In the suffocating sweat sock of Florida’s Pompano Beach, with its heavy hissing midday air, motorists taking to the freeway do so with a dread not unlike that of entering Erebus, that benighted pit stop on the way to Hades; Ahmad Haidar sees that heat-shimmering snake of macadam wiggling its way into the city and eagerly straps it on like a leash.

Five days a week, year in, year out, Haidar has been lapping up that highway like a puppy dog, loving every mile, and the farther he drives, the hungrier he gets. His trip from home to the gym takes 45 minutes, but he wouldn’t mind an even longer time to stew. This is his chance to become immersed in the prep for his chest workout, where he can plumb his passion and start the momentum for what’s to come, running through every exercise, set, rep and sensation he’ll face. “When I walk through that door,” he exclaims, “I’m at full boil, ready-pumped and ready to go.” His is a silent burning, but one as evident as Florida’s steam. At first glance, he’s laconic, almost shy; but a slight thing, like the timbre of his voice, reveals more of his character than battles where thousands fall. The more Haidar describes the pile-driving pump he’ll feel in his upper chest, the delicious pain that will tear at his outer pecs or the drum-tight fullness he’ll build with a forced rep, the more you share his excitement. Bodybuilders brag about willing certain means to achieve certain ends, but Haidar extols the converse: throughout his 20 years of gym life, he has allowed experience to have its way with him, pitting one random training style against another, until only the best was left standing. Now, at 38, Haidar has arrived at the truth and has discovered that, as with all truths, it is blindingly simple: the best chest routine is based upon the four most basic exercises, each one performed with four sets of 10 repetitions. Chaos has congealed into predictability. “That was not always so,” Haidar confesses. “When you’re inexperienced, it’s not so much a matter of discovering what works as it is of discovering what doesn’t work. For example, I used a barbell for just about all of my chest exercises in the same workout–flat-bench presses, incline barbell presses, decline barbell presses–but I wasn’t building enough peripheral pec fullness or lower and medial separation.” He pauses, then adds, “But you learn.” His most valuable lesson? “Have patience, no matter how long it takes. Listen to others and eventually you can look back and notice what worked best for you,” he says. BODY SLAM Ironically, Haidar’s introduction to the art of muscle was not through weight lifting. His uncle, Hassan Bchara, who earned a bronze medal as a wrestler in the 1980 Olympics, took Haidar and his brother to a gym to learn wrestling. Then came the fateful day when Haidar’s uncle suggested that he needed to work out with weights to gain muscle. To wrestle, he was told, he needed a strong body. “I started liking the weights better than I liked wrestling,” Haidar says. “What I liked better was feeling the muscle getting pumped and actually seeing it bulging bigger and harder. It was an immediate sensation. It was exciting, and the more I felt the muscle working and pumping, the more I wanted. Wrestling did not give me that feeling.” Haidar was hooked on bodybuilding, and when that happens, its siren companion is a twinge of vanity that masquerades as motivating pride. “When you’re young,” Haidar admits, “you want to show off a little bit–’Oh, look, I have muscles’–and I felt a little bit of that when I started competing. I wanted to compete in Mr. Lebanon, and when I won Mr. Lebanon, ‘Oh, I want to win the Arab Championship’; then this, then that. Step by step. I still feel that way. My goal, now, is Mr. Olympia.” Patiently, he pursues the idealist’s goal of perfect balance for every muscle group in his body, as well as his muscular infrastructure. He doesn’t want his upper pecs, for example, to cantilever over his center or lower pecs, nor his lower pecs to jut prognathously past the uppers. Likewise, he wants his outer-pec sweeps symmetrical with his inner pecs. To this end, he employs three different chest routines that rotate sequentially in a Monday-through-Friday, five-days-on, two-days-off training split, in which he covers his entire body in four days. Bodypart order is chest and triceps on one day, followed by legs the next, shoulders and triceps the day after that, with back and traps the following day. This means that his Friday workout returns to the same bodyparts he trained on Monday. It also means that the bodypart workout sequence is different the next week. Furthermore–and this is a big furthermore–Haidar uses three different chest routines that rotate sequentially with each workout, further complicating things. Here’s how: the exercise order for the first chest workout is flat-bench presses, incline dumbbell presses, flat dumbbell flyes and standing cable crossovers. For his next chest workout, the order is incline barbell presses, flat dumbbell presses, incline dumbbell flyes and finishes with standing cable crossovers or decline presses. The movement he selects for the last exercise is determined by whether he feels his chest needs more pump or more fatigue at that point. If the former, he’ll use the dumbbells or cables; if the latter, he’ll go with heavy decline barbell presses. The next time he trains chest, the exercise order is decline barbell presses, flat dumbbell presses and incline dumbbell flyes, finishing with decline barbell or dumbbell presses, pec-deck flyes or standing cable crossovers. Again, for the last exercise, he’ll choose dumbbell presses, pec-deck flyes or standing cable crossovers if he thinks his chest needs more pump; if he thinks it needs more fatigue, he’ll go with decline barbell presses. “In every workout,” Haidar says, “I try to focus on each chest muscle independently, with separate exercises for upper pecs, middle pecs and lower pecs.” PUMP PLAN To economize on energy, Haidar is parsimonious with warm-ups, allocating only one set of 10 reps at 135 pounds for his first exercise, the bench press. From there on, he pyramids through four more sets of 10, adding a pair of plates at a time–225, 315, 405–up to his max set at 455, which he usually takes to failure at six reps. “I don’t like to do fewer than 10, but for power, it has to be done,” he explains. “At all times, though, I have a spotter with me, not only to help me get two more forced reps, but to stay with my movements, so that I can perform every rep, even the heaviest, slowly and with perfect control. Unless I do that, I can’t feel the pump; the pump is what I want. For some other muscles, such as biceps and calves, I want a burn; for chest, I want a pump.” From here on, no more warm-ups. Haidar charges into the first set of his remaining exercises with full power; again, four sets each, targeting 10 reps per set, but hoping, on the fourth set, to reach failure at eight reps, with two more forced. Incline dumbbell presses, for example, begin with 120-pounders, then 130s and 140s, all for 10 reps. His final set, with 150s, is for, as he says, “as many reps as I can.” Dumbbell flyes, too, are four pyramided sets, again with 10 reps through the first three. The last set is eight reps, plus two forced. Haidar warns: “With flyes, I make sure I do not bring the dumbbells lower than chest level. That would invite injury.” The only exercise for which the angle does not change in successive workouts is his last: standing cable crossovers. That’s because Haidar performs them in the only style that’s worthwhile: one that activates the most muscles through a greater range of motion and with the most resistant contraction. “I mimic a most-muscular pose,” he says, “bringing my hands together at a low angle, to hit my lower pecs; I do not cross my hands. I use a lot of weight for four sets of eight to 10 reps, and I flex hard, with a peak contraction.” Surround and conquer is Haidar’s strategy for chest: build a foundation of mass by means of old-fashioned free-weight movements, then attack the pecs from all angles, to tweak their peripherals and give them the definition that has earned him the reputation as bodybuilding’s beau ideal of refinement.

Four to grow by

1

Find the routine that works best for you. Learn from the pros, but don’t copy them. I followed Arnold Schwarzenegger, Samir Bannout and others, but the time came when I had to modify those lessons to do what worked best for my body. Listen to your own body. You will find that some exercises your idol uses won’t necessarily work best for you.

2

Don’t overtrain. Yes, there is such a thing. It’s possible to burn a muscle to the point where it no longer fires. If you’re using heavy basic free-weight exercises and going to failure, 16 sets per muscle group are enough.

3

Ideal repetitions are eight to 10, but push the weight. Make sure the eighth or ninth rep is a failure rep; then, use a spotter for forced reps. If I can get 10 reps without a spot, it’s time to increase the weight.

4

Rest between sets only long enough for your training partner to do his set. Don’t let the pump subside; don’t lose your intensity. Your body and your mind need to retain the sensation of the previous difficult set.

Ahmad Haidar’s training split

Haidar trains Monday through Friday, with Saturday and Sunday off; however, he covers his entire body in four days, which means that his Monday workout is repeated on Friday. The workouts then continue, in rotational order, the following week.

1. Chest, biceps, calves and abs
2. Legs
3. Shoulders, triceps, calves and abs
4. Back and traps

I was about 12 when my dad introduced me to the weight room. Once he got the train rolling, it didn’t plan on stopping. As I grew older and more knowledgeable about bodybuilding, I realized what advantages a powerful physique could give me in sports. Sports were very big for me growing up, and I always wanted to be the best, so putting time in the gym everyday outside of practice was no big deal to me. To be the best you have to train harder than the rest. This type of mentality took me to the college football level. After a torn ACL in spring ball of my sophomore year, I knew that only better things would be in store for me as I switched over to the fitness world. I give recognition to the science of bodybuilding, to my dad for getting me started, mom for all the grocery trips, to the genetics inherited, and God for making everything possible up to this point.

Care to share some of your accomplishments?

The ultimate accomplishment would be the ability to understand my body more than ever before. I am eating and living healthier, while improving my physique one day at a time. I might live as a bodybuilder, but I also take pride in my academics as well. I thoroughly enjoy the sport of bodybuilding, but I must also prepare myself for future career endeavors. I have either been on the president’s or dean’s list academically all throughout college up until this point.

As far as bodybuilding goes, I competed in two competitions in the spring of ’09 where in my last one I placed 5th in Men’s Open Heavyweight. Not the greatest accomplishment, but that was my first time competing against experienced 30 year olds at age 20. I will compete in the future, and have set a goal to win a men’s open overall title. I was also recruited to be an affiliate for the tried and true supplement company Cellucor.

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What keeps you motivated to reach your goals?

When it comes to bodybuilding I am my own worst critic. Give me a mirror and I will find a lagging body part or a muscle that could be improved. If you are looking for motivation go to a local bodybuilding show or even compete in one. That to me is the ultimate motivation, seeing individuals who have taken their mind and body to the edge in competition is truly inspiring. It truly an indescribable experience.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjyQX4c8xoY

What’s your philosophy on training?

My main philosophy with training routines is just to listen to your body. You can read all of these workouts and diets that the pro’s do, and while they might be very good, nobody’s body works the same. Progress will definitely come when you listen to what your body is telling you. If you had a great workout one night and felt so good, reflect on your meals throughout the day. Meals are a 100 times more important than what most people realize. Developing an efficient diet will take your physique to the next level. As I always say abs are made in the kitchen not in the weight room.

Going back to the listening to your body idea, there are times when I will go heavier with around 6-10 reps, and then times that I will go with lighter weight with around 10-15 reps…or even 20 reps (leg days). Obviously you want to train with as much weight as possible with as many reps as possible but we are all human! I always keep it intense with supersets but sometimes my joints wear down from heavy poundage. I believe bigger body parts require more sets than the smaller ones. I tend to vary the volume of working sets and reps based on my current body fat or goals.

If your joints are aching, or maybe you have lingering injuries (you have to be careful especially at a lower body fat percentage), lighten the weight up and focus on a higher rep pump (SQUEEZE!). I usually do a couple warm up sets on the first exercise of that body part. I have found personally that stretching has worked the best for me after the entire workout instead of before. When it comes to which set of dumbbells you are going to pick up, set your ego down and pick up the smart thing. Injuries will set you farther behind. Believe me!

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Could you share with us an insight on your workout routine?

Here is my current training split:
Monday: Chest/Calves
Tuesday: Back
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Bi’s/Tri’s/Forearms
Friday: Legs
Saturday: Shoulders/Abs
Sunday: Off

• Currently preparing for a contest so I am doing calves, forearms, and abs twice a week.
• Shooting for cardio around 3 times a week.
• I do my best to avoid four days of lifting in a row. Recovery is the biggest part to growing, so avoiding over training is very important.
• The exercises for the particular body part I’m training also vary from workout to workout. I’ve gotten to where I just improvise from one exercise to another based on what I feel I need. I like to throw in bands and chains when applicable to mix it up.
• Continue muscle growth with the addition of forced, negative, and partial reps
• You are an artist! Sculpt the physique you wish to attain.

What’s your philosophy on nutrition? How does your diet change leading up to shows/photo shoots?

You will never see your full potential until you master your nutrition. I have yet to completely master my nutrition, but I have learned enormous amounts of knowledge up to this point. Everybody’s metabolism is different. I feel that when you get the hang of how your metabolism works you can figure out what helps and hurts you. For me, I started manipulating my protein until I figured out how much I needed to look and feel my best. Once I got my protein down I started messing with my carbs, and recently I have been experimenting with my fats. I try to drink at least 2 gallons of water a day for efficient digestion, absorption, hydration, and a recently discovered natural test boost.

This process has taken me years to determine, and I am still introducing new foods and strategies into my diet to give me the best look. I eat 8 or 9 meals a day counting shakes, usually spread out over about every two hours. This, for one will help speed up my metabolism. For more help on nutrition check out some of the tools offered on bodybuilding.com. As far as getting ready for shows and photo shoots, I get strict with

the number game (grams of each source). Keeping track of your numbers enables you to detect problems, making it easier to make proper adjustments. Obviously when dieting for a show you are going to want to drop your carbs to induce efficient fat burning, and raise your protein to evade muscle loss in the process.

Whats your supplementation like if any? Anything you prefer to use?

I run through 5lb. tubs of whey protein and casein like it’s nothing. I usually consume two whey shakes a day, and then a whey/casein shake with skim milk(off-season) or water(pre-contest) before bed. I’ve always loved the flavors of protein Optimum Nutrition offers, and I also take the multivitamin they offer. My company of preference for all other needs is Cellucor. All products are 100% money back guaranteed, and have been the guarantee I seem to rely on when I need a boost in supplementation. I use Cellucor preworkout formulas M5 and N0 for untouched focus and pumps. I also look to their P6 test booster for lean gains, and especially the D4 thermal shock for getting cut to shreds before competitions.

Any tips or advice for beginners?

When you walk on stage, or even notice the slightest change in physical appearance you will recognize that all the previous pain and suffering was worth the end result so:

• Be Consistent- if you are going to make a change, what’s the point in wasting time half-way doing it?
• Be Disciplined- if you want to be a champion, prepare yourself for achievement.
• Get Focused- mind over matter!
• Be Creative- keep it interesting and productive
• Be PATIENT- “Rome wasn’t built in a day”

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Once again I’d like to thank God for the opportunity to do what I love. Thanks to my family and friends for their support. I’d like to thank trainer Brett Underwood at

Extreme Health Club for all his help and encouragement in my bodybuilding quest. I’d also like to thank fullyflexed.com for being recognized among all of the tremendous athletes on this website, and to the people at Cellucor for all of the help here recently.

www.cellucor.com (discount code – MB0629) **supplements to change your life

www.sixpackbags.com (discount code- MB0629) **a must have for dieters

1.866.927.9686 (mention Weaver for a discount on all supplements)

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email me- bartleyweaver@gmail.com for information on cheap personalized diets

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Six Pack Bags at Mr.O

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6 Pack at The Arnold

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For some reason, my front delts simply aren’t very developed. My middle and rear delts are doing okay, but when I look in the mirror, my shoulders don’t appear as thick and full as I think they should be, and they don’t tie in to my pecs very well. Here’s my shoulder workout. What can I do to bring up my front delts?
Sincerely, Delt a Bad Hand

Dear Delt a Bad Hand,

The first thing you need to do is make sure your shoulder workout centers around your front deltoids. You can do this in ways other than simply adding more front raises.

First, replace your overhead dumbbell presses with either overhead barbell or Smith machine presses to the front at least every other workout. Reason being, any overhead press in which you lower the bar in front of your face will target the front delts in addition to the middle delts. With dumbbell presses, the tendency is to keep the weights out to your sides, which doesn’t place any extra stress on the front delts. Also, we see that upright rows are absent from you routine–add them in, as they’ll help.

The next thing you should do is change the angle on your front raises–specifically, add incline barbell front raises to your routine on a regular basis. This exercise is great for keeping constant, isolated tension on the front delts. The form is simple: Lie faceup on an incline bench and use a palms-down grip on a relatively light barbell. Begin with the bar at arm’s length just above your thighs. Contract your front delts to lift the bar (keeping your arms straight) until it’s just shy of perpendicular to the floor. Lower it back down without letting the bar rest on your quads between reps. This is just one example of a front-delt isolator you should add to your routine; get creative with other front raises as well, using cables, one-arm variations and other options to shock your muscles.

The “pimped-out” routine below incorporates all the exercises we’ve just mentioned to bring up your front delts. Yet overall balance, especially in the oft-injured shoulder joint, is key, which is why you’ll finish your routine with rear-delt raises or flyes. The last thing we want is for you to come back to us in a few months complaining about your lagging rear delts.

Sloppy to sliced

Adding new muscle to your frame is an admirable pursuit, but no matter how much weight you lift in the gym, you’ll never obtain that tight, shredded look you covet without chipping away at your bodyfat stores. Many people mistakenly think that losing fat is simply a matter of exercising more and eating less, yet a bodybuilder can’t afford to arbitrarily hack calories and run until it hurts. It’s about striking a balance. These tips will help you get lean without losing hard-earned muscle.

1 Cycle Carbs

Limit your carbohydrate intake for 4-5 days, then boost carbs for the following two days. When you cut calories you lose fat, but when you cut calories and limit your carbs to 100 grams or less for 4-5 days, the body goes into a fat-burning mode that’s influenced both by fewer calories and a favorable hormonal shift. When you reverse the process and increase your carb intake to 250-300 grams for two days, you drive your metabolism even higher. Just remember to keep protein intake high to spare muscle tissue.

2 Clock Your Carbs

Too many carbs can make you fat, but too few for an extended period can slow your metabolism. That’s why timing is important: Consume a hefty sum of your daily carbohydrates at breakfast and after training. Eating at least 50 grams of fast-digesting carbs first thing in the morning and immediately postwork-out hinders training-induced muscle breakdown and keeps cortisol, a stress hormone that destroys muscle and slows metabolism, in check.

3 Use BCAAs to Preserve Muscle

To help prevent catabolism, take 5-10 grams of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) with breakfast as well as before and after training. Ingested preworkout, BCAAs are used by the body as a substitute fuel source so it doesn’t tap into stored muscle protein to get through a session. Also, when you’re going low-carb, BCAAs can better trigger protein synthesis.

4 Make Carbs Work for You

Since building muscle is the best way to burn more fat in the long run, you need to make your workouts intense enough to elicit the gains you want. Taking in 20 grams of fast-digesting whey protein and 20-40 grams of slow-digesting carbs (from sources such as fruit, sweet potatoes or brown rice) 30 minutes or less before your first rep helps you power through your workouts with the required intensity. Keep the weight loads up and your rest periods short to burn through your preworkout fuel.

5 Increase Neurotransmitters

What’s a neurotransmitter? Think spark plug. These chemicals in the brain signal the body’s internal fat-burning machinery to shift into an active state. Caffeine, evodiamine and tea (green, oolong and black) boost these fat-fighting chemicals, especially when taken before training and in the absence of carbohydrates. Dosages vary, but each can be taken in a stack with other fat-burners 2-3 times a day, with at least one of those doses coming 30-60 minutes preworkout.

6 Prioritize Slow-Burning Carbs

Slow-digesting carbs such as beans, whole-grain breads and pastas, oatmeal, brown rice and sweet potatoes should constitute the bulk of your daily carbohydrate intake (the exceptions being first thing in the morning and immediately postworkout). Slow carbs reduce the effect of insulin, the hormone that initiates both hunger and fat storage. Research confirms that athletes who consume slow-digesting carbs burn more fat throughout the day as well as during exercise.

7 Snack Right

Sugar-free yogurt and cottage cheese are quite possibly the perfect snack foods. Their slow-digesting carbs prevent your insulin levels from going through the roof. Also, dairy products contain plenty of calcium, which can affect calcitriol levels in the body; calcitriol makes the body’s fat-storing system inefficient at manufacturing fat. Keep low-fat cottage cheese and sugar-free yogurt at your office to avoid the call of the vending machine throughout the day.

8 Always Feed the Machine

Prolonged low-cal diets end up impairing your metabolism over time. One way to get around these inevitable slowdowns is to eat constantly in small quantities. Consuming multiple small meals each day–eating every 1 1/2-2 hours–stimulates thermogenesis, which supports metabolism. While dieting is about restriction, doing so while eating as often as possible allows your body to roll right through potential metabolic slowdowns.

9 Employ Arginine

Taking 3-10 grams of this amino acid an hour before training increases blood flow to the muscles, boosting metabolism and enhancing your pump. It also magnifies the natural growth hormone (GH) burst associated with training, which amps muscle growth and steers the body toward using fat for fuel instead of muscle protein and glycogen.

10 Avoid Carbs Late

Hit the sheets light on carbs. When you go to bed in a carb-deprived state, your body maximizes its natural GH output. GH favorably shifts metabolism and causes more calories to be burned, with a greater amount of those calories being derived from bodyfat. One caveat for evening trainees: You should still consume 40-60 grams of fast-digesting carbs immediately after workouts to kick-start recovery. The bulk of those carbs will be burned or stored as glycogen, leaving blood-sugar levels fairly flat. As long as your blood sugar is stable at bedtime, you’ll max out on GH release while you slumber, putting you in a position to grow muscle, not fat.

11 Drink Tea Regularly

Adequate hydration is essential for performing at optimum levels and keeping your metabolism high. Drink about half your bodyweight in ounces per day; in other words, if you weigh 180 pounds, drink about 90 ounces of water daily. Yet that doesn’t mean you can’t make some of that liquid work overtime for you. For instance, try brewing green tea, which contains antioxidants that increase calorie-burning, or adding ginseng, which can keep blood-sugar levels stable to help you get lean.

12 Use Glutamine and Taurine

These two aminos help maintain your body’s anabolic environment while dieting. When you reduce calories and carbs, cortisol levels often rise. Glutamine interferes with cortisol uptake, staving off protein loss and muscle breakdown. Taken postworkout with fast-digesting carbs, glutamine also assists in recovery by pulling water into muscle cells; it has been found to significantly boost metabolic rate as well.

Another crucial amino acid, taurine enhances water retention within muscles, giving them a greater anabolic edge. Take 5-10 grams of glutamine and 1-3 grams of taurine pre- and post-workout to continue dropping bodyfat.

13 Eliminate All Fat

Okay, not all of it. Do away with most fat for 4-5 days to bust through a sticking point in your fat-loss efforts. (Temporarily eliminating fat leverages the body to burn more stored body-fat.) No chicken breasts, no lean meat, no egg yolks. Ditch even oatmeal, which contains small amounts of fat. Instead, consume near-zero-fat protein sources such as turkey breast, egg whites, fat-free cottage cheese and protein powders. Your body is extremely adaptable, however, so even the zero-fat approach stops working after 4-5 days. That’s when you can return to protein-rich foods that provide more fat.

Mass made simple

Gaining mounds of appreciable muscle doesn’t seem to come easy for most people. It’s rarely for lack of enthusiasm in the gym, though; where most lifters fall short is in their diets. Using the proper approach with whole foods and supplements makes all the difference between being barrel-chested and bare-boned. This assortment of tactics will help you start piling muscle onto muscle in no time.

14 Ditch the Low-Fat/Fat-Free Approach

Strict low-fat diets are for getting lean. When gaining mass, make sure you include olive oil, avocado and whole eggs in your diet, as well as lower-fat–not fat-free–yogurt, milk and cheese. These types of dietary fats drive growth and recovery. Fat also spares the use of protein as an energy source, meaning the protein you eat is directed to its most crucial role–building mass. Fat also supports the natural production of testosterone and GH, two major players in the mass game. Make sure your daily calorie intake is about 30% of calories from fat, mostly from healthy sources such as egg yolks, fatty fish, nuts and seeds.

15 Splurge Occasionally

Stepping up your calorie intake once a week can actually trigger new growth. When you radically increase calories–even with foods you may not typically find in the pages of M & F, such as pizza, burgers, fried food and desserts–the body responds by increasing anabolic hormones responsible for repairing damaged muscle tissue. Plus, this type of occasional dietary splurge keeps you sane while eating clean.

16  Use Powder

Protein is nutrient No. 1 when it comes to building mass. To maximize your protein intake, make at least two of your 5-6 daily meals a protein shake. Powders are more readily absorbed than tougher proteins such as meat and poultry, and you can generally control your portion down to the gram. The two most critical times to have protein shakes are right before (20 grams) and after (40-60 grams) workouts.

17 Crank Up the T & C

Weightlifting boosts levels of testosterone, the muscle-building hormone, and increases the density of T receptors in muscles, allowing greater amounts of testosterone to do its job. After a few weeks, however, the training-induced testosterone burst declines. That’s where T boosters come into play. Taking 500-750 mg of tribulus terrestris an hour before workouts increases luteinizing hormone, which in turn improves testosterone levels. In addition, taking 1,000 mg of vitamin C after training lowers levels of cortisol, the stress hormone released during training that suppresses testosterone uptake by muscles. The net effect: enhanced testosterone status, leading to greater muscle strength, recovery and mass.

18 Go With Garlic

How can something that’s edible but contains hardly any calories, carbs, protein or fat yield gains in mass? By influencing natural hormones in the body that support growth. Getting big is about macronutrients–protein, carbs and fat–as well as hormones. Animal research shows that a high garlic intake combined with a high protein intake produces increased testosterone levels and less muscle breakdown–the elusive anabolic state!

19 Supplement During Training

A sports drink consumed during exercise can shut down the usual muscle breakdown associated with hard training. Select a product that contains glucose (50-60 grams of carbs), add 10-20 grams of whey and sip throughout your workout.

20 Flush the System

Everyone hits plateaus. You eat like crazy and yet inevitably hit a wall. What to do? Take 10 days and pull back on your carb intake, then go back to high carbs. Let’s say you’re eating 400 grams of carbs a day. Cut back to 200-250 grams for 10 days, then go up to 500 for a couple of days before leveling back off to 400. What happens? Your body slingshots right through that plateau and you continue to grow. A chronic high-carb diet makes enzymes that store carbs lazy and less effective. When you pull back on and then add carbs back in, you revamp and recharge your glycogen-storing machinery, allowing you to get back on a growth spurt.

21 Let Salt Work for You

Bodybuilders often make a fuss when someone recommends salt as part of a diet, but keep in mind that sodium is a major mineral your body needs. Salt regulates metabolism by increasing the body’s ability to store carbohydrates in muscles. Generally, greater carb storage yields greater mass gains. That’s why bodybuilders who eliminate salt in hopes of getting ripped for a competition often fail to look the way they hope to. A lack of sodium reduces the body’s ability to make muscle glycogen, and too little glycogen leads to muscles devoid of fullness.

In addition, salt helps amino acids and creatine pass readily into muscle cells, creating growth. We’re not suggesting you shovel in salt at every meal, but you don’t need to worry about buying low-sodium foods. And if you feel like a dash of salt on your steak or rice, go right ahead.

22 Eat Meat

When it comes to mass, red meat is the way to go. Gram for gram, lean red meat contains more B vitamins, creatine, iron and zinc–all vital for growth–than any other protein source. If mass gains are something you’re truly serious about, you must consume red meat on a fairly frequent basis.

23 Eat Fatty Fish

Six-ounce helpings of fatty fish such as bluefish, sardines, salmon and trout provide 32 grams of muscle-building protein and up to 18 grams of omega-3 fatty acids. These fats reduce muscle inflammation, in turn encouraging muscle repair and helping to control cortisol. As cortisol levels fall, testosterone levels generally rise, promoting gains in mass. Omega-3s also alter the fate of glucose, the energy byproduct of carbs. Glucose can be stored as muscle glycogen (promoting growth) or bodyfat, and consuming a diet rich in omega-3 fats shortchanges bodyfat stores by pushing the majority of glucose into muscles.

24 Adjust for Inflation

If you’re not gaining mass yet have energy in the gym, it’s likely that you’re eating enough carbs but not enough protein to build new muscle tissue. So if you’re currently following the golden rule of 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day, immediately move that up to 1.5 grams per pound and muscle will come your way.

25 Emphasize Post-workout Nutrition

How and what you eat right after the gym can make or break your physique. Packing in 60-100 grams of fast-digesting carbs, such as a sports drink, fat-free sorbet or white bread with jam, and 40-60 grams of whey protein immediately after training drives muscles into a state of growth and recovery.

General Tips

While the previous tips are aimed at two specific groups–those looking to get lean and those wanting to gain mass–some advice applies to every physique-minded lifter. The following tips should be used by all bodybuilders, no matter the training goal.

26 Cheat Right

If you’re a bodybuilder getting ready for a show, you know you have to get onstage with one small piece of cloth as the only thing preventing you from being naked. It’s easier to stay motivated and never cheat in that context. But the rest of us who just want to look better are a little more susceptible to the occasional food binge. That’s okay. But if you go overboard, do it on protein. Choose a very large steak, a small potato and salad over a huge pasta meal or pizza because the protein and fat in steak hangs around the gut far longer, making you feel full and allowing you to reassess how hungry you really are. Also, protein can increase chemicals that signal the brain to make you feel full, whereas carbs can do the opposite and trigger the release of chemicals that make you feel hungry.

27 Pack Your Food

One reason many trainees fail to get big and ripped is that they get suckered into cheating by eating foods that are off the reservation. When you cook and pack your food, you’re the master of your destiny. Reaching into your insulated lunch box for a microwaveable helping of steak and rice is much better for you than hitting the drive-thru every day.

28 Snack Right

Stuck in a cubicle all day? We know the feeling. But that’s no reason to fall off the wagon every time you get a sweet tooth at work. Cucumber slices marinated in vinegar, salt and Splenda; sugar-free Jell-O or Popsicles; strawberries; and cantaloupe are some of the very best get-ripped snacks because they yield next to nothing in the calorie department and satisfy the urge to eat something sweet. If you snack on something else–say, a banana nut muffin–you have no one to blame but yourself for the effect on your physique.

29 Go Big at Breakfast

If you’re looking to lean out, breakfast helps ignite your metabolism for the day ahead. When you skip this meal, your metabolism sputters like a dying campfire. A healthy breakfast also keeps you from gorging on something less nourishing at mid-morning.

For mass-gainers, eating breakfast puts the brakes on sleep-triggered catabolism. Remember, when you wake up you’ve essentially been fasting for 6-8 hours, sending your body on the hunt for energy anywhere it can find it, and eventually your muscles become the target. For either goal, strive for breakfast containing a minimum of 30 grams of protein along with 30-50 grams of carbs.

30 Hydrate

Consuming plenty of water is easy to do. It’s also easy to overlook. Getting an adequate amount of water ensures that your body runs on all cylinders. Need we remind you that your body is more than 70% water and that nearly every bodily process requires it? Plus, you’re active, which means you need more water than most. Forget about 6-8 glasses a day–aim for at least half your bodyweight in ounces of water per day, minimum. As a bonus, chugging 2 cups of cold water can have a positive impact on your metabolism.

31 Be Punctual

Whether you’re trying to get shredded or pack on the mass, always eat immediately after training. Is it pointless if you wait longer than three minutes after your final rep to chug your protein shake? No, but you shouldn’t wait more than an hour after training–that’s just too long. When you hit the iron, your hormones and enzyme processes go haywire and demand energy in the form of carbs and protein to get the body back to a state of balance. If you eat fairly soon after exercise, you match up supply with the body’s demands. If you wait, demand wanes. Calories taken in after the one-hour window are still used for recovery and growth but not nearly to the same extent.

Pack your own lunch. Too much trouble? Too boring? Just think of how much better you’ll eat and how many hundreds of dollars you’ll save, all with just a little advance planning and prep time. Our favorite lunches are, of course, good leftovers. If you’re making something tasty and healthy for dinner, make enough extra for a lunch or two during the week (and hide your leftover portion from your family members).

Shopping list

Since you can’t always count on having leftovers, shop for some lunchtime basics. Here are a few standards:

• Eggs:

  Hard-boil them so you’ll have a batch on hand. They’re good in sandwiches and on salads. One whole egg has 6.29 grams of high-quality protein; the white has 3.2 grams. You can discard the yolks if you can’t afford the fat.

• Tuna and samlon:

  Tuna has always been a mainstay of bodybuilders’ diets, and canned salmon and salmon in a pouch are great alternatives. Both types of fish contain high-quality protein and healthy omega-3 fatty acids with very little saturated fat, says Melanie Polk, RD, director of nutrition education for the American Institute for Cancer Research. The mercury content in fish shouldn’t be a concern for most people. However, the FDA recommends that women and young children limit their intake of fish to 12 ounces a week. Tip: Canned light tuna contains less mercury than albacore tuna.

• Lunch meat:

  This is a convenient source of lean protein. Look for brands with low fat and less sodium. Since processed meats tend to be high in nitrates that may increase the risk of some cancers, don’t eat them every day, says Polk. And don’t keep deli-counter lunch meat more than a few days, as it spoils quickly, she adds. For less-processed, lower-sodium protein, see “Gobble This” on the preceding page.

• Breads:

  Select whole-wheat or wholegrain bread. Make sure whole wheat and/or whole grain tops the ingredients list and look for 2 grams of fiber per slice.

• Cottage cheese:

  A handy protein food you don’t need to cook. Choose low-fat or fat-free. Add fruit or chopped onion and bell pepper. Freshly ground pepper is tasty on cottage cheese as well.

• Fresh vegetables:

  Lettuce, cabbage, bell peppers, onion, tomatoes–anything you like chopped or sliced on your sandwich. “Put more veggies than meat on your sandwich,” advises Polk.

• Fruit:

  Apples, oranges, kiwi, bananas, grapes, cherries, peaches, apricots and more–whatever’s in season. “Pack a piece of fruit or two along with your lunch for an afternoon snack,” says Polk. That way you won’t be tempted to buy something greasy, salty or sugary from the vending machine come mid-afternoon.

• Yogurt:

  What’s more convenient than individual containers of light yogurt? Check labels to make sure you don’t end up with sugary, higher-fat versions (unless you need the extra calories).

• Fat-free or low-fat cheese:

  You can get tasty lower-fat cheese pre-sliced for your sandwiches. Try cheddar, sharp cheddar, Swiss and less common varieties like Havarti.

• Fat-free mayo:

  This can add moisture and flavor to dry, bland sandwiches.

• Mustard:

  The low-fat condiment comes in varying strengths from mild to hot. It can really spice up a sandwich.

What’s the difference between doing chest pullovers and lat pullovers? Should the exercise be modified depending on which bodypart you’re trying to work?

A:

You may have noticed that some bodybuilders do pullovers in their chest routines while some do them for their backs. What gives? Well, both the pecs and lats, not to mention the long heads of the triceps, are involved in pullovers. (One muscle that’s often thought to be involved but isn’t is the serratus anterior.)

Which muscle you’re stressing the most depends on the range of motion (ROM) you use. The chest and triceps’ long heads are maximally involved when you move from the overhead position (or beyond) to perpendicular to the body. The pecs span from the sternum and collarbone all the way to a tendon on the front of the humerus (upper arm bone). Because they’re located on the front of the body, they have the strongest line of pull from this position. Once the arms are perpendicular to the body, the pecs aren’t able to pull the arms farther.

The long head of the triceps is maximally involved because it’s stretched in this overhead position, allowing it to contract with the utmost force. The closer the arms come toward perpendicular to the body and beyond, the less the stretch in the triceps’ long heads and the less help they provide.

The lats are also involved to assist the pecs in bringing the arms from overhead to perpendicular, but they don’t get the most emphasis in this ROM. Because they’re attached to the spine, they’re at a biomechanical disadvantage here. The ROM in which the lats are maximally involved is moving the arms from perpendicular to the body to the sides. Since the chest can’t provide much pull in this ROM, the lats take over to complete the move.

Of course, if you’re performing pullovers on a flat bench, the ROM stops when your arms are perpendicular to your body. After that point, if you continue to extend your arms, the weight will just fall toward your hips. One way to overcome this and emphasize the lats is to use a decline bench, which allows you to increase the ROM. By declining your head, your hips are higher and the point at which your arms are perpendicular to the floor is no longer where they’re perpendicular to yourbody, as they’re now closer to your hips.

Final thought

The pullover does involve both the pecs and lats, as well as the triceps’ long heads. Yet you can place greater emphasis on the chest or back depending on which ROM you use.

For chest, perform pullovers lying crosswise on a flat bench and maintain a slight bend in your elbows, emphasizing the stretch as you drop the weight behind your head. We suggest using a dumbbell.

For lats, do your pullovers on as much of a decline as possible, maintaining a slight bend in the elbows to protect them from strain. We suggest using a barbell. Another way to increase the ROM at the bottom of the pullover is to use a decline bench and a low-pulley cable. This lets you bring the bar all the way to your hips for the greatest lat involvement. This version mimics the straight-arm pulldown, which is simply a pullover done standing up.

Done correctly, the pullover can seriously develop chest and lats

What is Overtraining? Let’s start off with a quick definition of overtraining.

Overtraining occurs when you push your body too hard and pass the point that your body is able to recover from. To make gains you must overload the muscles and then allow adequate time for recovery and growth by resting. Overtraining occurs when either the overload is too high, or the rest period aka recovery time is too low.

Workout Intensity

Now, you must train with a high enough intensity to overload the muscles which cause’s tiny tears to occur in the muscle fibres. After training these tears start to repair and then grow back slightly larger than before when your body has fully recovered from training.

Training with an intensity that is too low, for example not completing enough sets, or not using enough weight will not effectively break down the muscle fibres meaning no growth will occur as the fibres will not grow back larger and stronger than before if they have not been effectively overloaded during training… If the muscles can handle the weight that is being moved easily then there is no need for them to grow bigger and stronger.. So they won’t!

On the other hand training with an intensity that is too high will cause the muscle fibres to break down past a point of recovery, meaning the tears in the muscle are more severe and will require days of rest, or even weeks and months of rest and therapy in some more severe cases of over training.

When the intensity of your training is too high you are not allowing the muscles enough time to recover and rebuild. Over training can occur from training a muscle group before it has had time to fully recover from a previous session, such as training each body part 2-3 times per week… After you have finished training, the muscles that you worked will take usually somewhere between 24-48 hours to recover from training. It is only AFTER this period of recovery that any growth occurs, this is why for example training your arms on a Monday and again on a Wednesday is not recommended as although you may feel ok and ready to train them again and any soreness from the previous workout may have gone, the reality is that the muscles have only just entered the window of time in which any growth will occur, and working the same muscles again will break them back down and prevent any growth.

Less is More

Many people are under the impression that more is better, however this is often not the case when trying to gain muscle. To break this down and make it a little easier to understand, think of digging a hole, the time that you spend in the gym training is equivalent to digging a hole, the time your body needs after to recover from training is how long it takes to re-fill the hole, and piling a mound of dirt on top of the hole is growth of the muscle. So, you can pile extra dirt on top ONLY when the hole has been re-filled, which takes time! If you dig a hole that is too deep, it will take too long to re-fill… and there will be no time to place extra dirt on top… this means no muscle growth!! Training a body part 2 days in a row would be equivalent to digging one hole, and then continuing to dig the same hole even deeper the next day… you will never have the chance to pile any dirt on top which means you will never gain any muscle training like this. In fact you are moving backwards, you will probably be losing muscle and almost certainly over training!

How Many Sets Should I do?

The key is to find a balance between training with a high enough intensity to break down the muscle fibers without training so much that your body cannot recover from the training. This will vary from person to person and there is no exact routine of method of training that will guarantee the best results for everybody, you have to find what works for your own body. I often see people asking how many sets they should complete for each muscle group and although each individual is different and there are no exact numbers that will work for everyone I can give a recommended set range for each muscle group, this is aimed at those who are training for muscle gains and have some background training under their belt, preferably at least some sort of beginners routine for 10 weeks or so. Larger muscle groups like back and legs can obviously be trained with more sets than the smaller muscle groups like biceps that can get an intense workout from just a few exercises. Another common mistake of overtraining is hitting the biceps with too many sets, you could walk into almost any gym and find someone doing 20 odd sets on their biceps being under the incorrect impression that ‘more is better’.

We’ve hit the lab once again because you keep putting us to the test. This month we examine the biceps curl, comparing the barbell version with dumbbells. Keep the questions coming.

Your question

Which is better for building big biceps–the barbell curl or dumbbell curl?

What we did

We had 10 highly trained athletes participate in this study of muscle activation through EMG analysis. We measured muscle activity in both the short and long head of the biceps. The athletes performed both the barbell curl and dumbbell curl using 75% of their one-rep max (1RM) for four repetitions each.

What we found

The barbell curl and the dumbbell curl both involved the short (inner) head and the long (outer) head of the biceps similarly, with the short head being stimulated to a greater degree.

For discussion

The debate over performing biceps curls with a barbell vs. dumbbells could be of less importance than ensuring that you incorporate multiple angles in your biceps training. Both a barbell and dumbbells will hit the short and long heads of the muscle similarly. However, they both seem to focus the stress more on the short or inner head. Because the long or outer head gives the biceps the peak, be sure you don’t rely solely on barbell and dumbbell curls. Instead, include exercises that are known to stress the long head, like the EZ-bar curl and seated incline curl.

Final thought

Your arms might lag behind because you’re doing the same routine every week. First you hit the dumbbell rack and bang out some curls, or you head to the fixed barbells and follow suit, right? Well, next time you hit the gym, start with barbell or dumbbell curls, then move to the incline bench, where your arms are angled in such a way that the long head is highly stimulated, then do preacher curls to focus more on the short head. Keep mixing it up for maximum gains!