[quote]holguint123 wrote:
Hey Coach, I got a couple questions. Sorry if you have answered these to death, but I’m still a bit unclear about some things:
When taking leucine with a meal, shouldn’t you wait until after the meal to take it? I read on T-Nation store article that you need to have a sufficient amount of amino acids in your bloodstream to have it work that well, and I would assume you would need to wait longer for the aminos to do that from your meal, and I would also assume that the leucine gets absorbed a lot quicker than the protein from your meal since it’s already a free amino acid (correct me if I’m wrong of course).[/quote]
Actually I take it just before eating the meal.
[quote]holguint123 wrote:
2. Leucine vs. BCAA’s: You have said that it is optimal to supplement with leucine over BCAA’s, but bearing this in mind, is there any other time where it would be better to use BCAA’s instead? [/quote]
Better? I’m not sure. Loading BCAAs before a workout would be a good addition though. Contrary to what many have been recommending (even myself at one point) it’s best not to take the BCAAs during the workout but 30-45 minutes before. 0.2g per pound of bodyweight 30-45 min. before.
[quote]holguint123 wrote:
3. When using cinnamon for insulin sensitivity, I’ve heard that you need to use a specific species of the plant to get the benefits, and that the normal cinnamon we use with food won’t do that. Is this true?[/quote]
The ingredient that improves insulin sensitivity is methylhydroxy chalcone polymer and it is found in regular cinnamon.
The problem is more that raw cinnamon contains chemicals that may be harmful at high doses. Which is why cinnamon extracts are often recommended over raw cinnamon.
[quote]holguint123 wrote:
4. Absorbtion of pills: I’ve also heard that a lot of pills go unabsorbed since it does not remain in the stomach long enough to fully digest the pill. Heard stories of people who literally crap out the entire pill since they cannot digest it. Have you heard anything about this/ways around this?
Thanks! [/quote]
No, except for a few rare cases of people with super low stomach acid. If that is a problem for you, supplement with HCL (Ultra HCL by Poliquin).
Would there be any instances where you could see value in using two-a-day sessions once or twice a week for specific muscle groups as opposed as an entire system for a period of time? e.g. train hip dominant leg day or chest with 2 sessions and everything else with one session per training day[/quote]
This is actually a good strategy to bring up a lagging area. It is my belief that you do not need to put the same emphasis on every major muscle groups of the body. Most of the time, there is 1 or 2 muscle groups that need to be focused on, and what you are talking about is good way to do it.
[quote]T-Bone81 wrote:
I was also wondering if there is any major downside to using thick bars exclusively in training. My gym has a number of bars, and cable attachments in diameters ranging from 1 and 1’16" on up through 3" diameter (in 1/4" jumps and also has dumbbells with 2" diameter handles. Would sticking with the implements at 2" and those slightly above hold back progress at all in terms of hypertrophy or would this matter little over the long haul as long as proper progression is still used? I’ve been using the thick grips a lot lately and love how anything else feels like a toothpick after working with these.
Hope all is excellent with you training and business these days.
[/quote]
From my experience compound pressing exercises are best performed with thick bars. I find that for some reasin it puts less strain on the shoulders.
They are also quite good for biceps exercises for obvious reasons.
I like them for isolation work; you can’t grip the bar as hard and as a result you use less of the peripheral muscles and more of the target muscles.
However I don’t like them for pulling work. YES I understand that pulling with a thick bar will make pulling with a regular bar seems easy and that’s fine. However this will limit the amount of weight you use and as a result the back muscles will not get the same stimulus.
I’m not against thick bar pulls/rows or deadlift from time to time, but I’d do these with a regular bar most of the time.
Is it too much to do both 3 ReceptorMax and 3 Alpha GPC prior to workout? Or is it more effective to rotate… so use one for a month then switch to the other and so on?
Thanks for your time as always.[/quote]
Both work through different pathways. I see them as being complementary when used together.
Christian,
I am designing 2 a day program for myself and want to ask that if the general rule is that the morinings are for neural training say 4-8 reps and the afternoon session is for the pump say 12-20reps and every 3rd cycle you train once per day with reduced volume the do you always do AM neural work? Wouldn’t that exhaust your CNS?
I ask this because I always do the above with great success but lately have found it too stressful. What do you reccommend. Should you wave lower intensity in the AM and PM as well or should the reduced volume be enough to ward off CNS fatigue and thus keep AM always low reps?
Thanks in advance
I have a huge problem I recently realized, i’m dieting down at the moment and the leaner i get the more i can see that i actually have no such thing as a side lateral.
my shoulders were always a week part for a long time, after the time I adopted standing military press and other movements and my front delts grown like hell and also the power in all major pressing movements along with it. from the front my delts look wide, but when i hit a most muscular or a just lean myself on something u can see that i have left my side laterals at home.
What could be a solution to fix this when I get back to maintaining shape and building muscle again?
I always kept the Military Press, Push-Press or even Clean-and-Press Variations for Ex #1 with heavy loading and reps from 5 to 7… then going to lateral raises and bent over laterals
i gained in strenght at bentover laterals and they look god liek the front delts, but for god knows why i could not get better at the normal side laterals… i tried everything, HIT style 404, 104, 401 … everything, nothing happens somehow, i figure i need a compound movement instead, but i dont know maybe you could help me Coach
thank you, have a nice day
(just to get an image, my stats 178cm, 5’9 i think in US, 93kg and 16% Fat)
hi Coach,
what’s the best way to a properly warm-up before a lifting weights session ?
Do you recommend any mobility drills ( or other kind of work) and which ( if yes ) in most common circumstances for the lower/upper body training ?
Is it too much to do both 3 ReceptorMax and 3 Alpha GPC prior to workout? Or is it more effective to rotate… so use one for a month then switch to the other and so on?
Thanks for your time as always.
Both work through different pathways. I see them as being complementary when used together.[/quote]
Thank you. Would you care to elaborate on the separate pathways more?
[quote]maxiron wrote:
hi Coach,
what’s the best way to a properly warm-up before a lifting weights session ?
Do you recommend any mobility drills ( or other kind of work) and which ( if yes ) in most common circumstances for the lower/upper body training ?
thank you[/quote]
To be honest, this is not my area of expertise. I like to use basic dynamic mobility drills. For lower body sessions I start with 3-4 sets of low-impact jumps (something I started when I competed in olympic lifting).
I have a huge problem I recently realized, i’m dieting down at the moment and the leaner i get the more i can see that i actually have no such thing as a side lateral.
my shoulders were always a week part for a long time, after the time I adopted standing military press and other movements and my front delts grown like hell and also the power in all major pressing movements along with it. from the front my delts look wide, but when i hit a most muscular or a just lean myself on something u can see that i have left my side laterals at home.
What could be a solution to fix this when I get back to maintaining shape and building muscle again?
I always kept the Military Press, Push-Press or even Clean-and-Press Variations for Ex #1 with heavy loading and reps from 5 to 7… then going to lateral raises and bent over laterals
i gained in strenght at bentover laterals and they look god liek the front delts, but for god knows why i could not get better at the normal side laterals… i tried everything, HIT style 404, 104, 401 … everything, nothing happens somehow, i figure i need a compound movement instead, but i dont know maybe you could help me Coach
thank you, have a nice day
(just to get an image, my stats 178cm, 5’9 i think in US, 93kg and 16% Fat)[/quote]
I am following the AD diet with a one day carb. up per week right now. I am leaning down after a long off-season. I did build some great muscle, and am being very cautious during this lean down so that I do not lose that hard-earned muscle.
I tend to do too much as opposed to too little when it comes to lifting. In my experience so far, I really need to do high volume weight workouts as well as put as much intensity as possible into those workouts to make gains. This means that my training frequency per body part is only once per week (sometimes twice for a change up).
My question is about how I should do my cardio to contiue to build my lower body (or at least maintain) while dieting. I need to do cardio and did not do much during my off-season (2X/week). My body type is one where I can build some great muscle, but I also need to be extremely careful with fat gain. Last comp. prep. I lost some good muscle and strength during my lean down. This was losing weight at a rate of one pound or less per week!
I like sprinting uphill and also walking fast uphill (up to 12% incline) for a longer duration. Would this be good for maintaining lower body muscle while losing fat, or would it overtrain my lower body and make me look more endurance-like? Should I do something like swimming for my cardio as well so that I am not working legs so much?
holguint123 wrote:
2. Leucine vs. BCAA’s: You have said that it is optimal to supplement with leucine over BCAA’s, but bearing this in mind, is there any other time where it would be better to use BCAA’s instead?
Better? I’m not sure. Loading BCAAs before a workout would be a good addition though. Contrary to what many have been recommending (even myself at one point) it’s best not to take the BCAAs during the workout but 30-45 minutes before. 0.2g per pound of bodyweight 30-45 min. before.
[/quote]
But if you are using 5g of leucine before/during/after a workout, is there still a need to use BCAA’s?
Also, what sort of peri-workout nutrition would you recommend for steady state cardio for fat loss?
I haven’t seen much information on this and I was wondering about that because I don’t want to risk muscle catabolism due to poor periworkout nutrition (unless I don’t have to worry much about that), but at the same time I don’t want to just undo the calories I burned during the workout. Thanks!
Pull the rope toward your abdomen while keeping the elbows straight down.
Complete the concentric portion of the movement by executing a scapular depression, which is basically the opposite action of a shrug (bringing the shoulders down instead of up). "
In step three you mentioned to “complete the concentric portion of the movement by executing a scapular depression,” but I’ve always thought it was more advisable to keep the scapula depressed and squeezed together throughout the whole range of motion?
Does roasting flax seed before grinding them down affect their omega 3 content?
I have been thinking about my question and can modify it a little. I do realize that the type of diet that I was on last year for that competition was probably the main reason for muscle loss with the fat. Supposedly the AD will address that issue.
So…my question in a nutshell is:
Will glute/leg focused cardo (specifically hills/inclines) along with my regular weight training while dieting (AD style) allow me to continue to shape and keep the muscles, or can it lead to overtraining and thinning those muscles?
Also, I am talking about cardio in the range of 3 to 5 days per week - 1 or 2 days being HIIT (including P90X plyo.) and the other sessions being SS inclines up to 12%, speed being from 3.7 to 4.5 MPH.
It seems that many of the big guys here on the forum are using ramping sets, but this is something I never saw in articles from the coaches on this site. Is it something you use as a coach? What are you though on this type of sets?
Hey CT, I’m doing your Jacked program and am now experiencing something unpleasant with my left knee. I’m thinking I should see a doctor about it, but wanted your thoughts first.
When I walk, it’s starting to “click” and I’m having discomfort (I’m aware of it) almost all the time now.
I was just doing my back squats and the pain started to get pretty intense, so I had to stop.
If I was to pinpoint the location of the pain, I’d say it’s dead center of the kneecap, which is odd, as I thought if it was going to go, I’d experience pain below the cap.
I do have a knee brace I can wear (I damaged the AC legament about 10 years ago doing martial arts (not a full tear, so I didn’t require surgery)), but it’s really starting to suck that I can’t do squats now (even the Bodyweight Squats are hurting (although it feels a bit better if I go very wide stanced).
Any thoughts?
I really want to continue the program and don’t want to stop working my legs. If squats are really bugging me, can I switch to leg presses instead (haven’t check to see if these hurt my knee yet though)?
It seems that many of the big guys here on the forum are using ramping sets, but this is something I never saw in articles from the coaches on this site. Is it something you use as a coach? What are you though on this type of sets?[/quote]
When I train for strength, that’s the loading method I use. When performing isolation work or higher reps work, I normally go right to the heaviest load for the exercise (after the warm-up/feel set).