From: garry@mda.ca (Garry Holmen) Subject: Mass Building Routine - periodized Date: 12 Jan 1996 10:30:16 -0800 Well in the past day or so I've been swamped with requests about by work out program on my mass gaining cycles. So I've decided to post it here to save my mail box some grief. 8^) I typically cycle through this one between each powerlifting cycle for about 8-10 weeks. Last year I had great results with this routine putting on over 30+ lbs of lean muscle mass in ~10 months time. This routine might not work for everyone but it has some sound concepts that can be stolen. Special notes and kudos go to Barry Merriman! Without his thoughtfulness and dedication I would still be on that frustrating road of no return. This routine is pretty much a rehash of his post (which I've misplaced somewhere... bummer! Barry if you read this could you please email me your Mass and Powerlifting articles again? ) Enough rambling... here is the good stuff..... CONCEPT ------- This routine is based on one posted by Barry Merriman about 2 years ago in misc.fitness. My training partner and I thought it sounded interesting and since we weren't making really any gains with our current routine we decided to switch. We've modified it slightly and it seems to work well. It is a periodized routine which takes advantage of the body's recuperation abilities and natural cycles that one's body goes through. Basically, no one can be 100% pumped all the time... by using the body's peaks and valleys you can slowly increase your mass and strength. There are 3 types of days in this system: the heavy day, the light day and the rest day. On a heavy day you objective is to lift more reps/weight than the previous heavy day and drive your muscles to failure where true growth occurs. Light day involves working the muscles at 75% intensity to give your body a light pump so your muscles don't atrophy, your form improves and your tendons/muscles heal. And a rest day is an excuse to eat ice cream.... 8^) EXERCISES --------- There will be 5 days in a periodized workout week. These mimic the 4 major muscle groupings and has 1 rest day. Personally I group these 4 days as follows: Legs, Back and calves, chest and arms. You can modify these groupings slightly depending on your equipment, your body's pain thresh-hold etc but I find that these work well. Leg day revolves around the squat. You might be able to substitute the leg press instead but I like the squat as it involves more leg muscle at one time. Choose 2 to 3 other leg exercises as well... good ones are leg extensions, leg curls, hack squat, and lunges. Do the squat first and follow with the other assistive exercises. My current cycle looks like: squat, leg ext, and leg curl. This doesn't seem like a lot but after heavy leg day you'll be wiped. Back day should either follow or be 3 days behind leg day. It follows leg day in my current cycle. It revolves around the deadlift... I don't know any real good substitutes for deads. I choose 2 to 3 more back exercises and 1 to 2 calf exercises for this day. Good exercises to choose from are: seated rows, pull downs (either wide or narrow), bent over rows, shrugs, standing calf raises and sitted calf raises. I currently do : deads, narrow pull down to the front, seated rows on a Hammer machine, standing calves and sitting calves. Chest day focuses on the bench press. Choose 3 to 4 assistive exercises. Good assitive exercises are flies, pec deck, incline/decline dumb bell press, military press and lateral raises. My current chest day looks like bench, inclined DB press, cable flies, military press and lateral raises. Arm day hits the bicep, tricep and forearm muscles. Choose 4 to 5 exercises total for your arm day. Good exercises are barbell curl, DB curl, concentration curls, cable curls, french press, tricep extensions, tricep kick backs, reverse curls, and wrist curls. Currently I do barbell curl, french press w/ tricep bench, DB curl, reverse curls and wrist curls (Haney style... behind me rather than in front.) My current workout week looks like leg day, back day, chest day, arm day and rest day. You alternate the work days in heavy/light. Heavy leg, light back, heavy chest, light arm, rest, light leg, heavy back, light chest, heavy arm and rest. Repeat. (Keep your leg and back days seperated so that you don't do heavy back and heavy legs in the same 5 day cycle. This is really brutal on the body... give it more recovery time!) WORKING OUT ----------- What you do on a day depends if it is a heavy day or a light day. The target set/rep range in 3 sets of 12 reps for each exercise.. Heavy day: Your goal is muscle failure in a rep range of 8-12 reps for all 3 sets. If you can get 12 or more increase the weight for the next heavy day. (PS: You'll need a workout log... any real lifter should carry one.) If you get 6 or less you're probably too heavy so you might decrease the weight on your next heavy day for that set in that exercise. If you can get a spotter on some of the exercises (like squat and bench) great! Light day: Take the weight you lifted on your heavy day and calculate 75% of it. Do this weight for the same number of reps on your heavy day. (You'll have to guestimate on your first week of light days) The idea is to get a light pump. If you're straining then you're doing too much. Concentrate on form on your lights days and feel the muscles you're using. When you increase your weights on heavy day try to move up by 5-10% depending on the exercise and weights available. If you just finish with 10 lb DB curls and 15 lbs are the only ones available you'll have to move to 15 lbs. Sometimes this is too big of a jump. (ie you only get 5 reps when you use this new weight.) You might either try for more reps at the lighter weight (say 15 or so) or slowly work up the reps (5,6,...) at the higher weight. PLATEAUS -------- As your cycle gets into it's 8th week or so you'll see your gains starting to level off and your progress starts to stagnate. This is called plateauing. It's natural... we can't gain 5 lbs on a lift/week forever otherwise Coan wouldn't be where he is today. 8^) If you see most of your exercises start to plateau it's time to finish this cycle. (Especially if 2 of the big 3 are stagnating on you. ie bench, squat or deads.) At this point take a week off lifting. No gym work whatsoever. The week after that go in and do a light 5 day cycle of 75% of your previous last workouts just to get the body in the swing of things again. The next week after that you start your heavy days with ~90-95% of the weight you finished on your last cycle and work up from there again. You will see that your gains will slowly bypass your previous bests until the next plateau. DIET & SUPPLEMENTS ------------------ I'm not a big supplement fan... most have no scientific evidence supporting their claims. Some protein/carbo drinks might be useful but I find I get enough protein out of my regular diet. Use it as a matter of convienence rather than as a magic pill. Anyone who tells you that a supplement IS ABSOLUTELY needed is misinformed IMHO. Muscle mass isn't a factor of supplementation but rather a factor of hard work. Also any add that says a supplementation is better/as good as steroids should be avoided... ie stay away from plant sterols.... they're just after your money. I typically increase my basic caloric intake by 5-10% when I'm on this cycle just 'cuz I'm always hungry (I eat about 4500 - 5000 cal each day.) Watch your body it will tell you what is too much and what isn't. Limit your aerobic exercise... no one can gain weight if they're doing aerobics 5 times a week. Once or twice is more than enough... the small amount of fat you'll increase will go off in your next 'cutting'/fat loss cycle. Don't bite off more than you can chew.... (unless it's cheesecake.... yummm 8^) ) Anything worth while will take time. For example I typically play football once a week and volleyball once a week for my aerobic exercise while on this routine. (PS: Don't do any aerobic stuff before heavy leg day if you can avoid it!) Good luck.... any questions? Email or post them to me. Garry garry@mda.ca