Strength and Physique

Just a heads up: over the weekend, I was on the Better Asian Man Podcast promoting Strength and Physique: Neo-Classical Bodybuilding. I did a Q&A session on training, diet and the role of the physique in attracting the opposite. Check out my segment of the podcast at the BAM website.

The BAM website is run a “pick-up artist” by the name of William Lee. I’m not a PUA, but I do find the PUA community to be a rather fascinating subculture. If you’ve seen VH1’s “The Pickup Artist,” then you know what I mean. People are quick to dismiss their strategies and techniques, but there’s a lot of evolutionary psychology involved. Frankly, the stuff works much better than no game plan at all and relying on vague general advice like “Just be yourself.”

Anyway, since these PUA guys are more concerned with sexual attraction, I focused my training advice on the concepts of symmetry and posture. I go over these concepts in great detail in Strength and Physique V1.

In my experience and from what I have seen in others, most women really don’t care as much about your physique, UNLESS you’re one extreme or the other: fat or skinny. Most women are looking at other factors aside from physique: how safe and comfortable you make them, how you make them laugh, how confident you are, how you dress, etc.

But I find that 2 out of 10 women will also be highly attracted to a well-chiseled physique, so much so that they would casually or in an obvious manner touch your arm.  Don’t underestimate the power of a powerful looking physique. Most women are not attracted to the buffed out strong man, but they definitely notice the V-taper (wide shoulders, muscular arms, trim waist).

Q and A:

“In your Wingspan Workouts article, you don’t specify if all of these 4 shock workouts should be performed in one day or if they should be rotated on a weekly basis? I work each body part once a week and cardio 6 days a week. Example:

Monday – Chest,
Tuesday – Bi’s and Tri’s,
Wed – BACK ,
Thursday – Quads,
Friday – Shoulders,
Saturday – Hams.

“I would appreciate any help you could throw my way about this. By the way I am a 53 year old male.”

Thanks,
Cliff Travis
Gastonia, North Carolina
 

My Answer: The Wingspan Workouts are 4 separate WORKOUTS. Hence you don’t do them all in one day. You can choose one workout and stick with that for a few weeks, or you can alternate between 2 workouts, or you can rotate among 3-4 shock workouts. The shock techniques are tools in your bodybuilding arsenal to use as you see fit.

“Hey it’s CW from Vegas again. Just received the new book and cannot wait to get back into the gym. The reason I’m writing is I’m hoping you can resolve a debate in regards to cardio. As you know in law enforcement, cardio is a must. However the question is: how and when to do it? Some say do 30 to 40 minutes of light cardio after weights and some say HIIT. Other say to do it on non-gym days or do cardio in the morning then lift at night. Getting to the gym 4 times a week is tough enough let alone twice a day. One guy I know is preaching the Max-OT cardio program from AST. So if you can tell me what the best cardio program is I will be most grateful.”

Thanks,
CW

My Answer: Every cardio method that you mention works to some degree. But what you should be asking is: what works best for you? You’re a peace officer with limited time to train (that almost sounds redundant!)

So what you should be interested in is minimal investment in the gym with maximal performance in the field. Forget about 2 a day training. It’s very effective, but what’s the point if you can’t make time for the workouts?

Forget about light cardio for 30-40 minutes. You’re training your body to be slow and weak.

Forget about Max-OT cardio, which requires you to do cardio on a recumbent bike or stair climber machine. Your job requires that you run, so why practice a different skill when you do cardio?

So that leaves us with HIIT. Sprint interval training is the best form of cardio for law enforcement officers. You want to train to be fast and to end the chase quickly. To save you some time, do 15 minutes of HIIT after 45 minutes of strength training. This way if you hit the gym 4 times a week, you’ll be doing cardio 4 times a week.

"Hello James, I have a question for you: I am a large guy (about 320), and I started working out. When I do situps, my lower back really hurts. It doesn’t matter if I do crunches or full situps. Is this normal?"

Thanks!!!
-Matthew V.

My Answer: If you’re using every other muscle BUT your abs, then yes, it would be normal for you to have lower back pain. But at 320, ditch the ab work. You won’t get a six-pack or reduce the size of your waist by doing sit-ups or crunches. Work on losing fat throughout your body overall by working out your whole body, not just your abs. This means predominantly whole body movements. A good primer on using whole body movements to generate whole body fat loss is my article Strength Training for Fat Loss.

Once you generate total body fat loss, THEN you can work on your abs.

SPV2: Neo-Classical Bodybuilding available on Amazon.com

“I read your article on Training for the Ectomorph and decided to try it out as a new program, being an ectomorph and a hard gainer. I am about 185cm tall weighing 68kgs, my body fat is about 9.8%. I am trying to put on a more size. Ideally I would like to be 72-75kgs and drop a percent or two on the body fat.

“I am not a beginner bodybuilder. I have been training for 4 years, but I have been battling to increase in size after having ripped down from about 14% body fat. I have been following the program for 6 weeks and have gained almost 2kgs which is great. I also incorporated 20 mins of HIIT and a combination of pikes, bridges and one other ab exercise on the off days.

“I have a question. I am worried, being a more intermediate than a beginner, that I am neglecting or should be paying more attention to other exercises, aside from the core 6 exercises. I previously did do most of the exercises listed but also added more isolation exercises.

“I like the idea of full body workout 3 times a week, but I am not sure if that’s right for someone like myself who has a decent build and needs more size. I also would like to know what I should be doing after 6 weeks. I don’t seem to be progressing much further with this routine and am tempted to go back to my old routine which was:

Monday (chest and biceps)
2 chest exercises using 10-8-6-15 (barbell/dumbell flat/incline press and flyes)
2 bicep exercises using 10-8-6-15 (standing or seated dumbell/barbell curls)
Abs for 15-20mins

Tuesday (back, tris and calves)
2 Back exercises using 10-8-6-15 (lat, wide or close grip, pulldowns/seated row)
2 Tricep exercises using 10-8-6-15 (skull crushers/close grip barbell press/tricep pushdown)
2 Calf exercises using 10-8-6-15 (seated/standing calf raises)
15 mins HIIT

Wednesday (shoulders and legs)
2 Shoulder exercises using 10-8-6-15 (shoulder press/upright rows/lateral raises)
Squats 10-8-6-15
Leg presses 10-8-6-15
Lying/standing Hamstring 10-8-6-15
Abs for 15-20mins

Thursday
(chest and biceps)
15 mins HIIT

Friday
(back, tris and calves)
Abs for 15-20mins

“The following Monday I start with shoulders and legs, then chest and biceps etc. Can you offer any tips or advice if this is OK or an alternative. I train in the mornings and a long workout tends to really punish me. The ectomorph type workout, with a break in between I find better, but I need to find a balance.

“Thanks again for your great articles and taking the time to read this (if you get a chance).”

-Michael
from sunny Cape Town, South Africa

My Answer: It’s great that you made progress on the 10-8-6-15 program, but as you’ve realized: all good things must come to an end. Your new program looks fine, but I would suggest 2 things:

1) Forget about the 10-8-6-15 rep scheme for now. Your body is tired of it. Try 5×5 instead, and you will jumpstart some new gains.

2) 15-20 minutes of ab work is way too much. There is a huge net of nerves over your abs, so excessive ab work will put you in the overtraining zone very quickly. If you overtrain longer than 3 weeks, then your gains will come to a screeching halt and you will even lose muscle. So cut the ab work in half.

"I read your article on Bodybuilding.com titled Hypertrophy Training for the Ectomorph, and it really struck a note with me. I’m a 21 year old university student, 74 inches tall, 188lbs. My whole life I’ve been athletic but never have had any real muscle to my body.

“This August I started weightlifting with a friend and gained about 13lbs (going from about 175 to 188), and I would like to reach 200lbs, possibly 210 at the most. As of late October/early November I started noticing my gains were small, if none, but I kept lifting anyway.

“Last night I read your article, and I am going to try the 10-8-6-15 approach, specifically the one you reccommended: squats, bench press, lateral raises, V-bar pulldowns, dumbbell curls and close grip bench press. I have some questions though about this: How long would one do this routine?

“I figured in my head that 6 weeks would be optimal for this. I would be doing this three days a week, also including 2 extra exercises that would be rotated throughout the week. I’ll also rotate the order of the 6 core exercises throughout the week.

“Basically on Monday I would do the core 6 exercises, but include shrugs to target my traps and seated calf raises to hit my calves. Then on the 2nd day I would include cable flys to help with chest and cable rows for my lats/middle back/bi’s etc. On the 3rd day I would include preacher curls and lying tricep press, repeat for 6 weeks, switching up the order every week to keep it fresh.

“This is the routine I’m thinking of, but being a bodybuilding rookie I would like some advice and guidance. Thanks for reading James, I appreciate any and all help. Sorry if this has been hard to read.”

-Jay

My Answer: Ideally, you wouldn’t follow a program longer than 3 weeks. You can follow it for 6 weeks, but the exercises would have to be switched up from workout to workout. Here’s what you do:

Instead of adding 2 extra exercises (like you propose), just substitute all of your proposed exercises once a week, preferably in the 2nd workout. Adding 2 extra exercises would lengthen the workout and defeat the purpose of the program itself: brief, intense and frequent workouts to induce hypertrophy.

So let’s just say you chose Wednesday to substitute all of the exercises? Your workout would look like this:

Thighs- Deadlifts
Chest- Cable flyes
Back- Seated cable rows
Biceps- Preacher curls
Triceps- Lying triceps extensions
Calves- Seated calf raises

I suggest deadlifts instead of shrugs. The deadlift will work both your thighs and your traps.

SPV2: Neo-Classical Bodybuilding available on Amazon.com

So Strength and Physique: Neo-Classical Bodybuilding is now available on Amazon.com.  The book goes into great detail on how to train to maximize your body’s output of growth hormone and testosterone and to sensitize your muscles to the anabolic effects of insulin. Plus the book is chock full of specialization routines and extra training articles.

Now that I’m finished with this second book, I should be free to write some more articles for Bodybuilding.com.  I’ll keep you guys posted.

Strength and Physique V2: Neo-Classical Bodybuilding is now available! This book is information dense. If you like my articles and my previous book Volume 1, then SPV2: Neo-Classical Bodybuilding will blow your mind!

You will be drunk with bodybuilding and strength training knowledge, because I reveal everything about effective training programs. You will be able to look at a training routine and assess whether it’s effective and how it’s effective. SPV2: Neo-Classical Bodybuilding provides you with a template to design your own individualized programs.

Not only this, but I added a whole slew of training articles not included in Volume 1. Visit the E-Store and order your copy. Strength and Physique V2: Neo-Classical Bodybuilding will be available on Amazon.com within the next 2 weeks. In the mean time, here’s a short blurb on the book:

"Design bodybuilding programs to maximize your muscle growth. This book not only provides you with an effective bodybuilding program, but it teaches you how to train for size, symmetry and strength so that you can create your own bodybuilding programs. You will learn techniques to maximize your body’s natural anabolic hormones: growth hormone, insulin and, of course, testosterone.

"You will also understand each muscle group’s ‘personality’ and how to tailor your training to develop any lagging muscle group. This book is packed with specialization routines for the chest, back, deltoids, arms, quads, hamstrings and calves. SPV2 is a very dense read, and you will shortcut your learning curve by light years in the gym. Make no mistake. This program is tough physically and mentally and is meant solely for the intermediate to advanced bodybuilder looking to build a lot of muscle in all the right places."

 I work with a mix of law enforcement and the general population. Early on in my training, however, I worked primarily with law enforcement. As a trainer, I had to design programs that had their time constraints in mind. The training strategies had to be effective, and they had to produce results. The programs also had to be flexible, since an officer’s time is never his own. They do lots of shift work and unexpected overtime.

Because of this scheduling unpredictability, my personal training includes a "Plan Minimus" and a "Plan Maximus." This is a concept you can apply to any sort of goal setting, not just working out. The way it works is this: for the plan maximus, determine the ideal goals to be accomplished. For example, in a typical plan maximus, I might say, "Strive to hit the gym 5 days out of the week."

The plan minimus designates the absolute minimum required for my client to see results. So using the training frequency again as an example, I would say: "Hit the gym at least 3 times per week."

I encoourage my clients to achieve plan maximus, but if they can only achieve plan minimus, then they’re still OK. Obviously, achieving plan maximus is best, but sometimes life throws you some curveballs. To succeed in the long run, you have to go with the flow and be flexible.

Strength and Physique V1 available on Amazon.com

Reader Mail:

“I have recently come out of a lay off from training. I now know what I want to put all of my training toward: I want to have the longest dead hang time possible. How long can I just hang on the bar? My muscles just do not seem to have that juice and fire power that they did 5 weeks ago. Do you have any suggestions or advice about any of this?”

-Johann Winkler

My Answer: For dead hang time, it’s more about isometric strength, or holding yourself in a static position. There are 3 factors involved in dead hangs:

1) Grip Strength- This is fairly obvious. What I suggest you do is work on your isometric grip strength. Do some fat bar training if you have access to that equipment. If not, then do some plate pinches. Do some farmer’s walks as well.

2) Dead Hang Form- The easiest way to hang is to let your arms and body hang straight down. Don’t move or sway a lot. Just take a shoulder width grip. Anything wider than shoulder-width makes it harder on you.

3) Breathing and Contracting- You have to breathe in a slow and relaxed manner, but contract your upper body muscles. Make sure that you make each breathe last as long as you can. When you exhale, tighten your grip and your abs.

When you train to prolong your dead hang time, don’t go to failure. Hang on the bar for as long as you can, but as soon as you feel your grip loosening, then it’s time to stop. Rest for 10-20 seconds, then get back on. Keep repeating until you can no longer hold yourself for even 10 seconds. Once you’ve reached that point, it’s time to stop and end that exercise. Try to do this every day. Test your dead hang time once a week.