The Golden Formula For Fat Loss

The Golden Formula For Fat Loss 

Before you start any diet you need to know your baseline, that is, how many calories your body needs to maintain your current weight. From this reference point, you can know how many calories you need to cut and how many you need to burn from exercise.

Your basal metabolic rate [aka BMR or sometimes used interchangeably with the term “rest metabolic rate” (RMR)] is that baseline.

Your BMR refers to the number of calories that is needed when your body is at rest, in order to breathe, circulate blood, keep your muscles toned, keep the intestines moving, maintain your glandular activity and keep your body temperature where it should be, etc.

Now here is a surprising fact. The more you weigh, the faster your metabolism is likely running. A large Sumo wrestler that weighs 350 pounds has a higher BMR than a woman weighing 130 lbs. This is because his body has to work harder to carry around that extra weight.

The formula to calculate BMR (both men and women) is 370+[21.6 X Lean Body Mass (LBM) in kg].

So let us calculate the BMR for a 350 lb sumo wrestler with 60% LBM:

1 kg = 2.2 lbs. Weight = 350 lbs. LBM = (0.6 x 350)/2.2 = 95.45 kg
BMR = 370 + (21.6 x 95.45)= 2431.72 calories

So for the sumo guy to maintain his weight, he must consume 2431.72 calories daily. On the other hand, a 130lb woman with 70% LBM will need to consume 1263 calories daily to maintain her weight.

Here is why knowing your BMR is important.

In order to burn fat, you must consume fewer calories than your BMR. But the source of your calories will affect your metabolism to your advantage or to your demise. 

You can find out your BMR by running down to the local gym and having a personal fitness trainer calculate it with a hand-held bio-impedance device. Or perhaps you could have your doctor tell you your LBM. You could then use that figure to calculate your BMR.

My BMR is ______________   Date____________

Tip: 

In case you do your own research, you'll find that there are various formulas for calculating BMR, each with its own pros and cons. There will be some variances in the figures but don't be overly concerned with this. 

The key is to use your BMR as a logical starting point and then adjust your calorie intake each week based on how your body is responding to your diet and exercise plan. No need to calculate your BMR weekly.

Later on down the road when you have made significant progress in your fat loss or want to maintain your weight or seek to build muscle, you may recalculate your BMR.

THE THREE BASIC CHANGES

THE THREE BASIC CHANGES

There are many nutritional changes you need to make. However, we found that these three basic changes to your diet are undoubtedly the most effective and critical to prevent the top three killers in America.

1. Removing the BAD FATS – Replacing them with GOOD or GOD FATS. 

• Bad fats such as hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils, trans fats, and rancid vegetable oils are linked to cellular congestion leading to cancer, chronic fatigue, and neurotoxic syndrome.

• unhealthy fats also are coupled with chronic inflammation that is the key to twenty-first-century drugs.

Heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, etc. are the leading cause of death in the United States and inflammation is at the root.

• smart fats square measure the foremost lacking nutrient within the customary Yankee Diet (SAD), not vitamins and minerals.

• smart fats square measure essential to internal secretion production, cancer bar, brain development, weight loss, cellular healing, and anti-inflammation.

2. Change the MEATS that you EAT.

• There area unit many studies that link business meats with cancer and heart condition.

• Grain-fed to animals created to eat grass changes carboxylic acid ratios and denatures sensible fats, resulting in modern-day unwellness.

• The bioaccumulation of economic pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, and hormones in meats area unit way over what you receive from business vegetables. This leads to many cancers and chronic illness.

• Grass-fed and free vary meats provide several fatty acids missing within the commonplace yank Diet (SAD) such as arachidonic acid, congregated
linoleic acid (CLA), and the proper ratio of Omega 6 and Omega 3 fatty acids.

3. Remove ALL Processed grains and Refined SUGARS from your Diet. 

YES: This includes white rice, white pasta, and white bread. These are processed grains that are sugar raise glucose and insulin the same as sucrose, fructose
To identify acceptable grains, the word "whole, stone-ground or sprouted" must be before the word "wheat" or whatever the grain's name. For example, if it doesn't say the words "whole wheat", it is processed. Wheat flour is not a whole grain and is thus disease-causing to your body. 

• One-third of sugar consumption comes from soft drinks, while two-thirds of our sugar intake comes from hidden sources including lunch meats, pizza, sauces, bread, soups, crackers, fruit drinks, canned foods, yogurt, ketchup, mayonnaise, etc.

• High glycemic or refined sugars cause elevated glucose, which elevates insulin leading to premature aging and degenerative diseases such as type II diabetes, heart disease (inflammation of the arteries), and cancer.

• Sugar is an anti-nutrient offering insignificant amounts of vitamins and minerals and robbing your body of precious nutrient stores. This inevitably leads to diseases of the new millennium such as chronic fatigue, ADD, ADHD, heart disease, diabetes, and cancers.

• Remember refined sugars unnaturally spiking and elevation of insulin and leptin. Prolonged spiking/elevation of insulin and leptin lead to insulin and leptin resistance. Insulin and leptin resistance cause diabetes and weight loss resistance or the inability to burn fat for energy, respectively.

NEVER QUIT AND NEVER GIVE UP

NEVER QUIT AND NEVER GIVE UP 

In closing, I wanted to write that if you intended to become something great, then become engrossed in it. submerse yourself in the arms of it, and embrace all of the love and pain that will come with realizing whatever dream you may have for your life.

There will be times of agony that make you question if you really want to go on; if you want to continue. Your desire will wane at times, you will wonder if you can take another fall. Remember that falling is not failing. We all fall. We only fail when we no longer desire to stand again. It is then that the desire to quit becomes greater than the desire to overcome, to achieve, to succeed. That is what failure is. 

Failure is not missing a lift, or underperforming when we truly emptied ourselves into something. That is merely falling. And falling is perfectly acceptable. In fact, it is during our fall that we learn so much more about who we are than during our successes. It is during that time that our will and mettle is tested. If we allow it, this will strengthen us, harden us, enable us to be better than we were before the fall.

If we allow it, it can also break us entirely. Ultimately, it is the choice of the fallen to decide those things.

Do I stand, and walk again? Or do I sit here, and embrace being conquered?

Be strong….not conquered.

WHY TESTING WITHIN THE GYM WILL BE YOUR BIGGEST ENEMY

WHY TESTING WITHIN THE  GYM WILL BE YOUR BIGGEST ENEMY

GENERALLY, IT WOULD GO SOMETHING LIKE THIS…. 

 • Train for weeks or months. Make good/great progress. 

 • Feel stronger. 

 • Get the need to test, you know, because I feel stronger.  

 • Make or miss the tested lift. 

 • ???? 

 • Profit? 

There was really no profit. The next week I would test…. again. And the next week I would test. Eventually, I would end up not being able to hit that lift, and I’d wonder why I had gotten “weaker”.

I believe this is often the reason many people suffer from chronic routine changing, i.e. finding a new “routine” every few weeks. People hit a mark they have been working for, and now associate “success” with that particular level of achievement. Their mindset revolved around hitting that mark for so long, that it cemented itself as the manifestation of “success”.

When the inability to hit that “mark” starts happening, they believe it is because what they were doing is no longer a viable option. When in reality, it is the inability to let go of affirmation by way of hitting that mark that is the issue.

“I finally hit 500.” 

“I missed 500 today.” 

“I missed it again.” 

“I wasn’t even close.” 

“What happened? I hit 500 easily that one time.”

What happened? You stopped building. You stopped working. You become enamored with the little goal that you thrived off the affirmation it gave you on a weekly basis to know “hey I’m pretty good, now.”

Now you’re not building anything anymore. You’re not working like you were. You had a goal before this, and you put in the work and effort to help it become a realization. Now you’re just content to live within the realization that you created.

Until you STOP testing on a weekly basis and get back to building something more, you will eventually find yourself in a state of regression. Then you’ll actually have to work just to find yourself back to where you were before. That’s time lost TWICE. Think about it. You’re now in a position where you’re having to work just to get back to where you BEFORE. Why, because you lost sight of “building” while your eyes were constantly focused on testing.

One way to make sure you do not get caught up in this cycle is to NEVER test maxes in the gym. Rep PR’s tend to not have this same negative effect it seems, as most people can move right from hitting X weight for X reps to a new goal. A 1 rep max PR tends to put a lot of people into this cycle of stagnation or regression. Make it a point to NOT test 1 rep maxes in the gym. I’ve never been told of a single reason that makes any sense to me to do a true 1 rep max in a gym. If you’re not competing, you don’t need to do it. If you are competing, save it for the platform. It is really that simple.

THE MENTAL SIDE OF TRAINING (PART 4)

THE MENTAL SIDE OF TRAINING (PART 4)

BENG FULL AND STAYING HUNGRY - EXCERPT FROM LRB 

Every seminar I’ve done and each person I’ve ever talked to regarding coaching all have the same story regarding goals and complacence.

They set goals they desperately want to achieve. And when that happens.......they become very full. Complacency sets in, and the coast. The fire that drove them to reach those goals wanes, and sometimes dies altogether.
Without fail, I see it over and over again.
People feel sensible regarding their accomplishments, and they rest on their laurels.
Now, I believe everybody ought to in truth feel sensible regarding achieving their goals and moving the mountains that may are in their method.

What’s not good is to sink into complacency after that.
I will tell you why.

Without fail, the people that lose that hunger, eventually regress, and then only have their “stories” left to talk about what they USED TO BE.

I trained a lady once for quite a while that lost a major quantity of weight.

More than 100 pounds. When she reached a certain weight, which was still around 20 pounds above where I told her she needed to be, she told me “I feel good at this weight. That’s enough, I think this is fine.” It wasn’t fine.
The reason she didn’t need to push towards that further twenty pounds of weight loss was as a result of she felt it had been too intimidating.

In essence, she pushed out. What she had was good enough. Spare me the ideology about “being happy with where you are, nonsense. That’s exactly how people find themselves quitting or regressing. Which is exactly what happened to her.
Since then she’s gained a major quantity of her weight back and doesn’t train anymore.

I know quite a few women like this.
That they lost a major quantity of weight, and then tell people about it, but fail to mention that they haven’t made any progress in quite some time.

I think most of us know a few of these.

“I’ve lost X quantity of weight within the last X months/years.”

“What have you done since then?”

“Well I’ve been stuck for a short time at this weight, but I’m ok here”.

Whatever.

You’ve been stuck as a result of you're content and resting on your fucking laurels.

You’re way too god damned proud of yourself. Notice I say TOO PROUD. Be PROUD of what you have accomplished, but don’t ever let your accomplishments quench your thirst for improvement.
Men often do the same with their lifting.
“I wanted to bench/squat/deadlift/press X amount. And I did that.”
“What have you done since then?
” “Well, I’ve simply been reasonably you recognize.....fuck, yea nothing.”

Fucking whatever.
It is the same issue.
You’ve not affected past your goal in the slightest degree as a result of once you arrived, that fireplace left you. The immense feeling of urgency that drove you for many months has now dissipated and now you’re “full”.
The desire and hunger and want to urge higher is gone. You got your fat contract extension. Your teammates love you. The fans are chanting your name now.
You’re on your way to “has-been-ville”. There have been no PR’s in months and months. Hell, you don’t even know what the fuck you’d like to set a PR in!
There has been no fat loss in months and months. In fact, you think It is perfectly fine to have cheat meals whenever the fuck you want. You have dieted for months and months. You “paid your dues”. You can eat what you want now.

Listen, you’re either regarding convalescing, or you’re not. It is really that simple. You’re either getting better, or getting worse. The truth is, there is no stagnation. I know. I’ve been there. I’ve also watched dudes who said they could do something that they had trained months and months for, FAIL to have the ability to do it because they let their desire wane to the point that they had regressed.

You see, the reality is, time is always passing.
You are either doing things to boost, otherwise you can regress and acquire worse. Inching forward is still inching forward. Small improvements still count. It doesn’t matter if it is a single pound of weight loss in a month.
That’s twelve pounds of fat loss therein year. That’s better than none, or weight gain.

That five pounds you set on your bench is best than zero, or losing strength.

Set specific goals, for a month, three months, six months, a year, 10 fucking years I don’t care.
Do what you have got to try to to to retain that fireplace. To me, there is nothing more annoying than talking to someone who reached a certain “milestone” and brags about it, but then cannot talk about any future goals to get better. I know, I’ve been that person.
I awoke one morning to the conclusion that I hadn’t created any important progress in over a year.
A fucking year of my life gone, in the gym at least 3 days a week or more, with nothing to show for it. I annoyed myself.
If that’s you right now, then wake the fuck up and stop trying to rely on god damn motivational posters and sayings and stop resting on your fucking laurels. I write it all the time, you’re either about getting better, or you’re not.
But the actual fact is, you’re either regarding convalescing, or obtaining worse. There’s really no in-between.

THE MENTAL SIDE OF TRAINING (PART 3)

THE MENTAL SIDE OF TRAINING (PART 3)

THE ENEMY OF PATIENCE – ENTITLEMENT 

A jigsaw puzzle will never put itself together for you, no matter how long you work on it. The pieces will only be put in place by the hand that picks them up, figures out where they are supposed to go, and places them there. Some people put these pieces together faster than others, and some people put them together slower than others. Some people never finish putting together the puzzle at all, and simply resign themselves to being “wishful” or an “I once…” person. ”I once thought about finishing that jigsaw puzzle…. but then it got to be more tedious than I felt like the effort was worth.”

As the saying goes, you can wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first. Entitlement is quite often the enemy that unstitches our efforts to eventually develop an understanding of patience.

When one finally understands that something will take time, and develops an association with that concept, then being patient becomes accepted. The great thing about understanding patients in one area is that it often transcends into other areas of your life seamlessly. Then you find that the ability to deal with and weather storms, plateaus, and setbacks effectively becomes a part of who you are. You grok patience. You accept it as part of the journey because you eventually understood what it meant. It is not just about a time frame alone, but about doing the right things over and over again in that time frame.

That is the only way that our goals and dreams can manifest themselves into our reality.

A major key facet in understanding patients is to appreciate every step forward, no matter how insignificant it may appear. Inching forward is still better than not moving at all. Learn how to appreciate every small step forward/ After all, you just got a little bit closer to your goal. Even the smallest of goals attained add up to very big things over time.

Think in terms of creating the single best moments that you can. Not the best week, or month, or year. None of those things are promised to us, only the here and no. Focus on the here and the now, patience will eventually be something understood and accepted. You will realize that you’ve traveled very far from where you first started. The “time” associated with that journey will never be a part of the burden.

BELIEF 

“If you stumble about believability, what are you living for? Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?” - Yann Martel

All of us sling the iron because we desperately want to become something more. There’s no getting around that. We desire to become a better/bigger/enhanced version of what we currently are physical. This is in fact, why we do the things we do in and out of the gym. When I was trying to “understand” patience and long periods of stagnation or regression would occur, I would often immerse myself into those pools of despondency I wrote about earlier. Sometimes succumbing to the belief that I would never ever “measure up” to anything I felt was worthy of being called strong or muscular. Often times the worst thing about the present is that it always feels permanent and lasting.

If you take just a moment of proper reflection, you will realize, it never is. The only constant changes.

If you keep applying enough force, eventually the pendulum will swing back in the other direction, and momentum can be seized. If you immerse yourself in all the things you need to do to improve, it will eventually happen. It just may not happen at the rate that keeps a smile on your face. As I noted about patience, it is up to us to make the best of the present in order to inch forward. When you waste that time in the doldrums of disbelief then your gifts go unappreciated, and belief is snuffed out. “I took my bench from 300 to 315. It is not elite, but….”

Always be proud of your accomplishments. You worked for them. Believe in yourself and your ability to get to that next level. If you don’t believe you can, no one else will believe in you. And even if they did, it would not matter. They aren’t the one who has to put in the work. It is up to you to take it upon yourself to instill the unyielding belief that you are a force to be reckoned with. You have to make the decision to stop dwindling in the darkness of self-doubt.

There has to come to a point in your mind, a moment where you undoubtedly believe. You UNDERSTAND, that you can and that you will. All doubt has been eviscerated and replaced with that of determination and unwavering perseverance. Doubt has to be conquered so that belief can begin its reign.

“I hope” is replaced by “I will.”

“I might” is replaced by “I can.”

Since this is for JTS, then their motto is very fitting for understanding this mindset.

“Become unstoppable.”

Without understanding that patience and belief work hand in hand with each other, you might eventually find yourself in those awful places of doubt and despondency. Perhaps you already have at times.

You must understand that the journey you are on is, in fact, a marathon, and not a sprint. Even the most elite of lifters struggle for years, and often decades at a time to climb up to the next rung on the ladder. The first time Andy Bolton stepped foot in a gym he deadlifted 600 pounds. He didn’t pull his 1,000 world record deadlift until 20 years later.

Here are some undeniable facts about every training journey that has endured a significant test of time.

There will be times of struggle. You may go long periods without much to show in the way of progress. You must hold steadfast to the belief that they will pass, and that you will eventually push through them.

There will be times of doubt. You must fight this off with the force of 10,000 Vikings. It is imperative that you find a way to stay positive and hold on to the belief that nothing will stop you from attaining the things you desire most. Every lifter worth his salt that has paid his dues and put in his timeshare similar stories of struggle and doubt. The ones that survive those times long enough will also be able to share with you that the two words written about here, will serve you better than any two other words you will ever need on your journey to becoming what you envision. Patience, and belief.

Understand patience. Accept the process. Believe with an undying will. You will arrive. It will happen.

THE MENTAL SIDE OF TRAINING (PART 2)

THE MENTAL SIDE OF TRAINING (PART 2)

PATIENCE AND BELIEF - MY PUBLISHED ARTICLE FROM JUGGERNAUT STRENGTH SYSTEMS

When I started lifting weights at fourteen years old I could barely bench press the bar. By “the bar” I mean the empty bar. 45 pounds. If I could bench it, it was with some “bro spotting”.

“All you man! You’re owning that bar!”

I was 5’9” and 98 pounds of pure depression and self-loathing. I do not believe my condition in that regard was unique to me as a teenager. Lots of young men struggle with puberty and trying to find balance in the early years of hormonal wreckage. Cracked voices, zit riddled faces, and awkwardness with those of the opposite sex so horrifying that it can only be observed and not described are often the things that make up our youth. These conditions often make for shaky confidence, to put it mildly.

For many males that hoist the iron, their genesis in the weight room started to help overcome these conditions. To combat them by putting on a shield of “armor” and add some confidence and stability to a shaky foundation.

I did not love the weights at first. I hated the soreness. I hated the gym and the effort I was being asked to give by my coach at the time. As my strength increased and my body started to look more like that of a teenage dude instead of a teenage chic, my love for the iron grew. I learned to love the effort. I appreciated the struggle. Boy did I struggle.

It took me almost two years from that point in order to hit a plate on each side. Yes, it took me to damn near two years to bench press 135 pounds. Though progress in my later teenage years was far more substantial than my early years (I never had that “noob gain” phase like most guys do), I was certainly not a natural mutant or freak.

Since those early days, I’ve close grip bench pressed 445 pounds, incline pressed 425 pounds, and doubled 315 pounds in the press behind the neck. It took me more than two decades of struggle to climb to those numbers. Regardless of how they compare to anyone else’s, they are mine, and I’m proud of them. I put in a lot of time and effort to reach them. I do not apologize for not “measuring up” to what someone else can do. The only person I need to measure up to each day and get better than, is the competition I see in the mirror. That guy needs to be better today than he was yesterday. Tomorrow, he needs to be a little bit better than he was today.

Was my attitude always like this? Hell no.

I went through many years of struggling with doubts and self-loathing in regards to my lifting. I did, in fact, compare myself to other lifters I saw that were bigger and stronger than me. I would oftentimes get depressed because I didn’t measure up to this guy, or that guy in that regard. A belief resonated constantly in me that I had been training too long and too hard to have such a modicum of results in return for my efforts. Especially compared to others I knew that either hadn’t been training as long or that I saw weren’t working as hard as I was.

The reason these thoughts plagued me is that I had not come to the realization that I needed to understand the two most important concepts behind success in training.

Patience, and belief.

PATIENCE

The four virtues of self-efficacy are courage, perseverance, persistence, and patience. Of those four, I believe that for the majority of us patience is the hardest to understand and accept. Understanding patience is the first step in accepting it, and the difference between knowing something and understanding something, are two very different things. Knowing is the act of having knowledge.

By definition, knowing is the expertise and skill acquired by an individual through his experiences and education. Understanding, by definition, means a psychological process related to a person, object, situation, or messages which require an individual to think and use concepts to deal with. Understanding involves conceptualization and association.

“I know I have to be patient.”

I may “know” this….but I may not understand it. A lack of understanding means that I may not have any way to associate the time frame that is required for my dreams, goals, aspirations, etc., to come to fruition. It requires you to have an association with it personally somehow, through experience, and a deeper understanding of a process.

Understanding means you have a fundamentally deeper level or grasp of something, than knowledge. You cannot take a class in college to obtain knowledge on how to be patient or understand what patience really is. Conceptually it means something different to everyone.

If I do not understand the process behind reaching my goals I will not come to an understanding of patience. I may whine and cry about how long it is taking, or I may believe that I am in fact doing enough and that my efforts feel as though they are in vain.

“I work hard! It is not happening as fast as it should be! I’m obviously doing something wrong, or I’m not cut out for this.” Even if you are working hard, and doing everything to the maximum of your genetic abilities, it still may take longer than you wish. The body can only move as fast as the physiological motor will allow. The “wanting” or “desire” of your mind cannot change that function. It can certainly fuel your efforts, but the fruits of your labor will always be limited to how fast your body can process all of the variables involved with training, diet, and recovery to make you bigger/ stronger.

“I do everything right. I have sacrificed everything in my life to make this dream become a reality. I deserve to get what I want!” I understand that. The universe does not care about your sacrifices and wishes. There is not a God of Powerlifting/bodybuilding/strongman/athletic-abilities that can acknowledge your sacrificial atonement and bless you with the abilities you desperately desire. The only thing you deserve is what you can earn or take, and retain as your own.

If the fulfillment of your aspirations and goals has not been realized, then the difficulties that are beset upon you, still need to be conquered. To put it plainly, you still have work to do.

You still have more time to put in. Regardless of how you “feel” about it, those conditions still haven’t been met. That means you have NOT come to an understanding and association that more time and/or more effort is required. There’s simply no getting around that concept.

THE MENTAL SIDE OF TRAINING (PART 1)

THE MENTAL SIDE OF TRAINING (PART 1)

The above was a quote that Ed Coan said to me on a Sunday morning in Chicago as we were about to start the Q&A part of a seminar we were involved in.

The previous night a crew of us had trained at the famous Quad’s gym. Pete Rubish and I had done some overhead work but Pete, being the great dead lifter that he is, wanted to do some dead-lifts. I agreed and we decided on 4” deficit pulls, once the other guys we were with were done pulling.

We warmed up, as usual, 135, 22, 5 315, 405. Then got into the heavier stuff. 500 flew up, 550, 585, and 635.

Pete wanted to go to 660 in the final set. I had pulled 655 a few weeks before at the USPF Nationals on a torn groin, but pulling 660 from a deficit like that is significantly harder than from the floor. Brandon Lilly assured me that “635 was fast, Paul. I’m not saying it was a speed set, but it was damn easy looking.” And he was right. It was. I ripped 635 like it was nothing.

Pete got on the platform after hitting some nose torque (ammonia) and pulled the 660 for a grinder. He was then goaded by our crew to pull another with it. He did and it was impressive because Pete’s first rep looked like a max. Pete is famous for grinding out another rep when it looks like he will not get another.

I prepared myself to pull the 660. I paced about like a wild animal, shuffling my feet back and forth, and grunting very slightly under my breath. After a few minutes of this, I hit the small platform, reached down and pulled the slack out of the bar, then dropped my hips and went. It shot off the floor like it was out of a cannon. And then right at my knees, it died. I mean just died.

Ernie Lilliebridge Sr., a man, and a lifter I respect in all ways that you can respect someone told me “you were behind the bar the whole time. It should have gone.” Brandon thought the bar was just slightly in front of me. I personally didn’t know why it died after coming off the floor easily. But Ed did. He told me the next morning after I was whining about missing that lift when I wanted it badly. “You know why you missed it, Paul?” He said to me. “You missed it because you approached it like it was heavy. It was. Every pull before that, you walked up to the bar with confidence and ripped it off the floor. When you got to that last one, you took way too long, and you psyched yourself out of the lift.” I stood there speechless for a bit.

He was right. It had nothing to do with strength. The 660 shot off the floor because the strength was there. You see, I’m weakest off the floor. It should have gone. In the back of my mind, I had convinced myself that the 660 would be hard to get. It was a weight I was not confident in moving and I didn’t. I saw this same thing transpire a few months later at a UPA meet. The lifter walked up to his opening deadlift, set up, and ripped it off the floor. He repeated this action on his second attempt as well. He walked up to it, got set up, and ripped it off the floor.

On his third attempt, he paced back and forth in the exact manner I did at Quads that day. He banged his fist into his head, let out a yell, and approached the bar.

I leaned over to the person sitting next to me and said, “He’ll miss this one.” Sure enough, he did. In fact, he missed it at the same spot I missed my pull at Quads. After the meet, I went up and talked to him and relayed my story at Quads, and he smiled at me and acknowledged that he did indeed “talk himself out” of making that pull. That he wasn’t confident when he walked up to that bar. There’s the keyword, is not it? 

Confidence. Confidence is what helps us elevate our game, our mental approach, our outlook on everything we do.

MANUFACTURING CONFIDENCE 

The reason that a lot of people need to take that time to “psyche up” before an attempt they are not confident in, is because they are trying to manufacture confidence. They are trying to draw up something from within them to overcome the obstacle in front of them. It is fake confidence, it doesn’t happen because genuine confidence manifests itself naturally.

YOU overcome the obstacle and YOU have no worries about it.

There is no “psyching up” to “try”. You simply understand this is something you can do, prepare yourself, and accomplish it. People that spend time psyching up are generally trying to manufacture confidence. What they really end up doing most of the time is listening to the demons inside that talk them out of lifts. The ones that speak from down low and whisper over and over again…..”You’re not ready for this.” It will be heavy. You are not meant for this.

You do your best to fight them off, they are all that you can think about when you walk up to the bar. They are all you can think about when you un-rack it, and it feels just as heavy on your shoulders as you imagined. When you hold it in your hands, and your arms quiver and shake under the tremendous weight, and the whispers get louder. You aren’t concentrating on staying tight, driving with your legs, and pressing with all of the strength your body can muster. You’re really succumbing to the demons of doubt. “It is not there.” You’ve already whispered that to yourself in unison with them. The battle is lost.

There are no magical rituals you can conjure up during these times. Nor should there be.

What should have given you that genuine confidence to make that attempt or lift, is that your training gave you constant feedback and reinforcement, that you were good for it? In other words, your training built your body and your mind. Every time you walk up to the bar, it should be with the same attitude. It doesn’t matter if it is a warm-up or a max attempt. Part of “training” is also training the mental approach that you take with you to the bar. This also goes for taking a lift for granted. I’ve seen plenty of guys struggle or even miss weights they considered “not worthy” because they did not respect it.

Your physical approach and mental approach to your work sets, gym sets, meet attempts, all should all mirror each other. I understand that lying down under an empty bar probably will not require you to get AS focused as you need to be on a maximal attempt. You should still be setting up the same way physically. Lots of guys and gals coast through their warm-ups, then change their technique and approach to the bar altogether once the bar is loaded.

Then, once the bar is nearing or at greatest weight, a totally new approach is taken, as a result of the repetition of approaching the bar hasn’t been strengthened. Every approach to the bar should bring purpose. Why else are you even attempting it?
Make your heat ups count each in terms of active technique, in terms of mental approach, and mental cues. People forget that the whole point of training, is essential PRACTICE for competition.
If you don’t follow such as you vie, then why does one expect success come back competition time?

If your coaching builds confidence week when week, and you’ve been active absolutely, then once it's competition time, you’ll feel ready.
You will not second guess yourself, and you may not got to manufacture confidence so as to fight down the demons of doubt.
You will crush them underneath your feet on your thanks to the platform, wherever you may then conquer, sort of a king United Nations agency is aware of no defeat.
This is why missing attempts in training is such a detriment to successful training cycles.
I harp on this all the time, however the blokes within the “old days” may arrange out long coaching cycles, ne'ermiss a raise, then go into the competition and crush them all day.
I see guys all the time currently perpetually making an attempt to hit a one rep maxes within the athletic facility, typically missing, and curious why they bomb or fail on their thirds at meets.
Training ought to be building confidence the complete time and reinforce the notion that you simply will crush no matter is place before of you.
The mental game in training has been just as important as the physical undertaking of getting stronger.
Settle on a mental approach that works for you on the same basis.
One that you simply will draw upon that has repetition related to triumph, not failure, not one that is different for “X” attempts than you used for “Y” attempts.
Honing your mental approach to the bar may be a huge a part of turning into well rounded, and for setting the stage for success.
Approaching the bar with the arrogance of a champion, is that the place you would like to systematically end up.
This is why it is important that you NOT downplay your accomplishments, or what you are capable of, because YOUR lifting exists in a vacuum. There is not a single other person that picks up the barbell in that world, except you. Treat YOUR WORLD as if you are the strongest mother fucker in it, because you are.

BASE BUILDING SPLITS (PART 4)

BASE BUILDING SPLITS (PART 4)

CONDITIONING 

Unlike Powerlifting, strongman generally requires that you be in some semblance of shape, Cardio wise. You have a few options here, in my opinion.

Use circuit or medley style events to get in both conditioning AND event work, or just do some conditioning work on off days. Like sprints, prowler or car pushing, or sled work. I will say this. From talking with two very high-level strongmen competitors, they both agreed with me that a very optimal way to work in conditioning is to simply place it on the backend of a training cycle AS you de-load. Here are the reasons why.

It takes far longer to get stronger than it does to get into shape. Therefore you should be spending the bulk of your training cycle simply working on getting as strong as humanly possible, and not worrying about anything else. It does not take long to get in fairly good shape, Cardio wise. A few weeks at the most. You can set your training cycle up so that you run your base-building work for weeks/months at a time, then de-load the last couple of weeks before a competition, and then spend that time working on conditioning while you work in the weight room to just maintain that base level you had been working on. Essentially you just readjust your priorities, or how much effort goes into those things so that you show up as strong as possible and in as good a shape as possible.

AN EXAMPLE OF A 12 WEEK CYCLE FOR A COMPETITION: 

• Week 1 - Strength Work BBM 

• Week 2 - Strength Work BBM 

• Week 3 - Strength Work BBM 

• Week 4 - Strength Work BBM 

• Week 5 - Strength Work - Peaking strong-15 

• Week 6 - Strength Work - Peaking strong-15 

• Week 7 - Strength Work - Peaking strong-15 

• Week 8 - Strength Work - Peaking strong-15 

• Week 9 - Strength Work - Peaking strong-15 

• Week 10 - Strength Work Maintenance BBM Taper - Ramp Conditioning 

• Week 11 - Strength Work Maintenance BBM Taper - Ramp Conditioning 

• Week 12 - active rest, steady-state Cardio, total de-load 

• Week 13 - competition

The peaking work would simply be adjusting the overhead press, front squat, and deadlift to all use the peaking methods from the strong-15. At week 10 and 11 you would taper the BBM methods back to half the volume, and ramp the conditioning work over those two weeks. Whatever method you choose from that is fine. I think you can get into pretty solid condition by doing HIIT 3 times a week. The last week would be for complete rest, with only a couple of steady-state sessions throw in to aid in overall recovery.

FULL BODY SPLITS FOR BBM 

Full body training goes back to the genesis of weight lifting. In lifting, it was the most common way to train. It was this way for a very long time until some found that as they got stronger, or wanted to concentrate on improving specific areas, or movements, it has been often more efficient to work those on separate days.

Thus body part splits began. Full body training still has plenty of merits. Even for advanced guys.

From a base-building perspective, it can be very ideal as it forces you to narrow down your training in very simplistic terms and concentrate on the movements. This is all about what base building is. If you like full body splits, then I highly recommend using them during your base building cycles.

My personal preference for laying out a full body split is to squat three times a week, pull once a week, and press three times a week. I will also lay out a few variations of this where you squat twice a week, press twice a week, and deadlift once a week.

FULL BODY TEMPLATE 1 - SQUAT 3x week/PRESS 3x week/DEADLlIFT ONCE

DAY 1 - SQUAT/BENCH/ROW 

Squat - BBM 

Bench - BBM 

Row - 4x8 

Curl - 1x100

DAY2 - FRONT SQUAT/DEADLIFT/INCLINE

Front Squat - 5x5 @ 60% 

Deadlift - BBM 

Incline Press - 350 method 

Curl - 1x100

DAY 3 - SQUAT/BENCH/CHIN 

Squat - BBM 

Bench - BBM 

Chin - 5x AMAP 

Curl - 1x100

FULL BODY TEMPLATE 2 - SQUAT 2x week/PRESS 2x week/DEADLIFT ONCE 

This template is for guys who like whole bodywork, but may have trouble getting all the work in, or are a little stronger and need a bit more recovery. I’ve massaged around the movements a bit in order to lessen the workload of each training session.

DAY 1 - SQUAT/BENCH/ROW 

Squat - BBM 

Bench - BBM 

Curl - 1x100

DAY 2 - DEADLIFT 

Deadlift - BBM 

Barbell Rows - 4x8 

Lat Pull Downs - 4x8

DAY 3 - SQUAT/BENCH/CHIN 

Squat - BBM 

Bench - BBM 

Chin - 5x AMAP

By no means is this anything revolutionary, nor am I pretending for it to be. Whole-body training most certainly has a time and place in training. Beginners can use it (though it personally is not my preference for beginners), and intermediates can definitely benefit from it. From an advanced guy standpoint, it can have its place. For example, a couple of times I came off of major surgery I used full-body training in order to get back into the swing of things. I felt like it was very productive in that regard.

It can also be a great change of pace for the guys that have been going balls out on split routines for a while. A whole-body routine will sort of force you back down a little bit because you’ll be aware you’ll need to keep some gas in the tank in order to get all of the prescribed work in for the day.

The drawbacks to whole-body training are that essentially you neglect a lot of the “gap” musculature that gets filled in well with more rounded training. By that I mean you don’t get in enough movement variation to either keep injuries at bay, or you don’t “fill out” enough from a muscular standpoint. I’ve heard guys balk at this, but without fail when a guy goes from a limited movement style of training using a wider variety of movements, his base of mass does increase. This is exactly why bodybuilders train this way. More complete development from a muscular standpoint.

That is not the goal when using full-body splits, you probably aren’t worried about that when partaking in one.

FINAL THOUGHTS ON SPLITS 

I wrote in these splits for this book as a “food for thought” type of thing. Most guys get way too bound up in the details of a split without the understanding that it is only a guideline or framework. It is NOT gospel. It is not infallible.

Reread those last two sentences 1,000 before you decide you need to ask a question about a particular training split.

BASE BUILDING SPLITS (PART 3)

BASE BUILDING SPLITS (PART 3)

THE MINIMALIST - 5-6 DAYS A WEEK 

This split is not something I have undertaken but can see myself doing if I am going to limit myself to JUST doing a single main lift. By that I mean, ZERO assistance work at all.

Essentially, this split has you doing upper body one day, and then lower body the next.

Day 1 - Squat BBM 

Day 2 - Bench BBM 

Day 3 - Front Squat BBM 

Day 4 - Incline BBM 

Day 5 - Deadlift BBM 

Day 6 - Overhead BBM 

Day 7 - Off

The shortcoming here would be that the back would not get the kind of direct work I feel it needs. This would only be a split I would advise a very advanced lifter use when he may be passed using a lot of assistance work, or really needs to just hammer home the basic work for an extended period.

This would be the kind of phase one might move into after he had been training in a mass phase for a few months, and needs to get back to just hammering the movements and the movements only. It does present a solid option for those pressed for time each day as well.

STRONGMAN SPLIT - TRAINING FOR STRONGMAN 

Though I’ve never competed in strongman, I’ve talked with and bounced around ideas with both amateur and professional strongman for many years now. And while I am no expert in strongman training, I’ve learned enough from guys that do compete in it, to offer up some ideas about how one would use the base building methods in order to implement them into a strongman scheme.

Because strongman competitions can have a wide variety of events you may have to perform, it is important for you to narrow down your barbell movements to ones that are going to give you as much carryover as possible.

You want your training to be as efficient and economic. The fact remains, you’re just NOT going to be able to become a badass on every single thing at the same time. No different than Powerlifting. It is only three lifts, in most training cycles you’re lucky if 2 are responding well. The third movement is often stubborn and resistant to progress.

My base building methods for strongman are to concentrate on the press, the pull, and a squat variation. The overhead press is a staple of strongman, and so is the pull. The squat is more of a leg “builder” for strongman, as generally if there is squatting at a competition it is with some sort of apparatus. The front squat should be the base squat for most of your squat training. Not the back squat.

FOR STRONGMAN BASE BUILDING 

OVERHEAD PRESS - 8x3 @ 80% @ 60 seconds between sets

FRONT SQUATS - 5x5 @ 70% using CAT @ 90 seconds rests between sets.

DEADLIFTS - Strongman Method Cycle

1 WEEK FROM 4” BLOCKS - 3x3 @ 80%

1 WEEK FROM THE FLOOR - Phase I, II, III (choose one) of the BBM

1 WEEK FROM BELOW THE KNEE - to a max triple

1 WEEK NO PULLS WITH 2 SQUAT VARIATIONS (recommended fronts with backs or fronts with an apparatus, maybe even the smith machine. Don’t cringe.)

My suggestion to find the movements that give you the most carryover to everything, and narrow it down to those.

My own personal suggestion is as follows...

DAY 1 - HEAVY PRESS AND UPPER BACK 

Heavy overhead - log/barbell/Viking whatever - BBM 

Incline - 350 method

Rows - any variation - 5x8-10 

Chins or Pulldowns - 5x8-10 

Barbell Curls - 1x100

DAY 2 - SQUATS AND DEADS 

Front Squats - BBM 

Deadlifts - Strongman Method Cycle 

1 week from 4” blocks - 3x3 @ 80% 

1 week from the floor - Phase I, II, III (choose one) of the BBM 

1 week from below the knee - to a max triple 

1 week no pulls with 2 squat variations Overhead Press - repetition work - 350 methods with any press

DAY 3 - EVENT WORK 

Whatever events you need to work on for the competition, you will do on this day. I personally would pick your best event and get even better at that, and pick your 2 worst events as well. The reason I say pick your best event and get better at that is that this always gives you a strength going into the competition. If you’re behind at some point, you know you can rely on this event to make up for a poor showing in regards to another one.

Pick the two you need the most work on and do those first. 

• Worst event - do work 

• 2nd worst event - do work 

• Best event - get even better

BASE BUILDING SPLITS (PART 2)

BASE BUILDING SPLITS (PART 2)

MONDAY- BENCH/INCLINE/OVERHEAD
Bench - BBM
PEC Deck/Incline Fly/Side Laterals - 4x10
Tricep Overhead - 4x10
Curl - 4x10

WEDNESDAY - SQUAT/PULL
Squat - BBM
Deficit Deadlift - BBM
Leg Press or Stiff Legs - 2x20

SATURDAY - BACK 
Barbell Row - 4x8
Lat Pulldowns/Chins - 4x8 / 4 X AMAP
Shrug - 5x20
Good Mornings - 4x10
Let me add a caveat to this. I can train 6 days a week, and sometimes even twice a day. IF the other workouts are “small sessions, (support or accessory work) things like upright rows, curls, triceps, calves, ABS, etc. If one were so inclined they could drop the support work on bench day, and move those types of movements to 2 or 3 other days a week. This works well for almost anyone, and these “small sessions” are obviously not hard to recover from.

day 1 - am 
• Lower body support
• Adductor machine - 4x10
• Abs - 4x20 • Calves - 4x10

day 1 - pm. 
• Heavy Bench - 3x3, 5x5
• Incline DB Press - 4x10

day 2 - a.m. UPPER BODY SUPPORT 
• Upright rows - 4x20
• Rope pushdowns - 4x20
• Curls - 1 x 100

day 3 - SQUAT AN DEADLIFTIFT ONLY

day 4 - am. LOWER BODY SUPPORT
• Leg curls - 4x10
• Leg Extension - 4x20
• Abductor machine - 4x10

day 4 - pm 
• Upper body support
• Side laterals - 4x10
• Bent laterals - 4x10
• Front raises - 1x100

day 5 - HEAVY BACK WORK 
• Barbell Rows - 4x8
• Shrugs - 5x10
• Good Mornings - 4x10 light

One of the things I like about this split is that you can follow up a brutally hard lower body session with some support work, and recover a bit faster. Same for the upper body.
This also allows you to fill in the muscular gaps a bit better than limiting yourself to just the big movements. It is very similar to how I structure training that is built around the mass gain. Both tend to have similar ideas in mind. And that is, train your big stuff in one session, and all of the smaller components in another that is not as taxing.

THE ZENITH – THE ULTIMATE BASE BUILDING SPLIT
One of the issues with traditional splits is that they generally have you trained the lifts and body parts equally across the week. When in reality, localized and movement recovery needs to be taken into account for optimal progress. Across the span of multiple weeks, everything should be getting equal attention. On just a week to week basis, there should be more of an emphasis on some things, while other movements and muscle groups get a break.
With the Zenith, I addressed these issues by giving attention to certain movements and muscle groups one week, then a different movement or muscle group the next week. I’ve done rotational splits before. This one is a little different in that I woke up to the fact that your upper back should be treated with equal importance as anything in your training. Your bench foundation sits on your back and is supported by yours. Your back supports weight in heavy squats, and of course, the back is primarily involved in the deadlift.
Giving the upper back and as much attention as possible is paramount. To echo a common quote about building a big back, “I’ve seen weak guys with big chests, big arms, big shoulders, and big legs. I’ve never seen a weak guy that had a big back.”
To add to that is the need for big arms. This is not just because curls are for the girls, but also because virtually every big bencher I’ve ever known had serious pipes. If you want to press big, well, the arms need some attention as well. The bicep is also responsible for stabilizing the shoulder and elbow joint in benching, so it is a good idea to have strong biceps as part of the support structure in your pressing.

day 1 - BENCH
Bench - BBM
Incline - 350 method
Dips - 5x AMAP

day 2 - SQUAT/PULL 
Squat - BBM
Deadlift - BBM
Front Squat/Stiff Leg (alternate week to week) - 5x5 / 4x8

day 3 - OVERHEAD/SHOULDERS/TRICEPS 
Press Behind the neck/Military - 4x8
Bent Laterals/Rear Delts - 5x20
Upright Rows - 4x12-15
Triceps - 4x25

day 4 - Back/BICEPS 
Barbell Rows - 4x8
Shrugs - 4x20
Chins/Wide Grip Pulldowns - 4 X A MAP/4x8-10
Curls - 1x100
As you can see, on the first two days, it is the big-3 plus incline, fronts, and stiff legs. The way I generally work this out is, one week you do two squats (backs and fronts) with one deadlift, and then the next week you just back squat, and then do dead-lifts with stiff legs. One week is a little more squat dominant, and the next week deadlift dominant. A great way for an advanced guy to work this along with the BBM for those pulling over 600, is to make sure to base the weeks you don’t pull around squatting twice.

• Week 1 - squat, front squat, deadlift
• Week 2 - squat, deadlift heavy, stiff legs
• Week 3 - squat, front squat, (optional leg press or split squats), no dead-lifts

If I were going to train 4 days a week, this would absolutely be how I would do it.
This allows you to essentially pour all of your energy into the main lifts on one day, then situate all of the supportive work on the other days. For guys who really lack shoulder and back development, which are both critical in support the squat, bench, and deadlift, this is a great way to spend the off-season essentially cruising on the big lifts, and bringing the lagging areas up to speed.
Don’t mistake my term there “cruising” as taking it easy. Often times guys find when they back off of going heavy, and work to “maintain” (as I’ve already written about) they actually end up getting stronger. This is VERY common.
This is a great split for guys who really need to bring up their upper body, the extra back work will also carry over to the squat and pull as well. Make no mistake, the back is the most important part of the entire body in my opinion, in terms of lifting big weights in every facet. If you believe your back strength is not up to par, you need to place a strong emphasis on it (yes, this is a repeating theme here).

BASE BUILDING SPLITS (PART 1)

BASE BUILDING SPLITS 

2 DAYS A WEEK

Some people fret that training twice a week just is not enough, but the fact is most training splits have you squatting, pressing, and pulling once a week and work very well with that amount of frequency, especially for guys that need a little more recovery or are more advanced. If anything, a twice a week routine would be more ideal for an advanced guy that needs more recovery and already has a decent foundation that he’s trying to build upon, rather than a novice.

Twice a week barbell work can also be ideal for a strongman who wants to train his events on the third day.

One of the benefits of training only twice a week is generally the ability to never take a break. You should be getting plenty of recoveries. I always split the squat and pull up, so that you squat one week and pull the next. If you’re a novice guy that is not as qualified (meaning, you’re not that strong yet) I would not recommend this. I’d stay with keeping the squat and deadlift together every week.

TRAINING TWICE A WEEK OPTION 1

DAY 1 – Squat – BBM Deadlift – BBM Split squats – 4x20

DAY 2 – Bench Press – BBM Incline Press – 350 Method Barbell Rows – 4x8 Chins – 4 X AMAP 

TRAINING TWICE A WEEK OPTION 2 – ALTERNATING SQUAT AND DEADLIFT PER WEEK

DAY 1 – Squat/Deadlift (alternate week to week) – BBM Good Mornings/Front Squats (alternate week to week) – 4x10 light/5x5 @ 60% Split Squats – 4x20

DAY 2 – Bench Press – BBM Incline Press – 350 Method Barbell Rows – 4x8 Chins – 4 X AMAP

TRAINING TWICE A WEEK OPTION 3 – PRESSING TWICE A WEEK/SQUATTINg TWICE A WEEK

DAY 1 – Squat – BBM 138

Bench - BBM Barbell Row – 4x10 Curl – 1x100

DAY 2 – Front Squat – 5x5 @ 60% Deadlift – BBM Incline Press – 350 Method

TRAINING THREE TIMES A WEEK 

Training three times a week has long been a solid standard for training efficiently. There are two main splits I’ve always used for training three times a week. One is the “man maker” which I now just call my “standard” split, where you squat and pull on the same day. The other is the traditional split where you simply bench, squat, and pull on separate days.

TRADITIONAL SPLIT

Day 1 - Bench Bench - BBM Incline - 3x8 Side Laterals - 4x10 Triceps - 4x20

Day 2 - SquaT Squat - BBM Leg Press - 4x10 Lunges - 4x20

Day 3 - DEADLIFT AND BACK 

DEADLIFT - BBM Barbell Rows - 3x8 Chins - 5x7 Curls - 1x100

THE STANDARD

 This has been the way I have settled on training more times than not. I feel like this split, for me, gives me the best balance of being able to get a lot of work in, but allow for adequate recovery. A lot of guys can recover very quickly, either because they are not strong enough to tax recovery reserves hard enough, or because their “supplement” stacks allow them to recover better.

Obviously, I’m not pointing fingers or disparaging anyone here. I’m just pointing out why some guys can train with more frequency than others. For me, every time I’ve tried to add in the 4th day of “big work” (meaning, big compound movements) I find that I’m fatigued more through the day, need more sleep, and overall don’t feel like training as much. When I scale it back to three days a week, my enthusiasm always returns.

BEGINNER BASE BUILDING

BEGINNER BASE BUILDING 

Unlike most beginner training models, I do not recommend learning the squat, bench press, and deadlift all at the same time. I have my own reasons for that. 

• The squat is the most technical of the three lifts to learn, it is best the beginner put his/her time in the squat first since it also has carryover to the deadlift. Squatting should be done twice a week early on when the trainee doesn’t have a large amount of muscle mass, thus recovery needs are easily met. 
• I prefer the incline press because you simply lie down, and press. There is no setup to worry about, and people tend to get their wrist and elbow alignment more naturally than in bench pressing. Plus the incline press gives carry over to both the standing press and flat press. That’s win/win right out of the gate. 
• I prefer that guys/gals concentrate on and spend a lot of time developing back mass and strength early. Two movements that are easy to learn and progress on,   rows and chins 
•  Progression tends to make training fun, and when training is fun people tend to stay with it. 
• Trying to get a novice to learn all the nuances of three lifts can cause frustration and the cessation of training because of it. 
• Training should be hard AND fun.

I don’t have beginners do programming in training because their rate of progress tends to be very quick at first. It is too much of a moving target, also because it is far more important to focus on just learning the movements than loading weight on the bar.

Often times the things we learn early in our lifting can be the things that cause us to get stuck at a later point. Poor technique is usually the primary one. It is vitally important to establish good habits early, and learn right out of the gate that constantly perfecting technique is going to be an ongoing process for your ENTIRE LIFTING LIFE.

After 25 years I still have days where I am out of sync, don’t set up correctly, mis-groove a bench, get on my toes during a squat, etc. It is annoying, but it is part of lifting. It is vitally important that you start developing good technique early, and come to an understanding that reinforcing technique is something that never goes away. You will constantly be trying to get better in this regard. As long as you train, this will be the case. It is best to get in the practice of this early.

Another reason why it is important to come to terms with this, is because as a beginner if you rush to get weight on the bar too early, you will end up developing bad habits to move heavier weights, that will get reinforced over and over again. At some point down the line, these bad habits will end up being handicapped or something that causes an imbalance muscularly that gets/keeps you injured.

Either way, what you want to focus on early is developing a solid technique, and reinforcing good technique over and over for as long as possible before you really start worrying about loading up the bar.

BEGINNER FREQUENCY AND VOLUME 

Lots of programs have beginners training only three times a week; however, I honestly feel like because beginners aren’t very qualified as lifting or strength athletes, they should probably do more, and train more.

I generally have beginners train 4 days a week. Beginners aren’t strong enough or technical enough to cause a real dent into the fatigue zone. Training more often tends to speed up progress quite dramatically for beginners. They get more chances to squat, press, and row. Subsequently, they learn the movements faster, get stronger at a more rapid rate, and training enthusiasm stays high.

Of course, as the trainee becomes more qualified he will need to take rest and recovery into account; however, until the start pressing 300, squatting 400, and deadlifting 500 on a semi-regular basis, there’s no reason not to train 4-6 times a week.

BEGINNER ROUTINE IN DETAIL 

There are two squat days. Both entail a 10,8,5,4,3,2,1 warm-up. This means warm up to a nice, crisp top single. After that, you do your “work”. On day 1 it is 3x10 and on day 2, it is 5x5. Just pick a weight that moves smoothly. You should feel “worked” after those sets; however, your form should not be crumbling under the load of it.

AN EXAMPLE MIGHT BE 

BARX 10, 95x8, 115x5, 135x4, 155x3, 175x2, 195x1, 135x3x10 ON The 5x5 DAY YOU MIGHT DO 155x5x5

LUNGES AND 1 LEGGED WORK

 Lunges and 1-legged work is great for everyone, but especially beginners because it can keep imbalances at bay, or correct them, and helps with balance. It is good for a beginner to start using one-legged work right away, and to understand the importance of it. Most guys don’t do enough one-legged work.

DECLINE SIT-UPS AND AB WHEEL 

Having strong Abs is very important. Abs are what “brace” your torso, and gives stability to your entire body during close chained standing movements like squats, and dead-lifts. Training them is important as well. If you cannot get all 3 sets of 20 for the decline sit-ups, that’s ok. Stick with it until you can. Same applies for the Ab wheel. It will be hard at first, but eventually, you’ll be knocking them out like Mike Tyson did tomato cans.

INCLINE PRESS 

I love the incline press. I think it is the most underrated of all the presses. For most guys, it gives carry over to both the overhead press, and flat press. However, guys tend to get locked into only doing overhead and flat press when training for strength. They are missing out, because the incline press allows for heavy, but less technical, pressing work. Bring the bar down high on the chest, and press. That’s about it. I will add that I do not bring the bar all the way down. I stop it about an inch above the chest. This has been far more shoulder-friendly to me than bringing it all the way down to the chest. When I did that in the past, my shoulders complained very loudly to me about it. I cut the ROM slightly short, and never had any more issues in that regard.

ROWS, 

In my opinion, the three best rows are the dumbbell, barbell, and cable row. I like T-bar rows, however, I have found that more often than not, guys stand almost upright with them, essentially turning it into a trap movement, and fail to use the row what It is meant for, building a strong, thick back.

Lots of guys cheat too much on the barbell row as well, and while you can get a little sloppy with the barbell row, I mainly advise that you keep it fairly strict, and not be in a rush to add weight while sacrificing form.

Cable rows are awesome in that you can really concentrate on squeezing the mid-back together, and you don’t have to worry a lot about positioning or technique. Think of it as the incline press of rowing. Stretch it out, and then pull the elbows back and squeeze it all together, it is pretty simple.

I actually am not a huge fan of the dumbbell row because for me personally, it never felt like it was working my back and as well as the other two movements, but for the majority of guys I know that is not the case. Rather than use my own bias in picking the movements, I’ll defer to the masses this time.

GENERAL OUTLINE FOR BEGINNERS 

day 1 Squats - 10,8,5,4,3,2,1 - 3x10 Lunges - 3x10 Decline Sit Ups - 3x20

day 2 Incline Press - 8x8 DB/T-Bar/Cable Row - 8x8 Chins - 5x AMAP

day 3 -OFF

day 4 Squats - 10,8,5,4,3,2,1 - 5x5 1-Legged Squats - 5x10 Ab Wheel - 3x10

day 5 Incline Press - 5x5 DB/T-bar/Cable Row - 5x10 Chins - 5x AMAP

day 6 - OFF

day 7 - OFF

PLATEAUS

 Obviously, plateaus are the black plague of training, and nothing sucks worse than being stuck at a certain weight, body weight, or body fat for an extended period of time. Nothing sucks worse than busting ass for weeks or months on end with nothing to show as the fruits of your labor. Some of the main reasons this happens to people are the following... 

- Not staying with a routine long enough 

- Staying with the same routine too long 

- Improper programming, i.e. too light or too heavy 

- Training too often 

- Not training often enough 

- Poor nutritional habits 

- Poor sleeping habits 

- External training stress (life)

As you can see, there tends to be a theme here, and that is you have to find the right amount of balance in the training and life paradigm. Enough training stress with optimal recovery will produce results. Too much stress, whether that be training and/or life, without enough recovery will short circuit the process of increasing the baseline of strength.

 - Training often enough to stimulate growth/strength - Recover enough to allow super-compensation to happen - Knowing when to change up the training intensity/volume - Programming properly in accordance with said intensities and volume - Getting a handle on the external stress outside of the gym

Some of these things will be harder to figure out than others. There’s no reason to be dogmatic in the scope of thinking about your training. You should always be open to trying new things, but also have a good built-in filter about what seems logical and what does not. A lot of people that do in fact stick to routines for a very long time get stuck in a rut. They don’t know when it is time to transition into a different method or stimulus. They get stuck because they don’t understand that they have been benching 350 @ 198 for three years, it is probably not a bench routine that is going to give you what you need. You need to get bigger at that point, and that may mean more leg and back work to grow. Not just more bench work.

Each training phase that carries you to a new place, may not be what you need to KEEP DOING, to get to the next level. Volume/base building work will get you to a certain place, but once the body “settles in” into that you cannot just keep adding volume. Everything has a point of diminishing returns. At that point, you have to ask yourself if you have maxed out your current potential for volumized training based around a minimal amount of movements (which is what base building is) and if you need to change what you’re doing. This is not a question that has to be asked because you haven’t had a good training session in two weeks. But if you’ve gone months and months with little progress, reassessing could be a real option.

At that point, you may need to structure your training into something where you dial down the volume, go into “break rep PR’s” mode, and push forward from there. Every training cycle should do something that not only pushes you a bit forward but also sets you up for the next training stimulus/training cycle. Lots of systems build on each other. Going into the USPF Nationals I did months and months and months of shying away from failure, and keeping my intensities low and doing base-building work. Afterwards, I switched everything immediately to low volume, trying to hit the rep PR’s and boy did I. I started hitting PR’s like crazy.

It was the base building work that built me up for doing that. I knew after the meet, instinctively that my body did not want to move right back into lower intensity/high volume work. I went after rep PR’s and BOOM, there they were. The base building work set me up for the rep PR work. Some people will say “everything works” but this is bullshit, and I hate that saying. Some methods are shit. After 25 years, I can tell you that. That’s a fact. Not only that, but what does “work” even mean? Work for “what”? No one has ever quantified this statement because yes if you do something and get better at it, it worked. If you are trying to be a better powerlifter and are out practicing tennis and getting better at your backhand, this has nothing to do with getting better at powerlifting.

Everything does not “work”. What works, is what gets you closer to your specific goals. 

THREE COMPONENTS THAT ARE KEY TO MAKING PROGRESS: DELOADING, TAPERING, WAVING (PART 2)

THREE COMPONENTS THAT ARE KEY TO MAKING PROGRESS: DELOADING, TAPERING, WAVING (PART 2)

EXAMPLE OF A TAPERING MODEL 

SQUAT 

 1x1 @ 65% 60% 2x5

 1x1 @ 65% 60% 2x5 

 1x1 @ 65% 60% 2x5

 1x1 @ 65% 60% 2x5

 1x1 @ 70% 60% 2x5

 1x1 @ 70% 60% 2x5

 1x1 @ 75% 70% 2x4 

 1x1 @ 75% 70% 2x4

 1x1 @ 80% 70% 2x4

 1x1 @ 85% 80% 2x3

DEADLIFTS

 1x3 @ 77% 

 1x3 @ 77% 

 1x3 @ 77%

 1x3 @ 80%

 1x3 @ 80%

 1x3 @ 80%

 1x3 @ 83%

 1x3 @ 83%

 1x3 @ 85%

 1x3 @ 85%

BENCH - ALL REPS PAUSED 

1x1 @ 85% 1x8 or AMAP @ 75%

1x1 @ 85% 1x8 or AMAP @ 75%

1x1 @ 85% 1x8 or AMAP @ 75% 

1x1 @ 85% 1x8 or AMAP @ 75% 

1x1 @ 85% 1x8 or AMAP @ 75%

1x1 @ 85% 1x8 or AMAP @ 75%

1x1 @ 90% 1x3 @ 85% 1xamap @ 75% 

1x1 @ 90% 1x3 @ 85% 1xamap @ 75% 

1x1 @ 90% 1x3 @ 85% 1xamap @ 75% 

1x1 @ 90% 1x3 @ 85% 1xamap @ 75%

TAPERING FREQUENCY

 The other part of tapering is training frequency. Drop training back to twice a week. Squat and pull on one day, bench and incline/overhead press on the other with a row for 4x10 light.

That’s it, nothing else.

De-loading is a “no-de-load, de-load”. In the traditional sense of de-loading, you do something similar to tapering but you cut the intensity in half and stay in the gym the same number of days that week. Tapering is to allow for more recovery days, but keep the working intensity equal, so that the body has more time to climb out of fatigue but training stays at the same intensity level. You might say that is splitting hairs; however, I believe that tapering is a better option than the traditional de-load. The “no de-load, de-load” is where you get out of the gym completely. No lifting, nothing light, just out of the gym for a physical and mental break.

Take a break until you feel that hunger to train hard return. That may be 3 days or 10 days. In the grand scheme of things, 10 days off is nothing and often times it will do you more good than continuing to train. After you taper, you have a few options. If you still feel tired, or your mental enthusiasm is lacking for weeks on end, do the no-de-load de-load. If I had to guess, more often than not, you’ll need to take the time off.

WAVING 

 One of the most common methods that guys use to program is to run a cycle for a certain period of time, then start over at a higher weight than they had programmed for in the previous cycle.

It is certainly an option, and a viable one yes and so is running the same programming cycle back to back. If you finished the first cycle with a triple or set of five that was tough as nails to grind out, but the second time you run said cycle you destroy that triple or set of 5 with a speed that is bordering on violent, did you not get stronger? One of the basic principles of the base building model is to move heavier and heavier weights with greater and greater speed. I unknowingly used to use this method when I was younger with great results. I would set a certain weight in my head, and work towards that weight. However I would make a deal with myself that I would not move past that weight until I “owned” it, i.e. I could rep it effortlessly.

Lots of lifters get lost in the weight on the bar mentality, or “weight on the bar at all costs!” Listen, I’m all for getting more weight on the bar, and at some point, you have to load the bar. Generally, you want those times to be on the platform, or nearing the end of a peaking cycle. However, during the in-between times, a solid idea is to set “owned” weight goals where you destroy weights at certain rep ranges.

Don’t be afraid to repeat cycles, or “backtrack” a cycle a few weeks and work back up to whatever you hit near the end of it again but with greater speed. There are many ways to gauge the strength and access to PRs. Don’t fall into the dogma of thinking just making a certain weight for X reps is the only way to do that. Weight X reps @ speed Z is also a way to set new “PRs”. De-load if you start feeling better, increase the volume back the normal base building standard or

WAVING OPTIONS 

For waves, there are two options.

 • Reprogram at a lesser weight and then over time work back up to where you were currently programmed at. You simply reprogram down by 5% and continue.

 • Wave the weeks. If you were slow on your triples in the latter phase, then wave back to the 5’s (for squat) or 8’s (bench) for a week. The next week, come back to the 3’s.    If it still feels heavy, wave back into the 8’s again. If you still feel like progress is not happening, then reprogram and wave back to the first week.