Activating Muscle Protein Synthesis Everyday

Training
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Here are some “Old School” routines/layouts from full body old timer, Chuck Sipes. This article is titled “Chuck Sipes,” from “The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban” blog. Somebody may think they are cool.

Chuck Sipes

HEAVY/LIGHT ROUTINE

Two bars are loaded for the alternate exercises (one heavy, one light). Go from the heavy set to the light, pumping set without delay. Alternate Routine One and Routine Two and perform four workouts per week.

Monday/Thursday

Press Behind Neck - 4 sets of 2 reps
alternated with
Barbell Front Raise - 4 sets of 10 reps

Bench Press - 4 sets of 1 rep
alternated with
Barbell Straight-Arm Pullover - 4 sets of 12 reps

Cheat Barbell Curl - 4 sets of 1
alternated with
Preacher Curl 4 x 12

Conventional Deadlift - 4 x 2
alternated with
Front Bend (with broomstick behind neck) - 4 x 12

Barbell Row - 4 x 2
alternated with
Lat Pulldown - 4 x 15

Tuesday/Friday

Lying Triceps Extension - 5 sets of 2 reps
alternated with
Pressdowns - 5 x 15 reps

Back Squat - 4 sets of 2
alternated with
Leg Extension - 4 x 15

Standing Calf Raise - 4 sets of 2
alternated with
Bodyweight Heel Raise - 4 x 20

Shrug - 4 x 8
Reverse Curl - 4 x 8
Abs - 4 x 20

TRAINING FOR STRENGTH

Monday/Thursday

Full Squat -
8,8,4,4, one single

Conventional Deadlift (2 breaths between each rep) -
4 sets of 4 reps

Bench Press -
6,6,4,4,2,2,1,1

Cheat Barbell Curl -
5 sets of 4 reps

Preacher Curl -
5 sets of 8

Seated or Lying French Press -
5 x 8

Reverse Curl -
3 x 8

Tuesday/Friday

Heavy Supports, Bench Press (one inch lockout) -
4 x 5-20 seconds

Heavy Supports, Back Squat (one inch lockout) -
4 x 5-20 seconds

Heavy 1/4 Back Squats -
3 sets of 10 reps

Barbell Press Behind Neck - 3 sets of 6
Barbell Row - 2 x 8
Shrug - 2 x 8

BENCH PRESS SPECIALIZATION

The first exercise is the standard bench press. Start off with two warmup sets of at least 8 reps. Next, choose a weight that you can properly handle for 6 good reps. The weight should be heavy enough to make you fight for those 6 reps, but not so heavy as to become overbearing. Do 2 sets. A good rule to follow in this program is to choose a weight that you could possible do two more reps than you are supposed to do, with the exception of the last few sets where you will use a weight that permits you to really work to get the desired number of reps.

Now, raise the weight to the amount that will enable you to do 2 sets of 4 reps. Again increase the weight to allow 2 sets of 2 reps. After this, do your day’s maximum weight for singles, 2 sets with this weight, 3 on a strong day.

Excessive arching and bouncing should be avoided, however, a certain amount of arch will always help your lifting. If you never arch at all, your strength will increase at a much slower pace. A little arching will help you use a weight for more reps than you would be capable of doing without arching. Eventually, you will be able to do more reps strictly than you once were doing with an arch. Check your strength periodically in the non-arched position. Don’t bounce the weight off your chest.

After completing the standard bench presses, move to mid-range pin push-offs. Using a power rack, place the pins about six inches off your chest. Do sets of 6,6,4,4,2,2.

Now, set the pins about 5 or 6 inches from the lockout position. Do 2 sets of 4. Increase the weight and do 2 doubles.

Finally, place the pins about 1 inch below lockout. These are called supports and you will soon be able to use very heavy weights on them. Supports enable you to get accustomed to holding very heavy weights, so heavy that they would be impossible for your to bench, at least for the time being.

Follow this program one to two times per week.

CONDITIONING ROUTINE

Monday/Wednesday/Friday

Full Squat,
light poundage, breathe very deeply between reps -
2 sets of 20 reps
alternated with
Straight-Arm Barbell Pullovers
light poundage, breathe very deeply between reps -
2 x 20
Chins - 2 x 8
Dips - 2 x 12

Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday

Bench Press - 2 x 12
Power Clean or Full Clean - 2 x 8

Daily

One mile jog
Situps 1 x 50
Front Bends, Side Bends
with broomstick behind neck -
50 reps each

POWER BODYBUILDING ROUTINE

Monday/Thursday

Back Squat - 6,6,4,4,2,2,
Bench Press - 6,6,4,4,2,2,
Conventional Deadlift - 6,6,4,4,2,2,
Shrug - 4 sets of 8 reps
Cheat Curl - 4 x 6
Preacher Curl - 5 x 10
Situp - 3 x 20
Leg Raise - 4 x 15
Overhead Press - 5 x 6
Incline DB Flye - 3 x 8
Calf Raise - 4 x 20

Tuesday/Friday

Heavy 1/4 Bench Press - 5 sets of 8 reps
Heavy 1/4 Back Squat, no lockout,
with about 50-100 lbs. more than your regular squat.

  • 5 x 8
    Stiff Legged Deadlift off Bench or Box -
    Place the loaded bar on the bench with the center of the bar resting over and across the middle of the bench. Stand astride the bench and take a shoulder width pronated grip on the bar. With your knees locked and legs straight pull the bar (from mid-shin or just below the knees) until you are in an upright position. Lower the weight down until the bar touches the bench, and without any rebound return to upright position again. Can also be done off a wooden box.
  • 5 sets of 4 reps
    Chins - 6 x 6
    Dips - 5 x 8
    Lying French Press - 5 x 8
    Abs

1 to 10 to 1 TECHNIQUE
4-21-16-4 CONCEPT

Monday/Thursday

Bodyweight Chins Behind Neck -
1 to 10 to 1

  • begin with 1 rep, rest 10 seconds, do 2 reps, rest 10 seconds, do 3 reps, rest 10 seconds, etc., up to 10 reps. Then work back down in the reverse manner.

Bodyweight Chins to Front -
1 to 10 to 1

Wide Grip Barbell Row

  • pull bar high to chest and lower slowly, keep the bar moving
    6 sets of 12 reps

Dips -
1 to 10 to 1

Barbell Curl 21’s -
7 reps from bottom position to middle position,
7 reps from middle position to top of movement,
7 full-range reps
4 sets x 21 reps

Cheat Barbell Curl -
16 sets of 4 reps
Alternate one set of 21’s to each 4 sets of Cheat Curls.

1/4 Back Squat, No Lockout -
5 sets of 20 reps

Calf Raise -
5 x 10 with 40 top partial burns each set

Tuesday/Friday

Shrug - 4 sets of 10
Bench Press - 8,8,4,4,2,2,1,1.
Bent-Arm Pullover - 4 x 8

Lying French Press 21’s (4 sets)
alternated with
Conventional Lying French Press (16 sets of 4)
One set of 21’s to each 4 sets of regular French presses

Palms Down Wrist Curl - 4 x 20
Overhead Press - 6 x 8
Abs

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62

Lol even I won’t be able to do that. Deathwish 3 maybe, not Troll 2.

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And that’s the whole bloody problem … FYI @dt79 I am going to go into a complete Rant regarding that for mention study. Of course, I am not direction it at you nor any other specific individual at this point. Nor am I down playing the usefulness and productivity of a full body approach when used smartly and properly, based on different people individual’s goals and experience levels. This is nothing more than just my general takes on the whole frequency issue and others can take it for what it’s worth. More than likely, I will simply just preach to the choir on this.

dead horse

I honestly wish some people had that ONE study rammed up their collective asses. It seems as of late you have individuals, whom do not know any better running with it like it’s the Holy Grail and those who do using it for their own agenda. Mostly so called Gurus trying to separate themselves from the pack in an attempt to market themselves and not because the buy into it a 100%.

In a nutshell all is stated in it basically it is more “optimal” for more frequent training stimuli for natural guys to stimulate Muscle protein production. Really? Really? Holy Crap on a cracker! This is some next level stuff! To think training more often could actually produce and increase the rate of progression! Why hasn’t anyone ever thought of this before!! OH, wait a minute they have……

Unfortunately, the glaring issue many of these individuals are kind of ignoring for whatever reasons are certain concept that kind of muddy up the water. Such as recovery, super compensation and or adaptation along with the concept of diminished returns. These are kind of important things that might be taken into consideration with any approach. Which are all affected by work volume, work intensity, frequency and my favorite exercise selection… along with a parade of other variables. Which I’m sure as hell not going to spend hours going over in this short post.

What I have been seeing online as of late regarding this just leaves me scratching my head. Guys are now suggestion someone should train more frequent than someone whom might be on gear or am I missing something? Actually this is nothing new in the past it has been suggested that natural guys need to focus on more intensity in their training as opposed to frequency. For clarification, intensity being the actual % of one’s 1 RM and not perceived intensity. Again regarding the frequency model, most of whom seem to be pushing this mind set is the full body training crowd to a certain degree. Ok, again the whole concept is that natural guys need to do so to compensate for the fact that guys on anabolic have to do less to stimulate MPS. Which yes this has been pretty much established. But they also seem to gloss over one of the HUGE and I do mean HUGE advantage that anabolic users have is increase rate of recovery and training tolerance.

The irony is that years ago the prevailing mind set has been that natural lifter where foolish trying to emulate anyone on gear partially due to the whole recovery issue. Which some individuals are short sighted on and do not seem to take the whole picture into account. With the only concern being taken into account is the muscular systems. While not being mindful of other body system that are stressed in the process of creating adaptation through the process of training.

So looking at the big picture… Obviously as this concept becomes popular, guys are going to start increasing their frequency based on one study for the benefit of increase MPS. Here is the real kick in the teeth as I see it, as things normally go… the body will adapt so guys whom do not know any better will have to increase total volume and or intensity. They will more than likely not adjusting their frequency, staying within their self-imposed training model. Which will lead them in my opinion hitting a major wall sooner than latter where their ability to recover from the imposed training stress can’t be keep up. Which some guys can attest, can cause a decrease in the actual progression rate or even a worst scenario, digression. Which is kind of ironic since that’s why some advance guys start using gear to allow themselves to compensate for those situation. Along to a lesser extent why splint style training came onto the scene years ago.

Well there I have gotten that out of my system excuse me while I tend to the sudden carpal tunnel I have developed.
Bulldog man

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64

Great song!

Solid info-rant. I like the part about people messing themselves up by “staying within their self-imposed training model.”

I feel like I’ve had that problem in the past.

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Bottom line, do what works for you and don’t stop until the progress disappears. I’m impartial in this argument, because I know the guys here have been lifting years and years longer than me, but I also respect the F out of someone who does the research and applies it to his own training. If you were making this shit up and trying to perpetuate it on people, that’d be different.

Good luck in your training man.

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Only in articles by people who need to make their living from writing and coaching or by those who are just parroting one aspect of something they read but didn’t truly understand.

S

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I’d hate to have an actual discussion in such a train wreck of a thread, but CT has written quite a bit in recent years about increased frequency specifically for natural lifters. That said, he also talks about managing overall volume so as to not even approach near the level the pros do.

I’m curious what your take is?

I’ve tried a lot of different training methodologies over the last 10 years and I’m honestly at a point where I might just pull a body part split out of Arnold’s bodybuilding encyclopedia and be done with it, lol.

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From my trial and error experience, I’ve found while I have always been a fan of high volume and most of my training has been very high volume over time, I respond better to a “normal” volume approach. My workouts would routinely be 24-36 working sets, I could perform throughout no problem, but recovery wasn’t optimal and I typically felt pretty wrecked. Dialing back to a normal 18-24 working sets per session, I feel much better, recover better, gain strength without issues.

I do think it’s also very individualized. Some naturals, depending on hormones and genetics, might be better with low volume/frequency, some high, and some a mix. I’ve made good improvements on moderate volume and increased frequency of groups I want to bring up. For a year I trained delts and arms twice a week with moderate volume each session. Anytime I want to bring up an area, I typically increase frequency to twice a week and dial back volume on that muscle group slightly. But, it won’t work forever, so after increasing frequency for a time, I go by feel for when to bring it back to once a week.

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Do you generally stick to a certain rep range for 18-24 working sets?

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It varies depending on the exercise, anywhere from 5-12, sometimes as high as 15. Some exercise I’ll go 5x5, or 4 sets of 5-8. This is typically done for things like DB chest or shoulder presses, T-Bar row, or sometimes close grip lat pull down. 8-10 reps is the money zone and where I spend most of my time. Sometimes I’ll do 12-15 depending on the exercise and weights I’m using, usually on things like lateral raise machine, or sometimes cable work. I also leave room to go by feel. If I start my session and feel particularly strong that day, I might add some more lower 5-8 rep sets, or if I’m not feeling it, might back off of weight slightly and do some higher rep work, or maybe stick with 8-10 and just not do anything below 8 reps that day. I’ll toss in partials at the end of an exercise sometimes too, but again that’s something I decide to do that day or during that specific set, not always planned.

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Nice. I sorta figured that’d be your response. You normally do a push/pull split if I remember correctly?

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Not usually, I’m a typically bodybuilder split kind of guy. I’ve done a few periods of full body routines, but the standard for me is splits, I’ve never done a push/pull.

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Gotcha, I must have been thinking of someone else.

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If this were the flame free thread I would admit I actually quite enjoyed both of those movies…

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While people tend to argue frequency a hell of a lot, what too many people miss out on is volume. I know that I feel I missed out on a few year’s worth of progress because all the magazines at the time were scaring everyone about how overtraining would ruin any chances they had of a good physique if heaven forbid they did one set too many!

Now, while I do understand the concept of recovery, and how many folks never gave it proper mind, it took me a while to realize how it wasn’t really a looming concern if your nutrition was on point, and you weren’t a complete moron in the gym. My point being that this one component is actually positioned in a carefully balanced, and quiet complex web of variables that all needed to be withing a certain range, and reliant on one another in order for the whole muscle machinery to operate according to our goals.

That said, I detailed my own journey from newb to competitor, pro, judge etc over the years, and in that time, I’ve earned degrees, certifications, worked alongside and with some top names in the sports medicine, training and nutrition field, and become very good friends with a serious number of natural (and non-natural) pros and competitors. I’ve used the line “success leaves clues” many times, and that’s because it does. Competitors today, at least the top ones, aren’t morons. The same information that is available to your favorite fitness authors is available to anyone. As there’s no real money in natty BBing, the drive to excel and success is a deeply rooted and personal one for many, and the possibility of leaving any stone unturned is avoided at all costs.

So, when a fitness author takes a stance on something that is in direct opposition to what every single educated (degrees and the latest studies to boot) and experienced competitor (pro and top amateurs), and the coaches who are always on top of the latest innovations and approaches that are allowed in the natty/tested arena all seem to agree on,… you can’t help but consider the rationale.

Should natties train more than once a week? SOME should. SOME shouldn’t. DO Naturals have the same recover ability as PED assisted competitors? Of course not! We all know this to be true. Can solid nutrition and rest improve recovery abilities? Yup. … So where’s the actual answer? Simple… Success leaves clues… If all the latest info is available to everyone, and yet the best of the best still support the same beliefs as each other regardless of what some authors are writing,… It says something.

Just my own take mind you, I’m not trying to stir anything.

S

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I appreciate it! You’re always very insightful.

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It’s a frightening level of arrogance. All bodybuilders do more of less the exact same shit and have done for generations, so if you really think that because you’ve read a few studies that you’ve discovered some revolutionary new way that no one else could ever have thought of, try to think about how likely that really is.

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This god-forsaken topic again! :slight_smile:

I don’t have much time to write at the moment but I want to briefly go over what we’ve gone over so damn much on this topic. Seriously, anyone can see so much of us talking about this topic for the past year and a half.

But let us go over some of the flaws in thinking a muscle must be directly worked two times per week rather than once every five to seven days as nearly all decent or excellent bodybuilders do.

  1. As I’ve said, and as others have pointed out, over and over and over again, simply because there is more protein synthesis, there is not absolutely more muscular growth. That is, simply because someone directly trains a muscle group three times per week, he is not going to grow three times faster than someone who trains a muscle group once every five to seven days. Some might counter this with, “That’s true, but there will be faster growth.” I can only agree with this for beginners, who should generally follow full body routines to begin with anyway.

  2. A well thought-out body part split will have you training each muscle twice or more times per week by default considering that compound exercises involve more than one muscle group. I can’t remember how many times I’ve gone over this one point but I’ll provide examples again! If someone works out his chest and then two to three days later trains his shoulders and perhaps another muscle group such as triceps, he is thereby training his chest, shoulders, and triceps twice in four days! If he works his back and then two to three days later involves biceps in another workout, he is training his biceps twice in four days! And if he has legs two to three days later, and includes stiff legged deadlifts, he is training his hamstrings and back two times in four days!

And as Bret Contreras says, body part splits actually can prevent overtraining considering this varying intensiveness: one time hitting a muscle group directly and another time incidentally. And in splits there are days on which muscles will be training muscles after which you won’t feel like a ton of bricks hit you, say an arm or shoulder and tricep day compared to a leg or back day.

  1. Of course programs with higher frequency provide results! But for bodybuilding purposes, especially competitive bodybuilding purposes, isolation and secondary exercises are done, and this means there needs to be more room in each individual workout, hence the need to split the body up.
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@The_Mighty_Stu I notice your debate buddy whom started this doesn’t want to add his vast experience and education level into the conversation.

well said…

For clarification my write up was more aimed at my annoyance at the whole anti split garbage floating around

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Probably too busy logged into one of their other troll accounts.

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