What does "j-ho" know?

[JDHOORNY]

FSU brah checking in. Question. Do you even lift?

Haha, nice...apparently no one on Nevada does...two hurt QB's, hurt RB, putting a 3rd string QB that weighs a buck ten...

[Balddude]

For a beginner, would you recommend very frequent bench work with little accessory work, or benching 1-2x a week only but with more accessories such as DB benching?

Your stats are incredible by the way, and I wish you the very best luck in achieving that WR goal of yours.

[JDHOORNY]

For a beginner, would you recommend very frequent bench work with little accessory work, or benching 1-2x a week only but with more accessories such as DB benching?

Your stats are incredible by the way, and I wish you the very best luck in achieving that WR goal of yours.

Well, I think for a beginner or for the advanced, it depends on the intensity of the workout. If you workout hard, it is gonna take typically 4-6 days on average to even recover from that workout. If you're doing something different like fast twitch muscles thats ok but two chest days a week is too much if you're going as hard as you should be. Remember, in the gym doesn't get you the size and strength, it's the in the kitchen and bed that does. I started very old school and did a one a day, once a week for each muscle group routine, monday chest, tues back, wed shoulders, etc. That way I was sure I was hitting each one hard enough if I spent the hour or two on each body group, and it also made sure I got enough rest. So, if you hit bench hard for maybe 45 minutes including warmups, the aux stuff, incline, dbs, cables, etc.

Thanks for the luck man, I appreciate it. Hope this answered you, hit me up if I was unclear or if you got another one...

[PhreEkGarden]

As a rule, I eat pretty clean. As I approach a show and need to diet, I clean it up to damn near a bodybuilding diet. However, when I'm not trying to lose or off season, I try to make sure I get at least 1.5 - 2 lbs of red meat, preferably steak just cause it has less salt, etc than ground beef...and it tastes better. I'll get on average on top of that 3 chicken breasts and usually twice the carbs as protein from pasta, potatoes, or whatever, just clean. I rotate usually 3 months on, 3 off from eggs in the am and when I do get them, it's a dozen with oatmeal every morning, if I'm not getting any, it's honestly some meat like pork chops or steak and maybe pnut butter and jelly or oatmeal. I may eat a cheat meal once or twice a week but it's not a crazy ass one, just not a clean one, maybe like chinese where it's maybe got fried rice but a ton of carbs, protein, etc. Two gallons of water usually, half gallon of milk, sometimes some apple or orange juice and that's about it. If it's a few hours before a heavy workout, sometimes I'll eat two chicken breasts with a box of macaroni and cheese to fuel up.

I need to step up my eating game again. Thanks for posting this. My diet has been slacking lately and its showing, and i needed a reminder of what it takes.

[JDHOORNY]

I need to step up my eating game again. Thanks for posting this. My diet has been slacking lately and its showing, and i needed a reminder of what it takes.

No prob man, anytime.

[ats94]

As a rule, I eat pretty clean. As I approach a show and need to diet, I clean it up to damn near a bodybuilding diet. However, when I'm not trying to lose or off season, I try to make sure I get at least 1.5 - 2 lbs of red meat, preferably steak just cause it has less salt, etc than ground beef...and it tastes better. I'll get on average on top of that 3 chicken breasts and usually twice the carbs as protein from pasta, potatoes, or whatever, just clean. I rotate usually 3 months on, 3 off from eggs in the am and when I do get them, it's a dozen with oatmeal every morning, if I'm not getting any, it's honestly some meat like pork chops or steak and maybe pnut butter and jelly or oatmeal. I may eat a cheat meal once or twice a week but it's not a crazy ass one, just not a clean one, maybe like chinese where it's maybe got fried rice but a ton of carbs, protein, etc. Two gallons of water usually, half gallon of milk, sometimes some apple or orange juice and that's about it. If it's a few hours before a heavy workout, sometimes I'll eat two chicken breasts with a box of macaroni and cheese to fuel up.

Thanks for the incite man!

[JDHOORNY]

No problem.

[916kingpin]

you said that you suffered from rips and tears, i actually ended up ripping my pec in the muscle body itself how do i get passed that i took off a month and still feel it when i bench.i watched all your videos on youtube i dig the way you workout i look forward to you breaking that record or at least giving it a hell of a run at less than 275!

[JDHOORNY]

you said that you suffered from rips and tears, i actually ended up ripping my pec in the muscle body itself how do i get passed that i took off a month and still feel it when i bench.i watched all your videos on youtube i dig the way you workout i look forward to you breaking that record or at least giving it a hell of a run at less than 275!

Some are definitely worse than others. When I was warming up at the Olympia, I tore my bicep but it split vertically from elbow to shoulder direction. Bruised down to mid forearm and basically ended up taking two months off, then start slow and took a solid 6 months building back up to where I was.

With my other bicep tendon, or what we though was one, it popped and bruised around elbow and I got mri, etc and ended up taking 3-4 months off.

But, with the last bruise I got, I did a speed chest day and felt great a week later. More than likely that was a strain which a deep one will cause bruising.

If you truly tore your chest, even a little, a month isn't enough time to fully recover. It may heal different and feel weird but I would rest at least another month and if possible, get an mri to see what actually happened. If you're able to bench and it only feels weird, its either a very small tear or not torn though.

The only thing that will heal it is time...sucks but it's part of it that we all deal with at some point or another in our careers.

Thanks for watching the vids...hopefully it will be soon and hope this answered you. Good luck.

[kinggorilla]

Congratulations on your new child!!!
is it boy or girl?
and how has it changed you as a person?
what was the feeling you got the first time you saw it?

[DDon1996]

How did you get involved with Animal? A few local guys are sponsored by them as well (Ben Seath/Ben Rice). They seem to be pretty involved in sponsorship of up-and-coming lifters.

[kmc06005]

How do you incorporate dead press into your routine? I notice the vids on YouTube are you doing heavy singles. Just curious how often/ when on your bench day you hit those.

How much can you overhead press?

How much does Wilkerson weigh?

[JDHOORNY]

Congratulations on your new child!!!
is it boy or girl?
and how has it changed you as a person?
what was the feeling you got the first time you saw it?

Thanks! I appreciate it. Little girl, her name is McKenzie and she is a happy little baby. Only cries if she's hungry, other than that she's smiling. Sleeps all night, couldn't have been luckier. Happy and healthy. I have an 8 year old also but it's one of those those, as cliché as it may be, you know immediately that there's nothing you wouldn't do for them.

[JDHOORNY]

How did you get involved with Animal? A few local guys are sponsored by them as well (Ben Seath/Ben Rice). They seem to be pretty involved in sponsorship of up-and-coming lifters.

I was with animal before. I want to say I started in the cage when I first broke my first world record as a demo in the animal cage and ended up working the booth the whole weekend. I was convinced, unfortunately to leave them and go somewhere else with promises from another company, which after a few years, never delivered. So, I made the call and quit them to go back to animal. I honestly wish I had never left. It is a great company, great product and all, but the thing that is best for me is the family atmosphere between both the athletes to each other, and the people who come, the fans, the other lifters to see us lift. That means the most to me honestly and you won't find it anywhere else.

[JDHOORNY]

Usually when I do dead presses, Josh has me do them after all my heavy flat bench and maybe closegrip work. Usually it's second or third in the lineup of things on chest day and yes, usually about 6 singles.

Overhead press varies, depends because I do it a few different ways, on smith machine, seated free weight, standing push presses, standing strict presses (don't do anymore due to constantly getting hurt with them) but if it was a free weight seated, which I'm assuming you mean, I haven't done it in about a year or two. But, I remember doing 455 for 3 or 4 last time I did it a few years ago.

About Wilkerson, I have no idea, little over 400, maybe 430 ish? I haven't really asked.

[doctoroctopus]

In for some learnin
722 goddamn that's insane

[MattIsBored]

What would be a general periodization of your training for a year i.e like general prep/meet prep and how does it differ? Also do you reverse grip bench?

Appreciate the analytical approach to you're training and look forward to you smashing 722. IMO you should bulk to 350 and see what you put up lol.

[JDHOORNY]

In for some learnin
722 goddamn that's insane

Right on...everyone can ask away, post videos for me to look at, I'm here for you guys.

[JDHOORNY]

Well my training is more or less based on the show schedule and due to me going for something big, they're limited to 2-3 shows as of right now. But, after a show the rep scheme shoots up to usually sets of 12. They are usually somewhat heavy but fast sets to get me more accustomed to higher volume. Over the next six months the reps will taper down to the 3-5 rep range. However, the main thing we work on is finding the weakness and blowing it away. My single rep strength as well as high reps like 20 are so much higher than my 2,3,4,5 rep range. Therefore we have been working on catching them up at least proportionately and also that's where a lot of gains will be achieved. Not only the rep scheme but the muscle groups. My shoulders and tris have always been very dominate so we have been working on catching up the others, chest, lats, etc. Other than that we throw in the speed work, explosion power, etc.

As for getting to 350, no thanks. It was so hard for me to adjust going from 250 to 265 as it was...my back was always tight, I was miserable. I would be driving and have to pull over and stretch my lower back out. It sucked, so I can't even imagine adding another 85 lbs...haha. You can have it.

[invain]

When you aren't training for a meet, how often do you go heavy (90%)? Are you only doing higher volume sets while tapering down, or will you still throw in some heavy doubles/triples every few weeks just to stay accustomed to the heavy weight?

[JDHOORNY]

Well honestly for the last few years, it seems like the meets have fallen around the same time so for me, no. If I'm fresh out of a meet and nothing soon, it's usually lighter for a few months. Now, still volume. If I remember correctly, I was doing 455 for 3x12, then the next week 465 for 3x12, then 495 for 3x12, then it would change to maybe sets of ten, but the volume would always stay there. You can't really go heavy all year long so we switch it back and forth. You can go heavy for a while but if you take a break from it and do the reps and then later go heavy, you feel much, much stronger. The weight is still heavy enough plus the aux exercises may stay up, like may do static holds, deadpress, etc.

[invain]

Besides close grip bench, do you have any favorite tricep exercises you feel carry over to bench? I'll have elbow tendonitis flare up from time to time, and it always seems like extension type movements and skull crushers aggravate it the worst. The bulk of my tricep work is heavy pushdowns with various grips as they seem to feel the best on my elbows.

How often do you do rotator cuff work?

[JDHOORNY]

Besides close grip bench, do you have any favorite tricep exercises you feel carry over to bench? I'll have elbow tendonitis flare up from time to time, and it always seems like extension type movements and skull crushers aggravate it the worst. The bulk of my tricep work is heavy pushdowns with various grips as they seem to feel the best on my elbows.

How often do you do rotator cuff work?

Well, I think that the closegrip has the absolute most carry over. I vary it, heavy, bands, bands with boards, stopping an inch off chest and pausing it for 3 seconds, etc. Push downs are good, and I'm with you on the tendonitis. I love single arm overhead extensions. I get so strong so fast at them that I push. Like week 1, I'll do a 70 for 5 reps, the next week do 80 for 6 reps, then like 100 for 5 reps, then I get tendonitis and can't do it for months. So, I try to stay away from those. I have done tricep pressdowns on the cable to where I do 10 on the far outside of the bar, 10 inside, 10 outside, 10 inside and that's one set. That will hit you hard. Also, band pressdowns are good and good for endurance as well. Right now I'm on sets of 100 and I'm sure it will be, "tie in a knot to make harder" from Josh and then will drop to like 60 but they're great as well. Lastly, weighted dips I think are awesome...if you can, do them.

[invain]

Awesome advice so far, thank you. The sets of 100; are those more for rehab, or just general endurance? Whenever my tendinitis flares up I'll do real high volume, light weight 1-hand push downs, usually with a reverse grip, and it seems to make a difference after a few weeks. I've seen a few high level guys claim real high volume work can help with tendon pain, which makes a lot of sense for various reasons.

[naturalguy]

Great thread, I'll be following

[budreiser2]

I'm having a ton of issues with bar speed off my chest. Here's a video of my bench, If you could check it out that'd be awesome.

[JDHOORNY]

Awesome advice so far, thank you. The sets of 100; are those more for rehab, or just general endurance? Whenever my tendinitis flares up I'll do real high volume, light weight 1-hand push downs, usually with a reverse grip, and it seems to make a difference after a few weeks. I've seen a few high level guys claim real high volume work can help with tendon pain, which makes a lot of sense for various reasons.

For me right now the sets of 100 are for overall endurance. One of those, when it's hard halfway and you run out of fuel you can power through that last half of the rep. Really the only tendon problem I've had is from those single arm overheads but I try to not do them more than a week or two at a time. Had a tendon pop, not tear but it was from those strict overhead military presses which is one of those for me that I always get injured so I don't do them anymore.

[JDHOORNY]

Great thread, I'll be following

Awesome...just watched the vid of you delivering supps and gym bags out...pretty cool man.

[JDHOORNY]

I'm having a ton of issues with bar speed off my chest. Here's a video of my bench, If you could check it out that'd be awesome.

It didn't look too bad man but obviously it was a weight for you that you could get fairly easy. The key to a quick explosive bottom half is staying tight all over, even if it involves flexing everything at once. You want to make sure that you're pushing off the floor, flexing quads, abs, everything. Sounds like it wouldn't matter but it really does, it's your foundation. To work on it, try deadpress singles. Make sure that the bar in the rack is touching you as you start. If you don't know how, go on youtube and search for "hoornstra deadpress" Josh Bryant's page has a few of me on there and use it as a guide.

Also, work on pauses and maybe sets of five, making sure you explode as hard as you can off the chest. Do sets with a solid three second pause as well. These all together should help you gain some good speed.

[naturalguy]

Awesome...just watched the vid of you delivering supps and gym bags out...pretty cool man.

I love doing that, if I was a customer and a company showed up at my house giving me free stuff I'd be pumped. We are going to do more of that on our road trips.