The All or None Principal

[B.Reel]

The 'All or None Principal' about a muscle fiber firing 100% or 0% is an accepted fact in the BBing world. If this is true then by doing ONE all out set will activate all the muscle fibers you will likely hit in that workout for that bodypart. I understand that different exercises/angles can trigger different fibers, but i really dont see any benefit of doing the same exercise more than once after you have completely exhausted the muscle. I am an advocate of this...

CHEST

BB flat bench (heavy) 1 x 4-6
BB incline bench (medium) 1 x 6-10
DB decline (light) 1 x 10-12

I will switch the exercise every week (heavy decline, medium flat...). This way I his every angle in every rep range. Keep it simple and dont mistake hard work for SMART work. What do you think?

 

[DADAWG]

The 'All or None Principal' about a muscle fiber firing 100% or 0% is an accepted fact in the BBing world. If this is true then by doing ONE all out set will activate all the muscle fibers you will likely hit in that workout for that bodypart. I understand that different exercises/angles can trigger different fibers, but i really dont see any benefit of doing the same exercise more than once after you have completely exhausted the muscle. I am an advocate of this...

CHEST

BB flat bench (heavy) 1 x 4-6
BB incline bench (medium) 1 x 6-10
DB decline (light) 1 x 10-12

I will switch the exercise every week (heavy decline, medium flat...). This way I his every angle in every rep range. Keep it simple and dont mistake hard work for SMART work. What do you think?

how long have you been doing this and what results are you getting ?

 

[B.Reel]

how long have you been doing this and what results are you getting ?

1 month. A couple PBs already. The mental aspect of only doing 2-3 sets/week for 1 bodypart forces me to kill it (forced my PBs). I also stretch after the last set of each bodypart. I love it, but gotta change something after a while...

 

[inked1]

What do you think?

I think the arse in your avatar is so damn hot I forgot the question

 

[BigRonWannabee]

So basically you owe doggcrapp thanks for his idea?

 

[TxLonghorn]

So basically you owe doggcrapp thanks for his idea?

Sounds like it to me.

 

[GymLift]

Whenever I hear about "muscles fibers", I tune the rest out. That is all theory. What matters is what works, regardless of the muscle fiber theory that goes along with it.

 

[Skarhead1]

you dont have to go "all out" to acheive the same results as going one rep short of failure. Also you dont have to hit every angle of the muscle for full development that is bb nonsense imo

 

[blackjack]

the "all or none" principle applies to individual motor units. a motor unit will only fire if a certain electrical potential has been created in the nerve controlling the motor unit. a muscle doesnt always recriut every motor unit to create a contraction. so just because a muscle is contracting doesnt mean ALL the motor units are activated.

 

[Skarhead1]

so do more sets then... save CNS

 

[B.Reel]

So basically you owe doggcrapp thanks for his idea?

Id rather thank Clarence Bass who was doing this kinda stuff while doggcrapp was still shitting in sand boxes

 

[B.Reel]

Whenever I hear about "muscles fibers", I tune the rest out. That is all theory. What matters is what works, regardless of the muscle fiber theory that goes along with it.

Its not theory its fact. look it up. And what works is all that matters, but i like to understand why things work. Its a grown up thing i guess

 

[jocktheglide]

Whenever I hear about "muscles fibers", I tune the rest out. That is all theory. What matters is what works, regardless of the muscle fiber theory that goes along with it.

I would rather spend 1 hour in the gym then spend 2 hours in the gym to achieve the same thing....if learning about muscle fibers help me achive this then im in...

 

[0nyx]

Its not theory its fact. look it up. And what works is all that matters, but i like to understand why things work. Its a grown up thing i guess

yo b.reel. where you get your info from?

 

[B.Reel]

yo b.reel. where you get your info from?

The 'all-or-none principal' about muscle fibers is a medical fact and can be found in any medical dictionary.

 

[DocJ]

The 'all-or-none principal' about muscle fibers is a medical fact and can be found in any medical dictionary.

True...but they've identified many subsets of muscle fibers even within groups like "fast-twitch" "slow-twitch" and they do respond to different levels of training. Some muscle fibers only strongly activate (notice my word useage, I didn't say they don't activate with 1 set only) with multiple sets.
I used to train like the method you oulined above and I still do but not all year as I believe the nervous system takes too much of a beating. Cycle your training, even if it's just between 2-3 different methods and you'll enjoy decent gains for a longer period of time.

 

[0nyx]

The 'all-or-none principal' about muscle fibers is a medical fact and can be found in any medical dictionary.

yeah, not trying to call you out here.. just curious.

where do you people find your articles in medical dictionaries? i swear i looked at pubmed or some shit like that before, and everything i read was scientific mumbo jumbo

 

[B.Reel]

yeah, not trying to call you out here.. just curious.

where do you people find your articles in medical dictionaries? i swear i looked at pubmed or some shit like that before, and everything i read was scientific mumbo jumbo

gocha bro. the easiest way is to google it, read a couple articles, then find the common denomenator and you get your facts. dont read medical journals. they are encrypted in doctor language and sometimes biased because drug companies often finance these studies . . . . and the outcomes

 

[B.Reel]

True...but they've identified many subsets of muscle fibers even within groups like "fast-twitch" "slow-twitch" and they do respond to different levels of training. Some muscle fibers only strongly activate (notice my word useage, I didn't say they don't activate with 1 set only) with multiple sets.
I used to train like the method you oulined above and I still do but not all year as I believe the nervous system takes too much of a beating. Cycle your training, even if it's just between 2-3 different methods and you'll enjoy decent gains for a longer period of time.

Right on brethren. Just curious, whats your routine look like?

 

[DocJ]

Right on brethren. Just curious, whats your routine look like?

I'll just use chest as you did in your example. If I'm doing an all failure workout it looks almost identical to yours above. I'll post my past two chest workouts:

Workout A:
BB Incline - 4 x 6 (1-2 reps short of failure)
Pec Deck - 1 x 12 (failure with 1 drop set also to failure)
Dips - 1 x bodyweight (failure)

Workout B:
DB Bench - 3 x 8 (1-2 reps short of failure)
DB Incline Flyes - 3 x 10 (1-2 reps short of failure)
Crossovers - 3 x 12 (1-2 reps short of failure)