Unilateral Training During Recovery

I have purchased and greatly enjoyed Volume One of your book series. Things had been going well until I aggravated tendonitis in my right elbow (I'm a classical musician and music teacher). I don't want to stop lifting, nor do I want to be relegated to just cardio.

I have been doing lower body workouts. What do you think of training my upper left side to keep things going? My right arm should be better in a month, and I thought this would give some extra training to my non-dominant arm and side.

Thank you,
Peter


My Answer: It's perfectly fine to focus on unilateral movements for the upper body. In fact, training your left side will lessen the effects of detraining your right side. In other words, you will not lose as much muscle or strength if you train unilaterally. So by all means keep training your left side while your right arm recovers.

Total Body Workout Volume

Do you still recommend doing total body workouts three times a week? If so, then how many sets?

-W. Peyton


My Answer: I recommend variety. I recommend changing the program parameters every so often and that means from time to time switching from total body workouts to split routines.

Doing total body workouts three times a week allows you to train a lot of muscle frequently. You gain muscle at a faster when you train frequently.

The problem is that if you're training every single body part in each workout, then you can't pack in too many sets for muscle group. If you trained all 8 major muscle groups that bodybuilders typically hit, then you would only be able to do 3 sets per body part. If you tried to add any more sets, then you'd overtraining.

A lot of strength trainers try to get around this by putting you on abbreviated programs, where you don't do any direct arm work. Instead you just focus a few core lifts, so that way you can add in more sets.

But the guys who recommend this come from a strength/athletic background and don't have a bodybuilding background. Their belief is that your arms get enough stimulation from heavy compound movements and that they should grow on just that. In my experience, however, a combination of direct and indirect stress on a body part will grow it much faster and bigger than only indirect stress.

Split routines, on the other hand, allow you to focus directly on a body part or two for a workout. You can stress a muscle group with more sets, and this in turn incurs greater growth. The problem is you trade frequency for volume. So although you may grow more from more volume, you're not growing as fast.

There is a way to incorporate both total body workouts and split routines into a single program, and I go over how to do this in Strength and Physique, Volume One. This way you can get the benefits of both total body workouts and split routines. You gain more strength and more muscle at a faster rate.

Muscle Confusion

I have read some of your material regarding working out and the 10-8-6-15 program. I just have a question:

I have been consistently lifting weights now for 3 months, and I started with this routine, which was upper body on Monday and lower body on Tuesday, then same thing Thursday, Friday. Since May I started doing chest/triceps on Monday, back/biceps Tuesday, quads/hamstrings/legs Thursday, and shoulders/calves Friday. I'm still doing this workout.

Is there anything you can suggest I change or do? Of course sticking with this same workout I'm sure my body has adapted to it. I need to confuse my muscles and continously change things to make progress, right?

Take care,
Arvind


My Answer: You've answered your own question, Arvind. Yes you do need to change things up, because 3 months is way too long to be on a program. Your body will adapt to a program within 3 weeks.

If you're thinking of switching to the Hypertrophy Training for the Ectomorph (HTE) program, then that would be a good start. The reason is that you're currently training each body part directly only once a week. If you switched to the HTE program, then you would be training each body part directly 3 times a week. This change in training frequency will build more muscle at a faster rate.

Keep in mind that you must adhere to the principles outlined in the article. One exercise per body part done 3 times per week. Four sets per exercise. If you add anything else or change the program around, then you are messing around with the training parameters.

Alternating Exercises on Hypertrophy Training for the Ectomorph

I read your article and did my best to understand all of it's facets. Does 6 days of training, then, imply each body group gets hit twice each week with a different exercise than the one prior to it? For example, bench press and squats Monday, and then incline BP and deadlifts on Thursday. Is that the idea?

I'm excited to get into this.

Thanks again for your contributions!
Mike


My Answer: No, each body part gets hit 3 times per week. Not two. An ectomorph needs to train briefly, intensely BUT FREQUENTLY. An ectomorph cannot handle high volume workouts, so his volume should be spread across the week. Three times a week, 4 sets per body part (not per exercise) is best for an ectomorph.

This means doing 3 whole body workouts a week, every other day. Or you can do a upper body/lower body split and do 6 workouts a week. You would still stick to 4 sets per body part, but feel free to alternate your exercises from workout to workout. An upper/lower split might look like this:

Upper Body Workout
Bench press
Seated rows
Lateral raises
Barbell curls
Close grip press

Lower Body Workout
Squats
Leg curls
Standing machine calf raises
Hanging leg raises

Ectomorph Training 6 Days a Week

Hi James,

 

My question is about the ectomorph trainning.  I did your program in the bodybuilding article and man it was AWESOME. I gained 2kg in 4 weeks of training, and lost 0.7 kg of fat!! Never seen results like that. I've worked out hard for about 3 years, and I have never seen that. Thanks again man.

 

I know that you suggest the 5x5 trainning after the pyramid or any low rep type of set, but my question is about how can I improve the intensity of the work out.

 

I did the pyramid a bit different then you suggest. It was an A/B training (push/pull), doing the A workout Monday/Wednesday/Friday and the B workout Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday, giving me one day rest.

 

I read an answer where you say ectomorphs have to train a muscle group at least 2-3 times with one exercise. So can I do a training program like this or will it be overtraining:

Workout A (Mon/Wed/Fri)

- 3 sets of 6 reps

- compound movements

- 3 minutes rest

 

1. Bench press
2. Rows
3. Squats
4. Shoulder press
5. DB curl
6. Preacher curl
7. Close grip bench press

Workout B (Tues/Thurs/Sat)

- 3 drop sets (8 reps at start then drop 2 times)

- 90 seconds rest

- isolation movements

 

1. Fly
2. Pulldown
3. Leg extensions supersetted with leg curls
4. Upright row
5. Cable row
6. Zottman curls

 

Well thanks for showing me the "secret" of the ectomorph, and sorry about the horrible English.

 

-Alexis

 

My Answer: Looks fine, but I would suggest for Workout A you get rid of the last 2 exercises (preacher curls and close grip presses).  Otherwise your workout will last an hour and a half.  Keep your workouts to under an hour to avoid overtraining.

Local Stress vs Global Stress

Hi my name's Lucas. I'm trying to lose some weight for ROTC and also want to start getting ready for (hopefully) becoming an MP. Could you give me some tips for beginning fat loss resistance training? Thanks alot.


My Answer: Strength training for fat loss is very different from strength training for muscle gain. For muscle gain, you do straight sets in an attempt to flush a select set of muscles with blood and create lactic acid build up. This localized build up releases a number of hormones which grow muscle. In other words, to build a particular set of muscles you have to keep the stress on it for an extended period of time.

For fat loss, it's completely different. Your entire musculature has to stressed. You avoid localized stress (straight sets) and attempt to stress your musculature globally. Instead of straight sets and seeking the pump in a particular muscle group, you should avoid the pump and work the entire body.

This is why circuit training is used for fat loss. Logistically, however, circuit training is problematic, because you'll need to have access to several pieces of equipment at the same time. There is a way to get around this, which I go over in my article on Strength Training for Fat Loss.

It is a highly effective strength training program for fat loss, but I do list 6 other strength training programs for fat loss in my book Strength and Physique, Volume One

Strength and Flexibility

First, let me say I admire and appreciate your website and online contributions. Thank you.

I have to tell you the rather funny story of how I stumbled upon your site. I am a state trooper in Michigan, and a group of us have been into Crossfit for about the past year or so. I have another buddy who is no longer a trooper who is my bodybuilding inspiration. He posted about an exercise called "face pulls", so I found a demo on YouTube by a guy with the last name of Poliquin. Anyway, on that same sidebar on YouTube there was a demo by the same guy where a student was demonstrating subscapularis pull-ups (SSP's).

I'd never heard of them, so I wanted to see a better demo. I clicked on a video by a ripped dude at a roadside park demonstrating SSP's and BAM!, a perfect subscapularis pull-up. You caught my attention. I then showed a bunch of the troops the first video demo, saying, "Ok, check out how this kid does it..."

Then I pulled up your video and said, "Now watch how THIS guy does it!"

I tried them for the first time tonight. I love 'em! They were far from perfect, but just what I need for my unshapely back. Thank you!

I was delighted to discover you are a brother in blue! I appreciate your site in that you post LEO related exercises. I've always been pretty fit, but I'm noticing now that I'm 36, I'm weakening in certain areas and my muscles are tightening up a bit. I need to work stretching into my program a WHOLE lot more. I recently (2 weeks ago) competed in (and finished) my first sprint triathlon in Clark Lake, MI. Great fun pushing myself in the training, but now I want to cycle back into strength training a bit more. I will check in with you regularly for tips, so I linked your blog on my blog sidebar, so I can do just that.

Thanks again, brother. Please stay safe.

M.L.
Michigan


My Answer: Hey Mike, glad you like the subscapularis pull-up demo. Always good to hear from another LEO.

I don't find too many people who actually know how to perform a subscapularis pull-up. You have to be pretty strong in the regular pull-up in order to attempt the subscapularis version. I'm sure that you're feeling it now in your lats, midback and abs.

Keep in mind that most people who attempt the subscapularis pull-up do the easier version where their bodies are vertical both in the lifting phase and the lowering phase. Perfectly fine to do that version, but just make sure you are still squeezing your shoulder blades back and pushing away from the bar as you perform the eccentric phase.

A lot of guys do tighten up as they age, including myself. I like to perform movements that require a combination of strength and flexibility. My favorite exercise for this are kettlebell windmills: