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.

Food factory training part 11

Anaerobic/lactate threshhold training is basically any exercise protocol that stresses the ATP-CP energy system of the muscle. Or, in other words, creates a big, big burn in muscle. For anaerobic-endurance athletes (biking, crew, swimming), this is a crucial part of their training. For wide recievers, who need to explode again and again throughout the duration of a game, this is also very important.

I believe that lactate training is the most powerful tool for recomposition. It's perhaps the most effective non-pharma agent for nutrient partitioning, speculated to be why HIIT can help a person lose fat and keep/gain muscle seemingly at the same time. By increasing mitochondrial density throughout the body, it in the long term converts your body into a food factory. And what this means is that it raises your local metabolism, resets your leptin set point (so you get naturally leaner while keeping muscle), AND it enables you to tap into fat stores more easily. In the long term, it lets you cut and bulk more cleanly.

For weightlifters, there's three popular flavors of lactate training. You can look for them here or the original articles at T-nation.

Charles Poliquin's German Body Composition
Charles Staley's Escalated Density Training
Don Alessi's Meltdown Training

HIIT itself is a bodybuilding-specific catch-all for schemes that encompass VO2 max and lactate training programmes. Virtually all HIIT schemes, being anaerobic exercises, tax VO2 max and lactate threshhold, though obviously with bias.


The downside is that these schemes are also the most difficult, and they implictly require a reasonable conditioning level before they're a practical option. EDT may be the "easiest" of the three, but only in the sense that it's a more "pure" expression of lactate training. The other two schemes -- GBC and Meltdown -- are sort of hybrid schemes, using circuit-style upper/lower supersets to push both lactate threshhold and VO2 max. Basically, when you run out of air, your body can't flush out the lactate. And because you don't flush it out, you get really, really sick. (It's great. ) I'm kind of critical with this approach, and strictly from a purist point of view, prefer a density matrix like EDT. In fact, if a person has read up on X-rep/partial training, traditional lactate vs. VO2 max templates, and the Kaatsu/occlusion studies, they can get pretty creative with this stuff. But from a pragmatic "get in your ridiculously great shape", where I can expect systemic parameters/signals associated with cardio in general being set, I prefer GBC and Meltdown. However, the sheer difficulty of these two prgogrammes into logistically difficult to confederate with other stuff in a cutting phase. In other words, don't add a strength or power cycle. You won't have anything left.

Most of these schemes have 10 reps in mind. For that range, I personally feel it's best to start with 15RM, and then every 2 weeks bump up load until you reach the original 10RM through week 6. It's more sensible (i.e. avoids failure), and it provides a progressive load element that helps you mantain or gain muscle while dieting. If your conditioning has improved, you would be strong enough to bump up the load and go another 2 weeks. If it's too easy, you can always go up to 4 supersets. Good luck.

Food factory training part 10

Next to ultra-marathons, lactate tolerance workouts are probably the most demanding of all conditioning programs. You may feel like throwing up during the first week. But, I feel they have the highest rewards as well.

There's basically two schools to the clean bulk / cut. The traditional school is to carefully manage the diet, especially during the cut. out. But, the alternative approach -- the one I and some other people advocate -- is to turn your body into a food factory. And this is done by anaerobic conditioning programs.. You can count calories like a girl, or you can train like an athlete and turn your body into a metabolic machine. Of course, in the real world, you actually do a little of both, but the overall mindset will be either/or.

If you stick to a lactate tolerance workout for a proper cycle, you'll see long term changes in your metabolism and nutrient efficiency. Meaning, you can bulk dirty and see abs all year long. Also, building your anaerobic conditioning will speed up the rate which you can progress through a 5x5 strength cycle. Finally, all that lactic acid will protect your joints and ligaments for future heavy lifting. HIIT itself came out of lactate tolerance workouts.

However, again, these programs can be very challenging and, if you work out at a crowded gym, logistically difficult to implement.

Food factory training part 9

One of the arguments Lyle McDonald makes is that HIIT and weightlifting are almost the same thing. If you *really* think about this, there's relatively little that distinguishes dry-humping a bike HIIT-style with 5x5 of squats with short rest periods. The only difference is that you wouldn't think of doing 5x5 with short rest periods, and you wouldn't think of HIIT biking at a high resistance level. But, that's a conceptual difference, not one with clear physiological differences.

So, let's follow through with this line of reasoning. If HIIT doesn't offer much benefit from the standpoint of EPOC or total calories exercised, then whatever fat-burning benefits HIIT offers, is extremely inferior to a full-body lifting routine with an anaerobic conditioning element. Why? Likewise, if true HIIT (i.e. sprints) is merely a volumized version of full-body training, then full-body training is a more concise, superior and easier form of HIIT. And if you could do HIIT 4-6x-a-week, what is really preventing you from doing a full-body training scheme 4-6-x-a-week? Overtraining? Well, if you overtrained with a basic non-strength-oriented full-body routine, you would have overtrained with HIIT, since the latter's continuous, high-VO2 protocol elicits a much stronger cortisol response.

As you know, we often talk about turning the body into a food factory. Well, this is where that stuff begins. At beginner level, if you view cardio as you do lifting, that is from the standpoint of exercise-induced effect and nutrient partioning, then cutting (until you've reached WAY below set point) becomes a way of partitioning all the food you eat as best you can. Creating activity levels to shuttle carbs into glycogen. Stimulating possible protein repair/synthesis, so that fat stores must be used to assimilate amino acids.

Turning your body as active as possible, so that the issue no longer is about calories in/calories out, but resource allocation and timing. Turning your body into the food factory.

Food factory training part 8

Traditionally, if I ask you how to get bigger, you would reply "train heavy/heavier." Then, you would bring up the importance of eating a surplus of calories and protein. If I ask you how to get cut, you would reply "diet down." Then, you would bring up doing cardio and mantaining strength.

The opposite mindset goes something like this. I ask you how to get big, you reply "eat big." And what this means is that I start from the assumption that if I'm eating an excess of macronutrients, then I'm going to put on size. I then use my training to leverage the size difference so that it's LBM gains, not fat gains. That is, I view my body as a "food factory" and I use my training to flip the right switches in order to convert a lot of food into a lot of muscle.

If I ask you how to diet down, you reply "exercise often." That is, I use training to kick off different metabolic and nutrient partioning effects, and I eat adequately in order to keep the overall muscle, but trim down.

The DC program, or specifically Dante's thoughts on food and training, reflects this bulking mindset, which is again a different context than the traditional "training dictates diet" model (and misunderstood by those raised on functional/periodization principles.) So does Vince Gironda. Overall, the "eating dictates training" mindset puts even more pressure on your training, because you don't want to get fat and you don't want to waste the protein that you're eating.

So, let's go back to Andrew69's point of view. If you eat an enormous amount of food, what happens?

Well, the excess carbs will probably be stored as either fat or liver/muscle glycogen. The latter is good for various reasons. It improves your functional performance. It is anti-catabolic. Together, it improves mTOR response by increasing ATP efficiency, which in turn contributes to protein synthesis.

Excess protein will either wait around, be excreted, or be converted through gluconeogenesis into glucose, finally becoming a candidate for fat storage. Although it is most desirable to use as much protein as possible for muscle growth, a secondary effect of supplying yet more glucose has a secondary effect of improving LBM.

Excess fat will be stored as bodyfat or triglycerides in muscle. The latter is desirable because it creates a glyocogen-sparing effect during inactivity, and it can improve fluid volume. The former can be desirable when ingesting polyunsaturated fats, so to improve endocrine response in long-term.

If a person eats in a 1000-1500 caloric surplus with 2*BW protein, obviously there will be enormous potential for changes in the body.

The training question becomes "how do I plan my training to store as much excess carbs as glycogen as possible, make available as much available protein into protein, and keep fat storage under check?"

The 2nd part of the question is "how much can I realistically do and how does it limit how much food I can take?" That implicitly sets a ceiling for your food intake; just because you eat 10,000 calories doesn't mean you can exercise enough to use 8000 of it. But, it then influences for example -->

1) How frequently you work a muscle to switch on the food factory
2) How much cardio and what kind of cardio you do in order
3) When and how much you time macronutrients around exercise
4) What long-term physiological changes you need in order to be able to convert more food into more muscle
5) How do you trigger the right stimuli in your sessions in order to answer the primary question
6) What are your training limits

But all of the training issues becomes secondary to the food. Therefore, your true primary question is "how much do I need to eat to gain X amount of weight in Y amount of time?" And then the secondary question is "with those parameters I just set, how do I get the best LBM-to-fat ratio as possible?" That will influence

1) Carb intake vs. current glycogen storage
2) Protein intake vs. metabolic and physiological profile of muscles
3) "Acceptable" excess fat intake
4) Practical limits in terms of bodyfat levels

The key message is that the above becomes the most important thing. It is the first thing you plan, and it is the first thing you evaluate week-to-week. How much more carbohydrates your body can store. How much more protein against your average your body can process. How much more calories can your body use. How is your diet facilitating the training, so that you can keep going. How much fat you are gaining against your LBM. THEN, you look at the training variables.

As you can see, the above makes it inherently difficult to hand somebody a template training program. And, to be properly implemented, it requires an evaluation of dieting against body composition changes; there's plenty of articles covering this from a dieting down point of view, but not really from bulking. Also, it forces you to seek different interpretations from the hard science.

As a result, it's easier to work with the traditional perspective. It's what makes most sense in terms of training.

Food factory training part 7

Lance does a version of HIIT on the bike in order to train his lactate threshhold. Most competitive cyclists do. Research into HIIT originally came from training protocols that anaerobic athletes used in order to enhance their aerobic and anaerobic capacity.

However, as a protocol strictly for fat loss, 20-30 minute HIIT has never really been shown to be superior to traditional 45-60 minute steady-state cardio. Compounding the problem is that heavy weight training, particularly full-body schemes, already stimulates much of the same effect as HIIT.

Again, I don't have a problem with using either HIIT or SS. I only have a problem when HIITers default to using a bike with it. I also know that for DC, many people default to doing 30-40 minutes of steady state cardio (bike or powerwalking) in the morning in order to jog up appetite, systemic metabolism and improve ephenedrine(sp?) levels.

Yeah, some context about that classic DC nugget . . .

DC training is built around the paradigm of body as food factory, following the dictums of "Eating dictates size. Eating dictates training." The reason why most people find that DC piece baffling or offensively simple is that most people follow a performance paradigm, which more or less follows "Training dictates performance (i.e. size.) Training dictates eating."

If your knowledge base primarily dates back to when creatine and periodization entered the bodybuilding mainstream (which should be the case for most 20-somethingers), then you're firmly entrenched in the functional/performance paradigm of bodybuilding. But the food factory viewpoint was probably more popular in bodybuilding orthodoxy (i.e. high volume) from the 50s through the 80s. It's difficult to reconcile current periodized thought with it because most of training books just aren't written with this model in mind. After all, it doesn't make sense for a functional/performance goal. With the exception of CKD recomposition texts, most start with some kind of training stimulus and then correlate it with food.

Many body-recomp specialists in the personal trainer field still subscribe to the older model, because that's where the "glory" is. It's the only model that makes radical transformation and clean power bulks possible. Whether that be creating ripped mass monsters or metrosexual models, it's about methodically converting the body into a machine or food factory and then handing that machine an aggressive bulk diet to that factory to produce LBM and leverage strong muscle-to-fat gain ratios.

However, in order to conform to this model, it is very difficult to hand somebody a template training program on the Internet. It would be akin to handing everybody the same diet with the same rules on a traditional bulk. If you notice, many DC trainers follow somewhat loose rules on bulking (except for their pre/post-WO nutrition and protein intake), but they're very, very firm on the training protocol. It, again, reflects this model where you keep the training as a control but explore what is possible within the confines of diet.

Which isn't to say that DCers go into diet without any clue. There's a reason why the program is only recommended for reasonably seasoned trainers. He assumes that you already have a fairly good idea of what caloric and macro-intake worked for you in the past; from that base, then he's asking you to adjust your thinking away from the bulk/cut mindset, rather insisting that you mantain that quality control on the training program. In other words, the above article was a corrective measure, not an absolute missive without precedent. However, Dante -- as a body recomp specialist -- does offer services whereby he does give you much stricter and proprietary dietary recommendations as well as alterations within the training scheme. Of course, I have no frigging clue what they are. The alternative is to brand a training model, keep a tight community that can guide your training, and above all, keep strict quality control. Which is why DCers are like a band of brothers. They have to in order to mantain a net culture that can sustain this model for a prospective trainee. And, again, if you wanted dieting advice, they'll be happy to give you macro and ramp advice once the caloric/protein mandates are satisfied and the training understood.

Until there's a lot more mainstream literature covering "bulk recomposition" or strictly hypertrophy from all facets, this model is going to remain the providence of specialists, veterans, those who have a solid science background, and guys willing to try out either the old school hypertrophy programs or something like DC training. It will remain privy to few. For everybody else, the classic model is much less risky, much easier to grasp, and therefore more successful in the long-term.

BTW, just wanted to add that I'm not trying to advocate DC training over other programs. I'm just using that as an example to show philosophical differences from a cultural/historical perspective. By understanding the different contexts better, it's easier to process the message.

Food factory training part 6

If you want to make money in the business, don't be the guy who makes mass monsters, but the guy who makes ripped monsters out of massive people. The Body-Recomp specialist. When we acknowledge that even top pro BBers struggle for years to master the bulk/cut into a major contest, we gotta appreciate how difficult it can be. Meaning, while there is certainly many physiological principles that hold for everybody, knowledge of such actually shows you how complex the entire picture really is, and how it still comes down to finding what specifically works for you.

But this is what is generally accepted . . .

1) Excess fat is stored as fat, though not necessarilly as bodyfat (i.e. triglycerides in muscle.)

2) Excess carbs may be stored as fat or glycogen in muscle.

3) Excess protein (amino acids that are included in protein synthesis) may be stored as fat, glycogen, or execreted. Your body must work really hard to do the former, so it's more likely that the other two options will occur.

4) Really important: your body is constantly storing and depleting throughout the day. Although surplus and deficit holds true at the end of the day, what is stored (protein, fta, carbs) and what is depleted will not be a constant regardless of calories in - calories out.

Step 4 is what makes it theoretically possible to gain muscle and lose fat over a period of a day. Basically, during the 4-hour window of your training, you approach it as a bulk. An aggressive bulk even. You take advantage of the spike in your PS levels, AND you aggressively restore your glycogen levels. Then, through the rest of the day, you approach it as a cut. The idea goes that if your glycogen stores were at a relatively moderate-to-high level, then your body will have at least two plentiful sources -- glycogen and bodyfat -- besides your protein stores to gouge on. As a result, although the caloric deficit is the same, the macro over/under favors a net positive protein synthesis while you've depleted some of your bodyfat.

However, there are inherent problems with this method.

1) It's dependent on having this window available to you for a muscle as frequently as possible. As a result, a muscle has to be worked very often -- at least 2 or 3 times a week -- in order to trigger this partitioning effect. However, any anaerobic activity will do.

2) Because there is a caloric deficit, glycogen stores inevitably go down day-by-day however you manage your carb intake. When stores are depleted, then it's very difficult (out of keto) to stave off a catabolic response. As a result, you have to carb refeed periodically. This varies person to person.

3) If you're looking to get shredded, you'll eventually have problems with your leptin-mediated set point. This is when you arrived at a certain level of leanness where it suddenly becomes really hard for you to go into your bodyfat stores. As a result, your body dips further into glycogen stores and protein catabolism for energy. Of course, this can vary greatly person to person, and this is also where nutri-sci studs like Lyle McD and the Avant Labs crew make their bling.

But, and for some reason this isn't discussed a lot in BB circles, leptin levels is largely a reflection of the muscle's mitochondrial density. In fact, what often happens with mass gainers is that, though they work at putting on muscle through bulking and progressive resistance, they don't attend to increasing their anaerobic conditioning, which increases mitochondrial proliferation relative against their myonuclei count. Sure, they do HIIT on their bikes, which accomplishes this for their legs. And those who do core training also include their abs. But they largely leave their backs, arms, and upper torso work alone. As a result (esp. with PLers) mitochondrial density vs. myonuclei # starts to go down.

This creates logistical problems for the clean bulk, because declining mitochondrial density vs. myonuclei count decreases the muscle's ability to utilize extra amino acids in the bloodstream to address the training stress, and it decreases the body's ability to dip into fat levels in order with the higher metabolism. As a result, as you get more LBM, you have to eat more and gain more fat in proportion in your current body in order to facilitate further LBM gains.


I personally don't feel the above paragraph is a signficant problem until you're well past the intermediate phase. That is, except for the guy who goes into BBing schemes without a prior exercise background. Generally speaking, the following successful bulkers don't have problems with LBM-to-fat ratios while going through the bulk . . .

1) Those who have a sports background. Because their training involves AT conditioning elements, their mitochondrial density is right in line with their strength and LBM levels. A friend of mine who's bulking like crazy spent his college years on the row team. His mitochondrial profile is so good for his size that he can do pizza runs every w/end and keep a 4-pack all year long.

2) Those who come from a high volume background. People who were already doing 30+ worksets for a muscle group per week were already accomplishing this.

3 ) Those with a high frequency background. This includes those who do cardio during their bulk, as it produces much the same effect as discussed all the way at the top of this post, in regards to nutrient partitioning. Also, higher frequency application incurs faster AT adaptations.

4) Teenagers with rabid metabolisms. Obviously, nothing in this thread applies to these cats anyway.

5) Those who periodize properly their powerbuiding schemes with either a fatigue methodology concurrent their strength phase (i.e. DFHT, DC, additional high-rep sets, etc.) or separate density training phase.

Steps 3 and 5 is what actually applies to most of us.

1) Those with chronic problems with keeping their fat levels under control would probably stand best to allot a separate cycle in order to build their anaerobic conditioning. In other words, refrain from another strength-mass cycle, and spend 2-3 months on building conditioning. And that means going on a GVT, GBC, or EDT program on all of the major muscle groups, increase their steady state cardio intake, and eat as if bulking moderately. After about 8-12 weeks training this way, you'll be shocked at how much higher your metabolism and relative conditioning has become. Also, once this cycle is over, you can ride a few mass gaining cycles without going back to this. Beginners with no exercise training prior whatsoever should start on higher volume and more workload in order to acclimate their bodies. Your body becomes a food factory.

2) Those who are pretty successful but are just looking to bulk more cleanly can add cardio on their off days, train more frequently, and add some fatigue-inducing work after their main heavy work sets. Also, they would work on their carb timing and moderate their fat intake.

3) Those who hate doing either can just add more generic steady-state cardio on their off days, leaving one or two days a week of inactivity to carb refeed. Just 25-30 minutes is needed to bump up noro-ephedrine levels for the day and improve nutrient absorption and circulation.

Again, this is my 2 cents. An alternative "training-oriented" viewpoint of this time-honoured problem.

Food factory training part 5

you have roughly two different schools of the clean bulk.

The conventional thought, which is correct, is to carefully assess your caloric intake and LBM increase. The key here isn't to obsessively take BF measurements in order to know when to step, but to understand how timing, macronutrients breakdown, and solid training can help keep fat gains in check. Simple things include varying carb+calorie intake between days you exercise and days you don't, making most of the caloric surplus in protein instead of fat or carbs, timing your carbs after the workout, adding additional cardio sessions, and so on.

You accept that you have to eat a lot, BUT you then carefully leverage your diet so that you don't gain a lot of fat. 3 steps forward, one step back. But you're moving forward.

The other school is to turn your body into a food factory. The thinking is different, in the sense that it argues that calorie excess is a "challenge" for the body to store it in some form other than bodyfat. That's not to say that you go to the buffet every day, but the careful penny and parcel pinching of the conventional school doesn't really apply. It essentially argues that, within reason, a given calorie level is a mandate for the activity level required to make use of it. This sensibility is more common with the old school programs, and it's the primary bulk model for DC training. I personally like this school myself, but it's inherently more complex than the more conventional thought, because it requires a lot of knowledge of training variables and tolerance. The latter happens to be where a really good personal trainer can help you, whereas the former is something you can pick up for yourself.

In this model, you see the training as a means to take all that food and make it muscle. Your body is your chips; your training are the cards; the food is the pot. The clean bulk reflects how well you play.

Food factory training part 4 "Want to look like Brad Pitt?"

Let me first add that this is only a small part of the bigger picture. And it's not the most important part. If you're not growing at all and not getting stronger at all, look at that before coming back to this.

Also, various programs do a very good job with this. DC training is my favorite example, but 20-rep, GVT, EDT, GBC, Holman's POF/X-rep, ACIT, Direct Continuance, *some* of the older HIT variants, ATrainer's programmes, as well as assistance from the DFHT gurus here (Defiant, Madcow) improve your anaerobic conditioning as well. I have my own bag of tricks too, but they are added within the structure of another program.

Basic Principles

1) Make sure your muscles feel a good burn from your workout session. This metabolic stress will aid in post-WO nutrient partioning. For example, you can add a high-rep burn set. For legs, you could do HIIT.

2) Aim to increase your muscle's anaerobic conditioning session to session. You know you're in the right track if the muscle becomes more resistant to the burn.

3) As a general rule, higher frequency/less intensity works better than low frequency/high intensity. Aim to "burn" a muscle at least twice a week.

4) The harder you make step 1, the faster step 2 happens. However, it also creates more CNS fatigue, which will hurt your strength gains. Therefore, listen to your body carefully and balance the scales.

5) The harder you make step 1, the more aggressively you *must* eat after workout. Diet or not, you must carb up after the workout and replenish stores.

6) The faster step 2 happens, the more food you get to eat all day, any day.

7) Improving your overall cardiovascular conditioning (cardio!) will make step 1 easier and step 2 faster.

The complications with step 4 could be an issue for somebody who has relatively poor conditioning. Such a person may need to aggressively increase his body's metabolic efficiency before embarking on an aggressive bulking program. This problem actually ties into an idea I proposed in one of the ever-present "Want to look like Brad Pitt" threads.

Essentially, instead of proposing the usual bulk-and-cut schemes, I proposed a sort of periodized flip-flop between density training and 5x5. The former stimulates some myofibrillar hypertrophy, but it concentrates on mitochondrial proliferation, circulatory improvement and overall aerobic conditioning. The latter has a little bit of that, but it emphasizes myofibrillar hypertrophy. The duration of each depends on how you want to balance the two factors. But "food factory construction" always goes first. The schedule would go something like this . . .

Sample Schedule

Mesocycle A -- Density Training (Food Factory Construction)

1) A GVT, GBC, or EDT scheme where bodyparts are hit at least twice a week. Avoid training to failure.
2) Attempt is made to increase load every 2 weeks or so
3) Steady state cardio 4-5x-a-week
4) Set caloric intake according to intention, leaving more calories on workout days than on non-WO days. You can bulk or cut, but make sure protein is 2xBW.
5) 4-8 weeks. Duration is largely dictated by how much anaerobic conditioning you want, and if you want to cut down more. The first time may be the longest, as you want to build a solid foundation.

Calculate 5RM at end of mesocycle. Take 7-14 days off.

Mesocycle B -- 5x5 (Turn Factory On)

1) Do normal 5x5.
2) Add a burn set after.
3) Bulk! 2xBW protein. Eat big-time.
4) 6-8 weeks.

Take 9-14 days off. Repeat Mesocycle A. For your 2nd time, you may only want to go 4 weeks or so, and then take a week or so off.

Food factory training part 3

it's about pushing your anaerobic threshhold. Going for the burn in a reasonably short time frame. There's many different ways to accomplish this. Supersetting is another. Full-body HIIT such as hard swimming, ladder climbing, or rowing. Escalated density training. Post-failure intensity modalities. 10x10. Katsu/occlusion training. Etc. etc.

Do any of this, though, and you do need to eat accordingly. Carb up after workout. Eat a lot of protein. Eat a lot during the first 24 hours after your workout.

Food factory training part 2

It's all about leverage. Now, I want to emphasize that, this isn't the primary stimulus for hypertrophy. If it were so, then competitive bikers would have the biggest quads. Rather, this is all about metabolic efficiency, the ability of your body to use the caloric bounty as efficiently as possible once you've told the muscle to get bigger. Practically speaking, this is what everybody had originally hoped creatine would do for muscle growth.

From a bulker's point of view, it significantly improves the muscle-to-fat gain ratio from a caloric surplus diet. Let me add that until the early 90s, before splits and PL-ish programs became en-vogue, most programs had enough volume that the above wasn't an issue. The modern version of the bulking + cutting ritual that we see today is, more or less, a by-product of modern programs not doing a very good job stimulating mitochondrial density throughout the body.

The above is one of the mechanisms that enables DC trainees to eat sick amounts of protein and food in general and yet bulk quickly and relatively cleanly. It's also why 20-rep squats, plus that gallon of milk, works so well in developing the lower body.

The dieting side is a little messy, though. Here's why -->

1) Having higher mitochondrial density means your BMR is higher. But, the key advantage is that it also improves the leverage between bodyfat usage and glycogen/amino acid depletion. Leptin levels are influenced by mitochondrial density as well as bodyfat percentage. Therefore, if your BF% is relatively high, having higher mitochondrial density means your body has an easier time dipping into your BF for energy rather than using immediate glycogen or amino acids to metabolize.

2) However, after serious exercise, it also means your body is more aggressive at scavenging for energy, by virtue of more mitochondria being "switched on." Therefore, if one does not adequately replenish stores and eat protein during the 2-4 hour window, then the catabolic response will probably be much stronger. As a result, it's really not such a bad idea to treat the 2-4 window post-WO window as a "mini-bulk", and then balance the caloric deficit out through the rest of the day.

3) Here's the most interesting thing. The easiest way to stay naturally lean and to get reasonably shredded without having to go keto, is to frequently and fairly aggressively increase mitochondrial proliferation. Not only is this the underlying mechanism for Poliquin's GVT program and Charles Staley's EDT, but it's also how HIIT cardio (not the EPOC post-metabolic thing) actually works to burn fat.

If you don't believe me, look at high school and college athletes who go into wrestling or water polo. During their regular season, due to the anaerobic full-body element of their sports, they increase their anaerobic threshhold throughout not just their legs, but backs, core and upper torso. Now, the high caloric expenditure in their sports and practice session necessarily makes it difficult to put on mass. But, at the same time, even the lean ones show a fairly impressive level of tone that does not apply to their cross country mates.

Then, when they go into offseason and concentrate on bulking, most of them are able to put on size suprisingly quickly without putting on a lot of fat. That is, they spend half of the year training most of their musculature to become a massive food factory. Then, when they start working on bulking and building strength, their bodies are extremely efficient at storing glycogen, converting amino acids to protein, and so on. =======================================================

Food factory training part 1

the mitochondrial proliferation aspect is probably the #1 thing missing from most serious hypertrophy programs targeted toward non-athletes. And it's especially a problem for sedentary people who are past their late 20s.

Conventional wisdom goes that "clean bulk" begins with careful monitoring of calories. I agree that is important, but I personally believe that it begins with turning your body into a "food factory." And this is done by pushing anaerobic threshhold through the major muscle groups. Moreover, it bumps up your leptin levels, making it easier to diet down without losing muscle.

Food Factory = Efficient metabolism

The Myth of Discipline

The Myth of Discipline

by Charles Poliquin

There is no such thing as discipline. There is only love. Love is the most powerful creative force in the universe. You are the result of what you love most. You either love finely etched muscular abs more than donuts or you love donuts more than wash board abs you could do your laundry on. It is as simple as that. Don’t beat yourself up that you have no discipline or further drown yourself in a sea of refined carbs. Admit that you like crappy food more than you love strength. Or ask yourself this, what do you really love? Self-esteem is the reflection of self-judgment. One of the best ways to raise self-esteem is to make truly loving choices that lead to increased strength of body and mind. For example, if you truly love yourself in the gym, you choose the full squat with chains over the leg extension machine. At the restaurant, if you truly love yourself, you pass on the heavenly smelling basket of bread and creamy butter, and ask for some more limes for the water. Limes alkalize your body which in turn helps your bones, muscles and your ability to deal with stress.

When you are faced with difficult choices, ask yourself, in context of course, what would a loving expert recommend? For example, when working chest, would a loving strength coach recommend the pec deck, or full range dumbbell presses. When choosing desserts, would the loving nutritionist recommend a bowl of berries or the triple decker brownie submerged under melting vanilla ice cream.

How to free yourself from the outdated concept of discipline:

1. Accept that all your choices are reflections of what you truly love.
2. Love is the greatest creative force of the Universe. Use it wisely.
3. Choose to love yourself more than external things.
4. Treating yourself well accelerates the growth of your self-esteem.
5. When people comment on your results and say things like “Wow you have a lot disciple” answer “No, I just make loving choices for myself". Reinforcing your own positive behavior will help you grow in strength.
6. What you appreciate appreciates. Whenever you make a truly loving choice, say to yourself ‘Thank you for taking care of me in a loving way”. The more you talk to yourself like a loving parent, the faster you will grow. Let’s say, for example, you just did a single on the squat with a load you didn’t feel like doing. Say: “Wow! I am impressed with your strength of mind, that’s why you are a champion”. By documenting and rewarding your successes, they will grow in magnitude and frequency. Whenever I meet a goal, I reward myself with positive things like a vacation or a new piece of equipment. When I get something better, I make the choice of giving away the old piece to someone who will appreciate it. Living a clutter free life allows for more growth.
7. The more you believe in yourself, the more objectively you will be able to take the advice of authority figures.
8. “Use your faults” was French singer Edith Piaf’s motto. I don’t like to stretch athletes. It is too time consuming and requires too much energy. Using that fault, I developed the Poliquin Instant Muscle Strengthening Technique (P.I.M.S.T.), which is a system that uses a myriad of body work techniques such as acupressure points that instantly give increases in flexibility. No wonder it’s always the fastest selling course we offer in the PICP!

There is an old Hindhu saying: “The World is as we are”. Are you tired of seeing the condition of the world around you? Start by changing yourself- be the change you want to see in the world.

i.e. the success to body transformation is NOT discipline.... it's LOVE... you have to LOVE being in great shape more than you LOVE eating that cookie!