Hypertrophy Bootcamp: Day 1 Update

Day 1 of the 5 Day Hypertrophy Bootcamp, East Greenwich, Rhode Island!

Instructors:
Charles Poliquin
Ben Pakulski
Derek Woodske
Ryan Fanley

Welcome to my daily report of the 2012 Hypertrophy Bootcamp!  Here’s how we were greeted:

“Over the next five days you’re going to learn FIFTEEN (15) hypertrophy methods.  Each day we’ll train three times and each time we train you’ll learn one new method. After the next five days you need to take five complete days off.  No deload day or “active recovery”. Nothing. The next five days you’ll each gain 5-7 pounds of muscle. Any questions so far?”

The 17 students from Australia, Finland, Canada and the U.S. drooled with anticipation…  Where have you been all my life Charles?!

Today we went through three workouts for chest and back starting off with a Modified Hepburn method in the morning and then ending with giant sets in the evening.  Here are some sound bites from the notes. Feel free to test my new knowledge behind the WHY of each of these methods:

1.  During CNS (central nervous system) training forced reps are used for one thing and one thing only…. To save your friends life. Otherwise, forced reps are not permitted during CNS training. Why? Because forced reps increase acidity which decrease force production. Plus forced reps lead to bad form and bad form with heavy loads can lead to injuries.

2. There are three categories of people in the gym:

– Those who know a lot of theory but don’t have a flipping clue of what they are doing.

– Those that have a lot of experience but are misguided by horrible theory and concepts.

– Those that have theory AND enough experience to created desired changes and responses.

3. Training makes you weaker and smaller. At the end of this 5 days I’m going to be skinnier.  The goal of your training is to train so hard you make yourself “skinny” so when you recover you “supercompensate” and become bigger.  Why does that make sense? The more stress = the more growth… IF you recover and if you recover then you’ve experienced the “training effect.”

4. CNS workouts in the morning (the one we did this morning consisted of 13 sets of 3 reps) potentiate (excite) the CNS, which in turn helps you recruit 5-7% more muscle fibers in the afternoon.  This ONE tip got me my moneys worth.  Heavy training in the morning. Volume training in the evening.  5 days on. 5 days off.  You can only do these double or triple day sessions for 1-2 cycles max. Drug assisted individuals might be able to handle three of these cycles if their sleep and nutrition is perfect.

5. Our Pre Workout Supplement Protocol: BCAA  + Carnitine + Beta Alaninine + 1 electrolyte pack.  I’ll talk about WHY this stack is so powerful in the future.

6. Best way to train CNS system is EXPLOSIVE REPS (as fast as you can) with 4 second negative.  Why is explosiveness necessary? Because we are trying to recruit the fast-twitch muscle fibers that have the greatest potential for growth.

7. If you’re on a tight budget the only supplement you need is BCAA (for muscle growth).  BCAA increase blood sugar while you train, increase insulin, cortisol and growth hormone at the same time, increase insulin sensitivity and androgen receptor receptivity (your ability to uptake testosterone and utilize it).

17 students from around the world!

Lunch was sponsored by Whole Foods – My body was so fried after the FIRST workout I had no appetite and had to wait to eat my chicken, veggies and salad. I couldn’t even eat the yams.

What we did after the first workout. Slept on the floor!

One cool thing: Unlimited access to supplements pre, during and post workout.

Dumbbells with spinning handles! Everything in 1 kg to 160kg in 1 kg increments!

Tomorrow I’ll get you more action shots!  My back and chest are still shaking and I have virtually no appetitive tonight which is a sign of being overstressed and overtrained (today). No doubt!  Looking forward to sharing this amazing experience with you.