Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Lyle McDonald Project
The Lyle McDonald Project
-1-
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Overview of Everything
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Fat-Targeting Cardio
Chapter 3: Strength Training
Basic Principles
...........................page 17
.....................................................................page 20
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........................................................................page 22
MU Recruitment
...........................................................................page 22
Prilepins Table
...........................................................................page 24
Deloading
....................................................................................page 25
............................................................page 26
............................................................page 27
Strength Routines
....................................................................................page 28
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-2-
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Block Training
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Hypertrophy Routines
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Basic Guidelines
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Post-Workout Nutrition
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Thermogenesis
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-3-
..................page 64
1. Overview of Everything
Training, Diet, Supplements, etc.
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=107080&postcount=4)
Here are my general principles for training (and I'm not gonna differentiate between
training for mass and training for fat loss because I'm of the mind that training shouldn't
change hugely while cutting).
Frequency: 2-4 times/week in the gym depending on recovery. For natural lifters, with
normal recovery capacity, I simply see no reason to be in the gym more than that. Even
Louie Simmons' guys only train 4 days/week, so tell me why a natural bodybuilder needs
to train 6 days/week. I also don't like to see more than 2 days in the gym without a day
off, because it tends to screw up hormone levels. Again, there are always exceptions, I'm
talking about the great majority of lifters out there.
Intensity: While I'm not a hardcore 'you MUST go to failure proponent', neither do I think
that going easy is a great way to get big (an exception might be Poliquin's 10x10 where
you make up for the lack of intensity with a large volume and short rest periods). Failure
or a rep or two short on most work sets is about right to me.
Volume: I think most people do far too many sets in the gym (this is a function of
inadequate intensity for the most part). I personally find anywhere from 4-8/bodypart
(depending on a lot of factors that I can't get into here) to be about right for most natural
bodybuilders. Some real hardgainers may need towards the end of that range (I seem to
do best with 3-4 sets/body part), guys with good recovery can use more if it suits them.
With regards to volume, I also think workouts should be about an hour in length,
although there are always exceptions. With my partner, with all the BS'ing and making
fun of other folks in the gym, we usually take 1.5 hours from start to finish. I've seen
folks who started training when I got there with my partner, and *still* be in the middle
of their workout 3 hours later after I've trained the 1-2 clients I still have. That's
excessive, plain and simple.
Overload: While many bodybuilders may disagree with this, in general, if you're not
getting stronger (adding weight to the bar), you're probably not growing. Put differently,
if you're benching 185 now and you're still benching 185 next year, I can almost
guarantee you that your chest won't be any bigger no matter what else you do for it. Put
even differently, it's somewhat rare (there are exceptions in pure strength sports where
athletes commonly keep weight down deliberately by not eating enough) to see someone
who's very strong that's not also very big (I refer you again to power and Olympic lifters).
It's very common to see someone using light weights but training for the 'feel' or the
'pump' who's not very big at all (unless they are juiced, where all the rules go out the
window). Get stronger and eat enough and you will get bigger.
-4-
Diet
----Even though I have occasionally lapsed into silliness myself (I like to call it being openminded, ha ha), diet needn't be complicated either. If your goal is to gain mass, you need
to ensure adequate protein and calories for growth, and the rest of your diet will be less
important (yeah, you need sufficient dietary fat for optimal testosterone levels and carbs
for glycogen replenishment/maintaining training intensity). But in the long run I doubt
minor changes (within a reasonable range) in macronutrient percentage intake will make
a humongous difference in results.
If your goal is fat loss, you still need adequate protein, but you need to create a slight
caloric deficit (either by decreasing food intake or increasing activity level, within
reason). Carbs and fats will depend on which particular diet philosophy you believe in
and which allows you to most easily control your caloric intake, etc (i.e. the diet must fit
you psychologically at least as much as it fits you physiologically. If you hate the taste of
ketogenic diet foods, then no matter how great or not great the diet is, you won't follow it
in the long run).
So here are my general diet principles:
Mass gains:
1. Set calories: a good starting point is 10-20% above maintenance but this should be
adjusted based on body composition changes. The sad fact is that to gain muscle at any
kind of appreciable rate typically means that you have to gain some body fat as well. The
folks I've known who stay ripped year round generally don't get much bigger either.
2. Set protein: 1 g/lb or thereabouts
3. Set fat intake: I like to see 15-25% of total calories as fat or so, mostly from
unsaturated sources.
4. Set carbs: the rest. If you believe in the glycemic index concept, stick with lower GI
foods most of the day but higher around training.
5. Eat 4-6 meals/day (women, with lower caloric intakes may have trouble eating 6x/day
as each meal ends up so small).
6. Make sure and have a carb/protein drink right after training for recovery/anabolism.
For fat loss:
1. Set calories: a good starting point is 10-20% below maintenance but this should be
adjusted based on body composition changes. Ideal is 1-1.5 lbs fat loss/week. Of course,
this depends on starting body fat. You'll lose more fat if you start out fatter, and have to
slow fat loss as you get leaner to prevent muscle loss.
2. Set protein: 1 g/lb.
3. Set fat intake: again, 15-25% of total calories or so, as this tends to be satiating and
help decrease hunger. Obviously if you're using a Zone/Isocaloric or keto approach, fat
intake will be higher.
4. Set carbs intake: the rest (depending of course, on fat intake).
5. Eat 4-6 meals/day (women, with lower caloric intakes may have trouble eating 6x/day
as each meal ends up so small)
-5-
So those are basic dieting templates. Yes, there will be some variety. If you are just
absolutely sure that you gain better with 1.5 g/lb of protein (but make sure you are eating
enough calories from carbs and fats, and that the excess protein isn't just being used as an
energy source, before you draw that conclusion), fine.
Supplements
----------To make this article complete, I have to say a few words about supplements. Contrary to
what many may think, I am not staunchly anti-supplement. However, I am staunchly
anti-worrying about supplements before you get your diet and training in order. Let's
face it, all the creatine or andro-poppers in the world won't make you gain muscle if
you're training 7 days/week for 2 hours/day and only eating 1500 calories/day (at a
bodyweight of 160 lbs).
In this vein, I'd like to repeat something I wrote on misc.fitness.weights a month or two
ago: "If you are not growing from your current diet and training program, no supplement
will change that. If you are growing from your current diet and training program,
supplements will only add a small amount to that."
The problem, as I see it, is that many trainees focus on the supplement end of things
before they even figure out how to train or eat (this type of attitude is promoted by the
major muscle magazines who tend to promulgate the idea that supplements are a
REQUIRED aspect of bodybuilding). I did it years ago, too, so I can understand how it
goes. But I've made some of my best gains (at one point this year, 12 lbs of muscle in 6
months, although that came with 12 lbs of fat) just focusing on basic training and lots (in
hindsight, too much) good food.
Personally, I use a protein powder (for convenience only because I get tired of eating
whole food), a multivitamin (generic grocery store brand) and extra Vitamin-C when I'm
massing. I'll use ECA and yohimbe when I'm dieting. THAT'S IT. Up until about 2
years ago, I probably tried just about everything out there at least once. Nothing ever
worked as well as hard training, progressive overload and eating enough calories for mass
gains.
So I guess the bottom line in my mind is this: if you have found out, training and diet
wise, what you need to grow, and you want to experiment with supplements to see if you
can measurably increase the rate or magnitude of those gains, go for it. But if you're still
struggling with how to train correctly, or your diet sucks, supplements are simply a waste
of money that will have zero benefit.
-6-
2. General Training
Basic Overview of Routine Setups
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=107084&postcount=5)
As far as the most basic of basic routines, I'd say two times per week, full body
Day 1:
squat, leg curl or SLDL, a compound push, a compound pull, tinkering
Day 2
deadlift or leg press, leg curl or SLDL, a different compound push, a different compound
pull, tinkering
Reps vary from 2-3x6-8 to 2-3 sets of 5 on everything (not including warm-ups). Then
move to 2 sets of 3 and one burnout set of 8 for a better mix of strength and size. BTW,
this is pretty much the John Christy routine.
You can get big and strong on that.
If you wanted to add a third day, you have multiple options.
Option 1: 3 full body workouts. Use a Bill Starr type of approach. You can go
heavy/light/medium if you want, probably recover better.
Option 1a: 3 full body workouts. Make Mon/Fri heavier, make Wed a tinkering workout
(pick less intensive exercises) and a little bit lighter. Better gene expression with this one
IMO. So hit sets of 5 or 6-8 on Mon/Fri and sets of 10-12 on Wed. Do the heavy
compounds on Mon/Fri and stuff like front squat or leg press, shoulder press, and arms
on Wed.
Option 2: basic upper/lower split. Split your workouts in two and alternate
Mon: upper
Wed: lower
Fri: upper
Mon: lower
Wed: upper
Fri: lower
You hit everything once every 5th day or 3 times in 2 weeks.
-7-
-8-
Training Secrets
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/articles/training/secrets.php)
Training secrets for size and strength gains (for naturals)
1. If you are natural, you must get stronger to get bigger. If, over time, you are not
adding weight to the bar, you are not growing.
2. Training a body part less than 2x/week will not give you optimal gains. An
upper/lower split done Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri is close to optimal for most. Full body twice a
week can work very well. Once every 5th day is the least frequently I would ever
recommend a natural train. You'll get less sore training more frequently and you'll grow
better. Save once/week body part training for pro bodybuilders (read: steroid users) and
the genetically elite.
3. When in doubt, do less volume, not more. You don't need a zillion sets to stimulate
hypertrophy, the bullshit written in the magazines to the contrary. If you can't get it done
in 4-8 hard sets (sometimes less, rarely more) you need to quit training like a pussy in the
gym. I had a friend who sold supplements one time who kept asking me to design him a
product that would really work. I told him to make a supplement that would make people
work hard in the gym and watch their diets. He thought I was joking.
4. Generally, basic compound exercises are best but isolation stuff has its place. Same
for the machines versus free weights 'argument': both have their place. Anybody who
tells you that you MUST do a certain exercise is arguing from an emotional stance, not a
physiological one.
5. If you think you can gain muscle without eating sufficient food or calories, you should
quit bodybuilding and take up something easier, like golf. You can't magically make
muscle out of nothing, you need calories and protein to grow. If you can't buckle down
to eat enough on a consistent basis, you won't grow an ounce of muscle. And spare me
the excuses that you're not hungry or your schedule won't allow it. It's about priorities,
eat more or stay skinny.
6. Most hardgainers train like idiots and don't eat enough.
7. Diets should be based around whole foods first, supplements second. Remember the
hoopla over zinc and testosterone and ZMA from Balco (hi Victor, hope you're enjoying
the forced sodomy in jail)? Red meat is a great source of zinc, iron, B12 and protein. Not
to mention who knows how many other trace nutrients that are involved in optimal
human physiology. Eat it every day. Remember all of that crap about indole 3 carbinole.
Guess what, it's found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower. Every
time you hear about a new magic compound, 99 times out of 100 it's found in some
whole food that you're probably not eating. Eat whole foods with a shitpile of veggies
every day.
-9-
8. There is no singular best protein, each one has pros and cons. Generally, I think
casein is better for dieting, whey for around workouts, whole proteins the rest of the time.
You can't beat milk (and the dairy calcium has benefits on body fat). I think mixing
proteins at a given meal is a good idea to eliminate any shortcomings of one. I think food
combining (or protein rotation) is a lot of hippy holistic bullshit.
Dieting secrets for fat loss:
1. You can't magically lose weight unless you eat less or burn more calories with
activity. Not unless you take drugs and those either make you eat less or burn more
anyhow.
2. Don't bitch about how much you hate dieting or exercise. You can either change your
diet and activity patterns, or you can stay fat. Those are your two options, except for
drugs.
3. The key to losing weight and keeping it off is the following
A. Change your eating habits: so that you're eating less
B. Change your activity patterns: so that you're expending more calories
C. Repeat: Keep doing this over a long period of time.
D. Forever: Newsflash, you don't EVER get to go back to your old eating habits unless
you want to get fat again. To maintain weight loss means maintaining at least part of the
changes you made to A and B.
4. All diet books, no matter what line of bullshit they sell you, are working in terms of
A-D. Cutting all of the carbs out of your diet will generally make you eat less, so will
cutting out all of the fat, so do diets that change your eating habits in one fashion or
another. Some books go the activity route. At the end of the day, even if they tell you
that you don't have to eat less to lose weight, they will trick you into doing it one way or
another.
Note: My job, as a diet book author, is to turn A-D into a 300 page book. Most diet
books do it with 150 pages of recipes.
Everything else that you may come across, including my various gibberings in my books,
are just details on the above. But at a fundamental level, until you are dealing with that
1% of 1% of trainees (elite athletes, bodybuilders trying to get to 5% body fat without
muscle loss), those secrets are about all you need to know.
The equation is this:
Ass busting work + consistency + time = results.
- 10 -
Periodization
Periodization for Bodybuilders: Part I
(http://www.mindandmuscle.net/content/page-198.html)
Problems with Non-Periodized Training
People get bored doing the same thing all the time
There are different components that can be trained/manipulated which contribute
to maximal size: myofibrillar hypertrophy, sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, capillary
density, etc.
Physical adaptation over time, the body seems to adapt to a given training style
While you are training one biomotor capacity (i.e. muscular endurance,
hypertrophy, maximal strength), the ones not being trained are going to hell
Studies done years ago found that athletes moving into low rep ranges (for
maximal strength) frequently lost muscle size; adding back even one high rep set
(remember this, it's important) frequently prevented the problem
- 11 -
The goal of pure strength training is to improve the neural components of strength
production
The goal of this zone is to increase myofibrillar size and muscle density, and also
to increase maximal strength although not to the degree that pure strength training
does
A generic approach might be repeat sets of 4-6 reps on a 3-4 second down, 1 up
tempo
3 down, 2 up tempo
3-6 sets
This category can be divided into two different ranges, one spanning the 6-8 rep
range and the other spanning the 12-15 rep range
Really Extensive Bodybuilding Method
The goal of this zone is purely sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, with the emphasis on
capillarization and mitochondria more so than on the other components such as
glycogen
Training Load
6-10 sets
2-8 sets
3-6 sets
1-2 sets
- 13 -
Maintaining load
2-3 sets
1-2 sets
1-2 sets
1 set
Really Extensive
Reps (%1RM)
1-5 (85%+)
4-6 (80-85%)
6-8 (75-80%)
Rest Tempo
3-5'
2-3'
1-2'
10-15 (70-75%)
N/A (60-65%)
1-2'
1'
Tempo
2-3/0/X
3-4/0/1
3/0/2x1
Set length
Exercise
20" or less Compound
20-30"
Compound
30-40"
Compound
or
1-2' 3/0/2
40-60"
Isolation
2/0/2
60-120"
Isolation
Notes: Tempo reads X/Y/Z where X is the lowering speed, Y is the pause, and Z is the
lifting speed. Some coaches add a fourth value for the pause at the top. Rest intervals are
in minutes, set length is in seconds. The really extensive zone should be timed for 1 to 2
minutes (up to maybe 3 if you're a masochist) without focusing so much on reps. If you
must count reps, 15-30 reps on a 2/0/2 tempo works fine.
- 14 -
So you set up a cycle with both to some degree. As I mentioned, Dreschler offers what
he calls a 'reciprocal mini-cycle' for squats in his book, with one volume oriented, one
intensity and one medium day (front squats) in it.
(See next section for Dreschler's Reciprocal Mini-Cycle for Squats")
- 15 -
- 16 -
- 17 -
Pyramiding
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=170097&postcount=59)
For the most part, I think ascending pyramids suck although there are exceptions where
I'll use them, usually having to do with motor learning and determining training loads. I
suppose you could consider wave loading to be an ascending pyramid of sorts.
Why waste energy pyramiding up (ignoring warm-ups here)? Do a low volume warm-up
and then jump to your heaviest set. You might wave load (back off and back up) or stay
at that weight for multiple reps. You can pyramid down for either hypertrophy (to
maintain repetition range) or do a back down set to add volume (3x3 + 1x8) or for
strength endurance (all heavy work and then a set of 50).
- 18 -
Fat-Targeting Cardio
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4122&postcount=2)
Cliner9er (slightly modified as suggested by Lyle):
1. 5-10 minutes balls-to-wall cardio
2. 5 minutes short rest period
3. 30-45 minutes of steady-state cardio
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4737&postcount=20)
"What time of day would you suggest this type of cardio plan?"
This is one of those few places where I think first thing in the morning before eating
might be ideal. Failing that, at least 3 hours away from a meal.
- 19 -
3. Strength Training
Basic Principles
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=174468&postcount=56)
All Rhea basically did was scientifically demonstrate what 8 decades of practical
experience had determined:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=174567&postcount=82)
I laid out the principles describing Rhea's review papers. Shaf has added a couple even
though we can debate the specificity vs. variety thing to death. I'd say:
- 20 -
- 21 -
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=172255&postcount=7)
This goes back to the whole 'recruit and fatigue a MU' thing that Zatsiorsky goes on
about.
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=172699&postcount=15)
Zatsiorskys whole premise is that for a motor unit to be trained it must be
A. recruited (a function of loading)
B. fatigued (which will be a function of rep count although you can probably do the
same if you keep rest periods short enough).
So compare a 1RM to a 5RM. You don't get any more recruitment with the 1RM (though
you get higher rate coding, maybe you get more of an effect on inter/intramuscular
coordination, disinhibition of whatever) than with the 5RM. The 5RM generates more
fatigue to any given MU.
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=172255&postcount=7)
Then again, someone should tell the OL's (who rarely go over 3 reps in the competition
movements) that.
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=172373&postcount=10)
It may be that a steady diet of 5s with some occasional forays into very low reps gives the
best results. You're getting more than pure neural stimulation with sets of 5 (MU fatigue
in addition to whatever neural effects are occurring) and almost pure neural factors
(inter/intramuscular coordination, etc) with the very low reps.
- 22 -
Prilepins Table
(http://elitefitnesssystems.com/documents/importanceofvolume.htm)
Percent
70%
80%
90%
- 23 -
Deloading
Lyles Deloading Recommendations
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=125981&postcount=28)
Deloading needn't be that complicated. You can cut volume (in half or more), or cut
frequency (for example, drop out the second two workouts in the week in the generic
program) and some like cutting intensity along with it.
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=164580&postcount=4)
Some deloading schemes actually increase intensity (load on bar/whatever) as volume
comes down although that's usually more for tapering than deloading per se.
I'd say cut back to 80% of previous maxes and build back up over 2 weeks, cutting
volume in the first week, add some 2nd week, back to full volume the next. Then
hammer for 6 weeks and do it again.
- 24 -
- 25 -
- 26 -
Strength Routines
Current Lesbian Powerlifting Training
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15733&postcount=1)
Overview
----------I have the girls working on a fairly typical 4 day/week workout, two lower body days,
two upper. Each workout takes about 1.5 hours.
Tue: Squat + Assistance
Wed: Bench + Assistance
Fri: Speed Squat (DL) + Assistance
Sat: Speed Bench + Assistance
Squat + Assistance
---------------------Squat: loaded according to Prilepins table (see section Prilepins Table). I decided to
move to this after finding that grinding out high reps too close to failure was causing the
girls to stall. So for the first month, we used 6 sets of 2 in the 80-85% range with a 3-4
rest period. For the last few weeks, Ive had them doing 4-6 sets of 1 in the 90%+ range
using competition commands.
This is an autoregulated sort of thing: if the girls are really blowing up the weight with
good bar speed and no real sticking point, Ill let them add 5 lbs although this is usually
only done once per workout. If its not (i.e. because Pattie, who is doing the
bodybuilding show, is tired from cardio), I wont. Amalia gets pissed at me a lot because
I wont let her up the weight. But if its not moving how I want it to, I hold her back until
the next week. Basically, Id rather see them get 6 perfect singles with 90% then run out
of steam with the heavier weight. I also use this to gauge sticking points, see where they
are slowing down.
Assistance: So far, box squats at varying heights (loading described below). This
exercise will change every 3-4 weeks (right now they are on a 3 week rotation but thats
more because they had 9 weeks before the meet when I set this up). The first week of a
new exercise, Ill take them to 2-3 medium sets of 5 to get a feel for it. The next week is
done for triples, starting 5-10 lbs over their previous 5 rep weight. 3 attempts with the
goal of setting a 3RM. So if the first attempt goes up with room to spare, they move up.
And again for a maximum of 3 attempts. The final week is done for singles starting at 5
lbs over their previous 3 rep weight, three attempts to set a new 1RM.
The first 3 weeks I had them us a below parallel box. In watching their heavy squat (and
DL) work, it became apparent that both were coming out of the bottom fine, and stalling
in the midrange. So we moved to a slightly above parallel box with pull throughs to
bring up that weak point.
- 27 -
Supplemental work:
Pull through: 3x10-15.
Narrow stance leg press: 1-2x6-8
Leg curl: 1-2x6-8
Calf raise: 3-4x6-8
Back extension with 2 second pause: 1-2x6-8
Crunch on Swiss ball: 1-2x6-8
- 28 -
Speed Squat: Done on a below parallel box. 10-12 sets of 2 loaded just like WSBB. On
the heavy DL days, I will often pull this back to 6x2 because the girls nervous systems
are just wiped out. No bar speed, no spring so I call it early.
Assistance: Usually a combo of leg curls (no glute ham machine) and back extensions.
We had tried heavy SLDL but it tended to overwork the girls backs. 1-2 sets of 6-8
each. Heavy box squats on the other lower body day also serves as assistance for the DL.
Supplemental:
Narrow stance leg press: 1-3 sets of 6-8
Calf raise: 3-4 sets of 6-8
Crunches on Swiss Ball: 2 sets of 6-8
- 29 -
- 30 -
Probably work this for doubles and triples or even 5's. A lot of this depends on recovery;
working to a max single in the bench may be enough maximal work for the day (see
Thu).
Additional supplemental work for shoulders, back, triceps: 3-4 sets of 8-10 or whatever.
Tuesday: Competition Style Squat + Assistance
Squat: same as above, work up to a single until you fail. Note where/how you fail.
Possibly an assistance exercise picked based on where you failed.
Hole:
below parallel box squat or pause squat or bottom position squat or whatever
Midpoint: above parallel box, GM or SLDL
Lockout: who fails at lockout
Work it for doubles or triples, even 5's.
- 31 -
- 32 -
volume of supplemental work. Do that for 1-2 weeks. One possibility would be to work
to a 5RM prior to speed work, to maintain a bit of heavy loading.
Then return to heavy loading again. If you wanted, you could move to more intensive
means (i.e. chains, bands) in subsequent blocks which is also more in keeping with true
conjugate periodization.
As above, it's sort of a mix of MM (heavy loading for 3-4 straight weeks), Smolov (do
speed work during the LDTE of the heavy work), and WSBB (pick assistance work based
on weakness).
- 33 -
4. Hypertrophy Training
Sets & Reps
Ideal Rep Range(s) for Hypertrophy
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=53147&postcount=2)
anoopbal:
The more I ponder about the best hypertrophy program and the more I read Lyle, I
feel that the ultimate hypertrophy program will be the ultimate strength routine.
To a first approximation, I don't disagree. As I've been saying for years, progressive
tension overload is THE SINGULAR MOST IMPORTANT key to growth.
The big question is the role of other factors (cf. metabolic). I mean, in premise, you
should be able to grow on progressive singles (and some do). But is that optimal
compared to using sets of 5 (less tension but more metabolic work) or sets of 8 (about the
optimal balance between MU recruitment and metabolic work)?
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=146750&postcount=119)
You achieve basically 100% MU recruitment around 80-85% of 1RM which is about 5-8
reps (note, some studies find 80% 1RM for lower body to be a higher rep range which
may explain the old empirical saw about legs needing higher reps; then again, a lot of big
legs were built with low rep leg work).
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=168166&postcount=31)
This explains why the 5-8 rep range gives damn near optimal growth. It maximizes
metabolic work (and volume/workout) at a tension sufficient to hit all MU's. Any higher
rep range and tension falls off and you're no longer getting 100% MU recruitment. Any
lower rep range and you run into CNS fatigue issues.
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=146750&postcount=119)
So if you use that loading and do 5-8 reps, you get what would appear to be the optimal
mix of tension/recruitment and metabolic work.
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=53457&postcount=13)
However, based on some data, a range of repetitions may be necessary for optimal size
gains.
If you had to pick a single rep range, it'd be 6-8. I made this point years and years ago.
That gives you the optimal balance between MU recruitment and metabolic work.
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If I had to pick 2 ranges, I'd pick 4-6 and maybe 10-12 (or 12-15). Obviously, as per the
periodization articles, you can subdivide that even further.
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Progressive Overload
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=172171&postcount=84)
Bryan's basic premise is that 'progressive tension overload' (plus some ancillary stuff)
stimulates growth. Ergo he set up the program to have a weight increase at every
workout.
The problem is that, in order to do this, you MUST start very submaximally. It's the only
way to guarantee a weight increase at every workout, by starting with pansy ass weights.
Now, this gets into a separate debate: is say 50% of your previous best 10RM sufficient
to stimulate growth or adaptation? Noting that it's incorrect to look at it on an acute
single workout kind of thing, we're looking at the cumulative effect of several workouts
in a row.
This also ties into the SD thing, with the idea being that 50% is now a tension overload
because of the deconditioning. A lot of if's going on in there.
You can draw an analogy to endurance training. We basically know that, once your
fitness is X, you don't get any impact on anything if you are below some threshold %age
of X. You may get active recovery, you may get some type of mild benefit, but you don't
get fitness gains.
The same should basically hold for mass gains. If the tension threshold to stimulate
growth is X, there should be some threshold %age of X below which you don't stimulate
jack crap.
Hell, even the HG guys never start lower than about 80% of previous bests, ramping up
over 2-4 weeks and then trying to set PR's at whatever rep range they are working in.
And now I've lost my train of thought on all of this. I guess my point being that I have
trouble seeing the value of the very low %age workouts. Until you get to some threshold
level of your previous best, I doubt you are doing anything in terms of stimulating growth
(going that light may have value from relearning the movement, breaking back in after a
layoff, or whatever).
I think a lot of it was practicality, knowing the mindset of the typical bodybuilder (who is
trying to go all out at every workout) he had to force them to use submaximal weights.
Knowing also that all too many bodybuilders never add weight to the bar, he wanted to
force a weight increase. Also, knowing that most people will screw it up if you leave
them to their own devices, it was a good idea to make it very regimented. Even there,
look at the HST board, people insist on finding new and creative ways to muck up a
rather simple system.
Of course, there were other issues, making sure they could maintain sufficient frequency
(every other day) which also means submaximal workouts, etc.
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Bringing us around to your question because you can implement some of the above
principles without using the exact HST methodology. You can readily train full body
3x/week as long as you don't try to go all out at every workout. Look at any 5x5
interpretation or Pendlay's stuff or a lot of approaches to training.
I guess the question is whether adding weight at every workout is required for growth?
Empirical experience says a resounding hell no. Do you need to add weight at some
point? Absolutely. Short of starting with pansy weights, or rank beginners, expecting a
weight (or rep) increase at every workout when you're using semi-challenging loads is
wholly unrealistic.
Secondarily, if needing to add weight at every workout means starting with totally useless
loading, are you gaining more from adding weight at each workout than you're losing
from starting with useless loading? And, related to that, is the detraining you're going to
get from working so submaximally going to hurt you even more?
I think if you have someone who has trouble knowing when to increase weight or hold
back in the gym (i.e. typical hardhead), HST might be superior only in that it saves them
from their own bad habits. If they are required to follow a certain progression on loads
and stop at a given rep count, you stop them from going all out at every workout and
hampering the frequency issue.
If they have enough self control to keep a rep or two in the tank, add weight when it gets
easy, I'm not so sure HST would be necessarily superior. As per that other thread, old
time bodybuilders trained that way all the time, 3x/week, full body stopping short of
failure except once every week or every 2 weeks, they'd go all out and have a PR/record
day. Then a lot of submaximal work to a new peak.
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=172235&postcount=85)
Adding, I suspect that Bryan may have gotten the idea that loads need to be increased at
every workout from looking at the adaptation rate of rats and mice (because the research
sure isn't there in humans). As noted, the adaptation rate on vermin is way faster than in
humans because of differences in tissue turnover/metabolic rate, etc., being 3-7 times as
fast. So a need to increase load in rats that is one day might mean a need to increase
every 3-7 days.
Translation, I see no problem and it would probably work well to train full body 3x/week
at maybe 90% of an RM load (so 90% of 5RM or 90% of 8RM or whatever) and add
weight once per week. So add weight on Monday and keep it the same on Wed and Fri.
By the time next Monday rolls around, you should be a little bit stronger, add some
weight.
You're still getting progressive tension overload (just on a slower time scale) but each
weekly workout is much closer to the threshold to actually stimulate gains.
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Or be more subjective about it, when you feel like you have that extra rep in the tank (so
instead of 1-2 reps extra, you have 3-4) and it feels easier, go up next workout.
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Explanation of RBE
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=141349&postcount=17)
RBE = repeated bout effect, it occurs in response to loading and is basically the muscle's
way (OK, one of the ways) that it limits further damage. Bryan is of the opinion that
RBE ultimately conspires to limit further growth because it becomes so damn hard to
further damage the muscle and stimulate gains. Hence the suggestion to strategically
decondition (technical way of saying "Take time off", old time bodybuilders referred to
this as 'softening up', they'd take a month off of training and felt that they grew better
when they came back to heavy training) between cycles.
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=141383&postcount=21)
Unfortunately, what I've seen/looked at in terms of RBE tends to use some really silly
loading schemes. Like some serious eccentric protocols (10 sets of 10 maximal
eccentrics), makes you question the relevance to more sane loading. Not suggesting that
the RBE doesn't occur to some degree, but I might debate if it's to that same level.
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Advanced Techniques
Body Part Specialization
(http://www.mindandmuscle.net/content/page-243.html)
For all but beginner and maybe intermediate bodybuilders, it's usually impossible to bring
up all body parts at once. Rather, focusing on one or two upper body muscles and one or
two lower body muscles, while maintaining the others, works much much better. So in
most of my sample workouts, at most two body parts are emphasized while the others are
trained at maintenance levels.
On that note, the first body part (or two) that you work in a workout will generally
receive the greatest training effect. So if you want to bring up your shoulders (strength or
size), train them first in the workout, putting chest second and working it at maintenance
levels. Will this hurt your chest poundages? Yes. But it's better than the converse where
chest training will limit how much emphasis you can put into your delts.
So when you're focusing heavily on chest and back, plan on working delts and arms at
maintenance. If you want to focus on delts, work chest and triceps at maintenance. If
you want to focus on triceps, work on chest and delts at maintenance. The same goes for
pulling exercises. Legs are a little more complicated because the amount of overlap isn't
necessarily as great. Hamstrings are certainly worked during compound leg stuff but it's
not quite the same as how hard delts or tris are worked during heavy benching. This
means that you can use more volume for leg exercises (there are also fewer body parts to
worry about: quads, hams/glutes and calves) and the sample workouts will be setup that
way.
At the same time, my comments on body part emphasis still hold: if you always train
quads (squats) first, this will limit how much energy you have left to train hamstrings. I
think that's a big part of why so many bodybuilders have terrible hamstrings. Putting
hamstrings first and quads at maintenance is a way to avoid this common problem.
Another approach (that can also be used for upper body) is to make one leg workout a
quad emphasis workout and the other a hamstring emphasis workout with volume set
accordingly. For upper body you might make one workout a push emphasis (with light
pull meaning back/bis worked at maintenance) and the other a pull emphasis (with light
push meaning chest/delts/tris worked at maintenance).
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Block Training
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=185590&postcount=5)
The basic gist of block training is that rather than spread out your high intensity days and
try to get full (or nearly) full recovery between, or even use hard/easy approach, you put
the heavy days back to back to generate a lot of fatigue and then either take full recovery
or very light training (Typically in a 1:1 ratio so 2 hard days = 2 days off, 3 heard days =
3 days off) to allow adaptation.
Generally speaking it's reserved for more advanced athletes (who need more of a training
stimulus to generate adaptation) and would be more likely to be used in the precompetition as opposed to the preparation phase in a periodized scheme.
It's traditionally been used in endurance training, I first read about it in Dan Morris'
cycling book although Daniels' mentions putting two hard workouts back to back in his
running book. A new cycling book "Maximum Performance for Cyclists" by Ross also
uses it extensively.
So a typical block training week might be
Mon: high intensity intervals
Tue: high intensity intervals
Wed/Thu: off or light aerobic training (Talking HR 120-130)
Fri/Sat: more intervals
Sun/Mon: day off
I ran into problems trying to apply this myself with a 7 day week so I ended up with
Mon/Tue: hard
Wed/Thu: easy
Fri/Sat: hard
Sun: easy
With a bigger volume reduction on Saturday.
Morris actually recommends a 10 day cycle in his book but that doesn't fit most people's
schedules.
The basic goal would be to maintain intensity across the days of block training but cut the
volume on subsequent days.
Ross has several different schedules, either 3 days hard/4 days off, 4 days hard/3 days off,
5 days hard/2 days off (which he doesn't widely recommend).
Note: block training for cycling would be different than for running because of
differences in joint pounding, etc.
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Hypertrophy Routines
Lyle's Bulking Routine
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=113403&postcount=1)
Monday: Lower
Squat: 3-4x6-8/3' (3-4 sets of 6-8 with a 3' rest)
SLDL or Leg Curl: 3-4x6-8/3'
Leg Press: 2-3x10-12/2'
Another Leg Curl: 2-3x10-12/2'
Calf Raise: 3-4x6-8/3'
Seated Ralf: 2-3x10-12/2'
Tuesday: Upper
Flat bench: 3-4x6-8/3'
Row: 3-4x6-8/3'
Incline Bench or Shoulder Press: 2-3x10-12/2'
Pulldown/Chin: 2-3x10-12/2'
Triceps: 1-2x12-15/1.5'
Biceps: 1-2x12-15/1.5'
For the Thu/Fri workouts either repeat the first two or make some slight exercise
substitutions. Can do deadlift/leg press combo on Thu, switch incline/pulldown to first
exercises on upper body day. A lot depends on volume tolerance, if the above is too
much, go to 2-3x6-8 and 1-2x10-12
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Upper Day 1:
- Bench Press
- Rows
- Military Press
- Pulldowns
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Lower Day 1:
- Conventional Deadlift
- Narrow Stance Squat
- SLDLs
- Barbell Shrugs
Upper Day 2:
- Incline Bench
- Weighted Pull-Ups
- DB Bench
- Rows
Lower Day 2:
- Narrow Stance Squat
- Goodmorning
- Reverse Hyper
- Dumbbell Shrugs
** This is the program, DO NOT SUBTRACT any of the exercises! If you dont know
how to do them, learn how to do them! The only reason you should ever pull out any of
these during the whole 5 week cycle is if you feel pain doing them. If you dont know
the lift I'd suggest doing an alternate pattern with the movement. Basically rather than
progressing with the given rep/set pattern I've showed continue to do:
3x12
3x10
3x8
3x8
3x8
Once you start the cycle over again after the 5th week, you can then continue the same
rep/set pattern as the first outline (with the regular lifts) and progress in the lower reps.
This will 1) keep you from getting hurt, 2) teach your form, and 3) break the learning
chain/curve. Its key that if you dont know anything about the movements that you
spend as much time working with them and do as many reps as possible with the given
movement. This is where motor skills develop and intra-inter neuromuscular
coordination develop with the movement.
** Biceps/Abs, Upper days throw in a bicep exercise if you want. On lower days throw
in some ab work. This is accessory work, so its not that important. Keep the reps
around 3x8-4x6 if you want. Be aware that isolation movements are GAY and that
people spend too much time training them when they are 150 pounds!
** Keep a journal that I'll have access too. I'll look at how youre progressing. If you
have any before pictures send them to me or save them. Once youre done with the first
meso cycle compare your progress from before you started till then with pics and lift
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achievements. Do the same when you repeat the cycle. This is key in mental motivation,
and that is where too many people fail.
** Once you get a whole meso cycle Wave (12 total weeks) you'll take some low volume
work to help recovery. Its key that you dont take ANY time away from the gym. Too
many people just walk away for a week or two weeks, this makes coming back a sore
painful mess for at least 2 weeks. Now you've spent 4 weeks without making any
progress. This is a typical deloading pattern. By training under your adaptive threshold
(i.e. low volume) then you will not adapt, therefore you will recover. This is the
fundamental basis of periodization!!
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5. Diet
General Diet Principles
Basic Guidelines
(http://www.thinkmuscle.com/articles/mcdonald/baseline-diet-02.htm)
1. Meal frequency: 4 meals per day should be considered the bare minimum, 6 per
day is probably closer to ideal
2. Total caloric intake: for mass gains, a rule of thumb starting place is 16-18 cal/lb.,
for fat loss 12 cal/lb.
3. Water intake: high, 6-8 8 oz. glasses per day*
4. Protein intake: 0.8-1 gram/lb. from high quality sources
5. Carbohydrate intake: 45-55% of total calories from a mix of starchy and fibrous
carbohydrate sources, high GI carbs right after training
6. Fat intake: 15-25% of total calories, with most coming from unsaturated fats
(http://www.wannabebig.com/article.php?articleid=163)
*Probably the best rule of thumb I've seen for water intake is this:
You should strive to have 5 clear urinations per day, with at least two of those coming
after a workout. That takes into account individual variance in water requirements. A
high intake of vitamin supplements will make this method fairly useless.
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- 51 -
fish oils
basic multivitamin/mineral
vitamin C (1-4 grams of vitamin C per day may help to keep cortisol under
control http://www.wannabebig.com/article.php?articleid=188)
calcium
EC
yohimbe
creatine
For Endurance Weenies
citrulline probably
- 52 -
Post-Workout Nutrition
(http://www.thinkmuscle.com/articles/mcdonald/baseline-diet-01.htm)
Typical recommendations for post-workout are 1-1.5 g/kg of carbs and about 1/3rd as
much protein.
(http://www.wannabebig.com/article.php?articleid=188)
Probably the best way to control cortisol during a workout is to sip a diluted carb drink.
By maintaining blood glucose and insulin at a higher level, cortisol levels shouldn't
increase as much. The gut can only handle between 30-60 grams of carbohydrate per
hour and that should be mixed in about 32 oz of fluid to get the optimal concentrations.
- 53 -
Thermogenesis
Protein and Thermogenesis
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=24437&postcount=42)
Excessive protein burns off calories for heat, increases protein degrading enzymes
(meaning that if you don't take in that much protein all the time, your body breaks it
down that much faster). I remember Duchaine suggesting that high carb/high protein was
causing the body to burn off calories too well thermogenically that mass gains were
inhibited (calories wasted as heat can't go to synthesis of tissues), why he suggested
moving to isocaloric ratios: using fat as a metabolic 'damper' (essentially) on top of every
other reason to eat more fat.
I guess what we're trying to find is that optimal combination of both protein intake and
caloric intake to optimize mass gains while minimizing fat gains. Preferably with the
smallest deficit possible.
That is, you may be able to/need more calories on low-fat, high protein/high-carb because
of increased metabolism from thermogenesis. You might need less of a surplus with a
lower carb higher fat approach because less calories are being wasted as heat.
- 54 -
- 55 -
Activity
High
Medium
Low
High
High
Insulin Sensitivity
High
Low-Moderate
Low
Low
Low
- 56 -
Carb choices
Low GI
Medium GI
N/A
N/A
N/A
Carb addict
No
Maybe
Yes
Yes
Yes
Stubborn fat
No
Maybe
Yes
Yes
Yes
- 57 -
Insulin
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=24438&postcount=43)
Insulin is one of several important hormones. It is anti-catabolic, maybe anabolic, and is
a storage hormone. I don't think it needs to be super high for optimal effects (protein
synthesis is stimulated at fairly low levels of insulin, higher levels do seem to affect
catabolism more) but I don't think minimizing it completely (ketogenic/very low carbs) is
optimal either.
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=14406&postcount=16)
"Why is more insulin not better?"
If someone has wonderful muscular insulin sensitivity and all of that, it probably is.
Then again, it only takes basal levels of insulin to pretty much maximally stimulate
protein synthesis. Insulin's main role is anti-catabolic and more *may* have a greater
effect. But insulin should be high (and stable enough) at 100 g/day + pre/post workout
carbs IMO.
You can jack insulin all the time and that's certainly anabolic (technically: anti-catabolic)
to muscle but, without stunning muscular insulin sensitivity, you get fat.
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=24438&postcount=43)
Which is the whole point behind isocaloric/what I'm suggesting types of approaches:
trying to find a happy medium for all of this stuff.
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- 60 -
Nutrient Partitioning
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21887&postcount=12)
Basically, there are two issues (ok, more) at stake here which are
A. the number of calories going into the system (set by diet)
B. where they are going: partitioning, which is set by hormones/genetics, drugs, and
training (and hopefully diet which is the whole point of this).
Now this gets even more complicated because the number of calories that go into one
pound of muscle is different than what goes into one pound of fat (it's roughly 1200-2400
cal/lb for muscle vs. 3500 cal/lb for fat).
So assume a 10,000 calorie surplus over some time period. If you get 100% muscle gain
(let's use 2400 cal/lb), you gain just over 4 lbs of muscle, zero fat. If you get 100% fat
gain, you gain 2.85 lbs of fat (note, total body mass change is different, caloric value of
that body mass change is not). If you gained 50/50, you get 2 lbs of muscle (5000
calories) and 1.42 lbs of fat (5000 calories).
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=14561&postcount=24)
Since most people will gain some proportion of each, how much total mass they gain will
be in between those two extremes.
"Doesn't this contradict the kcals in vs. kcals out argument??"
No.
What's changing, hopefully anyhow, is where those calories are going.
That is, for a given number of excess calories, you will gain a given amount of body
mass. Note that this isn't even absolute because the number of calories that go into one
pound of muscle isn't the same as what goes into one pound of fat.
(http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21887&postcount=12)
So the real issue is what's determining where the calories are going, into muscle, fat or
some combination of the two. That's the partitioning issue. Much of which is out of our
control being due to genetics and hormones. What we can control is training and diet (I
guess add supps/drugs to that) to hopefully shift the ratios of what's gained or not.
Diet is only one factor in nutrient partitioning, there is the interaction of diet with training
and genetics which was the whole point of this approach: an attempt to get better
partitioning of calories towards muscle cells, which means less going to fat cells.
Lowering carbs to increase blood FFA levels (and reduce glucose availability for TG
synthesis) is an attempt to limit caloric storage in fat cells. Add to that weight training
(which locally improves nutrient uptake/partitioning) and you hopefully get more calories
going towards muscle cells.
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