**Marcus's HIT Dungeon**

[Bio-Active]

He got the Arnold so he's not getting the O... The incident will hold him back! Ramy just turned 29 2days ago - his conditioning sucks show time but 4 wks out he looks sick - I think he needs to keep his carbs up and not drop them so much... Like Lee Preist - never went under 200-250g carbs(during prep) like 600g off season if not more

ramy doesn't have the muscle maturity yet and don't count Kia out. Just saying he would have beat Phil last year and he will show up this year looking better then he did in the Arnold. That show was just was just a warm up for him

[marcus300]

I sure hope so

But my gut looks so fvking expanded due to the ventral hernia(and mesh that was taken back out to hold back the hernia got taken out ER style in the office(no operating room no anesthesiologist nothing) natural reaction I punched the doc when he made the incision and broke his glasses lol- then begin even and tipugged on that mesh not realizing it was sutured to my abdiminal wall!

fuking hell

[Igifuno]

I sure hope so But my gut looks so fvking expanded due to the ventral hernia(and mesh that was taken back out to hold back the hernia got taken out ER style in the office(no operating room no anesthesiologist nothing) natural reaction I punched the doc when he made the incision and broke his glasses lol- then begin even and tipugged on that mesh not realizing it was sutured to my abdiminal wall!

You have a unique, warrior style look, my friend. You make me want to put on gladiator gear, grab a sword and run like a maniac directly into battle.

Embrace it brother, trust me, you wear it well.

[oldnsedentary]

Its going to be 2 years soon since I've cycled and once I get released from my consultant I will be going back on a small cycle. 2 years is a long time and ive held some decent size everyone I come into contact with at the gym thinks I am on cycle, which is good lol so once I get the go ahead everything is sweet again and ive balanced my RBC's and other sh1t a small cycle will be on the cards.

marcus300,

What do you do to get RBC down? My TRT doc keeps cutting my dosage due to high hematocrit and hemoglobin even on small doses. I have started donating blood. Anything else to do?

[Bio-Active]

marcus300,

What do you do to get RBC down? My TRT doc keeps cutting my dosage due to high hematocrit and hemoglobin even on small doses. I have started donating blood. Anything else to do?

Really that's all you can do is titrate your dose and drain

[BG]

Hello my brothers. First I would like to thank you for all the kind words, encouragement and pm's. My wife is up and moving, this took a toll on her body but slowly she is getting better. Crazy thing is her stomach sticks out further then her butt, its so swollen still. She sent me a pic entitled "More gut then butt!" . Again thanks guys, it was a great help and meant a lot.

Training.....going great. Monday I had a great hamstring workout, I was so shot on Tuesday I barely made it through work (Lack of sleep didnt help). Wednesday upper body went very well, Im going up 10lbs a week with dumbbells on chest, I never thought the day would come when I was happy to move 80's, but wed I was lol. Friday hit good squats, felt solid and strong, I wanted to go heavier but I talked myself out of it.

Thanks guys, things are good

[Igifuno]

Hello my brothers. First I would like to thank you for all the kind words, encouragement and pm's. My wife is up and moving, this took a toll on her body but slowly she is getting better. Crazy thing is her stomach sticks out further then her butt, its so swollen still. She sent me a pic entitled "More gut then butt!" . Again thanks guys, it was a great help and meant a lot. Training.....going great. Monday I had a great hamstring workout, I was so shot on Tuesday I barely made it through work (Lack of sleep didnt help). Wednesday upper body went very well, Im going up 10lbs a week with dumbbells on chest, I never thought the day would come when I was happy to move 80's, but wed I was lol. Friday hit good squats, felt solid and strong, I wanted to go heavier but I talked myself out of it. Thanks guys, things are good

Very happy and relieved to hear she is doing better, BG. Was really worried about you both. Sounds like she's still got some mending to go but the fact that she's up and about, sending pics and with a sense of humor to boot, is reassuring.

[Bio-Active]

Hello my brothers. First I would like to thank you for all the kind words, encouragement and pm's. My wife is up and moving, this took a toll on her body but slowly she is getting better. Crazy thing is her stomach sticks out further then her butt, its so swollen still. She sent me a pic entitled "More gut then butt!" . Again thanks guys, it was a great help and meant a lot. Training.....going great. Monday I had a great hamstring workout, I was so shot on Tuesday I barely made it through work (Lack of sleep didnt help). Wednesday upper body went very well, Im going up 10lbs a week with dumbbells on chest, I never thought the day would come when I was happy to move 80's, but wed I was lol. Friday hit good squats, felt solid and strong, I wanted to go heavier but I talked myself out of it. Thanks guys, things are good

great news! Congrats BG

[DGenRit]

Have you seen the guests always viewing this thread its more or less always double figures, wonder who they are Mmmmm

do we think its guys who want to learn to how to get big but not ready to post yet = yes , I get many emails and pm's

I fall into this last category - lol. Nach was kind enough to point me here after helping me with some other questions I had. Marcus you have also been very helpful. I love this thread and would love to become a more active part of it if you all are ok with that. Have a great weekend guys.

[DGenRit]

Triceps, Biceps and forearms.

Rest periods in-between sets have been lowered recently and also the amount of movements done.

warmed triceps up with single cable pushdowns
5 sets

seated overhead db extension - both hands one bell
2 feel sets- felt strong as fuk on these so increased weight right up
1 working set- hit failure rested for 30 secs and went again till failure

lying db extension - far better with db's than ez bar
1 feel set- again felt strong
1 working set- hit failure 30secs rest failure again, 15 secs rest failure again

rope pushdowns -no angle straight down and pushed out
1 feel sets
1 working set with 3 drops

seated db curls- singles
2 feel sets
1 working set plus 3 drops

arms totally gone - intensity was high. At failure my bicep felt it had set like concrete, but I let them hang for 3-8 seconds and said a few things inside my head and went through the pain, started to swing at failure but pain was intense then I started to drop set, each drop was the same intensity and not thinking there was another set to do, immense.

hammer curls- across the body
2 feel sets
1 working set with 3 drops - same again to failure each set and went through the pain barrier with positive thinking and going into another world. After these I started to shake but didn't stop went straight onto db wrist curls

db wrist curls
3 sets to failure - burn, pain and the shakes all at once, pumped so much could hardly hold water bottle.

arms grow and pumped at least 1 1/2 inches

drove home

at home attacked cardio

sumo squats, goblin squats and stiff leg dead lifts all done with kettlebell for 20 mins no rest.

Not in a good way, lower back pump hurt but pressed on with mental focus,

Marcus when you say "1 working set with 3 drops" - is that 4 sets total? Or is it 1 set and then you drop weight for 3 more to failure w/o rest? Or is it 1 working set, rest, then 3 more individual drop sets with rest between each drop set? Sorry if it's a stupid question - just trying to understand.

[clarky.]

Hello my brothers. First I would like to thank you for all the kind words, encouragement and pm's. My wife is up and moving, this took a toll on her body but slowly she is getting better. Crazy thing is her stomach sticks out further then her butt, its so swollen still. She sent me a pic entitled "More gut then butt!" . Again thanks guys, it was a great help and meant a lot.

Training.....going great. Monday I had a great hamstring workout, I was so shot on Tuesday I barely made it through work (Lack of sleep didnt help). Wednesday upper body went very well, Im going up 10lbs a week with dumbbells on chest, I never thought the day would come when I was happy to move 80's, but wed I was lol. Friday hit good squats, felt solid and strong, I wanted to go heavier but I talked myself out of it.

Thanks guys, things are good

Great news there BG

[clarky.]

Did back earlier fellas it went good destroyed the fvcker.

WG PD 1 working DD

CG PD 1 working TD

seated row WG 1 working DD Used the lat pd handle held just at the camber so wide grip

straight arm pd 3 sets

T bar 1 working 1 drop

Db row 1 working 5 reps a side fried

Deads 2 sets

Done, and total destroyed fellas i kid you not good session.

[GirlyGymRat]

No more BS diets! No more BS excuses! No more BS! Cardio 3x per week. Lifting 3x per week.

[Bio-Active]

No more BS diets! No more BS excuses! No more BS! Cardio 3x per week. Lifting 3x per week.

now we are talking

[Bio-Active]

Did back earlier fellas it went good destroyed the fvcker. WG PD 1 working DD CG PD 1 working TD seated row WG 1 working DD Used the lat pd handle held just at the camber so wide grip straight arm pd 3 sets T bar 1 working 1 drop Db row 1 working 5 reps a side fried Deads 2 sets Done, and total destroyed fellas i kid you not good session.

nice session Clarky

[clarky.]

No more BS diets! No more BS excuses! No more BS! Cardio 3x per week. Lifting 3x per week.

Great to see you Girly..

nice session Clarky

Thanks mate.

[BG]

great news! Congrats BG

Very happy and relieved to hear she is doing better, BG. Was really worried about you both. Sounds like she's still got some mending to go but the fact that she's up and about, sending pics and with a sense of humor to boot, is reassuring.

Thanks !

[BG]

No more BS diets! No more BS excuses! No more BS! Cardio 3x per week. Lifting 3x per week.

Step up women!

[Igifuno]

No more BS diets! No more BS excuses! No more BS! Cardio 3x per week. Lifting 3x per week.

Get it done, Girly!

[GirlyGymRat]

Great to see you Girly..

Feel great to be back! Thx!!!

[Bio-Active]

Feel great to be back! Thx!!!

Hows the back doing?

[NACH3]

Today's workout(quad work)


Pre-exhausted legs

Legs today(quad work) & deads
Stretching RC ex's rolling static & dynamic stretching

Leg ext's
Warm ups
4 x 20 reps holding peak contraction for 2sec - then forced reps into negs

deads on a plate - standardfvk this killed me
Warm ups 225/20 x 2
4x 315 15 or failure
4x 225 20 or failure

Hack squatsjust fell out the machine each set
- 2 plates + a quater 8 dropping quaters/8 dropping a wheel/20 reps x 2
- 3 plates 8/drop plate 8/ drop plate 20
- same as first 2 sets just x 1

Leg ext's
5x 20 at 200+

Absolutely fried - puked and rallied about 47min super high intensity
The concrete has surely set in

[NACH3]

Hello my brothers. First I would like to thank you for all the kind words, encouragement and pm's. My wife is up and moving, this took a toll on her body but slowly she is getting better. Crazy thing is her stomach sticks out further then her butt, its so swollen still. She sent me a pic entitled "More gut then butt!" . Again thanks guys, it was a great help and meant a lot.

Training.....going great. Monday I had a great hamstring workout, I was so shot on Tuesday I barely made it through work (Lack of sleep didnt help). Wednesday upper body went very well, Im going up 10lbs a week with dumbbells on chest, I never thought the day would come when I was happy to move 80's, but wed I was lol. Friday hit good squats, felt solid and strong, I wanted to go heavier but I talked myself out of it.

Thanks guys, things are good

Absolutely great news BG(& of course for Mrs.BG)!! Very glad to hear she's doing much better!

And nice sticking to your w/o's

[BG]

Sat

Shoulders
Abs
Cardio

I just realized that Im doing quite a big shoulder work out on sat, which isnt bad but Im going to add some back in. Wed my upper body day goes quick, so Ill cut my back down, hit arms and chest a little more.

[BG]

Absolutely great news BG(& of course for Mrs.BG)!! Very glad to hear she's doing much better!

And nice sticking to your w/o's

Thanks brother, yea I was finally going well again I wasnt about to stop again

[GirlyGymRat]

Thanks brother, yea I was finally going well again I wasnt about to stop again

I scrolled back several pages....those are nasty! She's a real trooper!

[GirlyGymRat]

Hows the back doing?

Back pain acerbated by 2 other issues dogging me for 3 months. Finally on the mend.

[Bio-Active]

Back pain acerbated by 2 other issues dogging me for 3 months. Finally on the mend.

well that's good to hear. Glad you are healing up!

[NACH3]

Thanks brother, yea I was finally going well again I wasnt about to stop again

Definitely tough to stop when on a roll!

[NACH3]

Happy Easter!

Just woke up and I can barely move lolol my quads and low back are torched, thats for sure!

[marcus300]

I fall into this last category - lol. Nach was kind enough to point me here after helping me with some other questions I had. Marcus you have also been very helpful. I love this thread and would love to become a more active part of it if you all are ok with that. Have a great weekend guys.

Of course you can join the HIT crew, one bit of advise though read the first say 50 pages of the thread ( probably more) then you will understand what we are all about

[marcus300]

Marcus when you say "1 working set with 3 drops" - is that 4 sets total? Or is it 1 set and then you drop weight for 3 more to failure w/o rest? Or is it 1 working set, rest, then 3 more individual drop sets with rest between each drop set? Sorry if it's a stupid question - just trying to understand.

1 working set is that, 1 working set only. Once you have gone to failure and beyond and recruited every muscle fibers possible and really gone to positive failure and beyond the job is done, every other set is pointless and can be extremely harmful to growth. The main thing to take out of this is the word FAILURE because true failure is something you have to train your body but most importantly your mind to get to and overcome.

[marcus300]

No more BS diets! No more BS excuses! No more BS! Cardio 3x per week. Lifting 3x per week.

You want to try the sumo, goblin squats and stiff leg kettlebell session we do, I man of my size shouldn't be doing this at all lol. I go super slow towards the end

[marcus300]

Hello my brothers. First I would like to thank you for all the kind words, encouragement and pm's. My wife is up and moving, this took a toll on her body but slowly she is getting better. Crazy thing is her stomach sticks out further then her butt, its so swollen still. She sent me a pic entitled "More gut then butt!" . Again thanks guys, it was a great help and meant a lot.

Training.....going great. Monday I had a great hamstring workout, I was so shot on Tuesday I barely made it through work (Lack of sleep didnt help). Wednesday upper body went very well, Im going up 10lbs a week with dumbbells on chest, I never thought the day would come when I was happy to move 80's, but wed I was lol. Friday hit good squats, felt solid and strong, I wanted to go heavier but I talked myself out of it.

Thanks guys, things are good

Really great news to hear

[marcus300]

Marcus when you say "1 working set with 3 drops" - is that 4 sets total? Or is it 1 set and then you drop weight for 3 more to failure w/o rest? Or is it 1 working set, rest, then 3 more individual drop sets with rest between each drop set? Sorry if it's a stupid question - just trying to understand.

part 1
Re- post to something what may be of interest to you, many different posts together, not all but a slight few from me.


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 hypertrophy. 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 that you would normally use but your rest a couple of times within the set for around 10-15 seconds 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 sure 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 until failure 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 8-12 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


With HIT training we are specifically trying to stimulate a certain type of muscle fiber. We have different muscle fibers in the body and once you know how to train certain ones and the importance of making these grow you can design the ideal training routine to suit your goals. We are all aiming to add muscle tissue and we have to put ourselves under stress by progressively overloading our bodies so they have no alternative but to grow. All muscle contraction starts by nerves being activated, the stronger the nerve signal the more forceful muscle contraction can be applied to the lift. The nerves first get activated by the brain and this is where the mind muscle connection comes into play. I am always saying that you must get yourself in the right mind set for the working set, there are many ways to do this and ive explained many ways in my thread how I go about doing it, but the stronger the mind before the working set the better contraction and force can be applied to the muscle fibers. We can all do 10 reps with a certain weight but you can also really think about those ten reps and really activate the contraction in the muscle and work that muscle to the max and those reps will feel completely different. This is what separates a lot of people so before I move on really think about how you do reps and work that particular muscle to its max. I've seen many members saying they are doing so many reps with a certain amount of weight but I can say I bet a lot aren't really activating that muscle group to the max. Remember everything starts from within your brain, your inner self and how you go about attacking that working set. You have seen how I describe the zone I get myself into just prior to my working set and this is the zone you need to be in to fully work those muscle fibers to the max.

We are after activating the motoneurons within the network of nerves which is the signal for the muscle to contact, we have many different sizes but we are only interested in the large motonerurons which activate the large muscle fibers. We have slow switch and fast twitch fibers within the body and we are all made up of different amounts, that's why some of us grow bigger and faster and others struggle growing big thick muscles. Usually the guys who struggle with adding slabs of tissue on their frame are the guys who have more slow twitch fibers than fast, and the guys who are more genetically gifted with bodybuilding are the one who have more fast twitch. But either way you need to activate the fast twitch fibers and give yourself the best chance of building bigger larger muscles.The slow twitch ones are the ones what are more suited for endurance and are very resistant to fatigue the aerobic type athletes have a higher amount of these fibers over fast twitch.

Fast twitch muscle fibers are the ones we are concerned with activating and working. There are two types 2a and 2b. The type 2a ones are fibers which get activated when doing higher reps ranges lets say more than 12-15 reps, they are also the fibers what come into action around the 6-12 rep range. Type 2a fibers when activated correctly can grow in size and this is what many people tend to activate and see growth from when they start training. The type 2b fast twitch fibers are the ones what I adore lol these babies are the foundations of building bigger thicker muscles, if you activate these correctly they can grow tremendously in size and grow about 4 times the size of the 2a fast twitch fibers can, so you can see these are the ones what make the difference, but stimulating both type 2a and 2b fast twitch is getting the best out of both worlds but my personal aim and priority is to stimulate the type 2b fast twitch fibers and seriously breakdown these to get me some serious size on my frame.

What's the best way to stimulate the 2b fast twitch muscle fibers I hear you asking, well ive described it all the way through my thread but let me go over it again so you understand how important it is to have the right mind set what I speak of all the time and what kind of stimulation is needed to activate these tough fibers. Usually during a set of about 6-12 reps the type 2a are activated, you know the sets were your repping away and start struggle a little bit and rack it and move on. In basic terms your not going to true positive failure (I can go on and on what true positive failure is but trust me it takes along time to push your body to this limit and a lot of mental dedication its an advance training protocol) now if you took your set to true positive failure and you cant do anymore this is the time when the type 2b fast twitch fibers are activated, once you activate these fibers this is the best potential to really make your muscle grow bigger and thicker.

You will grow with normal sets and reps with modest intensity but if you want serious growth than you have to take your working set to true positive failure, this means using a weight what is heavy enough to make that working set very difficult and then going past true positive failure. Remember the type 2a fast twitch do all do all the work until you get to true positive failure then the type 2b come into play and these are the ones what produce the biggest gains in muscle size. You have to progressively overload your body each time you train, this means add more weight (or reps until you can add more weight) to stimulate growth, you also need to make sure your activating the type 2b fast twitch fibers which only get involved when you go to true positive failure. Your rep range needs to be between 6-12 reps at the failure point, I prefer around 6-8 reps range at failure. This is why its wise to have a partner when trying to activate the type 2b fast twitch fibers because you may think your going to positive failure but you wont be you need that reassurance of a partner who can just take that small amount of weight of the bar at true positive failure so you can mentally get past this sticking point. There are many advance protocols what you can use to get yourself to true positive failure which I've discussed in my thread.

The mental training zone
Getting into the training zone mentally is hard work, I've been approached many times via pm on this subject and ive talked a lot about it within this thread but it is hard and probably has hard to learn as learning how to train how I've described throughout this thread. So lets talk about and see your thoughts and feeling on the subject but first let me try and get this across about the mental side of training. When you see Dorian speak or train you can see he is mentally as well as physically strong. Many of the top Pro's seem to have this ability to have this mental focus to train to the level what is required to stimulate those fibers what seem to grow the biggest. I really do think its something what can be learnt and by perseverance we can get this mental focus and use it to its fullest. I've always had the motivation to train and get big and nothing in my life would stop me but I did have to learn how to release those feelings to train to a level were i wanted to get to. Over time I got the mental edge to train to true positive failure I don't know why but its something over the years what came naturally to me and I've mentioned many times within this thread how I try and get into this zone. For me we all have our little things we do to prepare ourselves before one of those working sets what is going to test us mentally as well as physically, I feel this is an individual thing what you have to find what works for you.


For me I think about certain things what have happened to me in my past what ignites my adrenalin and releases an inner aggression what I can only state as unstoppable. I talk to my inner self and take away everything around me, I am alone and only can hear my inner voice speaking and I drift to a time and relive an event in my mind like I am there again, the feelings what I felt at the time I feel again, the atmosphere I feel around me exactly like it was, I relive the exact circumstances at that moment and how I felt after and this completely isolates me from the outside world and I am stuck in the past reliving an event. At a moments notice I can come straight out into this rage and channel these emotions into the working set with the adrenalin flowing and my inner voice shouting at me. I also use another method which works for me also, I can also concentrate and watch myself doing the working and yet again take myself out of the situation I am in and go through in my head what is about to happen and I can trigger the inner aggression. I know I want it so much, I know I have to take myself to places were my body has not been before, I know its going to hurt but I kind of like that knowing I am about to inflict pain onto myself, this again ignites all these feelings inside of me that make me feel unstoppable and no one could out lift or train with the same intensity as me. That's what I feel when I am in this zone I know no one can come close I truly believe this and with that positive thinking I can take myself to failure and beyond. That's the two ways what do it for me.

I know guys who listen to music and crank it up and get into the zone, I know guys who walk up and down thinking about the set and getting into the zone, I know guys who want to be slapped which I've done in the past which instantly releases the fighting instinct which allows you to lift more than you would if you weren't in the zone. The problem is with some guys is learning how to get into this zone, its all about mind control and taking yourself away from where you are and talking to your inner self and produce these feelings. Some people can't do this and it needs to be learnt over weeks/months just like training to true positive failure like we do with HIT. Ever watch Branch pre working set how he gets himself into the zone, you can actually see his eyes change and his whole demeanour into this animal what looks unstoppable, same with Dorian and many others they all have the ability to get into this zone and recruit those tough fibers what only get activated when your at failure and beyond.

I do watch Youtube videos many times before I go training because this for me motivates myself and helps me prepare for what I am about to do in the gym. I know some of you feed of this thread before working out because I can tell with what you say before and after you train, its all about motivation, dedication and having the mental focus to keep positive and have that inner drive. We all have been under a BB with some serious weight on thinking to yourself I am going to fail this, you even say to your partner watch me I think I am going to struggle with this one and guess what happens???? you struggle and the set is a waste of time. We all have been there and ive been there many times in the past thinking this way trying to break into new areas without having the positive mind set or approach what it takes do accomplish this.


Learn how to train your mind and you will develop further not only mentally but physically aswell. I've read a lot of mind control, self help books and I am trained in areas to help direct and open peoples minds. I really enjoy NLP which helped me when I was going through times of trouble in my mind and I couldn't focus on anything. You have to learn this behaviour if it doesn't come naturally, but simple steps and trying what works for you will point you in the right direction were you to can get into the zone what will help you develop further in your training.


ARE YOU TRAINING HARD ENOUGH?

I've had a few PM's about training and cycles and one thing what shines through to me is that a lot are not training hard enough they dont fully understand how to train correctly. We spend so much time designing cycles and eliminating sides we think we have the perfect environment to grow into something what looks like it was carved out of stone but after 15 weeks of these super cycles most are pming me asking how can they stop the gains sliding away. We assume members are training hard enough and intense enough but in reality they aren't. I see alot of members just coasting through their training sessions and doing a set number of reps and sets and think the diet and AAS will transform them into a living god but all what happens is the gains slide away and they end up going back on gear to get some kind of size back.

I can't emphasize enough how important it is to find the right training protocol for your body to grow. You have to try many training routines and find which one you respond best to. We also need to get in the right mind set when we walk in that gym, you going there for one purpose and if you don't push your body beyond what its capable of doing your not going to grow bigger. You want to be leaving that gym feeling like you just done 10 rounds with Tyson in his hay day. You have to go through the pain, you have to push and pull the hardest you have ever done before, you have to push your body to places where its never been before and push past the pain every single time you go in the gym.

Overload 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. Do you want to be bigger than anyone else, do you want to turn heads and do you want to have that monster size what no one else has got then if this is the case stop FUKING around in the gym and stop going through the motions and push past your limits and use methods what take you to hell and back.

I train that hard my eye balls shake and I find it hard to focus, I mentally prepare myself and think of things what make me angry and I push that last rep out no matter what. I kind of like the pain in certain bodyparts and I can push past it into a world of total hell, I feel like I am on fire and I swear I can feel the blood surging through my veins into the muscle what I am working. When I've done my last working set I know I cant perform another rep even if someone had a gun to my head and said you'll die if you don't do another rep, I know I've come to my limit and the sick thing about this is I actually enjoy it., I dream about it, I think about it and I cant wait to get back in the gym to do it again. Its like I'm self harming because the torture I go through is extremely painful but I know this is what I have to do to maintain what I've got and to build those extra few lbs of tissue. This is what separates the normal guys who look like they go to the gym to the fuking monsters what walk this earth

Now are you training hard enough? ask yourself can you train harder because if the answer is yes your restricting your gains and wasting money and time. Why spend all that money on gear, gh and food when your not attacking your body like you should be. Think about it and make your next workout like your going to war with yourself.

[marcus300]

Marcus when you say "1 working set with 3 drops" - is that 4 sets total? Or is it 1 set and then you drop weight for 3 more to failure w/o rest? Or is it 1 working set, rest, then 3 more individual drop sets with rest between each drop set? Sorry if it's a stupid question - just trying to understand.

part 2

example of session, mental zone
Thought I would do something different that just writing out my training routine for the day, so what I thought I would do this time is write out one working set but an explanation on what I am thinking and the preparation I do.

Example of my preparation for my working set on a hammer strength shoulder press -working set with double dropset.

I am fully warmed up and have done my feeler sets to judge what amount of weight I will be doing, I know that this set is going to be a drop set so in my mind I know roughly how much my drops are going to be to finish the set. Machine is loaded and I am aiming for around 4-6 reps on the first set before drops, I sit on the bench and start to close my eyes and think of a situation from my past what ignites the adrenalin within me, I take myself back to how I felt at that exact time. My inner self is totally focused, my adrenaline is flowing, my aggression is sky high inside of me and ready to burst.

I grip the bar and roll my hands around the bar while taking deep breaths, my eyes are focused and I'm firing on all cylinders. My head is now concentrating on the weight and I am saying to my inner self "you lift this weight and destroy it". I start to count to in my head 1.......another deep breath 2...........another deep breath 3 and I lift the weight. It feels light due to the aggression and adrenaline flowing through me, I start to do the reps slowly with explosive power, making sure i am not going to injury my delt again, slowly down exploding up, slowly down exploding up. I start to think this is easy I am killing this weight around the 4 th rep I start to slow down, the pain starts to creep in, I am breathing heavy and grunting as i exhale. My partner is behind me telling me to "carry on come on lift the fuking weight" 5th rep done and it was so hard I know this is going to test me. The 6th rep I know its going to be hard and I should drop set now but my partner wont let me. He shouts "come on one more rep come on" so I start to lower the weight, the negative is killing me I can feel every fuking joint hurt in my body even my quads are hurting due to pressing down through my feet.

I start to press the 6th rep and I am quarter way up and its stalls, my partner says "come on finish the rep finish it" I grunt and force the bar up with the help of my partner just taking enough weight off that it moves very slowly, in the back of my head I am thinking come on help me more but he doesn't and I finish the rep off and I am totally exhausted I lock the bar and I bend over and start taking in deep breaths. My partner starts to take some weight off the bar so i can perform another 2-3 reps, by the time I've took 2 deep breaths the fuker as stripped the machine and he's giving me a slap across the back saying "come on lift the weight". I unlock and start but the weight feels the same, I am in pain now and I have to dig deep and start talking to my inner self, come on its all over in the next few reps my hearing starts popping and things go quiet, I am totally in the zone nothing can distract me and I start to press. All I can hear is muffled sound from my partner saying "come on". One rep is done and it went slow and my shoulders start to burn, they feel like cannon balls what are about to burst. I get to the top of the rep and start another rep but my strengths is fading fast the weight is too heavy, my partner starts to help me up with it but I stalls again but he keeps me going and I grunt the 2nd rep out. I lock because I knew the third rep wasn't there I was totally at the limit and if I attempted another rep my arms would of collapsed. I bend over and start to take deep breaths, I am thinking and putting myself in that time again what fires my aggression up, my partner is taking some weights off, I know any second I am going to have to finish this set. I am saying to myself last few reps this is it, you want big delts this is it.

I unlock the weight and start the first rep, I feel good the weight is lighter but the pump is killing me its hard, I'm counting each rep one......two and on the start of the third rep my eye balls are shaking I know this is limit time, my vision is going I have to concentrate to breath instead of holding my breath. I know I'm done i think this is going to be a negative rep not a positive because i cant push it up but I push with everything I've got and it moves just above my head, my partner starts screaming at me while pushing my elbows up "come on finish it". I am shouting inside to myself I will not fail I am going to finish this but I'm exhausted to the max and I know my total failure is just around the corner, but I push as hard as I possibly can and lock the bar I bend over and take some deep breaths. I'm still enraged with anger and stand up and move right over to the next movement dripping in sweat. I start to sip water and my hearing slowly starts to come back, my vision is good now and I start hearing my partner talking to me saying " holy shit that was a serious set I could see your delts grow while you was doing it" I start to calm down and look in the mirror and flex my delts and think YES.

Working set done now repeat the process with lateral, rears and shrugs.

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.


Food
In my opinion many guys don't eat enough that's whether your cutting or bulking and that's why many restrict further growth or they are unable to maintain tissue they have built, that's why so many go around in circles growing bigger then going smaller then going bigger then going smaller again its a vicious circle.

When someone is trying to gain size they usually have some kind of goal to reach lets say a 180lbs man wants to be 220lbs they will need to bulk and completely change their way of eating for the rest of their life and that means they will need to really force feed their bodies to a stage were they can maintain tissue and can build new tissue. Its ok thrusting your body into an anabolic environment but its another constantly supporting these gains via training and eating that's were force feeding comes into it. That's why I mention it all the time. When I was 180lbs I wanted to be 200lbs and I would bulk and forced feed my body into something it wasn't use to because it had to get ready for me to start eating like a 200lb man, I've done this every time I want to jump in size and that's what I am about gaining super size whats different than the norm. When you watch and talk to the pro's what's the major difference between them and us??? they eat constantly and thats throughout the whole day and some times night .

Yes some BF will occur but its not a problem getting rid of it or controlling the amounts you put on if you know and understand your body and do the right things. Many times I've used force feeding to reach certain goals and I've controlled bf levels via cardio and also cycling my force feeding and changing my diet around to suit the needs but one thing is for sure once you establish a new body weight there is only one way your going to maintain it and that's by keep putting it under load and make sure you feed the body enough cals to maintain the tissue. Controlling bf is easy if you listen to the body and have a understanding of how you maintain muscle tissue and reduce bf.

If you want to gain 20-30lbs of tissue over a certain period of time without gaining any bf then join the rest of the day dreamers who are going around in circles with their progress. You want to stand out form the crowd and be different then you will need to use the tools what the big boys use and put in the hard work in the gym and make sure you eat enough to support this new tissue being built. If your getting extremely fat doing this your doing it wrong and eating the wrong things and not listening to your body.

[NACH3]

I

1 working set is that, 1 working set only. Once you have gone to failure and beyond and recruited every muscle fibers possible and really gone to positive failure and beyond the job is done, every other set is pointless and can be extremely harmful to growth. The main thing to take out of this is the word FAILURE because true failure is something you have to train your body but most importantly your mind to get to and overcome.

One thing I'm learning is that.... 'Our muscles don't move the weight, but rather our MIND(MINDSET)... It is truly everything!
Your body will be shaking uncontrollably and that's where you start to recruit these tough muscle fibers we all want to recruit so badly!
I'll be honest here... I thought I was hitting true positive failure(well I was not close - it was the lactic acid burn) and my mind was weak(still hard to get into this mindset every single 'set or rep'(must not waste reps)!! I was training alone... And got comfortable! Growth slowed etc.... Your body will be begging you to stop that working set way b4 you should(it's natural for our bodies to take the path to least resistance, recruit other muscles we're not working and so on...
Just something to keep in your head while you train... Welcome DGenRit! And this goes for all of us... it's tough for anyone here to do this every day in and out(unless on pullback) lol - get your mind ready it's going to be a wild ride

^^^ all this will be in what you read too! I just regergitated it lolol

[BG]

I scrolled back several pages....those are nasty! She's a real trooper!

I give her tons of credit !

[NACH3]

You have a unique, warrior style look, my friend. You make me want to put on gladiator gear, grab a sword and run like a maniac directly into battle.

Embrace it brother, trust me, you wear it well.

Igi, reading that gave me goosebumps brotha! I thank you for the kind words(at least to us here )

But it made me want to go rip some of those ISIS MFers heads off with my bare hands and then sh!t down there necks/throat - fvking cvnts!

[NACH3]

fuking hell

Then when that 18+" piece came out - it was covered in pus(nastiness)... Doc said I very well could've gone septic! Said he was actually surprised after being open 2+ yrs that I wasn't! I'm so glad that sh!t made me stronger - mentally and now physically!