Better Strength Reps and Mastering Irradiation

I’ve touched on the differences between a bodybuilding routine and a “Hollywood Body” routine before, but I’m going to dissect the matter further, and explain how to properly train for strength and density, which creates hard, sharp looking ripped muscles – not puffy rounded ones as seen in many of your gym’s meat head weightlifters. You can’t just go in and wing your workouts and expect optimal results. Exercise, like diet, is a science, so why leave your results up to chance?

Fake Strength Versus Real Strength

People who strictly train by lifting weights at a fast pace are not recruiting as much muscle tension as they could be. By firing out reps without control, they are largely increasing tendon strength over muscle strength, so their muscle will not achieve that super-dense hard look, even though the lifter may be capable of having that look. The strength training rep is performed in a much more controlled manner, and will recruit the most muscle fibers to lift the weight which is what creates dense muscles.

Explosive Lifting – Leave Your Ego at the Door

A lot of guys will load up a ton of weight on the barbell and bust out a few quick and usually ugly looking reps. By using the momentum they’ve generated on the “down” portion of the rep, they can take advantage of the stretch at created in the muscle and tendon at the bottom of the lift. They use this momentum to help them lift a weight heavier than they could normally lift, with a smooth controlled form. This is bad for two major reasons. First, it’s just asking for injury, and is usually how shoulder injuries are sustained from doing bench presses. Second, using that extra “push” gives a false measure of strength. While it may seem cooler to lift 250 than it is to lift 215, what does it really matter if the lift isn’t true?

Nix the Momentum for the Long Haul

While lifting weights at a fast pace may seem like it will increase strength faster, the ironic thing is that it actually limits your potential strength gains. Yes, when you are a beginning weight lifter, you will indeed progress quickly when lifting in an explosive manner. But as you gain experience, you will quickly reach a plateau. The amount of weight you can lift is limited by tendon strength. And as mentioned before, it is also asking for an injury.

Slow The Pace and Switch it Up

If you’re a guy or gal who fires off reps like a piston, switch up the gears. Slow your lifting pace and use the “strength training rep.” You will be able to be stronger and more defined by doing so. Be ready to take a step back – At first you are going to lose a bit of strength, but again, by using that momentum, it isn’t true strength anyway. The strength you first lose will come back better than ever as you learn to lift weights properly.

Generating Tension in the Muscle Creates True Strength and Muscle Density

Strength is what translates into muscle density. The stronger you can get at a lift without increasing muscular size, the denser and more ripped that muscle will appear. Take Bruce Lee; not a big guy by any means, but dense as hell, and strong as an ox! Strength is primarily determined by your ability to create tension in a muscle. The harder you can contract a muscle, the better strength you can utilize in that muscle. You can also contract a muscle much harder if you also contract the muscles that surround it. This technique called “Irradiation” was brought to my attention by Soviet Special Forces Trainer, Pavel Tsatsouline. The basic concept:

1. Without making a fist, flex your bicep as hard as you can.
2. Now flex that bicep again, but this time, tighten your fist as hard as possible and squeeze.
3. Notice how much harder you can contract the muscle when flexing and squeezing?
4. This is the “Irradiation” concept. The nerve impulses of surrounding muscles can amplify the effect of the focused muscle, which can create a stronger contraction.

Master the Skill of Generating Tension

Another crazy thing behind irradiation: The more supporting muscles that you can contract, the more that primary muscle can create tension. Again, flex your bicep but this time, tighten your fist, flex your chest muscles, and abdominals all at once. Once you master the irradiation technique, you will be able to feel the greatest tension in  your bicep while everything else is being flexed. It sounds crazy, but it’s true. A kid I went to high school was a good athlete, but had seizure attacks. He was also insanely ripped. Everyone joked that his seizures caused this insane muscular density, but looking back, that may have actually been a part of the cause. Once you get really good at utilizing irradiation, you can reach very high levels of muscular strength.

Irradiation Increases Muscular Definition Over Your Entire Body

By flexing and squeezing a multitude of muscles while focusing primarily on one, you are actually increasing your ability to contract all of your muscles harder, while really nailing the targeted muscle. Practice using irradiation throughout your lifts and your strength will increase, as will your muscular density over your whole body. The key to the Hollywood Body Look is having decent sized, well defined dense muscles with low body fat, and some killer swagger.  Basically, this principle will expedite the muscle defining process. It’s like killing two birds with one stone because each rep in every lift will be working many more muscles than before.

Irradiation Doesn’t Work With Rapid Fire Lifting Form

As mentioned earlier, the ballistic style rep doesn’t give you the time or ability to generate maximum tension. Really, the only tension you’ll create is at the bottom of each rep when the weight begins to be pushed up. For maximum tension creation, it takes about 2-3 seconds. Using the bench press as an example, a really good strength-based rep will take 2-3 seconds to lower the weight before lifting the weight back up. The Perfect Bench Press Rep for Strength:

1. Find your grip and lift the bar off the rack into the up position.
2. Squeeze the bar hard in your hands, and increase the tension as you lower down.
3. Feel the tension work its way down your forearms past your elbow.
4. The harder you squeeze the bar in your fists, the more you’ll feel this tension in your arms.
5. While lowering and squeezing, also contract your pecs, shoulders, and upper arms as hard as possible.
6. At the bottom of the lift contract your abs hard (Don’t forget to breathe).
7. By the time you reach the bottom of the lift your entire upper body should be flexed and tense.
8. Lift the weight and breathe out as you lift. Breathing out will allow your abs to stay flexed hard.
9. The more tension you can generate, the lighter the weight will feel when you lift back up, which is why you can get so much stronger with this method.

It is Hard to Do More Than 5 Reps in This Fashion

One main reason 3-5 reps is recommended for strength gains that it is tough to do more than this while maintaining the quality of each rep. You should treat each rep almost as a separate entity. Don’t slack on form, especially when lifting for strength and do not lift to failure. You should be pausing longer between reps and sets to build back your Central Nervous System for the next rep. This is much different than the non stop “pumping” action reps you see far too often in the gym.

Last Note

This is myofibrillar muscle training at its finest. The goal here is to increase strength without increasing size. The principles behind this method of lifting are pronounced here:

1. Relative Strength Advantage
2. Visual Impact Muscle Growth/Strength Program

Related posts:

1. The Difference Between Bodybuilding and Getting a Hollywood Body
2. Training with a Purpose, Part 1: The Rundown
3. Resistance Training Is Necessary When Dieting

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