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The Deadpool Mega Muscle Mass Workout – Part Four

October 13th, 2009

Continuing on from Part 3 of the Deadpool Mega Muscle Mass Workout…

Psoas

Hip Flexion

In most of my clients, I see the unfortunate combination of weak yet chronically tight psoas (hip flexors).

So, for this muscle group, I like to combine strength training with an aggressive flexibility routine.

So, if you are going to train your hip flexors with this program, you NEED to balance it with some flexibility work.

Heavy Partial: N/A
Isos: Flexing your hip, push your knee/thigh into an immovable object and hold for 2-5 seconds per rep for 3-8 reps. Options include the underside of a table with your upper-body weight pushing down on the tabletop, or leaning against a wall & driving your knee into a stability ball placed against the wall, or this supine method shown in the video

Plyos: N/A
Vibrations: High Knees - 3-8 reps per leg

Immediately after completing the wake up exercise, proceed to a set of heavy/explosive Hanging Leg Raises – 3-8 reps

Glutes/Hams

Hip Extension

Heavy Partial: Partial Deadlifts or Good Mornings out of a Power Rack – 3-8 reps
Isos: Using the same Power Rack, grab an unloaded barbell and Deadlift or Good Morning the bar up into the Power Rack pins. It’s your muscular force pulling up into an immovable object (the power rack) (see the iso bicep curl video for reference) – 3-8 reps

Plyos: Broad Jumps – 3-8 reps

Vibrations: Bodyweight Hip Thrusts - 3-8 reps – move as quick as possible

Immediately after completing the wake up exercise, proceed to a set of heavy/explosive Hip Thrusts or Deadlifts or Good Mornings – 3-8 reps

Hams

Knee Flexion

Heavy Partial: Partial Glute-Ham Raise (holding DB or band resistance) – 3-8 reps
Isos: Partner assisted Isometric G-H Raise or Leg Curl (have a partner resist your movement) – 2-5 sec hold for 3-8 reps
Plyos: N/A
Vibrations: Seated Band Leg Curls - 3-8 reps per leg – move faster than the big fella in the video

Immediately after completing the wake up exercise, proceed to a set of heavy/explosive Glute-Ham Raises – 3-8 reps

Quads

Heavy Partial: Partial Squats out of the Power Rack – 3-8 reps

Isos: Iso Squat out of the Power Rack (barbell or hip squat belt) – hold each rep for 2-5 seconds per rep for 3-8 reps.

Plyos: Depth Jumps – 3-8 reps

Vibrations: Jumping Squats – Bodyweight only - 3-8 reps

Immediately after completing the wake up exercise, proceed to a set of heavy/explosive Squats, Front Squats, Zercher Squats, Bulgarian Squats – 3-8 reps

Calves

Gastroc

Heavy Partial: Partial Standing Calf Raise (Machine)
Isos: Using a barbell & a Power Rack, set the rack pins so that you can calf raise up into the pins (just like the iso bicep curls) 2-5 seconds per rep for 3-8 reps.
Plyos: Ankle Bounces – 3-8 reps

Vibrations: Light weight Calf Raises - 3-8 reps

Immediately after completing the wake up exercise, proceed to a set of heavy/explosive Standing Calf Raises – 3-20 reps

Calves

Soleus

Heavy Partial: Partial Seated Calf Raise (Machine)
Isos: N/A
Plyos: N/A
Vibrations: Light weight Seated Calf Raises - 3-8 reps

Immediately after completing the wake up exercise, proceed to a set of heavy/explosive Seated Calf Raises – 3-20 reps

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Alright, that’s it for Part 4 of the Deadpool Mega Muscle Mass Workout

In Part 5, I will wrap this series up by showing you how to put together your own workout as well as introducing you to the Deadpool Getting Ripped Workout

Enjoy

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The Deadpool Mega Muscle Mass Workout

September 17th, 2009

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.

But, as I mentioned in the lens, Ryan is naturally a pretty skinny guy.

As a result, adding a whole lot of muscle mass was job #1 as he got ready to take on the role of Deadpool.

And he did a pretty good job.

But we can do better.

In Part 1 of this series, I outlined the concepts behind my Official “Make Ryan Reynolds your Beeyotch” Workout

In this post, I give you a mass building workout that will put Deadpool to shame.

And I have named it…

The Deadpool Mega Muscle Mass Workout

Like 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

Very Intense Concentric Muscular Contractions – that’s what I did with the partial rack bench press
Very Intense Eccentric Muscular Contractions – Plyometric movements
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:

Slightly Less Intense Concentric Muscular Contractions…through a full range of motion and performed as fast as possible. Think explosive bench presses.
Slightly Less Intense Eccentric Muscular Contractions….but we drastically increase the time under tension. Sloooowwww negatives on those bench presses.
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 Deadpool Mega Muscle Mass Workout

In the next installment, 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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The Official "Make Ryan Reynolds your Beeyotch" Workout

September 14th, 2009

A few months ago, I created a Squidoo Lens about Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool Workout.

The lens was essentially an introduction to the workouts that Reynolds had to endure in order to transform his naturally thin (aka scrawny) frame into a muscular, ripped physique worthy of superhero status.

Since then, I have received a ton of emails from guys eager to build their own Deadpool bodies.

The only problem was that I was underwhelmed by the original workout.

It was good, but it wasn’t great.

Sure, it would help you look like a superhero, but it wouldn’t help you perform like a superhero.

So, I re-invented the Deadpool workout and spent the summer beta testing it on some willing victims up here in Toronto.

And, if I say so myself, I have come up with a seriously kick-ass training program.

Over 3 months, my 4 scrawny test subjects:

Gained between 5 and 14 lbs of muscle
Increased their max strength between 55 & 197% (Front Squat)
Saw their speed, power & anaerobic endurance go through the roof (Hill Sprints)

And, oh yeah, they also lost a ton of baby-fat in the process.
The average body-fat percentage at the beginning of the test was 21%.
At the end of the 3 months, the average body-fat was down to 9% (a Bod-Pod was used to measure BF%)

In short, by the end of the summer, my little guinea pigs didn’t just look like superheroes.

They were superheroes.

So, without any further ado, I would like to present…

The Official “Make Ryan Reynolds your Beeyotch” Workout

(Because this workout is too detailed for one post, I am going to break it into chunks – today’s chunk will outline the theory behind my madness)

Like the original workout, my MRRYB workout had two distinct phases.

Phase 1 – Muscle Building

The key to the success of this phase was the focus on the nervous system and the development of fast twitch muscle fibers.

Using a combination of high speed movements and plyometric style loading, my GPs forced their fast twitch muscle fibers to engage during part 1 of their 2-part supersets.

(Here’s how I activated their fast-twitch muscle fibers)

Once I had the fast twitch fibers turned on, I moved them immediately to part-2 of the superset.

In part 2, the GPs were able to handle loads much heavier than normal because of the activation of their hard to activate fast twitch fibers.

Taking advantage of this situation, part 2 of the superset consisted of explosive concentric movements combined with slow eccentric movements. The GPs were not allowed to pause at either the top or bottom of the lift.

And yet, due to the activation of the fast twitch fibers, the GPs were able to lift more than ever before, add more muscle than ever before and yet experience only moderate muscle soreness.

Depending upon the exercise, the muscle group and the techniques used, reps for each part of the superset ranged from 3 to 8 reps.

Phase 2 – Getting Ripped

Phase 2 is all about melting the baby-fat off of the newly built muscle.

To do that, I introduced the GPs to some particularly nasty HIIT and HIRT workouts.

And while I expected fairly rapid fat loss, I did not expect what happened.

For some reason, in the first week, each of the GPs lost over 6 lbs of fat.

And this is after almost 2 months of very intense training and a strict diet. They had already lost fat during phase 1.

I can only speculate on the reason behind the very rapid fat loss, but to be honest, I don’t care. I am more than happy to leave the science to the scientists. All I know is that this workout hit one out of the park.

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In the next installment of this series, I will get into the nuts and bolts of the workout.

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Ryan Reynold's Deadpool Workout Plan

May 6th, 2009

Ryan Reynolds has made a name for himself as one of Hollywood’s best built men.

In his new movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds plays Deadpool – the merc with the mouth.

Take a look at this Squidoo lens if you want some insight into the type of workouts Ryan Reynolds used to get ready to become Deadpool.

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Health Habits

Posts Tagged ‘ryan reynolds’

The Deadpool Mega Muscle Mass Workout – Part Four

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The Deadpool Mega Muscle Mass Workout

The Deadpool Mega Muscle Mass Workout

How to Wake Up your Fast-Twitch Fibers

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

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The Official "Make Ryan Reynolds your Beeyotch" Workout

The Official “Make Ryan Reynolds your Beeyotch” Workout

Phase 1 – Muscle Building

Phase 2 – Getting Ripped

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Ryan Reynold's Deadpool Workout Plan

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