0 Ottawa Bodybuilding Precontest Diet Progress Report

We're back today with Greg Charron's Ottawa bodybuilding precontest diet progress report.  Here's his week 1 comments and progress pics.

Front - Week 1

Back - Week 1

Monday Sept 13th, 2010

Week 1

I received my diet instructions Monday evening.  At first it was overwhelming, but at the same time exciting.  I studied the pages printed over and over and anything I was unsure of, I responded with a list of questions.  Shane was always prompt and detailed with his responses.

Because I had been eating like a bird (around 2000 calories per day), by the second day of eating well over 3,000 calories, I could already see significant changes.  I had more energy, my muscles appeared more full, and they certainly felt harder.  I was also sweating like crazy!  My internal furnace was revving up!

With all this extra energy, my workouts also really improved. I was happy, and only after 2 days!  I looked forward to how things would shape up in the days and weeks to come.

On Friday when we met for the second assessment, I was really impressed with the changes, and more importantly, so was Shane!  I could tell I was on the right track with plenty of time to go until the show.

- Greg

I'll be back tomorrow with Greg's week 2 progress report.

Please post your comments below.

0 Aylmer Personal Trainer Reveals How to Build Muscle Build an Awesome Back

Awesome Muscle Building for Your Back!

Undoubtedly, a well developed back is the hallmark differentiator between those who train the "show" muscles, and those who train the "go" muscles.

Arnold's flawless back development!

A well developed back is unmistakable. Starting with the upper traps, the mid and lower traps and the rhomboids, as well as the lats and even , when bent forwards, the lumbar (erector group) musculature pops out as to thick ridges that run beside the spine.

Additionally, for athletes, strong and balanced back development helps to prevent injuries and keeps you in the game and in the gym so your training can continue uninterrupted by injuries.

Guaranteed, if you think you can forgo the important stuff, just to work on the show muscles, you'll be hit up with an injury that can keep you out of the game for years!

Don't Risk Injury... Train Serious, But Train Smart! (TSTS)

Considerations for Awesome Muscle Building Training For Your Back

1. Exercise Selection

Deadlifts

If you could only do one exercise for back, I would say Deadlifts would be your best choice, but thankfully we can do more than one exercise. Deadlifts are the exercise that will best allow you to express your strength and develop top end strength, but they take a toll on your recovery, so while you need to do them, they shouldn't be your main focus. Do them once a week, or even once every two weeks cycled in in place of a squat exercise.

Safe and effective deadlift technique:

Ensure back is in neutral arch, brace abdominals forcefully.  Begin movement by "pushing" the floor away from you.  Maintain the same upper body to floor angle until your legs are nearly straight, then using glutes and hamstrings, pull your hips inwards, squeezing your butt as your upper body pulls up into the finish position.  Be sure to lock your knees out and continue to brace your abdominals hard as you squeeze your glutes to pull you into the finish.  If you don't keep your abdominal brace and lock your knees out, and you pull your glutes in hard, you increase the risk of injury to your back!

Remember:  SAFETY ALWAYS FIRST!

Overload with chains, bands, partials

Here's a short video I put together that shows you the exact description above in action.

How to Deadlift for a Massive Back!

Pull-ups and Chin-ups

Pull-ups and chin-ups are the most important exercise for you to do on a regular basis. They are heavily reliant on the CNS, and thus contribute to significant strength gains that have massive carry-over to many other exercises.

Band-assisted Pull-ups (start)

Because of the stretch position at the bottom, they are also excellent for adding mass to your back. Repeated studies have shown that muscles grow best when loads are applied to muscles in a stretched position.

And if those reasons aren't enough, pull-ups and chin-ups will teach you to leave your ego at the door. I can't tell you how many times when I used to work at silly commercial gyms I would see big muscular guys doing partial range of motion cable pulldowns with 200+ pounds on the rack, yet they could barely do 5 chin-ups. This is just not acceptable, and if you're an athlete, you'll just plain suck if this is your situation!

Don't be that guy! (Or girl!!)

Band-assisted Pull-ups (finish)

Pull-ups and their variations are the meat and potatoes of your back
training program.

Because there are so many variations, you can get even up to three good pull-up workouts into a single week.  At that volume (3x per week), they'll all have to be different, but that's the beauty of it!  You get way more benefit.

Here's an example:

Monday: Parallel-grip pull-ups 5x8 (strength with strength capacity)
Wednesday: Weighted Chin-ups 6x3 (strength)
Friday: Wide-grip band-assisted pull-ups 3x20 (conditioning)

Overload with: bands, chains, plates, etc...

Bent-over rows/Seated rows

All forms of rows rely on lower back strength to hold your body in position (except for chest-supported varieties), which makes your ultimate strength in the movement reliant on your current low back condition. If you've already done deadlifts in your workout, chances are you wont' be setting any strength records in your rows training.

Rows are great for adding additional training volume, and to ensure you have good scapular retraction and depression strength, which is ultimately important for helping with your bench.

Warning:  Don't do deadlifts and then a bent-over variation of rows.  It's just too much for the back.  A good combination is some form of pull-up first, followed by rows.  If hitting rows is a must after deadlifts then use one of the chest-supported variety.

Keep a variety of rowing movements in your program including from the bottom up: seated rows, bent-over dumbbell or barbell rows, wide-grip elbows out barbell, dumbbell, or seated rows, rope face pulls with elbows below shoulder height, rope face pulls with elbows above shoulder height (very important to help encourage mid- and low-trap recruitment patterns - helps to overcome rhomboid dominance patterns), dumbbell or barbell shrugs, and overhead shrugs with dumbbells or barbells.  Variety helps prevent boredom too!

Overload with rest/pause, pre-fatigue, giant sets, etc...

Lower Back 
The lower back may be small compared to the upper back, but the importance of it's development in size, strength, and conditioning cannot be overstated!

Reverse Hypers (controlled movement)

You can Deadlift, Chin, and Row all day long, but if you don't develop your lower back properly, you'll pay the price with either slow progress in the rest of your back and leg development or worse become injured!

To keep your lower back strong and well conditioned include back extensions, 45 degree back extensions, and reverse hypers in your training.  For all three, brace the abdominals, maintain a neutral arch, and move from your hips.  These exercises also target the hams and glutes but with much lower loads than main lifts like deadlifts.

Overload with dumbbells / kettlebells / plates / bands / medballs / barbell

2. Exercise Intensity

Yes you need volume for adding mass, but you're not going to add any mass or get any stronger if you're always lifting puny weights.  Don't be gun-shy here!

Exercise intensity is inversely related to how many reps you can manage per set.  Depending on whether your goal for the training phase is more strength or hypertrophy, each exercise group has a repetition range you can choose from.

Main lifts (like deadlifts) 1-5 reps
Pull-ups and chins 3-20 reps
Bent-over/seated rows 6-15
1-arm rows 6-12
Back extensions/45 degree back xt/reverse hypers  10-20 reps

Point is, even if you are going for size, make sure you've got blocks of training where you go heavy, choosing weights that put you in the low end repetition ranges.  Without some heavy training, you just aren't going to get bigger or stronger PERIOD!



3. Training Volume

The body's limited ability to recover from intense training necessitates a lower overall training volume as training intensity increases.

If you've been doing a higher volume (3-4 exercises, 3-4 sets, 8-15 reps) to build some size, and you're moving into a strength phase, your volume might look more like 3-4 exercises, 1-5 sets, 3-8 reps.

Getting stronger is not a function of trying to beat your max every time you hit the gym, and continually adding more exercises to your program.  Getting stronger relies on recovery.  So train with 70-85% of your max on a regular basis, staying away from failure on most of your sets.  Periodically you can push out some RM (repetition max) sets (where you train to failure) or push up into the 90-93% range for just a few sets of just a few reps, and finally every so often (4 weeks to 4 months) you can go for a new max.

If you've been training longer than 6 months, a deload week every 3-5 weeks will help tremendously with managing your overall volume.

A Deload week is not a NO-LOAD week.. it's NOT a week where you don't go to the gym.  It's not a vacation from training although it should feel like one in the sense that your body gets a rest.  But a proper deload week involves going in and hitting your lifts with significantly lighter weights (60-65% 1RM) for a much reduced volume (50%).

The goal for your deload week is to practice your technique, work on weak points (i.e. rotator cuff strength, hip strength, flexibility, mobility, soft-tissue work, etc...).  At the end of your deload week your body should feel rested and your mind should feel ready to hit the gym with ferocity come Monday!



4. Balanced Training

The worst cause for lack of progress is injuries.  Other than using safe exercise technique and using deload weeks to help with recovery, the best way to prevent injuries and ensure continued training progress is to use a balanced training program.

The only saving grace when you see meatheads at the gym who walk around like they're king shit, only training their chest and arms, is that they're likely just a short time away from suffering a good injury that'll keep them out of the gym and out of your way so you can get your training done and not have to see them!

Here's a few balance pointers:
1. Horizontal press vs. horizontal pull (row)
2. Vertical presses vs vertical pull
3. Anterior shoulder vs. posterior shoulder
4. Horizontal row with elbows down (seated row) vs. horizontal row with elbows up (face pulls)
5. Always hitting some external rotator cuff work at least once a week.

Band pull-aparts to chest

Finally, make sure you do the small stuff... external rotator cuff, band pull-aparts, face pulls... and do your soft tissue with the roller and/or lacrosse ball... this is the stuff that keeps the shoulders able to handle the heavy stuff.

Soft-tissue work removes adhesions and scar tissue, helps mobilize tissue around the joints, and helps mobilize the thoracic spinal segments and ribs too!


Here's a couple sample back workouts for massive size and strength:

Workout 1
Deadlifts 5x5
Pull-ups 7x3 (weighted)
Face Pulls 3x15

Workout 2
Deadlifts  3x3
Chin-ups 5x10
Chest-supported rows 4x12
DB Shrugs 3x15
Band external rotator cuff 3x20

Give these a try and let me know how it goes!

0 The Skinny Bastard Solution

I don't have good genetics to grow...

My metabolism is too fast...

I can't eat enough food...

I burn calories faster than I can get them in...

Sound familiar?

Well it's a load of crap!

Well, not entirely, but for the most part they're just excuses to explain why you don't get the results you're after.

Yes, some people do have more potential than others, but it's rare that "potential" limits muscular growth until years of training and significant muscle has already been added.

So what limits muscle growth and what can we do about it?

It all comes down to desire, and that I'm sorry, is not something I can help you with.

As a 15 year old kid trying to become the next Mr. Olympia, I knew all about desire. I ate tons and trained tons. But I was eating lots of fruits and veggies, and not enough meat and potatoes. I was interested in nutrition as it pertained to building muscle, and low fat was all the rage, so I ate as little fat as possible... Big Mistake!

I also had severe exercise A.D.D.

I blindly went from one training program to the next, never sticking to any one program long enough to see any results.

Each huge guy that came into the gym must have had some secret, so I'd stop whatever program I was on and try to follow the next guy.

I pretty much stayed the same weight for the first three years, until I finally found a training partner who I trained with consistently for the next three years (thanks Jason!) and I gained quickly moved from 18 years old and 145 lbs to 21 years old and 165 lbs.

Next, a new training partner (thanks Dan!) and I went from 21 years old and 165 lbs to 24 years old and 185lbs.

My success in gaining muscle always lay in finding the right program and sticking to it, as well as eating more than ever before.

With that, here's the best diet and training program for skinny bastards to pack on serious muscle size and strength!

Diet Solution For Skinny Bastards

If your goal is to build tons of muscle and you're a hardgainer, the solution is not very technical, but I'll give you a quick breakdown of what you should be eating.

Breakfast (pick any 6)

Oats, Eggs, Waffles, Protein Shakes, Omelettes, Fruit, etc... and that's just for breakfast.

Mid-Morning Snack

Your mid-morning snack should be something that will really get you hungry for a huge lunch, so we're looking for something that's going to spike the hell out of your insulin. So... let's go for a large Dairy Queen Blizzard.

If you're a kid in school, your snacks can be chocolate bars, chocolate milk, and PB&Anything sandwiches!

Lunch

Lunch should include hamburgers, leftover pizza, PB&A sandwiches, leftover steak, leftover chicken, salad is good for nutrition, but you'll need to completely soak it in dressing to get enough calories from it!

If you're a kid in school, the school cafeteria will have Lasagna and Pizza... go back for seconds, thirds, and when nobody's looking, sneak around behind the counter and steal whatever's left on the tray!

In fact, eat as much as you can get your hands on without getting expelled from school!

Wait a minute... screw that.. if you get expelled, you can eat straight through from the time you wake until you go to bed! Hit it!

Mid-Afternoon Snack

Your mid-afternoon snack should be your highest calorie meal of the day.. since you can sneak off without anyone noticing you and gorge yourself without grossing out anyone you know seeing you. A 12" meatballs Subway sub should do it! Oh, and I always asked for 2-4 extra meatballs and they would just charge me an extra buck or two.

(Your mid-afternoon snack might also be your pre-workout meal or your post-workout meal.)

Dinner

Dinner should involve a full plate of meat (steak, fish, chicken, etc...), a full plate of starch (rice, potatoes, pasta, etc...) and of course you do need veggies... although if building massive amounts of muscle is most important to you, if you fill up on too much veggies, you won't grow.

Just make sure you find a full fat salad dressing you can drench your salad and veggies in so that you'll like the taste enough to force them down, and make sure you eat them last so if you do fill up too soon on the other stuff.. then oh well!

Dessert

All skinny bastards should eat dessert every night after dinner. But don't eat it immediately following dinner as you should not have enough room for dessert if you ate enough at dinner.

Go sit your butt down on the couch, conserve as much energy as possible, watch a few TV shows, then head back to the fridge and eat absolutely everything that you can possibly eat, be it ice cream, yogurt, left-over anything, PB&Anything sandwiches... just anything and everything!

Got a brother or sister who steals food off your plate? Or who eats more than their share of food during the day, leaving you with little choice for dessert... EAT THEM TOO!! That way you get back the food they stole from your plate and then some!

The takeaway point about your diet if you're a skinny bastard hardgainer who thinks they can't gain weight is this...

And I'm not exactly sure about the best way to convey this... but think of every opportunity to eat as your last for a very long time. As you eat, keep thinking that your next meal might not be for weeks or months... and you'll probably get enough food down to finally start building muscle.

The Skinny Bastard Training Solution

If you're a classic hardgainer who has a difficult time gaining mass, your workout needs to be simple.

Week 1

Day 1

Squats 5 sets of 5, increase weight every set.

Dips 5 sets of AMRAP

Wide Grip Pull-ups 5 sets of AMRAP

Farmer's Walk 4 sets of 100 steps, increase weight every set.

Rest 1-2 days

Day 2

Deadlifts 8 x 3 reps , increase weight every set.

Split Squats 5 x 12, 10, 8, 8, 8, increase weight every set.

Bench Press 4 x 10, 8, 6, 6, increase weight every set.

Bent-Over Barbell Rows 5 x 12, 10, 8, 8, 8, increase weight every set.

Barbell Curls 3 x 8, increase weight every set.

Rest 1-2 days

Day 3

Squats: 5 x 10, 10, 10, 8, 8, increase weight on every set.

Military Press 4 x 12, 10, 8, 8, increase on every set.

Pushups 3 x AMRAP

Chin-ups 5 x AMRAP

Weighted Plank 3 x ALAP

Rest 1-2 days

Week 2

Day 1

Deadlifts 5 x 5, increase weight every set.

Weighted Pushups 5 x 10, increase weight every set.

Weighted Chin-ups AMSAP x 3 reps, increase weight every set.

Barbell Curls 3 x 10, increase weight on each set.

Hands-to-Forearms 3 x 20 each direction.

Rest 1-2 days

Day 2

Squats 6 x 3, increase weight every set.

Step-ups 4 x 12, increase weight every set.

Incline Bench Press 6 x 10, 8, 8, 6, 6, 6 increase weight every set.

Bent-Over Barbell Rows 5 x 12, increase weight every set.

1-DB Farmer's walk 4 x 100', increase weight every set.

Rest 1-2 days

Day 3

Barbell Clean and Press 4 x 8, increase weight every set.

Deadlifts 4 x 10, increase weight every set.

Dips AMSAP x 5 reps, increase weight every set.

Inverted Rows 4 x AMRAP

Mountain Climbers 4 x 30

Notes:

1. AMRAP = As Many Reps As Possible

2. AMSAP = As Many Sets As Possible, which means continue doing more sets until you can't complete another set with increased weight with good form.

3. Always increase weight on each set if possible with good form.

4. Do not train to failure on any exercises except those with AMRAP.

Conclusion

Use the "SeeFood" diet, meaning eat absolutely everything you see, and put this program to work for the next 6-12 months, and you should expect maximum muscle mass and a huge increase in strength.

If you have any comments, please leave them below.

0 Strength Training On Limited Time

For whatever reason if you've got limited time to get your workouts in, don't despair, there's still ways to get stronger and build more muscle.

Key Points

1. Limit the number of exercises

2. Every other day training with upper/lower split

3. Ensure you get soft tissue work for a couple areas as well as some dynamic stretching and activation prior to your strength work

4. Pick one main exercise, one supplemental, and one accessory.

Example:

Monday - Day 1 - Lower Body

Foam Roller: Quads/IT Bands/ T-Spine

Dynamic stretching: Quads, Hip Flexors

Activation: Glute Bridges

Squats 5x5

RDL 4x8

Weighted Plank 3x60 sec

Wednesday - Day 2 - Upper Body

Foam Roller: T-Spine/Pecs/Lats

Dynamic Stretching: Pecs/Lats

Activation: Band Pull-aparts behind neck, Band Pull-aparts to chest

Bench Press 5x5

Chin - ups 4xmax

Barbell Curls 3x10

Friday - Day 3 - Lower Body

Foam Roller: T-Spine/Quads/IT Bands/Hams

Dynamic Stretching: Hamstrings/Squat-to-stand

Activation: Glute Bridge variations

Deadlifts 5x3

Split Squats 4x12

Hanging Leg Raises 3x15

Monday - Day 4 - Upper Body

Foam Roller: Pecs/Lats/T-Spine

Dynamic Stretching: PNF Patterns for shoulders

Activation: Wall Slides, Scapular retractions

1- DB Push Press 5x6

Seated Cable Rows 4x10

EZ-Bar Skull Crushers 3x10

Volume Considerations

Progressive volume manipulations will also keep you from plateauing.

Using squats as an example:

Starting week 1 with an 80% 1RM load (225 lbs), volume progressions might map out as follows. Weeks 5-8, 9-12, and 13-16 use the same manipulations as weeks 1-4.

Week 1: 5x5x225 Moderate volume moderate load

Week 2: 4x5x225 Reduced volume, moderate load

Week 3: 8x3x245 Increased volume, increased load

Week 4: 3x6x205 Significant volume and load reduction (deload week)

Week 5: 5x5x230

Week 6: 4x5x230

Week 7: 7x3x255

Week 8: 3x6x215

Week 9: 5x5x235

Week 10: 4x5x235

Week 11: 6x2x260

Week 12: 3x6x220

Week 13: 5x5x240

Week 14: 3x5x240

Week 15: 5x2x265

Week 16: 2x6x225

Such volume manipulations allow increased for strength increases that you wouldn't otherwise get from simple linear progression.

The same types of variations can be done with all main exercises, and some supplemental exercises such as chin-ups, and weighted pushups.

If you're a beginner, you can probably keep the same main exercises throughout the 16 week period, intermediate and advanced lifters need to switch out the main exercises after each 4 week block.

Example substitutions include but are not limited to:

Main Upper Body

Bench Press

Board Presses

Floor Press

Military Press

Fat Bar Press

Swiss Bar Press

Weighted Pushups

Dynamic Effort work with bands/chains

Main Lower Body

Squats

Box Squats

Giant Cambered Bar Squats

Safety Squat Bar Squats

Zercher Squats

Front Squats

Deadlifts

Trap Bar Deadlifts

BTR (Beyond The Range) Deadlifts

Sumo Deadlifts

Rack Pull (Partials) Deadlifts

Dynamic effort work with bands/chains

0 Supersets and Exercise Pairings

I went to visit a client at their gym on the weekend. She was training her bench press, and was really pushing her limits with a 5x5 protocol, so although her first set wasn't an all out effort, by the last few sets, she was definitely seeing stars as she was grinding them out!

I'm there with her, spotting her, and coaching her through her workout, and a guy walks over and introduces himself as a "certified" trainer and proceeds to suggest that her workout would be more efficient if she were to superset a set of bent-over rows in between each set of bench press.

The funniest thing... is that I saw this guy coming from the other side of the gym, and I knew exactly what was going to happen... and I was right.

So first, before I say whether he had a good suggestion, I seriously doubt he could bench press 5x5x125 which is what my client was doing. This guy barely had any facial hair let alone any muscle on his frame.

That said, I can't be upset with him, as I used to do that all the time. Yep.. I was the annoying kid who had to teach everyone everything I learned the moment I learned it.

It all comes down to perspective. When you're young, when you learn something, you think the world should know it, and that they probably don't already know it.

So did he have a good suggestion?

It really depends on the goals of the training session. If "Jill" was doing 5x5x125 and her 1RM was 155, making her 5x5x125 at 80% 1RM, as was the case, then I would say no. But if Jill's 1RM was 175, then she's training at around 70%, which means her 5x5x125 would not be too taxing.

In other words, if the weights you're going to be lifting are going to be close to your limits for a given repetition range, you don't want to superset other exercises in as it will interfere with your ability to give 100% effort to the exercise you're trying to focus on.

High CNS involvement multi-joint-compound movements take way more out of you than other less demanding exercises, so pairing them up isn't always a good idea.

The main key is to decide what your main purpose is for the exercise. If you want your bench to go up.. then you don't want to be supersetting it with another exercise. But if your goal is just general strength and overall conditioning, and getting more weight on that bar Goddamnit.. is NOT the end all be all for you, then you can superset with another exercise.

Good Exercise Pairings

Vertical Push + Vertical Pull

ex: Military Press + Wide Grip Pull-ups

Horizontal Push + Horizontal Pull

ex: Bench Press + Inverted Rows

Vertical Push + Horizontal Pull

ex: 1-DB Push Press + Bent-Over Dumbbell Rows

Horizontal Push + Vertical Pull

ex: Dips + Chin-Ups

For lower body work, since both squats and deadlifts work both quads and hamstrings it would rarely be advised to superset quad/ham. Instead, and only if maximum strength is not your goal, you could superset another non-competing exercise.

Quad Dominant + (Biceps, shoulders)

Squat + DB Curls or dumbbell shoulder press

Hip Dominant + (Chest, shoulders, triceps)

Deadlifts + Pushups, Military Press, DB Tricep Extensions

There are many options, but these are just some.

Always bear in mind your goals, and construct your program with pairings that are suitable if any.

If you have any questions or comments about this post, I'd love to hear about it in the comments section below.