[quote]Untarai wrote:
First of all, Brad has done an excellent job with his article! Although I am aware that ultimately it’s the principles of Serge’s training that are important, and that modifications will always be made…He was set on people trying out his routine as he prescribed it first before any modifications were made. He shared alot of his advice and descriptions of exercises done in a specific way to harmonize the body parts and focus on injury prevention. Here are some of the descriptions and advice he shared with many of us in another popular bodybuilding forum. These are recommendations Serge gave that may provide more insight into his way of thinking. Hope you can find more details and reasoning behind his method in these quotes:
*Serge’s training was based on a high volume split routine, training each bodypart twice per week
*Note regarding the arm sets: There are 16 SUPERSETS, 1 set of biceps and 1 set of triceps within each superset. No rest at all throughout all Supersets. Serge also recommends flexing the arms as hard as possible in between switching biceps and triceps exercises. You can take a 30 sec - 1 min rest between the first 8 supersets and the second lot of 8 supersets.
Serge did 8-6 sets of 12 reps on almost all exercises. He used the same weight with each set, AND WENT TO FAILURE EACH SET NEVER GOING BELOW 12 REPS. He believe in short resting times, 30 sec - 1 min, as did other bodybuilders of the time such as Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Usually, since he trained 2-3 body parts each day, he suggests to take at least a 15 min break between parts, so he can keep the blood in that muscle for as long as possible. He recommends the best thing to do is train one body part in the morning, and the other in the evening.
*Exactly, when you do shoulders barbell press, first you should not go to much down with the barbell your arms should go max at the horizontal and go completely up, it is the opposite of the bench press.
- Ate 300 gms to 600 gms protein. 200g protein per hour a day of training you do. Due to the high demand of the workout. Usually ate one or 2 meals a day late and after all workouts were done.
*Upright row—Yes I do it very narrow with two hands together, but I don’t go down to much and go up to my head, for not working to much my trapezes, and more my shoulders.
*Pullovers on chest day and back day
*Squats parallel to the floor
*Lateral Raises- That’s exactly the way to do it, hand facing down when you start and progressively turn you hand up facing the celling. About how far you have to go up with the dumbells : untill they touch together.
*Aminos- take a few hours after meal with carbs
*Dips for triceps on bench
*you will increase weights once you can reach all 12 reps in the given amount of sets with the 30 seconds to 1 minute rest periods
*If you read the thread, Serge doesn’t do any barbell rows because they stress the lower back and legs too much and I agree. Most people use too much legs and lower back and the upper back/lats do not get much work.
*He recommends a variation of rowing using the lat pull down machine. It’s also demonstrated on the training dvd. Pictures were posted a while back in the thread on how to do it.
*Barbell Row - I do it with the lat machine, just lean back,and pull the weight to your chest, you can do them with closed grip, large or medium, and no stress on your back, and you can really control the weight.
*As I said you take the lat pulldowns, but instead to pull the bar to your chest, you keep your arm straight and go down with your body until horizontal position and then go up at the beginning position and so on. There you are not working your back, but your low back, which is the opposite of the abs exercise. No, first you must be seated, your arms stay straight, and lean back your body until you reach the horizontal position, when you pull the weight your arm must always stay straight, so you will use only your low back to pull the weight.
*I do DB pullovers on chest day and barbell pullovers on back day.
*Pulldown that replaces the Deadlift - you grab onto the bar and hold your arms straight and keep them straight the entire time. now instead of pulling the bar down to you, all you do is lean back while keeping your arms straight until your back is flat/horizontal/parallel to the ground. your lower back is what will be moving the weight stack instead of your arms/lats.
*These workouts are done with this kind of schedule:
Day 1 - A
Day 2 - B
Day 3 - C
Day 4 - A
Day 5 - B
Day 6 - C
Day 7 - rest
*Body parts can be split up during the days, resting for 15 minutes or done at another time of during the day.
*The main components of not just achieving physical change from this workout but the goals of your life is mostly from the power of the self divided into three categories:
Mind, Emotional, and Physical
*For the workout, it is recommended to find a weight that you can do 20-25 reps to failure, use that for the sets of 12 reps (15 for hamstrings) in this workout. Attempt to use the same weights through the workout of that exercise. To increase intensity of said workout, lower the rest time as stated and by mentally adding weights in your mind. Lowering the rest time will make the weights tougher, but also makes your heart and lung work harder, thus providing a cardiovascular workout without the cannibalization that result from doing actual cardio at a separate time.
*Working up to or doing 2000 abdominal crunches also have a similar cardiovascular effect as running. Serge’s method of training abdominals is not to use weights at all but a way to refine the muscles and help cardiovascular system. The abdominals are the sign of the health and fitness of the person.
*The philosophy of this workout is unlike that of HIT. Nubret’s workout is about pumping as much blood possible into a body part to engorge the muscles with blood, providing nutrients and oxygen as close to the muscle as possible.
*The first half of the set is spent feeling the muscles move and contract. This is to establish the mind to muscle connection, continue through workout to finish out the sets. If weights are chosen right and/or have been mentally added correctly, the last two sets and reps should be difficult.
*The logic behind his workouts:
Compound movements and large muscle groups should have more sets and/or more rest time.
Allow different workouts to hit different angles and work the muscles differently, but keep the basic movements in the routine.
Chest and quads are done because they are large muscles. Legs are too big of a muscle group to do all at once.
Back and hamstrings for the same reason.
*Superset arms with no rest because when the biceps are working, the triceps are resting. The converse is true. Also for reason for supersets, the biceps and triceps are part of the same body part, thus the pump is already there.
*Science is nice but the body knows better. Sports science is the study of the body to guess and make hypothesis of how things work. The body knows what it needs, it will already tell you. Listen to your body when you have an understanding of what your body is asking of you.
*You will know when to eat because the body will tell you when it is hungry. It will tell you if you need protein and water. science is a guesstimate that changes over time. Whole foods and protein are the building blocks of building muscles. The body knows best than the scientists who don’t body build themselves. Digestion of food takes time; it is use for the next workout and for the next day.
*The routine Serge has given to the community is considered intermediate. It is intermediate because it is for you to understand the body and the three powers. Once you understand, the advance routine is not given by Serge, but created by yourself from learning from him based the three powers and understanding of your body.
*Serge Nubret states that he is giving back because he is 69 and is retired. He has nothing much to do. My reasoning and understanding of his action is different, he is giving back because he loves bodybuilding. It’s easy to share something that you love. He hates what bodybuilding has become, he wants the sport to revert back to what it once was – a building of the physical body of symmetry and beauty. It is his way to spread his message. That’s why he is spending his time on the boards, answering questions, and giving out his routine for free. He?s sharing something that he loves.
*Serge’s sit ups are quite different :
place a spongy mat on the floor, put a towel on it like on the beach!
Lay down and place your feet against the wall - do not put the toes under a bar for support.
Using your arms raise them over your head then, sit up and just touch your knees. Knees bent of course. Then back down hands over the head like a negative Allah on your knees! easy, until you do 30,50,200,500,1000-2000 non stop! it doesn’t hurt the back just the abs.
*The way I understand the program is that the first few sets you focus on strict concentration and feeling the muscle work. By a slow controlled rep pace, you can tire by the 12th rep, even with a lighter weight than your true 12 rep max.
By the later sets in the scheme, you will have more muscular fatigue and now your focus will be just on completing the set at all costs.
So in the earlier sets, you are ‘putting a heavier weight in your mind’, even though it’s technically the same lbs on the bar.
*Pressed down with pulley for triceps, and biceps concentrated curl with bar. THAT’S THE BASIC WHICH IS ALWAYS THE BEST.
*He already said that’s his way to work the shoulders to avoid trapezius development and to emphasize deltoid development. You should stop when your arms are at 90% angle, and then go all the way up again.
-------This is just some of the info he shared. Have a great time with the training!
U[/quote]
That is a great summary of his style of training, I appreciate you sharing the collected information! That is why I am glad we moved to a forum settimg, I put all I could into the article itself to make it main stream and give it the best shot to work for anyone who tried it.
Serges variations on movements are definitely worthwhile just take practice , I trained people with them and without, they are tricky to explain and teach but do increase progress some . The only thing I never got huge praise of was the dips off of the bench. On those everyone ended up doing them normally but with legs back, and a straight body to emphasize triceps.
