[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
laxman55 wrote:
wow… thanks for all the feedback so fast guys. I really appreciate the time.
Theceka: Regarding my recovery ability, I don?t think it has been diminished at all from the workouts. I find that if i get good rest, nutrition and supplementation i feel a little sore but rested and energized for the most part.
CC:I’ll try to get some videos up for you, but I train alone most of the time, so filming or pictures while im in the gym is a bit of a problem. A lot of my boys will be home over the holidays so ill see if i can get them to tape me maybe sometime next week.
As for the “modified DC split” I agree its deff not DC, but i find it best for illustrative purposes. I started on a pure DC split for a couple months, but after evaluating my progress after a couple months I thought that my body might respond better to a bit more volume.
That?s when i went into the three day split. I loved almost everything else about the DC program and kept them in my routine. So instead of taking the time to explain the static holds, stretches, blasting and cruising, and all of the other things i do that i stole from DC I just say “modified”.
It?s more of a time saver really. In all due respect (and i mean that sincerely, not in the douchebaggy “all due respect” crap that people say on this board when the really mean, go fuck yourself) i think that i have found a program that works for me. I really like the progress I?ve made in the past year and a half in terms of strength gain and what not.
One thing i do take a little exception to, though is your statement that 20lbs over 3 years not being that great of progress. In part that is due to my interest in brevity and not making a long post about my entire training history. But it also might be my lack of knowledge. If it is the latter than i apologize and maybe you could point me in the direction you got your knowledge from.
First of all, I said 20ish lbs in my original post, because I’m not really sure how much muscle i gained over the past three years. I got to law school at 173 at around 13-15% BF and am currently at 197 around 10% BF.
I?m sure that is more than a 20lbs weight gain, but i don?t really know how to figure it out, math isn?t my strong suit, that?s why i went into law. At one point i had bulked up to a sloppy 207 so who knows what the real muscle gain over that time period was.
Now onto my second contention, I was operating under the impression that if you can naturally gain 5lbs of lbm over the course of a year that is fantastic progress. RIght now i am averaging a little over 6 lbs a year.
I remember reading in mentzer’s heavy duty where he discussed gaining 5lbs a year as a major accomplishment. Again, he was a little crazy and there might be other factors involved that i don?t know about at play, that?s why i asked to be pointed in the direction you got your info from.
5 lbs of muscle gained in a year isn’t fantastic progress IMO/from my experience, especially in the earlier stages. Now in the case of a very advanced BB’er who is close to their genetic limits of muscle mass, yeah gaining 5 lbs of muscle in a year might be great progress.
It’s mindsets, false truths like thinking that you can only gain 5 lbs of muscle a year (naturally) that results in so few natural BB’ers actually achieving anything substantial in terms of progress.
You should be able to gain 30+ lbs a year, at least in the earlier stages. No, not all of it will be muscle. Yes, you will soften up a little. But a good amount of that weight will be muscle (provided you’re actually giving your muscles a reason to grow).
Even if only 60% (which would be a rather low percentage and would probably mean you were eating rather crappy) of that weight gain were muscle, you’d still have gained 18 lbs of muscle in that years time, that’s 3x what you’ve been averaging.
Josh86: i was just curious, do you do anything special for your wrists when you reverse bench? I always feel like my tendons are going to pop out of my arm if i go over a plate and a quarter.
Get yourself some wrist straps/wraps. Problem solved.
what are some of the favorite mass building exercise you guys have used over the years for arms. I feel stupid even saying this cause i always thought that if you went heavy on the big three they would grow but any more feedback would be great. thanks again fellas.
There are no secret exercises, you probably could name all of the major exercises for arms off the top of your head (BB curls, CGBench, skull crushers, alt DB curls, etc…). Just get strong on them for moderate reps and eat enough, nothing complicated about it.
Why would you think that doing bench, squats, and deadlifts would be adequate work for all of your muscle groups? Those are all fine exercises, but hardly stress your entire musculature adequately to provide optimal growth. Even powerlifters like Dave Tate do isolation exercises for their arms.
Finally, your split is most likely holding you back from making gains (like CC said). If you were going to do DC, do the 2 way (not the 3 way) and do it verbatim, do not alter it or change it. Feel free to pick your exercises, but that’s it.
This train wreck (sorry but that’s what it is) doesn’t even resemble DC, and shows a lack of understanding for some basic physiological truths (like your muscles actually need rest to grow).[/quote]
Thanks for the advice. What would you consider the “earlier stages”? As i said earlier, i’ve been lifting since 01 (started at 145), and like everyone else I had my easy newbie gains, but i have had to fight for every pound since then (granted, conditioning for lacrosse wasnt exactly condusive for weight gain, but hey. whose counting). Maybe its my diet holding me back?
My current diet has helped me put on size while also helping me drop my bodyfat here’s a sample day. What are your thoughts I agree that an all out bulk would let me put on size the fastest, but #1 I did that and while I gained muscle I felt, and looked like, shit and # 2 I think the slower you gain the muscle the easier it is to hold onto your gains. Again, I could be wrong, but that is my experience.
Here is my typical diet:
4000 MG of fish oil with GLA; 2000 mg of Glucosamine 1600 mg Chondroitin; and a once a day multi
6 egg whites 3 whole eggs 2 pieces of wheat toast
1 chicken breast
1 can of tuna
1 serving of no-shotgun preworkout
post work out shake (50 grams whey 65 grams waxy maize serving of BCAA and L Glutamine)
Tuesday/Thursday burrito with white rice, steak, lettuce, corn and a little sour cream
All other days chicken breast with serving of broccoli
1 can of tuna
50 grams whey and serving of natural PB
I was under the impression that putting the arms under heavy stress from heavy compound movements forced growth. I always thought that this needed to be supplemented with ancillary movements as well, but from my admittedly primitive understanding of exercise physiology these are traditionally believed to be the best mass builders.
I threw squat in under a lift to help get big arms because what i know about squatting says that it helps to boost testosterone levels and release growth hormone. I cant site to anything off the top of my head, but I m almost positive i have ready several articles that discuss the overall benefits of squatting.
I was looking for some personal experience with mass builders for arms, several guys on this board have been at this game a lot longer than me so i was hoping for some little tricks that someone might have picked up along the way.
Do you really think that my split doesn’t allow for enough recovery? The most I’m hitting a muscle group (other than arms or calves) is twice a week for a total of 4 sets. When compared to a 5 day split or GVT that level of volume seems miniscule. What kind of a split do you recomend for proper recovery?
thanks again