iron addict
New member
Here is an excerpt of an email I wrote this morning to a new training client that was somewhat dismayed by the low number of lifts I wrote into his routine. He is a smart guy, butt has been somewhat mislead by what he has read about the needs of the average trainee to build mass. He, like sooooo very many, fashion their routines on "bodyparts" instead of core lifts. Until you are damn big and strong, your focus needs to be getting stronger. And most TOTALLY miss the point in doing routines that are designed to provide "complete stimulation to all aspects of each bodypart". Great idea, but until you are moving some big poundage’s, pretty useless.
Most people reading this would likely better served to forget about training "bodyparts" and start training lifts. Can't go wrong with picking the big three: Squat/bench/deadlift, but they can be any big compound lifts such as deadlift/leg press/ bench/row, or dip/chin/squat, or military press/bench/squat/stiff-legged deadlift. Hell, the possibilities are endless, but the key should be picking a few BIG lifts, and structuring your routine to make these lifts go up continuously. And that does not mean you must only do these lifts, but do lifts that help build these lifts. While doing an appropriate volume and frequency level for YOU to recover from. Until you are benching 300, and squatting and
deadliftting 450 or so, you don’t need a bunch of fancy shit aimed at “complete development, cause you are not going to be very well developed until you are moving some reasonable weights. Anyway, here is the statement I made, and it holds true for many reading this:
I will say this the plainest way possible. You are an almost 200 lb guy doing gear that is benching under 200 for work sets and moving pretty small poundage’s for your other lifts. You have fallen into the trap of working bodyparts by doing a boatload of lifts for each bodypart trying to expand the muscle by using the volume of the lifts to do it. What you need to be worried about is not how many sets and lifts you do per bodypart, but how much weight you are doing them with the lifts you do. The routine you will be doing is made to get you strong fast while building muscle doing it. Think about training LIFTS when you go to the gym, not bodyparts and your training will take off. After we add some basic strength to your frame, we will worry about the “bodypart” training then. But you are likely to find that when you get quite strong the size part has been taken care of already—lol.
Iron Addict
Most people reading this would likely better served to forget about training "bodyparts" and start training lifts. Can't go wrong with picking the big three: Squat/bench/deadlift, but they can be any big compound lifts such as deadlift/leg press/ bench/row, or dip/chin/squat, or military press/bench/squat/stiff-legged deadlift. Hell, the possibilities are endless, but the key should be picking a few BIG lifts, and structuring your routine to make these lifts go up continuously. And that does not mean you must only do these lifts, but do lifts that help build these lifts. While doing an appropriate volume and frequency level for YOU to recover from. Until you are benching 300, and squatting and
deadliftting 450 or so, you don’t need a bunch of fancy shit aimed at “complete development, cause you are not going to be very well developed until you are moving some reasonable weights. Anyway, here is the statement I made, and it holds true for many reading this:
I will say this the plainest way possible. You are an almost 200 lb guy doing gear that is benching under 200 for work sets and moving pretty small poundage’s for your other lifts. You have fallen into the trap of working bodyparts by doing a boatload of lifts for each bodypart trying to expand the muscle by using the volume of the lifts to do it. What you need to be worried about is not how many sets and lifts you do per bodypart, but how much weight you are doing them with the lifts you do. The routine you will be doing is made to get you strong fast while building muscle doing it. Think about training LIFTS when you go to the gym, not bodyparts and your training will take off. After we add some basic strength to your frame, we will worry about the “bodypart” training then. But you are likely to find that when you get quite strong the size part has been taken care of already—lol.
Iron Addict
