Balanced Training

We know that our muscles grow as a result of repair, an adaptation to stress (e.g. weight lifting). However, over time that growth will slow and eventually stop as the muscles get used to the routine. Depending on the program, this will usually take place in three to six weeks. That’s why you need to periodically switch up the training protocols (i.e., exercise selection, number of sets, rep ranges, rest between sets, tempo and load) you follow. If you don’t, your progress will eventually plateau. Not a word bodybuilders like to include in their vocabulary. So when developing the following training program, we made sure it was 1) innovative, 2) unique and 3) effective.

The Balanced Training Program is basically a combination of two different training models: agonist/antagonist training (a.k.a. opposite muscle group training) and undulating periodization (or cycling your training volume on a day-by-day basis). But there’s nothing basic about the results they produce.

Let's look at how both of these work and you’ll see how combining them can produce massive growth and strength gains even while you get shredded.

Yes – EVEN while getting shredded!

Agonist/Antagonist Training

Let’s start off with agonist/antagonist training. In order for one muscle to shorten and contract, the muscle on the opposite side of the joint must lengthen and relax (to a certain degree) to allow the contraction to occur. In an almost push- pull relationship, the muscle contracting is considered the “agonist” and the one relaxing is the “antagonist”. Agonist/antagonist training pairs two exercises that target opposing muscles (e.g., biceps/triceps, chest/upper back, quadriceps/hamstrings and abdominals/lower back) in a superset format (a superset is a combination of two exercises that are performed one after the other). For instance, you could combine barbell curls with skull crushers for an agonist/antagonist workout that involves the biceps and triceps, respectively. While your biceps are getting hammered during the curls, your triceps are resting, replenishing their energy supply and removing fatigue toxins (e.g., ammonia and hydrogen ions), which inhibit performance. When you switch to skull crushers, your triceps are now getting torched, while your biceps recover. As you may have already figured, this type of training offers two advantages:

Each muscle group is allowed ample time to recuperate from ammonia and hydrogen ion buildup, while replenishing energy stores even though the rest period between exercises is minimal.
The overall duration of your workout is reduced.

Undulating Periodization

With agonist/antagonist training covered, let’s check out the second training model used in the Balanced Training Program – undulating periodization. You may have heard of periodization before or even used it in your training with some success. The most commonly known type of periodization is linear. If you don’t know, linear periodization organizes your training into blocks. Each block usually lasts between four to eight weeks and focuses on one specific goal (e.g., strength, power, hypertrophy or muscular endurance) before switching to another. The biggest criticism of linear periodization is when you switch your training focus and move on to the next block, the training sessions you’re currently following don’t allow you to maintain the specific fitness level you attained in the previous block. That means you end up losing some of the gains you spent four to eight weeks trying to attain. Enter undulating periodization.

With undulating periodization, you’re training muscle groups twice a week in upper/lower body splits with different training protocols for each workout. In other words, each workout within the week is completely different from the next. This daily variation in training allows you to focus on multiple goals at once. For example, on one day you’ll focus on low-volume, heavy-load training to stimulate myofibrillar hypertrophy and the powerful fast-fatigable motor units (refer to the Muscle Physiology section for an explanation on this). On another training day, you’ll train the same muscle groups in a higher-rep range, with a lighter load to work the slow- and fast-fatigue resistant units, while promoting sarcoplasmic expansion (once again, refer to the Muscle Physiology section for an explanation on this). By the end of the week, you’ve hammered the entire spectrum of motor units within each muscle group and stimulated both myofibrillar hypertrophy and sarcoplasmic expansion. If that wasn’t enough, your muscles won’t be able to adapt to this program as quickly because the training protocols keep changing. Therefore, you can stay on the Balanced Training Program longer than other traditional workout programs and still continue to make gains!