Sean Hyson

Training With A Bum Hip

In September of last year, I stopped squatting. For those who know me, this was kind of like if George Clooney took a vow of celibacy. I loved squatting, and although I wasn’t especially good at it, I relied on it as a measure of strength and progress. But the fact was, it was killing me.

These are healthy hips. Mine were nothing like this.

Years of squatting outside shoulder width was tearing my hip in two. Now I was never a “Westside guy”, given to squatting with a super wide stance to shorten the range of motion, but I did settle into the habit of placing my feet far enough apart that I felt I could get my long legs out of the way on the descent. Friends like Jason Ferruggia warned me about it, but I just sort of nodded and stored the advice in the back of my mind. My numbers were going up, and I wasn’t going to mess with them.

Looking back, I guess I started feeling the pain in 2009. A little pinching in my left hip, mainly when I did moves like lateral lunges or mobility drills—anything where my leg moved out to the side. It would annoy me during the exercise, but I’d forget about it by the end of the workout. By 2011, the problem had grown to a regular nuisance during squatting, and I noticed I couldn’t even rest on my knees on the floor without pain. Last year, I was in near agony.

I see a physical therapist who does ART, and that moderated it. I expanded my repertoire of stretches and mobility work, but that didn’t seem to help. I started doing yoga and, while it really helped to improve my hip mobility, it didn’t relieve the pain long-term. As embarassed as I am to admit it, I kept grinding through squats. And grinding is just what it was—a bone on bone sensation that had me wincing at the top of every rep. Worse, it was starting to spread into my right hip!

In another attempt to treat myself, I started doing glute ham raises or single-leg presses before squats. I thought that if I flushed enough blood into the hip it would loosen up and feel better—and that worked, at least until the workout was over. Later on and the next day I’d still feel it clicking and pinching. By this point, it was happening with every step I took.

A Broken-Down Old Man

Then my left knee started hurting. I didn’t want to believe it was a result of the hip but it was. I was doing an axel press with 230 pounds (a PR at least!) and as I lowered the weight to the floor I felt my knee cave in and buckle. Walking the next two days was nearly impossible.

I finally came to grips with the fact that the squat had to go—or at least the way I’d been doing it. So last September, I dumped it. Then I took a week-long vacation in Bermuda, hoping the rest would let me come back feeling fresh. Instead, I was dogged by pain throughout the entire trip. To the point where it almost wasn’t worth the money. I couldn’t lower myself into a chair without grunting. What the hell was happening to me? I was 30 years old and had the hips of Grandpa Simpson.

When I got home, I spoke to Ben Bruno, a super smart trainer in Boston who has battled through his share of gory injuries and still puts up insane numbers. He’s an expert on training around knee and back pain, so I wanted some advice on how I could still go heavy and hit legs hard without snapping my thigh off my hip like it was a chicken wing.

This is basically how it felt for a year.

The Road Back

Ben was great. He had me do Bulgarian split squats with a safety squat bar, which he considers one of the best and most useful exercises for building leg mass as well as strength and athleticism. I began my leg workouts with those and while I started with only a 25 on each side (which was brutally humbling), I felt like I was working as hard as ever. They allowed me to squat deep, but with my leg directly in front of me. No more forcing my knees out to get depth. Subsequently, my hip felt fine. I followed this up with some reverse sled drags. Just load up a sled and walk backwards with it to the end of the room. These really lit up my quads. I also worked in high-rep leg presses on occasion with a narrow stance. Of course, I was still deadlifting and doing glute-ham raises and other typical assistance lifts for the posterior chain.

After a few months, I not only hadn’t lost any size, I had gained a bit. My legs looked fuller, perhaps, than ever. But I still missed the squat.

I revved up my ART treatments. My doc worked on my adductors, gluteus medius, and even my calf, which greatly reduced my knee pain. I got an MRI which revealed I had two kinds of impingement in my left hip and a fraying labrum—the cartilage that holds the hip joint in place was coming apart. (I didn’t get my right hip scanned but my doctor surmised that the same thing was probably happening there too, though to a lesser degree).

Ultimately, he also discovered that my left foot was overpronating as well. This is likely attributed to the hip and was causing my knee pain. I even began to notice that when I would stand relaxed, my knee would tilt inward where my foot had collapsed (I have flat feet too). The solution was to put supportive insoles in my shoes, which cleared the pain up almost immediately.

Return To Form

Feeling better—i.e., I could now walk and sit like a normal person without making a distorted face—I decided to give the squat another go last March. This time I remembered what I had been told and narrowed my stance, but only by an inch or so.

WHAT A F@#%ING DIFFERENCE!

I felt NO pain at all, and though I did feel less balanced, a little less mobile, and more stress on my lower back, I knew I could overcome this with practice. I started box squatting, really concentrating on sitting back and pulling with the hip flexors to protect my lower back. I did 5 sets of 5 for a few weeks to ingrain technique, and then started a modified Westside, max-effort strength program. This was good for me mentally. I rotated my main lift weekly, which convinced me that if squatting became a problem again, at least I was getting stronger on a bunch of similar exercises. My deadlift, by the way, continued to grow and had been throughout all this.

I worked on safety squat bar box squats, box squats, deadlifts, and rack pulls. My reps were extremely low. I warmed up with 5’s, then went to 3’s, and worked up to a very heavy single—near a max. I think this was also useful because it kept my technique sharp. If I had been going for multiple sets of 5–8, I might have gotten sloppy and reinjured myself. (Note that when I was using the 5x5 method to come back, I was going VERY light. Breaking form with 155 on my back wasn’t gonna happen.)

Despite the heavy weights, my joints, including my rotten old hip, felt fine. And my strength returned. My first time doing box squats for a single, I got up to 375. A month later, I hit 400. Today, I took the box away and nailed 450—a new PR, two times body weight, and a very big milestone for me. I backed off to 405 for 3, then hit a murderous set of 275 for 10.

So What Did I Learn?

Well, obviously, wide-stance squatting is not for everyone. It can wreak havoc on your hips, so if you’re not short and stocky (a natural powerlifter) or wearing a squat suit, it’s probably not for you. Or at least it’s not worth the risk.

But you know what? My doctor said the squatting WAS NOT the cause of my hip problem! It certainly aggravated it and set me back further, but apart from foolish stubbornness, there was something at play here that was largely out of my hands.

I did martial arts—specifically, Tae Kwon Do—from the time I was 9 until I was 19. And then again—this time MMA—between ages 24 and 26. Kicking, my doc thought, probably started my hip issues. Tae Kwon Do is defined by it’s kicking techniques, and I did acrobatic kicks like spinning roundhouses and hook kicks for years. I sucked at most of them because I was about a foot taller than most of my classmates, and very uncoordinated. TKD is a Korean art and the Koreans, I’ve been told, are generally the shortest of all Asian people. The torque I was putting on my hips on a regular basis could have easily started the fraying cartilage. Load a couple hundred more pounds on it with the squatting and you can see what happened.

I always sucked at stuff like this. Now I know why.
I got further confirmation on this theory when I met Chris "The Kiwi" Ashenden last month. He’s a strength coach from New Zealand, and blogger at christhekiwi.com, and he told me that he doesn’t know any tall guys who practiced TKD who today don’t have some hip problems to show for it. I also had my fair share of knee, toe, and ankle injuries over the years from kicking bags and sparring. It makes total sense.

So I chose the wrong martial art. Too bad those basket-weaving classes were filled up back in 1990…

Apart from this, I learned that you just have to leave your ego behind. Of course, I’ve learned this in the past, as we all have, but you need reminders. And no reminder is quite so powerful as searing pain. I should have taken that as a hint and narrowed my stance ages ago.

Single-leg training is bad ass and should not be underrated. If you can’t do conventional “tough guy” lifts like squats and deads, give these variations a try. Even if you CAN do them, give these variations a try. You will NOT lose strength on your favorite exercises and will probably gain muscle and flexibility from them that can be applied to other exercises later.

Get ART done. Often. Just shell out the money and tell your doctor what hurts. I have PERMANENT damage in my hips, which I regret, but the pain is only when I move my leg way out to the side now. It doesn’t hurt when I walk or sit. If I had waited another year, I don't even want to imagine how much worse off I'd be. I’ll never be able to do a full split, so Van Damme isn’t losing sleep over me taking his job in action movies, but I can do the exercises I want to do again, safely and pain free.

It’s a beautiful thing.

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Cardio That DOESN'T Kick Your Ass

Sometimes I like to do cardio that doesn’t leave me on the floor gasping for breath and rolling in my own puke. I know that Crossfit and interval training are hugely popular these days, but there’s also a time for longer, slower, more easy-paced exercise that gets your heart rate up to a moderate level and holds it there. A heart rate between 130 and 150 beats per minute actually burns fat more efficiently than when your heart is exploding out of your chest, so you can’t turn your back on “traditional” cardio.

I was short on time today and tried to think of a workout I could do that would build conditioning and also incorporate a little muscle training. It was a beautiful day, so I strapped on a heart rate monitor and headed for the park.

That's not quite perfect form on the cat crawl
but I'll let it slide.

I walked at a brisk pace for a few minutes just to get warm and then got on all fours to do a cat crawl. I just got turned on to this move by Tim Ferriss, author of the Four-Hour book series and a major distiller of fitness in his own right. You simply crawl on the ground as a cat does, keeping your hips parallel to the ground and your knees in line with them. I couldn’t believe how this shot my heart rate up. It jumped from around 100 to 145 in a few seconds of this.

Trying to stay within the 130 to 150 range, I got up and kept walking. As my heart rate slowed down, I hit the floor for some pushups to bring it back up. Just a set of 5. I jogged a bit and then hit 5 burpees. Walked, and then did some lunges. Every time my heart rate would slow down to around 130, I’d jog or knock out a few reps of some calisthenic to get it up again. I did this for an hour and the time absolutely flew by.

I hardly ever got outside my target heart rate range and I really enjoyed the experience. I didn’t need the distraction of my iPod like I do on the treadmill because there was sunshine and breeze and people all around me enjoying the day. Unlike a monotonous jog or walk facing a wall, my workout was constantly changing as I was connecting to what was happening in the park and reacting to it. It felt amazing after so many months of indoors-only workouts.

It was also a great reminder that workouts don’t have to entail suffering. You can push yourself and make progress without going to the limits of your mental and physical capacity. You can also do it without boredom or counting down the minutes as if a prison sentence were coming to an end.

If you’re fed up with the treadmill, elliptical, rower, and other repetitive-motion cardio workouts, try this. Just start walking and do 3–5 reps of some body-weight exercise whenever the mood strikes. If you want to be more regimented about it and make sure you get a good aerobics session, go ahead and wear a heart monitor like I did. But if you just want a “walk in the park”, so to speak, keep it casual. Crawls, burpees, pushups, a short sprint, and lunge variations are all great options to throw in. Incidentally, you could also do these briefly before a strength-training session as a warm up. They’ll get you sweating and prepare the muscles for the movements you make on various lifts.

I felt my hips opening up and my shoulders loosening. And when I was done, I didn’t feel crushed or wasted or drained like I often do after heavy lifting. This is a workout that energizes you for the rest of the day. And lest you think it was "too easy", get a load of this: I checked the monitor afterward and saw that I'd burned over 900 calories. I wouldn't have done that in an hour of weight training, and wouldn't have had the patience to jog long enough to burn that many calories.

Try it, add to it, and share your thoughts below.

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Eyeballing Portion Sizes

I hate counting calories. I know you do, too. And the only scale I use is the kind you step on. I don’t have the patience to be meticulous about nutrition, but with summer coming up and plenty of opportunities to wear T-shirts, and sometimes much less, we need to be a little more particular about our diets than we were all winter.

Do you think Eugen Sandow, the first great bodybuilder, kept track of calories? He couldn’t even keep track of where he left his pants!

Fortunately, nutrition science isn’t rocket science. We don’t need to be precise with it—only consistent. If you know how to eyeball portion sizes and what the approximate macros are in the foods you’re eating, you’re going to do fine gaining muscle with minimal fat or losing fat while retaining muscle.

I’ve created sort of a nutrition database that I hope you’ll refer to when needed. I’ve ballparked the macros for a bunch of common foods I expect you like to eat (or that you should be eating if you want to see positive changes in your body), and gave you practical measurement tools to use. Using the size of your hands and thumbs as a gauge makes determining amounts a lot easier. That is, unless you have hooks in their place.

Just make sure you’re eating food that’s as close to its natural state as possible. If you’re out to eat or picking up from a deli, beware of sauces or dressings that contain sugar or fat and can throw off your numbers. If you stick with lightly seasoned whole foods, these numbers will work, whether you’re cooking at home or getting by at a buffet.

Foods and Macros

Note that I’m dealing with macros here. It’s a lot easier to count them up than to worry about macros AND calories. So figure out how many calories you need to eat to gain muscle or lose fat beforehand and then break them down into how many grams of protein, carbs, and fat you need daily.

I didn’t bother counting the lesser nutrients in foods that are known for offering primarily one kind. For instance, nut butters have a fair number of carbs in them, but unless you’re following an ultra-low carb diet (like Carb Back-loading), you don’t need to worry about them. They don’t cause spikes in blood sugar, inhibiting your body from burning fat.

By the same token, nut butters pack a lot of protein, but I’m not counting that either because it’s not complete. If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, food combining is essential so that you get complete proteins, but for the rest of us who rely on meat for our protein, we don’t need to be concerned about these incomplete sources, and a little extra protein isn’t going to slow anybody’s progress anyway.

All numbers are rounded to make calculations easier. Relax—they don’t have to be accurate to the last gram. It’s the portion sizes that matter most. Stay consistent with them and you’ll eat very close to the same amount of calories and macros every day and see the gains you’re after.

Meats

Measure these 3 ounces at a time. Any meat or fish, from steak to salmon, is going to be about the size of your palm in both circumference and thickness (wait, we’re talking about food here, right??) when it weighs 3 ounces. You’ve probably also heard that a deck of cards makes a good approximation.

Most meats have around 20 grams of protein for 3 ounces and their fat content will hover around five grams. The exception to this lies mainly with beef, as the fat content can vary quite a bit depending on how lean the cut is or cow was. For the leanest and healthiest beef possible, get grass-fed whenever possible.

Skinless turkey breast = 20g Protein

Skinless Chicken breast = 25g Protein, 3g Fat

Pork tenderloin = 20g Protein, 3g Fat

1 chicken drumstick = 15g Protein, 5g Fat
*Contrary to popular opinion, low-fat white meat isn’t the only way to go when eating chicken. If you’re doing a low-carb diet, fattier cuts like drumsticks are fine to keep you satiated and make sure your calories don’t dip too low.

Salmon = 20g Protein, 5g Fat

Tuna = 20g Protein, 4g Fat

Grass-fed sirloin steak = 20g Protein, 3g Fat
*Other lean cuts of steak are similar

Grass-fed ground beef = 20g Protein, 10g Fat

Conventional ground beef, 80% lean = 20g Protein, 15g Fat

Conventional sirloin, 20g Protein, 10g Fat

1 large egg = 6g Protein, 5g Fat

1 cup low-fat cottage cheese = 30g Protein, 5–10g Carbs, 5g Fat

1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt = 20g Protein, 10g Carbs

As you can see, these potatoes are much
larger than your hand.

Starches

Measure these in cups, which are about the size of your fist, or a baseball.

1 cup white rice (cooked) = 45g Carbs

1 cup sweet potato = 40g Carbs

1 cup red skin potato = 40g Carbs

1 cup white potato = 40g Carbs

1 cup oatmeal (cooked) = 25g Carbs

1 slice sprouted whole grain bread = 15g Carbs

1 cup quinoa (cooked) = 40g Carbs, 10g Protein, 5g Fat

1 cup buckwheat (cooked) = 30g Carbs, 5g Protein
*Buckwheat has complete protein so you can count it

Fruit

1 large banana = 30g Carbs

1 cup mango = 30g Carbs

1 cup mixed berries = 15g Carbs

1 cup sliced avocado = 20g Fat

1 cup orange (in sections) = 20g Carbs

1 medium apple = 25g Carbs

Nuts/legumes

You can measure tablespoons with your thumb. 2 tbsp should come out to about the length of it.

1 cup almonds = 70g Fat

1 cup peanuts = 70g Fat

2 tbsp almond butter = 20g Fat

2 tbsp chunky peanut butter = 15g Fat

1 cup cashews = 180g Fat

Oils

I think you should avoid most oils except coconut oil and red palm oil, which you can do some cooking in. Olive oil can be used on salads or added to shakes. One tablespoon of any oil is going to be about 15g of fat.

No Veggies?!

Vegetables are a “free” food. Eat as many as you like and probably more than you’d care for. Only starchy veggies—root vegetables—like sweet potatoes should be counted. Celery, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, red bell peppers… go to town on them.

Condiments

As I said for dressings and sauces, use these sparingly and minimize them when you’re eating food prepared by somebody else. Salsa, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and various herbs and spices are the seasonings you should rely on, and you don’t need to measure those.

When you get Munsoned, it’s hard to know
how much you’re eating.

Measurement Key

1 cup = fist or baseball

3 oz meat = palm of your hand, a deck of cards

2 tbsp = length of your thumb

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Big Or Strong Or Both

I talked about the differences between training purely to get big and training for max strength last week.

Now I’ll give some practical examples to get big or strong or both.

The Bodybuilding Approach

To recap, somebody who’s looking to put on a lot of size and isn’t so concerned about breaking records in the gym—or whose body is so beat up that he can’t afford to be—will train to get a pump. He’ll keep his reps in the higher ranges—6 or above—and make use of machines. This will allow him to go to failure more frequently without fear of getting injured. He’ll rarely lock out his elbows or knees on lifts, focusing all the tension squarely on the muscles, and his exercise selection will be informed by his specific goals. If he wants to bring up a particular muscle, or part of a muscle, to make his physique more balanced or symmetrical, that will dictate which exercises he chooses. He’ll also play around with drop sets, slow eccentrics, and doing sets of multiple exercises in sequence to see how far he can push a muscle group and how much blood he can pump into it.

Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman started as a powerlifter, which enabled him to lift heavier weights when he switched to bodybuilding.

SAMPLE BACK AND BICEPS WORKOUT

This takes the pump approach. Lots of volume to inflate the muscles with blood. The lifter might train back and bi’s three to four days later with slightly different exercises, a different order, and heavier weights (maybe in the 8–10 range). This would give him one “light” and one “heavy” day per week.

Wide-Grip Pulldown
Sets: 3–5 Reps: 12–15

One-Arm Dumbbell Row
Sets: 3–5 Reps: 12–15
Use lifting straps to prevent your grip from being the limiting factor.

Back Extension
Sets: 3 Reps: 12–15

EZ-Bar Curl
Sets: 3–4 Reps: 12–15
Take 3 seconds to lower the bar on each rep of your last set.

Incline Dumbbell Curl
Sets: 3–4 Reps: 12–15
Take 3 seconds to lower the weights on each rep of your last set.

SAMPLE CHEST WORKOUT FOR A GUY WHO WANTS TO FOCUS ON UPPER PECS

This is in the style of a Mountain Dog plan that bodybuilding coach John Meadows might write. You begin by going for a pump on an exercise that targets the weak area. Then you move to a barbell exercise where you gradually pyramid up to a heavy weight. Third, you go for a huge pump on an isolation exercise and then finish off with a move that stretches the muscles under load—another way to stimulate growth.

Incline Cable Fly
Sets: 4 Reps: 10

Low-Incline Bench Press
Sets: 4 Reps: 10, 8, 6, 4

Cable Crossover
Sets: 3 Reps: 20
Flex for one second at the top of each rep.

Decline Pushup w/ Feet Elevated
Sets: 3 Reps: To failure

SAMPLE “OLD SCHOOL” LEG WORKOUT WITH LOTS OF PYRAMIDING

This is more volume than I think most people could handle, but it’s very similar to the way the bodybuilders at Gold’s Venice trained in the 70s. The pyramids let you warm up gradually and hit a wide array of muscle fibers. They also prevent you from being too strong (fresh) when you get to your heaviest set, so you’re not using a weight that’s so heavy it hurts.

Squat
Sets: 5 Reps: 12, 10, 8, 6, 6

Leg Press
Sets: 3 Reps: 25, 20, 15
Perform the last set as a drop set. Complete 15 reps and then reduce the weight by 20% and do as many reps as possible.

Leg Extension
Sets: 2 Reps: 20

Romanian Deadlift
Sets: 5 Reps: 15, 12, 9, 6, 6

Leg Curl
Sets: 3 Reps: 20, 15, 10
Perform the last set as a drop set.

Standing Calf Raise
Sets: 3 Reps: 25

Seated Calf Raise
Sets: 3 Reps: 25

... Being big and strong?

The Powerlifting Approach

The first difference you may notice in training for strength vs. size alone is the increased “training economy”. We’re not looking to attack a muscle from all different angles but to teach it to do its part to help lift bigger weights. Sometimes the job is as a prime mover and sometimes it’s only as an assistant. Either way, because workouts require heavy weights or can otherwise be taxing on the CNS, we need to be more efficient with exercise selection. This is also reason to turn down the intensity and “de-load” every four to six weeks.

Rest periods will be longer on main lifts to allow for more recovery. In general, the goal won’t be so much to feel the muscles working on each rep as it will be to simply complete the lift. A training journal is now critical for tracking progress and making note of poundages and reps. As opposed to bodybuilding, weak points are seen as sticking points in lifts, not areas where muscles lack size and definition.

SAMPLE WESTSIDE-TYPE WORKOUT

This is pretty close to the Westside Barbell template that is so renowned for creating great powerlifters. You have two heavy days (one lower and one upper, called “max effort” days) and two speed days (“dynamic effort”) per week to train strength and power. The main lift on the max effort days will change weekly or bi-weekly to help the lifter avoid burnout. When working up to a max, the body can’t handle the same movement pattern for more than a few weeks. Rotating exercises also brings up weak points.

Day I – Dynamic Effort Bench Day

Speed Bench Press
Sets: 8 Reps: 3
Use 55% of your max and explode each rep. Alternate grip from close to medium to wide each set.

Pin Press
Sets: 2–3 Reps: 3–5
Set the pins of a power rack so that when you rest the bar on them it will be only about 4 inches above your chest. Press the weight off the pins. Use the same weight as on the bench press above.

Incline Dumbbell Bench Press
Sets: 3–5 Reps: 8–12

Alternate sets with:

Bentover Row
Sets: 3–5 Reps: 8–12

Day II – Max Effort Squat Day

Box Squat
Work up to a one-rep max. Each week, you’ll change the main lift done here. (Squat, Deadlift, Rack Pull, and Safety Bar Squat are other options.)

Romanian Deadlift
Sets: 4 Reps: 8

Dumbbell Lunge
Sets: 3–4 Reps: 10–12

Weighted Situp
Sets: 3 Reps: 10

Even the dogs at Westside are stronger than you.

SAMPLE “OLD SCHOOL” POWERLIFTING PROGRAM

This is in the style of Ed Coan, arguably the greatest powerlifter ever. The system starts like bodybuilding (higher volume, lighter weights) and gradually tapers down to low volume and heavy weights. An 8-week cycle for the main lifts might look like this:

Week 1, 3x10 reps

Week 2, 3x8 reps

Week 3, 3x8 reps

Week 4, 3x5 reps

Week 5, 2x5 reps

Week 6, 2x5 reps

Week 7, 1x3 reps

Week 8, test 1RM.

The reps on the assistance lifts would go down less sharply—you’re still aiming for a pump with those. See below.

Deadlift
Sets: 3 Reps: 10
Warm up with a set of 10 using very light weight. Increase to about 65% of the weight you plan to use on your work sets and do 5 reps. Do a set of 3 at 85%, and then a set of one at 90%. Now load a weight you can handle for 3 sets of 10.

Bentover Row
Sets: 3 Reps: 10

Wide-Grip Pullup
Sets: 3 Reps: 10

Stiff-Legged Deadlift
Sets: 2 Reps: 10

Shrug
Sets: 3 Reps: 10

SAMPLE PURE STRENGTH PLAN

If someone is determined to get stronger and NOT add size, either because he/she just doesn’t want to forcefeed or have to shop for new clothes every few months, the goal should be to keep the volume low and the weights pretty heavy. Workouts can be short and focus only the basics.

This is one possible approach I’ve seen, based on something coach Eric Cressey wrote.

(Note that another reason someone may not want to add muscle size is that he/she is an athlete who competes in a weight class and can’t risk getting bulkier, and therefore heavier.)

Bench Press
Sets: 3 Reps: 3

Neutral-Grip Dumbbell Bench Press
Sets: 4 Reps: 6

One-Arm Dumbbell Row
Sets: 4 Reps: 6

Week 2, replace the bench press with a floor presss and work up to a max. Then do four singles at 90% of that weight.
Week 3, replace the floor press with an incline bench press. Do 5 sets of 3.
Week 4, go back to the bench press and do 3 sets of 5.

Triple H wrote about how he used heavy and light days in this book. But he thought deadlifts made his ass big.

On the nutrition front, just keep your calories the same. There really isn’t anything else you need to keep track of, although I’d still recommend getting in a gram of protein per pound of body weight.

Aside from this last example, you can see that powerlifting/strength methods usually include a lot of bodybuilding, and that’s why they’re my preference for regular people who want to add some muscle while getting athletically stronger. <---- TWEET THIS IDEA

They give you a nice blend of both qualities without putting you at as much risk for overtraining or keeping you in the gym all day.

For someone whose chief desire is to add plenty of muscle but still have an impressive bench press, I think bodybuilding with occasional heavy days or attention to compound barbell lifts will, over time, do the trick. You may also want to mix in a few weeks of pure strength training here and there, or alternate months of low-rep training and higher-rep training. Sometimes, simply changing the way you perform exercises is enough. Bench press with a big arch in your back and elbows tucked, and you can put up bigger numbers even while chasing a bigger chest. Let the other exercises on your chest day take care of shaping and carving the pecs after you’ve trained them to be strong.

The key is this: you need both kinds of training to maximize either goal. Getting bigger enhances your potential for strength, and getting stronger allows you to add size more easily.

Ain’t it beautiful?

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Big Vs. Strong

I would guess that most guys get into lifting weights to get bigger, first and foremost. They’re short, skinny, or insecure, and they want to add muscle because they think it will be like putting on a suit of armor.

Robbie Robinson didn’t know about block periodization. He did alright.

Hey, I’m not judging. That was my thought process exactly.

So they go to the gym and they train body parts because it’s intuitive to do so. They go for a pump and aspire to the physiques of bodybuilders and pro wrestlers and focus on how it will look and feel to be massive. Then, after a few years of forced feedings and forced reps, they realize the weights they’re lifting haven’t changed much. They haven’t gotten stronger in a while and they begin to feel like a fraud. After all, if you look like you can hit like a truck, there’s something unsettling about knowing you really can’t if put to the test. It’s like there’s nothing in those muscles but hot air.

The goal then becomes to get stronger. They start following powerlifting programs and focusing on the Big 3. Now they’re picturing the perfect squat and obsessing over numbers and Youtube videos of Ed Coan and Bill Kazmaier. Being big is still a part of their life, but being able to push hundreds of pounds is more important. Abs give way to a yoke, and progress is measured by PR’s in a training journal rather than muscles in a mirror.

Of course, then they get hurt. Or they just get older and mellower and don’t want to psyche up for a max set anymore. Their knees ache just picturing it and they want to be able to pick up their kids without pain. Hopefully, they don’t give up The Life altogether, but they usually scale it back. Or they turn their focus back to getting big, or getting really lean, or just being aesthetic. Functionally strong and fit but good looking in the mirror, too.

That’s the iron evolution most men experience, I’d say.

Apart from what I’ve already written, what are the particulars of training to get big vs. training to be strong? While they’re always going to go hand-in-hand to some degree, there is a difference in how you approach each one, and you can emphasize one over the other if you want to. I will attempt to explain these, so that wherever you are in your journey through training, you’ll know what to do in order to get what you want.

How To Get BIG

Eat constantly. This is the biggest difference between the two. Strength is largely the result of increased neural efficiency, but muscle size is all about hormones and calories. You increase them both by eating more. And eating more, in my book, means eating more regularly and not just larger portions. For as much as there has been written about intermittent fasting for the purposes of gaining size, I can’t say it did for me, at least not beyond the first few weeks I tried it.

Most people, especially those who work long hours, aren’t left with enough time to eat the calories they need to grow during their feeding window. If you’re content to make very slow progress gaining weight, or you’re happy to put on just a few pounds over the course of many months, IF might get it done. But if you’re one of the aforementioned skinny guys who needs “armor” in a hurry, you need to eat more regularly.

Take sets to failure. Continuing a set to the point where your eyes bleed is a big mistake when you want to add pounds to your lifts. Straining on a max-effort set of a single rep is one thing, but taking multiple sets to failure with heavy weights tires out your nervous system and makes it impossible to continue adding weight. On the other hand, if you just want to get pumped, who cares?

You can take lifts like curls and leg extensions to failure because they’re not stressful exercises. They don’t require much concentration or pose much of a risk to your safety. Therefore, they’re good choices to push yourself to the brink on (occasionally, mind you), so that you can exhaust every muscle fiber and force them to grow thicker.

If you want to turn her head on the beach, you might focus on bodybuilding. If you want to protect her in a dark alley, do powerlifting (and hope the fight doesn’t last longer than 10 seconds).

Use machines. Isolation exercises, particularly those done with machines that allow you to focus solely on a target muscle, are essential for getting as swole as possible. I don’t think there’s a bodybuilder in the last 50 years that reached a high level of competition without at least some reliance on machines. Use them too often and you’ll really sacrifice strength, but don’t use them at all and you’ll never fully stimulate muscles and give them the shape and separation that make them look their most impressive.

Use intensity techniques. All those creative tricks bodybuilders have been doing for eons have their place. I don’t think forced reps or heavy negatives are particularly good choices for anybody because of the injury risk they pose, but anything that has the potential to build muscle should be explored from time to time if your goal is to get as big as possible. Drop sets, supersets, giant sets, constant tension, slow tempos, etc. should all be experimented with. None of these do much if anything for strength (at least not directly), but they all force muscles to work harder. And when your chief goal is getting big it’s muscles and not the nervous system that must be your focus.

Make changes regularly. The whole idea of mixing up your workouts to keep things fresh comes from bodybuilding, and if you screw everything else up in your training, this alone will keep you going for a while. Now, I DON’T think it’s a good idea to change your exercises every week when you’re a raw beginner. But when you’ve been training a few years, there’s a lot of value in hitting a muscle from different angles and giving your joints time to recover from one kind of stress before you subject them to it again. Going from flat presses to incline presses and barbells to dumbbells changes the stimulus enough to keep the body from adapting but not so much that you’re doing a completely different workout every week. Variety helps eliminate weak points and some muscles doing the work of others, which in turn leads to a more balanced physique.

Pump up the volume. To get big, I don’t believe you need the excessive number of sets that some bodybuilding magazines prescribe (ahem… not the ones I work for, of course), but you definitely need to do more overall work than a strength-seeker. Making muscles grow means exhausting them to some degree, so you have to routinely do four, five, or maybe six sets per exercise, whereas a powerlifter might do a few warm-up sets that barely make him sweat, then hit one or two work sets, and move on. Reps need to be higher too. The eight to 12 range that’s always been written about is a good mainstay but super-high reps of 30 or more are good periodically for “shocking”. The only time a powerlifter will use reps higher than five is to give his body a break from the stress of heavy lifting, or when he’s doing assistance lifts… which serve the purpose of getting bigger.

How To Get STRONG

Learn technique. In bodybuilding, weight is largely irrelevant. Making the muscle work its hardest and by itself yields the best gains most of the time. In powerlifting, it’s all about getting the weight from point A to point B as quickly and efficiently as possible. That means cutting down the range of motion, lifting fast, and getting as much leverage as you can to lift with. It also means getting as many muscles as you can in on the act.

To maximize the amount of weight lifted, you need to know how to lift proficiently, so make sure you’ve mastered form on moves like the squat, deadlift, and bench press. Done as a powerlifter does them, you’ll still build muscle size, but you won’t develop the thickest possible pecs or most aesthetic quad sweep.

Learn programming. Arnold, Robbie Robinson, Frank Zane, Ronnie Coleman, and so on didn’t have personal trainers or follow sophisticated periodization schemes. At least not to my knowledge, except for the old 5x5 protocol. In fact, it’s kind of amazing when you think about it—ALL bodybuilders seem to train pretty much the same way, ad nauseam. They pyramid up in weight and down in reps. <------- TWEET THIS

But maybe that’s a post for another time…

It’s pretty clear that when you just want to look good and make muscles bigger, you don’t need a scientific plan. At least not for your training. An intelligent diet will do a lot to keep you big while shedding fat, so if you’re going to get fancy with your fitness, apply it in the area of nutrition first. But when the goal is increased performance—in this case, increasing lifts—you need to understand the basics of how to get stronger.

Gaining strength, unless you’re just a flat-out brute freak, requires you to cycle intensity, prioritize your main lifts in your workouts, pick assistance exercises that support them, and be wary of recovery. Generally speaking, the best lifters didn’t guess their way to the top through trial and error like the best bodybuilders did. They read up on strength training and followed some specific guidelines.

Find the right atmosphere. There are plenty of guys who get big training alone in their garage or in crappy gyms with purple equipment. If you’re eating enough, getting a pump, and mixing up your routine, you’ll put on a good amount of size no matter what else. There aren’t nearly as many good lifters who train in that kind of environment. To get dialed in to lift max weights, you need an intense atmosphere and other focused people around you who share the same goals. Since technique is so important, you need knowledgeable bystanders who can tell you if you’re sitting back far enough on your squats or tucking your elbows on bench presses. You need a PR board hanging somewhere on the wall and a fire in your belly to put your name at the top of it.

Ed Coan didnt get to be the strongest lifter in the world training with water weights.

Get over your fear. A big part of why training in a strength-focused gym with an inspiring atmosphere is important is because you need encouragement to approach big weights. Nobody ever set a PR by walking up to a bar timidly. As grueling as doing giant sets or other bodybuilding techniques can be, I don’t think anything is as outright intimidating as trying to lift a weight you’re not entirely sure you CAN lift. There’s always an element of danger involved, and you have to get comfortable with that to really excel and set big records for yourself.

Use the right equipment. A take-no-prisoners attitude and death metal music in the background still won’t help you if the bar you’re lifting bends in half mid-set. I’m sure if Arnold were a boy again, starting his training today, he could work out in a Bally’s somewhere and get pretty sizeable using just the standard barbells and benches that most commercial gyms offer. But once you’re benching over 300, squatting more than 400, and pulling north of 500, you really need bars, platforms, and racks that can accommodate you. This all goes in hand with finding the right gym, but you need to know what to look for. The right gear makes workouts safer (I’m talking about belts and straps, too), and it allows you to save energy that can then transfer into bigger lifts. When I started using a platform, a deadlift jack, and a Texas deadlift bar, my pull shot way up. I will NEVER deadlift in a health club again. (And I was asked not to, anyway.)

To really take your strength to another level, you’ll eventually have to experiment with bands and chains, and most gyms don’t stock them (or at least not the good ones).

I’ll pick up this big vs. strong discussion again next time, and make some recommendations on how you can have one, the other, or both.

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How To Work Up

After you’ve been training for more than a year or so, there’s really only one way to get stronger on barbell lifts: working up. It doesn’t matter if you’re still doing 5x5 or 5/3/1, once your squat gets up over 225 or so, you need to know how to gradually progress your warm-up sets so that you can hit your main sets with your body and nervous system primed to give your best effort.

These girls work up. You need to work up to these girls... (Look up Girls Gone Strong).

It’s very simple to do, but most people don’t do it. They’re in a rush and so they blow through two or three quick warm-up sets with little thought to form. Then they’re loading up the bar and ultimately missing lifts or falling way short of what they COULD have lifted that day because they didn’t work up properly.

Know this: the warm-up sets you take to get up to your main set of the day are MORE important than the main set itself.

[TWEET this wisdom.]

That’s because you still get a training effect from the process of working up. Those sets, though they should feel fairly easy, contribute to your total volume, and your potential to get bigger and stronger.

And you know what’s really cool? You don’t have to count them. Just work up in steady, gradual increments and the volume will take care of itself. Do them crappy and fast, and you won’t groove the technique you need to do well on your work sets. Do them patiently and proficiently, and you could be looking at new PRs.

Depending on how many reps you’re going for, there are a few different ways to work up.

The Classic Workup

This is what most powerlifters do. You aim to do a very heavy single rep or a max and take a lot of work-up sets to get there. The reps—aside from maybe the first two sets—need to be low so that you conserve energy. Working up IS NOT pyramiding down. Two totally different concepts.

In a pyramid, like bodybuilders use, you start with high reps (like 10) and work down each set to low reps (like 2). This is okay for building muscle because you hit the muscle fibers that are involved more with endurance on the higher-rep end of the spectrum and the fibers associated with pure strength when you get to the low reps. That covers all your bases for targeting muscle fibers for mass gain. But it’s too many reps done with too much weight too soon to be ideal for gaining strength.

By the time you get down to that 2-rep set, you’re not lifting what would have been a weight you could handle for 2 reps several sets ago.

So, when working up, your reps don’t go above 5, unless, as mentioned above, you want to start off with one or two high-rep sets with just the bar or small plates to get some blood flowing into the target muscles.

From there, you add weight and, as you approach your max, take off a few reps to prevent fatigue. You can go from 5’s to 3’s and then, when you get within about 50 pounds of your target weight, hit some singles (1 rep).

Some lifters like to add weight to the bar in the order that’s easiest, or that makes nice round numbers. They’ll do a set with the empty bar (45 pounds), and then throw a plate on each side (135 pounds), and then go up to 185, 225, and so on.

Franco.

Now, if you’re Benedikt Magnusson, the deadlift world record holder, or some other insanely strong guy, this is perfectly fine and I’ll stay out of your way. But if you’re me or someone else who doesn’t need an hour to work up to an appropriate weight, you should choose smaller increments and work up more gradually.

I think jumps of 30 to 50 pounds is much better. It ensures that you get a sweat going, a little pump, and enough practice with reps that your technique is really dialed in by the time you need it most. Going from 135 to 185 to 225 just because it makes for the easiest plate changes and no counting is just being lazy, and you could pay for it with injury or missed lifts.

Here’s another trick. As you’re working up, and especially when you’re going all the way up to a max, the bar tends to feel very heavy BEFORE you know it should. For instance, you know you can squat 315 but you hit 265 for 3 and it feels like the ceiling landed on you. This is a moment of truth.

It’s very easy to be intimidated at this point and want to turn back around and go lighter or call it there for the day. But you don’t have to do that. Simply back off a few pounds and hit an easier set, and then continue working up. The effect this has can be like magic.

How much do you back off? That’s up to you. I’d say 20 to 40 pounds, or just enough to make the set feel easy without it taking you back to the beginning of the work up. So maybe you go to 245 for two or three reps and then go right back to adding weight.

Here’s how you might work up to a max squat of 315.

Empty bar x 10

95 x 8

135 x 5

175 x 5

205 x 5

235 x 3

265 x 3

245 x 2

295 x 1

315 x 1

The Back-Off Work-Up

Most of your workouts aren’t going to find you maxing out, of course. You may work up to a top set of 5, 3, 7, or 8 reps. In this case, I would work up a little differently but still try to ensure that I could use the heaviest weight possible for the chosen rep range.

I’ll work up until the weight feels heavy and then back down for one set as described above. Then I’ll keep going up and do one set that’s HEAVIER than the target one for the day, but I’ll do it for much fewer reps. So if I’m trying to bench 250 for 5, I would do a set of 260 for one first. Yes, that set of 260 is hard—maybe it’s my three-rep max—but I’m only doing it for 1 rep. That’s not so bad.

Is it just me, or were people stronger back in the 70s?

I rest a little longer, and then go for 250. It feels much easier. I’ve now essentially made 250, my main work set, my BACK-OFF set. It’s almost a relief to do now!

Here’s how it might look.

Empty bar x 10

95 x 8

135 x 5

165 x 5

195 x 3

225 x 3

205 x 2

260 x 1

250 x 5

The Back-Off Work-Up For Reps

This is another trick I like to do with body-weight exercises like chinups and dips. Yes, you can work up on these, too. I throw in kind of a wave loading thing just to get the nervous system extra revved. Gradually increase the weight and keep the reps very low just to send the signal to your muscles that you need more and more motor units to complete the lift. Then lose the extra weight entirely and make your body feel light by comparison.

A plan for getting max reps on chinups:

45lbs x 5

70 x 3

85 x 1

Body weight x AMRAP

Questions? Concerns? Reach me here or find me on Twitter (@seanhyson) or Facebook (seanhyson.com).

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Program Pros, Cons, Solutions, Part 2

Let’s look at two more training programs.

Percentage-based programs
These focus on strength and are based on percentages of your max lifts. Typically, you start at a low to moderate percentage of the heaviest weight you can use and increase it gradually. The most famous recent example of this is Wendler’s 5/3/1 method. You do sets of 65%, 75%, and 85% the first week, then increase to 70%, 80%, and 90% the second week, and then to 75%, 85%, and 95% in Week 3 before a deload. (Note: the way Wendler has you do these, you work from a max that isn’t really your max but about 90% of it, so these percentages are a little misleading, but you get the idea.)

Percentage-based programs aim to gradually build your tolerance to heavier weights and keep you focused on increasing your max.

Pros
I think this approach is great for lifters in the late-beginner or intermediate stage of their training careers. (How much does a “career” in training pay, anyway?) At that level, you’re experienced enough to know what your maxes are and it helps ingrain patience for making progress. As much as you may want to lift heavy, you have to stick to the percentages and ensure that you master one load before increasing it. This kind of training also gets you in the habit of tracking numbers and being aware of how you’re improving. If you’re doing any kind of speed work, be it dynamic effort lifting (as discussed in my last post) or Olympic lifts like cleans or high pulls, it’s very helpful to think in terms of percentages to monitor your intensity. The lower the percentage, the lighter the weight, and the faster you can lift it. A weight that’s too heavy will move too slowly for you to develop power. So it’s good to aim for weights in the 40%–60% range when doing dynamic effort lifts. In this case, percentages tell you right away how much weight to aim for, and make it a little easier to gauge than just working up to some load that feels right.

Math can be fun. When it gets you stronger.

Cons
The obvious problem here is that your max on any program doesn’t remain the same until you re-test it and then find that you’ve suddenly gotten stronger. It should be improving a little bit week to week. Since your max is steadily moving along with the program, the percentages you’re pulling from it have less and less application. You may end up lifting a lighter weight than you need to make gains with.

Another problem is that you can’t customize anything. You have your numbers to hit that are written down in advance, and God help you if you’re having a rough day and don’t feel up to hitting, say, 90% of your max when it’s called for. (Even if that isn’t an accurate fraction of your true limit strength, it’s probably still pretty heavy.)

Of course, an issue many people have with % programs is that they can get complicated, especially if you’re not good with math. As my friend Ben Bruno says, “We’re meatheads”—we shouldn’t have to do calculations in the gym. If you don’t have a calculator handy, it can be a pain in the glutes to figure out just how much you’re supposed to lift.

And there’s one other possible drawback. I know that some people get intimidated by seeing their percentages climb. If you’re on Week 1 of a program and using 65% of your max, the weight feels almost easy and it’s no big deal. When you get up to 90%, 95%, or 97.5%, it starts to get a lil scary. Some people dread going to the gym at this point in a program, and they can even be scared into lifting lighter than they’re supposed to. This can really suck when you’re feeling tired or down and you’ve got a big number you’ve pre-recorded in your training journal staring up at you. Your brain keeps telling you, “You’re supposed to lift that… now get to it, no matter what.”

Contrast this with something like the max-effort method where you just work up to the heaviest weight YOU’RE CAPABLE OF ON THAT PARTICULAR DAY. Even though you’re supposed to lift heavy, I don’t see this as being as much of a psych out as trying to hit a pre-determined number. You go in, start working up, and whatever you feel up for, you go for. As long as you’re a little experienced and can push yourself hard on occasion, you’re pretty much guaranteed to have a decent workout.

Solution
I think when you get fairly strong you have to be smarter about customizing your workouts. That’s where I’m at now. I don’t want to follow a straight line of percentages anymore—I want to take advantage of good days when they come and minimize the damage of bad days when necessary.

That’s why I like what Wendler did with 5/3/1. First of all, you’re not using super accurate percentages—they’re really just built in as a guideline. Then, you’re not limited to how many reps you can do with them. You go for as many as you can on your last set and aim to beat that record periodically as things move forward.

You should be aware of percentages so you have an idea of how much a given weight is in relation to your max, so you can gauge the intensity of what you’re doing. But you don’t need to plot out every weight you’re going to do in advance.

I think most experienced lifters find that simply estimating what they can do beforehand comes out pretty close to what the calculator tells them to do anyway. I could aim for five reps using 85% of my max, or just think about hitting a heavy set of five. The weight will probably be the same.

Prilepin’s chart.

Block Periodization
Here’s a complicated concept going around these days that actually isn’t that complicated in practice. The goal is to train multiple qualities and keep them all as close to their peak as possible. So there’s a conditioning component to every workout with short rest periods, the volume fluctuates, and the lifts get progressively heavier. If you’re looking to get stronger as well as in great overall shape, I think BP is a worthwhile experiment. I made a lot of progress doing it in 2011–2012.

Most lifters seem to use it in conjunction with Prilepin’s chart (which I explained HERE). Your total volme is determined weekly by the chart, and as your percentages go up, the volume diminishes. The assistance work is uniformly kept fast-paced and higher volume to keep your conditioning up, which is intended to promote strength gains as well. The better your work capacity, the less heavy weights faze you.

Pros
Like I said, it gets you in great shape. Unlike with some old-school powerlifting programs, you’re never lifting heavy weights exclusively and resting long bouts between sets. Block trains you to perform to a lot of work and bring up your weak points while getting strong.

The way I implemented it, I started with a very low percentage of my max (50%) and gradually worked up handling every load for multiple sets. Unlike with most percentage-based programs, however, I was able to customize the workouts because of Prilepin’s chart. I had a certain number of total reps to hit, but how I got them all was my business. For instance, 55% of my max may have required 30 total reps according to the chart, but I could perform five sets of six to get there, six sets of five, or sets of 6, 6, 6, 5, 4, and 3 reps. It all depends on how you’re feeling and what you can do that day. This made for a greater sense of freedom doing the program and it was easier to avoid burning out as a result.

Cons
The first time I tried block, I made excellent progress, adding 40 some pounds to my squat and deadlift and 20 or so to my bench press. The next time I tried it, I plateaued on the squat before I could even test it and added a measly five pounds to my bench. My training felt great the whole way through the program and then, suddenly, everything started to feel heavy and I barely got out of the last two weeks with my life.

Russians like Konstantin Konstantinov know how to get strong.

What went wrong? I don’t know for sure, but my guess is that block periodization can fall prey to the same problems that any other percentage-based programming can—despite the fact that it’s more customizable. However, the risk isn’t so much undertraining in this case as the percentages rise and your max shifts, but overtraining. Once you get up to a succession of weeks using 85%, 90% and 95%, it can be a grind. One way to avoid this is to throw in deloads or occasionally back down the percentage (repeat a week at 70% after 65%, 70%, and 75%), but it’s still asking your body to increase its intensity on a regular basis. I reduced the volume accordingly as the weights climbed, aiming for the low end of the Prilepin’s chart numbers, but it still wasted me to the point that I was missing reps on the squat in my last week.

Another issue is the conditioning component. If your form isn’t rock solid and you’re not very experienced on your lifts, BP’s effort to build your work capacity can lead to merely doing sloppy reps that reinforce bad technique. You’ll feel rushed through your sets, and the purpose of the program will be defeated.

Solution
I like using Prilepin’s chart as a guide for everything to do with big lifts like cleans, squats, deadlifts, and presses. As long as you do these lifts with some combination of sets and reps that satisfies the chart, you should be able to build some muscle and gain strength for the rest of your lifting life. BP gave me my introduction to the chart.

Aside from that, looking back at my training journal, I see that BP didn’t work any better—muscle and strength-wise—than a number of other methods I had tried in the past. It worked well the first time and only so-so during the second cycle. For those reasons, I chalk it up as just another thing to try, and not the secret Soviet superprogram that some coaches sell it as. You can get strong with it or without it. It’s up to you.

”Ned” is a very lucky man.

What programs have you tried? What did you love or hate? Feel free to share.

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Programs: Pros, Cons, and Solutions

If you’ve been training for a while, you’ve probably come to the sad but necessarily realization that there’s no such thing as the “perfect program” for getting bigger and/or stronger. If you haven’t been training long, let me save you some trouble and tell you that there’s no such thing as the “perfect program” for getting bigger and stronger.

The caption below says it all.

The closest thing to it is something that’s A) new to your body, and will thus stimulate some kind of positive adaptation, and B) the best choice you can make based on your current level of development, experience, personality, the equipment and other options available to you, etc.

Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of popular programs.

Westside Barbell

This is probably the most influential approach to gaining strength in use today, whether for powerlifting or athletics at large. Even coaches who have never trained at the famed Westside Barbell powerlifting club in Ohio and aren’t “Westside guys”, so to speak, use some incarnation of this program. The most basic template has you breaking the week up into two max-effort days, where you lift the heaviest weights possible, and two dynamic-effort days, where you lift lighter weights as fast as possible. (Another option is to do rep-effort days, which are essentially bodybuilding workouts where the goal is to pump up the muscles with a high volume of moderate-weight lifts).

Pros
Because nothing has come around to replace it or better it since its rise to fame some (I’d say) 20 years ago, I think the max-effort method is probably the best approach for building brute strength on the planet. By using mainly singles (one rep) at or above 90% of your max lift, you force the CNS to recruit as many muscle fibers as possible and coordinate them for an all-out effort. Most people see gains in strength very quickly.

Cons
When a program calls for you to lift brutally heavy weights week in and week out, it’s pretty easy to see what the downside can be. Your risk of injury is always high, and joint pain will become a part of your life very soon. There’s also the risk of overtraining, which is why lifters using the max-effort method cycle their lifts, often on a weekly basis.

Apart from the problems max-effort training poses, the dynamic-effort method is mired in controversy. I’d say every other trainer I speak with thinks it works—the other half think it stinks. I was talking to coach Tony Gentilcore, who works with Eric Cressey in Boston, and he told me that, as is so often the case in fitness, it probably works BUT FOR DIFFERENT REASONS than people think.

Lifting like these guys will get you strong. At a price.

Lifting light weights with intended lightning quickness may or may not teach you to accelerate the bar and blast through sticking points, as it’s purported to do. But it certainly does give you plenty of practice lifting with light weights, so that your technique gets razor sharp. When you consider that most people’s form breaks down when the weight gets heavy and costs them new personal records, it stands to reason that more practice—coupled with the heavy lifting provided by max-effort work—can make all the difference.

Solution
Coach Jason Ferruggia told me that he and his clients made great gains doing max effort work, and little to none doing dynamic work, but often suffered injury or burnout doing Westside-style training. His solution was to lighten the max-effort days so that guys could still train heavy but not to the extreme—perhaps shoot for a five-rep max instead of going for a single. He also replaced speed sets with box jumps and throws, so power could be improved without joint stress. To Tony Gentilcore’s point, it can be a good idea to do multiple sets of singles at a moderate weight so as to ingrain good technique. But one need not attach chains and bands all the time (especially if lifting without assistive equipment), as is common practice with Westside-type programs.

Ferruggia and I discuss his specific methods frequently on the forums in his Renegade Inner Circle.

Wave Loading

I’ve written about my love for this old idea favored by strength coach Ian King—a big influence on Alwyn Cosgrove. The concept involves alternating heavy sets (or “waves”) with lighter ones so as to excite the nervous system and make heavier weights on subsequent sets feel lighter. The lighter they feel, the more volume you can do with a heavier load and the greater muscle-building stimulus you can apply.

Pros
It’s undeniably great for beginners and gets people who have never lifted heavy to do so. It gives them the confidence to try. It’s also damn good fun. If you ever get baited into a contest with your buddies of who can do the most reps on X exercise, hit some wave-loading sets first. You’ll win. I find it particularly useful for chinups. Walking into a gym cold (or with just a few warm-up sets), I can expect to get maybe 10 or 11 good reps. After a few heavy sets wearing a weighted belt, I can get 12, 15, or even 18 reps. The first 10 feel easy! I can’t say I’ve ever experienced a phenomenon like that doing any other program.

Cons
I did wave loading off and on over the years whenever I felt like I was in a rut. It always made me feel strong again. I recently picked it up again and had success with it again, but I see now that it isn’t as mystical as I once believed. I understand that the effect is simply post-activation potentiation—lift heavy and your nervous system will immediately recognize something that’s a little lighter as much lighter by comparison. You trick your body into lifting heavier or handling more reps than it would normally let you. But this can be accomplished by… like I said, doing a few heavy sets before backing off to a lighter weight. You don’t need to alternate sets of 6 reps and 1 rep or perform multiple waves where you’re changing plates every set. Not only is that unnecessary, it’s a little annoying (especially if you’re sharing the bar with training partners), and even a little dangerous.

The problem I consistently run into with wave loading is that I lift too heavy, too much with it. Waves of 5, 4, and 3 reps, or that work down to 2 or even 1 rep and are repeated multiple times in the workout can really run you down. The more waves you do on a main lift, the less energy (and time) you have for assistance lifts. In December, I was doing six work sets on some of my lifts. In February, I was doing seven. Now I see that if I go up to eight I won’t be able to take it so I’m bringing the volume way back down.

Wave loading can blow up your chinup numbers.

Solution
Do wave loading once in a while and occasionally when you want to test your strength. Sometimes just working up to a heavy single or max as you do in the max-effort method just doesn’t unlock your strength like teasing it out with wave-loading does. Carry the lesson of post-activation potentiation with you—lift heavy early on so that subsequent sets feel like lighter, back-off sets—and you’ll make the most of training sessions.

5x5

There are many ways to implement this strategy, which is as old as lifting itself, but the reason it’s lasted so long is that there’s really no way to screw it up… at least for a little while. Five reps ensures you’re doing enough weight to build strength and five sets gives you enough exposure to the load to promote growth. It’s the ultimate go-to for guys who need a plan that’s simple to remember and easy to implement.

Pros
It’s ideal for beginners. Every bodybuilder, including Arnold, has given it a go, and it teaches you some core lessons about lifting: what fatigue feels like and how to push through it on later sets; how to track your progress over time (increase the weight across the sets); how to set goals (hit all five sets for five reps next time if you missed a few this time), and so on. Good ol’ 5x5 is an awesome introduction into program design and often a revelation to people that yes, there is some actual science behind this meathead weightlifting stuff.

Cons
After a certain point, 5x5 loses its luster. When you get fairly strong, you can’t use a heavy weight for five straight sets anymore or you won’t be able to recover. What guys will then do is start assigning percentages to each set so that only the last one or two sets are heavy, but then that isn’t really 5x5 anymore. At that point, you’re pretty much doing a modified version of the max-effort method—working up to a top set.

Even if you’re not strong yet, failing to ever train BELOW five reps is a good way to guarantee you never will be. A five-rep set uses weights near your max, but a three or two-rep set gets you even nearer. Reps this low have to be cycled to prevent burnout, but they’re indispensable if maximum strength is your goal. And at some point it should be if you want to be faster or bigger, too.

Arnold with Reg Park. Two 5x5 survivors.

Solution

If you’ve been lifting for two or more years and you can squat in the 300s, bench in the mid 200s, and deadlift in the mid to high 300s, I think you’ve outgrown 5x5. You may find yourself doing versions of it from time to time, but I think a four-week block of pure 5x5 will be a waste for you. However, if you’re particularly weak on a lift, 5x5 may be the tool you need. It lets you drill technique with fairly short, manageable sets. And as mentioned earlier, technique is often the main limiting factor for growth and strength.

Confused? Angry? Think I’ve lost my mind? Leave a comment below. Likewise, if this was way over your head and you’d rather I discussed something else, say so. If there aren’t too many objections (or if there are requests), I’ll discuss some more programs next time.

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Lean in 2013: The Wrap Up

The final six tips on the list for getting lean in 2013.

If Asian cooking can produce this, imagine
what it can do for you.

8. Don’t use flaxseed oil. I know, there was a time not too long ago when you were encouraged to put this stuff on everything. It was the king of all fats and the magic bullet for good health. Well, we all got duped.

I’m not going to say it’s all bad, but at best, it’s just another fat. And if you’re dieting, even if it’s a very low-carb diet, you still have to take some care with your fat consumption. Flaxseed oil is high in omega-3’s as it’s been promised, but your body needs to process it to make EPA/DHA, so it’s not providing you a direct source of what your body really needs to fight inflammation, speed fat loss, enhance brain function and heart health and the myriad other benefits attached to omega-3’s rich in EPA/DHA.

You’re better off taking fish or krill oil or just eating more fish.

Another knock on flaxseed oil is that it is unstable and can turn rancid easily. It also contains compounds that may raise estrogen levels.

The seeds themselves aren’t much of a bargain either. Because they’re so small, they can pass through your digestive system easily (you’ll poop them out before deriving any benefits). If you buy them already milled, you lose a lot of the oil because it’s dried up in the processing. If you’re really determined to get some use out of the bag of flax seeds you just bought, use a coffee grinder to chew them up and pour them into your shake, salad, or oatmeal fresh.

9. Measure stuff. Portion control is usually thought of as a tool to get sedentary people eating less of the crap food that made them fat in the first place. But disciplined, active people need to use it too.

You just can’t trust yourself to eat the right amounts. Most people grossly overestimate how much a serving is. Nate Miyaki recommends using measuring cups as serving spoons, particularly with starchy carbs and nuts. Get in the habit of doing this and eventually you’ll be able to trust yourself to eyeball portions—but I’d still be very cautious when it comes to carbs. Remember, they’re the number one factor (after calories, of course) that determine what you weigh, and how much of it is muscle vs. fat.

10. Master the stir fry. When you don’t use oil, this can be the perfect meal, and it’s very easy to prepare. Pour some water in a pan and start adding meat and vegetables. Then some soy sauce or sriracha for flavor, and you’re done in minutes. Serve with or without rice.

I’ve found that it’s easier to stick to a diet when you have fewer pots, pans, and utensils to clean. Less mess means less frustration, and more motivation to keep on the same track. Try to make multiple foods that require various kinds of prep and you’ll be a slave in the kitchen, which brings me to my next point.

11. Eat LESS variety. I hate to say it, but diets need to be bland. Not “all your food must taste like cardboard bland”, but if you live in the busy real world and have only yourself and the money in your pocket to feed yourself with, you’re better off mastering some simple, quick recipes than trying to be a gourmet and eating a little of everything.

I made this mistake when I did my transformation in 2010. I told myself that I wanted to do it healthy, and that, to me, meant eating a wide variety of protein and vegetable sources, more fruit, and seeing if I could outsmart 100-some years of bodybuilding nutrition wisdom.

Dinner is served.

I ended up spending a lot of time scouring the Web for healthy recipes, cooking and cleaning in every spare moment, and probably costing myself some results in the long run. At the very least, I cost myself some sanity.

Keep it simple. Your carb sources should be potatoes, sweet potatoes, possibly grains like oats if you can digest them, and a piece or two of whole fruit. That’s plenty of variety. And don’t dress them up to be tastier unless you’re absolutely sure you’re not going to screw it up.

12. Do low reps for your main lifts, higher reps for assistance. Keeping your main exercises like squats and presses heavy will help you preserve muscle as you diet. Even though your calories are down, you’re telling your body that you need to keep all this muscle because you’re still working hard. Lighter, easier exercises like dumbbell lifts, body weight moves, and any machine training should be done with reps of eight or higher. Not only is this necessary because you’ve already trained heavy at this point and need the balance, but higher rep, shorter rest training releases growth hormone and promotes muscle growth. It’s bodybuilding training, after all. In a caloric deficit, you won’t gain much if any muscle, but it’s still important to send the body that signal so that it supports your muscle mass as much as possible.

Silly rabbit...

13. Remember your options. I wrote above that you need to embrace a plainer, more predictable diet to lose fat. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be a little bit gourmet. Green vegetables are a must but eggplant, onions, garlic, all kinds of peppers, and water chestnuts are other veggie options you can enjoy (and they all go well in stir fries).

Game meats can provide variety in your proteins. Venison, bison, rabbit, elk, and boar are all good choices with different nutritional profiles and flavors. You can pick some of these up from US Wellness Meats. Shellfish like crab and shrimp are equally good, and more easily found.

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit http://seanhyson.com/)

2013 Ways to Strength and Size, Cont...

Thought I’d forgotten about this series, didn’t you?

Not a chance. Here are the last few tips for the stronger and bigger portion (to add up to 20 total). I’ll be back later in the week with the “get lean” tips. If you missed the beginning of the series, see it HERE.

If you look like this, read this series again.

STRONGER and BIGGER

11. Don’t train fast and heavy. When I train with a new group of people, they’re often surprised by how long I take to warm up and the number of sets I use to get up to my main work sets. I think most people these days want to keep their workouts to about an hour and they move through exercises pretty fast. This is fine for getting in shape, losing fat, and putting on some size, but it’s not going to do much for strength. I don’t train slow—as in I don’t rest long between sets, generally—but I do take my time to do things right. When you try to deadlift and squat at a brisk pace, your form suffers, your strength suffers, and your risk of getting hurt goes up.

Some workouts can be done circuit style where you just go for a pump and keep the weights moderate. Others should be heavy and you’ll have to plan to spend longer in the gym. In general, my main lifts take a while—most of the session—and then my assistance work might last as little as 10 minutes. Sometimes it just feels tacked on, but that’s okay.

The point is to respect heavy weights and make the time to lift them. If you want your workouts to beat the clock, accept that you won’t get much stronger. Strength takes time.

12. Use wide-grip Gironda dips for your chest. The parallel-bar dip is a good chest builder on its own, but for most people, the triceps get more out of it. To hit the pecs more directly, take a wider grip so that your chest gets stretched in the bottom position. Gironda felt that a width of 32 inches was best. Note that in many gyms that just offer parallel bars with no way to adjust their width, this kind of dip may not be doable. But if you got em, use em.

Gironda dips.

Point your elbows out wide and tuck your chin to your chest. Your legs should be together with toes pointed down.

13. Train arms harder. If you’re not already doing a dedicated arm day but you want to prioritize arms right after your main lifts, train them twice a week. On one upper-body day, let them be your only assistance work. For instance, you might bench press first in the workout and then follow it with 6–10 sets of triceps and biceps exercises. The triceps assist the other pressing muscles and the biceps balance out the triceps, so it’s a perfectly good approach. On your next upper-body day, do your pressing assistance exercises and then throw a few sets in for bi’s and tri’s (or just bi’s as triceps will have already gotten some work that day). This approach hits the arms with good frequency—once when they’re relatively fresh—and allows you to continue building your main lifts without spending more time on arms or recovering from training them.

14. Use your hip flexors. If you have trouble keeping your lower back flat as you descend on a squat or deadlift, think about pulling your body down using your hip flexors. Lie on the floor and hook one foot under something sturdy and try to bring your knee to your chest. Your leg shouldn’t move much—you just want to feel the hip flexor contract so you understand the sensation. Now get up and go squat or deadlift. Think about pulling your hips back and keeping your weight on the heels, and you’ll figure out how to do these lifts safely.

15. Eat white rice, not brown. Nate Miyaki convinced me of this and I doubt I’ll turn back. Brown rice has compounds that can prevent the absorption of vitamins and minerals in your food, so while it’s long been thought of as the more nutritious rice option, it’s actually costing you nutrition at the same time. White rice offers little more than glucose—just a way to replenish glycogen stores after training, and that’s mainly when I eat it—but it’s very easy to digest. Because it’s not very filling, you can eat more of it and other foods to get more calories in to build muscle. It’s been several weeks now and I haven’t gotten any fatter from white rice. It tastes pretty good—I’d say better than the brown stuff—and it pairs well with many meals. [TWEET THIS ADVICE]

16. Superset toe raises with calf raises. Supersetting opposing muscle groups like chest and back or biceps and triceps always leaves you with a crazy pump and is a good way to see some growth. Most people don’t realize that they can get that effect with calves, too. Throw some toe raises in between sets of calf raises. The best case scenario would be to do these on a tibialis anterior machine, but most gyms don’t have them. Standing on a step or other raised surface is fine—just rock back on your heels and raise your toes up as high as you can. A few back and forth sets of tibialis and calf work will have your lower legs screaming. Mountain Dog bodybuilding creator John Meadows swears these got his calves growing again. Tibialis work is also good if you’re a runner or suffer from shin splints.

17. Strengthen your upper back, curl more. I think there’s enough biceps-building information out there now. Seriously, we don’t need any more routines, tips, or tricks. (And this is coming from a guy who edits fitness magazines!) If doing more curls or different variations on them was really what guys needed to add more arm size, they’d all have done it by now. Lack of development in any muscle is almost always the result of a weak link that hasn’t been addressed yet, and it’s often something you’d never think of.

With biceps, it’s the upper back. The stronger it is, the better you can hold your shoulder blades together during curls and the more stable you’ll be when you curl. That means heavier curls and longer, more effective sets. Targeted upper back work is a must for everybody for a variety of other reasons, of course, so always do face pulls, bent-over raises, incline shrugs, and YTWI raises.

18. Treat seated exercises like standing. Incline or seated shoulder presses can hurt your lower back if your position causes you to arch too hard. Having your knees bent 90 degrees and your feet planted close to you may look correct but you’ll probably find that you don’t have any stability—and when your upper body gets tired, that’s the end of the set. You can’t drive your feet into the floor to create tension and power up a few more reps.

Try moving your feet out until the knees are almost straight. Turn your toes out a bit as in a squat stance. Your body will be so elongated it will be like you’re standing but using the bench for support. Now your torso, hips, and legs are aligned to take pressure off the back and focus your power.

19. Don’t add exercises, add days. If you want to accomplish more in your training, add extra workouts rather than more exercises and sets to what you’re already doing. If you’re already training hard for an hour or more, tacking on more work, even of lower intensity, probably won’t accomplish much. After 45 or so minutes, your focus and energy is down, and it doesn’t make sense to try to bring some weak area up when you’re already fatigued. Prioritize things properly by giving them their own day.

Be cautious, however, that this extra day doesn’t detract from what you’re already doing. I wouldn’t do heavy shoulder presses and then throw in a chest specialization workout two days later. But you could work smaller muscles like forearms, calves, and neck on their own day (perhaps the 5^th workout in your training week). Or you could do a few more sets for back at the end of your leg day.

If you don’t want to drink this, drink egg whites.

20. Drink your egg whites. Lots of people can’t digest whey protein and don’t like the taste or consistency of protein shakes in general. Additionally, some are concerned about how they’re processed and what other ingredients are in them. In this case, you can blend up shakes with liquid egg whites. They’re already pasteurized, so you don’t have to worry about food poisoning as you might with raw whole eggs. A few tablespoons nets you around 10 grams of protein and no fat, so it’s not much different than spooning in a powder—it’s less potent, protein-wise, but it mixes much more easily. Add a banana or two for flavor, maybe some almond butter, and use almond milk as your base. Now you have a pretty tasty protein drink you can verify as safe and wholesome.

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit http://seanhyson.com/)

Life On The Inside

The key to the kingdom.

Just a quick note to officially announce on this blog that I am now a member of the coaching staff on Jason Ferruggia’s Renegade Inner Circle.

Ferruggia set up an online coaching site where you get access to all his training programs, the Renegade Diet, videos of exercise demonstrations, articles, and a forum for questions and answers. More than 1,000 members are logging their workouts on there, exchanging training advice and motivational tips, and generally supporting and encouraging each other.

It is an enormous honor to be a part of it, and I’m having the time of my life so far. The other members of the coaching staff include:

Keith Scott. A physical therapist and trainer in NJ who has written for me at the magazines for the past six years, Keith knows more about preventing and treating injuries than practically anyone. He’s our resident sawbones, so if you’ve got aches and pains, go to Keith for the treatment.

Adam Bornstein. He was my counterpart at Men’s Health magazine, then the fitness director at Livestrong.com, and now about to be a best-selling author when his book with John Romaniello—Engineering The Alpha—comes out this spring. Bornstein is a true professional who’s on the cutting edge of everything worth reporting about the fitness industry.

Jason Ferruggia. He needs no introduction. He’s simply one of the most popular and important coaches in our industry.

Ferruggia. Isn’t this a face you can trust?

When you join the Inner Circle, you get access to all of us on a daily basis. You’ll get answers to your questions almost immediately, along with audio interviews, teleseminars and webinars, brand new workouts, and more.

There are NO EGOS in the Inner Circle, among either the coaches or the members. Unlike most message boards where you might get “flamed” for asking a question or giving a dissenting opinion, everyone here is cool. The goal is to grow and get better, and that only happens in a positive environment.

I recently hit a big PR on my deadlift—518 pounds with a few more to spare—and I revealed the program I took to get there on the Inner Circle forums. And there are plenty of other members on there who make my numbers look small sharing their strategies.

If you’re interested in long-term coaching and getting the absolute best advice from some of the brightest and most dedicated people in fitness, join the Renegade Inner Circle.

I’ll still be blogging away here and doing my best to get back to everyone who reaches out to me, but in the RIC, you get Jason, Adam, Keith, and a thousand men and women willing to do the same.

It’s a meathead’s paradise. Click HERE to find out more.

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit http://seanhyson.com/)

Nutrition with Miyaki, Part Deux

This is the second part of my nutrition interview with Nate Miyaki. Enjoy!

Sean: The 80’s and 90’s were all about low fat. Now we’re in the low-carb craze. However, while you believe in limiting carbs, you don’t allow for nearly as much fat consumption as many of your contemporaries. Why is that? Is it a matter of calories, the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 in the diet, or what?

Olive oil. Not as healthy as we thought.

Nate: It’s both. You can get all of the essential fats you need to support optimum health and natural hormone production from animal foods. Omega-3 is in fish and 50% of the fat in beef is monounsaturated fat. And they come in the right amounts and ratios that Mother Nature intended.

Any added fats are just an additional source of energy. This can be good or bad depending on your total calorie requirements and goals (a deficit is necessary for fat loss), and the composition of the rest of your diet (added fats and carbs should be somewhat inversely related).

Any time man alters a food from its natural state, it is worse off for you. What’s Jack LaLanne’s old line, “If man made it, don’t eat it”? This is usually applied to carbs, but I believe it is equally relevant to one’s dietary fat sources.

In nature, fats are meant to be eaten with protein (animal meats) and/or with fiber (nuts, olives, avocadoes, coconut). They are NOT meant to be eaten as a stand-alone, refined oil, dressing, or cream sauce.

As soon as you start refining fats, you end up with: 1) A concentrated source of calories with low food volume, which puts you on the wrong side of the energy balance equation, and in turn makes it impossible to lose body fat. 2) A disrupted balance in EFA ratio—most vegetable oils are higher in Omega-6’s than Omega-3’s. 3) A low satiety food.

Fat is a highly satiating food in its natural state when combined with protein and fiber. However, as a refined oil, fat is very low on the satiation scale. Just like with refined carbohydrates, because of this low satiation value, refined fats (even healthy ones) are very easy to overeat. This is how you end up with the salad that you believe is a “light” lunch or dinner but actually contains 1500 calories or more.

In today’s low-carb era, many mistakenly believe that as long as they banish carbs to the Underworld, they can eat unlimited amounts of added fats and still get shredded. This is not the case. Calories still count. The only way to force your body to burn stored body fat is to take in fewer calories than you burn, on average, over some time frame.

Even if you cut carbs to zero, if you eat unlimited fat and protein, you can still enter a state of caloric excess. And even though your body has shifted to burning a greater percentage of fatty acids and perhaps ketones as fuel, being in a caloric excess means you will simply obtain those fatty acids from the abundance of dietary fat you are taking in.

Your body will NOT be forced to tap into internal body fat stores as a reserve fuel. Quite the opposite is true. The excess calories will be stored as body fat, regardless if insulin and blood sugar are constantly kept at a low level. Unused fuel gets stored. And if you are in a calorie surplus, there is unused fuel.

And on a side note, for those engaging in consistent, high-intensity, anaerobic activity (i.e., most people reading this), I lean more toward carbs than fats as the primary energy nutrient. It better aligns the diet with the training protocol. You get better muscle retention, energy, performance, and natural hormonal support. Yes, fats support the Big T, but so do carbs, specifically IN RESPONSE to high-intensity training, as well as other hormones such as leptin.

In other words, with some carbs in your diet, your dick will work even if you’re in a calorie deficit, which means you can be less of a dick to everyone else around you.

When you eat carbs, she’s happy.

Sean: Well, that’s comforting to know. But what do you say to guys who have gotten very friendly with fats in place of carbs? How can they cut out butter, oil, and Pam spray and still make flavorful meals? Can you give me a recipe?

Nate: Here are a few options.

1. You can broil or bake your meats with different herbs and spices like sea salt, garlic powder, paprika, etc.

2. Get out there and barbeque like a man, again, with different herbs and spices. You can brush the grill with some olive oil. By the time you’re done cooking the meat, most of the oil will have dripped through, thus adding minimal calories.

3. My favorite is stir-frying meat and veggies in their own juices. Cut up some flavorful veggies, add in the meat, and simmer in its own water, natural fats, and flavors. You can add things like soy sauce or chicken broth for flavor. While I’m against most soy products for a variety of reasons, fermented soy sauce is a different story. It won’t raise estrogen or do any of the other nasty stuff that soy is aledged to.

A recipe? Sure. How about a New York Steak Stir-Fry? Cut up half a white onion, a red bell pepper, and a green bell pepper, and throw in a package of pre-sliced mushrooms. Add a pound of thinly sliced New York steak (sukiyaki-style, just ask the butcher to do it for you so you don’t chop off a finger). Stir-fry over medium heat until the beef is brown and the veggies have reduced down. Throw that over some rice, sprinkle some sea salt on top, and you’re good to go.

Sean: Where do you stand on supplements? I know you’re not high on dairy but do you think whey protein is appropriate?

Nate: Let me start off by saying that I get the use of supplements for a variety of reasons: the convenience factor, filling in the gaps of a diet to prevent certain deficiencies, and the psychological component—an athlete’s desire to feel like they are giving themselves an extra edge, or are doing everything possible to achieve the best results.

With that being said, however, and with all things being equal, you’ll never convince me that a pill, powder, or any other supplement is in any way superior to real, whole, natural foods. I think in the modern fitness era, people put way too much emphasis on their supplement protocols at the expense of really nailing down the basics of a solid dietary approach.

Need a miracle fat burner or pre-workout energy booster? Drink some coffee. You’ll be getting some antioxidants and magnesium along with the caffeine.

And do you really need that lightning fast-acting protein powder to optimize protein synthesis and build muscle? That’s highly debatable. As many scientists and coaches as there are that proclaim it is absolutely necessary, there are others who believe otherwise. Here are some snippets from a few different resources:

Rapidly absorbed amino acids, despite stimulating greater protein synthesis, also stimulate greater amino acid oxidation, and hence results in a lower net protein gain than slowly absorbed protein.

This “slow” and “fast” protein concept provides some clearer evidence that although human physiology may allow for rapid and increased absorption rate of amino acids, as in the case of WP (whey protein 8 to 10 g/h), this fast absorption is not strongly correlated with a “maximal protein balance,” as incorrectly interpreted by fitness enthusiasts, athletes, and bodybuilders.

Nitrogen assimilation following ingestion of protein-containing foods is superior to that following ingestion of free amino acids.

Now before we all get trapped in meaningless “study wars”, flinging research back and forth, I’m fully aware the argument can be made the other way with other research studies and resources. But after sifting through it all, here is my honest belief.

Anabolic activity takes time post-workout. Glycogen restoration can take 24 hours or more. Protein synthesis can be elevated for 36 hours or more post-workout. Building muscle is not just about what you do immediately post-workout, it is about what you do with your overall diet—so consuming enough protein and calories daily is what matters most. This idea that you only have a 3-hour anabolic post-workout window is kind of misleading.

But muscle breakdown/catabolic activity CAN happen fast post-workout. Amino acids can be converted to glucose to make up for the energy deficit created by exercise, and to re-stabilize blood sugar. The primary goal post-workout, then, should be to provide your body with an immediate fuel source to prevent the body from breaking down its own muscle tissue for energy. It really should be called the “3-hour anti-catabolic post-workout window”.

While protein initiates protein synthesis, it is carbohydrates that prevent protein breakdown. So I think you would get better results eating some carbs post-workout.

But who knows, I could be completely wrong. The only way you’ll know for sure is if you try it both ways and see what works best for you. I don’t need to be right. I’m just telling you what I believe.

With all that being said, knowing the importance of psychology in achieving fitness results, if you really do believe that adding whey protein to your diet is going to turn you into Ronnie Coleman, don’t listen to me, man. With the very real placebo effect, you’ll probably do more harm to your progress than good by cutting it out.

Miyaki is not a poseur. Er, most of the time.

Sean: You make a brave point. I never believed that supplements made a gargantuan difference but I still rely on them for the convenience factor and to fill in the nutritional gaps, as you pointed out. Take all the hype away, and that’s what they’re intended to do anyway. The take-home lesson in this, for me, is simply not to get hung up on them. If I run out of powder one day, I’m not going to skip training as a result or worry that I won’t build muscle from the session. I’ll grab a piece of fruit and eat a big meal when I can.

Nate: That would be just fine.

Sean: Your book discusses how to limit the damage from a night of drinking. This is ground I don’t often see covered but everybody wants to know how they can get around the effects of their own partying. What are your top three tips to keep a diet on track before or after a night of boozing?

Nate: I believe in cheat nights for overall sanity and the long-term sustainability of a diet plan. So my best tip is to save your boozing for your cheat nights. That way, you don’t have to worry about any of the negative metabolic or hormonal effects. You can simply let loose like Frank the Tank and get back on track the next day. If you are good with your diet plan 6 ½ days a week, then what you do one devious night out on the town is not going to kill your progress.

But here’s the thing. Alcohol is basically a poison in your system, so your body preferentially burns it over any other potential fuel sources in order to get rid of it. So if alcohol is in your system, fat oxidation (the burning of fatty acids as a fuel) is essentially shut down.

This means that, for better or worse, ALCOHOL SHOULD BE YOUR PRIMARY ENERGY NUTRIENT on those nights you drink. Have both a low-carb and a low “added fats” dinner. Remember, you have a third energy nutrient in your meal now—booze—and too much energy equals body fat. Basically just eat a source of animal protein and some non-starchy vegetables for dinner before you go drinking, or during.

Also, try my salty nuts… trick, that is. We all know that alcohol dehydrates you and you should drink water like a fish the next day. But in the dehydration process, the body flushes out not only water, but electrolytes as well, particularly sodium.

This is why the body craves hash browns and other salty, fatty foods when you’re hungover. It’s the desire to refill depleted sodium levels. You can satisfy that with junk, or you can go for a healthier option. Try some salted nuts. This will give you the salt your body is craving, as well as a healthier version of some dietary fat.

Got a sweet craving after my salty nuts? Grab a piece of whole fruit. It gives you a natural form of sugar that won’t send your blood sugar levels skyrocketing, and detoxifying alcohol is a tough process on your body. It elevates free radicals in the bloodstream. An orange, or other piece of fruit can provide a hefty dose of Vitamin C, a natural antioxidant that scavenges free radicals.

Sean: Your new product, Intermittent Feast, isn’t just an e-book. It’s got several long video components to it where you lecture in more detail about the topics you discussed. This sets it apart from a lot of other products and, I think, really shows how well you know your subject and how passionate you are about it. Can you talk about why you put it together this way?

Nate: These days, people are reading books and articles online and in magazines, acquiring a bunch of new facts BUT retaining little, applying nothing, and getting nowhere. This is a waste of time, money, and effort. If we can somehow absorb new material more efficiently, and retain it for longer periods of time, then we have a much better chance at applying it consistently, and finally achieving our goals.

This happens best with an educational process that combines a MIX of text, audio, and visual. I always learned best in school from a mix of live lectures and reading. Perhaps that’s why every major University eventually settled on that structure.

Don’t believe me? Here are some research quotes:

Educators may create a more efficient learning environment through a better understanding of multi-media learning.

Using visual helps and guides with spoken and written text was shown to assist working memory in processing new information into existing schema (organized patterns of thought or behavior).

Learners process media information differently whether written, spoken, or graphic.

An emerging area of study in e-learning is the personalization principle...the use of a conversational style rather than a formal writing style when presenting learning material to the distance learner. Evidence has emerged that suggests that the voice of the speaker plays an important role and that conversational text may be more effective when presented audibly rather than in written form.

*Holder et al. 2010. Heard and seen: Instructor-led video and its Effect on Learning. International Journal of Instructional Technology & Distance Learning 7(11): 1550-6908.

That’s why Intermittent Feast combines video lectures with TWO PDF books. My hope is that after you get through this course, you won’t need to seek out “new” material or be dependent on additional, expensive online coaching programs.

You’ll know everything you need to know to get the job done, and have the practical tools necessary to apply it.

Intermittent Feast.

Remember, subscribers to MY NEWSLETTER are getting a special deal on the product. As a favor to me, Nate is throwing in a separate e-book, The Samurai Diet, absolutely FREE with purchase of Intermittent Feast. Altogether, that’s 3 e-books and 5 video lectures (ranging from 26 to 42 minutes each!). But it won’t last. At MIDNIGHT on SATURDAY the bonus ends, and you’ll have to pick up The Samurai Diet separately. I’ve read both books and loved them both. Don’t miss out while you can get them at a bargain.

Pick up Nate’s books HERE.

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit http://seanhyson.com/)

Nutrition Q&A With Nate Miyaki

I’m interrupting my series of get stronger/leaner tips (don’t worry, I’ll finish them up soon) to bring you an interview I did with Nate Miyaki. I’ve written about Nate before on this blog (see “The Oil Crisis”) and he’s really opened my eyes to some things in the short time I’ve known him. He’s one of my favorite nutrition guys in the industry now and I want you all to get more familiar with his work. It’s not always “sexy” and easy to define, but it gets results. And Nate is all about a HEALTHY, SUSTAINABLE approach to fat loss and muscle gain. He’s also a competitive bodybuilder with a really hot wife.

And that’s enough for me.

Nate Miyaki

Sean: You like to keep track of the calories and macros of a diet. Unfortunately, most of us just don’t have the patience for that. How can we eyeball these numbers without breaking out food scales, protractors, and mad scientist lab equipment?

Nate: Some strength coaches proclaim that as long as you eat the right foods, or cut a certain macronutrient to zero, you don’t need to track anything else. That may be fine to go from out of shape to decent shape, or for the genetically elite or drug enhanced, but the average, natural dude is not going to get ripped to shreds with such a free-spirited, instinctual approach.

We can argue over optimum dietary approaches into eternity, but consistently hitting the right calories and macronutrients will always be the most important step in achieving ANY body composition goal.

Good food choices optimize the health aspects of a diet, and can do things like improve satiety, which makes staying within those numbers a lot easier. Diet structure can improve the practicality and sustainability of a plan. But science is science—targeted numbers will always have the biggest impact on the physiological processes behind physique transformation.

With that being said, however, knowing your numbers is not as backbreaking or impractical as it may seem. We’re looking for ballpark figures that we can refine based on progress. Here are some tracking short cuts for you:

THERE IS NO NEED TO WEIGH ANIMAL PROTEINS on a scale. Simply buy these foods in one pound (16oz) chunks and cut them up according to your dietary needs. If you are supposed to be eating 3oz servings at each meal, cut the chunk into 5 pieces. Four oz servings = 4 pieces. Five oz servings = 3 pieces. Eight oz servings = 2 pieces. It doesn’t have to be exact; we just want the right range.

You don’t have to measure non-starchy vegetables (broccoli, lettuce, spinach, onions, etc.) UNLESS they are cooked in butter or oil.

Most whole fruit is pre-measured for you. One piece of fruit is one serving. If not—for example, berries—go with a small bowl full.

The most important food to measure is starchy carbohydrates, which need to be modified up or down based on the goal of the diet (muscle gain or fat loss). When at home, simply use a measuring cup to serve your food instead of a traditional utensil. Portion precision with no extra steps.

When eating out at a restaurant, just eyeball the portion sizes. Four ounces of meat, poultry, or fish is about the size of a deck of cards. One cup of starch is about the size of a closed fist or a baseball.

Sean: GREAT answer. That will help a lot of people enormously. Myself included! In general, you’re a fan of the intermittent fasting (IF) structure of dieting. But what are some of the ways you see it being misused or made less effective? Are there any populations or goals it’s not appropriate for?

IF can be great but people tend to forget that food choices still matter. So it is not for those lazy people looking for a miracle cure that allows them to eat crap every day just because they’ve fasted for hours.

And even for the lucky few who can get away with eating daily junk in the short-term, it is not a good long-term strategy when factoring in overall health.

Here’s the thing. Cellular integrity, insulin sensitivity, optimal nutrient partitioning, etc., can all degrade over time. So it’s not how your diet affects your body or biomarkers of health in some short-term window. It’s the accumulative effects of your diet over years and decades that matter most.

Truth.

We’ll see how some of these sh*tloaders are doing 10–20 years from now. I’ve dealt with clients who were former athletes, who spent a good percentage of their lives looking awesome but not paying attention to the health impacts of their diet, who are now on 8 different medications and need a handful of blue pills just to get their wieners to move an inch. Not a good situation.

The way I like to see IF implemented is what I call Intermittent FEASTING. The main difference is that I recommend eating the majority of your calories and carbohydrates at night REGARDLESS of the time of day you train.

That’s mostly because of evolutionary and instinctual reasons. We evolved as hunter/gatherers, eating lightly while hunting during the day, feasting on whatever we caught at night. Nowadays, it’s also for social reasons. Most people are blasting away through work during the day not all that hungry, but want to enjoy a real dinner, not lettuce leaves, while with their family, friends, or business colleagues at night. And it’s also for psychological reasons. Most people can sacrifice, eat lighter, and make better food choices during the day if they get the reward of a big, complete, satiating dinner at night.

But there is some physiology behind it, too. If you train at lunch time, for example, and then have a big, insulin-spiking, starchy carb-loaded post-workout meal, it can trigger rebound hypoglycemia and leave you tired and brain-fogged a few hours later. That’s fine if you have nothing else to do all day, but not so great if you have to go back to an office job.

I’d rather have people eat lighter during the day so they can stay sharp, remain in a fat-burning/energy production mode, and then make some modifications around the workout to prevent catabolic activity, and then, finally, feast at night when they can actually kick back, relax, and optimally digest their food.

And don’t believe the hype that eating big at night will make you fat. Total myth. EATING AT NIGHT DOESN’T MAKE YOU FAT. Eating too much/too many calories makes you fat. If you’ve eaten large and/or frequent meals throughout the day, and then eat another large dinner on top of that, chances are you will overshoot your daily calorie needs and gain fat. It’s the total food intake not the distribution that is the problem.

If you eat lighter during the day and are active, chances are you’ll enter dinner in a relatively large calorie deficit with depleted energy reserves, and even a large meal with a significant amount of carbohydrates will be used to restore energy reserves first, before spilling over into fat stores. You need to look at this recommended diet structure as an entire big picture (fast AND feast), not at isolated topics.

Check out this study:

Sofer et al. 2011. Greater weight loss and hormonal changes after 6 months diet with carbohydrates eaten mostly at dinner. Obesity (Silver Spring) Apr 7.

Sean: Wow. Did you just drop a study on us? Actual research?? We don’t see a lot of that on blogs. Now what about IF with regard to special populations?

Nate: I’ve had to make some modifications when working with performance athletes.

Here’s the short summary. With a large, carb-based feast at night, you should have plenty of MUSCLE glycogen reserves to fuel muscular contractions during your training sessions the next day, even if you fasted all day long, or even two days long.

However, LIVER glycogen is what regulates normal, system-wide blood sugar and brain and CNS functioning. And liver glycogen stores are smaller and more transient than muscle glycogen. Low levels of LIVER glycogen are what normally cause fatigue or impair performance. In other words, the muscles could keep going, but the brain and CNS say, “stop”.

During resting conditions, the body only uses about 5-6g/hour of liver glycogen to regulate circulating blood sugar. During high-intensity activity, this can jump 8–10x.

So depending on the “fasting window”, some athletes have complained of low energy, or poor performance, or running out of gas and hitting the wall while training completely fasted or running on just a low-carb lunch. That’s not a huge deal if you are only training for cosmetic reasons, but it is problematic if performance is your top priority.

Nate’s wife Kalai.

So we can do things like add 1–2 pieces of whole fruit 0–60 minutes pre-workout to provide just enough circulating glucose to get through the workout, without the rebound hypoglycemia and blood sugar crash often associated with refined sugar drinks.

A second demographic I’ve had to make modifications for are some of the athletes I advise who train intensely 2x a day. MMA fighters, for example. Although I recommend that most people eat all of their starchy carbohydrates at night, twice a day training is an exception.

So we go with more nutrition following their morning training session to immediately start the recovery and refueling processes, and to adequately prepare them for their evening training sessions.

Sean: I’ve experimented with IF, including Jason Ferruggia’s Renegade Diet, which I’m a big fan of. I found that I could lean out and stay that way quickly but I couldn’t gain weight. I just couldn’t jam in enough carbs and calories later in the day to grow. How do you solve this problem? Is it just a matter of eating earlier?

Nate: Yeah, that really goes back to your first question—why I recommend tracking calories and macros. Remember, targeted numbers have the biggest impact on your physique goals. When trying to gain mass, you have to hit your prescribed numbers regardless of what diet structure you use.

First off, you CAN gain weight with my Intermittent Feast structure, which is based off of 2 meals a day. You just have to eat big, baby. Serge Nubret, the legendary bodybuilder who was in Pumping Iron, used to eat something ridiculous like 6 pounds of meat with beans and rice for dinner. In a previous muscle-gaining phase, an average dinner for me was 16oz of animal protein with 8 cups of rice.

But more important, I think this question points to a bigger problem within our industry—trying to slot everyone into one universal diet regardless of their situation or goal. I hope people don’t look at my Intermittent Feast approach as a dogmatic system, but rather as a set of informed guidelines.

I promote the hunt and feast structure, not because I believe it’s the only way, or because I give a sh*t about cavemen, but simply because I think it’s an easy and efficient path to get the physique enhancement job done. With that being said, adjustments and refinements are sometimes necessary.

So depending on digestive tolerance, as calories increase into bulking levels, you may need to make some modifications. Here is a progression:

1. Start by splitting the dinner feast into two smaller meals—one early dinner (say 4 or 5pm) and one late dinner (7 or 8pm).

2. If that doesn’t allow you to fit all of your calories and macros in, progress by adding more food to your lunch meal.

3. Finally, you may need to add additional meals/snacks. It may eventually lead you back to doing a more traditional bodybuilding spread of several small meals throughout the day. If that’s what works for you, that’s totally fine.

I’m not one of these coaches that bash bodybuilding nutrition. It absolutely is effective. Most of the top bodybuilders still follow a basic spread, and I’ve used that approach myself with great success. Where I think it falls short is in terms of its practicality, functionality, and long-term sustainability for the 95% of us with careers outside of that profession.

The Intermittent Feast e-book

I’ll be back later this week with more of my interview with Nate. If you think he offered up some good info here, just wait. He was extremely generous in revealing his secrets, and there’s much more to come. Nate also recently released an e-book, Intermittent Feast, which you can pick up HERE.

Subscribers to MY NEWSLETTER are getting a special deal on the product. As a favor to me, Nate is throwing in a separate e-book, The Samurai Diet, absolutely FREE with purchase of Intermittent Feast. Both are great products I highly recommend.

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit http://seanhyson.com/)

More Tips for A Bigger, Leaner 2013

Here are your 2013 tips continued...

At least they didn’t put the valves on his nipples.

STRONGER and BIGGER

7. Pump up to protect yourself. This relates back to my tip about pyramiding the other day but it’s important enough to stand on its own. Getting a pump is valuable for more than just muscle growth and looking better than you really are. It’s probably the best way to avoid injury and perform heavy lifts more safely. One of the longest-running “strength rules” says to perform your toughest, heaviest, compound lifts first in your workout so you’re fresh and can give them your maximum energy. This is important but it’s more important to have blood in your muscles and joints that are warm before hoisting hundreds of pounds, and simply working up to a heavy top set isn’t really enough to do that. Pyramiding is one way, but if you’re not into that, start your workout with what Mountain Dog trainer John Meadows calls a “pre-pump” exercise.

Pick a lift—could be compound or isolation—that isn’t stressful on the joints (no barbells) and do 3–5 sets of 10–15 reps with it. Keep the rest periods to a minute or less. The point is only to get a pump going and warm you up. If you’re not going to failure or using too heavy a weight, you won’t be that fatigued. You’ll be able to go on to bench presses or squats or deadlifts and still push hard with max weights. You’ll notice that your shoulders/elbows/hips feel a hell of a lot better when you do.

8. Don’t let anybody tell you your workout sucks. There’s a lot of ego in the fitness industry and a lot of favoritism. When one guy gains 10 pounds of muscle doing one program, he’s bound to think that that’s the best one and everybody else should be on it and those who aren’t don’t know what they’re doing.

There ARE sucky workouts out there and boneheaded approaches that need fixing, but if you believe in what you’re doing, enjoy your training, and do it consistently, you will see gains. Sometimes staggering gains that no one will be able to explain. Don’t let yourself get psyched out or or tempted with the promise that the grass is greener with another program. Jumping from plan to plan before you have a chance to measure any progress is MUCH less effective than doing a poorly designed program long term.

9. Keep a training journal. If you’re too lazy to do this, you’re just too damn lazy. I’d rather forget my protein shake and my gym sneakers than my notebook where I’ve written down every workout I’ve done for the past three years. When it comes to strength, the ONLY way you can really, truly, unquestionably tell if you’re getting stronger is if you can beat your performance in previous workouts. This goes back to the first rule of weight training—progressive overload—and it will never, ever, change. You need to be able to lift heavier weights, perform more reps, or do your sets with less rest in between them to know that you’ve gotten better. The only way you can possibly be sure that you’re doing this is to write each workout down and refer back to it. Don’t rely on memory. Mine sucks. I often think I used less weight last week than I really did or performed an exercise more recently than I remember. If I wasn’t able to look this stuff up in my journal, I’m sure I’d repeat workouts, miss lifts, or just spend too much time guessing when I could have it all planned out already.

And don’t just record the numbers and exercises. Make note of how you feel that day and any changes you made on the fly. Do you usually do good mornings after deadlifts but that day swapped them for leg curls because your lower back was smoked? Write that down. If you tried a new supplement or ate something new before training, write that too. The more thorough your journal, the more you’ll learn about how you make progress.

10. Economize your grip work. If you can’t hold on to deadlifts or rows or you just want bigger forearms and a handshake that crushes people’s palms, grip work is necessary. What isn’t necessary is adding on multiple grip exercises from plate pinches to farmer’s walks, wrist rollers, etc. Make no mistake, these are fine exercises that have a lot of value, but unless your grip is hilariously weak (as in salsa jar lids kick your ass), I don’t think you need them if you’re already building some grip training into your workouts—and assuming you’re not competing in strongman or rock climbing or something. I love Grip4orce grips because you can apply them to pretty much every exercise from deadlifts to rows to presses and curls. Squeeze these rubber sleeves onto the bar and you’ll be fighting to hold on throughout the set. They not only increase the amount of musculature that’s activated in the forearms, they redistribute the weight across your joints so your elbows and wrists don’t hurt (if they already do).

That’s it. You don’t have to add any exercises and spend more time in the gym. Just slide the Grip4orces on and you’re getting that extra work automatically.

Grip4orces in action.

LEANER

5. Don’t think green tea is the answer. I remember a few years ago when a study came out “showing” that people who drank multiple cups of green tea a day lost pure body fat, mostly from around the belly, with no other modifications. So off I went, drinking several cups a day until I was so caffeinated I couldn’t even sleep. Ridiculous. Green tea is healthy and should be enjoyed, but it doesn’t make any significant difference in weight loss. Especially when you’re not making any other changes. The same goes for all these wonder herbs, superfoods, and supplements that come up now and again like cayenne pepper and dark chocolate. They’re all healthy and useful, but they don’t make a difference in your fat loss bottom line. They really don’t. (You still need to diet.)

6. Don’t let anyone tell you your diet sucks. That is, as long as it’s keeping you healthy and doing what you want it to do. Nutrition is 10 times more complicated than training. We don’t know all the answers and no one ever will. One diet expert might recommend adding grapeseed oil to your shakes and another one tells you to go 0 carb and another guy says all supplements suck and still someone else says to avoid dairy.

Just look at what they all have in common, which is usually lots of vegetables, no processed foods, and lots of protein, and start with that. Dairy and supplements and a tablespoon of oil now and then all amount to details—not the main thrust of what a successful dieter is doing. Experiment with those details one at a time on yourself until you discover what makes you feel best. I don’t like to add oils or eat lots of carbs anymore, but there are many who do so and look as good or better than me. It goes to show that whatever path you choose can be made to work if you commit to it.

7. Do two a days. Since the most important part of weight loss is burning more calories than you consume on a regular basis, you need to increase your activity level as well as cut calories. Diet is still paramount, but to get really lean, you’ll have to do some kind of exercise nearly every day. Twenty minutes of jump rope in the morning and lifting at night or an hour-long walk in the evening or yoga class now and then will go a long way without endangering your recovery. Relatively easy, long-term bouts of exercise are just as good as high-intensity intervals for fat loss.

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit http://seanhyson.com/)

2013 Ways To Get Stronger, Leaner, Part I

Sorry I’m late. I wanted to get this post up in the first week of January so you could have as much ammunition as possible to start 2013 right. But assuming your resolutions haven’t gone off the rails yet, there’s still time for this to help you.

Here are 20 ways to get stronger, and 13 ways to get leaner, in 2013. (Yeah, I know the title of the post sort of implied there would be 2,013 ways… that’s the magazine editor in me!) I’m going to break this into two or three parts because a single post would be unbearably long, but when it’s all done, count ’em up. There will be 2013 tips.

Sort of :-)

STRONGER (and BIGGER, too)

1. Eat a lot more potatoes. The one carb source ALL the experts seem to agree on is potatoes/sweet potatoes. Rice and oats can be hard to digest and fruit can convert to body fat, but all nutritionists advocate more spuds for putting on clean weight

2. Keep your lower back as fresh as possible. When your lower back is sore or tight, you just can’t go heavy on anything. You’ll feel that your base of support is gone. This happens when you have a particularly brutal squat or deadlift workout, or you train the lower back too often. I frequently see programs where someone is squatting on Monday, doing bent-over rows on Wednesday, and deadlifts and back extensions on Saturday. You’re not giving yourself enough recovery time.

I love bent-over rows, so if you want to keep them in, I understand. But they need to be done either on the same day as most of your other direct lower-back training or far removed from it. And if your back is feeling tweaked one day but you’re scheduled to row, go for chest-supported rows instead.

Bent-over rows can be a back breaker even when done right.

3. Pyramid. Strength coaches have criticized the old bodybuilding pyramid method pretty harshly. They say sets of 12, 10, 8, and 6—as it’s often done—weakens you before you get to the heavy weights, limiting your strength gains. Yeah, maybe. But if I start with six reps, am I really ready to go that heavy?

Pyramiding is not the perfect approach for strength. The powerlifting method of multiple sets in the 3 to 5 range is better. But pyramiding doesn’t exactly make you weak. I’ve seen Ronnie Coleman and Arnold Schwarzenegger put up some pretty good weight for 6 or so reps long after sets of 12 to 15. The purpose of a pyramid is to hit a broad range of muscle fibers with a broad range of reps and get volume in to grow from, but also to simply warm you up. Higher reps pump more blood into the area you’re training and prepare it to lift heavier later. If you want to lift heavy and KEEP lifting heavy as you get older, this is a perfectly valid approach, and maybe the safest.

4. Once a month, go off your program. The staff at Muscle&Fitness has been meeting sporadically for group workouts over the past few months, and we’ve all been saying they’re some of the best workouts of our lives. In the beginning, some of the guys were worried about breaking their routine. They felt they were on strict schedules and didn’t want to disrupt the flow of their progress.

Well, life has a way of disrupting workouts anyway, so you might as well get used to it. After the first session, nobody cared that they had to do different exercises than they had planned to or did 5 sets for back instead of 4. It was competitive, fun, and we all left KNOWING we had gotten stronger for it.

I’ve written about the value of good training partners, a good gym, and camaraderie on this site many times before, so I’ll try not to repeat that more. But even if you train alone, sometimes just going to the gym and “winging it” with some fun exercises you want to experiment with is the smartest thing you can do. It’s also a good way to test yourself. If you’re REALLY getting stronger, you should be able to handle more weight on leg extensions than you could before the last three months of squatting. Use days like this as a gauge.

5. Wave your loads. This partly relates to the pyramid concept, and partly contradicts it. Hey, whatever works, right? Try doing a set with moderate weight, then doing a fairly heavy set (around 3 reps). Back off to another moderate set but go heavier than you did the first set. Then go really heavy on the fourth set—near a max lift. Then back off and do a bunch of reps.

This is the basic approach I’ve been using on presses and pullups lately and it’s worked amazingly well. It’s post-activation potentiation and CNS trickery, but it may be more than that. I know that just walking in the gym and warming up briefly I can’t do more than about 12 chinups. After I do a few sets with varying weights, I can do 18! That’s quite a boost in one workout. Try it.

This is nature’s weight gainer

6. Hit your numbers. If you want to gain weight, aim for 16–20 calories per pound of your body weight. That’s Nate Miyaki’s recommendatiom and he’s done well with it. If you’re very skinny, aim toward the higher end of that range, but most of us will do fine with around 16. A 170-lb guy should eat 2,700 calories a day.

LEANER

1. With the exception of fish oil, dramatically reduce the amount of oils you consume. This means cooking without oil, and that may mean more poaching, baking, and grilling. I like coconut oil, so leave a few tablespoons in, but in general, cutting back on fats cuts down your calories and improves the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids in your diet. (Omega-6’s are prevalent, so fewer of them and more omega-3’s is ideal for heart health and a bunch of other functions.) Also, a lower fat intake makes skin less oily, too. I had a girlfriend who used to blot my head with a napkin like I was a greasy slice of pizza even when I was sitting still (gross, I know). There doesn’t seem to be a need for that anymore.

2. Embrace salt and pepper as seasonings. Everybody knows the basics of how to eat healthy—salads, meat, whole foods. The problem so many have is not keeping it as simple as that. They add dressings and butter and oils and other fixins until they’ve effectively canceled out the health effect of their meal. Even if they’re aware that Bacos aren’t a good choice and make an effort to add them sparingly, they’re still adding them CONSISTENTLY. To get very lean quickly, and to stay pretty lean long-term, you simply have to appreciate plain food. Not “plain” as in really bland and tasteless, but plainer than “the works” at your local salad bar.

In the absence of everything else, salt and pepper add a lot of flavor, and they go well with so many dishes. So does lemon juice, salsa, and a pat of butter. Pare down your seasonings and you’ll appreciate these flavors more. Then you can start adding more things back in and see how your body responds.

3. Do non-competing supersets. This is the whole basis for Craig Ballantyne’s enormously popular Turbulence Training programs, and the equally renowned German Body Comp method. I’m firmly in the camp that says that what you do in the weight room doesn’t have much of an effect on fat burning, beyond the fact that muscle increases metabolism. But when you superset upper and lower-body exercises, I swear you feel leaner almost immediately.

Deadlifts followed by chest presses, squats and then rows… these kinds of combinations work like crazy. By sending blood up and down your body, your heart works harder and you burn more calories. You also get a greater release of growth hormone. If you want to train specifically for fat loss IN ADDITION to dieting hard, this is the approach I’d go with.

This may be the “hot” supplement of 2013

4. Use cyclic dextrin. This is the “hot new carb on the block”. If you’ve been using waxy maize or maltodextrin, this stuff is supposed to be the new evolution of carb powder. Gaspari Nutrition seems to be the only mainstream company pumping it out right now (it’s called Glycofuse), but you can get it on truenutrition.com as well. Cyclic dextrin is supposed to leave the stomach very quickly, causing an insulin reaction without upset stomach or bloat. It also doesn’t effect fat metabolism, so you can still burn fat during a workout and afterward despite taking in a big shot of carbs. I’ve tried the Gaspari product and it tasted pretty good. I didn’t recover any worse on it than other carb powders I’ve used, so I’d say this is one worth watching. Mike Roussell and John Meadows stand behind it.

I'll be back to finish this list. Happy New Year, my friends.

(To read and post comments for this entry, visit http://seanhyson.com/)