What is Y3T?
A bodybuilding legend, Neil Hill is recognized around the world as the creator of Y3T (Yoda 3 Training). Neil has drawn on his 30 years of experience to develop his battle-tested system, which helps maximize muscle gains by cycling intensities, rep ranges, rest pauses, and time under tension. Today Y3T isn’t just for competitive bodybuilders; it’s for all athletes looking to improve their performance and body composition. Continuous progress can take place because of the unique weekly cycling. It will force your muscle fibers to adapt to a new stimulus every time you train a muscle group.
The main principle of Y3T is to systematically keep your muscles guessing how you are going to train so that your body has less chance to adapt. This is done by rotating your training style over a 3-week period. Let’s examine how each of these weeks looks more closely.
WEEKLY CYCLES
During Week 1 of Y3T, Type 2B fast-twitch fibers will be targeted for improvement. These fibers are the big, explosive movers of your muscular system, and they need to be trained aggressively. They produce a lot of power but fatigue easily. The ideal way to hit these fibers is with explosive reps in the 6-10 range.
During Week 2 of Y3T, Type 2A fast-twitch fibers are in the crosshairs. This fiber type responds well to lighter weights in the 12-16 rep range.
Finally, during Week 3 of Y3T, Type 1 slow-twitch fibers get smacked around. This large group is best targeted with slow and controlled repetitions with a lot of time under tension. Repetitions performed will be anywhere from 20 (for biceps) all the way up to 100 (for legs).
After the third week is completed, repeat the 3-week cycle. Continued progress will result as your body tries to adapt to the ever-changing program. By the time you’re back to Week 1, add weight to all your lifts and continue getting bigger, stronger, better.
The beauty of Y3T is that you never fail to progress. Since you aren’t sustaining max weights every week, you’re able to recover while reducing the risk of injury. Y3T will also lean you out, showcasing your newly-gained muscle. In particular, the high reps of Week 3 will turn you into a furnace, melting fat stores off your body.
You can use the below program as an example to help you in adjusting your own:
Hard training can only get you so far. Without the right nutrition, your muscles won’t grow — and you can kiss your dreams goodbye.
Neil Hill explains that to maximize your muscle recovery and growth, you need to get the right amounts of the proper nutrients in your bloodstream at the right times. It’s science!
Forget counting calories! Instead, Hill explains the function of the three macronutrients and how much you need of each:
1 PROTEIN
Protein is made from amino acids chained together with peptide bonds. They have a very active role in your immune system, your hormone balance, and water regulation. They also make muscles — so you need to make sure you get a balanced amount throughout the day.
Hill suggests getting your protein from different sources: chicken, beef, fish, eggs, whey and time-released protein powder. He also recommends consuming 3-to-4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight to help increase your muscle mass. I, personally, rarely recommend intake of more than 2 grams per kilogram of body mass for natural athletes. In some cases up to 3 grams for certain periods but not for too long.
2 CARBOHYDRATES
Carbohydrates are your body’s primary energy source. Carbs are broken down into glycogen and then transported throughout the body by the bloodstream.
Hill suggests eating 4 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of bodyweight. He advises getting the majority of your carbs from complex sources like oatmeal, wholemeal rice, sweet potato and whole grain bread. Complex carbs, which can take up to 120 minutes to break down, provide your body with stable energy throughout the day.
Avoid insulin spikes — which can promote fat storage — by sticking mainly to complex carbs. If you use simple carbs, Hill says to eat them in small amounts early in the morning or directly after a training session.
This is Hill’s recommendation. I advise my clients to have 20% of their carbohydrates 2 hours before strength workout and 50% up to 6 hours after the workout. The other 30% in the morning at breakfast. Simple and fast burning carbohydrates only after workout and only in the cases when the athlete’s aim is building muscles and has good insulin sensitivity.
3 FATS
Fats are important because they aid the release of muscle-building hormones, support the central nervous system, and break down bad fats. Fatty acids also help improve your immune system and control your heart rate.
Get your essential fatty acids from salmon, nuts, seeds, avocados, eggs and red meat. Hill suggests getting 50-to-60 grams of fat per day.
I recommend including also 1-2 yolks at breakfast and the rest of the fats at dinner.
Since Neil Hill is working with Gaspari Nutrition, he strongly recommends this brand and its products. I will comment a little bit on the ingredients of these products.
– Vitamins and Omega 3 – they improve recovery and overall health condition.
– The mandatory protein powder which provides the necessary proteins without additionally overloading the digestive system.
– Carb product with low Glycemic index during the workout.
– BCAA and L-Glutamate for good recovery and muscle growth.
– Creatine supplement or formula which shall boost your strength, energy and focus, increase your motivation and consequently your results.
I do not think there is anything essentially important to add. Of course, there is a wide variety of products on the supplement market and we can add more formulas that are interesting.
In this article, I tried shortly to present to you another interesting training system by a famous expert. I hope it will be useful to you and even if you do not follow it strictly, you will get ideas how to diversify your own training program. The aim is to avoid coming to a halt and have constant progress.
