Beyond 'Beyond Brawn'

J.S. Pill

I've been using abbreviated training routines (as advocated by Stuart McRobert in 'beyond brawn' - amongst others) for about 2 and a half years now. Overall, I've been very happy with the approach especially when compared with some of the more conventional high volume 3/4 day splits that were prescribed to me by trainers in the past.

Looking back over the last year, after dieting down over the summer, I'm only a couple of lbs over what I weighed this time last year. Strength wise, I've been steadily improving in a lot of lifts but progress has been slower in some areas and almost non existent in others (even negative e.g. legs but that's down to some recurring knee problems, another story...).

I'd usually do a cycle for about 10 weeks or so on a 2 day split. My current routine looks something like this:

Monday:

Incline dumbell bench 3 x 10
Shoulder press 3 x 10
Weighted dips 3 x 10
Calf press 3 x 15
Core work

Thursday:

Squat: 2 x 10
Lat pulldown 4 x 6
Standing lat pressdown 3 x 10
Leg curl 4 x 5
Hammer curls 3 x 8
back extension 3 x 10
Rotator cuff work

I'm currently at the end of this cycle. My cycles over the last year have been similar in approach insofar as they focus on compound exercises and low volume. I select my individual exercises from, I suppose, a fairly limited pool exercises.

I'd really like to hear some suggestions from anyone who follows the abbreviated training approach as to what I might do to mix things up a bit and revitalise my training. I really don't want to start a debate on the merits of abbreviated training vs other approaches.

I'm fairly confident that I have a good diet (bar the weekend drinking) My Stats are 28 yo, 5' 10 166lbs.

Suggestions & advice greatly appreciated.

amazingemmet

If you like abbreiviated training then it might be worth checking out Brooks Kubik, he's into old style training and a similar approach to beyond brawn but with out the fear of over training. Check him out http://brookskubik.com/

Transform

amazingemmet wrote: »

If you like abbreiviated training then it might be worth checking out Brooks Kubik, he's into old style training and a similar approach to beyond brawn but with out the fear of over training. Check him out http://brookskubik.com/

Brooks contributed to hargainer (McRoberts mag) for over 10 years so great recommendation.

As would anything by Ken Leistner, Bill Starr etc

overall i would suggest playing with the rep ranges much more - throw in a 1-2rep max every 6 weeks on the big lifts, do some heavy partials every 2-3 weeks, heck even a 5-10mins metcon on a non-strength day just to mix it up, 20rep squats, do not be afraid to abreviate even more i.e. squat and pull ups for 6-7sets of 3reps and leave it at that for the day.

Just a few suggestions

J.S. Pill

Thanks for that guys,

@ Transform:

I wouldn't know a huge amount about 1RMs or metcon. Metcon seems like something I'd be interested in allright. I'll do a bit of reading up on it and I may post up here again if I have any questions on how to best use it alongside abbreviated training. Think I'd better leave the 20 rep squat till my knees are 100%.

As regards abbreviating more; My understanding is that abbreviating more is usually a good response to slow progress from overtraining or poor recovery capacity - I don't think I exhibit any real signs of overtraining and I think I currently have a good recovery capacity in the context of my own training. Are there any other circumstances that would warrant abbreviating even more?? On that point, one approach I found productive when I tried it first was splitting exercises over 10 days e.g i'd focus on one muscle group on monday, another on thursday and the third the following monday meaning I'd hit each group roughly every 10 days. It worked well the first time I tried it but not so well any time I've tried it since. The fact that it worked so well the first time might suggest that my recovery capacity might not have been as great as I thought it was and allowing myself a generous recovery time was just what I needed. But why didn't it work so well the other times?? Has anyone else tried this type of split before?? If I decide to try this again I may post up what I intend doing to make sure i split up the exercises on each day optimally (it's possible this may have been the problem on the previous attempts but there could of course have been other factors).

But here's what's puzzling me: A big temptation in abbreviated training is to add more volume when you feel that weight gain isn't progressing. I think that I'm hitting individual muscle groups very hard but after a session I often feel that I have a bit more, I suppose, 'surplus energy' to go further (in terms of overall stamina) . The temptation is always there to maybe do a few sets of push-ups or whatever at the end on monday but I know this isn't necessarily going to be productive. Then I ask myself, if I feel I have overall surplus energy, am I really doing my work sets as intensively as I think I am? I tried pushing the boat out a bit on this front but it just lead to to bad form & not reaching rep targets - and recently a bit of a neck injury (nothing serious, OK now) - on this front I certainly deviated from the small increment approach advocated by Stuart McRobert and others. Under these circumstances is it advisable to be adding more volume or should I just focus on intensifying my existing lifts, maybe by using things like heavy partials as mentioned above??

Thanks again,

SanoVitae

Check out Dave Draper's site - there are some articles about Brook as well as other great articles

http://www.davedraper.com/dinosaur-training-book-excerpt.html