[h=1]Bodybuilding Seminar 101[/h][h=2]With Kai Greene, Justin Compton, Cedric McMillan & Jon Delarosa[/h]
KAI GREENE
A Closer Look at Some Popular Arm Exercises
Preacher Curls
I find that I’m able to spark deeper, more meaningful contractions when the arms are supported and immobile. You defeat the purpose of the strict preacher curl if you let your whole body swing like a pendulum from the first rep to heave up the weight, though. Still, there is definitely a time and place for “cheating” type of form. Cheating to extend the set and work the muscle deeper into the ground can be very useful. But all too often, we see guys cheating the whole time because they have too much weight on the bar to handle properly.
Dumbbell Preacher Curls
I really like using the preacher bench because it stabilizes the shoulder and forces you to use stricter form. It’s a totally different feeling from preachers with a barbell— much more targeted and intense in the belly of the biceps muscle.
Concentration Curls
Whether or not concentration curls can actually bring out more of a peak is debatable. But regardless, the movement lets you focus on that mid-point of the rep where you work the belly of the muscle. It’s a finesse movement where intense squeezing is the goal, so don’t miss out on the full benefits by going too heavy.
Cable Pushdowns
I like to start triceps with rope pushdowns to grease the joints and get a light pump going, and then clip on a short, straight bar for heavy pushdowns or even “power pushdowns.” On those, I lean forward with a close grip on the bar, and let my elbows flare out. You could almost think of this exercise as a close-grip bench press motion, but done with a cable and upside down, because you’re pushing down rather than up.
Dips
Weighted dips are definitely more of a power movement and can build good thickness in the whole triceps. But you can’t write off bodyweight dips, either. You can get higher reps and have much better control over the contractions. It’s a lot easier to hold and squeeze at the top with your own weight, as opposed to if you had 100 or more pounds strapped to your waist. I think it makes sense to do both types of dips at different workouts.
Reverse-grip, Single-arm Cable Extensions
This works the region of the triceps that you see when viewing a physique from the rear in your quarter-turns. That area can never be too thick or too full and round. That being said, it’s a very strict, isolated motion and for that reason, you need to be careful to use a weight you can fully control.
Suggested Arm Workout
Barbell Curls 3 x 15, 12, 12
Preacher Curls With EZ-bar 3 x 15, 12, 12
Alternate Dumbbell Curls 3 x 12
V-bar Cable Pushdowns 3 x 15
Skull-crushers 3 x 15, 12, 12
Dips on Parallel Bars 3 x 15
JUSTIN COMPTON Q&A
NSAIDs Can Be a Pain
How do you stay injury free? Have you ever experienced any threatening injuries/aches that pissed you off on a daily basis, perhaps during your prep or off-season? Do you use ibuprofen/NSAIDs (Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) to combat these issues?
No real injuries, just a few nags that even normal people have. I do not use any NSAIDs because I worry about the stomach lining issues that come along with that stuff. Eventually, they will eat that lining up!
Sets Vary Depending on Body Part
When you train back, biceps and calves, what are the maximum sets that you do? On a big body part like back or legs, for example, do you do two to three sets to warm up, and then three or four heavy sets? Or do you gauge it based on how many exercises you hit, realizing that different exercises hit the muscles from different angles? When you do biceps, how many exercises do you do? Do you always do biceps after back, so you don’t have to train them with as much volume or sets?
When training back, it kind of varies. If I do deadlifts, it takes a lot out of me. So I will drop my volume by three to four sets overall, on that day. But if not, I’ll usually hit my warm-ups for two to three sets and then probably a total of 15 sets after that. For biceps after back, I don’t always train that way. My body part groupings change all the time. I do less volume during back training because my back muscles take a beating.
Cutting Him Down to Size
I’m eating 330 grams of protein and 500 grams of carbs a day, and I am still nowhere near your size. It’s crazy … I have always been big on food, but not on the rest of the stuff! (wink wink) Time to change that?
I’m a person who can speak freely, and usually I speak my mind. These are usually positive thoughts. MD doesn’t filter my writing. That being said, your comment only makes you look silly, man. I’m very conservative on everything (and I literally mean everything in life … money, luxury stuff, food, supplements of all kinds, training, etc.). I believe in getting by with the bare minimum of things in life, because that is how I was taught and how I was brought up, so I have adapted that philosophy into my bodybuilding career. So to assume that I’ve made the progress that I have, as one might infer from your statement pertaining to “the rest of the stuff, wink wink” is totally your opinion and you’re entitled to that. If you wish to pursue that route, then please let me know how it goes for you— and if you suddenly become my size!
CEDRIC McMILLAN Q&A
Give It Everything You’ve Got
Hey Ced, I was wondering how the hell you did running and calisthenics with other soldiers, after training legs? Toward the end of my workout, I can’t even walk! Also, when you do your giant set for legs, do you increase the weight on each set or keep it heavy? It’s hard for me to increase the weight, because I’m so tired after doing leg extensions. So I do three to four sets of five plates on the leg press— if I add weight, I think my legs will collapse. Is it more “feeling” than weight when you’re doing this? Or do you try to go as heavy as you can, and go as low as eight reps on the leg press?
You can do a lot of things you never imagined you could, but you don’t find out until you are forced to. Running the day after training legs isn’t easy, but you can do it if you have to because it’s part of your job.
My reps for legs are always around 12-20. Trust me, leg extensions will not be taxing enough to disrupt your leg press sets. It might feel like it, though. I wouldn’t go in there fuckin’ around with weight that I could only do for five to 10 reps on a good day. Do the weight you would normally do for 12 reps, with moderate intensity. The last set of leg presses should be so heavy that you have to rest-pause your way to 12, and hopefully to 20!
Sometimes, my legs are so tired that I can only do one rep at the time! So I do a rep, take a breath, do a rep, take a breath and so on. Let that last set be the one that takes everything you’ve got, in all three movements. That’s what I do. I may do reps of 20, 12 and 20, increasing the weight every set. The last set of 20 is also the heaviest, but remember, it’s rest-paused. Will it work for you? Who the hell knows. Just go in and try shit, man. Experiment and try to learn what feels good to you, what you like and what is effective
My Big Experiment
I watched your shoulder workout posted on the MD website and I noticed that you were using new and unconventional training styles. You’ve said that you were in touch with Dante, and used to follow DC training. Did you decide that DC style was not for you? How did you come to train the way you do now, which seems the complete opposite of DC training?
I was just trying something different. I train instinctively. I never said I was a straight-up DC guy. I’ve always said I adopted principles and methods from DC, as well as Dorian’s way. My training is a big-ass experiment. The focus right now is shoulders, so I’m trying some shit and adjusting as I go, to see how it works. I’ve done that constantly with all my body parts, ever since I started lifting weights. As time passes, things don’t work as well as they used to, so changes have to be made to maintain the progress I want to see.
JONATHAN DE LA ROSA Q&A
Keeping Your Strength During Contest Diet
Many bodybuilders lose a lot of strength near the end of a contest diet. Do you? I’ve always heard of some guys saying they are stronger at the end of their diet, but surely that can’t be true. I’ve never managed to keep all my strength when dieting to get into low digits.
I definitely end up losing some of my strength toward the end of my prep, but not much. I don’t know if it’s more a mental issue for some, but I try to not allow what I’m eating, or more accurately, the amount, dictate how I feel, in or out of the gym. Yeah, it is easier to feel good with a burger in your belly, but I feel just as good with some grilled chicken and yams. You’re losing fat when you diet, hopefully not muscle mass, and muscle mass is what moves the weights. So, until you’re near the end of your prep, and on much lower carbs and calories, you should keep most of your strength.
Do Heavy Squats Give You a Thick Waist?
Jon, I know that you back squat heavy, with no belt. Do you believe in the theory that
beltless, heavy squatting for low reps will build a thick waist? Do you think it depends on the person?
I don’t believe it does. I like squatting without a belt because I feel a belt restricts your body’s natural range of motion. I also believe that if you can control your breathing and be conscious of your form during the exercise, you shouldn’t ever need a belt.
Vary Your Training Depending on Strength
Do you prefer workouts that are based more on volume or intensity? Do you do more pyramid-style training, adding weight each set, or do you work up to a good weight and do all your working sets with it?
My training varies depending on how I’m feeling that day. I typically use a pyramid style of training, but I also like to do some volume training when my joints are beat up. You have to get a sense of what your body needs and is capable of on a given day. All of us are going to be stronger on some days than others.
Can’t Grow Without Enough Sleep
A few months ago, I changed from going to the gym after work to training first thing in the morning, so I could spend more time with my kids. So far, it’s worked out OK family-wise, but I feel like I’m getting weaker because I’m not getting enough sleep. With your hectic schedule, do you have any secrets for getting adequate rest?
First of all, it’s really good that you’re able to spend more time with your family. I admire that. But as far as morning training goes, that’s gotta be rough! To make sure you get enough sleep, you have to schedule your hours in bed, just like you schedule your workouts. It’s all about time management. Somehow, you have to either get to bed earlier, or find a way to grab a 30-40-minute nap at some point in the day. Without adequate sleep, you just can’t recover and grow, no matter how hard you train or how well you eat.
KAI GREENE
A Closer Look at Some Popular Arm Exercises
Preacher Curls
I find that I’m able to spark deeper, more meaningful contractions when the arms are supported and immobile. You defeat the purpose of the strict preacher curl if you let your whole body swing like a pendulum from the first rep to heave up the weight, though. Still, there is definitely a time and place for “cheating” type of form. Cheating to extend the set and work the muscle deeper into the ground can be very useful. But all too often, we see guys cheating the whole time because they have too much weight on the bar to handle properly.
Dumbbell Preacher Curls
I really like using the preacher bench because it stabilizes the shoulder and forces you to use stricter form. It’s a totally different feeling from preachers with a barbell— much more targeted and intense in the belly of the biceps muscle.
Concentration Curls
Whether or not concentration curls can actually bring out more of a peak is debatable. But regardless, the movement lets you focus on that mid-point of the rep where you work the belly of the muscle. It’s a finesse movement where intense squeezing is the goal, so don’t miss out on the full benefits by going too heavy.
Cable Pushdowns
I like to start triceps with rope pushdowns to grease the joints and get a light pump going, and then clip on a short, straight bar for heavy pushdowns or even “power pushdowns.” On those, I lean forward with a close grip on the bar, and let my elbows flare out. You could almost think of this exercise as a close-grip bench press motion, but done with a cable and upside down, because you’re pushing down rather than up.
Weighted dips are definitely more of a power movement and can build good thickness in the whole triceps. But you can’t write off bodyweight dips, either. You can get higher reps and have much better control over the contractions. It’s a lot easier to hold and squeeze at the top with your own weight, as opposed to if you had 100 or more pounds strapped to your waist. I think it makes sense to do both types of dips at different workouts.
Reverse-grip, Single-arm Cable Extensions
This works the region of the triceps that you see when viewing a physique from the rear in your quarter-turns. That area can never be too thick or too full and round. That being said, it’s a very strict, isolated motion and for that reason, you need to be careful to use a weight you can fully control.
Suggested Arm Workout
Barbell Curls 3 x 15, 12, 12
Preacher Curls With EZ-bar 3 x 15, 12, 12
Alternate Dumbbell Curls 3 x 12
V-bar Cable Pushdowns 3 x 15
Skull-crushers 3 x 15, 12, 12
Dips on Parallel Bars 3 x 15
JUSTIN COMPTON Q&A
NSAIDs Can Be a Pain
How do you stay injury free? Have you ever experienced any threatening injuries/aches that pissed you off on a daily basis, perhaps during your prep or off-season? Do you use ibuprofen/NSAIDs (Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) to combat these issues?
No real injuries, just a few nags that even normal people have. I do not use any NSAIDs because I worry about the stomach lining issues that come along with that stuff. Eventually, they will eat that lining up!
When you train back, biceps and calves, what are the maximum sets that you do? On a big body part like back or legs, for example, do you do two to three sets to warm up, and then three or four heavy sets? Or do you gauge it based on how many exercises you hit, realizing that different exercises hit the muscles from different angles? When you do biceps, how many exercises do you do? Do you always do biceps after back, so you don’t have to train them with as much volume or sets?
When training back, it kind of varies. If I do deadlifts, it takes a lot out of me. So I will drop my volume by three to four sets overall, on that day. But if not, I’ll usually hit my warm-ups for two to three sets and then probably a total of 15 sets after that. For biceps after back, I don’t always train that way. My body part groupings change all the time. I do less volume during back training because my back muscles take a beating.
Cutting Him Down to Size
I’m eating 330 grams of protein and 500 grams of carbs a day, and I am still nowhere near your size. It’s crazy … I have always been big on food, but not on the rest of the stuff! (wink wink) Time to change that?
I’m a person who can speak freely, and usually I speak my mind. These are usually positive thoughts. MD doesn’t filter my writing. That being said, your comment only makes you look silly, man. I’m very conservative on everything (and I literally mean everything in life … money, luxury stuff, food, supplements of all kinds, training, etc.). I believe in getting by with the bare minimum of things in life, because that is how I was taught and how I was brought up, so I have adapted that philosophy into my bodybuilding career. So to assume that I’ve made the progress that I have, as one might infer from your statement pertaining to “the rest of the stuff, wink wink” is totally your opinion and you’re entitled to that. If you wish to pursue that route, then please let me know how it goes for you— and if you suddenly become my size!
CEDRIC McMILLAN Q&A
Give It Everything You’ve Got
Hey Ced, I was wondering how the hell you did running and calisthenics with other soldiers, after training legs? Toward the end of my workout, I can’t even walk! Also, when you do your giant set for legs, do you increase the weight on each set or keep it heavy? It’s hard for me to increase the weight, because I’m so tired after doing leg extensions. So I do three to four sets of five plates on the leg press— if I add weight, I think my legs will collapse. Is it more “feeling” than weight when you’re doing this? Or do you try to go as heavy as you can, and go as low as eight reps on the leg press?
You can do a lot of things you never imagined you could, but you don’t find out until you are forced to. Running the day after training legs isn’t easy, but you can do it if you have to because it’s part of your job.
My reps for legs are always around 12-20. Trust me, leg extensions will not be taxing enough to disrupt your leg press sets. It might feel like it, though. I wouldn’t go in there fuckin’ around with weight that I could only do for five to 10 reps on a good day. Do the weight you would normally do for 12 reps, with moderate intensity. The last set of leg presses should be so heavy that you have to rest-pause your way to 12, and hopefully to 20!
Sometimes, my legs are so tired that I can only do one rep at the time! So I do a rep, take a breath, do a rep, take a breath and so on. Let that last set be the one that takes everything you’ve got, in all three movements. That’s what I do. I may do reps of 20, 12 and 20, increasing the weight every set. The last set of 20 is also the heaviest, but remember, it’s rest-paused. Will it work for you? Who the hell knows. Just go in and try shit, man. Experiment and try to learn what feels good to you, what you like and what is effective
My Big Experiment
I watched your shoulder workout posted on the MD website and I noticed that you were using new and unconventional training styles. You’ve said that you were in touch with Dante, and used to follow DC training. Did you decide that DC style was not for you? How did you come to train the way you do now, which seems the complete opposite of DC training?
I was just trying something different. I train instinctively. I never said I was a straight-up DC guy. I’ve always said I adopted principles and methods from DC, as well as Dorian’s way. My training is a big-ass experiment. The focus right now is shoulders, so I’m trying some shit and adjusting as I go, to see how it works. I’ve done that constantly with all my body parts, ever since I started lifting weights. As time passes, things don’t work as well as they used to, so changes have to be made to maintain the progress I want to see.
JONATHAN DE LA ROSA Q&A
Keeping Your Strength During Contest Diet
Many bodybuilders lose a lot of strength near the end of a contest diet. Do you? I’ve always heard of some guys saying they are stronger at the end of their diet, but surely that can’t be true. I’ve never managed to keep all my strength when dieting to get into low digits.
I definitely end up losing some of my strength toward the end of my prep, but not much. I don’t know if it’s more a mental issue for some, but I try to not allow what I’m eating, or more accurately, the amount, dictate how I feel, in or out of the gym. Yeah, it is easier to feel good with a burger in your belly, but I feel just as good with some grilled chicken and yams. You’re losing fat when you diet, hopefully not muscle mass, and muscle mass is what moves the weights. So, until you’re near the end of your prep, and on much lower carbs and calories, you should keep most of your strength.
Do Heavy Squats Give You a Thick Waist?
Jon, I know that you back squat heavy, with no belt. Do you believe in the theory that
beltless, heavy squatting for low reps will build a thick waist? Do you think it depends on the person?
I don’t believe it does. I like squatting without a belt because I feel a belt restricts your body’s natural range of motion. I also believe that if you can control your breathing and be conscious of your form during the exercise, you shouldn’t ever need a belt.
Vary Your Training Depending on Strength
Do you prefer workouts that are based more on volume or intensity? Do you do more pyramid-style training, adding weight each set, or do you work up to a good weight and do all your working sets with it?
My training varies depending on how I’m feeling that day. I typically use a pyramid style of training, but I also like to do some volume training when my joints are beat up. You have to get a sense of what your body needs and is capable of on a given day. All of us are going to be stronger on some days than others.
Can’t Grow Without Enough Sleep
A few months ago, I changed from going to the gym after work to training first thing in the morning, so I could spend more time with my kids. So far, it’s worked out OK family-wise, but I feel like I’m getting weaker because I’m not getting enough sleep. With your hectic schedule, do you have any secrets for getting adequate rest?
First of all, it’s really good that you’re able to spend more time with your family. I admire that. But as far as morning training goes, that’s gotta be rough! To make sure you get enough sleep, you have to schedule your hours in bed, just like you schedule your workouts. It’s all about time management. Somehow, you have to either get to bed earlier, or find a way to grab a 30-40-minute nap at some point in the day. Without adequate sleep, you just can’t recover and grow, no matter how hard you train or how well you eat.
