Combining Tension and Metabolic Work

[lylemcd]

Q&A on Main Site

[NOAMattD]

Thanks for the article. Good to see you revisiting topics where you've refined your opinion a bit over the years, or new studies have shed more light on the subject, or you're just bored and are taking the time to elaborate more on the original points.

One question: On the second table shouldn't Friday be the Upper L day?

[lylemcd]

I don't know that my opinion has really changed. But I needed a quick update.

[jam]

lyle, i cannot access your main site.

"This webpage is not available

ERR_CONNECTION_RESET"

keeps popping up.

[lylemcd]

Not on my end

[weisgarb]

Lyle, how does the mass building variation (separate heavy and light days) compare with something like your specialization routines? You've mentioned that both are geared towards lifters with 4+ years under their belt. Are there specific reasons why someone would choose one over the other? Is the heavy/light for people who want to continue to see overall but slow progress while specialization is more of a way to bring up lagging parts up to speed?

In other words, if there's no specific area you want to focus on, is heavy/light a better long-term approach than rotating between specialization routines throughout the year?

[BookSaddleandGo]

I think that's a very good question. I've spent quite a lot of time doing specialization routines over the past several months and have struggled going back to something more balanced. One approach I've tried was to go to an ABA BAB three times a week but the drawback I've found is that as the weights go up it feels like you have three H workouts every week. Training 4 days a week like the article outlines provides the option to rotate with the lighter workouts and having two heavy workouts per week instead of three.

I'd wonder too whether incorporating this Heavy/Light approach within a specialization cycle might be something to look at as well. I've approached specialization cycles using the H set up twice a week on the targeted bodyparts and on a few cycles it had me starting to feel pretty run down as I got into weeks 5 and 6 before wrapping the cycle up even though everything else was at maintenance.

[amir85]

If the goal is mass gain, in order to conserve time, would it be a good approach to do supersets such as below:
For example for chest doing 3 supersets of:

• "Heavy bench" 6-8reps (60-90" rest) "chest-flye" 12-15reps (3' rest) repeat

[lylemcd]

You can. You can do the flyes right after bench if you want but i think you will find that the time difference isn't different.

4X6-8/3' + 3X15/90"

4X6-8/90" - 1X15/3'

Even if you do 60" between supersets, the savings is 4 X 30" so all of 2 minutes.

[spmurph]

If using the heavy/light split, should the intensity on the light days be about the same as heavy (1 rep short of failure)?