Beyond Brawn - The Insider's Encyclopedia on How to Build Muscle && Might

(Elliott) #1
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 -       

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drop” training. I was streaming with sweat and there was a pool of the stuff
in front of the bar, having dripped there during the rest pauses.

Appetite and the total gain
. I did not make a conscious attempt to increase my food intake. My appetite
took care of it once I was deadlifting about  pounds. At that stage, imme-
diately after a bout of deadlifting, and the – days afterward, my appetite
was almost insatiable. en it dripped until the next deadlift workout. e
deadlift-free workout had only a small impact on my appetite.

. I ended the cycle about  pounds heavier than I was back in November
. Bear in mind that had I been working on -rep deadlifts a few years
earlier—when I was successfully performing low-rep deadlifts—I estimate
I could have done  reps with  pounds. e net result of this /
cycle was a new territory gain of about  pounds on the -rep deadlift. I
was not trained down at the beginning of the -month deadlift focus, only
out of touch with the bent-legged deadlift. As a result I would not have
expected a big bodyweight gain to accompany  pounds or so on the bar.
Also, I am past the days of eating myself fat to produce big bodyweight
gains. It is possible, however, that had I applied some of what is described in
Chapter  I would have gained more muscle.

The downside
. For four days after getting all  reps I had severe muscular soreness, almost
crippling. On the fifth day, the worst of the muscular soreness was behind
me and I started to feel a twinge going down into my left buttock and leg. I
thought it would fix itself. I had decided that I was now going to drop the
sets of high reps and go to sets of  reps. On  July I was back deadlifting.
I did  reps with  pounds. ey felt very heavy and I knew that I was
injured. When I did the  ×  I had a feeling of indestructibility, but
now I was beginning to feel like an invalid.

. I cannot put my finger on the exact cause of the injury. ere was the round-
ing of my back on  July that may have done it, or at least contributed. ere
was some asymmetrical pulling that cannot have helped. Perhaps neither
did the damage but set me up for it from something else. Two days after the
 ×  I did my usual full-range bent-over barbell rows, while my back
was still massively fatigued. Perhaps the too-vigorous bent-over rows with
almost  pounds was the final straw that hurt my back. I will never know.
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