I am putting the final touches on my newest workout routine. Doing this is getting me to do a lot of research into different types of ways the body works. One of them is lactic acid. Common attitudes towards lactic acid are so incredibly wrong. Common wisdom holds that lactic acid is a metabolic byproduct, which does nothing for the body or for performance, causes fatigue and is the culprit behind your DOMS.
Muscles do not produce lactic acid during workouts. They produce a similar compound called lactate. Further, lactate is not a waste byproduct it is the link between anaerobic and aerobic metabolism. So what does this mean? Well firstly, and probably most importantly, it is directly related to increased production of human growth hormone.
One trainer, Charles Poliquin, a name everyone should make themselves familiar with, points out that “Short rest intervals lead to an increased production of lactate, and an increase in lactate leads to dramatic increases in Growth Hormone, thus resulting in very significant losses of body fat.”
What is Poliquin talking about here? Just another version of Massive Volume Training. He goes on to tell us to “consider that the typical amount of GH that professional bodybuilders inject each day is actually a smaller amount than that released by the pituitary during lactate training!”
So what’s the deal? Well, like much of what we talk about here, it is very simple. If lactate produces HGH and HGH burns body fat we want to look at what we can do to create lactate and, as it turns out, high repetition to failure done with very little rest produces lactate. There is a little more to it like tempo work and time under tension but I am just learning and will keep you guys posted.
Poliquin created a deceptively simple workout that he gave to one of his clients, Marty LaPointe of the Detroit Red Wings. LaPointe could not complete it. Neither could the national Judo team that he did strength coaching for.
That workout was as follow:
3 circuits of
12 Squats @10 RPM
12 Chin-ups @10 RPM (add weight if necessary)
12 Deadlifts @10RPM
12 DIPS @10 RPM (add weight if necessary)
There is a 60 second rest between each workout.
He says that the trick is in correct resistance, so if you choose to give it a shot you will need to play with the numbers. You can’t simply do 12 reps. Your 12th rep needs to be the absolute last one you can do. Finding the perfect weight will take some effort but you have to be totally, 100% finished at 12. Further, you need to keep time under tension to an absolute maximum.
See if you can make it through the 3 circuits.
I came across lactic training while reading about German Volume Training, which is the basis for almost all the thinking behind massive volume training. German Volume training is excellent and WB 10/10 intro program is essentially a modified GVT program.
Kai Shows Us That You Can’t Get Big Lifting Light
Kai Green, one of the hugest guys to ever pose on stage, is a big proponent of both German Volume Training for size and lactate training for fat loss. There is always so much to learn in this sport and lifestyle and I plan to read a lot more about how to create lactate in the body through volume work. One thing I will say though is that it is cool to find out that guys like Greene and Poliquin, people at the top of this game, are proponents of the methods that I’ve believed in for years.