Elite Physique The New Science of Building a Better Body

CHAPTER 10
Body Part–Specific
Programs
Certain types of athletes can teach us a lot about muscle growth. All you have to
do is look at the thighs of speed skaters, or the lats of swimmers, or the deltoids
of boxers, or the biceps of gymnasts who specialize in the rings to see that frequently
training a muscle group can result in tremendous development. In this
chapter we cover the principles for targeting and stimulating growth in underdeveloped
muscle groups using high frequency training (HFT) plans. If you’re
one of the lucky few who has proportional development from head to toe, this
information might not be applicable to you. But for those who need to balance
out their physique, the following HFT strategies are a terrific addition to your
overall program.
The Genesis of HFT
By 2001 I’d been a full-time personal trainer for five years, with a long, diverse
list of clients who’d successfully built muscle, increased strength, and improved
performance. All of them used the same basic system of three full-body workouts
a week. It was, I believed, the best starting point for any off-season athlete, CEO,
or fitness enthusiast.
But some of those clients had muscle groups that simply didn’t grow as fast
as other areas. Those lagging, underdeveloped body parts were a problem for
clients who were mainly focused on aesthetics. And if they had a problem, I had
a problem, because my business depended on them getting all the muscle growth
they were looking for, from head to toe.
I found the solution from two sources. One of them, to no one’s surprise, was
arguably the greatest bodybuilder of all time. The other was completely unexpected.
Here’s how it happened:
I heard about a Cirque du Soleil show called Mystère, which was playing in
Las Vegas, a few hours up the road from Tucson, Arizona, where I lived in 2001.
When the Alexis brothers took the stage for their part of the show, my first thought
was, “Wow, I’ve never seen better physiques on two guys.”
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