Question about exercise selection on Matt Reynolds DFHT

[blut wump]

The original poster asked about gear. As you already know, it's certainly not necessary, neither for growth nor strength.

Many of us here have switched away from BB-type splits from where we were accustomed to blasting a muscle into submission. All I can really suggest is that the fact that those here have stayed with progression and increased frequency in itself is testament to the fact that this style of working out does work.

My own attitude to it when I began was that it's worth two or three months to see what happens. You overall goal becomes to make progress in the lifts. Your conditionng to work actually increases due to the fact that the muscles are hit more often and you'll find yourself aching a lot less. This isn't due to doing less work, it's due to having an improved work capacity.

If you look at all the work you do through the week, in terms of workload and ignoring the 'foo-foo' exercises, you'll probably find that the DFHT has a greater requirement of you than your old BB-style split.

 

[Neo22]

The original poster asked about gear. As you already know, it's certainly not necessary, neither for growth nor strength.

Many of us here have switched away from BB-type splits from where we were accustomed to blasting a muscle into submission. All I can really suggest is that the fact that those here have stayed with progression and increased frequency in itself is testament to the fact that this style of working out does work.

My own attitude to it when I began was that it's worth two or three months to see what happens. You overall goal becomes to make progress in the lifts. Your conditionng to work actually increases due to the fact that the muscles are hit more often and you'll find yourself aching a lot less. This isn't due to doing less work, it's due to having an improved work capacity.

If you look at all the work you do through the week, in terms of workload and ignoring the 'foo-foo' exercises, you'll probably find that the DFHT has a greater requirement of you than your old BB-style split.

Since I'm bulking right now I need to get this split right. I have a show I'm doing in march so I need to get it right. I guess the matter is I haven't seen any really big guys doing the DFHT split. Strength doesn't always correlate to hypertrophy either. Thats why a lot of super strong olympic lifters are not by any means big. I'm doing a heavy upper and lower at beginning of the week reps of 6 and more hypertrophy based at the end of the end. But the thing is, doing 3 major bodyparts on one day keeps me in the gym forever. I can't neglect little things like the lateral head or the rear delt on my shoulders either. Thats another reason I'm not too fond of the split.

 

[blut wump]

At some stage you have to ask yourself how much you're going to allow symmetrical and concurrent development of the various heads of your delts to hold back your overall development.

How long does it typically take you to apply some direct work to finer points to bring them up to scratch as compared with the amount of time it takes to build bulk across the entire physique? You have seven months to build some mass and refine it. Don't begin with worrying about refinement.

 

[Neo22]

How long does it typically take you to apply some direct work to finer points to bring them up to scratch as compared with the amount of time it takes to build bulk across the entire physique? You have seven months to build some mass and refine it. Don't begin with worrying about refinement.

Thats the thing. I don't konw how long it would take. Its mainly bc I don't know how to feel my body. I've never been really good at putting on size. I went from 165-194 in about a 6 month time period doing 1 bodypart a week but then again it was after surgery so i hadn't touched weights in months prior before I started.

 

[BiggT]

Neo, generally, with most people, it is relatively easy to refine a weak point......typically the precontest diet does wonders as far as the illusion of "shaping", but if something is lacking detail, it is typically, in most cases, much easier to remedy lack of detail than it is lack of size.......You can't carve a pebble as the saying goes.

In my opinion, it is much more efficient to spend ALL of your energy inproving compound lifts in that 5-8 rep range and eat more calories than you burn right up until the very last day of the bulking diet.....I find this to be responsible for about 99% of progress, while that insignificant 1% (specific 'routines', isolation, finding a magic supplement or trace mineral, finding a magic exercise, points, angles, or planes of motion) is what people fixate on because it is just hard and plain old unsexy, lol, to believe that most of your results are the result of simple progression on compound lifts and just eating more calories than you burn daily.

If a "BB Split" gave you results without MASSIVE doses of drugs and ancillaries, I can 100% guarantee you it is because you got better at what counts and ate enough, NOT because you did reverse pec deck at a 3-0-3 cadence unilaterally.

Again, man.....you can only carve a boulder, not a pebble.....tackle the big 99% of this.....and IF (and this is a big if) there is an imbalance come the precontest diet, it will be much easier to remedy it with some iso fluff than it will to be 6 weeks out without nearly enough muscle to stand on stage because you were too busy worrying about the balance of the right inner pec to the left instead of just piling weight on the bar each week and doing more and more work when you were eating caloric excess, once the diet starts, you're done growing, so you better have all the muscle you'll need.

 

[Neo22]

Neo, generally, with most people, it is relatively easy to refine a weak point......typically the precontest diet does wonders as far as the illusion of "shaping", but if something is lacking detail, it is typically, in most cases, much easier to remedy lack of detail than it is lack of size.......You can't carve a pebble as the saying goes.

In my opinion, it is much more efficient to spend ALL of your energy inproving compound lifts in that 5-8 rep range and eat more calories than you burn right up until the very last day of the bulking diet.....I find this to be responsible for about 99% of progress, while that insignificant 1% (specific 'routines', isolation, finding a magic supplement or trace mineral, finding a magic exercise, points, angles, or planes of motion) is what people fixate on because it is just hard and plain old unsexy, lol, to believe that most of your results are the result of simple progression on compound lifts and just eating more calories than you burn daily.

If a "BB Split" gave you results without MASSIVE doses of drugs and ancillaries, I can 100% guarantee you it is because you got better at what counts and ate enough, NOT because you did reverse pec deck at a 3-0-3 cadence unilaterally.

Again, man.....you can only carve a boulder, not a pebble.....tackle the big 99% of this.....and IF (and this is a big if) there is an imbalance come the precontest diet, it will be much easier to remedy it with some iso fluff than it will to be 6 weeks out without nearly enough muscle to stand on stage because you were too busy worrying about the balance of the right inner pec to the left instead of just piling weight on the bar each week and doing more and more work when you were eating caloric excess, once the diet starts, you're done growing, so you better have all the muscle you'll need.

So would you suggest I stick with this 2x a week split? THe guy that would train me is so set on a bb split bc its what he does. He was saying that 2x a week will bring out hardness but wont give time to recover. Again he's an npc bb but I know he has good genetics and does a good amount of aas.

 

[fortunatesun]

So would you suggest I stick with this 2x a week split? The guy that would train me is so set on a bb split bc its what he does. He was saying that 2x a week will bring out hardness but wont give time to recover. Again he's an npc bb but I know he has good genetics and does a good amount of aas.

Neo, that's just a difficult question to answer. There's no single theory of bodybuilding that will always be best. If you've been doing splits for the past three years and you feel that they will take you where you want to go, then that's what you should do.
IMHO, there may be good justification for this program at this time- you're going for mass, not definition, as biggt said. I think most everyone agrees that means heavy, compound lifting as a cornerstone. You're still getting your other work in, but you are prioritizing those exercizes that build mass. You are also getting the added benefit of better all round conditioning. It's been my experience (i don't want to generalize) that detail just comes in faster this way due to higher general fitness and a good base to work from.
Workload can also be a function of intensity: quality not quantity. People like Yates built their physiques this way, giving their all for a relatively smaller number of sets. I think one of the reasons you don't find this as exhausting as your old split is that the workload is new, you're not pounding it the same way you have been for years now so your neuromuscular response is fresher.
The same thing applies for recovery time. While 72 hrs. is generally considered the optimal minimum (except for certain high voume Russian programs) both theories rely on timing to make them work. The dual factor principal looks at recovery in regards to the organic whole, or total mass fatigued , thus the deload to regroup, rather than by individual muscle stress.
Whichever way you go, best of luck in March.

 

[BiggT]

Yeah, Neo, it is impossible to say training 'x' times per week is overtraining or undertraining or does this or does that, it is all 'bodybuilding' myth, voo-doo, and bullshit.

At the risk of being banned around these parts, lol, I will go out and say a 'BB split' CAN work if organized correctly and centered around progression. However, training frequently will not be 'overtraining' when managed properly. Again, you need to look at a trainee, the exercises, and the intensity, you cannot just make a blanket statement like "2 times a week doesn't allow recovery".

There is no BEST way to train, there is a way to train that is as close to optimal as one can hope for a particular individual for a fixed period of time.

If you've never tried a routine where all your energy is devoted into getting good at big lifts, and redundancy/inefficiency (doing rows from 72 different angles, triceps pushdowns with 33 different attachments etc) is eliminated and fluff and iso work kept to a bare minimum, look through Madcow2's site and research dual factor theory as well, take from it what you will. Learn the underlying theory and apply it to what you like to do, thats all training is, an underlying theory, it is not a magic concoction of days/sets/reps/exercises.

When looking at genetics/drugs, keep in mind, many pro BBs routines couldn't slap an ounce of muscle on a teenage boy smack in the middle of puberty.

 

[SDHW]

When looking at genetics/drugs, keep in mind, many pro BBs routines couldn't slap an ounce of muscle on a teenage boy smack in the middle of puberty.

LOL, this is so true, I see it all the time in the gym, the teens come in with their favorite BB mags, and try to copy the same workout out. I just shake my head.

 

[Neo22]

Yeah, Neo, it is impossible to say training 'x' times per week is overtraining or undertraining or does this or does that, it is all 'bodybuilding' myth, voo-doo, and bullshit.

At the risk of being banned around these parts, lol, I will go out and say a 'BB split' CAN work if organized correctly and centered around progression. However, training frequently will not be 'overtraining' when managed properly. Again, you need to look at a trainee, the exercises, and the intensity, you cannot just make a blanket statement like "2 times a week doesn't allow recovery".

There is no BEST way to train, there is a way to train that is as close to optimal as one can hope for a particular individual for a fixed period of time.

If you've never tried a routine where all your energy is devoted into getting good at big lifts, and redundancy/inefficiency (doing rows from 72 different angles, triceps pushdowns with 33 different attachments etc) is eliminated and fluff and iso work kept to a bare minimum, look through Madcow2's site and research dual factor theory as well, take from it what you will. Learn the underlying theory and apply it to what you like to do, thats all training is, an underlying theory, it is not a magic concoction of days/sets/reps/exercises.

When looking at genetics/drugs, keep in mind, many pro BBs routines couldn't slap an ounce of muscle on a teenage boy smack in the middle of puberty.

heres what the old BB split did look like fyi

MOnday
Back
deadlifts 4x6 going up to a 3rm
Pullups
db rows
pulldowns

Chest
Flat BB 5x5 or 4x6
Incline db 3x6
2 diff exercises for crossovers
dips

Off

Thurs
Legs
Squats 4x6 or 3x8
Leg press 4x10
Stiff Leg Deadlifts 4x6 or 3x8
GHR's or Reverse Hypers

Friday
Shoulders
Push press 4x6
Hang cleans 3x8
Standing side laterals 3x8
Reverse peck deck 3x8
BB shrugs

oFf
off