What I've Picked Up Along The Way

Training
101

[quote]Mr. Walkway wrote:
GENERAL ADVICE:

-DO YOUR FOAM ROLLING!

-DO YOUR STRETCHES!

i know these may sound very basic… but im willing to bet that they are VERY often overlooked, or at least performed half-heartedly. I aim to stretch and foam roll for at least 30 minutes a day (15 minutes at night, 15 minutes directly after training)

I feel like a whole new man after each session, i have no tightness, no aches/pains etc…

I also encourage everyone who is reading to research stretching movements.

I just picked up the “pigeon pose” stretch for glutes as is seen at the 2:00 mark in this vid

absolutely incredible stretch! my glutes were very tight (as i previously did not have an effective method of stretching them).

anyways, just a random thought for the day… loosen up, and avoid injury.

the time you aren’t spending recovery is the time you could be spending training! ;)[/quote]
Man that pigeon pose is no joke,and thanks for posting that.These and the others will be on my daily list.Stretching and staying healthy is something i never think about until i end up hurt.Thanks for the reminder.

102

[quote]FattyFat wrote:
Some good info you’re putting out there, Mr. Walkway.
One thing, though, especially since you’re concerned with injury prevention: in case of injuries without debilitating inflammation/swelling, I’d recommend against taking anti-inflammatories (including fish-oil and CLA), seeing how inflammation is a crucial part of wound healing and inhibiting inflammation in this case is a sure-fire way to also inhibit the healing response. Needless to say, this isn’t some recent breakthrough in science, but sound and fundamental medicinal knowledge that somehow hasn’t found its way into rehab medicine, where RICE is still the preferred M. O. for most injuries.

Ever since I started applying heat and heat-inducing ointments on injury sites whose inflammation did not hinder my movements, did not take NSAIDs and also temporarily (about 10-14 days) stopped my fish-oil and CLA supplementation, I’ve been healing faster.
[/quote]

very interesting FF!

however, while i have indeed referenced inflammation as it relates to joints, avoiding garbage fats while including things like curcumin etc. (promoted by JM) are for the purpose of avoiding things like aterial inflammation (something we steroid-using folk need to be especially concerned about if we plan on being around for a while)

i do like the idea of letting the body work out it’s own issues when it comes to joints tho

103

[quote]Ali_Ahmed wrote:
Fantastic thread, visit it twice a day to check any updates :smiley:

I train very similarly, I incorporate many of Meadows’ techniques, and I’ve seen nothing but amazing results, esp in my back, shoulders and legs.

I love training Back, Legs and Shoulders. But I hate training Chest and Arms.

For chest I do Incline DB, and today I did Decline DB Press for the first time. I think I am gonna remove Flys from my routine. Any fly or crossover movement hurts my shoulders.

My bicep training has been going great, just added Incline Hammer Curls, and it hammered my brachialis (no pun intended)

As for the triceps, I do straight bar pushdowns as ropes hurt my shoulders. I’ve been sequencing my triceps lifts as suggested by the great John Meadows. But the thing is when I move on to do any long head movement, my triceps give out too early (one set in) and I do Incline ez bar skull crushers.

While I do follow the ‘‘weight>form’’ philosophy, I don’t wanna be using 5# per side. Today I used 10+2.5. I really want to bring them up, sooooo frustrated right now. I don’t do any dipping or cgb’ing.

Please help man :slight_smile: would really appreciate it [/quote]

the long-head movement that i like the most is OH rope extensions. I know you said that standard rope extensions hurt your shoulders, but this one may be worth giving a shot

JM of course strongly advises having the triceps be “pumped up” before performing these type of movements for the preservation of the integrity of the elbow.

I have found this movement to be a fine substitute for the skull crusher.

you could also perform tricep movements on arm at a time…like single arm cable extensions

i also REALLY like bench dips, they are an outstanding addition if your shoulders can handle them.

104

What are your goals in training?

Can you point to anyone who has done your “not lifting for strength” while on AAS and has achieved a very large size? Shelby and Meadows are still squatting in the 4-500s for sets of 10 or more, ya know?

105

[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
What are your goals in training?

Can you point to anyone who has done your “not lifting for strength” while on AAS and has achieved a very large size? Shelby and Meadows are still squatting in the 4-500s for sets of 10 or more, ya know? [/quote]

my goal is to get as aesthetic/big (size is secondary to aesthetics) while maintaining health and longevity.

I want to get to around 210 stage weight with perfect proportions, then add another 8-10lbs of stage weight to bring emphasis to muscles that i consider aethetically pleasing (calves/traps/shoulders/triceps/forearms…you get the idea).

im trying to wrap my head around the other part of your post…

“Shelby and Meadows are still squatting in the 4-500s for sets of 10 or more, ya know?”

what’s your point? they aren’t lifting for strength either lol… (they both have powerlifting backgrounds)

what does squatting 4-500s for sets of 10 have to do with training for strength?

I could be mistaken… but isnt 8-12 generally considered the hypertrophy rep range? …now if they were doing heavy singles… you may be on to something… they also generally start with hamstrings first, sometimes placing legpress before squats etc…

…

but to answer your original question, basically every bodybuilder there is…lol

that’s not to say that powerlifters do not get incredibly muscular as well, they just typicaly have to take long breaks due to injuries/reconstructive surgeries etc… and have shorter careers

106

do you plan to compete?

are you able to discuss your cycles at all and your views on taking GH/Insulin in addition to AAS.

no worries if not, think it’s fair to bring up in a thread about BB, but understand if you don’t want to discuss it.

107

[quote]Mr. Walkway wrote:
im trying to wrap my head around the other part of your post…

“Shelby and Meadows are still squatting in the 4-500s for sets of 10 or more, ya know?”

what’s your point? they aren’t lifting for strength either lol… (they both have powerlifting backgrounds)

what does squatting 4-500s for sets of 10 have to do with training for strength?

I could be mistaken… but isnt 8-12 generally considered the hypertrophy rep range? …now if they were doing heavy singles… you may be on to something… they also generally start with hamstrings first, sometimes placing legpress before squats etc…

…

but to answer your original question, basically every bodybuilder there is…lol

that’s not to say that powerlifters do not get incredibly muscular as well, they just typicaly have to take long breaks due to injuries/reconstructive surgeries etc… and have shorter careers[/quote]

Ah, I think I’ve been misinterpreting your views on the role of strength in muscular hypertrophy. There are some on these boards who would say that lifting heavy weights is not necessary to build a large physique. So the idea would be that going over lighter weight (e.g., 350 on squat) is not necessary for muscular hypertrophy in the longer run.

108

shoulders/arms today

I train arms 2x a week, one workout is focused on 2 lifts per muscle, increasing reps/weight while maintaining perfect form on those lifts…

the other is about achieving the maximum pump, JM style… so not actually recording sets/reps/etc.

anyways, began shoulders with rear delts (1 arm cable bent over lateral, holding each rep at top for 1 second count)

then decided to try something new, and supersetted face pulls with incline barbell bench press. (yes, you read that right… i did barbell bench lol. i consider it a deltoid movement after all, and JM said that the standard incline barbell is what he considers responsible for the width of his shoulders.)

did no less than 30 reps per set face pull, slow and controlled movement with strong contraction, and did 20 reps on incline barbell very slow and controlled (coming down only halfway with no lockout) until i reached 175lbs, then lowered reps. I ended the superset after i hit 8 reps at 195

the incline barbell felt very good in my delts, ill definitely be keeping it in there (havent done incline pressing in a LONG time)

then did a few sets of heavy partials, and capped the shoulder session with a round of JM’s “delt destroyer”

i highly recommend the rear delt movement/incline barbell superset, it feels REALLY good in the muscle… sure you can’t lift nearly as much weight, but that’s not what bodybuilding is about. just remember to keep your ass in the seat, and your back against the pad… no arching or wiggling around (u wont believe the shit ive seen)

I think next time ill try supersetting cable upright row (at least shoulder-width grip) with the incline barbell to see if i feel that even better.

cheers

109

[quote]Mr. Walkway wrote:

[quote]Ali_Ahmed wrote:
Fantastic thread, visit it twice a day to check any updates :smiley:

I train very similarly, I incorporate many of Meadows’ techniques, and I’ve seen nothing but amazing results, esp in my back, shoulders and legs.

I love training Back, Legs and Shoulders. But I hate training Chest and Arms.

For chest I do Incline DB, and today I did Decline DB Press for the first time. I think I am gonna remove Flys from my routine. Any fly or crossover movement hurts my shoulders.

My bicep training has been going great, just added Incline Hammer Curls, and it hammered my brachialis (no pun intended)

As for the triceps, I do straight bar pushdowns as ropes hurt my shoulders. I’ve been sequencing my triceps lifts as suggested by the great John Meadows. But the thing is when I move on to do any long head movement, my triceps give out too early (one set in) and I do Incline ez bar skull crushers.

While I do follow the ‘‘weight>form’’ philosophy, I don’t wanna be using 5# per side. Today I used 10+2.5. I really want to bring them up, sooooo frustrated right now. I don’t do any dipping or cgb’ing.

Please help man :slight_smile: would really appreciate it [/quote]

the long-head movement that i like the most is OH rope extensions. I know you said that standard rope extensions hurt your shoulders, but this one may be worth giving a shot

JM of course strongly advises having the triceps be “pumped up” before performing these type of movements for the preservation of the integrity of the elbow.

I have found this movement to be a fine substitute for the skull crusher.

you could also perform tricep movements on arm at a time…like single arm cable extensions

i also REALLY like bench dips, they are an outstanding addition if your shoulders can handle them.[/quote]

WOWWWW thanks man , pushing the rope up together in straight line rather than spreading them out looks interesting :slight_smile:

110

[quote]yolo84 wrote:
do you plan to compete?

are you able to discuss your cycles at all and your views on taking GH/Insulin in addition to AAS.

no worries if not, think it’s fair to bring up in a thread about BB, but understand if you don’t want to discuss it. [/quote]

i dont have any plans to compete no, and this site isnt really oriented towards discussing performance-enhancing drugs in any depth soo…

111

[quote]The3Commandments wrote:

Ah, I think I’ve been misinterpreting your views on the role of strength in muscular hypertrophy. There are some on these boards who would say that lifting heavy weights is not necessary to build a large physique. So the idea would be that going over lighter weight (e.g., 350 on squat) is not necessary for muscular hypertrophy in the longer run.
[/quote]

my view is like this: progressively larger weights will build progressively larger muscles, yes.

however, it is the repeated complete contraction and the stretch of the muscle against that ever-increasing load that will be what causes the muscle to increase in size (assuming adequate nutrition etc.), not the simple act of moving the weight by any means necessary.

most will likely never be able to squat 350lbs in such a flawless fashion. so they will never develop a physique that requires heavier loads to grow

112

http://asp.elitefts.net/qa/training-logs.asp?qid=185174&tid=163

Meh, looks like a pretty normal squat to me.

“most will likely never be able to squat 350lbs in such a flawless fashion.”

I guess I just can’t buy into this. I was just using it as an arbitrary number, but 350lbs is not a lot of weight for a squat.

113

[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
http://asp.elitefts.net/qa/training-logs.asp?qid=185174&tid=163

Meh, looks like a pretty normal squat to me.

“most will likely never be able to squat 350lbs in such a flawless fashion.”

I guess I just can’t buy into this. I was just using it as an arbitrary number, but 350lbs is not a lot of weight for a squat.[/quote]

basically what i meant by that most people will still be able to obtain hypertrophy from squatting 350lbs by adjusting their form/tempo/stance/reps/sets etc… etc… so it’s not COMPLETELY necessary to move up in weight for the sake of growth, but it can be beneficial yes

114

[quote]Mr. Walkway wrote:

[quote]FattyFat wrote:
Some good info you’re putting out there, Mr. Walkway.
One thing, though, especially since you’re concerned with injury prevention: in case of injuries without debilitating inflammation/swelling, I’d recommend against taking anti-inflammatories (including fish-oil and CLA), seeing how inflammation is a crucial part of wound healing and inhibiting inflammation in this case is a sure-fire way to also inhibit the healing response. Needless to say, this isn’t some recent breakthrough in science, but sound and fundamental medicinal knowledge that somehow hasn’t found its way into rehab medicine, where RICE is still the preferred M. O. for most injuries.

Ever since I started applying heat and heat-inducing ointments on injury sites whose inflammation did not hinder my movements, did not take NSAIDs and also temporarily (about 10-14 days) stopped my fish-oil and CLA supplementation, I’ve been healing faster.
[/quote]

very interesting FF!

however, while i have indeed referenced inflammation as it relates to joints, avoiding garbage fats while including things like curcumin etc. (promoted by JM) are for the purpose of avoiding things like aterial inflammation (something we steroid-using folk need to be especially concerned about if we plan on being around for a while)

i do like the idea of letting the body work out it’s own issues when it comes to joints tho [/quote]

Just to be clear: I wasn’t challenging your view on EFAs. Apart from vasoprotective benefits, EFAs have a prehab (or maintenance) effect on your joints and help regulate blood sugar and help in nutrient partitioning, as you’re well aware of.

I’m just recommending a temporary stop of EFA supplementation for 10-14 days after you’ve injured yourself (as long as there’s no debilitating swelling warranting the use of NSAIDs and/or EFAs). Should someone feel like learning more about this, this Wikipedia article is comprehensive enough: Wound healing - Wikipedia

Also, I’d like to add that you can noticeably ramp up wound healing and collagen synthesis by adding vitamin C in daily gram dosages (already covered by you), glutamine and MSM.

Also: it’s good to see someone as accomplished as you in bodybuilding spreading the ‘prehab gospel’, especially regarding bodybuilding-oriented exercise selection and biomechanics. I used to subscribe to the tough guy training school and paid the price (thanks to my own stupidity, no doubt).