Poliquin's Top 20 Tips
Compiled by the Editors

Charles
Poliquin is a legend in the bodybuilding and athletic world, and
rightly so. In his quarter-century as a strength coach, Charles has
trained enough Olympic medalists, world record holders, and
world-champion athletes to populate a small town. We at Testosterone
hold him in special esteem for his expertise and track record,
certainly, but also because he was here when we first started the site
10 years ago.
Poliquin's introduction to the
world of iron came about because of bad weather. At 14, Charles was the
second-youngest karate student in Canada to earn a black belt, and the
only one in his class to show up at the dojo during a raging Ontario
blizzard. He and his sensei, Web Corcoran, spent the next hour lifting
weights, and Charles was hooked.
Since then,
Charles has coached Olympic athletes in 23 events, and has trained top
professionals from the NHL and NFL. He has coaxed hundreds of medals,
wins and personal bests out of scores of elite athletes. He has
lectured in 8 countries in three different languages, published over
600 articles on strength training, and has been a regular contributor
to Testosterone for nearly a decade.
What follows
is a shot glass-sized distillation of Coach P's gallons of knowledge:
20 of our favorite Poliquinisms dealing with training, nutrition and
supplementation.

1. Be as Strong as You Look I've
had the opportunity to train arms with a whole slew of pros, and I can
generally handle more weight than they can, using stricter form, even
though they're usually up to 70 or 80 pounds heavier than I am. The
secret to my superior relative strength comes from the regular use of maximal weights.
Most bodybuilders stick religiously to a 6 to 12 rep range when
training arms. On the other hand, there are plenty of strongman contest
competitors with massive arms who are every bit as strong as they look.
What's the difference? Strongman competitors train using few exercises,
done for multiple sets of low reps with long rest intervals between sets.
"I'm strong to the finich 'cuz I uses maximal weights."

2. Splits StillBeat Full Body Routines I'm
the first one to want to improve on any training system, but I do not
know anyone successful in the strength coaching business who uses full
body routines exclusively. In bodybuilding, I don't think Ronnie
Coleman trains whole body three days a week. I've never known a
successful bodybuilder, even the low set guys like Dorian Yates, to do
whole body training. Every single Olympian I've trained used split
routines. I've been in this profession for 26 years and no one has ever
convinced me, by their results, that full body routines are the only way to go.

3. The Rep Rules The
rep is the mother of all loading parameters. All loading parameters are
a function of the number of reps you choose to perform. It dictates the
rest intervals and the amount of sets you're going to do. Once you've
decided that, it limits which exercises you can do. For example, the
power clean should never be done for high reps because that's a high
coordination lift.

4. Variety is the Main Ingredient of Training Success Unless
you're involved in this business full-time, you tend to adopt certain
exercises and do them over and over again, to the exclusion of all
others. We tend to adopt the same habits in other aspects of our lives.
We tend to eat at the same restaurants, frequent the same stores, and
call the same girls at 2:00 in the morning after we've had a few too
many drinks and ask, "Hey, what are ya' wearing?" We are creatures of
habit. In training, though, it's imperative that we break out of these
ruts. We have to try new movements or try different ways of doing the
same old movements. Variety is not only the spice of life; it's the
main ingredient of bodybuilding and strength training success.

5. Dumbbells are a Better Choice The
more you stick to what we were designed for as animals — lifting rocks,
carrying carcasses, and generally just fighting against gravity — then
the better off you are. What that means is using free weights over
machines. One problem with machines is the fixed pattern of movement.
For that same reason, I think dumbbells are a better choice for most
exercises than barbells, particularly if you're dealing with an
athletic population. I went to the Soviet Union in 1982. It was
astonishing how little variation of equipment they had. They had a lot
of barbells and a lot of dumbbells, but there was nothing very
sophisticated. It's what you do with the equipment that matters!

6. Cables Do Not Count as Machines Cables
are basically re-directed dumbbells. In my opinion, cables are the same
thing as free weights, plus they allow you to re-direct resistance
where dumbbells are limited. For some exercises, cable pulleys are
superior. For example, for rotator cuff training you're very limited in
the angles you can train it when using a dumbbell. The options are
endless though, when using a pulley. A multi-functional cable unit is
the same thing as a dumbbell. I don't consider it a "machine."

7. Want Great Abs? Then Do Your Squats! Abdominal
specialization for athletes? It could happen, but the abs actually have
very little potential for strength increases when compared to other
muscles like calves. Along with the grip, the abdominals are the least
likely to improve with training. Some of these guys can claim all these
poundages used in ab training, but it's actually the psoas doing the
work. If you truly isolate the abs, after six to eight weeks an athlete
will plateau the rest of his life. Research has shown that the most
coordinated athletes master the most difficult abdominal exercises in
six to eight weeks. The only things that increase abdominal improvement are squatting and deadlifting.
Beats the bejeezus out of Swiss ball crunches.

8. Give "Super Squats" a Try The
classic 20-rep squat routines are certainly worth a try. To do this
program, one takes 3 deep breaths in between each rep. And, of course
you're only supposed to do one set. What's really happening is that
you're doing 20 single-rep sets with 10 seconds between each rep. This
10-second pause, while taking the 3 deep breaths, allows you to recruit
higher-threshold motor units than if you did the 20 reps in a slam-bam
fashion. Hence the greater-than-normal motor unit recruitment. When
performed with the right load, you'll cough up a lung at the end of the
set (which is a real badge of honor among hardcore trainers). If you're
underweight and have low-work capacity, I strongly encourage you to try
20-rep breathing squats. But, like any other routine, it will work only
until you adapt to it.

9. Best Reps for Hamstrings For
hamstring hypertrophy, do low reps in a leg curl machine and higher
reps in stiff leg deadlifts, Romanian dead, reverse hyper, and back
extension. The reason why is because when you're working your hip
extensors you're also working your glutes and erector spinae and those
tend to be higher rep muscles. In other words, if you're using the leg
curl machine you should be using eight reps or less. Someone with a
higher training age may only need three reps, but use a higher amount
of sets, like 10 sets of 3.

10. Stretch Your Quads, Blast your Hams Always
stretch the quadriceps between hamstrings sets. Increasing the range of
motion of your quadriceps prior to a leg curl exercise will increase
the amount of motor units used in the hamstrings during the exercise
and therefore the effectiveness of the chosen exercise. Since the
quadriceps is the antagonist muscle to the hamstrings, and that
stretching will allow it to relax, the force of the contraction in the
hamstrings will be much greater in the subsequent contraction.

11. Bench Press Overrated? Some
guys grow with the bench and some don't. But go to the world
championships in powerlifting and you'll see plenty of guys with big
pecs, and all they do for their chest is bench. But I'd say that if
you're pressed for time, any type of dumbbell press will be
more efficient (all factors being equal). Now, some coaches recommend a
very wide grip for barbell bench presses to bring more focus onto the
pecs, but this just leads to achy joints. The widest your grip should
be is 90 degrees between the upper arm and forearm when in the bottom
position of the lift.
Probably more efficient than the barbell bench.

12. Better than the Barbell Row One
problem with the barbell row is that it's really hard for people to
just use the lats and elbow flexors. They always unconsciously start to
drive with the quads and use their glutes and lower back. The second
thing is that the bar either hits your gut or your chest, which
restricts your range of motion. The better way to do it is to just use
the one-arm dumbbell row.

13. Chins: The Upper Body Squat The
chin-up and its variations should be considered an "upper body squat"
because of its mass-building qualities and its ability to quickly
increase functional strength. Chin-ups involve the sternal portion of
the pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, teres major, posterior deltoid,
the rhomboids, the middle and lower portions of the trapezius, and the
elbow flexors. A chin-up specialization program will not only build
impressive width and thickness to your back, but will also pack solid
inches on your arms by promoting growth on your biceps, brachialis,
brachio-radialis, and pronator teres.
One of the best exercises you can do for the upper body.