Tag: strength training

  • The 3-day Monster plan for size and power

    The 3-day Monster plan for size and power

    This is called the Monster plan because that’s exactly what it will do to you—turn you into a monster. If you’ve been training several days per week or doing a lot of high-intensity interval stuff for the last few months, this is a nice block of change. Month after month, week after week of continuous bombardment of the muscles with volume and intensity would wear anyone down. Let’s use the next 30 days for size and power. And the way to do it effectively will require a change in thinking, and programming.

    Watch Brandon Da Cruz (@brandondacruz_) demo one of his programs below.

    Introducing: The Monster Plan

    How it works

    Now that you’ve fully accepted the fact that sub-5 or 10% body fat all year isn’t necessary, and quite frankly, understand that it could also be burning you out—your new mass and power plan could still take some getting used to.

    You’re going to be working out three days per week. Structured as one day on, one day off. But don’t let the three days fool you into thinking life just got easy because after the first week of this program you’re going to pay close attention to the tempo of your repetitions. Instead of simply lifting start to finish, you’re going to follow a “3/1/3/1” tempo for higher repetition exercises (above 6). And for lower repetition exercises you will follow a “2/1/0/1” tempo. Essentially your “power” exercises in the low rep ranges will be explosive, and your “growth” exercises in the high rep ranges will be slower, controlled movements.

    For both of these, you’ll feel it in the morning. We promise. And make sure to follow the rest periods—you’ll need them.

    Attempt to either increase the weight, or the number of reps each week as you progress. You want to build monsterous size, but don’t be a monsterous lug head—increasing weight by very small increments like 5-pounds can surprisingly go a long way.

    Understanding tempo training

    If you’re bench pressing high reps for 3/1/3/1, it’s 3 seconds on the way down, 1 second with the bar at your chest, 3 seconds on the way up, and 1 second at the top. If you’re bench pressing low reps for 2/1/0/1, it’s 2 seconds on the way down, 1 second with the bar at your chest, an explosive push on the way up (0 seconds), and a 1 second pause at the top.

     

    Workouts & Directions

    Day One: Push

    1. Flat bench press: 3 sets of 4-6
    2. Incline DB press: 3 sets of 8-10
    3. DB shoulder press: 3 sets of 4-6
    4. BB wide-grip upright row: 3 sets of 8-10
    5. DB lying tricep extension: 3 sets of 4-6
    6. Weighted dip: 3 sets of 8-10
    * Rest 60 seconds between sets

    Day Two: Legs & Abs

    1. DB goblet squat: 3 sets of 4-6
    2. BB landmine squat: 3 sets of 8-10
    3. Alternating lunge: 3 sets of 8
    4. DB stiff-legged deadlift: 3 sets of 8
    5. Weighted rope crunches: 3 sets of 10-12
    6. Hanging leg raise: 3 sets of 15
    * Rest 60 seconds between sets

    Day Three: Pull

    1. Weighted pull-up: 3 sets of 8-10
    2. BB bent-over row: 3 sets of 4-6
    3. Single-arm DB row: 3 sets of 6-8
    4. Face pull: 3 sets of 8-10
    5. BB curl: 3 sets of 6-8
    6. DB alternating hammer curl: 3 sets of 8-10
    7. DB shrug- 3 sets of 8
    * Rest 60 seconds between sets

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  • The Survival Plan: Building an Unbreakable Machine

    The Survival Plan: Building an Unbreakable Machine

    What if you actually had to push, pull, or even carry something incredibly heavy? How about sprint, jump, or climb? And would you have the stamina to do if for a sustained amount of time? Looking big, strong, and durable is one thing—being big, strong, and durable is another. Instead of training for the pump, use this program to prepare your body to apply all of that size, strength, power, and endurance. This program has been designed and demonstrated by Mike Counihan, a New York City law enforcement officer and group training instructor. Follow him on Instagram @nodonutshere.

    HOW IT WORKS

    This program is built off of several foundational moves—presses, deadlifts, rows, and squats. However, as each day progresses, you’ll be met with a different challenge. In day one the battle ropes come out to test your cardiovascular and muscular endurance. What you thought was a typical “chest day” is now burning up your shoulders, arms, and even your lungs. Day two is a whole lot of pulling, but there’s a twist when the sled comes out. This total-body device will turn everything on full blast—chest, back, shoulders, arms, legs, and your lunges. And finally, there’s day three, which is likely to be the most confusing for the body—in a good way. Front-racked hang cleans to walking lunges are equally as challenging for the muscles as they are for the lungs, plus the slight awkwardness will add to the difficulty. And deadlifts with farmer’s walks will turn up the intensity on the basic tough-guy lift. And for whatever gas remains in your tank and in your legs, jump squats will finish it off. When it comes to survival, you need to take your body to the brink of failure—and beyond.

    DIRECTIONS

    Rest 90-120 seconds after repetitions of 6 and below. Rest 60 seconds after repetitions above 6. For resistance, select a weight in which you reach muscular failure for the prescribed number of repetitions. Do these workouts on non-consecutive days for two to four weeks.

    THE WORKOUTS

    DAY ONE: Push Focus + Cardio Conditioning Component

    Click here to watch day one on mensfitness.com

    Bench press : 10, 10, 6, 4, 4
    Incline bench press: 10, 10, 6, 4, 4
    Push-up variations (3) 3 set of 25 per variation
    Battle rope variations (3) 30 seconds per variation for 3 rounds
    Dips: 3 sets of 25

    DAY TWO: Pull Focus + Cardio Conditioning Component

    Click here to watch day two on mensfitness.com

    Deadlifts: 10, 10, 6, 4, 2, 1
    Bent over rows: 10, 10, 6, 4, 4
    Sled pull with rope + push back: 20 yards for 4 rounds
    Pulldowns: 10, 10, 8, 6, 4,
    Dumbbell rows 15, 10, 10, 8, 8

    DAY THREE: Lower-body Focus + Cardio Conditioning Component

    Click here to watch day three on mensfitness.com

    Squat: 15, 10, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2,
    Hang clean to walking lunges: 20 yards for 3 rounds
    Deadlift with hex bar walk: 10 reps with 20 yard walks for 5 rounds
    Jump squat: as many reps as possible in 30 seconds for 4 rounds

  • The Top 10 Ways to Add Muscle to Your Frame

    For all the skinny guys out there; we’ve been there before. And for all you natural-born giants just looking to get more gigantic, we may have something you’re missing that stalled your growth.

    1. Track Your Workouts

    There is nothing more important that tracking what you did and when you did it. Not only the exercises, sets and repetitions, but tracking the weight you used and how you felt that day will allow you to look back when you come back to that workout to know where to start and where you’ve come from. Tracking your workouts also allows you to determine what is working and what you’re wasting your time on. One week you may have done 4 sets of 10 squats at 315 pounds and 3 weeks later you do 3 sets of 10 squats at 300 pounds. If it wasn’t written down, you may not be able to remember exactly what you did. The more you write down, the more you will be able to remember and see if you are making progress.

    2. Set Goals

    Setting goals is the first step to keep you on track to where you want to go. These goals shouldn’t be set in stone, they should be specific and reasonable. For example, if you’re looking to lose 50 pounds in 4 weeks and have tendonitis, your goal may need to be re-evaluated.

    3. Focus on Hypertrophy

    Hypertrophy is the increase of volume of an organ or tissue due to the enlargement of the cells that make it up. Muscles will increase volume to adapt to progressive overload. What this means is in order to build muscle, you must focus on progressively overloading the muscle in order to make them increase in size. Strength training has multiple different types of training including Strength, Hypertrophy, Power and Endurance. Each one of these types include a different amount of reps, effective sets and rest. The hypertrophic range of strength training focuses around 8 – 12 repetitions with :60 seconds of rest between 3-6 sets. When you train for hypertrophy, you should train around this hypertrophic range.

    4. Get the Right Macros

    You can never out exercise poor nutrition. It doesn’t matter how hard you work, how many workouts you track or how many days you hit the gym – if you don’t take in the right nutrition, you will find it almost impossible to get your optimal gains. These macros – protein, carbohydrates and fats – will be different for every person. If you don’t know where to start, look towards a couple professionals to give you some starting advice based on your goals and where you currently are and find one that works best for you.

    5. Stay Anabolic

    The right nutrition is crucial, but so is the timing. Anabolic is the process of how your body produces growth of cells that involves the synthesis of molecules. The opposing process of this is catabolism, or the breaking down of cells in order to produce energy. Hormones play a large role in this growth process along with glucose metabolism. Maintaining this glucose metabolism, or energy, requires the consumption of calories to provide this energy. If a person does not consume enough energy, the body will enter a higher rate of catabolism. In order to keep this anabolic state, giving your body the proper amount of energy at the right times, recovery, growth and performance will continue to improve.

    6. Stay Hydrated

    By now we all know that the body is made up of over 70 percent water and muscles are no different. Even if you aren’t thirsty, your muscles and body may be, especially when you increase your training in order to pack on the muscle. Water not only aids in the circulation through your body but also in the cooling of your body, so as you’re sweating, you’re losing even more water. Research has shown that when you don’t consume enough water, your cells lose size and the synthesis of protein in the muscle repair also suffers even if the breakdown continues.1 When that muscle breakdown is happening faster than the production of protein, your performance begins to decrease. If your performance is decreased, you are not able to reach your maximum potential of growth. So grab water, and stay hydrated!

    7. Rest and Recovery

    When you exercise you are breaking down your muscle and stressing your body. If you continue to break down your body without giving it an opportunity to recover, you can put yourself in more risk than reward. Overtraining leads to a higher risk of injury, long term effects, and decreased performance. It’s not only important to have rest between workouts, but the amount of recovery you give yourself during your workout is important. The maximum amount of recovery during strength training shouldn’t be more than :90 seconds. If your recovery frequently exceeds this time, you can lose the benefit of multiple sets. One reason for multiple sets within a workout is to exhaust a set of muscles, give it a slight – but not complete – recovery in order for your body to realize it needs to recruit more fibers for that next set. When too much recovery is given, the amount of muscle breakdown can be compromised. This can cause your gains to not reach their maximum potential.

    8. Switch it Up!

    When we spoke about the hypertrophic range of strength training as being an important way to add muscle, a second important note is to switch it up. It’s easy to get stuck in a routine of going into the gym, having your notes from last week and doing the same routine you did 7 days ago. While this can be a great start, it likely won’t last long. It’s important to also switch up your workout, this can be in the order you do the exercises, the reps you do, the rest you take in between, the equipment you use or a combination of these. By increasing your reps to the 12 – 15 rep range with very short recovery periods of under 30 seconds, you can use lighter weights and keep your heart rate up. You can also work through a range of repetitions with your first set of 15 followed by 12, 9 then 6 adding a slight amount of rest as the weight increases. By switching your workout routine up, you will keep your body guessing and be able to increase your performance and increase your gains.

    9. Keep Your Form

    Regardless of what rep range your are working through, it’s one of the most important tips to maintain your form – especially when you are getting towards the end of your exercise or your workout. When you compromise your form to get a rep, exercise or weight that you may not have been able to without, you increase your risk of injury. That extra weight and extra rep isn’t worth getting injured over and losing what progress you have already made. Maintain your proper form for every rep of every exercise, if you come up short on your repetitions or sets, make a note of it and get it next time!

    10. Focus on the Movement

    As you keep your form through every rep of every exercise, focus on every part of each rep. Mentally focus on the contraction of the muscles you are training as you raise and lower the weight. By focusing on each phase of your movement, even though you are using weights to increase the load on your muscles, the ultimate idea is that you are contracting your muscles through this progressive overload to produce a hypertrophic reaction.

    Reference:

    1.Wildman, Robert. “Your Muscles Are Thirsty: Here’s Why – Bodybuilding.com.” Bodybuilding.com. 26 Feb. 2015. Web. 27 July 2015.