Fitness trainer Jeff Nippard fixes Sam Sulek's training with science

Jeff Nippard continues to be praised in the fitness community for his comprehensive yet easy-to-understand delivery of workouts. In his latest venture, Nippard has researched and refined the workout routine of bodybuilding influencer Sam Sulek using scientific knowledge.

When Jeff Nippard posts a video, fans always perk up their ears! As a natural powerlifter and bodybuilder, Nippard's knowledge of health, exercise, and nutrition has made him a prominent trainer. Boasting over four million subscribers on YouTube, Nippard's attention to detail and his scientific workouts are highly sought after.

Another burgeoning name in fitness is bodybuilder Sam Sulek. At just 21 years old, he has taken the world by storm with his chiseled physique, great strength and cool workout content. Like any rising star, Sulek has received both positive and negative feedback, from suspicions of steroid use to his diet. Now Nippard takes a close look at Sulek's training style.

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Příspěvek sdílený Jeff Nippard (@jeffnippard)

Jeff Nippard corrects Sam Sulek's training style with science-based tools

Nippard analyzed all of Sulek's workout videos and found the following:

"Sam Sulek is by far the biggest fitness influencer in the world today. That's why I decided to analyze every single one of his workouts this year. So far, he's done 460 sets, 15 percent of them have been for chest, 20 percent for back and 16 percent for biceps. Interestingly, only 11 percent of Sam's total workouts were for his quadriceps, but 25 percent were for his triceps.

A quarter of Sam's total training is triceps training, yet anatomical research tells us that the triceps make up less than four percent of the body's total musculature, while the quadriceps are by far the largest muscle in the body, making up nearly 30 percent of the body's total musculature. Sam also trains to failure 96 percent of the time, but almost all of his sets that weren't performed to failure were forearms."

Quick breakdown:

1. Technique
2. Progress
3. Workout breakdown
4. Intensity/Training
5. Repetition Ranges
6. Entertainment

Techniques

Nippard doubts that Sulek's tendency to perform "reverse cheating" will lead to the best results.

"Sam is obviously a big proponent of what's called ego lifting, which is when you just try to move the weight and swing at it in different ways, instead of being really strict about your form executed. Sam definitely does more cheating than he should, now I'd say I'm less of a technique junkie than most science-based coaches. I think even with so-called bad form you can make solid gains if you push yourself hard enough."

"I still doubt those gains will be optimal. In fact, I recently published a study on the optimal training technique for muscle growth. It found that there are two main things to focus on when it comes to lifting technique. The main one is that you need to use a range of motion that gets the muscle into a deep stretch."

Nippard gives Sulek advice to work on controlling the negative phase of the movement instead of letting the weight freefall.

"It's important to control the negative pull and not let the weight free fall," Jeff Nippard said.

Progress

To increase progression over time, Nippard advised Sulek to stick to a more structured training plan instead of impromptu workouts in the weight room.

"Another thing I quickly noticed is that Sam more or less just completely brushed up on his workouts. He has no structured training plan. He hops in the car on the way to the gym and roughly maps out the workout in his head and then often even improvises in the moment."

Workout breakdown

Jeff Nippard suggested that Sam Sulek's traditional splitting of workouts leads to muscles getting a disproportionate amount of work.

"Sam uses a body part split or what many would call a bro split. This is a situation where you train only one muscle in each workout. So one day he trains chest, the next day back, then he has a day for arms and then a day for legs. That has two main problems: first, as you can tell, it's very disproportionate in terms of how much volume each muscle gets."

"I think it's worth noting that probably more than 90 percent of IFBB pros follow the same split as Sam," Nippardadds .

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Příspěvek sdílený Sam Sulek (@sam_sulek)

Intensity/demandingness

Although Sulek is known for his intensity in the gym, Nippard worries that he trains to failure too often.

"Sam trains very hard. This is extremely important if your goal is to maximize muscle growth beyond the beginner stage. I think simply training hard is more important than all the other previous things I've talked about."

"Too much of a beneficial thing can be a bad thing. In this case, I think it might be. Sam goes too far into failure for my taste. As I said, Sam has made 460 series so far this year and 440 of them have been series to failure."

Repeat Ranges

Next, Nippard said studies support different rep ranges for muscle growth.

"Sam smartly uses ideal rep ranges. When I analyzed the number of reps he did in each set, it looked like this: 11 percent of his sets were in the 0-3 rep range, 40 percent were in the 4-7 rep range, another 40 percent were in the 8-12 rep range, and nine percent were above 13 reps."

"All rep ranges can theoretically lead to similar muscle growth. However, performing too many reps can be very exhausting, and performing too few reps can cause unnecessary strain on the joints."

"There are studies that show that using a variety of rep ranges is better than performing only one rep range, but overall it's pretty bang on for someone whose main goal is muscle growth," said Jeff Nippard.

Entertainment

Finally, Nippard praised Sulek for enjoying the workout.

"Finding ways to make exercise more enjoyable is always a good thing, and Sam has obviously mastered that," Nippard said.

Nippard's dedication to the science of training fuels his daily life. Whether he's offering fans a five-point checklist for the perfect squat or bench press, he never shies away from a scientific discussion about optimizing gains during a workout.

Given Sam Sulek's fan base and following, perhaps Jeff Nippard's latest analysis of training will provide insight for aspiring bodybuilders. If not, Sulek's fans can use the information to build a more effective training program.

Source:Fitnessvolt.com

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