I am only 21 and finding out that I have no where near reached my peak in any way shape or form. So after coming to this conclusion I have decided to stay away from any pro-hormone products, any steriods, and anything that will mess with my natural production of these for quite a while.
My current stats are:
5’8
165
BF% will find out soon and post.
Trained seriously for a little over a year. I now lift every other day on a 3 way split for 2 weeks and then do a full body work out every 3 days for 2 weeks going back and forth between the two.
With that being said I was hoping to get some help on chosing the right creatine. I was wondering if anyone has tried out BBS EndoCre3.? It claims to boost natural creatine production. Is this stuff any good and if not what brands do all of you take and how much do you take daily?
Any and all help will be great fully appriciated.Please tell me if there is any other information needed to help me out.
Uh, diet?
And why so much time in the gym? What exactly is your routine like that requires you to be in there so many days?
I’m glad you’ve decided to stay away from prohormones for now. It may be good just to not consider supplements for the time being. Get your diet and training in order first.
your right patricia, forgive me for here is diet info. I eat 4 to 5 meals a day not including my post workout shake/meal. I try to eat atleast 30grams of protien a meal; carbs are about 30-40- per meal, and fats are high 30 or so a meal (I eat lots of peanut butter). Breakfast is the biggest meal of the before I go the gym and around the same on non lifting days. I work the midnight shift at UPS so when I get home I have done a high volume full body workout for about 4-5 hours 5 nights a week. After this on non training days I eat low sodium low carb cottage cheese and peanut butter and on days that I lifted in the morning I eat a can of albacor tuna mixed with salsa and some low sodium triscuits.
Next question. The training split I am on right now is as follows:
Day 1
Chest 5 sets of 8 for bench, incline bench, cable flies super w/ dips.
Shoulders 5 sets of 8 for military press, front raises super w/side.
Tris- 4 sets of 12 single grip cable underhand pull down, 4 sets of 10-12 close grip bench, 5 sets of 10-12 cable presses.
Day2
Legs 4 sets of 12 squats(deep), 4 sets of presses 10 reps each position(high low middle), and then back and forth between leg extentions and curls till I feel like I can’t walk then I try to do one more.
Abs 3 sets of 10 decline crunchs, decline leg raises, and v-ups.
Day3
Back 6 sets of as many chin ups as I can do, 4 sets of 8 t-bar rows, 4 sets of 8 single hand seated rows super w/ close grip seated rows.
I take a day off between each of these and will start doing abs either after breakfast or before bed on off days, which ever everyone thinks is better.
I know this was a really long one but I would be glad to hear suggestions from anyone.
Thanks for posting that info. It does help and leads me to say the following (and don’t take it personally):
Egads!
Read John Berardi articles on diet/nutrition; especially “Massive Eating”.
Next: quit that program. Just stop it. Now. Begin a 3-day program built around the following compounds: squats, bench, deadlifts. Just add one or two assistant exercises to each. For instance: Day 1 - squats and good mornings; Day 2 - bench, dips; Day 3 - deadlifts, pullups. Fit abs where needed.
Simple. Effective. OR read any of the following programs: “Training for Maximal Size”: Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION
Chad Waterbury’s “Anti Bodybuilding Hypbertrophy Program”: Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION
OR read up (in the FAQ), on any of the countless programs available if these don’t seem tempting. But I suspect they will be.
As far as your training is concerned, did I count 38 sets on Day 1 for Chest, Shoulders and Tris? That’s at least double and maybe triple what you need to be doing. You can’t grow if your CNS is pooped out. Try something like a 5X5 program for a while. You might be surprised at the results you get. A typical one might go something like:
-
Chest: Incline DB Presses
Back: Chin ups -
Legs: Squats
Shoulders: Standing DB Presses -
OFF
-
Biceps: Incline Seated DB Curls
Triceps: Dips -
Hips: Deadlifts
Calves or Traps -
OFF
-
Repeat
Use weights that you can just squeeze out the 5th rep in the 5th set with proper form. That’s about 50 sets per week excluding warm up which may add another 15 or so sets. Make the work sets intense. Superset with antagonistic muscles where possible. The workouts should take no longer than about 30 to 40 minutes. If you are not still feeling invigorated at the end of the workout, you did too much. Try that for 6 weeks then take a week or 10 days off followed by a 6 week HST workout since you also seem to like full body workouts, as I do. http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/about.html
Just my 2 cents but I give a double your money back guarantee!
That will be $.25 please.
Good luck.
The three exercises that have benefited me more than anything are the hang snatch, squats and chinups. They increased my strength everywhere. Now I added deads and rotator cuff iso’s and feel that my overall strength is growing quicker than it has with 10 years of shitting around the gym and improperly isolating EVERYTHING. Gone are the days of leg extensions, cable pulldowns and 15 “semi tough” reps.
Do you guys (and girl) think he should do some rotator cuff exercises to prevent injury incase he goes nuts and hurts himself?
RC work is always a good idea. On the other hand, he’s 21. I have yet to see anyone of that age (myself included) worry about pre-habbing themselves, since, you know, they’re still bullet-proof and immortal and all that. 
Hey guys and gal thanks for all of the replys. Well, maybe I’m way off on this one and I would love for anyone to correct me if I am.
But, I do so many sets for each muscle group because that is what makes me sore the next day. If I don’t feel sore the day after I worked out I don’t think I have done anything.
Also you mentioned the The Anti-Bodybuilding Hypertrophy Program by Chad Waterbury, this was the first article I every read from t-mag over a year ago and I did try it for a little while. I worked my butt off and made what I thought were minimal gains. I would do the first two days of it and not feal anything the next day but then after the following two days (with the higher reps) feel sore as heck. This didn’t seem right to me since then I have been trying other things. This program is the reason that I love squats and chin ups.
I think that since I have worked for UPS for a while now my body is used to taking a beating everyday so it needs more stimulus in the gym to elicite growth. But, then again if I am wrong about needing to be sore to be growing then I will deffinantly revamp my entire way of thinking and working out.
Just about every strength coach at T-mag has stated that soreness is overrated. You do not have to get sore to grow. I think it was Charles Staley who say that if you want to be sore, he’d gladly run over you with a pick-up truck.
I just found this too:
I do expect some soreness when trying something new, but as the T-mag guys have said, soreness should not be a goal.
PGA200X, I am with you! I am coming off about fifteen years of useless isolation exercises. It’s amazing how much wrong/useless training information is out there, and you don’t think it’s wrong because so many people are telling you it’s right! I wondered why my squats were always terrible, when people were teaching me 1/4 squats and no hamstring work. All those years of working out were about two steps away from useless…2004 is ground zero for me, getting my diet in order, and learning/performing real exercises, box/full squats, deads, chins, oly moves, etc. I can’t wait to see the payoffs in a few months.
Ok no more killing myself with the over loaded work out I was doing.
I went in today and did:
5x5 squats
5x5 deads
5x5 hanging pikes
tomorrow I will rest and then the next day I plan to go in and do:
5x5 bench
5x5 t-bar rows
5x5 decline situps
rest a day then:
5x5 leg presses
5x5 hack squats
5x5 hanging pikes
rest a day then:
5x5 dips
5x5 chin ups
5x5 decline situps
I will keep on with these four routines for three or four times through then I will change up the exercises. After doing those three or four times I will do a full body work out for 2 weeks.
Then I think resting a week would be a good idea before starting it again.
Does this sound like a better plan?
Also I would like to thank everyone for making me put deads back into my workouts when I did them today they I was slacking big time and will surely gain in many areas from adding those alone.
forgot to tell you one more thing I will start taking my diet more seriously and will be reading a lot more to find out what I need to be eating to gain the mass I desire. Thanks again
oh yeah and where do I find out how to properly do goodmornings. I don’t think I have ever seen any one do them.
DA, as far as gaining muscle/mass, I would recommend one thing in particular in addition to the reading and searching and re-searching you’re doing.
Read Chris Shugart’s “The Missing Ingredient.” It’s about how to keep a food log. Once you have a routine and are meeting your protein requirements and and have a handle on how many calories you’re taking in, I’d up/increase the calories 250 calories per day. Keep it at that level until you no longer see any scale weight increases, and then up it another 250 calories per day. Continue to work out hard. It’s a simple formula/approach! (grin)
Good luck to you!!!
Tampa-Terry, thanks a lot bro, Chris Shugart’s “The Missing Ingredient” was deffinantly an article that I needed to read. I am going to search the house for a pocket sized spiral bound notebook that I can keep with me. This is deffinantly help me to gain some quality mass.
Also read massive eating parts I and II and have calculated out how many calories to be eating so I know what I will be aiming for in my book everyday.
Keep all of the good info coming.
DA, change that “bro” to “sis” for TT. BTW, you might want to reconsider 5X5 style for abs. Too much musculature on your abs can make you look boxy, like Rich Gaspari. I’d make those sets of 10 to 20’s.
well then thanks sis and forgive my ignorance.
and ok little less on the abs. so how many sets of 10 or 20 should I be doing then?
Well, everybody is different and your bodyfat % is more important in seeing you ab muscles than the actual size of the muscles. I usually do 1 set of weighted chair crunches, 1 set of side bends on a hyperextention apparatus and one set of decline leg lifts, twice a week. Have fun!
Don’t worry 'bout it, Darkangel. I’ve never gone out of my way to let people know which species/sex I belong to. (grin)
Check out Christian Thibaudeau’s original and 2K3 “Abs for Athletes & Babehounds” articles.
Well since I’m trying to improve everything and I know I am not bullet-proof. Can some one point me in the direction of an article on rotator cuff exercises or tell me some good ones to do?
DarkAngel, finding things in the archives can be a bit tricky sometimes. So I’m going to show you how to find it, rather than giving you the link.
Type in the word rotator into the search engine to the left of the screen. Change the T-forum default in the drop-down window to T-mag. Check out the hits you get. The first one on the list, the article by Eric Cressy, is probably what you’re looking for.