With Friday comes another random thoughts of the week post, where I am going to cover what has gone on this past week in bodybuilding.

Enjoy!

Up first I want to go back to something I touched on before, Dennis Wolf at the just past Mr. Olympia.

Reason being, is that, there is a big thread on what happened to Dennis at the Olympia, on one of the more popular bodybuilding sites on the web.

A Lot of people are saying that he should dump Chad Nicholas and switch to someone else.

Personally, I was not aware of all the people Chad has trained, but after reading the posts, I agree, I think he should get rid of Chad and try Pit Trenz or Charles Glass.

But again this is just my opinion.

Another thing that was pointed out on the thread was words to the effect that since he placed so low he will have less pressure, I agree with this, he can go back home, get his head together and just train and grow.

However, one point that Dennis needs to deal with now is qualifying for the Mr. O, as last year he was already in based on him placing in the top ten.

This means he will have to do at least one show, but maybe more, to qualify for the O.

But, in fairness to Dennis, this could be EXACLTY what he needs, because if something happens at the first show he enters, say he comes in flat, he can learn for this mistake and try and fix it for his next show.

Which can help him come prep time for the O.

I touched on this before, but Dennis has, according to what I’ve read, an extremely fast metabolism, so this can be a factor in why he just can’t get is condition spot on.

Another factor with Dennis, could be that his metabolism while still fast, it has started to slow, and since it was always very fast, he did not know how to deal with this.

Dennis is still young, as noted in a prior post I believe he is still in his twenties or just thirty, so he has plenty of time.

With another year of solid training under his belt Dennis can come back next year and really surprise a lot of people.

HANEY OR CUTLER

I saw this poll question and wanted to comment on it.

They are asking who has the better physique, Lee Haney or Jay Cutler

For those who don’t know Lee started his run of eight consecutive Olympia’s in nineteen eighty four.

To me it is no contest, Lee Haney all the way.

Better shape, small waist, to me he just looks better.

I realize Jay Cutler is big than Lee, but to me, again Lee just looks better.

O.K.

That’s all for this week.

HOPE YOUR WEEKEND GOES GREAT.

Until Next Week

WORK SMART

Just recently, I’ve been reading about high intensity training—well actually I have read about it for years, but seeing as how I just read about it again, I figured I’d give you my opinion on it.

High intensity training, the way I understand it, involves doing a couple of progressively heavier warm-up sets and then one all-out work set.

Yes, you actually only do one work set, but the set is taken to failure.

The high intensity style of training is brutal, but it works, however, there are many problems with it.

The fact that it is brutally hard, now there is nothing wrong with hard work, to the contrary you must work hard if you want to succeed in anything not just bodybuilding.

However, to me there is just too much of a chance for burn-out.

Every time you go workout, it has to be all out—how long is this going to last, a week maybe two.

Of course, I can hear people saying, well then you could just take a week off every couple of weeks to help your body recover.

Bingo.

Great concept, except for one thing.

You still go back to the same all-out training style and for my money; mentally this is going to get old really quick.

Sure every four to six weeks you COULD switch over to a more traditional bodybuilding style routine, where you do eight to twelve reps per set for multiple sets, all the while leaving something in the hole—meaning you don’t go to failure.

Sounds good right?

Wrong.

The way the high intensity people lay-it-out, (at least in my opinion) high intensity training is really the only way to make gains.

Wrong.

Tons of muscle has been built over the years using every single idea around.

Some professional bodybuilders have used high intensity training successfully—but to me this just compounds the problem.

Most professional bodybuilders have genetics that are so far ahead of most people it isn’t even funny.

They can use the above high intensity training and grow, because they have the genetics for it.

SOME COMMENTS

So where does that leave someone with average genetics, or even below average genetics—are you sunk?

No.

High intensity training works, as does every-other form of training, but only for a few weeks.

So if you want to give high intensity training a shot, do so but only for a few weeks, and keep a VERY close eye on how you are feeling.

So if you start feeling burned out, ie; loss of appetite, no desire to train, and lifts start falling off, stop using high intensity and take a week off of all training.

If this happens to you only after a week or so, then I would advise you to take a close look at everything, your sleep habits, your eating habits, everything.

If you are doing everything right and are still not going good on high intensity training, then simply stop it, and know that you gave it a shot and it just did not work out for you.

On-the-other-hand, if you are still feeling good after four weeks of high intensity training—stop it and go back to your regular bodybuilding style workouts, knowing that you can come back to high intensity training a few times a year, when you want to change things up.

SOMEMORE COMMENTS

If you decide to try high intensity training, there are three things that you MUST do.

First, warm up very well before your all out set.
And second, make sure you are getting at least six hours of sleep per night; however, eight would be better.

Plus, make sure your eating is spot on, no missing meals.

Make sure you are taking in plenty of protein to help with muscle growth and repair.

CONCLUSION

High intensity training, to me, is just like any other method, it works, but only for so long, and then you need to make a change.

If you’re up for a challenge give high intensity training a go.

Just don’t fall into the trap of believing it is the only way to train.

Until Next Time

KEEP MOTIVATED

One sports figure that I really admire is Tiger Woods, to be honest I don’t admire him because he is a golfer I admire him because of the way he plays.

Let me explain.

I think Tiger has pretty much nailed it down so that even if he were to retire today he would go down as one of the greatest golfers in history.

Plus he has enough money to live the rest of his life the way he wants to.

But, he still wants to win more tournaments, get more trophies.

Wouldn’t you think it would be easy for him to wake up and say, well, I’ve done enough I really don’t need to do much more.

But he doesn’t, and that is what separates him for all the others.

Same goes for training, yes, you just gained ten pounds—six months ago.

Of course after an all out training blitz you do need a break, but not six months.

Or are you simply living off you past gains, and not really motivated anymore to train as hard as you need in order to make another ten pound weight gain.

To illustrate what I am talking about, I want to bring something up that I read by Ron Harris in the current issue of Iron Man Magazine.

He said that he got put through a biceps workout by six time Mr. O Dorian Yates and he realized that he really wasn’t putting out as much effort as he thought he was, in his own training.

Sorry Mr. Harris if I missed quoted you a bit, but I was writing the above from memory.

SOME POINTS

The thing to remember is, are you really putting in a great workout, or are you satisfied with just going through the motions.

Another thing to consider is your eating and sleeping habits.

What I mean by this is, if you are chronically tired from lack of sleep or really do not take in enough quality calories to make gains, you may think you are training hard, but the reality of the situation is that you probably are not.
So make sure you have all your bases covered, as it is easy especially for veteran lifters to think that they have it all under control, when if fact they have been slipping up little by little, like staying up later than they used to, or missing meals.

All the while thinking that they are doing everything right, but wondering why their gains have slowed.

CONCLUSION

The next time you find yourself loafing between sets; re commit yourself to working at a quicker pace and really giving it your all—on every rep and every set.

Same goes for your eating habits.

Examine them and make sure you are really getting in six to eight quality meals per day or have you been slipping up and have been too tired to get those last couple of meals in.

Over time those kinds of things can make the difference between making gains and making none or losing fat and losing none.

It doesn’t take much to get into the groove again, and one other thing you can try is sitting back one day and thinking back to why you got into this sport of bodybuilding in the first place—not to mention flipping through an old muscle magazine as this can bring the memories flooding back, and along with it your old zeal and excitement for training.

Until Next Time

KEEP WORKING

Picked up the latest issue of Muscular Development Magazine and went through the interview that Ron Harris did with Mark Alvisi and wanted to comment on it.

First congratulations to Mark as this is a major accomplishment because of course, while you want to do damage in the pro ranks—you have to get there first, and this win got Mark his pro card.

Second, despite the fact that most people were saying that Mark was sure thing to turn pro, I’ve been following this sport for a LONG time, and have seen guys that were sure-to-turn-pro, get second and then third, and then second, and well you know the story, they just never got over-the-hump.

Third, it seems like Mark has a good head on his shoulders and knows what he needs to do to improve—and obviously he did the job from last year because he got his pro card.

My opinion of his physique is that while he has wonderful shoulders, he needs bring up his chest a bit, and add some more to his legs, especially the inner thighs.

Also, and this is just from the pictures I’ve seen in the magazines, Mark needs to keep an eye on his waist so that it does not get bigger.

But as stated above, I think Mark has a good head on his shoulders and knows what needs to be done—and will do it.

Plus, I feel he his doing it the right way, take some time off to put on some size and then compete.

To me competing just for the sake of it is not really worth it.

SOME COMMENTS

You must congratulate Steve Blechman the publisher and editor-in-chief or Muscular Development Magazine as he has put together a fine collection of young bodybuilders that can be battling-it-out for top honors at shows for years-to-come.

With Mark Alvisi, Evan Centopani, Erik Fankhouser, and probable soon-to-be pro Branden Ray.

Not-to-mention Dennis Wolf.

All of the above young men are just that, young, and will be around this sport for years to come.

Also, to be honest, Muscular Development Magazine has tons of great info in it every month, for guys like me, and I’m sure thousands of other young and not so young men, who simply love training, and want to learn everything they can to improve them selves, but have no desire to compete.

CONCLUSION

Congrats, again to Mark Alvisi on his overall win at the 2009 USA Championships and to Steve Blechman for putting together one heck of a magazine.

Until Next Time

NEVER STOP DREAMING

Just like well developed shoulders, I feel that one reason a well developed set of upper pecs is so impressive is that, well you really do not see too many people that have upper pecs that are well developed.

To me this can be attributed to one thing, the flat bench press.

While it is true that some genetically gifted bodybuilders can develop very balanced (meaning all areas of the chest, from lower to inner to outer to upper to all areas in between) chest development from just doing flat benches, most of us, myself included, see more in the way of middle and lower pec development from doing flat benches.

Of course, some people see very little growth at all in their pecs from benching, with most of the growth coming in the form of well developed triceps and front delts—and while muscle growth is muscle growth, most people want chest growth for their benching efforts, not growth in the aforementioned body parts.

ENTER THE INCLINE PRESS

Do you know what exercise was the number one choice for most people looking to build up their upper bodies’ back-in-the-day? (the 50’s and 60’s)

If you guessed the flat bench press—you must step to the back of the line.

However, if you guessed the over head press with a barbell—go to the front of the class you are correct.

O.K.

You might be thinking, what does the over head press have to do with building a massive chest, after all I thought it was primarily a shoulder exercise.

You are correct, it is, however, just like the over head press fell out of favor, another exercise, that never quite reached a high level of use—ranks as a better over-all upper body—and chest builder than the flat bench.

The exercise I am referring to is the incline press done with a barbell or dumbbells.

Why?

Truthfully it comes down to a number of things: First, unlike the flat bench, the incline press requires stricter form which helps prevent injuries. Second, it works those all important upper pecs, which ranks up there with the most neglected of body parts. Third, the incline press carries over far greater on the athletic field than does the flat bench press.

SOME POINTS

The incline press done with either a barbell or dumbbells is a great way to build your upper chest—however please don’t be overly concerned with how much weight you can lift, especially if you haven’t tried this exercise before.

Always remember, your goal as a bodybuilder is to work your muscles (in this case the upper pecs) hard enough so that they must grow—NOT to see how much weight you can get from point A to point B.

Also, if you have any shoulder discomfort from using a barbell, try giving dumbbells a go.

THE ROUTINE

In the beginning stick with the tried-and-true 5 x 5 program (that’s five sets of five reps per set, for a total of twenty five reps) and really learn or re learn how to do the lift properly.

After you’ve got the form down—then you can worry about changing rep schemes and adding weight.

One point, the incline press requires stricter form that the flat bench, so you might have to swallow your ego a bit and go down in weight more than you’d like—but remember your muscles don’t know how much weight is on the bar.

A TIP

Lower the barbell or dumbbells slowly to your chest and then pause for a couple of seconds before pressing the bar or dumbbells back up.

You want your upper chest taking the brunt of the work, not other muscles.

NUTRITION BASICS

As good as the incline barbell or dumbbell press is for building the upper pecs not much will come from all your hard work if you are not eating correctly.

If you are looking to gain mass—combine the above exercise with other big lifts like squats, dead lifts, and bent over rows, etc.—make sure your are getting one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight (so if you weigh one hundred and fifty pounds you would take in one hundred and fifty grams of protein) from sources like, lean beef, chicken, turkey, and eggs.

Up next are plenty of high quality carbs like oatmeal (preferably steel cut oats) brown rice, yams, and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

Along with this take in good fats from fatty fish like sardines, nuts, seeds and a good quality fish oil supplement.

A WORD ON POST WORKOUT NUTRITION

You see ads all over the magazines touting amazing sounding products.

However, lets cut the baloney, while some of those products are great, tons of quality muscle has been built over the years with nothing but good old fashioned hard work and good quality food.

No secret ingredients, no hype.

So please if you can’t afford those expensive post-workout (or any supplements for that matter) supplements don’t worry about it, just take in a good quality meal like white meat chicken and white rice after your workout (as you don’t want to much fat and fiber in your post workout meal as this will slow absorption) and you will be fine.

CONCLUSION

Honestly, I know if you give the incline barbell or dumbbell press an honest try, not only will you be well on your way to building another part of your X Frame Physique—

You might have to buy new shirts to make room for all of your new chest size!

Until Next Time

NEVER QUIT

A few interesting things happened at this years (2009) U.S. Open Tennis Championships.

First was Serena Williams (the younger of the two Williams Sisters) outburst over a foot fault call—which finished her tournament.

And Roger (the five time defending champion) Federer losing his cool over a late challenge being allowed.

Considering that both Serena Williams and Roger Federer were the defending champs—to me it brings up the issue of confidence, with then brings up the issue of mental toughness.

Wouldn’t you be confident if you were Mr. Federer—knowing that you basically OWN the court at the U.S. Open.

Same goes for Serena Williams—as she was the defending champion.

You might be asking yourself, how exactly this relates to bodybuilding.

To me it relates perfectly.

First, while I am all for switching routines, I think to many people get ants-in-their-pants syndrome and lose confidence in their current routine, so they keep switching routines in hopes of finding that magic one.

Second, it applies to supplements; people drop hundreds of dollars a month on the latest wonder supplement, only to drop serious coin the next month when the newest hot thing comes out.

They never give the first supplement a chance to work (not that it would as most supplements are hype).

AN EXAMPLE

I know a gentleman that committed to a business years ago, now the business was not flashy, but the way he related it to me was, once he committed to it, that was it, no wavering or changing plans—he did his research and he KNEW that what he was doing was solid.

Honestly, I know something about the business he went into and it is a high effort affair, hours and hours per day need to be spent working the business.

And you cannot really take any time off, because you need to do it daily.

However, he committed to it and now enjoys the rewards.

Same goes for the bodybuilder who commits to a course of action, say getting stronger on the basics—he did his research—found a solid routine—so he sticks with it—and over time builds an impressive level of strength.

Which, will, chances are, translate into more muscle when/if he switches back to a more traditional routine?

CONCLUSION

I know that the grass-is-always greener on the other side, but the next time you start a new routine—give it time to work.

Yes, it will be hard, but remember it is not where you start but where you finish.

Until Next Time

STAY FOCUSED

The rear delts are a funny body part, for a complete physique you do need to develop them to their fullest—yet what exactly is the best way to go about doing it.

I will be honest, when I started bodybuilding I read all the info and of course people recommended doing bent-over rear laterals for the rear delts, so I did them.

Then as I continued to advance my knowledge of bodybuilding I started to read that well, if you always made sure to do exercises like bent-over rows for example your rear delts got plenty of work.

So what exactly is the correct method of training the rear delts?

For me, it comes down to what you are trying to achieve.

For example, if you are trying to become a world class bodybuilder—then you absolutely should train your rear delts.

Because when you start moving higher and higher up the ranks, everybody is genetically gifted and has an amazing physique, so you can’t afford to slack off even a little.

So even though you are hitting your rear delts with various rowing movements—specializing on them would not be a bad idea.

Of course, if you happen to be one of those people who are genetically gifted with shoulders that grow no matter what you do, then maybe you could get by without doing any direct work for them.

Again though, if you are trying to be the best, why chance it.

However, if you are like most people, and you just train so that you will not embarrass yourself when you take your shirt off at the beach I think that just making sure you do a wide variety of rowing movements for your back would be good enough.

But, if you start feeling pain back there or feel that you are unbalanced then by all means add in some direct rear delt work.

Just be careful with it you don’t need to use a ton of weight, and to be honest, you would be better off focusing more on learning to feel the muscle—and developing a good mind/muscle connection with the rear delts.

After all, anyone can heave up a ton of weight—but what good is it if all you get for it is an injury or joints that ache.

Take your time and learn the proper groove on bent-over laterals and you will be miles ahead in the long run.

CONCLUSION

The rear delts may be a small body part, but if they are well developed they will add that little something extra to your physique—and that is never a bad thing.

Until Next Time

MORE IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER

Every once-in-a-while it is fun to think back to the good-old-days—those days when we were young and had not a care-in-the-world.

Summer vacation would roll around and we would spend our days playing football, baseball—just about anything that involved running around.

Of course, a lot of my time was spent flipping through the latest copy of whatever muscle magazine I could get my hands on.

CRAZY TIMES

I remember reading about the one-hundreds system, if memory serves, you picked a weight and I did one hundred reps with it, taking a couple of short pauses along the way.

Well…

I couldn’t just do one-hundred reps, now could I, no I went crazy, for some reason at this point the barbell upright row was my exercise of choice, and did something like three hundred reps, non stop!

I was sore for three days!

I’ve talked about this one before but—it is so crazy that I will repeat it.

I had been reading about negative only work and how effective it was, and like any young man I was obsessed with building big arms.

So one day I decided I was going to do negative only curls, I just couldn’t figure out how to do it.

Finally, I had the answer—using an old chest expander and chair and one of those doorway chin-up bars, you know the kind you wedged in between the doorway, I managed to rig up a method of doing negative only curls.

I mean it was seriously stupid to be doing them that way, but what a pump I got in my biceps.

It was unreal.

SOME COMMENTS

Whenever I read Dave Draper’s articles that they publish in Ironman Magazine or read the emails he sends I cannot help but think that somewhere along the line, something was lost.

That with all of the fancy equipment and scientific advancements we may have forgotten the simple joys of lifting—I cannot describe it as well as Mr. Draper does—but that maybe we have put too much of an importance on knowing everything—instead of as we did and Mr. Draper did—and I am sure thousands of his contemporaries did—we just lifted and strained and sweated—

Maybe not knowing exactly what we were doing, but we grew and learned and had fun in challenging ourselves to do one rep better than we did yesterday.

Sure we were over trained—but who knew a word like that even existed back then—but it didn’t matter—

All we wanted was the challenge, that one final rep, feeling the pump grow with each passing set—and best of all—

Knowing we were free to do it all again tomorrow.

..The Memories.

Until Next Time

KEEP WORKING

We’ve all had those times in our lives when people told us that we just were not good enough—or you want to be a bodybuilder—you’re way to skinny—you’ll never make it.

I’m a firm believer in the power of belief—the power of your mind.

How much do you truly want to achieve you dreams—are you willing to put one-hundred and ten percent effort into making them reality.

So it was with great interest that I read the article on the current Mr. Olympia Dexter Jackson in this month’s copy of Muscular Development.

Now, I know what your thinking—what can I possibly learn from a Mr. Olympia winner, after all his genetics are probably so much better than mine—it is not even close.

Well, according to the article Dexter weighed all of one-hundred and thirty seven pounds at his first contest—and this was after six months of training.

As you can see he was not exactly a young man who was always very muscular and strong.

But he kept at it and has added one-hundred pounds of muscle to his frame over the years.

I won’t spoil the article for you, if you haven’t read it, but needless to say, Dexter went through some lean times—and I am sure he felt like quitting at various times during his move up the professional bodybuilding ladder.

However, he did not, and now he is the current Mr. Olympia.

Besides believing in yourself when nobody else does, there is one more thing you can take away from the article on Dexter Jackson and it is this—

Dexter has a very fast metabolism and hence he does not have to diet too long to get into contest shape—however I am sure when he was younger this made it all the more difficult for him to put on mass.

But as you can see, it can be done, five solid pounds gained per year for ten years adds up to fifty pounds of new muscle on your frame—and a completely changed frame it will be—from the one you started with.

So to all of you hard gainers out there with super fast metabolisms, do not give up, keep eating just a little bit more, and giving it your all in the gym—and remember every pound gained (no matter how hard you had to work for it) puts you one pound closer to achieving your goals.

Until Next Time

NEVER QUIT

Like nutrition and training everyone has an opinion on what is the ideal way to handle the post-workout period.

Some feel you need to buy one of those specialized post-workout drinks.

Others feel that solid food is fine.

So what is the ideal approach?

Or is there even an ideal approach.

For my money, I feel it comes back to your current goals and genetics.

First, from all the reading I’ve done on the subject, I’m convinced that a straight whey protein shake—can get the job done—and is effective if you are not carb tolerant and are worried about gaining fat.

But you must realize one thing, there is a chance you are throwing away some gains by not having carbs in there post-workout.

Again, to me it comes down to your goals, are you willing to forgo some gains to stay more lean, or do you want all the gains you can possibly get.

Myself personally, I prefer to stay on the lean side so I am fine with just going with a protein shake after most of my workouts—sometimes it is a straight whey shake at others it is a mixed blend.

Also, of course, it comes down to genetics, the ultra hard gainers, the guys with super fast metabolisms that cannot gain a pound even from throwing back nothing but junk food are the ones that really need to pay attention to the post workout period.

SOME POINTS

Another approach to consider is your goals, once winter starts creeping in and you are less worried about showing ripped abs and more concerned with gaining some solid muscular weight—switch away from a straight whey shake after your workout to a shake that contains protein and carbs.

Then when winter starts coming to a close switch back to a straight whey shake while you are trying to lean out for summer.

It would be at this point in this post that I would like to be able to recommend a high quality post workout product—but I cannot because the one I liked—well lets just say I’ve read something about the company that I didn’t like so I’ve stopped recommending their product.

As far as a straight whey product I have no trouble recommending Optimum Nutrition’s 100% whey gold standard—as I feel it is a good product.

If you feel that a mixed blend works best—I like Beverly International’s Muscle Provider and Dave Draper’s Bomber Blend.

Note: I am going to be picking up a can of a mixed blend protein powder than I have not tried before—so stay tuned for a review!

CONCLUSION

Post-workout nutrition is something that I realize a lot of people have very strong opinions about.

To me though, it comes down to your current goals, what you put the most emphasis on—either leanness or maximum muscle—and of course your genetics.

By choosing the right product at the right time—you can maximize the potential benefits and minimize the negative.

STAY FOCUSED