Having seen a picture of Ismael Martínez posted on another thread I was really impressed with his physique and wanted to know a bit more about his training and nutrition.
As I don’t speak his language I can only really go on YouTube training videos and wanted to know people’s opinions on the amount of volume, I will give an example of his back session
Machine row alternating hand position 4 set of 10
60 chin ups in as many sets needed
Neutral grip close hand pull down 4 sets of 10
bb row changing grip width 7 sets of 8
single arm row 7 sets of 10
this looks like a high amount of volume and wondered if anyone feels that this is overkill?
or does anyone know anymore details about him and his training?
I’ve only seen pictures of him, and he looks great.
Yes, it seems like overkill, but there are men who can tolerate this volume.
Also, just from writing it like that, we don’t know if those are sets taken to near failure and/or they are including some warmup sets. I can’t see someone having any quality in sets past a fourth or fifth one if such straight sets (same weight for all) are being done to failure or near failure.
However at the end of the day, the guy got his results!
Anyway, it seems en vogue to stay away from high volume considering all the enthusiasm for upper-lower splits and full body programs even though, as we’ve pointed out god knows how many times, amazing physiques have been created with high volume and low frequency training.
The other videos the volume does not seem as excessive, but this back one really stood out.
The problem I’m coming across is I only have 3 training days most weeks, sometimes I can sneak an extra one in. Would love to follow some of the sessions but would have to pair two body parts together and would not have much left in the tank after such an exhausting back workout!
There is a bit of explanation before each video but I would need a translator!
Ismael looks great. From the few videos I saw what impressed me was the quality of his rep’s. His form is pretty darn good, smooth, controlled full range of motion, rather than being focused on using the absolute heaviest weight he can move.
Keep in mind he is now a pro competitor and they pretty much all use some injectible assistance, that allows them to train harder, heavier, and longer than they would without.
Its great to have inspiration to improve yourself, but its usually a mistake to blindly follow the latest wonder boy’s routine. What he did was he found out what worked for him and followed that. You need to find out what works for you. You could try the same exercises but reduce the number of sets, till you find the sweet spot for you.
Yup. Take a look at every pro with enormous backs; they all do a lot of exercises for it. Dorian Yates did six exercises for back, eight if we count rear delts done on his back day. Ronnie, Joel Stubbs, Lee Haney, Sergio Oliva… they all did a shit ton of stuff for their back. Right now I am doing five exercises for back, six if we count non-taxing scapular retractions done at the end.
That sounds right in line with what I had to do to tease out a little bit of development. Then throw in a curve ball like trap dominance or adhesions of the subscapularis and the back can be a pain in the butt!
Done the back workout yesterday, all was good until the last few sets of bent over rows, quality went down hill and felt like my arms were taking over
this is backed up by the fact that I have severe arm doms today which is something I rarely get after a full arms session and definitely not after back! Will keep it in for a few weeks to see what happens.