.

After a good first week on this new program i was really excited to get on with the second series of workouts and hopefully push forward! This week i did three of the regular program workouts (lower body, upper body, events), and an extra grip workout.

So four workouts in total, and this week i started with lower body. As before, all weights are in kilograms:

.

Workout 1 (Monday) – Lower Body

Deadlifts – 3×100, 3×140, 3×160, 1×170, FAILx180, 1×180

Zercher Squats – 10×60, 10×60, 10×60

DB Shrugs – 20×35, 20×35

.

On the morning of this workout i was pretty angry because my sciatica was playing up. I don’t know why it decided to pick this day to annoy me, but it did and i wasn’t happy. Hadn’t done deadlifts in a while and i was otherwise pretty confident i could do some good work so i took my testicles out of the drawer in my girlfriends room and went to the gym.

Got pretty psyched up and the adrenaline kept my crying nervous tissue at bay until that big 180kg rep when i got a nasty shooting pain across my lower back and into my glute when the bar was just inches above the ground. Bollocks. Did a bit of light stretching and a few exercises i read about in a recent EliteFTS article on the subject (which i’m now going to do on a regular basis) and took a few minutes to rest and psych myself up again.

I got the rep. It felt awful, but a lot better than leaving the gym knowing i could have done more. Despite a little upper body slouching my back was straight as an arrow and i’m happy with how it went!

After that ordeal i was pretty exhausted mentally, so cut a lot of exercises and sets out of my workout (about half). Never be afraid of doing this, especially if you’ve worked your ass off. Better to give 100% to one exercise and go home to rest than coast through a few more and get nothing out of it except a glazed look in your eye.

The zercher squats were done from a dead start because the rack was busy, so the first rep of each set was deadlifted off the floor and racked on my knees before getting into the zercher squat position. Its a lot of fun and good practice for atlas stone lifting if you do each rep this way. If you can’t visualise it, take a look at this video.

.

Workout 2 (Wednesday) – Upper Body

Military Press – 12×50, 12×50, 12×50, 6+6×50, 8+4×50

Pullups – 8xBW, 8xBW+5, 8xBW+10, 8xBW+15, 8xBW

Close Grip Bench Press – 10×60, 10×65, 10×70, 8×70

DB Hammer Curls – 8×22.5, 8×25, 8×27.5

Kelso Shrugs – 20×30, 20×35, 20×40

.

Great workout here! Was happy with the military press even though the last two sets were split between strict pressing and push pressing when i couldn’t do strict anymore. Pullups were great, CGBP was much improved from last time, and the curls and kelso shrugs really really finished me off – both were heavier than before.

Other than that, theres not a lot to say about this workout! I feel that the higher volume is really helping with upper body strength and stability during heavy lifting. This workout won’t change much throughout the whole program, whereas i’ll probably vary the events and lower body work depending on how i feel on the day.

Its interesting to note that i finished this workout in 45 minutes. Thats a fair amount of sets to finish in that time, but i didn’t seem to notice at the time. Always be aware of how long you’re working out and what your rest times are – too long and you run the risk of wasting time or cooling down, too short and you’ll burnout far too quick and get nowhere.

.

Workout 3 (Thursday) – Events

Sots Press – 5×20, 5×40

Zercher Lifts – 1×60, 1×70, 1×80, 1×90, 1×100

Overhead Supports – 30secx60, 30secx65, 30secx70

Hyperextensions – 20xBW, 20xBW+20

.

Started off with some Sots Press to warmup my lower back, core, and upper body. This was the first time i’ve tried the exercise, and it was fantastic to get warmed up for the heavy zerchers to come. Basically, its an overhead squat in which you pause at the bottom of the squat and perform a behind the neck press with the bar before squatting back up. Start off light, because it’s incredibly challenging!

After doing the zercher lift on leg day to do squat sets, i thought it would be fun to try some heavy singles of the lift itself (deadlift, rack on knees, zercher squat up, reverse this process). Turned out just like i thought – fun, challenging, technical, and really hurts your arms! I think this exercise is absolutely fantastic to build all over strength – anything that combines a squat and a deadlift can only mean good things for your progress. Was very happy with the 100kg single, and hopefully i’ll build up some tolerance to the arm pain because i’m sure i could do more.

Overhead supports were also heavier today, this exercise is a huge contributer to my last few personal records simply because of the awesome core strength it builds. The goal is to support more than my bodyweight above my head for 30-60 seconds. If you want true core strength stop wasting your time with crunches and situps and do something that actually requires you to be stable.

.

Workout 4 (Friday) – Grip

The last workout of the week was a special grip workout which you can see in a special video article here on GetLifting, and over on Project Goliath. The Project and I absolutely slaughtered our hands and forearms, it was definitely a workout to remember. Go take a look at those articles for more details about the workout itself.

.

The second week went even better than the first. Have increased weights on a few different lifts and i feel a lot more cinfident about the program setup. It’s just plain working right now. Taking a loose approach to the order, volume, and intensity of the workouts is really helping progress. I did three days in a row, so i’ll be taking three days off to recover from this week and be back lifting on Tuesday!

.

Had an absolutely brutal grip workout with The Project yesterday, and since grip work is one of those things that is both essential and not documented enough we decided to video it to show you a few exercises that can really improve your performance in pulling exercises, and make a lot of everyday tasks easier too!

The video only shows the heavy or impressive stuff, and both of us managed some new 1RM records so it was a great session!

.

The workout as a whole was this (note these are my weights only, in kilograms):

.

One Arm Deads – 5×60, 3×80, 1×100, 1×110, FAILx115

One Arm Dead Walks – 40mtrx60, 40mtrx80

Fat Gripz Rack Pulls – 10×60, 6×100, 20×120, 10×140, 5×160, 1×180

DB Farmers Walks – 40mtrx50, 40mtrx50

Finger Curls – 8×60, 12×50, 15×40

.

We were planning to do some pinch grip and gripper training too but that’ll have to wait for another day because this took us long enough, and we had basically nothing left after the finger curls, haha.

I highly recommend you work some type of grip training into your programs, even if it’s an exercise at the end of each workout. Start off light and don’t push too hard or you’ll injure your hands and won’t be able to lift a damn thing for a few weeks. Build up a tolerance and you’ll probably find that your hands and forearms can take a lot more punishment than you think.

Train hard, all!

.

In this series of articles i’ll post my own workout progress every week to give you some idea of how i set up my own programs using the ideas and articles on this site. This won’t just be a workout log, i’ll also be explaining the reasoning behind a lot of the things i’m doing, giving tips on the exercises, and just generally talking about how tired i am afterwards.

I usually have a loose schedule based around a definite goal and usually vary my workouts quite a lot, sometimes to the point of doing several programs within any particular workout (okay so i’m not that bad, but i switch things up way too much). This is a bad habit, and i’m trying to stop straying from my programs so much! It’s important to be aware of your limits and change your workouts to avoid overtraining, but it’s just as important to stick with a program long enough to see results.

Right now its a three days a week program but sometimes i’ll do less and sometimes more. Sometimes i’ll have a random workout for grip or a particular exercise or cardio or something, but the core of the program will still be there.

My goals at the moment are general strength, but not in any particular lifts like a powerlifting split. Its probably more like strongman type training. I won’t even be doing regular bench press i doubt. For the most part i’ll do a warmup set, then increase the weight up every set.

I did three workouts this week. All weights are noted in kilograms:

.

Workout 1 (Tuesday) – Lower Body + Core + Grip

Squats – 5×80, 5×100, 5×120, 5×140

Romanian Deadlifts – 10×60, 10×80, 10×100, 10×100

Overhead Supports – 30secx60, 30secx60, 30secx60

Single Arm Deadlifts – 20secx80, 30secx60, 40secx40

2.5″ Bar Rack Pulls – 10×100, 20×110, 20×110

2.5″ DB Shrugs – 8×35, 7×35

DB Shrugs – 15×40

.

This workout went really well. My squat form has really improved lately thanks to advice from people a lot stronger and smarter than me, and a great article by Dave Tate. Specifically – i widened my stance, and focused on keeping my upper back a lot tighter than it was before. I also practiced techniques to increase neural drive such as pushing outwards with the legs (spreading the floor) and grabbing the bar and pulling outwards towards the weights at either end (pulling the bar apart). Just by improving my technique, my squat has jumped from 120kg for one rep (pathetic by anyone’s standards) to 140kg for five reps (not too bad).

For those who don’t know – overhead supports are an exercise to increase core stability and strengthen the shoulders and shoulder girdle. Basically, press or push press a bar overhead with either a clean grip or a snatch grip, and hold it there for time with your elbows locked out and your shoulders tight in their sockets. If you want to add some flavour to this, try walking around with the bar up there (obviously, make sure you have a brave spotter and lots of room).

.

Workout 2 (Wednesday) – Upper Body

Military Press – 12×50, 12×50, 12×50, 12×50, 8×50

Pullups – 8xBW, 8xBW+5, 8xBW+10, 8xBW+15, 8xBW

Close Grip Bench Press – 10×50, 10×60, 10×65, 9×70

DB Hammer Curls – 8×20, 8×25, 8×22.5

Kelso Shrugs – 20×30, 20×30, 20×30

.

This workout is mostly focused on size and endurance for the upper body rather than strength so the volume is pretty high on exercises like military press and pullups. Didn’t quite manage to reach 12 reps on that last set of military press, but will keep trying to push those extra reps out.

Its important to note that your last rep should be just as good technique as your first – whether you’re screaming or shaking or taking three times longer, the actual technique should be the same. If you can’t do this, it shouldn’t count as a rep in your journal. Sometimes i like to do forced reps with a spotter, or negative-only reps with a spotter, or in the case of military press i switch to push press, but these are advanced techniques so use them once or twice in the whole program at most.

The rest of the session was great, and got a good weight on close grip bench. I’m not doing regular bench press on this program for a change of pace, and my chest is already starting to grow again from the change. For somebody who hates bench press this is pretty encouraging!

.

Workout 3 (Saturday) – Fullbody/Events

Hang Clean + Push Press – 10×40, 1×70, 1×75, 1×80, 1×85

DB Farmer’s Walks – 50mtrx50, 40mtrx50, 40mtrx50, 40mtrx50

Speed Deadlifts – 3×60, 3×60, 3×60

DB Rows – 8×35, 8×37.5, 8×40

Hise Shrugs – 20×60, 10×100

.

Was incredibly pleased with this workout, especially the hang clean + press. After a warmup set i went straight in for heavy singles working up to a near maximum. Each rep was done from a hang below knee height, cleaned to the shoulders, and push pressed to a full lock which was held for three count. The last single was more than my bodyweight, and felt awesome standing with it over my head. Loved it! Will try for doubles next week.

The speed deadlifts were done with a snatch grip so i had to put them on plates to raise the bar up a bit. Couldn’t keep my back straight doing them from the floor. I’ve noticed that my sticking point with deads (like a lot of people) is the initial pull, so the aim of this exercise is to train myself to be as explosive as possible. Will have to work on lower back flexibility so i can do them from the floor eventually.

I definitely recommend this exercise as a supplement to your deadlift, or to train the initial pull in the snatch. You don’t have to do them for speed either, adding weight to regular snatch grip deads is incredibly challenging too!

.

So thats my first week of training on this new program, and all in all i really enjoyed it. The workouts are about the right length at 60-90 minutes, are pretty comprehensive, and a lot of fun. Each one is challenging in its own way. Can’t wait for next week!

.

Which rep in any single set is the most important? The first rep? The last rep? The failure rep? Its none of these and all of these at the same time – the most important rep in any and every set you do in the gym is the rep you’re actually doing at the time! Forget about the next one and forget about the one you just did, because neither of them matter unless you’re doing them.

Just because the first rep is the easiest doesn’t mean you should take it lightly or rush it. Just because the last rep is the hardest doesn’t mean you’re allowed to cheat or jerk it around. If you’re doing a failure rep that doesn’t give you an excuse to lift like an idiot in the name of “forcing growth” or whatever. Every rep should be important to you, and every rep should be perfect.

This is the mindset you need to achieve any goal. If you can’t do it right you can’t do it, and if you’re not doing it how do you expect to get anything out of it?

It seems simple laid out on a page like this, but everybody – including me – has made the mistake of cheating in the name of getting the numbers you want. Everybody wants to succeed and sometimes in the adrenaline of a tough set its easy to slip and do whatever you can to get that weight up just one more time. Just don’t make it a habit!

.

The Perfect Rep

So what exactly is the perfect rep? The way i see it there are four elements to a rep that can tell you whether its good or bad, i call them pillars because without them the integrity of the rep – and your status as a weightlifter – will come crashing down! Let’s take a look at them.

.

Form – This is the actual performance of the exercise from a mechanical standpoint.

Is your performance of the exercise any good? Break down what you’re doing into separate stages and compare them to a correct example or description to check for errors.

Is the movement you’re performing efficient? Ask somebody qualified about the finer points of the exercise and make sure what you’re doing is the best way of doing it – sometimes the exercise might look right but only so much can be put across in a picture or description.

Most importantly, is it safe? Make sure you’re not doing anything that will unnecessarily increase the risk of developing an injury. For example using a bent or rounded back in the deadlift when a straight back is safer and stronger, or keeping your arms at a 90 degree angle from your torso in bench press when a 45 degree angle will work just as well without the associated strain on the rotator cuff.

.

ROM  - This is something a lot of lifters skip out on. Range of motion is probably the most critical factor in gaining size and strength in any exercise, and its also the reason a lot of skinny idiots think they can bench 400lbs.

Every single rep, bar none, should be taken through as full a range of motion as possible. If you don’t have the flexibility or strength to carry a weight through a full range of motion lower the weight untill you can, and stretch more often! The only exception to this rule is if you’re specifically training a sticking point in a lift and include partial movements to improve this, but you should never do JUST partials all the time!

Look at it this way – whats going to improve your performance more, a tiny movement or a big movement? A lot of people are going to throw the “heavy weight = big muscles” argument at me, but if you’re reducing the range of motion and increasing the weight you’re not doing an entire rep, not activating the entire muscle, and creating a weak point by only training a certain limited portion of the exercise. In effect, it’s a different exercise.

Taken to the extreme, i can unrack and hold nearly twice as much as i can bench, but i can’t move it. If i unrack 400lbs, lower it an inch, and press it back up. Does this mean i can bench 400lbs? I can do a negative with more than my current max and get it back up with the help of a spotter but thats not a rep, either. Where’s the line?

.

Tempo - Tempo in this context is just the speed at which you complete the rep. In other articles i’ve talked about changing or extending the tempo, and this is a great way of building muscle, but here i just mean the speed. Try to keep a constant speed or flow throughout each rep, and the entire set. Don’t speed up to finish quicker or get through a hard part or use momentum to carry the weight – keep it controlled, paced, and fluid.

Sometimes you might slow down because of fatigue, you might even stop dead at some point, but keep pushing and keep it moving but DON’T jerk the weight or use body english – we’re weight lifting not weight throwing. If you fail, you fail. Deal with it and come back next time.

.

Control – This is your ability to keep the rep going and devote all your attention to the exercise at hand. This generally boils down to flexibility, mobility, and core stability, but can also include elements of technique too. Throughout the set you want each rep and movement to be almost mechanical. Learn the movement patterns and don’t deviate from them.

Perhaps the best way to describe control is with an example of a lack of control. Take the squat for instance. How many times have you seen somebody’s knees buckle inwards when pushing from the bottom of the rep? This is a lack of control. Whether due to some instability or weakness, or a lack of technique is impossible to tell without actually talking to the person.

In military press, an excessive backwards lean during the press or wobbling during the lockout could indicate a lack of core stability which leads to a lack of control. In this case you’d probably be concentrating more on not falling than actually putting all your effort pressing the weight!

In both these examples it’s easy to see how you’re not working as hard as you could be or even risking injury by doing an uncontrolled rep.

Figure out why you can’t control the exercise and take steps to improve it. Brush up on technique, work on flexibility and mobility through stretching/mobility drills, or improve your core stability.  Above all, though – CONCENTRATE. That weight won’t lift itself.

.

Final Thoughts

More people should care about the process of lifting rather than being caught up in the numbers game. A perfectly performed set is impressive regardless of the weight you’re using, and nailing perfect technique now will make sure you don’t have to backtrack and fix bad habits later on. If you can do that theres nothing stopping you from achieving your maximum potential.

Hopefully after reading this you have a better understanding of exactly what you should be doing to get the most out of each and every rep, set, and workout you ever perform.

Take care!

This is sort of half article, half news update right here so bear with me! If you visit this site regularly (and i hope you do!) you might have noticed that updates have tailed off the last two months. I don’t have any excuses – i just wanted a break! Near the end of the last academic term a lot of work piled up for university, and at the end of it all i fancied taking a step back and just enjoying my holiday. I also took a bit of a step back from training.

Guess what? I had my first proper workout today and my Squat – a lift i’d been working incredibly hard on all year – was up by about 15kg (over 30lbs) since the last time i did it. Not only that, but having not even thought about GetLifting.info for nigh on a month, i just sat down to my keyboard and planned out about ten new articles. I’ll be continuing with the beginner’s series of articles and programs, posting new grip tips, as well as some other new things!

The point of all this is simple – rest is good. Not training for a week or two is GOOD. Taking it easy for a while in your non-training life is absolutely NECESSARY if you plan to get anywhere with a sane mind. Training and other stresses make inroads into your normal recovery ability and while this is a good thing, at some point these inroads will just be too much for you to recover from and you’ll just get weaker, slower, smaller, and tirederer (is that a word?).

When Arthur Jones, the father of HIT training, used his methods on bodybuilders the first thing he would do was tell them to go enjoy themselves for a few days under strict instructions not to do any sort of training. Unsurprisingly, on their first session with Jones the bodybuilders who’d actually taken his advice were already stronger without him even doing anything!

Taking a week off every now and again to enjoy yourself and relax with friends and family is the best thing you can ever do for your mind and your body. When you get back your mind will be refreshed, and your body will have had a good chance to repair itself. You might even be stronger, fitter, and bigger than you ever were before.

Sounds like a good deal to me!

Before we start i just wanna say that I’m not a bodybuilder. I train for muscle and strength, and though I’ve built up a body I’m happy with I’m by no means a bodybuilder. Improvement in my physique is really only a side effect of my other goals – and a bloody nice side effect it is, too! I think most people who lift weights, despite whatever they SAY they’re training for, wouldn’t say no to an extra 20lbs of muscle in all the right places. I’m no exception to this. I want big arms too!

This is one of the reasons why a lot of the content on GetLifting.info is geared towards strength and overall mass rather than the bodybuilding side of things – the programs and articles are based on movement planes, mechanics such as push/pull, a distinction is made between Maximum/Dynamic/Repeated effort training, and very rarely do i advocate direct arm work. That’s the way i train, and have always trained, and it just plain works.

So i was a little bit stumped when i got a bunch of requests to upload a bodybuilding program to the site. Bear in mind that this article is my own take on the whole bodybuilding training style so you won’t find 30-40 sets a session, whole days dedicated to arms, or useless crap like cheat reps or 21’s. This program is a bodybuilding program but it’s definitely not what you’d call “traditional”. I also wrote this with the natural trainee in mind, which is actually a major reason a lot of aspiring bodybuilders fail to gain on the programs of the champs.

.

The Program

The program, then, is a triple periodized program (frequency, intensity/training load, and volume) with only one goal – get absolutely massive. Everything else is secondary. We’re going for maximum microtrauma, maximum fibre stimulation, and maximum growth. If it moves and can’t outrun you, you’d better catch it and eat it because you’re gonna need every last calorie to even have a chance at repairing your muscle tissue.

There are four workouts in this program that cover all the major muscle groups and hit them hard. The workouts are broken up into mechanic (push/pull) and whether its an upper or lower body session. Training like this is great because it’s a lot harder to overtrain and easier to balance your training to avoid shoulder or lower back injuries.

Sadly, in most bodybuilding programs there’s usually an emphasis on the anterior muscles (pressing muscles such as shoulders, chest, triceps often get worked far too much). This isn’t a good thing, and either causes a pulling forward of the shoulders (Neanderthal syndrome) or rotator cuff injuries. Hamstring injuries, interestingly enough, are caused by over-strong quads because of (bing!) too much anterior leg training.

Lets look at those workouts more closely.

I have listed lots of common exercises and in most cases they’ll be good for everybody, but its impossible to list everything especially with the vast amount of machines available today. If you have another alternative that fits in with the exercises in any particular list by all means do that one. As a rule of thumb though, make sure your workouts are primarily free-weights rather than machines. Some machine work is great, too much machine work is going to get you an injury.

.

Workout A – Lower Body (Push)

Lower body pushing trains the quads to the utmost limit. Honestly, you won’t be able to walk by the end of this. Choose one exercise out of each list to give you a total of six exercises – three compound and three isolation/machine (or thereabouts):

1. Bilateral Squat Variation – Squats, Front Squats or Zercher Squats.

2. Unilateral Squat Variation – Bulgarian Squats, Split Squats, Lunges, or Step Ups.

3. Compound Machine Exercise – Leg Press, Unilateral Leg Press, or Hack Squat Machine.

4. Explosive Exercise (Bodyweight) – Jump Squats, Box Jumps, or Jump Lunges.

5. Leg Extension Variation – Leg Extensions or Unilateral Leg Extensions.

6. Calves Isolation – Standing Calve Raises or Seated Calve Raises.

.

Workout B – Upper Body (Pull)

Upper body pulling works the back, traps, and biceps. This is probably my favourite thing to train, anybody can build a big chest but a truly impressive back will do more for overall strength, health, and performance than most people realise. Choose one exercise out of each list to give you a total of six exercises for this session:

1. Pullup Variation – Chinups or Pullups.

2. Rowing Variation – Bent Over Rows, Dumbell Rows, T-Bar Rows, Prone Rows, or Inverted Rows.

3. Pulldown Variation – Pulldowns, Wide Grip Pulldowns, Close Grip Pulldowns, or Single Arm Pulldowns.

4. Lat Isolation – Straight Arm Pulldowns, Straight Arm Pullovers, or Pullover Machine.

5. Traps Isolation – Dumbell Shrugs, Barbell Shrugs, Hise Shrugs, or Kelso Shrugs.

6. Biceps Isolation – Barbell Curls, Dumbell Hammer Curls, Preacher Curls, or Cable Curls.

.

Workout C – Lower Body (Pull)

Lower body pulling makes use of the whole posterior chain – glutes, hamstrings, hips, and often places a huge amount of isometric tension on pretty much every muscle in the upper back too, so this session is amazing for growth. As before, pick a single exercise out of each list to give you a total of six exercises:

1. Deadlift Variation – Deadlifts, Sumo Deadlifts, Rack Pulls, Romanian Deadlifts, or Farmer’s Deadlifts.

2. Good Morning Variation – Good Mornings, Zercher Good Mornings, or Seated Good Mornings.

3. General Posterior Chain – Glute Ham Raises or Cable Pullthroughs.

4. Lower Back – Hyperextensions, Single Leg Hyperextensions, or Reverse Hyperextensions.

5. Hamstring Isolation – Leg Curls or Unilateral Leg Curls.

6. Calves Isolation – Standing Calve Raises or Seated Calve Raises.

.

Workout D – Upper Body (Push)

I expect you were wondering where all the chest work was? Well look no further! Not only will you be doing chest work here, but shoulders and triceps too. Once again, pick a single exercise out of each list:

1. Barbell Bench Press Variation – Bench Press, Incline Bench Press, Decline Bench Press, Floor Press, or Dead Press.

2. Compound Shoulder Exercise – Military Press, Seated Shoulder Press, Dips, Arnold Press, or Corner Press.

3. Dumbell Bench Press Variation – Dumbell Bench, Incline Dumbell Bench, Decline Dumbell Bench or Dumbell Floor Press.

4. Shoulder Isolation – Lateral Raises or Rear Delt Flys.

5. Chest Isolation – Flat Flys, Cable Flys, or Pec Deck.

6. Triceps Isolation – Cable Pushdowns, Skullcrushers, or Overhead Triceps Extensions.

.

Rep Ranges

You’ll be using a few different rep ranges to keep things interesting and fresh not only to make the program exciting, but to keep progress coming thick and fast and to avoid over-training for as long as possible. That’s what periodization is about – variation = results. Each rep range is slightly different not only in terms of sets and reps, but in how you should perform them too.

.

5 x 5 – Five sets of five is a great overall strength and mass builder because it combines fairly heavy weights with a lot of volume, and is an absolute killer to boot. The first set should be a warmup, followed by four sets all at the same weight (about your 6-7 rep maximum). Rest intervals shouldn’t be too long, but not too short or you’ll have trouble completing that last set. 60 to 90 seconds is about right. An extra higher rep warmup set beforehand is also a good idea.

4 x 10 – If you thought three sets of ten was bad enough, four sets isn’t going to be much fun for you. I find that most people don’t really push hard enough when they do the classic 3×10 rep range, so another set seemed a pretty good idea. These sets should be done with as little rest as possible, so only take 30-60 seconds between each set.

3 x 5+5+5 – These sets are possibly the most brutal in the entire program because they’re really three sets rolled into one. Pick a weight you can do for about 10 reps and do 5 reps with it, then immediately drop the weight a little and do 5 more, and finally repeat this process and do 5 final reps at a slightly lighter weight again. This is a combination of the dropset and rest pause techniques, and trust me – you’ll probably only need to do two sets before you want to go home.

1-3 x 15-20 – These sets are used for isolation exercises only. Do them with a controlled tempo, slightly slower than usual, and with a slight pause at the top or bottom of the rep (whichever one provides the greatest resistance or challenge). The purpose of these sets is to bring the muscle to a point of near failure without crossing over that threshold until the very last set – and even then only for advanced trainees.

.

Training Split

The training split used in this program is a bit unorthodox to progressively overload training frequency. A lot of programs periodize intensity and volume, and make use of different rep ranges, so why not change the frequency as-well?

Each workout has about 18-20 sets and this stays the same throughout the twelve week program, which is split up into four blocks of three weeks called “microcycles”. The rep range will change every week to reduce intensity and increase frequency throughout each microcycle, while keeping the volume per session roughly the same. This will result in a greater volume per week, culminating in the third week before backing off volume and frequency again when the next microcycle starts. With each successive microcycle the overall training load will increase.

Phew. I can talk a lot of crap when i want to, but hopefully that made some sense. If it didn’t, don’t worry. I’ll show you instead. Each workout is in brackets next to the day you should perform it. You’ll train twice in the first week, three times in the second week, and four times in the third week. By the end of the program each workout is repeated nine times.

.

Microcycle 1 :

Week 1 – Monday (A) / Thursday (B)
Week 2 – Monday (C) / Wednesday (D) / Friday (A)
Week 3 – Monday (B) / Tuesday (C) / Thursday (D) / Friday (A)

Microcycle 2:

Week 4 – Monday (B) / Thursday (C)
Week 5 – Monday (D) / Wednesday (A) / Friday (B)
Week 6 – Monday (C) / Tuesday (D) / Thursday (A) / Friday (B)

Microcycle 3:

Week 7 – Monday (C) / Thursday (D)
Week 8 – Monday (A) / Wednesday (B) / Friday (C)
Week 9 – Monday (D) / Tuesday (A) / Thursday (B) / Friday (C)

Microcycle 4:

Week 10 – Monday (D) / Thursday (A)
Week 11 – Monday (B) / Wednesday (C) / Friday (D)
Week 12 – Monday (A) / Tuesday (B) / Thursday (C) / Friday (D)

.

All other days should be taken as rest, which by the way are non-negotiable. If you want to do cardio do it after your weights sessions or reduce your rest intervals and get your heart and breathing up that way. The key to any program is rest and recovery and this is especially true for building muscle. Enjoy your days off and watch yourself grow! At the end of the twelve weeks take a full seven days off as complete rest.

.

Periodization

As if that crazy looking training split wasn’t enough, there’s a few other things we need to talk about before you can get started. Namely (my favourite topic, apparently) periodization. If you haven’t read the articles on periodization on this site (and i suggest you do) it’s basically the planned variation/overload of one or more training variables. In this case, since we’ve already discussed frequency, these variables are volume/rep range and intensity/load.

I’ve split it up into the main compound exercises (1-3) and the machine or isolation exercises (4-6) because each should be treated differently.

.

Volume/Rep Range (Exercises 1-3):

First Week of Microcycle = 5 x 5

Second Week of Microcycle = 4 x 10

Third Week of Microcycle = 3 x 5+5+5

.

Volume/Rep Range (Exercises 4-6):

First Week of Microcycle = 1 x 15-20

Second Week of Microcycle = 2 x 15-20

Third Week of Microcycle = 3 x 15-20

.

Intensity/Load (Exercises 1-3):

Microcycle 1 = Reduce usual training loads by 5%

Microcycle 2 = Increase training loads by 5% (Back to normal!)

Microcycle 3 = Increase training loads by 5% (Overall 5% increase)

Microcycle 4 = Increase training loads by 5% (Overall 10% increase)

.

Intensity/Load (Exercises 4-6):

No periodization = Use a load each set which will cause near muscular failure by the end of that set. Always achieve the required number of reps.

.

As you can see (hopefully), volume and rep range will change every week but those changes will repeat with each microcycle. This is variation and will make sure your training doesn’t stagnate. Training load however will stay the same week to week within any given microcycle, but will increase a set amount when you begin a new microcycle. This is overload and will make sure your muscles have reason to grow.

.

GetBodybuilding

This was a pretty intense article, never mind the program itself! I know that was a hell of a lot of information to take in and parts of it are spread out all over the place, so to help you figure out what your program should look like i’ve attached a complete first microcycle (without training loads) to help out a bit. It’s in rich text format and should be readable by most word processing software. You can download it by clicking the following link:

GetBodybuilding Sample Microcycle

Other than that, the only thing left to do is get started. Set up your program, eat like a horse with a fear of saturates, and start growing! This is a great program, and not only will it yield impressive results but it’s a lot of fun too!

As always, if you have any questions on this or want to tell me about the results you’ve achieved by using it, i’d love to hear from you. Drop me an email!

Train hard!

This article doesn’t contain any science, workout ideas, nutrition or supplement info, exercises, interesting pieces of equipment, or the secrets “they” don’t want you to know. It might also be the most important thing you’ll ever read. It might make your gains, health, and fitness skyrocket. It might also be old news, but i’m gonna say it anyway.

THE REASON YOU AREN’T REACHING YOUR GOALS PROBABLY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR TRAINING PROGRAM OR DIET.

Interesting, huh?

While a lot of improvement can usually be made to the terrible training and diet plans people come up with, I’m a firm believer in the power of – you guessed it – hard work. Hard F’N Work at that! Now I’m not saying I’m the hardest worker out there, not even close, but the people who work harder than me are as proportionately stronger, fitter, and bigger than me as i am to people who don’t work as hard as i do. Coincidence?

And thats what this article is about. No fancy periodization, no complicated carb-cycling or ketogenic diets, just gut-busting, train-’til-you-puke-up-a-kidney hard work. Whatever program you’re on, if you train every workout like it’s your last; if you squat until you can’t stand up anymore; if you run so hard your lungs feel like they’re going to burst any second, and then you come back and do it all over again a day later – you WILL get results.

This all seems obvious, but for some reason a lot of common sense traditional wisdom has been replaced with a deluded sense of entitlement in most exercisers these days. Thankfully, nothing you can get out of going to the gym will happen by accident – it has to be earned through blood, sweat….and more blood and sweat. Crying is unacceptable.

My first ever hint of real hard work came in a random workout at a friend’s house many years ago. I was doing dumbell bench press, and because i was yapping away like a damn poodle (and i had about as much muscle, at the time) i loaded each dumbell with about 10kg too much. Thats a lot of extra weight. Neither of us seemed to notice, and i got them up onto my knees, laid on the bench, and started my set.

“Holy sh*t these are heavy!!!” I grunted as i passed rep three. This was supposedly a set of six reps but already it was taking me a good five seconds to get the weight up. Rep four was just as confusing, but through gritted teeth i managed to push through it. Rep five took about an hour, my friend left and made a sandwich.

Screaming my skinny little head off, rep six came and went with the tides and i grew a full beard. Every muscle fiber in my body was straining to get that weight up, the sweat was pouring out of me like i was in a sauna, and i was pushing so hard my brain was trying to escape through my nose. Finally, i got the rep and slammed the dumbells into the floor of the garage and glared at them in silent accusation…

“Oooh…those plates are tens!”

From that day on, and this sounds a little melodramatic, my training was never the same. I managed to do the same number of reps with a vastly increased weight and up to that point i always assumed i was training to my limits. Perhaps unsurprisingly i started to pack on muscle and strength almost immediately and have never looked back.

Never be afraid of pushing your limits every once in a while. Don’t be one of those trainees who stops just because thats what it says on their workout sheet, or because it starts to hurt. If you’ve had a tough day and don’t feel like going to the gym use that to your advantage! Get angry with yourself for wanting to skip a session and get to work! Do SOMETHING. You don’t have to be in the gym for three hours – working seriously hard on one exercise is better than coasting through six of them.

Neither your body or mind likes to be stressed and they’ll do everything they can to stop you from hurting them, in fact thats how you get bigger, stronger, and fitter! Even if you don’t realize it, your body will try and stop you mid-set when things start to get tough – use your conscious mind and push through it! IGNORE IT! You can do more than you think.

It’s hard work that makes programs like the 20 Rep Squat Program, HIT, Westside, and 5×5 so damn successful – they’re difficult! So ungodly difficult in fact that at some point you have to step up the intensity or you simply won’t survive. All the people behind these programs know the meaning and power of true hard work, and the results of their trainees speak for themselves.

With that said I’m gonna end this article by saying that no matter how hard you work there is no excuse for sloppy form. There’s hard work and there’s killing yourself. Don’t risk injury for another mark on the page because you can’t work hard if you’re lying on a physio table or popping painkillers all day.

Now go and puke on your gym floor. You’ll love it.

.

The other day i was chatting to some guy in my local gym after a workout, and as usual the conversation eventually got down to comparing poundages. Now i’m average height at about 185lbs so i have a fair amount of muscle on me, but i’m not “huge” by any stretch of the imagination. But still, this guy was so skinny i honestly think i ate more meat for lunch than he had on his entire body. I’m telling you this because when we finally did get down to comparing poundages, despite his difficulty staying on the floor in a heavy wind, he claimed to be lifting a good 20lbs more than me on almost every exercise – at least!

This isn’t the first time this has happened, so i kept cool and smiled and nodded. I dunno whether they put something in the water in Cardiff but apparently we’re a city of elite powerlifters. The mystery was solved a few days later, as it always is, when i saw this guy actually working out. If you’ve been going to a gym for a few years, this story will be old news to you.

When i arrived he was on the bench press. No surprises there, it was Monday Chestday after all. He had about 100kg racked (thats 220lbs for you yanks), and i immediately remembered our conversation and decided to do my warmup downstairs for a change. Sure enough, with an almighty grunt he unracked the barbell and with trembling arms proceeded to do six reps and not one of them had a range of motion of over 4″. At this point, his spotter grabbed the bar and together they performed for me the finest display of synchronized bench pressing/upright rowing i have ever seen, ending up with a grand total of 12 reps for the set and leaving them both out of breath (”it’s all you, bro!!!”).

Later, after a good session of floor presses and hang cleans i decided to call it a day and wandered upstairs for a cooldown. Lo and behold, there they were again – on curls this time! Well, at least i thought they were curls, in actual fact they looked more like the hang cleans i’d been doing a little earlier, but whatever. This peculiar bastard son of curls and cleans went something like this: start off like a curl, bend forward like a romanian deadlift while flexing the elbows, drive the hips forward, curl the bar up to 90 degrees, lean back and shrug the shoulders while bringing the bar to rest on the chest. Repeat. Oh and if you get tired, get your spotter to help you.

When i finally changed and left, they were doing something loud with cables and a lot of flailing about, but at this point i didn’t care enough to look. I’d seen it all before.

If you learn nothing else about training in your life, remember this: cheating will get you nowhere.

If you use momentum or “body english” – you aren’t lifting the weight, you’re throwing it. For most of the set your muscle isn’t contracting against any sort of resistance, and its a difficult muscular contraction that provides the stimulus for growth!

When you decrease the range of motion so you can lift more weight, the exercise ceases to be the one you’re meant to be doing. The number of muscle fibres being recruited in such a tiny movement is just that – tiny. And thats exactly how much muscle you’ll put on.

By all means use a spotter for safety reasons or piece of mind, but thats literally their only job. 95% of the time all they should be doing is standing there watching you and questioning your sexual preference. 4% of the time they should be lightly helping you through that final rep. The last 1% is the very few times you completely fail and they take the weight to save your ass. If your spotter is breaking a sweat, you aren’t lifting the weight – they are.

If you want to make gains and stay injury free, leave your ego at the door and start working hard. Learn proper strict form with a full range of motion on every exercise, and do the work yourself. This stuff is so basic it shouldn’t need an article but its a sad fact that too many people these days seem to care more about looking strong than actually being strong.

Do it right, and get results.

If you’re reading this, I’m going to assume you’re a complete beginner in the bodybuilding/weightlifting/fitness world. Congratulations – just by reading this article, or fumbling around with some dumbell curls or pushups in your bedroom, or just looking in the mirror and wanting to improve what you see, you’ve made the first step towards a better you!

Believe it or not pretty much everybody has felt what you’re probably feeling right now – confusion. There are a million magazines, routines, so called ‘experts’ with shiny new inventions to get you ripped in minutes, magic pills and powders that promise you a beach body with no effort, and theres you stuck in the middle wondering just how the hell you’re supposed to make sense out of all this.

I’m here to help.

.

.

..Pictured: Me circa 2004 (above) and 2010 (below).

.

Who am I?

Back in 2003/2004 i was a skinny self-conscious teenager in a group of skinny self-conscious teenagers, and being a bit more skinny or self-conscious than the others a few of us started to lift weights, run, swim, anything we could to get ‘in shape’. Some of what we did worked, but a lot of it was pointless.

Thanks to a bunch of people who were (and still are) a lot smarter than me, somewhere down the line i stopped messing around and got down to some serious work – and got some serious gains from it! I started out in 2003 at 110lbs, and over the course of the next four years by 2007 i had bulked up to a respectable 200lbs, nearly doubling my bodyweight! Well, one back injury and another three years later its 2010 and i weigh a healthy (and happy!) 185lbs.

Whatever the media says about weightlifting and bodybuilding, this lifestyle has not only improved my physique and health, but built a work ethic, self-confidence, and a drive to succeed in the other areas of my life. I’ve also made many good friends over the years, and even got a job at my favourite gym! What other hobby can boast all that?

Thats why making this decision is the best one you have ever, and will ever make. If you stick with it you won’t only change your appearance, but your entire life – for the better.

.

What are we gonna do?

This series of articles will probably see you through your first year or so of training if you follow them from start to finish, and by the end of it you should be ready to undertake any of the other, more advanced, programs on this website. Despite my story i’m going to be including advice, workouts, and diet plans that will help you lose weight, increase lean muscle and strength, and can be used by men and women alike.

Since this is all gonna happen over the internet, i can’t be with you for every session, i can’t teach you the exercises, and i can’t spot you – so you’ll have to do a fair amount of work inside and outside the gym if you want to get the most of it, but i’ll always welcome questions along the way and will post videos and pictures of the more complicated exercises.

Before we really get going, i have a few things you need to take care of first:

.

1. Obtain a medical exam – If you’ve never been part of a proper exercise program before it’s incredibly important to get a check-up with your doctor beforehand. You might have dormant medical conditions that you don’t know about, or some other precautions you need to take while you exercise. Better to be safe than sorry, and you have a few weeks yet. Better to do it now than a few months down the road when you get injured.
2. Find a gym – It’s time to get serious, and to get serious you need to be in the right environment. Gyms are full of motivated staff and gym members, not to mention every piece of equipment you will ever need. You have people to spot you, motivate you, and won’t be distracted by family members or the phone. The gym is a place of work, home is a place of rest. You need to work. Make sure the gym you choose isn’t too far away, won’t break the bank, and has a good set of freeweight barbells, dumbells, and some sort of squat/power rack at the very least. Don’t be ‘wowed’ by flashy machines, they’re not important.
3. Find a training partner – This is optional, but definitely recommended. If you have a friend who is at the same level as you, and wants to start training this article series will be perfect for the both of you. You can stick to the program together, motivate eachother, you’ll always have a spotter, and a little friendly competition is always conducive to training. Not only that, but a lot of gyms do group deals so it may end up cheaper.
4. Get fitter – Once you’ve done all of the above, before we get started with the weight training it’s probably a good idea to do a week or two of cardiovascular exercise to prepare your body for the more intense exercise to come. 1-3 times a week i want you do do any form of cardiovascular exercise you like – this can be running, jogging, swimming, biking, rowing, anything. Don’t push too hard, but get a good 60 minutes of exercise per session.

.

And thats it! I’ll give you a few weeks to get that sorted and then we’ll start the real work. This is going to be one crazy year, but if you put the work in you WILL see the results you want. It won’t be easy, but it’s definitely the best decision you’ve ever made.

In the next article we’ll be designing your first weight training program and putting it into practice to build a solid foundation. We’ll also be touching on some simple ways to clean up your diet and using good nutrition to make the most of your first few months training.

If you have any questions feel free to send me an email or post on the GetLifting discussion board!

.

My name is Gaz and I have a problem – I’m addicted to grip training. I can’t help it, I just love it. It started off as one or two grip exercises every now and again, but it’s gotten so bad lately that I’m now doing at least two dedicated full blown grip training sessions a week! And you know what? My performance in almost every other exercise has gone through the roof. That weak link has been taken care of, and I can concentrate on what’s really important – lifting the weight, not holding onto it.

Sure there’s a case for straps and gloves, but if you’re anything like me it’s just an extra thing to remember, and another thing that can go wrong. In this series of articles for GetLifting we’re gonna go through a whole load of different grip exercises to train all the key areas of grip and hand strength, not specific to weightlifting but to climbing, arm wrestling, martial arts, and even manual labour or if you just want to carry your shopping a bit easier!

Start off by adding the exercises into your training (anywhere you like) for 1-3 sets, and gradually introduce new exercises or sets as you see fit. I’ll be giving you tips on how to do this along the way, and letting you know what each exercise is good for so you can pick and choose what’s right for you. Usually they fall into one of these key areas:

.

Crushing Grip – Your ability to close your hand with a powerful contraction of the forearm and literally crush whatever you’re holding. This type of grip is great for arm wrestling and building a strong handshake.

Static Grip – How strong you are at keeping your hand closed against a static resistance. Most weight training exercises use this type of grip when you hold onto dumbbells or bars during sets. This one is essential for everybody.

Pinch Grip – This one is a little alien to most people, but pinch grip is the strength of your hand when you’re holding an object that doesn’t allow you to wrap your fingers around it – with your thumb on one side and fingers on the other. Important for rock climbers and physically demanding/manual labour professions.

Finger Strength – The strength of your fingers either in an open hand position, when performing intricate tasks using the fingertips, or the resilience of each finger on it’s own. Relevant to rock climbers and martial arts enthusiasts.

Wrist Strength – The strength of the wrist when placed under static stress, stretching, forearm contraction, or compression. Useful for martial artists, fighters, and weightlifters.

.

Everybody can benefit from stronger, healthier hands, and hopefully you’ll enjoy this unique and rewarding style of training as much as I do! Next time we’ll look at some exercises in a little more detail.

Until then, train hard!