Warning: This is an extremely intense training program. Before undertaking any exercise program like this one, please consult your physician.

August 1, 2006

"Up and Down the Rack"

Many people have a well-defined workout routine that they adhere to daily. But doing the same thing day in and day out not only gets boring, it can hamper your development and drive you into a training rut. Bodies thrive on change, so switching things up from time to time can be a very worthwhile thing, both mentally and physically. But how?

One of the favorite routines to add variety that I like to employ is something I learned from legendary trainer Vince Gironda decades ago – it goes by various names, and I can’t even remember quite what Vince called it, but it was something like "up and down the rack."

Gironda often used this routine to break through a training rut, and he often recommended it for biceps work. However, it’s not only effective for the biceps, since it works for other muscle groups as well. In fact, over the winter and spring, Natalie Waples used the technique on her lower body, which produced wonderful results for her thighs and glutes. The simplest way to explain it, though, is the way Gironda described using it for biceps.

With this technique, you pick just one exercise for a muscle group. The exercise Gironda recommended using for biceps was dumbbell curls, and when you realize that dumbbells usually rest on a rack, you’ll get the idea pretty quickly what it means to go up and down the rack.

He recommended starting with a very light set of dumbbells and doing just four reps. This set will be very, very easy, and nowhere near failure. After the four reps are complete, those dumbbells are put back to the rack and four deep breaths are taken for recovery before the next set begins. Following those four deep breaths, the next heavier set of dumbbells is used (perhaps 2.5 or 5 pounds more, depending on the increments available in your gym), and another four reps are done, followed by four more deep breaths after the set. Then more sets are done in the same fashion until the person has reached a weight where they can get only four reps without cheating or losing good form. That’s the heaviest weight used. Following that set, the person works back down the rack with the same increments and with the same four breaths between sets until the dumbbells that were started with are reached.

It doesn’t take much imagination to realize that this is quite an intense program when done the Gironda way. In fact, his method was so intense that he only recommended using it for biceps for a maximum of two weeks, otherwise overtraining could occur. As well, he recommended this technique for advanced trainers, not beginners.

So while bicep curls work nicely for this technique, there are other ways to employ it too, with other exercises for different muscle groups. As I mentioned, Natalie Waples used it successfully over the winter and spring to improve her lower body, and the exercise she did was barbell squats.

Natalie started her first set with a very light weight and did four reps. Then she would increase the weight by 10 pounds and do another four reps. After that, another 10 pounds went on the bar and she did more sets. She kept doing that until she reached her maximum, and then she worked her way back down to the initial weight.

The rest interval between sets in her case was longer, mostly because squatting is far more taxing on the cardiovascular system than dumbbell curls – four deep breaths don’t quite cut it. Still, her pace was brisk and she’d get "up and down the rack," doing about 13 sets in total, in about 10-12 minutes. After that, her legs were spent.

Obviously, there are other exercises and other muscle groups that can be worked equally well. For example, I like to do tricep pushdowns like this every so often. In this case, you’re not usually using a machine, but a pulley attached to a stack. This makes things easier, though, since you just move the pin up one increment at a time until you reach your maximum.

The one trick to this is finding the correct starting weight and the correct weight increment. For example, do you start with the lightest weight and make ten-pound increments, or do you start with a moderate weight and make five-pound increments? Frankly, there’s not one answer, and experimentation is really the key.

I usually like to use five- or ten-pound increments. I also like to start with a weight that’s very light, but not so light that it doesn’t feel like I’m lifting nothing at all – there has to be something there. As well, I like to get between 11 and 15 sets in total. If you’re doing 11 sets, that means it will take you six sets to move to the maximum, and five to move back down – that’s a pretty good workout even if you’re only doing four reps for each set. If you work it so you get 15 sets in total, that’s eight up and then seven back down. Obviously, you can do 13 total sets too. (It will always end up an odd number when you go up and down the rack.) However, I probably wouldn’t do any more than 15 sets, since that gets really long, not to mention boring, and I wouldn’t do less than 11, since it doesn’t seem like enough of a workout. As I said, Natalie usually did 13 sets of the squats.

While the technique works very well, as with any advanced training method some precautions must be taken, since you can injure yourself. For example, Natalie could hardly walk the next day when she first tried the technique with squats. In fact, she could hardly walk for three days, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. Frankly, we might have overdone it. She recovered, though (after about four days), and the next workouts were easier. Still, that kind of pain isn’t good (remember, pain is your body telling you that something’s wrong), so it’s often best to "test things out" once or twice to see what your muscles can take safely. I always believe it’s better to err on the side of caution and do less and come away injury-free than push too far and end up injured and in need of time away from the gym.

However, if done correctly and safely, the "up and down the rack" routine can be a good way to change your boring old workout program and stimulate your body to improve. And while it’s not necessarily the kind of routine that you’ll want to do for too long, it’s great for those days when you go to the gym and say to yourself, "I’m tired of the same old thing."

...Doug Schneider
das@seriousaboutfitness.com

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