Will do, many thanks.
Did Day 1 again today as part of my pre-trial run and I think I’ve nailed the load for the exercises. Plan to kick off Tuesday.
Completed Week 1. Went pretty well. Doing the trial sessions the previous week certainly helped with judging the load and practising the techniques.
I feel the loads are incredibly light, especially on the latter exercises. But if it’s stimulating growth then my ego can put up with it! It has also exposed my lack of conditioning, which is poor by my own standards. Hopefully this will improve in the next few weeks.
On technique, obviously mind muscle connection is pivotal with this type of training. I am probably not contracting as hard as I could for the full duration but I’m conscious of it and will work at it.
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I am older, and you are absolutely nailing what I experienced with conditioning. I am trying to cut the time to an absolute minimum and it is challenging. Found myself waiting to start by getting into position, wiped down the equipment for another few seconds…All work avoidance maneuvers.
Some days I just don’t have it. It is OK. Some days I have a little bit more. I enjoy these and work harder.
I am also finding that I can boost the load on the 10-30 days a little bit.
Here is something else. I wasn’t done with the 30-10-30 approach, but I wanted something different. I changed a few exercises and the order and it was like I was on week maybe 2 again. I was gassed and sore. PUMPED though.
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You are right where you should be. Keep thinking and applying.
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I finished metabolic challenge #4 today and it was one of the very best workouts I’ve ever had in my life. Workouts like that are the days I live for. I had the weights figured out perfectly and everything just felt right and I had a great pump afterwards, and my conditioning is caught up to the pace now. It definitely has me excited for Wednesday’s workout!
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Yes, did No 4 yesterday. Messed-up the switch from leg extensions to leg curl slightly but otherwise went well. I also purposely moved the leg press (I actually use the belt squat for this) up one to follow the press and finished on curls. I don’t understand the logic of putting the curl after supinated rows. But that’s just my view. I genuinely try not to tinker too much with the plan.
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My brother really struggles with that too on the rows after leg Curl, but it hasn’t really been a problem for me. Perhaps it’s my stance. I did challenge #5 today. It was also awesome, but I had a little less energy this morning because I didn’t get the best sleep last night. I enjoy having the different exercises on the 10-30 workouts, and those decline sit ups were a lot harder than I was expecting!
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Yip, did mine tonight. I don’t train my abs so that was messy! Anyway, enjoying the challenge.
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So I had to use a machine yesterday that was absolutely foreign to me. hadn’t touched it in years.
Chest press with cables. For the 30 10 30 I did the fly press as suggested by Christian Thibaudeau. Basically control as a fly on the way down for 30, then 10 reps normal, then close it with another 30 second fly.
I also couldn’t do knee extensions as they were all tied up, so I did low on the platform leg press, low where the majority of the movement was knee flexion/extension. Immediate did a plate held to the midsection body weight squat. I forgot to grab dumbbells so I had to do what I had to do. Grabbed a 25lb plate and held to the belly with left arm, used right arm as safety. First 30 rep neg was difficult but OK. Pace on the 10 reps was challenging, and the final 30 second negative was a disaster. Went too fast to the half way point (10 seconds) so I really had to slow down to get 30.
I was gassed. So much so that I did a kneeling stretch. while catching my breath. Legs hate me today
Youch.
I am liking changing things up here and there with new exercises or order. I am still going to switch to a strength focused cycle in maybe 2 more weeks, and I will be ready for it, but I want to squeeze out the benefits of 30 10 30 for now, get off and focus on strength, then return to this style of training. I think a month should allow me to get where returning to 30 10 30 is more productive
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So Ricky, where have you been lately? You are pretty much the gold standard for how to do these 30 10 30 programs properly. I can’t remember how far along you got into the metabolic challenges but what I recall from pictures you posted its about what I’d realistically expect from someone your age. What some college boy does with it really means very little to many of us on here. They can gain doing just about anything!
Scott
He has a YouTube channel, and has been posting workout videos pretty regularly. Seems to be doing things other than 30-10-30 right now.
I’ve never found slow reps to give much of a pump. I got no pump at all doing SuperSlow or doing one slow set… I bet the pump from 30-10-30 is really brought on from those 10 reps that are of a faster speed. Faster reps, especially multiple sets and resting not too long between sets, is what brings out the pump in me.
I agree with this. I got my best pump of 30-10-30 today with the final workout which was just 10 reps with a heavier weight on every exercise. I got decent pumps from 30-10-30, but conventional sets definitely offer a better pump for me.
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I love the pump as much as anything else when training but that brings back the age old question, is it really advantageous to get a good pump to build muscle?
Scott
I think the mistake a lot of people make is chasing the pump for the sake of the pump.
I think the pump is useful for two reasons:
- A good pump is a natural part of a hard, hypertrophy-based set
- A noticeable loss of pump after the workout has been going for a little while is a good indicator you’ve done enough, and are entering the realm of diminished returns
There are stories of big BBers using “pump-only” work, but a little digging shows they nearly all spent a good amount of time lifting heavy ass weights in the 8-15 rep range.
I also think a pump day can be good for joint health and recovery.
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What is becoming mainstream thinking is that, by increasing the volume of sarcoplasmic fluid in the muscle cells you can maximize the size of the muscle, not necessarily the actual muscular strength. This gives credence to the term in bodybuilding - ‘pumped’.
Currently, sarcoplasmic hypertrophy of skeletal muscle is in its infancy and much of the researchers’ conclusions are from a theoretical and mechanistic perspective. A great read on the subject is found in the journal, Frontiers in Physiology, “Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy in Skeletal Muscle: A Scientific “Unicorn” or Resistance Training Adaptation?”
Bodybuilder view of the pump.
The Pump Is Paramount To A Bodybuilder - Bodybuilding Explained
BY: Marty Gallagher
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JULY 05, 2020
RAW WITH MARTY GALLAGHER
TAGS: BODYBUILDER
Bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger at his peak: the pump is the point
In classical bodybuilding, the bodybuilder training goal is not the poundage used in an exercise, the goal is the pump . A muscle pump is the forceable expansion of a targeted muscle. This is done by pumping massive amounts of blood into the muscle. Multiple exercises are used per muscle or muscle group. Set after set, pump after pump, the targeted muscle is forcibly and repeatedly enlarged. No real heed is paid to the weight used to create the pump; the poundage is secondary and factually of no real importance. What is paramount to the bodybuilder is the pump, not the poundage. With time and repetition, the pump strategy will make targeted muscles larger but will not increase strength to any great degree.
The strength athlete, the powerlifter, the Olympic weightlifter, the college or pro athlete, the strongman competitor, all seek to become stronger, to be able to handle more poundage in proscribed ways in key core lifts. Any muscle built in pursuit of increased poundage-handling ability is strictly an unintended consequence. The strength athlete doesn’t care about pumping his muscles, he cares about increasing his barbell deadlift from 500 to 600. What was discovered was that by getting stronger, muscle size increased. Increasing a deadlift from 500 to 600-pounds (a 20% increase in deadlift strength) causes the strength athlete to grow incredible amounts of new back muscle. Muscle growth is an unintended side consequence of successful strength training.
To engorge a muscle maximally the pro bodybuilders discovered it was best to use a wide range of exercises for a single body part, this was called “hitting a muscle from different angles.” A pro bodybuilder working quads might work up to high rep sets in the back squat then immediately hit leg presses followed by hack squats and leg extensions. The bodybuilder must use sub-maximal poundage and higher reps to generate pump after pump after pump…all within the same workout. By the time an advanced bodybuilder works through 20 sets and four different quad exercises, his thighs will look as if “he swallowed an air hose.”
Bodybuilder exercises pump up the muscle for maximum growth.
And this just for the quadriceps. Hamstring and calves still need their 3-4 exercises and their pumping. There is a lot of pumping in bodybuilding and done right, this requires a lot of training time. A serious bodybuilder works through a long list of exercises, performing lost of sets, trying to cram as many exercises as possible into each session. Old school bodybuilders trained every muscle three times a week. Most modern bodybuilders will train a muscle twice a week, performing 3-4 exercises per body part, hitting 2-3 body parts per session. This is still a lot of volume.
If a bodybuilder is expected to perform 20 sets for quads, 16 sets for hamstrings and calves – and then swing into 15 sets for shoulders – all in the same session – poundage must take a back seat. To complete a 35-set workout, you must make it across the finish line. You should not kill yourself on the 1st exercise of the session. You need attain a steady pace to have any hope of completing all the assigned exercises. Bodybuilders will not exhaust themselves on any single exercise as it will adversely affect all exercise that follows. Pacing is critically important in the bodybuilding workout.
Top bodybuilders like to train together so that they can spot one another and provide the critical bit of help needed to squeeze out extra pump-enhancing forced reps. Forced reps and drop sets are used to extend the final set of an exercise. Going past failure is a huge favorite in bodybuilding. Having a training partner (or two) available to spot allows you to go for those reps you would not try alone. Exercise machines are ideal for administering forced reps.
Over time and with repeated practice, the ability to “delve deeper into the pain zone” improves. The more experienced bodybuilder is far better able to deal with the lactic acid build-up that accompanies the final reps of the top sets of an exercise than someone new to the tactic. The ability to absorb more pain (pain is too strong a word, factually you are dealing with intense discomfort) allows for more extended sets within the session. I once witnessed the great Bill Pearl take a friend (Sri Chinmoy Ghose, guru to the stars) through a full-on hardcore bodybuilding workout. It was relentless and unending. It took 90-minutes. Pearl had Sri using peewee poundage and moving at the rate of 1 set per minute. I got tired watching. Pearl never had Ghose go all out but keep piling on the exercises.
Bodybuilders will load up on glycogen ahead of a workout to promote bigger and better pumps and pumps that last longer into the extended workout. Kevin Lavrone at his peak would eat a half pound of high glycemic plain pasta 30-minutes before launching into a two-hour workout. Post-workout, a bodybuilder having completed 40 sets in 90 minutes will have exhausted every nutrient in his body. The elite bodybuilders were the first to champion post-workout “replenishment” meals or liquified shakes.
This made and makes perfect sense – why not replenish the exhausted glycogen and the decimated amino acids? What could be smarter then consuming that which has been exhausted by the just-completed workout? The favored method is the post-workout replenishment shake. The shake gets into the system almost immediately and can be activated by walking to the gym water fountain. The replenishment shake we use is put out by Parrillo Performance Products and is a dry powder that is activated by mixing it with cold water.
I use four scoops of dry powder mixed with cold water in a glass or Tupperware shaker. This concoction delivers 42 grams of protein and 34 grams of slow-release, glycogen-replenishing carbohydrate. All this with with no fat and only 1 gram of sugar – and no high fructose corn syrup. I feel so much better when I take this replenishment shake as opposed to when I forget. Being a liquid, the nutrients get into the bloodstream much quicker than a food meal. I will take my 50-50 Plus replenishment shake ¾ through a workout to forestall end of session energy nosedives.
If you have a hankering to try some “real” bodybuilding, be prepared to change your approach: broaden the training menu, allot more training time, forget the poundage on the bar and go for feel and above all else seek and achieve the almighty muscle pump. Afterwards, fire down a smart bomb to replenish all that has been exhausted. In bodybuilding, the pump is the point.
About the Author
As an athlete Marty Gallagher is a national and world champion in Olympic lifting and powerlifting. He was a world champion team coach in 1991 and coached Black’s Gym to five national team titles. He’s also coached some of the strongest men on the planet including Kirk Karwoski when he completed his world record 1,003 lb. squat. Today he teaches the US Secret Service and Tier 1 Spec Ops on how to maximize their strength in minimal time. As a writer since 1978 he’s written for Powerlifting USA, Milo, Flex Magazine, Muscle & Fitness, Prime Fitness, Washington Post, Dragon Door and now IRON COMPANY. He’s also the author of multiple books including Purposeful Primitive, Strong Medicine, Ed Coan’s book “Coan, The Man, the Myth, the Method" and numerous others. Read the Marty Gallagher biography here.
So taking all that into consideration where does 30 10 30 fit into that , more of a strength based routine or hypertrophy or somewhere in between?
Scott
I believe there are two different concepts being discussed here. They are possibly related, but are not equivalent.
The first is the Pump, which is a short term, acute swelling of the muscle due to fluid accumulation. It is produced by a certain kind of resistance training, and may be a (secondary?) driver of muscle hypertrophy.
The second is Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy, which is a longer term, more persistent adaptation that increases muscle size primarily by growth of the non contractile components of the muscle.
Neither subject seems to have reached the point where academic researchers can claim to have nailed nailed down all the details.
For a discussion of the Pump, and it’s effects on hypertrophy, I like this article by Schoenfeld:
The other paper cited by Strength Master focuses more on Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy.
I can understand why Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy might be of interest to bodybuilders. But I wonder if there are any benefits other than aesthetics, particularly if the muscle size comes without much strength improvement?
You can be sure that many bodybuilders could care less how strong they are so long as they get huge muscles. If I recall correctly Serge Nubret was a pump guy doing many reps and sets. I wonder if muscles gained through pump methods are any less permanent that muscles gained the Mentzer way?
Scott