The best way to weight train

<excerpted from an email from Pete Sisco>

A Quick Story

At the recent American Volleyball Coaches conference nearly 100 people ranging in ages from 18 to 68 tried the EF5000 leg press in the few hours it was on the demonstration floor. Twenty two of the 100 said they regularly trained with weights. Those people were asked to use the EF machine in their weakest range and again in their strongest range. (Eighteen of them were women and four were men.)

The first position was set to correspond with the start position they were accustomed to with their conventional equipment. The numbers they achieved in this position tended to be very close to the weight they usually worked out with. The average resistance accomplished in that position for women was slightly under 200 lbs and for men was slightly over 300 lbs. This was an all-out effort, their faces were contorted and the effort was obvious. Naturally they thought they were really "hitting all the fibers" in that position because they'd push and push and 200 to 300 pounds was all they could move. At the high end two guys were pushing slightly over 500 and two women were pushing slightly over 300.

Then it got interesting.

Next, the EF leg press was adjusted to their strongest position and they were asked to push exactly the same weight. So if a person pushed 300 pounds in their weak position, they pushed 300 in their strong position. None of them showed any effort at all while pushing the same weight! Why? The laws of physics dictate that it takes the same number of muscle fibers to push 300 pounds...so why does it feel harder in the weakest range? The strain you feel is the muscle being stretched...but stretching the muscle does not stimulate new muscle growth! If it did, yoga masters would have 60" chests and 20" arms because they stretch more than anyone. What's even worse is that in the weak position you're operating at maximum mechanical disadvantage and putting huge (unnecessary) strain on your knees, ligaments and tendons! Why do that?

Then...when the people were asked to push as hard as they could in the strongest range of motion...on average they did over three times as much as they did in their weakest range! They were in a position where lockout wasn't possible and, because it was EF equipment, there were no weights to potentially fall on them. So there was every reason to give it all they had.

Half a Ton...EXTRA!

One young woman who did 212 pounds in her weak range did 814 in her strongest range! Some people did 5 times as much in their strongest range!!

It was very common for women to do 600 lbs extra and men to do over 1,000 lbs extra in their strongest range compared to their weakest! Frankly, it's absolutely insane to suggest that somehow working with lighter weights in a more dangerous range of motion is better and will stimulate more muscle fibers than working in your safe range with your maximum weight. Yet that's what you hear everyday in the gym: "You need the full range of motion to stimulate all the fibers and get maximum gains." Absurd. And every person who did this test at the American Volleyball Coaches conference came to the same conclusion: Why am I messing around with 300 pound leg presses on conventional equipment when I can do over 1,000 pounds much more safely on this new Explosive Fitness equipment!!

And that's just with the leg press. The EF upper body machine allows you to tap into your full capability in total safety on all the other major muscles in your body!

Using conventional equipment is a bit like driving a Ferrari at red line in first gear. The engine is maxed out but you're only going 60 MPH. In top gear the engine is capable of moving you at 220! Your body is a Ferrari - for goodness sake take it out of first gear!!

www.explosivefitness.com

</end excerpt>

I've been on this method for just under a year. It involves working in your strongest range of motion, and holding the weight there until you can't do it anymore. The main point here is that all muscle fibres get engaged when you're holding as much weight as you possibly can, and that you need to take time off between workouts.

You only lift weight 3 times a week for the first two weeks, MAX. Then you lift every three days... then every 5 days... then every, oh, 3 weeks or so. Then, later on, you can work out once every 6 weeks-ish.

The sweet part is that you can not only lift 'infrequently', but you can generally always lift more than you did last time. Also, your ability to do 'full range of motion' lifts increases as well - so much for 'to strengthen the dynamic range, you have to work the dynamic range' theory.

In six months, I increased my 1 time bench press full range rep 20 lbs... in about 6 or 7 workouts. If someone can show me someone who works out three times a week increase their max 20 lbs in two weeks (6 workouts), let me know!