ROB Workout style

[prolangtum]

Ive been doing this for a month now on maintenance cals, ahve done no cardio, and leaned up to 225 @ 6.3 bf%, my lowest since my "entertaing" days. Muscles have become much denser, and no cardio is needed. Its not for those with big egos who like to push a lot of weight to impress people. Heres a post from Rob explaining it.

The ROB approach is nothing new, though I often explain it in a way that makes it sound different.

In a nutshell, the ROB approach revolves around the concept of 'more work, less time'.

If you ask a high school physics teacher what 'work' is, they'll probably say something like 'moving a force over a distance'.

When you perform a squat or a bench press, you are lifting a weight over a distance (e.g., one full repetition of that exercise). Thus, you are performing work. The more weight you lift over that distance --provided you do it in the same amount of time!!-- the more work you are performing in that unit of time.

Power = work divided by time. Thus, the more work you perform in a given unit of time, the higher your power output. However, I prefer to use the phrase "work rate" in preference to "power output."

The higher the work rate you make your muscles sustain, the more metabolic and electrochemical 'disturbances' they encounter. Calcium (Ca2+), Hydrogen ions (H+; a.k.a. 'acid'), lactate, sodium (Na+) --these and other things accumulate within your muscle fibers as you make them pump iron. As your muscle fibers perform more work/time, these things accumulate progressively.

The ROB approach dictates that in order to build bigger muscles, you MUST make your muscles sustain an uncomfortably high work rate. 'Uncomfortably high' because the muscles encounter so much electrochemical and metabolic disturbance that they basically say "Enough! You win! You're working us so hard that it's worth spending the energy to make ourselves bigger. That way, the next time you ask us to perform this high a work rate, it won't cause so much of a disturbance."

How do you achieve as high a work rate as possible? You do this by lifting a heavy enough weight and Resting Only Briefly (hence "ROB") between sets. When you strike that magical combination of load and rest interval length, and you keep it up for enough sets, your muscles achieve that 'optimal' work rate that makes them grow like crazy.

Of course, next time, you try to make your muscles sustain an even higher work rate by using heavier weights. This way they continue to increase in size.

What's a 'heavy enough' weight? Who short a between-set rest interval is 'Resting Only Briefly'?

I've found that lifting as heavy a weight as you can for 5-8 reps (sometimes as much as 10) and resting 20 seconds between sets, works fantastic for most muscle groups (though not necessarily all --see below).

True, if you lift as much as you can for 5-8 reps and rest 2-3 minutes between sets, you will be able to generate a lot more force (i.e., lift heavier weights). But over the course of many sets, your average work rate will be less because of the slower pace. Your muscles will still grow, but not as quickly as they could.

These are the basic elements of the ROB approach:

(1) For all exercises, lift as heavy a weight as you can for 5-8 reps.
(2) Rest only 20 seconds between sets. For some people, I suggest resting 50-60 seconds for quads (squats, leg presses). Why? Go to this link and scroll down until you see my post about slow-twitch fibers and my communications with Dr. Robert Fitts: http://forum.avantlabs.com/index.php?act=ST&f=9&t=5025

(3) Do 8-20 sets per muscle group, depending on your goals, level of experience, and frequency of training (how many times you hit each muscle group per week).

(4) Try to hit each muscle group at least 2 times per week.

Go check out my threads on the "ROB approach" and my dieting threads at Avant Labs' forum. Also, you can read about my training approach in Planet Muscle. The latest issue has one of my articles "Heavy and Slow? Not to Grow!".

Let me know how the ROB approach works for you.

And thank you very much for your interest.

Appreciatively,
Rob

Rob Thoburn

[prolangtum]

Here a few pics, this guy uses only protein powder, no other supplements.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/attach...postid=1694401

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/attach...postid=1694407

[prolangtum]

He explains a bit more:

Remember that the basic tenet (principle) of the ROB approach is that you need to make your muscles SUSTAIN a high overall work rate.

If you lift as heavy as you can for, e.g., 5-8 reps, and then rest 2-3 minutes between sets, you will find that you have performed a fairly high amount of work for the duration of that set (say, 10-15 seconds).

However, when you average that quantity of work over the duration of your set PLUS the 2-3 minute rest interval, the OVERALL work rate will be much less.

It's the WORK RATE and the length of time you make your muscles SUSTAIN that overall work rate that is so critical to stimulating muscle growth.

That's why it's important to do at least 3 or 4 sets per exercise. When you change exercises for a given muscle group, you inevitably have to rest longer (1, maybe 2, minutes). Otherwise you'll be knocking people over, leaving weights all over the place, and otherwise pissing off the rest of the free world.

If you only do 1-2 sets per exercise for a given muscle group, you will hinder your ability to sustain a high work rate. That's why I do at least 5 ---sometimes as many as 8 or 9-- sets of a given exercise before moving to the next.

Now, some people (e.g., those at Avant Labs' forum) have compared the ROB approach to 'circuit training'. Well, with circuit training you usually do one set of an exercise before moving on, often to an exercise for a DIFFERENT muscle group. No wonder circuit training doesn't build that muscle muscle.

Then there are the people who say the ROB approach is 'endurance training'. Hmm. Well it sure can develop your 'endurance', i.e, your ability to sustain this type of exercise --though you never do get 'used to it'.

However, in contrast to endurance exercise, we are asking our muscles to generate high-intensity contractions by lifting as much as we can for 5-8 reps at that particular moment in time. Thus, the amount of work is far higher than would be the case with the low-intensity contractions characteristic of endurance exercise. Even though we are resting only 20 seconds (or, for quads, sometimes 50-60, depending on your muscle-building 'propensities' in this muscle group), the overall work rate is much higher than for endurance training.

Hope this helps.

Do give it a try. Be sure not to skimp on sets. Again, it's not just the high work rate, but the demand on your muscles to SUSTAIN that work rate that is critical. 'Sustain' means 'over and extended period of time', meaning lots of sets for a given muscle group.

Give it a try and tell us your progress.

Best,
Rob

Rob Thoburn

[JUICE]

thats aweome by just using protein. I only use protein also, i really dont like taking stuff like creatine, etc. I only stick to protein and have lots of it.

[snowblind]

i read this yesterday and tried it today and definately felt like my time was well spent. a few questions though...

how long have you been on this program and how long before you switch it up to something different?

how would you gauge progress by weight gained or max weight pushed?

if you are working each muscle group twice a week is you intensity the same? i.e. same/greater weight used?

i usually change up my program every 2 months manipulating the weight/rep range and occasionally throw in some static contractions maybe on the last few sets of the last exercise. my overall goal is power, defined as max weight pushed 1 rep.

thanx!

[prolangtum]

About 1 1/2 months now.

I rest 50-60 seconds on the first half of sets for said bodypart, then 20 seconds for the rest.

I keep a log, I try to push a little more weight each time or more reps for same weight, but the results you will see the most will be in the mirror.

I try to focus one day that week on say back, on width, but throw in a bit of thickness, and vice versa the next day for back.



Here's my weekly split:

Sunday
Chest/Delts/Calves

Monday Off

Tuesday
Hamstrings/Tris/Rear Delts

Wednesday
Quads/Bis/Traps

Thursday
Back/Delts/abs

Friday
Tris/Chest/hamstrings

Saturday
Back/Bis/Quads


Heres an example of what I did today, rest in seconds is the first number before the exercise:

THURSDAY
Back:
[60]T-Bar Row(4sets)
[60]Pull-ups(4 sets)
[20]EZ Bar Reverse Row(5 sets)
[20]Hammer Pull downs(4 sets)
[20]High Rope Rows(3 sets)
Delts:
[60]BB behind the neck Press(4 sets)
[60]BB military Press(3 sets)
[20]Upright Rows(5 sets)
[20]DB front raises(3 sets)
Abs:
[15]Power Crunches(3 sets)
[15]Leg Raises(3 sets)
[15]Side Crunches(3 sets)

[snowblind]

thanx! i like your idea of splitting the "type" of training up for the same groups. one day lots of stretch and a little squeeze the next training day switch. i cant believe i never thought of that for two-a-weeks. i thought i was the smartest guy ever too. i liked your split so much i printed it off to follow the next two months. i will try to keep a decent log and post results for everyone at the end.

good info here bro, thanx again.

[prolangtum]

no prob, gotta give Rob credit, hes been coresponding with me back and forth on my workout routine. He has an article about it in the new "Planet Muscle"

You can follow his log on:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hreadid=152496

[snowblind]

hit quads with leg extensions with less than 60 sec. rest between 8 sets of 10-12, then barbell lunges with 75 seconds of rest same set/rep. halfway through my squats i puked. i felt like arnold for a minute there. i was at the gym on base so there arent alot of people and no women sadly, so at least it wasnt too bad. finished up squats though with 6 sets at 225 for 12 ea with about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes rest. i am not keeping great records, but i will not forget yesterdays workout for the rest of my life, or at least until i puke on arm day.