New Olympic Weightlifting Blog: Liftm0re

Well, I figured it was about time to create my own little place to write about my journey into becoming a competitive Olympic Weightlifter.  My new blog is called liftm0re, and will serve as a place where I put insightful/poetic observations and thoughts related to training, PR's, failures, competitions, workouts, and basically anything related to this crazy lifting lifestyle.

It won't be quite as "factual" as The Food Guru, but hey, that might make it more fun to read in the long run anyway.  I'd really appreciate if a few of you checked it out, and if you like it let me know.  The more feedback, the better.

This also means I won't post Oly lifting stuff on The Food Guru anymore, so it's a win win for people who don't want to read about it....hah.

Anyway, I really hope you guys enjoy it, and thank you so much for the continued support.

Here's the link!

http://liftm0re.blogspot.com/

I'll be back with more food related goodness later this afternoon.  I've got a few new cool article ideas, stay tuned!

Training For Gold: Week 10

It's been a while since I've updated you all on as to how I'm progressing through my training.  This post serves only as a short update, as I realize it's really only of interest to a few people.  Though this is a pretty good spot to get my thoughts down, if I don't say so myself.

I'm please to announce that I'm continually feeling stronger than I ever have before in my life.  The workouts are brutally difficult, however I'm constantly surprising myself with hitting double and triple snatches that I didn't think were even close to possible for me.  The strength is there, and Ivan, my coach, clearly knows exactly what he's doing.  I have an unbelievable amount of respect for him.

In terms of injuries, I'm overcoming a shoulder pang that's been nagging me for a couple weeks, however through ice, heat, and lots and lots of massage and stretching it's recovered despite not ceasing my training.  Awesome!  It never effected my numbers either, thank goodness.  I'm also overcoming a bout of patellar tendinitis with a combination of foam rolling, a LOT of fish oil, and even more ice. All three combined are working wonders, and 12 days after I could barely walk, I'm feeling absolutely great.  Another week and I should be up near 100%.

I hit two new max lifts yesterday, which was absolutely remarkable because the workout surrounding the max attempts was designed to drain me of any energy I had left by the time I actually got the lifts themselves.  That means good things, such as LOTS of untapped potential deep within my muscles to lift a good few kilos more in both the clean and jerk and the snatch.  I have no doubt I could hit at least another 2 kilos in the snatch, and maybe as many as 5 more in the clean and jerk.  Regardless, here's my latest video of both lifts:

You can see more at my YouTube account specifically created to document my lifting progress: Liftm0re (yes, that's a zero, NOT an "o").

I'm due to max out in week 12 as well, so we'll see how that goes.  Progress is coming at relative light speed, and I cannot WAIT to see what else I'm capable of lifting.  A 150kg clean and jerk by the end of this year may not be so far fetched after all, especially if the muscle keeps coming on like it has been.  I'm up to 74 kg!

Stay tuned for more progress, cause I'm not quitting any time soon.

Training For Gold: Week 3

My one rest day has come around again, and unlike last week where I did some core and aggressive stretching on my rest day, this week I'm actually resting.  Looking back on this previous week, I'd consider it quite successful.  After tomorrow, I will have had three days where I did double sessions, and three days of single sessions.  That's a pretty decent amount of volume, and I'm definitely proud of myself for adapting to the load.

Eleiko Plates. Oh what I wouldn't do for a nice set of these.

My first session on double days always involves either front squats or back squats, and are usually one hour long.  I'll do between 20-30 total reps, attempting to get within at least 87% of my best ever belted max squat. This means above 275 lbs.  I can pretty regularly hit 290-300 lbs, which I feel is acceptable with my morning fatigue and semi-cold muscles.  

My later afternoon sessions are the ones dictated by my coach, who sends my daily workouts via facebook.  I hit all the numbers in Oly lifts, then squat.  This week I hit an easy 66 kg double snatch, and am feeling stronger than ever with my snatch form in general.  I feel like I could snatch over 80 kg if I maxed out, maybe even closer to 82kg.  I feel stronger in my clean and jerks, but I won't know for sure until I get near maximum weights again, which, judging by my workout schemes, won't happen for a while.  I'm hoping for at least 110kg when I finally do get a chance to lift the heavy stuff again.

Afternoon squats have been going very well, and my morning sessions haven't seemed to fatigue my legs much at all.  I hit 125 kg (275 lbs) for an un-belted triple the other day, AFTER my Oly lifts and AFTER a morning session.  Here's the video.

I was happy with it, and I feel like there's more there.  I REALLY want a 130 kg triple, hopefully this next week.

This week I added to my diet: 

2 Bananas (For Pre and Post Workout Carbs due to high glucose content)

1/4 cup Fiber One Cereal (Post morning session, just to refill some glycogen before afternoon session)

1 cup milk (Basically I just added to my previous milk amounts in lunch and dinner)

Almonds (100 calories worth, just to round out my afternoon meal to an even 200 calories)

Total Calories...3000?  I'd say about 3 grand, though I'll count more closely when I get a chance.

After this week I'm right up at about 160 lbs, which is a 1-2 lb weight gain.  I'm happy with that, and I'm going to keep my diet steady and see where it takes me.  Once I hit a plateau, I'll bump up the calories again.  The extra carbs are REALLY doing me good, I feel much more powerful under the bar, and have a LOT more energy.  Hurray for bananas.

We'll see how these next workouts go.  Things are getting heavy quickly, and I can't WAIT to start smashing some more PR's.  Here's a video of my Double 66 kg double snatch, with bar path analysis:

If you have any questions, comments, thoughts, or suggestions about training, please comment!  I'd love to hear from fellow Oly lifters, and I'd really love support through this journey of mine.  I'm determined to be a champion.  I have to lift more, I just plain HAVE to.

Training For Gold: After week 1

Working on as straight a pull as possible.  Not bad so far, eh?  

Well, I made it through week one.  It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't easy.  Total, I had 4 double days, in which I squatted heavy in the morning, and ran through that day's weightlifting workout (provided by my coach) in the afternoon.  Overall, the working weights for my second workout have been light, but that doesn't mean the workouts themselves weren't brutal.  The first two days, in fact, were a little more than I bargained for.  Allow me to explain:

Before starting this targeted training, I usually lifted heavy singles in all the lifts for about 6-20 reps per exercise (snatches, clean and jerks, squats).  This would take me about two hours (working at a slow pace), and my total reps weren't too high (though because the weights were always heavy, I always was quite glycogen depleted at the end of each workout.)

My new workouts involve tons and tons and TONS of triples.  That's right, three reps of heavy-ish weight in some of the most fatiguing lifts ever created.  Have you ever tried 5-8 sets of triple heavy clean and jerks?  Let me tell you, after you're done you feel like you've just sprinted two football fields.  It's crazy, but I can feel the strength building up inside me, and I love it.

Diet-wise, this week has been somewhat successful.  I've adapted to the higher caloric intake (and enjoyed it quite thoroughly), though I haven't seen too much budging on the scale.  I was 159 this morning, with clothes on and breakfast in my belly, as well as a lot of water in my muscles from the creatine.  I would say that taking all this into account I haven't really made any progress in terms of weight gain thus far, though I do feel stronger and more capable in the gym.  That could be either the creatine or the extra food talking.  I guess we'll see.

Creatine loading is complete, by the way.  I'm off the 20 grams per day, and have dropped back down to around 7-10 grams.  I'm trying to conserve the product, and see how far into this cycle my half jar of Universal Creatine can take me.  Luckily the stuff is cheap, so if supplies run low another couple 200 g bottles shouldn't cost much at all.

Universal Creatine.  Probably the best strength "bang for your buck" you can find.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

There haven't been any PR's in the classic lifts this week, and judging by the format of the workouts given to me I doubt I'll see any more PR singles for quite a while, just because I'm working so heavily on lots of repititions.  However I did PR on my front squat this week, and hit 104.5 kg (230 lbs) for 3 reps.  And despite it being a PR, it felt pretty darn solid, I might have another 2-3 kilos in me if I really push it, though I think I'll wait on that for just a bit.

For my rest day today, I've been doing nothing but stretching, loading up on protein and complex carbs, and working my core.  I cannot WAIT to get back into the gym bright and early tomorrow morning for my next heavy squat session, and can't wait to see what my coach has in store for this next week.  I have a sinking feeling the weights are going to increase very quickly.

We'll see how it goes, and I'll keep you all posted.  Wish me luck!

My Beef with YOUR Legs

All right, this here's my blog, and though I'll almost always give helpful, hopeful, kind and informative information, a guy's gotta blow off steam sometimes, right?  

I've recently had a string of circumstances in which I've overheard people discussing the infamous "leg day" in the gym.  Oh god, LEG DAY!  HOW AWFUL!  It's been nothing but moaning, groaning, and whining at how sore they are after their LEG DAY.  "Aw man, I hate walking up stairs after LEG DAY..." or, "Man I think I'm going to take my rest day today, I just hit LEGS yesterday and I can barely walk."  I usually just stand there, fuming a little bit, trying not to scream out at them that they have no idea what a real leg workout really is.  Luckily though, self control is one of my better qualities.

So what's my big issue with LEG DAY?  Well, while I can agree with a lot of bodybuilding philosophies, the dogma behind leg day is NOT one of them.  Sure, I can understand you may be sore after some high rep squats, leg presses, and lunges, but I won't tolerate the whining for days on end that follow such a "high intensity " workout.  I put high intensity in quotes because it's all really a matter of opinion, and I hate to say it, but most gym rats have no idea what some top level athletes go through to force their legs to the next level.  Allow me to explain, but before I do, understand that I AM going to bring up Olympic lifting and power lifting yet again, and because I am training for Olympic weightlifting you may think I'm biased.  You're entitled to that opinion, and you probably are right in a way.  I'm biased, sure, but for sound reasons.  Anyway....

Let's look at an amateur Oly weightlifter.  Do you bodybuilders have any idea what they're training entails?  Let's go through the motions of how their training progresses.  When they're  a stark, raw beginner, they're squatting moderately heavy/ heavy twice a week, and probably pretty light for one more day on top of that.  They'll then progress to at least four days of squatting per week, increasing both their volume and weight.  Pretty soon they'll be hitting at least 80% of their 1 rep max every one of their training days.  Once their body adapts, they'll increase the frequency of their training sessions.  A good amateur will be training about 6 days a week, with one double session thrown in there, in which they'll squat in BOTH sessions.  After that?  You guessed it, they'll add one more day.  At first they'll only squat light on this 7th day, but after a while this workout will build up to around the same level as their other ones.  They'll be hitting at least 85-95% of their max almost every day, for doubles and triples.  But this isn't even close to the end.  Oh no.  A professional, world class weightlifter will squat every day, two to three sessions, in which they'll max out multiple times on singles, doubles, triples, 5's, and sometimes even 10's.  On top of that, they'll be using weights that regularly exceed 500 lbs.  And that's just for squats.  Did I mention they do the same thing with snatches and clean/jerks?  Yeah, your leg day doesn't seem so hard anymore, does it?

Now THAT's some depth!

A common powerlifting workout schedule may not be as squat oriented as Olympic style weightlifting, but they're still working legs multiple times a week with far more intensity than you can really fathom.  They usually have one to two days entirely devoted to the heaviest squats they can muster, and usually one day devoted completely to deadlifting (again, at maximal loads).  These guys are the strongest of the strong when it comes to moving heavy stuff around, and they're doing reps with weight I couldn't move in any way, shape or form.  Do that multiple times a week, then complain about those lunges you used to do.

Bottom line, you'll build strength squatting heavy and squatting often.  You may think it goes against conventional knowledge of muscle recovery, but that's exactly the point.  You force your body to adapt to heavier weights, because you're lifting them so often.  Even me, the skinny kid from Vermont, has put about 100 lbs on his squat so far with the Olympic lifting technique, and it's only been about 6 months of serious training.  And that's self coached.  There's a reason the greatest Olympic athletes were squatting over 500 lbs by the time they were 19.  I think John Broz, one of America's finest weightlifting coaches, puts it best:

"If your family was captured and you were told you needed to put 100 pounds onto your max squat within two months or your family would be executed, would you squat once per week? Something tells me that you'd start squatting every day. Other countries have this mindset. America does not."

Now I don't mean to take anything away from serious bodybuilders.  Judging by the size of their legs, they know how to train to get what they want.  But that's just it.  They want size, definition, vascularity.  Strength comes in behind those.  Again, that's fine if that's your goal, but it certainly isn't mine.  I'd rather squat super heavy weight with big legs than medium/light weight with GIANT legs.

One more issue I have with a bodybuilder style leg workout, is the depth of the squats.  What the HECK are you guys thinking?  I regularly see these big fools get under a bar with WAYYY too much weight, groan as they barely manage to lift it onto their back (or neck if they're REALLY inexperienced), hunch right over and squat a full 4 inches.  WHAT ARE YOU DOING?  You're killing your knees, getting no real leg workout, and most likely destroying your lower back.  To get strength, you need to squat deep.  To squat deep, you need flexibility.  Look at any Olympic lifter, or even power lifter, they have ridiculous hip flexibility and can maintain a tight back even into the deepest of squats.  They're building solid legs.  Why aren't you?

NOT DEEP ENOUGH!!!!!

Anyway, there's my little rant.  To anyone around me, don't complain about leg days.  I may be a skinny kid with pretty skinny legs, but I'm still squatting 6 days a week, with double sessions every other day.  I don't find anything difficult about your stupid lunges, quarter squats, or leg presses.  And next time I see you straining to push 500lbs on the hack sled a full two inches, don't be surprised if you hear me chuckle just a little bit.

If you're looking for strength, squat heavy, squat deep, squat often, and don't cry about it.  GOOD LUCK!

Training For Gold: Day 1

Well, this is it.  I've told you all how to set goals, how to eat right, and how to train hard, and now my friends it's time for me to follow my own advice.  I'm going to try to take this weightlifting thing to the next level, and qualify for nationals in a year of serious training.  I figure since this is my blog, I can record my own progress amongst all the helpful advice, right?  Hey, maybe if a few people see it, I'll not only get a couple supporters, but I'll be forced to stick to my goals as strictly as possible.  Not that I'm not already determined as hell.

I've gotten in with a very well renowned coach, who's name I'll leave out for now, as I don't consider myself  a good enough athlete to be officially affiliated with him as of yet.  When I make him proud, I'll let you know who's responsible for my (possible) success.  He's the real deal though folks, a man who's trained champions, and who knows how to get people strong.  Starting today I'm off my own lifting program, and onto his.  Oh boy.....

I won't let you know the exact details of my routine, sorry.  It's nothing personal, but sometimes things designed by the real pros are meant to be kept secret, at least a little, right?  I mean come on, even today no one knows the real nitty gritty details behind the Bulgarian method of training which produced so many great champions, and that was over twenty years ago!  Sometimes the greatest things aren't meant to be shared with everyone.  It's like a magic show, you see the fantastic results, not the inner workings.

But let's get down to business.  In the next three months, I'm going to need to squat up to 160 kg, and improve both my snatch and clean and jerk by about 10-20 kg.  I'm also going to need to move up in weight to compete either as a 77 kg or 85 kg lifter.  Eventually, I'll have to compete as a 94 kg lifter, due to my height.  That means a diet change, starting today.

I've been eating around 2400-2700 calories per day, and I'm going to bump that up to at least 2900-3000 calories a day for the next couple weeks, and see where that gets me.  How am I going to do this?  Here's my plan:

1 more scoop of protein in my oatmeal, which makes two scoops total: 140 extra calories.

A glass of skim milk with lunch and dinner:  160-200 extra calories

1 full tablepoon of Naturally More peanut butter before bed (was previously eating only .5 tbsp): 50 extra calories

That'll take me to around 3000, and I figure that's a good place to start.  My body weight as of yesterday was 152.5 lbs.  I'm looking to break 160 lbs quite soon, as I've already been up to 164 lbs previously in my life.

I'm also starting back up on creatine after a 1 year hiatus, and am starting the loading phase today.  That means 20 grams a day for a week, then 10 grams a day for 4 more weeks after that, followed by a cleansing.

Chad Vaughn, a FANTASTIC USA weightlifter

I'm also doing double sessions as many days per week as I can, and bringing back one full rest day (Mondays).  I'm happy as I write this because just today I squatted 300 lbs unbelted to full depth.  A good start to a heavy training cycle.

Anyway, now you all know what I'm up to.  I'll routinely post pictures, progress, and PR's, and I hope some of you can follow my endeavors and root me on.  I'd love to share this experience with weightlifting enthusiasts, and really prove how great this sport really is.

Nationals, here I come, and to the competition:  Watch out, Seth's going to own that platform.

Muscle Pharm COMBAT Powder *Review*

I've been using Combat powder for long enough, I believe it's time I let the world know what I think.  And if I could, I would climb to the highest mountain, and from the summit scream to all humanity just one simple phrase:...."THIS STUFF RULES!!!!"  That's right, Muscle Pharm's Combat powder really is a fantastic protein blend in so many ways, and if you're looking to change it up from your old boring, generic whey protein WITHOUT breaking the bank, I suggest you give Combat powder some serious consideration.

Why is it so great?  Well what makes Combat powder so unique is that not only does it have all sorts of high grade whey protein blends in it (hydrolized, isolate, and just plain concentrate), it ALSO has all sorts of other protein sources blended into it which your body needs to fully recover.  This stuff has egg white protein, micellar casein (a long acting protein that will feed your muscles for up to 8 hours after you're done lifting!) and a heaping load of glutamine which aids tremendously in shortening recovery time.  Listen:  training for Olympic style weightlifting means I lift every day, and lift heavy 95% of the time.  I need a protein that will bring me back up to snuff ASAP, in one night's sleep minimum.  This stuff does that.  It's got a rocking protein blend, and an AWESOME amino-acid blend as well to give your muscles basically everything necessary to rebuild for another day of heavy weights and hard reps.

How about the nutritional profile?  I can assure you that this protein is very high quality stuff with VERY high quality ingredients.  It's won "best break-out brand" and "best packaging" from bodybuilding.com, and was nominated for "best protein powder."  The nutritional profile obviously has a lot to live up to, and it's no surprise that it doesn't disappoint one bit.  Combat powder is extremely low carb, low sugar, low fat, and packed with 25 grams of protein per scoop!  Here's the nutritional information right off Muscle Pharm's website.  Take a gander:

Supplement Facts

Serving Size: 1 Scoop Approx. (33.6g)

Servings Per Container Approx.: 54

	Amount Per Serving	%DV
Vitamins & Minerals
Calories	140
Calories from Fat	15
Total Fat	1.5g	4%
Saturated Fat	1g	8%
Trans Fat	0g
Cholesterol	75mg	27%
Sodium	150mg	6%
Potassium	200mg	6%
Total Carbohydrates	5g	2%
Dietary Fiber	1g	4%
Sugars	2g	*
Protein	25g	50%
Calcium		13%
Iron		3%
Multi-Level Amino Acid Growth Matrix	33g	*

Combat Powder Proprietary Time Release System:
Micro Filtered Whey Protein Blend (Whey Protein Concentrate, Whey Protein Isolate, Whey Protein Hydrolysate, Micellar Casein, Egg White Albumen, L-Glutamine, BCAA Blend: Alanine, L-Leucine, L-Valine, L-Isoleucine, Lysine, Arginine, Glycine, Histidine, Tyrosine, Cystine, Methionine, Phenylalanine, Proline, Serine, Aspartic Acid, Threonine, Tryptophan*

Digestive Enzyme Blend
Protease, Lactase

Other ingredients
Natural and Artificial Flavors, Inulin, Sodium Chloride, Acesulfame, Potassium, Sucralose, Soy Lechtin, Potassium Citrate

* The Tryptophan in this product is naturally occurring.

*Daily Value (DV) not established

How's it taste?  DELICIOUS.  Seriously, this may be the best tasting protein powder in existence, and I'm not alone in that opinion.  Countless reviews of this product have all commented on how great this stuff tastes, and how AMAZING it is to drink compared to what ever protein they switched from last.  Before Combat, I was on "Wheybolic Extreme 60" from Amplified Muscle Performance.  Let me tell you now that this powder blows them out of the water as far as taste goes.  There are 6 awesome flavors of Combat powder:  Banana Cream, Vanilla, Chocolate Milk, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Cookies & Cream, and Triple Berry Blast.  

My personal favorite?  By far the Chocolate Peanut Butter.  I swear this stuff is like drinking a Reese's for 5 minutes straight.  It's just plain heavenly, utterly brilliant.  If you want a great tasting protein, pick up some Chocolate Peanut Butter Combat powder from Muscle Pharm.  It's as simple as that.  

How's it mix?  Again, Combat powder impresses me enormously when it comes to mixability.  In my shaker bottle, when thoroughly shaken, there's no clumping, no chunking, and no flavor imbalances.  Plus, the flavor is powerful enough in this protein so that you can mix it with more water than you'd initially believe.  I take two scoops per workout, and I mix them with about 20 oz of water.  The result?  An incredibly creamy taste that completely disguises the fact that it's mixed into water.  No more watery protein taste for me, thanks.  I'll take Combat powder.

Does it work?  Heck yeah!  Since I've been on this powder, my squat has gone up about 10-20 kg, and my clean and jerk and snatch have gone up 8 kg and 5 kg respectively.  That's a pretty big improvement in not too much time.  I feel strong on this powder, and every day I want to test it out to see if it's worked for me.  I've smashed all sorts of PR's other than my competition lifts while on this powder as well, so yes, I can safely say that Combat powder works.  

So what's it cost?  Not much.  Right now at bodybuilding.com it's for sale at $39.99 for 4lbs, an amount that will last you over a month and a half if you only take one scoop each day.  I think you'll agree, that's an absolutely amazing deal for such a high quality product, and is definitely worth more than the $70 other companies are asking for their inferior products.  On bodybuilding.com only, there's a new flavor too, called "S'mores."  Here's a link to the deal, hope it lasts a little longer for all of your sakes.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/musclepharm/combat.html

So what's the verdict?  Well, it's not surprsing that I will be ordering this stuff for as long as that online deal persists.  This protein is high quality, versatile, and feeds your body in all sorts of beneficial ways that other protein powders just plain DON'T.  Average whey protein absorbs quickly, then backs off in a rather short span of time.  Combat powder just keeps on building and building, feeding those tired muscles for 8 hours.  I don't have to be sponsored by Muscle Pharm to say that I love Combat powder and highly recommend it to anyone looking to pack on some serious strength and muscle mass. 

http://musclepharm.com/combat-powder

Brain Training For Muscle Gains

So, all you gym rats, all you muscle heads, you heavy hitters, big time lifters, and meat-heads, what do you think happens when you get stronger? What has actually changed in your body that has allowed you to lift more weight than previously?  Well, the obvious answer is that you've gained muscle mass, greater muscle density, or in other words, you've increased the amount of usable muscle fiber in your body.  But what if I told you that you, without ever lifting a single weight, have more muscle fiber in your body than you really know what to do with?

Well, maybe that's not exactly true, there is a limit to the "stock" amount of muscle fiber you have.  But without any sort of training, much of your muscle fiber will be wasted and doomed to inactivity.  You'll be unable to lift to your potential.  In fact, you may remember in my recent article regarding gorillas (yes, gorillas, quite fascinating actually, read it here: ), I mentioned that the human body with no training whatsoever is only able to use about 20% of the muscle fiber it has.  That's not much now, is it?  Four out of every five muscle fibers are unusable without any sort of training.    That means you have a lot more potential than you could believe.  The good news is, when you lift weights, you not only break down muscle fiber (and inevitably build it back up again), you create stronger connections between your brain and muscles, and can more actively engage greater numbers of muscle fibers to work for you and lift that incredibly heavy barbell.  

Let's explore this brain-muscle connection a little further, and maybe optimize the gains you can obtain through "brain training."  The actual name of this brain system is called the Central Nervous System, or CNS.  Ever heard of it?  In actuality your CNS determines how your body reacts to stimulus, how quickly it reacts, with how much power and intensity, and with the greatest efficiency possible.  As you increase training intensity, weight, reps, etc., you build a stronger connection between your CNS and you muscle fibers. 

 In general, heavier loads are more taxing on your CNS, and require a more powerful contribution from your brain. In fact, the greatest way to stimulate your brain to build stronger muscle connections is through high weight, low rep applications.  Big surprise, I'm going to bring up weightlifting again!  Olympic weightlifters are masters at using every muscle fiber they've got with the greatest possible efficiency.  They can optimize the contribution of their CNS, and while the truth of this statement hasn't been confirmed, very often you'll hear members of the infamous Chinese weightlifting team claiming they can use more than 90% of their muscle fiber.  That's 70% more than the average human being!  Here's a good explanation of CNS training that might optimize brain-muscle connection development:

"Bompa's philosophy (Bompa 2005) with regards to weight training to improve explosive power is that repetitions are the key training variable. He recommends a low number of repetitions (1 to 3), with loadings in excess of 90% of 1RM (1 rep max), in order to develop strength that will boost speed and power and optimise the contribution of the CNS, with a recovery of 6 minutes between sets. These loadings create a higher level of excitation and receptor/effector communication, more motor unit recruitment and greater neural stimulation. These loadings and recoveries are also recommended on the basis of their contribution to maximum power and strength expression, and also because they do not produce a large increase in muscle mass, which could be detrimental to an athlete's power to weight ratio."

But why stop at weightlifters?  It's obvious that any high level athlete has a highly developed CNS in regards to their sport.  They know exactly how to use the muscles they need in order to get the job done to the highest possible efficiency.  They are strong, fast, lean, and powerful.  Most likely they've also been training for quite a long time in order to develop such remarkable connections.  There's obviously something to be said about practice.  The more often an activity is performed, especially with intensity and good form, the greater development will occur in your brain.  

Hopefully it's quite obvious by now that your brain plays a big roll in your training.  And just like your muscles, you can overtrain your CNS to the point where it becomes impossible to work out.  It's not quite the same feeling as an extremely sore muscle, or stiff joints.  From personal experience, I believe it's a much worse feeling, and far more frustrating.  An overtrained CNS will leave you completely drained, blurry eyed, and unable to lift even a fraction of what you normally could.  It'll be like energy just won't come your way no matter what you do.  If you don't want to overtrain your CNS, avoid:

-Extremely heavy loads each and every day

-Working to failure on a constant basis

-Extremely high intensity workouts too often throughout the week

Nobody's saying you can't push yourself.  But do it smartly, and if you're not used to heavy loads, work up to them.  Not everybody is able to squat 90% of their max day in and day out, you need to work up to that level.  Just like your muscles, your CNS will gain endurance and strength, and you'll be able to lift heavier and work harder more and more often.

If you do overtax yourself, even accidentally, don't despair, it usually happens to most everyone at one point or another.  You have to know your limits, and sometimes the only way to find them is to surpass them.  Just take a day off from the gym (A REAL DAY OFF, NOT A LIGHT WORKOUT DAY), get plenty of sleep, eat well (eat to refuel, complex carbs and lean proteins), and really let all those nutrients soak up into your body as you give it a much needed break.

Realize that when you get stronger, you're not just packing on meat.  You're getting smarter with the iron, and more able to use every muscle fiber you've got.  Crazy stuff right?

Use that brain, push yourself, and as always, GOOD LUCK!

References:

http://www.brianmac.co.uk/cns.htm

Size v. Strength: The Great Debate

Ever since the dawning of the modern workout, there has been a great divide between two main trains of thought regarding muscular growth.  There were those who wanted to get BIG, and those who wanted to get STRONG.  Such desires spawned two completely different methods for lifting weights, and two completely different types of athletes.

For the time being, lets ignore the casual "I just want to get toned" gym-goer (although I will admit this is a large percentage of gym-goers...).  

When I say two completely different athletic builds, I really mean it. Put these guys next to each other and rarely will you see extreme similarities.  Make them train alongside each other, and the differences will become even more apparent.  The methods are DIFFERENT.  To get big, you must train in separate fashion than you would if you were specifically looking for strength.  Yes, some traits carry over from each method of training (an athlete looking for strength only will inevitably put on muscle mass), but I'll say again, in general they are distinct from each other.

Let's examine the methodology behind each muscular goal.  What goes into the workout, why does the method work the way it does, and how can you incorporate it into your own gym related endeavors?

SIZE:  We've all seen them.  The fantastically enormous bodybuilders that appear to be half man half gorilla, all muscle.  They're basketball sized biceps, ginormous pectorals, and shredded abdominals seem to defy some law of nature.  Yet there they stand, bigger than any human we've ever seen.  How do they do it?  Well aside from an extremely picky diet, and some "medical enhancement," it's all in the gym, and their method of training. 

Bodybuilders train for hypertrophy.  Hypertrophy is the increase of overall cellular volume.  More specifically, bodybuilders train for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, and focus more on training their slow twitch, or I muscle fibers.  This basically means that bodybuilders train to experience an increase in cross sectional area of their muscles, and not really associated strength.  It's common to watch bodybuilders doing unbelievably high volume with very sub-maximal loads, at least relative to their muscle size.  Judging by their physique, it appears that they could throw a car above their head.  But in the end, they simply do not have the strength that they appear to have.  

But to them, this doesn't matter so much.  They train for APPEARANCE. And there's a lot to be said about appearance.  Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy allows you to look big and strong, often a more impressive trait than actually being as strong as an ox but only average in the muscular department.  This hypertrophy also more readily accelerates your metabolism, allowing you to burn more fat more quickly, and build that physique you've always wanted.  

How do you go about training for this type of muscle gain?  Well for building big muscle, you want a big rep number, with sub maximal weight.  Don't go super duper light, but work those muscles to exhaustion.  As you've probably heard before, FEEL THE BURN.  Super sets, drop sets, and negative reps are all great ways to overload your muscles for set after set to really ensure a good growth stimulus is sent to your brain and those muscles increase in volume as quickly as possible.  The most general rule for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is to keep reps within the 8-12 range, for at least 3 sets (I've seen people do as many as 10-15 though.)  This is only a general guideline though, and I suggest heading over to bodybuilding.com to get a more detailed workout routine.  

STRENGTH:  Let me bring to mind an athlete you may or may not have heard of: Pyrros Dimas.  Dimas was a three time Olympic gold medalist for weightlifting.  He weighed in at a meager 182 pounds, yet lifted 473lbs over his head in the Sydney Olympics.  He was the ultimate example of a strength athlete, and is one of my personal heroes.   

So how is it possible that Dimas was able to get so ungodly strong without becoming enormous and inflexible?  Well he, and other strength athletes alike, train for Myofibrillar hypertrophy, or an increase in overall muscle fiber connections.  This type of training surprisingly does NOT drastically increase cross-sectional area or overall volume of the muscle being trained, but instead allows the muscle to contract with much more force than it could previously.  Believe me, to put that much weight over your head, you need a LOT of targeted, raw, force.  

Myofibrillar hypertrophy deals more with fast twitch, or type II muscle fiber, the kind often referred to as "usable muscle."  Athletes like sprinters, Olympic lifters, power lifters, and other related force athletes often have large amounts of fast twitch muscle.  This muscle contracts, as the name implies, hard and fast, and can apply great amounts of energy to objects in very short amounts of time.  It is not, however, very effective endurance muscle.  Muscles can only contract with remarkable force for relatively short periods of time, hence the reason that joggers, bodybuilders, Nordic skiers, swimmers, and other endurance athletes (I put bodybuilders in there because of their ability to hit fantastic numbers of reps, NOT their running ability, which I'm sure is horrendous) possess much more slow twitch, endurance muscle fiber.  

It's always good to get strength training into your workout routine, as being able to lift heavy weights is not only healthy, it also builds a more solid body and strong neural connections between your brain and your muscles.  So where do you start?  Well, first of all, drop the huge number of reps.  Next, increase the weight.  Finally, do this for a good number of sets, 10 or so.  For an olympic lifter, a squat workout program may look like this:  10 sets of 2 reps, every rep at around 85-95% of max.  Believe me, though it may look like an easy workout, it is anything but.  That weight is very heavy, and will ALWAYS be very heavy.  This type of training does work though, and I can personally vouch for it.  The majority of my training is strength targeted.  My squat has gone up around 90lbs in 6 months, and shows no signs of slowing down.  And I don't look too much different, implying I haven't experienced much sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.  Watch out Dimas, here I come!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So which is the best way to train?  ....HAH!  What a silly question.  That's not possible to answer, and rarely will anybody who knows there stuff about exercising/fitness give you a straight shot one way or another.  For the average person, I suggest a mixture of both!  You'd like to look good and be strong at the same time, right?  Well that's a great goal, AND entirely possible.  Switch up your workout, either weekly, monthly, yearly, daily, I don't care.  Confuse your body, train both high and low reps, high and low weight, high and low volume.  You want to see benefits across the board right?  Well you will!  There's always carryover from each type of training.  Even though I said bodybuilders aren't relatively strong...well...I said RELATIVELY.  They're still unbelievably strong, because look at how much muscle mass they've got!  And sure, Olympic lifters aren't overly huge, but I mean they aren't exactly tiny either.  Train for both size and strength, and you'll get both.  Sure, what you'll always get isn't the BEST of either world, but it'll be a pretty good start into each one, and it'll do your body a huge favor.

Get big, get strong, and as always, good luck!