boardn10

I do need to stretch more! Good point! Especially at night to keep flexible. I foam roll my back but that is it....are you rolling other areas?

I have been experiencing pain behind the knee caps at times while squatting....and then sometimes for hours after. I would love to have someone critue my form. I believe it is good from all I know, from experience and have read but having someone else look at your form can be an eye opener.

OK fair enough! Have been trying to do more sqyats but of course now I am experiencing pain behind my knee caps when squatting. I have good form but I would love for someone to critique.

I have never once made progress in 24 years of training whenever I trained everyday!!! I find I need to have rest days and I don't train more than about an hour at a time. Right now I am making great gains at 41 training 4 days a week - M/T, Wednesday off and then T/F with the weekend off except maybe some cardio or tennis. Try lowering your volume and frequency and concentrate on compound movements. Some of my best results are training 3 or 4 days a week. In college I had good results training 5 days a week but could have easily done 4 days or less with the right program.

It is frustrating when I get done watching Pumping Iron and see the size those guys attain......but you have to remid yourself, there was a lot of steroids involved. You look at some of the later year My Olympias and some look ridiculous to me, like cartoon characters. Natural bodybuilders just look better to me.. Some of the early guys looked great though, like a lot of the guys around the Pumping Iron time, Arnold, Zane, etc....

I should try that. I have never ben one to keep logs or measurments and maybe I should. I am 6'3" and 203lbs and would love to hit 220 lbs.

....people don't realize the effort and struggle involved to even gain a little muscle, especially if you are an experienced long time lifter/body builder. I remember working at a large gym in Utah in 1996 and a few of the guys who worked there started doing steroids and man they shot up in size fast. It seemed so unfair as they got worlds stronger and larger than me...while it seemed my progress was so slow and a struggle. Was frustrating because before they started doing steroids, I was stronger than they were, but after it was no contest. I decided to not do steroids because I believe in the natural path. It was tough watching those guys get so muscular. Anyway, just venting......I am still frustrated because I put so much into my training and diet and the results aren't as rewarding as I desire.

I am 40 years old, been lifting a long time but never stuck with a squat program for long because I always hit road blocks. I just started another squat program about 4 months back and am starting to have odd pains in my knees while working out. Here we go again. I get pains and then stop. I am 6'3" and 203 lbs. Problem with alternates is that there are not a lot of good ones. Leg press machines in my opinion stress the low back too much. Could do lunges and step ups but I can never get too heavy in weight because it gets dangerous.

I can't train the same body part that often. My chest is so sore two days after my chest workout....there is no way I could hit them again.

I guess I am just not eating enough! I am baout 6'3" and about 203 lbs and can't seem to get above this weight! When I look at Reobert's mass eating list from his book and what he wrote in this thread, I don't know how to eat that much without being sick. It is as if some people can't tolerate that many calories! I find myself forcing food when not hungy. Not fun. I just try to keep protein intake high.

At the moment....never. I am mass building.

I have been doing a 2 on, 1 off split and having good results! I think part of this is due to changing up my workout in general but also doing lower weight and higher reps. I am moving more into the 12-15 range for a while, rather than the 6-8 I was concentrating on. Every now and then I will dip into the 10-12 range if I am trying a new weight. One thing about Robert's routine above and it would be cool if he commented. ........is that I am not a fan of hitting any muscles two days in a row! I don;t like that he shows chest and biceps on day one and then hits back on day two! I would think Chest and triceps may be better on day one and then back day two. Biceps could be put off till Thursday.

I worry too about the amount of food I eat. Excess calories can lead to disease and advanced aging.

How do you perform your reps? Do you release the tension in the top upper point, or you don't lock up your elbows? I have found for my self that I can change the impact of a given weight by only playing with the reps execution, time between the sets and the overall attitude towards it. I try not to lock out at the top.

ARNOLD!

How much protein do all of you consume? I know Rober Cheeke recommends quite a bit according to his book, he recommends as much as the typical bodybuilding magazine would recommend. Now, according to guys like Dr. John McDougall who has many books on veganism and also has a nice site and forum, says no more than about 6-7% of your diet from protein....and he says athletes and bodybuilders do not need significantly more. what gives. Who is right? Are any of you gaining lots of muscle if you are getting enough calories and not watching exact protein intake???? Confused!

Still having a lot of shoulder pain in my left shoulder and elbow and wrist issues..... I realized tonight that I can no longer do overhead presses. I get far too much pain in my left shoulder! I will have to rely on chest press, dips and side raises, front and rear raises for shoulder...no more overhead press. I did dips tonight but my chest was still sore from Monday's workout.

Since dips hit the chest, shoulder and triceps, I used to do all those body parts in one day. Since there is a lot of overlap, and I started doing chest on one day and shoulders and triceps on another day, I cut the dips out! I figure too much oberlap and possible over training. What do you all think? -Rich

Yes, but that can lead to over training. Natural athletes have a limited ability to recover so I try not to touch the same muscle more than once a week. Maybe I will use leg curls for noe while squating. I also cut out dips for now because my current program has me doing chest one day and shoulders on another so I am skipping dips for this protocol. I felt like I needed something new anyway. Hopefully the leg curls will hit my hams as much as the SL Deads did.

Thanks Dallas, I don't like hitting the same muscle group more than once a week so I was trying to squeeze all leg work into one day. I could do stiff legged deads three days later on my back day, but my hams still get some work on squat day. Plus, I have to think of time and I am pressed for time as it is in the gym. Adding deads on my back day will lengthen my workout. Maybe this particular phase I will skip the dead lifts and concentrate on squats and will do things like leg curls to add in some specific ham work.

Are stiff legged deads in your weekly routine? They always hit my hams like no other exercise. Problem I am having is that I do legs on one day and back on a separate day, and after doing stiff legged dead lifts, my upper back is very sore for days! So, I feel like I am over training my back. Thoughts?

krmass25, You bring up a lot of the point in which I point to. We eat a lot of food, more than is necessary, but to get larger, you need to eat lots and lots of calories. One problem I have always found is when I get lean and more cut up, I lose muscle, so I end up cut, but much smaller. When I pack on the muslce, I get belly fat. Can't win. Don't know how guys like Clarence Bass do it. Maybe he is a genetic freak. I wonder how many natural bodybuilders who are now in their 60s or 70s, have more than the usual physical ailments and complaints? Are their joints shot? Spine and back, shot? I do squat, but does it feel natural to squat? No? Something that is more functional like the step up and lung, feel more natural. I wonder if I lift too much weight for my joints. Recently I was doing dumbless chest presses with 100 lb dumbells for low reps and I had to ask myself, will I look any different in the end, by going heavy? Why can't I just do 80 lb dumbells for 15 reps? In the end, is 100 lb dumbells for 6 reps the same as 80 lb DBs for 15 reps in how the joints see it? Is there more damage using the heavier weight? If I do 15 reps with lighter weight on the squat, do I get the same benefit in the thighs as lifting heavy for 6-8 reps? There is more and more research coming out pointing to the fact that you can lift much less weight for more reps and still gain as much mass. But, does this do less joint damage? Does any of this damage joints if you progress slowly with correct form? I don't know. All I know is that I have terrible pain in my feet, my upper bakc and spin and left arm, elbow and shoulder. Some doctor's tell me it could be Ankylosing Spondylitis, some say it could be something with the spine as in a disk issue. I had three MRIs 3 years ago of my spine and all looked good. Go figure. A few of the doctor's say it is still the Lyme disease that I have been fighting for years, still causing trouble....or irritation. Maybe it is my Ulnar Nerve still erritated after I had Ulnar entrapment surgery 3 years ago. These are the things that cause my confusion in how it pertains to body building.

Thanks for the info man! I know, I need to get a picture...I will! I have lost 5 pounds this last week so I have lost some size due to food allergies and avoiding some foods and lifting less weights due to food allergies. I have a long way to go. Yes, I started doing weight abs work the last few weeks.

Bragg Liquid Aminos ??? Wow, thank you! No yeast! This will give me my stir fry back! Yes, I can have soy! Where to buy the Bragg Liquid Aminos? Whole Foods? I will call around to some health food stores. I know I have seen it somewhere before.

I got my results back from Immuno Labs on my food sensitivities. My doctor had me tested and we went over the results. Can anyone offer guidance based on my results? Thanks I feel like I need some guidance. I had some blood work done recently and found I have sensitivities to a lot of foods. The main ones that are really tough for me are: Yeast (Bakers and Brewers) Wheat Barley Tomato Garlic Pinto beans Kidney beans mustard They are also testing my blood against other beans so I might have reactions to other beans, GREAT! Stir fries and bean dishes are huge with me. I literally am running out of things to eat. I typically eat 3-4,000 calories a day. So now I am having buckwehat pancakes and a few cups of oatmeal at breakfast just to get as many calories in me as possible. Some of these things are almost impossible to avoid. Yeast? I have been trying to make tofu/veggie stir fry but realized that my gluten free soy sause may have yeast in it even though it does not say anything on the bottle about yeast! I use a gluten free soy sause from Whole Foods but it contain alcohol so it probably has yeast. No more stir fry. I am also told by my doc to eat like NO fat because they found a parasite in my blood that creates biofilms that apparently clear up on a low to no fat diet.