BOLT
01-02-2007, 09:26 PM
http://www.bolttraining.com/showthread.php?t=8
Well there is the original link. I wrote this as a reference point to newbs so that they may understand the basics of how program design works.
Planning Your Workout Program
Designing a workout program is one of the most misunderstood things out there. I would highly recommend madcow2’s article on the basics of programming: http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow1/. However, I do realize most teens seem to have a very short attention span and do not have the desire to sit and read all that. So I thought I’d give you a brief summary of the basics of programming.
First of all, let’s examine how muscular hypertrophy (a muscle getting bigger) occurs. Typically, when a raw beginners starts lifting, they will grow, regardless of what it is they do. Why? Well, basically it’s about overload. Your muscles grow as a result of ADAPTATION. That is a very important word. Lifting weights is not something the body is used to. So when you start, it’s going to make the muscles bigger in order to ADAPT to the stress. Remember, the body is all about survival. It’s only going to do what is necessary to survive. So when putting the stress of weightlifting on it, it will assume it needs to adapt to that in order to stay alive… so there’s hypertrophy!
Now, what happens once the body has adapted to this workload? Well, it stops growing. I mean, why would it continue to grow once it has adapted to the stress you put on it in the first place? So, this is where progression comes in! Too many people get blinded by what the big man in the gyms says about growing. The consensus seems to be that training for hypertrophy and strength are totally different (see madcow2’s article on that). Well, me and you know why this couldn’t possibly be true because we know we will soon adapt to the stress. So how do you avoid adaptation? Well the easiest way would be to simply add weight to the bar! Your body will eventually adapt to the workload you present to it (aka, getting stronger), so the fundamental way to overcome this adaptation would be to put more weight on. This will put the body in a state where it has to continue to grow in order to ADAPT to the stress you are forcing on it.
So… then why don’t we all look Ronnie Coleman in a matter of months? Well, simply put, the body will eventually adapt to a certain type of programming in general. Let’s say you are on a 3-day full body workout. You train everything 3x a week. And you are able to get add 5lb on the squat 2x a week. Well, why can’t you continue to do this forever? In a year, you would be squatting 600lb! Well, like I said, your body adapts to the programming in general, making it more difficult to get stronger, which is your goal.
You can’t stress this enough, the body only cares about survival. It does not want you to get stronger. Why? Because it is not natural! You do not need to get stronger in order to live. All an increased amount of muscle causes the body being forced to consume more calories in order to stay alive. So this is why a change in programs is necessary once you stall on one you are already on.
Now, this does NOT mean you should keep switching up your program every couple weeks. This is not a wise thing to do. You want to get as much milk as you can from every program. One excellent one for beginners is the Starting Strength program. If you are steadily getting stronger over a period of time, why would you want to change what you’re doing? It’s working! You will only want to change when what you’re doing is not working any more, because your body has adapted to that tension placed on it.
Overtraining. I cannot essentially explain overtraining better than it has been explained in the article I linked to you above. If you refuse to read the entire article, at least read the section on overtraining, the nervous system, fatigue, etc. Overtraining is a systematic error. It occurs when you put TOO MUCH stress on the body, so that it cannot possibly adapt to it, therefore it goes into a super-survival mode, and you end up not only making no progress, but possibly getting weaker and scrawnier if it occurs over a prolonged period. Keep in mind though, this does not occur over a week. It happens over many weeks, sometimes months of being under intense stress. Read his article.
Periodization. Periodization is something that there is tons and tons of literature on around the web. You do not need to incorporate it unless you are a relatively advanced lifter, and your body has adapted to just about any type of workload you place upon it.
So essentially what it is, is that you put an increased amount of stress on the body for a few weeks, then you deload. During the deloading phase, you will give the body a complete chance to recover from the tension you put on it in the previous weeks. So basically, it is like you’ll put “too much” stress on the body by lifting more intense than the body can adapt to. Then, before it starts going into the overworking phase, you will supercompensate. Meaning, you will start lifting much, much less intense than usual, or stop altogether. Do this for about a week. And during this week, your body will be recovering from the great deal of stress being put on it in the previous weeks. This is called dual-factor training. Because there is more than one factor involved.
So I hope this has helped some people get the basic idea of how programming works. I would highly recommend Starting Strength as the program of choice to start your weightlifting journey at.
BOLT
Well there is the original link. I wrote this as a reference point to newbs so that they may understand the basics of how program design works.
Planning Your Workout Program
Designing a workout program is one of the most misunderstood things out there. I would highly recommend madcow2’s article on the basics of programming: http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow1/. However, I do realize most teens seem to have a very short attention span and do not have the desire to sit and read all that. So I thought I’d give you a brief summary of the basics of programming.
First of all, let’s examine how muscular hypertrophy (a muscle getting bigger) occurs. Typically, when a raw beginners starts lifting, they will grow, regardless of what it is they do. Why? Well, basically it’s about overload. Your muscles grow as a result of ADAPTATION. That is a very important word. Lifting weights is not something the body is used to. So when you start, it’s going to make the muscles bigger in order to ADAPT to the stress. Remember, the body is all about survival. It’s only going to do what is necessary to survive. So when putting the stress of weightlifting on it, it will assume it needs to adapt to that in order to stay alive… so there’s hypertrophy!
Now, what happens once the body has adapted to this workload? Well, it stops growing. I mean, why would it continue to grow once it has adapted to the stress you put on it in the first place? So, this is where progression comes in! Too many people get blinded by what the big man in the gyms says about growing. The consensus seems to be that training for hypertrophy and strength are totally different (see madcow2’s article on that). Well, me and you know why this couldn’t possibly be true because we know we will soon adapt to the stress. So how do you avoid adaptation? Well the easiest way would be to simply add weight to the bar! Your body will eventually adapt to the workload you present to it (aka, getting stronger), so the fundamental way to overcome this adaptation would be to put more weight on. This will put the body in a state where it has to continue to grow in order to ADAPT to the stress you are forcing on it.
So… then why don’t we all look Ronnie Coleman in a matter of months? Well, simply put, the body will eventually adapt to a certain type of programming in general. Let’s say you are on a 3-day full body workout. You train everything 3x a week. And you are able to get add 5lb on the squat 2x a week. Well, why can’t you continue to do this forever? In a year, you would be squatting 600lb! Well, like I said, your body adapts to the programming in general, making it more difficult to get stronger, which is your goal.
You can’t stress this enough, the body only cares about survival. It does not want you to get stronger. Why? Because it is not natural! You do not need to get stronger in order to live. All an increased amount of muscle causes the body being forced to consume more calories in order to stay alive. So this is why a change in programs is necessary once you stall on one you are already on.
Now, this does NOT mean you should keep switching up your program every couple weeks. This is not a wise thing to do. You want to get as much milk as you can from every program. One excellent one for beginners is the Starting Strength program. If you are steadily getting stronger over a period of time, why would you want to change what you’re doing? It’s working! You will only want to change when what you’re doing is not working any more, because your body has adapted to that tension placed on it.
Overtraining. I cannot essentially explain overtraining better than it has been explained in the article I linked to you above. If you refuse to read the entire article, at least read the section on overtraining, the nervous system, fatigue, etc. Overtraining is a systematic error. It occurs when you put TOO MUCH stress on the body, so that it cannot possibly adapt to it, therefore it goes into a super-survival mode, and you end up not only making no progress, but possibly getting weaker and scrawnier if it occurs over a prolonged period. Keep in mind though, this does not occur over a week. It happens over many weeks, sometimes months of being under intense stress. Read his article.
Periodization. Periodization is something that there is tons and tons of literature on around the web. You do not need to incorporate it unless you are a relatively advanced lifter, and your body has adapted to just about any type of workload you place upon it.
So essentially what it is, is that you put an increased amount of stress on the body for a few weeks, then you deload. During the deloading phase, you will give the body a complete chance to recover from the tension you put on it in the previous weeks. So basically, it is like you’ll put “too much” stress on the body by lifting more intense than the body can adapt to. Then, before it starts going into the overworking phase, you will supercompensate. Meaning, you will start lifting much, much less intense than usual, or stop altogether. Do this for about a week. And during this week, your body will be recovering from the great deal of stress being put on it in the previous weeks. This is called dual-factor training. Because there is more than one factor involved.
So I hope this has helped some people get the basic idea of how programming works. I would highly recommend Starting Strength as the program of choice to start your weightlifting journey at.
BOLT