Advanced Cycles For Advanced Lifters (Part 2)

For the chosen lift you will need to determine your one rep maximum, as the cycle will be based on % of that maximum lift. If you don’t know your 1rep max for your lifts then it is probably a good indication that your record keeping is not what it should be or maybe simply that you are a perpetual fluff bunny who doesn’t like heavy iron. You can guestimate your one rep maxes from experience if you like, or hold on your cookies, get a decent spot and find out for sure. Your choice!

Anyway, regardless of the lift you choose the cycle looks the same. The following chart shows the training frequency and intensity for the chosen lift, it’s an old chestnut of a routine but as an introduction to specialisation it is perfect. Ideas for the rest of the program will follow.

Monday Wednesday Friday
Wk 1 80% (6×2)* 80% (6×3) 80% (6×2)
Wk 2 80% (6×4) 80% (6×2) 80% (6×5)
Wk 3 80% (6×2) 80% (6×6) 80% (6×2)
Wk 4 85% (5×5) 80% (6×2) 90% (4×4)
Wk 5 80% (6×2) 95% (3×3) 80% (6×2)
Wk 6 100% (2×2) 80% (6×2) 102-110% (new max)

*(6×2) means 6 sets of 2 reps, not 2 sets of 6 reps you muppets!

Whaddya think this is? An aerobics routine? Hehehehe. The percentages are calculated from your one rep max, so get your calculators out boys and girls.

Now if you are a typical bodybuilder and you train like they tell you in “Muscle and Shitness” then you probably just crapped in your shiny wet look posing trunks. “Train one lift three times a week? Is he nuts?” “6 sets of 6 reps with 80%…sounds complicated” Well, here’s a quick wake up call. “Enhanced” Olympic lifters, track athletes and powerlifters train up to 30 times a week and get great results. I am drug free and manage to hit deadlifts over 220Kg up to 5 times in a training week, and that is just bloody NORMAL. Now a bodybuilder is not advised to session being heavy and no sets being taken to failure is NOT a high volume program by any stretch of the imagination.

Some of you might find that you will do better by dropping the low intensity (6 sets of 2 reps @ 80%) sessions in week 4 or 5. This is a call you will have to make based upon how well you are recovering from the program but remember the whole point is to load volume over the first 3 weeks and then increase loading whilst dropping the volume down till you reach your new max.

If you are in week 2 and find yourself unable to face the 80% x 6 x 2 light session because you “feel tired” then you can go back to reading Men’s Health magazine cause you are not destined to be strong. Feeling tired is just a fact of life to an athlete, not an alarm bell that you need to take a week off and stay in bed playing with your pee-pee. You judge how well you are recovering by whether or not you made your lifts. If you are making your lifts you are recovering just fine, whether you feel like shit or not.

The remainder of your exercises can be split across the week at whatever set and rep scheme you choose. Say for example you are specialising in the overhead press you might wish to squat + press on Monday, chin + press on Wednesday and bench + press on Friday. I find it best to keep poundages for the other lifts at about 80 – 90% of maximums for whatever rep range I am using. For example say you can bench 100Kg for 12 reps, you would do sets of 80-90Kg for 10-12 reps in the bench. It is also worth rotating what days you do your assistance work on so that you never perform similar assistance to your main lift on a “heavy” day.

For example if your specialisation lift is the overhead press then rotate your bench press so that it always falls on one of the 6 x 2 days, not on one of the more intense days. This makes sure that your heavy overhead pressing does not make benching impossible. The same would apply if squats were your main lift and you were deadlifitng for assistance work. You would not squat heavy and deadlift on the same day, as your deadlift would most likely not be worthwhile. The name of the game is maintenance when it comes to your other lifts.

After 6 weeks you can change the specialisation lift and start again, or move back to a more typical bodybuilding routine and use your newfound strength to pack on even more muscle with slightly higher rep ranges. Or if your like most people you will totally disregard the outstanding strength gains you just made and go back to training leg extensions once a month because training my way was “too tough”.

I’m sorry to be such a mean old sod but it is utterly true. People are all too quick to disregard methods that work extremely well if they take them out of their comfort zone. Need I remind you that if strength training and bodybuilding were comfortable then everyone would be big and strong?

A few guys have asked me what kind of results they can expect on a routine like this in terms of strength gains. I get a guaranteed 7.5 – 10% on a lift every time I put myself through this torture, with bigger increases on repetition work following the program. Past results I’ve seen from this exact program include a deadlift going from 200Kg to 220Kg and reps with 180kg from 6 to an easy 11 at a bodyweight of 93Kg. Not to bad for 6 weeks work eh? I’m shooting for 180Kg x 20 reps by the end of this year and I’ll train for that in a very similar manner to what’s described above, by increasing my limit strength repetition lifting will increase automatically.

Everyone is different and I am far from a genetic mutant so I suspect that a majority of athletes could expect equal or better results from such a routine. If your cajones hang low enough and you give the routine a try, please do let me know how you get on. Just Email me your results though, not your pitiful bitching about how sore you are… I get enough of that after I roll off the lady friend and try to fall asleep.

God Bless You My Friends…

“For anyone considering steroid use” this is a must read…
Layman’s Guides to Steroids I and II

…WARNING: Do not read this unless you are ready to gain some serious lean muscle…
Layman’s Guides to Steroids III (new)

 

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