Post: #26

(11-29-2013 02:28 AM)Hades Wrote:  What do you consider positive muscle failure? Also great that you've made your own workouts.

Positive muscle failure is simply failure to complete the positive of an exercise while doing it, for example: failing to pull yourself up when doing pull ups.This is as opposed to negative muscle failure, which is failure to complete the negative. It sparks, according to the literature in Body by Science, the most muscle synthesis. It also accounts for your body's own nuances and development; if you become stronger, you will need more reps to get to positive failure or a completely change in intensity or type of exercise. I try to go to positive muscle failure twice to make sure.

Post: #27

What do you guys think of that:

Quote:Blood Flow Restriction Training
by Brad Schoenfeld, PhD© – 9/16/2013
Blood Flow Restriction Training
Here's what you need to know...

• Blood flow restriction training involves wrapping a restrictive implement around the limbs while lifting. Studies show increases in muscle growth when low-load lifting is combined with flow restriction.

• You don't need costly implements to perform BFR. Elastic knee wraps will do.

• The best approach is to use this as a "finishing" technique. Perform a moderate to heavy-load hypertrophy protocol first in a session and then finish up with several sets of BFR training using single-joint movements.

Resistance training articles often explore variations on the same old theme. That's because there just aren't many new techniques to report on... at least few that actually work. Occasionally, though, there are exceptions. If you've been searching for a novel way to ramp up muscle growth, here's a strategy that you might not have considered – blood flow restriction (BFR) training.

BFR isn't really a new technique. It's been used for years in Japan and research on the topic dates back to the 90's. Despite emerging evidence of its effectiveness, most lifters have only a vague idea of what BFR involves and how it can be applied within a resistance-training program to enhance results.


BFR Basics
BFR entails occluding circulation of the working muscle. This is accomplished by wrapping a restrictive implement around the limb(s) while carrying out dynamic exercise. The objective of BFR is to occlude venous flow without significantly affecting arterial circulation. In this way, blood goes into the muscle but can't escape.

Research on the hypertrophic effects of BFR is compelling. Studies show that simply occluding blood flow to bedridden patients can prevent atrophy and weakness, without performing any training at all (1)!

Moreover, walking with blood flow restricted to the legs – not exactly your classic muscle-building activity – has been found to significantly increase muscle strength and size (2). But the real hypertrophic benefits of BFR occur when it's applied in concert with resistance exercise.

Numerous studies show substantial increases in muscle growth when low-load lifting (~20-30% 1RM) is combined with flow restriction (3). Gains are often on par with traditional heavy-load training during early-stage training, sometimes even greater.

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_arti...n_training

Post: #28

It's pretty basic and nothing groundbreaking in it, but it definitely helped me achieve my goals.

Post: #29

I have three I base my exercises on:

"Complete Calisthenics: The Ultimate Guide To Bodyweight Exercise" by Ashley Kalym

"Train Like An Action Hero" by Dolph Lundgren

"Bruce Lee: The Art Of Expressing The Human Body" by John Little

Post: #30

The first workout book I ever used was Body for Life by Bill Phillips back in the day.

That's what got me working out in the first place. A classic. Looking back at it now it was essentially a long marketing brochure for EAS & Myoplex, but that's the book that got me started on the track of exercise and healthy eating. I lost 35lbs in 6 months following Phillip's prescription.

Arnold's encyclopedia is a classic. I like Man 2.0 by Romaniello as well, had an interesting take on things and helped me lean up.

Post: #31

I've read a lot of workout books. These are the ones I've tried.

Power to the People by Pavel. This doubled my shitty overhead press and got me to a 345 lbs deadlift. I did not build a lot of muscle though, so I ended up rounding this pulling strength out with other programs. This book has to be the fastest way to get stronger out of any of them I've ever tried, but you will build very little size. If you've been bodybuilding for a while and you want to see what your maxes are at after a couple months, give this a shot. You can not fail.

Sidenote: The Russian Bear routine is retarded. Don't ever attempt it with the deadlift, your back will not take kindly to it. For every positive review I've read, there are at least 5 negative reviews of this program that involved career ending, yes career ending injuries.

If you're going to do it, use it with something that isn't technical or as heavy. Bodybuilders don't waste their time with overally technical movements because technique breaks down after so many reps.

Starting Strength by Rippetoe. This built up my legs a decent amount and my upper body lagged behind quite a bit. I've done SS a couple times, I used to do it for a month or two after a layoff, but I've since found better programs for that. It seems like every time I started doing this program, I'd inevitably get derailed after a month or two of decent gains.

Enter the Kettlebell Program Minimum : I did this program for a week and thought it was retarded. Turkish getups do not replace presses, swings are great though.

Convict Conditioning : I did not get anywhere with training Convict Conditioning to the letter. Every time I used CC, I ended up using just the exercises and doing my own rep/set schemes with periodization. If you go on the Dragondoor forums, you'll find this to be the case for everyone who sticks with CC and gets somewhere. They use their own rep/set scheme. A common change is to only go up to 15-20 reps in a set and hit each exercise at least 2 times a week. An A/B format for M/T/Th/F would work well here.

Building the Gymnastic Body : I did not do any sort of "program" from this book, but the book has many concepts that I still use today. I love the "Steady State" protocol because it allows you injury free gains and basically a lifetime of training longevity if you have a decent program.

I also did the front lever + planche program for a couple months (until I got injured, pushed too hard for no good reason) from the BtGB article in 2004.

Foundation One. This program was badass. I did it for 6 months. I developed a lot of flexibility and rounded out my strength. My leg strength suffered but I also took my time with the leg progressions, so that might have been why. No injuries and nothing but strength and mass gains. A+ program from me.

Jame Lewis aka Chaos and Pain Issuance of Insanity: He doesn't really have a program, but he advocates lifting very heavy weights for singles, doubles and triples. On your "off days" you'll do stuff like 100 pullups or "The Bear", which is a barbell circuit routine. You basically spend your off days getting a pump. I had a lot of fun lifting this way, but I burned out hard after six or eight weeks.

It seems the older I get, the more patient I get with this stuff. I got leaner and stronger with all that training volume, but my joints hated me so I quit doing it. Right now I've been doing a combination of Bryce Lane's 50/20 and the Steady State Training Cycle (from Building the Gymnastic Body). SSTC is where you stay at the same rep/set range for 8-12 weeks and then you bump it up. You pick an exercise that is challenging but not quite to failure and you work with it for 8-12 weeks until it's a feather. Your periodization model looks like overload - moderate load - underload (or deload). This knowledge right here has been the most useful out of every single book I've read.

Bryce Lane's 50/20 is where you take an exercise and try to rep it out 50 times in 20 minutes. You get strength and mass gains and a cardio benefit. This is easily one of my favorite programs because you just set a stopwatch and do work.

Here is a link :

http://affectinggravity.blogspot.com/201...-5020.html

Post: #32

I tried Convict Conditioning for about 3 months, and it worked decently. I went from fairly weak (i.e. couldn't do more than 5 pullups) to one legged squats, one arm pushups, hanging leg raise, etc. It's not a great program for mass, but it beats sitting on your ass and doing nothing. The volume is too low for any real muscle gain, though.

I also tried out Naked Warrior. The exercises were of questionable value, but the tension techniques were good. Same thing with Power to the People. Beyond Bodybuilding was pretty good. Kettlebells never have really interested me. Power to the People Professional was great, however.

Dinosaur Training was a useful book for me; it shifted how I thought about lifting. Starting Strength I have some major issues with; I can't support Rippetoe's technique recommendations for most of the lifts.

I really like Everett's book on weightlifting (Olympic lifting, to most), but that's a very niche sport.

Post: #33

^^

You went all the way to one armed pushups in 3 months?

That's amazing. I still can't do them like the book describes.

Post: #34

(05-23-2016 01:39 PM)Hannibal Wrote:  ^^

You went all the way to one armed pushups in 3 months?

That's amazing. I still can't do them like the book describes.

I had more of a side bend than the book describes, and I was using Pavel's tension techniques.

Post: #35

I might have to give that a shot this week. I'll be traveling and won't have access to a dip station.

I always wanted to do the Naked Warrior program, but I could never do the one armed pushup. Doing it on an incline (which requires equipment or a special place to do it) defeats the purpose of the book, which is supposed to be a "no equipment, no time, no excuses" kind of book.

Post: #36

(05-24-2016 09:06 AM)Hannibal Wrote:  I might have to give that a shot this week. I'll be traveling and won't have access to a dip station.

I always wanted to do the Naked Warrior program, but I could never do the one armed pushup. Doing it on an incline (which requires equipment or a special place to do it) defeats the purpose of the book, which is supposed to be a "no equipment, no time, no excuses" kind of book.

The incline can be a pipe or a chair.

As for the one arm pushup, be careful with it. I can do behind the neck presses/snatches/other things that are hard on the shoulders without much pain. The one arm pushup aggravates my shoulders.

Post: #37

The Lean Muscle Diet by Lou Schuler and Alan Aragon.

Not glamorous or macho-sounding I know Alan is best known as the online go-to guy for all things nutrition, and spends a considerable amount of time debunking nonsensical fitness claims that otherwise gain traction in the conventional world (Bulletproof coffee, mercola, food babe). I like the book for its detail about diets, including tables of nutritional values of popular foods (giving me easy-to-remember benchmarks), and straight real talk ("there is nothing new under the sun" and "all fad diets work for a while because they tend to cut out an entire food group or through psychobabble promote eating healthier, less processed food") as examples.

While the book is primarily about diet, it has an exercise component. The authors in question are built themselves, natty, and have well rounded lives with families, work, and friends (indicating its sustainable). Consistency is key, so that's what I follow.

Extra bonus - they throw in tips about making certain exercises easier on the joints.