[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
-“BEGINNER PHASE” I Started going to the gym in college, just doing what everyone else was doing. I had no concept of nutrition aside from the “eat healthy, big, and often” that many of the naturally larger guys in the school weight room advised. There was no internet back then, and everything I learned in my Health and Nutrition and my Coaching classes (and these were college level classes) wasn’t exactly geared towards my goals of packing in muscle and looking like a super hero.
-“YOU MEAN FOOD AND REST CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE?” - By the time I got to grad school, time was a concern, and so I couldn’t spend 7 days a week in the gym anymore, which in hindsight, hadn’t really yielded me the results I was after anyway. As my classes were all in the evenings, and my apartment was in the Village a block from the gym in one direction, and a block from a GNC in the other, I figured if Mentzer, Yates, and all the other names touting the importance of recovery balancing training were to be believed, my situation was perfect to maximize the growth that was supposed to occur outside the actual gym.
This phase involved a much more abbreviated training approach than I had done in my undergrad years, but combined with my actual taking serious note of my eating, supplementation, and sleep, my strength, and thickness made definite progress.
-“JUST FIT IT IN WITH YOUR REAL LIFE”- My years working in TV and Animation Production, while I made sure I was getting to the gym at least 5 times a week, I did my “best” to get some protein at each meals, but I can admit now that I had no idea how much I was getting each day, or even how many calories. Shawn Ray once listed getting your protein from fast food sources as a bone headed move. I was certainly guilty of that at the time. I kept training because I loved it, and I was unquestionably the only animator at various studios keeping protein bars or tins of tuna in his desk, but this was before you could pop into as 7-11 and grab a quick bar, shake, or anything close to keeping on track with a bodybuilding diet. I’d say the amount of my non-great meals was probably equal to my good ones at the time.
This phase probably lasted until the time I went back at night and completed a second grad degree. I was working during the day, while taking classes and teaching classes (I was a Professor at a fairly big NY College, teaching at both of their campuses) in the evenings. Somehow, while I never really obsessed about putting bodybuilding as my main goal (how do you make a living from looking big?! -lol) I still was getting to the gym with surprising regularity. Supplements were focused solely on protein shakes, bars, anything that I figured would help build muscle. I just reasoned that since I wasn’t ripped, I must be getting enough calories. (Of course I now know things are a bit more complex than just an energy equation)
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I think I am teetering on making the transition from that first phase to the second, but I’m having difficulty with it. I recently graduated from law school and have my first “real” full-time (er…full time ++ in terms of hours) gig.
Do you think you would have known to make that change without external circumstances forcing your hand?
I write the following in the event that you might have advice:
I’ve been training for about 5 years with weights, with a view toward bodybuilding. I was previously a distance runner (and a football player before that), so I’ve been engaging in some form of training since 7th grade.
I love training generally and lifting in particular. I’m also by disposition an OCD person and a grinder–in training and in life in general. I tend to take things to extremes dispositionally (not uncommon on these boards).
I started out training every day and making the conventional noob gains. I’m still training every day, making time for it and committing to it (though I have cut back on frequency). At the same time, I can see certain areas, especially leg training, where the weights I’m using are starting to bear on how much volume I can handle. For example, yesterday on leg day I squatted work sets of 365x15; 395x10; 415x8. Whereas in the past I could have handled more volume after that on squats, I notice that my performance drops significantly for that exercise, so I did a few lighter pump sets then moved on.
I started lifting at 138lbs, now weighing 205 and fairly solid (5’10", visible abs etc). I’ve really been hovering at about this size and weight–like how you described in your first Countdown thread–for about a year and a half (I took to lifting quickly because I did it in high school and have a fairly broad build). So I would say that I’ve got a fairly solid base at this point: my last bench workout included 255x15, and I noted my squat numbers above.
I think I’m hitting that transition point that a lot of lifters on these boards, including yourself, have hit in the past. I’ve been thinking a lot about what I should be doing to take that “next step” or whether I should just doing what I’m doing now. But it’s hard to know when progress has stopped and when I should make a drastic change. I set a target my first year of lifting in competing in a bodybuilding show at age 30, after spending some years under the bar and building a base.
On some level, I know that I need to start taking rest days–if not for strength, then for hypertrophy. Success leaves traces, and it’s obviously not a coincidence that essentially every bodybuilder takes at least one full day off per week. If training every day were optimal, then I’m sure you, Meadows, etc would be doing so.
Same with cardio: I used to do egregious amounts of cardio (lol, you wouldn’t believe), but now I’m “down” to doing 8 minutes of interval bike sprints and 30 minutes of incline walking at 4.4mph after my workouts. I know that’s probably too much and that my legs, at least from a muscular hypertrophy standpoint, probably suffer as a result.
I realize that your own “inflection points” were not always obvious at the time you were making them. I guess my question is how you made the decision to make those different changes and what advice you might have for those facing similar transitions but not necessarily having the prods that you did (such as a schedule that precluded you from training every day, etc).
Sorry if this is too rambling and long a post.
