Dave Draper’s Musclebuilding Q&A

I try to stay physically strong and stay bulked up and don’t push the heavy weights any more. When I turn 60 in a few months I am going to try and begin preparing myself for a masters bodybuilding contest locally.

We Norsemen have got to stick together. You sound good, hardy and healthy.

You’ll probably say, “Who asked ya?” — but why ruin a good thing by amping up to enter a physique contest? I have a theory that training for a contest perverts (tough word) the purpose of training and drags an ironhead away from the iron rather than toward it. Train for you and the joy of training, not for them so much.

Good motivation comes from here, there and everywhere, but mostly from you and yourself. Contest training might add pepper where salt is more flavorful. Drive is good, driven is not so good. Save your skin (joints, tendons, shoulders, heart, temperament) for tough (tough’s a good word) workouts that go on and on cheerfully.

There’s a level of criticism we need not bear, a level that interrupts and weighs heavy upon us, when we sit in judgment of ourselves hoisting the weights from good to better. And then there’s the diet and skin tone and the unacceptable pinch of flesh around the belly: the shaving and color and oil and music and posing and the stage… Oh, my!

I’m just saying… and what about the wife and grandkids? Never met a pre-contest bodybuilder who wasn’t a bit of a mess.

So, welcome to IronOnline and davedraper.com. Laree will castigate me for sending you this note: Mind your own business, she’ll say, and rightly so. I’ll tell her you’re a Norseman and will laugh heartily.

We press on, by God… Dave

Can one really train on their own to get true benefits? Is a gym with some guidance essential or is this just a lot of hype?  I would rather train at home, but I am wondering if I will really know what to do.

You can achieve strength and fitness goals at home or the gym. It’s a personal thing.

Training at home versus training at a gym: both have their advantages, their pros and cons. Best is a gym on the corner you can call home.

At home, it’s there whenever you want it, personal, private and no compromise. It’s all you, kid.

At the gym, more is there for exercise variation, convenience and experiencing and interacting. It’s you and them, kids.

I like training at a gym I can call home when it is least populated, always have… that is, after I had put in sufficient time at home to know myself and the iron and my needs.

Many IronOnline readers and correspondents train at home, always have and are unwilling to train anyplace else… that is, after they had put sufficient time in a gym to know themselves and the iron and their needs.

If you have a nearby gym that isn’t absolutely repelling, take a trial workout, or a week or a month. I’ll bet you’re a good detective and evaluator and calculator of reality: people, equipment, convenience, benefits versus time, money, comfort, sacrifice.

Oh, boy…

Godspeed… Dave

Glad to see we are both above ground  with a sense of humor. Started working out again about 6 weeks ago. Need your wisdom here: Doing 3 sets of flat and 3 sets of incline bench with dumbbells. What about throwing in a 4th set of 3 reps at a higher weight?

Sure, unless you get a suspicious signal of overload.

I do a similar scheme starting with a very low incline and raise the bench slightly with each set till somewhat steep after 5th or 6th set. Often I superset with stiff-arm DB pullovers (sets one through three) and seated lat rows (sets four through six).

Live it, smile and press on like you know what you’re doing… Heck, nobody’s looking…

Go… Godspeed… Dave

Five months ago, I had arthroscopic surgery on my right shoulder for a full SLAP tear.  Physical therapy went very well, and I’ve healed fully.  I’ve returned to the gym hungrier than ever.  However, my doctor told me that I should never, ever do military bench again (GASP). I currently start my shoulder workout with rotator cuff exercises with light weight that I added to my repertoire during therapy.  For size and power, I do front and side dumbbell raises to hit my deltoids, as well as reverse flies for the rear deltoids.  I also throw in upright rows. Do you think I’m neglecting any major muscles in my shoulders?

Bench press or overhead press?  Bench press is murder on the shoulders. No big loss there. Perhaps dumbbells on flat and and various degrees of incline will be safe for your type of injury. Excellent musclebuilders.

Extra warm-up, meticulous reps directed by injury, great focus, light weight, slower, burning reps.

Dump the upright rows… another shoulder killer.

You’ll continue to repair over time. Soundness of repair and improved capability takes some years… you’ll see.

Be sensible, be consistent, be grateful, be happy… Godspeed… DD

Being a personal trainer and in the trenches of gym warfare each day, I am noticing more and more people who claim they are not bodybuilders and yet talk for hours about shaping this, growing that and shrinking those. Do you feel  like there is (or has been) a public refusal for the common man to accept the bodybuilder within?

Reminds me of NASCAR fans who, after watching the great race, hop in their pickup and floor it.

Since my first toss with the iron I have rejected the ‘bodybuilder’ thing, preferring guy-who-lifts-weights instead.   I cringe at the vanity and concept and insipidness of “bodybuilder.” I wanted to be big, strong, tough and capable and functional (enough vanity in that quintet to sink the good ship Humility).

Perhaps the public at large dares not seek bodybuilding as it is a bit of narcissistic trip and is misunderstood beyond its bulging and ripped borders and has a bad rap (roid ‘em, cowboy) and it is presumptuous and pigeon-holing.

I think an association with fit and fitness, sport, health and wholesome and lean and strong is more appealing and agreeable and universal… unless you’re a Bodybuilder.

Go… Godspeed… Dave

I am getting serious about training again. I’m not even 60 and the last few weeks I’ve actually gotten weaker, which is a little down-heartening. Benching 320 was fairly easy and now I’m maxed out at just over 300. I’m working out two days a week and thought maybe I should back off a little. I’ve lost eight pounds as well in the last two weeks.

Twice a week is barely enough for healthy muscle building, but your weight loss can account for drop in strength.

I dare not encourage you to seek your goal in heavy bench pressing. You’ll almost surely incur a shoulder injury and an renewed introduction to training disappointment. Who needs it at 60?

Who needs it at 17?

Train hard, train with spirit, train with joy and high hopes and good health, but don’t train with an injury, or the risk of one.

Heavy benches and seeking singles and max weight are notorious for rotator damage. Go visit the dumbbell rack and build healthy muscle safer and faster.

dd

I’ve got a couple of personal training goals: a strict overhead military press with bodyweight and a one-arm pullup.  I’m getting close to both.  I’ve been training mostly in the low-rep zone, going to momentary failure.  The number of sets is around the 6-8 range.  I’ve also used some cheat moves  (push press, weighted negative pullups). The problem is I feel like I’ve hit a plateau.  Do you think the rep /set combination is good? Some people suggest a lower number of sets, but that doesn’t feel like enough training.

When I hit a plateau — meaning, I’ve applied focus and intensity for a sufficient time and determined progress has become severely limited and my confidence and interest are waning — it’s time to change.

Sometimes it’s a good thing to modify your goals as you press on in the same direction. Go back to the original rep systems or go off on a bodybuilding tangent that revives your overall training spirit and achievement. The goals you aim for now might not be achievable with this approach and this round of forcing and pressing on.

Unless you’re 99, have fun and play with a strong heart and will. Plateaus are inevitable and, if we are inflexible and stubborn, can be downright depressing and destructive.

Blast on… from another direction or with a different approach… slight changes can be significant… substitute dumbbells for bar, use steep incline and DBs, heavy barbell curls with full range of motion plus preacher curls for a worthy cycle…

You are a perfect candidate for Dan John’s book, Never Let Go.

Godspeed… DD

Did you and Arnold focus more on moderate poundage and the feeling of the movement, or did you concentrate on heavy movements? I have heard that Arnold did train lighter in an effort to zero in on the pump. Was this true in your eyes? He made tremendous improvements to his physique in the early to mid ’70s.

The tale of the Oak is true of all of us. There was a time and a season for heavy work, but moderate+ with fight and form was the rule. Sensible, healthy, effective and sustainable.

Go… God’s speed… DD

What exactly do you think of the muscularity and shape of pro bodybuilders? I only ask because my personal opinion limits me to admiring the physiques of the ’60s and ’70s. Do you think that bodybuilding will ever go back to the semi-natural days where body types like Frank Zane will be on top again? Sgt from Baghdad

Oddly, I totally ignore the bodybuilding scene. I was there when I was there and gonzo since I left after the ’70 Mr. World in NYC. I tripped over it again — oops — while building, owning and operating two cool World Gyms in my Santa Cruz locale between ’89 and ’05. I’ve heard of Ronnie Coleman…  Wow… the vague limit of my interest and curiosity.

I’m with you, and we’re not alone. Bodybuilding went on advanced life support after 1970, and anyway, I always considered myself a guy who lifts weight for fun and good, not a “bodybuilder.”

Where it goes from here is not clear, a question someone asked after the unloading of the A-bomb 60-some years ago.

I get it, cartoon muscularity, like I get 500 horsepower monster pickup trucks with six-foot tires and three roll bars and a fierce caged driver. Far out…

Hey, my good bud and former gym-partner is in Baghdad, might be a chin and dip away from you. You might look him up as he trains regularly at his post’s new gym. One of the good guys, though I have no doubt you are surrounded by many.

Carry on the good fight. God be with you… Dave

Just curious, and if you don’t want to answer, it’s fine also, but what weights are you lifting these days? I got a little slack for a few years on weights, flexibility and general training. My wife gave me a new weight set (300 lbs) for Christmas. I could barely bench 140 in mid January, but as of Saturday evening I’m up to 220 at 5 reps. I lift/push/pull 3 times per week. My goal is 300 before I turn 60 in a couple of years. The number is not important, just a target.

Welcome back… Just in the nic of time.

How much weight I lift is a mystery to me, but it sure is heavy. It’s better I don’t know… Life is cruel enough… I don’t have to measure it.

Two plates is commendable, but know this, my buddy — the bench press and seeking singles is a mistake. The shoulders will complain and you will listen and pay large. Injury is around the corner for those who insist. Instead, persist.

I can’t bench a plate… pain, damage. Dumbbells on various degrees of incline are smarter, better and healthier musclebuilders. DBs work for good.

Be bold and wise and adaptable simultaneously. There is great joy and reward in vigorous workouts with lighter weights.

Drink Bomber Blend and be nice to your wife. Anyone who buys her husband 300 pounds of iron for Christmas is special.

Show this to your sweety, your birthday is coming up fast: http://www.powerblock.com/

Look alive… Dave

Regarding the functional training revolution, the question no one seems to be asking: Why do none of the  leading exponents appear fit, much less have any “functional” muscle to display? I think the public is seeking magic pills with a bedtime story. If it were only so simple!

You’re right. Functional training is not the tale of the musclebuilder and powerlifter. It’s for coaches and fitness educators. It’s for sport and fitness… and refurbishment.

Let’s face it, a bodybuilder would take a hammer to his head if he thought it would build muscle. He’d light himself on fire for striations and drink cyanide for muscularity.

Warning: Do Not Try These Methodologies. Proven Dangerous to One’s Health.

Sincerely… Draper

Everything is coming together better than I ever would have imagined last year at this time… all but my chest. Not bad, but not exactly what I was shooting for. I do bench presses, dumbbell flies and pushups, but it’s a very slow process compared to everything else. Any suggestions?

One-arm or two-arm cable-crossovers and focused flies on low inclines are tops for building, shaping and defining (and good luck plus hard work).

Forward-leaning dips help, low-pec focused stiff-arm dumbbell pullovers are a neat addition, various-degree incline dumbbell presses beat bench presses — safer, healthier, smarter for solid muscle mass.

Avoid declines, they only add to the dreaded hang in your pecs future.

Eat right, eliminate estrogen, burn fat and be happy.

dd

I have tendinitis above my knees. I weigh 307 and am wondering if you think it will go away if I drop 80 pounds. The local doctor would not answer the question.

I don’t have a certain answer, but commonsense tells me dropping 80 pounds of unnecessary bodyweight while exercising and eating right to affect musclebuilding will be of great overall health and well-being value.

Those knees have big smiles in them when they’re not under excessive and unbalanced strain all day long. It’s worth the grand, magnificent and wonderful risk. I’ll bet most docs and physical therapists would agree.

Go… Godspeed… DD

I am a hard-core, natural bodybuilding enthusiast going “old school”, Gironda-style with liver tablets and protein. One thing I am confused on is whether to take protein in the form of amino acids throughout the day, or is something like a Whey-based protein powder just as effective? From a training perspective are amino acid tablets superior, complementary or outdated when compared to protein powders? Is there a difference, or are we essentially talking about the same thing?

I take both. The free form amino I take here and there throughout the day (when I get an instinctive urge) for their immediate availability.

The protein blend, Bomber Blend, I use for its meal-like advantages — filling, energy-providing calories and carbs, substantial assimilable protein and BCAAs and other healthful factors. It’s my breakfast and pre- and post-workout meal and my assurance in maintaining muscle mass when my appetite recedes.

Bomber Blend is my favorite musclebuilder, meal-replacement, well-being insurance and energizer beside quality, natural, fresh food.

Go… God speed… Dave

Jersey Dave which is better for mass, tri pushdowns or french presses? Also which is more effective, one-arm curls or two-arm?

I do all of the movements above and benefit from them all as they all offer something special, something different — angle, rhythm, focus, brain waves, feel, thrust, engagement of associated muscles — for complete muscle development and variation.

Mix and match….dd