Bulking Questions And Answers

In your bulking cycle you had a lot of injury problems. First the wrist, then the shoulder, now the forearm and the knees from cardio. I’ve noticed that as I handle heavier and heavier weight I get pains like that too. Even if they only last for a few days, they seriously hurt my training. Things like the rotators, my knee condition and lower back aches and pains. What should I do to prevent these things?

At that time, I was doing 12 sets per larger body part, MAX-OT style, instead of the recommended 6-9 sets. I lowered my volume to 6-9 sets per muscle group and have had no problems. Over using a muscle or joint causes the pain. Cutting back on the volume of your routine will help prevent injury from overuse.

I'm sure you've never done this because you're not a dumbass like me, but the other day I was working back, and on my first exercise, deadlifts, I put 205 on the bar and did 8 reps (give me a break I’m only 14!), and I’m working in the 4-8 range, so I’m like, "Ok, I’ll add some weight". So I added on what I thought would make the bar 235, and as I was doing my reps with it one side of the bar didn’t go up as fast as the other side. So I’m like, "Oh well, it's supposed to be tough." Then I got another good 6 reps, so I decided to add some weight, and that's when I realized I had put 245 on the bar because of an extra 10lb plate on the right side. I really knew I had screwed up the next day when my right trap was more sore than my left one. What do I do next workout, add an extra 10 to the left side to balance it out or just always check to see if there is equal weight on each side?

Always check to make sure the weight is equal on both sides. Not doing so could result injury. You will not need to adjust your next workout. One messed up workout won't make a difference.

I have asymmetrical front delts. Yeah, my right one is a bit bigger than my left, but I mean, I look good from the front, and even the back, but from the side, my front delts look so big and unsightly. Do I need more rear delts or upper chest? I am asking you how to correct this problem because in this picture from bulking 2001 it looks like you had the same problem that I do. You don't have it anymore, and I was just wondering how do you get rid of it?!

Side Laterals!!! I concentrated a lot of these. They hit the side delts the best. View Exercise

This kind of ties into the last question. How do you execute the rear lateral raise. It seems almost impossible to isolate the rear delts with this movement. Try and do this exercise with one arm with no weight in your hand and feel your lat with the other hand while you do the raise, you feel your lats working don't you? And if you raise it too far back in the exercise, the traps work too hard, but if you raise it too far forward in the exercise the side delts get all the pressure. Should I just use the heaviest weight I can even if I use some lat action, or should I do incline laterals or what? Maybe you could give me a description of how you do the exercise and how what you feel during the execution of it?

Sit on the end of a bench. With your knees bent at a 90-degree angle, bend forward so your chest is almost touching your thighs. Your arms should be hanging straight down with the dumbbells below your hamstrings. Starting with your arms straight, adduct your shoulders while beginning to flex at the elbow. Begin to squeeze your shoulder blades together. At the top of the movement, your elbows should be bent at a 90-degree angle and you should be squeezing your shoulder blades together, concentrating on the rear delts. Then return the dumbbells to the starting position.

The mind and muscle connection is very important during this exercise. You have to make sure you feel it in the rear delts. View Exercise

This isn't a question, rather an agreement with you. Stiff leg deadlifts are THE BEST! You probably don’t remember, but I asked you how to get my hams to grow and you gave me a routine with stiff leg deads as the only exercise for hams, and I was like, "what is he thinking?" But I tried that MAX-OT legs routine and my hams were sore for 5 days!!! Definitely an AWESOME exercise.

I'm glad you like them. They really target the hams if done correctly. The problem most people have is they try to use too much weight on top of incorrect form. Therefore, they do not use their hams, but instead rely on their lower back and arms.

You follow MAX-OT, and I’m pretty sure that you think it is the best way to train. Do you think that MAX-OT is the best way for a kid like me to train (14 years old, ectomorphic, 170 lbs at 6')? I have really got some good gains by reducing my volume and reps - like MAX-OT.

MAX-OT is awesome. I would suggest a lighter rep range like 8-12 for your age, unless you've been lifting for some time. When you are first starting out, your tendons and ligaments are not accustomed to handling heavy loads. Using the 4-6 rep range might be a little too much for them.

Why don’t you train with MAX-OT while cutting like Jeff Willet and Skip Lacour do?

I do now. I didn't before, but I wish I would have. I believed, because of what other bodybuilders had told me, that I needed to up my reps and sets, add all sorts of supersets and isolation exercises and what not. If I could do it over, I’d train MAX-OT.

If you believe that things like front raises and front squats bring out more definition, then do you think that you can change the shape of your biceps length or peak?

Front raises and front squats do not bring out more definition. Diet does that. But they do target specific muscles. If your pec/delt tie in is weak, doing front laterals helps that area grow. The same goes for front squats.

Bicep peak is pretty much genetically determined, but you can always increase what you have. I found that reverse curls "increase" your peak.

You can contact me with your questions and comments at dspikehead@hotmail.com.

Later,

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