Training Secrets by Lyle Mcdonald - June 5th 2005

[Daniel Clough]

If you want to be told some of the secrets to training with no punches pulled read on... You had better be thick skinned though!

http://www.wannabebig.com/article.php?articleid=211

Discuss away! ;)

[bill]

bump

[MixmasterNash]

2. Training a body part less than 2X/week will not give you optimal gains. An upper/lower split done Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri is close to optimal for most. Full body twice a week can work very well. Once every 5th day is the least frequently I would ever recommend a natural train. You'll get less sore training more frequently and you'll grow better. Save once/week body part training for pro bodybuilders (read: steroid users) and the genetically elite.

Excellent!

[Anthony]

Great article.

[drew]

Great article. You'll never see this in Muscle and Fitness.

[SW]

All hail this article. Lyle, this ranks in the top 3 most useful things I've ever read on WBB, and I've read most of it.

[Anthony]

This article is what made me go to the gym tonight, despite my gazillion excuses. Turns out I matched a PR and set another. :D

[shootermcgavin7]

The best part about this article is that it makes you feel like crap even though it doesn't really tell you anything you didn't already know.

[manowar669]

I saved this, and printed a few to keep in my gym bag for the next time some teenage gym-goer starts asking me questions.

4. There is truly nothing new under the sun, endless navel gazing and reductive theorizing on other 'cutting edge' sites to the contrary.

Unfortunately this is true. It has me reading the forums less often these days, since I think I have a pretty good handle on what I'm doing. I still check in, and sometimes contribute (like now). What worked for people 30+ years ago will work today. It may not be optimal, but it will work. Humans haven't changed much in the last thousand years.

[ryuage]

i only read and post on forums for entertainment now a days anyway :) it is a good pass time.

[bigsethmeister]

Originally Posted by Lyle
2. Training a body part less than 2X/week will not give you optimal gains. An upper/lower split done Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri is close to optimal for most. Full body twice a week can work very well. Once every 5th day is the least frequently I would ever recommend a natural train. You'll get less sore training more frequently and you'll grow better. Save once/week body part training for pro bodybuilders (read: steroid users) and the genetically elite.



Hold on a second... :help: :confused: :idea:

I've always thought that I would overtrain if I hit a bodypart 2x in one week. I thought that was only for guys using steroids who could recover faster than me.

As it is now I do chest and tris on day 1, rest day 2, back and biceps day 3, legs day 4, shoulders day 5.

Should I be working everything twice a week???

Really???

Seriously I am kind of stunned by this but am willing to give it a try if it might work...

[JoeyCrack]

yes, just coz u hit each bodypart 2x a week, it doesnt mean your going to be doing 2x the amount of sets.

[MixmasterNash]

Should I be working everything twice a week???

Really???

Seriously I am kind of stunned by this but am willing to give it a try if it might work...

Your body has no concept of a week. There is no physiological relation to a 7 day cycle. People use a weekly split because it fits into the schedule of their life.

To maximize gains, train a bodypart as soon as it is recovered, or potentially even before full recovery. For most people, this recovery period tends to be less than a week.

[Built]

If you want to be told some of the secrets to training with no punches pulled read on... You had better be thick skinned though!

http://www.wannabebig.com/article.php?articleid=211

Discuss away! ;)

:scratch: Not sure what I need a thick skin about for this one - once again, Lyle's right on the money.

I particularly enjoyed this:

The key to losing weight and keeping it off is the following

a. Change your eating habits: so that you're eating less

b. Change your activity patterns: so that you're expending more calories

c. Repeat: Keep doing this over a long period of time.

d. Forever: Newsflash, you don't EVER get to go back to your old eating habits unless you want to get fat again. To maintain weight loss means maintaining at least part of the changes you made to a and b.

[TTT]

Plenty of expletives, but I thought it was a good article too.

[Hatred]

Spot on in idiot's terms. If you could put that in VERY LARGE print in a 300 page book; it would sell a million copies.

Entitled: "The end-all-be-all diet"

[HobbesAB]

another excellent read. I enjoyed this one immensely.

[Wannabelean]

Would working each muscle 2 times per week too much for someone who is dieting?? Also, my legs are sore as **** for atleast 3-4 days and then they are still a little sore after that.. Working them 2 days a week could help them recover faster?

[Manveet]

Would working each muscle 2 times per week too much for someone who is dieting?? Also, my legs are sore as **** for atleast 3-4 days and then they are still a little sore after that.. Working them 2 days a week could help them recover faster?

If you are dieting, you SHOULD be training more frequently. And, as someone has already mentioned, training 2x per week DOES NOT mean you are doing 2x the volume.

[Drai's]

If you are dieting, you SHOULD be training more frequently.

?

[PowerManDL]

Has to do with gene expression/protein synthesis and keep calories shuttled where they need to be.

[Manveet]

Has to do with gene expression/protein synthesis and keep calories shuttled where they need to be.


:withstupi

[Drai's]

Has to do with gene expression/protein synthesis and keep calories shuttled where they need to be.

So basically you're saying that these factors are more important in preventing muscle catabolism as opposed to trying for anabolism in much the same way that protein consumption should actually be higher on a cut than a bulk?

[PowerManDL]

Yeah basically. It's sending the signal to keep the muscle, essentially.

[Wannabelean]

The last 50lbs I have lost while seriously training were most likely pure fat(IMO, everything feels the same and my strength is up or the same in every lift)

You are saying by training each muscle 2 times per week would still be better? I don't see the difference in working each muscle 2 times per week in 4 days and working each muscle once per week in 4 days?

Not arguing, just trying to understand.

[Reinvented]

An entertaining read to say the least. It is true, there really aren't that many new breakthoughs that have been proven. Its all a bunch of hype.

Workout hard, often, eat as cleanly as possible, and get your rest.....

how hard is that for people to understand

[Vapour Trails]

The last 50lbs I have lost while seriously training were most likely pure fat(IMO, everything feels the same and my strength is up or the same in every lift)

You are saying by training each muscle 2 times per week would still be better? I don't see the difference in working each muscle 2 times per week in 4 days and working each muscle once per week in 4 days?

Not arguing, just trying to understand.

I think the idea is you need a constant stimulus to grow. Thrashing a muscle once a week, for example, is not constant stimulus.

Another issue is soreness, I've always found the less often I work out, the more sore I get when I do. Sometimes the soreness lasts so long that I can't meet my workout schedule demands. Working a muscle more often but with less volume basically eliminated my soreness. The total number of sets performed in the span of a week remains the same with less pain.

[wrestlemaniac]

I recently switched to twice a day. An added bonus is if you train to failure going once a week the last half of your workout won't have as much weight as the first. Cut it in half and do it twice a week and the weight doesn't suffer. That was the first thing I noticed atleast.