Dave Draper’s Musclebuilding Q&A

I am interested in starting a workout program and I haven’t a clue on what I need to do in order to work out and get positive results. Is there some guideline that I should follow?  I have an exercise bike and free weights.  Should I work out every day or every other day?  Also, how much protein and carbs am I suppose to consume?

You might ease into things by working out three alternate days a week doing the most basic pushing exercises (dumbbell presses) and pulling exercises (exercises barbell and dumbbell curls, seated lat rows, wide grip pulldowns) plus lunges for legs. A total of 5 movements, working up to three sets of each for 12, 10, 8 reps.

On off days walk hills and stairs, jog or bike…

Set in motion, you will learn, observe, investigate and grow. Persevere, be humbly proud of your undertaking, seek it proponents and benefits and rewards and come to love the grand encounter. It’s more than it appears to be. Soon you’ll be squatting and deadlifting for fun and core strength and health.

Here’s some nutritional and training direction through some brief, straightforward davedraper.com links, a great summary of training advice…

• http://www.davedraper.com/keys-to-bodybuilding.html

• http://www.davedraper.com/general-nutrition.html

• http://www.davedraper.com/workouts-more.html

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Go… God’s Might… Dave

You had went through some bad times in life, and I was hoping you could give some insight into how to get through mine. Without getting into details… I’m struggling.

I’m very sorry for the tough road you’re traveling. I had to physically heal and get my head and my act together. As I stumble over a solution, an answer you can take to the gym, I come up empty-handed. I can offer the obvious — time heals, absorb support from friends, go to the gym and practice (endure) 30 minutes of the easiest and most desirable exercises just to be alone and striving, to pick up the pieces and set things in motion, and hope and expect “things” will get better as you proceed — clumsily, miserably, stoically, almost bravely, but surely — day by day.

But the real truth is I’m a long-time Bible-believing Christian who had gone astray and regained his sight on the Lord Jesus Christ. Note: I am not an evangelist, just a guy with a story. My restoration from the “bad times” to health and life was simultaneously (miraculously) linked to my return to God. I read the Word daily, went to a Christ-centered church regularly and grew spiritually… I continue that path today 27 years later. God loves us, this I know.

God is my rock, my salvation, my refuge… Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding… In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight…

Rejoice in the Lord… an add to that your favorite supersets, a high protein diet and lots of rest…

I’m a positive and hopeful iron-thumping B-68 who loves to soar… Get ye behind me, Satan… we press on

Go… God Speed… Dave

I’m nearing 40, a fit at 5’4″ female, 120 pounds. I want to lose three inches off my waist. I run, spin cycle and do boot camp workouts, plus some free weight training. Can you help?

It’s hard to see how you’d have three inches to take off your waist unless you’re pretty light on muscle tissue. Would you consider dropping some of the cardio energy expenditure in favor of building up the back and shoulders? Sometimes the taper works better than the tape measure.

You sound like you’re doing all you can without sacrificing your health and excessively expending the precious time you have to appreciate and enjoy your achieved fitness. Any more exercise and attention to exercise and we have obsession, any less bodyweight and we have undernourishment.

I understand the drive and need and the engagement of the pursuit (hello, nutso bodybuilder), and also know the waste and recklessness and illusions of too much exercise and too much dieting. Too much is too much. It wears you down and out. Beware and be aware, Miss.

As long as you’re getting 100 grams of protein a day and eating sufficient carbs from lots of fresh salads and some fresh fruit, and hydrating and resting and relaxing like a good girl should, you’ll be fine.

Lift, live, learn and be lean… Godspeed… Dave

I have a very unique training question and haven’t been able to find much on the subject anywhere. I train the Olympic lifts 2 days a week and do some work capacity training 2 other days a week, mostly with burpees and kettlebell snatches for high reps.  Do you have any thoughts on how to incorporate some bodybuilding type training into a routine like this?

Such exercises can serve as a body builders as soon as you put a size-building slant on your training. This means higher reps on the oly lifts, more controllable weight, a tighter pace and a musclebuilding attention in your mind, pump and burn.

Your diet, your menu, might need modification.

Perhaps, when the time is right, when you get the urge, you can put the Olympic lifts aside for a month (change is good) and get out the ever-fruitful dumbbells for inclines presses, curls, triceps extensions, rows and pullovers for the adventure, research and experience. During this time you can evaluate their worth and improvise a way to mingle the two closely allied activities.

You’re equipped to do this… have fun… DD

I want to know what you think is the best creatine (German, liquid, effervescent, powder).

None better than Anabol Naturals for purity and absorption… I’ve known the owner, Roger Prince, for 30 years and he’s honest and fastidious and dedicated…

Creatine helps.  I take two teaspoons a day — AM, PM — love it.

dd

I cannot for the life of me figure out what the “truck pushes” in your workout might look like.  Pushups done against a Smith bar??

Basically, that’s it. Between sets I push against a stable piece of equipment to stretch my calves and work my core as if I were vigorously pushing a truck out of the mud… sounds dumb, but I can’t achieve hip mobility, leg action and warm up the shoulders and tris…

Be creative, 5 sets x 30 to 60 second mild or grunting thrusts.
Don’t like mud? Pretend it’s snow…
Godspeed… Dave

I compete in one bodybuilding show a year as a natural athlete in order to keep focused and driven in my training. This winter I overdid the carbs and have gained a substantial amount of fat, so it is that time of year again to diet down. I it necessary for me to eat high carb or have a ‘cheat’ day once a week  to keep my metabolism from slowing down?

I was never a big fan of a cheat day. I like the steady diet very similar to yours all year round.

Go with your instincts, common sense and well-disciplined urges.

Go… Godspeed… DD

How do you come up with your ideas for a column every week?  I’m hoping to come up with an idea for a third book, but am coming up empty. Not even throw-away ideas….  Just blank.  Thanks in advance.

Not without a lot of staring at a blank screen. Daydreaming, allowing the subconscious to wander, praying, ranting and raving and pleading are all part of my material-seeking techniques. 553 columns  in 10 years on similar subject matter — health, fitness, muscles, the gym, nutrition and thou.

Of course, my articles are only 1,200 words long and don’t involve a plot and cast of characters.

I have a blank screen before me once again and Laree just passed by commenting with frustration, “I have no idea for my blog post!” Groan…

Laree and I are lucky in that we publish our words weekly and have a regular readership. Incentive is there, feedback from readers helps. We get to practice writing by force of persuasion and purpose.

All I need is one line to open with and I’m on my way… I follow my nose…

Glad the keyboard is in your hands, a worthy companion…

Be well… God loves us… Dave

I am 75 and still working out. I have not hurt myself, and think it is time to slow down a little. I was thinking of just lifting the same poundages in the various lifts that I use now, and not increasing them for as long as I am going to continue exercising. Will I lose muscle mass? I am happy with the way I look now. Can you offer me another way?

It’s a good idea to hold back a little. There are ways we invent so the exertion is plentiful and fulfilling and productive without being damaging and miserable.

The poundages applied will drop, yet our exertion and input can be reasonably intense. We best gauge it daily according to our ability and energy and desires and needs.

Get ready for letting go here and there. Eat right, rest plenty and fight the good fight and never quit, but be prepared for a realistic diminishing as time moves on. This is not negativity; it’s the way it is. You’re doing great, seven years more informed than I.

I’m a pile of injuries. Beware and be aware.

I prefer following a training plan that accommodates the day and how I feel. I’m certain I will not submit, so I relax and listen to my body, assess its needs daily and do what I might and must to serve my body and me well. I have given up (almost) stressing over how little weight I use. Form, focus, exercise balance, muscle-engagement and adaptable intensity have taken priority to weight used.

Takes practice, attention, trial and error, freedom from conditioned thought and a bit of courage and a tad of creativity… and God’s blessings…

Go… Godspeed… Dave

I am 11 years old and work out with weights for at least 30 minutes each time I go to  the gym, which most of the time is restricted to weekends.  Would you mind giving some training  direction to guide me in the right direction?

Yo!

Start as I did when I was your age: Practice and have fun with pushups, dips, chin ups, climbing trees, running stairs and doing handstands.

Forget time. Life has surrounded us with a gym full of equipment and exercises if we look around and jump in. Jumping is another musclebuilding exercise…

dd

I recently read an article on bodybuilding.com about HIT training. I used the theory for 15 years when I competed. I am wondering now that I would like to return to competition what can I expect to gain from the HIT training in 3-6 months. You are the guru and I trust your advice so I’m all ears.

I’m no more or less a guru than you. I do my traditional training with a little spice and a lot of might, which is less lately than it was when I had an infant daughter and hair 45 years ago. I have always lifted for expression and wonder and the longed-for muscle and strength and functional results.

Honestly, I’ve never applied or advocated or understood or tried to understand HIT methodology. I’m not being negative, but I thought, like, why? Where’s the flow of the journey along the way?

Different sets and reps for different nuts and bolts.

Older, and at a later stage of training, you might find HIT to be less desirable, less productive and whole lot more injurious.

Another odd thing — I’m not a big fan of competition, not in the day, not today. I’m a lazy coward at heart. Give me the iron, the ascending weights, the descending reps, the supersets and the volume in an uncrowded gym and give time to blast it joyfully, even when it’s ugly.

So much for a sound and encouraging answer from Dave Drapeless, the Bomber.

Where’s brother Mike Mentzer when we need him?

Go… Have fun… God’s might… Dave

I still can’t let go of my bad habits, binge drinking with my wife on Fridays (the only day of the week I drink and the same with smoking). I know you had your battles; how did you beat it? I love to train, but I feel I take two steps forward…..and then one back.

Sorry, that’s a tough fight. You and your wife need to dump the insidious habits together or continue paying the creepy consequences. I’m not close enough to tell you this, and you know it already: you’re killing yourselves. Imagine, save each other together.

Not a war story… but alcoholism put me in the hospital with CHF — congestive heart failure — 27+ years ago and I never fully recovered. Goodbye family, house, job, friends… hello shed in someone’s backyard. And I didn’t even smoke…

Here’s my thrust: If I didn’t make it to the emergency ward by God’s grace I would have kicked the bucket. I was simultaneously returning to my Christian (Jesus) roots. Neither a coincidence. I praise God Almighty for everything and pray about all of it.

I know, people roll their eyes… God loves us anyway…

Now I have Laree (the lady in the Tower) and IronOnline ‘n the bombers and Bomber Blend and a house in the woods with all the catastrophes life has to offer. Oh, yeah, and a pile of iron within hands’ reach.

You can do this, you and your partner. Easing out of bad habits, tricks and practices and crutches are cute. Be radical. Quit hard and strong, an addiction of another sort, greater, more powerful.

Care for each other, friends.

Train hard, eat right, be strong, be happy.

Three steps forward, no steps back.

Go… Godspeed… Dave