Muscle Separation
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Muscle Separation Training
By Don Alessi
http://www.alessifit.com
Bodybuilders can set their watches by it. 12 weeks before the contest, around
the time they decide to cut calories, insecurities emerge like a fat chick at
Dairy Queen. Otherwise self-assured muscle monsters start behaving like paranoid
neurotics. They babble… Am I too small? Am I losing strength too fast? Are
body-for-lifers making fun of me?
This is the time that preparedness pays off. This means shifting your mindset
and having a plan. Why not use this restricted calorie period to your advantage?
How? You ask. By forcing your body to use its huge reserve of energy and
internal pharmacy to build lean, chiseled muscle. It’s simply a matter of
knowing the right strategy.
Get keyed up. Now is the time to strip off the fat and separate that hard
fought bulk into individually cleaved, muscle bundles.
Peanut butter pumped or sizzled lean?
Most of us are familiar with over eating binges leading to unexpected
strength and muscle gains. I remember when a couple buddies of mine were conned
into believing that some plant fungus was a "legal steroid" and proceeded to
force-feed peanut butter by the tub chased with a two liter of full-sugar cola.
The funny thing is they actually got bigger and stronger– for about 2 weeks.
What gives? The bottom line is that forcing calories leads to quick gains. This
works due to excessive insulin release causing maximum osmotic pressure within
the muscle cell. This pressure is actually water, amino acids and energy
substrates (fuel) all super-sized into muscle cells. This causes three
noticeably cool effects; the first is that the extra stored energy can be used
to boost muscular strength and strength-endurance. The second is cosmetic. Water
fills the muscle creating a kind of a "perma-pump" effect. When you then
combined the vaso-dilation (expanding) of the blood vessels to transport these
extra nutrients into the cells, the result is veins and arteries that jump out
like trunk lines. The third effect is the body laying down more muscle tissue to
support and stabilize these bursting muscle cells.
The second lesser known and perhaps more effective time for muscle separation
to occur is during the first weeks of a cutting phase, when training includes
high reps (10-20 or more), low rest (1 minute or less) and high volume. The
sudden restricting of calories below normal shocks the pituitary into releasing
anabolic hormones for survival. Insulin secretion however is at a low point due
to the diminished carb. intake. This means growth hormone is the more abundant
hormone in circulation. What you may not know about growth hormone is it’s
unique ability to pull the other ½ of amino acids into the muscle that insulin
leaves behind. As you may have guessed this is another perfect growth period due
to the muscle building effects of growth hormone and it’s downstream cousin IGF-I
(insulin like growth factor).
Right about now a light bulb should blow in your pointy little head. Yes! You
can combine the two phases for an added effect. Start you diet 16 weeks out and
"ratchet" your carbohydrate and fat calories up and down in two week intervals
such that the average of each four week unit (1 cutting & 1 bulking phase)
brings you down 500 calories. For example, if your average caloric intake is
3500 calories before the diet then;
Week 1&2 2750 calories
Week 3&4 3250 calories
Week 5&6 2250 calories
Week 7&8 2750 calories
Etc…
Separation workout
Unique to the following routine is a "burnout" set performed immediately
after a series of strength sets. This is termed a "combi" set by researcher Goto
et al., or combination strength / hypertrophy sets. They concluded "muscular
protein synthesis can be facilitated by performing a single set of low
intensity, high rep training immediately after a high intensity low repetition
exercise". They speculate that "the increase in blood GH concentration plays at
least one part".
Just when the dust settles from your "combi-set" training the session
includes a series of moderate load, no rest, supersets that use specific angles
and "tricks" to isolate individual heads of the muscle. See along with GH, the
other part of the equation may be due to forced ischemic conditions (lack of
oxygen). It was first discovered in patients with chronic obstructive lung
disease, which limits the amount of oxygen and subsequently raises systemic
blood metabolite levels (like lactic acid). "Both the increase in the numerical
proportion of fast-twitch fibers and muscular hypertrophy was demonstrated to
occur in the leg muscles during ischemia." (Takarada et al.) This is the reason
that bodybuiders can still develop type II fibers using light to moderate loads,
less than 65% of maximum. Moderate loads in concert with short rest intervals
and high volume mirror this unique condition.
Uncoupling-separation training! (Sounds like a form of marriage counseling)
Although I have not seen a formal study, logic would dictate that "fat
burners" including; thyroid hormone, clenbuterol, ephedrine or DNP that increase
uncoupling of the oxidative process used along with a "separation" type workout
would add to the effects. The reason is they share a common mechanism of action.
This would mean greater lean muscle retention and greater fat loss during a
"cutting phase".
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The
30 day muscle separation routine
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