We are going to start sharing a 3-day routine with all our followers so that everyone who wants to start in the world of weights.

These types of 3-day fullbody training programs are the most recommended for people who are new to the world of weights and for people with little time who cannot go more than three times a week. It is the most efficient way to progress both in strength and hypertrophy since every day we touch all muscle groups emphasizing compound movements and with a high volume of training since we have a rest day between training days.

There are many variables to progress in hypertrophy or strength: volume, intensity, density, rest, so let’s not make the mistake of thinking that this 3-day routine falls short because you only train three times a week. It’s the best way to lay a solid foundation to then opt for other training options that are more suited to our goals.

Guidelines:

1. Weekly Division of the Routine:

Monday: Routine A
Tuesday: Active Rest
Wednesday: Routine B
Thursday: Active Rest
Friday: Workout C

We must leave a rest day between days of training for proper recovery and avoid injuries.

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:

This routine has a great weight of multi-joint exercises to lower repetitions, so in order to maintain performance you have to have long rests between series. The rests are variable according to our sensations or you are afraid to rest 4 minutes if you feel fatigued before your last series of Deadlift, but if you feel fresh go for the next concentrated series.

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. Change of routine

Many people wonder how long we can do this 3-day routine and still get results, the answer is simple until you get tired! If you like training this way, it fits your lifestyle and you keep making progress, there is no reason to change this routine for another. If our objectives change or we want another distribution of days, we can opt for another type of routine such as torso-leg (4 days), pull-push (4 days), divided routine (5 days) or push-legs (6 days).

Our recommendation is that if you are a beginner, stick with this 3-day routine for at least 12 weeks.

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 Perfect Body

The 3 day routine

Day A:

Day B:

Day C:

With our 3-day routine and the complementary information, you can now go to the gym and start hitting the irons. 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, 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!

When speaking of “squat” it refers to the full or deep squat exercise. This article will review the squat in detail as it is well known that the squat is an exercise that directly strengthens the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, erector spinae, and triceps surae. Apart from the fact that it involves a series of synergistic muscles that contribute to the execution of the exercise and balance.

In this series of articles we deal with some of the most important concepts of strength training, collecting notes from the recently published book Strength, Speed ​​and Physical and Sports Performance written by renowned researchers Juan José González Badillo and Juan Ribas Serna.

Summary

• Squats will do more to prevent knee injuries than any other exercise.
• If the exercise is performed with a correct technique, it is trained progressively and supervised by experts in the training of this exercise, the squat is presented as a training to protect against injuries and improve the strength of the lower extremities.
• The squat is the main exercise that can be practiced by any athlete who wants to improve their physical performance by doing any exercise that is not the actual practice of the specific exercise.
• Healthy non-athletic users would still have less risk because the loads used, the frequency of training and the stress would be much lower.

It has also been possible to verify through the studies analyzed in this text that it has a significant effect on the ability to jump and acceleration. In fact, it has been proposed that higher sprint performances are achieved by greater application of force against release, not by more rapid leg movements (Weyand et al., 2000).

Naturally, this greater applied force can only be achieved by improving the strength of the previously mentioned muscle groups, as momentum in the stride is directly dependent on the strength of the gluteals, hamstrings, triceps surae, and quadriceps. From the functional point of view, when comparing the effect of training the squat, half and quarter squats, only the squat could be considered as an effective exercise to improve strength, because only the degree of flexion of the squat provides the morphological and neural stimuli required for the hip and knee extensors to positively influence acceleration processes (Hartmann et al 2012).

only the squat could be considered an effective exercise to improve strength

In another study in which the effect of training with loads from 60 to 80% of the RM was compared in the squat, the squat to the parallel and the half squat. This means that executing the squat exercise allows an effect that is even above the effect due to the specificity of the exercise itself evaluated. In addition, the squat had the greatest effect in CMJ, 20m run and Wingate test, while the half squat did not improve in any of these three variables and was the only one that experienced a significant increase in the physical disability test (pain, rigidity, functional disability) (Pallarés otal.. 2019)

Traditionally it has been considered that the squat was detrimental to the knee joint, but this does not seem to be very justified. Escamilla (2001) concludes that the squat (to parallel) does not compromise knee stability and can properly reinforce stability. Although he still has reservations about flexing anything more than parallel.

Its embargo, Hartmann et al. (2013) consider that with greater flexion of the knee joint, a displacement of the contact areas of the knee components occurs with a continuous enlargement of the retropatellar articular surface, which leads to lower retropatellar compressive stresses. .

Both menisci and cartilage, ligaments, and bone are susceptible to anabolic processes and structural adaptations to their function in response to increased activity and mechanical stress. Therefore, concerns about degenerative changes in the femoral tendon complex and the apparent increased risk of chondromalacia, osteoarthritis, and osteochondritis due to the squat are unfounded (Hartmann et al., 2013).

It must be taken into account that for the same relative load, when doing the half or quarter squat, the pressure on the joints of the back, hips and knees is much greater, so the risk of excessive stress is also applied. is.

squats will do more to prevent knee injuries than any other exercise

Parker (1992) says: “squats will do more to prevent knee injuries than any other exercise” (p.28). And he continues: “many trainers believe that squats are dangerous for the knees. Nothing is further from reality”. Squats are a staple exercise in the New York Giants (the football team this author coaches) program, and will be for sure in the future.

Poliquin (1992, p. 28), in making the initial diagnosis before planning the training of Jadson Logan, hammer thrower, found that the athlete had been plagued with knee pain for the past eight years. This pain was caused by the continued use of the so-called “safe squat”, “safe squatting”, that is, by the half squat.

To avoid this, this type of exercise was changed to the full, deep squat: the posterior part of the thigh had to cover the calves at the deepest moment of flexion. After six weeks of training, the athlete reported no pain, improved his position in the hammer throw twist, and achieved better results than ever in the vertical and horizontal jump.

Therefore, if the exercise is performed with a correct technique, it is trained progressively and supervised by experts in the training of this exercise, the squat is presented as a training to protect against injuries and improve the strength of the lower extremities.

Contrary to popular belief, the squat does not contribute to increased risk of passive tissue injury (Hartmann et al. 2013). Given its positive effects for carrying out practically all sports actions in which the legs are involved and its protective effects against possible injuries, the squat is the main exercise that any athlete who wants to improve their physical performance by doing any exercise other than their own can practice. practice of the specific exercise.

The squat is the main exercise that any athlete who wants to improve their physical performance can practice.

Regarding the way to perform the squat, a series of considerations must be kept in mind, a squat can be considered complete if it is exceeded, even slightly; the horizontal of the thigh with respect to the ground. That is, it is not necessarily about forcing the maximum possible flexion.

The greater or lesser flexion will depend on the joint mobility of each subject, and it is never recommended that the flexion be the maximum possible if the subject has high joint mobility. Therefore, in all cases, and especially in subjects with some joint laxity, due to their low muscle-tendon rigidity, it should be recommended that the last degrees of flexion are not reached and that the subject not relax in this phase, losing the correct posture of the lumbar zone, which must remain straight throughout the execution of the movement, nor that it make a marked “rebound”, excessively fast, at the moment of the eccentric-concentric transition.

On the other hand in the flexion phase (eccentric phase) in its entirety a high speed must not be reached.

Another important aspect is the load with which this exercise should be trained. As a training exercise, you should never perform a squat with the maximum load (1RM), nor a training or an estimation of strength with the maximum possible number of repetitions per series (the “famous” 6RM, 8RM, 10RM, 15RM. ..) That is, the “character of the effort” should never be the maximum.

Nor should MRI be used as an initial test to program training. For this, as indicated, the execution speed is taken as a reference, and in the event that it cannot be measured, the guidelines in this article must be followed and applied in relation to what to do when the speed of execution cannot be measured. execution.

Throughout the text, extensive information is given on the loads for training this exercise. Most of the exercises that are carried out in sports produce significant stress on the knees. Practicing sports as diverse as alpine skiing, soccer, hockey, tennis, jumping, weightlifting, badminton… and many others cause much higher stress than a full squat performed correctly and with the proper loads.

Moreover, many of the injuries that occur in these sports, except weightlifting, may have a lot to do with the weakness of the muscles that protect the knee, which can be correctly stimulated with the deep squat. Whoever considers that this exercise is not suitable for someone or something is in charge of showing the reasons.

Extensive experience using this exercise, apart from studies aimed at analyzing its mechanics, risks and effects, favorable, in some cases, as a means of protecting against injuries, allows us to affirm that there is no reason to justify against its use, and that However, there are reasons to apply it to the entire population that practices sport.

Healthy non-athletic users would still be at lower risk because the loads used, training frequency and stress would be much lower. Obviously, if you suffer from a knee injury, the situation would change, but the experience of having applied this exercise to athletes (top-level soccer players) with great benefit for the recovery of injured knees and cruciate ligament surgery is taken into account.

The squat is the main exercise that any athlete who wants to improve their physical performance can practice.

Other athletes to whom this exercise has been applied with great success for their sporting results and without a single case of injury or discomfort in the knees during a long time of training, were, for example, the national track cycling team ( speed), who went from being able to perform approximately a squat with 105-115 kg in some cases, or 150-160 kg, in another, to being able to move 160-170 and 190-200 kg, respectively, improving their performance in competition . No athlete presented the slightest knee problem.

During all this time, neither 1RM nor training with a “maximal effort character” was ever performed. The women’s field hockey team (1992 Olympic champion) trained with this exercise for three years, each year improving their vertical jump, their time in 15-30 meters and their threshold speed (the so-called second lactate or anaerobic threshold) were runners-up in Europe (lost final on penalties) and there was not a single knee or back injury.

The training carried out was even less stressful than in the case of the cyclists. Other examples with the same results are soccer players who have participated in World Cups and other top-level youth of their ages, top-level volleyball players, or 400-meter runners.

Conclusions about the squat

As a summary of the advantages of the squat exercise, the following is indicated:

• During the full squat, the full range of motion is used in the sagittal plane of the knee and hip joints and quite a bit of range of the ankle. This causes all the components of the connective tissue of said joints to be stretched, thereby giving these tissues stimuli to adapt to great stresses at angles of extreme magnitudes, which probably improves the rigidity of these tissues in extreme displacements.
• The use of full ranges of joint movement probably leads to the distension of the sarcomeres in the most homogeneous way possible before a shortening, accustoming the system to make the “strong” sarcomeres work against the “weak” ones, so that the whole of the fiber (or muscle fibers) get the most out of it.
• Activating a fiber in different ranges of stretching provides advantages when it comes to obtaining the best moments in the length-tension curve of each fiber, especially in penneate (non-linear) muscles. As well as the possible increase in the length of the fascicle, due to the contribution of sarcomeres in series.
• When a fiber is stretched beyond its normal range, the risk of breaking some Z line and, above all, some T tubules increases, which would lead to local contractures within a fiber and an increased risk of total fiber rupture. But the fact of accustoming it to working in wide ranges of stretching probably adapts the sarcolemma and, therefore, the tubule system itself to work in those conditions with less risk of complete fiber rupture.
• Probably the degree and form of the recruitment of motor units within a muscle is different depending on the range of movement, one of the reasons is that at different moments of force, different recruitment and synchronization requirements, due to the participation of large muscle groups of coordinated way.
• The articular cartilages and menisci are maintained thanks to the stimulus that Ssupposes the rubbing of a load, intermittently, on them. When you only work in a short range of movements, a part of the cartilage stops receiving adequate stimuli and before a sudden shock in the less stimulated region it can be injured. Something similar, but with tensions instead of pressures, happens with the ligaments. Today it is known that the innervation of the ligaments is important to maintain the tone and hypertrophy of some muscle groups of the joint in which the ligament is located. The stimulation positions of the ligaments are not exactly known, but it is known that they work in joint positions in which the muscles have little to do (this seems to be precisely one of their functions, that the muscles can relax in certain angular positions). of the joint) It is also likely that when working in positions with a wide range of joints, the synergy of action between ligaments and muscles (especially of the elastic elements of the latter) increases.

If you don’t already know Fitenium is a free, mobile, video-based social network for athletes who train strength or bodyweight exercises. In Fitenium users can share the progress you get from training, so we look forward to seeing how you warm up for squats. Download it here.

Warming up is key to our progress in training as a good warm up will reduce, but not eliminate, the chances of injury. Many do not give any importance to the warm-up and even say that “it’s lazy”, then come the discomfort and knee pain because they were not able to find out how to warm up before doing squats.

On the other hand, the squat warm-up has several positive effects on our training, such as the following:
– flexibility improvement
– performance improvement
– increased lubrication of the joints
– less risk of injury

Our warm-up for squats is divided into the three joints we have in our lower body: hip, knee, and ankle. It is important to have all three joints lubricated when we are going to do squats or any other lower body exercise. This squat warmup is valid for any lower body workout so you can use it for lunges, deadlifts, or any other exercise.

warm up for squats: part 1 ankle

Ankle Rotation: 10 Reps with each foot
Ankle Activation: 10 Reps with each foot
Ankle Mobility against the Wall: 10 Reps with each foot

squat warm up part 2 hip

Hip Rotation: 10 Reps
Hip Stretch: 10 Reps
Unilateral Hip Stretch: 10 repetitions with each leg

squat warm-up: part 3 Knee

Knee Flexor Stretch: 10 Reps per leg
Knee Rotation: 10 Reps
Bodyweight Squat: 10 Reps
Deep Squat Pose: 30 Seconds
Pike Squat: 10 Reps

With this squat warm-up, you will be ready to start approaching to start your squat routine, share your training at Fitenium, we are waiting for you!

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 follow their performance, compete and get discounts in nutrition and sports equipment stores. Download it here.

In case you’ve been training in your garage for 10 years and you haven’t noticed, Powerlifting has long ceased to be a discipline practically exclusively for men. In the United States alone, women’s powerlifting has doubled the number of female competitors since 2019 and this number only takes into account competitive powerlifters and not the huge number of women who powerlifted in the privacy of their gym.

Historically there has always been a series of negative stereotypes about female powerlifting, many people have an ideal of the extremely thin female body with hardly any muscle mass, but fortunately this trend is reversing in recent years as society increasingly values more physiques. functional, strong and healthy feminine. The explosion of women doing Crossfit, Calisthenics or the discipline that concerns us in this article: Powerlifting is no coincidence.

It is very important to make it clear that doing Powerlifting is not going to make you lose your feminine figure and be a mass of muscles. In fact it is completely the opposite, lifting weights will make you gain muscle mass and lose fat, you will have a much more feminine figure and everything “in its place”. Let’s assume now that you have to leave the 2kg pink weight and start moving real iron, and women are perfectly capable of training heavy.

We believe that soon, any woman will be able to enter the gym and see another woman doing Powerlifting to help her get started in the world, however until then we have a series of recommendations if you are going to start lifting irons.

– Get a coach or failing that, a program: as we have been commenting, if you are going to start in Women’s Powerlifting it is very important to have a scientific and intelligent approach. For this, if we can access a coach (preferably live) our progress will be much greater and safer, but if this is not the case, there are general Powerlifting programs that can work quite well. Examples of these programs are Stronglifts 5×5 or Wendler’s 5-3-1.

– Perfect the technique of the basics of Powerlifting: it is related to the previous point, having access to a personal trainer will help you to fine-tune the technique of the Bench Press, Squat and Deadlift. Alternatively, fortunately today there is an enormous amount of information on the correct technique for these exercises. If you master Shakespeare’s language, we recommend Layne Norton’s trilogy of articles: Squat, Bench Press and Deadlift; but in the language of Cervantes we also have the Powerexplosive videos that explain step by step how to execute the basics safely.

– Increases loads: strong Once we have a program and master the exercises, progress in Powerlifting is based on a progressive increase in loads. There may be a problem progressing on the Bench Press if the gym you go to only does 2.5kg plates, so make sure they have at least 1.25kg plates. However, once you are intermediate or advanced, progressing kilo by kilo with 0.5 or 0.75kg discs is ideal.

– Watch your diet: forget about 1000 calorie diets designed to create weak and unhealthy women, in this sport you will need to build muscle and for this you have to eat more. However, this does not mean that you should eat what you want, calculate a diet based on macronutrients and not so much on calories (also), and choose quality ingredients. Protein of high biological value (meat, eggs, fish, whey protein, legumes…), slowly absorbed carbohydrates (oats, whole wheat pasta, potato, whole wheat bread…) and healthy fats (olive oil, avocado, nuts, Serrano ham…) are your workhorses to improve your strength and physique.

– Keep in mind the physical differences: Although men have more capacity to create muscle mass and have a larger torso that makes them capable of moving greater loads in the Bench Press, women have greater flexibility than men, so they will have an easier time doing deep squats. or adopt a better starting position in the deadlift.

There are other particularities such as that women have wider hips and narrower knees and are prone to valgus. This is dangerous and if left untreated greatly increases the chance of cruciate ligament injury. To make up for this deficiency you have to make your glutes stronger and warm up squats with a knee band.

– Women recover better: a study from the University of X suggests that women need mentos time to recover their maximum voluntary contraction (MVC). This may be due to the estrogen levels present in the female sex. On the other hand, it also seems that this affects recovery between sessions, although there is no conclusive evidence in this regard.

– Download every 4 weeks: menstruation is a factor that has a lot to say in our programming. It’s quite likely that on period days you won’t feel as eager to train as hard as you normally do, so it makes a lot of sense to unload at that time of the month. Take into account how the body feels and try to determine when you feel strongest and when you have the most discomfort to plan your training around that. Also do not worry if you gain a few kilos during your period, it is common due to swelling and fluid retention.

– The aesthetic objectives are not the same: Assuming that we all want to get “strong” and that if you do women’s powerlifting you’re going to have to do squats, deadlifts, and bench presses, it’s quite likely that a woman would prefer to develop her glutes more than her quads and isn’t very worried about growing his pecs. This is why you shouldn’t be afraid to stick to a 2:1 ratio in posterior vs anterior chain attachments and back vs pectoral exercises.

At Fitenium we celebrate the increasing adherence to female powerlifting and the elimination of those ridiculous stereotypes that strength training will eliminate the femininity of your body when it is a perfect method to lose fat and have a more feminine figure. Your future self will thank you not only for the increase in self-confidence but for innumerable benefits at the health level, among which the reduction in the risk of osteoporosis stands out according to scientific evidence.

We must bear in mind that those physiques of female Bodybuilders, professional Crossfitters or elite Powerlifters, although they are quite unsightly, are the result of the use of anabolic drugs, since women naturally do not have the capacity to create such a cultural mass. We are aware that these sports are tainted by the indiscriminate use of chemistry in elite athletes, but that should not make us ignore all the advantages that strength training has for women at an amateur level. Transferring to other sports and improving quality of life when you have developed a base of strength and mobility through Women’s Powerlifting will have you wondering why you didn’t start hitting the gym sooner.

We invite you to share your progress in our Fitenium app, where you can upload videos of your workouts and our community will validate the workouts. Join the community!

Would you like to receive more content like this?
Subscribe.
[contact-form-7]

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.

A powerlifting belt is one of those products that any strength athlete should have. But of course, there are many powerlifting belts on the market and with very different characteristics, so it can be difficult to know which type of powerlifting belt is best for you. Don’t worry, in this article you will know what a lifting belt is for, the best material, measurements, how to use it and ultimately everything you need to know if you want to acquire a quality powerlifting belt that fulfills its function.

What is a powerlifting belt for?

A quality powerlifting belt supports your spine making it more stable under heavy loads. This is achieved by the pressure of the belt with your abdominal muscles, leaving everything as a block. That is why belts that are wider in the back than in the abdomen are not recommended, since where they have to press is on your abdomen.

When to use a powerlifting belt?

There are typically two streams of powerlifting belt users. On the one hand are the athletes who do not squat without their belt because the belt offers them more stability and on the other are those who avoid using the belt as much as possible because according to them the abdomen works more without using a belt.

So where is the middle ground? Well, according to a study by Life College in the United States, they studied 5 athletes to perform series of their 8RM with and without a powerlifting belt and they reached some interesting conclusions. First it is important to note that the athletes moved an average of 125.5kg for 8 repetitions, so we can say that they were advanced athletes.

The main difference between the sets with and without a belt was that the intra-abdominal pressure was reduced between 25 and 40% in the sets with a powerlifting belt, which translates into less stress on our lower back. They also noted some differences in the work on the hamstrings and quadriceps, higher in the series with a belt.

The conclusion we reached with this study is that it is very useful to protect the lumbar region in the heaviest series, but abusing the powerlifting belt in all your series can unbalance our lumbar muscles and generate dependence on the belt to work. For this reason, we recommend using the belt when we go to work with series of 3 or fewer repetitions, since that is when our lower back can be compromised and injure us.

Characteristics of the best powerlifting belts

Measurements: the most important width is that of the abdominal area and not that of the lumbar area, which is why, although it does not affect too much if it is wider in the lumbar area, it does not contribute anything special. For most athletes, a width of 10 centimeters is comfortable so that it fits perfectly between the kidneys and the hip bone. However, there may be cases of very small athletes, particularly women, who may do better with a small belt.

On the other hand is the thickness of the belt. The most common sizes are 10 and 13mm, and we recommend using the 13mm ones as they are more durable and robust. In this case, 13mm is the maximum thickness allowed in most powerlifting federations.

Material: Most belts on the market are made of leather or suede. This is quite simple, leather is stronger and more durable, so the best powerlifting belt is going to be made of leather and not some other material.

Closure: There are three types of closure on powerlifting belts: single-prong closure, double-prong closure, and toggle.

Although a double prong closure may seem more secure a priori, taking into account the materials used and the pressure to which the closure is subjected, one prong is exactly as secure and does not have the disadvantage of having to fit a second. tooth which is quite a cumbersome step.

On the other hand, some higher-end seat belts have a lever system that makes it even easier to fasten the seat belt. Therefore, depending on how much we want to spend, a belt with a simple tooth or lever closure are the best options.

How to wear a powerlifting or weightlifting belt.

Now that you know how to choose the best powerlifting belt, you also have to know how to put it on so that it is not useless or even damages your performance.

There is a very interesting trick to know where to put your seat belt, for this follow the following steps:
– Put on your seatbelt and fasten it just enough so that it stays stable. Don’t overtighten it.
– now get into a squat position and lower down to a full squat. The belt will move to where it is most useful to you.
– If we are going to do deadlifts, we recommend raising the belt slightly with respect to the squat position.

Here we can see Niels Gordjin deadlifting 420kg with a perfectly fitted belt.

Some recommendations

Adidas Leather Weightlifting Belt:

This belt is a good option for novice lifters because of its low price and high-quality material. The downside is that it is only 10mm thick so for more advanced lifters it may be a bit short.

Everlast 4 Padded Weight Lift Belt

With a similar price to the previous model, this powerlifting belt has the advantage of being 13mm thick, but the disadvantage of having a double tooth system which makes it difficult to fasten. Likewise, if you are concerned about quality and durability, this model is hard to beat for value for money.

Venum Hyperlift Leather Weightifting

This belt stands out for the high quality of the leather used and for the lumbar padding that provides extra comfort. It’s a great option for intermediate lifters who also don’t want to spend a million dollars on their powerlifting belt.

To #squat or not to squat? Is the #squat bad for the #knees? Does your #back suffer? And the tendons? What’s the smell of clouds?

There are many questions around the squat and above all a lot of hoax. The squat is good for any healthy person. Good for what? For practically everything. They are probably good even for your car.
So now you know, have no doubts and put that ass down!

#atg #leg #butt #lowerbody #workout #barbells #gym

If you don’t already know Fitenium is a free, mobile, video-based social network for athletes who train strength or bodyweight exercises. In Fitenium users can share the progress you get from training, so we look forward to seeing how you do squats. Download it here.