Max-stim Pdf - For Anyone Who Wants/lost It

Jester said:
I’ll put it this way;

Do a sufficiently heavy lift with perfect technique etc. just thinking about your cues or form etc.

Then try it thinking about flexing.

If your form doesn’t change, the bar speed doesn’t change etc. then what’s he difference? (Other than being aware of contracting your quads during a squat or something).

If form/technique does change, then you’re simply prejudicing yourself with subpar/unfocused technique.


To me, this is no more than a different mental cue. Focusing on load progression and technique/form will do more than thinking about flexing. Go to Jordan Feigenbaum’s instagram if you want an example of physique that follows training.

And this will sound adversarial, but nothing will convince me that thinking about flexing send me a more powerful neural signal than thinking about the lift. There’s simply too many examples of form-focused lifters who have amazing hypertrophy compared. I promise you they aren’t thinking about a biceps peak.
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Yep I agree on that scenario totally!

If the load is sufficient to activate then 'thinking' does zip, but if the load is lighter, you then can alter things to where one muscle group is 'more' activated, (and I'm sure it's subconscious altering of form).
 
OK, all this talk is temping me..
all you guys getting arm size without direct arm work
All the people who got some decent gains with even vanilla HST

So question... I have some old injuries.. not thinking I can actually use a true 5RM, I think someone else said as long as we are progressive, actual RM isn't that huge.
What about an HST cycle, pure basic exercises, of 15's, 12's and 8's?
 
NWlifter said:
OK, all this talk is temping me..
all you guys getting arm size without direct arm work
All the people who got some decent gains with even vanilla HST

So question... I have some old injuries.. not thinking I can actually use a true 5RM, I think someone else said as long as we are progressive, actual RM isn't that huge.
What about an HST cycle, pure basic exercises, of 15's, 12's and 8's?
Click to expand...

Injuries = ?
 
Jester said:
Injuries = ?
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List? egads....
I'll start from floor up lol
both knees, left worst. Tendon tears in vastus M insertion to patella (basketball game)
Lower back (Squat 1Rm when young)
both shoulders (right from heavy dips years ago), left, cannot remember what caused that
Right bicep/forearm? Inside the 'elbow pit', can't tell if it's bicep or forearm muscle
Various minor ones...
most don't really hamper me a lot, I just really avoid super heavy deep squats, and careful with heavy shoulder stuff (bench, OHP, etc.)

I did some RM tests just now, still panting from it.. nothing hurt with 6-8 RM (squats only went as far as 8RM). I think I might do 15,10,6 RM's not much difference between 6 and 8 RM, it's like 5-10 lbs .

think i'll just try the advice on here and do compounds, i'm busy, stressed and all that, so going abbreviated. maybe like
Bench
Pulley rows
OHP
Un. Pulldowns
Squats
St. Calves

see how it goes...
 
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Jester said:
Also, when you say you have ‘tenses harder
‘ - what do you mean? You thought the contraction was stronger? How do you know it was?

I agree we’re doing ‘somerhing’ harder/more etc. but it definitely isn’t a muscular contraction. I think it is much more likely a conscious perception of what we are doing.
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Jester said:
To me, this is no more than a different mental cue.
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This definitely isn't a mental cue, it's actually not even mental, nor is it just about having awareness on the muscle, but ACTIVELY contracting it, it definitely is the muscle contracting harder. You can do it without any load whatsoever. Another term is 'mind-muscle connection', although its more an ability to contract the muscle voluntarily.

And like NWlifter said, with heavy lifts it's close to full contraction anyway so there's no point, but lighter lifts you can actively squeeze the muscle harder. Has nothing to do with just thinking about it. It's much easier to do with isolation exercises and muscles you already have a good 'feel' and connection with.


NWlifter said:
OK, all this talk is temping me..
all you guys getting arm size without direct arm work
All the people who got some decent gains with even vanilla HST

So question... I have some old injuries.. not thinking I can actually use a true 5RM, I think someone else said as long as we are progressive, actual RM isn't that huge.
What about an HST cycle, pure basic exercises, of 15's, 12's and 8's?
Click to expand...

Yep that would be fine, still going by the principles. I've avoided the 5RMs for awhile too, but gonna give them a go soon, even 6-8RM I might stick with.
 
_Simon_ said:
This definitely isn't a mental cue, it's actually not even mental, nor is it just about having awareness on the muscle, but ACTIVELY contracting it, it definitely is the muscle contracting harder. You can do it without any load whatsoever. Another term is 'mind-muscle connection', although its more an ability to contract the muscle voluntarily.

And like NWlifter said, with heavy lifts it's close to full contraction anyway so there's no point, but lighter lifts you can actively squeeze the muscle harder. Has nothing to do with just thinking about it. It's much easier to do with isolation exercises and muscles you already have a good 'feel' and connection with.




Yep that would be fine, still going by the principles. I've avoided the 5RMs for awhile too, but gonna give them a go soon, even 6-8RM I might stick with.
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We can agree to disagree on this
 
wrt to focusing on flexing while lifting - this only seems to really matter much when using lighter loads since you can enhance the occlusion effect as in something like myo-reps. By lighter loads, I mean something like 20-25RM like you'd use for myo-sets.
 
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Dang, DOMS to the max here, tested some RM's last night for that abbreviated setup I mentioned. I hadn't trained for like 3. 1/2 weeks before that, so a good SD, but man....I can barely walk!
 
NWlifter said:
Dang, DOMS to the max here, tested some RM's last night for that abbreviated setup I mentioned. I hadn't trained for like 3. 1/2 weeks before that, so a good SD, but man....I can barely walk!
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Hehe love me some good DOMS ;D. Ah legs are a killer!
 
_Simon_ said:
Ah that's all good no probs. Yeah am just trying understand, as the muscle is still contracting harder, but yeah I'll ponder it all a bit :)
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Totentanz said:
wrt to focusing on flexing while lifting - this only seems to really matter much when using lighter loads since you can enhance the occlusion effect as in something like myo-reps. By lighter loads, I mean something like 20-25RM like you'd use for myo-sets.
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yes, that's absolutely right. With a lighter load I'm sure antagonists probably flex 'against' and add resistance to compensate for focusing and flexing the target muscle more. I know it works, I've done that many times, I can't believe anyone who's trained for years hasn't worked with that idea for a while to feel the benefits. Even Brad posted or did a study on it and verfied it, but even without that, it's easy to see you can de-activate some muscles, and increase others consciously.
 
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