Supplements on a Budget

I have had requests to give my thoughts on what you can do if you are low in cash in terms of supplements. The first thing I want to convey to you that that for the most supplements are the polish on the corvette. Don't think you can have a crappy diet and supplements will save you. Get your foundation built (your diet straight), THEN add supplements.

Now there are 2 MUST have's in my opinion. Vitamin D (in D3 form), and EFA's. Vitamin D3 is hard to get a ton of in your diet. EFA's you can get through cold water fish. but most people don't want to eat salmon everyday. Flex, hemp oil, walnuts etc are good sources of Alpha Linolenic acid, but that' sdoesn't matter if your body doesn't convert it to DHA well down the road. Flameout is something that I have never taken, but it is going to be in my next order. LOADED with high quality DHA. I have been so crazy with my Mag 10 lately, I forgot to get my Flameout.

Those are the two MUST HAVEs.

The next group I'll call the real good stuff...I'll pick these 5:

Leucine - proven to start protein synthesis...not expensive either...

Alpha Lipoic Acid (or in R form). This has been one of my favorite supplements for a long time. ALA can regenerate liver tissue, act as an insulin mimetic, is a POWERFUL anti-oxidant (fat and water soluble) and recycles antioxidants in your body..

Essential Aminos - Love these preworkout..BCAA's also love these pre and intra workout - PROVEN supplements that produce a noticeable difference in recovery ability...

High quality protein powder...

Beta Alanine - this was actually the first Biotest product I tried. I was talking to Jeff Stout and he recommended this to me since it is time released, and since I trust him, I did....great supplement...

the above supps aren't too terribly expensive either....hope this helps...there are obviously a ton more great supplements...but again, this is for those on a budget, and those that I personally believe in...fire away with questions..

Lat activation

Sometimes very small modifications to an exercise can completely change the results you can get.

I learned this one from Biotest Boss Tim Patterson (yes he really do exist). And it completely changed the efficacy of all forms of lat pulldowns or chin-ups for me.

It is very simple.

Almost TOO simple... yet it is highly effective

When doing any form of lat pulldown or chin-up focus on pulling with your pinky finger.

Doesn't sound like much, but it will completely change the motor recruitment and allow you to better target the lats.

training to failure vs other training methods

So, in general, I'm looking at exercise as a stimulus for adaptation and it's pretty clear that, excepting animal models of compensatory and stretch-induced hypertrophy (and hyperplasia), resistance training is the way to go for muscle growth. In particular, it's the high tension that makes RT such a great way to build muscle (e.g., eccentric contractions, which produce greater force / unit muscle, are especially potent for muscle growth).

So (I'm going somewhere), this suggests that heavier weight, that loads as much muscle as possible (you've got to activate the fibers if you want them to adapt) would be a nice stimulus for growth. Heavy loads means high intensity (and activating more muscle) and taking sets to failure, means progressively activating more motor units during each set as the set nears that failure point. Just keeping things simple, the above suggests that a high intensity regime, with sets taken to failure (in some configuration of volume balanced with frequency) would be the way to go.

Second Notion: Progressive Overload. If you're going to progressively stimulate using the above notions, you'll have to lift heavier loads over the long haul. This will require some way of controlling the insult (inroads, damage, stimulus) of training and in taking sets to failure (vs. cutting short of failure), you've got a very simply criterion for knowing how many reps to perform and how each set (or many of them in a regime should be performed).

Opposing points (POWERLIFTING w/o training to failure): You can make tremendous gains in strength w/o training to failure. Hordes of powerlifters have proven this time and time again, and with that strength (assuming nutrition that progresses bodyweight and muscle mass upwards) comes a shit load of muscle. An AGGRESSIVE "powerbuilding" regime that programs in strength gains (in whatever kind of periodized scheme a person chooses) is a great way to make gains, too.

VOlume training w/o training to Failure. If you look a the training regimens of tons of highly successful IFBB Pro's and many very large guys (competitors or not), MANY (MOST) of them do volume training with short rest intervals and arguably do not train EVERY set to absolute, mind-bursting, shit-in-your-pants kind of failure and make great gains that way. I've suspected that years and years of training mean that many highly advanced guys can produce a ton of force with relatively less effort - enough to create a powerful hypertrophic stimulus - and have learned intuitively how much volume they can get away with and not over training (and still produce a growth promoting effect). (Watch closely during video of Lee Priest training and try to guess what's going on with him mentally - seems to me he is a great example of someone who has a mental strategy to push very deeply into a set beyond what most folks would / could do. ALSO, most of these guys have TREMENDOUS genetics, too, so they might grow well from what others do not - so there are likely biases in trying to glean too much from this training style.)

Progressive overload meaning

A note on semantics.

Progressive overload really means just that : Overload in some aspect of the training stimulus, be it force (load), duration (time under tension), volume (sets x reps x load) or what have you...

I always kind of wondered why the term TUT was used, when the time aspect means diddley alone without some indication of intensity (%1RM, etc.). I can increase my TUT simply by lowering the weight I use, but that means squat (pardon the pun) for the training stimulus. As in John's example, spend more time under the a given load and now we're talking about a progressive overload, which can be conceptualized as time, or reps or even captured in a volume (load x sets x *reps*).

the real root of this a matter of whether it's more important for gains to increase reps / time / volume or to increase the weight you are using?....

Food factory training part 14 final

You could combine them into one massive bulking scheme. A maxed out scheme (with popular programmes) may be staged like this and in the following order:

1) Lactate Training (optional, 2-6 weeks)

Example: GBC, Meltdown

Key thing during a bulk is that you'll need to eat fairly big in order to gain significant LBM. In other words, you don't want to worry about getting fat.
Lactate training turns your body into a food factory. Now, if you already have a solid food factory, then you can omit this step altogether. This step can also be used to burn off a little fat before going into the bulk. If you use this to cut, you'll want to reload on carbs before hitting the next stage.
Your ATP-CP conditioning is related to your LBM. And, so, the first lactate phase tends to be the longest one in order to match the conditioning with the muscle you carry.

Lactate training demands a lot of calories, particularly carbs. And, if you don't intend to lose a little fat here, it's best just to eat 1000-1500 calories surplus on days after each session. When sequenced correctly, you can put on some muscle too while improving your conditioning.

After you're done with this, you take half a week off to recover. During this brief period of recovery, it's important to make sure your glycogen levels are high-to-near-saturation. Then you go into . . .

2) Strength training (6-10 weeks)

Example: 5x5, WSB, Max-OT, 10x3
Whatever you do, add a burn set after it. Take in a more moderate caloric intake, but make sure you carb up every weekend.

3) Density/volume training (1-2 weeks)

Example: EDT, GVT

Lactate training and density training is pretty much the same thing. But here, the key is to kick up the volume for a brief period of time, so that you can "fill out" the muscle shell (i.e. sarcoplasm) you build during the strength training phase. It only takes a few weeks to do this, and you don't really need heavy weights per se. Either scheme will work. Eating big is important.

4) Layoff (2-3 weeks)
This is borrowed from HST. By doing this, you resensitize your muscles to the weights again, and in fact let your body gain muscle even during the lactate training phase. But you have to basically lounge around the teli when you do this. So, the idea goes that you make the bulking cycle so frigging long that

The above cycle does 6 things:

1) Maximizes your nutrient efficiency against your current muscle profile. (Condition like an athlete)

2) Stimulates growth directly through building strength. (Train like a powerlifter)

3) Maximizes size potential (against your strength level) through volume.

4) Resets body for next bulk cycle through layoff.

5) The order of the stages lets you build muscle through entire cycle and for a very long time before you have to layoff

6) The order lets you eat big without gaining a lot of fat. (Eat like a bodybuilder.)

BTW, yes, you could try combining these stages into a super-bulk. But, by doingthe above sequence, you can use stock, familiar programs and not overthink. Just do each program as instructed and then go to the next stage. It could be as simple as 5x5 + 1 week of GVT insanity + 2 weeks off.

Food factory training part 13

I have my own very specific ideas of what is best for hypertrophy. I like to use DC training as my example, not because it's the program I follow, but because its core concepts do the best job elucidiating what is all necessary to reach genetic potential.

There's basically two different models for hypertrophy: energetic and mechanical/microtrauma.

Energetic, which is what Zat is speaking about, says that you have to stress the ATP-CP system within a given rep range in order to stimulate myofibrillar hypertrophy. The energetic theory is basically the link between food and exercise.

Mechanical says you have to strain the muscle (mostly by using progressive loading) in order to stimulate hypertrophy. Mechanical is basically the link between exercise and muscle.

The only mainstream system that's really good at doing both is DC. But there are ways to change up other systems in order to maximize both. Or, you can periodize schemes that favor one or the other and combine them into one bulk mesocycle.

That is kind of where the complication lies, when somebody is trying to reach their potential while avoiding looking like a sumo. If you do one form of training, you have to eventually do the other in order to balance things out. You can try combining the two, but then you'll need significant expertise or a really well designed program in order to do this.

It's sort of a paradox. The most important thing for muscle is strength. But the important thing for size is food. Well, aren't they the same thing to a bodybuilder? Yes, but you still have to choose which is the relationship you want to focus on, in order to design a core philosophy.

Which is why I favor the Food Factory approach. In such an approach, you essentially give yourself reasonable weight gain goals over a period of a bulk. Then, you eat a lot. So, for a 10 week bulk period, you eat your way to a gain of 6-8lbs. For a 2-3 year period, you eat your way to 250. It's the reverse of a cutting model, basically, and not unlike what sumos do.


Basically the idea goes that you want to improve the energy state of hypertrophy as much as you can. All of these factors contribute to this (though it's true they do cancel each other out a bit) -->

1) Caloric surplus (Insulin vs. glucagon levels)
2) ATP-CP stress/response
3) Lots of protein
4) Lots of specific amino acids
5) Muscle glycogen levels way above 100mmol/kg
6) Carb/food intake matching turnover rate
7) Adequate bodyfat levels

The difference between bulking and cutting is whether you cover step 1. Step 5 is accomplished by doing moderate carb loads one or two days per week or so, usually on the last day of exercise. It's also best to evaluate your weight gains after this carb load, since it'll usually be a lbs or two difference. One significant advantage to step 5 is that it puts less stress on step 1. That is, you don't have to eat as much each day, since your glycogen levels will already be near saturation. Also, you'll feel stronger and switch out of the immediate catabolic effects of exercise. However, an effective carb load is a marraige of steps 2 and 5. How is step 2 accomplished?

Conditioning like an athlete. What I mean by this is mainly improving the mitochondrial density and secondarily improve the cardiovascular efficiency of your system. This is where lactate threshhold training comes into play. By buildling your mito profile in all of your major muscles, you build a better food factory. Your ability to convert food into muscle is significantly improved.

As a result, one way to go about this is to pogo between density or lactate training and strength programs to create a bulk cycle, and then adding a 2-week layoff between bulk cycles in order to resensitize muscle to progressive loading again. It's the simplest because you can basically take programs off the shelf and then concentrate on just one thing for that. And it also gives you a built-in mechanism to cut/body recomp during the bulk cycle periodically in order to keep BF levels low.

If somebody has been primarily training for strength for a long time and now percieves issues with gaining size without gaining a lot of fat, the default is to allot 6 weeks toward density training. Again, he could match this conditioning phase with his cut, or if he is already lean, he can bulk up during the conditioning.

Or to put it another way . . . to be as big as possible, it helps to be in the best shape of your life.

Food factory training part 12

Various variables – that you can control -- enter into this
1) Are you trying to gain strength while dieting down?
2) How frequent is your bodypart training?
3) How often are your muscle glycogen levels at above normal levels? (This is BTW where a lot of powerbuilders are not good at . . . and this will effect the energy state of hypertrophy.)
4) How much does your bulking cycle involve deloading?
5) How often are layoff/detraining phases used?
6) How good is your metabolic conditioning (i.e. mitochondrial profile) going into the load progression/strength portion of the bulk cycle?
7) How granular is the load progression? Are you using sub-5lbs load increases or are you using chunky 5-10% increases?
8) How long do you stay at a given load before changing?

The above sounds really complicated . . . and it is. Because the truth is, you do have a lot of control over how big you do get. And it begins with letting your future potential for strength dictate to you what the grounds for limitations are.

But the usual answer – the one that takes those variables and makes it simple – is really about seeing the big picture.

1) Lift like a powerlifter.
2) Eat like a bodybuilder.
3) Condition like an athlete

This is the expansion of the powerbuilder paradigm to include modern body recomposition theory. The Food Factory model.

What the sumo says: To gain as much LBM as possible, you have to eat a lot.

What the athlete says: To use as much food as possible, you have to turn your body into a food factory.

What the powerlifter says: To use what you have and turn it into muscle, you have to lift with progressive weights.

Why is DC training so hard? Because it listens to these three wise men and bears a new way to approach your genetic potential. Before you get to heaven, you gotta crawl through hell.