Quest to getting Striated Glutes, Quads, and Ham splits...

[Ivan25]

I am 4-weeks out from my contest.. don't think I'll be as lean as I want, but I will be competing 5-weeks later in another show... My question is when do you know you are on the right track to getting the striated glutes, quads, and ham splits? I have come up with 2 logically-based reasons:

1) Staying the course and being consistent.... Overtime with consistent cardio, nutritional adjustments and heavy lifting, you will begin to slowly get tighter and different body parts will start to come out...

2) Making tweaks in the cardio and diet.. For example, carb-cycling to break through a fat-set point OR body fat plateau...

#1 is synonymous with a gradual nonlinear decrease in body fat..

#2 is synonymous with a nonlinear decrease in body fat.. In other words, when you hit a plateau, you do an intense carb-cycle to manipulate the body to continue burning that stubborn fat...

[str8flexed]

it's pretty simple. get leaner and hit the high intensity sprints

[Ivan25]

Yeah but is that the only way? I didn't want to bring this up, but I might as well now... I was hitting sprints this weekend on the track, and this old guy with a belly said "Youre going to have knee surgery before your'e 40." I laughed to myself and couldnt believe that is the first thing a total stranger would say... Oh by the way, I was running with my shirt off and my abs are pretty ripped now.. Maybe he was jealous?

It got to me a little, but I got over it.. Amazing how there are ppl out there who are possessed to try and bring you down for whatever reason...

[Ivan25]

it's pretty simple. get leaner and hit the high intensity sprints

So all you do is: Lower total caloric intake over time AND do cardio? So in other words, you are voting for the Stay consisent choice and stick to the course, the body parts will start to come out over time?

I have 2 reasons why I am still not sure yet..

1) If it aint broke dont fix it.. Well, Ive hit a plateau, so maybe it needs fixing..

2) Doing the same thing expecting different results is the definition of insanity.. Or am I doing the right thing, just that as we get leaner, it takes longer?
Ivan

[ben2285]

it's pretty simple. get leaner and hit the high intensity sprints

x 1,000,000 hah.. I'm not sure what you are doing now for cardio or what your macros are but I can tell you what has worked wonders for me in my last few weeks: A mix of Intervals on the bike with the resistance all the way up and good ol outdoor sprinting intervals.

[AFGymRat]

Your legs will be the last muscle to become ripped. Maintain your strict diet/workouts/cardio. Be patient. I did not discover I had striated glutes until 2 days before my show.

[billfinkbiner]

x 1,000,000 hah.. I'm not sure what you are doing now for cardio or what your macros are but I can tell you what has worked wonders for me in my last few weeks: A mix of Intervals on the bike with the resistance all the way up and good ol outdoor sprinting intervals.

I'm 10 weeks out and started doing my bike intervals today. I will be doing them 3x's a week. I have fairly achey joints, so outdoor sprinting is not an option for me. But that bike will burn. I've read many articles in Ironman claiming that increased lactic asid levels lead to an increase in GH and the GH increases fat burning. Or just check pics of Ben #1 and Ben #2 both had striated glutes more than 2 weeks out.

[Ivan25]

I'm 10 weeks out and started doing my bike intervals today. I will be doing them 3x's a week. I have fairly achey joints, so outdoor sprinting is not an option for me. But that bike will burn. I've read many articles in Ironman claiming that increased lactic asid levels lead to an increase in GH and the GH increases fat burning. Or just check pics of Ben #1 and Ben #2 both had striated glutes more than 2 weeks out.

Where are those pics of Ben #1 & Ben #2? I will get back to earlier replies later...

[j_neatherlin]

Yeah but is that the only way? I didn't want to bring this up, but I might as well now... I was hitting sprints this weekend on the track, and this old guy with a belly said "Youre going to have knee surgery before your'e 40." I laughed to myself and couldnt believe that is the first thing a total stranger would say... Oh by the way, I was running with my shirt off and my abs are pretty ripped now.. Maybe he was jealous?

It got to me a little, but I got over it.. Amazing how there are ppl out there who are possessed to try and bring you down for whatever reason...

people who don't know wtf they're talking about like to mouth off.

however, maybe this guy did know what he was talking about. i dunno.

and i honestly don't know how to get striated glutes...b/c i've never had them. but i feel very confident to say that sprinting ripped up my quads and hams. you're in Louisiana, aren't you? how do you hit sprints outside in this weather, bro?

[billfinkbiner]

Where are those pics of Ben #1 & Ben #2? I will get back to earlier replies later...

#1 is Semper27 the thread is 50 days

#2 is the Ben that I quoted earlier

[Ivan25]

x 1,000,000 hah.. I'm not sure what you are doing now for cardio or what your macros are but I can tell you what has worked wonders for me in my last few weeks: A mix of Intervals on the bike with the resistance all the way up and good ol outdoor sprinting intervals.

My cardio is 4-6 days/week, 5 being average... I don't calculate my macro's, I go by feel... Average macro would be 40-60% carbs, 25-35% protein, 15-25% fats... When I carb-cycle, I lower my carbs to ~ 20-35%, protein goes up to 50-60%, fat goes up 20-30%.. When I carb-up, carbs are 60%, protein is 25%, fats are 15%... After 1-2 days of this, maybe 3, I lower carbs to 45-55%, protein 25-30%, fats 15-25%....

My only 4 realistic goals for this year, not this show in 4-weeks.. I could care less about that damn thing.. All I care about it reaching my goal... I'll have 5-6 weeks to compete again anyway... Right now, I want these 3 things:

1) Fully striated quads, not just a couple coming through.. Forget that.. I want the entire damn quad striated...

2) Glute striations.. I want the outer rim to fan out with visible fibers on my side poses and back poses...

3) I want hamstring splits.. I want atleast delineation between hamstrings (via biceps femoris, semitendinosus and semimembraneous).... I want the hams popping on my side poses when I sit down into the poses...

4) The 2nd damn tendinous inscription in my abs to come out clearly.. I already got the first one out (the one that separates 1st and 2nd cubes), but the 2nd tendinous inscription separates the 2nd and 3rd cubes.. What I'm talking about here is in a front relaxed pose, sucking in.. I want my abs to be clearly delineated even when I am not flexing them.

As for body fat.. I don't care for that either.. All I care about is keeping my tape measures within reasonable limits, thereby implicating maintance of muscle mass.. And I want ALL my skinfolds to be single digits..

This is what they currently are now (Bare in mind, I added several additional sites of which I standardized on my self using anatomical landmarks, I find the 7-9 standard sites don't do true justice in tracking the stubborn areas):

Chest- 5
Tricep- 5
Bicep- 3
Suprailiac- 7
1st cube (6-pack)- 5
2nd cube- 7
3rd cube- 9
Lower abs- 13
Mid-thigh- 7
Calf- 6
Subscapular- 6.5
Kidney fat- 15
Right above knee cap (lower quad)- 8
Hip flexor (thigh rod area)- 10
Glute (outer glute)- 15
Butt (the middle of my cheek posteriorly)- 28!!!!!


Here's the logic gentlemen, 2.54 cm = 1 inch... Well these measures are in mm.. So in essence, any measure over 20 mm, is an inch pinch... That's excess fat.. Right now the only place on my body where I have > 20mm is my butt.. But this is covered with trunks anyway.. My outer glute is showing striations already.. It sucks in when I pose it, indicating body fat is low there, but not low enough to see clear striations.. Not barely seeing them and saying, wow i have striations.. NO! I want them there and no shred of doubt that they are there.. Even in bad damn lighting (i.e. white background and bright light washing them out).. I still want them to be seen!!! So that way, when I am on-stage with the tan, shaved, good lighting, I will look super-duper sick insane ripped and massive yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!

One of my favorite quotes, "I don't care I wanna get leaner... Until I have striations in my ass grown, I'm not lean..." Anthony Monetti....

[fitfranco]

How many times per week, and how many sprints in a session?

Currently I started doing them 1x per week when the legs are rested. I just simply do 10 sprints at 50 yards.
I would like to add more, but dont want to do them before, on, or after leg training.

THoughts anyone?

[Ivan25]

How many times per week, and how many sprints in a session?

Currently I started doing them 1x per week when the legs are rested. I just simply do 10 sprints at 50 yards.
I would like to add more, but dont want to do them before, on, or after leg training.

THoughts anyone?

I typically go by feel... When I feel my glycogen stores are becoming depleted, I stop.. The lower glycogen depletion, more catabolic one can get.. So when I feel glycogen reduced enough, I may walk for 15-20 minutes after to burn off the broken down fat from sprints... Last week, I ran 4x440's, 2x220's.. After this, I felt pretty tired... It took ~15-minutes... Each 440 was around 70-75 seconds... Felt good though... I only sprint 1x week.. It does stress the knees, particularly with leg training during the week.. I do my HIIT sprints on Sat's when I'm glyco-loaded so intensity can be as high as possible... I do other forms of HIIT during week, i.e. bike, stairmaster, etc...

[saizen]

instead of making another thread i'll just ask you here ivan25. The glycogen thing you said has me worried. I do HIIT Tue,Thurs,Sat i do 10X 200m dashes with 100m walking rest in between dashes. I feel pretty damn gone at the end of this. I've noticed some great results from this but i would just like to know your take on this. Am i in the right direction for striated glutes and hamstrings by doing this...or am i goin overboard? By feel, i think i barely get through the workout and it's super difficult.

[Ryu]

I was wondering the following things. If you really do these kinds of interval training, doesn't it mess up your leg training? And I don't know about you guys, but after my normal workout ( any bodypart ) precontest i'm really tired and on low carbs pfff.. where do you find the energie to do sprints after ? Or do you only do them on off days? I was also wondering if spinning bike HIIT or Sprint HIIT make any difference..

[billfinkbiner]

I was wondering the following things. If you really do these kinds of interval training, doesn't it mess up your leg training? And I don't know about you guys, but after my normal workout ( any bodypart ) precontest i'm really tired and on low carbs pfff.. where do you find the energie to do sprints after ? Or do you only do them on off days? I was also wondering if spinning bike HIIT or Sprint HIIT make any difference..

I don't know what the ideal is, but on this prep I am doing them 3x's a week with 2 of the days being on leg days. I don't see it as being after my workout, but rather as part of it. I finish the weights, take 3 Dialene4 and about a 5 to 10 minute break and jump on a recumbant bike. I warm up for 5 minutes at low intensity, and then hell begins. The fat burner helps give me an extra kick to keep cranking. Other than that it's just how much do you want it. It's 99% mental. To paraphrase Arnold in Pumping Iron, a champion is only limited by his pain tolerance.

[Ryu]

I don't know what the ideal is, but on this prep I am doing them 3x's a week with 2 of the days being on leg days. I don't see it as being after my workout, but rather as part of it. I finish the weights, take 3 Dialene4 and about a 5 to 10 minute break and jump on a recumbant bike. I warm up for 5 minutes at low intensity, and then hell begins. The fat burner helps give me an extra kick to keep cranking. Other than that it's just how much do you want it. It's 99% mental. To paraphrase Arnold in Pumping Iron, a champion is only limited by his pain tolerance.

Cool, and it works for you? And what is Dialene?

[saizen]

I was wondering the following things. If you really do these kinds of interval training, doesn't it mess up your leg training? And I don't know about you guys, but after my normal workout ( any bodypart ) precontest i'm really tired and on low carbs pfff.. where do you find the energie to do sprints after ? Or do you only do them on off days? I was also wondering if spinning bike HIIT or Sprint HIIT make any difference..

all my weightlifting days (mon, wed, fri) are full body so i can't really get away from that issue. However, i do HIIT session as hard as my body will allow me too w/o getting injured..sooo if i have a particularily hard leg workout with the weights, i might be "forced" to not perform as well the next day running HIIT. This is how i've kept myself from overtraining...so far. hehe

[Ryu]

all my weightlifting days (mon, wed, fri) are full body so i can't really get away from that issue. However, i do HIIT session as hard as my body will allow me too w/o getting injured..sooo if i have a particularily hard leg workout with the weights, i might be "forced" to not perform as well the next day running HIIT. This is how i've kept myself from overtraining...so far. hehe

Thanks Saizen! :D

[SleepLifter]

I typically go by feel... When I feel my glycogen stores are becoming depleted, I stop.. The lower glycogen depletion, more catabolic one can get.. So when I feel glycogen reduced enough, I may walk for 15-20 minutes after to burn off the broken down fat from sprints... Last week, I ran 4x440's, 2x220's.. After this, I felt pretty tired... It took ~15-minutes... Each 440 was around 70-75 seconds... Felt good though... I only sprint 1x week.. It does stress the knees, particularly with leg training during the week.. I do my HIIT sprints on Sat's when I'm glyco-loaded so intensity can be as high as possible... I do other forms of HIIT during week, i.e. bike, stairmaster, etc...

I like sprints on the arctrainer or the elliptical...allows for high output with less knee stress during this critical period. In addition, you can track calories and HR. Even if these measurements are not accurate, you can use the numbers as a fairly objective gauge to tell you if you are slacking or losing intensity that day.

[Ivan25]

instead of making another thread i'll just ask you here ivan25. The glycogen thing you said has me worried. I do HIIT Tue,Thurs,Sat i do 10X 200m dashes with 100m walking rest in between dashes. I feel pretty damn gone at the end of this. I've noticed some great results from this but i would just like to know your take on this. Am i in the right direction for striated glutes and hamstrings by doing this...or am i goin overboard? By feel, i think i barely get through the workout and it's super difficult.

Yes you are in the right direction.. I believe that it is just a matter of time and making tweaks when necessary.. Right now I'm at the end of my low-carb cycle... I usually would go for 2-days, but this time 3.. Just b/c I want to break through this body-fat set point and start seeing the 2nd tendinous inscription in my abs when I'm relaxed, and I want it to be deep... Your HIIT sprint workout sounds effective... I like to keep things simple.. If it aint broke, don't fix it.. Do what works...

[Ivan25]

I was wondering the following things. If you really do these kinds of interval training, doesn't it mess up your leg training? And I don't know about you guys, but after my normal workout ( any bodypart ) precontest i'm really tired and on low carbs pfff.. where do you find the energie to do sprints after ? Or do you only do them on off days? I was also wondering if spinning bike HIIT or Sprint HIIT make any difference..

I do my sprints on off-days... And I carb-up enough to get me through the sprint workout... It's all about matching the proper nutritional energy substrate to the proper exercise energy substrate...

[saizen]

Yes you are in the right direction.. I believe that it is just a matter of time and making tweaks when necessary.. Right now I'm at the end of my low-carb cycle... I usually would go for 2-days, but this time 3.. Just b/c I want to break through this body-fat set point and start seeing the 2nd tendinous inscription in my abs when I'm relaxed, and I want it to be deep... Your HIIT sprint workout sounds effective... I like to keep things simple.. If it aint broke, don't fix it.. Do what works...

thank you for the input :) very helpful!

[billfinkbiner]

Cool, and it works for you? And what is Dialene?

Yes. Dialene4 is a fat burner, so the extra kick from it helps to get through the HIIT.

[simzy]

Surely HIIT after weights is a bad idea?

[Ryu]

Surely HIIT after weights is a bad idea?

Why do you think that?

[Ryu]

Yes. Dialene4 is a fat burner, so the extra kick from it helps to get through the HIIT.

ah cool thanks! Here in europe we don't have that many supplements on the market so some brands are new to me.

[Ivan25]

Surely HIIT after weights is a bad idea?

Why would it be bad? Personally I don't do cardio after weights precontest.. I will offseason though... Potentially yes it could be a bad idea, but in this line of work risks are necessary.. Lets go for broke and say muscle is lost.. Who say's it can not be replenished with a refeed? It is all about learning your body and finding that niche that works... Sometimes if risks are not taken, you may wonder why you are not as ripped as the guy holding the 1st place trophy... I hate the whole idea of staying anabolic and not going catabolic.. complete nonsense.. We HAVE TO BE CATABOLIC in order to break down fat and burn it.. The key is knowing how to nutritionally manipulate the main substrates used during exercise while catering the intensity of exercise to one's nutritional state...

[billfinkbiner]

Surely HIIT after weights is a bad idea?
To me it's just part of the workout. Weight training is also a catbolic activity. While I train with weights, or do cardio I have already been drinking and continue to drink BCAA's (Xtend) and EAA's (Primal EAA). This decreases the amount of muscle breakdown.

Let's just say I'd rather do HIIT after weights than before.