I followed Serge’s workout years ago, after years of Olympic and Powerlifting. Mind u, I altered his routine and only did each body part once a week, but I was very happy with the results. I didn’t need to build pounds and pounds of muscle off it, I was already 240+ at the time, and I am not sure if the routine would be optimal for someone starting out who still needs to add a lot of muscle to their frame.
That being said, I was very surprised with the results. Using Serge’s routine I got extremely lean and added a lot of impressive shape to my muscle. ALso, I actually added pounds to some lifts, as I still would take a heavy weight every 3-4 weeks on the major lifts. If you go back and read some of Serge’s threads that he made on other websites, he talks about this himself. All in all, I still use the basic principles of Serge’s routine today, lifting one week heavy and one week “pump”.
@ Viking69
Thanks, i enjoyed reading about you and i value your input. I read something close to that from an other poster who enjoyed a program 3 weeks about regular alternating with 3 weeks shorter rests with higher reps. After he was alternating 1 week each.
Today i supersetted xtra wide grip flat bench press with rope jumping (my light calf work)than arms supersets with 20 sec. rests betweeen each superset using about 35% heavier, rep range 12 - 9. I am adding 1 exercice at a time to find wich one might be refused by my shoulder or rotator cuffs.
Enjoy your weekend!
[quote]twilight wrote:
Interesting that, in spite of the preachings of most current coaches, many of us seem drawn to this type of program. For those of you following the program for the full 6-8 sets, how long are your workouts lasting?[/quote]
I do the exact number of sets and reps prescribe, I don’t rest between bodyparts, only because I dont have the time. the workouts take between 60 and 70 minutes. I tried splitting them into two workouts per day but did not like it cause each bodypart only takes a half an hour and I felt it wasn’t worth the hassle of going twice a day for that little work.
Going to give this a go as well, between working 50+ hours a week and my shoulder hurting again ( old injury ) and my tendonitis acting up its time for a break.
Going to make some adjustments though, I will probably stick with hitting everything once per week as my recovery is so so, and stick with my core exercises and the order I do them.
[quote]MiJuggernaut wrote:
For those who are having trouble keeping track of sets and reps and journalling here is a trick from arnold. Take a scrap peice of paper and wrie your planned exercises for the day. then place a slash for each set you want to do. Example
Pull up //////
BTN pulldown ////////
Then you just cross each slash as you do a set making an X
example
Pull up XXXXXX
BTN pulldown XXXXXX//
See this guy has two sets of BTN pulldowns left.
This is especially valuable when doing arm supersets and you really don’t have time to document.
All you have to do is count to twelv! Plus it is kind of fun to see yourself marching through your workout on paper.[/quote]
I see. What about the shoulder day, though? Is there enough posterior deltoid work?
[/quote]
The biggest change I made is to remove the front raises and replace them with prone incline rear delt raises. I did this for two main reasons.
I cannot do front raises without joint pain
I have very dominant front delts from Benching with a powerliftng style for years. Serge did not have this problem becaue he always benched with a wide grip, so he needed front delt work.
I think many other lifters could benefit from this substitution so long as they cleary have overdeveloped front delts compared to thier rear head. [/quote]
Thank you, great answer, makes sense. I used a medium wide grip on the behind the neck press, but I just realized, would it be better to widen the grip? I just remembered Bradley Joe Kelly’s advice about sticking to wide grip on the bench press to kind of isolate the chest more.
@ knokkelezoute73
One of the problem is C-A. If we do WO C arms, shoulders and WO A the next day we must avoid 2 consecutive days working the same body part. I think Serge calls that splash, if i understand him correctly in my mind it could be called overlap, well i think you get what i mean.
Hopefully someone has a more specific answer.
My common sense tells me substitions are OK but high volume must still respect needed rest.
All the best!
[quote]Ethan7X wrote:
^ Incorrect, Nubret has you perform Chest/Quads the day after Shoulders & Arms.
Why do you think he chooses very Wide Grip Bench Presses and Flyes for his chest work?
[/quote]
Yes, I get it, we’re supposed to take delts and triceps out of the equation on chest and quads day. However, could someone tell me if the BTN press is supposed to be performed with a wide grip too, please?
Just do whatever feels best. Most people naturally feel more comfortable with a wider grip. It will not affect muscular development or targeted muscles much either way.
@ strangemeadow I had shoulder issues so i read to find the origin of my problem and some say a neutral grip palm facing palm is less problematic for some. Like even people of the same height might not all have the same arms lenght, or some have specific out of average toe or finger, all shoulder configurations are not equal. If my memory serves me right some x rays could show if your are on the safe side or experience will let you know. So it sounds like safe for some but not all.
In case of problem, some machines offer the neutral grip option or dumdells would be a safe option.
I agree with Iron Dwarf, trying it with common sense is safe, if painfree repeating is no problem.
I was just looking for a quick arm routine I could do today and stumbled on the main article, very nice indeed. So I took workout C and gave it a go - felt pretty foolish using such small weights but holy cow! I’m used to doing heavier lifts, Thibs type of lifting HP Matrix, 6 weeks to superhero, HP Matrix…that stuff is tuff too but this put a different hurt on me.
Not as draining as my normal routine, it was actually kind of fun for once lol. After re-reading the entire article again and again and then finding this thread I’m pretty interested. For me, I love the Oly lifts so I’m gonna stagger 1 week HP Matrix then 1 week Serge. I never got pumped doing the HP style workouts but damn, never felt my traps blow up like I did today…
Thanks everyone for sharing the experiences so far
[quote]Bradley Joe Kelly wrote:
Just do whatever feels best. Most people naturally feel more comfortable with a wider grip. It will not affect muscular development or targeted muscles much either way.[/quote]
Alright, cheers.
[quote]Bradley Joe Kelly wrote:
Dont go heavy or deep and BTNP will feel great . Stay above ear level. [/quote]
Yes, felt very good indeed, no strain at all. So far I’m experiencing exactly what you said, more stress on the targetted muscles than on the joints.