Personal Training by Bear

TO BULK OR TO CUT THAT IS THE QUESTION?

Men say it and women say it, all in different ways.

You here it for men seasonally. They are bulking to gain more muscle or cutting for a competition or the beach.

Women on the on the other hand say "I don't want to get bulky" "I just want to get trimmed", at least most of the time.

Would you believe me if I told you that only what you eat effects that??

Well, too stinking bad. Because that's the truth.

There is only one type of exercise that makes you lean, that's max weight and minimal rest.

There is only one type of exercise to cut, that's max weight and minimal rest.

There is only one type of exercise to bulk, (say it with me) that's max weight and minimal rest.

Doing all the high reps may give you more endurance and may help build/maintain some muscle and strength, but if you want to be a healthy person, toned, and capable then I think you heard me the first time.

So.... how do they get bulky?? That comes down to one of three reasons: You either get fat from eating too much (the American way), You already have a large frame, or you take steroids.

You can control two of these, but if you have a large frame there is nothing you can do, so deal with it.

In fact stop reading all those dumb magizines or watching those shows that tell you every woman should look like a toothpick. Truth is most men prefer an athletic figure. This is because biology tells us that this would create strong offspring. Making you a good mate (in an Australian accent).

Remember women, everyone has said that you are more pain tolerant. If that's the case, you should have no problem picking up heavier weight.

Now for the GENTLEmen.

The same exercise routine applies across the board, for bulking or cutting. You might notice that the major difference in your routine for both is the type and amount of food you eat. Notice that alot of you are on the seefood diet for bulking (see food you eat it) and during cutting season you eat only measured portions of high quality food.

DUHH

That's everyone's fitness trick.

The only workout that works effectively is high weight, under ten reps, minimal rest (30-60secs). The diet should fit your goal, if you need more energy for workouts eat more (but healthy) if you need to cut for something like a competition then cut your intake, but more importantly, don't change the exercise.

You got it, NOW DO IT!!

THE PERFECT WORKOUT

This isn't exactly about the perfect workout as it is about how you can program to get the most benefit out of your workouts.

We all exercise to get some kind of benefit. The amount of time that people waste on exercises because of stubborness or lack of knowledge is tremendous. It's like being trapped on a hampster wheel.

If you did it right you could gain more in 20 minutes than someone working out for two hours.

The main term to know is - Progressive Overload.

That means you are always increasing some part of the volume in your workout. That could be one more pound on a barbell or one more rep on an exercise.

Now lets look deeper by the use of studies.

In one study three groups were used: one performing 2-3 reps of an exercise, on performing 5-6, and one performing 9-11. Every group was performing those reps to failure. That means the weight was heavy enough that they would not be able to perform another rep. Only exercise was used and the rest period was 30-60seconds. The end result was a large jump in HGH levels which translated as both large fat loss and muscle gain.

In another study of three groups the reps were set to 1-10 in the first group, 30-50, and 100-150 all done to failure. The end result was that the 1-10 group had significant hypertrophy and strength, the second group built a large amount of muscular endurance (the ability to increase reps and to do it easier), and the 100-150 group only had a small difference (increase) from the second group.

There are more studies out there done on this subject (some mentioned in my previous posts), but lets sum it all up.

If you want to gain muscle and lose fat:
You exercise at a moderate to high intensity. Keep the rep range from 1-10 reps done with a weight you will go to failure with. Breaks in between are optimally at or around 30 seconds and no longer than 60 seconds.
Use the opportunity to super set (do another exercise) with either another strength building exercise or a muscular endurance building exercise. It's not necessary to go more than 3-5 sets, as that can lead to overtraining.

From a more competitive side if you need muscular endurance:
Stick to 30-50 reps, 30-60 breaks

Most importantly, continue to add the principle of Progressive Overload to your exercise.

Now to address more along the world of bodybuilding. There is this idea of cutting and bulking. This only has to do with food.

Doing higher rep schemes does not give a cut/toned look.
Doing higher rep schemes with a typical low carb/high protein diet gives that look.

Notice that during cutting and bulking seasons the main change that happens is that the person either eats everything in sight (bulking) or eats a healthy and controlled diet (cutting). You woul be better selved to change the diet for competition, but not the rep schemes.

POWERLIFTING PROGRAMMING

It's time to go over the top programming in powerlifting from the best. I'm going to keep the styles between the USA and Russia.

So let's begin with the American Scum (Russian Accent)

------The top program used for a long period of time is the Westside Barbell Method.

This breaks down into two categories:
Maximum Effort and Dynamic Effort

Two days are Maximum effort and two are Dynamic, One of each being for upper body or lower body. The Maximum Effort is the first exercise and is a choice between a variation of Bench Press, Box Squats, Deadlift, or Bent-Knee Good Mornings.
These are done at 1-3 Reps for 8-12 Sets, the weight gets progressively Heavier every set until you reach a literal max.

After this follows 4-5 accessory exercises to support the main muscles, like triceps and shoulders to support the bench press.

Dynamic Effort, follows Maximum. This is still training on the main muscle group. These are done at 1-3 Reps for 6-12 Sets at about 40-60% effort, sometimes with 20-30% added weight from bands or chains attached.

After this follows 4-5 accessory exercises to support the main muscles.

-----The New top American program seeing the greatest results is the Wendler Method.

Four days a week you pick one of four exercises:
Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift, or the Overhead Press

Each training cycle is four weeks long and the first cycle you remove 10% off of all total weights.

1st week - The first week for each exercise is 5 Reps for 3 Sets.
2nd week - The second week is 3 Reps for 3 Sets.
3rd week - The third week is 5 Reps for 1 Set, 3 Reps for 1 Set, then 1 Rep for 1 set.
4th week - The fourth week is a deload week.

So.... to break it down further.
Week1 W2 W3 W4
Set1 65%x5 70%x3 75%x5 40%x5
Set2 75%x5 80%x3 85%x3 50%x5
Set3 85%x5+ 90%x3+ 95%x1 60%x5

plus means as many reps as possible.

each cycle you add 5lbs for upper body and 10lbs for lower body to the total weight.

Now for ya'll Ruskies (Southern Accent)

-----The Classic training method (The "Russian" Program) is as follows:

It is a six week program where the first three weeks stay at 80% of 1RM. Every day the Bench Press, Deadlift, Squat are performed. As stated for the first three weeks 80% is used at 2-6 Reps (progressively increasing) for 6 Sets. The last three weeks move up to 85% and make their way to the last week being 105-110% at 1 Rep of your 1RM.

-----The next and program is the Pavel Method.

His method is five days long and consists of Deadlift 1x per week and Squat & Bench 2x per week. All this is done with 1 heavy Deadlift, Bench, and Squat; Then 1 light Bench and Squat. One lift per day.

The main platform is 5x5 (5 Reps x 5 Sets). You continue to use the same weight until you can complete all 5 Reps and 5 Sets. If you do complete them you move all weight up 10lbs and start over.

-----The last is the "Sheiko" method, which had had a high turnout of great athletes.

Unfortunately, because of trouble with translation we only have a small snippet of understanding as to how he trained his athlete. We do know it was a very complex system.