myseone

Here's and exercpt from my up and coming website:

Training Science


I'm a big believer in doing what's required to activate maximum muscle growth and body-fat, and then leaving the muscle alone so it can not only recover but also overcompensate (i.e. become more developed). Any training that does not allow for this is in my opinion largely a waste of time. In my own training and the many people that I have worked with, the vast majority responded more profoundly to optimal performance training (OPT) than any other form of training.


My training methods and overall philosophy has been influenced by the teachings of many people, most notable among these the training philosophies of Arthur Jones, Mike Mentzer (circa articles from the 1980's), Dr. Ken Lestiner, Stuart Mc Roberts, Perry Raider, Dr. Randell Strossen, Dorian Yates, Ellington Darden, John Little, Clarence Bass as well as many friends and acquaintances that I have had the pleasure to learn from and train with over the years.


The most effective muscle building body-fat burning program that I have come across to date is a juxtaposition of power lifting, Olympic lifting, and bodybuilding; there is a synergism between the burgeoning weight of power-lifting, the power and graceful methods of Olympic lifting, and the exercise and repetition choices of bodybuilding. Of course there has to be a balance been these three schools of lifting or the end result might not be what you intended, you must exercise specific to your goals. I have found through that when properly applied this method produces outstanding results in all who use it. I'm not implying that everyone can create a physique on par with the best natural athletes in the world, or become a supermodel, that kind of implication would be out of line, because everyone has a genetic limit to what they can achieve. Some people have more genetic material to work with so all things being the same will get farther than someone who is less genetically gifted (don't let anyone tell you other wise this is a basic truth of the universe until gene therapy becomes available to all). With that said the vast majority of us can create a level of physique development, conditioning, and strength that is way above the national average; the key is to optimize what you have and reduce the negative factors. If you do this you will literally see a result each and every time you train.


So far the vast majority of people who I have trained and advised have produced outstanding results in fitness. I don't say this to brag but instead to state that if certain key variable of fitness are applied properly you will produce results that you can be proud of. These results can be achieved without the use of performance enhancing drugs or excessive supplementation this is of course if you stick to the correct principles.


Like most people versed on the application of proper exercise (for building muscle, getting leaner, increasing power and speed, fitting your clothing better, increasing overall health and fitness, and building strength and endurance) I know that the best exercises for producing a training effect are the basic compound movements; these are:




The Squat (different stances barbell or smith machine),

The deadlift (different stances, styles, barbell, dumbbells, or smith machine),

The Bent over row (different angles, different styles, barbell, dumbbells, or smith machine),

The Chest press (different angles, different grips, barbell, dumbbells, or smith machine),

The Chin-up or pull-up (different grips, different ranges),

The Dip (different ranges, different angles, different hand positions),

The Overhead press (different angles, seated or standing, different grips, different ranges, Barbell, dumbbells, machine),

The upright row (different grips, different ranges, barbell, dumbbells).











A trainee could use the above exercises and their variations for his/her whole life and create an outstanding level of fitness and physique development. He or she could add a few isolation exercises (single joint exercises) to these foundation movements and put the finishing touches on a physique or level of performance that is already outstanding; the key is to always consider the basics before the isolated movements not the other way around.






Of course the above exercises must be married with common sense, which means sufficient warm-ups, correct exercise execution, proper nutrition, proper rest and recovery, and a strong mindset.





The training style that I advise you to use
Perform each movement with a strict but aggressive manner (if you are natural and genetically average you cannot baby the weight, if you do you won't achieve much, this applies to women as well as men), you have to give your body a reason to change (i.e. intense effort). This type of training will expediently create lean muscle mass, bones will become more sturdy, ligaments and tendons become like steel cords, and flexibility (providing your movements are performed through a full range of motion) is greatly enhanced. Of course care must always be taken to avoid injury so don't extra resistance until you can control what you are currently using.




If you have been training for less than 2 years
At this point I don't advise you use many intensity-enhancing techniques because
1) You must build a foundation to avoid imbalances, which can lead to injury
2) You should keep your most potent weapons for when your progress starts to slow down. Get this type of training in the bag before moving onto very advanced techniques. "Build a castle first before considering what color you wish to paint the drawbridge!"


After the 2 year foundation and body integrity building I advise that trainees introduce a more freer use of form to their movement, what I'm not encouraging here is outright sloppy cheating but a use of slight cheating technique or slight explosion to keep the movement driving in the right direction. A good way to look at cheating is to consider it a way to make your set harder, to hit the muscle harder, not to make the set easier. With this in mind a trainee would first perform as many repetitions in a set as strictly as possible then he/she can no longer do any strict repetitions he/she would cheat the weight up by breaking form slightly to get the weight moving through the most difficult portion of the repetition. If these are done right there is little chance for injury but large potential for progress.


Some lifting and bodybuilding purists may consider this style of training to be inefficient or dangerous, but I have not found it to be so, in fact I have found this freer form of movement to be safer and more result producing. When I train athletes or any one that wants to optimize their level of performance or their physique I always incorporate this method.




Concerning repetitions
I'm a big believer in using a holistic approach when it comes to repetitions, this is because different repetitions (or times under load) produce different effects. No one-repetition scheme works all the components of a muscle structure at once. There are different types of muscle fibers, capillaries, tendons, glycogen, and other structures and substances that make up a muscle. Each of these structures more readily responds to specific repetition ranges or time under tension, most of these structures support one another to help muscles contract. It should be noted that different muscle fibers have different capacities for power and endurance (in general repetitions between 2-6 will stimulate the growth of the most powerful fibers, 8-20 will stimulate fibers that have power and endurance, and 25 and above will work fibers that a lot of endurance) So it is in a persons best interest to first optimize the type of fiber that is required for their particular goal then also build the supporting structures and fibers, doing this will cause rapid progress. In my own training and those of my clients I have found the varying of repetitions to be highly effective, I have found that physiques become more massive, leaner, stronger, vascular, and have more stamina; all these changes happen at the same time. This is why I'm not a believer in the common practice of bulking up (gaining muscle and fat) and then cutting up (getting rid of fat and hopefully retaining the muscle that you gained during the bulk up phase); I choose instead to build lean muscle while also getting leaner. For those who wish to get leaner but don't want to build a large amount of muscle I recommend that you restrict your caloric intake to one that only will support your target goal, but you should still train intensely which means progressively. My personal repetition range goes as low as 3 repetitions and up to 100 repetitions, this is an extreme range but my goals are extreme. For those who want a balanced, lean, moderate sized, muscular physique (A Men's Health type of physique for men, and a Shape magazine type of physique for women) I suggest that the majority of your repetitions range between 6-25. For those who want natural maximum development use a repetition range similar to the one that I use.






Concerning Sets
You should alternate set ranges during different phases of training, going from as low as 3 sets for a muscle group to as high as 10 sets. Typically I keep the sets on the low end (2-6) to optimize intensity (if you know that you have 10 hard sets to go you probably will hold back to get through the workout) and to not draw the session out so long that my natural anabolic hormone levels flat line. Sets is the department where people differ slightly some trainees thrive on an amount of sets that would quickly over-train another trainee. I believe that this happens from many factors some of these are training intensity, genetics, stress level, lifestyle, recovery, age, and nutrition. Even though peoples set needs differ I have found that they do not differ that much, meaning if trainees train intensely, eat well, and get sufficient R&R they will generally require the same amount of sets. Most typical trainees (and who's really typical) will respond well to 4 total work sets (this means non warm-up sets taken to muscular failure, almost muscular failure, or slightly beyond) for a smaller muscle and 6-7 for a larger muscle group like the back.


Why so few sets, well if you are working hard (meaning at or close to muscular failure) on the foundation exercises then you will work a large amount of muscle with each set. Each of these exercises not only works the target muscles but call on many others that assist in the performance of the movement. In general the smaller muscles of the body receive a lot of indirect work when performing these movements. In effect one set of one these movements performed to muscular failure can be compared to performing 20 regular sets of another exercise; they are that potent. With the increased potency comes a reduced ability to tolerate these exercises (much like the ability to tolerate a high dose of a particularly strong drug; as the dosage increases the risk of overdose increases drastically), which means that in order to achieve maximum benefit from these exercises they must be respected and used sparingly.


As you get stronger and more developed you will have to cut back on your work sets to avoid overtraining. You will have to also increase the amount of rest hours or days that you take before training a body-part again to allow your body to not only recover but super-compensate (build past pre-session levels; i.e. lean muscle mass and strength increases).

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samurai69

Nice to see you posting, but nothing ground breaking in this part of your up-coming web site IMO

Captain Hero

would help for beginners though without such knowledge

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ChefX

I think its a good article. I might not agree with all of it, but its a very well written peice and IMO decent. Unlike Vern's LOL
Keep at it. Looks like you will do fine.

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The Regimen X Bodybuilding System by The Family of X

In the great Greek poem by Constantine Cavafy titled "Ithaka,"
We are reminded that it is the voyage and the adventures on the way that count, not the arrival itself.

winger

Very nice myseone. I train like this myself. Wait till Cookie sees this.....lol.
He is our volume trainer on the board. He hates hiit training.

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myseone

Yeah there is nothing new under the sun just the grabbing of ideas and putting them into a format that works.

Maybe all I'm doing is reminding people of necessity to keep things very simple and aggresive.

This program will also work for advanced trainees as I personally use it myself and continue to progress. And I have used it with good result with my clients.

Another example of an author who has used a siplified method of training is Stuart Mc Roberts. In fact the majority of effective training methods are quiet simplified.

Volume training has it's benefits, namely increasing GH output and enhancing glycogen uptake. I think it stimulate muscle fiber enlargement to some extent, but not as well as short duration high intensity methods (in my strong opinion).

For complete development a mixing of the two styles is probably the best way to go. But most beginners would make there best gains using a lower volume higher intensity style of training in my strong opnion.

Another thing is, my target is beginner and intermediate trainees. Why because, advanced trainees are usually set in there ways, as I am to a degree. Beginners and intermediates are much more responsive, so my primary focus is them.

When it comes to training there is nothing magical, the basics work the best they are 90% of all disciplines from playing the violin to lifting weights. Often advanced volinists will practice the basics despite decades of experience, why? because the advances methods sit on the shoulders of the basics.

Most people emphasis the advanced stuff, and are shocked when they hit a plateau. They would rather take the latest new supplement than squat, they try out every new routine in flex instead of sticking with a plan and giving it some time to work. The end result you acheive is primarily determined by your adherance to the basics.

Oh yeah: when preping for shows I include volume methods in my traing to ramp up glycogen storage, that's why I tend to increase body weight going into a show.

myseone

All architects and masons use the same basic tools the end result is determined by how the tools are used, and if there used properly.

Law

samurai69

Cool, dont have a problem with any of what you have written here, hope KK an you get together for your training regime

winger

Myseone as always love to read what you have to say. The only thing that you might not have covered yet is holding back and saving yourself for the work sets. This is just somthing that I do. I dont want to prefatigue myself before I push the heavier weights. Once again nice reading, but I expected nothing less from you! ;)

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myseone

Whats up Winger,

Yes I defintely adhere to what you say in regards to warm-ups. For example if I'm doing a particular workout, I always do the following:
5 min general warmup on the bike or treadmill

light weight high rep set of dips, pulldowns, side raises, dumbbell swings, and stiff legged deadlifts

I then go to the specific warm-up sets for the first exercise
say I'm doing t-bar rows off the ground for the first exercise I would do:

1st warm-up 3 - 45lbs x 10 reps
2nd warmup 5 - 45lbs x 10 reps
3rd warmup 7 - 45lbs x 6 reps

I then move on to the work sets this might be:
9 -45lbs x 8 reps (maybe drop set also)
rest 5 mins
8 - 45lbs x max reps

after this point I perform no further warm-ups for the rest of my back workout, which might include:
1 work set neutral grip lat pulldowns (drop set)
Nautillus pullover 1 work set

No all in all I'm doing 3 lighter warmup sets to acclimate my back to the work and 3 work sets including intensity enhancers.

It's really important to prep the muscle, prevents injury, and allows you to train with heavier weight.

Lawrence

winger

I walk into the gym and train for 17 minutes a day. 2 warm up sets and 3rd set full intensity. That is to failure. Next excercise. Two compounds and maybe a b.s. isolation move for reps. 6 sets for chest and im out. Why beat a dead horse? No injuries.

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myseone

your right, but since I also train for increased flexibilty I always include extensive stretching. Concerning the warming up, I have found if I don't do it like this I'm not as strong. Each person has to find the right amount of warming for them.

I train very heavy, as a result I air on the side of caution.

If I was training someone else I would modify this a bit. A typical trainee would warmup for 5 mins, stretch for 5 mins, maybe do to warm-up sets for the first exercis and hit it hard.

hackskii

You write nice Lawrence.
For warmups, I need to warm up more than winger (we are twins). I think the reason is because of the way we both lift weights diffrently.

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winger

Yea we do. I train heavy and fast and always have. I also mix every workout up between reps to different compound excercises. I always go heavy. Even if it is reps.

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myseone

Thankyou, I'm continously working on my education, and since I'm also an author that's great to hear.

Concerning warming up you are right, even people who are genetically similiar or in your case very similiar, even in those cases each individual will need a diffrent warm-up.

Other factors that effect how much of a warm-up you need are:
level of hydration
if you are taking any thermogenic compounds
climate

so it's really hard to dertime an exact amount, I guess the best advice would be to do the minimal amount to be able to get the maximum workout.

Lawrence