Dave Draper’s Musclebuilding Q&A

I’ve had some surgeries and when I ask my doctor about training, he tells me like all bodybuilders I’m a fanatic and should just do cardio. I would like to bulk up some before I become plant food, but can’t seem to move forward without pain.

Fact is, without bearing (experiencing) your limitations myself, I have no credible way to offer a plan to circumvent or fix them. I’d only be guessing. Your doctor’s not too far off in associating bodybuilders with fanatics, however basic exercise modified by you (or a PT) is essential to injury repair, and muscle and structure rehab.

Training in a fundamental home gym does wonders for the healthy and fully functioning lifter, but a professional gym with a variety machines serves him well when struggling with basic disabilities and injuries. You might consider this route; you can then sample the various pieces of equipment like foods at smorgasbord and discover a routine that suits your needs and abilities, likes and dislikes.

Same thing at home; you need to apply trial and error cautiously and, depending on your 10-year past experience, create, devise, invent and improvise exercises and movements that “do the trick.”

Thought Heap:

• Warming up with light weights and reasonably high reps, partial movements and limited range of motion, always concentrating on form and pain, and optional grooves.
• Pushing and pressing as well as pulling and curling… one-arm dumbbell movements (concentration curls, laterals, rows, tri-extensions) allow you to carve out exercise grooves that dodge the painful regions.
• Barbell curls are wearing on the joints as hands are held in an unnatural straight-line forward-grip position ­ stress and strain are born by wrists, elbows and deltoid regions. Beware! Bent bar is good alternative.
• Reps don’t have to be high all the time with all exercises. I often work in the 15, 12, 10, 8, 6 rep-ranges with weight increments between sets, 3 to 5 sets per exercise.

I do this all the time and some of my best workouts and my most informative workouts have come while training under the tutorship of stern injuries. Sensible daring, warming up lots, focus persuaded by pain, groove creativity and finesse rule; light, smart, well paced, with a bite of intensity on a few well-chosen reps for spice.

Pump and burn — no setting records or showing off.

Never quit! (tell that to your doctor)… Godspeed… Dave

I’m having a terrible time with my diet. Sometimes I eat all of the wrong things and then I force myself to work out harder. I love to eat and I’m a very good cook, but I hate being fat. The older I get, the harder it is to lose the weight.

Unless you have a disease, a legitimate eating disorder (hormones, glands, intestinal), there’s no problem here. Being lodged under a 16-wheeler is a problem; the love of your life walked out on you is a problem; lymphoma is a problem.

Training is hard work… takes commitment, time and energy and endurance and know-how and equipment.

Eating right is simply eating right: No big skill, talent, knowledge, effort or mystery. Hand-holding is for kids and the lost.

You need to meditate on self-discipline, personal responsibility and self-respect. Reread that one: What you ingest can be controlled by you, unless you live in a village in Nigeria or Somalia or Ecuador.

I’m sure you have a weight goal in mind and can apply visualizing, imagining, practices. Start today, now… not tomorrow. Small hint: high protein (fish, poultry, then meat and eggs, less dairy), low fat and low carbs of the good variety.

50/25/25 balance.

Git goin… DD… Godspeed.

To get strong and larger, would you rather do, four sets of triceps pulley pressdowns with 75 pounds, 10-12 reps, or four sets of the same exercise with 140 pounds of 4-5 reps?

In the pulley pushdowns, I go for the higher reps… and I vary my body position and groove to engage as much triceps as possible… and then I introduce some body thrusting to enable even a few more reps, often the reps approaching 18 to 20 — Sorta multiple stages of performance within the one set.

I appreciate including more upper body action in the goal to overload the tris. Lots of muscle and energy benefit to increased upper body action.

However, I probably wouldn’t select pushdowns as an exercise for getting stronger.

Go… D

I’m currently deployed to Iraq. I am really enjoying the weight training and it really serves as my entertainment as there isn’t a lot to do here as you can imagine.  My weight training session lasts for about an hour.  I created a 4-day workout that is attached.  Each week my strength seems to increase and I up the weight a little on some of the exercises or I may add an extra set.

Lots of changes will be made in your routine as the days, weeks and months go by. Certainly you can expect the gains will grind to what appears to be a halt. Mean trick. The usual over-exertion and wear will produce an injury (injury is a personal instructor) and boredom and discouragement (absolute jerks) will join forces in tripping you up. But you will press on.

Your routine is very military — not bad, but too regimented and redundant to develop a healthy and healthfully functioning body. It’s serves a purpose today to familiarize you with the basic moves and grab hold of initial muscle growth. But it is static and monotony-bound.

I like to mix things up more. Pushing and pulling in supersets — more fun, interesting, athletic, body-useful, efficient, time- and mind-saving, flowing, creative. Try it here and there when you feel free.

Dave

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

I am a fan of yours and would very much like to know what your measurements were at your peak.

I’d be guessing. And guessing is a step away from exaggerating, which is a step away from lying. The tape can be a cruel stretch…

The best I can do is 6′… 230 lbs, size 12 sneaker.

Thanks for your support, my friend.

Go… Godspeed

I have switched from a three day a week workouts to two days cardio between workout schedule, with a timed set and one-rep max test, then a timed set later on various body parts. Each workout is spaced from one another about four days, so I wind up doing legs about twice a month, chest two times a month, arms about twice month. Sure seems like I’ve been missing some workouts here… what do you think?

Hard to beat the original workout plan you described. In my mind, the latter method is rigid and specialized and accomplishes little (or nothing) of the things about training an ironhead loves… diversion, exercise involvement, mind and body harmony, muscle and might growth as stress falls away daily, training freedom, discovery, creativity…

Try it… see if it produces worthy results and is likable. Then move on down the road, wiser and whatever…

Lift, live learn and grow… Godspeed… Dave

I can’t develop my front delts.  No matter what combo of exercises, reps, whatever, they just won’t budge.  My side and rear delts are fine, but without the front my shoulders really cave in.  Any tips or suggestions?

Don’t know what can be done beyond any and all of the dumbbell pressing movements from flat to steep inclines and military (front) presses. Forward or front lateral-raises should help. I suspect it’s a structural challenge. Caps and rear deltoids are the usual culprits; front deltoids not so much.

Focus and isolate, high and low reps within a pyramid MO…

I like one-arm front dumbbell raises while holding on to a stable upright. Thoughtfully practiced, these single-arm movements can really blast the shoulders according to your direction… go light to heavy, with increasing thrust… four sets x 6 to 12 reps along with your mid- to steep-incline dumbbell pressing schedule twice a week.

We never quit… Dave

In a recent newsletter, you mention both shoulder and chest incline dumbbell press.  I’m not clear about what the difference might be in those two moves.

The steeper the incline, the greater the load on the shoulder regions. Conversely, the lower the incline the more the pecs are engaged.

As a young lifter, I quickly discovered barbell inclines were murder on my shoulder cage, and dumbbells were just right — powerful muscle engagement in cleaning the weights into position and more control in directing action toward power-groove and away from injury.

The bench press is a universally favorite exercise and hard to resist, but is famous for developing severe and lifelong shoulder problems. Works okay — injury to musclebuilding ratio — if it is executed as a thoughtful exercise and not a blood-spurting-from-the-eyes power movement. Trouble ahead, safety and longevity first.

Blast to last…  Bomber

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’d like to compete in bodybuilding or in a figure contest . I’m disciplined enough to follow a rigorous routine, but my concern is the timeline. I need to put some more muscle on and bring bodyfat down for sure.  What is a reasonable deadline?  How do you feel about bulking and cutting?  When is the time to cut?

I have little advice for competing bodybuilders. My efforts and persuasion has been towards building big, strong and shapely muscle. I’ve tended to compromise my health in the process — intensity, daring, overload. When competition, even thoughts of competition, come into the picture and on the plate of goals of a trainee, red lights go off… intensity, daring, overload.

Hold the bodyweight, stick to the basics, amp your pace, introduce supersets, train to build muscle, not to lose fat and bodyweight. The latter will happen as muscle grows in good old-fashioned time.

Timetables shouldn’t be a foremost issue for an intelligent and determined trainee. Who knows the answers, really, until one has put years into the musclebuilding process? Menu, recuperative powers, capacity to work and endure, muscle shape and size potentiality. Everyone is different from head to toe, metabolism to genes, structure to hormones, moods to attitudes.

I suggest one not distress the mind, body and life in the pursuit of muscular curves… Soon. Injuries are around the corner when we over-overload. Disappointment and discouragement lie waiting in the shadows as we scrutinize. They corrupt progress, stall the sails.

It is the journey along the way… they were right.

Determination and persistence before strong shapely bodies.

Smile and be happy: train smart, eat right, be strong, live, learn and grow in all manner and direction…

Godspeeds… 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

If you are planning to pyramid your weights, should you start at your heaviest weight and go up from there or pyramid lower building up to your heaviest?  Also I do squats, lunges, deads, good mornings and weighted leg lifts or romanian chair leg lifts for legs but am still not getting the definition like I have on my upper body.  Should I do more sets? As a female, what else can I do to get this area in to some form of shape?

I start with the lighter weight of which I can do a hardy 12 to 15 reps. This set prepares me for the heavier sets to follow: warm-up, find the groove, excite and focus my mind. I proceed from there increasing the weight sufficiently to follow a 10, 8, 6, 4 rep pyramid. Love it… do it on most exercises.

Train, train, train. Experiment with the higher sets (4) and reps (12-15, try 20s) with attention on form, pace and effort and less on achieving heavier weight or more strength. Walking lunges with dumbbells in hand… cool and healthy shapers. Run sprints…

Eat right… there’s the hardest one for many. Most effective part, though.

Thanks… dd

There are pictures of you using a Power Twister Bar and I am really intrigued. Do you believe they serve a valuable purpose? How about the Bullworker? I’m also interesting in bending steel and other types of strength feats.

The Samson Power Twister is not commendable for any real musclebuilding or power building; more of a pumping tool used backstage before local competition. In fact I thought they were by now designated to their proper place in attics across the globe. The Bullworker I suspect is okay for certain mentalities or if one is limited in space or desperate to exert oneself.

I’ve never applied myself to strongman steel-bending (spikes, coins, horseshoes, bars) and thus have no suggestions.

Start with Dave Whitley at irontamer.com… he’s immersed in bending steel and you might pick up a scent to follow…

Go… Godspeed… Dave

 I am writing this because I am growing disappointed with my efforts to grow a massive physique.  I have been working out for close to 4 years and I work hard to achieve but I seem to get minimal results.  I eat lots of protein, whole foods and shakes.  I am beginning to feel as though I should cut the weight and work on fitness because I cannot accomplish my goal like I would like to.

Not everyone can be huge and muscular, just like not everyone can run a mile in five minutes or play concert piano or hit a bull’s eye at 100 yards. You’re doing the right things, but if it’s dragging you down, reassess your goals, your potentials, your strengths and weakness, and reassert your goals with renewed commitment, or redefine them.

Disappointment is as common as fleas on a hound, but if it persists, life becomes a heavy weight and joy is seldom realized.

No tricks… ill-gotten gains are costly.

dave

I have a question about what weight belt you use. I really would like to use one, but don’t know which brand to choose or thickness measurement to get, leather or nylon ply. 

Depends on need… I like a double-thick, 4-inch belt end to end. Use the belt only on heavy lifts or when necessary to protect the area on special occasions… don’t want it to take the load when you should…

EliteFts is where many of the guys are getting them, and looks like they have them on sale right now. Here’s the link to the weight belt sales page, and here’s how to pick the size.

Just for sport, a nylon 4- or 6-inch will do for firming-up the region in testy situations. Kinda girly.

dd

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

I’ve been spending a lot of time in the gym, and I’ve come across a lot of conflicting information in my research.  Because of the release of cortisol, in order to get the most out of your workout before your body releases an excessive amount of the hormone, it’s said you should keep it at most an hour. Someone once asked Ronnie Coleman the duration he thought and indeed he said around 45 minutes. Generally the more popular view is that two hours or even longer is fine in the gym.  I’m fine with that if that’s what needs be.  I generally enjoy my time in the gym, feeling satisfied and better about myself for having gone. Still, I’m not sure what I should do to get the most out of my workout based on this conflicting information.  Do you have any ideas that could help me?

I have trouble with the science and the iron of musclebuilding. An hour in the gym never did it for me as a young, hardcore muscle-maniac. Sixty minutes? Fine for older folks and fitness-heads, but to arrange and focus and fight and pump and burn and blast the sets and reps and movements, I’m only half way home.

Never know what or who to believe: That’s why I never read any mags or how-to books along my cast-iron journey. We’re all different, with differing advantages and limitations — chemical, metabolic, genetic, structural, aptitude, affinity, attitude. Hence, our needs differ.

What one does in 60 minutes — exercises choices, exercise form, exercise volume, performance intensity, weight used, pace applied, methodology — is not what another might do.

Do what you need and want to do. They’ll probably match. I swap the science for good old instincts and commonsense. Call me dumb. Too much data and research and science and I wanna go home. Let me lift.

It’s complicated. Cortisol is a life-saving hormone created by stress within the body by our own hands (excessive system overloads) or from stressful circumstances surrounding us (war). Too much cortisol can certainly be damaging when produced to alter our cellular chemistry.

I see from your email address your military commitment, and I consider that a number one producer of cortisol. Toughest job in the world, for which we are deeply in debt, thank you.

I’d use the gym to build muscle and might, as best you can, while relieving the multitude of stresses around you. This means enjoy it, trust it and love it, and hate it only slightly. Dig in, but don’t bury yourself.

Rest as much as you can and eat as well as you can, often. Got some dough? Invest in some good supplements to fill the gaps. Protein powder, tuna and such…

Again, thanks for everything… God’s strength… Dave Draper

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