MALE PATTERN FITNESS: asklou

October 27, 2004

The "Best" Workout Program

I've collected heaps and heaps of magazines, articles and books on working out, and I'm never sure what routine to follow. At the end of the day, are your routines going to build muscle faster than what bodybuilders are recommending?

I usually define the “best” workout as the one you haven’t tried yet.

Most guys who try the programs in my books have already done the beginner programs at their gyms -- machine circuits, or basic bodybuilding routines with as many sets for their biceps as for vertical and horizontal pulls combined.

So when they do an Ian King routine (as in Book of Muscle), they’re doing balanced workouts for the first time. That is, they’re putting equal emphasis on pushing and pulling, and squatting and deadlifting. I know it was a revelation for me when I first started doing Ian’s routines, and most guys I’ve talked to who’ve tried them feel the same way.

The workouts the trainers I work with put together all have that secret sauce -- balance, an emphasis on multijoint movements, a de-emphasis of “body parts” and other bodybuilding culture.

I like to think I’m advocating a “back to the future” approach. Back in the old days, before they had machines (or even benches and squat racks), lifters had to start most of their exercises by picking the weight up off the floor. If you look at pictures of those guys, you see they had thick, nicely proportioned physiques -- they looked like athletes -- and when you read about them, you realize they were incredibly strong, too.

Advanced bodybuilders tend to like the programs less than advanced beginners and intermediates. They’re already doing a lot of the basic, multijoint movements, along with all the other isolation movements. Those guys, I think, are advanced bodybuilders because they like that super-high volume of exercise.

To answer your question more directly, I think the programs in my books are the “best” for guys who ...

1. Haven’t tried them before
2. Are willing to follow a program designed by someone who knows what he’s doing
3. Want to get as much work accomplished as possible in a finite time frame
4. Care about their muscles’ performance as well as their appearance
5. Aren’t taking steroids

Posted by LouSchuler at 06:38 AM

October 26, 2004

Slender Forearms

I've been following your routines for a little while now, but my forearms remain tiny. I have small joints compared to most guys, so maybe that's why. What can I do to build forearm strength and size?

You can’t change your joint size, but you can work with it.

If you look at pictures of old-time bodybuilders, you see guys with different structures who managed to build great-looking physiques whether they were naturally thick-boned or had smaller frames.

With the advent of massive drug use, though, all the physiques kind of look the same now, and some have observed that the smaller-framed guys actually have an advantage, since their muscles rise more dramatically off their relatively slender joints.

Meanwhile, in natural bodybuilding, thicker-framed guys have an advantage (I’ve been told; I don’t claim to follow it) because they’re able to put on more mass.

I guess that’s a long way of saying, work with what you have.

I have naturally skinny limbs, and I’ve found that nothing adds thickness like the heavy, basic movements: deadlifts, chinups, rows. They all incorporate grip strength, and even though movement in the wrist and elbow joints is slight, the forearm muscles still have to work hard to hold those heavy weights.

I’ve never had much luck with isolation movements -- the wrist curls and extensions, the reverse-grip biceps curls. They just seemed to add to the length of my workouts without really adding anything to the size of my forearms.

But if you were to add one isolation movement to your routine, I’d recommend hammer curls. Here’s why:

When you put your palms in a neutral position -- facing your thighs -- you’ve set the two bones of your forearms (radius and ulna) into their strongest position, biomechanically. To flex your elbow in that position, you employ two of your thickest, strongest arm muscles: the brachialis (which lies beneath your biceps, against the humerus) and the brachioradialis (your biggest forearm muscle, which crosses your elbow joint).

How does that increase the thickness of your wrists?

Down at the lower part of your wrist, it’s all bone and connective tissue. If you want to thicken that up, you have to use heavy weights over a long period of time. Hammer curls, used judiciously for low to medium reps (6-8 per set, say) with relatively heavy weights will help that along.

But the core of your program should still be the basic, heavy lifts.

Posted by LouSchuler at 07:33 AM

July 02, 2004

Core Endurance

I am currently doing a workout that involves side plank and face-down plank exercises for core endurance. Are there any other exercises that can serve as alternatives and build core endurance?
—MH

MH, you asked about core endurance, not strength. So the answer about hanging leg raises isn't really applicable. Given how you phrased the question, I suspect you already know about the research showing that endurance, rather than strength or flexibility, is the key to lower-back health.

One solution is to rotate from front to side planks, from planks to pushup holds, and from pushup holds to bird dogs (lift opposite leg and arm). That makes it more challenging, adding balance and strength components to the endurance you're building.

Another is to build in lower-back challenges to regular exercises.

For example, a lot of bodybuilders do the one-arm bent-over dumbbell row. But if you do that standing up, with the nonworking arm behind your back, now you've introduced a core-endurance component to an upper-back muscle-builder.
(BTW, I just learned that exercise from Alwyn Cosgrove. It's in our book, The New Rules of Lifting, out in January.)

Posted by LouSchuler at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

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