View Single Post
 
Old 11-06-2008, 01:55 PM
Darkhorse Darkhorse is offline
Rank: Light Heavyweight
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: CA
Posts: 4,174
Send a message via Yahoo to Darkhorse
Default

My Outlook on Training

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm not the biggest, nor the strongest here by any means lol. But I can say that after 10 years of the good, the bad, and the ugly, I know a lot more now than a few years ago. I've read many books that I absolutely recommend (Practical Programming, Serious Strength Training, Elitefts books, ect). With that said, here's something I wrote a while ago that I'd like to share.


Designing a routine is a system of checks and balances.

If you do more of one thing, you need less of another. Make sense? Well, to the thousands of neophytes out there reading Flex Magazine, common sense gets replaced with spinning their wheels doing Ronnie Coleman's Back Routine. "Well, look what it did for him, right?"

Growth happens OUTSIDE the gym. That means get in, get the hell out, and put more time in at the dinner table and catching z's than suffering through a backbreaking amount of work in the gym. Training in the gym should be very tough, but if you find yourself suffering through or not completing your "pretty lookin' routine", then you're not going to make any measurable progress, period.

Lets look at something like the 5x5, made popular by guys like Bill Starr. It's a wonderful full body program. You'll also notice it has squatting three times a week (I recommend only two) and deadlifting in between. But, it HAS a system of checks and balances worked in. That means you're taking your KNOWN 1x5 RM and 5x5 RM and programming it into the final weeks of the program, then deducting from that in rather large increments back to week one (reverse planning). So what does that mean? It means the first two weeks are relatively easy and you're just getting used to the demands of the program, and teaching your body to tolerate the workload.

So what about split training? It DOES indeed deliver results, as with anything under the sun. There is no right or wrong when it comes to training. People have become very narrow minded lately, and I partially blame the HST "guru's" for that. Their argument stems from "only working a muscle every seven days." I'd agree with that, but what about the overlapping involved? Oops.. So if a trainee does "chest day" on Monday, then "arms day" on Thursday, would their chest get a lot of work in if they incorperated weighted dips, closegrip bench, or reverse grip? Absolutely, thereby working the muscles twice in a week. Or "legs day" on Tuesday, then "back day" on Friday in which Friday's session kicks off with some heavy deadlifting. Yep, legs get worked. Want more legs? Do some elevated deadlifts off a platform. Understand that most natty's need frequency to keep protein synthesis elevated for a longer period of time. But what about the guys squatting 500 lbs? Would it be feasable squatting every other day? Well, that depends. Technically, could they do a planned progression leading up to a 5-10 rep max? Perhaps, but now we're getting into individual recovery where some could, some couldn't. That simple.

The simplest solution is often obtained by choosing the path of least resistance IME. If someone is stuck in the mindset for years that they need to isolate their upper, lower, inner, and outer chest to grow and have an "effective" workout, and you tell them there's no such thing, would that automatically change their line of thinking? Highly doubtful.

Training with Ironaddict changed my views on many of things I took for granted. I think if anyone else was to educate me on some things, I'd think they were blowing smoke up my ass. I was fortunate enough to spend a year with him picking his brain. One of my favorite routines he came up with was only 3 days per week. Since I've been "free ballin'" now for the past year, I've been having a lot of success not only with myself, but with many people spread over a few other forums I've personally helped.

Taking a page from Jim Wendler's book, "Three Days Per Week", either you believe you can make tremendous gains in mass and strength with only three days per week or you don't. There's no magic cure for that. Instead of picking a laundry list of all the most popular exercises that you feel the need to do, try to pick 3-4 exercises that you feel you need the most per day. Remember what I said, growth happens outside the gym. Still not convinced about only 3 days? Check out all of Dante's guys DC training lol. Same three days per week, slightly different split, same frequency of once every five days -- And those guys are last I checked fairly XXL.

The split can be found everywhere on this forum that Ironaddict has posted time and again. Along with that, I'd like to post a few examples of "checks and balances" which ties everything together.

Monday: A) Chest/Shoulders/Triceps
Wednesday: B) Back/Biceps/Legs
Friday: C) Repeat Monday w/ NEW exercises

Monday: D) Repeat Wednesday w/ NEW exercises
Wednesday: A) Chest/Shoulders/Triceps
Friday: B) Back/Biceps/Legs

Then from there obviously you'd repeat workout C on Monday, D on Wednesday, and so forth.

The most important aspect of this programming is to be PROGRESSIVE meaning you need to increase something every workout to beat the last. As Dante once said,"Volume is finite, Load is infinite."

So why only pick three to a max of four exercises per day? Simple, it's to protect you from yourself! It literally forces you to pick ONLY the ones that are the best for YOU. Now, I'm not talking about everything being 3 sets either. If the exercise selection is low, guess what your check and balances will be? More sets x reps = volume. Along with that, throw a few wrenches into your workout to make it a bit more refreshing and increase the difficulty of the exercise. For example, I much prefer doing isolations with a longer tempo (increased TUT) and waay shorter rest periods. Another influence from IA.

In my experience, sometimes if you increase the difficulty of an exercise, the better results to be had. What I mean is that there's so much to do beyond a vanilla 3 x 10. Depending on YOUR recovery, there's lots of subtle, but effective tweeks you could do. If you're used to a workman's approach to deadlifts perpetually doing a few sets of 3-5 reps, try something radically different. Put them last in your workout. I've had killer results doing that knowing in my head it's "one and done" before I get to go home for the day. Another great great range is to do a max set of 3-5 reps, rest 5 minutes, take off some weight and do a max set of 8-10 reps. Personally my favorite approach made popular by DC and ironaddict.

Example day:

Monday:

DB Bench - 5 x 6-10
Incline Flyes - 3 x 10 (3-0-3 tempo)
Barbell Skullcrushers - 4 x 10 (90 seconds rest between sets)
Banded Upright Rows - 4 x 12-15 (45-60 seconds rest between sets)

^ The checks and balances here could be interchanging between a flat press and an inclined press for your pecs instead of trying to lump both together. For triceps you could have an isolation one workout, then a press such as weighted dips the other. Same concept with shoulder iso's one workout, then a press the other.

Wednesday:

Deadlifts - 3 x 5 (pyramid to top set) or something like a max triple, rest 5 minutes, then a backoff set of 8-12 reps.
Leg Press - 2 x 20
Weighted Pullups - 5 x 5
DB Curls - 3 x 15

^ The checks and balances here are the interchangable squats and deadlifts. That means if you do deadlifts, then you do a leg press. And if you do barbell squatting, then you could do a barbell or cable row. See how managable that is? Typically after a maximal effort and draining exercise like squats or deadlifts, you're pretty tired, one would hope. So it's much more feasable to do something not as mentally and physically draining.

So to sum up, if you're not honest with yourself, 9/10 you're going to go overboard with this stuff. Most bodybuilders today are so obsessive compulsive that they'll change their routine to "beautify" it on paper so many times that three days later it's completely different. Then by the time they get to the gym, they're dragging ass after 2/3 of it. So, by keeping it simple (acronym KISS), and limiting the OCD inside you to 3 to a max of 4 exercises per day, you'll be doing yourself a great service. You'll be mentally fresher, more motivated than ever, and as long as you save most of the work for the dinner table, you'll at least be headed in the right direction!
__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


I can be found at
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Reply With Quote