Shoryuken Workout

Since building the Squidoo Lens about Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool Workout, I have become a big Deadpool fan and am really looking forward to the movie. I think the studio made a great choice casting Ryan “Smart Ass” Reynolds in the role of Wade Wilson.

So, as an homage to Deadpool’s unique sense of humor, I have re-named Phase 1 of my Official “Make Ryan Reynolds your Beeyotch” Workout after one of my favorite Deadpool quotes:

Shoryuken Workout

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As I mentioned in the previous article, the key to the success of this mass building phase is the focus on your nervous system and fast-twitch muscle fibers.

The theory is that since most hardgainers are slow-twitch fiber dominant, and slow-twitch fibers aren’t built for hypertrophy, we need to do something special to wake up those dormant fast-twitch fibers and force them to grow.

And here’s how we’re going to do it:

• Each workout will consist of a series of 2-exercise supersets
• The first exercise in each superset is designed to wake up the fast-twitch muscle fibers
• The second exercise in each superset is designed to take advantage of the newly awakened fast-twitch fibers

How to Wake Up your Fast-Twitch Fibers

I was exposed to this concept about 15 years ago. At that time, I was training for powerlifting and strongman events. But my bench press was stuck. So, here’s what I did.

I would perform a partial bench press in a power rack with as much weight as I could handle. After a few sets of single reps, I would crawl over to standard bench press and attempt a maximum lift.

This technique allowed my to put over 30 lbs on my maximum bench press…after just 2 workouts.

The Theory

My strength was improved due to some combination of fast-twitch muscle recruitment and improved neuro-muscular co-ordination.

Since then, I have researched this topic…without much success. At least in the English speaking world. Those Russians were way ahead of us back in the day.

Anyway, most of you probably don’t care very much about the theory, so let’s move on.

The Wake-Up Exercises

I use 3 different methods to wake up the fast twitch fibers

1. Very Intense Concentric Muscular Contractions – that’s what I did with the partial rack bench press
2. Very Intense Eccentric Muscular Contractions – Plyometric movements
3. Very Fast Concentric & Eccentric Muscular Contractions - think sprints or throwing movements

Okay, your fast-twitch fibers are awake…now what?

Now we take advantage of those FTs, by exposing them:

1. Slightly Less Intense Concentric Muscular Contractions …through a full range of motion and performed as fast as possible. Think explosive bench presses.
2. Slightly Less Intense Eccentric Muscular Contractions ….but we drastically increase the time under tension. Sloooowwww negatives on those bench presses.
3. With no pause at the top or bottom of the lift. The muscle is always under tension.

Reps, Sets & Bodyparts

Here’s where individual goals play a part.

Are you interested in athletic performance or just getting big and buff like Arnie?

• My GPs were athletes, so I had them doing total body workouts. If they had been interested in appearance only, I would have had them do split body workouts (ie Back & Bis on Monday, Chest & Tris on Wed)

When it comes to rep selection, I had the GPs perform 3-8 reps on the Wake Up sets and 3-8 reps on the Work sets

For sets, I was much more fluid and looked at performance and time.

• Max time for a workout was 45 min
• But more important than time was speed. If I noticed a drop in the speed of movement, we shut everything down and hit the showers….not together. You get my point.

So, there you go. That’s the nuts and bolts of the Shoryuken Workout

In the next post, I will give you some examples of Wake-Up Exercises and show you how to pair them with the traditional lifts to get the best results.

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BTW – Shoryuken means “rising dragon punch” in Japanese. By the end of the workout, you’re gonna feel like you’ve been hit by a whole lotta shoryuken.

Packers are gonna kick butt in the NFC…Shoryuken!!!