I’ve got a few hours to kill, so let’s do this. Ask me stuff. Training, nutrition, supplements, gym psychology, motivation, newbie Q’s, whatever. As an editor, interviewer and feature writer, I sorta have to be a jack of all trades, so I’m open to anything.
Let’s hear it!
OK. Here’s one I’ve been mulling:
Re: the once-described “alternate Mag-10 protocol” that a T-Mag staffer was trying, taking 12 capsules 2x/week, to minimize T-suppression but keep gains coming…
How effective do you think it would be? What supplementation would you suggest on the “off” days? (Tribex & M; Alpha Male; Red Kat; stacks?)
I’ve got several bottles left of Mag-10, and I could plan 2-week cycles over the next year or two, OR I could try a longer-term plan with the above dosing.
Your thoughts, please.
In your web log interview with Dr. Stout, he recommended eating a very large breakfast, like double the size of other meals. Do you agree?
Hey Chris, I liked your Killing Steve article, what are some of the other things that you guys do on redneck Sunday?
What new products does Biotest have coming through the pipeline before year’s end?
[quote]Dave2 wrote:
In your web log interview with Dr. Stout, he recommended eating a very large breakfast, like double the size of other meals. Do you agree? [/quote]
I’m not sure about double, but yes, I agree that breakfast can be 1) larger - because you’ll “use up” those cals all day and 2) carbier - As many T-Nation contribs as written, the body can basically deal with carbs better and put them to use at this time after the fast of 8 hours sleep. Breakfast also needs to pack a good protein punch. I like 40-50 grams.
For me all this means oatmeal or similar hot cereal (no packaged or pre-flavored crap) with a Grow! shake. Sometimes I just mix the protein powder into the oats after cooking. You got your protein, your healthy carbs and your fiber ? the perfect breakfast.
When dieting, this should be your largest meal of the day too in my opinion. Smallest meal should be your last of the day.
[quote]TShaw wrote:
OK. Here’s one I’ve been mulling:
Re: the once-described “alternate Mag-10 protocol” that a T-Mag staffer was trying, taking 12 capsules 2x/week, to minimize T-suppression but keep gains coming…
How effective do you think it would be? What supplementation would you suggest on the “off” days? (Tribex & M; Alpha Male; Red Kat; stacks?)
I’ve got several bottles left of Mag-10, and I could plan 2-week cycles over the next year or two, OR I could try a longer-term plan with the above dosing.[/quote]
I know of people using this type of cycle with steroids / T-replacement. I haven’t really heard enough about it using MAG-10 to comment. Part of me thinks, “If it ain’t broke…” but part me is curious about this as well. If I did try it, I’d use Alpha Male and M on off times.
No need to buy Tribex and Red Kat separately in my opinion when you can get a combo product (Alpha Male) in a better delivery system for cheaper.
The kill Steve blog was your best yet. I usually do something similar once at least week. Seeing that I am serving a hockey suspension as of Wednesday night, I will need to kill some demons and do it more often for the next 2 weeks. Perhaps we can get an “Eat your last meal twice GPP training” thread going.
Hmmm… I got a few questions that are training/nutrition related.
When doing any type of rowing movement I always have trouble with the last inch or so of scalpuler(sp) retraction. IE: the final inch or two before it touches my upper abs/chest. The movement feels pretty easy up to that point. Is this just a normal failure point for rowing movements or could it be due to a specific weakness one can work on?
I am trying to put on some weight and am trying to balance all the healthy eating issues with consuming enough calories. I was wondering what you think are the most OVERRATED nutritional practices that are currently the fad?
What, if any supplements, do you take or think are really neccisary?
I am currently doing WestSide for Skinny Bastards while trying to put on some weight. Focusing on getting stronger just seems to make sense to me. With that said do you think the program one uses really matters that much for people who havent been training that long?(IE under 3 years) Does it just come down to lifting heavy things over ones head? If the program does matter which ones have you seen the most success with when it comes to newer trainees trying to put on mass?
Thanks for all the info you have shared through t-mag. Your blogs are a good kick in the ass on days when my mind just isn’t focused on my training.
i have to commend you guys for being the best site online, the giveaways are by themselves priceless,i was thinking that you guys should offer a grand giveaway of a testosterone internship, basically the winner is awarded a chance to work alongside with one of you guys. it would be an awesome learning opportunity. just a thought.
[quote]K-TRAIN wrote:
Hey Chris, I liked your Killing Steve article, what are some of the other things that you guys do on redneck Sunday?[/quote]
Lots of what some call Dinosaur Training - odd objects and such. We’ll also do martial arts and boxing circuits (timed heavy bag sessions mixed with odd stuff like bar hangs and knuckle push-ups). The friend I do this stuff with - same guy who went to Thailand with me for the “Thailand Trilogy” series - also bought an Olympic hammer, so we’ll go out in the field and just toss that sucker. Great for abs and obliques!
We’ll also do overhead presses with logs then on the last rep do a kind of push press where we chunk the thing away on the last rep. We sometimes replace the beer keg with the log for The Walk as well.
There’s also a whole series of keg lifts. We have three different sized barrels we use for just about every type of lift you can think of. My favorite is a one-sided squat - barrel on one shoulder, deep squats. Bear hug walks with the keg are fun too, in a mind numbing haze of agony kinda way.
[quote]PGA200X wrote:
What new products does Biotest have coming through the pipeline before year’s end?[/quote]
It’s strange, but sometimes I have lots of inside info on the Biotest end of things and sometimes I’m totally in the dark. And when I do know a few insider things, I’m never sure if I’m supposed to talk about them or not.
I’ll tell you the latest rumor I’ve heard from that side of the office, but remember, I could be wrong. Biotest might be doing a super, perfectly formulated, high quality, daily vitamin supplement designed just for T-people who lift hard. I hope this one gets the green light.
Also, I think Tim has confirmed that a supercharged version of Methoxy-7 is coming out soon. This is good because every T-Vixen I know is bugging me about when and if it’s coming out - including the one I married. Although men like it too, women really like it since they’re limited when it comes to the hardcore supplement market (no Tribex, no 4-AD-EC etc.)
Thanks, Shug.
The daily vite sounds cool. Hopefully something like that comes out.
[quote]blam wrote:
Is this just a normal failure point for rowing movements or could it be due to a specific weakness one can work on?
I was wondering what you think are the most OVERRATED nutritional practices that are currently the fad?
What, if any supplements, do you take or think are really neccisary?
I am currently doing WestSide for Skinny Bastards while trying to put on some weight. Focusing on getting stronger just seems to make sense to me. With that said do you think the program one uses really matters that much for people who havent been training that long?(IE under 3 years) Does it just come down to lifting heavy things over ones head? If the program does matter which ones have you seen the most success with when it comes to newer trainees trying to put on mass?
Thanks for all the info you have shared through t-mag. Your blogs are a good kick in the ass on days when my mind just isn’t focused on my training.[/quote]
Use less weight. You may also want to do a finisher set of partial rows using only the end range - in other words, do a set of “little reps” just using the last few inches. This is great for pull-ups as well.
When a skinny guy is eating for mass he has to think of it in terms of training. It’s not about pleasure; it’s about consuming fuel. You gotta get enough gas in the tank.
Just a little mindset trick. Comes in handy when you’re trying to eat a lot of quality foods, which is much tougher than eating a lot of crap foods.
Overrated nutritional practices? I could do a whole article here, but right now I’d have to say that too many people are focusing on carbs and not calories. Yes, I like controlled carb (but not super low carb) diets, but as with the fat free craze, people forget calories and sit around eating carb free cookies and low carb ice cream dipped in low carb milk. The profusion of low carb products on the market will eventually hurt the Atkins brand. Remember when low carb meant cheese, meat and eggs? We should go back there, at least to an extent, although I do like low carb milk and my daughter eats sugar free bread - something that would not have happened if it weren’t for the Atkins craze.
As for bulking, don’t eat crap foods, or least not often. Also, I think the Warrior Diet sucks.
Is a good fat loss product like Red Bands necessary? No, but it sure is nice to lose fat faster with less cravings while at the same time protecting LBM.
Is creatine necessary? No, but you’d be hard pressed to eat enough meat to equal a spoonful of supplemental creatine.
I wrote an article that can be found in the archives called “The Bodybuilder’s Hiearchy of Needs” that covers this Q in more detail. Check it out.
Doing any kind of lifting is more anabolic than doing nothing after all; that’s why newbies can make progress on poor programs. Still, they should not be spoiled by those newbie gains. Pretty soon they’ll need to train smart to keep the progress coming.
The longer you lift, the more educated you have to be.
Besides reverse flyes, what else can I do to target the rear delts?
[quote]teekz wrote:
i was thinking that you guys should offer a grand giveaway of a testosterone internship, basically the winner is awarded a chance to work alongside with one of you guys. it would be an awesome learning opportunity. just a thought.[/quote]
Here’s something I’d like to do: give away a trip to a big event where lots of T-Nation writers will be presenting, maybe SWIS or even the Arnold or something. Winner would get a room, a plane ticket, free passes to the event and the questionable “privilege” of getting to hang with a bunch of us for the weekend. Then we could require that the winner write a daily post about what all happened.
“…and then John Berardi picked the celery out of his teeth! I just managed to save it as a souvenir too! Along with my TC Luoma used tissue I’m getting framed, this should be highly collectable!”
[quote]Atreides wrote:
Besides reverse flyes, what else can I do to target the rear delts?[/quote]
I think rear delts are one of these muscle groups that benefit mostly from non-specific compound exercises like deadlifts, rack pulls with exaggerated lockout, scap pull-ups etc. Basically, a properly balanced program should take care of them without too much specific work.
However, since most of us started out with improper, unbalanced programs (like doing 20 sets for chest and thinking that three sets of pulldowns was enough for back) then rear flyes are fine. Although I haven’t used this much, some coaches advocate sitting backwards in a pec dek / pec flye machine and working the rear delts that way. There are a few cable exercises that may work as well, such as rope pulls to the neck.
Hi Chris. Any favorite gym gadgets or training tools you use a lot?
Chris,
Did I leave my panties at your house last night?
[quote]Chris Shugart wrote:
teekz wrote:
i was thinking that you guys should offer a grand giveaway of a testosterone internship, basically the winner is awarded a chance to work alongside with one of you guys. it would be an awesome learning opportunity. just a thought.
Here’s something I’d like to do: give away a trip to a big event where lots of T-Nation writers will be presenting, maybe SWIS or even the Arnold or something. Winner would get a room, a plane ticket, free passes to the event and the questionable “privilege” of getting to hang with a bunch of us for the weekend. Then we could require that the winner write a daily post about what all happened.
“…and then John Berardi picked the celery out of his teeth! I just managed to save it as a souvenir too! Along with my TC Luoma used tissue I’m getting framed, this should be highly collectable!”
[/quote]
I’d been ‘in’ on that contest. That would be the BEST prize yet. Pick me. I won’t get that obsessive. I have one of JB’s stained napkins, it isn’t that big of a deal.
jaystyles