Beast Building, Part 2
3 Months to Personal Bests and New Found Thickness
by Christian Thibaudeau



"Gros, Cut, Fort!"

That's what coaches Poliquin and Benoit always
used to say before their workouts. It's Frenglish (French and
English) for "big, cut, and strong." I always promised myself that
I'd find a way to work their famous catch phrase into one of my
articles, and at last, I can. Because that's what this second phase
of the Beast Building program is all about; it's a bridge to
big, cut, and strong...well, mostly to the big and strong
part.


A bridge to big and
strong.

Phase I of our training
program was all about jacking up your nervous system: improving
your capacity to recruit the highly trainable high threshold motor
units (HTMUs), and inhibiting the protective mechanisms that
prevent you from becoming a true beast.

In this second phase, we'll take advantage of
the neural improvements you made over the preceding four weeks.
We'll now be able to more easily tap into the HTMUs, which have a
great potential for both strength and size gains. And getting
bigger and stronger is why we signed up for this program,
right?

Last time, we placed almost all of the emphasis
on the CNS, which required a very high frequency of training with a
low volume of work for each muscle group. This time the focus will
be divided pretty much equally between the CNS and the muscular
system (while in our last phase of training, the muscular system
will be the main focus), which still necessitate a relatively high
frequency of training.

However, that frequency will be lower than
during Phase I, to allow us to increase the amount of work being
performed per session for a muscle group. Previously, each muscle
was worked directly or indirectly four days a week using a
whole-body approach. This time, we'll still be training four times
a week, but each muscle group will receive only two stimulations
per week as we'll use an upper body/lower body
split.

One basic principle to remember in regard to
the frequency of training (referring to the frequency for each
muscle group, not to the total number of weekly sessions) is as
follows:

The more emphasis placed on developing the
neuromuscular system, the higher the frequency, and the lower the
total volume of daily work for the muscle/movement pattern. The
more emphasis placed on stimulating muscle growth, the higher the
daily volume for a muscle, and the lower the frequency should
be.

In other words, when you want to improve the
neuromuscular aspect, train a muscle often, but don't fatigue it
too much. When you want to increase the size of the muscle, put
more stress on the muscle in each workout, but give the muscle more
time to recover.

The following graphic illustrates this
concept:


So this second phase will be "mixed," meaning
that frequency will be decreased (as we already saw) while the
average workload/structural training stress of the workouts will be
increased.

Rejoice, ye fans of big guns, we'll start to
include some of your beloved isolation work in this phase! Don't
rejoice too much, though, because it'll still constitute a
relatively small portion of the total workload. Our goal is still
to build a foundation of overall strength and size, and that means
more big compound movements!


Weekly workout plan

As I said, in this phase we'll use an
upper/lower body split where each muscle group is being trained
twice per week. One of these sessions will be more neuromuscular in
nature, while the second one will put slightly more emphasis on
muscular development, while still targeting strength gains to a
significant extent.

So the schedule will actually look like
this:

Monday: Lower body/neuromuscular
emphasis

Tuesday: Upper body/neuromuscular emphasis

Wednesday: OFF

Thursday: Lower body/muscle growth and strength

Friday: OFF

Saturday: Upper body/muscle growth and strength

Sunday: OFF


Neuromuscular emphasis workout (lower
body)

Even though neuromuscular improvements occur
very rapidly with proper training, and it's likely that the first
phase of this program already led to some serious neural efficacy
gains, we still want to maximize the development of the nervous
system. Remember, our goal is to improve the capacity of the
nervous system to recruit the high threshold motor units, and these
are the most important muscle fibers to stimulate when it comes to
gaining strength and size.

Of course, if we're gonna continue stimulating
neural improvements, we have to ramp it up a notch. Enter the Beast Complex, which is a modification of the Bulgarian
Complex method.


In the Bulgarian Complex, you use 4-5 exercises
targeting similar muscle groups or movement patterns. Each of these
movements emphasize a different physical capacity of the strength
spectrum (limit strength, strength-speed, speed-strength, ballistic
strength, reactive strength, etc.). In this complex, you start with
the heaviest (limit strength) exercise and work your way
down.

The exercises are performed as a circuit. You
start with one set of the first exercise, rest for the prescribed
amount of time, perform one set of the second exercise, take the
same rest, perform one set of the third exercise, and so on until
you have performed a set of every exercise, at which point you'll
start the complex over.

For example:


Lower body Bulgarian Complex

Exercise 1: Back squat

3-5 repetitions with a load of 85-95% of
1RM

Rest 2-3 minutes

Exercise 2: Power snatch or power
clean

2-3 repetitions with a load of 85-95% of
1RM

Rest 2-3 minutes

Exercise 3: Jump squats

10 repetitions with a load of 15-20% of the
back squat 1RM

Rest 2-3 minutes

Exercise 4: Depth jumps

10 repetitions from 0.5m

Rest 2-3 minutes

Exercise 5: Vertical jumps

As many jumps as possible in 15
seconds

Rest 2-3 minutes

Because of the high number of exercises, you
should perform the complex only 2-3 times per
workout.


Modified Bulgarian complex, a.k.a. the Beast
Complex

While the complex we're going to use is
inspired by the original Bulgarian Complex method, we'll only use
three exercises per complex. One of these exercises will be a
functional isometric movement, the second one will be a limit
strength exercise, and the last one an explosive
drill.

We'll perform two different complexes during
this workout: one will be quads dominant, and the second one will
be hips/posterior chain dominant.

Exercise 1: Functional
Isometrics

Former Olympic lifting team member Bill March
experimented with a type of training called "functional
isometrics," and it improved his lifting performance at an
astounding rate. Of course, data also suggests that March was one
of Dr. John Ziegler's first guinea pigs for Dianabol use. Because
of this fact, functional isometric training was dismissed on the
grounds that March's gains were due to the drugs, and not the
training methods. That, in my opinion, was a big mistake!


Bill March's 1963 world-record 354-pound
press.

First of all, March took only 5 to 10 mg of
Dianabol per day. That's an extremely low dose, especially
considering that using ten to twenty times that amount in
conjunction with other drugs is considered a "normal" cycle by most
bodybuilders! So although the 5 to 10 mg of D-bol per day probably did make a difference, it can't explain the absolutely
phenomenal gains made by March.

What are functional isometrics? Recall that
isometric training refers to exerting strength without movement.
The classic form of isometric training is pushing or pulling an
immovable load. We used these "overcoming" isometrics in Phase I.

Because you recruit more motor-units during an
isometric action than during a concentric action, it's arguable
that isometric exercises can lead to greater strength stimulation.
However, there are some problems with pure overcoming isometric
training:

1. It's impossible to quantify progress. Since
you're not moving a load, you don't know if you're improving, or
even if you're exerting maximal effort. This can surely decrease
progression and motivation.

2. Isometric training is angle specific,
meaning that you'll gain strength only at the joint angles being
worked (with only a 15-20 degree carryover of strength gains).

Functional isometrics are a bit different. You
still exert force without movement, but you're actually lifting a
load. Here's how it works:

Start the bar at a specific height, and lift it
two to three inches against a second set of safety pins. Then hold
the position for six to nine seconds. Keep on adding weight until
you can't lift it. Just hold the bar firmly against the second set
of safety pins for at least six seconds, while maintaining a good
lifting posture.


A functional isometric set-up for bench
press.

This way you're actually lifting weights, and
can quantify your progress. Furthermore, since there's a short
dynamic phase to the movement, the transfer of the gained isometric
strength to an actual dynamic action is more important.

You can use functional isometrics either at the
sticking point (the second set of pins being set at your sticking
point so the bar actually starts 2-3" below your sticking point) or
on contrary, at a very strong point in the range of motion
(close to the lockout or past the mid-range point).

In the first case (weak point) the benefit is
obviously to strengthen a weak link in the chain. In the second
case (close to lockout) the goal is to prime the nervous system as
much as possible: close to the lockout is the position where
strength production will be at its highest, which will have a
greater potentiating effect than all other
positions.

Unless you are specifically trying to bring up
a sticking point (if you're a competitive powerlifter, for
instance), I recommend using the "close to the lockout" position
for the Beast Complex.

For the first complex of this workout
(quadriceps dominant), I recommend the functional isometric front
squat, if you have the shoulder, back and wrist flexibility to do
it. Otherwise, you can also go with the back squat
version.


Functional isometric front
squat

Again, remember that the bar rests on a first
set of safety pins and you push it against a second set of pins
that's 2-3" above the first one. You work up to the max weight you
can push against the pins for at least 6 seconds.

For the second complex of this workout, I
suggest a functional isometric deadlift. But because we want to put
more emphasis on the whole posterior chain, not just the lower
back, we'll use the below-the-knees position of the deadlift. The
lockout position only targets the lower back, upper back, and
traps.


Functional isometric
deadlift