[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:
NateOrade wrote:
I ordered 2 bottles.
So as far as training and nutrition goes:
If one is looking to put on muscle, just keep eating a lot and kicking ass in the gym while using this stuff?
Pretty much, though some things are probably optimized a little differently:
- Fats, other than EFA’s and oleic acid (which might be called semi-essential) are probably better substituted with carbs or, if protein isn’t high, protein.
In contrast, without any hormonal supplementation it’s best not to drop fat intake to too low a percentage of total calories – the optimum is probably 30-40% then.
But with the assistance, each unnecessary gram of fat is roughly 2 grams of carbs, 2 grams of protein, or some mix of the two that has to be omitted; or it’s an extra gram of fat being added to the fat stores if the carbs or protein are being added anyway along with the fat.
- This isn’t different from when there’s no hormonal assistance, but the heaviest carb consumption is best from pre- and post-workout shakes and the meal or two following the workout, rather than getting the carbs equally across the clock or mostly at different times than that.
On non-workout days, daytime is probably best – again, same as usual on this one, but it’s a point not everyone follows.
- Times where gains are really likely are not the time for weird-ass exercises, but for the fundamental and old-reliable, both for the individual lifter and in general, exercises.
There’s a reason many professional coaches want you to for just the next two weeks or other brief time, do one arm dumbbell bench presses off a Swiss ball (or other weird exercise) and then quickly change to another, then yet another, etc etc etc.
The reason is that if you charged hundreds or thousands of dollars per hour, would your client be happy with being “only” 2 percent stronger after say four weeks of paying at this rate for you?
No! (Though in fact, for example a 500 lb competitive bench presser, who has been at this level for a few years, going to 550 in 20 weeks would be a superb training outcome.)
No, the client wants to see 10% (or some other large number) improvement every week! Now he is getting his money’s worth.
Of course this WILL NOT HAPPEN in a program sticking with the fundamentals and using them as the reference and assuming it’s an experienced athlete, but it sure as heck will happen when the first performance is totally compromised by how weird and unfamiliar the exercise is, the second is improved by some learning at it, and the third is starting to really get the hang of it.
Time for the next weird exercise so as to gain 10% every week, but somehow certainly not 520% by the end of the year and not “even” 52%!
So don’t fall into that trap regardless of how many training articles advise it. Bring up the major lifts. Assistance exercises addressing specific individual weak points are also appropriate, but not as the majority of sets done.
- It’s not a time for HIT-jedi style training, at least not if done the same way one is used to doing it. It could be acceptable if desired to do an unfamiliar intensifying modification, such as for example, not simply one set of each exercise.
But using for example Dante’s “DC-style” training where after doing as many reps as can be done with hardest work but still correct form, rest (for example) 10 real seconds and then do as many more as possible.
Then rest 15 real seconds and again do as many as possible, this time (if the contracted position is under tension) holding the final contraction for a good period of time such as 10-20 seconds or the maximum possible, and the final lowering as slowly as possible.
Not that it’s necessary to use this method, by no means, but it’s an example of how if you like HIT, it can be intensified into something appropriately useful if not doing this method already. If you are already totally acclimated to this specific method, then it would probably be better to find something else.
Of course, I don’t mean to suggest that training need or ought to be similar to HIT-jedi anyway. That is only IF one is most comfortable with that philosophy and inexperienced with anything else and fearful that going too different could flop.
- Training volume. Probably it profitably can be higher than usual, but not to a ridiculous level.
By the way, even if believing in low volume, if one accepts Arthur Jones as an authority, he had his greatest success as a trainer and wrote his Training Bulletins on the principle of 72 sets a week.
This still remains a valid approximate total amount, whether hormonally assisted or not, though if not it can be at the high end and if so, it can be a little low.
- If you have a long term cyclical training plan, of course the best time would be during those weeks where gains can most reasonably be expected.
For example, when I was using a Scott Warman-type powerlifting program – week 1 starts with weights slightly higher than could be and were done last cycle for say 9 reps, the final week is set to be a weight slightly higher than could be and was done for a triple last cycle, and the intermediate weeks have equally-spaced weight increases that should yield drops of exactly 1 rep each week thus terminating in the final-week new-PR triples – my best chance of muscle gain was in the 5-6 rep range, so I targeted androgen use for then. Others might personally do better at different times or with different programs. This is just an example.
But the point is, use at what is the most likely time for success within the training program, which is not every single week – for a more advanced lifter, if it seems that all weeks are equally likely then the training program ought to be rethunk. (For a more novice lifter, it’s okay to have each gain about equally likely for gains.)[/quote]
Holy crap - thanks!
Hell yeah.