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Canuck_Muscle
02-14-2009, 04:59 AM
lll

Canuck_Muscle
02-14-2009, 05:10 AM
Sorry guys I fucked up on that somehow and have no idea what the fuck I pressed but my question came out like that lol so once again I will ask:

What do u guys do to shock a stale muscle? What kind of exercises or sets and reps will u do. Will u incorporate super sets, drop sets, giant sets? It would be interesting to see a shock program that u guys use for any bodypart in hopes of getting some new growth out of it.

militantmuscle
02-14-2009, 05:53 AM
The title of your post says it all.

In order to bust a plateau, you need to exert a workload capacity on the muscles that recruits the most motor unit/muscle fiber activation. This happens when you take a set to positive failure. In other words, in order for your body to change, you have to give it a stimulus, a shock, some reason for your body to grow, because your body adapts accordingly to what you do. If you do 4 x 8 flat bench every monday at the start of our workout for chest with the same weight for 16 weeks, you aren't going to maximize your potential to grow, because the body sets the limitation of just enough motor units and fiber activation for you to get by with that workout.

After you discover the concentration of muscle fiber types for each muscle group, you should try to reach positive failure in a rep range that corresponds with maximum activation of that particular type fiber.

So let's say your chest is Type IIc dominant, you'd ideally want to train your chest with sets comprised of 1-5 reps, provided that the portion is around 2 seconds and the positive is controlled and 'explosive'.

Your workouts will also depend on your chemical regimen to a certain degree, because of the effect AAS and other compounds have on muscle fiber.

You have the right idea with the advanced beyond failure techniques, but unless you reach failure first, then those techniques will not have achieved maximum growth potential. Another thing to consider is for the most part you want to make sure you stimulate Type II fibers since they have high growth potential. Once you get above 15 reps or so, you are venturing into Type I fiber stimulation territory, which has low growth potential. So total rep count should be under 15 reps in order to fully activate Type II fibers.

Canuck_Muscle
02-14-2009, 06:07 AM
^ Very good post. I am also wondering if u yourself have incorporated anything like this and it would be cool to give a sample shock workout so people can see what u are talking about including exercises along with how many sets and reps u would include.

militantmuscle
02-14-2009, 06:28 AM
Thanks Canuck_Muscle.

I have personally incorporated these principles, as well as applied them to my clients with great success.

I will give an example, but please keep in mind, it is an example, and not to be imitated or taken as gospel. It is just a demonstration of scientific principles concerning muscle fiber type ratios.

Chest routine for Type IIc fiber dominant individual (does not account for warm-up sets)

Incline Dumbbell Press: 2 x 4 - where by the fourth rep the athlete reaches positive failure. Rest 2-3 minutes between sets.

Flat Hammer Strength: 2 x 5 - ", fifth

Incline Dumbbell Fly: 2 x 5 - ", fifth


When you see this, you're probably like, that's not complicated at all! And you would be right:) But when you understand WHY you are doing something, it makes it a lot easier to know how/when to apply these principles to various other body parts, etc. Once you understand how something works, application to other things becomes a much simpler process.


Let's say you are primarily Type II dominant with equal distribution of the sub type fibers in your chest:

Incline Bench Press: 2 x 1-4
Flat DB Press: 2 x 5-10
Cable Crossover: 2 x 11-15

The key is that positive failure should be reached on each set, because that ensures maximum recruitment of motor unit/fiber activation. Another thing to consider is duration of workout, if workouts last too long the emphasis crosses over to Type I.

The advanted techniques like drops sets, etc. can definitely be put to good use with a "shock" type of training, you see that with most of the HIT variations, DC, RazorRipped's, etc. It is up to you, as long as you apply the scientific principles, the variations of workout regimens can be endless.

Canuck_Muscle
02-14-2009, 07:41 AM
Excellent stuff. Hopefully people can take some positive tips from these posts and run with it. I always believed it was good to do this every few months for something different and to allow maximum stimuation of all the fibers. Thx again for posting this up.