oh? really?

chill bro. re-read the part i bolded. was just poking fun at the name of the gripper.lol

Straps

Sure. Eat more. Waaaaay more. Eat at maintenance

why not?

Say he trains and burns off 1k calories and runs off 2k calories and he needs 2k calories to maintain his current bw. If he eats 5k calories, why would he NOT maintain his BW? Heck, if he eats at a surplus, he could even increase his LBM.

Meal frequency is a myth, meal timing isn't all that of a deal breaker. So what seems to be issue? assuming that he has the ability to consume amounts of food at will ?

To bolded part

Added muscle mass will not drop your stamina and speed. Lack of cardiovascular endurance would. Added muscle mass would not drop your stamina and speed unless you suddenly put on 40lbs of muscle overnight and your body isn't able to adapt overnight. Chances are, you're not putting on 40lbs of muscle overnight. Since you are talking about stamina and speed , I assume you are referring to the case of sprinters.

Have you ever seen a skinny fat sprinter or a really thin sprinter? Of course you don't expect to see a 300lbs ripped sprinter. But I'm willing to bet that sprinters in general are in a heck lot of a better shape and body composition than most of us here. Look at the athlete below.

Usain Bolt







Answer me this, does he look like he runs any slower because he has put on muscle mass ? and he definitely trains with weights because by god no matter how hard he sprints or runs, muscle mass don't just pop out of nowhere. At the end of the day, it all comes down to how much calories one takes in. There's no perfect world but there is definitely an attainable world.

Anyway, to answer ChipZ again, you can definitely maintain or at least not lose everything, heck, if you're lucky, you could even achieve body recom, for as long as you are able to fulfill your daily macros and cals. At the end of the day it's calories in versus calories out for weight loss, weight gain and weight maintenance.

This post has been edited by razorboy: Jul 24 2012, 03:18 AM

I wasn't referring to long distance running but rather sprinters. I agree that long distance running would be a difficult thing to do with weight training, but not unattainable. It's calories in vs calories out. However it will be difficult. Heavier muscle mass requires more oxygen ,yes but at then of the day, it's your cardiovascular endurance that will be the deciding factor. If one has been training for sprints for a period of time, higher lbm or no, he will still be good at it because his cardiovascular system has been trained And his system is familiar with sprinting.

All in all, I'm referring to scenarios in theory, whether one is able to train hard, run and eat enough food really comes down to individuals.

This post has been edited by razorboy: Jul 24 2012, 12:41 PM

1) Closer Grip , Wider Area
2) Close Grip Pulldowns, Yates Row, One Arm DB Row( Pull into Lats)
3) I personally find T-Bar Rows a waste of time, no offense to anyone that likes to work with it. I say so because, unless you have a T-Bar Row machine( which I do not have access to), basically, we are doing it with a barbell together with a close-grip , pulling the weights into our chest. Before I could even really contract my lats, the weights have already hit my chest. I just find it to have way too little of a range of motion to really activate the whole of my lats so I stay away from it. But if any of you find it beneficial, by all means do continue.

1 more thing, again, only based on what I've noticed personally, Kroc rows are basically one arm rows that is done with his crazy ass 300lb dumb bells. And if there is actually more to it( do enlighten me if there is), I'm thinking it's not really beneficial, the whole point of Matt Kroc's doing is to strengthen his powerlifting side( benching - antagonistic of his pushing muscles).

So what I'd do is, stick with a close grip pull up/ pull down, one arm row to lats( pulling into your waist) and a yates rows( i saw yates row because some do bent rows at 90 degrees).

Feel free to experiment though.

the key thing to lat stimulation or any muscle group for that matter is full range of motion, stretch and contract. at least that's how i see it. So if an exercise is not going to be full range for me, I'm not going to do it.

One arm rows, if you pull it to your chest,you'd be contracting more of your upper middle back, the rhomboids, lower traps even your rear delts ( a lot of your scapula action). However, when you pull into your waist, your elbows travel further back, and to go that far back, your lats have to work. Of course, one can argue and say your arms do the work but here's where the mind muscle connection comes into play. A lot of guys when they row, they contract their shoulder blades but what we should be contracting is our lats. Yes, the shoulder blades do contract but the bulk of the movement is with the lats.

Pendlay vs Yates, I've never done pendlay and I've always done Yates. Because I bent over for a lot of my lat, spinal erector, posterior chain movements. So if I am to target my upper back, I prefer using a wide grip seated row. When one bents over 90 degress, it's hard to hit your lats, the bulk of the tension will be on your upper back( rhomboids, traps, rear delts). Of course, any sort of rowing activity will hit your lats, now, I got this off Dorian Yates (and before I preach anything, I always tested it out myself first) , when your elbows travel close to your body, you target your lats better, but when your elbows are out, it goes to your upper back and rear delts. Your lats will still be in play but more so to your upper back.

Since your targeted muscle group is your lats, so go with lat targetted movements, pulldowns/ pullups, bent rows( bb or db) which you pull into your waist.

i'd say start off with the close grip pulldown, go to the yates row( alternate between db rows and yates row between each w/o). give it enough volume and intensity, your lats will grow. the key here is to be patient. Sometimes less is more.

my thickness oriented exercises are hypers and Deadlifts. And my width exercises are only close grip pulldowns and yates rows. Honestly, at this point, which we all are, IMHO, there's no need to over prioritize this and that. Just balance out the amount of thickness and width-oriented workouts, give it enough volume and intensity and most importantly, enough time, it'll balance out by itself. I mean, we're not at pro levels and we haven been training over 10 years. So quite frankly, we're all still beginners and gains will still come rather fast compared to >10 years of training.

I've never heard of width vs thickness imbalance which would cause anything harmful. I know of antagonistic muscles being imbalanced, chest/back ; abs/back ; front delt/rear delt ; quad/ham; that could really screw things up.

But nonetheless,do what you think is right for your body. My advice is balance out the amount of work. But if you choose to prioritize, there shouldn't be any problem anyway

Honestly, because I'm not able to go full range at the top and contract my lats completely, everything goes to my arms more than anything. All my movements I hold it at a top for a but before going to the negative. Maybe it's just me.

Look chap, the vets here are saying, it's okay to do your cardio when you want it, however you want it, just do it AWAY from your weights. I see how excited and insistent on doing cardio because for whatever reason you think that is the only way to drop bodyfat. So do your cardio, but do your weight work first. Depending on what type of cardio you do, you will hit different body parts of course, but nothing like hypertrophy work.

Stair masters, glute quad hams calves
Elliptical , core , back, legs etc

Of course you can also do another form of HIIT which mainly consists of heavy hip drives.

+9999

What's your goal ? Looks fine to me. Volume is about right. Just make sure your form and technique is on point.

So eat something that makes you wanna eat it. What is the point eating brown rice and chicken breast all day if you don't feel like eating it? Eating "clean" is overrated. Substitute your foods, there's no wrong substituting brown rice with a slice of pizza once in a while, just make sure you don't make it a habit and it allows you to stay within your macros.

Actually, I beg to differ. Start off with barbells. Though barbells may look intimidating, it takes more work to stabilize dumb bells. Unless of course an empty barbell is too heavy now, then stick with lighter dumb bells. Everyone starts some where. I'd suggest you take a look at the pinned threads on what routine to do, I had a look at your link, it doesn't really go anywhere to be honest. Don't take it personally.

This post has been edited by razorboy: Oct 23 2012, 10:07 AM

I can't answer your body fat estimation w/o a picture. But it all depends on you.if you feel that it's fine to continue bulking, the by all means go ahead, if you feel that you need to start dieting down, you can do so as well. If strength is your goal, lower your overall volume. But apart from that, looks just about right.

This^. Believe it or not, i strained my pec tendon turning a friggin door knob.