Frank Wrath McGrath – Animal Pak
Salepage : Frank Wrath McGrath – Animal Pak
You’ve probably heard top bodybuilders say they train “by feel.” But what exactly does this mean? When most of us try to train in this manner, our workouts become an unpleasant jumble of random, repeated actions.
Frank “Wrath” McGrath, an IFBB pro, could teach us a lot. Fortunately, he’s eager to educate us—despite his expression.
This seasoned iron fighter exercises like he shops: without regard for your expectations. He can trigger the sort of back development that others spend hours and dozens of sets on with just four motions and 16-20 sets.
Here are the five key components of his ideal intuitive exercise.
1. Computer programming Either that or this
Wrath didn’t walk into the tough confines of World Gym in Dunellen, New Jersey, on the day he took this video without a strategy. He had two possibilities in mind, which he kept open until the proper response emerged.
“I had a feeling it was going to be the back or shoulders,” he adds. “But, especially while traveling or specific body areas are still hurting, you must change things up. Maybe my back is a little sore—my lower back or my knees—so I alternate days.”
His back wasn’t aching today—at least not yet. It felt powerful. So he put on his signature black Animal Iconic tee, plugged on his headphones, and got to work.
2. Exercises that are similar yet distinct
Frank’s choices may appear random at first, but over the course of a workout, a vision emerged.
Wrath began his day with strong sitting cable rows in his prior back-training video, “Backing it Up.” He began with wide-grip lat pull-downs this time. Why? Because something piqued his interest. “I discovered a fairly fantastic old-school tavern. It has bicycle handle grips on it. I figured I’d give it a shot “He explains it plainly.
This impulse resulted in 4 or 5 sets—not he’s sure which—that warmed him up and prepared him to push it even harder in the sitting cable row, T-bar row, and underhand pull-down.
His choices may appear random at first, but over the course of a workout, a vision emerged. Wrath began by pulling vertically with a wide overhand hold, then horizontally with a narrow neutral grip, up from the floor with a medium-width overhand grip, and finally down at an angle with a medium-width underhand grip.
Like an ancient Greek phalanx marching into combat, the combination of grip types, widths, angles, machines, and free weights blend together perfectly.
Finally, his lats had nowhere to hide.
3. Keep up the volume till you’re finished.
Wrath felt ready to push himself with the T-bar after moving the majority of the stack with pull-downs and cable rows. Sure, he could have packed on a load of 45s and demolished himself, but he knew he could do more work—and higher quality work—if he used 25-pound plates. So he eventually worked his way up to a “very excellent” top set—don’t ask how much—and took it for a spin.
This apparently modest trick—using tiny plates—has a major impact. To begin with, you can bring your elbows farther back at the peak of the movement to get a better contraction. Second, it sets the stage for a violent dropset conclusion.
Wrath descended in little stages till it was exhausted. He could have continued until there were only a few plates on the bar, but he didn’t. He knew when he was done, and he stopped there.
How much time did he spend resting along the way? He had plenty, but not any more.
4. Load heavily but not excessively
Wrath has been playing the iron game for quite some time. Building a body like his takes decades, not just years. And in that time, he’s lifted plenty of terrifyingly huge weights. With time, he learned that the sweet spot was somewhere between “making every muscle function” and “fighting for my life.” His back muscles, predictably, enjoyed it as well.
“I remember performing bent rows with four plates, doing hard rows on everything, the entire stack on my pull-downs,” he says. “My back started to develop the day I really started to concentrate on squeezing the muscle and extending the muscle—still going as heavy as possible, but just lightening it up just a little bit, just so I could control it better.”
Are you wondering how to grow? That’s how it’s done. It’s not magic. It isn’t even math. It’s a sensation, and finding it will need an open mind and thousands of repeats.
5. Motion range What is best for you?
Frank isn’t going to tell you that your manner of doing things is incorrect. But one look at his back—if you can fit the whole thing in your frame of vision—and it’s difficult not to conclude that he’s doing something right.
So, what exactly is he doing? Of course, he’s compressing the muscle, but he’s also stretching it. “It’s always a squeeze and a stretch. Every workout is all I do “he claims “It’s just as crucial to stretch as it is to crush the muscle.”
Wrath claims to have been a “full range-of-motion man” since the beginning, but he isn’t employing someone else’s arbitrary notion of the right distance between A and B. He listens to his body once again and waits for a tell-tale feeling to inform him when to shift course.
That is how the “mind-muscle link” appears in action. It’s as sharp in Wrath’s mind as the knurling on a barbell. “When I workout, I think about the muscle in my thoughts rather than just moving weight,” he explains. “‘Lower lats,’ I believe. When I’m doing this workout, I’m thinking about going broader. When I’m completing this row, I get thicker. These topics are constantly on my thoughts.”
What are you thinking about? Try to feel your way through this back workout today and share your findings in the comments.
