I understand the theory behind the pause at the bottom of the seated calf raise, but the alternate theory is to make use of the myostatic reflex whereby a stretched muscle will contract more forcefully, with more motor units recruited (Thibs wrote about this in the high threshold book). Couple that with the idea that continuous tension allows for more time of muscle stress, well, I guess I just feel good about the way I’ve come to approach the movement.
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Funny, CT is also the guy who I learned “hold for 2+ sec. in the bottom position” from lol. I guess both can work. Honestly I’d much rather do the quick up and down motion with my seated calf raises just to get the set done
MEYMZ- I’ve been doing this split probably since late May, although since then I have played around with different approaches to rest days, and also cut back on my shoulder pressing work. All in all, I think the extra rest days and just a few sets of seated shoulder presses has allowed my elbows to feel a bit better, while still allowing me to push hard bringing up my chest.
Last night one of my training partners, Mike, watched me hit some shots, and he concurred that I have without a doubt brought up the overall thickness of my pecs (and still sporting quite a bunch of fibers at my current weight!). So yes, I know I know I know that I will have to rotate my approach at some point, it’s hard to consider it when you can easily see that the changes you made are working -lol
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I think that you could’ve transitioned between higher frequency phases for that muscle group, and lower frequency, but high to higher intensity and shorter phases. I may guess right that you’re familiar with specialization parameters of Christian Thibaudeau, he says that when you go back to the low frequency the body gets advantage of supercompensation if greater workload than recovery happened during the specialization phase. Maybe it’s arbitrary, but I haven’t seen a specialization lasting more than 8 weeks.
I realize that I’m definitely exceeding most recommendations for specialization routines, and you’re probably right about the supercompensation once I do cut back a bit. I remember reading in several older articles that the only reason experienced trainers who tried Mike Mentzer’s abreviated heavy duty routine made any gains, was because they were so used to an excessive amount of volume in their day to day training, that the cut back allowed for more actual growth to occur. Obviously I’ve been making gains with my current approach, but as I always say, even something that works great won’t continue to forever.
With all the work I’ve had on my plate lately though, it’s probably a very good time to actually fiddle with off days and retooling my split somewhat, especially in regards to a cut somewhat in volume and/or frequency. Mentally, I will admit that I’m a little hesitant to cut back when I’ve seen such proghress in only a few months’ time in both my quads and my chest, but I figure I won’t even worry about dieting until January 2010, so I have plenty of time to try a lower volume approach, and then go back to what I’ve been doing for a while and maybe keep switching until I have to resume my old cutting split (2 days weights, 1 off/hit, 2 days weights, 1 off/hit), which I think was the ideal volume to maintain most of my lbm while implementing the minimum of cardio (which I will implement a little earlier this year).
By the way, I do appreciate all the suggestions guys, most on here, and others in the way of PMs. While I think a lot of people have enjoyed picking my brain quite a bit on here, I certainly don’t pretend to know it all, and it means a lot when other people chime in with their thoughts and opinions (even if they run counter to my own).
Taken with my phone yesterday after an especially intense chest session. Making use of CT’s fast turnarounds, explosive reps, and even benching from a dead stop (fun fun!). left the gym still fired up and feeling like I could do more (which is what you’re supposed to feel, little to no CNS fatigue). I’d like to think my chest is getting thicker (I damn well hope so!), but there’s still time to push before any real dieting is in the cards.
Yeah, I figure if the first show on my agenda is May 2nd, then half way through Jan will give me a nice 14 week prep time. Thibs said I looked pretty tight at my current 200 lbs, and if I can keep this level of conditioning (my midsection is getting somewhat softer despite how my other bodyparts look -lol) and get up to about 215, then the light-heavies should be no problem. Of course the bottom line will always be conditioning. Corey is quick to point out that my legs could have been tighter last time, so even if I still end up a middleweight, if I can come in tighter, AND bigger, I’ll be damn proud.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Yeah, I figure if the first show on my agenda is May 2nd, then half way through Jan will give me a nice 14 week prep time. Thibs said I looked pretty tight at my current 200 lbs, and if I can keep this level of conditioning (my midsection is getting somewhat softer despite how my other bodyparts look -lol) and get up to about 215, then the light-heavies should be no problem. Of course the bottom line will always be conditioning. Corey is quick to point out that my legs could have been tighter last time, so even if I still end up a middleweight, if I can come in tighter, AND bigger, I’ll be damn proud.
S
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So you’ll attempt to be in contest shape at about 189?
Well, I honestly don’t want to start thinking about numbers. The last time I was up around 215, I certainly wasn’t as lean as I am now at 200, but I also don’t want to be gaining weight unless it’s quality muscle. Hopefully smart training, and the peri-workout protocol I’ve been following the last couple of weeks will make a big difference. Even if I can just come in 5 lbs heavier of pure, solid muscle over last time, well, that would still be considered middleweight, and I imagine I wouldn’t just be at the top of the class, I would actually BE the top of the class -lol. It’s been said countless times before, but the mirror will be the ultimate judge as to my condition. It’s just nice to peek in the mirror and be surprised at what’s looking back sometimes
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Well, I honestly don’t want to start thinking about numbers. The last time I was up around 215, I certainly wasn’t as lean as I am now at 200, but I also don’t want to be gaining weight unless it’s quality muscle. Hopefully smart training, and the peri-workout protocol I’ve been following the last couple of weeks will make a big difference. Even if I can just come in 5 lbs heavier of pure, solid muscle over last time, well, that would still be considered middleweight, and I imagine I wouldn’t just be at the top of the class, I would actually BE the top of the class -lol. It’s been said countless times before, but the mirror will be the ultimate judge as to my condition. It’s just nice to peek in the mirror and be surprised at what’s looking back sometimes
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I get you bro. I think many people get caught in the idea of pursuiting a certain number of bodyweight pounds, and that can be dangerous to body comp, specially when going for a show. My guess is that you have to be like 5 to 10 pounds near your lbm goals at the least when starting your offseason for a natty competition and going for your best conditioning. When adding mass to your frame with no competing goals that’s ok, but on the circuit’s another story.
I figure a little update is in order seeing as how I was logging the good and the bad on here.
The left elbow was was giving me a bit of pain a month or so ago has been a little achey, so after an MRI revealed some inflammation (epicondylitis for those of you keeping track), I’m off to get a cortozone shot after work, and then hopefully load up on Flameout and Curcumin while taking the rest of the week off.
My weight has been steady around 200 lbs, and to my surprise my abs are still what ‘normal’ folks would term ‘ripped’ when I flex (when I don’t flex I’m a bit soft in the middle). I figure come December I’ll up my cals a bit, even though I don’t really want to get any softer than I need to, but Yates used to always up his numbers before starting his diet so that he cold effectively diet on what was previously his maintanence amounts.
My intention is to stretch out my prep a bit longer 14-16 weeks, and keep the cals higher while doing very small bouts of cardio, albeit much sooner than I did last time. I’m really hoping Thib’s peri-protocol will be the little edge I need to hold onto more size, and if I can equal if not better my conditioning from last time, I will be quite content.
I’m sure the little break I will be forcing myself to take will be a good thing in the long run, but to be honest, I love training and I will probably be going out of my mind this week not knowing what to do with myself after work -lol. Still, I’ll be turning 37 in May, and we all need to learn how to train smarter as we age if we intend to keep banging away in the gym.
Is it around the lateral or the medial epicondyle?
If the pain is located at the lateral epicondyle, I would suggest that you get some soft tissue work on your pecs, lats, front delts, infraspinatus, and the forearm. Add in regular stretches for the pecs, front delts, lats, and the whole forearm.
It’s lateral epicondylitis. The Doc told me that my brother (DPT) would show me some stretches and exercises for the area, and pointed out that it’s pretty much just from overuse (as I already knew -lol). I’m sure a few days off will be worthwhile. Obviously after all the years I’ve been training it’s probably impossible to not show some signs of wear and tear, but the MRI report pointed out that everything was perfectly intact (careful training? proper nutrition? luck?! -lol).
Doing some sort of pressing movement 3x every 6 days most likely had something to do with the irritation, and I probably should have reduced the volume a little more (I can admit it when I do something wrong), but trying so hard to make progress in certain areas probably played into my mental perceptions of how much I truly ‘needed’ to do. As of last week I’m back to my usual 4 day split (chest/gastroc, delts/traps/tris, back/bis, legs/soleus), which I will continue with until January 2010 when I will repeat the 6 day split I used throughout most of my contest prep last year. It seemed to have the best combination of stimulation/rest as far as maintaining LBM while not running yourself down during a cal deficit.
I am fighting off some lateral epicondylitis as well. One thing that has helped me outside of APT elbow sleeves is to do some deep massage of the triceps tendons. I wrap my opposite hand around a lacrosse ball and dig into the most tender parts of the tendons with the knuckles of my opposite hand. I think this provides a great massage and breaks up the crosslinks of collagen. I follow this up with ice massage. This at least helps alleviate the pain for awhile.
I would be anxious to see what your brother has to say as well. I am in my first year of DPT schooling so I don’t know much yet outside of knowing anatomy and physiology in and out. But I am sure I will forget that all in a couple of months anyway. Ha.
Well, an irritated infraspinatus can project pain down to the lateral epicondyle, so the problem might not lie completely withing the lateral condyle area. Now, an irritated infraspinatus is mererly a symptom for something else that’s causing it to have less than stellar working conditions, such as tight internal rotators of the humerus, causing the infra to work in its end range all the time.
I’m sure Bushy can give a more thorough explanation, if he pops in here, than I can.
