Q&A, three part post: Lifting, lifestyles, nutrition, etc. **LONG**

[skunkworks]

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Do not eat any fruit or a sandwich with your PWO drink. NO! Wait for like an hour.

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Why?

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The goal of post-workout nutrition is to get fast-absorbing protein into your body along with simple sugars to make sure that your body doesn't start going catabolic in response to the stress of the workout. It's also an ideal time to deliver these nutrients to your muscles. The sugar in these post-workout shakes is meant strictly to spike your level on insulin to promote quicker protein uptake.

The problem with fruit is that it doesn't have all that much sugar, and the sugar that it contains (fructose) is broken down into glucose very slowly in the liver. Therefore, it does not provide the insulin spike you want. The same could be said for a sandwich which takes time to digest and break down into basic nutritional components. The bottom line is that liquid shakes made from whey protein and dextrose/maltodextrin are the quickest ways to spike your insulin level.

[StaticShock]

Thank you for the explanation skunkworks.

I've always been of the opinion that after the workout you should have a gatorade and a whey shake.

[1C5]

gatorade powder would be better than the liquid version as the powder contains dextrose and the liquid gatorade does not.

[TxRedMan]

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Thank you very much for the direction. I did the leg workout today and can say that I'm quite tired. I wasn't going as deep as I should be on squats so I will have to work on that. I did have a few questions about it though. You say that I should reach failure on the final two heavy sets of each exercise. Does this mean that I should be increasing the weight throughout or should it be the same weight each time?
Like squats are:
1x20
1x12
2x8
2x6
1x15

Should the last 6 and 15 be more than the others? Should it slowly progress each set? If you could elaborate on that it would be great.

Also where should I look for the creatine loading system and aminos and what company of whey protein do u recommend?

The last thing is that I really would like to have more than one day of cardio (ideally 3). Is this possible? If so where should I put them and I am willing to go in mornings (i lift in the afternoon) to run once or twice a week if I have to.

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First off- there's no excuse for not going deep when doing squats provided you're able bodied.

quit that sissy [censored] right now.

If I were doing the following rep volume for squats;

1x20 (i could probably do 25 max)
1x12 (i could probably do 15 max)
2x8 (i could probably do 10 max)
2x6 (i can do 4 on my own, and i need help w/ the last two)
1x15 (i can do 13 on my own, need help w/the last two)

so that means you're adding enough weight to meet the above criteria.

i.e., if you can do 135 fifteen times, then you don't want to be using 135 for your 6 rep sets, you'll want to use (this is a guess) about 205.

a few more random notes on lifting:

when doing incline bench press i reccomend that you find an adjustable bench. most gyms will have them, some will not. if your gym doesnt have an adjustable incline bench, i suggest finding a new gym.

the higher up you adjust the bench, i.e., the closer is gets to being upright, the more deltoid work is involved in the lift. i prefer to keep the bench just about as close to parallel with the ground as i can, which usually means keeping it set on the lowest setting. the reason for this is just like i described above, it cuts down on the deltoid involvement in the lift, and for a lot of lifters your delts will try and take over a lot of exercises.

if you find yourself doing a back workout and your biceps are getting a huge pump and your back feels less than fatigued, you know that your biceps are doing more than their fair share of work. the same goes for chest, if your shoulders are getting more pumped than your chest, adjust your angles and exercises to prevent that from happening in the future.

[theblackkeys]

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First off- there's no excuse for not going deep when doing squats provided you're able bodied.

quit that sissy [censored] right now.

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I just figured out that when I go just past parallel, my ass moves under my body, which makes my back round. I believe my hamstrings aren't flexible enough, or perhaps my back has too much arch, pulling my hamstrings tighter than if my hips were in a neutral arch. Any ideas?

[TxRedMan]

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First off- there's no excuse for not going deep when doing squats provided you're able bodied.

quit that sissy [censored] right now.

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I just figured out that when I go just past parallel, my ass moves under my body, which makes my back round. I believe my hamstrings aren't flexible enough, or perhaps my back has too much arch, pulling my hamstrings tighter than if my hips were in a neutral arch. Any ideas?

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it's really hard for me to get a mental picture of what you're talking about.

i'm going to throw some suggestions out there;

when squatting, try looking up slightly.

try using a wider stance.

[cbiz]

Thanks for the response, I did the barbell workout yesterday and did notice the excessive deltoid work on inclined bench. Im pretty sure the bench is adjustable so ill lower it down next time. Besides that looks like I'm set and have a nice routine to start me off.

The only other thing that I would like you to comment on is the idea of fitting in a couple more cardio days in my schedule (even if they have to be in the morning or something).

Thanks

[theblackkeys]

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First off- there's no excuse for not going deep when doing squats provided you're able bodied.

quit that sissy [censored] right now.

[/ QUOTE ]
I just figured out that when I go just past parallel, my ass moves under my body, which makes my back round. I believe my hamstrings aren't flexible enough, or perhaps my back has too much arch, pulling my hamstrings tighter than if my hips were in a neutral arch. Any ideas?

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it's really hard for me to get a mental picture of what you're talking about.

i'm going to throw some suggestions out there;

when squatting, try looking up slightly.

try using a wider stance.

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When I'm at parallel, my back has a normal to a little too much arch, as soon as I get past that, my back loses it's arch. I'm pretty sure it's because my hammies are stretched as far as they can, and now they are pulling my butt and back the other way.

When you stand up, the distance between the insertion points for the hammies is as close as it will get. Once you bend your knee, the distance increases and the hammies stretch.

[The Truth]

Awesome thread. I have a list of questions.

1. My left peck is smaller than my right. I think it comes from basketball in high school where I would shoot all day with my right hand. It isn't easily noticable, but with no shirt if you look dead on, you can see it for sure.

I have been doing like 3 days a week full body work out just to maintain athleticism, but I want to try to get bigger. I am going to do 5 days a week like the program you reccomend.

How should I adjust my workout to help my left peck catch up without giving up muscular progression for my right arm? Will maxing out my workout eventually come close to evening it out? (I imagine its not just my peck, but that muscle is large enough so that I can notice the size difference. Most like left sholder/arm smaller than right as well.)


2. Why shouldn't one work out full body hard every 3rd day? Why will results be slower/worse?


3. If i just went to the gym and punished bench press every day no matter how sore I was, and managed not to get injured, would i get big?

[johnc]

Muscle milk is the bomb - it's the best I've found so far. Why don't you use powder - it's a hell of a lot cheaper and definately better when you can throw some in your gym bag in a shaker bottle, add some H2O and go. I also like to add about 15-25 gms of whey protein to my post-workout shake as well as L-Glutamine for recovery.

I realize you've achieved some great results with your routine however I really believe that the tons of reps and sets you do (and encourage) leads to too much injury. That being said, a little background on myself: I've been weight training for about 20 years. I started off balls to the wall. 3+ hours a day, 6 days a week, hardcore for the first couple of years. It was great! My body changed, grew stronger and people really started to take notice. Then something happened - my shoulder started hurting. Work through the pain was my motto after all I had gotten such great results why stop? Well, it didn't stop. It got worse. I found myself avoiding certain excercises because the pain was so intense. I took time off. That helped - for a while. Then when I started back full speed the pain came back. My thoughts at the time were "I'm working out to get stronger and make my body better but why is this happening to me?"

Fast forward to now. My workouts are very different. I've learned the lesson that weight training (to build muscle) is largely an anaerobic activity. Intuitively one goal in order to build muscle is to keep your body in that anaerobic state by low-set, low-rep, high-weight. It took alot of courage to adopt this mentality because it really goes against the conventional thinking of more is better. I've gotten alot stronger (and bigger although that's a much more subtle aspect) since without the injuries. I hate pain - not the routine type that you always feel but the pain that you know is just not right. Probably more important than my routine is what happens outside the gym and that is rest and nutritrion. Good food, good supplements, and most importantly good rest are the real key elements to proper recovery. i also realize that getting ripped means getting the fat off primarily through good eating habits ie severly limit fast food. Aerobic exercise, although most of of might not like it alot, will greatly speed up the fat lose but should not be overdone (like I see so many women do). Anyways, that's my two cents worth!