The Greatest Training Style of All Time!

Note: Due to the extreme importance of this first question, I have separated it from all other questions this month, for easier reading, and comprehend-ability.

What you have actually done is emphasize the point I am about to make. Your question is an extremely valid one, and is usually only answered one way.  I mean that literally. One trainer will say that their method is superior, while another will claim the same about their own. The fact of the matter, is that this has actually become a pattern and a rather aggressive one at that.

What will happen is that one guru will say that 30-45 minute training is the only way to go. And in order to prove this point he will show just how inferior all other training methods are. For example, he will address volume training like so:

What happens after this, is that the “ guru’s “ advocates will all act the same way. They will go to the gym and proclaim that every athlete using high volume, are screwing up in just about every area.

Then you will have another Guru come on the scene and proclaim that failure training is trash.

Then the next day, a guy who has made all of his progress training to failure will adopt this new philosophy and down everyone who trains to failure.

This then starts a chain reaction. As if a pre-requisite for being a guru, is to not only prove your methods are superior but to down all others. For example the great and famous Charles Poliquin believes that higher volume is the key to optimal strength and mass gains. Being a great athlete and trainer, he has an endless supply of studies to back up his findings.

And of course Charles Poliquin is known for assigning 12 sets of just one exercise to blast a muscle group and then some! He says and I quote:

He essentially explains the importance of volume, in countless ways. Now what do you suppose a HIT advocate, or low volume athlete would say in response to Mr. Poliquin? Do you think it would be positive? I remember one person actually attacking Charles’ credentials. And so the game continues. Even you must admit, it is certainly entertaining. But in many ways defeats the purpose. If one person likes low volume, they will adamantly attack those who adhere to higher volume routines. This is across the board, expert verses expert, and trainee verses trainee. One expert will question another’s experience, and one trainee will challenge another trainees ability to perform a certain program, or even his character.

What we have covered so far, is that there are endless experts who say that their style is superior, and all others are inferior…Therefore what we should now do is examine the physical evidence and base our decision on that.

The first method that has been attacked is failure training, yet it has countless success stories, and has been a measuring rod for decades with extreme success. From a “ bodybuilding “ perspective, considering its wide variety of successful advocates, you would have to, based on physical evidence say that this is one of the most legitimate training methods ever. Larry Scott would not only train to failure, but use supersets to go beyond it! We know what Arnold advocated. Here are a few more quote from present and past champions:

I believe that Mike Mentzer’s thoughts are well known on this subject:

Obviously the above athletes have spawned countless failure advocates who have had tremendous success with this training method. If you have ever watched Shawn Ray you would know that he regularly performs strips sets to take him past failure, Kevin Levrone uses cheat reps, forced reps and anything else he can find to stimulate growth, and Cormier is the same way. Charles Glass, probably the best trainer in the world uses every shocking principle listed on this site to take his trainees past failure.

The forum members know this quote from Buckeye. So how has this style of training panned out for him?

He is rated as the best prep linebacker in the country, Espn rated him as the No.1 overall linebacker in the country. He Recorded 140 tackles as a senior, averaged 15 yards-per-catch as a tight end. Mike is now playing for one of the best colleges football teams in the world, the Buckeyes! He also won the best body contest for his team, weighs over 240 pounds with single digit body fat, benches over 450 pounds, squats over 500 like it were the bar, runs a 4.50 40 time, and broke his old college teams leg press record! And the numbers only keep going up. Look for Mike to do damage for a long time to come!!!

We then have volume training. This training style has perhaps produced more champions then any of its kind. Lee Priest, Lee Haney, the Austrian Oak, Charles Poliquin, and the list goes on and on. I would say that the main benefit of using volume, is a maximum stimulation of muscle fibers, a maximum build up of mitochondrial density, a maximum exposure to nutrient rich blood, a maximum learning exposure, a higher hormone release and much much more. It however, is most critiqued for its taxation on the human body. In other words, if you are not sleeping, and eating perfectly this training style can certainly over train you and is attacked mainly from that perspective.

High intensity training is probably the most ridiculed of all the methods, simply because its founders ridicule other training styles more than any other guru’s. If you throw a punch, expect to take a few. Going outside of the political realm of things, HIT certainly has a wide resume of advocates, who are living proof that this training style is legitimate, and can work wonders! Its greatest asset, is that it allows the athlete to have more recovery time than any other training method.   This certainly can enhance the anabolic environment. After all we grow in the kitchen and in bed, not the gym. Again, another winner. Medium Volume training is a step above Hit, in that it usually lasts for only 30-45 minutes. Again, it allows more recovery. It essentially seeks a middle ground between HIT and volume.

So What's The Best Style? I think we are making headway. So far we have narrowed down the fact, that each style has its physical evidence. To refute the fact that this is the case would be a waste of precious time. You can talk to you are blue in the face about cns failure, but you cannot refute the fact that countless athletes have successfully built physiques with failure training. You could also do the same thing with volume training, and why it is so negative to bodybuilding and you would end up wondering why so many legends have sworn by it. And this could again be shown with HIT advocates.

What I would like to do now is analyze the testimonials given by the majority of these advocates and perhaps through them we can see which of these styles is the greatest of them all. When you open up a HIT book what is the first thing that you see? You could pretty much recite it by now couldn’t you?

Lets analyze this if you will. The person said, that he had used volume for freaking ten years straight and then finally changed his routine up and “ his gains skyrocketed. “ Ok…first of all, why would anyone use a training style for that long( and the testimonial ranges from quote: years, and the most I have seen is 15 years) ? See the point? Almost every testimonial is based on the fact that the trainee used one style for years, and made gains when he was intelligent enough to change his routine up. In other words, he did not necessarily make gains because the style was “ superior. “ But because he switched his routine up. Most people get stuck in using one method of training, and when they finally decide to mix things up, they notice incredible gains. I would venture that this is due to the shock of the change, and not that the method was better than the other.

However, the words above stick in their heads, and because these quick gains matched what they read about, they are now convinced that what the author of the book said was the infallible truth. This same scenario can be applied from someone switching from low volume to high volume. Most likely your gains will skyrocket.

With that in mind, I have come to a few very important conclusions:

Where do we go from here? I believe that the most sensible approach is to use a combination of all the training styles. In other words, when one method is not yielding optimal results, switch things up! Take a look at Old Schools routines. He will utilize volume, and then taper off to HIT training. It’s open mindedness like this that just plain produces results! And in my opinion a bodybuilder can benefit from cycling methods throughout a years time:

Cycle One – Heavy Compound Movements, shorter duration workouts. And an emphasis on progressive resistance

Cycle Two – Apply your new found strength to pure bodybuilding. Lift slightly lighter weights. Use more isolation exercises, focus on the negative, increase volume and variety.

Cycle Three – You conditioning should already be increased. But go ahead and work on mitochondrial density. Be sure and enhance supersetting, extremely higher repetitions, shorter rest periods, and perhaps some intense cardiovascular work to rev-your overall conditioning. This is vital, or you will inevitably run into a brick wall.

Or another example would be

Cycle One - High Volume

Cycle Two - Medium Volume

Cycle Three - Extremely Low Volume

There are many other examples, but you see my point. I believe the key to success in this sport, and also to constant mass gains is an athletes willingness to change, and also to use the best of all available, proven methods.

Sincerely

President Abcbodybuilding / Beyond Failure Magazine