*** Vince Gironda: “The more you know about human anatomy and about the nature and effect of exercises, the less equipment you need to train.” Many respected coaches and lifters have said this. I agree with them completely. Looking back over my own years of training, I have to admit that I have now reached the point where I train most of my body with nothing but a barbell and dumbbells.
*** What is the difference between doing all 5 sets with one weight, for example 5 x 5, all 5 sets of fives with 100 kg, and pyramiding set by set, for example 70 kg – 5x; 80 kg – 5x; 90 kg – 5x; 100 kg – 5x; 110 kg – 5x? I have been asked this a lot… and honestly, I don’t know what the difference is! When I do sets with the same weight, it is much easier for me to track progress. Do you know what the difference is between doing all sets with the same weight and pyramiding?
*** You have heard how, when builders start restoring an old farmhouse and renovating the walls, they look for the load-bearing wall or the load-bearing beam, because the beam that holds up the whole shebang (the house) has to be replaced too.
The load-bearing beam of our body is our back. The load-bearing beam of an old farmhouse can be replaced, but a back “cannot be replaced”. When the back goes, everything goes. You can’t squat, you can’t deadlift, you can’t press and you can’t work your biceps… the back is just as crucial to our body as the load-bearing beam or wall is to a house.
*** The main thing that keeps so many people from reaching their goals is that they don’t set deadlines for them. They do set some goal, but leave the time frame for achieving it undefined. That is a big mistake. Goals without a set time tend to “dissolve”, and so do their achievement and completion. Since the clock, so to speak, isn’t ticking, there seems to be plenty of time. But people are lazy by nature, and if nothing is pushing them from behind, many things remain unachieved and dreams stay dreams.
Goals should also be clearly visible and clearly tangible. True, you can pick all kinds of goals, but I would rather recommend choosing ones that can be realistically measured and achieved. If at the beginning of May you set the goal of looking good by summer, that is exactly the kind of goal that will most likely never be realized. When exactly does summer begin for you, and what does “looking good” mean, and so on? A far more realistic goal is this: you squat 80 kg today and set the goal of squatting 105 – 110 kg in 10 weeks. Besides, with a goal like that you are more likely to get plenty of extra bonuses, compared to setting an abstract goal like “looking good by summer”. If you can move your squat forward by 30 kg in 10 – 12 weeks, then first, you are forced to push hard to complete the program in the set time, and second, once you have added that 30 kg, the bonus is more muscle mass, thicker arms and why not a leaner look as well.
*** If you are interested in strength, but also in explosiveness, speed and good jumping ability, then don’t leave the basic exercises and the 1 – 5 rep range out of your training plans for a longer period (over 2 – 3 weeks).
Because of injuries, I have been forced to stay away from heavy squats and deadlifts for a very long time (I haven’t done a heavy squat for about a year and haven’t done a deadlift for 2 years)… I can no longer sprint or jump, and when I squat even 110 kg, my legs shake under me.
For mass (sarcoplasmic hypertrophy), time-based sets are very good, but if you are also interested in strength and speed, be moderate with long sets.
*** Good training volumes per exercise for tracking progress are:
TV 15 (15 – 16): 5 x 3/4 x 4/3 x 5
TV 20 (18 – 21): 5 x 4/4 x 5/ 3 x 6
TV 24 (24 – 25): 8 x 3/6 x 4/5 x 5 and 5 x 5/4 x 6/3 x 8
There is no point in splitting hairs: using any of these schemes gives you both strength and mass. Also, don’t forget that the lower the training volume you base your progression on, the faster you can progress specifically in the weights you lift. So if your goal is to increase a lift record, you could start from training volume 24, then TV 20, and shortly before the attempt move on to TV 15 with the lift you are improving, for some period.
*** How and why the squat, the deadlift and the Olympic lifts give speed, strength, explosiveness and jumping ability… most people don’t actually understand this. Based on that, from my own experience I can say the following:
1. There are those who truly listen to you and believe you. They understand the effect of physical exercises on the physical abilities mentioned above, they do these exercises, and they are successful.
2. There are those who do these exercises because I said that these exercises give you strength, speed and explosiveness. Although they don’t understand the exact effect of the exercises or human anatomy at all.
3. The third group is those who desperately want exercises and tricks from you for improving their jumping ability or developing speed, but when I recommend squats and deadlifts to them, you can see from their faces that they take me for yet another dim-witted strength guy who is once again pushing “his thing” without reason.
If only that last group could someday understand how foolish they themselves remain with such an attitude.
*** I believe it is not possible to speak relevantly and competently on training topics unless you are a practitioner yourself. That applies to every field.
Author: Janar Rückenberg
Come train! ArtGym
