INTRO
Last August a friend of mine asked me for an hypertrophy workout.
This friend of mine is absolutely in love with the gym, he would
literally spend all day pumping iron.
So I accepted his request.
(Before the hypertrophy training, we worked one month on his
strength)
I designed a workout based on bodybuilding trainings that will
last until February (currently we are at week 3).
I'm not going to discuss the aerobic training and the diet. I will
focus on the “weight” part of the program. I would just like to
say that my friend takes protein shakes after every training session
and he follows an healthy diet.
Here is the plan in details.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
GOALS
- 82kg of muscle mass by February
- Get a V shape
- Do at least 5 dips and 5 pull-up with 20% of body weight
loaded by February
- Reduce body fat percentage
STRUCTURE
5 days of gym training, from MON to FRI, for 5 weeks + 1 one of
deload. Repeat the cycle until Febrary.
I'm using a split training system, divided in even and odd weeks.
EVEN WEEKS
| MON
|
TUE
|
*WED*
|
THU
|
*FRI*
|
chest...........
back............
|
shoulders........
upper arms.....
lower arms.........
|
legs.....
abs.......
|
chest...........
back............
|
shoulders........
upper arms.....
lower arms.........
|
ODD WEEKS
| MON
|
TUE
|
*WED*
|
THU
|
*FRI*
|
shoulders........
upper arms.....
lower arms.........
|
chest...........
back............
|
legs.....
abs.......
|
shoulders........
upper arms.....
lower arms.........
|
chest...........
back............
|
*WED* ---> Wednesday is the “test day”. My friend has to
pick a body part not trained the day before (that's why the workout is
divided in even and odd weeks, otherwise he will always test the same
body parts), e.g. chest, and try to beat his 1 RM max. After that, he
carries on with legs and abs.
I added this test day to motivated him to go beyond his limits and
to set new targets every week.
*FRI* ---> Friday is the high intensity day. I introduced this
day to shock the muscle and to avoid its adaptation to the workout. I
wanna catch it by surprise with more weight and less reps than usual.
TRAINING METHODOLOGY
Always keep an equal number of pulling and pushing exercises to
maintain a balanced body structure.
Train to failure. If you have to do 12 reps of bench press,
you have to reach the 12
th reps almost dead and try to do
a couple more. As Arnold said, are those two last reps that make the
muscle grow (and make the difference between champions and normal
people)
Lifting weight is a mean, not the goal. We are training to
make our muscles grow and not to lift heavier weights. You need to
know the right weight for the right exercise and for the number of
reps you are going to perform. This is an ability that comes with the
experience.
Number of reps and rest. Generally, we will work between
the 8 and 12 reps per set with one minute of rest between set.
Warm-up and cool down. Every session begins with a warm-up
(rope skipping + dynamic stretching) and it ends with a cool-down
(low intensity treadmill run + static stretching)
Feedback. At the end of the session, my friend has to
follow a little questionnaire about his pre-and-post workout fatigue,
enjoyment, satisfaction, challenging (scale 1 out of 5). Moreover, he
writes me his weight after training and the duration of the workout. Finally, he tells me what he liked and what he didn't liked about
the training session.
Focus on the muscle that we are training. Targeting the
muscle is a matter of technique and right weight. All exercise should
be execute with the proper technique. Wrong weight might deviate from
hypertrophy training and could even lead to injuries.
Listen to your body. Learn to listen to your body will help
you to train better and to avoid injuries. If it hurts (actually
pain) then stop!
SHOCK THE MUSCLE
To work the muscle harder, I use this techniques in top of the
basic concentric movement.
Squeezing: squeeze the muscle at every contraction! You
will work it even harder
Stripping: get to the last rep, push to the limit and go
above the limit. Now, drop the current weight, immediately pick up
lighter one and repeat from the beginning. You will surprise how much
energy you muscles have when lifting a lighter weight.
Negative: get to the last rep and instead of dropping the
weight, perform an eccentric movement (negative). Ask to someone to
help you to lift the weight again and perform eccentric movements
until you can.
Supersets: perform two or more exercises in a row without
rest between series.
Isotension: between sets, keep on flex and contract your
muscles. This help to feel “the pump”, which is to keep the blood
pumping in the muscles. Arnold said that the pump is like an orgasm
(or maybe better)...
Body weight exercises: this kind of exercise stimulate the
body to produce growth hormones.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is it.
At the beginning I had two main issues:
a) In his gym there is anything to measure body fat (I don't
really trust the formula method)
b) V shape?!
Bonus) I'm in UK, he is in Italy.
For the first problem, I will use photos to track his progress. I
had a picture of him before begin the workout and I will ask him to
send me one at the of the program.
To get a V shape I will make him work on the superior part of the
latissimus dorsi (with pull up for instance), expand the thoracic
cage (pull-over), shoulders and I will try to get his waist slimmer.
WHERE WE ARE SO FAR?
While I'm writing this article we are in week 3 of training and he
is 79kg. At the end of August he was 76Kg. During September we worked
to improve his general strength and the workout described above
started on October.
CONCLUSION
I will post example of a week planning later on; I need to collect
more data first.
If you have any advice, question or critic, please don't be shy
and fell free to leave a comment: I will really appreciate it.
CronosVirus00
REFERENCES
I know I know, I am a student and I'm supposed to reference
properly (e.g. in text); yet, I have already finished the article
so... maybe next time :)
Bompa, Di Pasquale and Cornacchia. Serious Strength
Training
Delavier. Strength Training Anatomy Freitas
de Salles, Simao, Miranda, da Silva Novaes, Lemos and Willardson.
Rest Interval between Sets in Strength Training Low.
Overcoming Gravity Schwarzenegger. The New
Encyclopedia Of Modern Bodybuilding
