I’ve read a large number of bodybuilding articles over the years and to me one thing seems apparent.

Over doing it on one style of training really doesn’t seem to pan out all-that-well, even for some of the top pros.

I say this because, I’ve been reading about a high level pro bodybuilder and another, lets say high level amateur bodybuilder that both seem to train very heavy.

Both have incurred injuries over the years, although one more than the other.

I realize that this is only two, (actually three because I’ve read about a similar top-ish level pro who trains in the same fashion) bodybuilders out of thousands, but these guys have genetics on top of genetics.

Meaning their muscles have muscles.

So if these guys are getting banged up, from the constant heavy lifting, what happens to the guy with average genetics?

SOME POINTS

My point here is that, while heavy lifting is great, don’t get so caught up in it that you can never take a brake from it.

In fact, I read a study, and the way I understood it was, that higher rep lifting helps to repair the damage done to joints from heavy lifting.

Again, this was just my opinion, but it stands to reason because high rep work stresses the muscle more than it does the tendon—again in my opinion.

Plus, as much as I like lifting heavy, sometimes you need a break from it.

AN IDEA

If it was me, and I wanted to switch up my routine, either for variety’s sake, or to help rebuild the damage years of heavy lifting probably have caused my joints, or because my joints are bothering me now, I would cycle on and off between heavy low rep work and higher rep work.

How high, is high rep.

For my money, I’d go with sets of twenty.

Go with six to eight weeks of heavy lifting and then switch to six to eight weeks of higher rep work.

You could use the same exercise, but I would totally change things up for the high rep work.

First, you must remember the goal of this high rep work is to flush blood into your muscles and help heal any injuries.

So don’t be too concerned with how much weight you are using.

And second, chances are you will get a shot of new growth simply because of the change.

ONE LAST POINT

Heavy weights and low reps are great, but always remember this one point.

You do not grow when you are hurt and cannot train, so by mixing things up, you may just help prevent future problems, which will keep you in the gym training.

CONCLUSION

The internet is good and bad; it is good because you can find tons of info and any topic very fast.

It is bad because you can find tons of info on any topic very fast.

Meaning, you can find out how such-and-such top pro or top amateur trains.

And while it might be nice to know, following their routine, especially if you really don’t know much about bodybuilding, can really be a bad thing.

Remember, there is no one way to build muscle, everything works, but only for so long, which is why it is always a good idea to shake things up every so often.

Your muscles and joints will thank you.

Until Next Time

KEEP AN OPEN MIND

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

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

I don’t know of a single bodybuilder or just general fitness enthusiast out there that does not like doing curls.

Does not matter what kind, straight bar, ez-curl bar, dumbbells—they are all good.

But there is a catch.

You’ll get more bang-for-your exercise buck by doing bent-over rows or dead lifts.

I can already here you start to moan and say, but I don’t like doing those exercises.

Or how about a hard set of twenty deep breathing squats—not many people enjoy doing those.

But—

And this is the point, the men and women who can push themselves to do them and then push themselves past the pain—and not stop the set before it is truly over—are the ones who seem to keep improving.

Year-after-year these same people will continue to force themselves to work harder—not easier.

Yet another group of people will keep coming to the gym and for some reason always find a way of avoiding the heavy stuff—no surprise these people look the same year-after-year.

Now, I am not saying that you have to grind yourself into a pulp every workout—no that would be stupid.

What I am saying is that we should all strive to make the most out of every workout—and deep down we all know that endless sets of curls and bench presses really does not cut it.

SOME POINTS

If you haven’t squatted or dead lifted in a long time (or done any of the truly hard lifts in a while) start slow.

The next time you train legs do only one or two sets of deep—but-to-the-floor squats—in perfect form—does not matter if you need to use an empty bar to do it.

Then, call it quits for legs that day—I know it does not seem like much, but trust me if you have never squatted or haven’t squatted for a long time—you will thank me—and so will your legs.

Also, remember, making a move back to the hard stuff like, rows, chins, dead lifts, squats, etc., will require more energy, so pay close attention to your diet and make sure you are taking in plenty of high quality calories-not to mention some high quality post workout nutrition.

CONCLUSION

I know that a workout consisting of nothing but curls and press downs is fun—but will it really help you improve your physique—chances are it won’t.

So the next time you are in the gym break out of your comfort zone and try doing an exercise that you really do not enjoy—because of the sheer amount of work involved.

Sure your workout might not be a cake walk—but the muscle you will build will be sweeter than any piece of cake you could ever eat.

Unit Next Time

TRY HARD

I love bodybuilding as much as anybody—I love the pump—the all-out effort it takes to get that one-last-rep—basically I love bodybuilding.

But.

One thing I do not believe I have ever seen talked about in any magazine or online forum is training for the mind.

I am not talking about mental rehearses of workouts.

What I am talking about is making sure you are well rounded outside of the gym.

Sounds kind of strange, however, it really isn’t.

I know myself; I am always flipping through a muscle magazine or reading a book about bodybuilding.

But what about other topics—I love reading about the Amazon rain forest, for example.

And, I will be totally honest, I check out tons of material, I do not always finish every book that I start—but I like to read and do not mind looking at a vast array of material.

Sure I am partial to books on bodybuilding, training or nutrition—but I realize that there is more to life than a steady diet of bodybuilding magazines.

CONCLUSION

Bodybuilding is more than just a hobby to me—it is a lifestyle—but I realize that I need to keep my brain sharp by reading about a wide variety of topics.

So the next time you are out-and-about, stop in at your local library and take a look around—you may not find something that you like as much as bodybuilding—

But you never know.

Until Next Time

KEEP YOUR MIND SHARP

I know I just recently posted my top ten for the upcoming 2009 Mr. Olympia, however, I wanted to add some additional thoughts about the up coming contest.

First, I must admit that I am curious—can last years surprise winner (at least to me) repeat and become a two time champ.

Or.

Are we going to see a return to the days of yore when the giants ruled the stage—meaning former and two time champ Jay Cutler and eight-time champ Ronnie Coleman.

That brings up another point—when Ronnie was winning it year after year he was dominating the sport, so it will be interesting to see if he can recaptured that same form and grab number nine.

Same goes for Jay, can he also reclaim his past form and become a three time champ.

On an aside—I think Evan Centopani is making the right choice in opting out of this years Mr. O.

The young man has massive shoulders and arms—however he needs to bring up certain areas like his pecs and back—and after reading an interview he did in the recent issue of Muscular Development he seems like he has his head on straight and is determined to make his mark in this sport.

Looking forward to seeing what he brings the next time he competes.

CONCLUSION

Those were some of my thoughts regarding the upcoming 2009 Mr. Olympia.

I will end by saying this.

With two former champs competing—I read the Ronnie is competing—along with Jay, it is going to be one heck of a contest.

I CAN’T WAIT.

Your opinions are very welcome.

Until Next Time

KEEP-AT-IT

With summer time nearly here I can almost see people gearing up on the cardio to get rid of this past winter’s bulk.

Which is why I decided that now might be the time to talk about the practice of bulking up, to build muscle.

In theory bulking up (for anyone new to bodybuilding, bulking up is the practice of eating more and training hard and heavy to help build more muscle, and usually this is done during the winter months) sounds good, after all, more calories plus hard training equals more muscle, right?

In a perfect world maybe, but there are plenty of factors to consider, the first of which is, how lean are you?

I will use myself as an example, when I bulked up I was a young man in my late teens and I could have been used as an anatomy chart by the local college.

In-other-words, I was as ripped as you possibly could get.

However, if you can barely see your abs I don’t think bulking up is the best strategy.

Because even with the best plan in the world, you are still going to gain some fat along with any muscle that you gain, so if you already have too much fat on you already, this, chances are, will just add to the problem.

I can hear some people shouting right now,

“But hey I’ve read that all the pros bulk up in the off season!”

While it is true that some professional bodybuilders bulk up in the off season, consider this, most if not all of them, have super genetics, which means more of the weight they do gain will be in the form of muscle—and not fat.

For the average bodybuilder out there, they might gain one pound of muscle for every two or three pounds of fat that they gain.

So packing thirty pounds in the winter will lead to a lot of fat that you must burn off come summer time.

Plus, due to all the fat that you’ve gained, there really is no way of knowing how much muscle you have really gained.

So by the time you diet down, you might only end up with five pounds of muscle for all of your work.

In part two of this post I will discuss how to go about gaining muscle without the need to bulk up in the traditional sense.

KEEP PUMPING!