Fadi
...
BEFORE WE PROCEED, LET US AGREE ON SOMETHING FIRST
If you don’t mind, before I really dive into the deep, I’d like to first get both of us to agree on a simple and basic truth (the way I see it). After all, one doesn’t have to look too far to realise that there’s an unnecessary war of words raging on between different bodybuilders with their different school of thoughts on the internet forums and beyond.
If a bodybuilding method sounds too simple; too logical, too reasonable, some bodybuilders would automatically choose to brush it aside as belonging to the school of “too simplistic” and hence a method that won’t work… or at least it won’t work as good as their “hard knocks” method would. I’m not sure why there has to be this mentality of “it’s either my way or the highway Jack”, but it’s out there and that’s an unfortunate fact
When bodybuilding was much less complicated.
Part of an interview with Freddy Ortiz, the 1962 IFBB Mr Universe Short Class division winner and one of my all-time favourites (especially with those arms of his)!
[Q] And how many repetitions do you typically do?
[A] I don't count the repetitions. I just keep going until the body part gets tired.
[Q] What was your diet like when you were training for competition?
[A] I wouldn't really do anything special. What I would try to do is, with whatever I ate, and this was the most important thing for me, I would not let it stay in the body. I would try to use it for energy.
I decided to write few words on the subject of muscle building, that perchance some may see some value to be found therein. I believe it would be more fruitful if you and I can first see eye to eye on the following statement which I’ve made re the subject at hand.
1. Our muscles will respond in direct proportion to the amount of effort that is required of them to accomplish a given task.
That one statement which I’ve just written above, is in no way restricted to sport no, it’s an all-encompassing type of a statement I find throughout the way we conduct our lives. Test it for yourself and see what I mean. However for the purpose of the topic of our discussion here, I shall restrict myself to applying it only to bodybuilding.
Have you noticed the most crucial word in that statement? It’s the word effort. I believe that it’s effort above all else that is the determining factor whether a bodybuilder succeeds in building muscles or not. Please note that I did not use terms such as: intensity, volume, sets, reps, time, momentum, or weight. The word effort encompasses all the aforementioned terms in my opinion. In other words, a given weight on a bar is just that, a given weight on a bar. It’s only when you apply the proper amount of effort would that weight begins to translate into something much more productive, allowing you to move forward on your muscle building journey.
I know some of you may have already taken an exception to my last remark re a weight on a bar is just that, a weight on a bar. To quickly clarify this point before I move on, I would say that there are many bodybuilders out there who are basing their muscle building assumptions on a false premise. They falsely assume that the only way muscle growth is stimulated, is through heavy lifting. I'm here to tell you that lifting big is but one way of achieving and maintaining muscle mass, for there are different ways of achieving that goal. It would truly be a shame to restrict one’s self into thinking that that was the only way to higher muscular achievements. “Hey bro, wanna be big, you gorra lift BIG!” is but one of the elements or factors amongst several to achieving bigger muscles.
Let us examine what these other factors are shall we...Ah, but before we get to that, let us place all these elements under the
one big daddy umbrella called GPO. GPO?! That’s the principle we call:
GRADUAL PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD
1. The Time Factor:decrease the time increase your hypertrophy/increase the time increase your strength (with the rest–pause method being an exception here).
2. The Rep Factor: shift the dominant muscle fibre factor by utilising a different rep range. We’re not talking of muscle fibre exclusion or exclusivity here but muscle fibre dominance.
3. The Weight Factor:increase the resistance factor of your individual workout as well as adding a heavier workload overall to your weekly schedule
4. The Set Factor: increase the overall volume to your individual workout as well as to the total weekly load by simply raising the number of sets.
5. The Momentum Factor: Simply by eliminating the momentum of a particular lift, you would create an overload on your muscles.
Example #1: time factor utilisation
Incline barbell bench press
Week 1: 3x5/5m
W2: 3x5/4 min
W3:3x5/3min
W4: 3x5/2min 30sec
W5: 3x5/2min
W6: 3x5/1min 30sec
W7: 3x5/1min
W8: Rest
The above if can be done as is laid out, would constitute a perfect progression in overloading the muscle. However, we’re not robots and there are many factors that would see to it that we don’t progress in a perfect fashion on a constant basis. Therefore, there will be times when you won't be able to decrease the time frame on each and every set. For example:
W1: 3x10 5min rest
W2 3x10 4min rest
W3 (now the aim here is for 3x10 3min 30sec rest). However you may end up with something more like this:
W3 1x10 3min 30sec
1x9 3min 30sec
1x8 3min 30sec
The above in week three would still be considered as a successful workout albeit not a complete or perfect success (which is quite normal as one becomes more advanced in bodybuilding). Now your aim is to complete it before moving onto week 4 etc. For as long as you're progressing, no matter how slightly and irrespective of how long it takes, then you'd be on the right track. There are times when you may have to look more closely at your diet and sleeping pattern. At other times you may want to take one whole workout out of your week so as to increase recovery etc.
Example #2: weight factor utilisation
Incline barbell bench press
W 1: 3x10 75kg
W2: 3x10 77.5kg
W3:3x10 80kg
Or, you may choose to go for a fortnightly or a monthly progression. Let’s take the monthly progression and see what we’d end up with by year’s end.
January: 3x10 72.5kg
February: 3x10 75kg
March: 3x10 77.5kg
August: 3x10 90kg
December: 3x10 100kg
That equals to a 38% improvement and an overall increase in weight by 27.5kg. And of course, some extra muscle size to go with it.
I am not Mr Perfect here on this forum and neither is what I write. However if we all can contribute to a discussion in a mature and polite manner, I sincerely believe that at least one of us here would go home with something to show for his or her efforts at the gym.
So what is so special about the above?
Only one thing; it nudges the bodybuilder who approaches his workouts with an attitude of go go go…., to perhaps realise that there is an alternative (at least for a time) to approach his workout with a bit more structure factored in and more disappointment and guess work factored out. That’s all really.
As usual, I thank you for reading.
Fadi.
If you don’t mind, before I really dive into the deep, I’d like to first get both of us to agree on a simple and basic truth (the way I see it). After all, one doesn’t have to look too far to realise that there’s an unnecessary war of words raging on between different bodybuilders with their different school of thoughts on the internet forums and beyond.
If a bodybuilding method sounds too simple; too logical, too reasonable, some bodybuilders would automatically choose to brush it aside as belonging to the school of “too simplistic” and hence a method that won’t work… or at least it won’t work as good as their “hard knocks” method would. I’m not sure why there has to be this mentality of “it’s either my way or the highway Jack”, but it’s out there and that’s an unfortunate fact
When bodybuilding was much less complicated.
Part of an interview with Freddy Ortiz, the 1962 IFBB Mr Universe Short Class division winner and one of my all-time favourites (especially with those arms of his)!
[Q] And how many repetitions do you typically do?
[A] I don't count the repetitions. I just keep going until the body part gets tired.
[Q] What was your diet like when you were training for competition?
[A] I wouldn't really do anything special. What I would try to do is, with whatever I ate, and this was the most important thing for me, I would not let it stay in the body. I would try to use it for energy.
I decided to write few words on the subject of muscle building, that perchance some may see some value to be found therein. I believe it would be more fruitful if you and I can first see eye to eye on the following statement which I’ve made re the subject at hand.
1. Our muscles will respond in direct proportion to the amount of effort that is required of them to accomplish a given task.
That one statement which I’ve just written above, is in no way restricted to sport no, it’s an all-encompassing type of a statement I find throughout the way we conduct our lives. Test it for yourself and see what I mean. However for the purpose of the topic of our discussion here, I shall restrict myself to applying it only to bodybuilding.
Have you noticed the most crucial word in that statement? It’s the word effort. I believe that it’s effort above all else that is the determining factor whether a bodybuilder succeeds in building muscles or not. Please note that I did not use terms such as: intensity, volume, sets, reps, time, momentum, or weight. The word effort encompasses all the aforementioned terms in my opinion. In other words, a given weight on a bar is just that, a given weight on a bar. It’s only when you apply the proper amount of effort would that weight begins to translate into something much more productive, allowing you to move forward on your muscle building journey.
I know some of you may have already taken an exception to my last remark re a weight on a bar is just that, a weight on a bar. To quickly clarify this point before I move on, I would say that there are many bodybuilders out there who are basing their muscle building assumptions on a false premise. They falsely assume that the only way muscle growth is stimulated, is through heavy lifting. I'm here to tell you that lifting big is but one way of achieving and maintaining muscle mass, for there are different ways of achieving that goal. It would truly be a shame to restrict one’s self into thinking that that was the only way to higher muscular achievements. “Hey bro, wanna be big, you gorra lift BIG!” is but one of the elements or factors amongst several to achieving bigger muscles.
Let us examine what these other factors are shall we...Ah, but before we get to that, let us place all these elements under the
one big daddy umbrella called GPO. GPO?! That’s the principle we call:
GRADUAL PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD
1. The Time Factor:decrease the time increase your hypertrophy/increase the time increase your strength (with the rest–pause method being an exception here).
2. The Rep Factor: shift the dominant muscle fibre factor by utilising a different rep range. We’re not talking of muscle fibre exclusion or exclusivity here but muscle fibre dominance.
3. The Weight Factor:increase the resistance factor of your individual workout as well as adding a heavier workload overall to your weekly schedule
4. The Set Factor: increase the overall volume to your individual workout as well as to the total weekly load by simply raising the number of sets.
5. The Momentum Factor: Simply by eliminating the momentum of a particular lift, you would create an overload on your muscles.
Example #1: time factor utilisation
Incline barbell bench press
Week 1: 3x5/5m
W2: 3x5/4 min
W3:3x5/3min
W4: 3x5/2min 30sec
W5: 3x5/2min
W6: 3x5/1min 30sec
W7: 3x5/1min
W8: Rest
The above if can be done as is laid out, would constitute a perfect progression in overloading the muscle. However, we’re not robots and there are many factors that would see to it that we don’t progress in a perfect fashion on a constant basis. Therefore, there will be times when you won't be able to decrease the time frame on each and every set. For example:
W1: 3x10 5min rest
W2 3x10 4min rest
W3 (now the aim here is for 3x10 3min 30sec rest). However you may end up with something more like this:
W3 1x10 3min 30sec
1x9 3min 30sec
1x8 3min 30sec
The above in week three would still be considered as a successful workout albeit not a complete or perfect success (which is quite normal as one becomes more advanced in bodybuilding). Now your aim is to complete it before moving onto week 4 etc. For as long as you're progressing, no matter how slightly and irrespective of how long it takes, then you'd be on the right track. There are times when you may have to look more closely at your diet and sleeping pattern. At other times you may want to take one whole workout out of your week so as to increase recovery etc.
Example #2: weight factor utilisation
Incline barbell bench press
W 1: 3x10 75kg
W2: 3x10 77.5kg
W3:3x10 80kg
Or, you may choose to go for a fortnightly or a monthly progression. Let’s take the monthly progression and see what we’d end up with by year’s end.
January: 3x10 72.5kg
February: 3x10 75kg
March: 3x10 77.5kg
August: 3x10 90kg
December: 3x10 100kg
That equals to a 38% improvement and an overall increase in weight by 27.5kg. And of course, some extra muscle size to go with it.
I am not Mr Perfect here on this forum and neither is what I write. However if we all can contribute to a discussion in a mature and polite manner, I sincerely believe that at least one of us here would go home with something to show for his or her efforts at the gym.
So what is so special about the above?
Only one thing; it nudges the bodybuilder who approaches his workouts with an attitude of go go go…., to perhaps realise that there is an alternative (at least for a time) to approach his workout with a bit more structure factored in and more disappointment and guess work factored out. That’s all really.
As usual, I thank you for reading.
Fadi.
Last edited:
