It seems like we are all guilty when it comes to looking for easier methods for better results from exercise. There is no easy way out or short cuts when performing high intensity workouts! Hard work is the key for producing better results when strength training.
Progressive weight training routines have been part of my fitness lifestyle for over forty years. I have always taken a logical approach while never letting it consume my life.
What I mean by consuming my life is I don’t spend 7 days a week in the gym doing multiple sets. Quite the contrary… For example, during the past twenty years I have never strength trained more than two times per week. Today, I train every seven to ten days. For example, for the past thirteen weeks (1/4 of the year), I have strength trained ten times with only nine exercises in each workout. The mean average time per workout was 22 minutes and 40 seconds. Each of my strength training routines varied and no two were alike, yet the total body was exercised during each high intensity workout.
The key factor in these ten workout sessions was reducing the speed of movement in each repetition. To accomplish this I had to reduce the weight or resistance slightly because the slower speed of movement totally eliminated any momentum whatsoever and I time every workout in minutes and seconds.
Each high intensity exercise was performed with a 5-second count on the lifting portion of the high intensity exercise and a 10-second count on the lowering portion for a total of 15-seconds per strict rep. Momentary muscular failure for each high intensity exercise during the strength training workout was achieve within 65 to 90 seconds. Therefore, I am working as hard as possible within the “Anabolic Threshold” that is necessary for building muscular strength and muscle mass.
In other words, by eliminating momentum and emphasizing the lowering portion of the exercises, the quality of each high intensity exercise is increased therefore the results are:
Greater stimulation producing increased muscular strength and muscle mass
Greater safety during your high intensity workouts to reduce injury concerns
What more can you ask for?
Follow my simple strength training program, The Last Rep Advanced Video Series and you will be on your way to greater strength and muscle mass for better quality of life!
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Leave A Reply (3 comments So Far)
Calvin Poole
599 days ago
Dear Mr. Flanagan,
I know that you are busy, and it may be hard to get you, so I was going to go ahead and ask some of the strength questions that I had. I worked out regularly until I was 37, now being 54. At that time, I was on a split routine with free weights. Frankly, I got bored and burned out spending all that time in the gym and working out 2-4 hours a day, at least 5 days a week. After 16 years, I woke up and realized that I was fat and out of shape with all the problems that go along with it. To make things worse, I have 2 sons in kinesiology, or the study of muscles and their function, so I am dealing with 2 “experts”. I had started back on my routine program of years ago, and have had some good results, but 1) not what I was hoping, and 2) I don’t have the time, energy or desire to spend 2-4 hours 5X/week, working out after working 12 hours. The oldest son said that his football team had tried the H.I.T. program when he was in High School and it didn’t work. My “logical” mind is trying to figure out how working 20 minutes 2X/week can work ( or what ever your program suggests).
The programs that they mapped out for me, actually takes more time. There is also the incentive that older men, such as you and me can actually come up with something “new” that would work as good or better.
Also, I am now living in a rural area in an old family house with no area to put weights, so have been using a Bowflex revolution as well as a regular Bowflex at a house that I live in when I am working out of town. Would your program be conducive to using these machines?
I would appreciate any direction that you could give me on this problem.
Thank you in advance,
Calvin P. Poole, Jr Md
Calvin Poole
594 days ago
Dear Mr. Flanagan,
You have mentioned working out with machines, as well as free weights and body weight exercises in your monthly bulletin. Can one use the Boxflex for these? Can one use the bowflex for the 15 second rep that you have described?
Thank you
Calvin Poole
admin
592 days ago
Dr. Poole,
The protocols and guidelines at http://www.ProperStrengthTraining.com
will apply to any fitness or strength training equipment you have access to.
I highly recommended that you understand the value, limitations, and risks of the equipment you are using.
Therefore, if you would like to discuss this personally with me on a fee-for-service basis, please contact info@properstrengthtraining.com to set up a phone consultation.
Thank you for your interest in my programs at http://www.ProperStrengthTraining.com.
I look forward to having you as a member.
Jim Flanagan