Today as it's 7 in the morning, and I already finished my leg workout and drank my first shake for the day, I realized I haven't posted anything in a while! I decided since I have the ENTIRE day to do whatever I want (which NEVER happens, by the way), I wanted to tackle an issue that becomes a "great debate" among bodybuilders and weight lifters alike: Should you go ATG (Ass To Grass), or just parallel when you do your squats? The CORRECT answer varies on a few degrees, here they are.
When I did squats today, I decided to try something different, and go below parallel. Reaching the bottom was exciting, but I had a slight issue: my right knee started to HURT. As carefully as I could, I raised myself back up without hurting myself any more than I did going down. Relieved, I continued to only go to parallel. Why was this the smartest decision I made? I LISTENED TO MY BODY! Sorry to shout that out, but it's VERY important to do that, and people tend to neglect that. They just want to load up the weight, do what everyone tells them, and risk needing surgery in the later months of training.
Your body is the greatest indicator of what's going to work for you, and what's not. If it hurts, your body is telling you to STOP! People that have only begun to train don't quite know this yet, and that's why I feel it's important to get a trainer the first six months of your training for this fact alone (later on, it's equally important to use a trainer, but for different reasons). A smart trainer is someone that will make sure you take things slowly, and you don't try to "ego lift" and risk injury in the beginning stages of your training. Someone that's done this for YEARS will know when the body is mad at them for pushing too hard, and they have a better feel of what works for them.
On top of your body telling you to stop, there's other ways to determine if you should use parallel or ATG. People with shorter legs tend to get away with using ATG more, since the ROM (or Range of Motion) is about equal to say, someone with longer legs only going parallel. I have longer legs than the normal sized man, so I only need to go to parallel to hit the same muscle groups as hard as the shorter man that goes ATG.
I also do things people say you shouldn't do, such as hack squats, or squats where the bottom of the rep is sitting on a bench, and slowly raising myself up. Doing these squats are helpful to finish off the quads when you can't do full-range squats anymore, and even the Great Austrian Oak used the same techniques. The point of bodybuilding is to push your body to complete failure so it can re-build itself back up again. Using these tactics as well as cheat reps can help you build mass (don't use ONLY cheat reps, be sure to use lighter weights with good form shortly after the cheat reps as well to reinforce proper muscle teardown and to avoid injury).
So in summary, people are going to tell you it's either one or the other. I say, however, to listen to what your body tells you, and stick to what works best for your body. Remember: it's YOUR body to build, not OTHERS to destroy.
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Friday, October 11, 2013
Kali Muscle: a look into the diet of one of the biggest guys on the west coast
Now a few people are wondering who this guy up on top is. This man is known as Kali Muscle, and as you can tell, he's clearly very muscular. Whether it be by steroids or not is unknown to me, and I'm keeping that out of the discussion. The reason I mention him is because there is a lot of controversy on what he preaches, and to make it relevant to me, I'll backtrack to when I started to lift.
Going back 10 years, when I was 14, I knew NOTHING about dieting or eating right. I just started working out, I figured if I just kept eating what I did, but worked out it would work itself out. In a way, it did. I dropped a lot of fat and added a good amount of muscle, and by the time I was 16, I had a rock-hard 6-pack and could start to curl 100 pounds on a barbell. I wasn't even taking whey or any other supplements, and I even worked out right before bed (Did crunches in my bed, which wasn't very sanitary in retrospect since my sheets would be covered in sweat. But hell, I didn't care...I wanted a 6-pack!).
Fast-forward to college, where I started taking nutrition classes. I started to learn about these macros (lipids, carbs, and proteins) and what they did to the body. I started to follow it a little more closely and tracked my food, and realized all my macros were already in the ranges they should be in.
Ok, now let's bring this to what Kali is preaching in his videos. In one of his videos I saw, (in particular this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OgEe_wLjCk ) he speaks of not caring what a macro is, and focusing on how many calories instead. THIS is how I tracked if I was going to gain or lose weight before college! I didn't care about hitting my proteins while lowering my lipid count...it was about getting those 3000 calories in! I still follow this principle for the most part, and I'm slowly losing the fat and still gaining muscle. The only other thing worth noting about this way to eat is he also mentions when he wants to look more cut, he cuts his sodium down low. Because of my crazy overnight schedule now, I don't have much time to cook my meals, so my meals tend to be higher in sodium, and I hope to try this technique and see if it works as well.
Where Kali and I differ in the food intake, is I take whey supplement to help me feel more full and get a good amount of protein in quickly. But other than that, I believe in taking in healthier foods like brown rice, chicken breast, and frozen veggies steamed if you can. I try to eat as natural as possible, but at the same time I'm not tracking how many lipids I have taken in, or carbs. If I take in 2500 calories, and workout and expend 2800 calories naturally, I'm going to slowly lose weight, most likely fat if most of my calories are proteins it will help maintain my muscle. So overall: don't eat cake all damn day, and eat more home-made or natural stuff. If you're eating 3500 calories and gaining a lot of weight...and a lot of fat, cut down the calories, and take in less calories in general until you dialed it in right.
You don't have to agree to this method, as we all have a choice in life. Although, if you're having a hard time trying to get into the shape you want doing it the normal way, maybe switching it up may be just what you need to succeed.
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Overtraining explained a little more
I been reading what people have been saying about overtraining, and you can tell who's been trying it and making it work, and who hasn't. There are still some issues about how to do it properly, as CT and Mike don't tell you EVERYTHING they do or explain it fully, or they do and it's months later. I have my own regimen that I stick to that's not QUITE what they do, but I come close and I feel since I come close and I'm still gaining, I must be doing it right.
For one thing, I only train between 45 minutes to an hour, or sometimes I get a wild hair up my butt and I can go for an hour and a half. I don't train HOURS a day...I work full time overnights so I don't have that much time to dedicate to it, the good Lord knows I wish I could. They may train for HOURS a day, but they been doing this CONSISTENTLY for YEARS and worked their way up to that. Don't be too discouraged if you fall short on the time period. The main focus is to have little to no rest period to increase your TUT (Time Under Tension), and go for as long as you can. As long as you do that and your sore 24 hours later, you did it right.
Also from what I saw from CT's videos is he FINALLY explained why he doesn't do full ROM (Range of Motion) with his bench press: by restricting the motions so they don't hit the sticking point, you keep the muscle under tension, thus furthering your TUT. The beauty of TUT is you don't have to load up the weights to get a huge pump, rather you just keep the muscles under the tension as long as you can and you will build the muscle just the same, if not MORE.
Just remember that they don't always cut back on form to increase TUT, but it's a good change of pace to help build the muscle effectively. On the days they pyramid set, they're not going to sacrifice the form/ROM for a longer TUT, because they're increasing the weights up to their 1RM (One Rep Max), and going back down. Also, Mike has said that at the end of the workout, they always do either a burnout set (using weights that you just finished your pyramid sets with), or a 5-5-5 set (5 bottom-half reps, 5 top-half reps, and 5 full-range reps). I think there was another, but I'm not sure, because I usually finish with said methods.
To finish this post off, overtraining isn't for ego lifters. Overtraining is meant to tear down every muscle fiber you have, and that means bumping down the weight until there aren't any plates on the bar and lifting it until you can't anymore. If you want to get serious with training and build good quality muscle, this principle is a good one to follow, even if most people disagree with it, and I hope the people that don't understand, read this and realize there is SOME form of logic behind this method of lifting.
For one thing, I only train between 45 minutes to an hour, or sometimes I get a wild hair up my butt and I can go for an hour and a half. I don't train HOURS a day...I work full time overnights so I don't have that much time to dedicate to it, the good Lord knows I wish I could. They may train for HOURS a day, but they been doing this CONSISTENTLY for YEARS and worked their way up to that. Don't be too discouraged if you fall short on the time period. The main focus is to have little to no rest period to increase your TUT (Time Under Tension), and go for as long as you can. As long as you do that and your sore 24 hours later, you did it right.
Also from what I saw from CT's videos is he FINALLY explained why he doesn't do full ROM (Range of Motion) with his bench press: by restricting the motions so they don't hit the sticking point, you keep the muscle under tension, thus furthering your TUT. The beauty of TUT is you don't have to load up the weights to get a huge pump, rather you just keep the muscles under the tension as long as you can and you will build the muscle just the same, if not MORE.
Just remember that they don't always cut back on form to increase TUT, but it's a good change of pace to help build the muscle effectively. On the days they pyramid set, they're not going to sacrifice the form/ROM for a longer TUT, because they're increasing the weights up to their 1RM (One Rep Max), and going back down. Also, Mike has said that at the end of the workout, they always do either a burnout set (using weights that you just finished your pyramid sets with), or a 5-5-5 set (5 bottom-half reps, 5 top-half reps, and 5 full-range reps). I think there was another, but I'm not sure, because I usually finish with said methods.
To finish this post off, overtraining isn't for ego lifters. Overtraining is meant to tear down every muscle fiber you have, and that means bumping down the weight until there aren't any plates on the bar and lifting it until you can't anymore. If you want to get serious with training and build good quality muscle, this principle is a good one to follow, even if most people disagree with it, and I hope the people that don't understand, read this and realize there is SOME form of logic behind this method of lifting.
Friday, October 4, 2013
PTSD and how workouts can help.
I don't usually hear a lot about this, but I thought I should address it since I suffer from it myself, and a LOT of military men and women get it. It's a serious subject, and don't feel it gets enough attention.
PTSD is a condition that people get when they experience a very traumatic moment or series of moments that it haunts them for the rest of their lives. These moments stay with them the rest of their lives, and can be debilitating as episodes can paralyze or enrage the person experiencing the episode, and the person experiencing it or others can be harmed. My step-dad has it, but his episodes are when he sleeps sometimes after watching war movies. The one time, my mom tried to wake him when he had one and he held her up against the wall. Mind you, her feet weren't touching the ground. Thankfully, he pulled out of it in time, and he felt TERRIBLE for it.
I have it as well, not for the reasons a military man/woman would have it, but it doesn't make it any less dangerous. There are many ways to obtain it, and also many ways it gets triggered...like with my step-dad's gets triggered by having dreams. Mine are triggered when I think about the experience and tend to drink in a self-destructive rage. There are many triggers and many responses, but usually they end with the person feeling enraged and/or depressed.
So the reason I brought this up, is because with mental health, it can be rehabilitated with physical therapy when paired with psychological therapy. I know when I maintain my workouts, I feel a LOT better, and I don't get as enraged or depressed when my trigger goes off. Although it may not work for everyone that has PTSD, it should help to make it a little more manageable, since workouts can release endorphins that are the "feel-good" chemicals that get released in your body.
In summary, doing workouts consistently can help people that may have mental problems, since they can be just as disabling or dangerous as physical problems, and pairing therapy with workouts tends to help a lot. Like Jean Roqua said about his gym from my favorite movie "Never Back Down" said, "They usually come out a lot less angry than when they came in."
My heart goes out to the men and women that put their lives on the line to keep their loved ones and the rest of the country safe. I hope that this would help anybody that has PTSD, or even any other mental issues going on, and doing workouts helps them.
PTSD is a condition that people get when they experience a very traumatic moment or series of moments that it haunts them for the rest of their lives. These moments stay with them the rest of their lives, and can be debilitating as episodes can paralyze or enrage the person experiencing the episode, and the person experiencing it or others can be harmed. My step-dad has it, but his episodes are when he sleeps sometimes after watching war movies. The one time, my mom tried to wake him when he had one and he held her up against the wall. Mind you, her feet weren't touching the ground. Thankfully, he pulled out of it in time, and he felt TERRIBLE for it.
I have it as well, not for the reasons a military man/woman would have it, but it doesn't make it any less dangerous. There are many ways to obtain it, and also many ways it gets triggered...like with my step-dad's gets triggered by having dreams. Mine are triggered when I think about the experience and tend to drink in a self-destructive rage. There are many triggers and many responses, but usually they end with the person feeling enraged and/or depressed.
So the reason I brought this up, is because with mental health, it can be rehabilitated with physical therapy when paired with psychological therapy. I know when I maintain my workouts, I feel a LOT better, and I don't get as enraged or depressed when my trigger goes off. Although it may not work for everyone that has PTSD, it should help to make it a little more manageable, since workouts can release endorphins that are the "feel-good" chemicals that get released in your body.
In summary, doing workouts consistently can help people that may have mental problems, since they can be just as disabling or dangerous as physical problems, and pairing therapy with workouts tends to help a lot. Like Jean Roqua said about his gym from my favorite movie "Never Back Down" said, "They usually come out a lot less angry than when they came in."
My heart goes out to the men and women that put their lives on the line to keep their loved ones and the rest of the country safe. I hope that this would help anybody that has PTSD, or even any other mental issues going on, and doing workouts helps them.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Autumn: The Season of CHANGE
I know it's been quite a while since I wrote a post, and unfortunately, I have to keep this short as I'm on a tight schedule. Got switched to overnights, and have had to change my internal clock and still trying to adjust. Trying to adjust has made my lifting schedule suffer, but moving on...
For some reason, people that I talk to tend to have the most trouble training in the autumn/winter months. For these months, I usually make the most of the mildly warm/cool weather and workout MORE than I would in the hot seasons. I've made the most progress in these seasons, and I think I have a reason or two why.
Autumn means a cooler weather pattern typically, which means the air is less muggy, and oxygen is easier to enter your lungs. More oxygen getting carried to the muscles means a better overall pump, and helps increase your endurance as well.
I also tend to not sweat as much when I put in the same effort in the autumn as I would in the summer. For some reason, sweating excessively always distracted me from doing my best in a workout. I STILL have a fan on medium when I do my workouts today. I LIKE training in the cold. I also have my own bench set in my room, so if it's cold in the room, I just lift and it warms me (and the room, or at least I think the room is warmer...could just be my imagination) up.
Overall, this is the season where people can either profit the most if they try to make the most of it, or suffer the most because they don't stick with it. One thing is for sure though, they call it the season of change for a reason! Utilize this season to make the most progress you've ever gotten, keep pushing, and make the most of a season that gives us a chance to improve the most.
For some reason, people that I talk to tend to have the most trouble training in the autumn/winter months. For these months, I usually make the most of the mildly warm/cool weather and workout MORE than I would in the hot seasons. I've made the most progress in these seasons, and I think I have a reason or two why.
Autumn means a cooler weather pattern typically, which means the air is less muggy, and oxygen is easier to enter your lungs. More oxygen getting carried to the muscles means a better overall pump, and helps increase your endurance as well.
I also tend to not sweat as much when I put in the same effort in the autumn as I would in the summer. For some reason, sweating excessively always distracted me from doing my best in a workout. I STILL have a fan on medium when I do my workouts today. I LIKE training in the cold. I also have my own bench set in my room, so if it's cold in the room, I just lift and it warms me (and the room, or at least I think the room is warmer...could just be my imagination) up.
Overall, this is the season where people can either profit the most if they try to make the most of it, or suffer the most because they don't stick with it. One thing is for sure though, they call it the season of change for a reason! Utilize this season to make the most progress you've ever gotten, keep pushing, and make the most of a season that gives us a chance to improve the most.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Overtraining principle and Penitentiary lifting: is CT Fletcher on to something?
Lately, I been feeling my workouts lacked luster, so I decided to take a look into new ways and different theories guys that I want to look more like did as their regimen. And then CT showed up on my recommended videos on youtube. I believe the first video I watched is partially titled, "I command you to grow! Biceps/Arm Day with CT Fletcher", or something to that effect. Watching just the first 30 seconds, I knew who was my newest and biggest inspiration.
For those of you that don't know, CT is known as "The Strongest Man You Never Heard Of" since back in the 90's. He also has the most...colorful language you have ever heard too, with his most common word being Motherf---er, and it's also a term of endearment towards his fellow lifters. Either way, I saw this guy curling with arms that looked like they had bowling balls instead of biceps on them. Needless to say, I was immediately curious as to his "secret" to success. Watching more of his videos, he said there's NO secret for getting big, just busting your butt off (believe me, I'm editing for family-friendly purposes), and doing the work. Also in order to get big arms, he worked them out EVERY TIME he went into the gym, and said to hell with overtraining.
Now hearing this at first comes as a shock. To hell with overtraining? What about getting injured? He replied what my thoughts were saying before I could think of a conclusion to his logic. He believes that overtraining was made up my people to scare everyone into thinking they have to take their time, and slowly recover, and that overtraining is bull, and before anyone write it off, they need to try it first.
Ok, so I figured since he was being reasonable I should give it a shot. So for 4 days straight I trained arms, and the results were surprising. Although my arms were really sore by the end, I could tell they obviously grew. The amount of mass I could see that was built on was amazing! Sore, oh very much so, but I got results, and in such a short time!
Another trick that helped me besides overtraining was penitentiary style lifting. That is, you have very short rest periods, you work your way up to your 1 rep max or 3 rep max, and work your way back down to the lightest plate until you can't even lift that anymore. You also don't need to have strict form, just get the weight from one position to the other the best way you know how if you had to.
Not only did I gain sizeable mass, but the amount of strength increase was almost staggering too! I did chest yesterday and today, and I was able to go from struggling with 140 (I have a weak chest, I know. Also I lift by myself with no spotter), to having minor trouble with 160. In 24 hours, I gained enough strength to move 20 more pounds, and barely feel like I'm making a 100% effort. I would have added more weight, but I didn't want to push it, I was happy with what progress I made.
Now you can take this information as bull, or you can step up and try for yourself and see if it works for you. I personally recommend this method now, and will continue to use this technique until I don't feel like doing it anymore. I'm addicted to the iron, though, so I don't think that will happen anytime soon. And feel free to check out CT Fletcher as well, as his videos can make you feel like moving mountains, or they could be off-putting to you and you won't like it.
For those of you that don't know, CT is known as "The Strongest Man You Never Heard Of" since back in the 90's. He also has the most...colorful language you have ever heard too, with his most common word being Motherf---er, and it's also a term of endearment towards his fellow lifters. Either way, I saw this guy curling with arms that looked like they had bowling balls instead of biceps on them. Needless to say, I was immediately curious as to his "secret" to success. Watching more of his videos, he said there's NO secret for getting big, just busting your butt off (believe me, I'm editing for family-friendly purposes), and doing the work. Also in order to get big arms, he worked them out EVERY TIME he went into the gym, and said to hell with overtraining.
Now hearing this at first comes as a shock. To hell with overtraining? What about getting injured? He replied what my thoughts were saying before I could think of a conclusion to his logic. He believes that overtraining was made up my people to scare everyone into thinking they have to take their time, and slowly recover, and that overtraining is bull, and before anyone write it off, they need to try it first.
Ok, so I figured since he was being reasonable I should give it a shot. So for 4 days straight I trained arms, and the results were surprising. Although my arms were really sore by the end, I could tell they obviously grew. The amount of mass I could see that was built on was amazing! Sore, oh very much so, but I got results, and in such a short time!
Another trick that helped me besides overtraining was penitentiary style lifting. That is, you have very short rest periods, you work your way up to your 1 rep max or 3 rep max, and work your way back down to the lightest plate until you can't even lift that anymore. You also don't need to have strict form, just get the weight from one position to the other the best way you know how if you had to.
Not only did I gain sizeable mass, but the amount of strength increase was almost staggering too! I did chest yesterday and today, and I was able to go from struggling with 140 (I have a weak chest, I know. Also I lift by myself with no spotter), to having minor trouble with 160. In 24 hours, I gained enough strength to move 20 more pounds, and barely feel like I'm making a 100% effort. I would have added more weight, but I didn't want to push it, I was happy with what progress I made.
Now you can take this information as bull, or you can step up and try for yourself and see if it works for you. I personally recommend this method now, and will continue to use this technique until I don't feel like doing it anymore. I'm addicted to the iron, though, so I don't think that will happen anytime soon. And feel free to check out CT Fletcher as well, as his videos can make you feel like moving mountains, or they could be off-putting to you and you won't like it.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
The Psychology of Lifting
Starting out, I had a low self-esteem, didn't think much of myself, and found myself saying "I can't" more often than I can remember. The thought of exercising as even a chore, since at the time I was at about 25% bodyfat and I started at 14, and I was being humiliated for being so big and weak. After a while though, I realized I started to change: I woke up more refreshed, I felt better overall, and I could do more, and I was losing my body fat. I felt invigorated, and became hooked.
The point is, it increased my self-esteem, and made me feel like I had some self-worth, and everybody started realizing I was making an effort to improve myself, so I was bullied less. After a while, I started getting even bigger than the bullies, and bullied them to prove a point (at the time it seemed like a good idea, but now I know it makes me no better than them, although I did explain why I did it, and I stopped when they stopped). It's important to always remember why you started to take that first step, as it will always help when you're in a rough patch and need some motivation to keep going. I don't bully the bullies anymore, but I talk to them and see what the underlying problem is that causes them to pick on others, because the kids that pick on others are either being picked on by someone else, or they have a family issue that they don't want or can't address to anyone they can trust.
Also as a personal experience, a few months ago I was going through depression. I was drinking a lot, I stayed away from my friends, I just didn't want to deal with anyone and stay in my room all day. I decided one day I got sick of it, and was trying to remember why I quit weight lifting. So I picked the weights up, and did a few exercises. Next thing you know, four to five months later, I feel better than ever! I been sober for that length of time and I don't feel tempted to drink again, and I feel happy, and like talking to my friends. Exercise has been shown to "cure" peoples' depression, both minor and major forms (I THINK the percentage is about 80% chance for a depressed person to go into remission after they exercised consistently for a few weeks to a month, I know it's a very high percentage).
So the thing to keep in mind is this: exercising and weight lifting help you just as much mentally, as it does physically. Once an object is in motion, it wants to STAY in motion. While an object at rest, wants to STAY at rest. The best thing you can do for yourself when you feel a little down is go jog a mile, or even throw around some weights! It can help you feel more perky than you think!
The point is, it increased my self-esteem, and made me feel like I had some self-worth, and everybody started realizing I was making an effort to improve myself, so I was bullied less. After a while, I started getting even bigger than the bullies, and bullied them to prove a point (at the time it seemed like a good idea, but now I know it makes me no better than them, although I did explain why I did it, and I stopped when they stopped). It's important to always remember why you started to take that first step, as it will always help when you're in a rough patch and need some motivation to keep going. I don't bully the bullies anymore, but I talk to them and see what the underlying problem is that causes them to pick on others, because the kids that pick on others are either being picked on by someone else, or they have a family issue that they don't want or can't address to anyone they can trust.
Also as a personal experience, a few months ago I was going through depression. I was drinking a lot, I stayed away from my friends, I just didn't want to deal with anyone and stay in my room all day. I decided one day I got sick of it, and was trying to remember why I quit weight lifting. So I picked the weights up, and did a few exercises. Next thing you know, four to five months later, I feel better than ever! I been sober for that length of time and I don't feel tempted to drink again, and I feel happy, and like talking to my friends. Exercise has been shown to "cure" peoples' depression, both minor and major forms (I THINK the percentage is about 80% chance for a depressed person to go into remission after they exercised consistently for a few weeks to a month, I know it's a very high percentage).
So the thing to keep in mind is this: exercising and weight lifting help you just as much mentally, as it does physically. Once an object is in motion, it wants to STAY in motion. While an object at rest, wants to STAY at rest. The best thing you can do for yourself when you feel a little down is go jog a mile, or even throw around some weights! It can help you feel more perky than you think!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)