Dave Draper’s Musclebuilding Q&A

Didn’t you train for a while with Vince Gironda? I have a copy of Vince’s book “Wild Physique” and found his nutrition information fascinating and far ahead of his time. What are your thoughts on Vince and his knowledge of physique training and nutrition?

Though I knew Vince and occasionally trained in North Hollywood, we seldom share training ideas. Seems each locale — Muscle Beach, Pasadena, Vince’s — had its own variations of the basics, accepted the differences and trained vigorously accordingly.

Our ideas on nutrition run parallel in most areas and his training MOs have been applied coincidentally with purpose and affect. The knowledge — exercise, nutrition, psychological — I’ve picked up, assimilated and retained over time is a big bundle of goods I go through irregularly and recycle.

Over in the forum you’ll find a treasure trove of conversation about Vince’s theories and exercises, as well as these a few discussions about Vince, the man (1 and 2).

Remember: The iron heals, mends, fortifies, toughens, vitalizes, enables, engages, entertains, satisfies, serves, instructs, humbles and makes a good door stop…

I am an active woman. My only “problem” is that I have very muscular legs which disproportions my body. I don’t want to bulk up my upper body to match my lower body, but would rather reduce the amount of muscles on my legs. What is the best way of doing so?

I wish I had an answer for you. If I were you I’d train my upper body vigorously with the intention of developing shapely and strong muscle, and I’d continue to condition the legs with walking lunges and regular HIIT stationary bike work.

To quote our friend, Ingrid Marcum, “The reason that High Intensity Interval Training works better for fat loss is this: When you do a cardio session at the same pace the whole time, your body goes into what is called steady state. This means that your body has adjusted itself to the speed you are going and tries hard to conserve energy (calories). You will be able to avoid this and burn more calories and FAT by doing the interval training.”

Here’s a link to one of her HIIT interval cardio training programs.

We’re the potential products of our genetic scheme and do the best we can as we train, eat right, smile and strive on. As you continue your journey, more ways to approach your circumstances will unfold — intuition, commonsense, increased knowledge and understanding.

dd

How would one truly recognize the upper limit of muscular weight gain? Suppose you really hit this limit, does the muscle still require as much stimulation just to keep it from fading away?

Good questions. A regimen of thoughtful conditioning should be enough, re-enforced with intensified training as one gets the urge, or suspects the maximum of muscle and endurance acquired needs a boost.

Of course, the devoted bodybuilder (musclehead nutso) will not always settle for an apparent limit of muscular development and will pursue any one of a thousand or a zillion training methods to advance his cause (at least, that’s what I’ve been told).

During these days of training, muscle-size frustration is accompanied by the continued etching of muscle, training creativity, sustenance of a healthy challenge, hopefulness… and occasional overtraining and a touch of dumb. The words persist and persevere come to mind.

Live and learn and grow… Dave

I have a 13 year old son who is a competitive athlete. Keeping him on a good diet is not always easy, and I’ve considered getting a protein/vitamin supplement for his meals on the run. I’m curious whether your Bomber Blend has been used with youths before? Is it safe and healthy for a 13-year-old?

Bomber Blend is an excellent food for the whole family. Got tykes? Nothing but the finest and best ingredients for health, muscle repair and natural energy. No added nonsense to conform with marketing hype. I custom made it with aid from medical experts and chemists for Laree and me regardless of cost … it became Bomber Blend for everyone.

Your boy (you all) will benefit greatly from the Blend consumption at key times during the day: pre- and post-workouts or work, breakfast, and those busy times when meals are neglected or replaced by junk.

Taste is popular with nearly all consumers, although of course some people prefer sweeter or less sweet shakes.

Bomber Blend goes from us to you without you paying advertising costs (large) or distributorship. I count on it; it plays a key role in my training operations.

Go… Godspeed… Dave

I’m new to this weight loss thing. I am 52 years old and I weigh 202 lbs and I am 5 foot, 1 inch. People say I should weigh 97-125 at the most. What do you think? I need help.

I suspect you’ll find your plan of action — training hard, eating smart, being consistent and positive — will work best once you get past the numbers and calculations, and get in motion.

When you lose 50 pounds you will be so practiced, motivated, encouraged and engaged that you’ll know where to go next and what bodyweight will suit you.

Read “Your Body Revival” — straight talk for the overweight, a friendly and strong teacher-motivator. I wrote it for you… and some other folks.

You might view our forum… or join in… a smart and friendly bunch.

Remember: The iron heals, mends, fortifies, toughens, vitalizes, enables, engages, entertains, satisfies, serves, instructs, humbles and makes a good door stop…

Train hard and always… God’s Might… Dave

Any ideas for adding extra weight on my bench press? I am not aspiring to be a powerlifter, I just want to take it up a notch from my current 185 x 10, to 225 x 8. I just can’t seem to get past 205 x 3. Help. Signed 49 years old and enjoying life.

My best advice is to not seek heavy weight on the bench press and instead use it as a muscle building exercise only.

Going heavy in the bench is notorious for causing frustration and shoulder damage, killers to long term training joy. Go to dumbbells on flat and various degrees of incline for safer, smarter, happier and more effective shoulder and pec development.

Employ the bench press to satisfy our almost instinctive need to perform the old standard, but take it to 80- and 90-percent effort (in either weight or repetitions) without losing form.

Change grip occasionally for varied muscle engagement, development and entertainment. Try the Apollon axle thick bar for a real treat and treatment.

When in doubt, call upon the IOL forum for daring input.

Go… Dave

Dave, your most recent article about the trip to Dan Mackey’s memorial may be interesting to many of your readers, but let’s have more workouts for some of us who are not muscular and want to gain, okay? Thanks.

I hear ya loud and clear, bud.

There are 450 newsletter articles (an eight-year collection), comprising 750,000 words on such subjects on the davedraper.com site, plus an amazing group of knowledgeable and helpful participants on the IOL forum. Tune in.

The davedraper.com webpage is almost endless with straight talk about getting huge, ripped, powerful and healthy and joyful.

Hard to come up with new stuff week after week about building biceps and triceps and pec and six-packs. A blast of encouragement and muscle conversation go a long way for the devoted musclebuilding journeyman.

Fact is all you can do and be is in you — heart, soul, mind, structure and system. Start digging deep and smile… Life’s a roller coaster. And pray, pray hard.

PS… The workout suggested at the end of the newsletter is dynamite and will build big time if the lifter has the drive and focus and guts.

Go… Godspeed… DD

I’m 23 years old and have been lifting for 6 years and I love it. But honestly, I’m a bit confused, I need advice. I’m 6′1″ 200 lbs (lean), and I cannot gain quality mass. I know I should train heavy and basic, but should I not focus on weight and instead decrease my rest periods to 30-45 seconds, or should I focus more on increasing my weights every set therefore resting a bit longer? Or maybe I should do 2-3 heavy sets followed by 2 drop sets or rest-pause sets? What about partial reps, are those any good?

Next my diet. First two meals: six egg whites, oatmeal with fruit (banana, blueberries), a scoop of protein, flaxseed oil and some almonds…then a shake usually before and after workout…then ground turkey with brown rice with olive oil and onions or green peppers…then I try to have a shake or something before bed. Should I add something or take something out? Supplements: protein, glutamine, creatine, flaxseed oil, bcaa’s, and now that the summer’s coming I was thinking of adding L-carnitine, CLA, L-tyrosine to lean out a little more.

Your zeal is there, and your schedule is good for now (till you get the urge and need to alter it) and your diet is close.

Diet:
I’d add lean red meat for aggressive muscle growth, throw in tuna and cottage cheese for your second meal, and add some cut fresh salad vegetables. Stay light on the starchy carbs (as an example, have a salad instead of rice).

Supplements:
I like the protein powder, which I consider a food, the L-Glutamine, creatine, branch chain aminos and EFAs. Skip the special nutritional additions (L-carnitine, CLA, L-tyrosine) and pick up a scuffed copy of “Brother Iron Sister Steel” with the dollars you save. Everything in the way of tips, hints, routines, nutrition and motivation I know to answer questions and keep you going… straight talk — fun reading.

Workout:
Train intensely with a range of reps from 6 to 10-12. Superset 70% of the routine; skip drop sets and partial reps. Train with a pace that suits your nature plus your muscle building goals. Rely on instincts here, what pleases you inside.

Squats, deadlifts and bentover barbell rows and standing barbell curls are important for you… prepare yourself with sound workouts in these and go for singles in squat and deads once a month or so.

Thanks for tuning in.

God’s speed…. Dave

I am 55 years old and used to read the magazines when I was a teenager. It must hurt you a little that Arnold got so famous. You must feel like the baseball players of the old days felt as they played baseball for the love of the game.

Good analogy.

Arnold is one of a kind and I feel no envy, only admiration.

I’m content, and when dissatisfaction visits my door, I recognize him as an enemy of my soul. He’s scolded and sent on his way. Gratefulness follows his departure and we feast in the gardens.

Go… God’s strength… Dave

Can you tell me how your training splits have changed when you went from 5 to 4 to 3 days a week?

An aging training synopsis: five days week till 60 years old, four days till 63 and three days a week since. I’m 65.

Training remained the same in format and was modified — condensed sensibly — to fit into reduced time frame. The scheme also varied in output and exercise designation to match needs, abilities and moods and urges and recuperation — body, mind, soul.

Always the basics (curls, presses, cables) tailored to suit my daily dress code (groove, range of motion, exercise continuity and intensity).

Always manage training muscle groups twice a week by overlapping movements efficiently.

Give me 90 minutes a workout these days with some aerobic and business on off days.

Lots of time invested and muscle development and know-how assist me big time… no small price to allow training redesign and reduction.

Works for me, a hard-working and stubborn mountain goat… and bomber

Go…Dave

I am 5′ 3.25″ (every fraction helps) and would like to weigh 100 pounds. I currently weigh 118-120. I am healthy and walk daily on the treadmill and do sit-ups. I teach school and attend night classes at the University. What do you recommend as the best way to lose weight and tone up flabby parts?

I have a big mouth…

Think twice about dropping so much bodyweight; 100 pounds at 5′ 3+ is getting skinny. Worse thing is to lose it with any haste, as you’ll lose lots of vital muscle and strength and resistance and health… look like a needle in a hay stack. You’re are currently at a desirable bodyweight. I suspect you need some added muscle. Now we’re talkin’.

The best approach is to lift weights to build muscle and acquire all its inherited health qualities (increased metabolism, strength, vigor, system protection, body shape and tone and more). Fat will drop as muscle is built. This is a mission of health and longevity and is a great diversion.

School and schooling are super important, but squeeze in some time with dedicated weight training along with your current walking and midsection scheme. 30 simple and sound minutes three times a week will get you where you want to go (and beyond). Incidentally, there are more valuable life lessons in the pursuit of muscle (even cute muscles) and strength and health through weight training than one can imagine.

Protein, nutritional carbs, good fats (40, 30, 30 ratio) in regular feedings, plus your favorite vitamin and mineral tabs each day is a ballpark eating plan. Lots of fresh salad, some fruits and little sugar and salt.

Be consistent and positive and don’t search for secrets or believe everything you hear and read… Except, of course, what you uncover at davedraper.com. Just kidding, sorta…

Train hard, eat right, be strong…

Go… Godspeed… Dave

I am not a big food fan. I don’t really have any food cravings. To be honest it is a pain in the butt to sit down and eat a meal. If I could take a pill like in the ’50s sci-fi movies to get all my nutrients I would. So my question is can I survive and continue to progress in my lifting if I just took the right amount supplements to give me the nutrients I need?

Eat right, train hard and grow.

We need substance to build substance, common sense tells me. Our complex system of ingestion, digestion and absorption is designed to process whole and living food and, though I’m not a scientist, I believe the system is most fulfilled when we accommodate its natural design.

Liquids and powders and pills, I suspect, will not stimulate the system (enzymes, hormones) sufficiently and, thus, will not be assimilated sufficiently. Lost in the stream of activities, these non-solids will fail to provide the tangible and vital ingredients in the proper setting to develop and sustain the body.

One might adapt and live a middling life, but total health and productivity would be compromised.

Get three square meals a day — okay… two if you’re gonna’ scream — and supplement wisely for the remainder of your nutrient needs. Bomber Blend and Super Spectrim and Anabol Naturals are my honorable choices for your added ingredients. Oh, yeah, and get your daily fish oil.

Got teeth… chew… Godspeed… Dave

I have been training for quite awhile on the “training to failure” method. I am at the point where I would like to make a change and I need some guidance since training to failure is the only way I have ever trained. I believe that you do not advocate training to failure. If so, at what point do you feel it’s best to terminate a set? When you could have gotten 1 more rep? 2 more reps?

Actually, I do train to sensible failure most sets after warm-up set.

Training to 80 and 90 percent is a healthy and productive range, which is best varied according to your set by set urges and preparedness. Too often we compromise groove or form or we cheat to gain the last rep and we get in deep trouble: injury, joint overload, tear a muscle or tendon. Bad idea.

Everyone is different and respond to different workloads and methodologies. Mixing it up occasionally is not a bad idea, until you find your own satisfactory level and exercise combinations… I suspect it varies from time to time.

As age intrudes upon my life, I’m tempering my training and being more careful in my administration of the last rep. I’ll be writing more about this modification as I proceed to train day by day. I’m 65 and weight train 3 days a week, down from 4 days a year ago.

Go… Godspeed… Dave

I’m going to be traveling a lot this year, and since I live a distance from the nearest gym anyway, I’ve decided to train with resistance cables for awhile. What type of gains can I expect?

Cables or bands are worth the work, providing the work is hard and thoughtful and backed by confidence and passion and regularity. Be creative in developing a routine. There are all sorts of variations to cable work if you allow your mind and muscle to communicate freely. Go beyond conventional moves and invent, pump, burn, rep out, push and pull with intensity and involvement from movement to movement.
They’re nothing like weights, but the cables will condition and build muscle and strength. Usually trainees don’t stick with it. Ugh! Give the cables time to root and blossom. Takes guts and need.
Add freehand exercises to the regimen (pushups, dips, walking, etc.) and support it with sound eating and living.
We’re all different with different capacities to build muscle with the iron or with cables or with magic.
Go… Godspeed… Dave

I have a question regarding working out on machines and bench pressing. Should you go slow on your reps or should you go at a pace? My husband and I disagree with each other. He goes real slow when coming back with his weights and I go at a somewhat faster pace. He tells me that you cannot go fast like I do; he goes extremely slow when coming back down with his weights. I hope you understand my question.

I think I get it. I suspect your husband trains with proportionately heavier weight than you and is focused on building power, as well as muscle size. Hence, his deliberate style of exercise execution.

He’s correct in his thoughtful motion, unless it is very slow which might bore him to death before his muscles grow.

You training perspective (I’m guessing) is wrapped around good health, flexibility, muscle tone, fat elimination and robust cardio-respiratory function. Thus, your training manner is appropriate.

The wonderful fact is you are both training and you will continue to improve the quality of your lives because of it. Never stop. Should the moon disappear from the sky, do not stop.

Now, you might consider adding a few pounds to your bar or dumbbells or weight machine eventually to intensify your workout. This might sound counter-productive, but it will engage your muscles more fully and add more character and challenge to your workout — more interest and fun.

Your muscles will become denser, more toned and stronger, and fatty tissue will have less chance of surviving. Peak condition is achieved by increased output.

Should you apply this technique to your exercises here and there, I think you will notice an alteration in your repetition pace. You will by necessity assume a more determined, individual-rep approach in achieving your sets. Now you’re training with a capital T — like going from assembly-line exercise to custom-made training.

I could have said to each his own and been half right. My best advice.

God’s speed

Dave

Since I have retired from the Army after 20 years, I am increasing my weight training in order to retain what I currently have as far as my fitness level goes. We did a lot of running and cardio stuff, but not a lot of weight lifting. Question: When you say do sets, are you meaning as soon as I finish with that particular exercise I do the next set of that exercise or do you mean go through a complete cycle of exercises and then come back and do another cycle? And are you suggesting do all of the exercises listed?

Thanks for serving in a rugged world.

I do single-set training combined with superset training, with an accent on the latter.

Single-set training is choosing an exercise and doing, say, 5 sets of 10 reps. That is, one set of 10 reps after another till five are completed.

Superset training, or supersetting, is choosing two exercises that complement each other and doing them one after the other immediately to complete one superset. That is, 5 sets of barbell curls (8 reps) supersetted with 5 sets of pulley pushdowns (12 reps). You complete one combination, rest, complete a second, etc.

If I advise someone to do bench presses, cable crossovers, dumbbell presses, flies and dips for chest, there is no suggestion that they be done alone or together or even in the same routine. I’m saying basically they are recommended exercises.

Here’s more on superset training, and a selection of slumpbuster combos for the fun of it.

See ya… God’s speed… DD