This is the diet and workout routine I used for my 7 week transformation this fall. It is the original Cybergenics program from 1990. I’ve bought the program over the years and they tweaked it and sometimes changed it outright. This is the original program. I can not take credit for one iota of this program. I lost the booklet many years ago, but have done it so many times I have it committed to memory.
Since it is committed to memory, it’s going to be a huge pain in the ass to outline it all here in detail.
I’m going to post it because a few people asked me to do so and I agreed that I would.
Or, to put it another way: He said he was going to do it…And he did it.
I achieved the results I got in 7 weeks because I followed the program to the letter, but to see the full effects one should do it for 9 weeks which is slightly over 60 days (63).
I’m not going to post it right this second, this is just a placeholder. I’m going to do it in increments.
You can follow my progress on my progress log as I’m starting this program on Monday.
MONDAY
On a squat rack or a smith machine, take a weight that is 80% of your one rep max [throughout the rest of this program whenever it says 80% that means between 4-6 reps.]
• Squat to failure, lower the weight slowly and bring it back up with quick explosive movements (This is VERY important) then immediately [as fast as possible with a sense of urgency] strip off half the weight.
• Continue squatting, go to complete failure (slow downward, quick, explosive upward), then without pausing, place your hands on the bar for leverage, go from squat position and leap as high as you can (plyometrics), continue to leap going back into the squat position, do this as many times as you can until you can not do another. Then, without a rest, still holding the bar, continue to do knee bends (weightless squats) to positive failure, once you have hit positive failure, use your arms to pull yourself up and continue to do bends to negative failure, once you’ve achieved negative failure, sit on floor and flex your quads as hard as you can for 30 seconds or as long as you can. You can stretch your quads a bit at this point but it is imperative that you go on to your next set of this as quickly as humanly possible.
(four sets)
Don’t waste much time. Go over to the section of your gym where the leg extension and hamstring curl machines are. Set the leg Extension machine to a weight of 80% max [this is the last time that I’m going to mention that that is between 4-6 reps].
• Do leg extensions at 80% to failure.
• Raise the pin roughly 1/3 higher (lighter) and continue to failure.
• Raise the pin 1/3 higher (lighter) and continue to failure.
Before you begin these, make sure you have set the hamstring curl machine to a weight of 80% max in your current state. As soon as you finish the leg extentions, bolt over to the hamstring curl machine.
• Hamstring curls at 80% of one rep max to failure
• Without resting drop 1/3 of the weight and continue to failure.
• Drop 1/3 of the weight and continue to failure.
Rest as briefly as possible between sets.
(two sets of these)
Go over to the standing calf press machine. Bring a light dumb bell with you I.E. a weight that you think you can hammer out roughly six reps after this triple drop set (forthcoming):
• Set the pin on the calf raise machine to a weight that is 80% of your one rep max and do calf raises to failure, it is vitally important that you pay attention to form and get a good contraction at the top of this movement and and good stretch at the bottom.
• Raise the pin 1/3 lighter and continue to failure
• Raise the pin 1/3 lighter and continue to failure
Without resting, grab the dumb bell, and do one-legged calf raises on the foot that you’re holding the dumb bell in to failure, use the other arm to hold the calf extension machine to stabilize yourself. Switch the dumb bell to the other hand and do one-legged extensions to failure.
Drop the dumb bell and switch back to the other leg doing no-weight dumb bell calf raises to failure, then back to the other leg again to failure.
Without resting, flex your calves as hard as you can for 30 seconds. I find the most intense way to do this is to stand leaning against a wall for support, getting on your tip-toes and flexing like crazy for 30 seconds, after 20 seconds of this I’m taking my fist and pounding the wall like a hammer. Stretch your calves after you’re finished. Rest as little between sets as possible.
(three sets)
Go over to the squat rack section of your gym. Load up the bar bell with a weight that is 80% of your max. It said this in the original booklet: “Don’t sell yourself short here. Go heavy, you’ll be surprised how much weight you can do for 4-6 reps.” Bring a set of dumb bells with you at a weight that is 60% of your max at this point–a weight you can manage 6-8 reps after doing the shoulder shrugs. Have them sitting on either side of you behind the loaded bar bell. Behind that have an e-z curl bar loaded with a weight that you can manage 6 reps in the state you’re in (forthcoming).
• Do close grip (8 inches) shoulder shrugs with the bar bell to failure.
• Without resting, grab the dumb bells and do shoulder shrugs to failure.
• Without resting, grab the e-z curl bar and do close-grip upright standing rows to chin to failure. As quickly as possible, strip off half the weight.
• Do upright standing rows to failure.
(four sets)
Note: If you are a beginner or just need to build your strength, please, for yourself, don’t be “ashamed” to only use one ten pound plate on the e-z curl bar and drop it down to just using the bar without weights afterward. You’ll soon be able to add more weights in the following weeks as you see your strength begin to explode. I promise you this will happen.
Next…
Go over to the roman chair. Grab a plate where you can bang out 4-6 reps 5, 10, 25 lbs, whatever. Hold the plate behind your head and bang out 4-6 touching your elbows to your knees to failure. Drop the weight and do a few more of these sit-ups with only your hands behind your head to failure. Then do a few more with your arms held out in front of you touching your hands to the pad where your feet are tucked in to failure.
Without rest. Lie on the floor and do straight-legged raises with your hands tucked under your butt (small range of movement, maybe 8 to 12 inches) to failure.
(three sets)
Workout over!
TUESDAY
Go over to a flat bench. Bring two sets of dumb bells with you, one a weight that’s 80% of your one rep max and one that’s 80% of your one weight max after your first set. A good rule of thumb is if the first set is 35’s have the other set be 20’s. If you start out with 50’s, have the other set be 35’s. You get the picture.
When you do flies, position your body so that your butt is off the front of the bench (I.E. It is lower to the ground than your back) this isolates your chest more, thus you will probably only be able to do less weight than you “usually” do for flies. Yes, of course, because you’re isolating your chest more making it difficult for your other body parts to help out. Lower weights with good form is better than higher weights with sh-tty form. I’m not going to repeat this because it is so stupefyingly obvious.
On the benched barbell put two 10 pound plates on either side. One ten pound plate on either side for a total of 65 pounds. Unless you are Ronnie Coleman, that is all the weight you will need to do between 6-8 reps after your first set, and definitely all the weight you will need from set 2-4. If it’s too light add more. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.
• Grab the heavier dumb bells and do flies to positive failure. Get a good stretch on your pecs at the bottom of this movement. This is VERY important. When you hit positive failure, to get the dumb bells back up to the top position, use a movement that you’d use as if you were doing dumb bell presses. continue to negative failure, using slow controlled movement for negatives. This is going to be very painful. That is normal.
• Quickly. Grab the lighter set of dumb bells and without resting, do the same as above to positive and negative failure.
• Without resting grab the Barbell and start doing bench presses. Use this cadence. Very important. Lower the bar very slowly and then bring it back up with quick explosive movements. Do this to failure.
• Without resting, sit up on the bench and flex your pecs as hard as you can for 30 seconds. A little humor, but it’s the truth: You should be kind of gritting your teeth through the flex and shaking; looking like a dog taking a sh-t. But all kidding aside, don’t go easy on those last isometric chest flexes.
(Four sets-as with everything else, as little rest as possible between sets - as always with this program–have the mindset that these four are all “one big set”)
Go over to an incline bench and set the back slightly lower than a 45 degree angle. Grab three sets of dumb bells. I go 65, 45, 30. So break it up similar to that, higher or lower depending on your strength. Triple drop sets of incline presses. Make sure you feel a nice stretch at the bottom of the movement. I like to start palms out and finish palms facing, but you can keep your palms facing forward if that’s what’s more comfortable for you.
(two sets)
We’ve hit chest and upper chest, now we’re going to hit lower outside chest. Go to the Gravitron. Flip the bars so that they are further apart from each other. Close grip dips with body erect works triceps. Wide grip with body leaning forward works more lower chest. That’s what we’re doing. Wide grip leaning forward.
Your own weight or very little weight to start. Go to failure, lower the weight my 1/3 and go to failure, lower the weight by 1/3 and go to failure.
(Two sets)
You can take a brief rest now, and by that I don’t mean crash on your gym couch, if it has one, or go putter around the locker room. What I mean is just sort of mosey on over to the pulldown area and catch your breath a bit. As an aside to anyone that reads my blogs, there’s not going to be anything flippant or overtly humorous on this post–I just want to give you a heads up that this is serious business.
Go over to the pull-down machine (it’s not actually a machine, it’s the station where you lock your thighs underneath the pads and do seated pull-downs, you all know what it is). Select a weight that you can do between 4-6 reps of pulldowns to your chest. Try to have the bar touch between your clavacle and your nipple (not trying to be funny here). If you have to lean back slightly that’s okay, but try to keep that to a minimum.
Use strict form at first and go to failure. When you hit failure pump out one or two cheats using your body for momentum. This is an old Joe Weider technique. Use good form to failure then do a cheat or two in addition, that beats just doing good form to failure and stopping, which goes without saying. When you do this movement feel the bar stretch your lats as you rise to bar to its highest point. Also, take your chin and tuck it into your chest as you let the bar up, you’ll really feel the stretch in your lats.
When you bring the bar down, slowly raise your chin upwards, this will give you a better contraction. So to reiterate, as you raise the bar lower your chin, as you lower the bar, raise your chin. You can mimic this movement right now and you’ll feel what I mean. Try to do this, and all movements, with the classic 2 counts down and 4 counts up. The negatives on this exercise (and all others just to state the obvious) are very important. So here we go:
• Wide grip pull downs to the front at 80% to failure
• Without resting, lower the weight by 1/3 and hold the bar with your hands almost touching bring the bar, again, to the clavicle/nipple area. Remember about the chin for stretch and contraction. Do these to failure and either do a few cheats or Weider rest pauses I.E. let the pulldown bar rest at the top position a few seconds catch your breath, and pump out another one, two or three reps.
• Lower the weight by one third and with the same close grip do the above to failure.
(Six sets of these)
Go over to the seated pulley row station and choose the close grip attachment. Set it to a weight that is 80% of your one rep max. A few notes on form here. Don’t use your back to rock back and forth to help move the weights, I’m stating the obvious, but bear with me. Keep your lower back right above your ass arched and tight and suck in your stomach a bit, keep your shoulders squared. When you pull the weight back, aim for the center of your abdomin. Hold it there for about a half a second, pretend that there is a walnut glued to the center of your back, in your mind, try to crush the walnut with both ends of your back while contracting your back.
This is important. when you let the weight go forward, do so in a slow controlled manner, two things to avoid here. Going to a full stop (letting your damn back get a rest. No no no.) and using momentum from extended position to bounce the weight back to you (also giving your back a rest). Let the weight back and pull it back towards you with your back muscles always in control. Here we go:
• Set the weight to 80% max of your on rep max and go to failure, pump out another one, two or three with cheats or rest/pause.
• Drop the weight by 1/3 and continue in the manner above.
• Drop the weight by 1/3 and continue in the manner above.
(five sets)
Workout over
WEDENSDAY
This shoulder routine, in my opinion, is the second most grueling body workout next to the dropset squat/plyo, isometric leg routine. Go over to a squat rack or a smith machine. I recommend a squat rack for two reasons: The free weight forces you to recruit more muscle fibers to stabilize the bar and it is easier to do cheats with after you’ve gone to positive failure from the standing position, as you can use your legs to force the weight up for the last few reps and let it down slowly to negative failure. If you do this on the smith, do it from a seated position.
I go to the squat rack and load 4 ten pound plates on either side, go to failure: positive and negative. Drop ten from either side and again go to positive and negative failure. Then drop two tens again before going to positive and negative failure before doing the laterals which I will get to.
When I first did this routine and was weak and out of shape, I loaded two tens on either side and wound up the last of the drop set with a bar with no weight on it. Do whatever is effective for you. Your strength will go up big time as the weeks pass, I promise.
Okay, so the bar is loaded with a weight you can do maybe 4-6 reps. You bring two sets of dumb bells with you to your area. One set that you can do 6 reps with IN THE STATE YOU ARE IN AFTER DOING THE TRIPLE DROP SET and another half that weight. I use a 30 and a 15 and after two sets drop down to a 20 and a 12. You too will need to drop the weights on the bar bells and the dumb bells after two or three sets as you will obviously get weaker and fatigued, but you still need to get your reps in.
So here it goes:
• Go to the squat rack that is loaded with your 80% max and go to positive failure with front military presses. When you hit positive failure use your legs to cheat the weight up for a few reps and SLOWLY go to negative failure. Yes, this hurts a lot.
• Drop off plates from either side as quickly as you can and once again go to positive and negative failure.
• Drop off the plates from either side and once again go to positive and negative failure.
• Without resting, pick up the heavier of the dumb bells and do lateral raises to failure. When you fail, bang out a rep or two or three of cheats.
• Drop the dumb bells and grab the lighter pair as quickly as possible. Do lateral raises to failure and then bang out a cheat or two.
Note on form: When you do lateral raises you see guys in the gym bring the weights in front of them at the bottom of the movement so that they’re touching or almost touching. No good. When you bring dumb bells down during lateral raises the distance should be no less thsn about eight inches higher than your hips. Having the dumb bells go all the way to the bottom in front of you gives your delts a rest. We want a consistant burn. Again, when you bring the dumb bells down while doing lateral raises, the lowest they should go is about eight inches before they are at your hips. This keeps a constant strain (I.E. a constant burn) on your delts. You’ll need to use a lighter weight and be able to do less reps. Why? Because you’re keeping constant tension on your delts and not letting them “rest at the bottom”. After you’ve gone to failure, THEN you can do a few reps with the dumb bells going all the way down in front of you–making it obviously easier to do, you can even use your body to swing them up a bit, but ONLY after you can’t do any more with strict form.
Another note on form that advanced people already know. At the top of the lateral raise turn your hands so that you’re raising your pinkie end of your hand higher then your front knuckle. To put it simply, like you’re pouring a pitcher of beer at the top. Pour that pitcher.
(5 sets of these with as little rest between sets as possible)
Note: This is very grueling, so if you feel like you’re going to die that’s okay. I’m not trying to be flippant or kidding around here with that comment. This is tough stuff. This is why my shoulders are probably my best body part.
Remember also, to lower the weights on the bar bell that you’re beginning with as you go along, you’re going to get weaker after two or three of these. That’s normal and the way that this thing works. Really, don’t be concerned about how much you’re lifting, just get the job done and get your reps in. It gets a little easier after this, but not too much.
Time to work biceps.
Go over to the preacher curl. You can slap 3 tens on each side, or if you need to build up your strength 2 tens on each side and finish with the bar with no weights, again, this is not power lifting, it’s about building lean muscle and cutting.
Choose whichever grip is most comfortable for you. Narrower grip works the outside biceps more, wider works inside more. I prefer the narrower grip because that’s what people see when you’re wearing a tee shirt. If you’re a front double biceps pose kind of guy choose a wider grip. It doesn’t matter much. Your call.
• Sit down at the preacher curl and do 4-6 reps to failure. Use rest/pause technique here. When you hit failure, rest a few seconds at the bottom and pump out another one or two.
• Strip off two plates from each side and do another set failure. This is one exercise that a spotter would really help, incidentally, for obvious reasons.
• Strip off another two plates and curl to failure. Use rest pause technique.
• When you’re finished the last set flex your biceps and keeps squeezing them for 30 seconds or longer if you can stand it.
(three sets of these)
Go over to any kind of standard flat bench. Bring 3 dumb bells with you. For me, I go 50, 35, 25. So break it down in a similar manner with higher or lower weights. We’re going to do triple drop set concentration curls. Line up the Dumb bells so that you can grab one right after you finish with the other as quickly as possible.
• Concentration curl to failure with heaviest weight, turn that pinky up and squeeze at the top and lower slowly.
• Grab the next weight down and go to failure
• Grab the next weight down and go to failure.
(Hit each arm twice for a total of four sets.)
Biceps workout over. Time for triceps.
Bring an E-Z curl bar over to a flat bench. Ideally, if your gym has E-Z curl bars with fixed weights bring 2 E-Z curls bars, one which you can do 6-8 skull crushers and another that’s slightly more than half that weight. If not, just use a regular E-Z curl bar and strip off the weight. The advantage of having pre-fixed E-Z curl bars is that you don’t have to lose precious time sliding off the weights between drop sets.
• Grab the heavier of the two and do skull crushers to failure. When you hit positive failure use a pressing movement to get the weight back up and continue to negative failure. Once you’ve achieved negative failure press the bar straight up and CAREFULLY slide your hands together and continue to use the E-Z curl bar for close grip presses to failure. When you hit failure, rest the bar on your chest and catch a few breaths and do a few more cheat reps.
• As quickly as possible grab the lighter bar, or strip off two plates and repeat the above.
(Four sets of these with as little rest between sets as possible)
Go over to the station that has the triceps pulldown bar. Connect the little attachment that looks like a little “V”. Put the pin on a weight that you can only do 2 or 3 reps. Do the two or three reps to failure, then cheat the weights down using your whole body and raise slowly to negative failure. Adjust the pin so that the load is 1/3 lighter and repeat. Adjust the pin so the weight is 1/3 lighter and repeat again.
(Two sets with as little rest as possible between sets)
Workout over
DIET
• Find out how many calories it takes to maintain your ideal weight. From Monday through Wednesday, you are going to consume that many calories.
From Thursday through Sunday you inject double the amount of calories it takes to maintain your body weight.
• From Monday through Wednesday you are to keep your carb consumption under 25 grams.
• You are not allowed to have any dairy or simple carbs on Cybergenics. No skim milk, cottage cheese. No diary means no diary.
No simple carbs includes all bread that isn’t whole grain (preferably no bread at all is best), No pasta except for Barilla plus Thursdays through Sunday.
with a zero fat tomato sauce. The best tomato sauce Is Colvita healthy sauce, that’s what it is and it tastes better than any tomato sauce out of a jar that I’ve ever tasted, and I’ve tasted them all. Only Raos tastes better and it has no fat. You can go with Raos but it’s 8 dollars a jar and not fortified with all the good stuff in Colavita. So just go with the colavita:
Link: http://www.gourmetfoodexpress.com/colavita_healthy_sauce.htm Stock up on this stuff, it’s great over skinless chicken breast too.
Good sources of complex carbs include: brown rice, wild rice, sweet potatos, quinoa, oatmeal (NOT instant–Google groats, which is whole grain oatmeal and get that) All vegetables.
So to recap, Monday through Wednesday, go all protien and under 25 grams of carbs. You will be a little weak on Wedensday and Thursday morning workouts from lack of carbs. Your body is in ketosis and is now burning fat for energy. Just gut your way through till Thurdays workout is over and then have a nice big bowl of Groats (The best form of oatmeal, with a ton of blueberris in there. Groatmeal with blueberries is probably the healthiest all around things you can eat period, carbwise. Grapefruit is also excellent with your Thursday through Sunday breakfasts–fat burning properties and tastes great. Graotmeal and blueberries and an eggwhite omlette on the side. Perfection. Red rasberries and Strawberries are almost as good, not as high in anti-oxidants as blueberries.
There’s also applegate farms nitrate-free turkey bacon–zero grams of saturated fat. Nice.
Applegate farms also makes a saturated fat free no nitrate ham that you can slice up and sautee and then put in your omlette.
Most of the turkey sausage out there is high in fat because they put the skin in there with the turkey. Avoid.
…To be continued…
View all comments | Leave Comment