Boring But Big

Odds are that if you've been in close proximity to iron bars and cutoff shirts for any real length of time, you've heard about 5/3/1, the training program developed by monster-truck-that-walks-like-a-man Jim Wendler.

If you haven't, well, now you have.

This is a strength program developed for people who want to get stronger. If that statement seems redundant, a quick glance through one of Wendler's books will tell you that this man is nothing if not direct. No frills, no "functional" training, no imbalance correction, and no equipment that comes in colors other than gray or black. He is a meathead worthy of the title, and while he doesn't go so far as to throw decades of lifting science out the window, he insists that the only measure that matters in the gym is the weight on the bar.

Though seven years of gym experience that encompass a Bachelor's degree in Kinesiology and two training certifications, I feel I am qualified to agree that, scientifically, you should indeed lift weights in an effort to get stronger. So, you know, he has science to back him up.

I haven't had a goal to train for since competing in my first -and only- bodybuilding competition back during my Sophomore year at the University of Kentucky, so my training has been without constant direction for some time now. Like many lifters, I'd go through spurts of different programs. I did Crossfit for a year, and when my elbows stopped working I get really into the corrective exercises of rehab and prehab (go figure), then I went back to bodybuilding for size, then I decided I should have a six-pack year round (HA.), then I got into Olympic lifting....

You can see where this is going. Month after month, year after year of looking the same and being slightly more improved at whatever I was doing at the time but no stronger in anything else.

The one thing that has steadily improved over my years of program hopping has been my deadlift, due entirely to my love affair with it. Seriously, I love me some deadlift. When my deadlift hit 450 for the first time, I entertained the notion of entering a powerlifting competition, momentarily forgetting that you also have to be good at the squat and bench press and also 450 is not that impressive. Maybe I just missed that competitive drive, or maybe I just really wanted to wear a singlet, but I now have my sights set on the Georgetown Classic  as a raw full powerlifter in the 181 lb class.

Pictured: Style.

So after I finished my 10,000 kettlebell swings (really oughta post something about how that went...you know, like I said I would. Good, for the record), I needed to bulk up. At 167 lbs, I had plenty of room to go to remain in my 181 lb class. Which, finally brings me back to the 5/3/1 program.

5/3/1 is fairly simple. Your main lifts are the press, the deadlift, the bench press, and the squat. You work these lifts on separate days of the week using preset percentages based off of your training max. Your training max is defined by 90% of your best current one rep max in the gym.

Week one has you doing three sets of 5 reps at 65%, 75%, and 85% of your training max on your lift for that day.

Week two has you doing three sets of 3 reps at 70%, 80% and 90% of your training max.

Week three has you doing 5 reps at 75%, 3 reps at 85%, and 1 rep at 95%.

After this three week cycle, you add 5 lbs to your training max for your upper body lifts (the press and the bench press) and 10 lbs to your training max for your lower body lifts (your deadlift and squat).

There is a swarm of different variations and concepts, but that is the gist of the program. If you want more information, please support Jim buy actually buying the 5/3/1 training manual. His four basic principles, in particular, are fantastic, and I'd feel like I was blatantly stealing them by posting them here.

To gain some much-needed size (big muscles are strong muscles, after all), I decided to go with a hypertrophy variation of the 5/3/1 program called "Boring But Big".

In the past, "bulking" has usually consisted of me changing nothing about my training and just eating a lot. I get fat, then I hate feeling fat, than I diet off the fat and I'm back where I started with very little to show for it.

From the start, I had two advantages. The first was the 181 lb weight limit on my chosen class. I know that if I go over that limit and have to compete in the 198 lb class, I will be crushed, perhaps literally. The other is the nature of the program: high volume with slowly heavier weights.

I'm telling you all of this because I started it back in November, and it's been by far the most successful bulk I've ever done.

Disclaimer: I cheated. I didn't do the program 100% as written, because my ego thinks I know better than someone three times stronger and with decades more experience than me. My ego is dumb. Still, it sure did work.

The concept behind the program is simple. The 5/3/1 sets of the big lifts will keep you strong. To get big, though, you need lots of volume. This variation has you doing 5 sets of 10 reps of the bench press after your strength work on your press day (and vice versa) and 5 sets of 10 reps of the squat after your deadlifting strength sets (and vice versa. Yes, 5 sets of 10 deadlifts on your squat day. Yes it is awful.)

So where do you start on those five sets of ten? Easy: 50% of your training max.

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THIS. When you load up the bar with essentially 45% of your one rep max, it seems like a joke, or at the very least a warm-up set before you put the real weight on. I'll admit that my first week had me doing 5 sets of 10 reps on the bench press with 105 lbs. You read that right: an aspiring powerlifter doing 105 lbs. Most beginners start with more than that. It was humiliating, and as I was doing it I hoped people though I was coming back from an injury of some sort, like maybe I had my arms recently re-attached after a horrible farming accident. The weight felt like nothing, even when trying to throw it at the ceiling, and even after all five sets.

The next day I was so sore I could barely move my hands closer together. 50 reps is a lot, even with a "light" weight. Start light and add 5 lbs per week to your press and bench press, and 10 lbs per week to your deadlift and squat for your 5x10 sets. Going up slowly and steadily like this means at the end of the program, your volume for your squat and deadlift go up by 4500 lbs (90 extra pounds over the course of 50 reps) and your upper body pressing volume goes up by 2250 lbs (45 extra pounds over the course of 50 reps). That's a big improvement.

The last thing I'll say regarding this bulking program: Eat. Eat like you're not afraid to gain weight. Weight gainers, whole milk, jars upon jars of peanut butter; any high-calorie food that isn't junk should be going down your gullet in sizable proportions.

The Program

This is a nine week program that has you working out 4 days per week. It is structured as follows:

(note, exercises and stretches under main lifts are meant to be done in a superset fashion, alternating between the two)

Monday:

-Press: 5/3/1 sets and reps

   -Pulling exercise x 10 reps between sets (chins, rows, pullaparts, etc)

-Bench Press: 5 sets of 10 at 50% of TM (add 5 lbs next week)

   -Chin ups or pulldowns: 5 sets of 10 with moderate load

-Optional 3 sets of ten for biceps, triceps, and upper back

Tuesday:

-Deadlift: 5/3/1 sets and reps

   -Stretch hip flexors

-Squat: 5 sets of 10 reps at 50% of TM (add 10 lbs next week)

   -Ab work, 5 sets of 10 reps

Thursday:

-Bench press: 5/3/1 sets and reps

   -Wide grip pullups/pulldowns, x10

-Press: 5 sets of 10 reps at 50% of TM (add 5 lbs next week)

   -Dumbbell row: 5 sets of 10 reps at moderate load

-Optional 3 sets of ten for biceps, triceps, and upper back

Friday

-Squat: 5/3/1 sets and reps

   -Stretch hip flexors

-Deadlift: 5 sets of 10 reps at 50% of TM (add 10 lbs next week)

   -Ab work: 5 sets of 10 reps, optional crying

There you have it. By the end of this program I was much bigger and much stronger, going from benching 105 for my volume work to benching 155 (if you can do simple addition, you may notice I got ambitious one week and added 10 lbs instead of five. Ego, again, gets in the way.) My chest is much bigger, my arms are bigger (even bigger than when I finished by direct arm training program a year ago), and my squat is much, much better. This isn't some theoretical concept of bulking here; I did this. This exact thing. And it worked. It worked so well, I've put several of my clients on a similar program.

If you do it right, it will work for you too.   

Introducing Skape Fitness!

So, remember a few months back, when Darren Powers and myself had an epic contest of mass-itude challenging the very notion of what could be done with the mound of organic clay that is the human body?

You know, when we had a contest of who could look better in a month?

Well, we've set aside our differences (for the time being because I totally won and I don't think his psyche can take it much longer) and started a business venture together.

What business, you ask? Did you not read the title of this blog post?

Skape Fitness is part of a new movement in the fitness industry. I know that sounds cliche to the point of losing all meaning, but it's actually true. You see, we're finally starting to realize that the internet is a pretty neat thing, on account of its ability to share information and pictures and videos, sometimes of things that are not cats.

Online personal training is a growing industry, and for good reason. It combines the personalized workouts and instruction of an in-person personal trainer with the affordability of something you can afford. It works like this:

1. You check out our website, realize how awesome and worth it we are, and contact us.

2. We'll create your Trainerize profile for you. Trainerize is the software we use to send you workouts, and it contains a host of videos and charts to instruct you on exercise form as well as keep track of your progress. Through this software,we send you an online consultation form that lets us get to know you and your goals, you fill it out and send it back, and we give you a basic layout of a program we'd write for you.

3. If it sounds good to you (and it will), you pay for a month's worth of workouts for the price of a single in-person training session with a trainer.

4. We send you your first week's worth of workouts through the software. Please do them, this is actually the important part. Record your progress, either by printing out the workout and writing it down, or by downloading the app on your phone and recording it there. We'll be able to see your numbers like this, and it'll help us both keep track of how you're coming and what we need to adjust.

5. With this software, you'll have access to videos and written instructions of all the exercises, as well as instruction regarding sets, reps, rest, what have you. If you have any questions, you can throw them over the internet at us, and we'll throw answers back at you.

6. (Optional) You get a modeling contract with Hot Bodies That are Sexy, LLC and break the world record in the horse toss and the 400m backflip dash, two events you had to invent because you're too in-shape to do normal things.

Like this, but with the horse still attached. 

All of this, the training, instruction, and nutritional guidance that I forgot to mention, is set up to be tailored to your schedule and equipment options. If you have 8 days a week to work out in the biggest gym in Kentucky, we'll give you the absolute best program to take advantage of your options. If you have 40 minutes a week to work out in the corner of your kid's toy room using only old milk jugs and your body, we got you covered there too.

And, of course, this business is the base of operations for my personal training business at Wildcat Fitness, so you'll find all the information you want about training with me in personal on the website as well. Since in-personal training still trumps the admittedly awesome online option because of the immediate feedback and seeing my face, the ideal setup would be training with me once or twice a week, and on your own using our online services the rest of the time. It's like having a tutor and the best study guide ever and a magic potion that makes you sexier all in one.

Since I'm pretty sure it's now required by law, we are now also doing internets on Facebook and Twitter, and you should totally watch us do that. Here are the things:

Twitter Handle: @SkapeFitness

Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Skape-Fitness

We're just starting out, so we could really use the support of awesome people, and since you're reading this blog, you've passed the Awesome Litmus Test. For our first official week of business (from today until April 30, 2013) if you like, share, or scream from the rooftops our name, we will give you a free week of workouts  through our new online training program. Yes, you can do pushups and squats and one-legged Romainian Dumbbell Deadlifts the way we tell you to free for a week! How cool does that sound?

We've given you the means, now go forth and pick up heavy things, the Skape Fitness way!

Designing a Basic Workout

I have a paradoxical tendency to over-simplify things in the gym and then make them way too complicated.

By that, I mean I tell people, "Just go in there, pick up something heavy a few times, do it again, repeat until you're tired, and go home."

"Okay. How should I pick them up?"

"Well, pick 1-2 exercises from each of the upper-body push, upper-body pull, lower-body knee-dominant, lower-body hip dominant, and core anti-mover categories, do 2-4 sets of 6-12 repetitions with a weight that is 70%-90% of your one-rep max, and do this 2-4 times per week."

"At some point during that sentence, we stopped being friends."

"...Aw."

As much as I like to make things a simple as possible, I do realize there's a bit more to fitness than picking up  heavy stuff.

I joined my first gym when I was 17 years old. I had been doing push ups, pull ups, curls, and step-ups (onto my rolling computer chair, which I don't recommend unless someone is recording you) at home, and I thought I was in good enough shape to progress to a big-boy gym without embarrassing myself too much.The problem was I had absolutely no structure working out at home; I'd do ten push ups, then ten curls, then I'd watch TV until the next commercial break, then I'd see if I could do eight pull ups and decide that six was still pretty good, then I'd eat a sandwich and do some crunches.

I've yet to see a similar routine in MuscleMag.

So when I finally made it into a big room with benches and weights and the AB DOLLY PRO X I was absolutely clueless. I spent about thirty minutes doing three sets of pull-ups, and then one of the regulars felt pity and let me work in during his routine.

When I got home, I did my research. I'm about to write out the routine I wish I'd found at 17.

Justin's Template for the Basic Workout

Pick one exercise from the following categories:

Upper Body Push

Push up, Bench Press, Dumbbell Shoulder Press

Upper Body Pull

Pull up, Dumbbell Row, Inverted Row

Lower Body Knee-Dominant

Goblet Squats, Barbell Back Squat

Lower Body Hip-Dominant

Deadlift, Kettlebell Swing

Core Anti-Movement

Front Plank, Ab Wheel Rollouts

-Do these exercises in a circuit if you can, with about one minute of rest between each. Repeat this circuit three times.

-If you can't do them in a circuit, do all three sets of one exercise before moving to the next, with one minute of rest between sets.

-Perform each exercise for ten repetitions, with a weight that feels heavy around the eighth rep. If you're doing a body weight exercise, feel free to go above or below ten reps depending on your ability. For the front plank exercise, start at twenty seconds.

-Do this routine three times per week. Pick a different exercise from each category every time if you can. Write down your weights and reps, and try to get better at one or the other when you do the same exercise at a later date. 

There you have it. Simple, but hopefully not too simple. I think my 17-year-old self could benefit greatly from this, though if he keeps eating a Tony's pizza every night and avoiding protein at all costs it probably won't do him much good. 

If you would like further elaboration, feel free to leave a comment or contact me on my Google + page, because using that instead of Facebook makes me feel special and unique. 

Go forth and lift heavy things.

I S.A.I.D. K.I.S.S.

Exercise physiology has experienced a boom in popularity in the past decade or so, and with the nation's omnipresent obesity epidemic, we're finally getting the respect we deserve as a profession. As I've mentioned before, personal trainers are good for more than just counting reps, and most of us have a well of knowledge that rivals any other profession.

Sometimes, that screws things up.

When you're in possession of that much knowledge, you want to apply all of it, all the time, to show off that you do actually know what you're talking about. Pick up the latest issue of Men's Health and you're bound to see some fitness guru demonstrating barefoot one-legged Yugoslavian kettlebell chops on a balance node to work on improving neuromuscular adaptation, endocrine response, core strength, and sex drive all at the same time.

This is called the hyperextension with  dumbbell scarecrow twist.
I'm not kidding.

I don't think the smart guys over at Men's Health or magazines like it are trying to mess with us by throwing in ridiculous exercise variations like this. They just know if they printed "squat heavy twice a week" every month, people would get bored in a hurry, because the newest stuff must me be the most effective, right? And hey, they're not wrong. To quote Dan John, "Everything works...for about two to six weeks."

Whenever I get off track following the latest fad in fitness, before I take it to heart, I think of two acronyms that never fail to keep me on the right path.

The first is S.A.I.D.

 Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demand.

 In plain English: your body does what you tell it to. If you run for a long time often enough, your body will get better at that. If you lift heavy things off the ground, your body will get better at that too. If you eat Cheetos and look at dirty pictures on the internet all day, your body will adjust to do that as efficiently as possible. 

Here's the thing: each of these goals points in a different direction. Trying to do everything at once is just pulling your body in different directions, so in the end you really end up going nowhere. If you want to get stronger, focus on that. Lift heavy things, eat, recover, and realize that you can practice balancing a barbell on your knee with your eyes closed later. 

The other one is my favorite: K.I.S.S.

Keep It Simple, Stupid.

To get stronger, pick up heavy things.

To get bigger, pick up moderately heavy things a lot.

To get leaner, eat better and keep picking up heavy things. Maybe move around a little more.

To get better at your sport, play your sport a lot.

To eat more Cheetos, buy more Cheetos.

Fundamental movements are fundamental; that one's quoting Mike Boyle. Push, pull, squat, hinge, run, throw, jump, and keep a strong core the whole time. You can reach 90% of your potential just getting better and better at the basics, and that's not just limited to weight training. 

Simplify, and adapt accordingly. 

As always, go forth and lift heavy things.

Justin is a trainer at Lift Fitness and Wellness in Lexington, Kentucky. He lifts stuff. Then, sometimes, he writes blogs, like this one and the one for Lift over at liftfitnessandwellness.blogspot.com