As we have discussed in many articles, videos, and podcasts one of the primary adaptations to resistance training is the growth of muscle mass. Referred to as hypertrophy, increases in cross-sectional area or getting jacked, tanned and juicy as fuck. When you get to be a better, stronger lifter than building new mass is one of the primary ways you are going to gain strength (it isn’t the only way but it is an important factor) as such maintaining as much muscle mass as you can over the coming period of time should be right up there on your priority list. To be honest it should probably be higher on your priority list than force production based adaptations as these have a shorter time frame (you adapt to the training and gain them faster).
What do you know about hypertrophy training?
- Intensity doesn’t seem to be too important to hypertrophy outcomes (https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstract/2017/12000/Strength_and_Hypertrophy_Adaptations_Between_Low_.31.aspx)
- A frequecy of 2x per week is superior to 1x per week per muscle group. There isn’5 enough evidence to support 3x per week being better than 2x per week. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-016-0543-8)
- More volume all things being equal leads to greater hypertrophy response however this is a graded response and eventually you will come across diminishing returns. There are some studies that dispute these trends however it is safe to assume that higher volumes with in reason are a good idea. (https://shapeamerica.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02640414.2016.1210197)
- There is little to no evidence to support tempo training being superior to normal contractions. 0.5s – 8s contractions appear to be effective for hypertrophy training. 10s contractions and greater are inferior and shouldn’t be performed. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-015-0304-0)
- Both eccentric and concentric muscle action are effective for hypertrophy training so a mix of both and perhaps no focus on either would be a better approach. (https://cdn.journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstract/2017/09000/Hypertrophic_Effects_of_Concentric_vs__Eccentric.31.aspx)
What does this mean for training with little to no equipment?
The first thing to note is the good news although training without barbells, dumbbells, and weights might not be as fun it is 100% not a waste of time. So just because you can’t do what you want doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything far from it! If you can maintain the size you have developed or even better put on some size when you go back to training how you want you should notice the transition into training for performance should be much easier.
We should be looking to utilise the following for training to maintain or better yet gain size during periods when we can’t train the way we want to
- You should be training each body part 2x per week maybe 3 if you feel it is more helpful
- We should be looking to include a variety of work for each muscle where possible and we should be looking to perform 2-5 working sets of each exercise.
- The number of reps isn’t really important what is important is the level of muscular effort so we should be training to a minimum of RPE 9 per set or RPE 10 or concentric failure.
- Don’t sweat it there isn’t really much point in getting specific or targeted with shit like tempo or isometrics it isn’t important. The adaptation we are trying to get is general in nature anyway.
- General protocols like 3×10 or 30 sec on / 30 sec off are better than nothing but we can do better. We should be training just as hard if not harder than we normally do only utilising different implements and working on our general condition.
- We shouldn’t only be focusing on muscle size we should be looking at other outcomes which is something we are developing and something we will be advocating.
Looking at either a total body split 3-4x per week or an upper-lower split is going to give us the frequency and trade-off between stress and recovery where we are going to be able to maximize our training week. You could look at doing a bodybuilding split like push, pull, legs off repeat as well as it ticks out main boxes (2x per week frequency and with the right volume and protocols will provide us with the stimulus we need to obtain the adaptation we want).
Whatever equipment we can get our hands-on
- Bands
- Dumbbells
- Kettlebells
- Back packs fileld with water bottles or books
- Press up handles
- Chairs
- Desks
- Pull up bars
- Parrallets
- Occlusion bands
- Barbells
- Weights
- Sacks of concrete or sand bags
- Buckets or water or tins of paint
- Dogs, Humans partners
- The fucking kitchen sink
Anything you can use to increase the external resistance or to put more work on the muscle the better.
Make use of protocols that can help to increase the intensity of the exercise without increasing the external resistance
- Occlusion training
- Pre-fatiguing the muscle
- Supersets
- Giant sets
- Circuits
- Exercise density (as much work as you can do in a condensed period of time)
- Isolation training
What about occlusion training?
If you haven’t read about or heard about occlusion or blood flow restriction training then the following should serve as a quick primer
Blood flow restriction training (also abbreviated BFR training[1]) or occlusion training is an exercise approach whereby resistance exercise or aerobic exercise is performed whilst an occlusion cuff is applied to proximal aspect of the muscle[2]. In this novel training method, limb blood flow is restricted via a cuff throughout the contraction cycle and rest period. This results in partial restriction of arterial inflow to muscle, but, most significantly restricts venous outflow from the muscle[3]. Given the light-load nature and strengthening capacity of BFR training, it can provide an effective clinical rehabilitation stimulus without the high levels of joint stress and cardiovascular risk associated with heavy-load training [4] – wikipedia 2020
Occlusion training is on paper perfect for the situation we are in. The protocol calls for low load training (10-30% of rep max) for high reps and limited rest periods. Most of the research on blood flow restriction or occlusion training is for its use during rehabilitation training however it was initially invented by a Japanese bodybuilder. There are also studies showing it to have a significant effect on healthy and well-trained populations such as this 2014 study done with collegiate athletes using knee wraps to occlude squat (https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Fulltext/2014/08000/The_Effects_of_a_7_Week_Practical_Blood_Flow.23.aspx).
Blood flow restriction is a novel training methodology and not something we will be using to form the cornerstone of this approach however it is effective and simple to implement if you have the correct equipment. We will advocate you to utilise it 1-2x per week as a novel way of increasing the exercise intensity given the limited scope for increasing external resistance. Meta-analysis has shown lower frequency BFR (2-3x per week) training to be more effective than higher frequency (4-5x per week – https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00421-011-2167-x).
The protocol we will be using for occlusion or BFR is the following
30 reps
30 seconds rest
15 reps
30 seconds rest
15 reps
30 seconds rest
15 reps
This is one of the many protocols you can use the main things you should be looking to do is to do low load, high reps, insufficient rest. We are looking to induce local fatigue in the muscle we are trying to work.
Exercise Selection
Before we put a program together we should be putting together the exercise selection available to us so we then can put it into our structure. The following is in no way an extensive list but it should provide you with some ideas.
Lower Body
| Muscle group | Calves | Quads | Adductors/Hamstrings | Glutes/low back |
| Exercise options | All variations can be done on one or two legs standing calf raise, bent knee calf raise, seated calf raise, walking calf raise | Squats, lunges, step ups, split squats, sissy squats, banded or weighted leg extension, Bulgarian split squats, walking lunges, Cyclist squats, Pistol squats | Swings, Single leg deadlifts, good mornings, weighted hamstring curls, cossack squats, lateral lunges, Adductor raises, hamstring slides, adductor slides | Single leg thruster, double leg thruster, single leg bridge, super man, hyper extension, rev hyper |
Upper body
| Muscle group | Chest | Upper Back | Shoulders | Arms |
| Exercise options | Press up, press up on knees, band/weighted flys, close grip press ups, press up from deficit, press up to block, Parallel Dips | WG pull up, chins, Neutral grip pull up, towel pull up, towel/trx rows, inverted rows, Upright rows, rows, rows from press up position, fat man pull ups, rev flys, KB Row | Pike press up, handstand push up, lat raise, front raise, rotator cuff work with bands, KB bottom up press, KB Snatch, Overhead press, arnold press, cuban press | Cable curl, Cable pushdown, single arm curl, hammer curl, over head extension, TRX or towel curl, TRX or towel extension, close grip press up, tricep dips, occlusion curl + extension |
We should be looking to hit about 2x exercises per session for each muscle group and hit it with 2-5 sets that way we will be getting 8-20 total sets a week of work that is working the muscle hard which should put us in good space for either maintaining or building muscle mass. A lot of exercises will have cross-talk as well when we do a Bulgarian split squat for example not only will the quad be working but the glute and hamstrings will be co contracting and contributing to the movement.
Putting together a simple lower / upper split
Session 1 – Lower
Circuit 1
A – Quad focus – 1 set to RPE 9
B – Adductor / Hamstring focus – 1 set to RPE 9
C – Glute / Low back focus – 1 set to RPE 9
D – Calf Focus – 1 set to RPE 9
3 – 5 min rest
3 rounds
Circuit 2
Pre fatigue or Occlusion training
A – Quad focus – 1 set to RPE 9 – 10
B – Adductor / Hamstring focus – 1 set to RPE 9 – 10
C – Glute / Low back focus – 1 set to RPE 9 – 10
3-5 minutes rest
2 – rounds
Session 2 – Upper
A – Chest focus – 1 set to RPE 9
B – Upperback focus – 1 set to RPE 9
C – Shoulder focus – 1 set to RPE 9
D – Arm Focus – 1 set to RPE 9
3 – 5 min rest
3 rounds
Circuit 2
Pre fatigue or Occlusion training
A – Chest focus – 1 set to RPE 9 – 10
B – Upper back focus – 1 set to RPE 9 – 10
C – Shoulder focus – 1 set to RPE 9 – 10
D – Arm focus – 1 set to RPE 9 – 10
3-5 minutes rest
2 – rounds
Session 3 – Lower
Circuit 1
A – Adductor / Hamstring focus – 1 set to RPE 9
B – Glute / Low back focus – 1 set to RPE 9
C – Quad – 1 set to RPE 9
D – Calf Focus – 1 set to RPE 9
3 – 5 min rest
3 rounds
Circuit 2
Pre fatigue or Occlusion training
A – Adductor / Hamstring focus – 1 set to RPE 9 – 10
B – Glute / Low back focus – 1 set to RPE 9 – 10
C – Quad focus – 1 set to RPE 9 – 10
3-5 minutes rest
2 – rounds
Session 4 – Upperbody
A – Upperback focus – 1 set to RPE 9
B – Shoulder focus – 1 set to RPE 9
C – Chest focus – 1 set to RPE 9
D – Arm Focus – 1 set to RPE 9
3 – 5 min rest
3 rounds
Circuit 2
Pre fatigue or Occlusion training
A – Chest focus – 1 set to RPE 9 – 10
B – Upper back focus – 1 set to RPE 9 – 10
C – Shoulder focus – 1 set to RPE 9 – 10
D – Arm focus – 1 set to RPE 9 – 10
3-5 minutes rest
2 – rounds
This gives us a good framework we can use to piece together a program regardless of the equipment you have available in the next installment we will discuss how you can use this time to become more robust and to focus on some general conditioning to prepare yourself for the more voluminous and intense barbell training to come when you get back to full training.
Marc