Another day, another guest blog.  Today’s piece is written by none other than Charles Poliquin.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Poliquin’s status in the world of strength & conditioning, I should tell you of a little test that I have when interviewing prospective personal trainers.  “Are you familiar with the work of Charles Poliquin?” – if the response is a vague uhming and ahing then they are out of the door quicker than you can say “German Volume Training”.  This isn’t because I want Poliquin acolytes, far from it to be honest, but if a trainer hasn’t bothered to educate themselves on the work of one of the most successful strength coaches of all time then they aren’t exactly at the forefront of the personal traiing industry.  Charles holds an even more iconic position these days as he has shifted his attention away from athletic coaching into the coaching of personal trainers themselves – a change at which he has been phenomenally successful and for which I myself am very grateful.  Poliquin’s teachings have helped me crystallise my 20 years of hard training gym experience in a way that has put me way ahead of where I would otherwise be, his concept of BioSignature Modulation has revolutionised much of what we do at Ultimate Performance, he has popularised the fantastic rehab modality of Active Release Techniques, and his courses have so far educated 14 of my personal trainers to a level that makes it easy for me to say that we are the best in the UK at incredibly fast and effective body composition improvements.  On a personal level Charles has also been a great support, and his vocal encouragement and praise of myself as he has taught students all over the world has always been immensely appreciated.

Charles Poliquin Training at Ultimate Performance London

So the bottom line is that when Charles Poliquin speaks about strength training, only a fool wouldn’t listen.  He has begun to interact a bit more with the masses via his excellent Facebook page (that I highly recommend), and thankfully has started to display his true character rather than be overly politically correct – the latter hardly being a natural state for any man who has spent most of their life in a gym! Telling it how you see it is is the only way to be, and if people don’t like it then they don’t have to read it.  So without further ado, lets read Charles Poliquin’s words on avoiding the sin of gaining muscle mass and how to stay a fat skinny, whining twerp:

Ten sure fire steps to stay a fat skinny whining twerp by Charles Poliquin

1.   Be delusional about being fast-twitch, despite the facts that your forearms can clean a pipe, have the calf development of a parrot, and I can barely slip a credit card under your feet when you do a vertical jump.

2.   Do the plank as your primary core exercice.

3.   Do three total body workouts a week. Stay away from split routines, you will gain size and mass on them.

4.   Fear training more than once a day.

5.   Eat carbs & casein while you train

6.   Stop lifting the bar as soon as it decelerates.

7.   Worry about getting enough carbs in your diet.

8.   Assume that every strong athlete who trains more than once a day is a steroid freak.

9.   Piss and moan that good supplements are expensive.

10. Read everything on strength training but keep debating successful strength coaches on why you keep following the given above nine steps.

Some people may be offended by Charles’ words, most likely the one set to failure brigade.  As said previously, if you don’t like it then don’t read it.  But in my own opinion this little gospel according to Poliquin is spot on.  If your quest is maximum size and muscularity then wreck yourself in the gym (in an educated and controlled fashion!) as often as recovery will allow, and fuel the recovery with the very best eating habits and nutritional supplements.

If you are an ordinary civillian, or just a personal trainer who has been living under a rock, then you might want to visit Charles Poliquin’s website (www.CharlesPoliquin.com) that is regulalry updated with some of the best cutting edge advice on how, in Poliquin’s words, to get leaner, healthier, and stronger.