But you shouldn’t have to analyze the program to death and try to make it perfect. Why? Because there is no perfect program in existence. In reality, every program/workout/routine (whatever you’d liked to call it) will work for some time; but eventually you’ll stall out and either hit a wall or regress. Not good!

There are many common mistakes that I see all too often and most of the time they just need a simple fix to help get results. Check ‘em out…

1.) Too Much Volume – Less is more, especially when you are looking for all-out, blazing speed. Speed is the critical “game-changer” and more often than not, the faster team or athlete will ALWAYS have the advantage. I usually almost always start my athletes out with low volume sprints 1-2 times per week, never exceeding 200-300 yards in total volume (the number of sprints you ran X the distance on each sprint). Think about it: do you think running endless repeat 100 yard sprints , as fast as possible,with 30 seconds rest will do anything for your speed? Sure, it might make you tired; it might make you sore; you may even throw up… Most sports require you accelerate anywhere from 5-30 yards. I usually recommend the “short-to-long” approach with most team sport athletes, where you begin sprinting at shorter distances for a couple weeks, then gradually extending the distance and volume out each week.

2.) Too Many Exercises – This one is extremely common. For example: you walk into a regular gym on a Monday (also known as universal bench press day) and everyone and their mother is performing every exercise known for the chest; bench press, incline press, decline press, chest flyes, machine flyes; and often times each one will be performed with ZERO warm up, too many sets, and way too little rest. This basically is doing absolutely nothing but getting you the “pump” which only lasts for a short while after you’re through exercising anyways. Instead of focusing on how many exercises you should be doing, I think the better choice would be to focus on the quality of movement and continually adding weight to the bar each week.

3.) Body Part Splits – This is another very common occurring trend that really is only effective if you’re very advanced and have built up a substantial base of strength and muscle. Body part split routines typically explore a bodybuilder’s routine, for example:

• Monday – Chest
• Tuesday – Back, Biceps
• Wednesday- Legs
• Thursday- Shoulders, etc..

You see that each workout works in isolating muscle groups; in reality, when does the human body EVER work in isolation? Not only is this routine very ineffective for most trainees in building muscle and strength, it’s really BORING. That type of routine would leave me bored to tears and who really wants to perform 5-6 different chest exercises in 1 day? Instead of a split routine, switch up to either 3-day per week “full body” workouts, or 4-day per week upper/lower split. By doing this you will eliminate boredom, your workouts will be much more effective, you’ll be in the gym much less, and you’ll get way better results. I prefer 3-day per week full body workouts for most people, but 4-days per week has also served me well too.

4.) Employing Fancy Gadgets and Gizmos – This is pretty funny, but sad also. Parachutes, ladders, ankle weights, hand weights, thigh

Looks Cool, but not my thing.. I'll take the hill, please!

weights, tubes, cones, velcro/band strapped to every joint on your body, etc.. The list could go on. When it comes to speed training, the simplest methods and tools yield the greatest results. I have used nothing but a hill, sled/tire with a strap and belt for resisted sprints, set of cones to mark off distances, and a medicine ball to develop extremely fast and explosive athletes. In order to move fast… You need to practice moving fast. If you’re going to utilize resisted sprints that’s fine; sprint up a hill, or use a sled/tire with a 25-45 lb. plate in it and start sprinting. Keep the rest period longer if you’re after speed, keep them shorter if you want some extra conditioning and fat loss.

Remember, this stuff is simple. Yes there is a science to programming and planning (that’s why there are professionals out there that do this for a living), but you can still get results by doing the simple things, being consistent, and making sure you are making progress every time you train.

Have a purpose, a goal, and a plan, and you will not fail.

See ya,

John Cortese, CSCS

Recently, I was asked by one of my newsletter subscribers about how I would structure a training program for athletic strength and speed development with athletes that could only train 2 and/or 3 days per week.

Luckily, this is actually quite easy and most athletes that I have worked with have actually done very well training only 3 times per week. 2 days per week is not “ideal”, however with a busy schedule and sometimes playing multiple sports, 2 days would often suffice and still enable an athlete to make significant progress.

What is the key here? It’s really very simple. First, let’s examine an example template for a football player who can only train 3 days per week during the off-season. When training 3 days per week, the intensity of the workouts on each day would be higher. Due to this, however, you must have a day of rest in between each training day.

Example: Train Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Rest Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. *This is a HUGE mistake most coaches and athletes are making. A big reason that progress is not being made is because these athletes are constantly bombarded with training EVERY day. The body adapts to the stressor (exercise) while it rests, not when you are training in the gym or on the field. When you rest and recover, you allow yourself to build back up to a level beyond where you were at before. This is the basic principle of adaptation and why we as human organisms can get bigger, faster, and stronger. You either come back better, you stall out, or you regress. Hopefully you aren’t stalling or regressing; if this is the case you’re probably doing too much. Rest is very important.

Regardless if you’re training 2, 3, or 4 days per week, you still need to rest. Here’s a general rule of thumb and probably the key to planning: The less you train per week, the intensity needs to be adjusted. Think of it as spreading the wealth around. If you only have 2 days to train, you’ll be able to tolerate more work each day because you will be resting longer between sessions. Training 4 days per week will allow you to spread the stressors around a little more evenly throughout the week, but each day would not be as intense on the central nervous system, muscles, joints, etc. Make sense so far?

Here’s an example 3-day per week training cycle. Let’s use an American football player who needs to get stronger in the early off-season (February) and build up some muscle mass. Remember, this is an example. You’ll notice a pattern here though.

Monday

1. Speed:  5×10 yard sprint, 2×15 yard sprint on hill or with light sled.
   
2. Weights: Clean, Squat, Bench, Push Ups/Pull Ups, Glute Ham Raise.
   
3. Foam Roll, Stretch, Regeneration
   

Wednesday

1. Med Ball Throws x 8-10
   
2. Weights: Power Snatch, Military Press, Inverted Row/Dips, Band Good Morning.
   
3. High Rep Ab Circuit 200 repetitions.
   
4. Foam Roll, stretch, regeneration work.

Friday

1. Speed: 5×10, 3×15
   
2. Weights: Deadlift, DB 1-arm Clean/Press, DB Rows/DB Floor Press, Back Extension/Romain Chair Sit Up, 10 min beach work.
   
3. Foam roll/regeneration/stretch.
   

Couple things you’ll notice here is that each day, we attack the entire body from multiple angles and use lifts that will hit the most amount of muscle in the shortest time. I strictly adhere to training economy here, meaning pick what gets you the biggest “bang for your buck”.

Also since this is early off-season, no sense in doing tons of speed work. Do enough to maintain sprint form for now, while striving hard to get strong and add some muscle. Twice per week is great, even once per week would suffice with low volume sprints.

So what about twice per week?

You’ll simply condense the training stressors into higher intensity training sessions. If you are training twice per week, you’ll want to take 48-72 hours between sessions, i.e. train on Monday and Thursday, or Tuesday and Friday, etc. I have done this with many athletes during their competitive seasons, as well as with clients/athletes who simply could only train twice per week and they still made progress. Example:

Day 1

1. Speed: 5×10, 3×20
2. Jumps: SLJ x 10
3. Weights: Squat, Bench, DB Row/DB Bench, DB Lunge/Back Extension/GHD Sit Up
4. Foam Roll, stretch, etc
   

Day 2 (2-3 days later)

1. Speed: 5×10, 2×3x15-20
2. MB Throws x 10 (Overhead back, Squat Throw, Coil Throw, etc)
   
3. Weights: Clean/Deadlift, Overhead Press Variation, DB or KB Swings/Pull Ups/Dips, Band Good Morning
4. High Rep Ab Circuit 200-300 reps
   

You’ll see that each day on the 2-day split is a little more intense and the volume is a bit higher as far as training load goes. This can be tolerated due to the fact that you get a little bit more time in between sessions to recover.

Now that you have some ideas on how to structure training for different training splits, you have zero excuses. No more of this “I don’t have enough time” BS! Get it done, even if it’s only twice per week!

Remember to adjust accordingly, monitor volume, and know where you’re at during your training phase. If you were in-season, you would need to adjust to let the demands of the sport be the primary focus; these templates were mainly focusing on off-season training.

Train hard, but train SMART,

John Cortese BS, YFS

Guns, jacks, pipes, hooks, pythons… Whatever you call them, the fact remains that most guys want bigger arms. While they are nowhere near as impressive as a big set of traps, you still don’t want to have and extra six inches of space in your shirt sleeves; that’s for sure. So the question is how to build bigger arms? The answer is not as simple as you might assume. If it were easy, you would see tons of guys walking around with 18 inch arms. But that simply isn’t the case.

It’s been said over and over again that in order to add an inch to your upper arms you need to gain ten pounds of bodyweight. This advice has become gospel and it seems that nearly everyone agrees with this these days. Real world evidence shows that this is not the case, however. Walk into any public gym on a Monday night at five o’clock and you will see quite a few skinny guys, weighing no more than 170 pounds, who are sporting decent sized arms.

Many of them probably have not gained more than 10 or 15 pounds total since they started training but they all have put more than an inch or two on their arms. This is because localized hypertrophy/ muscle growth will take place if enough volume is present, without a large increase in bodyweight. Look at the calves on soccer players or the forearms on mechanics. But this only happens up to a certain point.

So these young guys read in some magazine about how to build bigger arms and start by doing ten sets of arms two or three days a week. The volume is enough to elicit a growth response and they may even get a good eight weeks out of this and a quick two inches of arm growth in the absence of any significant weight gain. Seems to defy the ten pounds per inch rule, right?

But what happens after that? Where do they go from there? The gains will halt and there will be absolutely no more arm growth whatsoever unless they make some drastic changes. And that is the pitfall of high volume training- where can you go when you plateau? Add more volume? At what cost? How much volume can you add? If ten sets isn’t enough should you try twenty? And then thirty? And eventually a hundred?

There’s nowhere to go with this approach. Like I said, it’s great for some quick gains on your arms but isn’t a long term approach. Once you hit a plateau you have no choice but to start lifting heavier weights and eating more. More weight on the bar and more food on your plate is the fastest way to increase the size of any body part. All the fancy supersets, drop sets, tri sets, pre exhaustion, post exhaustion techniques in the world won’t help in the least if you are not doing those two very important things.

Beginners can train the arms three times per week and intermediate and advanced lifters seem to do better training them twice per week. Stick with big exercises like close grip chin ups, barbell curls, hammer curls, towel curls, dumbbell curls, parallel bar dips, close grip benches, and lockouts. You shouldn’t need more than 2-4 sets of biceps and triceps twice per week to achieve optimal growth, providing that you are always increasing your loads and steadily adding more calories to your diet. After a couple of heavy sets finish your arm workout by getting the biggest pump possible with one or two higher rep sets.

For more information on how to build bigger arms and increase the size of every other body part, check out http://www.MuscleGainingSecrets.com/ now.

Train hard,

Jason Ferruggia

About the Author:

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more How to Build Muscle Fast tips, check out http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/

If you were ever curious to see how I structure speed and strength training programs for athletes that I work with, you’ll enjoy the sample week of training that I’ve been putting a group of athletes through recently (2 football players; 1 HS, 1 College; and 1 female College soccer player). We have a unique situation in that I only see them 4 days out of the week (M, T, Th, F); Normally I would prefer a 3-day training week, but this schedule worked out for everyone. Also, due to scheduling and other group programs being run, we have 2 days in the actual facility itself where I work for traditional strength work; the 2 speed days are out at a local park that has a nice set of hills and flat grass field- perfect for us! Ideal schedule/template? There are “better”, but it actually has worked out really well. Some would stress out about this, but you gotta make it happen!

Weekly Breakdown

Mondays and Thursdays: These days are devoted to getting the athletes FAST and EXPLOSIVE. Since these qualities are in higher priority for all 3 of these athletes, I placed them on days where they had at least 1 full day of rest prior to engaging in this type of work. We work on different qualities on this day including: speed drills, speed mechanics, explosive medicine ball throws, hill sprints, short COD (change of direction) drills like the pro-agility or 3-cone drill, and some basic 1 and 2-legged jumps. Usually we are done in 55-60 minutes tops, including the warm-up. Sounds short, but if you are truly training for explosive power and speed, the focus should always be QUALITY not QUANTITY. I definitely watch form closely on everyone of them and if they start to look sluggish or tired, I will call whatever drill we are doing and move on to something else, or even cut it short and call it a day.

Tuesdays and Fridays: These days are devoted to developing muscular hypertrophy and relative/absolute body strength. Since the legs are worked pretty damn hard on the speed days prior, the lower body lifting volume is not nearly as close to the upper body lifts we do; not to say we don’t squat or deadlift, the volume just isn’t as high as usual. These sessions are pretty short as well, normally taking no longer than 60 minutes with a 10-15 warm up. They usually show up 5-10 min early anyways so this helps me out also. I make each of their lifting programs slightly different because they all have different needs, even working around a nagging injury(s).

Wednesdays/OFF Days I don’t see the athletes on this day, but I’ve encouraged to do lots of mobility and stretching on their own. Something very basic and easy that they can do on their own is tempo runs on a grass field; 10 x 100 yard “rhythm runs” with a set of 20 crunches or push ups in between will help promote recovery between sessions and keep the body active; also acts to “flush” the muscles and remove any excess waste product. The number 10 is nothing special, that’s just what I like to start most out at. Keep in mind these are not run fast; they are run relaxed and at a 65-70% effort (if your 100 time is 11.0, the runs would be in the 18-19 sec range).

OK, enough with the boring stuff. Check out the sample week below.

*Disclaimer= use at your own discrepancy. I’m not responsible for any injury that may arise from strenuous exercise. Make sure to warm up properly and be smart! To see how I warm up for speed training, watch my warm-up video below. This is just an example for the given scenario (I only have 6 weeks, 4 sessions per week to work with these athletes so this is unique to the given scenario and needs of the athletes); just a friendly reminder.

Also note: 1A/1B = Perform 1 set of “1A”, then move onto “1B”, then back to “1A”. Rest periods are not set in stone. Take as little rest as possible/needed without it negatively affecting performance. For heavier/max strength sets typically 3-4 minutes, sub-max weights typically 60-120 seconds. Females and younger athletes need less rest, older/experienced lifters and males typically need longer rest breaks. Use this as your guideline.

Week 1

Monday and Thursday

Warm up (assume same warm up for All 4 days):

• Dynamic Flexibility/Movement Prep x 10 repetitions each: front leg swings, side leg swings, arm circles, walking lunge, reverse lunge, lateral lunge, toy soldiers, back roll over/v-sit stretch, Hip Circles.
  
• Glute Activation x 8 repetitions each: Bird-dogs, bridging, Fire Hydrants
• Drills 2 x 10 yards: Running A’s, A-Skip, B-Skip, Skips for Height, 1-leg hop forward, 1-leg hop side-side, Pogo Jumps.

Med Ball Throws: Squat throw x 5, OHB x 5.

Speed: 2 x 10 Hill sprint, 5 x 15 Hill Sprint, 5 x 20 Hill sprint (use various starts); walkback recovery.

Jumps: 2-leg hops up hill x 3 x 15-20 yards.

Cooldown light strides, stretch, mobility, foam roll if possible.

Tuesday

*Warm Up

1a.) Bench Press work up to 5RM

1b.) Stretch Lats and Hip Flexors between each set of BP.

2a.) Pull Ups 3-5 x 6-8 (add weight when necessary)

2b.) Push Ups 3-5 x 10-15(add weight when necessary)

2c.) Walking Lunge 3-5 x 10/leg (long strides)

3a.) Band Good Morning OR GHR 2-3 x 8-12

3b.) Hand Walks on Power Wheel or Planks 3 x 30-60 seconds

4.) Sled Drags 4-8 x 30 yards (forward/backward), 45-70 sec rest between drags.

Wednesday: Active recovery. 10 x 100m tempo runs on grass at 65-70% effort. Perform 20 crunches and 20 push ups between each run during your rest period. Once you’re done with the crunches/push ups, get right back into the next run. Keep the same speed! Finish as you start. Long stretch afterward.

Thursday: See Monday above. Same format as Monday, except this time the hill sprints will be as follows: 5 x 10, 2 x 5 x 20. Walkback recovery. Distance is in yards.

Friday:

1A.) Deadlift 4-6 x 3-5

2A.) DB 1-Arm Clean/Press 3-4 x 4-8/arm

2B.) Inverted Row 3-4 x max reps

3a.) DB Bench Press 2-3 x 8-12

3b.) Bulgarian Split Squat 2-3 x 6-8/leg

3c.) Pikes or Hanging Leg Raise 2-3 x 10-15

4.) Sled/Tire Drags (optional) 4-8 x 30 yards

Sat/Sun: Typical OFF day but I encourage moving somewhat i.e. getting out the house and walking around, swimming, hike, go run around at the beach, etc. Just stay moving and have fun but this is the time your body will use to recover from a tough training week.

Go ahead and try this out if you want! If  you have questions post them below.

If  you liked this post and sample training program, keep your eyes open in the next couple months. I just may have the speed and strength/power training solution you’ve been waiting for to totally dominate your sport and blow away your friends/family. Stay tuned!!

See ya,

John Cortese

Where to Start

A very simple way to begin to incorporate jump training into your program is to place them in the warm up prior to engaging in your strength work. I like to stick with a lower volume approach; 10-20 jumps for a while until you adapt. Any more than this is pretty much unnecessary and only increases the likelihood of you hurting yourself or your athletes/clients. Performing jumps prior to strength training has a number of benefits, including:

• Priming the CNS (central nervous system) to recruit the HTMU’s (high threshold motor units), which will call upon the fast twitch/white muscle fibers to start working NOW and get ready to lift very heavy.
  
• They get the body and mind warmed up efficiently.
  
• Keeps you moving and feeling athletic (what good is all that strength if you can’t display it on the field with some speed and power?)
  
• Trains mobility, spatial awareness, and body control. As you land from a basic jump, box jump, etc, you must have decent mobility to get into proper positions to avoid injury; and you must have good body awareness and coordination to stop from falling over.
  

How often should I be jumping?

It depends, really. If you are involved in a sport that requires a HIGH amount of jumping already (basketball, volleyball, etc) then the need for extra jump training may not be very high on the list of priorities. If you are not involved in a sport but still want to jump and feel athletic again, begin by placing 1-2 jump training sessions in per week, preferably before you lift and on non-consecutive days. For example, you could simply perform your warm up, then perform 8-10 sets of 1-3 box jumps, working up to a max height for the day. Then, 2-3 days later, you could perform 6-8 sets of 2-3 standing long jumps going for a max distance. Each time you jump you would ideally work to break the previous weeks’ record. This is a big key to making consistent gains and progress; always shoot to break records! (Below you’ll see a recent video of me hitting a PR Box Jump of 50 inches. Use caution and be smart when performing box jumps at near-maximal heights!)

Don’t make this very fancy or complicated. I think every person, regardless of whether you are a competitive athlete or looking to add some muscle and lose fat, should be jumping and sprinting. It is fun and keeps you athletic, which in the long run will prevent injuries just in case you decide one day to play a game of pick up football or need to sprint. After all we were designed to move this way!

Leave me a comment below with your favorite ways to develop power in your own training or for your athletes! This is NOT the only method I use to develop power, but when in doubt, basic jump training will win over any fancy method any day!

See ya!

John Cortese

If you want to run fast and excel in your given sport, you need to train properly for it. Unfortunately most of the athletes and coaches I come into contact with have zero clue on how to train for optimal sprint speed, or still are under the assumption that “Speed can’t be taught”. That’s just a pathetic excuse for not knowing what you’re doing, or simply a lack of “know-how”.

It pisses me off to no end when I see athletes run into the ground 4-5 days per week year round; this is NOT speed training. Everyone can get faster with proper training; it doesn’t mean EVERY athlete has the potential to run a 4.3 40, but EVERY athlete has the potential to run faster than they think.

Here are 5 ways that should set you on the right path to running faster, as well as decreasing your risk of injury (i.e. hamstring pulls which can be easily prevented with a properly designed program and competent coach) and prolonging your athletic career as long as possible.

#5- Less is More- Training for speed is definitely a minimalist approach. You should always, always, always follow the “less is more” philosophy. Endless repeat sprints done while fatigued will do absolutely nothing for speed development; sure you’ll be tired and sore, but the longer you stay sore, fatigued, and beat up from training, the less likely your so called “speed” sessions will be effective. Most people can see great gains in speed from only sprinting twice a week, with at least 48 hours in between speed sessions.

#4- Run Fast, but know when to STOP- If you want to be a speed demon, you must practice running fast; this is a skill, peeps. You must get repetitions under your belt to get better at it, just like any other skill you want to get good at. But, like I mentioned above, you must know when to call it quits in a training session. If fatigue sets in, form suffers, or you just don’t feel “right” don’t be afraid to cut your losses and end the session early. You can always come back next time. It’s always better to under-train than to over-train and risk serious injury. Be smart!

#3- Plan Ahead- Don’t just go out and run random distances and drills. You should always have a purpose or method to your madness. Know your sport; for example, does it make any sense whatsoever for a baseball player to run 3 miles every single day, when the furthest he will sprint from base to base is 30 yards? Think about that for a second… You will NOT get faster from running slow, long distance runs. It will do nothing but make you slower and weaker.. Not a good recipe for making an athlete fast and explosive.

#2- Develop Acceleration FIRST If you want to run fast, you must have your ability to accelerate in place first. I follow the “short-to-long” principle for speed development (thanks Charlie Francis) which basically starts any athlete learning how to accelerate over very short distances of 5-20 meters for a few weeks, then gradually extending the distances out as the acceleration mechanics and times improve.

#1- Throw the gadgets away!!- Parachutes, ankle weights, hand weights, partner resisted harnesses, acceleration ladders,  etc. These are the biggest waste of time and money for speed development, period. When you are trying to execute proper technique, relaxation, and speed drills under heavy resistance that will slow limb velocity down, what do you think is going to happen? All form will most likely go out the window; do this repeatedly over and over and you can expect to run slower and have shitty sprinting mechanics. Ever hear the term “going nowhere fast” or “spinning your wheels in the mud”? Same principles apply here..

Once you’ve realized that you don’t need a whole lot of fancy gadgets, 45 minute warm ups, parachutes, and scientific-breakthrough-advanced-Russian-Soviet squat program to become a better athlete, you’ll never go back. Keep it simple!!

Leave me a comment below and let me know your take on speed development! I welcome all suggestions, comments, and questions.

Til next time..

John Cortese

Is a “Pump” Needed to Build Muscle?

By Jason Ferruggia

Who could ever forget that famous line from Pumping Iron where Arnold said that getting a good pump was better than sex?

We all laughed, although some of us harder than others, because deep down we agreed with what he said. But after all these years, the question still remains- is a good pump a defining component of a productive muscle building workout. Is it really that important?

Some people emphatically state that getting a good pump is necessary if you want to build muscle. There are no studies that show this to be true, but real world evidence shows that there is something to getting a good pump. First of all, the ability to easily obtain a good pump is a sign that your body is in an anabolic state and ready to train. It shows us that the body and the cells are well hydrated and ready to grow.

Some days, you go to the gym and can’t get a pump no matter what you do. Those are days that you probably shouldn’t even be training. Your body is telling you something, and that something is that you are not in an anabolic state, probably not fully recovered, and you are not ready to train. In other words you will not be building muscle on that day.

As far as the pump having an anabolic effect, this is debatable, but most bodybuilders swear that there is something to it. When you get a good pump, you are delivering tons of nutrient-rich blood to the muscles that will greatly increase amino-acid uptake. Theoretically, this should result in a greater anabolic effect.

The kind of training that stimulates a good pump causes sarcoplasmic and mitochondrial hypertrophy. This is the kind of hypertrophy which is lost very quickly when you stop training. It is completely different from myofibrillar hypertrophy, which comes from heavy training and lasts much longer. However, sarcoplasmic and mitochondrial hypertrophy is necessary if you want to be as big as humanly possible.

So, while it isn’t proven by science, there is probably something to gain from getting a good pump. Having said that, I definitely wouldn’t make it the focus of your workout. Chasing the pump and disregarding all of the principles of effective training is one of the biggest mistakes you can make and will do nothing to help you build lean muscle.

You can get a great pump from doing 50 pushups but everyone knows that’s not going to build muscle. Just mindlessly pursuing a pump will get you nowhere and may even cause losses in size and strength. However, after you have done the bulk of your workout you can always finish with a backoff set, a rest/pause set or even an occasional drop set to maximize your pump and thus maximize your body’s muscle building potential.

For example, on your chest workout you could do a couple heavy sets on the bench press for 5-6 reps and then finish with one higher rep set of 8-12 on dips to get a great pump. If you do this you hit a variety of muscle fibers and target both types of hypertrophy. That way you get the best of both worlds.

Remember, it isn’t necessary and should never be the focus of your workouts (heavy training should) but getting a good pump tells you that you’re ready to build muscle and can even maximize your potential to do so.

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He has trained thousands of clients during his 14 years as a professional fitness coach, including more than 500 athletes from over 20 different sports. Jason has written hundreds of articles for numerous top rated training magazines and websites and has authored four fitness books. He is also the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more great muscle building information, please visit http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com

Muscle Building Nutrition

By: Jason Ferruggia

It has been said that nutrition is responsible for 80% of your muscle building results. I think that is dramatically overstating it but nutrition is critically important to your muscle building efforts. Without proper nutrition you will never build the physique you desire. Below are a few easy to follow nutrition rules that will help you get bigger and leaner. Follow these rules and you will reach your goals, ignore them and you could be in for years of frustration.

• Eat every 2-3 hours. Doing this keeps your body in an anabolic state and keeps your metabolism running along at high speeds so that you don’t get fat. If you need 3,000 calories per day to build muscle, it is much more effective to have five 600 calorie meals or six five hundred calorie meals than it is to have three big 1,000 calorie meals. Doing that leads to fat accumulation and also has you going too long without eating which only leads to muscle loss.

• Build your meals around a base of lean protein. Protein is what builds muscle, so every time you sit down to eat you should be consuming some kind of protein. That should be the main focus of each meal. Once you have that covered you can add in starchy carbs, vegetables and good fats. As far as daily protein requirements go, you should shoot for one gram per pound of bodyweight per day. The only time you would need more than this is when you are dieting and your carbs are extremely low.

• Eat vegetables at every meal except breakfast. Not only are vegetables incredibly healthy because they provide tons of nutrients and fiber but they also slow down the absorption of your meals leading to less bodyfat accumulation.

• Eat organic foods whenever possible. There is so much artificial crap in the food we eat these days that it is really a very wise decision to eat organic as often as you can. This includes meats, fruits, veggies and grains.

• Avoid sugars, artificial sweeteners and saturated fats as much as possible. The consumption of sugar and saturated fat is what leads to numerous health problems and diseases. Too much saturated fat and sugar consumption also leads to inflammation in the body and can actually worsen nagging injuries and lead to other aches and pains. Many people actually notice a reduction in back pain once they cut saturated fat and sugar from their diet. Some saturated fat in meats is ok from time to time, but you should really try to cut out the sugar and artificial sweeteners. Although they don’t talk about it much in this country there is plenty of evidence that artificial sweeteners are not the least bit healthy.

• Eat most of your carbs at breakfast and immediately before and after your workout. Those are the times when your insulin sensitivity is highest and when you will use carbs most efficiently with the least risk for body fat gain. Don’t be scared to eat carbs at this time because most of them will be used for building muscle and will not usually add to body fat accumulation.

• Drink at least a half gallon of water per day. Doing this keeps you well hydrated which keeps your performance levels high. Even a slight drop in hydration will cause a drop in performance. A half gallon is a good start but a gallon is usually better, especially in the summer.

• Pay strict attention to your sodium intake. When I say that I mean it in the opposite way that most people and doctors would think I mean it. I mean that you must be sure that your sodium intake is adequate. This is especially true for athletes who play in the summer time when it’s hot out and you are sweating a lot. Without adequate sodium intake, your performance can suffer drastically. Adequate sodium levels also help to maintain strength levels while dieting.

About the author:

Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For more muscle building nutritional tips, check out http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com

Why Cardio Doesn’t Work for Fat Loss

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Cardio exercise is such a strange thing. In theory, it should work so perfectly well for all men and women, but as anyone who has tried it knows,  the practicality of it just doesn’t add up. After all, some men and women do cardio 6 hours, 9 hours, or more per week, and still have belly fat to burn. On the other hand, it works just fine for others.

British researchers wanted to get more insight into this paradox, and studied 35 overweight men and women, who weren’t previously exercising. (Reference: International Journal of Obesity 32: 177-184, 2008). Subjects exercised 5 times per week for 12 weeks. That’s a lot ofexercise, but it helped the subjects lose an average of 8.2 pounds, which is great – I was positively surprised by the results.

So cardio will work for some people, however, in my experience, it works best in young men, who need the help the least!

Back to the study, the variance in fat loss between individuals was huge. Check this out…

The best subject lost a staggering 32.3 pounds in 12 weeks, while the worst subject actually GAINED 3.74 pounds. The scientists think they know where things went sour. They classified the subjects into 2 groups, called the “Compensators” and the “Non-compensators”. The Compensators were hungrier, and as a result consumed an extra 268 calories per day, all but wiping out their cardio efforts. Therefore, the Compensators lost the least amount of weight, and scientists believe that was due to the huge “compensatory” increase in appetite experienced by this group. Does your appetite increase when you do slow cardio? If it does, research shows it will ruin your cardio efforts.

So if your cardio program is not working for you, check your appetite and calorie intake to see if you are “compensating” for your efforts. If you are, you might be better off using a program of high-intensity resistance and interval training (i.e. Turbulence Training) for your weight loss efforts.

As Australian Professor Steve Boucher has shown in research, interval training increases hormones called catecholamines. And increased catecholamines can reduce appetite, among other fat-burning benefits. In the real world, few people lose 33 pounds after 12 weeks of cardio. Heck, few even achieve an average weight loss of 8 pounds with aerobic exercise.

So again, check your appetite, and consider giving high-intensity exercise a go for your next workout program.

Beat the curse of cardio with high-intensity Turbulence Training.

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

Author, Turbulence Training

About the Author

Learn about the “Dark Side of Cardio” in the free report from Craig Ballantyne at www.TurbulenceTraining.com. Craig is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Supercompensation occurs after a recovery period from consecutive weeks of hard training. Do it right and you'll find new personal records!

What is a Deload week?

A deload week simply is when you significantly reduce overall training volume, intensity, frequency, or a combination of different factors. I have used all 3 before in my own training and all hold merit. I personally favor reducing overall training volume but keeping the intensity on the higher end (75-90% range). This still allows you to maintain strength from the loading or overreaching period from the previous phases while allowing your body to recover and express your true levels of strength, speed, and fitness. Honestly though, even if you were to slightly decrease training intensity (percentage of your 1 rep maximum lifted) you aren’t going to lose much strength if any at all.

How to Deload

Luckily this isn’t very hard. You simply have to make minor adjustments to your overall training plan. (You do have a plan, right?) Let’s say for example you’ve been training on a 4-day upper/lower split. A sample lower body day might look something like this:

Week 7

Monday- Lower

1A.) Back Squat 6 x 4 (worked up to 345 x 4)

2A.) Bulgarian Split Squat 3 x 10

2B.) GHR 3 x 8-12

3A.) Ab wheel/Back Extension Superset 2-3 x 12-15

Backward Sled Drag x Max distance in 5 minutes

During your deload week, you simply would reduce training volume by 50% and reduce training intensity to around 70-75%.

Week 8 (Deload)

Monday-Lower

1A.) Back Squat 4 x 3 x 70-75% estimated 1RM

2A.) Bulgarian Split Squat 2 x 8

2B.) GHR 2 x 8

3A.) Ab Wheel/Back Extension Superset 2 x 10-12

Conditioning Optional*

It doesn’t look like much, but that’s the idea for a deload week. You should be able to get in and out of the weight room in less than 45 minutes tops. And that’s assuming your warm-up is around 10-12 minutes. Every session should leave you feeling refreshed. You should also pay special attention to warm up and regeneration techniques during this time. This is a week devoted to recovery and allowing the body to rebound from an intense loading phase.

When to Deload and Planning Ahead

Typically, the deload or unloading week would occur every 4 or 5 weeks in a perfect world. But everyone responds differently to training and loading. I’ve gone 8-9 weeks with training very hard without ever stopping to deload, but looking back it was pretty foolish. So how can this be implemented? In my opinion you should allow yourself 1 week on every 4^th or 5^th week during a training cycle to deload; not only is this important physically, it is very important mentally and emotionally as well. So assuming you plan ahead at least 12 weeks, on every 4^th week you would take a week to reduce training volume and intensity.

After a period of progressively overloading the athlete with volume and training that they aren’t typically used to, a period of regeneration and recovery time must be used in order for supercompensation to occur (refer to above graph to see an illustration of what I mean) and the athletes true state of fitness to shine through. “Fatigue masks fitness”; in other words, you will not allow yourself to truly express personal best levels of performance if you are constantly in a state of overreaching and fatigue.

Plan accordingly for this to occur to help prevent injuries, keep the athletes fresh, and constantly look for new personal bests in strength and speed.

What to Expect

If you’re doing it correctly, you’ll feel very refreshed and ask “that’s it”? Again, don’t over think this and second guess yourself. Like Jim Wendler has stated on deload weeks “You won’t get weaker during this period. If you do, it’s all in your mind”. Training is a long-term progression and should be planned with periodic recovery/light/back-off (whatever you want to call it) weeks that help prevent injury and constant overreaching or chronic fatigue.

Do this right and you’ll be on your way to feeling great, breaking records, and asking yourself “why the hell have I not been doing this before?”

‘Til Next time…

John Cortese

PS- Questions or comments? Feel free to leave me some love below!!