That Workout Guy

He following is a compilation of posts I made on Marunde-Muscle in a thread on preventing bicep tears.

IN RESPONSE TO A POST ASKING WHY ATHLETES SHOULD CARE ABOUT LONGEVITY AND THE "THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS OVERTRAINING" MINDSET: Longevity is important. You didn't hit an 800lb deadlift overnight did you? It took years. And you have many more good years in you. A person can only get stronger so fast. Even if everything is 100%. For example: At this point your deadlfit form is great and your weakpoints are all built up. There isnt a quick fix that is going to add 100 lbs to your dead overnight like bringing up lagging hamstrings or learning to drive better with your legs. At this point its about toiling away and getting a little stronger week to week, month to month and year to year. If you have no longevity how is this supposed to happen?

When the bulgarian coach says this he is talking about a program that regulates volume intensity and frequency perfectly and has been perfected over years and years to develop champion wheightlifters as fast as possible. In this scenario if you can't hang your done. However, where is this "proper program" in strongman? The bulgarians have created the program by whittling away all the non essentials and settling on 4 lifts for the most part. That way they can practice the most relevant exercises as often as possible without overtraining. Also, lets not forget that olympic lifiting only has an eccentric phase on the squats and they almost never "grind" out a lift. When technique is that important to the sucess of a lift it makes sense to practice the living hell out of it. If you read some of the russian manuals that have been translated you see the volume built up and then as the contest draws near they back way off so their strength can catch up to their technique. Oly lifting is based around very standardised equipment on a standardized surface with very few variables. However, as you know, strongman has many variables and with the differences in equipment from contest to contest you could be facing it makes more sense to give up a little technique for brute strength. Take tire flip for example: you could drill your technique all day long on your tire till your flipping it like a cheerio then you show up at a contest and the tire has no grip, sits lower, cant get your fingers under it. Youre screwed...any one remember vegas nat's? I know I do. I trained my tire into the ground and got my technique down pat then didn't even finish the course when it counted!

If there was no such thing as overtraining we should be able to go to the gym and pull a max deadlift everyday and make gains right? I mean if it's a max pull you know you've crossed the intensity threshold needed to stimulate a strength gain so at the very least you shouldn't be any weaker right? However, we all know this isn't how it works.

I think we can all agree that in order for the tendon or muscle to tear the force of the contraction has to be greater than the tensile strength of the tendon or the tissue that gave. Right?

So if the exercise at that particular weight didn't cause a tear in the past something must have changed. Right? What could have changed?

1. The mechanical position during the lift? Maybe the stars didn't line up and this time was just not your lucky day. Complete prevention of this may not be possible but focusing on a consistent, reproducable technique will definitely help.

2. The athlete increased the muscles contractile ability without a concurrent increase in tendon strength? Probably the hardest to prevent since the athlete is constantly trying to improve muscle contraction ability and has no way to determine whether or not tendon capability is keeping pace. We know the human body will deal with stress by remodeling all the tissues to accomodate it but with poorer blood supply to the tendons than the muscles they have a harder time keeping pace especially with any kind of performance enhancing supplements involved. Keeping training frequency of bicep heavy events down should give the tendon a little extra time to play catch up.

3. The athlete was unconditioned to the movement? The athlete has trained the movement in the past so knows how to generate full force into the impliment but may not be conditioned to it since they haven't done it in a while and they jump right into the weights and frequency they used to use. It's like a marathoner thats kept their heart in shape using cardio equipment all winter then goes out and runs 10 miles on the street their first workout of the summer and wonders why they all of a sudden have plantar faciaitis. Prevention for this one is easy. Give yourself plenty of time to break back into the movement and slowly increase back to your old weights and/or frequency and volume.

4. The tendon or other tissues got weaker? The body will heal and strengthen tissues under stress so the tendon and muscle tissues should be getting stronger. But they are tearing. In this case it is becasue repeated stress is building up adhesions, scar tissue, tendon fraying or whatever. Like I said before if swinging an 8oz racket can cause tennis elbow what can dumbell curls, tire flips, rows, chins, axle deads, axle cleans, log cleans, stone, sandbags etc do to the tendons when they are practiced with 100's of pounds. Even if they are submaximal efforts were still talking about 1,000x the weight of an 8oz racket.

Thinking logically about all this we know strongmen are most likely conditioned to the lifts because most are trained often. We know most strongmen with any time in the game have found a pretty decent solid, reproducable technique. Genetics may play a part but unless it was the first attempt on a weight or impliment when the injury occured we know that they werent born with a tendon too weak to lift it since they have before. Also, lets not forget being genetically predisposed to something doesnt make it unavoidable. This leaves us with the most likely suspect: too much wear and tear without enough time to heal. Even if we can't agree 100% on the amount of training that constitutes overwork and that injuries are at least somewhat preventable I think theres no denying that in this hypothetical case the athlete flipped the tire one too many times! So if that was the case and it was the 999th flip that was destined to cause the tear if they had kept their volume down a bit they could have at least prolonged it.

IN RESPONCE TO SOMEONE ASKING HOW I WOULD RECOMMEND SCHEDULING BICEP HEAVY EVENTS. Without writing a 3 page essay that I'm sure will get ripped apart anyway... heres my simple answer (without knowing all the details of your training): Lets say you had a contest coming up in 15 weeks with 900lb yoke for 30m, 350 farmers for max distance. 900lb tire flip for 30m, 300lb log clean and press for reps and 300-400 5 stone series in it. This is also assuming you are pushing your frontsquat, clean, deadlift and pushpress numbers as your strength base and coming back from a bicep surgery after being cleared 100% by doc. I would recommend a 3 week rotation starting light and ramping up the event weights weekly. You would still be rotating max effort exercises for your squat, dead and press so you're not really doing linear periodization (just with the events). Starting light and working your way up allows you to recondition yourself to them and still be devoting time to your max effort work so you are getting stronger as the show approaches. At the same time you are working on only one all out set of the events because thats what a strongman contest is. Right? So why train events for multiple sets of sub maximal efforts once you've gotten proficient at them? Obviously you would do a warm up set or 2 or 3 on each event where you work on speed and technique. Then you finish with one all out set of that event. This is also assuming the contest weights are all submaximal for you.

Week 1 log clean and press for reps 220xmax reps. Yoke 700x30m,
Week 2 Tire 3 sets of 3 reps just getting the feel again. Farmers 250xmax distance.
Week 3 stones 180 to 220 stone 1 set max reps from lap to chest or shoulder. yoke 750x30m.
Week 4 log clean and press for reps 240xmax reps, Farmers 270xmax distance.
Week 5 Tire 6 sets 3 reps 30 sec rest, Farmers 270xmax distance 2 sets. Yoke 800x30m.
Week 6 stones 240 to 260xmax reps floor to chest or shoulder. Farmers 290x max dist.
Week 7 log clean and press for reps 260xmax reps. Yoke 850x30m.
Week 8 Tire 3 sets of 5 reps (1st set take time work tech, 2nd med, last set fast). Farmers 310xmax distance.
Week 9 stones 5 stone series 200-300ish. Yoke 900x30m.
Week 10 log clean and press for reps 280xmax reps. Farmers 330x max dist.
Week 11 Tire contest weight 10 flips all out for time. Yoke 700x30m.
Week 12 stones 5 stone series 250-350ish, Farmers 250x200ft.
Week 13 Hit Pr's on say Front Squat, Powerclean, Axle Jerk from Rack.
Week 14 oly lifts at 80% and some conditioning like prowler push light 10 sets of 100ft sprints with 30 sec rest.
Week 15 Oly lifts at 50% if you are the type of guy that just can't bring themselves to rest completely

Remember also that the log clean will strengthen your biceps and hip pop for tire, your tire will strengthen your hip pop, grip and biceps for stones and stones will work your biceps and triple extension for log. So why would you need to work on all 3 each week? Now if you were just starting out or werent strong enough to handle the top weights it would be one thing but you are already extremely proficient at all those events so how much extra work do you really need on them? You need to get stronger, more explosive and stay injury free so you can keep doing the work that makes you stronger and more explosive. Also, a word on volume: If you are always too tired from your training to make some type of a gain, whether its a rep pr or speed or weight, how will you magically be 100lbs stronger in a year?
What do you think?

PS as far as the high rep bicep work for tendon health. I'm not sure I buy that 8-15 or even 100 reps causes a thickening of the tendon tissue. It may promote blood flow and healing but tendon remodeling takes a much longer time than your typical 8 week cycle of training. I would be willing to bet that heavy loads on the tendons for years causes the type of remodeling needed to strengthen tendons (think SAID principle). I can't see the imposed demands of 60lb dumbell curls for high reps causing a need for tendon thickness more so than 900lb tire flips. The trick is stressing the tendon often enough to create the need and allowing the thickening to occur without breaking the tendon down too much during the process.

This past weekend I competed in Arizona's strongest man contest. I was in the 231lb amateur division and ended up placing 3rd out of 17. It was a lot of fun especially watching the pro class move some absolutely ridiculous weights! I get asked all the time why I do it and I always respond "It's my golf". Some people like going out and chasing a little white ball around for a few hours on a nice sunny day. Some of us have a different idea of fun;) Of course then I get the perverbial "When will I see you on ESPN?" or "How much money do you get?". HAHAHAHA! Thats like me asking the local duffer when he's going to go head to head with Tiger! It's a hobby just like golf is to most people. I've spent way more money on training impliments and contest fees than some actual pros will ever earn and the only way you'll see me on tv is if you come over my house after a contest when I'm reviewing the video my daughter shot on my big screen lol! However, you will see me with a big smile on my face when I hit a personal best on an event. Just  like a golfer who's hit a "hole in one". Just like the golfer whos out playing with his buddies and working on his game, we're outside flipping tires down the street and pushing cars. Golfers have their "club tournaments" just like we have amateur shows and neither of us have to win money or be on tv to feel fullfilled. Sometimes winning an event (or hole) and heading home with a 3rd place trophy is just icing on the cake!

Pyramid training is as old as the hills and has been written about in all the major muscle magazines since the dawn of ironman. Basically you do your first set of an exercise light for a lot of reps then increase weight each set and decrease reps until you end up somewhere around your max for the day. For example: Set 1: 45lbs(empty bar)x15. Set 2: 95x10. Set 3: 135x8. Set 4: 185x6. Set 5: 225x4. Set 6: 275x2. Set 7: 300x1. This is a good basic way to train for beginners and intermediates. It allows practice with the lighter weights, plenty of warming up and a good solid heavy weight at the end. The pyramid system has been criticized as crossing too many intensity zones and it has been suggested that staying within 10% of your targeted intensity zone will yeild better results. Depending on what your goals are this may or may not be true.

If your goal is to get as maximally strong as possible it may be smarter not to waste too much time on your warm up sets and focus more on weights 85% or closer to your max. If you are focusing on speed it may be better to do multiple sets with 50-60% of your max explosively. However, if you are trying to get a solid combination of size and strength this is a great system. Lets take a look at 2 ways it can be used:

1. Traditional way: Add a couple pounds to the max set at the end and plan your weights on the way up accordingly using the original example (45x15 95x10 135x8 185x6 225x4 275x2 300x1) as workout one the next workout would be planned with 305 or 310 as the top set and would look something like this: 45x15 95x10 135x8 185x6 225x4 275x2 305x1.

2. Building the base. Now what if you've been training a while and 300 may or may not fall on a good day. What if you miss 305 continually? Well you could narrow the base so you would have more strength left over for your top set and maybe you would hit 305 and 310 maybe even 315. Something like this: 45x10 95x5 135x3 185x2 225x1 275x1 305x1 easy! Next workout repeat and hit 310 then the next repeat and hit 315! After a few workouts you will stall. Now what? Now we go back and start building the base. workout number 1 may be 45x15 95x12 135x10 185x8 225x6 275x3 300x1 see how we added just alittle bit of work to the sets on the way up and ended at our old max of 300? Next workout would be 45x20 95x15 135x10 185x8 225x6 275x4 300x1. Were still keeping the top set at 300 but slowly increasing the work we are doing before it. This can be done because none of those sets were an all out effort to begin with. Next workout would be 45x20 95x15 135x12 185x10 225x8 275x4 300x1. The next may be 45x20 95x15 135x12 185x10 225x8 275x5 300x2. The next may be 45x20 95x15 135x12 185x10 225x8 275x6 300x3. Then the inevitable comes and you miss 275 on the way up because the last workout took too much out of you and you didn't heal and come back stronger. It looks like this: 45x20 95x15 135x12 185x10 225x8 275x4 and failed on the 5th one. So you end it there and come back a week later and narrow the base up like this: 45x10 95x5 135x5 185x5 225x5 275x5 300x4-and you PR with 300x4 because now you aren't burned out from the earlier sets. The next workout you go 45x10 95x5 135x5 185x5 225x3 275x3 300x5-and PR again on 300 for reps because you further narrowed your base. The next workout you could come back and do 45x10 95x5 135x5 185x3 225x2 275x1 300x1 325x1 for a new max PR! Next time you come back and do 45x10 95x5 135x5 185x3 225x2 275x1 300x1 330x1 another PR! Maybe you could hit one or 2 more weeks with a new max if you are lucky. Let say your final max looks like this: 45x10 95x5 135x3 185x2 225x1 275x1 315x1 340x1 and you know for sure you wont hit another max next week. You just start back wideing the base with 315 as the new top. This method works great for beginners and intermediates that aren't real close to their potential. It also works good for advanced guys as long as they are careful not too push too hard and get overtrained. The added bonus is if you pay attention and keep accurate notes you will learn a lot about how your body responds to various rep schemes and how long your strength cycles should last when considering future workouts.

These days most of the people I train are into “fitness” versus the old days when everyone wanted to be jacked! I think it’s the same the world over judging by how many ellipticals you see in most gyms and  how many power racks you do not. I guess it makes sense most people don’t care about being strong they just wanna look good naked! So if everyones into fitness why do we need heavy weights? Well if your absolute strength increases you can use more weight on your fitness exercises. “So? I don’t care about moving weight, I just wanna look toned and burn calories” you say? Well check this out: Lets look at it using basic physics: If your max squat is 400 lbs you will be able to do your reps with 300 lbs no problem. 300lbs x10 reps x3sets=9,000 lbs of work. Now if your max squat is only 200 and you are doing your sets with 150lbs x10reps x3 sets=4,500lbs of work. Leaving out all the other variables and benefits of being stronger and concentrating merely on the work performed. Which is going to burn more calories? 9,000lbs of work or 4,500???????? Using one of my favorite crcuits as an example lets compare 2 athletes Jason and Jim. Jason is a powerlifter who watches his diet and stays very lean at about 220. Jim is a tri-athlete who also lifts weights and weighs about 175. They both carry about the same amount of bodyfat (around zero-lol) but Jim spends about 3 times the amount of time working out as jason. They both eat a very similar diet, their calories almost identical. How is this possible? Jasons muscle mass burns much more calories at rest than Jim and when they train cardio Jason’s body is burning more calories than Jims because it takes more calories to move a bigger body through space. Also, they both train conditioning with the following circuit:

Kettlebell thruster, Kettlebell Swing, Pushups with weight, pullups 5 rounds of 10 reps each.

Jim’s Weights: 25x10 50x10 200x10 175x10=22,500 lbs of work in 5 rounds.

Jason’s Weights: 50x10 96x10 265x10 220x10=31,550 lbs of work in 5rounds.

I hope this simple math convinces you of the need to increase your limit strength. Jim sees the need and is constantly trying to improve his limit strength as well. Conversely, Jason is always trying to improve his conditioning. Even though they are on extreme ends of the spectrum in relation to their athletic goals neither will overlook the importance of being well rounded physically.

It seems lately people like simple. I've gotten a lot of questions about some of the "simpler plans" out there. Here is a simple plan that I have had clients do that have trouble following anything too complex....

Monday
Bench
Curl

Tuesday
Squat
Glute/ham (if you dont have a glute/ham buy one-lol or do leg curls)

Thursday
Pushpress
Tris

Friday
Bent Over Row
calf

Week 1
Main exercise 5 sets of 5 with same weight
Second exercise 2 sets of 20

Week 2
Main exercise 3 sets of 3 with same weight
Second exercise 2 sets of 15

Week 3
Main exercise work up to a top set of 5 with the weight you did 3x3 with
Second exercise 2 sets of 12

Week 4
Main exercise work up to your max triple
second exercise 2 sets of 20 with the weight you did 2 sets of 15 with in week 2

Week 5
Main exercise 3 sets of 5 with the weight you did 1 set of 5 with in week 3
Second exercise 2 sets of 15 with the weight you did 12 with in week 3

Week 6
Main exercise 3 sets of 3 with the weight you did for max triple in week 4
Second exercise 2 sets of 12 with roughly 5% more weight than you did in week 3

Week 7
Main exercise work up to your best set of 5 ever
Second exercise 1 set of 20 with the weight you did 15 with in week 5

Week 8
Main exercise work up to your best triple ever
Second exercise 1 set of 15 with the weight you did 12 with in week 6

Week 9
Main exercise warm up then do one all out set of max reps with weight from week 1
Second exercise 1 all out set of max reps with weight from week 3

Week 10
Do some light pumping stuff and walk around with a big smile on your face because you are stronger than ever and prepared to kill your next routine!

Seriously though, if you try it and have any questions let me know. I wish you luck with your training.

-Mike

If you travel a lot and find yourself missing workouts take the gym with you!

I get this question a lot! Everyone reads the muscle mags and is bombarded with bodypart splits. Chest and tris, back and bis, legs, shoulders and traps etc... It sepends greatly on your strength level, recovery ability and intensity. For example a 50 year old guy who is benching 500lbs isnt going to be able to max out 3 times a week and recover enough to continually go up. Conversely, making a 16 year old kid who just started working out wait a full 7 days before bench pressing 50 lbs isn't going to let him progress as fast as possible either. Training should be structured in such a way that you hit each movement as often as it is possible to continually progress. That may be the whole body every other day for a rank beginner or not repeating a movement for 3 weeks for a master of the universe......