 
Muscle Training Program, Part 9Our Advanced Muscle Training program continues. The Key is Exercise IntensityThe high-intensity exercise principles underlying Advanced Muscle Strength & Recovery Training are a direct extension of the principles already discussed. The key is to supply a stimulus of sufficient intensity to generate progressive adaptation of the muscle without overtraining. The primary words are exercise intensity. This differs from exercise volume. It is not a matter of adding more and more sets of more and more exercises to hit the muscle that makes a routine advanced. In fact, high-volume workouts are effective for only a small number of people. Eighty percent or more of individuals, including most women, those over 40 and bodybuilders with less than three years experience, can overtrain and may injure themselves when following high-volume principles. Advanced Muscel Strength & Recovery Training emphasizes performing a few highly targeted exercises for a limited number of sets at maximum intensity to generate the precise stimulus for muscle growth. Then, allowing enough time for the muscle to recover and grow. The primary differences between high-intensity training and standard, high-volume training lie in the intensity with which each set is performed and the rest period between workouts. Properly performed high-intensity exercise puts a tremendous stress on the muscle causing microinjury. Before the muscle can grow, it must first recover. Although this may sound obvious, many bodybuilders, in the belief that more is better, do not allow ample time for full recovery and growth and are disappointed with their results. The knee-jerk response is to add more exercise, following the false dictum that more is better, and thus matters get worse.  How the Advanced Program Works Each exercise is performed at maximum intensity, at most for three sets. (As the loads increase, defined as the weight used with each set, two sets of each exercise are enough to stimulate growth. For experienced bodybuilders as little as one high-intensity set suffices.) Remember the goal is to stimulate growth, not set up residence in the gym. Each set is performed using strict form and slow, controlled movements (four to six seconds a rep) for eight to 10 repetitions, emphasizing both the concentric and eccentric phases on contraction. Further, each set is performed to positive failure, defined as the point beyond which it is impossible to do another full repetition withou assistance or the addition of cheating rechniques. The final set of each exercise, usually the second or third, is then taken beyond simple positive failure by adding four to six partial repetitions to reach positive partial repetition failure. Then, holding the full contraction as long as possible until isometric failure occurs. These components of the last set are critical to getting the full result from the workout by assuring failure is achieved across the entire range of motion of the muscle. Both techniques add a safe and important level of increased intensity. Two alternative high-intensity techniques, assisted repetitons and going to negative failure, both of which require expert spotting, are not generally recommended. These latter techniques further exhaust, but do not necessarily further stimulate the muscle. They mainly increase recovery time, catabolic stress and the chance of injury. The Advanced program employs a split routine since the required exercise intensity is too high to perform the entire workout effectively in a single day. To avoid increasing catabolic stress, which limits muscle growth, an intense resistance workout should, in general, be performed a maximum of once every 48 hours, allowing a full day of rest between workouts. Thus each half of the split routine is performed once every four days. There is nothing sacred or arbitrary about resting four days before repeating a workout. If four days seems like too long a lay off, it is probable that your workouts are not intense enough. It is advisable to increase the intensity of the workout by adding more weight, sets or repetitions rather than increasing the frequency of workouts. Of course you can take longer than four days between recurring parts of your workout cycle if that is what you require to avoid symptoms of overtraining. With increasing age, recuperative powers decrease and recovery periods of a week or more are normal. The same is true for younger bodybuilders who can develop extremely high levels of intensity during their workouts. In general, the higher the intensity, the longer the recovery period for maximum growth. Our Advanced Muscle Training Program continues in Part 10. |