Dave Draper’s Musclebuilding Q&A

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

As long as you’re still having fun…it’s all good as if it’s day one! Still loving it after 35 years (1975). Glad to hear from you again and again…

Muscle ‘n power building is a stern, stoical and sacrificial deed. There will be no levity among us.

Hey,  you hear the one about the blond bodybuilder who thought he was a B-68 bomber soaring around the scrap piles blasting the iron?

Go… Godspeed… DD

I will be turning 48 soon and was just wondering if you had to change anything in your training routine after 40 years of age?  Did you have to lighten the weights or did you train as you always did? 

Are you kidding? Surely you jest! Prepare for the storm, lad, ready thyself for famine, drought and destruction. Here comes the judge!

There are wise modifications to make as the years accrue: refraining from the last ultimate rep, resisting one-rep max training schemes, overtraining and abusing. I have always had the tendency — many ironheads do — to push it with all my might. That’s the fun of it, or it’s our obligation, or what works.

The injuries mount, chemistry changes and limitations guide us in new directions: lots of warming up, lighter weights, higher reps, altered exercise grooves, elimination of certain movements, wrapping grumpy joints and juggling routines according to daily capacity.

Other than that, nothing changes. We press on like madmen… Dave   <<<Godspeed>>>

I am a 57-year-old man, been training since I was 21. Last May I had a TIA. There was no lasting physical damage and I’ve gradually been getting back into training. Docs said it was okay to train but not any holding breath to avoid pressure build-up. Depressing when this first happened, nobody could believe it had been me who had suffered a stroke. Have you any had any other experience with this?

Sorry to see this. This stuff is frightening, painful and inconvenient. I’ve had a bunch of medical attention — congestive heart failure, stent procedures, TIA, heart attack, quadruple bypass, pacemaker installation. Rugged struggle. We press on with courage and wisdom, fear and doubt, doctor’s advice and commonsense, trial and error and wonder and thanksgiving.

I have no definitive training advice beyond the above high-jinx; it’s all been a day-by-day plan for the past 25 years. Train regularly, eat right, rest a lot, laugh every chance you get, love your neighbor…

My soul finds rest in God alone, my salvation come from him…
He is my fortress, I will never be shaken… Psalm 62

Godspeed… Dave

In your book Your Body Revival,  would you tweak the Standard Balanced Menu if you were to write the book today?

I’m protein high… alter as you need… the older I get the less I desire to eat, and a lighter bodyweight is healthier and easier and wiser.

A little boring, though.

dd

A few decades ago I’d spend 45 minutes on one body part.  Now, I do 2 or 3 sets and leave it at that. Staying toned and in moderate condition has replaced the drive toward world class shape.  Age has its way of modifying our activities. A few years ago I began pondering the movement or circulation of blood through the body as it pertains to diabetic or pre-diabetic people.  Here’s what I came up with: 2 sets (no rest) 30 to 40 reps of neck resistance (with a towel held behind the head) moving the head from back to front coupled with calf raises performed on a one- to two-inch board.

I get your drift,  but I’d rather do high-rep (25-35) sets of standing-to-kneeling rope tucks. So much vigor and variation and muscle inclusion. Get the blood flowing slowly but surely and build up to surging, as momentum and creative extension and contraction build.

I throw in calf pumping and stretching between four prescribed sets, as I lean against a rack and pretend I’m pushing a van across the parking lot.

Though this sometimes seems to be enough work for one day for a senior van-pusher and ironhead, I add 20 more sets of prime metal moving to maintain my fragile sanity. Next month I might have a different tale to tell.

We’re crazy, ain’t we?

Dave

I’m a young woman who started strength training 9 months ago in order to combat T2 diabetes. It is working like a charm! Last night I asked my trainer how much muscle I’ve gained in this time period. She said two pounds. I was very disappointed to hear this. Am I being too impatient? Or do I need to spend more time in the gym?

Not exactly… you’re responding like a classic ironhead. Count your blessings as you strive for more. I can name a dozen gleaming gems without really trying:

1) You have turned your diabetes around
2) You have gained substantial muscle (two pounds)
3) You’re invested… without training that hard and strong, two pounds might very well have been two pounds of burdensome fat
4) You are healthier in mind, body and spirit — awareness, alertness and readiness — energy and endurance
5) You have wise, valuable and commendable goals
6) You are pursuing them with passion and fortitude and growing knowledge and understanding
7) Improvements and advances have happened and are happening now that are internal and not measurable with a calculator, or the eye — especially your eye. We all need glasses.
8) You’re being tested by your own will, voluntarily, and it’s making you stronger and more courageous
9) You’re meeting new people, making new friends and getting to know yourself as you dedicate yourself to your good mission and as you research and workout
10) You’ve got a hobby, productive and fulfilling and fun
11) You’re an authentic musclehead who knows a curl from a sidearm lateral raise, a pump and burn from maximum muscle exertion and the last rep, focus and form from a couch and a remote, bodyfat percentage from a beer and pizza
12) You have your own personal trainer, belong to IronOnline and are a burgeoning bomber.

You’re rich, getting richer. Press on with joy, eagerness and grateful confidence. It’s a wonderful journey.

Godspeed… Dave

I managed 130 workouts last year, from my semi truck they have come. Now it’s very tough going due to extreme cold where my job has taken me, plus losing decent consistency the last couple of months. Have hit my dumbbells all of 00 times so far this year, ashamedly. Feel like this 57-yr-old iron & diesel pusher could use some starter fluid. Got any, Dave?

You’ve got tough circumstances: Icy cold, make-shift training from your truck and you aren’t 17.

We beat ourselves up when we stumble, which is good discipline. But we are often unfair and bring ourselves down in a negative spiral when stumbles mount.

Eat right, take hearty walks, hills and stairs, with a weighted pack or carrying dumbbells for an energetic, effortful change of pace… Works legs and core and system.

Do one exercise or a tight superset with medium weight and smooth higher reps for pump and burn and form and focus.

Put aside old routine and MOs and create new mini workouts for fun, experience and just to be on a loose path till you can get it together… together, as you know it.

You’re a rare species… mix it up, stay warm, Godspeed… DD

I am 37 and back into the gym after 12 months of next to nothing and I am jogging on a regular basis. I started smoking 16 months ago and have to get round to stopping that but one thing at a time eh?

It’s a long road back, but it’s the only place. Gotta be strong and courageous. I couldn’t do it without God Almighty.

Keep moving, throw in a few light dumbbell workouts a week, tighten up the diet… all without too much pressure, but a lot of perseverance. 37 to 57 is a powerful time in one’s life. Time to save it from abuse and deterioration and reward it with guts and verve and zeal… and steel.

Push that iron… Godspeed… Dave

PS — Dump the cigarettes fast and hard…

I do four sets for each exercise and each day is normally about an hour and fifteen minutes of continuous work. I feel good and eat fairly well, but I seem to have reached a plateau. I regularly measure key body areas and I have not seen any improvements over the past couple of months. Am I being unrealistic, and should I be happy to maintain my current muscularity?

Points one, two and three:

• I have a plateau a minute….
• Stop measuring…
• You may be unrealistic, but better that than being doubtful…

You’re on the right track to strive on. Helps you to maintain. Just be careful not to injure yourself. We’re all different — general health, past abuse and overuse, genetics. I was bombing till 65 when genetic heart problem loomed. Detours Ahead! You might very well race past me and wave… We hope and pray for the best, by God Almighty.

Be bold and stray from the norm. Lift, live, learn and grow…

I’m over 60 and am planning to enter a bodybuilding contest. I’d like to know why the legs lose size first and is there anything I  can do about it.

I hear what you say and know what you mean, and I don’t have a physiological or technical answer. Body’s natural selection for survival, perhaps… or twitch of muscle fiber or the hooded guy lurking in the corner…

Old age does its thing despite our efforts to fight the good fight with lifestyle, weight training and right eating. I was good till age 65 (squatting 450) when circulation in the legs went south and the heart gave me grief. I lost 15 pounds in 30 months, most notably in the thighs. I had to give up squats, the legs’ dream exercise, and deadlifts, both powerful systemic (whole body) exercises. I’ve noted similar situations in other big guys as age crawls upon the scene.

Do your best at what you are able to do. Squat if you can — best for mass and power. Eat your protein (red meat, if you will) and limit aerobics to HIIT style and/or in-gym well-paced training (supersetting without compromising weight used). Be nice to your wife and kids and dog. Never quit…

Godspeed… Dave

How hard has it been for you to see your body go thru the transformations that are out of our control (even though we struggle in the gym and with diet and supps) and keep a positive attitude about yourself?

I endure the pain as I have all the rest— with fear and trembling and God’s grace and mercy. I share the aging blues with those who understand and will listen (we jest), I note with relief and grief how much worse things can be (think paraplegic), I enjoy the riches and blessings I have (thanks big, God) and know these are the least of them — the best are yet to come (eternity with God Almighty) and then I sit with Laree and we are as the evening consumes us. Tomorrow I’ll fight the good fight again… and throw in some sets and reps and curls and presses, good chow and a groan and a moan and a laugh out loud.

Life is good… very good.
Dave

What do you think about the fewer reps, higher poundage workouts? I’m 56, train at my home in Nebraska and have found I don’t quite recover quite as fast as I  used to.

Must get lonely in rural Nebraska with few if any to share your iron tossing madness.

I like to mix the reps and weight in the sets of each exercise. For example, barbell curls: I choose a weight that allows me to preform 10 solid reps with a little body thrust to expand the muscle engagement. I can maybe get one more if I gag, scream, bleed and lose my groove — not good — I hold it at 10.

I then add weight and go for eight reps, same rules apply.

Next set, I add sufficient weight and go for six reps.

By this time I’m rockin’ and make another weight addition and go for another six, accepting 5 if I must.

I find the variation in resistance and repetitions is challenging, inspiring and otherwise beneficial to muscle growth.

Yes, recovery is slower as we get older. Our training needs to modified accordingly to avoid injury, overload, fatigue and disappointment.

Train hard and always… God’s Might… Dave

 I have a very labor intensive job and at 55 years old old I am currently working out 3 days a week, full body workouts 4 sets of 10 with a change in workouts every 30 days. I am tired at the end of my work week as I go to the gym at 5 am. Do you have any hints for this old dungeon gym rat?

A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do: Quit your job.

Or, you might have to alter your workouts to accommodate your weariness, which I suspect is due to the mounting years. 55 is wide open to years of strong training ahead, but recoup time becomes the trick. You might spread the workouts over a four-day period (includes a weekend day, perhaps) or try a new approach… exercise combos, rep scheme 12, 10, 8, 6 or all 6s or 8s, split routines…

Often, when bound by job and schedule and convention, we stick to what we know, what we trust. Be creative, be risky (clue: there’s no risk), have fun, mix it up… just press on, always.

Bomber Blend before and/or after workouts… Go Godspeed… Dave

I’m getting a lot of soreness in the hands,  elbows and lower back and hip areas. Lifting slowly with control to get back into the program, but feel like the Tin Man at times.Supplements you recommend? Good drugs? Old fashion rack to be stretched on?

Pain and soreness — more or less — come and go like hooded warriors on horseback with big sticks. You can run, but you can’t hide. I’m always finessing my workouts to accommodate joint and muscle pain. I sit here a heap of throbs and stings and stiffness. Can’t wait till my next workout.

Warming up helps big-time, containing your level of exertion (last rep, extra sets) is important, rest and eating for repair and recuperation are major factors.

Add Omega 3 oils to your diet. Check out Body Ammo, particularly popular and effective for some consumers. I use both.

Any of the over-the-counter basics: Tylenol, Aleve, ibuprophen. These work, but there are downsides, and it’s best not to use them regularly.

There’s a lot to myofascial message therapy. Laree’s big into such pressure message and writes about it almost weekly as her training experience and instruction. Good stuff - excellent - and can be self-administered, but requires fascination and attention. Check her blog entries, here.
We adapt, physically and mentally, but the pain continues to rear its ugly head as we plod through the iron jungle.

Don’t forget your machete if you have far to go… Godspeed… Dave

To train to maintain only seems to take away the incentive for training. I feel lost and worry  it’s just a matter to time before all of it goes away. I finally got to look good and it happened when I’m in my 60s. Can you offer some words of wisdom?

I sit and ponder your questions noting I’ve experienced it all before, and anything I have to offer is a retread of what I’ve offered before. Your concerns are legitimate and not foreign to any of us over 40, then 50, and then 60. We struggle and we strive and we achieve what we can, only to reluctantly let go with the passing of time.

I’m a few years ahead of you in the daunting and inevitable process and I press on to press on. Our health is the main object, and our focus should be there. We need to be joyful and content and grateful with the level of achievement we have. Now is the time to nurture ourselves with creative, fun, variety workouts to pump and burn the muscle and keep the heart happily beating and the mind active and engaged.

No more injuries, less intense overload, more appreciation, more rest, improved attitude, more understanding and acceptance of our mortality and compliance to aging… and less dwelling upon it.

Discouragement and disappointment and defeat are negatives that stress and age us. Beware. It takes courage and active mental and emotional effort to fix or counter these negatives that crowd us as the years mount.

There are tons of fulfillment in the workouts to come.

Growing big was easy. Growing up is hard.

We press on… fewer sets, less weight, longer rest between exercises, more tender loving care, serious prayer and Godspeed… and a big broad smile… Dave

After a couple of decades of training, I’m just tired of lifting weights, and all that goes along with it.

You’ve got to exercise vigorously and eat right and apply yourself to caring for yourself. Here’s the cold truth: It only gets worse if you don’t.

One step at a time, as the adage goes. It’s back to the basics with renewed enthusiasm, or it backwards day by day.

You are really a young guy, unless you think otherwise. Think of where you’ll be a year from now if you train sensibly, consistently and enjoyably and with high hopes.

Think of where you’ll be if you don’t.

dd