Take 1-2 weeks off of chest.

After that, come back in and do your normal bench routine. When you hit the 3rd set, put the max weight you'd be doing for your 5th set on it. Perform that weight for 5 reps.

From there, go to your 4th set, increase the weight about 10% over the set you just did. Grab a spotter and FORCE out the 5 reps.

After that is done, go up another 10% and repeat the process with the spotter.

You are going to be doing forced reps/negatives here. Repeat this process again the following 2 weeks (total of 3 weeks)

By the 4th week, you should have broken the plateau without a spotter.

thx, what are negatives?

Letting the weight go down as slow as possible and having the spotter help you back up with it.

Hey Raynor to train your CNS to handle more weight what do you believe the best rep/set count is? Does it vary from exercise to exercise also with hypertrophy what are the differences?

I was talking with you about that academy earlier is there anyway to preserve or even improve muscle mass/cns capability when I have to run 5-6 miles a day, I will be doing calisthenics each day and I probably won't have any recovery time except for sundays, I won't have access to a weight room but I will be doing pullups pushups running core work and probably body squats and body lunges.

Also you look pretty huge man what routine do you follow and stuff, I've always wondered because you look awesome.

This post was edited by wanteddead2 on Jun 7 2012 10:20pm

Hey there.

If you want to train to increase a particular exercise in reps, you should train extra reps. That means go down to around 75% of max and train in maximum reps until failure.

If your goal is strength, keep the reps low and the weight high and keep forcing out higher weight each week with a spotter. 5x5 is good here.

The best bet during military academy is to just get through the basic training aspect first and focus on muscle mass later. Stick to endurance and cardio for now to be able to deal with that, strength will be no problem later on.


As for my routine, right now I'm on maintenance.

I usually do 12/10/8/6/4 rep sequence with around 30 sets per workout @ 4-5 workouts per week.

Curious. You've mentioned before that you don't have time to do strength, so you're just trying to maintain. What exactly takes more time? A strength routine is still working out the same number of days per week, roughly the same number of sets, doing fewer reps. What am I missing?

True strength routines take exceptional detail to diet, sleep, supplementation, and also require rigid standards in the way of sets/reps and frequency of lifting.

They also almost always require a good and dedicated spotter/partner

(We're talking the strength training that I am used to for high quality gains).


Getting by on 4-5 hours of sleep per night, while missing the gym occasionally, and eating somewhat carelessly (relatively speaking) are all reasons that I avoid training for more.

Also, when I train strength, I train 5x5 or 3x5 for 30 sets + 10 sets of supporting muscles (abs/calves/forearms) spread out over around 2 and a half hours.

Right now I do 30 sets in about an hour and a half including PWO stretching.

Hey Ray,

For some reason, I have been becoming naseated from drinking just water. I currently take:

Whey
Creatine Mono
Magnesium
Zinc
Fish Oil
Vit C
Complete Multivitamin
and Green Tea

What could be causing this...?

I have also been having some sharp pains in my left side just below the rib cage, it doesn't feel like gas...its a stinging pain.

Any help is appreciated

just read on google and asked my dad....he also gets it from water he says its from Acid Reflux, let me know what you think

When does the pain occur? Just after drinking water or drinking anything?

Do you drink the water with supplements? Or just by itself on an empty stomach?

Does it happen all the time or sometimes?

I need more information.






Water does NOT cause acid reflux. However, if your stomach is already overly acidic, adding water will cause immediate symptoms. The cause, however, is not the water. It's your diet, which is overly acidic and causing this problem.

The solution, AVOID ACIDIC FOODS AND BEVERAGES!!

Also, increase consumption of alkaline foods, yogurt, and take probiotic supplements (look for 5-10 billion live cultures per capsule or tbsp)

Continue drinking 1-1.5 gals of water per day.


Go here for a complete list:

http://www.rense.com/1.mpicons/acidalka.htm

This post was edited by SKCRaynor on Jun 8 2012 11:23pm