The 80/20 Rule For Incredibe Strength Gains: Part I
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The 80/20 Rule For
Incredible Strength Gains: Part 1
By Mike Mahler
While there are literally hundreds of
strength training exercises to choose from, very few are actually worth
doing. The few exercises that are worth doing are the exercises that
provide the most bang for your buck. In other words, the few exercises
that are worth doing are your ticket to massive increases in strength,
size, and or muscular conditioning depending on what your goals are
and how the exercises are implemented.. I like to refer to these exercises
as the "20% Club."
In the business world there is a phrase
that 80% of business comes from 20% of your clients or customers. As
a result smart companies keep the 20% members happy. Unfortunately many
companies make the mistake of showing more concern for potential customers
rather than current customers. More often than not these companies do
not last too long. Many companies that have a sales team also realize
that 80% of sales are produced by 20% of the sales team. Thus, it is
smart to keep the 20% people happy and incorporate incentive plans to
get them to stick around. A similar philosophy can be applied to productive
strength training. Trainees that ignore the 20% exercises that provide
the most bang for the buck are the same trainees that never make any
meaningful progress. They are neglecting the exercises that provide
the greatest benefit. Big mistake! They fail to realize that the "20%
Club" exercises will produce 80% of their gains. Actually they
may even provide 100% of your gains.
I get a ton emails from people that are
incredulous about the benefits of training programs that emphasize compound
exercises. Compound exercises work several muscles at a time. Some great
examples are: The Clean and Press, Pull-ups, Squats, and Deadlifts.
Many men do not believe they can get big well developed arms without
doing any isolation exercises. On the other hand, many women do not
believe they can tone up without focusing on isolation exercises for
the glutes, inner thighs, and midsection. Of course, the reality is
much different. Kettlebell Swings for example will do much more for
solid glutes than leg extensions. Just ask Senior RKC Brett Jones who
has his glutes squeezed by his male and female clients on a daily basis
(mainly male clients ;-). Fitness star Pauline Norden swears by deadlifts
for building rock hard glutes and hamstrings and she certainly has the
results to back it up. Weighted Pull-ups will do much more for building
big biceps than barbell curls and Military Presses are much more effective
at blasting the triceps than triceps pushdowns. Regardless, of the prevalence
of information highlighting the benefits of compound exercises, I continue
to get bombarded with emails from trainees that want to know the secrets
for well developed arms. They are often shocked when I state that I
do not do any bicep and triceps isolation work and spend 100% of my
time on compound exercises. Moreover, I rarely include isolation work
in my client’s online programs. Instead, I focus on exercises that provide
more value. Not only is this extremely effective, it is also a time
efficient. You can get a full body workout with three exercises or less
and have more free time to enjoy other activities. Great news for people
that have a life outside of training and bad news for stimulus addicted
trainees that have no life outside of training. Here are some of the
20% exercises that will provide 80% to 100% of your gains:
Barbell Deadlift: This
exercise is so powerful that top strength coach Pavel Tsatsouline wrote
an entire book about it, the classic "Power To The People."
The Deadlift works every muscle in the lower body and a ton of muscles
in the upper body. It is a powerful exercise and an exercise that all
men should be doing who train with barbells. Yes, ladies you should
be doing it as well as no other exercise will work your posterior chain
as effectively as the Barbell Deadlift. Since I train primarily with
kettlebells, I like doing high rep Kettlebell Deadlift sets with my
105lb bells. I do 2-3 sets of 20 or one set of 40 as a finisher at the
end of my strength workouts. Kettlebell Exercises such as heavy Double
Swings, Double Snatches, and Double Cleans also offer many of the benefits
of the Barbell Deadlift and are acceptable alternatives.
Barbell Squat:
No other exercise will do more for building powerful legs and overall
size than the barbell squat. Why do so many trainees avoid them? Because
they are brutal and most people are lazy and lack mental toughness.
You can do sets of curls all day long without breaking a sweat. However,
one high rep set of barbell Squats with bodyweight on the bar will leave
most trainees smoked and begging for mercy. The payoff for the suffering?
Massive gains in size and strength. What about ladies who do not care
about strength and do not want size? Well every lady I know wants a
great pair of legs, and no exercise will get you there faster than the
Barbell Squat or at least some version of the squat. Ballet dancers
do tons of bodyweight squats and have incredible legs.
At this point you may be wondering where
all of the upper body exercises are? Lets drive an important point home
before moving forward. The majority of your body is not in your upper
body. According to Dr. Al Sears author of, "The Doctor’s Heart
Cure" "your upper body only contains about 15 percent of your
body’s total muscle mass. If your increased their size by 200 percent,
you would not notice a measurable difference in your body’s total muscle
mass." Dr. Sears goes on to state that working the quadriceps and
hamstrings are the keys to building substantial muscle mass. Yes, men
I hate to tell you this but doing twenty sets of curls and fifty sets
of triceps pushdowns are not the secrets to building a powerful body.
In fact for most trainees doing any isolation work is a waste of time.
Focus the majority of efforts on Barbell Squats and Barbell Deadlifts.
Yes ladies this advice applies to you all as well. One exercise that
falls within the 20% club and provides the best of both worlds is the
Clean and Press. The Clean and Press is so effective that you could
build an entire program around this exercise. In other words, just do
the Clean and Press with heavy weights two to five times per week. Again
the frequency and intensity depends on your goals, individual recovery
abilities, and several other factors that my online clients know about.
Barbell Clean And Press:
I love this exercise and as many of your know, I do most of my weight
training with kettlebells. Thus, I do the Double Kettlebell Clean and
Press a great deal. In fact on days in which I am really busy, I just
do Double Clean and Presses though out the day (Pavel’s GTG program).
For example, I will do five sets of four on the Double Clean and Press
with 88lb kettlebells during the day. I just leave 30 minutes to an
hour in between each set and do 5-6 sets total. In fact I am going to
do a set right now and will be back in a minute. Okay I am back after
a great set and a nice CNS boost. The Clean and Press works the legs,
core, back, shoulders, and triceps. Push your hips forward and look
up at the barbell as it goes up and your bring the chest in as well.
Recently, bodybuilding legend Franco Columbu told me that he and Arnold
used to treat standing Barbell Presses as an upper chest exercise. Franco
stated that it is one of the best exercises for well developed pecs.
I am not a bodybuilder as strength is my main focus, but I do agree
with Franco that the Press is a great drill for pecs. In fact I rarely
ever do floor presses or bench presses and spend most of my pressing
time on some version of the overhead press. Many of the old-time strongmen
used high rep Clean and Presses with heavy weights as an overall body
builder or what I like to call a "man maker." How come no
one does high rep clean and presses anymore? For the same reasons why
most trainees do not do barbell squats, they are damn hard. Of course,
once again the pay off is incredible gains in strength and depending
on how you train and eat, size as well.
In the next issue I will go over some
more killer exercises and reveal some 80/20 programs for gym workouts
and kettlebell programs. Be there.
Confused about productive training? Need
help with program design? Click here: www.mikemahler.com/services