Training bodyparts or lifts?

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
 
Very good post, like usual. Most of us have fallen in this trap, but many of us were not as fortunate to stumble on to yourself and pullingbig. I see tons of guys around 200 lbs who hardly look like they train doing cable crossover after cable crossover.
 
People look at the pros and are like wow they do lots of ISOLATION work so that must have gotten them big like that.

WRONG, they got big from building great big bases with heavy movements.


THese magazines send poeple in the wrong direction sometimes.



great post IA
 
i was one of those for the longest time. until i started reading the articles on elitefts. and people teaching me things here.
 
jcp2 said:
Very good post, like usual. Most of us have fallen in this trap, but many of us were not as fortunate to stumble on to yourself and pullingbig. I see tons of guys around 200 lbs who hardly look like they train doing cable crossover after cable crossover.

ditto
deadlifting is bad for the back :insane2:
 
Great post!
I concentrate on BIG lifts and I'm seeing good results. I started lifting 7 months ago and almost at the same time became member of this forum. By a lot of reading, I learnt many of the things iron addict summarized in this post.
I started with the 5x5 routine. Concentrating on bench, deadlift, squat, row, dips, and adding other excersises as well as curls on back day.
I don't get as pumped as if I did highter volume, but I know I MUST get strong as the post says.
 
Great post IA.
I agree that magazines lead u in the wrong direction. Make u think u have to do shitloads of reps and tons of isolation work.
 
Wow. I've seen guys claim big numbers before getting on gear compared to me, but I was long since working with over bodyweight benching for reps before juice. That sounds unfortunate.

Gotta know what you are doing before you touch the shit, or you will be dissapointed.
 
Iron, say I abolish my 'train every body part once a week' routine, and want to bring up my main lifts like you reccomend in the first post, can you help me out?

I want to bring up mainly my flat bench, squat, and barbell row. What is a good routine for me? I've been training 2 years but it feels like I've JUST started lifting since I was out after thumb surgery. Thanks.
 
Just pick a simple STRENGTH based power style routine. There are plenty posted here. I have seen more "bodybuilders" that were frustrated and not gaining all of a sudden start putting serious muscle on when they started training like powerlifters. The westside barbell format or variations of it minus the speed work provides a great combination of both size and strength and there are plenty of people here that can help you get it togther as a good percentage of the vets and moderators here use it.

Iron Addict
 
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