2 calf exercises with 2 sets of 20 repetitions per exercise. Straight sets without intensity techniques.

Day 8 - No training

Day 9 - Start again at day 1

Why are isolation exercises performed before multi-joint exercises?

This is mainly done to improve muscle activation in these areas. A lot of exercisers perform multi-joint exercises for quadriceps and hamstrings so poorly that their development in one or both of these areas is inadequate. However, if you start your leg training by activating these areas through isolation exercises, then it is more likely that these areas will be more active in subsequent multi-joint exercises. Built-in focus

You may have noticed that this program has a built-in progression. Each week you find yourself in a position where you have to surpass your performance from the previous week. Instead of having time to hang around the gym asking hot girls if they need help with their exercise routine, you'll need to focus on your own training. The alternative is to keep doing what you're doing and continue to suck at building muscle.

By Paul Carter
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/how-to-cure-smallness-with-pain-food