Hey Fellas,
Had the most peculiar conversation today at the gym.
Was doing a standard heavy back workout - lots of heavy rows, deads, and weighted pull-ups. (using a 4-6 rep protocol)…
anyway, this (much smaller) guy approaches me and tells me that I am doing everything all wrong. He proceeds to show me these weird ass partials on the power rack for chest and then he tells me that he won’t train again for 8-9 days - and that he’s overloading his pecs into new growth.
I tried not to laugh at him, so I pressed him for more info on the source of this interesting training philosophy. I thanked him for the demonstration in partials and went on my way. I was too tired to argue with him, besides what the hell do I care?
The guy told me he’s following this book:
Frankly, to me, this sounsd like some psuedo-Mentzer “Heavy Duty” bullshit. But I figure I’d throw it out to the board and see if they’ve had people in their gyms spouting this stuff off.
I figure if this stuff really works I’d have heard about it on T-Nation by now, don’t you think?
cheers,
max
10 bucks says it’s Power Factor Training.
20 bucks says he’ll remain small.
oops, the link I provided didn’t show up.
It’s Pete Sisco’s “Power Factor Training”
sorry.
And yeah, I was taken aback by the sheer balls of this guy. I mean I must have outweighed him by a good 60-70 lbs, and if that’s not bad enough… I was leaner than him to boot.
max
Oarsman, I’ve done Power Factor training before and it’s legit. I gained about 5-10 lbs of muscle mass but the thing is you would need to cycle off of the program every now and then to avoid overtraining. It basically uses partials for the movement principle utilizing the strongest range of motion in quick cadence. There’s a formula used encompassing number of reps per how many seconds you took to complete the reps x the weight used. The thing to watch out for is momentum coming into play where the muscles aren’t really pushing the weight as initially prescribed. Quick momentum based reps plus super heavy weights in a rack = fast road to injury. Another thing to consider is how easy it is to overtrain with this program…
I’ve done Power Factor training before and it’s legit having made some gains on it (10 lbs of muscle mass). It basically utilizes the partial movements with super heavy weight to ensure you’re using your strongest range of movement. Then there is a formula that measures how many reps per seconds it took to complete a set x amount of weight used. The drawback to Power Factor is if the quick cadence used for the reps is too fast to where momentum is coming in. Momentum + super heavy weight = fast road to injury.
lots of training methods will work when used at the right time and if they provide enough itensity
its funny though when some guy reads a book like that and starts to belive one form of training is superior, and starts to do that type of training exclusivly.