Cliff Wilson/Core Nutritionals Improvement Time!

[NaturalPursuit]

Solid Workout cliff! Very great stuff in here and learning a lot!!!! In regards to your Rapid Backloading, you mention that you use sweet potatoes and cheerios as its easier to hit the Na/K numbers you need for your clients. I know every client varies but I was very interested as to how you go about finding the right balance between the two that will give you such consistently good results! Much appreciated man! One of the most knowledgable people on these forums!

[The Solution]

How you digging the Core Alpha?

[pureintensity]

probably, his name is Travis from team Ahlstrom, great guy

Oh yeah, i know Travis from FB. Brian is actually one of my better friends and I prepped him for his shows last year. He definitely knows the proper way to execute the backload.

[pureintensity]

Solid Workout cliff! Very great stuff in here and learning a lot!!!! In regards to your Rapid Backloading, you mention that you use sweet potatoes and cheerios as its easier to hit the Na/K numbers you need for your clients. I know every client varies but I was very interested as to how you go about finding the right balance between the two that will give you such consistently good results! Much appreciated man! One of the most knowledgable people on these forums!

Much appreciate the kind words man.

The Na/K ratio is a bit different for each person depending on their metabolism and number of carbs they take in during their load. The amount of both would probably scare some people. lol. For example, Zack Sizemore that won his pro card a few weeks back took in about 8000mg of sodium and 11,000 mg of potassium the day before his show. People with slower metabolic rates would be a bit less on the sodium as well as potassium. When a person wakes up the morning of the show I will typically begin assessing the need for more sodium and start to stray away from such high potassium levels.

How you digging the Core Alpha?

Core Alpha is seriously amazing. I am taking it right now but I am also seeing my test level return after prep, so it is hard to tell how much is due to the Alpha. However, I did have a client recently get his test levels checked pre and post Core Alpha. I don't recall the exact numbers but I believe he saw an increase in the ballpark of 40%. As a natural that is pretty damn good.

[pureintensity]

Training is still going really well and strength is still getting better and better by the day. Tonight I trained my weakest area by far...chest. I love training my weak areas as there is something particularly satisfying about working on something that really needs it. I have been having a bit of a shoulder issue for a while now so I am really slowing down the reps and focusing on TUT rather than trying to throw a lot of weight around. It is not hurting bad, I would just rather be safe than sorry. Anyway, here was the training from tonight.

Hammer Chest Press- 15x180 15x190 11x230
DB Decline- 15x55 10x65 10x65
Pec Dec- 15x100 20x70 20x70
Nautilus Neutral press- 25x100 25x140 20x140

DB Lateral- 30x10 25x15 20x20 15x30
Rev. Cable Fly- 15x15 12x15 1-x15
Cybex Shoulder press- 15x50 15x70

Overhead cable ext- 15x90 12x100 12x100 12x100
DB kickback- 20x10 20x10

My weight increased a bit this week so I am leaving my macros as is and letting my body catch up. Since my strength is increasing and energy is good there is no reason to begin force feeding myself. So for now I am holding steady and staying the course.

[Vanguard1965]

Holy crap Cliff Wilson in the house!

I am definitely in on this! I read about your Power Block Periodization program on Fit Over Fat and have been using it for the last 17 weeks. Great program! I had to modify it a bit due to being on a diet and being a bit older but really love the changes in the reps. I can't wait to do this in the off season and do the program as written, I cut back on the frequency, broke the power day into 2 days. The big three on Monday, Aux heavy moves and HIIT cardio on Tuesday and then Wed, Thurs and Friday hypertrophy days.

Anyways just wanted to share my thoughts on the program and will be following your log!

[lukamura]

I asked you a question a page or two back, my question was about in your opinion the most effective/giving the most muscle gain/maintenance training methods you observed in your clients?

[fltallpaul]

Nice journal Cliff...keep Crushing it!

[pureintensity]

Holy crap Cliff Wilson in the house!

I am definitely in on this! I read about your Power Block Periodization program on Fit Over Fat and have been using it for the last 17 weeks. Great program! I had to modify it a bit due to being on a diet and being a bit older but really love the changes in the reps. I can't wait to do this in the off season and do the program as written, I cut back on the frequency, broke the power day into 2 days. The big three on Monday, Aux heavy moves and HIIT cardio on Tuesday and then Wed, Thurs and Friday hypertrophy days.

Anyways just wanted to share my thoughts on the program and will be following your log!

Thanks man! I'm glad the program has been working well for you. I am glad you made the changes you needed. The plan I wrote about was just the very basic template and should be tailored to each person, which it sounds like you did.

Thanks for following along too

[pureintensity]

I asked you a question a page or two back, my question was about in your opinion the most effective/giving the most muscle gain/maintenance training methods you observed in your clients?

Ooops! I must have missed that one. Sorry.

Anyway, I can't say that there is any single most effective plan. You will find that different people will respond well to many different things. I think it is important to find what fits best for the individual's body type, weaknesses, and lifestyle. For example, a person that works a labor intensive job for 55 hours per week will often do poorly on an extremely high high volume/high frequency plan, but this may work really well for a person that sits at their job and only works 35 hours per week.

With that said, here are some of plans that I have found to work well. Which one would be best for you though would depend on your own situation and needs.

Sheiko
Smolov
PHAT
PBP Training (this one is my own and is similar to PHAT in some ways)
DUP

And the list goes on and on, but this should give you a good start. If you have any follow up Q's just let me know.

Nice journal Cliff...keep Crushing it!

Thanks Paul! You too man! Btw, I saw your client that won his pro card this past weekend. That guy was a beast! Nice work with him.

[The Solution]

PBP Training? Care to elaborate?

[ZSize512]

PBP Training? Care to elaborate?

Bob - It's his power block periodization program. Here is an article laying it out

http://www.corenutritionals.com/winn...iodization-pbp

[Vanguard1965]

PBP is a great program. I can't wait to use it in my off season as I think I will see some great results using it. I love how the reps change every 2 weeks and doing 30 reps sets is crazy pump territory!

[pureintensity]

Sorry so long between posts. I have been swamped trying to get clients ready for the final leg of the season.

Anyway, things are still going well. Weights are still increasing and energy is at a very high level and I am finally not starving all day anymore. lol. Here was my training session from tonight.

Squats- 10x3 315 lbs.
Sumo Deads- 3x5 275 lbs. (this was really light but I am not used to deadlifting sumo style so I started light to work on form a bit)
Leg Ext.- 20x140 15x180 12x200 8x240
Glute Machine- 3x15 145
DB Leg Curl- 2x15 60lbs.

The squats were pretty easy so these will keep increasing for a while I suspect.

My average weight for the week was 181.4 so I am up a bit but it is a reasonable amount so I recently upped my food. Here are my current numbers.

P- 225
C- 395
F- 65

Cardio- 2 HIIT Session- 6 Minutes

P- 225
C- 410
F- 68

Cardio- 2 HIIT Session- 6 Minutes

Through FB recently I had a few people ask me if I advocate flexible dieting for myself and my clients. So to answer that question, yes, I do use flexible dieting. I am definitely not a bro dieter. I actually prefer to call it responsible dieting rather than flexible, because you have to exercise responsibility when choosing your foods. As a grown ass adult you shouldn't have to be told that eating your entire days worth of carbs in the form of Twizzlers is not a good idea. So once again, I advocate being responsible with your choices.

I'll try to get another update over the weekend. Thanks all!

[pureintensity]

Bob - It's his power block periodization program. Here is an article laying it out

http://www.corenutritionals.com/winn...iodization-pbp

Thanks Zach!

PBP is a great program. I can't wait to use it in my off season as I think I will see some great results using it. I love how the reps change every 2 weeks and doing 30 reps sets is crazy pump territory!

Glad you are liking it man! I definitely recommend this for offseason especially because of the high amount of volume and frequency.

[jpfaherty]

I actually prefer to call it responsible dieting rather than flexible, because you have to exercise responsibility when choosing your foods. As a grown ass adult you shouldn't have to be told that eating your entire days worth of carbs in the form of Twizzlers is not a good idea.

Love this!

Strength coming back, macros going up! doingitright.jpeg

PS - After my PL meet this saturday I'm starting up PBP! Went over it on the core page and set it up to suit myself. Love it. I do have one question though. It's set up as a six day program, but I only go to the gym 5 days a week and that isn't going to change. You don't see a problem just following the lay out as is but just having an extra rest day in there right?

[matth10qb]

Love this!

Strength coming back, macros going up! doingitright.jpeg

PS - After my PL meet this saturday I'm starting up PBP! Went over it on the core page and set it up to suit myself. Love it. I do have one question though. It's set up as a six day program, but I only go to the gym 5 days a week and that isn't going to change. You don't see a problem just following the lay out as is but just having an extra rest day in there right?

Hey JP, I know you're asking Cliff but I think you could just take the optional day out and you'd be fine. On the plan it says the day after the Power day can be an Optional Day Off.... so maybe you could swing the off day there. If you ended up taking every optional day out, you would only be going 5 days a week and through one cycle of it, still would eventually hit your block days twice a week.

I actually asked Brian Noe, he said that he would have preferred to take the optional off day just for the sake of not getting physically spent for the remainder of the week.

I'm sure Cliff has some other ideas as well but just thought I'd throw that out there seeing as how I'm up and lurking this early. lol

Matt

[IK9]

Awww yeahhh.. responsible dietingggg.. speaking of Twizzlers.. not a HUGE fan of the red strawberry or cherry flavored ones.. (the regular ones).. but the green ones aren't bad heh

[The Solution]

The funny thing is "Reasonable" or "Flexible" will turn into a twinkie and butter diet if posted on ******** or other forms of social media where people take things to the extreme. good update!

[jpfaherty]

Hey JP, I know you're asking Cliff but I think you could just take the optional day out and you'd be fine. On the plan it says the day after the Power day can be an Optional Day Off.... so maybe you could swing the off day there. If you ended up taking every optional day out, you would only be going 5 days a week and through one cycle of it, still would eventually hit your block days twice a week.

I actually asked Brian Noe, he said that he would have preferred to take the optional off day just for the sake of not getting physically spent for the remainder of the week.

I'm sure Cliff has some other ideas as well but just thought I'd throw that out there seeing as how I'm up and lurking this early. lol

Matt

Yeah I also considered that! Couldn't decide which way to go lol

Thanks man.

[Vanguard1965]

Love this!

Strength coming back, macros going up! doingitright.jpeg

PS - After my PL meet this saturday I'm starting up PBP! Went over it on the core page and set it up to suit myself. Love it. I do have one question though. It's set up as a six day program, but I only go to the gym 5 days a week and that isn't going to change. You don't see a problem just following the lay out as is but just having an extra rest day in there right?

Just as a FYI JP I modified the program like this.

Monday - Power day the big three lifts. 5/3/1/MR
Tuesday - Power Aux lifts 4-6 reps (focus on areas you want to improve) HIIT Cardio
Wed - Hypertrophy Chest, Tri's, Calves and Abs.
Thur - Hypertrophy Legs, Shoulders
Friday - Hypertrophy Back and Biceps
Weekend off.

Squats- 10x3 315 lbs.
Sumo Deads- 3x5 275 lbs. (this was really light but I am not used to deadlifting sumo style so I started light to work on form a bit)
Leg Ext.- 20x140 15x180 12x200 8x240
Glute Machine- 3x15 145
DB Leg Curl- 2x15 60lbs.

The squats were pretty easy so these will keep increasing for a while I suspect.

Strong leg day in my books at least compared to what I can do. Great stuff Cliff!

[pureintensity]

Hey JP, I know you're asking Cliff but I think you could just take the optional day out and you'd be fine. On the plan it says the day after the Power day can be an Optional Day Off.... so maybe you could swing the off day there. If you ended up taking every optional day out, you would only be going 5 days a week and through one cycle of it, still would eventually hit your block days twice a week.

I actually asked Brian Noe, he said that he would have preferred to take the optional off day just for the sake of not getting physically spent for the remainder of the week.

I'm sure Cliff has some other ideas as well but just thought I'd throw that out there seeing as how I'm up and lurking this early. lol

Matt

Haha, Yeah, Brian told me that he did something like 15 weeks with no deload and 6 days per week.....I would die. lol

Love this!

Strength coming back, macros going up! doingitright.jpeg

PS - After my PL meet this saturday I'm starting up PBP! Went over it on the core page and set it up to suit myself. Love it. I do have one question though. It's set up as a six day program, but I only go to the gym 5 days a week and that isn't going to change. You don't see a problem just following the lay out as is but just having an extra rest day in there right?

Matt is right. It can definitely be done 5 days per week. In fact, I will typically set it up this way. One of my favorite ways to get the additional day off is to cut a day from a person's strongest bodypart. For example, my legs are my strongest body part so I remove every other leg day from my program. This will give me the day off to recover plus, it allows my weaker areas to catch up. This training style is very flexible and can be adjusted quite a bit to suit your needs.

[TakedaShingen]

Late to the party as usual

Seriously awesome stuff going on in here. I am liking the look of that PBP setup as well. I, for one, enjoy that day of squat/dead/bench all in one. It takes me a serious mental focus to tackle sometimes.

Closing up the end of prep now (8 days left), and I've been looking for what I really wanted to get into for my training. Here is another strong contender.

I'm in.

[pureintensity]

Late to the party as usual

Seriously awesome stuff going on in here. I am liking the look of that PBP setup as well. I, for one, enjoy that day of squat/dead/bench all in one. It takes me a serious mental focus to tackle sometimes.

Closing up the end of prep now (8 days left), and I've been looking for what I really wanted to get into for my training. Here is another strong contender.

I'm in.

Thanks for jumping in man! Finish that prep strong!

[TheLiftLife]

"Rage Gains" -Totally stealing that one haha.

Cliff, can you elaborate a little bit on how you go about glycogen depletion before loading someone the day prior to stage.
I'm curious as to how you deplete with out taking it to far as you mentioned above.
Thanks !

[Rypt1]

Some awesome knowledge being dropped in here. Thanks, it is appreciated!

[jpfaherty]

Remember when you said you were gonna stay on top of this?!

JK man, hope you're killing it, I'm sure you are!

[Egomanius]

Cliff I ended up testing out your peak week approach last week, and let me just say THANKS for the insight and knowledge on it! Worked out fantastic for not being in completely shredded condition, and went well timing wise. I took a modest approach to play things safe and hope I can duplicate it again at my show this weekend. Pics are in my journal if you want to see my macros/how it went!

[pureintensity]

Hey Everyone! Sorry for being MIA for the last few weeks. With the IFPA, DFAC, WNBF, and NGA Worlds all taking place the last few weekends and this weekend I was insanely busy setting up a lot of peak weeks. Plus, I am guest lecturing at Purdue University Calumet this week so I was doing quite a bit to prepare. But nonetheless, I am back on the thread.

First off, the past few weeks have been pretty exciting on the coaching aspect. The Yorton World championships was last week and I had a few clients competing in the pro division. I had one female in the bodybuilding division and she took 4th. If I am being honest, I was pretty upset about the placing as I really thought that she had a shot at winning the whole thing. She was definitely the leanest on the stage and probably the biggest as well. Here are a few pics of the class. My client was the one in the green. Her name is Nadine Schmidt. She has actually only been competing for two year now. She is an absolute beast!

image (59).jpg
image (60).jpg
image (53).jpeg
image (52).jpeg
image (56).jpeg


Then this past weekend was the DFAC and NGA worlds. My client Ashley Leahy actually won the NGA world title which was pretty cool. Did get any stage shots of her because I didn't attend. Then at the DFAC worlds my client Eve Lewis took runner up in the physique division. So having two competitors come close to a world title and one of them winning one in the last couple weeks was pretty much like a dream come true as a coach.

As for my training and nutrition, everything is still on point. Still bringing my food up and training hard. Here is my training session from the other night.

Deadlifts- 5x3 445lbs
Pull Ups- 10x5 20 lbs. (I really bad at these but really focusing on strict form)
Hammer Row- 4x7 230 lbs.
DB Curls- 7x35 7x40 7x45 7x50 5x50
Cable Drag Curl- 7x85 7x105 7x125 5x135

Strength is still increasing. The deads were pretty tough but I reached the numbers I wanted. Still improving each week.


I will update a bit more on my nutrition tomorrow, but for now I wanted to get this update up and let everyone know I hadn't fallen of the face of the earth. lol.

[pureintensity]

"Rage Gains" -Totally stealing that one haha.

Cliff, can you elaborate a little bit on how you go about glycogen depletion before loading someone the day prior to stage.
I'm curious as to how you deplete with out taking it to far as you mentioned above.
Thanks !

Well, what I will typically do is keep kcals at about a persons typical dieting level but I will switch the macronutrient ratio a bit. So I will typically go with more of a Keto style diet for 4-5 days. If done right this will deplete but not overly deplete. If total calories are set too low then this is how you end up over depleting. So fats and protein must be raised as carbs are reduced. I don't recommend this style of diet for a whole prep, but it can be run for a few days with no repercussions to the physique or metabolism.