Week 12! This went by way too fast. What do you think? I'll tell you what, blink your eyes and the world changes. This program is a good example of how quickly time passes and it underscores the necessity of maximizing every day and every workout because as a day passes it never returns. A missed workout is a missed opportunity to ignite muscle growth. And like I've said before, you can never make up a missed workout.
What I am going to do in this last lesson is design a 6 month Max-OT "Plan of Attack". A Max-OT road map to follow for the next 6 months that I guarantee will pack more muscle on you during the next 6 months than you have been able to gain in 2 years.
This "Max-OT Road Map" will be broken down into 26 weeks. There will be multiple routines during this period to take advantage of various Max-OT techniques and
principles. I will also include 6 phases in this program that you will help to motivate you to obtain goals you want to reach.
Building muscle is just as much mental as it is physical. You have to have the motivation to generate the intensity required to spark muscle growth. You can't just go through the movements. You have to "link up" your mind to your muscles.
This "mind-muscle" link is something that is very difficult for many people to establish. I feel that mastering this ability is what separates those that excel from those that don't. I will give you tips to use both during and after your training to help you master this "mind-muscle" link throughout this Max-OT Road Map.
6 months may seem like a long time, but believe me it's not. It's the blink of an eye. Your approach to the next 6 months will be broken down into segments. This will enable you to reinforce your commitment to building maximum muscle and strength. By defining each time and event element you will be able to precisely evaluate and navigate your progress. Doing this also helps you adapt the needed "mindset" for maximizing your results.
Like I've said before, building muscle is not a random event. You must plan and execute, and the more efficiently you do this the greater your success in reaching your goals. The Max-OT Road Map will be broken down into the following segments:
6 Months
This is the long term time element. 6 months of Max-OT training, as most of you have discovered, can and will produce some phenomenal results.
You should set a 6 month goal. Some like to set goals and specific target dates for accomplishing them. I'm all for setting goals, but never let a goal stall or defeat your progress.
I set mental goals. I never write them down because I feel that's too permanent. A mental goal is flexible and you can use this flexibility to increase your results. I set what
I know are unobtainable goals, but use these goals for visualization effects. And most importantly I train to meet these goals. I also tier my goals from unobtainable to obtainable.
By tiering my goals I'm able to train at an ultra-high level to shoot for the unobtainable, but maintain continued motivation by achieving and/or exceeding my intermediate expectations. Never set a goal too low just to be able to achieve it.
2 Months
2 months or about 8 weeks is a Max-OT Training Cycle. You will take a full week off from training every 8 weeks. This is the Max-OT Cyclical Recuperation period and it is essential to maximizing Max-OT's effect on muscle recovery and growth.
This week off allows for both mental and physical recuperation. It lets you reflect in detail over the 2 months of training that you have gone through and evaluate the success.
1 Month
Each month your Max-OT routine will change (This is a Max-OT routine rotation). I'm not talking a major change. Just slight changes in things such as exercise, exercise order, training rotation, etc. What will never change are the basic Max-OT principles.
So over the course of 6 months your Max-OT training routine will change 6 times.
Through many years of refining Max-OT I have found that a subtle change in the routine after 4 training rotations (A training rotation is the completion of one complete workout for each muscle group.) appears to prevent muscle growth stagnation. Although the fundamentals of Max-OT prevent the typical "plateaus" most training programs lead you to, we are looking for maximum growth all the time. This approach provides for continual progress.
1 Week
One week is one complete training rotation. This is a short term time element highlighted to assess how your training is progressing. It's important to review each week to make sure you are living up to your training expectations. This will be broken down even further as you'll see below.
1 Day
Each day you need to assess your physical and mental condition. You need to assess your diet, your supplementation, and your training.
Ask yourself these questions:
Were all the events in your day geared toward maximizing your results? If not why? What can you do to make sure each day produces maximum results?
Though this is a "training program" there are many elements that effect your results that occur away from the gym. It's of the utmost importance that each day is structured, both in and out of the gym, to maximize muscle growth. Daily planning and assessment are key to maximizing success.
Each Workout
This is where you grade your individual workout performance. Your goal is to maximize every workout. Remember, once you complete a workout that's it. It's done. That opportunity for stimulating muscle growth at that point in time is gone forever. This is why it's so important to get the most from every workout. In building muscle, there's not a tomorrow. There is no such thing as "making up" a missed workout.
You miss a workout and you lose forever that opportunity for growth. A botched workout or a workout performed less than 100% is the same thing. When it's over that growth opportunity is gone.
Each Muscle Group
Here you are breaking the workout down into muscle groups. You should gauge the effectiveness your training has on each muscle group every time you train. This feedback is valuable in continuing to increase your training effectiveness.
Each Exercise
As you can see you are going even further. Here you should evaluate each exercise during each workout. How was your strength during all sets? Where are you at weight wise? Is it time to increase the weight? Always strive to lift more.
Each Set
Each set of each exercise needs to be evaluated not only for performance and
effectiveness, but also to determine what you do on your following set. Each set leads to the next.
Each Rep
The individual rep is the very beginning of the overload process. Each rep leads you to the next. In most cases the very first rep of a heavy set dictates the success of that set. Knowing where you are at and where you want to be is essential. It provides a solid foundation to structure your daily, weekly, and monthly program.
If you train with no structure you'll reap little benefit. This Max-OT 6 Month Road Map provides a precisely structured, step by step training program for the next 26 weeks. It eliminates all the guesswork out of what, when and how to strategically and correctly apply overload to ignite muscle growth.
I highly recommend taking some measurements. Take some photos. This will allow you to make side by side comparisons in 6 months. The results you will experience over these 26 weeks will completely change the way you look, feel and think. Each month, each week, and each workout build upon each other generating a progressive effect that works to produce results with every rep and every set. No more plateaus. No more stalled progress. The more you refine your ability to implement Max-OT the greater the results you will see.
I recommend that you read back over this entire course to refresh your understanding of the Max-OT principles and how and why they work. It's important that you don't stray from the program. Max-OT is a training program designed around the physiology of muscle growth where each element is specific to producing the desired effect.
Let's get started.
The 6 Month Max-OT Road Map
Weeks 1 – 4
Mondays
Legs
The sets listed in the workout below do not include warm-up sets.
Exercise Sets Reps
*
Squats 3 4 to 6 45 ° Leg Press 2 4 to 6 Stiff Leg Dead Lift 2 6
Standing Calf Raise 3 6 to 8 Seated Calf Raise 2 6 to 8
Max-OT Tip: No one squats on Mondays. Everyone always trains chest. Max-OT will many times deviate from the norm. This is a simple but good example.
*Remember, the weight you use should be light enough to do four reps, but heavy enough so you can't do more than 6 reps. Each set should be done to positive failure.