In early August 2010, my wife and I took the kids to the cottage for a week. Just before the trip, I put my How to Get Lean in One Week plan into action, intentionally overtraining for six straight days to induce a supercompensation effect. The idea was simple: push my body hard, then let…
Rule #1: Doing high-rep sets at the beginning of a workout increases lactic acid levels and inhibits the recruitment of high-threshold motor units, decreasing strength. Rule #2: Pyramiding from high reps to low reps crosses too many borders and confuses the body. Keep intensity within a narrow range. Rule #3: There’s an inverse relationship between…
Often, the most appropriate answer to just about any question a personal training client asks is: “It depends!” Having a nighttime feeding right before bed is a perfect example. Most people believe that eating before bed will lead to weight gain and may adversely affect their sleep and overall health. Well, according to a recent…
When my wife and I bought a new home around 10 years ago, we knew we were going to spend a few dollars on structural upgrades. One of them was an extra foot of ceiling height in the basement so that once my gym was set up, overhead pressing wouldn’t be a problem. That foot…
Every year, many professional bodybuilders take an extended leave from training. They do this for a few reasons. The rigors of training and dieting to peak for a competition can take a toll both mentally and physically, so it’s beneficial to rest before going on the hunt again. A layoff gives the body time to…
During high-intensity training phases, a lower training volume means less energy expended. It’s important to adjust your calorie intake accordingly—otherwise, you risk storing excess calories as body fat. One way to manage this is by reducing carbohydrate intake, particularly post-workout. In fact, if body composition is a concern, you can skip post-workout carbs entirely and…
Here are two common questions in the strength world: You’ll find experts on both sides of the debate, but the truth is that any stimulus works for a period of time until you adapt. However, there’s a way to combine these methods within a single workout for a powerful response. Here’s how to do it……
Performing bent-knee deadlifts from a deficit with a wide grip forces you to pull from a deeper starting position, increasing knee flexion and overall range of motion (ROM). Stand on a 4-inch box, step, or three stacked weight plates, and take a wide grip—often called a snatch grip. To determine the correct width, raise your…
A popular bodybuilding technique is the 21-rep system, or simply “21s.” To give you a glimpse of how it works, here’s an excerpt from Robert Kennedy’s book Reps!: This is a method which was popular on the West Coast bodybuilding scene in the fifties and sixties. Let’s use the barbell curl as an example. Begin…
I’ve taken an undulatory loading model and combined it with a conjugate approach to create a 4-month plan that targets maximum strength, power, hypertrophy, and muscular endurance. If you’re interested in the science behind this system, check out my article Periodization for Athletes. The setup is simple: you’ll follow a split routine where the upper…