MD Training Camp - Charles Glass #1

Can You Make Gains While Dieting for a Contest?

Is it possible for a bodybuilder to make gains and improve body parts when he is dieting for a contest? It seems like it wouldn’t be, because their calories are lower and they are doing so much more cardio. But you have trained so many athletes for shows— have you seen it done, and if so, were there any special circumstances?

In my experience, no. It can only be done under very rare situations where someone is regaining lost muscle. This would have to be someone who stayed very lean and simply took their muscle mass down by eating fewer calories and not weight training for a few months. Then they started up the weights and began eating a lot more good food. In this case, they wouldn’t really be making new gains or improving anything that wasn’t already there previously. Technically, you couldn’t really call this “dieting” either, since that implies losing fat. So really, you are correct if your belief. If a person is in a caloric deficit, there simply is nothing for the body to manufacture new muscle tissue out of. Just like you can’t build a house without raw materials like cement, wood, plaster, drywall, etc., you can’t build muscle mass without food. This isn’t to say that you can’t make improvements in terms of detail and separation during the prep phase, because you absolutely can. But as far as the muscle actually growing, it’s just not going to happen until you are able to eat more calories and rest more.

“Charles Glass Specials” for Thick Upper and Mid-Back

What are the best exercises to target upper and mid-back thickness? Do you have one of your “Charles Glass specials” I can try?

You’re in luck. Go to the machine that can be used either as a pec flye when you sit facing away from the machine, or for rear delts when you face into the machine. Drop the seat down so that you can do what looks like a rear delt raise, but with your arms and hands higher, just above your head. Grasp the handles, and lean back away from the pad. Now pull the handles apart from the center while you pinch your shoulder blades together and squeeze your mid and lower traps along with your rhomboids. This area doesn’t always get hit by conventional rowing and pulldown movements for the back, so you often see it underdeveloped. Another movement I’ve talked about before is done sitting reverse on a lat pulldown station and leaning back toward the weight stack. Use a narrow-grip handle and pull to the bottom of your chest. Four sets of 10-12 of each of those on back day should help you start “filling in” your upper and mid back.

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