Specialization Training
Do you remember when you first started training with weights? We know, it's probably a bit difficult for you to remember a time when iron wasn't a part of your life, but think way back to the beginning. Think back to when you were green and untrained, back to your starting point. For most new trainees, those first few months are a pretty amazing time. Your arms seemingly doubled in size practically overnight, your shirts began to stretch dangerously over your ever-increasing torso girth, and your thighs barely fit into those boot cut jeans you bought just a few weeks earlier. Ah, yes, the fabled "newbie gains," a time period in which progress is measured by inches on the tape measurer, pounds on the scale, and in plates added in the gym. However, somewhere along the line, all of that began to change. The gains were still coming, but not anything like before. Progress, which was once fast and easy, slowed to a crawl. For many of you, it may have even come to a dead halt. Frantically searching for a solution, you've tried every size-gaining approach known to man. Or have you? Specialization: What it Be In the weight training context, specialization is pretty much what it sounds like-a way of prioritizing a muscle group for accelerated gains in size. Generally speaking, specialization routines will consist of increased volume and frequency for the muscle in question, and a decrease in volume for all other muscles placed "on maintenance." Programs based on specialization principles have been shown to be highly effective at bringing up lagging body parts, correcting muscular imbalances, and accelerating growth in body parts you are highly motivated to train. Specialization will even yield some pretty impressive strength gains! You see, training regimens that prioritize one or two muscle groups at a time offer numerous benefits that most routines based around whole body growth do not; let's take a closer look. 1. Physical Benefits- The main reason specialization programs work is because they allow you to add high amounts of volume to a particular muscle group without overtraining; this is due almost entirely to the rest of the body being exposed only to maintenance-oriented training. Keep in mind that in many ways overtraining is a neurological phenomenon that occurs via overtraining the Central Nervous System (CNS). By greatly reducing the volume non-specialized body parts are exposed to, it becomes possible for us to jack up training volume and frequency for the muscle of our choice, while still leaving the CNS fresh. In addition to the allowance for increased volume, muscle growth occurs when a body part is prioritized because it is mainly in that muscle that hypertrophy-inducing stimulus, or microtrauma, is occurring. That may seem pretty obvious, but it is worth mentioning for the simple reason that it is greatly tied into diet. Basically, if microtrauma is occurring almost entirely in one or two muscle groups, it is mainly to those muscle groups that necessary nutrients will be sent. Almost all surplus calories will be used by the body to allow for muscular recovery and tissue repair in the prioritized area. On that note, let us move on to the next set of advantages that come nicely bundled in the specialization package. 2. Dietary Benefits- Anyone who has ever been on a true-blue bulking cycle can easily describe to you what a double-edged sword it can be. On the one hand, after months and months of dieting to achieve and then maintain that precious six-pack, you get to EAT! However, if you have a fair amount of lean body mass (and therefore substantial caloric requirements), and you are focusing on whole-body gains, it soon becomes apparent that to achieve the desired growth, you need to step outside the lines of typical bodybuilding foods in order to meet your metabolic needs. For many of us, significant full body growth would require upwards of 6,000 Calories per day. Meeting and exceeding such energy demands by eating only "clean" foods is expensive, impractical, and in some cases, impossible. Often times, we resort to fast food and other junk we have sworn off just to make sure we have taken in enough food to grow. While this sort of eating can lead to muscular gains, it can also cause a pretty hefty accumulation of fat. With specialization, this is not a problem. When you are using a program designed for the specialization of only one or two body parts, it is not necessary to create a tremendous caloric surplus because you are only eating for recovery and growth of a much smaller amount of muscle tissue. You can still keep a very clean diet, rather than resorting to junk food "for the calories." Ultimately, this will allow you to gain large amounts of muscle and little to no fat at all. 3. Psychological Benefits- Last, but certainly not least, we come upon the advantages specialization programs have in regards to the mind. First, there is-gasp-progress! After a long period of stagnation, growing again is intensely satisfying. Even if you have not been totally 'stagnant,' specialization will result in accelerated and more obvious gains, which will be equally motivating. This is perhaps the greatest benefit of specialization-motivation. When you are motivated, you will have more productive workouts, you will adhere more strictly to your diet, and you will experience even greater gains. So How Do I Go About Specializing? Regardless of which muscle(s) you choose to specialize, we are going to set up the weekly routine as follows: Session 1 (Heavy) Sets/Reps: 12x3-4 Load: 5RM Rest Intervals: 1-2 minutes Session 2 (Light) Sets/Reps: 5x8-12 Load: 12RM Rest Intervals: 1-2 minutes Now, we didn't just roll a pair of set/rep dice and play "pin the tail on the frequency" to come up with the above setup; there is a great deal of solid reasoning and science supporting it. First off, the prioritized muscle is trained twice weekly as opposed to just adding a few sets and reps to a single session; this allows us to get two high-volume, growth promoting workouts in each week. Secondly, both sessions are high-volume in nature (sets x reps); this to ensure that both the low rep and high rep sessions contribute to the desired goal-increased size. Next, we have set things up so that the specialized muscle is trained via both a heavy and a light stimulus each week. While many strength training gurus will agree that variety is the key to "keep the muscle guessing," our reasoning goes far beyond this elementary explanation. You see, training a muscle with both heavy and lighter loads will allow you to reap the benefits of both training methods. The heavy session promotes maximal recruitment of type IIB muscle fibers, which have the greatest growth potential. Also, hypertrophy of the contractile proteins myosin and actin is much more apparent when training with heavier loads; increasing the size of these contractile filaments will yield a denser, harder look as well as increases in maximal strength. In addition, heavy training with further increase strength levels through neurological mechanisms. The light training session will then take care of the slower-twitch, type I fibers, promote more sarcoplasmic (fluid) hypertrophy, and increase both capillary and mitochondria number. The end result is the greatest possible size increases with a fair amount of strength to boot! We mentioned earlier that regardless of which muscle(s) you choose to specialize, we'll be using the above weekly split and set/rep scheme. "But what if you choose to specialize a smaller muscle group, such as the biceps? Surely, you can't train your biceps with the same amount of volume in which you train your quads!" It is this reasoning that causes many a strength coach to recommend reducing the training volume for smaller muscle groups. For instance, they'll reason that while it may take 5 sets of 12 reps to fully stimulate a large muscle group such as the quadriceps, it will take significantly less volume to stimulate a small muscle group like the biceps, perhaps only 3 sets of 12. This is faulty reasoning in our opinion. Yes, the biceps are smaller than the quads, but advocates of this approach fail to realize the difference in magnitude between the movements used to train each muscle group. Performing 5 sets of 12 reps in the squat is a heck of a lot more taxing than performing an equal number of sets and reps in the bicep curl! Large muscle groups are trained with big, demanding movements, while smaller muscle groups are trained with movements that are less taxing to the CNS and your overall recovery ability; therefore, the movement performed compensates for the difference in muscle size and there is no need to alter the volume from muscle group to muscle group. Train to Maintain As mentioned previously, when specializing one or two body parts, all other body parts should be placed on maintenance. It is our opinion that the most effective way to do this is by training the rest of the body with a relative strength program, such as 5x5. Because relative strength programs are lower in volume, recruit a large number of muscle fibers, and yield substantial gains in strength, they are the perfect choice for maintenance training while specializing. Having said that, the muscle group(s) being prioritized must be considered when constructing your maintenance routine. For example, if specializing your back, any movement you perform for another body part that heavily taxes the back (i.e. deadlifts) should be broken into three weekly 2x5 sessions, as opposed to a single 5x5 session. These short, two-set sessions will produce a much lesser degree of microtrauma and CNS fatigue, allowing you to effectively maintain your hamstrings without adversely affecting your back specialization workouts. Below is a table listing exercises that should be performed in the 2x5 fashion given the muscle being specialized; all other exercises should be performed via the 5x5 training method:
Your 12-week Specialization Routine Alright, you're ready. You know why to do it, how it works, and even how to maintain while you're specializing. Now, you are truly ready to get your grow on! But, wait; what to specialize? Is it big arms you're after, or a massive chest? Sweeping quads, or lats so big they block out the sun? What to do, what to do? Never fear, friends; you do not have limit your gains to merely a single body part, or even two body parts. Instead, using the methods we are outlining, you can set up you program to prioritize anywhere from 3 to 6 muscle groups! The specialization routine is 12 weeks long, divided into three shorter periods of 4 weeks each. During each 4-week period, you will specialize up to two different muscle groups. When choosing which muscles to specialize, that pesky CNS serves as just about the only limiting factor. You surely must realize by now that whatever damage you inflict via training, the body must recover from. You cannot recover properly if you perform several very taxing sessions for large body parts each week. Therefore, when setting up your program, for each 4-week cycle, choose either one large body part, or two smaller muscles. And we don't care how big your guns are, they do not qualify as a "large" body part! Just to avoid any confusion, we've taken the liberty of breaking the body parts up into categories of large and small:
Choose from the following exercises for both specialization and maintenance work (Note: direct glute and trap work does not need to be included in maintenance work; these are muscles you may want to prioritize, however): Quads Front Squat Back Squat Hams Stiff leg Deadlifts Good Mornings Calves Calve Press in Leg Press Machine Standing Calve Raises Triceps Dips Close Grip Bench Press Biceps Incline Bicep Curls Barbell Curls Back Pull-ups (supine or prone grip) Bent-over Rows Chest Bench Press (flat or slight incline) Dumbbell Bench Press (flat or slight incline) Shoulders Military Press Arnold Press Glutes Sumo (wide-stance) Deadlift Sumo (wide-stance) Squat Traps Barbell Shrug Alternating Dumbbell Shrug Example split for specializing a large muscle group (chest) M- Chest specialization, calf/ab maintenance T- off W- quad/ham maintenance R- off F- Chest specialization, shoulder maintenance S- off N- arms/back maintenance Example split for specializing two smaller muscle groups (biceps/triceps) M- Arms specialization, ab maintenance T- off W- chest/back/shoulder maintenance R- off F- Arms specialization, calf maintenance S- off N- quad/ham maintenance While we can't possibly list splits for every muscle or combination of muscles in a single article, we have provided you with the following general guidelines for constructing your own weekly split.
If You Do This, Please Eat Consume 500 calories in addition to your maintenance intake. If you are uncertain as to what your maintenance intake is, multiply your lean body mass (body weight - fat mass) by 15 to give you an estimate. Aim to ingest 1.25 grams of protein per lb of LBM and 25-30% of your daily calories from fat. The remaining calories would then come from carbohydrates. Limiting calorie and fat intake with this program is a mistake; do not do it. Also, we strongly advocate that you adhere to the macronutrient combination guidelines set forth by nutritional biochemist John M. Berardi by never combining carbohydrates and fats in significant amounts in a single meal. When combining nutrients in this fashion, you manipulate certain hormones (mainly insulin), allowing you to eat more calories without putting on excessive fat. To do this, simply consume three meals containing protein and loads of wholesome carbs (P+C) and three meals containing protein and loads of healthy fats (P+F) daily. With this program, your three P+C meals should be breakfast, the beverage you consume both pre and post workout, and the whole food meal you consume an hour or so after training. On days in which you don't train, plan for your first three meals to be P+C and your last three meals to be P+F. Now Go Get Your "Big" On! You have now been given all of the tools to set up a program prioritizing nearly any muscle group you choose. While you may never truly recapture the magic of those first few months of training, specialization protocols are a sure fire way to make your training productive again. By utilizing the methods presented in this article, you can start growing again, one muscle at a time. We urge you to give this a shot, and get ready to buy some new clothes! That is, you know, unless you particularly enjoy not making progress. Editors Note: Xtreme Formulations' new site specific prohormone, Sytenhance, would be an ideal androgen to supplement with should you choose to use one in conjunction with this program. |