Summer Shredding Part 2: Resistance Training Concepts

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Welcome back! Last article we covered injury related topics, injury prevention and a few basics on how to assess your body’s dynamic movements. Not the most exciting topic in the world, however important none the less. In this article we’re going to begin diving into some interesting studies, and some of the scientific training principles that will be incorporated into the 4 WEEK training routine that we will be providing you in the coming articles.

Over the years there has been far too much miscalculated information and bro-science floating around.  Still to this day I cringe when I see people trying to emulate “bulking” and “cutting” programs they see online, as if the human body has such a black and white or binary method of operating. The human body is so much deeper than what most of us could possibly understand, and even still, the science of human performance is still considered in its early stages.  Although bio-mechanics and training science can be daunting when you dive into it, the topic is far easier to understand than the contradicting and variable information associated with nutritional sciences.  Ensure that you do your due diligence to learn about nutrition, but in this article we will focus on physical training.

Resistance Training Principles:

• 1. GIANT SETS: Back in 2002 Dr. Schuenke conducted a study with the Journal of Applied Physiology on raising your body’s metabolism with giant sets, when 4 exercises are performed consecutively WITHOUT rest (For example: starting with 2-3 dynamic exercises such as a squat, vertical jump or lunge, and finishing with seated calf raise or leg extensions). A grueling style of training, however proven to skyrocket your body’s metabolism for not only 1 day, but 2 days after training in trained individuals, making this a fantastic method to incorporate when shredding.

• 2. PROTEIN SYNTHESIS TRAINING: One of the most common mistakes people make is going into the gym and “KILLING IT BRO!”, because there's no faster way to slow your growth than being sore and not being able to train a muscle for 5-7 days.Our bodies will only synthesize protein for the trained muscle for up to 16-36+ hours at most…and 36 is still lucky. This means that in this program that we’ll be sharing with you, the frequency at which a muscle group will be trained will me much higher than what you may be accustomed too, however the volume will be significantly less in order to recover for the next session. A study performed in 2008 by the American Journal of Physiology found that in TRAINED INDIVIDUALS, protein synthesis peaked at approximately 4 hours post exercise, then quickly lowered at a steady pace for 16 hours post exercise, then continued synthesizing protein, but at a low level for up to 30 hours. For UN-TRAINED INDIVIDUALS, the numbers are much better for you!  Protein synthesis for untrained individuals consistently rose until it peaked at the 16 hour mark, lowered afterwards, but still stayed far higher than the trained individual. This is basically “newbie gains”. When the body is so shocked by a new stimulus, it will always react differently than someone who experiences that stimulus often.This also confirms how important it is for highly trained individuals to take de-load weeks periodically every few months in order to temporarily de-adapt from the stimulus they’ve become accustomed too.

• 3.ECCENTRIC FOCUS: The eccentric phase of a rep is when your muscle is lengthening, or stretching. For example, lowering the bar to your chest during a chest press. During the eccentric phase, your muscle is stretching, and creating micro-tears in the fiber. Although a higher percentage of muscle fiber is actually used in the concentric, the phase in which you are contracting the muscle, you have greater muscle damage during the eccentric. With that, you need to gauge your recovery better too though. You may not feel as sore, but that doesn’t mean the muscle isn’t just as damaged if not more. This means we can usually get away with less volume, and still get a great effect.Another key benefit of eccentric reps, is that we are actually 150% stronger during the eccentric phase. Often times you will see some of the best bodybuilders heave up a heavy bicep curl (for example), and the form looks sloppy…BUT, once the weight is up, the form becomes strict as they slowly control the bar back down to an elbow extended/straight arm position. Another great way to incorporate eccentric reps into your routine is with a training partner. Take a bicep preacher curl for example. Choose a weight usually slightly too heavy for you to accomplish, have your spotter give you a little assistance to get the weight up, then it’s all you for the way down, repeat. As long as you have no imbalances or tight spots, focusing on more eccentric work can make your connective tissue stronger, increase size, flexibility, and strength.

In the next article, we'll break down certain types of cardio, which ones will work best, and how we can incorporate that into a routine!

Team RIVALUS