Training

More in Training

Hunter Labrada and Bryan Troianello have been able to train more efficiently and more often thanks to their adherence to the push pull leg split vs your more popular "bro" split. The "bro" split is basically dedicating a day for a specific/individual body part which turns into everything being trained twice in 14 days vs Hunter and Bryan's frequency of training everything twice in 10 days with the push pull leg split.

"Think about everything we have done today. We trained an incredible amount of shoulders and triceps. Instead of doing chest and kinda hitting your shoulders and then dedicating an entire day to them, everything gets hammered today. Don't look at things in a vacuum and look at the big picture."

A ton of feedback from bodybuilding aficionados has been that Hunter has made faster than normal progress moving towards his pro debut. A lot of this effect can be attributed to being able to increase training frequency by not doing the typical bro split.

Warm up: Prime chest machine fly: 3 sets x 15 (not to failure)

Prime Incline press: 3-4 warm ups 1 working set 1 back off set (reduce weight by 20% and rep to failure)

Prime Chest machine fly and incline push-up superset: 2 sets x 15 reps and 1 drop set all superseded with push-ups to failure

Prime overhead shoulder press: 2 warm ups 1 work set and drop set

Dips: 2 warms ups 1 working set followed by bodyweight dips to failure

Laterals: 2 warms ups 1 all out drop set to failure

Here Hunter is 8 weeks out from his IFBB Professional debut at the Tampa pro. Stay tuned for everything leading to and during the contest weekend.

Push, Pull, Legs Split vs "Bro" Split - Push Workout

A training partner is more than just a spotter. When most people quit at around 60-70% of max capacity, a legit and knowledgeable training partner will make you give 100%.

A legit training partner wants you to reach your goals just as much if not more than you do yourself.

 link up for a back workout about 2 months out from the Tampa pro where Mackey will compete with fellow GASP athlete Hunter Labrada.

"I want him to win so my job is to push him and make him give everything he's got so that he WINS." -

In addition to giving 100% in any given workout, Joe has to be meticulous on the exercise selection for back training to bring out everything prior to his next competition. He wants to be able to present not just a legit pro bodybuilding physique, but a world class and complete physique worthy of standing toe to toe with other professionals and coming out on top.

Dumbbell Row 3 sets x warm up / 2 sets working x 10-12 reps

Banded scapular retractions 4 sets x 15 reps

Snatch Grip Rack Pulls 2 warm up sets / 2 working sets x 15 reps

How to Pick A Legit Training Partner & Full Back Workout

Knowledge is power. It is NOT cliche. Its fact.

When you know muscle function and mechanics, how to program training and how to continually progress and break PR's knowledge is indeed power.

Hunter Labrada and Bryan Troianello have built a truly solid foundation based on trial and error and time in the game to find what actually does work best to safely and efficiently trigger a strength and growth response. Their exercise choices very different from the now seemingly cookie cutter workouts from the 90's 2000's and even 2010's. What remains in common with those decades in terms of exercises they took the opportunity to dissect the form and "build up sets" to not waste any energy and reserve it for their max effort sets.

They spare no detail in this full back training session hosted by Destination Dallas and headquarters for GASP.

Ultimate Form and All The Intensity

No amount of knowledge or programming or science will get you to your growth and strength goals without intensity. In that same breath, the all-out "till the wheels fall off" approach without rhyme or reason will produce lack luster results as well.

Ed Brown has implemented power building for many years. He has built up an impressive level of base strength which has transferred into his bodybuilding goals to produce a super powerful physique both in performance and appearance.

Here Ed Brown is training at Big Tex gym in Austin, Texas and is combining chest and back together in a true old school "Arnold appreciation" manner.

Get your note pads because Ed explains every exercise and technique he performs here.No amount of knowledge or programming or science will get you to your growth and strength goals without intensity. In that same breath, the all-out "till the wheels fall off" approach without rhyme or reason will produce lack luster results as well.

Get your note pads because Ed explains every exercise and technique he performs here.

Old School Bodybuilding with Ed Brown

Marcus Salomonsson lives in Helsingborg in Sweden. He has been training for about 10 years and competed twice at Swedish Nationals and Pro Qualifier for the IFBB PRO League.

Marcus is mixing heavy presses with for example lightweight super sets.

_"You have to break down your central system and your muscle fibers as much as possible. You can't do that if you only choose one of them so I always try to do both, mix it up.

I've trained with a lot of IFBB Pro's and they basically think the same thing - it's all about breaking down the muscles as much as possible and then we eat and grow."

Warm-up movement: Flyes to push 3 sets 15-20 reps each

Hammer Strength plate-loaded presses: 5 sets adding 1 extra plate each set. Reps to failure. Finish off with drop set removing 1 plate each set. Reps to failure.

Isolated Smith Presses as finishing movement.

Training is not only about heavy weights, it's also all about finding your own style according to Marcus. He is doing his thing and therefore he gets his own style._

"Make it your own style and you will be the bomb."

Marcus is always training alone since he doesn't want to be slowed down by somebody else. 

"This is a one-man show, I hate being slowed down. Never let anybody slow you down... ever."

Huge Shoulder Training with Marcus Salomonsson 

Fouad Abiad is back with another in depth how-to on shoulder training this time. These are cues that Fouad has found work best for him including exercise selection, warm ups, work sets, joint placement and range of motion.

Fouad also mentions where he is at in terms of dieting phase and nutrition.

"I feel like I do better when I feel like I deprive myself a bit. I can do the flexible dieting but my process from this point until the stage is one of suffering. Part of my mental growth is being able to control my body and mind in the whole dieting process."

Shoulder Training with Fouad Abiad

Josh Bryant and Jonathan Irizarry are bringing us a 12 week bench press program with the intention of helping Jonathan blast through previous PR's and setting his own all time best best press lift. The complete guide will be available for download for you all to do the same at the end of the series.

To build a big bench you have to have a starting point. Here Josh and Jon do the assessment portion of the program. The mission of the assessment is to identify weak links in form i.e foot placement, elbow placement and how Jonathan presses. It is also meant to establish a starting point i.e Jonathan's current max weight.

Keep in mind we are going to enter Jon into a powerlifting meet to legitimize the lift at the end of this series hence why Jon is training with the pause at the bottom of the rep.

Jonathan's starting bench press max for this series is right at 440 according to this assessment.

The rest of the program Josh will make changes as they go based on immediate feedback and cues from Jon and how each exercise affects him from week to week.

Stay tuned and be sure to follow the program to improve your own bench press.

Big Bench Program - Episode 1 Assessment

The mission is to keep tissue and get gnarly shredded!

Hunter Labrada and Bryan Troianello spell out the process when dieting and how to get as fat free as possible without sacrificing muscle tissue built in the offseason.

_"What put the tissue on will keep the tissue on."

Hunter and Bryan believe in NOT changing up too many variables and backing off of the volume and prioritizing energy for the compound lifts that require quite a bit more muscle recruitment and mental grit to execute.

_"For this push session we prioritize the incline press, shoulder press and dips and then follow up with laterals and flys when we need to just push through on the single joint movements."

In this video Hunter was just over 2 weeks out and by the time of publishing it is 2 weeks out from the Tampa Pro which will be his pro debut and a victory just to be able to make it to the stage in what has been an absolutely roller coaster ride of an offseason and year!

Stay tuned as we head to Houston one more time and then travel to Tampa and handle business!

Hunter Labrada 2 Weeks Out From Pro Bodybuilding Debut

_"At this point its not about how strong you are physically. It's all mental. It has been a crazy year and basically an 8 month roller coaster ride."

IFBB Pro Joe Mackey is preparing for the first open pro show of what will be an awesome year. _"It's framing to your advantage. I had a few hiccups this year and always look at it as cup half full vs empty. Stuff is always going to happen and that's life!"

_Joe Mackey and Jon Irizarry link up to really hammer home these last 2 weeks preparing for Tampa. Jon is leading a lot of the workouts and totally hammering Joe when it comes to presentation. _"I'm gonna make his ass work. We are gonna make him prepared and looking his best."

As you all know, the devil is in the details when it comes to pro bodybuilding. Anything on a world class level demands that the details are what get all the attention. If you are missing anything when it comes to mental strategy, training, nutrition, presentation and even transitions and lack luster energy on stage someone wont have missed those details and will move past you.

We will be bringing you non stop coverage of everything it takes to be the best in the IFBB here in Tampa with Joe Mackey, Hunter Labrada and Jon Irizarry mixing it up leading up to contest day, during and after!

All Gas No Brake - IFBB Tampa Pro

Joar Fällmar, 28 years old lives in Jönköping, Sweden with his fiance and their 2 dogs. He is working as a sales manager and fitness coach.

Joar started working out when he was 13 years old but as he is saying:

_"I didn't get "stung" up by the iron bug seriously until I was like 17."

He competes in the amateur Classic Physique division and his latest competition was in fall 2018. He did his debut 2015 and so far he has earned 2 National silver medals, 1 Nordic Championship gold medal, 1 national qualifier gold medal, and 1 European championship bronze medal.

Joar did 3 competitions during 2018, the first one was Swedish Nationals where he managed to get into the national team and represented Sweden at Nordic Championships where he ended up winning an overall title. After that he switched to the NPC league and at that time he was exhausted, tired after his previous competitions. Joar ended up in 4th place but as he is saying, he was pretty happy with that considering how tired he was.

Shortly after that, he faced several serious injuries and the whole year of 2019 was rehab and prehab.

Joar learned a lot from that and nowadays he is including prehab and eccentric movements combined with heavyweights in his training.

"I'm focusing on more - how to do the movement - more quality before the quantity."

_"In my opinion it is important to realize that you can't have the same strength every day but the least you can do is to do everything you can with the energy that you have."

Joar has always a goal and a mission every time he walks into the gym. Whether it the mental game or increasing the weights, he is always trying to make progress in the gym.

Today's chest workout is a mix of heavy and lighter weights and focus on the execution of the movements as well as the eccentric parts and some drop sets for that extra blood flow. High intensity, around 45 minutes!

Slight incline dumbbell press, 2-3 ”feeder sets” followed by 1 top set and then 1 back off set with neutral grip on the last one.

Machine iso-lateral chest press. A total of 4 sets with the last top set being a dropset.

Dumbbell pullovers, 4 straight sets with short rest.

Cable flys, 4 straight sets with short rest, the last set being a dropset.

Chest Day Hypertrophy with Joar Fällmar

Hunter Labrada is 12 days out here from the IFBB Tampa Pro championships.

In previous videos Bryan Troianello and Hunter explain their reasoning behind backing off the volume and intensifier techniques but keeping the top sets as close to offseason top weights as strength allows and this will satisfy 

"what put the tissue on will keep the tissue on."

In the past 10 years of training and more notably for bodybuilding purposes in the past 4-5 years of training Bryan and Hunter have really dissected what makes legs grow, more specifically how to make their quadriceps and hamstrings the biggest and roundest for the specific purpose of bodybuilding competition.

_"If you want to make your quads grow you need to focus on initiating movements with knee flexion and not the hips."

Having these fundamentals and consistently progressing on keep lifts for years now have built what have to be some of the gnarliest quads and hams in recent years in the IFBB.

Leg Training While Shredded - Tampa Pro 12 Days Out

This is Jon Irizarry's first training session in this 12 week bench press program.

In this episode Josh Bryant helps cue Jonathan on:

Perfecting technique with sub maximal weights

As the series progresses the weights will go up, volume with go up and Josh will make changes as Jonathan progress week to week.

Superset with sub maximal weight: Bench press with Seal row with dumbbells

Josh gives in depth detailed commentary during each and every exercise and how to perform each rep.