I’ve started implementing the calve training you outlined Stu, went balls out on the seated calve raise today as you said. Tried to check my weight on the scales as I left the gym and couldn’t get a reading as my legs were shaking too much!
hope this spikes a decent bit of growth, thanks again.
Curious, what do you folks do for traps? I’ve always gone by the deads will build traps approach, but feel they are lacking. Would introducing shrugs be adequate?
Also, how much should I avoid alcohol while cutting down? I’m not an alcoholic by any stretch of the meaning, but a few fingers of scotch on Saturday night is a common vice of mine.
i do. i train 3 days a week with a push pull legs split. chest delts tris on tuesday, back biceps on thursday, legs abs on sunday. i rest on friday and saturday because
whenever i take a shirtless photo for instagram, i see improvements. i look forward to my workouts and feel fresh. i put ’ can more be better? ’ thought to the test and tried training 4 days a week. i just hated it.
i think i will never change this routine. if its not broke, dont fix it.
i do one arm barbell shrugs ( learned it from CT ) and overhead plate raises ( learned it from Paul Carter )
i never liked training traps bilaterally. i feel a greater contraction when i do them unilaterally. i tried it with a single dumbbell but the plates touch my quads and limit my ROM. barbell gives you freedom and you can pull much higher. its really a great exercise.
for the overhead plate raises, i do only the 2nd half of the movement. so its from chest level to completely overhead. this is surprisingly good. just dont forget to squeeze your traps at the top.
you and I do the exact same workouts on the exact same says for the exact same reasons! Haha
I’ve always avoided direct trap training because my shoulder structure is so narrow, but I’ve thrown in some dumbbell shrugs the last 8 weeks or so and have liked the results.
I wouldn’t bother getting too crazy with it, but 3 sets of shrugs in between sets of other isolation stuff (I superset mine with straight arm pulldowns) seems to be doing the trick.
A chest supported row lying on an incline bench does cool things to your whole traps, not just the upper
haha really? great minds think alike 
( if i remember the saying correctly )
I know some people can do their weekly deads and throw in a shrug here or there and be fine. When I was rally focused on analyzing other competitors’ physiques and trying to address my own perceived weak points, I realized how some people had real 3D, thick from front to back traps. What I settled upon implementing, which I do believe helped me quite a bit, was the combination of:
-behind the back shrugs (on a smith machine so I could angle a bit and avoid my ass with the bar)
-cable shrugs at an angle where it was more of a 45 degree angle of contraction (towards mid back a little) rather than straight up and down.
S
i remember seeing you do that cable shrug in the indigo training videos few years ago.
i wish they do something like that again with the new members. it was really a great project.
Do you guys feel that when dieting/prepping for a show machines make the training easier? I am not cutting but, find that on the days I train at the gym as opposed to home I feel fresher of like I can go longer. Of course this could be that the gym is air conditioned, I do not have to set up the weights, and people are around.
I feel that (when dieting), training with free weights makes training harder (more taxing on the CNS, for example). On the other hand, I think that helps the weight come off a bit quicker.
Not to say that machine work is bad or unnecessary or something similar.
Then again, Phil Heath does the vast majority of his work on machines…so…who cares what I have to say…
When doing these are you facing the bar? Or are you shrugging with it on your side?
Sounds like I just need to incorporate some isolation. I’ll give these a shot.
I’ve made the switch to a garage gym and sadly haven’t found a cable solution yet. Do you think these could work with a heavy band?
I guess if the band is enough resistance for you. I always felt that traps respond well to higher, controlled repetitions, so it is possible.
S
lol, yeah you do but sadly the second half of the saying is “fools seldom differ”
So heres a question for those who might have experience in it…
What do you guys think about “spec phases” or even just prioritizing things in a rotational fashion as a general way to train?
There have been numerous authors here who have stated that the best growth can be had by “maintaining” everything and then blasting one or two body parts for a few weeks, then moving onto another part. I think the most obvious example of this would be the old I, Body Builder routine from a few years ago.
Another author that comes to mind is John Romaniello, who wrote this piece about rotational specialization.
Anyone here have any experience with it? Seen results? Didnt see results? Im currently doing something relatively simple in nature, but with these same guidelines, and I think maybe my shoulders have come up because of it.
And second topic for discussion…
Given that most people accept there is a "genetic ceiling " to how much mass one can gain naturally… do you think it is body part specific, or systemic?
More to the point, let’s say you have 40lbs of muscle you can gain… is that by maxing out all the individual muscles, or could you “sacrifice” 5 lbs of leg muscle and add it to your back?
Maybe @Christian_Thibaudeau could chime in on this too (and the question above if time permits)
Casey Butts wrote about this very topic.
Which topic? What did he say? I did a quick search and couldnt find anything except his work on the maximum muscular body weight. Which is kind of related, but doesnt address my specific question (about the ability to “shift” that muscle mass around, or if there is a finite limit to each particular muscle)
What do you guys think about changing stimulus often"instinctive training "?
I have a friend of mine, natural lifter, one of the biggest guys ive ever seen in my life, and he doesnt really stick to a plan, i mean, 70% of the training wont change but if he feels like trowing another extra exercise for biceps for example he will!..Or use some intensity methods or change the exercise orders…Training with him was always a surprise, i was always sore and i grew even in a calories cut, i dont do this anymore, not saying this is the reason but i really feel im in a plateau, actually i just try to do simple stuff, 12 sets for bodyparty, each bodypart every 4~5 days , 8~12 reps to most exercises and try to add weight to the bar (wich is freaking hard now that im loosing weight)