No Nonsense Newsletter October/November/December 2005
Getting Started Right
Editor’s Note: In the first part of this series I offered a training program that I suggested you follow for 6-8 weeks if you were an: a. Intermediate bodybuilder who had hit a plateau as to size and strength increases. b. Experienced bodybuilder with limited training time who wanted to maximize the time you did have.
How You Can Keep Your Muscle-
Building Training On The Right Track
Part II: A Training and Nutrition Program for Pound-A-Week Gains
By: Roger Riedinger Getting Started Right The training program illustrated in this article is a perfect follow up to the Simplified Devastation Plan in the last No Nonsense Newsletter, or for anyone desiring to add a lot more muscle and strength. The neat things about this workout are: 1. You get to keep working hard on the basics, but in this workout you’ll be doing a few more sets on each exercise. 2. You still only train three days per week, so you’ll be doing more sets on each exercise but there is very little danger of overtraining. 3. The progressive, compound interest nutritional program is easy to follow and assures you at least pound-a-week gains without gorging yourself.
Monday: Chest, Biceps & Triceps
CHEST1. BENCH PRESS:
(4-5 work sets of no more than 6 reps per set) After a couple of warm-up sets, select a weight that you think you can do for 6 reps in excellent form. Stop at 6 reps, rack the bar, and rest for 3 minutes.
Perform a second set with the same weight.
Repeat for a third set. (This time you may get six with a looser form or you may only get 5 reps - that’s OK.) Now your fourth set is going to be tough. See what you can do. Maybe you’ll only get 4 reps.
To summarize, you’re going to do 4-5 work sets of benches with the same weight. You should be able to get 6 reps your first couple of sets but may fall to 4 or even 3 reps on your final sets. As soon as you can get 6 reps on all five sets in a workout, add ten pounds your next workout and start over.
2. INCLINE PRESS:
(3 work sets of 8 to 4 reps) You can use a barbell or two dumbbells, whichever you prefer. I use barbell inclines in this particular workout because we’re going to be adding weight and going down to just 4 reps on the last set so the dumbbells can get a bit unwieldy. Do one warm-up set of 12 reps, then choose a weight that you think you can get for 8 reps. If you make 8 – stop! For the second set add 20 pounds (barbell) or 10 pounds to each dumbbell and go for 6 reps. Add 10-20 more pounds for your final work set and try for 4 reps. Record your poundages. If you successfully get 8 – 6 – 4 on your consecutive three sets, add five or ten pounds to each set your next workout.
 Chris Mitchell uses the EZ Curl bar for heavy sets of 6 reps. |
(Alternate Sets – 1 biceps, then 1 triceps)
3. BARBELL or EZ BAR CURLS: 4-5 sets, 6 reps (use the same set and rep scheme as bench press.
4. CLOSE-GRIP BENCH PRESS
or DIPS: 4-5 work sets, 6 reps
5. ALTERNATE DB CURLS or
PREACHER CURLS: 3 work sets of 8-6 reps (use the same weight all three sets, when you can get 8 reps on all three sets, increase the weight your next workout.)
6. LYING TRICEP EXTENSION:
3 work sets of 8 to 6 reps
Wednesday: Legs
QUADS
1. SQUATS: 4-5 work sets of 6 to 4 reps
Squats are undoubtedly the best exercise for quad thickness. They hit not only your quads, but also your hamstrings and glutes. If you’ve been using a wide stance and less than optimal range of motion, there’s a chance you are going to have to relearn this exercise. Use a foot position a little less than shoulder width apart. AS you descend I want you to imagine there is a marble on the center of your quad. Keep going down until the marble would start rolling toward your hips. This will guarantee that you’ve broken parallel and will reap all the benefits in added muscle and strength that come from this fabulous exercise.
Begin with a couple of warm-up sets. Then do another (one more) warm-up set of six reps with a weight that is 50 lbs below your 6-rep max. Now select a weight that will allow you to squat in perfect form for four sets of 4-6 reps. When you can get 6 reps on every set – add weight! This is an exercise where you might want to take up to five minutes rest between each set.
2. STRAIGHT-LEG DEADLIFTS 4 sets of 6-8 reps. Form is everything on this exercise. It’s one of the best to stretch and thicken your hamstrings. Keep your back arched, head up and knees very slightly bent. Arching your back instead of rounding it like so many guys do is the key to this exercise.
3. LEG CURLS 3 sets; pyramid from 12 down to 8 reps on the final set.
Do not "bang out" the reps on this exercise. Instead squeeze, contract, and let the weight down slowly.
CALVES
(Alternate Sets – 1 set standing, then 1 set seated.)
4. STANDING CALF RAISES 3 sets; pyramid 20 down to 10 reps.
5. SEATED CALF RAISE 3 sets; pyramid 20 down to 10 reps. For both exercises go all the way up, hold for a two-count, then extend slowly as far as your range of motion will allow.
Steven Wade performs the most basic and most productive (along with the squat) exercise for the drugfree bodybuilder - the regular, bent-legged deadlift. |
1. DEADLIFTS 5 work sets of 3-5 reps.
Legs shoulder width, knees bent, back arched – use an overhand grip and straps. Keep the bar close to your body as you pull. Don’t bend your arms.
Warm-up with a couple of light sets and some stretches. Then add weight each set staying in the 3-5 rep range. Add weight to the bar each week.
2. BENT BARBELL ROW or CABLE ROW 4-5 work sets of no more than 6 reps. (Same sets and reps as Monday’s bench press workout.
3. PULLDOWNS 3 work sets of 8-4 reps (same as incline press.) Use an underhand (palms facing) grip. Hands should be shoulder width or closer. Pull from full extension all the way until the bar hits your upper chest. Try to make your elbows follow an arced path as you pull them down and back. This is a lat builder my friends – think lats and let your biceps go along for the ride.
SHOULDERS
4. SHRUGS 4 sets; pyramid from 8 down to 4 reps. Use straps. Shrug straight upward. Try to touch your shoulders to your ears. Squeeze at the top. Don’t roll your shoulders.
5. SEATED MILITARY PRESSES 4 sets of 5-6 reps (same set and rep scheme as bench press).
You can use a barbell, dumbbell, or Smith Machine for this exercise; one will work as well as the other. However, it’s easier to progress with the barbell version if you’re not afraid to put a 21/2 lb plate on each side each week. In six weeks you increase your poundage 25 lbs – not bad!
6. LATERAL RAISES 3 sets; pyramid from 12 down to 8 reps on the final set.
This concludes your 3 day-a-week mass and power-training workout.
Where’s the ab work?
Actually, handling the kind of weights you’ll be building-up to will work your abs indirectly. If you really want to add some direct ab work throw in a total of 100 reps of either crunches and/or leg raises as a warm-up to your primary workout.
Compound Interest Mass And Power Nutrition
I got the idea for this nutrition protocol from something I mentioned in Part One of this series, my experience with Crash Weight Formula #7 back in 1965. The stuff was horrible but the theory behind it wasn’t bad. Add 500 calories daily to your normal caloric intake and you gain a pound a week. And it worked! The pounds weren’t necessarily muscle as Formula #7 was 70% sugar – but still the bodyweight accrued at a time when I’d been stuck for two years trying to gain but to no avail.
Even today with all the advances in nutritional science, if your goal is to add pounds of quality muscle it still comes down to basically two nutritional prerequisites. You need more protein (the higher quality the better) and more calories than you are currently ingesting. Now with this program I also suggest that just meeting your nutritional requirements will not be enough. You’ll need an overabundance of not only protein and calories, but vitamins, minerals, trace elements, essential fatty acids, and some very good carbohydrate sources.
What I learned from my Formula #7 experience is your nutrition should build throughout the program. (One of the side effects that just about everyone using Formula #7 experienced was your body cannot get used to pounding an overabundance of calories overnight. Consequently, a lot of time was spent your first week eliminating the extra calories.)
Let’s take a look at how you can gradually add quality calories to your nutritional intake each week and achieve pound-a-week gains. The chart below shows you just how the recommended program progresses.
Will you gain 13 pounds of muscle? Probably not – various metabolic factors come into play that will generally limit your gains on such a program to 6-10 pounds. And everyone who reads this newsletter is an intelligent person who knows that there is no program or supplement out there that requires no effort or discipline on your part. Are you willing to give it a shot?
This really is a doable program. To get started find the best protein available (if you’re reading this newsletter you already know it’s Beverly) and add just 1 scoop three times daily to your current nutritional food and supplement intake.
Then each week add to your protein and calorie intake by following the suggestions below. These subtle additions to your diet will cumulate week after week just like compound interest in your muscle bank account.
For purposes of illustration I use Ultimate Muscle Protein but Muscle Provider or Ultra Size, or any mix of the three will work.
Week One:
Simply add 1 scoop of Ultimate Muscle Protein three times daily to your current diet. Why Ultimate Muscle Protein? Because it is the PERFECT blend of fast and slow proteins that will literally allow you to build muscle 24/7.
Week Two:
Add a 2nd scoop of Ultimate Muscle Protein to your three daily shakes. In two weeks you have just increased your daily baseline nutrition by 720 calories per day (that’s more than one pound of muscle each week) and 120 grams of the ultimate protein for muscle building.
Week Three:
During week three add one-half serving of Beverly’s Mass Maker to each of your Ultimate Muscle shakes.
Week Four:
Now take a full serving of Mass Maker and two scoops of Ultimate Muscle Protein three times daily. You are now ingesting more than 1500 calories daily over your baseline nutrition. That translates to 2 lbs of muscle each week!
Week Five and Six: Your three shakes remain the same – one serving Mass Maker and two scoops Ultimate Muscle Protein. To volumize your muscles and wring out the greatest strength gains possible, we’ll now add Beverly’s Creatine Select Plus Phosphates for the final two weeks.
Other essentials you must include in your nutrition program are very high potency vitamins, minerals, trace elements, and essential fatty acids. Luckily you can get all of these from just two supplements - Beverly’s Super Pak and new EFA Gold.
If you follow this supplement program faithfully and continue eating your current baseline diet you can easily add ten pounds of muscular mass to your frame over the course of this six-week program. If you are unable to attain a hardcopy of Part One of this series you can find it at: www.bodybuildingworld.com/vol10_1/get_started.html
In the Next Issue of the NNN EZ Dieting - and no, it's not an easy way out. EZ Dieting is a comprehensive guide to formulating your own diet. If you do not currently subscribe to the No Nonsense Newsletter please call us at 1-800-781-3475 and we will be happy to add you to our list of subscribers. Don't worry it's free. All we ask is that you feel that the No Nonsense Newsletter is valuable to you in helping you achieve your bodybuilding goals.
