The Bodybuilding Bible

Training Bodybuilding
101

I think those are some good points. It can definitely become unnecessarily obsessive and because of that I’ve kind of made a rule to myself that if the event or whatever is something I would do if I didn’t care about bodybuilding at all then I would make myself do it even if it wasn’t necessarily something I wanted to do at that moment. I’ve learned that most regrets come from things one has failed to do, not things they have done. This is very true for going out because a lot of the time I think to myself “ugh I really don’t want to bring 2+ meals and worry about it then be tired tomorrow when I have to workout, etc…” but that definitely happened in high school and even with all the obsessiveness my results in high school sucked for the most part . I would say I allowed myself cheat meals but then avoided parties and stuff knowing the complications and what not. Bad choices…now I just follow the rule above.

Even for New Years I almost considered not going out when I got a last minute invite from a friend (I don’t know if this is a bodybuilding thing or just me but I hate when things spring up at the last minute and I’m not “prepared”) but I made myself go. Brought food with the intention of going home later but ended up drinking and hooking up with his girlfriends friend and had way more fun than if I decided to not drink and go home that night. Even if gaining size is your primary goal, which it currently is for me, sometimes we tend to forget that we do this to make life more enjoyable…not a miserable journey to some goal you eventually won’t care as much about.

102

I missed two question before…

Question: Did I do anything special for my lagging calves?

No. I couldn’t think of anything special. I just worked them before quads and hamstrings. So instead of the order everyone else does for legs, I did:

Calves
Hams
Quads

Question: Do you think pre-exhaust is for beginners?

No. It’s an intermediate and advanced method for lagging bodyparts or for those who want to avoid injury with enormous poundages in compound lifts and want to “work on the muscle” more (eg, Dorian Yates’ case with leg presses, stiff-legged deadlifts, and rows).

How can a beginner know what his lagging bodyparts will be if his WHOLE BODY needs more mass in the first place? I guess there are some exceptions. I just knew from the start that my chest and calves would suck because I always had a hard time getting a pump in them. And let’s get this clear. We don’t know if a pump leads to growth, but it’s safe to say that the ABILITY to get a pump is necessary for growth. Your best muscles will get a pump from the most ordinary activities - like washing hair, shoveling, shaving, and walking up a flight of stairs.

103

Fantastic thread

104

I wish people read more stickies.

Or just read more in general.

There is so much knowledge out there that people are just brimming over with and very willing to share but instead people love to talk and talk, if they’d shut their mouths (And their threads, writing, etc) and just read, they’d gain so much more knowledge.

Bodybuilding isn’t that hard if you read up. Read more, then when you do ask a question you will be smart enough to know how to word it, what specifically to ask, detail in depth question, not a vague “How do I get hooyage!”

I love this thread.

105

[quote]tomkade wrote:
How do you adjust the nutrition and training when you want to “cut” some body fat?[/quote]

That’s a loaded topic. Considering I never went through a contest prep, I have little novel to say about this.

I think you’re gonna have to read some articles on that topic.

Obviously it involves adding more physical activity, decreasing calories, and tinkering with macronutrient composition and carbups/refeeds.

106

[quote]JonEightPackGuy wrote:
I wish people read more stickies.

Or just read more in general.

There is so much knowledge out there that people are just brimming over with and very willing to share but instead people love to talk and talk, if they’d shut their mouths (And their threads, writing, etc) and just read, they’d gain so much more knowledge.

Bodybuilding isn’t that hard if you read up. Read more, then when you do ask a question you will be smart enough to know how to word it, what specifically to ask, detail in depth question, not a vague “How do I get hooyage!”

I love this thread.[/quote]

Correct!

And thank you!

107

[quote]Mahnager wrote:
Fantastic thread[/quote]

Thank you!

108

[quote]pumped340 wrote:
I think those are some good points. It can definitely become unnecessarily obsessive and because of that I’ve kind of made a rule to myself that if the event or whatever is something I would do if I didn’t care about bodybuilding at all then I would make myself do it even if it wasn’t necessarily something I wanted to do at that moment. I’ve learned that most regrets come from things one has failed to do, not things they have done. This is very true for going out because a lot of the time I think to myself “ugh I really don’t want to bring 2+ meals and worry about it then be tired tomorrow when I have to workout, etc…” but that definitely happened in high school and even with all the obsessiveness my results in high school sucked for the most part . I would say I allowed myself cheat meals but then avoided parties and stuff knowing the complications and what not. Bad choices…now I just follow the rule above.

Even for New Years I almost considered not going out when I got a last minute invite from a friend (I don’t know if this is a bodybuilding thing or just me but I hate when things spring up at the last minute and I’m not “prepared”) but I made myself go. Brought food with the intention of going home later but ended up drinking and hooking up with his girlfriends friend and had way more fun than if I decided to not drink and go home that night. Even if gaining size is your primary goal, which it currently is for me, sometimes we tend to forget that we do this to make life more enjoyable…not a miserable journey to some goal you eventually won’t care as much about. [/quote]

Exactly!

Granted, the journey can be VERY regimented and hardcore but NOT miserable for a TINY MINORITY of the population (eg, those who make a living off of this). But for most of us, going at it to an extreme level MIGHT, and most likely WILL, interfere with some aspects of life or take priority over them.

I know this sounds absolutely ridiculous but I’ve thought of it. If you want to get really jacked, take on as little responsibility or obligations or demands as possible outside of work. And make sure to hang out or go out with a woman who really likes this shit or does it herself.

109

Brick, Thank you for this thread and for ALL that you have shared here. It is the reason I joined T-Nation in the first place. I want and need simple, concise, straight-forward information to help me reach my goals. I have not felt like joining ANY discussions around here for a long time. I needed to let you know how much I have enjoyed your thread and ALL of the effort you have put in to it. Very much appreciated!

Omnivore

110

[quote]Omnivore wrote:
Brick, Thank you for this thread and for ALL that you have shared here. It is the reason I joined T-Nation in the first place. I want and need simple, concise, straight-forward information to help me reach my goals. I have not felt like joining ANY discussions around here for a long time. I needed to let you know how much I have enjoyed your thread and ALL of the effort you have put in to it. Very much appreciated!

Omnivore[/quote]

Great!

Thank you very much!

111

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
its_just_me, the second split is his olympia routine, the 3-way was used before that one but done 2 on, 1 off, 2 on, 2 off I think.

I took that split and altered the amount of off-days, which resulted in the one you posted. Depending on how much you do per session, you can just train whenever you want though.

(we’ve been over these splits before though, haven’t we?)

[/quote]

How did you know I nicked it from you?! lol. I knew you’d posted it before but wasn’t sure what the original off days were like. Yeah, I remember what you said, take days off when needed etc…good advice :slight_smile:

I can quote what many on here have said, because when I see consistent good advice, I make their very own notepad file with their name on it and paste their advice into it! Just to name a few files:

-Christian Thibaudeau
-Cephalic_Carnage
-Bricknyce
-Prof x (not much on his file yet…mainly swear words and insults…hehe)

Sorry if I left anyone out…lol

As regards lifestyle - I think it helps to be settled quite young (and to have your own gym). People say I’ve grown old before my time (I’m 25, settled down in the countryside with my wife of 5 years, my house and 5 cats haha). Had the same job for 7 years now, and to be honest with you, I don’t have a social life.

Sounds sad, but I’m not much of a party animal…never was. I have quite an obsessive personallity (one track minded) which helps in some ways, but makes me very unbalanced in others…

112

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
As regards lifestyle - I think it helps to be settled quite young (and to have your own gym). People say I’ve grown old before my time (I’m 25, settled down in the countryside with my wife of 5 years, my house and 5 cats haha). Had the same job for 7 years now, and to be honest with you, I don’t have a social life.

Sounds sad, but I’m not much of a party animal…never was. I have quite an obsessive personallity (one track minded) which helps in some ways, but makes me very unbalanced in others…[/quote]

Haha, kinda like me :wink: Except I’m not married or anything :S

Anyways Brick, I also wanted to say your nutritional advice was very sound and…awesome!

To tell you the truth I think its more important than the training advice. Training for the MOST part is simple: Do a program that you believe will work, give it all you got, and just get in the gym and train! There’s 24 hours in a day. Lets just assume someone were to workout for an hour 6x a week. There’s still 23 other hours.

Nutrition takes up more time and I believe is more individualized, however some people (like my former self) read something from another author and get obsessed with the carb content in red peppers!

I think your nutritional advice is good for people to just take a step back and say “man, I’ve been over thinking things!”

Its sound, and has a lot of variability!

113

My bodybuilding bible is simple…

Roids
Pancakes
Kickbacks

Do all three and your SET!

114

Brick,
I don’t really post at all as you can tell from the post counter under my name, and I’m assuming I’ve even posted once. But I gotta tell you, this shit is the best thing I’ve ever read in the forum section. I completely agree with damn near everything you’ve said, but I really want to address is the sacrifices it takes to get huge as it pertains ton one’s personal life.

Like many of the people on here, I’m a 20 year old college student, and I’ve been training now for about 5 years. I started out at 150 lbs as a competitive swimmer in my first two years of lifting, and then decided fuck this shit I want get big as a motherfucker, and long story short I graduated high school at 193 lbs. I am now 220 lbs at 6 ft 1.5 inches and 9% body fat and still growing.

 Anyways, without having to bore you people about my personal story, the number one thing that comes into the back of my mind every time a new person asks me how I've gotten to where I'm at, and albeit I still have a long ways to go, is that they may have to give up some things to make some serious fucking gains.

Those binge drinking nights with the brothers 3 days a week are going to be few and far in between(hopefully never), any departure over 3 hours is going to require a cooler or a brown bag ( or if you eat like I do, more like over 1.5 hours :slight_smile: , and you can sure forget about going to fuck Cindy rottencrotch all weekend without knowing the local diners in the area or how to get your hands on some quality food.

I know it took me about 2 years to really figure out how to go about a regular life without having to constantly worry about a food source, but I was young(er) so that definitely contributed to it.

 I digress, but what I'm getting after is could you potentially add some aspects about how to deal with those slighter nuances that come along with living this lifestyle?

I know somebody is going to come along and say,“Just fucking deal.”, but I’ve met some people, particularly in my school’s weightlifting club, who go to the absolute extreme, and I mean extreme coming from a guy who will wake up extra early to finish a meal that he missed due to some unimportant daily detail or open a can of tuna in the back of a packed lecture hall, with the more common ones amongst my gym mates being playing hermit crab for months at a time, constantly worrying about how big they are when some of those dudes are 240 lbs plus on 5 ft 9 frames (not that big to some of ya’ll, but try and keep things in perspective here), and worrying about walking to far on campus cause they “might lose weight” despite weighing 250 lbs and eating 6000 calories a day.

I know there are plenty more, but I believe that my fellow iron brethren know exactly what idiosyncrasies I write of, but should you want more I’d be happy to add to the list.
I’ll say it one more time so somebody can accuse me of ball-licking
-Great fucking post, totally has my +1000 to be a sticky!

115

Lol… Brick and CC have you seen the I,BODYBUILDER program videos… Comments please.

116

Dieting and bulking

Forgot to mention this major pitfall that MANY fall for…trying to add as much mass/strength while keeping fat gains very low. This doesn’t even necessarily mean “slow bulking”. Some (myself included), have fallen for the “yo yo” method which is basically “trying” to some muscle with weeks of bulking, then immediately afterwards, for a few weeks, dieting to try and cut the fat gained. This just leads to 2 steps forward, and 2 steps backwards. It’s fine for those just wanting to look fit (and still getting their newbie gains), but will stall progress in those seeking above average results.

You need to “solidify” your muscle gains for a certain period before cutting the fat…otherwise you’ll just drop the muscle too. There’s a few things that I’ve learned from T-Nation that has been invaluable…that’s one of them.

117

Its:

That issue has been gone over a whole lot on this forum. I know for myself, I wouldn’t have gotten as big as I was and the size I’m maintain now–220 pounds–on far fewer calories had I not gone through a long bulk. I bulked up too much at times, but not to the limits that X and Fatty Fat have. I can maintain 220 with about 14% bodyfat at 5’10" without even eating much or training as much and as intensely as I did. I didn’t even lose much muscle while consuming about 1,200 to 1,300 calories on the Rapid Fat loss diet with near zero starchy carbs and training twice per week.

I’m not as advanced as X - never was, never will be. However, I still disagree with him on the EXTENT of bulking. I don’t see a point in going above 15 percent bodyfat. I did go above 15 percent, but I’m not sure if I can attribute that to my gains in size and strength. Added bodyweight will help to a great degree with max strength, but I don’t know if it will lead to greater gains in muscle mass up to a point because the bodyweight is supplying leverage, stability, and cushioning during some lifts. (You know how much easier it is to overhead press when your forearms spring off a fat AND muscular arm at the bottom position? Or how much easier is to squat when you have a fat and muscular neck, upper back, calves, stomach, and hams? A lot easier.)

I think the flawed yo-yo strategy results from eating too much. A guy, in an effort to get bigger, starts eating more–albeit too much–and then sees his poundages going up and some muscle gain. Then a few weeks go by and his clothing doesn’t fit too nicely anymore and people start informing him he’s fat. Then he looks in the mirror and he notices that he IS fat! So he starts back pedaling with the food intake - TOO MUCH in that direction also! So he winds up losing some of the gains he made. It turns into a vicious cycle in which the dude is either strong but too fat, or stringy and weak. The key is to bulk up, but no go overboard. It will involve some tracking of food intake with measuring cups, scales, and food labels at first. When you get more experienced you use more instincts and “eyeballing” of portions.

118

[quote]Demontrainer wrote:
Brick,
I don’t really post at all as you can tell from the post counter under my name, and I’m assuming I’ve even posted once. But I gotta tell you, this shit is the best thing I’ve ever read in the forum section. I completely agree with damn near everything you’ve said, but I really want to address is the sacrifices it takes to get huge as it pertains ton one’s personal life.

Like many of the people on here, I’m a 20 year old college student, and I’ve been training now for about 5 years. I started out at 150 lbs as a competitive swimmer in my first two years of lifting, and then decided fuck this shit I want get big as a motherfucker, and long story short I graduated high school at 193 lbs. I am now 220 lbs at 6 ft 1.5 inches and 9% body fat and still growing.

 Anyways, without having to bore you people about my personal story, the number one thing that comes into the back of my mind every time a new person asks me how I've gotten to where I'm at, and albeit I still have a long ways to go, is that they may have to give up some things to make some serious fucking gains.

Those binge drinking nights with the brothers 3 days a week are going to be few and far in between(hopefully never), any departure over 3 hours is going to require a cooler or a brown bag ( or if you eat like I do, more like over 1.5 hours :slight_smile: , and you can sure forget about going to fuck Cindy rottencrotch all weekend without knowing the local diners in the area or how to get your hands on some quality food.

I know it took me about 2 years to really figure out how to go about a regular life without having to constantly worry about a food source, but I was young(er) so that definitely contributed to it.

 I digress, but what I'm getting after is could you potentially add some aspects about how to deal with those slighter nuances that come along with living this lifestyle?

I know somebody is going to come along and say,“Just fucking deal.”, but I’ve met some people, particularly in my school’s weightlifting club, who go to the absolute extreme, and I mean extreme coming from a guy who will wake up extra early to finish a meal that he missed due to some unimportant daily detail or open a can of tuna in the back of a packed lecture hall, with the more common ones amongst my gym mates being playing hermit crab for months at a time, constantly worrying about how big they are when some of those dudes are 240 lbs plus on 5 ft 9 frames (not that big to some of ya’ll, but try and keep things in perspective here), and worrying about walking to far on campus cause they “might lose weight” despite weighing 250 lbs and eating 6000 calories a day.

I know there are plenty more, but I believe that my fellow iron brethren know exactly what idiosyncrasies I write of, but should you want more I’d be happy to add to the list.
I’ll say it one more time so somebody can accuse me of ball-licking
-Great fucking post, totally has my +1000 to be a sticky! [/quote]

Great post!

And thank you!

119

[quote]Bricknyce wrote:
Its:

That issue has been gone over a whole lot on this forum. I know for myself, I wouldn’t have gotten as big as I was and the size I’m maintain now–220 pounds–on far fewer calories had I not gone through a long bulk. I bulked up too much at times, but not to the limits that X and Fatty Fat have. I can maintain 220 with about 14% bodyfat at 5’10" without even eating much or training as much and as intensely as I did. I didn’t even lose much muscle while consuming about 1,200 to 1,300 calories on the Rapid Fat loss diet with near zero starchy carbs and training twice per week.
[/quote]

Any particular reason you don’t try to stay leaner? A lot of the time I notice that those who don’t want to be as serious anymore instead decide to just maintain a leaner physique (8-10% or so) year round.

120

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
…
I can quote what many on here have said, because when I see consistent good advice, I make their very own notepad file with their name on it and paste their advice into it! Just to name a few files:

-Christian Thibaudeau
-Cephalic_Carnage
-Bricknyce
-Prof x (not much on his file yet…mainly swear words and insults…hehe)

Sorry if I left anyone out…lol
…[/quote]

Yeah, I’ve started doing this but with screenshots. Take one whenever I see about the best advice that could be given for a certain topic/question/etc, some generally useful info, maybe a bit of interesting sciency stuff. Got about 80 screens so far, I’ve got to start categorizing them before it gets out of hand, haha.