The Super-Accumulation Program
Overtrain, Rest, and Grow!
by Charles Poliquin [url=javascript:pager.gotoPage(1);]Next Page[/url] | Pages 1 [url=javascript:pager.gotoPage(1);]2[/url]
Warning Honestly, you don't have the
ballsto use the advanced training principles I'm about to outline in this
article. This training method usually only works with elite, coached
athletes — athletes forced into the gym and driven into the ground by a
hard-driving international level coach. The training is brutal. Your body will scream. The psychological effect is agonizing. Your mind will rebel. You
will want to quit. You
willwant to screw with the program to make it physically and mentally
easier. Very few of you will even attempt this type of training. That's good. Most people shouldn't even try it. It's not for them. It very likely isn't for
you. You can't handle it. In
spite of all of the above, the editors of Testosterone have talked me
into writing about this type of training. But you've been warned.
That Which Does Not Kill Us... Pierre
Roy, one of my earliest mentors in weightlifting methodology, once said
that unless athletes start complaining of tendonitis, they're not
training hard enough. They should train until they're literally
depressed, then back off. In other words, if you're not
making progress in the gym, smash yourself into the ground for two
weeks — purposefully overtrain until you're mentally depressed and your
body is about to shutdown — then take five days off. When you come back
into the gym, you'll hit new personal bests. Hypertrophy, for
example, is an adaptation to a biological stress. If something doesn't
kill you, then the more you put stress on it, the more it'll adapt. If
the .22 caliber doesn't work, use a .50 caliber. This type of
training can be manipulated to work for pure strength gains, to develop
hypertrophy, or to correct a weak muscle group or body part. This is
the type of program I'd do if someone told me I'd make an extra two
million a year if I gained 15 pounds. (I'd just hire some psychopath to
drag me to the gym and make me stick to it.)
Planned Overtraining The
idea of planned overtraining isn't new. I didn't invent this; many have
come to these same conclusions. Some have stumbled upon the idea by
shear accident. I call it
super-accumulation training. I've done it with the national speed skating team for years and they've won a record number of medals. Look
at Hans Selye's model of the General Adaptation Syndrome. The more you
train an inroad, eventually, and provided you rest long enough, the
higher the peak of supercompensation. You'll feel like the walking dead
at first, then like the Incredible Hulk as you recover and begin
training again. Many athletes have learned this lesson the
hard way. "Fatigue masks fitness" they say. In other words, when run
into the ground, you can't really see where an athlete's potential is. This
is a mistake Olympic newbies make: they train more and more closer to
the Games, then perform like shit in the Olympics. But then they take a
week off and go to a World Cup and set a world record. Coaches and
athletes eventually learned to train really hard until three weeks
before the Olympics. A
similar system has been used in Montreal for years: two weeks
balls-to-the-walls, one week recovery. It's the basis of the system
used by many successful National Weightlifting Teams around the world.
Can
you benefit from this training style? Yes,
if you can stick to it. Let's talk about why that's probably not going to happen.
"You have to be weak to be strong." Ayurvedic Medicine Paradygm So
the idea is simple: brutally train yourself into the ground for two
weeks, take five days off, and come back to rebound and break your size
and strength plateaus. But here's the catch: during the two weeks of
loading/forced overtraining, your goal is to lose strength... then keep
right on training! When people get weaker they stop. That's a
mistake on this program. You have to go until you get much weaker. You
must shoot for a drop of 20% in strength. So if the weight you use for
a certain exercise is 100 pounds for sets of 8, then at the end of the
two weeks you should have a hard time doing sets of 8 with 80 pounds. If
you lose more than 20% that's even better. I've seen guys lose as much
as 40%. Genetically skinny guys may lose more; mesomorphs may lose
less. If at the end of the two weeks you're happy and cheery,
then you're a bullshit artist. You must have used the pink dumbbells
for all the exercises. I've seen guys crying, asking if they could go
home! If you have thoughts of going on a shooting rampage in a shopping
mall because the price of beef went up, you're on the right track.
The
point is, you have to be very clear that you won't quit for two weeks.
You'll get to the point where every joint hurts, and you'll see your
weights tank. You may start your squats with 300 pounds on Monday and
by the next Friday only be able to use 240. That's when you know you're
doing it right. And so begins the physical and psychological
agony. And there's more: you're going to lose muscle at first too. It's
not uncommon to lose 12 to 15 pounds in the first two weeks. But during
and after your off period, if you eat correctly, you'll gain that back
and usually another five pounds in one shot. A 200 pound man
may go down to 185 or 187 by the end of the two weeks. Then he will
slingshot past his previous best and hit 205.
If he follows the program and
if he has the testicular fortitude to accept the initial losses. There's
been some research done here in the US and in Finland that at the end
of your two weeks of loading you actually have a decrease in
Testosterone levels. But at the end of your period of unloading you
have an
increase in free Testosterone. There's a high
correlation in the amount of free T you have and the amount of strength
gains you make. So, by the end of the first two weeks of this program, you will:
1) Lose strength
2) Lose muscle
3) Be chronically overtrained
4) Experience aching tendons and joints
5) Be brutally sore (and train right through it)
6) Be mentally depressed
7) Feel like killing yourself or others If you don't experience these things at the end of two weeks, then you didn't do it right. But
let's keep our eyes on the prize here. This isn't just self-torture. If
you can get through the two weeks of loading, then properly execute the
five day recovery period, then you will, without a shadow of a doubt,
blast though your previous strength and/or hypertrophy goals. Your
mouth will literally drop as the recovery process begins. You'll feel
like your muscles are about to burst through your skin and your friends
will accuse you of being on something. The rewards are indeed great...
if you survive the first two weeks.
The Super-Accumulation Program I'm
not normally an advocate of total body training, but I would do it with
this type of training if your main goal is hypertrophy. You'll be
training nine times a week for two weeks. What's that? You
can't train six days a week and twice-a-day on three of those days?
Then fuck off. This wasn't written for you.
Total Body Hypertrophy Plan Train nine times per week:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday — Train twice per day
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday morning — Train once per day
Sunday — Off
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Morning Workout
A1) Back Squat, 5 x 4-6, 5 x 4-6, 40X0* tempo, rest 100 seconds * That's four seconds down, no pause, explode up, no pause, then repeat for the next rep.
A2) Leg Curl, 5 x 4-6, 5 x 4-6, 40X0 tempo, rest 100 seconds Note:
Those A1/A2 designations mean to perform one set of squats, rest,
perform one set of leg curls, rest, and repeat until you get five sets.
Then move to the "B" exercises.
B1) Lean-Away Chin-ups , 4010 tempo, rest 100 seconds
B2) Dips, 4010 tempo, rest 100 seconds
Evening Workout
A) Snatch Deadlift on platform, 10 x 6, 5010 tempo, resting 3 minutes between sets
B1) Seated Dumbbell Press, palms facing each other (semi-supinated), 5 x 6-8, 4010 tempo, rest 100 seconds
B2) One-Arm Dumbbell Rows, 5 x 6-8, 2011 tempo, rest 100 seconds
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Mornings
A1) Front Squats, 5 x 4-6, 40X0 tempo, rest 100 seconds
A2) Kneeling Leg Curl 5 x 4-6, 40X0 tempo, rest 100 seconds
B1) Close-Grip Pronated Pull-ups, 5 x 6-8, 3011 tempo, rest 100 seconds
B2) Incline Dumbbell Press 5 x 6-8, 3110 tempo, rest 100 seconds
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