Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2015: How to Apply Advanced Training Techniques to Build More Muscle

Episode Date: February 20, 2023

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin discuss MAPS Anabolic Advanced, a new  program that uniquely incorporates advanced training techniques to accelerate muscle growth.  Happy 10-year anniversary to MAPS Anabolic! (1:49) The evolution of MAPS Anabolic Advanced. (2:30) How to make failure training work for you. (4:44) What does the structure of the program look like? (9:44) The value in higher volume/low-intensity training. (12:21) The importance of following the program how it’s written. (17:00) When you train to failure the RIGHT way, you start to learn your limits. (21:41) Weighed stretching does send a muscle-building signal. (23:09) Why are deload weeks incorporated into this program? (29:40) Breaking down each phase and what it entails. (36:45) A caution to the masses when doing this program. (39:44) Who is this program for and not for? (40:48) What is included in the launch promotion? (42:55) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Drink LMNT for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! Special Promotion: MAPS Anabolic Advanced Launch for $97! **Coupon code AA60 at checkout** (Ends February 26th, 2023) The Hidden Science Of Weighted Stretching MAPS Symmetry Resistance Training Volume Enhances Muscle Hypertrophy but Not Strength in Trained Men Muscle fiber hypertrophy in response to 6 weeks of high-volume resistance training in trained young men is largely attributed to sarcoplasmic hypertrophy Mind Pump Free Resources     Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube People Mentioned Ben Pakulski (@bpakfitness) Instagram  

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the world's number one fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Exciting day, it's the 10-year anniversary of Maps Antibolic. And we're releasing a brand new program, Maps Antibolic Advanced. This is not Maps Antibolic plus extra sets, extra volume,

or extra exercises. It's a completely new program, and we break down what's in it. We break down the techniques. This is valuable, whether you follow this program or not. You'll learn some things. For example, you'll learn how to utilize failure training properly. You'll learn how to utilize volume training properly. You'll learn the benefits of weighted stretching, partial reps, deload weeks.

It's a great episode. We know you're going to enjoy it. This episode is brought to you by a sponsor. The sponsor is LMNT. LMNT is an electrolyte drink that helps fuel your workouts. Go check them out, go to drinklmnt.com forward slash mine pump. Now, because this is a launch, MAPS and Abolic Advanced is going to be on sale. So it's going to retail for $157,

but the launch is going to be $97, plus we're going to throw in two free e-books. The first one is Advanced Training Techniques. The second one is the Carb Cycling Diet. So $97, you get the brand new MAPS Antibolic Advanced Program, you get Advanced Training Techniques, you get the Carb Cycling Diet, all if you do it during the launch period, which ends February 26th. So, if you're interested, just go to AntibolicAdvanced.com, so, AntibolicAdvanced.com, and use the coupon code AA60 for the discount, plus the free eBooks.

All right, here comes the show. All right, we got a new program launch. This one's super exciting. Boom! It's Maps, Anabolic Advanced. This is the 10-year anniversary of Maps, Anabolic. So, we created a new Maps program. Again, it's Maps, Anabolic Advanced. So, this one's pretty awesome. 10 years in the making, man. 10 years in the making. How does it feel? Feels great. It's a map's program, again, it's maps and a ball of events, so this one's pretty awesome. 10 years in the making man. 10 years.

How's it feel? Feels great. It's pretty exciting. You actually are in all the videos here too. I know, that was, you guys had to convince me of that. I love that you were a team player by doing that. I know we've hired models to do all the programs since we started and to get you. And the same to some money.

That was really the desire to get the truth. The session coming, the idea was to save some money. Sound good there. Yeah. What's cool though, what I really love about this

program, and when I was listening to you do the launch on the forum, and it's so true, this doesn't look like MAP Santa Ballolic at all. It's really unique. If you think that it's Maps and a Bolic with just more volume or different exercises,

it's not that at all. Explain to the audience the evolution or how you got to there considering that it is so unique compared to M and Abol. It's a totally different program. The reason why it's called Antibolic Advanced, well, there's two reasons. One is it's the 10-year anniversary of Maps and Abol. But the second reason, this one's more important, is that the first Maps and Abol. Excuse me, the first Maps and Abol. Was the culmination of the previous, I don't know, 17 years of experience that I had, both training myself as a kid and then becoming a trainer, training clients, working with other trainers,

managing gyms, doing my research on how the body builds muscle, how adaptation works, the ways that people worked out before steroids became a big deal, different techniques. That was the culmination of all of that experience and knowledge. Now since then, it's been 10 years, okay. And over the last 10 years, I haven't stopped. None of us have stopped reading, researching, learning. In fact, I would say the last 10 years, we've probably learned more than ever because of the podcast, because we've had the opportunity to interview really smart people. We've been deep in the research,

always trying to bring good content. And there's been a lot of things that I've learned since then. And so Maps and Abolic Advanced is now the last 10 years of cumulative knowledge applied to a radically different program. And really the goal was to solve a few problems and to figure out why some techniques work, why they stop working, how can we solve that and put together a program that just blows away what anybody else has done?

And that's really what this is. You think included in this one, some techniques that we don't have in any other maps programs, even some techniques that may seem a bit counter or controversial to what we've talked about before. And so, which I love that we do that. And this is one of those things, like it's never off the table in terms of it being a valid practice

It just has to be program correctly. And so yeah, that was like it's cool that we can get through because we've already established the basic General everyday average person type programs where we're like here's here's like what you mainly need to focus on but also how can we Accelerate this how can we intensify this a bit further, but also make it a quality program? Yeah, I don't ever want to discredit thousands of anecdotes and research when it comes to muscle hypertrophy. So to give an example,

MAP's in a bulk advanced is the first MAP's program where we really program in training to failure. That's one component. There's more than that, but that's one component of failure training. Now, failure training, you've probably heard us, if you've listened to podcasts, you've probably heard us say many times. It's too much intensity most of the time for most people, so just avoid it. And that's true mainly because failure training has never been programmed in a way where any of us

have seen it be consistently effective. Now that doesn't discredit failure training because there is something to it, right? Like Arthur Jones, the inventor of Nautilus equipment, was one of the first people to kind of latch onto this and see that it could produce extremely rapid results. I remember when I first experimented with this as a kid with a heavy duty, this was a book written by Mike Menser, who was a popular bodybuilder in the 70s and 80s, and then Dory and Yates, who was Mr. Olympia, and his style of training was called Blood and Guts,

but it was heavily influenced by Arthur Jones and Mike Menser. And my experience with failure training with myself and my clients was, and why I stopped even trying to advocate for it was It did produce these really rapid gains in muscle and strength But then you would plateau so hard so fast and then nothing would happen and injury would happen or over training Would happen or burnout would happen and so I this whole time over the last 10 years I'm like how can I figure this how can we figure this problem out? How can we incorporate this with its values, but mitigate its negatives? How can we take the benefits, maximize those and minimize the negative?

I remember you talking about that. It was one of those where it could have gone the other way. Like, you could have been like a total evangelist for it because it did produce such great results initially. But then, you know, going through that, they started to go turn into a problematic kind of direction. It did. So there's a few things that I learned through, like I said, over the last 10 years plus previous, when it comes to failure training and how to make it work. One of them is the volume has to be much lower.

And people will ask, well, how much lower should the volume be? It turns out about one third, generally one third the volume of your normal training. So if you do, let's say you did nine sets for a body part, typically, and you stop maybe two reps short of failure, like we typically recommend, but you wanna try trained failure,

three sets is about what you'd wanna do. So one third the volume for failure training, because the intensity is so high, volume needs to be brought down. And this is again what previous people have found, and this is again what I found. When I experimented with this, when I had Doug Trias,

when I had other people try this, when I looked at the literature and the research, another thing was that failure training didn't seem to do very well with low reps. Now low reps have a lot of value. They have tons of value, but for low reps to have value, you got to be able to do a lot of volume in terms of sets. Like, if you're going to do sets of three reps, you typically want to do a lot of sets of three reps. One set to failure with three reps just doesn't seem to be enough volume

or produce enough of a stimulus to cause muscle growth, plus the risk of injury so far. Yeah, like failing on three reps is like, you're using more weight than, or a lot of weight, in the context of how much you can lift. So the risk of injury is high. So I also found that higher reps tends to work better with failure training.

Now, the research is cool with this because if you look at the research, they find that even as high as 30 reps produces great muscle growth so long as you go to failure. So higher reps, less volume, about one third of the volume, and you need to also be able to figure out how to get around the fact that your body adapts so quickly to the style of training. because you do see these really rapid results and then boom within a few

weeks, that's it, your body stops progressing. And so the question was, how can we program other methods and techniques along with this to continue to get the same kind of progress and to avoid those, you know, those heart platforms? So now too, in terms of like the structuring of this program, would you say it feels a little more leaning on the bodybuilder's side or powerlifting kind of side and strength? I know Maps in a Boc was a bit of a combo of both. Yeah, I'd say it's a combination, but probably leaning more towards bodybuilding.

This is a muscle building. I would say on a Boc actuallyabolic actually needs more towards strength, right? Yeah. More towards like powerlifting. So it's very close to, um, I mean, the, the, the foundational exercises that are in anabolic are, are your staple movements that you'd see in almost any inner powerlifting program. But this has a lot more bodybuilder ask, uh, uh, uh, exercises inside of it. Yeah. Well, the goal is with, with, with anabolic, the goal was also just to build a lot more bodybuilder-esque exercises inside of it. Yeah, well, the goal was, with Annabelle,

the goal was also just to build a lot of muscle and strength. This one's the same thing, okay? But if I had to define it, I would say it's more bodybuilding than anything. So, and that's what I noticed, I did get great strengthings following this program, but I built a lot of muscle. There was just a few reasons why I asked,

because there's a couple concepts I know that I've actually seen like a Ben Bukolsky or somebody kind of bring up that I feel like some of these might have been a bit of an inspiration to incorporate. And one of those was the partial reps too that was like a part of this. Yeah, so partial reps. So here's a thing with training to failure.

And I'm gonna get to how I got around the, the fact that your body just adapts so quickly to this. We're going to get to that. But partial reps are an intensity amplifier because what you'll find with trained to failures at some point, you need to make the intensity even higher. So long as the total programming makes sense, you need to increase the intensity in some way to keep getting those results. And there's a lot of different ways to do this.

You can drop sets, strip sets, rest pause, all that stuff. But partial reps seem to be the best. It produced the best results. It was the safest and it caused the least amount of plateauing. And so essentially what that looks like is you would do a set to failure. And by the way, failure is doing as many reps as you can with good form, knowing that the next rep, you're not going to be able to have good form. So it's not that you drop the bar and like literally fail, but rather I do as many as I

can. And I know that this is my last good rep. So that's failure. Then from there in this program, as you progress, you phase in or add in partial reps to that. So let's say I did 10 reps to failure on the bench press. I know that's my last rep. Then I would do like two or three partial reps at the end,

to really just squeeze out that extra bit of intensity. But we should definitely go back and talk about how I got around the, the fact that you plateau so quickly on training to failure. Well, just like there's value in training to failure, low volume high intensity, there's value obviously in higher volume, lower intensity training.

And this is the more popular style of training, it's the more of your traditional style of training. And I noticed that when I trained this way, or trained my clients this way, versus the high intensity low volume way, there were different effects. In the sense that the soreness felt different, like training with going to failure,

the delayed onset muscle soreness happens a little delayed. So like volume training gets soar faster, intensity takes a little longer. The pump feels a little delayed. So like volume training gets soar faster, intensity takes a little longer. The pump feels a little bit different. The CNS response feels a little different. So I thought to myself, I said, you know, I wonder if alternating the adaptation signaling through the program would prevent the quick plateau and would maximize the benefits of both and minimize the negatives of each. And sure enough, that's what I found. So with Maps and Abolic Advanced, what I did is I took

volume training, and I alternated it with a failure training. So you would do a week where you do high volume, let's say, six to nine sets per body part. You know, hit that body part twice a week, so you're looking at 12 to 18 total sets per week for a body part. And then you go the next week would be failure where you're doing like two to three sets to failure. Now, it's not one exercise, two to three sets. It's two or three exercises, one set to failure each. This is something that I borrowed from Doreigni H's

blood and gut style training. The way he trained is he would do like four or five exercises for a body part, but it would be one set to failure. It's this way he was able to hit different angles, especially for large body parts like the back, but also not do too much, you know, volume, you know, with it. So that's how that kind of looks. So when you alternate, it's like your body continues to progress and you maximize the effects of both the pump from the volume, the strength from the failure,

and you seem to not plateau by alternating in this fashion. And of course, the program's phase. So this is my favorite part of the program. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this. I've never seen, like any program I've ever seen that advocates for. It's one or the other. Yeah, yeah, it is. It's one or the other.

I've, to be honest with you, I never even thought to doing that, to toggling back and forth. Was there something that kind of light bulb that went off for you, or like, hey, I'm just gonna try this and see how I feel? I mean, what led to even doing that? Yeah, so the way I felt when I would plateau from failure training, felt different than the way

I would plateau from failure training felt different than the way I would plateau with volume training So I thought You know, they're different stimulus slightly different They are they probably are sending they're both sending a muscle building signal But it might be different enough to where I rest Some aspects of my body with one and stress the other aspects and the other and then kind of flip them right so with failure with failure training, your CNS, you really hammer your CNS. Like you do a set of squats to failure and it is like it is brutal. Taxing on the CNS volume training seems to be more taxing on the muscle itself. It just for lack of a better term. So I said, huh, I

wonder if I alternate them. If I'm gonna kind of alternate the stresses and the benefits and alternate the negatives so that I can keep my body moving forward. And it did, it totally did. When I would do it this way, it was like I would continue to progress every single week. Each week felt like a break from the previous week. Yeah.

Does that make sense? Each week felt new and felt like a break break from the previous week. And then when I would repeat that week two weeks later, I would see myself just be stronger. So like when the volume week would repeat, you know, two weeks later, because I'd go volume failure, volume failure, and so on, I would get better with that. And the same thing with the failure training, which was pretty amazing. Now with the volume training, the lower reps are great.

There's nothing wrong with lower reps. So you'll see the phasing in this program, the rep ranges are different for failure than they are for the volume style. They both scale up as you move through the program. So the reps start here and they continue to go up as you go from phase one, two, and three, but the reps start lower with the volume training

and start higher with the failure training and end up higher with the failure training than they do with the volume training and start higher with the failure training, and end up higher with the failure training than they do with the volume training. In fact, the last phase, you're doing sets of failure in the 20s, which is just gnarly, and is really interesting on how- Super-suteaking, yeah. Oh, yeah, it's really gnarly on how the body responds.

I wonder how many people are gonna be tempted to want to carry the failure training into the volume week. Yep. Yeah, that's probably, I love when we launch something and then over the course of the next two to three months, we'll start getting all the feedback of everybody that's going through it and the things that they were challenged with, the things they love about it. And I predict that this is going to be an area where people will be tempted because they'll just like I remember as a kid training to failure and feeling those results come on or

seeing those strength gains and then been wanting to keep doing that. I bet that's going to be an area where people are challenged. Like, how important do you think it is that these people caution themselves and follow it to a T and not be tempted by the desire to, you know, the following week push the failure training. If you don't follow the programming, you will quickly burn out. That's just the fact. You will 100%. In my experience, because we're flirting with that line in this program and compared

to the failure training. I mean, you're always good programming is always flirting with that line, right? Good programming is is training at the optimal amount of stimulus. More is never better, neither is less. So this program is no different. If you push failure training consistently, your body will plateau hard, so hard that it'll take you weeks to come back to be able to progress. So it's really hard plateau, and the plateau happens at like, you know, week three or four, if you follow this kind of training. In

fact, Mike Menser, this was something he never figured out. And I have so much respect for him because he was one of the first people to question traditional volume training. And now he went too far. He said volume training was was ineffective or whatever. And totally flew in the face of obviously all the other bodybuilders that trained that way. But he would do this where he would, the way he would remedy this, which to his, I mean, really to his fault. This is what, when a lot of people stop listening to him,

is he would have people train three days a week to failure. Then when they'd stop progressing, two days a week to failure. Then when they'd stop progressing, one week to a, one day a week, and then one day every other week, his idea was you just needed more time in between workouts and it just got ridiculous and your body would just stop progressing

This was his this is what he thought the answer was and this is why his program You know people did it and liked it for like a month or two and then we're like this This isn't working. It's exactly what I experienced when I followed it as well as that I you know worked and then it stopped working real fast, real hard. But when it worked, it worked crazy. Like the strain gains were crazy, the muscle gains were crazy. So that's why I was like, I got to figure this problem out because there's got to be something here we can utilize. Rather than, you know, typically what we would do in the past is if we took really hard sets to failure, we would just say something

like do that every once in a great while, is what we would say, and then keep your training the same. Well, this is the hardest part about creating a program for the masses. Of course, we talk on the podcast, we have for years about cautioning people around training to failure, yet we all implemented into our own training, because we know our bodies,

we know where to push those limits, what we're looking for, what we feel to scale back, and we've always known that basic general advice to the audience that they could train forever with never using failure and have great results. Therefore, it's a much smarter strategy for the average person, but does that mean, does that discount the science that supports the benefits of, no, it's there. It's a much smarter strategy for the average person. But does that mean, does that discount the science that supports the benefits of, no, it's there. It's just the risk versus reward. And then, okay, well then how do we teach people how to use this?

Knowing there's gonna be a wide range of the amount that people, the amount of intensity that people can use, what would be a general, and I think what you came up with with this flip-flopping the weeks is absolutely a brilliant way to introduce it to the masses so they can experience failure training, get reaped some of those benefits from that, from what the science supports, but then also teach them how to just stay in check and not overdo it, which again, this is why I think, and why I'm gonna say caution people

that are gonna feel it like it, like I did when I remember I first got introduced to it, and then be tempted to do more of it, that'll be one of the number one pitfalls I see with people following this program is not following it to a tee, loving what they're seeing, and then wanting to do more of it.

Yeah, no, they both have value. When you do the volume weeks, it's about feeling the muscle, getting the pump. When you're going to failure, it's about moving the weight. It really is. It's about moving the weight and keep moving until your form is about to break down.

It's a totally different feel on the body, which also has its own value. Here's something else that I realize. I know this is not necessarily what people don't really think this is a selling point, but for those of us who experience, no, it is. When you're trained to failure and you're doing it right, you start to learn your limits.

Because when I first did this, I would do a set, like let's say squats, because that's a real hard exercise. I'd get to rep 10, I'd be like, oh my God. I think I got one more and I'd do it. And be like, oh no, I got another one. And I'd do it. I was like five reps beyond what I thought.

Failure goes, there's a lot further than you think. And you learn that about your body. And then when you progress, you add the partials. And it's like, you're able to summon an intensity. That's the whole other. You never stress that. You're not going to really know your true potential. And so that's like, but it has to be within a controlled setting, right?

And something that you you evaluate the risk reward. But that's the nice part of having a program where it's all laid out and it's already thought of ahead of time, how to move you back. So that way, you know, you reap the benefit of it. And you don't, you know, go a little bit too far like your normal tendency would be. No, you'll feel what's cool about this is you'll feel each week how different it feels on your body and you'll progress each week as you're training, but it'll feel different as you progress and it's really exciting and fun to do it that way. And it's a different mindset when you go to the gym.

It's a different kind of soreness, really hard to explain, but I promise you, if you try this, you're gonna be like, this is weird, like I'm soar differently on failure weeks than I am on volume weeks. Now that's not the only thing that I included in this that we've never included before, because I also learned a lot. Stretching techniques are awesome, dude.

So here's what's weird. Weighted stretching sends a muscle building signal. Sounds weird, but it's true. There's really interesting animal studies on this, there's studies on humans. There's one famous study where they take a bird and they put one of its wings in this like weighted stretch and that corresponding peck just blows up with size. I've seen that. It's really interesting. Weighted stretching causes muscle growth. Body builders flirt with this all the time.

We know in studies that the stretch portion of an exercise is the part of the rep or the exercise that causes the most muscle growth. So when they compare two exercises, head to head that are similar. If one exercise puts the muscle in a stretch and the other one doesn't, the one that puts it in the stretch

tends to build more muscle. So again, over the last 10 years, this has been something that I've researched and read about and experimented with and learning from people like Ben Pekolsky who does intracet stretching and reading about bodybuilders the past that use this and strength athletes of the past that use this. And I fell on weighted stretching. Static stretching is okay.

The problem with static stretching is we don't have a tendency to activate when we're in that stretch. Right, it tends to be more passive. Passive. Weighted stretching, you have to still support the weight, like holding a fly in the bottom position. I like how it's extension. I almost don't even like calling it like weighted stretching, because to me it is closer to an isometric exercise than it is like a stretch in my opinion. It's a regressing and rain strength. Because you're not just relaxing in that position, you're staying tense.

You have to, I mean, you're holding a weight. Yeah. And so it's different than a stretch. I think it's more, like when I think of one of my favorite things that we did in map symmetry was including the isometric component in did in map symmetry was including the isometric component in there for map symmetry, I really believe that like that was a great way to introduce people to isometrics and the value, right? And then this to me is like an advanced way of

utilizing that same type of science that supports the benefits of isometrics. Now you're using it in a weighted position that I think is an advanced technique, but also extremely beneficial, and also something that a lot of people don't do. Yeah, the reason why I didn't call it isometrics is because the goal is to try to get the muscle to lengthen while you're holding the stretch. So as you follow maps and a ball like you're seeing contract. Right, right. So it's not like I'm just holding a fly. I'm actually trying to get more of a range of motion as I'm going through the, the, the movement. So at the end of every body part in the failure weeks,

because I include it in the failure weeks, because I noticed that it didn't really provide as much benefit in the volume weeks. But when I added it to the failure weeks, whoa, it was like, I would say like five, five percent increase in the results that I got with the failure weeks when I included this. So at the end of a, let's say chest workout, you would get into a stretch position with weights, so like a fly is a good example, and you would hold that position for 60 seconds, 90 seconds, or two minutes. So as you progress through maps and a ball like advanced, you do the 60 second one, then you'll

move to eventually phase two is 90 seconds and so on. So the goal is to increase the range of motion. Now here's also why it's different from traditional isometrics. With isometrics, I'm trying to activate. With this, I'm trying to lengthen. But I'm lengthening with weight. So the isometric is almost like a byproduct. You know, rather than I'm just relaxing and I have to activate to something, I mean, I can't just completely, I'll drop the dumbbells or tear something.

So the isometric component's there, but it's hypertrophy-based because it's in the stretch position versus activation-based, where most isometrics are about activating This is like this is tapping into the very strange hypertrophy effect of Holding a long stretch and and it doesn't cause Much damage at all. So it was a great way to add to the program It also had this benefit that I didn't see coming, which was the pump that came from it. Yes. Like what a cool benefit to pair that with the lower volume failure training is to add

this weighted stretch component, which then also pumps the muscle like I'm high volume training. So that was a really cool unique thing that I didn't see coming until we actually did it. Yeah, so you get into like, let's say you do your two or three sets to failure for a chest, then you go and hold it. You already got to, you got to do some pump, right? Then you go in and stretching, doing a weighted stretch on a pumped muscle. It has, it's, you know what it's like, it's like a collusion training. It's, there's some similarities to it. So you don't need to occlusion training. Yes, I felt like. And you're like, you have like five pound dumbbells, but if you feel the waist, you know,

build up in the muscle and it burns so bad, that's what it feels like. So it's like this gnarly fluid build up. It's this gnarly stretch and the muscle's pumped. So the stretch feels even more intense because the fluid's in there. And then you're right, you let go of the dumbbells and it's like you squeeze another like five to 10% more blood

and the muscle and the pump is gnarly at the end. But then what it also does because it's weighted is it's also connecting to a greater range of motion. So I noticed when I would go back to workouts, I got a I got stronger in the straight stretch position as well. My range of motion, my active range of motion increased or improved as a result. So I wanted to incorporate this because for the last 10 years I've been reading about this, researching it, trying to apply it. And like, there's got to be a way, because what I like about it is I love ways to tell the body to build muscle that also don't cause damage.

Because then it's something I can add to a normal workout. It's so long as I add it properly, that'll just turbocharge it. Well, and this has always been sort of my challenge to a lot of hypertrophy bodybuilder type programming is just the range of motion considerations. And what I see in terms of dysfunction and where that leads if we're too focused

on that style of training. To address that within the train, also getting the benefits of the hypertrophy effect with that, but in in range positions, I think is a massive benefit, which then also fills out your physique even more, makes even more symmetrical. Yeah. The last thing that was added to this, that was another thing that I learned over the last 10 years that I didn't understand when I created the first maps at a ball lick,

was de-load weeks. When I understood of de-load weeks before, it's just a break, you need a break, your body needs some rest, so you take off a week or you go easy in the gym, give your body a break, and then get back to the gym, work out, and you can start progressing again.

But over the last 10 years, some really weird, well, they're weird to me, but they're not so weird anymore, but interesting studies came out, right? We saw a study where they compared groups of men who worked out, and one group worked out every week. The other group took a week off every four weeks, and at the end of the study, they both gained the same amount of muscle, so I'm like, okay, they took it off completely. Not a deload week. They took it off completely, which is a lot. You're missing a lot of one fourth. Yeah. One fourth less. Yeah. Same gains at the end. Yeah. So that right there, maybe go, hmm, okay, it's not just

a break. There's there's also your, you're not losing the muscle building signal. Like they didn't lose the muscle building signal. Then I read studies that showed that when athletes did a D-load week, so a D-load week is you go to the gym and you train with like, like, you know, 50% of the volume were less and 50% of the intensity. Yeah, you go to the gym, you work out,

but it's like super easy, kind of, you know, low volume, low intensity. And the studies showed that the athletes or participants built the most muscle in the D-load week. So the study, the first study I mentioned, they didn't lose any muscle. These ones showed that a D-load week, during that D-load week, the muscle gains accelerated.

And I said, oh, how can I utilize this in programming to maximize muscle gains even further? Yeah, what I love is that this was the consideration because of the fact that we've cranked that intensity knob even harder with this program. Now, to have that programmed in is an actual week that's designated to more of the active recovery and really considering to balance that out and

and provide you the benefits of actually adapting and not just getting in that same kind of recovery trap that you get into. Well, we really, what's really cool about this one is we built in a lot of this, like when we obviously we get answer a lot of questions from live callers about some of the programs that they're going through. And there's many times where you hear us say something like, whoa, we'll scale back the sets in there. Maybe pull back a little bit on there.

Or if that still doesn't work, then maybe add in a D-load week for like a week and just do some mobility, like some active recovery type train, just really take down the boy. So we've had to do this for lots of people that have gone through the program. And then others are like, I can handle all that. Could I do more?

And so this program, not only has it got the D-load weeks as an optional thing built in there, but then there's also a program there, the option to add more exercises and sets or more sets on some of these exercises. And so it really gives this really wide range of the level that somebody could still follow this program. So you could be on the more beginner side, say it's your first year or two of training, still follow this program and lean towards

more of the lower volume side when you have the option and make sure you include the D-load week, every fourth week or whatever. And then you have the other side of people that are extremely advanced. You've been lifting for a very long time. Your body can handle tons of volume. And so you have the ability to have the higher volume in increased sets and also reduce maybe the amount of D-load weeks that you have in there.

So it really broadens the range of people. I want to be clear though, okay. So I don't want people to get confused. The D-load weeks, yes, there's the recovery component to it. But the D-load weeks build muscle. I'm going to be clear though, okay? So I don't want people to get confused. The D-load Weeks, yes, there's the recovery component to it, but the D-load Weeks build muscle. I'm gonna be clear. It's not a break like I need a break. It is, but it's also builds muscle.

That was one of the biggest aha moments for me over the last 10 years, is reading these studies on D-load Weeks and seeing that people built more muscle in the D-load Week than they did in the heart training. My recommendation would be that no matter how advanced you think you are, run the program through on the one lower volume and D-Load Weeks first because you can always come up. That way you have something to compare to because so many people think more is better

and if I do skip the deal a week or go as high as sets that I can, that that's gonna be better for me. And I was wrong with that. I mean, that's something that I continue to learn in my own programming is, I always think I can do more and I can handle more, but to the point you always bring is there's a difference between what your body can handle and what's optimal for it and many times what's optimal for it is actually less than what you

do. The tendency of advanced lifters, you know, and it's just like, so that's why it's programmed in there. Like just follow it and see what kind of result you can produce from that. Give it a chance before you can, you overanalyze it and you make that same mistake that you know maybe I don't need this because I've been lifting for so long. Here's what it'll look like. About 80% of the people that follow this program will build more muscle and more strength by following the program with the D-load weeks. 20% will see no difference.

So that's it. Not that they'll get better gains by skipping the D-load weeks. They're just not going to see a difference by adding the D-load weeks. So it's not better or worse, it's better or the same. So that's what I'm trying to say about the D-load weeks. It's not, yes, it's a break, yes, it allows for recovery. But this is a muscle building week. Don't fool yourself.

This week, even though you're going to look at the workout during that D-load week, you'll be like, oh my gosh, it's so easy. I'm going to go into 50% intensity. I'm only doing two strength training workouts this week and a couple of days of just regular activity. That week, you will build more muscle. Every time I did a de-load week, I thought, oh, I'm gonna lose some muscle volume.

I'm gonna get a little bit less of a pump. And instead, the opposite happened. I felt like everything kind of accelerated a little bit. And then I go back to the next phase, and it was like, boom, I just, I grew. So the muscle growth, the strength gains happened throughout the program, but the big gains happened right after the D-load weeks when I go back to the next phase. So and this is the only maps program where we program in D-load weeks versus us saying

take some time off if you think you need it. This is actually programmed in and there's workouts that are in the D-load week. So we actually program the D-load workouts in this as well. So you've got all those things combined and programmed together. And again, we don't have any maps, this is the only mass program that combines volume training and alternates it with low volume, high intensity failure training,

programs in parcels and intensity amplifiers, weighted stretching, and then D-load weeks. So again, if the first maps in a ballack was all by previous 18 years of experience into that, this was the next 10 years of learning about these things and figuring out these problems and creating this new program. So let's break down week by week what each phase looks like then. Yeah, it's okay. So phase one, so essentially what's going to look like each phase is four weeks long. Each phase will start with a volume workout week and then the next week is a failure workout week and then again volume and then failure.

So alternates. This split is upper lower core mobility, upper lower core mobility. That last core mobility workout is optional, so it could be a five or six day a week routine. So upper lower core mobility. The rep ranges for the first phase, volume is six to eight, for failure is eight to 12.

Then when you go to the next phase, both rep ranges go up. So the volume weeks are lower than the failure rates, but at the last phase, you're going up to like as high as 20 reps with going to failure. So that's kinda how it's all broken down. You're doing on the volume weeks six to nine sets per workout,

per body part. So about 12 to 18 sets total, per body part, on the failure weeks, you're doing like two or three sets to failure, per body part, twice a week. So between four to six total sets, and then the weighted stretching starts in phase one at 60 seconds, at the end of each body part, you do a weighted stretch, and moves up to 90 seconds and then 120 seconds.

And the partial reps also advance because each phase, the failure week, the intensity amplifies. We were sending a louder intensity signal with the partial reps. So you do scale as you continue to go through. So you're looking at four weeks, delode week, then then four weeks, D-load week, then four weeks. And that's the whole entire program. Now, do we, I know we discussed the other day about making a big point of this in the Blueprints or not.

Did we, and if not, I definitely want to make sure we make a point to say it on the podcast that it's important that even if you are an advanced lifter, I would run through the program the first time on the lower option of sets. Yes. And then ramp up afterwards so you can see how your body responds from that set of volume before you add any more volume. Yeah, probably about 10% of people would do better with the higher volume.

Everybody else, so if you're like, like really genetically gifted, super advancement working out for a long time, great nutrition, you know, stress is good, good sleep, everything is on point. Then you can try the higher volume, but everybody else go with the lower volume option. So what you'll see in the blueprints is exercise, exercise, optional exercise. The optional one is the added volume, if you want to add more. I did, I'd say I'd say I did half of it at the lower volume and then half of it with the higher volume just to see how I'd feel.

The D load weeks were really amazing because when I would do the higher volume, I was like, ooh, I'm pushing it a little bit but then I hit that D load week, come back and I was like, I was like, I'm fire, I felt phenomenal. So that's basically how it's broken down. This program, I'm gonna give you some warnings, okay? And again, this is gonna sound like a takeaway sale,

but it's not, this is honest. Be very mindful of your form when you follow this program because the strength gains come so fast, especially in the beginning, especially in the first phase or two with the failure weeks, that you're gonna be tempted to just add weight in the beginning, especially in the first phase or two with the failure weeks, that you're gonna be tempted to just add weight to the bar, but if your form isn't perfect,

those stabilizer muscles and your stability might not be able to catch up and you may find yourself at a higher risk of injury. Happened to me. So when I started, my squat went up, towards the end of it, I was going to failure with like 400 something pounds on the bar and I just kept adding weight and then I tweaked my

knee a little bit and what I should have done is rather than adding weight I should have slowed the reps down and made it harder in that way. So be very mindful of your form, perfect, perfect, perfect form because when you're pushing intensity and your form goes off and you're adding tons of strength, the risk of injury goes up really high. Who is this program absolutely for and who is it not for? This is not a beginner program, but if you're working out now and you've already been working out and you have experience, then it's for you. This is not so advanced that you need to be like high-level bodybuilder or whatever. If you're following a maps program now, and you have been, you could definitely do maps

at a bulk advanced. But if you're a beginner, or you haven't worked out for three months or six months in your decondition, I wouldn't start with that. I would challenge that a little bit still. If you are somebody who just followed a maps resistance or map starter. Those two for sure.

I would say go to anabolic first and then follow this. But if you've ran one of our core programs, one of the RGB, right? So either anabolic performance or aesthetic, you've already ran that. You absolutely can follow that up with this. But it'd be the prerequisite, right? At least one of our like main core program.

Yeah, and if you're working out on your own and you're consistent and you're working out, you know, consistently three, four, five days a week in the gym, you'd be able to do a lot more. Yeah, but even then, don't you, if you've never trained a maps program, I still would want you to go with Anabolic First so you can experience Anabolic First.

That's on a safe side, I would say. Yeah, I mean, even if you're an advanced person, Anabolic is so valuable for, so if you've never let us program for you, follow Anabolic and then go through that process and then this would be the next one after that if you really wanted to do it. Yeah, what's interesting with this is your ability to ramp up your intensity as you progress through the program. You don't realize that you can actually improve upon that. Like my ability to ramp up the intensity is I continue to train this

and and summon strength and summon you know intensity was like it intensity as I continue to train this. And some in strength and some in intensity was like, it improved as I continue to train through this. One of the other benefits of this is you learn a lot about your body, you learn about how you feel during different training phases and how your body responds to volume, how it responds to intensity. So it's a great program, especially for trainers.

I would say trainers, this will be good for you to follow because then it'll give you a good idea of how to use these on your clients and when to use them appropriately. So I was talking to Brett, Brett runs our marketing team this morning and we went live officially already to the private forum. They've had access to that where it's record sales already in the forum already. One of the things I was asking him,

what is your thoughts on it? He actually was saying the e-books that are included this time. He thinks are the best e-books that we've ever included on this because of how specific they are to most people that are probably looking for a pro at this. He actually attributes actually attributes a lot of the to that to the ebooks that are coming with it. Yeah. Okay. So here's the deal. So whenever we launch a program, we put it on sale. So map, set up all advanced is going to retail for $157. The launch special is $97. So $97 is what the price is going to be during this launch period, which will end on the 26th of February. But we also included for free two ebooks that we're going to end up selling later on.

So each e-book later on will be $47 each. But if you sign up during the launch special, you get them for free. And the first one is advanced training techniques. So in this e-book that I, I, I include, so I wrote both books and advanced training techniques. I wrote in all the ways that you could break through plateaus or and advanced training techniques. I wrote in all the ways that you could break through plateaus or add advanced training techniques, everything from partial reps, drop sets, using progressive resistance like chains and bands

and negatives and forced reps. All the advanced training techniques, I put them in there, explain how they work, their benefits, their risks, their detriment, and then how to put them in there, explain how they work, their benefits, their risks, their detriment, and then how to use them in your own training. How frequently you can do them without them becoming too much for your body type of deal. The second ebook is the Carb Cycling Diet ebook. We get a lot of questions on how to cycle carbs, whether people are cutting or bulking.

Carb Cycling has been very popular for a long time with athletes and bodybuilders because of its effects on behavior, appetite, exercise, performance. One of the more popular ways to tweak your diet, to get yourself better results with the same calories is carb cycling. Bodybuilders, like I said, have been doing this a long time. So it's advanced training techniques, carb cycling diet, bodybuilders, like I said, haven't been doing this a long time. So it's advanced training techniques,

carps cycling diet, both ebooks included for free with the $97 launch special price for maps and a bulk advanced. If you're interested, you go to anabolicadvance.com and then the coupon code is AA60 for the $60 off plus the ebooks. And again, this ends Sunday, February 26. So give it a shot. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body,

dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at Mind Pump Media dot com. The RGB Superbumble includes maps and a ballac, maps performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints in over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal and I'm in Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money bag guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love

by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump!