.gif "IP Gear")
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2002
- Messages
- 8,859
having the opportunity to own my own gyms, you see people lifting everyday, hour after hour. i see every method of cheating and lifting possible. i always want to ask the member what he is trying to accomplish. "are you hear to lift weights or build muscle?" there is a difference ya know!
the worst thing anyone can do is watch some of the workout tapes available. whether it be one of the battle for the olympia tapes or one of the personal tapes you will see some serious cheating done by the pros. is that bad? not if you know how to throw the stress on the target muscle. can everyone benefit from cheating? not really. if you are a new lifter then i believe that form should be the utmost importance. learn to feel the muscle working. after gaining some considerable experience then venture off to experiment with some momentum and looser style reps.
i bring this up also because i beleiev for alot of the pros it does not matter what or how they lift. i have seen a considerable amount train. they all use loose form and half movements ect. but, does that mean we should... ya know, the "not so genetically endowed".i rememebr watching dillett train in acalifornia a few years back and thinking "maybe he know something i do not" he trained in a loose fashion with half rep presses and fast cadence. but then i realized that this a man who, before he took gear, had twenty inch arms. he always did brag about his great genetics.
so this realization again brought me back to square one.i also decided to get my tapes out and time the sets of the pros. research tells us that sets to stimulate hypertrophty should last between 30 to 45 seconds (give or take). well it was difficult to find a pro that had a set last that long because of the fast cadence of the reps and loose form. the only ones that lasted that long were aaron bakers , preists and dorians. all of whom use very good form. so how do they grow so damn big??? well, genetics has the most to do with it. sergio one time said "it does not matter what i do , my muscles will grow" he wasnt lieing.. nor was he bragging. he was stating a simple truth.
now before ya get to depressed there are ways to work around this. it brings me back to my first question. "are you a weight lifter or a bodybuilder. do you go to the gym to lift weights or do you go to stimulate growth?" we, the genetically average have got to abide by the laws of physiology. we must keep the muscle under tension for the appropriate amount of time. we must aim for a good stretch and a hard comtraction. we must feel the weight over the whole range of motion. not just focusing on getting the desired reps and sling the weight to and fro.
milos sarcev is a good example of one who takes into consideration all aspects of muscle function when he trains. when i visited the old powerhouse in fullerton ca i was amazed at the amount of well known trainers who were letting their clients just sling weight while they yelled out the reps and praised the clients for reaching their rep goals. it appeard to matter not that they did so without the slightest concern for isolating the muscle.
one other bodybuilder who impressed me with his lifting technique was stan mcquay. as most of you know , stan just won the usa championships. i watched him go through a chest workout and he was meticulous about his form. he squeezed and stretched and contracted throughout the whole set of each exercise. he made sure that he gave the muscle all he had and most of his sets were in the 45 second range. he was in a lot of pain because of this. it is harder to lift this way and takes alot of concentration and focus.
so always remeber to up the weight. but, only when you can do so honestly. it matters not that you can not do a 405 incline. most of us will never do so. lift what you can lift....and that is all that matters. remember, if your pecs look like they can do a 405 incline then that is all that matters to the most of us.
the worst thing anyone can do is watch some of the workout tapes available. whether it be one of the battle for the olympia tapes or one of the personal tapes you will see some serious cheating done by the pros. is that bad? not if you know how to throw the stress on the target muscle. can everyone benefit from cheating? not really. if you are a new lifter then i believe that form should be the utmost importance. learn to feel the muscle working. after gaining some considerable experience then venture off to experiment with some momentum and looser style reps.
i bring this up also because i beleiev for alot of the pros it does not matter what or how they lift. i have seen a considerable amount train. they all use loose form and half movements ect. but, does that mean we should... ya know, the "not so genetically endowed".i rememebr watching dillett train in acalifornia a few years back and thinking "maybe he know something i do not" he trained in a loose fashion with half rep presses and fast cadence. but then i realized that this a man who, before he took gear, had twenty inch arms. he always did brag about his great genetics.
so this realization again brought me back to square one.i also decided to get my tapes out and time the sets of the pros. research tells us that sets to stimulate hypertrophty should last between 30 to 45 seconds (give or take). well it was difficult to find a pro that had a set last that long because of the fast cadence of the reps and loose form. the only ones that lasted that long were aaron bakers , preists and dorians. all of whom use very good form. so how do they grow so damn big??? well, genetics has the most to do with it. sergio one time said "it does not matter what i do , my muscles will grow" he wasnt lieing.. nor was he bragging. he was stating a simple truth.
now before ya get to depressed there are ways to work around this. it brings me back to my first question. "are you a weight lifter or a bodybuilder. do you go to the gym to lift weights or do you go to stimulate growth?" we, the genetically average have got to abide by the laws of physiology. we must keep the muscle under tension for the appropriate amount of time. we must aim for a good stretch and a hard comtraction. we must feel the weight over the whole range of motion. not just focusing on getting the desired reps and sling the weight to and fro.
milos sarcev is a good example of one who takes into consideration all aspects of muscle function when he trains. when i visited the old powerhouse in fullerton ca i was amazed at the amount of well known trainers who were letting their clients just sling weight while they yelled out the reps and praised the clients for reaching their rep goals. it appeard to matter not that they did so without the slightest concern for isolating the muscle.
one other bodybuilder who impressed me with his lifting technique was stan mcquay. as most of you know , stan just won the usa championships. i watched him go through a chest workout and he was meticulous about his form. he squeezed and stretched and contracted throughout the whole set of each exercise. he made sure that he gave the muscle all he had and most of his sets were in the 45 second range. he was in a lot of pain because of this. it is harder to lift this way and takes alot of concentration and focus.
so always remeber to up the weight. but, only when you can do so honestly. it matters not that you can not do a 405 incline. most of us will never do so. lift what you can lift....and that is all that matters. remember, if your pecs look like they can do a 405 incline then that is all that matters to the most of us.
