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Your Best Six-Pack Ever!Take Our Abs Challenge
PACK ON
MUSCLE IN JUST
3O DAYS
Nicole Wilkins
Reveals All
Super Stacks for MassTime Your Supplements for 24-Hour Gains pg. 78
IFBB PRO
LARRY
VINETTE
BUILDING GREAT BODIES SINCE 1974
THE SILENT BODYBUILDER KILLER pg. 100
EXCLUSIVE!
PLEASE DISPLAY UNTIL 12/31/13
musclemag.comDECEMBER 2013 $6.99 US/$7.99 CAN
Available exclusively at
stores nationwidevitaminshoppe.com
visit us at
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6 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
DECEMBER 2O13
36 Add 50 lbs. to Your Squat, Overhead Press, Bench, Bent-Over RowTo build super strength and muscle size, you need to work the secondary muscles that assist in the execution of the major lifts. Here’s how to build power from the inside out.BY JIMMY PEÑA, MS, CSCS
46 Your 5-Week Ab ChallengeGo from flab to abs by making your workout progressively more challenging, building up your strength and your six-pack. Here’s a five-week plan that’ll make your abs pop. BY BILL GEIGER, MA
62 Jurassic MassMMI uncovers the truth about the popular ancestral Paleo diet and how it can keep your muscle gains from going extinct. BY MIKE CARLSON
70 Building a Classic PhysiqueMMI sat down with three legendary Mr. Olympia champions to discuss the current state of bodybuilding and ask for their insight on how to build a physique for the ages.BY ERIC VELAZQUEZ, NSCA-CPT
78 Stackin’ for MassCombine the right supplements at the optimal times for muscle gains around the clock.BY DWAYNE N. JACKSON, PhD
54 Double Your Reps, Double the Muscle
You can do twice the reps with a given heavy weight if you follow the rest-pause technique. Now’s your chance to make muscle and strength gains like never before.BY JIMMY PEÑA, MS, CSCS
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THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE, OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE.
LIKE A
BEAST
TRAIN
™
pre-workout formula that
maximizes intensity
and energizes the body
to compete at the highest level.*
it’s a new age... for a whole new beast.
®
AVAILABLE AT
THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION.
THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE, OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE.
© 1995 - 2014 Beast Sports Nutrition. All Rights Reserved
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8 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
Departments
14 MUSCLEMAG
ONLINE
What’s on
musclemag.com
this month
15 EDITOR’S LETTER
By Bill Geiger
18 FREEZE FRAME
20 FEEDBACK
FIRST SET
22 EXERCISE OF
THE MONTH
By Jimmy Peña,
MS, CSCS
24 MAKE ONE
CHANGE
By Jimmy Peña,
MS, CSCS
26 TROUBLE-
SHOOTING 101
By Jimmy Peña,
MS, CSCS
27 PUMP QUIZ
By Bill Geiger, MA
28 FACE OFF
By Jimmy Peña,
MS, CSCS
29 BODYBUILDER’S
CHOICE
By Steven Stiefel
30 MUSCLE MEALS
By Ashif Tejani
31 FOOD PICKS
By Matthew Kadey
32 NUTRITION R&D
By Steven Stiefel
35 ON SHELVES
NOW
By Steven Stiefel
ON THE COVER
Larry Vinette by
Paul Buceta
DECEMBER 2O13
108 After-Dark Muscle BuildingOnce your workout ends, the
business of building muscle in
the kitchen begins. Here’s how
to maximize muscle growth and
fat loss with the right foods and
supplements from your post-
workout meal through bedtime.
BY ERIC VELAZQUEZ, NSCA-CPT
114 Sports Med: Your Achilles Heel in Your Pursuit to Get LeanIf you do high-impact cardio, you
might be familiar with plantar
fasciitis pain in the soles of your
feet. Here’s what causes the
condition and how to treat it.
BY GUILLERMO ESCALANTE, PhD,
MBA, CSCS
116 Eye of the TigressWe get up close and personal
with Nicole Wilkins, whose fierce
determination to win earned her a
third Ms. Olympia Figure title in 2013.
PHOTOS BY ROBERT REIFF
88 Cheat to Win in the GymMaintaining strict form will help you
build muscle, but there are times when
loosening your exercise execution can
help you boost the intensity of your
workout and reap even greater gains.
The key is knowing how to cheat right.
BY ROB RINALDI, MA
94 Cheat to Win on Your DietEating clean makes a bodybuilder
start craving the wrong kinds of foods,
especially those loaded with sugar and
fats. MMI explains which cheat strategies
will help boost your gains – and which
will bust your gut.
BY TEAM MUSCLEMAG
100 Is Your Muscle Sleep Putting You in Deadly Danger?One side efect of bodybuilding is a
stronger, thicker neck, but that can
cause you to fall victim to an insidious
nighttime killer called sleep apnea.
BY NICOLE MCPHERSON
116
100
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THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE, OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE.
MAXIMIZE
&MASS
STRENGTH™
maximize testosterone and nitric
oxide levels to support muscle mass,
strength and libido while supporting
liver and kidney function.*
it’s a new age... for a whole new beast.
®
AVAILABLE AT
THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION.
THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE, OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE.
© 1995 - 2014 Beast Sports Nutrition. All Rights Reserved
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HARDCOREDepartments124 CONTENTS
166 ATHLETE PROFILE By Alex Zakrzewski
168 STRONGMAN
SUMMIT
By Mike Jenkins
170 BROOKLYN BUILT
By Anthoneil Champagnie, IFBB Pro
172 MAKING GAINS
By Alex Zakrzewski
174 MARKETPLACE
177 FITMART
DECEMBER 2O13
126 Back From the FutureA student of training, Toney Freeman takes a cerebral approach to his back/rear-delt/upper-traps workout that’s as multidimensional as it is unconventional.BY ERIC VELAZQUEZ, NSCA-CPT
138 Vintage VinetteCover model Larry Vinette discusses the training philosophy that helped him earn his IFBB pro card.BY JIMMY PEÑA, MS, CSCS
146 Miami Muscle MachineAlejandro Cambronero’s love for iron has brought him to America and ultimately a pro card. Here’s the Costa Rican’s formula for building massive pecs. BY LARA MCGLASHAN, MFA, CPT
10 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
ON THE INSIDE COVERIFBB Pro Lee Banks
Photo by Gregory James
156Real-Time Chest and Shoulder Workout with Lee BanksIFBB pro Lee Banks goes high volume/low rest in this raw, ofseason chest-and-delts thrash.BY ERIC VELAZQUEZ, NSCA-CPT
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®
THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE, OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE.
BEAST™
UNLEASHTHE
creatine complex with five advanced
forms of creatine to fuel muscle
growth, increase strength and
accelerate recovery*
it’s a new age... for a whole new beast.
®
AVAILABLE AT
THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION.
THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE, OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE.
© 1995 - 2014 Beast Sports Nutrition. All Rights Reserved
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12 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
Visit musclemag.com for exclusive videos,
articles, galleries and more.
Few sports give rise to
rivalries quite as personal
and polarizing as those found in
bodybuilding. From Arnold vs. Oliva
to Phil vs. Kai, these six monster
matchups have left an indelible
mark on the sport and will be
argued over for decades to come.
Be sure to let us know your all-
time favorite.
Making Even More GainsOur much-loved Making
Gains section is back! We
want to hear your training
success stories. Are you
bigger, stronger or more
shredded than ever before?
Send us a message on
Facebook, include a snappy
photo of yourself looking
Olympia-worthy, and much
like the lucky gym rats on
pg. 172, you just might find
yourself featured in the
pages of your favorite
bodybuilding magazine!
Train Like ThorIcelandic strongman
champion and Game
of Thrones star
Hafthor “Thor”
Björnsson, profiled on
pg. 166, is known for
performing mind-
blowing feats of
strength worthy of
the halls of Asgard!
Don’t believe us?
Check out these
incredible training and
competition videos
courtesy of Iceland’s
strongest man.
Biggest Bodybuilding Rivalries
Facebook: facebook.com/musclemag
Twitter: twitter.com/musclemag
YouTube: youtube.com/musclemagintl
We’re HUGE on Facebook and Twitter! Follow us at Facebook.com/MuscleMag and @musclemag.
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®
THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE, OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE.
®
AVAILABLE AT
THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION.
THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE, OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE.
© 1995 - 2014 Beast Sports Nutrition. All Rights Reserved
delivering 10 grams
of total amino acids, our redesigned
formula with electrolytes enhances
muscle endurance during
workouts and accelerates
post-workout recovery.*
it’s a new age... for a whole new beast.
HARDERTRAIN
RECOVER
FASTER™
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GROUP PUBLISHER Cheryl Angelheart
ACTING GENERAL MANAGER Todd Hughes
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Bill Geiger
DEPUTY EDITOR Michal Kapral
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Donna Diamond
ADVERTISING ACCOUNT MANAGER Laura (Flores) Thorne
ART DIRECTOR Michael Touna
A/R MANAGER Alice Negrete
SALES MANAGER Holly Burns
PRODUCTION MANAGERS Lisa Snow, Patrick Sternkopf
ONLINE CONTENT MANAGER Alex Zakrzewski
COPY EDITORS Kristi Haar, Angie Mattison
CONTRIBUTING WRITERSGuillermo Escalante, Dan Filipe, Frank Hofman, Matthew Kadey,
Lara McGlashan, Rob Rinaldi, Steven Stiefel, Terry Webster
Efrem Zimbalist III Chairman & CEO
Andrew W. Clurman President & COO
Brian J. Sellstrom Senior Vice President & CFO
Patricia B. Fox Senior Vice President, Operations
MuscleMag is printed monthly in the U.S.A. © 2013 by Active Interest Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is strictly prohibited. The information in MuscleMag is for educational purposes only. It’s not intended to replace the advice or attention of health care professionals. Consult your physician before making changes in your diet, supplement and/or exercise program. MuscleMag, 24900 Anza Dr., Unit E, Valencia, CA 91355 - Toll Free: (800) 423-2874
MuscleMag (ISSN 1086-3400) is published nine times per year (2013 cover dates: Jan ’13, Feb ’13, Mar ’13, Apr ‘13, May ‘13, Jun ‘13, Jul ‘13, Nov ‘13, Dec ’13) by Cruz Bay Publishing, Inc., an Active Interest Media company. Advertising and editorial ofces at 24900 Anza Drive, Unit E, Santa Clarita, California 91355. The known ofce of publication is 5720 Flatiron Pkwy, Boulder CO 80301. Periodicals postage paid at Boulder, CO and at additional mailing ofces.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to MuscleMag, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235. Subscription rates in the United States are one year $34.97. Canada: $49.97. Foreign: $84.97 (US funds only). The publisher and editors will not be responsible for unsolicited material. Manuscripts and photographs must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed return envelope. Vol. 16, No. 9. Printed in the United States by RR Donnelley, Strasburg, VA. 2013 by Active Interest Media Publication. Copyright © 2013 by Cruz Bay Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, either in whole or part, in any form without written permission from the publisher.
DECEMBER 2013 ISSUE
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you measure those dues by time spent in
the gym — and quite literally, it’s mea-
sured in years. String together a week of
good workouts and you’re a bit closer to
your goal, but success comes only to those
who have the discipline to stick to it for
the long haul.
It’s hard to imagine behemoths like
Jay Cutler and Phil Heath as anything but
Mr. Olympia champions, but even those
guys started as rank beginners (albeit
many years ago). Most of us think of be-
ginners as skinny guys who get in our way
on bench-press day, but for most first-
year lifters, the excitement lies in seeing
the changes in strength that come almost
workout to workout. For the guys able to
advance to the next level, they see first-
hand the adaptation process, how muscle
grows stronger when it’s stressed in the
gym and given proper nutrients and rest.
Alas, one of the telltale signs of no
longer being a beginner is that progress
seems to come to a grinding halt. Those
weekly increases in strength and reps on
the bench press are a thing of the past.
The irony of progressing to the next lev-
el in bodybuilding is that everything just
got a little bit harder.
For me and for countless others in
the gym, stagnation was met with a com-
mitment to train harder, doing more ex-
ercises, more sets and longer, even more
frequent workouts to bust through train-
ing plateaus. In a lot of cases, however,
that’s exactly the wrong approach.
Bill GeigerEDITOR-IN-CHIEF
First Rep By Bill Geiger, Editor-in-Chief
A WORD FROM THE EDITOR
Paying Your Dues
Today I see a lot of guys in the gym
training hard but seemingly making very
little progress. Many continue to toil away
as if efort alone was the missing ingredi-
ent to their physique-building success.
Yet ask any top bodybuilder and he’ll
tell you that training is as much mental
as it is physical. While that may seem
counterintuitive in a sport in which
you’re lifting tons of iron a day, the fact is
training harder isn’t the same as training
smarter. Longtime bodybuilders know
there are a number of other variables
that can be manipulated — exercise se-
lection and order, past-failure intensity
principles, rest periods, time under ten-
sion — that are critical to your ultimate
achievement. The mental aspect comes
in because you need to think and plan
what you’re doing rather just showing
up at the gym and lifting.
As editor-in-chief of a publication
like MuscleMag, I don’t want our writers
to simply find out what the world’s best
bodybuilders are doing; I also want to
know why and how so that you get an in-
side look into the inner workings of their
mind. In each and every article we pub-
lish, I charge them with a simple task:
Teach me something that I didn’t al-
ready know. I’m looking for more detail
than what’s just beneath the surface;
many of these insider tips are pulled out
into our Power Pointers so that you have
a better understanding of the mental as-
pect of bodybuilding.
This month, you’ll find a number of
articles from which we hope you can use
a grain or two in your own workouts, es-
pecially if you’re facing the same zero-
growth stagnation that confronts many
lifters. You’ll find progressive programs in
which you increase the intensity over
time in both “Add 50 Lbs. to Your Squat,
Overhead Press, Bench, Bent-Over Row”
and “Your Five-Week Ab Challenge.” For
boosting your intensity in a given work-
out, check out “Double Your Reps, Dou-
ble the Muscle,” which explains how the
rest-pause technique is used by top body-
builders. And for pushing past failure, we
show you how — and when not to — in-
corporate cheating into your technique to
spur additional muscle gains. As usual,
you’ll also find interviews with some of
the world’s foremost bodybuilders — this
issue with Toney Freeman, Alex Cambro-
nero, Larry Vinette and Lee Banks, all
IFBB pros — to see what each man credits
for his individual success.
If gym smarts becomes increasingly
important the further you go in body-
building, you’ll be glad to know that your
investment in MuscleMag will continue
to bring you the best and latest informa-
tion on building your body, one workout
at a time.
In bodybuilding, whether you compete or not, everyone has to pay their dues. If your goal is to not just look strong but be strong,
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 15
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Coryn SalazarNational Bikini Competitor
TEAM NUTRISHOP
Eric Nelson Photography
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www.NutrishopUSA.com Follow NutrishopUSA:
THE RIGHT CONCEPT • THE RIGHT OPPORTUNITY • THE RIGHT TIME
We carry all the top brands and the latest cutting edge
nutritional supplements at the guaranteed lowest prices!
OPEN A NUTRISHOP TODAY!
RAPIDLY APPROACHING 200 LOCATIONS!
Turn your passionfor fitness and
nutrition into your own business.
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18 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
Freeze Frame
Not Just Anybody Gets Advice From the ChampIFBB pro Toney Freeman is
all business when it comes to
a photo shoot, like the one
featured on page 126. Often-
times the bodybuilder is
highly depleted the day after
a contest, and such shoots
require performing a given
move time and time again
for both the photographer
and videographer. But all
work ceases when Toney
spots a young lifter in the
gym who could clearly use a
tip or two when it comes to
mass building. It’s a reminder
to us that, ultimately, this
shoot isn’t about Toney as
much as it is about helping
you, our readers.
Photo by Gregory James
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musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 19
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Feedback Facebook.com/MuscleMag AND ON TWITTER @musclemag
20 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
I don’t think he does. With the
amount of pure talent coming out
of the woodwork like Ramy, it will
be hard for him to maintain his
crown. Don’t forget about Kai,
either. He’s a man who will put it all
on the line!–CLAYTON D.
The bigger question is: Who is good
enough to beat him? Is there a guy ready
to take the Olympia away from him? Is
there a bodybuilder complete enough?–ERIK L.
It’s way too early for this talk.–@STHURMAN14
@STHURMAN14: @MUSCLEMAG. AGREED
#CANILIVE PLEASE? –@PHILHEATH
Q:Yeah he does! He’s young in comparison and has the best genetics since Flex Wheeler. As far as mass and shape, he’s unstoppable.”
–JAKE ALAN L.
Never! Ronnie is the king!” –MIRCEA I.
Nope. The competition is too
fierce. It is only a matter of time
before he is dethroned.–@STEVEKWELI
“Of course. He’s “The Gift” for a reason!”
–@REALSUPERSIDHU
ISA
AC
HIN
DS
Can Phil beat Ronnie’s record of eight wins?
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The Future Battle of Mr. Olympia?
Lewis Touna of Toronto, Ontario, (left) is definitely a born bodybuilder, but Easton Michael Burch of
Ninety Six, South Carolina, is growing bigger every
day. Are we seeing a preview of the 2045 Mr.
Olympia showdown?
Was at my hunting camp and decided to use it as skeet and blast it into pieces with a 12-gauge shotgun. #birdshot
@FITNESSCLAY
Failed on a heavy dumbbell press, dropped it on prework-out cup, and bam! Ev-eryone in the whole gym was coated in sticky drink. #unpopular
@UNKLELAY
Didn’t wash it out and let it sit in my car closed. The smell doesn’t wash out of the shaker :(
@DAL_GD
Another guy at the gym used mine by mistake. I threw it away.
@R_D_PHOTO
I dropped mine off of a hotel room balcony completely filled. It exploded on impact when it hit the ground. #wastedprotein
BONOMO27
Left it on my taxi’s roof then it drove off. Lol.
ALLEN L.
Lol. NEVER! It’s like the Holy Grail. Still using the same one for 4 years!
CRAIG B.
Had to pee into it when I was hunting this weekend. Threw it in the trash!
@BLANCHDANMAN
Set it down on the tail-board of the fire truck. We got a call. It made it 6 blocks before taking a corner & exploding.
@R_J_FIRE
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 21
One step at a time.
Those steps whether
big or small will find
their way along this
journey we call #Life.
@KAIGREENE
Next to every
successful man is an
incredible woman!
@FLEX_LEWIS
Can’t wait to try the
new peanut butter
Pop Tarts after the
Prague show!
@FSMALLS1
Bodybuilding has
come a long way
since PUMPING IRON!
#GenerationIron
@LOUFERRIGNO
MouthingsMuscle
FROM THE PROS
CLO
CK
WIS
E F
RO
M T
OP
LE
FT
: S
HU
TT
ER
STO
CK
(4
); IS
AA
C H
IND
S (
2); G
RE
GO
RY
JA
ME
S (
2); C
OU
RT
ES
Y B
UR
CH
; M
ICH
AE
L T
OU
NA
What’s the craziest way you’ve destroyed a protein shaker?
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By Jimmy
Peña, MS, CSCS
STEP 1: Stand inside a Smith machine holding the bar in front of your upper
thighs.
STEP 2: Keep your chest up, shoulders back and eyes focused forward.
STEP 3: You should be close to the bar with your elbows by your sides, knees unlocked.
STEP 1: Begin the move by pulling your elbows back as you drag the bar up your body toward your upper abs/lower chest.
STEP 2: Drag the bar up your torso as high as possible, pushing your elbows behind you. You’ll notice the bar hits significantly lower on the body compared to the standard barbell curl.
STEP 3: Slowly return the bar along the same path and repeat.
TARGET MUSCLE:
BICEPS (WITH
EMPHASIS ON THE
LONG HEAD, OR PEAK)
1. Standing too far away. You need to
get up close and
personal with the bar.
Many lifters stand too
far back, which
defeats the purpose
of this exceptional
biceps move.
2. Not pulling your elbows back. This sets up the entire
move. If you pull your
elbows back and keep
them pulled back,
you’re far more likely
to get it right.
3. Shrugging the bar. There’s a bit of
a tendency to shrug
the bar upward, but
try to keep your
shoulders down to
ensure that the
emphasis remains
on the biceps. You
may have to drop the
weight slightly to
do so.
THIS MONTH’S EXERCISE
Smith Machine Drag CurlTHE START
EXECUTION
BEST ALTERNATIVE
STANDARD
BARBELL CURL
If you don’t have a Smith machine, you can target the biceps long head with a drag curl
using an Olympic bar or short straight bar. The Smith machine makes it a bit easier to
focus on the biceps because you don’t have to balance the bar, but the form is identical
with a standard barbell. Remember, because the exercise removes the delts from the
equation, you’ll need to reduce the weight; it doesn’t take a heavy load to target the
biceps. We’re betting this quickly becomes one of your go-to moves for the biceps peak.
Biggest Training Errors
Ph
oto
s b
y G
reg
ory
Jam
es
Mo
del IF
BB
Pro
Bra
nd
on
Cu
rry
22 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
If you finish the move with the bar in front of
your delts, the bar is too high and you didn’t
pull your elbows back behind you. The bar
should come no higher than your upper abs.
During the standard curl, the bar travels over a
natural arc that hits both the biceps and the
front delts to a certain degree. The Smith-
machine drag curl eliminates that arc com-
pletely and removes all deltoid involvement
from the equation. Since your hands stay close
to your body as the bar comes up, your elbows
must travel backward.
FIRST SET EXERCISE OF THE MONTH
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Both versions have their positive points, so be sure to do both kinds of squats. Before
going super deep, however, be sure to warm up with very light weight. Do parallel
squats often enough to work the upper range of motion, allowing you to use more
weight than you could for a full squat. Try both versions inside a power rack whenever
possible so that you can adjust the safeties downward as you work to increase strength as
well as hip and low-back flexibility. If you can’t squat deep, be sure to work on your
flexibility and keep your entire foot in contact with the floor throughout the move.
The squat is arguably the most effective exercise for targeting the legs, but what happens when you push it way down low?
MAKE THIS CHANGETAKE YOUR SQUATS
DOWN LOW: hips to heels.
While some people argue
that going just to parallel is
better for your knees,
research confirms that
sheer forces on the knees
are actually greater in a
parallel squat than a deep
squat. And for those who
think the parallel squat is
better for your lower back,
a full range of motion has
been found to be less
stressful on the spine than
a squat that stops at 90
degrees.
Finally, if the safety of
your knees and back
isn’t enough to convince
you, scientists report
that you increase the
muscular activity of all
three muscle groups
(quads, hamstrings and
glutes) by taking your
hips to the floor com-
pared to parallel squats.
Because all three
muscles are being
required to power you
through a greater
distance, you naturally
recruit more fibers, which
exposes you to greater
mass opportunities.
What Happens When ...
You Go Below Parallel When Squatting
24 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
Going DownObviously, the most popular
version of the squat is the
parallel squat in which the
thighs come parallel to the floor.
You stop the downward motion
when your knees approach a
90-degree angle, pause briefly,
then explode upward until your
legs are straight.
GR
EG
OR
Y J
AM
ES
The squat is head and shoulders above all other leg moves, targeting the quadri-
ceps, hamstrings and glutes to fulfill its demanding requirements. The key is to
press through the floor with your feet rather than try to lift the bar with your upper
body. You want the bar to feel attached to your traps as you move your entire
body as one unit. With your abs pulled in tight, chest up and the energy surging
through your feet and up your legs, there’s not a better exercise in the gym.
GET THE BENEFITS FROM BOTH
➔ SQUAT
B y J i m m y
Pe ñ a , M S , C S C SFIRST SET MAKE ONE CHANGE
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You show up early. You stay late. You do extra reps and never hold back because you
know the dedication it takes to be a serious athlete.
HMB supplementation with training has been proven to help increase strength, improve
endurance, and reduce recovery time.
Check out the research and read about other serious athletes like you that take HMB
at HMB.org. Then follow the links to get HMB and the results you deserve.
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Individuals providing testimonies in ads are sponsored athletes or have received the ingredient HMB as a gift from Metabolic Technologies Inc.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
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FIRST SET TROUBLESHOOTING 1O1
PRESSDOWN
One of these photos shows a critical but common mistake on the pressdown.
TARGET
About the PressdownThe overhand-grip pressdown is an efective isolation move for all
three triceps heads, with emphasis on the lateral head. The pressdown
can help send much-needed blood to the elbow joints to help prepare
them for the workout ahead, or can be used as a finishing exercise to
pump the muscle. For a diferent feel, try using a straight bar, V-bar or
even a rope from workout to workout. Finally, keep your abs tight,
knees unlocked and chest up throughout the set.
Fix It Many form fixes begin
when you reduce the weight. Once you get the
hang of great form, by all means load it up.
Step close to the stack so the cable runs right
in front of your face. Grasp the bar, pull your elbows to your
sides and pin them there. You want the movement to occur
at the elbow joints alone, not the shoulders. After pressing to
full arm extension, allow the bar to come up to where your
forearms are about parallel to the floor; an inch or so above
is fine. This range of motion might feel much shorter than
you’re used to, but it’s what makes the exercise so efective.
CAN YOU SPOT WHICH ONE IS WRONG?
1 2
Spot the Error The key to executing the pressdown
efectively is to keep your elbows
pinned by your sides throughout each
rep. If you permit your elbows to come
forward as the bar comes up, you’ll
remove emphasis from the triceps
while inviting more abs, delts and even
the lats to join in. Photo one is correct.
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BEGINNER’S TIP
Without any weight on the stack, look to your
side in the mirror if possible. If you don’t have
a mirror, ask someone to let you know when
your forearms are parallel. You’ll notice that it’s
much more difcult to stop the upward motion
of the cable at parallel than to let it pull your
arms up farther. You’ll immediately feel a better
burn in your triceps, as well. Once you get the
hang of the short range of motion, slowly begin
adding weight to the stack and practice that
perfect form. Although it’s generally not a good
idea to turn your head to watch yourself, it’s a bit
safer with single-joint movements.
26 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
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After completing your warm-ups, which of these
exercises should come first in your workout if your goal is to pack size onto your chest?
A) PEC-DECK FLYE
B) BODYWEIGHT DIP
C) REVERSE-GRIP BENCH PRESS
D) FLAT-BENCH DUMBBELL PRESS
3 There are lots of good exercises for building big
biceps, but which is best for packing on mass and should be done before any others?
A) CONCENTRATION CURL
B) PREACHER-CURL MACHINE
C) SEATED DUMBBELL CURL
D) STANDING BARBELL CURL
1. Your first exercise is critical
because that’s when your energy
levels are highest; as you become
fatigued over the course of your
workout, your capacity to push
heavy loads diminishes. Typically,
you want to choose exercises
that allow you to push the most
weight, which in almost all cases
are multijoint moves rather than
single-joint exercises. The
close-grip bench press and
close-grip push-up are both
multijoint moves, but the bench
press is better because you can
add resistance. With the push-up,
you’re typically limited to
bodyweight and could end up
training in a rep range that’s
suboptimal. B is the correct
answer.
2. Because single-joint moves
are eliminated for the reasons in
answer No. 1 above, that takes
out option A. Training for size is
best done in the 8–12-rep range
to failure, and most of us can do a
lot more dips if we do them first,
so that’s out. Reverse-grip
benches are great for the upper
pecs, but the hand position
requires you to drop the weight
considerably over what you can
use for incline presses. You’ll gain
the most mass with flat-bench
presses as long as you train to
failure in the 8–12-rep range. D is
the correct answer.
3. These are all single-joint
moves, so the answer is a bit
diferent. The first two exercises
target just one biceps head,
making them less efective at
building overall mass. The first
three are also done seated, which
means it’s harder to generate mo-
mentum, so they’re better
isolation exercises. But most
bodybuilders want to use a little
body english in their first move to
help keep a set going. Think
about how much resistance you
can use on each of those four
exercises; you should push the
most weight by far on the
standing barbell curl. D is the
correct answer.
First PicksTEST
After warming up,
which of these moves
is considered the best mass
builder for triceps?
ANSWERS
1A) ONE-ARM REVERSE-GRIP PRESSDOWN
B) CLOSE-GRIP BENCH PRESS
C) ROPE PRESSDOWN
D) CLOSE-GRIP PUSH-UP
What’s the best exercise to do first in your workout? Test your iron IQ with these 3 challenging questions.
B y B i l l
G e i g e r, M A
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BB
Pro
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Ste
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FIRST SET PUMP QUIZ
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 27
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B y J i m m y Pe ñ a , M S , C S C S
Both moves work the shoulders, but which one is best at targeting the middle delts?
vs. Overhead Barbell Press
Overhead Dumbbell Press
Overhead Dumbbell PressArguably the greatest benefit of dumbbells is that they
allow a greater range of motion than a barbell does. With
that comes greater time under tension and recruitment
of the traps, which act to raise the shoulder blades. Using
dumbbells also summons more stabilizer muscles to
perform the move. In other words, more total muscle
fibers are hard at work to perform the overhead dumb-
bell press. Most of the time this exercise is done seated,
but you can also perform it standing, which allows you to
go slightly heavier by using your lower body and core to
a greater extent.
Overhead Barbell PressThe overhead press is a great multijoint exercise that
works all three delt heads. If you don’t have a military
bench, try to work inside a power rack where you can
adjust the safeties up or down so that it’s easy to rack
the bar at the end of each set. Take a wide, overhand grip
on the bar each time and be sure to wrap your thumbs
around it for safety. If you’re new to this move or have
relied mainly on dumbbells for your overhead presses, be
aware that you’ll have to lean your head back slightly on
each rep to get your chin out of the way of the bar.
However, avoid leaning too far back because that could
cause undue stress on your lower back and cervical
Dumbbell Press Both moves are multijoint in nature and typically done first in your shoulder routine.
More than two sets of joints work together, in this case the muscles that attach to the elbow and shoulder joints, so the
triceps assist. In case you missed it above, dumbbells require the most coordination but also allow the most freedom.
Because you keep your elbows out to your sides during standard overhead dumbbell presses, the emphasis remains
primarily on the middle delts. In contrast, the standard overhead barbell press requires you to bring the bar in front of
your face to your upper chest. If you follow the path of the elbows, you’ll notice that they travel a bit more forward,
calling upon the front delts to a greater extent. So while you can move more weight with a barbell, the winner in the
middle delt category is the dumbbell version. Be sure to do both in your routine to gain the unique benefits of each.
ADVANTAGE
28 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
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FIRST SET FACE OFF
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The food Nazis went after bacon
and red meat many years ago, de-
monizing them. Since then, though,
research has shown red meat can
be healthful in moderation, espe-
cially grass-fed versions, which are
much higher in omega-3 fats. Ba-
con was considered to be a “bad”
food because of its fat, calorie and
nitrate content. And, thus, turkey
bacon was considered a healthful
substitute for pork bacon. The
question remains: Is turkey bacon a
better choice than pork bacon?
The short answer: maybe.
It depends on what you’re look-
ing for in your breakfast meat. Com-
parable amounts of pork and turkey
bacon (16 grams cooked of each)
derive a similar proportion of their
calories from protein and fat. Pork
bacon gets a little more than 28% of
calories from protein; turkey bacon
gets 29%. Comparable servings of
turkey bacon have 28% fewer calo-
ries than pork. Both products have
nitrates, which are common in many
processed meats and have been
linked to cancer in lab animals.
If you’re consuming bacon for
its flavor, fewer calories may make
turkey bacon the better choice, pro-
viding you consider the flavor to be
equal. However, at only 84 calories
for two slices of pan-fried pork ba-
con, it’s not the gut-buster it’s been
demonized to be.
Perhaps more salient factors to
consider are taste and sodium con-
tent, which vary from brand to
brand. Both turkey and pork are
available in low-sodium versions,
although turkey tends to be lower.
If you’re trying to avoid nitrates,
though, skip bacon altogether.
FIRST SET BODYBUILDER’S CHOICE B y S t e v e n S t i e f e l
WINNER: Turkey bacon during cutting phases. It’s a toss-up otherwise.
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4.5
4.5
Turkey Bacon1 oz. (16 grams)
Pork Bacon2 strips cooked
vs.
Calories
Fat (grams)
Protein (grams)
Calories
Fat (grams)
Protein (grams)
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 29
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B y Fr a n k H o f f m a n n
30 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
Seared Pork With Roasted Sweet Potato Fries
INGREDIENTS
2 medium sweet potatoes
2 tbsp. extra-virgin
olive oil
2 dashes sea salt
2 dashes black pepper
2 6-oz. pork chops
DIRECTIONSPreheat oven to 450˚F. Peel the sweet potatoes, cut in half lengthwise and then cut into thin wedges. Place the cut sweet potatoes into a bowl and add 1 tbsp. of olive oil and a dash each of salt and pepper; toss with your hands, coating each piece. Spread evenly onto a foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 25–30 minutes, turning each piece after 15 minutes.
After you turn over the sweet potatoes, season the pork chops with salt and pepper. Add olive oil to a pan preheated to medium-high, and sear the pork chops in the pan until done — about 4 minutes on each side. Let pork rest for a few minutes before plating; serve with sweet potatoes and enjoy.
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NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION Serves 2; per serving
24 gCarbs
29 gFat
561Calories
49 gProtein
FIRST SET MUSCLE MEALS
PREP TIME
10 minutes
COOK TIME
30 minutes
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FIRST SET FOOD PICKS B y M a t t h e w Ka d e y, M S , R D
Jacked with vitamins, miner-
als and beneficial fats, here
are 6 food picks bodybuild-
ers would be nuts not to keep
in their pantry at all times.
Top 6 Seeds & Nuts
©S
HU
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OC
K
BRAZIL NUTSThis giant of the nut world is nature’s
best source of the antioxidant seleni-
um. European scientists recently
found that men with high blood sele-
nium concentrations had improved
blood sugar control, which lowers the
chances of fat gain and diabetes.
Roast Brazil nuts in the oven with
spices for a stellar snack food.
CHIA SEEDSOnce famously hawked
to the tune of ch-ch-ch-
chia, tiny chia seeds are
a fiber powerhouse with
six grams in each two-
tablespoon serving. By
slowing down digestion
and keeping you feeling
full, a high-fiber diet
can prevent the hunger
pangs that lead to ice
cream gorges. Sprinkle
them on your salads,
cottage cheese, yogurt
and oatmeal.
SUNFLOWER SEEDSTossing a handful of shelled sunflower seeds into
your yogurt or oatmeal is a surefire way to load
up on vitamin E. A study published in the Journal
of Physiological Sciences determined that sub-
jects who consumed higher amounts of vitamin E
experienced less oxidative stress and muscle
damage in response to resistance exercise, an ef-
fect that could speed recovery.
ALMONDSConsider almonds muscle food as they
contain more leucine, an essential amino
acid that is particularly important at insti-
gating muscle growth, than most other
nuts. These crunchy nuts are also loaded
with heart-healthy monounsaturated fat.
Bolster your post-workout shake by
blending in a handful of almonds.
PUMPKIN SEEDSAlso called pepitas, these jack-o’-lantern castofs ofer a smorgas-
bord of nutrients, including bone-strengthening vitamin K, testos-
terone-boosting zinc, and magnesium, an often-underconsumed
mineral shown to improve blood sugar control. Try toasting them
in a dry skillet and then tossing them onto your salads.
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 31
PISTACHIOSPistachios have an earthy flavor that tele-
graphs their health benefits. The green nut
contains more blood pressure-lowering po-
tassium than other types and is rich in phy-
tosterols, compounds shown to chip away at
high cholesterol numbers. Chop pistachios
and toss them into cooked rice or quinoa.
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Lately, glutamine supplementa-
tion has taken a back seat to
other amino acids or com-
pounds such as creatine and ar-
ginine that provide noticeable
benefits almost instantly. But
glutamine exists in the human
body in greater amounts than
any other amino, comprising up
to 60% or more of free amino
acids. Much of glutamine’s im-
portance stems from the fact
that it can be converted readily
into other crucial aminos, so in
essence, a dose of glutamine
makes many other amino acids
available for specific physiologi-
cal needs. While supplementing
with other aminos and com-
pounds is beneficial, glutamine
should always be one of your ba-
sics for health and muscle build-
ing. Here’s why:
It fights catabolism and supports recovery.
When you train hard, your body
enters a catabolic state in
which it breaks down muscle
tissue. Because your glutamine
levels are depleted, your body
needs to pull it from storage to
help drive recovery and growth.
Supplementing with glutamine
before and after weight-training
workouts saves your body much
of this efort since it can almost
immediately begin to use the
supplemental glutamine. This
helps reduce the muscle break-
down that occurs to supply glu-
tamine for other recovery needs.
It boosts protein synthesis and anabolism. Besides pushing through a
catabolic state brought on by
intense training, you also want
to encourage muscle protein
synthesis. In an anabolic state,
Get Your GlutamineThis crucial amino acid provides multiple muscle-building benefits
32 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
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FIRST SET NUTRITION R&D
GLUTAMINE SUPPLEMENTATION FOR NEW MUSCLE BUILDERSKeep in mind that bodyweight is a factor in how much glutamine you need each day. This
program is designed for a 180–200-pounder who isn’t taking glutamine now. Use this
chart as a guideline for what you should take each day over a seven-week startup period.
WEEK UPON BEFORE AFTER BEFORE RISING (g) WORKOUTS (g) WORKOUTS (g) BED
1 0 5 5 0
2 5 5 5 0
3 5 5 5 5
4 5 5 10 5
5 5 10 10 5
6 10 10 10 5
7 10 10 10 10
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musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 33
Ginger Boosts TestosteroneThe reputation of this root just keeps growing
Almost every guy who has ever watched Gilligan’s
Island understands this on some level: Ginger raises
testosterone and Mary Ann bakes a tasty pie. When
you want to boost your T levels, you can eat gingery
foods or take it as a supplement. Either way, it’ll make
your Lovey Howell.
Many animal studies have shown the testosterone-
boosting efects of ginger intake, but a recent study
performed in Tikrit, Iraq, may have been the first
human study to confirm these results. When married
men with fertility issues were put on a ginger regimen,
preliminary conclusions indicated that boosting ginger
intake increased levels of luteinizing hormone, which is
released from the pituitary gland and stimulates
testosterone production.
Although this study isn’t conclusive, a body of
research suggests that ginger supports testosterone
production. Moreover, ginger provides multiple muscle-
building and health benefits. Ginger is known as a
digestive aid, helping to soothe the intestinal tract and
reduce gas. It also provides anti-inflammatory efects,
crucial for those sufering from health problems or
exercise-induced soreness, and it supports immunity
by fighting of colds, flu and even cancer.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Eat ginger, raw or pickled. Take in
100–200 mg of Panax (American) ginseng with your nitric
oxide boosters to enhance blood flow. Do both to cover
your bases. KA
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your body drives raw materials
straight to your muscles, helping
to create more muscle fibers so
that you continue to grow. Sup-
plemental glutamine is one of
the best ways to encourage mus-
cle growth right after you finish
training.
It supports immunity.Glutamine also benefits your im-
mune system, helping you fight
of infections and inflammation,
and reducing the impact of stress-
ors on your body. Specifically, glu-
tamine reduces the impact of
cortisol, a negative hormone that’s
generated by stressors including
exercise. While you can’t avoid
cortisol release, the goal is to push
through the period faster, reduc-
ing its ill efects on your body. This
allows you to return to an anabolic
(muscle growth) state.
It improves your digestive system.A lesser-known fact is that gluta-
mine’s immunity benefits go be-
yond muscle building. The amino
acid helps support overall health,
including digestive repair. Every
meal you eat causes wear and
tear on the lining of your gastroin-
testinal system, and regular gluta-
mine intake is one of the best
ways to hasten repair.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Take 5–10
grams of glutamine up to four
times a day. Ingesting up to 40
grams of glutamine daily may
seem like a lot, but you can see
benefits at this level. Start with a
smaller daily total of about 10
grams split over two doses pre-
and post-workout. Add 5 grams
per day each week until you hit a
comfortable intake level.
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34 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
FIRST SET NUTRITION R&D
One of the most controversial issues in sports supplementa-
tion has been the illegal use of erythropoietin (EPO). Ingest-
ing outside sources of EPO, a glycoprotein hormone, boosts
red blood cell production and ultimately increases oxygen
delivery to muscle tissue. One way that athletes “cheat” is
by withdrawing samples of their own blood, spinning out
the liquid, then re-injecting the platelets at the time of per-
formance to drive their exercise capacity. This procedure
isn’t illegal, but it is forbidden by many professional athletic
associations. After all, there’s plenty of reason to believe it’s
medically beneficial.
There’s no doubt that increasing red blood cell produc-
tion can boost athletic performance, and a lesser known
supplement called piceatannol has been shown to help
boost EPO production. Research demonstrates benefits for
those sufering from digestive issues like Crohn’s disease,
and scientists have extrapolated these findings to suggest
athletic benefits for endurance athletes in particular.
Piceatannol is an analog of resveratrol, both of which come
from black grapes. Supplemental piceatannol not only boosts
endurance but also helps your body recomposition bodyfat
levels, science speak that means it helps you lose bodyfat
while gaining or maintaining muscle mass. While piceatannol
is available from suppliers, it’s not yet readily available in
bodybuilding supplements.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Keep your eyes peeled for piceatan-
nol. Ask your favorite supplement company or point of dis-
tribution if they have any products that contain piceatannol.
Pick PiceatannolLook for this resveratrol analog
to appear in bodybuilding
supplements
That’s RichA high-protein diet and multiple meals per day are efective for weight loss
Bodybuilders have known for decades
that protein-rich nutrition plans not only
help build muscle mass but also encour-
age the burning of bodyfat, depending
on how many calories you consume.
Along the same lines, a recent study re-
inforced long-held bodybuilding beliefs,
including the benefits of high-protein di-
ets and multiple meals per day. Obese
subjects who consumed diets rich in
protein compared to comparable calorie
intake lost more weight. Moreover, obese
people who consumed the same amount
of calories per day over six meals com-
pared to three meals shed even more
pounds. Conclusion: Bodybuilding nutri-
tion programs are for everyone, includ-
ing those who are extremely overweight.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Get in six meals a
day, and make sure each meal contains
at least 20 grams of protein while
keeping calories moderate when you
want to shed body fat.
Rice to the OccasionHow you can make the most of vegetarian proteins
It’s typically thought that vegetarian
forms of protein aren’t as efective as
animal forms for building muscle mass.
That’s often true whether you’re consid-
ering whole-food or supplemental sourc-
es. But recent research shows that
vegans don’t have to go animal to get
muscle-building results from their diets;
they just need to add leucine.
This crucial amino acid appears to be
the limiting factor; it’s notoriously low in
vegetable proteins but relatively high in
animal sources. New data shows that
adding leucine to rice protein helped
make it as anabolic as animal-based sup-
plemental proteins, including whey. While
few serious bodybuilders are vegans, the
takeaway message is this: Make sure you
have plenty of supplemental leucine in
your program to get the most from your
protein consumption.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Add 6 grams of
BCAAs to your vegetable protein. Most
BCAA supplements contain a ratio of
2:1:1 of leucine:valine:isoleucine, which
will give you the 3 grams of leucine you
need to equal the anabolic efects of
animal protein. SHUTTERSTOCK
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Lose Your Inhibition, Gain Muscle
If your goal is to get the most out
of your training, you need to jack
yourself up before you hit the gym.
Mesomorph from APS provides all
the supplements you need to
maximize energy, then backs this
up by providing the raw materials
your body needs for growth and
repair after a great workout.
The product contains a matrix
designed for neuro stimulation. It
includes methylxanthine anhydrous,
also known as the dry form of caf-
feine, which research shows is superi-
or for enhancing strength and energy.
In addition, glucoronolactone — an
ergogenic chemical produced dur-
ing glucose metabolism — enhances
physical performance while protect-
ing the liver.
Mesomorph also includes beta-
alanine and citrulline malate, amino
acids that help drive better work-
outs and bigger muscle growth.
Beta-alanine boosts strength and
endurance during workouts, ulti-
mately leading to greater hypertro-
One of the limiting fac-
tors in human muscle
growth is levels of myo-
statin, a naturally occur-
ring protein that
prevents muscles from
expanding beyond a
certain size. But now
researchers at MHP
have formulated Myo-X,
a product that helps in-
hibit myostatin produc-
Mesomorph from APS gets you jacked in every way
Myo-X from MHP helps block myostatin to allow for greater growth
phy. Citrulline malate is a form of
the amino citrulline, which is known
to enhance production of nitric
oxide, the gas molecule that allows
blood vessels to relax so more
blood, oxygen and nutrients reach
working muscles.
Additional goodies include an
ample dose of creatine, agmatine
sulfate and geranium oil extract,
designed to help you power through
your most challenging workouts.
Regardless of what body type you
were assigned genetically, Meso-
morph can help you morph into the
best, most muscular version of you.
tion to provide greater
potential for beastly
muscle size.
Myo-X relies on
MyoT12, a proprietary
formulation that con-
tains 80 major proteins
and hundreds of small-
er peptides as well as
growth factors that
help modulate and in-
hibit myostatin activity.
It includes fecunded G.
gallus domesticus iso-
late, protein derived
from fertile egg yolks.
Clinical tests support
Myo-X’s ability to sup-
press unwanted myo-
statin efects in all
human subjects. In fact,
the product can reduce
myostatin levels by an
average 46% in 12 to 18
hours after just one
serving.
Shutting down myo-
statin’s impact on lean
muscle tissue accretion
could dramatically in-
crease your ability to
build mass. While the
benefits are obvious to
bodybuilders, they also
extend to other athletes
and even to older peo-
ple seeking to add
muscle tissue.
FIRST SET ON SHELVES NOW
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 35
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To build super strength and muscle size, you need to work the secondary muscles that assist in the execution of the major lifts. Here’s how to build power from the inside out for a stronger bench, squat, overhead press and bent-over row.By Jimmy Peña, MS, CSCS | Photos of IFBB Pro Evgeny Mishin by Paul Buceta
It’s written that a foolish man is he who
builds his house upon the sand, where
the winds and waves destroy it. The wise
man’s house, however, stands strong be-
cause he’s built his upon the rock. The
fact that you’re reading this means you’re
into building stuf, but how do you hold
up when the big weights come crashing
down? When was the last time you tested
the waters of strength? If you seem to
have reached your limit, it’s probably
time to fortify your foundation to find out
just how strong you can truly be. Now’s
your chance, so choose wisely.
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 37
THE INSIDE-OUT SPLIT
DAY BODYPARTS TRAINED
STANDARD^
1 Legs
2 Chest, triceps, shoulders
3 Back, biceps
4 Rest
INSIDE-OUT PROGRESSION
5 Legs
6 Chest, shoulders, triceps*
7 Back, biceps*
^You can cater the first three days of your week to
accommodate your current bodypart combina-
tions and routine, keeping in mind the order of
bodyparts you’ll work in days 5–7.
*Optional: You can skip arm training in the second
half of the week if so desired.
Note: We suggest you test your strength and
performance on four major lifts: 1) squat, 2) bent-
over row, 3) bench press and 4) overhead press.
After the program, you can attempt the same
exercises to test your newfound strength.
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BULGARIAN SQUAT
NEED-FOR-STABILITY RATINGHIGH
Most stabilizer muscles required to complete lift.
MODERATE
Some stabilizers needed for exercise execution.
MINIMAL
Better for isolation; fewer stabilizers needed.
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THE INSIDE-OUT LEG PROGRAM
EXERCISE SETS REPS REST
Bulgarian Squat 3 6–8 2 min.
Squat 4 8–10 2 min.
Smith-Machine Squat 5 10–12 2 min.
Leg Extension 3 10–12 1–2 min.
Lying Leg Curl 3 10–12 1–2 min.
Standing Calf Raise 3 25 1–2 min.
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musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 39
BULGARIAN SQUATSTART POSITION: Stand erect, holding dumbbells atop your shoulders or hanging
at your sides, with one foot raised behind you and resting atop a bench or step.
MOVEMENT: Keeping your head neutral, abs tight and torso erect, bend at the
knee and hips to slowly lower your body, until your front leg approaches 90 de-
grees. Press through your front heel to push your body up to the start position and
repeat for reps. Give yourself a short rest and then repeat on the opposite leg.
SMITH-MACHINE SQUATSTART POSITION: Stand inside a Smith machine with the bar across your upper back.
Take a very wide stance. Keep your chest up and back flat, eyes focused forward.
MOVEMENT: With your abs tight, bend your knees and hips, as if sitting in a chair, until
your thighs are parallel with the floor. Reverse motion by driving through your heels
and pressing your hips forward to return to the start position.
SQUATSTART POSITION: Stand erect, holding a bar across your upper back, with your
feet about shoulder-width apart, knees unlocked and your toes turned out slightly.
MOVEMENT: Keeping your head neutral, abs tight and torso erect, bend at the knees
and hips to slowly lower your body, as if you were going to sit down in a chair. Pause
when your legs reach a 90-degree angle and then forcefully drive through your heels,
extending at your hips and knees, until you return back to the standing position.
SMITH-MACHINE SQUAT
Most strength articles you’ll find focus
on a couple of important elements: load
and rest. And you won’t find us in dis-
agreement. Load (or intensity — that is,
choosing a weight that corresponds to
your maximum lift strength) and proper
rest periods are both crucial to the suc-
cess of someone eagerly seeking great
gains in strength. And those typical
strongman articles rightly gravitate to-
ward compound exercises and prime
movers that don’t rely so much on stabi-
lizer muscles, since stabilizers limit the
amount of force the big moves can create.
Still no real argument here.
THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
However, that’s exactly where this par-
ticular strength feature finds its indepen-
dence. See, we want you to focus on the
auxiliary muscles because they support
the joints of the major muscle groups, and
their ability — or lack thereof — could be
the limiting factor in your own progress.
Even if the muscles most responsible for a
particular lift are strong and capable, the
underlying and unseen structures that
support the joints might not be able to
keep up with what you’re trying to lift.
And when it comes to strength, some-
times the devil is in the inner details. If
you know your weakness lies in stabilizer
strength, then the devil you know beats
the devil you don’t.
The most important detail in this
strategy is the systematic order of exer-
cises. It’s the order of exercises for each
muscle group that makes the greatest dif-
ference in progressive strength in both
stabilizers and major lifts. The exercises
in and of themselves are not earth-shat-
tering or novel. But much like the correct
numbers to a lock combination or a sub-
strate to a chemical reaction, the order of
exercises will trigger a response unlike
any you’ve experienced.
Each day, you’ll be training in a way
that takes you from the exercises requir-
ing the most stabilizer activity to those
requiring the least. That way, as you move
throughout the day’s program, as the syn-
ergistic muscles and stabilizers tire out,
each new exercise you move on to will
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THE INSIDE-OUT CHEST PROGRAM
EXERCISE SETS REPS REST
Flat-Bench Dumbbell Press 3 6–8 2 min.
Bench Press 4 8–10 2 min.
Smith-Machine Bench Press 5 10–12 2 min.
Incline Dumbbell Flye 3 10–12 1–2 min.
Smith-Machine Decline Press 3 10–12 1–2 min.
FLAT-BENCH DUMBBELL PRESS
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musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 41
SMITH-MACHINEBENCH PRESS
BENCH PRESS
require less stability (and thus less work
on the part of those highly fatigued stabi-
lizers) than the one before it. You’re basi-
cally working from the inside out, and by
going deeper and training the smaller, in-
tricate stabilizers first, you’ll ultimately
ensure progressive strength and size of
the dominant muscles over the long term.
On chest day, for example, you might
go from a dumbbell move to a barbell move
and then finish on the Smith machine. At
the end of the day, you’ll have attacked the
chest with exercises (using dumbbells pri-
marily, then barbells) that tax the stabiliz-
ers of the joints responsible for working
the chest, as well as with exercises (on the
machine) that solely blast the chest with-
out much stability. When you melt the
benefits of each exercise together over the
course of four weeks, you can imagine how
much stronger you’ll be. And your chest
will look it. Big and strong … isn’t that what
we’re all here for?
STRONG TEMPTATION
You might be wondering whether we’re
breaking a cardinal rule of training called
specificity, which says that in order to
gain strength in a particular lift, you have
to perform that lift. We’re absolutely not
breaking the rule; we’re only enhancing
the body’s ability to perform all major
lifts. As you’ll see in each workout, the
major lift is prominent, just strategically
placed within each day. We realize that if
you practice the leg press, for example, it
won’t necessarily translate to a better
squat. However, if while you practice the
squat you also attack unfamiliar muscles
that are indirectly and directly related to
your squat performance, then you’ll have
the best of both worlds.
You might also be curious as to wheth-
er we’re breaking our own rule that says to
hit your major lifts early in your workout,
when you’re the most fresh. Again, no.
This scheme isn’t designed to replace your
standard bodybuilding or strength-train-
ing plan; it’s meant to be a technical tool to
be used in combination with your current
routine. For the next four weeks, we’re go-
ing to have you training each major body-
part twice per week, following a three-day
FLAT-BENCH DUMBBELL PRESSSTART POSITION: Lie faceup on the bench with your feet flat on the floor. Hold a
dumbbell in each hand just outside your shoulders.
MOVEMENT: Powerfully press the dumbbells toward the ceiling and together,
stopping when they’re an inch or so away from each other; then slowly return to
the start and repeat.
SMITH-MACHINE BENCH PRESSSTART POSITION: Place a bench centered inside a Smith machine. Grasp the bar
with a wide, overhand grip and rotate the bar to unrack it.
MOVEMENT: Slowly lower the bar to your lower chest, pausing when the bar is
just about an inch away from your pecs; then powerfully press the bar back up to
full arm extension and repeat.
BENCH PRESSSTART POSITION: Lie faceup on a bench with your feet flat on the floor. Grasp the
barbell with an overhand grip that is slightly wider than shoulder width apart.
MOVEMENT: Unrack the bar and slowly lower it toward your chest. Keep your
wrists stacked directly above your elbows, and your elbows pointed out to your
sides. When the bar just touches your chest, press back up explosively, driving the
bar away from you until just short of lockout.
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SEATED OVERHEAD DUMBBELL PRESSSTART POSITION: Sit erect on a low-
back bench, holding a dumbbell in
each hand above shoulder level with a
pronated grip. Keep your head straight
and eyes focused forward.
MOVEMENT: Keeping your shoulders
back, press the dumbbells overhead in
an arc but don’t let the weights touch at
the top. Slowly lower to the start posi-
tion and repeat.
OVERHEAD BARBELLPRESSSTART POSITION: Sit erect against the
back-pad support at a shoulder-press
station. Keep your lower back slightly
arched and your feet flat on the floor.
Grasp the bar outside shoulder width
with a prorated grip and with your
elbows pointing down and outward.
Carefully unrack the bar and hold it at
shoulder level.
MOVEMENT: In a smooth, strong motion,
press the bar straight up to just short of el-
bow lockout. Squeeze your delts and then
lower the bar under control to the start
(i.e., front of head, but you can also do this
behind the neck) and repeat for reps.
MACHINE OVERHEAD PRESSSTART POSITION: Sit erect in the
shoulder-press machine with your lower
back firmly pressed into the pad. Keep
your feet flat on the floor. Grasp the
handles at shoulder level, keeping your
head neutral.
MOVEMENT: Press the handles over-
head to full arm extension, but don’t
lock out your elbows. Squeeze your
delts hard for a count before slowly
lowering to the start. Don’t let the
weight stack touch down between reps.
OVERHEAD BARBELL PRESS
THE INSIDE-OUT SHOULDER PROGRAM
EXERCISE SETS REPS REST
Seated Overhead Dumbbell Press 3 6–8 2 min.
Overhead Barbell Press 4 8–10 2 min.
Machine Overhead Press 5 10–12 2 min.
Dumbbell Lateral Raise 3 12 1–2 min.
Seated Bent-Over Lateral Raise 3 12 1–2 min.
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SEATED OVERHEAD DUMBBELL PRESS
split. The first time you hit a bodypart, you
can use your standard program; the sec-
ond time you hit it that week, you’ll follow
this inside-out approach.
So let’s go back to our chest example.
On the first chest day of the week, you’ll
hit your typical routine, in which you be-
gin with, say, incline barbell presses be-
fore moving onto flat-bench dumbbell
flyes, decline presses and cable cross-
overs. Perfect. But on the second chest
day, you’ll go from exercises requiring the
most stabilizer assistance to those that re-
quire the least. The fact that you’ve never
tried this will likely mean substantial in-
creases in how much weight you’ll ulti-
mately be able to lift after following this
program for just a few weeks.
STRENGTH TO STAND
We realize that it’s not sexy and doesn’t
sell magazines, but we want it at the top
of your mind: injury prevention and safe-
ty. Intentionally working to strengthen
your stabilizer muscles will absolutely,
positively help prevent injury over the
course of your bodybuilding career. If
most of us dedicated ourselves to this
type of inside-out routine, there would be
less nagging shoulder, elbow, hip and
knee pain — all culprits of both short- and
long-term setbacks.
Also, on the list of stabilizer muscles
within this inside-out approach, the core
musculature is near the top. Since the
core is so involved with single-arm and
other unstable exercises — because of
torque and required balance — it also gets
fatigued early in the workout before you
move on to exercises that require less.
Add a stronger core to the list of reasons
why you’ll be much stronger on each lift
you attempt at the end of the program —
especially on the major lifts.
At the end of the day, the best way
we’ve found to work the stabilizers is
with dumbbells. So, for our inside-out ap-
proach, in the second half of the week, for
each bodypart, you’re going to be work-
ing first with a dumbbell exercise, then
with a barbell move and finishing with a
machine move. Again, the reason we start
with dumbbells is that dumbbell exercis-
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ONE-ARM DUMBBELL ROWSTART POSITION: Bend over at the
waist and place one knee and the same-
side hand on a flat bench. Keep your
other foot on the floor beside the bench
and hold a dumbbell in your working-
side hand. Let it hang straight down
from your shoulder with your arm fully
extended.
MOVEMENT: Pull the weight up and
back into your hip, keeping your elbow in
close. Pull your elbow as high as you can,
squeezing your shoulder blades together
for a full contraction, and then lower the
dumbbell along the same path — down
and forward. Repeat for reps; then switch
arms.
BENT-OVER BARBELL ROWSTART POSITION: Standing with your
feet hip width apart, grasp a barbell
with a wide, overhand grip. Keeping
your knees slightly bent, lean forward at
your waist until your torso is just above
parallel to the floor. The barbell should
hang straight down in front of your
shins.
MOVEMENT: Without rising up from this
bent-over position, pull the barbell up
toward your abdomen, bringing your
elbows high and above the level of your
back. Hold the bar in the peak-contract-
ed position for a count and then slowly
lower along the same path and repeat
for reps.
T-BAR ROWSTART POSITION: Lean against the pad
with your torso and place your feet on
the platform. With your arms fully ex-
tended, grasp the handles with an over-
hand grip. Wrap your thumbs around
the bar for safety. Unrack the T-bar and
allow it to hang in front of you.
MOVEMENT: Pull the handles toward
you, bringing your elbows as high
as you can and squeezing your back
muscles at the top before slowly low-
ering back to the start.
THE INSIDE-OUT BACK PROGRAM
EXERCISE SETS REPS REST
One-Arm Dumbbell Row 3 6–8 2 min.
Bent-Over Barbell Row 4 8–10 2 min.
T-Bar Row 5 10–12 2 min.
Straight-Arm Pulldown 4 12–15 1–2 min.
ONE-ARM DUMBBELL
ROW
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BENT-OVER BARBELL ROW
es, which allow the greatest range of mo-
tion in all sorts of directions, require the
stabilizers to work overtime to keep the
bodypart on the right path of motion on
each and every repetition. As you move
on to the barbell move, that reliance on
stabilizers decreases until you hit the ma-
chine, where you won’t have to worry
about balance or stability at all.
How much weight you lift on each ex-
ercise (as a percentage of your max lift for
each move) is referred to as the intensity,
and on this program you’ll stair-step the
weight, gradually decreasing it with each
successive exercise. Thus, the heaviest
sets will fall under those dumbbell exer-
cises that allow a lot of freedom, which
makes heavier weight even more chal-
lenging. Of course, the major target mus-
cles are also highly at work, which is why,
by the time you get to the machine moves,
you can decrease the weight slightly,
since they’ll be somewhat prefatigued.
Finally, we’ve focused our attention on
the major bodyparts whose major lifts are
the most crucial for overall strength. It’s
fine if you want to continue your standard
training for bodyparts such as arms, traps
and calves during the first few days of the
week, but keep in mind that you might
want to modify the total number of sets
and the intensity during the first half of
the week to accommodate the inside-out
style later in the week.
The inside-out workouts in the pro-
gram — for legs, chest, shoulders and back
— are designed for you to insert into your
training split, specifically, to build up your
strength in the basic core lifts: squats,
bench presses, overhead shoulder presses
and bent-over rows. You’ll also see that
we’ve allowed you to train your biceps and
triceps, but feel free to save those for the
first three days if you so desire. If you’re
not accustomed to training each bodypart
twice a week, this will certainly be a shock,
and the attention you’ll give your stabiliz-
ers will up the physiological ante. Ulti-
mately, this program is a sound way to
build strength and size, and it follows a
logical progression, which is especially
useful when other methods have come to a
grinding halt or have failed.
T-BAR ROW
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People tend to be creatures of habit, meaning you probably do some things over and over again because they feel comfortable. Like eating regularly at a favorite restaurant, wear-ing a favorite tight-fitting shirt on a date, or prepar-ing the same breakfast every morning. While that may suit you fine and well in your daily life, when it comes to your workout — especially when you’re training abdominals — it’s a sign of danger, at least so far as making progress is concerned.
If you’re like too many bodybuilders, your ab training consists of a few sets of crunches at the end of your training session. Do 20 repetitions, rest and repeat.
The problem with that approach is that you’re not challenging yourself. Compare that to how you once tried to keep pushing more weight on the bench press to test your upper body strength, con-stantly trying to add another five or 10 pounds to
your lift. Do you take that same approach with abs? If you’re not seeing results with your ab train-
ing, it’s time to put the progressive into progres-sive resistance. You may remember the funda-mental principle of resistance training: To make a muscle grow bigger and stronger, you need to continually tax it with heavier loads or more rep-etitions as it grows stronger.
Building a six-pack doesn’t happen by accident unless you’ve got exceptional genetics; for the rest of us, it takes hard work, a carefully planned approach and proper manipulation of the train-ing variables. This five-week ab workout builds progression into both the resistance you use and the reps you complete for each set. If your abs have resisted getting bigger, stronger and more defined, it’s time to break out of that comfort zone, public enemy No. 1 if you want a wash-board midsection.
Your
5-WeekAb Challenge
Go from flab to abs by making your workout progressively
more challenging, building up your strength and your six-pack.
Here’s a five-week plan that’ll make your abs pop.
BY BILL GEIGER, MA | PHOTOS OF ULISSES BY PAUL BUCETA
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 47
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YOUR AB PRESCRIPTIONHere’s a summary of the five-week ab workout that’ll take you from flab to abs.
1 The progressive five-week pro-gram requires you to train your
abs three times a week, resting at least 48 hours between ab-training sessions. That means you work abs on days 1, 3 and 5, or any other com-bination as long as you’re not doing them on consecutive days. If you have a tendency to blow off your abs because you’re tired after your regular workout, make ab training a priority for the next five weeks and do them first when your energy levels are highest. Theoretically, taxing your abs before an exercise like squats could adversely affect your leg workout, but unless you’re pushing yourself with very heavy weights on leg day, it’s probably a minor concern.
2 Do all four exercises each workout. The moves focus
mainly on lower and upper abs, but you can make some adjustments to work the obliques as well. Follow the exercises in order because they start with the most-challeng-ing moves, which are best done when your fatigue levels are lower.
3 The key is to select the right variation of each move to
reach the target rep. With the first two moves you want to complete just 10 reps (both of which focus on building ab strength and thick-ening up the abdominal wall), so if they’re too easy you must in-crease the level of difficulty. With the hanging knee raise, do this by straightening your legs (see under exercise descriptions for more advanced variations of each move); with the lying cable crunch, simply add more weight.
The 5-Week Ab WorkoutDo the following ab workout three times a week, resting at least 48
hours between workouts. Do all four exercises each workout in the or-
der presented below. Keep rest periods to 60 seconds between sets.
EXERCISE SETS REPS
Hanging Knee Raise 3 10
Lying Cable Crunch 3 10
Decline-Bench Crunch 3 20
Crunch 3 20
WEEK 1
Choose versions of each move so that you can just reach the target rep.
For example, if you can easily do the hanging knee raise, try a more
difcult version that challenges you to do just 10 reps with good form.
Do all three workouts this week for three sets for the target rep (ei-
ther 10 or 20), resting only 60 seconds between sets.
WEEKS 2–3
During your first workout of the second week, try to do an additional
1–2 reps on each set of every move. So instead of doing 10 reps of the
hanging knee raise (or whichever version of that move you’re doing),
do 11–12 reps on each set.
Over the course of the six workouts for weeks 2–3, try to do 1–2
more reps on each set for each additional day. By the last workout of
week three, you should be trying for at least 16 reps on each set of the
hanging knee raise and lying cable crunch, and 26 for decline-bench
crunches and flat-bench crunches.
WEEKS 4–5
Increase the degree of difculty of each exercise by one level (see
under exercise descriptions). That means increasing the angle of the
decline bench, straightening your legs with the hanging knee raise,
adding two plates to the lying cable crunch, and choosing a more chal-
lenging body position with the flat bench crunch.
Start again doing three sets of all four moves for 10 reps, resting 60
seconds between sets.
As during weeks 2–3, add 1–2 reps to each set of every exercise over
the course of each of the six workouts during this two-week span. By
the end of week five, you should be doing about 15 reps of the more
difcult variations of the lower-rep moves, and up to 25 reps of the
more difcult variations of the higher-rep moves.
WEEK 6 AND BEYOND
Continue to increase the level of difculty of your ab moves while in-
creasing the reps. If you’re already near the most difcult variation of
each ab move, reduce rest periods by 15 seconds to increase the level
of difculty.
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Your
5-WeekAb Challenge
HANGING
KNEE RAISE
Target: Lower abs
Setup: Use ab straps to support
you beneath your elbows or
hang freely from a pull-up bar.
Start: With a wide overhand
grip, hang at arms’ length, bend-
ing your knees about 90 degrees
and locking them in this position
for the duration of the set. Your
hips should be slightly bent at
the bottom.
Movement: Without swinging
your body, contract your abs to
bring your knees at least to the
point at which your quads are
parallel to the floor (your lower
glutes should curl up) and lower
under control. Come to a full
stop at the bottom so you’re not
generating momentum as you
go into your next rep.
Make It Harder:
• Bring your knees as high as you
can, curling your lower spine up
at the bottom and more efec-
tively recruiting your lower abs.
• Keep your legs straight
throughout each rep.
• Hold a medicine ball between
your straightened feet for the
duration of the set.
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4 The other two exercises are both done for higher reps (to
help increase the muscle burn, build muscle endurance and increase the total calories burned, which can help improve muscle definition); still, you need to select exercise variations so that you can complete just the target number of reps (20).
5 During the first week, do three sets of all exercises
for the target rep (10 or 20) on all training days.
6 Rest periods should be timed at 60 seconds consistently
between sets. The abdominals are a fairly small muscle group that recover quickly and don’t require the same amount of time between sets as larger bodyparts like chest or legs. In addition, you don’t want them to be quite fully recovered as you begin your next set. Individual rest times may vary and you can increase or decrease that interval, but realize recovery has an affect on your ability to complete the number of reps on subsequent sets.
7 For each workout during weeks 2–3, strive to do 1–2
more reps on each set of each exercise than you did the previous workout. So for the first workout of the second week starting with hanging knee raises, try to do 11–12 reps each set; same with the lying cable crunch. Do 21–22 reps for the other two exercises. On your next workout, try to do 1–2 more reps on each set of each move and so on for the duration of the two-week span.
8 When starting week 4, choose a more advanced variation of
each move, again starting back at 10 reps. Over the course of the next five workouts during weeks 4–5, try to increase your rep count on each exercise by 1–2 reps for each set of every exercise from the previ-
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LYING CABLE CRUNCH
Target: Upper abs
Setup: Place a flat bench
directly in front of a lower
cable with a rope attached.
Start: Lie face-up on the
bench with your knees bent
and feet flat on the bench.
Grasp the rope with a neu-
tral grip, placing your hands
by your ears and locking
your arms in this position
for the duration of the set.
Movement: Contract your
abs to curl up as high as
you can, trying to get your
shoulder blades as far of
the bench as possible and
squeezing your abs at the
top. Lower just short of your
shoulder blades completely
resting on the bench be-
tween reps.
Make It Harder:
• Add more plates to
increase the resistance;
you can do this many times
to continue increasing the
level of dificulty.
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Your
5-WeekAb Challenge
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 51
DECLINE-BENCH CRUNCH
Target: Upper abs
Setup: Set the appropriate bench angle to match your level of ability and
the rep range you want to train in.
Start: Sit squarely on the bench, feet secured under the ankle pads. Cup
your hands behind your head to support it and go back (roughly two-thirds
of the way down), making sure your chin isn’t pressed into your chest.
Movement: Contract your abs to rise as high as you can to a point just
short of perpendicular to the floor, trying not to pull through your hip flex-
ors (quads) on your way up. Round your back on the way up to increase the
abdominal contraction. Lower under control but don’t allow your shoulder
blades to touch the pad.
Make It Harder:
• Use a steeper decline.
• Hold a weight plate against your chest or behind your head.
• Use a steeper decline and hold a weight plate against your chest or head.
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ous workout. By the end of your last workout on week 5, you should be trying to do at least 15 reps of your lower-rep moves (hanging knee raise and lying cable crunch) and 25 reps on your higher-rep moves (decline bench crunch and crunch).
9 If even the most advanced variations of each move are
too easy and you have no trouble reaching the target rep, reduce your between-sets rest period by 15 seconds (so it’s 45 seconds). Re-ducing your rest period is another way to increase the intensity of your workout.
10 Write it down. You’ll like-ly forget the weights you
used, the degree of difficulty and the number of reps, so you’re going to forget the important variables from previous workouts. Write down what you’ve done so that you can check back and make sure you try to beat it your next workout.
11 While progression is the key that drives this five-week
program, it would be a mistake to think that’s all you need to build washboard abs. You’ll want to pay particular attention to your diet — watching carb and fat intake, monitoring your total calories and following a smart supplementation program — while including cardio four times a week for 30-minute sessions to help strip the bodyfat. Only through a combination of car-dio and ab-training exercises as well as a smart diet can you truly bring out your ripped six-pack.
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Your
5-WeekAb Challenge
1) The range of motion is fairly
small in many abdominal moves.
Bringing your shoulder blades of the
floor in the basic crunch, for example,
works the abs through a full range of
motion; you don’t need to rise as you
would in a full sit-up, which doesn’t
result in additional contraction or
stimulation of the abs.
2) Hold the peak contraction
at the top of the movement.
Consciously squeeze and focus on
momentarily holding the fully con-
tracted position at the top of each
rep; you’ll work your abdominals
harder and be less inclined to race
through your reps.
3) Keep your head in line with
your torso. When grasping
your head to support it, don’t inter-
lock your hands; you’ll be more likely
to pull on your head and disrupt
spinal alignment. Lightly cup your
fingers behind your head to support
it — don’t pull on it. There should be
about enough space for an apple
between your chin and your chest.
4) Use a smooth, deliberate
speed of movement. Use
a slow, strict motion, which helps
increase the intensity of the con-
traction and minimizes momentum.
Momentum comes from using fast,
explosive motions, and it reduces
the quality of your workout because
your abs are doing less work. You’ll
also be more susceptible to injury.
5) Exhale at the top of the
move. Hold your breath until
you’ve reached the top of the move
(the peak-contracted position) for a
stronger, more intense contraction.
Exhaling early reduces intra-abdom-
inal pressure, so you won’t be able
to contract your abs as strongly.
6) Make sure the movement is
restricted to the waist. During
most upper and lower abdominal
movements, your spine flexes (mean-
ing your lower back actually rounds),
so don’t keep your lower back
arched during the movement. Other
joints should be stabilized so that
the action occurs only at the waist.
7) Maintain constant tension
throughout the set. The ab
muscles recover extremely quickly,
so if you rest between reps, even
if for only a second, you’ll find it
difcult to adequately fatigue the
muscle. Maintain constant tension
by stopping just short of the resting
point during the downward phase
of the movement. For many move-
ments, this means keeping your
shoulder blades of the floor as best
as possible.
8) Take defined rest periods of
about a minute between sets.
After you complete your set, rest
about 60 seconds to allow your abs
to recover so you can complete your
next set. If you start too early, they’ll
still be fatigued and you won’t reach
your target rep. In general, begin-
ners should take a little longer rest
between sets, as should individuals
who are training to build maximal ab
strength.
8 Keys to More Efective Ab Training
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 53
CRUNCH
Target: Upper abs
Setup: Place a flat bench in an
open space.
Start: Lie squarely on the bench
with your feet flat and knees bent
about 60 degrees. Cup your head
with your fingers — don’t pull on it.
Movement: Contract your abs to
raise your shoulder blades of the
bench — the range of motion is just
a few inches. Squeeze at the top
and slowly lower to just short of
resting back against the bench.
Make It Harder:
• Raise your legs so they’re per-
pendicular to the bench, causing
your lower abs to contract iso-
metrically.
• With your legs raised, reach as if
to touch your toes. If you do this
to alternate sides, you’ll also work
your obliques.
• With your legs raised, hold a
small weight plate against your
chest to increase the resistance on
your upper abs.
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Read it again: You can do two times more reps with a given heavy weight if you follow the rest-pause technique. Now’s your chance to make muscle and strength gains like never before.By Jimmy Peña, MS, CSCS Photos of Lionel Brown by Gregory James
it’s time to drop the old bit, because we
have just the tool you need to break
through.
If you’ve never tried the rest-pause
technique, you’re about to discover the
cutting edge when it comes to adding size
onto your frame. Whether your aim is to
bust through plateaus, push yourself to
new limits or simply jump-start a stale
routine, rest-pause is a proven place to
start rebuilding your muscle.
NUTS AND BOLTSTo start, understand this: The rest-pause
technique is an advanced training scheme
that builds extremely short rest periods
between reps or blocks of reps. You can
even think of them as “mini sets” if it
helps you wrap your mind around the
concept. As you’ll see, this tactic allows
you to complete more total reps — many
more — with a heavier weight than you
could have accomplished using a straight-
sets approach.
First of all, a straight set is exactly that:
straight. You choose a weight, say a weight
If you’re handy — good with tools — then you know full well how a new drill bit feels when tackling a tough job. Old bits are worn, smooth and just can’t cut it, to say nothing of breaking through the wall. But after you make the switch, breakthrough comes easy. And if you’ve hit a wall when it comes to your muscle growth, then
that you can do for just six reps (called a
6RM), and you tackle the set and fail at six.
Nothing fancy there. But with rest-pause,
it’s an entirely diferent situation. Take
that same 6RM for example. After a thor-
ough warm-up, you start your set of six,
but when you hit three reps, you actually
rack the weight and rest for a few seconds.
Then you pick the weight up again to do
three more reps. You string together mul-
tiple three-rep sets with very short rest
periods. That’s it in a nutshell. The most
important mental hurdle that most body-
builders need to get over is that it’s not
about getting as many reps as possible
with a given weight, nor is it about achiev-
ing absolute failure on every set.
TOUGH HABITSWe know habits are tough to break,
which is why this technique helps you
bust through barriers. But in truth, it’s all
about the work — the amount of force be-
ing applied to the muscle — during a giv-
en time. The greater the force your
muscle can produce, the more stimulus
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2
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DOUBLE YOUR REPS, DOUBLE THE MUSCLE
the muscle receives and the greater your
ability to break through size plateaus.
Diving deeper inside the muscle cell
is really where we find the justification
for stopping short of failure and resting
a few seconds. First and foremost, it’s
all about replenishing adenosine tri-
phosphate, or ATP; it’s the energy you
use to perform any and every activity in
your workout. You have some stored
ATP inside your muscle cells, but as
that source runs out, you lean on three
energy systems to replenish it. When
you start a heavy set, you rely primarily
on creatine phosphate (CP) to restore
ATP, and for that reason, CP is labeled
as the primary energy source stored in
skeletal muscle that fuels short, power-
ful bursts of activity. CP depletes rapid-
ly, but fortunately it also replenishes
rapidly, usually in 10–20 seconds.
So to capitalize on this process, the
rest-pause method has you selecting a
weight that causes muscle failure at, for
example, six reps, but you perform only
three before taking 15–20 seconds of rest.
You then get right back in and do another
three reps. You continue this rest/work
sequence until you can’t perform even a
couple of reps with that particular weight.
MORE WORKWhen you add those reps together, you
realize that you did more work with more
weight than you ever could accomplish
had you not stopped to rest briefly
throughout the set. Put some actual num-
bers to it and it’s eye opening! Think of
your accomplishment strictly in terms of
total pounds lifted per exercise. Muscle
growth is the result of cumulative work,
correct? Therefore if you’re normally
benching 225 to failure for four sets of six
reps, that’s 5,400 pounds’ worth of reps.
If you apply the rest-pause technique
and do 200 pounds for three reps, six
times for two sets total, you’ve moved
7,200 pounds. That’s an additional 1,800
pounds of muscle-building work that re-
sults in bigger, fuller, thicker muscle bel-
lies from head to toe. Unmistakably, the
crowning achievement of employing rest-
pause training is that you’ll have lifted
USING REST-PAUSE IN YOUR WORKOUTDAY 1 — ARMS
BICEPS
EXERCISE LOAD SETS REPS/REST2 (SECONDS)
Barbell Curl 5RM 31 2/10, 2/11, 2/12, 2/13, 2/14, 2
7RM 2 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/14, 3/15, 3
10RM 1 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
Preacher Curl 5RM 3 2/10, 2/11, 2/12, 2/13, 2/14, 2
7RM 2 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/14, 3/15, 3
10RM 1 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
TRICEPS
Close-Grip Bench Press 5RM 31 2/10, 2/11, 2/12, 2/13, 2/14, 2
7RM 2 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/14, 3/15, 3
10RM 1 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
Overhead Rope Cable Extension 5RM 3 2/10, 2/11, 2/12, 2/13, 2/14, 2
7RM 2 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/14, 3/15, 3
10RM 1 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
DAY 2 — LEGS
EXERCISE LOAD SETS REPS/REST2 (SECONDS)
Smith-Machine Squat 5RM 31 2/10, 2/11, 2/12, 2/13, 2/14, 2
7RM 2 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/14, 3/15, 3
10RM 1 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
Leg Press 5RM 3 2/10, 2/11, 2/12, 2/13, 2/14, 2
7RM 2 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/14, 3/15, 3
10RM 1 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
Leg Extension 10RM 1 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
Lying Leg Curl 10RM 1 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
DAY 4 — CHEST + SHOULDERS
EXERCISE LOAD SETS REPS/REST2 (SECONDS)
Incline Bench Press 5RM 31 2/10, 2/11, 2/12, 2/13, 2/14, 2
7RM 2 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/14, 3/15, 3
10RM 1 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
Hammer-Strength Chest Press 5RM 3 2/10, 2/11, 2/12, 2/13, 2/14, 2
7RM 2 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/14, 3/15, 3
10RM 1 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
Smith-Machine Decline Press 5RM 3 2/10, 2/11, 2/12, 2/13, 2/14, 2
7RM 2 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/14, 3/15, 3
10RM 1 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
Overhead Barbell Press 5RM 31 2/10, 2/11, 2/12, 2/13, 2/14, 2
7RM 2 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/14, 3/15, 3
10RM 1 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
Smith-Machine Upright Row 5RM 3 2/10, 2/11, 2/12, 2/13, 2/14, 2
7RM 2 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/14, 3/15, 3
10RM 1 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
DAY 5 — BACK
EXERCISE LOAD SETS REPS/REST2 (SECONDS)
Bent-Over Barbell Row 5RM 31 2/10, 2/11, 2/12, 2/13, 2/14, 2
7RM 2 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/14, 3/15, 3
10RM 1 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
Wide-Grip Seated Cable Row 5RM 3 2/10, 2/11, 2/12, 2/13, 2/14, 2
7RM 2 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/14, 3/15, 3
10RM 1 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
Front Lat Pulldown 10RM 2 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
1 Doesn’t include 1–2 warm-up sets. Never take warm-up sets to muscle failure.2 Rest 2–3 minutes between each change in the working RM or change in exercise.
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Pause or Play?Use rest-pause with any exercise that easily allows the weight to be moved into the start
position, and avoid those movements where it’s overly difcult to rack and unrack your
weights. For example, the overhead dumbbell press takes a lot more efort in the set-up
than the machine overhead press. In addition, unilateral movements, such as concentration
curls and one-arm dumbbell rows, don’t work unless you do all the reps for one side before
switching sides. Here’s a quick guide when selecting the best exercises for rest-pause:
MUSCLE GROUP DO AVOID
Biceps Standing Cable Curl Spider Curl
Triceps Pressdown Weighted Bench Dip
Legs Hack Squat Front Squat
Chest Pec-Deck Flye Flat-Bench Dumbbell Press
Shoulders Hammer-Strength Shoulder Press Seated Overhead Dumbbell Press
Back T-Bar Row Prone Incline Dumbbell Row
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DOUBLE YOUR REPS, DOUBLE THE MUSCLE
more total pounds in a given set simply by
mixing in these short and cogent rest pe-
riods. And that’s how it helps destroy pla-
teaus: muscle damage.
The greater your ability to cause mus-
cle damage, the higher your chances of
continuous changes in size. However, the
more experienced you are, the more dif-
ficult it becomes to trigger growth be-
cause your body has adapted to the
stresses you apply to it from one week to
the next. That’s how rest-pause can be so
refreshing. Even for the most experi-
enced bodybuilders, utilizing this tactic
can feel like you’ve uncovered the holy
grail of growth.
In addition, the more work you perform
at a given weight, the greater your chances
of swelling the muscle fibers. The fiber
swelling that comes from muscle damage
can also encourage muscle growth. When
a muscle cell fills with fluid, it places a
stretch on the muscle cell membrane. This
stretch signals the cell to increase the size
of its structure permanently.
TOOL BOXNow that you have the concept down, be
sure to understand that there are a few
important cogs in the system, none as im-
portant as the amount of rest you take.
You don’t want to rest so long that you
waste time, but if you don’t rest long
enough, you won’t replenish enough CP
to get you through as many reps as possi-
ble. A safe spectrum is 10–20 seconds.
The work-to-rest ratio is paramount, so
either wear a cheap watch or keep an eye
on the clock to make sure you stay on
track. You may even consider using a
journal to help you remember what you
did in previous workouts so that you can
make necessary adjustments.
As critical as taking precise rest periods
is selecting the ideal amount of weight for
each set. If you go too light, you risk work-
ing the muscle aerobically with no suf-
cient amount of force. If you go too heavy,
you may not get enough volume. So there
will be some trial and error as you embark
on the rest-pause technique. It’s helpful to
know your 3, 5, 7 and even 10RM. (If you
don’t, it’s easy to compute; see “Determin-
ing Your Weights.”) The goal for your sets
in the program we’ve developed will be to
repeat the work/rest sequence five times
before giving yourself a full 2–3 minutes of
rest. Remember, all those segments consti-
tute just one set; you’ll do multiple such
sets over the course of your workout.
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Can Strength Trainers Use Rest-Pause?If your focus is on strength training rather than
building muscle, that’s no reason to fear
occasionally trying the rest-pause tactic. What’s
clear is that a bigger muscle has more strength
potential than a smaller one, but most strength
athletes tend to rest three minutes between lifts
of low reps. The fact that rest-pause allows for
very little rest goes against the “strength” grain.
However, as you’ve seen, recovery time is all
about the replenishment of ATP (the energy
currency in all cells).
Reps of 1–6 rely mostly on the stored ATP
in the muscle fibers, which is replenished
relatively quickly by the creatine-phosphate
system. Sets of 10 or more reps use even more
creatine phosphate but also rely on muscle
glycogen, and that takes the longest of the
three to replenish.
So if you’re a strength-focused athlete, and
if reps 1 –6 rely mostly on stored ATP, which
replenishes extremely quickly, why do you rest
so long between those heavy sets? In fact,
researchers from the University of Memphis
studied squats at 1RM, with varying rest periods.
They had 17 weightlifters do two one-rep max
(1RM) sets of squats with either one minute,
three minutes or five minutes of rest between
sets. After resting just one minute between sets,
13 of the 17 lifters were able to lift their max
weight again on the second set. After resting
three minutes, 16 of 17 were able to complete
the second set, and after five minutes, 15 of 17
were successful. In summary, even as little as
one minute of rest was ample for 13 out of 17
lifters to complete the second set. This study
appears to indicate that resting longer than
three minutes isn’t as productive as resting
exactly three.
In short, the rest-pause technique can help
you become even more efcient within the
strength-specific rep ranges at recruiting the
powerful CP to replenish ATP. If you can recruit
those powerful muscle fibers with less rest time,
imagine how strong you’ll feel when you do rest
your customary three minutes between lifts. Of
note, if you train for strength, the research is
clear that strength is hindered when you take
each set to muscle failure, but taking only your
last set to failure is the best scenario. The rest-
pause technique fits nicely into that wheel-
house, because you don’t take those heavy sets
to absolute failure, but rather stop long before
that point of fatigue. Both the efciency with
rest and the limited failure points will help you
promote strength gains.
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DOUBLE YOUR REPS, DOUBLE THE MUSCLE
Here’s how to include the rest-pause
technique in your workout with this sam-
ple exercise:
LEG PRESS
LOAD SETS REPS/REST (SECONDS)
5RM 3 2/10, 2/11, 2/12, 2/13, 2/14, 2
7RM 2 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/14, 3/15, 3
10RM 1 5/15, 5/16, 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5
So on the first set of the leg press, you’ll
select a weight that would normally allow
you to fail at five reps, but you’re going to
do only two reps before resting 10 sec-
onds. After 10 seconds, do another two
reps before resting 11 seconds, so on and
so forth. You’ll link five such two-rep seg-
ments for a total of 10 reps with your 5RM
— and that’s your first set of three. (Re-
member, take a longer 2–3-minute rest
before beginning your next set or exer-
cise.) What’s evident is that it’s impossi-
ble to fully recover between blocks of
reps, but adding another second of rest
will prove marginally beneficial through-
out the exercise. And because you’re not
going to complete failure, your form is al-
most guaranteed to be solid throughout
the exercise, meaning proper muscle re-
cruitment from start to finish.
In the above example, also notice that
the heavier the weight, the shorter the
rest. The lighter you go, the more reps
you perform and the more rest you need
between them.
60 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
Determining Your Weights Use this simple calculation to estimate your weights for rest-pause training.
ESTIMATED REPS AT PERCENT OF ONE-REPETITION MAXIMUM
REPS: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
100% 95% 93% 90% 87% 85% 83% 80% 77% 75% 67% 65%
Use the chart above to
compute your max weight
on a given exercise, and
then estimate your work-
ing weight when you’re re-
quired to use a 5, 7 or
10RM. If you know your
1RM (your max weight on a
given movement using
good form without help for
one and only one rep) you
can skip the first step.
1) Determine how many
total clean reps you can do
with a given movement
with a given weight. Say
you can do four reps on
the bench press with 225
pounds. Four corresponds
to 90% of your 1RM. Hence
your one-rep max would
be computed by dividing
225 by 0.9, which equals
250 pounds. That’s your
estimated max bench press
(1RM).
2) The program requires
that you choose weights
that correspond to your 5,
7 and 10RM. For your 5RM,
choose a weight of 87% of
250 pounds, or a working
weight of 217.5 pounds.
You can round up or down
a few pounds. On your
7RM sets, use 207.5
pounds (83% of 250) and
on your 10RM use 187.5
pounds (75% of 250).
These are the approximate
weights you should be do-
ing on your working sets.
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The most important
mental hurdle that
most bodybuilders
need to get over is
that it’s not about
getting as many
reps as possible with
a given weight, nor
is it about achieving
absolute failure on
every set.
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MMI uncovers the truth about the popular ancestral Paleo diet and how it can keep your muscle gains from going extinctBy Mike Carlson
62 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
ISA
AC
HIN
DS
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Think of all the medical advances of the last 100 years: X-rays, MRIs, artificial joints, arthroscop-
ic surgery, all things that can help you live
a longer, more active life. Now think of
the nutrition inventions: high-fructose
corn syrup, partially hydrogenated vege-
table oil, artificial colors, preservatives. It
quickly becomes obvious that Nobel
Prize-winning, lifesaving interventions
have barely kept pace with the health-
destroying strides that the commercial
food manufacturers and fast-food
marketers have made.
This is a primary reason why the
Paleo diet has exploded in popu-
larity over the past few years.
While skeptics like to cast Paleo ad-
herents as simple-minded barbarians
who like to eat bacon at every meal
(that statement is only half true), Paleo-
style eating is as much about what it re-
jects as it is about what it embraces.
“Paleo is about getting back to basics
in terms of all the stuf that has crept into
the North American diet over the years,”
says Kristen Bell, a registered dietitian
and certified sports nutrition adviser who
has a private practice in West Los Ange-
les. “It’s about cutting out all the foods
that don’t come naturally from the earth
or from an animal. It’s fruits, vegetables,
nuts, seeds and animal protein. If it comes
in a box or package, don’t eat it.”
The CrossFit community has unof-
cially adopted Paleo as the nutrition pro-
gram that goes hand in hand with its
brand of functional fitness. But many of
those success stories are from people
who needed to lose weight to do the rope
climbs, pull-ups and handstand push-ups
“Paleo is about
getting back to basics
in terms of all the stuf that
has crept into the North
American diet over the years. It’s
about cutting out all the foods that
don’t come naturally from the
earth or from an animal. It’s fruits,
vegetables, nuts, seeds and
animal protein. If it comes in a
box or a package,
don’t eat it.”
LE
FT
:SH
UT
TE
RS
TO
CK
; R
IGH
T: R
OB
ER
T R
EIF
F
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The Higher Cost of OrganicBuying organic foods on the Paleo diet is clearly more expensive,
so you need to weigh the cost against the benefits. Here’s a sam-
ple basket of foods showing the diference in average prices.
PRODUCT AVG. PRICE AVG. PRICE
NONORGANIC (USD) ORGANIC (USD)
Milk 2.28/half gallon 4.43/half gallon1
Ground Beef 3.58/lb. 8.39/lb.1
Eggs 1.35/dozen 3.99/dozen2
Chicken Breast 3.46/lb. 5.07/lb.2
Lettuce 1.78/head 3.54/head
Salad Mix 3.85/lb. 8.14/lb.
Spinach 4.44/lb. 8.59/lb.
Tomatoes 2.82/lb. 4.05/lb.
Strawberries 3.23/lb. 5.14/lb.
Bananas 0.57/lb. 0.89/lb.
Apples 1.57/lb. 2.34/lb.
1 Refers to grass-fed cattle. 2 Refers to free-range poultry.
Source: USDA Economic Research Service calculations using Nielsen Homescan data.
that are part of daily workouts. The fact is
that there are almost no CrossFit Games
competitors who follow a strict Paleo
diet. Their need to build and maintain
strength and muscle mass, as well as fuel
longer and more frequent workouts, rep-
resent a greater nutritional demand than
Paleo can fulfill.
“I find that people who have more fat
mass and need to lose 20–30 pounds usu-
ally have the most success with pure Pa-
leo,” says Bell. “Petite women, who may
have only 5 pounds to lose, see a pretty
positive response to it. But for men who
want to gain muscle, it’s harder for them
to do that eating 100% Paleo.”
Strict Paleo hasn’t been associated
with the bodybuilding crowd because Pa-
leo eliminates cereal grains (wheat, corn,
rice) from the diet, and sugar is strictly
forbidden. That means the limited
amount of simple and complex carbohy-
drates keeps your level of insulin, a highly
anabolic hormone, fairly low. Still, Paleo
has a lot to ofer those interested in hy-
pertrophy. Its bedrock of organic pro-
duce, grass-fed meats and pastured
poultry and eggs can vastly improve the
nutrient levels and fat profiles in a diet,
leading to less inflammation, faster recov-
ery and a reduction in bodyfat.
“Changing the quality of your food is
huge,” says Bell. “People feel better know-
ing they ate foods from a farmers market
and organic choices as opposed to going
to the supermarket. When people start to
eat higher-quality meats and vegetables,
the body will break it down much more
efciently and be exposed to fewer chem-
icals and hormones.”
By incorporating the tenets of Paleo
with some smart choices concerning
your carbs, you can put together a body-
builder-friendly program that promotes
muscle building along with overall health
and wellness. It’s a strategy that speaks to
short-term physique goals as well as the
bigger picture.
“Every seven years our body regener-
ates every single cell, so that means every
organ is 100% replaced,” says Bell. “So
what you’re eating right now determines
how you’re going to be in the future. With
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66 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
that in mind, do you want to eat high-
quality organic foods or the cheap stuf?”
RULE 1
BEAT THE WHEAT
Those who experience the greatest body-
transforming success on a Paleo program
tend to react positively to the elimination
of allergenic foods from their diet, name-
ly, corn, rice, legumes and especially
wheat. Even though these foods come
from nature, they require a significant
amount of processing and cooking to
make them edible. You can’t pick a stalk
of wheat and start chomping away the
way you can with, say, blueberries.
Grains and legumes contain lectins,
phytates and gluten, substances Paleo
devotees say can inhibit mineral uptake
and irritate the stomach lining to the
point that it becomes permeable, which
initiates the inflammation process. This
can be the cause of bloating and discom-
fort (which makes a workout tough on
everybody) that when left unchecked
may eventually lead to autoimmune dis-
eases such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Not all grains are created equal. White
rice, while a high-glycemic carb that’s
mostly bereft of nutrients and should be
avoided by those looking to drop fat, is
reasonably well-tolerated by many. Young
hardgainers can use steamed white rice
as an efective carb source in their quest
to build muscle.
Wheat, on the other hand, is best left
alone by almost everyone. Thanks to ge-
netically modified strains of wheat crops,
gluten levels in breads and wheat prod-
ucts have skyrocketed over the past few
years, contributing to an epidemic of glu-
ten sensitivity. According to the National
Institutes of Health, 5–10% of the popula-
tion has some form of intolerance to glu-
ten, a type of protein that’s found in
wheat, barley and rye.
“Most people don’t match well with
wheat, and it’s getting worse because it’s
more hybridized and contains more glu-
ten than ever,” says Stu White, co-owner
of BodyWork Lifestyle, a personal-train-
ing and nutrition consulting firm in Hun-
tington Beach, CA. “It can give you an
immune reaction that makes you sluggish
and tired. The last thing you want to be
doing is eating foods that make you le-
thargic and burpy.”
For the last few years, the darling of
How to Shop SmartOrganic. Pastured. Free range.
All natural. Local. These are
phrases to look for in the super-
market. Unfortunately these
terms often translate into “ex-
pensive.” The Environmental
Working Group, a leading envi-
ronmental health research and
advocacy organization, has
come up with a list that can
help you get the cleanest food
for your funds. The Dirty Dozen
are foods that tend to have the
highest pesticide contamina-
tion, and whose organic variet-
ies are thus worth the extra
money to buy. The Clean 15 are
the lowest in contaminants, so
conventionally farmed versions
are safe to consume.
The Dirty Dozen (Buy Organic)
1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Sweet bell peppers
4. Peaches
5. Strawberries
6. Nectarines (imported)
7. Grapes
8. Spinach
9. Lettuce
10. Cucumbers
11. Blueberries (domestic)
12. Potatoes
The Clean 15 (Buy Organic or Conventional)
1. Onions
2. Sweet corn
3. Pineapples
4. Avocado
5. Cabbage
6. Sweet peas
7. Asparagus
8. Mangoes
9. Eggplant
10. Kiwi
11. Cantaloupe (domestic)
12. Sweet potatoes
13. Grapefruit
14. Watermelon
15. Mushrooms
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musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 67
For Building Muscle and Health
For the Hardgainer
For Fat Loss
BREAKFAST 6 free-range eggs, 2/3 cup oatmeal mixed with almonds and dried cranberries
MIDMORNING 4 oz. bison jerky (or grass-fed beef jerky), handful of strawberries or blueberries
LUNCH 9 oz. baked chicken breast (with skin on), 1 large sweet potato and asparagus
PREWORKOUT Small apple with 2 tbsp. almond butter
POST-WORKOUT Protein shake with 1 1/2 cups coconut water, 2 tbsp. raw cocoa, 2 oz. organic spinach, 2 oz. organic kale, 1/2 avocado, 1 oz. organic raspberries, 1 oz. whole cranberries, 2 scoops whey protein powder, 1 scoop greens drink mix (optional)
DINNER 9 oz. wild-caught salmon fillet, 2/3 cup quinoa, 3 cups steamed broccoli
DAILY TOTALS 3,240 calories, 244 g carbs, 264 g protein, 117 g fat, 70 g fiber
THE HARDGAINER
Naturally slender guys with fast me-
tabolisms will need to take the most
liberties with a strict Paleo program
and add substantially more carbs —
including more starchy carbs — to
their daily meals. Eliminating wheat
and other grains will improve diges-
tive efciency, so consuming the
necessary calories won’t amount
to gas and bloating. (Based on the
caloric needs of a 180-pound body-
builder.)
For anyone who has achieved desir-
able levels of muscle mass and
bodyfat, a balanced, slightly adapt-
ed Paleo program can still provide a
slew of benefits. The nutrient densi-
ty on this diet will be much higher
than on a conventional bodybuilding
plan, the fat sources will improve
joint health and minimize inflamma-
tion, and less exposure to pesticides
and genetically modified foods will
provide health and physique bene-
fits that are still being quantified.
(Based on the caloric needs of a
180-pound bodybuilder.)
BREAKFAST 4 free-range hard-boiled eggs, berries, a few macadamia nuts
MIDMORNING 4 oz. bison jerky (or grass-fed beef jerky), handful of strawberries or blueberries
LUNCH 8 oz. grass-fed ground beef in marinara sauce over 1 1/2 cups steamed vegetables
PREWORKOUT 4 oz. grilled shrimp and a handful of almonds
POST-WORKOUT Protein shake with 1 1/2 cups water, 2 tbsp. raw cocoa, 2 oz. organ-ic spinach, 2 oz. organic kale, 1 oz. organic raspberries, 1 oz. organic blueberries, 2 scoops whey protein powder, 1 scoop greens drink mix (optional)
DINNER Lettuce wraps with 8 oz. chicken, vegetables, guacamole and salsa
DAILY TOTALS 3,060 calories, 197 g carbs, 234 g protein, 100 g fat, 53 g fiber
BREAKFAST Omelet made with 4 free-range eggs and 1/2 cup sautéed vegetables
MIDMORNING 4 oz. bison jerky (or grass-fed beef jerky), handful of blueberries
LUNCH Large spinach and kale salad with onion, garlic, parsley, 8 oz. free-range chicken or turkey and 2 tbsp. olive oil
PREWORKOUT 1 tbsp. of almond butter on celery
POST-WORKOUT Protein shake with 1 1/2 cups water, 2 tbsp. raw cocoa, 2 oz organic spinach, 2 oz. organic kale, 1 oz. organic raspberries, 2 scoops whey protein powder, 1 scoop greens drink mix (optional)
DINNER 8 oz. grass-fed rib-eye steak and 1 cup mashed cauliflower
DAILY TOTALS 2,880 calories, 134 g carbs, 233 g protein, 84 g fat, 53 g fiber
For big guys who have some extra
bodyfat to lose, this meal plan will
look very similar to a strict Paleo
diet. This is because classic Paleo is
very efective for retraining a body
to be sensitive to insulin. There will
be no starchy carbs on this plan,
only fibrous vegetables and a little
fruit. (Based on the caloric needs of
a 180-pound bodybuilder.)
Paleo Adaptations for Bodybuilders
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68 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
and tubers, such as sweet potatoes, pars-
nips, squash and yams, are good choices
as are green vegetables like kale, spinach,
broccoli and asparagus. Fruits that aren’t
loaded with sugar, such as strawberries,
raspberries, blueberries and apples, are
on the menu as well.
Oats are verboten on a strict Paleo
plan and many types do contain gut-dis-
rupting gluten. Gluten-free steel-cut oats
are widely available and can be accom-
modated in the hypertrophic Paleo strat-
egy. Quinoa, also gluten-free, falls into the
same category.
“If you’re going to eat a grain, quinoa is
a good bet,” says White. It’s not Paleo-
friendly, but a study from Sweden found
that quinoa significantly boosted IGF-1
[insulin-like growth factor 1], especially
compared with brown rice.”
When you’re trying to initiate a post-
workout insulin surge, don’t be tempted
by cheap refined sugars. They might be
efective for that purpose, but they’re
hardly necessary. Bell recommends her
clients use fruit to initiate post-workout
insulin response in order to minimize
recovery time and replenish glycogen
stores. Since most fruit has adequate
sugar, branch out from boring bananas
or grapes.
“For post-workout, I like pineapple
and dates. You can throw them into your
shakes for that fast glycemic hit,” says
White. “And protein still causes a reason-
ably strong insulin spike, especially whey
protein.”
RULE 3
GET SERIOUS
ABOUT GROCERIES
You don’t settle when it comes to choos-
ing a wife, a school for your kids or a
workout program, so why settle for food
that’s cheap and nutritionally barren?
One facet of the Paleo lifestyle that should
be adopted by everyone is the sourcing of
the highest quality foods possible. Organ-
ic produce has been shown to be nutri-
tionally superior to conventionally grown
fruits and vegetables, and fewer pesti-
cides in your food ensures fewer chemi-
mainstream nutrition has been whole
grains. Some manufacturers even embla-
zon the number of whole-grain servings
their product supplies as if they’re a nu-
trient instead of a food. Imagine a bag
containing a dozen apples that reads,
“Now with 12 servings of apples!” In fact,
the 2–3 grams of fiber and smattering of
B vitamins, iron, zinc and magnesium
that wheat ofers can easily be replaced
with some nutrient-rich vegetables.
“Grains are nutritionally irrelevant,”
says White. “There are no unique quali-
ties that make them necessary.”
RULE 2
CHOOSE GRAIN-FREE CARBS
One of the ways people lose weight on a
Paleo diet is through carb modification.
Paleo is not a low-carb program — you’d
be surprised how many carbs you can get
from fruits and vegetables — but when
grains are eliminated from a diet, overall
carb intake tends to drop. This adapted
plan allows for eating more carbs than
you’d find on a strict Paleo program and
ofers more leeway in the selection.
For slow-burning carbs that might be
eaten in preworkout meals, vegetables
“High-quality
dark chocolate is
great,” says nutrition
consultant Stu White.
“Cocoa is extremely high in
magnesium, calcium, iron
and manganese. Raw
cocoa in a protein
shake is amazing.”
SHUTTERSTOCK
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TM
Patent 5813950
Strictly speaking,
alcohol is not
allowed on a Paleo eating
plan, but even the most
diehard athletes will still cheat
once in a while on this one.
When it comes to happy hour,
tequila and red wine are your
most Paleo-friendly choices.
Beer is the worst because
of its yeast and grain
content.
cals in your body. But the benefits of
naturally raised food are most apparent
when you start talking about protein.
Grass-fed beef, butter and cream,
wild-caught fish and free-range birds
and eggs are getting easier to find all the
time. The demand for them continues to
rise for a number of reasons. These
farming practices are infinitely more hu-
mane and far easier on the soil and at-
mosphere than the horrors of factory
farming. But mostly they’re just nutri-
tionally better for you.
A study published in the Journal of
Animal Science detailed 10 major nutri-
tional advantages of grass-fed beef over
grain-fed beef. Grass-fed beef was shown
to be lower in total fat but richer in ome-
ga-3s and CLA, a nutrient that helps your
body burn fat. (It contains more vaccenic
acid as well, which can be transformed
into CLA.) Grass-fed beef is also higher in
beta carotene, vitamin E, thiamin, ribofla-
vin, calcium, magnesium and potassium.
A study published in the journal Animal
Feed Science and Technology showed that
eggs from free-range hens contain 10
times the amount of omega-3 fatty acids
as eggs from factory hens.
“You can see the nutrient diference
and you can see the actual ratios of fat
when you look at the full breakdown,”
says White. “You look at corn-fed animals
and they have a diferent spectrum of fat-
ty acids than a grass-fed animal. They
have less CLA and more omega-6 fatty
acids, which are inflammatory. They’ll
also have a higher fat total.”
While they might seem complex and
confusing — and maybe even silly if you
get too caught up in the caveman part
— the theories of Paleo and how they can
be applied to a muscle-building program
are really pretty simple. The hard part is
maneuvering around the manufacturers
who’ll stop at nothing to get you to buy
their products.
“A lot of stuf is coming out that’s ‘Paleo-
approved’ but comes in packages, like Pa-
leo granola bars,” says Bell. “Obviously,
that’s great for marketing, but too much of
that can easily become the typical highly
processed American diet. Keep it simple
and stick with the above principles.”
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70 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
We may think we know training and nutrition, but we all collectively shut our mouths, stop tapping the
keyboard and soak it all in when former Mr. Olympias
Larry Scott, Samir Bannout and Franco Columbu have
something to say. Because when you get the chance to
hear from three Mr. O winners — guys who have been
victorious on the sport’s ultimate stage after years of trial
and error in the gym and kitchen — it’s time to forget
about what you think you know about bodybuilding.
MMI sat down with three legendary Mr. Olympia champions to discuss the current state of bodybuilding and ask for their insight on how to build a physique for the agesWith Eric Velazquez, NSCA-CPT Photos by Bill Dobbins and Robert Reif
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musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 71
LARRY SCOTT,
MR. OLYMPIA
1965-1966
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72 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
MMI: Dieting today has become so
precise and so complicated. What was
your general approach to nutrition?
Larry: Honestly, dieting today has be-
come too complicated. No one diet will
work for everyone and the truth is, there’s
no one-size-fits-all plan. At contest time,
when it came down to dieting and nutri-
tion, I was constantly watching my ratios.
I’d go 2:1, protein to carbs. I ate in the of-
season the same way I’d eat during con-
test time. Consistent nutrition — not
seasonal — was part of my daily routine. It
didn’t stop just because I wasn’t onstage
competing. I didn’t allow myself to eat
any other way.
MMI: There’s a stark contrast to the
training approach of today’s pros ver-
sus the bodybuilders of your era. What
do you think is the right amount of time
to spend in the gym for max results?
Larry: Great question! I would typically
spend 2–3 hours a day in the gym. This
would help keep my workouts from be-
coming stale. I’m 74 now, and as much as
I’d like to be in the gym all day long, I sim-
ply can’t. Several years ago I came across
the concept of compound intensity,
LARRY SCOTT
The two-time Mr. Olympia ofers a simple formula for making gains.
OLYMPIA TRAINING SEMINARLARRY SCOTT BICEPS
“Something I think people forget is that all muscle groups are important.
Your body works as a whole, so everything to me is a favorite. But even now
at 74, I still find myself looking in the mirror and constantly critiquing my bi-
ceps. To this day, I’m amazed at how well the preacher bench performs.”
EXERCISE SETS REPS
Standing Dumbbell Curl 3 6–12
Standing EZ-Bar Curl 3 6–12
Scott Curl 3 6–12
The winner of the
first two Sandows
in 1965 and 1966,
Larry owns the most
famous biceps in
bodybuilding history.
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which allows me to still obtain great re-
sults in a reduced amount of time. Com-
pound intensity basically states that the
intensity exerted by a muscle is inversely
proportional to the weight of the load
times the square of the time under the
load. I dare anyone who lifts weights to
apply the concept of compound intensity
and tell me it doesn’t work.
MMI: What specific changes did you
make at contest time to get lean?
Larry: My exercises would stay virtually
the same. It wasn’t until I got with Rheo
Blair that I took my training to the next
level. He told me if I wanted to get bigger
and stronger, I needed to use a certain set
of [macronutrient] ratios. If I didn’t want
to gain weight but just wanted to main-
tain, I switched to another set of ratios.
And when I wanted to get really lean with
almost no bodyfat, I changed them again.
This was really important for me because
when it got right down to contest time, I
wanted to get rid of every ounce of fat to
show as much muscle as possible. As pro-
fessional bodybuilders we were extreme-
ly disciplined in our routines, so there
wasn’t much variance between sets, reps
and weight. I enjoyed focusing on what
my competitors weren’t working on.
MMI: What’s the best advice you can
give to today’s generation of body-
builders, both pro and aspiring?
Larry: My best advice? Nutrition, nutri-
tion, nutrition. I can’t stress it enough.
Make sure that your ratios are dead on.
Use instinctive training because no one
size fits all. Use compound intensity to
maximize your results and time in the
gym. Constant change keeps your work-
outs exciting. Bodybuilding requires dis-
cipline, hard work, patience and
determination. Keeping your goals fore-
most in your mind will help you maxi-
mize your results.
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 73
My best advice? Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition. I can’t stress it enough.“
“
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74 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
MMI: What are your thoughts on the
professional bodybuilding physiques
of today?
Samir: To be honest, I don’t like this look
at all. I’m very disappointed. Bodybuild-
ing is not just about how big you are; mass
is not everything. Unfortunately, it has re-
ally taken of. It’s a bit ridiculous. I don’t
like that these guys are eating 8–10 times
a day. Maybe I’m still living in the past,
[but] I look back at Arnold, Pearl, Draper
and Zane; the way those guys looked is
how it should be. They had the tiny waist
and the shredded physique, and I thought
they were more than big enough.
I like Dexter Jackson and his overall
look. I liked Phil Heath three years ago
more than I do now. Having said that, Flex
Lewis won the 212 last year. If he had a lit-
tle more back or chest, I’d say he’s the best
in the world right now. He’s got small an-
kles, small knees, small wrists. I like Shawn
Rhoden; he could get better still but his
whole physique is very nice. I hope he
doesn’t mess it up. If he put on 7–8 pounds,
I’d put my money on him. [But] I wish
bodybuilding would just go back to the art
and [that bodybuilders would] perform
onstage as artists, focusing on detail. And
that potbelly should not exist.
MMI: Dieting today has become so pre-
cise and so complicated. What was your
general approach to nutrition?
Samir: I had an advantage in that I
couldn’t get fat even if I tried. For me it
was easy to get in shape. In general, you
should never go below 250 grams of carbs
per day. When I won the Olympia I was
on 100–150 per day, then 75–100 per day
before the show. That was too low. You
need the glycogen to train as hard as nec-
essary. I was overtraining back then, and
undereating. If I knew then what I know
now, I could’ve won the Olympia again.
In the ofseason I went up to 254
pounds but I looked like a bull. I’d diet
mostly on chicken, which I hate; I felt like
it was poison for my body. Later on I found
out that I have type B blood, and I don’t
think chicken is well-tolerated by people
with my blood type. Bread can also mess
you up because of the gluten. At least for
me, it’s important to avoid bread and flour
at all costs. I was eating chicken, egg
whites, salad, broccoli. Now I eat sweet
potatoes, white potatoes, rice, broccoli.
Meat is important for bodybuilding.
People talk about cholesterol and all this ba-
loney. My grandfather lived to 106, and he
ate red meat and drank 10 cups of cofee a
day! And he died from getting hit by light-
ning … seriously! A good bet is to go with
10% [of calories from] fat from healthy
sources, 55% from carbohydrate and 1 gram
of protein per pound of bodyweight a day.
That’s perfect for today’s bodybuilders.
You’ve got to find a happy medium.
MMI: There’s a stark contrast to the
training approach of today’s pros ver-
sus bodybuilders of your era. What do
you think is the right amount of time to
spend in the gym for max results?
Samir: After trial and error, I think that if
you train each bodypart once per week, it’s
SAMIR BANNOUT
Getting BIG without the BS in your training and nutrition.
I had an advantage in that I couldn’t get fat even if I tried. For me it was easy to get into shape.
“ “Known as The Lion of
Lebanon, Samir won the
1983 Mr. Olympia at a
reported bodyweight
of 195 pounds, and
was revered for his
symmetry and dense
muscularity.
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1 2
OLYMPIA TRAINING SEMINARSAMIR BANNOUT BACK
“I wasn’t a believer in counting reps at all. It was all by feel. In addition to
this workout, I’d do weighted hyperextensions every other week and dead-
lifts every three weeks. When I did either of those, I would train for the
max. I could deadlift 745 for three reps. In general, I’d vary my grip from
set to set on back moves to hit a slightly diferent area of the muscle.”
EXERCISE SETS3 REPS
Pull-Up 41 Varied2
Close-Grip Pulldown (from floor) 3 Varied
Bent-Over Barbell Row 3 8–12
1 On pull-ups, Samir performed two sets with a wide grip and two with a narrower grip. 2 On his first set he’d get 25–30 reps to engage his back muscles, but he didn’t count reps on the fol-
lowing sets. 3 After the workout, Samir performed 30-second static holds at the halfway point of a pull-up.
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 75
enough. It’s all about diet and intensity. It
should take more than 2–3 days [to recov-
er]. If you’re training hard, it’ll take a week
to recuperate. For me, I find it’s efective to
train a bodypart once every five days. I
trained each bodypart twice a week when
I won the O in 1983, and I wasn’t even eat-
ing a lot. Today’s bodybuilders need to re-
alize that, hey … if you don’t want to train
in the final week, don’t. The muscle won’t
disappear; it’s not going anywhere! If your
body needs the rest, just take it.
MMI: What specific changes did you
make at contest time to get lean?
Samir: There were many, many factors.
When I won in 1983, I wasn’t completely
full. Some said I wasn’t even 75% of my
best. Honestly, I agree. If I could go back,
I wouldn’t have cut my sodium until 3–4
days out. Instead I would allow my body
one entire week of rest and just pump up
the day before the show with very light
weight. I’d eat more to make sure I have
enough glycogen in the muscles before
refining. Back then, we spent too much
time over-posing and worrying. Treat it
like there’s no contest. Let your mind re-
lax. Let your body recuperate.
Labrada. Practice the art of bodybuilding.
Hire a guy like Zane to show you how to
be a professional poser. That will separate
the men from the boys. And listen to your
body; don’t deprive it. When it says it’s
tired, rest up. If you’re thirsty, drink. I also
provide this kind of information through
my website, bannoutnutrition.com.
MMI: What’s the best advice you can
give to today’s generation of bodybuild-
ers, both pro and aspiring?
Samir: First of all, don’t overtrain. Train
extremely hard but don’t overtrain. Make
sure you’re able to show the muscle you
worked on. Don’t pose like a bonehead.
Try to copy guys like Frank Zane and Lee
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76 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
MMI: What are your thoughts on the
professional bodybuilding physiques
of today?
Franco Columbu: If you look at the old
photos of me, Arnold, Larry, Sergio Oliva,
you see small waists. We used to measure
them all the time. I could pull mine in to
26–28 inches. At the Olympia today, the
guys are more massive with very thick
muscles, but the stomachs are so big.
Frank Zane was more elegant than
me, very proportional. My goal was
strength. I wanted to be the strongest and
I wanted to look strong. By doing that, I
felt that I was really muscular and my
waist was really small. [Former MMI
publisher] Robert Kennedy had a saying
about muscles that had to do with good
looks; he wanted men and women to look
sexy, not just have thick muscles. When it
comes to bodybuilding, it goes to the bot-
tom line: Do you want to look like that
guy? Yes or no.
MMI: Dieting today has become so pre-
cise and so complicated. What was your
general approach to nutrition?
Franco: My nutrition changed very little
between contest and of-season. Back
then, most of the bodybuilders would
gain [weight] and get up to 250–280
[pounds] two to three months before
[competition], getting as big as possible,
then losing 20 pounds to go compete. On
the other hand Frank, Arnold, Sergio and
I were [at our] heaviest the day before the
competition. We would work to gain as
much muscle as we could all the way up
to the contest and show up ready to win. I
think it’s too much stress to the organs to
go that far overweight, then bring it back
down. I never followed that theory.
MMI: There’s a stark contrast to the
training approach of today’s pros ver-
sus bodybuilders of your era. What do
you think is the right amount of time to
spend in the gym for max results?
Franco: If you train each bodypart once
per week, you’ll never get enough frequen-
cy. We’d usually divide the body into three
workouts: chest-back, shoulders-arms,
thighs-calves. It takes a minimum of 48
hours to restore all the glycogen from a
two-hour workout. I’d train each bodypart
twice per week; for mass, that’s enough.
For definition, maybe three times one
week, then twice the next week.
FRANCO COLUMBU
This Mr. Olympia focused on strength first.
OLYMPIA TRAINING SEMINARFRANCO COLUMBU CHEST
“I always trained to be as strong as possible. For chest, and most other
bodyparts for that matter, I’d just pick the best 3–4 exercises and train hard.
Then afterward I’d go to the mirror and pose. The brain gains more control
over the muscle, so that’s why I felt when I posed I showed the muscles
better than anybody. I got the best results by following this system.”
EXERCISE SETS1 REPS2
Bench Press 7 20, 20, 12, 8, 6, 5, 4
Incline Barbell Press 3–4 12, 10, 6–8, 6–8, 4–6
Dipsuperset withDumbbell Flye
3–4
3–4
15
15
1 Franco increased weight on every set of presses, doing as many reps as he could at each weight. 2 The listed rep ranges are merely suggestive of where he’d reach failure depending on the increases in
load on each set.
“
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If you train each bodypart once per week, you’ll never get enough frequency. I’d train each bodypart twice per week.
“
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 77
MMI: What specific changes did you
make at contest time to get lean?
Franco: A few days before a show, [some-
times] a week to 10 days, I skipped the last
set, which was the heaviest. I would cut
out fruit on certain days because I discov-
ered that it was making me smooth. Fruit
causes slight water retention because of
the sugar.
MMI: What’s the best advice you can
give to today’s generation of bodybuild-
ers, both pro and aspiring?
Franco: The best advice I can give is to
select an intermediate workout that’s
neither too heavy nor has too many exer-
cises. Keep rest periods down. Choose
basic exercises. Select the best 2–3 exer-
cises for each bodypart and work them
hard. Do more free weights than ma-
chines because machines aren’t as ef-
cient for the body.
“
A two-time Olympia
winner who took the
Sandow home in 1976
and 1981, Franco was
known for his focus
and is considered to
be, pound for pound,
one of the strongest
bodybuilders ever.
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Combine the right supplements at the optimal times for muscle gains around the clock
STACKIN’
FOR MASS
By Dwayne N. Jackson, PhD
Illustrations by Mark Collins
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STACKIN’
FOR MASS
In the not-so-distant past,
bodybuilding was considered a
“hit or miss” science, whereby
most successful training pro-
grams and diets were created on
a trial-and-error basis. With the
fitness explosion of the 1990s,
however, there was an influx of
scientific efforts to maximize
athletic performance safely, le-
gally and naturally. As a result,
the supplement industry experi-
enced exponential growth — lit-
erally flooding the market with
new, innovative products. Today,
in a gargantuan supplement
world, there are many science-
backed products designed to
push your muscular potential
and maximize your gains. This
is both a blessing and a curse —
after all, you have a ton of choic-
es, but you also have to sift
through the good, the bad and
the downright useless to come
up with the most effective sup-
plementation regimen. Read on
for a walkthrough of the best
supplement stacks to take at key
markers of the day to amp up
your mass-and strength-build-
ing efforts. (Editor’s note: This
schedule assumes your training
occurs in the afternoon and be-
fore dinner. Make adjustments as
necessary, according to your
training time.)
There was an influx of scientific eforts to maximize athletic performance safely, legally and naturally.
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WAKE AND SHAKE
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 81
Your body is starving for nutrients
when you roll out of bed, especially your
recovering muscles. After a 7–10-hour
fast, you need some fast-absorbing nu-
trition. Here’s a stack that’ll surely shut
down catabolism (i.e., muscle wasting)
and get your body refueled for growth.
1 Weight Gainer
When you’re trying to gain lean mass,
you need to pack in as many beneficial
calories as possible — weight gainers
provide 500–1,000 supplemental calo-
ries, depending on serving size. The prod-
uct you choose should be composed
mainly of high-quality proteins like whey
protein isolate (WPI) and micellar ca-
sein. Ideal weight-gain products are high
in protein (50–60 grams per serving)
and carbohydrates with a modest amount
of fat. Because the goal is to gain lean
mass and minimize fat accumulation, steer
clear of products with more than 50%
fast-digesting carbohydrates (e.g., simple
sugars like high-fructose corn syrup or
sucrose) and more than 5 grams of satu-
rated fat per serving.
›› Drink one shake immediately upon
waking (i.e., about 30 minutes to an
hour before breakfast).
2 Creatine Monohydrate
No other mass-building supplement
works as well as creatine. Research il-
lustrates that creatine is a potent cell
volumizer that increases muscle water
content and glycogen resynthesis (sig-
nals for anabolism). Creatine also boosts
muscle creatine levels for short-term en-
ergy and bolsters anabolic signaling through
insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1).
›› Mix 5 grams of creatine monohy-
drate into your shake. Use the German or
American pharmaceutical grade to
avoid gastrointestinal distress. Most
weight-gain formulas already contain
small amounts of creatine. The addi-
tion will ensure adequate dosing for
faster muscle gains.
3 Branched-Chain Amino
Acids (BCAAs)
The BCAAs (leucine, valine, isoleucine)
are unique essential amino acids that
share a branched-chain structure and
are preferentially taken up by skeletal
muscle and broken down during exer-
cise. New research illustrates that BCAA
ingestion directly stimulates anabolism
by acting as an “anabolic switch.” In addi-
tion, this supplement trio is anticatabolic,
reduces exercise-induced muscle pain
and decreases mental fatigue during
intense exercise.
›› Mix 5–10 grams of BCAA powder
into your weight-gainer shake.
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As you’re planning out your overall nu-
trition and supplement regimens, re-
member whole foods should make up
the majority of what you fuel your
body with. Supplements are just that —
products made to supplement (not re-
place) a quality diet. Assuming your diet
is in check, there are a few key products
that absorb more completely when tak-
en with a meal to give your breakfast an
extra anabolic kick.
1 Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs)
This group of fatty acids can’t be
synthesized by the body and therefore
must be taken in through diet. There are
two families of EFAs: omega-3 (alpha-lino-
lenic acid) and omega-6 (linoleic acid). In
terms of mass building, these “healthy fats”
promote growth hormone secretion, in-
crease protein synthesis and increase in-
sulin sensitivity.
›› Take 2–3 grams of a balanced ome-
ga fatty-acid blend with breakfast.
2 Multivitamin
Micronutrients are essential for
proper cellular function and nutrient ab-
sorption. Many a bodybuilder’s diet has
been known to contain very little variety,
so a daily multivitamin will ensure you’re
not lacking certain micronutrients. Fur-
thermore, vitamins act as catalysts for
many important internal processes; heavy
training boosts metabolism, therefore mak-
ing the vitamin requirement needed to
catalyze cellular reaction go up.
›› Use a multivitamin formulated for
athletes; take as directed on label.
3 Tribulus Terrestris
Tribulus terrestris is a flowering plant
that contains natural steroidal compounds
called saponins. When ingested, these
saponins tell the brain to pump out lu-
teinizing hormone (LH), which signals
the testes to make more testosterone.
Research has shown that a saponin called
protodioscin has the greatest efect on
increased LH production and testoster-
one release. Therefore, you must use
high-quality products standardized to
contain at least 80% total saponins and
40% protodioscin.
›› Take 500–750 milligrams with
breakfast on training days.
4 L-Carnitine L-Tartrate (LCLT)
LCLT is a stable form of L-carni-
tine and is completely absorbed by the
body. Recent research has demonstrated
that LCLT supplementation upregulates
the skeletal androgen receptor (the re-
ceptors that testosterone binds to) expres-
sion and increases LH secretion. The end
result is greater testosterone and recep-
tors for interaction. LCLT also reduces ex-
ercise-induced muscle tissue damage.
›› Take 2 grams of LCLT with breakfast.
5 Beta-Alanine
A naturally occurring beta amino
acid, beta-alanine is the rate-limiting
precursor to the production of carnosine
in the body. Research has shown that
powerful fast-twitch muscle fibers have
higher levels of carnosine, and it bufers
skeletal muscle pH. In a recent study,
dietary supplementation with beta-ala-
nine for 2–4 weeks was shown to increase
BREAKFASTSTACK
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JUMP-START
RECOVERY WITH AN INTRA-WORKOUT SNACKThe post-workout meal is generally
considered the most important of the
day for the bodybuilder, but now sup-
plement companies are eyeing a new
opportunity: intra-workout nutrition
that can begin even before you finish
your last set. (Theoretically this is es-
pecially plausible for bodybuilders
who train bodyparts sequentially, and
nutrients can start working for one
area after it’s been trained while
you’re still training the smaller muscle
groups in your workout.) According to
MuscleMag writer Scott Stevenson,
PhD, LaC, “Science has demonstrated
that a pre- and/or intra-workout re-
covery supplement with both protein
and carbohydrates can mean better
maintenance and promote faster re-
covery in muscle glycogen stores
[stored sugar], less muscle damage
and strength loss, improved protein
turnover (more synthesis and/or less
breakdown) during and after exercise,
less catabolic cortisol and more anti-
catabolic insulin levels, and in the long
haul, greater gains in muscle mass.”
Moreover, research suggests that
the mid-workout protein and carb
combo elevated protein synthesis to a
greater degree than a drink taken im-
mediately post-workout. As Stevenson
says: “The research is fairly clear:
While protein metabolism is elevated
for days after resistance exercise, the
time for most dramatically afecting
muscle growth nutritionally is just be-
fore and during the exercise itself.”
As for what to consume and how
much, a whey-based supplement high
in leucine helps trigger protein syn-
thesis. For rapid absorption we rec-
ommend 25 grams of whey hydroly-
sate, which means the whey has been
broken down into low molecular
weight fractions that are more easily
transported into the bloodstream,
thus resulting in a rapid increase in
blood levels of branched-chain amino
acids. Carb intake should be in the
form of glucose, sucrose (table sugar)
or maltodextrin, and can vary from 0
grams for the dieting bodybuilder to
100 grams for the mass-gainer.
vastus lateralis carnosine concentration
by more than 60%. In terms of perfor-
mance, science has shown that beta-ala-
nine supplementation for as few as four
weeks can result in 13% greater gains in
total work completed during training with
no change noted among the control group.
›› On nontraining days take 2 grams
with breakfast.
A few hours after breakfast and about
one hour before lunch think about giv-
ing your body a calorie boost. This is an
ideal opportunity to help load up with
nutrients for a busy day.
1 Weight Gainer
›› Drink one 500-calorie weight-
gain shake 1–2 hours before your
high-protein lunch.
Since we’ve assumed lunch comes be-
fore your workout in this supplement
schedule, you should be consuming a
well-balanced, high-protein whole-food
meal that meets your nutritional needs.
PRE-LUNCHMUNCH
LUNCH
Ph
oto
by R
ob
ert
Reif
Mo
del D
ere
k D
uszyn
ski
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When training for mass, you want to be
sure the body’s cellular environment is
primed for performance. To achieve this
state, there are a number of supplements
designed to feed your muscles and min-
imize catabolism throughout the train-
ing session. The following preworkout
stack is designed to optimize energy
and muscle performance while blunt-
ing muscle breakdown during training.
1 L-Glutamine
This is the most abundant nones-
sential amino acid in the body, and years
of research have uncovered its several
direct and indirect performance-boost-
ing benefits. Glutamine supplementation
has been shown to enhance cell volu-
mization and serve as a potent anticata-
bolic factor and muscle-building aid dur-
ing heavy training. Its major efects on
muscular growth result from the fact
that glutamine increases leucine concen-
tration and maintains positive nitrogen
balance in skeletal muscle. Further mus-
cle-building support comes from glu-
tamine’s ability to boost growth-hor-
mone and steroid production. Finally,
through augmenting bicarbonate pro-
duction, glutamine significantly increas-
es skeletal-muscle-bufering capacity, thus
delaying muscular fatigue during exercise.
›› Ingest 5 grams of pharmaceutical-
grade L-glutamine one hour before
training on an empty stomach.
2L-Arginine
In the body, this conditionally es-
sential amino acid’s primary role is in
nitric oxide (NO) production. Thus, ar-
ginine supplementation elevates skel-
etal muscle blood flow, especially dur-
ing your workout. The end results are
more efcient delivery of nutrients and
complete metabolite clearing in work-
ing muscles, enabling you to work out
longer and harder. After exercise and
during rest, the augmented blood flow
to trained muscles continues to enhance
nutrient delivery and flushes out byprod-
ucts to optimize recovery.
L-arginine also increases anabolic
substrates like growth hormone and in-
sulin. With long-term supplementation,
L-arginine ingestion upregulates mito-
chondria (the cellular energy “power-
houses”) in skeletal muscle, resulting in
heightened metabolism and greater ca-
pacity to use energy for contraction. In ad-
dition, extended use has been shown to in-
crease the growth of blood vessels in
skeletal muscle and the heart, resulting
in an even greater capacity to deliver
nutrients and remove metabolites during
and after your workouts.
›› Ingest 5 grams of pharmaceutical-
grade L-arginine, one hour before
training, on an empty stomach.
3 Tribulus Terrestris
›› Take 500–750 milligrams
about 30–60 minutes before training.
4 Beta-Alanine
This preworkout dose is intended
to ensure substrates for carnosine pro-
duction are maximized for the upcom-
ing training session.
›› Take 2 grams of beta-alanine 30–
60 minutes before training.
5 Whey Protein
Isolate (WPI)
Whey protein isolate is the best source
of protein to ingest before training. It di-
gests rapidly and completely, filling
your blood with amino acids, including
BCAAs and other essential aminos. Sci-
ence has shown it’s the hyperaminoaci-
demia that gives WPI its great anabolic
properties. WPI also provides the body
with additional mass-building support,
as research indicates WPI ingestion up-
regulates glutathione (a powerful anti-
oxidant) production because of its large
fraction of the amino acid cysteine.
›› Consume a shake with 25–40 grams
high-quality, cross-flow microfiltered
WPI 30 minutes before training.
6 Beta-Hydroxy-Beta-
Methylbutyrate (HMB)
This metabolite of leucine has been
scientifically proven to prevent muscle
breakdown, increase strength and pro-
mote fat loss. The anticatabolic efect of
HMB is more pronounced in beginners
than intermediate or advanced body-
builders, but HMB is a potent strength-
and recovery-boosting supplement for
all levels of trainers.
›› To maximize strength, take 3–6 grams
with your preworkout protein shake.
PRE-WORKOUT
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In terms of mass building, scientific data
suggests proper post-workout nutrition
and supplementation are vital because
cells are depleted of nutrients and can
quickly slip into a state of catabolism. This
period is termed the “anabolic window”
and represents an approximate two-hour
time frame when the body is hypersen-
sitive to any nutrient intake. The fol-
lowing stack has been designed to capi-
talize on the anabolic window by aug-
menting anabolic hormones, replacing
amino acids and maximizing recovery.
1Creatine Monohydrate
This dose of creatine is vital to restore
the creatine pool in your muscle. It’ll
also fire up key anabolic pathways for a
more complete and faster recovery.
›› Ingest 5 grams of creatine mono-
hydrate immediately after training.
2 L-Carnitine L-Tartrate
(LCLT)
Research shows that ingesting a 2-gram
dose of LCLT immediately after train-
ing will augment LH responses and
increase androgen (testosterone) recep-
tor expression in skeletal muscle.
3 L-Glutamine
Taken post-workout, L-glutamine
is a proven agent for blunting catabo-
lism. Research shows that ingestion of
L-glutamine immediately after exercise
enhances recovery and muscle growth.
›› Take 5 grams of L-glutamine im-
mediately after training.
4 Beta-Hydroxy-Beta-
Methylbutyrate (HMB)
Scientific data suggests that HMB sup-
plementation post-exercise augments
the recovery process. The outcome is
more strength and size in a shorter pe-
riod of time. As well, among novices,
HMB will significantly blunt the cata-
bolic response.
›› Take 3–6 grams of HMB immedi-
ately after training.
5 Whey Protein
Hydrolysate (WPH)
Whey protein hydrolysate is made from
WPI by enzymatic degradation (hydro-
lysis). Essentially, manufacturers use
special enzymes to predigest the pro-
teins in WPI. The end product is digest-
ed high in the gastrointestinal tract and
enters the blood almost immediately upon
ingestion. WPH is the fastest-digesting
protein source, and studies illustrate that
the faster amino acids enter the blood
after exercise, the greater the anabolic re-
sponse. The rapid digestion of WPH also
loads water into muscle cells (cell volu-
mizing), speeds recovery, drives anabo-
lism and supports immune function. The
drawback is that WPH is costly to manu-
facture and thus is relatively expensive.
›› Consume a shake with 25–30 grams
of high-quality WPH immediately af-
ter your workout.
6 Dextrose
This D-form of glucose is a small
monosaccharide and one of the sim-
plest sugars. It’s digested high in the
gastrointestinal tract (beginning in the
mouth) and is very high on the glycemic
index. The rapid absorption rate of
dextrose makes it an ideal post-training
carbohydrate supplement that enters
the blood immediately to cause a great
spike in blood insulin and drive sugars
into depleted muscles. In addition, insu-
lin is very anabolic, so combined with high
amounts of protein, dextrose serves as a
mass-building agent.
›› Mix 25–50 grams of dextrose into
your WPH shake and drink immedi-
ately after training.
POST-WORKOUT
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When you begin undertaking a bodybuilding program, your body responds quickly, so you need to create an environment that’s
conducive to growth. Consuming the most critical raw materials will help ensure that your body remains in an anabolic state
throughout the day. Here are four that should be on every beginner’s list.
MORNING PREWORKOUT POST-WORKOUT BEDTIME
Whey Protein Isolate 30 grams 30 grams 30 grams 30 grams
Creatine 2–5 grams 2–5 grams
Glutamine 2–5 grams 2–5 grams 2–5 grams 2–5 grams
Multivitamin As per label directions
BASIC BEGINNER’S MASS-GAIN STACK
Since we’ve assumed that dinner follows
your workout in this supplement sched-
ule, it’s imperative you consume a large,
well-balanced, high-protein dinner.
1 Essential Fatty Acids
›› Take 2–3 grams of balanced
EFAs with dinner.
The day is done and it’s time for some
high-quality rest and recovery. Since
you’ll be fasting for the next 7–10 hours,
it’s crucial you give your body the ap-
propriate nutrition before hitting the
hay. Here’s a stack that’ll feed your mus-
cles and help prevent catabolism while
you sleep.
1 Micellar Casein
This is the purest casein protein avail-
able, and its unique properties make it
seem like a custom food supplement de-
signed specifically for sleeping bodybuild-
ers. Its slow digestion results in a sus-
tained release of amino acids into the
blood, which produces anticatabolic
efects in the body. In fact, research has
shown that ingestion of micellar casein
inhibits muscle breakdown by over 30%.
Additional data illustrates that casein
ingestion produces a seven-hour sus-
tained plateau in blood amino acid levels
and that it ofers the best muscle nitrogen
retention and utilization needed for
substantial mass gains.
DINNER
BEDTIME
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Optimizing muscle anabolism means eating a clean, protein-rich diet and combining supplements that meet your metabolic
needs depending on the time of day. Here’s an overview of how you can jump-start your natural muscle-building engines with
supplements. Note: This schedule assumes you train in the late afternoon and before dinner.
WAKE AND
SHAKEBREAKFAST STACK
PRE-LUNCH
MUNCH
PRE-
WORKOUT
MID-
WORKOUT
POST-
WORKOUTDINNER BEDTIME
Weight Gainer 50–60 g protein
50–60 g protein
Creatine Monohydrate 5 g 5 g 5 g
Branched-Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs)
5–10 g
Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) 2–3 g 2–3 g
Multivitamin As directed on label
Tribulus terrestris 500–750 mg 500–750 mg
L-Carnitine L-Tartrate (LCLT) 2 g 2 g
Beta-Alanine 2 g 2 g
L-Glutamine 5 g 5 g
L-Arginine 5 g
Whey Protein Isolate 25–40 g
Beta-Hydroxy-Beta- Methylbutyrate (HMB)
3–6 g 3–6 g
Whey Protein Hydrolysate (WPH) 25 g 25–30 g
Dextrose 25 g 25–30 g
Micellar Casein 30–50 g
Vitamin B-6 11 mg
ZMA 450 mg magnesium, 30 mg zinc
SUPPLEMENTAL MASS — THE CHECKLIST
›› Immediately before bed,
drink a shake with 30–50 grams
of high-quality micellar casein.
2 Zinc Monomethionine
Aspartate and Mag-
nesium Aspartate (ZMA)
ZMA is an acronym for zinc
monomethionine aspartate and
magnesium aspartate, a proprie-
tary zinc supplement reported to
increase growth hormone and tes-
tosterone levels when taken before
bed. A bonus side efect of ZMA
supplementation is that users have
reported falling asleep more quick-
ly and deeply. In a recent study, it
was found that subjects who took
ZMA during eight weeks of train-
ing had 250% greater strength
gains than the placebo group. The ZMA
group also had a 20% greater increase in
testosterone levels as well as over 20%
greater insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-
1) levels compared to the placebo group.
›› ZMA supplements are formulated
in the following ratio: 11 milligrams vi-
tamin B-6, 450 milligrams magnesium,
30 milligrams zinc. For optimal results
you should try taking this supplement
on an empty stomach approximately
30 minutes before drinking your mi-
cellar casein shake before bed.
Dwayne N. Jackson, PhD, is a professor and scientist in medical biophysics at one of Canada’s top medical schools, the University of Western Ontario. He has over 12 years of university education in physiology and has attended the University of Ottawa, the University of Western Ontario and the Yale School of Medicine. He also has over 20 years of competitive and recreational bodybuilding experience and is an expert in the areas of performance nutrition and supplementation.
© S
hu
ttersto
ck
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 87
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Maintaining strict form will help you build muscle, but there are times when
loosening your exercise execution can help you boost the intensity of your
workout and reap even greater gains. The key is knowing how to cheat right.
By Rob Rinaldi, MA
88 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
RIC
H B
AK
ER
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musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 89
JA
SO
N M
AT
HA
S
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90 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
“Use strict form on every set.” You read these words on this magazine’s
pages so many times that you likely just
gloss over them. Yet you look around the
gym and bodybuilders of all levels are
bouncing bars of their chest, throwing
their hips forward to generate momen-
tum or otherwise leaning into a move for
biomechanical advantage. It seems like
no one’s using what you’d consider to be
decent, let alone good, form.
When your exercise execution strays
from textbook form, it’s called cheating.
And perhaps as with the IRS, but hope-
fully not with your wife or girlfriend, ev-
eryone does it. Even top bodybuilders get
a little sloppy from time to time. In the
context of bodybuilding, cheating is the
application of a high-intensity training
technique that allows you to take a set
past failure and boost muscle growth.
The danger inherent in cheating that’s
not present in other advanced training
techniques is the increased risk of injury
associated with poor exercise form.
Cheat ing means other muscle groups are
involved at the expense of proper exer-
cise execution, so the brunt of the force
can unintentionally fall on a vulnerable
joint or connective tissue. What’s impor-
tant is to know when and how to cheat,
because while you should indeed com-
plete each and every repetition with
proper technique, it would be a mistake
to think there’s not a time and a place to
loosen up your form.
HOW TO CHEATPhysical therapist and amateur body-
builder Guillermo Escalante, DSc, ATC,
CSCS, PTA, who runs SportsPros Inc., an
athletic- and personal-training business
in Claremont, California, describes cheat-
ing as a method employed by bodybuild-
ers using momentum or “bad form” as a
way to lift the weight. “But used properly,
1) Start with a good
warm-up before
using cheating motions
because of the higher
risk of injury to muscle,
joints and connective
tissue. Always include
several lightweight sets
of the given move in your
warm-up as well.
2) Be an expert on
good form. If you
don’t know the diference
between good form and
poor exercise technique,
you won’t be able to
apply cheating as an
advanced technique.
Read bodybuilding
books or magazines like
MuscleMag, or hire a
certified personal trainer.
3) Don’t cheat on
every set. Do it on
your last 1–2 sets of an
exercise to get a few
extra reps.
The Cheat Sheet Here are 12 important
considerations for experienced bodybuilders who
want to implement cheating in their exercise form.
4) Because
momentum is
most easily generated
through your legs, it’s far
more common to see
cheating motions with
standing exercises than
seated ones.
5) Cheating is also
more commonly
done with free-weight
moves rather than with
machines, which general-
ly lock you into a prede-
termined biomechanical
pathway. On the flipside,
it’s far easier to exceed
your range of motion
with a heavy free weight,
which can put a joint in a
vulnerable position.
6) Use cheating
infrequently
during your workout.
Doing other advanced-
training techniques can
work the target muscle
group in diferent ways
to help break through
training plateaus and
sticking points.
7) Know which
exercises are best
— and worst — to cheat
on. Some exercises put
your spinal column and
rotator cufs at risk, and
they’re especially bad
choices to cheat on. With
others you need to be
very careful.
8) Cheat just enough
to get a weight
past its sticking point,
then allow the target
bodypart to take over
again so that it gets
maximally worked.
9) Cheating should
be an intentional
approach, not something
that just happens be-
cause you put too much
weight on the bar or are
unfamiliar with a given
exercise’s proper execu-
tion. Use a challenging
weight but not one be-
yond your abilities.
10) Cheat only
when your
energy level is high,
toward the beginning of
your workout. If you’re
fatigued, mentally or
physically, it’s easier to
get sloppy and thus
increase your risk of
injury.
11) Keep strict form
on your heaviest
sets. Bad form in
combination with heavy
weight significantly
boosts your risk of
training injury. Use
cheating motions for
moderate-weight sets
when your muscles and
joints aren’t under such
extreme stress.
12) Cheating isn’t
recommended if
you have a pre-existing
injury, especially if the
added stress is generated
at the damaged joint or
muscle that’s assisting.
If you’ve got a herniated
disk, rotator-cuf injury
or knee trouble, you’ll
want to limit stress that’s
increased when cheating
moves are added.
Cheat to Win in the Gym
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musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 91
cheating is a premeditated and intention-
al movement rather than simply bad
form. Some bodybuilders may use poor
form unintentionally because they don’t
know how to correctly do a given move-
ment and therefore don’t know how to
properly isolate the target muscle.”
What’s certain is that using bad form
increases an individual’s risk of training
injury to muscles, tendons and/or joints.
But Escalante doesn’t condemn cheating
outright, saying instead that applied cor-
rectly, it can boost muscle gains.
“Knowledge is critical here, and
cheating should be used only by body-
builders who are experienced and really
know the diference between good and
bad form. They can apply cheating as a
technique to push past muscle failure. In
that sense it’s just another method to
shock your body in a manner diferent
than what it’s accustomed to, allowing
you to complete more reps with a given
weight or use a heavier weight than you
might normally be able to handle. The
downside is that it can lead to injury if
done improperly or even too frequently.
Therefore, it’s an approach that should
be reserved for every once in a while
rather than on a workout-to-workout ba-
sis. From my experience, beginners rare-
ly know the diference between decent
and perfect exercise form, and they gen-
erally make good gains in strength and
size from more traditional means, so it’s
not recommended for them to cheat.”
What’s the most common way to gen-
erate momentum? A slight thrust of the
hips and bounce in the knees. Essentially
it allows you to do an extra rep or two
when you hit a sticking point. Instead of
ending your set, you use additional mus-
cles that aren’t directly involved in the
execution of the lift to help you work past
the point of muscle failure. You can cheat
on just about any exercise, but one of the
most common is the standing barbell
curl. While strict exercise form enlists
only the biceps, when you hit muscle fail-
ure with a given weight you can continue
the set by using your back (leaning back-
ward) or legs (bending and extending at
the knees and hips) to overcome the
sticking point and help you lift the weight.
While additional muscle groups are
called into play and the biceps aren’t
working as hard as when doing strict
curls, they’re still highly involved, as long
as you keep the cheat move to a mini-
mum. The other involved muscle groups
merely work to make up the diference
between the remaining strength of your
fatigued arms and the force necessary to
overcome the sticking point.
Escalante argues that the key to cheat-
ing correctly is to use this strategy at the
end of your set, not the beginning. “Body-
builders who are cheating on their first rep
are simply going too heavy,” he says. “It’s
only after you take the target muscle to
failure by completing 6–8 reps on your
own with strict form should you begin to
add momentum or a little body english.
Then it should be just enough to keep the
weight moving. Good form is still impor-
tant, but adding a little extra momentum
or assistance from other muscle groups
would be considered an acceptable form
of cheating that won’t cause undue harm.”
Therefore, a set includes both perfect
reps and cheat reps, the latter added at LA
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The Cheat List Some exercises are better than others when it comes to cheating (see
“Okay to Cheat,” “Cheat with Caution” and “Just Say No to Cheating”).
Essentially, the heavier you go the more dangerous it becomes when
using bad form, and any time your spine is in a vulnerable position, the
more risky it is to break form. Remember, you want to do 6–8 reps on
your own with strict form before adding cheat reps; if you can’t do even
one rep with good form, any exercise is dangerous. Only more advanced
bodybuilders who know the diference between good and bad technique
should incorporate a few cheat reps. The cheating motion should be
intentional — not accidental — and should be distributed as best as
possible over several areas.
Lateral RaiseVery few trainers do this move cor-
rectly in the gym, and the most
common problem results from go-
ing too heavy. The outcome is com-
promised form, including a slight
extension of the hips and knees to
generate momentum. (Try this
move from a seated position if you
want to see what it’s like to reduce
body english.)
Alternating Dumbbell CurlWhen you do these alternating
sides, whether seated or standing,
leaning into your working-side arm
actually helps you get just a little
more body into the move to assist
with the lift.
Calf RaiseAfter the reps get difcult, a little
bounce out the hole helps you
overcome the sticking point. On
straight-legged calf raises, don’t
lock out your knees.
Hanging Leg RaiseIf you use a bit of body swing at the
end of your set, you can do a cou-
ple of extra reps past muscle failure.
If you swing right from the start,
very little work is ultimately done
by the lower abs.
Seated Cable RowYou should be keeping your torso
in an upright position, just very
slightly extending back as you pull,
and leaning only slightly forward
during the release. Greater degrees
of lean recruit the low-back mus-
cles to help generate momentum.
Just don’t round your back.
Okay To CheatThese exercises are generally safe to cheat with, as long as your
form breaks are in accordance with the suggestions listed and
you’re not maxing out.
the end. “Because cheat reps require you
to start your set with textbook technique,
the bodybuilder must know the difer-
ence between good and bad exercise
form. That kind of knowledge takes a
bodybuilder a good couple of years to
learn.” Escalante warns that anyone who
doesn’t know good form versus poor ex-
ercise form should probably refrain from
using cheating techniques.
Of interest to advanced bodybuilders
is the addition of the “cheat” at the end of
a set, which allows you to train past mus-
cle failure when the alternative is to put
the weight down and end the set. In that
sense, it increases the overall intensity.
Compare that with an individual who
uses bad form from the very first rep.
Here, the bodybuilder is actually making
the set easier (as he can’t even complete
one rep with good form and must resort
to recruiting additional muscle groups),
not harder.
What’s more, there are any number of
ways to add body english to keep the
weight moving through the sticking
point, and it takes a knowledgeable body-
builder to know what’s acceptable and
how much. For ex ample, in the standing
barbell curl the cheat can be any combi-
nation of a slight knee bend and/or hip
thrust and/or lower-back extension. In
addition, you can bring your elbows for-
ward from their position by the sides of
your torso to recruit the front delts.
Moreover, speeding up the rep can also
help you overcome a sticking point. Com-
bining any and all of these strategies will
help you take a working set of barbell
curls past muscle failure.
Some of those suggestions are more
risky than others. Overarching your back
can strain your spine, while a slight
bounce in the knees may be less chancy.
Escalante recommends using several in
conjunction to better distribute the force.
Of course, each and every successive rep
re quires a little more assistance, so the
amount of stress continues to increase.
Therefore, keep your cheat reps to just a
few because the more you do at the end of
a set, the greater your risk of injury.
Cheat to Win in the Gym
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SquatThis is a highly technical
lift that engages a number
of muscle groups. Your
low back is at risk if you
can’t hold your body up-
right. While just about
every bodybuilder has
bounced a few times out
of the bottom, doing so is
not good for your knees.
DeadliftAnother highly technical
lift with heavy force on the
low back. Add heavy
weights to the mix and
you’d better be using great
form on each and every
rep. Avoid training to fail-
ure with this exercise.
Stif-Leg DeadliftDuring this exercise there’s
actually a slight rounding
of your lower back at the
bottom position, which
means you’re highly vul-
nerable to injury. Its cousin,
the romanian deadlift, re-
quires a flat back through-
out. Don’t ever make the
common mistake of
bouncing the bar of the
floor. Only in conventional
deadlifts should the bar
touch the floor.
ShrugThis may come as a sur-
prise, but the tendency
here is to put your head
down when using heavy
weights, which disrupts
spinal alignment. Have
you ever had a herniated
disk in your neck from
heavy shrugs, which then
basically interrupts the
nerve signal to an entire
side of your body — for al-
most a year? It happened
to me, and it’s a total di-
saster for a bodybuilder.
Behind-the-Neck Shoulder PressWith a heavy bar behind
your head, your shoulders
are already in a highly
vulnerable spot. If you
bounce or otherwise get
sloppy with form, you can
damage the rotator cufs.
Standing Barbell CurlThe danger is to your low
back from generating mo-
mentum through your
hips and leaning back-
ward. You can also use a
little knee bounce and
bring your elbows forward
at the top to get an assist
from your front delts.
Bench PressArching your back and
lifting your hips of the
bench turns this exercise
into a decline movement
in which most bodybuild-
ers are stronger. A little
bounce of the chest may
also help.
Flat-Bench Dumbbell PressProbably a bit more risky
than the barbell version,
as you can’t readily
bounce the bar of your
chest; instead, a bouncing
motion will be absorbed
in the shoulder joints and
rotator cufs.
Good MorningAny lower-back move,
this one in particular, puts
stress on the muscles pro-
tecting your lower spine.
Don’t cheat on moves that
target your lower back.
Keep your back flat —
don’t let it round.
Bent-Over Barbell RowSimilar to the bent-over
lateral raise (also a moder-
ate risk) you’re required to
hold your body in a bent-
over position. Most body-
builders typically use their
lower backs to assist in
the move (and hence they
rise); the danger is in
rounding the back when
you become fatigued.
Just Say No to CheatingHere are the five worst ofenders, exercises in
which losing good form can compromise either
the disks in your spine or your rotator cufs.
Use textbook form at all times. To boost the in-
tensity of your training and work past muscle
failure, instead of cheating try another ad-
vanced technique.
Cheat With CautionRestrict cheating motions to the end of your
set as long as you’re not doing extremely heavy
weights; go strict on those sets.
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Eating clean makes a bodybuilder start craving the wrong kinds of foods,
especially those loaded with sugar and fats. MMI explains which cheat
strategies will help boost your gains — and which will bust your gut.
By Team MuscleMag
Illustrations by Larry McCusker
94 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
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Here’s the good news from the bodybuilding nutrition trench-
es: You can eat any food you want without
blowing your diet. Here’s the bad news:
You can’t eat every food you want, and it’s
crucial that you limit how much you con-
sume when you do decide to cheat.
Cheating, as you know, can really de-
rail your nutrition program. An all-day
binge on pizza, hamburgers, ice cream,
cakes and pastries can practically ruin
months of hard work and soften up a
rock-hard bod. Not to mention one cheat
day can lead to another one, and so on.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither
was your physique, but it sure can be de-
stroyed just that fast.
There’s plenty of bad news for the
bodybuilders, but there’s also an upside to
cheating: Sometimes it can actually en-
hance your gains. For instance, you can
consume fats and sugar at certain times of
the day to provide benefits to your body
during most of your bodybuilding season.
The key is to know what types of cheat
foods are beneficial, what types are neu-
tral and what types are detrimental to
your physique goals.
Many bodybuilders tout the idea of
following a bodybuilding diet year-round.
But that protocol may not be the best op-
tion for young bodybuilders, especially
those who have trouble growing. A mod-
erate amount of cheating, which we’ll de-
fine as occasional straying of a clean,
high-protein, high-complex carbohy-
drate diet — accompanied by an other-
wise solid bodybuilding nutrition (and
training!) program — can help provide
your body with necessary calories and
nutrients including saturated fats and
sugars, which are beneficial for growth
when consumed appropriately. That’s
right, even some of those foods you swore
to stay away from can be favorable when
consumed appropriately.
Of course, cheating is a double-edged
sword: If you cheat too much, you’ll gain
excess bodyfat; if you don’t cheat enough,
you’ll get ripped, but you won’t be able to
maximize your muscle growth. Learning
how to strike a balance is the No. 1 key to
success. MuscleMag spoke with IFBB
pros Troy Brown and Mike Van Wyck to
get their expert insights on how best to
use non-bodybuilding foods in a positive
way to accomplish your overall goals.
With your nutritional succes s in mind,
here is the MuscleMag sheet on the seven
best ways to cheat.
Cheat to Win on Your Diet
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CHEAT RULE 1
Build your diet around foods you like that serve you well.One of the ways to reduce your desire to
cheat is to satisfy yourself with foods that are
in your diet regimen. When you’re on a well-
regimented plan, slow-digesting carb foods
such as yams can taste quite sweet, helping
to satisfy your cravings for sugary foods.
Salmon and other fatty fish have an oily tex-
ture, which helps decrease your desire for
unhealthy, deep-fried foods.
Do you love chicken breast? Great — eat it
as many days a week as you want in the ofsea-
son or when you’re preparing for a show. Or
do you find chicken dry and flavorless? If so,
you’re probably not inclined to consume as
much of it as you should at any given meal in
the ofseason to provide sustained muscle
growth. A better strategy for you may be to eat
cuts of beef that are slightly fattier than chick-
en breast. You will consume more protein as
well as a few more calories, but gravitating to-
ward beef will probably help you add more
muscle mass in the long run.
Toronto bodybuilder Mike Van Wyck of-
fers this example: “I don’t like sweet potatoes
so I don’t eat them in the ofseason. I eat them
only when I’m getting ready for a show be-
cause they’re such a great bodybuilding food.
But I love rice, so I pound it in the ofseason.”
To keep growing, you should emphasize the
foods you like best that will help you reach
your goals.
CHEAT RULE 2
Don’t overcheat in the offseason.The flipside to overdieting is to overconsume
cheat foods in the ofseason, believing the
more bodyweight you add the more muscle
mass you’ll gain. Beyond a certain threshold,
this is false. Once you have reached a point at
which you’re slowly adding bodyfat, you’ve
almost guaranteed that you’re taking in
enough calories to maximize muscle gains.
Excess calories will only make you fatter,
making it harder to lose bodyfat when you do
want to get in shape to show of all your hard
work in the gym. When you adopt this over-
eating ofseason strategy, you’re much more
likely to win the title of Biggest Loser rather
than Mr. Olympia. “Remember, you have to
burn those extra calories of to get in shape for
a competition or for the summer season,
which means extra cardio,” former British
champion Troy Brown says. “Be wise in your
choice of cheat meals, and don’t go overboard
with the eating, even in the ofseason.”
Mike agrees that moderation with cheat-
ing is one of the big keys to success. “I don’t
go over the top and eat everything I want,
but I don’t follow the strictest plan in the of-
season because I need a lot of calories to
keep growing. I also do cardio year round,
and I work out pretty damn hard.”
CHEAT RULE 3
Cheat to help get in all the nutrients you need to maximize growth.Too many bodybuilders over-regiment their
nutrition program. Guess what happens in
many cases? These bodybuilders end up de-
pleting their muscles, providing too few calo-
ries and nutrition to support growth. “I train
a lot of hardgainers who are trying to put on
weight,” Mike says. “I tell them to order dou-
ble the food they think they want. The prob-
lem these guys have is that they’re just not
getting in enough calories to grow.”
You see, bodybuilders must surpass a
threshold of many diferent nutrients to
maximize their muscle gains. You need a cer-
tain amount of protein and a certain amount
of vitamins and minerals (supplied through
nutrient-dense foods from categories such as
fruits, vegetables and numerous others). But
bodybuilders also need a minimal threshold
of calories just to hold their ground. Without
consuming the appropriate total calories on a
daily basis, you simply won’t grow.
Once you’ve included all the protein your
body can use for growth (at least 1 gram per
pound each day), consuming more protein
won’t really help boost muscle growth any
further if you’re still coming up short on the
total daily calories you need to sustain or add
bodyweight. In fact, a bodybuilder who fol-
lows an extremely high-protein diet that’s
low in calories will begin to lose weight. At
this point, you need to bump up total calorie
consumption — not protein consumption —
to keep adding muscular bodyweight. Satis-
fying, easy-to-consume foods can be valuable
for growth at this point.
Those who over-regiment their nutrition
programs often end up undereating total cal-
ories, diminishing their potential gains. As
Mike explains, some “cheating” may be nec-
essary for you to boost your calorie intake for
maximal growth.
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CHEAT RULE 5
Cheat at the right time of your contest schedule.If you compete, you don’t want to binge on a
Philly cheesesteak the night before a contest,
but you don’t want to go into your show
looking flat and depleted, either. Taking in
carbs such as buckwheat pancakes with syr-
up can help fill out your muscles so that
they’re striated and full. This meal will make
you feel like you’re cheating, but you’re really
just maximizing the appearance of your hard
work. Consume it the night before you want
to look your best. Keep the total calories
moderate (about double your bodyweight)
for best results.
If you’re really out of shape, however, you
have your work cut out for you. “If you’re 60
pounds overweight when you start to diet
and you have set a goal of 12 weeks to get in
tip-top shape (say, for a contest or just for
the start of summer), you’d better not cheat
at all,” Troy says. “But if your starting point
is just 10–20 pounds from where you want to
be at the end of those 12 weeks, you can have
a cheat meal once per week after beginning
with two weeks of strict dieting.” You have
to assess your situation to know how much
cheating you can handle without compro-
mising your goals.
CHEAT RULE 4
Cheat at the right time of the week.You might feel as if you’ll go insane if you
don’t get a cheeseburger or slice of pizza oc-
casionally. However, something worse may
happen as well: You may undercut your gains
by not taking in cheat foods that help keep
your metabolism revved to the max; you
want your metabolism functioning in high
gear to burn bodyfat while in the process of
maintaining or building muscle mass.
A moderate amount of cheating every
few days is a little like a workout session for
your digestive system. Think of these cheat
meals as “heavy lifting” for your stomach,
small and large intestines. “As long as a
bodybuilder doesn’t go overboard and binge
excessively, a cheat meal can help support
normal thyroid function,” says Troy. “It can
also help to reload glycogen stores [the
stored form of carbohydrate] in muscle tis-
sue of the dieting bodybuilder, which in
turn will help to fuel their intense work-
outs.” Many fatty cheat foods also provide
building blocks for important hormones
such as testosterone and give you the calo-
ries you need for sustained growth.
These cheat foods will also help to create
a metabolic ebb and flow. You’re better able
to burn bodyfat in the periods between these
cheat meals. Then, the additional calories
help you restock, making you stronger at the
gym and boosting your metabolic rate for ad-
ditional fat burning.
CHEAT RULE 6
Cheat at the right time of the day.If you crave carbs or fats, you can find a time
of day almost any day when you can consume
both to benefit your gains, and likewise there
are times when you can instead maximize the
damage. When cheating at the right times, you
may feel like you’re getting of track, but you’ll
really be enhancing your overall program. You
see, sugar creates a boost in insulin release,
and an increase in insulin around the time of
your workouts helps drive muscle recovery
and thus growth by delivering more nutrients
where and when they’re needed. Fats can help
slow down digestion so that protein is deliv-
ered more slowly, helping to sustain its avail-
ability in your body.
To benefit your gains, consume sugary
foods before and after your workouts. Want a
soda or even candy such as Skittles or Gummy
Bears? You can have them on your way to the
gym or right after your workout. Eating sugar
at this time will help drive nutrients to your
muscles for growth because these high-sugar
foods boost insulin levels. This is a much bet-
ter alternative than a protein shake without
carbs (who would’ve thought?) before and af-
ter workouts. Just make sure to avoid fats
while you’re consuming these pre- and post-
workout carbs because that’ll slow everything
down, including the insulin boost.
Similarly, fatty foods can be worthwhile to
your overall nutrition plan. First, many satu-
rated fats from animal products support hor-
mone production such as testosterone, which
is essential for maximizing muscle growth.
Second, foods with a higher fat content slow
digestion. When you consume fats with pro-
tein, you efectively provide a time-released
efect upon the amino acids in protein. These
aminos will be available for use for much lon-
ger periods of time, helping to prevent
your body from breaking down muscle
tissue for stored aminos (catabolism).
Eat fattier forms of protein (such as
whole eggs, deli meat, cheese and
nuts) before bedtime to make sure
there are aminos floating in your
bloodstream longer. Just make
sure to skip the carbs during these
meals.
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CHEAT RULE 7
When you cheat, cheat in moderation.When you consume an excess of calories
during the day, especially if you gorge out at
a single meal, you’re virtually assured of
storing that surplus as bodyfat. You’re much
better served by spreading your cheating
around a bit. Instead of ordering a Domino’s
double-cheese pizza with all the fixings and
gobbling it down in one night, you’d be bet-
ter of having a couple of slices for your
cheat meal that night and sharing the rest
with family or friends. If you’re eating
alone, though, keep it to two slices. Then,
the next day you can have one slice with a
protein shake for lunch. Freeze the rest and
have it several days later as your next cheat
go-round.
Troy ofers this rule of thumb: “If you
have to undo the top button of your pants,
you cheated too much. Never stuf yourself
or eat until you feel uncomfortable.” Take a
look at “The Treat Sheet” to see how you can
successfully include moderate amounts of
cheat foods without blowing your diet.
The Treat SheetCravings are a beat-’em-or-join-’em proposition. Either you get over your crav-
ing or satisfy it. Often, the only way to satisfy a craving is to eat that particular
food. But is there a best “cheat” food? “No,” says IFBB pro bodybuilder Troy
Brown. “If a bodybuilder is craving pizza, he should cheat with pizza. Only the
pizza will curb cravings for pizza. That goes for any food. If you crave it cheat
with it, but only if you’re in good enough shape to aford to cheat and can put
the brakes on after just a small portion.”
The good news is that any “terrible” cheat food can be turned into a reason-
able bodybuilding meal by complementing a moderate amount of it with a pro-
tein food, rather than just stufng yourself with a box of Oreos, a dozen
doughnuts or an entire pizza. As a baseline, we’ve established 500 calories as
the amount you should limit yourself to for an acceptable cheat meal. Here, we
give you the cheat food and advice on how to make sure you’re not just taking
in empty calories.
Pizza“Having a couple of slic-
es should be enough to
curb those cravings and
still allow you to feel
good afterward,” says
Troy. Two slices of pizza
(a 14-inch medium pizza
from a chain such as
Domino’s) has about 23
grams of protein and a
little more than 500 cal-
ories. Actually, it’s not
terrible for a cheat meal.
Nevertheless, nutrient
breakdown is pretty bad
for a standard body-
building meal since less
than 20% of the calories
comes from
protein. You can add
more protein with a tall
glass of nonfat milk —
skip the beer.
DoughnutsYes, they’re considered
one of the worst foods
for bodybuilders. But if
that’s what you want,
that’s what you want.
Eat one large or two
small doughnuts. One
large glazed doughnut
(about 4½ inches in
diameter) has approxi-
mately 300 calories with
5 grams of protein. Add
two whole eggs and
four egg whites to com-
plete a 500-calorie
breakfast that has al-
most 30 grams of pro-
tein.
Desserts Don’t desert your diet
when you eat dessert.
Keep your portions
moderate (two medium
cookies, a moderate
wedge of fruit pie, a
small piece of cake). All
of these goodies have
about 300 calories and
very little protein. Add a
cup of cofee and a pro-
tein shake to turn this
into a more sensible
meal. If you’re eating
this dessert on top of a
meal, cut back to a
much smaller serving.
It’ll be a true test of your
willpower to stop at just
that small amount.
Ice Cream Ice cream is a dairy
product, but it’s little
more than a cheat food.
If you want to turn this
frosty treat into any-
thing but decadence,
you’re going to have to
augment protein. Go
ahead and have your ice
cream (fatty versions
close to bedtime; nonfat
versions closer to your
workout). An 8-ounce
serving (two scoops) of
regular ice cream has
about 300 calories but
only 5 grams of protein.
Specialty brands tend
to be higher in calories
per ounce. If you want,
throw those scoops
of ice cream into a
protein shake.
CheeseburgerLean beef is a great
bodybuilding food. Fast-
food burgers are not.
When you’re cheating
the key is to straddle the
line between the two,
making your cheat meal
a justifiable bodybuild-
ing meal. A McDonald’s
quarter pounder has a
little over 500 calories
with 29 grams of pro-
tein. Whether you’re or-
dering out or making it
at home, avoid fatty
condiments such as
mayo or “special sauce.”
Then, consider taking
of the “hat” — the top
part of the bun. Doing
so will cut empty calo-
ries while still delivering
the beef relief that you
seek. You can even go
double meat. Also, avoid
the fries and the sugary
Coke if it’s the burger
you’re craving.
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Muscle Sleep
One side effect of bodybuilding is a stronger, thicker neck, but that can cause you to fall victim to an insidious nightime killer called sleep apnea
By Nicole McPherson
Photos by Paul Buceta
Model Adam Headland
Is Your
Putting You in
Deadly Danger?
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Imagine you’re lying in bed, catching some ZZZs. Suddenly, a plastic bag is put over your head. You struggle to get it off and frantically gasp for air. Finally, after minutes that feel like hours, you rip the bag open and break free. Your heart is racing and you desperately inhale. You thank God you’re awake and alive ... at least for now.
This isn’t the beginning of a horror mov-
ie, but rather the story of amateur body-
builder Carl Cheung’s life — before he
was diagnosed with sleep apnea. Carl,
who has competed in a number of Ontar-
io (Canada) Physique Association cham-
pionships, remembers many times like
this when he’d wake up suddenly
throughout the night, desperate
to catch his breath. Back
then, he had no idea that he had a severe
and dangerous sleeping condition called
sleep apnea. It wasn’t until his friends
begged him to see a sleep specialist that
he discovered the truth.
“The doctor was surprised I was still
alive,” Carl remembers about his sleep
test results. “That’s how severe my sleep
apnea was. I stayed overnight at the sleep
clinic to be tested and I was extremely
shocked by the results. In a seven-and-a-
half-hour period, I woke up more than
300 times. One time, I’d stopped breath-
ing for a full four minutes.”
What exactly is sleep apnea? Charac-
terized by repeated breathing interrup-
tions during sleep, sleep apnea has been
defined as “a condition in which breath-
ing stops for periods of time during sleep
due to on-and-of blockage of air passag-
es.” In fact, the Greek word apnea literally
means “without breath.” The culprit is
typically excess and collapsed throat tis-
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sue that’s blocking the airway, which is
why suferers often wake up gasping for
air. When you experience five or more ap-
nea episodes per hour (i.e., waking peri-
ods with at least a 10-second interval
between breaths), your level of sleep ap-
nea is considered “clinically significant.”
Based on these criteria, Carl’s results
were of the charts.
Not surprisingly, being jolted awake so
many times throughout the night had a
staggering efect on Carl’s daily life. Be-
cause he was never able to fall into a deep,
quality sleep, he was in a constant state of
extreme fatigue. And his bodybuilding
gains, as would be expected, were poor.
The amount of sleep needed, of course,
varies by age. Infants spend a majority of
their time sleeping — 16–18 hours per day.
Teenagers require a good chunk, too; ap-
proximately nine hours. Adults can go
with less (about 7–8 hours), but most
bodybuilders find their needs are greater.
After vigorous workouts, adequate rest is
essential for growth and repair. While
your body rests, protein synthesis occurs.
During this process, the muscles you
trained are strengthened and repaired,
thereby allowing better recovery and
more growth.
“When you’ve got sleep apnea, you’re
extremely groggy when you first wake
up,” explains 30-year-old Carl. “As the
day progresses, you can hardly focus.
Having conversations is difcult, and
you’re always asking people to repeat
themselves. When you’re sitting in meet-
ings at work, trying to pay attention and
be responsive, you can barely stay awake.
But you assume you’re just tired because
of the topic or the temperature in the
room. You can even fall asleep while
standing up. There were times when I’d
even fall into a deep sleep at a red light,
until I’d hear someone honking at me. But
I had no idea I had sleep apnea, or what
sleep apnea even was. It’s difcult to diag-
nose yourself. My friends were the ones
who noticed I was always falling asleep
and unable to focus. They convinced me
to go see my family doctor, who referred
me to a sleep specialist.”
Not long after, Carl went for a poly-
somnogram, an overnight diagnostic test
where many of his bodily functions were
monitored while he slept (including his
brain activity, eye movements, muscle ac-
tivity, heart rhythm, respiratory airflow
and respiratory efort). Results showed
that Carl had obstructive sleep apnea, the
most common form of the condition.
During obstructive sleep apnea, the up-
per airway becomes narrow as the mus-
cles relax naturally during sleep. As a
result, oxygen in the blood is reduced,
which causes you to frequently wake up.
Des per ate for a solution, Carl began using
a CPAP machine, short for Continuous
Pos itive Airway Pressure. A CPAP ma-
chine aids breathing by delivering a
stream of compressed air via a hose to a
nasal pill, nose mask or full-face mask.
Although it took some time to get used
to wearing his CPAP machine, Carl says
his life has been much improved since.
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“At first you feel awkward using the
machine because of the tubes and having
things around your nose and mouth,”
Carl says. “A lot of people refuse to use it
because if they’re with someone, they’re
afraid of what that person will think.
Having gone through it myself, I know
that people who have sleep apnea can be
really sensitive about the condition and
embarrassed about using the machine.
You’ve also got to bring it with you when-
ever you travel. But you have to realize
this is the best solution. It can help re-
solve your sleep issues and every aspect
they afect in your life.”
A BETTER LIFE, A BETTER PHYSIQUE Aside from being more focused at work,
more alert in social settings and safer be-
hind the wheel, Carl claims that his bet-
ter-quality sleep has also made him a far
better bodybuilder.
“Everyone knows you don’t build mus-
cle in the gym; you grow and repair when
you’re asleep. So I’ve definitely seen a dif-
ference in the amount of quality muscle
I’ve put on since using the CPAP,” he says.
“Within a month of using it I saw a
15-pound diference in my body, and I at-
tribute that progress to just getting quali-
ty rest. Before that, I was stuck, hitting a
brick wall. So for me gaining 15 pounds
was huge.”
One possible reason for these gains is
that human growth hormone (HGH), a
peptide hormone that stimulates growth
and cell reproduction, is produced during
sleep. HGH levels typically rise about
35–45 minutes after you’ve fallen asleep.
HGH efects on the body are anabolic; if
you’re missing out on your sleep, you’re
missing out on muscle building.
Mike Kelly, a competitive bodybuilder
from Toronto, can relate. Like Carl, he
was a victim of sleep apnea without even
realizing it. He too would experience ex-
treme fatigue during the day, to the point
where he’d easily nod of while talking to
people. Episodes of waking up suddenly
in the middle of the night were a constant
occurrence.
“My wife actually stopped sleeping in
the same bed as me out of fear,” says
Mike. “She didn’t want to look at me
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Sleep apnea is a common disorder in
which you have one or more pauses
in breathing or shallow breaths while
you sleep.
Breathing pauses can last from a
few seconds to minutes. They often
occur 5–30 times or more an hour.
Typically, normal breathing then
starts again, sometimes with a loud
snort or choking sound.
Sleep apnea usually is a chronic
(ongoing) condition that disrupts
your sleep three or more nights
each week. You often move out of
deep sleep and into light sleep
when your breathing pauses or be-
comes shallow.
Poor sleep quality results, making
you tired during the day. Sleep apnea
is one of the leading causes of exces-
sive daytime sleepiness.
OVERVIEW
Sleep apnea often goes undiag-
nosed. Doctors usually can’t detect
the condition during routine ofce
visits. Also, there are no blood tests
for the condition.
Most people who have sleep ap-
nea don’t know they have it because
it only occurs during sleep. A family
member and/or bed partner may
first notice the signs of sleep apnea.
The most common type of sleep
apnea is obstructive sleep apnea. This
most often means that the airway has
collapsed or is blocked during sleep.
The blockage may cause shallow
breathing or breathing pauses.
When you try to breathe, any air
that squeezes past the blockage can
cause loud snoring. Obstructive
sleep apnea happens more often in
people who are overweight, but it
can afect anyone.
OUTLOOK
Untreated sleep apnea can:
• Increase the risk for high
blood pressure, heart attack,
stroke, obesity and diabetes.
• Increase the risk for or
worsen heart failure.
• Make irregular heartbeats
more likely.
• Increase the chance of having
work-related or driving accidents.
Lifestyle changes, mouthpieces,
surgery and/or breathing devices
can successfully treat sleep apnea
in many people.
Information from the National
Institutes of Health.
What Is Sleep Apnea?
A CPAP machine
isn’t pretty, but it
can save your life.
Many bodybuilders
use one.
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while I was asleep and see how my chest
would start heaving and how I’d sud-
denly fly up to take a big gasp of air. This
would go on all night, and she couldn’t
bear to see me like that.”
While at a routine check-up with his
family doctor, Mike shared his story of
restless nights and over-sluggish days.
His doctor immediately referred Mike to
a sleep specialist, where it was confirmed
that he had sleep apnea. Like Carl, Mike
now uses a CPAP machine, and he feels
like a new person because of it. Because
Mike is a personal trainer, the extra sleep
has helped his bodybuilding career in
more ways than one.
“Before when I was personal training,
I’d have such a hard time staying awake.
Your clients expect you to be upbeat, hap-
py and energetic all the time, even when
you’re dieting for a show, which can be
hard. When you add lack of sleep into the
mix, it’s really difcult. Now, all around,
everything is better. I have so much more
energy.”
WHO’S AT RISK? Although high risk factors include being
male, overweight and over the age of 40,
sleep apnea doesn’t just afect people like
your beer-bellied relatives who are ad-
dicted to Twinkies and TV and who don’t
exercise. The condition is an extremely
common one — as common as diabetes.
In fact, according to the National Insti-
tutes of Health, sleep apnea afects more
than 12 million Americans. This includes
men and women, young and old. Even
children are susceptible.
Cox Tan-Ngo, MD, founder of Clinical
Sleep Solutions, Inc., a private sleep clinic
in Vancouver (British Columbia, Cana-
da), has personally experienced sleep ap-
nea and can attest to the stereotypes
associated with the condition.
“When we think of sleep apnea, we
sometimes assume just obese males are at
risk. But in fact, I have some patients who
are 100 pounds soaking wet. Any one with
a narrow or recessed jaw, a short neckline
or a large neck can be predisposed to
sleep apnea. Neck size is actually a good
predictor of potential for developing
sleep apnea. If your neck size is larger
than 17 inches, the risk is typically higher.
That’s likely why many bodybuilders
have sleep apnea. But a lot of it is anatom-
ical in nature. You might be predisposed
to it or have small airways.”
There are three distinct forms of sleep
apnea: Obstructive sleep apnea (which
represents 84% of cases), central sleep
apnea (representing 0.4% of cases) and
complex sleep apnea (representing 15%
of cases). Obstructive sleep apnea is
caused by a blockage of the airway, typi-
cally when the soft tissue in the rear of
the throat collapses and closes during
sleep. Breathing is interrupted by a physi-
cal block to airflow despite respiratory ef-
fort. With central sleep apnea, the airway
isn’t blocked, but the brain fails to signal
the muscles to breathe. Breathing is inter-
rupted by the lack of respiratory efort.
Complex sleep apnea is a combination of
the first two conditions.
Each time you experience an apnea
episode, your brain briefly arouses you in
order for you to resume breathing. It’s for
this reason that sleep becomes so frag-
mented and interrupted … and why suf-
ferers can barely function the next day. In
severe cases, the condition can even trig-
ger a heart attack and death.
BEING DIAGNOSED Unfortunately, because the public is still
rel atively uninformed about sleep apnea,
many people go undiagnosed and un-
treated. They assume their fatigue is just
a symptom of something else. And many
people don’t even realize they’re waking
up as often as they are during the night.
Symptoms may go unnoticed for years,
Lack of quality sleep at night
makes you drowsy during
the day.
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during which time suferers may simply
become conditioned to feeling tired all
the time. As was the case with Carl
Cheung, it’s typically friends or family
who first catch wind of the symptoms
and suggest professional treatment.
“The biggest problem with regard to
sleep apnea is that, although it’s a sleep
disorder, most people who have it fall
asleep easily and sleep through the prob-
lem,” says Tan-Ngo. “It’s diferent than
insomnia where you have difculty get-
ting to sleep. With sleep apnea, you can
experience waking periods without
knowing it or understanding why.”
Another myth surrounding sleep ap-
nea is that it’s just a “snoring problem,”
but Tan-Ngo urges people not to overlook
their snoring habits.
“If people tend to snore quite loudly,
the more important it is for them to look
into sleep apnea as a condition,” he ex-
plains. “The last thing you want to do is
leave mild sleep apnea untreated only to
have it lead to high blood pressure years
later. So assess your snoring as a first
screening tool, then look at your quality
of sleep, how you’re waking up, and then
how you are during the day.”
As for treatments, the CPAP machine
isn’t the only option. Several choices are
available, and research into additional op-
tions continues. One route is to have an
operation involving the removal of some
soft tissue of the palate, tonsil area and in-
ner lining of the throat to create a larger
air passage. The idea is to “open up” the
throat area. Sound painful? Well, it can
be. Some who’ve had this operation com-
pare it to having gargled with razor
blades. On the flip side, there are others
who this surgery has worked wonders
for. The important point is to speak to
your sleep specialist about what the best
option is for you.
At Clinical Sleep Solutions, the CPAP is
still the treatment method of choice.
“We consider the CPAP machine the
gold standard for treating the problem,”
says Tan-Ngo. “And that’s why we usually
start with it. When you go the surgery
route, there’s no turning back. If you re-
move tissue and then the problem isn’t
fixed, you can’t put that tissue back. Oral
appliances are another alternative, but
because of their limitations in managing
all forms of sleep apnea, they’re hit or
miss.”
Not all patients who get the CPAP ma-
chine, however, stick with it. Some would
rather sleep on a bed of nails than sleep
with a mask attached to their face.
When Mike Kelly first got his CPAP
machine, he was unenthusiastic about us-
ing it. His wife was the one who con-
vinced him to give it a fair shot.
“The first week I had the machine, I’d
put it on and fall asleep, but then rip it of
a couple of hours later,” he remembers.
“Just getting those extra couple of hours
sleep made such a diference though, and
my wife and I started sleeping in the same
bed again. Then sometimes I’d wake up
halfway through the night and rip it of,
and she’d leave the room again. So finally
I just decided to stick with it.”
According to Tan-Ngo, what separates
those who succeed with the CPAP ma-
chine and those who don’t is mindset.
“I believe that people who buy the ma-
chine but then don’t use it are the people
who, when initially tested, didn’t believe
the problem to be as severe as it was. The
people who use the machine are the ones
who know it can change their lives. The
last thing we want is to see some one who
doesn’t use the machine and their quality
of life sufers. That’s why our main focus at
the clinic is helping people follow through.
The easy part is buying a machine; the
hard part is continuing to use it.”
Left completely untreated, the sleep
apnea picture isn’t pretty. The condi-
tion can lead to high blood pressure,
heart disease and stroke. It can also play
a part in memory problems, weight
gain, impotency and headaches. Feel
like sabotaging your job or increasing
your chance of getting into a car acci-
dent? Untreated sleep apnea can have a
big impact in those departments, too.
Put simply, your quality of sleep is
crucial. If you’ve been letting it take a
backseat to other aspects of your life,
you need to switch your priorities.
“What I notice with my patients is
that sleep is always the first thing people
sacrifice if they’re stressed or busy, but
it’s never what they consider to be the
problem,” says Tan-Ngo. “People never
think lack of sleep is causing them to feel
sick, or that they might need more sleep.
Their first impulse is to think the answer
lies in medications.”
WHAT ABOUT YOU?Just sitting on the problem isn’t going
to do you any good. In fact, it could do
you a ton of harm. Rather than sabotag-
ing your gains as a bodybuilder and lit-
erally putting your life at risk, take the
time to get your sleep levels tested.
You’ve heard the stories: You could
pack on more muscle, feel a lot more
energetic and focused, and live an all-
around better life.
Sleep Apnea Increases Early Death RiskIndividuals with severe sleep apnea have a 46% increased risk of dying
early, according to a 2009 Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore) study.
Sleep apnea is closely associated with obesity, high blood pressure, heart
failure and stroke. The study looked at 6,400 men and women over eight
years and found that those with major sleep apnea were 46% more likely
to die from any cause than healthy individuals the same age, regardless of
other factors. The study, published in the Public Library of Science journal
PLoS Medicine, found that people with milder sleep-breathing disorders
were not more likely to die early. It’s estimated that 12–18 million Ameri-
cans have sleep apnea, and most are neither diagnosed nor treated.
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Once your workout ends, the business of building muscle in the kitchen begins. Here’s how to maximize muscle growth and fat loss with the right foods and supplements from your post-workout meal through bedtime.
By Eric Velazquez, NSCA-CPTPhotos of Justin Lovato
by Robert Reif
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Most lifters tend to think their food and
supplements schedule ends when they’ve
gone fork-to-mouth for the last time at the
dinner table, but that’s simply not the case
— not if you want to maximize your gains,
anyway. Just as your morning routine is
designed to stop the wasting of muscle,
your nighttime routine can help to prevent
it. As you sleep, your brain requires glucose
to operate. As stored sugars become scant,
your body starts to break down amino ac-
By now, you know that bodybuilding nutrition — the kind that powers workouts and keeps you building lean mass all day — starts when your alarm goes off in the morn-
ing. This crucial window helps to put an immediate and defini-tive halt to muscle catabolism as circulating glucose levels have dropped and your glycogen-starved body goes on the search for fuel. But what about the other end of the nighttime fast?
ids from other sources like circulating
amino acids and even muscle to convert
into glucose for energy purposes. That’s
suboptimal for a lifter looking to add some
extra pounds.
“In the evening, the body is in recov-
ery mode, hormonally and energetical-
ly, as is the central nervous system,”
says Tim Ziegenfuss, PhD, CSCS, presi-
dent of The International Society of
Sports Nutrition. “Therefore, an opti-
mal nutrition program addresses each
of these processes.”
It’s not quite as complicated as your
morning routine in that it involves few-
er steps, but how you handle your eve-
ning nutrition and supplementation can
go a long way toward determining just
how big and lean you can become. Here
are a handful of points you should con-
sider at night to make sure you’re hold-
ing on to your hard-earned sinew.
T MINUS 240 MINUTES IMMEDIATELY POST-WORKOUT
As someone who likely trains right after
work or school, the most complex part of
your nutrition plan is that it’s condensed
into a few short hours before you hit the
sheets. And though a few steps may fol-
low, the most important feeding happens
immediately following the final set of
your workout. This anabolic window is
crucial for keeping gains on track because
your muscles are begging for a fresh dose
of amino acids to begin the repairing pro-
cess and fast-digesting carbs to spike in-
sulin and top of depleted fuel stores. In
fact, skipping this “meal” on a regular ba-
sis can often result in a drastic backslide
in strength and muscle gains.
In the interest of expedience — and in
anticipation of the whole food meal to
come — the best thing to do is to take in a
shake containing 40–60 grams of pro-
tein to provide your muscles the build-
ing blocks they need to get on the mend.
Whey is best, but studies show that a
mix of whey and casein (faster-digesting
hydrolysate is fine) post-workout can in-6:45 p.m.
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Is it worth it to consume a very, very late night (or very, very early) shake to stave of muscle catabolism? Food for thought.
There are tales of bodybuilders with
visions of Sandows dancing in their
heads who set their alarms for 3 a.m.
— every morning — breaking their
slumber so that they can pound
down a 40–60-gram shake before
ambling back to bed. Is it worth it?
“It’s really not needed unless
you’re up anyway,” says Ziegenfuss.
If you eat the right foods and supple-
ments just before bed, you’re good
for at least 4–6 hours, maybe longer.”
It’s more important to actually
make sure that you’re rested. If you
wake yourself up, you interrupt your
sleep cycle — and some may not be
able to get back to sleep at all — put-
ting yourself at risk for overtraining,
excess stress or injury from lack of
concentration in the gym. At the very
least, your workouts (and workday)
will be generally compromised. So it’s
okay to skip the late-night feedings.
Catch up on your Zs instead.
TIME MEAL WHAT TO TAKE
6:45 p.m. Post-workout meal (on training days)
• 40–60 g whey and casein protein • 60–100 g fast (simple) carbs
7:30 p.m. Dinner • 40 g protein• 80 g slow (complex) carbs• minimal fats
9:30 p.m. Evening snack (optional) • 30–40 g protein• minimal carbs•10 g healthy fats
1 0 : 4 5 p.m.
Bedtime supplements • ZMA (as directd on label) • 3–5 g arginine• 30–40 g micellar casein shake with water• 2–3 tbsp. flaxseed oil• 1 tbsp. peanut butter (optional)
Follow this post-workout evening timeline to ensure complete workout recovery
and prevent overnight muscle wasting.
The “Big” Night
crease muscle gains in the long run.
And though you may have to fight
your get-lean instincts, fast-digesting
carbs are a must at this time. Having 60–
100 grams of the stuf from sources like
sports drinks, sugary snacks or white
bread spikes insulin, which helps trans-
port the carbs you eat into muscles where
they can be used later for fuel. It also
helps to increase protein synthesis and
promotes creatine uptake in muscles.
T MINUS 180 MINUTES
DINNER
If you train in the evening like most
people, you can’t just have anything for
your evening repast. You have to take
care to select the right balance of foods
that’ll maximize recovery and set you
on your way to new size.
“It depends on workout length, inten-
sity and how long after training you eat,
but the guy who busts his ass for an hour
and eats dinner 2–3 hours before bed
should take in about 0.5 grams of carbs
and 0.25 grams of protein per pound of
bodyweight, with only a few grams of fat,”
says Ziegenfuss. That averages around 40
grams of protein and 80 grams of carbs.
If bodyfat is of particular concern,
you can increase protein and decrease
carbs at dinner, but slow-burning carbs
such as sweet potato and brown rice are
important for rebuilding muscle in the
hours following high-volume training.
Here’s a case where not all carbs are
created equal. While your dinner should
have a slow-burning carb, avoid fast
carbs. Mind you, if you trained before
dinner, your post-workout meal should
in fact be high in fast carbs (like waxy
maize). But your post-workout meal is
not — or at least shouldn’t be — your din-
ner. The biggest diference between the
two is the kind of carbs you choose (of-
tentimes the post-workout meal is a
shake while dinner is a whole food).
That’s why at dinnertime, to keep
the scale moving in the right direction
without adding those extra pounds of
blubber, try to limit the amount of fast-
digesting sugars you shovel in your face
while you’re watching TV. These foods
spike insulin levels, which can trigger
the storage of excess fat. Those fast
carbs that did such a great job with your
post-workout meal are now a bad idea.
“Before bed, avoid fast carbs such as
white pasta, rice or potatoes, chocolate
milk, ice cream, juices or sugary cereals
like Lucky Charms,” says Ziegenfuss. “I
also think most fruits should be avoided
at night, even though they’re slow carbs.
For many athletes trying to cut, fruit at
night seems to make it near impossible
to get really lean, probably because fruc-
tose helps refill liver glycogen.”
If your post-workout meal and din-
ner are one in the same, you need to fol-
low the rules for post-workout nutrition,
but by all means get it in as soon as pos-
sible after your workout.
T MINUS 90 MINUTES
SNACK
The biggest downside of training hard
or following a carb-limited bodybuild-
ing diet is that nighttime cravings are
almost inevitable. Somewhere between
9 and10 p.m., you start getting the itch
to forage through the pantry for some-
thing to satisfy your sweet tooth. Eat-
ing, in and of itself, isn’t bad particularly
if you’re trying to gain size. But your
food selection can go a long way to de-
termining whether or not you’re going
to be adding inches to your biceps — or
your waistline.
“Yes, there are some good foods that
you can eat at night that’ll help you
with gains,” says Ziegenfuss. “Foods
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10:45 p.m.
such as cottage cheese — actually most
cheeses are okay — natural peanut but-
ter, modest servings of fish, flax or olive
oil are all good choices. Again, the key is
to eat protein and fat with very few
carbs, but still stay within your daily
calorie goals.”
T MINUS 15 MINUTES PRE-BEDTIME SUPPLEMENTS
Scientists say you have to do something
16–21 times in a row before it becomes
habit. Well, for the next few weeks,
keep a shaker and some key supple-
ments by your bedside table so that
supplementation becomes part of your
bedtime routine.
As you begin to wind down, about
10–15 minutes before lights out, you
should take a 3–5 gram dose of stimu-
lant-free arginine to help optimize
growth hormone levels, which peak at
nighttime. Ziegenfuss also recommends
a dose of ZMA (zinc and magnesium).
“Zinc is a great anti-aromatase, and
many guys have suboptimal zinc levels,”
he says. “Magnesium is useful because it
takes the edge of while promoting re-
laxation. In addition it’s a co-factor in
several hundred chemical reactions.”
But before you put your head on that
pillow, it’s time to focus specifically on
the fast ahead and there’s only one
choice for lifters here.
“Micellar casein is a slow protein that
clots in the stomach and is released over
a prolonged period of time,” says Ziegen-
fuss. This efect helps reduce muscle
protein breakdown, a major pain during
sleep. Avoid the mistake of purchasing
casein hydrolysate, which digests much
quicker.”
Don’t feel bad for casein — it won’t be
all by itself in your shaker cup. Ziegen-
fuss also recommends throwing in 2–3
tablespoons of flaxseed oil to further
slow the rate of digestion. The flax also
helps to facilitate joint recovery and to
aid fat loss. If you choose to blend a
shake before bed, you can toss in a
spoonful of peanut butter for added tex-
ture, taste and healthy fat.
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SPORTS MED
114 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
If you do high-impact cardio, you might be familiar with plantar fasciitis pain in the soles of your feet. Here’s what causes the condition and how to treat it.By Guillermo Escalante, PhD, MBA, CSCS
YOUR ARCHILLES HEEL
IN YOUR PURSUIT TO GET LEAN
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TREATMENT HOW IT WORKS
Night splints These splints provide a gentle, prolonged stretch to the
plantar fascia, Achilles tendon and gastrocnemius (calf
muscle) while you sleep.
Nonsteroidal anti-
inflammatory drugs
(ibuprofen, sodium
naproxide)
Taken in a prescription-grade dosage as prescribed by
your physician, these medicines can help alleviate
inflammation.
Foot orthotics If you have flat feet or high arches, orthotics can help
support your feet and may relieve foot problems or
other orthopedic ailments related to poor foot
structure.
Corticosteroid
injections
These usually include medicine that helps reduce
inflammation and a local pain medication to
immediately relieve discomfort. It’s important to note
that while this may relieve pain in the short term, the
original cause of the problem — like poor foot structure
— must be addressed or the condition will persist.
Rehabilitation This can include modalities such as electrical
stimulation, ultrasound, low-level laser and ice. Manual
therapy techniques like joint mobilization, fitting for
custom orthotics, and therapeutic exercise to address
flexibility/strength imbalances may also be
implemented.
CONSERVATIVE TREATMENT OPTIONS
You wake up in the morning and step out of bed. But when you put your feet on the
floor, it feels like you landed on a nail. The pain is sharp along the inside of your heel and ex-tends along the entire sole of your foot. The pain slowly subsides after you walk for a few minutes, but may persist throughout the day.
This is what it feels like to have plan-
tar fasciitis, the most common cause of
heel pain1 to afect both athletes and
nonathletes. Although the problem is
more prevalent among runners, body-
builders and other athletes may also en-
counter it, especially those who do a lot
of cardio activity for heart health and to
keep bodyfat levels low.
The condition is usually caused by a
biomechanical imbalance resulting in
tension and inflammation along the
plantar fascia2, the thick connective tis-
sue that supports the arch on the bot-
tom of the foot. These imbalances may
include a tight gastrocnemius/soleus,
structural foot problems like flat feet,
and inflexible joints or weak muscles
farther up the kinetic chain like the glu-
teus maximus/medius that indirectly
create tension in the plantar fascia.
Wearing old or worn shoes and doing
excessive-impact cardiovascular exer-
cise such as brisk walking, especially
downhill, or running without letting
your body recover between runs can
also contribute.
Plantar fasciitis can be successfully
managed with conservative treatment in
about 90% of cases1 (see “Conservative
Treatment Options for Plantar Fasciitis”).
In addition, complete rest, ice and stretch-
ing over the course of 1–3 weeks often
helps relieve the pain. For a full recovery,
fied athletic trainer or physical thera-
pist to help you implement other
treatment options.
References
1 Neufeld, S.K., Cerrato, R. “Plantar fasciitis: evaluation and treatment.” J Am Acad Orthop Surg. June 2008; 16(6): 338-346.
2 Barrett, S.J., O’Malley, R. “Plantar fasciitis and other causes of heel pain.” Am Fam Physician. April 1999; 59(8): 2,200–2,206.
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 115
make sure you have proper, supportive
shoes. You may have to switch to low-im-
pact cardio activities such as swimming
and cycling in the short term to reduce
the impact to the bottom of your feet.
Don’t try to tough out this type of injury; it
can easily make matters worse.
If the pain persists, it’s always smart
to consult a podiatrist, physician, certi-
SH
UT
TE
RS
TO
CK
WHAT IS IT?
The most common
cause of heel pain in
trainees and athletes,
it occurs when the
long fibrous plantar
fascia ligament along
the bottom of the foot
develops tears in the
tissue, resulting in pain
and inflammation.
WHAT ARE THE
SYMPTOMS?
Common complaints
include burning, stab-
bing or aching pain in
the heel of the foot.
Because the fascia
ligament tightens
during the night as
you sleep, once you
get up in the morning
and place pressure on
the foot, the ligament
becomes taut and
causes acute pain.
Pain usually subsides
as the tissue warms
up, but it may return
after long periods of
standing or weight-
bearing physical ac-
tivity.
IS IT COMMON?
It’s estimated that
about 10% of Ameri-
cans will develop
plantar fasciitis over
the course of their life-
times. Because it’s as-
sociated with long
periods of weight-
bearing activity, it’s
also linked with being
overweight or obese.
Plantar fasciitis can be successfully managed with conservative treatment in about 90% of cases
Plantar Fasciitis FAQ
Inflammation of the plantar fascia
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We get up close and personal with Nicole Wilkins, whose fierce determination to win earned her a third Ms. Figure Olympia title in 2013.
Photos by Robert Reif
TigressEye
of the
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musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 117
Nicole WilkinsHEIGHT: 5’6”
WEIGHT: 130 lbs.
YEARS TRAINING: 13BIRTHPLACE: Sterling Heights, MI
WEBSITE: nicolewilkins.com
TWITTER: @NicoleMWilkins
FACEBOOK: /nicolewilkins01
SPONSOR: Met-Rx
“The mainstream media love women to be skinny, but that’s not me. I love muscle on women.”
MA
KE
UP
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Nicole Wilkins
“You can show skin and be sexy without being trashy.”
BO
LE
RO
AN
D B
OO
TS
BY
RS
NB
OH
EM
E.C
OM
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| DECEMBER 2013 119
“Fans ask me some strange things.
Recently a guy wanted
to take a picture of my feet.
Go figure!”
Nicole Wilkins
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120 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
“I don’t consider myself to be superstitious, but I have a
shirt that says ‘determined’ that my friends gave me in
Michigan that I always wear backstage at a show.”
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musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 121
Nicole Wilkins
“The most attractive thing in a man is confidence. They have to be very secure in their own skin. Second to that is humor.”
BR
A, P
AN
TY, S
HO
ES
BY
VIC
TO
RIA
SS
EC
RE
T.C
OM
; D
RE
SS
ON
CH
AIR
BY
RS
NB
OH
EM
E.C
OM
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122 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
“I have never been a really
skinny girl, and I’ve always had
an athletic physique, so it
was nice to find a sport
that embraced that ideal.”
CONTEST HIGHLIGHTS
3x IFBB Figure Olympia Champion; 3x IFBB Figure International Champion
2009: New York Pro Figure Champion; Europa Orlando Pro Figure Champion
2011: St. Louis Pro Figure Champion; Tournament of Champions Pro Figure Champion; IFBB Sheru Classic Champion
KIM
ON
O B
Y F
RE
DE
RIC
KS
.CO
M
Nicole Wilkins
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The dumbbell advantage to bringing up your arms
Montreal’s Larry Vinette reveals the training system that earned him his pro card
VINTAGEVINETTE
iami uscle achineM
How North American light-heavy champ Alex Cambronero uses a dual approach to make his pecs grow
LEE BANKS’
HIGH-OCTANE
UPPER-BODY BLASTFreeman’s back ‘n’ traps
workout may be the toughest you’ve ever tried
THE
TONEY AWARD
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146 Miami Muscle MachineAlejandro Cambronero’s love for
iron has brought him to America
and ultimately a pro card. Here’s the
Costa Rican’s formula for building
massive pecs.
By Lara McGlashan, MFA, CPT
168 The Need for SpeedKick-start your quickness with these
speed-training strategies and slash
those seconds of the stopwatch.
By Mike Jenkins, Team MHP Athlete
166 All Hail the Mighty Thor!Icelandic strongman champion
Hafthor “Thor” Björnsson shows of
his freakish physique in the fourth
season of Game of Thrones.
By Alex Zakrzewski
170 Welcome to the Gun ShowWe pick the brain of IFBB pro
Anthoneil Champagnie on how
to keep your biceps and triceps
124 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
126 Back From the FutureA student of training, Toney
Freeman takes a cerebral approach
to his back/rear-delt/upper-traps
workout that’s as multidimensional
as it is unconventional.
By Eric Velazquez, NSCA-CPT
138 Vintage VinetteCover model Larry Vinette discusses
the training philosophy that helped
him earn his IFBB pro card.
By Jimmy Peña, MS, CSCS
DECEMBER 2O13
138
156 Real- Time Chest and Shoulder Workout With Lee BanksIFBB pro Lee Banks goes
high volume/low rest in
this raw, ofseason chest-
and-delts thrash.
By Eric Velazquez, NSCA-CPT
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126 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
TONEY FREEMAN
NICKNAME: The X-Man
BIRTHDATE: August 30, 1966
BIRTHPLACE: South Bend, IN
CURRENT RESIDENCE: Canton, GA
WEIGHT: 280–285 lbs. contest;
305 lbs. ofseason
CONTEST HIGHLIGHTS: 2013: Arnold
Classic, 3rd, Arnold Classic Brazil, 2nd,
Australian Pro, 2nd 2012: Masters
Olympia, 2nd, Tampa Pro, 2nd, Europa
Super Show, 3rd 2011: Pro World Masters,
2nd, Europa Super Show, 1st
CONTACT: [email protected]
TWITTER: @IFBBProTFXman
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musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 127
A student of training, Toney Freeman takes a cerebral
approach to his back/rear-delt/upper-traps workout
that’s as multidimensional as it is unconventionalBy
Eric Velazquez, NSCA-CPT | Photos by Gregory James
FUTURE from the
BACK
Toney Freeman was going to be an electrical engineer. Putting himself through the paces at a
technical institute, he looked forward to
the salary promised him by faculty upon
graduation. “Up to $70,000 per year,”
they said. After two solid years, he started
anticipating the coming conversations
with recruiters and how he would man-
age his retirement plan once hired. Then
came high-level math.
“I’d been getting As and Bs but the
math started kicking my ass, and those
[grades] started turning into Cs and Ds,”
Toney says. “The perfectionist in me
couldn’t handle that. I was working two
jobs at the time and they were paying me
more than I was going to make when I got
out. So I dropped out and that’s about the
time I started bodybuilding.”
Now 47, Toney trained and ate his way
through the amateur bodybuilding ranks,
applying proven programs and one-size-
fits-all routines as needed to ensure his
ascension to the pros. But an epiphany
would come in 1995, an evolution of phi-
losophy born out of misfortune.
DAY BODYPARTS TRAINED
1 Quads, hamstrings, glutes
2 Chest, front and middle delts
3 Back, rear delts, upper traps
4 Biceps, triceps, forearms
5 Cycle repeats
Toney doesn’t include scheduled rest days in his
split, instead taking days of only when he feels
they’re necessary or when he’s traveling.
TRAINING SPLIT
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“I tore my pec during a Dorian Yates-
style chest workout,” he says. “I’m a
huge fan of HIT and was at the time, but
this routine just wasn’t for me. [Editor’s
note: High-intensity training, or HIT, re-
quires just one all-out set after several
warm-ups but because of the degree of in-
tensity and weight, it’s hard on the joints.]
After that happened, I realized that I
can’t bodybuild the way everyone else
does. That opened the door to the way I
think now. I’m actually grateful for the
experience. It forced me to get back to
basics but also to stay within the realm of
my genetics.”
Toney spends most of his days now
trying to problem-solve. Like a 300-
pound mad scientist, he vigorously re-
searches, hypothesizes and experiments
to coax his body into doing what he wants
it to do. In a word, his style of training is
highly unconventional. He sits in on sem-
inars, digs through journals and enlists
the wisdom of training gurus, Franken-
steining it all into a usable formula for
success. His engineering hopes dashed by
arithmetic, Toney has gone on to master
the academics of physique artistry.
FUTURE from the
BACK
128 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
TONEY’S BACK/REAR-DELT/UPPER-TRAPS ROUTINEEXERCISE SETS REPS
Giant set done without rest until he finishes all four exercises
Incline-Bench Straight-Arm Kickback 2 8–10
Supinated Dumbbell Row
Pronated Dumbbell Row
Neutral-Grip Dumbbell Row
Neutral-Grip Dumbbell Row with Hold 1 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (each side)1
Pull-Up x2 50
One-Arm Pulldown with Hold 3 7–103
Wide-Grip Pulldown 3–5 8–10
Shrug Series 3 304
Rear-Delt Series 3 305
1 Toney holds both dumbbells in the fully contracted position. Keeping one weight up, he performs five
reps with the other arm, then switches. He repeats this in diminishing-reps fashion — performing four on
each side, then three, then two, then one — keeping one dumbbell in the top position while the other
arm is working. He does only this exercise this way every other workout. When he doesn’t, he simply
runs through his opening giant set a third time.
2 Toney completes as many sets as necessary to reach 50 total reps.
3 Toney keeps one handle in the lowered, peak-contracted position while the other arm works. He
performs all reps for one side before switching and does all three sets consecutively without rest.
4 Toney does 10 reps of three shrug variations. First, he does 10 with his palms facing his glutes behind
him, then he does 10 using a neutral grip with the dumbbells at his sides, then he finishes with 10
holding the weights in front, palms facing his thighs.
5 Toney does 10 reps of three diferent dumbbell bent-over lateral raises. For the first 10, he brings the
weights toward the tops of his ears. For the next 10, he performs standard bent-over lateral raises and
takes the dumbbells straight out to his sides, upper arms perpendicular to his torso. For the final 10, he
decreases the angle between his upper arms and torso, bringing the dumbbells slightly toward his hips.
He reverses the order from set to set.
If you’re doing this move
for the first time, Toney
recommends doing it
standing with a 45-degree
forward lean. Think about
moving your lower lats, then
your shoulder blades, then
your elbows.
Do as many reps as you can with
perfect form. You could probably
do more reps on the first move-
ment than the last, but aim for
8–10. The number is only impor-
tant because you have to do the
same amount of reps per exer-
cise for balance. Some people
may be able to do only five each
way, but don’t get too hung up
on the number. When I train peo-
ple, I tell them to focus on what
they’re doing and what they’re
doing is not counting. That’s
where some trainees mess up:
If you do all of them wrong be-
cause you’re too busy counting,
you’re wasting your time.
Toney’s Tip on the Giant Set
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musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 129
INCLINE-BENCH
STRAIGHT-ARM
KICKBACK
DO IT RIGHT: Toney does this lower-lat
isolation move first because he says the
weak lower lats typically aren’t activated
because the stronger upper lats take
over. Lean squarely against a bench with
a dumbbell in each hand and raise the
weights directly behind you without
bending your elbows.
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130 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
DEEP THOUGHTS
When Toney discusses training, nutrition
and health, he sounds more like some be-
spectacled lab geek than a perennial top-
six IFBB pro. Rarely will you hear a
bodybuilder talk about cellular biology or
multiplanar movements for mass, but it
could be that kind of deeper thinking that
has led Toney to his post-40 surge. Al-
ready this year, he has finished third at
the Arnold Classic and second in the
same show in Brazil. He took second in
the Australian Pro as well as at the hotly
contested Masters Olympia in 2012.
“I’m like a sponge,” he says. “I like to
know things. I just got back from Russia,
but when I first got there, I was quiet and
didn’t say much. I had an interpreter.
They thought maybe I was just being sol-
emn or unhappy, but I was being quiet in
order to listen and learn. If you don’t
know something, you just need to be still
and learn. That’s how I end up catching
bits and pieces of information. I’ve always
been a student of the game, no matter
what the game is.”
Toney traces his inquisitive nature
back to his dad’s church, where he be-
came something of a bible scholar from
simply listening. “Even when I was in
construction, I was always looking at the
blueprints,” he says. “It wasn’t enough to
just know that I needed to hang sheet
rock, I wanted to know why. In 1995, af-
ter the injury, I did some soul searching
to get my head together. Life was just
different. I wasn’t the same guy I was be-
fore the accident. I had to find myself
and reinvent myself.”
When he got back into training, Toney
got other people involved. “I worked with
pretty much every guru out there. But I’ve
been doing this as long as all of them, if not
longer. I basically paid them for their
knowledge and information. I learned a lot
and discarded some things that weren’t for
me. I wasn’t coming to them helpless. I
wanted them to be part of my situation, I
didn’t want to be part of their situation.”
Toney’s greatest critique of today’s
stable of experts — as well as some wide-
eyed up-and-comers — lies in the aban-
FUTURE from the
BACK
SUPINATED DUMBBELL ROW
DO IT RIGHT: This multijoint exercise hits the lower lats a bit
higher up. You’re probably accustomed to doing a dumbbell
row similar to this one, but the reverse grip ensures your
elbows stay tight to your sides. This more strongly activates
the lower lats while recruiting the biceps to a greater degree.
Elbow position
relative to your
torso is critical
when it comes to
muscle activation.
An underhand grip
shifts the emphasis
from the upper to
lower lats.
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NEUTRAL-GRIP
DUMBBELL ROW
DO IT RIGHT: A slight shift in
hand position causes a slight
shift in emphasis on the target
muscle, one reason that it’s
good to use a variety of grips.
This is probably the most
common variation of the
dumbbell row and likely your
strongest, so Toney does it last
in his giant set.
PRONATED
DUMBBELL ROW
DO IT RIGHT: Keep your body
square to the bench and use
an overhand grip. Pull the
weight into your hip, bringing
your elbow as far above the
plane of your back as possible.
To fully exhaust the muscle
fibers, Toney keeps his
nonworking arm in the top
position to keep his upper lats
working overtime.
NEUTRAL-GRIP
DUMBBELL ROW
WITH HOLD
DO IT RIGHT: In this variation,
hold your nonworking arm in
the peak-contracted position as
you train the other side. This
requires the lower lats to
isometrically contract instead of
being allowed to rest.
You can shift the muscular emphasis by
changing your grip. An overhand grip
keeps the elbows out and away from
your sides, which targets the upper lats,
rear delts, middle traps and rhomboids.
The hammer-
style grip keeps
the elbows in
tight to your sides,
best for activating
the lower-lat fibers.
Toney on Isometric Training“This exercise involves 15 reps per side, basically: You do
five on each side, then four, then three, then two, then
one. The whole time, you keep one dumbbell in the up
position. That’s very challenging for your ‘resting’ side,
so it becomes much harder than a normal set of 15.”
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FUTURE from the
BACK
132 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
PULL-UP
DO IT RIGHT: The wide-grip pull-up is a
staple upper-lat move that keeps the
elbows away from the sides of the body.
Use a strong motion going up, squeeze
momentarily in the peak-contracted
position and lower under control
without swinging between reps.
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musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 133
Toney doesn’t do a pre-
determined number of sets.
Rather, in a strategy similar to
what Arnold did decades earlier, he
sets a target rep total and completes
as many sets as it requires to reach
that target. “Some days I may go
for 100; usually at this point in my
workout I’ll get 6–8 at a time,” he says.
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FUTURE from the
BACK
134 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
ONE-ARM PULLDOWN WITH HOLD
DO IT RIGHT: As with the dumbbell row with hold, here one side is isometrically
contracting while you actively work the opposite side. Notice how Toney uses an
elastic band on one side and attaches a D-handle to use with the working side..
“I always start with my right side,
which is weaker. Using a towel for
the grip makes the move more
functional. To increase the intensity
and make it more demanding, keep
your left side flexed while you train the
right. By increasing the time under
tension, you incorporate more fibers
and exercise stabilizer muscles, too.”
donment of basic, proven training
principles. “No one teaches the basic stuff
anymore,” he says. “They’re so hardcore,
and all about extreme this and advanced
that. No one is learning the nuts and bolts
of bodybuilding.”
He concedes that things once thought
to be advanced are now considered com-
monplace, even for beginners, which is
why he insists on learning as much as he
can about emerging science. Toney takes
a whole-body approach to bodybuilding,
waxing philosophical on the dangers of
artificial sweeteners and the glycemic in-
dex, traveling halfway across the country
for medical colonics and sending out for
grass-fed bison to meet his red-meat re-
quirements. It’s not that other trainees
don’t share in some of this, it’s just that
most don’t have a bibliographical justifi-
cation for it.
“There are a couple of guys I know
who take it to the level I do,” Toney says.
“Ben Pakulski is a lot like me. I met an-
other guy from England who’s similar.
But I don’t think they go to the extremes
that I go to. Eventually they will because
“You may find a particular style of
training that works, but likely it
works only once or twice, then
your body adapts to it and you
have to do something else. There’s
no way in the world that you can
do the same thing and continue
making progress. When you take
your body out of its comfort level,
it fights its way back by adapting,
and progress diminishes. You just
have to do something diferent.
That’s why I went from guru to
guru. At my first pro show I was
252 pounds; at the last show I was
282. Training the same way over
and over is known to give you im-
balances, visual or physical. That’s
why I do machines, free weights,
kettlebells, all kinds of training.
Sorry, but three sets of 10 ain’t
gonna cut it.”
Toney on Adaptation
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musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 135
WIDE-GRIP
PULLDOWN
DO IT RIGHT: “Most people
would be done by now, but I
can handle a bit more stimulus
than most. So I choose an
exercise I know I can perform
properly. I don’t have to use a
lot of weight; I’m basically
doing a back double biceps
against resistance.”
To better isolate the
upper lats, avoid
leaning back as you
pull the bar into your
upper chest.
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136 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
FUTURE from the
BACK
SHRUG SERIES
DO IT RIGHT: “People do shrugs with
enormous amounts of weight. I’m not
against that, but you can’t do it forever.
It’s far better to train your traps in a
more complete way. I see more
striations in my traps lately because I
work them the way I work my biceps,
hitting them from three angles.”
Regardless of how you
position the weights
relative to your torso,
shrug your shoulders straight
up toward your ears and hold.
Don’t round your shoulders,
and try to keep your arms as
straight as possible.
we’re sharing information, so I’ll be do-
ing stuff that they’re doing and the other
way around. If you want to continue do-
ing what you do, you have to do things
that prolong your career and your health.
I don’t know if people think I just wake
up this way [looking like a bodybuilder].
This takes a lot of work, a lot of prepara-
tion and a lot of money.”
He may have always been this way,
but Toney is stumped on exactly why.
It’s easy to posit that he relies on his crit-
ical-thinking skills because it’ll help him
reach the pinnacle of his sport, but more
likely it’s pure survival instinct, with his
gray matter being his most valuable and
versatile weapon.
“I’ve been on the brink of quitting a
couple of times,” he admits. “I just
couldn’t handle it mentally, physically
or financially. So I do all this research
and strategizing. I’m just a problem-
solver. When a problem gets in my way,
I work through it. If I don’t know what’s
going on, I ask for help. That’s what
life’s all about.
“I want it all. My ears are always on
alert. I might interrupt someone’s con-
versation if they’re talking about some-
thing that can help me. I want to be Mr.
Olympia, but I don’t want to dwell on it.
I’m a realist. There are so many other
things to focus on, so it’s not my No. 1 ob-
jective. I want to be more well-rounded
and will have to divide myself a bit to ac-
complish all my goals. If I get most of ’em,
I’ll be good. I’m prioritizing myself more.”
Toney’s physique has been crushing
competitors for years. But ultimately and
perhaps ironically, it may be his brain that
carves out his lasting legacy.
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REAR-DELT SERIES
DO IT RIGHT: “Most people use too
much weight for rear delts and that’s
why they can train them only one way.
But for your shoulders to develop all the
way around — so they look like
parentheses facing each other — you
need to hit them from as many angles as
possible. The reverse pec-deck flye hits
your rear delts from just one. With my
three-way bent-over lateral raises, I
bring the weights to my ears on the first
set. As I fatigue in that plane, I change
to a neutral grip and do 10 reps straight
out to the sides. As I fail there, I go back
toward my hips with another 10. Then I
switch the order on my next set.”
Keep your elbows
locked in a slightly bent
position throughout the
set. Opening and closing at
the elbow invites the triceps
to help perform the exercise.
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Cover model Larry Vinette discusses the training philosophy that helped him earn his IFBB pro card By Jimmy Peña, MS, CSCS | Photos by Paul Buceta
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Montreal’s Larry Vinette is one such leader. The Canadian-
born champ started competing in 1994, finally earning his
IFBB pro card in 2012 by taking the masters division at the
Canadian Nationals. Although he competed as an amateur at
198 pounds, his current goal is to make his pro debut in 2014
at a big, hard and lean 212. That extra time of will help Larry
recover from a serious training injury he sufered when he
tore his triceps when visiting Las Vegas for the Olympia last
September, an injury that required surgery for re-attachment.
MuscleMag readers might be familiar with Larry’s name: He
was the only athlete signed to a contract with sister publication
Reps, appearing on its first cover and pen-
ning a training column in each issue. Now
that he has moved up in weight class,
Larry’s making his first featured appear-
ance in MMI. We wanted to learn more
about how he has continued to improve
with age and what makes the training of
one of the sport’s up-and-coming leaders
so successful. So, Larry, let’s not make the
customers wait.
MMI: Your personal philosophy is
“lead by example,” so would you say
that’s your favorite quote?
Larry: Actually, my favorite quote is tat-
tooed across my chest: “What doesn’t kill
you makes you stronger.”
MMI: You just won the Canadian
Nationals. What are your goals now?
Larry: I’m taking a year of to add some
weight for my pro debut. I turned pro at
198 pounds, but I want to tip the scales at
212 to be competitive. As far as business
goes, I’m still coaching athletes for con-
test prep like Henri-Pierre Ano, who
graced the cover of this mag recently. He
made a very strong showing at last year’s
Canadian Nationals and should be a force
has been said that the greatest leaders are those who spend the majority of their time serving others. The better a leader is at equipping those for whom he’s re-sponsible, the better he’ll be at taking care of the customer, anticipating needs and delivering a first-class product.
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142 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
to be reckoned with this year. I also work with MMA fighters
with their diet and weight cut, like my girlfriend, pro female MMA
fighter Valerie “Trouble” Letourneau.
MMI: The 212s are a competitive bunch. What areas do
you need to improve on and how do you tackle them?
Larry: I’m focusing on bringing up my arms, so I train them
first in my training cycle. I’ll eat very high-carb the day before
my arm workout, aiming for close to 1,000 grams of carbs.
Power PointerPutting a weak bodypart first in your split is key to bring-
ing up that muscle group. Doing it first means you’re the
most fresh after a rest day or two. You may have a lagging
bodypart because you neglected to fully train a particular
area. Follow Larry’s example and rearrange your training
so that you hit that muscle group first in your split.
MMI: What’s your current training split and why does it
work for you?
Larry: I currently train two-days-on, one-day-of. This allows
me to fully recuperate from my workouts by giving my nervous
system time to rest.
Power PointerTake a close look at Larry’s training split: He schedules
arms far away from chest and back days. This allows him
LARRY’S TRAINING SPLIT
DAY BODYPART(S) TRAINED
1 Arms
2 Legs
3 Rest
4 Chest, Calves
5 Back, Delts
6 Rest
7 Rest
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to destroy his bi’s and tri’s on a day all their own, not
preceded by a larger muscle group that might compro-
mise his arm strength. He also gets arm work indirectly a
second time when training back and chest. Then at the
end of the week, he takes a full two days of before his
next arm workout so that he’s ready to go.
MMI: What types of equipment do you prefer? What does
your day in the gym look like?
Larry: I usually start my workout with free weights but then I
may switch to machines, which don’t require stabilizers to bal-
ance the weight. I sometimes use chains and bands for variety
and to create a diferent stimulus.
Power PointerWhen using chains, Larry starts with a lighter weight that
gradually gets heavier the higher he lifts it. As more
chains leave the floor, the load gets heavier. As Larry
knows full well, you get stronger toward the top of the
range of motion, and chains allow for maximal tension on
the muscle being trained at the point of peak contrac-
tion. As Larry lowers the weight and the chains settle on
the floor, the bar gets lighter.
Power PointerUsed in a similar way to chains with free weights, bands
provide Larry with what’s called linear variable resis-
tance. That’s a technical way of saying the bands get
more difcult to move the more they’re extended. Al-
though few bodybuilders understand their usefulness,
bands are an integral part of Larry’s training regimen.
MMI: What are some examples of high-intensity tech-
niques that you utilize within your workouts?
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Larry: I use drop sets, forced reps and even the rest-pause tech-
nique. I usually use them on the last set of an exercise.
Power PointerEvery bodybuilder knows that breaking down the muscle
is the key to growth. So when Larry can’t complete an-
other rep on his own, he doesn’t end his set. After reach-
ing failure, he quickly strips an equal amount of weight
from each side of the bar or reaches for lighter dumb-
bells and continues repping until he fails again.
Power PointerA common mistake guys make when training for maxi-
mum size is applying intensity techniques on all sets of
all exercises. There comes a point — and it’s sometimes
too late to avoid — when those eforts become counter-
productive. Larry judiciously applies the proven tactics
of going beyond initial failure, enjoying the benefits
without the unfortunate costs of overtraining.
MMI: What are your favorite exercises for growth and why?
Larry: I don’t have any favorite exercises per se; well, anything
other than legs is my favorite, I suppose. But these days I like
working my bi’s and tri’s because they’re the muscles that need
the most improvement. I like the sleeve-busting feeling I get
when I finish my arm workout.
MMI: What are the most important keys to getting a great
workout? If you had to narrow it down, what’s your best
piece of advice?
Larry: Get a good night’s sleep, and increase important neu-
rotransmitters like acetyl-choline and serotonin to increase
mental focus and motivation before your workouts. I take a
supplement that contains huperzine, vinpocetine, bacopa ex-
tract, ginkgo extract, phosphatidylserine, acetyl-L-carnitine
and N-acetyl-cysteine. And to stimulate the nervous system, I
take a good dose of cafeine about 30–45 minutes before I train.
Power PointerYou may already know that cafeine binds to fat cells,
enhancing the removal of fat, and can help you burn ex-
tra fat during your training session. But adding cafeine
to your diet like Larry does can actually help you add
mass. Researchers have found that weight-trained men
who consumed about 200 mg of cafeine before training
increased their max bench press by 5–8 pounds! Take
about 200–400 mg of cafeine 60 minutes before you
hit the weights.
MMI: How does your ofseason approach difer from your
precontest training?
Larry: My workouts don’t change much from precontest to of-
season. My rest periods between sets might drop precontest,
and getting closer to the show I might favor machines a little
more to reduce the risk of injury, but that’s about it.
EXERCISE SETS REPS
Scott Curl 5 6–8
Incline Dumbbell Curl 4 8–12
Alternating Hammer Curl 3 10–12
Pressdown 4 8–12
Close-Grip Bench Press 5 6–8
EZ-Bar Overhead
Extension3 10–12
EXERCISE SETS REPS
Leg Extension 4 20
Front Squat 5 6–8
Walking Dumbbell Lunge 3 20
Lying Leg Curl 5 6–8
Romanian Deadlift 4 10–12
Barbell Hip Thrust 3 10–12
EXERCISE SETS REPS
Flat-Bench Dumbbell Press 5 6–8
Incline Barbell Press 4 8–12
Weighted Dip 4 8–12
Flat-Bench Dumbbell Flye 3 10–12
Standing Calf Raise 4 10–12
Seated Calf Raise 3 20–25
EXERCISE SETS REPS
Pull-Up 5 6–8
One-Arm Dumbbell Row 4 8–12
Reverse-Grip Pulldown 3 10–12
Supported T-Bar Row 4 8–12
Dumbbell Lateral Raise 5 6–8
Alternating Dumbbell
Front Raise3 10–12
Bent-Over Lateral Raise 3 12–15
SET BY SET WITH LARRY
DAY 1: ARMS
DAY 2: LEGS
DAY 4: CHEST, CALVES
DAY 5: BACK, DELTS
Larry typically starts of each exercise with a lighter weight for higher reps and
adds weight on each succeeding set, pyramiding down in reps.
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His love of iron has brought him to America and ultimately a pro card. Here’s the Costa Rican’s formula for building massive pecs.By Lara McGlashan, MFA, CPT | Photos by Gregory James
MuscleMiami
Machine
Picture Alejandro Cambronero 90 pounds smaller. Not an easy task, but when he came to
Miami in 2000, he stepped on a scale
and barely hit 130. The scale printed out
his weight on a slip of paper, which he
pocketed and keeps with him to this day,
a reminder of where he’s been and how
far he’s come.
In actuality, Alejandro has come
some 1,113 miles, relocating from Costa
Rica. He was led to the States by the lure
of a bodybuilding lifestyle, but he wasn’t
always so muscle-minded.
“When I was younger I was a BMX
bike racer,” says Alejandro. “I raced mo-
tocross from ages 4 to 18, and I won eight
national championships, three Central
American championships and went to
the ’95 World Championships. I was the
number-one rider in my country and
was beating guys who were much older
than I was in the open class. I thought, I
can do anything I want!”
But a cast-off magazine from a friend
completely changed his definition of
“want.” “That magazine featured Lee
Haney … I saw his back, and I wanted that
back!” says Alejandro. “It was so cool.
And the pictures of Ronnie [Coleman]
that were in there — they were amazing.”
So Alejandro, all 130 pounds of him,
began his journey into the weight room.
While he made some progress, he decid-
ed he needed to make a change — not just
in the gym, mind you, but to come to
America to realize his dream more quick-
ly. “Bodybuilding isn’t very big in Costa
Rica,” he says. “The only way to get into
the training and the competition and the
lifestyle was to come to America.”
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ALEJANDRO CAMBRONERO
BORN: Oct. 19, 1976
BIRTHPLACE: Costa Rica
CURRENT RESIDENCE: Miami
HEIGHT: 5'8"
WEIGHT: 215–220 lbs. ofseason; 195 contest
COMPETITIVE HIGHLIGHTS: 2013 North
Americans, 1st light-heavyweight (pro card);
2012 Nationals, 7th light-heavyweight; 2012
USAs 7th light-heavyweight
MARRIED: to figure pro Maggy Cambronero
FACEBOOK: [email protected]
TWITTER: @AlejCambronero
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So across the Gulf he came, settling
into life as a busboy at Gloria Estefan’s
restaurant, Larios on the Beach. He didn’t
speak much English. But his schedule
gave him plenty of time to train, and as a
bonus, he met his future wife, Maggy,
when she came in one evening to dine.
Even though he was a dedicated lifter,
Alejandro didn’t feel ready to compete
until 2010 when he did the Ronnie Cole-
man Classic. Unfortunately that experi-
ence was nothing short of a disaster. “I
tore my pec before the show and had to
have surgery two days later,” he recalls.
“But I competed anyhow, and I placed
very, very badly. I even cried!”
A few months later, he took another
shot, this time at Dayana Cadeau’s compe-
tition up I-95 in Fort Lauderdale. There he
redeemed himself by placing first in the
light-heavies and winning the overall and
best-poser awards. “Then, of course, I had
to do the 2011 Ronnie Coleman show to
prove I could do it,” he laughs. “I placed
second in the light-heavyweight against
[current IFBB pro] Cory Mathews.”
These days, the 37-year-old maxes out
at 220 pounds offseason, trimming down
ALEJANDRO’S DUMBBELL CHEST ROUTINE
EXERCISE SETS1 REPS WEIGHT (LBS.)
Incline Dumbbell Press 4 10–12 100–140
Cable Crossover 4 15–20 Half the stack
Flat-Bench Dumbbell Press 4 10–12 100–140
Incline Dumbbell Flye 4 10–12 40–50
Dip 4 20–25 Bodyweight + up to 100
ALEJANDRO’S BARBELL CHEST ROUTINE
EXERCISE SETS1 REPS WEIGHT (LBS.)
Smith-Machine Incline Press 4 10–15 225–315
Peck-Deck Flye 4 15 Full stack
Bench Press 32 6–12 135–405
Hammer-Strength Machine Press 6 8–20 90–450
Decline Barbell Press3 4 12 225
Dip3 4 20–25 Bodyweight + up to 100
1 Alejandro does 1–2 warm-up sets for each exercise before getting into his working sets.
2 The third set of this exercise is a drop set starting with 405 for 6 reps, 315 for 8 reps, 225 for 8 reps, and 135 for 10 reps.
3 Alejandro supersets these exercises, taking a minute’s rest after he completes both moves.
to a neat 195-pound package come con-
test time. After competing with some suc-
cess on the national amateur stage,
Alejandro finally found the winning for-
mula when he took the light-heavy class
at the 2013 North Americans last August
in Pittsburgh. In less than three years Ale-
jandro had grabbed a coveted pro card.
“I put on about 6 more pounds by ex-
tending my offseason, bringing up the
backs of my legs, especially the ham/glute
tie-in. Previously I had soreness in my low-
er back, especially after squatting, pain
that would last a week. I determined it was
TRAINING SPLIT DAY BODYPARTWORKOUT 1
Monday Back, absTuesday ShouldersWednesday Legs, abs (hams/glutes emphasis)
Thursday OfFriday ChestSaturday Legs, abs (quads emphasis)
Sunday Of
WORKOUT 2
Monday BicepsTuesday TricepsWednesday Legs, abs (hams/glutes emphasis)
Thursday OfFriday ShouldersSaturday Legs, abs (quads emphasis)
Sunday Of
Alejandro trains calves on leg days.
Ofseason he does 20 minutes of cardio
twice a week. Precontest that increases
to 30–50 minutes twice a day.
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INCLINE DUMBBELL PRESS
SET-UP: Adjust an incline bench to 45
degrees and sit squarely on the bench,
kicking the weights up to your shoulders with
the aid of your thighs. Turn your palms to face
forward, elbows pointing outward and down.
EXECUTION: Press the dumbbells forcefully
upward and together, extending your arms
without locking out. At the peak, your arms
should be perpendicular to the floor with the
inner heads of the weights nearly touching
over your upper chest. Reverse the motion,
lowering slowly to the start.
ALEJANDRO’S KEY TIP: “This is one of my
favorite exercises to develop thickness in the
upper chest. I put it first because this is an
area that needs work and I want to do it when
I have the most energy.”
Don’t get locked into
always using the
same bench angle.
With an adjustable bench,
sometimes use a steeper
incline, sometimes nearly
flat, to vary the point of
emphasis on your upper
pecs.
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related to flat feet, so inserting orthotics
into my shoes made a big difference and
helped eliminate the lower-back pain.”
Though his contest resume was rather
thin, and the best he’d done before his big
win in Pittsburgh was a seventh-place
finish at the 2012 NPC Nationals and the
USAs the same year, Alejandro credits his
meteoric rise in part to his coach, IFBB
pro Bill Wilmore. “We worked on bring-
ing up my legs. We trained legs twice a
week, and I noticed a lot of gains in the
last year. I also had to actually work out
with Bill, who is a lot bigger and stronger
than I am. He always pushes me out of my
comfort zone; it’s definitely hard work!”
Besides having a motivational training
partner who weighs nearly 80 pounds
more than he does, Alejandro found that
Bill’s style of supersets and FST-7 training
worked especially well for him. “Bill has
really made the biggest difference — he’s
an exceptional trainer and coach — and I
made huge improvements that I wouldn’t
have been able to make on my own.”
Alejandro made another move that
paid big dividends: He gave up his full-
time job working for an electrical firm to
become a personal trainer, which allowed
for him flexibility with his training sched-
ule as well as the time to eat the requisite
meals he needed to make the big gains.
Though his win in Pittsburgh might
have been somewhat unexpected, Alejan-
dro already has new plans as he enters the
pro ranks, setting his sights on making his
pro debut at April’s Europa Super Show
in Orlando. He’s well under the weight
limit, so he hopes to add another 10
pounds by then.
In the meantime, he and Maggy are
regularly seen on local television as
they’re taking ABC news reporter Tamika
Bickham through a 20-week transforma-
tion, all documented on video, as they
prepare her for a local contest. In addi-
tion, he’s signed contracts with Total Nu-
trition and Boca Tanning in South Miami.
He’s come a long ways from the
130-pound cyclist living in Costa Rica, but
Alejandro’s finally got a winning formula
and no longer needs a bike to move swift-
ly in the right direction.
Miami Muscle Machine
CABLE CROSSOVER
SET-UP: Attach two D-handles to the upper pulleys and
grasp one handle in each hand, centered in the apparatus.
Use a split stance with your knees bent, leaning slightly
forward and positioning your arms out to the sides,
maintaining a slight bend in your elbows.
EXECUTION: Pull the handles forward and down toward the
centerline of your body, keeping your elbows slightly bent
and your torso steady. At the peak contraction your hands
should be centered at your lower chest with your knuckles
nearly touching. Slowly open your arms back out to your
sides, resisting the pull of the weight stack on the return.
ALEJANDRO’S KEY TIP: ÒThis isnÕt a boxing workout so
donÕt ÔpunchÕ the handles forward with this move. I see a lot
of guys doing this, but that works your shoulders and triceps
and lessens the emphasis on your chest.Ó
Again, don’t
always get
locked into
doing the movement
the same way. On
occasion bring the
handles more
forward than down;
at other times step
forward so that the
angle of pull changes
to hit the pecs
slightly diferently.
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FLAT-BENCH
DUMBBELL PRESS
SET-UP: Lie on a flat bench with
your back arching naturally and
hold a pair of dumbbells directly
over your mid-chest with your
arms straight (elbows unlocked)
and perpendicular to the floor,
palms facing away from you. The
inner heads of the weights
should be nearly touching.
EXECUTION: Slowly lower the
weights, keeping your wrists
stacked over your elbows, your
forearms perpendicular to the
floor. Lower the weights to a
point just outside your shoulders.
Forcefully press the dumbbells
back up, extending your arms
and squeezing your chest to full
arm extension.
ALEJANDRO’S KEY TIP: “While
you can’t bounce the weights of
your chest as you can with a
barbell, bouncing out of the
bottom position is hard on the
shoulder joints and reduces the
contribution from the pecs. You
never want to make an exercise
easier to do.”
The dumbbell version allows
for a longer range of motion
and deeper contraction than
the barbell bench press. Hence it
makes a good substitute for adding
variety to your workout.
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Don’t stay vertical,
as that’s the
triceps version of
this movement. Raising
your feet behind you
helps push your center
of gravity forward, key
for emphasizing the
pecs.
He’s a big Heat fan:
Sure it’s hot in
South Florida, but
the Cambroneros
are season-ticket
holders for the
NBA’s Miami Heat
basketball team.
“We even have
a 90-pound
Doberman named
Udonis!”
Therefore, he hates
the Knicks: “The
very first Heat
game I went to,
they played the
Knicks. Everyone
just hates that
team. So I do too,
even to this day!”
He still has a yen for
BMX: “I’m planning
to buy a bicycle,
but don’t tell my
wife and my coach
— they don’t want
me to ride! I’m
pretty sure I’ll get
one anyhow.”
He’s a man of
influence: “I spent
2–3 years trying to
talk my wife into
working out and
going to the gym
when we first met.
And now she’s a
pro; she got her pro
card before I did!”
He’s a good husband:
“My wife competed
in the Toronto Pro
figure division last
June, so I ate what
she did, doing the
competition diet with
her, even though I
didn’t compete till
late August!” Maggy
placed 10th.
5 Things You Didn’t Know About Alejandro
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INCLINE DUMBBELL FLYE
SET-UP: Adjust an incline bench to about 45 degrees and sit
squarely on the bench with the dumbbells positioned outside your
shoulders, arms extended. With the weights facing upward and
forward in your hands, lock a slight bend in your elbows.
EXECUTION: Contract your pecs to bring the weights together
not in a pressing motion but in a wide arc, squeezing your chest
hard for a count in the peak-contracted position. Slowly open your
arms out to the sides, maintaining the bend in your elbows,
lowering until the weights come almost level with your shoulders,
feeling a deep stretch through your chest.
ALEJANDRO’S KEY TIP: “This is a great move to develop
separation in your pecs. Try to establish a solid mind-muscle
connection to really feel the movement, really squeezing and
holding each repetition at the top.”
PARALLEL-BAR DIP
SET-UP: Stand inside the dip apparatus and place your hands on
the rails, palms facing inward. Hop up and straighten your arms so
that you’re suspended between the bars. Cross your feet behind
you and lean forward.
EXECUTION: Bend your elbows and lower yourself down,
maintaining control of your speed at all times and allowing your
elbows to flare out. When your arms form 90-degree angles, press
into your palms and extend your arms to return to the start.
ALEJANDRO’S KEY TIP: “I like to start with just bodyweight, but
then with each subsequent set add a little weight to a belt around
my waist.”
As with all chest moves,
keep your chest lifted by
retracting your shoulder
blades; don’t cave in and let your
shoulders round forward. This
allows for a greater stretch and a
more powerful contraction.
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Miami Muscle Machine
Alejandro’s 6 Keys to Bigger Pecs1) Every other week I change my
equipment, so one week I’ll use
dumbbells and the next I’ll use bar-
bells. This allows me to work on
building size and strength one week,
then work on additionally strength-
ening the supporting muscles and
stabilizers the next.
2) When I do pressing motions, I
move the dumbbells in a vertical
plane; in other words, I don’t bring
them in toward each other. I feel this
better emphasizes my chest and de-
creases the input of the triceps.
3) For pressing motions I don’t fully
extend my arms, so you can see a
slight bend in the elbows even at the
top. I want the focus to stay on my
chest completely. I find that if I push
all the way up to lockout, I’m using
more triceps than I want to.
4) For all my exercises, I do a warm-
up set using lighter weight and high-
er reps. Rehearsing the motion first
gets my mind and muscles in sync.
Then I can go into the heavy sets
completely ready.
5) I sometimes use machines on bar-
bell day, and with those I really like to
focus on the negative contraction.
Machines have a predetermined
movement pattern and you don’t
need a spotter to help you control
the weight. I really like the Hammer
Strength press for negatives. I’ll use a
1-to-2 ratio of positive-to-negative
rep speed.
6) I train pretty heavy in the ofsea-
son when I have more energy and
carbs in my system. As I get closer to
a show, I still lift heavy, but I do more
supersets and giant sets. These help
me with my detail while also en-
abling me to lean out quicker.
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Alejandro’s Total Nutrition Supplement Stack“Hard work is the cornerstone of
success, but I also have to credit
much of my bodybuilding success
and progress over the last year to
both my trainer, IFBB pro Bill
Wilmore, and the pharmaceutical-
grade supplements I receive from
my sponsor, Total Nutrition
Superstores. I feel these formulas
gave me a distinct advantage over
the competition as each formula
delivers full clinical dosages of every
ingredient for awesome results.
“Here’s a sample ofseason mass-
building stack I used over the last
year. My trainer will make
modifications and adjustments
based on my conditioning in both
the ofseason and precontest.”
TEST-BOOSTING STACK: Nutracore
Nutrition Massive-RX & Dianatest,
used twice daily (a.m./p.m.)
PREWORKOUT STACK: Pharma Fuel
Engaged Extreme and 3 Capsules
Nutracore Nutrition Hypertrim
INTRA-WORKOUT STACK: Nutracore
Nutrition Carbalean mixed with
Amino Active (stimulant-free)
POST-WORKOUT: 1 serving
Nutracore Lean Active Gainer
(2:1 carb-to-protein ratio)
BEFORE BED: 1 serving Nutracore
Anabolic Dreams
ABOUT TOTAL NUTRITION
SUPERSTORES: Total Nutrition
Superstores is the fastest-growing
sports-nutrition franchise in the
world with more than 100 locations
in the U.S. and new ones opening
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more information.
WorldMags.netWorldMags.net
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156 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
Birthdate: Sept. 26, 1971
Birthplace:
Jacksonville, FL
Current residence:
Jacksonville, FL
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 235 lbs. contest;
250 lbs. ofseason
Contest Highlights:
2013: PBW Tampa Pro,
6th; Wings of Strength
(Chicago), 6th 2012:
PBW Tampa Pro, 5th
2010: North Americans,
heavyweight winner
(pro card)
Website: teambanks-
bodybuilding.com
Twitter: @BanksLee
Real-Time
CHEST AND
SHOULDER WORKOUT
IFBB pro Lee Banks goes high volume/low rest
in this raw, offseason chest-and-delts thrash
Eric Velazquez, NSCA-CPT
Photos by Gregory James
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If you looked at IFBB pro Lee Banks
and all 235 pounds of his lean, mean muscle mass and
didn’t know what he did for a living, what would you
guess as his occupation? Bouncer? He certainly has
the presence to work the velvet ropes. Super soldier,
perhaps? Closer; he did serve a stint in the U.S. Army.
But would you ever in a million years guess child-
care magnate? Not likely. But for this Jacksonville,
FL, native, kids have been his business for more than
15 years. At Super Duck Child Care, which employs
11 people at its two area locations, this sleeve-stretch-
ing bodybuilder is known simply as Lee.
“Most parents don’t even know what I do,” he
says. “They’ll just drop off the kids or pick ’em up.
They don’t even ask. Surprisingly, the parents all take
pretty well to me.”
Lee, whose mother ran a daycare when he was
younger, dove into the world of kiddie care after see-
ing his sister’s bank account grow in her first year of
running her own facility. “I’ve done really well with
it. I’m very structured and detail-oriented because of
what I learned in the military, and I think that helps
me with the chaos of it all,” he laughs.
Keeping kids engaged and entertained for hours
on end can mystify many, even parents, but Lee is no
more intimidated by that than he is the daunting up-
hill climb of professional bodybuilding. A pro since
2010, he has managed a few top-six contest finishes
but has yet to compete in the Olympia or an Arnold
Classic. Not that Lee laments these shortcomings.
Ever the laid-back gentleman, he sees competition
accolades as merely the icing on the cake. By his
measure — and in the opinion of many others — he’s
already a successful pro.
“I think I’ve done pretty well to this point,” he
says, tightening his belt for today’s real-time chest-
and-delts workout for the MuscleMag cameras.
“Maybe more of my success has been off the stage
than on the stage, but that makes me happy. I’m still
getting published, which keeps my face out there.
I’m getting guest-posing appearances. And because
I’m sponsored by Champion Nutrition and making
good money, I can go into these shows comfortable,
not feeling like I have to win. I want to, of course, so I
do the best I can. But my prep is always more relaxed.
That makes a big difference for any bodybuilder.
Stress levels can affect performance and make the
difference between who looks best on a given day
and who doesn’t.”
With that, the conversation begins to trail off. Lee
takes a deep breath and heads over to the dumbbell
rack to get ready for his first exercise of the day. No-
ticeably, his gait is less like that of a competitor with
a show date approaching and more like a guy out for
a stroll on a sunny day. For Lee, bodybuilding is more
of a pleasure pursuit than a paycheck, and he aims to
enjoy every minute of it.
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 157
WITH LEE BANKS
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4 sets x 10 reps
DUMBBELL PULLOVER
Lee is training today in a tank and it’s hard
not to notice his leanness. Unlike some
pros, his weight doesn’t fluctuate much in
the offseason. His heaviest is about 250,
but when Lee stepped onstage during
last summer’s Tampa Pro in Florida and
Wings of Strength in Chicago, he weighed
235 and finished sixth in both contests.
“I started working with Chris Aceto
back in March, and I didn’t want to give
him a raggedy base to work with so I got
my diet straight,” he says. “But I didn’t
have to do any cardio or any crazy prep for
today’s shoot. I really go by how I look. I
don’t concern myself with the scale. It’s
healthier for me, especially at my age.”
The concept of “age” lingers as Lee
takes only one warm-up set with his pull-
overs before grabbing a 120-pound dumb-
bell for his four working sets. “I’m not
really a warm-up guy,” he jokes. With eight
exercises on the day’s docket, this quickie
practice set seems anything but adequate.
“When I was younger, I’d go and start
throwing up 120-pound dumbbells on over-
head presses,” he explains. “Nowadays, I
still don’t do much. I just get in there and
do one warm-up set and say, ‘Let’s do this!’
But the pump comes pretty quickly. I trans-
form in the gym in like 15 minutes. Every-
thing just blows up.”
Real-Time
158 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
EXERCISE
Lee says he places the dumbbell pull-
over first in his chest routine because he’s
focusing on building his upper pecs. “Some-
thing about this move just puts a lot of
blood in there for me. But it’s easy to get it
wrong. You really want to keep your arms
straight and extend on each rep. Think
about tightening your upper chest so it en-
gages properly and keep a nice arch in
your back. It took me a while to get it, but
it has really helped my upper chest.”
Lee, who keeps things moving with
rest periods of 30–45 seconds, adds that
this move fires his upper pecs for his pri-
mary upper-chest mass-builder that’s next
in line.
For even more empha-
sis on the upper pecs
and to further reduce
lat engagement, do this
move seated on an incline
bench set to about 45 degrees.
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4 sets x 10 reps
INCLINE DUMBBELL PRESS
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 159
EXERCISE
“I normally work my way up to 150s
or heavier, but that’s if I’ve gotten enough
food in,” he explains. This workout is
taking place midday and Lee has downed
only two of the six meals he has usually
slain by this time. Still, the impressively
lean physique he sported before his first
working set has morphed into a stage-
ready work of art. Full and vascular, Lee
reminds us this is what he said would
happen: Just 15 minutes into his work-
out and he’s already fully pumped up.
Each rep is smooth and steady. Lee
prefers a controlled motion, never bounc-
ing out of the bottom or slamming the
weights together at the top, which would
take tension off the muscle.
“The pullover engages my upper chest,
and since I’m focused on bringing up
that area, I go right into another upper-
pec move,” Lee says. With incline press-
es, he alternates between using barbells
and dumbbells from week to week.
When using dumbbells, he does all four
sets with 120 pounds, banging out steady,
controlled reps with only a brief pause
at the bottom of each.
An oft-overlooked factor is the degree
of incline you set the bench to. The
steeper you go, the higher on your
chest you’ll focus but the greater you’ll in-
volve the weaker shoulder muscles. Vary
the degree of incline from one workout to
the next for more complete upper-pec de-
velopment.
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4 sets x 10 reps
DECLINE BENCH PRESS
Real-Time
160 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
EXERCISE
Understandably, Lee is a fan of angles
when it comes to training chest. And while
a great many of our gym brethren choose
to tackle incline moves first — we live in
a very upper-chest deprived culture —
there seems to have been a mass migra-
tion away from the decline in recent years.
Lee aims to bring it back.
Loading the bar with 245 pounds, he
explains, “I noticed that guys who get
into my age bracket, 40s and over, start
to have their lower chests drop the way
females’ lower glutes do! To keep the mus-
cles up there, you’ve got to do declines. But
for me it doesn’t have to be heavy; I just
want to get some blood in there to keep
that part of my pecs squared off.”
Again keeping things simple, he goes
through four sets of 10, taking a few sec-
onds between sets to walk around and
let the blood clear from his head. In-
tense but not strained on his last two
sets, Lee says he does the two types of
presses at the start of his workout to
build size, and that’s where he portions
out most of his focus for the day.
“The rest of the chest workout is
more detail and shaping work,” he says.
“At this point I’m pretty spent. I make it
a point to focus on the presses for obvi-
ous reasons.”
Here the range of motion is actually
shorter than the other pressing angles
for chest. And because your lats
contribute to the action, most lifters
find that they’re stronger on the decline
than on other types of presses.
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He may have spent all of his explosive
strength on his two pressing moves, but
Lee still tackles the pec deck like a man
on a mission. Locking himself into posi-
tion, he rocks the handles toward each
other in a wide, controlled arc. When the
handles meet in front of him, he squeez-
es them together forcefully.
Between sets and breaths, Lee elab-
orates: “Now the focus is on detail, so
I’m focusing on squeezing my hands to-
gether on each rep. Mentally, I’m visual-
izing someone doing their most muscular,
and seeing those lines and striations all
the way up the chest.”
This pec-deck pin is set at 120 pounds,
which is where Lee likes to stay for all
of his sets. “This is perfect for me. It’s
EXERCISE
4 sets x 15 reps
PECK-DECK FLYE
not too heavy, and allows me to focus on
getting a good stretch and contraction
rather than just moving the weight.”
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 161
Keep your elbows
elevated and in line
with your shoulders
and hands. It’s easy to
drop your elbows, but that
makes this single-joint
movement less efcient.
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Setting the pins at 60 pounds on the
two opposing weight stacks at the cable
station, Lee grabs the D-handles and
takes a half-step forward. With his arms
parallel to the floor, he takes a deep
breath and muscles the handles down
in front of his waist. As with the pec
deck, he squeezes intently at the bot-
tom of each rep before returning to the
start position.
Lee says it’s typical for him to in-
clude two isolation movements back to
Real-Time
162 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
EXERCISE
4 sets x 15 reps
CABLE CROSSOVER
back at the end of his chest workout.
Usually, as is the case today, the exer-
cises are done at different angles. He’ll
use the pec deck, the crossover or even
an incline bench flye to isolate various
areas of his chest. “At contest time, I’ll
do two or even three different angled,
single-joint exercises,” he says.
Make sure you lock a
slight bend in your el-
bows for the duration
of the set. If you ex-
tend your elbows you’ll in-
stead press the weights,
and this single-joint move
is about isolating the pec
fibers. Keep your triceps
out of the movement.
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“One day I was doing a chest press
here, and when I changed the angle of
my body I found that my front delt was
popping more,” he explains. “I was like,
‘Wow, this is working my delt more than
my chest.’ Even though this is a compound
movement, the most important part is
to angle your body in such a way that
you get your chest out of it as much as
possible. I know it doesn’t look that way,
but if you experiment with it you’ll see.”
Lee performs a set for his left, then
his right, then rests 45 seconds. Taking
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 163
EXERCISE
4 sets x 10 reps
HAMMER STRENGTH ONE-ARM INCLINE PRESS
quick stock of himself in the mirror be-
fore moving on, he says, “At this point,
my shoulders are pretty much pumped.
They’re not capped yet because I haven’t
done any middle-delt work, but they’re
pumped. My whole upper body is kinda
flooded right now.”
Lost as we’ve been in chest exercises —
five total are in the books — it’s time for
the second phase of today’s workout:
delts. In recent months, Lee has taken
to training shoulders three times per
week. He’ll use a lower volume of 2–3
exercises after chest and back or do a
dedicated shoulder workout with up to
six moves.
“It works well for me,” he says.
“Somewhat oddly, I have less pain or
discomfort in my shoulder joints doing
it this way compared to when I did just
one all-out day for delts per week. Be-
cause I’m training them more often, I
don’t have to try to use as much weight
to force them to grow and the greater
frequency has really worked.”
Strangely, Lee parks himself at a
seated Hammer Strength chest-press
machine. Loading a 45 and a 25 on each
side, he takes a seat, places his left hand
on the handle, then leans his entire body
a bit to his left. This is where he begins
each rep.
This upper-chest exercise can be
made into more of a shoulder
movement by angling your body
to one side. It also allows you to work
each side individually, which is a great
way to bring up a weaker side if you
have strength imbalances.
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Real-Time EXERCISE
So about those uncapped delts: Dumb-
bell lateral raises are next, so Lee heads
over to the rack and grabs a set of 40s.
It’s customary at this point, even for
hardcore lifters, to mix in a lighter set
to prep the delts for the stress of this
3 sets x 12 reps
DUMBBELL LATERAL RAISE
type of isolation work. But not Lee.
“Yeah, this is [the weight] I normally
use. There’s no sense in warming up be-
cause I’m already warm from all the
other work. I just grab the 40s and keep
it there for three sets.”
Deviating slightly from his “four sets
of 10” scheme, Lee cranks out three sets
of 12, bringing the weights to the out-
side of his hips on each rep. “I just feel
more comfortable this way,” he says. “I
tried doing it with dumbbells in front,
but I felt like it was a wasted motion. I
get a good enough stretch coming to my
sides, and it isolates that middle delt
more than if I come to the front. Going
to the front just gets too many other
muscles involved.”
Still, Lee’s breaks are brief, lasting no
more than 30 seconds. “If I take any
longer than that, I feel like I’m getting
cold,” he says with a wink.
164 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
A Champion in Lee’s CornerLee powers through
his high-intensity chest
and shoulder workout
with the aid of these
key supplements from
Champion Nutrition:
• Before Morning Cardio
— Performance Amino
Shooter Edge With
Meals 1 & 5
• Performance Liver
Cleanse
• Preworkout
• Performance BCAAs
• Post-Workout
• Performance Pure
Whey Plus protein
shake with Power
Glutamine and
Performance Power
Creatine
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“I just love ’em,” he says. “You get a
great stretch and good constant tension,
and because of that you end up with
those great striations.”
On each rep, Lee brings the handle
to eye level before lowering back to the
start with his arm by his side. He takes
almost no rest between sides or sets,
giving the impression that he senses the
finish line just around the corner. After
a third set with each arm, he brings the
workout to a close.
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 165
EXERCISE
3 sets x 12 reps
ONE-ARM CABLE FRONT RAISE
THE LEE WAYUnbuckling his belt and tossing it in his
bag, Lee walks over to fill his protein
shaker with water. Then he mixes a few
heaping scoops of Champion Whey —
vanilla ice cream, in case you were won-
dering — and gets to blending. He talks a
bit about what shows he might do next
year, but for the moment doesn’t seem
particularly concerned about any of
them despite the fact that he looks like
top-six material right now. His ability to
compartmentalize so well is laudable.
“I just separate myself from body-
building,” he explains. “I have the fan-
tasy life of a bodybuilder but when I’m
at home or at work, I’m just Lee Banks.
A lot of guys get caught up in all this be-
cause that’s all they do. To my parents
I’m a normal guy. I don’t even show
them my magazines because I don’t
want them to see me any differently!”
His easygoing attitude is also a pow-
erful public relations tool, Lee says. “I
think humility is one of the greatest as-
sets you can have in this line of work. It
can make you or break you. People al-
ways look at us as intimidating. So to
find out that we can walk around with
all this muscle and be humble puts the
sport in a good light and eliminates a lot
of prejudice about who we are.”
His pecs and delts sufficiently
thrashed, this humble bodybuilder in-
congruously heads out to rub elbows
with 4-year-olds to close out the work-
day at Super Duck.
“I love what I do,” he says as the gym
door swings shut behind him.
Lee heads back to the cable station for
his final exercise of the day: the one-
arm cable front raise.
“I want to go pretty light on these,”
he says, setting the pin at 35 pounds.
“I’m already pretty done, but I want to
finish strong.” Doing these unilaterally
allows him to concentrate on getting a
quality contraction with each rep, and
he says he enjoys cables for delt isola-
tion work.
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166 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
All Hail the
Icelandic strongman champion Hafthor “Thor” Björnsson looks like something straight out of Norse mythology, and this spring you can catch his freakish physique on the fourth season of Game of Thrones, where he fittingly plays a gigantic medieval war machine known as The Mountain. By Alex Zakrzewski
Strong Acting SkillsDespite being on set for 12 hours a day, Björns-son has been enjoying the filming. “I had four consecutive filming days, and believe me, it’s hard work — espe-cially for the first few days as I was in full-body armor the whole time and wielding a very heavy sword,” he says. “The sun kept shining brightly every day and the heat was intense. But they took care of me. Three beautiful women waving hand-held fans worked hard to cool me down, peo-ple carried platters of fruit and, as I told them I needed to eat every 2–3 hours, they brought me whatever I needed. At times I felt like a real medieval king!”
PH
OTO
S C
OU
RT
ES
Y H
AF
TH
OR
JU
LIU
S B
JO
RN
SS
ON
HAFTHOR JULIUS BJÖRNSSONAGE: 25
BORN: Akranes, Iceland
CURRENT RESIDENCE: Kopavogur, Iceland
NICKNAMES: Haf, Thor,
Lion, The Mountain
TWITTER: @ThorBjornsson_
INSPIRATIONS: Jon Pall
Sigmarsson, Bill Kazmaier
Mighty Thor!
DEADLIFT
902 lbs.
SQUAT
772 lbs.
LOG LIFT
424 lbs.
BIGGEST LIFTS
ATHLETE PROFILE
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JOINING THRONESThe makers of Game of Thrones first approached Björnsson through Face-book. “I received a short mes-sage that read, ‘Would you like to act in Game of Thrones?’” he says. “I assumed this was a joke and didn’t reply.” It wasn’t until the hit show be-gan filming in Iceland that it dawned on Björnsson that it was a real ofer, so he immediately approached the director and expressed his interest in auditioning. Like his Viking ances-tors centuries before, Björnsson found that swinging a sword came naturally, and he quickly impressed coaches and crew alike with his strength and athleticism. Within a short time, he was ofered the role of George R. R. Martin’s fearsome char-acter, “The Mountain” Gregor Clegane.
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 167
Feeding the OdinsonBjörnsson’s day begins at 8 a.m. with what he calls “a super secret boost of super food.” Meals at 2–3-hour intervals always con-sist of a healthy combo of proteins such as salmon, chicken or steak, accompanied by brown rice and either sweet or baked potatoes. A helping of broccoli or raw salad adds some fiber to the mix.
From Hoops to StonesGiven Hafthor Björns-son’s towering 6'8" height, it’s no surprise that basketball was his Hafthor Björnsson’sfirst athletic passion. That all changed in the sum-mer of 2009 when he
began training with Icelandic strongman
legend Benedikt Magnusson, who recognized the young up-and-comer’s talents and encouraged Björnsson to test his
mettle at the Westfjord Viking Strong-man competition. In just his first event, he set a new Icelandic record in stones
and finished the contest in a respect-able fourth place. It turned out to be the beginning of a long list of strong-man laurels that today includes three consecutive first-place showings at Westfjord from 2010 to 2012.
Height:
6'8"Weight:
375 lbs.
Biceps:
20"Forearms:
17"Chest:
60"Thighs:
31"Calves:
22"
BY THE
NUMBERS
STRONGMAN HIGHLIGHTS1st Place 2013 Strongman Champions League
3rd Place 2012 World’s Strongest Man
1st Place 2011, 2012 Iceland’s Strongest Man
1st Place 2010, 2011, 2012 Strongest Man in Iceland
1st Place 2010 Iceland’s Strongest Viking
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STRONGMAN
• BY MIKE JENKINS, WORLD’S STRONGEST MAN,
TEAM MHP ATHLETE
STRONGMAN SUMMIT
[A] Well, considering it’s strong-
man, you need that brute
strength to be able to handle the heavy
loads that are in contests these days.
That said, without good foot speed you’ll
struggle in events like yoke and farmer’s
walk. Any kind of loading medley is also
speed-biased. Most of the implements
are liftable by all the competitors, but
those who can literally run with them
will do much better. The sport has be-
come so competitive that you see lots of
guys who are 375-plus pounds who run
like they’re 225.
THE NEED FOR SPEED
168 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
Being a successful strongman requires
great agility and athleticism. Are there
any events in which better footwork
and speed almost always win out over
pure brute strength?
Slow and steady may pay off for some, but today’s top strongmen won’t win the race moving like a tortoise. Kick-start your quickness with these speed-training strategies and slash those seconds off the stopwatch.
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STRONGMAN SUMMITP
ho
tos b
y G
reg
ory
Jam
es
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 169
BUILDING STRONGMAN QUICKNESSRotate between heavy and light event days
when training for a specific timed event.
Save your event days for the weekend or
whenever you typically have more time to train.
Pick a weight and see how far you can go in 8–10 seconds.
Use 60%–70% of a contest weight and try
to reduce your run time each week.
Stick to 3–4 quality runs at max speed.
Learn to keep accelerating through the contest
finish line by going 10 feet farther in training.
Tracking my progress in strength is
second nature to me now, but how do
I know if my speed and quickness are
improving on pace? How do you track
your speed progression, and what are
some realistic goals I should set for
myself from week to week?
[A] Start by taking the same weight
farther or faster each week or a
heavier weight for the same or for better
time. It can be as easy as setting out
cones to where you made it to last week
in 20 seconds so you know that this
week you have to get there in less time. If
it’s an event for distance, having a goal to
shoot for, like a line or cone from a previ-
ous week, can really help you. It’ll make
you aware of the extra push you need to
get another 10 feet, which could make
the diference between first and fifth
place. Basically a stopwatch and some
cones or sidewalk chalk are all you need.
I’ve been competing in strongman
meets for the past year and making
huge gains in strength, but I’m really
falling behind in the timed events.
How should I restructure my training
to boost my speed?
[A] I tell everyone I train that
you’ve got to run fast to get fast!
That has stuck with me since my foot-
ball days at James Madison University.
In football you don’t need to run
800-meter sprints, you need to be able
to go hard for 4–6 seconds. Similarly in
strongman, you obviously won’t run a
quarter-mile with a yoke, but you also
won’t get anything out of plodding along
for 60 seconds with an extremely heavy
implement. Start light and focus on your
footwork, and over time your numbers
will go up. Measure how far you can go
in 10 seconds with a given weight; then
each week try to go either a little farther
or a bit heavier. When training for spe-
cific events, pick one that you’ll go light
on during your event day and moder-
ately heavy on another, but don’t worry
so much about moving fast.
In training, I’m very comfortable push-
ing myself for those extra reps and
adding more weight to my lifts. I’m far
more cautious and hesitant to push
myself during farmer’s walk, running
with a keg or atlas stones, etc. Any
tips on how I can train safely but still
push myself to get better at these?
[A] I think it’s easier to do this, ac-
tually. The key is to remember
that you can always just drop the weight.
Having someone time you may also
help; having that clock running will
make you push a little harder. If you fin-
ish a given event in 24 seconds on the
first run, have the timer make you aware
of it so you can try to beat that time on
the next run. And it may sound kind of
simple, but I honestly think that visual-
ization works. If you were to listen to
me before an event, I keep talking to
myself, saying, “fast, fast, fast.”
"Measure how far you can go in
10 seconds with a given weight;
then each week try to go a little
farther or a bit heavier."
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Sleeve-splitting arms is a goal of every true gym rat, but getting your ticket to the Gun Show takes real work. We pick the brain of IFBB pro Anthoneil Champagnie on how to keep your biceps and triceps fully loaded.
Ph
oto
by G
reg
ory
Jam
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WELCOME TO THE GUN SHOW
170 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
Built IN BROOKLYN
• BY ANTHONEIL CHAMPAGNIE,TEAM MHP ATHLETE
(A) Thanks. Making sure my arms
stay in proportion to each other
is something I’ve always paid close at-
tention to. I like to use a lot of single-arm
exercises in my routine. Whether I’m
training biceps or triceps, the key is to
make sure one arm isn’t doing more
work than the other. One-arm isolation
exercises are great finishers, too.
You have some impressive arm develop-
ment — great size and everything looks
in proper proportion. How do you make
sure that your biceps and triceps grow
evenly when you’re trying to put on size?
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(A) In the ofseason I like to train
my arms once a week, but during
contest prep I drop it way down. I may do
arms two times a month, or sometimes I
include triceps or biceps on a day with an-
other bodypart. Mainly because I’m train-
ing so much as I get closer to a show, I can
easily get a pump in my arms while train-
ing back or chest. I also don’t want to in-
jure myself, so I’m very cautious on days
when my arms feel tight.
(A) As a bodybuilder, genetics is al-
ways a factor. Some guys are
born with great shape to their muscles.
The rest of us sometimes have to focus a
lot more on weak points. To build more
thickness in the biceps from the front,
try using a wider than normal grip
when doing barbell curls, which better
targets the short (inner) head of the bi-
ceps. Same thing on seated preacher
curls, so be sure to use free weights and
not the machine station.
(A) Well, the first thing you’ll learn
sooner or later as a bodybuilder
is that you can’t go heavy all the time.
Remember that heavy weight won’t
necessarily increase your arm size, but
being able to contract and control the
proper weight for quality reps will.
That said, you could try using elbow
wraps if you still want to lift heavy, but
I’m not a fan of this. Properly warming
up can help, too, but your best bet is to
cycle periods of heavy training with
lighter-weight/higher-rep ones.
BUILT IN BROOKLYNP
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aso
n B
reeze
musclemag.com | DECEMBER 2013 171
I’ve had some injuries in the past and my
right biceps really lags behind compared
to the left. So I try to avoid any barbell
curls and stick to training each arm indi-
vidually. What exercises should I do to
make sure both arms develop evenly?
A significant weakness in my arms is
that my biceps look thin from the front,
but from the side they look great. What
exercises should I start doing to fix this?
I love to train heavy on arm day, but
my elbows are starting to get sore.
Any tips on how I can keep the stress
of my elbow joints but still train my
arms heavy?
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Making Gains By Alex Zakrzewski, Online Editor
Shaun Hoisington AGE: 33 | HOMETOWN: Burleson, TX
THE SHREDDERFour years ago, a 400-pound Shaun realized he couldn’t play with his children more than 10 minutes before almost collapsing from exhaustion. After burning through every top training DVD you can think of, he has shredded down to a muscular 194 lbs. and is no longer pre-diabetic. Better yet, everyone in his family has become a fitness fanatic, including his 4-year-old daughter. Dakota
Jordan Brown AGE: 18 HOMETOWN: Haysi, VA
VASCULAR
VIRGINIANAt age 15, Dakota
started lifting weights
“just for fun.” Today,
he still has fun in the
gym, but his laughter
is often drowned out
by the gasps of envy
he gets whenever he
takes off his shirt.
Brandon Wickens AGE: 22HOMETOWN: Toronto, ON
PHILOSOFREAKIt’s hard to believe that Bran-
don was once — by his own
admission — skinny, weak and
insecure. Despite having built
himself into an impressive speci-
men of solid muscle, he insists
the real gains have been on the
inside. “The stronger I get in the
gym,” he says, “the easier it is for
me to battle the ups and downs
of life.”
Tyler Bell AGE: 27HOMETOWN: Valrico, FL
CAPTAIN CRUSHWhile on deployment in Af-
ghanistan, Capt. Tyler Bell used
weightlifting to help relieve
stress. He even had his family
mail him protein and tuna to
ensure he kept his major gains.
Now safely back home, he
weighs in at an iron-dense 205
lbs. When on base, he’s often
mistaken for an M1 Abrams
battle tank.
Jason Oliver AGE: 33 HOMETOWN: Marydel, MD
ICE GIANTNine years ago, back spasms
ended Jason’s hockey career.
His doctor gave him two
options: Get surgery or join
a gym. Jason smartly chose
the latter, and today his back
is healthier and more ripped
than ever. He also looks like
the meanest thing on ice since
the ’73 Philadelphia Flyers.
Have you crushed your training goals and made gains you once thought impossible? Stop telling everyone at the gym and start telling us!
Drop us a line on Facebook and let us know your incredible
success story. Like these lucky fans, you just might find
yourself featured in the pages of MuscleMag.
172 DECEMBER 2013 | musclemag.com
Craig Vigil AGE: 25HOMETOWN: Tooele, UT
PEC-TACULAR
POPSCraig was a 160-pound partier
until his wife introduced him
to the fitness lifestyle. The
father of three has since gone
from being a party animal
to an animal in the gym and
couldn’t be happier.
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