Q & A

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1) What type of training program is best to do in the off-season? How much training per week? How many sets per session?Q: I am 26 years old and work as a personal trainer in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I want to begin to train as a natural bodybuilder, but I do not have enough information on how to start.I have trained regularly for eight years, and I have a good foundation — at least I think so. I have never taken banned substances but only supplements: whey protein, creatine and L-glutamine. I hope that you will answer my questions:

2) How long should the workouts take when training to gain mass in the off-season?

3) How many grams of protein per kilogram of body weight are sufficient to increase muscle mass when training in the off-season?

4) How do I calculate how many calories I need when I train for mass? What about when I’m on a diet?

5) Which supplements really work? Creatine? Whey protein? L-glutamine? BCAAs?

6) For muscle definition, what type of training program is best when I am on a diet? How much training per week, and how many sets per session? How long should the sessions be?

7) What’s the best diet for a natural bodybuilder?

8) How many grams of protein per kilogram of body weight is sufficient to increase muscle mass when training for muscle definition? What about grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight?

I know I am asking a lot. I worked the entire winter to build mass. Now I want to move on to diet, but I don’t know exactly what to do, and my metabolism is such that it’s hard for me to gain weight but easy to lose fat. I hope you will help me. I live in a small country where no one has even heard of natural bodybuilding. Thank you.

A: I would be happy to help you. Congratulations on following the natural bodybuilding lifestyle for the past eight years. You asked some good, basic questions on both off-season training and nutrition as well as the best strategies for getting ripped and lean.

The best training program for the off-season depends on your experience. For someone with your years of training, a more advanced program is called for, one that would have you training your full body over three to four workouts. At this stage you train four or five days per week. I prefer working out only four days per week when training to add mass because I get enough recuperation between workouts to give each training session my best effort.

As for the optimum number of sets per workout, I like keeping my total sets to fewer than 30. An advanced bodybuilder should do approximately three exercises for a big muscle group like chest, back and legs and only two exercises for a smaller body part like arms or calves. If you perform three to four sets per exercise, you will be doing six to eight sets for a smaller muscle group and nine to 12 sets for the bigger muscles. Even if you combine several muscle groups in one workout, your total sets should not be more than 25 to 30.

How long each workout lasts depends on the amount of rest you take between sets. If you’re training for mass, you will need to work out with heavy weights for six to eight reps using the basic exercises. In order to give each set 100 per cent, you cannot rush the rest periods between sets. I like taking at least three to five minutes when doing heavy, basic exercises such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, incline presses and barbell rows. You need that rest time to restore the ATP in the muscle cells and give each set your best effort.

I believe in taking in 1.25 grams of protein for each pound of body weight. If you weigh 200 pounds — about 90 kilos — you should be eating 250 grams or protein per day. That’s a moderately high amount of protein and should be plenty to restore muscle tissue after a mass-building workout.

With carbohydrate the amount varies depending on your age, metabolism, activity level and body type. If you have a very fast metabolism and have a difficult time adding muscle or body weight, I recommend that you eat at least two to three grams of carbohydrates for each pound of body weight. If we use the example of the 200-pound bodybuilder, he would be eating 400 to 600 grams of carbohydrates in addition to the 250 to 300 grams of protein.

When I was in my 20s and 30s, I had a very fast metabolism, and it was difficult for me to add muscle. It didn’t matter how heavy I trained or how hard I worked out, if I didn’t eat a lot of calories and carbohydrates, I would not gain weight. I remember one year being stuck at the same weight for eight months, even though I was really trying to bulk up.

At that stage of my career, I had to get 500 to 700 grams of carbohydrate every day to slow my metabolism down and start adding body weight. My rule was to eat two sources of complex carbohydrate — oatmeal, whole-wheat bread, baked or sweet potatoes, brown rice or oat bran — with each meal. I was actually getting tired of so much food after months of eating like that.

Now that I’m older and my metabolism is much slower, it would be a mistake to eat that many complex carbs every day. It would add too much body fat, and it would be too difficult to get rid of all the excess fat. You have to decide how many calories and carbohydrates you need for gaining size and body weight and then do some experimentation. If you’re not adding any size and seem to be at a sticking point, figure out how many calories and carbohydrates you’re taking in and begin increasing them until you start to get bigger.

The most effective supplements, in my opinion, are protein powders, postworkout recovery drinks, creatine, nitric oxide and glutamine. If you’re trying to gain size, you should use a protein supplement that contains carbohydrates and additional calories like Optimum Nutrition Pro Complex Gainer. If you’re looking to stay lean, choose a protein powder that does not include additional carbs.

Creatine is an excellent supplement for strength and power. You can use it both before and after your workout. Nitric oxide supplements are also very effective for getting a great pump during your workouts. I love the new Speed Stack N.O. from American Body Building for energy and a great pump.

Branched-chain amino acids and glutamine are excellent supplements for retaining muscle tissue while dieting to lose body fat. They help protect against catabolism when the calories and carbohydrates are low to get that very low body fat per centage.

When training for muscle definition, I don’t change my workout program. I still train as heavy as I can with the basic exercises. If you use less resistance and get away from the basic movements that developed your muscle initially, you’ll get smaller as you lose the fat. It’s just common sense — if you stress the muscles less than you did before, they’ll respond by getting smaller.

I rely on my diet for getting leaner and also add some cardio training to speed up the fat loss. Don’t change your weight-training program. Keep training as heavy as possible with the basic exercises, although you may lose a little strength as you eat fewer calories and carbohydrates.

When I’m dieting to lose fat but keep my hard-earned muscle, I increase my protein intake from 1.25 grams per pound of body weight to 1.5 grams per pound. You’ll need the extra protein to help maintain your mass as well as increase your metabolism.

To lose the fat, I manipulate my carbohydrate intake. How much you will need to lower your carbs again depends on your metabolism, age, activity level and bodytype. I was able to eat a lot more carbs when I was younger than I can now. If you can get progressively leaner and more ripped by eating a good amount of carb, more power to you. The carb is protein sparing and will help you train heavier and keep more muscle.

If you need to eat less carbohydrate to lose stored body fat, it’s best to alternate lower and higher carb intakes. Those who keep their carbs very low all the time seem to lose muscle tissue. If you don’t eat fewer carbs than in the off-season, you’ll have a difficult time losing body fat due to higher insulin. The ideal situation is to alternate several days of lower-carb eating with one or two higher-carb days.

How many carbs and calories you’ll need to maintain muscle tissue while losing body fat is, again, an individual situation. If you write down everything you eat during the off-season, however, you’ll have a better understanding of your body and how many carbs and calories you should eat in order to lose the fat slowly. You may have to experiment a little to get the macronutrient numbers just right for your body, but you’ll take away most of the mystery in the perfect diet.

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Q: I’m a 14-year-old freshman in high school. I read that you started bodybuilding at age 14, and that got me thinking. I’ve always wanted to look like a bodybuilder, but since I am only 14 and not big, I thought it would be impossible. I still work hard and go to the gym three to four times a week. I put a lot of effort into working out, and I plan to end up looking like a bodybuilder. I wanted to know some of the things you went through when you started bodybuilding — for example, what exercises you did, your nutrition, how long it took to see noticeable results. Any information will be appreciated.

member feeling a lot like you when I was your age. I remember looking at the bodybuilders in magazines, and it seemed impossible that I could ever develop my skinny body to look anything remotely close to the physiques I saw there. I recall the first time I saw a picture of Arnold; I honestly thought he was wearing a phony rubber suit. His muscles were so big, they didn’t look real.

It’s very important to look at the progress you make as an individual and not to dwell too much on how the bodybuilders in the magazines look. When I was 14, I’d actually get very depressed because I thought it was an impossibility to ever build my physique as big as guys like Arnold, Lou Ferrigno, Franco Columbu and Robby Robinson.

What made it even worse was that there were two guys in my high school — both my age — who had really impressive physiques. One guy, Greg Burda, was very bulky and thick, and the other guy, Ricky Kruz, was very muscular but also ripped, with definition and vascularity that were really unusual for a 14-year-old.

I was obsessed with developing big muscles, which made it hard to go to school every day and see those guys. Even more frustrating was that they were not as disciplined as I was. Greg would eat whatever he wanted, including junk food, and Ricky was known as a guy who liked to party. Meanwhile, I wouldn’t touch anything that had sugar in it. I was working out twice a day, six days a week, but I didn’t look nearly as good as they did.

It was around that time that I read an article about genetics. The author stated that only about one in 100,000 individuals had the genetics to actually become a champion bodybuilder. He clearly stated that it wasn’t just dedication or discipline that enabled you to develop a Mr. Universe physique. It was something that you had no control over: your genetics. Basically, he said, if you weren’t born to be a bodybuilder, you were screwed.

Reading that article made me even more depressed. I figured that the reason I was so skinny was because of poor genetics. It didn’t matter how hard I worked; I’d never be able to develop my body to look like the impressive physiques of the bodybuilders I admired in the magazines. I also thought that Greg and Ricky were blessed with those rare genetics, and that’s why they were able to attain such advanced development without putting in the same hard work I did.

After my freshman year of high school, I read an article written by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The topic was the power of the mind. Arnold talked about how he used positive thinking and visualization to create his championship physique. He also mentioned other bodybuilders, such as Franco Columbu and Frank Zane, who didn’t appear to have the genetics for bodybuilding when they began training. Each, however, eventually went on to win the Mr. Olympia title by believing in himself and being persistent with training and nutrition.

Arnold’s article changed my attitude. I started to believe in myself more and began to think much more positively. I also started to look forward to workouts because I was anticipating great progress and working on building my own Mr. Universe physique. It also helped that I was on summer break, which meant I wasn’t seeing the advanced physiques of my classmates on a daily basis.

That was a magic summer for me because I made so much progress in my development and learned the value of positive thinking. The mind is powerful, and it can work for you or against you, depending on how you think.

At the end of that summer, I had my brother Don take some pictures of me. I copied the poses that I saw my favorite bodybuilders do in the magazines, such as the front double-biceps, front lat spread, side chest, most muscular, back double-biceps and lat spread.

When I examined the pictures, I could see that I had some potential for bodybuilding. I had wide shoulders and a big rib cage, so I knew I had the structural foundation for building a good physique. I also took note of several muscle groups that grew easily and were strong points, such as my biceps and my lats.

The pictures enabled me to see what I needed to work on. I could tell that my triceps weren’t as developed as my biceps. I also needed to work on my lateral-deltoid heads to develop the caps of my shoulders. Finally, my legs were behind my upper-body development because I didn’t work my legs as hard during my first year of training.

Another important thing I learned about my young physique from the pictures we took was that I had good long-term genetics. I could see that I had a good structure and good shape in several of my bodyparts (peaked biceps, wide and low lats and pecs and good abs). I just needed to add more muscle all over my physique, and I knew that would take time because I was naturally skinny and not muscular — more ectomorphic than mesomorphic. It gave me hope, however, that the best was yet to come and that had a remarkable change on my attitude.

Taking pictures of your physique every few months is a great way to motivate yourself to train hard and make progress. If you know that you have to take some pictures on a certain date, you’ll train harder to make gains in time for your deadline. The pictures will also provide you with the feedback you need to analyze your physique and figure out which muscle groups you need to improve.

My training routine when I started working out was a little too advanced for my experience. Initially I followed the routine that Arnold used when he trained for the Mr. Olympia competition. That meant I was training six days a week, twice a day. I got up early in the morning and worked out before I went to school, and then I worked out again at night when I got home.

Although I was obviously overtraining, I still gained 20 pounds of muscle in that first year. I was only 135 pounds (61 kg) at 14 when I started high school, but by the end of the following summer, I was up to 155 pounds (70 kg).

It was around that time that I read another article by Arnold. He said that he trained only four days a week in the off-season when he was trying to add more size. Three months out from a contest, he would increase his training to six days a week, twice a day. His precontest routine was for refining his physique, while his off-season program was designed to add more muscle.

I immediately changed my routine to training only four days a week. Because I trained at home for the first two years, my leg workouts were pretty limited — but I trained my upper body very hard. My dad even installed a big metal pipe in the hallway of our house so I could do wide-grip chins to build my lats.

As for my nutrition, I didn’t know as much about it then as I would eventually learn, but I knew what was good to eat and what to stay away from. I was very strict about not touching anything that had sugar in it. I didn’t eat junk food at all the first couple of years when I started bodybuilding.

I ate a lot of protein — beef, tuna, eggs, chicken — as well as plenty of complex carbohydrates, like whole-wheat bread, baked potatoes and oatmeal. My metabolism was so fast when I was young that I had to eat a lot of food to gain weight. The supplement industry was in its infancy back then, so there weren’t many good protein powders available. I relied mostly on good food to build my physique.

My advice to you would be to stay positive and focus on your own progress. Begin by taking pictures of yourself hitting several of the bodybuilding poses. Also take measurements of the key areas of your physique: chest, waist, arms, thighs, calves, forearms and neck. Update the measurements once a month, and take new pictures every three months so you can measure your progress.

Keep your training days limited to three to four a week so you can recuperate and grow. Eat six meals a day, with each meal containing a complete form of protein — eggs, beef, chicken, fish, turkey, milk, cheese — and a complex carbohydrate — oatmeal, whole wheat or Ezekiel bread, potatoes, rice, pasta. Add protein drinks between meals and you’ll be on your way to developing your own championship physique. Good luck!

Q: Over the years I’ve heard several renowned bodybuilders discuss calf training, and one of the things they always recommended was to train calves after a quad and hamstring workout to keep the blood flowing through the legs. After thinking about it, however, I’m wondering, wouldn’t it be counterproductive for the calves to be trained after legs because the blood in the legs is carrying away the lactic acid from the thighs, thereby limiting the blood flow to the calves and not letting you achieve the maximum stress from calf work?

A: I’ve always separated my workouts for thighs and calves. I understand the theory that you’d get a much better pump by training calves immediately after thighs, but I’m not sure how effective that calf workout would be.

Leg training is probably the hardest workout you can do in the gym. The thighs are extremely powerful muscles, and they need a tremendous amount of resistance in order to grow. The legs also respond to higher repetitions, so the combination of heavy weight and high reps is brutal.

If you train legs properly, you should be completely wiped out after a leg workout. I have only enough energy to stumble out of the gym after one. I don’t train any other muscle groups after legs because I don’t feel I could have an effective workout for those muscles.

I tried training calves after upper legs, but my legs were so wiped out that they were shaking with exhaustion as I tried to do my calf work. It didn’t take me long to realize that I should train calves at a different workout if I really wanted to get them to grow.

I currently work my calves twice a week—with chest and triceps and then three days later with deltoids and traps. I do two exercises at each calf workout, three to four sets per exercise. Here are the calf workouts I use:

Workout 1 (with chest and triceps)

Seated calf raises 4 x 20, 15, 12, 12

Standing calf raises 4 x 12, 10, 8, 8

Workout 2 (with deltoids and traps)

Donkey calf raises 4 x 15-20

Leg press calf raises 3-4 x 12, 10, 10

A: Yes. In fact, my own model on undulating loading patterns has been compared in the scientific literature to other modules of training. You should definitely use it.

As a rule of thumb, I would say that the musculature grows best when both high-volume phases, known as accumulation phases, are alternated with high-intensity phases, known as intensification phases. The respective length of each phase will be affected by a variety of factors, such as nutrient intake, serotonin and dopamine ratios, hormonal makeup and fibre-type makeup.

Accumulation phases are normally characterised by the following:

• More exercises (two to four per body part)

• Higher reps (seven or more per set)

• Lower sets (two to four per exercise)

• Higher volumes (number of total sets x total reps)

• Lower intensities (below 80 per cent)

• Shorter rest intervals (30 to 90 seconds)

A typical accumulation phase may consist of three exercises done for three sets of 12 to 15 reps, resting an average of 75 seconds between sets.

Intensification phases are characterised by:

• Fewer exercises (one to two per body part)

• Lower reps (one to six)

• Higher sets (10 to 12 total sets per body part)

• Lower volumes

• Higher intensities (80 per cent of max and above)

• Longer rest intervals (three to five minutes)

A typical intensification phase may consist of two exercises done for five sets of four to six reps, resting an average of three to five minutes between sets.

Keep in mind that there are plenty of ways to undulate the training loads, but this is the one I prefer. To put it into practice, you might try alternating intensification and accumulation phases about every three weeks, or every six workouts. In other words, do an accumulation phase for six workouts, and then switch to an intensification program for six workouts.

Q: I lift weights a few hours before my karate lesson, and I have much greater speed and strength in my strikes. Is that normal? Shouldn’t I be fatigued?

A: No, it’s quite normal for your karate-specific strength to be enhanced  by a weight-training workout done before you go to the dojo. What you’re experiencing is a phenomenon called post-tetanic facilitation.

When you recruit high-threshold motor units, as you do in a weight-training workout, and then take a 10-minute rest period, there’s a temporary increase in strength that lasts four to six hours. That’s why NHL superstar Joe Sakic lifts a few hours before going on the ice on game day.

That trick for enhanced power performance is thought to have been developed by former Soviet Union sprinter Valery Borsov, an Olympic gold medalist of the early ’70s. Ideally, you should wait four to six hours between the sessions.

Q: You’ve said that stretching the antagonist muscle between working sets — as opposed to the agonist — is far more beneficial and productive. While I’ve found that method works well for both my clients and me, would you elaborate on the specific reason it’s so productive?

A: Static stretching temporarily weakens muscles. Thus, if you stretch the triceps statically, the biceps will encounter less resistance when contracting. That’s why static stretching of the hip flexors before a jump test improves performance. IM