Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
oso0960
New member
Hey guys, I've done a lot of reading/learning/understanding lately and came upon an article that really caught my attention. I've also come to a personal realization that I've added after the article. I'm hoping it might help some of you like it has helped me in getting through the 'intermediate' stage of lifting as many call it. I fell prey to #2 in the article btw.
T NATION | Five Loading Protocols That Suck
If you guys are wondering then what are some DIFFERENT (not necessarily better) ways to train and need some ideas, he wrote another article called "It Looked Good On Paper". Look it up on Google. Don't LMGTFY.
One main thing I've realized: your body knows better than anybody else, including the articles I've just posted. Learning how much is enough and not enough is superior to following some kind of outline made for the general public or made for some other guy. You know, that's just the thing. GENERAL PUBLIC. NOT YOU. It's not customized for what you specifically need. You should learn how to take what's important (like not being a pussy and learning how to squat and deadlift, and not dedicating a day to arms) and make a routine personalized to YOUR GOALS while taking into account recovery, personal life, etc. Unlike what everybody's told you, there IS a perfect routine. And you're going to make it using the gym as your lab and your body as the subject to be tested.
Here's an example, say you are an aspiring powerlifter that wants to do singles outlined in Cressey's article that I did not google for you. 8x1 > 90% of 1rm may be too much. You may only need 3x1. Or it may be too little and you may need 15x1. Is lifting 98% of your 1rm for 8 singles going to be just as effective or more effective than 91% of your 1rm for 8 singles? They're both still hard, but I would probably need much more rest for my CNS than some routine would account for if I was going to do the 98% (assuming I could handle 98% for 8). Especially if my 98% on squat was 800lbs. Now say the program is split out Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and I can workout everyday of the week if I wanted to. THERE IS NO REASON you should stick to the same M T Th S if you need the extra recovery and there is no need to HAVE to wait until the next workout day. If you feel better than ever on sunday, why not go in and break a new PR even if you lifted on saturday? Now, you should already know that if that bar feels much heavier than usual, you probably haven't let your CNS recovery quickly enough to hit a PR.
Another realization is about diets. YOUR BODY KNOWS BEST. I've found the best and most consistent results by: eat when hungry. eat healthy. Don't be a gluttonous bastard! this means eat until satisfied, not until full. Everything else will do its part.
For example, say you get a 12 inch sub from your local grocery store. You eat half the sub. stop. wait 15 minutes or so. still hungry? If so, eat more. If not, SAVE IT FOR WHEN YOU DO. If your body needs fuel, it will tell you. It's up to you to figure out which kinds of foods (healthier the better
)
I found myself bulking: eating until full 4-5x a day. Gained lots of fat and lifts went up. Then I would cut: fat went away, lifts would drop. For me, it's a vicious circle.
Now all of my lifts are going up and i'm losing fat AND looking bigger in the mirror. You need to remember that it is IMPOSSIBLE to gain muscle and lose fat AT THE EXACT SAME TIME. who's to say that it can't be done within one day or even in 7 hours by optimizing what you eat and when you eat? (I picked 7 to show that there is no time frame for when your body is gaining muscle or losing fat. The same is true that you don't burn exactly 2851 kcal every single day like that calculator or formula showed you on the internet. THEY ARE GUIDELINES TO HELP YOU!!!)
Now of course if you're trying to do something unnatural like get down to 3% body fat, then you should understand that certain aspects of what I'm saying don't apply to you and you should probably know wtf you're doing.
Lastly, you may not agree with some things I've said and that's fine. I'm just sharing what has worked for me. The whole point of this is to find out what works for YOU. Feel free to comment
T NATION | Five Loading Protocols That Suck
If you guys are wondering then what are some DIFFERENT (not necessarily better) ways to train and need some ideas, he wrote another article called "It Looked Good On Paper". Look it up on Google. Don't LMGTFY.
One main thing I've realized: your body knows better than anybody else, including the articles I've just posted. Learning how much is enough and not enough is superior to following some kind of outline made for the general public or made for some other guy. You know, that's just the thing. GENERAL PUBLIC. NOT YOU. It's not customized for what you specifically need. You should learn how to take what's important (like not being a pussy and learning how to squat and deadlift, and not dedicating a day to arms) and make a routine personalized to YOUR GOALS while taking into account recovery, personal life, etc. Unlike what everybody's told you, there IS a perfect routine. And you're going to make it using the gym as your lab and your body as the subject to be tested.
Here's an example, say you are an aspiring powerlifter that wants to do singles outlined in Cressey's article that I did not google for you. 8x1 > 90% of 1rm may be too much. You may only need 3x1. Or it may be too little and you may need 15x1. Is lifting 98% of your 1rm for 8 singles going to be just as effective or more effective than 91% of your 1rm for 8 singles? They're both still hard, but I would probably need much more rest for my CNS than some routine would account for if I was going to do the 98% (assuming I could handle 98% for 8). Especially if my 98% on squat was 800lbs. Now say the program is split out Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and I can workout everyday of the week if I wanted to. THERE IS NO REASON you should stick to the same M T Th S if you need the extra recovery and there is no need to HAVE to wait until the next workout day. If you feel better than ever on sunday, why not go in and break a new PR even if you lifted on saturday? Now, you should already know that if that bar feels much heavier than usual, you probably haven't let your CNS recovery quickly enough to hit a PR.
Another realization is about diets. YOUR BODY KNOWS BEST. I've found the best and most consistent results by: eat when hungry. eat healthy. Don't be a gluttonous bastard! this means eat until satisfied, not until full. Everything else will do its part.
For example, say you get a 12 inch sub from your local grocery store. You eat half the sub. stop. wait 15 minutes or so. still hungry? If so, eat more. If not, SAVE IT FOR WHEN YOU DO. If your body needs fuel, it will tell you. It's up to you to figure out which kinds of foods (healthier the better
)I found myself bulking: eating until full 4-5x a day. Gained lots of fat and lifts went up. Then I would cut: fat went away, lifts would drop. For me, it's a vicious circle.
Now all of my lifts are going up and i'm losing fat AND looking bigger in the mirror. You need to remember that it is IMPOSSIBLE to gain muscle and lose fat AT THE EXACT SAME TIME. who's to say that it can't be done within one day or even in 7 hours by optimizing what you eat and when you eat? (I picked 7 to show that there is no time frame for when your body is gaining muscle or losing fat. The same is true that you don't burn exactly 2851 kcal every single day like that calculator or formula showed you on the internet. THEY ARE GUIDELINES TO HELP YOU!!!)
Now of course if you're trying to do something unnatural like get down to 3% body fat, then you should understand that certain aspects of what I'm saying don't apply to you and you should probably know wtf you're doing.
Lastly, you may not agree with some things I've said and that's fine. I'm just sharing what has worked for me. The whole point of this is to find out what works for YOU. Feel free to comment
