Matt's 15 Rules of Weight-training...(i.e. What I believe about training)

[Matt ALRI]

What I believe about training:

Virtually everything you’ve ever read from a bodybuilding magazine is heresy and should be regarded as not worth the paper it was printed on. The programs written by the so called “superstars� of the bodybuilding world were actually ghost written by some guy in a cubicle who doesn’t know a thing about proper training, programming, exercise phys, or periodization. If, by chance the program was actually written by the “superstar� you can rest easy as long as you are one of the most genetically gifted people in history AND you are on such a ridiculous amount of drugs that you have to tan to hide the yellowing of your skin due to liver failure.

The fact is that big, strong guys are a dime a dozen, and many of them get that way in spite of their training knowledge than because of it.

I know what I’m talking about in the world of training not because I’m the biggest or the strongest (although, at 270lbs and an 800 squat, 600 bench, and 700 deadlift I can hold my own), and not because I know the most about exercise phys (though I can hold my own there too), but because I have trained with and become friends with best. I have trained at Westside Barbell Club, with the Metal Militia, talk on a continual basis with the best strength coaches in the nation and world-wide, and the training methods I prescribe have been tested in the gym on literally hundreds and hundreds of regular, everyday athletes and shown to work. Period.

So here’s what I can stand before you today and say with great conviction what I know to be true about training:

1) I believe in general that the majority of people don’t work hard enough. If there’s one thing we can learn from the old Eastern Bloc countries, it’s that they worked harder than us, and that primarily, is why they always beat us in the Olympics. Work hard in the gym (even if your program sucks) and you will be rewarded.

2) I also believe that most people don’t put near enough emphasis on lower body and core work. The key to getting big is full squats and deadlifts. If you are looking at your routine and you see that you are training upper body 3 or 4 days per week and lower body once, you have a serious problem. The majority of athletes should live and die in the squat rack.

3) And for that matter, EVERYONE’S program should be centered around these exercises: Full Squat, Deadlifts (or cleans or both), heavy barbell rows, bench press, and Standing Barbell Military/Push Presses. Add pull ups, barbell curls, dips, heavy abdominal work, and some core work (back extensions, reverse hypers, or glute hams) and that should make up 95-100% of the total number of exercises you do. The most effective training is simple and hard.

4) Training a bodypart once per week (and one bodypart per day) is one of the worst ways to train. It will create a rut in your training that you can’t dig out of.

Training a bodypart twice per week has always been shown to be superior to once per week training of a muscle. The problem is with the influx of "Weider Principles" and other bodybuilding trash that's posted in the magazines, the masses have been stuck in the one-bodypart-per-day-per-week rut for years.

No strength athletes train a bodypart once per week. Most olympic lifters, powerlifters, and strongman train their backs at least four times per week, and last time I checked, they weren't lacking in back width.

The simple fact is that training using an upper/lower split or a push/pull split or 3 full body days will provide double or triple the training stimulus than training a muscle once per week and thus, if done correctly will lead to much, much greater growth and strength gains.


5) Training to near muscular failure has shown to induce identical hypertrophy gains than training to all out muscular failure. The reason you guys can’t train a muscle more than once per week is because you are destroying it when you do train it. Learn to hit or miss that last rep and then call it done. Don’t do ridiculous amounts of forced reps, negatives, etc. until you literally can’t move the muscle. Take it to near failure and then your muscles will recover enough so that you can train them again in 3-4 days.

Understand that there is a huge difference in training to near failure and not training hard. I would never advocate to not train hard. Actually, quite the opposite – try to squat for 5 sets of 5 reps using only 10lbs less than your five rep max. That’s absolutely brutal. But when you get done, don’t go to the leg press machine and keep pounding out sets and stripping off weight until you literal can’t do a single leg press with only the sled. That’s absurd, and you can’t recover from it in 3 days.

6) Squat at least below parallel every time. Are you kidding me? I can’t believe some people are still quarter squatting and saying that riding a squat all the way to the ground is bad for your knees. Learn the facts. Stopping at or above parallel puts much more strain on your knees than going ass to grass. Plus going all the way down in an Olympic style back squat will put more mass on you than any other exercise. Period.

7) Isolation exercises are absolute crap. 90% of your routine should be made up of full squats, deadlifts or cleans, bench press, standing overhead press, heavy barbell rows, pull-ups, dips, and core work (abs, glute ham raises, back extensions, reverse hypers). Isolation exercises and machines are the worst thing that ever happened to the weight training world.

8) Quit using pyramid rep schemes like 10,8,6,4,2 – Instead, your time would be better served doing boring (but effective) gut busting sets of 5x5 or 4x8-10 using the SAME WEIGHT for each set. They WILL produce better results than the pyramid scheme. BTW, check your ego at the door when you do these.

9) I’ll quote my good friend, Glenn Pendlay (the best S&C coach in the nation) for the next one:

"Most athletes do too many exercises. Many times they look over other peoples programs like they are at a buffet. They pick a little of this and a little of that from a variety of programs, and end up with something useless. People think you have to train each muscle with a different specific exercise. Many guys in college athletics would do better if they would just randomly slash off half of what they are doing, and then work twice as hard on the half that is left."

10) Another of my favorites from Glenn:

"im so sick and tired of hearing people who just started training who say they cant gain weight. jeez ive heard this crap so often. every day it seems i have some stupid kid ask me about how to gain weight... in resturants, at the grocery store, yo uname it. for some reason there seems to be a sign on my back or something. usually i know its worthless to talk to them, sometimes i actually waste my time. talked to a kid at the golden corral a couple of days ago. took almost an hour when i should have been enjoying my all you can eat steak night... 3 days later i see him in the gym when i just happened to go in to talk to a friend who i knew was there... kid was there doing preacher curls. said hi to me, then said well i talked to my friend about what you said and he said he tried it once and overtrained so i decided to do this thing i read about... on the other hand about 6 months ago i talked to this 6' tall, 150lb kid who wanted to know about getting stronger. kid had done well in judo, won some titles, also after that had done cycling, turned pro then quit a year later, quite a good road racer. he actually did what i told him i guess, about 3 months after i saw him the first time i saw hiim again, he weighed about 185... he wanted to try olympic weightlifting so i let him train with the team i coach. now hes weighing 204 and clean and jerking about 300lbs, 54lbs gained in 6 months. no drugs. olympic squat from 175lbs to 385lbs, front squat from 150lbs to 330lbs. hell be a good lifter, has a good work ethic. needs to be 240 and fairly lean, will compete eventually in the 231 pound class. will take about another 12-15 months i suppose. why is a kid like this the exception and not the rule? why will kids do the same old thing for years in the abscense of results, and not try anything new? what the hell is wrong with people. there is a gym in town, i know the owner so i go and talk to him sometimes, there are all these kids in there, skinny little ****s, doing curls. they never progress, you see the same faces one year to the next, same bodies too."

11) Ultra slow reps or TUT is, for the most part completely worthless. Will it work? Yes. But the total amount of work that one can complete is much lower when utilizing slow reps. Just go natural. Don’t try to be super fast, and bouncy, and don’t try to go ultra slow. Just do it naturally and controlled.

12) “The burn�, “the pump� and “the feel� have nothing to do with the effectiveness of an exercise. Yes, even I have been caught on upper body days looking at myself in the mirror when I’m all blown up, but that has nothing to do with the effectiveness of the last exercise. You do hammer strength bench presses and flyes for sets of 20 and I’ll do heavy barbell bench presses and deep dips. One of us will “feel the pump� more and the other one will grow.

13) Likewise, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) also gives no clue as to the effectiveness of a workout. It just means A) you have a ton of microtrauma in a muscle or B) a lot of lactic acid/ waste products. Congratulations.

14) “Core stability training� is not done on a swiss ball or a stability board. It’s done by pulling heavy deadlifts, standing overhead presses, full squats, heavy barbell rows, heavy farmer’s walks, Atlas stones, tire flipping, reverse hypers, heavy back extensions, glute ham raises, and heavy abdominal work.

15) A good gym has nothing to do with how nice the machines are or if they have a pool or tanning beds or even if it’s air conditioned. A good gym smells like a mix of body odor and liniment and supplies their members with a big box of chalk.

[Magickk]

Matt, very interesting post, and I'm sure a ton of "PL-minded" people on here will agree with you 100%. I'm not questioning your knowledge, and I appreciate you taking the time to make this post, but I do have a question.

Would you say the same rules apply to someone who is NOT playing a sport, or doing PL meets? Someone who just wants to build a perfectly symmetrical body, nothing huge and ridiculous, just an amazing body that is proportioned very well? Or would you say combine the information you have given until you've reached a desired size, and then work on the sculpting from that point? Interested on your input, and possibly a few other elite member of the board, namely Bobo.

[Dwight Schrute]

What I believe about training:

Virtually everything you’ve ever read from a bodybuilding magazine is heresy and should be regarded as not worth the paper it was printed on. The programs written by the so called “superstars� of the bodybuilding world were actually ghost written by some guy in a cubicle who doesn’t know a thing about proper training, programming, exercise phys, or periodization. If, by chance the program was actually written by the “superstar� you can rest easy as long as you are one of the most genetically gifted people in history AND you are on such a ridiculous amount of drugs that you have to tan to hide the yellowing of your skin due to liver failure.

The fact is that big, strong guys are a dime a dozen, and many of them get that way in spite of their training knowledge than because of it.

I know what I’m talking about in the world of training not because I’m the biggest or the strongest (although, at 270lbs and an 800 squat, 600 bench, and 700 deadlift I can hold my own), and not because I know the most about exercise phys (though I can hold my own there too), but because I have trained with and become friends with best. I have trained at Westside Barbell Club, with the Metal Militia, talk on a continual basis with the best strength coaches in the nation and world-wide, and the training methods I prescribe have been tested in the gym on literally hundreds and hundreds of regular, everyday athletes and shown to work. Period.

So here’s what I can stand before you today and say with great conviction what I know to be true about training:

1) I believe in general that the majority of people don’t work hard enough. If there’s one thing we can learn from the old Eastern Bloc countries, it’s that they worked harder than us, and that primarily, is why they always beat us in the Olympics. Work hard in the gym (even if your program sucks) and you will be rewarded.

2) I also believe that most people don’t put near enough emphasis on lower body and core work. The key to getting big is full squats and deadlifts. If you are looking at your routine and you see that you are training upper body 3 or 4 days per week and lower body once, you have a serious problem. The majority of athletes should live and die in the squat rack.

3) And for that matter, EVERYONE’S program should be centered around these exercises: Full Squat, Deadlifts (or cleans or both), heavy barbell rows, bench press, and Standing Barbell Military/Push Presses. Add pull ups, barbell curls, dips, heavy abdominal work, and some core work (back extensions, reverse hypers, or glute hams) and that should make up 95-100% of the total number of exercises you do. The most effective training is simple and hard.

4) Training a bodypart once per week (and one bodypart per day) is one of the worst ways to train. It will create a rut in your training that you can’t dig out of.

Training a bodypart twice per week has always been shown to be superior to once per week training of a muscle. The problem is with the influx of "Weider Principles" and other bodybuilding trash that's posted in the magazines, the masses have been stuck in the one-bodypart-per-day-per-week rut for years.

No strength athletes train a bodypart once per week. Most olympic lifters, powerlifters, and strongman train their backs at least four times per week, and last time I checked, they weren't lacking in back width.

The simple fact is that training using an upper/lower split or a push/pull split or 3 full body days will provide double or triple the training stimulus than training a muscle once per week and thus, if done correctly will lead to much, much greater growth and strength gains.


5) Training to near muscular failure has shown to induce identical hypertrophy gains than training to all out muscular failure. The reason you guys can’t train a muscle more than once per week is because you are destroying it when you do train it. Learn to hit or miss that last rep and then call it done. Don’t do ridiculous amounts of forced reps, negatives, etc. until you literally can’t move the muscle. Take it to near failure and then your muscles will recover enough so that you can train them again in 3-4 days.

Understand that there is a huge difference in training to near failure and not training hard. I would never advocate to not train hard. Actually, quite the opposite – try to squat for 5 sets of 5 reps using only 10lbs less than your five rep max. That’s absolutely brutal. But when you get done, don’t go to the leg press machine and keep pounding out sets and stripping off weight until you literal can’t do a single leg press with only the sled. That’s absurd, and you can’t recover from it in 3 days.

6) Squat at least below parallel every time. Are you kidding me? I can’t believe some people are still quarter squatting and saying that riding a squat all the way to the ground is bad for your knees. Learn the facts. Stopping at or above parallel puts much more strain on your knees than going ass to grass. Plus going all the way down in an Olympic style back squat will put more mass on you than any other exercise. Period.

7) Isolation exercises are absolute crap. 90% of your routine should be made up of full squats, deadlifts or cleans, bench press, standing overhead press, heavy barbell rows, pull-ups, dips, and core work (abs, glute ham raises, back extensions, reverse hypers). Isolation exercises and machines are the worst thing that ever happened to the weight training world.

8) Quit using pyramid rep schemes like 10,8,6,4,2 – Instead, your time would be better served doing boring (but effective) gut busting sets of 5x5 or 4x8-10 using the SAME WEIGHT for each set. They WILL produce better results than the pyramid scheme. BTW, check your ego at the door when you do these.

9) I’ll quote my good friend, Glenn Pendlay (the best S&C coach in the nation) for the next one:

"Most athletes do too many exercises. Many times they look over other peoples programs like they are at a buffet. They pick a little of this and a little of that from a variety of programs, and end up with something useless. People think you have to train each muscle with a different specific exercise. Many guys in college athletics would do better if they would just randomly slash off half of what they are doing, and then work twice as hard on the half that is left."

10) Another of my favorites from Glenn:

"im so sick and tired of hearing people who just started training who say they cant gain weight. jeez ive heard this crap so often. every day it seems i have some stupid kid ask me about how to gain weight... in resturants, at the grocery store, yo uname it. for some reason there seems to be a sign on my back or something. usually i know its worthless to talk to them, sometimes i actually waste my time. talked to a kid at the golden corral a couple of days ago. took almost an hour when i should have been enjoying my all you can eat steak night... 3 days later i see him in the gym when i just happened to go in to talk to a friend who i knew was there... kid was there doing preacher curls. said hi to me, then said well i talked to my friend about what you said and he said he tried it once and overtrained so i decided to do this thing i read about... on the other hand about 6 months ago i talked to this 6' tall, 150lb kid who wanted to know about getting stronger. kid had done well in judo, won some titles, also after that had done cycling, turned pro then quit a year later, quite a good road racer. he actually did what i told him i guess, about 3 months after i saw him the first time i saw hiim again, he weighed about 185... he wanted to try olympic weightlifting so i let him train with the team i coach. now hes weighing 204 and clean and jerking about 300lbs, 54lbs gained in 6 months. no drugs. olympic squat from 175lbs to 385lbs, front squat from 150lbs to 330lbs. hell be a good lifter, has a good work ethic. needs to be 240 and fairly lean, will compete eventually in the 231 pound class. will take about another 12-15 months i suppose. why is a kid like this the exception and not the rule? why will kids do the same old thing for years in the abscense of results, and not try anything new? what the hell is wrong with people. there is a gym in town, i know the owner so i go and talk to him sometimes, there are all these kids in there, skinny little ****s, doing curls. they never progress, you see the same faces one year to the next, same bodies too."

11) Ultra slow reps or TUT is, for the most part completely worthless. Will it work? Yes. But the total amount of work that one can complete is much lower when utilizing slow reps. Just go natural. Don’t try to be super fast, and bouncy, and don’t try to go ultra slow. Just do it naturally and controlled.

12) “The burn�, “the pump� and “the feel� have nothing to do with the effectiveness of an exercise. Yes, even I have been caught on upper body days looking at myself in the mirror when I’m all blown up, but that has nothing to do with the effectiveness of the last exercise. You do hammer strength bench presses and flyes for sets of 20 and I’ll do heavy barbell bench presses and deep dips. One of us will “feel the pump� more and the other one will grow.

13) Likewise, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) also gives no clue as to the effectiveness of a workout. It just means A) you have a ton of microtrauma in a muscle or B) a lot of lactic acid/ waste products. Congratulations.

14) “Core stability training� is not done on a swiss ball or a stability board. It’s done by pulling heavy deadlifts, standing overhead presses, full squats, heavy barbell rows, heavy farmer’s walks, Atlas stones, tire flipping, reverse hypers, heavy back extensions, glute ham raises, and heavy abdominal work.

15) A good gym has nothing to do with how nice the machines are or if they have a pool or tanning beds or even if it’s air conditioned. A good gym smells like a mix of body odor and liniment and supplies their members with a big box of chalk.

I will tell you why I disagree with many of these "truths"


1. I work "smarter", not harder. Saying you just have to work harder is entirely too simplistic.

2. Although squats and deadlifts do train multiple muscle groups, there is nothing magical about them. Having a big squat doens't mean you wiull have big arms. This is a complete and utter myth.

3. I disagree again with this point. I have achieved with myself and other the same results whether I incorporated those exercises or not. They are great exercises that do serve a purpose but once again they are not magical at all.

4. Simply making statements like this is compeltely close minded. Different muscle groups require different frequencies due to recovery time and fiber makeup. I have trianed myself and many others VERY successfully using one bodypart per week method.

5. I agree. Complete failure is not needed.

6. Statements like these use a general template for the populations and are simply false. Going parrallel for some people is quite enough for some bone structures. Simply saying you need to go ass-to-grass all the time is wrong.

7. Crap? Ugh... Depending on muscular fiber makeup and increased TUT, isolation exercises can greatly induce IGF and subsequent MGF release moreso than many compound exercises. Targeting both myofibullar and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is extremely effective in obtaining optimal growth.

8. Well I guess we can throw out all the research on progressive load, increased ECC action and increased MGF release.

9. Strenght and conditioning coaches center their programs around performance, not asthetics. The hormonal response is completely different.

10. Who is Glenn?

11. Once again I guess we can throw out all that research about increased ECC action increasing MGF and subsequent growth better than faster CON/ECC actions.

12. It depends. When working on sarcoplamsic hypertrophy the pump (actually holding it) will induce more microtrauma and increase subsequent MGF release.

13. Actually the majority of research of DOMS is inconclusive so how anyone can state it has nothing to do with anything as fact isnt' looking at the research.

14. Techincally the swiss ball is great for those with less musclular developent (women, elderly) because it creates the same growth/CNS stimulus in those subjects who can't do HEAVY SQUATS.

15. Well that is your opinion. I actually like a mix of both.

[Zero Tolerance]

I'm not sure Matt's advice is the best for people who aren't making bodybuilding the single most important thing in their lives. If you want to be Mr. Olympia, then talk to Matt. If you're looking to be in excellent shape and impressive looking, you'll only get discouraged.

[Dwight Schrute]

I'm not sure Matt's advice is the best for people who aren't making bodybuilding the single most important thing in their lives. If you want to be Mr. Olympia, then talk to Matt. If you're looking to be in excellent shape and impressive looking, you'll only get discouraged.

Actually its the oppsite. His advice is best for people PL'ing, NOT bodybuilding.

[DieTrying]

All of this list is your opinion, and being that you are a PLer, your opinions are generally different from a lot of others'.

There are a lot of variables as to why muscles grow (training, nutrition, rest, health, drugs, supps, etc) and you could argue them over and over.

[Dwight Schrute]

Evidence onf progressive load:

Mechanical load increases muscle IGF-I and androgen receptor mRNA concentrations in humans.

Bamman MM, Shipp JR, Jiang J, Gower BA, Hunter GR, Goodman A, McLafferty CL Jr, Urban RJ.

Department of Human Studies, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA. mbamman@uab.edu

The mechanism(s) of load-induced muscle hypertrophy is as yet unclear, but increasing evidence suggests a role for locally expressed insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I). We investigated the effects of concentric (CON) vs. eccentric (ECC) loading on muscle IGF-I mRNA concentration. We hypothesized a greater IGF-I response after ECC compared with CON. Ten healthy subjects (24.4 +/- 0.7 yr, 174.5 +/- 2.6 cm, 70.9 +/- 4.3 kg) completed eight sets of eight CON or ECC squats separated by 6-10 days. IGF-I, IGF binding protein-4 (IGFBP-4), and androgen receptor (AR) mRNA concentrations were determined in vastus lateralis muscle by RT-PCR before and 48 h after ECC and CON. Serum total testosterone (TT) and IGF-I were measured serially across 48 h, and serum creatine kinase activity (CK), isometric maximum voluntary contraction (MVC), and soreness were determined at 48 h. IGF-I mRNA concentration increased 62% and IGFBP-4 mRNA concentration decreased 57% after ECC (P < 0.05). Changes after CON were similar but not significant (P = 0.06-0.12). AR mRNA concentration increased (P < 0.05) after ECC (63%) and CON (102%). Serum TT and IGF-I showed little change. MVC fell 10% and CK rose 183% after ECC (P < 0.05). Perceived soreness was higher (P < 0.01) after ECC compared with CON. Results indicate that a single bout of mechanical loading in humans alters activity of the muscle IGF-I system, and the enhanced response to ECC suggests that IGF-I may somehow modulate tissue regeneration after mechanical damage.

Role of insulin-like growth factor-I in the regulation of skeletal muscle adaptation to increased loading.

Adams GR.

Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of California, Irvine, USA.

Adaptations in muscle mass stimulated by changes in muscle loading state entail alternations in the synthesis and degradation of myofiber proteins and the modulation of myonuclear number such that the ratio between the number of myonuclei and the size of the myofibers remains relatively constant. As depicted schematically in Figure 2.6, the literature regarding the role of IGF-in mediating muscle adaptation to alterations in loading state suggests the following conclusions: During periods of increased loading, myofibers upregulate the expression and secretion of IGF-I. Acting as an autocrine and/or paracrine growth factor, IGF-I stimulates myofiber anabolic processes. Acting as a paracrine growth factor, IGF-I also stimulates adjacent satellite cells to enter the cell cycle and proliferate. Continued myofiber production of IGF-I stimulates some satellite cells to differentiate and then fuse with myofibers, thus providing additional myonuclei in order to maintain or reestablish the myonucleus to myofiber size ratios of the enlarged myofibers.


Increased RMP due to increased ECC action


Muscle damage and resting metabolic rate after acute resistance exercise with an eccentric overload.

Dolezal BA, Potteiger JA, Jacobsen DJ, Benedict SH.

Department of Health, Sport, and Exercise Sciences, University of Kansas, Lawrence, USA. bdolezal@prairie.nodak.edu

PURPOSE: The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether muscle damage caused from acute resistance exercise with an eccentric overload would influence resting metabolic rate (RMR) up to 72 h postexercise in resistance-trained (RT) and untrained (UT) subjects. METHODS: Nine RT and 9 UT male subjects (mean +/- SD; age = 20.7 +/- 2.1 yr; body mass = 79.0 +/- 1.4 kg; height = 178.4 +/- 3.1 cm; and body fat = 10.2 +/- 1.6%) were measured for RMR, creatine kinase concentration ([CK]), and rating of perceived muscle soreness (RPMS) on five consecutive mornings. To induce muscle damage, after the measurements on day 2, each subject performed leg presses that emphasized the eccentric movement for 8 sets at his six-repetition maximum (6-RM). RESULTS: Compared with baseline, the RMR (kJ x d(-1) and kJ x kg FFM(-1) x h(-1) was significantly elevated for RT and UT at 24 h and 48 h postexercise. From 24 h to 48 h to 72 h postexercise, RMR significantly decreased within both groups. The UT group had a significantly higher RMR at 24 h (9,705.4 +/- 204.5 kJ x d(-1)) and 48 h postexercise (8,930.9 +/- 104.4 kJ x d(-1)) when compared with the RT group (9,209.3 +/- 535.3 and 8,601.7 + 353.7 kJ x d(-1)). Both [CK] and RPMS showed a similar time course. CONCLUSION: There was a significantly higher [CK] for the UT group at 24 h postexercise (320.4 +/- 20.1 U x L(-1)) and for both [CK] and RPMS at 48 h (1,140.3 +/- 37.1 U x L(-1) and 4.4 +/- 0.5, respectively) and 72 h postexercise (675.9 +/- 41.7 U x L(-1) and 1.67 +/- 0.5, respectively) when compared with the RT group (24 h, 201.9 +/- 13.4 U x L(-1); 48 h, 845.4 +/- 30.7 U x L(-1) and 3.7 +/- 0.5: and 72 h postexercise, 420.2 +/- 70.2 U x L(-1) and 0.89 +/- 0.3). These data indicate that eccentrically induced muscle damage causes perturbations in RMR up to 48 h postexercise.


Evidence of different hypertrophic effects due to rep ranges and fiber makeup


Muscular adaptations in response to three different resistance-training regimens: specificity of repetition maximum training zones.

Campos GE, Luecke TJ, Wendeln HK, Toma K, Hagerman FC, Murray TF, Ragg KE, Ratamess NA, Kraemer WJ, Staron RS.

Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Ohio University, Irvine Hall, rm 430, Athens, OH 45701, USA.

Thirty-two untrained men [mean (SD) age 22.5 (5.8) years, height 178.3 (7.2) cm, body mass 77.8 (11.9) kg] participated in an 8-week progressive resistance-training program to investigate the "strength-endurance continuum". Subjects were divided into four groups: a low repetition group (Low Rep, n = 9) performing 3-5 repetitions maximum (RM) for four sets of each exercise with 3 min rest between sets and exercises, an intermediate repetition group (Int Rep, n = 11) performing 9-11 RM for three sets with 2 min rest, a high repetition group (High Rep, n = 7) performing 20-28 RM for two sets with 1 min rest, and a non-exercising control group (Con, n = 5). Three exercises (leg press, squat, and knee extension) were performed 2 days/week for the first 4 weeks and 3 days/week for the final 4 weeks. Maximal strength [one repetition maximum, 1RM), local muscular endurance (maximal number of repetitions performed with 60% of 1RM), and various cardiorespiratory parameters (e.g., maximum oxygen consumption, pulmonary ventilation, maximal aerobic power, time to exhaustion) were assessed at the beginning and end of the study. In addition, pre- and post-training muscle biopsy samples were analyzed for fiber-type composition, cross-sectional area, myosin heavy chain (MHC) content, and capillarization. Maximal strength improved significantly more for the Low Rep group compared to the other training groups, and the maximal number of repetitions at 60% 1RM improved the most for the High Rep group. In addition, maximal aerobic power and time to exhaustion significantly increased at the end of the study for only the High Rep group. All three major fiber types (types I, IIA, and IIB) hypertrophied for the Low Rep and Int Rep groups, whereas no significant increases were demonstrated for either the High Rep or Con groups. However, the percentage of type IIB fibers decreased, with a concomitant increase in IIAB fibers for all three resistance-trained groups. These fiber-type conversions were supported by a significant decrease in MHCIIb accompanied by a significant increase in MHCIIa. No significant changes in fiber-type composition were found in the control samples. Although all three training regimens resulted in similar fiber-type transformations (IIB to IIA), the low to intermediate repetition resistance-training programs induced a greater hypertrophic effect compared to the high repetition regimen. The High Rep group, however, appeared better adapted for submaximal, prolonged contractions, with significant increases after training in aerobic power and time to exhaustion. Thus, low and intermediate RM training appears to induce similar muscular adaptations, at least after short-term training in previously untrained subjects. Overall, however, these data demonstrate that both physical performance and the associated physiological adaptations are linked to the intensity and number of repetitions performed, and thus lend support to the "strength-endurance continuum".


Different efect of different muscle fibers and their inherent activity.




Regulation of skeletal muscle fiber size, shape and function.

Edgerton VR, Roy RR.

Department of Kinesiology, University of California, Los Angeles 90024-1527.

There is convincing evidence that the cross-sectional area, the type of myosin expressed, the potential for oxidative phosphorylation and the number of myonuclei of a skeletal muscle fiber are closely interdependent. Each of these variables, as well as the shape of the fiber, has identifiable physiological consequences. Further, it is suggested that the cytoplasmic to myonucleus ratio is a function of the myosin type and the amount and/or rate of protein synthesis and degradation. Although the neuromuscular activity (electromyographic activity) as well as the associated mechanical and metabolic events have significant regulatory influences on protein metabolism, there are other important regulatory factors independent of these activity-related events. Both the activity and non-activity related regulatory mechanisms probably occur via a cascade of cellular events. The specific combinations of cellular responses that occur may define the nature of the modulatory effects on specific proteins. In spite of the complexity of the regulatory mechanisms of protein modulation and how these responses are structurally integrated into or removed from functional fibers, it is suggested that controlled studies of human neuromuscular function can be more accurately defined and interpreted when fiber and muscle size and shape are considered.



The list goes on and on.....

[burnuphard]

Who needs studies when you have blind confidence in your self-developed opinions?

[Dwight Schrute]

So I take you want to throw science out the window and rely on "feel".

[burnuphard]

Me? I was being sarcastic, if so.

[Dwight Schrute]

I could not tell.

Opinion is great but I always have a problem when someone states one way is the best for everyone. I tend to base my opinions on what works for the majority first, then look at other options. As with most things, if you incorporate the best of all areas you will most likely get the best results.

Well, it seems to work for my clients

[burnuphard]

Yeah, when it comes down to it...there's really no arguing with results.

Your clients seem to indicate that you're doing something right.

[Beowulf]

Well, it seems to work for my clients

[Zero Tolerance]

Actually its the oppsite. His advice is best for people PL'ing, NOT bodybuilding.

Right. That's sorta what I meant to say.

[jweave23]

Actually its the oppsite. His advice is best for people PL'ing, NOT bodybuilding.

Agreed, I have tried many ways of training myself, and this seems to be the typical mantra of the powerlifter, not that it's bad or wrong, but simply limited in scope.

Unless you fit into that specific criteria (PL'ing, strength training, certain sports training), these commandments may no be right for many out there.

[Matt ALRI]

First off Guys, thank you for your responses. (Especially yours Bobo - I knew it you spent a good deal of time trying to combat my thoughts on training.)

It's obvious that some of us disagree about a majority of things when it comes to training. And that's ok. Obviously I could have woken up this morning and been pissed because everyone jumped all over my training ideas. But it's no big deal.

Let me say this first...

My thread was intended to help people who are trying to get big in the shortest amount of time. I made a mistake when used words like "everybody." What I should have said was "everyone who wants to grow as fast as possible..." I am a strength and conditioning coach and work with high school and college kids. I'm not a personal trainer working with soccer moms and grandmas. I assumed that most of you reading this would be the typical guy who wanted to get substancially bigger, but just had a hard time doing so. I assumed wrong. FOr those of you who are models and looking to stay at 170lbs and lean, then these ideas aren't for you.

Second, there is more than one way to skin a cat. We should all know this. There are guys who get big despite their training programs all the time because they have incredible genetics or lots of drugs or both. (BTW, I'm most certainly not knocking good genetics or drugs as to be honest I wish I had a little more of both :-)

Third, I take some offense at you guys writing off my ideas because I am a "powerlifter." Actually I'm a strength athlete and compete at both powerlifting and strongman. But what's more relevent to you guys is that I am a strength and conditioning coach who's primary goal is to make my kids much, much bigger and stronger in a short amount of time without drugs. I have trained hundreds of kids this way and had collegues of mine do the same and this list of things I believe comes directly out of trenches of what has worked for these kids.

I'll finish with this...I've had many poeple in the past tell me when I start to train them that "they don't want to get too big." I usually have them take a look around the gym to see all the 150lb college kids training their ass off on machines or curls and tell my client that every one of those guys are doing everything they can to get bigger and it isn't working. We all see it every single day. Kid after kid doing curls and bench presses like there's no tomorrow and they never grow. But every once in a while you see a couple of guys come into the weight room and throw a ton of weight on a bar and start full squatting it or deadlifting or cleaning and you know that those guys have paid their dues to get where they are.

All I'm asking is are you willing to pay your dues?

Matt

[Dwight Schrute]

Well I think the problems with your arguement is that you are lacking any type of scientific evidence and the statements such as "get big faster" is an example. I am not a personal trainer who works with soccer moms and grandmas and I am not a strength and conditioning coach working with young athletes. I am a personal trainer who works almost exclusively with bodybuilders designing both exercies and nutrition programs for the novice all the way up to the competitor and I have worked with hundreds as well, the difference being I tell them what to eat down to the every meal and macronutrient. I practice what I preach and know from experience what works for the MAJORITY of people, not all. There are many ways to skin a cat but your recommendations are a very small part of the overall picture. The literature is filled with examples of how increase TUT, ECC action, moderate weight can induce myofibullar hypertrophy much more than and strenght training program will. Its 2 different beasts and simply ignoring a large part of research and stating "it doesn't work" or its "crap" isn't exactly conclusive evidence on your part.


You shouldn't take offense because you have repeated so many times what I have heard form many PL'er and OL'ers. It generally is the same arguement and I have done this many times. So it really didn't take me all that long at all. I rolled that off in about 5 minutes and the studies are just as easy to find through any Medline search.


I tinhk everyone here is willing to pay their dues but the big questions is you diet and nutrition going to back it up? Quite frankly, training is the easy part. Nutrition is 80% of this game.

[CDB]

7. Crap? Ugh... Depending on muscular fiber makeup and increased TUT, isolation exercises can greatly induce IGF and subsequent MGF release moreso than many compound exercises. Targeting both myofibullar and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is extremely effective in obtaining optimal growth.

8. Well I guess we can throw out all the research on progressive load, increased ECC action and increased MGF release.

12. It depends. When working on sarcoplamsic hypertrophy the pump (actually holding it) will induce more microtrauma and increase subsequent MGF release.

Hey, Bobo. We were discussing this on the HST boards a while ago. Quite a few people over there are of the opinion that sarcoplasmic growth is negligible or even a myth. The reason behind this I believe was research showing that the cell itself can only hold so much sarcoplasm, and the size of the cell can only grow proportional to the nucleus. So basically they were saying sarcoplasmic growth while it exists is limited by myofibular growth, and that myofibular growth should be the focus of a hypertrophy training program. I believe the release of MGF was discussed, and the basic concensus was that any work aimed at sarcoplasmic growth only helped in spurring the release of more such hormones to repair the myotrauma done by heavier work, but did not cause any damage to the muscle itself. Any opinion on this?

[Magickk]

FOr those of you who are models and looking to stay at 170lbs and lean, then these ideas aren't for you.

How about wanting to get to 195-205 and lean?

[Dwight Schrute]

In many ways its true which is why you should ALWAYS incorporate both. If you concentrate just on sarcoplasmic hypertrophy you will mostly likely only increase muscular endurance. Myofibullar hypetrophy (which is still within the 6-10 rep range) should always be the focal point but there is a point of diminishing returns. This is why one should facilitate the next giving you a one-two punch in both fiber thickness and the increase in nutrient capacity.

As for the increase in MGF, regardless of why its release, increases are always a positive. It goes well boyond just repairing microtrauma (which the research suggests, mRNA translocation, gene expression, AR mRNA concentrations, subsequent increase in protein and RM rates, etc...). I also think there is apoint of diminishing returns in that aspect as well whichc is why I never understood anyone holding a 6-9 second negative. You get the same response from a 3 second negative in terms of hormonal output. As with all things, there is a balance that should be achieved and one should never veer to one extreme or another.