Dave Draper’s Musclebuilding Q&A

What do you mean when you mention that depending on how you execute a dip, you can hit every muscle on the upper body? I train at home, am disabled with bad balance, don’t have a lot of equipment available and have been training for 15 years.

By “hit” I meant stimulate or involve muscle, but not necessarily to the extent of overload as to build mass in all areas engaged.

After 15 years training, I don’t think there’s much I can tell you about chins and dips you don’t already know.

It seems it would be a great advantage to train at a gym where there are pulley systems available, a Smith press and various machines affording stability. I depend on the Smith machine for all pressing. I also require a dip machine for dipping as my shoulders are a wreck. A fall 30 years ago tore me up, plus heavy training and heavy woodworking added to the body’s punishment. I’m also a gazillion years old.

Invent, improvise, imagine… create your own supports and gadgetry. How about one-arm stuff (curls, laterals, overhead presses) while seated and holding on to an upright. Our wills are stronger than we think when put to good use.

We press on with God’s might… Dave

Aches and pains — I wonder if all of us who are so persistent in the battle of Mother Nature are experiencing the same thing.

Are you kidding? Aches, pains and stiffness… loose skin, sags and bags.

Adjusting is a continual challenge… ha, it’s a dirty rotten battle and I’m cross-eyed from dialing in.

I’m seriously thinking about refreshing Brother Iron before we print again — add some chapters about this and that, and mainly discuss training after fifty, the aging beast, few experiences and some other ugly but welcome and lovely truths.

Have fun sharing our pain… why not… live, learn, limp, lament and lighten-up…

God’s Might… Dave

I attempted the tuna and water diet last week for three days with some success, but how long ideally should one continue this, and secondly how often is best for it to be done?

I do the tuna and water periodically just to clean up my act. A day a month for me is plenty.

Once you’re secure in your disciplines, you can broaden the diet to include poultry or eggs or lean red meat and certainly raw vegetables in salads. The “T +W only” diet is to establish diet disciplines as well as undercut the calorie intake while supporting the musclebuilding protein intake.

Wing it as you become familiar with it. It’s a great diet platform or starting block to return to for occasional tune-ups or re-tracking.

If you’d like to read how others handle it, here’s a long forum discussion on the pros and cons of tuna and water dieting.
Have fun, train always, eat smart… Grow ye not gills… DD

I have a question regarding shoulder injuries— I have had bad shoulders since I was a teenager due to sports injuries and not warming up properly. I have taken a long hiatus from weight training to really delve into yoga. I have recently found that pushup motions in yoga and downward dog even bothers my shoulders. I am considering returning to weight training, to hopefully strengthen the injured shoulders, or in the hope of stabilizing them by making the muscles around them stronger. Do you think this is even possible?

There’s a lot of good to be said about yoga, but I know very little… like nothing. About weight training I have a clue.

Trips to the gym could be productive and fun, performing light-to-moderate weight for well-formed reps can build muscles to support the damaged area. Other associated upper-body movements can help strengthen and stabilize the region as well. A sensible, well-rounded weight routine with agreeable input can be joyful and restorative.

No more push-ups for me, either. Dips on a machine are a big benefit; bench pressing’s not good, but I do like dumbbells on flat and incline.

I like one-arm dumbbell laterals ever-so-thoughtfully executed to approach and effectively affect the injured area.

Light benches are okay for non-aggressive exercise only.

Warming up, starting light and proceeding up the rack or plate by plate works wonders.

Be patient, be attentive, take your time and rejoice.

DD

All the magazines and the current bodybuilding guru’s  advice seems to be geared towards getting bigger. Are our bodies designed to carry that much weight or consume that quantity of food? I’m getting older and wonder about this.

Do you actually read the magazines,  and care what they say? They’ve been full of sales hype and bull crap for 50 years… And now the weekend warriors with their monster truck bodies… who cares?

Adjusting to advancing age is no easy trick, though we practice diligently every day. One day in the not-too-distant future you will look back at your physical discontent and wish you were 50 and appreciating the physical accomplishments and gifts the inevitable, well-earned age offered.

Be humble and love thyself… here and now.

God’s strength… Dave

 I’m writing because my health has gone downhill. My right foot has had corrective surgeries because of arthritis; my left knee is so arthritic that I can hardly climb stairs. My back won’t let me lift more than 50 pounds standing up. I have ballooned in weight. I have a cable machine and I can do 20 minutes on the elliptical, but can hardly walk after. Please advise.

You have your hands full. The only thing we can do is press on and never quit.

The excess bodyweight can only be approached by the controlled intake of smart foods. Here’s a hint on general nutrition.

How to exercise as we encounter aches and pains and limitations is a bump over which we have less control. The answer seems to be found in the basic rule: Do whatever exercises don’t hurt.

Approach your gym area, take your time and experiment and think. Make a real or mental list of the movements you can do with the equipment you have. These can be partial moves, improvised or invented. Sometimes there are little variations of grip or position or assisting devices that prove invaluable when experiencing and enduring — surviving — our workouts. An assured and hopeful attitude is valuable when getting involved and inventive in tailor made exercise routines.

More disconnected thoughts:

• Do the elliptical in doses of 10 minutes.
• Do one less rep than a sensible max on every set of those exercises  you can do.
• Work from a seated position often.
• Use the wisest and handiest weights — appealing, enjoyable — for more highly focused and custom-formed reps.
• Dumbbells allow greater variation of movement and creativity. Our busted up machines need creative operators.

Make the most of every exercise; few are recruiting one muscle only. Get all the surrounding and associated muscles in the act. It’s encouraging when we realize we’re getting more kick for the buck. One-arm (at a time) exercises work where both arms don’t: seated curl, lateral, overhead triceps press, dumbbell row, leaning press… Stimulate — don’t pound — the muscles.

Get to know your pulley system. If it’s cool, it will be of enormous value as you discover its endless variety of actions, pulls and presses.

I add the following after I say good bye and good luck… rather, God’s mercy and might… Dave Draper

I just finished an 8 -week cycle of your All Time Favorite routine … really enjoyed it and added some muscle. I’m looking for something new and was considering the 6 Day Fat Burner. Is this designed to be a 6 day only mini-cycle or can it be used for several weeks? Or can you suggest another routine I might switch to?

Most routines work for a month or so, and then fade as enthusiasm fades and as muscles become accustomed to the work load. Give it a run for the money.

Or, you can stick with some version of the all-time-favorite routine, introducing your personal creative variations of exercises… Bit of a discovery journey that will cause you to wonder, think, improvise and test. You can’t go wrong; everything you do with fascination and good effort is prosperous.

Look at other listed routines for exercise replacements. Check out Slumpbusters for some supersetting bursts within the five-day workout.

Just don’t quit. Go with the flow… Godspeed… Dave

I’m a junior in high school, going into my senior season of playing football. My problem is I can’t put on any pounds.  I was around 6 ft about 180, but recently had some major surgery done and dropped 25 lbs. I’ve tried routine after routine, but can’t figure this out.  I have a starting position waiting for me if I can just gain some weight fast.

What you’re seeking is unwise and unhealthy — too much, too soon, a stress on your systems. Frustration and disappointment are unfriendly and menacing companions. Be grateful for the day.

Having said that, I offer the following:

Train hard, eat right, be strong and be happy. Add plenty of lean red meat to your daily menu, add quality peanut butter and bananas to your protein shakes, and a meal of tuna and water to your existing diet, milk and cottage cheese and plenty of raw fresh fruit and vegetables regularly and, by all means, enjoy Bomber Blend– the best protein powder in the world.

Creatine helps for about two-thirds of users (Anabol Naturals for purity); about a third are non-responders.

Here’s a longer discussion of my weight gain thoughts, which honestly boil down to this: Most people don’t stick to the program long enough. Weight gain (or weight loss) is day after day, week after week, month after month. Most try for a few days at a time and don’t understand it may take a year or more of consistency. Carry on.

You might view our forum… or join in… a smart and friendly bunch…
Go… God’s Might… Dave

How long do I have to stay out of the gym before I can train after back surgery? My doctor is saying six months, and I can’t take that.

Sorry for your dilemma, but this is not a situation I am qualified to or would dare advise you on.

Certainly, you want to be positive the diagnosis is precise and the surgery absolutely necessary. I would seek a second opinion and direction from a sport-savvy surgeon or medical professional and continue to research empirical circumstances. Add this volume of knowledge and understanding to your commonsense and instincts and astutely ease into a quasi-educated plan.

I recently had an L2, L3, L4, L5 lamenectomy and was back in the gym within weeks applying the above ad hoc principles. Be smart, sensitive, sensible, wise, focused and rational and forbearing — warm up, go slowly, enjoy…

There are too many unknowns (age, condition, mentality, severity of injury) for me to make evaluations and offer worthwhile advice. And I would offer them only to me, not others… too speculative and consequential.

God Bless you… Dave

Devoted fans of muscle and might lost another dear friend this Saturday. Armand Tanny faded from the sands of Muscle Beach, his broad shoulders and rugged musculature having cast elegant shadows upon its shores during the fabulous ’50s.

Armand left more than footprints in the sunny sands of Southern California. The gentle man wrote passionately of the men and women who forged their bodies with the iron, accurately and poetically contributing to the historical achieves of musclebuilding and musclebuilders for 50 of his 90 years.

He was the brother of Vic and the loved father of Mandy. His grand kids adored him… as did his neighbors and the guy on the corner. He was Laree’s and my good friend. And so would he have been yours had you met him.

I hope to say more about Zabo and Armand in the days to come, class acts and most worthy of conversation. They discovered and invented, were conceived by and gave birth to this clinking, clanking stuff.

Dave

Ya got me off the bourbon and onto Bomber Blend. I’m starting to relapse. This ever happen to you?

Couple times within first six months of sobriety(26 years ago). Living alone, no support and each time (3 months apart) I bought a half-gallon of Gallo. I drank less than half over a day and tossed it… disgusted with myself and realizing the uselessness, weakness and ugliness of the path.

I felt small, embarrassed and selfish, and it hit home cuz I was still sober and lucid, not yet inebriated by my small intake. I could see clearly then, the rain was gone.

I was regaining a grasp on my long-soggy character qualities — determination, strong will, perseverance, goal-setting, dedication — and chose to apply them at those moments by tossing the bottle. Critical choice.

Be strong. Beware of the Satan that prowls in the shadows and thicket. Nothing worse than a cruel and hateful and destructive jerk… he’s a loser… take him down.

Draper, DD, the Bomber

What would be the best-fastest-safest way for me to recover and get back to my lifting schedule after a long absence following a successful surgery? I know I can probably work on my lower areas (abs? legs?) Or will I have to possibly start from scratch or square one? It’s hard for me to fathom not being able to workout, and how I’m going to be able to deal with it.  I’m 63 now, going on 29.

We are amid the tough times when injuries and limitations besiege us. No one is immune. It’s — dare I say the words — old age. I didn’t expect the debilitation to be so soon and so quick and so crappy.

You will deal with the repairs according to your own needs and abilities and, finally, determination. Don’t let determination become an enemy; a strong will can push a good man over the edge.

Get to the gym post haste and do what you can in torso and leg work, and sneak in wrist curls and little highly-focused mini-curls with a dumbbells. You are about to learn how to get maximum exertion with minimum weight and abbreviated motion. Soon you’ll branch out as you test your potential. You’ll find a path upon which to trod with sufficient comfort, safety and fulfillment, as you listen and focus and improvise and play.

Light weights, thoughtful reps, certain machines and tiny dumbbells are your temporary tools of choice. They work wonders. Be encouraged.

You know better than I what to do… follow your nose.

Godspeed… Dave

What can I do for weak knees, rather what exercises can I do to strengthen my knees?

Tough to answer the question sensibly without more background data: lifting experience, available equipment, injuries or incapacities, goals…

Here are the basics for weak yet otherwise healthy knees:

• Lunges, partials at first till sufficiently strengthened and prepared. Then, over time go deeper and more aggressively, 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 12 three times a week
• Walking lunges freehand and walking lunges carrying dumbbells, 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 12
• Freehand deep squats (past parallel), progressing in time to squats with barbell on the back or holding dumbbells, 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps twice weekly
• Possibly leg extensions, depending on the knee problem,  2 to 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps every third day

… any commonsense combination of the above exercises as you advance.

dd

I’ve cut my food intake down to 2,500 calories in order to lose fat. I lift five days per week concentrating on two body parts per workout. I cardio 30 minutes before breakfast and 30 minutes after my workout. I have lost 6 pounds in two weeks and I decreased my body fat by 1%. The problem is that I lost a little bit of LBM in the process. Can you make any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong? I am thinking that I am doing too much cardio, but how much is too much?

From over here it looks like you’re doing nothing wrong and the diet’s working fine. Only a total beginner will be able to offset muscle loss with muscle gains during a weight-loss phase.

Everyone else will lose a little muscle, especially at three pounds lost in a week, two weeks in a row. You’ll be able to gain that back, don’t worry. But if you want to limit the LBM loss, dial back the diet a little — take a little longer to lose the weight, ie slow it down to 1-2 pounds a week instead of 3.

That’s a lot of cardio. As you experiment along the way, try hitting the cardio for 30 minutes with a tad more intensity once a day.

You’re in motion and your efforts sound balanced and wise.  You’re still way into the healthy range.

Try supersetting here and there, adding a pinch more (time — exertion) to the weight training/musclebuilding effort.

Who knows… we’re all different and changing… you’re zeroing in as we speak.
Go… Godspeed… Dave

You’re still a inspiration to us old dungeon gym rats. I have a question: I think I have a hernia. Have you ever had one and what was your down time from the gym? What was the recovery time?

I don’t think you’ll go through major withdrawals. By the time you enjoy a well-deserved rest, you’ll visit the gym and start poking around the machines that are suitable, applying cautious effort.

That’s all it takes for your system to re-awaken — commonsense and survival will help you plan a smart workout.

While avoiding stress and strain on the repairing hernia, you’ll soon know its limitations and work around them. All the time your confidence and sense of wellbeing will soar.
See?  Nothing to it! Smile, be happy… Dave

Got my Bomber Blend…thank you.  When do you suggest I take a dose? I’m 79 and my workout schedule is not all that strenuous.  I feel good and try to stay healthy.

Thanks for the support. Great investment in your nutrition, and I hope you like it.

Ideas:

• As a breakfast meal
• Prior to exertion (workout, wearisome labor) and/or after exertion
• As a meal replacement with milk, juice and/or fruit or peanut butter
• When there’s a gap in your nutritional supply (amid a busy schedule)
• Or when you just plain feel like it.

For example, now that you mention it, it’s been a while since I’ve fueled myself and I’m not hungry and eating’s not convenient, so I shall go to the kitchen after this note and throw a scoop in a cup of cold water, stir it and slug it down. Instant Bomber.

Take good care of yourself always… Godspeed… Dave