I randomly stumbled across a Youtube video of Ben Pakulski, an IFBB pro bodybuilder, winner of 2008 Mr. Canada, and 11th place of 2012 Mr. Olympia. What makes him exceptional is his ability to explain bodybuilding in a simple and logical manner. In the last weeks I’ve been studying a lot of his material and can only recommend checking his stuff out. He really is a genius.
In this article I want to share the major lessons I learned from Ben and recommend you some interviews and Youtube videos to start learning.
Lessons learned
- The quality of the muscle contraction determines the hypertrophy response in the body.
- Before increasing load, increase the quality of your reps.
- Fully lengthen and fully contract the muscle.
- Initiate every rep with the working muscle.
- Keep tension at every millimeter of the rep and never lose it.
- Weak body parts are weak because you do not contract them properly due to improper focus, ineffective movement patterns and badly chosen exercises for your bodytype.
- Stress causes the body to digest improperly and prevents muscle building. Managing stress is key.
- Chose exercises for the same muscle that have peak tension at different ranges of the movement, to maximally work the muscle across the whole range.
- After long periods of bulking the body becomes less efficient at digesting food and absorbing nutrients. You also become more insulin resistant and there comes a point where you build more fat than muscle.
- It’s better to have periods of cutting with very little to no carbs, lots of veggies & protein to flush all the glycogen out of the body, reset insulin sensitivity and improve nutrient absorption. Then have short periods of bulking with high amounts of carbs to really force an intense hypertrophy response.
Favorite Ben Pakulski training videos
- Tricep training
Never thought of using a cable tricep extension in this way to manipulate peak tension at different points of the movement. Really changed tricep activation in my workouts for the better.
- Bicep training
He shows three different exercises that the elicit maximum tension at different points of the bicep curl movement pattern. I have done concentration and incline curls before, but the standing cable bicep curl to really work shoulder flexion was new to me. Again I like his approach of chooses exercises that have different strength curve peaks. Really makes a difference in quality of contractions.
- Abs training
Great lesson: Create a vacuum in your belly before doing crunches to maximally contract abs.
He has many great videos on maximally contracting every bodaypart (chest, back, quads, etc.) Just search for them on Youtube if you liked the above. He really is a master at teaching you to isolate and fully contract different muscles.
Favorite Ben Pakulski interviews
- London Real interview
Great overview of his life’s work, and philosophy beyond bodybuilding.
- Elliot Hulse Interview
Great interview to understand Ben’s main training principles and how he applies them.
How his advice affected my training:
Before finding out about Ben I learned a lot from Alphadestiny, and his interpretation of Louis Simmons’ concurrent periodization training philosophy (great channel by the way!). Meaning I did one high intensity and one high volume full body workout per week.
While that really allowed me to push myself to lift maximum weights and go all out on sets and reps it had some drawbacks. I did mainly explosive concentrics, which resulted in a loss of focus on proper muscle contractions during exercises. That made me stiff over time and created joint aches.
Since applying Ben’s training approach and implementing it into my training I get a lot more done in less time. Muscle contractions are significantly improving. Mobility also got better due to the focus on fully lengthening and shortening the muscle while keeping constant tension.
What Ben is probably best at is teaching you how to train weak body parts and how to learn to properly contract them. I previously had sub-optimal mind muscle connection with several bodyparts (biceps, traps, upper back, abs). Since applying Ben’s advice I can work those much more effectively.
Overall check out Ben Pakulski. He’s an awesome teacher if you’re into bodybuilding!
Hope you enjoyed this article.
Peace out!
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