I got a lot of nerve showing up here again like this. I was called out as being decidedly not an adult male because at 5’10″ I am still under 200 lbs. And now I’m even under-er.
The 2010 USAPL Florida State Powerlifting Championship is coming up in ten days and I’m planning to compete in it. I’d wanted to compete at least once in the 82.5 kg, but in my zeal to get bigger and stronger I jumped over an entire weight class in one month and landed square in the middle of the 90.0 kg.
I’d competed at the tippy-top of the 75 kg class at exactly 165 lbs in September when I ground out a very hard 369 lb suitless/wrapless squat on my third attempt. (I also just missed a 474 lb deadlift by failing to lock out. Don’t ask about my bench. Ever.) Next I went up to 175 lbs and a 405 single squat in the gym and then got smaller and weaker in an attempt to make the 75 kg once more at the 2009 USAPL Maryland States in December. The meet got canceled the night before because of that incredible snowstorm.
Heavy training began again in late December. In just over a month I went from 165 lbs and squatting 325×3 to 185 lbs and 405x3x3. I even manage to hit a high bodyweight of 190 for a couple of hours.
As I type this I’ve been dieting lightly for almost a week and I’m down to 181 lbs, just under the 181.9 lb limit in the 82.5 kg class. I made it! I also just deadlifted a little over 500 lbs a few hours ago in my last heavy session before meet day.
Looks like I’m on track to squat 440 and pull a little over 500 in my weight class which you’ll notice is almost 20 lbs shy of my adult male size. And I’m…OK with that!
I’ll get back on track right after the meet. In fact, I’ll probably be 200 lbs before spring has fully sprung…though I fully intend to compete a little under that in the 90 kg/198 lb class in the USAPL Raw Nationals. I also plan to be an awful lot stronger by then too.
So forgive me for not being fully grown just yet. It will come. I hope you will enjoy my posts anyway as I get there.
“If I tell ya the truth, I’ll tell you a lie, but if you call me false I’ll also tell you a lie…”
Look, I know Doug Young was taking steroids, okay? Do you think I am some kind of moron? Everybody was on steroids in the seventies, and I don’t really care. Steroids are a tool utilized in order to recover — this is how they were used then, and this is how they are used now. I do not, and never have, taken steroids (if I did, I would be a shit-load stronger than I am now). All of my friends don’t take steroids either. And that’s the point.
What, you think a picture of my lousy 230 pound frame is going to inspire Skinny Guy to start lifting? No. I need everyone to epitomize something that is far beyond their reach so that they always have something to strive for. Doug and The Pizz do this. Ricky inspires you to train like you are insane. Us…not so much.
Studly? Yes. Inspiring? Probably. Doug Young caliber? Not quite...
Just because a guy is on steroids doesn’t make his success any less impressive. And just because most of us don’t take them doesn’t make us any better, or worse, than them. It’s not like Doug Young wasn’t a genetic specimen without them anyway, so grow up and quit worrying about it. If I set the bar high, then I give people something to strive for. So far the quest to being 70’s Big has helped turn many boys into men. Everyone wins.
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Here is some Reader Mail. Louis apparently had a PR on his squat workout in the linear progression. I am happy for Louis, but if I ever meet him I’m gonna slap him upside the head for not including the weight he was squatting. This bone head’s saving grace is the plug at the end of the vid…along with his beard that I felt that you should all see.
“Well, I’m a Lady, you see, and I like doing Lady Things.”
70’s Big co-captain Doug Young was a behemoth, a mastodon if you will. Some of you veterans will remember one of the first videos we posted about him a while back. Doug was an excellent powerlifter, yet this particular video ironically showcases his bodybuilding “routine”. Kinda flies in the face of our emphasis on doing the barbell lifts in order to get strong and big, huh?
Well, obviously Doug didn’t use alternating dumbbell curls and dumbbell flies to bench 612 in a t-shirt, to routinely total 2,000 lbs, or to win multiple world and national championships. He wanted to look strong while actually being strong. And that is the point.
Once you get your squat above, say, 500 pounds, then you can worry about doing curls.
It is a waste of time to worry yourself with aesthetics if you are 150 pounds — training “arms” won’t make a damn difference. Your arms will grow with overall increases in mass. Not to mention aesthetic based training isn’t going to help you become more useful anyway.
And please, cut the bullshit about doing certain things “for the girls”. Trying to claim that you know what a girl wants is amusing and not all girls are alike anyways. Realistically the only reason you should be pressured into doing curls is if Welbourn and Max tell you that you need some hypertrophy training…
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Brent was a little bothered by how none of you commented on his toilet scene in the Tour of WFAC. So, the unassuming Asian felt he had to step it up a notch.
Aside from having big traps and an extreme interest in interpretive dance, Brent is an Olympic weightlifter who is still growing into the 85 kilo weight class. He loves asking questions, eating good food, and typing nonsensical drivel to me in the wee hours of the night.
One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she’s ten feet tall
-Jefferson Airplane “White Rabbit”
Highly evolved humans
Q&A posts accomplish several things. First, they answer questions that readers have, hopefully providing some decent information. Second, they invite a little more commentary than the typical information-only posts. Third, they allow a busy (lazy?) writer to avoid crafting and editing a long original post. So, without totally mailing it in, let’s answer some reader questions before the big article comes out.
“Let’s say you have a trainee who TRULY exhausted their linear gains, ate right, etc. Would taking AAS after one’s linear progression put you back in “linear progression” mode since your recovery rate has increased again?” (Justin C)
Good question. Let’s first talk about what it means to truly exhaust linear progression. Justin has previously mentioned how most people don’t finish linear progression. I would add the word “properly” as a modifier. I finished linear progression a couple years ago in that I added weight until I couldn’t anymore. However, I didn’t always eat or rest properly, so my recovery limited my progress. I exhausted linear progression per se, but I left about 15-40 pounds on each lift.
On the other hand, Justin and a handful of other guys did it right. I’m here to tell you that watching a guy train through his last weeks of linear progression is both inspiring and difficult. The amount of concentration and effort required to do this is staggering. Every set of squats looks like a five rep max—and it is. Yet they get under the bar and do it again two days later.
I recently spotted Brian (you’ve seen one of his videos) squatting 505 for three sets of five. I didn’t think he would finish his first set, yet he stood up with all 15 reps. It was amazing, and it looked like it nearly killed him. He looked to be within two workouts of finishing linear progression. Yet he went another month. I cannot overstate the amount of dedicated eating and resting this requires. That is what it takes to truly exhaust linear gains.
To answer Justin C’s question (finally!), yes, supplementation will yield more gains out of linear progression. And by more gains, I mean you will be linearly progressing for a longer period of time. We all have some “endpoint” by which we will exhaust linear gains. That endpoint is affected by genetics, training, and recovery factors. Steroids improve recovery by (simply speaking) enhancing anabolic (building) processes and minimizing and speeding up catabolic (tearing down) processes. By taking steroids, you are just moving your linear progression endpoint to the right (graphically speaking).
Rip has condemned steroid use for anyone on linear progression, and I agree. The consistent but modest loading and muscle building one experiences on linear progression helps the body and the nervous system adapt to increasing loads at a proper pace. Taking steroids and adding fifteen pounds to your squat every workout (instead of ten or five) spells trouble for a novice lifter who is still learning to squat correctly. It also robs you of the opportunity to truly find out what it takes—mentally and physically—to recover from this type of program.
So if you’re going to supplement steroids—and I’m not saying you should—you should wait until you’re nearly at the end of linear progression to do so. And I’m talking about the real dues-have-been-paid end of it. For example, if you reset your squat at 405 and again at 415, starting at a cycle at the third drop-down might get you to 435-445 (whereas you would have petered out at 420 before).
Natural or enhanced?
“How much of the gains made on steroids persist after going off steroids if you were near your physical strength limits before steroids?” (Dr. McFacekick)
It depends what you were taking, how much, and how you come off.
What you’re taking matters because some gear can be anabolic (promotes cell growth), androgenic (promotes virilization, or male characteristics), or both. As such, some are good for getting bigger and stronger, some are good for getting stronger but not bigger, and some are good for cutting fat while maintaining muscle mass (with no effect on strength).
A lot of the bulking agents (especially the heavy androgens) imply some amount of water retention, so true muscle size is inflated anyway on cycle. The question becomes how much of our non-water bulk do we keep when we come off cycle.
Generally speaking, you’ll maintain a greater percentage of your gains made off the milder (high anabolic/low androgenic) drugs. However, you will realize a greater net gain off of stronger gear (high anabolic and androgenic), assuming you come off properly.
Coming off properly refers to ending your cycle. When you’re on, your body stops producing its own testosterone in the presence of the artificial hormone. If you’re using a high enough dosage, some of the excess is being converted to estrogen in a process known as aromatization (this will all be covered). So you are in a situation where you have a surplus of estrogen but aren’t producing any testosterone. If you have ever dated an irrational woman (redundant?), you know how unstable this can be. So imagine quitting cold turkey and living like this.
Low test--high estrogen doesn't end well.
The answer, of course, is to come off properly. This will be covered in detail later, but the simple course of dealing is to
1) address the estrogen issue by reducing androgens and taking a SERM (estrogen inhibitor) as you come off;
2) restart natural testosterone production with HCG (gets the testes fired back up);
3) reset your hormone axis with Clomid;
4) deal with any outstanding Cortisol issues with Clenbuterol; and
5) adjust your diet to deal with your old hormonal patterns.
This is not as hard as it sounds. And if it is done properly, you can keep a lot of your gains.
How much you are taking affects the gains you keep. When talking steroids, more is better in terms of gains. If you’re taking a small dose or a replacement dose, you can keep a lot of gains because the human body “understands” those hormone levels. However, if you’re taking 2 grams a week, i.e. super natural levels, your body will not be able to maintain those gains because the levels are so artificially high.
So it’s not a simple answer. If you run a low dose of testosterone for 12 weeks and come off properly, you can expect to 3-8 pounds (or more in some cases) of lean body mass, which is incredible over a three month period. If you’re popping Anadrol-50 from a Pez dispenser, nah, you don’t get to keep that.
This is going to be the discussion question of the day.
There are a lot of variables, but let’s confine it to this:
1) Steroids are banned substances in professional sports;
2) They are banned because they give a performance edge over someone who doesn’t take them;
3) Professional athletes take them because they give a competitive edge; and
4) Professional athletes have to take them to stay competitive with other athletes who are using.
Is it cheating? Absolutely. But cheating becomes a relative term in professional sports. It’s like playing poker where everybody is looking at everybody else’s cards.
Discuss.
———————– Questions not answered here will be addressed in the forthcoming article.
It’s PR Friday, boys and girls. Post up weights lifted, calories consumed, or functional fitness gurus made of fun of. Natural, assisted, or otherwise. We’re a big tent here.
Edit: I would like to point out that this post is not comprehensive. It only scratches the surface. Hopefully it helps you understand that tissues adapt to the forces that they encounter. In order to heal, tissues will need an adaptive stress in normal movement patterns, so this is how rehab is most effectively done.
I will ironically do my best to detail the common types of injuries in lifting and how we typically will treat them. It is kind of hard to sit in one spot because of my back, but I will press on for you, the reader. Justin Lascek; Man of the People.
Muscle Belly Injuries
The most likely injury to happen is a muscle belly tear. Which muscle belly is dependent on the exercise being done, length of the warm-up, relative weight lifted, technique, and for some times for seemingly no god damn reason.
The standard protocol for muscle belly injuries is to wait till the initial bleeding process occurs, then make that muscle contract to get blood and lactate to it so that healing is promoted. This technique will also prevent any scar tissue forming as a result of the ancient and asinine “let it heal on its own” advice. We refer to this method as the Starr Rehab Protocol/Method/Whatever and it was originally developed by Bill Starr and has been taught by Mark Rippetoe since he learned it from Starr. The best description can be found here. There is no sense in discussing this any further, because Rip has already done so more than adequately.
Back Injuries
Back injuries are less common than muscle belly injuries, and are almost always caused by a form fault. The most typical reason that the back would structurally come out of alignment in a properly performed squat, deadlift, power clean, etc. will be when the upper or lower back undergoes flexion. My experience (coaching and otherwise) has been that this will happen right off the floor in a pull and during the beginning of the “up” phase in a squat (as the bounce or rebound occurs). You can have an over-extension of the back as well, but flexion-type injuries will be more common in a less experienced lifter. Sometimes the back can be slightly out of alignment before lifting at all, and then the additional load causes the problem.
Back injuries usually involve a wonky alignment of the spine, and this typically irritates the surrounding tissue. An ideal rehab protocol will include both spinal adjustment or manipulation as well as soft tissue treatment. Assuming there isn’t anyone in your gym that can do this, you’ll have to find a good chiropractor. I don’t know much about the practice of chiropractic, but my understanding is that more of them are getting involved in treating the soft tissue along with spinal adjustments. Some are familiar with A.R.T. as well, so finding one that can treat muscle tissue will be more useful. The good news is that most back injuries will heal on their own over time, assuming you are delicate with the rehab process.
It’s important to note that a back injury will not be rehabbed in the same way that a muscle belly will be. A couple days after the initial injury back extensions can be done for high reps in order to help the muscles around the injury, and squats and/or deadlifts can follow the day after. It is not uncommon for the injury to be a little painful while under a compressive load (at the top of a squat or deadlift). Halting deadlifts can be done (from the floor to just above the knee) early on so that you can get the isometric back work off the floor while avoiding any compressive forces that would be associated with the lockout — just try a light deadlift and see first. You won’t squat or deadlift for reps since you aren’t trying to heal a muscle belly that is going to be contracting eccentrically or concentrically — the muscles of the back are postural and will only act isometrically. This means that you would just do sets of five, starting with the bar and working up SLOWLY to what you can handle that day. Nobody can decide this but you, and you ideally would have to decide if you will work up to a single set, or do some sets across. Your goals will include not pushing it too far, especially early on, and keeping your back in complete extension whether it is in your lumbar or thoracic spine. The injury should be fine in two weeks at the most with the average time around a week to a week and a half.
Until the injury is fully healed, you will have to have some extra warm-up on your back prior to squatting. This can be done with back extensions, reverse hypers, extra sets of squats, or even a heat pad. Mike Street at Eastside Strength and Conditioning has this “thing” that has pre-heated towels in it, and when we did a seminar there last I used it before training. It was delightfully useful.
Wrist and Elbow Injuries
If you are just doing the linear progression, and you are experiencing elbow or wrist pain, this is most likely due to a grip problem on the squat. You are supporting some percentage of the weight in one or both of those joints instead of solely supporting it on your back. Shoulder flexibility is more than likely the limiting factor in getting into a correct position. Consult Starting Strength if you are confused about how your hands and wrists should be aligned. If flexibility is, in fact, the problem, then you may want to get a releasing massage — this will be quicker than trying to improve your crappy flexibility over time on your own.
If you are a weightlifter, then you may run into wrist and elbow problems during the jerk or snatch. These injuries are rare, but more serious. Dislocated elbows and broken wrists are going to require some professional help. Since they are less likely to occur, they leave the scope of this post.
The worst thing you can do with any of these injuries is to leave it alone and expect it to heal on its own. We always rehab injuries using compound, systemic movements. We use the press and chin-ups to heal shoulders and the squat to heal any muscle belly injury in the hips or legs. Isolation movements are a waste of time since they do not allow the muscle to function in the same way that it will in normal daily activities or any athletic endeavor.
