[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
I get what you’re saying, but I thought being racist was attributing negative stereotypes to an entire group of people, not positive stereotypes.
All black guys have huge birds!
Am I still racist?
OP - work out like this guy for a few months and see how far you (don’t) get. [/quote]
Its actually being racist whether or not its possative or negative. I think its kinda dumb and people have become way too sensitive about these things. For example, with your statement, if there happens to be a black guy with a small “bird” then he is going to feel bad because he doesn’t live up to the expectations.
Then at the same time, its being racist against anyone that is not black, because you are basically saying they have small “birds”. Really silly, but this is the world we live in.
As for the OPs original question. I have to agree with everyone else, that if you are implying that you are going to get results with LOW weights, you probably will fail. There are the anomalies that can get pretty big with calisthenics and KB’s, light weights, etc. but this doesn’t work for most people.
Most people need to overload their muscles and require more force/tension, which means HEAVY weights.
Having said that, I think something can be gleaned from your observation of this guy in the gym. I think lifting with a controlled but fast eccentric and an explosive concentric is a great way to put out maximum force and overload CERTAIN muscles and connective tissue. But from my recent experiences, this may not be sufficient.
I recently started slowing down my concentric portion of lifts a bit, and found that im a lot weaker than i’d expect. I attribute this to being very reliant on my stretch reflex and and momentum generated by the muscles at the beginning of the ROM of a lift.
For example, on something like bench: my pecs/shoulders produce most of the force and get the bar moving fairly fast, and the only way my triceps are really going to get worked, is if enough weight is used to where the speed is slow no matter what. This is fine for heavy lifting, but moderate weights will have this problem. And the middle part of the ROM is usually neglected, which also happens to be where my sticking point tends to be.
There are many solutions though. I think partials, paused reps, or slowing down the concentric are very beneficial at “covering your bases”. Another thing that seems to help is the “mind-muscle” connection type of thing and “squeezing” the weight through the ROM. Ive always been skeptical about these methods, but now im starting to see things differently.
So in summary: I think most of the time you should focus on progressing to heavier and heavier weights, as this is going to be what really gets you big. But for a certain portion of your training, you should worry about not neglecting muscles / parts of the ROM by minimizing momentum or using methods like pauses.
Still working on this myself, but something like ramping up to a max set of say 8 reps, and then backing off for a set or two, and “working the muscle” may be a good way to get the best of both.