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March 27, 2005
'Fatigue Cycling': Another Secret of the Russian Bodybuilding Underground
Scientists who study complex systems - the human body is one of them - know that in order to thrive, these systems must teeter 'on the edge of chaos'. To use a political analogy, a country with no structure, anarchy, is doomed. And a totalitarian state with too much structure such as the Soviet Union is bound to stagnate eventually.
If the training schedule is totally erratic, there is no structure or direction. You get very sore but you are not building much muscle and even less strength. If, on the other hand, your training hardly changes at all, you will hit the wall and stay there for years. What is required is enough change to stimulate gains but not too much, so your training does not lose its focus.
Until now the only surefire way of doing this was powerlifting style cycling. You stick pretty much to the same exercises but after reaching a PR you back off to very light weights to make your muscles get somewhat out of shape and become responsive to training again. The author of Brawn Stuart McRobert aptly named this process 'softening up'. Although hard to handle psychologically, cycling is the only training structure that is reliable over a long haul.
Not any more. The Russian 'fatigue cycling' technique is another dependable plateau buster in your strength and muscle building toolbox. The routine maintains the structure (the same exercises, sets, and reps) but jolts the system with the fresh stimulus of a new exercise order.
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Posted by james at March 27, 2005 5:55 AM
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Posted by: eabftigxjo at August 12, 2007 8:48 AM