JB's Eating Habits, First 3 Years?

Nutrition
1

Okay so apparently Dr. John Berardi started out at 140 and could barely bench his own bodyweight. Then he says he would eat 4 very big meals daily, and made a gallon of water with like 6-8 scoops of protein powder in it, along with a whole bag of bagels with peanut butter between them every day. with this he apparently went from 140 to 210 lbs in 2 years, back down to like 185-190 or w/e for competition bodybuilding shape in the 3rd year.

This guy obviously didn’t use many supplements besides whey protein, and if you see that picture of him in his 3rd year, it’s amazing. My question is, was he doing anything else besides just lifting? Training for football and football practices? All I know is, if I ate that much, most of it would be fat gain.

I have spent a good 9 months lifting and eating seriously and planning out meals properly, and have gone from 140 to 174 in less than the 9 months it’s taken me to get there, but I haven’t eaten half as much as him. Just wondering what else he was doing besides lifting taht made him eat that much (those calories he ate I would say easily came out to 6,000 a day).

2

JB really emphasizes doing a lot of work. He usually talks about doing something everyday. Most likely, he did this. I can’t recall what he said about his own workouts but they weren’t easy little 40 minute workouts 3 times a week.

If you read up on his G-Flux article you’ll see what he recommends.

3

He ate and busted his tail. Plain and simple

4

I trained 5-6x per week and my workouts were always between 1.5-2 hours per day.

I know, it sounds like a lot. But what can I say? It worked.

You know, it’s unfortunate. About 3 years ago someone broke into my car and stole my gym bag. In it was my first 5 years of training and nutrition data. It was a gold mine and I could have shared some of my early splits with you. To bad it’s gone.

Anyway, although low volume, low frequency workouts seem to still be all the rage lately, I’ve yet to see anyone dramatically restructure their body this way - unless it’s fat loss and they achieved it with more dietary restriction than energy output. Jaw dropping musculature requires a ton of work and time spent.

One final thing – to all those who can’t put in the volume above, don’t get defensive on me…

I understand about work, family, and other recreational activites. I understand about out of gym stressors impacting recovery.

These are all things that make dents in your ability to change your body. So recognize them as such and accept the progress you CAN make - although it likely won’t be optimal.

5

I was wondering about this too. Did your workout include cardio or drill of some sort or just lifting ?

6

[quote]John M Berardi wrote:

Anyway, although low volume, low frequency workouts seem to still be all the rage lately, I’ve yet to see anyone dramatically restructure their body this way - unless it’s fat loss and they achieved it with more dietary restriction than energy output. Jaw dropping musculature requires a ton of work and time spent.

[/quote]

I have to say, I’ve heard this from a couple other people and it worked for myself before. Too many people, it seems like, went from thinking, “Oh you’re a pussy, you’re not training enough.” to “I’m smart and know my body’s limits before testing them, anything over 1 hr is overtraining.”

Sometimes I think if people would do these “monster workouts” in Flex or whatever, they might actually get better results than what they’ve seen so far with their training. I know I might get some heat for that, but seriously, I see too many people half-assing it or attempting to keep workouts exactly under one hour.

7

[quote]itsthetimman wrote:
John M Berardi wrote:

Anyway, although low volume, low frequency workouts seem to still be all the rage lately, I’ve yet to see anyone dramatically restructure their body this way - unless it’s fat loss and they achieved it with more dietary restriction than energy output. Jaw dropping musculature requires a ton of work and time spent.

I have to say, I’ve heard this from a couple other people and it worked for myself before. Too many people, it seems like, went from thinking, “Oh you’re a pussy, you’re not training enough.” to “I’m smart and know my body’s limits before testing them, anything over 1 hr is overtraining.”

Sometimes I think if people would do these “monster workouts” in Flex or whatever, they might actually get better results than what they’ve seen so far with their training. I know I might get some heat for that, but seriously, I see too many people half-assing it or attempting to keep workouts exactly under one hour.[/quote]

Can’t say I agree. I do believe people can handle more than 3 30 minute workouts a week…a lot more. However, if I am putting intensity into CT’s HSS-100 workouts, I can honestly say I don’t really have much left to give after it’s over.

And that workout comes to around 50 minutes to 1 hour. If I did anymore I really don’t think it’d be serving much purpose, as I certainly couldn’t lift hard after all that.

8

[quote]John M Berardi wrote:
I trained 5-6x per week and my workouts were always between 1.5-2 hours per day.

I know, it sounds like a lot. But what can I say? It worked.

You know, it’s unfortunate. About 3 years ago someone broke into my car and stole my gym bag. In it was my first 5 years of training and nutrition data. It was a gold mine and I could have shared some of my early splits with you. To bad it’s gone.

Anyway, although low volume, low frequency workouts seem to still be all the rage lately, I’ve yet to see anyone dramatically restructure their body this way - unless it’s fat loss and they achieved it with more dietary restriction than energy output. Jaw dropping musculature requires a ton of work and time spent.

One final thing – to all those who can’t put in the volume above, don’t get defensive on me…

I understand about work, family, and other recreational activites. I understand about out of gym stressors impacting recovery.

These are all things that make dents in your ability to change your body. So recognize them as such and accept the progress you CAN make - although it likely won’t be optimal.
[/quote]

I started training in a fashion this way last week, actually.
It was for long that I was intrigued by your progress and how you did it, and I had to think about how I(and we probably all)started out, doing 2 hour(or more)workouts as many times as I could manage, and I grew like a weed.
All the years of splitting athletics and gym training worked great, but maybe I should do them the same day, and double the load, as well as increase food intake even more.(which puts me at … 8000+, lol)
So far so great, I’ve gained back the 12 lbs I lost on my trip, bringing me back at 210 lbs @ 5’9.
If I get even better results, I’ll be sure to report it to you, I’m following your massive eating program as otherwise.
A tip of the hat to thee in advance, sir Berardi !

9

[quote]itsthetimman wrote:
John M Berardi wrote:

Anyway, although low volume, low frequency workouts seem to still be all the rage lately, I’ve yet to see anyone dramatically restructure their body this way - unless it’s fat loss and they achieved it with more dietary restriction than energy output. Jaw dropping musculature requires a ton of work and time spent.

I have to say, I’ve heard this from a couple other people and it worked for myself before. Too many people, it seems like, went from thinking, “Oh you’re a pussy, you’re not training enough.” to “I’m smart and know my body’s limits before testing them, anything over 1 hr is overtraining.”

Sometimes I think if people would do these “monster workouts” in Flex or whatever, they might actually get better results than what they’ve seen so far with their training. I know I might get some heat for that, but seriously, I see too many people half-assing it or attempting to keep workouts exactly under one hour.[/quote]

It isn’t so much the “1 hour” aspect as it is the concept that training 6 days a week is somehow impossible. I have trained that way for years. You would think guys who are much smaller in the gym would pay attention to what guys bigger than them are actually doing. Instead, there seems to be some attitude as if the big guys are doing it wrong. I think that is how that “functional” bullshit caught on the way it did. It allowed them to justify the lack of gains.

10

[quote]Professor X wrote:

It isn’t so much the “1 hour” aspect as it is the concept that training 6 days a week is somehow impossible. .[/quote]

Right.

When I’d been training for a few years, I went to a local bodybuilding competition, and talked to the light-heavyweight winner of the show, who apparantely trained the same way Arnold Schwarzenegger did, twice a day, for an hour - an hour and a half a time.(he did take steroids, but that’s not the point)

I asked him why, when it could(obviously!)be accomplished with less.
He told me one thing :

Every time you train protein synthesis increases. As with steroids.
Then, doesn’t it make sense to train more often ?

Several years and 45 quality lbs later, that was some of the best advice ever.

11

I have never EVER heard anyone talk about his amazing body transformation from sub-150 to over 200 while using 3 1hour workouts per week.

12

My progress was shit when I did 3x whole body workouts a week barely exceeding 45 mins never training to failure. When I changed to a Westside-like upper-lower split and increased the volume a bit I gained 40 solid lbs in about three months and my lifts all took off.

13

so would you all concur that CW’s ABBH program which was considered the best program by YOU ALL mind you, is not a good program, since it’s only 3-4 days max, with cardio on the off days? That’s really no more than those 3x a week guys that you all are talking about do…lifting 3x a week, HIIT off days.

14

[quote]Professor X wrote:
itsthetimman wrote:
John M Berardi wrote:

Anyway, although low volume, low frequency workouts seem to still be all the rage lately, I’ve yet to see anyone dramatically restructure their body this way - unless it’s fat loss and they achieved it with more dietary restriction than energy output. Jaw dropping musculature requires a ton of work and time spent.

I have to say, I’ve heard this from a couple other people and it worked for myself before. Too many people, it seems like, went from thinking, “Oh you’re a pussy, you’re not training enough.” to “I’m smart and know my body’s limits before testing them, anything over 1 hr is overtraining.”

Sometimes I think if people would do these “monster workouts” in Flex or whatever, they might actually get better results than what they’ve seen so far with their training. I know I might get some heat for that, but seriously, I see too many people half-assing it or attempting to keep workouts exactly under one hour.

It isn’t so much the “1 hour” aspect as it is the concept that training 6 days a week is somehow impossible. I have trained that way for years. You would think guys who are much smaller in the gym would pay attention to what guys bigger than them are actually doing. Instead, there seems to be some attitude as if the big guys are doing it wrong. I think that is how that “functional” bullshit caught on the way it did. It allowed them to justify the lack of gains.[/quote]

Excellent point. Follow the leader, isn’t it?

JB is probably the guy for food, in the world, and no slacker at lifting, so if he says ‘5x 2 hours’, for somone of a similar starting body comp and strength, i say follow it and stay tuned

15

I think CW would beg to differ with some of this…

16

[quote]MMYeah wrote:
I think CW would beg to differ with some of this…[/quote]

CW would? or you?

Remember that this is T-Nation. Here, we’re allowed to have differing fucking opinions. Don’t get confused buddy.

17

Whoa whoa whoa calm down bud.

CW, a man who came up with TBT, ABBH, and other programs running on 3/4 days of work a week I would think would have a different opinion on alot of this here.

18

[quote]MMYeah wrote:
Whoa whoa whoa calm down bud.

CW, a man who came up with TBT, ABBH, and other programs running on 3/4 days of work a week I would think would have a different opinion on alot of this here.

[/quote]

Actually, I think he got into a discussion about this once. If I remember, his statement was that some people need a lot of work and others don’t.

His programs come from what has worked with a lot of people he has worked with. Many of them are athletes or have physically demanding jobs. They are getting more work everyday than he prescribes.

Also, look at his HFT program and see how he is recommending multiple workouts per day. He isn’t against putting in a lot of work.

Even his 100 reps article talks about people that do the same exercise repeatedly throught the day (mechanics, country boys bailing hay, etc).

19

[quote]MMYeah wrote:
Whoa whoa whoa calm down bud.

CW, a man who came up with TBT, ABBH, and other programs running on 3/4 days of work a week I would think would have a different opinion on alot of this here.

[/quote]

What is your point?

20

[quote]MMYeah wrote:
Whoa whoa whoa calm down bud.

CW, a man who came up with TBT, ABBH, and other programs running on 3/4 days of work a week I would think would have a different opinion on alot of this here.

[/quote]

I wouldn’t recommend implying CW is against volume just because some of his programs are only 3/4 days per week.

I’m not going to try to say what his philosophy is, he can do that if he wants, but take a look at his collective work before implying he against high volume. Hint: Notice any progression?