TEG90_402_F.indd 72
TEG90 402 F indd 72 1/30/07 9:43:13 AM1/30/07 9:43:13 AM
Free download from imbodybuilding.comFree download from imbodybuilding.com
74 APRIL 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com
Q: In one of your articles you mentioned “adapta- tion confusion.” What I’ve been led to believe about that is that it can happen from using different rep schemes and loading parameters in the same work- out. Supposedly that confuses the body about which way to overcompensate. Does that sound legitimate? A: The theory I proposed was that perhaps using many rep schemes and loading parameters in one bodypart workout may overpower recovery—there’s too much dam- age to sufficiently recuperate from.
For example, if you do a number of low-rep sets, higher- rep sets, supersets, drop sets and so on, you’re training many different fiber types as well as stressing the endur- ance components of the muscle cells. On the other hand, if at one workout you did mostly lower-rep sets, with only a set or two of extended-tension work, and then at your next workout you did mostly extended-tension sets with only one or two lower-rep sets, you’d be stressing primarily max- force components and fiber types at the first session and more endurance components at the next.
That may be one reason champs in the past, before steroids were so prevalent, relied on a heavy/light system of training. Also, if that’s true, Eric Broser’s Power/Rep Range/Shock routine has a lot of merit because you more
or less concentrate on one type of stress each week. It does make sense, so much so that when I revised the old 10-Week Size Surge program in the new e-book
3D Muscle Building, I retained the three-days-a-week
format of phase 1 but alternated a max-force workout with an extended-tension workout. Trainees are already reporting some great gains with that F/X application. [Note: For more on P/RR/S, 3D POF and F/X training, visit www.3DMuscleBuilding.com.]
Q: In a recent Critical Mass column you recom- mended taking creatine before and after a workout. Considering a Monday-Wednesday-Friday pro- gram or even a high-intensity routine with longer breaks—say, three to five days between workouts— should I take creatine every day?
A: You should probably take creatine before and after you train on those days and then perhaps a five-gram dose the day after just to be sure your creatine stores are fully replenished. Take it again on your next training day.
So if you train Monday, Wednesday and Friday, take cre- atine before and after you train. Take a five-gram dose on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Don’t take it on Sunday.
With more days between workouts, you’d obviously have more days like Sunday, a second off day in a row, on which you wouldn’t take any creatine.
Q: I’m a 40-year-old woman, not a bodybuilder, but I train with weights two to three times a week. I’m having trouble figuring out what to eat just to stay healthy. I crave hamburgers and fries; that’s about it. What should I do?
A: Eat small meals, but try to eat often. Find a good protein bar you like and eat half or a whole one between regular meals. Make breakfast some type of cereal you like, even if it’s Captain Crunch, and cut it with Fiber One (one-third Fiber One, two-thirds other—or, bet- ter, half of each). Drink some or- ange juice and have a small glass of milk—in ad- dition to what you put on your cereal. Then midmorning have a protein bar. (A protein drink
Adaptation
Confusion
Critical Mass
Steve Holman’s
N e v e u x \ M o d e l: St e v e N a m a tMixing lots of heavy lower-rep straight-set work with a number of extended-tension techniques could overload recovery because too many growth components are stressed at once. Making workouts either max-force dominant or extended-tension dominant may be a better recovery-oriented solution. N e v e u x \ M o d e l: D ro r O k a v i
76 APRIL 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com
would be better, but I know that most nonbodybuilder types won’t take the time to pull out the blender and pow- der.)
Lunch could be a hamburger once in a while, but if you go for fast food, a better choice is Taco Bell chicken tacos— good protein, not a lot of carbs, plus lettuce and tomatoes. Or yogurt. If yogurt has loads of sugar, that’s still not too bad; however, be sure to cut it with a few nuts. I like pecans. That will slow down digestion and diminish the insulin
surge (which causes fat deposition). Beef jerky is a good protein source too—it’s portable and
has very few carbs. Cottage cheese is excellent, and so are apples—they’re a very low-glycemic fruit with lots of fiber. I eat one every day with my lunch. [There are more suggestions and choic- es, as well as meal-by-meal diets, in the X-treme Lean e-book, available at www .X-tremeLean.com.]
Dinner should be protein and vegetables or chicken salad. Having pasta every so often is okay, but pasta is empty calories. I hate it for that reason. If I’m going to have empty carbs, give me dark chocolate and wine! At least they have loads of health benefits, not to men- tion warm-buzz potential. Q: I have a few questions: What are the consider- ations for determining workout frequency—or does it just depend on your schedule? Can I focus each day on a different bodypart with four or five work- outs per week and get the same effect as training each bodypart more often, like every four days? I’m just not sure how to determine how often a bodypart should be trained for best results.
A: That’s one of the bigger challenges when it comes to bodybuilding: You have to experiment to find your opti- mum workout frequency, and that can change depending on stress levels, age, workout volume and intensity, diet and so on. Of course, your schedule comes first—you have to work out on the days your schedule permits. If you force it, you won’t stick with it. I usually ask people interested in starting a weight-training program how many days a week they want to train—then I subtract one from their answer so they stay hungry for the pump.
As for training each bodypart only once a week, you can experiment with that using your current program. It’s how I set up the Power/Rep Range/Shock program at the end of
3D Muscle Building, which is the way Jonathan Lawson and
I are training now. It’s a four-day split, with each bodypart trained once a week. We work out on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. It’s best to try not to work out three days in a row so your system as a whole recovers (although we break that rule every year during our ripping phase).
Has training each bodypart only once a week worked for us so far? As we’ve reported in the Train, Eat, Grow series in
IRON MAN and in our training blog at www.X-Rep
.com, we’ve gotten some outrageous strength gains, but so
far only minor blips on the size meter. We’re tweaking the P/RR/S program to gear it more toward building size than strength—for example by using a back-off set on the big exercise for each bodypart during low-rep Power week.
It all comes down to experimentation. We’ve tried train- ing each bodypart once a week in the past, but it never worked for us. The new P/RR/S system, however, has a lot of potential from both size and strength standpoints—it’s just a matter of customizing it.
I’m a hardgainer type, so I need more extended-tension time—longer sets, drop sets and so on—with fewer lower- rep sets. Easy gainers with more pure fast-twitch fibers tend to respond best to straight sets done with lower reps, but they also need some extended-tension work to build the endurance components of specific fiber types. If you read our training blog, you’ll see how those experiments are panning out for me and Jonathan, who is more of the athletic ectomorphic type than I am. Trying to figure it all out and getting muscle growth spurts along the way are what make it so interesting and fulfilling.
The sharp black POF T-shirt with the original classic logo emblazoned in gold can give you that muscular look you’re after (sorry, large size only). See page 235 for details.
S t e v e H o l m a n i r o n c h i e f @ a o l . c o m
Neveux
Editor’s note: Steve
Holman is the author many bodybuilding best-sellers, in- cluding Train, Eat, Grow: The
Positions-of-Flexion Muscle- Training Manual (see page
72). For information on the POF videos and Size Surge programs, see the ad sections beginning on page 220 and 278, respectively. Also visit
www.X-Rep.com. IM N e v e u x \ M o d e l: D J G re e n
Yogurt can be a good snack, but if it has added sugar, a few pecans stirred in will slow digestion and diminish insulin production.
You have to experiment to determine your best training frequency—and that can change depending on stress levels, workout volume and intensity, diet and so on.