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Training For Hypertrophy

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86 views3 pages

Training For Hypertrophy

Uploaded by

Dave John
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Training For Hypertrophy: Charles Poliquin Seminar

If there is one single person who has taught me more than any other about the myriad
of right and wrong ways to build muscle, it is Charles Poliquin. If you take the time to
learn and appreciate the Poliquin Principles then your ability to understand how to make
a person stronger and larger (remember that the two do not always go hand in hand)
will be massively improved no matter how experienced you are as a trainer. I had 20
years of gym experience, and had been a competitive heavyweight bodybuilder, before
meeting Charles and the penny really dropping as to the best and most effective ways
to utilise resistance training principles.

It’s certainly not just me who thinks this. I have had conversations with notable figures
such as professional bodybuilding guru Milos Sarcev, who agrees with me that Charles
knows more about strength training and how to apply it than any man alive. The reason
for this is pretty simple. Take a great brain, and then focus on strength, conditioning and
optimising human performance whilst relentlessly working like a dog for over 30 years,
applying both intellect, passion and imagination to all that you do. This is why he is the
best. It’s almost straightforward in execution, but ******* hard in practice.

Despite this eulogy, I am no Poliquin acolyte. I don’t always agree with everything that
Charles says, but I always damn well listen, and when it comes to strength training I
always test and apply his advice and it has never let me down. We were very fortunate
to have Charles give not one, but two seminars last weekend at UP Mayfair. The first
was a private affair solely for my UP team, and the second was a sell-out few hours on
Advanced Hypertrophy. What Charles outlined certainly was not for the faint hearted,
and in this article are a few of his gems that had the audience all bouncing on their feet
itching to get back into their gyms and start cranking up the intensity!

By the way, to borrow a favourite Poliquinism of mine, do not see the world through a
straw. These are tips to be taken in isolation I’ll try and qualify a few points for sake of
clarity, but if I had to explain and contextualise every point this piece would become an
entire book! And please remember, these are just a few nuggets, those who attend a
Poliquin seminar come away with a whole lot more each and every time they attend.

And finally, before we get to the good stuff, just this morning, 7 days after the
Hypertrophy Seminar, I received an email from one of the attendees, Steve Trulglia, a
guy who has been training seriously for a few years now and as a top professional
stuntman is no stranger to hard work. I’ll give you a section of what he told me verbatim:

So I’m now two days into cycle 2 and my overall condition and size is visibly very
different, which surprised me, but not as surprised as I am by the enormous
increase in strength I’m experiencing. I have started using the red and blue
Zanagen creams and any scepticism has gone. A bit of myofascial self work, and
those creams, have given me the best arm pump size increase I’ve ever had. I
would have expected results like this in a few months, not a few days!
Training For Hypertrophy: Charles Poliquin Seminar Selected Notes (Pt 1)

Please note that my own brief explanations / contextualisations are in italics and
are my own views.

1) The number one factor holding back muscle growth is fascial restriction. If the fascial
sheath is too tight then there is no room to grow. Think of the biggest bodybuilders -
Tom Platz used to be able to put his legs into pretzel like positions, and Ronnie
Coleman used to do the splits onstage! This is a massively ignored area of
training for hypertrophy, and something I’ve already taken to focusing on by
having all bodybuilding clients spend extra time on ART treatment.

2) Treatment modalities like ART can work well for fascial release, but look to the latest
innovation in supplements and use topical creams by Zanagen. Poliquin views these as
the biggest advancement in supplementation in the last ten years. I personally have
used Zanagen creams extensively for the last 9 months and love them,
especially on arms and deltoids.

Myself, Charles Poliquin, Derek Woodske, & Luke Leaman “relaxing” post
workout in Arizona, 2011.

3) The fastest way to add slabs of muscle if you are an advanced trainee is to train a
body part three times a day! This would be over a 3 way body part split, with each body
part being trained on one day in every five.

4) The more resistance training sessions you perform in a given unit of time, the higher
your protein synthesis.

5) Anabolic output is a function of training volume. So if you want to become as anabolic


as possible, you have to train a LOT.

6) Multiple sessions in a day is the way to go, follow the law of the order of muscle fiber
recruitment when structuring programmes of this nature (see below)

7) The 3 times a day sessions should be divided into heavy, medium, and light
workouts. Although better to think heavy weights & low reps, medium weights and
medium reps, and lighter weights and terrifyingly burning, searing, pumping reps. Time
under tension is key, but we don’t need to go into that as this seminar was focused on
advanced training for hypertrophy rather than the basic principles.

8) If you are training for hypertrophy rather than relative strength, make sure the first
session has sufficient volume. 4 sets of 4 reps won’t cut it. 8 sets of 4 will.
9) Build up to training multiple sessions in a day. Start slowly with a 45 minute morning
session and a 20 minute afternoon session, and gradually ramp up volume over the
weeks so that it takes several months to hit three times a day sessions. You can’t jump
into this sort of brutal training without taking the time to build your work capacity.

10) Don’t screw up the deload! Backing off is key with this type of training regime. Back
off every third training cycle. This is a very common problem that I see with trainees
attempting twice a day training protocols, let alone this brutal three times a day
regime. It is all too easy to let enthusiasm run away with you, and many struggle
with the concept of 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Let me tell you that this
approach is much more akin to 1 step forward, half a step forward, 2 leaps
forward, repeat!

11) During the deload you should leave the gym feeling that you could have done more
work.

12) When training for hypertrophy, there is no one ideal deload training volume
parameter. It can be as little as 20% of the volume of a regular single session, or as
much as 40%.

13) When you do deload, and do it correctly, testosterone levels will actually fall, but
free testosterone levels will rise. Think about this for a second, it means that you are
effectively utilising more testosterone than normal during this period.

14) Anabolic drive is a function of neural drive, so ensure that neurologically you are
operating at peak levels during a training session. Minimise pre-workout carbs, focus on
the neurotransmitters dopamine and acetylcholine via the right foods (red meat and nuts
are a classic Poliquin favourite) and pre-workout supplements. We discussed a range
of supplements, and in my experience the best thing you can do is experiment
with products and protocols that you feel give you the best neural drive. My own
favourite approach, that is simply a variation on what I have learned from
Poliquin, is to rotate between 2-3 products such as Alpha GPC, Poliquin Fast
Brain, Poliquin Sinew Plex, caffeine, Glycocarn, whilst pretty much keeping a
3gm dose of acetyl-L-carnitine constant.

The second part in this Charles Poliquin: Training For Hypertrophy review will feature
ten more points focusing on the importance and dosage for BCAAs, post workout
recovery, and a couple of tips to optimise performance via a couple of very cheap and
simple peri-workout supplement strategies that I have to admit were new concepts to
me.

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