Strength training articles

Block Periodization

One of the most common training strategies for lifters of all kinds, whether power lifters, bodybuilders, weightlifters, athletes, or general fitness enthusiasts, is block periodization. A basic strategy for block periodization is to divide training into three to four different training blocks that consists of different weights ranges. Each training block may last two to four weeks. For example, if training is divided into four training blocks that last a month each, the first training block may be done using weights consisting of 55% to 65% of your single rep max. The second training block may consist of 65% to 75%; the third block 75% to 85%; and the fourth block 85% to 100% of your single rep training max.

A Problem

Block periodization has brought fantastic results to many lifters, however, others have experienced problems with block periodization. The main problem tends to be that by the time the last training block with heavy weights arrives, the benefits such as hypertrophy and improved rep speed that were gained from the first training block have dissipated from disuse. When only one aspect of training becomes the focus of a training block, the other aspects that are neglected can suffer. Not everyone loses the qualities developed in previous training blocks, but some people do. For those who do, there is a solution that allows for the use of training blocks without losing the physiological qualities that are developed from one block to another.

A Solution: A Primary Emphasis, with Secondary Emphasis

A simple strategy that can be used with block training is for each training block to have a primary emphasis, but to also include secondary types of training that will be done in other training blocks. The secondary types of training will be utilized to a lesser degree, but enough of it will be done to maintain the physiological qualities from each training block. This can be done much easier if high frequency training is used. Of course high frequency training can easily lead to over training unless you stay within the boundaries of using strong reps, strong sets, and a strong lifting motion (if you need to know the meaning of these terms, scroll down to the very end of the article where they are explained).

Assuming you approach high frequency training correctly, we can look at an example of how to design a training block that emphasizes one weight range, while incorporating the weight ranges from the other blocks to a lesser degree. Let us imagine that you are using 55% to 65% of your training max for your training block of emphasis. You could use this weight range three times per week, and integrate the weight ranges from three other training blocks once each on the other three days. The follow schedule would be an example of this:

Monday: train with 55% to 65% of your single rep max (Primary emphasis)

Tuesday: train with 65% to 75% of your single rep max (Secondary emphasis)

Wednesday: train with 55% to 65% of your single rep max (Primary emphasis)

Thursday: train with 75% to 85% of your single rep max (Secondary emphasis)

Friday: train with 55% to 65% of your single rep max (Primary emphasis)

Saturday: train with 85% to 100 % of your single rep max (Secondary emphasis)

When using this strategy, no matter which training block you are emphasizing, you can do it three days per week, and do the other types of training from the other training blocks just once per week.

Even if you only trained your whole body three days per week, you could still emphasize one training block while integrating the other types of training into your block to a lesser degree. For example, if you are emphasizing the 55% to 65% range for a training block, you could do three sets at 55% to 65% of your single rep max, and just one set using 65% to 75% in your first workout. For your second workout, you would do three sets at 55% to 65%, and just one set at 75% to 85% of your single rep max. In your third workout, you would do three sets at 55% to 65%, and just one set at 85% to 100% of your single rep max. You could emphasize any weight range within your workouts by doing three sets of the weight range you are emphasizing, and just do one set of a different weight range in each workout.

When you have a training block system that emphasizes a primary weight range in combination with secondary weight ranges that are done to a lesser degree, you can maintain the qualities that are gained from each training block. If you favor block periodization, you can give these ideas of try. Best of training to you.

For more in depth lectures on block training, I recommend Garrett Blevins:

Training Terms

Strong reps are reps that can be repeated forcefully while using a steady even pace from one rep to the next during a set. When the speed at which reps are repeated starts to slow down at the end of set due to fatigue, weak reps are being done. Avoid weak reps.

A strong set is a set that is done while you are at full strength. If fatigue prevents you from performing the maximum number of strong reps that you are capable of with a given weight, you are not at full strength and are doing a weak set.

A strong lifting motion is a smooth, nonstop lifting motion with the use of excellent form. It generally applies to the use of a single rep training max which is different than an all out max. An all out max is the most weight that you can possibly lift for a single rep, but this often results in poor form, or pausing, grinding, or slowing down during the lifting motion. On the other hand, a training max is done with the maximum weight that allows for a strong nonstop lifting motion using excellent form.
The Pattern That Kills Progress

The pattern that kills progress occurs when a lifter habitually violates the foundational goal that his body has for gaining strength; the goal being to make it easier to lift a given weight. If the basic strategy of a lifter is to immediately increase the difficulty of a lift as soon as he gains strength, this is a direct violation of what his body is trying to accomplish. His body keeps trying to make the weight easier to lift, but his workouts keep getting harder. This contradiction between what the body wants and what the lifter does will eventually kill training progress.

The deceiving thing about the pattern that kills progress is that it doesn’t happen right away. It only happens after a lifter’s ability to adapt to a severe training stress has been maxed out. This may take months or years before it happens, but if a lifter keeps trying to push as hard as possible by training to failure or beyond (ie forced reps and negatives), and by going for single rep max attempts, the pattern that kills progress is almost guaranteed to take place. However, the pattern that kills progress can be avoided.

There are three basic ways to avoid the pattern that kills progress. These strategies include:

Change exercises often
Systematic changes in the amount of weight and training volume that is used
Use training thresholds and let the workouts get easier.

Changing Exercises

The advantage to changing exercises is that it will change the muscles that are being used as well as the pattern of nerve firing. This helps to keep the same muscles and same nerves from being over used when highly taxing workouts are done on a repeated basis. Lifters who train to failure or push to the single rep max on a regular basis will get into trouble if they don’t switch exercises on a regular basis. The West Side lifters change the exercise they use for their one rep max every week or two in order to keep from going into a rut.

Switching Exercises and the Conjugate System

Changing the Amount of Weight and Training Volume

Changing the amount of reps and the training volume that is used is another method that lifters commonly use in order to keep from running into the pattern that kills progress. Different amounts of weight will utilize different types of muscle fibers in varying degrees so that the same muscle fibers aren’t repeatedly highly taxed the same way again and again. The types of muscle fibers I’m referring consist of slow twitch, fast twitch IIa and fast twitch IIb. The varied weights will also stress the nervous system in varied ways so that the same pattern of nerve firing doesn’t become exhausted from overuse.

How changing exercises also requires a change in weight and volume

Changing exercises, weight, and training volume are all helpful strategies for avoiding the pattern that kills progress, but it is still quite possible to push your training beyond the point where these strategies will help you avoid the pattern that kills progress. This is why I also recommend the next strategy for avoiding the pattern that kills progress, although I believe it is often overlooked.

Use Training Thresholds and Let the Workouts Get Easier

The last strategy for overcoming the pattern that kills progress is to use training threshold by training to that capacity of your ATP creatine phosphate system and nervous system without exceeding it. Exceeding it can easily backfire as it will bring energy systems into play that are not specific to strength and power. It will also put you at risk for reinforcing weak patterns for nervous system firing instead of strong patterns. However, if you simply train to the capacity of strong reps, strong sets, and a strong lifting motion with single reps (see basics of PPT for the meaning of strong reps, strong sets, and a strong lifting motion), and repeat workouts without increasing the weight or reps for a sufficient time period, the workouts will get easier. This is what your body wants and it will help you to avoid the pattern that kills progress. Eventually your strength will increase so that when you add weight, you’ll be able to do so without exceeding your strength specific capacities.

Although I have listed three strategies that help you avoid running into the pattern that kills progress, you don’t have to use just one strategy, you can use all three if you choose. Unfortunately, many people believe the key to overcoming a sticking point is simply to train harder, but training with strength specific precision is the key. If you are currently encountering a sticking point, or at some point you run into a sticking point, try the suggestions in this article in order to start making progress again. Best of training to you.

Big and Strong and Small and Strong

Is it Possible to be Small and Strong?

There’s no doubt that muscular size is a bonus that works in your favor for getting as strong as possible. Is it possible then to be small and strong? It appears so as there are lifters who are small but very strong. Some are strong enough to walk into most gyms and out lift a lot of the bigger guys that work out there. Here are some examples:

Hideaki Inaba at 114 pounds with a deadlift of 506 puonds

Inaba with a squat of 528 pounds in the 114 weight class

Lamar Gant doing a 634 puond deadlift in the 123 pound weight class

Galabin Boevski lifting over 400 pounds over his head at a bodyweight of just over 150 pounds.

Getting Stronger Without Getting Bigger

Is it possible to gain a substantial amount of strength without a substantial gain in body weight? It certainly appears so as many lifters have accomplished this. Some have accomplished this because their genetic tendency is to stay small matter how they work out, while others stay small because they put no emphasis on workouts that are geared towards muscular growth.

Gaining a lot of weight is based on three primary factors consisting of the type of training that is done, a genetic capacity to gain a lot of muscular weight, and diet.While some weight lifters and powerlifters may end up getting huge muscles from just doing heavy singles, doubles, and triples, most of the lifters with huge muscles make a deliberate effort to devote a portion of their workouts to building muscular size by including of a variety weight ranges and repetition ranges to achieve this. The West Side method does this and so does Brandon Lilly’s Cube Method.

Precision Point Training can be used for Size and/or Strength

Precision point training methods can be used for a focus that’s purely devoted to strength development without emphasizing muscular size, but a variety of weights and reps can also be included if you do want to develop size. If your focus is purely on strength, you can use heavy weights for part of your lifting and also use lighter weights for several mini sets, which emphasizes explosive lifting for only a few reps per mini set. If you want to build more muscles, you will also need to use moderately heavy weights in the eight to twelve rep range for full sets, which means pushing to your marker rep, or the last strong rep you can do in a set. Strong reps are reps that can be done without needing to slow your rep speed down during a set because of fatigue.

Avoid Training Extremes to Gain Size and Strength

If you are a smaller lifter, don’t panic and try to catch up with the bigger lifters by constantly pushing to failure and going for all out single rep max lifts. Learn how to find your training zone by stopping a set when the pace at which you repeat reps starts to slow down, and by training a muscle group while it is at full strength, but no longer than that. Use a single rep training max when going heavy by using the maximum weight that allows you to perform a smooth nonstop lifting motion, instead of doing super heavy grinder reps. Don’t add weight to your lifts until the weights you are already using can be lifted faster and easier. Use these training strategies on a consistent basis and you will make consistent progress. Best of training to you.

Types of Intensity

High intensity training and high intensity interval training are both quite common. The term, “High Intensity,” is a supercharged term that would seem to require the type of determination and effort that will surely bring success. Bodybuilders were the first to popularize this term on a large scale. However, you may find that bodybuilders, powerlifters, and weight lifters use the term in very different ways.

An All Out Effort to Complete a Rep

To many bodybuilders, high intensity means the amount of effort required to complete a rep. The last rep of set to a failure would be an example of a high intensity effort because the last rep takes every bit of available effort to complete the lift. The high intensity part of training always takes place to the greatest degree at the very end of a set.

An example of high intensity weight training

Powerlifters often have the reverse view point when it comes to training intensity as some of them have the belief that the highest intensity comes at the start of a set. A lifter possesses the greatest potential for strength and force production when they have not yet developed any fatigue. There is no fatigue to interfere with strength at the start of a set.

Intense Burst of Force and Power

For many years people who lifted weights would do three sets of ten reps for an exercise. Since the last reps of the set were the hardest, many believed that they were also the most productive for building muscle and strength. Eventually powerlifters reversed this thinking and began to emphasize the first few reps of the set for building strength. If the start of the set works best, why not just do the first three reps and eliminate the rest of the set? The idea caught on and it became popular to only do three reps, and then do it again and again for ten sets using the same weight that would be used for three sets of ten reps. In the mind of a powerlifter, when you eliminate fatigue that builds up at the end of a set, you push into the bar with a more intense burst of power and force by just doing the first three reps. In this context, fatigue that occurs at the end of a set reduces intensity because it causes a a reduction of lifting power.

Total Workload Intensity

Another form of intensity is the total workload of an exercise which refers to the total poundage when you multiply the total amount of reps from all the sets times the amount of weight used for an exercise. Serge Nubret, was an immensely strong bodybuilder who used fairly light weights for tons and tons of sets and reps to gain size and strength. Serge admitted that he did not use heavy weights or push to failure on his sets. Instead of pushing harder, he did more and it worked for him. Many of the top bodybuilders of the past (even before steroids) and present have depended on a huge workload in order to work a muscle group intensely. From Leroy Colbert, to Chuck Sipes, along with Bill Pearl, Franco Columbo, Ronnie Coleman, and Jay Cutler, these are all bodybuilders who used huge workloads to build physiques that were known for both strength and size .

Intensity in Relationship to the Percentage of Your Single Rep Max

The last type of intensity is simply the amount of weight you use in relationship to your single rep max. Weight lifters and powerlifters often think of light weight as not being intense, even when pushing a set hard or close to failure. To these lifters, intense means heavy. The Bulgarian weight lifters are among the most prominent for focusing their training on the single rep max.

Bulgarian weight lifting workout

Which types of intensity should be used to gain strength? Perhaps there is one type of intensity that you respond to better than the others. If so, that’s the one you should focus on. Louie Simmons, who is probably the most successful powerlifting coach ever believes in explosive lifting (10 sets of three), the one rep max, and pushing repetitions to failure. In other words, there is more than one way to build strength and he has learned to incorporate several ways to build strength into his overall strength training system.

I personally believe in balance. All versions of intensity can be used effectively, but if you take any one of them to an extreme, they can backfire. This is why I believe in the marker rep, and only training a muscle group while it is at full strength, and using a training max instead of an all out max. These concepts can be found in the section on the basics of PPT. Best of training to you.

The Two Part Warm up

Doing warm up sets in a proper manner is absolutely critical for long term weight training success. If I had to point to one of the biggest villains for ineffective training it would be messing up when it comes to warm up sets. It is very common for lifters to waste their strength on lighter weights, only to work up to heavier weights that they struggle to lift because they squandered their energy on their earlier sets.

Avoid a Fatiguing Warm Up

Keep in mind that warm up sets should be utilized to prepare your muscles and fully turn your nervous system on in order maximize your strength when you work your way up to heavier lifting. If you overdo it during your warm up, it will produce fatigue and compromise your strength, instead of maximize your strength when using heavier weights that take the most strength to lift.

Explosive Warm up Reps

Even though warm up sets should not cause fatigue and should be done to prepare your muscles for heavier weights, it should produce other benefits as well. A good warm up can produce an actual training effect. In other words, you are doing more than just preparing for heavier lifting, you are actually activating the strength building process if you do your warm up sets properly. This can be done by lifting with explosive force when warming up with light weights. Lifting forcefully with light weights enhances strong nerve firing and activates fast twitch muscle fibers. With sufficient repetitions, an increase of blood flow will be directed to the working muscles, and the viscosity of your muscles will increase so that your muscles move with greater freedom and ease.

Two Part Warm Up

How do you do warm up sets in a manner that produces the desired benefits without causing fatigue? This can easily be done with a two part warm up. The first part of the warm up is done using explosive reps with light weights and several reps per set. The second part of the warm up is done with heavier weights, but only a single rep is done per set when using heavier weights in order to avoid producing unwanted fatigue. If you work your way up with single rep until you reach a weight that would allow four to six reps (although you will do just one rep as it is a warm up), it will fully turn your nervous system on. If you are not doing a heavy workout, you can still do this two part warm up and then go back down in weight for your work sets.

For these warm up sets, weights are increased each set throughout both parts of the warm up. An example of a two part warm up is listed below:

Part 1: Explosive Warm up

1^st Set: 15 reps: Use a light weight that would allow to do 40-50 reps if you pushed yourself

2^nd Set: 10 reps: Use a weight that would allow you to do 30 reps if you pushed yourself

3^rd Set: 6 reps: Use a weight that would allow you to do 18 reps if you pushed yourself

Part 2: Ascending Single Reps

4^th Set: 1 rep: Use a weight that would allow you to do 12 reps if you pushed yourself

5^th Set: 1 rep: Use a weight that would allow you to do 8 reps if you pushed yourself

6^th Set: 1 rep: Use a weight that would allow you to do 4 to 6 reps if you pushed yourself

When it comes to light warm up sets, don’t worry about what people think if you start out with no weight on the bar or just a ten or a twenty five pound plate on each side. I have seen super strong Olympic lifters start out with no weight on the bar, and super strong powerlifters and body builders do warm up sets with about 25% or less of their max.

In the following two videos, two Mr. Olympias will begin their bench press workout with a light set using 135 pounds. Lee Haney is using about 33% of his max and Ronnie Coleman is using about 24% of his max. Both of them are using explosive reps without strain. If you are only half as strong as these guys, then warm up with just half the weight they use. Don’t reason in your mind that you are training like they are training by doing your first warm up set with 135 pounds unless you are as strong as they are. Go by percentage, not the amount of weight they are using. The important thing is to notice that they are doing an explosive, yet non strenuous warm set.

Lee Haney Warm up Set

Ronnie Coleman Warm up Set

Consider the advice for warm up sets in this article and you will be prepared to make the most of your lifting with heavier weights. Best of training to you.

Training for Strength and Testing for Strength

If you are going to test your strength on a regular basis during your workouts, I suggest learning to do so by testing what I refer to as training thresholds (and precision points). These training thresholds consist of the marker rep, strong rep max, and your limit of strong sets. The reason for doing this is to avoid constantly pushing to failure on a constant basis as it can lead to overtraining. How do you do you test training thresholds? I will give some examples. If you follow these methods, you can easily monitor your strength without having to exceed the boundaries of effective strength training practices.

Testing the Marker rep Threshold

The marker rep threshold is a simple way to test your strength in every workout without inducing counterproductive strain. What is a marker rep? It’s the first rep that you come to in a set where you can no longer maintain a steady even pace from one rep to the next. The first rep where rep speed starts to slow down from one rep to the next is your marker rep. If we consider an example of when your marker rep falls on your tenth rep, then it would mean that could perform nine forceful reps (which I refer to as strong reps) with a steady even pace from one rep to the next. However, if your rep speed starts to slow down on the tenth rep, then your tenth rep is your marker rep. In this particular case, you will know that your strength is increasing when you improve from being able to do nine reps using a steady even pace, to ten reps using a steady even rep pace. Testing for the ability to do more strong reps before you hit your marker reps is a simple way to incorporate testing your strength into every workout without needing to push to failure in order to know whether or not your strength is increasing.

The following video shows Ronnie Coleman doing a set of leg presses and it is an excellent example of how to push to your marker rep and stop. Ronnie does nine reps using a steady even rep pace and stops after fatigue forces him to slow down on his tenth rep (his marker rep).

Testing the Strong Rep Max Threshold

The truth is that you don’t even need to push all the way to your marker rep to improve your strength, you can stop a set on your last strong rep. Your last strong rep is your strong rep max, which is based on the maximum number of strong reps that you can do using a steady even pace from one rep to the next without slowing down. We can look at an example of a strong rep max of eight reps. If at some point it feels like it is getting easier to perform eight strong reps, you can test yourself by adding on a rep, or adding on a small amount of weight. If you add on a rep or some weight, and it doesn’t force you to slow down your rep speed on your last rep, then you have found that you have successfully gained strength by testing your strong rep max.

This next video is an example of a strong rep max. Ronnie Coleman does 13 strong reps and stops (the person counting reps for him only counted 12, but Ronnie actually does 13). He does not push to failure; he doesn’t even push to his marker rep. Ronnie uses a variety of training methods and there are times when he pushes his sets well past his strong rep max, but on this exercise, he is stopping close to his strong rep max.

Testing the Marker Set Threshold

When your strength improves, you will be able to do more sets with the same amount of weight and reps. Knowing this provides you with another option for testing strength without the need to push to failure. For example, you may be using three sets of eight reps for an exercise because your marker rep falls on the eighth rep for all three sets. If you proceed to a fourth set, you find that you hit your marker rep on your seventh rep instead of your eighth. This is called a marker set because it marks the first set where you are no longer at full strength. I believe it’s better to avoid doing a marker set. At some point, the amount of weight that you have been using for three sets of eight reps may start to feel easier. When this happens, you can try testing your strength by adding on a fourth set to see if your marker rep has improved from seven reps on your fourth set to eight reps. If this improvement has been made, it’s a good sign that you have gained strength. Once again, this is a way to test for strength without overdoing it and compromising strength gains.

All of these methods discussed in this article will help you gauge your strength by testing your training thresholds rather than pushing to failure. It will help you to train at the right level of effort instead of pushing too hard to make consistent progress. Best of training to you.

How to Find the Right Training Max

One powerlifter hit the nail on the head when he said, “There is a difference between training for strength and testing for strength.” In this article, I am going to focus on how to select the right amount of weight to use for a single rep if the focus on training to gain strength, instead of testing for strength. Many people automatically assume that they must keep trying to exceed their all out max in order to get progressively stronger. There is a better way.

Use a Training Max

When training with heavy singles, you are better off using a training max instead of an all out max. A training max is the maximum of weight that you can use with excellent form for a single rep without slowing down, pausing, or stalling during the lifting motion. A training max should be done using a smooth nonstop lifting motion, and you should never fail when performing a training max. If you fail when using your training max, you are lifting too heavy. Only repeat your training max as long as you are at full strength during a workout. You will know if you are starting to weaken if your form breaks down, or you start grinding or stalling during the lifting motion.

Once you find your training max, keep using the same weight for several weeks, or even a couple months. Eventually, you will find that you get better at lifting the same weight because you will be able to lift it faster and easier. Many lifters try to add weight as soon as they get stronger. This is a mistake. Your body wants the same workout to get easier, so let it accomplish this purpose. Once you have gained the ability to lift your training max faster and easier for a few weeks (beginners may only need a week), you can add a little weight and try for a new training max. If you add weight and you can still use good form with a smooth nonstop lifting motion, you are ready to keep using the added weight. However, if your form breaks down, or you start to grind or stall during the lifting motion, go back to your previous training max. Keep using the same training max until it becomes easy enough to add weight while maintaining good form.

Great Lifters Who Never Max Out

Are there any decent lifters who use a training max instead of an all out max? In the following video, Brandon Lilly instructs not to push too hard with max weights. The person interviewing him refers to Ed Coan (a great powerlifter) by saying that he never maxed out (with an all out max) during training. You can make progress with heavy singles if you use them wisely.

What Should a Training Max Look Like?

Carl Yngvar Christensen is a fantastic young lifter. Even in powerlifting meets, he makes his lifts look easy. The following video shows Christensen doing three lifts each for the squat, bench press, and deadlift. The reason I am including this video is because some of his lifts closely resemble what I believe a training max should look like. These lifts include his second attempt for the squat and bench press (he maybe a little over his training max on his second bench press). His third attempt in the deadlift also looks like what I believe a training max lift should look like. He is able to complete these lifts with a smooth, nonstop lifting motion. In contrast, he appears to be over what I would recommend for a training max on his third attempts for his squat and bench press as you can see a slight stall in his lifting motion during these lifts. Amazingly, he doesn’t appear to exceed a weight that permits a smooth nonstop lifting motion on any of his deadlifts, not even on his third attempt.

Carl Yngvar Christensen

Charles Staley

I am a fan of Charles Staley. He is an older lifter who was not a mega talent in his younger years, but he has managed to improve little by little into his 50’s. In my mind, the fact that he is able to keep getting better with age makes him far more credible than a super talent who keeps training but can never get better as he approaches middle age. In the following two videos, you can see that Charles is probably below his training max on his first deadlift, but he is definitely at an all out max on his last attempt. If your training looks like Charles’ last attempt, I believe you are training too heavy. If you are entering a powerlifting meet, you may want to go for an all out max a few weeks before a meet in order to know how much weight to attempt, but I would not advise grinding like this on a regular basis.

first attempt at 418

last attempt (an all out max) with 501

In the next two videos, you can see the difference that only ten pounds makes when you compare the first bench press with the second. The first bench press is close to Charles’ training max, but the second is slightly over.

First attempt at 242 is similar to what a training max should look like

last attempt at 253 is closer to an all out max

The main point of all of this is that is oh so important is to push yourself with the right amount of effort. The right amount of effort is hard enough, but never too hard. It matters. In the next article, I will discuss a productive way to break a personal record without going to failure when using submaximal weights that are done for several reps. Best of training to you.

Keys to Consistent Strength Gains: Part 4

This is the fourth and final part of a training series on Keys to Consistent Strength Gains. The focus of this article is on progressing at a realistic rate. Our current culture is fixated on wanting everything fast; including strength gains. Rapid strength gains are often made by beginners if they are fortunate to possess good genetics, and they utilize a sound strength training strategy. Gaining five pounds of strength per week in basic lifts such as the bench press, squat, and deadlift is not uncommon. This can go on for several months and set the stage for unrealistic expectations that lead to the belief that effective training should always produce rapid strength gains. However, there comes a point where rapid gains stop, but slower gains are still possible.

Realistic Expectations

When people don’t understand that they won’t always be able to gain strength at a rapid rate, they will tend to keep pushing harder and harder in order to keep progressing. Eventually they end up training too hard, which inadvertently leads to less progress instead of more progress. Like it or not, progress slows down if you continue lifting long enough. When this happens, basic math is needed in order to have realistic expectations.

I’ve heard trainers tell their students that their goal should be to get stronger and add either weight, or reps, every time they do a new workout. Ridiculous. Let’s face it, a five pound gain of strength every week for a year means you’ll be using an additional 250 pounds above the weight you began with. Five pounds per week would amount to an additional 500 pounds after two years, 1,000 pounds more in four years, and 2,500 pounds more in ten years. This is not realistic.

If you have already been lifting for several years, a strength gain of five pounds every six weeks will add up to forty pounds of added strength by the end of a year. This is excellent for anyone who has been lifting for a long time. Even if you only gain twenty pounds of strength over the course of a year, and repeat this year after year, you are still much better off than the majority of lifters who are perpetually stuck at the same strength level after a few years of training. If you continue to gain slowly year after year, while others are stuck, you will find yourself moving further and further ahead of the rest of the pack over time.

Plan Your Progress

If you use training thresholds and allow your workouts to become easier over the course of an adaptation period, you can make a realistic plan for how often you will add five pounds to an exercise. The following information can help you to do this:

To increase your max in a lift by 100 pounds in a year, you would need to add five pounds every eighteen to nineteen days.
To increase your max in a lift by 60 pounds in a year, you would need to add five pounds every month.
To increase your max in a lift by 40 pounds in a year, you would need to add five pounds every six to seven weeks.
To increase your max in a lift by 30 pounds in a year, you would need to add five pounds every two months.
To increase your max in a lift by 20 pounds in a year, you would need to add five pounds every three months.

Your lifting speed shouldn’t keep slowing down more and more each time you add weight. If it does, you are trying to progress too fast. Each time you add weight, you are starting a new adaptation period, and your lifting speed should be the same at the start of each adaptation period.

Patience

If you are willing to progress at a realistic rate, you’ll be able to keep progressing for a long time. However, if you get in a hurry and it causes you to start pushing harder and harder in order to keep progressing at a rapid rate, don’t be surprised if your progress comes to a screeching halt. Forcing your way out of a sticking point is not the answer. Patience and using the keys to consistent strength gains that were discussed in part 1, 2 and 3 of this series is the answer. Best of training to you.

Parts 1, 2 and 3 can be accessed by clicking the links below:

Keys to Consistent Strength Gains Part 1

Keys to Consistent Strength Gains Part 2

Keys to Consistent Strength Gains Part 3
Keys to Consistent Strength Gains Part 3

In the last article, I discussed that your body’s primary goal for gaining strength is to make it easier for you to lift a given weight. Your body will consistently achieve this goal under two conditions. The first condition is to train hard enough, but not too hard by using the training thresholds that I commonly refer to as precision points (this was discussed in detail in Keys to Consistent Strength Gains Part 1). The second condition is that you use an adaptation period where you keep repeating workouts with the same amount of weight and reps until they become they become easier to do (this was discussed in detail in Keys to Consistent Strength Gains Part 2).

Don’t Let the Training Stress Escalate

When you add weight at the beginning of each new adaptation period, your body has another goal for gaining strength; it wants to keep the gradual increases in weight from escalating into a severe training stress. This is the focus of this article. The basic concept is that the level of effort should always remain hard enough, but not too hard, even when small amounts of weight are occasionally added over time. Those small additions of weight should never feel as though they are becoming harder and harder to lift. We can look at an example of this in more detail.

Training Should Never Get Harder and Harder

Let’s imagine that you are a beginner who is using 135 pounds in the squat for five reps. We will also assume that 135 pounds is a training stress that is hard enough to help you gain strength, without being so hard that it is a severe training stress. This basically means that you don’t train past your marker rep where a steady even rep speed can be maintained from one rep to the next, and it means only repeating sets for a muscle group while you are at full strength. If you train like this and go through an adaptation period of several weeks by repeatedly using 135 pounds in the squat, then 135 pounds should feel easier to lift by the end of that adaptation period. You should have gained enough strength so that if you increase the weight to 145 pounds to start a new adaptation period, it takes the same amount of effort to lift 145 pounds, as it did when you started your previous adaptation period with 135 pounds.

Every time you increase to a new weight, you should keep training with that same amount of weight until it becomes easier. When it becomes easy enough to add weight, the added weight should take the same amount of effort to lift as the previous time you increased the weight. This should hold true every time you add weight, and it should never feel as though the additions of weight are getting harder and harder. Each addition of weight should put you right around your limit rep, or your marker rep, and it should feel like it did the last time you added.

The Problem with a Severe Training Stress

We could also look at the example of starting out with 135 pounds in the squat for five reps, but this time we’ll imagine that five reps is the most reps that you can possibly do (i.e. training to failure). Training to failure creates a severe training stress. If you gain some strength, you’ll be able to increase to six reps before you reach failure. If you keep training to failure every time you gain strength, the set never becomes easier; you start out with a severe training stress, and a strength gain leads to a severe training stress with even more reps or weight.

Use Strength Gains to Avoid a Severe Training Stress

Your body sees no benefit in gaining strength if it never helps you avoid a severe training stress that it wants you to avoid when weight is gradually added. When strength gains are used properly, they can help you avoid a severe training stress. In contrast, when strength gains are not used properly, they produce severe training stresses. The benefit (or goal) your body is looking for when it gains strength is to keep gradual increases of weight from escalating into a severe training stress. Training in contradiction to the goals that your body has for gaining strength is what produces the pattern that kills progress. It is far better to maintain the right level of effort, even when weight is gradually added over time.

The last key to consistent strength gains in this series will be in the next article on the importance of progressing at a realistic rate. Best of training to you.

Keys to Consistent Strength Gains: Part 2

The last Muscular Man Lifting Some Heavy Dumbells article on Keys to Consistent Strength Gains Part 1 stressed the importance of training thresholds, which I also refer to as precision points. When you use training thresholds, you will train hard enough, but not too hard, and you will work out using a level of training stress that is precisely right. This is a big key to consistent strength gains.

Your Body’s Goal for Gaining Strength

In this article, a second key to consistent strength gains will be emphasized. The second key is to train in agreement with the goals that your body has for gaining strength. Your body will only gain strength if it believes that gaining strength will provide a benefit. What benefit is your body looking for? It wants to make it easier for you to lift a weight that is hard to lift. This benefit it the most basic goal that your body has for gaining strength.

Workouts That Never Get Easier

Most weight training strategies sabotage the main goal that the body has for gaining strength by training in contradiction to the body’s desire to make it easier to lift a weight. For example, if a lifter can lift 200 pounds in the deadlift, and their body gains strength to make it easier to lift 200 pounds, but the lifter immediately increases the weight to 205 pounds, the lift immediately becomes harder again. When the lift immediately becomes harder, the body does not accomplish its goal of making the weight easier to lift. Of course this presents a huge problem. We all know that in order to grow progressively stronger, the amount of weight that is lifted must increase from time to time. Is it possible to allow weights to become easier to lift, but still add weight? The answer is yes, if you learn how to use an adaptation period correctly.

Use An Adaptation Period

An adaptation period makes all the difference in the world. If you are stuck at a certain strength level and can’t seem to gain any more, the correct use of an adaptation period will help you start gaining again. What is an adaptation period? It is simply a period of time that you keep using the same amount of weight for the same amount of reps. Let me clarify that you can pyramid your weight or you use a variety of weights within each workout if it is your preference to do so. The key is to use an adaptation period where you keep using the same variety of weights in every workout (if you are using a variety of weights). For example, if you are doing five sets of squats consisting of 135 lbs. for 10 reps, 155 lbs. for 8 reps, 185 pounds for 5 reps, 205 lbs. for 5 reps, and 225 pounds for 5 reps, keep repeating this same variation of weight and reps in every workout for the entire adaptation period. The same workout will start to get easier; especially if you use the training thresholds that were discussed in the last article.

An adaptation period will generally vary from one to three weeks for a beginning lifter, two to five weeks for an intermediate lifter, and six to twelve weeks for an advanced lifter who has been lifting for a couple years or more. Many lifters are under the impression that you cannot gain strength by doing the same workout over and over. This belief is erroneous, incorrect, and flat out wrong. You can absolutely gain strength by doing the same workout over and over for weeks, or even months; especially if your level of training stress is based on the training thresholds that were discussed in the last article on Keys to Consistent Strength Gains Part 1.

Gain by Repeating the Same Workout

While it is true that you can’t gain off the exact same workout forever, it is also true that you can gain strength off the same workout for a time, so take advantage of that time by using it as an adaptation period where training never gets harder. You simply let the same workouts get easier so that your body can accomplish its goal of making a weight easier for you to lift. At the end of an adaptation period, you add a little weight and start again with a new adaptation period.

Two Major Keys

If you learn how to use thresholds to create workouts that are hard enough, but not too hard, and you use an adaptation period that is long enough to give your body time to make the same workouts become easier, you will be using two major keys that will help you to gain strength on a consistent basis.

In the next article, I will be discussing another goal that your body has for gaining strength, and how you can train in a way that allows you to take advantage of that goal. Until then, best of training to you.

Keys to Consistent Strength Gains: Part 1

Key #1: Train Hard Enough, but not too Hard

A huge key to consistent strength gains over time is understand how to train hard enough, but not too hard. If your training lacks precision in terms of the amount of training stress that you apply during your workouts, you’ll eventually run into a never ending sticking point. If you have good genetics, a sticking point won’t show up for a long time, but if you are less fortunate in terms of genetics, you’ll get stuck early on. Using the right amount of training stress is crucial for long term training success. This being the case, how much training stress is enough?

The Meaning of a Moderate Training Stress

I am convinced that the amount of training stress should be moderately difficult as opposed to an easy training stress or a severe training stress. I almost hesitate to use the term “moderate training stress,” because it sounds too soft and too easy, and it gives you the impression that it is based on wimpy training that will produce wimpy results. However, if I explain what the term moderate training stress means, it does not mean lack of effort or easy. What I am really referring to when I use the term “moderate training stress” is to avoid overdoing it in regard to three out of four training stresses that make up workouts. Further explanation is needed.

Four Types of Training Stress

There are four training stresses that that make up the total overall workout stress. These four workouts stresses include:

How much force you apply into a lift.
How close you come to training to failure when performing a set of an exercise (failure refers to pushing a set until no more reps can be done).
How many total sets and reps you do, which is often referred to as training volume or total workload.
The amount of weight you lift (also referred to as load).

Out of the four training stresses listed, maximum effort should be applied to the first training stress on the list, which is the amount of force that you apply into each rep of a lift. In one sense, effort should be very, very high in terms of lifting forcefully or explosively. Doesn’t this produce a lot of training stress? Yes, but only in terms of stressing the creatine phosphate energy system and recruiting a lot of muscle fibers. However, this is only one type of workout stress, and the second, third, and fourth workout stresses that are listed must be carefully controlled. They must be precisely right if you want to avoid running into a never ending sticking point.

Too much Fatigue Equals too Much Training Stress

The biggest culprit of too much training stress is fatigue. Workout fatigue should never become severe. The more fatigue that is created from your workout, the more training stress you will experience. Let’s take a look at which training stresses can easily lead to too much fatigue? The first is pushing too far into a set (i.e. training too close to failure). The second is doing too many sets and too many reps for a muscle group (i.e. too much total workload). These two training stresses can lead to both muscular fatigue and nervous system fatigue. The third type of training stress that produces too much fatigue is the use of excessive weight, which primarily over-fatigues the nervous system. The question then becomes, how do you know how to push hard enough without creating too much fatigue?

Training Thresholds

Training thresholds are the key to knowing how hard to train without training too hard. I often refer to these training thresholds as precision points. You want to train hard enough to approach a training threshold without going past it. If you do go past a training threshold, it should only be by a slight amount. The thresholds are very simple; the first threshold is determined by your how long you can maintain a steady even rep rhythm during a set with a given weight. You should stop immediately if your rep speed and rep rhythm begin to slow down. The second threshold is determined by how many sets you can do for a muscle group while remaining at full strength. If you allow enough time for full recovery between sets, but your strength starts to drop, you should immediately stop doing more sets for that muscle group.

The third threshold to consider is the maximum amount of weight that you should use for a single rep when training. If you lift a weight that is so heavy that you start to grind or slow down during the lifting motion, the weight is too heavy. When this happens, force production goes down and the firing pattern of your nervous system is no longer optimal. Do not use weights that are so heavy that they prevent you from performing a smooth, nonstop lifting motion while using good form. Weights that are too heavy can cause nervous system fatigue. Too much fatigue equals too much training stress.

When you control the level of fatigue during workouts, the overall workout stress is moderate instead of severe. Applying the right level of training stress will help you to avoid sticking points and gradually increase the amount of weight for long term training success. More on this next time. Best of Training to you.

Squat Technique

The squat is foundational exercise for building strength. Assuming you don’t have any issues in your knees, hips, legs, or back that would prevent you from squatting safely, it is a great exercise that benefits not only your strength, but your heart and lungs. I highly recommend doing squats if you are not already doing them, and that you refine your form as much as possible if you are currently doing them in your workouts.

One Size Does Not Fit All

It’s hard to prescribe a one size fits all squatting technique for everyone. One of the most important elements of the squat is to avoid overstressing the knee joint which can occur when the knees come too far forward over the toes while descending into the squat. Your knees may come forward a little, but they shouldn’t come forward a lot. If you are ever going to lift very much without experiencing discomfort in your knees, you will need to learn to let your hips, hamstrings, glutes, lower back, and your quadriceps all take the lifting stress, instead letting your knees take most of the lifting stress. Some lifters can do this by using shoulder width stance while staying fairly upright without letting their knees track forward. Others have proportions that will require a wider stance to stay more upright, and some lifters prefer to bend forward at the hips (without letting their back round) to engage their gluteus muscles more. Needless to say, most people will need to experiment until they find a squatting technique that is comfortable, and that offers the most beneficial leverages for their own proportions.

Finding Quality Instruction

There are a lot of squat experts and each has their own view point on how to squat. There are some general similarities, but you will also find differences in advice from one coach or trainer to another. I am providing some video instruction of people that I believe can offer the most helpful advice. For extensive detailed video instructions, I recommend that you click on “Layne Norton’s Squat Tutorial” or “Perfect Squat Technique by Powerlifting to Win.”

For simpler squat instruction that covers the basics, I recommend the following video. It focuses on the type of squat that a bodybuilder or someone who just wants to improve in terms of general strength and conditioning would use. Some powerlifters may also use this technique, but they would be more likely to use it as part of their training rather than to use it for a competitive lifting technique.

Daniel Back from Jump Science gives excellent information in the following video on variations of the squat. He also discusses both how to do a squat, and how not to do a squat.

I have included the following video in a previous post, but I will show it again as it demonstrates excellent squatting form for someone who is training for Olympic lifts such as the clean and jerk, and the snatch.

I don’t normally discuss much about exercise technique in my articles and posts, but I have done so in my last three articles because good technique plays an essential part of being able to lift a lot of weight in a safe manner. Until next time, best of training to you.

How to Bench Press

If there is one weight lifting exercise that is probably more popular than any other, I believe it is the bench press. If someone knows that you lift weights and they want to know how strong you are, they will probably ask how much you can bench. Needless to say, the amount of weight that you can lift will be enhanced by using good bench press technique.

When I first began training with weights, it was a fairly popular idea in bodybuilding circles to use a fairly wide grip and keep your elbows out wide at a 90 degree angle to the body when benching. This was supposed to provide a better stretch and stress the outer pecs to develop a more pronounced pec line. Some of this advice may have come from a famous trainer by the name of Vince Gironda who took this a step further by advocating that the bar be brought down to the color bone (or even the neck). He felt that this was an effective way to stress the upper chest muscles. However, in more recent times, you will often hear warnings not to bring the bar down to the collar bone or flare the elbows out wide as it is hard on the shoulder joint and can lead to shoulder injuries (especially when lifting heavy).

Elbows, Hand Spacing, and The Path of the Bar

The current trend is to bring the bar down to the lower pecs and to keep the elbows between forty to sixty degrees from the body instead of straight out to the side at a 90 degree angle from the body. The most common hand placement is to use a grip that will allow the elbows to be aligned directly underneath the hands. If this is done correctly, the forearms will be perfectly perpendicular the floor when the bar is lowered to the chest. When pushing the bar up from the chest, there are two basic methods. One method is to push the bar straight up from the lower pecs so that the bar remains directly over the lower pecs from the start to the finish of the lift. This is how the famous Westside lifters bench. The other method is to push the bar from the lower pecs at a slight angle so that the bar finishes in a position over the upper pecs. Both methods have been used by great lifters.

Instructions from Bench Press Specialists in Powerlifting

There are some excellent bench press specialists who can go into depth about how to improve your bench press technique. A fairly extensive video lesson is given by Layne Norton which you can access by clicking on the following link (click here for Layne Norton’s tutorial on bench press technique). For more of a brief but well presented lesson on bench press form, Dan Kovacs, Shane Sweat, and Laura Phelps provide excellent instruction in the following videos. These instructions are geared towards powerlifters.

Dan Kovacs

Shane Sweatt and Laura Phelps Sweatt

Body Building Bench Press

There are several bodybuilders who are enormously strong in the bench press. Former Mr. Olympias Jay Cutler and Ronnie Coleman are examples of this. Neither Ronnie nor Jay like to lock out at the top of their bench, and Jay likes to stop just short of touching the bar to his chest. They both use a fairly fast rep speed with no pausing at all at the top or bottom of the movement. All of these techniques are used to keep constant tension on the chest muscles throughout a set in order to build better pecs. Ronnie does a set of 10 reps that takes him 13 seconds to complete. Jay does a set of 12 reps that takes him 20 seconds to complete. Notice also that bodybuilders are more likely to bench using a flat back as opposed to powerlifters who may arch their back in order to lift more weight.

Ronnie Coleman

Jay Cutler Incline Press

We are not all the same, so don’t be afraid to experiment with the variations in information that top bench press specialists present. In the next article, I will be discussing how to perform the squat. Best of training to you.

Deadlift Technique

The focus of Precision Point Training is on finding your strength training zone. This basically refers to training hard enough, but not too hard to make consistent predictable strength gains. Most lifters try to obtain consistent strength gains by utilizing complex training cycles, but a simpler solution is to leave no room for error when it comes to training hard enough but not too hard. Just about everything I write about will refer to some aspect of this, but in the next three articles I am going to deviate from that and do a series of three articles on exercise technique for the deadlift, squat and bench press. Learning the proper technique for these exercises can make a big difference in how much you lift, and can keep you from unnecessary injury.

The Deadlift

In this article I will be discussing the deadlift. If the deadlift feels awkward, unsafe, or you’ve hurt yourself doing it in the past, I suggest putting your ego aside, perfecting your form with light weights, and gradually adding on weight while maintaining perfect form. This is exactly what I had to do to improve my deadlift.

There are two basic versions of the deadlift. The first version is the conventional deadlift technique with the feet close together, hips back, and back straight. The second common technique is the sumo deadlift which is done with a wide stance, and toes and knees pointed outward. Some lifters prefer a variation that is a cross between a conventional deadlift and a sumo deadlift.

Different Proportions Requires Different Techniques

One of the reasons for different deadlifting techniques is the variation in body proportions from one lifter to the next. The best case scenario for ideal proportions would be long arms, short legs, and an upper leg that is short in proportion to the lower leg. The worst case scenario would be short arms, long legs, and a long femur with low knees. Most people are somewhere between the two extremes and will have variations in mobility that dictate what type of deadlifting technique is best for them.

Coaching the Deadlift

Perhaps one of the most articulate coaches at explaining deadlift technique is Eric Cressey, who is a great deadlifter himself. If you click on the link to his website (click here for Eric Cressey’s Website), you will find a sign up form for his free deadlift videos that are brief, concise, and extremely informative. He explains the conventional deadlift, sumo deadlift, and trap bar deadlift. Eric is incredibly knowledgeable.

The Conventional Deadlift

Mark Bell is an excellent powerlifting instructor and gives good instructions in the following video for the basics of a conventional deadlift.

Daniel Back is a jumping specialist who trains basketball players and athletes, but he is also extremely methodical in his approach to the deadlift and is very objective about how good deadlifters actually perform the deadlift. This is a longer video, but it will help you avoid common errors.

The Sumo Deadlift

Garrett Blevins is an outstanding powerlifter who gives good instructions for the sumo deadlift in the following video.

Perhaps the best form I’ve seen for the sumo deadlift belong to Andrew Belyaev and Laura Phelps. Both seem to have the right structure and mobility for a very wide sumo stance and both lift massive weights though neither are huge in physical size. Andrew Belyaev is shown in the first video and Laura Phelps in the second video.

The deadlift is a great exercise if you master the form, but it can be a treacherous exercise if you do not use good technique. I want to finish this discussion on deadlift by saying I do not recommend grinding out slow heavy deadlifts as it is very difficult to maintain good form when doing so with the deadlift. Instead, go for a smooth, fluid lifting motion. In the next article, I will discuss lifting technique for the bench press. Best of training to you.

Using a Realistic Amount of Weight

I am of the belief that in order to train properly you must be willing to train within your own strength zone. This mean selecting an appropriate amount of weight in relationship to your personal strength level. Perhaps the two biggest deterrents that keep people from training within their strength zone are the desire progress too fast, and training with weights that are too heavy for maximum lifts and too heavy for the amount of reps and sets that are done in a workout.

Why People use Too Much Weight

Why do people try to progress too fast and push too hard and lift too much weight in their workouts? I believe one of the biggest reasons is an unrealistic perspective based on books, magazines, and internet hype that over exaggerates realistic levels of strength. The three biggest hype factors that lead to all of the exaggerated perspectives on strength consist of:

Steroids and performance enhancement drugs.
Lifting Gear
Focusing on those with superhuman genetics.

I am assuming that most people who get involved in weight training do not want to take steroids or performance enhancement drugs. This is a significant factor that will make it hard to ever get as strong as those who are taking part in the use chemical advantages. I am also assuming that most people who get involved in weight training are not using bench shirts, or using the suits and wraps that are used for squats and deadlifts. There are guys who bench around 700 pounds raw but are able to bench over 1,000 pounds with a bench shirt. Lifting gear can add anywhere from 50 pounds to 300 pounds to one’s true raw strength.

Finally, I’m assuming that most people who are involved in weight training do not possess freakish genetics. Not everyone is designed to weigh in at over 300 pounds like some of the super heavies who are putting up huge poundages. You can look at someone like Eric Spoto who is a classic genetic wonder and start to feel hopelessly weak. He’s mega strong even when lifting raw without lifting gear. Resist comparing yourself to a super heavy, and if you must compare yourself with others, compare yourself with those in your own weight class.

A Distorted Norm for Success

When you look at the advantages of steroids, performance enhancement drugs, lifting gear, and genetics that apply to only one in a million lifters, and you combine all those factors together, the outcome is exaggerated performances and poundages. The more realistic strength level of those who train but don’t take steroids, or use lifting gear, or possess super human genetics are ignored in favor of a constant focus on exaggerated performances that are seen so often on youtube that they begin to be seen as the norm for success.

When those who don’t take steroids, or use lifting gear, or have supreme genetics are exposed to those who do, they can feel as though they are way behind and do all kinds of things to make up for it in their training. It’s easy to start shortening up the range of motion of various lifts and to start using sloppy form in order to use more weight. This only serves to give a lifter an inflated view of their own strength to convince themselves that they are making progress.

One of the keys to training within your strength zone is to use weights that are right for your own strength level. It may mean backing up and using less weight with good form, or doing less reps with a given weight so that you don’t over train. It may mean using light weight to do some dynamic speed training. All of this can be brutal on your ego if you are fixated on the exaggerated strength levels plastered all over the internet. However, in the end, you will be satisfied with honest strength gains if you train within your own strength zone.

Expose Yourself to Realistic Standards

Exaggerated hype is the lure that the muscle media uses to attract the biggest crowd possible. If you want a more accurate picture of what strength level you should be at without drugs, lifting gear, or extreme genetics, I suggest looking at the standards that are on Muscle and Brawn as they are much more realistic to the general population of people who train with weights. You can see these standards by clicking on the article, “What is Strong? Real World Strength Standards for Raw, Natural Lifters.” These standards will help you shoot for realistic goals and help you to train in a realistic manner. Best of training to you.

Training Variety Part 2
Do you like to train to failure and beyond? Do you often go for a one rep max? Are you on a mission to break your previous best in every workout? All of these methods produce a high amount of training stress. I believe the more stressful the training, the more training variety is needed.

High Stress Training

The more stressful your training is, the more your body is likely to shut down any strength gains in response to repeating the same training over and over again. Any time your body is over-stressed in the same way on a repeated basis, it leads to the pattern that kills progress. What is the pattern that kills progress? It occurs when your body keeps trying to accomplish its primary goal of making it easier for you to lift weights by becoming stronger, but the workouts immediately get harder (with added weight and reps) instead of easier. Your body sees no benefit to gaining strength if it makes workouts harder instead of easier.

One way to deal with this is to constantly change the workout stress. If you use heavy weight in one workout and lighter weights in a different workout, the risk of overtaxing your body by using the same workout stress too often decreases. This is one reason why lifters and coaches recommend changing the amount of weight, the amount of sets, the amount of reps, and the exercises that are used. They especially recommend this if they are using max training loads and pushing close to failure.

Periodization

You can find endless periodization methods that incorporate strategic changes in training over time. The conjugate method is an example of constant changes in load, band tension, exercises, and range of motion. It has worked fabulously for many lifters; and is especially necessary for those who try for a new one rep max every week. You can’t stress your body with the exact same type of maximum load again and again and hope to keep gaining strength.

Muscle Confusion

Constant variety is often referred to as muscle confusion in bodybuilding circles. The term implies that you can confuse your body into growth. I don’t personally believe that your body gets stronger as a result of confusion. Your body isn’t confused at all about gaining strength, it knows exactly why it wants to gain strength. In fact if you confuse your body with too many non-specific stresses, it doesn’t know what you are asking it to do and does nothing in regard to gaining strength. With the right kind of specificity, you can do away with the concept of muscle confusion.

Specificity

The kind of specificity I’m referring to is a specific type of training stress aimed at a specific energy system, with a specific amount of training stress. If you know the specifics, you can set your body up to want to gain strength. Specificity for strength training refers to using light weights for explosive training, using the marker rep with medium heavy weights, and also doing some single rep training with heavy weights that allow a smooth continuous lifting motion without grinding. This is done as long a muscle group is at full strength, but no longer than that.

If you learn the specifics, you can systematically apply them day in and day out in a consistent manner without trying to confuse your muscles with endless variations. The correct specifics will allow a high degree of consistency from one workout to the next in a manner that will make gaining strength the best choice for your body, so that’s exactly what it will do. For more on specificity, I recommend the article, “One Choice or Multiple Choice Workout Results?” After decades of training, I see specificity as a colossal key to long term training success, but I get the impression that most lifters do not understand it or how to apply it correctly.

If you love training super hard, I recommend tons of variety to keep from getting stuck. However, if you know the specifics in regard to the types and amount of training stresses to be applied, then I recommend the right kind of variety within a workout combined with consistency from one workout to the next. System 4 is an example of this. Best of training to you.

Training Variety With Sensible Boundaries

If you look into the way that great lifters, bodybuilders, and athletes train, you will find that many of them used a great amount of variety within their training. Bill Pearl built an amazing physique by using a huge variety of exercises and variations of weight. Rory Leidelmeyer, John Brown and Sergio Oliva were incredible bodybuilders who would sometimes do up to 100 reps per set, but they would use medium and heavy weights as well. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Phil Heath are classic examples of bodybuilders who include plenty of variety in their training. Bodybuilders tend to like variety, but they are not the only ones. There are powerlifters who also depend up on variety within their training.

Powerlifters

If you have ever heard of the conjugate system that the West Side lifters use for powerlifting, it’s based on variety. The Westside lifters constantly change the exercises they use for their weekly one rep max attempts, and they constantly change the amount of band tension they use for weekly dynamic speed training. The idea for the constant change came from the training system that the former Soviet Union lifters used for their training.

Of all the powerlifters and strong men that I have heard of who make extensive use of variety, perhaps Bud Jeffries tops the list. Bud uses light weights with tons of reps, as well as moderately heavy and very heavy weights. He also does huge varieties of exercises and mixes partial reps consisting a various ranges of motion with reps consisting of a full range of motion. Bud doesn’t just lift barbells and dumbbells, he also uses kettle bells, bodyweight exercises, and practices lifting all kinds of odd objects. It has certainly worked for him as he has squatted 1000 pounds raw without using steroids.

Bud Jeffries Working Out

Be Careful: Variety Can Turn into Frivolous Training

After discussing the merits of variety, I must warn that the unwise use of training variety can turn into frivolous workouts that lead to nowhere. Highly successful powerlifters who use a great deal of variety also have enough consistency to track their training for measurable progress. It’s also important to stay within the boundaries of productive strength training practices. This is why I constantly give the advice to use the marker rep and to monitor a muscle group enough to train it as long as it is at full strength, and to stop training a muscle group when it begins to weaken.

The Wise Use of Variety

I personally prefer variety within a workout. I like light weights for speed training along with the use of moderately heavy and heavy weights. However, even though I like variety within a given workout, I prefer the same variety from one workout to the next because it has worked for me. It is easy to monitor your progress when you consistently do the same workout and slightly increase the weights on a scheduled basis. I am also careful to stay within the boundaries of only doing reps as long as I can maintain a steady, even rep rhythm. When rep speed starts to slow down due to fatigue during a set, I stop doing reps, and I quit doing sets as soon as a muscle group begins to weaken.

If you love variety in your training, you are in good company with a lot of great lifters and athletes. However, make sure that you have a way to track your progress, and that you learn to use variety in a productive manner by combining it with sensible boundaries that will help you to succeed. Best of Training to you.

Even Level Strength Training

Bodybuilder standing with barbell in gym .

In order to communicate strength training concepts, sometimes it is necessary to come up with a term that communicates an idea. Even Level Strength Training is one of those terms. It refers to the idea of training in a manner where you maintain a fairly even level of strength throughout a workout, as well as in between workouts.

Up and Down Strength

A common concept that I finally learned to discard from my own training is the idea of doing a workout where strength substantially drops by the end of the workout. Then I would have to recover for 48-72 hours to fully regain my strength before working out again (some lifters train hard enough to need even longer than this to recover). I don’t doubt that there are lifters and bodybuilders who quickly use up their strength at the start of a workout and end up doing the majority of their workout in a weakened state. Then they remain in a weakened between workouts until their scheduled workout day comes again. I trained in this manner where my strength would constantly fluctuate up and down for years.

Constant Fluctuation

The type of training that causes strength to constantly fluctuating up and down forces the body to operate within a high degree of physiological variation. It’s the opposite of physiological stability where the body can settle into more of a homeostatic state where change is minimized. We are all different, but it is likely that the fluctuating state of dramatic physiological variance is probably difficult for some people’s body to manage.

Even Level Strength Training

I believe there is an approach that helps the body stay in a more stable condition rather to constantly fluctuate up and down. I have already eluded to it as Even Level Strength Training. The idea is not new. When the Bulgarians were dominating the weight lifting world in the 1970’s and 1980’s, the Americans were shocked to find out that it wasn’t unusual for them to train the Olympic lifts three or more times per day. The only way they could do a workout and still have a decent amount of strength left for their next workouts on the same day, was to do brief workouts that allowed their strength level to stay high during a workout, as well as in between workouts.

Programming Your Body to Stay at a Given Strength Level

Training in a manner that allows your strength to stay at an even level both during and between workouts provides an easier way for your body to manage a workout stress. You can virtually program your body to continuously function at a given strength level until it becomes comfortable with that strength level. When your body grows comfortable with that strength level, you can slightly increase it by adding a little weight. Your body will then grow comfortable with the new strength level. The process can be repeated again and again by programing and reprogramming your body in a gradual manner for successive increases in strength. By training in this manner, you can gain strength without greatly disturbing the even homeostatic level of strength that your body has learned to maintain.

Many people will find that stopping a workout before strength decreases will result in a fairly brief workout that is not overly strenuous. It may not feel like enough work has been done for a decent workout if the workout is stopped before strength starts to decrease. This is one reason that using a higher training frequency in conjunction with this type of training is common. The workouts are not severe, but they may need to be done frequently to provide enough stimulation to be effective.

Your Body Knows What’s Best

I want to acknowledge that there is more than one way to train effectively. If your strength level constantly fluctuates up and down due to very hard training, then at this point in time, it’s a good training strategy. However, if it’s not working, you have the option training so that you maintain a fairly even strength level during your workouts, as well as between your workouts. Your body will be the best judge as to which type of training is best for you. Best of training to you.

Partial Integration and Abbreviated Workouts

To quickly review system 4 training, it consists of four following types of training;

Force and Frequency Training
Marker rep Sets
Half Set training
Heavy Single Rep Training

Two types of System 4 training routines have been discussed so far consisting first all four training systems being integrated into a single workout, and second, only focusing on one of the four systems in each workout. The emphasis of this article will be on using more than one, but less than all four of the training systems in each workout. In other words, two or three systems will be used in each workout. I call these partial integration workouts because only a part (or 2 to 3) of the four systems are used in each workout.

When using partial integration workouts, a full workout can be used, or an abbreviated workout can be used. A full workout is designed to exercise to the limit of your ability to stay strong while exercising a given muscle group. An abbreviated workout is designed to stop short of the capacity to exercise a muscle group at full strength. For example, if a muscle group could can be trained with the equivalent of three or four full sets before it begins to weaken, you would only train it with the equivalent of one or two full sets in a given workout.

I have listed 7 different workouts that provide various combinations of training systems. Simply click the link and it will take you directly to a PDF of the workouts.

Click here for 7 Partial integration and Abbreviated Workouts

5 Mr. Olympia Titles

I am going to depart from my training routine series this week because I think it is noteworthy that Phil Heath recently won his 5^th Mr. Olympia title on September 20, 2015. How has Phil Heath managed to win the most coveted title in bodybuilding five years in a row? Of course you can’t overlook genetics and sheer bodybuilding talent. Few people on this planet will ever be able to accomplish what Phil has accomplished even if they train and diet perfectly for a lifetime. That being said, talent isn’t the only factor for his success, Phil is willing to train hard, but he also knows how to train smart. I never know how much some of the champions have an exact training methodology clearly defined in their mind, as opposed to how much of it is just something that they understand by feel. Whichever it is, Phil’s workouts are superlative.

Four Training Methods

From my observations, Phil Heath definitely incorporates a variety of training styles into workouts. I would like to cover four of those styles. These consist of 1) pumping, 2) pushing a set very hard, 3) feeling centered exercises, 4) precision effort.

Pumping

As we look at these training styles one at a time, let us first consider pumping. In the following video, Phil is using fairly light weights in relationship to his strength. His rep speed is moderately fast but very controlled and smooth with excellent form. He’s not particularly worried about using a full range of motion but is zeroed in on the range of motion where he can feel the portion of his triceps he wants to feel. Phil in not trying to lift a lot of weight or obliterate his triceps with grueling effort. He quits before he has to strain. He’s simply trying to isolate and pump his triceps.

Pushing a Set Very Hard

In the next video, Phil is pushing very hard on a chest press machine. He does occasionally train to failure or close to failure. While it would be incorrect to say that he never trains to failure, it would also be an exaggeration to say that he pushes all of his sets as hard as he does on the second and fourth set of this video. Phil has a good sense of how often to push this hard.

Feeling

Phil also includes training where he is simply trying to feel the exercise in a certain part of his muscle. He does slower reps with lighter weights because he is trying to feel the stretch at the bottom of his incline flies and he wants to feel a squeeze at the top of the motion. It’s important to understand that there are times that Phil does use very heavy weights on basic exercises, but this is not one of those times as his purpose for dumbbell flies is to concentrate on feeling his upper pecs work throughout the whole range of motion.

Precision Effort

For lack of a better term, I refer to the last type of training that Phil Heath uses as precision effort training. This is done with basic exercises (Incline dumbbell presses in this case) using forceful reps and excellent form. The sets are hard enough, but not excessively hard and closely resemble what I advocate in Precision Point Training. If your primary focus is on getting bigger and stronger in a progressive manner, this is the type of training that I recommend you focus on. In fact, from what I’ve seen in training videos, this is the type of training that four out of the last five of Mr. Olympia’s focused the majority of their training on when doing basic compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, pulldowns and rowing motions.

I believe that Phil Heath has a tremendous feel for training which has helped him build a world class physique. Even though he uses a variety of training methods, he has a great sense for when to use each method and how often to use them for best results. We can all learn from watching him train and become better for it. Best of training to you.

Improve Your Lifts by Up to 20%

I know that I frequently discuss the fact that I believe that it is important to lift weights forcefully when performing each repetition. The reason I emphasize this so much is that it can make a big difference in your lifting performance. If you want to lift a lot of weight, learn to lift the weights explosively and forcefully while maintaining excellent exercise form.

Apply Maximum Force Regardless of the Weight

Many lifters only exert maximum force into a lift when they are lifting near maximum weights. However, if you learn to lift lighter weights forcefully and explosively, you will find that they can add to your strength as well. A lot of people take a vacation when they lift weights that are only moderately heavy. They push or pull in a casual half-hearted manner. They are wasting an opportunity to improve their strength on each and every rep of the workout when they do so.

CAT or Compensatory Acceleration Training

Fred Hatfield is one of the greatest squatters in the history of powerlifting. He came up with the term CAT which stands for Compensatory Acceleration Training. It simply means to lift with full force through the entire range of motion. The top of the range of a motion in a lift tends to be easier than the bottom, so lifters often exert a lot of force at the start of the lift, but ease up at the end of a repetition. However, when using CAT, you lift with full effort and accelerate all the way through the whole range of motion from start to finish.

The Difference Explosive Training Can Make

Fred Hatfield has said that lifters who don’t use the CAT method of forceful lifting can increase their lifts by as much as 20%. Brandon Lilly can bench over 500 pounds and gives a real life example of how much it helped him when he finally learned to push all the way through the very end of the full range of motion when benching. Both Fred and Brandon talk about this in the videos.

Carefully Work Your Way into it

As much as explosive training can help you gain strength, it should be preceded by mastering each lift with excellent form and increasing the speed of the lift according to your ability to maintain good form and remain injury free. Make sure your muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments can withstand forceful lifting and work your way into it before engaging in this type of lifting.

Perhaps you have found it useful to do slow controlled reps and don’t like fast explosive reps. If that’s the case, I would suggest continuing with slow controlled reps, but doing some of your training with explosive reps as well to get benefit that it can provide. Best of training to you.

Single System Training

The last two articles have focused on system 4 training which addresses four aspects of weight training to enhance consistent results. These articles focused on integrated training which refers to including all four training systems into a single workout. I understand that some lifters prefer addressing just one type of training in a given workout as opposed to integrating several types into a single workout. When just one type of training is done during a workout, I refer to it as single system training. Single system training can be done in three different ways which include:

Switching from one training system to another in successive workouts.
Option two is to focus on a single training system for a week at a time. One system per week would amount to completing four systems in four weeks. This could also be utilized in the form of gradual progression each week where the weight is increased by two to three percent each workout which would help you to progress from the lightest workouts to the heaviest workouts over the course of four weeks or a month.
Option three is to focus on a single system for several weeks, or a block of time. This is often referred to as block training. Each training block is generally done for three to six weeks before moving to a new training block where a different system would be used.

This is all spelled out in greater detail in the form of free routines and instructions for each routine by simply clicking on the link below. Best of training to you.

Click here for Free Single System Workouts in PDF

System 4 Training Instructions

In the last article, I discussed a form a strength training that I refer to as System 4 Training. It basically consists four types (or systems) of training including force and frequency training which is explosive training with 40% to 50% of the maximum weight that you can lift. The second type of training is half set training using 65%-75% of the maximum weight you can lift. The third is heavy single rep training with 80% more of the maximum weight that you can lift, and the forth is mark rep sets which are done with 50% to 60% of the maximum weight that you can lift.

I have found that the correct application of four types of training produces more consistent results than just focusing on one type of training. The four types of training can be applied in different ways including 1 ) Integrating all four types (or systems) of training into each workout, 2) Using all four training systems but only focusing on one system at a time in each workout, or 3) Doing a combination of two or three types of training in a workout. My personal favorite is the first method which is to combine all four methods into a single workout. It should be done with just a few basic exercises per workout for best results in order to train often without overtraining. The basic workout is explained below:

Principles to Follow When Integrating All 4 Systems into One Workout

Force and Frequency Principles

Force and Frequency Training serves a dual purpose as both a warm up for heavier training, and a means to improve speed and rapid force production.

When using Force and Frequency Training, you will always be using a weight that ranges from 40% and 50% of the maximum amount of weight that you can use for an exercise.

Force and Frequency sets will always consist of 5 explosive reps per set.

Three sets of 5 reps will be done when using 50% of the maximum weight that you can lift.

Four sets of 5 reps will be done when using 40% of a max lift.

Half Set Training Principles

For Half Set Training, you will be using 65% to 75% of the maximum weight that you can lift for an exercise. Lift the weight forcefully while maintaining perfect form.

The amount of reps that you use for a half set is based on doing half of the number of strong reps that you can do with the weight you are using. Strong reps are the number of reps that you can do before your rep speed and rep rhythm starts to slow down. For example, if you can do strong 8 reps with 70%, then you would do two half sets of 4 reps.

When integrating all four training systems, only two half per exercise are done.

Heavy Single Rep Principles

Heavy Single Rep Training is done for one rep with weights that are 80% or more of the maximum weight that you can lift for a given exercise. Only do one single rep when including all of the other training systems.

The amount of weight you use should never exceed your ability to perform a clean single rep, which is the maximum weight you can lift without breaking form or slowing down and grinding during the rep. No grinding.

Marker Rep Set Principles

Marker Rep Sets should be done using 50% to 60% of the maximum weight that you can lift for a single rep of an exercise.

The amount of reps that are done is determined by stopping when you reach your marker rep, which is the first rep where a steady, even rep speed or rep rhythm begin to slow down during a set.

Over time, using the same amount of weight and reps should become easier. Eventually you should develop the strength and ability to do the last rep without having to slow down your rep speed.

Do only one marker rep set per exercise

This workout is designed to be demanding enough to cause your body to want to adapt by gaining strength, however, it not highly taxing. The workout should be done at least three times per week. If you want to do more than three workouts per week, you may want to make some adjustments and use only two or three of the systems in your extra workouts. These adjustments are addressed in more detail in the PDF that shows exercises, instructions, a written routine. All you need to do to see the routine is to click on the link below. Best of training to you.

System 4 Training All Systems in a Single Workout

System 4 Training

triceps extensions

This is the first of what I foresee as a long series of articles that will simply focus on training routines. The routines are based on what I feel are four distinct aspect of training that work together to build strength. As I give a brief overview of the four methods, you may feel that one method is superior to the others for building strength, which is fine, but in regards to myself, my progress seems more consistent when I utilize all four methods which I call training systems.

Since there are four basic training methods that will be discussed for building strength, I refer to the overall method as System 4 Training. It is designed to provide a highly flexible set of training variables that also provide an endless series of training variations. These variations can be adapted to fit your training needs or preferred style of training. To start with, I will list the four training systems along with the physical qualities that they enhance. The four training systems include:

Force and frequency training

For developing:

*Speed

*Rapid force development

Half Set Training

For developing:

*Strength

*Speed

*Muscle size

Heavy Rep Training

For Developing:

*Strength

Marker Rep Sets

For developing:

*Strength

*Muscle size

Strategies for System 4 Implementation

These 4 training systems can be implemented by using different training strategies that form routines and training cycles. Let’s take a look at the strategies.

The first strategy is to integrate all four training systems into a single workout.
A second strategy is to focus on just one training system at a time within a workout, or within a week, or within a training block of several weeks.
A third strategy is to use different combinations of two or three training systems per workout.
A fourth strategy is to use a combination of the first three strategies.

Integrating All 4 Systems into a Single Workout

Since the first strategy is to integrate all four training systems into a single workout, I will address this strategy first. In spite of what many teach about strength training, I find that incorporating several types of training into a single workout to be very effective if it is applied correctly. Correct application means that each training system is done using the right amount of sets and reps with the right amount of weight, the right training intensity and the right training frequency.

The Basic System 4 Routine

The most basic system 4 training routine is based on a pre-established amount of sets and reps which seems uncharacteristic of Precision Point Training. However, Precision Point Training concepts are used for making adjustments to adapt the training to individual training needs. The training Principles that are to be applied to Force and Frequency Training, Half set Training, Heavy Single Rep Training, and Marker Rep Sets, will be listed in the next article.

For now, you can sign up to receive a free downloadable printable template of the basic System 4 training routine where all four training systems are incorporated into one training routine. The workout template provides training instruction and shows photos of exercises with sets, reps, and the percentage of weight that should be used for each exercise. If you are interested, just click on the picture below and the free training routine will be sent to your email box. Best of Training to you.

Correcting False Conclusions

Having been involved with weight training for years (decades), I want to share some conclusions that I thought I had learned from training experience, but my conclusions turned out to be wrong. First of all, I have always been the type that will listen to the experts to start with, but if there is a wide spectrum of opinions among the experts, or their advice doesn’t seem to be working, I’m not afraid to try something new; even if it goes against the common expert advice.

High Frequency Training Appeared to be Bad

One of the things that I tried that went against what the experts said was to try training my whole body five days in a row. The first time I tried this, I just did one to two sets to failure for each body part. It felt good for about a week and then it started to feel like I was burning out and it quit working. I gave it up after about a month. My conclusion was that the experts were right and that training on consecutive days was a bad idea.

Like many people who train with weights, I didn’t understand that in order for one variable to work right, the other variables must be adjusted to compliment that variable. In this case, it was many years later that I learned that training on consecutive days did work if I stopped a set when rep speed started to slow down, and I quit repeating sets for a body part as soon as my strength level decreased.

Light Weights Appeared to be Worthless

A second false conclusion that I believed through experience was that light weights are always worthless when it comes to strength training. Of course the experts said lights weights would rob me of strength and once again they seemed to be right. However, various circumstances led me to try doing 10 reps or less per set, even though the weight was light enough to do 50 reps or more for one set. Suddenly my strength started to pick up and I was surprised that as long as I lifted the weights forcefully and stopped a set long before I began to fatigue, light weights could enhance strength training.

Lifting Heavy on Regular Basis Seemed to be Bad

A third false conclusion occurred after being enamored with the Bulgarian style of training. Bulgarian methodology is built around working up to a one rep max weight. The one rep max is not a phase of a training cycle, instead, working up to a one rep max is done on a consistent basis from one workout to the next. It wore me out and left me stuck. I concluded frequent training with heavy weights doesn’t work, but I later found that it does work if I back off enough on the weight to use perfect form and never grind. Others have also found that using excellent form without grinding with heavy weights to be very important. This is discussed on the following videos.

Another factor that seemed necessary for my own success when using heavy weights was to compliment it with other types of training including the use of light weights, medium weights, and medium heavy weights. Basically, I prefer four types of training as opposed to one. This will be discussed further in the next article. Best of training to you.

Grinder Reps vs. Explosive Reps

When considering how often you should work out and how many sets and reps you will be doing each workout, you must consider how you perform your reps; specifically, do you tend to use grinder reps to derive a training effect, or do you depend upon explosive reps for a training effect. There are great lifters who use grinder reps, and great lifters who use explosive reps, even when going for a max.

What are Grinder Reps and Explosive Reps?
Since I brought up the subject of grinder reps and explosive reps, it is important to define the difference between the two. A grinder rep is a rep that is slow and strenuous. The lifter squeezes out the rep over the course for three to five seconds. Grinders occur when using maximum or near maximum weights, or they come at the end of a set when training to failure or beyond. Explosive reps are done as quick and fast as possible. You will find that some explosive lifters never grind because they will miss if they grind. If they can’t get the weight up within a second or two, the bar just isn’t going to go up. Either their muscles were never designed to grind, or they aren’t able to grind because they never trained themselves to grind.

Olympic Lifters vs. Powerlifters

Olympic lifters must do a lot of explosive lifting because it is impossible to do a heavy clean and jerk or snatch using a slow grinder rep. The exception to this can be occasionally seen when an olympic lifter grinds when coming up from the front squat phase of a clean and jerk, but for the most part, they lift explosively, even when using heavy weights. Powerlifters can go either way; some explode on their lifts, and some grind. We will take a look at some examples of explosive lifting and grinding.

Adalberto Arranda is an Olympic lifter. He is ridiculously strong and squats with 285 Kilos (625 pounds) without straining. If you watch the video, notice that he descends quickly into the bottom of his squat and springs right back up. His squatting speed remains nearly constant whether using light or heavy weights, as it’s always fast both when lowering and lifting the weight.

The lifter in the next video (Sa JaeHyouk of South Korea), is mega strong without being exceptionally big. I’m impressed with how he explodes and moves quickly through every phase of the clean and jerk while lifting 203 kilos (447 pounds). This is an explosive lifter.

The ever great Ed Coan did not do dynamic speed training like some power lifters do today, but for the most part, he stayed away from grinding in his training, even when squatting heavy with 950 and benching heavy with 550.

One of my very favorite lifters is Charles Staley. He was never a super talent and started out without much strength, but he is now over 50 years old and still manages to improve. For his size, age, and ability level, he is very strong. Charles sometimes grinds on heavy reps in his workouts. I personally don’t like to use grinder reps when working out, but Charles has definitely made this type of training work for himself.

Of the top bodybuilders that I have observed on video, Phil Heath, Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler do most of their training with faster explosive reps on basic exercises, but they often grind on shoulder and arm exercises. Kai Greene also uses explosive reps, but he’s not afraid to push himself to grind on any exercise.

In general, grinding is much more taxing than explosive lifting when using heavy weights. For the most part, grinders don’t and shouldn’t work out as often as it takes longer to recover from grinding. Lifters who avoid grinding will usually be able to do more sets and workout more often without over training. It is also important mention that when using light weights, the opposite is true in terms of lifting speed. Explosive lifting is much more taxing when using light weights than when lifting the same light weight at a casual lifting speed.

Consider Your Own Training

When considering the amount of sets, reps, and how often you should workout, you must also consider your workout style and the type of reps you use. Think about this when formulating a training plan and make adjustments accordingly. Best of training to you.

Squat Every Day and High Frequency Training

If you have been reading Precision Point Training articles for very long, you have probably picked up on the fact that I prefer high frequency training as opposed to moderate or low frequency training; at least for myself. This is the exact opposite advice that is given to skinny hardgainers who are often told to workout less often with shorter workouts in order to gain anything. I am a skinny hardgainer who’s tried myriads of training methods and I’ve never experienced anything that produces worse results for myself than the typical advice given to hardgainers; especially in regard to low training frequency. However, even though I doesn’t work for me, I still believe in it for anyone who tries it and finds that it works for them, which it has for many people.

Avoid Fatigue

Since I have had more success with high frequency training, I naturally want to find out what others are doing who have found success with high frequency training. First let me say that nobody that I know of who uses high frequency training tries to thoroughly work and exhaust a muscle every day. The emphasis is on training only while you are strong and fresh with energy. Training fatigue that causes you to weaken during a workout is generally avoided.

Squat Every Day

There are some high frequency training programs that are gaining popularity. One is found in a book called Squat Every Day by Matt Perryman which you can easily find on Amazon. There are also a lot of free resources out there. One is Corey Gregory who has a squat every day program that you can find on Bodybuilding.com and youtube. Another is John Broz who is weightlifter and weightlifting coach who has tons of experience with high frequency training for both Olympic lifts and the power lifts. One of the best known coaches for high frequency training is Tsatsouline Pavel, and I would recommend his book on Easy Strength

Damien Pezzuti

The Russians and Bulgarians have been using high frequency training successfully for decades and the Chinese lifters have also found great success with it. Within the United States, Damien Pezzuti is an elite powerlifter in the 181 class. He has freely shared his training knowledge and how he has used high frequency training successfully. Damien has a program where he trains the bench and squat five days per week. A summary of his training looks like this:

Monday, Wednesday and Friday he works up to one heavy single. He starts with 50% of his maximum weight for just one rep, then does one rep each for progressively heavier weights of 60%, 70%, 80% and 90%. After this he does one more single with over 90%. The exact weight depends on how strong he feels. He then does 2 sets which vary in weight according to the day of the week. This means on Monday he uses 90% for 2 singles, on Wednesday he uses 80% for two sets of triples, and on Friday he does two sets of doubles with 85%. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, a recovery workout is done which emphasizes lighter weight and lifting speed. The workout simply consists of three triples using 60% of his maximum weight. Damien does assistance exercises as well to compliment these lifts.

If you have had it pounded into your head that you should only be working a body part twice or three times per week as I did for many years, consider that you may benefit from working out shorter but more often, and check into some of the high frequency training programs. Best of training to you.

Rest Pause Reps First

I have written about rest pause reps in previous articles, but I am going to revisit this topic with a different variation. There are a couple of common variation to rest pause training. The first would be to convert a set of consecutive nonstop reps into the same number of single reps with a short rest of ten to fifteen seconds between each rep. Another common variation is to do some rest pause reps immediately after completing a standard set of continuous reps. For example, you could do a set of ten reps, put the weight down, then immediately start to do single reps every ten to fifteen seconds with the same weight until you have done three to four rest pause reps after your set of ten reps.

In the second example, the rest pause reps are used at the end of a set when you are already tired. This type of training corresponds to the philosophy that the most effective reps are the end of a set when reps are the hardest. I bought into this philosophy of training for two decades before it began to dawn on me that the most effective reps for strength training are at the beginning of set when you are not tired. In fact, I wondered why not just do the first part of the set and eliminate the last part of the set when fatigue starts to set in?

The Start of the set Builds Strength

There came a point when I tried out the idea of focusing on the start of the set in my training. This concept proved effective on the condition that I pushed with full force on each rep. It’s a good concept for building strength, but I found that both the start of the set and the end of a full set are important. The start of the set is important for building strength, and the end of the set is important for maximizing muscle mass. Basically, this means that when it comes to rest pause training, I like to do the rest pause reps before the full set to minimize fatigue and maximize forceful lifting, and then immediately follow this with a full set of consecutive reps to stimulate more muscle growth.

Using rest pause reps before a full set must be correctly implemented in order to be effective. Let me give you an example of how to use this method effectively. If you can do a full set of ten strong reps before your rep rhythm starts to slow down, you can take those ten strong reps and divide them into five rest pause singles that you will do with ten to fifteen seconds rest between reps before doing five non-stop reps for a total of ten reps. You may be able to do more than five consecutive reps before your rep speed starts to slow down which is fine, but I don’t recommend that you push your set past the point where rep speed starts to slow down.

The End of the Set Builds Muscle Mass

There is no exact law in regard to how many rest pause reps you must do before starting into consecutive reps. You could vary your training by doing seven rest pause reps and three consecutive reps, or three rest pause reps followed by seven consecutive reps. Every variation is going to give you a slightly different effect. Once again, rest pause reps will emphasize strength, while consecutive reps enhance muscle size. When you push a set of consecutive reps to the point where rep speed starts to slow down and stop, you are triggering a greater release of lactic acid which stimulates growth hormone. These factors make the end of the set an important factor for triggering muscle growth.

Reduce Fatigue for Strength – Include Fatigue for Muscle Mass

By reducing fatigue at the start of the set with rest pause reps, you maximize your ability to apply force into each rep which maximizes strength. By following this with the right amount of fatigue through the use of consecutive reps, you stimulate muscle growth. Both the beginning and the end of the set are important and you can maximize the positive effects of both by using rest pause reps before doing consecutive reps. If you apply this method correctly, it will help you build both strength and size. Best of training to you.

Muscle Fiber Recruitment Part 2

The focus of maximizing muscle fiber recruitment is often associated with using more weight, or doing more reps, but the force factor is often overlooked. In other words, if you are not lifting a very heavy weight, or you are not pushing a set to failure, it is often assumed that you are lacking the necessary mechanisms to trigger muscle fiber recruitment. This does not have to be the case if you lift weights forcefully.

Sprinters and jumper must recruit a high degree of muscle fibers to generate the necessary speed and force to sprint and jump, but they are not using heavy weights or sprinting or jumping to failure. Technically a sprinter or jumper may be moving so rapidly that the motion does not permit sufficient time for an absolute maximum muscle contraction to occur. However, when you apply force production and speed to lifting weights that are even moderately heavy, the problem is resolved as the resistance slows the motion down enough to permit maximum muscle fiber recruitment for maximum contractions.

More Force Equals More Muscle Fiber Recruitment

The point is that when you lift weights, the more acceleration and lifting force that is applied when lifting a given weight, the more muscle fibers will be activated during the exercise. This applies when lifting light weights, medium heavy weights, and heavy weights. The faster you lift the specific weight you are using, the more muscle fibers are recruited. If you take a moment to watch the following videos, you will see that Jay Cutler, Dan Kovacs and the lifter who is doing deadlifts all lift powerfully and forcefully as it is an effective means for gaining strength.

Jay Cutler Benching 405

Dan Kovacs Benching

Deadlifts for Speed and Power

Your Body Wants a Weight To Become Easier to Lift

The only way to gain the ability to lift the same weight faster and faster is to gain strength. When you gain strength in this manner, the same weight gets easier and easier to lift. The whole goal of your body when it gains strength is to make a given weight easier to lift. When you gain strength by lifting the same weight faster, your body succeeds at accomplishing its goal. However, if you immediately add weight or reps each time you gain strength, a difficult lift will never get easier. The problem with this is that workouts will perpetually remain hard and your body will eventually lose its desire to gain strength because it produces no benefit for your body when workouts never get any easier.

Eventually you will need to add weight or reps, but I don’t recommend it as the first means of progression; it should be the second means of progression. Increasing force, acceleration, and rep speed should be the first means of progression, and adding weight or reps should come afterwards.

Lift Faster First, Then Add Weight or Reps

It seems counter intuitive to most lifters to allow workouts to become easier by improving lifting force and rep speed with the same weight, but after over thirty years of weight training experience, I have found it to be a far better method for consistent progress than to focus on adding reps and weight as the first means of progress. This especially holds true if you stay within the boundaries of your marker rep, limit rep, and limit set. My suggestion then is to focus on improving force, acceleration, and rep speed first, and then to add weight or reps after this has been accomplished. Best of training to you.

Muscle Fiber Recruitment

Every day you use muscle fibers. The muscle fibers that you use are developed, and the muscle fibers that you don’t use never undergo hypertrophy and grow bigger. Put an arm or a leg into a cast to completely immobilize it, and you’ll find that when the cast comes off, the muscles have shrunk from disuse. Of course the opposite is true. If you use muscle fibers that haven’t been used, they will either grow in size, strength, or endurance. This being true, one of the goals of weight training should be to recruit muscle fibers during workouts.

3 Ways to Recruit More Muscle Fibers

There are at least three ways to increase or maximize the amount of muscle fibers used during exercise.

1. Add More Weight

One way to recruit more muscle fibers is to add more weight to an exercise. Ed Coan, Kirk karwoski, Doug Furnas are masters of incrementally adding weight from one week to the next. These old school powerlifters rarely if ever missed lifts in their workouts or competition. Furnas hits a 970 squat and makes it look easy in the video below and squats over 700 for 5 reps.

Drawbacks:

If you are depending on the weight alone as the source to recruit more muscle fibers, you will end up needing to use very heavy weights in order to maximize muscle fiber recruitment. This can be hard on your joints, connective tissue and your nervous system. Also, adding more weight does not allow the exercise to become easier as strength is increased. The whole reason the body gains strength is to make it easier for you to lift a weight, so it’s better to train in agreement with the reason as to why your body gains strength. This can easily be accomplished by increasing your ability to lift a given weight more forcefully (which will be discussed in the next article).

2. Add More Reps or Push Farther into a Set

A second way to increase the amount of muscle fibers that are recruited during exercise is to add reps to your set. I recommend stopping at your marker rep, but others advise training to failure or beyond to recruit the maximum number of muscle fibers. As muscle fibers tire from the beginning of the set, new muscle fibers will be recruited to enable a lifter to continue lifting until they can’t lift any more. Bodybuilders are more likely to use this method than powerlifters. The following video is an example of pushing a set beyond the point of failure with forced reps and rest pause reps.

Drawbacks

The lifter in the video is strong for his size. Other lifters and body builders have become exceedingly strong using this type of training. This being the case, I would never say that training to failure is wrong for everyone or that it has no value in every case. However, there are lifters who will find that training to failure crosses over into endurance training which can create a compromise between a strength adaptation and an endurance adaptation. Training to failure can also be hard on your central nervous system and shut down the willingness of your body to progressively grow stronger over a long period of time. This is a problem for the average person which is why I recommend precision point training, but a person with a highly anabolic physiology may find it to be an excellent way to train.

3. Lift with More Force

The third way that to increase the amount of muscle fibers used during exercise is to increase the amount of force that is used when lifting a given weight. I believe more people would benefit from using this as the primary means of improvement before reps and weight are added and this will be discussed fully in the next article. Until then, best of training to you.

Extra Workouts

In my earlier years I spent my summers working at various Bible camps. It was basically a 24 hour per day job six days per week. The job included plenty of recreational and game activities, so exercise was built into the job, but there wasn’t much chance to work out with weights. My first few summers I didn’t have a car, but I eventually got one and had access to a local YMCA where I could go for a weight training workout one day per week on my day off. I learned something from that summer

I had already tried the recommendations of those who believe in low frequency training by working out once per week and even once every ten days. It generally does not work for me, and in my case, it is a perfect method for getting weaker, but an exception to this was the one summer when I could go to the YMCA once per week. During these once per week workouts, my squat actually improved. However, my upper body strength went down from lack of exercise.

Extra Exercise Seemed to Help

Why did my squats seem to improve this one time when it had never worked before? One reason was that I was constantly running up and down hills and steps that were built into the layout of the camp. Add to that the running and games we often played during our recreation times, plus I did a lot of jumping on a trampoline. I would spend about five minutes on the trampoline three to five times per week. Somehow, all of the extra exercise was the right kind of exercise to help my squat improve, but at the time, I didn’t really understand the reason for my improvement.

Another lesson I learned came during the years when I worked out with weights three times per week and would go running on the days in between my weight lifting workouts. There would be occasions when I was coaching sports after school (I was a teacher), and by the time I had a chance to go running it was dark. In my neighborhood it really wasn’t safe to run at night so I would go home and substitute the run with a 20 minute workout where I continuously changed from body weight squats, to lunges, to pushups, to dumbbell swings (kind of like kettlebell swings). I did not usually go past 10 reps per set for these exercises because I had already found over and over again that sets of high reps with light weights is a good formula strength loss. But when I kept the reps to no more than 10, suddenly my weight training workouts would get easier and my strength would increase.

Extra Exercise Helped Again

I might train like this for four to six weeks before going back to running again. I probably went through this process about three times before I finally figured out that these extra body weight workouts were actually beneficial instead of detrimental to my weight training workouts. Before that, I thought that the increase in strength must have been a strange coincidence. I had always thought that body weight exercises were too light and that doing them on my off days would probably just make it more difficult to recover from my weight training workouts, but it just wasn’t the case. It seemed to help and it worked every time.

Eventually I learned that light workouts in between heavier workouts can be beneficial for strength training. If you work a body part between one to three times per week, you can do some body weight training on your off days by doing six to eight sets of 5-10 reps using bodyweight squats, or lunges, and pushups. I’ve tried doing slow laborious pushups and they can actually be counterproductive to my weight training workouts. The reps should be strict with a full range of motion, but they should also be quick fast reps. The extra workouts might make you sore and take away from your strength for the first three to five days if your body is not accustomed to the extra workouts. But once your body adapts to the extra workouts, you will probably find them beneficial.

Take a Week off from Extra Workouts Every Third or Fourth Week

Take a week off from the extra body weight workouts every third or fourth week and your body will over recover (or overcompensate) during that week and you may end up feeling stronger than ever. This doesn’t mean that doing less is always better, but it can be better for a strategic period of time. Then go back to the extra body weight workouts again for two to three weeks before taking a week off. These extra workouts should not be hard strenuous workouts. They should be brief energizing workouts that you can do within fifteen minutes. Extra workouts are not a brand new idea that I came up with. For more information and other perspectives on extra workouts, you can visit these links at the Westside Barbell website [Extra workouts] [Extra workouts part 2]. Best of training to you.

Plus One Method and Break up Sets

One of the concepts that is used with Precision Point Training is to stop a set of an exercise when you reach your limit rep or marker rep. The limit rep is the last rep that you can perform using an even rep rhythm and rep speed within a set. The marker rep is the next rep after the limit rep. It’s the first rep where your rep rhythm and rep speed begin to slow down within a set.

Once you know how many reps it takes to reach your marker rep when using a given weight, you keep using the same amount of reps in future workouts. As you continue to do this, you will gain strength until your marker rep becomes easier. When it becomes easier, you will no longer need to slow down your rep rhythm or rep speed on the last rep of the set. Your marker rep will transition into a limit rep if you have gained strength. After your marker has become easier for several workouts, then you can add on a small amount of weight or another rep.

Stuck on the Same Marker Rep?

What if you feel as though you are stuck on the same marker rep and it isn’t get any easier? The first thing I would do is to experiment with your training frequency by trying more or less workouts per week as this can make a huge difference in your success. However, there are other strategies you can apply as well; two of which I will discuss in this article. The first is the “plus one method,” the second is to use, “break up sets.”

A Full Set Plus One, or The Plus One Method

The plus one method is done by doing a full set, plus one more rep after resting for 10 seconds or less. When using the plus one method, you will stop one rep short of your marker rep, which means that you stop when you complete your limit rep. Then you set the weight down or rack the weight, wait ten seconds, then unrack the weight and blast out one or two more reps. The second week you will rest only 8 seconds after your limit rep before doing the extra one or two reps. The third week you will reduce the rest time to 6 seconds, followed by 4 seconds in the fourth week, then reduce to no rest for a continuous set in the 5^th or 6^th week. By that time, the marker rep should transition into an easier rep so that you don’t need to slow down on your last rep.

Break Up Sets

Another method you can experiment with is break up sets. This simply means that you will break up one single set into two or three mini sets. For example, if you are hitting your marker rep on your 10^th rep with a given weight, you can break that set up into three sets. Ten reps can be broken into a set of 4 reps, a second set of 3 reps, and a third set of 3 reps for a total of ten reps. I would suggest using a weight that is five pounds heavier than what you can use for 10 consecutive reps. Start by giving yourself 15 seconds rest between each set. The second week reduce it to 10 seconds, the third week reduce it to 5 seconds, and the fourth week reduce the weight by 5 pounds and combine the three sets into one set of 10 consecutive reps.

The goal is for the marker rep to transition into an easier rep where you don’t need to slow down on your last rep. You could also break a full set into just two sets when using this method if you prefer. Another variation is to add an extra rep to each of the mini sets so that 4 reps, 3 reps, and 3 reps becomes 5 reps, 4 reps and 4 reps. You would then reduce the amount of time between mini sets each week until you eventually reach the week where all three sets merge into one set. At that point, you would eliminate the extra reps that were added in and just shoot for being able to do 10 reps without having to slow down on your 10^th rep.

If you are stuck on the same marker rep, or you simply want to add variety to your training, you can give these methods a try. Best of training to you.

Greasing the Groove

One of the concepts of Precision Point Training is to only train as long as you are strong during a set, and to only continue doing sets for a body part as long as you are strong. When fatigue sets in, your reps grow weaker at the end of a set. You also lose the ability to do as many reps per set which is the definition of a weak set. My advice is to basically avoid doing weak reps and weak sets that occur as fatigue accumulates.

Most people won’t be doing long workouts if they adhere to the concept of avoiding weak sets, nor will they be straining during their workouts if they avoid weak reps. Because of this, workouts are not excessively long or hard and recovery is easier than when doing workouts that produce fatigue. When recovery is easier, you may find that you don’t need as much rest between workouts and you can work out more frequently.

Greasing the Groove

Low fatigue workouts that are done frequently can have a benefit of keeping the nervous system fully turned on between workouts. Tsatsouline Pavel, the famous trainer from Russia refers to high frequency training as “greasing the groove,” as the frequent firing of the nervous system improves its ability to signal strong contractions.

Force and Frequency Training

One of the problems that can occur when lifters workout heavy on a frequent basis is that some aspect of their physiology can begin to wear down. They may simply grow tired of heavy weights, or have a joint or muscle that starts causing problems from frequent heavy use. One of the solutions for this is what I refer to as force and frequency training. Force and frequency training is almost like mini workouts that can be used between heavy workouts that are being done only once or twice per week. More explanation is needed.

Force and frequency workouts are brief non taxing workouts using 40 to 50 percent of your one rep max for basic exercises such as presses, squats, deadlifts, and rows. I suggest that you only use 40% rather than 50% if you do a force and frequency workout the day before a heavy workout. Using weights with these percentages should permit the weights to be lifted with and high amount of speed and force. The idea is to keep your nervous system revved up while avoiding fatigue that would cut into your strength for your heavy workouts.

A force and frequency workout should be short and sweet with 4 sets of 5 reps for each basic exercise that you do. The weights should be blasted up. I like Brandon Lilly’s explanation of how to do explosive force training (which you can see in the video). You don’t need more than 45 seconds rest between sets. You can finish off each exercise with an easy set of smooth relaxed reps for about 15 reps when using 40% of your one rep max, or 10 reps when using 50% of your one rep max.

Experiment to See What Works Best

Theoretically, force and frequency training can be done every day between heavy workouts if you are only working out with heavy weights once or twice per week. However, you may find that you only need one of these workouts in between heavy workouts, but you can also experiment with doing two, three, or four of these workouts between heavy workouts. It all depends on your ability to recover, and your ability to retain a fully charged nervous system between workouts.

If you have been focusing on only doing heavy workouts, and one or two heavy workouts per week doesn’t seem to be enough, but three or more heavy workouts per week seems to drain you of energy or irritate a joint or muscle, you can consider experimenting with different amounts of force and frequency workouts between heavy workouts until you find a formula that your body likes.

For Athletes

Just one final comment, if you are an athlete who plays a sport, force and frequency training is good way to train during your sports season without tiring you out for games and practices. It will help with your speed and quickness, and if you combine it with one heavy workout per week, it will help maintain your strength. Best of training to you.

Prilepin’s Chart

In my early years of working out with weights, I was extremely determined. I was willing to work out hard and my desire numbed me to the existence of workout pain. According to a lot of the hype in the magazines, workout pain was supposed to be a good thing. No pain, no gain; I took it seriously. This kind of attitude made it difficult to monitor any feedback during a workout. All I knew was that I wanted to lift the weight one more time, and if I succeeded at that, I wanted to lift it again, and then again and again. I didn’t check how my body felt at all, I was determined to make it do what I wanted. This mentality worked for a few months. It actually worked really good, but it quit working in spite of my determination.

Honesty and Objectivity

If someone would have told me about the concepts I use now with Precision Point Training, I don’t know if it would have worked. I was so determined to improve that it would have been hard to be honest about the point at which I truly reached my marker rep where rep rhythm begins to slow down in a set. It would have also been very difficult to admit that I could only do two or three strong sets for an exercise or body part before I began to weaken. Because of my eagerness to make progress, it would have been easy to convince myself that I could do 20 sets without growing weaker as that would have made my training similar to the greats like Arnold, Franco, and Robby Robinson.

One of the greatest risks of Precision Point Training is that some lifters are or so determined (like I was) that it skews their ability to be honest and objective in regard to how many strong reps and strong sets they can do before reaching marker rep or marker set where strength declines. Others may be honest and objective, but they just don’t have enough of a feel for accurately identifying their marker rep or marker set. It’s also quite possible that some people lack motivation and will have a bias towards not working as hard as they should. This could easily cause them to belie that they have reached their marker rep and marker set before they actually have.

Finding Your Strength Zone with Prilepin’s Chart

If identifying the marker rep and marker set seems to be skewed by over enthusiasm, lack of motivation, or it’s just somewhat vague and unclear, then another excellent option is to use Prilepin’s chart. It is based on research done on the top lifters from the old Soviet Union era and lists different percentages of a one rep max. Each percentage is matched with a range of how many total reps per workout should be done, and how many reps per set should be done. I believe that the range of total reps and reps per set is similar to what most people would be able to do if they used the marker rep and marker set as a gauge for how many reps and sets to do in their workouts. Going by Prilepin’s chart will also keep the over enthusiastic training maniacs from doing too much, and it will push the under-motivated lazy lifters to do enough.

Prilepin’s chart is shown and explained on this video. If you follow the training advice, it will help you to stay within an effective strength training zone where the majority of your training should take place.

Prilepin’s Chart

Percent of one rep max Reps per Set Range Optimal

Less than 70% 3-6 18-30 24

70-79% 3-6 12-24 18

80-89% 2-4 10-20 15

90 + 1-2 4-10 7

If have you been using Precision Point Training, the amount of sets and reps you do is likely to fall within the ranges shown on Prilepin’s chart when using 75% or more of your one rep max. If you use lighter weights below 70%, you’ll probably be able to do more than the suggested range of 6 reps per set. However, if you are training at 75% of your one rep max and above, and you normally train way outside of the ranges shown on Prilepin’s table, you may want to consider adjusting your training if you are not making progress. Best of training to you.

Short Training Cycles

It’s possible to do the same workout over and over again and make progress. This is especially true if your workouts are set up correctly and you know when to stop during a set, and how to do the right number of sets and use the right training frequency. However, many lifters find it beneficial to change their workouts.

Block and Linear Periodization

There are different strategies that lifters can use to vary their workouts effectively. One is block periodization. An example of block periodization would be to set up three training blocks that last three to six weeks each. These training blocks often consist of a light training block for conditioning and hypertrophy; a medium training block for speed and strength, followed by a heavy training block for strength and power. Another strategy is linear periodization where a lifter starts a workout cycle using light weights. They then add weight to their lifts each week for six to eighteen weeks until they are using very heavy weights.

Block periodization and linear periodization have brought fantastic success to some lifters. However, others have complained that the physical qualities such as hypertrophy, endurance, speed, and strength, are developed in separate phases. When one of these qualities such as hypertrophy or speed is developed in one phase, it is often lost during an extended phase that emphasizes a lower training volume and heavier, slower lifting. In order to combat this problem, short training cycles have become popular.

Short Training Cycles: One Week and Three Weeks

One strategy for using short training cycles is to combine a weekly training cycle with a three week cycle. The weekly cycle emphasizes lighter weights and a greater training volume to enhance speed and hypertrophy at the start of the week, and heavy lifting with a lower training volume at the end of the week. At the same time, a slight increase of about 5% in the amount of weight is added to the lighter lifts each week over the course of three weeks. At the end of three weeks, the cycle starts over.

When a weekly cycle is combined with the three week cycle, it eliminates the problem of losing the training qualities that are developed from one phase of training to the next. When each training quality is trained every week, it is easily maintained without loss. Integrating the various types of training into weekly cycles and three week cycles is often called non-linear periodization.

Example of a One Week Training Cycle

A common example of a weekly cycle in which the bench press is done twice per week for developing strength would be as follows:

Day 1

10 sets of 3 reps using 50% of your one rep max in the bench press to develop speed.

Do one to two sets of a pressing exercise using 50-60% of your one rep max. Do as many reps as possible using a steady even rep rhythm. Stop the set when rep rhythm starts to slow down.

Day 2 (72 hours after day 1)

Work up to a heavy lift of one rep for the bench press or a pressing exercise.

Do two sets of a pressing exercise using 60-70% of your one rep max. Do as many reps as possible using a steady even rep rhythm. Stop the set when rep rhythm starts to slow down.

Combining it With a Three Week Training Cycle

The weekly cycle listed above would then combined with a three week cycle by increasing the weight for 10 sets of 3 reps from 50% to 55% during week 2, and up to 60% during week 3. The max lift that is done each week on day 2 would continue to be done all three weeks. However, some lifters prefer to cycle day 2 as well by doing heavy 5’s during week one, heavy triples during week two, and a max lift for week three. Then the cycle starts over again. I would not recommend that the 5’s and triples consist of straining to barely grind out the required amount of reps, but are done with a weight that allows a smooth, even rep rhythm for all but the last rep of the set. The last rep of a set may slow down a little until strength is increased to the point where no slowing down occurs at the end of the set. Then a small amount of weight can be added.

This same type of training cycle can be used for squats and deadlifts as well, and it is just one example of how a weekly cycle can be used in combination with a three week cycle. You can always modify it or create your own weekly cycle and combine it with a three week cycle in a manner that fits your own physiology. Best of training to you.

Phil Heath Trains His Back

Phil Heath is currently a four time Mr. Olympia. Needless to say, he’s massive. We all know that he has superior genetics for building outrageous amounts of muscle. But what about his training? Does he train sensibly, or did he just get lucky with good genetics that give him results regardless of how he trains? Will his training work for the rest of us? Perhaps most of us would have trouble handling the weight and training volume he uses, but after watching him train, I feel the portion of his training that we can imitate is the way he performs each set of the exercises he uses.

Perfect Form and Rep Rhythm

In my opinion, Phil Heath is nearly perfect in regard to the way he performs his exercises. He uses an amount of weight that allows him to lift with a moderately fast tempo, but it’s also slow enough to enable him to feel the weight as he lifts it. His fastest set takes about ten seconds and his longest set takes about twenty seconds. He trains hard enough but not too hard; he trains exactly right. This basically means that when he performs a set of an exercise, his rep rhythm remains virtually the same throughout the entire set. He stops lifting if he feels his rep rhythm is going to slow down, or right when it does start to slow down. You don’t see him grinding out reps or straining to try to squeeze out a couple more reps at the end of his sets.

Phil Knows Exactly How Hard to Push Himself

If you watch the videos below, I would call Phil’s workout a beautiful workout. It is a near perfect demonstration of how I feel sets should be done during workouts. Phil does way more sets than I would ever do, but his technique and the degree to which he pushes himself are as close to how I recommend Precision Point Training sets should be done as I can find. You can check out one or more of the videos as his technique and training style are excellent throughout his whole back workout.

Pull Overs

Pull Downs
This is one exercise where Phil’s rep rhythm starts to slow down towards the end of his sets more than the others.

T-Bar Rows

Tempo Technique Time and Attention

Seated Rows

3 More Sets of Seated Rows

More Back Exercises

The Strength Specific Training Zone

Phil, like many other top lifters and bodybuilders has a great feel for instinctively knowing how to perform his sets in an effective manner. The way he performs his sets is dead center right on in terms of using a strength specific training zone that builds both strength and muscle. He pushes his sets to the precise point of what I refer to as either the limit rep, or the marker rep. In other words, I classify Phil Heath as a bodybuilder who trains with precision. If you need more information about what is meant by the limit rep and marker rep, please see the section on the basics of PPT on this website.

My observation is that several top bodybuilders train close to their limit rep and marker rep on basic exercises for back, legs, and chest, but when training their arms and shoulders, or when using isolation exercises instead of compound exercises, they may push well past the limit rep and marker rep and go for the burn. I also see that some bodybuilders tend to have times when they do slow down their rep speed on purpose in order to emphasize either the stretch, or the contraction of the muscle, not because they are forced to slow down because of muscle fatigue or muscle weakness. You may notice that Phil occasionally slows down slightly to squeeze his muscles on some of his reps, especially the last rep of a set. But all in all, if I had to point to someone who does his sets in a precise, highly effective manner, I would have no problem pointing to Phil Heath. Hope you were able to gain some insight from watching him train. Best of training to you.

Keys to Progression

One of the basic concepts of Precision Point Training is that progression occurs by giving your body time to adapt to the same workouts so that they become easier. This will occur if you are getting stronger because a given workout poundage for a given amount of reps will become easier as you get stronger.

It seems to be a common weight training method to immediately increase the amount of weight or reps that are being used as soon as a lifter experiences a strength increase. I don’t believe that this strategy is a necessary element of effective training. You don’t need to immediately increase the amount of weight or reps that you are using every time you get stronger. If you train right, your body will grow stronger off the same workout poundages and reps for several weeks or even months, and the workouts will become easier. This is exactly what your body wants because the primary goal of your body when faced with a difficult exercise stress is to adapt so that the training stress becomes easier, yet lifters are often obsessed with making their workouts harder. Of course the weight and reps will eventually need to be increased, but let yourself get stronger as a result of the same workouts becoming easier first.

Simple Workouts Becoming Easier

Allowing a workout to become easier is a simple concept if your workouts are simple, but it may be a little more complex if your workouts are complex. For example, if a lifter is doing three sets of eight reps for all of their exercises, the basic precision point strategy is for the lifter to use an amount of weight that allows them to lift with a nice even rep rhythm until they reach their 8^th rep. The 8^th rep should be the point in the set where rep rhythm and rep speed involuntarily starts to slow down due to fatigue. This is where the lifter should stop. The lifter should keep on doing 8 reps with the same amount of weight in future workouts until strength has increased to the point where the 8^th rep becomes easy enough to do without having to slow the rep speed or rep rhythm. After the 8^th rep has become easier, the lifter should give themselves at least one to four weeks before adding weight, and then the process can begin over again with the added weight for 8 reps. While this is the simple version of allowing workouts to become easier, not everyone works out with the same exercises or amount of weight and reps in every workout.

Training Cycles Becoming Easier

Many lifters want variety in their workouts which makes the concept of allowing workouts to become easier a little more complex. For example, some lifters use the same weekly cycle where they use different training poundages on different days each week. The concept of allowing workouts to become easier can still be applied, but it will be applied to the workout cycle. In other words, if the cycle is repeated every week with the same workout poundages and reps, then the cycle should start to feel easier from one week to the next. If you use a three week or a six week training cycle, then the next training cycle should feel easier if you were to repeat the cycle using the same progression of weights and reps as the previous cycle. Of course, if your body is responding within three weeks or six weeks, you may be ready to increase the weight or reps without having to keep the weight and reps the same.

Complex Training Becoming Easier

Another variable that adds complexity is if you were to constantly change the exercises and the amount of weight used. If you train in this manner, understand that the main principle behind allowing workouts to become easier is that anytime an exercise is done for a given amount of weight and reps, the next time that same exercise is done for the same amount of weight and reps, the goal is for it to become easier than it was the last time. For example, if you use 180 pounds for 6 reps in incline press in a workout, it may be a month later before you include incline presses with 180 pounds for 6 reps in your workout again. But the bottom line trend is that 180 pounds for 6 reps in the incline press should be getting easier, whether it’s repeated in the next workout, a week later, a month later, or any amount of time later.

Long Term Progress

I believe the principle of allowing workouts or training cycles to become easier over time works best with consistent workouts or with relatively short workout cycles that are no more than three weeks long. You can do longer cycles of constant change if you desire, but gauging whether or not the workouts or training cycles are becoming easier becomes more difficult. Having said all this, I believe an effective strategy of progression for consistent long term strength gains is to follow the concept of allowing the same workouts or workout cycles to become easier over time before making them harder. It may not be a popular concept, but it works if applied correctly. Best of training to you.

Turning on Your Nervous System

If you have ever played baseball, you know that baseball players like to do warmup swings with a weighted ring at the end of the bat. A player will then take the weight off the end of the bat right before they go up to bat. When the weight is removed, the bat feels lighter so that the batter has better bat speed. This same concept can be applied to lifting weights. The technical term for this phenomenon is referred to by some as PAP which stands for Post Activation Potentiation. It simply means that if you work up to a heavy weight and then take some weight off to do a lighter set, the lighter set will feel easier than normal because your nervous system has been fully engaged (or turned on) from the previous set when you used heavier weights. I’ll give you two methods of turning on your nervous system by using the Post Activation Potentiation phenomenon.

Using Post Activation Potentiation

In the last article, I discussed how to pyramid your poundages with warm-up sets without burning out your muscles before you reach an actual work set. If you were to include Post Activation Potentiation with the pyramid method, you would add in one extra step during the pyramid process. The extra step would be to add an extra one or two warm-up sets with a very heavy weight for just one rep. After doing this, decrease the weight to the amount of weight you would normally use for your work set. You may find that after decreasing the weight that your work set feels lighter and easier. I’ll give a more thorough explanation.

If we go back to the last article where the pyramid method of increasing weight from one set to the next was discussed, the following example was given:

First set: 1 x 12 reps using 25% to 30% of your one rep max weight.

Second set: 1 x 8 reps using 35% to 40% of your one rep max weight

Third set: 1 x 5 reps using 50% to 55% of your one rep max weight

Forth set: 1 x 8 reps: Use a weight (70-75%) where you hit your marker rep on your 8^th rep.

If a lifter were using Post Activation Potentiation, the first three sets would look exactly the same as the example listed above, but he would also add on a fourth and fifth warm-up set with heavier weights before decreasing the weight for his work set which would be his sixth. This example is shown below:

First set: 1 x 12 reps using 25% to 30% of your one rep max weight.

Second set: 1 x 8 reps using 35% to 40% of your one rep max weight

Third set: 1 x 5 reps using 50% to 55% of your one rep max weight

Fourth set: 1 x 1 reps using 75% of your one rep max weight

Fifth set: 1 x 1 reps using 80%-85% of your one rep max weight

Sixth set: 1 x 8 reps using a weight (70-75%) where you hit your marker rep on your 8^th rep.

The weight should feel easier to lift when this warm-up sequence is used. I still want to emphasize that the warm-up sets should not cause fatigue or interfere with the work set that is done at 70%, but it should enhance the lifter’s ability to do the work-set. This method of warming up to a heavy weight and then cutting back in weight can also be very effective as a preparation method for speed work and explosive lifting with lighter weights.

Including a Heavy Lockout in the Warm-up

An optional method would be to do the first three warm-up sets as listed and then put your one rep max weight on the bar and do a one inch partial rep where you hold the bar in a lockout position for 3 to 5 seconds. This should turn on your nervous system so that it is fully activated. Follow this with a work set with a lighter weight within two minutes.

Using Post Activation Potentiation is not an essential element of achieving consistent strength gains, but it is something that you may find that improves the quality of your workouts. If you use Post Activation Potentiation in your warm-up, don’t overdo it with too much warming up and lose out on the quality of your actual work sets. Use it wisely. If you should choose to try it, and it makes a noticeable difference in your workout performance, it’s worth using on a regular basis. Best of Training to you.

Staying In Your Strength Zone Parts 2 and 3

This is part two of an article where I will be discussing staying in your strength zone when using precision point training methods. Staying in your strength zone simply refers to doing reps and sets as long as you are at full strength, but no longer.

In the last article, I explained that the number of sets you can do within your strength zone is based upon repeating sets as long as you are as strong as you were on your first work-set. You should stop doing sets for a body part when reach a set where your strength drops. This is easy to figure out when repeating sets of the same exercise with the same amount of weight because you will eventually reach a set where the number of reps you can do will drop, which signals a decrease in strength. If you choose to vary the amount of weight used on each work-set, the number of sets that you can do at full strength will be about the same as when you don’t vary the weight on each set. (See the previous article for a full explanation)

Your Strength Zone When using More Than One Exercise

The same concept also holds true if you want to use more than one exercise for the same body part during a workout. For example, if Jim decides to train his legs, and he already knows that he can stay at maximum strength for a total of three sets of squats, he’ll find that if he does a total of three different exercise for one set each, he will still be in his strength zone. However, one thing that can factor into doing different exercises for the same body part is the issue of warm-up sets. One concept is to only do warm-up sets for the first exercise. Since the body part being worked should already be warmed up from the first exercise, you can go straight into work-sets for the other exercises without warm-ups. The other concept is to do warm-up sets preceding each exercise of the same body part. The pyramid method is a very popular way to accomplish this, but if it is not applied correctly, it can take you out of your strength zone before you ever reach the first work-set of your first exercise. Further explanation is needed which will be given in part 3.

Part 3: Pyramiding Properly

The pyramid method of working up in weight from one set to the next is about the easiest thing to goof up when it comes to staying within your strength zone. You must put your ego aside when warming up correctly because it means starting out with light weights; way lighter than many lifters want to be seen lifting in public. The idea is not only to warmup your muscles, but to add extra training volume to your workout without compromising your strength when you eventually build up to a work-set where you push to your marker rep.

Start Out Light and Easy

I have shown this video of Ronnie Coleman doing squats in a previous article, but what I’m trying to point out on this occasion is that he is starting out with 135 pounds in the squat. This is easy for Ronnie as it is less than 20% of 800 pounds which is his best squat. I would advise anyone who pyramids their weights to start out with a very easy weight like Ronnie does.

Even when Ronnie works up to 400 pounds, it is still only about 50% of what he can lift when he’s at peak strength. The point is to use weights that are easy for you to lift on your warm-up sets so that you don’t tire yourself out by the time you work your way up to a heavier weight where you are going to push yourself.

Warm-Up Sets Add Extra Training Volume

We can look at an example of warm-up sets that allow you to stay within your strength zone across three different exercises. A lifter may choose to do three warm-up sets for squats, three warm-up sets for leg presses, and three warm-up sets for front squats. This adds up to nine warm-up sets which is a good way to raise your total training volume without burning out. Some people don’t think that light warm-up sets have any training effect at all in regard to helping a person gain strength, I hugely disagree. I believe warm-up sets are an actual part of the workout, especially if you perform the reps forcefully in combination with high frequency training.

If you were going to use the pyramid method for each of the three leg exercises we’ve discussed, and one of your goals is to stay within your strength zone through the entire leg workout, an example of using the pyramid method for each exercise would be as follows:

First set: 1 x 12 reps using 25% to 30% of your one rep max weight.

Second set: 1 x 8 reps using 35% to 40% of your one rep max weight

Third set: 1 x 5 reps using 50% to 55% of your one rep max weight

Forth set: 1 x 8 reps: Use a weight where you hit your marker rep on your 8^th rep.

Notice the low weight percentages when warming up, and that the number of reps must be low when warming up with over 50% of your one rep max. If you truly follow this advice, your warm-up sets should feel easy. This is very, very important. Do warm-up sets, but don’t burn yourself out when doing them! If you are working up to a weight of more than 75% of your one rep max, you may want to add in an extra warm-up set of two or three reps in addition to the warm-up sets I listed. Lifters who have a huge one rep max may require more warm-up sets.

Summing it Up

To summarize all of this discussion about staying in your strength zone, if you are doing more than one exercise for the same body part, warming up for each exercise is not always necessary. You can warmup for the first exercise and move straight into the other exercises without warm-up sets. However, if you want to warmup for each exercise, you may find some benefit from the extra training volume as long as you are careful not to burn yourself out on warm-up sets before you ever get to your main work-sets. Until next time, consider whether or not you are training in your strength zone and best of training to you.

Staying in Your Strength Zone

One of the central points of emphasis in relationship to precision point training is to stay within your strength zone. This means that you can do reps within a set as long as you are strong enough to use forceful reps with an even rep speed throughout the set. When you reach a rep where your rep rhythm begins to slow down (I call it the marker rep) it’s a signal to stop a set.

The concept of training while you are strong applies to how many sets you should do as well. If you are giving yourself sufficient time to recover between sets, and you reach a set where your strength starts to decline, stop doing sets for that body part. The process for knowing when your strength has started to decline is simple if you repeat sets of same exercise with the same amount of weight. You simply compare the amount of reps that you can do on each set with the amount of reps that you could do on your first set when you were at full strength. When you reach a set where you can’t do as many reps as you could on your first work set, you know your strength has decreased and you should stop.

For example, if Tom starts out by hitting his marker rep on his 8^th rep when doing a set of squats with 275 pounds, then the 8^th rep serves as a basis for knowing whether or not he is at full strength when repeating sets with 275 pounds. When he reaches a set where he can no longer make it to his 8^th rep before hitting his marker rep, it indicates that he is no longer at full strength. This is when he should stop doing exercises for his quads.

Staying In Your Strength Zone with Varied Weights

The concept of training while you’re at full strength becomes a little more complex if you want to vary the weight. For example, if you hit your marker rep on your 8^th rep when doing your first work set of squats with 275 pounds, you may want vary your weight by going up to 285 pounds for your second set, and 295 for a third set. In this case, your marker rep is going to fall on a different rep for each set, and you won’t have any basis for comparing your marker rep on your first set with the other sets. This makes it hard to know when your strength starts to decline and when you should stop doing squats.

A general principle is that you will be able to about the same number of sets when you vary the weight, as when you don’t vary the weight. For example, if you have gone through the process of learning that you can squat 275 pounds for 3 sets before your strength starts to decline, then you’ll be able to do about three sets if you were to vary the weight on each set, although I believe there are exceptions to this principle. The exception occurs when you use a big variation in weight.

Big Variations of Weight My Allow for More Sets In Your Strength Zone

You may normally be able to stay within your strength zone for three sets of squats when pushing to your marker rep on each set, but if you vary the weight enough, you may find that you can do more. For example you may find that you can work up to a heavy lift one rep, then decrease to a weight that allows two sets of 5 reps, followed by a lighter weight for one set of 15 reps while still staying strong for all four sets. This is because the variation in weight is big enough to avoid stressing the same aspects of the energy systems in your muscles across all four sets. The main point is that big variations in weight may enable you to do more sets while still staying at full strength. A caution here is that I don’t recommend the reverse order where you hit your marker rep at 15 reps on your first set, and then follow that with sets of 5 reps, followed by a single, as you’ll be gassed out by the time you do your singles. I suggest using the heavier weight first.

In the next article, I will discuss how to stay in your strength zone when using different exercises for the same body part, and how pyramiding can expand your training volume while staying within your strength zone. Best of training to you.

Instant Gratification vs. Long Term Success

When it comes to training, there are approaches that are focused only on now, and there are approaches that are focused on now as it relates to later. Those who are obsessed with their current workout without considering how it will affect their future workouts are prone to indulge in a form of training that is based on instant gratification. Those who have a long term approach are much more concerned about how their current workout is going to affect their future workouts. The training that is done next week, next month, and next year matter just as much to them as training that is done today.

Instant Gratification

Eagerness and enthusiasm to make training progress can often create a mindset of instant gratification. I spent years training with this mindset. I was looking for some sign that my training was working in every workout. I wanted to get the biggest pump possible because it would make my muscles look bigger. If I pushed hard enough, I would get sore the next day and my muscles would look bigger. I didn’t know that soreness is often caused by muscle inflammation that makes your muscles look bigger after a workout. When the soreness goes away, the muscle inflammation goes down, and your muscles go back to the same size again. But getting a pump and getting sore were the instant reactions that I was looking for as an indicator that my training must be effective. This strategy did work for a while, but after that, it became a temporary fix devoid of any long term benefit.

Better Training Performance in Every Workout? Really?

Another form of instant gratification that I was stuck on was to focus on better training performance in every workout. The goal was to constantly outdo my previous best in order to have some evidence that my training was working. I had to keep trying to push harder in order to eek more reps than I had done in the previous workout. If I couldn’t get the extra rep, I would reason that I needed to do more sets to force my body to get stronger. I found that this form of training can be effective, but not for long. It’s another short term strategy for quick gains, not a long term strategy for consistent gains over a long period of time.

I shouldn’t be surprised that there are several authorities in weight training that indicate that a lifter should try to use more reps or more weight in every workout. I had this mindset for a long, long time. But if you do the math, it works out to be impossible. Even if you only work out twice per week and only gain a pound of strength in each workout, you’ll gain over one hundred pounds of strength for every year that you work out. At that rate, if you start training at the age of 15, by the time your 35, you’ll be more than 2,000 pounds stronger in all your lifts. This would far surpass any feat of strength by any human being to date. Trying to outperform yourself in every workout is an instant gratification strategy that eventually quits working.

Today’s Workout Should be Designed to Help you Progress with Future Workouts

If you want to make progress today without regard for tomorrow, then keep trying to outperform yourself in every workout. If you want to use today’s workouts to help yourself improve next week, next month, and next year, then do workouts that take you right up to the limit of a positive training state and keep hitting that positive limit until it gets easier over time. You can do this by stopping a set of an exercise when you reach the initial rep where rep speed starts to slow down. Keep hitting that same rep number in future workouts until it becomes easy enough to do the last rep of a set without slowing your rep speed down. This is a sign that you’ve increased strength and you can increase the weight. Also, keep your muscles fresh during your workouts. When you’ve repeated enough sets so that your strength starts to decrease, stop doing sets for that body part.

The bottom line is that I recommend the principles listed in the basics of PPT along with the other information on this website if your main concern is to achieve long term training results. This training method is not designed for a quick fix or instant gratification. The idea is for today’s training to set your body up so that you’ll still be able to progress with future training; and to do so week after week, month after month, and year after year. It takes patience to train this way, but it will work if you are faithful to do it right. Best of training to you.

Strength Specific Circuit Training Part 2

In the last article I discussed the value of strength specific circuit training. Although it may not be practical for those who train in a crowded gym, I don’t see any reason why not to include it in your training if have the opportunity to set up for it.

While circuit training is often used to emphasize general conditioning, you can definitely use it in a manner that emphasizes strength development. Of course, any type of strength training should emphasize the use of the creatine phosphate system which operates best in the absence of too much muscle fatigue. It’s also hard to operate in the creatine phosphate system if you are completely out of breath, which is one reason I advocate the use of mini-sets for strength specific circuit training.

Light, Medium or Heavy for Different Exercises

Even if you are using mini-sets, you can still vary the weight and rep range for various exercises. Many lifters like to use light, medium, or heavy weights on different days, but you can easily incorporate varying weights into the same circuit training workout using mini-sets. I’ll give you an example. We’ll imaging that you want to do a workout where you go light on the bench press, medium heavy on pulley rows, and fairly heavy on squats. If so, you would set up a circuit with those three exercises. Each time you do benches, you would do eight to ten reps with only 40% of your one rep max. On your next set, you would move right into seated pulley rows and do three or four reps with 60% of your one rep max. Your last exercise of the circuit would be a heavy set of squats for just one rep at about 80% of your one rep max. This circuit would be repeated several times to make up a workout, and you could change which exercises are done with light, medium, and heavy weights on different workout days.

How Many Circuits?

How many circuits should you do in a workout? This will be determined by the feedback that your body is giving you. Generally, the idea for strength development is to keep repeating the circuits until you feel your rep speed starting to slow down on your last rep of a set, then stop doing that exercise.

It could be that your rep speed starts to slow down on one exercise before the others. If so, stop that exercise and continue with the others until your rep speed slows down on the other exercises. With some trial and error, you’ll be able to figure out how many mini-sets of each exercise you can do, and you can make any necessary adjusts to the amount of weight and reps you are using so that your stopping point will be at approximately the same set number for each exercise.

Combining Mini-Sets with Full Sets in a Circuit

One caution about circuit training is that I’ve tried pushing all the way to my marker rep on each set of a circuit for the whole workout. Pushing to your marker rep basically means you push a set until your rep speed starts to slow down. I have found that it can be exhausting to train like this while moving quickly from one set to the next on every set, and you may find the same thing. Exhaustion is not good for strength specific training. However, if you still want the benefit of pushing all the way to your marker rep on some of your exercises, you can combine the use mini-sets and full sets so that you can still move from one exercise to another without getting out of breath.

An example of combining mini-sets with full sets into circuit training would be to do a circuit consisting of deadlifts, incline presses, and dumbbell lateral raises, which are all done as mini-sets where you do about a third of the reps you could do if pushing to your marker rep. We’ll imagine that you also want to include some full sets of T-bar rows where you push all the way to your marker rep for about 12 reps. Since a full set of T-bar rows is going to take more out of you than the mini-sets of the other exercises, you won’t be able to do as many sets of T-bar rows as the other exercises, so only include them in every second or third circuit. In the next workout, you could do the same exercises, but instead of pushing to your marker rep with T-bar rows, choose one or two of the other exercises to push to your marker rep.

As I said in the previous article, there are no rules about how to do circuit training. You can mix up the poundages and rep schemes for different exercises however you want. The main thing is to exercise as long as you are strong and quit when you reach a set where your strength and rep speed begins to decline. Then you’ll be doing circuit training in a strength specific manner while saving time and getting some extra cardio benefit. Best of training to you.

Strength Specific Circuit Training

Circuit training has probably been around forever. Bob Gadja who was a Mr. America in 1966 may popularized it more than anyone. Victor Richards who is an immense bodybuilder is said to have used it in his early training. In his book, Huge in a Hurry: Chad Waterbury recommends circuit training whenever possible for getting big and strong. Even so, the general notion I have often run into is that circuit training is for beginners, girls, and general conditioning. When I found that most of the top lifters and bodybuilders didn’t use it, I stayed away from it for a long time.

There eventually came a time when I asked myself why I shouldn’t use circuit training, and why shoudn’t you or anyone else? The biggest reason you wouldn’t use it would be if you were in a crowded gym, in which case it would be far more convenient to stay with one piece of equipment until you finished with it. If not, someone one else could take over that piece of equipment as soon as you went to another exercise. However, if your gym is not crowded during your workout, or you work out at home and have enough equipment to set up a training circuit of a few exercises, then I see no reason why not to use it if you are smart about how to adapt it to strength training.

There are No Circuit Training Laws

There are no laws in regard to exactly how circuit training must be done. You can be creative and use it in any manner you would like. Some people think that circuit training must be done with light weights, but there’s no law that I know of that says you can’t use medium or heavy weights, or switch the amount of weight as you go through your circuits, nor is there a law that says you can’t do a combination of training circuits and straight sets. Finally, there are no policemen who are going to force you to race from one exercise to the next with almost no rest which is how it’s often used.

Set Up Circuit Training to Work For Strength

Circuits can be set up just about any way you want. If you are doing a circuit for two different body parts, and switching back and forth between the two exercises, some would refer to this as super setting the two exercises. If you have at least three exercises set up for three different body parts, then you are doing an actual circuit.

The main thing about using circuits for strength training is to use weights that are heavy enough to stimulate strength, and to move from one exercise to the next when heavy breathing subsides. Avoid the accumulation of substantial muscular and cardio fatigue, and do not do a circuit of three or more exercises for the same body part, as this would be a tri-set or a giant set, which is not the same as circuit training.

An Example Circuit Training Using Mini-Sets

In my opinion, one of the best ways to use circuit training for strength is to use it in conjunction with mini sets. Mini sets are done by stopping well short of your marker rep where rep speed begins to slow down during a set. For example, if you are doing a circuit of squats, bench presses and pulley rows, you could use a weight that allows you to perform 12 reps if you were to stop at your marker rep. However, when using mini-sets, you would only do sets of 4 or 5 reps with the same amount of weight that allowed you 12 reps. The circuit would consist of just one set of each exercise to make up one circuit, then repeat the circuit as many times as you can until you feel the last rep of your mini-sets start to slow down. You may be surprised at how quick you can get through a workout in this manner while getting in a lot of training volume in without burning out your muscles.

When you use circuits effectively, each body part is fully recovered by the time you exercise it, but you’re not sitting around for a long time between exercises. The major benefits are that you save time, and your cardio vascular condition improves. You may also find some fat burning benefits as well. The main thing is to adjust the amount of weight and the amount of rest time between sets in order to make it work for strength training. I will discuss some more ways to do this in the next article. If you are looking for a way to reduce your training time and improve your cardiovascular condition, you can give circuit training a try. Best of training to you.

Actual Training Time Part 2

In the last article, I discussed the fact that high intensity training is often advertised as being brief but intense. A lifter only needs to do a few sets at the most for a body part and they’re quickly out of the gym. While it’s true that a slow rep high intensity workout may only consist of one to three sets per body part and a short time in the gym, the actual workout time for a given body part may be over 5 minutes when you exclude rest time between sets. This is often as much as someone who does up to 20 sets for a body part.

Not all high intensity lifters use extra slow reps; some simply go to failure or beyond with faster reps. These high intensity lifters would have a lot shorter actual training time than the slow rep high intensity lifters, and the lifters who do tons of sets.

20 Sets Equals 5 minutes of Exercise

If you are wondering the actual training time of bodybuilders and lifters who use faster reps and a lot of sets, we can start with Ronnie Coleman. When I timed Ronnie for five sets of the bench press, his first set took 21 seconds, his second set took 16 seconds, his third set took 13 seconds, and his fourth and fifth sets both took 12 seconds each. If you add up the actual workout time of all five sets combined, Ronnie’s total workout time without rest is 74 seconds. If Ronnie did 20 total sets for chest exercises using a rep speed similar to his bench press speed, then twenty total sets of chest exercises would take about 4 minutes and 56 seconds. I’m guessing he would do exercises such as flies or cable crossovers at a slower rep speed, but it’s doubtful that he would spend more than six minutes actually exercising if he did 20 sets.

If I understand Ronnie’s training correctly, he does closer to 15 sets per body part which would put him at just under 4 minutes of actual training time using the rep speed he used in the training video. Even though it may take Ronnie up to a half an hour or 45 minutes to do 15 sets for his chest, his actual training time when you exclude rest between sets is probably only four to five minutes. If you compare this to the actual workout time of a slow rep high intensity workout, there’s very little difference.

An Extreme

At the high end extreme of training volume would be someone like Jay Cutler who has said there are times he has done workouts consisting of 30- 40 sets of back exercises. His sets usually take between 15 to 20 seconds. If he were to do forty sets, his actual training time would be between 10 to 13 minutes on back exercises.

15 Seconds of Deadlifting

We can go in the opposite direction from high volume training and look at the actual training time in regard to the way powerlifters commonly train. Powerlifters often blast out a few fast reps for each set of a given exercise and stop to rest. The deadlift workout on the following video consists of 8 singles. The actual lifting time of all singles combined is approximately 15 seconds, although powerlifters often do other assistance exercises for lower back, glutes and hamstrings with their dead lift workout.

18 Sets Equals Just Over 1 Minute of Chest Exercise

Another powerlifting workout for a speed bench workout shows a lifter doing 16 sets of 3 reps which equals a total of 48 reps. Believe it or not, his actual workout time when you combine all 16 sets is approximately 36 seconds which he accomplishes in 7 minutes and 24 seconds when you include rest between sets. He follows this with two sets of 15 reps for incline dumbbell presses. Louie Simmons, the lifting coach in this video below, says to use a weight that allows for 25 reps if you were to go to failure, but use that weight for two sets of 15 reps. Each set of fifteen reps takes the lifter about 14 seconds. When you add these two sets on to the 16 sets of speed bench, the actual lifting time of all 18 sets of chest exercises is 64 seconds. That’s right around one minute of actual exercise time.

The point is that focusing on the creatine phosphate energy system in short bursts is the primary way that a lot of powerlifters gain strength. It doesn’t take hours of annihilating your muscles every day in order to get strong. You may find it helpful to evaluate your training to see how much actual exercise time you are spending on each body part. The harder and faster you lift, the less time is needed. Best of training to you.

The Actual Training Time Factor

Dumbbell Bench Press

If you are familiar with various methods of weight training, you may run into lifters who do one to three high intensity sets for a body part and seem to think they are not training nearly as much as those who are doing a high number of sets. It’s also true that those who are doing tons of sets for a body part believe they are training way more those who are doing a few high intensity sets. What I am about to say my seem like I’ve lost my mind, but if you cut out any rest time and only consider the actual workout time, there isn’t nearly as much difference between the two as most people would imagine.

Actual Total Workout Time

For those who may not be familiar with some of the high intensity training methods, it is common to use slow reps for both the lifting and the lowering portion of each rep. When I watched a video of Mike Mentzer coaching a bodybuilder (Markus Reinhardt) through a high intensity workout, he started out with three warm-up sets. Not counting the rest between warm-up sets, Markus (the lifter) spent 1 minute 40 seconds actually exercising. This was followed by one hard set of pec deck flies which consisted of 2 minutes and 10 seconds of exercise with not rest. The final set for chest was a rest pause set on a bench press machine; the total lifting time for benches was 2 minutes when you exclude the rests. When you add up all of this exercise time, it comes to a total of 5 minutes and 50 seconds of actual exercise for the chest. You can see this workout for yourself in the video below.

What I want to point out is that workout descriptions that simply tell the number of sets and reps does not tell the full story of indicating the actual exercise time as 5 minutes and 50 seconds is a lot of exercise for a body part. In addition, people interpret what it is that constitutes sets and reps differently. In the video, Markus Reinhardt does three warm-up sets that add up to a total of 15 reps, followed by two work sets consisting of 5 reps in the first set, and 8 reps in the second. The high intensity crowd would interpret the workout that Markus did as two sets for a total of 13 reps. They wouldn’t include warm-up sets as part of the workout description because in their mind, sets and reps that aren’t done at a high intensity are not a part of the real workout. Other people might interpret the same workout as five sets that add up to a total of 28 reps because they would count the warm-up sets and reps as part of the workout.

Less Isn’t Really Less

Oddly enough, one of the high intensity philosophies is that less is more when it comes to workouts. For some reason, they believe they are training less because they are in and out of the gym much quicker than someone who does a lot of sets. The truth is, people who use the high intensity method as shown in the video are not training less. They may be doing less sets, less reps, and spending less time in the gym, but if you cut out the rest time between sets and only look the actual exercise time for a body part, they are not doing any less than the people who they criticize for overtraining with too many sets. And the people who think that a couple sets of high intensity training is insufficient are only looking at the number of sets and reps instead of looking at the actual workout time.

Do it if it Works

Some people do respond to high intensity training which greatly stresses the lactate system within the muscles. It’s based on pushing yourself while in a state of severe muscular fatigue. If you respond to that type of training, then I recommend it. The Mentzer brothers both used this form of training to become huge and extremely strong. However, if you don’t respond to this type of high intensity training, then I would suggest that you consider Precision Point Training Principles where fatigue is avoided in order to workout in a strong state, rather than a weakened state that occurs when you keep trying to push yourself while in a state of muscular fatigue.

Don’t be fooled by the high intensity training philosophy that you will be training less to gain more if you use high intensity training. The actual training time isn’t less. In the next article, I will compare the actual training time of high intensity training methods with the actual training time of people who don’t use high intensity forms of training, but they use various ranges of sets and reps with a faster rep speed. Best of Training to you.

Dynamic Speed Training for Strength

Where there’s a will there is a way. Louie Simmons, an elite lifer and strength coach, broke his back twice using gradual progressive overload training where more weight is added to each lift from one week until the next. Eventually the training cycle ends with constant use of heavy weights and, bam! Injury occurs. This forced Louie to a look for a different way to get stronger. He discovered that this can be done with moderate weights using what he refers to a dynamic speed work. It simply means to train for strength by gaining the ability to lift a moderate weight faster over a series of several workouts.

Strength and speed are best friends when it comes to weight training. If you get stronger, you’ll be able to lift the weights that you have been using faster and easier. We can look at it from another perspective of progressively being able to lift the same weight faster. If you succeed, it’s a sign that you have become stronger. When a weight can be lifted faster, the muscles spend less time under maximum tension. Less time under maximum tension will make the weight easier to lift, and the main reason your body wants to gain strength is to make it easier to lift a given weight. This is exactly what happens when a gain in strength leads to the ability to lift a weight faster.

Louie Simmons discusses using less weight to gain more strength

Using the Right Amount of Weight, Reps, and Sets
Workouts that are designed to specifically focus on dynamic speed lifting are most often done with basic exercises using a weight percentage that ranges from 50% to 60% of a lifter’s single rep max weight. This means if your max bench is 300 pounds, you would want to work out with between 150 to 180 pounds when focusing on dynamic speed lifting. Never do speed work after your muscles are tired from previous lifting or your rep speed will suffer. This is one reason why so many lifters use mini sets of only three reps when focusing on maximum rep speed. They may be able to grind out 20 or more reps with the weight they are using, but it would cause fatigue, so they only do three reps per set to maintain maximum rep speed on all sets.

If you are trying to figure out how many sets of three reps to do, one method is take 50% of your one rep max for a given lift and find out how many reps you can do before hitting your marker rep. For those who don’t know what a marker rep is, it’s the initial point in a set where you notice that your rep speed and rep rhythm starts to slow down due to fatigue. When training at 50% of a maximum weight, the majority of people are going to be pretty close to hitting their marker rep at around 15 reps (give or take a couple reps), for about two sets before their strength starts to decrease. Two sets of 15 reps equals a total of 30 reps that can be done in a strong state. If you break 30 total reps into sets of 3 reps, you end up with 10 sets of 3 reps. Ten sets of three reps is a very popular formula that many top powerlifters use for dynamic speed training. Since the sets are short, you only need 45 seconds rest between each set.

Dynamic Speed training with sets of 3 reps.

It’s possible that you are an exception to the 10 sets of 3 reps formula. For example, if you push all the way to your marker rep when using 50% of your one rep max, and you find that you can do three or four sets before your strength decreases, this would probably put you somewhere between 45 to 60 total reps in a strong state. If this is true of you, then divide the total number of reps by 3, in which case you may find it better to do 15 or 20 sets of three reps, but only do that much if it’s truly within your capacity.

Tips for Maximizing Dynamic Speed Training

Another common technique when using dynamic speed training is to do a cycle of three speed workouts consisting of 50% of the maximum weight that can be lifted for an exercise in the first workout, followed by 55% the second workout, and 60% in the third workout. Then the cycle starts over again with 50% of a lifter’s one rep max. These types of workouts are generally done once per week with other types of workouts being done on other days of the week.

There’s no rule that says you can’t integrate dynamic speed training with the use of heavy weights in the same workout for the same exercise, but if you do this, you’ll have to do less dynamic speed work in order to avoid over training. Another option is to do four or five sets of three reps for dynamic speed training early in the workout before any fatigue has developed, and then follow it with a set, (or sets depending on your capacity), all the way to your marker rep. I don’t recommend pushing a set to your marker rep and then following it with mini sets of dynamic speed work at the end. Always do speed work when your muscles are fresh.

If you think that the only effective way to build strength is by using heavy weights, but it’s been taking a toll on your body, consider using moderate weights and blasting them up progressively faster from one workout to the next. It works for gaining strength without breaking your body down from over-use of heavy weights. Best of training to you.

Single Reps with Moderately Heavy Weights

In this article, I will be discussing one more method for using single repetitions. Single repetitions are most commonly used in conjunction with very heavy weights relative to a lifter’s strength. When using lighter weights, people usually do sets of repetitions. However, there is no law that says you must do consecutive repetitions when using light weights. You can also choose to lift the weight once, then put it down, take a brief rest, and lift it again. The purpose of this is to minimize muscle fatigue which tends to be counter-productive to effective strength training.

Methods For Using Single Reps with Moderate Weights

Using one rep with sub maximum weights is not a new idea, Olympic lifters do it all the time because it’s hard to do the clean and jerk and the snatch for consecutive repetitions. There was also a bodybuilding and strength building concept that’s been around for almost a decade called Max Stim. An abbreviated explanation of the Max Stim method is for a lifter to choose an exercise and a weight that they can perform for about 10 reps. However, instead of doing ten consecutive reps, the lifter does singles and starts out resting five seconds between each rep, making sure to actually put the weight down, or rack the weight between each rep. The lifter continues to do singles with 5 seconds between reps until rep speed starts to slow down. Once rep speed starts slowing down, the lifter rests ten seconds between reps and continues to extend the rest period to longer and longer time periods in order to recover enough to lift each rep with near maximum force. If a lifter can no longer continue lifting at near maximum rep speed with 30 second rest periods between each rep, they quit doing the exercise.

Another concept for using singles with moderately heavy weights is simply to use a consistent rest time between each single rep. A trainer by the name of Nick Nilsson uses this concept for a variation in his training. If you watch the video below, he does over 40 single reps of deadlifts, and uses a consistent rest period of 20 seconds between each single rep. This technique can be used for any exercise.

The nice thing about singles is that you can do a lot of reps without producing a lot of muscle fatigue. You don’t feel the fatigue while you’re lifting, but you may feel it the next day. About 13 years ago I used this method for bench press and dead lift. It shocked my body into a strength gain quicker than any method I have ever used. Even though it worked wonders on a short term basis, it’s not a method that kept working over the long run with the amount of single reps I was doing; I did too much.

Precision Point Methods for Using Single Reps with Moderate Weights

If you want to use this method on a regular basis in manner that allows for steady progression, then stick with the precision point concept of training as long as your strength is high. When your strength starts to decline, quit training that body part. For single reps, you can use precision point concepts a couple of ways.

The first method is to use weight that you can lift for about 10 to 12 consecutive reps, but do single reps with the weight and rest about 10 seconds between reps. When you reach a rep where your rep speed starts to slow down, stop the set and rest for at least 3 minutes. Then come back and do another set the same way. If you can reach the same number of strong reps as you could on your first set, you can keep repeating sets in the same manner with at least 3 minutes between sets. If your rep speed starts to slow down on a lower number than your first set, stop doing any more exercise for that body part.

A second version is to give yourself a full 20 seconds between single reps and keep doing singles until your rep speed slows down, then quit doing that exercise. You can repeat this in your workouts until it quits working, then you need to move on to a different way of training before you burn out. You can give it a try if you want to include a new variation in your training. Best of training to you.

Rest-Pause Single Reps

In the last article I discussed guidelines for how to use single repetitions when using near maximum weights, and how they can also be used as warm up reps. In this article, I am going to discuss another method for using single reps called rest-pause reps.

What are rest pause single reps? Rest pause reps are done when a lifter performs a full set of repetitions, and then he or she rests and pauses just long enough at the end of the set to be able to do only one (or sometimes two or three) more rep. I will explain both the common version of doing rest pause reps, and a precision point version of rest-pause training so that you understand the difference.

High Intensity Rest Pause

Rest pause training is most often done by lifters who subscribe to high intensity training (also known as H.I.T.) The most common method for rest pause reps is to first push a set of reps all the way to the point of failure until no more reps can be done due to fatigue. For example, a lifter may choose to do anywhere between 5 to 12 reps for a given exercise. Then a very brief rest-pause period of 5 to 15 seconds is taken and the lifter resumes lifting the same weight and exercise. Since 5 to 15 seconds is not enough time to fully recover, the lifter will only be able to squeeze out one rep if they use a very short rest-pause, but a lot of lifters take a rest-pause that that is long enough to allow two or three reps before failing again. The lifter then continues to take brief rest-pauses to recover just enough strength to allow them to only be able to do one to two more reps, and they keep taking rest pauses until they are only able to grind out one rep at a time. Usually three or four rest pauses are taken at the end of the set, and as you can see, it is a variation of singles that is used in conjunction with a full set of reps.

High Intensity Rest Pause

Doing rest-pause reps at the end of a set is just one version of using rest pause singles. Another popular version of rest-pause reps was introduced with the high intensity training movement back in the 70’s. It was done with a near max weight that was repeated for one rep every 15 to 20 seconds with the goal of being able to struggle through three to four heavy singles (which often turned into force reps by the 3^rd and 4^th rep) in a short amount of time. Some people claim to have made great progress with this method, but I think it’s too severe for most people to make progress for an extended period of time.

Precision Point Rest Pause

The way I recommend rest pause reps is to use Precision Point Training guidelines by first doing a set for a given amount of reps that you choose to do. Be sure to stop the set with your limit rep, which is the last rep that you can do before slowing down your rep speed or rep rhythm. Then rest just long enough to regain enough strength to do one more strong rep at the same speed as your previous reps.

We’ll use Steve as an example precision point rest pause training and assume he does 10 pull-ups and stops because his rep speed would start to slow down on his 11^th rep. So Steve waits ten seconds and then does one more strong rep. The next week that Steve does pull-ups, he still does 10 pull-ups but he only gives himself 8 seconds before doing one more rep. Steve keeps reducing his rest time by a couple seconds each week until his 11^th rep is added on to his set of ten reps with no rest so that he is simply doing a non-stop set of 11 reps. The idea is for Steve to gain a little strength over time until he can do his 11^th rep without needing to rest or pause, or slow down his rep speed in order to do it.

Lifters and bodybuilder have been doing single rest pause reps for years and for decades. Using this method with the right training intensity is a key to making it work for you instead of against you. The severe way of using the rest pause method that the high intensity lifters use can only be done once in a while. However, you can use the less intense method of rest pause training that I described on a regular basis. Look for smarter ways, not just a harder ways to use this method, and you can apply it in a progressive, ongoing manner. Best of training to you.

Ways to Train With Single Reps

One way to add variety to your training is through the use of single rep training. It just means to do sets of one rep. There are several ways that singles can be used for productive training and I will discuss some of these ways.

Heavy Singles

The most obvious way to use singles is to work up to a heavy weight that is heavy enough so that you can only do it for one rep. I don’t recommend using all out super slow grinder reps on a regular basis. Powerlifters often grind with a very slow reps that takes three or more seconds to get up a heavy weight, this is a very taxing use of the single rep. If you do singles in this manner on a regular basis you are at risk for burn out. Instead, find the amount of weight where you notice that your rep speed suddenly starts to slow down for a single rep. It’s the weight where you either start to grind, or there is a part in your range of motion that seems to stall out a little before completing the lift. Then select a weight that’s a little lighter where the full rep is done in a fairly smooth manner without a sudden stall out in rep speed at some point during the lifting motion.

Finding the Right Weight To Use

The lifter in the first video below is using a weight that is just about right for doing heavy singles training on a regular basis. In second video, the same lifter has a slight stall in the middle of the lift. I would recommend regular training be done with a weight which allows a lift to be done as in the first video rather than the second. However, if this lifter were to continue using the heavier weight for regular training, I would recommend that he continues using that weight until it becomes as smooth as the lift in the first video that is done with ten pounds less, rather than to keep trying to add weight and always do single reps with a stall during the rep. With repeated workouts, the same weight will eventually be lifted faster and easier, and then weight can be added.

1st lift with 200 pounds

2nd lift with 210 pounds

How Many Sets?

How many sets of a single rep should you do? Often, just one heavy lift is all you need, but if you want to do more, you may be able to do two or more sets of singles if you are using the proper weight. The important thing is to make sure you stop repeating sets if your rep speed slows down and it feels like a weaker lift than the previous singles. Once you have trained enough times to know how many sets of singles you can do before your strength starts to decrease, I would just eliminate any sets of singles where you know that your strength will decrease. If you perform your singles with these guidelines, you won’t burn out as easily and you’ll be able to do them more often than if you do too many of them in a workout, or you use the all-out slow grinding reps that barely make it to lock out.

Of course training the Olympic lifts with exercises like the clean and jerk and the snatch are often done for single repetition as these lifts are difficult to do for consecutive nonstop repetitions if you are lifting very heavy.

Singles For Warm ups

A second way that lifters use singles is to do them with very light weights for warm up, and continue using them with progressively heavier weights until a weight is reached where a true work set is done for consecutive repetitions. For example, a lifter may do body weight squats for 10 reps. Then once they start using weight for their squats, they start with the 45 pound bar for just one rep. Then do 135 pounds for a single, followed by 185 pounds, 225 pounds, 255, pounds, 275 pounds and 305 pounds for singles. When 315 pounds is reached, we’ll assume that it’s the weight that they want to use for their work, set so they do it for one set of 8 consecutive reps instead of singles. The singles were being used to warm-up the muscles, joints, and nervous system, and to work on form without creating fatigue that would reduce their strength when they reached 315 pounds for 8 reps.

This video of Ed Coan was shown in a previous article but it is a good example of working up in weight while using singles for warm ups, then doing a full set of 5 reps when a preferred weight is reached.

There are other ways in which single reps can be used in an effective manner and In the next article, I will discuss other methods for using singles. Until then, best of training to you.

Forming a Systematic Training Plan

Only a small percentage have ever done it. They were able to systematically plan a progressive twelve to eighteen week workout cycle from start to finish with the exact exercises and poundages they were going to use each week from start to finish. Then they did it again and again and again in with increasing amounts of weights for cycle after cycle, year after year. These are the lifters who leave everyone else behind. Ed Coan is one of the lifters who accomplished such a feat and many of the West Side Barbell lifters have done it.

Planning a Training Cycle

Ed Coan 1019 Pound Squat

A systematic plan is not just a matter of sitting down a writing out the poundages and reps that you would like to attain from one week to the next. Writing down workout poundages and reps that you can actually follow as planned will not work in less your body is in agreement with that plan. The plan must be in accordance with the adaptive capacity of your body. It can’t be so easy that your body doesn’t see reason to adjust by becoming stronger, and it can’t be so hard that your body doesn’t have the adaptive capacity to get stronger. The plan must zero in on a very precise zone of training intensity that is perfectly suited to systematic strength gains. Then it will work.

Find Your Training Zone

If you want to know how to find your strength training zone, my advice is to review the information on the “Basics of PPT” page on this website. The key is to use basic exercises to train a body part as long as that body part is at near maximum strength, but no longer than that. If a body part begins to weaken during a set, stop your set, and only repeat sets as long as you are as strong as you were on the first set for the body part you are training. Avoid training while weakened by fatigue, instead, train while your strength and energy are high. Training in this manner makes recovery easy, so don’t be afraid to train a body part three times or more per week, but if you find success training less, then train less. Use whatever training frequency that works.

Progress at a Realistic Rate

When it comes to making a written plan for how much strength you want to gain over the course of a couple months, or up to a year, remember that gaining strength is easier in the early stages of training and strength gains may come rapidly. This can be very deceptive if you always plan on gaining at the rapid rate that you did as a beginner for many years to come. Some people may gain 100 pounds of strength for each of their basic lifts during the first two or three years of training and others may gain much more. But there will come a point where it’s hard to make any gains at all. This happens to virtually everyone and it’s also when you must, must, must, find your strength training zone and be extremely patient. Once you find it hard to keep gaining strength, then gaining twenty to thirty pounds of strength in a year is good even for great lifters like Ed Coan. The trick is to be able to do it year after year, after year, but this is very hard to do unless you sit down and do the math.

Being Realistic Means that You Must Do the Math

What does a 30 pound strength gain look like when you break it down into shorter time periods of months or weeks? Adding five pounds of weight to a lift every nine weeks is going to give you about a thirty pound strength gain for that lift at the end of a year. If we look at it terms of weeks, then gaining a little over a half pound of strength per week will give you a 30 pound strength gain at the end of a year. This seems so small, but it’s not if you do it over and over again for many weeks, months, and years, and that’s what the best lifters do. So think through a realistic training plan over the course of several months or a year. If you are realistic, and train with the right intensity level, the right amount of work, and the right training frequency, you can plan your progress out ahead of time, and then watch yourself progress according to your plan. Best of training to you.

Relaxed Tension

When I started training with weights back in the 1979, it was easy to find training information on bodybuilding. Powerlifting and weight lifting information was rare in comparison. Even so, the bodybuilders of that day advocated the need for gaining strength in order to gain size. Along with that, most of them stressed the need to train very, very hard. At that time, a very big, strong bodybuilder named Mike Mentzer was at his peak. He developed a training system called “Heavy Duty Training.” Mike’s big emphasis was on training intensity. He believed in short workouts consisting of what he referred to as “brutal training.”

According to Mike, you had to at least train to failure where you couldn’t do any more reps at the end of a set. On top of that, he believed in forced reps with the help of a training partner. When you couldn’t do any more forced reps, you could still do negative reps where someone else lifts the weight for you and you focus on resisting the weight while you lower it. The idea is to continue a set until you basically couldn’t budge the weight at all. This method of high intensity to the point of completely exhausting a muscle is what he believed to be the secret to effective training and the future of bodybuilding and weight training.

Mike was extremely logical and very persuasive when presenting his training methodology. Even today, if you read his information, it sounds like the most sensible way to train. He sold me on it. Mike wasn’t the only one who believed in brutal training. Even the guys who did lots and lots of sets expressed the need to push yourself and train to failure. I bought into it and lived in a constant state of burnout.

Finding the Right Training Intensity

I finally figured out that kill yourself training didn’t produce consistent results. I then tried a mixture of heavy and light days and it help some, but I was really just undertraining on my light days, and over training on my heavy days. It seemed to take forever to figure it out, but I learned that consistently training at the right intensity level is better than undertraining, and better than overtraining. If you stick with the right training intensity, it will eventually pay off.

Observing Ronnie Coleman

Back in my early days of weight training, I didn’t have access to youtube and the training videos that can be seen on the internet. In watching some of the top powerlifters and bodybuilders train, some of them intuitively seem to know how hard to push themselves. One of the biggest, strongest bodybuilders of all time is Ronnie Coleman. I believe that Ronnie has great intuition in regard to how hard to push himself to gain the strength and size he gained. Unlike the advice that was given in so many bodybuilding magazines that I read in my early years, Ronnie doesn’t push to the point of strain and struggle. He does push himself hard enough, but he also has a knack for knowing when to stop a set.

Relaxed Tension

Ronnie uses a nice even rep rhythm throughout his entire set. There is very little slowing down at the end his sets. He appears to use a technique that I strongly believe in that I refer to as relaxed tension. He has enough tension to lift the weights forcefully and maintain his body in the right posture, but he still appears to be somewhat relaxed as he lifts. He doesn’t focus a lot on lowering the weight slow or fight it on the way down. In fact, Ronnie doesn’t appear to fight with the weights on the way up or on the way down, he lifts them in a very natural, smooth manner.

If you watch the videos below, you’ll see Ronnie strain some at the end of the last couple of sets that he does in his back workout and when he does leg extensions in his leg workout. I also notice that when he trains his arms and shoulders (not seen in these videos), he does do some burn reps where he pauses between reps and slows down his rep speed at the end of a set. However, the vast majority of the reps that he does with basic exercises such as rows, pulldowns, and squats are done with an even rep speed using relaxed tension. When he loses that feel of relaxed tension, he ends his sets. Take a look at his training.

Back workout

Squat workout

Training Considerations

After reading this information, here are some things to consider while you are working out: 1) Are you using an even rep rhythm with nice smooth repetitions on the way up and on the way down? 2) Are you using relaxed tension and lifting the weight in natural manner? 3) Are you stopping your set when you feel that relaxed tension turn into to strain? Think about this information and consider making adjustments if necessary. Best of training to you.

Avoid A Threatening Training State

The way you train determines the physiological training state that you will achieve during a workout. When all is said and done, I believe that achieving the right training state is the biggest factor that determines training success. In order to gain strength, I don’t believe that effective training is based on annihilating yourself with brutal workouts, rather it’s about precision workouts. By this I mean that you don’t want to train to easy, and you don’t want to train too hard, you want to train precisely right. If you can nail it when it comes to achieving the right training state, you’re going to start gaining strength.

When Precision Training Becomes Important

Precision training is not as important when you have an abundant supply of recovery power that is greater than the demand of your workouts. However, precision training becomes very important when you become strong enough to challenge the supply of recovery power because heavier weights and greater workloads produce a greater demand on your supply of recovery power.

Some people have a fabulous supply of anabolic or adaptive recovery power. Such people will be able to blast away in their workouts with positive results long after others have reached a massive sticking point. But eventually, everyone will end up in the same boat where the supply of recovery power cannot overcome the stressful demand of workouts. When this happens, the body becomes threatened by a workout stress and progress stops.

When A Threatening Training State Will Backfire

Sooner or later, training in a physiological state that is threatening to your body will backfire. If you yourself were threatened by someone, you would respond according to how severe you think that threat is. For example, if you knew that every time you overcome a threat, it would keeps coming back stronger the next time, there would come a point where you no longer want to overcome that threat anymore. The threat would grow to be too severe, and even if you have the ability to overcome it, you know it would come back greater the next time, which is highly demotivating. This is what happens with your body when you keep training harder as you continue get stronger. Eventually the continuous increase of the workloads and weight will present a severe enough threat to your recovery power which will cause your body to say, “Enough!” This is when your body shuts down strength gains to avoid increasingly greater threats on your recovery power.

What Causes a Threatening Training Sate?

What are the main variables that cause your body to go into a physiological training state that is threatening to the body? I believe there are four main variables which include: 1) Training too far into a set; 2) Doing too many sets or too much work; 3) Lifting too heavy often; 4) Trying to increase the workload and the amount of weight too often. How is this problem solved? First, stop a set when rep speed and rep rhythm begin to slow down. Second, stop doing sets for a body part when that body part begins to decrease in strength. Third, don’t max out with the heaviest weight that you can lift for one rep more than once per week. Another way to keep from training too heavy is to be aware of when you reach a heavy weight for one rep where rep speed dramatically slows down, and stop adding weight just prior to that point. Fourth, consider using the same weighs, reps, and sets in each workout until the workouts feel easier and all reps can be done without ever slowing down rep speed or rep rhythm. In other words, let the same workout become easier over time as this is not threatening to the body. Once your workout has become easier and can be done without slowing down on your last rep, then you can add weight.

The Right Training State

The whole idea behind achieving the right training state is to train hard enough to stimulate strength gains without training so hard that the body is threatened by a workout stress. If you’ve been pushing yourself to train hard because it worked for you in the past, but you have found that your training is no longer working, your strength may have increased to the point where severe workouts have become threatening to your body. If this has happened to you, consider using the training advice in this article and using the training concepts outlined in the basics of PPT on this website. Best of training to you.

High Frequency Training Part 3

Some people may believe that high frequency weight training is a new idea. It’s not. It’s as old as weight training itself. Bodyweight exercises have been used on a daily basis for people to get in shape for centuries. Gymnastics requiring the use of upper body strength has been done on a daily basis as long as gymnastics has been around, and farmers have had to lift heavy objects on a daily basis for centuries. If you look at some of the old trainers who produced successful bodybuilders and lifters, some of them included daily workouts for their whole body as a part of their training methods. Vince Gironda was one such old school trainer who used a wide variety of training methods, one of which was high frequency training.

Vince Gironda

Vince was very scientific in his approach but the bottom line with him was results. If it worked, he believed in it, and if it didn’t work, he threw it out regardless of the trends of his day. One of the routines he used was 3 sets of 8 reps, five days per week. To perform this routine you need to know the maximum weight you can use for 8 reps for a given exercise. On your first set you use half of the maximum weight that you can use for 8 reps. On the second set, you use 75 percent of the maximum weight you can use, and on the last set you use 100 percent of the maximum weight you can use.

Of course if I were to use this form of training or recommend to someone else, the one tweak that I would advise is to use a weight the allows you to reach your marker rep on your 8^th rep instead of training to failure. This simply means find a weight where your rep speed and rep rhythm starts to slow down on your 8^th rep instead of going to failure. Eventually you will be able to perform that third set easier without having to slow down on your 8^th rep, which is a signal to add up to five pounds until that 8^th rep gets easier again. Vince also describes a similar routine in the book, Unleashing the Wild Physique. He recommends it for hard gainers even though he is well aware that it is a common mindset to tell hard gainers to train less often.

Bill Pearl

Bill Pearl was another bodybuilder-Strongman who used high frequency training where each body part is trained four times per week. He has a version of training where he trains his whole body Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Each body part is trained with six sets of one exercise. The sets are pyramided so that weight is increased on each set. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, Bill does not train his whole body, but focuses on two body parts with high volume training. For instance, on Tuesday he might train chest and back for twenty sets each, on Thursdays he trains just back and shoulders, and on Saturday he just trains his arms, all for up to 20 sets.

John Farbotnik

The last lifter that I’ll discuss from the past is John Farbotnik who was a Mr. America-Mr. World from the early 1950’s. I’ve never really heard much about him except that I have a small booklet of his training methods that I think came with a barbell set that my dad bought at least 45 years ago. Farbotnik’s training course varies according to the level of experience, but he says an ambitious lifter with experience can train five days per week consisting of two dumbbell workouts and three barbell workouts.

Warning

All of these old time lifers/bodybuilders cautioned about training to failure, although back then they sometimes called it, “training on your nerve.” Bill Pearl never trained to failure. If you go to his website you’ll see warnings against training to failure with almost every routine. Vince permitted training to failure with his three sets of eight routines, and also with a routine called, “A Muscle has Four Sides.” He warned against training to failure with most of his other routines. Farbotnik also permitted training to failure, but only once per week; all other workouts were to be done with sets that stopped short of failure.

High volume training has been around for a long time and is still being used today even though it seems most people believe that it is overtraining. However, it works if you train right. This is why I would recommend that if you use high frequency training, only train as long as you are strong. Training strong means only doing reps as long as you can maintain an even rep rhythm. In regard to how many sets to do for a body part, stop when you begin to weaken. If you follow these principles, high frequency training will generally work much better. Best of training to you.

High Frequency Training Part 2

In continuing this series on high frequency training, I am going to refer to three sources that have found success with high frequency training. I would have to think that one of the most well-known proponents of high frequency training is Ivan Abadjiev who coached many of the most dominating Bulgarian lifters in the world during the 1970-1990’s. Abadjiev had little problem throwing out the notion of doing an exercise only two or three times per week. His lifters did variations of the clean and jerk, squats, and snatches on a daily basis, often three or more times per day, (not per week).

An American coach was invited to get a glimpse of how the Bulgarians trained in the 1980’s and jumped at the chance since they were dominating the weight lifting scene at that time. He wondered what their secrets were and was astonished at their training methods. They broke all of the rules of American training methods. When he found out how often and how heavy they trained, he wondered if what he had learned there could possibility work, so he came home and tried their methods on himself and found that they did work.

The Bulgarians did not do set after set of an exercise, and they did not do long workouts. They did short simple, very heavy workouts. Even though their workouts were fairly brief, they did several of them per day, and lots and lots of workouts per week. Their methodology is not popular because most lifters and most athletes don’t have time to work out that often. Plus they worked out so heavy that many people disintegrate from such heavy lifting. While I recommend high frequency, Abadjiev advocated a rather extreme form of high frequency for most people, and I personally would never work out as heavy as his lifters did on a regular basis. Even so, his lifters experienced great success.

Pavel Tsatsouline

Another source that recommends high frequency training is Pavel Tsatsouline. Pavel is from Russia and was taught that high frequency training is an effective way to train. He teaches Americans that it’s ok to train a body part more than two or three times per week. However, his method of training is fairly specific. One of the workouts he recommends is to do a basic exercise for twelve sets of three reps. The workout should be fairly heavy, but should not severely fatigue your muscles. The book, Easy Strength, is written by Pavel and Dan John who have combined their knowledge to explain their weight training methods. You can get a taste of these two lifting coaches by looking at the video below.

Jim Williams

I’ll give you just one more lifter in this article who successfully used high frequency training. In the late 1960’s and early 70’s there was a hugely strong powerlifter by the name of Jim Williams. He often included bench presses five times per week in his workouts. The bench portion of his workouts varied from being moderate in length to short in length. No one could touch him in the bench press in his day as he could lift 700 pounds without a bench shirt. Even in our day, the huge bench press records that you hear about are done with the help of bench shirts, and there are very, very, few top lifters who can bench over 700 pounds without a bench shirt. You can see an example of Jim Williams training if you desire to do so by clicking here

In the next article, I will discuss some other old time bodybuilders and lifters who used high frequency training and the type of training they combined it with. Until then, best of training to you.

High Frequency Training Part 1

For the next two or three articles, I am going to spend some time discussing training frequency. I want to provide some evidence that there are people who have successfully built muscle size and strength with high frequency training that is done for three or more sessions per week for each muscle group.

The first person that I will point to is a trainer named Chad Waterbury. Not only has Chad used high frequency training himself, but he has also trained many others with high frequency training and has seen the positive results that it can produce. Chad wrote a book called Huge in a Hurry. One of the sections in his book addresses high frequency training. He then followed that with another book called High Frequency Training 2 that directly focuses on it to an even greater extent.

Chad had been working out for several years and had even studied physiology and strength training in college. He had basically been taught that the optimum training frequency for a body part is two training sessions per week. Then he happened to see an act in Los Vegas that was a combination of strength, balance, and gymnastics. It was performed by two men known as the Alexis brothers. Chad couldn’t help but notice that these two men were very muscular and demonstrate maneuvers that required immense strength, but what amazed him more than anything was that they often performed every day for a total of ten performances per week. These performances were as demanding as weight training workouts and they were being done on a daily basis, which violated everything that Chad had been taught about the need for long recovery times between workouts in order to build strength. This caused him to seriously question the accuracy of what he had been taught, so he began experimenting with high frequency training and found that it actually worked.

The Alexis Brothers Performing

I am not advocating that high frequency training be done in combination with any and all training methods. High frequency training is much more effective when combined with training that is hard enough to stimulate strength, but not so hard that it exceeds the body’s capacity to easily adapt to the workout. This means train only as long as you are at full strength during a set, and you only continue to do sets for a body part as long as you are at full strength. Stop during a set when your ability to exert force into your reps starts to diminish, and stop doing sets if your strength diminishes. Follow these guidelines if you want the optimum results from high frequency training. Best of training to you.

Training Frequency Considerations

Training frequency refers to how often a lifter trains each body part during a week. If you are already familiar with Precision Point Training, you know that I tend towards a preference for high frequency training where each body part is trained at least three times per week, and up to five times per week. I have even trained each body part six times per week. Having said that, I need to stress that I believe that the effectiveness of high frequency training is not something that automatically works under all training conditions. The effectiveness of high frequency training is based on two very important aspects of training. The first condition is that a lifter does not exceed their marker rep where rep speed slows down during a set. The second condition is that they only continue to do sets for a body part as long as that body part is at full strength. This means a lifter should quit training a body part at the point where they begin to weaken. I could also add a third condition, which is to not do more than 15 reps during a set. Under these conditions, I believe that high frequency training is effective. If you insist on doing lots of sets and fatiguing your muscles by pushing past the point where rep speed begins to slow down, then I do not have much confidence that using a high training frequency will work.

Low Frequency Lifters

Even though I myself benefit more from high frequency training than low frequency training, I can’t say this is true for everyone. There are people have found success by training a body part only once per week. One of the first people that comes to mind in reference to training each body part only once per week is Kirk Karowski. If I’m not mistaken, he is a 1,000 pound squatter. There’s no doubt that his methodology worked for him. Another is Mark Chaillet who was able to bench 520, squat 960, and dead lift 880 pounds. One training session per week undeniably works for these lifters.

Different Exercises May Respond Best to Different Training Frequencies

In discussing training frequency, what I really want to focus on is that you may find that different exercises benefit most from different amounts of training each week. The only exercise that ever gave me positive results when doing it only once per week was the squat. A lot of lifters prefer squatting only once per week, and many find that deadlift training works better with low frequency training as well. At the same time, it is not uncommon for these same lifters to train their upper body twice or more per week. Fred Hatfield (one of the earliest lifters to squat over 1,000 pounds) advocates using different training frequencies for different body parts. According to his philosophy, the bigger the muscle group, the less often it needs to be trained, and the smaller the body part, the more often it can be trained. You can find examples of his preferred training frequencies for various body parts by clicking here to go to Fred’s website. Also Books by Fred Hatfield

Fred’s 1,000 pound squat

Training Frequency for Those who are Involved in Sports

Another important thing to consider is that the great majority of sports emphasize much more involvement from the legs than the upper body. The reason I bring this up is because some of you may be involved with weight training in order to help you improve your performance in a sport that you are involved in. I know the reason I began weight training was to help me improve at pole vaulting in high school, and also to help me with basketball. If you are involved in sports, then your legs may already be receiving a substantial workout from playing the sport that you are involved in, and it may be more beneficial to cut back on the number of days that you work your legs than to use a higher training frequency.

These are all things to consider when determining your workout frequency. Even though there was a time period when I made progress by squatting once per week, and I still play basketball which gives my legs an additional workload to deal with, I still prefer high frequency squats that don’t fatigue my legs during a workout as opposed to blasting my legs once or twice per week. However, each person must listen to their own body and let results speak for themselves when choosing the best training frequency for their own body. Don’t be afraid to experiment in order to find out what works best by trying different training frequencies for different exercises, and don’t be afraid to change your training frequency during a sports season if you are involved in sports. Best of training to you.

How Hard to Push Yourself to Gain Strength

I think it is amazing to see various ways in which people use weight training to gain size and strength. If you go to enough gyms, you will see all kinds of variations in training. In this article I want to demonstrate different approaches to training by comparing two very successful body builders including of Ed Corney (you see Arnold for part of a set too) and Tom Platz, with two very successful power lifters consisting of kirk Karowski and Ed Coan. You can see the difference when watching the youtube videos.

Body Building workouts

Ed Corney

Tom Platz

Powerlifting workouts

Kirk Karowski

Ed Coan

Hopefully you notice the difference in the amount of effort that these lifters are putting into a set of squats. The bodybuilders are concerned about pushing themselves until they can’t do anymore reps, the powerlifters are much more focused on their lifting technique. They aren’t focused on doing as many reps as they can or pushing themselves as hard as they can to the end of a set; although they do push themselves to lift each rep forcefully with good form and a lot of weight. If strength is developed according to how hard you push yourself into a set, the bodybuilders should be stronger. But the power lifters are concerned about the beginning of a set when they are fresh, not the end of a set when they are tired. The powerlifters in these videos have both hit over 1,000 pounds in the squat at some point in their careers. So consider the difference in training if your main goal is to develop strength. Best of training to you.

Doing More Work in a Given Time as a Measure of Progression

Over the years, I’ve come across mega loads of ways to work out, so I thought I’d share a method that I believe can be effective and a nice change if you’re looking for variety. The person who invented this training is a man by the name of Charles Staley. Charles is a thinker and quite analytical in nature, so I like learning from him. One of the methods that he advocates for training is to choose a weight that allows you to perform about 10 reps of an exercise before reaching failure, but instead of doing 10 reps, you only do 5 reps. He advocates switching back and forth between two opposing body parts such as chest and back while doing sets. So for example, you would do 5 reps for a set of bench presses for your chest, and then switch to a set of bent over rows for 5 reps for your back. You would keep on doing sets of 5 reps for each exercise until you become fatigued and would need to drop down to a lower rep number, but you would still keep repeating sets until you reach a time period of 15 minutes. While doing this portion of the workout, the measurement that you are concerned about is to count the total number of reps that you could do for each exercise over the course of 15 minutes.

How to Progress

When using this training method, it’s very important to keep in mind that any number of reps can be done for each set as the goal is not the number of reps you can do for a set, but the number of reps you can do in 15 minutes. You may choose to use 4 reps, 3 reps or any variation of reps during the 15 minute time period. When you improve to the point where you can beat the number of reps you started with by about 8 reps, then you can add weight and start the process of beating your rep record with the added weight.

The Precision Point Version of This Method

One thing I love about this form of training is that it is simple but effective. You don’t need a lot of exercises and you don’t need to keep switching the amount of weight. It also keeps you moving without too much sitting. I have my own Precision Point variation of this type of training because I believe in staying within the right training state where you train to the limit of your ability to do strong reps and strong sets, but not beyond that point. So my version of this type of training is to pick a weight for the exercise that you are doing that will allow about 12 reps before hitting your marker rep. However, don’t do 12 reps for each set. You will use mini sets where you only do 3 reps per set even though you could do 12 if you pushed yourself to your marker rep. Rest one minute between sets and keep doing sets of 3 reps until you reach a set where you hit a marker rep on your third rep. A marker rep is when your rep speed slows down, or you have to pause before doing the rep. At that point, check how many sets you did and how long it took so that you have a measurement that you can try to beat in future workouts.

Method of Progression

The way to progress in future workouts when using the the Precision Point variation of this method is simply to keep repeating this workout until you can do the same number of sets in the same amount of time without having to slow down on the last rep of your last set. In order to improve even farther, your goal is to add one extra set of three reps within the same amount of time without hitting a marker rep on any reps. When you have accomplished this, you can add weight and start the process over.

I don’t recommend using this type of workout in every single workout unless it works especially well for you. Instead, I would recommend using this method once or twice per week so that you can include other workouts that incorporate varying amounts of weight, while also allowing you to do some full sets where you push all the way to your marker rep instead of only doing mini sets. If you are looking for variety in your workouts, this method is another variation that you can try. Best of training to you.

How to Succeed

I admit by this time in my life I consider myself to be somewhat older. At my current age of 52, I have had ample opportunity to observe what goes on in the field of strength training and in life in general. In my younger years I was focused on being determined, being willing to sacrifice, and the concept of pushing myself beyond the ordinary with the goal of obtaining extraordinary results. I’ve learned that consistent effort is a part of success, but there is much more to success than putting forth extreme effort and sacrifice. Now I’m more inclined to focus on precision, correctness, and finding the right level of difficulty in order to improve instead of focusing on the greatest level of difficulty in order to improve.

Lessons From Life

Although this article is actually intended to be about strength training, I am going to be occasionally deviating from strength training in order to make a point about strength training. That being said, by far my favorite sport is basketball. Even though I love weight training, I’m much more suited to playing basketball than I am to being a strength athlete. One thing I’ve learned from basketball is that correct repetition at the right level of difficulty will bring improvement. For example, if I shoot 100 free throws per day, I don’t have to keep shooting more and more free throws every day in order to improve. I can improve over time by simply continuing to shoot 100 free throws each day, and then get better and better at it by making more free throws out of 100 than I could in previous weeks or months. Likewise, a sprinter doesn’t have to add on more and more running to their workouts to get better. What they really need to do is to get better at running the same distance. Going farther, training longer, pushing harder; this will help only if a sprinter hasn’t already been training enough. But if they have been training enough, then doing more is missing the point, because the real point is simply to get better at running the same distance by running it faster.

My Approach

This type of thinking is my basic approach to strength training. I’m not trying to do better by attempting to use more weight, reps and sets in every workout. I’m simply going to repeat the same workouts and get better and better at doing them. How am I getting better without doing more? By continuing to work out until the weights become easier to lift and I can lift them faster. As time passes from one workout to the next, I want to finish my workouts without being taxed as much as I was at the start of an adaptation period (please refer to the basics of PPT on this website if you are not familiar with the term, “adaptation period.”). Once I’ve become better at doing a workout, I can then increase the weight a little and start a new adaptation period by allowing that workout to become easier again. The general strategy during an adaptation period is not to keep making the workouts harder, but to get better at doing the same workout so that it becomes easier.

Finding the Right Level of Difficulty

Back to basketball again. Players don’t improve much by only shooting easy shots that they can make with little effort. On the other hand, I have observed many players who fall in love with long range shooting and they keep throwing up dozens and dozens of shots that are simply out of their range. They end up missing over and over again with little improvement in spite of a lot of practice because they are too far out of their range. What a player should strive for is a shooting range that presents the right level of difficulty that allows them to reinforce the skill they already have, yet still challenges them to slightly expand their shooting percentage or shooting range. This is the level of difficulty that serves as an optimum practice zone for consistent improvement.

How Success Comes

When there is correctly performed repetition at the right level of difficulty that is neither too hard, nor too easy, success will come; not just in basketball, but in just about anything in life; including weight training. It’s not simply doing something the same way over and over that brings success, but doing it the right way over and over again, along with doing it at the right level of difficulty that brings success.

Doing things the right way in terms of weight training means picking effective basic exercises that are done with outstanding technique. In terms of training difficulty, it means using a mix of weights that will allow sufficient volume, sufficient rep speed, and a sufficient amount of weight within workouts, and it means using the marker rep, the limit set, and a training frequency that is individualized according to a person’s own recovery and retention ability. Repeatedly doing things right, and doing them at the right level of difficulty is what works and leads to success. Ask yourself if you are applying these concepts to your training and consider making adjustments if necessary. Best of training to you.

Gradual Progressive Overload Training

A very common way to train for strength is to start out with a moderate weight at the start of a training cycle, and to add a little weight, week after week, until you reach the maximum weight that you can lift for one rep. This type of training goes by different names including: the Gradual progressive over load system; Western Periodization; Mechanical Loading; and Linear Periodization. In this article, I am going to discuss how to use this method within the context of Precision Point Training methods.

I personally have not found much success with starting out a cycle with moderate weight and then finishing with heavy weight at the end of the cycle. However, it is undeniable that others have found great success with using gradual progressive overload training. If you are someone has benefitted from using Gradual Progressive Overload training, or you think that you might benefit from it, and want more information, I suggest the following books and websites:

Books:

Mark Ripptoe: Practical Programming for Strength Training

Tudor Bompa: Serious Weight Training

Websites:

The Smolov Routine

Hypertrophy Specific Training

One source for this type of training is called Specific Training (HST) which was invented by Brain Haycock. Brian is a thinker, which I like. You can learn a lot from his research, even if you don’t agree with his training method. In his system of training, you start a training cycle with a weight that is about 50% to 60% of your one rep max for each exercise. Three training sessions per week are used and each exercise is done for one or two sets of 15 reps in the first workout. Five to ten pounds is added to each exercise for the next five workouts while still doing 15 reps in each workout. This will get you through weeks one and week two using 15 reps. For the third and fourth weeks, 10 reps are used for each exercise throughout the entire two week training period. Once again, five to ten pounds is added to each exercise in each workout where 10 reps is used. After this, 5 reps are used during weeks five and six while continuing to add a small amount of weight for each workout during the next two weeks where five reps are used. An optional two week period can be added where a small amount of weight is added in every workout while negative reps (only lowering the weight) are being used.

My Experience

The Hypertrophy Specific Training System refers to the addition of weight in every workout as “mechanical loading.” I once gave this an honest effort for eighteen weeks. It did work nicely for gaining strength for lat pulldowns and dumbbell lateral raises. However, in my own case, it worked horribly for gaining strength in the bench press and dead lift, and worked only moderately bad for squats, as I lost a lot of strength for those exercises. Even so, the mechanical loading approach of adding weight in each workout has worked great for some lifters. If I were going to use this approach again, I would modify it and I will give you some suggestions to try if you are using gradual progressive overload training.

Modifications

First, instead of adding weight in every workout, I would only add weight to one workout per week while keeping the other workouts the same throughout an entire workout cycle. If I were working out three times per week, I would use light weights in the 40-50% range, as well as medium weights in the 60%-70% range on Monday on Wednesday. This would remain constant every week from the start of the finish of a 10-12 week training cycle. However, I would do the mechanical loading on Fridays by adding on a little weight (about 2.5%) each Friday until I eventually hit 90 to 95% of my one rep max. Then I would start over with a new cycle. By doing this, I would never drop sufficient volume, speed work, and muscle stimulation from my workouts.

The other modification would be to use mini sets (click here for information on mini sets) when using light weights, and to never train past my marker rep when using heavier weights. I would also gauge the volume of how many sets I do according to my own ability to perform strong sets before weakening (click here for how to determine the limit of sets).

Avoiding Too Easy and Too Hard

Often times when people use the gradual progressive overload system, they end up training too easy or too hard which is what happened to me. At start of the 15 rep period, the weights were too easy, but by the end of the 15 rep period, I was straining as hard as possible to reach 15 reps, and it was too hard. This happened with the 10 rep and 5 rep range as well. This is why I recommend staying within the boundaries of the marker rep, even when using gradual, progressive overload training.

You can try these suggestions if you use the progressive overload method, or if you may use it at some point. Best of training to you.

Breaking a Sticking Point

triceps extensions

Sticking points are the worst. You train and stay the same and just keep training and staying the same. There are different philosophies for overcoming a sticking point. In this article, I will discuss some of these philosophies.

Blast Through it

One philosophy for overcoming a sticking point is to blast through it. There are lots of articles and training courses that help people break sticking points. Most of them advocate training more or training harder in order to wake your body up so that it will respond. If you haven’t been training hard enough, blasting through a sticking point may work for you, but if you have already been training hard or too hard, then finding another way to over-train isn’t going to work for very long.

Train Less

Another philosophy is to go in the opposite direction and try training less during a workout, or to train less often. Sometimes it works; especially if you have been training too much or too often. But if you haven’t been training too much or too often, trying to find another way to avoid over training will probably not help for very long. A lot of the guys who advocate doing less in each workout and working out less often will also tell you to train with more intensity and push your sets hard while giving yourself plenty of time to recover. No doubt, this philosophy has worked for some, but for others it was futile attempt to improve. It can easily turn into both over training and undertraining. Over training because sets are pushed too hard and the nervous system rebels, and undertraining because there is not enough training volume or training frequency for many people to maintain an anabolic state.

Utilize a Training Cycle

Then there are philosophies which utilize a mixture of different types of training in some sort of training cycle. I have found some success with this methodology and it felt like I hit the jackpot for a while with this type of training. There are endless loading and deloading schemes, and a kazillion ways to mix various types of training into a cycle. I’ll share one that worked for me.

I used moderate weights that allowed eight to twelve reps and I did a variety of exercises that amounted to ten to twelve sets for each body part. I used a fast training pace with moderate intensity where there was no straining and pushing to failure. Each body part was trained twice per week and I used this type of training for just one week. For the next two weeks, I switched to short, low volume workouts consisting of two sets per body part, high intensity training where sets were either done to failure, or near failure using 12 to 15 reps at the start of the week, and six to eight reps at the end of the week. A high training frequency was used that consisted of hitting each body part five days in a row. It worked really, really good for about two cycles and then it quit working, so I did break a sticking point, but I created another one in the process. I recommend this type of training for people who need a new body in six weeks as opposed to people who want to make training progress for months or years.

Little By Little

The final philosophy that I will discuss has more to with just making progress little by little in order to get unstuck, rather than to hit the jack pot and make an incredible breakthrough to overcome a sticking point. Using this method, you don’t look for big results in the next week or in a month; you just try to make a little progress in the next week or month without training in such a way that will cause your progress to come to a stand-still after a brief breakthrough. This is the type of training that I advocate with Precision Point Training. It’s not designed to give you a big burst of strength, it’s just designed to help you gain little by little without getting stuck.

One thing I am coming to believe is that there are several variables that can contribute to gaining strength. When your training includes a little of all of these variables, you don’t over work any one aspect of your physiology, and progress is more predictable. With this in mind, your workouts should include: sufficient (not excessive) training volume along with speed and force development using light weights; medium and heavy training for strength development; and moderately light training that allows you to hit your marker rep at around 12-15 reps. I believe that this is generally more effective than just focusing on one type of training. Along with this, avoid producing muscle fatigue that causes your strength to decline during a workout. Train while you are strong, as long as you are strong, but no longer than while you are strong. Be consistent and remember that you don’t have to blast through a sticking point; you just need to start making a little progress and keep doing that over and over again. Best of training to you.

Training Articles Continued

Precision Point Training

Optimum Strength Training Strategies

Strength Training Articles Continued 7