ND, excellent thread and thanks for sharing. In regards to your nutrition, when you talk about over doing it and eating “shit” are we simply talking about simply over-eating or are we talking about all out midnight taco bell run type eating? I seem to carry most of my fat in the way in which you describe and thus have a little extra interest in your dietary mistakes and accomplishments. Thanks in advance, dude.
great thread, i always thought big backs were cool too. someday… ha
keep it up!!
Cheers NewDamage. Got another one for you if you’ll bare with me;
If you had to name one factor that has had the largest effect with regards to muscle gain for you: what would you say that would be? Eg, a training methodology or dietary practise or perhaps even a supplementation protocol?
And likewise for fat reduction?
Thanks in advance mate
[quote]GuerillaZen wrote:
ND, excellent thread and thanks for sharing. In regards to your nutrition, when you talk about over doing it and eating “shit” are we simply talking about simply over-eating or are we talking about all out midnight taco bell run type eating? I seem to carry most of my fat in the way in which you describe and thus have a little extra interest in your dietary mistakes and accomplishments. Thanks in advance, dude.[/quote]
Thanks and no problem.
In regards to your question - a little bit of both. Basically, I’ll eat bodybuilding staple type foods, in addition to any fast food I want if I’m wrecklessly bulking. I won’t be doing that again. I usually don’t count Calories when I gain, either, but I’m gonna try to keep a close estimate in the future.
[quote]Schadenfreude8 wrote:
great thread, i always thought big backs were cool too. someday… ha
keep it up!![/quote]
Thanks man really appreciate it, I’ll do my best.
[quote]NZ RABBIT wrote:
Cheers NewDamage. Got another one for you if you’ll bare with me;
If you had to name one factor that has had the largest effect with regards to muscle gain for you: what would you say that would be? Eg, a training methodology or dietary practise or perhaps even a supplementation protocol?
And likewise for fat reduction?
Thanks in advance mate[/quote]
Hmmm…man that’s honestly a tough one.
Muscle gain I would say focusing on progression, both in the weightroom and on the scale. As I’ve gotten stronger, I’ve gotten bigger. You’re not gonna be able to go in there and get stronger every single session, even if you are eating enough. But you gotta try. And I know my back is damn sure bigger now that I can deadlift 545 for 8+ reps than it was when I was hitting 315 for 8.
In order to make that kind of consistent progress you’ll need to eat enough as well and if you increase your bodyweight 30 solid pounds or more in a year (that will decrease as your training experience increases) then you will have built a lot of muscle.
As far as fat loss…Don’t be afraid to cut Calories and do what WORKS; it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t jive with what you read, or what someone tells you.
Great stuff thanks
ND, Hey man, I am not a frequent poster, but I have got ask you a few things. I have recently completed my own body tranformation, dropping 60lbs of blubber and adding muscle. I have not been able to get nearly as strong or shredded as you, however. I am suprised to see that you made a great deal of progress on total body workouts. Normally the mention of TBT is treated like blasphemy on the forums, but I suspect no one has brought it up here because you cannot argue with results.
My question is do you think these type of workouts are beneficial for both fat loss and muscle gain? If you were to design your program again today, with four workouts a week and kickboxing on the off days, how would you change it from the posted routine? Finally, do you use any kind of periodization (ie… heavy/light, accumulation/intensification, etc.). Let me also say I am not a TBT devotee, I have spent 90% of my time using a split routine. Thanks in advance, FFB power.
[quote]MiJuggernaut wrote:
ND, Hey man, I am not a frequent poster, but I have got ask you a few things. I have recently completed my own body tranformation, dropping 60lbs of blubber and adding muscle. I have not been able to get nearly as strong or shredded as you, however.
[/quote]
Congrats on the progress thus far man, keep it up.
[quote]
I am suprised to see that you made a great deal of progress on total body workouts. Normally the mention of TBT is treated like blasphemy on the forums, but I suspect no one has brought it up here because you cannot argue with results.
My question is do you think these type of workouts are beneficial for both fat loss and muscle gain? If you were to design your program again today, with four workouts a week and kickboxing on the off days, how would you change it from the posted routine? Finally, do you use any kind of periodization (ie… heavy/light, accumulation/intensification, etc.). Let me also say I am not a TBT devotee, I have spent 90% of my time using a split routine. Thanks in advance, FFB power.[/quote]
Thanks for your question man.
I’m not gonna get into the whole TBT debate crap as I just really don’t care to argue nor do I really have a point to argue. Here’s the deal - you have to remember that the specific routine I posted while getting into very good shape was done for a limited time. That is not how I always train and that is not how I train as of right now. I already had most of my size, I simply lost a lot of fat and gained some strength over the course of 4-5 months on this particular training style. In the future I might devote some time to doing the routine in a hypercaloric state, but right now I’m enjoying DC inspired training.
Basically, I created that routine because my attitude while dieting is that I cannot recover effectively from slaughtering one bodypart per day, so I was hoping that by spreading my workload out over the course of a week, trying to hit different rep ranges for each exercise but still training until failure, I could have more productive workouts and take advantage of the increase in frequency.
Also, again, I was a glutton for punishment at that time in my life and I basically just wanted to train my guts out, so I did. I also was in a lot of pain towards the end of that routine because I was doing 3-4 sets to failure on every exercise.
In addition, I trained total body but I didn’t really do TBT in the way it is written on this site…I’m not trying to argue semantics or anything but I just want to make it clear that I simply grouped exercises in that particular fashion but I did not follow a lot of the other training principles inherent to TBT except for training various rep ranges because I do think its a good idea to get work in a variety of rep ranges. And I tried to progress on all the movements when I could, and I did, for the most part.
A lot of the total body workouts you see on here are minimalist and I didn’t take that approach. I basically just took all exercises one might do on a traditional body part split, but spread them out over 4 days, hitting each muscle group each day but in some different fashion. I also hoped to take advantage of any metabolic effects that would come from training the entire body in a session as well.
If I could change it I don’t know if I would…honestly man I’m not that technical about my training. I ponder certain concepts but I don’t get into the nitty gritty of various periodization and what not…I’m more of a nutrition guy in that I get more of a kick, and am more interested, in manipulating my nutrition, than I do researching training protocols.
I think almost any routine, if you truly work hard, will yield results if you do it long enough, and your nutrition is on point for your goals, whether fat loss or muscle gain.
You know, as a beginner, I took a look at Rippetoe’s Starting Strength and (foolishly?) Frankenstein’d the shit outta of it.
I was doing 35 sets per workout, roughly, and out in about 90 minutes. I got a split routine from someone else on here - very knowledgeable - and was able to get out in under an hour, working out 4 days per week or so. My recovery was a LOT better with this routine.
ND,
I don’t know if your recovery capacity has changed over the years, but for me, it has not (mostly because I am still a beginner). So I really second what you say to find “what works” for your body despite it possibly going against guru-ganda. Heh, my new word.
You da man.
By the way, I would be honored to lift with you sometime.
ND, , Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I asked so many questions about your program because I am concerned about what is optimal for fat loss since I find that challenging. I think you summed it up best in the last two lines of your last post. BTW I am more of a training guy than a nutrition guy, which I think has lead me to overanaylyze my training.
The complex periodization schemes and “deloading” weeks have kinda takin some of the fun out of busting my ass in the gym. Reading the articles on this sight has done a lot to add confusion to something I once considered simple. Have fun pushing your bodyweight up, I think I ought to go hit the gym.
[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
You know, as a beginner, I took a look at Rippetoe’s Starting Strength and (foolishly?) Frankenstein’d the shit outta of it.
I was doing 35 sets per workout, roughly, and out in about 90 minutes. I got a split routine from someone else on here - very knowledgeable - and was able to get out in under an hour, working out 4 days per week or so. My recovery was a LOT better with this routine.
ND,
I don’t know if your recovery capacity has changed over the years, but for me, it has not (mostly because I am still a beginner). So I really second what you say to find “what works” for your body despite it possibly going against guru-ganda. Heh, my new word.
You da man.
By the way, I would be honored to lift with you sometime. [/quote]
Thanks Ponce - you know if you’re ever in the area you’re welcome to! Wreck shit in the gym then go wreck some poor chinaman’s buffet!
[quote]MiJuggernaut wrote:
ND, , Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I asked so many questions about your program because I am concerned about what is optimal for fat loss since I find that challenging. I think you summed it up best in the last two lines of your last post. BTW I am more of a training guy than a nutrition guy, which I think has lead me to overanaylyze my training.
[/quote]
Man yeah it can definitely get daunting trying to find what’s optimal. One of the reasons I was mega dosing BCAAs was to hopefully offset as much catabolism as I could while eating little enough for quick fat loss, and ALSO I wanted to see if I could force some gains by taking advantage of all the amino apikes. It worked, but it seemed to fade out towards the end, but I may have just been slacking more in my adherence.
[quote]
The complex periodization schemes and “deloading” weeks have kinda takin some of the fun out of busting my ass in the gym. Reading the articles on this sight has done a lot to add confusion to something I once considered simple. Have fun pushing your bodyweight up, I think I ought to go hit the gym.[/quote]
I feel ya, buddy. There is a lot of information out there, and I think it has its place as long as you know when to apply it. I will step up my knowledge of some of the finer points of training because I think I can benefit more from them now. But busting your ass and eating appropriately for your goals is still the most important thing, and if you’re busting your ass intelligently, and take the time to enjoy your training, too, you’ll be fine.
Thanks a lot man and keep up the good work yourself.