Key to big lifts, revealed by ME...The Man Child

[The Man Child]

Trust me, I have some bodybuilder friends. One guy is 5'10'' 245lb. with 3%. Another guy is 5'7'' 220lb. 3% also...I don't know if their genetics are any better than mine, but I do know there drug bill is about 10x larger than mine annually. So...I gave up bodybuilding for DinoStyle.

 

[olympia4ever]

I like this post...it also tells people to use the barbells rather than machines.
one thing that is very benificial is combining the basic compound movements with more isolating ones, such as for shoulders one may use:
3 sets press behind neck
3 sets standing front press
3 sets upright rows
3 sets rear laterals
3 sets side laterals


If anyone now posts and says this is an easy workout...try doing three heavy sets with each exercise, see how your shoulders feel, they will be bombed... by mixing the neck presses and uprights with laterals you can totally wear down muscle fibres, if you are on a good cycle, eating and sleeping well then you will see good results. Guess the trick is to 'not kid yourself', its obvious what works and what doesnt, we all know it...why do beginners use the lat stack rather than the chin up bar? because they are afraid that they cant lift their own bodyweight and will look silly in the gym...i was like that 3 years ago weighing in at about 155 at 5'11 @9%, until i realised the only way to make gains is too hurt my muscles, to lift heavier and with exercises that i didnt like, such as behind the neck press and wide grip chins, whcih are now my fav exercise. In 3 years of natural training ive put on 40 lbs and am now 195, 5'11 @9% still natural and when i hit 20 will take my first cycle hope to get to 225 which i think i will do. Then go for the u21 british title... i know if i try my best then i can cause people some damage on stage. Although im speaking as if im an expert and a pro or whatever (which is not what i am, or trying to portray myself as), i feel that the way ive trained has enabled me to make great solid gains naturally rather than taking roids after 6 months of casual training, getting to 200 and still not satisfied but hitting a peak due to the lack of natural training and conditioning. I cant wait to post my pics after my cycle (cycle starts when i turn 20) and compare them to other 20 year olds who have done 1 cycle, or even 3-4 cycles. Id say that natural training however hard and depressing it might be when one makes very slow gains is the only way for a beginner to get a hard physique. I have friends that used roids ater 6 months and now they have all quit because they had taken about 10 cycles and were getting bad side effects, feeling bad and noticed little improvement...now they look at me and are impressed because i have put in hard work and had to put up with eating 5-6 200g cans of tuna a day every day for the last 2 years (tuna tastes sick with no mayo etc). The result is that i am the one aiming for the u21 british title and they have won some regional contests but wouldnt do a thing in the british...because of the hard work and dedication to compound movements and natural training no matter how frustrating or annoying it is to see people you know and friends wizz past you at first, as i am just finding out now it feels great when you realise that you are the one that has earned respect through the pain and 'no short cut' way of training.

I guess what im trying to say is...forget about the short run...the long run is what counts, 'who has the last laugh'...everyone laughed at arnold when he was a kid and started training...now look at him. Also to any beginners, i recomend going through 3 years of hard training eating 6 meals a day (eating lots of canned tuna) because it has worked for me, no matter what the temptation is to use the roids at first, believe me it was a lot when i saw my friends accelerate past me at first, the only thing that counts is the long run not what happens in 2 years, try 8 years...you do it properly and in 8-10 years you could be national champ or even pro, rather than regional u21 champ and some nice photos to remember. ( dont know about you but i like led zeppelin and in one of their songs called 'stairway to heaven' one of the lyrics goes like this 'there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, theres still time to change the road your on, your head is humming and it wont go incase you dont know, the pipers calling you to join him')...this just helps me to remember my goals and to remind myself there are two roads i can take, the easy or the hard...the hard will get me my goal the easy will just be a waste of time, so i dont know about you people but i dont want to waste my time, no matter what it takes i will compete in the u21 title and one day i will cause a stir in bodybuilding. Thats the way i want it and thats how it will be...the only way this will be possible is never to give into any temptations to do a lighter workout or to do laterals instead of presses, or to use roids after 6 months, or to go partying etc. In the end everyone knows that the only way they can look good is by lifting heavy in the exercises that they fear the most. Thanx for listening guys sorry if you thought i was ranting on too much, but it seems plain to me that if you want something you will try all you can to achieve it and not take shortcuts because everyone knows showrtcuts dont work.

 

[The Man Child]

Olympia you're really trying to tell me that its necassary to do 15 sets of shoulder work? That type of program that you states is exactly what I think is wrong with people in the gym today. If you are putting max effort into your core movements, you don't need anything else. Remember, you shouldn't focus on lifting "bodyparts" during your workouts. You should be working out for a purpose, such as today I'm working out for Power ie: squats, hang cleans, over head press.

 

[BuilderBenny]

Hey!

I've been thinking, this type of training must be solely for ppl who's trained for some 3-4 years.

I mean it must be really hard on your joints, tendons (r whatever they're called, sorry for my bad english).

Sure it makes sense that heavy lifting with free weights instead of 'machines'. But I also read alot about ppl saying to be carefull not to overload your joints/tendons, especially when on cykle.

Is it advisable to do heavy lifting, low reps, if you don't have many years of experience and not knowing your body can handle the weight?

peace

 

[Dar91]

Im a little confused about this kind of training. I do squats, on quad day, I do dead lifts, on ham day, I do presses, on shoulder and chest day. Each day I train, I try to hit 2-3 exercises heavy, then 1-2 exercises isolation. How does this not work? I hit both twich 1 and twich 2 muscle fibers.

I understand that these exercises will build mass, but what about things like arms and back? I figure you will work them a tiny bit on presses and high rows, but hows that better than heavy barbell/dumbell curls or heavy close grip/skull crushers?

Im always willing to try new things, I want to know how and why it works and if it will work my lagging arms better than dedicating a seperate day for them.

Thanks

D

 

[The Man Child]

I'll answer your questions, but this is also why I recommeded picking up Dinosaur Training from ironmind.com

One of the principles in this book is that its a relatively well known fact that the majority of lifters today are weak. And that is largely due to the overtraining going on in todays gyms. Tell me, do you get stronger by going for the pump or training for strength? the obvious, but generally misunderstood answer is that low reps with heavy weight equate to muscle gains. NOT the high reps, pump your muscles with blood theory as written in ALL of the muscle magazines.

There is no need to blitz your triceps with extentions after you've just done a hard 5x5 exercise of close grip bench. You've already torn apart your triceps. Anything else would be OVERTRAINING which will not make you stronger ie: bigger.

Do you really think those last few sets of leg extensions are really giving you a workout after doing heavy squats? HELL NO. All they do is fatigue your legs for your next workout, they don't give you any real benefits.

The list goes on, but you should be getting my point by now.

And to answer the question about sore joints, tendons, etc...don't give me that bullshit, pain is NOT a bad thing fellas, unlike what the editors of Flex Magazine and Muscle Mag lead us to believe.

Hardcore, 150% effort training is supposed to be one of the hardest things a man can endure. Pain is good!

I mean shit, there's a reason the majority of guys on the messege boards and in the gyms are always asking, why am I not making the huge gains that you make while on my cycle? Well duh! Get off the preacher bench and pec deck machine and hit the power rack and get to work.

 

[MadCow1]

From my own training (non-competition/maintenance phases) - not necessarily the same as anyone elses

Generally - I have a set of core movments which I concentrate on (squats, deads, cleans, etc..) - I try to constantly improve on these exercises. That being said I will apply isolation/assistance work to bring up weak points in the compound lifts.

i.e. - After squating I am utilizing the leg extension machine (yes I feel like tool) for my quads as I have developed a muscular imbalance due to an unrelated injury that kept me from lifting for some time and caused a great deal of knee pain. As I rebuild the inner quad muscle my overall squat should increase (and pain should decrease thank God - this is in addition to phys. rehab). Other assistance work on leg day includes good mornings which I'll do before the leg extension. Sometimes another variation of the squat but right now I just want to mend.

For back - I'll generally begin with deads, cleans, or high pulls depending on what I'm working on (I'll often do more than one). Right now it's lighter deads due to the knee issue (I don't want to be exploding on it). I then move to bent rows and later to pullups/downs whatever you can do. I'll also throw in a single bicept exercise and do 5 sets toward the end - right now it's standing DB curls.

-chest and overhead work excluded

So anyway, the jist is that I am really concentrating on the core lifts and increasing them week to week systematically. The other lifts are assistance and targeted at weak points and areas to improve my overall lifts. Almost all lifts are free weights and compound movements. I find I can generally do no more than 3 exercises of this nature per workout not including the arm work. This is the proper use of assistance work in an athelete.

For beginers I generally give them 3 exercises and have them get good at them - guess what they are? deads(or cleans if they know how), squats, bench. That's it - as these lifts will result in 80% of their progress anyway and why dilute the trainees' focus when they haven't even adequately developed their core lifts yet. This is also not solely for beginners - a lot of times it is very beneficial to concentrate solely on a core group of 4-5 lifts and work at improving technique and strength. I'll be using this method shortly after my knee heals.

 

[The Man Child]

Atleast someone is one the right track around here, lol, j/k, but you should evaluate your lifting, and make sure it hardcore. Not CHROME AND FERN, LOL...

 

[deathonthefield]

for my man that asked how high r high pulls, it is an explosive lift and the bar should be pulled just a little bit over ur chest, kinda close to ur neck. it is not a slow movement, it is simulating the first half of a clean

 

[ryker77]

I myself have followed and trained a few others with that same type of training. I followed Yates program of get in the gym, go beyond your limits, and get out. It worked great I was strong as hell and the guys that I got to workout with me loved it too. NO talking just moving heavy ass weights.



But now three years later and three hernia surgery later. I feel the need for another type of program. I'm still going to stick with the basic movements. I'm just going to limit the amount of heavy sets I do. I'll use drop sets to get that final muscle burn out.