The Perfect Rep
Change the Way You Build Muscle Forever
by Christian Thibaudeau
As a strength and bodybuilding coach, and as a weightlifter myself, I've learned more this year about training than the previous 10 years combined.
To be specific, I've made major advances in determining an exact methodology for sustained maximum growth of muscle cells.
More specifically, I've determined just exactly how to produce radical hypertrophy — every time I train — not only in myself, but in every single individual I've been training with these concepts.
I'm not exaggerating or setting you up for a twist on basic information that you've heard a thousand times before. I'm talking about huge advances in training that'll change the way you build muscle forever — if you can fully understand and implement the core principles of what I've learned.
Let's face the facts, at first glance, the act of performing repetitions with a barbell is a very simple concept involving just a few variables. And, of course, you've "learned" how to lift a weight the very first time you grabbed a bar...
But did you?
Have you ever really learned how to lift a weight for maximum gains — every time you train?
More specifically, do you know how to do a perfect rep, every time, that absolutely produces maximum results?
I fully admit that I didn't until very recently. Furthermore, I didn't even know what a perfect rep was!
For years, I've randomly hit and missed the edge of radical hypertrophy several times, but never really understood what part of the "lifting" was actually producing the results.
So often we focus on advanced training design, thinking it's the key — or frequency, or rep volume, or loads, or regulating rep speed, or body-part splits, or the ideal exercise program — that we forget to look at the most basic of elements: the rep.
The very act of performing a repetition is, no matter how you dissect training, the most basic and by far the most important part of training. In fact, doing reps is training.
So what I'm about to tell you is both basic and extremely advanced. The differences between what you know and what I'm going to show you are, on the surface, subtle, but in the context of results, the methodology is totally unique and extremely different.
In short, if you want to make maximum progress every single time you train, I've found only one universal principle that underpins everything. It's the foundation for all of my gains, and I base my entire training philosophy on it. It's by far the most-important element and it alone makes everything else work.
I'm talking about the ultimate "perfect rep" for maximum growth. And as I've said, the perfect rep works 100 percent of the time, every time you use it. That's because the body never adapts to its power to stimulate growth — which is why it's so perfect.
Once you master the principles of the concept, you'll be able to incorporate this rep method universally, across the board, in all your training.
Stimulating Radical Hypertrophy Every Time You Train
The perfect rep is extremely efficient at activating the nervous system and potentiating maximum force output from the working muscles, thereby stimulating maximum fast-twitch fibers and radical hypertrophy every time you train with it.
In other words, every single rep of every single set, when performed with this method, can be and is highly stimulatory for both muscle and nerve fibers. So, when I say every rep counts, I really mean it!
As I walk to a lift, I get into a highly focused state of mind, and direct that focus on rep performance and nothing else.
I don't even count the reps. I literally mean that.
Most people get fixated on counting reps. That's a huge mistake and one of the main factors for lack of progress.
It's far more important to know when to end a set than to remember how many reps you did, and that can only be done by zeroing in on the quality of each muscle contraction and its resulting rep.
When I finish a set, all I can remember is how my performance of each rep felt, and from that experience I'm able to record the rep number.
So, focus only on the rep you're doing, while you're doing it, like nothing else matters — because it doesn't.
Inducing Maximum Recovery Rate
The perfect rep, while yielding the greatest stimulatory effects, is so efficient that it burns very little nervous energy. This is probably the most interesting thing about it.
In sharp contrast, most training methods are devastating to the nervous system, making training a race between stimulating muscle as much as you can before completely draining the CNS.
Unfortunately, it's that same nervous system that has to continue to run the entire body after you train. And it's that same nervous system that masterminds any potential gains, as well.
The perfect rep actually potentiates the nervous system, leaving you in a potentiated (amped up) state post-training, which actually speeds up recovery dramatically. And just as incredible as that is, this super-physiologic state also stimulates metabolic rate through the roof.
Just ponder that for a minute — maximum stimulation of nerve and muscle fibers, maximum stimulation of recovery rate, and a jacked up metabolic rate — all from a rep method!
Auto-Regulation for Never-Ending Gains
Rep performance can tell you a ton of information about your current physiologic state and help you auto-regulate your workout session for maximum gains.
As such, the perfect rep is the perfect diagnostic tool for determining your next training step — whether or not to add or lower weight on the next set, continue the exercise or move on to another one, and even when to end the workout.
Knowing how to auto-regulate your workout is, in fact, the art of training, and has to be taught over time. This is why we've started the ANACONDA Protocol forum and section of the site — so that we can really get into advanced-level coaching. We want everyone to be able to use this information as well as we can.
So please keep that in mind as you continue to read about how to perform the perfect rep.
THE PERFECT-REP TRAINING SYSTEM
The perfect rep is actually a training system involving a maximum-force repetition style (max force reps) combined with an overall loading method, called Force Spectrum Ramping.
The entire training system is based on one objective: to activate and potentiate the nervous system's ability to recruit fast-twitch muscle fibers.
Simple activation is not enough. To really induce radical hypertrophy, you have to stimulate the nervous system, each rep of every set, to progressively fire more and more energy into the working muscle.
If done with systematic efficiency — in other words, not wasting nervous energy on unproductive efforts— you'll eventually experience a fully potentiated state. And that's where all the fast-twitch magic happens.
Keep the overall objective in mind as you read on, otherwise you'll likely get off track. Also, in the interest of keeping this article under a million words, I am only going to cover only the basics. Just know that there are variants and exceptions to the following information, all of which will be discussed in future articles and forum posts.
MAX FORCE REPS
There are three components of a max force rep:
1. Maximum-Force Lifting:
Always lift the weight as hard and as explosive as possible. In other words, each rep, regardless of the weight, should actually be a maximum effort. Acceleration is very important, as well. Try as hard as you can to make sure you actually accelerate the weight on every rep.
Hard. Explosive. Accelerate. Every rep. It's the only way to produce the maximum force possible.
Quality of rep performance, on every single rep, should be your only concern.
This means that for most of your training, you won't be lifting above 85 percent of your 1RM. In fact, the usual training range is somewhere between 50 - 85 percent of 1RM. Just remember, every single rep of every set is performed using maximum force.
Don't worry about training with weights that you might perceive as "lighter" (below 80 percent 1RM). This system will soon enough have you toying with your current personal bests.
We're about getting huge and muscular and strong. It's not an option. And all my current training weights exceed my previous 1RMs, and that's pretty darn heavy by anybody's standards.
The Max Force Point and Fluctuating Physiology
Because it's so important, and it's all but completely overlooked in traditional training models, I want to expand further on accelerative lifting.
We've experimented with training the entire spectrum of forces, going from explosive lifts all the way to 100-plus percent of 1RMs. And for advanced lifters, not exceeding the Max Force Point delivers, by a huge margin, the very best and most consistent gains.
The max force point (MFP) is the heaviest weight you can accelerate, on any given lift, on any given day. By definition, this means that your MFP will vary from day to day. That's the way your body works, it fluctuates.
You cannot predict physiologic states from hour to hour let alone from day to day. So how in the world can you go into the gym and expect to have an ideal physiologic state for lifting heaver weights every time you train?
On the other hand, every single time you train you can absolutely determine your max force point, and use that information to deliver gains as fast as humanly possible — that is, if you lift with maximum force efforts.
2. Maximum-Force Lowering:
Just like maximum force lifting, you want to achieve maximum force lowering. In other words, lower the weight as fast as you safely can. Max force lowering loads the turnaround (in the bottom position) for maximum activation. And you potentiate that action by utilizing one of the method's turnaround techniques.
The stretched-relaxed position is a point in the range of motion of a muscle that's at the very beginning of where it's being stretched. It's when the muscle is technically in the stretched position but still has all of its elasticity left in it.
And the term "turnaround" refers to the act of reversing the direction of the weight in the bottom position.
3. SRP Twitch Turnaround:
The SRP (stretched-relaxed position) twitch turnaround is the single greatest rep-activation technique we've found to date — and needs to be used on every full-range rep.
Here's how you perform an SRP twitch turnaround:
As you enter the SRP, perform a micro drop —allowing the descending weight to freefall for an instant — immediately followed by a catch-reversal, pushing the weight back up as hard and as explosive as possible. In other words, you're doing a setup twitch in the bottom turnaround.
Finding the SRP
For Bench Press
Lie on a bench press and put your arms out in front of you as if you had a bar in your hands (but there's no bar, of course). Then lower your arms as if you were doing a bench press, until you can gently relax your chest and shoulder muscles in the bottom position.
Don't force your arms lower than where they naturally stop with nothing but the force of gravity pulling them. Notice where your hands are and where the bar would be (if you had one in your hands). Most lifters will have a gap of about four to six inches between the chest and hands.
This is the stretched-relaxed position for bench press. And knowing where that point is on every lift, and using it to further enhance muscle activation, is critical.
"Ouch! My joints!" you might be thinking.
If you're using weights you can accelerate, and you do not go below the stretched-relaxed position, SRP twitch turnarounds are extremely safe. In fact, when lifting this way, most of our lifters' joint problems lessen significantly or disappear altogether.
SRP twitch turnarounds are critical for potentiating the nervous system and producing maximum force, and making the whole system work. The end result of utilizing SRP twitch turnarounds is nothing short of fast-twitch magic, making you feel superhuman.
We always use SRP twitch turnarounds, or another type of specialized turnaround technique, on every lift.
I know this is sounding rather ominous, requiring a lot of explanation. Don't worry about understanding all of the details about turnarounds right now. Otherwise, this article would read more like an unabridged encyclopedia.
I promise I'll get into the details of just exactly how to do the SRP technique, as well as the rest of the turnaround techniques, on the forum and in subsequent articles and videos. For now, I want you to really grasp the general idea of maximum force training.
In summary, if you're performing max force reps correctly, every rep should feel as if you're dominating the weight. Each repetition of a set should either feel progressively easier than the previous rep or the same, but never harder. If you perform a rep that feels noticeably harder or heavier than the one before it, stop the set.
It's all about rep performance, rep quality. Every rep is a max effort — always!
Change the Way You Build Muscle Forever
by Christian Thibaudeau
As a strength and bodybuilding coach, and as a weightlifter myself, I've learned more this year about training than the previous 10 years combined.
To be specific, I've made major advances in determining an exact methodology for sustained maximum growth of muscle cells.
More specifically, I've determined just exactly how to produce radical hypertrophy — every time I train — not only in myself, but in every single individual I've been training with these concepts.
I'm not exaggerating or setting you up for a twist on basic information that you've heard a thousand times before. I'm talking about huge advances in training that'll change the way you build muscle forever — if you can fully understand and implement the core principles of what I've learned.
Let's face the facts, at first glance, the act of performing repetitions with a barbell is a very simple concept involving just a few variables. And, of course, you've "learned" how to lift a weight the very first time you grabbed a bar...
But did you?
Have you ever really learned how to lift a weight for maximum gains — every time you train?
More specifically, do you know how to do a perfect rep, every time, that absolutely produces maximum results?
I fully admit that I didn't until very recently. Furthermore, I didn't even know what a perfect rep was!
For years, I've randomly hit and missed the edge of radical hypertrophy several times, but never really understood what part of the "lifting" was actually producing the results.
So often we focus on advanced training design, thinking it's the key — or frequency, or rep volume, or loads, or regulating rep speed, or body-part splits, or the ideal exercise program — that we forget to look at the most basic of elements: the rep.
The very act of performing a repetition is, no matter how you dissect training, the most basic and by far the most important part of training. In fact, doing reps is training.
So what I'm about to tell you is both basic and extremely advanced. The differences between what you know and what I'm going to show you are, on the surface, subtle, but in the context of results, the methodology is totally unique and extremely different.
In short, if you want to make maximum progress every single time you train, I've found only one universal principle that underpins everything. It's the foundation for all of my gains, and I base my entire training philosophy on it. It's by far the most-important element and it alone makes everything else work.
I'm talking about the ultimate "perfect rep" for maximum growth. And as I've said, the perfect rep works 100 percent of the time, every time you use it. That's because the body never adapts to its power to stimulate growth — which is why it's so perfect.
Once you master the principles of the concept, you'll be able to incorporate this rep method universally, across the board, in all your training.
Stimulating Radical Hypertrophy Every Time You Train
The perfect rep is extremely efficient at activating the nervous system and potentiating maximum force output from the working muscles, thereby stimulating maximum fast-twitch fibers and radical hypertrophy every time you train with it.
In other words, every single rep of every single set, when performed with this method, can be and is highly stimulatory for both muscle and nerve fibers. So, when I say every rep counts, I really mean it!
As I walk to a lift, I get into a highly focused state of mind, and direct that focus on rep performance and nothing else.
I don't even count the reps. I literally mean that.
Most people get fixated on counting reps. That's a huge mistake and one of the main factors for lack of progress.
It's far more important to know when to end a set than to remember how many reps you did, and that can only be done by zeroing in on the quality of each muscle contraction and its resulting rep.
When I finish a set, all I can remember is how my performance of each rep felt, and from that experience I'm able to record the rep number.
So, focus only on the rep you're doing, while you're doing it, like nothing else matters — because it doesn't.
Inducing Maximum Recovery Rate
The perfect rep, while yielding the greatest stimulatory effects, is so efficient that it burns very little nervous energy. This is probably the most interesting thing about it.
In sharp contrast, most training methods are devastating to the nervous system, making training a race between stimulating muscle as much as you can before completely draining the CNS.
Unfortunately, it's that same nervous system that has to continue to run the entire body after you train. And it's that same nervous system that masterminds any potential gains, as well.
The perfect rep actually potentiates the nervous system, leaving you in a potentiated (amped up) state post-training, which actually speeds up recovery dramatically. And just as incredible as that is, this super-physiologic state also stimulates metabolic rate through the roof.
Just ponder that for a minute — maximum stimulation of nerve and muscle fibers, maximum stimulation of recovery rate, and a jacked up metabolic rate — all from a rep method!
Auto-Regulation for Never-Ending Gains
Rep performance can tell you a ton of information about your current physiologic state and help you auto-regulate your workout session for maximum gains.
As such, the perfect rep is the perfect diagnostic tool for determining your next training step — whether or not to add or lower weight on the next set, continue the exercise or move on to another one, and even when to end the workout.
Knowing how to auto-regulate your workout is, in fact, the art of training, and has to be taught over time. This is why we've started the ANACONDA Protocol forum and section of the site — so that we can really get into advanced-level coaching. We want everyone to be able to use this information as well as we can.
So please keep that in mind as you continue to read about how to perform the perfect rep.
THE PERFECT-REP TRAINING SYSTEM
The perfect rep is actually a training system involving a maximum-force repetition style (max force reps) combined with an overall loading method, called Force Spectrum Ramping.
The entire training system is based on one objective: to activate and potentiate the nervous system's ability to recruit fast-twitch muscle fibers.
Simple activation is not enough. To really induce radical hypertrophy, you have to stimulate the nervous system, each rep of every set, to progressively fire more and more energy into the working muscle.
If done with systematic efficiency — in other words, not wasting nervous energy on unproductive efforts— you'll eventually experience a fully potentiated state. And that's where all the fast-twitch magic happens.
Keep the overall objective in mind as you read on, otherwise you'll likely get off track. Also, in the interest of keeping this article under a million words, I am only going to cover only the basics. Just know that there are variants and exceptions to the following information, all of which will be discussed in future articles and forum posts.
MAX FORCE REPS
There are three components of a max force rep:
1. Maximum-Force Lifting:
Always lift the weight as hard and as explosive as possible. In other words, each rep, regardless of the weight, should actually be a maximum effort. Acceleration is very important, as well. Try as hard as you can to make sure you actually accelerate the weight on every rep.
Hard. Explosive. Accelerate. Every rep. It's the only way to produce the maximum force possible.
Quality of rep performance, on every single rep, should be your only concern.
This means that for most of your training, you won't be lifting above 85 percent of your 1RM. In fact, the usual training range is somewhere between 50 - 85 percent of 1RM. Just remember, every single rep of every set is performed using maximum force.
Don't worry about training with weights that you might perceive as "lighter" (below 80 percent 1RM). This system will soon enough have you toying with your current personal bests.
We're about getting huge and muscular and strong. It's not an option. And all my current training weights exceed my previous 1RMs, and that's pretty darn heavy by anybody's standards.
The Max Force Point and Fluctuating Physiology
Because it's so important, and it's all but completely overlooked in traditional training models, I want to expand further on accelerative lifting.
We've experimented with training the entire spectrum of forces, going from explosive lifts all the way to 100-plus percent of 1RMs. And for advanced lifters, not exceeding the Max Force Point delivers, by a huge margin, the very best and most consistent gains.
The max force point (MFP) is the heaviest weight you can accelerate, on any given lift, on any given day. By definition, this means that your MFP will vary from day to day. That's the way your body works, it fluctuates.
You cannot predict physiologic states from hour to hour let alone from day to day. So how in the world can you go into the gym and expect to have an ideal physiologic state for lifting heaver weights every time you train?
On the other hand, every single time you train you can absolutely determine your max force point, and use that information to deliver gains as fast as humanly possible — that is, if you lift with maximum force efforts.
2. Maximum-Force Lowering:
Just like maximum force lifting, you want to achieve maximum force lowering. In other words, lower the weight as fast as you safely can. Max force lowering loads the turnaround (in the bottom position) for maximum activation. And you potentiate that action by utilizing one of the method's turnaround techniques.
The stretched-relaxed position is a point in the range of motion of a muscle that's at the very beginning of where it's being stretched. It's when the muscle is technically in the stretched position but still has all of its elasticity left in it.
And the term "turnaround" refers to the act of reversing the direction of the weight in the bottom position.
3. SRP Twitch Turnaround:
The SRP (stretched-relaxed position) twitch turnaround is the single greatest rep-activation technique we've found to date — and needs to be used on every full-range rep.
Here's how you perform an SRP twitch turnaround:
As you enter the SRP, perform a micro drop —allowing the descending weight to freefall for an instant — immediately followed by a catch-reversal, pushing the weight back up as hard and as explosive as possible. In other words, you're doing a setup twitch in the bottom turnaround.
Finding the SRP
For Bench Press
Lie on a bench press and put your arms out in front of you as if you had a bar in your hands (but there's no bar, of course). Then lower your arms as if you were doing a bench press, until you can gently relax your chest and shoulder muscles in the bottom position.
Don't force your arms lower than where they naturally stop with nothing but the force of gravity pulling them. Notice where your hands are and where the bar would be (if you had one in your hands). Most lifters will have a gap of about four to six inches between the chest and hands.
This is the stretched-relaxed position for bench press. And knowing where that point is on every lift, and using it to further enhance muscle activation, is critical.
"Ouch! My joints!" you might be thinking.
If you're using weights you can accelerate, and you do not go below the stretched-relaxed position, SRP twitch turnarounds are extremely safe. In fact, when lifting this way, most of our lifters' joint problems lessen significantly or disappear altogether.
SRP twitch turnarounds are critical for potentiating the nervous system and producing maximum force, and making the whole system work. The end result of utilizing SRP twitch turnarounds is nothing short of fast-twitch magic, making you feel superhuman.
We always use SRP twitch turnarounds, or another type of specialized turnaround technique, on every lift.
I know this is sounding rather ominous, requiring a lot of explanation. Don't worry about understanding all of the details about turnarounds right now. Otherwise, this article would read more like an unabridged encyclopedia.
I promise I'll get into the details of just exactly how to do the SRP technique, as well as the rest of the turnaround techniques, on the forum and in subsequent articles and videos. For now, I want you to really grasp the general idea of maximum force training.
In summary, if you're performing max force reps correctly, every rep should feel as if you're dominating the weight. Each repetition of a set should either feel progressively easier than the previous rep or the same, but never harder. If you perform a rep that feels noticeably harder or heavier than the one before it, stop the set.
It's all about rep performance, rep quality. Every rep is a max effort — always!
