1. Your training and eating should match up.
If you're trying to build mass, don't do it in a time you can't eat enough. If you're trying to lean up, don't (expect) to set strength PR's. This one seems obvious, but you can't get "big and ripped" at the same time. Do one or the other, instead of trying to ride two horses with just one ass.
2. Spend your "offseason" working on the things you suck at.
2. Spend your "offseason" working on the things you suck at.
The three lifts I think most powerlifters would benefit from in the "offseason" are the incline press and shoulder pressing, the elevated stiff legged deadlift, and the front squat. If you're a low bar squatter, go to high bar. If you're a conventional puller, go sumo for a while.
If you're a bodybuilder it's easy. Prioritize the bodyparts you need the most with 2-3X a week training. Same for figure, or fitness, or whatever.
Put the things you hate doing the most at the forefront of your training and get good at them. This is the main training component that will make you better. Stop avoiding doing the shit you suck at.
3. Quit being part of the mental masturbation crew.
Years ago before I ever really wrote anything, I wanted to write a novel. So I started, and I wrote the first chapter. For six months.
This English major I knew finally told me "at some point you just have to write it. Don't try to make every sentence perfect. Just get the work in, write it all out, and then fine tune it."
I see this so much now in lifting. Guys and gals are so concerned about every little thing that they forget what they are in the gym for in the first place. To grow, and to get strong. You're going to be tweaking shit for years, so stop worrying if everyone on the youtubes doesn't like how you hold your hands on the front squat or if your elbows flared too much on your bench. You're still lifting, you're still about getting better, getting stronger. Do THAT first.
If you're a bodybuilder it's easy. Prioritize the bodyparts you need the most with 2-3X a week training. Same for figure, or fitness, or whatever.
Put the things you hate doing the most at the forefront of your training and get good at them. This is the main training component that will make you better. Stop avoiding doing the shit you suck at.
3. Quit being part of the mental masturbation crew.
Years ago before I ever really wrote anything, I wanted to write a novel. So I started, and I wrote the first chapter. For six months.
This English major I knew finally told me "at some point you just have to write it. Don't try to make every sentence perfect. Just get the work in, write it all out, and then fine tune it."
I see this so much now in lifting. Guys and gals are so concerned about every little thing that they forget what they are in the gym for in the first place. To grow, and to get strong. You're going to be tweaking shit for years, so stop worrying if everyone on the youtubes doesn't like how you hold your hands on the front squat or if your elbows flared too much on your bench. You're still lifting, you're still about getting better, getting stronger. Do THAT first.
It was a brand new day when I just accepted Bar numbers are gonna suck for a little while droppin pounds.
ReplyDeletePaul, kind of off topic but, do you think it's possible to gain body fat without gaining body weight? the reason i ask is I work full time and go to school part time so I'm super busy it seems all the time. I have'nt been able to keep up on conditioning to much this whole semester maybe getting it in 2x weekly if that sometimes but still lifting 3-4x weekly. thing is, I havent gained weight but look and feel noticeably fatter especially in the mid-section?
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like cortisol elevation. Stress. Look it up and get it under control.
DeleteWhat happened to the novel?
ReplyDeleteI still have it. :)
DeletePaul, looking for a bit of advice here. I'm an 18 year old beginner who has had his first 20 pounds of muscle gain about a year ago and not really progressed since. I started out real skinny, so i'm still pretty skinny now at 6'2" and 181 pounds around 12% bodyfat.
ReplyDeleteI obviously want to get bigger and stronger and my goal now is to get to 200 pounds in good shape, but the dilemma is which way to do it. Should i keep training for strength eating maintenance and then cut in the new year and start the bulk from a single-digit bodyfat or should i just eat big and train hard right now and worry about the fat later? I've tried the latter once without much success since i ended up gaining too much fat too quickly, but that was a matter of poor diet.
I'm just trying to figure out what would be the best choice here, so i can get started without wondering whether im on the wrong path.
Bojer - I hope you know that getting to 2 bills may take a very very long time. 200 pounds lean at 6'2" might be doable after 10 years or so. So just to get it out there, you're looking at a very long time of training.
Delete15% bodyfat max before you need to trim the fat. Never go above 15% for any reason.
Thanks for the reality check Paul, seems like i was a bit unrealistic after all, as i thought it would be doable in 2-3 years from now.
DeleteIt isn't a problem though, but i'm just wondering whether to cut now, stay at the new weight and then get at it, or just keep eating for mass and strength until i reach the 15% mark since i'm still a weak beginner.
I'd go to 15%, hang there as long as you could without getting fatter, then once it starts to rise above that, start paring back the calories for a while.
DeleteThanks Paul,
ReplyDeleteI looked it up...sounds exactly like what I'm going through.
Paul,
ReplyDeleteCarb-Backloading question
Training 5-6x/week, heavy on mon/wed/fri and small accessory work on the other days.
I'd like to hang around my current bodyweight (190 @ 5'-10") and attempt some slow recomp & strength gain. Def NOT trying to pile on lots of mass / bodyweight as I'm relatively lean and natty.
Can you give me some suggestions for a starting point with CBL? Basically just # of backloads per week and on what nights.
Keep up the awesome shit with training, articles & podcasts.
Joe,
DeleteThat's really an individual thing. I'd start with 2 nights a week and go from there. Monitor how you both look and feel. If you start to smooth out, back off how many carbs you're eating on that night. If you are really lean looking most of the time, have one night where you really blow up the carbs. Keifer says you have to play with it a bit. Lots of guys carb backload every night but I could never ever do that.
Thanks, Paul.
DeleteI'll start with 2 backloads per week. Do you still feel that doing them on the night before your heavy training days is beneficial?
In my case, I'd backload on sun/thurs night in prep for my heaviest days, mon/fri.
That is what I have found to work really well. I found that backloading on the nights I trained didn't have the same kind of effect. If I backload the night before a big session I ALWAYS have a solid training session. Give it a try and see if you find the same.
DeleteHey Paul:
ReplyDeleteWhat is your opinion of board presses, not to train a sticking point in the press but as a tricep assistance movement, for instance 3 Board CGBP? Again you have made your opinion well known about raw lifters training sticking points and what not, but in an instance like this I would be using the muscle with the aim of strengthening the muscle to get better at the lift not trying to get over a sticking point.
Thanks
Yeah I think they are ok for that. Just don't use the board to heave the weight off, if you know what I mean.
DeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you've seen Ric Drasin's vids on youtube or not, but he was a buddy of Arnold's back in his prime. To make a long story short, Ric claims they (although he specified he wasn't exactly sure what Arnold took, but implied this is what everyone else used like Columbu etc) mostly used 1 cc of test/half a cc of deca and 3 dbol a day when gaining mass back then. Is something like that realistic? 99% of HW NPC competitors are on grams more than that and dont even have half the density that Arnold and his crew had with their physiques.
It all depends on how it was dosed. and if that was A DAY, then that is a LOT! I mean a LOT. If that's 1cc test a week, half a cc of deca a week, not so much. But you can't escape the 3 dbol a day, which I don't know the dose of. If it were 50mg a pop, that's 150mg of dbol a day. That's A LOT.
DeleteThat stack looks ugly though. Bloat city.
5mg dbol tabs and that was the total injects per week
ReplyDeleteYeah that's low dosing it. But that's plenty enough to grow and get big on without trying to make the cycle do all the work.
Delete15mg's of dbol a day with 250-300mg of test and basically 100-150mg of deca a week is a really nice looking cycle.
And to think that cycle would be judged as "a waste of time" on some boards online. Saw a guy recommend 900mg test 900mg deca 50mg dbol for someones first cycle the other day and the guy recommending it was in great shape himself but I couldn't help but be like wtf? What's the deal with a lot of people throwing the kitchen sink in dosages out there these days? It really makes taking advice confusing as hell when you have the more moderate and sensible side like you and Ric, but then the other side with good results as well saying "look bro don't fuck around with that low dose shit, go big off the bat because that's the reality of this shit"
ReplyDeleteI really don't know, tbh. Other than the fact that a lot of guys want to be able to eat like shit, and not put a lot of thought into their training to make it work.
DeleteI had a guy tell me "well might as well not take anything if that's all you're going to take". That's good! That means I STILL have to be accountable for my eating and training. That's how it should be.
That's a good way to look at it. And yeah your first statement makes sense.
DeleteI notice in the circles of high doses they tend to also preach "training and strength doesn't matter, just pump the muscle full of blood and let the hormones do their job" and as diet-wise, "you can eat anything on tren ace and GH and you'll be struggling to NOT lose fat!".