posted May 30, 2000 07:56 PM         

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Okay guys, this one is for my man. He's been lifting on and off for over 9 years now , but never took it too serious because he loved to run instead. Well he suffered an injury about a month back and has shifted his focus back to lifting. He's getting frustrated because he's not making the strength gains that he wants to.

Here's the question, does anyone have a good routine to help him gain some strength in his bench? He's all natural and can't take any AS. I think he's benching 265, but wants to break 300.

Any help will be great!
Brandi

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posted May 31, 2000 01:27 AM            

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Sounds like he plateaued. I recommend for him to try creatine. He should try High Intensity Training. Try to get the book Beyond Brawn. It's a great book. Here's a sample HIT routine.

Day 1
Squat
Parallel Bar Dip
Pulldown or Rows

Day 2
Deadlifts
Bench Press or Incline Press
Chins

This a is very low volume routine, but you have to understand what High Intensity Training is all about. You only do 1-3 sets per exercise and the reps can range from low 2-4; medium 6-10; high 12-20+. You overload the bar with weights and you perform good slow reps. About 4 seconds up and 4 seconds down. You lift the weight to muscle failure. You only want to do 2-3 HIT workouts a week. Working each body part once. Dorian Yates trained by using HIT. And I know I'm probably going to get, the only people who have gained from HIT, are the ones that juice. I get that a lot. But don't knock HIT, until you've tried it. It may work for you, it may not. It works for me. I put on 10-20 pounds of muscle in about 8-10 months. It's worth a try. I know that the weight was muscle because my body fat was lower. It was 20%, and it went down to 10%. I had 13" arms, now I have 15". My arms also adapted well to HIT. And I didn't even do any curls. My arms just grew as my major body parts progressed.

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posted May 31, 2000 12:33 PM            

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I second the book recommendation, but I don't think it's really a HIT issue. The main lesson to be learned from this book is that there is no substitute for hard work. Plenty of us (myslef included) get so hung up on the latest "Get huge and ripped quick" routines from the mags that we lose focus of what really is important. Set a realistic goal, follow a simple routine and diet, and DO IT.

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posted May 31, 2000 07:13 PM            

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It believe it is considered a HIT book. That's one of the reasons why I got it. Check out www.Cyberpump.com It has a list of HIT books to look at and Beyond Brawn was one of them. The site also has great information on HIT.

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posted June 01, 2000 09:25 PM         

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Thanks, I'll pass this on to him when he gets back from the gym.

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