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Trainer of Champions - October 2003 |
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Written by Charles Glass
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Thursday, 26 April 2007 |
I'm getting sick and tired of hearing about how your boy Gunter Schlierkamp is going to compete at 315 pounds at the upcoming Olympia and blow Ronnie away. What do you think this is, the county fair where they give the blue ribbon to the heaviest hog? What about shape and symmetry- don't they count more than sheer body weight? You should know better, as a guy who I don't think ever competed any heavier than 190 pounds or so. Enough with the Gunter hype, because bigger isn't always better! And I seriously doubt anyone can take the Olympia title away from Ronnie until he decides to retire, so dream on about the giant German doing it this year.
Whoa, ease up there my friend! Did you forget to take your medication today? I detect more than a little hostility in the tone of your letter. I think once I explain a couple things you will have a better understanding of the situation with Gunter. First of all, neither Gunter nor I have ever made any statement to the effect that he would "blow Ronnie away" at this year's Olympia. Ronnie is a great five-time champion and extremely hard to beat. We have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for Ronnie and what he has accomplished. But at the same time, he's a human being just like the other guys, and no man is unbeatable forever. In both the '98 and 2001 Olympias, first Flex Wheeler and then Jay Cutler pushed Ronnie to the very limits. You may know that Jay Cutler was actually in first place after the prejudging in 2001, but narrowly lost out in the posing round and pose-down. And whatever your opinion of the outcome, the fact remains that Gunter did defeat Ronnie at the GNC Show of Strength contest after last year's Olympia. For you to say Gunter, or any other of the top men, has no chance of winning the Olympia is not realistic or fair to them.
Now, getting to your charge that I have implied Gunter's heavier body weight will be the deciding factor in this year's Olympia, again you have misconstrued what I was talking about. I am well aware that what a tape measure or scale says has absolutely nothing to do with how good a man's physique is. As you pointed out, I was a successful amateur and later professional bodybuilder without ever being the biggest man on stage. Frank Zane, Mohammed Makkawy and Lee Labrada are three examples of men who never tipped the scales over 200 pounds in competition, yet were nonetheless at the top of their game in their time. When I talk about Gunter coming in heavier this year, it's merely a tangible reflection of the improvements he has made to his body. Gunter had a couple structural flaws in years past that were holding him back from doing as well as he should have. His huge legs overpowered his upper body and his wide hips gave him less of a V-taper than most of the men he was up against. Over the past couple of years he has added a lot more muscle to his shoulders, back and arms. While this additional muscle tissue has translated into a heavier body weight, the real impact has been that his overall shape and proportions are greatly improved.
I tell bodybuilders all the time that size isn't everything. Bodybuilding is a purely visual sport and a physique with outstanding symmetry and proportion can beat a bigger body anytime. How else can you explain Darrem Charles winning two pro shows over the past year? If bodybuilding were only about raw size, someone like Greg Kovacs would have won the Olympia several times by now, or Markus Ruhl. Will Gunter beat Ronnie this October? I honestly don't know, but I do know he will give Ronnie and Jay a real run for the money. And that will be because he's better than before, not just bigger. He has done the most important thing a bodybuilder at his level can possibly do, which is bring up his weak points and minimize his structural flaws with an intelligent plan and clear goals.
I am 17 years old and about to go through a workout program that a Marine Corps drill instructor gave me. Here it is:
Monday / Wednesday / Friday
Pushups - 5 sets x 20 reps
Dips - 4 sets x 20 reps
Chins - 3 sets x 8 reps
Sunday & Monday
Run - 1 mile
This workout is designed for week one. In subsequent weeks the number of sets and reps increases. I want to know if this program will pack on muscle. I know I will gain plenty of endurance, but will this give me muscle and strength like the men in the pages of MD? I have e-mailed several top bodybuilders and they basically say the same thing: "If you want to get muscle you should lift weights." I know this is not true. I've heard of many people getting a lot of muscle just by working out using their own body weight. With all due respect, please cut the bullcrap and tell me if this will work and list other workout programs using just body weight.
Before I address the issue you bring up, I have to comment that you seem to be a fairly stubborn young man. You say you have already put this question to several accomplished bodybuilding champions and they have all told you that weight training is absolutely necessary to build muscle mass and strength. Yet you refuse to listen to them. Now you are asking me for my opinion. How do I know that you will give any consideration to what I have to say? I could very well be wasting my time, as it seems you have made up your mind and can't be convinced otherwise.
The fact that you keep asking does mean that you obviously still harbor some doubts as to whether calisthenics can give you a physique similar to a bodybuilder's. And since there are probably others out there wondering the same thing, I will offer my thoughts. Doing push-ups, chins, and dips will give you some muscle size if you have never done any type of resistance training. The major problem with body weight exercises is that the resistance becomes pretty easy in a short time. Let's take push-ups, for example. An untrained beginner will have a hard time doing 10 push-ups. If he starts doing them three times a week or more, he may soon be able to do 20,30, maybe 50 at a time. Certainly his chest, front delts and triceps will have gotten a little bigger and stronger. But after this point, unless he has someone sit on his back, the muscle-building effects of the exercise will cease to continue. The muscles need a resistance heavy enough to limit repetitions to eight to 12 to spur muscle hypertrophy.
This isn't just my opinion, as literally hundreds of university studies have proved it. Using the push-ups as an example one more time, which of these two men do you think will have a bigger and stronger chest: a man who can do hundreds of push-ups, yet never weight trains, or a man who can bench press 400 pounds for 10 reps? I can tell you as a man who has been around the fitness world twice as long as you have been alive, it's the guy who bench presses. I, myself, was a gymnast for many years and the way we trained involved far more demanding body weight exercises than the routine you are thinking of embarking on (think about the rings, the pommel horse, etc.). I developed good size and strength in the upper body, but nothing like what I got from weight training later on.
Your Marine Corps drill instructor acquaintance has the best of intentions, but the physical training in the military is not geared toward building muscle size and strength. The main goal is physical endurance, as this is the most valuable attribute in combat. In war, soldiers often have to spend entire days on end walking or hiking while carrying heavy weapons and supplies. The best build for this is athletic, not big like a bodybuilder. Lugging around a great deal of body weight in a situation like this, even if it is muscle and not fat, is tough. Talk to anyone who has been through basic training in the Army or Marine Corps and most will tell you they actually lost 15-30 pounds in that brief time from the constant running and calisthenics.
The bodybuilders you corresponded with have built the type of body you want. They did so by years of heavy weight training and they know that this is the only way to get much bigger and stronger. Body weight exercises are fine for someone who wants to stay in good physical condition, but for anyone who wants to add a lot of size and strength, they simply won't do it. Progressive resistance training with weights, becoming stronger on exercises like the squat, bench press, deadlift, military press, weighted chins and dips, and rows is the only way to get where you want to go.
I am becoming terribly frustrated with my chest. No matter what I do, it doesn't get any bigger or thicker. It's embarrassing because my shoulders and arms are pretty good, and even my back is decent. My chest is almost flat, even though I bench press 275 pounds for one rep. I do incline presses, flat presses and the pec dec once a week for three sets each. Please help me!
I am not completely sure what you're doing wrong because you didn't provide me with as many details as I would have liked to see, but I will give it a shot. There are a couple of clues you give me that stick out right away as possible culprits to your flat-chest dilemma. When you say your shoulders and arms are better developed than your chest, this tells me they are probably doing more of the work when you train your chest than the actual pectoral muscles. This is a fairly common problem that is rooted in poor form and lack of mind-muscle connection. Basically, if you can't feel your chest muscles working when you do, say, a bench press, the chances are good your chest isn't doing much of the work. You may still be able to use pretty heavy weights if you have powerful anterior deltoids and triceps, but this is irrelevant in stimulating the chest itself to grow.
I can offer a couple tips to transform you from a "delt" bench presser to a "chest" bench presser. Guys like John Parrillo and Greg Zulak have written about this topic several times. The key is to position your torso correctly before you even start the set. Your shoulder blades should be pinched together and the shoulders must be rotated back and downward. A slight arch should be put in the lower back so your ribcage "pops up" a little bit. Mechanically, this puts the chest in a position where it's forced to assume more of the stress of the lift. Lower the bar slowly to the nipple line and then explode upward, contracting the chest as you do so. As crazy as it sounds, I would also practice posing the chest in most-musculars and side chests between sets and at home. Doing this over and over will really help you develop the ability to contract your chest at will. All great bodybuilders are able to contract their muscles while they train them, which is the true key to affecting growth.
Lifting weights is not the same thing as working a muscle. That leads me to my next suggestion. If you are trying to make your chest grow, what on earth are you doing seeing how much weight you can bench press just one time? I will occasionally have athletes go as low as five reps, but more commonly we keep the reps between eight and 12. The lower you go in reps below eight, the more you are working on the nervous system to build strength rather than breaking down muscle tissue and forcing it to rebuild itself a little larger each time.
Something else you may want to try is pausing the weight on your chest so that it comes to a full stop for each rep before you drive it back up. This eliminates momentum and forces the chest to get the resistance moving, since the shoulders and triceps are in a mechanically weaker position at full stretch. Finally, you may consider switching to dumbbells. Many a bodybuilder I have worked with over the years that complained about not feeling the chest work while using barbells has solved the problem with dumbbells. Because the shoulders and triceps aren't "linked" by a bar, the chest is better able to do the work required. The bottom line to solving your problem is to start connecting with your chest right away if you want it to grow.
I am 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds, with abs and intercostals you can see, even though I wouldn't say I was ripped. I am looking to enter a local bodybuilding contest next year and I know I still need more mass at my height to be competitive with the other super-heavyweights. The thing is, I am probably around eight to 10 percent body fat right now and I have no intention of getting any fatter. I think the whole bulked-up, off-season look is disgusting, and as a young single guy I know the women don't find it too attractive, either. I guess my question is really about diet. Is it possible for me to add the size I need without bulking up and getting fat?
I am totally in agreement with you on the bulked-up look. Not only does it look unappealing and unhealthy, it sets a bad example for bodybuilders everywhere. They see their favorite pro walking around at 320 pounds with a double chin and a belly out past his chest and they think that's how you put on size. I can tell you that it is completely unnecessary to get overweight while gaining muscle. Here's the catch. You do need to take in a surplus of calories to fuel muscle repair and growth from hard training. At the same time, if you take in too many calories beyond that point of surplus, the excess will be shuttled to body fat stores. Most guys get fat because they err on the side of caution, figuring that if they shove down as many calories as possible every day, at least they can be certain that they have provided enough fuel to grow on.
So how many calories a day should you be eating? Anyone who tries to do some quick calculation based on a cookie-cutter formula is just making a very vague guess, as far as I'm concerned. We all have different activity levels, different body compositions and different metabolic rates. What I suggest you do is start keeping track of your daily meals either on paper or with one of many nutritional computer programs available today. At the same time, have your body fat tested on a regular basis, say twice a month. Eat a little more food (clean food, not junk, of course) and see how that affects your weight and body composition. As long as you are gaining weight and your body fat is not increasing, continue to gradually up the calories.
Soon you should find the point at which you are taking in an adequate amount to support muscle recovery and growth that does not promote gains in body fat. I can't stress enough that the food you eat should be clean and healthy, such as lean meats and fish, fresh vegetables and a moderate amount of complex carbohydrates and healthy fats. Too many bodybuilders, in their quest to get huge, take the shortcut by eating fast food and complete junk like cookies, ice cream and pizza on a daily basis. They usually see a significant rise in body weight, but we all know where most of that is coming from- pure lard. You can indeed add mass without bulking up and getting sloppy-looking. Just be patient. Quality muscle does take time to accrue and doing it while staying fairly lean is a slow process. Take comfort in the fact that you will remain lean and fit-looking throughout, and unlike most bodybuilders, you will not have to undergo a very long and miserable dieting process when the time comes to compete.
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Performance Nutrition 