Transcription
When we talk about the type of physical training, within the current fitness context, there are five basic qualities, which is what everyone trains: strength, endurance, power, mobility, and aesthetics. And the way to train each of these qualities is different. There are athletes who focus all their training on specializing in one of them specifically, but for most of us, what interests us is improving in all of them in a balanced way. In this new series, we will see how to improve in each and every one of them at the same time, without having to sacrifice the rest, and you will learn to create your own routine, improving these capacities while always keeping hypertrophy training for muscle mass gain as the base. So, chapter one, strength training. When we talk about strength training, the first thing we think of is doing very heavy exercises with few repetitions, between one and five reps. And when we talk about hypertrophy, we think of exercises with moderate weights, at medium repetitions between 6 and 15. And this is correct, but there are really many different ways to train strength. And in this video, I am going to focus on one specifically, the most common and perfect for most people. Okay, we start from the idea that when you train strength, what interests you is lifting the maximum weight you are capable of moving. And although it may sound contradictory, I do not recommend doing training focused on doing a maximum repetition, that is, in an exercise, doing only one repetition with the maximum weight you can move. I do not recommend it because one thing is what you are capable of doing once, at a specific moment, and another thing is daily training, that is, your routine, what you repeat over time to create a progressive adaptation in your body. So, to train strength, the method I most recommend is the following. First, select one or two exercises in which you are going to improve. The most common would be the bench press for the upper part of our body and the free squat for the lower part, although dips or deadlifts or even pull-ups are also very typical. But the basic and most transferable ones I recommend to start with are the bench press and the squat. Then, the second point of the method is to train at an optimal frequency, because strength is a skill, and skills, whether it's strength, drawing, or playing a musical instrument, skills require sustained practice. It is very common to see people, the typical gym rats, who go to the gym once every two or three weeks to do a bench press PR, a day dedicated to doing a maximum repetition and seeing how much weight they can lift. And this as an occasional activity can be very good, but it is not sustained training over time focused on progression. And then, on the other hand, at the other extreme, a more technical and scientific method that became very popular a few years ago is Dr. Andrew Huberman's 3 to 5 protocol, which I will quickly summarize. It consists of doing three to five exercises, doing three to five repetitions, and three to five times per week with rests of 3 to 5 minutes. This is a good method and can be very good for dedicated athletes, but the problem it has, which Andrew himself points out, is that by training this way, three to five times a week, it is too much volume for most people who go to the gym to train normally, since rest and accumulated fatigue are very important factors to consider when training strength. Therefore, the optimal frequency I recommend for strength training is to do it twice a week. Following the example from the beginning, if our exercises are the bench press and the squat, this method fits very well into most routines. For example, in an upper/lower routine, on torso days you would start with the bench press, and on leg days with the free squat. Or, for example, if you train 5 days a week, the typical push-pull plus a reinforcement day, then the push day would be for the bench press, and then you can repeat it on the reinforcement day. And if squatting at frequency two becomes too demanding, it is also very common to do squats on the first leg day focused on quads and deadlifts on the second day focused on the posterior chain. This example is very good for seeing how strength is combined with hypertrophy. You can organize it in many different ways. You don't need to create a new routine from scratch. Just try to analyze the one you already have and place these exercises as the first exercise of the day, and also try to leave about two or three days of separation between them to be able to work at frequency two without accumulating too much fatigue. Okay? Once you have these two theoretical points, it's time to know how to put them into practice. The exercise in question must be done first each day. It will be your main strength-focused exercise. We do it at the beginning because that's when you will be fresh and can give your maximum capacity. You will only need to do a little warm-up before starting, and we will also do two warm-up sets. The objective of these sets is to prepare the joints and muscles and activate the nervous system without becoming fatigued. You must arrive fresh to your effective strength set. For example, [music] if your target weight is 80 kg on the bench press, you can do a first warm-up set with 40 kg, doing about six or seven reps. Then, immediately, you don't need to rest too much between them, do another set with 60 kg for two to three repetitions, and then take a couple of minutes to rest, mainly to catch your breath, and then you will do your effective strength set with 80 kg. And here we will always aim to do three to five reps. This is the sweet spot we are looking for. Three repetitions are the starting point. You must start with a weight where you reach three at most. And it is not necessary to reach muscular failure, just control technical failure. Your objective is to find a weight that is reasonably demanding, which allows you to reach three repetitions with reasonable difficulty. Therefore, muscular failure is not necessary. If you look for a really demanding weight, you will probably struggle to lift it and do the exercise with average technique. And don't worry too much if you don't do it perfectly. Just don't have too much ego by losing form because you can get injured. So, you start with three repetitions, and over the days you will see that you adapt until you achieve four. This is the progress point where you will focus on perfect technique. And once you see that with good technique you can already do five, it's time to increase the weight again and start over. But don't get too caught up in the weight either. Technique will always be the priority. This effective set, the first one you do, will be your topset, meaning the heaviest set you do that day. And once you have completed it, you will have finished your strength-focused training. For the following sets, you can lower the weight to continue with your normal hypertrophy training, as you did before, aiming for six to 15 reps. Because, as I said at the beginning of the video, the objective is not to do purely specialized strength training, but to adapt your normal hypertrophy-focused routine. So, you already know what to do, how to plan it, and how to do the exercises. Now, let's talk about rest. Since I only propose doing one topset at the beginning of your routine, you won't lose the typical 5 minutes resting between sets because you'll do it at the beginning, right when you arrive at the gym, but it's not necessarily only doing one set focused on strength. If you feel like it, you can do two or three, and make the bench press or squat completely exercises that you do solely focused on strength, and then complement it with your normal hypertrophy routine with the rest of the accessory exercises. And then, regarding weekly rest outside of training, I've already mentioned that frequency two is ideal for managing fatigue well throughout the week, but doing this won't save you from accumulating fatigue over the months. And in this case, I recommend doing a deload or recovery phase from time to time. [music] Doing a week or a little more of weight reduction is a very good way to reduce accumulated fatigue over months of training. It will depend on each person and how you feel, but generally, I like to recommend doing a deload every three to four months or so. To do a good deload phase, the most common is to lower the weights by 15 to 40% on the most demanding exercises in your routine and keep the isolation exercises the same. This is the most common, although I find it simpler to lower the weight on all the exercises you do during that week and take it as a real rest. And besides the weight, it's also advisable to lower the intensity because there's no point in using 10 kg lighter dumbbells if you're then going to do five or 10 extra repetitions. Obviously, a deload week is not for going to failure. So, to simplify it, you can set a mark for yourself to do the same repetitions as you would with your normal weight. For example, if on the bench press you do eight repetitions with 80 kg, during a deload week you can do the same eight repetitions, but with 50 or 60 kg on the bar. So, in summary, first, choose the exercises you want to progress in. Second, plan how to fit them into the week, giving enough rest between sessions. Third, progress in high weights with low repetitions, and finally, rest from time to time, every few months, to avoid overtraining. And you will also see that after a deload week, you will feel stronger.