TRAINING SMARTER: SCOTT’S PATH TO PEAK PERFORMANCE

INTRODUCING SCOTT

Scott Strickland is a 33-year-old personal trainer in West Hollywood and a military veteran. With 13 years of personal training experience, his expertise with weightlifting equipment is second to none. Early in the development of the Verse™ Agile Rack, we needed to find someone outside of the Verse team with a heavy workout. Scott fit the bill and was recruited to begin testing this product designed for serious trainers and heavy weights.

HOW TO TRAIN FOR HERCULEAN SIZE

Scott wasn’t always the 265-pound, 5’11” walking embodiment of weight training. Like most, he started lifting with little knowledge or guidance and had to find his way to what works through trial and error. After unsuccessfully making the progress he wanted, Scott settled in and spent years training with the primary focus on hypertrophy and body weight gain. He followed these 3 general steps:

Hypertrophy Guidelines & How To Make Progress

1. Moderate Rep Range: 8-10 reps is a tried and true “hypertrophy” rep range. Scott spent many years working mostly in this range
2. Add Load to Stay Close to Failure: All sets need to be challenging and weight must be added whenever necessary to be approaching failure by the end of 8-10 reps
3. Accept that it Will Be Hard: Forcing your body to grow and change is uncomfortable and takes immense work. Don’t try to find shortcuts. Do the work and see results 

Based on this experience, Scott recommends you avoid the following, unless of course your goal is to stay small and skinny :

How To Spin Your Wheels & Not Make Progress

1. Use Lightweight with Lots of Reps: some think this will “tone” the muscle. In reality, there is no such thing. A muscle gets bigger or smaller and it only gets bigger with challenging loads
2. Not Training to Near failure: pushing close to your limits, within a rep range, is necessary to most effectively trigger the hypertrophic response   
3. Avoiding Discomfort: heavy weights for reps, close to failure, is uncomfortable but necessary. Learn to find comfort in the discomfort 
4. Watch Scott's tips on staying scrawny on YouTube.

After many years building his body, Scott has recently switched to more of a strength focus — which necessitates heavier weights and lower reps — typically in the 3-5 rep range. This change made a profound impact on his strength levels and he has added over 300 pounds to his powerlifting. Once he has progressed enough in building strength, Scott will shift his approach once again to peak his strength with even heavier weights of 1-3 reps.

STRUCTURING TRAINING FOR A LIFETIME

There are great lessons to be learned from how Scott has developed his training approach.

Lessons Learned

1. Build a Base: you can’t flex bone, and Scott spentyearsin pursuit of muscle hypertrophy
2. Train the Muscle for Performance: a bigger muscle isn’t inherently a stronger muscle; it has greater strength potential. It takes heavy training to awaken that potential
3. Peak: once the muscle is adapted to heavier weights, it’s time to get it used to expressing the strength that was built with near max weights and 1 rep maxes
4. Start Over: after a peak comes the inevitable drop where the process starts over again at building the base.

The Verse™ Agile Rack helps Scott and his clients accomplish this process. Having equipment that is safe and secure is essential when endeavoring to lift heavy weights. The strength and portability of the Agile Rack means that a crowded gym won’t stop them from lifting heavy weight. Whether for 10 reps or 3, it lets them feel confident that they won’t get hurt in the process. They can even take their training outdoors. Thanks to great trainers like Scott, and versatile equipment like the Agile Rack, our future will be a lot stronger.