Yearlong: Phase IX
By Cameron McGarr, C.S.C.S.
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After you’ve pushed very hard for several months, Phase IX has you backing off on the heavy weights and focusing on correcting muscular imbalances that may have formed over the course of the year. Even though we pride ourselves on giving you the most complete and best-designed workouts possible, no body is perfect, and some muscles are bound to have responded to the training better than others. To put the finishing touches on a stellar physique, we need to address these issues to prevent injuries and ensure optimal growth.
The workouts you’re about to do use exercises that specialize in getting muscles to “wake up.” Often over the course of a training program, the central nervous system will become somewhat less efficient at recruiting all the muscle fibers needed for a certain lift. The glutes are particularly susceptible (especially since many of us spend most of the day sitting down at a desk, weakening the glutes further), and because they’re key to lifting monstrous weights, they have to be reactivated. By zeroing in on these areas with moves like the reverse lunge and touch and the overhead squat, you’ll force them to fire up, improving your exercise form and the amount of weight you can lift in the process. Once harmony is restored, you’ll be ready to rampage through the weight room again.
