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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.
HIT training will activate the tough type 2b muscle fibers and going to true positive will recruit all the muscle fibers which will give you the best chance of some serious tissue growth. Using advance training protocols like drop sets, rest pause, forced, negatives, supersets and even partials can be used to further your beyond failure training to help you activate the type 2b fast twitch fibers.
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.
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.
pre -exhaust
pre exhaust would be ideal for him because he's come to a point in his training were its getting extremely hard to increase the weight due to yrs and yrs of training and when he does start increasing the poundage he gets injured so he needs something to help him re-establish the growth process and also help with injury prevention. Its something what I've been doing for the last few months due to my shoulder injury. It helps me increase the intensity while pushing my boundaries so I am still stimulating growth if you check out some of my routines you'll see how I use pre exhaust on major and on some minor muscle groups.
A quick guide line would be start your workout with isolation exercises so you pre exhaust the muscle your working before you start the compound movements. The muscle is fatigued because of the isolation movement which will reduce the load on the compound movement but your still stimulating growth and putting the muscle under different kind of attack/stress than what its use to. Example would be flyes, cables pre any pressing, laterals pre any pressing, leg extension, lying leg curls, pushdowns, kickbacks, concentration curls etc pre any compound movements. That muscle only is fatigued directly using the isolation movement so when you go onto the compound its already in a state of breakdown.
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.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by marcus300
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Since I lifted last night, I'm going to go back to sleep for another hour or two and hit back tomorrow. Traps and delts are still on fire from yesterday, so that makes me happy.
