Life happened. As I mentioned in another thread (see: "Tired of my gym"
I moved to another region of my hometown. As is turns out, the gym I am a member of wants $50 for me to change gyms, and they want to increase my monthly payments by $10 as well. On top of all that, this is a downtown area gym w/ limited free weights. There's no squat rack, no leg press, and no pulley machines. Its mostly a cardio room with a machine circuit and a two-lane pool. Its not worth it, and I'm tired of being in bed with a Machiavellian gym (they stole their business concept from a gym magnate on the West coast). Once I get away from these people I'll sign up with the local Y, which, while not having stellar free weights has enough for me to work with.
As for the protocol, I can tell you that if you try it while doing other lifts that involve arm flexion like any kind of row or pulldown, you will likely need to reduce the number of sets you use in the protocol. I learned this the hard way: I developed overtraining syndrome 3 hrs after my third workout with Rafeei. I became immediately depressed, my biceps, especially near the insertion points, hurt in suspicious ways, I lost all interest in my next workout, and I began to develop a sore throat. On top of that, I felt completely fried. I even started feeling a kind of nervousness like I was shaking or something. Have you ever taken too much Magnesium? Sort of like that.
So I rested over the weekend, skipped Monday, and came back Wednesday dropping the sets from 5 to 4, and then, reluctantly, from 4 to 3 on the following Friday. The following week I was busy with moving.
Results:
During my pre-Rafeei measurements my tape measure actually broke! So I made a note to get one in the future and didn't think much of it because it would be a 3-4 weeks before I intended on measuring again. The response from Rafeei was noticeable on the get go. The day after my first workout my biceps were undeniably harder. After my second workout my polo T-shirt sleeves were beginning to feel tight. I remember pulling them up in a book store because it kept distracting me while I was trying to read. I wasn't used to the feeling. The tape measure was still saying the same thing, but without the buckle on the tape I wasn't sure if I was holding it tight enough or what. That sort of perplexed me, but I figured it was only the 2nd workout. Rome wasn't built in a day.
I didn't do any sort of strength test to see if I was getting stronger. But the curls were getting easier and I was getting better at keeping strict form and moving at the right cadence.
So, I'm sorry to say I don't have any solid results. Due to life and exploitative gym contracts I've had to lay off. I can give the following points to anyone who wants to follow in my footsteps:
1. If you are doing other biceps-involved lifts, and it feels like its too much, do one or more of the following: Drop the volume or intensity of these lifts, drop them altogether, or decrease the number of Rafeei sets. Studies show that 4-5 sets provide the best hypertrophy, but only by about 0.02 % (not kidding, that's the real number) better than 3 sets. If you think about it, 3 sets of 10 reps for 2 seconds/rep is exactly 60 seconds of TUT. Granted Rafeei is an odd protocol and maybe the 5 sets are better than 3, but if you can't do five, then you can't do five.
2. Get your set up solid. Know exactly how you're going to get rid of the weight while completely removing the eccentric component. For me, it was doing seated dumbbell curls. After the top of the concentric portion I would quickly lean forward while pressing the dumbbells out. Basically pressing them into the floor. To keep cadence I used a 10 dollar Casio digital watch with seconds on it.
3. Shake your arms (or whatever you're doing) for those 2 minute rest intervals. You've got two minutes. Enough time to take a swig, walk about, etc.
4. Focus focus focus. The full protocol takes exactly 14 minutes to complete. (2 second reps x 5 seconds rest/rep x 10 reps x 5 sets + 2 minutes rest/set x 4 rest periods + human error).
5. Because of the time involved (14 minutes), and maybe even because of the intensity, its not viable to do your entire workout Rafeei style. Quite simply, you would die. It may be possible however, to do one to three compound lifts for 3 sets, Rafeei style, per workout. That's just from a time-management POV though. Because of the CNS drain, you'll still die.
6. Don't go for the full 5 sets the first time. 90% RM for 50 reps is hard on everything, including tendons. It is not a good feeling. If I do this again I am starting at 2 sets and ramping up to 5 (assuming I want to do 5).
As an aside, I found an old myo-tape while moving. To correct bad posture I started doing lifts and stretches out of the Neanderthal No more series on T-nation. So I've been doing chins and bent over rows. Also did weighted dips MS style. After a week I added 1/2 inch to both arms. That's returning gains though. My current thinking with arms is first follow Poliquin's edict that large arms require a larger Ponderal Index. That's another way of saying that you need to get big all over. For me it was a mentality shift in programming: total body mass first, then add things for a lagging part. I knew this approach for a while, but I didn't really implement it. The Rafeei protocol is still valid in my book. I will try it again sometime in the future.
Presently my reading is going in the direction of specific phenomena, and not rep-set manipulations. Take for instance, the
Bilateral Deficit.
