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Trainer of Champions - September 2005 |
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Written by Charles Glass
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Thursday, 26 April 2007 |
Charles, I'm a longtime fan from seeing you in various training videos. That leads me to my question: Have you ever thought about doing a video or a series of instructional videos of your own? Just from what I have seen in tapes like the "Road to the Olympia" series and videos from guys like Flex Wheeler and Chris Cormier, you have your own unique variations on just about every exercise and I'm sure your methods could help a lot of people get results that conventional exercises and techniques no longer provide. I'm sure with your wisdom and excellent reputation this would be a best-selling DVD right away. What do you think?
I have been aware for years that there's a demand for my training services that goes far beyond what I'm capable of doing one on one, and it was only recently that I finally came up with a comprehensive way to spread my knowledge and expertise in the most effective manner. Of course, my column in MD was one way to do it, but I knew deep down that when it comes to what I do best, the written word isn't fully adequate. It demands audio and video to fully demonstrate. So with the help of Koz Khosravani of Experts TV, www.charles-glass.com is now up and running online. Already I have a service to design a custom workout program, but that's just the beginning. Soon we are going to have live webcasts showing me training my clients. These will be not only top bodybuilders and fitness athletes, but "regular" people too, so the average person out there can see how they too can get great results with the proper techniques.
Instructional DVDs and manuals are also in the works. This has all been a long time coming because as you should know from reading this column, I do have a very busy schedule. But now that I have teamed up with some creative and talented people, it's all falling into place. Be sure to visit my website, as new things are being added to it every week, including articles I am writing exclusively for my own site.
Believe me, I have been wanting to do something like this for years, but just never put my mind to getting it done. At last, my presence is on the Internet, and I look forward to reaching a much wider audience than ever before. I know I have a unique take on training that can indeed deliver results for everyone from raw beginners to advanced athletes, and now it's time to share what I have learned and discovered over the past 30 years with all of you who can benefit from it.
My right knee was injured recently while sparring at my Muay Thai school. I have an appointment to see my regular doctor in a couple of days, but based on what happened when I hurt my shoulder last year, it will be at least a month before I can get in to see an orthopedic specialist- my health insurance sucks, basically. Once the swelling and sharp pain went down a little, I tried to work quads light, but found that squats, leg presses, even leg extensions, were impossible without causing excruciating pain. I found I could do hamstrings though, no problem. Would you recommend that I just do hams until further notice, or should I wait until I can train everything? I don't want my hams to get out of balance and too strong compared to my quads, right?
Actually, if you are like a lot of serious weight trainers, this could be a blessing in disguise. Many times, we get caught up in doing so much for the quads that we treat the hamstrings as an afterthought. For instance, it's not uncommon for a typical guy to start his leg workouts with leg extensions, followed by squats and leg presses and maybe lunges. By the time he has finished all that, he will do a couple of sets of leg curls and calves. But at that point in the workout, most of his strength and energy have been depleted. The effort and intensity applied to the hams and calves is far less than optimal and they wind up missing out on size and strength they are capable of building. That's why most competitive bodybuilders that are concerned with balanced leg development now do quads and hams at separate workouts.
But your concern doesn't seem to be cosmetic. You genuinely want your quads and hams to be balanced in strength. That's very significant in terms of injury prevention. A very common reason for hamstring injuries such as pulls and tears, is that the quads have been allowed to overwhelm the hamstrings in power. Because the quadriceps are able to contract more powerfully the larger and stronger you make them, this means they are also capable to exerting a stronger stretch on the hams. Keep in mind the quads and hams are antagonistic muscle groups, just like the biceps and triceps. When one is contracting, the other is stretching. When the stretch on the hams is too fast and too strong, the tendons connecting the muscles can tear, either partially or fully. If that happens, you can forget about walking for a while, much less lifting weights.
So I would definitely recommend that you take this time to strengthen your hamstrings. I have yet to hear of a quadriceps injury that happened because the hams were too strong in relation to them, but I have heard hundreds of cases where dominant quads caused problems. So go ahead and work your hams, and be very sure to take things slow and easy when you get back to quads. Good luck!
I was wondering about how to know when you're too sick to train. For instance, luckily I only seem to get the flu about once every couple of winters, and for a solid two weeks at least, I wouldn't even think about going to the gym. But I get colds on average four or five times a year, and usually I will still keep training even though my nose is stuffed up and I don't feel so hot. I'm sure you have to deal with this situation with clients quite often, so how do you determine if you're too sick to train, or if you should work out but not as heavy or as intense?
This will sound a bit extreme at first, but my immediate reaction when a client is sick, even with a cold, is to stay home. This is out of consideration for their own rest and recovery, but also for others. As much as you try to make an effort to wipe down equipment and so on, chances are you are going to infect others and get them sick just by breathing around them. And of course, I don't want them to get me sick! Most trainers are run down anyway, and especially if they have a demanding schedule with as little sleep as I do. And if I get sick, I wouldn't be able to do my job, and all my clients would miss workouts they depend on to reach their fitness goals. Not to mention that if I were sick, I would probably get all of them sick, too!
You see how vicious a cycle this is? I have heard so-called experts say that as long as the symptoms are above the neck, as they usually are with a common cold, it's okay to go in the gym and train, just with a little less effort and intensity. I disagree, not only for the aforementioned reasons, but also because I feel that when you exercise, your pores open up and you can get yourself even sicker and possibly catch something else, especially if the training environment is chilly. I say stay home and rest. I would bet you a case of Pump-Tech that you come back stronger than if you tried to be macho and train through your illness.
My gym just got a new cable crossover station and in the middle is this really cool new set of chin-up bars that allow for about four or five different grips and hand positions. You can go wide or narrow, have your hands face each other or forward, etc. Would I be better off staying with just one type of grip every time I train back, and doing that for a few sets, and rotate the grips every time? Or do you think it would be better to do one set of each grip every time? I don't know if it really makes a difference, but I would appreciate your opinion.
Before answering your question, I want to commend you for doing chin-ups in the first place. There are a wide variety of cable and machine options that simulate the chinning movement, but chins will always remain the toughest and most effective mass builders for the lats. You are also fortunate that your gym has invested in a unit that offers so many choices for hand positions and grip widths, as each one of them will hit your back in a different manner. You are wise to recognize instinctively that switching up the grips will deliver better results than merely sticking with the same one every time, such as the standard wide overhand grip.
If I were you, I would choose one grip for each time you train back, and stay with that for four to five sets of eight to12 reps. This strategy will actually keep your back "guessing" more than if you utilized different grips every time, because just as you start getting a little used to that one grip, you switch it up and involve different angles, thus tapping into a new set of muscle fibers back there. Doing this over time will give you a detailed, "3-D" look to your back, and that will make your back stand out from just about everyone else's. After a while, you can also add even more variety by either staying more upright or leaning back slightly. In essence, there's almost an endless variety of ways to work your back using chin-ups, if you just use a little creativity and put some thought into it. That's what my style of training is all about.
Some old guy at my gym, he must be around 40 or 45, has these huge arms. And all I ever see him do for them is weighted chins and dips, with a couple of sets of barbell curls or one-arm overhead dumbbell extensions thrown in at the end of his arm day. I asked him how I could get my arms bigger, and he told me to forget about curls and extensions for at least a few months and just focus on the weighted chins and dips, which he promised would add an inch to my arms. I like the sound of that, but I don't know if he's full of crap, or what. I mean, maybe that works for him because he's a genetic freak or something, and it wouldn't do anything for me. How valuable do you think weighted chins and dips are for putting mass on the biceps and triceps?
I hope you were joking about a 40-year-old being old, because I passed that mark over a decade ago! That's fine, you're probably very young. To a teenager or a guy in his early twenties, a 45-year-old might be considered ancient. That brings me back to my early days of lifting, when I had a very similar experience. There was an older guy at the gym with huge arms and I only saw him do two exercises all the time: concentration curls and weighted dips.
I need to add that at that time, I wasn't an experienced bodybuilder, so sheer bulk impressed me. Looking back, I now see that the man's arms lacked any type of shape or definition; they were just big globs. Part of that was because he wasn't very lean, but another important factor was that he was only hitting his biceps and triceps from one angle, all the time. Had he incorporated a little more variety in his arm training, I guarantee he would have had a more well rounded appearance to his arms, with more shape to them.
I assume you have some interest in competing someday. You should know that I have seen plenty of guys with huge arms that were shapeless get beaten by men whose arms probably taped out at two to four inches less, but had shape and detail. A great example is Arnold Schwarzenegger losing to Frank Zane at the 1967 IFBB Universe. Young Arnold had arms that were probably 21 inches, but smooth and lacking detail. Frank's were probably no more than 17 or so, but sliced, diced and striated. After that, Arnold came to America and started using different arm exercises and increased his reps, and his arms soon became the best in the world.
But back to your original question now. I do think weighted chins and dips are an excellent way to overload the biceps and triceps. If you are going to do only those two exercises, I would keep it to a limited span of time, such as four weeks, then go back to your usual routine. Or, you could incorporate those exercises into your routine along with others. I will leave you with two workouts to try.
Chin and Dip Only Arm Routine*
Weighted chin, close underhand grip 4 x 8-10
Weighted dip, upright torso, elbows tucked in 4 x 8-10
*For best results, alternate sets of chins and dips with 90 seconds between each set.
Arm Routine Including Chins and Dips
Weighted chin, close underhand grip 3 x 8-10
Weighted dip, upright torso, elbows tucked in 3 x 8-10
Incline dumbbell curls 2 x 8-12
Skull-crushers 2 x 8-12
Preacher curls 2 x 8-12
Overhead cable extensions 2 x 10-12
Journal
June, 2005
A New Alliance with Johnnie Jackson
I had talked before about how Johnnie Jackson and I were planning on teaming up to see what I could do for his physique, which I have always been impressed with. With a little help from MuscleTech, we were able to get a good amount of training done over the past two months leading up to the Toronto Pro show. Whenever he had a photo shoot for them in LA, he would stay here for four or five days and we would train. Another time there was a shoot up at their headquarters in Toronto and we got a few solid workouts in up in Canada, also. It ended up being four or five times that we were able to train for four or five days, which was enough to make a real difference.
Training Johnnie was a unique experience. The man is an animal, and just incredibly strong for his size, or any size for that matter. It shows in the exceptional thickness of his physique- he's literally built like a tank! My main objective with Johnnie was to change his training style from the powerlifting form he was using, meaning explosive reps without much of a contraction, to slower reps that really emphasize squeezing the muscle. We saw a real increase in his muscularity and detail, particularly in his legs and back.
Believe me when I say all eyes were on him when he trained at Gold's Venice, and that's a place where spectacular bodies are an everyday sight. Tom Prince worked with Johnnie on his diet, giving him a structure to follow that Johnnie tweaked and manipulated on his own, with fantastic results. Based on the photos, this was the best he has ever looked, down to his striated glutes. There are still a couple of things I want to work on with him, and I plan on coming down to Texas a few times leading up to the Southwest Pro show on September 17 in Ronnie's hometown of Arlington. I know he wants to win in his own backyard badly, and I will do all I can to help him do it.
The Toronto Proving Ground
I was supposed to go to the Toronto show to represent MuscleTech, but at the last minute they didn't need me. So I wasn't there to see Johnnie, but I did see plenty of photos and was very satisfied with the way he looked in taking second place to Darrem Charles. Johnnie actually won the muscularity round, which says something. I think he was close enough to Darrem that he could have won, but I have no argument with the judge's decision. Darrem is an excellent bodybuilder with some of the most perfect shape and symmetry the sport has ever witnessed. The only way to beat a guy like that is to totally out-mass him the way Ronnie and Jay do.
One thing I did notice was that Johnnie looked better as the rounds went on. That's because there were almost no weights to pump up with, so he got pumped as he posed. I heard that most of the competitors were upset about the lack of equipment, but I have always told my clients to do minimal, if any, pumping up before going onstage. Why? It's simple. With all the little unforeseen delays that can hold up the start of a show, you never know exactly when you will go out. So what often happens is that the guys spend all this energy pumping up, then lose the pump by the time they actually get out there. Or, even if they manage to time it right, they walk out there all pumped and have to stand there for an hour; the pump will be gone after only about the first 10 minutes. It doesn't make a good impression to go out there looking huge and then deflate right before your eyes!
Symmetry and Shape are Taking Over? Don't Be So Sure
Since Darrem won in Toronto and New York, there has been talk that the IFBB is going to start finally rewarding the smaller men with better shape over the mass monsters. So I ask, how many big guys were in those shows? I mean how many of the big guns like Ronnie, Jay, Markus or Gunter? There were none. So you can't say anything has changed until you have a show in which they are all together and we can really see what direction the judges go in. And it's pointless trying to second-guess the opinions of the judges and what they will do. We just have to wait and see.
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Performance Nutrition 