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CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS C
RITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS CRITICAL MASS
C
Critical Mass
by Steve Holman
Steve Holman’s
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www.ironmanmagazine.com \ APRIL 2008 85 pulldowns, leg extensions and so on—increases strength,
muscle activation and stimulation of anabolic hormones, such as IGF-1 and growth hormone. Scientists at the Uni- versity of Texas found that occlusion training can activate the TOR-signaling pathway, which triggers protein synthe- sis and muscle hypertrophy.
That’s the reason we finish off every bodypart with a higher-rep continuous tension and occlusion exercise in the 3D HIT program. In your case, the stiff-arm pulldown should accomplish that better than rope rows for lat pump and development. If you want to take it to the next level, try a drop set on that last exercise to extend the tension time and increase intensity. [Note: For more on occlusion, see the feature that begins on page 102.]
Q: Most of programs in your articles and e-books don’t have a lot of work sets. Are there any studies that give a benchmark relating to the number of sets that’s best for a workout?
A: Too much stress, whether in relationships or in the gym or when you’re bunjee jumping, causes cortisol to rise. Cortisol can force your body to eat muscle tissue for energy, and it lowers testosterone. A study that looked at how train- ing volume affects testosterone in men was done in 2004 (Alemany, J.A., et al. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 36:S238).
Group 1: No exercise (control) Group 2: 25 sets
Group 3: 50 sets
The workouts consisted of big, basic exercises—squats, bench presses, etc.—that have elevated testosterone in other studies. Reps per set were five to 10, with 90 to 120 seconds of rest between sets.
Results: The high-volume group had significantly sup- pressed testosterone over a 24-hour period. There was no
such reduction in the moderate-volume group. I’ve always recommended workouts of no more than about 30 work sets at any one session for drug-free train- ees, and the study confirms what I’ve discovered over the years.
Q: In your arm-specialization programs [listed in
X-traordinary Arms], is it okay to mix up the exer- cises? Can I do a biceps-peak exercise for midrange, then the stretch move, followed by a contracted- position biceps exercise for width? I like the idea of training for width and peak at every workout rather than emphasizing one over the other at alternating workouts, as you recommend.
A: Experimentation is good. I believe it’s necessary for anyone interested in gaining the most muscle possible as quickly as possible. Your idea has merit because no matter what arm exercise you choose, you’ll affect all heads of the muscle to some degree. In other words, you can’t work the inner biceps head while the outer head takes a nap or vice versa; however, you can stress one over the other.
Here’s a sample biceps routine you’d use at your first arm workout:
Inner biceps (width)
Wide-grip curls (midrange exercise) Inner and outer biceps (width and peak)
Palms-forward incline curls (stretch exercise) Outer biceps (peak)
Concentration curls (contracted exercise)
That’s the standard 3D POF routine I often recommend for overall biceps growth and development, as it’s very bal- anced; however, you lead off
with an inner-head, or width, exercise. So at your next biceps workout change the first exer- cise to an outer-head, or peak midrange movement—like close-grip preacher curls, fol- lowed by stretch, followed by an inner-biceps-head-domi- nant exercise for width to hit the contracted position, like one-arm spider curls done on the vertical side of the preach- er bench.
You’re still alternating biceps workouts that stress
different areas, which is what we suggest in X-traordinary
Arms. What’s different is that you’re not focusing on one
section as much at each workout, as the arm-specialization routines in the e-book do.
Those routines hammer one section, or head, of the bi- ceps in all three positions, with the other head getting less attention. So at the next workout you focus on the other head. Your variation should work. Try it with the triceps width and sweep exercises as well.
Editor’s note: Steve Holman is the author of many bodybuilding best-sellers and the creator of Positions- of-Flexion muscle training. For information on the POF videos and Size Surge programs, see the ad sections beginning on pages 138 and 296, respectively. Also visit www.X-Rep.com for information on X-Rep and 3D POF methods and e-books. IM
Neveux \ Model: Omar Deckar
d
Neveux \ Model: Jay Cutler
Rope rows (left) hit the lats’ contracted position, but for more occlusion try stiff-arm pulldowns instead.
Neveux \ Model: Jonathan Lawson
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O
n July 31, 2005, the low-carbohydrate diet was declared dead by the popular media. The oc- casion was the filing of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy by Atkins Nutritionals, a company founded by the godfather of the low-carb diet, Robert Atkins, M.D. Atkins himself wasn’t around to watch his company fade, since he had died two years earlier after slip- ping on an icy sidewalk in New York and going into a coma.
Although Atkins’ name was most associated with the low-carb diet, he was hardly the first to advocate that kind of eating plan. The use of a low-carb diet dates back to antiquity—the fifth century B.C. to be exact. A two-time Olympic long-distance champion named Stymphalos attributed his athletic success to following a diet of mostly meat. The legendary Greek wrestling champion Milo of Croton, who won no fewer than five Olympic wres- tling events between 536 and 520 B.C., was reputed to eat an average 19 pounds of beef daily to attain his prodigious strength. Milo is also fa-
mous for using the first progressive- resistance exercise regimen, which consisted of lifting a calf every day, even when the calf became a bull. Whether that bull eventually be- came a source of protein for Milo isn’t recorded.
The first popular low-carb diet was offered by William Banting, a retired London undertaker who claimed to have shed 45 pounds of fat in 1863 by eating a low-carb diet. The diet was suggested to him by Dr. William Harvey after Banting con- sulted him about a recurrent ear- ache. The doctor felt that Banting’s symptoms stemmed from the excess fat in his ear. Banting was so im- pressed by the results of his diet that he published it in a brief book called
Letter of Corpulence that became
the first commercial diet book. In the early 20th century, Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson lived among the native Inuit people and adopted their 90 percent meat and fish diet, devoid of carbohydrates. While consuming this diet, Stefans- son noted that he and his fellow explorers remained healthy. In fact,