tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91105798012205824902024-02-29T02:26:37.693-05:00Toronto Personal Trainer | Mississauga Personal Trainer | Strength Coach / Bodybuilding CoachBenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.comBlogger123125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-61874071440590860402016-07-31T14:11:00.000-04:002016-08-10T17:50:12.580-04:00Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Manipulation For Maximal Performance - AKA Gua Sha
First off, I just want to briefly update those who have followed my
work over the last few years to explain why I’ve discontinued my work on the
site. It is my personal belief that people these days are more prone to watch videos
to obtain information as opposed to read, so I’ve directed my efforts towards
creating content for YouTube as of late. For those interested, here’s a link to
my channelBenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-52809525691441455102015-09-13T00:00:00.000-04:002015-09-13T00:00:04.264-04:00Mechanical Ascension Training System
The Difference
Between A Program, And A System
A lot of people lack direction in their training, and appear to do
things without any rhyme or reason hoping that it will get them the results
they desire. While this can work for some, “hope” is not a strategy – at least
not an effective one. It’s for this reason that many search endlessly for a “program”
designed to provide them with the Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-43971291341078793992015-09-01T00:00:00.000-04:002015-09-21T10:31:28.774-04:00Special 5 Year Anniversary Article - The Most Effective Muscle Building Strategy: Recruit, Then Fatigue
Freedom within a
structure
As far as training is concerned, bodybuilding, or rather training to build
muscle, is primarily the result of recruiting and fatiguing as many muscle
fibers within a muscle as possible (without overworking the body’s capacity to
recover). The most appealing characteristic about bodybuilding training is the
freedom you have when it comes to structuring a workout, Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-90452623520321395632015-07-12T13:37:00.002-04:002016-01-03T13:48:30.726-05:00The Training Program – What It Is, And What It Is Not
The Program
Represents The Strategy
A training program is nothing more than the physical representation
of a strategy designed to specifically make you progress in one way, or another.
The “program” itself is not important, but rather the strategy that undermines
the decisions made in terms of what exercises to perform, and when/how.
Why There’s No Such
Thing As A “Best” Program
A Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-75401745095338770432015-06-07T00:00:00.000-04:002015-06-07T00:00:07.060-04:00Logical, Volume Based Progression Models For Sustainable Gains
The Magic Is In The
Strategy
A “program” is nothing more than a physical representation of a
strategy, aimed at making you better at something. Whether that be bigger,
stronger, faster, the program is simply a strategy used to create a
physiological response.
For those training primarily for aesthetics, like a bodybuilder,
progression is measured by what you see in the mirror (which is Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-46550302544691447242015-05-10T16:44:00.000-04:002015-05-11T16:44:57.763-04:00Plateau Busters - The Most Effective Strategies To Promote New Strength And Size Gains
In “the science and practice of strength training,” which has
largely become a bible in the world of strength and conditioning, Zatsiorsky
suggests that for a muscle to be “trained,” it must not only be recruited, but
exhausted as well. When framed under this scope, it’s easy to understand how to
train a muscle to respond to further growth, when it seems nothing else is
working.
Break Away Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-16238910498274794302015-03-08T00:09:00.000-05:002015-03-09T22:13:21.546-04:00Numbers, Angles, Rhythm, And Symmetry
This Is Really Just
A Game Of Numbers, And Angles
Super Bowl winning
coach, and NFL analyst, Brian Billick has popularized the phrase, ‘professional
football has been and always will be a game of numbers, angles, rhythm and
symmetry’.
Numbers in this case
refers to the matchups and mismatches on the field, such as when 3 receivers
are lined up on the same side of the field, with the Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-11073580144499909322015-03-01T11:29:00.002-05:002015-05-30T12:44:58.191-04:00Bodybuilding - A Simplistic View Of How You Should Train To Build Your Body
A lot of people who
get into bodybuilding, or who train with the goal of building their body (which
pretty much defines what ‘bodybuilding’ is), fall into the trap of focusing on
the wrong things like external cues. Building your body is an ‘experience’ that
YOU are central to, not the result of doing things that are written down on a
piece of paper, or on your smart phone.
External cues likeBenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-77571897553859899722015-02-15T00:00:00.000-05:002016-01-03T15:40:02.442-05:00Auto-Regulatory Minimalist Training For Strength, Size, And Performance
Know Your Response,
And Cater Your Training To It
The act of strength training, or ‘working out’, does not build
muscle (or increase strength/endurance) – the body responds to the strength
training by building muscle (or increases its ability to generate/maintain
force). Strength training is simply the catalyst which initiates the adaptive
processes, therefore one must first know what Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-53831397684686399702015-01-25T00:00:00.000-05:002015-01-25T00:00:01.833-05:00Everything You Need To Know About How To Concurrently Develop Multiple Physical Capacities - Complexes
Ain’t Nobody Got
Time For That!
A large percentage
of competitive athletes only have 12-16 weeks of uninterrupted training time
per year, in which there's a lot to accomplish. Muscle that is lost during the
season must be regained and new muscle mass must be built in most cases as it
will likely only help performance, and conjugate periodization is likely the
best system there is for this Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-17962403075546354442014-11-30T00:00:00.000-05:002015-05-17T21:07:32.103-04:00The Soviet Lifting Cycle, And How You Can Modify It To Increase Your Strength And Size!
SOVIET LIFTING CYCLE
Week
Monday
Wednesday
Friday
Week 1
80% (6x2)
80% (6x3)
80% (6x2)
Week 2
80% (6x4)
80% (6x2)
80% (6x5)
Week 3
80% (6x2)
80% (6x6)
80% (6x2)
Week 4
85% (5x5)
80% (6x2)
90% (4x4)
Week 5
80% (6x2)
Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-29628212021763936272014-11-23T01:01:00.002-05:002014-11-23T01:01:38.172-05:00Everything You Need To Know About Training To Failure
Is it necessary to train
to failure for optimal growth?
While training to
failure can be dangerous (especially with heavy weights), as well as lead to neural
fatigue, cause an excessive amount of muscle damage, and contribute to
localized overtraining, there are significant benefits as well, but it really
depends on what it is that caused failure in the first place.
What is ‘muscle’
failure?Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-39850111705881316472014-11-16T11:56:00.000-05:002014-11-20T11:59:15.772-05:00Everything You Need To Know About How To Activate mTOR During Your Workout
Eccentrics, And
Their Connection To mTOR
Activation of the
mTOR pathway is the switch that triggers protein synthesis, and as far as
mechanical tension is concerned, this switch is activated almost exclusively
during muscle lengthening (eccentric) actions.
It was once thought
that because eccentric loading inflicts the greatest micro-tearing to the
muscles, muscle damage must be the main Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-39196643678222118312014-10-19T13:34:00.000-04:002014-10-20T13:34:58.185-04:00Everything You Need To Know About mTOR, And How To Maximally Stimulate Protein Synthesis
Protein Synthesis Is
Activated By mTOR
Activation of protein
synthesis is controlled by a series of phosphorylation events orchestrated by a
protein called ‘mammalian target of rapamycin’ (mTOR) – which is the
master-controller of protein synthesis in the cell, and thus the most important
cell signaling complex for muscle growth. Muscle growth is directly related to
mTOR activation – greater Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-66251464329608335552014-09-21T00:20:00.000-04:002014-09-22T00:21:16.215-04:00How To Determine The Value Of An Exercise, And Whether It Is The Best One For You
Get Results, Or Die
Trying
Progression is the
name of the game, to which every single decision, as it relates to a strength
training program, should be built upon. Progression in this context is best
quantified by the following criteria – this criteria also happens to determine
whether an exercise can be classified as one with a high, or low, rate of return
on investment (ROI), and if it has Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-18482654436651403242014-09-14T23:35:00.000-04:002014-09-14T23:37:10.195-04:00Excitation Thresholds - Why A Muscle Won't Grow, And What You Can Do About It
The 2 Primary
Training Related Reasons Why A Muscle Won’t Grow
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.
<!--[endif]-->One has difficulty recruiting a specific muscle group (likely because
it’s the weak link in the chain, and stronger muscles take over during
movements that are ‘supposed’ to target a specific muscle)
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.
<!--[endif]-->One has Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-18816017157494816672014-08-09T20:35:00.003-04:002014-08-09T20:37:28.429-04:00SPECIAL FOUR YEAR ANNIVERSARY ARTICLE - Everything You Need To Know About Training For Your Fiber Type To Get The Best Results For Your Body
The secret
Everybody is different, right? Which means everyone responds differently
to a given stimulus, right? And to get the best result you have to find what
works for you, right?
Obviously the answer to each of the questions above is yes, but knowing
that doesn’t really tell you much at all. Knowing that everybody is different
or that a certain stimulus will generate a different Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-46039529751008413312014-07-27T01:00:00.000-04:002014-08-06T01:26:00.116-04:00Training Programs - Over 50 Programs To Build Strength And/Or Size!
The goal of any program is obviously to promote
the desired adaptation in the shortest period of time, but because training
programs are not so much ‘black and white’, but rather consist of a lot of
‘grey area’, there are numerous ways in which one could go about accomplishing
the same goal. Here are some of the more popular programs that have stood the
test of time for no other reason than Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-31721583283104034782014-06-01T00:00:00.000-04:002014-10-15T15:04:20.848-04:00The 100 Rep Method, And How It May Be Exactly What You Need To Continue Making Progress
Betcha any money,
you can’t do that again
The ability to
repeat efforts is what differentiates a ‘one trick pony’, from someone who can
prove that they’re not just a fluke. As it relates to strength training, work
capacity (the ability to repeat efforts in a set amount of time), and your
ability to build upon it, can be the catalyst for newfound progress when it
seems like all else is Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-28264500553871431562014-05-25T00:00:00.000-04:002014-05-25T11:39:36.659-04:00The Jettison Technique - How To Use The Resources Available To Maximize Tension, Thus Results
Meet the Jettisons
The Jettison technique is where two different forms of resistance (free
weights, cables, machines, resistance bands, lifting chains, etc) are combined
during the same exercise to create a variation of a mechanical drop
set/improved leverage set aimed at maximizing muscle recruitment and fatigue. An
example would be a barbell with a resistance band wrapped around it (which Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-27467187810527135142014-05-18T00:00:00.000-04:002014-05-18T00:00:02.679-04:00Clusters - How To Maximize Both The Load AND Time Under Tension
Take your pick,
load or time under tension? BOTH!
The goal with any training program should always be to try and maximize
the load, as well as the time under tension, at least if making positive
strides towards putting muscle on your frame, burning fat off of it, or
increasing your strength is the desired result. Obviously various goals will
favor lifting a heavier load at the expense of Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-38104930903449195222014-05-11T18:25:00.000-04:002014-05-11T18:25:00.907-04:00Partials - That Horrible Form You See In The Gym Can Actually Be Beneficial... If You Use It Right
A primer on
strength curves
Every exercise has a specific strength curve, which basically means that
they either get harder (descending), easier (ascending), or harder and then
easier (concave), throughout the range of motion because of the biomechanics of
the body.
Not a single exercise requires an identical amount of force to be produced
throughout a full range of motion. Some machines Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-40173729371213583122014-05-04T00:00:00.000-04:002014-05-04T00:00:01.775-04:00Ladders - Maximize Performance While Minimizing Fatigue To Allow For A Greater Volume Of Work
What are we really
doing here?
If one thing’s for sure, it’s that there’s definitely no shortage of
training programs out there for those wanting to build muscle, get stronger, or
transform their body. Hell, some programs are promoted to do all those things
simultaneously. Generally these programs consist of the same exercises (because
the same movements that provided the most bang for your Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-81372247772628601782014-03-30T00:00:00.000-04:002014-03-30T00:00:04.040-04:00How To Maximize Muscle Fiber Recruitment And Fully Exhaust As Many Fibers As Possible - Stage Sets
The excellence of
execution
It would be a challenging assignment to find anyone who doesn’t agree that
what you do matters far less than how you do something. Anyone can put in the
time necessary to be as prepared as humanly possible for any given situation,
but if effective execution of the plan is less than optimal, it’s all for
nothing. As it relates to strength training, one of the most,Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9110579801220582490.post-20171213365210906172014-03-23T00:00:00.000-04:002014-03-23T00:00:06.106-04:00How To Make Every Set You Do As Productive As Possible
What are you going
to do? And, how are you going to do it?
“Productivity can be defined as applying the most amount of effort, to the
best of your ability, in the allotted time that you have. Being that time is as
precious a commodity as there is, and the one thing you can’t buy, or ever buy
back, it’s important to realize that there’s an allotted time in which you have
to perform a given Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10846375023737635543noreply@blogger.com0