Steroid users can get away with so much. Lazy workouts, no logical program, nonsensical progression but as soon as they see an incline bench they cringe in fear.
Not really, I have been following alex for 10 years and recently ive started 2nd cycle. Its not really like that for most people. Only for good responders. I didnt gain much muscle or lose any fat, and I have to train harder than natty
Seeing mike tear his pecs REINFORCED my beliefs tbh, he was gaining crazy strength at a crazy rapid rate while being on heavy drugs and a crazy dirty bulk + he had FAILED a bench pr 3 DAYS AGO! he SAID that his left pect was feeling weird as he was warming up, everything points to what we have discussed in this channel for years.
@@AlexLeonidasHave you ever covered the Masseter muscle? And why Brad Pitt but particularly Emily Deschanel, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie have larger masseters than Hafthor Bjornson? Or than Ronnie Coleman?
@AlexLeonidas Luck bulletproof tons of natural people get tears too this is overused nick Wright tore his pec he's natural it can happen some people aree just unlucky you can do everything right and still have bad stiff happen
@@AlexLeonidas yea nick Wright is natural 100 percent watch his video plenty of other people Alan thrall also rotator cuff and pec strains steroids increase the risk yes but it's all down to genetics and tissues capacity some people naturally just don't have strong tendons or they don't strengthen at the same rate
Right on Alex. I used max and submax singles right through my competitive lifting career. In fact one of the best runs of strength improvement was very early on when I pushed my Squat from 350 to 500 over 18 months and it was based around one max squat single per week with heavy assistance work. I used fairly frequent deloads so doing the same lift over and over was doable. Definitely a very useful technique. In those days it was almost always a lot of max singles and then lot's of bodybuilding work. Simple and effective.
Hey Alex! You’re exactly right! I’m 16 and I’ve been safely maxing out at least one exercise every week for months now. All my friends say “bro you’re pecs gonna pop like a pimple in if you do that so much” which is just the funniest thing ever to me 😂 like I’m 5’6” 160 lbs finally deadlifting 350 just because I’m young and that shits fun. So many kids my age are hitting sets of 10 and 20 because they think they’re training with Larry wheels and they don’t even know the joys of hitting a 135 OHP. Sorry for the long comment but you’re awesome man
Or they'll say "you can only get away with it when you're young!" I was told the same thing as a teenager and look what happened 10 years later 😂 Let them keep coping, 350 dead at 160 at your weight and age is awesome. You are ahead of the game.
Just wanna say you are an inspiration to me and many others. Seeing an actual natural athlete reach these numbers while STILL being below 100kgs. Just yesterday i hit my first 150kg bench at 100kg, and am truly inspired to continue the natural grind until i aswell can someday reach 4 plates. Much respect man
The funny thing is, people tend to focus on the ONE heavy single where someone got injured versus the hundreds, if not thousands of others that same lifter performed without issue. Lifting is inherently dangerous, whether you're doing top singles or high rep work, and the only way to grow and positively adapt is to push into the realm of potential danger. Obviously, limiting risk factors and training intelligently help to mitigate risk, but at the end of the day, if someone sticks with this for long enough, they will get hurt/injured.
Even with the tren twins injury, they seem like they max out very often and haven't had issues, instead, he was feeling slightly injured and tried to do new form on the max 585 attempt, from what I see, most people get hurt if they're doing things safely is overuse or going very intense with new awkward movements your doing got the first time
Yes, but there is a nuance here. You can lift your whole life without tearing anything if you go about intelligently. However, an overuse injury is almost a certainty. This holds true mainly for naturals. On the other hand, if you're enhanced, you run the risk of tearing a muscle because of the muscle/tendon strength discrepancy Alex mentioned.
Great video and you hit the nail on the head. Social media is driving the thirst for higher and higher demand for geared lifters to continue to push the barrier and continually hurt themselves. I'm 46 and lifetime drug free and have been powerlifting for over quarter of a century and have only suffered minor injuries over the years, small tears or strains and these have occurred due to loss of form or technique.
I saw a video of a guy who said he was not going to go up to 135 working weight (not even 1RM) that day "In light of the recent events regarding the Trent twins"....
Not gone through the whole video yet, but man, I’ll say it again, you figured out so many things and your passion for lifting and intelligence makes you on top of the fitness game. Following a plant-based diet and a really well-thought workout program that gives me results because of you, and for that I’m really thankful. Please keep up your amazing work!!❤
You seriously need to write your own book. Your insight on your methods from conjugate would be a fascinating read. All the knowledge you put in these videos i could read and re read and re read for years.
That's very true, my knee and shoulder pain stopped when I started concentrating on maxing compounds and variations with gradual progression. And now I train beach volleyball, and still have no knee pain, I suffered more when I was doing a lot of reps, with less weight with more days of training at the gym than now that I jump all the time at volley and squat heavy the day after
Commenting alpha destiny so i still remember his old school you tube name.. Also i accidentally figured out "maxing out" alway works as long as you are smart with it or rotate your lifts , and you confirmed it through your videos
@@AlexLeonidas yeah man thanks for that hack..admittedly I do have ups and downs I'm the gym but rotating lifts literally are like cheat code to regain what I "lost" effectively 💁🏾♂️. And people always ask.."didn't you fall off and were weaker 2 weeks ago? How you this strong again already?". I'm like, "rotating variations is a cheat code to re awaken that muscle memory fam🤣". And your teachings on different types of reps helped loads too!!
My man you've also maxed out so many times with weights that even some enhanced people can't even dream of touching! No injuries! Even with worse recovery at times, or random. Natty resilience, represent!!!!! Haha let's see that new bench PR
(2.5 year natty) I've never injured my chest going for a 1 rep max. I've only irritated my chest by going BEYOND my 1 rep max, which healed in about 4 days. I went for a random 10lbs bench pr because i felt ''strong'' that day. I failed the lift and tried the same weight AGAIN because my ego took over and of course I failed again. I then dropped the weight by 10lbs and tried AGAIN and failed which then irritated/injured my chest. As long as you know your limits and keep your ego out of it there is no fear in going for a 1 rep max. Keep in mind this only caused a SLIGHT irritation in my chest even though I bashed my chest with loads it could not handle.
I switched to conjugate following most of your recommendations. I've gotten so much stronger and bigger. I had a real poverty bench press, but that is getting stronger week on week too.
Absolutely true. I’ve maxed out for years. The only time I’ve had any ‘injury’ is overuse issues. Definitely didn’t come from weekly rotated max effort sessions. Cheers!
In Italy there is a pt who was able to use some kind of bulgarian method for bench, sumo deadlift, front squat, chin ups amd military press (but works with every lift). He did a max effort in each lift 2 time 2 day, 7 days a week, so he maxed out 14 times a week in each lift. At the end it's all about conditioning and being natural
Thank you Alex. Been so focused on hypertrophy but what you said during this video is so true. Ima try to incorporate more strength training this upcoming meso cycle and see what happens. Appreciate you
i assume that this is like a follow up video of mikey from the trentwins tearing his chest. I already know what Alex is going to say, i just like hearing him talk
I think it is more risky unless you’re experienced with maxing out. And like most difficult things, it’s something that takes years of experience to start to master. Like you’ve been doing this a long time dude and most people are not as patient. Ironically the only time I’ve really gotten hurt was when doing a triple, so maybe it is just random haha
Yep I think for a noobie you probably won’t get injured but still not worth it. As you become intermediate, or advanced since ur stronger Always warming up the used muscles is key to prevent injury
I'm natural and my tendons definitely couldn't keep up with muscles but you definitely can feel it far before you get to the catastrophic level. I have to chill and take a bit of a break to give them a chance to heal up, then I'll focus on building them up specifically.
I mean tested powerlifters max out every training cycle and they rarely get injured from it. In fact, one great example is ThePanash who maxes out regularly and the reps are absolute grinders but he hasn't been injured in years and he's moving huge loads.
The natural lifter, we feel our tendons and ligaments be sore in real time so we know when we can actually max out. My personal biggest limit right now is recovery from that soreness lol
the only exception to this rule is likely weighted calisthenics and advanced calisthenics, where even naturals can struggle with injury due to how extreme it is.
Looking like a true G with the 😎. Agree completely on your topic. Including max effort work in your training has the opposite effect that the fear mongerers state: it strengthens your tendons and connective tissues. In natural lifters, the tendons are usually much stronger than the muscles. Where we see problems is in enhanced guys who aren't used to max effort work and are doing it for clicks (like the dudes who have gotten injured training with Larry Wheels, looking at you incline bench pec tear guy) or in enhanced strength athletes as they peak (and drastically increase the pharmacology) for competition. It's a sudden mismatch in muscular strength and tendon strength that leads to these injuries in the vast majority of cases. If you're natural and managing fatigue (i.e. following some degree of programming), having a major myotendinous injury from lifting is highly unlikely. When I was into vertical jump training in my 20s, it was a well-known fact in that community that plyometrics strengthen the tendons and thicken them over time. This has been known since the 1950s when Soviet athletes were doing insane plyometrics (like depth drops from eye level height, for example). The forces that your tendons experience during plyometrics are much higher than produced lifting weights (like multiple times your body weight), yet I don't know of anyone in the vertical jump community from back then who had a tendon rupture from jump training. Sure, people got jumper's knee and overuse type injuries, but acute injuries didn't happen.
I meannn… everytime I see a pec tear is with the wide grip bench press at near max weights. You don’t do that kind of grip. Another point, guys in Arnold’s time did use a super wide grip like that, but Arnold and most of those guys only did bench presses working with 225-315, which 225 was around 50% of Arnold’s max. But you make a great point about steroids.
I have to disagree slightly. I'm natty and have done mostly heavy/ max-out training. After hitting my DL PR, I got weaker and didn't take a deload or time off. I did the opposite and pushed myself harder. I tweaked my lower back really badly. Swapped back squat for front squat and eased into high rep, low intensity romanians. After a while I started regular DLs again. Even though it was submaximal, I was lifting the weight better than I did at the time of my PR. I decided to try to jump to a single that was within 15% of my PR and it flew up fast , but I tweaked my back again, nowhere near as bad as the first time though. All this to say - if you have injured your ligaments or joints, or are otherwise compromised, you are now in a similar situation as enhanced lifters - your muscles are strong, but your ligaments aren't synced up. If this is the case I think you should stay away from maxing out and slowly ramp up to it over a long period.
We are way more durable than we give ourselves credit for. I’ve never once gotten injured maxing out and I pulled 550lbs at 165lbs 18 years old. The only little things that cause me to feel weird is if something absolutely ridiculous happens, for example the other day I was squatting in a rack I wasnt used to and I hit the pins with the plates on the way down and almost got knocked over to the side but I was still able to finish the set although i felt a touch unbalanced after 😂
I totally agree with everything you said and loved maxing out when I was into powerlifting, BUT I just don’t see the point for the general trainer or bodybuilder, unless you enjoy it. It can be very fatiguing and doesn’t really offer a good stimulus fatigue ratio for anything the general trainer or bodybuilder is trying to achieve. Pushing up your lifts in the 5-12 range will drag your 1RM with it, albeit not ‘optimally’.
I don't disagree. I'll skip max effort if I'm focusing on pure bodybuilding. But if I wanted to maximize my strength (like I am now), you bet I'm maxing every week.
No one's arguing that maxing out is optimal or recommended for hypertrophy (although useful for establishing back-down percentages). You technically can do 4-5x1 but that's inefficient. This video is about strength.
@@AlexLeonidas I'm joking. I know maxing out in itself is suboptimal, but running a bench program with the intent of hitting a 1rm will grow your chest...
@@Jdm5299I saw the joke haha, also i think he's saying hypertrophy isn't best gained with maxing out but he didn't say it didn't work on strength efficiently. I'm someone who doesent really want to be massive so that's okay for me. I can focus on lighter lifts with higher reps after the fact if I want to keep my body/joints stable and imbalances at bay etc.
saw the title and immediately shook my head lol, another reason most people would benefit from learning powerlifting programming principles or having a strength coach to learn from
The best gains as a natty I made over 12 years of lifting was with low reps (5-10), high frequency for each muscle (every other day), low volume (not many sets per workout). This whole mindset of 'chest day, shoulders day...' followed by 20 sets of 20 reps of hitting the same muscle group in a single workout and expecting that it will continue to grow for the remaining 6 days of the week is suboptimal for natties.
I remember seeing the video of a "fight" between 2 high level enhanced powerlifters who punched like little girls, and one of them tore a pec while attempting a hook...
Ive been maxing on weighted dips,bench press, OHP, Behind the neck ohp, weighted chins , pullups, wide overhand pullups, squats, all different lifts for singles for years straight quite consistently and The worst “injury” i had was overuse in my rotator cuffs. If you are natty it is quite harder to get injured than being on PEDs.
Been maxing out on the upper body for nearly 5 years. Not a single injury........ nothing. Bench up to 335 now. Did fuck my lower back up doing volume work on legs lol. Even then I'd say the injury was because I was suffering from insomnia and wasn't eating enough, in other words....I was not recovered.
Every injury I’ve ever had which is many minor and moderate injuries but never a major or complete tear has been from rep work or building up the volume too fast. I’ve also never gotten injured from a 1 rep max. It’s important to also recognise that a muscle belly tear is more common from lacking mobility and when the weight forces a deeper stretch than you can tolerate that’s when a tear occurs.
i should max out, especially my bench. Ive been afraid of maxiong out because most of the gyms i go to do not have safety pin and i am one of those lone wolves to train alone and leave.
Even with rep work, if you use a controlled and relatively slow eccentric + switch up the variation every so often, you’ll be fine. I built up to using 20kg dumbbells on the lying dumbbell curl and I do pelican curls with more than my bodyweight. My biceps have never been torn or damaged.
@@AlexLeonidasThanks! And for the record I usually use 15-17.5kg dumbbells for that exercise. One day I just decided to test to see if I could do it and I can, but only for 8 on my first set.
This is absolutely true for the most part and i was only just arguing this the last couple weeks on youtube. The exception is if youre one of the rare few who have crazy genetics for hypertrophy and your muscles can run ahead of your tendons
I concur. I’ve been hurt doing reps, never been hurt with singles. Singles you can do it or not. Reps are easier to cheat and use momentum, or misgroove because you are doing multiple reps.
@@AlexLeonidas you are right on about fatigue. You are not fatigued when working up and priming yourself for a max single, yet with sets and reps you accumulate more fatigue and thus easier for form breakdown to happen
"Muscles built using psychic powers (steroids) don't stand a chance against muscles built by training diligently everyday" - Musashi from Mob Psycho 100
Every material fails at some stress-repetition cycles, human body is no different, most important thing is are you recovering from stress and listen to your body.
sometimes i feel that reaching far into failure on simple movement like curls at the end of a set is actually more dangerous than lifting a 1rm if you are fresh. What matters is recovery anyway, you can do prob whatever you want besides that, and there are benefits to 1rm also, maybe not for muscle hypertrophy so.
Maxing out too often is hard on your joints and if you are dehydrated and poorly warmed up the risk does increase of an injury, but I agree roids are 99% of the reason these tears happen. I rarely see someone who looks obviously natty tear a muscle. Look at muscle tear fail videos and im not sure I have even seen 1 person who looks like they aren't possibly pushing PEDs.
I am the rare natty case lol. Not gonna tell others what to do, but since then i changed how i trained chest because the pain is horrible after the tear compared to the tear itself. I rather increase my volume and make the old orm my new working set by taking it fairly slowly. Rather be in it for the long then opposite
So does the hypertrophy work that follows your ME attempt does that change every week to match your ME variation? Also congrats on the badass looking home gym Alex! You have been a huge motivation for me, I have worked my way up to a 225 for reps bench and a 300 pound pullup for reps, you deserve every piece of recognition and reward for your hard work for the fitness community
I'm no expert, but my personal experience has been that heavy weights with lower reps is much safer for me. After injuring my shoulder years ago i picked up on the fact that 5 and below rep ranges do not aggravate my old injury the way that 10+ reps do.
A side effect of steroids is tendinopathy. I think it's because the muscle grows significantly faster than the connective tissue, but I can't find evidence, so it's just a hunch.
Last time I got injured i bent over weird with 12 pound dumbbells to do reverse rear delt flys to prep for bench. I hurt my back real bad lol. Yet I maxed high 400 deadlifts and never got hurt from them.
Can totally agree with this. I'm new to lifting (2 1/2 years) and I've never felt any pain maxing out, I actually notice the most pain when I do something like high rep deadlift sets. As long as you have safeties/a spotter, you're absolutely fine maxxing out as a natural as long as you program it correctly so you're not spinning your wheels.
Thanks for the video man. I've been agreeing with this for ages now. The steroid community is such a cancer honestly. 99% Of them claim "natty" while selling courses and their bullshit supplements. And they will band together and drag you down if you go against them on their social medias. You earned yourself a subscriber bro, keep up the good work!
I dont know if it has the same benefits but I warm up then do a %95 of 1rm(calculated from my hypertrophy sets)top set before the big 3. Then I do my hypertrophy sets
“I max therefore I am”
THERE IS NO REASON TO BE ALIVE, IF YOU CAN NOT DO DEADLIFT!
My name is Max.... Max Powers....
Let’s go!
My name is max intensity nice to meet you
I am Max Effort 😅
the truth is that for a natural lifter the danger of a muscle tear is very small, almost non-existent
steroidsBuild muscle like jelly read the studies
I've been lifting for 16 years, not once did I tear anything and I've been natural the whole time too.
Luck bulletproof tons of natural people get tears too this is overused nick Wright tore his pec
Natty non lifters however...
@@Uchiadude134 yes you take gear and now you cry
ask doctors who do dissect bodybuilders after dead what muscle tissue looks like))
😂 the shades are officially taking over, BaldOmniMan will love this one
I'm loving it 😂😂😂😂
@@AlexLeonidas Nah bro you need Bronson Shades!
Toguro Shades + Action Bronson Shades = Baldy Takeover
Steroid users can get away with so much. Lazy workouts, no logical program, nonsensical progression but as soon as they see an incline bench they cringe in fear.
🤣
Not to mention gaining massive amounts of muscle while following internet fad diets such as “OMAD”.
Not really, I have been following alex for 10 years and recently ive started 2nd cycle. Its not really like that for most people. Only for good responders. I didnt gain much muscle or lose any fat, and I have to train harder than natty
@@MilosevBoskoget off the gear then! Not worth it
@@MilosevBosko then why the fuck are you using steroids? sounds like a weird way to try to diminish the impact steroids have had for you.
Seeing mike tear his pecs REINFORCED my beliefs tbh, he was gaining crazy strength at a crazy rapid rate while being on heavy drugs and a crazy dirty bulk + he had FAILED a bench pr 3 DAYS AGO! he SAID that his left pect was feeling weird as he was warming up, everything points to what we have discussed in this channel for years.
It's sooooooooooo obvious!!!!! Anyone could have seen that coming, how do people not see this?
I think he admits this later in the video, he was getting too big too fast and it cost him months of gains.
You’re projecting your self reflection, intelligence and pragmatism onto those that wilfully, or not, completely lack it.
@@AlexLeonidas They don't know anything about training they just take drugs, eat a shit tonne and get stronger
Mike who?
we need more footage in the new gym !!! Great content man.
Just moved in so I'm very low on clips! By the end of the month I'll have a lot more to work with.
@@AlexLeonidasHave you ever covered the Masseter muscle? And why Brad Pitt but particularly Emily Deschanel, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie have larger masseters than Hafthor Bjornson? Or than Ronnie Coleman?
The shades whilst hoisting max loads keeps you big as hell 0:57
RED lenses increase T-levels
Nice
MAX EFFORT KEEPS THE MOTIVATION 💪 It's reaching failure "or almost" from the first repetition
Exactly!!! Maximum motor unit recruitment from rep one, same grinding as 0 RIR.
@AlexLeonidas Luck bulletproof tons of natural people get tears too this is overused nick Wright tore his pec he's natural it can happen some people aree just unlucky you can do everything right and still have bad stiff happen
@@Uchiadude134 Overuse and it wasn't conjugate programming, I'd argue minimalism + maxing out with elite loads has a higher injury risk for naturals.
@@AlexLeonidas yea nick Wright is natural 100 percent watch his video plenty of other people Alan thrall also rotator cuff and pec strains steroids increase the risk yes but it's all down to genetics and tissues capacity some people naturally just don't have strong tendons or they don't strengthen at the same rate
@@AlexLeonidas yes agreed maxing out with elite loads like 350 400 up that yes completely agree
Right on Alex. I used max and submax singles right through my competitive lifting career. In fact one of the best runs of strength improvement was very early on when I pushed my Squat from 350 to 500 over 18 months and it was based around one max squat single per week with heavy assistance work. I used fairly frequent deloads so doing the same lift over and over was doable. Definitely a very useful technique. In those days it was almost always a lot of max singles and then lot's of bodybuilding work. Simple and effective.
That's all it took eh, thank you for confirming this Faz!!!!
Tell me more about how you did it? What kind of rep work, percentages etc?
And that's backed up by experience!
@fazlifts Can you make a video how you reach 500 squat .
Alex proving that conjugate is the way, for many reasons! Less risk of injury being nr 1.
After 10yrs of lifting ive never injured myself on a max attempt.
Only from overuse and backoff sets where my focus has dwindled
EXACTLY!!!!!!!! That's the real culprit, and it's awesome that you've also put in a decade of ME without injuries.
True. Doing too much is way worse than going too heavy.
Alex your longform videos like this one and the dip masterclass are your finest work. These should be required viewing for strength training.
That means a lot brother, thank you!!
Hey Alex! You’re exactly right! I’m 16 and I’ve been safely maxing out at least one exercise every week for months now. All my friends say “bro you’re pecs gonna pop like a pimple in if you do that so much” which is just the funniest thing ever to me 😂 like I’m 5’6” 160 lbs finally deadlifting 350 just because I’m young and that shits fun. So many kids my age are hitting sets of 10 and 20 because they think they’re training with Larry wheels and they don’t even know the joys of hitting a 135 OHP.
Sorry for the long comment but you’re awesome man
Or they'll say "you can only get away with it when you're young!" I was told the same thing as a teenager and look what happened 10 years later 😂 Let them keep coping, 350 dead at 160 at your weight and age is awesome. You are ahead of the game.
Haven't even watched yet but I've made up my mind..... we're maxing out on the rack pull above the knee today 🐍
Oh man!!!!!!! That too though, if naturals aren't tearing their traps with 1000lbs (and I did mixed grip with 905lbs) what does that say?
looking like a greek god my dude. you motivate all of us
Just wanna say you are an inspiration to me and many others. Seeing an actual natural athlete reach these numbers while STILL being below 100kgs. Just yesterday i hit my first 150kg bench at 100kg, and am truly inspired to continue the natural grind until i aswell can someday reach 4 plates. Much respect man
Great job, thats a lot
The funny thing is, people tend to focus on the ONE heavy single where someone got injured versus the hundreds, if not thousands of others that same lifter performed without issue. Lifting is inherently dangerous, whether you're doing top singles or high rep work, and the only way to grow and positively adapt is to push into the realm of potential danger. Obviously, limiting risk factors and training intelligently help to mitigate risk, but at the end of the day, if someone sticks with this for long enough, they will get hurt/injured.
Even with the tren twins injury, they seem like they max out very often and haven't had issues, instead, he was feeling slightly injured and tried to do new form on the max 585 attempt, from what I see, most people get hurt if they're doing things safely is overuse or going very intense with new awkward movements your doing got the first time
Yes, but there is a nuance here. You can lift your whole life without tearing anything if you go about intelligently. However, an overuse injury is almost a certainty. This holds true mainly for naturals.
On the other hand, if you're enhanced, you run the risk of tearing a muscle because of the muscle/tendon strength discrepancy Alex mentioned.
Well said
Great video and you hit the nail on the head. Social media is driving the thirst for higher and higher demand for geared lifters to continue to push the barrier and continually hurt themselves. I'm 46 and lifetime drug free and have been powerlifting for over quarter of a century and have only suffered minor injuries over the years, small tears or strains and these have occurred due to loss of form or technique.
It's a cocktail of PEDs, excessive fatigue being left unaddressed and terrible load management. Every time
Every time!
Don't forget poor technique
I saw a video of a guy who said he was not going to go up to 135 working weight (not even 1RM) that day "In light of the recent events regarding the Trent twins"....
Brooooooooooo
I can't
Lmao glass chest
I love the clips of Alex lifting with sunglasses on! its quite humorous but also bad ass 😂
Not gone through the whole video yet, but man, I’ll say it again, you figured out so many things and your passion for lifting and intelligence makes you on top of the fitness game. Following a plant-based diet and a really well-thought workout program that gives me results because of you, and for that I’m really thankful. Please keep up your amazing work!!❤
You seriously need to write your own book. Your insight on your methods from conjugate would be a fascinating read. All the knowledge you put in these videos i could read and re read and re read for years.
He did.
That's very true, my knee and shoulder pain stopped when I started concentrating on maxing compounds and variations with gradual progression. And now I train beach volleyball, and still have no knee pain, I suffered more when I was doing a lot of reps, with less weight with more days of training at the gym than now that I jump all the time at volley and squat heavy the day after
Commenting alpha destiny so i still remember his old school you tube name..
Also i accidentally figured out "maxing out" alway works as long as you are smart with it or rotate your lifts , and you confirmed it through your videos
Rotating is the ONLY way to constantly max out, that's the ultimate hack!
@@AlexLeonidas yeah man thanks for that hack..admittedly I do have ups and downs I'm the gym but rotating lifts literally are like cheat code to regain what I "lost" effectively 💁🏾♂️. And people always ask.."didn't you fall off and were weaker 2 weeks ago? How you this strong again already?".
I'm like, "rotating variations is a cheat code to re awaken that muscle memory fam🤣". And your teachings on different types of reps helped loads too!!
Preach brother. You got me into N.E. And maxing out every week too
Hell yeah brother
So glad you made this video! A lot of people are afraid of maxing out for no real reason!
Maxing out is less dangerous than doing 10 reps to RPE10 under fatigue lmao.
I agree! Fatigue is the enemy.
"I just hit 365×5, I should be able to bench 405 finally!" & PEDs is the career ender
1000% agree.. gonna maxout on bench soon XD
My man you've also maxed out so many times with weights that even some enhanced people can't even dream of touching! No injuries! Even with worse recovery at times, or random.
Natty resilience, represent!!!!! Haha let's see that new bench PR
(2.5 year natty) I've never injured my chest going for a 1 rep max. I've only irritated my chest by going BEYOND my 1 rep max, which healed in about 4 days. I went for a random 10lbs bench pr because i felt ''strong'' that day. I failed the lift and tried the same weight AGAIN because my ego took over and of course I failed again. I then dropped the weight by 10lbs and tried AGAIN and failed which then irritated/injured my chest. As long as you know your limits and keep your ego out of it there is no fear in going for a 1 rep max. Keep in mind this only caused a SLIGHT irritation in my chest even though I bashed my chest with loads it could not handle.
Bench pr?
@@Backman6 265lbs, started benching last year after 1.5 years of bodyweight training
@@gsewew6080 bw?
@@Backman6 185lbs, 6ft
Yeah, 'cos you've never lifted enough weight to do any damage.
I'm going to start lifting with shades on too. That's got to be worth an extra rep right there!
This video actually convinced me to begin some power building. Thanks.
Awesome! Enjoy the natty injury free gains
I switched to conjugate following most of your recommendations. I've gotten so much stronger and bigger. I had a real poverty bench press, but that is getting stronger week on week too.
LOVE TO HEAR THIS!!!!
Absolutely true. I’ve maxed out for years. The only time I’ve had any ‘injury’ is overuse issues. Definitely didn’t come from weekly rotated max effort sessions. Cheers!
In Italy there is a pt who was able to use some kind of bulgarian method for bench, sumo deadlift, front squat, chin ups amd military press (but works with every lift). He did a max effort in each lift 2 time 2 day, 7 days a week, so he maxed out 14 times a week in each lift. At the end it's all about conditioning and being natural
This man educating us again and again. Love it!
High reps is dangerous, as the rep count continues to climb, you fall out of the groove and get injured
Thank you Alex. Been so focused on hypertrophy but what you said during this video is so true. Ima try to incorporate more strength training this upcoming meso cycle and see what happens. Appreciate you
Alex your barbell shirt is dope bro thank you for everything
Thanks for supporting me! Glad it fits well.
This makes so much sense. I always felt drained after maxing out, but never realized it might be holding me back
First here brother! Time to make gainzz.
PS : shades lookin' good
So close man, but your passion to make gains is there!
I wish you write a book covers your training philosophy, it would be a great help to us
World wide gains would increase by crazy high margins
i assume that this is like a follow up video of mikey from the trentwins tearing his chest. I already know what Alex is going to say, i just like hearing him talk
My man!
I AIN'T EVER GONNA STOP MAXXXING OUT
YEAH BUDDY!!!! ua-cam.com/video/NTdd9m5X8FI/v-deo.html
Thanks for making such great content for us naturals
Thanks for trusting my word and not being misled be evil influencers. You're a real one.
0:49 master roshi :)
I think it is more risky unless you’re experienced with maxing out. And like most difficult things, it’s something that takes years of experience to start to master. Like you’ve been doing this a long time dude and most people are not as patient.
Ironically the only time I’ve really gotten hurt was when doing a triple, so maybe it is just random haha
Yep I think for a noobie you probably won’t get injured but still not worth it. As you become intermediate, or advanced since ur stronger Always warming up the used muscles is key to prevent injury
I'm natural and my tendons definitely couldn't keep up with muscles but you definitely can feel it far before you get to the catastrophic level. I have to chill and take a bit of a break to give them a chance to heal up, then I'll focus on building them up specifically.
I max out every time I lift, never been damaged. In fact I just make more strength gains
I mean tested powerlifters max out every training cycle and they rarely get injured from it. In fact, one great example is ThePanash who maxes out regularly and the reps are absolute grinders but he hasn't been injured in years and he's moving huge loads.
Just the video I needed to stay on the path. Thanks man!
new garage gym is very aesthetic
Pretty good quality content man. Subscribed
Best content on UA-cam BY FAR
For the real ones only, much love Taylor!
The natural lifter, we feel our tendons and ligaments be sore in real time so we know when we can actually max out. My personal biggest limit right now is recovery from that soreness lol
the only exception to this rule is likely weighted calisthenics and advanced calisthenics, where even naturals can struggle with injury due to how extreme it is.
Looking like a true G with the 😎.
Agree completely on your topic. Including max effort work in your training has the opposite effect that the fear mongerers state: it strengthens your tendons and connective tissues. In natural lifters, the tendons are usually much stronger than the muscles.
Where we see problems is in enhanced guys who aren't used to max effort work and are doing it for clicks (like the dudes who have gotten injured training with Larry Wheels, looking at you incline bench pec tear guy) or in enhanced strength athletes as they peak (and drastically increase the pharmacology) for competition. It's a sudden mismatch in muscular strength and tendon strength that leads to these injuries in the vast majority of cases. If you're natural and managing fatigue (i.e. following some degree of programming), having a major myotendinous injury from lifting is highly unlikely.
When I was into vertical jump training in my 20s, it was a well-known fact in that community that plyometrics strengthen the tendons and thicken them over time. This has been known since the 1950s when Soviet athletes were doing insane plyometrics (like depth drops from eye level height, for example). The forces that your tendons experience during plyometrics are much higher than produced lifting weights (like multiple times your body weight), yet I don't know of anyone in the vertical jump community from back then who had a tendon rupture from jump training. Sure, people got jumper's knee and overuse type injuries, but acute injuries didn't happen.
When full on video course to teach us all of that in a more complete way with rules and methods? I liked the book
I meannn… everytime I see a pec tear is with the wide grip bench press at near max weights.
You don’t do that kind of grip.
Another point, guys in Arnold’s time did use a super wide grip like that, but Arnold and most of those guys only did bench presses working with 225-315, which 225 was around 50% of Arnold’s max.
But you make a great point about steroids.
The thumbnail today is fire bro
I have to disagree slightly.
I'm natty and have done mostly heavy/ max-out training. After hitting my DL PR, I got weaker and didn't take a deload or time off. I did the opposite and pushed myself harder. I tweaked my lower back really badly.
Swapped back squat for front squat and eased into high rep, low intensity romanians. After a while I started regular DLs again. Even though it was submaximal, I was lifting the weight better than I did at the time of my PR. I decided to try to jump to a single that was within 15% of my PR and it flew up fast , but I tweaked my back again, nowhere near as bad as the first time though.
All this to say - if you have injured your ligaments or joints, or are otherwise compromised, you are now in a similar situation as enhanced lifters - your muscles are strong, but your ligaments aren't synced up. If this is the case I think you should stay away from maxing out and slowly ramp up to it over a long period.
We are way more durable than we give ourselves credit for. I’ve never once gotten injured maxing out and I pulled 550lbs at 165lbs 18 years old. The only little things that cause me to feel weird is if something absolutely ridiculous happens, for example the other day I was squatting in a rack I wasnt used to and I hit the pins with the plates on the way down and almost got knocked over to the side but I was still able to finish the set although i felt a touch unbalanced after 😂
I totally agree with everything you said and loved maxing out when I was into powerlifting, BUT I just don’t see the point for the general trainer or bodybuilder, unless you enjoy it. It can be very fatiguing and doesn’t really offer a good stimulus fatigue ratio for anything the general trainer or bodybuilder is trying to achieve. Pushing up your lifts in the 5-12 range will drag your 1RM with it, albeit not ‘optimally’.
I don't disagree. I'll skip max effort if I'm focusing on pure bodybuilding. But if I wanted to maximize my strength (like I am now), you bet I'm maxing every week.
@@AlexLeonidas 💯
@@AlexLeonidas 1RM every weeek? lol
Inb4 basementbodybuilding drops an essay about how bench pressing and 1rms are suboptimal for muscle building
No one's arguing that maxing out is optimal or recommended for hypertrophy (although useful for establishing back-down percentages). You technically can do 4-5x1 but that's inefficient.
This video is about strength.
@@AlexLeonidas I'm joking. I know maxing out in itself is suboptimal, but running a bench program with the intent of hitting a 1rm will grow your chest...
@@Jdm5299I saw the joke haha, also i think he's saying hypertrophy isn't best gained with maxing out but he didn't say it didn't work on strength efficiently. I'm someone who doesent really want to be massive so that's okay for me. I can focus on lighter lifts with higher reps after the fact if I want to keep my body/joints stable and imbalances at bay etc.
I found Alex Leonidas very calm in this video.
excellent vid Alex!!💪🤓
Thanks Alex great video, more naturals needs to hear this!❤
saw the title and immediately shook my head lol, another reason most people would benefit from learning powerlifting programming principles or having a strength coach to learn from
The best gains as a natty I made over 12 years of lifting was with low reps (5-10), high frequency for each muscle (every other day), low volume (not many sets per workout).
This whole mindset of 'chest day, shoulders day...' followed by 20 sets of 20 reps of hitting the same muscle group in a single workout and expecting that it will continue to grow for the remaining 6 days of the week is suboptimal for natties.
I remember seeing the video of a "fight" between 2 high level enhanced powerlifters who punched like little girls, and one of them tore a pec while attempting a hook...
After watching this guy for a while I realized that if you disagree with something he says, probally you will agree in the future.
Ive been maxing on weighted dips,bench press, OHP, Behind the neck ohp, weighted chins , pullups, wide overhand pullups, squats, all different lifts for singles for years straight quite consistently and The worst “injury” i had was overuse in my rotator cuffs. If you are natty it is quite harder to get injured than being on PEDs.
Been maxing out on the upper body for nearly 5 years. Not a single injury........ nothing. Bench up to 335 now. Did fuck my lower back up doing volume work on legs lol. Even then I'd say the injury was because I was suffering from insomnia and wasn't eating enough, in other words....I was not recovered.
Not surprising brother, thanks for sharing
Your physique is getting better and better.
Every injury I’ve ever had which is many minor and moderate injuries but never a major or complete tear has been from rep work or building up the volume too fast. I’ve also never gotten injured from a 1 rep max. It’s important to also recognise that a muscle belly tear is more common from lacking mobility and when the weight forces a deeper stretch than you can tolerate that’s when a tear occurs.
The real limit on maxing is mental. I like to ease into it with a cycle of 5321
Nice
i should max out, especially my bench. Ive been afraid of maxiong out because most of the gyms i go to do not have safety pin and i am one of those lone wolves to train alone and leave.
Facts, much love Alex
Even with rep work, if you use a controlled and relatively slow eccentric + switch up the variation every so often, you’ll be fine. I built up to using 20kg dumbbells on the lying dumbbell curl and I do pelican curls with more than my bodyweight. My biceps have never been torn or damaged.
That's true and wow you got some super strong biceps bro!
@@AlexLeonidasThanks! And for the record I usually use 15-17.5kg dumbbells for that exercise. One day I just decided to test to see if I could do it and I can, but only for 8 on my first set.
Never injured from years of maxing, randomly strained my bicep pulling a 15kg plate off the rack.
This is absolutely true for the most part and i was only just arguing this the last couple weeks on youtube. The exception is if youre one of the rare few who have crazy genetics for hypertrophy and your muscles can run ahead of your tendons
Yesterday i strained my neck doing close grip bench press max effort. Today my neck is fine. 80% their to full recovery.
I concur. I’ve been hurt doing reps, never been hurt with singles. Singles you can do it or not. Reps are easier to cheat and use momentum, or misgroove because you are doing multiple reps.
That is also true
Tell em OG!!
@@AlexLeonidas you are right on about fatigue. You are not fatigued when working up and priming yourself for a max single, yet with sets and reps you accumulate more fatigue and thus easier for form breakdown to happen
"Muscles built using psychic powers (steroids) don't stand a chance against muscles built by training diligently everyday" - Musashi from Mob Psycho 100
Every material fails at some stress-repetition cycles, human body is no different, most important thing is are you recovering from stress and listen to your body.
sometimes i feel that reaching far into failure on simple movement like curls at the end of a set is actually more dangerous than lifting a 1rm if you are fresh. What matters is recovery anyway, you can do prob whatever you want besides that, and there are benefits to 1rm also, maybe not for muscle hypertrophy so.
I honestly agree!
Maxing out too often is hard on your joints and if you are dehydrated and poorly warmed up the risk does increase of an injury, but I agree roids are 99% of the reason these tears happen. I rarely see someone who looks obviously natty tear a muscle. Look at muscle tear fail videos and im not sure I have even seen 1 person who looks like they aren't possibly pushing PEDs.
I am the rare natty case lol. Not gonna tell others what to do, but since then i changed how i trained chest because the pain is horrible after the tear compared to the tear itself. I rather increase my volume and make the old orm my new working set by taking it fairly slowly. Rather be in it for the long then opposite
Holy shit your background really progressively overloaded
Excellent video!!!
Not always but usually on my compound variations I love to start with strength work and follow it with hypertrophy work.
So does the hypertrophy work that follows your ME attempt does that change every week to match your ME variation? Also congrats on the badass looking home gym Alex! You have been a huge motivation for me, I have worked my way up to a 225 for reps bench and a 300 pound pullup for reps, you deserve every piece of recognition and reward for your hard work for the fitness community
One of my early trainers told me to never worry about tearing up on 1rm and I never even double-checked him. Thanks Alex, anyway.
Please, we need a video on the power twister bars you're using. We need a detailed report on this matter asap!
Conjugate for life (without the speed work lol)
Haha yes!
I'm no expert, but my personal experience has been that heavy weights with lower reps is much safer for me. After injuring my shoulder years ago i picked up on the fact that 5 and below rep ranges do not aggravate my old injury the way that 10+ reps do.
Love learning something new. Thanks for this video. Time to up the weight! 😁
A side effect of steroids is tendinopathy. I think it's because the muscle grows significantly faster than the connective tissue, but I can't find evidence, so it's just a hunch.
The man, the myth, the legend😎
Last time I got injured i bent over weird with 12 pound dumbbells to do reverse rear delt flys to prep for bench. I hurt my back real bad lol. Yet I maxed high 400 deadlifts and never got hurt from them.
Can totally agree with this. I'm new to lifting (2 1/2 years) and I've never felt any pain maxing out, I actually notice the most pain when I do something like high rep deadlift sets. As long as you have safeties/a spotter, you're absolutely fine maxxing out as a natural as long as you program it correctly so you're not spinning your wheels.
I almost never see natural lifters being injured and when they are it's usually minor and due to bad form or not listening to their body
Thanks for the video man. I've been agreeing with this for ages now. The steroid community is such a cancer honestly. 99% Of them claim "natty" while selling courses and their bullshit supplements. And they will band together and drag you down if you go against them on their social medias.
You earned yourself a subscriber bro, keep up the good work!
Love to hear a REAL take like this. Welcome aboard Jabbeoo, I couldn't agree more!!!!
I dont know if it has the same benefits but I warm up then do a %95 of 1rm(calculated from my hypertrophy sets)top set before the big 3. Then I do my hypertrophy sets