Forgot where I found this (maybe even here haha sorry if thats the case) but just wanted to know what some of you guys think about this rationale and routine. Thanks.
Again i didnt write the stuff below. I was on a site called professionalmuscle.com written by a poster named “BIG A.” Thanks.
Why does a muscle grow? Because it has to adapt. When does it have to adapt? When you expose it to somethingthat it has not done before. When is something that it has not done before? When the muscle is taxed 100%.That’s 100% effort. What’s 100% effort? When you train to 100% PHYSICAL, not mental failure. So, to make the muscle grow, you have to train with 100% effort otherwise, the muscle will not adapt/grow. Now, using the above logic, for a set to be beneficial to your growth, it needs to be 100% effort. So, a 100% effort set of an exercise, will make you grow. Then, what is the point to do a second set of that exercise? You cannot go more than 100%. The muscle already has been taxed by 100% from the first set, so why should you do a second one? You will just eat into your recovery ability. So, you should only do one set to failure per exercise. Later on, I will describe the training program and how exercises and warm-ups are involved.
A muscle will not grow until it’s recovered. The muscle will not begin to recover until the nervous system is recovered. It takes roughly 24hours for the nervous system to recover from a workout. Only then will the muscle begin to recover and grow. So, you should never train 2 days in a row. Even if you train different bodyparts, you still use the same nervous system. You train 2 days in a row, your nervous systemrecovers, but by the time the muscles begin to, you train again, so the body has to concentrate again on recovering the nervous system. A training frequency of 3 days per week (Mon, Wed,Fri) is more than enough. Numerous pros, including myself, train like this offseason for maximum growth.Even if you use streroids, you still have to train like this. Steroids increase your recovery ability, but they also make you stronger at a quicker rate. The extra strength will give you the ability to train harder/tear more muscle tissue, so you will need the extra recovery that the steroids will give you
The following is a great training program that I recommend:
Mon - Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
- Incline press - warm-up sets, 1 work set
- Flat flyes - 1 work set
- Millitary press - 1 warm-up, 1 work set
- Lateral flyes - 1 work set
- Rear delt machine - 1 work set
- Tricep pushdowns - 1 warm-up, 1 work set
- Lying tricep extensions - 1 work-set
Wed - Quads, Hams, Calves
- Squats - warm-ups, 1 work set
- Leg press - work set
- Leg extension - work set
- Leg curl - warm-up, work set
- Stiff leg deadlift - work set
- Standing calf raise - work set
Fri - Abs, Back, Bis
- Rope crunches - warm up, work set
- Lat pull down - warm-ups, work set
- Deadlift - warm-up, work set
- Bent-over rows - work set
- Shrugs - work set
- Standing BB curls - warm up, work set
- Concentration curl - work set
You do a lot of warm-ups for your first exercise of the day. You do one warm-up for the first exercise of each bodypart, only to optimise the firing of the neuropathways. Let’s use chest as an example - if for example your max (work set) in the incline press is 3 plates, then you do 2 warm-ups with the bar, 2 warm-ups with one plate, 1 warm-up with 2 plates and then your work set with 3 plates. The work set is a set where you fail at about 6 reps. Every workout, you have to do more reps or increase the weight in that work set (remember, the muscle has to do something that it has not done before). So if one work out you fail with 6 reps, the following nothing less than 7. When you reach 8 reps, the following workout you should do (increase) a weight where you can do minimum 4 reps. Then increase your reps again every workout until you reach 8 again, and so on. Each rep has a tempo of 2-1-1. That is 2 seconds in the negative, one second in the contraction and 1 second in the positive. Then, after you fail in the incline press, you move straight to flat flyes. You do not need a warmp now because your chest is more than warm after you failed on presses. And that’s it for chest. The basic routine stays the same. If you want variety, small changes as using DB’s instead of BB or doing flat presse and incline flyes for example, is mor ethan enough variety to keep the muscle ‘confused’.
For myself, I substituted the tricep pushdowns and extensins with dips and close grip bench, but i could be wrong in doing that I dunno.
Anyway thanks for the input.