the right way to train

[b fold the truth]

You mean I have to squat to get big?

Can't I just do some leg presses and extensions? I feel the leg presses more in my quads and I use the leg extension to shape my quads as well. The leg curl has relly helped with my development in the hamstring department, especially form a side-chest pose.

B True

 

[bigp3]

Question: How do you define intensity?

There are many ways to describe intensity when training, but we want to focus on what intense means concerning muscle growth. I would say running a marathon would be as intense as it gets, but does that induce muscle growth? No!! You could do 50 sets of barbell curls. Is this intense? Yes it sure is, but it is not going to cause you to get bigger. So, I am sure you can see where I am going with this by now.

Let’s delve into what would be defined as the proper intensity to cause muscle overload and induce growth. Let’s establish the overload principle again here first. The overload principle simply states that muscles grow when the stimulus is increased from the previous workout (i.e. increased intensity). For our definition, increased intensity means more weight or more reps than the previous workout, not more sets. Yes, you say more sets would be more intense. I agree that it would be more work than before, but this does not mean you are getting stronger and we all know that stronger means bigger. You can see the problem with doing more and more sets. If I do one more next week than the week before and do this for a year for increased intensity where am I going to be. Fifty more sets of bench in a year. No way is this is crap going to work at all. I am just going to be one seriously overtrained motherfucker then. What you need to do is do a moderate amount of exercises with an all out balls to the wall work set on each which will cause overload. This set should go at the very least be to complete positive failure and when possible to negative failure. This will be more than enough overload to make you grow. You will find out that going all out like this you will not be able to do a ton of exercises and sets. Now this is what intensity is by weight lifting definition. Hit your muscles hard, go home, rest, eat and grow. Then you do it all over again.

 

[bigp3]

You mean I have to squat to get big?

Can't I just do some leg presses and extensions? I feel the leg presses more in my quads and I use the leg extension to shape my quads as well. The leg curl has relly helped with my development in the hamstring department, especially form a side-chest pose.

B True

Man I hope you are not serious about the squats. Yes leg presses and leg extensions do isolate you quads better. I agree with that statement. I would also say that cable flyes isolate your chest better than benches. I think anyone would agree with this. But, I bet also most people would agree some form of barbell pressing is much better for inducing muscle mass in you chest. It is a time tested and proven method that basic compound movements are much better for adding mass than any machine. I would guarantee that you are not going to find any guys that have 30" plus quads that have not squated. It just does not happen. For some reason people are scared to death to do squats and deadlifts. I guess it is because they are a motherfucker to do. If you are serious about bodybuilding then I say squats are a requirement. If you just want to look pretty for the girls then by all means ditch the squats.

 

[Debaser]

He's joking man. He's a pro strongman

 

[Debaser]

Also, don't you train under doggcrapp? Or have I mistaken you for someone else.

 

[bigp3]

Shew that makes me feel a lot better that he was joking about the squats. Now I feel like a real retard,, lol You never can tell around here though,,, lol. Yes, I do train with doggcrapp. I have tried not to push those ideas on anyone even though they do work amazingly. I am just trying to present the basic principles that I have found that do work, so some of the younger guys on the board can weed through a lot of the crap and train in an effecient manner.

 

[b fold the truth]

Sorry man...I was hoping that everyone would understand that I was joking.

I squat 2x a week and deadlift at least once. My best squat is 800 and my best raw deadlift is 705.5 x 1. My favorite days of the week.

B True

 

[casualbb]

The overload principle simply states that muscles grow when the stimulus is increased from the previous workout (i.e. increased intensity).
...
What you need to do is do a moderate amount of exercises with an all out balls to the wall work set on each which will cause overload. This set should go at the very least be to complete positive failure and when possible to negative failure. This will be more than enough overload to make you grow.

Okay, I thought this was the case. Just to keep from confusing newbies, let me point out that "balls to the wall" failure training is NOT necessary for progress.

DC's method is one way to do training. For people who buy into the intensity myth, it's great because it forces you to increase the weight frequently, as you should. But it's the increased weight from session to session, NOT increased intensity, that yields the program's results. An important distinction.

 

[bigp3]

Okay, I thought this was the case. Just to keep from confusing newbies, let me point out that "balls to the wall" failure training is NOT necessary for progress.

DC's method is one way to do training. For people who buy into the intensity myth, it's great because it forces you to increase the weight frequently, as you should. But it's the increased weight from session to session, NOT increased intensity, that yields the program's results. An important distinction.

I agree with you about the weight increases. In my definition of intensity I stated that this is done by increasing your weights and or reps from the previous workout. This is why I did not even bring up DC methods since it always seems to stir up things. Whether you agree with him or not is one thing, but I think we can all agree that more weight = more size. By raising your weights on a regular basis you are raising your intensity and I think this is something everyone who is striving to be bigger should work towards.

 

[TENPACK]

very true casual. it is not intensity per se, but an increased load from session to session that causes growth. For example, say one week i bench press 275x5 and the fifth rep was two short of failure. The next time i do chest, say i add 5 pounds and do 280x5, again two reps short of failure. Both times i could have gotten two more reps, but instead on this particular program, i choose to be able to hit my chest again more frequently by not going to failure. Did my intensity increase? Yes, i would say a little, as that fifth rep with 280 was a little tougher than my fifth rep with 275. But, intensity is not the bottome line here, instead the increased load will serve my means to bigger and stronger muscles. By slowly increasing my lifts like this, i can account for progressive poundage and in turn become bigger and stronger.