Dave Draper’s Musclebuilding Q&A

I am 40 years old and was working out on a four day per week program, but seems like I may have been over-doing it.  I tried to go heavy when I could,but I work as a laborer on pipeline construction. I am in a slump and haven’t worked out regularly in over a year. Any suggestions? Thank you.

I’d stick with the three-day-a-week scheme. I suspect your job has you hustling, so you can forgo the aerobic exercise; save time and energy and motivation for focused and formed workouts.

Here’s an idea:

Day 1) chest and back, Day 2) legs and core, Day 3) shoulders and arms — a day between workouts.

Day 1) chest and back>>>

Bench press supersetted with wide-grip pulldowns  (4 sets x 10,8,6 reps)

Dumbbell incline supersetted with stiff-arm dumbbell pullover  (4 x 10,8,6 reps)

Cable crossover  (4 x 8-10 reps)

One-arm dumbbell row  (4 x 10,8,6 reps)

Day 2) legs and core>>>

Rope tucks and leg raises

Leg extensions (4 x 12,10,8 reps)

Leg curls (4 x 12,10,8 reps)

Squats (4 x 12,10,8 reps)

Calf raises (lots of sets of burning high reps between ext and curls and squats)

Day 3) shoulders and arms>>>

Steep incline dumbbell press supersetted with side arm lateral raise (4 x 10,8,6 reps)

Barbell curl supersetted with lying triceps extension (4 x 10,8,6 reps)

Seated dumbbell alternate curls supersetted with pulley pushdowns  (4 x 10,8,6 reps)

That’s plenty for now, providing you train intensely and with focus… Try it and tweak it… add more or less of this and that.

Here you hit everything directly once a week, and everything, but legs twice a week by virtue of muscle-overlap.

On a fourth day if you get the shakes you can blast a little of what you think is missing.

Some worthy links, please read:

Superset Training

Instinctive Training

Slumpbuster Workouts

Focus and form and confidence, we press on… Godspeed… Dave

If the government decided to dictate what we do in the gym, and declared, “Only one exercise per bodypart will be allowed,” which exercises would you choose? And why…

Chest)  low-incline dumbbell press

Back)  bent-over barbell rows

Shoulders)  seated press behind neck

Bis)  standing barbell curl

Tris)  overhead triceps extension

Legs)  squats and calf raises

Gut)  rope tucks

Why… ‘Cuz they work

Dave

So far, I’ve dropped 10 pounds and one pants size, back to my playing weight from 50 years ago, and my muscles seem to be responding well. I want to start taking creatine, and what I’ve read about creatine, it’s supposed to be taken before and after working out, to improve your energy. Now I don’t want to waste the stuff.  So do I just take it when I work out, or should I also be taking it on the rest/rebuilding days, too?  What doses in my situation? 

Good for you. You’re doing what you need to do and what works for you. We eventually dial in our training according to our desires, needs and abilities.

I, too, am prudent. And I’m fussy enough. I take a level tsp of creatine twice a day — AM, PM — to keep my system sufficiently loaded with the nutrient. I take it daily and don’t load up or cycle off.

Carry on the good work… Godspeed… dave

I have been training for approximately 6 months now, and whilst I saw good muscle gains in the first couple of months, I no longer seem to be making any gains. I keep wondering if I am overtraining. I train each muscle group 2 to 3 times per week and give it everything I can when in the gym. I eat correctly, getting the protein and carbs etc and do not eat junk food.

Doubt if you’re no longer making gains… you’re learning and growing in ways you don’t realize. The body is adapting and responding and the growth will come… six months is almost brand new to the process…

Never quit, be strong, and in time you’ll know what to do… instinct and commonsense and experience are your best guides…

Got the basics right…  you will then apply yourself confidently with renewed awareness… Training is a painful compromise and also a great joy… You’ll see as time and practice and trial and error go by and you become knowledgeable and understanding… You are  your best trainer and partner, if you persist and trust yourself.

dd

I’ve had some surgeries and when I ask my doctor about training, he tells me like all bodybuilders I’m a fanatic and should just do cardio. I would like to bulk up some before I become plant food, but can’t seem to move forward without pain.

Fact is, without bearing (experiencing) your limitations myself, I have no credible way to offer a plan to circumvent or fix them. I’d only be guessing. Your doctor’s not too far off in associating bodybuilders with fanatics, however basic exercise modified by you (or a PT) is essential to injury repair, and muscle and structure rehab.

Training in a fundamental home gym does wonders for the healthy and fully functioning lifter, but a professional gym with a variety machines serves him well when struggling with basic disabilities and injuries. You might consider this route; you can then sample the various pieces of equipment like foods at smorgasbord and discover a routine that suits your needs and abilities, likes and dislikes.

Same thing at home; you need to apply trial and error cautiously and, depending on your 10-year past experience, create, devise, invent and improvise exercises and movements that “do the trick.”

Thought Heap:

• Warming up with light weights and reasonably high reps, partial movements and limited range of motion, always concentrating on form and pain, and optional grooves.
• Pushing and pressing as well as pulling and curling… one-arm dumbbell movements (concentration curls, laterals, rows, tri-extensions) allow you to carve out exercise grooves that dodge the painful regions.
• Barbell curls are wearing on the joints as hands are held in an unnatural straight-line forward-grip position ­ stress and strain are born by wrists, elbows and deltoid regions. Beware! Bent bar is good alternative.
• Reps don’t have to be high all the time with all exercises. I often work in the 15, 12, 10, 8, 6 rep-ranges with weight increments between sets, 3 to 5 sets per exercise.

I do this all the time and some of my best workouts and my most informative workouts have come while training under the tutorship of stern injuries. Sensible daring, warming up lots, focus persuaded by pain, groove creativity and finesse rule; light, smart, well paced, with a bite of intensity on a few well-chosen reps for spice.

Pump and burn — no setting records or showing off.

Never quit! (tell that to your doctor)… Godspeed… Dave

I’m having a terrible time with my diet. Sometimes I eat all of the wrong things and then I force myself to work out harder. I love to eat and I’m a very good cook, but I hate being fat. The older I get, the harder it is to lose the weight.

Unless you have a disease, a legitimate eating disorder (hormones, glands, intestinal), there’s no problem here. Being lodged under a 16-wheeler is a problem; the love of your life walked out on you is a problem; lymphoma is a problem.

Training is hard work… takes commitment, time and energy and endurance and know-how and equipment.

Eating right is simply eating right: No big skill, talent, knowledge, effort or mystery. Hand-holding is for kids and the lost.

You need to meditate on self-discipline, personal responsibility and self-respect. Reread that one: What you ingest can be controlled by you, unless you live in a village in Nigeria or Somalia or Ecuador.

I’m sure you have a weight goal in mind and can apply visualizing, imagining, practices. Start today, now… not tomorrow. Small hint: high protein (fish, poultry, then meat and eggs, less dairy), low fat and low carbs of the good variety.

50/25/25 balance.

Git goin… DD… Godspeed.

To get strong and larger, would you rather do, four sets of triceps pulley pressdowns with 75 pounds, 10-12 reps, or four sets of the same exercise with 140 pounds of 4-5 reps?

In the pulley pushdowns, I go for the higher reps… and I vary my body position and groove to engage as much triceps as possible… and then I introduce some body thrusting to enable even a few more reps, often the reps approaching 18 to 20 — Sorta multiple stages of performance within the one set.

I appreciate including more upper body action in the goal to overload the tris. Lots of muscle and energy benefit to increased upper body action.

However, I probably wouldn’t select pushdowns as an exercise for getting stronger.

Go… D

I’m currently deployed to Iraq. I am really enjoying the weight training and it really serves as my entertainment as there isn’t a lot to do here as you can imagine.  My weight training session lasts for about an hour.  I created a 4-day workout that is attached.  Each week my strength seems to increase and I up the weight a little on some of the exercises or I may add an extra set.

Lots of changes will be made in your routine as the days, weeks and months go by. Certainly you can expect the gains will grind to what appears to be a halt. Mean trick. The usual over-exertion and wear will produce an injury (injury is a personal instructor) and boredom and discouragement (absolute jerks) will join forces in tripping you up. But you will press on.

Your routine is very military — not bad, but too regimented and redundant to develop a healthy and healthfully functioning body. It’s serves a purpose today to familiarize you with the basic moves and grab hold of initial muscle growth. But it is static and monotony-bound.

I like to mix things up more. Pushing and pulling in supersets — more fun, interesting, athletic, body-useful, efficient, time- and mind-saving, flowing, creative. Try it here and there when you feel free.

Dave

I now weigh 189 pounds and am trying to gain a little more weight. I do 30 minute cardio workouts about five times a week, using a form of HIIT training you speak of on your website. Is this the right idea?

HIIT is the best way to go, though you don’t want to overdue the cardio. Too much interferes with muscle growth and can be an energy and motivation sacrifice. 15-minute sessions might be a target in the future.

Laree and Byron have been poking around with longer cardio lately (Laree’s been talking about more cardio for weight loss, particularly for women, for a long time), and I’ll bet there’s a case to be made for that as we age.

HIIT is  a great payoff for the time investment, and with shorter sessions, most people are more likely to keep it up. I’m not sure I’d do it five times a week. That’s quite a hit physically if you’re working it hard.

dd

I am a fan of yours and would very much like to know what your measurements were at your peak.

I’d be guessing. And guessing is a step away from exaggerating, which is a step away from lying. The tape can be a cruel stretch…

The best I can do is 6′… 230 lbs, size 12 sneaker.

Thanks for your support, my friend.

Go… Godspeed

I have switched from a three day a week workouts to two days cardio between workout schedule, with a timed set and one-rep max test, then a timed set later on various body parts. Each workout is spaced from one another about four days, so I wind up doing legs about twice a month, chest two times a month, arms about twice month. Sure seems like I’ve been missing some workouts here… what do you think?

Hard to beat the original workout plan you described. In my mind, the latter method is rigid and specialized and accomplishes little (or nothing) of the things about training an ironhead loves… diversion, exercise involvement, mind and body harmony, muscle and might growth as stress falls away daily, training freedom, discovery, creativity…

Try it… see if it produces worthy results and is likable. Then move on down the road, wiser and whatever…

Lift, live learn and grow… Godspeed… Dave

I can’t develop my front delts.  No matter what combo of exercises, reps, whatever, they just won’t budge.  My side and rear delts are fine, but without the front my shoulders really cave in.  Any tips or suggestions?

Don’t know what can be done beyond any and all of the dumbbell pressing movements from flat to steep inclines and military (front) presses. Forward or front lateral-raises should help. I suspect it’s a structural challenge. Caps and rear deltoids are the usual culprits; front deltoids not so much.

Focus and isolate, high and low reps within a pyramid MO…

I like one-arm front dumbbell raises while holding on to a stable upright. Thoughtfully practiced, these single-arm movements can really blast the shoulders according to your direction… go light to heavy, with increasing thrust… four sets x 6 to 12 reps along with your mid- to steep-incline dumbbell pressing schedule twice a week.

We never quit… Dave