Strength and Physique

Q: I have a question about the upright row.  Many people mention that the movement is bad for the shoulder capsule, causing shoulder impingement . But I noticed one of your videos doing the upright row, I saw the bar was not that close to the body which most people do. Could you give some advice on this?   And thank you so much for the reply! Great books, and great blog! Take care, Mike My Answer: The traditional upright row (with a narrow grip and pulling the bar close to the body) can cause and aggravate shoulder impingement.  It also develops the traps more instead of the lateral deltoids. The version that I show you is easier on the shoulders.  By pulling the bar farther out in front of your body, the movement resembles a lateral raise as opposed to an upright row.  This version of the upright row is essentially a "barbell lateral raise" and will build cannonball delts instead of pyramid traps. I go over a numerous exercise var...

Q:  I have some questions about 20-rep breathing squats :   How many sets should I do? I used a weight that I can perform a 15 RM ,but I quickly start breathing hard around 8 reps at the second set. And I couldn't do total 20-rep at the third set. How often do we train squats using 20-rep breathing squats? Does the 15-rep breathing squats work as well? Thank you so much for your time   All the best, Mike     My Answer: Breathing squats are extremely traumatizing to the nervous system, so it is not a shock technique that I would use any more than once a week. Just do 1-2 sets of breathing squats, and you will find yourself gaining quite a bit of weight throughout your entire musculature, not just your thighs.  So forget about doing a third set.   Now 15-rep breathing squats should work just as well, so if you find that works better for you, then go for that.  The whole point of breathing squats is to ext...

Q:  Hey there James, I just read your article on Bodybuilding.com . I believe I am an ectomorph, however, I am not too sure as ectomorphs are generally tall. I am 156 cm tall and weigh 50 kilos. Yeah really skinny I know.   I have been going to the gym for about 3 months now, and I can see the difference that it has made.  I was just wondering am I an ectomorph? Also what type of diet should I go on, and is there somewhere you can suggest where I get a diet plan? Thanks a lot.  ~Shiv My Answer:  Judging by your photos, yes you are an ectomorph.  Ectomorphs are not necessarily tall.  The one distinguishing factor is that they are skinny. You look fairly lean, so you should go on a See Food diet .  You see food, you eat it.  Plain and simple.  The See Food diet is what is called a "dirty bulk."  You bulk up by eating a lot of food, even junk food.  For a young ectomorph who works out hard, this is an easy way to g...

In  High Tension Exercises for Muscular Growth  I discuss how high muscular tension is the primary factor for muscular hypertrophy.  The tension has to be high enough, but also long enough.  The optimal time under tension to build muscle is 40-60 seconds.  In other words, the set has to last that long in order for you to grow. The problem is that when people lift, they stick to the traditional range of 6-10 reps.  Their sets last no longer  than 20-30 seconds. Timed sets allow you to focus on accomplishing the goal (optimal time under tension) as opposed to the accomplishing the task (hitting a target rep).

I have a training question. Over time, I have read a number of training routines of bodybuilders and weightlifters. I am familiar with the pyramid technique in which the weight goes up but the reps go down; for instance on a dumbbell curl:   25lbs x 12 30lbs x 9 35lbs x 7 40lbs x 4 and so forth.   What caught my attention is many of these bodybuilders/ weightlifters I've read about would go up in weight over the course of four or five sets, but the reps would be the same:   25lbs x 12 30lbs x 12 35 lbs x12 40lbs x12 45lbs x 12.   It seems to me that sets 1 through 4 are submaximal.  Other wise the reps would go down... but what is the benefit? Are they all warm ups? Why would weightlifters or bodybuilders put effort into only their last set? I know going to failure on every set can be counter productive but this seems like "under training" to me. Am I missing something?   Thank you very much for your time! ...

Q:  I looked in the side bar of your page and didn’t find anything about deadlifts, so I figured I’d email. I’ve read that DL’s should not be performed with a high number of sets or high frequency. What is your take on it?  Thanks,  Mike (Michigan) My Answer: Deadlifts should be performed no more than once a week.  Plus you should perform them at reps no higher than 6.  The exception is the Romanian deadlift, which you can perform at higher repetitions. The reason why you should perform conventional deadlifts with low frequency and low repetitions is that the lower back muscles (the spinal erectors) take a long time to recover from training, especially from a heavy compound movement like the deadlift.  This is why I don't recommend doing squats and deadlifts in the same workout, since the spinal erectors bear a large load in both exercises. The reason I don't recommend higher reps on deadlifts is that the smaller muscle groups (such as...

So is this diminishing sets approach intended to be done once per body-part? Twice? If I usually follow a typical bodybuilding workout of 4 exercises for each body part (3-4 sets, 6-10 reps), I have an average of 32 reps per exercise, 128 reps per body part. 70 is sort of in no-mans land. Thanks for your help,  Jon My Answer: Yes diminishing sets are to be done for one exercise per body part. If you're incorporating the technique into a program where you're performing 4 exercises per body part, however, then that is a sure way to overtrain. What I would suggest is reduce the number of exercises per muscle group to two: one heavy compound movement followed by diminishing sets of a different exercise. So if you were to incorporate diminishing sets into the chest portion of your workout, then it would look something like this: Bench press- 4 sets of 6-10 reps Push-ups- diminishing sets totaling 100 reps