Do you feel sorry for Pendray's troubles? We don't know. So when Christian Thibaudeau, Tim Patterson and I called him, we didn't tell him that we were sorry for his muscular hypertrophy. No, we want to know how he did it.
We want to know how he guides the training of athletes. If we want to learn his training system, we will pass it on to you. This is what we have learned.
(Glen Pendray is coaching caleb Ward at the California Strength Training Center. )
Testosterone country: the athletes you coach, whether they are weightlifters or football players preparing for NFL combination, have rapid muscle growth. But you're not a muscle hypertrophy trainer.
Glen Pendray: I'm not a bodybuilder. I am the coach of high-level athletes. I don't care about your figure, I care about how much weight you can lift, how fast you run and how high you jump. However, I am worried about how to keep athletes at their own weight level.
Anyone can gain muscle, as long as they eat and drink more milk and stick to basic movements, such as squat, bench press, rowing, hard pulling and shoulder pressing ... It is not difficult to gain 20 kg. Most people who have difficulty in gaining muscle just have the wrong training plan.
Of course, if you do that, your body fat may be high, and you can't run fast and jump higher. Our practice, our training method, seems to increase lean body weight, reduce body fat, make you run faster, jump higher and exercise better.
If your goal is to make a 94 kg weightlifter (that is, he can't weigh more than 207 kg) improve his performance without raising his weight level, you need to make him improve his strength without changing his weight. In other words, body fat must be extremely low, because if the weight level remains the same, the higher the body fat, the less muscle. Moreover, the functionality must be considered when adding muscles, and the muscles you add must be conducive to competition, rather than simply increasing the volume of biceps brachii.
T Nation: It's a bit frustrating that so many athletes have gained a lot of muscle and lean body weight without using traditional bodybuilding training methods. Adopt athletic ability training, but have the body shape of a bodybuilder, at least a natural bodybuilder.
Pendray: Look at the figure of many athletes I coach. Both weightlifters and NFL players are not professional bodybuilders, but they have the body shape that most strength trainers dream of without drugs.
Look at the NFL runners. They are muscular, low in fat and sound in body function. Most people prefer this shape. They don't want to turn themselves into professional bodybuilders who use drugs.
In fact, most people want to have the body shape of a running guard, not a professional bodybuilder. 99% people want to have the bodies of John North and T.J. Ward.
Last year, when I instructed T.J. to prepare the combine, his lean weight increased by 20 pounds. That guy looks great after taking off his shirt, with thick muscles and low body fat.
Training methods and metabolism
T country: ok, let's talk about the specific methods. How do these guys gain muscle quickly?
Pendray: When weightlifters use high-frequency training methods that only involve centripetal process, they are in trouble: they are about to rise to the heavyweight level. And their body fat is very low, not fat.
Our training frequency is very high. We have many intensive training classes every week. We only arrange two or three training classes with heavy centrifugal load every week, such as squats.
We use a centripetal load with high frequency and extremely high intensity. The weightlifters I coach, NFL athletes and other athletes all train in this way.
In this way, you will become stronger and stronger, gain lean weight and not gain weight. If you use this training method and train with such high frequency, it is difficult to gain weight, because your metabolism is extremely fast.
T: You talked about the relationship between this training method and hormones in our forum. Can you elaborate on it?
Pendray: My master's thesis is about hormones. I have always been concerned about the influence of training on hormone response and the influence of hormone response on training effect. When I designed my own training system, I thought deeply about this problem.
Whole-body training courses, that is, using basic movements that are very stressful to the body, can produce a strong hormonal response. Therefore, in order to achieve the best training effect, the training methods used by non-drug users and drug users are completely different.
Drug addicts are not short of testosterone. People who don't take drugs need to use appropriate training methods to stimulate the body to produce hormones.
T: That makes sense.
Pendray: A professional bodybuilder, a 25-year-old boy who doesn't use drugs, their training methods are different. The former need not worry about what the latter needs to think about. These are two completely different training systems.
We are talking about how to stimulate the whole body more. You don't need isolated actions. There is no need to arrange a biceps training class every week, and do 20 groups of flexion. What you need are basic movements and full-body training classes.
Not everyone needs full-body training classes, but it is absolutely not necessary to practice chest muscles on the first day and biceps brachii on the second day ... full-body training classes and upper and lower limb differentiation training are needed.
Now, you have increased your training frequency and improved your body shape. Next, you need to arrange some explosive and fast action training classes, mainly focusing on actions that only include centripetal stage.
T: How do you arrange the upper and lower limb differentiation training?
Pendray: My favorite differentiated training arrangement is doing squats and pushes on Mondays and Thursdays, and pulling on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Pull movements include snatch and turn, as well as pull-ups and rowing.
T: How often do you coach athletes?
Pendray: Athletes with the highest level coaches train seven days a week, twice a day, and train their hips, back and legs in each training session.
Ordinary people may not be able to do it, but they should aim at it and try to get close to it within their own ability and time.
The Best Weightlifting Action and Leverage Recommendation
T: OK, if the muscle hypertrophy trainer wants to learn from the weightlifters, which action do you recommend?
Pendray: You'd better learn to flip and snatch at the same time. If you can't do the squat snatch, do the strength snatch. Pull the barbell up with explosive force, and then let the barbell fall freely. If you are not allowed to throw barbells in the gym, at least don't have too much centrifugal load when you let the barbells land.
In order to develop the upper body, we should pay attention to the recommendation of borrowing power. In this action, the weight moves fast and depends more on explosive force. I suggest that we should arrange a weekly referral.
In order to gain muscles, it is also important to pull a resistance sled or push a wanderer. Any muscle hypertrophy trainer should pay more attention to these trainings.
T: Why do bodybuilders practice pushing with their own strength instead of pushing with their shoulders?
Pendlay: Leveraging recommendation has a stronger radiation effect on pushing actions (bench pressing, etc.). If a person can lift a heavy object with his own strength, he will certainly be able to complete any pushing action well, even if he has never seen it before.
Heavy bench press has no such radiation effect. If a person can bench press 400 Jin, but can't do other movements well, I don't want this kind of student. People who can use their strength to recommend powerful people do not have this problem. He can do any push well.
The standard shoulder push does not have this radiation effect. It's too difficult to start without weight. In the initial exercise, the shoulder muscles are in the most difficult position, which limits the weight you can use.
The weight of push usually exceeds the weight of shoulder push 10-20%. You will be forced to quickly develop the ability to recruit muscle fibers, because you push the barbell off your shoulders with the help of your legs, and then your arm muscles quickly participate in the action without stopping. This ability is very, very valuable.
Secondly, the load of recommending vertices is greater. 6 inches near the apex of the heart is like half shoulder pressing, which has a great influence on the body.
Country T: Wow, everyone should practice more and help recommend! Let's talk about the essentials of borrowing power to recommend.
Pendlay: The barbell must be placed in the correct position on the shoulder. Most people put barbells on their collarbones, which is not right. The correct way is to shrug your shoulders, push your elbows forward slightly, and support the barbell with deltoid muscle. Focus on the heel, squat, and then push the ground.
After you start pushing the floor, you must push the barbell up quickly with your arms, without stopping. Consider the problem of power output. At the apex, the barbell should be behind the head, not in front. After the barbell is aimed at the ear, it stops quickly at the top of the action.
Speed technology
Country T: In muscle hypertrophy training, explosive force training is gaining momentum. Why is this?
Pendray: Explosive movements can teach your muscles to "start". Everyone should do explosive movements!
If your explosive movements are improved, your other training effects will be better. If your jumping box level is improved, your squat training will be better, because your nervous system can recruit more sports units.
If you can start more 10% or 20% exercise units in squat, the training effect will be better. The simplest form of explosive force training is jumping on the box.
T: Please give an example of explosive force training.
Now I look out of the office window. I saw football players practicing explosive power and clapping push-ups. We'll take four 25-pound coated barbells and stack them two by two. They do explosive push-ups with their hands on rubber-coated barbells, five or six inches off the ground. Next, do push-ups, this time landing.
If your goal is to increase the muscle mass of chest and shoulders, this training method is a good auxiliary training for bench press.
I saw others doing real ball training. A child stood on the box and threw a 10 pound ball at his partner lying on the floor. After catching the ball, the latter quickly threw the ball without stopping. It can also be used as an auxiliary training for bench press.
The bench is heavy, so it is slow. Push-ups are faster because you only use your own weight. The solid ball is the lightest and the fastest. The conclusion is that you need to train at different speeds. From heavy and slow bench press to throwing 10 pound solid ball as much as possible.
What does it mean to put all this information together? This means that if a student's original weight is 180 Jin and can jump 30 inches vertically, he will soon become 200 Jin, jump 35 inches vertically and lose body fat. If he is a football player, he can push his opponent away. If his only skill is bench press 500 Jin, it won't help him much because of the slow speed of bench press.
He not only increased muscles, but also bombed the nervous system. This will enable him to use his existing muscles more effectively. He increased his circumference and became faster and stronger.
T-country: Trains travel at different speeds. I see. Basically, you divide it into three speeds, right?
Yes Those who have difficulty in gaining muscles, improving strength and reducing body fat always train at the same speed. He needs to train at various speeds: explosive power, super explosive power (solid ball), medium-level reinforcement (jumping on the box with his bare hands), while continuing to practice squats and bench presses.
His figure will get better and his athletic ability will be stronger. Weightlifting plays an important role when it comes to training at different speeds. Weightlifting is between hard pulling and jumping.
Training rules and rowing
T: If there is no professional weightlifting coach, are there any general training rules to understand?
If you fail three times, stop. Whether you feel tired or not. Three attempts failed, and you are out. In addition, we should be good at using the network. There are many good weightlifting training guides on the Internet.
T-country: Not many coaches can have training moves named after themselves, but you did. Can you tell me something about rowing in Pendray?
Well, I didn't name it. It was first called by this name, and later it became a custom.
I thought of this action, because I have always advocated keeping my back horizontal or close to horizontal when rowing, putting the barbell back to the ground after each action, arching the thoracic spine and moving heavy objects with explosive force. It is very different from standard barbell rowing.
T country: finally, what advice do you have for readers in T country?
Pendray: Anyway, you must be able to move the barbell with explosive force, and then let the barbell fall freely.
At the same time, if we can find ways to increase the training frequency, the training effect will be better. It's that simple. Weightlifting, either without centrifugal stage or with only a few centrifugal components, can be trained at high frequency. The higher the frequency, the better the effect.
Finally, I often say that people choose too many training moves. They don't choose a few actions and focus on doing them well. Find any strength training program for college football players. If you cut off half of the training moves, improve the rest and focus on a few moves, the effect will be better.