RussYoung’s BodyBlog

Well I ended up thiird at the NPC Cal show which was really disappointing after I checked out the contest photos today at Musclecontest.com. I thought it should have been 2nd at least. But I was really pleased with my condition which was the best ever. The week before the show I carb depleated for 3 days at 50gms a day and went from 182 to 175. Then 2 days to carb up and ended up at 180 at 5.8%bf. From the pictures the detail I achieved especially with my back was very satisfing. The combination of leaness and size was my best ever. So I know it is still possible to change and effect your physique at thi age. The guy who won is 65 and he just missed winning the NPC National Masters Champ. last year by 1 point. So I guess I’ll still keep training  because it still keeps working. russyoung/oldsage

My computer contracted a serious virus , so it has been down for a few days and I wanted to update what has been going on in prep for the show on May 23. Right now I weigh 180 at 6% and have stayed there for a few weeks now. Today I started a short carb deplete cycle and am trying to eat less than 50grams of carbs a day for three days and then on Thurs. start carbing up with small meals every 2hrs, same on Fri. Sat is the show, prejudging looks like it will be about 2pm, so that day I’ll have a bowl of oatmeal and a protein drink in the morning and munch on chicken breasts untill noon then 2hrs before prejudging maybe a short stack of pancakes and syurp or sweet potatoes and syurp so wee will see how that works.

In training for this contest, which I probably started thinking about in Jan-Feb, it was only with the intention of seeing if I could improve over last year. It has always been that way with the objective of seeing if the body can improve as we get older. I have to say that this year from where I was last year has probably been the best gains I have made since I turned 60. I know trhat I am in the best shape I think I have ever been. It certainly has not been easy because my business is all physical and I train at 5am then work 10hrs usually straight thru, so beeing able to train and recuperate enough to be able to have consistent workouts is the key and I have been able to do that for quite a while now. If you want to see the results of the show you can go to musclecontest.com. They are usually posted the next day or two.

You know it really is all about how hard we want to push ourselves to keep the effects of aging at bay. Our metabolism doesn’t have to slow down if we don’t want it to and we can gain muscle if we want to, it is all about making a commitment to ourselves that wee keep for the rest of our lives. russyoung/oldsage

Since my last post on Apr. 12 I have had a couple of changes, #1 bike accident on Apr 18 changed my plans for the show I was going to do on Apr 25 nothing broken just a concussion and knot on the head, so I wasn’t able to get it together in time. It really was a shame because at 63 I’m in the best shape I have ever been. So, over Memorial Day weekend on May 23 it’s the Calif. State Championships in Culver City. I won this in 2006 when I turned 60 and thought that my competion years were over and that that was the best I could get. However, since then my body has kept responding and getting more defined with better separation so I am excited about doing this and getting some pictures back to see how I look. When I do these contests they are NPC shows which is the National Physique Committee an amature organization. They offer Master age groups over 40, over 50 and the Ultra Masters over 60. So you are competing against guys your own age or close to it. As far as drug use goes, in the older age groups it’s not very common, at least from what I have seen. It just doesn’t make sense for older guys. Sure you want to maximize your hormone levels buy taking the appropriate supplements, but this really is about life extension. I also wanted to respond to some of the comments regarding training, diet and supplements. As far as training and 1RM’s, 2rms, 3rm. etc., and training the muscle from all different angles you don’t want to get to scientific here because all we age trying to do is gain muscle and loose fat right! As we get older there is a less margin for error in this quest. So, in order to gain muscle it has to be overloaded on a consistent basis, and to loose fat we need to increse our metabolism. It is no more complicated than that. The challange is to find the right combination. In my case, I have a very fast metabolism, and I keep it that way by eating small meals 8-9 times a day. When your body is always digesting food the metabolism is always going and doesn’t slow down. I also don’t do any cardio and body fat is at 6%. In all fairness, I have a pool & spa maint. and repair business that keeps me on my feet and moving 10 hours a day. So this is the best kind of fat burning which is slow and consistent. Remember to much cardio will burn muscle and it is to hard to gain and keep at our age. As far as training, you have to overload the muscle to gain size and this is going to take lifting heavy weight for a few sets, for example for chest I’ll start with no weight for 30-40 reps to warm up, and for smith machine incline bench , 2nd set 60lbs 25reps, 3rd set 90lbs 20 reps, 4th set 135lbs 15 reps, 5th set 185lbs 10 reps, 6th set 210 4-5 reps, and once in a while 225lbs for 1-2 reps. Then I’ll do incline dumbells 4 sets 15 reps down to 6 with 70lb dumbells. Then 4 sets dumbell flys, and 3-4 sets pec deck or something like that. Then I will do triceps that day and abs but nothing more you don’t want to over train. I have found that hitting the same body part every 6 days works best for me. Weather I train for a contest or not this is how I usually work out and I have gained 20lbs of lean muscle since 2001. A comment or two about supplements. Did you know that one serving of whey protein power contains 8-10 gms of BCAA’s and 10 grams of Glutamine. So if you are consuming 4 protein drinks a day like I do you age getting 40 grams of BCAA’s and 40 grams of Glutamine, hence no need to take extra. Also in preparation for the contests, I discovered some research about lucine and its ability to help the older bodybuilders synthize protein. As we get older protein becomes harder to digest and metabolize and we need it if we want to gain muscle. I started taking a supplement by Muscle Tech called Luekic which is part of the BCAA chain and it has helped me keep muscle as I diet for the show. I think this is something for us older guys to consider taking year round. I also have been taking a product made by Gaspari Nutrition called Mitotropin. It is a product that is designed to take for 30 days leading up to a show to burn fat. This product is the bomb if you want to loose some extra fat. I don’t have much but within 2 weeks of taking it and not doing anything different with my diet I was and am contest ready. My only problem now is eating enough food to keep my weight at 180lbs for 3 weeks. It really is a good product. As far as my diet goes it’s pretty much 70% protein, 20 carbs 10-15% fats. Remember you only need enough carbs to keep energy levels up too much leads to stored fat that we don’t want at our age

Since my last post on Apr. 12 I have had a couple of changes, #1 bike accident on Apr 18 changed my plans for the show I was going to do on Apr 25 nothing broken just a concussion and knot on the head, so I wasn’t able to get it together in time. It really was a shame because at 63 I’m in the best shape I have ever been. So, over Memorial Day weekend on May 23 it’s the Calif. State Championships in Culver City. I won this in 2006 when I turned 60 and thought that my competion years were over and that that was the best I could get. However, since then my body has kept responding and getting more defined with better separation so I am excited about doing this and getting some pictures back to see how I look. When I do these contests they are NPC shows which is the National Physique Committee an amature organization. They offer Master age groups over 40, over 50 and the Ultra Masters over 60. So you are competing against guys your own age or close to it. As far as drug use goes, in the older age groups it’s not very common, at least from what I have seen. It just doesn’t make sense for older guys. Sure you want to maximize your hormone levels buy taking the appropriate supplements, but this really is about life extension. I also wanted to respond to some of the comments regarding training, diet and supplements. As far as training and 1RM’s, 2rms, 3rm. etc., and training the muscle from all different angles you don’t want to get to scientific here because all we age trying to do is gain muscle and loose fat right! As we get older there is a less margin for error in this quest. So, in order to gain muscle it has to be overloaded on a consistent basis, and to loose fat we need to increse our metabolism. It is no more complicated than that. The challange is to find the right combination. In my case, I have a very fast metabolism, and I keep it that way by eating small meals 8-9 times a day. When your body is always digesting food the metabolism is always going and doesn’t slow down. I also don’t do any cardio and body fat is at 6%. In all fairness, I have a pool & spa maint. and repair business that keeps me on my feet and moving 10 hours a day. So this is the best kind of fat burning which is slow and consistent. Remember to much cardio will burn muscle and it is to hard to gain and keep at our age. As far as training, you have to overload the muscle to gain size and this is going to take lifting heavy weight for a few sets, for example for chest I’ll start with no weight for 30-40 reps to warm up, and for smith machine incline bench , 2nd set 60lbs 25reps, 3rd set 90lbs 20 reps, 4th set 135lbs 15 reps, 5th set 185lbs 10 reps, 6th set 210 4-5 reps, and once in a while 225lbs for 1-2 reps. Then I’ll do incline dumbells 4 sets 15 reps down to 6 with 70lb dumbells. Then 4 sets dumbell flys, and 3-4 sets pec deck or something like that. Then I will do triceps that day and abs but nothing more you don’t want to over train. I have found that hitting the same body part every 6 days works best for me. Weather I train for a contest or not this is how I usually work out and I have gained 20lbs of lean muscle since 2001. A comment or two about supplements. Did you know that one serving of whey protein power contains 8-10 gms of BCAA’s and 10 grams of Glutamine. So if you are consuming 4 protein drinks a day like I do you age getting 40 grams of BCAA’s and 40 grams of Glutamine, hence no need to take extra. Also in preparation for the contests, I discovered some research about lucine and its ability to help the older bodybuilders synthize protein. As we get older protein becomes harder to digest and metabolize and we need it if we want to gain muscle. I started taking a supplement by Muscle Tech called Luekic which is part of the BCAA chain and it has helped me keep muscle as I diet for the show. I think this is something for us older guys to consider taking year round. I also have been taking a product made by Gaspari Nutrition called Mitotropin. It is a product that is designed to take for 30 days leading up to a show to burn fat. This product is the bomb if you want to loose some extra fat. I don’t have much but within 2 weeks of taking it and not doing anything different with my diet I was and am contest ready. My only problem now is eating enough food to keep my weight at 180lbs for 3 weeks. It really is a good product. As far as my diet goes it’s pretty much 70% protein, 20 carbs 10-15% fats. Remember you only need enough carbs to keep energy levels up too much leads to stored fat that we don’t want at our age

Since my last post on Apr. 12 I have had a couple of changes, #1 bike accident on Apr 18 changed my plans for the show I was going to do on Apr 25 nothing broken just a concussion and knot on the head, so I wasn’t able to get it together in time. It really was a shame because at 63 I’m in the best shape I have ever been. So, over Memorial Day weekend on May 23 it’s the Calif. State Championships in Culver City. I won this in 2006 when I turned 60 and thought that my competion years were over and that that was the best I could get. However, since then my body has kept responding and getting more defined with better separation so I am excited about doing this and getting some pictures back to see how I look. When I do these contests they are NPC shows which is the National Physique Committee an amature organization. They offer Master age groups over 40, over 50 and the Ultra Masters over 60. So you are competing against guys your own age or close to it. As far as drug use goes, in the older age groups it’s not very common, at least from what I have seen. It just doesn’t make sense for older guys. Sure you want to maximize your hormone levels buy taking the appropriate supplements, but this really is about life extension. I also wanted to respond to some of the comments regarding training, diet and supplements. As far as training and 1RM’s, 2rms, 3rm. etc., and training the muscle from all different angles you don’t want to get to scientific here because all we age trying to do is gain muscle and loose fat right! As we get older there is a less margin for error in this quest. So, in order to gain muscle it has to be overloaded on a consistent basis, and to loose fat we need to increse our metabolism. It is no more complicated than that. The challange is to find the right combination. In my case, I have a very fast metabolism, and I keep it that way by eating small meals 8-9 times a day. When your body is always digesting food the metabolism is always going and doesn’t slow down. I also don’t do any cardio and body fat is at 6%. In all fairness, I have a pool & spa maint. and repair business that keeps me on my feet and moving 10 hours a day. So this is the best kind of fat burning which is slow and consistent. Remember to much cardio will burn muscle and it is to hard to gain and keep at our age. As far as training, you have to overload the muscle to gain size and this is going to take lifting heavy weight for a few sets, for example for chest I’ll start with no weight for 30-40 reps to warm up, and for smith machine incline bench , 2nd set 60lbs 25reps, 3rd set 90lbs 20 reps, 4th set 135lbs 15 reps, 5th set 185lbs 10 reps, 6th set 210 4-5 reps, and once in a while 225lbs for 1-2 reps. Then I’ll do incline dumbells 4 sets 15 reps down to 6 with 70lb dumbells. Then 4 sets dumbell flys, and 3-4 sets pec deck or something like that. Then I will do triceps that day and abs but nothing more you don’t want to over train. I have found that hitting the same body part every 6 days works best for me. Weather I train for a contest or not this is how I usually work out and I have gained 20lbs of lean muscle since 2001. A comment or two about supplements. Did you know that one serving of whey protein power contains 8-10 gms of BCAA’s and 10 grams of Glutamine. So if you are consuming 4 protein drinks a day like I do you age getting 40 grams of BCAA’s and 40 grams of Glutamine, hence no need to take extra. Also in preparation for the contests, I discovered some research about lucine and its ability to help the older bodybuilders synthize protein. As we get older protein becomes harder to digest and metabolize and we need it if we want to gain muscle. I started taking a supplement by Muscle Tech called Luekic which is part of the BCAA chain and it has helped me keep muscle as I diet for the show. I think this is something for us older guys to consider taking year round. I also have been taking a product made by Gaspari Nutrition called Mitotropin. It is a product that is designed to take for 30 days leading up to a show to burn fat. This product is the bomb if you want to loose some extra fat. I don’t have much but within 2 weeks of taking it and not doing anything different with my diet I was and am contest ready. My only problem now is eating enough food to keep my weight at 180lbs for 3 weeks. It really is a good product. As far as my diet goes it’s pretty much 70% protein, 20 carbs 10-15% fats. Remember you only need enough carbs to keep energy levels up too much leads to stored fat that we don’t want at our age

Since my last post on Apr. 12 I have had a couple of changes, #1 bike accident on Apr 18 changed my plans for the show I was going to do on Apr 25 nothing broken just a concussion and knot on the head, so I wasn’t able to get it together in time. It really was a shame because at 63 I’m in the best shape I have ever been. So, over Memorial Day weekend on May 23 it’s the Calif. State Championships in Culver City. I won this in 2006 when I turned 60 and thought that my competion years were over and that that was the best I could get. However, since then my body has kept responding and getting more defined with better separation so I am excited about doing this and getting some pictures back to see how I look.

When I do these contests they are NPC shows which is the National Physique Committee an amature organization. They offer Master age groups over 40, over 50 and the Ultra Masters over 60. So you are competing against guys your own age or close to it. As far as drug use goes, in the older age groups it’s not very common, at least from what I have seen. It just doesn’t make sense for older guys. Sure you want to maximize your hormone levels buy taking the appropriate supplements, but this really is about life extension.

I also wanted to respond to some of the comments regarding training, diet and supplements.

As far as training and 1RM’s, 2rms, 3rm. etc., and training the muscle from all different angles you don’t want to get to scientific here because all we age trying to do is gain muscle and loose fat right! As we get older there is a less margin for error in this quest. So, in order to gain muscle it has to be overloaded on a consistent basis, and to loose fat we need to increse our metabolism. It is no more complicated than that. The challange is to find the right combination. In my case, I have a very fast metabolism, and I keep it that way by eating small meals 8-9 times a day. When your body is always digesting food the metabolism is always going and doesn’t slow down. I also don’t do any cardio and body fat is at 6%. In all fairness, I have a pool & spa maint. and repair business that keeps me on my feet and moving 10 hours a day. So this is the best kind of fat burning which is slow and consistent. Remember to much cardio will burn muscle and it is to hard to gain and keep at our age.

As far as training, you have to overload the muscle to gain size and this is going to take lifting heavy weight for a few sets, for example for chest I’ll start with no weight for 30-40 reps to warm up, and for smith machine incline bench , 2nd set 60lbs 25reps, 3rd set 90lbs 20 reps, 4th set 135lbs 15 reps, 5th set 185lbs 10 reps, 6th set 210 4-5 reps, and once in a while 225lbs for 1-2 reps. Then I’ll do incline dumbells 4 sets 15 reps down to 6 with 70lb dumbells. Then 4 sets dumbell flys, and 3-4 sets pec deck or something like that. Then I will do triceps that day and abs but nothing more you don’t want to over train. I have found that hitting the same body part every 6 days works best for me. Weather I train for a contest or not this is how I usually work out and I have gained 20lbs of lean muscle since 2001.

A comment or two about supplements. Did you know that one serving of whey protein power contains 8-10 gms of BCAA’s and 10 grams of Glutamine. So if you are consuming 4 protein drinks a day like I do you age getting 40 grams of BCAA’s and 40 grams of Glutamine, hence no need to take extra. Also in preparation for the contests, I discovered some research about lucine and its ability to help the older bodybuilders synthize protein. As we get older protein becomes harder to digest and metabolize and we need it if we want to gain muscle. I started taking a supplement by Muscle Tech called Luekic which is part of the BCAA chain and it has helped me keep muscle as I diet for the show. I think this is something for us older guys to consider taking year round. I also have been taking a product made by Gaspari Nutrition called Mitotropin. It is a product that is designed to take for 30 days leading up to a show to burn fat. This product is the bomb if you want to loose some extra fat. I don’t have much but within 2 weeks of taking it and not doing anything different with my diet I was and am contest ready. My only problem now is eating enough food to keep my weight at 180lbs for 3 weeks. It really is a good product. As far as my diet goes it’s pretty much 70% protein, 20 carbs 10-15% fats. Remember you only need enough carbs to keep energy levels up too much leads to stored fat that we don’t want at our age

I am so used to pushing myself physically that getting ready for a show is not much different than what I normally do. That really is the key as you get older. How hard can you push yourself to make gains and can you recuperate enough to be consistent over a long period of time. My workouts have not really changed because they are always hard but I am doing more ab work that usual. This will be my 12th show that I have done and I feel that I am in as good as shape as ever. It really is amazing what your body is capable of if taken care of. I am fortunate that I discovered bodybuilding 30 years ago and have pretty much lived that lifestyle ever since. One of the reasons that I still do these shows is that I am always pretty close to contest ready and the feedback and respect you get from people who see what is possible as you get older. I am currently at 180lbs at 6.8%bf, pretty close to where I want to be with 2 weeks to go. russyoung/oldsage

For the last few years since my mid 50’s I have anually entered the NPC Orange County Muscle Classic, this year on April 25. It is a fairly large regional contest so it is always a good measuring stick on where you are at. The pictures I have posted are from the contest last year. In 2006 I won the over 60 title and took 2nd the last 2 years. Since 2006 I have told myself that I am not going to do the contest unless I have made some kind of gains from the year before, sort of my own anti-aging statement. By gains I mean either body fat loss or muscle gains, either of which are very difficult when you are in your 60’s. This year I decided to do the contest again because I still am in as good or better shape than last year and still have 30 days to go. Currently I am at 182lbs 7% body fat which is just about what I was last year. Following is a list of my current diet and supplement

    on arising 3:30am-Fusion Force pre workout drink- BioQuest

                   4:45am
-bowl of oatmeal protein drink- ProComplex- Optimum

                    5-6:
30 workout- after workout Myozene post workout drink - BioQuest

                     8:00-Labrada Instant Breakfast Drink- equivelent to 10 egg whites and a bowl of oatmeal.

                      9:00- egg white & chicken burrito

                      
10:30-half a turkey sandwich and half of an Isopure protein drink

                       12: the other burrito, I make 2, and the other half of the Isopure

                      
  1:30 the other half of turkey sandwich and a cup of cottage cheese

                      
   3:30 bowl of granola and Labrada lean body protein drink- only 10 onces of water

                      
    5:00-small amount of sliced turkey, roastbeef or chicken breast, 4ozs cashews

                      
     7:00- Usually steak, chicken or fish, salad and vegtables

I just take fish oil and a multivitamin tablet and let all the various drinks I take cover all the creatine, glutamin, BCCA’s needs I may have. This year I am going to use Gaspari Nutrition’s Mitotropin 30 day pre-contest physique repartitioning system to see how it works. oldsage.

In 2001 I was 55 years old and entered my first bodybuilding contest, the over 50 masters at the Venice Beach Muscle Classic and took 2nd place. At the time I weighed 160lbs at 5′ 10 with 5.8% body fat (underwater) Even though I had been working out for almost 30 years and had gotten myself into pretty good shape I still wanted more muscle but didn’t know if I could do it as I got older, maybe I had reached my genetic potential. Since that time I have been in 10 contests and as of the last one in April 2008 I weighed 184lbs with 6.2% body fat (underwater). So in 9 years I’ve gained 24lbs. of lean muscle tissue, so it can be done. How you ask? I think for me it has been a combination of things that came together after all these years and the ability with which I listen to my body. First of all I made a conscious effort to eat more and eat more often. I currently eat 8-9 meals a day, 3000-3500 cals. & 300-350 grams of protein a day. Half the food is solid and half is protein drinks. I have probably tried every type of protein powder & drink there is after all these years but I do have my favorites that I will list later. This is the only way you are going to be able to gain muscle as you age so the old rules still apply. Also smaller meals stimulates the metabolism like nothing else and once you get that going you burn fat efficiently. By keeping with this plan I am able to keep some decent size and still effect changes on my body at this age. Your body can really be an amazing vehicle. As far as workouts go I really don’t do any cardio for the contests , I am to keep my bodyfat down by intense weight training at a fast clip and also my job keeps me moving all day. I have cut the body parts trained per day back as I have gotten older now it’s Legs day 1. Shoulders and hams day 2, off day 3, Back and Biceps day 4, Chest and tri’s day 5, off day 6. I usually super set a lot of exercises and the last sets are always heavy for 8-10 reps. In my mid 50’s I was doing 50 set workouts for my legs (thighs, hams and calves). Currently my leg workout is 5 sets leg extensions super seted with 5 sets of lying leg presses, then 7-8 sets of squats ( still squating after all these years and still look forward to my leg workouts) Recently I have been doing high rep squats to stimulate  growth I’ll try to get as many reps as possible per set. Recently I did this: 135lbsfor 44 reps (I thought I was going to die). 155lbs for 25 reps, 185 for 20 reps, 210 for 15 reps and 225 for 12 reps. After a couple of weeks of doing this I had some impressive cuts that I didn’t have before and gained a little size. I’ll finish my leg workout with 4 sets of lunges and 15-18 sets of calves. If you want to make gains as you get older you have to push yourself even more but if you do you can still effect changes to your body. I have proved it.

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