Let's talk - Natural Mr Olympia gives advice

[Natural_O]

The Good Part of Carbs -
http://www.abbperformance.com/news/t...h-carbs-n1860/

[Natural_O]

Why You Shouldn't Train Every Day -
http://www.abbperformance.com/news/w...ery-day-n1861/

[1983Warrior]

Hi John Hansen,

I have a relative, and he used to work at construction. His forearms were really huge,
and I also remember a man who was a bit overweight but his calves were atleast 20inches
big.

I have also heard stories about men who easily could eat 4lbs of meat when they
drank some rakija (an alcoholic drink similar to brandy). They had heavy jobs and were
probably much stronger than one can imagine.

Then you have some strongmen from the past, If I recall the German Hermann Görner used to
do deadlifts with just one arm. His all time best is said to have been in 1927, when he managed
to deadlift over 660lbs with just one arm.

070620_hermanngoerner-Comparison[1].jpg

Whats your comments on this John, I see that the natural potential is really huge.

/Sefket Ramovic


Health, Optimal muscles!

[Natural_O]

Hi John Hansen,

I have a relative, and he used to work at construction. His forearms were really huge,
and I also remember a man who was a bit overweight but his calves were atleast 20inches
big.

I have also heard stories about men who easily could eat 4lbs of meat when they
drank some rakija (an alcoholic drink similar to brandy). They had heavy jobs and were
probably much stronger than one can imagine.

Then you have some strongmen from the past, If I recall the German Hermann Görner used to
do deadlifts with just one arm. His all time best is said to have been in 1927, when he managed
to deadlift over 660lbs with just one arm.

Attachment 5218403

Whats your comments on this John, I see that the natural potential is really huge.

/Sefket Ramovic


Health, Optimal muscles!

Yes, there are lots of guys (and girls) out there who develop size and strength very easily. Genetics plays a big part in bodybuilding, no doubt about it. But even average guys can get big if they train and diet correctly.

[Natural_O]

Training the Old School Way!
http://www.abbperformance.com/news/t...ool-way-n1866/

[1983Warrior]

Training the Old School Way!

Most Mr.Olympia have trained in a similar way, expections are Dorian Yates and Jay Cutler. In reality the difference doesn't seem all too big tough, but I am convinced that training the whole body more than once per week is superior. - Health, Optimal Muscles!

[Natural_O]

Tips for New Year's Diet Resolutions -
http://www.abbperformance.com/news/t...lutions-n1865/

[NoLimit32]

Hey John just finished reading ure book, it really had some excellent info in it.
I am gonna use use the split u used to bulk to 230 lb, which i remember was the push, pull, off, push, pull, off, off and then repeat.
Ive been training for 2 years now, will that split be able to take me from 208 lbs to 260 by april 2014 or should i use the 3 days on 1 day repeat split to achieve my 260 lb bulked up goal?
I really like the push, pull, off, push, pull, off, off and then repeat split but the number of excersies per each body part are limited like theres only 3 excersizes which total to around 10 sets per each body major body part. Is there any reason behind it?

[Natural_O]

Hey John just finished reading ure book, it really had some excellent info in it.
I am gonna use use the split u used to bulk to 230 lb, which i remember was the push, pull, off, push, pull, off, off and then repeat.
Ive been training for 2 years now, will that split be able to take me from 208 lbs to 260 by april 2014 or should i use the 3 days on 1 day repeat split to achieve my 260 lb bulked up goal?
I really like the push, pull, off, push, pull, off, off and then repeat split but the number of excersies per each body part are limited like theres only 3 excersizes which total to around 10 sets per each body major body part. Is there any reason behind it?

First of all, putting on 54 pounds in 15 months seems a little extreme. You should get as big as you can get within reason. Make sure you don't put on too much fat. A lot of that depends on your metabolism. When I was 20 years old, my metabolism was so fast, it was very difficult to put on any weight so I could eat a lot of calories and not get too fat but we are all different.

At only 18 years old, I would stick with training each muscle group twice a week and doing the four days a week workout. The hard part about this workout is that you have to train the whole body over two workouts. As you read in the book, you can do the push-pull workout which is chest, delts, triceps and calves in one workout and abs, legs, back and biceps in the next workout or you can do chest, back, delts and calves one workout and legs, abs and arms in the other workout. Do whichever split works best for you.

The reason you are only doing three exercises is because you are doing a lot of muscle groups in one workout and you don't want to overtrain by doing too many total sets. Do the basic exercises and use as much weight as you can for 5-8 reps and as few sets as possible. If you did 3 exercises for the chest and back and did 3-4 sets each, you should be doing about 10-12 sets for each muscle group (excluding warm-up sets). If you are training hard and heavy, this is all you will need. Doing too many sets will wear you out and overtrain you. Doing moderate amounts of sets will allow you to recuperate and get bigger and stronger for the next workout.

[NoLimit32]

Hey John like u said before, if an individual dosent care about the way they look for a certain time and take advantage of their early years, they could have a pre killer physique. I wanna bulk up till the end of april 2014 which will give me 16 months to put on 50 lbs and i know i can do it. im not expecting all of it to be muscle but atleast 20 lbs of muscle is wat im hoping, the rest is gonna, be water weight, fat and glycogen weight.
And when it comes to the gym, i bust my ass off and train like its my last workout. I take it really srs, like i dream of it, i breathe it, and every day look forward to it. I know some people think its over board 50 lbs in 16 months but like i said, i want it really bad and and i wanna look lean and huge for my 20th birthday. I have the work ethic and determination for it plus i couldnt care less if im bulky for these 16 months since putting on the mass is my main priority. And im 6 feet 1 inches so at 260 i wont look fat rather bulky.

And why delts always after chest? could i do it this way, monday do chest then delts and then on thursday do delts then chest?

[Natural_O]

Hey John like u said before, if an individual dosent care about the way they look for a certain time and take advantage of their early years, they could have a pre killer physique. I wanna bulk up till the end of april 2014 which will give me 16 months to put on 50 lbs and i know i can do it. im not expecting all of it to be muscle but atleast 20 lbs of muscle is wat im hoping, the rest is gonna, be water weight, fat and glycogen weight.
And when it comes to the gym, i bust my ass off and train like its my last workout. I take it really srs, like i dream of it, i breathe it, and every day look forward to it. I know some people think its over board 50 lbs in 16 months but like i said, i want it really bad and and i wanna look lean and huge for my 20th birthday. I have the work ethic and determination for it plus i couldnt care less if im bulky for these 16 months since putting on the mass is my main priority. And im 6 feet 1 inches so at 260 i wont look fat rather bulky.

And why delts always after chest? could i do it this way, monday do chest then delts and then on thursday do delts then chest?

You do delts after chest because the front deltoids are involved in most chest exercises. If you train delts first, it will hurt your chest workout because the delts are smaller than the chest and they will give out first. It's the same thing with doing triceps before chest or biceps before back. If you train the smaller muscles first, they will hinder your workouts for the bigger muscles.

[Natural_O]

Shock Your Muscles with Giant Sets!
http://www.abbperformance.com/news/s...ant-set-n1870/

[NoLimit32]

John so my current bulking macros are 2.5 grams of carbs time body weight, 1.5 grams of protein times body weight but wat about fat? how much i keep it?
so atm ill be taking around 500 g carbs, 315 grams protein and wat do u think should the fats be? im thinking around 90 grams

And btw are u releasing any new dvd's or a new book? cause i sure wanna buy w.e u release.

[Natural_O]

Tips for Making Your Diet Work -
http://www.abbperformance.com/news/t...et-work-n1871/

[Natural_O]

John so my current bulking macros are 2.5 grams of carbs time body weight, 1.5 grams of protein times body weight but wat about fat? how much i keep it?
so atm ill be taking around 500 g carbs, 315 grams protein and wat do u think should the fats be? im thinking around 90 grams

And btw are u releasing any new dvd's or a new book? cause i sure wanna buy w.e u release.

Yes, if you ate those macros, your total calories would be just over 4000 a day so that should be good for bulking up, especially if you have a hard time adding size. I will be releasing a book and DVD Program this year, hopefully in the next couple of months. I'll definitely announce it on this thread when it's released. Thanks!

[1983Warrior]

Hi John,

Have you used any supplements which you found really helpful besides eating healthy?

[Natural_O]

Hi John,

Have you used any supplements which you found really helpful besides eating healthy?

The supplements I am using right now include a post workout drink, ON's 2:1:1 Recovery with Hydro Builder (1 scoop each), my protein drinks are made with Hydro Whey from ON and Whey Gold Standard. I also use BCAA's and Glutamine before and after my workouts. Preworkout, I take the Platinum Pre from ON with BCAA and Glutamine. I used to take Liver tablets and I also take a multi vitamin and mineral supplement. I use Flax Seed Oil or Udo's Oil in my protein drinks for the omega-3's.

[RamovicSefket]

John what signs/symptoms should one look for as to know when one is on the way of getting overtrained?

I have heard loss of musclepump is a marker for overtraining.

[Natural_O]

John what signs/symptoms should one look for as to know when one is on the way of getting overtrained?

I have heard loss of musclepump is a marker for overtraining.

The real sign is if you are not adding muscle size or strength. If you are "stuck" at the same weights or bodyweight (if you are trying to get bigger), then you probably either need to 1. train harder or 2. rest more. I found that four days a week of really hard training is the most I can handle without overtraining. When I was younger, I used to go 3 days on/ 1 day off or 4 days on/ 1 day off but for the most part, I only train 4 days a week and rest 3 days a week. If you do a really tough leg workout or back workout, you should be wiped out the next day. Some bodybuilders will just train day after day. They think as long as they are training a different muscle group, they won't overtrain but the body doesn't work like that. The body is a whole system, not just a series of muscle groups. When you do really heavy squats and push the set to total failure (or deadlifts or barbell rows, etc), your body probably needs a rest day the following day. I usually never train more than 2 days in a row without taking a rest day. Now, again, this is if you are training heavy and hard. If you train light and just do pump workouts, you can train every day because you are not pushing your body to the limit. But, if you want to get big, then you have to start pushing yourself and training both heavy and hard.

[Get-n-fit]

Hey John, you've shared a lot of great info on here, great to see how helpful you are! I was reading through the first page regarding how you bulked up by eating right, but was wondering if you could elaborate on that....I'm sure you probably did already, so if you can let me know where I'll look it up myself. I've done fairly well bulking inorder to continue to lift heavier and heavier, but gain too much fat at the same time. When you're bulking what types of food does your diet consist of? I'm 35 and have to be pretty cautious with what I eat since my metabolism has slowed, but want to make sure I'm eating enough to support my goals and bulk cleanly.

P.S. I had too chuckle at the link to "training the old school way" Over the past year I've switched over to this on my own, stepped away from machines and into freeweights, in particular dumbbells and feel like I am getting a much better work out! I do split training also, but a 5 day split working 1 body part a day, once a week, mainly bc of time limit and it works perfect with my schedule, but I've been seeing great gains in strength so it seems to be working.

[Natural_O]

Hey John, you've shared a lot of great info on here, great to see how helpful you are! I was reading through the first page regarding how you bulked up by eating right, but was wondering if you could elaborate on that....I'm sure you probably did already, so if you can let me know where I'll look it up myself. I've done fairly well bulking inorder to continue to lift heavier and heavier, but gain too much fat at the same time. When you're bulking what types of food does your diet consist of? I'm 35 and have to be pretty cautious with what I eat since my metabolism has slowed, but want to make sure I'm eating enough to support my goals and bulk cleanly.

P.S. I had too chuckle at the link to "training the old school way" Over the past year I've switched over to this on my own, stepped away from machines and into freeweights, in particular dumbbells and feel like I am getting a much better work out! I do split training also, but a 5 day split working 1 body part a day, once a week, mainly bc of time limit and it works perfect with my schedule, but I've been seeing great gains in strength so it seems to be working.

Yeah, you have to be careful with the bulking up as you get older. When I was younger (teen and early 20's), I had a very fast metabolism and I was pretty thin. It was really hard for me to get bigger and gain weight. I competed a lot when I was a teenager (10 shows between 16-19 years old) so I was ready to get bigger when I turned 20. I got up to 205 pounds (from 170-180 as a teen) pretty quickly but then I hit a sticking point. In order to get bigger and gain weight, I had to drastically increase my calories (about 5000 a day). Within 6 months time, I went up to 230 pounds. I added some fat but I was also able to add more muscle and break through a lot of barriers. I was able to do this at that age because my metabolism was so fast. I continued to bulk up in the off season until I was in my early to mid 30's. I would get up to 230-240 pounds in the off season and then give myself enough time to diet for a contest. It always helped me to put on more muscle mass from year to year. I think a lot of natural bodybuilders don't do this because they want to stay lean all the time but it's the only way to get bigger. Of course, you have to have a fast metabolism to do it. If you gain fat easily, it doesn't make sense to overeat and put on just fat. When I was bulking up, I had some fat but the extra calories helped me to train heavier and put on muscle mass. If my arms, chest, thighs, etc were not gaining muscle and inches then it wasn't worth it to bulk up. By the time I reached my late 30's, I realized that my metabolism was getting slower and I was adding weight very quickly but it wasn't the right kind of weight (too much fat and not enough muscle). At that point, I stopped bulking up and just stayed leaner in the off season. Basically, I would eat moderate protein (1.25 grams for each pound of bodyweight) and then increase my carbs up to 2-3 grams per pound of bodyweight when I was going through the bulking up phase. My carbs would be as high as 500-700 grams a day and my calories were usually around 4500 per day when I was bulking up in the off season during competition season.

[NoLimit32]

John gotta ask you a srs question.
Currently my bench is 205 for 6 reps.
By the end of this year could I hit 315 for bench for 6 reps?
I really want to hit that mark. I was never a big bencher but can move some heavy poundages such as 100 lbs dbs for 6 reps.
Is it possible for me to hit 315 by the end of 2013? My wrist size is 7 and am 6 feet so am I considered a medium boned or a thick boned guy?

[NTT91]

John,

Read through most of this thread and it has been very informative and entertaining. You say that you recommend 10-13 sets per large body part roughly. You also said that you liked training twice a week and that twice a week for naturals seems to be a good route. So my question is, are you doing those 10-13 sets per body part on each of the two weekly workouts, totaling 20-26 total sets for that body part over the course of the week? Thanks.

-Nate

[Natural_O]

John gotta ask you a srs question.
Currently my bench is 205 for 6 reps.
By the end of this year could I hit 315 for bench for 6 reps?
I really want to hit that mark. I was never a big bencher but can move some heavy poundages such as 100 lbs dbs for 6 reps.
Is it possible for me to hit 315 by the end of 2013? My wrist size is 7 and am 6 feet so am I considered a medium boned or a thick boned guy?

I'm the same way. I've never been strong on the barbell bench press but I've been pretty strong on inclines and I'm much stronger on dumbbells. It seems that strong triceps are needed for a big bench press. I've always done the bench press to primarily develop my pecs and not to just use a lot of weight. I take a pretty wide grip on the bar and keep my elbows back so they ride under the bar during the exercise. I would probably be stronger if I gripped the bar a little closer and kept the elbows more forward but my goal is to build a big chest, not necessarily a big bench.

What I would recommend is that you do a power cycle for your chest. You could do cycles of 3-5 reps or even 1-3 reps. A powerlifter would know how to do this better than me but the cycles I have been using have been 6 week cycles with 3 weeks going up and then another 3 weeks using a slightly heavier weight. Here is an example:
Week 1 - 225x6x3 sets
Week 2 - 235x5x3 sets
Week 3 - 245x4x3 sets
Week 4 - 235x6x3 sets
Week 5 - 245x5x3 sets
Week 6 - 255x4x3 sets

[Natural_O]

John,

Read through most of this thread and it has been very informative and entertaining. You say that you recommend 10-13 sets per large body part roughly. You also said that you liked training twice a week and that twice a week for naturals seems to be a good route. So my question is, are you doing those 10-13 sets per body part on each of the two weekly workouts, totaling 20-26 total sets for that body part over the course of the week? Thanks.

-Nate

Hey Nate,

Yes, if I was training each muscle group twice a week, I would do that many sets for each muscle group every time I trained that bodypart. If I'm doing a big muscle group like chest, back or legs, I would do more sets but smaller muscle groups like the arms, calves and abs are much less sets. Just make sure you take a complete rest day every two days so you can grow. When I was doing the twice a muscle group routine when I was younger, I would train chest, delts, triceps and calves on Monday and Thursday and abs, legs, back and biceps on Tuesday and Friday. Another option is to do chest, back, delts and calves on one workout and abs, legs and arms on the next workout.

[RamovicSefket]

Hi John,

I need your advice on how to make a workout routine. I have only two days per week which I can train
on Tuesdays and Fridays.

I have trained alot in the past but have had many pauses. I would like to focus mostly on upperbody, since I use
my legs alot alot anyway.

[Natural_O]

Hi John,

I need your advice on how to make a workout routine. I have only two days per week which I can train
on Tuesdays and Fridays.

I have trained alot in the past but have had many pauses. I would like to focus mostly on upperbody, since I use
my legs alot alot anyway.

If you wanted to focus mainly on your upper body, you could do chest, delts and triceps (pushing muscles) and then do back, biceps and some legs on the other day.

[RamovicSefket]

If you wanted to focus mainly on your upper body, you could do chest, delts and triceps (pushing muscles) and then do back, biceps and some legs on the other day.

I like it! What about sets... is this resonable:

Day 1

Chest - 1 exercises 5 working sets each with 10reps (bench)
Delts - 1 exercise 5 working sets each with 10reps (press behind neck)
Triceps - 1 exercise 5 working sets each with 10reps (dips)

Day 2

Back - 2 exercises 5 working sets each with 10reps (barbellrows and chins)
Biceps - 1 exercise 5 working sets each with 10reps (curls)
Legs - 1 exercise 5 working sets each with 10reps (machinepresses)

[Natural_O]

I like it! What about sets... is this resonable:

Day 1

Chest - 2 exercises 5 working sets each with 10reps (bench and flyes)
Delts - 1 exercise 5 working sets each with 10reps (millitarypress)
Triceps - 1 exercise 5 working sets each with 10reps (dips)

Day 2

Back - 3 exercises 5 working sets each with 10reps (barbellrows, chins and lats)
Biceps - 1 exercise 5 working sets each with 10reps (curls)
Legs - 1 exercise 5 working sets each with 10reps (machinepresses)

You could do way more than that. 3 exercises, 3 working sets for chest and shoulders and two exercises, 3 working sets for triceps
For back, 3-4 exercises for 3-4 sets and two exercises for biceps, 2-3 sets. For legs (you shouldn't really skip them, IMO), do at least
3 exercises (ext, leg press, curls) for 3 sets each.

[RamovicSefket]

You could do way more than that. 3 exercises, 3 working sets for chest and shoulders and two exercises, 3 working sets for triceps
For back, 3-4 exercises for 3-4 sets and two exercises for biceps, 2-3 sets. For legs (you shouldn't really skip them, IMO), do at least
3 exercises (ext, leg press, curls) for 3 sets each.

John,

Sometimes I speculate that the reason many bodybuilders have these huge arms is
because they more or less train them the most.

I mean when you do benchpresses you are using triceps, and so on. I have also speculated
if this means that the bodybuilders could get even bigger if they trained other muscles to the same extent.

What you say about this?