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Trainer of Champions - January 2005 |
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Written by Charles Glass
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Thursday, 26 April 2007 |
Editor's Note: This month, Charles will begin an exclusive new section of his column to keep you up to date with his star clients. He does not wish to discuss those who are under contract to Weider, such as Gunter Schlierkamp, out of respect for their exclusive arrangements. All others are fair game and Charles is brutally honest in his assessment of their physiques, work ethic and more. Check it out following his questions and answers!
I am a high school senior who bodybuilds, but I have a major
problem. I just can't find the time to eat five to seven meals per day. School
starts at eight in the morning and ends at 3:20 p.m. I also have a part-time job that averages 25 hours per week. So, on any given work day, I will go to
school, come home and go straight to work and won't get home till 8:30 at
the earliest. I was wondering if you could come up with a convenient way
for me to get the nutrients I need during the day, because, you know, I
just can't walk out of class or take a break at work whenever it's time for
my next meal.
Before I address how you can, in fact, keep a steady stream of nutritional building blocks coming in, I want to make sure you take a look at your attitude toward fitting your eating into your daily routine. It sounds to me like you are already starting to feel sorry for yourself because you don't have all the time in the world to chow down to your heart's delight. And you're still in high school!
I think a lot of people get their minds warped by reading about how the pro bodybuilders live. Pro bodybuilders are professional athletes and their job is basically to train and eat and build the most impressive physique they are capable of. This is how they earn their living, through endorsement contracts and prize money from contests. Therefore, they can pretty much eat or train any time of day or night they please. I can assure you that 99.9 percent of bodybuilders out there, including more than half of those carrying IFBB pro cards in their wallets, do not have this luxury. Most men and women who bodybuild also work, go to school, take care of kids or elderly parents, and have all of the other duties and responsibilities that come with living in the real world and trying to make a decent living. Most bodybuilders face the same exact challenge you do, of getting all their meals in despite hectic schedules.
You think you have it rough? I have known female bodybuilders who were single moms, worked full-time and went to school to better themselves- free time is a concept that doesn't even exist for them! Now that we have that straight, let's look at your situation. Much of your day you are in school or working, and don't have the time to sit down and eat a solid food meal. Back when I was your age (and Richard M. Nixon was President!), this would have been quite a quandary. Luckily for you, in 2004, we have all sorts of shakes and bars, which are essentially engineered foods packaged in a compact form and convenient to consume. Bars are easier to carry around and eat, but I prefer shakes. In your case, to get the most nutritional bang for the buck, I would suggest you use MRPs, or meal replacement powders, rather than just straight protein powder. MRPs give you a good spectrum of protein, carbs and even some healthy fats.
To make them even more effective, you should actually add a little extra protein powder to the MRP to get the protein total up to 50-60 grams per serving. To make this all as fast and convenient as possible, here's what you need to do. Get yourself a few 24-ounce Tupperware or Rubbermaid containers. Every night, figure out how many shakes you will need the next day and put the dry MRP and protein powder into each bottle. Take those and a big water bottle with you in a backpack. When it's time for your shake, add water, mix and drink. If you have to be a little more discreet so as not to disturb the class or bother your teacher, do this between classes. If you have a refrigerator at your workplace, you can bring the shakes already mixed (since they usually all mix better in a blender than shaking inside the bottle) and get to each one when it's time for a meal. And when you do have the chance to eat real food, always take it.
It won't always be easy to get all the nutrients you need to support your training and recovery, but that's part of the challenge of bodybuilding. If it were a snap, everybody and their brother would look like the guys in the magazines. You have to be intensely dedicated to reaching your goals and willing to do what it takes.
What are your thoughts on rest-pause training? The late Mike Mentzer seemed to think it was a very effective way to increase the intensity of a set, as did the late Trevor Smith, who had BFT (Beyond Failure Training). Do you think it's any more effective than something like drop sets? How often would you use it? Are there any particular exercises or body parts you think rest-pause might be best suited for?
I am not a big fan of rest-pause training. Personally, I think it's dangerous and puts you at risk for tearing a muscle. An intensity method I prefer to use with my clients is what I call a "resistance set" and we usually use the Smith machine for it. What we will do is go through a standard set and fatigue the muscle, then set the safety stops so you are only able to do the last half of the range of motion. We will continue doing these partial reps with the same weight until we reach failure again, and that way we tap into every last muscle fiber in that muscle group. What I see happening with people doing standard rest-pause type sets is that they are trying to do full reps and get stuck trying to push out of the bottom position where the muscle is in a fully stretched and elongated state. I don't know if you realize this, but at that point the stress isn't so much on the muscle as it is on the joints and especially the tendons and ligaments. Instinctively, most trainers will cheat to get a burst out of that bottom position they are stuck in, which amplifies that stress even more and often, this is how you tear a muscle. If you do choose to try rest-pause training, I would strongly recommend you shorten the rep stroke on the second part of the set and not lower all the way into a deep stretch.
I'm on a schedule which looks like this:
Day 1: chest, triceps
Day 2: back
Day 3: rest
Day 4: shoulder, biceps
Day 5: legs
Day 6: rest, repeat
Please tell me what you think of this workout schedule. Also, is it okay
to do deadlifts on leg day? And finally, which are the best days to
work forearms and abs?
I have said it before and it bears repeating. I think that for most people, the body responds best to a two-on, one-off schedule like you are following right now. For all but the most gifted athletes, it's very tough, if not impossible, to keep up the intensity when you are training more than two days in a row. As for how you have arranged your body parts, let me explain how I like to do that and then you can decide whether you want to shift things around a bit. I always have my clients train their weaker body parts on the day after the off day. That way, they are mentally and physically fresh and can put out the best effort. On the second day, it makes sense to work a stronger muscle group that you don't have any problems getting results with. It's going to respond anyway, no matter what you do. So you need to look at your split and determine if you are conforming to this strategy.
Your next question was about whether you should do deadlifts on leg day. I'm not sure whether you were talking about standard deadlifts from the floor, or stiff-leg deadlifts for the hamstrings. Regular deadlifts work the quads, glutes and hams very hard, along with the lower back and traps. You may want to do them on back day if you're squatting on leg day. Trying to do both heavy squats and deadlifts on the same day is a double whammy on the lower back and most people find that whichever one they do second in the workout suffers significantly. If you don't squat, feel free to do deadlifts on leg day.
Regarding stiff-leg deadlifts, that is one exercise I give the big thumbs-down to. As far as I'm concerned, it's nothing but a way to stretch the hams with added resistance. It doesn't build any muscle in the hams at all. I do think it's a very dangerous and an unnatural movement. I have seen many athletes injure their lower backs and hamstrings going heavy on stiff-legs. Garrett Downing is a recent example. He tore his hamstring a couple of years back using 405, if memory serves. If you're going to do stiff-legs, do them light just to get a good stretch, and keep a slight bend in your knees, as well as an arch in your lower back. You don't want to get hurt doing an exercise that was never going to add an ounce of muscle to your body, anyway.
Next you wanted to know when to train forearms and abs. Forearms are best done after arms, or biceps if you're doing bi's. Abs can be done with any body part, but I would do them after you train the body part and not before, like some people do. Your abs won't suffer if you train them last, but a hard ab workout can detract from training other muscle groups, particularly legs.
I need a little advice about how to train women. I've been looking through bodybuilding.com for women's articles about training
because a female friend of mine wants my help, as does my wife. Nearly all the articles I've found written by women encourage training muscle groups twice a week, especially legs. Now, this goes totally against my understanding of weight training as I have always thought it was best to hit each muscle once a week. So, I thought of your new client, IFBB pro Joanna Thomas; her results in the gym speak for themselves. Does she train muscle groups once or twice a week? Why this trend of women training muscles two or three times a week? Do they really recover that much faster than men? Or do you feel they should train with the same frequency as men do?
It all depends on the woman and what her goals are. You can't compare a woman who competes in the Ms. Olympia to your average housewife. Joanna is trying to be as muscular as possible to become the world's best female bodybuilder, whereas the average woman in the gym is just looking to "tone up" a little, lose the flab on her hips and thighs and look better in clothes. Joanna trains every muscle group once a week because we hit it so hard that the body part needs that full seven days to recover.
Women tend to have a lot more stamina and endurance than men. Guys may have it on the weights, but usually women can kill them on reps, taking sets a lot further and being able to withstand more of the lactic acid burn than their male counterparts. It's funny you mention legs, because that is the one area Joanna is focused on improving. Previously, she had been training them twice a week while she lived in Great Britain, but now that she's training with me she only hits them once. The extra recovery time is having obvious results, I might add.
Why do most women's articles recommend training legs twice a week? I have a feeling it goes back to the myth of spot reduction. Most women carry a lot more fat on their lower bodies, so they believe that by training them more often they will get rid of the saddle bags and big butt many have. You have probably observed that women in any gym or health club tend to spend far more time on the leg machines than anything else. Ironically, the guys have the opposite habit- they will train almost exclusively the upper body and do just a little work here and there on their legs (I'm talking about average gym and health club members here, not the minority who are very serious about their training).
But let's get back to your situation with your wife and her friend. How often you have them train each body part is totally dependent on their goals and how hard they are willing to train. If they just want to tone up, they could probably do pretty well with three whole-body workouts a week, such as on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with cardio done after the weight training and at least two other times per week on off days. If they aren't going to be training too heavy and taking sets to failure and beyond, their muscles will be able to recover adequately between those workouts. If, however, they are interested in working really hard and shaping up their body with some muscle in the right places, you would want to get them on more of a standard bodybuilding split routine. So, to sum it up, I don't think women recover much faster from men, if the intensity of the training is equal.
I'm 24, 6'3" tall and was up to 210 pounds with around 10 percent body fat after a few years of training (starting at 150 pounds when I was 18). But because of injuries, I was forced to take over a year off and lost 35 pounds of weight. I have never eaten enough calories (very skinny body type) and I am finally starting to see the benefits of eating well. So, my question is: I have 30 pounds to gain back and would like to know how many calories I should be eating a day. I have no idea if it is 3,000 or 3,500 or more. Could you give me some idea where to start?
I know a lot of people want to be told exactly how many calories they need to eat to either gain muscle or lose fat, but there is no way to accurately say that, as we are all individuals with different metabolic rates and activity levels. There is one very simple and effective method to use. Get yourself a little notebook and start recording your daily meals. Add up the calorie totals. Also, record your bodyweight once a week. If you are not gaining weight after two weeks, that tells you that you aren't taking in enough calories. So, if you were eating 3,000 a day, now you need to bump that up to 3,500 and watch what happens. If after another two weeks you still aren't gaining weight, you increase your calories again by 500 to 4,000, and so on.
At some point you will probably start gaining fat along with muscle, and that means you have to scale back the calories. This time I would reduce the calories by 250 and again give it a couple of weeks to assess how that affects your body composition. Normally, I would recommend adding in some moderate cardio, but given your ectomorphic body type, that would more than likely hamper your muscle gains.
Trainer of Champions Client Journal
Late October, 2004
I train a wide variety of clients, but this month I will update you with three IFBB pro bodybuilders who will be competing in the Olympia, just a week away as I write this.
Chris Cormier - The Real Deal
I like Chris a lot and have known him for many years, but I have to say he has been lagging a little in this Olympia prep. Nobody has the potential this man has, and the ball is most definitely in his court. But the last time I saw him a couple of days ago, he looked to be a little behind in his condition, though he is bigger and fuller than I think I've ever seen him less than two weeks out from a show. His head doesn't really seem to be in it this time, and I attribute that to a combination of things going on in his personal life and the feeling after the Arnold Classic this year that no matter how good he looks, the judges will never let him win.
I know what Chris is capable of when he sets his mind to it, which is why it aggravates me to see him not doing things 100 percent for this show. There have been a few times when he has been very late for our workout appointments and I can only work with him for a little while because I have clients booked on the hour, non-stop, from four in the morning until usually 7:00 at night. He gets irritated, but he knows how strict I am with my schedule. I never keep clients waiting and I expect the same respect and consideration from them. I hope Chris is able to pull his condition together, because I felt like he had a lot of good momentum for this Olympia after his controversial loss to Jay Cutler back in March.
Dennis James
I have known Dennis James ever since 1998, when I trained him for the USA Championships in which he won his pro card. It has made me proud to see the progress he's made since then. Right now, he's in phenomenal shape and only needs his abs to come in a little tighter and dry out in general to be spot-on. Since he's working with Chad Nicholls once more, I don't think that will be a problem. The man is going to be an absolute monster onstage in Las Vegas. I also want to mention the amazing work ethic Dennis has. This guy isn't just on time for his workouts with me- he always shows up a full half-hour beforehand and waits for me. When it comes time to train, he does whatever I tell him because he has total faith in me. If I tell him three more reps, he will get those three reps no matter what it takes. And he never wastes time.
Dennis goes right when I say to go and we get through a body part in 45 minutes. Dennis came to LA six weeks before the Olympia to train with me, but we talk throughout the whole year to discuss what exercises he needs to be doing and so on. It's tough for him in Thailand because the equipment is all hand-made and often doesn't feel quite right, but he's determined to keep improving and never lets anything like that get in his way. Just like he did last year, I think Dennis is going to surprise a lot of people with how freaky huge and ripped he is at this Mr. Olympia.
Joanna Thomas
Joanna is one of my newer clients, but certainly a very hard worker- and if you're not willing to work hard in the gym, I'm not interested in training you! She came to LA from England to immerse herself in the Mecca of bodybuilding and take her career to the next level. So far, it's been going very well. Joanna took second place in the Lightweights at the GNC show a couple of weeks ago, which qualified her for the Ms. Olympia. For years, her upper body has overshadowed her legs, so our top priority has been to bring them up to balance out her physique. We really didn't have much time to build on them because she was dieting for her shows, but as soon as the Olympia is over, we'll be back in the gym forcing those legs of hers to grow. When Joanna's legs are as developed as her upper body, specifically her tremendous arms, she will truly be a force to be reckoned with.
Next month I will give you my impressions of the Olympia weekend from Las Vegas.
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Performance Nutrition 