by Matt Weik, BS, CSCS, CPT, CSN
John “Mountain Dog” Meadows passed away at the age of 49, but he left behind a lasting legacy in the bodybuilding world because of his personality and philosophy. As a competitor and coach, he left the world with Mountain Dog training based upon the principles of hypertrophy training.
To date, he remains a relevant presence for amateurs and IFBB pros alike because of his approach to taking muscle-building to the next level.
His journey from competitor to coach also led him to establish his own company and his range of supplements to help athletes and celebrities with bodybuilding, nutrition, and health. The one consistent aspect of his training has always been his emphasis on flawless form.
In this article, we are going to dive deeper into Mountain Dog Training, what it is, and how you can implement it for the best results possible from your time in the gym.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to treat or diagnose any condition. It is recommended that you speak with your doctor before starting any exercise program, changing your daily nutrition, or adding any supplements to your regimen.
What is the Mountain Dog Training?
Coaches in the professional bodybuilding world are famous for their branded approaches. Like Hany Rambod, who broke into the scene with his FST-7 training method, and Dante Trudel, who became famous for DoggCrapp Training, Mountain Dog training is more of a philosophy that can be charted out.
John Meadows charted the same out in a YouTube video, and his entire regimen is taken from various schools of thought. It can be segregated into four distinctive phases.
Four Phases of the Mountain Dog Training
This training regimen has four phases with its own goal. You begin your workout with some pre-activation and then move on to a high-intensity power workout and then focus on the pump before ending it with a few minutes of stretching.
Below are the four different phases of the training:
1. Pre-Pump Activation
As Meadows calls this, “a pre-pump activation” is usually performed to bridge the gap between your general warm-ups and some heavy lifting.
For this phase of Mountain Dog Training to work, you should take one exercise that fits the requirement of the body part you will be training on that day with the following considerations:
- It’s easier on your joints and connective tissues
- The technique is not complicated
- It helps you attain a strong mind-muscle connection
Meadows suggests keeping the repetitions between 8 and 12 with moderate weight without unrequired complications like drop set and rest-pause. This is the foundation on which the success of your workout is built. The scientific rationale behind this advocates that an optimum mind-muscle connection is possible when you are not doing heavy weights and helps you target and activate your muscles better.
2. Explosion
After prepping your body and mind for performance, the second phase of Mountain Dog Training focuses more on power. The explosive phase, as it is termed, is where you will be lifting the heaviest and performing at an elevated intensity.
You need to select one or two exercises that will help you achieve:
- High-intensity sets with impeccable form
- Multi-joint compound exercises and progressive overload on a session-by-session basis
- Explosive lifts with impeccable control in your eccentric movements
Meadows believes that while movements should be explosive, you should always keep one rep in your reservoir as this phase is focused on stimulating the type-2 fast-twitch fibers.
3. Supramaximal Pump
This phase of Mountain Dog Training is exactly what it sounds like. After establishing a great mind-muscle connection in the first phase and focusing on intensity, this phase is all about pushing as much blood as possible to the target muscle.
In this phase, you need to focus on:
- High-intensity bodybuilding techniques like drop sets, forced reps, and partials.
- Opt for single-joint isolation movements
Meadows suggests that you can go with one set during the phase as long as you are driven to push yourself.
4. High-Intensity Stretching
The perfect way to conclude the Mountain Dog Training workout is with a bout of high-intensity stretching. The ask here is pretty simple. You need to select an exercise with a lighter weight that targets your muscles and keeps them in tension for a duration of time.
The ideal outcome would be to hold it under tension for 30-60 seconds for three sets. There’s an argument for stretching that proves that it can augment muscle growth.
Other reports show that muscles in a lengthened position rather than the contracted position provide stimulus to muscle growth.
Dietary Requirements with Mountain Dog Training
Nutrition is as important as the workout, and Meadows believes in eating clean and focusing on heavy caloric intake. He also recommends consuming healthy fats with Omega-3 fatty acids, like beef and salmon.
While preparing for competitions, he ate 6 meals a day but mentioned you can consume more or less, assuming you’re hitting your caloric and macro numbers for the day.
If you are a bodybuilding enthusiast, Mountain Dog Training is a rather modern outlook to muscle building and is a departure from the Golden Era philosophy of intense three-hour workouts, partly due to the advancement of studies and coaches like Meadows.
