I notice that I get the best results in terms of increasing size, when I train in the lower rep ranges (5 or less). I think many people, especially the beginners get caught up in going on 'bodybuilding routines' of 8-12 reps because the pros do it, without first understanding themselves.

Charles Poliquin once mentioned that if you take 80% (or was it 85%) of your 1 rep max, generally most people can do 6 reps. If you get less than 4, it means that your training should be lower rep oriented. Myself only managed 3. So I can see why lower rep ranges work out so well for me.

I think if you're not experienced enough to write your own program, 5/3/1 is probably the best program if increasing strength is your main goal.

yeah_guyz I assume you want to climb mount kinabalu?

If yes, don't neglect your strength training. Most special forces unit in the armed forces require that their soldiers be able to bring their squat up to a minimum of 2 x bodyweight. These guys strap on 20kg and walk for up to 60km in less than one day, so they need very strong legs to withstand the forces that their legs go through.

As for your playground training, it's best to do it in a circuit training manner, alternating between upper body and lower body exercises. I highly recommend that you include burpees (for extra fun' dont just hold the pushup position, do the pushup) and mountain climbers. You can also do bodyweight squats. Btw, you never provided us with reps and sets numbers.

I've had great results on slow eccentrics. I actually knew they existed all this while, but never really knew why they worked, till I visited Coach Jon. He explained that there should always be a gap between concentric and eccentric strength, so that your concentric strength will keep improving to catch up to the eccentric strength, since you can lower more than you can lift.

Now I mostly lift in a 4010 tempo, I hate doing slow eccentrics, but damn they work. Gotta learn to swallow your ego and use lighter weights. For me the benefits have mainly been in hypertrophy, although I noticed that going on slow eccentrics allow me to increase the weight or number of repetitions every week. Constant progress.

Btw how's your HCl experiment coming along?

My hamstring flexibility has improved so much, that today for the first time in my life, while doing Romanian Deadlifts the plates kept touching the floor.

Yeah yeah I know, cool story bro.

I think you are confusing negatives and eccentrics.

Negatives is a type of training method. When doing negatives, generally you do not do the concentric at all, or use very minimal effort for the concentric portion. For example, when doing negative chin ups, you jump up to the top position, and lower yourself down, you don't do the concentric portion at all.

Eccentric simply refers to the part where you lower the weights. In a squat and deadlift, that would be the part where you are going down, or in a bench press its when you lower the bar.

In terms of hypertrophy, during the eccentric portion is when muscles suffer microtrauma, which ultimately makes them grow. I remember Charles Poliquin once said perhaps instead of saying 'Hey dude Im going to the gym to lift weights and grow' we should say 'Hey dude Im going to the gym to lower some weights and grow'. Charles Poliquin and Ian King are the main proponents of slow eccentric lifting. They didn't invent it, but they were the ones who made it popular.

Sticking to hypertrophy, Poliquin suggests that in order for hypertrophy to occur, a muscle generally needs to have Time Under Tension (TUT) of at least 40 seconds. Imagine yourself doing bicep curls, if you take 1 second to lift the weight and 1 second to lower it for 10 reps, you'll get around 20-25 seconds of TUT, which is not optimal for hypertrophy. If you take 1 second to lift and 3 seconds to lower, that gives you at least 40 seconds of TUT.

In terms of strength, I'm not really very sure how to explain this, but I'll try my best. Basically, your muscles can lower more than they can lift. So there is a gap between eccentric and concentric strength. Your concentric strength will always try to catch up to the eccentric, which is why when someone who cannot do a single chin up starts doing negatives, suddenly he can do chinups, because his concentric strength is trying to catch up to his eccentric strength. If you constantly lift without slowing down your eccentric, there may come a point in time where your concentric strength doesn't need to catch up with the eccentric, and that's when you stall.

Using myself as an example, I implemented slow eccentrics less than 2 months ago. The first month, I did 10-12 reps at 4010 tempo (basically 4 seconds to lower the weight, no pause at the bottom, 1 second to lift, no pause at the top). It worked very well for hypertrophy. In the second month, I'm training at 4-6 reps, same tempo, and sometimes I'm shocked. I can easily increase the weight in almost every exercise, week after week. During the 1st month, I increased the reps, so if last week I did X weight for 10 reps, I try to get 11 or 12 the following week. During the 2nd month, the focus was on increasing the weight used. Progress has been consistent so far, hopefully it goes on like this.

Anyway, the main reason this slow eccentrics training is not popular is because you have to swallow your ego. You have to reduce the amount of weight you use. A lot of people say 'Well many people train without slow eccentrics and they're big and strong'. Yes that may be true, but that completely misses the point. Nobody is saying YOU MUST DO SLOW ECCENTRICS TO BECOME BIG AND STRONG. Slow eccentrics can allow you to have more hypertrophy and gain more strength, but I think the biggest advantage of slow eccentrics is that it makes it much more harder to stall, and stalling can be very frustrating.

Hope this helps you.

I didnt mean YOU as in gtoforce haha, I meant it in a general way, don't misunderstand

Hi, this is probably the perfect exercise for you, since you can't do a 'real' pushup



The original article is here: Girls Can Do Pushups Too


It can be done, but please swallow your ego and start out with lower weights.

Body sculpting should not even be a fitness term. Want me to sculpt your body? Then give me a knife......

This post has been edited by Desvaro: Mar 29 2010, 06:49 PM

More about eccentric and tempo training from the master himself:

http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMul...cle.aspx?ID=285

If im not wrong, Pierre Roy makes his athletes do some box jumps or side box jumps before lifting, so that it primes the nervous system to be able to recruit more high twitch fibers.

I must agree with Pizzaboy, that not many focus enough on power development, especially within athletes. I myself am guilty of that, seeing that my gym has no boxes for me to jump on. There's only one aerobic step which is nowhere near high enough for me to jump on.

Cheezzzz, I don't think doing plyos till failure is a good idea. You want to generate maximum power, so fatigue should be avoided.

I've noticed that when I do dumbbell bench press and dumbbell shoulder press (seated) that my weakest point is generally at the bottom, the first few inches from my chest or shoulders.

If I can get past that point, I can usually lock out the lift relatively easily.

I believe this indicates weak chest or shoulders? Correct me if I'm wrong and please give some suggestions to work on this weakness.

Thank you

I forgot to mention that I'm doing my lifts now at a 4 second eccentric tempo.

Hmm I've never tried slow eccentrics at a lower weight myself, have you tried them? How well do they work?

Just curious, how close have you come to dying or wishing you were dead while on Sheiko?

Anyway Shane, is this your first time on Sheiko?

If you're gonna go at 6, you better wake up at around 4. It is not safe to lift weights during the first 2 hours that you're awake, you'll hurt your back much more easily.

I'm too busy to find the source now, but it was mentioned by Charles Poliquin. Maybe try googling Charles Poliquin and keywords like lifting first thing in the morning.

Other than that, there's nothing wrong with training early in the morning. Just make sure your diet is in check.

It is confirmed by Charles Poliquin though, and if Charles Poliquin said it, it's highly likely to be true.

In April, I took a month off from training and cut down on my eating, when I came back I lost some strength, it took me one extra week to get back to previous levels.

In May, I took a month off from training, but this time I maintained my diet as if I was going to the gym. This time I came back stronger than before.

Just my experience......