Big Beyond Belief and the 6 “Bulgarian Principles” for Strength and Muscle Growth Plus, Real Bulgarian Training For a couple of decades now, I have pushed the methods that I believe to be the best for fast gains in muscle mass, strength, and power. Unless this is your first time visiting this blog or reading any of my articles, then you are already well aware of what these methods are. I believe, without a doubt, that high-frequency training (HFT) where you train a muscle group or lift at least 3 times per week, along with full-body workouts, and multiple sets of low reps are the superior methods. There are many different workouts, however, that you can follow that use these methods. Most of my personal training, and the methodology that I have used to train lifters I’ve worked with over the years, has utilized, primarily, Bill Starr’s heavy-light-medium system, along with various Russian methods, in addition to the powerlifting ...
Slow Repetition and Negative-Accentuated Training for Renewed Mass Gains I have over many years of writing in several different articles and essays mentioned my general disdain for such things as really slow repetitions, negative-accentuated training that focuses on making the eccentric decidedly slower than the positive portion, negative only training, and “time-based” repetitions in general, where you count a certain number of seconds on the descent, the pause at the bottom of a rep, followed by counting the ascent for another number, whatever those numbers might be. This is despite the fact that there are certain bodybuilding coaches who I admire(d) that have proposed these methods—Charles Poliquin comes to mind. If strength and power are your primary goals, and especially if strength is your sole goal, such as a competitive powerlifter or weightlifter (this might be doubly so for the weightlifter) who needs to st...