Wow… 12 workouts done and 3 to go!
Today can be defined in two words: Hurt Box
DOMS from the triple day quad workout Tuesday kicked in this morning. Literally, my knees buckled with every step … so did the 16 other students as we wobbled to the gym for triple day ham/glute/lower back work focusing on relative strength, functional hypertrophy and finishing with a Japanese Drop Set (which MURDERED me)… you can see the road kill pictures below…
The highlight of the day was having Charles discussing program design and organizing 15 different aspects for hypertrophy in a continuum from “intensification” to “accumulation”. Absolutely brilliant info that helps athletes recover, grow and progress.
Ready for the takeaways?!
1. Virtually EVERYTHING can be explained (and make more sense) along a continuum.
2. Most people have difficulty interpreting info because they see the world through a straw.
3. The fastest way to make muscle gains is using a 2x a day training split.
4. When training 2x a day, your cycles should not exceed 10 days before unloading volume for days. Then you can repeat.
5. If doing double day workouts, keep the evening workout shorter than the morning workout.
NOTE: I know this double day muscle work is going to sound counter intuitive and I have pages of notes and protocols to do my best to answer questions. I’ll be testing these methods out on myself shortly and reporting results… Charles has more than a decade testing this protocol and convinced us it’s superiority. YEAH!!!!! Just when you think you’ve tried it all… Nope! More to come…
6. With training twice a day you would do a CNS style workout in the morning (will potentiate more fibers for the evening) and a METABOLIC style workout in the evening. For instance, your am workout would be something like 12 sets of 1-3 RM (100-175% effort via eccentrics) and the evening session would be something like giant sets.
7. Any type of multi session training needs at least 4 hours between workouts.
8. 68% of the population make progress on splits that look like A + A + A etc (basically doing the same workout all the time). The majority of people reading my blog are probably no longer in that 68%. The next best split is a A + B + A + B so you would hit each muscle group every 5 days. We’re talking about hypertrophy here. No Nonsense Muscle Building users will know this is how the first 6 months is designed and how it works so well.
9. High variation workouts only work for 1 out of 11 people and that 1 person is a “gifted freak of nature”. In short, too much variation often backfires unless you’re that gifted freak. When I say “gifted freak”, think Michael Jordan.
10. Determining how long to do a hypertrophy based program is EASY to figure out: Don’t stop doing it until you stop growing. For some that may be 2 weeks and for others than could be 12 months.
11. If you don’t feel like having sex with your wife then you’re adrenal glands are fried. For non married guys, if a Victoria Secret commercial does not catch your attention, your adrenal levels could be in the toilet. Adrenal supplements can fix this.
12. Everybody responds to over training different. Some people’s immune systems get shut down (signs of this are getting emotional i.e. you start to cry when you watch a Bounce commercial), some peoples joints get really sore, some people lose their sex drive (adrenal shut down). Each type of overtraining can be fixed, usually with supplements.
13. Tonight I did a Japanese Drop Set… MURDER. ABSOLUTE MURDER! And I did it on the Pendulum Leg Press that forces your heels to touch your ass…. at the END of the day. You pick your 5 RM and take it to 25 sets in sets of 5. So basically 5 drop sets of 5 with your 5 rep max on EACH mini set! If done properly, you’ll puke and crawl into the fetal position sucking your thumb. I was so sick afterwards I could not eat anything for 2 hours. Can anyone tell me why this would have happened to me? Here’s what the Japanese Drop Set did to most of us…
14. “If you don’t dread going to the gym, you’re NOT training hard enough.” I know you don’t want to believe it but it’s true.
15. If you’re overtrained with VOLUME, you take naps while driving!
16. If you’re overtrained with INTENSITY, you can’t sleep at night.
17. Plantar flexion (pointing your toes) will “disengage” your calf from assisting and isolate your hamstrings more. Next time you do any variation of a leg curl, point your toe and you’ll see it’s harder. I’ll explain the anatomy in another video. Pointing your toes will bring your calf into assist so you’ll be able to lift heavier (but less isolation on hamstring).
18. Pointing your toes outwards puts more emphasis on the biceps femoris. Pointing your toes inwards puts more emphasis on the semibraneous and pointing your toes outward puts more emphasis on the semitendinous. You can NEVER isolate one of the hamstring muscles, just shift the emphasis. In application, to get strong hamstrings, vary your toe position. I just gave you SIX (6) different options to your hamstrings training with one exercise (leg curls).
Glad you’re enjoying these updates! It’s my goal to run my own Muscle Camps in the future so you can have a similar experience I’m having. I’m so so blessed and appreciative to be around people like Charles Poliquin, Ben Pakulski, and his amazing instructors Derek and Ryan.
Let me know if you need any clarification or have further comments or questions below!
Vince Del Monte
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