It's Not East Being Pretty But There's More To You Than That

     Earlier this year beginning with the finish of the 2014 NFL season it seemed appropriate to kick-off my own dieting experiment slowly and surely after Super Bowl Sunday.  Allowing one last final blow of nachos, dip, soda, meatball sandwiches, and the like to a non-existent "physique" seemed the ideal way to end an off season in hopes of hitting the stage or platform.  Coming to a close with what could be considered another ugly winter of "dirty bulking" 10-12% body-fat naive but aspiring athlete was eager to quickly maneuver from the 200lb starting point.  A little over four months at this current time I should be "stage ready" but as in real life things do happen and instead of the 20+ needed to lose for stage weight I may have managed 14-15 or so only wiggling around the 5% body fat range.  Considering roughly 16 weeks to only lose 15lbs seems to be right on target and cannot complain but stage ready at this point does not seem too likely although I wouldn't have it any other way.
     Each time I go through something like this I grow not just physically but mentally with my experience in the weight room and outside most importantly.  Many of us who go through something like this realize there are plenty of ups and downs, trials and errors, great successes, and of course the inevitable failure but when it comes to dieting for a purpose these errors build experience.  These are just a few of the things I have learned in no real particular order but I do hope that those who read this can take into consideration not only what it takes to participate in power sports or bodybuilding, at any level, but what you can learn about yourself through the dieting process.

• You didn't do your cardio....
• Me of all people will tell you that cardio is a royal pain in the ass but the bottom line is to suck it up and get it done.  While my marathon running days are over this does not mean that it is even necessary to do to lose weight but in order to keep pushing forward it is unavoidable.  For example, I was able to drop almost 10lbs with only a daily deficit of 250kcals (nowhere near 500) and no cardio but soon suffered a stifling plateau around 190lbs.  Tapering calories down to 2450 could not shake things up as I told myself I didn't need cardio as much as weight lifting would be enough alone.  Sucking it up and adding sessions within recent weeks has allowed my to shatter that plateau as my losing almost 4lbs in 3 weeks by adjusting my caloric deficit from food as well as from cardio.  Although there are only 3 sessions a week for me and will vary greatly from situation to situation, no cardio can only take you so far.
• You weren't training heavy enough....
• The very reason I kept going back into the gym in the early years had been from a desire to be stronger than I had been last session.  Coincidentally these were the periods in which I not only became stronger but saw the most drastic changes in my body; so what happened?  The "bodybuilding bug" seems to leech onto a lot of us thinking it's just as easy as focusing on overly specific exercises or over isolated exercises that just don't cut it for natural athletes.  Given the difference between natural and enhanced athletes it is overlooked that there are huge benefits from heavier lifting and power movements during a caloric deficit.  Personally I went toward the Cube Method to structure my cut and it helped keep things greatly in check as I was able to lean out as well as set huge PRs in the gym.  
• Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize....

• What?  Well whether you believe in carb-backloading as a 100% go-to source or not, nutrient timing has played an essential role this year.  Eric Helms, 3DMJ Coach, explains that whether we are eating to "cut" or to "bulk" there are times where we can be in a caloric surplus or deficit.  This also brought awareness to things such as insulin spikes and glycogen storing.  Basically this had translated to timing carbohydrates and protein appropriately around a workout or around night-time in order to make the best of my workout for the next day.  While this is a very vague description of the strategy it helped optimize the periods when I would need carbs and times when I could let them slide down and maximize the ketosis.  
• Ignoring the big picture of progress....



"Almost" doesn't pay the bills but 570 might have

• It should go without saying but when it comes to strength gaining or dieting any progress is considered a victory.  Some weeks the scale wouldn't budge but my strength would skyrocket while other weeks I could see the picture coming together but my strength would be anything but stellar.  While school and work will drain your prep pep it is incredibly difficult to often see how great you're doing.  While I did take some pictures to see where things were leading visually, videos helped show my PR progress with the weights.  My deadlift had skyrocketed from 515 to just shy of 570, squat from 400-435, and bench from a paused maybe 250-285.  My weight handling confidence had led me to be more brave in the gym, which impacted how I looked physically, and the combination has left me with a different overall perspective about my body.  

Looking back on this year's process there is still plenty of summer to enjoy how far I've come and I think it's critical to those who may feel discouraged they did not hit their goals (or maybe not even start) to acknowledge that things do get screwed up.  It's not too late to begin being the kind of person you want to become, do the things you need to do, or to beat yourself to death over not doing something.  There is light at the end of any tunnel you go down and your successes in this kind of endeavor are marked by what you decided to allot yourself.  There is certainly more to the bodybuilding scene than being pretty but when it comes to a sport that is based off of aesthetics, you need to be thinking like an athlete to begin appreciating how far you've come.  

Why I lift and maybe why you should start...

     It was a bit after 5:00pm and the evening rush started to come in.  Leaning on my elbows against the stationary bike, they quivered, my arms too weak to support myself upright.  My  shoe laces whipped my screamingly sore legs with each pedal, untied from an innumerable amount of calf raises, as I watched the gym floor become flooded with its after-work patrons.  They shuffled in one by one, in pairs, or in groups; some coming across familiar faces and other seeking solitude to venture solo.  Pedaling on, nobody dilly dallied, everybody was doing something.  Footsteps fell heavy in the aerobics room, cables ran smoothly across pulleys, barbells and dumbbells came crashing down to the ground, and sweat fell onto the belts of the treadmills.  Split tank tops, yoga pants, heavy hoodies, running shoes, straps, wraps, and belts; we were all equipped to go to work.  There is something deeper than the face value.

      The test wasn't good enough, my classmates and I had been shut down saying our grades were not perfect enough and would have to retake out Kanji test.  The day before was a letdown as my marketing test was not as stupendous as it was hoped.  The day before that I was trembling in my shoes proposing an argument of an essay to a leader in the field of modern Chinese history that may have been swatted down. 

But it didn't matter.

     I had 250lbs on the bar and another 200lbs in bands attached sitting my my back as I was going down for the tenth rep, and damned if it wasn't coming back up.  I had 500lbs on the floor, the bar and my palms dusted in magnesium carbonate, belt snugged, and only focused on ripping the weight off the face of the floor.  I had 280lbs in my hands over my neck, lowering the bar, and making its only objective to come back up or face otherwise.  There is only ever one focus.

     This world is full of everything from the bad luck, the accidental, the unfortunate, and the dreadful.  The small things build in the form of annoyances, turning into stress, adding to the tragedy we may call our lives and it's never ideal.

     The car you fixed came back broken down, your boss gave you shit for not making that sale, your teacher hated your thesis, your dog shit on the carpet, you package didn't get delivered on time, you woke up late and started your day off wrong, spouse is fighting with you, death in the family, missed a bill.  There's a lot in life we cannot control.

     Maybe an hour or maybe two hours there is complete control and clear objectives.  There is no failure because there is always success in even trying.  Everything is something to be proud of whether it be five more pounds to your max lift, another rep with a weight you've been working at, a faster mile run, another centimeter to your arms, that extra pound lost; there is no failure in even the smallest accomplishment regardless of me being the biggest or the baddest or not.

     It's a "lift life", a "swole life", the "fit life"; all the same.  Humans all have a desire to better themselves in one way or another and this has never let me down.  Everything I do is in my control whether it's moving a max weight, or making sure my inner traps come to meet my rear delts, it's all the same.  

     There's sweat, tears, and sometimes blood and pain, but there's is always an improvement and solitude.  There's always satisfaction in knowing that although sometimes I can't give my all, I came in and tried.  The shaking in my arms, the swelling in my legs, and the nagging shoe laces whipping against my ankles were a sign of something greater and reaffirm me of a feeling, a feeling nobody wouldn't want even if they tried to ignore it. 

  -Pq

Hyper Hypertrophy - 3 special sets you're most likely not doing

Everybody that has ever set foot in a gym has done a "set" of something with an X amount of repetitions.... duh.  The problem is that people sometimes get too comfortable and adjust to the typical sets with a given rep range.  Sometimes this isn't enough and something is further required to really shock your muscles into hypertrophy for more growth.  When your workouts are looking prime, your failure points and weights are dialed in it's time to start tweaking your sets into something more savage (yeah we're going there.)

Triple Drop Sets
If anyone has every done Neil Hill's Y3T - 9 Week Trainer then you know all about these but can still be incorporated into your workout to help maximize gains.  Well what is a triple drop set?  It's much more than your standard 8-12 rep range because it's tripled.  How?  By lowering the weight each time. 

Here's how it breaks down per set for something simply like chest fly's.  
1. Pick a weight with for a desired failure point and carry out your set normally until failure
2. Without resting, lower the weight in accordance to fail within the same rep range and work again until failure
3. Drop the weight a final time, without rest, and perform the same rep range. 


Hill's program has you go through this with varying rep ranges of 10-12 or 14-16 per drop depending on the workout.  I personally find satisfaction in starting this out heavy for a solid 8 reps and gradually increasing the rep target to the 14-16 range if possible. This is definitely something to gear toward the end of your workout and can be combined to enhance endurance and super muscular breakdown of your troubled areas.  

Another cool tip for triple drop sets?
Use them on a final set of an exercise.  Why stop at the last rep of your leg press?  Throw some plates off, bang out another few reps and drop the weight again!  It's a last ditch effort to milk each exercise for what it can truly be worth. 

Breathing Ladders
Taking a page from The Governator's Blog is something called a Breathing Ladder.  This is a sort of pyramid of repetitions that are determined by your breathing; stay with me. 

The ladder works out like this (using squats as an example):
1 squat - 1 breath
2 squats - 2 breaths
3 squats - 3 breaths
4 squats - 4 breaths
5 squats - 5 breaths
6 squats - 6 breaths
7 squats - 7 breaths
8 squats - 8 breaths
9 squats – 9 breaths
10 squats - 10 breaths

Each is basically it's own set but rest is determined by your own breathing intervals.  When I use these, adjusting the weight accordingly, it can be an helpful tool to incorporate a lot volume into a workout as well as keeping the exercise heavy and proper without beating myself to death.

This is great to throw either in the beginning or middle of a workout and is meant for compound movements after a good warmup.  Further isolation really gets the blood flow to all the right spots once you're good and primed after these.  

Timed Sets

Sometimes a muscle won't grow, you get mad and need to get savage... it's ok we feel you.  Time to let loose and hit up some timed sets and always leads to great experimentation.  The basic idea is to set a timer (3-4 minutes can do it for me) and just go. 

Had enough of chest day? Hop on a chest press machine and start pressing!
Need to get those abs hurting? Hop on a bench and start crunching!
Legs not busting out of those pants, yet?  Grab a squat rack or leg press and get going!

They key is not to go heavy but to pick a weight that the first reps can be obtained relatively easy.  After that you still might have another three minutes to go and will have to take pauses and pump out as many as you can before resting.  The lighter the weight will yield a higher volume and lower injury chances (which is what I prefer). 

3:33 mark shows Antione Vaillant going heavy on deadlifts at the end of his back workout.  This is right where the maniacal kind of volume and little rest needs to be.  This is a great finisher to those stubborn parts that you're just sick and fucking tired of.  



-Pq