[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
PRCalDude wrote:
Zap Branigan wrote:
trextacy wrote:
Zap Branigan wrote:
trextacy wrote:
…
Cosgrove
By the way, for body comp Poliquin uses his German Body Comp program, which is, you guessed, 3x per week full body.
Read Dr. Leistner’s “Sensible Training” article.
Read the article I posted twice already in this thread.
Get a clue.
Cosgrove thinks splits are superior for bodybuilding. He prefers TBT for athletes and average people that have time constraints.
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/breaking_glass.htm
No, he thinks that for pros and top level amateurs…as I’ve been saying the whole time. As far as I know, no one of that cabliber has posted on here. Certainly people like Jehovah’s fitness, zephead and other noobs would not qualify (nothing personal…I certainly don’t either).
No, you are dead wrong. We had this very conversation with him right here in these forums and he said he used splits in the exact way we have been discussing. Not limited to pros and top amateurs.
If you don’t believe me ask him yourself.
Unfortunately, he failed to state that he thought splits were better for bodybuilding in “TNROL.” ACtually, I guess he does have splits listed in his “hypertrophy” section, but they’re upper/lower body splits. Could you provide a link for the conversation you were talking about?
http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_article/cosgroves_five_ahha_moments_1?id=2035727&pageNo=4
03-28-2008, 10:38 AM
Alwyn Cosgrove wrote:
Protoculture wrote:
If hypertrophy is systemic, then is there even a point to perform high frequency of same/similar movement throughout the week?
In other words do you think that 3 full body workouts per week would result in the same gains as performing 1 upper body push workout, 1 upper body pull workout, and 1 lower body workout per week if your goal was hypertrophy.
If the goal is just hypertrophy - initially - or if time is a challenge – full body will be preferable. Frequency is the biggest factor in success at that point.
However at some point I think you’re going to need a certain volume ‘threshold’ per muscle group. And it’s too hard to get that volume for every muscle in the session without training for hours. And the longer the workout - the more the intensity starts to suffer.
So then I think an upper-lower split is the way to go.
After that - I’d go to a further split. Maybe even going as far as to do two upper body workouts (push and pull, or horizontal and vertical) and two lower body workouts (quad and ham dominant) over 8-10 days.
A beginner can probably completely work and develop a body part with good intensity in 2-3 sets.
So if each set is about 30-60s long, with a 90s or so rest period - you can get a lot done (20+ sets) in a one hour session.
As you develop - you need more volume per muscle group or movement - and as you are stronger - probably more warm up sets and additional exercises. (If you are bench pressing 135 - a warm up set of 45 and one at 95 is enough. If you’re benching 315 - then you’ll need a few more warm up sets - all of which takes time).
It just becomes a time issue at that point so some type of a split is preferable unless you have all day to train!
Also - as you progress - your intensity per exercise goes up. Heavier loading requires longer rests between sets – so you can’t get it all done in one session.
Besides - it’s pretty hard for an advanced lifter to do much of anything after heavy squats - let alone try to do heavy back work or chest work – so it makes sense to split up the routine at that point so that a) you are fresh and b)you can get the workout done in a reasonable time frame.
–
AC
[/quote]
Slight retraction. AC does discuss splits in “TNROL.” He discusses upper/lower body, a 3 day split, four-day Ian King style split, and a Westside split. When it comes to “bodybuilding splits,” he says this on page 43:
“The idea is to isolate muscle groups (“bodyparts”)and work them to exhaustion, as if they were revolutionary insurgents in a third-world country who have to be divided and conquered. I’ve seen bodybuilding routines with 12 workouts a week-two a day for six days. Entire workouts might be devoted to biceps or triceps or hamstrings, isolating these muscles from the ones they’re designed to work with. If Alwyn and I believed in this type of training, we’d show you how to do it. But we don’t, so we won’t.”
Does this mean he doesn’t believe in “bodypart splits”? I don’t really know. He gives a tiny rationale for going to a split routine (after saying he was a “big fan of TBT” on the previous page) on page 41, but the explanation you posted above is a lot more clear and understandable.
