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.  

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

Y3T: What it is and why you NEED to be doing it now!!

When it comes to building yourself up for mass, strength or definition it becomes essential to bring all of the different muscle fibers into play for the most comprehensive growth as possible.  It also is just as important to incorporate proper rest in order to allow the muscle fibers to heal and grow to fully function.  Neil Hill is a pretty cool guy when it comes to this.  He doesn't afraid of anything and is considered one of the best natural body builders overseas from the U.K.  He mostly trains now days including fellow Welsh, Flex Lewis (recently crowned Mr. Olympia 212 division and is now a Smart Shaker.)  Through Hill's experience he has mastered his training into the Yoda 3 Training (Y3T for short) for ultimate size and power.  Before we get into my personal experience from it, a little bit of science.

Flex Lewis at the 2012 Olympia
(Placed 1st in the 212 Division)
*dem feathers*

Your muscles consist of the two different kinds of muscular fibers with the fascia surrounding them.  Simply put, pumping up causes the intense blood flow to tear these fibers and fascia which allows them to heal and grow back stronger.  Seems legit. 

Different exercise repetition ranges and varying weights effect the different muscle fibers as such:

• Type 1 Fibers - Respond to longer intensities accompanying lower weights and stresses
• Type 2b Fibers - Respond to heavy burst style of lifting
• Type 2a Fibers - More so the middle man who can handle more intensity at higher weight but not quite as much as the Type 1 Fibers

In order to build mass, all of these fibers must come into play and Y3T aims to please.

 Y3T is a four day split broken up into three weeks... wait what?  Each week of the program has it typical body part splits including

1. Thighs and Hamstrings
2. Chest and Triceps
3. Rest Day
4. Back and Biceps
5. Shoulders and Calves
6. Rest
7. Rest

What makes this even sweeter?  The fact that it's a three week cycle with varying rep ranges as such:

• Week 1 is the heaviest with rep ranges from 8-10 repetitions
• Week 2 gets lighter but the volume increases to 12-16 depending on day
• Week 3 get at some gnarly drop sets, 20+ or 40-50 rep ranges depending on the day

 My first week was meant to establish how much weight would be fitting for each exercise.  This is easily found as Hill has left plenty of room to incorporate warm-up sets and stretching before the actual workout begins.  I used this in order to not only warm the muscle and start the blood flowing but it helps determine which weight will be my working weight through the sets. 

Flex Lewis getting his ass handed to him under
the supervision of Neil Hill and Y3T

Hill stresses the importance of using rest-pauses in your training throughout this program and they do become essential.  There is no rushing any of these routines as your target rep ranges are meant to be met through absolute and utter failure through an emphasis on contraction and proper form.  The thought process is that you are building muscle mass instead of throwing weight around, and gains they came.

Already within the first week of learning to push myself through proper forms and incorporating rest pauses I found that my heaviest working weight in the first week (8-10) reps became working weight for the next week (12-16 rep ranges).  The third week threw me through chaos and even further muscle destruction and then guess what?  You come full circle back into week one ready to lift heavy and turn some heads in the gym.  With initial weights established it was more apparent to me that my conditioning had improved along with my consistency to handle the heavier weights while maintaining form.

In the past few weeks (roughly 6) I may have put on a solid 4-5lbs (about 191 lbs and 195 lbs between 10%-12% b/f) of solid, powerful mass not limited to better leg definition, upper chest size, arm detail and incredible thickness in my back.  Strength gains are through the roof as well in just one cycle.

Week 1:8-10 reps (first time through)

• Squats 290lbs-315lbs
• Rack Pulls 390lbs-410lbs
• Incline Dumbell Press 75lb-80lb each
• Push Press (recovering shoulder in mind) 95lbs-100lbs

Week 1: 8-10 reps (second time through)

• Squats 315lbs-335lbs
• Rack Pulls 415lbs-435lbs
• Incline Dumbell Press 80lb-85lb each
• Push Press (recovering shoulder in mind) 110lbs-120lbs

This is a four week cycle so far and can only wait to see what more results yield.  Strength has increased, conditioning and consistency has persevered as well through due to hitting more muscle fibers effectively. 

Y3T is a program that works and is no joke.  The leg workout is the longest while the others are relatively shorter but if they are done properly using rest pauses to incorporate total failure within the recommended repetition ranges, gains will come and they will be sweet.  This can be done in any gym and equipment substituted so long as the principles are maintained making this an easily accessible program as well. 

Without ranting on and on about how awesome it all is, give it a shot.  If need be, grab a partner (preferably someone who knows the ins and outs of this program) and give it everything you have.  Weight and strength will come in time so do not be discouraged about what weight is being used to work your muscles so long as they are properly worked and fatigued. 

If you are around the Philly Mainline area or on St. Joseph's University campus you can catch me obliterating this routine and will be more than happy to educate anyone on the benefits pertaining to any goal and how to execute this program for maximum gains. 

Eat right, Train hard and ensure plenty of Rest and your body will take care of itself.

The entire program with videos and workouts can be found here at BodyBuilding.com

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/y3t-neil-hill-9-week-hardcore-video-trainer.html


-PQ