Excellent work!
Ditto on the excellent work.
Could you give a rough outline of your training and training philosophies? Just curious about your exercise selection, what kind of frequency and volume you used, how much variation you used (or didn’t use), stuff like that.
I didn’t see anything like that in this thread; I apologize if I missed it.
[quote]LoRez wrote:
Ditto on the excellent work.
Could you give a rough outline of your training and training philosophies? Just curious about your exercise selection, what kind of frequency and volume you used, how much variation you used (or didn’t use), stuff like that.
I didn’t see anything like that in this thread; I apologize if I missed it.[/quote]
x2. Go as detailed as you like, I’m pretty interested as well.
[quote]LoRez wrote:
Ditto on the excellent work.
Could you give a rough outline of your training and training philosophies? Just curious about your exercise selection, what kind of frequency and volume you used, how much variation you used (or didn’t use), stuff like that.
I didn’t see anything like that in this thread; I apologize if I missed it.[/quote]
I would love to, I just started a reply and left it, came back and it had disappeared so prepare for a shpeel sometime in the next couple of days
To give my training history a brief outline it would look like this:
Year 1) Full-body workout every other day. Skimming over legs and delts, bi?s and tri?s getting more than their fair share of attention
Year 2) Switched to a body-part split. Really pushing the volume but lacking in intensity. Sometimes hammering out 30-40 sets per body part and going 10-14 days without a rest day. Regularly found myself run-down and feeling terrible.
Year 3) Tried out my own version of 5/3/1 while also incorporating some of CT?s Wave-loading schemes: 7/5/3 etc.
Year 4) Started to figure out what was working for me and went back to a bodypart split. Experimented with training a muscle group twice a week.
Year 5) (Current) Tried a mountain-dog style of training, still throwing in the odd heavy set but not overly concerned with 1rm strength.
I feel it?s worth saying that at each phase in my training I felt like what I was doing what was the right thing to do and was working but now I have the pleasure of hindsight I can see that that wasn?t so.
I don?t think enough can be said for INTENSITY. I feel like now if I only had 10 minutes in the gym for whatever reason that I could train a muscle and provide enough stimulus for growth. I used to discredit HIT style training a la Dorian Yates and co as I just couldn?t get my head round training with such low volume. Since I learned to ramp up intensity and frequency and reduce volume I can definitely see how that would work.
Another revelation in the past couple of years was to train by actually targeting a particular muscle and not just going through the motions working a certain movement. A lot of John Meadows? techniques have helped a lot with this. I think now, it?s important to create a lot of pain (good pain- think lactic acid) within the muscle being trained. I used to stop when it became painful or the pump got too much but I now make a big effort to see how much pain I can create and endure. Not a huge necessity for some muscle groups but certain muscles, calves for instance, and legs in general, I think this is imperative.
Training for strength did nothing for me. I?m sure it benefitted me somehow but I don?t feel it contributed to hypertrophy at all FOR ME. All it did was beat up my joints. This is not to say it wouldn?t for anyone else. I?ve heard it said that to train like a bodybuilder means getting stronger just in a higher rep range and I agree with this. I do however think that training anywhere under 5 reps for hypertrophy is useless. I now look at it more In terms of tension produced and TUT.
I noticed a massive change when I started to focus on my diet and take it seriously. I don?t think enough can be said for the importance of a well balanced consistent diet. And when I finally started counting cals/macro?s things got a whole lot easier! It is still a constant work in progress but having it all there in black and white allows you to manipulate things without much effort.
Carb back-loading works. For me anyway. I have seen a much more favourable body composition since employing this method of dieting. It makes perfect sense to me now to only consume carbs when their needed and makes the body search for an alternative energy source (adipose) when there isn?t an abundance of the usual energy source (glucose).
Protein intake ? I know this can be highly subjective but I?ve found that I gain better on a higher protein intake. Sounds like common sense but I was aiming for ~250g protein/day for a long time. It was only when increasing this to ~300g/day that I noticed a definite increase in lbm. I will keep this in mind and possibly increase again the next time I feel a plateau creeping in.
Supplements ? I just stick with the basics. I?ve tried all the funky supps but I think there is a LOT of money that can be spent on that cr@p and all you really need is a good source of whey, bcaa?s and occasional creatine. Still not decided how I personally respond to intra-workout supps but have experimented. In the following off-season I?ll be trying a dextrose/bcaa combination and seeing how I react.
That?s all I can think of for now. Apologies for the lack of structure, these are just tid-bits that I?ve typed as I thought of. I still have a LOT to learn and as my body continues to adapt, so must my methodologies. Please keep in mind, all of the above is what works for ME and I?ve come to these conclusions through trial and error.
Some very good points brother. Many of those realizations you listed were the same for me, but admittedly it was a long road and it takes time to reach a certain understanding.
S
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Some very good points brother. Many of those realizations you listed were the same for me, but admittedly it was a long road and it takes time to reach a certain understanding.
S[/quote]
Thanks Stu, it’s like that saying: ‘The more I learn, the more I realise I don’t know’ or something like that.
I got to meet my quad veins for the first time ever during this diet. I can’t imagine they’ll be around for too long so I took a pic to remember them by :b
Thanks for outlining that. I find it pretty interesting the commonalities between what you’ve found and what other [successful] lifters have found. Notably: push the protein intake, focus on quality contraction, intensity, pursuing “metabolic fatigue”, and a shift away from intensity (in the %rm sense) and toward TUT and total tension.
The protein intake often surprises me, not so much the quantity, but the way people talk about it, e.g., “I know I shouldn’t really need this much protein, but it just seems to work better for me”.
I have a few questions, if you don’t mind:
- How have you structured your diet to get in that much protein? What kind of foods, how frequent do you eat, shakes, etc?
- Do you find it valuable to track fat/carbs during a mass-gaining period, or is total cals and protein enough?
- How much recovery time do you use per muscle group? Do you do the same for everything, or does it vary (e.g., legs once a week, arms twice a week, calves 3x)?
- How much variation do you use with your movements? How often do you change things? When you do change things up, do you do it because of psychological reasons (motivation) or because you actually see a noticeable benefit?
- How much has your strength come up since you stopped training for it? Are you “accidentally” quite a bit stronger now?
I hope that wasn’t too many questions.
Oh, I guess I missed an important question.
If you were to start all over, would you have used your current style of training from the beginning?
[quote]LoRez wrote:
Thanks for outlining that. I find it pretty interesting the commonalities between what you’ve found and what other [successful] lifters have found. Notably: push the protein intake, focus on quality contraction, intensity, pursuing “metabolic fatigue”, and a shift away from intensity (in the %rm sense) and toward TUT and total tension.
The protein intake often surprises me, not so much the quantity, but the way people talk about it, e.g., “I know I shouldn’t really need this much protein, but it just seems to work better for me”.
I have a few questions, if you don’t mind:
- How have you structured your diet to get in that much protein? What kind of foods, how frequent do you eat, shakes, etc?
- Do you find it valuable to track fat/carbs during a mass-gaining period, or is total cals and protein enough?
- How much recovery time do you use per muscle group? Do you do the same for everything, or does it vary (e.g., legs once a week, arms twice a week, calves 3x)?
- How much variation do you use with your movements? How often do you change things? When you do change things up, do you do it because of psychological reasons (motivation) or because you actually see a noticeable benefit?
- How much has your strength come up since you stopped training for it? Are you “accidentally” quite a bit stronger now?
I hope that wasn’t too many questions.[/quote]
Ask away, I’m happy to answer them and honoured to feel like I’m in a position to offer advice 
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I must admit I would prefer to not need so much protein but its a necessity so what are you going to do?! I rely a lot on shakes, I usually get 100g of my daily requirement through whey. Also I’ve found little things along the way that help such as lean minced beef isop not only cheaper than chicken where I buy it from but also more calorie dense and higher in protein, but also higher in fat obviously so have to watch that one.
As an example a day’s food on a workday currently looks like this:
Meal 1 - 6 whole eggs cooked in coconut oil
Meal 2 - 25g almonds and 2 scoops whey
Meal 3 - 150g lean minced beef w/ broccoli
Meal 4 - 1 scoop whey
Train
Meal 5 - 50g oats w/2 scoops whey with frozen berry mix and maple syrup
Meal 6 - salmon/chicken/beef with rice (however much I require to meet carb requirements that day)
Meal 7 - 1 cup Cottage cheese -
Yes, I definitely find it beneficial to track fat and carbs during a mass-gaining period. Fats tend to stay somewhat static but carbs will be added to as time goes by, I have found myself getting to the last stage of a mass-gaining period and just eating as many carbs as possible but this is never beneficial but maybe a bit of a mental break from counting macros!
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For about 2.5 months now I’ve been training everything twice a week apart from back but with less volume. The volume has gone up gradually through the weeks as I adapt to the increase in frequency and I actually love this way of training now. I only feel like its working since I lowered volume for each session but turned up intensity though. Current split is- back/bi’s, legs, off/cardio, chest/delts, arms, legs, chest/delts/tri’s, with abs trained on leg days and calves trained every other day. I like using the increase in frequency more when I’m losing weight as I’m active everyday that way. I will transition back to a once a week split for each body part so that the subsequent switch back to twice a week will be effective again.
My training tends to stay mostly the same with gradual changes over time. So if I hear about something new that sounds like it might work then I’ll throw it in, if I like it I’ll stick with it, if it doesn’t work I’ll drop it.
For instance, I heard on blue collar muscle radio last week about a study that was done on quails that had weights hung from there wings for like a month I think and they found the most significant muscle growth ever recorded, or something like that anyway, and JM has been known to use stretching a fully pumped muscle with the goal of hypertrophy in mind so I tried it. I did calf raises on the leg press and gave myself 30 seconds rest but stretched my calves using the stack of weights for the entire time. I can tell you that by the 4th/5th set I had the nastiest most painful pump in my calves I’ve ever had. It was delightful!
I think my style of training just gradually evolves over time.
I think my strength actually has increased even since not training for it. Maybe over a much longer time scale than if I was training specifically for it but it has increased.
Sometimes I’ll just feel strong that day and just end up putting more weight on the bar. Current pb’s are - incline barbell - 140kg (315lb’s?) x 8
Deadlift - 220kg (480lb’s??) x 1 (x 3)
Front squat - 140kg (315lb’s) x 6
I don’t tend to back squat anymore as I’ve come to realise I’m just not built for it and it does nothing for me.
I’m not sure when these progressions in relative strength actually happen but it’s nice to know they are happening otherwise I guess my body would start running out of other stimulus to adapt to.
[quote]LoRez wrote:
Oh, I guess I missed an important question.
If you were to start all over, would you have used your current style of training from the beginning?[/quote]
I guess there are two ways of answering this:
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At the risk of sounding cheesy I wouldn’t change a thing. The learning curve in bodybuilding is a steep one and I am still just beginning. I feel that all of my learning and understanding has come from trial and error and all of my previous ways of thinking about things, although many were incorrect with regard to my specific goal, were necessary to move onto the next ideas and eventually finding ways to make things work.
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I would have definitely trained every bodypart equally or maybe even focus more on my weak points and less on my strong ones as it seems I’m playing catch up now.
I would have trained more ‘like a bodybuilder’ for sure.
I would have trained with less volume and more intensity.
I would have been less worried about how much weight I was lifting.
I would have been more open minded and not be so easily led by Internet know-it-alls.
Thanks for the answers. Lots of really useful information and stuff to think about.
How many carbs do you get in each day??
[quote]lemony2j wrote:
A little post-arms (and cardio) pump[/quote]
That rear delt is going to poke someone’s eye out!
I have been carb cycling so ‘high’ carb day when I train legs or back, moderate for arms, shoulders and chest and low carb for days off. Last weeks carbs looked like this:
High - 175g
Moderate - 135g
Low - 40g
Nowhere near the likes of Trent or Tim McBride but I am of the camp where I am quite happy with lower overall carbs and lower overall activity.
[quote]iplan wrote:
[quote]lemony2j wrote:
A little post-arms (and cardio) pump[/quote]
That rear delt is going to poke someone’s eye out![/quote]
Thanks mate!
I went mad on the rear delts when John Meadows so kindly pointed them out as a weakness in just about everyone! And they responded well. They have actually overtaken front delt development so I’m switching the emphasis back to front and medial now.
[quote]lemony2j wrote:
I have been carb cycling so ‘high’ carb day when I train legs or back, moderate for arms, shoulders and chest and low carb for days off. Last weeks carbs looked like this:
High - 175g
Moderate - 135g
Low - 40g
Nowhere near the likes of Trent or Tim McBride but I am of the camp where I am quite happy with lower overall carbs and lower overall activity.[/quote]
How many carbs when trying to gain? And do you still use back loading then?
This is a cool thread, very interesting when a big dude like yourself takes the time really explain his evolution.
Also cool how different people’s approaches can be. Like what you said about your protein intake. Personally anything above 200g for me is a waste, but I need to keep my calories increasing as I get bigger. I honestly don’t think I’ll ever need more than 200g of protein a day, but those calories keep needing to creep up.