Cumulative Fatigue Training

Here are some guidelines on how to make cumulative fatigue training work for you.

• Experiment first with just one single-joint exercise, e.g. the curl, or calf raise.  Take an accurate measurement of the muscular girth, and then once a week, or three times every two weeks, train the exercise exactly as described as before. After two months measure the muscular girth again, and if it has grown, even by just a little, then you have a technique that works for you. If it didn’t grow, and assuming that you trained as directed, along with all the recovery factors, then just put the experiment down to a learning process.

• If you were happy with the test, then apply cumulative fatigue training to no more than two exercises for each routine, but remembering to rotate which two exercises you select.  As your gains diminish in any given exercise, revert to another format for that exercise, and if you like select another exercise for cumulative fatigue training. The reason for only selecting two exercises per routine is that the six sets per exercise of this type of training exert a severe demand on your recovery system,  and that is why you should be conservative and use only one or two exercises per routine in this format.  If you do use cumulative fatigue training on two exercises, make sure only one of them is a major core movement, because if you apply it to two core movements you are likely to be over training.

• To minimize the chance of over training, use no more that 6-8 exercises total per routine, and ensure that only one or two of them are done in the cumulative fatigue format.

• Persist with cumulative fatigue training for any exercise for as long as you are making gains.  As long as you can add a little extra weight every week or so, while holding consistently good form, keep at it.

• Be sure to use cumulative fatigue training on exercises that you regularly incorporate into your training program, to minimize post workout soreness. You may even still get sore if you are used to performing no more than 3 work sets per exercise.

• If you would rather not drop your regular style of exercising, which uses maximum weights, it is best to alternate both formats in the same cycle. On one day train with your maximum weight for 2-3 work sets, and on the following day train that exercise using the cumulative fatigue method.

• The need to religiously satisfy all the factors of recovery is just as important as technique in any exercise routine.

Plan Your Bodybuilding Program

It is true to say that achieving bodybuilding success is never an accident. Rather than treat your bodybuilding training as a hit or miss activity you need to plan properly and:

• put together an intelligent program,

• adapt it to your individual recuperative abilities and possible physical limitations,

• follow it comprehensively and conscientiously for long enough,

• fully satisfy your need for sleep, rest and nutrition,

The problem is, few people know what sensible programs are, and too few new bodybuilders set targeted and specific goals to be achieved by a certain time.

A strategy needs to be formed and this should include some of the following:

1. There is a need to focus on the present and this can be the building block for long-term success. By not living in the past and not living in the future, but focusing most of your attention on the present, is the only way to make sure that you get most of your “today’s” in good order. If you don’t get the daily units correct, you will not have much hope of getting the long-term success you want.

2. There is a strong correlation between the daily units of your bodybuilding routine and your long-term goals. If you get the latter in good order it will provide the overall strategy into which the daily units will fit. Regular reminders of the long-term aims will keep you on track for getting the daily units right.

3. There is one very major advantage available to competitive athletes over non-competitive athletes, and that is the motivation that comes with achieving the goals of competition. The requirement to peak at the right time will dramatically focus your attention and will force you to be more efficient with your time. If you don’t have a definite where and when to be at your best, it is only human nature to be casual with your time. It is worth remembering that it may take years to get to where you could have been in just six months had you been willing to stay nailed down to a rigorous schedule to get things done on time.

4. It is imperative that you have deadlines. There is nothing quite like a deadline to make people take action, and this applies to all aspects of life, not just bodybuilding. It may be necessary for you to consider how many things you need to do but have been procrastinating about for weeks because you do not have a fixed time or date to do them by. If however, you give something a fixed deadline and urgency, it is amazing just what can be achieved.

5. It is vital that once you have set these deadlines that you stick to them. You must nail yourself to these deadlines, make your goals specific by writing them down for example. Then stick to the daily must-do’s in order to keep on schedule for reaching your long-term goals.

6. The urgency of concentrating on a specific goal by a specific deadline is certain to focus attention, application and resolve. Without something specific to focus attention and resources on, people tend to drift along and will never get close to realizing their true potential. And as the months and maybe years go by, there is little or no improvement.

7. Make sure you set the goals and stick to your plan in order to achieve incremental improvements. When you have then achieved your medium or long-term goals, you will do it all over again, and then again, and again. Then you will be able to achieve more over the next year than perhaps you achieved over the previous few years. You may also decide that what you have learned about the value of working towards targets and deadlines in your bodybuilding training, you can also apply to the rest of your life.

It can be said that there are few deadline situations which can keep you on-track as well as a formal bodybuilding competition – just lay out your plan and stick to it!