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Ask The Muscle Expert Vince Delmonte
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By Vince Delmonte
http://www.atozfitness.com/recommends/nononsense.html

One of my favorite sections of Men’s Health magazine is Jimmy THE BARTENDER which is a question and answer column on women, work and other stuff that “screws up men’s lives.”

I’m going to let Jimmy keep helping you out with women and work.

I’m going to take the next 5-days to answer your muscle and six-pack questions.

Question: What is your secret to staying ripped and muscular all year round?

Vince: The secret is that there is no secret; it’s all abut commitment, discipline, sacrifice and passion. You probably won’t like that answer because it’s all about “sweat equity.” It’s all about being in love with the lifestyle.

You need to fall in love with the natural high of working hard in the gym.  Genetics can only take you so far, it’s all about taking the little things seriously.

The little things, those daily routines, is what makes or breaks your physique. You’ve got to want it more than anybody else and be willing to put in the extra mile, especially in terms of your diet.

Question: What is the best meal I can eat in the morning to fuel my muscles?

Vince: This is the first thing that should be on your mind when you wake and this muscle muesli breakfast will do just the job.  Mentally, having a meal with natural energy sources is the perfect way to set the tone for your day.

Mix 1 cup of cooked oats to get a slow-release carb and to keep your cholesterol in check.  Add 2 cups of fat-free live yogurt to get a combination of carbs and proteins and probiotics.  Probiotics help absorb magnesium, calcium and iron which are needed to maintain muscle growth.

Add a handful of mixed nuts which are rich in omega-6 fats and helps regulate digestion ensuring that slow release of energy.  Add another handful of pumpkin seeds which can improve blood flow to your muscles during exercise.

Add a small handful of raisins, blueberries ans strawberries for an excellent source of antioxidants and to combat free radicals.

Add some organic honey which is high in zinc plus some cinnamon to taste.  Cinnamon helps the cells absorb glucose better keeping energy high and controlling cholesterol.

Another trick is to soak the oatmeal in a cup of juice from an orange overnight in a Tupperware container so that when you wake up, add the extra ingredients and you’re good for the road. Make a second batch for a pre-workout meal and you’re lift like a champ.

Question: The body builders at my gym work each muscle group once a week. Is that enough?

Vince: It depends on your compensation curve.  This is the wave like response your body has to any given workout. Lets say on Monday you trained your legs with squats and 3 other leg exercises.  For the next 2-3 days you will be weaker from the damage your did to your muscles.

Then the wave comes back up and maybe 4-5 days later you’ll be stronger which means you recovered and experienced the training response. Also known as super compensation.

But lets say you wait a complete seven days before you train your legs again when you recovered after 5-6 days, you may miss the wave and actually become weaker than you were the previous week.  The secret is finding how many days it takes to hit the top of the wave before it starts to drop again.

Since you’re more focused on building muscle, you’ll probably get better results using my system of working the major muscle groups 2-3 times a week, using different exercises.

Question: I am started to get bulky, but I want to be lean.  Should I start doing higher reps or lighter weights?

Vince: It’s very rare that heavy weights will make you look bulky (ladies, listen up); it’s a heavy fork that is the offender.  Your muscles grow on calories so if you’re getting bulky, I would be more interested in assessing your meal plan than training plan.  Ladies, that goes for you especially.

Extra body fat is what makes you look bulky so put your efforts into fixing your diet.  Your diet should be based around eating high-fiber vegetables and high-protein meals.

In the gym, stick to whatever weight training program you are currently doing.  The same program that built the muscle will be the same program that keeps the muscle.  The biggest difference would be focusing on doing more work in less time.  Start to slowly lower your rest periods to 30-seconds to create a metabolic response to fry the fat.  You will not need to go any shorter than that to lean down.

You’ve got muscle training problems - here are more answers.

Question: I have been doing various chest exercise for a while now but I am really struggling to get that line down the middle of my chest to give over all definition to the pecs. Are there any exercises that target that area?

Vince: Yes, and I will share an old school muscle training technique known as Pre-Exhaust training which is when you pre-fatigue a certain body part, in your case the chest, using an isolation or “single -joint” movement first followed by a compound or “multi-joint” movement.

Pre-exhaust training can over train beginners but will force your muscles to work twice as hard on the compound movements that follow to ensure you experience metabolic fatigue before neurological fatigue.

I am in fact experimenting with this old school muscle training technique for an upcoming program I’ll be releasing but here is what you can start adding before all your chest workouts:

Exercise 1: DB Chest Flys 2 sets of 10 with 60 sec rest.  Focus on the greatest range of motion and keep your elbows slightly bent.  Move the weight slow and controlled.

Exercise 2: Wide Grip Parallel Bar Dips 3 sets of 15 with 30 sec rest.  Go as deep as possible and lean forward to take the stress off your triceps and emphasize the “middle line” of your chest.

Continue with the rest of your chest workout.  This extra 5 minutes at the start will create a button-popping chest.

Question: I want to continue to build lean muscle whilst dropping body fat. Please help and explain how you achieve both simultaneously.

Vince: And I want to date Jessica Alba and Eva Longoria at the same time!  You are better chasing one goal and putting all your effort into it. Chasing two goals at once often leads to frustration and very little change in either direction unless you have tremendous genetics, a complete beginner or using drugs. It is possible but typically happens by chance and most guys who experience a gain in muscle and lost in fat, simultaneously, can’t give you a good answer.  Why?  They got lucky!

Here’s my recommendation, choose one goal at a time.  If you’re goal is to gain lean muscle mass and you happen to lose some fat in the process, consider it a bonus.  If you’re goal is lose fat and you happen to gain some muscle in the process, consider it a bonus.

You got to give credit to the bodybuilders for figuring this out.  They will spend half the year bulking, half the year cutting.  The end result?  A completely different physique. I recommend you do the same.

Question: What is your opinion on the whole dextrose/maltose/waxy maize with post workout shake? Is all that sugar necessary or is fruit yogurt and oats sufficient with a scoop of whey protein powder and milk?

Vince: There is no debate that the type of carbohydrate consumed and the time it is consumed post workout can influence your results positively or negatively. Marketers have leveraged this research to sell you the latest new “miracle” carb sources and waxy maize is the latest gimmick to claim more superior to dextrose and maltodextrin.  The majority of info on this new “miracle carb” source is downright misinformation and from skewed research. Dextrose remains the fastest absorbing sugar and is dirt cheap, I don’t understand why you would even spend money on waxy maize.

Dextrose hits your blood stream faster than fruit or oatmeal so mixing dextrose with some protein powder is your top choice and may be more anabolic than the other combination’s you mentioned, but will not determine whether you grow or not.

As long as your seizing the “window of opportunity” with a 2:1 ratio of carbs to protein (50 grams of carbs and 25 grams of protein post workout suits the average build), you’ll create a  superior anabolic environment rather than missing this window that eventually closes after 1-2 hours.

Leave oatmeal for your post workout meal 1 hour after your post workout shake as it’s a slow-releasing carb.  Use high GI carbs like honey, fruit, yogurt, chocolate milk or dextrose as your source of carbs and a whey protein powder as your form of protein.  These foods will ensure you create an anti-catabolic environment to build muscle, not lose it.

 

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Sarah, CPT
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