Jump to content

Day 12 of 12 Days of VB&F - Daily Information


Recommended Posts

12 Days of Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness - December 20-31, 2011

Vision: To create a structure and formula for success in a health and fitness program, providing helpful tools, resources, and guidance to turn goals into reality, making New Year’s Resolutions come true.

 

Follow the 12 Days of Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness to achieve your New Year’s Resolutions! This 12-Day Formula For Success is the platform you need to finally make your health and fitness goals a reality.

 

Full details here: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=26972

 

Day 12 of 12 Days of Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness - Daily Information

 

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/198628_1820275140761_1056650054_2140148_472006_n.jpg

 

 

Total Body-Mass Routine - by Derek Tresize

 

Some of the most frequent questions I get as a vegan trainer are about how to gain muscle. My first answers are always diet related, since as much as two thirds of any achievements you make in bodybuilding will always be diet related, but there are many tried and true training techniques used to help your body lay down more muscle as efficiently as possible as well.

 

When most trainers shift their focus to gaining muscle, they continue following their same split-style routine (such as chest/tris on day 1, back/bis on day 2, etc). Wanting to change things up in the past, I decided to try a total body training program like the one listed below during one of my mass gain phases to see what would happen. What started out as an experiment ended up being my go-to method of gaining muscle quickly. During my first attempt at such a routine my weight jumped 10 lbs in only three weeks! I saw similar results when I tried a total body mass gaining routine with clients, so I knew I was onto something.

 

Example Routine:

 

Day 1: Squat, Bench Press, Barbell Row, Dumbbell Shrugs

 

Day 3: Clean, Incline Dumbbell Bench Press, Dumbbell Row, Romanian Deadlift

 

Day 5: Weighted Pull Ups, Decline Dumbbell Pullovers, Push Press, Deadlift

 

In Between: Arms, Calves, and Abs

 

Two days OFF per week

 

In reading into the physiology of muscle gain and looking over programs used by top body builders, the common denominator is always heavy compound barbell exercises. Robert Cheeke even devotes an entire chapter to these exercises in his book, Vegan Bodybuilding and Fitness. Simply put, heavy compound barbell exercises like squats and deadlifts allow you to move more weight at once, stimulate more muscles at once, and produce more anabolic hormones as a result. All this leads to speeding up muscle gain, especially when supported by a healthy high calorie diet.

 

The change I made to your typical compound barbell exercise based routine was to scramble it, hitting each major muscle group (chest/back/shoulders/legs) every workout with one exercise rather than devoting a single workout per week to each muscle group. This meant I was stimulating each muscle group 3-4 times more often, and still from a variety of angles, but (hopefully) avoiding overtraining by limiting it to one exercise per workout. This also allowed me to go completely all-out on that one exercise, since it was the only one I'd be doing for that muscle group that day. Another benefit I considered in training this way was increased hormone release. If compound moves help you grow by stimulating more muscles during a workout and thereby releasing more hormones, why not take that concept one step further by hitting ALL the major muscle groups in a single session? I have no idea if this actually was responsible for the gains I've witnessed, but the logic seemed to fit.

 

The one downside I came across using this style of routine has been overtraining. The benefit I just mentioned above about being able to go all out on a muscle every session really leads to wear and tear over time. That is why I've learned the hard way that a program like this should only be followed for 4-6 weeks before taking a few days off and then returning to a normal split routine so your body can recover. This allows you time to shock your body out of its status quo enough to produce some impressive gains, while still being brief enough to avoid the accumulated damage you take from such consistent heavy duty training. If you're looking to shake things up and want to try something that has helped me and several of my clients gain muscle quickly, give this training concept a try!

 

Derek Tresize

ACE Certified Personal Trainer

T. Colin Campbell Foundation/Cornell University Certified in Plant Based Nutrition

http://www.veganmuscleandfitness.com

@veganmuscle on Twitter

 

 

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/196482_1820275780777_1056650054_2140152_7052080_n.jpg

 

http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/forum

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can use it for more than 6 weeks, but I'd be very careful to pay attention to any aches and pains you are feeling and add a third rest day per week when needed. Another way to enhance recovery would be to increase the rep range from the standard 8-12 at max weight to a lighter 15-20 for a week or two to ease up on your joints and connective tissue. Hitting every muscle every workout also means you're hitting every joint and ligament, so be careful to make sure you aren't over-training!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did this program for 6 weeks over the summer and had incredible strength and physique results.

 

Start to finish numbers:

 

Bench: 195-235

 

Squats: 225-405

 

Dead Lift: 225-365

 

Leg Press: 810x3-1035x3

 

I did this and then fucked around at the gym and lost a decent amount of strength. Somewhere in the middle of the two now. Back on it for about two weeks now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice results, Matt! Impressive stuff!

 

I start tomorrow. As you'll read in my journal later, still a little too sore from deadlifts and squats from a few days ago so I trained arms today allowing one more day of rest before I hammer the compound lifts!

 

Pumped! Thanks for sharing your success on the program!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did this program for 6 weeks over the summer and had incredible strength and physique results.

 

Start to finish numbers:

 

Bench: 195-235

 

Squats: 225-405

 

Dead Lift: 225-365

 

Leg Press: 810x3-1035x3

 

Awesome results man, that's a crazy jump on squats! Keep a post on how it goes the second time around, we're excited to see!

 

@Robert Yeah buddy! Make sure you're good and rested, then pull out all the stops with rest pauses, forced reps, and cheat reps to get TONS on weight for 8-12 reps on at least one set per exercise! IHW (Intense Hard Work)!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice!

 

PS, Big D...thanks for the inspiration, son!

 

I'm not following it exactly at the moment, easing my way into these heavy compound lifts again, but I've already got a jump on it!

 

I posted in my journal today. I imagine I'll keep getting stronger and put the weight back on. Looking forward to weighing in the 190's again. Long road ahead but I'm on the path.

 

Follow my progress in my journal. Just updated it after today's deadlift and bent-over row session. Looking forward to some overhead press and squats tomorrow.

 

Yeah Buddy!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...