‘’Focus is the ability to control the muscles of the body in a coordinated effort and then contract them to their maximum degree.’’
This is explained by Jack Hibbard, a Green Beret veteran and expert in tameshiwari, the ancient art of breaking boards and bricks barehanded:
“The deeper the contraction, the tenser the contraction of the muscle; and then tenser the contraction, the stronger the muscle grows.”
Pavel Tsatsouline explains how it all boils down to tension. Effective, proper “mind over muscle” strength training can be summed up as honing your skill to contract your muscles harder. There is a term in Russian sports science called “Skill-Strength”.
Interestingly, Ernie Frantz’s Famous Commandments of Powerlifting is “Keep every body part tight during the entire movement”. He swears that practicing tightening up his entire body throughout the day has helped his strength.
Pavel Tsatsouline often mentions Power Breathing. He says, “In a nutshell, if you compare your brain to a CD player and your muscles to its speakers, your abdominal cavity is the amplifier, the volume control. The greater the pressure inside your belly — the greater your strength in any effort. Unless you have health restrictions, practice high pressure breathing in the context of bodybuilding exercises and by itself and you will get stronger in every lift.”
When you apply strength training, Pavel mentions to keep each repetition perfect — meaning your target should be 70–80% 1RM controlled lifts. Never train to failure, always leave a rep or two in the bank. Heavy weights implies low reps. The perfect reps for strength are 1–6. A narrower 4–6 range is even better. Keep your rest times long enough (3–5 mins) this will enable you to keep lifting “perfect” heavy poundages.
Russian researchers discovered that breaking up a strength workout into smaller units is very effective. In other words, 1 set of 5 EVERY DAY is better than 5 sets of every 5 days.
Mind Over Muscle — The 5x5x5 Program:
Select 5 basic exercises for your whole body.
Perform all of them 5 days a week, Monday to Friday.
Do only one WORK set of 5 per exercise, leave a couple of reps in the bank.
Focus on staying tight, POWER BREATHING, and the perfect groove.
Taper in week four, peak your 1RM in a week 5, and switch to a different type of routine.
For example, you would select 5 basic exercises for whole-body: three powerlifts plus other movements you like to get strong at.
- Bench press
- Squat
- Deadlift
- Pull ups
- Dips
Make sure you are targeting the entire body. Perform all of them Monday — Friday. Do only 1 working set of 5 per exercise. This will feel strange because you will feel good after each workout — this is the way neural training is. Steve Justa, a supremely strong and muscular man, once said, “You should feel stronger at the end of every workout.”
For instance, yesterday you squatted 135kg x 5 and you felt that you had 2–3 extra reps in your tank. Today squat 100kg x1–110kg x1–125kg x1. The feel of 125kg should tell you whether you should stay with 135kg, go up, or go down. Don’t be hard on yourself, follow your body. Some days you will feel stronger than others. The usual 5x5x5 pattern is a very strong start on Monday, a PR on Tuesday, Wednesday could go either way. Thursday and Friday you might feel fatigued and Saturday, Sunday you give your body full recovery. By Monday you will be rested and ready to smash a NEW PR.
Also make sure you include a DELOAD week each 4th week for best results. After your DELOAD week — you should feel good and strong on week 5. Be ready to hit NEW PRs. In week 5 work up to a comfortable single on Monday — This means getting close to 1RM of 90% — with “perfect” lift.
The Mind Over Muscle Taper and Peak:
Do a triple with the weight you would have normally used for a set of 5 in week four.
In week five work up to a comfortable, around 90% 1RM, single on Monday and max on Tuesday.
Take the rest of the week off and switch to a different type of routine the week after.
This article is inspired from Pavel Tsatsouline’s. I have tried this system for 5 months and it worked brilliantly. Make sure you keep track of your progress and weights. Follow your body, make sure you sleep enough, stay hydrated, work on eating nutritious food and CRUSH IT!
If you have any additional questions, follow me up on Instagram: @its_coachtoms and I will respond as fast as I can.
Thank you for reading!
