by Ken LeClair

You look in the mirror and you get on the scale and  you see the gains in muscle size and body weight and you know the pain has produced the gain. But now what do you do? Time to shift gears for a month or so. It’s called  periodization..time to drop the weight to 60 percent of your one rep max and start doing higher reps as in 3 sets of 10 concentrating on form. Those huge compound exercises have paved the wayfor emphasis on  those smaller sexier muscles like biceps,triceps,forearms,calves,traps and the all important abs and often over looked obliques.

Your central nervous system needs this change in pace as well. Those super heavy deadlifts,bench presses and squats have been signaling that the body is under attack causing huge out flows of anabolic hormones such as testosterone and human growth factor but now it needsto r and r (rest and recuperation).  A littletender love and care is way over do. Diet of course is crucial and you have to feed it the protein,carbs and good fats it needs as in lean meat,veggies salad and olive oil..

Instead of benching,squatting and dead lifting 315 pounds drop it to 225 pounds,do pull downs at 60 percent of your body weight but keep the dips at full body weight for your triceps. Curls for the girls is fun now that your biceps are not dead from super man back workouts. Three to four days per week in the gym is now optimum as those smaller muscles need the time to get bigger and remember they grow out of the gym not in the gym. The perfect cut and ripped body is almost here and spring is right around the corner.