Hello Guys,
I will continue with the form for lifts in this year’s program tomorrow (and possibly tonight if I can, but for now I want to point to a few important things that I want to avoid or, if the error has already been made, correct.
The first of these is that size matter. We are committed to the idea of massive volume here at WBF. Multiple reps, light weight. This is one of our core principles and will never change. This said, the idea of an appropriate number of reps and not just endlessly high numbers is important. Light is what is light for us and we should be adding weight as we move forward because we should be getting stronger. Also, just adding more reps does not work. The weight needs to be heavy enough that upon the contraction of the muscle there is enough weight to initiate the repair process.
What does this mean? Ok, it means that when you are given a lift and a rep range with an RPE….let’s say Dumbbell Curls 3×20 @ 9.5 RPE….you need to find a weight that, upon hitting your 20th rep you are in positive danger of failure if you try for another and there is 0 chance that you could do 2 more with proper form without dropping the weight.
Just because we promote the idea that we lift for goals and not for ego and as such the weight on the bar doesn’t need to be impressively high does not mean the weight doesn’t matter. If a rep range says 3×12 @9.5 RPE and you decide to grab a weight much lighter and crank out 20, 30, 50 reps is simply will not have the right impact. The number of reps, the RPE and the weight are carefully measured out in such a way as to extract maximum gains for the muscle.
Furthermore, if a weight gets too light you are just wasting your time. Air squats are a waste of time. They do all of exactly fuck all nothing for you so if you are doing air squats, just go watch tv instead. It is the same impact. Likewise, if you are lifting with dumbbells that are far too light you will never, ever trigger hypertrophy. You will not get stronger, leaner, bigger or more defined. You are just wasting your time.
If you can even imagine doing 40 reps with a weight…go watch tv instead. There is a reason we use weights….we need to put the tension on that muscle. The weight on the bar is not the whole ballgame the way weightlifters just want bigger and bigger numbers, but it is part of the larger equation including number of reps, form, diet, order of lifts and a bunch of other little factors that needs to be considered.
It is a little more work to figure out the RPE but it is a real benefit and this is simply something that cannot be cheated through lighter and lighter weights. If I pick up a pencil and curl it 8 billion times it will do exactly fucking nothing for the bicep involved. Do the work, do it as prescribed and you will get the benefit. If you don’t, one promise I can make you is this – at some point you will stop and think to yourself “fuck me I should have just done it.”
The next thing I want to mention falls under the general category of things you should know, likely do know, have already been told and somehow strategically manage to forget because you are a lazy POS.
WBF Season V is already written and put into a document. Some people already are looking it over and if you really are committed to doing this thing
Look at the tension he is putting on the muscle. Yes, he is lifting for reps, but he isn’t going so light just so he could do a billion reps. That would be as useless as going so heavy you could only do one.
with us get in touch with me and you will get your copy. In it, every workout is listed in details for the full 52 week program and I have been as scrupulous as possible to add all necessary information. Some things, however, I know you already know and left out. In retrospect this might have been a mistake so I will say them here in these posts, and one important one now: WHEN REPS GO DOWN WEIGHT GOES UP. If a lift is done in three sets of 10 reps, then 8 reps then 5 reps you ADD FUCKING WEIGHT when you go down so you can maintain the RPE. Fewer reps more weight. Don’t magically fucking forger this shit when you are standing in the gym. Bring your brain with you to the floor, you need that shit.
One final note I wanted to remind you guys of is this: STOP WORKING OUT YOU FUCKING RETARDS!
There is a reason beginners get better gains. The muscle has micro tearing during the workout and the act of rep failure triggers a healing process which can last up to 2 days. This healing not only fixes these micro tears making the muscle bigger, but also makes you stronger. The human body is an incredibly adaptive machine. This is why calorie counts on cardio machines are all bullshit. If you do something repetitively your body gets better at doing it. As you become better at doing it you require less energy.
In bodybuilding efficiency is the enemy. Many people, myself included, spend untold hours over the course of years figuring out how to program workouts such that your body does not become an efficient machine but is constantly inefficient leaving you always in the process of getting bigger and getting stronger to compensate. The amount of thinking and research and self torture that goes into figuring out how to game the body into being less efficient is immense.
We have just over 2 weeks before we are in the gym. You should be doing nothing but cardio. HIIT or Steady state is fine. I am doing 90 minutes of steady state per day. This is being done for a few reasons. I want your muscles, to the best of their ability, to forget all about lifting weights before we start. I also want your cardio endurance to be as high as possible so you don’t collapse during these workouts. I want you guys to be used to spending 1.5 hours doing work without lifting weights so you get used to the time frames but leave your muscles the fuck alone. Finally, I want you to have shed as much bullshit weight as you can before starting.
If you are lifting weights, stop. 90 minutes cardio every day. I know it is tempting. The weights are there and you want to lift them. Well fuck you. You want these gains, you came to me to show you how to get them….now just do what you’re told. I promise you will thank me for it later. You will also curse me, but you will thank me for it too.
Time to get fucking serious dudes.