Getting back to my “Susquehanna Experiment” weight training program, it only took a couple practice sessions to realize that low-volume, high-intensity training programs can get pretty complicated. And it only took a couple reps to see how hard it is!

Here are my thoughts on some parts of the routine:

The 5/5 cadence. Lifting a weight for five seconds and then lowering it down for five seconds, all in the same breath, is just plain hard. There is nothing like a constant load on your muscles to show you how long 10 seconds can be!

Under normal circumstances, I have no problem breathing in for a count of 5 and then breathing out for a count of 5. But when that breath takes place while lifting a barbell, and is followed by another eight long breaths under load, it’s a lot harder to concentrate on your breath!

Counting. Normally I would just count my reps and be done with it. In this experiment, I had to keep track of my reps and my breath! That meant I was counting from one to five twice for each rep.

This is where a spotter comes in handy! Have a spotter count your reps for you while you focus on counting your breath. (Eventually I managed to count my reps and just go by feel for the 5/5 cadence, though.)

The weight. Figuring out what weight to use is tricky, too. Even though this is supposed to be intense, and you are only doing 8-10 reps of each exercise, the amount of weight you lift will be fairly low. Trust me, the constant load on your muscles from the slow cadence is more than enough intensity!

I actually did two test sessions just to figure out the proper weight to start with, and even then I wasn’t positive what was best.

Preparation. I don’t know if there’s anything that could have prepared me for this! I hadn’t been lifting a lot, but I hit the weights every so often since I have some light weights at home. I also did a lot of Cyclo-Core routines and lots of extra push-ups.

However, this “Super-Slow” type of lifting still destroyed me!

Soreness. You better believe I was sore! I decided that once every four days is probably all my body can handle, so I went with a Monday/Thursday schedule.

Number of Exercises. At first, when Tim Ferriss recommended doing only 4-7 exercises each time, I didn’t think I’d be getting my money’s worth at the gym, so to speak. But if you do it right, you’ll be too exhausted to do a seventh set of anything!

High Protein Diet. Even though I’m close to being a vegetarian, I enjoyed the high protein diet. Turkey sandwiches, protein smoothies, mmm mmm good!

Now go ahead and get started on your weight lifting routines!

(And remember, you will be able to see all the details at the official Susquehanna Experiment page.)

The time has finally arrived… after some careful preparation I’m starting my workout experiment to gain 34 lb of muscle in 4 weeks! (Check that post for all the background info…)

All these weight lifting guides are “experiments” so I’m calling this The Susquehanna Experiment. The experiment is to take a skinny cyclist with big legs but no upper body and turn him into a muscular bodybuilder. The test subject is myself. Based on the guidelines I posted about before, here’s the outline of my plan:

“Before”

In order to do before and after comparisons, I got some “before” pictures and took various measurements to gauge progress.

It also didn’t hurt that I had done quite a bit of Cyclo-Core and other bodweight workouts beforehand, to get my body ready.

Workout Basics

Here are the basic principles for this weight training program:

• One set to failure.
• Aiming for 8-10 reps per set, leading to muscular failure.
• Slow cadence. 5 seconds up and then 5 seconds down.
• Low frequency. (Max 2x per week, perhaps once every 4 days.)
• 3 minutes rest between exercises.
• Each workout will consist of 4-7 multi-joint exercises.
• Each workout will work the entire body (arms and then legs.)

The Exercises

Here are a few example exercises:

• Leg press
• Trap bar deadlift
• Overhead press
• Dips
• Incline bench press
• Yates Bent Row
• Close-grip shoulder press
• Close grip supinated pulldowns
• Hamstring curl
• Leg extension

Plus some jogging or stationary biking for a warm-up and cool-down.

The Diet

It’s simple: Lots of protein.

Building muscle means eating a lot of food, specifically protein. And of course the basics like avoiding anything white, so I only get high-quality carbs.

Finally, one day each week, cut calories by 50%. (Something about protein synthesis and/or metabolism; in other words, because Tim Ferriss says so.)

Other Notes

Very important: Record each workout in detail to track progress.

However I won’t be recording too much detail, especially about my diet. I just don’t feel like counting grams of protein each day

Stay Tuned

This is just the beginning! I’ll be posting updates along with a complete report when this is all said and done.

Tim Ferriss, author of The 4 Hour Workweek, (a great book, BTW) has a lot of health and fitness advice on his blog. I’ve posted about some of his stuff before, and I’ll take it a step further today.

We’ll start with the craziest post I’ve seen: From Geek to Freak: How I Gained 34 lbs. of Muscle in 4 Weeks

It’s the story of how Tim gained 34 pounds of muscle in just four weeks. The best part is that it took only two 30-minute workouts per week, for a total of four hours of working out. Crazy, isn’t it?

So read that post, comment #122, and this page about the Colorado Experiment. That should give you a good starting point if you want to try this yourself.

However, although Tim gives good general guidelines, there’s not much about specific exercises and routines. Plus you need a really good home gym or a membership at the local gym, because you need serious weights.

So I did some research and found this guide to ‘one set to failure‘ protocol. It seems to be in line with Tim’s guide.

Now to research all of these multi-joint exercises and get some practice. I’ll report back when I’m on my way to gaining 34 pounds in 4 weeks!

Any cyclists out there think this is a good workout??