A question of strength

Q: What are your thoughts on squat frequency? I have seen exercisers who train squats only once every ten days, while members of the national team train squats up to nine times a week.

A: I can understand that such a variance in training can seem quite confusing to the reader. I'd like to put it this way: you shouldn't worry about the maximum frequency of training you can manage, but rather the optimal frequency.

Successful strength coaches such as Ian King and Al Vermeil, who have given serious thought to the optimal training process, will emphasize that there is no point in going to the gym if you are not making progress. I completely agree with this. In other words, your motto when you go to the gym should be "train harder or go home". It makes no sense to go to the gym and just repeat the last training session. If you can't do an extra repetition or increase the weight, then you might as well stay at home and let the supercompensation take its course.

I assume that some readers will now say that it is impossible to make gains week after week and year after year, arguing that if this were possible, we would eventually bench press 500 kilos. And yes, that's true, but I'm talking about making steady progress on a specific training program. Let's be realistic, if you do the same program for more than three or four weeks, you've already used up the last drop of usefulness of that program. In other words, it's time to make a change. And assuming that you change your training program regularly, you should see progress with each training session compared to the previous one.

As for squat training nine times a week, this is a classic case of "exceptional training methods for exceptional athletes." This approach works well - but only for extreme genetic freaks. Less than 1% of the population can survive this kind of workload. Certainly such a program has produced results in these athletes, but I'm not convinced it's the most efficient way to train.

The reason I say this goes back to 1992 when I trained a hammer thrower who could move more weight on power cleans than the super heavyweight weightlifter who accompanied him to the Olympics. The hammer thrower trained squats on average every 3.5 days during his 22-week training cycle for the Olympics and only started doing power cleans from the floor during the last three weeks of his training cycle.

In my opinion, the best training frequency for most exercisers (about 70% of all athletes) is once every 5 days. The more genetically inclined will probably make better progress with once every 7 days. And I have also seen athletes who have done better with once every 10 days.

For example, the average exerciser might use a leg training program like this:

Day 1 - Training with the weight sled

The athlete pulls a loaded weight sled for 60 meter sprints.

Day 5 - A lunge oriented workout

The athlete attempts to increase their weights with lunges or split squats. Some form of step ups are also usually present.

Day 10 - Squat training session

The goal here is obviously to increase the weights on the chosen squat variation.

Day 15 - The athlete starts the training cycle again.

The feeling during the warm-up should tell you if you are ready to train squats again. You could forgo squats on this day and do a different type of leg workout such as lunges or step-ups. This would speak to a case where the frequency for a movement pattern (how often you perform a particular exercise) is too high, but your muscles are well recovered.

Again, it's important to emphasize that the nervous system takes five to six times longer than the muscular system to recover. In other words, your leg muscles might feel good while the squat movement pattern feels heavy. In this case, I wouldn't waste time and instead move on to another movement pattern that overloads the legs.

If you can't improve, then change your training frequency. Most people train too often, which is why it makes sense to experiment with a reduced frequency. There are not many people who can improve over an extended period of time with a frequency of two to three weekly training sessions per muscle group while working a job and being exposed to other stressors of daily life. Although performance enhancing substances may allow you to increase your frequency due to improved recovery ability, it is still possible that the majority of users of such substances train too often and as a result limit their training effect.

Q: My training partner and I have just finished your isometric bicep training session. Can you actually transfer the isometric technique to other muscle groups such as the chest? My bench press weights haven't gone up for ages...

A: Since the beginning of my career as a strength and conditioning coach, and after reading several articles by Don Ross, Rasch, Bill Starr and Anthony Ditillo, I've been a big advocate of using the power rack to promote rapid strength and mass gains. The program I will describe below is generally highly effective. The average somewhat advanced bodybuilder can expect to increase their best bench press performance with a close grip by 15 to 20 kilos. This is quite impressive as these gains usually come within a three to four week window.

The basis of this program is what American sports scientists Fleck, Kraemer and O'Shea refer to as "functional isometric contractions" (FIC for short). Over forty years ago, this training method was introduced to iron athletes under the name "isometric training", a term that is a mixture of isometric and isotonic. Strength training experts such as Letzelter, Hartmann and Tünnemann prefer the term "auxotronics". The concept behind this training method is to take the best that the isometric method has to offer and combine it with the regular type of training, also known as isotonic training.

FIC takes advantage of the specific joint angle-dependent strength gains of isometric exercises after pre-fatigue of the muscle caused by heavy repetitions over a short range of motion in the power rack.

Here's what you need to do. Choose three evenly divided ranges of motion on the bench press: the start range, the middle range and the end range. In all three ranges, you need to choose a specific weight that you can move from the beginning to the end of that specific partial range of motion. In all ranges, the range of motion is regulated by a set of pins in the power rack.

Basically, you will perform a set of bench presses in a power rack. You place the pins where the bar would be if you were only performing one-third repetitions across the bottom third of the range of motion.

Perform four to six partial repetitions in the normal way at a 202 tempo. When you get to the top of the movement on the last concentric repetition, push the bar as hard as you can against the pins for six to eight seconds as if you were trying to push the bar through the pins! Do not hold your breath during the isometric contraction. Instead, use very short breaths, alternating quickly between inhaling and exhaling.

If you have performed this set correctly, you should no longer be able to perform another concentric repetition after lowering the barbell. If you are still able to do this, it simply means that the weight is too light.

Perform two more sets within this range of motion. Then place the pins roughly where the bar would be if you were training in the middle range of the bench press. Repeat your four to six partial repetitions at a 202 tempo for three sets, again pushing the bar as hard as you can against the pins on the last repetition of each set. Also perform three sets in this area of the range of motion.

Then place the pins where the bar would be if you were training in the upper third of the bench press range of motion. Again, perform four to six partial repetitions at a 202 tempo for three sets, again pushing the bar as hard as you can against the pins on the last repetition of each set. Perform three sets in this range of motion.

By the end of the day you will have performed nine sets. It won't be necessary to do anything else on your chest day, but you can still do some supportive training for your triceps. Make sure you only do this program once every 10 days. Do more conventional training in between your FIC workouts.

Q: Why do some exercisers perform bench presses with their feet in the air and ankles crossed? It looks dangerous to me, but I see a lot of college athletes doing this. Do you think they know what they are doing?

The real reason for this is probably that they've been told it takes pressure off the lower back. Even if this is true, this type of exercise execution can be dangerous not only for the exerciser, but for other gym goers as well.

I once observed a football player performing bench presses with his feet in the air. The problem was that he wasn't extending one arm as far as the other. Since he had no safety catches on the bar, the weight plates slid off the bar on one side onto the foot of someone else who was clearing their weight plates due to the tilt of the bar.

I have my athletes place their feet on the floor for safety and better stability. If you feel pain or discomfort in your lower back in this position, it's either because your hip flexors are tight or because you're too short. Stretching the psoas and rectus femoris muscles before the bench press should solve this problem.

Q: My old training partner used to say "If you don't get sore muscles, then you haven't trained hard enough!". Is this statement accurate if my main goal is to induce hypertrophy? Do you really need to feel muscle soreness if you want to grow?

A: I would agree with your old training partner up to a point. The question at hand is what hypertrophy is exactly. According to Canadian exercise physiologist Duncan MacDougall, hypertrophy is "a biological adaptation to a biological stimulus." This biological stimulus generally consists of microscopic tears in the muscle associated with lowering weight.

The scientific literature has clearly demonstrated again and again that eccentric contraction - not concentric contraction - is responsible for tissue remodeling, and weight lowering results in microtraumas that are often associated with pain. Maybe we should get used to saying "I'm going to the gym to lower some weights to get more muscular."

This is the main reason why exercise equipment such as Mini-Gym and Hydra-Gym machines, which were designed to perform only concentric contractions, did not succeed in the market in the 1980s. Because these machines did not allow for eccentric contractions, exercisers were unable to make significant gains over time compared to training with free weights.

There are definitely some ways to combine your exercises to create more muscle soreness and therefore more hypertrophy, but you'll have to be a true masochist to learn how. However, all these possible combinations and exercise pairings are beyond the scope of this column.

Q: I have pretty good strength levels, but since I'm currently training to be a chiropractor in college, the time I have available to train is quite limited. I would like to gain a few pounds of muscle over the course of the year. Do you have any suggestions for a workout program? I can only work out for 40 minutes on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

A: I would recommend that you re-prioritize your life. Give up training and dedicate your life to training. Okay, that was a joke. I've put together an effective program below for exercisers who are pressed for time, but because of your time constraints, this program obviously doesn't allow for "beach muscle workouts" like bicep curls. Here is that program:

Monday:

• A1) Bench press, 5 x 5 - 7, tempo: 5010, rest: 100 sec.
• A2) Pull-ups with wide grip, 5 x 5 - 7, tempo: 3011, rest: 100 seconds
• B) Seated dumbbell press, 3 triple descending sets of 6, 4, 4 repetitions, tempo: 4020, rest: 90 seconds

Notes: The notation A1 and A2 means that you should perform these two exercises alternately. In other words, perform a set of bench presses, followed by a set of wide grip pull-ups, followed by another set of bench presses, and so on. Alternate between these two exercises until you have performed five sets of each.

A 5010 tempo means that you take 5 seconds to lower the weight, reverse the movement at the lowest point of the movement without pausing and then move the weight up within one second. Do not pause at the highest point of the movement and immediately start to lower the weight again.

Tuesday:

• A) Deadlift with bent knees, 5 sets of 6, 6, 4, 4, 4 reps, tempo: 5010, pause: 180 seconds
• B) Partial repetitions deadlift, 3 x 7-9, tempo: 2110, rest: 120 seconds
• C) Standing calf raises, 3 x 10 - 12, tempo: 2210, rest: 60 seconds

Thursday:

• A1) Dumbbell incline bench press, 4 x 6 - 8, tempo: 5010, rest: 90 seconds
• A2) Pull-ups with underhand grip, 4 x 6 - 8, tempo: 5010, rest: 90 seconds
• B1) Dips on parallel bars, 4 x 6 - 8, tempo: 4020, rest: 75 seconds
• B2) Rowing on seated cable pulley, 4 x 6 - 8, tempo: 2102, rest: 75 seconds

Saturday:

• A1) Squats, 6 sets of 6, 6, 8, 8, 10, 25 reps, tempo: 5010, rest: 120 seconds
• A2) Lying leg curls, 6 sets of 4, 4, 4, 6, 6, 8 repetitions, tempo: 5010, rest: 120 seconds

This type of program works very well. I've seen exercisers gain 4 to 5 kilos of solid muscle in six months with this type of program - always assuming they were consistent with their diet. Every four weeks or so you should change the exercises. Changing the tempo would also be good.

For example, replace the deadlift with bent knees with deadlifts performed with a wide grip on an elevation.

Don't be afraid of losing mass in your arms, because most people who do this program actually build new muscles in their arms.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-27, https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-28

From Charles Poliquin