Guys,
can anyone point to a good article on how to make maximum hypertrophy gains for people with hectic schedules?
Anaconda and Thib’s perfect rep workout programs are great for people who can dedicate a large chunk of their lives to it, but I’m guessing a lot of others have more unpredictable lives.
Surely Pareto’s law can be applied here, where 80% of benefits are derived from just 20% of effort?
Wasn’t ANACONDA originally for people who ‘don’t have discipline to be bodybuilders’ or something?
Anyhow…I don’t know if there is an easy way out of this. You can’t get it without dedication and time commitment. What is holding you back particularly? Even if you don’t have the proper amount of time now, you can still work towards a goal.
How often can you train and for how long each session?
Can you eat 5-7 meals a day?
Theres no such thing as “bodybuilding light” (remember reading this term in another thread made me laugh)
I never really saw any progress until I started taking it seriously man.
You’re going to have find time to train with regularity and eat what you have to eat or you won’t see much of a result.
Pareto’s law doesn’t really apply here.
However preparing many meals in advance and training with short rest intervals will speed things up.
If you put in 100% effort, you get 100% results. I highly doubt you can put in 20% effort and expect anything more than 20% in return. Especially in regard to bodybuilding success, where every aspect of success actually hinges on the other factors as well. In fact, I’m certain that putting in 20% effort will pretty much guarantee you 0% results.
S
In all honesty things like bodybuilding and powerlifting (and most sports) really do follow the whole “effort = results” thing.
If you can spend 3 hours a week in the gym, fine. Make do with that. But you can absolutely not expect to look anything like a competitive bodybuilder of any level.
There are no shortcuts. On a person to person basis you will always see more results when more effort is put in.
Yeah, good thing none of us making progress are all that busy. We don’t have families, careers, friends, other hobbies, etc.
Bodybuilding is life!
[quote]Mike84 wrote:
Guys,
can anyone point to a good article on how to make maximum hypertrophy gains for people with hectic schedules?
Anaconda and Thib’s perfect rep workout programs are great for people who can dedicate a large chunk of their lives to it, but I’m guessing a lot of others have more unpredictable lives.
Surely Pareto’s law can be applied here, where 80% of benefits are derived from just 20% of effort?
[/quote]
Define “hectic schedule”.
I have wife, two young kids (another one any day now), full time consulting job where I travel about a week or more per month on average (plus side gig), have to take kids to/from school (depending on days), misc activities, play-with/read-to kids every night and/or help with homework, never ending house/yardwork on weekends and some evenings (never ending snow maintenence in the winter), was playing full-time in a band until recently, and I manage to get to the gym at least 5 days a week on average (one of my gym’s is 40 minutes away). Oh yeah, pregnant wife…
I shop and prepare all my food as much as I can ahead of time. I eat 5-8 times a day, not including shakes.
There’s no secret except:
At least that’s the way it is in my world. There’s little room for error so ‘fucking off in the gym’ is not an option. Seeing no gains (size/strength in my case) is not an option, either.
How bad do ya want it?
Bodybuilding is just like everything else - you need to commit to it. So much of life if comprised of “fillers” (TV, perusing the internet, etc).
If you take into account these fillers and replace them with the time needed to work out, you’ll be successful.
I have a full time job and travel (in fact, I’m in a hotel room as I type this) as well. I also have twin boys. I make the time. Behind God, family and my job, then comes bodybuilding.
If its important to you, you’ll find the time.
Dude,
I hate being an AZZ, goodness knows we have enough of those around here, but if that’s how you feel about it, you should just quit now. BB is a sport of passion and desire. If you don’t want to be in the gym, you’re not going to go. Or when you do go, you will only be giving it your 20%.
Pick another hobby, like knitting or something. You can knit whenever.
Thanks for the input guys.
Great timing for this article:
Dave Tate’s contribution was really helpful, I encourage other busy guys to check it out.
I don’t think the training part is much of an issue… If you have some time during your lunch break every day, you can train 5-6 days a week… Either pick 1 exercise per muscle group and split the body 2 ways or so… Or split it up 5-6 ways and do 2-3 exercises per muscle-group… Or 3 ways and 1-2 exercises per group…
Sessions shouldn’t take much longer than 30 or so mins then, depending.
If you have fewer days, but perhaps more time per session, then just train more muscle-groups in a single session…
The diet is probably going to be more of an issue, but that can be fixed… Shakes (with added fiber like metamucil or benefiber) at work for convenience, always keep some powder in the car in some plastic shaker bottle or so, and some water… Use that if you get stuck in traffic/at work or something else comes up, preventing you from following your regular meal-schedule…
As for solid meals, that’s do-able too… If you’re married, your wife can help.
Buy a vaccum sealer machine (Professor X wrote about those before, search for those posts if you don’t know which one to buy or whatever) and a foreman grill.
Use Sundays or Saturdays for food-prep for the week.
Get an extra large fridge and buy meat etc in bulk once a week.
Other than that, pick a couple of different “filler” foods which have a good amount of cals and of which you can eat a lot easily (note: Not cake and shit like that. Pizza can work though… I like Mozarella cheese, among other things).
Make sure you have a general idea of how many cals/what macro ratios there are in your chosen foods…
Now combine them into meals depending on your needs and time… Make sure you pick foods that don’t take forever to prepare and which suit your budget.
I organize mine into protein+carb and protein+fat meals. Some mixing of fat and carbs can’t be avoided of course, and I don’t always go super-strict when not dieting, but yeah…
-Could make that Spaghetti with a big protein shake (and some fish oil caps for me on all the big carb meals)… (protein+carbs)
-Mozarella cheese+tomatoes+seasoning+olive oil in a cup… (protein+fat)
-Avocado + Cottage Cheese or a Shake or whatever (protein+fat)
-Pizza Salami (a mix of all three, probably more carbs than the rest, but if you need the cals… As long as it’s not a shugar bomb, I’m usually fine)
-Rice, seasoning, lean cut of Steak (protein+carbs, but Rice can be hard to get down in greater quantities… Imo a lot of clean foods are like that… Chicken breasts and rice aren’t that great if you have a very fast metabolism and want to gain weight…)#
-Boiled potatoes + lean meat/fish
-Boiled potatoes + low fat curd/quark
-non-lean cut of Steak or Fish or whatever + some additional fat source perhaps.
(note: additional vegetables wherever/whenever you want to add them)
The last 3-4 hours before bed or so I’ll go with lean protein sources and some salad etc, fiber…
And so on, I’m not exactly a gourmet… Other people will prefer different foods.
For your favorite restaurants etc (if you eat there a lot vs. at home), find out what the macro ratios/cals are (roughly) just so you have some idea and can choose what fits your meal plan.
There are some more convenient foods for people on a tight schedule and who need to get the cals in… Example would be : Oatmeal in a blender, turn it into powder and add to your shakes for added carbs. Easy to drink down… If you have fiber supps in there, then it may turn into pudding after a while though, so yeah…
Anyway, think of the solution and not the problem… It may seem difficult/a lot of effort (boo-hoo) to get in all the food you need, but you just need to come up with some work-arounds for that… Once you have those, things will be easy enough.
If you don’t like eating the same stuff every day, just do what I wrote about above: Pick a variety of protein/carb/fat sources which fit into your budget/situation and are quick enough to prepare or can be prepared in advance and vacuum-sealed and then mix and match.
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Lots of good advice and then…
As for solid meals, that’s do-able too… If you’re married, your wife can help.
[/quote]
CC, I’m guessing you’re not married. 
Unless they’re into the lifestyle too, spouses can actually be a problem, buying ice cream, scheduling social events requiring you to shift workouts, etc. I’ve solved the nutritional part by doing the grocery shopping on the weekends (with one of the kids) and then cooking in advance for myself. I’ll usually make a healthy fish based meal once a week for the family and my wife will indulge in some of my steak once in a while, but mainly she and the kids eat a different menu. When my wife and kids are eating pizza, I’m usually having steak and salad. Overall though, I’ve noticed my kids and wife eating healthier since I took over about a year ago.
Also learned that keeping a barbell set and rack at home makes my life easier if I have to miss the gym or shift workouts at all (like this weekend).
[quote]ds1973 wrote:
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Lots of good advice and then…
As for solid meals, that’s do-able too… If you’re married, your wife can help.
[/quote]
CC, I’m guessing you’re not married.
[/quote] True, but I’ve been with the same woman for something over 10 years now… And we’ve been living together for most of that time. She does lift though… [quote]
Unless they’re into the lifestyle too, spouses can actually be a problem, buying ice cream, scheduling social events requiring you to shift workouts, etc. I’ve solved the nutritional part by doing the grocery shopping on the weekends (with one of the kids) and then cooking in advance for myself. I’ll usually make a healthy fish based meal once a week for the family and my wife will indulge in some of my steak once in a while, but mainly she and the kids eat a different menu. When my wife and kids are eating pizza, I’m usually having steak and salad. Overall though, I’ve noticed my kids and wife eating healthier since I took over about a year ago.
Also learned that keeping a barbell set and rack at home makes my life easier if I have to miss the gym or shift workouts at all (like this weekend).[/quote]
I should probably have written “Your wife could possibly help”.
Don’t want to open a can of worms discussing long-term relationships in general and in regards to bbing plus the way people behave/should behave in such a relationship though…
It’s really not that big of an issue unless one or both partners make it one… Just gotta be smart about it… And if you’re married/living with someone who is totally non-supportive and content with wasting away in front of you basically and unreasonable/never-moving in their stance… Too much potential for fighting etc… Well… Not really the kind of person I’d marry (note: not talking about your wife of course, just a general observation).
Now if you’re actually competing a lot, then yeah… The dieting and related mood swings and precise meal schedule can put a relationship (even if the spouse lifts and competes) under real strain… Seen that with happen to a few friends of mine, but all but one got through it. For most of us that’s not really an issue, out of the people who post in the bbing forum, maybe 1 percent will ever step on stage. If that.
Bit different in powerlifting, but there getting ready for competition isn’t such an all-encompassing effort.
But otherwise? Especially for guys who weigh 200-220 and less at average height or as a tall person and don’t have any real plans of getting really big and strong (like most people in the forum, no offense to them mind you), things shouldn’t be that hard as you can get away with being a lot less organized and specific with your training and diet.
C_C, are you marcus Ruhl?
[quote]Kanada wrote:
C_C, are you marcus Ruhl?[/quote]
What I was about to say, but Ruhl likes bananas and lots of natty peanut butter which I didn’t see CC list :)…
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
[quote]ds1973 wrote:
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Lots of good advice and then…
As for solid meals, that’s do-able too… If you’re married, your wife can help.
[/quote]
CC, I’m guessing you’re not married.
[/quote] True, but I’ve been with the same woman for something over 10 years now… And we’ve been living together for most of that time. She does lift though… [quote]
Unless they’re into the lifestyle too, spouses can actually be a problem, buying ice cream, scheduling social events requiring you to shift workouts, etc. I’ve solved the nutritional part by doing the grocery shopping on the weekends (with one of the kids) and then cooking in advance for myself. I’ll usually make a healthy fish based meal once a week for the family and my wife will indulge in some of my steak once in a while, but mainly she and the kids eat a different menu. When my wife and kids are eating pizza, I’m usually having steak and salad. Overall though, I’ve noticed my kids and wife eating healthier since I took over about a year ago.
Also learned that keeping a barbell set and rack at home makes my life easier if I have to miss the gym or shift workouts at all (like this weekend).[/quote]
I should probably have written “Your wife could possibly help”.
Don’t want to open a can of worms discussing long-term relationships in general and in regards to bbing plus the way people behave/should behave in such a relationship though…
It’s really not that big of an issue unless one or both partners make it one… Just gotta be smart about it… And if you’re married/living with someone who is totally non-supportive and content with wasting away in front of you basically and unreasonable/never-moving in their stance… Too much potential for fighting etc… Well… Not really the kind of person I’d marry (note: not talking about your wife of course, just a general observation).
Now if you’re actually competing a lot, then yeah… The dieting and related mood swings and precise meal schedule can put a relationship (even if the spouse lifts and competes) under real strain… Seen that with happen to a few friends of mine, but all but one got through it. For most of us that’s not really an issue, out of the people who post in the bbing forum, maybe 1 percent will ever step on stage. If that.
Bit different in powerlifting, but there getting ready for competition isn’t such an all-encompassing effort.
But otherwise? Especially for guys who weigh 200-220 and less at average height or as a tall person and don’t have any real plans of getting really big and strong (like most people in the forum, no offense to them mind you), things shouldn’t be that hard as you can get away with being a lot less organized and specific with your training and diet.
[/quote]
CC, I was just giving you a hard time about that line. Although, your points about choosing a spouse are right on, especially for the younger crowd here who really want to dedicate a lot of their time to this.
I can definitely get away with being less organized and specific with training and diet. I’m just trying to pack on what muscle I can at my age for long term health.
Great post CC, as always.
Just a few tips that save time and make gains easier:
Food prep is mandatory. Don’t ever cook a single meal, unless its something nice for a date or a cheat meal.
Pack your gym bag before you go to bed. I have found that going home to change after work adds significant time to training. You could possibly get caught up at home with the wife, kids, TV, chores, etc. Changing before leaving work or at the gym prevents that. Your chances of actually making it to the gym are increased greatly. I used to live with a couch potato and I would get caught up watching what was on TV.
Get a dedicated training partner. Someone that will call you when you are 2 minutes late for the gym, and bust your ass on every set. People at the gym get used to seeing you tegether and will give you flack if you skip days that your training partner made it to the gym.
Explain your goals to people you see every day. If your wife or boss knows that you are working towards something, they will ask about your progress regularly. This reinforces your goals and gets them on your brain throughout the day. It’s also good for when they try to coax you to go have a beer or skip a workout and your excuse for not going isn’t some random reason.
If you can’t commit a minimum of 3 intense trips to the gym (preferably more) a week none of this matters.
[quote]ds1973 wrote:
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Lots of good advice and then…
As for solid meals, that’s do-able too… If you’re married, your wife can help.
[/quote]
CC, I’m guessing you’re not married.
Unless they’re into the lifestyle too, spouses can actually be a problem, buying ice cream, scheduling social events requiring you to shift workouts, etc. I’ve solved the nutritional part by doing the grocery shopping on the weekends (with one of the kids) and then cooking in advance for myself. I’ll usually make a healthy fish based meal once a week for the family and my wife will indulge in some of my steak once in a while, but mainly she and the kids eat a different menu. When my wife and kids are eating pizza, I’m usually having steak and salad. Overall though, I’ve noticed my kids and wife eating healthier since I took over about a year ago.
Also learned that keeping a barbell set and rack at home makes my life easier if I have to miss the gym or shift workouts at all (like this weekend).[/quote]
Great post. Your life is similar to mine. I do the grocery shopping and the cooking. My wife doesn’t like to cook but she has offered to help. However, I’d rather control the cooking, since I then know the type and quality of the food being used. She does the cleanup work. I also cook for my young sons, which eat much differently (mac and cheese, hot dogs, etc)
My garage is also a gym (half of it). This helps immensely, in terms of being able to work out regularly. However, I often like to go to my gym, which has a wider array of options