**Marcus's HIT Dungeon**

[DCI]

Great job clarky

[marcus300]

Biceps, triceps and forearm today - went well and very productive

Biceps
Seated DB curls - 3 warm up sets
1 working set to failure plus 2 forced 2 negative

Incline db curls
2 feel sets
1 working set to failure plus 2 forced 2 negative

bent mover concentration curls on the low pulley
2 feel sets
1 working set to failure plus 2 forced 2 negatives


Forearms
Hammer curls DB
2 working set to failure plus 2 forced and 2 negs

db wrist curls
2 working sets to failure


Triceps

Lying db extension
2 feel sets
1 working set to failure plus 2 drop sets

single arm pushdowns
2 feel sets
1 working set plus 2 drops

dips
2 working sets to failure

[kelkel]

All your dumbell work makes me jealous. I seriously need to buy some Powerblocks....

[marcus300]

All your dumbell work makes me jealous. I seriously need to buy some Powerblocks....

I do a lot of DB work i get a good feel from it and also i can angle them just right to create the tension i need to each arm......

[almostgone]

I feel I sound stupid. That right there just clicked to me. Why workout if your gonna short yourself? You go for one reason. to ****ING LIFT and GROW. Idk what to do with this energy. I'm printing that out to carry if I start bitching out when Im lifting. SO much energy. I'm shutting up.

Lol, you're just psyched. Keep the feeling and call up the energy when you get ready to lift.

[almostgone]

I don't know what a deficit deadlift is!

I use to be a serious dead lifter not many could match me in my day but I damaged my lower disc so I dont dead lift anymore, if I do its only very light but since I stopped I attacked my lower back hard with other movements and now I had rods of steel running down either side of my spine its rather freaky to be honest but this only came on with light deads and using other movements but you listen to your body and you'll know if I certain movement works for you or not.

the pic below shows the area I am talking about, I wasn't posing my back I was throwing my shoulders forward to show my tattoo what just been done for the artist who wanted a picture but it shows you the lower back area I am talking about.

Marcus, the wife loves your back piece. Whenever I go for more ink she wants me to get something less.....morbid than what I have now. Told her I will make no promises that I can't keep.

[marcus300]

I was watching some videos today with Lee Priest and he was talking about training and steroids and it was interesting. They are his latest videos and he was asked about his training he said that he can spend hours in the gym and anyone who spends 45mins like some do are not training correctly. I was shocked to hear him say this because the guy is a freak. He tried to explain it by saying that any sports man at the height of his profession will train for hours and hours perfecting his skill. I really don't think that goes for guys who are building muscle but it does go to show you that you have to find out what works and implement that style. If its high volume go with it and perfect it to your body if not find one what does work.

[marcus300]

Marcus, the wife loves your back piece. Whenever I go for more ink she wants me to get something less.....morbid than what I have now. Told her I will make no promises that I can't keep.

You want to see the rest of my recent ink, its sick and like ive promised I will send you an email soon with pics.

Didn't the wife even mention the size of my back just the tattoo?

[almostgone]

You want to see the rest of my recent ink, its sick and like ive promised I will send you an email soon with pics.

Didn't the wife even mention the size of my back just the tattoo?

Oh, she was very impressed. She said you're a walking wall. She was just really impressed with your artist's hand and how well the tat flows with the contours of your back.

Definitely like to see more of your artwork, Marcus. I'm a huge ink fan.

[marcus300]

Oh, she was very impressed. She said you're a walking wall.

Definitely like to see more of your artwork, Marcus. I'm a huge ink fan.

I was only joking mate about the wife lol

Yeh I will send it over just need to get my camera out again. I did go down to my artist for a photoshoot the other week he wanted to to fully healed before the pictures were took. It looked a lot better when it healed and I thought it can't do but the shading and depth he's got in it is amazing.

[almostgone]

I was only joking mate about the wife lol

Yeh I will send it over just need to get my camera out again. I did go down to my artist for a photoshoot the other week he wanted to to fully healed before the pictures were took. It looked a lot better when it healed and I thought it can't do but the shading and depth he's got in it is amazing.

The shading really makes your ink "pop" and your guy did a h@ll of a job giving it depth.

[marcus300]

The shading really makes your ink "pop" and your guy did a h@ll of a job giving it depth.

I meant my latest ink not the back one. That was a different artist who did that. The photosdhoot was with a new artist who works with muscle flows and shape. I'll send some pics over

[almostgone]

Sounds good. The guy who did your back did a great job, IMO. The texture and layering is f-in impressive, big guy!

[marcus300]

Sounds good. The guy who did your back did a great job, IMO. The texture and layering is f-in impressive, big guy!

Yeh he is really good he's done all of my except mine my recent work which is a sleeve, I needed to find someone who could work with my muscle flow and make the images flow into each other using the muscle shape. Took me 3 years to find him but he's world class. He goes around the work tattooing but as a very strange way of tattooing which is unique.

[marcus300]

Rep range
The ideal rep range for building size and stimulating hypertrophy is the 6 to 12 reps. Less than 6 reps will more or less increase strength and a degree of size, performing more than 12 reps will help build muscle endurance. Make sure that your reps fall within this range and your hitting true positive failure for the best chance of hypertrpohy. If your implementing one of the beyond failure methods such as forced & negs, rest pause or dropsetting you use a weight what is heavy enough to bring your positive failure at the low end of the rep range. An example for rest pause you use a weight what you will hit true positive failure at around the 4th rep then you would rest for around 10-15 seconds and do another couple of reps, then rest again for another 10-15 seconds and hit another 2 reps with the same weight. In total your doing 8 reps which is within range and your going to failure on each rest pause so you have a high chance of stimulating the right fibers to produce the best gains. As your rep range and strength increases towards a total of 12 reps you simple increase the weight being used so your constantly increasing intensity and overload, the two keys principles of any HIT programme. You use feeler sets to determine what weight you will be using on your working set, as you use different methods like dropsetting always makes sure you don't drop the weight to much so your not going over 12 reps in total. If you are you need to be using heavier weight on the drops so your rep range hits below the 12 reps in total. I always like to use around the 8 rep range in total and increase the reps upwards until I feel i can increase the weight so my rep range falls around the 8 rep range again. We are aiming for maximum muscle fiber recruitment hitting these rep ranges at failure will have the greatest potential for muscular growth. The above advice is for someone who is already advanced and is looking to build bigger thicker muscles, its not for someone who is building a base and foundation because these people can really benefit from using a lower rep range aswell as the above

Stimulating growth
Remember going to true positive failure like I've describe previously hits the toughest muscle fibers what grow the biggest these are the fast twitch type 2b fibers, you hit these fibers and you will have the biggest chance of increasing in size. What we are aiming for is progression overload so you keep hitting the muscles with an increased weight so they need to change and adapt to the overload its being put under. This kind of continuous stress will have a reaction on the body and it will have no other alternative but to grow. We keep within the right rep range what stimulates the biggest growth and we continuously try and increase the intensity by increasing the reps then once the reps increase you increase the weight to bring the reps down within the correct range again. I can't stress enough about taking your muscle to true positive failure, this takes a lot of mental preparation. Before any muscle contraction occurs it originates from the brain sending signals to the nerves, the stronger the signal the more forceful the muscle contraction, in other words control your mind set pre working set and you will be in the best position to take your body to failure and beyond. I've commented many times how I go about doing my mental preparation but you master the mental side and you will see huge leaps in achieving your goals.Release the aggression by talking to your inner self and you will take your body to places its never been before. Stimulate growth by overloading your body to a state were its screaming for you to stop and no matter what you couldn't do one more rep even if your life depended on it, if you don't train in this fashion your not training hard enough.


Advanced training techniques


Forced and negatives
When your going to be implementing forced and negatives you need to be using a weight what your going to be hitting around the 3-4 rep range at true positive failure, then your spotter with help you with another 2 reps. I say 2 reps because its about the limit you can do once you have come to true positive failure and your partner is taking some of the weight off you, these forced reps will dig very deep into your muscle fiber recruitment. Once you have finished the forced reps the weight will be at the starting position and you start to complete negatives by lowering the weight very slowly, make sure you resist and fight the weight coming down and once at the bottom your partner will assist you to get the weight to the top of again and you will do another negative and you keep going until you cant do another negative, usually its around 2 negatives. Negatives done at this stage of a working set after positive muscle failure causes serious trauma to the muscle which will stimulate the release of growth factors. Your also 40% stronger on the eccentric part of the lift so once you hit failure in the lifting part of the exercise by yourself and adding forced with your partner the negatives will take you beyond and recruit further fibres like nothing I've experienced with any other training routine. Once this as been hit there is no need to do anything else because the damage has occurred and no more can be recruited only burn out and exhaustion. If we add the reps up you would be doing around 3-4 reps on the positive then 2 forced and then around 2 negative so in total your hitting around the 8 rep range. You have 3 strengths you have the positive, static and negative, the negative causes the most damage to the muscle and is the biggest cause of DOMS, you master negatives and you will see a huge improvement in muscle size and fullness.

Rest Pause
Again use a weight what you will be hitting true positive failure around the 3-4 reps range, put the weight down and rest for around 10-15 seconds which should give you around another 2 reps, then repeat and rest again and hit another 2+ reps again. Your completing a set of around 8 reps than you would normally use but your rest a couple of times within the set for around 10-15 second so you recover just enough to complete another 2 reps each time. This will recruit those tough type 2b muscle fibers and if you use your feeler sets correctly you can really cause some serious damage to your muscle and create an extreme amount of over load your body isn't use to. I like the 8 rep total mark but this isn't set in stone, you may prefer 10 reps in total or even 6 but just try and makes ure your in the 6-12 rep range and work from that to increase the intensity and overload.


Drop sets
This method needs a bit more thinking about but first lets explain what a drop set is. If we use DB curls for an example you would pick a weight again were you would be hitting around 3-4 reps at true positive failure and then get a set of lighter DB's and rep again for another couple of reps and then drop the weight again and curl another set of lighter bells for another 2-3 reps. You have to make sure you drop the weight enough to make sure you get around 2-3 reps out at failure but make sure you don't drop the weight to much, if your repping loads of reps out remember your trying to be hitting around the 8 rep range so when your doing your feeler sets its crucial to make the lighter db set just enough so you keep within the total rep range. Halfs/quarters or partials With partials you are doing a standard working set to which will involve you conducting a strict full range of motion to true positive failure, at this stage you would carry on doing half reps until its impossible to complete another half rep then do a quarter reps right down till you cant move the weight. A fine example would be DB side laterals were you would do strict reps till failure then carry on doing half reps so the DB's are only coming up half way then keep going till your hardly moving the weight from the side. There will be a bit of body assistance and sloppy form come into play towards the end but at this stage its fine just to get those deep muscle fibers working by going beyond failure. Extremely effective way to recruit those tough fibers we require with a constant tension approach.

Hit supersets
Hit supersets entail you doing one exercise right after another with very little rest as in-between the two movements. With these types of supersets your still hitting the 6-12 rep range so your not doing anymore than 12 reps over two exercises, this is very important. Example you would go to true positive failure lets say on DB shoulder press and be at failure around the 5-6 rep then go straight into db side laterals for another 6 reps at the most which would be failure again. You have to make sure you use the right weight to hit the correct rep range so you don't go over the 12 rep ceiling otherwise you will trigger the muscle endurance and exhaustion and you wont tap into the tough fibers we require. Great examples is coupling compounds movements with isolation.Combination This protocol would consist of a combination of any of the above methods, you could use rest pause and on the second rest pause you may not be able to do anymore reps so you could go straight into a drop set to finish the working set of to failure and beyond. You could even use drop sets with partials on the last drop set to really increase the burn and intensity. The combination is endless, its how you feel to complete the workings set and what you need to do to make sure its a productive one. These are great for a back up plan if your working set starts to go wrong for any reason.

Rest
Using the above protocols is extremely tasking on your body and CNS so you need to make sure the training session are short but intense enough to stimulate growth. You also need to make sure you rest enough and have a good solid diet to suit your requirements. There is one thing for sure its impossible to train like this correctly for weeks on end, no matter how anabolic you are your going to need to pull back on the above movements and decrease the intensity and let the body fully repair and heal. This doesn't mean you have to stop training in this style just take a pullback training routine for a few weeks and lower the intensity and increase the rest days. Cortisol will fight against muscle growth so if you experience any over training symptoms its time to change things around to help your body repair and heal.

Feel sets
The feel sets are sets what you will do previous your working set, these sets are done so you can determine what weight you will be doing on your working set. Sometimes on my first feeler set it feels light and I'm very powerful so the next feeler set I will put some poundage on and see how that feels, again if that feels easy I know I can go heavier on my working set. I also take in consideration what I am going to be doing whether its forced and negs or rest pause or drops, I just judge a weight what I will be hitting failure around the 4th - 6th rep mark or less and then incorporate the beyond failure protocols. I also remember what I did last time I did that movement because in the back of my mind I know I have to overload my body. I am always pushing heavier weights or trying to increase the intensity

.Nutrition
Food is a major player when we are building muscle tissue or shredding bf. We need to eat enough energy releasing foods to fuel our workouts and also to promote muscle building. Nutrition is a very individual thing and nothing is set in stone no matter who tells you it is, its not. We are all different and have different levels of activity and we need to establish a baseline diet and work off this to suit your needs and goals. Make no mistake if you want to grow bigger thicker muscles than your going to have to eat big, train big and be consistent with everything you do. Once you establish your maintenance diet you can put a strategy together to add muscle and body weight or shred body fat. Learning how your body responds to different amounts of calories will be one most beneficial things you can do because this will open a plan to determine how you go about attacking and achieving your goals

[almostgone]

I was watching some videos today with Lee Priest and he was talking about training and steroids and it was interesting. They are his latest videos and he was asked about his training he said that he can spend hours in the gym and anyone who spends 45mins like some do are not training correctly. I was shocked to hear him say this because the guy is a freak. He tried to explain it by saying that any sports man at the height of his profession will train for hours and hours perfecting his skill. I really don't think that goes for guys who are building muscle but it does go to show you that you have to find out what works and implement that style. If its high volume go with it and perfect it to your body if not find one what does work.

Wonder if Priest was allowing for the posing practice and cardio? I could see that posing would take up a great deal of time in order to get comfortable @ presentation during a comp.
He is definitely loaded up w/muscle!

[almostgone]

Did bi's and traps today good session. Stretching and cable curls for a wee warm up and get the blood moving.

Seated db curls 2 working drop 2 working

Incline db curls 2 working drop 2 working

CC curls 2 working

Did some neg reps till both bi's failed but that was only about 6 each

BB shrugs did a few sets to get to working weight then 1 working DD
**new weight**

Nice job, Clarky. Congrats on the new weights and getting those negatives in the mix!!

[almostgone]

watch this video from 21:30 for 5 mins and you'll learn why not to go to the floor.
building muscle not ego

LMAO @ DY..."...all.you got to do now is put some f-in weight on the bar..." .

[DCI]

I was watching some videos today with Lee Priest and he was talking about training and steroids and it was interesting. They are his latest videos and he was asked about his training he said that he can spend hours in the gym and anyone who spends 45mins like some do are not training correctly. I was shocked to hear him say this because the guy is a freak. He tried to explain it by saying that any sports man at the height of his profession will train for hours and hours perfecting his skill. I really don't think that goes for guys who are building muscle but it does go to show you that you have to find out what works and implement that style. If its high volume go with it and perfect it to your body if not find one what does work.

I saw those videos too. Had the exact same thought process as you when I finished watching it and was wtf is that??

[clarky.]

Bi's and traps are really sore today

[davidtheman100]

Marcus are you on TRT? If not, how have you felt that your test levels recover off-cycle? Are they usually around the same as a few cycles before?

[Mp859]

Marcus are you on TRT? If not, how have you felt that your test levels recover off-cycle? Are they usually around the same as a few cycles before?

he is on trt

[marcus300]

Marcus are you on TRT? If not, how have you felt that your test levels recover off-cycle? Are they usually around the same as a few cycles before?

I am on TRT been on therapy now for about 10years, the last few yrs Nebido which is a wonder therapy for me.

[marcus300]

My last back workout must of been really productive because my back still feels good, my lats feel really good when I tense them and right up in the armpit area is tender all the way down to the mid section. Hey and I am on a pullback

I feel I need to go on cycle, i'm getting that feeling but I want to lose some weight first otherwise I will get out of control and don't want to add further bf. I just love Testosterone

[marcus300]

LMAO @ DY..."...all.you got to do now is put some f-in weight on the bar..." .

I love that quote from Mr Yates lol

[hawk14dl]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004GF...&robot_redir=1

What do you guys think about these spotter stands?

[marcus300]

^^^ Look solid to me

[hawk14dl]

It's between that and a power rack. The stands are cheaper but I think the the cage would be easier to use

[marcus300]

[almostgone]

It's between that and a power rack. The stands are cheaper but I think the the cage would be easier to use

If you're running tight on space the stands should be very useful. If you have room, a cage would be lower maintenance/ setting up for a lift, imho... Also, a Smythe machine with spotter arms is handy if you run across one @ a decent price.

[hawk14dl]

I'm not sure where I'll end up AG. House finally went under contract last week, closing on the 20th. just looking forward to getting back out of the commercial gym again, I hate going there

[almostgone]

Dang..121k~266.2lbs..... That is f-in impressive!!

[almostgone]

I'm not sure where I'll end up AG. House finally went under contract last week, closing on the 20th. just looking forward to getting back out of the commercial gym again, I hate going there

I can understand that. Hope everything goes smoothly. Since you're aren't sure of the space you'll have yet, I'd opt for the stands. They will always be useful, IMO..

[marcus300]

The mind set you walk into the gym with goes a long way. Releasing the inner aggression so its controlled when lifting the weight is the key to maximizing gains and stimulating growth. Control your mind and you will have the best chance at exploding out of your skin. Find what works for you to get into this zone, sit silently, listen to music, think of a time what really makes you angry or do what ever it takes to get yourself in the zone to lift to your max. This isn't easy to master but once you do the rewards are outstanding. The mind is a very powerful thing and everything starts within the brain so train your inner self to get into the zone. When you watch most of the pro's train you will see them in the zone, its a natural thing what comes easy to them. Think about this next time your about to do your working set.

[Grymreefer]

I was watching some videos today with Lee Priest and he was talking about training and steroids and it was interesting. They are his latest videos and he was asked about his training he said that he can spend hours in the gym and anyone who spends 45mins like some do are not training correctly. I was shocked to hear him say this because the guy is a freak. He tried to explain it by saying that any sports man at the height of his profession will train for hours and hours perfecting his skill. I really don't think that goes for guys who are building muscle but it does go to show you that you have to find out what works and implement that style. If its high volume go with it and perfect it to your body if not find one what does work.

Was it under the Sam's Fitness Equipment? I watched all of those too. He seems like a brutually honest person. There was one where he made fun of Branch Warren's form. He states he was natural up until 19 and looking at some of his events before that age he seemed to have more development than those who claim steroid use and extensive training.

[almostgone]

Dang I wish we got a decent cell signal out where I live. Was just watching some of the 2014 Savickas Classic in Lithuania on YouTube while on break @ work...beasts everywhere.

[Dpyle]

Been a while. Trying to adjust to the new work schedule, so I took a little time off the gym. Hit delts and arms today and they're ruined. It's been a little over half hour and my arms are still shaking. These mother fvckers are gonna grow or fall off!

[marcus300]

Continue phase for my pullback

Shoulders
Pre exhaust superset

Shoulder stretches and warm ups

side laterals raises - 2 warm up sets
2 working set of db side laterals to failure then straight onto smith machine press to failure - sides laterals went down to half's and quarters

db single up right row
2 working sets to failure - slight lean to target the out head more

db bent over rear laterals - 2 working sets to failure

BB shrugs - 2 working sets to failure

Abs

[4linked]

Marcus you are great inspiration I'm reading your log waiting for my partner to get here to train thanks

[clarky.]

Ok guys did chest today and it went great weight up again stretching and a warm up with db press

Incline db press 2 working DD **weight up**

Straight in to

Incline db fly 2 working to fail

Flat db press 2 working 1D

Cable fly 3 straight set to fail

Right ok guy i am really busy the now so i can only get to the gym every 2nd or 3rd day and the weight is just flying up loving it.
Any way today doing db press i was having a warm up then i got to my last weight it was fine so went up again a bit more heavy but fine so went up again 2 jumps could not believe it.
Only got 10 reps first set then i wanted to try again got 6 then went in to the drops

On the cable fly i absolutely killed it great great session