by Siim Land
Together, these are the triad of training variables. The maximum capacity of each aspect is at the end-point. For instance, for volume, it would be two hours of training, for intensity 80-90% of near-maximum effort, for frequency it would be training twice every day.
Figure 54 The Triad of Training Variables
You should strive for creating a balance between these extremes. Otherwise, you will reach burnout. If you were to go for a high amount of volume every single day, then you can’t be doing it intensely. Training only 2 times per week (low frequency) allows you to do a lot of work at greater loads as well
To reach your natural biological potential, you would want to focus on getting stronger and use sarcoplasmic hypertrophy as an addition. Some muscle fibers respond better to higher repetitions and we can adjust our training exactly according to our demands.
How Should You Train
Your focus when doing any type of training is to promote health and longevity by building quality muscle because in the grand scheme of things they’re much more important than just having shredded abs or running a mile under four minutes.
Basically, you want to target 3 main training regions: push-pull-legs. They’re also divided into horizontal and vertical planes. To build muscle and strength, you need to increase the number of muscle fibers in those muscle groups.
Whether or not you should follow an upper-lower body split, do full body workouts or target a specific muscle group only once a week depends on your workout routine and how you prefer to train.
Current research shows that training a muscle twice a week leads to superior hypertrophy than once a week[379]. Therefore, you’d want to be targeting the main muscle groups like legs, chest, back, shoulders, and arms at least two times per week. However, there are reasons to believe that a higher training frequency may be more optimal in most people.
In 2015, Brad Schoenfeld et al published a study that showed how training a muscle group 3 times a week with full body workouts was better for muscle growth than training it once a week on a split routine[380].
More frequent muscle stimulation keeps protein synthesis more active and elevated. The window for growth lasts somewhere between 24-48 hours after training in advanced trainees.
If you train your chest only on Monday, then the anabolic stimulus will be gone by the middle of the week and thus you lose out on a few days of potential growth.
On the flip side, training a particular muscle 2-4 times a week will enable you to take advantage of this constantly elevated signal for building lean tissue. It’s probably better for longevity as well because you’ll be more sensitive to insulin and mTOR.
Higher training frequencies are also seen to be more effective in highly resistance trained men[381], which makes sense from a physiological perspective as well. The more you train and the stronger you get the more stimulation you need to facilitate further growth. Advanced trainees are more resistant to muscle damage and neuromuscular fatigue. They also show a blunted hormonal-anabolic response to training volume[382]. That’s a good example of a hormetic adaptation outside of muscle hypertrophy.
Exercising too frequently may actually inhibit mTOR a little bit by upregulating myostatin. That’s why consistently working out frequently may be more beneficial for longevity whereas for pure hypertrophy purposes you’d benefit from taking breaks from training more often. Not exercising desensitizes the body to the anabolic stimulus again and potentiates further growth.
Increasing training frequency also lowers rates of perceived exertion (RPE) [383], reduces delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and increases the testosterone to cortisol ratio[384]. Training more frequently requires that you scale down the volume or intensity of each workout, which enables you to train more often.
The main driver of muscle growth is total volume – how frequent intense growth signals are you able to send to a particular muscle throughout the week. Of course, there’s a limit that the body can handle but generally working out more often facilitates increased hypertrophy because of increased volume.
It’s not necessary to workout 4-6 times a week if it doesn’t fit your schedule. As long as you put enough volume and intensity into your program, you can probably see as good results with a lower frequency and training only 2-3 times a week. In that case, you’d have to simply make your single workout sessions matter a lot more by increasing the amount of volume done with each exercise.
You would also want to focus on compound movements that move more than a single joint and tax the entire body, such as squats, deadlifts, bench press, pull-ups etc. Nevertheless, resistance bands are excellent in some situations as well. If you could also get some kettlebell conditioning then that would be great.
What routine you choose to follow depends on your preference. You can either do a full-body routine, upper and lower body splits or the push/pull/legs split. Train about 3-4 days a week and leave at least 1 day for complete recovery. On days when you’re not doing resistance training, you can do some light aerobic cardio to keep yourself moving.
The most popular and simplest strength training program out there is Stronglifts 5x5. It consists of 2 full-body workouts. You train 3 times a week, alternating between A and B, with at least one rest day between workouts. See Figure 55.
Workout A: Squat, Bench press, Barbell row
Workout B: Squat, Overhead press, Deadlift
Figure 55 The StrongLifts 5x5 Program Overview
StrongLifts doesn’t include any accessory work and it’s not necessary for getting stronger or building muscle. However, I would add in some isolation exercises to promote sarcoplasmic hypertrophy in regions that require less intensity and will benefit from more volume.
For your elbow tendons, wrist and forearms you can do extremely slow full range of motion pullups, pushups or biceps curls. Wrist curls and farmer’s carry-s will also improve your grip strength and give you iron hands.
For the legs and hips, you should do some walking lunges, Bulgarian split squats, hip extensions, and kettlebell swings. This will increase the range of your neuromuscular finesse and teaches you how to execute hip drive.
Don’t forget core work either, as it’s important for structural integrity and a solid posture. Abdominal work will also help to define your six pack once you’ve reached a low body fat percentage. Do hanging leg raises, ab-wheel rollouts, dragonflags as your main exercises. Add hollow body holds, oblique twists and plank holds as accessories if you feel the need to.
This book isn’t focused on maximizing muscle growth or becoming a professional powerlifter because it may have some downturn effects on longevity if taken too far. The general idea is that you should still incorporate resistance training into your exercise routine almost as a mandatory thing.
Next to diet and sleep, working out is the single most effective thing for improving your health. The workout section of this book may be somewhat less detailed as the nutrition part. Nevertheless, in the remainder of this chapter, I’m going to outline the most cost-effective and time-efficient resistance training exercises that will make you build muscle and strength.
Lower Body
The king of all lifts is the barbell back squat. It’s our single most useful and powerful exercise in the gym and our most valuable tool for building strength and muscle.
The squat is literally the only exercise that directly trains hip drive – the active recruitment of the muscles in the posterior chain. This term refers to the muscles that produce hip extension – the straightening out of the hip joint from its flexed or bent position in the bottom of the squat. The best way to get strong hip extensors – hamstrings, glutes, and the adductors – is to squat heavy.
Here’s how to execute the barbell back squat safely and correctly. Don’t make the mistake of getting under the bar and just going for it. Merely winging it and doing something will lead to random results. If you do it wrong, you’ll also hurt yourself in the process.
● Position the barbell on the lower pa
rt of your trapezius muscles. Keep the weight over your mid-foot, which is your center of gravity.
● Take a deep breath in and squeeze your glutes forward to unrack the weight. Take a few small steps backwards and let the bar settle in.
● Adjust your feet and position them about shoulder width apart, like you’re about to jump. DON’T point your toes too far out. 45 degrees is too much. Keep them at about 30 degrees, slightly apart.
● Before you squat, take a deep breath, brace your abdominal wall to activate your core muscles and maintain a neutral spine. Push out with your abdominal wall, as if you were to brace for a punch in the gut.
● Engage your glutes, start driving your hips back and sit between your legs. Drive your knees out over where your toes are pointed. DON’T allow them to collapse or shoot forward.
● Hit the right depth, just below the knees.
● As you come back up, think about squeezing your glutes and bringing your hips forward.
Squat depth is important, as it determines the safety of the movement. Full range of motion in the low bar squat involves the hips dropping slightly lower than the knees. Doing the weightlifting high-bar squat means that you’ll be going almost all the way down. To maintain balance, you also have to set the bar higher on your upper traps and take a slightly narrower grip.
To squat properly, you have to use hip drive. Think of shoving-up the area above your butt and pushing it forward, as you come up. This way you’re training the posterior chain.
Accessory work for the lower body include walking lunges, Bulgarian split squats and calf raises. They aren’t necessary for muscle growth, as squats hit everything. You can still use them to bring some variation and really start carving your quads and hamstrings.
To develop speed and power in your legs, you should do low repetition plyometrics, such as broad jumps, vertical leaps and sprinting. Don’t hit failure, as these adaptations are more taxing on the central nervous system. You have to be performing at your maximum to improve in these metrics.
The Shoulder Press
Pushing involves moving the body’s center of mass or the weight away from the hands. In the upper body, it includes mainly the recruitment of your chest, shoulder and triceps muscles. At the same time, there’s a significant amount of pushing involved in the squat and deadlift as well, as you’re literally trying to screw your feet into the ground when executing these movements.
While doing any exercise, really, you have to use your entire body. Pushing involves some legwork as well, because, in order for you to maintain structural integrity, you have to tighten almost every muscle in the body at once. That’s why compound movements are superior to isolation exercises – they stimulate mTOR and MPS in an all-encompassing manner.
The overhead press is the oldest barbell exercise. People have been picking things up and lifting them above their head ever since they developed the muscles to do so. Here’s how to do it correctly and safely.
● Stand with the bar on your front shoulders. Keep your grip narrow and shoulder width apart, wrist straight, vertical forearms.
● Lock your knees and hips, keep your core and posterior chain tight.
● Raise your chest towards the ceiling by slightly arching your upper back. Think of touching your chin with your upper chest. DON’T bend your head downward or upward but look straight ahead. DON’T arch your lower back either or fall too much backwards with your shoulders.
● Take a big breath, hold it tight. Core stability, push your abs out. Press the bar up in a vertical line. DON’T press it in front or behind your head. Press it over your head.
● While you’re pressing the weight up, stay close to the bar. Shift your torso forward, once the bar has passed your forehead. Move your head slightly forward from your arms. Think of peeking out of a window with your hands above your head.
● Hold the bar over your shoulders and mid-foot to maintain balance. Lock out your elbows and shrug your shoulders up to the ceiling.
● Reverse the process, bring the weight back down to your front shoulders and repeat.
The dip works almost the same muscles as the overhead press and handstand pushup do, sans as much stress on the shoulders. Its main focus is put on the triceps, but if you adjust your body’s position you can focus your chest and shoulders as well.
● Jump on parallettes or parallel bars and lock your elbows out.
● Keep your core tight and the legs straight, slightly bent forward. Maintain the hollow body position.
● Start lowering down vertically, while keeping your feet straight and flexed. DON’T flare your elbows out, but keep them in a vertical position, looking backward.
● Bend your shoulders slightly forward, until they get past your elbows. Look forward with your head.
● If you don’t have enough strength to push yourself back up, then keep doing the negative as low as possible.
● If you’re strong enough, push yourself back up again by slightly driving your chest forward. Use as little momentum as possible with your legs and back.
● Lock out your elbows and repeat the process.
By bending more forward with your shoulders, you’re putting more stress on the deltoids. If you keep it as vertical as possible, you’re working the chest. Either way, the triceps will get a hell of a workout.
As you get stronger, you can go even further, by going lower and even doing the “Russian dip.” You descend as low as possible and land your elbows onto the parallel bars. Then you drive forward with your shoulders again into the lowest dipping position and push yourself up again. Doing regular dips with weights between your legs or attached to a lifting belt increases the resistance.
The Push
The bench press is a full body compound exercise, that works your chest, shoulders, and triceps. It’s also more effective for building upper body strength because you’ll be lifting more weight than with the overhead press. Every gym that can call itself as such has a benching press. Here’s how to do it safely.
● Lie on the flat bench with your eyes under the bar. Lift your chest up and squeeze your shoulder blades together. Keep your feet flat on the floor.
● Put your pinky on the ring marks of the bar. Hold the bar in the base of your palms and keep your wrist straight.
● Take a deep breath and make your core tight. You can arch your upper back by slightly lifting your lower back off the bench. Keep your feet planted to the ground.
● Unrack the bar by straightening your arms and move it over your shoulders. Keep your elbows locked out.
● Lower the bar down to your middle chest, while tucking your elbows about 75 degrees. DON’T flare your elbows out and keep them vertical. During that time hold your breath and keep the core tight!
● From the bottom, press the weight up again above your shoulders. DON’T lift your butt off the bench. Use your legs as driving force. At the top, lock your elbows out and breathe again.
The bodyweight equivalent of the bench press is the push-up. It’s a great way to train your chest as a beginner, but can even be used to build strength and muscle as an advanced trainee.
● Get down on the floor into a plank position with your hands in front of you and your feet together.
● Lock out your elbows, keep your back straight and core tight! You know the drill.
● Slowly lower yourself down as low as possible. DON’T flare your elbows out and keep them vertical. DON’T arch your back either like a rubber band. Keep it straight and tight! Maintain proper form throughout the movement.
● Hit rock bottom with your chest and come back up again until you’ve completely locked out your elbows.
● Do them for as many reps as possible.
● As you get stronger, you can start leaning your shoulders more forward by standing on your toes. Eventually, you should be able to do pushups only on one of your big toes. This puts more stress on the wrists and forearms, as well as the delts.
Doing push-u
ps is a lot more difficult than it might seem if you do them right. You have to always have full range of motion and proper form. It’s very easy to jerk around and start arching your back. In the military, we called it screwing the ground. Don’t do that, nobody likes to see that.
The Deadlift
The deadlift is the best exercise for building back strength. If it were to include more legwork, then it would reign supreme over the squat and become the king of all lifts.
Deadlifting with proper form means you have to keep your lower back neutral. Rounding it during heavy lifting is very dangerous and will definitely lead to injuries. Actually, if you do it with proper form you’ll increase your effectiveness. Moving the bar in a vertical line shortens the distance the weight has to travel, which increases the load you can pull.
● Walk to the bar and stand with your mid-foot under the bar. Take a hip-width stance, with your toes pointing out about 15 degrees.
● Put your hands straight in front of you, take a very deep breath. Put the air inside your abdominal wall and keep your core tight.
● Go down into the position with your arms straight, while still holding your core tight.
● Grab the bar, about shoulder-width apart. Your arms are vertical when viewed from the front and just hanging outside your legs.
● Bend your knees, until your shins touch the bar. DON’T move the bar closer, but keep it over your mid-foot.
● Lift your chest up, straighten the back. DON’T move the bar, DON’T drop your hips, DON’T squeeze your shoulder blades.
● Squeeze the bar as much as possible and start lifting it off the floor. Drive your feet into the ground, as if you’re pushing the earth away from you. DON’T weaken your core. DON’T bend your elbows, keep them locked out and straight. Maintain a neutral spine, by keeping your chest up and looking up.