Dave Draper’s Musclebuilding Q&A

I’m baffled by the pace of the reps and sets. Some people say two seconds up, four seconds down, other say faster… or slower. What’s right?

Find the set and rep rhythm that suits your personality and purpose.

Skip the clock and counting seconds — too much mind, too little instinct. Go with the feel of the muscles (burn and fatigue), oxygen and wind, strength reserve, mood and purpose (heavy weight or swift pace — best is in between somewhere).

Don’t go so slow — you don’t pump or burn or cool off, and don’t go so fast that you can’t increase weight in exercises, get powerful reps, be thoughtful and focused and precise in set and rep execution.

Go with your perfect pace… dd

Question for you regarding supersets: Let’s say you are doing four supersets for arms. Should you rest after each superset or should you complete all four supersets before resting? I have seen it recommended both ways.

The rest between sets within the superset are short, the rest between supersets is a few beats longer to allow agreeable re-breath and re-assertion assert. Often weight incrementing and matching rep-decreasing accompanies supersetting.

Commonsense, mood, energy level and insanity-factor are variables effecting the action.

Have fun, survive… Dave <Godspeed>

Today’s bodybuilders talk of working one bodypart once per. week. Is this enough? Shouldn’t a person train a bodypart at least twice per week? Some bodybuilders have said in numerous articles that they have trained a bodypart up to three times per week. Three times seems excessive. I know this theory of training one bodypart per week hinges on the rest or recuperative period.

Slowly but surely read all the articles (former newsletters) listed in davedraper.com for information to some of the questions crossing your mind. They run the broad subject of muscle-building, nutrition and exercise methods, and keep you encouraged and on track. You can pick up a copy of Brother Iron Sister Steel or Your Body Revival at the library or local bookstore or through this website store — full of answers, encouragement and routines and nutritional info. There’s too much hype, wrong thinking and too many lies out there.

The best training methods include volume in sets and reps and mix in heavy training days each month and use the basics as the most important part of their muscle mass building. Twice a week per muscle group is best. Intensity is important and smart frequency is needed. Ignore the ignorant “once-a-week training for 45 minutes” theories. Rubbish.

Learn to love your training, commit to it, be consistent, be confident and don’t expect miracles. As long as you’re training, you’re growing and going forward, though it may be that painful step back that is so mysteriously necessary.

Press on. The truth will set you free. Yeah, sounds corny.

God’s speed…dave

The thing that bothers me the most is: Why is there so much contradictory information out there about how to train? After reading all this contradictory stuff, I am confused. How can it be that people with great bodybuilding know-how can hold such diametrically opposite views? Obviously, someone has to be wrong. The only way I gain is to add weight onto my exercises (benching more, curling more, chinning more). But inevitably I reach a plateau and cannot go higher. I guess I am not searching the perfect way as much as just to ask: how can it be that people hold such widely differing views? It is extremely confusing and frankly hard to comprehend.

You’ve got to invest in one basic, logical training style and adapt it to your needs — dial it in — here and there, a little and a bit over time. Get to know your training, trust it and go and go hard.

Remember, you’ve got to love and enjoy your training, tough and relentless as it might be. It should be functional, healthy and practical.

Plateaus (slumps) are the athlete’s Nemesis. We don’t just improve and improve, develop and grow, skip, jump and play. It’s two steps forward and one step back if we’re lucky. Lifters – muscle builders – look too closely for results, doubt, and wonder. The head gets in the way of the body.

That you do not continue to lift more weight in the bench does not mean you will not continue to grow in size, shape and definition. Side note: Keep up the heavy bench work, going for one-rep-maximums, and you are bound to incur chronic shoulder problems. Then you’ll have something real to suffer over.

Put in your training time with appreciation, affection, intensity and confidence. Concentration and focus and joy and progress are diminished by doubt and the stress that accompanies it. Spit the poisons out.

Become your own trainer with all your built-in systems for understanding and advancement. Become your own best friend with tolerance, your own fan with high hopes. You’re the man, I’m your buddy.

I’m real corny, too. Push that iron and go with God… Dave

I am not physically big in any sense of the word, but I am muscular, having trained since I was 12 years old.  Could there still be room for growth after all these years?  Being 29 years old, should I continue to strive to pack on more muscle, or should I quit training for size?

Not unless you find it frustrating and loathsome. Training for size is a sound and spirited methodology, delivering musclebuilding improvement and fulfillment, whether size is gained or not…

You might still grow…

dd

The thing is I have hit the wall… I sort of lose motivation as progress appears to slow down…

Here’s where we lose a lot of musclebuilders…

The following links to past articles sum up my thoughts and will hopefully help you. I consider them sort of timeless.

• http://www.davedraper.com/article-89-plateaus.html
• http://www.davedraper.com/article-373-overcoming.html
• ttp://www.davedraper.com/article-392-discouragement.html

And the truly timeless: Draper’s Slumpbusters

Go… Push that iron, savor the good times, endure the tough and be thankful always.

Godspeed… Dave

What is your opinion on trap bars? Have you used one? They claim to reduce stress on the lower back during deadlifts. Is it worth having?

If you have the extra bucks, the trap bar is a worthy investment. It’s popular at our gym for shrugs and lower back and leg work. Easier on the back, yet not a true deadlift movement.

I’ve always been a bar man myself… … Godspeed… D

How do YOU decide that a muscle group has recovered enough start tearing it up again? 

Intuition, commonsense, pain assessment (degree and type of pain), associated training-time lapse, ennui, Ouiji board and guesswork and moon rising.

dd

In my combination of martial arts and weight training, probably overdoing both, at what point does the pain degenerate into more pain and eventual injury? And are there specialized workouts for psychos like me who actually enjoy lifting weights seven days week?

Soon, real soon. You need to fix your head, your body, your goals, your priorities, your realities…

Nothing personal, we’re all nuts and we all need to do the same things: Live, lift, practice you art, learn and grow and be happy. The weights and martial arts are big contributors. They can also be great detractors… too much, like anything, can break you.

The body needs rest, the mind needs space, emotions need relief, creativity needs room, dog needs kibbles, kitty needs petting, baby needs shoes.

Part of your discipline and growth is to take a day off. Try one. Try two. Real whackos are afraid to. No other interests… insecure… think they’ll slide backwards or fail, or be forced to face responsibilities and/or themselves.

There are ways of balancing your training endeavors… your best friends are common sense and instinct. Only you know which is most important — iron or martial arts — to you. Blend them sensibly: alternate days, 3 iron and 3 art, or 2 iron/4 art, or 2 art/4 iron. Trial and error and experiment and experience. I hope you’re young.

dd

1) My torso completely dwarfs my arms, giving me a bad side view. I need to supersize my arms. I’ve been doing for my triceps: 2 compound exercises like close grip bench & one exercise each for all 3 heads as heavy as I can. For biceps, 2 compound exercise, 1 for peak, one for outer arm. I’ve been following this routine  over a year now. This I do twice a week. But there’s no improvement in size AT ALL. My arms seem to have frozen at 14 inches. Do hourly swimming sessions 4 times a week thin the  arms? Or can it be my diet? 2) I can see & feel a six pack in my mid section when I tighten it, but when I leave it relaxed, my belly looks big, especially from the side view, and it sorta hangs down. What should I do to improve it?

Probably not diet if it is protein-high and full of good and fresh stuff  — veggies and clean carbs and EFAs.

You’re as fit as a fiddle, but want the body of a bass. Your problem is the healthy, but contradictory, swimming regimen. You can do both and life is good, but you will not excel at both at once. Opposing musclebuilding activity; volume swimming naturally encourages the body to be efficiently strong and buoyant, hence, streamlined musculature, less muscle bulk and more internal fat and surface fat.

Life is full of compromises…

As a swimmer you have well-developed diaphragm muscles from proper and dutiful breathing. And in the watery environment, your associated abdominal and breathing muscles are left to properly distend as you inhale and exhale. That, plus the swimmer’s buoyancy factor, might be a hard to overcome problem. Due to structure and genetic factors, not everyone can achieve the desirable six-pack.

My thoughts… press on… God’s strength… DD

I’ve read that a lot of bodybuilders of your time would do, say, bench press with five sets with reps of 12, 10, 8, 8, 6.  On the 12, 10, 8, 8, 6   should only the last two sets be a 100-percent effort? I am confused on how to interpret this particular workout.

There is a a specific incremental weight-increase methodology I  applied years ago for about a month before I grew sick of the fussing. I forgot it intentionally. I always use the above rep-scheme, but with the will to get the last rep with form and appreciation, and seeking the 90-percent-max range of output, plus or minus.

Each day has its own devils and angels — pain and injury factors, high or low spirits and energy and wellness, enthusiasm and drive or lack thereof; desire, encouragement or disappointment. These affect — vary — output big time.

I ramp up for each workout and take the weight and reps to that 90-percent place with most every set. The first set of, say, 12 is a warm up, yet high performance.

Choppy answer. I trust my training thrust, and find love for training compromised when bound too closely to watching numbers.

Roll…flow… Godspeed…   Dave

When I work out, after a brief warm-up, I do squats, deadlifts and bench presses first, because that is when I have the most energy. Would you do something else first, or is that okay?

That works, you lucky dog. I can’t do any of those lifts anymore without major modifications.

Actually and honestly, I prefer to mix up my training and exercises to accommodate my aging muscles and structure. Check out this recent IOL Newsletter for a list of favorite exercises and how I incorporate them.

Also, scan any of the last year’s IOL weeklies for hints and tips and styles related to my most recent and lovable training methodologies.

dd

When performing deadlifts what rep set scheme do you prefer to use? Are deadlifts meant to be performed heavy weight low reps, or treated like any other exercise?

Treat them like any other exercise till you gain familiarity, build a sound foundation, develop good form and get the irrepressible urge to go heavy. Then be careful. I’m not a reputable powerlifter.

Rickey Dale Crain’s is a site you might check out.

Never Quit… Dave

What’s the best meal for recovering after a real strenuous workout? For example, I find that after a tough leg workout, I get fatigued and listless for two or three days afterward, even though I immediately follow my workout with a protein drink and, a half-hour later, a 12-ounce steak sided with brown rice. Should I be eating anything else? For the record, I’m 56 and have been working out fairly seriously for 20 years.

Hard leg workouts knock the energy and wind out of young men and gorillas, and 56 is not exactly a young man. Lots of major muscle in action.

Your food intake sounds smart and desirable and sufficient.

More energy-supplying, nutrient-high carbs surrounding leg days might be a good idea… some aerobic for conditioning on off-days might help. Back off occasionally, modifying intensity or sets or reps or weight when you feel low. You’re good, son, and going strong

We press on… Godspeed… Dave

Question: per your weekly article, how come incline benches are bad, but incline dumbbells aren’t?  Also, remember that Moses was 80 years old when he led the children of Israel out of Egypt..so you’re still a kid at 68.

The bar is fixed, a rigid handle causing stress in the hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders and associated muscle regions and their insertions as they try to respond to the natural tracking of the pressing action. The dumbbells allow the needed freedom of movement, eliminating the injury-producing strain and malfunction.

Plus, the individual resistance of the free-groove seeking dumbbells demands greater control and permits specific control, advancing the building and forming of healthy muscle and might. Huh?

Or, as they used to say in the old YMCA boiler room gyms, lift and shut up…

Gee, he’s getting cranky in his old age…

The desert life and manna soup and the nearness to camels is extraordinarily wholesome. And I understand the water springing from the rock was high in minerals and had life-enhancing qualities.

Godspeed… Dave

I’ve got a couple of questions about training.  The first one is a bit of background on the inspirational photo of you doing front squats with 3 plates each side—what was your typical set and rep scheme with that weight?  You make it look easy in the picture! The next question is related: On compound movements like the squat and deadlift, do you think you can make good gains in strength and muscle stopping short of momentary failure, something in the region of stopping at the eighth rep, when you could probably make about nine to ten at the ragged edge?

Can’t remember about the squat photo. That was a heavy set.

It went something like this:

135 warm up x10 reps, 185 x 8, 225 x 6-8 reps, 275 x 4-6, 315 x 1,2 or 3

About pushing on the heavy movement, I’d stop short most of the time. You’ll last longer, though it’s tough to hold back sometimes… then, again, it’s tough to push it all the time. Hit heavy days or sets when you get the urge and feel healthy.

dd

I know you’re not a medical doctor, but I reckon you’ve got Doctorates in bodybuilding and weight lifting, so I wanted to ask you this:  If I go real heavy on barbell curls or dumbbell shrugs, it feels like something is swollen in my upper inner right arm, in the armpit region.  Have you ever experienced this or have any educated guess on what it might be?  It only happens on those two exercises, and only if I go heavy (a weight I can only handle for 4-6 reps). Semper Fidelis…

Gee, by now your biceps are healed, and your guns are the size of cannons.

I don’t know what your problem is, but it sounds like an overwhelmed biceps insertion. Heavy weights and low reps present awesome eccentric or negative action. Gotta warm up, work out with care and persuasion and know that moderate weight with focused intensity can be as affective in building muscle as heavy weight… and safer and smarter.

Yeah, tell that to a Marine fighting terrorists in Afghanistan.

God bless you and your buds and know I’m one of millions of big fans across this great country. I pray for you all regularly.

Handle with care. Never quit… Dave

This question has been on my mind for a long time.  Would a person develop the most real strength doing straight bench presses or doing dumbbell bench presses?  It seems to me dumbbell pressing is a lot more difficult.  What do you think?

Go dumbbells. It’s safer and healthier for shoulders, more effective muscle- and strength-builder, more variation in action for movement relief, muscle shaping and funzo.

Drawback: They don’t come in a convenient overhead rack.

Plus-factor: The lifter has to put them in place with alacrity, agility, finesse and might. This is good for the system and core and associated muscles.

The best dumbbells come in pairs… Godspeed… DD

Most bodybuilders never really varied their workouts much whether they were volume trainers or HIT trainers. They might tweak a program with being more instinctive or amp it up when contest time was around the corner, but you knew roughly what they were going to do when they came to the gym. Few ever logged a training program, the question is to you: Did you logged workouts and did you have a program that you stuck with by and large?

I logged for a short period during one winter while training at the Muscle Beach dungeon, 8-10 weeks — mid-’60s. It had its purpose and value then. Ever since, I’ve followed more or less some version of the scheme I enjoyed then. Today my workout it’s a skeleton of what it was years ago, but it has the same taste and smell and silhouette.

Hey! Wait! I think it’s my shadow.

I don’t remember any bodybuilders with noticeable muscle ever logging their workouts. A few might have made notes at home. Guys who did log overtly looked like students, trained like students and disappeared before the ink dried.

Powerlifters scribbled away on pads as they reached for their chalk and inhaler, and for them logging works quite well, some might say mandatory even.
We press on, never alone… 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