December 2007

By Clint Darden
N.C.D. Calloway Continuing Education Ltd.
LA Muscle Shop
Limassol, Cyprus
99987972
clint@cystrongman.com

Age: 22
Country: United States
Height: 5 feet 0 (152 cm)
Off-Season Body Weight: 110-115 lbs (50-52 kilo)
Contest Body Weight: 105 lbs (48 kilo class?)
Sport: Powerlifting
Years Training: 2 Years Competing: 2

Contest History:
WABDL World Championships (Jr. Women 105 lb class)
Nov 15-20 2007: Anaheim, CA
• 1st place Bench Press – 188 lb (105 class World Record, competition PR)
• 1st place Deadlift – 303 lb (105 class World Record, competition PR)
• Highest Overall Bench Press – Jr. Women

WABDL United We Stand Bench Press & Dead Lift Championships (Jr. Women 105 lb class)
Sept 9 2007: New Castle, PA
• 1st place Bench Press – 165.2 lb
• 1st place Deadlift (raw) – 264.5 lb
• Best Overall Bench Press – Women

8th Annual Pittsburgh Area Monster Bench/Dead Lift Meet (Jr. Women 105 lb class)
Mar 25, 2007: Moon Township, PA
• 1st place Bench Press (raw) – 140 lb
• 1st place Deadlift (raw) – 265 lb

WABDL NY-PA-OH Regional Bench Press & Dead Lift Championships (Jr. Women 114 lb class)
Feb 17 2007: Beaver Falls, PA
• 1st place Bench Press (raw) – 159.7 lb
• 1st place Deadlift (raw) – 281 lb (114 class World Record)
• Best Lifter Overall - Women

WABDL United We Stand Bench Press & Dead Lift Championships (Jr. Women 105 lb class)
Sept 10 2006: New Castle, PA
• 1st place Bench Press (raw) – 132.5 lb
• 1st place Deadlift (raw) – 292 lb
• 1st place Ironmaiden

Since I’m not that experienced yet, I’m still trying out different training styles to find what works best for me. For my latest training cycle, I lifted 3 days a week – one day for each powerlift (squat, bench, deadlift), plus assistance exercises. I also do cardio once in a while because I like it (believe it or not) and because it helps when I need to stay close to my weight class!

Can you take me through a week’s workout (roughly) starting at the beginning of the week and getting to the end?

Using my last training cycle as an example, I was doing cardio for half an hour in the morning twice a week. On Mondays, I was doing squats- but not anything too heavy close to my meet since I wasn’t competing in this lift and didn’t want to injure myself unnecessarily. After my main lift, I’ll do other leg exercises and some abs. I like to do a few abdominal exercises every day I lift if I have time- and I also make time for stretching very well before I start lifting anything!

Wednesdays were bench days, so I had a specific schedule and certain weights to lift for each week leading up to the meet. Since I was going to use a bench shirt at my competition, I started out lifting raw (no bench press shirt) and then put my shirt on near the end. After benching, I do assistance exercises for chest, triceps and some biceps & shoulders.

My last lifting day of the week was Friday- my favorite. I started with deadlifts, again following a schedule drawn up for me. On Fridays, I did exercises for my back, hamstrings, etc. I usually didn’t do any lifting or cardio over the weekend, since I like having lots of time to recover from my deadlift day!

I try not to limit myself by setting certain lifts or weights as long-term goals. In the long run, I want to be able to look back over my powerlifting career with pride and no regrets. Of course, it would be nice to be in good health too! But most of all, I want to know that I did my best every day, whether there were people watching or not.

It’s hard to imagine where I’ll be in 10 or 20 years, you know? But hopefully I’ll get a chance to promote the sport of powerlifting, and to encourage young lifters in the way that I’ve been positively impacted by my friends and sponsors.

What kind of short and medium-term goals have you set for yourself to help get you on your way?

I like to take things one day at a time, so I find short-term goals helpful in making sure I’m on track in whatever I’m doing at the time- whether it’s competition prep or just regular training. Short-term goals are great for motivation on bad days, and just for reminding yourself that it’s something totally possible if you keep working hard!

One short-term goal I had was to deadlift over 300 lbs (136 kilos) in competition – I lifted it a number of times in the gym, but didn’t manage it in competition until just recently at WABDL Worlds on Nov 19th. Now that I’ve overcome that one, some goals I have set for myself now are to deadlift 3 x body weight (315 lbs / 143 kgs), bench press over 200 lbs (90.9 kgs), and to compete in a full power meet.

Right now, I’d say that my biggest weaknesses are mental. I can really make myself a basket case worrying about everything I can think of and I’m definitely capable of psyching myself out before a lift… So that’s obviously pretty bad, because a large part of powerlifting is mental.

Other than that, my biggest physical weakness is my back. I injured my lower back and neck in a car accident, and although the injuries have healed – we all know injuries like that don’t just disappear! (unfortunately)

“In Sept 04 I was a passenger in a pretty bad car wreck. I ended up in a coma with fractures in my lower back and in my neck (hangman's fracture, like chris reeves but his slipped down and mine stayed in place). My neck was sliced open, voicebox crushed and one vocal cord severed. The doctors at UPMC in Pgh were amazing putting me back together!

I was out of the hospital by Nov with a tracheostomy & neck brace but I had to take the rest of the semester off to lay around. It really sucked a lot, I had to relearn how to walk, sit, get back up, etc over again. Let me tell you, that's a humbling experience.”

What kind of things go through your head on contest day?
What SHOULD be going through your head on contest day?
How about when you are approaching the bar?

On the morning of a contest day, I usually already have my gear packed and everything ready so that I don’t get myself too worked up trying not to forget anything! As it gets closer to the time when I lift, my mind just clears of everything except that one lift. I think one of the most important things that should be going through your head is the visualization of your lift- seeing exactly what you’re going to do, from the start of the lift to the end- over and over. I’ve found this kind of visualization to have a positive effect if I’m nervous or unsure about anything coming into the competition. When I’m approaching the bar, I hardly even notice the room around me. I’m visualizing the lift step by step all the way up until I start lifting.

Do you get psyched up with noises, people yelling at you, music, or just a calm silence in your mind like Ed Coan?

I go more with a calm silence before I lift. The yelling and music are things that I block out before I’m lifting- so they aren’t necessarily helpful to me. When I saw Donnie Thompson at a seminar, he said something that really made sense: yelling and running around before the lift just expends energy that could have been used toward your lift. I guess that’s just a more physical way of preparing yourself, while I have more of a mental preparation.

As far as the mental aspect of powerlifting, I realize that I’m pretty new to it, so it’s only natural. Since I’m aware of the problem, I’ll be able to improve myself and get more confident with more experience. And I can always use some more practice! The more I go through competition prep and setting up for my lifts, the more I’ll know how to prepare mentally.

There’s only so much I can do to address the weak point in my back. But it helps to be informed and proactive. I try to pay attention to it and make sure I’m doing exercises that help keep my back and core muscles extra strong. One of the best things I did for my back recently was to start seeing a chiropractor (Dr. Goodge in Pittsburgh, PA). He was super helpful and really fixed my back up in time for my competition in Anaheim – I could definitely tell the difference, especially when I was deadlifting. It was wonderful to compete and be free of back pain, so I was very grateful to him!

Right now, I’m eating a sort of “normal” diet since I just finished a meet. I still keep track of everything I eat and watch my weight, but I don’t plan macros as closely as I would if I was closer to a competition. Let’s see, I never really eat really fatty, sugary, salty, or fried foods much. I’ve gotten to the point that I don’t even like stuff like that. I eat mostly clean food during the day at work, but I’ll go out to a restaurant once in a while too.

In a normal weekday, I’ll eat 4 or 5 meals, depending on when I get up (usually pretty early). It’s nice when I eat 3 or 4 hours apart and it fits in with everybody else’s schedule but that doesn’t happen much! The foods I eat most frequently are probably oatmeal, fresh fruits & vegetables, chicken, tuna, turkey, cottage cheese, and eggs. For treats I like to eat bread with crusty crust, peanut butter, chocolate, ice cream, red bean paste, noodles, cereal with milk, and hominy. Needless to say, I don’t eat things off that list too often!

Do you have a goal for how many grams of protein you shoot for in a day? Carbs? Calories?

When I’m getting ready for a competition, yes! I’ll usually start keeping track of carbs, fat, protein, and consequently, calories around 10 or 15 weeks out. Of course, when I start doing a strict diet like that depends on how long ahead I’ve known about the competition and what kind of shape I’m in to start off with. Excel (program with Microsoft Office) is pretty handy to calculate my diet – I start from the total grams of protein I want (usually around 100-120g since I’m usually weighing in around 103-109 lbs), calculate total calories from that, and then find numbers for fat and carbs. I usually take in more carbs on lifting days than non-lifting days. Making a diet is sort of trial and error, so I try to read as much as I can on it and I’ve also learned a lot as I try different things.

[Note that at a body weight of 103-109 lbs (46-50 kgs) she is eating 100-120 grams of protein daily and that is her main concern. This is 1.1 grams per pound of body weight or 2.4 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight]

I get stricter with my food little by little when I have a meet coming up. Since it’s better to make changes gradually rather than all at the last minute, I try to plan pretty far ahead diet-wise, depending on how I feel with my training, my weight, and how much time I have before the competition.

In the weeks before a meet, I like to get rid of processed food as much as possible. Carb cycling has been working pretty nicely for me lately – with brown rice, oatmeal, vegetables, and fruits as my main carb sources. I never really eat large amounts of fat, but I start watching it closely (ok, fanatically) before meets. Then, in the week before a meet, I try to drink lots of water, cut down sodium intake, and not have too much dairy.

What kind of changes will you make throughout those last few weeks in your training?

Some changes I make in the last weeks include when I take a speed/recovery day and when I have my last heavy day for each lift. Those last heavy days are pretty important to me, mentally if not physically! I’ll also talk over my lifting plan with Fei and Ryan to change weights or reps depending on how I’m feeling and what my workout has been like.

The only other big change with my training during that time is the addition of cardio. I try to balance my cardio so that it helps keep my weight near 105 lbs (47.7 kgs), but doesn’t effect my lifting in a bad way.

After you “weigh-in” what do you to do help you get some bodyweight back up before you hit the platform?

My favorite part of the weigh-in day! Immediately after weigh-ins I try to get in lots of liquid, most of the time my favorite choice is Powerade Option (no sugar sports drink) mixed half & half with water. Drinking enough water is the most important thing to do in order to recover fully for the next morning! I also start eating- sometimes a protein bar (The Met-Rx 100 cookie bar, since it NEVER fits into my diet otherwise!), eggs, brown rice, oatmeal, apples, sweet potatoes, bread and other good sources of carbs. The food gives you back nutrients to get back on track, as the water does, but most of the weight that comes back seems to be from the water and Powerade. A good source of sodium is important too, so that your body is able to retain the water you’re taking in.

[Note that she is taking in sodium/salt to help her body to hold the much needed water so that her body can get back to normal after weigh in. Being dehydrated will make her weaker and will ensure that she will lose muscle mass as well as risk injury]

Between lifts I stick with my mix of Powerade Option and water. I bring a few bottles of it with me, since I seem to go through it pretty quickly on a meet day. As far as eating goes, I’ll eat oatmeal made with water, bread with either meat, lettuce, and tomato, or natural peanut butter and a sugar-free jelly. Depending on how I feel, sometimes I eat bananas or half of a Pure Protein bar. I try to limit my food sources to things my body is familiar with, because it’s pretty easy to upset my stomach on a competition day!

[Notice how she brings her food with her and is always prepared. She is also eating foods and drinking fluids that her body is familiar with.]

Training-wise, I’ll probably start planning a meet around 10 weeks out. Or I’ll at least have the first draft of a schedule ready. I get lots of help from my boyfriend and training partner, Fei Lung, and from Ryan and Dana Celli, who own the gym (Celli’s Fitness Center) where I work out. We make changes according to how my training is going, and by the time my last gym workouts roll around, I’m completely focused on the competition!

For my most recent meet (WABDL Worlds) I was in the process of trying to fix my metabolism and increase the amount of carbs in my diet. I changed to a carb cycle that had 2 high carb days, 2 medium carb days, and 3 low carb days. It worked very well – which was good for both my training and my weigh-in goals. The big changes in my training were the addition of a Titan Centurion suit for deadlifting (Thanks to Jim Thorpe & Pinnacle Performance and Priscilla Ribic & Ken Anderson from Titan!) and alterations to my new Titan F6 bench shirt. I had to adjust to the new style of lifting with gear, since I’m used to lifting raw, which entailed a different approach to my training cycle.

[Again, she put extra emphasis on making sure that her diet was perfect and timed right for her. She also made sure that her support equipment was perfect and the best that it could be for her needs and her contest.]

When I first started, I was constantly making changes to my diet – some good and some not so good! I’ve had a good number of people who have made suggestions and helped me along the way, and I’ve made improvements to my form as I’ve learned more about powerlifting. For example, I’ve brought in my feet for my deadlift stance and found that baby powder on the legs is a great thing! On my bench, I had to bring my hands out farther on the bar and I’ve moved the placing of my feet around until I found somewhere that works for me and gives me the most power.

When I’m not training with a specific competition in mind, I still do cardio when I get the chance because I like it! There’s no pressure to do lots of cardio, so I may not do any for weeks if I get really busy with something else. But the good thing about doing cardio in the off-season is that I can run as hard as I want – When I’m close to a competition, too much cardio takes away from your strength and power in the gym.

Cardio while I’m preparing for a meet is only for weigh-in purposes, and to loosen up muscles a little but. How much cardio I do depends on my weight and the amount of time I have left until the competition. Still, I have to be careful not to overdo it – that would hurt my lifting at a time when it’s most important to have strong workouts. Usually, I do cardio for 30 minutes 5 times a week until closer to the meet, then only 2-3 times a week.

Is there anything that you do over the last few days that really makes a difference with your performance?

One of the biggest things I pay attention to in the last few days is my diet. I keep track of all my food in a spreadsheet and try not to eat anything that I’m not used to – but I keep a big list of other foods that I want to eat when the meet’s over! The weigh-in is naturally something I focus on during the last few days too. Otherwise, I spend a lot of time preparing and mentally going over my lifts.

When I’m mentally visualizing my lifts, I start with the very first step, walking up to the bench or the deadlift bar. I deliberately think about each movement and see myself going through the lift, the same way ever time. I’ve found that it’s easier to do this visualization with lots and lots of actual practice, so that you get very familiar with each step and how they come together smoothly for a successful lift.

Before I get to the meet, I will have talked over the possibilities and goals for my lifts with Fei. We decide for sure what my openers will be, and agree on second and third lifts. The second and third still might change at the meet depending on my performance, but usually not by much (unless I don’t make one of my lifts!).

A lot of people fail to reach their goals, short, medium, and long-term. What kind of mistakes do you see that leave people failing like this?

Nobody should limit themselves, but it’s important to really know yourself and have realistic expectations for what you can accomplish in a given time. One of the biggest mistakes I can think of is just setting one huge goal without putting enough thought into what it takes to attain it. If something isn’t feasible and you’re not serious about it, there’s a big chance for frustration and falling short of the goal. If this pattern happens enough, I think people can start to expect it from themselves, which obviously is no good!

On the other hand, it’s silly to have lots of short-term goals that are set very low. This might make you feel pretty good, but really.. Is feeling good all the time going to make you improve the most in the long run?

I think the best way to avoid goal-related mistakes is to use a combination of long- and short-term goals, and to always remember what you’re working toward and why. Short-term goals are great to keep you on track toward something more long-term: they confirm that you’re making progress, and even if you don’t get to the final goal right away, there’s still a sense of accomplishment that encourages you to keep moving forward. If you want something enough and believe in yourself, anything’s possible!

You also work a full-time job with training. What keeps you motivated to do everything?

When I started training for powerlifting, I was actually still in college. It was pretty tough to find time for regular training in addition to getting all my work done for classes! Some days all I did was go to class, do schoolwork, and go to the gym.. But it was definitely a good lesson in time management.

I only really got into training specifically for powerlifting during my recovery from a car accident in Sept 04. After I was done with physical therapy, the time I spent getting back to the gym really kept me sane with everything else going on. And it turns out that having to go back and start from the basics was pretty good for my form too!

Now that I’ve graduated, having a job is sort of nice since I don’t have homework or tests anymore. I’m doing computer work for Supplement Central, an online sports supplement store – also one of my lifting sponsors! So as far as that goes, it’s a pretty cool place to work and they’re really cool about letting me come in early so that I can make it to the gym in time. But it’s still pretty time consuming to combine a job with training, so I still keep busy! My secret to good time management is to write tons and tons of lists…

So you would say that you are a really good “planner”? Can you give us an idea how you outline/plan your days now?

I love planning! Right now, my daily plans revolve around work, training, continued surgical work (from the 04 car accident), and normal stuff like cleaning, cooking, and doing things with friends and family. Training comes first, and I’m lucky enough to be able to change work hours around to accommodate the gym. After that, I work in my meals, so that they fit in at acceptable intervals during the day. There’s never a shortage of other things to do that fill in the rest of my day, including all the time I spend planning out my schedule and my diet for tomorrow!

What other advice could you give someone who is thinking about training for strength and just not sure where to start?

Don’t just jump right into an advanced training method – there’s no shame in starting with the basics. One of the most important things I could tell you is to find someone who really knows what they’re doing to help you learn correct form. Once you have good form down, there will be less chance for unnecessary injury and your entire lifting career will be better off for it.

If you’re thinking about trying out strength training, look for a gym in our area that you feel comfortable in – and don’t be intimidated! I’ve found strength training to be enjoyable and great for keeping in shape, as well as meeting some great friends! If you’re thinking about it, give this kind of training a try – what do you have to lose?

Although this is not a bench press technique that I would use, it is a good variation of the bench press than can be used from time to time or for short periods of change.

The Joke:
I'm going to share a little inside joke with: "Dude, how much can you bench"? A question I am asked either face to face or in an email. I am sure that most of you who may have achieved a certain body type and a certain look are asked the same question. Men are obsessed with "how much" they can lift and some gain a certain amount of self worth by telling a room full of people how much they can bench. Yet, on the other hand, some are embarrassed to tell and have to follow it with an excuse like one of an injury. I say the joke is really on them. Unless you are going to wear your maximum weight bench press on your t-shirt, no one will really know how much you can lift, and honestly, no one really cares.

The real punch line is the guys who need to create a drama in the gym when they are on the flat bench. The stage is usually set with a straight bar loaded with plates, a few buddies spotting at each end and deafening screams as he pushes up one rep before the bar bends at the center. Again, I say who cares. What is even funnier than the sideshow is the form. Their feet are flat on the floor of flat at the end of the bench and their body is arched into an Olympic Gold Medal back bend. I always wanted to ask them, "Do you feel good about yourself now?"

What these guys fail to realize is that all the dramatics and the loud screams spotlight their lack of proper form and their deeper emotional problems and insecurities. Not to mention how inconsiderate it is to other members who are concentrating on their workouts. Sure, you might draw a crowd, but so does a head on collision on the freeway. Now, I have no medical studies to back up my emotional claim but I do for the injuries. Like the accident on the freeway, poor form in the gym and an obsession with weight rather than form can prove fatal to your lifting lifestyle. Many have blown out shoulders, elbows, backs, and suffer torn peck muscles. How tough will you look when you can't even pull yourself out of bed?

Here's a question that might make you think. Would you go to a dentist with rotten teeth? No, you wouldn't and my point is that most of these guys and girls that engage in such improper form are not the bodies we all admire anyway, so ignore their poor gym etiquette and poor workout techniques. Forget about impressing the gym with how much you can lift and impress them with your mind and your body. Stay true to form, and once the form is perfect then go for the weight.

2 things, heavy weight with proper form, and a good body impress me; besides, you'll get more attention in the long run with your shirt off when you do it the right way.

We have the all-popular flat bench; incline bench, the decline bench, and an argument as to which "bench" develops which part of the chest. Then we have the preferred grips, hands wider on the bar or closer. I am going to make this very easy to understand, mainly because all of the medical terms and studies bore me as well. The bench press is and has been the most universal measurement of strength among athletes, mainly because it is a true measure of over-all upper body strength not just the chest. Although it will develop the chest, and it does workout the chest, it also uses front shoulders, triceps, and your latissimus dorsi or "lat muscles" when you perform a proper bench press. Many are unaware of the lats being used, but studies show and common sense would back it up that your lats are used to first help move the weight off your chest and up for the finish. All of these other muscles are active for a short period. So, your pecs or your chest muscles are not doing 100% of the job when performing a flat bench press. This is why it is very important to use proper form to gain full benefit from a bench press.

Incline verses decline:
Honestly, I have rarely done a decline press. I have personally found my best results with either the incline bench press or flat bench press, using either the straight bar or dumbbells or both.

My grip usually varies as well. I found that going a little wider on the bar I work the outer portions of the chest and surprising to most I can also work the lower portion of my chest with a wider grip. The closer I put my hands the more I am working upper chest and triceps. Let me say for the record, that when I describe further out or closer in terms of a grip, that means that my adjustment either in or out is slight. To far out will stress your upper shoulders, too far in will work your triceps. Remember, this is an upper body exercise, meaning more than one body part. The grip can be determined by first observing the straight bar provided at the gym. Most professional gym equipment will have notches etched into the bar. Your body should be centered under those notches. A neutral grip is with that notch dead center on your palms. The variation in grip comes in whether you move your hands slightly one way or the other, slightly meaning an inch to an inch and a half depending on your hand size.

First, as I say in every video, stretch! Warm up and focus your mind on the body part you are working in this case chest. Although, as I said, the bench press does work other body parts I do it on my chest days and either start with it or end with it.

After stretching, set yourself up with a flat bench, and put the lightest weight first on the bar. Now position yourself first by sitting on the end of the bench, then lying back with your back flat and your shoulder blades touching the bench. Now, lift your feet off the floor, cross them at the ankles and put your feet in the air keeping your back flat on the bench at all times. Envision this, the position you should be in right now is one where by if you were strapped in a seated position on a chair and someone pushed your back. Your knees remain bent. This will always insure that your back is flat and will avoid you cheating by pushing up off the bench, or the floor and arching your back.

So in this position, ankles crossed, knees bent and back flat, I'll repeat that "back flat", reach up and put your hands in position as described above. I start out first with the line in the bar at the center of my palms. Lift the weight off the bench, feel the weight, and be conscious of your form. Slowly lower, the weight down to your chest. This uses the negative motion do not let it drop; the word is control.

Apart from the way I position my feet in the air, I use another technique that insures me getting full benefit from this exercise. Rather than bring the bar to the center of my chest like most, I bring the bar higher up to just under my throat at the collarbone. There are many reasons for this method and the madness. First and most obvious, as we discuss proper form this will avoid you cheating by bouncing the weight off your chest and using your ribs as a springboard to lift the weight up. Secondly, this method has eliminated my need for a decline bench. This small variation and huge special technique will make the difference between nipples that point up or nipples that point down. This, along with a slightly wider grip on the bar will really work your lower chest on the upswing of the weight, and your upper chest on the down swing.

Once you have lifted the weight down to your collarbone, pause for one second and lift up. Repeat this movement for 8-10 reps and then rest. Do about 4 sets the first being a warm up and a way to familiarize you with the technique. If you need another warm up take it. Please keep in mind that even the most advanced bodybuilders have had to lower their weight considerably when doing a flat bench my way. It forces you to use proper form and you will soon see how weak you really are when you use proper form. Once you master this exercise and you will, you should increase your weight gradually. You will notice that by doing it this way you will actually increase your bench press and enjoy the benefits of a strong well defined, lean mean upper body. I will be impressed when you can push up some heavy weight and do it with out cheating, do it with proper form.
http://www.mm2k.com/barbell_bench_press.html

If you're a veteran Bodybuilder or if you're just starting out, I'm sure you've heard about the supplements Creatine and Glutamine. I'm sure you've also heard many people say to take it before your workouts, after your workouts, on an empty stomach, before bed, when you get up? ARRGH! Everyone is so quick to give advise yet many of these people do not know what these two incredible supplements do? I want to explain in "layman's" terms, what exactly Creatine and Glutamine do for our bodies. Here's my direct and to the point view.

Lets start with Creatine, Creatine was discovered in the late 1800's but was it wasn't until the 1980's that sports nutritionists discovered how useful this supplement was in building muscle. Creatine is a naturally occurring substance found in your body and in many of the foods we consume. When supplementing with Creatine, Creatine is converted by your body to phosphocreatine within the muscles (Phosphocreatine is a source of energy for muscle contractions). The way Creatine works is that it carries fluid and converted phosphocreatine into your muscles resulting in "bigger muscles" or as many bodybuilders call it "cell volumized". Results usually can be seen almost immediately (within 2-4 days). This is why so many people that workout use this supplement. Not only does Creatine help you look "bigger", studies show that Creatine increases strength and muscle endurance. Studies also show that healthy people taking Creatine gain weight not from fat, but from muscle mass. As for side effects, the most common found was cramping due to body fluids absorbed by muscle (when supplementing with Creatine, it is VERY IMPORTANT to take PLENTY of fluids). As of long-term side effects, many bodybuilders and athletes have been using Creatine for the past 8-9 years with no reported side effects. I personally have been using Creatine for 2 years and have had incredible gains (of course w/ proper diet, rest, and exercise on a regular basis) using the supplement.

Now that you're more familiar with Creatine, lets move on to the next most talked about supplement GLUTAMINE.

Glutamine too is a naturally occurring amino acid found in your body and in many of the foods we eat. After hundreds of tests and hours of research, Glutamine has finally gotten the recognition it deserves by the bodybuilding world as a potent nutrient in maintaining a leaner physique, and better health leading to a better quality of life. Did you know that when we hit our thirties, our bodies produce less and less growth hormone. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, supplementing your diet with the amino acid Glutamine actually increased growth hormone levels up to 430%!!! This increase in growth hormone stimulates our metabolism, enabling our body to burn fat at an accelerated rate. Another reason to supplement your diet with Glutamine during strenuous exercise is that our bodies use up glutamine faster than we can reproduce it. So the harde you work, the more your glutamine levels have declined. Want another reason? Glutamine also aids in recovery. You'll be able to work those sore muscles sooner than you would if you were not taking Glutamine.

I've read many articles about Creatine and Glutamine and can say that these two supplements have now been proven to be very safe. Those of you training intensely or at least want to, should definitely think about supplementing your diet with Creatine and Glutamine.
http://www.mm2k.com/creatine_glutamine.html

One thing that I hate is when I spend a week’s salary on supplements only to finish the bottle/tub/jar and realize that it didn’t do anything for me. Sometimes I end up realizing that I bought a bottle of nothing that was the newest supplement on the market that I just “had to try” because it was going to be the key to me making some serious progress this month. A lot of the times I end up forgetting that a supplement is just that, a “supplement” to what you already should be doing.

A couple of the supplements that I have been experimenting with lately are Glutamine and Amino Acids.

I have been using Glutamine powder off and on over the last year to help to boost my immune system and to strengthen my stomach (due to being sick and the location of the sickness) and it really does help. Science has proven this many times over the last few years. The last time I was in the United States I did buy some Glutamine in the form of tablets but they seemed to bother my stomach just a little as well as help it. But, it could have just been that I was already very sick when I was there. At the time I was using a minimum of 10 grams per day and often 20 grams or more. One thing that I noticed was that I was hardly ever very sore during this time (but then again I was also taking medications to help to block “pain” under doctor’s supervision).

Since that time I had not used the Glutamine powder very much but since the weather has recently changed quite a bit here in Cyprus and it seems that everyone around me is getting sick with something, I started using it again. This time I am using it a little differently and making some pretty good progress. As soon as I finish my last set at the gym (and clean up my gym and put my bag in my car to leave) I will put 2-5 grams of Glutamine powder into the drink that I am drinking and drink it immediately. Almost always I will have 500ml (1/2 liter) of some type of drink immediately after I train with just a little sugar in it, so it mixes very nicely. Also, if I feel that I am getting sick with a cold or the flu, I will take 2-5 grams once or twice a day for a couple of days. This really seems to help with my immune system and with my recovery.

Using it only post workout and when not feeling well means that you can save quite a bit with the price. Normally a bottle will only last you 3-4 weeks and with this method it can easily last 2-3x as long!

Amino Acids have never been something that I have ever really used much for a couple of reasons. For starters, they are just protein and it doesn’t take long to read the label and realize that you could just eat one egg instead of taking 3-4 Amino Acid tablets. It would also take about 20 Amino Acid tablets to equal 1 scoop of whey protein. The Amino Acid tablets that we sell at my LA Muscle shop are made from the exact same whey protein as you get with our LA Whey, so how do I make them “worth the price”?

During long training sessions (more than 1 hour) I will take 1-2 Amino Acid tablets about every 30 minutes. When I am doing my Strongman Event Training I will take a few tablets between each event (I often do 5-8 events in a day) as well as 2-4 tablets as soon as I finish my last set. The reasoning behind this is to keep a constant amount of amino acids in my body so that my body never needs to take away any of it’s stored protein (muscle) to use for energy. I tried to eat a couple of eggs between sets and I found that if I was training with a lot of intensity, it did not take long before the eggs were coming back up and out from my stomach again. The Amino Acid tablets seemed to be the perfect answer for those long training sessions that I have a couple of times a week.

I have also been known to use Amino Acid tablets when I am traveling a lot in my car, on vacation, or on an air plane. Often I will also have a few Amino Acid tablets when I am eating a meal (not by choice) that does not include a meat or egg. The Greek diet often includes a form of “beans” for lunch at least three times every week so I will also add in a few Amino Acid tablets with these meals. They seem to be easy with my stomach and a good way to make sure that there is always at least a little protein going through my body when needed.

Also, again, this seems to be a great way to make one bottle of Amino Acid tablets last quite a long time. One large LA Amino Acid Tablet bottle will last me 2-3 months easily.

Glutamine
2-5 grams immediately after training
2-5 grams 1-3 times a day when feeling sick

Amino Acid Tablets
1-3 tablets for every 30 minutes in the gym
2-4 tablets immediately after training
1-2 tablets every few hours when traveling or eating a food not high in protein

Sounds crazy doesn't it? Of course you have to train legs properly to gain weight and build a balanced physique. Regardless, you might be amazed by the volume of e-mails that I get from trainees around the world that do little or no leg training. Many of the trainees that do leg training make the mistake of focusing on leg curls, leg extensions, leg presses etc. They avoid the exercises that pack on a lot of weight rapidly such as deadlifts and squats.

Why? Probably due to the fact that both squats and deadlifts are difficult exercises. In addition, both exercises send many trainees running to the bathroom to lose their lunches. As hard as exercises such as squats and deadlifts are, one or the other is necessary to increase leg size tremendously in the minimum amount of time. Here are two leg specialization programs to get you started.

The twenty rep squat routine was used abundantly many years ago by serious trainees that wanted to gain size rapidly. In addition, coaches often had their athletes do high rep squats to transform them from boys into men. The twenty rep squat program was re-popularized by Randall Strossen a few years ago in his outstanding book, "Super Squats." Here is how it works. Take a load that you can squat ten times with solid form and get in a squat rack. At the top of each rep, take in three deep breaths and then descend into a deep squat. That is right, I want you to do full squats. No partial squats or stopping at parallel (Be sure to clear this with your doctor if you have any existing knee issues).

Using this breathing pattern will allow you to do more than ten reps. If you are stopped at 14-15, no problem. Just stay at that weight, until you can do twenty full reps. Once you can do that, increase the weight by ten pounds. Make sure that you have a good spotter when doing the twenty-rep squat program and be sure to do the squats on an empty stomach. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that your pre-workout meal is taken a minimum of two hours before your workout. Do this squat workout two to three times a week and place the rest of your workout on maintenance mode. Try the twenty-rep squat program for six weeks and be sure to up your caloric intake tremendously.
EDT (Escalating Density Training)

Recently, I read a great book by top strength coach Charles Staley, entitled: "The Ultimate Guide To Massive Arms: Escalating Density training." Yes Sherlock, I am well aware that the book is about how to pack on some size on your arms. However, the EDT philosophy can be applied to any body part (well just about any part) for massive gains. Here is how it works, take two antagonistic exercises such as squats and stiff legged deadlifts. Squats focus on the quads and stiff legged deadlifts focus on the hamstrings (at least when done properly).

Do both exercises back to back for as many reps as possible in a fifteen-minute period. Now I am not telling you to use some puny poundage and go for fifteen minutes straight without resting. Take a weight that you can do ten times in solid form and do five reps. For a solid leg program, do five reps on barbell squats, rest thirty seconds, then do five reps on stiff legged deadlifts, rest for thirty seconds and so forth.

As fatigue kicks in, take longer breaks and do less reps. At the end of the fifteen minutes, record how many total reps you did for each exercise. Write down that number in your training journal (if you do not keep a journal, start doing so right now).

Your goal at the next workout is to beat that number. Avoid going to failure when doing EDT and take two days off between each EDT workout. Again, place your upper body work on maintenance mode and place all of your energy into bringing those tooth pick legs of yours up to a respectable level. Here is an EDT program that you can follow for four weeks:

Once the fifteen minutes are up, take a break for five minutes and then proceed to zone two for ten minutes.

10-Minute Zone Two
• A-1: Dumbbell Squats (hold a dumbbell on each site and squat until the dumbbell touches the floor)
• A-2: One arm Dumbbell swings (Swing a dumbbell between your legs, quickly reverse the position taking the dumbbell overhead and driving through with your hips)

Recovery Tips
Both the Super squats program and EDT are very intense and I recommend that you apply a few active recovery methods to maximize results. First, make sure to have a protein shake after each workout that has both a good amount of protein and carbs (no fat). I would suggest 25-30 grams of protein and 40-50 grams of simple sugar carbs will do the trick. Second, take a cold-hot shower after each workout. Start off with thirty seconds of cold water followed by one minute of hot water. Go back and forth for about ten minutes. Finally, take advantage of ice treatment otherwise known as cryotherapy.

I like to use a product called a "Cyrocup"(Call 1-800-ICE-6722 for more info) to ice muscles after a workout. Finally, get a deep tissue sports massage twice a month or every week if you can afford it.
Okay stop wasting time on the computer and get started on your leg workout. Who knows, after a few months you may be able to finally wear shorts without looking like a chump!

Mike Mahler is a strength coach and a certified kettlebell instructor based in Santa Monica, California. Mike has been a strength athlete for over ten years and designs strength training programs for athletes, law enforcement, and fire fighters. Mike is available for phone consultations and personal training in the Los Angeles/Washington DC area. For more information, visit Mike's site at www.mikemahler.com or email Mike at mahler25@yahoo.com.

Question: What is the reality behind the amount of protein we require on a daily basis?

Answer: I am asked daily about things people read in the media like the body only being able to digest 50 grams of protein a day and more than that being bad for a person. Others think amino acids are like steroids or that aminos are harmful.

The amount of protein required by the average person, the fitness enthusiast, bodybuilder and athlete is debated daily. The National Research Council sets the recommended daily allowance (RDA) per person at 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight a day. That is the equivalent of 0.36 grams per pound of body weight. Based on the RDA, a 200-pound man, no matter his activity level, would require just 72 grams of protein a day.

Unfortunately the RDA was established by studying inactive people, not those of us looking to remain in good shape, get back into shape or achieve new levels beyond our current peak conditioning.
As far as amino acids go, all things in nature contain them and they are what protein is made up of. Sufficient daily protein supplies essential amino acids which are required for every single one of your metabolic process. All muscles and organs are not only made from amino acids but require more every day to rebuild and function.

We all have higher requirements for protein than the average person who sits around and does nothing for themselves. Without enough protein, you cannot build muscle after tearing it down with weight training, but you can also forget about speeding up your metabolism. Too many studies indicate that weight training increases not only the metabolism but the need for greater amounts of protein. You cannot have one without the other.

One such study had weight lifters workout and consume almost one full gram of protein per pound of body weight a day and yet half these people were tested and found to be in negative nitrogen balance. A negative nitrogen balance refers to not having enough nitrogen inside of you to rebuild tissue. That nitrogen comes from amino acids. Amino acids that you should be getting from sufficient protein.

In another study where weight lifters ate 1.33 grams of protein per pound of body weight a day were able to increase both strength, metabolism and their lean mass successfully reducing their body fat percentages. Most people who pursue fitness train aerobically as well as weight lift and this places other demands on the protein needs of your body.

Prolonged aerobic exercise, cardiovascular training, riding a bike, going for a jog, etc, for example, burns amino acids as energy after the body has used up its internal stores of carbohydrate for energy (glycogen). Aerobic training in a protein malnourished state can lead to a condition called "sports anemia" in which red blood cells and serum iron levels are reduced because the important protein components were used as energy during the activity.

During any sort of weight training, muscle fibers are damaged, torn down, and not only is this why the body becomes better built, but in order to do so it must be allowed to repair following the exercise session. If your protein intake is inadequate (as in poor choices of protein) or deficient (as in not enough), the body draws on red blood cells, hemoglobin, and plasma proteins as a source for muscular repair.

When sports anemia arises, you feel it because little protein is left to rebuild red blood cells at a normal rate, and you begin looking saggy. Clearly, anyone who exercises must include ample amounts of protein in their diets to promote metabolic fitness and we all plan on being active, do we not? Individual protein needs vary and depend on a number of factors, including training intensity and level of conditioning but we are not all that different.

I have seen many clients improve their physiques by increasing their protein intake to as high five times the RDA but that is not good for you in the long run. It stresses the kidneys and other systems creating toxic buildup the body must fight to control. Based on our experience here, everyone and anyone can achieve optimal results by consuming between 1.25 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of LBM (Lean Body Mass) body weight a day.

Once you begin consuming a higher level of protein you should be sure to drink plenty of water and to get enough minerals. Protein metabolism generates ammonia, which is converted to urea and excreted in the urine and sweat. Drinking extra water aids the kidneys in removing this nitrogenous waste and dilutes mineral salts which could form kidney stones. There is no evidence suggesting that consuming a high protein diet can increase incidence of kidney disease. The reports suggesting such a thing stems from studying people with pre-existing kidney problems. In fact, most studies show that protein improves mineral absorption.
http://www.mm2k.com/protein-requirements.html

50 kgs = 110g
60 kgs = 132g
70 kgs = 154g
80 kgs = 176g
90 kgs = 198g
100 kgs = 220g
110kgs = 242g
120kgs = 264g
130kgs = 286g
140kgs = 308g

This program is one that an old training partner and I used to use quite a bit several years ago to continuously help us to reach new levels in our training. It helped us both with strength as well as size, quality size. The program is based on eating fewer than maintenance level calories for two weeks followed by eating greater than maintenance level calories for two weeks and of course continuing to repeat. Here are some parts of different articles written about the program.

BP: What's the rationale behind staying on each calorie cycle for just two weeks?

TA: The two-week calorie cycles are based on scientific evidence and empirical data. In one study by Forbes, et al., entitled the "Hormonal Response to Overfeeding,"2 it was demonstrated that when test subjects started with a maintenance-calorie-intake diet and then went on a nutrition program that provided 1,200 to 1,600 extra calories a day, their blood tests showed a progressive increase in IGF-1, testosterone, and insulin [which doubled in 14 days!], all in concert with an increase in lean body mass. However, the hormone levels peaked and began to decline on day 14 of the high-calorie diet! This is a very important observation.

By day 21, the test subjects in this study gained 3-6 lbs of lean body mass and gained a few pounds of bodyfat as well. However, these test subjects did not perform any resistance exercise, and the excess food provided only six percent of energy from protein, and the test subjects were women--we don't know yet, but the testosterone boost could be even greater in men, leading to more muscle accumulation.

Hypothetically, if you were to follow a two-week overfeeding phase with a two-week diet, you would actually gain muscle and lose fat, even if you didn't exercise. Needless to say, if you train with weights and follow a more precise nutrition program, much less use supplements that can enhance the anabolic and anti-catabolic effects of each phase of this diet, you can continue to gain muscle, without getting fat!

BP: If the body rapidly adapts to all of these different diets, won't it adapt to the ABCDE system also?

TA: I don't think it can. As long as you drastically increase calories, then reduce calories during each cycle, the body has to respond the way it's programmed to. I would recommend that someone keep doing high- and low-calorie cycles, back to back, as long as they continue to gain muscle with each cycle.

BP: Why do you suppose anabolic hormone levels peaked in Forbes' study after approximately two weeks?

TA: This has to be the body's natural response to such conditions, as it was seen in virtually all the test subjects. Exactly why this happens, no scientist can say for certain, but I have a theory: throughout the evolution of man, there have always been times of plenty followed by periods of famine. When the food supply was abundant, it became very important for the body to start up the right "metabolic program" with the right priorities, since it didn't know how long the abundance would last. In the short run, let's say over a few days, the availability of swift energy was always more important for our ancestors than muscle strength. I know some bodybuilders will not agree with me there. Anyway, the energy cost of building muscle tissue is much greater than just storing fat as triglycerides or carbohydrates as glycogen. Therefore, during the first days, the glycogen depots will increase, and now we are coming to the interesting part: the amount of fat inside the muscle cell will increase as well, which is actually a good thing! This is why you are experiencing such a nice muscle pump the day after you have been feasting on fatty food items. Recently, research has concluded that this fat [intracellular triglycerides] has very important regulatory functions. I'm not going into great detail here--I'll cover that in our next article--but the result will be muscle synthesis, followed by storage of the excess calories in adipose tissue.

Back to your question. Even though our ancestors had to be strong enough to fight and hunt, if they built too much muscle, their metabolic rates would get too high, and in the "old, old days," people with very high metabolic rates did not survive famines. Thus, the body adjusts, so after two weeks of overfeeding, the body becomes more efficient at storing excess calories in adipose cells.

Basically what I'm saying here is that we have a small time window of about 14 days--long enough for muscle hypertrophy to occur, while short enough to keep a substantial amount of fat from being stored in the adipose tissue.

BP: Wow. That's powerful stuff! You mentioned that you've already tried calorie cycling--how did it work? Torbjorn is not a small guy—he's 6'1", 225 lbs, 8% bodyfat, and he's definitely not on steroids; I guarantee it!

TA: It flat out works. During the two-week bulking phase, you can eat just about anything you want, which is actually fun--guilt-free ice cream and Swedish meatballs! If you begin an overfeeding program after a diet, within a matter of days, you'll notice an increase in muscle fullness and strength. It's absolutely "drug like" the way your body changes so rapidly.

During my last 2 bulking phases, I gained 7 and 6 lbs, respectively, and during both cycles, the amount of lean mass to fat was 3:1.

Of course, some of the lean mass is increased cell volume from the extra glycogen; remember, when you start overfeeding, your body stores macronutrients in every available compartment--you store protein as muscle, fat as triglyceride in adipose tissue, and carbohydrate as glycogen, which enhances strength and muscle size.

The dieting phase is fairly difficult, but restricting calorie intake for just two weeks is nothing compared to what many bodybuilders do--starving themselves for two, three, or even four months to get ready for a photo shoot or contest. Every time I get hungry, I always know it will be only a matter of days before I can eat just about anything I want again. This helps compliance a great deal.

During my dieting phases, I have been able to lose virtually all of the fat I gained on my bulking cycles while dropping only a couple pounds of lean mass. You might think of the ABCDE as a two-steps-forward, one-step-back program.

I have a number of "gym buddies" who I've had experimenting with the system, and their results have been very similar to mine. On each cycle, you'll gain between two and five pounds of muscle, which, for someone who has been training for over a decade, like I have, is a phenomenal thing to experience.

BP: All righty then... So what you're telling me is that the muscle you gain during the bulking phase of the ABCDE system is good muscle, and I assume you're saying it's the type of muscle that is functional and lasts—it won't disappear overnight?

TA: Exactly, and boy was I happy when, after my early experiments, I discovered that my theory on lasting muscle was confirmed.

BP: What type of macronutrient profile do you think is optimal during each phase of the diet? Do you recommend a high-protein intake, a high-carb intake, or...?

TA: The macronutrient profile of the diet is not nearly as important as the total-energy intake, but one could logically surmise that consuming a higher protein diet during the bulking phase may stimulate anabolic drive and produce even greater nitrogen retention. In the studies by Forbes and Jebb that I've already mentioned, I believe the results would have been more substantial if the subjects had been consuming more protein.

The ratio of macronutrients during the anabolic phase is actually not far from the ordinary, habitual diet most people eat and is actually in concert with Dr. Erasmus' recommendations of 20% protein, 50% carbohydrates, and 30% fat. However, an even higher protein, lower carbohydrate bulking diet may also be effective, but the health aspects concern me a bit here.

I have numerous theories, which I'm developing, on how to set up "microcycles," where you consume different macronutrient profiles on different days of the two-week high-calorie and low-calorie phases. But rather than get into all those intricacies at this point, I will simply emphasize that it is very likely a substantial effect will be realized by consuming high quantities of food rich with quality protein [at least one gram per pound of bodyweight per day], carbohydrates, and unsaturated fats.

BP: What about the low-calorie phase? What type of nutrient profile do you recommend?

TA: First of all, let's backtrack a bit and go over why it's so important to have a low-calorie/dieting phase in this program. This dieting phase actually serves two very important purposes. First, we want to strip off what fat will be gained during the two-week bulking phase. This is very important, as bodybuilders want to gain muscle, not fat.
A second very important aspect of the dieting phase of this program is to "reprime" your body's enzymes and anabolic hormones. As I've already discussed, testosterone, insulin, and IGF-1 levels start to decline after about two weeks of overfeeding. In order to boost these levels again, you've got to trick the body into thinking it's necessary to store more calories as muscle tissue.

The great thing about these short, low-calorie, two-week dieting phases is that fat loss is very efficient during this time. As one of your authors, Dan Duchaine, has cited often in previous issues of Muscle Media 2000, after a few weeks of dieting, the body starts to adjust--to adapt. I'm sure you and your readers have experienced this--after a few weeks of dieting, your progress comes to a standstill, and to experience further weight loss, you have to increase calorie expenditure through exercise or further decrease energy intake, both of which may lead to an increased loss of fat and muscle.

As you know, fat loss is all but impossible in the presence of elevated insulin levels—a high-carbohydrate diet will severely inhibit fat oxidation. Also, if you followed a high-carbohydrate diet during the low-calorie phase, the accompanying increase in fat oxidation would make you put on a lot of fat during the next bulking phase.

Nevertheless, carbohydrates also have some very important properties during a hypocaloric diet, such as keeping GH and IGF-1 primed. Therefore, it's almost necessary to perform "microcycles" for optimal results.

BP: How many calories should somebody eat on the bulking phase and cutting program?

TA: Once again, I'll go into much more specific detail on this topic in future articles, but a rough guideline--a place to start--would be to take your bodyweight times 12 [to approximate maintenance-calorie intake for an individual who's not extremely active] and add 1,500 calories to this number. For example, a person who weighs 200 lbs, like yourself, would consume about 4,000 calories a day during the bulking phase [200 x 12 = 2,400 + 1,500].

On the low-calorie phase, I would recommend consuming a number of calories equal to your bodyweight times eight. That would be about 1,600 calories for you [200 x 8 = 1,600].

This is just a rough place to start--a person's activity level [whether they have desk jobs or are construction workers could make a big difference] and a person's muscle mass and metabolism also come into play. If a bodybuilder is following this recommendation and not gaining weight during a bulking phase, I would recommend increasing calorie intake by 500 calories a day, for a week, and if a substantial weight gain is not realized, I would take it up 500 more calories the next week.

Likewise, if someone is not losing bodyweight on the low-calorie phase, I would recommend decreasing calorie intake by 300 calories a day, per week.

Remember that each time you start an anabolic phase, you may need to increase your calorie intake, provided you're gaining lean body mass. For example, if you go from 190 to 195 lbs during your first anabolic and fat-burning cycle, you should add about 100 more calories to your diet per day for the next cycle.

BP: What happens if you don't gain a significant amount of weight on the bulking phase or lose weight during each dieting phase?

TA: I would highly recommend that all those who try this system keep track of their calories as best they can, simply by writing down what they eat each day, the time they eat it, and do their best to calculate how many calories they're consuming--this data could be recorded in a notebook or journal. Having a record of what you've done will allow you to troubleshoot your program very effectively. If you're not gaining a significant amount of weight [at least three pounds a week during the bulking phase], then you need to increase your calorie intake. During the cutting phase, if you don't lose weight, you need to consume less calories. It's very simple to make adjustments on this program.

BP: What about exercise? Should you perform a different type of training during the bulking phase versus the dieting cycle?

TA: This is an area that can also get quite complex, but for the time being, I think it would be sufficient to say that during the bulking phase, you should avoid aerobic exercise and conduct heavy, intense weight-training sessions. As energy, strength, and recovery levels will be heightened during this period, you might be able to train with weights five days a week. When I'm on my high-calorie/bulking phase, my strength literally goes up every workout. During intense weight training, your body further stimulates the release of testosterone and growth hormone.

During the dieting phase, it is very important to include aerobic exercise, and the best time to do this is in a fasted state; i.e., in the morning, before breakfast. Recent studies at my lab strongly support this. I have experienced excellent results doing 40 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise 4 days a week--I keep my pulse around 120 beats per minute. During aerobic exercise, your body is more likely to stimulate the production of fat-burning chemicals like epinephrine.

During this low-calorie phase, I would expect one to see good results training with weights 3 days a week, doing a more moderate-intensity program—for example, conducting 3 sets of 8-12 reps on standard exercises like dumbbell bench presses, lateral side raises, incline curls, triceps pushdowns, etc. Remember, your training goals during the low-calorie phase are to lose fat while maintaining as much muscle tissue as possible.

BP: I see--you should go all out during the bulking phase, training heavy and hard, eating a bunch of food, then after two weeks, drop the calorie and carbohydrate intake substantially, perform regular aerobic exercise, and back off a bit on the weight training. That makes sense. What about meal frequency and supplements?

TA: I'm a proponent of frequent feeding--I think you should eat every three hours or so during the day for optimum results. This would mean you'd consume five or six meals a day.
In terms of supplements, this is an area where I think you can substantially increase the effects of the ABCDE program. It's also an area that can get quite complex and one that I'll go into in greater detail on in the future. In fact, I'm presently writing a book about this system, which will spell out every aspect of this program--all my theories on nutrition, training, and supplementation will be revealed. I think I can have this book completed within the next six to eight months--I would be able to finish it sooner, but my research obligations and time in the ER make it difficult to allocate a significant number of hours to this project, even though it is one I'm quite passionate about.
As far as supplements go, creatine, HMB, glutamine, Vitamin C, and chromium would all be extremely useful as long as they are used properly.4,11,12,16 I'll cover this in the next article, as it is quite complicated.

TA: This is the type of bodybuilding program I would highly recommend to drug-free weight trainers who are trying to increase muscle mass without gaining fat. On this program, it's even possible to lose bodyfat while you gain muscle mass, but I would not recommend it for the obese.

BP: What if people are already on a high-calorie diet, or what if they're presently on a low-calorie diet and they want to try your ABCDE program?

TA: If some of your readers are already consuming an excess number of calories, they should start the ABCDE program with the low-calorie phase to "reprime" their anabolic systems, so to speak.
If they are already on a low-calorie diet, let's say they're getting ready for a bodybuilding contest or a photo shoot, following this would be an excellent time to start the Anabolic Burst Cycling program with a high-calorie phase. In fact, many bodybuilders will probably recognize that they have "unintentionally" done an anabolic-burst high-calorie dieting phase already--anyone who's cut up for a contest and then "pigged out" for a few weeks afterwards will confirm he/she gained size and strength at a phenomenal rate, and not all of the weight gained was fat. Ask them--they'll confirm this!
One of the things that's often discussed in bodybuilding is that those who compete make better gains, year in and year out, than those who don't because they're forced to go on calorie cycles, albeit rather traditional, longer ones. My acute, two-week calorie cycles will produce even better results than competitive bodybuilders get from cutting up and bulking up. On this system, you're literally bulking and cutting every month.

TA: Traditionally, high-calorie diets are associated with several undesirable effects, such as increased cholesterol levels and a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, but since the overfeeding phases are only two weeks in length and are followed by a fat-loss phase, I don't believe there will be any adverse health consequences. I think the ABCDE program is very safe.

And, the program has numerous advantages over other diets, which make it much easier to follow, henceforth more effective, such as: it offers variation, thus it won't become tedious to follow; it doesn't induce a mental state where you can't function within a social context; it's based on legitimate scientific findings; the "perfect" ratio of macronutrients in every meal is relatively unimportant; overall, the diet is relatively easy to follow; and the program allows you to make changes within the framework of the diet in regards to your personal ambitions and goals.

All of these things that I just mentioned are not true of ketogenic diets, the Zone Diet, very high-protein diets, starvation diets, very low-fat diets, high-carbohydrate diets, and high-fat diets.

BP: So when I'm on the bulking phase of your program, my muscles are being pumped full of nutrients and fluid, so when I work out, I'll get pumped up like I'm on 'roids. And, to maximize growth during this phase, I should stretch a lot during my exercises and between them, while I'm pumped. During the second week of the bulking phase, days 7-14, I should really stretch hard and do very intense eccentric reps [negatives]. And, during this time, I might benefit from taking a gram of Vitamin C before I work out and taking a total of three grams a day.

BP: Do I need to stretch and do negatives or take Vitamin C during the cutting phase?

TA: No. During the low-calorie phase, we are not trying to remodel connective tissue. The emphasis is on fat burning. Of course--for other reasons--one gram of Vitamin C daily or moderate stretching could be useful during the "non-remodeling" phase. Intense negatives, on the other hand, must be avoided.

BP: Let's talk more about some of the specific details of your program. It seems that alternating between low- and high-calorie diet phases is basically the cornerstone of this system. How many calories are we talking about during each phase?

TA: In my upcoming book, I will go into great detail about this. But as a guideline, a place to start, for the high-calorie phase, someone like you, who has relatively low bodyfat and weighs around 200 lbs, will probably need to eat around 4,000 to 5,000 calories a day. You eat like this for 14 days in a row. Each person will need some adjustments to this number. Since I understand you sit at a desk 12 hours a day, you may need only 4,000. During the dieting/fat-loss phase, you would eat about half this much.

This is just a rough place to start--a person's activity level [whether someone has a desk job or is a construction worker could make a big difference] and a person's muscle mass and metabolism also come into play. If a bodybuilder is following this recommendation and not gaining weight during the bulking phase, I would recommend increasing calorie intake by 500 calories a day, for a week, and if a substantial weight gain is not realized, I would take it up another 500 calories the next week. If you're working out hard, you should be gaining three pounds a week on the bulking phase.

Likewise, if someone is not losing bodyweight on the low-calorie phase, I would recommend decreasing calorie intake by 300 calories a day, per week.

Remember that each time you start an anabolic phase, you may need to increase your calorie intake, as long as you're gaining lean body mass. For example, if you go from 190 to 195 lbs during your first anabolic and fat-burning cycle, you should add about 100 more calories to your diet per day for the next cycle.

________________________________________
The Bulking Phase
An Example
________________________________________

Calories:
I'm going to start this system by consuming 1,500 more calories per day than my maintenance energy requirements. My body burns only around 2,400-2,800 calories a day because I'm not very active. I basically sit behind a desk all day and then work out for an hour. I probably burn fewer calories each day than those of you who take part in a lot of recreational sports, have physically demanding jobs, etc. Anyway, for me, 2,400-2,800 calories a day is my maintenance intake. So, I'm going to consume around 4,000-4,200 calories per day to start with. If I don't put on at least three pounds the first week, I'll go up to about 4,700 calories a day the second week. My plan is to consume 6 meals every day, each with about 500 to 800 calories.

Torbjorn believes that on the bulking phase, a 20% protein, 50% carb, and 30% fat macronutrient profile will work well. I think I'll go with a bit more protein, but Torbjorn emphasizes that a relatively high level of carbs consumed while bulking will maximize insulin output and help promote anabolism. An example of what I'm planning for an average day on my bulking diet is indicated in the chart below.

Training:
As far as workouts go, I plan to do only weightlifting during the bulking phase--no aerobics. I'm going to train four times a week, lifting as much weight as possible for relatively low reps. For example, for chest, after a few warm-up sets on the flat barbell bench, I'm going to do 5 sets of between 3 and 8 repetitions with 275 to 325 lbs. Then I'm going to do dumbbell flyes--four sets of five to eight reps, using as much weight as I possibly can yet incorporating a deep stretch into the movement. And I'm going to hit the eccentric (negative) hard, especially during the second week of each bulking phase. I'll finish my chest work with 2 sets of pullovers, using moderate weight for 10 to 12 reps. I plan to rest a full three minutes between sets, so I'll recover my strength and can lift heavy.

As Torbjorn explained in this article, it is important to stretch the connective tissue around muscle cells as much as possible while bulking up. I'll do this by stretching between exercises and actually doing as much stretching as I can during exercises. For example, on the lat pulldown and the low-pulley row, I'll really stretch out the lats. On exercises like the dumbbell triceps extension, I'll lower the weight as far as I can behind my head and really extend those muscles, and on exercises like the dumbbell preacher curl, I'll extend the biceps muscles and stretch them out, all the way.

Supplements:
As far as supplements go, during the anabolic phase, I'm going to have three or four servings of Phosphagen HP a day (I'll drink two right after I work out) to increase insulin output and creatine uptake by my muscle cells. I'm also going to use chromium and vanadyl sulfate in an effort to maximize insulin's anabolic actions. Insulin is one of the main anabolic agents in this "hormone cocktail" that is elevated when you start overfeeding. I'll get the chromium and the vanadyl from the total-nutrition supplement I'll be using, which is Myoplex Plus Deluxe. I'm also going to supplement with three grams of Vitamin C a day during this bulking phase.

The Cutting Phase
________________________________________
Calories:
After two weeks of overfeeding, I'm going to "shift gears" and go on a low-calorie diet. Because I'll be trying to lose fat at a very rapid pace during this two-week cutting period, I'll need to create a significant energy deficit. I think I'll have to go down to around 1,600-1,800 calories a day for 14 days in order to accomplish my objective. Basically, I'm going to starve my ass off. I plan to eat small meals often throughout the day.

Training:
Four days a week I'm going to try to do a minimum of 20 minutes (but hopefully as much as 30 or 40 minutes) of aerobic exercise, on an empty stomach in the morning, to accelerate fat loss. After I work out, I'll wait about an hour before I eat (my body will continue to burn fat for fuel at an accelerated rate after exercise). By then, I'll probably have to eat--I'll be starving.
During this phase, I'm going to train with weights only three days a week, doing moderate weight, relatively high reps, and relatively low intensity.
My goal during this two-week period is to get rid of bodyfat while maintaining muscle mass. This phase is not about stretching the connective tissue or gaining muscle, so I'm not going to exaggerate the stretching components on my exercises, nor am I going to work very hard on the eccentric reps. This is not the time for beating up my muscles--protein synthesis will probably be down during this phase, and recovery will be difficult. I plan to work out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for about 45 minutes with weights and do completely different exercises than I did during the bulking phase. And, like I said, I don't plan to really push it that hard.

Supplements:
Because I know caffeine can stimulate the release of fatty acids for use as fuel, especially in a fasted state, as soon as I get out of bed on the mornings I'm going to be doing aerobic exercise, I plan to take 200 mg of caffeine, 25 mg of ephedrine, and one aspirin. (This is a potent fat-burning stack which works well for a lot of lifters but one which Torbjorn does not "endorse" because these are considered serious drugs in Sweden. And as a medical professional, he does not believe in the self-administration of any drugs. I have used caffeine and ephedrine before, and I tolerate them well.)
I also plan to use BetaGen (EAS' new creatine and HMB formula) and CytoVol (EAS' new Glutamine Preservation System). Because my primary goal during the dieting phase is to lose fat while attempting to minimize the loss of muscle tissue, the use of anti-catabolic supplements like glutamine and HMB is important. I'm going to use BetaGen instead of Phosphagen HP during the dieting phase because I'll be trying to keep my insulin levels relatively low and stable. (Phosphagen HP contains a good dose of carbs. BetaGen is virtually carb free.) After two straight weeks of consuming Phosphagen HP, my muscles are going to be jam-packed with creatine. I don't think they'll be able to hold any more, and consuming a maintenance dose during the fat-loss phase will ensure that my muscles don't start losing stored creatine and suffer a loss of cell volume during the dieting period.
Creatine is one supplement I would not discontinue--I just don't see any reason for it. Dr. Paul Greenhaff's data from Nottingham University clearly shows that when you stop taking creatine, your muscle cells' creatine concentrations return to normal--you lose the advantage it offers. I would no sooner cut creatine out of my diet than I would protein, vitamins and minerals, etc. However, I think there is some justification for cycling other supplements, and I think it makes sense to use more creatine when your cells are really starting to swell, like during the bulking phase. And, I don't necessarily think it's a must to use HMB during the bulking phase--but I do think it can be a huge benefit during the cutting cycle. Dr. Steve Nissen's research on HMB shows it has significant protein-sparing/anti-catabolic effects, and it may accelerate fat loss.

When my training partner and I used to use this program we would do the following:
Bulking: 3 weeks
During these three weeks we would train as heavy as possible as we found it was very easy to set new personal records during this time. Our diet became basically whatever we could manage to eat. We switched to drinking whole milk, ice cream, pizza, cheeseburgers, as well as all of the normal good foods that we would eat. Our goal was to eat as much as possible and to gain 5-7 lbs (2.5-3 kgs).

Cutting: 2 weeks
Curing these two weeks we would change our diet greatly to only very clean foods. If it did not come from “Mother Earth” then we basically did not eat it. There was no cheating during this time. Soft drinks and juices were replaced with water and whole milk was replaced with skim milk. We also did cardio on the treadmill for 30 minutes three times a week after training. During this time we would cut our training down from 4 days to 3 and do less work in the gym but the reps would be in the 6-12 range. Sometimes we would even change exercises, say from dumbbells to flyes or pec dec and from leg press to high rep leg extensions. We also would do some super sets and basically train like we had 2 weeks to get ready for a big bodybuilding show! A goal was to lose 3-4 lbs during this time period.

This program of training was really good because we would often decide that we would “bulk up” and that would only last for a couple of weeks and then we would get tired of force feeding all of the food that we needed. At times we would decide to lose some fat but after a few days or weeks we would get tired of that as well. It is also very easy to get stuck into the same gym training routine and exercises where as with this type of routine we were changing everything up every 2-3 weeks completely. We always felt fresh!

If I were doing this program all over again now, I would probably set it up like this:

Goal would be to eat 6,000-7,000 calories per day, basically everything that wasn’t nailed down to the ground. Try to gain 6-8 lbs during this time.

Training would be based around Squats, Deadlifts, Overhead Press/Bench Press, Barbell Rows, Barbell Curls, Close Grip Bench Press. Mostly sets of 3-6 reps on everything.
I would add in some good gaining supplements like creatine, weight gainer, natural hormone booster (like Norateen), and a nitrous oxide type of product (Vasculator).

Goal would be to eat 3,500 calories per day from very clean foods. Try to lose 3-5 lbs during this time.
Training would be based still around squats, deadlifts, overhead press/bench press, but I would also add in a lot of super sets, lower my rest times, and focus more on contraction movements like flyes, lateral raises, leg extensions, etc… I would also add in some light walking, stationary bicycle, or swimming for 20-30 minutes three times a week after training.

It would be good to add in some supplements to help me lose body fat without losing muscle so I would focus on products like whey protein powder, glutamine powder, amino acids, products with CLA, as well as fat loss supplements (like Fat Stripper and Norateen).

I think that a program like this is a very good one to give you good and quality size and strength gains year round.

Last month I interviewed 4 athletes in a part 1 of 2 series. Due to time and coordination issues, I was only able to really focus in on Athlete I, the Powerlifter, for the December Edition of Cyprus Muscle.

Just to make sure everyone reading understands where we are picking things up from, I wanted to repost what you said last time about some of the things that you have tried and learned.

“Over the next few years I tried different things at different times and to be honest different things have worked at different times in my training. When I am training with a very heavy training program I learned that nandrolone can help me a lot with my joint pains and that I would try to only take a total amount (in mg) per week, depending on my training and recovery. A top-level powerlifter friend told me to take your body weight in kilograms and from there you could determine your total mg/per week that you should be taking. “

Light training would be: bodyweight in kg x 10
Medium training would be: bodyweight in kg x 15
Heavy training would be: bodyweight in kg x 20-25, depending on your level.

Just to make sure everyone understands what you are meaning, you are not suggesting these amounts for everyone.

Correct, I am not SUGGESTING these amounts for ANYONE. These amounts are for the high-level athlete who already has a lot of time training as well as a lot of experience with anabolics.

Lets say that they are 168 cm (5’6”) and 75 kgs (165 lbs). Fairly lean with a start of muscle definition.

In my opinion they probably do not need anything except to train harder and eat more food. If they ARE going to use something no matter what, I would suggest 250-375 mg of a testosterone and about ½ of that amount of a nandrolone.

Ok, what if they are my height (188cm, 6’2”) and 100-110 kgs (220-242 lbs)?

If they were still able to grow a lot naturally, I would still say to stay clean and focus on your training and food. If they are set to use something then I could suggest something like:
500-750 mg testosterone
250-400 mg nandrolone

How would this change if the person was looking to get more lean “for the Summer”?

Honestly, I am not the best person to ask about that as I do not ever think to “get lean for the Summer” but always maintain about 12-15% body fat at 140 kilograms (308 lbs) or a little more. Still I would suggest that the changes would be in your diet more than anything else that you would put into your body.

Now, you told me that you actually did train for and compete in some Strongman Competitions this year. How did everything change for you as you switched from powerlifting to Strongman?

I have already earned my certificate as a Master Lifter in (his country) and mentally I was just not ready for another year of the same training and the same competitions. There are several people at my gym who have been training for Strongman for several years and I have trained with them off and on for the past couple of years. For my training I did not change much except for working more on my overhead log press and having a day for Event Training. Normally I was training on the weekend for powerlifting anyway so I was used to it. We actually do a lot of incline log press for our bench press.

Yes. My first was a national contest and I placed in the top 5. Next was a contest that will be shown on European TV next year I hope and the last one was a “friendly” contest (in Europe). I did well in all three contests but I have a lot of technique work before I am where I can be. In contests I did a 150 kg (330 lbs) log press, finished 5 stones with last one being 165 kgs (365 lbs), and 150 kg (330 lbs) farmer suitcases for 40 meters with good speed.

I did not change much. Some of my friends had suggested that I try some different things for the first show and I am not for sure how much that they helped. For my body I think that I know what works best for me so I do not see any reason to spend more money on something that does not work very well for me.

You did say that you took a different approach to what you were using at the end of last year in powerlifting and through the beginning of this year before the Strongman season started. What did you do differently?

I tried to set up my training and my anabolics into cycle of more androgenic followed by more anabolic cycles.

Every month would have a testosterone base and I tried to stay around 2,000 mg or less through my off season (total mg per week).

Anabolic I	Androgenic I
750 Test Cypionate	750 Test Cypionate
450 Nandrolone Phenylpropionate	450 Trenbolone
450 Masteron	100mg Anadrol per day

Anabolic II	Androgenic II
700 Test Suspension	300 Test Suspension
300 Nandrolone Phenylpropionate	750 Test Sustanon
300 Nandrolone Decanoate	50mg Dianabol per day
50 mg Anavar per day

Anabolic III	Androgenic III
350 Test Suspension	450 Test Phenylpropionate
300 Test Phenylpropionate	500 Test Enanthate
300 Masteron	50-100mg Winstrol per day
300 Nandrolone Phenylpropionate	300-600mg Trenbolone

I think that I get the rough idea. You would use test every time and the second choice would determine if it was more of an anabolic (nandrolone, masteron, anavar) or androgenic (trenbolone, anadrol, dianabol). How would your gains change from month to month or cycle to cycle?

I seemed to never stop gaining. My body weight was going up very slowly but I was looking better and better. Really am not for sure why but I think that a lot of the things that I was taking would continue to work into the next monthly cycle but I would not be using it long enough to get used to it or to have many bad side effects. The androgenic cycles tend to be harder on my body than the anabolic ones but I also gain more strength on them. Anything more than 4 weeks on a purely anabolic cycle and I start to lose size and strength. Anything more than 6 weeks on an androgenic cycle and I start to have joint pains and my strength will go down as well.

I tried to keep it as best as I could. The last 6 weeks before a contest I would try to be on my Androgenic cycle and the week after the contest I would immediately start 4 weeks of an Anabolic cycle. This really seemed to keep my mind and my body fresh. My gains also kept going better with my body weight, how I looked, how I felt, and my strength was better through the season.

You told me that you actually came off completely for this off season. Is this true?

Yes, it is true. After my last contest I went on a short 3 week anabolic cycle and then I stopped completely. First I went to my doctor to check all of my health values. I was more or less normal with everything (except that he said I was very big, ha!) for my size. I did have some clomid tablets and some hcg injections to get my body normal again. Also I had to use some nolvadex for a while because I could not find any arimidex to help control the estrogen in my body. My plan is to take 2-3 full cycles off before starting to get ready for next season.

Right now my plan is to do a ½ dose Anabolic cycle, then a ½ dose Androgenic cycle, and then I will go from there depending on the readings from my doctor and how my training is going.

Thanks again and I can’t wait to get more interviews with you in the future!

I was looking back over some posts that I had made on the internet years ago about my diet and training as well as what has gotten me where I am today. So many people think that gaining mass can happen in a matter of a few months but it really comes through years of consistency.

Ok...I've just spent the entire evening with an old friend who really motivated me quite a bit. He reminded me in a glimpse of why I train in this crazy sport of lifting weights. I have glanced back at the evening and have tried to remember everything that we spoke about and tried to consume it at all costs. We discussed several people that we both had known along our journey of becoming large humans...and laughed at most of the people who put us down along the way.

While at Wal-Mart tonight, buying my groceries for the week, I saw all kinds of people that I hadn't seen in a long time. Young girls from Church, friends from that Chemistry class my Sophomore (2nd) year of college, and an old buddy from the gym. They all had the same question. "Are you going to eat all of that this month?" I said no...I am shopping for the week only.

My friend from the gym kept looking at me in awe. He hadn't seen me in about 2 or 3 years. I know that he was giving me that "you use steroids" look. He was just amazed at how much larger I had become. I just knew that he was thinking to himself "that guy is using a ton of steroids. I'd look like that if I was on what he was." BS!!!! It couldn't be because I had filled my buggy with groceries and the fact that he had spent his money on Doritos, Mountain Dew, and Blockbuster movies. Naaa... It couldn't be that he is only lifting on machines now and I am killing myself in my home dungeon...naaaa.

So...I compiled this list tonight of how to grow. At the top of the list it says Wal-Mart, and at the bottom it has a total.

Recipe:
4 gallons 1% milk (16 liters)
2 gallons skim milk (thought I'd give it a whirl) (8 liters)
2 10lb bags of chicken breasts (total of 9 kgs)
1 bucket of macaroni salad
14 cans of tuna
8 boxes of macaroni and cheese
8lbs hamburger (3.6 kgs)
1 box white rice
5 sweet potatoes
1 box oatmeal
1 gallon orange juice (4 liters)
5 steak and mac dinners
4 boxes hamburger helper
12 cups yogurt

Well...that's it in a nutshell. Buy it every Sunday afternoon and make it a goal to eat it all by next Sunday. Sure...you may have a little left over, maybe a lot of one item, but that just means that you don't have to buy it next week. Improvise. Add and subtract when needed but replace it with something else. Ahhhh....and the key is 1/2 price pizza delivery on Thursday. X-tra large meatlovers...ahhhhh...can't wait till Thursday!

Well...good wishes and remember that it is not the gear, juice, or whatever you may believe that makes me a large man. It is training, food, and consistancy. Good wishes, God Bless, and I hope that someone actually takes my advice and tries it.

NEW Training DVD’s are here.
Markus Ruhl, Ronnie Coleman, Strongman Training, Bench Press Secrets

LA Whey, Any Creatine, Norateen Heavyweight III, Drink Shaker…100 CYP!!!
127 CYP Value

Limited Supply of NEW POWDER TAURINE in Stock!!!
Let me know if you are interested.

New shipment of Energy drinks for December!!!
Add these to 500ml Water and it is like a couple of Energy Drinks that you normally get at the market. Mix in some creatine and have a super charged workout!!!

Check out the HARD-CORE Training Videos
over at www.IronTrybe.com on the Training Forum!!!

Planning several Amateur and Pro Strongman contests for 2008.
Let me know if you are interested in training, competing, or helping!!! All in good fun!!!

For more information…contact me at clint@cystrongman.com
99987972
LA Muscle Shop
75 C Omonia Ave
Limassol, Cyprus, 3052

You can search for my "Another Fun Sunday" threads, posted as "b fold the truth"