M. E FEATURE
By Werner Beukes, Deputy Editor
TRIED AND TRUE TRAINING PRINCIPLES OF THE MASTER BLASTER
WEIDER’ S PRINCIPLES
1 FORCED REPS
If a muscle won ' t grow you can make it grow by using the Weider Principle of forced reps. When you have reached failure on a set you can ask your training partner to help you get a few extra reps out by pushing you past the point of failure. This assistance should only be enough to allow you to still do the majority of the work. This will enable your muscles to grow because you are lifting beyond the point of momentary failure. The key to effective forced reps is for your training partner, who also needs to know where to best position himself to help move the weight, to apply the right amount of resistance for you to still finish a set without doing the set on your behalf. Forced reps are also one of the best ways to target a lagging body part.
2 FLUSHING
The idea behind the Weider flushing method is to send a maximum amount of blood to a specific muscle and fatigue it so it can adapt and grow bigger. Train one body part with multiple exercises( 3-4) before you train another. Flushing, which is also commonly referred to as blood volumisation, is your body ' s way of sending vital muscle-building nutrients to begin repairing an area damaged through intense exercise to best stimulate growth. It does this by maximising the amount of blood that flows to that area as it is the transport system needed to shuttle anabolic substrates to active or recovering muscles. The best way to achieve this is to use relentless reps and light weight. With this approach you can pump your muscles full of blood to increase muscle gains.
IT’ S WINTER TIME, WHICH PROBABLY MEANS YOU’ RE AT YOUR WIT’ S END AS TO HOW TO JACK UP YOUR CURRENT ROUTINE TO BUILD MORE MUSCLE. Don’ t despair. We have dusted off five of the best techniques cataloged and codified by bodybuilding pioneer Joe Weider, also known as‘ The Master Blaster’, to give you that edge in the gym and stimulate the muscle growth you’ re after.
3 ISO-TENSION
Iso-tension is a technique used by bodybuilders to flex and hold their muscles on certain exercises for 6-10 seconds. The idea behind this principle, according to Weider, is to keep the muscle / s fully contracted before releasing the tension. Bodybuilders who are competing in shows also use this technique to enhance their posing ability as it helps to increase muscle control.
4 REST-PAUSE
Utilise this principle by squeezing more reps out of a set by taking brief periods of rest. Pick a weight you can lift for 2-3 reps, rest for 20 seconds, then try another 2-3 reps. Take another rest and then go again for as many reps as you can handle, then repeat one more time.
5 PRE- EXHAUSTION
This is basically a technique to pre-fatigue a large muscle group with an isolation single-joint movement before executing a compound movement directly afterwards. For instance – perform a chest isolation exercise like dumbbell flyes before performing a bench press. In that way your chest would be fully exhausted before you do the compound movement to failure. This aims to activate and incorporate as many muscle fibres as possible during the subsequent compound exercise, thereby delivering a greater compensatory response that should lead to new muscle growth and development.
WHO WAS JOE WEIDER?
Joe Weider was born in 1922 and grew up in Montreal, Canada. Joe and his brother Ben began training their bodies with a set of barbells they made with parts they found in a junk yard. Joe later won Quebec’ s weightlifting competition and started publishing a muscle magazine titled“ Your Physique” followed by another publication“ Muscle Power” in the 1960s. He became the driving force behind the health and fitness industry and developed the Weider Principles to help bodybuilders train more effectively. These Principles, gathered and honed by Weider, have influenced countless athletes, coaches and sports scientists over the years.
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30 Muscle Evolution