Life & History of Charles

The Strength Sensei on Asking Good Questions   How to get the most out of a seminar   Books and online resources are good, but nothing beats attending an in-person seminar where you can interact with the instructors. However, anyone who has ever attended a Charles R. Poliquin seminar quickly realizes that Strength Sensei does […]

The Strength Sensei on Motivation   Practical advice on staying on track with your training   One hot topic in health education is “exercise adherence,” which refers to finding ways to get people to stick to an exercise program. While Internet fitness influencers debate about which style of lunge will build a better booty, cardiologists

Strength Sensei 101 Eccentric Loading: Part II   More insights into the pioneering training methods of Charles R. Poliquin   Velocity-based training is a popular trend in strength coaching today. Using special electronic devices that measure how fast a barbell is lifted in the concentric phase, VBT gives insights into the quality of a workout,

Strength Sensei 101 Eccentric Loading: Part I   More insights into the pioneering training methods of Charles R. Poliquin   In the early 90s, Charles R. Poliquin was asked what he thought the most significant advancement would be in strength coaching in the coming years. His reply: “Eccentric Training!” The Strength Sensei defined eccentric strength

Strength Sensei 101 Training Volume   More insights into the pioneering training methods of Charles R. Poliquin   Two general categories of training variables are how hard you train (intensity) and how much work you perform (volume). While intensity often captured the headlines in muscle magazines, Charles R. Poliquin devoted considerable attention to training volume.

Strength Sensei 101: Exercise Selection Part 1: Bodybuilding More insights into the training methods of Charles R. Poliquin The fourth step in Charles R. Poliquin’s approach to program design is to determine what exercises to perform. For this article, we’ll focus on how to determine what exercises are best for bodybuilding programs. For workouts designed

Strength Sensei 101: Sets More insights into the training methods of Charles R. Poliquin   The first article in this series discussed how Charles R. Poliquin determined that the foundation of any workout program is the rep. All loading parameters are affected by the number of reps performed, including the next one on our checklist,

Strength Sensei 101: Reps Insight into how this legendary strength coach developed his training methods   Charles R. Poliquin’s unique approach to strength training begins with repetition. He believed that the repetitions selected influence sets performed, amount of rest taken, and all other loading parameters in strength training. This approach is in contrast with the

Plan Inter-Set Breaks for Maximum Strength A simple trick to help you train harder and heavier   The dictionary definition of serendipity is: “the occurrence and development by chance in a happy or beneficial way.” Serendipity describes an unexpected phenomenon observed by Charles R. Poliquin when he began prescribing his German Volume Training (GVT) program.