Overcoming the Plateau Effect

Posted by Chris on Oct 5, 2009 in Motivation, Workout Info | 2 comments

What is the Plateau Effect?

If you have never experienced the plateau effect from working out, then you either haven’t been lifting long enough or have been doing something right. Generally the plateau effect can come into play anywhere from a month to a few months after you start lifting. So what exactly is the plateau effect? Simply put it is when your gains in the gym have reached a plateau, you are no longer gaining strength, size, or either. So you can hit a plateau by being to consistent with your workouts and not changing anything up, when your body gets used to doing a certain set of workouts a certain way you will eventually reach a point where you are no longer gaining any benefit from that particular exercise or range of motion. The plateau can last for a few weeks or remain for months until something is changed within your regimen. By maintaining the same regimen sure you will be able maintain your size and strength, but you won’t really see very many gains.  Read more here...

Huge in a Hurry: Phase 1 – Completed

Posted by Chris on Sep 15, 2009 in Huge in a Hurry | 0 comments

It has been an interesting fun-packed 5 weeks, but I have finished phase 1 of the Get Big workouts. So naturally the first question most people will have is “Did you get big?” Well yes and no. I didn’t get huge, but I did get bigger, I would say the most noticable effect was the increase in my overall strength. By the end of the first phase I was doing 75lb. dumbbell incline bench press. My deadlifts have reached 230+ and many other exercises have gone through the roof. This workout plan seems to being coming along great and I am looking forward to some more strange workouts in Phase 2!

Huge in a Hurry: My First Week

Posted by Chris on Jul 12, 2009 in Huge in a Hurry | 0 comments

After my first week of Huge in a Hurry’s Get Ready workout, I am feeling the pain. In case you don’t know, Huge in a Hurry is a book about new fitness techniques for building mass and strength. The book follows it’s ideas with scientific evidence and great examples of why this new approach to fitness is sure to beat out any other. At first I was very skeptical, I mean from my experience I have seen great gains using traditional 3×10 workouts, with split body parts each week. This book flips that idea, don’t focus on sets, focus on reps. The book wants us to focus on a set number of reps, say 25, now that doesn’t mean you do just one set. The book wants you to use different weight ranges, for example, Light weights which are 20-22 rep max weights. Medium which is 10-12. Heavy which is 4-6. Super heavy which is 2-3. Now each workout includes only 3 exercises; upper body pulling, upper body pushing, and legs. The reasoning is simple, all of the workouts we will be doing are compound full body workouts 3 days a week. It is recommended to do workouts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday’s to allow adequate rest.The biggest change in our workout will be speed, you have to perform all exercises at the fastest speed you can  (while maintaining perfect form and control). The author says that by working your muscles with different weights, but more speed our muscles are recruiting the largest fibers to help with the lift instead of just our smallest motors. This recruitment of large fibers is what provides us with superb strength and muscle growth.  Read more here...

Check out my bench pressing article on Helium

Posted by Chris on Jul 1, 2009 in Misc Thoughts | 0 comments

Here is the link to my bench pressing article on Helium:

http://www.helium.com/items/1501863-how-to-bench-press

How to Build that Perfect 6-Pack

Posted by Chris on Jun 14, 2009 in Workout Info | 1 comment

Almost everyone loves the look of abs, especially over flab. The look of a defined 6 pack is something that takes a lot of work, but is not impossible. If you have perfected your diet already, and use supplements to help increase definition, strength, etc. the process of hardening your abs will be much easier and much faster. The biggest problem I tend to see when it comes to abs is the stubborn belly fat. Doing 1 million crunches a day won’t make you shed that tummy fat any faster then doing 1 crunch a day, albeit it will add strength and make the abs more noticeable, you can’t spot-burn fat. In case you don’t know, spot burning is where you work a muscle group that is covered in fat in the hopes that your body will burn this fat faster, it has been scientifically proven that you can not spot burn fat, and that as you become leaner your body will naturally burn fat from around your body. Also note, this is usually the note that discourages people, stomach fat is usually the last thing to go.  Read more here...