Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Collaboration
3
Macronutrient Rotation
9
Sample Diets
Supplementation
At the beginning of the 2005 box office flop remake “War of the Worlds,” Tom Cruise’s
character Ray Ferrier is struggling to connect with his teenage son, who dismissively says,
“Well, what do you know anyway?”
While the two of us certainly don’t know everything, we both have amassed significant
experience that is only bolstered through our collaboration. Steve has been a journalist
for over two decades, with probably the most diverse variety of subjects (all related to
building strength and muscle while shredding bodyfat) in the industry. He has interviewed
and been in the gym with some of the top physique and strength athletes in the world,
including names like Ed Coan, Dorian Yates, Mike Francois, Magnus Magnusson, Ronnie
Coleman, Louie Simmons, Mike Mentzer and others. His articles explore the scientific
rationale behind the training and nutrition programs of these champions (even if they
were not consciously aware of them). He has been a consultant for four prominent sports
nutrition companies and operated a personal training business.
Shelby, on the other hand, has been (and remains) a competitive bodybuilding champion
in his own right, using his analytical mind to design nutrition protocols that made him a
national-level bodybuilder. He has collected trophies and titles, including an overall win at
the 2009 Central States, a top-five placing at the Junior Nationals, a third in his class at
the North America and a runner-up placing in the APF Michigan State powerlifting meet.
Even more importantly, he has fine-tooled his diet techniques and helped hundreds of
competitive bodybuilders come into shows in a condition that is most often far beyond
While our backgrounds vary, our views on nutrition are remarkably similar (which tends
to make us both regard one another as much brighter than we may actually deserve). In
particular, our ideas on carb rotation diets seem to be in alignment. Shelby has written
four previous books on the subject. Readers have been requesting a book that gave a
detailed overview of proper off-season nutrition. Lean Gain Principles is that book!
Despite what you may read in every muscle magazine, the road to a champion physique
is a slow, arduous one. You are not going to build twenty-inch arms after two years of
training. You will not go from obese to having six-pack abs in three weeks. You will not
add a hundred pounds to your bench press after four weeks of training with bands. It is
not just unlikely, it just plain ain’t gonna happen. You have been lied to, but the truth is…
you should have known better.
Bodybuilding is not fast, it is not easy, and it is not without considerable sacrifice. It is
perhaps the hardest sport/hobby/pastime with statistically about the lowest chance of
financial reward. Proper bodybuilding requires intense training, round the clock nutrition
monitoring, and often exclusion from normal social activities. It’s 24-hours, seven days a
week, 365 days a year. When not training or eating your muscle-building meals, you will
be sore from a previous workout, planning the next one, preparing your food, cleaning up
after your last meal or trying to recuperate — all the while holding down your nine-to-five
and hopefully being a contributing member of society.
Bodybuilding is hard… but, like anything hard, the true rewards are quiet, internal
victories.
There is no greater example of this than to look at the “off-season.” In most sports, the
off-season is a time of rest. In bodybuilding, this is when the real work of building muscle
takes place. While the Spartan diet of the contest prep phase is offset by the consistent
reward of shapening abs and enhanced V-taper in the mirror, the improvements in the off-
season are imperceptibly slow. We get bigger and stronger a handful of muscle fibers at a
time. If we do everything we should, and follow an intelligent gameplan, those increases
show up in ounces and (occassionally) pound increases. Add enough of those together
through consistent effort and you have a successful off-season. Lean Gain Principles is
your guide to designing a successful off-season by acquiring quality, lean muscle mass.
The off-season is the gaining season, but how much improvement should you ex-
pect? What should be considered reasonable expectations during the off-season?
Honestly, anything more on the scale than five pounds a month is too much sloppy
weight. You should always attempt to maintain visible (albeit blurred) abdominals,
with a hint of serratus, and nothing hanging over your belt-line. An ideal figure
for most would be a rate of gain of two pounds a month. This will, of course, vary
depending on their “training age” (novices gain faster than those that have con-
sistently trained for a couple years), size (a five-pound gain on a short lightweight
does not equate to a five-pound gain on a 6’4” 320-pounder) and genetics (natu-
rally muscular mesomorphs tend to pack it on much faster and easier than skinny
ectomorphs).
Aggressiveness also a factor. Some clients stay in the slowboat (a pound or two a
month) which is good for a non-competitor that is doing bodybuilding as a part of
a fitness lifestyle. Others (trying to move up a weight class or fill out their frame)
may eat more aggressively. Competitors will do things a bit crazier. Getting on-
stage for the local lifting community to see, is a potent motivator.
For someone to compete in a show, and come back the next year to compete
again ten pounds heavier (in at least as good of condition), would have expe-
rienced an outstanding offseason! Ten pounds for an intermediate or advanced
bodybuilder is very good. Half of that is pretty good (especially for a natural body-
builder).
Broken down on a monthly basis, you have an eight to nine-month off-season
(since you have three or four months for a contest diet), so the ten pounds gained
is distributed across your off-season at an average of less than a pound a month.
It won’t show up on the scale all the time. There will be plateaus and forward
surges. One to two pounds of muscle a month is an extremely good gain.
©
Macrotation.
See what we did there? We got the words “macro” (as in macronutrients) and rotation and
squished them together into one word. This is something that is referred to in linguistics
as a portmanteau.
A portmanteau is when two or more words or morphemes are blended in order to create
a new word. The best known example would be a “spork” (those half spoon/ half fork
things that are not really good for eating ANYTHING you might want to eat with a fork or
spoon). Other examples include brunch (mixture of breakfast and lunch), FedEx (do you
even remember when they used to call themselves Federal Express?), and the annoying
Brangelina (that pair of mannequins previously called Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie).
So we came up with Macrotation.© And no, we aren’t actually going to bother to acquire
any legal rights to the word. I don’t expect people will want to buy Macrotation T-shirts
at any point in the future. In fact, the word is already wearing thin. But our reason for
bringing this up at all is that, while they are commonly referred to as “carb rotation
diets” (and we have both written articles calling them such), they are more accurately
referred to as “macronutrient rotation diets.” While the focus tends to be on carbs, since
carb restriction is the common thread in any successful fat loss diet, our expanded
understanding of the best way to eat for bodybuilding requires manipulation of proteins,
fat and carbs.
Each of the three macronutrients not only serves specific functions, but adjusting
intake of any one of them affects how the other macronutrients are used (and needed)
metabolically and hormonally. All this being said, feel free to refer to them as “carb
rotation diets” but keep in mind that restricting or decreasing one macronutrient affects
the others. It is those shifts and the effects they bring about that we are exploiting to our
metabolic advantage.
1. If carbs are restricted too severely or for too long, the bodybuilder flattens out and
loses muscle.
2. In that same instance they also notice a point in which their metabolism often just
stops responding.
3. When people extend their diet for multiple contests (warm-up show followed by the
big show four to six weeks later), they noticed that going off of their diet for a short
period (whether it was a cheat meal, cheat day or a few lax days) often kick-started
fat loss and not only filled them out but made them start burning fat at a faster
pace again.
4. We have learned a hell of a lot about fats (especially, that many of them have very
health and physique benefiting effects).
5. Really high protein levels (guys were taking 600-700 grams daily for extended
periods) was a huge waste of money since, at a certain point, it can cause the body
to retain less nitrogen and simply turn over protein faster.
6. Really high carb and calorie intakes in the off-season make most lifters into fat
sloppy pigs, with compromised metabolism and reduced insulin sensitivity.
One of the most amazing things about bodybuilding is that it operates as a million
interacting, ongoing physiological experiments. Even without input from the science
community, people figure out what works, refine it, personalize it, and share the
info among others. They try different approaches, sometimes screw up, and learn
their personal limits. They share info among themselves, and (almost as if a group
consciousness), move towards a cultural refinement of their approach.
It may not seem like that. The training approaches are diverse; the diets equally so. And
sometimes fads veer a segment of the bodybuilding world off course for awhile. But if
you jump from 2011 back to 2001, and from 2001 back to 1991, and take decade-sized
looks back (even just by glancing at old issues of Flex or MuscleMag), you will see that
things have progressed at an impressive rate. Not everyone does things right (and what
may be right for one may need adjustment for another), but more people are doing more
things right now than they were ten or twenty years ago. The science community is great
at verifying what we have discovered (and they seems to take a gleeful pride when they
can shoot down a supplement or technique we are using) but the bodybuilding community
is the one making the major innovations. They would be wise to examine what we do
from the perspective of, “Let’s see why what they do works so well…” rather than a, “Let’s
disprove what these meatheads are doing.”
But, to get back on track... Let’s analyze what we have come up with about macronutrient
rotation. For simplicity sake, we will go back to referring to them as high, medium and low
carb days, but pay attention to how the levels of protein and fat are concurrently adjusted
as well.
Most of this focuses on peri-workout nutrition — the specific nutrients used before, during
and after a training session in order to have maximal strength, training stamina and (most
importantly) recovery and growth effect from our gym-time. This is often referred to as
the metabolic “window of opportunity.”
Carb Rotation Diets take that concept to a broader scale. Sure, we still closely control
nutrient intake around the workout, but the nutrient intake also is varied on a daily basis.
Understanding that different days of the week have different requirements, based on the
brutality of that particular day’s workout, or the dietary goals of that day, determines
the changes in macronutrient ratios. The diets listed later in the book provide excellent
examples of this.
While it is common to hear proponents of ketogenic diets say, “There is no such thing
as an essential carb,” this dismissive mantra misses the core flaw of their stance. As
bodybuilders, we don’t care about essential. Essential means “enough to keep you alive
and out of a disease state,” much in the way that eating a wedge of lime every few
days would keep early British sailors for suffering scurvy. We are more concerned with
OPTIMAL. To optimize off-season muscle growth, carbs sure as hell are essential.
A common follow-up made by the keto-crowd is that, “The body owns needs 30-40 grams
(or whatever arbitrary number they throw out) of glycogen for a typical workout.” While
they may smugly think this has solidified their position, they leave out the fact that post-
workout energy requirements (removal of waste products, replenishment of glycogen,
general recuperation from gym trauma) need also to be considered, not to mention
GROWTH! Most obviously, if you feel like crap and don’t have the energy to train without
adequate carbs, then how can this approach be effective for building muscle?
If you are going to try a ketogenic diet, use it for a short trial period. Do not give up an
entire off-season’s muscle gains on the experiment. Set aside a time period (perhaps a
four to six-week mini-diet) and see how it affects you. Keep in mind, you will lose weight,
but it certainly will not all be fat. Every ounce of glycogen stored in the muscles, holds
three ounces of water. When you cut carbs, your glycogen stores will be greatly depleted
and water weight will be shed, so much of your initial weight loss will be glycogen and
water, both of which are solid muscle components that are good to have in large supply
during off-season training. There is also invariably going to be some loss of muscle size,
If you should decide to test out a ketogenic diet, make note of changes in body
composition, strength, appearance, mood and energy levels. See if the initial losses on the
scale correspond with real body fat changes further into things. Also, keep tabs on your
metabolism (as well as one can instinctively). Although most people do not experience a
metabolic slamming of the fat-burning brakes until six or seven weeks into a keto diet,
try to be alert to how you personally respond. By all means, be open to trying different
nutrition approaches, but someone trying to spend four to six months of an off-season
program with an extremely low carb intake, would not be getting the most progress from
their training.
There are many benefits of carbs one must keep in mind. First off, carbs provide glycogen
for brain function and muscular contraction. As the brain always receives priority when it
comes to fuel considerations (despite what it may seem like when talking to some idiots),
the needs of muscle come a distant second, to the extent that muscle will even be broken
down to provide energy to keep the gears grinding up in the old gray matter.
Carbs are, of course, protein sparing. I’m sure you have heard this term as far back
as junior high health class but you may not have thought about what it means from a
bodybuilding nutrition perspective. With inadequate carb intake, some of your protein
intake is broken down for energy needs before having any effect on nitrogen retention.
As mentioned earlier, carbs blunt cortisol. Insulin (released in response to carb intake)
and cortisol tend to counteract the effect of one another, with insulin acting as a nutrient
storage hormone and cortisol (along with glucagon) working to release nutrients in
response to the body’s energetic needs.
a shuffle than a stride. He develops a rep as a “big eater” and his strength in the gym
climbs, thanks to his increased leverage. He feels as if he has made nice progress.
Three years and forty bulky pounds later, he decides in March that the extended bulk
period has run its course and it is time to whittle down and unveil his ripped muscle at the
pool that summer.
After twelve weeks of reasonable dieting, he has lost 28 pounds, half of which are fat and
half of which are muscle. He still does not look anywhere near pool-ready so resets his
debut for the fourth of July weekend and tacks on four more weeks of real strict dieting.
This results in eight more pounds lost, with two or three pounds being lean muscle.
Over three years later, he has lost about two-thirds of the muscle he has gained but is
not as lean. (As he is also two inches taller, chances he would have gained about that
much had he not made any efforts to follow a particular eating program.) He has a major
reduction in insulin sensitivity, making him less efficient in his use of calories. His time in
the gym is not visibly noticeable. He is less athletic than he was three years previously
and generally looks like crap. For him, Bulking was an epic fail.
While some teens seem to do okay with bulking programs, this is only because until
they start really slamming food, their caloric needs just had not been met. If these same
individuals were to put in the effort to meet the same (or possibly even slightly lower)
calorie levels with quality clean food sources, they would pack on at least as much muscle
without the fat that must be painstakingly stripped off later (usually with a great amount
of that hard-earned muscle being lost in the progress).
For adult lifters, bulking makes them less of an athlete. They find it cumbersome and
awkward to move. They have less energy for training, and may experience sleep apnea
and higher blood pressure. In most cases, bulking programs are merely excuses for
gluttony.
For off-season dieting, you want to marry your training to your carb intake. The most
common approach is to designate your heaviest training days (legs, back) as High-Carb
days. Rest days could be Low- or Medium-Carb, depending on your specific response to
As you can see, the above diet has two High-Carb days, two Low-Carb days and three
Medium-Carb days each week. The best feature of this diet is that it is easily adjustable.
If you are gaining body fat on it, you can switch one of the days (in the weekly schedule
example above, it would be Thursday) from High-Carb to Medium-Carb, or your Sunday
from Medium to Low. If you are getting flat or feel like you are rundown, you can boost
one of the Low days to Medium or a Medium day to a High day, or you can increase the
carbs a bit on your Medium and/or High days.
The Low-Carb days keeps the body fat low and insulin sensitivity high while the High-Carb
Days keeps the metabolism from slowing down, keeps glycogen stores topped off, and
staves off psychological hunger pangs.
CHEAT MEALS. Cheat meals are very individual. Many require one at least once a week for
social reasons, especially if married or in a dating situation. More than once a week is only
possible if you have a better than average metabolism. Those with a strong mindset will
find that they cheat less often in the offseason that the planned pre-contest dieting cheat
meals. During a contest diet, cheat meals are necessary to stoke the metabolism, bump
up leptin levels, refill glycogen levels, etc. In the off-season, you are not depleted so they
only serve a psychological function.
CARDIO WORK. Cardio varies depending on how aggressive you are and your concern
with health. Those that need to be a bit leaner or with poor metabolism, need to do three
or four cardio sessions a week (around 30 minutes in length, on off days). The goal here
is to keeps body fat in check (but they do not cancel out shitty eating). In some cases,
cardio on off-days can help keep someone’s hunger up. Most sessions should be moderate
intensity (60-70% of max heart rate). One of those sessions can be High-Intensity
Interval Training just to keep the metabolism up.
SLEEP. It is optimal to get eight or nine hours of sleep in the off-season. In an ideal
situation, you would take a fifteen to twenty minute nap an hour or two after training.
Sometime just lying down with your spine in a neutral position and relaxing without
necessarily falling asleep is an adequate boon to recuperation. Gains can be made on less
sleep due to work and family commitments but, if you can, shoot for more.
HIGH DAY: Approx. 175 grams of protein; 350 grams of carbs; and low fat
MEAL #1 Blender shake made with 1 scoop whey protein, 1 cup oats (dry measure), with ice,
water, cinnamon, and Splenda
MEAL #2 3 oz. chicken breast (cooked measure) and 1.5 cups brown rice (cooked measure)
MEAL #3 3 oz. eye of round steak, 10 oz. sweet potato
MEAL #4 Workout protocol (see page 18)
MEAL #5 3 oz. chicken breast (cooked measure) and 1.5 cups brown rice (cooked measure)
MEAL #6 Omelet made with 6 egg whites and 1 whole egg, 3 pieces Ezekiel bread toast
MEDIUM DAY: Approx. 250 grams of protein; 200 grams of carbs; 40 grams of fat
MEAL #1 Blender shake made with 1.5 scoop whey protein, 1 cup oats (dry measure), with ice,
water, cinnamon, and Splenda
MEAL #2 5 oz. chicken breast (cooked measure), ¾ cup cooked brown rice, 10 almonds
MEAL #3 Omelet made with 2 whole eggs and 9 egg whites, 2 pieces Ezekiel bread toast
MEAL #4 Workout protocol (see page 18)
MEAL #5 5 oz. turkey breast (cooked measure), 2 cups steamed broccoli, 1 tablespoon olive oil
MEAL #6 4.5 oz. eye of round steak, 12 walnut halves
LOW DAY: Approx. 250 grams of protein; 70 grams of carbs; 60 grams of fat
MEAL #1 Blender shake made with 1.5 scoop whey protein, 2/3 cup oats (dry measure), with
ice, water, cinnamon, and Splenda
MEAL #2 5 oz. chicken breast (cooked measure), ¾ cup cooked brown rice, 10 almonds
MEAL #3 4.5 oz. eye of round steak, 12 walnut halves
MEAL #4 Blender shake made with 1.5 scoop whey protein, 1 tablespoon macadamia nut oil,
with ice, water, cinnamon, and Splenda
MEAL #5 5 oz. turkey breast (cooked measure), 2 cups steamed broccoli, 1 tablespoon olive oil
MEAL #6 5 oz. eye of round steak, 1 ounce walnuts
HIGH DAY: Approx. 25 grams of protein; 500 grams of carbs; and low fat
MEAL #1 Blender shake made with 1 scoop whey protein, 1.5 cup oats (dry measure), with ice,
water, cinnamon, and Splenda
MEAL #2 3.5oz cooked chicken breast, 2 cups brown rice
MEAL #3 Blender shake made with 1 scoop whey protein, 1.5 cup oats (dry measure), with ice,
water, cinnamon, and Splenda
MEAL #4 Workout protocol (see page 18)
MEAL #5 3.5oz cooked chicken breast, 2 cups brown rice
MEAL #6 3 oz. eye of round steak, 12 oz. sweet potato
MEDIUM DAY: Approx. 325 grams of protein; 200 grams of carbs; 60 grams of fat
MEAL #1 Blender shake made with 2 scoops whey protein, 1 cup oats (dry measure), with ice,
water, cinnamon, and Splenda
MEAL #2 6 oz. cooked chicken breast, ¾ cup brown rice, 20 almonds
MEAL #3 Blender shake made with 2 scoops whey protein, 1 cup oats (dry measure), 2
teaspoons macadamia nut oil, with ice, water, cinnamon, and Splenda
MEAL #4 Workout protocol (see page 18)
MEAL #5 5 oz. top round steak over a salad with 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and balsamic
vinegar
MEAL #6 Omelet with 5 whole eggs, 8 additional egg whites
LOW DAY: Approx. 325 grams of protein; 100 grams of carbs; 90 grams of fat
MEAL #1 Blender shake made with 2 1/4 scoops whey protein, 3/4 cup oats (dry measure),
1.5 tablespoon almond butter, with ice, water, cinnamon, and Splenda
MEAL #2 7oz. cooked chicken breast, ¾ cup cooked brown rice, 20 almonds
MEAL #3 Blender shake made with 2 1/4 scoops whey protein, 1/2 cup oats (dry measure),
1.5 tablespoon almond butter, with ice, water, cinnamon, and Splenda
MEAL #4 7oz. cooked turkey breast, 2 cups broccoli, 1 ounce walnuts
MEAL #5 5.5 oz. top round steak over a salad with 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and balsamic
vinegar
MEAL #6 Omelet with 5 whole eggs, 10 additional egg whites
After looking at the two sample diets, you should have an excellent grasp of what your
personal diet should look like on this program. But what if you are 185 pounds or 235? Or
a ripped 345? We don’t want to leave you out. The graph above will help you to plug in
your own numbers to personalize the diet for your personal needs. Once you know your
daily totals, divide them up into six or more meals daily (every 2 ½ to 3 hours). We con-
sider the pre-, during and post-workout meals as one. You can use shakes for three or
four meals a day if that is necessary for convenience but alternate them with whole food
for a slow trickle effect.
During workout:
• 5-10g BCAA mixed in Gatorade
Immediately post-workout:
• 50-70g simple carbs (maltodextrin, waxy maize)
• 5g BCAA
• 40g whey
Workout Supplementation
There are specific times in your off-season program in which judiciously timed supplement
intake can give you that added five to ten percent in your efforts. One thing to add imme-
diately, if you are not already doing so, is the consumption of a night-time shake that can
be easily slammed when you wake for that 3:00 AM bladder drain. We suggest a scoop or
two of whey, and scoop or two of casein (varied based on your size) to provide a broad
amino array plus a mix of fast and slow-acting proteins to provide a slow sustained-re-
lease of protein. Add in a tablespoon of healthy fats, like macadamia nut or olive oil (10-
15 grams depending on body weight).
During your workout is another great time to take advantage of the increased circulation
of blood to the trained body parts. Rather than just circulate blood, circulate nutrient-rich
blood through the body parts you are training. Sipping a drink of 10-20 grams waxy maize
and Anatrop (or BCAAs with Gatorade) assists keeping energy levels up and kick-starting
recuperation.
After your workout, a shake with a bit more wazy maize than pre-workout (40-50 grams)
and some whey protein (30-50 grams) will keep you very saturated with nutrients. It
might seem like a small dose of protein but it is more important to look at the sum of
those meals.
Finally, sixty to ninety minutes later, consume a whole-food meal, (perhaps an omelette or
some type of meat). Since the shakes are quickly absorbed, you want some real food to
provide some protein that will slowly trickle into your system.
OTHER Supplements
CREATINE: Perhaps the most studied and repeatedly proven effective supplement avail-
able is creatine monohydrate. It helps fuel muscle contraction and has been shown to
help people both lift slightly heavier and to knock out more reps. Creatine has started the
whole cell volumization craze because a fully creatine-saturated body will very quickly
pack five to fifteen pounds on a lifter (due to the fact that you will osmotically draw water
into the muscles as well). There are some pretty solid theories that keeping a full creatine
tank also encourages muscle growth. Since creatine has become a very affordable supple-
ment, adding it to your daily intake is a no-brainer. Take five to ten grams every day (in-
cluding non-training days) to keep the muscle stores topped off.
BCAAs: The largest percentage of amino acids in muscle tissue is composed of branched-
chain amino acids, so it should be little surprise how effective supplementing BCAAs are
for sparing the muscles from being cannibalized for energy. For those with some extra
spending money, taking BCAAs before, during and after (either alone in capsule form or as
part of a drink). I will take ten (one-gram) caps on my drive to the gym, five to ten more
mid-workout, and then another dose when I am done.
ZMA is also a useful supplement. Zinc is vital for enzyme production and a deficiency in
it can lead to low testosterone levels. Magnesium is a phenomenal product, important in
muscle contraction, nerve conduction and glucose disposal. Taken before bed, ZMA con-
tributes to more restful sleep. Again, for insurance purposes, ZMA is an easily-affordable
addition, particularly since intense training (and sweating) can deplete minerals.
You should also take 2600 mg daily of evening primrose oil for omega-6 fatty acids. EPO
contains gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), which is a fat that helps burn fat by stimulating
brown adipose tissue. Borage oil is also a source of GLA, but EPO contains a higher quality
source that is more bio-available (even though borage contains more GLA). It has many
beneficial effects on cardiovascular health (lowering blood pressure) and factors such as
reducing platelet stickiness and blood clotting (de-syruping the blood). If you have trouble
finding EPO in the health food store, it is often stored in the women’s health section (as it
has been purported to relieve PMS and cramps).
While speaking on heart health, taking a low dose (81 mg) aspirin daily to slightly thin
your blood and reduce your risk of heart attack is a good precaution. It is worth the minor
investment (and they tend to come in pleasant flavors).
FAT-BURNERS: The use of fat-burners during an off-season diet is not a wise idea. Let a
clean diet keep you from putting on excessive weight. Fat-burners should particularly be
avoided on a high carb day, since their effect goes against the glycogen storage goals of
that day. Keep fat-burners for your pre-contest stage (and even then, only minimal usage
later in your protocol). For off-season, limit things to a cup or two of coffee (if you are a
java addict) or green tea.
Consider your whey and/or casein protein as food sources (you would be hard pressed to
get adequate protein without a powdered source). Supplements should be seen as extras
and one should never waste money on them if their whole food intake it not consistently
in place. Instead of spending $65 on the latest bottle of suspiciously-marketed hormone
booster, use that money to stock up on a couple bags of chicken breasts, a couple dozen
eggs and as much steak as possible. Your physique will thank you.
Lazy (or non-existent) food planning will limit, if not completely derail your progress. The
bodybuilders that seem to make the most of their genetics tend to also be the very ones
that set aside time (once or twice a week), to perform bulk prep of their bodybuilding
meals. If you come home and have a variety of healthy, delicious pre-made microwavable
bodybuilding meals waiting for you in the freezer, you are much more likely not to stray
from good nutrition. The top benefit of bulk food prep — it keeps you on track to your ob-
jective of a lean, muscular body.
Most successful bodybuilders with busy lifestyles set aside one evening once or twice a
week to prepare their healthy bodybuilding meals in bulk. If you are going to freeze meals
you can extend the time frame. If you prefer fresher meals, then you will need to just
make three to four days worth in a single session.
If you look in your phone directory, you can even get together with a friend or two and
rent out a large production kitchen with multiples ovens, stoves and lots of counter space
to cook a month’s worth of foods in a day if you are good at multi-tasking. This is a good
way to get ready for a successful off-season phase. These rent-a-kitchens are often found
in places that teach cooking classes as they want to make a little extra money in their
off-hours. Just make sure you are thoroughly prepared with all the ingredients and spices
required since you will be on the clock.
Hunt around and compare prices at every grocery store in your area. I recently came
across an outlet store owned by a company that sells wholesale to restaurants. I felt like I
stepped into paradise when I saw that I could purchase flats of two-and-a-half dozen eggs
for the cost of a dozen at a traditional grocery store. I also found boxes of sixteen five-
ounce steaks, three-pound bags of pre-cooked, diced chicken breast and incredibly fresh
produce at nearly half the cost I would have expected. Bodybuilding nutrition is expensive.
It pays to shop around.
Another great benefit to bulk food prep is that you can precisely control your portion sizes.
I recommend that you use a scale to determine proper quantities of protein, carbs and
fat. Rather than feeling like you need to clean your plate, even if you’re full, you will begin
with a pre-measured portion. This will help you break from the “super-sizing mentality”
that has been conditioned into us as consumers.
Definitely take the time to list out all of your ingredients. You don’t want to come home
and realize that you got enough chicken to grill and dice into omelets and over salads but
not enough for your other chicken recipes. Then inventory your supplies. Check the cup-
boards and refrigerator to ensure that you have all the spices, oils and other ingredients
required to make your food. Your bulk cooking session will take awhile. Don’t make it
harder by having to run out for the one missing ingredient.
One technique that health experts are recommending for members of the general popula-
tion is to “shop the outside” of the store. This means that most of your foods should come
from the outer perimeter of the store — fruits and veggies, lean meats, eggs and other
base foods since the highly processed, boxed junk tend to fill the majority of the inner
aisles. (Of course, you need to skip the bakery section). Limit the amount of things in
boxes that you eat and stock up on items closer to their natural unprocessed state.
Deborah Taylor-Hough, author of Frozen Assets recommends that you first sort your meals
according to main protein. That way the chicken that you are prepping for grilled cutlets
can also be readied alongside the chicken you plan to use for chicken cacciatore or barbe-
cued chicken.
With meats, I tend to always make extra helpings. If my eating plan requires a dozen
grilled chicken breasts, I also marinate some diced chicken in sugar-free Italian dress-
ing and garlic to serve over salads. Although some purists will say it is heresy to mix the
chicken into an egg dish, I also will shred some of the chunks into omelets. Likewise, beef
tips are a nice addition to an omelette or salad.
Most of my meals are pretty basic but a little soy sauce, Frank’s Red Hot, salsa verde or
Srirachi sauce can add a lot to a meal, with next to zero added calories. When I need to
try something new, I will go to one of the many recipe websites (such as allrecipes.com)
and modify their recipes; eliminating carbs and simple sugars and increasing the protein
content. I have had very good luck winging it in this way. The websites www.calorielab.
com and http://nutritiondata.self.com/ are also very useful for checking macronutrient
content of various ingredients.
When filling freezer bags, leave an empty inch on top of any liquid foods since they will
expand when frozen. Another trick is to lay out bags of food on a baking pan and placing
it in the freezer so that you get flat bags of food, rather than lumpy hard to stack blobs.
If you have a large capacity freezer then you have got it made. Once you have a grasp of
your food consumption patterns, you can go into large-scale production and keep a steady
stock of a half-dozen of your muscle-building favorites.
One last tip has to do with herbs. Fresh herbs always taste best but you can freeze a sin-
gle serving of fresh herbs in an ice cube tray, with whatever base you might use it in (i.e.
mixed with chicken bouillon). Place these cubes into a marked freezer bag and one can be
easily dropped into a dish for flavoring.
USEFUL TOOLS
The following items should be a part of your kitchen arsenal. If you do not currently own
the complete list, try to gradually acquire them as they will make your time spent in the
kitchen go by quickly and efficiently:
1. Food processor. This one is a real time saving when it comes to slicing and
dicing your vegetables. Best of all, I find that since I purchased my food pro-
cessor, I eat much more fresh veggies which has improved my nutrition and
health.
2. Food scale. It doesn’t have to be an expensive one, but a food scale will allow
you to confidently control your portion size and the macronutrient composi-
tion of your meals.
3. Two or three large cast iron skillets. The prep will go by much faster if you
can cook multiple items at the same time and don’t need to wash out a pan
before you can start a second entrée.
5. Crock pot. Crock pots seems as if they may have been invented for body-
builders. There are many healthy meals that you can create by just adding
the ingredients, letting it slow cook throughout the day
6. Rice and vegetable steamer. These are available for only $25-35 and make
preparing whole-grains a snap.
7. Cutting board (and a variety of knives). Look for something that can easily
be washed off since you will need it multiple times.
8. Measuring cups. I suggest a full set plus extra cheap plastic half-cup measur-
ing scoops to leave in your oats for easy partitioning.
The initial investment in a few of these items will be offset be time saved in your food
prep over the years.
SNACKS
I like to cook one or two-dozen hard-boiled eggs each week. I dice these into salads or
toss a couple of them into a sandwich bag for a protein snack to go. I also like to have
other snacks on hand and ready to go such as bags of sliced fruit, steak and cheese
chunks or mixed nuts (I blend my own mix of raw almonds, cashews, walnuts, macada-
mias and Brazil nuts so that they are not roasted or covered in unnecessary oils and salt).
Needless to say, having a pre-measured protein shake in a shaker cup (where I only need
to grab an ice cold bottled water to blend it in for an on-the-road snack) is a constant.
This is also a smart thing to keep in your locker or desk drawer at work.
Examining training programs is beyond the scope of this book. Most lifters at the level that
will be purchasing this book have their gym strategy down, so we are going to be brief. It
doesn’t matter what style of training you choose — traditional high volume training, DC
Training, FST-7, Block Periodization, HIT, Y3T, Westside Barbell-influenced powerlifting,
Gironda’s 10 of 10, WS4SB or any personalized hybrid of these programs, all of these
approaches can be married to the Lean Gain diet.
That said, there are some basic off-season training rules that everyone, from rookie lifters
to Jay Cutler would be well-served to adhere:
Smart Programming. On the flip side if this, if your goal is bodybuilding and not
powerlifting, then you don’t need to tear yourself up just to beat your logbook. If hack
squats make your knees creak and presses-behind-the-neck makes it impossible to comb
your hair, then find suitable substitutes. The proper sequencing of exercises is crucial.
Beloved but joint-unfriendly exercises that you may have gritted your way through might
serve you even better at the end of the training session with a third less weight and a
few more reps. A muscle unit does not know the weight it is contracting to move. If you
can use that exercise when the soft tissues are thoroughly warmed-up and the working
muscles are already fatigued, you can maximize the risk-to-benefit ratio, recruit just as
Goals. Go to the gym each session with one or two goals for that session. Just “giving it
your all” will provide far less progress than selecting goals prior to heading to the gym.
Examples of good daily goals might be (weights are obviously just for illustration purposes
and need to be individually adjusted):
• Front Squats with 275 pounds for eight or more reps (when your current PR is
seven reps)
• Wide-grip Chins — 50 reps in three sets with a 25-pound plate as added resistance
• Incline Db Curls — six or more reps with the 65s
• Get all 18 sets of your back, traps and calves workout done in 45 minutes or less
• Increase your elliptical cardio by 5 minutes, without a loss of intensity
• Increase the angle on the treadmill by five degrees without a loss in distance
traveled or time
You get the idea. I recommend you pick one big goal (strength increase in a basic
compound exercise) and one secondary goal (rep increase in an isolation exercise or
harder/longer cardio session) for each training session. Choose your goals after the
previous workout for that bodypart and look it over in advance (the night before for
morning trainees; before heading to work for evening trainers) so you can think about it
throughout the day and get psyched in advance.
Variety. A recent trend has been top bodybuilders making radical changes in their style
of training. Powerlifting champion Matt Kroczaleski switched to a bodybuilding program to
compete in a state level contest. Retired powerlifter Dave Tate follows a variety of faster-
pace, higher-rep bodybuilding-style programs (and diet). DC Trainee Dusty Hanshaw
recently began a high-volume training program by John Meadows to improve his legs.
IFBB pro Mark Dugdale has switched from moderate-volume to a modified DC-training
program, to Yates-directed HIT and back to a moderate-volume hybrid program. Steve
Kuclo has made great gains in the past year by dramatically increasing his training
volume. The more you are adamantly set on your longtime favorite way of training, the
more you have to gain from trying something radically different.
In the following pages, we are both going to share a couple of our favorite exercises for
each bodypart, along with performance tips on how we apply them. Read this through.
You are bound to find at least a dozen ideas that you may want to try in your training.
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Squat vary the reps but stay in the five to fifteen
Leg Press range (doing higher rep leg work on a Leg
Hack Squat Press or Hack). All reps should be controlled,
with deliberate negatives (no fast drops) and
explosive concentric.
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The Leg Press allows you to overload the quads without back stress or needing
to balance. Taller guys often have trouble going deep on a squat because of their
structure (femur length and length of their torso). The physics of the leg press
place different stress on the legs and take the lower back out of the movement.
The Hack Squat provides a different kind of stress. Hacks and Leg Presses allow
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you to overload at various foot placements. Because Hacks can be tough on the
knees, I recommend that you use them later in your workout so that you are
already warmed up and do not need to use huge amounts of weight.
I’m also a big believer in wearing knee sleeves to keep your knees tight and
warm. The single-ply sleeves from www.EliteFTS.com are perfect. You want a
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sleeve that’s snug but isn’t so tight that it cuts off circulation. You can probably
tell I’m not a big fan of very tight knee wraps either. You want your muscle doing
the work. The sleeve is just there to provide some support and keep things warm.
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Glute-Ham Raise elevated and bands to keep tension at the top.
Dumbbell Leg Curl
Romanian Deadlift For hamstring isolation, I like Hammer Seated
Leg Curls (or similar) or Dumbbell Leg Curl
One-and-a-halves. If you have never done a
Dumbbell Leg Curl, it is an exceptional exercise. I use one of those big decline
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ab benches, set a dumbbell on the floor (maybe thirty-pounds to start), with the
sole of my shoes on the inside plate and the handle of the dumbbell being held
between my insteps. I suspect that having to squeeze the feet together increases
hamstring activation. I like doing one-and-a-halves (a full rep followed by a half-
rep in the bottom, stretched segment of the range-of-motion).
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You may think they are all about mandolin music and gypsy curses, but
apparently Romanians appreciate great hamstrings as they invented the
Romanian Deadlift. If you are not familiar, these are stiff-legged DLs with a
bend in the knee joint (“soft knees”) and a shorter range-of-motion. The bar
stays close to the body and the hips move back a bit more in order to maintain
balance. And if your gym has any kettlebells, the Kettlebell Swing is easy to do
and it’s a great warm-up since it does a great job activating the posterior chain.
Recently John Meadows has been having me finish my workout with Stiff-Leggeds
with dumbbells. By the end of my leg workout my lower back is shot. If I were
to do full-range S-L Deads and lock out at the top, my lower back would just
seize up. I focus on the bottom portion, getting a full stretch and only bring the
dumbbells up to knee height. Once you go higher than that, more and more of
the work is being done by the lower back and glutes anyway. By keeping the
movement in the bottom half, I keep the stress off of my lower back and more on
my hamstrings.
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Lateral Raise of Military Presses, especially at the beginning of
Rear Dumbbell Raise a workout since I believe they put the shoulder
Seated Dumbbell Press capsule in a vulnerable position. Like Hack
Squats, they are safer when done later so you
are warmed up and don’t need as much weight.
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Lateral Raises (dumbbells or cables). I like to bring the handle slightly higher
than shoulder position (to ten-o’clock and two-o’clock position). I make a
conscious effort before each rep to relax my traps to make them sink into my
back so that I am only working my delts.
My third exercise would be something for rear deltoids —either rear dumbbell
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raise or rear delts sitting facing in on the pec deck. I prefer a pronated (palms
down) grip for rear delt work, both with dumbbells or a machine. Make sure
you’re using your rear delts to move the weight, and not your traps. This is done
by initiating the movement with your rear delts (and not by shrugging the traps)
and also by keeping a wide arc for the range of motion (don’t bend your elbows
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too much).
I do three styles of Lateral Raises: 1) Strict Laterals are done with one arm and
leaning away from an upright like the side of a machine or rack. I am meticulous
in my form and pause at the top; 2) Power Laterals are also done one-armed
with a significantly heavier weight. I lean forward at the waist (to reduce front
delt assistance) and brace my free hand on the back of an incline bench. I allow
some momentum (not degraded body position) and emphasize a slow controlled
negative; 3) “Rhythmic” Laterals are done very strictly at a quick tempo with two
dumbbells. I focus on keeping my shoulder blades and elbows WIDE throughout
the reps in order to reduce trapezius involvement.
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Incline Barbell Press prefer Inclines, but even on these, I don’t lower
Low-Incline Dumbbell Press the bar all the way in order to limit the stretch.
Pec Deck The lower you go (in both flat or incline) the
more your shoulder rotates, which puts it into a
vulnerable position.
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I do Dumbbell Presses but always at an incline, varying from just putting a
25-pound plate under one end of the bench to doing them at a 40° angle.
Barbells seem to just lock you in place while dumbbells have a better feel.
Dumbbells allow you to rotate your hands to more of a neutral position if need
be and adjust the spacing of your hands. All of this equals reduced chances of
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pec tears or shoulder injuries.
I like Pec Deck early in the workout as a pre-exhaustion exercise. Starting with
something like heavy low-rep Inclines may work well for Branch Warren (and I
would never argue his success) but crazy heavy weights like that at the start of
a workout is taking more of a gamble. Pyramiding weights is a better approach.
Doing a set of fifteen reps, then twelve, ten, eight… This gets the chest and
shoulder warmed up before you work them. You may need less weight for your
heavy sets but you are still getting stimulus without any loss in safety.
I like to finish many of my pec workouts with Pec Dips. After doing eight to twelve
sets of other chest exercises, I don’t need any added weight and just rep out on
these. One of my early mentors taught me to do these Gironda-style: concave
back, chin tucked down to chest, elbows wide, hands turned in (thumbs pointing
behind you), and just enough of a bend in the waist so that your feel are under
your face. I emphasize the stretch and only come up two-thirds of the way to
lockout.
I have never been a fan of the Smith machine but I have recently been doing
Reverse-grip Smith Presses. This works the upper pecs better than any other
incline movement. I go with a low incline and a slow negative. The only reason
I use a Smith machine is for safety reason (I want to keep my teeth when my
triceps give out).
I
Under-grip Bent Row Cable Rows. With all of my back exercises, I
Lat Flye emphasize a strong isometric contraction
Close-grip Platform Row (pause at the top and squeeze hard in the
contracted position for two or three seconds).
I also like doing an under-grip row on the Hammer Strength machine that Yates
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helped make famous.
After working the lats with heavy compound movements, I like to do Lat Flyes
(with added band resistance). These are basically the reverse of a pectoral flye;
keep a constant bend of 10-15° in the elbows, and arch the back for a paused
contraction. I do them along three different positions; with my elbows high
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(more rear delt, trap and upper lats), midway, with the dumbbells in line with the
bottom of my ribcage (general lats, rhomboids and other midback muscles), or
low with the dumbbells going close to the hips (more lat isolation).
My weird exercise for back thickness is Close-grip Row from Platforms. I slide six
to ten twenty-five pound plates onto a loading pin, attach a parallel-grip rowing
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handle to the pin, and step on two plyo boxes (or two flat benches if none are
around). I don’t do this exercise that often since the set-up is a pain but it feels
great due to the direct line of pull with a great stretch and contraction.
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SHE LBY I like rows with my elbows lifted up and out in
order to hit traps and rhomboids. Think of the
Chest-Supported Row form on these as being similar to a “reverse
Rack Deadlift bench press” with elbows wide, rather than
tucked in tight to your sides as in a One-Arm
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Dumbbell Row.
I also like to do a variety of Deadlifts for back thickness —including full Deadlifts
from the floor and Rack Deadlifts. These thicken up your entire posterior chain,
all the way down to the calves even.
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Dumbbell Row intuitive. Most people think of Pulldown and Pull-
Lat Pulldown up variations are for width… and I do those to a
certain extent. I have been working with John
Meadows over the past year and he has had me doing a lot of rowing movements
and my back width has expanded incredibly.
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On Dumbbell Rows, keep your elbows close to your sides to hit lats. Drive with
your elbows. As you pull back, think about putting your elbow close to your
pocket. Drive back and low. I support myself with my non-working arm. Most
people with use the top row of the dumbbell rack for this but I find that using the
lower row of the rack puts me in a more bent over position and has a better feel.
I would still include Pulldowns though. A lot of people can’t do Pull-ups. I can’t do
them. I’m too heavy in the off-season so I just use Pulldowns. I use a variety of
grips. Sometimes I use a wide grip. Sometimes I go with a shoulder-width grip. I
tend to use an over-grip or a neutral (parallel) grip, never an underhand grip and
I always wear straps. If that makes me a pussy, that is fine. I have a bigger back
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than a lot of other people. I’m not a strongman, not a bodybuilder. They are an
assist, not a crutch.
I
the classic Front Chins. I use a moderately-
Front Chin wide grip (slightly wider than shoulder-width
Lat Pulldown Shrug but not extreme, since that actually reduces
full contraction) and always wear straps. If
you can’t get a full set of these on your own, use a band to deload some of
your bodyweight and do your last set without assistance to establish a chin
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benchmark. When you can get eight reps without help, switch to doing them
without the band. Go for thirty reps in as few sets as possible. When you can do
all thirty in three sets, increase the target to forty reps total. When I am done, I
hang from the bar and left my shoulder blades stretch out wide (and it also helps
decompress my spine a bit).
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My other somewhat unique width exercise is the Lat Pulldown Shrugs. The
shrugging in this exercise consists of pulling back the delts and squeezing your
shoulder blades together without bending the arms. Again, I use straps and
intersperse shrug between full range pulldowns (always pausing for two or three
seconds at the contracted point). When I can’t do any more pulldowns, I finish
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with a handful of lat shrugs.
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Kneeling Dumbbell Shrug doing these when I was suffering from a recurring
Deadlift Shrug muscle pull near my tailbone. Sitting on my
Farmer’s Walk haunches protected the area, but I also learned
that is was very handy only having to drop the
weight a few inches to the ground. You can even do rest-pause sets, with a thirty
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second rest allowing you to tack on three or four added reps to a set.
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traps at the top. Sometimes I will even rise up on my toes in my impersonation of
an Olympic lifter.
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comes out to see if we are stealing the dumbbells). Although you pummel your
grip strength and most of the stabilizing muscles of the body, the Farmer’s Walk
really gives your trapezius a killer workout.
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Deadlift this area (as well as hitting hamstrings, lats,
45° Hyperextension traps and much of the body) and I think this
is a great basic overall mass and strength
builder. For an isolation movement, I like
Hyperextensions on the 45° bench. You can add weight or
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anchor mini-bands under the bench for resistance. I find that
with Hypers, I can control the movement better and maintain
the pressure on my lower back on the angled unit more than on
the horizontal one.
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with Louie Simmons, introducing him to the
Rack Pull bodybuilding world. We discussed his training
Reverse Hyperextension of Arnold Classic champ Mike Francois and
those conversations had a powerful impact on
my training. From that I learned the benefits of Rack Pulls for overall thickness
of both the lats and lower back. I like these on the Cybex Deadlift and Row
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platform, but any rack will do. The Cybex has easily-adjusted catch-bars that
provide the perfect two-inch height adjustments (plus, since I was training at
the same gym as Francois at the time, I hoped to absorb some of his lumbar
magic by using the same rack). I alternate between conventional-stance for
a cycle and then sumo-stance the next (with Good Mornings being the third
cycle).
K
My other choice would be Simmons’ most famous innovation, the Reverse
Hyperextension. This simple machine is a career-extending piece of genius. I
had a painful recurring lower back injury. A strength imbalance would cause a
muscle pull or nerve impingement near my tailbone about two or three times
a year and it will have me in bed with a heating pad an muscle relaxants for
a couple of days. Once I started using the Reverse Hyper, that no longer a
concern. Not only does the gentle traction relieve spinal compression but the
exercise has improved my posterior chain strength. I alternate between feet
together and feet wide as well lower reps (6-10) for strength and higher reps
(10-20) for recovery.
I
Incline Dumbbell Curl strength and feel. Warm up with a couple of light
Barbell Drag Curl sets, since Incline Curls involve considerable
Standing Dumbbell Curl stretch. I set the bench at 35°, supinate on the
way up, and then rotate my arms the out to the
sides before lowering slowly with the pinky-side as high as I can comfortable keep
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it. Start with light weights but you will progress to decent weight on these and
they will make you incredibly sore deep in the muscle belly the next day.
There is no better biceps pump exercise for most than Barbell Drag Curls. These
are simple. Grab a straight bar with a shoulder-width (or slightly wider) grip and
curl the weight up to nipple height while sliding the bar along the front of your
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body. Wicked pump!
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EZ-Bar Curl EZ Bar Curls are easy on the wrist. I don’t care
Dumbbell Curl for straight bar curls as they cause strain in that
Hammer Curl area. I vary the grip on these; sometimes using
the close (inside bend in the bar) and sometimes
grabbing it with the wider grip.
Dumbbell Curls are, of course, very comfortable on the wrists and you can
supinate as you curl to get a stronger contraction.
I like Hammer Curls because they involve the brachialis and brachioradialus to
thicken up the forearm and underbelly of the biceps.
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Triceps Pushdown with Triceps Pushdowns. This is a contraction
Machine Dips exercise that warms up the elbows and triceps
Skullcrusher so I use it before something like a Close-grip
Bench Press or Skullcrusher. I have a separate
arm day so it is more important to warm up than someone training triceps after
chest.
I
I like the dipping machine better than I like body weight dips; probably for the
same reason that I prefer Pulldowns over Pull-ups (I can’t do them). I’m heavy
and I have better control with a machine. I can put the tension where I want it,
rather than have to balance myself. I don’t care for the Hammer Strength Dip
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Machine (I don’t like the mechanics of it and the handles are too narrow). We
have a Wate-Man machine which is pretty basic but has a good feel to it.
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fall a bit back at the bottom, to get an even greater stretch. On the concentric, I
extend up and BEHIND my head (not directly over it) to keep constant tension on
the triceps. Reps vary but are usually between eight and fifteen.
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Rolling DB Triceps Extension crushers that require a bit of balance (a
Close-grip Machine Press neuromuscular plus) but, since the elbows are
Overhead Pullover Press not locked into place, you can begin with a
couple of inches of shoulder rotation to get the
weight moving. It is a heavy exercise that is easy on the joints.
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At some gyms in which I have trained, they have had machine bench press units
that I didn’t care too much for, but I found that they were GREAT for Close-grip
Machine Presses. I place a two-by-four or a cambered cable curl bar across the
handles and it makes for a perfect triceps exercise. You can even take it to failure
without a spotter (sliding down the pad to get into or out of position) plus you can
pull a pin to do drop-sets with these.
Larry Scott’s favorite triceps exercise involved an extension on a low pulley using
a special twin pedestal bench. Scott claimed it was the ultimate triceps exercise
and focused much of its effect on the long head of the triceps. I found a simple
substitute that can be done on those new Nautilus selectorized pullover machines.
By standing behind the machine and bending forward so that my forehead
rested on the top of the pad, you can grab the handle and perform what I call
the Overhead Pullover Press. I recommend you give it a shot. After some heavy
presses and extensions, it is a great finisher.
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Wrist Curl Chins, Rows and Rack Pulls work grip strength,
Reverse Wrist Curl I do a very direct tri-set of Wrist Curls, Reverse
Gripper Wrist Curls and either Reverse Curls, Wrist
Rollers or a Grip Machine. I set up the weights
in advance so I can cycle through them with
minimal rest. For the Wrist Curls and Reverse Wrist Curls, I sit on the bench used
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for seated cable rows. Ideally, you would want your hips lower than forearm
height, but I find this is high enough to get a full range of motion and be able to
drop the bar and it is only a couple inches from the ground. I go directly from
Wrist Curls to Reverse Wrist Curls. The final exercise (Reverse Curl, Wrist Roller
or Gripper) is done for reps to finish things off and then I have to shake my hands
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in order to disperse the lactic acid. Hammer Strength has a Seated Grip Machine
which is very good but I felt that if I just take one of my Captains of Crunch
Grippers it does just as good of a job. I like the localized burn the comes from
forearm work.
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Reverse Curl grip work. Forearms get stimulated a lot with
Hammer Curl other work. They are like calves in many ways.
You either have them or you don’t. You will
know within the first year or so of training if you
were meant to have awesome forearms or not.
M
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LEAN GAINS PRINCIPLES ] 38
C SHE LBY You need a straight-legged exercise like Standing
Calf Raises, Donkey Calf Raises or Calf Press on
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Donkey Calf Raise the Leg Press Machine. I don’t use the Calf Press
Standing Calf Raise option as much these days because I don’t feel
Seated Calf Raise as if I get as much stretch on that machine, plus
it takes a lot longer to load the machine. We
mix up rep ranges and tempo. Recently, I have
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been treating calves like arms, hitting them with a lot of volume and short
rest periods. They seem to be responding well. I am not getting Dorian Yates
calves but for Shelby’s calves, they are doing okay.
I am always mixing up rep ranges. I rarely go under eight to ten reps for
calves. I sometimes do twelve to fifteen, maybe twenty, sometimes even fifty
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reps for calves. Sometimes we will set up a superset or a giant set with three
or four exercises with no rest in between. Rest periods are always less than
a minute. For instance, yesterday we did ten sets of six reps with twenty-
seconds rest between each set. We are always mixing it up.
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45° Calf Slide because I’m looking for something in which I can
Seated Calf Raise go very heavy without the spinal compression of
Standing Calf Raises. The ninety-degree angle
DB One-Legged Calf Raise
of the hip (similar to being in a seated position)
also lets you begin with some pre-stretch on
the hamstrings and therefore the calves. Donkey Calf Raise machines (or DCRs
using the hip-belt on the old Nautilus Multi-Purpose machine) are also suitable
options.
Seated Calf Raises are still the simplest and most direct method for targeting
the soleus (deeper, diamond-shaped muscle of the calf). Heavy but deliberate
reps on these (I change the tempo from fast to slow but always with a full
range-of-motion) are usually followed by burns (short-range movements) until I
can’t move the weight any more.
I think that Dumbbell One-legged Calf Raises are underestimated. You might
assume that these do not allow the heavy poundages compared to all those
plates you can load onto the leg press when working calves but, when worked
one leg at a time, the range-of-motion in the stretched position increases by one
to three inches. Heavy one-legged calf presses on the leg press machine make
me feel as if I am going to jack up my spine. The moderate weight required for
One-Legged Calf Raises still gives me a great finishing movement. Use wrist
straps and go for higher reps with a slow pace and emphasized range-of-motion
(pausing for a hard contraction at the top and a slow stretch at the bottom).
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Weighted Crunch rotating exercises among three major functions.
Russian Twist on Stability Ball I try to do something for the abdominal column
Ab Rollout with some pretty direct resistance. These can be
either standing crunches with a cable or bands
thrown over the crossbar (of a power rack, chinbar
S
or cable crossover), kneeling cable crunches or reaching crunches holding a
45-pound plate. If I had one of those Ab coasters or the original Nautilus Crunch
machine, that might be my choice.
Secondly, I like to do something rotary like Russian Twists with a medicine ball
or Rotary Knee Raises (a knee raise in which you twist upward leading with the
left obliques and then the right). Despite what Yessis says about Russian Twists,
I keep my feet wide to lock my hips into place and nothing seems to hit that area
as well.
Lastly, I do something multi-plane like Rollouts on the Ab Dolly (going back and
forth in a W-formation) or Ab Pikes on a TRX. If neither of those is available I do
barbell roll-outs in an alternating V-pattern. In all honesty though, I tend to skip
this bodypart more often than I should.
I train the a couple times a week with three or four sets to failure. I do Cable
Crunches, where you are kneeling and grabbing a rope cable attachment. I also
do some type of Knee Raise, either and hanging leg raise or one where you
are sitting at the edge of a bench. That way you get an upper and a lower ab
movement. I sometimes will also do Woodchops from a high cable. I do abs as
a warm-up before my chest workout on Wednesday and my arm workout on
Sunday. A ten to fifteen minute ab workout gets my body warm and then I get
into my workout.