Category: 2014

Sometimes injuries, health issues or life throws you a curve ball and your training has to take a back seat for a time.  I have found that when these occasions arise I manage to find a way to overcome these barriers by adapting so that I can still do what I love doing and that is to lift weights!

Recently I had to have a break from training due to getting really sick and had almost 3 weeks off weight training- one of longest if not the longest times I have had off in 27 years.  When I resumed training I found my body was still not a hundred percent so I had to further reduce my already minimal work load.  I still wanted to hit all muscle groups so I went back to a powerlifting based training split I did when I was 16.  It was given to me by a group of police officers who ran the Waipukurau Hospital Gym.

The workout was:

Monday

1. Squats
2. Calf raises
3. DB Biceps Curls

Wednesday

1. Bench Press
2. Shoulder Press
3. Dips

Friday

1. Deadlifts
2. BB Row
3. DB Row or Chins

3 sets of 5 on main lifts; Squats, Deadlifts, BB Row, Bench, Shoulder press and 2-3 sets of 8-15 on the rest.

The only adjustment I have made for this workout is to add some DB side rows lying prone on an incline bench at different angles on Friday for the posterior and side aspects of the deltoids.

Then I needed to incorporate a periodic loading and deloading system that prevented me from stressing my central nervous system and immune system so that I could still train and allow my body to return to 100%.  Periodising my training has always been difficult for me to get my head around as I love pushing myself mentally and physically.  However looking back at past logs it is when I have trained smarter not harder that I have seen personal bests occur.

I didn’t have to look too hard to find the system that I needed: Wendler’s 5/3/1 system was a perfect fit.  It involves using 90 % of your maximal lifts to determine training loads.  You can find out the exact system here:  www.jimwendler.com/  or a working example here at http://muscleandbrawn.com/wendlers-531-powerlifting-system/.  These loads are applied to Squats, Deadlifts, Bench and BB Press and then completed over a 4 week period (You could use other forms of these lifts or exercises depending on structure, injuries and goals).

 

Week 1 is 3 sets of 5 reps (You can do more reps if you can on the last set during week 1-3)

Week 2 is 3 sets of 3 reps

Week 3 is 5, 3, 1.

Week 4 is 3 x 5 (deload- a really light week on the main lifts).

 

Here is the percentages to calculate training loads over that time:

Week 1. Warm up, 75% x 5, 80% x 5, 85% x 5+

Week 2. Warm up, 80% x 3, 85% x 3, 90% x 3+

Week 3. Warm up, 75% x 5, 85% x 3, 95% x 1+

Week 4. (deload) Warm up, 60% x 5, 65% x 5, 70% x 5

After Week 4 you then add 5 kg to your estimated 1 rep max lift on the Squat and Deadlift and 2.5 kg to the Bench and Shoulder Press and recalculate your training loads from 90% of these new max numbers for the next 4 week cycle or wave.

If you don’t want to spend the time calculating all these numbers many people on the internet have developed online programs you can use to do it for you.  Here is one I found useful: http://www.liftingreport.com/wendler531-calculator/

Since the calculated weights are much lighter than I am used to training with and will take 2- 3 months before they are back up to where I was it allows me to practice my technique in the lifts, give my body a chance to recover properly and provide a routine that will include a sensible and regular deload in my training for the future.

There can often be a silver lining to adversity and this power lifting based training approach has allowed me to overcome my personal barriers to do what I love to do!  If you have health issues, injuries or minimal time to train this kind of approach could work for you too.

 

 

 

 

Arms would have to be one of the favourite muscle groups to train for most bodybuilders and gym goers. As a high school student I remember doing countless sets and exercises in the quest to increase my arm size.  When I was nineteen a group of us even tried a technique where we trained our biceps and triceps for several sets every hour for eight hours with the promise of half an inch to an inch gain!  Needless to say, apart from wasting a whole day no one made any progress and I actually think my arms shrunk.  So my goal here is to offer you a few ideas and techniques that will hopefully fast track the long learning curve it took me to find effective arm building strategies.

One of the best ways to increase arm size for the average natural trainer (or any one for that matter) is to focus most of your energy on the main lifts like squats, deadlifts; different forms of benching, pressing, rows and chins. If you get stronger on these lifts your back, chest, shoulders, legs and arms will definitely get bigger.

You need to make sure you are not overtraining your arms! Arms are involved in all upper body and lower body workouts either directly or indirectly (I used to get mean bicep soreness the next day after front squats for example).

Choose exercises that suit your unique leverages and muscles. You want to perform exercises that you can overload the muscles and have a good mind muscle connection without any joint pain.

Progressive overload requires that you increase the overload on the muscle on a regular basis. If your weights, rep count, intensity through shorter rest periods are not improving then there is a good chance your arms will not get bigger.

Volume is another variable that can be increased to a point as well and is dependent on your experience, how hard you train and your unique ability to recover.

Nutritional choices like eating enough protein, carbs and fats to ensure you have the nutrients to train hard recover and grow.

Sleeping enough and taking in supplements to make sure you are covering all micronutrient requirements for optimal hormone production to enhance your progress.

Set realistic goals at what you can achieve naturally- (See www.weightrainer.net) As already covered in a previous article I found this gem of a website and based on my height, ankle size (8.5 in) and wrist size (6.5 in) it suggested an arm measurement of 15.9 inches (measured cold and flexed) at 8-10% body fat.  This is definitely a more realistic goal to shoot for than the 20 inch guns you see in the magazines.

At the moment I am focussing on the main lifts to increase muscle mass while training arms once per week.  My current arm workout involves 3 sets for biceps and 3 for triceps with different exercises used for each set.  These have been selected because I am able to progressively overload with them, have a good mind muscle connection and there is minimal to no chance of injury.  I also put them in order from weakest to strongest so that I can use the same weight on all sets and shoot for a similar rep range.  Here is my current workout:

Triceps (1 set each)

1.Overhead triceps extension. 2.  Triceps pushdowns.  3.  Triceps push-out*

* (pushdown with elbows facing weight stack instead of straight down)

Biceps (1 set each)

1.DB Hammer curl. 2.  DB Curl.  3.  DB concentration curl.

As you can see the workout is minimal, but this is what I have found works best for me.  If you’ve tried all the fancy ideas in the magazines and online with little success give these simple but effective strategies a go and I guarantee you will arm those guns a whole lot faster!