Written by Team MD
01 September 2017

17dallas-qa-5

Dallas McCarver Tribute Week: Q&A #5

 

 

Off-season: 4 Ways to Do it right!

1. Injury prevention and maintenance

Staying injury free is critical to making consistent gains. Warming up enough and using good form is great, but you need to be a little more proactive than that if you take bodybuilding seriously. I see a chiropractor every other week to get adjusted, and I also get a deep-tissue massage once or twice a month to break up adhesions and scar tissue that anybody who trains heavy and hard is going to accumulate. I would go every week if my budget allowed for it. Since it doesn't, I got myself a rumble roller after seeing Antoine using one in an MD video and use it every week both before and after my leg workouts. I roll my back, my quads, and my IT bands. It hurts, but it those spikes (which a regular foam roller doesn't have) dig in almost as deep as a massage therapist does. I also stretch every day to maintain good mobility.

 

2. Detox

No matter whether we're talking about OTC supplements or otherwise, you really need to give your system a break at regular intervals. It's called the 'off' season for a reason, people! Personally I like to take 4-5 weeks off everything two or three times a year. This also makes everything work more efficiently when you go back on.

 

3. Have a nutritional plan

A lot of guys just eat whatever the hell they want in the off-season and really have no idea what amounts of calories, protein, carbs, and fats they are taking in on a daily basis. It sounds fun, but the problem with it is you have no baseline to make adjustments from. If you aren't making gains, typically your nutrition is lacking something. So how can you increase any variable when you don't know what they are? Dorian Yates was an inspiration to me in the way he kept training and food logs year-round. I keep track of my meals, and on top of that I don't eat much junk. I have one or two cheat meals a week even in the off-season. It's just a lot easier to take in specific amounts of nutrients that way, and making steady progress comes from that. The bottom line is that if you don't know how much you're eating, you can't make adjustments when progress stalls. You'd only be guessing, and good luck with that!

 

4. Have a training plan

It drives me crazy when guys tell me they just 'go by instinct' in the gym. Again, as with their nutrition they're just winging it with no plan. I like to say, "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.' I log all my workouts just like I do my meals. This allows you to look over what you've done and again, make changes when you aren't making progress toward your goals. I like to rotate exercises, volume, rep ranges, and so on. If I didn't write these variables down, how would I know exactly what I've been doing and for how long so I could switch things up in specific ways? Even if you have great genetics and work hard, at some point you will be ups against other gifted hard workers. What will give you the advantage over them? Having a plan, being detailed and meticulous, and being dedicated enough to keep track of everything. This leaves no room for error, and guarantees success whether we're talking off-season or pre-contest.

 

Cardio boosts appetite!

I see a lot of guys talking about not having an appetite or not being able to eat/ gag down meals in the off season. I'm going to tell you something you don't want to hear, but if you'll get your ass on a treadmill or StepMill and do 15-20 minutes 3-4 times per week; you'd be amazed at the difference that will make in your appetite (at least for me personally anyways obviously we aren't all the same). I know we have been brainwashed into cardio is so bad for off season, but honestly if that small amount of cardio helps you get in that extra 4oz of food every meal, tell me it ain't worth it!?

 

What's your opinion when it comes to rep ranges? I know you most likely get asked this all the time, but I just wanted to go straight to a reliable source instead of going to someone else and getting told 10 different things. For example: What rep range would you recommend for "off season" type of training, and also a good rep range for cutting weight and toning up? Thanks again!

That was also one of my biggest questions when I started training, but in all honestly the answer is much simpler than you think. My reps range from 6-15 all the time regardless of off-season or pre-contest. I know this sounds like a larger range, but that's kind of the point. You have to listen to your body, see how your joints feel, and go from there. I'll give you an example, and this is how I train just about everything. Say I am doing a bench press. I will start off with x amount of weight for 15 reps. Assuming that feels good, I will move up in weight for around 12 reps, then up again for 10. At that point this is where I usually would just do another set or two with the same amount of weight, but on what I call 'good days' my joints feel great and I feel strong, so I go up for a total failure really heavy-weight lift. I do this for everything with the exceptions of arms and shoulders, and that's just because I think these muscles require a slightly higher rep range than larger muscles to ensure a great pump and fatigue; something in the 10-15 range. If you think about it, you're not going to benefit much from 6 reps on curls. There is no perfect rep range brother, we are all different and we require different types of diet and training, etc. This goes back to the whole learning your body thing. You just have to find what works for you best instead of copying what anyone else does, even if you do strive to look the way they do.

 

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