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Why It’s OK to Be Strong

The positive effects of strength training on building muscle mass

Ethan Brooks is one of the most remarkable athletes I have ever coached. Brooks played at a Division III college, where he also participated in track. Generally, NFL scouts pay attention to players on Division I teams such as the University of Florida or USC, not multisport athletes like Brooks from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with its enrollment of 2,000 students. Fortunately, the scouts saw that Brooks was able to make big plays in college despite often being double- and triple-teamed, so they were willing to give him a chance.

Brooks worked with me when my gym was located in Tempe, Arizona. To give you an idea of how dedicated he was to doing what it takes to play on Sundays, within three months Brooks’ power clean went from 315 pounds to 408, and his close-grip bench press (16-inch grip) went from 405 to 490. He also did a 320 power snatch and a 635 hamstrings-touching-calves back squat. Also, during the first six weeks of that training period his bodyfat went from 15.35 percent to 8.69 percent and he gained 22 pounds of muscle. And despite weighing 305 pounds, he could vertical jump 34 inches and run the forty in 4.92 seconds – when he first entered the NFL draft he ran a 5.12 forty and weighed 270 pounds. Brooks was certainly a big man, but he was also as strong as he looked.

Likewise, in the early days of professional bodybuilding I would often read about competitors who could hold their own against the weightlifters and powerlifters. Franco Columbu and Arnold could have done well in powerlifting competitions, as did other superstars such as Sergio Oliva, Bill Pearl and John Grimek, who could really move the iron.

Nowadays, when I browse through the muscle magazines, I often find that many of the top professional bodybuilders don’t brag about how much they can lift. And except for a few anomalies such as Ronnie Coleman, who does squats and deadlifts with over 800 pounds, I don’t read about the lifting performances of those taking home those coveted bronze Eugene Sandow trophies. And I know why.

The Age of Weakness
I’ve had the opportunity to train arms with a slew of IFBB bodybuilders, and it never fails that I manage to bring their egos down a few notches. Why? Because I can always handle more weight than they can and in much stricter form, even though their bodyweights often have exceeded mine by over 70 pounds. The secret to my superior relative and absolute strength is the regular use of the maximal weights method of strength training, an approach that is consistently bypassed in favor of workouts that use high reps and relatively light weights. And I believe this neglect is a mistake.

Why would a bodybuilder need heavy training to increase muscle mass? Isn’t the typical hypertrophy protocol of 6 to 12 reps per set (about 40 to 70 seconds of muscular contraction) the optimal range to gain muscle mass? Yes, but that will only work for a while. Let me explain.

One of the reasons bodybuilders fail to achieve the maximum genetic levels of hypertrophy is that their muscles are simply too weak for their cross section of muscle. In the case of the hypertrophied thigh of the weightlifter or the powerlifter, “what you see is what you get.” In contrast, for many bodybuilders – particularly the ones using massive dosages of anabolics combined with growth hormone – their size rarely reflects their strength.

I have seen three Mr. Olympia winners who could not bench press 315 pounds for more than 6 reps in the off-season, when they are supposedly at their biggest and strongest. Getting back to arm training, there are plenty of strongman competitors with massive arms that are also very strong arms. What is the difference? Drugs? No. Many strongmen also use anabolics. Different exercises? No, that’s not it: Strongmen and bodybuilders often do many of the same exercises for their arms. The difference comes from their choice of training methods. As a rule of thumb, strongman competitors train with few exercises performed for multiple sets of low reps, using long rest intervals between sets. Again, the maximal weights method.

Milos Sarcev, winner of the pro IFBB Canada Cup who has also placed in the top 10 of the Mr. Olympia, overcame a plateau in mass development when I convinced him to strive to handle greater loads in his workouts. The rapid improvement in his physique from such training resulted in his great performance at the prestigious Night of Champions, with a narrow miss for first place.

Optimal Use of Maximal Weights Training
The maximal weights method, which German exercise physiologists also call intramuscular training, aims at developing maximal strength by improving the link between the central nervous system and the muscular system. The result is access to a greater percentage of motor units within the cross section. This training method accomplishes this by the following means:

• Increased neural drive to muscle
• Increased synchronization of motor units
• Increased activation of the contractile apparatus
• Decreased inhibition by the protective mechanisms of the muscle

Contrary to standard bodybuilding methodology, the maximal weights method imposes lower energy output per unit of time. Therefore, your caloric requirement will drop slightly during that phase.

To bridge the gap between science and practice, I’d like to share with you an effective strength training cycle that uses a 12-week progression of varied sets-and-reps patterns designed to maximize the strength gain adaptation in the arms. The training phases are organized in three-week phases, as follows:

Weeks 1-3: The 5 x 5 Method
Weeks 4-6: The Patient Lifter’s 6 x 4 Method
Weeks 7-9: Absolute Failure Method
Weeks 10-12: The 5/4/3/2/1 Method

Weeks 1-3: The 5 x 5 Method. This is one of the more classical and most effective methods of strength and muscle development. It was popularized in the ’50s and ’60s by British bodybuilder Reg Park. Park won the Mr. Britain title in 1949, the overall title in the amateur NABBA Mr. Universe in 1951 and the pro divisions in 1958 and 1965. In 1973 Park was still in tremendous shape, placing second in the tall class in the pro division of that year’s Mr. Universe – talk about longevity! Park was probably best known for playing Hercules in five movies and was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bodybuilding idol. At 6' 1", Park had 20-inch arms, and he is credited for being the first bodybuilder to bench press 500 pounds.

In the late ’70s the 5 x 5 method was heavily promoted by former elite weightlifter and strength coach Bill Starr in his classic book Only the Strongest Shall Survive. The following is a sample 5 x 5 workout progression for an individual who can bench press 200 pounds for 5 reps with a close grip:

Warm-up: 45 x 5, 95 x 5, 135 x 5, 185 x 5

Work Sets: The goal is to complete 5 sets of 5 repetitions with the 200-pound load. On the first workout the trainee should be able to complete at least 14 total reps, so the following could be considered a good first workout:
200 x 5
200 x 4
200 x 3
200 x 3
200 x 3

Compare this with the following sequence, in which the weight was too heavy and would have to be decreased in the next workout:
200 x 4
200 x 3
200 x 2
200 x 2
200 x 2

Once the trainee is able to complete 5 sets of 5 reps with the given load, he or she would increase the weight by 5 to 10 pounds and repeat the process until the three-week training phase is completed.

Here is a sample arm routine using the 5 x 5 method for this three-week training phase:

A-1. Seated Dumbbell Curls, 5 x 5, 4020, rest 120 seconds
A-2. Parallel Bar Dips, 5 x 5, 4020, rest 120 seconds
B-1. Scott Reverse Curls, 5 x 5, 4020, rest 120 seconds
B-2. Lying EZ Triceps Extension, 5 x 5, 4020, rest 120 seconds

Weeks 4-6: The Patient Lifter’s 6 x 4 Method. With this training system, you start off with a weight that you can handle comfortably for 6 sets of just 2 reps. Depending on your neurological efficiency, that will translate into about 80 to 87 percent of your 1-rep maximum. The goal is to increase your strength so, over time, you can handle that weight for 6 sets of 4 reps. The reason the patient lifter’s method works is that the load is increased only when the trainee is able to complete all sets of 4 reps with the starting weight of 6 sets of 2 reps. The system works by means of what is called the law of repeated efforts, because the nervous system is forced to accept the new load as being normal.

Be certain when using this training system to rest at least 4-5 minutes between sets, as this will allow full recovery of the nervous system. That being said, you still can pair agonist and antagonist muscle groups to maximize the return on your training time unit.

Here is a sample arm routine for weeks 4-6 of this 12-week program:

A-1. Scott Close-Grip BB Curls, 6 x 2-4, 5010, rest 120 minutes
A-2. Close-Grip Bench Press, 6 x 2-4, 5010, rest 120 seconds
B-1. Standing EZ Bar Curls, 6 x 2-4, 5010, rest 120 seconds
B-2. Rack Lock-outs, 6 x 2-4, 2210, rest 120 seconds

Weeks 7-9: Absolute Failure Method. With this system you perform 2 sets of 6-8 reps to absolute muscle failure. Why do I recommend this heavy-duty type of protocol? Because it works...at least for the time it takes you to adapt to it, which is about three weeks. Considering that the previous six weeks of arm training workouts prescribed between 20 and 24 sets per workout, by this time the body needs to train at a lower intensity level (in terms of percentage of 1-repetition maximum), such as by using a method where time under tension per set is lengthened.

Consider that there are three types of muscular failure, each associated with the particular type of contraction. One fails concentrically when one cannot raise the weight, isometrically when one cannot hold the weight at any given point in the range of motion, and eccentrically when one cannot lower the weight under control at a given tempo. When one reaches failure on all three types of muscular contraction, this is known as reaching absolute muscle failure.

Typically, after a warm-up you will use a 6-8RM weight and go to concentric failure before a training partner gives you just enough assistance to complete the range of motion – but you will have strength to perform the exercise eccentrically. The number of assisted or forced reps should fall between 2 and 3; at that point the muscle should be so fatigued that you cannot even control the eccentric descent. If you don’t have a training partner to assist you, use single-arm movements such as one-arm French presses and dumbbell concentration curls, as this will enable you to perform the forced reps with your free arm. Once you can complete 8 reps on a given set, increase the load for the next workout.

Here is a sample routine using this training for weeks 7-9 of this program:

A-1. Concentration Curls, 2 x 6-8, 3020, rest 90 seconds
A-2. Lying DB Triceps Extension, 2 x 6-8, rest 3020, rest 90 seconds
B-1. Seated Hammer Curls, 2 x 6-8, 3020, rest 90 seconds
B-2. Decline EZ Bar Triceps Extension, 2 x 6-8, 3020, rest 90 seconds

Weeks 10-12: The 5/4/3/2/1 Method. This system is a favorite of sports medicine expert and former world powerlifting champion Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale. You start off with your 5RM and attempt to use two to three percent more weight every set, performing 1 fewer rep every set until you achieve a 1RM. This progression has the advantage of teaching the skill of expressing your true maximum. You cannot go from a cycle of 8 reps per set and expect to perform well in a 1RM until you have taught yourself how to recruit higher-threshold fibers. Thus, a work set progression for a 300-pound close-grip bench press might look like this: 265 x 5, 270 x 4, 275 x 3, 282.5 x 2, 290 x 1 (with the 2.5-pound increments accomplished with the use of PlateMates® or record plates.

Here is a sample routine for weeks 10-12 of this program using the 5/4/3/2/1 method:

A-1. Decline Close-Grip Bench, 5/4/3/2/1, 3210, 120 seconds
A-2. Scott One-Arm DB Curls, 5/4/3/2/1, 6010, 120 seconds
B-1. Incline BB Triceps Extension, 5/4/3/2/1, 3110, 120 seconds
B-2. Standing Reverse Curls, 5/4/3/2/1    3210, 120 seconds

I’m confident that if building size is your primary goal, you’ll be surprised and pleased with the results that maximal weights training will have on your physique. And you’ll like the fact that you’ll be as strong as you look.