IRON ADDICT
How did we get so lost?
Note: This information is geared towards genetically typical trainees not using
steroids. It also works extremely well for gear users off cycle, and the VAST
MAJORITY of people while on, although most people can increase the volume and
frequency somewhat while on cycle. It is a given that anabolic steroid use
increases the threshold point at which overtraining occurs and gear users can
USUALLY tolerate more training without overtraining. Even while on gear the
single biggest reason people do not grow is due to the fact they overtrain.
What follows is excerpts and a compilation
of articles I have written for Hardgainer magazine. Most of this information
was also on a web site I produced geared toward hardgaining trainees. The web
site is now closed but I am sharing this info for the board reader’s benefit.
Don’t dismiss this information because you use steroids. It could have more
impact than anything you have read if you take its advice to heart.
Iron Addict
Weight training is a truly unique pastime, in that for an activity as popular
as it is, there is an EXTREME OVERABUNDANCE of information that is ENTIRELY
UNSUITABLE FOR THE VAST MAJORITY OF THOSE THAT PARTICIPATE. It would be almost
acceptable if the information given in the popular books and periodicals
clearly stated that the information contained within them was only appropriate
for those that are genetically gifted at building muscle tissue and in many
cases also using massive amounts of steroids. This fact is never (or rarely)
mentioned. It would also make the situation better if there were popular
publications catering to alternative techniques suitable for the masses.
Unfortunately this is not the case. The publishers go with what sells, and since
the public is mistakenly under the assumption that those with the biggest
muscles must know the most about how to build an awesome physique the problem
propagates itself. The training information in the popular books and magazines
works spectacularly well FOR THE GENETIC WONDERS (usually using steroids also)
that garner all the publicity. What these methods don't do is deliver the
results for the masses (yes, you and me).
For the VAST majority of trainees that make little or no progress it is their
training methods that are responsible for the lack of progress. What you say?
You train just like everyone else in the gym, even the huge guys that out-lift
three of the typical trainees. The fact of the matter is that the popular
training methods that have created most of the world class physiques DO NOT
WORK FOR THE AVERAGE TRAINEE. Look around you in the gym and you see countless
members slaving away week after week, year after year and for all their effort
barely look like they workout at all. And often those that do look like they
train are usually stuck at the same weight, lifting the same poundage’s, for
months, sometimes years on end. I once read a pretty good definition of
insanity, "doing the same things over and over and expecting a different
result". If your training is not working for you now, how is supposed to
"magically" start working one day?
Before you just go to the routine section and look at the suggested routines
and decide that they can't possibly work, wait until you have read everything before
making your decision as to whether this style of training will work. Let me
give you an example of why it's important to get all the facts before making a
decision. If I promised you $5 million dollars to jump out of an airplane
without a parachute, would you do it? If you quickly answered "no"
you lost an easy $5 million. You see, the plane I was asking you to jump from
was parked on the ground.
Don't lose again by "jumping" to conclusion about the concepts you
are about to read. Please read everything before making any judgments.
A letter out of time
This letter was written in 1992 to the Editor and Publisher of Hardgainer,
Stuart McRobert. For those of you that have never had the pleasure of being
exposed to his writings or having read his wonderful bi-monthly publication
"Hardgainer", Stuart is the person I credit with showing myself and
countless others the real-deal on productive weight training. He has had over
300 articles published in almost every major weight training magazine and has
had ongoing columns in IronMan and MuscleMedia 2000. Never heard of him, or saw
his articles and skipped over them because a major title winner didn’t write
them?
Well you did yourself a huge disservice. I
too had skipped over his articles for a long time before I was exposed to the
basic training techniques that fill the pages of Hardgainer. What is a
Hardgainer? A simple yet fairly precise definition would be the vast majority
of the weight training populace. Do you go to the gym and experience great gains
on almost any type of training program you try? Do you watch those around you
in the gym make huge gains (drug free) on a consistent basis. Well, welcome to
reality land. While you can’t change your genetic make-up, you can apply a
training methodology that will allow you to reach your genetic potential.
Below is part of my story:
Stuart,
I am not a very experienced writer but I'm experienced in what does, and does
not work for me. And pretty well versed in training principles that work for
the average person, thanks to Hardgainer, Super Squats, and Brawn. I have
trained off and on since age 14, I'm 31 now, and most of the time I gained next
to nothing. The only time before 1991 that I made meaningful progress was a
period of about a year and a half when I was in the Army and trained very
inconsistently. I was trying to do a full-body workout three days a week. Due
to my inconsistency I ended up training once every 5-10 days, at best I trained
twice a week. This was just what I needed! I made some great gains and did what
most do, I got excited and started training more often, and increased my
workload. Of course this killed my progress. With no progress I lost desire.
Every couple of years I would repeat this process. I would become interested in
training, make gains when first starting, increase the load, and sure as night
turns to day, all progress would cease, as would my desire to train. I was like
many people are, a virtual warehouse of knowledge about every aspect of
training except that which would work for me. It wasn't until 1990 that I
decided I would begin training again and would find methods that would work for
me. This time I had decided I
would continue no matter what. I was
starting to feel as though my youth was slipping away (well of course it was,
but now it was really starting to feel like it). I had learned a lot about
persistence through other areas of my life and I realized I finally had the
maturity to persist, no matter what. I started training again. I was once again
wasting my time, but not for long.
I received a free copy of Super Squats with a subscription to IronMan. I did a
shortened version of the routine twice a week and life has never been the same!
It was during this time period that I started to notice the Hardgainer
department in IronMan. Things really started to click for me. After only 1
issue I sent for my copy of "Brawn" and between the three, a whole
new training world had opened up for me. At last, training methods that plainly
stated they were for the average person that had problems making gains. This
was a real revelation for me as everything I had read in the past basically
said, do this, and this, and the result would be that. Of course they all said
you had to make sure you gave all body-parts equal attention or soon some
body-parts would grow out of proportion and wreak your symmetry. Give me a
break; I'd have killed to have some big out of proportioned muscles. Even one
would have been great! Needless to say, almost every bit of so called training
information I had read since 1977 was worthless.
By the way it wasn't the six day a week 20 sets a body-part, or even the four
day a week twelve sets a body-part routine that was responsible for my failure
to make gains all those years. For the most part I used a three-day a week
total body routine. I had from the beginning sought out information on training
so I could train effectively and not waste my time. What a joke! I at least
knew I was a beginner (a look in the mirror could confirm this any time) and should
train like one. Almost all the glossy magazines had a beginner’s column in them
and they all wanted you to train three days a week until you put on some size.
And if you read the articles by the champs they often stated beginners should
do a three-day a week routine before working their way up to the type of
routine they were doing. In fact I still have my copy of Education of a
Bodybuilder by Arnold. Once again the beginner’s section said three days a
week, and after all Arnold should know.
I guess you probably know what I think about three day a week full body
routines after all these years. What a terrible shame this kind of program has
been so universally promoted. It's almost as bad as the high volume train every
day of the week garbage. No average person has a chance on this type of
routine. Train your whole body hard then, one days rest then do it again? Come
on!
I also tried a few other routines throughout the years, I think everybody from
this time period gave Mike Mentzer’s theories a try. I know I did, at least I
didn't lose too much time with this as even I knew something was wrong when I
dreaded the next training session, started getting injured, and worst of all
started losing weight fast. I could hardly afford to lose any weight being 6"1
155lbs at age 19 when Mentzer was at the height of his popularity.
Like you and so many others, I lost what could have been my most productive
training years because of a lack of proper information. For some reason in my
area (northern California) I had never seen a copy of Peary Raders IronMan or
any other magazine or book that had a message of reason. All I had to go by
were the glossy magazine/catalogues full of useless B.S. and a few books
written by big names that didn't have anything to do with reality, or at least
the reality of training a Hardgainer.
Since finding my way I have made more progress than I would have thought
possible. I have come to realize that most people fall somewhere between
hardgainer and extreme hardgainer not further up the scale.
I believe anyone that has to limit their training to two-three times a week,
can only train body-parts/lifts once a week, has to do a very limited amount of
movements for one or two sets at most, and has to watch their nutrition/rest
habits very carefully to make gains would be classified as a Hardgainer. Well,
the above statement describes me perfectly. In spite of all these limitations
my progress has been great. I owe this to finding the right training
information and applying it correctly.
Does any of this sound familiar to you? Please read on. The answer to your
training problems lay ahead. Since the proceeding was written in 1992 I have
learned a lot more about effective training and have trained many who had
genetics ranging anywhere from excellent to those you looked at and thought,
"have you really lifted weights before". During this time I have
NEVER had Hardgainer style training fail. Transform yourself from a
"before, to an after".
The Genetic Factor
While the big names may know a whole lot about what is required to build their
physiques to EXTREME levels they more often than not know ALMOST NOTHING about
the requirements of those less genetically inclined to add muscle tissue. What
is almost never mentioned is that in addition to having been blessed with out
of this world genetics they also use massive amounts of steroids and other
growth enhancing drugs. That this type of training is the type responsible for
the top name physiques is of little relevance for the typical trainee trying to
add bodyweight and strength. In fact, it is about as opposed as day and night
for those that have difficulty getting big, here is why:
More is not better
The average competitive bodybuilder does anywhere from 9 sets on the low end to
20-25 sets per body-part. Why so many? And if 20 sets are good why not do 40
sets and double the results? The reason is many, if not most have tried this
approach and found out it led to over training. It wasn’t because growth wasn’t
stimulated during the course of the workout, it was, but because so much of the
body’s resources are being used to merely recover from the workout nothing is
left for additional growth. In fact, in MOST cases the trainee will actually
become progressively smaller and weaker on such a schedule. If the sheer volume
of training were the factor responsible for weight training success the
workouts would need to become progressively longer until the only factor that
would limit ones growth would be the availability of gym time. This is clearly
not the case as the top names are usually paid to train and have no other
responsibilities, yet they do their two or three hour routines and get out of
the gym.
Frequency
It goes to reason that if doing too high a volume of training leads to over training,
that training to frequently will also hamper growth. If training four days a
week produces good gains why not train twice a day 7 days a week? Once again,
this has been tried by many and positive results were not achieved. Once you
come to grips with the fact that OVER TRAINING IS THE BIGGEST POSSIBLE MISTAKE
YOU CAN MAKE, AND IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MORE BODYBUILDING FAILURES THAN ALL OTHER
FACTORS COMBINED, you are on your way to becoming "all you can be",
to quote the popular Army slogan. Once you adjust your training volume and
frequency to the correct levels you will have done more to increase your
ability to gain than any thing else short of taking growth-enhancing drugs and
I assume you are not taking that route.
The Growth Factor
So we know that sheer volume of training is not the factor responsible for
growth, what is? Simple, increase your strength significantly and muscle size
will go up accordingly. This simple concept is left out on most articles in the
glossy magazines. Why? It should be included in bold print capitols in every
article printed. There should be a statement such as; IF YOU ARE NOT USING
PROGRESSIVELY HEAVIER POUNDAGE'S IN ALL YOUR LIFTS ON A CONSISTENT BASIS EVERY
OTHER DETAIL IS IRRELEVANT. SEEK TO GET STRONGER AND SIZE WILL FOLLOW!
How to unlock your potential
The key to getting stronger on a consistent basis is finding the correct volume
and frequency of training YOUR BODY can handle and then always training well
within these confines. This is so simple it is almost laughable, yet so few
ever really consistently apply it, even after being exposed to proper training
techniques. The most common reasons for not staying the course are always
finding a reason (excuse) to add exercises, and being swayed too easily by
others. Going into a commercial gym and watching others train, and often times
even being told by others that; "you can’t possibly gain on a routine like
that", and "that’s not the way so and so trains" more often than
not leads the trainee to add exercises and training days to the routine to the
extent that the growth process is short circuited. Don’t be another failure
that gives up on lifting because it doesn't work!
The REAL Requirements
From reading the above, the uninitiated trainee is probably beginning to get
the picture that Hardgainer style training consists of training less
frequently, and doing less sets per body-part to ovoid what they now understand
to be the reason for their lack of progress—over training. The uninitiated are
probably thinking something like great, I’ll cut back to three days a week
instead of four and only do eight sets per body-part instead of sixteen. Then
WHAM—instant buff! This volume and frequency will still lead to frustration and
stagnation.
What few are willing to grasp is just how severe heavy lifting is to the body.
Not only must localized (in the muscle trained) recovery occur before growth
will take place, but systemic recovery (the body as a whole) must occur also.
Once recovery has occurred guess what? You are still no stronger than before
the workout took place—adaptation (growth) only occurs after your body has
fully recovered. Only after both of these events have occurred has the muscle
grown bigger.
Most people short circuit the growth process by training before full recovery
and adaptation has occurred. That’s why they find themselves doing the same
weight workout after workout. Here is what happens: they do so many sets the
body is in a state of constant depletion, then before their poor beat-up body
has even had a chance to recuperate from the last work out the body is hammered
again. True, different body-parts are worked, but the systemic depletion is
only made worse. Your body is chronically over-trained and growth does not
occur.
The solution to the problem of over training is shocking to most trainees who
have only been exposed to the training techniques of the "champions".
Be that as may, your only hope of developing a good physique is to ensure you
ALWAYS train within your body’s ability to recuperate between workouts. How
will you know if you are recuperating adequately? Simple, you will be able to
add weight or reps workout to workout. There may be days when you are feeling
down and the energy level is just not there, but days like this should be the RARE
exception not the rule. How much weight should be added? One-half to two pounds
on the smaller movements such as military presses or curls and one to five
pounds for the big movements like squats and deadlifts. Not enough you say?
Assuming the trainee bench presses one day
a week and is able to add but one pound to the bar each workout. Also assuming
a couple of weeks were missed due to illness or other commitments, this still
amasses a 50 pound increase in bench press ability. Do even this small increase
over two consecutive years and the trainee that was previously
"stuck" at 185 x 6 is now doing 285 x 6 and has a better bench than
almost all the other members in the gym. Of course not all progress will be
linear and there will be times when the trainee will have to cut back the
poundage's for a time in order to let the body fully recuperate. But there will
also be times when the increases are much higher than the suggested increments.
In fact, if you are new to hardgainer style
training 5 pounds a week for small movements and 5-10 pounds a week for the big
movements may be attainable—and body-weight may skyrocket also. Most trainees
(if truly training within their limits) will add from 10 to 30 pounds during
the first three months. Please keep in mind that the 30-pound figure is not the
norm, but 10-20 pound body-weight increases are.
Small Gains are Sustainable
Once you are past the beginner stage, or the beginning three or four months of
training correctly, it’s time to start looking at training for the long haul.
By that I mean structuring your routine inside and outside the gym to ensure
that all the requirements of growth are being met. One of the key ingredients
of the growth recipe is ensuring that you do not try to add weight to the bar faster
than your body is actually building strength. Adding weight to the bar by
loosening your form and speeding up your rep speed does nothing but stoke your
ego, and set you up for injury.
Your Potential
Sorry to say this, but for the vast majority of you reading this you are not
going to be the next Arnold, Dorian Yates, or Ronnie Coleman. The chances are,
if you are reading this you are reading out of the desperation of trying
everything and getting little or no results. I can’t and won’t promise that
hardgainer style training will make you the next Mr. anything, or even make you
the biggest guy in your gym. What I will promise you is that these techniques,
applied with passion and persistence will deliver results that will astound
you.
Your Goals
While no one can define your strength training goals for you some basic
guidelines are necessary to ensure you achieve them.
1. If your reading this and are thinking: I don’t want to be some huge
guy who scares people because of his sheer size and can’t even scratch his own
back. Keep this in mind; you can only do one of three things to a muscle. A)
Make it smaller/weaker through improper/no training. B) Keep it the same size
through improper training or deciding you are as big/strong as you want to be.
C) Make it bigger through proper training. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TONING A
MUSCLE. If you ever reach a point where you are satisfied with your size and
strength you can easily maintain that condition by ensuring you never increase
the poundage you are using. How many of you are really worried about getting
too big/strong?
2. Trying get a big chest and arms while neglecting to work hard on the
big muscle groups, i.e., legs/back is a surefire formula for failure for
Hardgainers.
3. If you want to be big and impressive by any standards (other than
competition oriented bodybuilders) you had better fix your sights on aiming
high on the poundage’s used in your training. I will quote Stuart McRobert’s
guidelines for strength based on the average 5’9 190 pound successful
Hardgainer: bench 300, squat 400, deadlift 500. You should allow 10% leeway
high or low, and take into consideration body type, as some will be natural
squatters and others will be far better at deadlifting. Some may also (if
educated) substitute the parallel bar dip for the bench press if they are not
structurally suited to bench press. Although the dip doesn’t get anywhere near
the recognition the bench press does, it actually works more muscle than the
bench. Lighter or heavier bodyweight lifters will need to adjust their goals
accordingly.
If these figures seem out of reach take heart, they seemed an impossibility to
me also when first exposed to them after reading Stuart’s first book; Brawn.
That I reached these goals within approximately 2-1/2 years seemed like a dream
to me. My transformation physically was equally startling. I went from an
experienced (so I thought) trainee with years of training under my belt that
had reached the pinnacle of 175 pounds at 6’1 to a 235 pound trainee experienced
in what really works.
4. If you are trying to trim down and get bigger at the same time you
are asking your body to make a very difficult task almost impossible. Either
lose the excess fat before trying to get big or plan on losing it after you have
added some serious size first. And if you are happy with your body-fat level
don’t be afraid to let some fat come along when adding muscle. Trying to get
big and stay very lean is a task difficult for even the genetically elite, and
next to impossible for the hardgainer.
How Hard to Train
Doing a limited routing that has the trainee properly regulating the volume and
frequency of their routine will still fail if the critical growth factor of
intensity is ignored. Many people train with the intensity of an old lady
knitting. This usually occurs because of either pure laziness, or the trainee
is so accustomed to doing endless sets to ensure "complete
development" that they only train half-heartedly out of pure survival
instinct. You cannot do set after set at high levels of intensity. You can
train hard, or you can train for long periods, but you cannot do both. And
since we know that doing set after set (even at low intensity levels) will lead
to over training the choice becomes clear. Train as hard as possible, as
briefly as possible, and get out of the gym.
How hard is hard as possible, and can you train too hard? This too is an easy
question to answer. If you take all your sets (after warm-ups) to failure, you
will have done everything necessary to achieve growth stimulation. Failure is
defined as ceasing the set when it is impossible to get another rep without
breaking form. Do not contort your body and cheat the weight up any way
possible in attempt to get another rep. As long as you are pushing like your
life depended on it to attempt the last rep you have achieved your goal.
Forced reps, negatives, and other beyond
failure techniques are not needed and usually are the fast track to burnout for
Hardgainers. Do not train to failure on deadlifts! Leave the last rep in you.
Just make sure you truly are right next to the limit when ceasing the set, not
many reps away.
Most trainees, even when tasked to train to complete failure come up many reps
short, especially on the "big" exercises. Why? Because it hurts. I
will not go as far as saying that progress cannot be made without training to
failure because the truth is that all training methods work—for some people.
Unfortunately in order to fully stimulate growth in as few sets as possible and
get out of the gym training brutally hard is a requirement. The alternative is
to do more sets to make up for the lack of intensity. This is rarely a good
idea for the Hardgainer. Train hard or stay home, sorry!
The Path to Excellence
In order for you to achieve all that your genetic endowment will allow you must
understand and APPLY the following guidelines on a consistent basis until you
have achieved your physical potential or are as big as you care to be.
The "Driver"
Please read the following carefully, the need to include a heavy full body
movement in your routine is crucial to your lifting success!
The typical hardgainer can forget about making big gains throughout the body
until they get the thigh/back musculature growing. Think about it this way, if
your body is not very efficient at growing muscle tissue and your current
routine is like that of most trainees, (what I call the double B’s, bench and
biceps) how much of a demand have you placed on your body to become more
efficient at growing? Working chest, delts, tri’s, and biceps works
approximately 10% of your overall lean body mass. Working hard on deadlift’s
(bent legged, Trap Bar, or sumo) or squatting (not necessarily at the same
time) works more like 70% of your musculature at once and sends a STRONG
message to your body to GET BETTER AT GROWING NOW! Because the demands on your
metabolism are so great when doing these movements the results are also great.
But like anything worthwhile in life it comes at a price: brutally hard work
done consistently with ever increasing poundage’s.
The original "recipe" for success for those that were previously
unable to register significant gains in size and strength was the 20 rep
squatting routine with one set (after warm-ups) to failure done along with a
handful of other basic exercises, no fluff, just brutally demanding hard work
done infrequently with an emphasis on heavy eating. If you have never done high
rep squatting or deadlifting with limit poundage's you will no doubt be amazed
at how difficult they are. They will probably be the most demanding things you
have ever done inside or outside of the gym. They will for sure be the most
productive things you've ever done in the gym.
Twenty Rep squats are not done by putting a lightweight on the bar and doing
twenty quick reps and racking the bar. They are done by using a weight that the
trainee will have to almost kill himself to get 15 reps with. By rep 10 or so
you will be breathing like a horse and gasping for your breath. You will fight
to get the 15 reps, then instead of racking the bar you keep it on your
shoulders and rest/breath long enough to get the next rep, and the next, then
the next. You will have to fight every fiber in your body telling you to dump
the bar. But you persist and make it to rep 20. Rep 21 should be impossible
should you have attempted it. If you are able to do another set after this one
you weren’t trying hard enough. For this reason I always do high rep squats (or
deadlifts) as the last movement in the routine. Try them and see why!
Many times I have trained people who swore they worked like animals in the gym
and had them on the floor gasping like fish out of water, unable to continue
with any additional work after one limit set of squats. These were people that
swore they trained as hard as possible and were sure the proposed workout could
not possibly be able to stimulate growth in so few sets. By the way these were
usually people that were previously unable to add bodyweight and went on to
become quite big and strong by applying Hardgainer techniques to their
training.
The Heritage
High rep squatting has a history going back to the early days of the Iron Game.
For a detailed history and training program promoting high rep squatting I
suggest you purchase the book "Super Squats" by Randall Strossen.
While the main routine contained in this book will prove to be too much for
most Hardgainers, the abbreviated routine given is excellent (contained in this
manual, see description) for those needing to cut back to the bare bones in
able to gain. This routine was promoted by Peary Radar (IronMan Magazines
previous Editor/Publisher) as a surefire routine for those unable to gain on
even the basic 20 rep squatting routine consisting of squats, barbell curls,
bench presses, rows, and military presses. Peary championed the 20 rep
squatting routine for years during his time as publisher of IronMan.
Unfortunately his voice was drowned out by
the Weiders "champion" routines. His magazine also did not have the
exposure of the Weider publications at the time. When IronMan was procured by
the current owners the newer formula (big names, long routines) was ushered in
and the tradition of basic training with heavy squats as the core of the
routine was almost lost to future generations. Were it not for Stuart McRobert,
Randall Strossen and a handful of others that had learned this most productive
method of training and promoted it to all that would listen.
The Deadlift
While there has been more exposure given to the squat in bodybuilding circles
than deadlifting it is time this changed. For many trainees, especially the
long limbed type that Hardgainers tend to be, the deadlift may be the single
most productive movement that can be done. Even surpassing the mighty squat
that has become famous for making strongmen out of people that previously could
not make significant gains. I strongly recommend some type of deadlifting in
everyone’s routine (physical limitations not withstanding). Not only will you
have gone a long ways towards achieving your physical potential, you will also
help yourself avoid lower back injuries.
How could that be? You have been told that deadlifts will wreak your back.
Consider that most lower back injuries occur when someone (weight trainees
included) with little lower back strength bends over to pick up something
relatively light and something "lets go". Building a strong lower
back through deadlifting will go along way towards insuring you don’t have the
same thing happen to you. As long as structural weaknesses are not preexisting,
you maintain perfect form while deadlifting (this applies to ALL exercises),
and if you are new to deadlifting, you start VERY light and build up your
poundage's slowly while perfecting your form, you should be able to never be
injured by deadlifting. Almost all weight-training injuries are preventable.
Trap Bar Deadlift
I could write pages praising the advantages of the Trap Bar and it’s value in
assisting the trainee to reach their physical potential. This piece of
equipment, when used correctly has the ability to transform physiques. Muscles
worked when using this movement are thighs, hamstrings, glutes, lower back,
upper back (lats, mid back, traps), forearms, and abs/obliques. In other words,
the same muscles used a when performing the bent legged deadlift.
So what makes the Trap Bar so special, and
makes it a superior movement to the strait bar deadlift? Simple, works the same
muscles as the conventional deadlift while making it a safer movement by
avoiding undue stress to the lower back and providing more stress to the
thighs. Because it reduces the need for extreme technical proficiency as
required during the strait bar deadlift most trainees are able to push harder
and move more weight. The sum total is a super productive movement that works
approximately 70% of your lean body mass relatively safely. To top it off, this
piece of equipment sells for under $200.00 U.S. dollars.
Performance of the movement is relatively simple, stand inside the bar and hold
onto the two parallel handles. Keeping your lower back slightly arched and your
head up push down into the floor with your feet trying to keep the weight on
your heels. Do not round the lower back, and do not take the movement to
absolute failure (stop one rep short), and you can rest assured you will have
sent a strong signal to your body to grow.
If finances allow, this is a must purchase item for the home gym trainees.
Unfortunately most gyms do not have a Trap Bar. If possible talk your gym owner
into purchasing one, or allowing you to purchase one and deduct the price from
your membership. After using my Trap Bar only one time, my brother purchased
his own and carried it in the trunk of his car to the gym on leg/back day. This
option should not be overlooked.
Are the high reps the only way to go? Many of you are probably wondering if the
high reps for squats and deadlifts are really necessary to achieve big gains in
size and strength. The answer to that question is absolutely not. They just
happen to be the most efficient and safest way (assuming your form doesn’t
deteriorate to get all your reps) for most trainees. They also provide a
big-time stimulus to the cardio-vascular system at the same time you are weight
training.
Sets of between 5 and 20 reps all work very well as long as the intensity level
is high. You will make great progress on any rep scheme as long as all other
training factors are in proper place. Besides if you’ve ever done them you know
that they are almost as hard mentally as physically. Your body and mind will
both need some well deserved rest after a hard 20 rep (15 reps works almost as
well) squat or deadlift cycle. Rotate between whatever rep schemes work best
for you.
But everyone should take the time to devout
at least 8-16 weeks to a 20 rep squat or deadlift routine. You may find out a
lot about your mental character as well as your physical potential. Will you
dump the bar at rep 16 because it HURTS SO BAD, even though if you really
tried, you could have gotten all your reps? Don’t be surprised; this is what
most do when faced with the challenge. Do you really want to be like most
people?
What if you can’t squat or deadlift?
Let me first start off by saying that there are very few of you out there that
legitimately can’t either squat or deadlift, especially using the Trap Bar. I
will also go out on a limb and state that most readers will have many excuses
why they can’t and also add that many HAVE NEVER EVEN TRIED TO DEADLIFT. Most
trainees will have at least tried squatting and after realizing the tremendous
effort required to squat heavy weights decided leg extensions and maybe a
couple of half effort sets of whatever leg training apparatus is handiest and
easiest will suffice on leg day. The thought being…. well, after all, we don’t
want to use up all that energy that would be best applied to endless sets of
curls. This is the road to nowhere! Get competent instruction on how too
properly squat and deadlift. I highly recommend the book "The Insiders
Tell-All Handbook on Weight-Training Technique" even if expert coaching is
available. You may need to work on your flexibility to become a more proficient
squatter. If this is the case invest the time needed on a proper flexibility
routine performed twice a week. This will pay off big dividends once you are
able to squat correctly and will go a long way towards making you more injury
proof.
Safety Squats
For those of you that are not familiar with this bar (probably the majority of
readers) it is a bar with a padded yoke that has the weight-bearing portion of
the bar angled forward. This moves the center of gravity forward and in
conjunction with the padded protrusions of this strangely shaped bar allows
"hands free" squatting. This allows the hands to be used to hold onto
a squat or power rack and stabilize the upper torso. In fact proper use of this
bar will allow almost any trainee to squat in any position from a "lean
forward" powerlifting style to an actual "lean back" position,
something that is impossible with a regular bar.
The Tall Hardgainers Curse
A common complaint of many tall Hardgainers is the amount of forward lean
necessary to stabilize the bar makes the squat a great hip and back movement
while leaving the legs only moderately worked. The Safety Squat Bar has the
potential to mitigate these factors and provide a first class leg workout with
minimal knee and back stress. With the Safety Squat Bar I am able to squat
upright and move my stance in, my legs and hips get hammered while my back is
only moderately worked.
I have trained a tall (6’3") novice who due to extreme inflexibility and
body mechanics could not get much past the half squat position without his
heels coming off the ground and almost falling down forward. Yet with the
safety squat bar he was able to find a pain free squat position with this bar
and squat to almost parallel.
Performance
Here’s how it works. The bar is loaded (preferably in a power rack, although a
squat rack will suffice) and the trainee dips under the bar and removes it from
the rack. Because of the padded lateral stabilizer bars and the forward cant of
the bar it stays in place on the traps/shoulders without assistance of the
hands, the hands are used to hold onto the power rack. Special handles that
attach to the rack are included with the bar, but it works fine just using the
posts of the rack for support. By using the hands/arms to stabilize your torso
you will find you are able to maintain a very upright position while squatting
thus allowing your legs to take the brunt of the work.
Stance width and foot angle are only limited by what is comfortable and safe.
The one reservation I have about the use of this bar is the extreme flexibility
of positions that one is able to use. If you set up in an unnatural position
and attempt to use heavy weights you are asking for trouble. It is possible to
use positions with this bar that will put extreme stress on the knees, don’t do
this! Common sense should tell you when you’re about to put yourself in harms
way. Find a comfortable stance and position that is an improvement of your
normal squatting position and work with that.
One of the variables to keep in mind is foot placement relative to the rack
posts you are holding onto. The closer you place your feet to the posts the
more upright your torso will be. Setting up well back of the uprights will have
you leaning forward more and will put more pressure on the back.
Most trainees will find they can use much more weight with the Safety Squat Bar
than they can with a regular bar. The factors involved that makes this possible
are the ability to find a natural "strong" posture and stance, and
the ability to use the arms to pull past the sticking point. The use of the
arms can be a help or a hindrance dependent on how they are used. If one always
uses arm strength to pull through the difficult portion of the lift, little
will be gained and the sticking point will only be made worse. However if arm
use is kept to a minimum and used only during the last very tough reps of a
set, one is able to really up the intensity and get in some very productive
reps that would be impossible otherwise.
The Safety Squat Bar has been advertised in Powerlifting USA for some time now
and can be ordered by calling 831-637-0797. I’m confident once enough trainees
give the Safety Squat Bar a try it will become a very popular piece of
equipment, especially with tall Hardgainers who have suffered under the squat
bar for many years. It has many advantages unique to machines, yet has the
flexibility of free weights.
Leg Press
If you can find a leg press that doesn’t put your knees in peril by providing
to great of a range of motion, and doesn’t place undue stress on the lower back
or potentially "crush you" by having the weight carriage come down to
far when failure/fatigue is reached you will get good results as long as you
are able to push like your life depended on it. However you need to keep in
mind that the leg press should be used as a last resort if all efforts to squat
and deadlift productively have failed. You will have to expect decreased
results, but if the choice is leg press or no heavy leg-work at all the choice
is easy.
That being said, I think the leg press is a valuable piece of equipment for all
trainees. In fact I think enough of it to have purchased my own. Why own a
piece of equipment I truly believe to be inferior to the squat and deadlift?
For me the reason is to be able to continue with leg work during times when my
lower back needs a rest from continual heavy squats and deadlifts, or when just
needing a change of pace. I also use it when training someone who cannot squat
or deadlift due to prior injury or physical limitations. It can be a refreshing
break from squats and deadlifts, but not a substitute.
DO NOT USE THIS AS AN EXCUSE TO NOT SQUAT OR DEADLIFT. Used by those that can
use them safely bent-legged deadlifts and squats are the most productive
movements you can do, bar-none. If they are done in a fashion that leads to
injury they are also a liability. Learn to do these movements correctly and learn
to savor the satisfaction of knowing you have done what is needed to stimulate
big gains throughout the body.
Squat Machines
There are many other machines that approximate the squat in body mechanics that
will allow those that may be otherwise unable to perform free weights squats to
get in a good workout.
"Volume, Frequency, and "Overlap"
Here is part of my experience learning how to properly modulate training
volume, frequency, and exercise overlap to find what worked best for me. And
while we are all different in our ability to recover from workouts the
following formula has been the most successful for almost every hardgainer I
have trained.
It was during the course of a heavy 20 rep squat routine cycle that I hit the
wall after only four weeks of maximum poundage training having taken three
weeks to build up to a weight where rep 20 seemed like a "fight for
life". I decided to cut back to squatting once a week and see how I did on
this new frequency. I was hard to mentally make the change as even many
hardgainer routines are designed around twice a week squatting. Fortunately
every once in a while common sense prevails, and the right choice is made.
Immediately after going to once a week squatting my poundage progression took
off! It was only after going to once a week that I started to notice that many
respected authorities recommended squatting once a week. Why hadn't I noticed
this before?
I then decided I would try training all my lifts once a week to see if this was
also the answer to upper body progression. I made the change and have never
looked back! The results were immediate and consistent, which brings up a point
that cannot be stated strongly enough, if you are training effectively within
your ability to recuperate you should be seeing progress in the form of
strength increases from workout to workout. This should be either weight or rep
increases. These don't have to be (and should not be) big increases. A
one-repetition increase with the same form is significant. One half or one
pound increases for small movements and one to three pounds on big movements is
about right for most trainees. Early on in a cycle you can add five pounds a
week to big movements but this rate of increase is not sustainable.
What is the correct frequency and training volume? You will have to find out
for yourself, but if you always err on the side of doing less instead of more
your training will be more productive. Everyone can gain on abbreviated
routines (and very abbreviated routines) but once you start training outside
your ability to recuperate real progress stops.
There was a wonderful article in Hardgainer #29 by Jack Stocks describing his
training experiences. Jack found he could only maintain meaningful progression
on two movements, and He has to do these movements on different days of the
week. Some may be asking, what kind of strength and development can be achieved
by such limited training? Well, anyone who read the article knows that Jack is
very strong on the movements he does. As far as development goes, I am sure he
is not as balanced as someone whose recuperative abilities allow them to do
more movements, so what! He has found his limits and trains within them. He is
far more successful than those that slave away for months and years on end
using puny poundage's with little development anywhere.
Hopefully your tolerance for training volume will allow you to do more
movements for more complete development, (if this is what you are trying to
achieve) the point is, you need to determine the volume and frequency that
works for you and train within these confines. Knowing I am a Hardgainer and
will only respond to a limited amount of training, one of the biggest mistakes
I have made in the past is trying to find the limits of my ability to recuperate.
Gains come at a snails pace when compared to the progress that is possible when
training well within your limits. Grasp the last sentence and apply it, NO,
REALLY APPLY IT! Don’t keep adding exercises until you are on the edge, or
worse yet, over your ability to recuperate.
Before coming to grips regarding proper frequency and duration of training
load, the goals often stated in Hardgainer of 300/400/500 bench, squat, and
deadlift seemed as though they would be definite, limit lifts for me, when and
if I reached them. After applying the techniques contained within these pages
these goal, adjusted UP because of my higher bodyweight were achieved. Had I
continued training using the popular methods I am quite certain I may have
achieved a 225 pound bench and 275 pound squat, and probably would have never
deadlifted. Of course I would have only achieved a physique to match. The worse
part is after a time I would no doubt have done what MOST lifters do; quit,
because weight training just did not work for me.
Exercise Overlap
One of the other factors to take into consideration is avoiding as much
"overlap" as possible. By overlap, I mean doing movements on
different days of the week that directly or indirectly affect a body part. The
goal for most trainees should be to hit all body parts/lifts only once a week
or less once very advanced or in the cases of extreme Hardgainers. In fact once
you are willing (or able if work or family obligations are not a factor) to
throw out the notion of following a weekly schedule and train only when YOU ARE
FULLY RECOVERED from the prior workout you may find your progress increases
many fold.
Many times someone will suggest training body parts once a week and will then
go on to outline a routine that has the trainee squatting and deadlifting heavy
on different days of the week and doing bench presses for chest on Monday,
behind the neck presses for delts on Wednesday, and close grip benches for
triceps on Friday. Take a close look; delts and triceps are hit hard three days
a week. Squatting and deadlifting on different days of the week has a long
tradition behind it, but for those that use a lot of back in their squats, this
ends up putting a lot of stress on the lower back two days a week. That this
works for many has little relevance for the Hardgainer struggling to make
progress in the big lifts that have the most impact on overall musculature.
If training three days a week, doing all pulling movements on one day, all
pressing movements the next session, and leg/lower back work on the third day
will pretty well keep overlap to a minimum. I RARELY recommend any Hardgainer
train more than three days a week, but this schedule will work if the person in
question has a track record of making fair gains on an expanded routine and is
"stuck". FOR MOST TRAINEES A TWO DAY A WEEK (OR EVEN LESS OFTEN)
ROUTINE IS THE WAY TO GO. If you absolutely have to be in the gym three days a
week, ensure one of the days is only "accessory" work for abs,
calves, neck, and forearms. Break this rule and you will also be breaking your
body’s ability to grow. You don’t grow in the gym, you grow when resting
between workouts. Ensure you are getting enough rest!
When doing a two-day a week routine any
combination that doesn't have the trainee doing redundant work will do just
fine. What works best for most is doing all upper body pushing movements on day
one, and doing squats or deadlifts, (or both) on day two. I also recommend
including upper back/bicep training on the same day as deadlifts are completed
as deadlifts involve the lats tremendously. Anyone having difficulty picturing
how deadlifts involve the lats will have to experience it to believe how brutal
deads are on the lats and mid-back.
This schedule prevents overlap of upper
bodywork and provides a whole week of undisturbed rest for the lower back.
Doing squats and deadlifts on the same day works best if only one
"work" set after warm-ups are completed. One of these lifts will
suffer relative to the poundage's that can be moved if these movements are done
on separate days of the week, but it's a good compromise for most people as
they should be able to add weight to the bar for both movements, as opposed to
when doing the lifts on separate days of the week.
A better option for many, is to focus on only one of the lifts per training
cycle, Or as Stuart McRobert has suggested, pair up the squat and stiff legged
deadlift for one cycle and rotate with the bent-legged deadlift and leg press
combo for the next training period.
Help, I’m Stuck! A Short Course on Intensity Cycling
Of course you will eventually get to a point when repetition or weight
increases are no longer possible. What then? There are four basic ways you can
get yourself "unstuck". Which method you prefer to use will have
something to do with your personality. You will have to experiment to find out
what works best for you, but you HAVE TO APPLY ONE OF THESE METHODS IF YOU ARE
TO GET TRULY BIG AND STRONG. Do not think you can somehow get around this. To
do so is trying to cheat your body out of what it needs to consistently
improve.
1. The first tried and true method is to cycle your intensity somewhat
the way powerlifters do. To do this you have to be willing to train with light
poundage’s at least some of the time to let your body heal and build up
training momentum as Stuart calls it. Take a few days off, then when you resume
training start out using 65%-85% of your previous best workout poundage's and
take from three to eight weeks to work back up to where you were.
Once you have built back up to using your previous best poundage's it's time to
get out your small plates and gradually work your way into new poundage
territory. Make sure you have a good selection of small plates at your
disposal. Not just a pair of 1-1/4's but also some 1/2 and 1/4 pound discs, so
you never have to add weight to the bar faster than you can build strength.
Rest assured, the more aggressive you are with your poundage increases the
shorter your gaining period will be. Be patient, small increases over the long
haul are far more productive than continually going stale and having to start
over again.
There are many factors that determine how long you will be able to continue
gaining after you have surpassed your previous best. If you are truly training
well within your ability to recuperate you will find it much easier to keep
continued weight increases coming along. As long as you keep the increases
small enough you may find you can progress for months at a time before hitting
the wall. Although many (myself included) have found that extremely long, slow
cycles can become too monotonous and changes are needed to keep one mentally
fresh.
What I have found to work best for me and most trainees is to spend three to
five weeks building up and then spending six to 12 weeks in new poundage
territory. The short building period works for me because if I continue to a
point where increases are impossible in all or most movements I find I have to
take a very long slow building period to get back up to my past best poundage’s.
You will have to experiment to find out how much to cut back and how long to
take to build back up. I found out the hard way that if I cut back too far and
take too long to work my way back up it is much harder for me to get to my
previous best poundage's. Others have found the opposite to be true, and a long
building period is needed to build gaining "momentum." The important
thing is once you are training flat out that you are progressive with your
poundage’s. If you are not training too much or too frequently you will be able
to add weight or reps.
2. The second method is to add rest days between your workouts to allow
for recovery and growth to occur. This is an excellent way to ensure the growth
process is never short-circuited. As you grow bigger and stronger you may also
find this to be the only way you are able to consistently make gains. Why?
Because as you continue to add weight to the bar you also increase the demands
each workout places on your metabolism.
If you absolutely must keep your workout within a weekday—weekend cycle, the
best alternative may be to split your workload into two separate workouts. Then
instead of doing the first one Monday, the second on Friday and continuing on
this schedule, you would complete Friday’s workout, and then, instead of doing
Monday’s workout, you do the workout Wednesday. The next workout would take
place on Monday, the next on Friday. This amounts to training three times every
two weeks, or hitting each muscle every 9 days. Not enough? For all of you that
read the popular training magazines that cover the routines of the
"champions" you no doubt know that while they do LOTS of sets and
work out very frequently, many still only train each muscle once every seven
days. If once a week works for genetic wonders on huge amounts of steroids do
you really think that giving yourself two more days of recovery wont work for
you?
The alternative method is to discard the notion of the calendar week and train
whenever you are fully recovered. You will have to find out by trial and error
how many additional days to add, but it is simple to know when you are
regulating your training frequency enough. How to know? You will slowly but
surely be adding weight or reps. As long as this is occurring all is well.
FORGET THE NOTION ONCE AND FOR ALL THAT YOU WILL LOSE SIZE IF YOU WAIT MORE
THAN 72 HOURS, OR MORE THAN A WEEK, OR WHATEVER PRECONCEIVED NOTION YOU HAVE
ABOUT TRAINING FREQUENCY NEEDS. IT SIMPLY IS NOT TRUE. Everyone recovers at
different rates, and as you grow stronger time needed to recover from workout
increases.
3. Reduce the number of movements or the number of work sets in each
workout. This method also works well, the only limitation being that if the
trainee is already performing an abbreviated routine there may be little to
eliminate. What does have a significant effect, is for those that have always
believed that one work set after warm-ups could not possibly stimulate growth
is to try the method you previously condemned. You may find yourself mistaken.
There is more about one set training below. Just let me tease you by saying it
may be the most productive method for many of you willing to give it a fair
shake.
4. Change the makeup of your routine. By this I mean change the exercises
performed, the rep range, the time you rest between sets, or any combination of
the above. Just make sure you don’t substitute isolation movements for compound
movements or replace safe movements with those that are bound to injure you
eventually. Just make sure the movements you pick are at least somewhat similar
to your "core" exercises.
Using myself as an example, my core movements are squats, trap bar deadlifts,
pull-ups, dips, and the seated press. When I need a change my substitutes are:
safety bar squats, conventional or stiff legged deadlifts, pull-downs, bench or
dumbbell bench press, and seated dumbbell presses. By making my alternate
exercises so closely related there is transference of gains when switching
between routines. This is something that does not always occur when doing
dissimilar movements.
Exercises
If you use nothing but the exercises listed below you will have more than
enough exercises at your disposal to make you big as you'll ever be and still
have enough variety to keep you excited about your workouts. The exercises
listed are not only there because they are effective; they are also listed
because they are safe when performed properly. Including movements like behind
the neck presses, behind the neck pull-downs, hack squats, bench presses to the
neck, and others too many to name WILL EVENTUALLY INJURE YOU. IF YOU ARE
INJURED YOU CANNOT TRAIN, IF YOU CANNOT TRAIN YOU CANNOT GROW.
Machines are fine as long as they do not put you in over-stretched positions or
are not suited for your body type. I especially like the "Hammer"
line of machines. Machines are fine for a change of pace, and if your gym has a
few "favorites" that you are fond of using by all means continue with
their use. But you cannot beat free weights for overall size and strength
gains.
Select your movements primarily from the "major movements" list. Just
be sure to include ab, calves, and grip work to your routine. I made the
mistake of neglecting calf work for years because it just didn't interest me.
Guess what? When I got good at squatting my thigh size went through the roof,
of course I didn't pay a lot of attention to it until I started getting
positive comments about my thighs and it was usually followed up with "but
how come your calves aren't growing".
Arm Work
Everyone wants big arms, few people have them. The best way for the Hardgainer
to focus on their arms is to forget about them. What's that? Simple, we've
already established that over training is the reason for lack of progress, and
for best gains the minimum amount of training that can be done and still cover
all body-parts will result in the fastest gains. So how to best accomplish the
task? Use compound movements that hit many muscle groups at once. I assure you
once you can do chins with your palms facing you with bodyweight + 35-60 pounds
strapped to your waist for 6-8 reps you will have biceps about as big as their
going to get. Once you can dip bodyweight + 75-100 pounds for 6-8 reps or do
close grip bench presses with 100% of bodyweight for 6-8 strict, you will
indeed have big triceps. This is the way for a hardgainer to get big arms. The
12 sets for biceps 12 for triceps routines are the fast track to failure for
all but the most gifted.
Compound/Major Movements
- Squat,
Safety Squat, Leg Press
- Deadlift,
Trap Bar Deadlift, Sumo Deadlift, Stiff Leg Deadlift
- Bench
Press, Incline Press, Parallel bar Dip, Close Grip bench Press
- Pullup/Chinup,
Pull-Down, Bent Row, Dumbbell Row, Cable Row
- Seated/Military
Press, Dumbbell Press
Accessory Movements
- Barbell
Curl, Dumbbell Curl
- Triceps
Pushdowns, Skull Crushers
- Calf
Raises
- Neck
Work (Machine or Manual)
- Grip
Work (various)
- Crunch
Sit-up, Hanging Leg Raise, Pulley Crunch)
Number of work sets and warm-ups
Each exercise should be done for one or two work sets and then move on to the
next movement. If you are truly training hard and taking the movements to
failure there is no reason to do any more work and in fact, it will be counter
productive if you do. Before the "work" sets are completed warm-ups
MUST be done until YOU are sure that the muscles (and joints) being worked are
fully warm and you are able to do your set(s) as hard as possible without
injury.
That said, the minimum amount needed is best, as it will leave you as strong as
possible for your sets and reduce the chance of over training. Remember, as far
as your body is concerned all training is a negative as far as depleting your
body's reserves. Only when the minimum amount of training possible to stimulate
growth occurs will your body be in the maximum state to achieve growth.
Routines
After reading about H.I.T./Hard-Gainer style training the average reader should
understand that the primary reason growth does not occur is because the
overtraining threshold has been reached and the body simply cannot tolerate the
stress imposed by the workouts and still have ample resources to recover, and
then MORE IMPORTANTLY, super-compensate (add additional muscle). Once people
truly grasp this concept and see the magic in, they seek to streamline their
training and eliminate extra redundant exercises, sets and days spent in the
gym.
The problem that arises is typically; they
STILL do WAY too much and fail to achieve the results they seek. Being
brainwashed into thinking that every aspect of the muscle must be fully
stimulated lest you become “un-balanced” makes the average guy do so much that
he is an “un-balanced” bag of bones without much muscle. Here is something I
have written before that I will state again before I get into the actual routines.
What if instead of doing so much you never grow, those 3-4 exercises per
body-part to ensure “complete development” of all “aspects” of a muscle all you
did was:
Squats 400 x 20
Stiff-legged deadlifts 375 x 15
Bench Press 315 x 12
Pull-Up with 100 lbs extra weight x 12
Military Press Body-Weight x 10
Calf-Raise 700 x 15
Weighted Sit-Up 175 x 12
How much bigger would you be than you are now, and what muscle would be
under-developed?!?!?!?!?!?
What if that was ALL THE LIFTS YOU ACTUALLY DID ON A WEEK-TO-WEEK BASIS, BUT
ACTUALLY DID THAT AMOUNT OF WEIGHT? AND SINCE THAT WAS ALL YOU DID YOU NEVER
OVERTRAINED AND YOU WERE ALWAYS ABLE ADD A LITTLE AMOUNT OF WEIGHT TO THE BAR.
HOW MUCH FUCKING BIGGER WOULD YOU BE THAN YOU ARE NOW???????
Am I stating that the above lifts are all that should be done by all trainees?
Absolutely not, but I am trying to illustrate that you don’t need to do a lot
of different lifts to get big all over, and lets face it. Complete development
isn’t what most people lack; it’s adequate mass that most folks lack, plain and
simple. Some people can truly tolerate no more training than the above lifts
and grow. Many can do LOTS more productively but most people on a percentile
basis fall at the low end of the recovery scale and should train accordingly.
Let’s dive into some routines and take a look at what productive training for
real people is, not the BULLSHIT hype you see in the bodybuilding magazines
that ONLY works for genetic marvels doing more growth enhancing pharmaceuticals
than you will ever dream of doing.
Here is Peary Radar’s (former publisher of Iron-Man magazine) favorite routine
for people that just could not gain on any type of expanded routine. Don’t just
dismiss this as an asinine routine that couldn’t provide any tangible results
because of its brevity. I have trained a few EXTREME hard-gainers that gained
NOTHING until they were put on a routine such as this. And once done, they put
on 20 lbs bodyweight in a short amount of time. These were people that had
gained NOTHING in years of training the conventional way.
Day one:
Squat
Bench press
Row
This is repeated 3-7 days later depending on recovery.
A more balanced routine for the average
person is along the lines of this:
Day one:
Squat
Stiff-legged Deadlift
Pull-up or Pull-down
Barbell Curl
Day Two:
Bench Press or Incline Press
Dip
Military Press
Abs
Training Days are regulated by recovery ability, NOT the calendar. As long as
the weights are going up all is well, if not add rest days. For most people a
Tuesday/Friday schedule works, but again, if it doesn’t it means you need to
insert rest days.
Here is a three day rotation done either with one days rest between days one
and two and two days after day three (three days a week) or with 2 days rest
between each training day, which makes it a 9 day rotation. By the way I have
NEVER had anyone on a 9 day rotation that didn’t make ASTOUNDING GAINS! I have
had people that respond better to the once a week format, and all things being
equal, the more frequently you can train, the faster your results will be. BUT,
and this is the big BUT, training before you have recovered is COMPLETELY
USELESS and forcing the issue to get more growth periods will not work.
Day one:
Bench Press or Dip
Close grip bench press
Military or dumbbell press
Day two:
Squat
Deadlift
Calf Raise
Heavy Abs
Day three:
Pull-up or pull-down
Bent Row, Dumbell Row, or Hammer Row
Barbell or Dumbell Curl
Hammer Curl
Here are a couple of full body routines, These are not very popular anymore but
if you can productively get through them and are able to tolerate only being in
the gym every 4-7 days they can work WONDERS.
Workout one:
Squat
Row
Bench press
Dumbbell press
Abs
Workout two done 4-7 days later
Deadlift
Pull-up
Dip
Military press
Abs
Here is Mike Mentzer’s final H.I.T. incarnation out of “Heavy Duty II, Mind and
Body. It is VERY similar to the routine Mike had me doing when he was training
me personally. After each day training there are THREE FULL DAYS REST! Not
enough training you say? Well I NEVER failed to go up on weight or reps or both
while doing it. The size gains did not always follow the strength gains as much
as I would have liked but in retrospect I was not eating anywhere enough
protein at the time and was on a fairly low gear dose. I can HIGHLY recommend
this routine for anyone with enough balls to buck traditions and give it an
honest shot.
Workout A Flat Dumbell Flies Super Setted with Incline Press Close Grip, Palms Down
Pull Down Reguar Deadlift
Workout B Leg Extension Super Setted with Squats Calf Raise
Workout C Dumbell Laterals Bent Over Dumbell Laterals Curl (Straight Bar)
Tricep Pressdown Super Setted with Dips
Workout D Leg Extension (static hold2) Super Setted1 with Leg Press Calf Raise
Here is Doggcrap’s (A 295 lbs wall of a man that is a very successful personal
trainer and who will probably make a BIG splash in BB circles soon) I did a
copy-paste because I’m lazy, but it will give you the idea. ALL Dogg’s training
principles are SPOT-ON and if it doesn’t work for you all that need be changed
is frequency and for some people only doing mostly strait sets instead of
rest-pause. ALL body-parts are trained with ONE SET ONLY, performed in
rest-pause fashion.
DAY ONE
CHEST
SHOULDERS
TRICEPS
BACK WIDTH
BACK THICKNESS
DAY TWO
BICEPS
FOREARMS
CALVES
HAMSTRINGS
QUADS
DAY THREE OFF
DAY FOUR-REPEAT CHEST DAY ONE AND SEQUENCE BUT WITH TOTAL DIFFERENT EXERCISES
DAY FIVE-REPEAT DAY TWO AND SEQUENCE WITH TOTAL DIFFERENT EXERCISES
DAY SIX OFF
DAY SEVEN-REPEAT DAY ONE AND SEQUENCE WITH TOTAL DIFFERENT EXERCISES THAN DAY
ONE AND FOUR
DAY EIGHT --REPEAT DAY TWO AND SEQUENCE WITH TOTAL DIFFERENT EXERCISES THEN DAY
TWO AND FIVE
Example Day one
First exercise smythe incline presses (ill use the weights i use for example)
135 for warmup for 12--185 for 8 warmup--225 for 6-8 warmup-----then 375 for 8
reps to total absolute failure (then 12-15 deep breaths) 375 for 2-4 reps to
total absolute failure (then 12-15 deep breaths) 375 for 1-3 reps to absolute
total failure (then a 20-30 second static hold) DONE!--that’s it 375lbs for
8+4+3= 375 for 15 reps rest paused..... next week I go for 385 (again rest
paused)-----directly after that rest pause set I go to extreme stretching flyes
as described earlier in this post and that’s it for chest and on to shoulders,
triceps and back........the next day I come in to do chest would be day 4 and I
would do hammer flat presses in the same rest paused manner (and then extreme
stretching again)---the next day i come in to do chest is day seven and I would
do my third favorite exercise rest paused and then the cycle repeats.
Three chest workouts in nine days with low
enough volume to recover in between workouts and high enough intensity and load
to grow rapidly--my workouts last an hour—I’m doing one exercise for one all
out balls to the wall rest pause set (i dont count warmups only the working
set) ---so in simple terms I am using techniques with extreme high intensity
(rest pause) which i feel make a persons strength go up as quickly as possible
+ low volume so i can (recover) as quickly as possible with as many growth
phases (damage/remodel/recover)I can do in a years time.
Dogg’s philosophy is correct except that people with average genetics will have
to spread things out a LOT more to recover in time. Here is a Iron Addict/Dogg
style routine I am currently using. It is a 9 day rotation for each three
workouts.
Bench
Dips
1 Arm Upright Row
Neck Work
Day Two
Shrugs
Pull-Ups
Bent Row
Hammer Curls
Day Three
Glute Ham Raise
Leg Extensions
Squats
Abs
Day One, Week Two
Incline Dumbbell Press/BP
Incline Fly
Lateral Raises
Tricep Push Downs
Day Two, Week Two
Pull-ups/Downs, Vary Grip Every Wk
Dumbbell Curls
Reverse Curls
Rack-Pulls
Day Three, Week Two
Hanging Leg Raises
Resistance abs
Hammer Leg Curl
Leg Extension
Leg Press
Most lifts done for one set each, either strait sets to failure or rest-pause
EXTREME stretching is key to DC’s training protocol. Here is a summary of some
of the stretches done:
DC's stretching methods:
chest=flat
bench 90lb dumbbells chest high--lungs full of air--first 10 seconds drop down
into deepest stretch and then next 50 seconds really push the stretch (this
really really hurts) but do it faithfully and come back in this message board
in 4 weeks and tell me if your chest isn't much fuller and rounder
triceps-seated on a flat bench-my back up against the barbell---75lb
dumbbell in my hand behind my head (like in an overhead dumbbell
extension)--sink dumbbell down into position for the first 10 seconds and then
an agonizing 50 seconds slightly leaning back and pushing the dumbbell down
with the back of my head
shoulders-this one is tough to describe--put barbell in squat rack
shoulder height--face away from it and reach back and grab it palms up (hands
on bottom of bar)---walk yourself outward until you are on your heels and the
stretch gets painful--then roll your shoulders downward and hold for 60 seconds
biceps--just like the above position but hold barbell palms down now
(hands on top of bar)--sink down in a squatting position first and if you can
hack it into a kneeling position and then if you can hack that sink your butt
down--60 seconds--I cannot make it 60 seconds--i get to about 45--its too
painful--if you can make it 60 seconds you are either inhuman or you need to
raise the bar up another rung
back--honestly for about 3 years my training partner and I would hang a
100lb dumbbell from our waist and hung on the widest chinup bar (with wrist
straps) to see who could get closest to 3 minutes--I never made it--I think 2
minutes 27 seconds was my record--but my back width is by far my best
bodypart--i pull on a doorknob or stationary equipment with a rounded back now
and its way too hard too explain here--just try it and get your feel for it
hamstrings--either leg up on a high barbell holding my toe and trying to force
my leg straight with my free hand for an excruciating painful 60 seconds or another
exercise I could only show people and not type here
quads--facing a barbell in a power rack about hip high --grip it and
simultaneously sink down and throw your knees under the barbell and do a sissy
squat underneath it while going up on your toes. Then straighten your arms and
lean as far back as you can---60 seconds and if this one doesn't make you hate
my guts and bring tears to your eyes nothing will---do this one faithfully and
tell me in 4 weeks if your quads don’t look a lot different than they used to
calves--my weak bodypart that i couldn’t get up too par until 2 years
ago when i finally thought it out and figured out how to make them grow (with
only one set twice a week too) I don’t need to stretch calves after because
when i do calves I explode on the positive and take 5 seconds to get back to
full stretch and then 15 seconds at the very bottom "one one thousand, two
one thousand, three one thousand etc" --15 seconds stretching at the
bottom thinking and trying to flex my toes toward my shin--it is absolutely
unbearable and you will most likely be shaking and want to give up at about 7
reps (I always go for 12reps with maximum weights)--do this on a hack squat or
a leg press--my calves have finally taken off due to this and caught up to the
rest of me thank God.
Here is a modified Westside Barbell routine that worked very well for me when I
was power lifting. Westside Barbell’s system calls for a max effort day (one
for bench, one for squats/deads) where you work up to a single in an assistance
exercise that closely resembles the lifts themselves, examples are.
Bench Assistance:
close grip bench
floor press
board press
rack press
incline press
Squat/deadlift Assistance:
good mornings
low box squat
good morning squat
dead lift off pins
safety bar squat
The max effort work is followed by assistance work for reps using exercises
like tricep extensions, close grips for reps, tricep pushdowns, glute/ham
raises, reverse hypers, front squats, pullthroughs, various lat and shoulder work,
various sled dragging. Their repertoire of assistance work is long and varied.
Max effort exercises are rotated every two weeks for intermediates and every
week for advanced trainees. Rep assistance work is rotated as needed. The one
constant with this system is change. Very few workouts are ever the same.
Another day a week (again one day for bench, one day for squats/deads) is
dedicated to "speed" work. The speed work is done by using a
percentage of you max squat or bench and moving the weight as fast as possible
to build explosive strength. The percentage varies but is in the 45-65% range.
Thus a 400 lb bencher using 55% would do his sets with 220. The sets for bench
are 3 reps as fast as possible. The idea is to try and generate 400 or more pounds
of force on the bar by moving as fast as possible. For squats sets of 2 reps
are done. 9-12 sets are done for both squat and bench. The squats are all done
off a box set at below parallel. Regular squats are only done at the meet. Both
days various assistance work for reps are done. The focus is always on weak
points.
As you can see the schedule has one training four days a week, benching twice,
and squatting twice. Louis gym, Westside Barbell has produced over 20 550 +
benchers and 20 something 800 + squatters. Louis himself made a 920 lb squat
this year at age 52! Westside and its methods have dominated power lifting for
years now. Obviously Louis has a lot of talent at his disposal, and well I’m
not that talented. Training squats and bench twice a week over trained me
pretty bad. I did a recommended 9 week routine pretty much verbatim, and when
that didn’t work I reduced the volume some while sticking with the 4 day
schedule. No dice. Knowing I over train easy even while on gear, and also
knowing Westside techniques had merit, I simply went to benching one day doing
max effort work first, followed by speed work and then assistance exercises.
Same for squats. I do back/bi on the third training day.
both speed and max effort day you also do assistance exercises so it's not just
a 50/50 split. Here is an example of a bench and squat w/o. It takes me an hour
to and hour and 15 minutes to get through usually.
Bench:
3 board press. Work up to a max single
speed bench using 60% of shirtless max 9 sets of 3
tricep extensions
tricep pushdown
lateral raise
Squat/Deadlift
good mornings work up to a max single (Louis recommends doing some form of good
mornings 60-70% of the time for max effort work. Many variations are done.
Speed squat 9 sets of 2
Glute ham raise
reverse hyper
I do back/bi and abs on a third day of the week.
Let me emphasize this is NOT how Louis lays out his programs. He insists that
speed and max effort work be done on separate days of the week. As mentioned in
the previous post I attempted that and overtrained badly so modified it to suit
my needs. IT WORKED ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. I ADDED WEIGHT EVERY WORKOUT (except
speed work) TO ALMOST EVERY EXCERCISE! The downside of it was it really tore my
joints up bad and if your joints are not very robust you may have problems.
I could go on and list a hundred variations of productive routines for the
AVERAGE person (not genetic freaks that can get away with training that kills
Joe average) but I will leave you with this. The average person should NEVER
train more than three days a week. IT JUST DOESN’T LEAVE ENOUGH OF THE BODIES
RESOURCES LEFT FOR RECOVERY. DO NOT POST THAT IT WORKS WONDERS FOR YOU BECAUSE
ALL YOU ARE STATING IS THAT YOU HAVE ABOVE AVERAGE GENETICS. MOST PEOPLE FALL
FLAT ON THEIR FACES TRAINING FOUR OR MORE DAYS A WEEK AND STAY DOWN AS LONG AS
THEY PERSIST TRAINING THAT FREQUENTLY.
You will note I didn’t list how many sets to do nor how many reps, nor if they
should only be to failure, or use intensity enhancing techniques such as
rest-pause, super-sets, etc. Here is the quick answer.
If you are capable of training with intensity one set AFTER warm-ups to failure
is all that is needed. And as an example if you were going to squat 405 for 10
reps your warm-ups might look like this:
Free Weight Squat 20, 135 x 10, 225 x 8, 315 x 5, 365 x 3, 405 x 10
The 405 x 10 would be your single work set and if you do it correctly there is
damn sure no need to do more. If you cannot generate much intensity doing two
work sets will work fine, but will give you more to recover from. If you need
to do more than two WORK SETS per lift your just being a pussy and should stay
home.
Intensity enhancing techniques can be used productively by many people but
should be used sparingly by most people and ONLY in conjunction with a very
abbreviated program. If you do a search by “Iron Addict” you will find articles
that cover these types of details.
Let me say that if you always err on the side of doing to little you are
probably on the right track. Everyone can grow well on very abbreviated routine
and the more you push your ability to recover the less your actual results will
be. If your training is correct you will add weight or reps or both EVERY time
you hit the gym until you are VERY advanced.
20 Rep Squat Variations
High rep squatting is one of the fastest ways to add some serious size to your
wheels and also to make your body as a whole more efficient at adding muscle to
your whole frame by becoming more “metabolically efficient”. Twenty rep squats
have a long tradition dating back to the 40’s as being the number one thing you
can do to make your whole body break-out with new growth. They have been
traditionally done by taking a weight that you BARELY make the tenth rep with
and then, instead of racking the bar, rest-pause (rest and breath) for JUST
long enough to get a couple more reps, then a couple more, and again and again
until the full twenty have been completed. To say this is brutal is a huge
understatement.
Unless you have actually tried it with your
true 10 rep max weight that you get 20 reps with, you really have no idea what
hard training can be like. While the above described method is the tried and
true method of performing 20 rep squats I have been experimenting with a
variation that may be even a better method for many people to get the most out
of their high rep squatting. Heresy you say! Maybe, but read on, it may make
sense when your done reading.
Let me first state that probably only 3 out of 10 people doing 20 rep squats
actually do them with maximal weight. Why? Because it hurts so damn bad! Once
you start the set there is truly no break from the pain, and a correctly
performed set will take from 3-5 minutes to complete. There are three ways
people reach failure doing these.
- Muscular
failure.
- Failure
of the cardio-vascular system. In effect your breathing becomes so labored
the set is terminated because of oxygen starvation.
- Cumulative
pain failure. This means the combined effect of muscular fatigue, cardio fatigue,
and the pain itself cause the trainee to terminate the set. THIS USUALLY
OCCURS BEFORE ACTUAL MUSCULAR FATIGUE TAKES PLACE! While this is not
necessarily a bad thing, most people could use a little help pushing
harder, and even if you go all out, here is a way to go even farther.
Since it’s usually cumulative pain that causes one to terminate the set it
makes sense to try to reduce the portion of the set that provides little
muscular stimulation, yet contributes to the overall pain that often causes one
to rack the bar with many reps left in them. Let’s dissect the set a little to
see where we run into trouble. After about ten reps (if the weight is correct)
you need to stop and rest (like it’s actually rest with the heavy-ass bar on
your back) and breath long enough to eke out a few more reps. Anyone that has
done it can tell you that with a belt on tight and a heavy load on the bar,
breathing is a pure nightmare. While the lower back/midsection is statically
contracting the whole time and does contribute to overall work performed, it’s
not really the work we are setting out to do with the squats. I’d just as soon
save the lower back for a set of stiff-legged deadlifts or rack-pulls.
Now here comes the heresy. What if, instead of doing the rest-pause with the
bar on your back you rack it and take some REAL deep breaths instead of the
half-breaths you get with the bar on your back? Am I suggesting you make it
more like two or three sets done with little rest? NO WAY! I am suggesting you
only leave it racked about the same amount of time you would hold it on your
back. In fact, because you can take DEEP unrestrained breaths you may find your
rest periods are even shorter than it would be with the bar on your back.
The key to not making this a wimp set that
is semi-comfortable is to time yourself doing a 20 rep set without racking the
bar, and then not allowing your racked-set squats to exceed this time, or at
least not exceed it by more than 30 seconds. Another excellent variation is to
set a time limit of 3-4 minutes and make sure you get at least 20 reps in the
allotted time period. And the next time you hit the gym, add weight and DON’T
exceed the same time period. Having the luxury of training a lot of people I
get to see real world results of what works and what doesn’t.
I have never seen a properly applied low
volume program using 20 rep squats (or deadlifts) as the cornerstone fail. But
I have noted many people didn’t make the progress I thought they should have.
In discussing it with them it seemed they might be holding back on the squats
because of the pain factor. I simply had them rack the bar during the
rest-pauses and all of a sudden they are in many cases using 25-75 lbs more for
squats and overall progress goes through the roof. Is this bastardizing the
time tried 20 rep squat method? Maybe, but quite frankly I care much more about
results than tradition. Having a trainee go from 280 x 20 to 330 x 20 in the
course of one or two sessions and having them always reach their 20 reps is a great
trade off for me.
It’s all to common for folks to bail at rep
17 or so because of the pain of the bar on their back and inability to breath.
This happens WAY less with the rack-set method. And if you are one of those
that TRULY already take your sets to the limit, you will be moving MUCH more
weight with less low back stress and probably much better results. Give it a
shot and post your results. You might just surprise yourself.
Staying the Course
I know what the vast majority of you are thinking after reading the above
routines as the same thoughts played out in my mind after first being exposed
to hardgainer type routines. I also have heard the same objections countless
times from those that I have trained. It usually goes something like, well that
works ok for my X (insert body-part(s) that you either don’t like to train (or
don’t care much about) but what about my upper chest, or lower quads, or inner
back etc.
Having been only exposed to the training
theories that espouse the necessity of "hitting the muscle from all angles
to ensure complete development" the average trainee assumes it necessary
to do many movements in order to completely stimulate growth. What is not taken
in to account with this line of reasoning is that NO GROWTH WILL OCCUR IF YOU
ARE CHRONICALLY OVER TRAINED.
Until you can bench with 115% of bodyweight
for 6-8 reps, Squat with 150% of bodyweight for 15-20 reps, and deadlift with
200% of bodyweight for 15-20 reps, lacking development of the inner head of the
bicep, or the outer thigh or whatever bodypart is IRRELEVANT. Some extreme
Hardgainers may never reach these goals, and some may find they are not
structurally suited for one of these movements, but you must at least be IN THE
BALL-PARK BEFORE ANY THOUGHT OF WORKING ON DETAILS BECOMES AN ISSUE.
Think about this for a moment; how big would you have to be ALL OVER if you
could: Bench 115% of bodyweight for 8 strict reps.
Do pullups with bodyweight + 35-50 lbs strapped to your waist for 6 reps.
Overhead press your bodyweight strict.
Squat 150% of your bodyweight for 20 reps.
Perform bent-legged deadlifts with 200% of your body-weight for 20 reps.
You would be FAR stronger than 95% of the trainees you will ever encounter. And
what part of the body would be lacking in development? Simple, none! And if
minor imbalances do occur, these can be rectified once you are big and strong
all over. All this can and MUST be accomplished without doing endless isolation
movements to ensure the muscle is worked from all angles. You must first get as
big as possible before worrying about the details, and for many the
"details" may be an impossibility due to lack of recovery ability.
But what would you rather be? A detailed weak bag of bones or an impressive
physique lacking in minor refinement?
Probably the best way to ensure continued adherence to proper training
techniques are:
Don't do what so many do when first exposed to abbreviated training, that is
admit to themselves it makes sense, yet fail to give it a try. Many even begin
to incorporate it yet because of perceived weak areas of their physique
(usually all areas) add so many sets and exercises that they outstrip their
bodies ability to recuperate. TRY ONE OF THE TWO DAY A WEEK ROUTINES ABOVE FOR
AT LEAST 60 DAYS WITH AN OPEN MIND AND YOU WILL NEVER GO BACK TO YOUR OLD
ROUTINES THAT DON'T WORK. RESULTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.
Shield yourself from negativity concerning your newfound knowledge of correct
training for your body type. This is best accomplished by training at home in
your own gym. If this is not feasible for space or economic reasons, simply do
your best to not be influenced by those training "like the pros" and
making no progress. Or worst yet, those with great genetics and/or using
steroids. I cannot count the times in the past when training in a commercial
gym that someone (usually weighing about 140) would tell me doing warm-up then
one work set each of squats and deadlifts couldn't be enough. I actually had a
guy tell me I needed to do some leg extensions and leg curls to
"finish" my legs after a 310 x 20 squat set. The fact that I could
barely walk or that he never gains (he leg presses about 350 for 6) probably
never occurred to him, and it sure didn't keep him from opening his mouth.
Don't fall prey to this type of negativity that derails many that could have
taken the fast path to success instead of the road to nowhere.
Subscribe to Hardgainer Magazine, a bi-monthly magazine devoted to the training
needs of the average trainee. I also heartily recommend buying the books
"Brawn" and "Beyond Brawn" available at the Hardgainer
Site. This will provide you with generous amounts of reality based training
instruction as opposed to the garbage most people are exposed to in the gym and
in popular training literature.
The above is highlighted to hopefully jolt you into developing the mindset of
training according to your body type and instead of the "training of the
pros". Be a weight-training success!
One set to failure Vs Multiple Sets
Here is a brief summary of some of the benefits of one-set-to-failure training:
1. Increases Recovery Ability
One set to failure training drastically increases your ability to recover from
your workouts. Think about it: if you currently doing a brief warm-up followed
by two all out sets for a given exercise and then you reduce your workload to
one all out set you will have effectively reduced the volume of work sets by 50
percent. Do this for all your movements and you will dramatically increase your
ability to recover from your workouts. Increased recovery ability will produce
more muscle over time.
2. Increased Effort Level
One set to failure training allows you to truly go out all out on a movement.
Knowing that you will have but one chance, or set to get the job done, you will
probably find yourself training at an intensity level you never knew existed!
There is something about the focus of going into a set knowing that this is the
only opportunity to stimulate gains. If you’re doing two sets of an exercise it’s
hard to go all out on the first one knowing you still have one of another one
to do.
And once you’ve done the first set almost
all out, it's hard to really go all the way out one the second. A little
psychological trick that I use on myself and anyone I train is, if you bail on
the set before giving it your all, there is no make-up set! If someone loses
their concentration, or starts to waiver and racks the bar before failure is
reached, he can’t do another set! You can bet if he cares about his training he
will do this only once or twice, realizing he had his chance to make progress,
and now will have to wait until the next session for wherever movement in just
blew-off.
3. Permits More Variety
Pay attention all of you who are sure your favorite (or lagging) muscle needs
more work: One set the failure training allows for more variety in your
workouts while still keeping the volume low enough to allow for recovery. We
all have a limited amount of resources (recovery ability) to use in training.
Using myself as example I found that in order to make good progress I can do a
maximum of 6-8 work sets during the course of a workout; and I know I do even
better doing only three to five hard sets. Knowing this I can budget myself to
do a maximum of two heavy sets of three exercise or six different exercise of
one set each.
This added variety can spark both enthusiasm and muscular
gains. Prior to going to one set to failure workouts I did not have the
recovery ability to train complex muscle groups such as Chest and Back with
more than one exercise each. Now, using chest as an example, I can do one set
of dips and one set of incline dumbbell or barbell presses to help with an
underdeveloped upper chest. While this doesn't give Hardgainers the ability to
"specialize" on all muscle groups like the volume routines do, it
does allow one to hit a lagging area and still keep volume low enough to for
optimum growth.
The Downside, is one set enough?
One set to failure training, like all training methods has downsides, and isn’t
applicable to every trainee or goals, but for those interested in maximum
bodybuilding gains, the upside far ways the downside. Here are some potential
problems to watch out for:
1. Insufficient Effort
Not everyone is willing to train to all-out failure. Oh sure, many people will
grunt and grimace, and put on a good show, but most of them dump the bar with a
few reps still left in them. But if the set is not all out, all you will have
done is one wishy-washy set. Do you really think one weakly set will make you
grow? I think not!
2. Possible Problem with Low Reps
One set the failure training tends to work better with higher reps. If you
training is based on sets of 5, 3’s and occasional maximum singles, you may
find one set is not enough. Although many elite power lifters might disagree,
as many power lifting routines are often compromised of a brief warm-up
followed by progressively heavier singles until a final (almost max) single is
completed.
3. Dealing with Nay Sayers
You'll have to listen to people don't know any better tell you that you not
doing enough. THIS IS THE SINGLE BIGGEST OBSTACLE TO OVERCOME FOR MOST PEOPLE.
Don’t worry about what other people think. Try hardgainer strategies along with
single set training for at least three months and you will never go back to
volume routines and probably never look the same again!
4. Unsuitability for some
Some trainees will make better progress in multiple set routines. Everyone is
different has unique response to training and with a different types of
routines. Nonetheless, the best results will always be achieved by doing in the
minimal amount of training that stimulates growth. For most trainees, one set
for exercise will do the trick.
Making one set training work
This is really simple and should be self explanatory:
Unless you are able and willing to train until complete failure (and sometimes
beyond), you will not achieve the results you are seeking. Doing a half-hearted
set and dumping the bar when it starts to get uncomfortable will not produce
the growth stimulus for increases in size and strength. If you do not have the
mentality to go all-out until there's no way to get another rep even if your
life depended on it you will probably find it beneficial to add a second work
set. Don't take this as cart blanch to add sets and reduce find another
training protocol, and expect decreased results. Best results are achieved when
training as intensely as possible while doing as few sets of possible.
Factors of success
1. Find the training volume and frequency that works for you and train
within these limits. Don't waste your time trying to do a routine that has you
doing too much, too frequently. Even though this is one of the most basic of
the Hardgainer principles of effective training I am convinced even many
readers of Hardgainer do programs that are well above the optimum level for
best gains. The average Hardgainer cannot work on detail and size at the same
time. Concentrate on getting strong in the big movements. Who cares if your rear
delt, or outer thigh (or whatever) isn't up to par? All this means nothing if
you aren't already big and strong.
2. Find the diet requirements that must be fulfilled in order for you to
make gains. Be methodical, write down everything you eat for a few weeks and
get a book listing calories, fat, protein and carbs. Go over your diet, are you
really getting enough nutrition to pack on the muscle?
3. Getting enough protein is crucial for growth. Are your needs
fulfilled? I found out by counting grams of protein consumed per day over the
course of a couple of cycles that I need at least 400 grams of protein a day,
and do better on about 450. Consuming any more than 550 doesn't seem to have
any more effect. This is a lot of protein, more than I can comfortably consume
eating plain food. I need a protein supplement to get the proper amount.
This is very important, look at it this
way; lets assume the trainee is working at the proper frequency and duration
for himself. His caloric intake is sufficient, he makes sure he is getting
enough rest, and isn't draining himself with outside the gym activities that
would cut into his ability to grow. All is well except he needs 425 grams of
protein a day to grow on but is consistently only getting 225-250, what happens?
Nothing, and by nothing I mean no gains. This is exactly how it works for me.
As long as my intake is above 400 grams per day all is well, much below that
and I can kiss any potential gains goodbye. Your requirements may be much
higher or lower, only you can determine that. The important thing is finding
the level that your body needs and consistently providing yourself with this
amount. I often wonder where I would be today, had I not discovered this
important key.
4. With training less is more, as far as nutrition goes more is usually
better. Without getting carried away, make sure your body has all the nutrients
it needs in abundance. In most cases, the average person that is having a
difficult time trying to gain size and strength is not consuming enough
wholesome foods/supplements, pure and simple. As long as you aren't getting fat
it's probably beneficial to let a little fat come along when adding muscle.
Beware of the mega huge calorie weight
gainers, for most people they are more appropriately termed the mega huge waist
gainer. I'm not saying weight gain type supplements are useless, but for most
people adding a couple of 2000 calorie liquid meals a day will make one fat
very fast indeed. Be moderate, I almost always use a weight gain type supplement.
But I use a 1000 calorie drink and break it up into two servings of 500
calories each. This combined with one or two low calorie milk or egg type
drinks of 200-250 calories provides the additional carbs, calories and protein
necessary when training at high intensity levels.
5. As far as supplements go stick to the basics. A good protein, or
carb/protein mix and a good vitamin mineral mix is absolute minimum anyone
should be taking. THE NUTRITION SECTION OF THIS MANUAL IS NOT COMPLETE AND IS A
SMALL BOOK IN ITSELF. I WILL RELEASE IT SOON!
6. Train for strength in the power lifts, this statement is intended for
those that are more focused on bodybuilding, (the power lifters reading this
already know) spend the majority of your time focused on the big lifts, using
the rep range that suits you best. It doesn't make any difference if you want
to be a power lifter or not, the three power lifts are the answer for overall
size and strength gains for all who use them. Of course there are some that
aren't structurally suited for these movements. For those people good
substitutes must be found. No matter what, you must be doing one of the big
full body movements if you expect to make real progress. Can't squat? Focus on
the deadlift. Can't deadlift? Try the Trap Bar deadlift, or heavy dumbbell
deadlifting. Maybe give a Squat Machine or Hammer Leg Presses a try. Just make
sure you are doing at least one of the big full body movements. Without them,
most Hardgainers are doomed to failure.
7. Have a sound cycling strategy that works for you mentally, as well as
physically. To a certain extent your training should fit your personality as
well as your physical structure. If you are someone that thrives on change it
probably won't do you much good to set up a six or eight-month cycle with a
very slow progression on movements that you don't plan on changing until cycles
end. If your just the opposite and are the type that likes to do things the
same way all the time and are blessed with a generous amount of patients, the
long slow cycle may be well suited for you.
8. Always keep a training diary. It’s much easier to figure out how to
get where your going if you know where you've been. Not only should your
training diary list what you have done, it should also have a list of goals and
planned progression for your next training cycle. Look where you are headed.
You will have a much better chance of getting to your goals if they have been
written out and you have spent some time coming up with a strategy that will
work for you, don't just copy a program out of a magazine and follow it
blindly.
9. Safety is of the utmost importance, if you are injured you cannot
train. It doesn't make any difference if you have the perfect routine, the best
diet and all the rest you need, if you get injured and can't train all these
factors are meaningless.
10. Ultimately how big and strong you can get depends on your genetics.
Never let anyone tell different. What will make you successful, or not, is how
well you are able to make the best of what you have, and then, most importantly
how well you accept your limitations. Don't fall into the trap of comparing
yourself with others, especially drug using genetic superiors. This will only
lead to frustration and grief. I have almost too many structural faults to
count, and even after building up to some fair poundage's and bodyweight am
dwarfed by competitive top level bodybuilders. Yet I am a great success. Why?
because I believe I am. Believe in yourself, enjoy your achievements. Compare
yourself to when you started lifting, or to where you were before your last
cycle, not to others. Then you will be one of weight training's true success
stories.
More Nuances
Levels of Intensity
As most board members know I advocate low volume high intensity style training
as being the best method to go about gaining strength and size. I get a lot of
questions about just how hard one should train and what high intensity methods
are most suitable so I figured it was time to discuss just what “high intensity”
means. Here are some of the more common ways to do a set:
Regular training, not to failure
This is perhaps the most used (and abused) method in popular use today. It
consists of lifting a weight using from 3-25 reps (6-12 being most common) and
terminating the set before actual failure occurs. Failure being defined as
taking the set to a point where another rep is absolutely impossible to do no
matter how hard one tries using good form. Regular not to failure training is
what is practiced by almost all people doing volume type training. The simple
fact is that there is no way in hell someone can do 9-20 sets a bodypart to
failure. Isn’t going to happen.
While this type of training is the method
that is mostly used by the pro’s and is very much a part of their success, it
is also the method that is most responsible for all the “failures” that end up
quitting bodybuilding because it simply doesn’t work for them. While doing
these many, many sets growth is certainly stimulated, however it is never allowed
to happen because doing that much work on a too frequent schedule leaves
nothing left of the trainee’s recuperative ability to actually grow on. In
effect the body is caught in a vicious cycle of always just trying to “catch up”
and never has a chance to devout resources to growing.
Training to failure
This method is done by taking a weight and lifting until another rep is
absolutely impossible to do in good form. If you look around you in gyms you
will see many people that on the surface appear to be training to failure, but
truth be told, most of them are grimacing and looking the part when they have
MANY reps left in them. The bar is usually racked when it starts to hurt too
bad. Truly taking a set to absolute positive failure is damn hard work and is
all that is needed by most people, most of the time.
Beyond failure training
Here are a few, but definitely not all types of beyond failure training:
1. Forced reps. These are done by having your spotter give you enough of
a spot to get the weight to the contracted position so it can be lowered under
control again.
2. Static contractions. While these can be done all by there self prior
to reaching failure, a common use is to reach failure and then get a spot, and
proceed to hold the bar in the contracted position until it can’t be held
anymore and S-L-O-W-L-Y is lowered all the way down.
3. Super-sets. To do a super-set in beyond failure fashion, an isolation
movement for the target muscle is done to failure, and then IMMEDIATELY with no
rest, a compound movement is preformed. Examples include flyes immediately
followed by bench presses. Lateral raises immediately followed by dumbbell or
military presses. Leg extensions immediately followed by squats. The idea is to
be able to take the muscle past the point at which failure was reached by
having other muscles assist.
4. Rest/pause. The prime example here would be 20 rep squats where you
take a weight that you can do a max set of 10-12 with, and at the point where
another rep would be impossible, instead of racking the bar you rest/breath
long enough to get another rep, and another and so-on until all 20 have been
completed. Rest/pause can be used with almost any lift. Some lifts can be done
while holding the bar, and others it is perfectly acceptable to drop the bar
while “resting” long enough to get another couple reps. A great rest/pause
format is to hit failure at 8, and the get 2 more, then 2 more, then 2, then 1.
5. Drop/strip sets. These are done by doing a set to failure, then
IMMEDIALY stripping some weights or grabbing another lighter bar or set of
dumbbells and doing more reps, and then sometimes repeating again.
As you can see there are lots of ways to lift a weight to or past failure. What
works best? Well no one can argue that a set must be taken to failure to be
productive and growth producing. The only problem with this method is since the
intensity is so low lots of sets are usually done to stimulate growth and lots
of sets = overtraining for the vast majority of trainees. Regular to positive
failure training when done with real intensity and not stopped when the set
gets tough, but TRULY taken to failure is just the ticket for MOST people.
If your sets are truly done to failure, how
many should be done? Well I can state unequivocally that one (after warm-ups)
is absolutely all you need to turn on the “growth mechanism”. Unfortunately
bodybuilders read bodybuilding magazines and read all about how the pro’s train
and falsely believe that a bunch of sets are needed… they are wrong! One or at
most two sets taken to positive failure are definitely all one needs to
stimulate growth. That said, what about all the other “beyond failure”
techniques? Are they needed? Will they make you grow better? Will they
overtrain you? Like all things bodybuilding related the answer is “it depends”,
and ‘sometimes” for some people.
If I could pick one that is most
productive, rest/pause would get the nod. It allows you to keep the same “heavy”
stress on the muscle throughout the set unlike some other techniques like drop
sets or super-sets. It’s easy to apply and you can do it in a crowded gym,
unlike trying to do for instance, a set of leg extensions followed by a set of
squats (try that in a crowded gym where the leg extension machine is half-way across
the gym from the squat rack!). And unlike forced reps it YOU lifting the
weight, not your spotter. And they also allow you to do as few or as many “after
failure” reps as you want.
Now comes the downside of HIT techniques. They WILL overtrain you if you insist
on doing a whole bunch of sets of them or too many exercises too frequently.
The plus side to this is done correctly they give you the absolute best chance
of stimulating growth in as short as time possible with as few lifts as
possible allowing you the best chance to recover and super compensate between
sessions. Should you incorporate beyond failure techniques? Yes, sometimes,
with some lifts. Unless you are a fairly easy gainer I would not have you doing
all your sets beyond failure, and even easy gainers do great just taking their
sets to failure. If you are a hardgainer I would strongly suggest only going to
positive failure (20 rep squats or deadlifts excepted) on your sets. If you
fall somewhere in-between I would suggest doing a few lifts rest-pause or
super-set fashion to see how you respond. BEWARE! IF YOU START MAKING GREAT
PROGRESS ON A COUPLE OF LIFTS LIKE THIS DON’T AUTOMATICALLY ASSUME DOING ALL
LIFTS LIKE THIS WILL ACCELERATE GAINS. IT WILL MORE LIKELY STOP ALL PROGRESS!
All this is written assuming you volume and frequency is low. Doing this type
of training on a 4-6 day a week schedule with three exercises per body-part
will fail 99% of those attempting it. If your training is not brief and
infrequent stick to regular sets stopped short of failure. If you want to try
something that REALLY works, cut your volume and frequency and TRAIN HARD!
Hope this clears up a few HIT questions.
The Rep Under a Looking Glass
The lowly rep gets taken for granted all to often in our quest for ever
increasing size and strength. It is the basic unit of work that makes up weight
training. Done correctly for the right number, the results are staggering. Done
improperly, each rep you do can potentially injure you and NOT significantly
contribute to your results. While we are all different here are some
generalities about rep speed and numbers.
Low Reps
When people spend time doing low reps, like 1-4 reps, they are generally
focusing on the strength component. Yes, some people build great size doing
reps this low, but for most people the time under tension (TUT) is too low to
significantly contribute to size gains. What? Don’t strength gains = size
gains? Well, yes and no. Strength gains using a rep range that is high enough
to keep the muscle loaded long enough to stimulate mass gains are what you are
looking for, but when you are only putting the muscle under a load lasting from
3-15 seconds you are primarily training the neural system to become more
efficient at “firing” the signal that tells your muscles to contract. These
high loads also help stimulate ligament and tendon growth.
Low-Medium Reps
In bodybuilding circles low reps are generally thought of as 5-8 reps. This rep
range works very well for strength, and size is also built as long as the reps
aren’t done too “fast”. This means that the weight is controlled throughout the
complete rep, i.e., it isn’t heaved up, and then allowed to drop during the
descent. Like all things bodybuilding/weight training related, some people
respond better than others to this rep range, some people build incredible size
doing 6-8 reps, and for others, mostly strength is built. This has a lot to do
with muscle fiber composition unique to the individual, but can also have a lot
to do with how the individual rep is performed. More on this to follow….
Medium-High Reps
Reps from 8-15 are what are traditionally done in bodybuilding to focus on size
at the expense of strength. It is the range most often used by people doing “volume”
training, and training for the pump. Because the time under tension is
increased this range works very well to help accrue mass. As we will see in a
minute any rep range other than very low reps can all be very effective at
stimulating size goals dependent on how they are performed.
High Reps
Most trainees do not do high reps that start at 15 and go up to 50 or even
more. This is a shame because depending on how they are completed they can be
absolutely the best way to go for some muscle groups, for some people. Legs
especially respond well to higher reps, as do some people’s muscle groups that
have primarily slow twitch fibers.
Now that rep ranges have been generically defined, what is the best way to do a
rep, and how many reps should a trainee do for optimal results? Big question,
and one that can’t be given as a blanket statement, but here are some
guidelines. First about rep speed, look around you in the gym and you will see
people practically throwing the weights and others lifting slowly and
controlled. If you take a look at the people throwing them and doing their
lifts in a very fast, uncontrolled fashion, one thing you will usually find as
a commonality with these people is that they are usually SMALL guys! Why is
this?
A few things come into play here. One of
the biggest reasons is that the eccentric portion (lowering the weight) of the
lift is the part of the lift that is primarily responsible for muscle
hypertrophy. The eccentric portion of the lift is the part that is responsible
for the muscle “damage” that occurs during training, and this is one of the
reasons your body adapts to the training load by “super-compensating”, i.e.,
getting bigger and stronger.
Guys that throw the weight up and allow it
to drop are TOTALLY cheating themselves of the portion of the lift that is most
responsible for the growth they are trying to accomplish. They are also not
exposing their muscles to sufficient time under tension for optimal growth.
Doing a set of 8 with a ½ second positive and ½ second negative exposes the
target muscle with about a total of 12 seconds loading by the time you take
into account the short pause at the top and bottom portion of the movement.
Remember that:
Weight x distance x speed = work completed
With this in mind it becomes abundantly clear that all reps are NOT created
equally!
Now do that same 8 rep set with a 2 second positive and 2 second negative and
you have about 32 seconds of loading, and a set that takes about 45-60 seconds
to perform counting pauses. Now you have something that will effectively load
the muscle, and keep it loaded for long enough to increase both size and
strength. This is an almost perfect speed for most trainees and is a still fast
enough to use serious weight, yet still slow enough to load the muscles long
enough for effective hypertrophy training.
Is two seconds up, 2 down the perfect way
to perform a rep? Not at all, but it does work very well for many people. For
pure strength training a slightly faster positive portion can be performed
while keeping the negative at 2 or three seconds works great. Of course you
need to keep in mind the range of motion of whatever exercise you are doing
will somewhat determine how long a rep takes. A calf-raise has a MUCH shorter
range of motion that say a deadlift, so again all lifts are not done at exactly
the same cadence.
What about going slower to increase the TUT? Is this the way to go? For pure
size gains I will state unequivocally YES! This is with the caveat that you
have the mental fortitude to do this type of training. Here is why the average
guy doesn’t do as well with 4-8 second eccentric reps. 1) They are forced to
use weights that don’t stoke the ego. It’s hard for the guy that is benching
250 for 6 to drop it to 200 for 8 slow reps. Makes him look bad in front of the
guys. Never mind that if you did the math (see the formula above) you would see
he was actually doing more work. 2) It HURTS doing reps this slow and the pain
factor simply makes most people cave-in before getting their work in.
So what are some good ways to increase TUT? Well you can increase the reps.
This works fine except for the fact that it forces you to use a lighter weight
thus reducing the actual load imposed on the target muscle. You can just do
more sets; this too increases the total overall time your muscles are loaded
for. The problem with this method is that once your training volume reaches a
certain threshold you have entered the city limits of over-training where no
growth is allowed within city limits. Alternatively you can do intensity enhancing
techniques such as drop sets, or rest/pause that among other things
significantly increase your TUT.
Drop sets work well for many people as they
allow you to take a weight and do your full allotment of reps using a nice
controlled rep speed, and then when you fail, instead of terminating the set
you immediately pick up a lighter weight and continue to do more reps.
The downsides to this are:
1) That
after the weight is dropped you are now lifting a lighter weight, thus the
weight load perceived by your muscles is lower.
2) Too
much beyond failure training tends to over-train many individuals. My favorite
way of increasing TUT aside from slowing down rep speed is rest/pause. Rest
pause is done by taking a weight you can get your target reps with, and then
when failure is reached instead of racking the bar, you rest/breath long enough
to get a couple more reps, then repeat the rest/breath sequence until your
target reps are completed.
Typically, the reps beyond failure are
about equal to how many reps you got on the first portion of the set taken to
failure. So if you got eight reps before hitting failure, you would then do 2
more, + 2 more, + 2 more, the 1 more making a total of 15 reps completed. One
great feature of rest/pause is that the same heavy weight is used throughout
the set. So you now took a weight you could only get 8 reps with, and instead
of racking it, you rest ONLY long enough to keep the set going. The downside to
rest/pause is that like any other beyond failure technique a little goes a long
ways and over-training will result for many people that do too many sets like
these. The classic 20 rep squat set is nothing more than a rest/pause set.
How many reps should you do? And how fast should you do them? I can’t tell you
that because your goals and body is unique to you and you alone. Here are some
general recommendations though. I almost always recommend 5-8 reps for bench
press. Why? Because every damn person I know wants a big bench, because for
some reason when the average person asks how much you can lift they are rarely
asking what you can squat or deadlift.
For legs most people do best on higher
reps. Again this is not universal, but most folks build bigger wheels with
higher reps. 10 as a minimum and as high as 50 works well. Do a all out set of
20 rest pause squats or 30 rep leg presses as your leg workout until you add a
couple hundred pounds to them and tell me your legs are not looking wicked. For
arm work I like to have the trainee do some work with lower reps (these don’t
necessarily have to be direct arm work either, heavy back work slams bi’s as
does heavy chest work slam tri’s) and some higher rep work to cover all bases.
If you are only doing strait sets, the old scheme of doing one low (5-8) rep
set and then doing a burnout set of 15-20 works well for many people. I like
people to train abs HEAVY with reps in the 10-15 rep range because if you want
a big squat and deadlift you gotta have STRONG abs.
Back work is usually done for mid-range reps. One constant I have seen is that
MOST people do VERY well on high reps for shoulders. I like 10 reps as a
minimum and eventually put most people on rest/pause for shoulders because…..well…it
just works for so many people. Any muscles that you are able to train to
failure, and then with minimal rest, (15-30 seconds) you are able to get 3-4
more reps with are usually prime candidates for high reps or EXTENDED
rest/pause sets. As far as rep speed goes a 1-1/2-2 second positive and 2-3
second negative is a good speed for most lifts, for most people. A little
faster is permissible on lower reps and a little slower sometimes for mid and
higher reps work wonders for many folks.
If you can successfully integrate 4-8
second negatives into your program you may be absolutely AMAZED at the growth
it produces, and after a short time you will probably find you are now doing
the same weights you were doing before at the higher cadence. To add precision
to your sets get a cheap wristwatch with a second timer. Now when you do say a
set of 10 reps time how long it took to perform these ten reps. Next week if
you add weight and are now doing the set in less time did you really accrue
strength? Probably not, all you did was decrease the loading by performing the
movement faster. Not what you wanted! All in all, everyone needs to do a little
bit of all rep speeds and ranges in the long run to see what works best for
them. But you already knew that huh!
