TheGoodDoctor’s BodyBlog

My body fat is rising

“%&^R%%((!!!!!!!**&&^&!” (insert many, many swear words here)

Thing is, one of my missions this year was to try to keep super, super lean

And i am failing.

As i have mentioned in the past, i truly do seem to be the worlds most perfectly balanced somatotype: the worlds most perfectly balanced ecto/meso/endomorph.

The reasons are as follows:

i) I can build muscle easily and readily, i have never had any problem gaining size or strength

ii) I also seem to be able to lose muscle easily, especially when i reduce calories, even my small margins

iii) I seems to be able to gain and lose muscle much, more more easily then i can drop body fat!! GRRRRRRRR!!!

These are ectomorphic, mesomorphic and endomorphic tendancies. The annoying thing in particular seems that my body really wants to hold on to that fat, but not as high as you would think. You see, that 13-14% mark seems to be the magic figure, my body REALLY wants to keep my fat at that level. The thing is though, once it gets to that point, it will resist most efforts to go over that level! which means, pizza, fried food and booze appear to be fair game! haha!

And this is the thing,  the recurring question in my head: if i can get away with those type of foods at a higher level, why try so hard to keep shredded?

At the moment, I am eating NO cheat foods, all super clean, good quality bodybuilding staples (egg whites, oatmeal ect), and guess what, the fat is still on the rise. And i am only in very small calorie surpluss. At the moment, i am eating 3200 calories a day (my maintence level was 3000) but the fat has continued to rise. I am gaining mass, but truth be told i would gain mass eating any old thing, my mission was to keep super lean.

I know my body well, and i know that once it hits that 13-14% bodyfat mark all calories are seemingly funneled into producing muscle mass. This time last year, when i was doing no cardio, I put on that much muscle i had to get the arms in all my shirts altered (true story). And yep, bodyfat kept rock solid stable at 13-14%

So what to do: There are three likely options

i) Reduced calories to maintence or below: A good option, but at the same time, i know my body well enough to know that it would most likely look to drop the muscle first

ii)  Do more cardio: probably the best option, because my body seems to be able to preserve muscle mass better and drop fat faster then when i cut calories. The problem is, I really dont want to do any more cardio then 3-4 sessions a week then i am currently doing. The reason is twofold: firstly, to prevent metabolic adapation. Secondly, if i am doing cardio daily, it doesn’t leave me much leeway when i next go to cut

iii) Keep calories the same, but alter macronutrient ratios: This is tempting. At the moment, i am eating 50% carb, 35% protein, 15% fat. A tempting ratio to try may be 40% carb, 40% protein, 20% fat and seeing what happens

 Ultimately, its about trial and error and finding what works for you. I am very new to this and still experimenting so i will give it 6 months to try to find something that works. If not, basically i will give bodybuilding away. I will go back to powerlifting and eating any old thing This is the challenge

Feel free to offer suggestions, or else the good doctor is exiting the bodybuilding world, stage left

Hi guys, welcome to the latest blog from your favorite chiropractor, the good doctor

I want to talk about a topic today that everyone is aware of and few talk about<strong />: that being the use of anabolic steroids.

Now in case you are living in an alternate reality, i want to tell you something: In bodybuilding, anabolic steroid use is everywhere! Yep, everywhere. Your bodybuilding heros, 99% of them are on the gear. The latest Mr Olympia contest, everyone is juicing. This is a fact.

Years and years ago, i was naieve enough to think all pros are clean. Now that is not to say there are pro’s who are not juicing. Many compete in drug tested federations (I will talk about this later) and some of my personal hero’s compete drug free (Jim Cordova, you the man!!).

But as a collective, steroid use is rampant.

Now this is something I want to talk about today. You see, as i have have mentioned in previous blogs, i have many friends who lift and compete in both bodybuilding and powerlifting…………………………..
.

And 90% of them are juicing.

In fact they call me "Mr natural" because i am the only one not taking any gear. Nor do i plan to. But at the same time this gives me a unique perspective, because you get to sit back and observe the effects without having to touch them yourself, kinda of like some real life scientific experiement.

Before i say any more i am not actually anti steroid. They are just not for me. I dont take them because truth be told i am kind of scared of them and more importantly it would take away from my sense of individual achievement. I am not going to sit here and preach high and mighty about how evil and dangerous they are, its a personal choice. If you want to take them i am not going to stop you. But at the same time they are not for me, and never will be.

Now back to what i was saying. From an objective standpoint, based purely on what i have seen, it would seem the dangers of steroid use is exagerated. All of my friends who are juicing, and have done for many years, have yet to experience any major health problems. The common thing that tends to happen is that all have experienced testicular atrophy, but then what do you expect when you are pumping your body choc full of synthetic hormones!?!

I do try to educate them of potential dangers, but again i am not their father: if they wish to put these substances into their body, so be it.

A couple of things are very noticable with steroid use:

i) Users are able to keep leaner much easier the most people

ii) They have a greater "cheat allowance" then the normal bodybuilder

iii) The are able to retain, even gain muscle, during cutting phases.

But in regards to death, increased aggresion, heart and cardiac problems ect, i have yet to see any.

So why am i not vehemently anti steroid being a natural drug free bodybuilder and health professional? Because the are "anti roid arguments" tend to be somewhat hypocritical in my opinion.

Lets take a few:

i) steroid use is unnatural: True, but then again, is eating 7 meals a day, consuming creatine, amino acids, downing protein shakes really any more natural either? Not in my opinion. Healthier? absolutely! But certainly not "natural" patterns of food consumption by any means

ii) Steroid use is dangerous: I tend to agree, but simply put, the scientific evidence to validate such an opinion simply does not exist. It one thing to oppose steroid use morally (which i do somewhat) but from on objective scientific perspective more research needs to be done.

Lets get back to natural federations of bodybuilding. I was talking to a whole lot of bodybuilding friends who have competed far longer then i have. We got talking about steroid use. I told them i was clean and proud to be competing natural and in a natural federation……………what happened next is not something i will soon forget. They laughed!

When i asked them why there were laughing they said "Do you really think everyone who competes in a natural federation is natural?"

"Well, yeah"

"My friend, everyone knows exactly when the drug test is going to be. Hell, i can show you how to pass a drug test no problem"

I was about to interject, but then i realised: he was dead serious. That got me down for a while, because as much as i hate to admit it he was serious and had a valid point.

There are guys those who compete drug free and i admire very much, jim cordova, brian whitaker are heros of mine, but for the most point, a hell of a lot of people are juicing.

This isn’t a pro or anti steroid argument either way. It just my personal observation. If you really want to juice then i cant stop you. But at the same time steroids are not for me, and never will be.

The good doctor 

<em />

<em />

<em />

Well guys, welcome to another blog care of your favorite chiroprator, the good doctor! haha!

 I want to use this blog to talk about 2 things i find interesting in the bodybuilder world, a seemingly "cardio phobic" mentality amongst gym junkies, and protein consumption (which to me) borders on insanity.

When i did my last contest, a lot of my friends, fellow gym users, patients ect were asking me: What did i do to get so cut up?

The answer: lots and lots of cardio.

The funny thing is, every time i’d mention this to a fellow lifter 90% of the time they would be seemingly gobsmacked.

What do you mean a lot of cardio? like a daily walk right?

Nope

Towards the last 5-6 weeks, i was doing 2 45 minute, all out, high intensity interval training sessions on the stationary bike, one in the morning, one in the evening. When i told them this, the reaction i got is that they thought i was lying! When the realised that i wasn’t lying the first question was: "but didn’t you lose a lot of size?"

Nope

I’m hardly a guru at any of this (i am very new to all this) but from a purely observation point of view in my opinion incorrect nutrion and not cardio is responsible for muscle loss. If you are a natural ectomorph, certainly i would recommend keeping cardio to a bare minimum, but if you are a natural endomorph or have some endomorphic tendancies (which i do), cardio to me seems to be a vital element in getting really, really ripped.

Bare in mind too, I didn’t do double cardio at the start of my pre contest phase, nor am i doing much atm the moment (i try to limit my cardio to 3-4 40 minute sessions per week, alternating between brisk walking and interval training). Why? metabolic adapation. You see, the more cardio you do, the more energy effectient your body becomes, thats why a lot of the time when you start doing cardio you can lose weight quickly and then all or a sudden dont seem to lose much weight. That is something you need to prevent, and besides, if you are doing cardio twice a day in the off season, what the hell are you going to do come contest time??

The point that i am trying to make here is dont be cardio phobic. A lot of the time people are under the impression that they are going to lose muscle, and for the vast majority of people out there, that is simply not true.

The other thing to remember here is my personal philosophy: do as much as it takes

So if you can get ripped without cardio, all the more power to you. But if you have to end up doing double cardio, do it! Hell, if i had to i would have done cardio 3-4 times a day if thats what i meant i had to do! Too many "gurus" say that you have to do this, or you have to do that……..geez at least have some flexibilty in your approach! Experiment with it, and find out how much you need, but never limit yourself, do simply as much as you have to do.

The other thing that i want to talk about here is a seemingly overwhelming trend of "high protein mania" that has gripped the bodybuilding fraternity. Now having lots of friends who lift and compete, you get some intersting perspectives on diet and its variations. To any bodybuilder, high protein dieting is nothing new. However, what seems to be new is the ammount of people who are working on dietary ratios of like, 70, 80 even 90% protein! 

Jesus!!

Let me tell you something about high protein dieting, it will definately work. BUT, there are a couple of big drawbacks. One, prolongued high protein, low card dieting leaves you lazy and inefficient at processing carbs, which means it is really (in my opinon) not a good long term solution in terms of diet. I mean what are you going to do, never eat another carb again? God damn, i could think of nothing worse. The thing is though, a lot of my friends keep on pre contest type diets year round! The other drawback, if you are anything like me, a high protein, low carb diet will leave you lethargic and irritable. Towards the end of my pre contest phase, i was down to 110gms of carbs a day.

I’ll be brutally honest with you, life was hell! I looked great but i felt absolutely god awful and i wasn’t just grouchy, i was downright mean! I have sworn, i will never go that low in carbs again. If i can, i will try to keep my carbs to no lower then 150gms towards the end of a pre contest phase, ever! How people do ketogenic type diets, i will never know. If i felt that bad on 110gms of carbs, i dread to think how bad i would have been on 30, 20 even zero carbs!!

To me, high protein, low carb dieting should be used only for certain purposes (ie, photo shoot, contest, ect) and not sustained year round.

"But that might mean i wont be able to keep ripped year round"

Well, yeah! Unless you are a natural ectomorph, or you really want be ripped year round (ie, you make your living by being a model or somthing and have to keep ripped) what is the point? To me, that would be akin to torture! life is too short to me personally, i’d rather have some fun. Thats not to say i am not in good shape atm, my bodyfat is currently pretty stable at 7.8%. but i’m certainly not walking around cut and dried as i am in my profile photos year round. Hell i partied up a storm on the weekend, and a lot of bodybuilders would be agast. But to me my physique is not the be all and end all. Personally, live, have some fun, and save the really hard stuff and strict diet to peak periods. I mean, dont go gorging yourself every day on pizza in the off season, but live a little too

In short, to me super high protein, low carb dieting is not a good year round dietary solution, and most people, would lean up very nicely on a more balanced diet of about 50-60% protein 30% protein, and 15-20% fat. Again, the key here is experimentation and finding what works best for you

The good doctor 

Woke up early today, which is good. Its always better when i wake up before the alarm goes off because i always feel more alert when i have to do a cardio session. Did 30 mintues, interval training on the stationary bike, and i must admit i was a little slack! The first 15 i was just crusing along, but picked up the pace for the second half. Managed to burn 450 calories, not a bad effort

Today was delts/traps day in the gym, my favorite day! As always, i like to train as heavy as i am physically able.

The problem today was though, well, i’m going so superheavy in my shrugs that i am stuggling to hold a grip! This poses a problem because my grip is giving out before i rep out…………..annoying! To give you an illustration how heavy i am shrugging, this is what i did today: I use the shrug machine: a free weight device that allows you to add plates and did 7 clean shrugs with 180kgs. 90kgs per hand. Now that may not seem massively impressive but remember, at the moment i am only 71kgs! I’ve always been super strong through the delts and traps.

So grip strength is certainly something i am going to have to improve as a matter of neccessity! I always train forearms hard anyways, but i will increase workload and add some more grip specific exercises.

The another annoying thing relates to yesterdays session. Now yesterday, i trained quads. Lately i have revised my whole gym routine and it has worked a treated to date, muscle groups are aching more so then they have done in years! The problem: i woke up this morning and ZERO quad soreness. Hell, i was expecting to be able to hardly stand! It was an intense session: bench and box squats (killers!), leg extensions supersetted with sissy squats, at the end of the session my legs felt like jelly! But no soreness today. I wont pull the pin just yet, i will measure them every week for a month and if after that there is no growth, time to change tactics again. I know my legs are a weak bodypart, but i have vowed to bring them up to scratch. Give me 12 months, I’ll be quadzilla! you’ll see! hahaha!

Well guys, gotta go, a boy has to eat!

The good doctor

Well, went to the gym this morning, as i always do (except for saturday, my day of rest), and today focused on quadriceps. My legs are one of my weakest bodyparts and i have taken a vow to make them one of my strongest, i will do it to, i know it! haha!

Started incorporating some "powerlifting tactics" in the search for leg mass. Conventional type stuff is not really working for me so if you are losing the battle, change tactics! Incorporating stuff like bench squats, box squats, heavy singles and doubles, speed set…………….that type of thing. Will will see what happens.

The other funny thing is i wrote about how i trained half assed yesterday (and i did). But i woke up this morning and man oh man, my chest is aching! Thats good though because my pecs have not ached after a training session in a while so the change of routine must have helped. Maybe i should train half assed more often! hahah! (i’m joking, i’m joking!)

Will keep you posted on training progress for the rest of this year

The good doctor 

Well hi everyone!

This is the first in what will hopefully be a long line a training blogs.

Today in the gym training pecs and abs…………..very lethargic. I didn’t have my normal intensity that is usually my trademark in the gym, so will definately have to keep that in mind for tommorow. Still, put in some decent work, bettered previous weeks efforts for all exercises so that i certainly a positive i can take away. Gotta keep in mind too to reduce rest between sets, sometimes i can get complacent and allow too long to elapse. Did some cardio this morning too, 30 minutes of interval training on the stationary bike, high intensity. Felt good afterwards (I always do after a good cardio workout!) The thing is i am still experimenting with a lot of things, came off a comp 3 weeks ago and came in at 4.8% bodyfat that i was very pleased about, but already the bodyfat is creaping back up.

I am fully aware that it may be impossible for me to walk around ripped year round, but i am certainly going to try! wish me luck, i’ll need it! hahah!

 But ultimately above all i am still learning, its a process

Doing some arm training with a friend this sunday which should be fun. He trains with the same lunatic intensity that i do so it ought to be good for a laugh. I can only imagine we will look like a comical pair of gym freaks…………………….kinda like a wannabe takeoff of when Dorian yates trained with mike mentzer! hahah!

But, life is ok, as i said, my primary goal is to stay as lean as i am able

Will keep you posted of my progress, this will be the first blog of many

Peace 

Welcome to the Bodybuilding.com BodyBlogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!