Uploaded by havicirvin

John Meadows - The Brutality of Mountain Dog Training

advertisement
The
Brutality of
Mountain
Dog Training
A How-To Guide
and Scientific
Perspective
Written by
John Meadows
with Scott Stevenson, PhD
MOUNTAIN
DOG TRAINING
1
Foreward
We are very proud to share this book with you! If you follow any of the
Mountain Dog training videos on the YouTube channel, Facebook page, Twitter
(@MOUNTAIN DOG1), or on the Elite FTS channel, you have no doubt seen some
of the outright crazy stuff we do. This article is where you learn the method
behind the madness (written in John’s own words), and why the Mountain Dog
Training system, rooted in decades of John’s real world ball busting experience,
is also well-supported by solid exercise science (supplied by Scott).
2
Dedication
I would like to dedicate this book to my incredible wife Mary. She has stuck with
me through the worst of times, despite my shortcomings. She believed in me
enough to back me when I told her I wanted to leave my comfortable VP job
at a bank in the corporate world to pursue my passion in the Fitness industry,
despite no guarantee of earnings and us having a new set of twins. I hope this
work reflects her belief in me.
3
Chapter 1
Mountain Dog Workout Structure
Time to put your thinking cap on. Knowledge is power, and our hope is that
knowing even more of the Hows and Whys of Mountain Dog Training will
propel your training vigor and passion to an even higher level. Above all,
get ready to have some fun experiencing first hand that you can do what
you didn’t think possible. Courtesy of Scott Stevenson, you will see there
is scientific method to Mountain Dog Madness!
Mountain Dog training revolutionized my training and
breathed new life into my bodybuilding career. After 20
years of competitive bodybuilding I’ve tried countless
training methods with varying degrees of success,
but nothing returned sustained improvements without injuries compared to John’s. At 38 I’m training
harder, longer and with more enthusiasm than I did
in my 20’s. Brutal, intense, masochistically-fun,
results-oriented workouts define my personal
experience working with John Meadows.
-Mark Dugdale, IFBB Professional Bodybuilder
4
CHAPTER ROADMAP
A Mountain Dog Base workout for each muscle group has 4 Phases (Kinds
of Sets). (Note that Calves, Arms and Abs are exceptions.)
So what does a Mountain Dog workout look like?
There are essentially two types of workouts:
1. Base workouts (covered below in this Chapter)
2. Pump/Optional workouts (covered in Chapter 3)
Base workouts are always done and we are going to dive into what they
are made up of now! Pump workouts are used to add frequency, and even
more muscle fiber stimulation. We will get into those in the Last Chapter.
Base workouts are actually a collection of mini-workouts, each exploiting a different hypertrophy concept. Let’s walk through each one of these
phases that you will go through in a workout.
PHASE 1
THE PRE-PUMP ACTIVATION EXERCISE
A Base workout always begins with one lift that
serves as an extension of your warm-up, but the way
I apply it, it’s too demanding to be considered just a
warm-up itself. It’s got to be an exercise that’s:
1. Easy on your joints, tendons and ligaments
2. Uncomplicated to perform, and
3. Allows you to really feel the target muscle(s)
working.
The Pre-Pump Activation Exercise is not necessarily an
isolation exercise or a traditional pre-exhaust exercise,
a common misconception I have seen on the Internet
when people discuss my methods.
Instead, it is more typically an exercise using dumbbells or machines.
For example, a chest workout may begin with a flat
bench dumbbell chest press, or a machine press. This
is certainly not a true pre-exhaust exercise such as
a machine fly, nor are you putting yourself at risk of
a muscle tear as compared to a barbell bench press.
Again, the point of this is not pre-exhaustion. Rather,
I want to prepare the muscles I’m going to train hard
that day for the work ahead (and believe me, they will
get blowtorched). The smartest way to do this, as I see
it – especially to help minimize risk of injury – is to hit
those muscles with an exercise that emphasizes the
muscles with relatively less stress on the joints, tendons, and ligaments. As a side note, I prefer to do what
people commonly view as pre-exhaust on a pumped
muscle (such as the chest fly), later in the workout.
More on that later. You will see why.
Pre-Pump Injury Prevention over the
Long Haul
Don’t gloss over this idea. I’m not in any way saying
that big lifts like the bench press or squat are inherently dangerous. But the stronger you get and the longer you play the iron game, the more likely it is you’re
going to get injured doing those classic, conventional,
barbell exercises with only a progressive overload
mentality, especially if you keep doing them as most
5
people do—first thing in the workout. It’s easy to continue sliding plates on the bar as you work up to a top
set, getting lost in your own ego. But so often, before
you even realize it, you’ve popped something in your
shoulder or your back or your knee, and it can dog you
for months, even years, after the fact. This is just reality, and if you have ever suffered a major injury, you
know there is no glory in it. It’s kind of hard to make
gains when you are on the sideline. That’s just not
worth it. Training for me, and I assume for you as well,
is about success over the long haul and being able to
look and feel good and enjoy the process until you die.
Most of the time, all it takes to avoid this problem is
a more thorough warm up, pumping blood into the
muscles and lubricating the joints so you’re ready to
better handle and focus on those heavier, harder lifts
much more acutely.
Pre-Pump, NOT Pre-Fatigue
So apart from just using a more isolated exercise to
start things off, we’re going to make sure we maximize
its ability to get a pump going. High-rep sets would
not be appropriate here because we still have heavy
training to come and don’t want to be too fatigued to
complete it, so I stick to moderate bodybuilding ranges like 8–12 for the most part.
Pre-Pump Techniques
Sometimes, it may be appropriate to use constant
tension on the pre-pump exercise—i.e., not going to
either end of the range of motion. Not locking out or
extending the working joints completely ensures muscular contraction throughout the set.
Another applicable technique is partial reps. For example, at the end of my last set of leg curls, when my
legs are too tired to do another full-range rep, I’ll bend
my knees just a few inches, completing quarter-range
reps to failure. Jam the blood in there! I also love using
this technique in Phase 3 which you will see below.
Depending on the muscle group, exercise or stage of
a training cycle, there are other times when I actually
like to lock out the joints and hold for a two-second
peak contraction. This might occur on a chest press as
well.
Pre-Pump your Peri-Workout
I believe that pumping up the target muscle area
serves another critical function that potentiates training gains — delivering nutrients to the muscles to
enhance growth. The centerpiece of this strategy is an
easily digestible intra-workout shake that you start
consuming shortly before you start training. With the
intra-workout nutrients entering your bloodstream,
the more blood you can drive into your muscles, the
greater the delivery of protein and carbs (see more on
this below). Here are my basic recommendations for
peri-workout nutrition
PRE-workout Meal:
Have a pre-workout meal that you finish 30-60
minutes before training.
• I like a small to moderate amount of carbs to give
Pre-Pump Activation Exercise Science
• Increased blood flow can actually increase muscle strength in small muscle masses(1, 2), and enhance maximal aerobic power(3), where oxygen delivery to working
muscle limits performance(4).
• Excessively high repetitions are not needed to get the benefits of a warm-up, and
too much could hamper the rest of the workout(5).
• Although direct evidence lacks, many authorities (but not all) suggest warm-up
for injury prevention(6). Experiments with isolated muscle suggest that increased
elasticity at higher temperatures may prevent muscle and tendon tears(7, 8).
• Believe it or not, exercise(9) and in particular resistance exercise(10) can alleviate
osteoarthritic pain.
6
you easily useable energy to make it through the training
sessions.
• I add in a little fat to keep your blood sugar from rising
too fast, and then you going hypoglycemic from a massive insulin dump right after(11). Fat will slow the entry of
glucose into the bloodstream(12-14).
• Add in a moderate amount of easily digestible protein
as well.
Intra-workout Supplementation:
Resistance training turns on skeletal muscle protein turnover, which is a combination of muscle protein breakdown
(MPB) and muscle protein synthesis (MPS) (two processes
that correlated very strongly)(15). Training is both anabolic
and inherently catabolic. Of course, Mountain Dog Training is
about trying to kill muscle fiber, figuratively speaking, but we
also don’t want runaway muscle breakdown. This is where
peri-workout recovery supplementation comes in. We control
optimize the balance of MPS and MPB, produce a favorable
hormonal environment for making muscle gains, and ease
the burden on our gastrointestinal tract by consuming very
SPECIFIC types of carbohydrate and protein, especially essential amino acids (EAAs) or di- and tripeptides from hydrolyzed
protein sources, thus raising insulin and lowering cortisol.
POST-workout Meal:
• Start eating anywhere between 45 to 60 minutes after
training. Remember you had a lot of good nutrition during
training, so there’s no need to rush to get this meal.
• As an example, eat a balanced whole food meal such as
steak and rice.
A Mountain Dog Special: Pre-Pumping the
Hamstrings First
I’ve found over the years that training the hamstring before
squats or compound thigh exercises seems to enhance performance and reduce joint pain in the knees and hips. So, for
thigh (quad and hamstring) training, the Pre-Pump exercise
is almost always a hamstring-specific exercise.
Science of Peri-Workout Recovery
Supplementation:
• The essential amino acids, especially
leucine and the brached chain amino
acids are anabolic(16-20), and anti-catabolic(21, 22), rapidly spiking blood levels
when consumed in free-form(23), which
is best for rapidly turning on protein
synthesis(24-28).
• Adding carbohydrate to protein will
synergistically increase insulin(29, 30),
to refuel glycogen(30, 31) and inhibit protein breakdown(32, 33). Exercise (muscular contraction) itself
also increases insulin sensitivity (via
glucose transporter mobilization)(34)
thus amplifying the actions of supplement-driven insulin release.
• Hydrolyzed proteins elevate blood
amino acid(35) and insulin levels(36)
more rapidly than intact protein, and
enhance glycogen synthesis, irrespective
of (elevated) insulin(37). In particular, diand tripeptides are so rapidly absorbed
via a specific intestinal transporter(38),
which may explain why a whey hydrolysate more effectively drives post-exercise protein synthesis than a blend
of that same whey’s constituent amino
acids(39).
• Carbohydrate-protein supplements
can reduce muscle soreness and
damage(40, 41), the latter of which can
adversely affect insulin sensitivity(42)
and post-exercise glycogen replenishment(43, 44). A relatively large carbohydrate-protein recovery supplement
also reduces cortisol levels(45, 46), thus
improving long-term muscle gains(4749). Specifically, peri-workout timing of
protein(50) or a protein-carbohydrate
mixture(51) has proven important in
enhancing gains in trained individuals,
although peri-workout (protein) timing
seems less critical in those who are
initially untrained(52).
7
Science of Hitting the Hamstrings First
• Although the jury is still out on how to best harness it(53-59), post-activation
potentiation of muscle force, e.g., via phosphorylation of myosin light chain that
increases muscle force output(60) might enhance hamstring contribution to squat
performance(61), e.g., if you’ve done a hamstring Pre-Pump exercise first.
• Pre-pumping the hamstrings (as a warm-up) might also improve muscle contraction neurologically(62), such that hams are used and stimulated more so in “big”
squatting and leg-pressing movements.
• Reduced knee pain may be due to increased blood flow(63), increased joint
temperature(6) and pressure related enhancements of joint lubrication(64, 65).
• Theoretically (and from feedback of those who have experienced it), simply having
pumped-up hamstrings may alter joint proprioception and muscle coordination if
the hamstring and gastrocnemius provide posterior cushioning to the knee joint.
Take Home Message of Phase I (Pre-Pump Exercise)
This phase should give you a very good pump, and not wreak havoc on
joints and connective tissue. This helps with longevity and it also enables
you to start driving your intra-workout nutrition into the muscle.
8
A Mountain Dog Special: Occasional Use
of Bands and Chains
PHASE 2
THE “EXPLOSIVE” EXERCISE
Those who love to lift heavy can breathe a sigh of relief, because here’s where we get into the more conventional bodybuilding exercises and higher intensity.
Leg day Base workouts will feature squat variations
and chest days may call for the bench press (though
usually done on a slight incline or decline). The first
thing you’ll notice, however, is how much better you
feel performing these exercises than when you put
them first in your workout. With pumped hamstrings
thanks to the leg curls, you’ll feel sturdier at the bottom of your squats. Your hips will also feel better, like
they’ve been grooved for smoother reps. If you just did
machine presses, your shoulders will be warm and
“awake” for heavy benching.
One particular aspect of the Explosive Exercise Phase
of a Mountain Dog workout that sets it apart from
other phases is the occasional use of bands and
chains for varying the stimulus. Those of you who
have done my programs have probably noticed that I
will, at times, call upon these implements. They aren’t
an absolute requirement, but I strongly recommend
them if you’re an intermediate or advanced lifter, as
they force you to use maximum contractile tension
through the entire rep. These are powerful tools for
busting plateaus and accelerating your progress. I do
not like to use bands for more than 2 weeks at a time
as I feel they actually start to beat you up a little much
if overdone, due to the muscular overload.
Why We Use Bands and Chains
Bye-Bye to the Big Weights?
Let me address a common fear I suspect has already
crept into your mind: Won’t putting my main strength
exercise second force me to use lighter weights?
Won’t I get weaker?
Here is a little more about why we use Bands and
Chains with Mountaindog Training.
Primary Forms of Human Strength Curve
The simplest answer is “No.” As with any kind of training, there’s an adjustment window. The first two or
three weeks you train like this, you may not feel up to
using the same weight on squats and bench presses
as you did if you used to put those lifts first. But that
doesn’t mean you’re getting weaker. It just means your
muscles are a bit fatigued when you perform the lifts
second. There’s a difference. Once you get more conditioned to Mountain Dog Training, you’ll not only be
back up to your old numbers in no time, you’ll exceed
them, and your joints will feel better as well!
“Explosive” as in Ballistic?
The way we perform the “explosive” exercise is actually pretty standard for regular weight training. The sets
and reps are moderate, and I don’t generally apply intensity techniques (e.g., partials) in this workout Phase.
Generally speaking, “explosive” simply means lowering the weight under control and driving the weight up
“with authority.”
Primary Forms of the Human Strength Curve and Imposed
Resistance(68).
First, let’s note that these tools provide accommodating resistance. As an example,
Science of Explosive Exercises for Muscle Growth
• Rate of force development, through performing
exercises in an explosive manner, is trainable(64).
• Training in an explosive manner may preferentially
stimulate type II muscle fibers(66), which may have
greater hypertrophic potential(67).
9
whatever load you can bench press from your chest,
you’ve surely noticed that you could handle a lot more
if you only had to lower the bar a few inches from
lockout and then press it. Same thing holds for squats:
Maybe you can squat 405 deep but you can probably
quarter squat nearly 500. (See Figure Above.)
Every exercise or machine has its own resistance
curve as well, which may or may not match your
individual strength curve. (See Figure below.) Using
bands and chains allows us to modify the imposed
resistance, so you can make the hardest parts of an
exercise easier and the easiest parts harder.
Hypothetical Impact of Adding Chains or Resistance
Bands on Imposed Resistance
more links will rise off the floor and add weight to
the exercise. But because they don’t have that elastic
component that bands do, chains don’t provide the
same kind of tension, and as a result, don’t take the
same toll on your body and nervous system. I rarely go
more than 2 to 3 weeks using bands on exercises like
the squat or bench press, but chains can be used for
much longer. They don’t need to be cycled as carefully
as bands.
Science of Bands and Chain Use
• Using bands (like those for sale at EliteFTS.
com) to load to a bench press results in a longer
period of bar acceleration compared to using an
equivalent of amount of resistance coming from
free weights alone(69).
• Adding chains to the bench press increases
maximal effort bar speed. This may be because
chains permit a more rapid stretch shortening cycle (reversal bar direction when eccentric
become concentric contractions), thereby eliciting postactivation potentiation that increases
muscle contractile force(70).
Hypothetical Impact of adding Chains or Resistance Bands
(downward pull) to Resistance Imposed by a Free Weight
Barbell.
In the powerlifting world, bands and chains are employed mainly to increase the resistance as a lift is
locked out. Attach bands to a barbell and perform a
bench press and you’ll feel the bar get heavier as you
press it up. To compensate for the increasing load (and
to keep the bar from, to put it bluntly, snapping back
down and putting the “smack down” on you), you have
to learn to press explosively. This trains your nervous
system to turn on more motor units (groups of muscle fibers controlled by a nerve), making you a more
powerful lifter. Being able to explode a lift with more
speed obviously helps you complete it, so it translates to greater strength.
Chains work much the same way. As you lift the bar,
• Adding bands to the bench press and squat
have demonstrated two to three times the
gains in voluntary strength compared to traditional (free weight alone) resistance training,
even in athletes who already have ~4 years of
resistance training experience(71). Training with
bands and chains has also resulted in practically
(albeit not statistically) significant greater gains
in power even in highly trained strength athletes
like Division I (American) football players(72).
• If using bands and chains means greater loading
and gains in strength (and thus muscle loading),
this also results in a stronger (tensile) stimulus
for inducing muscle growth(73, 74).
In the bodybuilding world, or in my world, where I help
people who mainly have physique goals, these accessories–particularly bands—have many more applications. These include:
10
Overloading the eccentric.
The lowering (“negative”) portion of any lift is known
as the eccentric, and it’s been shown to cause the
majority of the muscle damage and soreness you get
from training(75). Provided you can recover from it,
more muscle damage is typically a good thing. Bands
really intensify the power of eccentric muscle contractions—if you don’t lower a rep under control, the
band will pull the weight down fast, which is extremely dangerous. For this reason, bands have to be used
with great care and must be cycled, but they’re highly
effective for inducing hypertrophy by way of eccentric
overload. Good examples of their use for this purpose
would be on the leg press and bench press.
Banded Bench Press
handles of a chest press machine or dumbbells to
change the angle of pull and thus activation(76).
Facilitating higher reps.
There are some exercises that just lend themselves
better to being done for high reps with bands than
with free weights. Face pulls and lateral raises, for instance, are easier to rep out on for a huge pump when
the resistance comes from bands.
Rehabilitation.
Since bands accommodate resistance, they allow you
to feel tension on movements that you sometimes
can’t feel any other way. I find that over and back
shoulder stretches are more effective with bands than
a broom handle, and really help to improve mobility in
the shoulder girdle as well as pump the area up.
Not all of these uses for bands apply to the explosive exercise you’ll do second in your workouts, but all of them
may be applied over the course of a training program.
Attaching Bands For Reverse Bench
Assistance.
Bands can also be used to make an exercise easier.
You can rig them to the top of a power rack for bench
presses, so that when you lower the bar to your chest,
the band is actually pulling the bar upward for you at
the same time. This means the load feels lighter off
your chest—your weakest position in the lift—and it
can help you work with heavier weights with less risk
of injury. The resistance curve changes to a straight
line with no weak points in the lift. As a result, you
keep the set going longer with a heavier weight, increasing the exposure your muscles get to that load.
The same setup can be used with the squat.
Take Home Message of Phase 2
(Explosive Exercise)
The Explosive Exercises are the “meat and potatoes” of
your training sessions, using heavy loads and sometimes spiced up with bands and chains to help move
past plateaus.
Stronger muscle contraction.
Because bands can be used to tailor the imposed
resistance, they can affect the activation pattern and
feel of a movement. Bands can be looped onto the
11
PHASE 3
SUPRA-MAXIMAL PUMP EXERCISES
At this point in the Base workout, your muscles will
be well pumped and you’ve completed your heaviest
strength work for the day. Now it is time to really hammer the high intensity techniques and pump the target
area to its limit — “top it off” with blood, if you will —
and thereby create high levels of growth-promoting
metabolic stress. Whether achieving an obnoxious,
attention-getting pump really causes growth of muscle, or just the ego, has long been a topic of debate. As
I had hoped, there is now a growing body of research
to support what I and many other bodybuilders have
known for a long time: The pump-associated metabolic stress does indeed stimulate muscle growth.
Supra Maximal Pump Techniques
One applicable technique I love is partial reps. For
example, at the end of a set of chest presses on a
machine, I may do another 5 to 20 partials completing
quarter-range reps to failure.
I also like Iso Holds (static reps using isotension).
These are particularly brutal. Picture going to failure
and then holding a weight in a fixed position while
your partner adds even more resistance. Not fun, but it
produces results.
There are many other techniques we use here too such
as drop sets, supersets, adding extra eccentric resistance, etc. These are probably not new for you, but using them at the right time in the workout is how I feel
you unlock much of your true genetic potential. You
are going to have to develop pain tolerance here. That
is what the limiting factor is. How much can you take?
You have to destroy what you think your pain threshold is and learn to do this on a regular basis.
The “Supra-Maximal Pump” to Pump Up
Your Gains
Several lines of evidence support how the pump
(cell-swelling) may promote muscle growth(77).
• Dehydration / cell shrinkage is associated with
muscle protein breakdown in disease(78, 79) (so
this should be avoided).
• Increasing cellular hydration increases glycogen
synthesis(80).
• Insulin’s anti-catabolic effects are partially mediated through ion exchange that increases cell volume(79).
• Type II muscle fibers, noted for their growth potential(81-83), have high glycolytic capacity and membrane porosity(84) and thus may swell in particular
after a great pump up set(77, 85-87).
• Cellular hydration due to creatine supplementation(88-90) may explain how it induces satellite
cell proliferation and incorporation into skeletal
muscle cells(91-93) and triggers many genes controlling cellular remodeling and protein synthesis(90).
So in this workout Phase, we pump up with more familiar bodybuilding exercises, but not all of them
should be done the way you’re probably used to. Check
out my YouTube channel and carefully watch the exercises I use and special tweaks that go along with them.
Take Home Message of Phase 3
(Supra-Maximal Pump Exercise)
I like the pump, and I think it can be an excellent barometer for muscle growth in that the pumped up
muscle uniquely reflects progress in that area. I usually program one or sometimes even two supra-maximal pump exercises into a workout.
12
PHASE 4
LOADED STRETCHING EXERCISES
I believe it’s safest to stretch your muscles under load
after they’re primed to their limits with blood (and the
tendons are warm). That’s why I end Base workouts
with an exercise that puts the target area into a stretch
while overcoming resistance as well. For example, leg
workouts may finish with stiff-legged or Romanian
deadlifts to give the hamstrings (very often underdeveloped on lifters) extra incentive to grow. A chest day
could end with machine flyes, or even a movement I
call stretch pushups where you lower your body between two steps or boxes so your pecs are elongated /
fully lengthened in the bottom position.
Exercise scientists have known for years that “stretch
overload” is a tremendous stimulus for increasing
muscle size. For decades, bodybuilders picked up on
the value of loaded stretching—that is, using weights
to increase a stretch – as a means of increasing muscle growth in addition to improving flexibility. Like
most techniques used in bodybuilding, the precise
mechanisms for why loaded stretching exercise works
are not entirely clear. From stretching fascial connective tissue that encapsulates muscle (making “more
room” for muscles to grow) to more immediate way
direct mechanisms, there may be many ways that
loaded stretching exercises stimulate growth. (See
Scott’s Science of Loaded Stretching section below for
more on this.) I wouldn’t say it is out of the question to
theorize that there might be some hyperplasia occurring here as well if done intensely and consistently
over time.
Both Dynamic and Static Stretching
So, the last Phase of a typical Mountain Dog workout
will include an exercise that focuses on getting full
and safe range of motion, especially when the target muscle is elongated, using a challenging load. In
addition to using these “stretch-component focused”
dynamic exercises, I also encourage (loaded) static
stretching at the end of your workouts, too. Just make
sure do these with some kind of load, as well, so you
get a deeper, more active stretch.
Check out the “Loaded Stretches” playlist on my YouTube channel to get a better idea of how this looks in
action!
My top 3 exercises used for this technique include:
• Dumbell presses – Go to failure and then hold
them in the stretch position while your partner
gently pushes down on the weight for 10-30 seconds.
• Squats – After completion of set lighten weight and
just sit in deep squat while maintaining erect posture for 10-30 seconds.
• Hanging with weight – Attach some weight to you
and hang off chin up bar as long as you can while
allowing lats to stretch.
Take Home Message of Phase 4 (Loaded
Stretching Exercise)
As a final stimulus for muscle growth (and improved
flexibility), I incorporate Loaded Stretching Exercises
Science of Load Stretching
• Loading in the stretched position may facilitate
muscle growth in several ways:
• Contractions at forces above 50-60% of maximal
effort will occlude blood flow during the set(9497), which in and of itself creates an impressive
growth stimulus(98-103)
• Exertional compartment syndrome (e.g., shin splits)
may be caused by a muscle growth outpacing it’s
enclosing connective tissue fascia, suggesting that
stretching a pumped muscle may circumvent this
limitation(104).
• Studies have suggested slightly different respons-
es of myofibrillar and collagen protein synthesis
after resistance exercise, depending upon type
of contraction(105) or the magnitude of response
(less for collagen)(106). If performing exercise in
the stretched position (with a pump) selectively
promotes connective tissue remodeling to withstand stretch overload(107), or simply entrains
better coordination of contractions in the stretched
position(108), Loaded Stretching may help prevent
muscular injury.
• Warming up a muscle (thus increasing it’s
temperature can increase tendon pliability(109))
may reduce injury risk(110).
13
that emphasize tension in the stretched out position, as well as loaded
static stretching. I think it’s safest to do these at the end of a workout,
when the muscle is warmed up and pumped full of blood and the connective tissue is most warm and pliable.
Workout Structure Summary
So, your typical Mountain Dog workout will include four Phases, which I’ve
summarized in the table below:
Phase (Exercise)
Objective
Note
Example
1. Pre-Pump
Pump up beyond warm
up; prepare for Phase 2
Not pre-fatiguing per se
Prone ham curl
2. Explosive Exercise
Core heavy lifts; focus
and load progression
Bands and chains
Low inc. bench with
chains
3. Supra-Maximal Pump
Maximize the pump to
elicit growth
Intensification techniques
Leg press or knee ext.
4. Loaded Stretching
Full ROM under tension
Full, SAFE, stretch
Stiff-legged deadlift
14
EXCEPTIONS FOR EXCEPTIONAL
MUSCLE GROUPS
I have a little different take on arms, calves, and abs. In
my opinion, they grow best with an approach slightly
different that the standard Four Phase approach of a
Mountain Dog workout.
Arms
For arms I think it is a mistake for most people to try
and go heavy, or explode during an exercise here. What
I have seen over the years is that tendonitis is likely
headed your way if you are trying to set PR’s on barbell
curls and skullcrushers on a repeat basis. Arms are
funny. Even though we know progressive resistance
works well for size, this is a body part that seems to do
much better when lighter weights are used with strict
form and shorter rest breaks. I have seen this be the
case over the years time and time again.
Special Note: When training arms ditch Phase 2 of the
Workout Structure!
Calves
For calves, these stubborn SOB’s seem to respond
best to high frequency training. When I say high frequency, I mean high frequency. Think 4, 5, 6 maybe
even 7 days a week. We still want to use the 4 phases,
but we have to limit our volume on these, and we don’t
need a huge variety of exercises. Also, the biggest calf
mistake made (other than skipping them) is to ignore
your tibialis anterior. I think loading your lower leg with
blood results in fantastic gains, but loading it also
means using your tibialis anterior as well. This is one
reason why I believe doing bis and tris together works
so well. Training your gastrocnemius and soleus along
with your tibialis anterior together follows the same
principle.
• Standing calf raises – Just sit in stretch position for
30 seconds. Do this 2 times.
• In between all sets do 20 reps of tibia raises.
This should blow your calves up, and will take no more
than 10 minutes!
Abdominals
Abs routines are typically way more complicated than
they need to be. I simply like to start with an exercise
in which you move your pelvic girdle toward your torso such as a hanging leg raise, and then finish with
an exercise in which you take your torso toward your
pelvic girdle, such as an incline sit up. 4 sets of each
done 2 to 3 times a week should be plenty. (Yes it’s
that easy!)
These are my favorite choices and what my clients use.
For “lower” abs:
• Hanging Leg Raises
• Leg raises with your elbows supported on pad
• Leg raises on a decline board/bench
• V ups
For “upper” abs:
• Incline sit ups
• Rope pulldowns/crunches
• Band crunches
In the following Chapter, we’ll focus on the stuff that
makes Mountain Dog Training just plain fun: High Intensity Techniques!
Here is an example of what a calf workout should look
like.
• Standing calf raises 4 x 10 – Start light to activate
and pump calves and then move down the stack
and try to use as heavy weight as you can with a
full range of motion to get your 10 reps.
• Standing calves raises – 2 x 20 with an additional
10 partials out of the bottom.
15
Chapter 2
Intensification Techniques
Welcome back to Chapter 2 of the Science of Mountain Dog Training Series.
It’s time to get down to the nitty gritty “difference makers,” the Mountain
Dog Intensification Techniques that you’ve seen demonstrated by John and
his trainees on YouTube. In this article, John first describes the techniques
one by one. Thereafter, Scott breaks down the exercise science, the
physiological method to John’s madness, so to speak. If you’ve not already, it’s vital to have studied and understood Chapter 1 of this book. In
particular, you should note that the Chapter focuses entirely on techniques that would most typically be used for Phase 3 – Supra-Maximal Pump Exercises. (If you’re asking yourself what that means, definitely go back to read the first Chapter.)
Mountain Dog training has taken my training and
growth to the next level. John is a bit crazy but you
learn that everything he does has a purpose a good
reason for doing it, and above all, it just works. I look
forward to many more years working with John.
- Ken Jackson, IFBB Professional Bodybuilder
16
CHAPTER ROADMAP
These are the techniques that will make a huge difference in your program for
breaking plateaus and moving forward!
Come Prepared
The first thing I would advise is getting a like-minded training partner that will
push you and who also wants to be pushed. A great training partner is worth
his/her weight in gold. Some of the intensification techniques are much easier
to execute with a partner (or even impossible without one). So again, find that
partner (and repeat as necessary!).
These advanced techniques also require the mental discipline to use perfect
technique. One of the biggest things I try to teach people when they are here
is to make every rep a quality rep. Don’t just push the weight from point A to
point B. (Leave that to the powerlifters!) We want to feel everything work.
When the pain starts to build up and you want to quit during these techniques,
stay focused on the stimulating the muscle, not just moving the weight for the
sake of doing so. Don’t get sloppy and embrace the pain.
ORIGIN OF THE INTENSIFICATION
TECHNIQUES
Now, where did all these ideas come from? Well the
honest truth is they have been around forever. As far
as I know, these intensification techniques were first
really formalized as the Joe Weider principles. Perhaps
it’s their lack of newness and novelty, or simply the
pain they engender that explains why (in my opinion)
they are underused and underappreciated.
Drop sets
This is probably my favorite technique and it’s simple. Do a target amount of reps and then, upon failure,
drop the weight and keep going. Repeat this again and
maybe for a 4th time on occasion. One little tidbit I
would share with you though: Learn how much to drop
the weight. This will depend heavily on how hard you
pushed the previous set. If you are doing Smith machine incline presses for example and go to complete
failure on the first set, you will have to drop the weight
more than if you had left a rep or two in the tank. This
is common sense, but just be aware of it when you
are planning your drops (e.g., in how you sequence the
plates you load on the bar).
Forced reps
This will require the aid of a partner. You will go to failure meaning you cannot do any more reps with good
form, and then a partner will give you just enough help
during the concentric part of the movement to allow
you to keep your good form intact and complete a rep.
Good form is a must on forced reps. Your concentration will need to be at peak levels as you will be fighting through excruciating pain.
Iso-Holds against resistance (maximal
isometric)
This is a technique I learned from Tom Platz. This is a
little different than a standard isometric contraction.
You will go to failure (remember this means you cannot
do any more reps with perfect form), and then hold
the weight at midpoint (possibly a little closer to the
shortened contraction point). As you hold the weight in
place, your partner will add enough pressure to ensure an isometric contraction “hold” while you struggle
against (and the weight). This is brutal, this is really
tough, which means I love it. Timing wise I like to do
this isohold for 7 to 10 seconds at the end of the set.
17
Partials
This is another one of my favorites. Once you have
completed all the reps you can with perfect form, you
maintain your form, but only do smaller, half reps,
sometimes quarter reps. Keep your body posture in
correct alignment on this. I see way too many people that are doing presses for example, and then they
will lose the arch in their chest, bounce the weight etc.
These should be done strictly!
Supersets
This is when you do one exercise followed by another. Many times the first exercise is to pre-exhaust
the target muscle before hitting it with a more basic
movement such as doing flyes before bench presses. Don’t be afraid to do this the opposite way though.
Doing leg extensions after squats can be insanely
painful and productive!
Occlusion Stretches
Occlusion stretches are normal muscle stretches, but
are performed with a pumped muscle, which will create a metabolic stress and further stimulate muscle
growth (see below). Don’t try to force the stretch beyond your normal active range of motion as this can
be dangerous to the joints and possibly even cause
muscle tearing. Again, do these with a fully pumped
muscle! I can’t emphasize that enough!
You will find a few examples on my YouTube playlist
listed here:
Loaded Stretches
Now what you will see is a stretch done at the end of
a set (the chest dumbell press), and sometimes even
during the set as you see with the Hammer machine
lat pulldowns. Either way doing these with a pumped
muscle gives you the benefit we are looking for.
During the stretch it is important to allow actual
stretching, so don’t fight it ok. This can be dangerous
if done with too heavy of a weight, which is another
reason why I like to put these in the workout or after
a dropset or technique where you end with a more
moderate weight.
Occlusion training
This type of training has recently become a “hot” topic
[...] he asks me how
many reps he should
do on the dumbell
bench press with 150
lb dumbbells. I reply
“Twenty five.” His jaw
drops, as he doesn’t
think it is even possible.
Then he does it. Bam.
in the bodybuilding community, but what exactly is it?
Well you use wraps or some device around your upper arms or thighs depending on what you are training
to restrict blood flow. The goal is NOT to completely
restrict blood flow altogether, however. Most experts
say to wrap with a perceived tightness of 7 out of 10
(where 10 is the tightest you can imagine wrapping).
Personally, if I see a limb turning purple, well that may
be overdoing it! Also remember this is about acute
blood flow restriction, not chronic. I do not believe occluding a muscle for long periods of time is safe (could
cause tissue death). We are looking for more fast
twitch recruitment. This happens because the blood
flow restriction causes metabolic accumulation and
fatigues the muscle, thus necessitating the involvement of high threshold motor units. Lactate and GH
increases for example, have been documented using
this training technique. (See below.)
Before using this technique I would urge you to look at
the work of Jeremy Loenneke. He is one of the leading
experts in this field, perhaps the best.
For advanced bodybuilders, I think the jury is still out
on this as to the specific ways occlusion training can
be employed, given what I am hearing anecdotally.
(Maybe it still seems just weird to me?) What I do know
is that I myself and others have used this technique
during periods when training heavy was not an option
and it worked very well for maintaining muscle size. It
18
doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this
could be very valuable during training cycles in which you are crushed, or just having a bad day, as well. This method without
question produces very painful pumps also.
That is not debatable, which I think gives
validity to the potential of growth via cell
swelling or the pump. Don’t drop all your
basics for this technique, but give it a shot
time to time.
A Mountain Dog Special:
Challenge Sets – Test Your Will,
Feed Your Ego
You will also see “challenge sets” periodically sprinkled into the program.
If you have seen my chest training video
with IFBB Pro Antoine Valliant (see here), you
see a scene in which he asks me how many
reps he should do on the dumbell bench
press with 150 lb dumbbells. I reply “Twenty
five.” His jaw drops, as he doesn’t think it is
even possible. Then he does it. Bam.
These kinds of moments that happen during
this cycle are the moments that I value the
most. You think to yourself, wow, I can’t
believe I just did 45 reps with 1000 on the
leg press. You leave the gym dead, but in
a happy euphoric state knowing you did
something you didn’t even think was possible. These are very taxing, and they exist to
elicit a shock (novel stimulus at this intensity), but also to toughen you up mentally.
Challenge sets are to be used sparingly
though, as they are taxing. One challenge
set per workout is plenty if done to maximum intensity, and I wouldn’t do them every week. I would rather see you do them
every 2nd or 3rd week in general.
Science of Mountain Dog Intensification
Techniques
• The Mountain Dog Intensification Techniques are most
definitely designed to make training more “intense:” They
make training more difficult and painful, even to the point
of being downright excruciating. Scientifically speaking,
however, we’re not talking about increasing intensity in
terms of how much weight you lift per se [i.e., using a higher percentage of one’s one-repetition maximum (1RM)
(111)], or careful manipulation of your rating of perceived
exertion during exercise(112). The purpose of these Intensification Techniques is simple: Increase the muscle growth
stimulus, propel your gains, and make you a better bodybuilder. John’s been torturing people like this for years, but
what’s cool is that exercise science research bears out
mechanisms underlying these training techniques that tell
why they are such good muscle growth stimuli(113).
• The most obvious stimulus for muscle growth is mechanical tension: By requiring your muscles to produce extraordinary tension, repeatedly, it responds appropriately by
building up contractile mass. However, an acute aspect
of the training stimulus, the metabolic stress that you
perceive as muscle fatigue and pain during exercise, also
plays an important role in fostering growth. You probably
also figured that muscle damage, manifesting as our old
friend, delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), is likely
involved in the muscle remodeling process.
• These exercise components that drive hypertrophy are at
work simultaneously, and thus are somewhat indivisible
and overlapping. The relative impact of each component on
muscle growth depends, of course, on how one trains and,
in the case of MD training, what Intensification Techniques
are applied. We know that the work output of heavy resistance exercise creates tremendous energetic demand(114),
which in turn results in metabolic stress. However, metabolic stress can be greatly amplified when lifting only very
light loads by using occlusion techniques to trap metabolic
waste products. At the other end of the spectrum, eccentric contractions (negatives) are much less metabolically
stressful than concentric contractions(115-117), but contribute the most to muscle damage(75) most likely because
of how intensely they load the contractile elements(118).
Exercise studies have demonstrated that, albeit “lacking” in
their counterpart stimulus, both occlusion training(98) (low,
tension, very metabolic stress-focused) and eccentric only
training(119, 120) (mechanical tension-focused with little
metabolite accumulation) are effective means of producing
muscle growth.
19
Mechanical Tension
Above all else, the muscular mechanical tension
is what sets weight training apart from most other
forms of formal exercise training. As you may have
noticed, although not a perfect correlation, the stronger the bodybuilder, the larger his / her muscles(121).
Research suggests that when it comes to regular old
“vanilla” straight set strength training, relatively heavy
loads (75-90% of your 1RM, i.e., weight you could lift
for about 5 to 15 reps to failure(122)] seem optimal for
packing on muscle mass(67, 123).
Muscle tissue is primed to adapt to tensile stress.
Simply by stretching(124, 125) developing (test-tube)
muscle at rest will trigger protein synthesis and local
inter-cell signaling molecule production (e.g., prostaglandins), as well as internal signaling molecules
(like phophatidic acid)(126-129). There are numerous
lines of scientific evidence demonstrating that heavy
muscular loading is a powerful trigger for muscle
growth(73, 127, 130, 131), and that the signal and resulting enlargement is indeed a function of the load
lifted(132, 133).
Of course, Mountain Dog Training is not powerlifting,
so maximal weights and load progression are not our
end-all-be-all. However, because muscle is inherently stronger during isometric and eccentric contractions(118), we take advantage of techniques like
Iso-Holds to amplify the tensile stimulus. Because
essentially all MD Intensification Techniques prolong
a set, they de facto create greater “time under tension”
as well. These last few agonizing reps are especially
potent, because the closer to muscular failure and the
greater the fatigue, the greater the number of motor
units (and muscle fibers) called into action(134-137).
In other words, the intensification tactics ensure loading across a maximal number of motor units and thus
muscle fibers. That’s one reason why John calls these
“the difference makers.”
Metabolic Stress
Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) posits that adaptation counters the stresses placed upon
the body(138).
As mentioned above, the energy demand of muscle contraction specifically creates metabolic stress,
i.e., an imbalance of demand (ATP required to lift the
weight) and energy supply (metabolic ATP to do so).
The obvious result is fatigue and the accumulation of
metabolites(139) such as lactate, protons (H+; leading
to acidity) and inorganic phosphate (Pi)(140).
Per GAS, it makes sense that if this rapid accumulation of metabolites during highly strenuous resistance
exercise efforts is an especially important stressor, it
would promote higher levels of those enzymes of energy metabolism. However, substantial enzymatic adaptations do not consistently occur during the course
of exercise-induced muscle hypertrophy(82, 141-143).
This likely reflects the simple fact that not all training
programs are metabolically stressful enough to warrant enzymatic adaptation(144). So, while it may be
comforting to know gains in size and strength(145) can
result without exorbitant metabolic stress, Mountain
Dog Training isn’t always about being comfortable.
[...] Mountain
Dog Training is not
powerlifting, so maximal
weights and load
progression are not our
end-all-be-all.
Really though… How much muscle are we missing out
if we focus on training loads and skimp on (painful)
metabolic stress?... Occlusion training [aka, blood flow
restriction (BFR) or Kaatsu(99) training] gives us some
insight here.
Occlusion training uses (otherwise embarrassingly)
light weights(146, 147), but generates impressive metabolic stress because metabolite clearance is prevented during a series of high rep sets(148). (For more
on occlusion training, see above and John’s youtube
playlist.) Despite the puny weights, BFR training has
proven a highly potent hypertrophic stimulus(98-101).
In fact, one BFR study(103) employing occlusion work-
20
outs twice daily for two weeks generated one of the
fastest rates of muscle growth recorded in the research literature(123). [This high training frequency
may be more feasible because your typical BFR protocol may only incur minimal muscle damage (103, 149,
150).]
So, what’s going on with the metabolic stress during
BFR exercise to produce muscle growth? Anyone who
has done BFR knows the that the metabolite accumulation and blood pooling creates a massive pump,
which may have an anabolic effect (secondary to cell
swelling) unto itself(151, 152). Metabolic fatigue necessitates a high reliance upon high threshold motor
units (despite the low loads)(153, 154), which explains
why large increases in type II fiber size are possible
with BFR training(155). We also know that occlusion
training recruits satellite cells(156) and reduces myostatin expression(157), just like various other loading
scenarios that increase muscle mass(158-170).
Mountain Dog Training is about utilizing all the anabolic tools in the bodybuilder’s toolkit, be they
old (Weider principles) or relatively new (e.g., BFR
training). Metabolic stress is a component of many
of these strategies and may explain the extreme fiber-specific(67) hypertrophy(171) (and even hyperplasia(162, 172, 173)) seen in bodybuilders, who, albeit
weaker than powerlifters, still outsize and typically
outwork them during metabolically stressful workouts(174).
Muscle Damage
Muscle damage is not the goal per se of MD training,
but we know that it comes as a result of heavy loading. In particular eccentric actions cause muscle dam-
Mountain Dog
Training is about utilizing
all the anabolic tools in
the bodybuilder’s toolkit,
be they old or relatively
new.
age(75), and, compared to concentric contractions,
eccentrics may be more effective at increasing muscle
protein synthesis acutely(105), as well as strength(175,
176) and muscle growth over the long haul of training(119, 177-179).
If it’s occurred to you that John’s intention is prolonged, miserable DOMS, remember (see Chapter 1)
that he strongly promotes peri-workout recovery
supplementation, in part because it can substantially
reduce muscle damage(40, 41). The purpose here is to
generate a tremendous training stimulus, but mediate
excessive inroads into recovery through a targeted
nutritional strategy.
When it comes to finding the “right” amount of muscle damage, also note that non-steroid anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) like aspirin limit (but don’t eliminate) prostanglandin synthesis(180, 181). NSAIDS
will thus reduce muscle damage(182-184), as well as
post-exercise protein synthesis(185, 186) and satellite
cell proliferation(187-189), which is vital for muscle
growth(158, 161, 164, 190-192)]. On the other hand, at
least one study suggests chronic NSAID use may actually promote muscle growth due to resistance training(193). Although puzzling(194), these results lend
credence to the notion that there is a sweet spot for
muscle damage and inflammation when it comes to
optimizing training gains. (We’ll cover finding the right
dose of training stimulus via periodization in the next
Chapter of the Science of Mountain Dog Training series.)
Activation Pattern
Training hard and taking sets to and beyond failure is
a powerful strategy to increase motor unit recruitment, and thus the stimulus to the muscle fibers
themselves(132-137). Variety in training – using a wide
selection of exercises as John always does – is also
an important strategy to optimize muscle growth(113).
Indeed, we know from magnetic resonance imaging(195) and electromyographic studies(107) that activation strategies vary substantially depending on
the exercise you choose for a given muscle group.
The spatial organization of motor units(107) clues us
in as to why numerous studies have demonstrated
region-specific increases in muscle size, i.e., that it’s
possible to change the relative shape of a growing
21
muscle or muscle group as it grows(107, 196-200). (These changes are
subtle, however. John’s not promising you’ll develop biceps peaks rivaling
Ronnie Coleman’s using his methods.)
Mountain Dog Training not only varies exercises on a regular basis, but
also, specifically when doing supersets, creates a one-two punch by coupling fatigue with two or more different movements for the same muscle
group. Frequently rotating exercises may also prevent those neurological
adaptations that contribute to a “repeated bout effect” (there is less muscle damage the second time, when repeating a given damaging exercise
bout)(201-204). On the other hand, excessive fatigue-related muscle
damage is somewhat limited intrinsically: The weights you can handle are
de facto reduced (e.g., at the end of a brutal drop set). Under controlled
circumstances, exercise-induced muscle damage does not seem to be
worsened by fatigue(205) and may actually be reduced if you do a good
warm-up(206).
The summary Table below shows you how the Mountain Dog Intensification Techniques synergize several hypertrophy-inducing exercise components. Each Technique exploits the mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy in
a slightly different manner. Leave it to John to add variety to intensity.
Mechanical Tension
√√√
Drop Sets
Forced Reps
Metabolic Stress
√√√√
Muscle Damage
√√√
Activation Pattern
√√√
√√√√
√√√
√√√√
√√√√
√√√√√
√√√√
√√√√√
√√√√
√√√
√√√
√√√√
√√√√
√√
√√√
√√√
√√√√√
Occlusion Stretch
√
√√√√√
√√
√
Occlusion Training
√
√√√√√
√√
√√√
Iso-Holds
Partials
Super Sets
Summary Table: How MD Intensification Techniques impact the major factors that stimulate muscle growth.
[√ = Minimal impact; √ √ √ √ √ = Strong Impact]
Naturally, the key to making these techniques work is careful application
in appropriate measure. Reckless abandon is not the name of the game
when it comes to applying these MD Training Intensification Techniques. In
the next Chapter, we’ll show you how to employ these techniques when
devising up workout splits, and how to organize them into a grander
scheme of training periodization.
22
Chapter 3
Periodizing and Building Your Plan
Up to now, we have covered how to structure a workout and tie in the high
intensity techniques that make the training bouts highly effective. In this last
chapter, we take a step back and look at the big picture training parameters:
frequency of training, sensing when to push harder and when to back off,
and how to periodize your training overall, the Mountain Dog way. As before,
John covers the Mountain Dog training and Scott interjects exercise science
to explain why this way of training works so well.
Three Training Microcycles
(over ~3 months)
1. PREPARATION
(2-3 weeks)
2. DESTROYER
(6-8 weeks)
3. TAPER
(2 weeks)
Varying Weekly Splits
(Train 4-7+ x/week; Base + Optional Pump Workouts)
Basic Workout Split
(Unless Pre-Contest)
Weekly Split Options
• Muscle Group
• Pre-Contest
• Post-Contest
Maintain Split
• Reduce Volume
Four Stages of Each Workout
4 “Stages”
• Pre-Pump
• Explosive
• SupraMaxPump
• Loaded Stretch
23
CHAPTER ROADMAP
This chapter shows you how to build a periodized training macrocycle using
Mountain Dog workout structure and Intensification techniques.
The Figure above outlines the big picture of Mountain Dog training. In the sections to follow, we’ll cover the three training microcycles that comprise a
Mountain Dog macrocycle.
PERIODIZATION
There are two important points to keep in mind here:
1. Most people don’t need periodization, but people
training our style do.
2. Periodization should be more about instincts, i.e.,
how you personally feel, as opposed to just following a structured template that does not account for individual differences.
Periodization: For Animals Only
I don’t believe that most people train hard enough to
even need periodization. There is a lot of talk about
overtraining these days, but do this. Go to your local gym tonight and look around: What you’ll see is
the majority of people “training” are talking on their
phones, texting, flirting, etc. For these individuals,
there is likely little need to periodize and “overtraining”
is really nothing more than a boogeyman. You, on the
other hand, are not the average gym goer. You train
like an uncaged animal in the gym, so this topic warrants discussion.
Science: Periodization for the Advanced
Periodization: Follow Your Instincts.
So how do you apply this to your training? This concept
has always been intriguing to me. I have never bought
into it in the way it has been presented as a simple
numbers game. For example, why would you train 3
weeks hard, then back off for a week if you feel awesome after three weeks and are still smashing records
and growing at a fast rate? Do you think it is wise to
just slow down then? I do not. I am a strong believer in
a much more instinctive approach to periodization.
We are not mirror images of each other in terms of
recuperative ability. So, when it comes to Mountain
Dog training, there are guidelines we generally follow,
but with some flexibility in the duration of each microcycle. If you fall outside of these numbers, follow your
instinct! For example, if you feel awesome after 1 week
of tapering, feel free to ratchet intensity back up. If you
feel decimated after 4 weeks of a destroyer microcyle,
it’s ok to back off intensity for a week. Listen and get in
tune with your body!
Science of Instinctive Training
• The law of diminishing returns after years
of training: Strength gains are not as easy in
advanced trainees as in beginners(207-210),
suggesting a different strategy should be
applied.
• Bodybuilder regimens are notoriously
extreme(213-217). However, training volume
does have a practical limit, beyond which training
adaptation (e.g., strength gain) suffers, even in
highly trained athletes(218).
• To wit, simply changing training variables
(employing a new training regime) may impact
gains(207, 211). This effect is so profound that
some researchers have taken the time pre-train
participants before beginning interventions(51),
e.g., to eliminate neural adaptations(212) from
the effects of muscle hypertrophy on strength.
• More specifically, Recent research has demonstrated that training in progressive but “autoregulated” fashion (progression based upon performance in the gym) produces superior training
gains compared to a linear (pre-set pattern)
periodization approach(219).
24
The Preparation Microcycle – 2-3 weeks
Duration
The Destroyer Microcycle
5-6 week duration
Now for those of you doing my programs, you will be
working hard, so this is important. Generally speaking
I like to start a program off at lower volumes with high
intensity. Almost everyone I work with gets pretty sore
from this, and I don’t think high volume is needed just yet.
The next phase is going to be “balls out” intensity. It will
be higher in volume as well. This in my opinion is the
training that separates the champions from the “also
rans.” This is where your desire and your will are tested.
I want you to start thinking about this rule all the time.
Get the most out of
the least.
What I mean by this is maximizing each step in the process and most importantly, giving yourself somewhere
to go to take that next step. You need to progressively
increase your training stimulus, and in a very calculated way. In my programs, progression is primarily the
volume of the training load itself. This is the Mountain
Dog way to create a training adaptation that makes
you a better bodybuilder! If you go into a training cycle
right out of the gate with “guns blazing” all-out intensity and high volume, how can the training stimulus be
increased? More importantly, a lesser training stimulus may be enough and one upon which you can build
during the ensuing weeks. The first microcycle lasts 2-3
weeks typically. We slowly build up volume. This will
prepare you for the brutality that lies ahead.
There is no way you can train like this indefinitely
though! You need to put the brakes on at some point.
For most people it’s around 5-6 weeks of this, and
they hit the overreaching stage pretty hard. During
this phase, I like for people to discover what they are
capable of. Many times I ask people to do something
and they sort of shake their head and reply, “Seriously?” We mentioned this in chapter 2 (above), when I
challenge Antoine Valliant to perform 25 reps on the
dumbbell bench press using the 150lb dumbbells. His
jaw drops initially, but he doesn’t back down: He simply does it. Another example was when Scott was up
to train with Dave Tate and me at the EliteFTS™ compound. Dave set up a partial deadlift loaded with three
plates on each side and enough chains to sink a battleship. Here’s a video of the two of them having at it:
Challenge set - PhD vs Meathead
Science of the Preparation Microcycle.
• Training periodization is rooted in Hans Selye’s
notion of a general adaptation syndrome(138),
characterized by an “alarm” reaction to each
exercise stress. Accordingly, only the appropriate, sufficient dose of exercise stimulus results
in adaptation (muscle growth), whereas excess
training is simply non-productive(220, 221).
• Because an initial bout of a novel exercise is more
damaging tha follow-up training sessions(repeat-
ed bout effect)(202, 204), less stressful training
sessions are likely adequate after a break from
training.
• Indeed, a recent study found that starting a training macrocycle with a short (3 week) “Preparation Microcycle” eliminated muscle soreness and
damage compared to training with initially higher
volume, but that muscle size and strength gains
were equivalent(222).
25
Sets like these, where you test and exceed previous
limits, are what make the Destroyer Microcycle stand
out. I value these kind of moments the most – for me,
they equate to an out of body experience. You think to
yourself things like, “Wow, I can’t believe I just did 45
reps with 1000 on the leg press.” You leave the gym
exhausted, but in a happy euphoric state from your
personal achievement. Most people will never understand this, but when this kind of passion is inspired,
you are on the fast road to success.
As I mentioned above, overreaching usually starts to
rear its head about 6 weeks into this microcycle, and
overtraining is becoming a possibility. At this point,
with some exceptions, it’s time to move on to the next
phase. Again, this is not black and white though. I am
just providing a general guideline.
Passion trumps
everything.
-Dave Tate, Elite Powerlifter,
Founder and CEO of EliteFTS™
The Taper Microcycle
2-3 week duration
This phase is characterized by tapering down volume
greatly. We keep intensity high, but by bringing down
the total workload, the person very quickly comes out
of overreaching. This is usually when a trainee sees
a lot of “gains” and PR’s also. It is common to mistake
the lower volume as the driver for these gains per se,
but it’s more than likely the fact that the taper of volume is allowing adaptations to take place simply from
the overreaching phenomenon. This phase is a very
loved phase by people who work with me. They seem
rejuvenated many times just from 1 week of this. In
fact I have actually built programs where we kept this
phase to less than 2-3 weeks because it can be so
rejuvenating.
Taper Microcycle Science
• Research suggests that, as long as training intensity is maintained, even reducing training volume
by two-thirds [by way of weekly frequency(223)]
can be enough to maintain muscle size.
• Similarly, research studies have borne out repeatedly that maintaining training intensity(224, 225)
while reducing training volume is the most effective means of tapering when it comes to muscular
strength(226, 227).
• Naturally, when coupled with adequate nutrient intake(228) (shifted toward positive nutrient
balance via reduced caloric expenditure in the
gym), hoisting heavier loads when tapering translates into a very powerful stimulus for muscular
growth(74, 133).
A BIT ABOUT TRAINING VOLUME
Sometimes I feel it’s silly to talk about training volume
as many times it is just semantics, e.g., does a warm
up set count the same as only the heaviest or toughest (“real”) working set? The same workout might
mean a wide range of “sets completed,” depending on
who’s counting. Without clarifying this, the meaning of
high vs. low volume is lost in semantics.
In the Mountain Dog training framework, a “working”
set need not be an absolutely insane set to failure and
beyond, but should be somewhat effortful. Knowing
that, here are typical sets / workout ranges as it applies to volume for a given muscle group, within the
Mountain Dog framework.
Mountain Dog Training Volume
Guidelines
Muscle Group
Legs
Training Volume
Low
Medium
High
8 - 10
11 - 15
16 - 20
Chest
8 - 10
11 - 14
15 - 18
Shoulders
6-8
9 - 10
11 - 12
Back
10 - 11
12 - 15
16 - 20
Biceps
6-8
9 - 11
12 - 16
Triceps
6-8
9 - 11
12 - 16
26
AND A BIT ABOUT TRAINING FREQUENCY
Pump Workouts
In Chapter 1 I describe the four phases of a mountain dog “Base” workout.
The other type of Mountain Dog workout is a “Pump” workout. These are
employed to:
1. Add frequency to your plan.
2. Increase the number of anabolic opportunities you have (fix
weaknesses).
3. Reduce the need for excessive cardio.
I love to train. I cannot stand taking more than 1 maybe 2 days off a week.
Many people I coach are the same way. You have to be careful though.
These pump days need to be done intelligently.
Again, Pump workouts are how we increase training frequency. These are
workouts that do not use the four stages described in Chapter 1. These
workouts are all done to simply get the greatest pump possible without
excessively stressing your connective tissue and/or joints. Here are the
basic rules of Pump day workouts:
• We do not use barbells on a pump chest or shoulder day
• We do not squat or leg press heavy on pump leg days
• We do not deadlift or do extremely heaving rowing on pump back days.
• We often superset, or triset, or giant set on these days.
• Just get an insane pump!!!!
As mentioned in Chapter 1, it is absolutely essential to get peri-workout
nutrition nailed in order to recover well enough to implement these pump
days. This is something we simply can’t emphasize enough. You should
not be sore longer than 1 or 2 days, and honestly, I don’t even want you
sore at all really, maybe just a little pain when you stretch your pecs out
the day after training them, for example.
27
Typical Signs of Overreaching
DELOADING
Ok, so you have finished a brutal 12 week program or
maybe you are in week 7 and just need a week to back
off because you are listening to your body. Deloading
is how we prevent staleness and “reset” to ensure
continued gains and prepare for the next training
macrocycle. So how do we do this?
Basic Guidelines for Deloading
Training Parameter
Weekly Frequency
Changes with Deloading
Reduce to 3 - 4 days / week
• Loss of “pop” when training(230). Weights that
are normally lifted with a clean, crisp motion now
seem to take a little too long to execute the rep.
Your limit strength may be decreased or your tolerance for overall volume may decrease.
• Difficulty elevating your heart rate(231)
• Feeling of simultaneous tightness and stiffness(232). You may also experience discomfort in
your tendons(233) on the first few eccentric motions of any set.
Intensity / Effort
Cut sets short of failure by
2-3 reps
Training Session
Volume
Reduce Number of Set by 20%
(from end of Taper)
• Delayed onset muscle and tendon soreness(232),
even after low volume or low intensity training.
This could be accompanied by a feeling of being
heavy(234).
High Intensity
Techniques
Eliminate (No partials, forced
reps, etc.)
• Changes in appetite(233) and decrease in body
weight(234).
That’s it – Deloading the Mountain Dog Way!
More Than Overreaching
So how do you learn to be more instinctive? How do
you know when you are overreaching versus overtraining?
Both overtraining and overreaching result in performance decrements as a result of excessive training
and/or non-training stresses. The signs and symptoms generally lie along a spectrum ranging from
those that require caution (overreaching) to the more
severe (overtaining). Overreaching occurs over a
shorter time scale (a matter of weeks or months)
and may be considered a normal outcome of high
level training. Most importantly, recovery from overreaching can occur within a couple weeks(229). Here
are some signs and symptoms of overreaching that I
would generally associate with overreaching:
• Mental fuzziness and loss of focus during training(233).
Here some the symptoms that, I believe, tend to reflect
a more severe state of overtraining.
Typical Signs Suggestive of Overtraining
• All of the above symptoms of overreaching, potentially increased in severity(229).
• Loss of motivation in and outside of the gym(233).
• General loss of focus(233).
• Sleep disturbances(232).
• Mood related issues or a general irritability(232,
233).
• Persistent feeling of fatigue(233).
• Loss of libido(234).
28
WEEKLY WORKOUT SPLITS
So how do we set up a weekly split?
The basic Mountain Dog split calls for four training “Base” days per week to
start. As your nutrition becomes more finely tuned (especially peri-workout
nutrition) and you adapt to this training style, I expect you’ll be able to add
additional “Pump” style workouts that potentiate further gains.
Eventually, you’ll be able to train up to six or even seven days per week if
you choose to, for a period of time. The Table below and notes thereafter
summarize Mountain Dog weekly splits and special considerations for:
• The Basic (4x / week) workout split.
• Bringing up particular muscle groups (Chest/Shoulders, Back, Legs and
Arms, respectively).
• Pre-contest splits.
• Post-contest split.
Summary of Mountain Dog Weekly Workout Splits
FOCUS
DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
DAY 7
Basic Split
Legs
Chest /
Shoulders
Off
Back
Off
Arms
Off
Chest /
Shoulders
Legs
Chest /
Shoulders
Off
Back
Off
Chest /
Shoulders
(Pumping)
Arms
Back
Legs
Chest /
Shoulders
Back
Off
Arms
Off
Back
(Pumping^)
Legs
Legs
Chest /
Shoulders
Back
Arms
Legs
(Pumping)
Off
Off
Legs
Chest / Sh/
Triceps (6
sets)
Off
Back /
Biceps
(6 sets)
Off
Arms
Off
Pre-Contest
Legs
Chest /
Shoulders
Back
Arms
PostContest
Legs†
Chest /
Shoulders†
Off
Back†
Arms
Chest /
Back
Legs
Shoulders
(Pumping*)
(Pumping)
(Pumping)
Off
Arms†
Off
NOTE
^Stay off
Lower Back
*Stay off
Lower Back
†No Failure
Sets
29
Basic Workout Split:
• Legs and back are separated to keep lower back
from getting too beat up.
• Arms are after torso so they won’t potentially limit
chest and back training.
Chest and Shoulders Focus:
• Here you are giving your chest 3 days rest after the
big workout, plus two days rest after the pump
style workout before hitting it again.
• I have one of my most popular programs (called
“Creeping Death”) set up this way.
Arms Focus
• I do not like to add in extra arm days (generally
speaking) because between arms workouts and all
the torso work it’s easy to end up with tendonitis
and joint inflammation. (Age has its perks!)
Pre-Contest Split:
• This 7-day split pre-contest would presume you’ve
mastered peri-workout nutrition and are thus
ready to dive into the deep end and train every day
of the week.
Post-contest:
• After a contest I like to have people revert back to 4
days a week.
Back Focus:
• NOTE: During back pumping workout you should go
easy on your lower back as you will be doing heavy
legs the next day. (Keep that lower back healthy!)
• Do not take sets to failure. The approach is still a
high volume approach, however.
• Use a limited number of exercises.
Legs Focus:
• 3 days of rest after the base day
• 2 full rest days before hitting the heavy base day
again.
A Post-Contest Back Workout Example
• Back - 18 sets:
• Use different exercises for this but stick with this philosophy of less exercises and more sets, but none taken to failure.
• Dumbell Deadstop Rows - 2-3 warm up sets of 15. 8 sets of 8 reps. Moderate weight, not super heavy in keeping in line with this week’s theme. 8 total
working sets.
• Stretchers - 6 sets of 8. 6 total working sets.
• Hyperextensions - 3 sets to failure w/ bodyweight only.
3 total working sets.
• If you have access to a reverse hyper machine, do that instead.
• Hang with weight - Hang off chinning bar (wearing straps) with same weight
as last week. See how long you can make it this time. 1 working set.
30
Three Training Microcycles
THE BIG PICTURE
Once again, here is the Figure that pieces together the Big Picture of creating a
Mountain Dog Training macrocycle (see
below). After reading the FAQ below, you
should have all the basic pieces needed
to generate your own Mountain Dogstyle Training Plan.
(over ~3 months)
1. PREPARATION
(2-3 weeks)
2. DESTROYER
(6-8 weeks)
3. TAPER
(2 weeks)
Varying Weekly Splits
(Train 4-7+ x/week; Base + Optional Pump Workouts)
Basic Workout Split
(Unless Pre-Contest)
Weekly Split Options
• Muscle Group
• Pre-Contest
• Post-Contest
Maintain Split
• Reduce Volume
Four Stages of Each Workout
4 “Stages”
• Pre-Pump
• Explosive
• SupraMaxPump
• Loaded Stretch
I’ve been training for over almost two decades now and I don’t have a
medium speed. My training has always been very intense but not really
well thought out.
John has taught me a lot but mainly that training intensely is important,
but training with a purpose is MORE important. He’s taught me it’s not
about slaughtering your body to the point of no return, it’s about stimulating new growth and if you puke in the process that’s ok too.
I have to say without John I don’t think I would have made the gains I
made in 2013 & 2014. John has really changed the way I look at training
and not only am I getting better, I’m stronger, train more often, and am
recovering faster.
John’s methods will go down in bodybuilding history. I’m glad and proud
to say he is my coach and is taking me along for the ride.
- Fouad Abiad, IFBB Professional Bodybuilder
31
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS.
Q: Where can I find some workouts to try before
building my own?
A: Right here. http://mountaindogdiet.com/ You will
find over 40 workouts and also some “pump” style
workouts mentioned above on the member site.
Q: Won’t I get weaker if I do a big compound movement like a deadlift after a more isolated exercise
like a dumbbell row?
A: For the first few weeks, you may not be able to use
the same load on the explosive exercise. The prepump exercise might fatigue you enough that you
won’t be able to do a major barbell exercise like a
deadlift, squat, or bench press with as much weight as
you could if you were completely fresh. However, your
body will adjust. You’ll be back up to your old poundages shortly, and then you’ll surpass them. More importantly, you’ll be able to handle those heavier weights
more safely because you’ll be much more thoroughly
warmed up when you get around to using them.
sonable level of strength yet throughout your body,
you obviously can go a long way before you’ll need
bands or chains to help you go further. What is a “reasonable level of strength”? Benching your body weight
(or within 30 pound of it for females), squatting your
body weight plus approximately 100 pounds for a few
reps (plus 25 pounds for females), and generally being
able to handle dumbbells from the heavier side of the
rack is a good barometer. If regular people are impressed with your muscularity and call you “athletic”,
I’ll wager that the time has come for you to experiment
with bands and chains a bit. But I usually have people
who are brand new to my system go two 12-week cycles before using bands and chains. The novelty of the
intensity is typically enough by itself to spark tremendous gains, so there’s no need to push it harder.
Q: How do I know which level I’m at, beginner or intermediate?
A: See the answer to the above question on bands and
chains. As for advanced lifters, they know who they
are already.
Q: I don’t have bands or chains. Do I have to use them
to get results?
Q: How long does a typical Mountain Dog workout
take?
A: No, especially if you haven’t been training for at
least a few years and don’t have a well-developed
mind-muscle connection or a solid strength base.
However, when you’ve reached the intermediate level,
bands and chains can open up a new world of gains to
you and allow you to progress to the advanced level
much faster. Unfortunately, the ones your gym already
carries probably won’t work. You need continuous
loop bands (not the tube kind) that resist wear and
tear, and you’ll need a variety of sizes and tensions.
I’ve always used the ones sold by EliteFTS™.
A: About 45 minutes for arms, an hour for chest and
shoulders, a little more for back, more than that for
legs (maybe up to 2 hours on legs). It depends on what
phase of training you’re in and how strong you are. The
stronger and more experienced the lifter, the longer it
will take him to work up to the loads that are appropriate for his work sets. For most intermediate lifters,
blocking out 90 minutes of training time will be plenty.
Q: How do I know when I’m ready for bands and
chains?
A: It’s a hot topic and maybe even faddish right now
to say you have special exercises for females. I put
my bikini, figure, physique, and bodybuilding women
through the same workouts as men. They don’t do
decline work for chest and rarely do trap work. That’s
about it in terms of differences. Women are at a hor-
A: This is a great question, but unfortunately, I don’t
have the greatest, most definitive answer. If you’re a
beginner, you’ve never trained in the Mountain Dog
style before, or you simply haven’t developed a rea-
Q: I’m a woman. Are the workouts in this book designed for men exclusively? What modifications
should I make to them so they suit my needs?
32
monal disadvantage, so taking it easier on them seems silly. It’s hard
enough to put good muscle on women as is. Thinking there are special
exercises that are unique for women is equally as silly. Bottom line is that
my women grind hard.
Q: Can I perform Mountain Dog training at home?
A: Maybe, assuming that you have a good variety of equipment. Leg press
and hack squat machines aren’t common in home gyms, so most of my
clients train in a big facility. I often get asked about modifying workouts for
home use or coming up with a minimalist Mountain Dog system or bodyweight only approach, but I don’t see how these options could be anywhere near as effective. You simply must have access to standard weight
training equipment to do these workouts and get results. The wider the
array of stuff you have access to, the more you can do and the more stimulation you can provide your muscles.
Q: Calves and arms seem to be trained differently than the other body
parts. Why don’t they follow the four-phase system?
A: Calves, biceps, and triceps are relatively small and uncomplicated muscles. To put it simply, you just need to go for a pump to make them grow.
You can apply intensity techniques like drop sets and three-second eccentrics to them, but apart from what I said about them in the body-part
training guide and the weak-point training guide, they don’t need to be
trained with bands or chains, nor do they need to follow a strict multiphase approach. I also think that going too heavy on arms puts you at a
high risk for elbow tendonitis. Calves I like to train as often as I possibly
can. I actually train them as much as 6 to 7 times a week during stretches.
33
references
1.
Libonati, J.R., et al., Brief periods of occlusion and reperfusion increase skeletal muscle force output in humans.
Cardiologia, 1998. 43(12): p. 1355-60. http://www.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=9988944
2.
Libonati, J.R., et al., Brief muscle hypoperfusion/hyperemia: an ergogenic aid? J Strength Cond Res, 2001. 15(3):
p. 362-6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.
fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_
uids=11710666
3.
de Groot, P.C., et al., Ischemic preconditioning improves
maximal performance in humans. Eur J Appl Physiol, 2010.
108(1): p. 141-6.
4.
Hoppeler, H. and E.R. Weibel, Limits for oxygen and substrate transport in mammals. J Exp Biol, 1998. 201(Pt 8): p.
1051-64.
5.
Sweet, S. and P. Hagerman, Warm-up or No Warm-up.
Strength & Conditioning Journal, 2001. 23(6): p. 36. http://
journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/Fulltext/2001/12000/Warm_
up_or_No_Warm_up.6.aspx
6.
Hedrick, A., EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY: Physiological Responses to Warm-Up. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 1992.
14(5): p. 25-27. http://journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/Fulltext/1992/10000/EXERCISE_PHYSIOLOGY__Physiological_Responses_to.7.aspx
7.
Safran, M.R., et al., The role of warmup in muscular injury
prevention. Am J Sports Med, 1988. 16(2): p. 123-9.
8.
Safran, M.R., et al., Warm-up and muscular injury prevention. An update. Sports Med, 1989. 8(4): p. 239-49.
9.
Fransen, M., et al., Therapeutic exercise for people with
osteoarthritis of the hip or knee. A systematic review. The
Journal of Rheumatology, 2002. 29(8): p. 1737-1745. http://
www.jrheum.org/content/29/8/1737.abstract
10. Vincent, K.R. and H.K. Vincent, Resistance exercise for knee
osteoarthritis. Pm r, 2012. 4(5 Suppl): p. S45-52.
11.
Jentjens, R.L. and A.E. Jeukendrup, Prevalence of hypoglycemia following pre-exercise carbohydrate ingestion is not
accompanied By higher insulin sensitivity. Int J Sport Nutr
Exerc Metab, 2002. 12(4): p. 398-413.
12. Zhao, X.T., et al., Slowing of intestinal transit by fat depends on naloxone-blockable efferent, opioid pathway. Am
J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol, 2000. 278(6): p. G86670.
13. McHugh, P.R. and T.H. Moran, Calories and gastric emptying: a regulatory capacity with implications for feeding.
American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative
and Comparative Physiology, 1979. 236(5): p. R254-R260.
14. Read, N.W., et al., Is the transit time of a meal through the
small intestine related to the rate at which it leaves the
stomach? Gut, 1982. 23(10): p. 824-8.
15. Phillips, S.M., et al., Resistance training reduces the acute
exercise-induced increase in muscle protein turnover. Am
J Physiol, 1999. 276(1 Pt 1): p. E118-24. http://www.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=9886957
16. Gran, P. and D. Cameron-Smith, The actions of exogenous
leucine on mTOR signalling and amino acid transporters
in human myotubes. BMC physiology, 2011. 11: p. 10. http://
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21702994
17.
Greiwe, J.S., et al., Leucine and insulin activate p70 S6 kinase through different pathways in human skeletal muscle. American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and
metabolism, 2001. 281(3): p. E466-71. http://www.ncbi.nlm.
nih.gov/pubmed/11500301
18. Atherton, P.J., et al., Muscle full effect after oral protein:
time-dependent concordance and discordance between
human muscle protein synthesis and mTORC1 signaling.
The American journal of clinical nutrition, 2010. 92(5): p.
1080-8. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20844073
19. Rennie, M.J., et al., Branched-chain amino acids as fuels and anabolic signals in human muscle. J Nutr, 2006.
136(1 Suppl): p. 264S-8S. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=16365095
20. Smith, K., et al., Flooding with L-[1-13C]leucine stimulates
human muscle protein incorporation of continuously infused L-[1-13C]valine. The American journal of physiology,
1992. 262(3 Pt 1): p. E372-6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/1550230
21. Matthews, D.E., Observations of branched-chain amino
acid administration in humans. The Journal of nutrition,
2005. 135(6 Suppl): p. 1580S-4S. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.
gov/pubmed/15930473
22. Louard, R.J., et al., Effect of infused branched-chain amino
acids on muscle and whole-body amino acid metabolism
in man. Clinical science, 1990. 79(5): p. 457-66. http://www.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2174312
23. Zhang, Y., et al., Effects of branched-chain amino acid
supplementation on plasma concentrations of free amino
acids, insulin, and energy substrates in young men. Journal
of nutritional science and vitaminology, 2011. 57(1): p. 114-7.
34
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21512300
24. West, D.W., et al., Rapid aminoacidemia enhances myofibrillar protein synthesis and anabolic intramuscular signaling responses after resistance exercise. The American
journal of clinical nutrition, 2011. 94(3): p. 795-803. http://
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21795443
25. Tipton, K.D., et al., Ingestion of casein and whey proteins
result in muscle anabolism after resistance exercise. Med
Sci Sports Exerc, 2004. 36(12): p. 2073-81. http://www.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=15570142
26. Tang, J.E., et al., Ingestion of whey hydrolysate, casein, or
soy protein isolate: effects on mixed muscle protein synthesis at rest and following resistance exercise in young
men. J Appl Physiol, 2009. 107(3): p. 987-92. http://www.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=19589961
27. Boirie, Y., et al., Slow and fast dietary proteins differently
modulate postprandial protein accretion. Proc Natl Acad
Sci U S A, 1997. 94(26): p. 14930-5. http://www.pnas.org/
cgi/content/full/94/26/14930
28. Bos, C., et al., Postprandial kinetics of dietary amino acids
are the main determinant of their metabolism after soy
or milk protein ingestion in humans. The Journal of nutrition, 2003. 133(5): p. 1308-15. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/12730415
29. Zawadzki, K.M., et al., Carbohydrate-protein complex increases the rate of muscle glycogen storage after exercise.
J Appl Physiol, 1992. 72(5): p. 1854 - 9.
30. Koopman, R., et al., Coingestion of carbohydrate with protein does not further augment postexercise muscle protein
synthesis. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab, 2007. 293(3): p.
E833 - 42.
31. Ivy, J.L., Glycogen resynthesis after exercise: effect of
carbohydrate intake. Int J Sports Med., 1998. 19(Suppl 2): p.
S142 - 5.
32. Greenhaff, P.L., et al., Disassociation between the effects of
amino acids and insulin on signaling, ubiquitin ligases, and
protein turnover in human muscle. Am J Physiol Endocrinol
Metab, 2008. 295(3): p. E595 - 604.
33. Rooyackers, O.E. and K.S. Nair, Hormonal regulation of human muscle protein metabolism. Annu Rev Nutr, 1997. 17: p.
457-85.
34. Ivy, J.L., The insulin-like effect of muscle contraction. Exerc
Sport Sci Rev, 1987. 15: p. 29-51.
35. Koopman, R., et al., Ingestion of a protein hydrolysate is
accompanied by an accelerated in vivo digestion and absorption rate when compared with its intact protein. Am J
Clin Nutr, 2009. 90(1): p. 106-15.
36. Morifuji, M., et al., Comparison of different sources and
degrees of hydrolysis of dietary protein: effect on plasma
amino acids, dipeptides, and insulin responses in human
subjects. J Agric Food Chem, 2010. 58(15): p. 8788-97.
37. Morato, P.N., et al., Whey protein hydrolysate increases
translocation of GLUT-4 to the plasma membrane independent of insulin in wistar rats. PLoS One, 2013. 8(8): p.
e71134.
38. Adibi, S.A., The oligopeptide transporter (Pept-1) in human
intestine: biology and function. Gastroenterology, 1997.
113(1): p. 332-40.
39. Kanda, A., et al., Post-exercise whey protein hydrolysate
supplementation induces a greater increase in muscle protein synthesis than its constituent amino acid content. Br J
Nutr, 2013. 110(6): p. 981-7.
40. Cockburn, E., et al., Acute milk-based protein-CHO supplementation attenuates exercise-induced muscle damage.
Applied physiology, nutrition, and metabolism = Physiologie appliquee, nutrition et metabolisme, 2008. 33(4): p.
775-83. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18641722
41. Cockburn, E., et al., Effect of milk-based carbohydrate-protein supplement timing on the attenuation of
exercise-induced muscle damage. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab, 2010. 35(3): p. 270-7. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=20555370
42. Tee, J.C., et al., Metabolic consequences of exercise-induced muscle damage. Sports Med, 2007. 37(10): p. 827-36.
43. O’Reilly, K.P., et al., Eccentric exercise-induced muscle
damage impairs muscle glycogen repletion. J Appl Physiol
(1985), 1987. 63(1): p. 252-6.
44. Zehnder, M., et al., Further glycogen decrease during early
recovery after eccentric exercise despite a high carbohydrate intake. European journal of nutrition, 2004. 43(3): p.
148-59. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15168037
45. Bird, S.P., et al., Effects of liquid carbohydrate/essential
amino acid ingestion on acute hormonal response during a
single bout of resistance exercise in untrained men. Nutrition, 2006. 22(4): p. 367-75. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=16472979
46. Bird, S.P., et al., Independent and combined effects of liquid
carbohydrate/essential amino acid ingestion on hormonal
and muscular adaptations following resistance training in
untrained men. Eur J Appl Physiol, 2006. 97(2): p. 225-38.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=16456674
35
47. Tarpenning, K.M., Influence of weight training exercise and
modification of hormonal response on skeletal muscle
growth. 1997, University of Southern California: Ann Arbor.
p. 151-151 p.
48. Tarpenning, K.M., et al., Influence of weight training exercise and modification of hormonal response on skeletal
muscle growth. J Sci Med Sport, 2001. 4(4): p. 431-46.
49. Tarpenning, K.M., et al., Influence of Weight Training Exercise and Modification of Hormonal Response on Skeletal
Muscle Growth. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise,
1998. 30(5): p. 227.
50. Willoughby, D.S., et al., Effects of resistance training and
protein plus amino acid supplementation on muscle anabolism, mass, and strength. Amino Acids., 2007. 32(4): p. 467
- 77.
51. Cribb, P.J. and A. Hayes, Effects of supplement timing and
resistance exercise on skeletal muscle hypertrophy. Med
Sci Sports Exerc., 2006. 38(11): p. 1918 - 25.
52. Schoenfeld, B.J., et al., The effect of protein timing on muscle strength and hypertrophy: a meta-analysis. J Int Soc
Sports Nutr, 2013. 10(1): p. 53.
53. Gouvea, A.L., et al., The effects of rest intervals on jumping
performance: a meta-analysis on post-activation potentiation studies. J Sports Sci, 2013. 31(5): p. 459-67.
54. Wilson, J.M., et al., Meta-analysis of postactivation potentiation and power: effects of conditioning activity, volume,
gender, rest periods, and training status. J Strength Cond
Res, 2013. 27(3): p. 854-9.
55. Güllich, A. and D. Schmidtbleicher, MVC-induced shortterm potentiation of explosive force. New Studies in Athletics, 1996. 11: p. 67-84.
56. Tillin, N.A. and D. Bishop, Factors modulating post-activation potentiation and its effect on performance of subsequent explosive activities. Sports Med, 2009. 39(2): p.
147-66.
57. Comyns, T.M., et al., The optimal complex training rest interval for athletes from anaerobic sports. J Strength Cond
Res, 2006. 20(3): p. 471-6.
58. Robbins, D.W., Postactivation potentiation and its practical applicability: a brief review. J Strength Cond Res, 2005.
19(2): p. 453-8.
closed kinetic chain and open kinetic chain exercises. Med
Sci Sports Exerc, 1998. 30(4): p. 556-69.
62. Stewart, D., et al., The effect of an active warm-up on surface EMG and muscle performance in healthy humans. Eur
J Appl Physiol, 2003. 89(6): p. 509-13.
63. Simkin, P.A., et al., Effects of exercise on blood flow to
canine articular tissues. Journal of orthopaedic research:
official publication of the Orthopaedic Research Society,
1990. 8(2): p. 297.
64. Ateshian, G.A., The role of interstitial fluid pressurization
in articular cartilage lubrication. J Biomech, 2009. 42(9): p.
1163-76.
65. Levick, J.R. and J.N. McDonald, Fluid movement across synovium in healthy joints: role of synovial fluid macromolecules. Ann Rheum Dis, 1995. 54(5): p. 417-23.
66. Wilson, J.M., et al., The effects of endurance, strength, and
power training on muscle fiber type shifting. J Strength
Cond Res, 2012. 26(6): p. 1724-9.
67. Fry, A.C., The role of resistance exercise intensity on muscle fibre adaptations. Sports Med, 2004. 34(10): p. 663-79.
68. McMaster, D.T., et al., Forms of Variable Resistance Training. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 2009. 31(1): p. 5064.
69. Garcia-Lopez, D., et al., Free-weight augmentation with
elastic bands improves bench-press kinematics in professional rugby players. J Strength Cond Res, 2014.
70. Baker, D., A Series of Studies on the Training of High-Intensity Muscle Power in Rugby League Football Players. The
Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 2001. 15(2):
p. 198-209. http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Fulltext/2001/05000/A_Series_of_Studies_on_the_Training_
of.8.aspx
71.
Anderson, C.E., et al., The effects of combining elastic and
free weight resistance on strength and power in athletes. J
Strength Cond Res, 2008. 22(2): p. 567-74.
72. Ghigiarelli, J.J., et al., The effects of a 7-week heavy elastic
band and weight chain program on upper-body strength
and upper-body power in a sample of division 1-AA football players. J Strength Cond Res, 2009. 23(3): p. 756-64.
59. Ebben, W.P. and P.B. Watts, A review of combined weight
training and plyometric training modes: Complex training.
Strength & Conditioning Journal, 1998. 20(5): p. 18-27.
73. Baar, K., The signaling underlying FITness. Appl Physiol
Nutr Metab, 2009. 34(3): p. 411-9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.
gov/pubmed/19448707
60. Schiaffino, S. and C. Reggiani, Molecular diversity of myofibrillar proteins: gene regulation and functional significance. Physiol Rev, 1996. 76(2): p. 371-423.
74. Hornberger, T.A., Mechanotransduction and the regulation
of mTORC1 signaling in skeletal muscle. The international
journal of biochemistry & cell biology, 2011. 43(9): p. 126776. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21621634
61. Escamilla, R.F., et al., Biomechanics of the knee during
36
75. Kuipers, H., Exercise-induced muscle damage. Int.J Sports
Med, 1994. 15: p. 132-135.
76. Schulthies, S.S., et al., An Electromyographic Investigation
of 4 Elastic-Tubing Closed Kinetic Chain Exercises After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction. Journal of Athletic
Training, 1998. 33(4): p. 328-335. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.
gov/pmc/articles/PMC1320583/
77. Schoenfeld, B.J. and B. Contreras, The Muscle Pump: Potential Mechanisms and Applications for Enhancing Hypertrophic Adaptations. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 2014.
E-Published ahead of Print 12.23.13.
78. Haussinger, D., et al., Cellular hydration state: An important
determinant of protein catabolism in health and disease.
The Lancet, 1993. 341(8856): p. 1330-2.
79. Waldegger, S., et al., Mechanisms and clinical significance
of cell volume regulation. Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, 1998. 13(4): p. 867-874. http://ndt.oxfordjournals.
org/content/13/4/867.abstract
80. Low, S.Y., et al., Modulation of glycogen synthesis in rat
skeletal muscle by changes in cell volume. The Journal of
Physiology, 1996. 495(Pt 2): p. 299-303. http://jp.physoc.
org/content/495/Pt_2/299.abstract
81. D’Antona, G., et al., Skeletal muscle hypertrophy and structure and function of skeletal muscle fibres in male body
builders. The Journal Of Physiology, 2006. 570(Pt 3): p. 611627.
82. Tesch, P.A., Skeletal muscle adaptations consequent to
long-term heavy resistance exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc,
1988. 20(5 Suppl): p. S132-4.
83. Abernethy, P.J., et al., Acute and chronic response of skeletal muscle to resistance exercise. Sports Med, 1994. 17(1): p.
22-38.
84. Frigeri, A., et al., Expression of aquaporin-4 in fast-twitch
fibers of mammalian skeletal muscle. J Clin Invest, 1998.
102(4): p. 695-703.
85. Lang, F., et al., Functional significance of cell volume regulatory mechanisms. Physiol Rev, 1998. 78(1): p. 247-306.
86. Pena-Rasgado, C., et al., Effect of isosmotic removal of extracellular Na+ on cell volume and membrane potential in
muscle cells. American Journal of Physiology - Cell Physiology, 1994. 267(3): p. C759-C767.
87. Pena-Rasgado, C., et al., Effect of isosmotic removal of
extracellular Ca2+ and of membrane potential on cell volume in muscle cells. American Journal of Physiology - Cell
Physiology, 1994. 267(3): p. C768-C775.
88. Ziegenfuss, T.N., et al., Acute fluid volume changes in men
during three days of creatine supplementation. JEPonline,
1998. 1: p. Issue 3.
89. Spillane, M., et al., The effects of creatine ethyl ester supplementation combined with heavy resistance training on
body composition, muscle performance, and serum and
muscle creatine levels. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 2009. 6: p. 6.
90. Safdar, A., et al., Global and targeted gene expression and
protein content in skeletal muscle of young men following
short-term creatine monohydrate supplementation. Physiol Genomics, 2008. 32(2): p. 219-28.
91. Dangott, B., et al., Dietary creatine monohydrate supplementation increases satellite cell mitotic activity during
compensatory hypertrophy. Int J Sports Med, 2000. 21(1): p.
13-6.
92. Olsen, S., et al., Creatine supplementation augments the
increase in satellite cell and myonuclei number in human
skeletal muscle induced by strength training. J Physiol,
2006. 573(Pt 2): p. 525-34.
93. Vierck, J.L., et al., The effects of ergogenic compounds on
myogenic satellite cells. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2003. 35(5):
p. 769-76.
94. Tanimoto, M. and N. Ishii, Effects of low-intensity resistance exercise with slow movement and tonic force generation on muscular function in young men. J Appl Physiol
(1985), 2006. 100(4): p. 1150-7.
95. McCully, K.K., et al., Muscle metabolism in older subjects
using 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Can J Physiol
Pharmacol, 1991. 69(5): p. 576-80.
96. Sadamoto, T., et al., Skeletal muscle tension, flow, pressure, and EMG during sustained isometric contractions
in humans. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol, 1983. 51(3):
p. 395-408. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.
fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_
uids=6685038
97. Lind, A.R. and C.A. Williams, The control of blood flow
through human forearm muscles following brief isometric
contractions. J Physiol, 1979. 288: p. 529-47.
98. Loenneke, J.P., Skeletal muscle hypertrophy: How important is exercise intensity. Journal of Trainology, 2012. 1(2): p.
28-31. http://trainology.org/PDF/6%20Skeletal%20Muscle%20Hypertrophy%20How%20important%20is%20Exercise%20Intensity.%20Loenneke.pdf
99. Sato, Y., The history and future of KAATSU Training. International Journal of KAATSU Training Research, 2005. 1(1): p.
1-5.
100. Hackney, K., et al., Blood flow-restricted exercise in space.
Extreme Physiology & Medicine, 2012. 1(1): p. 12. http://
www.extremephysiolmed.com/content/1/1/12
101. Takarada, Y., et al., Effects of resistance exercise combined
with moderate vascular occlusion on muscular function
37
in humans. Journal of Applied Physiology, 2000. 88(6): p.
2097-2106. http://jap.physiology.org/content/88/6/2097.
abstract
102. Takarada, Y., et al., Effects of resistance exercise combined
with vascular occlusion on muscle function in athletes.
Eur J Appl Physiol, 2002. 86(4): p. 308-14. http://www.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=11990743
103. Abe, T., et al., Skeletal muscle size and circulating IGF-1 are
increased after two weeks of twice daily Kaatsu resistance
training. Int. J. Kaatsu Training Res., 2005. 1: p. 6-12. http://
kaatsu.jp/english/
104. Blackman, P.G., A review of chronic exertional compartment syndrome in the lower leg. Med Sci Sports Exerc,
2000. 32(3 Suppl): p. S4-10.
105. Moore, D.R., et al., Myofibrillar and collagen protein synthesis in human skeletal muscle in young men after maximal shortening and lengthening contractions. Am J Physiol
Endocrinol Metab, 2005. 288(6): p. E1153-9.
106. Miller, B.F., et al., Coordinated collagen and muscle protein
synthesis in human patella tendon and quadriceps muscle
after exercise. J Physiol, 2005. 567(Pt 3): p. 1021-33.
107. Antonio, J., Nonuniform Response of Skeletal Muscle to
Heavy Resistance Training: Can Bodybuilders Induce Regional Muscle Hypertrophy? The Journal of Strength &
Conditioning Research, 2000. 14(1): p. 102-113. http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Fulltext/2000/02000/Nonuniform_Response_of_Skeletal_Muscle_to_Heavy.18.aspx
108. Sale, D.G., Neural adaptation to resistance training. Med Sci
Sports Exerc, 1988. 20(5 Suppl): p. S135-45.
109. Warren, C.G., et al., Heat and stretch procedures: an evaluation using rat tail tendon. Archives of physical medicine
and rehabilitation, 1976. 57(3): p. 122-126.
110. Thacker, S.B., et al., The impact of stretching on sports
injury risk: a systematic review of the literature. Medicine &
Science in Sports & Exercise, 2004. 36(3): p. 371-378.
111. Baechle, T.R., ed. Essentials of Strength and Conditioning. 1
ed. 1994, Human Kinetics: Champaign, IL. 544.
115. Ryschon, T.W., et al., Efficiency of human skeletal muscle
in vivo: comparison of isometric, concentric, and eccentric
muscle action. J Appl Physiol (1985), 1997. 83(3): p. 867-74.
116. Abbott, B.C., et al., The physiological cost of negative work.
The Journal of physiology, 1952. 117(3): p. 380-390.
117. Dudley, G.A., et al., Influence of eccentric actions on the
metabolic cost of resistance exercise. Aviat Space Environ
Med, 1991. 62(7): p. 678-82. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/1898305
118. Dudley, G.A., et al., Effect of voluntary vs. artificial activation on the relationship of muscle torque to speed. Journal
of applied physiology, 1990. 69(6): p. 2215-21. http://www.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2077019
119. Farthing, J.P. and P.D. Chilibeck, The effects of eccentric
and concentric training at different velocities on muscle
hypertrophy. Eur J Appl Physiol, 2003. 89(6): p. 578-86.
120. Mayhew, T.P., et al., Muscular adaptation to concentric and
eccentric exercise at equal power levels. Med Sci.Sports
Exerc., 1995. 27: p. 868-873.
121. Maughan, R.J., et al., Strength and cross-sectional area
of human skeletal muscle. J Physiol, 1983. 338: p. 37-49.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6875963
122. Shimano, T., et al., Relationship between the number of
repetitions and selected percentages of one repetition
maximum in free weight exercises in trained and untrained
men. J Strength Cond Res, 2006. 20(4): p. 819-23. http://
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17194239
123. Wernbom, M., et al., The influence of frequency, intensity,
volume and mode of strength training on whole muscle
cross-sectional area in humans. Sports Med, 2007. 37(3): p.
225-64. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17326698
124. Burkholder, T.J., Stretch-induced ERK2 phosphorylation
requires PLA2 activity in skeletal myotubes. Biochemical
and Biophysical Research Communications, 2009. 386(1): p.
60-64. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/
S0006291X0901105X
112. Borg, G.A., Perceived exertion. Exerc Sport Sci Rev, 1974. 2:
p. 131-53. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4466663
125. Vandenburgh, H.H., et al., Stretch-induced prostaglandins
and protein turnover in cultured skeletal muscle. Am J
Physiol, 1990. 259(2 Pt 1): p. C232-40.
113. Schoenfeld, B.J., The mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and their application to resistance training. Journal of
strength and conditioning research / National Strength &
Conditioning Association, 2010. 24(10): p. 2857-72. http://
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20847704
126. Hornberger, T.A., et al., The role of phospholipase D and
phosphatidic acid in the mechanical activation of mTOR
signaling in skeletal muscle. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,
2006. 103(12): p. 4741-6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/16537399
114. Garhammer, J., Power production by Olympic weightlifters.
Med Sci Sports Exerc, 1980. 12(1): p. 54-60.
127. Hornberger, T.A., et al., Mechanical stimuli regulate rapa-
38
mycin-sensitive signalling by a phosphoinositide 3-kinase-, protein kinase B- and growth factor-independent
mechanism. The Biochemical journal, 2004. 380(Pt 3): p.
795-804. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15030312
128. Winter, J.N., et al., Phosphatidic acid mediates activation of
mTORC1 through the ERK signaling pathway. Am J Physiol
Cell Physiol, 2010. 299(2): p. C335-44.
129. Kam, Y. and J.H. Exton, Role of phospholipase D1 in the regulation of mTOR activity by lysophosphatidic acid. Faseb j,
2004. 18(2): p. 311-9.
130. Wong, T.S. and F.W. Booth, Skeletal muscle enlargement
with weight-lifting exercise by rats. Journal of applied
physiology, 1988. 65(2): p. 950-4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.
gov/pubmed/2459101
131. Miyazaki, M., et al., Early activation of mTORC1 signalling in
response to mechanical overload is independent of phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt signalling. J Physiol, 2011. 589(Pt
7): p. 1831-46.
132. Terzis, G., et al., Resistance exercise-induced increase in
muscle mass correlates with p70S6 kinase phosphorylation in human subjects. Eur J Appl Physiol, 2008. 102(2): p.
145-52. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17874120
133. Baar, K. and K. Esser, Phosphorylation of p70(S6k) correlates with increased skeletal muscle mass following
resistance exercise. Am J Physiol, 1999. 276(1 Pt 1): p. C1207. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9886927
134. Henneman, E., Relation between size of neurons and their
susceptibility to discharge. Science, 1957. 126(3287): p.
1345-7.
135. Henneman, E. and C.B. Olson, Relations between structure
and function in the design of skeletal muscles. J Neurophysiol, 1965. 28: p. 581-98.
136. Carpinelli, R.N., The size principle and a critical analysis of
the unsubstantiated heavier-is-better recommendation for
resistance training. Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness,
2008. 6(2): p. 67-86.
137. Sandee, J., The correct interpretation of the size principle
and it’s practical application to resistance training. Med
Sport, 2009. 13: p. 203-209. http://bmsi.ru/doc/c33fb1e09e05-44fc-a4c7-ad36356db8ea
138. Selye, H., Stress and the general adaptation syndrome.
British medical journal, 1950. 1(4667): p. 1383.
139. Schoenfeld, B.J., Potential Mechanisms for a Role of Metabolic Stress in Hypertrophic Adaptations to Resistance
Training. Sports medicine, 2013. 43(3): p. 179-94. http://
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23338987
140. Tesch, P.A., et al., Muscle metabolism during intense,
heavy-resistance exercise. Eur J. Appl. Physiol., 1986. 55: p.
362-366.
141. Luthi, J.M., et al., Structural changes in skeletal muscle tissue with heavy-resistance exercise. Int J Sports Med, 1986.
7(3): p. 123-7.
142. MacDougall, J.D., et al., Mitochondrial volume density in
human skeletal muscle following heavy resistance training. Med Sci Sports, 1979. 11(2): p. 164-6.
143. Wang, N., et al., Muscle fiber types of women after resistance training--quantitative ultrastructure and enzyme
activity. Pflugers Arch, 1993. 424(5-6): p. 494-502.
144. Tang, J.E., et al., Increased muscle oxidative potential following resistance training induced fibre hypertrophy in
young men. Applied Physiology, Nutrition & Metabolism,
2006. 31(5): p. 495-501. http://search.ebscohost.com/
login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=23203919&site=ehost-live
145. Folland, J.P., et al., Fatigue is not a necessary stimulus for
strength gains during resistance training. Br J Sports Med,
2002. 36(5): p. 370-3; discussion 374. http://www.ncbi.nlm.
nih.gov/pubmed/12351337
146. Suga, T., et al., Dose effect on intramuscular metabolic
stress during low-intensity resistance exercise with blood
flow restriction. Journal of applied physiology, 2010. 108(6):
p. 1563-1567.
147. Suga, T., et al., Intramuscular metabolism during low-intensity resistance exercise with blood flow restriction.
Journal of applied physiology, 2009. 106(4): p. 1119-1124.
148. Suga, T., et al., Effect of multiple set on intramuscular metabolic stress during low-intensity resistance exercise with
blood flow restriction. European journal of applied physiology, 2012. 112(11): p. 3915-3920.
149. Takarada, Y., et al., Rapid increase in plasma growth hormone after low-intensity resistance exercise with vascular
occlusion. J Appl Physiol (1985), 2000. 88(1): p. 61-5.
150. Wilson, J.M., et al., Practical Blood Flow Restriction Training Increases Acute Determinants of Hypertrophy Without Increasing Indices of Muscle Damage. The Journal of
Strength & Conditioning Research, 2013. 27(11): p. 30683075 10.1519/JSC.0b013e31828a1ffa. http://journals.lww.
com/nsca-jscr/Fulltext/2013/11000/Practical_Blood_
Flow_Restriction_Training.20.aspx
151. Loenneke, J.P., et al., The anabolic benefits of venous blood
flow restriction training may be induced by muscle cell
swelling. Med Hypotheses, 2012. 78(1): p. 151-4. http://
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22051111
152. Low, S.Y., et al., Signaling elements involved in amino
acid transport responses to altered muscle cell volume.
39
FASEB J, 1997. 11(13): p. 1111-7. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/9367345
153. Moritani, T., et al., Oxygen availability and motor unit
activity in humans. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol, 1992.
64(6): p. 552-6.
http://jap.physiology.org/content/81/6/2509.long
165. Mathers, J.L., et al., Early inflammatory and myogenic responses to resistance exercise in the elderly. Muscle
Nerve, 2012. 46(3): p. 407-12. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/22907232
154. Yamada, E., et al., Effects of Vascular Occlusion on Surface
Electromyography and Muscle Oxygenation During Isometric Contraction. J Sport Rehabil, 2004. 13(4): p. 287-299.
166. Jensky, N.E., et al., Exercise does not influence myostatin
and follistatin messenger RNA expression in young women. J Strength Cond Res, 2010. 24(2): p. 522-30. http://
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20124796
155. Yasuda, T., et al., Muscle fiber cross-sectional area is increased after two weeks of twice daily KAATSU-resistance
training. Int J Kaatsu Training Res, 2005. 1(2): p. 65-70.
167. Dalbo, V.J., III, The effects of aging on myostatin pathway
activity after three sequential bouts of resistance exercise.
2010, The University of Oklahoma: Ann Arbor. p. 121.
156. Nielsen, J.L., et al., Proliferation of myogenic stem cells
in human skeletal muscle in response to low-load resistance training with blood flow restriction. J Physiol,
2012. 590(Pt 17): p. 4351-61. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/22802591
168. Diel, P., et al., Analysis of the effects of androgens and
training on myostatin propeptide and follistatin concentrations in blood and skeletal muscle using highly sensitive
immuno PCR. Mol Cell Endocrinol, 2010. 330(1-2): p. 1-9.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20801187
157. Laurentino, G.C., et al., Strength training with blood flow
restriction diminishes myostatin gene expression. Med Sci
Sports Exerc, 2012. 44(3): p. 406-12. http://www.ncbi.nlm.
nih.gov/pubmed/21900845
169. Roth, S.M., et al., Myostatin gene expression is reduced in
humans with heavy-resistance strength training: a brief
communication. Exp Biol Med (Maywood), 2003. 228(6):
p. 706-9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12773702
158. Tamaki, T., et al., Multiple stimulations for muscle-nerveblood vessel unit in compensatory hypertrophied skeletal
muscle of rat surgical ablation model. Histochemistry and
cell biology, 2009. 132(1): p. 59-70. http://www.ncbi.nlm.
nih.gov/pubmed/19322581
170. Standley, R.A., Investigations into the mechanism behind
COX-inhibiting drug regulation of human skeletal muscle
mass. 2012, Ball State University: Ann Arbor. p. 228.
159. Goldberg, A.L., et al., Mechanism of work-induced hypertrophy of skeletal muscle. Medicine and science in
sports, 1975. 7(3): p. 185-98. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/128681
160. Taylor, N.A. and J.G. Wilkinson, Exercise-induced skeletal
muscle growth. Hypertrophy or hyperplasia? Sports medicine, 1986. 3(3): p. 190-200. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/3520748
161. Adams, G.R., et al., Time course of changes in markers of
myogenesis in overloaded rat skeletal muscles. Journal
of applied physiology, 1999. 87(5): p. 1705-12. http://www.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10562612
162. Antonio, J. and W.J. Gonyea, Skeletal muscle fiber hyperplasia. Medicine and science in sports and exercise,
1993. 25(12): p. 1333-45. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/8107539
171. Alway, S.E., et al., Effects of resistance training on elbow
flexors of highly competitive bodybuilders. Journal of applied physiology, 1992. 72(4): p. 1512-21. http://www.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1592744
172. Alway, S.E., et al., Contrasts in muscle and myofibers of
elite male and female bodybuilders. J Appl Physiol (1985),
1989. 67(1): p. 24-31.
173. Tesch, P.A. and L. Larsson, Muscle hypertrophy in bodybuilders. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol, 1982. 49(3): p.
301-6.
174. Kraemer, W.J., et al., Physiologic responses to heavy-resistance exercise with very short rest periods. Int.J Sports
Med, 1987. 8: p. 247-252.
175. Hortobagyi, T., et al., Greater initial adaptations to submaximal muscle lengthening than maximal shortening. J
Appl Physiol (1985), 1996. 81(4): p. 1677-82.
163. Machida, S. and F.W. Booth, Insulin-like growth factor 1
and muscle growth: implication for satellite cell proliferation. Proc Nutr Soc, 2004. 63(2): p. 337-40. http://www.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15294052
176. Dudley, G.A., et al., Importance of eccentric actions in
performance adaptations to resistance training. Aviation,
space, and environmental medicine, 1991. 62(6): p. 543-50.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1859341
164. Adams, G.R. and F. Haddad, The relationships among IGF-1,
DNA content, and protein accumulation during skeletal
muscle hypertrophy. J Appl Physiol, 1996. 81(6): p. 2509-16.
177. Shepstone, T.N., et al., Short-term high- vs. low-velocity
isokinetic lengthening training results in greater hypertrophy of the elbow flexors in young men. J Appl Physiol
(1985), 2005. 98(5): p. 1768-76.
40
178. Higbie, E.J., et al., Effects of concentric and eccentric training on muscle strength, cross-sectional area, and neural
activation. J Appl Physiol (1985), 1996. 81(5): p. 2173-81.
179. Hather, B.M., et al., Influence of eccentric actions on skeletal muscle adaptations to resistance training. Acta Physiol
Scand, 1991. 143(2): p. 177-85.
180. Trappe, T.A., et al., Skeletal muscle PGF(2)(alpha) and
PGE(2) in response to eccentric resistance exercise: influence of ibuprofen acetaminophen. The Journal of clinical
endocrinology and metabolism, 2001. 86(10): p. 5067-70.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11600586
181. Markworth, J.F. and D. Cameron-Smith, Prostaglandin
F2alpha stimulates PI3K/ERK/mTOR signaling and skeletal
myotube hypertrophy. American journal of physiology. Cell
physiology, 2011. 300(3): p. C671-82. http://www.ncbi.nlm.
nih.gov/pubmed/21191105
182. Dudley, G.A., et al., Efficacy of naproxen sodium for exercise-induced dysfunction muscle injury and soreness. Clinical journal of sport medicine : official journal of the Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine, 1997. 7(1): p. 3-10. http://
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9117523
183. Baldwin, A.C., et al., Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory therapy after eccentric exercise in healthy older individuals.
The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences
and medical sciences, 2001. 56(8): p. M510-3. http://www.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11487604
184. Baldwin Lanier, A., Use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory
drugs following exercise-induced muscle injury. Sports
Med, 2003. 33(3): p. 177-85.
185. Trappe, T.A., et al., Effect of ibuprofen and acetaminophen on postexercise muscle protein synthesis. American
journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism,
2002. 282(3): p. E551-6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/11832356
186. Rodemann, H.P. and A.L. Goldberg, Arachidonic acid, prostaglandin E2 and F2 alpha influence rates of protein turnover in skeletal and cardiac muscle. The Journal of biological chemistry, 1982. 257(4): p. 1632-8. http://www.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6799511
187. Schoenfeld, B.J., Does exercise-induced muscle damage
play a role in skeletal muscle hypertrophy? Journal of
strength and conditioning research / National Strength &
Conditioning Association, 2012. 26(5): p. 1441-53. http://
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22344059
188. Mikkelsen, U.R., et al., Local NSAID infusion inhibits satellite cell proliferation in human skeletal muscle after eccentric exercise. Journal of applied physiology, 2009. 107(5): p.
1600-11. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19713429
189. Mackey, A.L., et al., The influence of anti-inflammatory medication on exercise-induced myogenic precursor
cell responses in humans. Journal of applied physiology, 2007. 103(2): p. 425-31. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/17463304
190. Edgerton, V.R. and R.R. Roy, Regulation of skeletal muscle
fiber size, shape and function. Journal of Biomechanics,
1991. 24, Supplement 1(0): p. 123-133. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/002192909190383X
191. Murton, A.J. and P.L. Greenhaff, Resistance exercise and
the mechanisms of muscle mass regulation in humans:
Acute effects on muscle protein turnover and the gaps in
our understanding of chronic resistance exercise training
adaptation. Int J Biochem Cell Biol, 2013. 45(10): p. 2209-14.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23872221
192. Russell, B., et al., Repair of injured skeletal muscle: a molecular approach. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise,
1992. 24(2): p. 189-196. http://journals.lww.com/acsmmsse/Fulltext/1992/02000/Repair_of_injured_skeletal_
muscle__a_molecular.6.aspx
193. Trappe, T.A., et al., Influence of acetaminophen and ibuprofen on skeletal muscle adaptations to resistance exercise
in older adults. American journal of physiology. Regulatory,
integrative and comparative physiology, 2011. 300(3): p.
R655-62. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21160058
194. Trappe, T.A., et al., Prostaglandin and myokine involvement in the cyclooxygenase-inhibiting drug enhancement
of skeletal muscle adaptations to resistance exercise in
older adults. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol, 2013.
304(3): p. R198-205.
195. Tesch, P., Target bodybuilding. 1999, Champaign, IL: Human
Kinetics. iv, 153 p.
196. Smith, R.C. and O.M. Rutherford, The role of metabolites in
strength training. European journal of applied physiology
and occupational physiology, 1995. 71(4): p. 332-336.
197. Hisaeda, H., et al., Influence of two different modes of
resistance training in female subjects. Ergonomics, 1996.
39(6): p. 842-852.
198. Housh, D.J., et al., Hypertrophic response to unilateral
concentric isokinetic resistance training. Journal of applied
physiology, 1992. 73(1): p. 65-70.
199. Kawakami, Y., et al., Training-induced changes in muscle
architecture and specific tension. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup
Physiol, 1995. 72(1-2): p. 37-43.
200. Roman, W.J., et al., Adaptations in the elbow flexors of elderly males after heavy-resistance training. J Appl Physiol
(1985), 1993. 74(2): p. 750-4.
201. Dartnall, T.J., et al., Motor unit synchronization is increased
41
in biceps brachii after exercise-induced damage to elbow
flexor muscles. Journal of neurophysiology, 2008. 99(2): p.
1008-1019.
214. Brill, J.B. and M.W. Keane, Supplementation patterns of
competitive male and female bodybuilders. Int J Sport Nutr,
1994. 4(4): p. 398-412.
202. Meneghel, A.J., et al., Review of the Repeated Bout Effect in
Trained and Untrained men. International Journal of Sports
Science, 2013. 3(5): p. 147-156.
215. Hackett, D.A., et al., Training practices and ergogenic aids
used by male bodybuilders. J Strength Cond Res, 2013.
27(6): p. 1609-17.
203. Newton, M.J., et al., Comparison of responses to strenuous eccentric exercise of the elbow flexors between resistance-trained and untrained men. J Strength Cond Res,
2008. 22(2): p. 597-607.
216. Maestu, J., et al., Anabolic and catabolic hormones and
energy balance of the male bodybuilders during the
preparation for the competition. Journal of strength and
conditioning research / National Strength & Conditioning
Association, 2010. 24(4): p. 1074-81. http://www.ncbi.nlm.
nih.gov/pubmed/20300017
204. Nosaka, K. and M.S. Aoki, Repeated bout effect: research
update and future perspective. Brazilian Journal of Biomotricity, 2011. 5(1).
205. Mair, S.D., et al., The Role of Fatigue in Susceptibility to
Acute Muscle Strain Injury. The American Journal of Sports
Medicine, 1996. 24(2): p. 137-143. http://ajs.sagepub.com/
content/24/2/137.abstract
206. Nosaka, K. and P.M. Clarkson, Influence of previous concentric exercise on eccentric exercise-induced muscle
damage. Journal of Sports Sciences, 1997. 15(5): p. 477-483.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/026404197367119
207. Harries, S.K., et al., Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
of Linear and Undulating Periodized Resistance Training
Programs on Muscular Strength. The Journal of Strength
& Conditioning Research, 9000. Publish Ahead of Print.
http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Fulltext/publishahead/Systematic_Review_and_Meta_Analysis_of_Linear_and.97175.aspx
208. Ratamess, N.A., et al., American College of Sports Medicine
position stand. Progression models in resistance training
for healthy adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2009. 41(3): p.
687-708.
209. Kraemer, W.J., et al., American College of Sports Medicine
position stand. Progression models in resistance training
for healthy adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2002. 34(2): p.
364-80.
210. Rhea, M.R., et al., A meta-analysis to determine the dose
response for strength development. Med Sci Sports Exerc,
2003. 35(3): p. 456-64.
217. Manore, M.M., et al., Diet and exercise strategies of a
world-class bodybuilder. Int J Sport Nutr, 1993. 3(1): p. 7686.
218. Gonzalez-Badillo, J.J., et al., Moderate resistance training volume produces more favorable strength gains than
high or low volumes during a short-term training cycle. J
Strength Cond Res, 2005. 19(3): p. 689-97. http://www.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16095427
219. Mann, J.B., et al., The effect of autoregulatory progressive
resistance exercise vs. linear periodization on strength
improvement in college athletes. J Strength Cond Res,
2010. 24(7): p. 1718-23. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/20543732
220. Turner, A., The Science and Practice of Periodization:
A Brief Review. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 2011.
33(1): p. 34-46. http://journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/Fulltext/2011/02000/The_Science_and_Practice_of_Periodization__A_Brief.6.aspx
221. Stone, M.H., et al., A Theoretical Model of Strength
Training. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 1982. 4(4):
p. 36-39. http://journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/Fulltext/1982/08000/A_Theoretical_Model_of_Strength_Training_.7.aspx
222. Flann, K.L., et al., Muscle damage and muscle remodeling: no pain, no gain? The Journal of experimental biology, 2011. 214(Pt 4): p. 674-9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/21270317
211. Rhea, M.R., et al., A comparison of linear and daily undulating periodized programs with equated volume and intensity for strength. J Strength Cond Res, 2002. 16(2): p. 250-5.
223. Bickel, C.S., et al., Exercise dosing to retain resistance
training adaptations in young and older adults. Medicine
and science in sports and exercise, 2011. 43(7): p. 1177-87.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21131862
212. Moritani, T. and H.A. deVries, Neural factors versus hypertrophy in the time course of muscle strength gain. Am J
Phys Med, 1979. 58(3): p. 115-30. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.
gov/pubmed/453338
224. Mujika, I. and S. Padilla, Scientific bases for precompetition
tapering strategies. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2003. 35(7): p.
1182-7.
213. Brill, J.B., Precompetition dietary practices of competitive
male and female bodybuilders. 1992, Florida International
University: Ann Arbor. p. 117-117 p.
225. Mujika, I., Intense training: the key to optimal performance
before and during the taper. Scand J Med Sci Sports, 2010.
20 Suppl 2: p. 24-31.
42
226. Gibala, M.J., et al., The effects of tapering on strength
performance in trained athletes. International journal of
sports medicine, 1994. 15(8): p. 492-7. http://www.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7890463
227. Izquierdo, M., et al., Detraining and tapering effects on
hormonal responses and strength performance. Journal
of strength and conditioning research / National Strength
& Conditioning Association, 2007. 21(3): p. 768-75. http://
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17685721
228. Economos, C.D., et al., Nutritional practices of elite athletes. Practical recommendations. Sports Med, 1993. 16(6):
p. 381-99.
229. Halson, S.L. and A.E. Jeukendrup, Does overtraining exist?
An analysis of overreaching and overtraining research.
Sports medicine, 2004. 34(14): p. 967-81. http://www.ncbi.
nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15571428
230. Lehmann, M., et al., Autonomic imbalance hypothesis and
overtraining syndrome. Medicine and science in sports and
exercise, 1998. 30(7): p. 1140-5. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.
gov/pubmed/9662686
231. Achten, J. and A.E. Jeukendrup, Heart rate monitoring:
applications and limitations. Sports medicine, 2003. 33(7):
p. 517-38. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12762827
232. Urhausen, A. and W. Kindermann, Diagnosis of overtraining: what tools do we have? Sports medicine, 2002. 32(2):
p. 95-102. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11817995
233. Fry, R.W., et al., Overtraining in athletes. An update. Sports
medicine, 1991. 12(1): p. 32-65. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.
gov/pubmed/1925188
234. Budgett, R., Overtraining syndrome. British Journal of
Sports Medicine, 1990. 24(4): p. 231-236. http://bjsm.bmj.
com/content/24/4/231.abstract
43
Download