# Evan Centopani training articles



## hsmann87 (Jun 22, 2010)

*TRAINING INTENSITY*

n·ten·si·ty: 1: the quality or state of being intense ; especially: extreme degree of strength, force, energy, or feeling. 2: the magnitude of a quantity (as force or energy) per unit (as of area, charge, mass, or time)<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

In·tense: 1. a: existing in an extreme degree (the excitement was intense) (intense pain) b: having or showing a characteristic in extreme degree (intense colors) 2. marked by or expressive of great zeal, energy, determination, or concentration (intense effort)3. a: exhibiting strong feeling or earnestness of purpose (an intense student) b: deeply felt<o></o>

As bodybuilders we often ask ourselves, "Is my training intense enough? Am I pushing my body hard enough and getting the most out of my training?" We have all fallen victim to the "more is better" mentality&#8230; If it's easy it can't be effective, I have to give 110all the time, focus and drive have to be the backbone of my training. I don't know if that's all true, but before we can say how important intensity is to our training, let's define training intensity. <o></o>

When I think of intensity, I think of drop sets, super sets, forced reps, any training technique that enables you to push past the point where you would normally stop. The goal is fatigue and consequently, failure. I would definitely say that in order to reach failure, you need intensity. But what is failure? We tend to think of muscle failure as the point in which your muscles can no longer contract. Why? From my understanding, your muscles fail because they run out of neurotransmitters and they can no longer fire or carry the signal to fire. To the best of my knowledge, and I'm certainly not a medical professional, muscle failure is directly related to your nervous system, just like overtraining. <o></o>

I've heard people say that the main objective of training should be to "train" your nervous system. These people say that doing heavy compound movements such as squats will have a profound effect on your nervous system, and in turn your body will crank out a synergy of hormones such as testosterone, growth hormone and IGF-1. I was always told that if I wanted to grow I needed to squat and deadlift, because aside from making my legs bigger it would lead to a hormonal surge that would help induce growth all over. Is that true? I don't have any scientific data but I can confidently tell you that I have seen great gains in my entire body after making squats and deads a fundamental and consistent part of my training.<o></o>

Okay, back to intensity. What I want to know is can training intensity exist even if you don't do drop sets, super sets, giant sets or any of the other principles used to promote muscle failure? For example, I want you to think of the most intense triceps training routine you can imagine. Maybe it's giant sets over and over, using tremendous focus and taking little time in between sets. Now compare that to heavy squatting. Maybe you only do ten sets of squats and you rest five minutes between sets whereas with the triceps routine you do upwards of twenty sets all together and you're doing super sets with very little rest between sets. Which is more intense? Off the bat, the triceps routine looks rough&#8230; But ten sets of squats is no picnic either. The one thing I can say for sure is that I would feel far more spent after the squat workout. There is nothing really that intense about it; it's just ten straight sets with ample rest in between. However, I know for sure that my nervous system would be shot after the squats. <o></o>

So, what's the point? My point is that there's no such thing as giving 110all the time. That's a ****ing myth. First of all, 110is ****ing impossible. Second, how the hell would anyone even know if they were at 100 You can always give more. We're talking about physical potential here, and regardless of the type of potential we're discussing, I believe it's impossible to ever reach your full potential. Even if you did, how could you be certain you had arrived at it? There's no way of knowing. There are too many variables involved, and you will always be able to say that you could have done something differently that may have positively effected your results. People tend to think that if you are to reach your full potential then you must subject yourself to the most painful and trying measures. I don't believe that being the hardest working bodybuilder makes you the best or most successful. Bodybuilding is not simply about subjecting yourself to the greatest amount of pain and suffering possible. Training eight hours a day won't make you bigger and eating one meal a day won't make you more ripped. Effectiveness is not solely dependent upon the level of challenge. To me, being a good bodybuilder means knowing what to do, when to do it and how much of it to do. <o></o>

Intensity is a key element in successful training, no doubt. But don't fall into the "more is better" train of thought. You could dream up the craziest, most hardcore and difficult routine and follow through with it, but that doesn't mean it's what's necessary or needed. I believe in controlled intensity. Your intensity has to be directed and used in a way that gives your body exactly what it needs. You have to be able to recognize intensity because it comes in all forms. Almost anything can be intense if it is done right. Kind of like "it's not what you do, but how you do it." Sometimes parts two and three of the definition of intense say it all. On one hand, you can train with focus, determination and zeal. I relate this to the crazy triceps workout with giant sets and drop sets and small rest intervals. On the other hand, there's the part of the definition that refers to the strength of the feelings elicited. I relate this more to the squat workout and feeling nauseous and totally spent afterwards. <o></o>

The bottom line is that training has to be a combination of different types of intensity. It has to be both squats and leg extensions. You have to pick your battles. Some days you're gonna suck and some days you're gonna break new ground. But if you are able to create the right type of balance by recognizing what is necessary, how much to do and when to do it, you'll never have to question whether or not you're training has enough intensity.


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## hsmann87 (Jun 22, 2010)

*TRIAL AND ERROR*

I can remember when I first started training with weights. Yup, that's right. Training with weights. Notice, I didn't say I started off bodybuilding. I didn't begin my journey with the intention of becoming a bodybuilder. To tell you the truth, I would have been content with some abs and some beach muscles. Being big or actually having a physique was never what I was after. You're talking about a kid who was fat his whole life and would have given anything to just be skinny. And after practically starving myself and running five miles a day for the first year of high school, I dropped seventy pounds and had arrived at skinny only to realize it wasn't where I wanted to be.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

Okay, so back to weight training. Once I had lost all this weight and no one recognized me I felt the need to put on a little muscle. I was fifteen and didn't have a job or a car so that left me with neither money for a gym membership or a way to get to a gym. But my uncle had some old beat up stuff in his basement. He had an Olympic bench, bar, York plates, and those old cast iron York dumbbells. He had a calf raise too. So I rode my bike to his house everyday and went to town in his basement. It was over the summer and he was working and I was by myself. None of my friends gave a **** about working out and even if they did, I doubt they would have wanted to go work out in my uncle's musty basement. The lighting sucked, it smelled funny and the only mirror I had was an old bathroom vanity mirror that I propped up on a laundry basket.<o></o>

I really had no clue what I was doing. I had a bench, a bar, plates and dumbbells. What I did have was this little ****ty spiral bound book written by Bill Pearl that showed all the free weight exercises and how to execute them. The exercises were categorized according to muscle groups. The book also had a section in it about training splits and some nutrition stuff. Not much. And to tell you the truth, I don't know if I would have really listened to any advice at that point anyway. If you told me that training each muscle one time per week was sufficient I wouldn't have believed you. If you tried to tell me that essential fats were important for muscle growth and that carbohydrates are what I should have been watching it would have fallen on deaf ears. You would have been talking to someone that had changed his body by himself and had done it by not listening to other people and because of that, you would have had no chance of getting through to me.<o></o>

Did my being thick headed hurt me? Maybe. Could I have saved myself a ****load of misguided effort if I had listened to a few people? Most definitely. But to tell you the truth I wouldn't take it back because I learned something else that I notice some people will never learn. I learned how to train. I learned how to read my body. I tested what was too much and what was too little. I sat in a basement with a jumble of free weights and learned how to move each and every one of them the right way. I learned how to feel the muscle working. I decided for myself how each grip, each different bar, each stance hit the muscle differently. There was no gym. There were no TVs or gossiping people or asshole trainers with medicine balls, weighted vests and stopwatches. There were no distractions.<o></o>

I was spared having to look at people doing odd things with the lat pulldown machine or inventing exercises. I can't tell you how many times, once I joined a gym, I saw people and wondered what the hell they were doing and what muscle(s) they were attempting to train.<o></o>

But really, my reason for writing this is not to talk about myself or reminisce on how I got started as a bodybuilder. Rather, I feel the need to stress the importance of trial and error. I want everyone to know that bodybuilding is something that you learn. I can guarantee you that the best bodybuilders are those who have learned that to progress you must be both analytical and critical. Bodybuilding, I'm sorry to say is not simply about how hard you work. If I spent 8 hours a day in the gym I think that would make me a fairly hard working bodybuilder. Agreed? Yes, but not only would it not make me a better bodybuilder, it would make me worse.<o></o>

Bodybuilding is about knowing what to do, how much to do, and when to do it. In my opinion, it's a thinking man's game. Every time I set foot in the gym I do something different. Never once, since I started training, have I used someone else's routine or rep scheme. No two workouts are ever the same. What I do for back one week I may feel is not appropriate the next. One back workout I may do five different exercises and hammer out upwards of twenty sets. The next week, maybe I'll just go in and deadlift until I'm toasted. No one told me to do that. I do that because that's what I want to do and because I feel it will benefit me. Regardless of how simple my eating or training may appear there is a calculated reason for everything I do. Everything from the type of bar I use to the number of exercises to the number of reps to the selection of exercises (or lack thereof) and the order in which I place them is all thought out. I do what I do because it makes sense to me. And in my mind, the only way to progress is to be constantly asking yourself how you feel and how you can make things better.<o></o>

Bodybuilding, life for that matter, should be an ongoing process of assessment and adjustment. Working harder is not always the answer. The hardest working people are not always the most successful. Bodybuilding is no different. You have to use your brain. You have to be able to look at yourself and what you are doing and ask yourself what you can do to improve things. Asking someone else what they do and attempting to copy them will only give you satisfactory results. Forget doing something just because someone else does it. Do your own thing. Find what works for you.<o></o>

The minute you adopt someone else's way of doing something and think you've arrived at the definitive answer is the minute you stop progressing. The most successful people don't give a **** what other people are doing because they decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong and what they are going to do. In a way, some of my best progress was made with limited knowledge and limited equipment in my uncle's basement. Why? Because I didn't have to claw my way through all the bull**** and confusion. I listened to my body and made the changes I had to make. Simple as that.


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