Cluster Reps - Part2

Ciao Amico Mio.

Last time I've introduced to you Cluster' reps. This training style it's half way between one rep at the time, and the classic consecutive reps. I leave the choice to you. I'd rather prefer one rep at the time. Having said that, this scheme could help you to do as many reps as you can before your CP tank will be empty. Here a good template to start with: lets' say that we're using 30 sec between reps, and I want do down to 5. Here what to do:

First Cluster
1 rep rest 5 sec.
2 rep rest 5 sec.
3 rep rest 5 sec.
4 rep rest 5 sec.
Rest

Since we have performed all reps with only 5 sec rest between them, now we can rest 100 secs. Why 100 secs? Because we subtract 5 to our baseline rest, that is 30. We do this for each rep, and voila' 100 secs rest.
If you like you can employee a more complete rest: 3 to 5 minutes. This little rest between reps, will allow you to squeeze out 1 or 2 more rest from your regular sets. Clusters Reps: another tool in a box.

With love
Sandro of the family Sabene

Cluster Reps - Part1

Ciao Amico Mio.

Let's move on something very advance: Clusters Reps. I don't know if this has been handled from many good
experts, but it worth to talk about it and use it. It's a very good tool that, if handled well, will allow us to prompt a very powerful stimulus to our body and will condition our self to handle more works without burning our self out. To gain muscle, we need some good volume. We can't compress it too much in a favor of the intensity, It doesn't work. Intensity isn't the key. Balance it is. Don't get me wrong here, we need a decent level of  it to get were we want to go; but not too much. Remember, There's a continuum from volume and intensity ( here, and here ) if one goes up another must go down. Clusters' reps allow us to do our work and do it in a very effective and less painful way: we will performs our reps with a little rest between them. How much rest between reps it's up to us: For pure strenght, aim from 60 secs to 2 mins. For more balanced work-out (fitness + strenght + muscle) aim from 5 to 30. Since our CP isn't infinite sooner or later , we won't able to do more reps and we'll get failure, which isn't good for our purpose. What it is good for us is to TOTALLY EMPTY OUR CP TANK. This, will prompt a powerful stimulus on our body. So we'll perform a bounce of reps let's say 4 to 6( with 5 to 10 secs rest between them) then, we get some rest, like the traditional set. This will be our Clusters: some reps performed with rest between them,  and more rest at the end of this Cluster. We will go on, Cluster after Cluster, until we will hit our "work out" target reps. I've just said 4-6 reps, but you can do more or less the choice will be up to you. Next time we will see some Clusters' scheme.


With love
Sandro of the family Sabene

What to do on Off day

Ciao Amico Mio.


Let's be honest with ourselves: Our off days seems to be a waste of time, but it's not! Let's remember that during our "off days", actually, our body rebuild and repair itself. Don't forget that we MUST provide rest to it, or sooner or later we will crash! So enjoy it, and bless this off-time! Since we WANT do something, and urge to move here some good things to do: Play, yes play with your children, if you have them, play with your friend and family. Go outside and move move move. Do some mobility training .

Just use your body the way you never did. Tense or contract your muscles; Never seen an animal doing this?

Have a some good Power Walk, and find a purpose to do so. It could be anythings; just find an excuse to go out outside!

With love
Sandro of the family Sabene

Some Good posts and video

Ciao Amico Mio

Here some good posts, that I've found out :

http://skylertanner.com/2012/04/15/finally-strength-training-and-its-effects-on-the-biomarkers-of-aging/#more-825

http://skylertanner.com/2012/04/15/musings-on-diet-muscle-gain-and-longevity/

http://bradpilon.com/weight-loss/intermittent-fasting-eat-stop-eat-update/

It's Back: A Great Blog

With love
Sandro of the family Sabene

How To Start a Day

Ciao Amico Mio

How about a litre of this ( blessed of course! )?

And a taste of this?

And this one?

And Above all THIS ONE??

Love, Love, and Love. Love Yourself, love the Life, and Love yours loved ones



With love
Sandro of the family Sabene

Holy Water

Ciao Amico Mio.

A Great video about this POWER FULL Liquid that I suggest you to watch very carefully.

Are you still Thinking that doing this silly, stupid, blessing new age action is worthless?? Do you realize
that our body is about 65-70% water? Bless it every time you drink it, you' re nothing to lose but all to gain. Bless your food too my Mate. Our most natural food, Fruit is about 60-70% of water....

With love
Sandro of the family Sabene

Putting All Together

Ciao Amico Mio.

We've done a lot of road together, now we will do a good guidelines' post. So let's hit it:Since we're talking about health and fitness, and since we want enhance both of them, without undermine health, we keep our stuff simple but very very effective.


Training Frequency:

We don't have to kill yourself on gym for our purpose, the key is to prompt a strong signal to our body and let it respond to our demands. Based upon my DIRECT experience I'll suggest to you train yourself from 1 to 3 days in a row. Why in a row? Because you'll have 2 distinct phase : Training phase and Rest phase. And since you're training so close your training sessions will be felt like a HUGE SINGLE TRAINING DAY, that will prompt a powerful signal to your body. Second, you'll have a very long rest phase that'll help you to fully recovery as long as you'll avoid to push the envelope every time you're doing your workout. Practice Mate, practice..


Training Routine:

With our statement on our Mind: "Health and Fitness", I'll put here a Big FULL-BODY Routine. No one are says that split routines are less effective, just a personal DIRECT EXPERIENCE and RESULTS. For our purpose we don't have to do strange  things. Just keep it simple and effective. Here some suggestions:

Day one : Chin-up, Dip, Dumbbell Press, Dead Lift.
Day two : Bench-press, Row, Up-Right Pull, Squat.
Day Three : HIIT. (for effective conditioning).

As you see, with this simple and effective routines, you will hit all your muscle for both Horizontal and Vertical planes, and you will build a very balanced body. Use your imagination, use your Mind, and watch the MIGHTY FEEDBACK!


Training Volume:

First you've to cycle your training routine, otherwise you'll hit a wall, no matters how many days you'll  rest,
you'll crash too fast. I've even tyred 10-15-21 rest days between my training sessions, nothing worked. Every time I've spawned my session so far, I didn't gained anythings. Better be smart: Cycle your volume and intensity. I'm working around 4 weeks cycle, but even 6 or 8 works well. Just don't blow up your volume. I start my training cycle with 10 reps for a given exercises, and I'll ended-up with 22. After that, I drop down the volume and rise up the Intensity a little bit. Says 2.5% to 5%. those numbers are not written on the stone, just use your experience. Maybe for some exercise you can add 2.5kg for others 1kg. Just rise it. When you'll be to close to maximum lift, just back-off a little bit your weight on the bar, and start to climb your intensity again. Don't be afraid to de load a little bit, you've all to earn!
An cicles' example:

Week1 Dead lift 10 single reps 100 kg
Week2 Dead lift 14 single reps 100 kg
Week3 Dead lift 18 single reps 100 kg
Week4 Dead lift 22 single reps 100 kg

Week1 Dead lift 10 single reps 102.5 kg
Week2 ....


Reps Scheme

How do we perform our reps? I'm very blinded here: one rep at the time, with some rests between them. I've statement many time the advantage of this system: More reps with more volume, less problem with tiredness if any. Better mental focus, better safety... do you want more? If you like, you can do reps with less rest between them, just decrease it  a little bit every cycle; go down 2-5 secs. Start with 30 secs and go down a little bit every circle, not every work out.

With my next Post we will talk about what to do on "Off-Days"


With love
Sandro of the family Sabene