robert Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 12 Days of Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness - December 20-31, 2011Vision: 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 TresizeACE Certified Personal TrainerT. Colin Campbell Foundation/Cornell University Certified in Plant Based Nutritionhttp://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 More sharing options...
Derek Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 I love this program! It's a great way to switch things up and build some mass quickly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 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 More sharing options...
robert Posted December 31, 2011 Author Share Posted December 31, 2011 Love it! You guys rock! I'm so pumped for tomorrow's workout! I'm starting this program. I'll be updating my training journal daily to reflect my efforts. Thanks Big D! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattSxvx Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 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 More sharing options...
robert Posted January 1, 2012 Author Share Posted January 1, 2012 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 More sharing options...
MattSxvx Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 My chest is difficult. Has always been fairly weak. Have had to work hard for that. Hoping to get to a 300 lb 1rm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 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 More sharing options...
MattSxvx Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 Oh yah i will keep the journal updated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert Posted January 2, 2012 Author Share Posted January 2, 2012 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 More sharing options...
xChrisZx Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Once I am done with my current program I am giving this a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordanlee Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 What are the reps/sets with this? 3 sets of each exercise at 8-12 reps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattSxvx Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 5x5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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