Hips High or Hips Low for More Explosiveness?

[Christian_Thibaudeau]

[quote]-Sigil- wrote:
Are these physiques achievable “unenhanced”? Perhaps it’s that (or genetics) which explains why Ivan or Lu look the way they do while fellow teammates and other o-lifters who more or less do the same thing can appear smoothed, not that “jacked”?

I just had a thought if there’s diminishing returns on o-lifts for physique purposes, where poundage/performance increases on SGHP, etc. really stops doing much for the look…

The rightmost progress pic in my avi is after a carb up and several days of “higher calories” but I’ve been going for maximum definition and basically look stringy during the day and “jacked” only during workout/pumped.

Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t banging my head against the wall or shooting for an unrealistically shredded power look (maybe at expense of health?) without some “support”
Thanks. [/quote]

1. Ok, so Lu and Stoistov are on steroids, but their teamates (who train together, eat together, sleep together, are sponsored by the state and trained by the same coaches) aren’t… please explain the logic in this argument. Furthermore it is not true, several of the Chinese (Lu’s team) and Bulgaria (Stoistov lifted there before being bought by another team) are also very impressive-looking.

I believe that they are just individuals who are leaner (either they are built this way like Lu or they lose a ton of weight to make a weight class like Stoistov who competes a a 77kg but train at around 94kg) which makes them look muscular.

2. Is the look achievable un-enhanced? Yes. But I do not believe that one can get there (unless if the person is a freak) by training only as an olympic lifter. Do not forget that these guys achieve that physique “by accident”, not on purpose. If someone wants to achieve that look naturally, the olympic lifts will play a role but cannot be the only tool used as, like you mentioned, after a certain level of performance increase muscle mass stimulation isn’t super fast if you only do the olympic lifts. As part of a complex program they will enhance your physique and also make all the other stuff you do more effective because you will become better at recruiting more muscle fibers.

IMPORTANT: If you even asks if this type of look is attainable unenhanced it means that you will NEVER achieve it. You need an attitude readjustment if you want long-term progress that will allow you to reach your goal.

3. I used these guys as good example of the power look mostly because the discussion was centered around olympic lifters. But I could just as easily use football players or even some Crossfit athletes as prime examples of the power look.

Many tools can be used to build that look… and if you only use one tool it will take a lot longer to build a house, if you build it at all!!! But if you use too many tools and use tools for the wrong function you will be even slower than if you only had one tool… same thing goes with training: olympic lifts, basic strength moves, sprinting, jumping, ring/bodyweight work can all be used to build the power look. And if you use all of these properly you will build the look faster than if you only use one of them. BUT if you use them the wrong way, it will make reaching the power look ever harder.

4. As for your own case… first you have only been at this for a short period of time. These guys built their body with years of effort. Second, you must eat for performance. A shredded look that is obtained through a dietary restriction that leads to a decrease (or no improvement) in performance is NOT what the power look is about. The power look is about being a warrior ready for battle. A body that looks like it does because “it has to”… a warrior must feel strong and look intimidating at all times and be able to perform at anytime.

If the way you eat make you feel weak and prevents you from performing at your best, you are like a modified Honda Civic with 20k on the body kit and the same 115HP engine!

See, the power look is not just how you look on photo. It’s about your aura, what you exude… strength & confidence can be felt by looking at how you carry yourself. If you feel weak and deprived how can you be like that? You can’t… you will look physically impressive, but you will never look powerful.

EAT TO PERFORM… if something is not conductive to improving the way your body works then go another way. Do you think that George St-Pierre restrict his food because it will make him look fat in the octogon??? Do you think NFL players go low carbs to have ripped biceps on national TV? These guys eat a ton of food … they look the way they do because their body is a high performance machine.

Sure with a bit of training and a starvation diet you can look ripped… but it’s not the same thing and wont look the same way even if the body comp numbers are the same.

[Sigil]

Ok fair enough, I do feel inspired :). There’s always that pink elephant in the room and I suspect I’m still naive enough to not know for certain whether “support” is involved with a particular physique or advertised method. But I guess only the doctor and that individual truly knows.

I’ll take the eat for performance aspect and use a little more common sense (i.e. dieting too hard and feeling like crap probably isn’t conduscive long term)! Nevertheless, a thing on my mind has been that I do train hard and have done so for a few years (layers method for ~6 months) and just wanted to set expectations correctly…

[Christian_Thibaudeau]

[quote]-Sigil- wrote:
Ok fair enough, I do feel inspired :). There’s always that pink elephant in the room and I suspect I’m still naive enough to not know for certain whether “support” is involved with a particular physique or advertised method. But I guess only the doctor and that individual truly knows.

I’ll take the eat for performance aspect and use a little more common sense (i.e. dieting too hard and feeling like crap probably isn’t conduscive long term)! Nevertheless, a thing on my mind has been that I do train hard and have done so for a few years (layers method for ~6 months) and just wanted to set expectations correctly…[/quote]

1. I had this exact same discussion with a friend of mine a week ago (eating for performance) . He does Crossfit and phones me in panic because he was crashing… no energy… performance suffering, etc. And he reminded me of you a lot as far as his mindset goes. He was very anal about every single detail… he was eating exactly 2500 calories, exactly 175g of protein, eating exactly every 3 hours, etc. That alone is a stress! He asked me if he should add 250 calories. I told him that if he say one more number I’ll hang the phone!!!

I told him that he knows what foods are god for his body and how he reacts to them. I told him to STOP planning his meals in advance, stop counting everything, stop stressing about it. Eat for performance. Eat for what you will do and eat to recover from what you did.

Eating for performance is not about stuffing yourself either… you know that after a big meal you can’t perform… you know that eating a hard to digest fast-food meal will make it hard to train for a few hours… you know that being too fat makes it hard to perform because you have extra baggage to carry… but you do not want to be under-fueled and you do not want to lack nutrients for optimal recovery.

He phones me yesterday, ecstatic about feeling great and having drastic increases in performance. If you do explosive work, strength, sprinting and bodyweight work and are improving performance-wise you cannot possibly regress look wise… if you get too fat your sprinting, jumping and body weight work will suffer (if they start to suffer you might want to reduce food intake a bit), if your strength is going up then you are adding muscle (if you aren’t progressing you might not be fueled or recovering enough).

2. Stop worrying about what others are taking. Hey why not worry about what the athlete’s parents look like? I mean, if their parents are bigger and more muscular than yours, then their training method will not work on you because you have worst genetics.

The only things you can control are what you do with your body and what you give your body to fuel, repair and rebuild.

[Hull2012]

Hi Sigil,

Just to add to what ct has said,

I completely understand what he is saying. For too long i was stuck with the old bodybuilding stigma of eating every 2-3 hours because it seemed like what all the biggest guys were doing. Now although this worked for a while, it was mentally crippleing, i would panic going out for the day as i wouldnt be able to eat on the dot every 2.5 hours, my tastebuds had been destroyed by relentless attack of cold chicken breasts and rice and this ultimatley ended up ruining my motivation to train as it was a constant mental battle and as a result my performance suffered.

This all changed about 6 months ago when i read an article by ‘layne Norton’ on meal frequency. I think CT will back me up on this that he is an extremley clever guy. What this basically said was that if you are a natural there is no need at all to be eating every 3 hours as protein synthesis is already maxed out. Instead, increase the spacing between meals to around 4 or 5 hours but ensure there is plenty of high quality nutrition in each meal. This allows each meal to ‘clear the system’ ineffect and this ‘resetting’ of the system and actually means you get a better spike in protein synthesis from the next meal.

To begin with i was rather scepticle but as soon as i started doing this my training and life in general improved drastically. I now have 4 meals a day plus my peri workout nutrition on top. Thats breakfast, lunch, peri workout, dinner and one before bed. I now enjoy each meal i eat, the only meal i pre-cook is lunch as i take this to work.

I feel much more awake and explosive all the time as im non constantly stuffed, i suffer from less GI tract issue as my digestive system actually has a chance to digest food and pass it through without a barrage of food behind it 2 hours later and best of all, my physique has completely changed, I ve stayed the same weight but have leaned out alot, i look denser and more vascular. Its hard to believe all of this is due to just eating less frequenctly and ensuring i get lots of quality nutrition in each meal but this is all that has changed.

I hope this helped and has given you the confidence to really push through now and make changes to get this power look you strive for.

Hull

[germanicus]

CT Re; the power look: I agree with you about Rigert. I was fortunate to see him lift in 1975 at Gettysburg, PA where he set three world records: snatch, clean & jerk and total. He looked extremely powerful and his lifts demonstrated the look wasn’t an illusion.