The most attractive part of a bodybuilding competition, when you’re in the audience, is practically a sum of isometric contractions of the competitors’ musculature, in other words- Posing. Isometric contractions are considered to be a ‘workout’ in a sense, that deepens the hardness, detail and separation of one’s musculature. Bodybuilders nowadays pay more and more ... read more
Month: December 2017
Peak Flexion
This is a method that helps maintain the isometric tension of the working muscles, when they are in the state of complete contraction, also known as ‘Peak flexion’. From a physiological perspective, this method is a combination of dynamic and isometric muscle activity. If we look at it through the prism of bodybuilding priorities, this…
Pause-Rest
Usually, as we’ve mentioned in previous articles, a hypertrophy focused workout is done within the optimal intensity range. That is, 70~85%, using 6-8 reps for the upper body and 55-70% intensity with 60-70% higher repetitions for the lower body. Upping the intensity increases your strength and breaks the negative adaptation. However, going up to the…
Forced Repetitions
This is one of the most effective and most used bodybuilding methods.A simple look at sport methodologies, shows us that this extremely powerful method for strength and hypertrophy development is the most potent product, that came into the bodybuilding world during the last 2-3 decades. read more
Prolonged Sets
In many books and articles about bodybuilding, this is presented as a step-by-step method. This method is expressed by the gradual decrease of the working weight, once we’ve reached failure. (Don’t confuse this with drop-sets) Usually, after the point of failure, there are one, two or three (3 is the upper limit) weight reductions following…
Cheating Principle
The cheating principle is an intense method supposed to be taken as means of increasing the workload, and not making it easier to overcome. The main idea here is pointed to the strict completion of the given exercise, up until failure. After reaching failure, you start using inertial movements (cheating) to help yourself reach the…
Emotional Principle
Every bodybuilder knows that when you’re feeling emotionally fulfilled, the workout feels way better, lighter and easier overall. Even more to that, heavy sets until failure are not something you fear, but rather something you plan and look forward to in your “emotionally fulfilled” workout. read more
Sparing Principle
This is a principle, created by the famous 3 times Mr. Olympia – Frank Zane. It is a principle, that is best used by middle aged/older trainees. However, the ideas of the principle can be applied by beginners, advanced and elite athletes. The main idea of the sparing principle, is reducing and removing everything that’s…
Instinctive principle
The main idea behind this principle is doing what you feel like during your workout, without analyzing anything in regards to your training split.If this principle was viable for everyone however, the bodybuilding methodologies, that were developed throughout the past decades, would be totally irrelevant and inapplicable. read more
Sets Until Failure
This principle is the main idea of other intense methods like cheating, forced reps, prolonged sets, as well as flushing, super-sets, combinations, etc. This is a premise for us to not consider it a separate principle, but rather a foundation and an inevitable part of our body building approach. In reality, this principle is best... read more