A Change in Plans
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
May 5, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Thanks for the thorough review of what you do to stay in such great shape. You got me looking at ingredient labels and thinking about my own supplementation. Leucine got my interest up, and then I saw that I’m getting 2.5g every time I make a shake (usually 1 or 2 a day) and more in both my pre- and post workout stacks with my Optimum BCAAs. I see your point about not needing more if I were drinking shakes as much as you are, but I’m rely a little more on whole foods.
The Mitotropin sounded great too, but it unfortunately has caffeine in it, which I’m opposed to, so I guess I’m left with just the normal ways to boost metabolism and lose fat.
Good luck on the 23rd!