Q: I’m interested in using the German Body Comp program to train for Brazilian jujitsu. Is that appropriate?A: They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but it’s not all that flattering when the imitators don’t do justice to the original work. Case in point: the German Body Comp program.The German Body Comp program, one of my most popular workouts, is based on the pioneering research by a Romanian exercise scientist who defected to West Germany.
- Charles Poliquin Website
- Charles Poliquin Hypertrophy Programs For Children
- Poliquin Hypertrophy Mass Program
Halarambie made the important discovery that the lactic acid pathway is better for fat loss than the commonly accepted aerobic pathway. He found that high blood lactic levels decrease blood pH levels, which in turn sends a message to the brain to accelerate its production of growth hormone. Higher growth hormone counts increase fat loss.The GBC program is characterized by short rest intervals and multijoint movements to generate maximum growth hormone production. Not only does GBC result in greater fat loss than aerobic programs can produce, but it won’t sacrifice strength and muscle mass—in fact, it can make you bigger and stronger. With aerobics, all you get is fat loss and weakness.
Why train your body to be weak?How effective is the program? I’ve seen men gain 12 to 18 pounds of muscle in 12 weeks while losing fat, and it’s not uncommon for women to lose seven percent bodyfat in the same time period.In addition to being great for anyone who wants to lose bodyfat, the GBC program is especially geared toward athletes because it develops muscular endurance. Law enforcement officers are prime candidates for the benefits of GBC, and I’ve had great success with grapplers and hockey players.
In contrast, aerobic training does little to improve endurance for most sports and will compromise strength and power—it’s even been shown that upper-body aerobic training can compromise jumping ability. Which brings us back to the imitation problem.The workout that is outlined in my book German Body Comp Program is designed for all levels of individuals. It’s a mix of machines and free weights, with the exercises increasing in difficulty—along with the overall volume of training—with the higher levels.
Charles Poliquin Website
Unfortunately, when fitness writers attempt to modify the program for athletes, they often make several critical errors in program design.To show you how it’s supposed to be done, here’s a version for athletes who need to put on lean tissue and prepare for the months ahead of heavy lifting. Typically, the program is done by throwers and rugby players in the early off-season or by grapplers who want to take some time off the mat and build their lactate capacity; so in your case that would work.
Obviously, these athletes will know their way around the weight room. Many trainees approach weight loss with the idea that you have to spend countless hours performing aerobics that compromise your hard-earned muscle. Now the world’s winningest strength coach offers a sensible way to lose fat without sacrificing muscular size and strength. It’s the German Body Comp Program, and it was designed by Charles Poliquin.A native of Ottawa, Ontario, in Canada, Poliquin has developed conditioning programs for more than 400 Olympians and countless professional hockey, baseball, football and basketball players. He’s also coached numerous successful bodybuilders. Poliquin’s reputation has inspired the best and most dedicated athletes to seek private instruction from him in his new state-of-the-art Tempe, Arizona, gym.In this exclusive interview Poliquin talks about his new book, The German Body Comp Program. It’s one of Coach Poliquin’s most popular workout protocols, as it enables trainees to lose fat without aerobics’or following carrot-stick diets’and at the same time gain muscle.KG: Do you actually have your athletes use German Body Comp training?CP: Absolutely.
The German Body Comp Program is the fastest way to change an athlete’s body composition. I’ve had great results using it with speed skaters, hockey players and other athletes who want to lower their bodyfat and increase their endurance. And it’s ideal for bodybuilders, who want to keep every ounce of hard-earned muscle while obtaining the absolute lowest bodyfat percentage.KG: What do you say to those who believe you can’t gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?CP: I just tell them to look at my results. Many of my athletes report to me that they’ve made their very best gains using the German Body Comp Program. I’ve seen men gain 12 to 18 pounds of muscle within 12 weeks. And it’s not uncommon for a woman with 16 percent bodyfat to go down to 9 percent within 12 weeks.KG: Why should someone choose your book over any of the popular weight-loss books written by fitness trainers who train movie stars?
Celebrities often have amazing bodies. Is there something special about what they do that’s also in your program?CP: First, you need to understand that being popular doesn’t always mean being good. One of the most popular exercise books for weight loss on the market first made the best-seller list because the author, who is a millionaire, bought 50,000 copies to help move it to the top of the list. When the public saw that it was a best-seller, they assumed it was good, and that hype helped generate sales to keep it on the best-seller list.
Second, it’s no secret that the most special thing many celebrities, such as movie stars, do is cosmetic surgery. And let’s face it, many of the celebrity clients those trainers are working with simply have superior genes.KG: So what you’re saying is that no matter how good a program is, Oprah Winfrey is never going to look like Britney Spears?CP: I’m confident the German Body Comp Program would help Oprah look the best she’s ever looked, but it’s obvious that Britney Spears has the right genes to help her look like she does.KG: Genetics and liposuction aside, are there any similarities between the type of training the best celebrity trainers do and the German Body Comp Program?CP: Not to my knowledge. The workout protocol in the German Body Comp Program was designed a long time ago by Hala Rambie, a Romanian exercise scientist who defected to West Germany. Rambie was the first exercise scientist to propose the concept that the lactic acid pathway was better for fat loss than the commonly accepted aerobic pathway. He found that when you increase your blood lactic level, your blood pH decreases, and that sends a message to your brain to accelerate its production of growth hormone. Growth hormone helps the body burn fat. Simple as that.KG: Studies have suggested that a small amount of aerobic training, such as 20 minutes three times a week, doesn’t compromise strength gains.
Would adding such a relatively small amount of aerobics to the workouts increase the amount of fat loss in your program without sacrificing muscle mass?CP: That approach might be all right for some, but the way I look at it is, most people work for a living and can fit in only so much training. One of the advantages of the German Body Comp Program is that you can achieve maximum weight loss with a minimal investment of time. Beyond that, aerobic conditioning does little to improve sports performance for most of the athletes I train. ALL KG: Are you saying that aerobic training is overrated for most athletes?CP: That’s right. For example, the average VO2 max in the NBA is only about 47, compared to about 42 for the average couch potato and about 80 for a world-class rower. If you look at the research, there are studies showing that the higher your aerobic power, the lower your vertical jump. To make a basketball player, or for that matter any athlete who needs speed and power, perform a lot of aerobic work would be counterproductive.KG: Are aerobics at least used as a warmup for your program?CP: They can be, but the best warmup is to take the first two stations in the program and do about two sets of five, using increasingly heavy weight.
If your first exercise is the deadlift and you expect to use 150 for your primary training weight, you could start with 95×5 followed by 135×5.KG: Is it better for athletes to use this program in the postseason or in the preseason, when their improvements in muscular endurance are greatest?CP: No question about it’it’s always better for athletes to make the biggest changes in weight loss or weight gain as far from the competitive season as possible so they have more time to become accustomed to the change. Take figure skating, a sport that involves an exceptionally high degree of body awareness. Say a female skater drops eight to 10 pounds of fat just before a competition; she may not perform well because she’s not used to jumping at that lower bodyweight.
A few weeks ago, I attended a seminar with one of the world’s greatest strength coaches, Charles Poliquin. During the seminar we went into depth about fat loss and hypertrophy (muscle growth). Today I’m going to tell you the 12 most important things I learned from him about hypertrophy.The following tips will only help you build muscle if you train hard enough. You need to be on a program that pushes you and overloads the muscles, otherwise no amount of tips and tricks will help you. Here are the 12 tips.
Individualization is key. A few weeks ago, I wrote an article, explaining how you need to train based on your. What makes a person grow won’t necessarily make you grow. Some people perform better with higher intensities (more weight used), others need more volume, while others need constant variation. The most important thing you need to remember is you must enjoy how you’re training.
If you dread doing your routine, then it’s not for you! You must be excited when lifting to push yourself the hardest and see the greatest amount of change.
40-60 seconds of time under tension is necessary for muscle growth. Time under tension is how long it takes you to complete a specific exercise. For example, say you’re doing a dumbbell bench press.
We have one person doing 10 reps as fast as possible, completing all 10 reps in about 15 seconds. Then we have another person controlling the weight down for 4 seconds and going up for 1 second, completing all 10 reps in 50 seconds. The second person is going to see much greater muscle growth. They’re forcing the muscle to work harder, due to increase time under tension. Shoot for 40-60 seconds for hypertrophy growth. Improve 2-3% every workout. In the past I wrote an article explaining the importance of trying to improve at least.
This principle is especially important when trying to gain mass. If you’re going into the gym, doing the same routine, using the exact same weight, and doing the same reps day after day, you’re not going to get any bigger, because you’re not overloading the muscle. Shoot for 1-3 more reps or adding more weight at every next workout.
Eat every 2.5-3 hours. If you’re serious about putting on muscle you need to eat often. These aren’t huge meals.
They’re small meals throughout the day. Make sure to include 20-30g of protein with each. Easier to gain mass if you’re insulin sensitive.
In other words it’s easier to gain mass if you’re lean. Muscle growth works fastest if you’re under 10% body fat for males and 16% for females. Brain drive equals anabolic drive. Before any workout, you need to make sure your brain is firing or “lit” up. If you feel unmotivated or sluggish your workout with suffer because of it. But, be careful with pre-workout supplements that make you feel jittery. You want your brain firing, but under control. Black coffee or a supplement called is what I use. If lean, eat carbs on rest days.
If you’re lean enough and your body can tolerate carbs, look to have carbs on your rest days. You should have 50% more calories exclusively from carbs on your rest day to build the greatest amount of mass. Suppress cortisol after lifting. Cortisol is your best friend while you’re training, but your enemy after. Eating or supplementing with carbs immediately after a workout is an effective way to reduce cortisol. I use a supplement called for mine. Pentacarb uses 5 glucide forms for rapid absorption and fast and complete synthesis of muscular glyocene. This keeps muscles perfectly hydrated and energized for intense training and performances.
Charles Poliquin Hypertrophy Programs For Children
Full body workouts 3x a week for hypertrophy don’t work. If you’re looking to put on mass, take a body part, like the chest, back, arms, legs, etc, trash it, then move onto the next one. Doing full body workouts are not sufficient enough to overload the muscle and cause it to grow. If you have limited dollars to spend on supplements, invest in what you take during the workout. If you’re looking to put on muscle you must take either Whey Protein, Essential Amino Acids (EAA), or Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA) during your workout. That will be your number 1 priority.
If you have extra money for supplements, invest in a post workout carb (only if you’re lean enough) to suppress cortisol. Is one of my favorites. If you’re training 2x a day, do strength work in the morning and do “pump” work in the evening. Strength work is performed in the morning when your central nervous system is fresh and ready to go. Also, by doing strength work in the morning it allows you to recruit higher threshold motor units.
Meaning you will recruit more muscle fibers for your “pump” session later in the day. Making it more effective. Make sure to alternate between strength and hypertrophy work every 2-4 weeks. Doing strength work will make you stronger, which inevitably helps you lift more weight during your hypertrophy training. It also increases the muscle density and the hardness of the muscle. Making you look and feel stronger instead of soft. I like to alternate between an accumulation phase (hypertrophy work) with an intensification phase (strength) every 2-4 weeks.Remember these tips deal specifically with putting on muscle mass.
Poliquin Hypertrophy Mass Program
Do not confuse any of these with tips to lose fat. I’ll be covering those next week!Have a healthier week!Josh Kumosz.