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

[cable626]

10. Who is Glenn?

:icon_lol:

 

[kwyckemynd00]

....However, your responses seemed so totally negative towards me, and I'm not sure why?....

I noticed Bobo didn't hop in here and say anything about this, so I'll do it for him

I can guarantee it's nothing personal toward "you". Stick around and you'll see it's common...he just doesn't sugar-coat his debates (which can get frustrating when you're on the other end at times ).

I think I've only seen one thread where he seemed to be "irritated -> mad", this on the other hand is normal. You'll get used to it :rofl:

Any way you look at it, and no matter what opinion you develop of him, the fact is he's still full of a lot of good information and it's hard to argue with him :rofl:

 

[natedogg]

Bobo, I'm guessing you're big on periodization, am I right? In terms of safety wouldn't leg extensions be worse on the knees than squats or are those claims just overstated? I stopped doing heavy leg extensions because I felt it was doing more harm than good.

 

[CDB]

Bobo, I'm guessing you're big on periodization, am I right? In terms of safety wouldn't leg extensions be worse on the knees than squats or are those claims just overstated? I stopped doing heavy leg extensions because I felt it was doing more harm than good.

Don't know the science behind it, but the leg extension machine seems more like a knee sheering machine to me. And when I've used it in the past I've felt like I had shaved glass in my knees for a while afterward. Granted my knees are shot to begin with, but it's my experience. Squats actually help my knees. I still don't go too heavy with them. Last HST cycle I topped off at 300 on my squats. My knees still hurt but the pain is generally less than it used to be, and my range of motion is much better than it was before I started squatting again. Wide stance is what I use of course.

 

[Ryker]

Ah the good ol 5X5. Man, this routine is IMO about the best routine out there unless you are a bodybuilder. But Matt is right about checking your pride at the door. I have had 4 friends start and quit the 5X5 because they hated the fact that they can't lift near as much as a typical isolation excercise they were used too. It WILL rock your world so prepare to be humbled. And no I am not a PL but rather a thick cut and strong mutha.

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 fucks, 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.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Bobo, I'm guessing you're big on periodization, am I right? In terms of safety wouldn't leg extensions be worse on the knees than squats or are those claims just overstated? I stopped doing heavy leg extensions because I felt it was doing more harm than good.

I do like it yes.


As far as leg extensions, its an isolation exercise so the need to go heavy isn't present. The reps should be slow and controlled therby reducing the weight needed. I never understood people doing heavy leg extensions.

 

[CDB]

As far as leg extensions, its an isolation exercise so the need to go heavy isn't present. The reps should be slow and controlled therby reducing the weight needed. I never understood people doing heavy leg extensions.

Even lower weight extensions leave my knees hating me. I'm sure someone with healthier joints wouldn't be effected in the same way though.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Then you simply don't do them. I have bad knees and lower back and they are just fine for me. Everyone is different.

 

[natedogg]

As far as leg extensions, its an isolation exercise so the need to go heavy isn't present. The reps should be slow and controlled therby reducing the weight needed. I never understood people doing heavy leg extensions.

Got it. But even if I did high reps I would still top out at a pretty considerable weight. You see bodybuilders doing an entire stack and then some. Can't be great on the knees. I personally put leg extensions in the "risky/potentially dangerous" grouping (ie behind the neck presses/pulldowns, upright rows, heavy skullcrushers, hack squats, etc).

 

[Dwight Schrute]

I wouldn't put them in there at all if done right. You could say the same for squats, deadlifts because the majority of people do them wrong as well. As with all things what feels right to you feels wrong to me and vice versa. An exercise can be done perfectly and still not "feel" right. Its all different and really depends on bone and body structure.

 

[Magickk]

I do like it yes.


As far as leg extensions, its an isolation exercise so the need to go heavy isn't present. The reps should be slow and controlled therby reducing the weight needed. I never understood people doing heavy leg extensions.

Because the more weight you have on, the bigger / stronger you are (look)!!! j/k

 

[StuckeyBoss]

Matt, I enjoyed reading your post. I believe the majority of it. I tried the one bodypart a day, once a week. My strength and weight stagnated for a long time. I got back to doing routines hitting the muscle at least twice a week and the gains came again. I personally like Titan Training and Size Surge 2.
I too believe in compound movements being the majority of the lifts when starting out by people who say they want to gain size quickly. That is the way to do it....squats, deadlifts, bench press, shoulder press, etc. The squats though, I only go to parallel. I have read a study where they did an EMG on people squatting and going all the way to the bottom showed more stress on the glutes and hamstrings and less on the quads. The EMG showed the best results on the quads when a person goes parallel.
But overall, I have to agree with what you are saying. So true. I read muscle magazines mainly for pro updates, contest information, dieting tips, new supplements, etc. but I never follow any of the routines.
Thats about it for now, but I wanted to say it was a good read.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Because the more weight you have on, the bigger / stronger you are (look)!!! j/k

Yeah, myths never want to seem to die. What I love is when people say they can see a difference between the two in a short peroid of time when every condition and variable is constatnly changing. Another exmaple of Joe Blow getting HYOOGE by lifting "dem heavy weights". It goes both ways as well.

Muscles adapt but the thing people don't understand is that even the slightest of changes remedies this. It could be as easy is change your rep range or tempo but the sport is based on results seen over years and years of work. Everyone needs that 6 month epiphany to have them feel tehy are doing something different that is really effecting their overall goals.

In reality, the actualy exercise is only a very SMALL part of the problem. Nutrition is MUCH more imporant by a long shot than changing my squat to a leg extension or trianing once vs. two times per week. Those changes are so small and miniscule. Any beginner can blow up fairly fast with any type of training.

I told a client of mine today who has been competing naturally for 17 years that he better do his heavy squats. We both had a chuckle...(and NOT THE CANDY! )

 

[Beowulf]

Originally Posted by Matt ALRI
....However, your responses seemed so totally negative towards me, and I'm not sure why?....

I noticed Bobo didn't hop in here and say anything about this, so I'll do it for him

I can guarantee it's nothing personal toward "you". Stick around and you'll see it's common...he just doesn't sugar-coat his debates (which can get frustrating when you're on the other end at times ).

I think I've only seen one thread where he seemed to be "irritated -> mad", this on the other hand is normal. You'll get used to it :rofl:

Any way you look at it, and no matter what opinion you develop of him, the fact is he's still full of a lot of good information and it's hard to argue with him :rofl:

If you guys think his debating style is not sugar-coated you should see how he reprimands his clients when they **** up on their plan. :icon_lol:

His approach certainly works, both in training and in reprimanding

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Yes but the payoff is great. The best feeling in the world is getting someone to their goals. When someone wins a contest or gets in the best shape of their life or how our own LakemountD made the FSU football team as a walk-on. **** like that puts a HYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGE smile on my face.

 

[Beowulf]

Yes but the payoff is great. The best feeling in the world is getting someone to their goals. When someone wins a contest or gets in the best shape of their life or how our own LakemountD made the FSU football team as a walk-on. **** like that puts a HYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGE smile on my face.

I should have some nice updated pics for you tonight

 

[Matt ALRI]

The squats though, I only go to parallel. I have read a study where they did an EMG on people squatting and going all the way to the bottom showed more stress on the glutes and hamstrings and less on the quads. The EMG showed the best results on the quads when a person goes parallel.

What's wrong with putting some stress on the glutes and hamstrings? Isn't the idea of a compound movement to work as many muscles as possible?

Also, have you ever seen olympic lifters' quads? There huge.

Matt

 

[Matt ALRI]

I told a client of mine today who has been competing naturally for 17 years that he better do his heavy squats. We both had a chuckle...(and NOT THE CANDY! )

Why? Because you don't believe in heavy squats? Do most of your clients not do them?

Matt

 

[Magickk]

Also, have you ever seen olympic lifters' quads? There huge.

Matt

They're Olympic lifters, what do you expect?! :lol:

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Not at all. Its just the fact that people who tihnk you NEED heavy squats are mistaken. I have guys with extremely developed legs that don't ever go below 10 reps on a squat and they have been doing this for 15+ years.

All my clients do squats though unless they have discomfort due to injuries.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

What's wrong with putting some stress on the glutes and hamstrings? Isn't the idea of a compound movement to work as many muscles as possible?

Also, have you ever seen olympic lifters' quads? There huge.

Matt

He isn't saying there is anything wrong with it just point out that different muscle groups are stressed due to shifting weight (which is commonly taught in Exercise and Sports programs). THis also changes with body structure as there is a point of diminishing returns. Some people can easily create a a stimulus for all the muscle groups by simply going to parallel.

 

[Magickk]

He isn't saying there is anything wrong with it just point out that different muscle groups are stressed due to shifting weight (which is commonly taught in Exercise and Sports programs). THis also changes with body structure as there is a point of diminishing returns. Some people can easily create a a stimulus for all the muscle groups by simply going to parallel.

Think this has anything to do with flexibility?

I know I'm extremely UNflexible, and when I'm at 90 degrees on squats I really feel the burn. I don't feel it behooves me to go any lower...

 

[natedogg]

I got back to doing routines hitting the muscle at least twice a week and the gains came again. I personally like Titan Training and Size Surge 2.
I read muscle magazines mainly for pro updates, contest information, dieting tips, new supplements, etc. but I never follow any of the routines.

What? I've tried the Size Surge programs. They're written by Ironmag BTW. Anyways, SS is just as bad as the routines you seen in the Muscle Rags. Me and my training partner at the time overtrained within 5-6 weeks. This happened twice. Then I learned my lesson. Way too many sets/reps, way too many exercises and just plain too much working out time.

 

[natedogg]

Think this has anything to do with flexibility?

I know I'm extremely UNflexible, and when I'm at 90 degrees on squats I really feel the burn. I don't feel it behooves me to go any lower...

Stretching is your friend.

 

[Magickk]

Stretching is your friend.

Yeah everyone seems to promote it, but I've never been flexible... I stretched and stretched for football, and my coach still called me "Mr. Flexibility" (sarcastically). No matter how much I stretch, I never seem to get any more limber...

 

[natedogg]

Yeah everyone seems to promote it, but I've never been flexible... I stretched and stretched for football, and my coach still called me "Mr. Flexibility" (sarcastically). No matter how much I stretch, I never seem to get any more limber...

I know Bobo dislikes him, but DC has some good stretching techniques that have increased my flexibility a whole lot.

Stretching w/Pics

 

[Matt ALRI]

when I'm at 90 degrees on squats I really feel the burn.

Don't tell me you just said that. LOL

Matt

 

[Magickk]

I know Bobo dislikes him, but DC has some good stretching techniques that have increased my flexibility a whole lot.

Stretching w/Pics

Thanks nate, I'll look into that!

 

[StuckeyBoss]

Ive made great gains on that program. It has been much more productive than MAX-OT when I tried it. I know its written by Ironman but I like their routines...POF and such. Good stuff. I just started the Size Surge 2 routine this week. I just came off of Titan Training with great results.

 

[Magickk]

Don't tell me you just said that. LOL

Matt

Yeah, I did... After I said I'm probably the least flexible person you'd ever meet...

 

[BigVrunga]

Ill take the best ideas from both points of view. Heavy compound movements definitely helped me pack on size and strength quick, but now that Ive reached a decent size and want to gain definition and symmetry, adding more isolation movements to my routine is really starting to show results.

There really shouldnt even be an argument - both views are different ends of the bodybuilding/powerlifting spectrum. A wise person would incorporate ideas from both. PL'ers that dont give attention to cardio and a decent BF% are just too damn fat, IMO. There's no need to be that big, unless you're an olympic lifter who is going to put 600lbs over his head and needs all that adipose tissue to hold his organs together so he wont explode

And BB'ers that refuse to deadlift and squat heavy from time to time definitely dont have the size and thickness that they could. And just 'looking' strong without having the strength to back it up is kind of silly.

But whatever, powerlifting, bodybuilding - I love it all.

BV

 

[Nabeshin]

Speaking of squats, what would be the "wrong" way to do them? We've already established that there are a lot of factors which have no conclusive right or wrong (stance width, range of motion), but what are the things that are set in stone? I've got a case of squat paranoia, I'm always deathly afraid that I'm doing them wrong and I'm gonna turn into a pile of mush or something.

 

[BigVrunga]

Rounding your back, pushing off with the front part of your feet (balls of your feet), and using more weight than you can handle are the big no-no's.

BV

 

[Nabeshin]

Rounding your back, pushing off with the front part of your feet (balls of your feet), and using more weight than you can handle are the big no-no's.

BV

Thanks BV. Guess I need to drop some poundage and take some pressure off of my balls.

 

[Matt ALRI]

Yeah, I did... After I said I'm probably the least flexible person you'd ever meet...

It wasn't the part about squatting to 90*, it was the part about "feeling the burn."

Matt

 

[Magickk]

It wasn't the part about squatting to 90*, it was the part about "feeling the burn."

Matt

I don't watch Richard Simmons aerobics, I SWEAR!!! :run:

 

[Matt ALRI]

I don't watch Richard Simmons aerobics, I SWEAR!!! :run:

I would like to direct your attention to #12 of my list.

Matt

 

[Dwight Schrute]

My point of view is NOT one from the powerlifting perspective. It's from the training skinny ass kids to get big and strong perspective.

Matt

I guess you havne't seen my before pic.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Matt, accepted and forgotten. Cleaned up the thread so we all can move on.

 

[bullydog]

Thanks BV. Guess I need to drop some poundage and take some pressure off of my balls.

oh the jokes I could make....

 

[stalemate]

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 fucks, 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.

Not one word about nutrition....or "food". THAT is laughable. what do you suggest for me as far as diet goes? i'm VERY curious to hear what you think would give optimal results.

 

[Magickk]

Not one word about nutrition....or "food". THAT is laughable. what do you suggest for me as far as diet goes? i'm VERY curious to hear what you think would give optimal results.

He's a powerlifter... He doesn't care what he looks like, he's on a seafood diet!

 

[Phoenix rising]

Not one word about nutrition....or "food". THAT is laughable. what do you suggest for me as far as diet goes? i'm VERY curious to hear what you think would give optimal results.

Umm you need to go down to your local GNC and buy some of that MuscleTech CellTech, nitroTech, and PumpTech and you will get Huuuuuugheeeeeeee!

 

[stalemate]

Umm you need to go down to your local GNC and buy some of that MuscleTech CellTech, nitroTech, and PumpTech and you will get Huuuuuugheeeeeeee!

first off Magikk, funny stuff....but i was thinkin pizza and donuts lol. and Phoenix....i was obviously being sarcastic...so don't play me with the cell tech bit. it's played out and not funny anymore even if you weren't thinkin i'm some idiot, which i'm not. i just wanna hear big Matt's opinion on what one should eat. although i'm sure it has nothing to do with gaining weight...it's all about the squat and deads.

 

[exnihilo]

Not one word about nutrition....or "food". THAT is laughable. what do you suggest for me as far as diet goes? i'm VERY curious to hear what you think would give optimal results.

People make the diet thing way too complicated. For the most part you can tell if something is good for you by how you feel (physically) after you eat it - so eat things that make you feel good and avoid things that make you feel bad. Eating McDonalds makes me feel like ****, eating a hearty meal with lots of veggies makes me feel awesome... Pretty simple.

That, along with the rule of thumb that you eat when you start to feel hunger and continue to eat until you feel full, and you will pack on weight (in a good way) usually.

Unless you're getting paid to have a super low % bodyfat I think people who get super anal about the diet either have mental/self-image issues or have nothing else going on in their life and need to get some new hobbies. If you can get really lean without having to kill yourself, great, more power to you. Otherwise you need to take a hard look at why you are putting yourself through so much frustration and aggrevation...

Of course, saying this on a bodybuilding board is akin to explaining evolution to a bunch of bible thumpers :lol: Best of luck guys.

 

[BigVrunga]

Good point bro, but there's nothing wrong with wanting to maintain a low BF% and having an impressing strength/weight ratio.

Unless you're getting paid to have a super low % bodyfat I think people who get super anal about the diet either have mental/self-image issues or have nothing else going on in their life and need to get some new hobbies. If you can get really lean without having to kill yourself, great, more power to you. Otherwise you need to take a hard look at why you are putting yourself through so much frustration and aggrevation...

Learning the discipline it takes to shred down and maintain a lean and impressive physique can translate to other areas of life too, and be very beneficial. Some phenotypes have to work a lot harder to get lean - and if that means getting anal about diet than that's what it takes.

That, along with the rule of thumb that you eat when you start to feel hunger and continue to eat until you feel full, and you will pack on weight (in a good way) usually.

That's a good general rule to pack on size, but I think if you want to maximize LBM gain and minimize the accrual of fat, structuring your diet, counting calories and measuring your BF% weekly to track your progress is essential.

I guess its all what your goals are about - unless you're a genetic super freak its near-impossible to train for ultimate strength and ultimate conditioning all at the same time. IMHO, the best route is to give attention to each side of the spectrum.

Now that Ive said that, please don't rip off my arm and eat it with a side of broccoli as part of your daily caloric requirement

BV

 

[Phoenix rising]

first off Magikk, funny stuff....but i was thinkin pizza and donuts lol. and Phoenix....i was obviously being sarcastic...so don't play me with the cell tech bit. it's played out and not funny anymore even if you weren't thinkin i'm some idiot, which i'm not. i just wanna hear big Matt's opinion on what one should eat. although i'm sure it has nothing to do with gaining weight...it's all about the squat and deads.

stalemate I do not think you are some idiot. I just couldnt help myself with inserting a cell tech comment in here being sarcastic. Most be those Lortabs at work I'm home injured with only time on my hands and nothing better else to do than anoy others

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Unless you're getting paid to have a super low % bodyfat I think people who get super anal about the diet either have mental/self-image issues or have nothing else going on in their life and need to get some new hobbies. .

Oh god...give me a break. I've never heard someone criticize everyone else about their goals more than you do. If you simply don't understand it, or more likely CAN'T DO IT, you criticize their mental/self-image. As for frustration and aggravation, I don't have any when I diet because I know how to do it the right way. Maybe if you did, you wouldn't get that frustration and aggravation and quit.

Give it a rest exnihilo because coming from someone who tries to diet and posts pictures of his abs, it doesn't hold much water.

Its funny, on this board you don't see many bodybuilders criticize PL'ers simply because its their choice to do so but its funny how those same PL'ers are all over bodybuilders for their choice in goals. IMO the bottom line is that those you criticize the most are the ones that are jealous of something. Maybe if you spent more time concetrating on your diet and less time criticizing you might get those goals you want and not have that 39 inch cough*manly*cough waist. THe ones who claim they are more "manly" are often the ones who are the opposite. I tihnk you need to sniff that ammonia and clear your head.


Seems like this one won't die.