Article By: John Fontana

We saw the likes of Arnold and other massive guys doing it, so we figured we might as well jump on board. You can catch eight time Mr. Olympia on You Tube performing rep after rep after rep. I mean the guy is absolutely massive, so following his techniques would for sure get us at least a decent amount of size right? Well sort of, but not really.

You’re Not A Body Builder

Put yourself in any of these body builders shoes. They have been at it for around 10+ years and it is literally their job. They train multiple times a day, take loads of supplements and count every single bit of food that they eat. You on the other had are lucky to make it in the gym 3 days a week for an hour and half the time you hit up happy hour after the gym. That was not meant as a put down to you, just more of a reality check. I will be the first to tell you those guys are maniacs and live an unrealistic lifestyle. So explain to me how following Ronnie’s 4 day split you found in a Flex magazine translates to you.

Just The Pump

The big idea is that if you do a ton of reps focusing on certain body parts, you will increase muscle size. The part you’re missing is that you will have accomplished “fake” muscle growth. That pump and burn you get while hitting the upper limits of repetitions is just a lactic acid build up from lack of oxygen to the muscles. Obviously 20 reps of just about anything will get you feeling “the pump” but it does not translate into real size. You will leave the gym happy because you feel “swoll,” but check yourself out in a few hours and you will be the same old you.

It’s All An Illusion

If you continue these workouts for a long period of time, the pump you get will start to stick around a bit longer. In fact, as long as you stay consistent with your workouts, you will be feeling like you have put on a good amount of size. You may have, but the majority of that will be fluid size by way of blood plasma. This type of hypertrophy (muscle growth) typically comes when you isolate muscles and do a ton of volume (overall reps). It’s cool and all but if you stop working out for two weeks you will shrink dramatically. I don’t know about you but I’m not the type who is cool with losing four months worth of gains in two weeks.

Build Muscle

The reason the big name body builders do these high-rep workouts is because a) It is near a competition so they will take the size in any way possible and b) they already have a solid base of muscle to build on. This muscle didn’t appear overnight, but rather took them years to develop. I can’t speak for all body builders because I am not one of them, but a true way to build mass is to lift heavy weight. Just to stick with the Ronnie Coleman example, if he never spent time building mass the right way, he wouldn’t be able to squat around 800 pounds. I guarantee you he didn’t work his way up to an 800-pound squat by doing 20 reps at 225 or a bunch of reps on a leg press.

Build Strength

If you are actually trying to put some real muscle on yourself, you will have to get started by lifting heavy weights for less reps. Build that strength up so that when it actually comes time to get into hypertrophy mode you are lifting legit weight for high reps. Sorry guys, but I laugh at those of you who are doing 30 reps of curls at 20 pounds. Do you really think you are going to put on some actual muscle by doing that?

Foundation

Just to get an idea, if you are in a true muscle-mass building phase you should be following some sort of set x rep scheme such as a 5×5. This will allow you to still get a good amount of volume while lifting heavier weights. Build a solid strength base and then start to mess with it by putting on more size and then leaning out. High reps are not your key to getting bigger, lifting heavy weight is. Plus it feels a lot better to walk out the gym hitting a new personal record (PR) for a given exercise with the weight you lifted than the amount of reps you did.

Myth Debunked: You will gain a lot of muscle mass from a high amount of repetitions.

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I encourage any questions or comments, please:

Leave a response at the bottom of the article,

E-mail me personally at jfontana@shadowfit.com

or Tweet me @johnnyfontana on Twitter

Article By: John Fontana

The third part of “Not Getting Any Stronger” helps to further put together the solution to your plateau. In part one I talked about micro-cycles and how they affect your body’s ability to respond to the exercises you are throwing at it, week in and out. In part two I spoke on the importance of selecting the correct exercise to reap maximum benefits. This part will explain where to put those exercises while creating an exercise program. The exercise order is extremely important when creating a workout routine. If the exercises are done in an incorrect order you may be sabotaging your workout because your body will not be able to respond optimally. Each workout should have a precise purpose and be properly planned in order to continually make strength gains.

Article By: John Fontana

Last week I discussed some possible causes of a slump or plateau in the gym.  Before I began to truly study exercise I constantly went in and out of mini plateaus.  It seemed that every few months I would hit a wall and actually get a little weaker than I was before.   Back then my answer was always to train harder than I had before using the “no pain, no gain” mentality.

The thought, “If I’m not getting stronger, I must not be lifting hard enough” that most people get is a natural reaction to the situation.  The problem is that most of the time that thought process is not a good one and will actually make things worse.  There are hundreds of variables that go into strength training, and slumps are not always caused by lack of effort.

The purpose of the “Not Getting Any Stronger?” posts is to help you get outside of the hardheaded mentality that most people bring to the gym.  The majority of the time, your plateau is likely caused from some type of programming error.  Somewhere along the line you made the wrong call in what you are doing for workouts.  Last week I talked about the amount of time you spend doing a particular workout.  This week I will dive a little further into the actual workouts.

As a review, the main issues covered last week involved the amount of time you spent in a certain exercise program or what’s called a micro cycle.  A micro-cycle refers to an amount of time (in weeks) you’ve spent performing a particular style of workout. The main mistake that people make is that they have either spent too much time or too little time during a micro-cycle.

Although spending too much or too little time in a micro-cycle are common causes of a plateau, they are not the only culprits.  You may be right with the amount of time you spend doing a particular workout, but have the exercise selection or other variables incorrect.

I hate to break the news to you, but it is rare you will find an effective workout that you can rip out of a magazine.  If you are getting your workouts from one of the magazines with a bodybuilder on the cover, you may be in trouble.  Guys who have been working out for at least ten years create most of the workouts in those magazines.  Not only that but they are examples of what the bodybuilder has been doing while nearing a competition.  Unless you are in a similar situation, those workouts won’t be suitable for you.

Too often, I see people in the gym doing either a terrible selection of exercises or a terrible order of exercises.  Doing a ton of isolation (bicep curls, chest fly’s, leg extensions…) exercises won’t ever allow you to reach you full potential.  Those are called auxiliary exercises and should be done as a compliment to your prime mover exercises.

Exercises such as squats, dead lifts, pull-ups, rows and bench press should be done during each workout.  If you are not doing at least one or two of the primary or “big lifts” during each exercise, your strength will not continue to rise.  You have to perform those big lifts because they will shock your nervous systems and muscle fibers in a way that isolation or auxiliary exercises won’t.  Not only do you need to do the big lifts, but also you really need to load up with them.  This is where you work on true strength and should never be doing more than 8 reps or less than 4 sets.  Throw that 3×10 mentality out the window and start getting into 4, 5 and even 6 sets.  Always look to increase your total volume each week without lowering weight. For example, if you benched 4 sets of 6 reps last week with 80 pound dumbbells, this week you should be able to do 5 sets of 5 with at least 80 pounds.  You will have increased your total volume by one repetition, look to do that each week.  This will gradually build you up into a “stronger than he looks” person.

Auxiliary exercises should be done for one of two reasons, or both.  One reason is to strengthen your synergist muscles such as the biceps, triceps and forearms so that they can assist your big muscles.  If you are performing a bench or row, those synergists will be taking part in helping you complete each rep.  If you neglect the synergists too much they will lag behind your bigger muscles and fatigue before your sets are done. There is nothing worse than not being able to do more pull ups because your forearms too tired or not being able to do more rows because your biceps are on fire.  The other reason for auxiliary exercises is strictly for vanity purposes.  It’s no shocker that you want bigger arms or bigger calves, but if strength is your main goal than those shouldn’t be.  You should never be performing more auxiliary work than primary work if your main goal is strength.

Make sure that you are doing at least one or two primary exercises per workout.  Depending on your current workout program and the way you are splitting each week up, you should probably be doing at least two primary exercises per workout.  Also, when you are doing those primary lifts, keep the weight high, sets high and reps low.  Your body will only call upon the strongest muscle fibers it needs to do each rep.  If you don’t move heavy weight, you won’t ever activate your strongest muscle fibers.  If you want to truly get strong you will need to work on strengthening your strongest muscle fibers.

Next week I will explore program design a little deeper and talk about order selection of exercises.  Until then you can go to http://shadowfit.com/signup_1.cfm?secret_code=dh374hfj3s and register for a free personalized workout.  Just fill out the questionnaire appropriately and we will build you a workout that will get you as strong as you’ve ever been.

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I encourage any questions or comments, please:

Leave a response at the bottom of the article,

E-mail me personally at jfontana@shadowfit.com

or Tweet me @johnnyfontana on Twitter

Article By: John Fontana

Remember the days when you first started lifting weights? Whether it was years ago or just recently, I am sure you can recall those days. After the soreness and awkwardness of the first few weeks something amazing started to happen. Every exercise you performed, the weight used started to increase providing drastic results. Not only were you stronger than you’d ever been, but you rapidly started seeing physical results. You started off barely being able to peel the 45-pound bare bar off your chest and within a month or two you were pressing over 100 pounds. The gains kept coming and you felt like soon you would be moving 225 pounds 10+ times, like guys at the NFL combine.

Then all of the sudden, the gains in strength started to slow until you nearly hit a screeching halt. Even worse, your strength actually seemed to decrease from time to time. How could this have all happened so fast? What was once bright promising future got thrown into a whirlwind and tossed out the back end like all the other softie gym rats you see moving the same weight week after week.

One of the biggest issues is that you likely mixed up your workouts too much or not enough. In either case, doing so will get you a first class ticket to Plateauville where your strength gains are non-existent. You either changed up your workouts so much that your body couldn’t positively respond or you did the same thing over and over again boring your body to death.

When you change your workouts too frequently, you are not allowing your motor units (muscle fibers and neurons) to catch up and get stronger. Since you didn’t allow your body and mind time to familiarize themselves with the exercises and workouts, your never got optimum effectiveness from them. It takes time and practice to get your neurons to signal the correct muscle fibers in during an exercise. If you spend one week doing a bench press for 5 sets of 5 and the next week doing a chest fly for 3 sets of 10, your body will never be able to adapt correctly. A good example is the difference between your first and second set of an exercise. Do you notice that you are usually strongest in your second or third set? You may call this warming up, but what’s really happening is that your mind is learning to send the signal to the correct muscle fibers. Stick with the same workout for 4-6 weeks before mixing it up. Feel free to increase the sets, reps or weights that you use but don’t think that you have to be doing something brand new every time your train.

A very similar phenomenon happens when you perform the same workout too regularly. If you perform the same workout for months on end, your body will lack the stimuli required to produce results. Your body essentially will either get overtrained or too bored with the workouts. Overtraining occurs when you fatigue your muscles to the point where they cannot optimally perform. The majority of the time it will occur from lifting to much weight too consistently. What you need is what’s called an unload week in order to recover. Sometimes this means stepping away from the gym or mixing up the workouts completely and taking a class. Most of the time your unload week should consist of cutting your sets and reps in half. If you performed 4 sets of 8 for the last 9 weeks, it is time to do 2 sets of four for a week. During this time you will still give your body the stimulus of heavy weight but wont fatigue it too much. Stick with a workout for 4-6 weeks, take a week to unload and then get back to a new style workout.

Whether you are mixing it up too much or not mixing it up enough, you are bound to hit a wall at some point. Your body is a crazy piece of machinery and has specific needs in order for you to continue to grow. The problem is that there is no perfect equation to this workout game or we would all be doing the same things. One thing is for sure, you have to allow your body to adapt to the training stimulus and then right before it gets bored or tired of it, you have to mix it up.

In part two of this article I will discuss a couple other reasons that may be why you are not making any gains in the gym. For now, if this article hit close to home, follow the suggestions and either take an unload week or build a program that you will stick to for a few weeks.

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I encourage any questions or comments, please:

Leave a response at the bottom of the article,

E-mail me personally at jfontana@shadowfit.com

or Tweet me @johnnyfontana on Twitter

So you’ve followed your bench program for weeks.  You’ve done the flat bench, dumbbell bench, incline bench, dumbbell fly’s, cable fly and loads of push ups.  With all of that, you gained just a little strength and no noticeable size.  You spent six weeks and hours of grueling “chest” workouts for next to nothing.  You’re angry and wondering why that bodybuilder’s chest program from Muscle & Fiction didn’t work for you.  I got news for you: you trained the wrong muscles.  I know you were trying to get bigger and stronger in your chest, so you trained your chest. You were right in the muscles you trained; the problem is that you trained the wrong muscle fibers.

Your body is filled with different types of muscle fibers. These fibers will determine how big or strong you get. If you watch sports you may have heard the term “fast twitch” being used.  Athletes, especially those who play power sports such as football, are considered to be fast twitch athletes.  It’s not necessarily that these guys were born with more fast twitch muscles, but they trained the fast twitch muscles they were given more than you did.  Because of this, these guys are bigger, stronger and faster than you and you’re about to follow yet another program from yet another muscle mag.

Each and every muscle group in your body has an arrangement of slow and fast twitch muscle fibers.  If you are lifting for strength or size, the slow twitch are your enemies and should be avoided at all costs.  The guys that dominate the slow twitch game are those skinny, long distance runners that you see.  You can’t change the muscle fibers that are slow twitch or fast twitch, but you can decide which ones get activated and when they get activated.

The problem may be that you have been lifting in a way that activates mostly slow twitch muscle fibers and not the fast twitches that you want. You hop under a bar, load some weight on it and move it slowly up and down.  Doing this is going to consistently leave your fast twitch muscle fibers sleeping and allow your slow twitch fibers to do the majority of the work.

There is a pretty simple way to get your fast twitch fibers fired up and working more consistently than they were.  The use of ballistic and speed movements at the start of the workout will activate the fibers that your want to use throughout the remainder of your workout.

Ballistic movements are when you actually project your body from and object or an object from your body.  Throwing medicine balls or doing plyometric movements will fire up the fast twitch fibers and get you on a correct path for the day. Before you lay down to do a heavy bench press, perform some medicine ball chest passes, some explosive bench presses with the bar or some plyometric push ups.  The idea is to actually let go of the medicine ball, the bar or toss your body off the ground during those three exercises.  By doing a ballistic movement, you will be eliminating that deceleration phase that is usually performed at the end of a movement.  This will allow for you fast twitch fibers to get activated throughout the full range of the movement.

Begin to do these before any of your big lifts and you will notice a difference in your size and strength.  Your nervous system will be ramped up and ready to go, so when you are ready to bench heavy you will be using the fibers you want. Don’t forget to be as powerful as possible during you heavy lifts to.  If you are benching a heavy weight, you should still be trying to press the bar off your chest as fast as possible.

Stick with lower reps when doing your ballistic movements.  You should be doing no more than 8 to 10 reps because you don’t want your power to start dropping off.  It would be better to do 5 sets of 5 very strong and powerfully, as opposed to 3 sets of 10 slowly.

Just because the majority of this article talked about ballistic movements for the chest doesn’t mean it’s the only muscle they apply to.  You should do jump squats before squatting, overhead toss before doing shoulders, or aggressive sled rows before you row.  Its up to you to get creative, but remember to keep it ballistic and keep it fast.

Looking around the gym, you’ve likely noticed people with all different body types — some you might want to emulate, others you might want to avoid. You’ve seen the big-boned guy who likes to bench 400, but doesn’t want to take his shirt off. Or the girl who can eat anything without gaining a pound. And then there are the people who are just naturally muscular without having to lift much more than their water bottles. But it would be foolish to see someone with the body type you want and immediately start copying their workout plan, because everyone is born naturally with a specific body type. These body types are the direct results of genetics from our parents and grandparents, and while we cannot reverse the way we were born, there are certain, targeted steps we can take to change. But first, you have to figure out where you’re starting from.

Who Am I

If you find yourself stuffing your face constantly and lamenting, “I just can’t gain any weight,” you are most likely an ectomorph. An ectomorph is usually on the tall side and is skinny as a rail. Because ectomorphs boast fast metabolisms, it’s very hard for them to put on weight, no matter what they eat. Consequently, these people are commonly referred to as “hardgainers.” I myself am naturally an ectomorph who has spent the better part of my adolescent and adult life trying to change that.

If you’re the type of person who complains, “I can’t even look at a chicken breast without gaining five pounds,” you are most likely an endomorph. Commonly described as “big-boned,” endomorphs have a hard time leaning themselves out. The good news for you is, it’s easy for you to put on muscle — it’s just an issue of cutting off the fat to expose that six-pack hiding underneath.

If you’ve ever been told that “You can do absolutely nothing and still look jacked,” then congratulations, you’re a mesomorph. Like a good majority of pro-athletes (and all those guys you saw fighting in “300″), you’ve been blessed with the physique (or at least can easily attain the physique) that everyone else covets — muscular and ripped without really having to work hard at all. Next time you see your parents or grandparents, give them a hug, a kiss and say thanks for making you the best morph possible.

How To Change It

Guess what, ectomorphs?  That growth spurt you’ve been waiting for to turn you into a hulking freak of nature? It ain’t coming. If you really want to put on some solid size you’re going to have to lift harder than anyone else and eat until you feel like you’re going to throw up.  Yeah, at some point in your life, gaining weight may get easier, but then you have to worry about it turning into fat weight.  If your goals are to put on mass and look like a mesomorph here’s what you do: 1) Lift way harder than you thought you were lifting. Whatever you are doing is not enough, unless you are enlisting the help of a substance. (Do I have to even name it?)  2) With your big movements (bench, squat, etc.) stick with lower reps (8 at the most), higher sets (4+) and get ample rest in between exercise sets. 3) Eat, eat and eat some more.  Don’t stuff your face with three double-cheeseburgers after a workout, but crush some food.  I gained 25 pounds in three months by drinking two 1,200-calorie shakes a day, on top of what I was normally eating — one after each of my workouts in that day. (Yeah, I was doing two-a-days.)  And here’s a warning: if you thought putting the weight on was hard, it’s was even harder to keep it on. If you’re an ectomorph, there’s truly no rest for the weary. Look up these workouts: German Volume Training, Escalating Density Training, Insider Contrast Method.

Here’s the game plan endomorphs: don’t eat anything and consistently tour the cardio section of the gym.  Okay, that was sarcasm, so don’t worry, you don’t need to invest in your own personal elliptical machine. You guys do have to chill out a bit on the eating.  I know you think that you can just spend an hour lifting and an hour doing cardio, and it will all be good.  But has your body composition ever really changed when you did that?  First, you need to cut out carbs that aren’t fruits or vegetables and reserve the fruits for the morning rather than at night. If you have to eat starchy carbs, go for quinoa or brown rice.  Do not starve yourself, but split up your meals into a bunch of small snacks.  The same goes for your workouts. It would be better to do 4 sessions at 15 intense minutes-a-piece each day, as opposed to two hour sessions. The important thing for you guys is heart rate.  This means that you need to get that heart rate up very high (85-90% of your max) each workout.  Really intense (heavy) lifting will get your heart rate up, or doing ballistic or plyometric movements (jumping or throwing med balls). I don’t care what gets your heart rate up, the key is getting it there and keeping it there for a few minutes. Recover only back to about 65% of your max heart rate, then get back to work. Since you want to still look muscular when the body fat comes off, I suggest getting your “cardio” sessions in your weight lifting by moving some heavy stuff really fast. On the days you do “cardio” cardio, don’t always stick with an hour on an elliptical.  Do some interval springs by going out on a track and sprint 100 meters then walking 100 meters a few times.  If that is too intense, then go for a 100 meter sprint and 200 meter walk or whatever works for you. Look up HIIT, or Escalating Density Training.

Considering the title of this little section is “How Do You Change It,” it’s almost pointless for me to write anything for the mesomorphs  The way you “change it” is by eating like a dummy and not lifting at all.  Since you are already an optimum body type you have to work to lose it.  If you are blessed with the mesomorph body type, then it is easy for you.  Just try to be kind to all the endo- and ectomorphs in the gym, and please make use of the body you were given. Put in some hard work every once in a while, even though it doesn’t have to be as intense or as long for you as it is for us.

Now that you know your body actually has a scientific type, realize you are not alone.  I hope you have been doing the stuff that I recommended for a while, but if not, start tomorrow.  Until next time… Let’s Morph!

In the fast paced society we live in today, everyone expects everything to happen quickly.  Just a few years ago the idea of having Internet on our phones was just that (an idea).  Now, if my iPhone doesn’t load a page in a few seconds, I’m complaining about how slow it is.  We expect to be able to record our favorite shows so that we don’t have to watch commercials and have completely done away with the idea of actually sending a written letter.  With the rate Twitter and Facebook are going, we won’t even be using e-mail in a few years.

Since we have gotten so used to technology constantly advancing, we expect everything in our world to speed up at a similarly tremendous rate.  The only problem is that the human body itself doesn’t advance so quickly.  Just because we have new exercise machines or techniques, doesn’t mean we’re going to get results any faster than we would have 20 years ago.  Sure, we have gotten much smarter with the way we exercise and the equipment has helped make things more efficient, but the evolution of the human body hasn’t really changed at all.  Goals we set still take hard work to achieve.  We think because the Internet has gotten so much faster over the years, the ability to put on 10 pounds of muscle should have gotten equally as simple.  I don’t mean to drop a bomb on anyone and ruin your expectations, but the more extreme your goals, the harder and longer they will take to achieve.

Now that I brought your expectations down to earth a little bit, let me offer some tips that will serve as a little broadband booster in your workout signal.  If you follow these techniques, it is likely you will be able to reach your goals a little faster than if you hadn’t.  These aren’t miracle pills or machines, but time-tested methods of lifting weights that have put pounds of muscle on some of the strongest guys on earth.

1.  Get Away From 3:  For some reason the idea that 3 sets is all you need to do of an exercise has been burned into peoples heads.  When you are looking to get really strong, you should be stepping in the 4-6-set range for most of your big lifts.  Five sets of five is a safe route to go with when you’re looking to drastically increase your strength.  From week to week it will get harder to make that 5-pound increase in the weight you use for an exercise (most dumbbells only make 5-pound jumps).  When that occurs, look to throw in an extra rep of the weight you used the previous week.  So, if you did dumbbell bench at 80 pounds for 5×5 last week and you know you can’t jump to 85 pounds for 5×5, stick with the 80 pounds and go for 5×6.

2. Slow It Down:  What many people fail to realize is that we are much stronger eccentrically than we are concentrically.  The eccentric phase of a movement is when you are yielding to the weight.  In a bench press it is when the bar is being lowered to the chest, in a tricep push down it’s when you are allowing the weight back up, and in a pull up it is when you are lowering your body from the top down.  The concentric phase is the hard part of the lift, when you are trying to overcome the weight.

In order to increase your overall strength, you need to increase your eccentric strength.  A quick way to do this is by going through the eccentric phase slower than the concentric.  Challenge your muscle by taking 3-5 seconds to lower the bar to your chest on a bench or take 3-5 seconds to lower your body during a pull up.  This will challenge your muscles eccentrically and make it stronger.

3. Hold It Right There:  Isometrics is a type of exercise that is way under used in the workout world.  An isometric or static exercise is when you get into a position and pause at a certain spot.  When you hold a movement statically, you allow for more muscle fibers to be recruited than if you were to move constantly through an exercise.  The next time you bench or do a row, do a set or two of just holding the weight right in the middle.  For both those movements you would hold the weight at your chest for a few seconds.  If you are benching with 225 on the bar, take that set or two to hold it just off your chest for as long as you can, then have someone help pull it back to the top.  If you get 8 seconds this week, look to get 9 or 10 seconds the next week.

4. All You Got: I talked a bit about eccentrics and concentric in tip #2, with a focus on eccentric.  This tip is to try and move as fast as possible when you are doing the concentric (overcoming) part of the exercise.  If you look at an athlete, they usually have great physique and are as strong as an ox.  Sure they likely work out a lot, but something you probably don’t think about is the speed at which they move and how that affects the body.  When you try and move as fast as you can through a movement, you’re recruiting your fast-twitch muscle fibers.  These fibers are the hardest, biggest and strongest in your body.  So next time you bench, lower it at that 3-5 second rate, than attempt to throw it off you as fast as you can.  Just because I am saying to move a weight as fast as possible, doesn’t mean it should be light.  The actual speed of the exercise isn’t the concern, but the attempt is.  If you are lifting a weight that is heavy for you, it obviously won’t be moving too fast, but you want to try and move it as fast as possible to recruit those fast-twitch fibers.

5. More Than You Can Chew:  Sometimes you need to let your body try to handle more weight than it can actually lift.  The technique of using a supra-maximal load is to put more on the bar than you have ever lifted before.  This should be no more than 120% of your max and you should always have a spotter to help with the concentric phase of the exercise.  During the eccentric phase, take that extra weight and attempt to move it as slow as possible.  This will help recruit some extra muscle fibers and make you stronger eccentrically which in turn will strengthen you all around.

Put those 5 tips into practice over your next few workouts and you will be on the path to getting much stronger than you currently are.  Instead of using all 5 tips in the next workout, space them out over multiple workouts or multiple weeks.

I have a feeling the title of this article may attract the wrong people and turn off the people it’s aimed towards.  I really am aiming this article at both males and females.  Although it will seem like solely males in the beginning, I will explain how it translates to females later.  When I say fluids or fibers I am not talking about liquid and the stuff that helps you digest (at least not in this post).  Fluids or fibers is referring to muscles, specifically towards muscle size.

There are a lot of guys who walk around looking like they could lift a small car over their heads and run with it.  Truth be told, most of them are not that strong and can barely run in the first place.  On the other hand, there are plenty of guys out there who don’t look to be that strong, but they are the ones who can lift that car and throw it (okay maybe a little exaggeration there).

A perfect example of this is the difference between bodybuilders and powerlifters.  While most bodybuilders look to be the stronger of the two, powerlifters will be able to out lift a body builder any day.  What is the reasoning behind this?  They have achieved different types of hypertrophy.  Hypertrophy is defined as muscle growth and translates to larger size.  Believe it or not there are two different ways for your muscles to grow.  One way is to put fluid into the muscles (the easy way out) the other is to actually increase the size of the muscle fibers.

Fluid Hypertrophy

When you lift, there is an accumulation of blood plasma in the muscles. This increase of fluid leads towards the “pump” that many people talk about.  While it is good to reach this fluid hypertrophy or pump during a workout, it can translate into the type hypertrophy you don’t necessarily want.  By consistently doing very high rep and lower weight workout this fluid hypertrophy will stick and you will deceitfully have more muscle mass.  The mass will be full of the blood plasma and after a few weeks of not lifting weights you will shrink down pretty fast. On top of that, you will have to keep up with those high volume workouts in order to keep the size. It’s almost like you have a permanent pump going for the duration that you are actively lifting weights.

Fiber Hypertrophy

Fiber growth is the type of hypertrophy that you should be looking for if you are really trying to make sustainable changes.  Fibrous hypertrophy is a result in actual muscle fiber growth. This growth can be attributed to many different things but when it comes down to it your muscles are actually growing more fibers and enlarging.  This is achieved by lifting challenging weights that you cannot do for 20 reps.  The rep range here should be anywhere from 5-15 but rarely higher than that. Rather then high reps you should be looking for higher sets.  It is also widely accepted that hypertrophy is a result of being under tension for 40-70 seconds. This means that each set should last that long in order to ensure growth.  Because of the growth in the fibers, you can take a month off of training and won’t necessarily lose size.  Although it may take a little longer to achieve the size you want, it will be much easier to maintain this size.

For Women

Ladies, I know that you may not be wanting size at all.  Most of my female clients come in asking to tighten up certain areas of the body and say they don’t want to get “too bulky”.  If you are doing high reps 15-20 of exercises, you will likely be moving more towards that fluid hypertrophy.  This will give you a puffy look and not really tighten you up at all.  Working for fiber hypertrophy will be the way to go. Do more weight for less reps and you will be getting strong.  Strong is what you want. Strength does not necessarily translate into external size, just because you are getting stronger doesn’t mean your getting bigger.  Your muscles will get stronger which will lead to tightening. It will also take much longer to get bulky and will allow you time to spot it before you look like a bodybuilder.  In fact that was a little sarcastic, you really shouldn’t have to worry about that at all.

Conclusion

Its easy..lift more weight, do less reps.  In my mind its much better to be “sneaky strong” compared to looking huge and getting out lifted by someone who is 170 pounds and skinny looking.  Unless you are a bodybuilder or just want to get quickly yolked looking, for a Hawaii vacation; fiber size is the way to go.  Hopefully this will change the way you look at weight lifting a little bit.  More sets, less reps!

One fruit that has been gradually getting more and more attention over the years is the Avocado.  These powerful trees can be found in more tropical areas such as the Caribbean, South America, Mexico and California.  Although the most popular Avocado is the Hass, other assortments include: Bacon, Fuerte, Gwen, Pinkerton, Reed, and Zutano.  If you are one of those people who has been eating avocados consistently, keep it up.

Why So Good?

Avocados are known for having good fats.  They are loaded with monounsaturated fats, which actually lower cholesterol.  Research has shown that avocados don’t just lower cholesterol, but in fact lower the bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol.

Another important bonus is the 11-17 grams of fiber found in them which is around half of the daily recommended amount of fiber.  The oils in the fruit are fantastic for hair, skin and nails.  As if all this information weren’t enough to make you want to eat an avocado, they have minimal effect on blood sugar which is huge, especially when trying to shed some weight.

How To Eat

Aim to eat an avocado a day, even if it is solely the avocado, pepper and lemon for a snack.  Other than that its great in salads or as a replacement side as opposed to a baked potato or pasta.  Mix it in with some scrambled eggs, onions, spinach, mushrooms and red peppers and your looking at THE power breakfast.

Cooking Tips

Although I do not use avocados while actually sautéing or pan cooking because in the change in flavor, I do use it as a substitute.  Instead of mayonnaise or heavy creams, mash up an avocado and give that a try.  The great thing about the fruit is that it’s not a strong flavor, so it’s great for substitution.   Also, if you are baking try it instead of eggs or butter.

Lets change it to “An avocado a day can keep the doctor away.”

First off let me begin by talking a little about what eccentric training actual is and means.  An eccentric movement is a “yeilding” movement where you are allowing the weight to lower (most of the time).  Concentric is the opposite of eccentric and is actually where you are attempting to overcome the weight in which you are using.  Eccentric movements would be lowering the bar toward your chest during a bench press, allowing your arms to raise overhead during a lat pull down or lowering downward during a squat.  Most of the time we tend to concentrate solely on concentric training since that is when we feel the most stimulus.  Eccentric training is often neglected and can drastically inhibit your ability in overall strength and size.

Muscles are much stronger during the stretching (eccentric) portion of a lift than they are during the shortening (concentric) portion.  In order to truly strengthen the muscle as a whole we have to find a way to challenge the muscle in an eccentric contraction.  Think about it, if you are bench pressing and can use less effort during the lowering portion of the lift, you will have more energy available in the pressing part of the exercise.  Lets train to get eccentrically strong as well and we will notice increases in overall strength.  Before going any further I would recommend that you are a rather experienced weight lifter before getting into eccentric training as it is highly neurologically taxing.

Types of Eccentric Training

There are many different training variations that will focus on eccentric strength, I have a few personal favorites so will talk about them in this article.

The first is the simplest change in your current exercises that will allow you to challenge your muscles during the eccentric phase.  I would recommend that everyone do this even if they are a beginner, it is safe and effective. This method is changing the tempo of an exercise to a more eccentric emphasis.  What do I mean by this?  Simply slow down the rate of which you perform an eccentric contraction.  Using bench as an example again, rather than quickly dropping the bar to your chest, slow down and take 3-5 seconds to lower it. This can be done in all of your exercises and will be an easy way to get stronger eccentrically.

2/1 technique is one that I have adopted from Christian Thibaudeau, (in my opinion) one of the best strength coaches there is.  This is when you use 2 limbs during the concentric phase and only 1 during the eccentric phase.  I love to use this method while performing curls and tricep pushdowns.  Unless you have been training for a while I would not recommend using this method for any of the bigger (multi-joint)  lifts, as it is easy to become technically sloppy.  If you are doing a bicep curl you will need either a straight bar or two independent rope handles.  Simply lift the weight with both arms than lower with just one arm (alternate arms each rep). If you are using 50 lbs resistance than the concentric phase each arm will technically be responsible for 25 lbs.  However, the eccentric phase will place all 50 lbs on the arm that you are isolating.  By the end of a set of these I bet you’ll know what I mean by eccentric training.

Another form is supra-maximal negative training and is great to do for your big lifts (bench, squat, dead lift…).  It is recommended that you are pretty well experienced before you adapt this method of training. This is when you will use a load that is higher than your current max.  Another words if your 1 RM (rep max) is 300 on the bench press, use a load that is between 300-360 (generally don’t go over 120% of your max).  Allow the weight to lower for at least 5 seconds than have someone help lift the weight up.  If you can’t resist the weight for at least 5 seconds than it is too heavy and you need to lower it until you can.

Benefits of Eccentric Training

Many good things can come out of eccentric training and no matter what your goals are in the gym, eccentric training will likely be a key to your success.  The biggest idea is that you are recruiting your type 2 or fast twitch muscle fibers when performing eccentric training.  This is great for athletes that compete in explosive sports, it is also very beneficial to bodybuilders and power lifters.   Throw it into your training and you will blast through plateaus and continuously get stronger.   Watch out though, as stated earlier eccentric training is pretty taxing so make sure you get ample rest and recovery.