Marvelous Melvin
By Melvin Anthony
I have read that both Craig Titus and Idrise Ward-El say they do their sets in the range of 12-20 reps all the time. Supposedly, this is easier on the joints and they still grow. This doesn't make any sense to me because I have always heard that for muscle growth, you want to stay around eight to 12 reps. Where do you like to keep your reps, Melvin, and can you tell me if you've tried going much lower or higher in reps before and what the results were?
I have tried going with lower reps, such as three to six, and always saw an increase in strength with no corresponding increase in size. I confess I have never gone higher than 12 reps for the upper body, because it just doesn't make sense to me to be using weights that are so easy to handle. I feel heavy weights are the only way to activate the muscle to grow, but they shouldn't be so heavy that the joints and tendons are getting more work than the muscle. So, my sets are always somewhere between six and 12 reps for the upper body (for legs I will go 10-20).
I start my sets in the 10-12 rep range and then add weight as I go on so my last couple of sets are with a weight that limits me to six to eight reps. If I ever go higher than 12 reps, it's only with finishing movements like cable crossovers, or because I'm doing a drop set. As for why the higher reps work for those guys, beats me. I just know what works for me and just about everybody else I have ever known. The only reason I'd ever consider going with higher reps is if I was injured and had to choose between using lighter weights or not training at all.
I have a real problem gaining weight, mainly because I have never had much of an appetite for food. About six months ago, I started training with an older guy at my gym who has competed and knows a lot. He told me he used to have the same problem when he was my age (I'm 20), until he began smoking pot. This guy (I'll call him Joe) makes a little money on the side selling weed and he hooked me up. I was never into drugs or drinking, not out of any moral reasons, I just was always into sports and stuff and wasn't interested. So, OK, I bought the pot and started smoking and my appetite sure did improve fast. Now I've put on over 15 pounds whereas I hadn't gained any weight for the year before I met Joe. The downside is that I'm not that hungry for good food when I'm stoned, just junk like cereal, ice cream and cookies. So a lot of the weight I gained is fat. The other thing is that because I smoke about five times a day now so I can eat a lot, I'm constantly tired and don't even feel like going to the gym. I told Joe about it and now he wants to sell me steroids and amphetamines so I can train harder and make better gains. I'm starting to think maybe I'm getting carried away. Joe is a really cool guy and I don't want to offend him, but I don't want to be using every drug in the world, either. What would you do in my shoes?
The first thing you need to do is get the heck away from this idiot Joe, who is doing nothing but trying to turn you into a junkie. People who sell drugs like to have clients that are addicts because that means they constantly need to keep buying more drugs, thus guaranteeing them a steady customer. Joe isn't a cool guy, he's a drug dealer who has tricked you into becoming a source of income for him. You should stop smoking weed immediately. The THC in the weed, the active ingredient that gets you stoned, also raises your estrogen levels- the last thing a bodybuilder wants. Higher estrogen means more body fat and possibly even gyno, or little man-boobs. And as you have already experienced, it stimulates your appetite all right, but mainly for simple sugars that do nothing but make you fatter. See the one-two punch pot packs to make you a chubby Charlie?
I have known bodybuilders who smoked marijuana on a regular basis, but it depreciated the work ethic in all of them. Pot saps your motivation and your will to accomplish anything. Stoners just want to sit around, eat junk food, listen to music and watch TV. These are hardly the activities that lead to success in bodybuilding or in life. As for methamphetamine, now you are really talking about a dangerous drug. I have seen TV news shows about meth addicts and they are usually dirt-poor, living in filth and missing teeth. The sad thing is that a lot of them had normal lives and were going somewhere before they got hooked on crank.
As for steroids, that's just another drug you don't need. At 20 years old, your body should be producing so much natural testosterone and growth hormone that you can make excellent gains without having to resort to drugs. On top of that, if your "friend" Joe is selling all these different drugs, it's only a matter of time before the authorities catch up to him. And when dealers get busted, they often rat out as many of their customers as possible with hopes of getting a break. So break off all contact with this loser and get yourself a new training partner, or even train alone. You'd be much better off.
Marvelous, first of all I don't know if this will run before or after the Arnold, but I hope you win the Arnold! It couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Anyway, my question is about foot stance on the Smith machine for squats. Because I have a herniated disk in my lower back, I do my squats on the Smith instead of with the bar. One thing I like about the Smith machine is that you can set your feet at different places you can't with a barbell, like a little bit out in front of you. I don't know if you ever squat on a Smith machine, but if you do, where do you put your feet? Right underneath you, or out in front? I can go heavier with my feet directly underneath me, but I feel my quads working more when I put my feet about six inches in front of my body, and I don't know which is better.
I never squat with a Smith machine because I just don't feel I'm training my legs right unless there's a bar on my back. But then again, I have never had back problems like yours that forced me to seek out other options. I would do both styles you're talking about to work different aspects of your lower body. With your feet directly under you, your glutes are able to assist in the squatting movement more, allowing you to hammer your thighs with the heaviest weights possible. When you put your feet out in front of you, as you have already observed, your quads get more of the workload and stimulation. I believe that for complete development, you have to switch things around, which is why I'm always playing around with foot stances and things like that. If you always do the same exercises in the same exact way, your physique can get an unbalanced look to it.
How much do you rely on fat-burning supplements when you diet for a show? I used to love the old Xenadrine from Cytodyne when it had ephedrine in it, but now I haven't seen any products that give me the same "kick." The new ephedra-free products might help you get just as lean, but they don't give me the energy the old stuff did. When I diet for shows, my energy gets really low. Does that happen to you, too? I guess I'm asking how important are fat-burners compared to your diet and cardio, and is there anything out there now that helps you burn fat and stay alert and energetic like the ECA products did?
Yes, I do get tired when I diet, and the toughest thing for me is making it through all the cardio (remember I use the Stepmill, and that thing kicks your butt). The weight training usually isn't a problem. The product I like best since all the ECA supplements were banned is Xenadrine NRG from Cytodyne, which I assume you have never tried. It's a pretty strong product, meant to keep you alert and energetic for up to eight hours. I took two tablets the first time and realized it was too much for me. My heart started pounding. After that, I took one and it was fine. I suggest you start off with one and see how you tolerate that. If it's good and you don't get jittery, you can try one and a half, and eventually as your body gets used to it, take two, as the label suggests. I do feel it helps your body burn fat for sure, but you also have to be on your diet and do your cardio. A lot of people eat crap and slack on their cardio and then expect a little pill to make up for it. Uh uh, it doesn't work that way. Put the work in, add in a fat burner and your results will be enhanced, but you have to put the work in with your diet and cardio first.
I was wondering if, for example, I use a four-way split and work delts and biceps on Monday and chest and triceps on Thursday, will my triceps be overtrained by being worked twice a week? I think this would be overtraining and my solution is to eliminate seated dumbbell presses and just do plenty of side and rear delt raises. What do you think of not doing a pressing movement for delts? Also, if my triceps are still sore when I go to the gym on Monday for chest, is my body telling me my triceps are still recovering and that I will be overtraining? And lastly, is one gram of protein per pound
of bodyweight enough? I follow a diet that's 60 percent carbs, 30 percent protein and 10 percent fat.
OK, first off I don't think one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight is adequate for a bodybuilder. You should be aiming for a gram and a half. If you ever decide to go on a lower-carb diet, say for a contest, you would want to bump up the protein to two grams per pound.
Eliminating presses from your shoulder routine is a very bad idea, unless you don't want your delts any bigger than they are today. The basic pressing movements like bench presses, overhead presses and squats are what build most of the size in any routine. Isolation movements like laterals will only do so much for you, and without presses, I can guarantee that your delts will never get that thick, round, full look like me and all the other top bodybuilders have. Don't worry so much about overtraining your triceps. I notice that most of the time the guys who make such a big deal about overtraining are the skinniest dudes in the gym. Then you have these enormous guys who don't even think about it, even though some of them probably are training too much. The only reason your triceps would be getting too much work on shoulder day is if you were locking out the presses and flexing the triceps hard at the top, which I have seen guys do.
Another thing that puzzles me is why your triceps are staying sore for a full 96 hours after training them. My suspicion is that you're either new to training or you are coming back from a very long layoff. Otherwise, it doesn't make any sense for you to be experiencing such long-lasting soreness. Another possibility is that maybe you are using too many high-intensity techniques like drop sets, supersets and forced reps for tri's. If you are, just do straight sets from now on and only use those techniques occasionally as shock tactics. Hope that helps.
The holidays were a quiet time for me, since I started my diet for the spring shows the day after Thanksgiving. On Christmas Day I just ate my diet food and went to the gym. On New Year's Eve, I did cardio early in the day and that night just spent some quality time with my wife watching movies and relaxing. I sure wasn't out at any parties getting crazy.
My goals for 2005 are to look better than last year, which is a significant challenge in itself. Once you win a show and look your best ever, you can't come back with the same package. I need to be a little bigger and bring better condition to the stage. Conditioning has always been the toughest thing for me, because I'm not a genetically shredded guy year-round like Dexter, Ronnie or Darrem.
In my personal life, I'm working now on completing my degree in biblical counseling. I went to college for four years as a criminal justice major, but was shy a few credits for my BA. Now, I have changed my major and I'm taking a full course load of four classes a semester to have my degree by the end of this summer. One of the classes I'm taking now is Hebrew and I can read it and speak a little bit now. Isn't that a trip? I will use this degree to work with troubled kids and help them change their outlook on life. Too many young people today make bad choices without thinking about the consequences and I want to be able to make a difference in their lives before they reach the point of no return. I plan to start doing this even while I'm still actively competing. A lot of people don't realize that once you retire from bodybuilding, the money stops coming in. There are no more prize winnings or endorsement checks, and you know we don't have any pension or even health insurance unless we pay for it on our own. I don't want to be one of those guys who falls by the wayside and becomes one of those "riches to rags" stories, where everyone says, "Ain't it terrible how so-and-so wound up?" Luckily, God gave me a brain and a heart along with my muscles, so I plan to put them to good use, too.
The disaster in Asia resulting from the tsunamis is so sad to see. Events like that make you realize how important family and spirituality really is, because all it takes is one big wave to wipe out all your material possessions. A tornado hit Inglewood, Calif., right around the same time and took some roofs off houses. All I know is that I'm covered by the grace of God in case of any disaster. Meanwhile, I haven't spoken to my good friend Dennis James since this happened. I heard he was in LA, but I'm concerned about his family back in Thailand. They lived pretty close to Pattay beach near Bangkok, an area I have seen was totally devastated. My thoughts and prayers are with the James family, hoping they all made it through safely.
And finally, my prep for the Arnold is going perfectly. I'm not sure about whether or not I'll do the Ironman yet and I still have a couple more weeks to decide that. But I have been holding at 240-250 pounds since Thanksgiving and getting tighter week by week, gradually. I still have the same team that was behind me in my NOC win, Pano Fragoulis and Chad Nicholls, so that gives me a lot of confidence as I head into the Arnold and the tough lineup I will share the stage with. The goal is to push it to the next level and display a physique that's noticeably improved from last year. That's a tall order to fill, but I'm working to make that happen every day. Talk to you next time, when I will only be a few weeks away from the big show in Ohio.
Thanks to all of you who have been offering your positive encouragement through my website, http://www.melvinanthony.com/. I appreciate all the love I get from you all.
Got a question for Melvin? Contact him through the "Ask MD" section of http://www.musculardevelopment.com/.
