Dave Draper’s Musclebuilding Q&A

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

In balancing gym training with martial arts, while I may look better than had I never lifted, and I have some strength, what’s the use if none of it can be applied in a meaningful way outside the gym, especially should I ever need to defend myself?

I practiced karate for a brief period in the ’60s to learn stance, attitude and sense of fighting, defending and aggressing. That was in the range of sufficient for my needs, as the thorough study of the art is consuming. Wrestling, boxing and martial arts coexist well, if one has the time, the energy, desire  and affinity for both.

I’d learn the basics of boxing and grappling for the purpose of self-defense from someone capable, but not get caught up in ratings and classes and style and art form. I wish I had a big bag and a speed bag to apply myself to with some fundamentals, my own instincts and my own rage.

Push iron, beat bag… Push iron, beat bag… Push iron, beat bag

DD

Been lifting weights for 30 years. At 43, is there any reason I couldn’t stop lifting weights and just freehand exercise — chins, dips, handstand pushups, hindu pushups, one-legged squats, muscle-ups, etc?  My goal at this point is to be strong, agile and fit. Other than potential for massive bulk, is there something weights bring to the table that bodyweight exercises don’t?

Yes! Iron.

I think one can achieve or maintain fitness with a good diet and the variety of freehand exercises you list, providing they are well-executed, vigorous, thoughtfully arranged and consistent.

Certain lean, muscley body types (those guys with natural abs and no excess skin, the dirty rats) respond well to bodyweight exercise, significantly better than others.

If muscle mass and power are really important to the trainee, resistance exercise (weights, cables, kettlebells) is the by far leader of the pack.

Injuries lurk in dark corners. Lately, I dare not chin for fear of pulling my biceps… I refuse to freehand dip or perform a pushup because I suspect I’ll shred my rotator cuff. But I lift wisely and safely.

Give me the iron, just enough, and I’ll press on… DD

PS: Did I mention Bomber Blend… it’s the greatest…

I’m 57. I want to increase my running, but I don’t want to give up any weight training, although my gains appear to be turning into losses. The muscle seems to be disappearing faster than I can renew and I know it’s because of or partly due to the running. If I want to increase both my running capabilities and weight gains, things have to change. People either run or weight train, I want to do both. With some education and understanding there’s no reason that I can’t.

The two activities accommodate each other if you’re sensible about your engagement of each and your goals. Physical fitness, health, longevity and quality of life are smart, wonderful and fulfilling goals. Wanting to exceed in both at once is not exactly sensible — more like excessive, overloading, frustrating and destructive. Were you hovering above 30, I’d say sorta the same thing, adding have fun.

Fact is, all you can do is what you’re doing. Train hard, eat right, be strong and be happy. I can only encourage you to add sufficient lean red meat to your daily menu, and quality peanut butter and bananas to your shake, and a meal of tuna and water to your existing diet, and cottage cheese and plenty of raw fresh vegetables regularly, enough fruit and, by all means, Bomber Blend. I love it.

Don’t run yourself down, expect too much, flog yourself. 57 is a great age with delicious and righteous training ahead. Don’t miss the journey, hasten it or injure the traveler. Be good to yourself and your dog.

Godspeed

Is it true that if I’m a regular swimmer, my arms and legs will go thin and my torso relatively larger and grotesque due to adaptation of my body to prolonged swimming?

My guess follows: If you want a bodybuilder’s body, bodybuild primarily and add sufficient swimming as a healthy aerobic activity tol develop sound universal muscle, as well as improve cardiovascular health. Too much will interfere with large, thick muscle development, and counter bodybuilding goals.

If your goals are athletic fitness superiority, the two modes of exercise are accommodating. Add cycling and running and you’re a triathlete.

Swimming, as a training priority for winning competition, will produce a system of muscles to accomplish your challenges: more supple arms, broad shoulders and wide back, with a trim waist and strong, lean leg musculature. Wise weight training will assist your swimming power.

dd

I can swim for an hour continuously, but I can’t run continuously at medium speed for more than three minutes on a manual treadmill inclined at 20 degrees. Even running a mile in the stadium is a big pain. I start gasping and it sucks. What do you think is the reason for this?

Ask a swim coach.

My logic: Entirely different activities with different muscles involved and under demand. Legs are not conditioned for endurance running, traps and back and diaphram working under largely different conditions (in water/out of water support or suspension).

Structure must have something to do with it — what one is best built for. Running is in many ways a tougher training task on the muscular system — more systemically demanding — plus no time to glide, no buoyancy, nothing relaxes.

Matter of conditioning… plus less accustomed to gravity. I suspect if you practiced running instead of swimming, you’d reverse this trend.

dd

I started a new plan of working out 3 days a week and hitting the speed bag and heavy bag after my weight routine. Should I work out on the speed bag and heavy bag the same days that I am doing weight training on my arms or should I do the speedbag and heavy bag workout on opposite days?

I don’t have a specific answer. You’re in charge.

The bag is a great activity by itself and can assist one’s general conditioning if one is young, vital, eats right and is not excessive in either of his workouts. Only a month into the combination of exercises, you’ll have to live, lift, experiment and learn and grow.

Mix the two activities as your energy and desire dictates: same day, alternate days, before and after weight training and evaluate the coordination of activities. Do you favor one over the other?

If your goal is to develop both equally, timing doesn’t matter. Enjoy both and the dilemma will sort out itself.

If big muscles dominate your goals, the bag work will need to be minimal… an aerobic assist and not a muscle overload or teardown.

And so it goes with your skills in bag work… determine your priorities.

Busy… gotta go… Godspeed… DD