Zone TrainingClick to buy your vitamins at WHOLESALE COST!

First let me just say that "Zone Training" could refer to an unlimited styles/techniques of training.  Today, for what I will be talking about is training in the zone of continuous tension.  But I will most likely expand upon that with other avenues of training but will remain close to the main topic of continuous tension.  Always keep an open mind to what people talk about when it comes to training because you never know what you may or may not learn from what someone has to say.  I get it all the time when I'm in the gym, you know that look, the look of what in the hell is he/she doing.  Oh yeah, I love it when someone looks at me like I'm an idiot when I'm doing something completely off the wall and when I single leg press 6 plates a side for reps or pump the 140 pound dumbbells out for reps they kind of take a step back within themselves and kind of go on about their business.  What comes as an even bigger slap into reality is that I only weigh in at 178 pounds currently and pound for pound I'm one of the strongest people to walk into most any gym.  Yep, I have an ego and I have the right to have this ego so if ya's don't like it TO BAD! ;)  Simply ignore me and go on about your business.

In the fitness industry there is a freaken label for everything!  And nothing is named quite the same or done the same way!  So who's to say what is the number one, top of the heap, way of training?  That's a damn good question!  Me, ha, yeah right, I'm the last person to go to when it comes to training the RIGHT WAY!  I TRAIN MY WAY...IT WORKS, IT'S HARD CORE, AND IT'S ABSOLUTELY BRUTAL!!!  Sure you can learn from me just as I can learn from you and what's really funny, I will admit I don't know it all and when it comes to giving credit where credit is due I will give that as well!  But what we find in the mainstream fitness industry is training and exercises labeled after certain trainers names or programs labeled as THEIR way of training!  Sorry, but when it comes right down to it someone somewhere has most likely already tried it or has done work very much the same.  I will take someone's training program and twist it, tweak it, turn it upside down, left and right and then say, "Yeah, there ya go, LETS HAVE SOME FREAKEN FUN!!!"  Someone steps into my world of training they better be prepared to step into an entirely new world...a world of, umm, heck, who the heck knows. :)  Am I rambling?  Hmm, YOU BETCHORE ASS, pretty typical don't ya think?!!!  Nothing I like more than hearing myself ramble on about fitness other than writing/reading what I have to say about it and then subjecting others to my ramblings!!!  You know what I find even more hilarious?  I am one of the most UNEDUCATED (government schools) people that I know!  And yet I train some of the MOST educated...I take great pride in this fact. :)  High School, umm, what the heck was I doing again?  College, you don't want to know my opinion on college!  Want to see a professor get his ass beat down in front of the entire class then subject me to college and you will!!!  Uh, huh...huuuhh, i iz celph ihdgemukated ang kite powd uv dat!  HA HA...yep, I'm an idiot! :)

NOW, lets get into the main objective of this information coming your way via my GREAT and yet VERY simple mind!!!!!

Oh, before I forget...my writing this training info was partly inspired by Ian King and his "Get Buffed" training video.  DAMN IT...haven to give props to someone for inspiration!!!  ha ;)

Now, imagine if you were laying on a bench and you were holding the barbell in your hands at about two inches short of  lock out.  What if you only lowered that weight three to four inches from that start position, then pressed it back up to the start position, say at a 4-3-3 pace.  Or perhaps you took that same barbell and held it up off your chest a couple of inches right where the intensity of the weight really starts to affect the muscles and then pressed it up 4 to 6 inches and then lowered it back down to the start position at a 5-5-8 pace.

Note:  The paces I have listed are not written in stone so those can be either shortened or lengthened depending on your abilities and weight used.

Lets take the above example a bit further.  What if we took that same barbell and did a set of 12 to 15 normal full reps at a 3-1-2 pace and then incorporated one of the techniques listed above right after those first full reps.  Or, perhaps we could do the full reps after a set of the short continuous tension reps.  Also, you could stop short of full lock out on your full reps just to add a little more intensity to the movement.

Lets twist this a little bit more shall we?!!!

Holding your barbell just short of top lock out...lower three inches, pause three, lower three inches, pause three, lower three inches, no pause return to the start position, pause three, lower six inches, pause three, lower three inches, pause three, return to the start position, pause three, lower to just about three inches above the pecs at about a ten second pace, pause three, then rep out 10 reps without a lock out at the top...perhaps two inches short of lock out.

Ok, what are you seeing here?  Is there a pattern?  Is there an easy to understand reason behind this type of training?  Good questions...can you answer them?

Lets go even FURTHER than what I have twisted above.

Grab a pair of dumbbells and do the same type of training with them...keeping the dumbbells at the same level.  But wait, WHAT IF you started one side before the other.  Hmm, say you lowered your left dumbbell first by three inches and held it there then when it was time to lower the other side the left side lowered again so that it stayed three inches lower, or ahead of your right hand.  So when your right hand reaches mid point the left hand is going back up and is three inches higher than your right.  Confused?  You shouldn't be because it really isn't all that hard to figure out! ha :)

Another twist that you can add in with the dumbbells is turning the palms so that they face differently as you go through the work sets.  So, you could have one palm facing down towards your feet and the other facing towards the body and keep them that way until you have completed the first complete rep.  Once back to the top you change hand positions.  Or you could hold one dumbbell in one side down against your chest or just off your chest while the other arm does all the work...so you just end up working on one arm at a time, that way you are completely focused in on that side and able to really tap into the muscles worked.  You could do one rep and switch or complete all the reps with one arm then switch.

When you can implement a single arm or leg movement the more you will be able to really focus in and tap into the muscle(s) being ripped apart. :)

A technique that I like to utilize to help improve my punch mitt work, endurance and strength wise is to do what is or might be referred to as patty cake.  This is where I take the dumbbells and lower one as the other goes up.  So it's like you are punching with the dumbbells.  I remember Jeremy talking about this as well a while back with bit of a different style/technique.  I think what he was utilizing was a technique where one dumbbell stayed in position either at the top or the bottom while the other arm was being worked.  Once that arm returned to the start position the other arm began it's rep.

All of what I have talked about above can be implemented in any and all exercises not just what I used as an example.  Keep the mind open to all avenues of training and your abilities will continue to grow into greater and better abilities!  If you look upon someone as being an idiot in the gym and don't learn from them then it is YOU who ends up losing something in the end.  Granted, the gym is full of complete moron's that don't really know anything about training but you can still learn what NOT to do.

You don't have to do an entire routine with this style of training!  You can finish an exercise off with this or perhaps start an exercise in this way.  Or you could just do one full exercise like this and then do what is known as conventional training techniques.  In other words how most everyone else trains...doing the same old crap day in and day out.  I personally love change and without it I get very bored and so does my body.  I train instinctively every time I go to the gym which is most likely the toughest way to train.  One has to be very intune with their body to know what they should be training that day and what to avoid.  My sessions are never quite the same...I change them up each time I step through the doors of the gym.  I have no set schedule and prefer it that way.

My main purpose for writing this today was to get the point across of there being SO MANY different ways to train that it's ok to try something that to be honest may not make any sense to you at the time but may show you incredible results in the near future.  Or perhaps it may spark your imagination to write something totally new and twisted up for yourself or if you are a trainer for your client.  Training has an endless amount of combinations, twists, styles, techniques and so on that if you do the same thing over and over again you are just cutting yourself short and not achieving your full potential.  Granted, there are programs out there that will work for 4, 6, 8, 10 or so weeks but then you HAVE to change or you will fail to get any further than what you achieved for the set weeks that the routine is set up for.

I was training Beth, one of my clients, the other day and I took her over to the bi-angular lat pull machine and instead of doing what the example plate showed on what to do I showed her three completely different and totally twisted exercise to do with it.  I had the entire gym looking at us and you know the look...what are they doing?  :)

Have a great day my friends and I wish you all the very best.