After 9 months of fruitless training I decided to try a powerlifting routine I found on the internet. I gained 10 pounds in 3 months. Not great, but not bad either.
After that I joined an Olympic lifting team, and that's when things really started to come together for me. Within the first 3 months training with the team, I gained 30 pounds. Now that's good gains. As an OL'er, my coach and I weren't really concerned about adding size to my pecs or arms or any of the typical things that most people in the gym worry about. No, most of that weight went on my thighs with a little left over for my spinal erectors, traps and shoulders. Because those are the muscles that help you Snatch and Clean & Jerk more.
I still look back at my 18 year old self and think, "How much could I have gained if I had really tried to maximize hypertrophy?" Guess I'll never know.
I don't look like a bodybuilder, but I do know how to put on muscle. I've done it. I also got pretty strong while Olympic lifting. I made some mistakes though. I learned, more from those mistakes than I did from successes. But I don't want my successes or my failures to go to waste so here are 3 things that I feel every beginner should know.
Rigert is a freak.
1. Fitness is a business.
Magazines, DVD's,websites, equipment, books, training programs, consultations. All of them designed to make money. The problem is...well, let's take magazines for example. Every month that company has to come up with new content. The problem is though, training isn't that complicated. Thus the company has an incentive to break training into as many variables as possible and every month publish programs with inane, meaningless differences from previous issues. Same with those infomercial fitness products. How different do you think "Super Muscle Blaster Xtreme Fitness" is from its sequel "Super Muscle Blaster 2 Xtreme"? Not much different.
Now does that mean that all these products suck? No. Some are good, others not so good. But after you've read a few books and a few magazines, you start noticing that creators are just reusing the same material in different packaging.
2. Consistency is the most important factor.
Some exercises are better than others. Some programs are better than others. What matters most is getting in the gym and doing the work. There is a type of training called "instinctive training". Basically it means that you just decide what you're going to do when you get to the gym. I don't like it. The only people that I've seen successfully use this type of training were clearly on steroids. That said, a person who trains instinctively but is in the gym at least 3 days a week will get better results than the person isn't consistent.
3. Progress matters.
I don't care if you use 5x5, Bulgarian training. Russian training, high frequency, low frequency, Max OT or even HIT. What matter more than any of that is progression. Are you putting more weight on the bar? Are you adding more sets? More reps? You have to make some kind of progress.
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| You think Franco would be such a beast had he not tried to add weight to the bar? |
Don't misunderstand me and think that I'm saying that you must do more every workout. Quite frankly you can't do that. Don't try, you'll just burn out. Add reps, weight or sets when you can. You will have some periods of training where your lifts go up almost every session. Then you'll go months at a time with no progress. The important thing is staying consistent and making increases over the long haul.
Well, that's it for this post. I know haven't posted anything for a few weeks. Sorry about that. I'll try to do better. Check back in a few days for a new post. See you guys next time.
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