Time Under Tension, my new love…

• Category: Journal
• Date: 12.6.10

Wow, getting back into the hang of posting on a regular basis is tricky, haha. I think my main problem is the combination of my extreme laziness for things I deem as unnecessary, and my hatred for technology (yeah kinda weird that I hate technology yet I have a blog. And that’s why I don’t post often haha).

Anyways, a little recap… Nearing the end of my first term out West at Camosun College, exams are just around the corner. This term I had Fitness for Life, Kinesiology, and Sport Leadership. Unfortunately, I haven’t learnt a damn thing haha. It’s a combination of my greatness, and the course having to cater to nim-rods. Honestly, for a sport/fitness related college program, I cannot believe the amount of unfit, exercise-retarded people that I am classmates with. Fucken ridiculous. But that’s the Fitness Industry for ya, I just saw that one of those Jersy Shore jerk-offs has his own workout DVD now, another prime example!

Needless to say, I’m not worried about my exams. My “slow-bus” tendencies actually made me show up over an hour late for my Kine mid-term, and pulled out a 78% in 20 minutes. I’d say I’m gonna be just fine haha.

Let’s get back on topic here though. Taking things into my own hands, I’ve started to research the work of world reknowned strength coach, Charles Poliquin. Guy’s a fucken genius. Born in Ottawa, his bilingual background gave him an edge when he started translated european strength documents himself. Having a strength/conditioning background, he was able to do a better job than just your average joe blow translator. His biggest thing is the use of Time Under Tension – which is basically how much time the muscle being used is being used for. For the most part you end up doing slow repetitions, but it goes much further than that. Depending on your rep range, the number of sets, the weight you’re using, rest periods, and of course your goals (muscular endurance, fat loss, max strength gains, hypertrophy, etc), you manipulate the tempo you’re using for each lift.

For the past 9 weeks now I’ve been playing around with some of his stuff. I purchased his book “Poliquin Principals” to get a good start on his concepts. In there he goes over a lot of solid information. Included are a number of routines for different goals. I spent 6 weeks performing an advanced bodybuilding program of his. I did this after my last MMA fight (which incase you missed, I went in with no training in the past 3 months, and whooped ass. Yeah I’m pretty amazing), walking around at 195lbs. After those 6 weeks, and being back on a good diet (as opposed to the horrible task I had of cutting weight, which again incase you missed, I cut 25lbs in about 3 days and yes, I know, I’m pretty awesome, thanks for mentioning it), I am now happily back up to a full grown adult male weight of 205lbs.

After going through Poliquin’s 6 week advanced Bodybuilding routine, I played around with it a bit one my own. I just finished a 3 week plan I made myself using his methods, and gained much success. Everythings steadily getting bigger, more cut, and sexified like never before. Last week I started up my second go at another 3 week program I wrote up. With 1 week of that behind me, I’m already getting excited about what I have next on my plate. Being the huge Poliquin nut-hugger that I currently am, I’m going to experiement with 2 more of his famous programs. Up first, is his Advanced German Volume Training program. I’ve done GVT in the past, and love it, sucks hairy nads, but works. 10 sets of 10. Sounds like fun, don’t it? This program goes beyong the original prescription of just 10×10, and starts playing more with varying loads, as well as switching up the exercises in a 10 day rotation.

For this program, you have 2 distinct Leg days, 2 Back/Chest days, and 2 Arm days. You rotate the first set, with some off days thrown in there. On your second run through, you hit the second patch of workouts. Returning back to the first workouts, you’re now using a different weight, and different reps. Basically moving from 10×5, to 10×4, and then 10×3. Then repeating the whole damn thing again, which ends up running you through 55 working days, 60 total days. My favourite part of this routine is that Poliquin states at the end that you can expect to gain 8-10lbs of lean muscle by the end of the program. Not gonna lie, I may have gotten a chub while reading this article. Fuck off, this shit excites me. haha.

I’d like to throw up some before and after shots, but you and I both know I’m one lazy mother fucker, so that may not happen. I’ll do my best though!

Love, Peace and Chicken Grease

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