I’m trying to recover some strength that I’ve lost over the last couple months due to sporadic training.  I’ve also been really short on time lately, so I’m using an abbreviated program.

The program is what I call “3 and Out.”  You can read about how to do it at the Men’s Health website.

This brings me to the concept of full body training vs. body part training.

If you’re really trying raise stength levels, then each time you train a specific movement pattern, the less fatigue the better.

Let’s make a comparison of fatigue accumulated in a training session and volume.

If I do a body part split and I’m doing 12 sets of pushing divided over 3 exercises, the second and third exercises for that movement pattern are starting from a deficit because of the accumulated fatigue from the prior sets already performed.

It looks like this (weights are arbitrary here):

Bench press 5 x 3-5 @ 225 pounds
Inclined press 4 x 5 @ 185 pounds
Military press 3 x 5 @ 155 pounds

Now had I started with Military presses in a fully recovered state, I may have been able to use as much as 20 pounds more.  From a strength and even a muscle mass standpoint, wouldn’t the training effect be greater?  Of course it would.

Now look at doing three full body training sessions per week and we divide those 12 sets over three separate training sessions.

Day#1
Bench Press 5 x 5 @ 225

Day#2
Inclined Press 4 x 5 @ 205

Day#3
Military Press 3 x 5 @ 175

Can you see by direct comparison, which program (full body vs. split) will give me a greater training effect?

Perhaps it’s time to reconsider your training program.

Bill

P.S.  Checkout Jason Ferruggia’s Muscle Gaining Secrets for outstanding real-world strategies to promote strength and muscle gains as well.

Here’s a quick test of your lower trap strength.

Do a full chin-up.

Most will assume that if the chin clears the bar that they are successful.  Test passed.  Next exercise please.

Not so fast.

At the top of the chin-up, the scapula should be depressed (pulled down) and retracted (pulled back).  Most of the people will initially allow the scapula to elevate as they usually aren’t aware of correct chin-up performance or they’re just not strong enough in their scapular muscles…especially the lower trapezius which is an important depressor.

The fix?

Isometric holds in the proper scapular position at the top of the chin-up.  Question is…can you even perform the isometric hold correctly.

If not, reduce the load of your body weight with jump stretch bands until you are able to perform the ISOs correctly.

How does this assure a bigger bench press?

The scapula need to be in a depressed and retracted position to be stable and thus, stabilize the shoulder joint to allow maximal effort to be generated by the prime movers in the bench press.

By increasing lower trap strength via a proper chin-up, you get a carryover to your bench press.

The additional incentive is that it will also improve shoulder health by improving scapular stabilization in other activities.

Bill

P.S.  don’t forget your Inside-Out warm-up before your upper body training.

It’s not uncommon to read discussions (or is it arguments) about how deep someone should squat.

It never fails that someone says,”You should squat ass to the grass.”

Well, wouldn’t it be nice if we could all possess such extreme hip mobility to do such a thing because it’s actually pretty rare. 

Based on my experience in working with “normal people,” it’s rather rare to have someone demonstrate the ability to squat to even parallel effectively and safely let alone go “ass to the grass”.  Higher level athletes often don’t do much better.

Here’s a couple of suggestions to get you more depth right away:

Do front squats.  The anterior placement of the weight increases trunk stiffness that can overcome stiffness in the hip that would typically limit depth. 

Widen your stance.  The wider stance reduces range of motion demands on the ankles and reduces tension in the stiffer or shorter muscles of the hips.  Increasing toe out in your stance may even give you a little more.  As you gain mobility, you can progressively return to your desired stance.

So how deep should you squat?

While it depends on several issues, let me give you some advice.

Avoid squatting deeper than the point where your butt tucks under.  If you’re not sure what I mean, watch someone squat or video yourself.  Watch the tailbone (sacrum) during the squat.  At some point, you’ll see the sacrum tilt backward (counternutation).  At that point the stiffness of the hips have overcome the stiffness of the spine which places the spine at risk for injury.

Bill
www.billhartman.net

“There’s usually a sign before there’s a symptom.”
-Shirley Sahrmann

I would have to say that I fall into the “if you’re not assessing, you’re guessing” group of fitness professionals.  Everyone program that I develop for individuals that I work with is based on how they present to me during some form of a direct assessment. 

At the other end of the spectrum are the group of professionals that don’t believe that an assessment is warranted.  Perhaps it’s the belief that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  In other words, a lack of pain is indicative of normal function.

 I personally can’t follow this line of thinking because of information that has been accumulated in the last 10-15 years in regard to how the body works as a linked system.  When we evaluate athletes and fitness clients, many times we find that although they may be high level performers or appear to quite fit, they are also great compensators during movement.

Much like your car driving out of alignment, it may still drive fairly well but the progressive wear ‘n’ tear accumulated over time will result in some form of costly breakdown.  In the case of the human kinetic chain, malalignment and compensation combined with repetitive movement results in adaptations leading to injury that may not be all that fixable.

Assessments and reassessments allow professionals to not only track progress (maybe just to see if your program really does work) but to identify signs that if ignored may very well become symptomatic or lead to serious injury.  Then we can implement an appropriate corrective strategy that may prevent potential injury and even raise performance as the body becomes a more efficient system.

I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Bill

P.S.  Sorry for the big gap in posts.  We had some family health issues to resolve and then some technical issues, but we are back up and running.

I was emailing back and forth with Mike Roussell the other day about how to control carbohydrate intake, and I asked Mike if he had any recommendations in regard to lower carb protein powders. I was expecting to get back a quick list, but I got a whole lot more.

Here’s what he said.

“Low carb protein powders?

Metabolic Drive is a staple. I really like their banana and strawberry flavors. The banana isn’t too strong of a flavor so it is nice.

EvoPro from cytosport is another good protein blend. I’ve only had their vanilla but it was good.

AST-SS’s VP2-Pro is an isolate/hydrolysate. Their fruit punch, orange, and vanilla are all pretty good. Because it is a isolate/hydrolysate it makes a very watery shake (unlike MD or EvoPro).

Matrix 5.0 from Syntrax is a pretty good tasting chocolate. I comes in like a 5lb bag and it is dirt cheap… so that makes me wonder.

Lean Dessert from BSN isn’t low carb because it has ~10g of carbs per serving. It is really sweet… especially the cinnamon bun but amazing if you mix it with cottage cheese.

I’ve never tried the Met-Rx ProteinPlus but John Berardi recommends it.

ProPeptide from Dorian Yates Approved is another protein blend I haven’t tried but I know Cassandra Forsythe uses it.

ProV60 from Labrada is pretty good. You’ll have to check the carb count I think it is 6g CHO per 30g PRO.”

I’ve mentioned it before, but if you haven’t checked out Mike’s Your Naked Nutrition Guide yet you’re missing out on an outstanding nutritional resource.

Bill