In the first two videos covering his UGSS Presentation, IFBB Pro John Meadows walked through the details of Phases 1, 2, and 3 of his Mountain Dog Training Program. He explained the purpose behind the phases of Pre-Pump Activation, Training Explosively, and SupraMax pump. Now for the third part of this series, John discusses Phase 4, Train Muscle in Stretch.
In this unique phase, the lifter stretches the muscle to improve muscle recovery and growth. John acknowledges the lack of scientific basis for the efficacy of this method, due primarily to a lack of academic interest. If this fact deters you from experimenting with the technique, however, you will miss out on an incredibly effective muscle-builder. Used in different forms by many bodybuilders throughout the years, extreme stretching has shown direct impact on recovery and muscle growth.
WATCH: John Meadows UGSS Presentation — Principles and Phase I
John also spends considerable time discussing what he refers to as Base Workouts and Pump Workouts. He explains how each body part is programmed with these Base Workouts and Pump Workouts, and how to use them to find your optimal training volume and frequency. He gives examples of what a lifter should use to determine their appropriate amount of training frequency — including a discussion of how drug use impacts professional bodybuilders.
Some of John's best quotes from the video:
"He would put you in a stretch position to where you could barely tolerate the pain and then make you hold it for 60 seconds. And then Dante Trudel, super cool dude who did DC training, came along and started loading the stretches."
"Initially I started doing all of the stretching because I felt like it helped with recuperation."
"Ultimately, my lab is the thousands of people that I've worked with over the years. That's my lab. If they tell me something works I'm going to be happy to use it, but if they all tell me it sucks I'm probably going to scratch it from my program."
"If there's a way to make a muscle grow, I want do it. That's my mindset, and you can see how all of this stuff over the years kind of got tweaked."
WATCH: UGSS John Meadows Presentation — Phases 2 and 3
"Okay, John, are you saying I only need to work a muscle once a week? No, not what I'm saying. I did that for probably the first 20 years of my bodybuilding career because that's what we did. We read that in the magazines, right? Lee Haney trained his back once a week, so I was gonna train my back once a week. That's what we all did. But I'm gonna be brutally honest with you and I'm going to tell you that for most people, I don't like that. The reason why it works for most high-level bodybuilders is because of all the drugs involved in the sport. You can have the most ridiculous, stupid training program in the world, but if you respond really well to drugs then it will work for you."
"The hardest part of high-frequency training, in my mind, is pulling back on the intensity some. Let's say you're training your legs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. You can't absolutely destroy them Monday, Wednesday, and Friday like we would do in one of those classic workouts. So you have to dial back the intensity a little."
"The thing you have to realize with high-frequency training is that we don't have unlimited recovery. We just don't."
By the minute:
- (1:16) Lifters who have you used extreme stretching
- (5:22) Repeating Phase 3 after Phase 4
- (6:50) Base Workouts
- (9:15) Balanced Training: are you doing too little or too much?
- (11:39) Pump Workouts
- (13:10) Feeder Workouts
- (14:17) High Frequency
- (17:29) Bodybuilders should learn RPE from powerlifters
- (18:50) What if you want to do an eight-day training week instead of seven?
- (19:52) Training layout example for a lifter with developed legs
- (21:55) Targeting weak body parts
And the if your combining chest and shoulders is that each body part getting one exercise per phase. 4 for chest and 4 for shoulders.
Thanks