Used to do Fortitude training routine, I’m currently doing mostly bodyweight exercises because the gym are closed BUT I’ve just discovered on the internet Alexander Leonidas, and his program “Naturally Enhanced” (415 pages).
Well it’s interesting but very different from the traditional split routines, the guy advocates only 2 full body a week, one intensity day and one volume day, each of them followed on the next day by aka “mini workout” based on banded work, stretching, neck training and for those with great recovery capacities GPP.
Emphasis on the upper body,neck, traps, shoulders and arms.
I’ve been looking for reviews on internet but nothing, well I barely believe the guy is natural (1m65 / 80kg) but I think there is some good things to keep of is work (concurrent periodization, 2 full body a week, upper body emphasis…) what do you think ,
have you ever tried ? would you recommend / use it ?
below, 1 week routine example :
WEEK 1
Intensity Day
Overhead Press 1RM or 3x1@90%
Close Grip Bench Press 3x5
Miniband Face Pull 3x33
Conventional Deadlift 1RM or 3x1@90%
Power Shrug 5x5
Plate Pinch 3x15-30s
Reverse Hyper 3x10
Standing Cable Crunch 3x10
Volume Day
Overhead Press 3x8-12
Z Press from Chest 5x5
Incline Dumbbell Extension 3x12-15
Rope Pushdown 3x33
Rope Face Pull 3x20
Below the Knee Rack Pull 4-5x4-6
Power Shrug 5x20
Standing Dumbbell Shrug 3x8-12
Wide Grip Lat Pulldown 3x8-12
Hammer Curl 3x10
Plate Pinch 3x30-60s
Reverse Hyper 3x20
Standing Cable Crunch 3x20
He wants you to do 45 sets without a single leg exercise. The only leg exercise you’ll ever do is a 1RM deadlift. This is straight up worse than any program I’ve seen any beginner make up for themselves on here.
So I went and read his program description. He enphasizes the “power look”, which is good but honestly you would have way better results follwowing “the complete power look program” by Thibaudeau.
He’s saying like the best naturals have “big traps, shoulders, back and glutes”. And they don’t train 4-6 times a week.
Really? Who doesn’t train like this? No pro bodybuilder nor athlete trains 2 times a week. People who have the “power look” are because they worked these muscles that is all. And I watched his pics. I mean, he’s on the fatter side. Really not that impressive and certainly not a top pro natural. So 80 kgs at his height he’s fatish (holds his weight one the legs like me) or just isn’t natural because he’s heavy for a guy with apparently zero legs. And honestly, he claims a 700 lbs trap bar deadlift, with zero leg work. Either he’s doing leg work, either he’s lying, either he’s blessed on the pulling departments and his hips must be fucked up by now
Yeah, I’m gonna agree wholeheartedly with @aldebaran 's comments.
I was a natural pro (2x at that), and I know plenty of others personally, have trained with, coached, judged etc,… and I’ve seen plenty of folks trying to make a buck online (coaching, articles etc) who talk about what top natural pros do (there’s even one big name guy on here who routinely claims such insider knowledge and he’s 180 degrees wrong, but it lets him convince people who don’t know any better because he looks pretty good - years of self prescribed “trt” -lol)
This is not a great routine, and this is not a great author to listen to if you want to look like a serious bodybuilder. I’ll give him props for not looking like some young, never lifted before guy, BUT, he’s nowhere near the level of guys he’s claiming to be giving you info on how to achieve such results.
There are better plans out there, better authors to listen to, and tons to learn from trial and error (as I always say, it’s not rocket science!)
This kid encompasses absolutely everything that’s wrong Internet-based “trainers” today. No credentials or worthwhile experience combined with a physique that’s just good enough to draw attention away from his dangerous lack of knowledge.
He was “discussed” here a few years ago. He didn’t know what he was doing back then and, apparently, he still doesn’t.
Speaking as an editor who’s skimmed a few of his blog posts, that’s gonna be a chore to read rife with rambling thoughts and grammatical mistakes. And he’s charging 47 fucking dollars for it? I could think of a half-dozen better ways to spend that money and get better results.
I’ve heard of guys limiting overhead/shoulder pressing to allow for more benching. Or doing lots of work for your worst parts and no work for your best parts.
Has anyone ever dialed back the squatting and legs to focus more on the deadlifting and back?
“Specialized” routines where one thing is emphasized while other things are skipped seems like Old Timey advice from 50 years ago. Is this idea best left in the past?
Specialization routines that focus on something while ignoring other body parts is dumb advice. Emphasizing one thing while de-emphasizing other body parts is pretty standard and effective for short-term plans.
So, if you wanted to emphasize traps/neck, you might hit them three days a week and work the rest of the body once a week. For 4-8 weeks, it’d mean most of the body is on “maintenance” while you’re doing extra work for the main goal. Outright-skipping bodyparts means you’re regressing on those parts while pushing ahead on the specialized part.
Just to be devils advocate, why is it dumb advice if an individual doesn’t care or doesn’t wish to build X muscle? I mean, almost every elite weightlifter doesn’t bench because they don’t need it. Is that dumb because they ignore their chest?
Obviously I understand you’re speaking more about a general audience, but I’m just pushing for the sake of conversation.
EDIT: Just as an aside for anyone coming in here out of context, this program is garbage, most of the things he promotes are idiotic and you should get behind something someone credible has done before you do your “own thing”.
