IN PART 1 OF
THIS SERIES, I discussed
why I feel that free-weight,
multijoint exercises should form
the foundation of any muscle-building,
strength-gaining, and/or performance-
enhancing resistance-training
programme. I provided a list of some of
my personal favourites and offered some
tips on how to get the most out of each.
While that was a pleasure to write about,
the real fun begins here, in Part 2.
In 2000, I introduced a training system
known as “Power, Rep Range, Shock,” or
P/RR/S for short. About a year before,
I had reached a (lengthy) plateau in muscle
size, and I eagerly set out to discover the
possible reasons why. I did not believe
I had reached my genetic potential and
began searching for answers. After
spending many months reviewing my old
workout logs, researching the various
pathways that ignite hypertrophy,
experimenting with different training
methods, and carefully documenting
results, I began to understand that a
one-dimensional approach to building
muscle can work for only so long.
As humans, we are adaptive machines,
and once our muscles and CNS get
used to the stimulus being repetitively
presented, they will no longer respond
(which simply means that we do not get
any bigger). As with so many things in life,
our muscles thrive on (and grow from)
variety. Of course, this does not mean
one should enter the gym each day
and train haphazardly or according to
instinct. Instead, there must be a sound,
progressive, and scientifically based
plan firmly in place, which is precisely
where the P/RR/S training protocol
comes into play.
Power, Rep Range, Shock is a cyclical
approach to resistance training in which
you use a different protocol every week
(in three-week cycles), with the goal of
tapping into all the body’s various growth
mechanisms. Each of the three weeks
is meant to bring about a specific
physiological effect, so that your body
cannot fully adapt to any one form of
training (which will eventually result in
stagnation). P/RR/S addresses
hypertrophy from a variety of (proven)
angles and allows significant progress
to take place on a very consistent,
predictable, and long-term basis. Sounds
pretty awesome, right?
JANUARY 2018 | FLEX
55