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Trainer of Champions - April 2004 |
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Written by Charles Glass
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Thursday, 26 April 2007 |
Any suggestions for bringing my hamstrings up? I've always had trouble with them since my quads are so strong, so I do the normal leg curls, stiff-legs, single-leg curls, etc., but they don't seem to grow like my quads. Too bad they weren't like my calves- I barely train them and they are almost 19 inches. I thought maybe my hams were just not very visible since I hold water in my glute/ham tie-in, but they need to get bigger, no doubt. Some judges at contests I've competed in have confirmed this. I've also heard the same thing on message boards where I posted some pictures soliciting honest critiques. Now and then I do drop sets on leg curls 6-12-40 in reps, sometimes do sets of 50 stiff-legs, but I don't see a difference yet.
It sounds like you are training your hamstrings with a variety of rep ranges and exercises, so I commend you on that. What I would be more interested in knowing, as you didn't indicate this, is when do you train them? I suspect that like a lot of bodybuilders, you train legs all in one session. That in itself isn't so horrible, but what most guys do is perform all their exercises for the quadriceps first: squats, hack squats, leg extensions and leg presses. Then, when all that's done, they drag their bodies over to a leg curl machine because it's time to train hamstrings.
The problem is that by then, they are already too exhausted to do any sort of justice to the hams. They feel more like calling it a day and going home! Think about how much effort it takes to go through a really good workout for the quads. I have seen some real workout machines in the gym, yet I can count on my hand the few who were able to apply maximum intensity and effort to both quads and hams at one time. Most people just don't have that superhuman endurance when it comes to weight training. My first suggestion is to do one of three things. One, train hamstrings first on leg day. Two, train your legs in an a.m./p.m. split, with hams in the morning and quads that afternoon or evening. Or three, work the hams on a completely different day, maybe on a weekly split like this:
Monday: hams, calves, abs
Tuesday: back
Wednesday: chest
Thursday: shoulders
Friday: arms
A schedule like that would offer you yet another huge advantage for hamstring gains. By training them first thing in the week after a full two days of rest, you will have the maximum amount of energy and focus to apply to them. You could even make Sunday night your weekly "cheat meal" to have a larger- than-normal amount of muscle glycogen available for your hamstring session the following day. I bet if you don't change a thing about the actual routine you are following now, but just make this simple scheduling change, your hamstring workouts will immediately take on a whole new dimension. You will be stronger, you will get better pumps and most importantly, the muscles back there will start growing at last.
But while we are revamping your hamstring training, I would also like to make a couple of suggestions for alternate training methods. First of all, have you ever tried sprinting? Not only is it an extremely time-efficient way to do your cardio, but it can also work the hams even harder than pretty much anything you are currently doing in the gym. The next time you get a chance to see sprinters, either at the Olympics or even the national level, check out the hamstring development on these guys and girls. I kid you not; the average sprinter at that level has better hamstrings than 85 percent of all competitive bodybuilders. They just sweep out in a big crescent shape from the bottom of the buttocks down to the back of the knees.
If you really want to do the toughest form of sprints, find a nearby high school or college stadium with some high stairs. Shawn Ray was famous for his stadium stair running. Not only did it melt every last ounce of fat from his body, but he became known for having some of the best hamstrings and glutes in the sport of bodybuilding. You can also get a lot more hamstring involvement out of exercises traditionally thought of as being for the quads. When you squat, don't just go down to parallel- go lower down until your hams are almost hitting your calves. These are called full squats and they really bring the hams into play a lot more than traditional squats to parallel.
Another pressing movement you can turn into a hamstring-builder is the leg press. The key is to set your feet way up high on the platform. Your toes should actually be over the top of the platform. Set your feet wider than shoulder width, lower down until you feel a stretch in the glutes and hams, and power it back up, pushing from the heels. A killer superset is to do a drop set of some type of leg curl and jump right onto the leg press for some high-platform presses. Your hams needed something new to shock them out of the stagnation they were in, and I have given you some good "shock tactics." Now, it's up to you to follow through on them and bring your hams up to par.
Charles, could you give me some advice on dieting for definition? I just began a job that demands 12-hour shift work. My hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for two days, then 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. for two days, then two days off. Then the cycle repeats. My workouts haven't been very good since I started this job.
I would have liked to know what particular obstacles you face due to the shift work. I have known men and women who have done similar types of shift work for their jobs, and the most frequent complaint I hear is how such an erratic sleep and work schedule plays havoc with your body clock. You probably know that our bodies follow a natural circadian rhythm that human beings have evolved into over many hundreds of thousands of years. Just as some animals are nocturnal and are naturally active at night and sleep in the day, humans are by nature diurnal. That means our instinct is to sleep when it's dark and work and perform other activities in the daytime.
Our metabolisms are fastest in the morning when we wake and gradually wind down as bedtime draws near. I would hazard a guess that the days when you work 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. are not the problem, but more likely the overnight shift from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. It's a big disturbance to your internal "body clock" to be working at a time when you're accustomed to being asleep. If you worked nights all the time, it wouldn't be long before you got used to it. I have known police officers over the years who confirmed this for me. In fact, you may know that Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman worked as a patrolman for the Arlington, Texas police department on the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift for 10 years. He got so used to not going to bed until 3 a.m. that he still turns in that late, even though he hung up his uniform a couple of years ago.
I don't have the ultimate solution for your situation, but I can offer some ideas. Since you work that night shift twice out of the four days and have two days to do as you please afterward, you could sleep during the day and stay up all night on your off days. By keeping the night hours four days out of six, you stand a much better chance of adapting to those hours. I would also try to find a way to train at the same time all the time so your body gets used to physically performing at peak capacity at a certain hour of the day.
Perhaps you could train at about 5 p.m. on the four days you either work late or stay up overnight. One thing I would not want to see happen to you is that you become dependent on sleeping pills and stimulants to get you "down" and "up" at the desired times. You are much better off doing this naturally. I would confer with your doctor, as he may have additional suggestions about how to be mentally and physically healthy despite the odd work hours you are keeping. And one last thought- is this the only job you can find? Unless this job pays an extraordinary amount of money, or it's a vital steppingstone to a better job, perhaps you should reconsider whether or not you really want it. There are plenty of jobs out there in America.
Now, as for dieting for definition, I don't see how it would be any different for you than other people. A clean diet with plenty of lean protein, healthy fats and fresh vegetables should do the trick. Depending on how active you are, adjust the amount of complex carbohydrates you eat so you aren't taking in more than what your body needs for fuel. I suspect part of your question concerned the length of your work shift- 12 consecutive hours. I can relate to that because although I do have breaks, I am often training clients at Gold's Gym in Venice from five in the morning until nine at night.
The key word for you is going to be preparation. You must "prepare" to eat well every day, and that means bringing all the meals you need to eat with you to work in a cooler or ice chest. If you have a refrigerator and a microwave oven at your job, that makes this process much easier, as you don't need to worry about ice packs or trying to eat cold food (and I have yet to meet someone who enjoys a cold chicken breast). Pack up all your food items in separate Tupperware® or Rubbermaid® containers, along with pre-mixed protein shakes and a jug or bottles of drinking water. As for the specifics of the diets, check out the diets of the NPC National Champions in this issue to see what type of meal plans work best to take off the unwanted body fat.
My back is wide and thick, except for one area below my traps. I do all kinds of rows and can deadlift 405 for 10 reps, but it still looks like there is some sort of big gap there. Is it possible that genetically, I don't have any muscle fibers in there or something?
Your problem is not one of phantom muscle fibers you were robbed of at birth, and it is far from unique. I see this lack of development quite often. It's especially apparent when I go to watch bodybuilding contests and the guys are dieted down to five percent body fat. Let me tell you, a man can hide some flaws in off-season shape, but when he is ripped, it's all out there as plain as day. Whatever needs work is quite obvious.
The area you are referring to is not beneath your trapezius muscle; it's actually the whole bottom half of the muscle. Most people think of the traps as just being that part between your shoulders in the back and surrounding your neck- what you see bulging up on either side of the neck when a bodybuilder squeezes into a crab most-muscular pose. The truth is that the traps originate at the base of your neck and insert way down, about two-thirds of the way down your back. While this neglected region does get some work from all types of rowing movements, your lack of development is proof that in many cases direct work is required. I have found several good methods of hitting the middle and lower traps over the years. Here are a few:
Incline Shrugs. Lie face down on an incline bench with a set of dumbbells on either side of the bench below you. Reach down and grab hold of them, using wrist straps to reinforce your grip, if need be. Shrug up and squeeze your shoulder blades together for a count at the top of each rep. If you really want to fry the mid-traps, start pulling the dumbbells up in a two-hand row once you can no longer do any shrugs. You may need to have a slightly lighter set of ‘bells ready on the ground for this.
Behind-Back Barbell Shrugs. These were a favorite of eight-time Mr. Olympia Lee Haney (Ronnie still has three Sandows to go before he breaks Totalee Awesome's record). Lee was the original king of the thick back, and if you haven't seen photos or videos from his Olympia reign, it was equally thick from top to bottom. Part of the reason was that he recognized a relative lack of development in his middle traps early on in his career and came up with this exercise to amend it. If you have a flat butt, you don't need to do anything special to perform it. If, instead, you have very large glutes, you may need to lean back slightly so the bar has room to move as you shrug up and squeeze.
Behind-Back Upright Rows. A third exercise that will hit this area of the traps is the upright row behind the back. Obviously, you can't pull as high as you can when doing standard upright rows with the bar in front of your body. You should start with the bar around the level of the top of your hamstrings and pull it up to your lower back and squeeze the scapulae together.
I wouldn't do any regular shrugs or narrow-grip upright rows for at least three or four months. Focus on these other movements so your middle and lower traps have a chance to really grow. Good luck!
I really want to look like those guys in the pages of MD, but I just can't seem to find the motivation. I belong to a gym, but I probably go about twice a month. I am 5-10 and 200 pounds with a potbelly. I try to eat healthy, but mostly it's fast food and snack foods like chips and cookies. You're a top personal trainer to the guys with perfect bodies, so can you give me some tips on how you motivate them?
Well, let me clear something up, as you seem to be a little confused about what it is I do. It's true that I encourage and motivate my clients to push their bodies past where they have been before and continue making improvements. But I do not have to actually motivate them to get to the gym and meet me in the first place. These are all highly motivated individuals who set goals and accomplish them on a regular basis. You claim you really want to look like those guys? That's not entirely true at all. You think it might be nice to have an incredibly muscular body, but you don't really want to have one, at least not too badly. How can I say that, without even knowing you? I don't have a degree in psychology, but having been a personal trainer for over 20 years now, I do have a real insight into what it takes mentally for a person to get in great shape.
It has nothing to do with some daily affirmation or subliminal tapes. It all starts with desire. All the top bodybuilders I train are very different men with different personalities, but they all have the same thing in common. They want to be the best they can be, more than anything else. Because they have this potent, passionate desire to be champions or to craft their bodies into the most perfect form possible, they don't have to motivate themselves to get to the gym and bust their tail. Do you think I am on the phone every night, urging them to please come work out with me the next day? If you really, really wanted to look like a bodybuilder, that "want" would be all the motivation you need to train hard several times a week, eat multiple nutritious meals every day and get plenty of quality sleep.
You have probably heard the phrase used by athletes, "You gotta want it?" Those aren't just words used to sell running shoes or sports drinks. Training like a bodybuilder is tough and demanding. Nobody would endure it unless they had a burning desire to sculpt their bodies and make their muscles grow. So as harsh as it may come across to you, if you really wanted to improve your body, you would be doing the weight training and the cardio and you would be making healthier food choices. I will leave you with a quote from Yoda, the wise old Jedi master from the "Star Wars" movies: "There is no try. There is only do."
Got a question for Charles? E-mail it to him by logging onto www.musculardevelopment.com.
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Performance Nutrition 