To be honest, I'm not so much concerned with the actual regimen it suggests, but moreso whether it's actually capable of delivering such results within a week. I've proposed the program to some other people, and they're skeptical as well... one dude said that he thinks it's just a temporary pump that provides that inch, and another one suggested it may just be fat accumulated from the massive amounts of calories you'll have to take in while you're on it. Regardless, I plan on trying it sometime mid-September. Dude, can you imagine? Do this shit like once a month and I'll have fucking like 30 inch arms by this time next year, heh.
Honestly, it sounds fully plausable to me. I am all but absolutely certain it will work. Now is it 1) healthy, or 2) possible to do are my questions. In terms of 1, the diet is designed to load you up over the course of a week, and your metabolism will decrease over that same period, due to the break in working out. Your strength will decrease as well, so your max weight will decrease when the big day comes. Still, the workout should be enough to create the pump to do what it says. On the subject of 2, I'm a bit skeptical. We're talking about a SERIOUS workout there. And it's over the course of a full day, so by the third or fourth set, there's going to be some severe muscle soreness. I'm not sure it's a great plan the more I consider it. For someone like the guys in the video, it's one thing, but for someone who isn't already a total gym rat, ready for the cover of a magazine, I don't know if it would be very safe. Combining the muscle atrophy from the week before, and the intense workout for one day might lead to some serious injury. Seriously, if you do choose to do this, have a buddy with you the entire day to spot you. Even on the curls. The last thing you need is for your biceps to go dead on you and you pop an elbow. (And watch your BACK. Doing this much work when you aren't used to it could lead to compensation, and at this weakness level, the last thing you want to do is put your back into it.) Whatever you decide to do, keep us updated, and good luck!
We need a shirt that says High Fructose Corn Syrup and a red circle and line through it. I would wear that, how about you guys?
I'd wear it, no problem at all. But no one would even know wtf you were "saying". And I doubt most people would either ask you about it, unless you already knew them, or would remember the words by the time they got home to look it up. Plus, I highly doubt there will ever be enough of an uproar against its use to warrant companies discontinuing its use. HFCS is ridiculously (I mean RIDICULOUSLY,) cheap to manufacture, and just a tiny bit goes a LONG way to sweetening the product containing it. It is much cheaper to use than regular sugar, so it hugely increases the profit margin of companies putting it in their products. Here's an idea though. We live in the internet age. Maybe on your personal e-mails you could put a little signature stating to stop using HFCS. Also advise the reader to look up more information online. Who knows? Maybe people will start spreading the word? At least in this case, the information is right at the person's fingertips, without risk of them forgetting. I just might do this myself. Then again, I've become a preacher to everyone I know about HFCS. I might still do it anyway. No harm in it.
Well, I said I'd post a routine in this thread, for those interested in gaining some muscle. I'll post what I do, and anyone who likes it can draw off it for inspiration and adopt what they like and change what they don't. It works for me though. Hell, my bench has gone up 80 pounds this Summer. My routine shares the similarity with a powerlifting program, in that it primarily focuses on strengthening the core muscles. Basically, it focuses on training the biggest muscle groups in the body. That's the quickest and best way to gain size, is to train the biggest groups, the ones that have the great disposition to gain size. I train each muscle group twice a week. I personally don't subscribe to the school of thought behind "split" programs, I think they're bullshit and waste unneccessary time "resting" already recovered muscles when you could be training 'em. Anyways, you could essentially look at my program divided three ways: 1) Massive Upper Body Push (chest) 2) Massive Upper Body Pull (back) 3) Massive Leg Lift (legs) I actually frequent the gym 10 times a week. I perform my core lifts in the morning, then accessory lifts in the afternoon, when applicable. Or, if you'd rather think of it another way, compound lifts in the morning, and isolation lifts in the afternoon, when applicable, although this isn't as accurate a way to describe it as my first way. However, it's a central point to remember whenever sculpting any bodybuilding program. Compouds before isos. In other words, start your routine with lifts that incoporate multiple muscle groups (such as the squat) before moving on to isolationary exercises (such as leg extensions and leg curls, etc). Switch it around and you simply wont have the strength to handle the heavier intensity lifts, and your results will be completely limited. If anyone's interested, my complete routine goes as follows: Mon AM - Chest Mon PM - Bis/ Tris Tues AM - Back Tues PM - Shoulders Wed - Legs Th AM - Chest Th PM - Bi/ Tris Fri AM - Back Fri PM - Shoulders Sat - Legs Since most people either aren't willing or simply don't have the time to go twice a day, I just recommend consolidating the two-a-days into single sessions. As far as the lifts themselves, I recommend you create your own regimen, instead of using mine, and seeing what works and what doesn't, and adapting it thereafter. However, there are a few exercises that I regard as highly essential, that I generally structure all my workouts around (not just this one), and I recommend everyone else do the same: for legs, squats (as mentioned in the thread, it's the best exercise anyone can do, as it provides the quickest gains in strength and mass, as well as hitting every major muscle group in the body) and deadlifts, for back: pullups, and for chest: bench. There's been some debate in the bodybuilding world recently, as far as efficiency of the flat bench press. I personally still love the exercise, but I also try to fit in some incline and decline presses, and you might want to do the same. One other thing that should be mentioned, is that any type of fitness regimen should be primarily centered around the use of free weights, not machines. Machines are generally too constricting in terms of range of motion. Free weights allow for a greater range of motion, and generally recruit more muscle groups, including stabilizing muscle groups, and are generally better for any time of strength training. The downside to using free weights is that it's easy to use improper form (jerking the weight up, using momentum, whatever), as opposed to machines, which allow for the lift to precede in only one predetermined plane. If you're a beginner, you'll probable gravitate towards the machines, but I recommend getting into free weights as soon as possible. As far as barbells vs dumbbells, for an exercise like, say, the bench press, I recommend dumbbells, for the same reason I recommend free weights over machines... greater range of motion, and recruitment of a greater number of muscle groups, including stabilitzing muscles. However, there'll probably come a point where you'll out-train the dumbbells your gym has. The gym I frequent (Synergy) has weights that go up to 125, which is fantastic, but unfortunately I'm going back to school, and their gym sucks fucking dick (free weights only go up to 100), so in this situation, there's really nothing left to do except hit the barbells (with a spotter of course) and just adapt your program from there. Again, I didn't post my entire regimen, but rather the central tenets to my program, so you can use it to sculpt a program by seeing what works for you. One last point I'll make is an obvious one, which is that, if you want to gain weight, you need to eat with a caloric surplus, meaning, eating more calories than you burn. If you couple a small caloric surplus with weighlifting, it'll lead to an increase in lean muscle mass, our ultimate gain. And oh yeah, don't neglect rest either, 7-9 hours at least (man, this paragraph was totally unneccessary).
Great writeup man! Thanks for that. (And no part of it was unecessary. There's nothing wrong with stating what you believe to be the obvious because, rest assured, someone will not have considered it.)
1028 for the sake of not asking you a million questions, what types of exercises are you performing for each bodygroup? When you do chest do you alternate shoulder width grip, incline, decline, olympic bar or dumbells? Just curious cause I lift and always look to advice from someone who approaches it in all seriousness.
What do you mean what type of exercises? Were you refering specifically to my chest routine? My current chest routine goes as follows (I aim for about 20 total sets): Flat Dumbbell Press (5x10) Incline Chest Press (3x10) Flat Dumbbell Fly (3x10) Incline Dumbbell Fly (3x10) Dips w/ weight (3x10) Depth Pushups (3 sets to failure) Or wait... were you asking me what I do for variation? I don't really modify my grip width much, I just change the routine. For example, like I said before, I'm heading back to school in a few days, and since their dumbbells only go up to 100, I'll probably switch from a Flat Dumbbell Press to either a Decline Press with dumbbells or a Flat Barbell Press, to compensate for the lack of equipment. I've also been thinking of using cables instead of dumbbells on flys, will probably switch in the near future. Sometimes I superset my dips and pushups, too, just to completely fatigue my muscles at the end of each workout. To be honest though, most of my "variation" comes from just increasing the weights I use. I try to increase 'em on every workout, though not for every exercise.
Thanks. I appreciate the write up. I was workin out hard 3 days ago and hurt myself doing flat benchpresses. I keep workin through the pain but do not exceed weight as I want to. The pain felt like I could possibly damage something if I did not treat it. So I grabbed some tiger balm ointment and proceeded to rub the front of my shoulder and threw on a sweatshirt to warm up those muscles. It worked. But I recently started eating bananas for potassium to help with muscle strain. Any suggestions? And I do stretch.
Well, as I said in one of my posts above, the flat bench has seen a lot of scrunity lately in the bodybuilding world, especially when compared to its sister lift, the decline bench. Since the flat bench is apparently often the cause of many lifting related injuries, and since (well, according to some studies) the decline bench apparently recruits more muscle fibers in the lift, many people are renouncing the flat and instead beginning the decline press. Maybe you should look into that as well, that is, making the switch, and seeing how it works for you. I was going to suggest that it may be a problem with your rotator cuff, but when you mentioned the pain was in your front shoulder, I kinda backed down from that theory. It still may be the case though. I had a similar problem with my rotator cuff a few weeks back, which I got mainly from Rows, Bench, and Military Pressing. I took a few days off, not many... when I went back to the gym to lift, I still had the pain, but it gradually went away. As far as treating it, I didn't do much than take a few Tylenols, Joint Strengtheners (w/Glucosamine and Chondoitin), and stretch it in between lifts (I'd just hang from a pullup bar, or grab onto one of the support beams at the gym and pull). I've never been too crazy on pre-workout stretches though... I posted an article a few pages back about how static stretches may affect your overall strength heading into a workout... fuck that.
CNN just had a piece on HFCS, talking about a Rutgers study on the stuff. So the word is getting out.
Interestingly, I was in the airport and happened to catch that report! I was with my boss, and she was starting with the whole "Oh, whatever, it's no big deal" thing. Then I broke it down for her. She was shocked and appalled. Interestingly, so were the numerous people who were listening to my soapbox rant in the terminal. Spreading knowledge never hurts anyone. Do it often!
Here's a really interesting routine that might be of some interest to the people of this thread: http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do;jsessionid=26886F57EDE16E2031B43C26A3A5D4E7.hydra?id=490160 The Tabata method.
Nice man! Thanks to Alio's program, I am not as fat as I was before.....but I still need to get 4 more abs to come out....I bet I'm ripped under my fat....
My second two are starting to show, but I'm planning on going for the whole 8, rather than just 6. I figure I should be able to show off my top 6 next summer. I just bought a bench for myself last week, so I started doing bench work with dumbells. I'm planning to purchase a bar and start truly pressing. I want to build strength in my upper body. My chest and shoulders are developing from all the pushups and dumbell work, my arms are still kind of skinny, but developing, my top two abs are clear to see, and the next two are developing, and my legs are insane. My calves are as big as when I was playing baseball at 18, and my thighs are as lean as they've ever been, maybe more! I'm still not where I had hoped to be yet, but I'm developing, and that's important. I'm also consuming somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000 calories a day, and still losing a few ounces a week. My metabolism is firing hot now.
