If you don’t already know Fitenium is a free, mobile, video-based social network for athletes who train strength or bodyweight exercises. At Fitenium users can follow their performance, compete and get discounts in nutrition and sports equipment stores. Download it here.

Hello Fiteniers, today we are going to talk about another of the most popular training schemes and the best results. It’s usually a natural step when a 3-day Fullbody routine falls short on training days and you want to hit the gym more. The 4-day Torso-Leg routine continues to have a base of multi-joint exercises, but ending each session with one or two isolated exercises to end the session.

In this case, we recommend this 4-day Torso-Leg routine for intermediate athletes. If you are a beginner, we believe that it is better that you start your journey in the gym for a few months with the 3 day fullbody routine a few months, and if you are advanced, although this routine is valid, we believe that there are other more interesting options such as Pull-Push-Legs.

Guidelines:

1. Weekly Division of the Routine:

Access the Fitenium app where you can train this routine for free.

Monday: Torso 1 Workout
Tuesday: Leg 1 Workout
Wednesday: Active Rest
Thursday: Torso 2 Workout
Friday: Leg 2 Workout

Although in general this routine is designed to go to the gym four days, if for some reason one week you can only go three days, you can do three days of this routine and start the following week with the training that was missing. An example would be like this.

What is active rest? It consists of resting from our usual 3-day routine, but continuing to be active by doing some moderate activity with a moderate pace and duration. Examples of active rest: yoga or stretching session, 45-60 minute walk, foam roller routine, riding a bike… there are options for all tastes.

2. Rest between sets:

In multi-joint exercises such as Squats, Deadlifts or Bench Press, we recommend taking long breaks of 3-4 minutes without any problem, since by recruiting a lot of muscle, our CNS needs a little more time to recover. For isolation exercises, short rests of 60-90 seconds are enough to go for another set.

3. Effort:

Given the predominance of multi-joint exercises, we do not recommend training near failure if we want to maintain performance and technique throughout our sets. As a general rule in compound exercises we recommend training with a weight that allows us to do 2 or 3 more repetitions. In the more analytical exercises we recommend training with a weight that allows us to do 1 or 2 more repetitions.

If we are beginners we can apply a linear weight progression and almost every week we will be able to lift more weight than the previous one, but if we are already intermediate we recommend other types of more complex progressions that we will talk about later.

4. Warm up and stretch:

The warm-up will be the same every day, it is VERY IMPORTANT never to skip the warm-up and stretching if we want to continue progressing without injuries.

5. Substitutions:

We highly recommend doing our 3-day routine with the scheduled exercises, but if for whatever reason you can’t do any of the exercises, you can substitute them as follows.

• Squat: Press + 15 reps of lower back extension (i.e. if you have 3×8 of Squat, replace it with 3×8 of press and 3×15 of lower back extension).
• Deadlift: Hip Thrust `+ 15 repetitions of lumbar extension.
• Romanian Deadlift: Nordic Curl.
• Stride: Unilateral Hip Thrust with Dumbbell.
• Hip Thrust: Hip Thrust on a quadriceps extension machine.
• Calf Raise standing machine: Calf Raise with dumbbell.
• Femoral Curl: Femoral Curl with Dumbbell (between the feet).
• Quadriceps Extension: You can eliminate them.
• Barbell Bench Press: Dumbbell Bench Press.
• Incline Dumbbell Press: Incline Barbell Press.
• Military Press: Standing Military Press with Dumbbells.
• Pulley Openings: Dumbbell Openings or Pec Deck.
• Funds: Bench Press Declined Dumbbells.
• Supine Pulley Pulldown: Biceps Pull Ups.
• T-Bar Row: Dumbbell Bench Row.

6. Progression

Once we are intermediate, the linear progression is no longer realistic for us in this 4 day Upper-Leg routine.

In this routine, we recommend an undulating progression that works as follows:

• Let’s take as an example an exercise from our 4-day Torso-Leg routine that has 3 series for 6-8 repetitions.
• We load a weight that allows us to do 6 repetitions.
• We do the series of 6 repetitions until with the increase in our strength, we can do 8 repetitions with the same weight.
• Once we can do 3 sets of 8 repetitions, we increase the weight (1-2.5kg disc in isolated exercises and 5kg in compound exercises).
• With this new weight we start again doing 6 repetitions. If we fail we return to the previous weight.

7. And the diet?

To make truly significant progress in the gym, diet is just as important as training if not more. Avoid processed foods, eat a reasonable amount of protein for your weight and training level, and calculate a caloric deficit/surplus based on your goals. Read our article if you want to have a Body 10.

The 4-day Torso-Leg Routine

Access the Fitenium app where you can train this routine for free.

Day 1 – Heavy Torso

Day 2 – Heavy Leg

Day 3 – Light Torso

Day 4 – Light Leg

If you want to go to the gym more days and spin more finely in each workout, this 4-day Torso-Leg routine is a perfect option to continue progressing once we are no longer newbies.

Don’t forget to record your progress and upload it to Fitenium!

If you don’t already know Fitenium is a free, mobile, video-based social network for athletes who train strength or bodyweight exercises. At Fitenium users can follow their performance, compete and get discounts in nutrition and sports equipment stores. Download it here.

Hello Fiteniers, we have recently added a new utility to our platform in which we indicate the 1RM of the lifts with loads that are uploaded to our application. If you don’t know what it means, don’t worry, in this article we are going to explain what 1RM is and how we calculate it.

What is the 1RM?

1RM means One Repetition Maximum, or in Spanish, a Maximum Repetition is simply the maximum load that you can move in a certain lift. For example, if we say that someone has a 150kg deadlift 1RM, it means that you can deadlift a maximum of 150kg at one repetition.

This concept is also applicable to other number of repetitions. That is, we can use the term 2RM to refer to the maximum load that we can move at two repetitions. However, after this clarification, we will focus on what 1RM is and how we calculate it.

What is the use of knowing the 1RM?

We can say that the 1RM is a test to measure our strength to know where we are. If we cannot measure our strength, we will not be able to progress. In general, we only recommend calculating the 1RM in exercises that recruit a large part of the muscle mass, that is, the basic exercises. Examples of exercises where you can safely calculate 1RM are: bench press, squat, deadlift, military press, pull-up, snatch, two-stroke, or barbell row.

The 1RM has been established as a safe and reliable system to measure strength in people of all ages and performance levels, however we consider that for beginner athletes it is not so important to know their 1RM until they have a refined technique that allows them to perform the exercise technique correctly.

How to calculate the 1RM?

There are several ways to calculate our 1RM. The first one is very simple, go to your gym and do the heaviest repetition you can of the chosen exercise :).

However, there are some considerations that we must take into account if we want to know our 1RM without injuring ourselves in the attempt.

1. General warm-up: we must prepare our body to carry out this effort. Increasing body temperature, preparing our joints for the stress they are going to receive and improving our fiber recruitment is key to going for our 1RM safely.
2. Specific warm-up: we are going to imitate the pattern of movement that we are going to carry out with very light loads to stimulate the muscles involved.
3. – Approach: from previous attempts or from series that we have done, we perform approach series with a weight that allows us to do 3-4 repetitions. Depending on the tolerance to fatigue and the time we have, we usually do between 2 and 4 series.
4. – RM test: let’s go for that heavy repetition, we increase the load until we reach our maximum.

The rest between these final series should not be less than 3 minutes to ensure the recovery of the ATP and make a new attempt with all our energy.

I don’t want to go to the gym and do a heavy repetition, what do I do?

Don’t worry, there are ways to calculate our 1RM theoretically with submaximal loads and without having to “go down in the mud”.

There are several formulas for calculating this maximum load, but we opted for expert Matt Brzycki’s, known for his research on strength training at Princeton University.

To make this calculation we need to do a submaximal series with all the possible weight and use that data of kilos moved and number of repetitions to arrive at the target data.

Said formula is the following: 1RM = Weight / ( 1.0278 ( 0.0278 * Number of Repetitions ) )

For example, if we have done a series of ten repetitions with 80 kilos, the formula would be the following: 80 / ( 1.0278 ( 0.0278 * 10) ) = 106.695 ~ 106.7kg

Knowing what 1RM is and how it is calculated is interesting, but don’t worry because with each lift you do we do the calculation for you.

Good luck and we are waiting for you at Fitenium!

If you don’t already know Fitenium is a free, mobile, video-based social network for athletes who train strength or bodyweight exercises. At Fitenium users can follow their performance, compete and get discounts in nutrition and sports equipment stores. Download it here.

In the fourth post of our analysis of influencers fitness from Spain we are going to talk about Strongman Tarrako, the main culprit behind the rise of strength sports in Spain thanks to his particular Viking philosophy and his extremely direct way of communicating, he has seduced a number of athletes in Spain to participate in competitions that determine who is the strongest in Spain

In its beginnings it gained popularity relatively quickly partly because it was already a well-known personality in the world of strength and also because of its innovative content that came to occupy a niche that nobody occupied in Spain with advice, tutorials and other material on training in the basics as well as his famous challenges in which he trained athletes from his gym obtaining great physical and performance results while offering his weekly evolution through the channel.

Born in a small town in Tarragona called Mora d’Ebre but living in the capital of his province for years, this Strongman and Powerlifter has been competing in the world of strength since he was 18 years old. However, to the surprise of many, his first steps with weights were not in that sector but in bodybuilding where he competed at a regional level and honestly without much success. However, he always says that first love is never forgotten and he does not rule out a return to the stage if he gets tired of Strongman and Powerlifting, we would love to see the strongest man in Spain as a bodybuilder!

Having finished his studies in Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Carlos had a job as coordinator of the Tarragona board of trustees and worked in several public gyms in the area, however he could not work well with the Strongman, which was his passion, so gathering some friends set up a Powerlifting club in a shed that was the seed of what we know today as Strongman Tarrako, the national reference in strength sports.

Right now he is in a 1000 square meter plot and has a waiting list to train there since he does not want to overcrowd his training place where everyone is a family. As his beard grew, so did his community and he shared his view of training, nutrition and how to set goals. His outbursts are famous, in which he complained that many people wanted to go far in their sport without perseverance, dedication and above all without enjoying the process.

Como competidor en Strongman y Powerlifting His 11 Spanish Powerlifting Championships, 2 Arnold Classic of Power and the Spanish League of Strength stand out, and at the international level he won the European Powerlifting Championship in 2017 in Poland, the 2018 World Deadweight Championship in Hungary and the World Championship of the WRPR in 2019. Quite a competitive beast who has come to lift 330kg in Deadlift, 315kg in Squat and 230kg in Bench Press with what is clear that he is the strongest man in Spain and one of the strongest in the world.

He has recently announced that he is downgrading from Powerlifting and leaving the Strongman as being over 120kg was taking its toll on his health causing sleep apnea and other problems, so it is likely that the 400kg Deadlift was taking a toll on him. resist since it is practically impossible to reach it with approximately 100 kilos that it weighs now.

Next week we have to analyze The Titan, one of the youtubers that have evolved the most in the last 12 months and that the change in its recent content has given a lot to talk about.

Until next week fiteniers!

If you don’t already know Fitenium is a free, mobile, video-based social network for athletes who train strength or bodyweight exercises. At Fitenium users can track their progress with their powerlifting routine, while getting discounts at nutrition stores and sports equipment. Download it here.

What do you look for in Powerlifting?

Before we get more specific and recommend some powerlifting programs, we need to clarify the fundamentals of powerlifting in order to determine what to look for and what not to look for in powerlifting. It can be summarized in the following:

In Powerifting you do not look for:

• cosmetically improve
• gain muscle mass
• be more functional
• lose fat
• gain speed
• Gain flexibility (although some Bench Press seems to indicate otherwise)
• Gain strength (outside the basics)

In Powerlifting you look for:

• Move more kilos in powerlifting competitions

It may be that we progress peripherally in some or all of these aspects, in fact the strange thing is that we do not gain muscle throughout our progress in the Bench Press, but we have to be clear about what our objective is, since perhaps what we need for our objectives is a mixed strength-hypertrophy routine or Crossfit classes.

On the other hand, we have to put aside the false dichotomy between “good” and “bad” powerlifting routine. That is going to depend more on the athlete than on the routine itself, since for a novice he will progress in his squat by doing sets of 100 squats with body weight, that is to say, it is a good powerlifting routine but, is it the best routine for this? case? The answer is no. It may also be the case that the most optimal program for your progress cannot be executed by the athlete for motivational reasons or lack of time. In this case, the “best” program is the one that adapts to the athlete, even if it is not the most optimal in terms of potential progress.

Fundamentals of Powerlifting

Before we talk about the scientific principles of powerlifting, we need to talk about the process that makes training “work.” Scientific evidence continues to circulate around Hans Seyle’s Theory, the “General Adaptation Syndrome” (GAS). Enunciated in the 50s, it basically describes the adaptation process of our body when receiving some type of physical stress, such as the one it would receive in powerlifting training.

The concept behind this syndrome is that the stress our body receives is “toxic” and when our body receives this stress, it adapts to it and prepares itself to be able to prevent damage from future similar stress. In the case of weight training, our muscles receive stress that results in muscle micro-tears, which are the signal for our body to initiate various hormonal and metabolic responses and “fix” the damage. Through rest and food we repair this damage and obtain the reward of having adapted to this stress. The idea is to use powerlifting principles based on this concept to progress.

• Specificity: in order for our body to adapt to the stress generated by moving high loads in the Bench Press, Squat and Deadlift, we must have a powerlifting routine that produces adaptations in this regard. That is, if you do not perform Bench, Squat and Heavy Deadlift on a regular basis, it is likely that we will not achieve the adaptations that we are looking for.
• Progressive overload: to obtain continuous adaptations over time, we have to expose our body to adequate doses of stress. Once the body has adapted to a certain dose of stress, the results we will obtain will decrease over time if the same dose continues to be applied. To avoid this, we will progressively increase the load to achieve new adaptations.
• Fatigue management: in the same way that we mentioned that in your powerlifting training you must subject your body to doses of stress, the recovery and adaptation of said dose is important so as not to fall into overtraining due to resting too little or to lose these adaptations due to rest too much
• Individual differences: everyone needs a different stimulus to achieve the same adaptations. Different people are capable of assimilating different volumes and workloads per session and this is one of the most forgotten principles in powerlifting. The problem is that highly individualized programs are harder to sell en masse, so this factor tends to be ignored.

What powerlifting routines work?

Sheiko 6-week routine for beginners: This routine has been created by the famous Soviet powerlifting coach Boris Sheiko, mentor to several champions of the discipline.

It is very interesting because it is quite reasonable in the specificity of the exercises, since more than half of all the work is powerlifting exercises or variants thereof. The progressive overload, being a powerlifting routine for novices, is done by self-regulation, so it respects individual differences quite well.

If you want to know more about this powerlifting routine (in the language of Shakespeare), enter here.

Madcow 5×5: This method was popularized by the famous weightlifting coach Glenn Pendlay. The story goes that when one of his athletes complained about his 5×5 set every day, he proposed that if he managed to make a record, he would let him do only 1 set on Fridays. This routine is divided into a high volume Monday, a lighter Wednesday to recover, and a record breaking Friday. The progression is very simple and consists of adding 2.5kg each week to our Friday record.

For more information about the Madcow 5×5 in English, click here.

Bulgarian Method: This method rose to fame through the success of Ivan Adadjiev’s Bulgarian weightlifting team. We mention it because working works, but it is not a system that can be used in the real world since you are basically eight hours training, which was feasible for athletes in the Soviet sphere with the state apparatus behind it but not for people in the real world. . It is said that his basis was to do an exercise, rest/eat for half an hour, and then move on to the next.

This powerlifting routine is done by working to a maximum (DM) and then doing a set of descending (BO) with 70-80% of the weight. Every day we work two basic exercises and then an assistant exercise.

What powerlifting routines don’t work?

• Starting Strength, Stronglifts 5×5: These are good strength routines, but they are not powerlifting routines.
• Jason Blaha 5×5: it is a routine focused on aesthetics, so it is not a powerlifting routine.

conclusions

Really if what we want is to progress in strength, our training should be quite different from that of a pure powerlifting routine, however if what we want is simply to lift more kilos in competitions, we should not go beyond the basics and that it works. Being strong in Military Press is of no use to us beyond the transfer that there may be in Powerlifting, so it does not make much sense to train this exercise.

On the other hand, we can also try different objectives beyond pure and absolute strength, perhaps a powerbuilding routine is what will make us achieve objectives if we are also concerned about aesthetics. The important thing is to enjoy the process and share it with your Fitenium community.