Dave Draper’s Musclebuilding Q&A

At 60, I’m working through a bad shoulder and increasing weights slow as it goes. How I can strengthen muscles around the cuff? Should I work around the back of the shoulder?  I hate using light weights but I must find patience.

You almost have to have the injury, particularly injury of the shoulder, to determine how to rehabilitate it and proceed to put the repair into action. The shoulder is in the middle of everything, pushing, pulling, squatting, loading and unloading and scratching your back.

Rest, which we hate, works. The favorite basics using light weights with precise form and major focus work. The bench press is not a good idea. In fact, it’s a bad idea. I recommend dumbbells.

One day soon you might consider voluntarily ending your love affair with heavy weights (they are so demanding and troublesome and fickle), and falling in love with weights of moderate poundages. You are likely to enjoy training more, improve your muscle and maintain your strength and extend your healthy workout life. Alas, might take one or two more injuries or one long-lasting ripper to convince you.

There are one-arm lateral raises you might want to investigate for repair and growth. Stabilize yourself with one hand grasping a rack and with the free hand gripping a light weight perform lateral raises in a variety of directions with a variety of grooves. Discover what works by what feels good and right. Lots of focus, a little thrust, lean this way and that, very light at first and proceed with honorable caution. Work in the 8,10,12 rep range.

Courage and wisdom and God’s strength… Dave The Chopper

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Here is my dilemma: I am 56 and carrying about 40 lbs of fat.  Being a big strong guy I have never found it a real issue, but I would love to know what being in real shape is like and enter into this phase of life with vigorous health in which to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Big-and-strong is fun. You’re going to hate losing weight and the strength and energy that goes with it. Then there are the diet changes and all those sets and reps. You’ll need to change your training approach and attitude to allow for these trade-offs. Some links to review, though you heard it all before.

• General nutrition
• Underlying theme
• I love super sets

I would decide on dropping 20 pounds by summer and go on a four-day-a-week (twice a week per muscle) program in which weight handled was not the issue –  accentuate exertion, pace and focus for 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 12 to 15 reps.

Be loose and creative in routine, but tight in performance. You’re 56. Time for finesse, instinct, iron rock ‘n roll to drive you on.

It takes courage, a bit of trust, hope and faith, a few practice sessions (they’re all practice sessions) and what some call foolhardiness. Get some sun.

dd

I have been lifting for 42 years and have shoulder arthritis. I can still do bench press and parallel bar dips, but when doing seated or standing presses, I cannot lock out. Do you know of any direct shoulder exercises I could use?

You have plenty of  shoulder movements to choose from. You’re rich.

Now is the time with age and injury and limitations lurking in the shadows to depend less on weights resembling heavy and more on your focus on the muscles in action, your finesse of movement and your intensity in reps. Every set, each rep is special every time you act and contract. Thank God I eventually discovered it’s not the weight you use, it’s how you use it.

After all these years i still appreciate the 12,10, 8, 6 rep scheme with ascending poundage. I also like one-arm side-arm lateral raises, stabilizing my body by gripping a rack with the free arm.

We’re animals: bears hugging the iron and fox, clever in our pursuits and our continual efforts to make monkeys (gorillas) out of ourselves.

Save the shoulders for future construction.

Go… God’s Might… Dave

I train in a home gym. I eat whole foods and make my own workout smoothies by mixing whole foods without buying supplements. Is home gym training ok and are my whole foods a good source of protein since I’m on a limited budget?

Home training is where it all began for me. I hoisted iron and did chins and dips and pushups for years (ages 10 to 18) before entering a gym. You’ll go to a gym when you need to and want to. In the meantime, carry on the good fight. The basic exercises will do the trick when your heart and mind are strong.

With limited resources you are doing fine. Avoid junk (bad fats and excess sugars), eat your raw veggies and fresh fruit and hit eggs, fish, milk products and meat for protein.

With a life plan like this, you are one in 100 thousand living right.

Stay tuned to IOL and review the website for more clues and hope.

Oh, and thank God daily… he listens… Dave

What is the best chest routine for the perfect chest, and the best for rounder shoulders?

Avoid the bench press (too many injuries), avoid decline bench (excessive low pec development). Go with dumbbells on various levels of incline. The steeper you go, the more shoulder you hit.

I like flys and cable crossovers for secondary chest movements, and various lateral raises for delts.

Military presses for everything in sight.

There’s more, but that’s enough.

Eat right, never quit, thank God … The Bomber

I’m a 46 year-old guy, 6’7″ tall and weigh 204 pounds, which is heavier than I have been all my life. I just need confirmation on amount of tuna daily for the tuna and water diet. I am aware this diet is extreme and tough.

The tuna and water diet is for short-term diet and attitude adjustments practiced periodically. That mid-section excess cannot be eliminated without continued hard training and right eating. The T ‘n W diet is most effective for the heavily overweight person or a well-muscled person seeking to get ripped, and the plan calls for three or four cans a day for three or four days. It’s not the magic bullet, but it does sting.

“Tough” means think long and hard training, determination and persistence.

Have fun and God-strength… Your bud… Dave

Does the weight with the top squat feel heavier since you don’t have your hands back in the traditional way  and does balance come into play at least until you get used to it?

Takes a only few sets of sniffing around for an ironhead to accept and become accustomed to the Top Squat. Takes one good workout to fall in love with it. Weight doesn’t feel heavier or awkward, and balance improves with the control the handles provide for bar-positioning on the back.

Be strong… God’speed… Dave

I’m 68 yrs old and been hitting iron since 19. My hunger has decreased — I try to get 30 gms protein three times a day. I hit aerobics and weights twice a week, just weights twice a week, and on Saturday, aerobics only. Is that enough protein at my age?

Depends largely on your bodyweight and daily exertion. At any bodyweight, I’d like to see you increase the total by another 30 grams.

Honestly, for your energy, endurance and good health, muscle repair and joy of living, I highly recommend you add Bomber Blend to your menu… quick and easy, superior and tasty inexpensive meal.

Yum… Hey, Ma, look at my muscles… Dave

I need some advice regarding forearms. How often can I work them during the week?

My favorite forearm triset (bent-bar reverse curl, wrist curl, pulley pushdown — 4 sets x 8, and 12 -15, and 12-15 reps respectively) was practiced twice a week along with another bis-tris volley till my 60s. Theses days, once a week does the trick.

We’re all different… give the fun and effective triset a go once a week for a month to see how it suits you. Increase the frequency if you get the urge. We play and test and live and learn… and grow…

Be strong and courageous and humble… Dave

In 1965 I was in the service and worked out daily until about 1988  when I pretty much stopped bodybuilding, but still worked out lightly and got into Taekwondo. I had a complete physical last year and found that my blood pressure was way high. The reason I even went to the doc was because I was having a very hard time recovering from simple to heavy work in the yard. Weight training was something I wanted to get back into, but not at the cost of extreme body aches and long time recovery.  I’m asking you for any help to get me started again.

Your problem is most common and can only be resolved through ongoing exercise and right eating — exactly what we preach here at IronOnline and exactly what you already realize. Start regular brisk walks while you’re reviewing the dilemma and seeking a friendly gym nearby work or home.

You must dare yourself to go to the gym of your choice just to look around… like going to a shop to buy a suit or a holiday mutton or a car. Fear not (I know, easily said) cuz most people in the gym are not unlike you — returning or rather new, wondering and in need of physical conditioning.

You don’t need a lot of help. Musclebuilding and conditioning are simple processes with diligence and dedication as their main requirements. You need to train hard and eat right regularly. Chose the basic exercises (presses, curls, rows, deadlifts, squats, chins and dips) in a basic routine and practice them with attention, growing confidence and loving affection. You, yourself, will soon become your most important and accurate and enthusiastic teacher.

You can do this. Start now the good fight.

God’s speed… Dave

Regarding workout intensity, if I learned anything years ago reading Arnold’s “Education of a Bodybuilder,” it was the importance and power of visualization. Read an article recently that stated strength is as equal a matter of mental learning as it is brute physics. As if to say anyone can bench 300lbs if they just knew how. That not only do our muscles grow stronger as we workout over time, but equally, we learn how to exert force onto the iron.  Probably old hat to you, but I’d never considered that before. Extrapolating that idea; I see “working out” as an art form; something one learns how to do.

I recommend visualizing in both books, Brother Iron Sister Steel and Your Body Revival. Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Schmaltz was my first intro to it in the ’60s.

I understand, too, the interlinking of all the components — physical and intellectual, emotional and spiritual — and the grand totality they produce.

Hard to convey that one to the ordinary folks loading a bar on the bench press. Never knew, personally, where art started or ended. Hard work and determination, sensitivity and commonsense are my companions. Being a little dumb has been helpful on more than a few occasions.

You’re loving this stuff for all the right reasons. Good for you.

God’s speed… Dave

I saw your top squat apparatus for squats — I have shoulder arthritis and like you cannot hold bar on back like you normally do for squats. What do you think of the trap bar deadlift for legs?

The trapbar movement is, no doubt, a worthy muscle-worker. The drawbacks: As a steady exercise for legs it might become overall body-exhausting — an ugly, awesome weekly confrontation. If you love squats at all, the trapbar exercise will not satisfy your appetite; the movement — the positioning, the tugging — might become low back- and hip-challenging. If your training is important, but not a super duper major big deal, you’re good.

The Top Squat allows real-deal squatting, thank God.

Mercy… Dave

Dave, I’ve heard bench pressing is bad, but what should I do for chest instead?

Dumbbell flat and incline presses work the chest better than the bar and are safer on the shoulders: 4 to 5 sets of 12,10,8,6 and sometimes 4 or fewer reps for each exercise chosen is smart. Throw in stiffarm pullovers as a second part of a superset when performing your dumbbell presses for added pec recruitment and blood concentration. Excellent combination.

Add dips (machine dips are okay) leaning forward to recruit the pecs (perhaps on triceps day), sets of 10-12; cable crossovers are essential. Work the chest 2x per week.

Pack in the protein regularly.

Carry on the good fight… God’s speed… Dave

I am now 65 and have been working out for 42 years. I see you are 69. My question is can I realistically expect to make gains in size and strength at this stage and still train heavy?

We’re all different, head to toe.

I was zooming at 64. Stand back! I hit a wall-outta-nowhere and took a nose dive from which there was and is no recovery. That hasn’t kept me from flapping my wings and squawking wildly…

Gaining muscle at 65 is hopeful — maintaining muscle at 65 is promising — losing muscle at 65 minus training is certain.

65 is not for the young and childish, the lazy and weak. If you were an oak and I a meteorologist, I’d say, “Get ready for falling leaves and bowing branches — high possibility of stormy weather ahead.”

Go… Godspeed… Dave

I have a personal goal of doing six bench press reps with 120-pound dumbbells before age 66.  I have done four. After a good, and usual warm up (12 x 60s, 10 x 80, 8 x 100s) I started trying for five on the 120s, got to two and a half and something went OUCH my right tricep. Dropped the dumbbell.  Figured I had a small tear.  No pain.  Tried doing some tripcep pushdowns with the bar on the cable machine, felt that pain in my tricep again and stopped immediately.  I decided to NOT do ANY pushing exercises for a month and let whatever heal.  March 1 is coming up which will be a one month stop.  Was my thinking valid?  Never had this happen before…

Amazing strength. So sorry for the set-back. Letting go is hard to do.

(and now comes a rant from the old guy with the scruffy remains of blond hair and baseball biceps)

I don’t want to sound like an old scrubadub lady wearing support hose, a back brace and a cranky attitude, but you might seriously consider moderating your heavy-weight output and low-rep goals. The consequences are certain: injury, immobility, pain, destruction and disability. It is about age 65 that the body — systems and  parts — becomes maxed, brittle and breakable, or shows distinct signs of the avalanching aging process.

Woe is me, I thought I was good till 70+. A dozen and a half specialists later, here I is.

I suggest you release your tight grip on the reins and allow the great beast to wander free of whip and flogging. This does not mean put the old boy out to pasture. Run him hard, but no more high jumps or ride-’em-cowboy antics. Why? What for? The tris and delts and bis will buckle under the assault and your bright and courageous training will be cut short. You’ll sit in the bleachers and say, “I used to do that stuff, sonny.”

Don’t get old before your time. Play hard, play long, play smart, play for good. Lift, live, learn and last. Feel right, don’t fight… That 120-pounder will make a dummy out of you yet.

In summary, is your thinking valid, you ask? Gee, who am I to say. Your call.

God’s strength and wisdom… Dave

I’m 58 years old. Why is it so hard to exercise? Now seems like what’s the use?!

Gotta find a simple plan of agreeable exercises and practice them regularly. I believe we diminish if we let our minds talk us out of positive activity.

We all ache and the weights are heavier as we get older.

Warm up – Press on – Appreciate and enjoy your abilities – Or diminish quickly… that’s how I see it.

There’s fun and hope in that small heap of iron! Clank, clank!

Go… God’s strength… Dave

Can you maybe recommend lats exercises that will maybe hit a different part of the lats better? Can you maybe give me an estimation of how much weight (in the seated rowing for example, since I will be using that as my indicator)we are really talking about big poundages?

Resistance varies with each piece of equipment. Use a weight that permits 10 to 15 full-range-of-motion reps with tight arched-back contractions, some thrust but always good form—not very heavy unless you get an urge every other week.

Try this: Mix the reps (15, 12, 10, 8, 6) as you proceed to raise weight each consecutive set. This is a good plan for many of your weight training exercises.

I like widegrip pulldowns to the front and stiffarm close-grip (4 to six inches between hands) pullovers, same set and rep scheme as above. Feel the muscles engage, focus and find and pull…

Go like a shark… Godspeed… Dave

I really went over the top at the gym, did everything on my program and then some, and ended up at the doctor, who told me I was overdoing it. I really wish people would stop talking about my age. It is what it is. Nothing I can do about it except keep on going. Guess I should go back to the gym Saturday and start all over again.

Here’s a brilliant thought from a dimwit…

Be looser in the gym, less restrictive. Be creative; play more, but not childishly. Have a sense of order, personalized form and complete focus, BUT follow your nose, your instincts. This does not necessarily mean less bound and determined — less demand.

I know what I need to do when I walk in the gym door, but the workout is not predetermined. Because of age and acquired experience, collected injuries and diminished recuperative powers, I allow myself friendly space to trustworthily manipulate my workout… exercises, sets, reps, weight. My head and my body abhor doing what I have to cuz somebody (me) said I have to do it.

Be serious, Have fun, Thank God… DD

I’m old these days, old and corpulent, retired, in my  late 60s. I’ve been working out for probably 35 years, but I have to admit despite your cogent weekly pep talks, the thrill of it is fading. I never really thought much about eating, and I  could go a whole day without food. I tried tuna and water but I couldn’t hack it. These days I’m gaining pounds like English 1%er. Any sage advice?

Getting old is one big ugly, no secret there. Sage advice: Hang in there! More advice: Never let go.

Failure to comply — it’s a big drop and the bottom comes quick and hard.

The thrill is gone, but I dare not let it be rudely replaced by misery, which is what I experience when I don’t do what I am able on the gym floor (down to twice a week with miniature weights… sigh! — but a good sigh). Eating right has always been a thrill. I’m easy.

You don’t want that gap to grow. Corpulence is forbidden, unacceptable, uncomfortable, unbecoming, revealing, unhealthy, and fatiguing. It slows you down and contributes generously to the aging process. Screw the thrill of decadent eating. It’s bad for you. Who likes tuna and water? Nobody.

The years collect and we are humbled. Fine. But that doesn’t mean we submit. Discipline and courage — long time companions, old friends — ought not be abandoned at this critical time, or ever.

Push and pull, curls and presses, reasonable force, understandable exertion, walking everywhere, plenty or RnR; salads and fish and chicken and lean meat and some fruit and some yogurt and cheap thrills and lots of water and Bomber Blend and guts and will and prayer… there’s excitement in every breath.

God loves us… Davio