IOL Strength and Conditioning

If you’ve been around the Iron Game for any length of time, you’ve come to realize that there are many different theories regarding training and just as many approaches spawned by these theories. In recent years, high intensity training has become a very popular way of training. It has seen its share of use and abuse in the Iron Game…here’s an “average” lifter’s thoughts on the subject.

This style of training can rapidly increase the trainee’s strength and supposedly, his muscular hypertrophy will keep pace with the strength. In an ideal world…this happens. It tain’t so in the real world. Muscular hypertrophy requires two things (I’m greatly simplifying things here) fiber thickening and capillary perfusion. High intensity training – where you push to momentary muscular failure in a limited amounts of sets – allows for fiber thickening but doesn’t really have enough volume to stimulate capillary perfusion. So the strength can outrun the muscle size.

If this weren’t true…Olympic weightlifters would have huge muscles like bodybuilders and by extension, bodybuilders would be world class strength athletes. Again, tain’t so.

This style of training is also said to be safe – and the statement often used is that “the harder it seems, the easier it is.” Also, it has been said that “the first rep is the most dangerous rep.” The theory here (using curls as an example) is that if you’re curling 100 pounds, the first reps are accomplished quickly…because you’re producing in excess of 100 pounds of force. So they are the most dangerous, since you’re producing excessive force and subjecting the muscles, tendons and attachments to a greater force. As the set progresses, the reps slow down and you produce less force each time until movement isn’t possible…or you produce less than 100 pounds force. So your final rep (where you produce less than 100 pounds force) is actually safer and easier than your first. Sounds logical, eh?

Well, it is logical…but it’s not necessarily correct. Injury won’t usually occur in the primary muscle mover being stressed (the biceps and brachialis) but in the smaller, supporting muscles that tire even quicker.

This style of training requires a constant emphasis on progression…usually in the form of more reps and/or more weight. Progression should be fairly linear for a short time, then stall. At this point, you rest, recover and start gaining again. This is true for the most part…after all, isn’t one of the names applied to weight training “progressive resistance training?”

The problem here is that the relentless pursuit of progression often leads to poor form, with resultant soft tissue injury. The trainee pushes the poundage or the reps before they have actually mastered the previous poundage and gets sloppy. Injury usually isn’t far away.

If the trainee will strive to maintain scrupulously good form, using muscle power and not momentum, to move the weight…if the trainee will forestall progression until they have dominated a particular weight with good form…and if they will occasionally train lighter using more volume…then high intensity training should be a safe and productive form of training for them.

For a short time, anyway. We’ll leave the discussion regarding failure and central nervous system issues for another time.

Regarding poundage goals…there is an author that recommends trying to meet the following goals:

Three hundred pounds in the bench press, four hundred pounds in the full squat and five hundred pounds in the conventional, bent leg deadlift. As laudatory as these goals are, they aren’t very practical for quite a few of us. In fact, I disagree with them.

Granted, you will certainly be strong if you achieve these goals and you may develop a fairly husky, if not muscular physique – but striving for these goals doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be built like a physique competitor through their achievement or pursuit. Contrary, you may end up injured and with a thoroughly sour attitude toward training. (This author injured himself in doing 400×20 in the deadlift. It was quite a while before he recovered and was able to train effectively again.)

I found it interesting that the late Arthur Jones had this to say about squatting and effort:

“In performing power lifts, the danger comes from another source – from prolonged exposure to a force that may be more than the skeleton is capable of supporting, regardless of the strength of the muscles involved. At the moment of this writing, at least a few individuals are squatting with over 800 pounds – and since most of these men weigh at least 300 pounds, this means that they are actually supporting over 1,100 pounds on their feet, and most of that amount on their spines. In the author’s opinion, the human skeleton simply was not designed to support such loads for prolonged periods of time; for any purpose except power lifting competition, all of the benefits that can be provided by squats can be derived without using more than 400 pounds, and in most cases without using more than 300 pounds.” (bold emphasis mine) (From the Nautilus Training Bulletin Number 1)
I’ve moderated my goals to a more obtainable standard, 200, 225-250 and 300 in the three lifts mentioned. By doing this, I hope to preserve my joint integrity and avoid soft tissue injury. I’ll still train intensely but that will be achieved through other gambits, such as decreasing rest times between sets and cumulative fatigue training. Sometimes you just have to reconcile with your existence…and train so as to not hinder your enjoyment of life, which catastrophic injury or overuse injury would certainly do.

Over and out.

I don’t have to tell you my favorite part of the day is a morning cup of Leo’s java and an hour clicking around our forum for a visit with my great friends there. Still, for those who haven’t been around since the beginning and don’t know the players, sometimes it’s a little daunting to jump right in. Who’s who, and do they really know what they’re talking about? Is that guy joking or is this a serious argument? Once in a while it’s hard to tell, especially for newcomers.

So how about a sweet little intro to show you around? These are a few of the notable threads from August.

In the Main Flight Deck:

• Let’s begin with our memory thread of Arthur Jones, who, as you already know, died yesterday. Perhaps you have a memory of your own, something he wrote that triggered your training evolution back in the ’70s? Give us the scoop!

• Do you wake up with a numb arm sometimes? What’s causing that and how do you fix it? Michelle gets us going here in “Nighttime Numbness.”

• Farmer’s Walks — what’s not to like? Who’s doing what, and how; we’ll find out in this thread started by Tim Tyler of tylergrip.com.

• Up next: Quitting Smoking. Time for you to get onboard? Here’s some encouragement you can print out and tape to your carton of cigs. Getcha goin’.

• Kyle invites the Southern California locals to join him in this year’s Volkslauf October 13th. It’s an obstacle loop, either a 10k or a 5k; he knows the course from last year and has a training plan to get you in shape for the event. Ya got 6 weeks, go for it!

• We talked about this last week, still it’s a notable thread going strong. Whether you’re interested in fasting or not, the discussion is intriguing: Intermittent Fasting.

• Boris’ Squat RX instruction videos again topped the charts, and I’d be remiss to slide past this one, even though this, too, was pointed out earlier this month.

In the Bodybuilding Hangar:

• Well, heck, let’s tackle the toughest one first: Is Bodybuilding Healthy? If not, and we’re aging yet in it for the long haul, what can we change to be strong all the way into our longevity?

• Mark would like to know about squat depth, in particular how far past parallel should he go when doing a 20-rep squat program. Once he gets the answer, he then needs to know how exactly to get there.

In the Training Logs Forum:

Now here in the training log section, I couldn’t begin to select a few favored links for you. Some of the logs have been going strong since we brought the email discussion group over to the forum board back in spring of 2004. Other people started a new log each January, or when changing training focus for a variety of reasons. What began as an exercise in accountability became, I think for nearly everyone, a private place for group camaraderie. This is where individual attention is given when times are tough, PRs are abundant — or sparse — and consistency in training is paramount.

Pick a few training logs to read through; you’re sure to find one you can either learn from or contribute to, and perhaps you’ll get the bug to start a report of your own. You’re welcome here.

In the IOL APO/FPO Military Barracks:

• Over in the APO/FPO Barracks forum we’re happy to welcome a couple of Afghanistan-based troops to our military support space. From his plastic tent, Sgt. Clifton expands on his questions of diet and exercise; we welcome your Q&A assistance, our way of supporting these guys and gals (actually, so far it’s just gal, our Army Mom, who’s on her way home to the kids in slightly less than a month).

In the Kettlebell Training Forum:

• In the kettlebell forum, Stella, a veteran gymrat new to kettlebell training, requests our favorite kettlebell workouts in a thread that ranges from a simple swings ladder to a Tabata-style kettlebell snatch workout on video.

In the Vince Gironda Wild Physique Forum:

• Jack triggers a hearty discussion in, “Gironda Bench Press to Neck,” wherein, as you might expect, not too many are in favor of the exercise. The discussion, however, is illuminating, as was the rest of the study of Vince Gironda and his Wild Physique.

And now, I bid you adieu. Dave is finished with his part of the newsletter, so I’m up to bat in the clean-up position. There are countless more terrific threads in the forum, so many in fact, I think I’ll dig you out more treasures next month.

There’s a growing army of people who fast during the day, or part of the day, depending on their goals and personal circumstances. Calorie restriction and fasting are thought to contribute to wellness and longevity, weight loss, beneficial blood lipids, decreased inflammatory markers, diabetes control, arthritis, possibly even lowered incidence of deadly illnesses like cancer. Short-term, intermittent fasting is a simple, almost enjoyable way to achieve this.

I thought fasting was done for spiritual purposes, or, honestly, something the outer wing of wellness seekers did for a sort of beyond-reasonable self-denial. I’m all for self-discipline and its practice, wish I were even better at it, but consideration of muscle wasting or even accidental anorexia caused a nearly automatic mental shutdown when the topic of fasting arose.

Today I’m solidly in the opposite camp: It sounds more radical than it is. From the physical and mental point of view, there’s something to emptying the stomach and the associated blood chemistry changes, and from what we’ve been able to find, muscle wasting simply doesn’t happen under short, intermittent fasts. Just another entry in the “tall gym tales” book, apparently.

While I’m only today finishing week two of a limited version of daytime fasting, beginning by extending the overnight fast from about 10 hours to 15, the report so far is extremely positive. I feel terrific, energetic, clear-thinking and absolutely enjoy the lighter feeling of an empty stomach. The weight loss has slipped into place, even just a little, at about a pound-and-a-half, but it’s notable since the past two months at 1,350 daily calories really made no budge in the scale weight.

Not yet prepared to file a report, but since Dave wrote about it this week left me needing an overview spot to drop you off, I’ll recap a bit from our recent forum thread, and leave you with a link to the wiki page where you’ll find material for your own research.

About the idea dieters will burn off muscle tissue by fasting, Byron Chandler helps us get over some issues:

“If you are ever going to lose any fat, you’re going to have to burn some stored energy! So you have to get over the muscle mag mentality that running off stored energy is a bad thing because you’ll burn muscle. Also, you have to believe that what muscle gets used for energy is rapidly replenished; it is only a very temporary loss. I have spoken to a fair number of people and really there just doesn’t seem to be a problem losing muscle when eating this way. I personally am convinced that burning stored energy sources is a good thing. I think it will lower blood sugar (even on the non-fasting regular-diet days), improve insulin sensitivity, lower triglycerides, lower LDL and improve HDL, and burn bodyfat. This to me says that fasting would improve the use of fat as an energy source, improve insulin sensitivity, and prevent spare protein from gluconeogenisis, which would all be good.”

To the question of improved cholesterol blood lipids, he goes on to explain:

“Crude version of cholesterol metabolism: You make LDL out of excess calories. You make HDL to bring the LDL back to the liver and use it. This is normally a slow process, takes like maybe five DAYS. Probably because if you’re already feeding your face, your body never really needs to get around to burning off LDL — it is never a priority. LDL is associated with feast and rest; HDL is associated with work and fast. If you make yourself hungry, your body will get after that LDL, make some HDL and burn it.”

More links and further information (scroll down a bit for the new stuff; the wiki page was written for those who hadn’t necessarily seen this blog post): Intermittent Fasting

We last talked about diet in this post on logging daily food intake, July 19th, approximately a month into my own food journaling. From June 21 to August 8, the resulting Fitday journal reports an average calorie intake of 1,336; the scale tells a tale of a single pound lost. Average daily maintenance caloric burn of this 137-pound bod, based on several 45-minute weight workouts a week plus several additional 30-minute cardio sessions, is in the neighborhood of 1,350 calories. There’s nothing fancy about it, just simple recordkeeping and my imbecile-level math.

Now, you may already know this, but perhaps you don’t: There isn’t a lot of margin in a 1,300-calorie diet. Which is to say, it’s easy to add a daily Starbucks latte and gain a few pounds a year — even a nonfat brew will do it. And it’s absolutely certain our limited margins decrease with age. We don’t like it; it’s not fair. But it’s still fact. And we get to live with it one way or another. Those lattes better get alternated with black coffee… no kidding around.

Hence, I’m entering month three and downshifting to 1,100 calories a day. In this range, food choices are more important because it gets harder to meet our daily nutrition needs; perhaps barely possible at all, so if you’re with me on this, let’s ensure necessary nutrients by using a top-quality vitamin-mineral, such as our favorite time-released Super Spectrim vitamins.

Another thing the logging highlighted: macronutrient balance. I was shooting for something in the neighborhood of thirds, fats, carbs and protein. What I got was 37% fat, 36% carbs and 26% protein. Fairly close for shooting from the hip, but still, the carbs are a little high and the protein a little low. More care in food choices is needed, especially given the new, lower-calorie intake.

Now, as long as we’re talking, let me blurt out something you don’t want to hear: I suspect most of us underestimate how much we’re eating. In fact, I’ll never forget when Len Kravitz told me how many calories were in the ribeye steaks regularly found on the Draper dinner table (a day’s calories in a single hunk of meat)… thought I was going to explode.

It is absolutely true that 20 or even 10 years ago, I ate close to double what I eat now, and that at a pretty stable bodyweight. That’s probably also true for you, and leads me to think of energy output… we’re less active as we age, or at least I am, and you probably are, too.

But still, there’s no way to out-run or out-walk or out-train a sloppy diet.

Another thing many forget: It’s how many calories in vs energy out over the course of a week or month, not just a few hours or a day. That is, if we have a perfect eating day, then splurge just a little every second or third day, has our total jumped to over maintenance levels for the week? Over the long term, perhaps that represents the two or three pounds that are padding and re-padding our thighs year after year.

Something else that will probably get me in trouble around here, but I have to say it anyway. Folks, we’re underestimating our bodyfat levels, and we’re underestimating how many calories we burn exercising.

Partly we’ve been sold a bill of goods (yes, I know the LifeCycle read-out clocked you at burning 400 calories over your 20-minute hillclimb, but it just didn’t happen — if it had, we wouldn’t be in the diet-weary mess we’re in); and secondly, we don’t want to believe we’re really 40-percent bodyfat.

But a whole lot of us are.

Look at this: I’m 5’3”. A supremely muscular woman at 5’3” with 16% bodyfat may weigh, what? 140? 150, tops? (I mean really, really muscular; that’s what supreme means.) So when I’m weighing 135 — or, as I was, even inching my way to 138 — could I still be 25% bodyfat?

No. No, I couldn’t. And most likely neither can you.

Finally, we’re in this for the long term. The quick-acting diets that worked for us in our younger years are not going to work for us now. The metabolism gets slower and weaker with age, yet at the same time more sensitive when we mess with it.

Why here’s an example of a complete mess up: Extreme Diet Thread.

Actually, now that I’ve taken another look at that 2004 thread, it appears I was practically at the forefront of Calorie Restriction with Adequate Nutrition (CRAN), a new fad in today’s high-science diet world.

I wish I had some magic, oh, very yes, I do.

At this time this was originally written, most likely 1975, The Wild Physique, and even somewhat during its re-publication as Unleashing the Wild Physique in 1984, this work was splendid, miles ahead of much of the other publications of the time.

Today, however, we’re quite spoiled by excellent writing skills used to explained things not known or even guessed at during Gironda’s most influential time. This makes a review of The Wild Physique pretty difficult. Would I recommend it to a musclebuilder, a guy or gal looking for training information to propel him or her into intermediate status? No, probably not, but only because there are better choices today.

Was it fabulous in its time? Yes, it absolutely was, and readers with a love of bodybuilding’s formative years should definitely add Gironda’s book to their musclebuilding bookcase.

As for the reading of it, Vince jumps around a lot, almost like it was dictated and transcribed, rather than outlined and carefully edited. If you read it in that light, open to the changes in subject matter, you’ll find plenty of one-liner gems buried in the rough. Unfortunately, in the midst of the jumping around, most topics are introduced, but not covered well. For instance, the topic of fasting covers a hefty three paragraphs.

There were plenty of intriguing tidbits, many of which may be new to most readers; none were developed or explained, making the read somewhat frustrating in that regard. Most topics were given about two to four paragraphs, start to finish.

I noted Vince’s press machine and some of his bars were thicker than average. He doesn’t discuss this in the book, but clearly he thought them best. As do we; here’s a link to our favorite thick bar cable handles.

What took me by surprise more than anything, as it did others in the IOL forum who reviewed the book recently, was how open Vince was to new ideas, and that he tried other writers’ and coaches’ techniques. I had the impression he was uninterested in what others thought or were trying at the time, and that impression was apparently wrong. To quote, “By now you should be aware of my belief that rules, even ‘my’ rules, are made to be challenged, questioned, changed or even broken. There is no absolute right or wrong way to work out.”

And don’t forget this Gironda career-maker, “Always push your tempo from one week to the next.”

In the 28 chapters, 189 pages of printed material, at least half of which consists of photos, Vince’s book discusses the following topics:

• His gym and his philosophy of bodybuilding
• Getting started in bodybuilding, intensity of training
• The workouts: Exercises and set & rep routines, including high reps, low reps, 8×8
• Instinctive training and flexibility in training, also pushing through plateaus
• Metabolism: fast, slow, “hard gainers”
• Optimal eating, menus, macronutrients
• Food supplementation, positive nitrogen balance
• Bodypart training and exercise selection
• Women and bodybuilding
• Posing for competition
• Genetics, limitations and blessings, and creating an illusion
• His stance against steroids
• The aging bodybuilder
• His trainees: Larry Scott, Mohamed Makkawy and his Hollywood clientele

The book review forum took on a life of its own, many of the topics covering Vince, the man, and his other writings, articles and pamphlets. You’ll find hours of Gironda reading here in our Vince Gironda forum.

If you’re like most iron flingers, you’re impressed by a set of large, muscular arms. C’mon, admit it…nothing catches your eye more than a fully fleshed pair of arms protruding from short sleeves. There’s just something about a set of muscular arms that says the owner is a serious trainer. Even from childhood, when asked to show our “muscle,” we don’t do a twisting back shot or a crab/trap shot…we flex our biceps.

If this is the way you feel about arms, here’s a routine that just may help you obtain them. First, some background information:

Most people “overwork” their arms. By this I mean that they do too much, too often to allow good recovery and muscle growth. The triceps and especially the biceps, are relatively small muscle groups and don’t need a lot of stimulation to grow. Doing a full body routine that includes many movements that are arm specific may actually cause your arms to stagnate and remain the same size…or even shrink slightly. (Perish the thought!)

In this routine, you’ll work the whole body 2-3 times a week, depending upon your ability to recuperate. To this whole body scheme, you’ll “tack on” direct arm work once a week. This will guarantee stimulation but also allow the necessary rest to build extra tissue. Here’s the reasoning behind once weekly arm work: If you’re working presses, benches, rows and chins as hard as you should be…your arms will handle more weight and workload than is possible in specific arm work and will need recuperation time. Working the arms directly three times weekly won’t allow full recuperation. You may develop lots of endurance and some strength but your growth will suffer.

Are you with me so far?

If you think that I might just be on to something, let’s construct your full body “maintenance” routine. Choose ONE movement from each grouping to construct your routine.

Group A

Overhead Press – barbell or dumbbell(s)

Bench Press – barbell or dumbbell(s)

Incline Press – barbell or dumbbell(s)

Parallel Bar Dip

(My preference here is for the overhead press, since the arms travel through a more complete range of motion. If you must bench…consider alternating the bench press and the overhead press every other workout.)

Group B

Bent Over Rows – Barbell or dumbbell(s)

Chins or Pull Ups

Power Cleans

Lat Pulldowns

Group C

Hyperextension

Romanian Deadlift

Stiff Legged Deadlift

Good Morning Movement

Group D

Full Squat

Leg Press

Shrug Bar Deadlift

Front Squat

Set and reps are to be those that you’ve found most effective. After a short warm up that sees your core temperature bumped up till you’ve broken a light sweat…train hard on these four movements 2-3 times weekly. Try to progress either in weight, reps or shortened rest between sets each week. If you choose to train the full routine three times weekly…make the third workout a lighter one, OK?

Once a week, “tack on” the arm work. My preference here is to place the arm work where you’ll have the most rest days following. For example, if you train three times weekly, (M W F) place the arm work on Friday. If you train twice…do one of two things: Either train (M TH0 and tack the arm work on Thursday or train (M W F) doing ONLY the arm work on Friday. Dig?

You’ll construct your arm work the same way. Choose ONE movement from each group.

Biceps

Barbell or dumbbell curl, either standing or seated.

Alternate curl

Concentration curl

Curl with EZ curl bar

Cable Curl

Triceps

Lying or Standing Tricep Extension

Tricep Pressdowns

Single dumbbell across chest extension

Hands touching push up, feet on floor or elevated

Bench dips

Triceps extensions with cables

Forearms

Draper/Sipes wrist curl

Reverse wrist curls

Zottman curl

Hand gripper work

With the arm work, you’ll train a little less intensely, using higher reps to promote capillary perfusion. Again, you should know what works for you so far as sets and reps.

Give this style of training a good run for 6-8 weeks. Eat well and try to get in a little extra sleep and rest time. I’m willing to bet my EZ curl bar that you’ll have a larger set of arms hanging from your sleeves at the end of the routine.