Dan Duchaine's Body Contract Workout
BODYOPUS
directly by Dan to me on 5/19/95. This is the workout that will be in
Dan's forthcoming book *BODYOPUS*. We will entertain questions/comments
of a sincere and intelligent nature. Idiocy will not be responded to.
You can post comments here or e-mail me (I act as a filter for Dan, I pass
along the good stuff, screen out the crap). So....enjoy (it is free!!!):
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May 19th 1995
Guru Body Contract
What you will see here is the "what to do" part. You will not get an
explanation on why I have arrived @ this routine. It's much better to get
an individual right into the routine and then afterwards, explain it.
Workout Schedule:
Day I : Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps
Day 2 : Legs, Calves, Abs
Day 3 : Rest
Day 4 : Rest
Day 5 : Chest, Back
Day 6 : Rest
Day 7 : Rest
Repeat 7 day plan
As you can see, this schedule fits nicely in a mon/tues/fri arrangement,
but you could start the plan at any point, but you would have to workout
during the weekend.
Reps, Sets, Poundages:
ALL exercises are adjusted to perform poundages at 70% of max (1RM). In a
rested non-depleted individual, it usually means around 12 reps. I should
say that the point is to get to 70% rep failure. DO NOT do "mini-pauses",
which is resting between reps.
The point is to induce short time ATP exhaustion.
At the failure point (around 12 reps) immediately increase the poundage to
85% of max. Now perform 2-3 negative reps. I estimate @ the 85%
poundage, the negatives will allow 2 to 3 isochemic mortis eccentrics
before you reach full eccentric failure.
You will find that the most productive sets will be the second and third
sets of the exercise when the muscle becomes pumped. Isochemic mortis
eccentrics work best when the muscle is first pumped. And I can see no
reason to perform more sets after three. You will find that with some
bodyparts and exercises, once a muscle is pumped from previous exercise,
three sets are not needed, but only one for that exercise.
Obviously you will need at least one training partner to help with the
eccentrics and move the extra weight in the negative 'positive'. And on
leg day, 2 training partners is ideal. Many of these exercises work best
when locked into a machine track, although in developing the system I had
no access to most machines.
Exercises:
Shoulders - Shoulder press, side lateral, rear laterals, shrugs
Biceps - seated incline hammer curls, ez-curl preacher bench curl
Triceps - pulley cable pushdown with V-bar only, overhead dumbell
extentions, bench or machine dips
Legs* - front or hack squats (3 sets), leg press (1 set), extentions (1
set), stiff legged dead lift (straigh & arched back only), leg curls (1
set)
Calves - standing calve raise (3 sets), seated calve raise (2 sets)
Abs - crunch machine, reverse low incline roll ups
Chest - Incline barbell press (30 degrees), Flat dumbell flyes, V-bar dips
or decline barbell press
Back - one arm rows (dumbell of hammer machine), lat pulldown (pull bar to
nose/chin area only), Rack dead lifts (half-reps from knees up), dumbell
pullovers (1 set only).
*DO* all exercises in the 12+3 format - NO EXCEPTIONS
*DON'T* add any extra exercises
*DON'T* substitute other exercises
*DO* this routine for three weeks during the month and...
*DON'T* workout for the last week of the month
*DON'T* do more than 1/2 hour of aerobics each day
Dan's Addendum (5/22/95)
Please pass this along. I downloaded the HIT thing and ready it. Wordy
bastard, heh? Anyway, a MAJOR point is missed because I should have
explained part of my workout system. I feel that most eccentric trauma
outside from the isolated isochemic mortis phase should be avoided simply
because this general trauma is not only nonproductive, but actually
counterproductive as well.
THIS MEANS that the whole point of the initial concentric set is simply to
exhaust short term ATP so that you can arrive at the isochemic mortis
point where eccentrics are truly anabolic.
I tried to estimate the tension that would engage the most fibers, that is
to say to find the most efficient tension/rep combo. At 70%, reps usually
are in the 12 range. The 12 reps are done rapidly, with virtually no
accentuation of the eccentric part of the rep.
It is important not to do mini-pauses between reps that will replenish
ATP. So yes, these would be 'ballistic movements'. Of course using
higher reps with lighter weights would eventually exhaust the ATP stores,
however, we found that too many reps didn't allow much eccentric strenght
left over to perform 3 eccentric reps @ 85% or more tension.
So unlike *HIT* or *HD*, my system tries to consciously try to avoid the
kind of trauma instilled with the 2 second up/4 second down rep scheme.
BTW, rest between sets DOES NOT have to be super short. Ideal rest times
involve waiting for the pulse rate to drop back to non-lactic acid
clearing zones.
You don't have a high pulse and respiration rate because your body need
oxygen but to clear lactic acid. As you can imagine rest between sets can
be determined with a heart monitor. - Dan Duchaine
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Any questions or comments may be posted &/or e-mailed to me. I will
forward to Dan Duchaine.
Cheers!!! BODYOPUS :)
Rifle River
wrote:
>Day I : Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps
>Day 2 : Legs, Calves, Abs
>Day 3 : Rest
>Day 4 : Rest
>Day 5 : Chest, Back
>Day 6 : Rest
>Day 7 : Rest
>Repeat 7 day plan
>Shoulders - rear laterals,
>Back -
I have always done rear delt raises on the same day as back. My reasoning
is that rowing movements generally hit the rear delts anyway, and the raises
generally involve some of the upper back muscles. So, rather than hitting
rear delts twice a week (once on shoulder day and once on back day) I go
ahead and hit them on the same day. What do some of you think about this?
Along the same lines, I generally work triceps with chest, and biceps with
back because those smaller arm muscles are normally hit during chest and
back work anyway. So, Dan (or bodyopus) do you think it's a good idea, in
your routine above, to hit arms twice a week while the larger muscle groups
get trained only once? I would have thought that the smaller muscle groups
like arms should be trained less frequently and with fewer sets than for the
larger groups. I'm curious to hear what others do as well.
Rifle River
jst...@girch1.med.uth.tmc.edu
Hookt awn fonix werkt fore me!
BODYOPUS
have raised MANY valid questions. Unfortunately, I haven't a great (or
any answer) for you. I am just doing Duchaine's bidding. What I can tell
you is that Dan spent close to like 2 years developing this (when he was
in prison) and If you look at the workout that Dorian Yates is doing, it
is VERY similar.
Why??? He got such from Dan. I am not saying "follow the workout of
Yates because Yates is huge and you can be like him (maybe with a slew of
drugs you could).
What I am saying is Yates is using Dan's workout to prepare for the next
Olympia. Think about that?
If I can be of any further help , e-mail me directly and I will pass you
concerns directly to THE GURU who may/may not reply.
Cheers! BODYOPUS :)
David Maurice
>ALL exercises are adjusted to perform poundages at 70% of max (1RM).
>In a rested non-depleted individual, it usually means around 12 reps.
> I should say that the point is to get to 70% rep failure. DO NOT do
>"mini-pauses", which is resting between reps. The point is to
>induce short time ATP exhaustion.
>...the whole point of the initial concentric set is simply to exhaust
>short term ATP
To exhaust the ATP will require full loading of the FG fibers. The
load here will not be sufficient for that; recruitment continues to
higher fractions of MVC for the muscles you are targeting.
Performance as described here will result in failure from anoxia
rather than ATP depletion.
>I tried to estimate the tension that would engage the most fibers,
>that is to say to find the most efficient tension/rep combo.
It's higher than 70% of MVC.
>It is important not to do mini-pauses between reps that will
>replenish ATP.
Seems others have depleted the ATP-PC system without resorting to the
rapid motions. See J. Keul, G. Haralambie, M. Bruder and H. J.
Gottstein, Med. Sci. Sports. Exer., V10 (1978), pp. 13-15
> So yes, these would be 'ballistic movements'. Of course using
> higher reps with lighter weights would eventually exhaust the ATP
> stores,
Heavier weights would do it faster and more completely. Of course,
it would be harder to go as fast.
> So unlike *HIT* or *HD*, my system tries to consciously try to avoid
> the kind of trauma instilled with the 2 second up/4 second down rep
> scheme.
Going faster will not reduce "mechanical trauma" (from cross bridge
cycling), and the "metabolic trauma" will be a function of load and
time under load.