Men’s Health Australia - 01.07.2018

BUILT TO PERFORM

When you train for strength

you focus on movements rather

than muscles. With this approach

you’ll move better and be able to

produce more force in different

planes than guys w

aesthetics. Strong

are always ha

to kill, too

ELITE

e in different

who train for

ger people

arder

o.

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BRICKS BEFORE BEAUTY

Isolation moves have their place.

Side laterals, for example, are a

decent accessory exercise for

adding a bit of volume to your

shoulders. But you want to start

with a compound move like the

standing press and work down to

those finishers.

STAY A WHILE

You may have realised by now that

effective strength training

requires a solid time commitment.

The warm-up sets, long rest

periods and high number of

working sets mean you’re looking

at 90-minute sessions, not

half-hour frenzies. There are no

shortcuts with this so don’t start

what you can’t finish.

BEAST BENCHMARKS

All guys have different

potentialities but here’s my rough

guide for qualifying as strong:

1. SQUAT –
   1RM of 1.5-1.75 x bodyweight


2. DEADLIFT –
   1RM of 2-2.5 x bodyweight


3. BENCH PRESS –
   1RM of 1.25–1.5 x bodyweight

etic

LOAD THE BAR

In strength training you work

towards moving heavy loads

with strict form in the big

moves: squat, bench-press,

deadlift, military press,

bent-over row. Rep ranges

are 3-5 while rest periods

blow out to 3-5 minutes. You

need that downtime so

you’re not flogging yourself

into a heap. You want to be

90 per cent recovered before

going again.

START SMALL

Do this safely! That

means doing a bunch of

high-volume warm-up

sets to prepare the

tendons and joints

for the bigger lifts.

We have a guy at our gym

deadlifting 315kg but for

his first set he’ll use

just a bar.

RULE YOUR ENVIRONMENT

Cover guys tend to be genetically

gifted and spend hours doing biceps

curls – both great for a photo-shoot.

But when it comes to moving

furniture, Atlas stones or cases of

beer, those showy muscles never

seem very useful. You only have to

watch Rocky IV to see who wins in a

battle of real-world strength versus

high-tech gym-machine training.

PRIORITISE GAINING STRENGTH OVER ADDING MASS AND REAP THE REWARDS

EVERYDAY, PROMISES IN-DEMAND STRENGTH GURU JAMES BRODIE, OWNER OF

SYDNEY’S J-TRAIN ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE CENTRE

MIGHT IS RIGHT

&91&35 JAMES BRODIE

07 / 18