I was just reading a Q&A by Charles Poliguin. I came across in answer that has really got my curiousity going. The question was along the lines of “I would like to gain muscle and strength but I am small boned and have mostly slow twitch muscle fibers and I overtrain easily”. Charles first part of his response was that slow twitch individuals won’t respond to relative strength protocols.

Charles Poliquin Hypertrophy Program Designation

Do-It-Yourself Program DesignIf you started training at a young age, chances are you never followed a structured program. Instead you just had some simple goals in mind. Whether it was to squat three wheels or bench two bills, you wanted to get somewhere no matter what it took.You didn't periodize your training, try different exercises, use Time Under Tension or monitor your rest periods. Your only goal was to keep piling on weights, week after week, until you achieved that goal.

Program Design Fundamentals of Designing Hypertrophy. Courses in the Poliquin® Program Design Series. Shares 565 The physique does not always represent the power it is supposed to be capable of, and vice-versa. As much as a bodybuilder looks jacked, more often than not he is not nearly as strong as you might think. They rarely if ever focus on. Training Articles How to Plan Your Workouts Taking the next step in program design by Poliquin Editorial Staff 3:41:26 PM Most bodybuilding magazines focus on exercises for specific body parts which is ob!iously an. Charles Poliquin Fat loss seminar Here are notes that someone posted that he took during a Charles Poliquin fat loss. One of my early mentors (Charles Poliquin) popularized the 6-12-25 program for hypertrophy, fat loss, strength endurance, and lactic capacity. In this video, I show you how to modify the program to target different strength qualities in the gym, and how to utilize the program across a wide variety of training cycles for maximum results. Taking the next step in program design by Poliquin. This is the first time in over 15 years that Charles has lectured. Charles Poliquin Fat Loss & Hypertrophy. Customizing your supplement program for fat. Charles Poliquin Bodybuilding Program. And Charles Poliquin. My Best Hypertrophy Protocol. Tagged under: Hypertrophy.

One of my early mentors (Charles Poliquin) popularized the 6-12-25 program for hypertrophy, fat loss, strength endurance, and lactic capacity. In this video, I show you how to modify the program to target different strength qualities in the gym, and how to utilize the program across a wide variety of training cycles for maximum results.

Hypertrophy

When you understand the underlying principles of a program, you can modify it and adapt it to different goals.

Do-It-Yourself Program Design

If you started training at a young age, chances are you never followed a structured program. Instead you just had some simple goals in mind. Whether it was to squat three wheels or bench two bills, you wanted to get somewhere no matter what it took.

You didn't periodize your training, try different exercises, use Time Under Tension or monitor your rest periods. Your only goal was to keep piling on weights, week after week, until you achieved that goal. Garageband pc torrent download. Now, I'm certainly not saying we need to follow a program based on ninth grade intuition, but if we carefully employ a well-thought out and progressive program, we can achieve goals we may currently view as out of reach.

The problem is that as we get older, too many of us simply keep doing what we did when we were younger: get on someone else's program, follow it half-heartedly (while still expecting results), not see the results we desire, and then become frustrated and follow the loop with a different training program.

Charles Poliquin Program Design

What I'm going to do here is educate you, the avid T-Nation reader, on the key variables involved in program design. After reading this article, you'll be able to write your own programs based on your personal needs and goals!

Sets and Reps

Sets and reps are the nuts and bolts when it comes to training but when it comes to changing them, most trainees accept change about as well as hard-line conservatives in politics.

How many times in the gym have you heard someone say, 'Yeah, I'm doing three sets of eight' or something similar? The fact is that not only are they ignoring all the other factors I'll present to you later, but the only real 'variable' in their program is the weight! (And this really isn't variable at all because most of the time it never seems to change!) They'll continue to pump away with their three sets of eight reps until they finally stall out, plateau, and then remove themselves from the gym for the next two months. At this time they'll start up again with the same 3 x 8 scheme and achieve the same dubious results.

Imagine that you're setting up a program, but don't want to follow the 3 x 8 dogma simply because every other person in your gym is using it. Below is a very general breakdown of how many repetitions you should be performing per set to help you achieve your goals.

Reps per Set for Specific Goal (Goal—Reps)

Max Strength 1-3
Strength, Speed or Power 1-6
Functional Hypertrophy 4-8
Structural Hypertrophy 8-12
Endurance 12-13

Now, of course there's going to be some wiggle room with these numbers, but it's meant to be used as a guideline. For example, it's well documented that those who've been training for an extended period of time need fewer reps to accrue gains in muscle size. On the other hand, beginners may see very little hypertrophic gains for up to three months after initiating training simply because their gains will be due to improvements in inter- and intra-muscular coordination rather than muscle size. Part of the battle here is a little experimentation on your part and knowing what your body responds to best.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have sets. It's a generally accepted principle that as you increase the reps you must decrease the sets and vice versa. Below is a general guideline on how the number of sets you perform can influence your training:

Sets for Specific Goal (Goal—Sets)

Max Strength 8-12
Strength, Speed or Power 6-8
Functional Hypertrophy 4-6
Structural Hypertrophy 2-4
Endurance 2-3

(Adapted from Poliquin, 1997)

When you use fewer reps per set, you can increase the intensity per set. Keep in mind that intensity isn't always measured in load; it can be load-specific or velocity-specific. Let me give you some examples:

Charles Poliquin Hypertrophy Program Designed

A 5 x 5 routine with the load being approximately 80%. This not only allows us to train at a higher percentage of our 1RM (one rep max), but it affords us more total reps at that load because our repetitions per set are fairly low.
A 10 x 2 routine with the load somewhere between 40 and 60% of 1RM. This is the program used by Louie Simmons and Dave Tate at Westside on their dynamic effort days. This allows us to focus on speed as well as performing more first reps (e.g. focus on technique).
A 6 x 3 routine with the load between 25 and 35% of 1RM. Dr. Robert Newton (one of the premiere researchers in power production) has found in his research that this is the optimal load for improving power output in ballistic movements such as the jump squat or bench throw.

So you can see that even though the reps may be low, the strength qualities we're training can be quite different. On the flip side, higher reps per set requires us to lower the overall training intensity. The main exception to this rule is a 10 x 10 shock routine for an exercise such as bench, pull-ups, squats, etc. Keep in mind, however, this is the exception, not the rule. If you trained like this for an extended period of time you'd be admitted to the 'overtraining ward' that's already filled beyond capacity at your local gym!

Time Under Tension

Authors such as Poliquin and King really brought the idea of TUT (Time Under Tension) to the forefront in the strength training community. Just like all variables, TUT can be manipulated dependent upon our current and long term goals. Below is a table with a few examples that'll help you better understand TUT.