Common Sense and Lifting

I'm sticking this for a bit. I want everyone to read this.

I don't have time to read it all, but overall it looks like a nice article. It got me thinking about my gym partner

"Another problem with the weak “gym lifter” is the people they surround themselves with. Usually, they surround themselves with people who are sub par and have no real goals. They don’t share any of the same aspirations to get stronger or better like their partners. The Rock said it best—these guys are real Jabroni’s. A few adjustments here and there and some real time training could yield big results for this guy from our gym. However, his lack of desire and super ego (I want, I want, I want like a baby) without the practice of form, proper technique, and hard work will never get him to where he thinks he wants to go."

okay, I finished it, and I think everyone should read it too.

I just had a quick look through it, as I'm short on time (exams next week), and this caught my attention:

What is a major movement ?

the big lifts you want to increase. Squat, deads, cleans, bench? i guess.

for example
Go for heavy squatting first, then heavy benching. After that theres not much point in doing other heavy stuff you really want to get better at. But you could do some GMs to help your squat and dead, rowing for the back, etc..

I see. And how long does it take for the CNS to..."restart" then?

hopefully, its restarted by the time you train next. I remember someone saying something like this:
If your a rational motivated lifter, when you feel motivated and ready to hit the gym again, your CNS has recovered.

Its very individual, and if you cant feel it on your body, you will in the gym. If you dont let your CNS recover between sessions, you will start missing lifts, its will eventually lead to overtraining. Unless you planned for it to happen and hit in a deload (dual factor theory)

I've just read the full article because I was watching a movie;

Is that true? And if so, to what extent? I really don't like the idea of having any serious amount of fat or gaining fat.

i havent heard of it before, but it does make sence. Since if the body has enough bodyfat it wont be in a hurry to store more, like it will be if your skinny, since the body really wants to be fat, because then you are more likley to survive.

What he's saying is too many people start bulking, start losing their precious abs and then they start cutting and never really go anywhere.

It is true for many reasons. The main one being -

Testosterone, GH, basically all the hormones involved in recovery from training require fat and cholesterol.

Holding a slightly higher bodyfat and having a little more fat in the diet will increase the bodies ability to produce these hormones.

Most research I have read shows higher test and GH levels when bf is higher.

Speaking strictly from personal experience now. I have been able to make huge gains in strength and muscle mass during times when I was holding some BF.

I recommend that anyone who is bulking should be increasing the amount of fat in their diet and trying to gain bodyfat.

It is really easy to lose the fat. It is much harder to gain the muscle.

Indeed.

So what kind of a bf% would you then recommend for bulking?

The books say anything over 15% - 20%. I have to say that I have had my best results with bf% at around 20%. Or higher.

Okay so if I do Squats and then Bench then my Rows won't do much?

That was a great article by the way. Only took about 5 minutes to read.

You should row. But I'm not quite sure what you're asking.

he said after the first 2 major movments then nothing else we do much except some isolation movements because the CNS will be dead.