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Speed Sets—with 1.5-second controlled reps—are a big part of the Old Man, Young Muscle workout. Most of the top bodybuilders have been using them throughout their careers due to instinct—like Arnold.
Another is eight-time Mr. Olympia Lee Haney. Here’s what he had to say in a recent interview (photo by Michael Neveux)… [Read more…]
For older bodybuilders, haphazard training is more of a threat than ever—if they’re not on anabolic steroids that is…
The older you get, the more precise and efficient your training should be to avoid over-stressing your recovery ability and creating excess muscle damage. [Read more…]
Q: In Old Man, Young Muscle you have about half the sets in each workout as Speed Sets [1.5-second reps]. You’ve said that those cause less damage because you de-emphasize the low-intensity negative stroke. But doesn’t the bounce at the bottom of each reps cause damage?
A: NOT a bounce, but an abrupt turnaround, where you shift from a semi-fast negative to a semi-fast positive, such as at the bottom of a decline press… [Read more…]
Here’s a rare security cam still of Arnold saying bye-bye to his blankie as a robber pillages his home. Luckily, the crook was caught, “Schnitzel” was found unharmed, and Arnold was able to sleep soundly once again… [Read more…]
Q: Researchers say that the most important reps of a set are the last ones, which slow down. But when I do a Speed Set [with 1.5-second reps], none of the reps are slow toward the end. I hit a wall and have to terminate the set. Am I doing something wrong? [Read more…]
My friend and elite trainer Vince McConnell sent me a post by researcher Chris Beardsley in which he presented a study on fast eccentrics: Mori, T., et al. (2014). Stretch-speed dependent myofiber damage and functional deficits in rat skeletal muscle induced by lengthening contraction. Physiological Reports, 2(11), e12213. [Read more…]
My daughter and her firefighter husband were over to celebrate his academy graduation to engineer—he can now drive those big red trucks. He’s getting back to training now and brought up my recent newsletter on how cardio may limit muscle growth… [Read more…]
Here’s a photo of a young Arnold at a wedding when he misinterpreted the term “Best Man.” “I vill show who ees de best man.” [Read more…]
Q: I’m getting excellent results using a Speed Set after my normal-tempo high-rep set [as in the Old Man, Young Muscle workout]. But on some cable moves the Speed Set feels incomplete, specifically cable chest press. Should I do two Speed Sets to compensate? [Read more…]
In the last training newsletter, I mentioned that I was always perplexed that the biggest bodybuilders did most of their sets with a fast rep tempo.
Even high-intensity advocate Mike Mentzer, who preached lifting in two seconds and lowering in three to five, used a faster tempo much of the time—1.5 to two seconds per rep. [Read more…]
