I was in another forum talking about
maximum intensity and how it is the key to getting better gains. All research that I have read has stated that it is not the number of times you go to the gym, it is not how long you stay in the gym, but how hard you work once you get in the gym that determines your progress. Just a couple of refferences:
- Feigenbaum and Pollock, 1997
- ACSM, 1998
- Tremblay, A. Simoneau, J. and Bouchard, C. 1994
Then I get a post from NateDogg that say's maximum intensity is not reccomended for muscle gains and he posts a link to a fitness sight like this one, but with a whole different theory (thank you very much for the link Nate, really interesting stuff.)
The sight refferes to a training style called HST (Hypertrophy
Specific Training) and from what I am seeing it really goes against a lot of what people are being told.
Let me first start off by saying that I am not trying to refute any of this because they do have researched refferences to go along with all of the thinking behind the program. I have not really checked out the refferenes so I cannot comment on the validity but man I was just blown away by the thinking while running all over the sight.
Common things they refute:
• A muscle must be fully recovered before you should train it again.
• You should not train a muscle that is sore (DOMS, not injury).
• You must never train a muscle on consecutive days. (i.e. train the same muscle everyday)
• The concept of "Overtraining" in general as it applies to bodybuilding.
• You must train with maximum "intensity" to elicit significant muscle growth.
• Training to failure every set and/or workout
• Changing exercises to "confuse" the muscle.
The program consists of a full body routine three times per week M-W-F. Daily exercises are kept the same, and stresses that you choose compund movements, example would be 2 exercises for legs, 2 for chest, 2 for back, 1 for traps, 3 for shoulders, 1 for biceps, 1 for calfs and 1 for abs.
This program lasts for 8 weeks. (This next part is more complicated than it sounds so keep reading on) The first two weeks you do 15 reps, the next two weeks you do 10 reps, the next two weeks you do 5 reps, and the last five weeks you do negatives and drop sets. Then you take 9-14 days off and repeat the cycle.
However this is not all cut and dry, you do not use your max weight that you can do for each of the repition ranges for each workout, but rather for only the last one.
Here is how it works:
First choose your exercises that your going to do for each of the body parts as listed above.
Next test your rep maxes for each of the catagories (15,10,5) you will take 1 week to do this, once you have decided on all the lifts.
On Monday, for each lift find the weight that you can do 15 reps for, but not quite hit failure (just when your movement starts slowing down.) Repeat this for each lift (the split shown above) & you will have your 15RM weights.
On Wednesday, do the same thing as above, but find the weight that you can do about 10 times.
Friday, where you will once again do the same thing but for the 5 rep max.
You will now take 9-14 days off for Strategic Deconditioning (SD).
After your SD, you will start your routine (cycle). At that point, you will begin the "load progression" described below. You will take 6 workouts (2 weeks) to work up to that 15 rep max (RM) weight in each lift. You'll then continue your progression up to your 10 rep max (RM) and ultimately up to your 5 RM weights.
For example:
I'll only use 1 exercise, squats, but you will have several others for your full-body workout you'll be doing. Let's say you have determined your RMs for squat are:
15RM: 200 lbs
10RM: 250
5RM: 300
For something like this, you will use an increment of 15lbs. Your 6-week cycle will look something like:
In your 1st 6 workouts (the 2 weeks of 15s) you'll squat these weights: 125-140-155-170-185-200 (in workout #1 you'll squat 125lbs, in #2 you'll use 140, and so on.)
Your 10s workouts will look something like:
175-190-205-220-235-250
And your 5s might go like:
225-240-255-270-285-300
Again, this is only showing squats. The same idea hold for all the other lifts you will do in each workout of each 2-week
block for the 15s, 10s and 5s.
At this point, you've been lifting for 6 weeks, 3x/week with the weekends off. Continue for another 2 weeks at the 5RM weight in each lift & do dropsets, or go up weight a little and do a couple weeks of negatives.
For those who critisize this program
http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/...t=ST;f=13;t=17
Most of the sighted research does seem to be attainable over the internet so I might look it up. Again I am not refuting any of this as I am always open to new ideas especially that has solid research behind it. In the forums they do have a place where you can list your exprience with the program.
Right now I am training everybody part two times a week, all pushing muscles (chest, shoulders, tris quads etc) Monday and Thursday, and all pulling muscles (Back Bi's Hams etc) Tuesday and Friday. I take Wednesday and the weekends off and have been having some great results. This has been with maximum intensity which I love but I may just give this program a shot by incorporating it into my routine rather than doing a full body workout three times a week (I just wouldn't enjoy training.)
Let me know what you guy's think, this is the first time I have ever heard of this.
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