A question of strength Part 25

Wrist rollers for the forearms

Q: Are the wrist roller parts we used in high school any good?(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-CR4r7r-M4)

A: Wrist rollers can be used effectively for training the wrist extensors, but the equipment that runs over a bar into a power rack is better. This means that the shoulder muscles do not have to work when you train your wrist extensors.

The truth about purging

Q: Every time I hear about detox protocols, my bullshit alarm runs amok. My friend insisted on using a lemonade and sea salt protocol to detox and she passed out after a few days. Are there any good purge or detox programs out there?

A: A detox program was a good idea...a few hundred years ago. The reason for this is that the average citizen of the Western world today is dealing with 500 or more toxic chemicals. Such a cleansing program was a better idea when there wasn't so much pollution.

One phase of detoxification takes place in the liver and one in the kidneys. This is known as phase 1 and phase 2 detoxification. You need rich nutrient reserves before you do any kind of detoxification program.

Most people do not have enough nutrients in their body, so the environment in their body becomes very toxic when they detox! Since they are eating very few calories at the same time during their detox, the fat cells release these toxins as they burn fat.

Basically, the environment in most people's bodies today becomes even more toxic when they detox. Their body needs to get rid of all this stuff, so detoxing makes them feel even worse. It's easy to make your body even sicker by detoxing.

Lastly, you should never detox until you have had your genomic profile determined. You need to know what enzymes you have. You also need a comprehensive metabolic profile so that you know what you need to detoxify your body from. For example, if you have toxic levels of aluminum in your body, magnesium malate is the only thing that can neutralize it.

You need to know what toxin you have in your body in order to know how to get rid of it. You can't do this with generic, over-the-counter detox supplements.

In short, if you want to detox, only do so under the control and supervision of a doctor. Otherwise, you could be doing something very bad for your health.

Aerobic exercise is sh...

Q: You once said that the more aerobic training you do for the lower body, the worse your vertical jump height gets. And the more aerobic training you do for the upper body, the worse your medicine ball throws will be. You also said that continuous aerobic training reaches a plateau after 8 weeks of training, so anything more is counterproductive. So what are your general recommendations when it comes to aerobic training?

A: First of all, I would like to say that I consider aerobic exercise to be worthless for the purpose of fat loss. Most people are already stressed enough and aerobic exercise stresses the adrenal glands even more.

Genetically, we are made to throw a rock at a rabbit, not run after it. We are not designed for aerobic activity, we are designed for short bursts of intense effort. Slow, continuous aerobic exercise also impairs the brain's ability to recruit the high threshold motor units and also impairs force release.

I don't have any of my athletes do aerobic training unless they are doing an aerobic sport. And yet my athletes do well in aerobic tests. My field hockey players always have the highest VO2 max in the entire training camp and all we do for this is some interval training. People can never believe that my athletes don't do aerobic training during the summer.

At the 1992 Olympics, the Canadian ski team outperformed the cross-country team in terms of aerobic numbers as measured by a university lab.

One of the guys from the Green Bay Packers asked me for a copy of my running program. I gave him a blank sheet of paper and said, "Here, this is it."

The scientific data is very clear: if you have what's called an aerobic base, it's not going to help you do better with interval training. And most sports are basically like interval training: short bursts followed by a break followed by another burst.

American football is just a few seconds of action followed by a long rest. Field hockey is 45 seconds followed by one minute and 35 seconds of rest.

What types of interval training do my athletes do? It usually depends on their sport. In field hockey, everything is done on skates, so we use speed skating. As the summer progresses, my athletes do longer and longer intervals with shorter breaks in between.

5 reasons soy is crap

Q: Soy protein is touted as a healthy food, but we've always said that people should avoid it. What do you think?

A: Soy is for chumps. That's what I think. But people love lists, which is why here are 5 reasons to avoid soy:

Reason 1 - Toxicity: soy increases your toxic load. Soy is one of the most pesticide-treated crops. The high pesticide content further increases your ever-increasing toxic load. Additionally, the aluminum content skyrockets during processing.

Reason 2 - potential hyperthyroidism: Soy contains goitragenes - compounds that can lead to hyperthyroidism.

Reason 3 - Soy blocks mineral absorption: Soy is high in phytates, which are known to inhibit the absorption of both macrominerals (e.g. calcium) and trace minerals (e.g. zinc). The good news is that meat consumption blocks phytates. So ironically, if you eat tofu, you should also eat some meat during the same meal.

Reason 4 - Soy is linked to attention deficit disorder: Soy-based infant foods are linked to attention deficit disorder. They contain 80 times more manganese than breast milk. Too much manganese is associated with neurotoxicity.

Reason 5 - increased cardiovascular load: Soybeans contain hemaglutinin. This compound is known to cause red blood cells to stick together, thereby increasing cardiovascular load.

If you're still not convinced, you should read the book The Whole Soy Story by Dr. Kaayla Daniel. The scientific facts presented there will knock your socks off.

The areas of the pectoral muscles

Q: Is there anything you can do to target specific areas of the pecs such as upper or lower pecs? For example, incline bench presses to target the upper pecs and dips to target the lower pecs? Is there any truth to this old bodybuilding wisdom?

A: There is indeed some truth to these statements. Well, you will find some research that says this is not the case, but this research was done with hobby store equipment and is not reliable.

The truth is that there is a high percentage of electrical activity in the preferred muscle heads of the pecs. In other words, the upper portion of the pecs is recruited more during the incline bench press, while the lower portion is recruited more during reverse incline bench presses.

But this is only a percentage of the contribution. Certain exercises do not activate 100% of the upper or lower pecs. The upper pectoral head therefore also works to a certain extent during reverse incline bench presses. The percentage of recruitment is therefore merely shifted with certain exercises.

The same applies to the biceps. When you do incline bench curls, the long head of the biceps is recruited more, but the short head of the muscle will still work.

For chest training, the higher your hands are relative to the center of gravity, the more the upper part of the chest muscles will be recruited. And the closer the hands are to the center of gravity, the more the lower part of the pectoral muscles are recruited. So, in theory, dips will recruit the lower part of the pecs more than reverse incline bench presses. In this sense, we can think of this exercise as an extreme reverse incline bench press.

By the way, there is no such thing as the middle or inner chest, which is why it is obvious that this non-existent area cannot be recruited by flying movements or butterflies.

Are you made for squats?

Q: Is it true that some people like bigger exercisers just aren't made for squats?

A: Is this true? Not really. This is a myth because not everyone can perform squats properly. However, it is a fact that some people are better built for squats from a mechanical standpoint.

In other words, a relatively small, 165 cm tall, 90 kilo exerciser with short legs will be better at squats than a 190 cm tall, 90 kilo exerciser. This is the reason why you never see top powerlifters who have an ectomorphic physique. Ectomorphs are simply not built for squats from a mechanical point of view.

But in principle, anyone can do squats. One of the reasons that basketball players "can't" do squats is that they have poor ankle mobility. Their sport puts a lot of stress on their ankles, so they build up a lot of scar tissue in that area. However, if you have them do a proper mobility training program, then they can do squats like anyone else.

The same goes for deep squats. Everyone should be able to do deep squats regardless of their body structure, as long as they are flexible enough to go down far enough. Don't blame your height for your poor squat technique.

High reps for hypertrophy?

Q: Is there ever a reason for a bodybuilder interested solely in mass gains to go beyond the 12 to 15 repetition zone?

A: Only for certain muscle groups that have a higher percentage of slowly contracting muscle fibers, such as the soleus area of the calves, the back extensors and the quadriceps. For some muscle groups, such as the quadriceps, you can go up to 50 repetitions per set. However, a lot of this has to do with muscle fiber composition. There are some professional bodybuilders who have built up with 30 reps per set. IFBB Pro Nimrod King is an example of this.

He uses high reps and has huge arms, but obviously he is an exception to the rule.

Leg presses - yes or no?

Q: What do you think of leg press machines? A lot of weight trainers hate them and yet everyone who is muscular seems to use these machines with success.

A: Leg presses are an excellent hypertrophy exercise, but they are not popular with strength coaches because they have no carryover to other sports. Your legs will get stronger at the expense of your lower back.

So I agree with both camps. It is possible to build muscular legs with leg presses, but those legs will not be functional for other sports.

So if hypertrophy is your main goal, my best tip for maximizing the benefits of the leg press machine is to think of it in terms of time under tension. Do leg presses with as much weight as you can use for two minutes at a time.

And this means repetitions over the full range of motion and not those quarter repetitions you see in most exercisers where the platform for the feet barely moves. What is full range of motion? Full range of motion leg presses mean that you go down until your quadriceps touch your chest.

Food intake at night

Q: What do you think about getting up in the middle of the night and drinking a protein shake or at least taking some BCAAs? Are there any benefits to this?

A: I don't believe in that. The night is for sleeping.

As soon as you wake up for more than three seconds, you disrupt your melatonin production and melatonin is part of the hormonal cascade that builds muscle. For me, good sleep is when you put your head on your pillow and wake up eight hours later. Also, the digestive system is designed to rest at night.

Many people also take BCAAs before bed, but a lot of people find this too stimulating and wake up in the middle of the night. The best thing to take before bed is something that will keep your blood sugar levels steady. Slow digesting casein is a good choice.

The "new" SZ bar

Q: I've heard you promote something called the Football Bar. What exactly is this and what makes this bar so useful?

A: I've always been a big fan of dumbbell training. One of the reasons for this is that dumbbells allow a more natural movement of the limbs than a straight bar for many exercises.

Equally, one reason I limit the number of machine exercises I use with my clients is that most machines restrict limb movement in an often unnatural way. An excellent compromise between a straight bar and dumbbells is the SZ bar.

The inventor of the SZ bar was Lewis G. Dymeck, who patented it in 1950. By allowing different angles for the position of the hands, this corrugated barbell enables the exerciser to perform a number of exercises with less strain on the wrists.

This innovation had a huge impact on strength training and bodybuilding as it provided more stability than dumbbells, allowing heavier weights to be used. That's why you see so many exercises performed with dumbbells in my training sessions.

You could say that the football bar is the next generation of the SZ bar. While the SZ bar is primarily used to take the load off the wrists, the football bar goes one step further as it is designed to reduce the load on the shoulders. The Football Bar consists of two grip elements that can be quickly rotated by up to 180 degrees. The Football Bar is designed to reduce stress on the rotator cuff during pressing exercises by allowing two different grip angles. The handles, which are nearly perpendicular and parallel to the frame of the bar, reduce the stress on the rotator cuff by channeling the load to any chosen angle.

One reason that log presses are so popular among athletes competing in Strongman competitions is that the Strongman log used in this discipline has the handles parallel to each other, allowing a parallel grip to be used. This is one of the reasons I often use log presses when training my athletes, especially those with a history of shoulder injuries.

Due to the dynamic nature of pushing and pulling movements during athletic activities, resistance is rarely even across both shoulders. With the football bar, athletes can use an asymmetrical grip, which means that one hand can be placed further away from the center of the bar than the other. Training with this type of variation can help athletes develop additional strength against unevenly distributed resistance.

Numerous exercises can be performed more safely and effectively with the football bar - exercises such as bicep curls, bent-over rows and lying tricep presses. Something else you'll notice when using the football bar is that your wrists will have to work harder to stabilize the bar and this will allow you to draw on a larger pool of motor units.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-44, https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-45

From Charles Poliquin