Defending 212 Olympia Champion Derek Lunford he is driven to hang on to his title in Las Vegas in December. Still, despite his desire to be the best and pull out PR after PRThe motivated bodybuilder knows that when it comes to progress, one must “respect the weight,” as he explains in a recent YouTube video.
As a high school wrestler, Lunsford pursues his bodybuilding goals with the same passion and enthusiasm for winning that he learned on the mat from a young age. But to play the long game, the current 212 Mr. Olympia also appreciates that sometimes you have to pace yourself.
During a recent workout, scheduled to be a full leg dayLunsford began to feel ill and decided to end the session before completing his glute focused exercises.
“I’m glad I stopped training when I did,” he explains in the video. “But now, we have to make up for it. We’re going to start with the glutes…and that way, when we do the back today, we’ll be really ready to go, and we’ll have a really good comeback day.”
Lunsford begins his Day of return with back extensionsa movement that you like because it hits the entire posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes, and erector spinae). in the middle of the heatingthe champion soon realizes that his hamstrings and glutes are still sore from the day before.
“You know, it’s like a mental thing, man. I don’t know if he’s the fighter in me, the competitor in me or just the bodybuilder in me, I always want to do more,” Lunsford says of his personality, that his trainer, the famous hanny rambodis very aware and reminds you that scale things as needed.
“It really goes back to my wrestling days in college,” Lunsford continues. “I like to leave the gym absolutely trashed.. You know, if I’m not absolutely gutted when I walk out of the gym, I almost feel like it wasn’t a successful day, which isn’t always true. Like, it’s always a productive day…and if you do too much, it sometimes backfires, so I need to find a better balance between pushing myself and then controlling it.”
Sore Muscle Training
But while Lunsford is learning to appreciate that downsizing can be a great tool for overall progress, he’s not shying away. work those muscles that may be injured or sore.
“Like I said, I feel a little sore, so getting in there and working the muscles that are sore a little bit will help with the recovery process. So yeah, I know it sucks to do some extra cardio or train a muscle that’s sore, but when you do that, and you’re pumping some blood back to the muscle, you’ll recover much faster and come back. to train”
A study published in International Journal of Sport Physiology and Performance found that increased blood flow, this time induced by electrical stimulation, was shown to have a positive impact on recovery between episodes of high intensity exercise (in this case it was cycling). The study further concluded that this finding could be applied in the short term. Recovery. (1)
Lunsford completes the gluteal portion of his workout at the hip thrust machine, again making sure to respect the weight and acknowledge that you feel overwhelmed. he concentrates on strong and productive contractions instead of working towards failure.
Lunsford then follows up with shelf pullsincreasing the weight with each series and only gets ropes to carry when you feel you need them. In the video, we see the bodybuilder add weight plates totaling 180, 360, and finally 450 pounds (204 kilograms) for 15 repetitions. The next is racked underhand rows with bar, seated rowsY dropdowns.
At the end of the session, Lunsford feels a sense of accomplishment. It’s always comforting to know that even the best in the field have bad days, but the key to progression it’s having a strategy that keeps things moving.
“You always have to respect the weight,” says Lunsford. “I don’t care how tough and strong you think you are; you have to respect the weight.”
References
- Borne R, Hausswirth C, Bieuzen F. Relationship between blood flow and performance recovery: a randomized placebo-controlled study. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2017 February; 12 (2): 152-160. doi: 10.1123/ijspp.2015-0779. Epub 2016 August 24. PMID: 27139812.
Featured Image: Derek Lunsford on YouTube
