Josh recently did some consulting with a 43 year old female. Check out her awesome progress below! We are considering offering phone consult services for orthodox strength exercise.
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Hi Josh,
I’ve competed in Bodybuilding and Figure and at 43 years old I have been training on and off for over 15 years and I am still learning. I’m fully aware your expertise is around RenEx and although I have been exposed to RenEx methods and techniques, I train at a conventional gym with a traditional bodybuilding program.
That being said, I wanted to thank you for the invaluable training advice that you gave me. You asked me specifically what I was doing for my training and I gave you my program. Your initial response was that I was most likely concentrating way too much on the reps and not nearly enough on executing perfect form.
You also said that I’m probably taking longer than usual rest periods to recover and that performing that one exercise was most likely taking me approximately 15 minutes. You adjusted my program.
The result: I performed 72 reps in those same 15 minutes that I once needed to perform 42 reps thereby producing way more mechanical work.
Progress: After 5 weeks, Before– 145# squats for 6 reps After– 160# squats for 51 reps.
I’m no longer intimidated by the amount of weight; my last rep is executed just as good if not better than my first rep. I would have never thought that shifting my focus away from reps and solely concentrating on form would produce more reps.
I’ve made a huge jump in my deadlifts and I know that is because of the changes you have made to my leg training.
On a totally unrelated note I injured my shoulder about 10 years ago and have not been able to perform certain shoulder exercises and 90% of chest exercises. It was painful just to reach the top shelf in my pantry or curl my hair. After about 6 -8 weeks of performing the shoulder exercises you recommended, I’m performing 100% of all chest exercises with little to no pain in my shoulder.
I’ve had many trainers throughout over the years and I can say without any amount of uncertainty that you have amassed more knowledge than all of them combined! In short, your knowledge in bodybuilding is limitless; thank you so much for all that you do.
J. Gonzales.
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Josh,
Another nice story, “concentrating way too much on reps and not nearly enough on excuting perfect form”.
Josh, I am amazed (I should say not amazed) on how many trainees -so called advanced trainees focusing only on reps, but try telling them to focus on form. I think that these days most trainees don’t know what is proper form.
I am glad you have a satisfied customer.
Thanks Steven,
I think the term “advanced” is horribly misused especially in the HIT community
I’d first like to say I’m glad that this woman has been helped and her problem resolved.
But this is just another play on the heart strings of the readers here. This article highlights the ignorance of a supposed long term bodybuilder (Josh’s bread and butter customer). She doesn’t understand good form is of the utmost importance or that she does an excessive amount of reps which is unnecessary and for her, dangerous.
After she is injured she continues to ask “trainers”, mostly likely at the gym where she was injured, not rehab specialists, what to do for 10 years and then finds Josh, her savior, who probably gave her a standard text book fix for her problem. Exactly how did the RenEx method or equipment help this lady?
Obama thinks he can win anything with attitude. That's a street attitude.Obama believes in himself so hard that he never wants to do any hard work. All he has to do is show enough confidence. Debate isn't like argument. To win a debate you have to know what you are talking about.Argument is all about attitude.Obama doesn't debate. He argues.There's a big di3;9rence.It&#fefs the difference between Main Street and Detroit Street.
Tom,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, perhaps Joe H will contribute as well.
The highlight here should be:
“The result: I performed 72 reps in those same 15 minutes that I once needed to perform 42 reps thereby producing way more mechanical work.
Progress: After 5 weeks, Before– 145# squats for 6 reps After– 160# squats for 51 reps.”
This is the result of changing her intent with each rep, relearning the squat, comprehension of complete innate movement synergy pattern from head to toe, rest , reorganization of her other workouts, confidence and nutrition, i think exposure to some basic RenEx concepts like inroad technique and TSC are helpful for making certain connections….other assistance exercises were prescribed to deal with some weak links in the chain too.
The shoulder rehab was based on my evaluation of her having a Supraspinatus impingement and biceps tendonitis
I want to point out this was not a “newbie”…it’s someone who already has gone way further than most and i challenge all of you 40 something year old males to look closely at her squat performance…tough to match for anyone.
This runs way deeper than “form”…..i’m actually convinced at this point that people who even use that language probably don’t really comprehend movement synergy.
so much to do……
To J. Gonzales: Bravo! Congratulations! It’s great to see a fellow athlete working their way through obstacles and achieving goals. Keep up the great work. I’m not surprised at all that Josh helped you.
Josh is an amazing trainer. Why did I drive 2 hours each way two to three times a week for well over a year in order to train under his watchful eye? 1) No matter what was going on at work, or in his personal life, he always gave 100% with planning and implementing the workout. 2) The results. I took home over a dozen trophies during my time working with him.
A couple of years ago, I had a couple of heart attacks followed by quadruple bypass surgery. The surgeons were flabbergasted when they first saw me in the ER at the Mayo clinic. It’s not every day a patient comes in with legitimate 19 1/2″ arms, 54″ chest, 34″ waist. There was quite another story going on underneath that muscle…3 of the arteries leading to the heart were completely blocked and the fourth artery damn near that. The cardiac surgeon told me that the only thing that kept me alive were the collateral veins. I told him of my training at Overload and the surgeon stated, “Well, you certainly are a lucky man. And you can thank that trainer for the grueling workouts, they may have saved your life. We can obviously tell that you worked out. Your muscle mass is astounding.”
Due to all of the above mentioned factors, I have the utmost respect for Josh. I completely understand his quest for building/showing his physique as a work of art. Instead of just talking about something, he visualizes it, plans his attack and then works his tail off. I think that deserves praise.
I look forward to training again in Cleveland. I made it through the cardiac rehab and I will be back!
Richard,
Thanks for sharing this man! I cannot wait to see you back on stage and prove those docs wrong!
as others have said this is another so what story, that dozens of HIT and for that matter mainstream trainers could relate.
Concentrate on your attitude and delivery and people will stop calling you out.
Can you please go into detail why I should avoid all unilateral leg exercises? I am aware of what Ken Hutchins wrote about the topic in his book, but I wished he had gone into a little more detail. To be honest, despite my best efforts, every time I try rear foot elevated squats after a few weeks I get aches and pains in my hips and knees that clearly aren’t good, but I can’t tell if it is the exercise or me doing it with poor form. Another exercise I was thinking about trying are called skater’s squats. Of course since it is more advanced it is likely to cause similar problems. The only reason why I even try such unilateral leg exercises is because my routine is almost strictly bodyweight and I find it tough to work my legs adequately with bilateral lifts. I have tried Ren-X bodyweight squats which are incredibly tough, but they don’t seem to provide enough resistance, despite being horrendously painful! Am I wrong here, and perhaps didn’t stick to them long enough to get noticeable results? What would you consider to be the best overall bodyweight leg exercise? Thanks for your advice
Josh said …. “The shoulder rehab was based on my evaluation of her having a Supraspinatus impingement and biceps tendonitis.”
Josh
How do you know when the bicep tendon is a problem when the pain comes from the shoulder where there are 4 rotator cuff tendons in the shoulder area that could also be one of the problems.
Thanks
John
Josh,
I still wonder if variety in exercise selection and variety in use of intensity enhancers promotes more muscle growth than executing the same exercises for years in a row. The form of each rep of a new exercise should be perfect of course.
I am NOT thinking about variety, because during the first weeks it SEEMS to be possible to achieve greater strength increases. But when implementing a new exercise I often achieve a better biofeedback … greater muscle pump, deeper fatigue and a more pronounced soreness combined with a fuller appearance of the trained muscles for some days after training.
What would you suggest? How often, if at all, would you change your choice of exercises when muscle growth is your primary goal?
Andy,
i don’t know what “intensity enhancers ” are.
“when implementing a new exercise I often achieve a better biofeedback … greater muscle pump, deeper fatigue and a more pronounced soreness combined with a fuller appearance of the trained muscles for some days after training.”
i think what you indicate here best answers your question.
Josh,
I meant techniques to further support intensity like drop sets, forced reps etc..
Do you recommend to change exercises and intensity techniques often (some call it “chaos training”) to achieve the mentioned biofeedback and to better stimulate muscle hypertrophy?
Thank you very much for your answer!
Andy, how do you define intensity?
Josh,
Intensity is a specific level of effort in any activity and produces a specific degree of momentary inroad of the targeted muscle.
Or to say it in other words:
To train the targeted muscle to momentary muscular failure using all physical and mental capabilities under the precondition of using perfect form for each rep is a high degree of intensity.
do “drop sets, forced reps etc..” increase intensity? how can intensity be imposed upon you?
I still see you’re an asshole Josh. You just can’t answer the question. We have to watch you do your usual semantics song and dance. Another reason why people dislike you.
Josh can you explain why your placement in competition is worse than when you didn’t use the RenEx protocol?
Thanks Josh, I got it.
Maybe at the other point I am too doubtful because of HIT dogma and I need your reassurement:
If this is what my biofeedback indicates, changing exercises often is the way to go for me?
Is momentary muscular failure even a valid term or concept? IMO it is just a marketing term. At the best a gross oversimplification.
Enjoying the dialogue here between Joshua and Andy.
I’ll try to keep this ramble free as possible, lol.
Lets’s take the leg press for example. Let’s say the trainee uses 300lbs. on the stack. I’m not sure what a RenEx leg press has on it. The trainee does their set using dynamic contractions, correct form, 10/10, graded rep intent, etc. At the end of the set the trainee inroads or fatigues her or his muscles to the point of experiencing a runaway negative. I’m assuming the answer is no,but is there still untapped potential inroad capability of the muscles? Or does the design of a RenEx machine permit the trainee to inroad down to temporary zero or near contraction ability? Maybe “permit” is not the right word. Do the machines “get out of your way” in a way to helps the trainee do this?
They are set extenders.
I’m sure it was an accident that my question was overlooked, so could you answer it now ?
Can someone answer my question from Apr 12, 2014?