Ik resting a minimum of 3 minutes on my exercises focused on building strength/hypertrophy has been a game changer. Also, adding stability to exercises such as seal rows has been huge as well. I plan on implementing this strategy on my OHP as well since my standing, strict press is beginning to stall due to lack of shoulder strength. Being able to overload and build that up in a seated, stable position should be allow me to bust through that plateau.
Nice to see you guys sharing compliments. One is focused on mobility/strength on exercises related to calisthenics and yoga aiming at helping people to reach their plenitude and consiousness. Other uses his body as a physical lab to convey knowledge and explore the differences between approaches, technics and movements. Both of them have very good purposes. Thank you!
i've been doing all these things kinda without knowing lately on my workouts and i can absolutely confirm that my strength has EXPLODED recently, good video as always man keep it up!
Glad the fitness space is embracing longer rest, finally. It's so much better for performance, even if I had trouble staying "zoned in" when I first started using it.
once I understood the principles of recovery and fatigue management my training went to the next level, so good to see content talking about this, preach brother
Bald omni man's approach to giant sets has changed my training. Doing belt squat/pull-up/weighted situps or dips/DB rows/roman twists is such a fun way to train, builds work capacity and as long as I leave a rep or two in the tank on the compounds I feel any performance decrease is probably negligible. Totally agree about excessive warm ups too and they are one of the biggest plagues in the fitness community.
@@santiagofigarola He typically recommends a giant set structure along the lines of push-->pull-->abs. You can do this with leg exercises too but the point is to use antagonist or at least non-related muscle groups across three exercises.
Love alternating push and pull in my workouts, saves so much time & energy! On warming up - I wasted so much time and energy overly warming up in the past. Stay mobile and active in life and you won't need to waste 10+ minutes on mobility and activations prior to even starting my warm up sets... On longer rest. I really struggle with this one, even while being aware that I'm wasting progress I have to force myself. Coming from more athletic and martial arts conditioning training styles, even 45 seconds feels like a long rest. Great tip, I need it!!
The only downside I can think of is that you concentrate less on any kind of lift. But that shouldn't be a problem with stuff you've already figured out completely (like the 50000th push up in your life) or single joint movements.
The best advice ive heard in my entire life : "treat your pull-ups like a competition lift" - alpha destiny, really surprised with my back gains after treating pull-ups with all the variations seriously
I superset back and chest for most of my upper body workouts. I like doing it for shoulder too with a vertical push supersetted with rear delt flies or face pulls. You can literally get in two full workouts in 50%-60% of the time that it would take if you didn't superset.
@@angelpeep4888 E.g. You do Weighted Dip Supersetted with Chin ups. Do your dips, take a couple deep breaths or up to 30 seconds depending on how intense your training a particular exercise then do the chin ups. Rest minimum 2-3minutes after completing each push and pull exercise. For isolations you won't require rest IN BETWEEN the supersetted exercise as it won't fatigue you.
@@angelpeep4888 I do set of one exercise immediately into a set of the next then rest around 1.5 to 2 minutes and repeat until I've done 3-5 sets of each exercise. Then rest 4-5 minutes and move onto the next pair of exercises I'll superset.
finally haha. that's what i do "super set" (but with rest inbetween) back and chest; Bis and tris; Front, medial, and rear delt. If you're gym business level allows it you can do more and rest more. win win. Alex I hope you reach the teen age audience - this is great advice, would save so much wasted time.
great video as always, ive been doing literally all the things you said in the video and I confirm the strength is on point, one more thing to add, I find out that starting with a pulling movement followed by a pressing one is way better for you joints, specially rowing variation, it make my pressing exercise feels way stable and smoother.
The last thing you said about rest is so accurare, i was doing bicep curls 25 kgs and got 12/10/8 with 3 min rest, the next session i rested more and got 12/12/12. Now even for isolatioms im doing 5 minutes, i dont care what people say, truth is you dont lose gains, in fact im gaining because there are more reps and the quality is way better!
Yes. Been doing upper/lower split the past 4 months. I keep adding weight/reps EVERY time I go in the gym keeping my form strict. Gained around 11 pounds of body weight. My weighted chin-ups increased 40 lbs for 6 reps. Seated Shoulder press went up 50 lbs for 8 reps.
Love to see that you utilize the high incline bench supported lat movements now, not that myself was the initiator, but i recommended it to you some time ago. How you like them so far? Absolute game changer for me. Thank you for todays insights and advice, some gold nuggets in there. Much love Alex!
Following the same line of supersets,i like doing circuits of 3/4 movements for strength,for example,loaded pullup,press,sumo deads and ab rolls,resting somewhere between the 1 and half and 2mins between excercises,all sets are of a high Quality and reps don't drop at all,simply by having some rest. Hope youre doing well Alex,youre looking bigger than ever!
For alternating I recommend combining the push and the pull movements. Say OHP, a minute or two rest, followed by weighted pullup, once again rest and then you go back to the OHP. This not only saves time (cuz we cut the warming up in half too), but also allows for greater rest period between the separate movements.
@@ZacFelts heavy dips and pullups? You don't feel any decrease in performance on the pullups? I know it's antagonist superset but it's still heavy compound followed by heavy compound with no rest
@@angelpeep4888 if I'm going really heavy, I'll stagger it a bit. So I'll do my two warmup sets of pullups with a minute or two of rest then the first working set. After the first working set, I'll do my first warmup set of dips while my back/biceps recover. Second working set of pullups, second warmup set of dips. Third and final working set of pullups, first set of heavy dips. Rest a few minutes, second working set of dips and so on. Sometimes I'll throw in a fourth working set of each and just accept that I'm gonna lose a rep or two or I'll drop back to bodyweight and just band out as many reps as I can. Also, even though I tend to start with pullups, some days I'll flip it and have dips be more of the focus
Alternating push/pull in the same plane of movement is one of the best tips I’ve learnt from Brian Alsruhe, it feels better on the muscles and joints and is just more fun in my opinion. It’s also obviously great for maintaining a healthy push/pull balance in strength and mass. You’re on fire with the content and your own training, always an inspiration, keep at it my man.
Brian was SUPER ahead of his time for years, the alternating push/pull with his giant set protocol is money. Happy you're enjoying my videos and I'm honored to inspire. Keep grinding man
Although it ain’t instant, long term strength is closely correlated with increased muscular hypertrophy. Getting more jacked never made someone weaker!
If you're super strong, I think it can happen. A powerlifter can start a more bodybuilding type training and lose maximal force production while simultaneously getting bigger.
This is PERFECT. just switched to an upper lower from a ppl I was doing for a year. I got through it but felt my lifts were getting weaker. Staggering the push and pull back and forth should help me not feel burned out on overhead press after heavy sets of bench.
Usually my warmups don’t take forever and it’s also warming up with just the movement. Here’s how I attack it: Empty bar 50% of the working set for 1 set Then 75% for 1 set Then finally just do my working heaviest sets, always cutting the reps in half-ish for each jump. Seems to work for me
And not gonna lie the first time I heard that specific way of warming up was from a Greg doucette video, which ideally isn’t one of my go to places like alpha destiny, NH, bald Omni man, etc. but gonna give credit where it’s due has made my warmups extremely simple and workouts more enjoyable. Nice to see you also back that strategy of warming up to an extent. Agree on how to warmup for smaller movements like curls and whatnot
I really only warm up on stuff in which I'm going for weight PRs. Like grippers and deadlifts, but not e.g. pull ups and curls. Only exception being the neck. If I'm going for PRs, I just ramp up to the maximum I'm going to attempt and then follow that up with some working sets (and after that sometimes pump work).
Good topics Alex, the tips on the warm ups of later movements is especially useful and often not really brought up. I always do some version of flat bench, OHP/shoulder press variation and incline bench on my upper days and am already warmed up quite a bit on my first movement(s) to be having unneeded expended energy on the later lifts.
great point on the warm-up sets, looking back at the name, it's a Warm Up: just by focusing on technique to activate the muscle, the accumulated reps and sets will Warm you up 👍 I'm gradually reducing my warmups right now because it's getting to that 20 minute range
Fullbody 6x a week Upperbody: 6x a week; 4 exercise a day: 1 compound and 1 unilateral work each for push and pull: 4 exercise total; Lowerbody: 3x a week ; 1 exercise a day Core(optional): 3x a week; 1 exercise a day What do you think of this. How would you improve on this. P.S: Supersetting push and pull exercises with pleanty of rest. Note: I dont have access to a gymnasium but i got rings and a sturdy power rack style pullup bar though(DIY)
After the major cut that you did earlier this year(looked phenomenal btw) how has your strength bounced back? Also, how quickly was you able to get back to previous strength levels or above in terms of bench, squat & deadlift? Can you still bench 180kg? A video breaking this down in detail would be great if you haven't already.💪🏾 thanks man
Eyy! I'm back after 2 full waves of Decline Bench. I run conjugate; M.E. on Friday/Sunday. Dynamic Lower I've set aside typical speed work to learn the oly lifts at a training hall and dynamic upper I do on Thursday. Decline took my supplemental exercise spot, I used Step Loading to progress it at 3-5 sets for 6-8 reps. Each week i added a set and made a 20% jump after the first wave. Shame on me for not taking measurements but I definitely feel my chest has grown; my sticking point for bench is no longer directly off my chest. But I'm not sure if that's the extra mass shortening the distance traveled or if I'm just stronger in the bottom position. Tl;Dr decline bench good, full speed ahead to watermelons.
Alex, I'd disagree on longer warm-up routines as they are entirely dependent on an atheltes injury/training history. For me, I've had multiple lower back injuries due to lacking shoulder and trunk mobility which needs maintenance. I also do tissue work for my elbows and mobility work to ensure that my golf elbow doesn't return with high frequency benching. Time well spent in my estimation.
Running push pull alternate days at the moment tell me if this is too much volume for an upper push Day 12 sets of five dumbbell press with the usual weight I would do four sets of 10 With Dumbbell overhead press three sets of five with run the rack on last set Run the rack lateral raises Five sets of 15 overhead cable extensions Three sets of 15 cable reverse flies Two sets of 20 cable face pulls
that part for the lat pulldown... some people dont understand how hard it is to do the setting up when you are 73kg/160lbs and your 4 working sets are of 10 reps with 90 kg/200 lbs. Im always freeking flying before the set up lmaooooooo
pull your handles down before putting the clip in the weights this way you can start from perfect position instead of flying away before evrn stsrtimg the movement
For the reasons you stated, I call them priming sets. Warming up is putting on my sweat shirt Jumping rope for a couple minutes just breaking a sweat or light run on track for 2/4 minutes. My body feels warm. I don’t take huge jumps, on bench it’s 45v10, 95x5 135x3, 185 x1, 225 x1, 275 x1, 315x1, 350x1, 385 6x3, 225 3x10. 385 would have felt heavy as hell if I went 135 225, 315 and then 385. All the prior singles are spent practicing position, set up, and kinetic linkage (I k know it happens on its Own but the more in tune I am with how my muscle groups work in concert, the much better my technique and the 6th set is as fast as the first. I work with this block for 1 month-6 week plus deload starting with 3-4 sets of 3 and adding a set each week . AccessoriesI’m not giving much consideration To warming up because I’m focused on muscle contraction as opposed to a perfect movement pattern. I take a similar approach on the second day is bodybuilding just looking for a pump. When I can do 8 triples fast, I own that weight and move up by 20 pounds. I began the block with a weight I could do 8-10 times and built up over 3 months, after 405 I will switch to a shallow close grip decline or s shallow close grip incline and move up on those after beginning the block with a weight that is a little too low but dials in technique and explosive power. The gains come from a slow progression. Once I complete a block, I own that weight meaning it is mine st any injury free time during the year. I loved conjugate but like other protocols I had to water it down to avoid injury and it started resembling Western Periodization with exercise rotation and bodybuilding to address weaknesses. Block is working now. I simply can’t afford to get hurt lifting a weight that I am not 100% confident will represent something I know I can do with good speed and technique. When I strain in the least ( not referring to effort but big heavy compounds are not the movements that you should ever spend more than 2 seconds (max) on the concentric or your joints will be slowly ground into a swollen, reamed out pit of bone spurs. This applies to hips, shoulders and knees. It’s not so much repetitive use as it is repetitive grinding. If you can get that weight from pause to log out and about a second per rep, that’s ideal. Some people believe that it is you guys when you’re fast wrath with Big Wade that he must be good for much more weight with a slow grind. Slow grind don’t exist except empowered and conscious we’re guy is equipped and As huge leverages and he only grinds that hard a few times a year at meets. When you watch most world records, the weights always seem to go up easily. My belief is that when guys are able to lift big with technique, they Are going to explode 540 pounds of force into a 500 bench and it will move quickly. If 540 is the max force they can produce, if they have another attemput maybe they are good for 510/12. 515 is going to be a slow grind, 540 they get stapled and any more than 520 will move to the sticking point and unless they have short arms and triceps from hell it is going to reverse direction. Will lifters attempt these lift raw that is a fried CNS and trashed bones and joints for a month where you could have walked away. Guys like Antone really miss Lyft because they knew them selves so well that going to the meat in completing Lyft was simply a matter of going through with it already practiced in their head and already built enough strength to do it easily. Although I love conjugators something to say about block and Weston Periodization that’s not take me to the extreme but that is sort of a mixture of concurrent so you don’t lose the size and strength you’ve developed. When I map out my workouts based on my current strength level and slightly understated by 5 to 10%, I can write workouts presets wait and reps out for six months and knowing that I will get every certain wrap with weight today I wouldn’t dream of touching. Based on knowing that the process and the overload from every few blocks or workouts if you are taking a / steps forward one step back approach, is what will result in strength gains. I do not believe that strength super compensation occurs when you grind out an extra sloppy rep . Everyone’s different but people who tell me the going to failure is necessary for strength our guys I know I’m not gonna get very strong unless they are referring to failure On light accessory movement. Intense training where you measure intensity by effort is your bodybuilding hypertrophy type workout, and building strength is more about the plan. Also I was can you get a staple for a few years and I always go back to it, I always have a plan with it and I’m not doing it we Louie Simmons would do it. That way he does it get you really strongly fast and guaranteed to get you hurt. Just ask guys in his gym Prior to his very sad passing recently. I obviously think the guys a legend, But one thing I didn’t realize is the most those guys were expected to take a true Max and Max every day with rotate exercises and training all year was done wrong until about two weeks before A meet. It was also the circa max phase where heavy band tension was used. I love band training and think it makes you strong as hell but I know it also beats the shit out of you if you do it on max effort work. And speed where is the bands should not be particularly challenging but just ensure that you explode through the top. Until several months ago during Covid I made a great gains from doing weighted push-ups, dips and pull up, with good Good morning some squats using nothing but lots of band tension often rap in the band under a much heavier object because when you have more band tension then your body weight it pulls you off the floor and can really hurt your joints. The point is I thought I was never gonna go back to weight training but I have gotten back into it over the past several months and I’m stronger than I’ve been in years. After my next block I think I’m gonna go back to the push-ups dips good mornings squats pull ups and all the work with bands and free weights attached to my waist or vest. I believe the reason those calisthenic only athletes get this crap kicked out them in the gym with real weight Because most of them don’t used to rest of overload outside of using different variations But if you’ve never been exposed to super heavy loads, you won’t know what it feels like unless you’ve been doing really heavy weighted calisthenics and using some sort of weighted lower body and spinal loaded movements. Most of the guys only train upoer body. If were the nervous systems don’t know what heavy weight feels like. If you want to benchpress heavy and you don’t know what 600 pounds feels like on your spine, Good luck benching 400 pounds.
Understand comments on leaving RIR if doing multiple sets but what are your thoughts on one top working set 0-1 RIR for a lower volume more efficient workout (Jay Vincent approach)?
@@AlexLeonidas ah good point. Maybe I’m thinking diff goals. What if goal wasn’t strength but just looking good (so hypertrophy - don’t care about weight on bar) and feeling good (joint health, etc). With those goals does it shift? I’m no power lifter
That's a great bench Joshua, well done especially since you did it with full body concurrent!!! 405 can take a long time, my bench was somewhere in your range at the start of 2018 (lighter bw after cut), so took 3 years after that point.
@@AlexLeonidas Alex I’ve been following you since 2013 because of full body. I’m back on my drive and have been stronger then ever thanks to you. Never have I’ve been more excited to see a you tube video. Great work and team work with other fellow lifters you include on the Channel
@@joshuamendiola5331 I love this, and you're a one of a kind OG!! Thank you so much for sticking around and best of all, fulfilling YOUR "Alpha Destiny". What you've accomplished and will continue to acquire is truly impressive.
Just got back in the gym after two weeks off, one for camp and other for being sick. I dropped 8lb and it’s so tuff that I lost so much strength even with the aesthetic gains. Pulldowns we’re 15lb weaker.
It's really funny cause everything you mentioned, I ended up doing intuitively. I do full body 3-4 times a week and for me, doing weighted dips after bench pressing feels terrible. Ended up getting more by just going to Barbell Squats instead, then weighted pull ups, and finally weighted dips. As for warm-ups, I agree since I would just do 3-4 sets just to warm-up, but they take up so much time. What I opted for instead was for example, bw squats for 10 reps, 225lbs squat for 8-10, 315 for 3-4, then hit my three heavy sets at 355. So far, has been working pretty well and is more time-efficient. For the stability portion, I ended up getting more stronger from lateral raises by sitting down instead of standing up. And for RIR, I usually jot down everything in my notebook and for my lifting age, I usually just focus on getting 1-3 reps stronger for my exercises than the last time I do them. Sometimes, I go to failure, most of the time, I don't and still make good progress. And I agree that straight sets are all you need for the most part. HIIT techniques like rest pause, drop sets and such are cool to do, but if you are not getting stronger overtime, you will not get the gains you want to make. Even if you look at Geoffrey Verity Schofield who uses those techniques, one thing you realize if you look at the weights he is using, especially for arms, is that he is really strong and can lift impressive amount of poundage not relating to powerlifting. And finally, unless I am doing an isolation or easy movement, most of my rest period nowadays are 2-3 mins long so that I can lift as much as I can.
Great video! One thing that has helped me perform better is doing 3-5 reps using my working weight before I start my working sets. That way, my muscles and CNS will be more prepared for my working sets compared to doing the working sets straight away after the typical warmup as you mentioned. So for hack squats, I might do just the sled for 5-8 reps, 1 plate per side for 5-8 reps, then 2 plates for 3-5 reps, and then my working sets which are 2 plates for 10-15 or so.
Hi! In my workouts for chest and back I'm used to alternate bench press and row... Or bench press and a vertical pull... With some rest between sets.. For example bench press 6 reps 1' rest bb row 6 reps... 2 'rest and repeat. With this sistem I can do more weight!
I love alternating push and pull. Typically I'll have a more horizontal focused upper workout and a more vertical focused upper workout. I adopted this after trying one of Brian Alsruhe's free programs and it just clicking. Antagonist supersets or as part of giant sets work really effectively.
I like JM Blakeys advice to do a mini dirty bulk to get body weight up 10 or so pounds in a short amount of time (a month). Getting all the strength gains out of the bulk, and then cutting weight again by doing a small cut later on. My training was stagnant for a long long time, and the added body weight was all I needed to see my strength dramatically increase. Didnt get too bulky , just enough to get stronger. I'll lose the small amount of fat later ;)
Nice vid Alex,💪 couple of questions. 1. Would it be smart to superset front delt and rear delt work in your opinion? Eg some doing ohp followed by bent over rear fly's. 2. You said to not excessively warm up, would you class Wenning Warmups excessive, even if kept in the 10 minutes range? Thanks
That would work! Regarding the Wenning Warmups, I spent some time experimenting with it and realized I was weaker 100% of the time so dropped it completely. The high reps and pre-exhausting the pressing + tris is too much IMO. The back part isn't an issue though.
@@AlexLeonidas cheers mate, been thinking of dropping the warmups for a while, just have to shorten rest times later in workout and make cardio seasons longer on off days to make up for GPP
I can't imagine resting 5 minutes between sets, but that's because I superset everything. By the time I'm done with a giant set, I'm ready to go for the next, or need minimal rest.
Hey Alex, great video man. Referring to your point on stability, do you think the Larsson press is an exercise to avoid if your goal is to get a stronger chest/increase the weight on your bench press? Keep up the good work 👍
Gonna try this. I've been doing OHP right after heavy bench, and my triceps just could not take it. I'll throw in some pullups or rows between and see how that goes.
i dont think you can step away from the circus dumbbell if you need to train it specifically. That said, it's not a good movement in general and is only done for show for a competition so training for it is an adaptation to a movement pattern and using body english to press that weight. It's never been a good movement because of how cumbersome it is on the wrist and how precarious it is, relative to your body positioning and head positioning, as well as the actual grip being a factor in the movement. Harder to grip for the sake of it. It really is a show piece more than anything else. Though, it looks fun atleast. I don't think there's anything wrong with experimenting with arm angle relative to your pressing so if you can experiment with that for the purposes of better hypertrophy, there is nothing wrong with that.
A lot of old school ideas are excellent, but some of it was definitely broscience and we need to acknowledge all sides. Regarding TikTok, it has some of the worst fitness content I've EVER seen. Truly shocking.
A big thing that I’ve taken from you over the years has been resting more and more. What are your thoughts on breaking up 3 full workouts (45-90min) outs into 6 “mini” workouts (20-45 min) I personally have found it to be enjoyable, and have been making great progress, but wanted to hear your thoughts
I insta clicked when I saw the WoW icon lol, trying to max out my stats like in a video game is one of my primary drivers for strength
That's how I see life and training! It's like an MMORPG lol
Gbok missing
Ik resting a minimum of 3 minutes on my exercises focused on building strength/hypertrophy has been a game changer. Also, adding stability to exercises such as seal rows has been huge as well. I plan on implementing this strategy on my OHP as well since my standing, strict press is beginning to stall due to lack of shoulder strength. Being able to overload and build that up in a seated, stable position should be allow me to bust through that plateau.
Lots of awesome changes here!!
Excellent video Alex! Golden advices that everyone needs to hear. -Gabo
Much love Gabo!! Appreciate you tuning in.
Nice to see you guys sharing compliments.
One is focused on mobility/strength on exercises related to calisthenics and yoga aiming at helping people to reach their plenitude and consiousness.
Other uses his body as a physical lab to convey knowledge and explore the differences between approaches, technics and movements.
Both of them have very good purposes. Thank you!
i've been doing all these things kinda without knowing lately on my workouts and i can absolutely confirm that my strength has EXPLODED recently, good video as always man keep it up!
The stability aspect is not something many fitness tubers mention. Great stuff!
Was happy to share all these examples!
Glad the fitness space is embracing longer rest, finally. It's so much better for performance, even if I had trouble staying "zoned in" when I first started using it.
It's great to see the shift! Just this change allows for so much higher quality sets.
once I understood the principles of recovery and fatigue management my training went to the next level, so good to see content talking about this, preach brother
Bald omni man's approach to giant sets has changed my training. Doing belt squat/pull-up/weighted situps or dips/DB rows/roman twists is such a fun way to train, builds work capacity and as long as I leave a rep or two in the tank on the compounds I feel any performance decrease is probably negligible. Totally agree about excessive warm ups too and they are one of the biggest plagues in the fitness community.
Gutsssss wtf
Hey. In which video does he talk about that?
@@santiagofigarola the berserk method self-coaching video. I haven't watched the new version but yeah
@@basedstruggler3436 Hmmm. Any video in specific about the exercises order? Or is it just supersets?(?
@@santiagofigarola He typically recommends a giant set structure along the lines of push-->pull-->abs. You can do this with leg exercises too but the point is to use antagonist or at least non-related muscle groups across three exercises.
Love alternating push and pull in my workouts, saves so much time & energy!
On warming up - I wasted so much time and energy overly warming up in the past. Stay mobile and active in life and you won't need to waste 10+ minutes on mobility and activations prior to even starting my warm up sets...
On longer rest. I really struggle with this one, even while being aware that I'm wasting progress I have to force myself. Coming from more athletic and martial arts conditioning training styles, even 45 seconds feels like a long rest. Great tip, I need it!!
Damn you look hella strong bro keep going. Just recovered from low back injury let's hit those gains again
Lower back injuries aren't fun but I'm happy you're recovered and ready to kick ass again! Movement is medicine.
The Paladin buff in the thumbnail is perfection
People really need to experiment more with super-setting or giant setting antagonistic muscle movements. Good video Alex!
Antagonist supersets are the truth! Also made a video on them ua-cam.com/video/VZD_ELjE9vI/v-deo.html&t
The only downside I can think of is that you concentrate less on any kind of lift. But that shouldn't be a problem with stuff you've already figured out completely (like the 50000th push up in your life) or single joint movements.
Thanks for the Blessing of Kings 👑
You got this King! 👑
😂
The best advice ive heard in my entire life : "treat your pull-ups like a competition lift" - alpha destiny, really surprised with my back gains after treating pull-ups with all the variations seriously
thank you alex. for the years of content you have given us. subscriber since 2017 and always look forward to your videos.
Much love OG Navid!!
I superset back and chest for most of my upper body workouts. I like doing it for shoulder too with a vertical push supersetted with rear delt flies or face pulls. You can literally get in two full workouts in 50%-60% of the time that it would take if you didn't superset.
How long do you rest between supersets?
@@angelpeep4888 E.g. You do Weighted Dip Supersetted with Chin ups. Do your dips, take a couple deep breaths or up to 30 seconds depending on how intense your training a particular exercise then do the chin ups. Rest minimum 2-3minutes after completing each push and pull exercise. For isolations you won't require rest IN BETWEEN the supersetted exercise as it won't fatigue you.
i do this as well, usually two solo key movements heavy followed by two antagonist/accessory super-sets for reps, saves so much time!
@@angelpeep4888 I do set of one exercise immediately into a set of the next then rest around 1.5 to 2 minutes and repeat until I've done 3-5 sets of each exercise. Then rest 4-5 minutes and move onto the next pair of exercises I'll superset.
finally haha. that's what i do "super set" (but with rest inbetween) back and chest; Bis and tris; Front, medial, and rear delt. If you're gym business level allows it you can do more and rest more. win win. Alex I hope you reach the teen age audience - this is great advice, would save so much wasted time.
Doing that for the torso/limbs split and it is working very well
I have always taken longer rest , and I sometimes superset. All very good advice.
boost? you mean buff? BUFF ME UP! KINGS ON ME PALLY!
great video as always, ive been doing literally all the things you said in the video and I confirm the strength is on point, one more thing to add, I find out that starting with a pulling movement followed by a pressing one is way better for you joints, specially rowing variation, it make my pressing exercise feels way stable and smoother.
The last thing you said about rest is so accurare, i was doing bicep curls 25 kgs and got 12/10/8 with 3 min rest, the next session i rested more and got 12/12/12. Now even for isolatioms im doing 5 minutes, i dont care what people say, truth is you dont lose gains, in fact im gaining because there are more reps and the quality is way better!
That's what's up and I'm not surprised that you noticed such a great improvement even on curls!
Yes. Been doing upper/lower split the past 4 months. I keep adding weight/reps EVERY time I go in the gym keeping my form strict. Gained around 11 pounds of body weight. My weighted chin-ups increased 40 lbs for 6 reps. Seated Shoulder press went up 50 lbs for 8 reps.
Love to see that you utilize the high incline bench supported lat movements now, not that myself was the initiator, but i recommended it to you some time ago. How you like them so far? Absolute game changer for me. Thank you for todays insights and advice, some gold nuggets in there. Much love Alex!
Just like you've experienced, they're literally a COMPLETE game changer and I don't plan on using the normal variations for some time! Much love Simon
Following the same line of supersets,i like doing circuits of 3/4 movements for strength,for example,loaded pullup,press,sumo deads and ab rolls,resting somewhere between the 1 and half and 2mins between excercises,all sets are of a high Quality and reps don't drop at all,simply by having some rest.
Hope youre doing well Alex,youre looking bigger than ever!
For alternating I recommend combining the push and the pull movements. Say OHP, a minute or two rest, followed by weighted pullup, once again rest and then you go back to the OHP. This not only saves time (cuz we cut the warming up in half too), but also allows for greater rest period between the separate movements.
Absolutely bro for the movements that are doable, antagonist supersets are super legit. Fatigue isn't as high as one would expect, plus it saves time.
I think this wouldn't work great for heavier exercises would it? If you did weighted dips followed by weighted chin ups, the CNS will be fried
I love supersetting OHP with higher rep bw pullups or heavy weighted dips and heavy weight pullups
@@ZacFelts heavy dips and pullups? You don't feel any decrease in performance on the pullups? I know it's antagonist superset but it's still heavy compound followed by heavy compound with no rest
@@angelpeep4888 if I'm going really heavy, I'll stagger it a bit. So I'll do my two warmup sets of pullups with a minute or two of rest then the first working set. After the first working set, I'll do my first warmup set of dips while my back/biceps recover. Second working set of pullups, second warmup set of dips. Third and final working set of pullups, first set of heavy dips. Rest a few minutes, second working set of dips and so on. Sometimes I'll throw in a fourth working set of each and just accept that I'm gonna lose a rep or two or I'll drop back to bodyweight and just band out as many reps as I can. Also, even though I tend to start with pullups, some days I'll flip it and have dips be more of the focus
Powerhouse!!!!! Great explanation great demo of workout💪💪💪💪
I was just hoping you had released a new video before I entered youtube, and here you are! Top shelf stuff as always!
Holy jeez, Alex, your upper traps are *POPPIN* 💪😮💨
Thanks man, going to talk more about traps in a bit!
love how realistic you are
Alternating push/pull in the same plane of movement is one of the best tips I’ve learnt from Brian Alsruhe, it feels better on the muscles and joints and is just more fun in my opinion. It’s also obviously great for maintaining a healthy push/pull balance in strength and mass.
You’re on fire with the content and your own training, always an inspiration, keep at it my man.
nothing gives me a high like hitting a PR on weighted dips and then weighted pull ups
Brian was SUPER ahead of his time for years, the alternating push/pull with his giant set protocol is money. Happy you're enjoying my videos and I'm honored to inspire. Keep grinding man
I love this dude
No time to watch the video right now, but I joined to press Like for that Blessing of Kings!
Preciate that King!
this channel is sick
Although it ain’t instant, long term strength is closely correlated with increased muscular hypertrophy. Getting more jacked never made someone weaker!
Biggest correlation we have!
If you're super strong, I think it can happen. A powerlifter can start a more bodybuilding type training and lose maximal force production while simultaneously getting bigger.
Once again phenomenal video!Great points always keeping it simple!thanks Alex💪🏽👍🏽🔥
Work smarter and harder
Greater Blessing of Kings! My man!
This video is unbelievably helpful
I'm very happy it's helpful brother!!
This is PERFECT. just switched to an upper lower from a ppl I was doing for a year. I got through it but felt my lifts were getting weaker. Staggering the push and pull back and forth should help me not feel burned out on overhead press after heavy sets of bench.
Truly a blessing of kings!
Damn that blessing of KINGS tho
Hell yeah OG!!
Usually my warmups don’t take forever and it’s also warming up with just the movement. Here’s how I attack it:
Empty bar
50% of the working set for 1 set
Then 75% for 1 set
Then finally just do my working heaviest sets, always cutting the reps in half-ish for each jump. Seems to work for me
And not gonna lie the first time I heard that specific way of warming up was from a Greg doucette video, which ideally isn’t one of my go to places like alpha destiny, NH, bald Omni man, etc. but gonna give credit where it’s due has made my warmups extremely simple and workouts more enjoyable. Nice to see you also back that strategy of warming up to an extent. Agree on how to warmup for smaller movements like curls and whatnot
I really only warm up on stuff in which I'm going for weight PRs. Like grippers and deadlifts, but not e.g. pull ups and curls.
Only exception being the neck.
If I'm going for PRs, I just ramp up to the maximum I'm going to attempt and then follow that up with some working sets (and after that sometimes pump work).
What a great video, what caught my attention was the warm up part. Can you make a specific video about warming up for upper and lower body.?
Thanks Alex defiantly going to try the wall support for my over head press, Totally agree that 3 minutes seems to be the sweet spot for rest too
Good topics Alex, the tips on the warm ups of later movements is especially useful and often not really brought up.
I always do some version of flat bench, OHP/shoulder press variation and incline bench on my upper days and am already warmed up quite a bit on my first movement(s) to be having unneeded expended energy on the later lifts.
yeah amazing tips i ran a program similar to this. upper body first compound bent rows following after close grip bench, pull ups then dips etc.
great point on the warm-up sets, looking back at the name, it's a Warm Up: just by focusing on technique to activate the muscle, the accumulated reps and sets will Warm you up 👍
I'm gradually reducing my warmups right now because it's getting to that 20 minute range
blessing of kings baby
Haha excellent recall on the thumbnail! 👌
Haha seems a lot of us have this connection 👌
The most underrated fitness guy on ytb
Appreciated the Greater Blessing of Kings buff in the thumbnail 😎
I do the last set to failure and next time I base my RPE8 for the Standard Sets on that last AMRAP. Works really well for me.
Fullbody 6x a week
Upperbody:
6x a week; 4 exercise a day:
1 compound and 1 unilateral work each
for push and pull: 4 exercise total;
Lowerbody:
3x a week ; 1 exercise a day
Core(optional):
3x a week; 1 exercise a day
What do you think of this. How would you improve on this.
P.S: Supersetting push and pull exercises with pleanty of rest.
Note: I dont have access to a gymnasium but i got rings and a sturdy power rack style pullup bar though(DIY)
After the major cut that you did earlier this year(looked phenomenal btw) how has your strength bounced back? Also, how quickly was you able to get back to previous strength levels or above in terms of bench, squat & deadlift? Can you still bench 180kg? A video breaking this down in detail would be great if you haven't already.💪🏾 thanks man
These things are what we all had to learn the hard way
That's very true my man..
Eyy! I'm back after 2 full waves of Decline Bench.
I run conjugate; M.E. on Friday/Sunday. Dynamic Lower I've set aside typical speed work to learn the oly lifts at a training hall and dynamic upper I do on Thursday.
Decline took my supplemental exercise spot, I used Step Loading to progress it at 3-5 sets for 6-8 reps. Each week i added a set and made a 20% jump after the first wave.
Shame on me for not taking measurements but I definitely feel my chest has grown; my sticking point for bench is no longer directly off my chest. But I'm not sure if that's the extra mass shortening the distance traveled or if I'm just stronger in the bottom position.
Tl;Dr decline bench good, full speed ahead to watermelons.
That cable row pulley system was about to go awal, have to watch out for my teeth at my house for same reason, gets pendulum motion
It's ghetto for a reason! Lol
Alex, I'd disagree on longer warm-up routines as they are entirely dependent on an atheltes injury/training history. For me, I've had multiple lower back injuries due to lacking shoulder and trunk mobility which needs maintenance. I also do tissue work for my elbows and mobility work to ensure that my golf elbow doesn't return with high frequency benching. Time well spent in my estimation.
Good shit Alex
Running push pull alternate days at the moment tell me if this is too much volume for an upper push Day
12 sets of five dumbbell press with the usual weight I would do four sets of 10 With
Dumbbell overhead press three sets of five with run the rack on last set
Run the rack lateral raises
Five sets of 15 overhead cable extensions
Three sets of 15 cable reverse flies
Two sets of 20 cable face pulls
that part for the lat pulldown...
some people dont understand how hard it is to do the setting up when you are 73kg/160lbs and your 4 working sets are of 10 reps with 90 kg/200 lbs. Im always freeking flying before the set up lmaooooooo
pull your handles down before putting the clip in the weights
this way you can start from perfect position instead of flying away before evrn stsrtimg the movement
Man the wow icon instantly got me, lol
For the reasons you stated, I call them priming sets. Warming up is putting on my sweat shirt Jumping rope for a couple minutes just breaking a sweat or light run on track for 2/4 minutes. My body feels warm. I don’t take huge jumps, on bench it’s 45v10, 95x5 135x3, 185 x1, 225 x1, 275 x1, 315x1, 350x1, 385 6x3, 225 3x10. 385 would have felt heavy as hell if I went 135 225, 315 and then 385. All the prior singles are spent practicing position, set up, and kinetic linkage (I k know it happens on its Own
but the more in tune I am with how my muscle groups work in concert, the much better my technique and the 6th set is as fast as the first. I work with this block for 1 month-6 week plus deload starting with 3-4 sets of 3 and adding a set each week . AccessoriesI’m not giving much consideration To warming up because I’m focused on muscle contraction as opposed to a perfect movement pattern. I take a similar approach on the second day is bodybuilding just looking for a pump. When I can do 8 triples fast, I own that weight and move up by 20 pounds. I began the block with a weight I could do 8-10 times and built up over 3 months, after 405 I will switch to a shallow close grip decline or s shallow close grip incline and move up on those after beginning the block with a weight that is a little too low but dials in technique and explosive power. The gains come from a slow progression. Once I complete a block, I own that weight meaning it is mine st any injury free time during the year.
I loved conjugate but like other protocols I had to water it down to avoid injury and it started resembling Western Periodization with exercise rotation and bodybuilding to address weaknesses. Block is working now. I simply can’t afford to get hurt lifting a weight that I am not 100% confident will represent something I know I can do with good speed and technique. When I strain in the least ( not referring to effort but big heavy compounds are not the movements that you should ever spend more than 2 seconds (max) on the concentric or your joints will be slowly ground into a swollen, reamed out pit of bone spurs. This applies to hips, shoulders and knees. It’s not so much repetitive use as it is repetitive grinding. If you can get that weight from pause to log out and about a second per rep, that’s ideal. Some people believe that it is you guys when you’re fast wrath with Big Wade that he must be good for much more weight with a slow grind. Slow grind don’t exist except empowered and conscious we’re guy is equipped and As huge leverages and he only grinds that hard a few times a year at meets. When you watch most world records, the weights always seem to go up easily. My belief is that when guys are able to lift big with technique, they Are going to explode 540 pounds of force into a 500 bench and it will move quickly. If 540 is the max force they can produce, if they have another attemput maybe they are good for 510/12. 515 is going to be a slow grind, 540 they get stapled and any more than 520 will move to the sticking point and unless they have short arms and triceps from hell it is going to reverse direction. Will lifters attempt these lift raw that is a fried CNS and trashed bones and joints for a month where you could have walked away. Guys like Antone really miss Lyft because they knew them selves so well that going to the meat in completing Lyft was simply a matter of going through with it already practiced in their head and already built enough strength to do it easily. Although I love conjugators something to say about block and Weston Periodization that’s not take me to the extreme but that is sort of a mixture of concurrent so you don’t lose the size and strength you’ve developed. When I map out my workouts based on my current strength level and slightly understated by 5 to 10%, I can write workouts presets wait and reps out for six months and knowing that I will get every certain wrap with weight today I wouldn’t dream of touching. Based on knowing that the process and the overload from every few blocks or workouts if you are taking a / steps forward one step back approach, is what will result in strength gains. I do not believe that strength super compensation occurs when you grind out an extra sloppy rep . Everyone’s different but people who tell me the going to failure is necessary for strength our guys I know I’m not gonna get very strong unless they are referring to failure On light accessory movement. Intense training where you measure intensity by effort is your bodybuilding hypertrophy type workout, and building strength is more about the plan. Also I was can you get a staple for a few years and I always go back to it, I always have a plan with it and I’m not doing it we Louie Simmons would do it. That way he does it get you really strongly fast and guaranteed to get you hurt. Just ask guys in his gym Prior to his very sad passing recently. I obviously think the guys a legend,
But one thing I didn’t realize is the most those guys were expected to take a true Max and Max every day with rotate exercises and training all year was done wrong until about two weeks before A meet. It was also the circa max phase where heavy band tension was used. I love band training and think it makes you strong as hell but I know it also beats the shit out of you if you do it on max effort work. And speed where is the bands should not be particularly challenging but just ensure that you explode through the top. Until several months ago during Covid I made a great gains from doing weighted push-ups, dips and pull up, with good Good morning some squats using nothing but lots of band tension often rap in the band under a much heavier object because when you have more band tension then your body weight it pulls you off the floor and can really hurt your joints. The point is I thought I was never gonna go back to weight training but I have gotten back into it over the past several months and I’m stronger than I’ve been in years. After my next block I think I’m gonna go back to the push-ups dips good mornings squats pull ups and all the work with bands and free weights attached to my waist or vest. I believe the reason those calisthenic only athletes get this crap kicked out them in the gym with real weight Because most of them don’t used to rest of overload outside of using different variations But if you’ve never been exposed to super heavy loads, you won’t know what it feels like unless you’ve been doing really heavy weighted calisthenics and using some sort of weighted lower body and spinal loaded movements. Most of the guys only train upoer body. If were the nervous systems don’t know what heavy weight feels like. If you want to benchpress heavy and you don’t know what 600 pounds feels like on your spine, Good luck benching 400 pounds.
do you even english?
The stability thing is been in my mind for some time now
Always has to be considered!
Love the Greater Blessing of Kings icon in the thumbnail 😆
Understand comments on leaving RIR if doing multiple sets but what are your thoughts on one top working set 0-1 RIR for a lower volume more efficient workout (Jay Vincent approach)?
You won't get as strong training that way. Name one powerlifter who competes at a high level using heavy duty training.
@@AlexLeonidas ah good point. Maybe I’m thinking diff goals. What if goal wasn’t strength but just looking good (so hypertrophy - don’t care about weight on bar) and feeling good (joint health, etc). With those goals does it shift? I’m no power lifter
blessing of might
Alex I just Bench 335 by following a full body concurrent system. How long will it take for the 405? I’ve been obsessed with that number. 5’ 8” @ 205.
That's a great bench Joshua, well done especially since you did it with full body concurrent!!!
405 can take a long time, my bench was somewhere in your range at the start of 2018 (lighter bw after cut), so took 3 years after that point.
@@AlexLeonidas Alex I’ve been following you since 2013 because of full body. I’m back on my drive and have been stronger then ever thanks to you. Never have I’ve been more excited to see a you tube video. Great work and team work with other fellow lifters you include on the Channel
@@joshuamendiola5331 I love this, and you're a one of a kind OG!! Thank you so much for sticking around and best of all, fulfilling YOUR "Alpha Destiny". What you've accomplished and will continue to acquire is truly impressive.
Good points!
Alex you're the man when you're on SWOLE mode!
Thank you brother, the swole mindset is there and I want to instill it in everyone!
Your reps are gorgeous. Thanks for the info brother
The blessing of kings LOL, now that's OG
Just got back in the gym after two weeks off, one for camp and other for being sick. I dropped 8lb and it’s so tuff that I lost so much strength even with the aesthetic gains. Pulldowns we’re 15lb weaker.
It's really funny cause everything you mentioned, I ended up doing intuitively. I do full body 3-4 times a week and for me, doing weighted dips after bench pressing feels terrible. Ended up getting more by just going to Barbell Squats instead, then weighted pull ups, and finally weighted dips. As for warm-ups, I agree since I would just do 3-4 sets just to warm-up, but they take up so much time. What I opted for instead was for example, bw squats for 10 reps, 225lbs squat for 8-10, 315 for 3-4, then hit my three heavy sets at 355. So far, has been working pretty well and is more time-efficient. For the stability portion, I ended up getting more stronger from lateral raises by sitting down instead of standing up. And for RIR, I usually jot down everything in my notebook and for my lifting age, I usually just focus on getting 1-3 reps stronger for my exercises than the last time I do them. Sometimes, I go to failure, most of the time, I don't and still make good progress. And I agree that straight sets are all you need for the most part. HIIT techniques like rest pause, drop sets and such are cool to do, but if you are not getting stronger overtime, you will not get the gains you want to make. Even if you look at Geoffrey Verity Schofield who uses those techniques, one thing you realize if you look at the weights he is using, especially for arms, is that he is really strong and can lift impressive amount of poundage not relating to powerlifting. And finally, unless I am doing an isolation or easy movement, most of my rest period nowadays are 2-3 mins long so that I can lift as much as I can.
Great video! One thing that has helped me perform better is doing 3-5 reps using my working weight before I start my working sets. That way, my muscles and CNS will be more prepared for my working sets compared to doing the working sets straight away after the typical warmup as you mentioned. So for hack squats, I might do just the sled for 5-8 reps, 1 plate per side for 5-8 reps, then 2 plates for 3-5 reps, and then my working sets which are 2 plates for 10-15 or so.
Blessing of kings, i see you ;)
Hi! In my workouts for chest and back I'm used to alternate bench press and row... Or bench press and a vertical pull... With some rest between sets.. For example bench press 6 reps 1' rest bb row 6 reps... 2 'rest and repeat. With this sistem I can do more weight!
Hey Alex do you have a video on sinking vs soft touch for the bench press?
I love alternating push and pull. Typically I'll have a more horizontal focused upper workout and a more vertical focused upper workout. I adopted this after trying one of Brian Alsruhe's free programs and it just clicking. Antagonist supersets or as part of giant sets work really effectively.
Blessing of kings !
just noticed the icon 😅
I like JM Blakeys advice to do a mini dirty bulk to get body weight up 10 or so pounds in a short amount of time (a month). Getting all the strength gains out of the bulk, and then cutting weight again by doing a small cut later on. My training was stagnant for a long long time, and the added body weight was all I needed to see my strength dramatically increase. Didnt get too bulky , just enough to get stronger. I'll lose the small amount of fat later ;)
Ah yes that blessing of kings I see, plus 5 strength
Man I missed these types of videos
Nice blessing of kings tooltip on the thumbnail!
Good content today Alex!
Hey Alex, what do you think of the Wenning Warm-ups?
hey Alex, can you do a video about upper body workout with only dumbbells and barbells?...i only have those 2 equipment and i train at home.
Blessing of kings 👑
I see that Blessing of Kings
You playin' Dragonflight?
Great video !
Could you tell us what your belt squat is (brand, etc) ?
Nice vid Alex,💪 couple of questions. 1. Would it be smart to superset front delt and rear delt work in your opinion? Eg some doing ohp followed by bent over rear fly's. 2. You said to not excessively warm up, would you class Wenning Warmups excessive, even if kept in the 10 minutes range? Thanks
That would work! Regarding the Wenning Warmups, I spent some time experimenting with it and realized I was weaker 100% of the time so dropped it completely. The high reps and pre-exhausting the pressing + tris is too much IMO. The back part isn't an issue though.
@@AlexLeonidas cheers mate, been thinking of dropping the warmups for a while, just have to shorten rest times later in workout and make cardio seasons longer on off days to make up for GPP
@@AlexLeonidas he says you will be weaker initially by doing wenning warm ups. It’s more for long term gains and joint health.
I can't imagine resting 5 minutes between sets, but that's because I superset everything. By the time I'm done with a giant set, I'm ready to go for the next, or need minimal rest.
That's one of the major benefits of supersets/giant sets!! Automatically achieves higher rest without waiting around.
Depending on what you did, it can take 5min to get your breathing and heartrate down to normal again.
@@MrCmon113 I find that my heartrate gets to a good enough rate within 1 minute. I've probably just adapted to this style of training over the years.
Hey Alex, great video man. Referring to your point on stability, do you think the Larsson press is an exercise to avoid if your goal is to get a stronger chest/increase the weight on your bench press? Keep up the good work 👍
Can't wait to hear more about that old time strongman training.
Gonna try this. I've been doing OHP right after heavy bench, and my triceps just could not take it. I'll throw in some pullups or rows between and see how that goes.
Start doing tricep volume work after your bench and ohp working sets. It will help your endurance
i dont think you can step away from the circus dumbbell if you need to train it specifically. That said, it's not a good movement in general and is only done for show for a competition so training for it is an adaptation to a movement pattern and using body english to press that weight. It's never been a good movement because of how cumbersome it is on the wrist and how precarious it is, relative to your body positioning and head positioning, as well as the actual grip being a factor in the movement. Harder to grip for the sake of it. It really is a show piece more than anything else. Though, it looks fun atleast. I don't think there's anything wrong with experimenting with arm angle relative to your pressing so if you can experiment with that for the purposes of better hypertrophy, there is nothing wrong with that.
Excellent commentary on the circus dumbbell, thanks for sharing!!
Great content. I can’t believe how many TikTok/Snapchat lifters preach so much old school bullshit to this day. Keep it up Alex.
A lot of old school ideas are excellent, but some of it was definitely broscience and we need to acknowledge all sides. Regarding TikTok, it has some of the worst fitness content I've EVER seen. Truly shocking.
A big thing that I’ve taken from you over the years has been resting more and more.
What are your thoughts on breaking up 3 full workouts (45-90min) outs into 6 “mini” workouts (20-45 min)
I personally have found it to be enjoyable, and have been making great progress, but wanted to hear your thoughts
Bulk looking solid 👌
Going to hit a new weight soon!