TRADITIONAL
TRAINING PROGRAMS
Traditionally, one would devise a plan in which they focused on developing
everything evenly, and thus create a balanced physique. But even with the most
solid plan, imbalances still exist, as they are nearly impossible to get rid
of, the best we can do is try to minimize them as much as possible.
These imbalances can be either strength imbalances, in which one muscle is
relatively weaker than it should be in relation to another, or aesthetic
imbalances, in which one muscle is relatively underdeveloped in relation to the
rest of the body.
While a sound training plan may be effective at first at creating balance,
over time the body adapts and stops responding in the same manner it once did
when you first started the program. Thus, the need to change it up becomes of
primary importance if you want to keep progressing. Ideally you would change
the loading parameters and alternate between phases of training referred to as
accumulation phases, and intensification phases.
While alternating between accumulative and intensive phases, and selecting
the most appropriate exercises to create a balanced physique from a strength
perspective, there still may be visible imbalances noticeable from a
developmental perspective. Thus the need to implement a specialization phase
may be necessary.
Before getting into a specialization cycle, let’s first go over what
exactly a traditional training cycle (should) look like.
PRACTICAL EXAMPLES
OF TRADITIONAL TRAINING PROGRAMS
Traditional training typically consists of hitting each bodypart equally
each week, whether it’s once, twice, or three times a week. Logic would suggest
that training each bodypart with an equal amount of intensity and volume would
create a balanced physique.
Accumulation and intensification phases are relative to each individual
and their goals. For example an accumulative program for someone who primarily
only cares about being strong, may look more like an intensive program for
someone who primarily only cares about having good muscular endurance.
There are however, some general parameters that are typically associated
with accumulation programs and intensification programs, regardless of the
individual.
Some typical parameters generally classified as intensification programs
are as such:
5 X 5
6 X 2-4
8 X 2-3
Wave Loading, Step/Plateau Loading, Pendulum Loading, and the Repeated
Efforts Methods can all be adjusted for those during an intensification phase.
The doublé method can also be used depending on the strengths and weaknesses of
the individual.
Some typical parameters generally classified as accumulation programs are
as such:
10 X 10
6-12-25
Wave Loading, Step/Plateau Loading, Pendulum Loading, and the Repeated
Efforts Methods can all be adjusted for those during an accumulation phase,
along with the use of pre/post-exhaust supersets, tri/giant-sets and doublé
method.
With traditional training, to get the best results you want your body to
know what stimulus it is that you want it to adapt to, and it’s for that reason
that you want the loading parameters to be the same (or as identical as
possible) for all your bodyparts.
SPECIALIZATION
TRAINING
Specialization is when you devote extra time in bringing up a weakness,
whether it’s an actual weakness itself as far as strength is concerned, or a
weakness as far as a lack of muscular development is concerned. In the case of
the latter, the muscle group itself may in fact be as strong as needed to be
considered balanced relative to the rest of the body from a strength
perspective, but due to genetics, it is not as developed as you may want it to
be. This is commonly the case with well developed physique athletes, such as
bodybuilders, in which their strength is relatively balanced, but their extreme
muscular development highlights their genetic flaws to a greater degree than
would otherwise be noticeable in a less muscularly developed person.
There are many different ways to specialize a certain muscle, or a lift, but
the common denominator between all of them is the same: Increase the volume!
How you decide to increase the volume is entirely up to you. Obviously
smaller bodyparts like the abs, calves and forearms may not call for you to
adjust your training split at all, but larger bodyparts may require you to not
only adjust your training split, but also reduce the volume for all your other
bodyparts to prevent overtraining. You can’t just simply start doing more
squats, or deadlifts than usual without taking away from somewhere else in your
program.
Given that there are only so many days in a week, and also that you need
to be able to recover from the work that you are doing, there are a few ways to
divide up your training to effectively increase the volume without
overtraining.
One would be to hit the desired bodypart, or exercise, twice a week, with
enough time in between to recover.
Three times a week would be another option, as long as you divided your
work and rest days accordingly.
The final option would be to hit the muscle, or lift you are specializing
four times a week. Twice a week, twice a day training and the Smolov Jr.
program (primarily geared to those looking to increase strength, not size)
comes to mind here.
Regardless of how many days you choose to put towards your specialization,
there are a few principles to which you should adhere to. They are:
SPECIALIZATION
PRINCIPLES
Training heavy always comes first! Regardless of whether you are
specializing a certain exercise or bodypart, lifting heavy always comes first.
If you are training for hypertrophy, it goes without saying that you want
to recruit and fatigue as many motor units as possible. To ensure you do this you
want to apply as many different loading parameters and techniques as possible.
Basically you want to ‘shock’ the muscle into new growth.
If you are training for strength, and you want to utilize enhanced
eccentrics, make sure to perform them last (in terms of what day you perform
them throughout the week), as they will leave you a lot sorer, for a lot longer
than unenhanced eccentrics will. Obviously if you are sore it will affect your
performance, as well as increase the chance of injury.
As it relates to range of motion, you always want to start at the bottom
and work your way up to the top, should you choose to break the movement down
into separate phases. Be sure to always perform full range of motion movements
prior to partial range of motion movements. If you choose to perform partial
reps, or limit the range of motion, do so as long as you work your way from a
full range, to as limited a range as you choose to work with, as you go. For
example, if you are specializing the bench press, you could perform full range
paused bench presses early in the week (or day if you chose to go with twice a
day workouts), and floor/rack presses as a second exercise, or somewhere in the
following workout.
If you choose to implement chains and bands into the program, where
exactly you place them should be determined by their purpose. For example, if
you are using them to illicit a neurological response, then you would use them
at the beginning of the week/day. But if you were using them to increase the
time under tension, you would use them at the beginning of the workouts
performed at the end of the week/day. Once again it comes down to the time
under tension (primarily the eccentric part of the lift).
For the most part, specialization cycles are only ever really needed when
you want to correct a glaring imbalance from a strength or muscular
perspective, or make positive strides towards bringing up a lagging bodypart or
increasing your strength in a given lift to bring it up to a satisfactory
level.
A FEW SPECIALIZATION
BLUEPRINTS FOR STRENGTH DEVELOPMENT
ONCE A WEEK PRESS
SPECIALIZATION
While increasing the volume is typically the most common way to specialize
a lift or bodypart, you can in fact make improvements while training a bodypart
or exercise once a week by completely overhauling the exercises and loading
parameters each and every workout.
The more experienced a lifter is, the quicker their body will adapt.
Therefore a specialization for an experienced lifter looking to make
improvements in a pressing movement may look something like this:
Using a press (any type of press is applicable – flat bench, incline,
overhead, etc.) as an example
Week 1 – Dumbell Press, 4-5 sets X 6-8 reps
Week 2 – Paused Barbell Press, 5-6 sets X 4-6 reps
Week 3 – Press with chains or bands, 6-7 sets X 2-4 reps
Week 4 – Barbell Press, 9 sets X 1-3 reps done in wave loading fashion
Summary
Each workout prioritizes a different variation of the press, with a
completely different set of loading parameters. As the reps decrease each
workout, the sets increase in direct proportion.
Week1 – The progression begins with dumbell presses which provide a
thorough range of motion, challenge stabilizing muscles, and also help to
correct any imbalances between the left and right side. Relatively higher reps
are most appropriate here to illicit the hypertrophic response needed to create
balanced muscular development.
Week 2 – The paused press forces the muscles to overcome inertia and
improve the rate of force development needed at the beginning of the movement.
As stated earlier (in regards to full range of motion before partial), the
progression of any movement starts at the bottom and works its way up to the
top.
Week 3 – The use of chains or bands develops explosive strength and helps
with maintaining high levels of force throughout the lift, and improves the
lockout. To reinforce the principle in the previous paragraph about starting at
the bottom and working your way up, at this point the focus is on maintaining
force through the top half of the rep.
Week 4 – Finally, the previous three variations of presses are used to
make the actual press itself feel easier by contrast, and the high volume of
high quality work is all that is needed in this workout.
This routine could be recycled a few times (3-4 weeks maximum) depending
on how well you are progressing.
You could also substitute other compound exercises like squats, deadlifts,
etc. with the blueprint above, just be sure to use their appropriate variations
for each workout.
TWICE A WEEK SQUAT
SPECIALIZATION
DAY 1
A) Squat
*2 second eccentric
**Chains or bands could be used here.
B1) Heels Elevated Squat (Any compound knee dominant could be substituted
here)
B2) Lying Leg Curl (Could be substituted with exercise B from Day 2 if
chosen)
DAY 2
A) Squat
*4 second eccentric
**If you didn’t use chains or bands in the first workout you could here.
B1) Front Squat (Any compound knee dominant could be substituted here)
B2) Romanian Deadlift (Could be substituted with exercise B from Day 1 if
chosen)
***If you wanted to implement both chains and bands into the program,
chains would be more appropriate during the first weekly workout and bands
during the second weekly workout, as bands are more eccentrically challenging.
Summary
Because the squat is the lift being specialized, it is not paired up with
any other movements so that all your energy is prioritized for the squat
itself. That’s not to say you couldn’t pair it up with antagonist movements
like leg curl variations though, you could.
You could also substitute other compound exercises like bench presses,
deadlifts, etc. with this blueprint, just be sure to adjust the other exercises
accordingly.
Set + Rep Options
The set and rep brackets should be the same for both workouts, so
whichever bracket you choose to work with, make sure to be consistent with it
for both workouts.
Set and Rep Brackets for exercise A) (Squat) – 8 X 2-3, 6 X 2-4, or 5-6 X
4-6
Set and Rep Brackets for exercise B1 + B2) – 5 X 4-6, or 4 X 6-8
TWICE A DAY, TWICE
A WEEK DEADLIFT SPECIALIZATION
WEEKS 1 & 2
DAY 1, WORKOUT 1
A) Deadlift
* Chains or bands could be used here.
DAY 1, WORKOUT 2
A) Rack Pull From Below Knee
B) Romanian Deadlift or Good Morning (Could be swapped with exercise B
from Day 2, Workout 2 if chosen)
DAY 2, WORKOUT 1
A) Deadlift
* If you didn’t use chains or bands in the first workout you could here.
DAY 2, WORKOUT 2
A) Rack Pull From Above Knee
B) Back Extension or Reverse Hyper (Could be swapped with exercise B from
Day 1, Workout 1 if chosen)
**If you wanted to implement both chains and bands into the program,
chains would be more appropriate during the first weekly workout and bands
during the second weekly workout, as bands are more eccentrically challenging.
Summary
Because the deadlift is the lift being specialized, it is performed on its
own at the beginning of each day. The second daily workouts focus on the top
range of the movement, in which you can handle more weight, as well as a
movement that directly strengthens the muscles that are primarily involved at
the beginning of the lift.
You could also substitute other compound exercises like bench presses,
squats, etc. with this blueprint, just be sure to adjust the other exercises
accordingly.
Set + Rep Options
Set and Rep Brackets for exercise Day 1 + 2 Workout 1 (Deadlift) – 8 X
2-3, 6 X 2-4, or 5-6 X 4-6
Set and Rep Brackets for exercise Day 1 + 2 Workout 2 – 5 X 4-6, or 4 X
6-8
The reason that there are only blueprints geared towards increasing
strength, and performance of certain exercises, and none are geared towards
hypertrophy is because I have already published several hypertrophy
specialization articles which can be found throughout the site, so I wanted to
shine light on some ideas that I’ve yet to cover in detail.
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