[quote]lemony2j wrote:
To give my training history a brief outline it would look like this:
Year 1) Full-body workout every other day. Skimming over legs and delts, bi?s and tri?s getting more than their fair share of attention
Year 2) Switched to a body-part split. Really pushing the volume but lacking in intensity. Sometimes hammering out 30-40 sets per body part and going 10-14 days without a rest day. Regularly found myself run-down and feeling terrible.
Year 3) Tried out my own version of 5/3/1 while also incorporating some of CT?s Wave-loading schemes: 7/5/3 etc.
Year 4) Started to figure out what was working for me and went back to a bodypart split. Experimented with training a muscle group twice a week.
Year 5) (Current) Tried a mountain-dog style of training, still throwing in the odd heavy set but not overly concerned with 1rm strength.
I feel it?s worth saying that at each phase in my training I felt like what I was doing what was the right thing to do and was working but now I have the pleasure of hindsight I can see that that wasn?t so.
I don?t think enough can be said for INTENSITY. I feel like now if I only had 10 minutes in the gym for whatever reason that I could train a muscle and provide enough stimulus for growth. I used to discredit HIT style training a la Dorian Yates and co as I just couldn?t get my head round training with such low volume. Since I learned to ramp up intensity and frequency and reduce volume I can definitely see how that would work.
Another revelation in the past couple of years was to train by actually targeting a particular muscle and not just going through the motions working a certain movement. A lot of John Meadows? techniques have helped a lot with this. I think now, it?s important to create a lot of pain (good pain- think lactic acid) within the muscle being trained. I used to stop when it became painful or the pump got too much but I now make a big effort to see how much pain I can create and endure. Not a huge necessity for some muscle groups but certain muscles, calves for instance, and legs in general, I think this is imperative.
Training for strength did nothing for me. I?m sure it benefitted me somehow but I don?t feel it contributed to hypertrophy at all FOR ME. All it did was beat up my joints. This is not to say it wouldn?t for anyone else. I?ve heard it said that to train like a bodybuilder means getting stronger just in a higher rep range and I agree with this. I do however think that training anywhere under 5 reps for hypertrophy is useless. I now look at it more In terms of tension produced and TUT.
I noticed a massive change when I started to focus on my diet and take it seriously. I don?t think enough can be said for the importance of a well balanced consistent diet. And when I finally started counting cals/macro?s things got a whole lot easier! It is still a constant work in progress but having it all there in black and white allows you to manipulate things without much effort.
Carb back-loading works. For me anyway. I have seen a much more favourable body composition since employing this method of dieting. It makes perfect sense to me now to only consume carbs when their needed and makes the body search for an alternative energy source (adipose) when there isn?t an abundance of the usual energy source (glucose).
Protein intake ? I know this can be highly subjective but I?ve found that I gain better on a higher protein intake. Sounds like common sense but I was aiming for ~250g protein/day for a long time. It was only when increasing this to ~300g/day that I noticed a definite increase in lbm. I will keep this in mind and possibly increase again the next time I feel a plateau creeping in.
Supplements ? I just stick with the basics. I?ve tried all the funky supps but I think there is a LOT of money that can be spent on that cr@p and all you really need is a good source of whey, bcaa?s and occasional creatine. Still not decided how I personally respond to intra-workout supps but have experimented. In the following off-season I?ll be trying a dextrose/bcaa combination and seeing how I react.
That?s all I can think of for now. Apologies for the lack of structure, these are just tid-bits that I?ve typed as I thought of. I still have a LOT to learn and as my body continues to adapt, so must my methodologies. Please keep in mind, all of the above is what works for ME and I?ve come to these conclusions through trial and error.
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thanks for sharing.