6 Whole Foods to Increase Muscle Gains

A Healthy Bodybuilder Will Be A Better Bodybuilder

We know you’re driven, an animal in the gym and all this nonsense about health and what foods to eat to improve health is for soccer Moms and those who don’t know our Jay Cutler from “Da Bears” Jay Cutler. But listen up people, to make optimum gains you need to maintain optimal all round health and keep your immune system cranking out at 100% efficiency. By doing so your gym efforts will reap more, and faster, muscle gains. Here’s six whole foods to help put you on that super healthy track.
 1) Nuts Linked to Longer Life Span
 Eating nuts every day reduces the death rate by 20 percent compared to not eating nuts, according to a Harvard University study of more than 100,000 health professionals. Higher nut consumption was also linked to a reduced death rate due to cancer, heart disease and lung disease. Nuts are highly nutritious foods that are high in unsaturated fats, fiber, vitamins and minerals, and antioxidants. Major health agencies, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, recommend that people eat nuts as part of a healthy diet. (New England Journal Of Medicine, 369: 2001-2011, 2013)
 2) Long-Term Rice Intake Improves Blood Sugar Regulation
 America is in the midst of an obesity and diabetes epidemic, mainly caused by physical inactivity and poor diet. We need simple solutions to turn the tide. Korean researchers, in a study on mice, showed that rice consumption (50 percent of caloric intake) resulted in reduced bodyweight, blood sugar, insulin and leptin compared to animals consuming a high-fat diet. Rice improved blood sugar regulation by activating a high-energy metabolic pathway (AMPK) and a cellular sugar transporter (GLUT4). It is not known whether these results apply to humans. (Nutrition, published online January 10, 2014)
 3) Cherry Juice Reduces Inflammation and Muscle Damage
 Cherry juice is the real deal for protecting muscle tissue from damage during intense exercise ranging from marathons to monster weight-training workouts— according to a review of literature by Stella Lucia Volpe from Drexel University in Philadelphia. Chemicals in cherry juice, such as flavonoids and anthocyanins, prevent muscle oxidative damage and inflammation associated with exercise recovery. Cherry juice, which reduces exercise-induced muscle damage, inflammation and oxidative stress, might be useful for reducing sports injuries and promoting recovery. (ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal 18(1): 32-33, 2014)
 4) Eating Fish Linked to Slower Brain Aging
 People who ate baked or broiled fish once a week showed less loss of brain grey matter during a 10-year period than non-fish eaters— according to a study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The benefits of eating fish did not apply to fried fish, and omega-3 fatty intake did not affect the results. Fish eaters were more likely to have a university education. It is likely that lifestyle was more important that fish for promoting healthy brains. Because two factors are related doesn’t mean that one caused the other. Don’t concentrate on individual foods. Rather, follow a healthy lifestyle that emphasizes a well-balance diet, exercise, minimal stress and positive associations with family and friends. (American Journal Preventive Medicine, published online July 29, 2014)
 5) Apples Decrease Inflammation
 Inflammation is a disturbance in the metabolism of critical structures in cells such as cell membranes. It is linked to serious health problems such as heart disease, dementia, stroke and arthritis. Antioxidants called polyphenols help fight inflammation by neutralizing highly reactive chemicals called free radicals that are produced naturally during metabolism. These chemicals trigger cell damage to membranes, DNA and mitochondria that impair the immune system and eventually lead to premature death. A study from New Zealand show that apples contained antioxidants called polyphenols that decreased inflammation and promoted more healthy microbes in the gut. It may be true that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. (Journal of Nutrition, 144:146-154, 2014)
 6) Raisins Improve Blood Sugar Control
Eating raisins three times a week will reduce blood pressure, blood sugar and levels of glycated hemoglobin, a marker of long-term blood sugar regulation— according to a study led by James Anderson from the University of Kentucky. Test subjects consumed either raisins or other snacks three times per week for 12 weeks. While there were no differences in bodyweight between groups, raisin consumption improved blood sugar regulation and blood pressure by more than 10 percent. Eating raisins might lower your risk of heart disease and improve metabolic health. (Postgraduate Medicine, 126: 37- 43, 2014)

NPC USA Overall Champs

How They Did As Pros...& Other Stuff

First ever USA overall champ in 1982 was middleweight Dale Ruplinger.

Over the weekend of July 25-26, Las Vegas will be invaded by a swarm of individuals committed to getting totally ripped by a means other than chugging liquor at a casino bar. This due to the 2014 NPC USA Championships being staged over that weekend at the Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall on the UNLC Campus.  This will be the 33^rd rendition of the Championships and just for the “let’s poke it in the eye and see if it blinks” hell of, in this column we pick out a few factoids from the contest’s illustrious history and provide a review of the 31 winners of the men’s overall title and how they fared as pros.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!
 A review of the ensuing pro careers of the 32 USA overall champions.
  Year     Champion         Division        Best Pro                                                    Best Olympia
1982   Dale Ruplinger        M/W              8th: 1983 UK G.Prix                                     12th: 1983
1983   Ernie Santiago         M/W              Never competed as a pro.
1984   Phil Williams           (L/H)             1^st: 1988 Chicago Pro                                    Never competed
1985   Dave Hawk             (L/HW)          4^th: 1986 LA Pro & World Pro                      Never competed
1986   J.J. Marsh               (L/HW)          1^st: 1991 Ironman                                          12^th: 1993
1987   Mike Quinn             (H/W)            4^th: 1988 German, French & Greek G.Prix      6^th: 1988
1988   John DeFendis        (H/W)            12^th: 1989 Niagara Pro                                   Never competed
1989   Eddie Robinson      (L/HW)          1^st: 1990 Niagara Pro                                     10^th: 1990
1990   Aaron Baker           (H/W)             2^nd: 1995 Ironman & Florida Pro                   9^th: 1995
1991   Mike Matarazzo      (H/W)             2^nd: 1993 Pitt Pro & 1997 Canada Pro           9^th: 1998
1992   Flex Wheeler          (H/W)             1^st: in 17 pro contests                                   2^nd: 1993, ’98, ’99.
1993   Chris Cormier         (H/W)            1^st: in 11 pro contests                                   3^rd: 1999, ‘02
1994   Dennis Newman      (H/W)            7^th: 1998 Ironman                                         Never competed
1995   Phil Hernon             (H/W)            8^th: 1996 San Jose Pro                                  Never competed
1996   Craig Titus              (H/W)             2^nd: 2001 San Fran Pro                                11^th: 2002
1997   Ken Brown             (H/W)             15^th: 1999 Toronto Pro                                Never competed
1998   Dennis James          (S/HW)           1^st: in 3 pro contests                                    4^th: 2003
1999   Melvin Anthony      (S/HW)            1^st: in 3 pro contests                                    5^th: 2006
2000   Bob Cicherillo        (S/HW)            1^st: 2006 Masters World                              18^th: 2002
2001   Quincy Taylor        (S/HW)            2^nd: 2006 Europa & 2007 Montreal Pro        16^th: 2005, ‘07
2002   Idrise Ward-El        (S/HW)            9^th: 2004 Ironman                                        Never competed
2003   Richard Jones        (L/HW)            3^rd: 2004 Night of Champs                           18^th: 2004
2004   Mark Dugdale        (L/HW)            2^nd: in 4 pro contests                                    16^th: 2007
2005   Phil Heath              (HW)               1^st: in 9 pro contests                                    1^st: 2011, ’12, ‘13
2006   Omar Deckard       (S/HW)            3^rd: 2012 Aussie G. Prix                               Never competed
2007   Ben White              (S/HW)           1^st: 2010 Tampa Pro                                     16^th: 2011
2008   Brandon Curry       (H/W)             1^st: 2013 Arnold, Brazil                                  8^th: 2011
2009   Mark Alvisi            (H/W)             2^nd: 2010) Europa                                         Never competed
2010   Jason Huh              (/HW)             7^th: 2011 & ’12 Tampa Pro                           Never competed
2011   Steve Kuclo            (S/HW)          1st: 2013 Europa & 2014 Arnold Brazil           14^th: 2013
2012   Darron Glenn          (L/HW)          8^th: 2013 NY Pro (212s)                                Never competed
2013   Max Charles           (S/HW)          5^th: 2014 NY Pro                                           Never competed

Mike Quinn took top honors in 1987.

THE BODIES IN QUESTION  In 1982 the Championships had just under 100 competitors.
 In 2014 nearly 1,000 competitors will contest the Championships.
 In 1982 there was only two classes: men and women’s bodybuilding.
 In 2014 there are six divisions: men and women’s bodybuilding, men and women’s physique, figure and bikini.

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS ….
 In 1982 the event was held in Las Vegas.
 In 2014 Jon “I never saw a ticket I couldn’t sell” Lindsay will be promoting his 19th straight USA Championships. His first was in Long Beach in 1996, and it has been held in Vegas every year since, apart from 1999 when it took place in Santa Monica.

Winning the 1992 USA was Flex Wheeler’s gateway to 17 pro victories.

 In 1982 no IFBB pro cards were given out. In those days you had to win a World Amateur Championship to earn recruitment to the pros. First overall champ Dale Ruplinger duly accomplished that in late 1982. It wasn’t until the 1987 USAs that an overall win (and only an overall win) carried the reward of a pro card. In this year’s Men’s Bodybuilding Championships each of the seven class winners will get to turn pro.
 In 2013 across all classes 53 cards will be distributed. With so many cards being dealt its is rumored Jon Lindsay is hiring a local croupier to issue them.

GAME FOR BIG BOYS
 Of the 32 overall champs 20 came from the heaviest division. (From 1982 through 1997 the top division was heavyweight with the super heavyweight class being introduced in 1998.) Since the introduction of the super heavyweights, ten super heavies have won the overall, while three heavyweights and three light heavies have also won the overall. Of the 32 overall champs, seven titles have been won by light heavyweights and two by middleweights (1982 & ’83).

PHIL ALONE
 Only one Mr. Olympia, the present incumbent Phil Heath, has gained pro status through the USA Championships. If that is surprising the fact is that only one Mr. Olympia won a pro card via the NPC Nationals. That was Jay Cutler by virtue of winning the 1996 heavyweight division: He lost the overall to light heavy champ Willie Stallings. Eight-time Olympia champ Lee Haney, although winner of the first ever NPC Nationals in 1982, didn’t receive a pro card for his efforts. At that time the route to the pros was achieved by winning an IFBB Amateur World title which Haney duly did a couple of months after

A 210 pound Phil Heath dominated the 2005 event. Forty pounds later, he’s going for a fourth Sandow in September.

his Nationals triumph. Likewise Ronnie Coleman, possessor of eight Sandows, joined the pro ranks by winning the 1991 Amateur World’s shortly after finishing fourth at that year’s Nationals. In regard to the other two Mr. Olympias of the past thirty years, Dorian Yates and Dexter Jackson, the former became pro by winning the 1988 British Championships and the latter by annexing the 1998 North American overall title.
ROLL OF HONOR
 Here’s a list of overall winners who have gone on to record pro victories.
 Flex Wheeler (1992): 17 pro wins
 Chris Cormier (1993): 11 pro wins
 Phil Heath (2005): 9 pro wins
 Melvin Anthony (1999): 3 pro wins
 Dennis James (1998): 3 pro wins
 Steve Kuclo (2011): 2 pro wins
 J.J. Marsh (1986): 2 pro wins
 Bob Cicherillo (2000): 1 pro win
 Eddie Robinson (1989): 1 pro win

Steve Kuclo, winner of this year’s Arnold Brazil, was USA overall champ in 2011.

Building Boulder Shoulders

Ronny Rockel's Magnificent Seven

Those Boulder Shoulders
 At first glance, Ronny Rockel’s physique flows with such harmony that you may not think he has any standout body parts. But after a bit of perusal, you realize he does have a few muscle groups that are truly spectacular. His pecs are thick, full and striated. His quads are meaty, deeply detailed and feature exceptional sweep. And it would be tough to argue against Ronny’s shoulders being his best body part. They would have to be, otherwise how could he stand next to men like Ronnie, Jay, Wolf, Victor, Evan and Roelly— all of whom have magnificent delts— and have any chance of holding his own when he lacks their stature and sheer bulk?
      Yes, Ronnie’s shoulders are a big reason he is able to do so well because wide, round delts help create the illusion of greater mass. When you get right down to it, bodybuilding is a sport of illusion. Assuming you don’t have a weak chest or arms, building up the shoulders to their maximum possible dimensions and then carving clear splits and striations into them through years of hard, intelligent training is a winning strategy for any man who wants to be a champion bodybuilder. If you can manage to craft a pair of wide boulder shoulders like The Rock has, you will definitely take out plenty of rivals whether or not you can match them on height and weight. Nothing about Ronny’s physique has been created haphazardly or by accident. The following details the seven exercises that this master physique technician employs to build those cannonballs that sit atop his clavicles.

 

1) Overhead Presses     
 Being that these photos were taken the day after a contest, Ronny chose to do his presses on a machine. Those of you who have taken your physiques down into the lowest possibly levels of body fat and water retention need no further explanation, but suffice it to say that nobody in totally shredded condition is in any mood to be pushing up mega-heavy loads of free iron.
    Normally, Rockel chooses two of the most difficult pressing movements a man can do: the standing barbell press and the seated dumbbell press. Both require balance and coordination, along with brute power. That being said, he has avoided injury over the years both by utilizing thorough warm-ups and a slow and controlled rep cadence. A warm-up of 30 reps is done first, followed by 2 sets of 15-20 reps. “I avoid extremely heavy weight, extremely low reps and explosive movements for deltoids,” he explains. “They are isolated muscles with many heads and attachments, so they demand extreme discipline and concentration.”
      You won’t catch Ronny doing ballistic or cheating reps. For his final set of presses, being sufficiently warmed up, he challenges himself with a drop set of 6, 6 and 6 more reps for a total of 18. Each rep is done slowly even until the very last, ensuring constant tension on his shoulders.

 

2) Dumbbell Lateral Raises
 If you’ve spent your fair share of time in gyms, you probably know that the two exercises commonly done with lousy form are curls and lateral raises. It’s typical to see guys heaving and throwing up way more weight than they have any business handling, and in the process stimulating the target muscle about as effectively as an ugly hooker could arouse a dead man (you like that one?). To eliminate the potential for cheating, Ronny stands with the front of his torso glued to the upright on an adjustable bench set to its highest setting. Each and every rep comes up to a full contraction of the medial deltoid head, with reps starting at 20 and proceeding down to 15 and 10 over the course of 3 sets. Other guys might feel like big shots flinging up a pair of 70s or 80s— but I don’t think Ronny is feeling too inadequate using 30-40 pounds in each hand and building round, capped delts that those clowns will never remotely approach in their lives.

 

3) Lateral Raise Machine
 Machines are often shunned for lateral raises, but Ronny feels this is a big mistake. “Using a lateral raise machine allows you to literally get directly to the deltoids without having to go through the arms as a lever,” he points out. He’s right. If, God forbid, any of you ever tear a biceps or triceps or fracture your wrist, you could still maintain some shoulder mass using a lateral raise machine. But why do two different lateral raise movements? “The front delts get worked all the time on presses for the chest and shoulders,” Rockel observes. “The side deltoids should get two exercises, because they can never be too full or round.”

 

4) Upright Rows
 Upright rows are a hybrid movement that works both the traps and the side and rear delts. You can hit more traps with a narrow grip or you can tap into more medial deltoid fibers with a wider grip. The line in which you pull also makes a difference. “For the traps, you want to pull straight up,” Rockel observes. “If you want to feel the shoulders working more, pull in an arc as if you are trying to go up and behind your shoulders.”

 

5) Behind-back Shrugs
 In the spirit of No Bull, I will let you know that Ronny hardly ever trains his traps directly, as he feels they seem to get more than adequate indirect stimulation from various exercises for the back and shoulders. But when he does, behind-back shrugs, as made famous by MD’s own eight-time Mr. Olympia Lee Haney, are his go-to exercise. “What I like about them is that I feel them in that lower trap area that regular shrugs with a barbell in front or dumbbells at your sides just doesn’t seem to reach,” Rockel explains.

 

6) Rear Lateral Machine
 Rear delts are considered so important to Ronny that he trains them in a different workout along with triceps. On top of that, he employs not only two different rear lateral movements, but he also uses two distinct grips on the first. That would be the machine many of us call the reverse pec deck. Ronny runs through his entire sequence of warm-ups and work sets first with his palms facing inward and thumbs up, then starts all over again with palms out and thumbs down. Once you try it both ways, you will also see that you do feel different aspects of the rear delts being hit. If you don’t feel you need that much rear delt work, try alternating those two grips from workout to workout.

 

7) Bent Dumbbell Laterals
 Just as he does with dumbbell side raises, Ronny makes use of an adjustable bench to keep his form honest and ensure that his rear delts are doing the work. This time he sets it at roughly the same angle you would use for incline dumbbell presses for chest, but flips over so he’s facedown. You definitely can’t go as heavy this way as compared to the freestanding bent version— and that ought to tell you something. Again, Rockel’s globular, 3-D delts are living proof that higher reps with moderate weights and an intense focus on feeling the muscle work delivers stunning results over time. If you insist on going ultra heavy and flinging weights around, don’t come crying to the message boards about how your delts are “stubborn” and you keep getting injured!

 

Get Ready To Rock
 Ronny’s spectacular delts will be one reason he rightfully stands as one of the pro scene’s longtime competitors. Considering his consistency and longevity thus far in the sport, and the fact that he’s one of the few top pros to have never experienced a training injury, it would behoove all of us to look again at his training methods to see what wisdom can be gleaned from them.

RONNY ROCKEL’S DELT ROUTINE
 Rear Delts
 Rear Lateral Machine (palms in)                1 x 30 (warm-up)
                                                                   2 x 15-20
                                                                   1 x 6, 6, 6 (drop set)
 Rear Lateral Machine (palms out)             2 x 15-20
                                                                   1 x 6, 6, 6 (drop set)
 Bent Dumbbell Laterals                             3 x 25, 20, 15

 Front and Side Delts, Traps
 Overhead Press                                         1 x 30 (warm-up)
                                                                    2 x 15-20
                                                                    1 x 6, 6, 6 (drop set)
 Dumbbell Lateral Raises                            3 x 20, 15, 10
 Lateral Raise Machine                               3 x 20, 15, 10
                                                                    1 x 6, 6, 6
 Upright Rows                                              1 x 30 (warm-up)
                                                                     3 x 30, 20, 15
                                                                     1 x 6, 6, 6
 Behind-back Barbell Shrugs                        3 x 25, 20, 15

Training Split                      AM                                                   PM
 Monday                        Chest, calves, cardio                      Biceps, forearms, cardio
Tuesday                        Back, abs, cardio                          Rear delts, triceps, cardio
Wednesday                   Quads and abs                            Hams, calves, cardio
Thursday                       Shoulders and abs
Friday                             Abs and cardio

How To Maximize Your Pump

Four Strategies To Boost Muscle Gains

Without a doubt, one of the more satisfying outcomes from intense weight training is the surplus of blood that rapidly fills your muscles as you train. This phenomenon, known as cellular swelling, or more commonly as “the pump” creates a euphoric feeling primarily because it provides a considerable, albeit temporary, increase in size of the muscle being trained— giving a sense of accomplishment that strokes the ego just a bit.
      However, a deeper look into this phenomenon shows that the pump is more than just a short-term increase in muscle size and boost to your ego. According to several studies, the pump actually stimulates long-term adaptations within the muscle, promoting substantial gains in size and strength.¹ Consequently, a better understanding of what causes the pump can be used to design a more effective training protocol that induces a superior muscle pump for greater gains in muscle mass and strength.

What Causes the Pump
      The muscle pump occurs when the veins that are taking blood away from the working muscles are occluded by the contracting muscle tissue, while the arteries that bring blood to the muscle remain unobstructed. This creates a greater influx of blood into the area that causes blood to pool in the obstructed veins. This pooled, venous blood flows into capillaries connected to these veins, where it then leaks out of the thin-walled capillary and into the muscle cell, causing it to swell or “pump up.”⁵

1) Continuous Muscular Contraction
      The optimal pump is achieved by a persistent muscular contraction, intense enough to occlude venous blood flow over a considerable period of time. The greater amount of muscular contraction time facilitates the pooling of more blood within the muscle for a better pump
      Training methods that increase muscular tension on the vein, which maximizes occlusion, promote a better pump. In fact, increasing the amount of time the muscle is under tension by performing the exercise in a more continuous, nonstop manner minimizes muscular relaxation, which effectively increases muscular tension for greater inhibition of venous blood flow. The capacity of this lifting style to induce venous occlusion was shown in a study by Tanimoto et al.⁶, where they demonstrated that low-intensity knee extensions with no rest phase induced venous occlusion— which decreased muscle oxygen levels more effectively than a second group performing higher-intensity knee extensions with a one-second rest period.
      Furthermore, a second study by Burd et al.⁷showed that a pump-inducing approach also increases muscle protein synthesis. In this study, a group of men performed leg extensions at 30 percent of their one-repetition maximum, with the concentric and eccentric portions lasting either six seconds or one second. Post-exercise muscle biopsies showed the slower leg extension movement had a greater increase in muscle protein synthesis, indicating that the more continuous six-second repetition enhanced venous occlusion for a greater pump that stimulated muscle protein synthesis.

2) Kaatsu Training
      In addition to muscular contraction inhibiting venous blood flow, there is another very potent way to occlude venous blood flow. This somewhat unorthodox technique, known as Kaatsu training, involves wrapping either elbow or knee straps just above the trained muscle to occlude venous blood flow from that muscle. For example, if you are training biceps, securely wrap an elbow strap at the very top of your upper arm or if you’re training the quadriceps, wrap knee straps at the top of your upper leg. Also, make sure not to wrap too tightly as this would also diminish arterial blood flow into the muscle, reducing the impact on the pump— not too mention the inherent danger of cutting off the blood supply to working muscles.
      Although restricting blood flow may sound unsafe, this type of training is very safe and very effective at increasing the pump when performed correctly. There has been an abundance of data showing that Kaatsu training stimulates considerable muscle growth and strength likely, in part, because of its ability to stimulate an incredible pump.^8-10

3) Higher Reps With Less Rest
      Weight training that relies heavily on anaerobic glycolysis for muscular energy production further enhances the intensity of the pump. This happens because anaerobic glycolysis, as the name implies, burns glucose within the muscle cell for energy without the use of oxygen. Anaerobic glycolysis produces an abundance of the metabolic byproduct lactic acid within the muscle cell, which tends to draw more fluid into the muscle, which enhances the pump.^11,12
      Training approaches that maximize this effect typically produce quite a pump. In general, very high-repetition sets combined with short rest periods accomplish this rather well. For instance, performing two exercises in a row, or supersetting, with the same body part using a 12-to-15-repetition range for several sets, generates plenty of lactic acid that will support a tremendous pump.
      Another well-known training method causing sizeable lactic acid accumulation is the drop set, where you perform an exercise until failure, drop the weight, and then continue the exercise with the lower weight, also until failure. Pushing the muscle like this will cause a tremendous demand for energy, driving lactic acid production and creating a fantastic pump.

4) Enhance the Pump With Betaine and Creatine
      The compounds betaine and creatine are natural osmolytes found in the muscle cell that protect against dehydration by increasing cellular water retention through osmosis. The ability of both of these compounds to maintain hydration reduces the negative impact that dehydration has on exercise performance. Furthermore, they support a better pump by drawing more fluid into the muscle. Of course, this ultimately improves muscle hypertrophy, as increased cell volume triggers muscle protein synthesis and therefore muscle size.

     For most of Michael Rudolph’s career he has been engrossed in the exercise world as either an athlete (he played college football at Hofstra University), personal trainer or as a research scientist (he earned a B.Sc. in Exercise Science at Hofstra University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Stony Brook University). After earning his Ph.D., Michael investigated the molecular biology of exercise as a fellow at Harvard Medical School and Columbia University for over eight years. That research contributed seminally to understanding the function of the incredibly important cellular energy sensor AMPK— leading to numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals including the journal Nature. Michael is currently a scientist working at the New York Structural Biology Center doing contract work for the Department of Defense on a project involving national security.

Victor Martinez Master Class

Common Training Problems Answered

Rise of Victor’s Delts
 What was the toughest body part for you to develop? How long was it a weak point, and how did you eventually get it to match the rest of your physique?
 A lot of people don’t believe it when I tell them now, but my delts were not very good at all in my early years. It wasn’t like I wasn’t doing the right exercises. I did presses and laterals just like today, and my form wasn’t even bad. But I had no mind-muscle connection. I was moving the weights, but I wasn’t feeling any type of contraction in my shoulders. Once I figured out that was missing, I worked hard on making sure I felt the heads of the delts working during the exercises. I also started doing a wider variety of exercises to hit all angles, like upright rows, front raises and different variations of laterals instead of the same old standing side raise. That’s when they finally grew.

The Quest for Striated Glutes
 I’ve heard that certain exercises help bring out striations in your glutes, like deep squats, glute machines and walking lunges. Do you think they really make a difference, or is it just a matter of getting your body fat down to 2-3 percent?
 You do need to get your body fat down to practically nothing to see striations in your glutes, no doubt about that. But you also need to have those muscles developed. You can’t have striations in a flat chest, so how can you have striations in a flat ass? Squats, leg presses, lunges and step-ups will all help develop the glutes. Then you have to figure out how to get rid of pretty much all the body fat through dieting and cardio, which is easier said than done!

Massage: When Pain Is Good
 A lot of bodybuilders seem to use foam rollers now at home to get some of the same benefits you would from seeing a chiropractor or a deep-tissue massage therapist. I doubt it’s just as good, but for those of us who simply can’t afford those other types of therapies on a regular basis, do you think it’s worth doing?
 Put it this way. It’s better than nothing. You will be able to release some of the bound-up tissue and adhesions. The problem is, the roller isn’t precise. It’s really hard to try and target a small, specific area like a therapist could by digging in with a thumb or an elbow, plus they can attack it from every angle that way. I know a lot of you guys are on tight budgets, but even if you can only get a deep-tissue massage once a month, every other month, or if you’re totally broke, four times a year, it’s well worth it. Just make sure you find a therapist who works with athletes and isn’t afraid to really get in there and dig hard. A productive deep-tissue massage should be pretty painful. If it’s not, you’re probably wasting your time and money.

What Would I Change?
 Your genetics seem to be just about perfect. But since all great bodybuilders are their own worst critics, if you could magically go back and change any aspect of your structure, muscle shape, etc., is there anything you would alter?
 I guess I would have been more of a pure mesomorph who gained muscle very easily. Looking at me now, most people assume I got this big right away, but it took me years and years. When I was in my late teens I had already been lifting steady for a few years, and I only weighed 175 pounds. For my first couple of NPC shows, I was a light heavyweight competing around 190. It all worked out in the end because eventually I put the size on that I needed to, but since you asked— yeah, I would have liked to have done it quicker!

How Much Water Is Enough?
 We are told to drink a gallon or two of water every day. I am sure the amount of water we each need must vary depending on things like our size, activity level and the climate we live in. How do we know if we are drinking enough? Should we be drinking so much water that we have to pee every 15-20 minutes, or does that sound excessive to you?
 Nobody should have to take a piss every 15 minutes, that’s just ridiculous. What are you gonna do, wear those adult Depend diapers just in case you can’t make it in time? I think about a gallon or a gallon and a half of water a day is enough for most guys unless you’re in severe heat. I don’t even drink much water with my meals, mostly between meals because I feel it interferes with my digestion otherwise. If you’re getting thirsty you might need to be drinking more, but if not I wouldn’t worry about it.

Turning Hams Into Beef on Leg Day
 I really don’t have time to hit the gym often enough to split legs up into different workouts for quads and hams. At the same time, my hamstrings definitely lag behind my quads. I’ve been told to work hamstrings first on leg day, but when I do this the weights I use on squats and leg presses suffer a bit. Should I keep doing it anyway, or do you think I could do just as well training hams after quads?
Don’t forget that all those compound movements like squats and leg presses involve the hamstrings along with the quads. That’s why on leg day I make sure to start the workout off by warming them both up and doing leg extensions and leg curls. When I worked with Oscar Ardon, he had me do that and then come back to hams after quads were done and hit them with more leg curls and stiff-leg deadlifts. But if your hams are really lagging behind, you should probably just work them first and not worry that your compound movements are down a little in weight. That’s only happening because like I said, the hams do assist in squats and leg presses, so they’re pre-exhausted. It’s probably a good thing in the long run because a lot of guys wind up wrecking their knees and/or lower backs from going super heavy on squats too often.

7 Ways To Blast Your Delts Like Brandon Curry

Shouldering on to the Upper Echelon
 IFBB pro bodybuilder Brandon Curry's upper body in general is one of the best in the sport today, but the two areas that stand out above the rest are his arms and his shoulders. Here is what he does today for those boulder shoulders:    
 1) “Active Warm-up”
 Many bodybuilders will do just a couple of light sets of their first exercise on shoulder day, if that. This impatience to get right to the big weights not only hampers performance, but sets you up for injuries and problems with your joints and connective tissues down the line. Brandon takes the time to go through a fairly involved warm-up process that serves to get the entire shoulder girdle warm and primed for hard training. “I start on a seated lateral raise machine, facing away from it unlike the standard way, with the pads low on my elbows for about three sets of 20 reps,” he says. The second movement is a three-stage rep sequence performed with a low cable pulley and a bar or dual handles for an attachment. “Step one, I pull the bar up to chin level,” he explains. “Step two, I work the rotator cuffs by using them to externally rotate the bar up to about the top of my head, and the third and final step is to press that overhead.”

 

2) Smith Machine Behind-the-Neck Presses
 Before you jump to the conclusion that Brandon is wrecking his rotator cuffs by making this his bread-and-butter pressing movement most of the time, keep in mind that he’s taken cautions to turn this into a much safer exercise than you would think. “By starting off every shoulder workout with that warm-up that always includes rotator cuff work, I make sure they are never a weak link— and that allows me to press behind the neck with far less risk of injury,” he tells us. Another reason Curry isn’t taking any big risks here is because like my old trainer Charles Glass, he never uses an extreme range of motion that puts the shoulder girdle into an unnatural position..”

 

3) Arnold Presses
 About every third or fourth workout, Brandon switches his overhead press up from the Smith and does Arnold presses instead. “One thing I love about the Arnold press is that you don’t have to go anywhere near as heavy as you would with a standard dumbbell press to get the right pump and burn in the delts.”

 

4) Seated Lateral Raises
 For those of you bored to tears with lateral raises, Brandon has a nice variation you need to try at your next shoulder workout. The Prodigy sits on a flat bench sideways. “The reason for this is that I can’t lower the dumbbells all the way down, which forces me to keep constant tension on my side delts,” he says.

 

5) Unwinding Presses
 This next exercise is one Brandon got from the writings of Canadian bodybuilder and strength coach Christian Thibaudeau. Curry calls these “press-outs,” but Thibaudeau calls them “unwinding presses.” If you thought your side delts got toasted from those seated laterals, this will make you think someone injected them with 10 cc’s of battery acid. It’s a little complicated to explain, so I will let Brandon walk you through a proper rep:
 “Start with a dumbbell in each hand with a hammer grip, so your palms are both facing in toward your head. With a controlled tempo, press the dumbbells up but only at a slight angle, say 30-45 degrees, while at the same time pronating your arms so that your palms end up facing the floor at the finish of the rep. You also want the back end of the dumbbells a little higher than the front, like you’re pouring water out of pitchers. Hold that position for one or two seconds and then bring them back to your shoulders by reversing the movement.”

 

6) Rear Lateral Raises
 In the early years of Brandon’s bodybuilding career, his rear delts were a glaring weak point. “Once I saw that, I made them a priority and trained them first on shoulder day for several years, until they were where they needed to be,” he tells us. Today he works them later in the workout. Though he used dumbbells for this photo shoot, over the last couple of years he has mainly used the rear delt machine. “I just get a really good feel with it and I can control the motion better,” he says.

 

7) Rear Delt Pulldowns to the Face
 Brandon’s final shoulder movement is another one he picked up from Christian Thibaudeau, and again it’s not something you see everyone doing. He clips on a double-D ring attachment to the high pulley or a lat pulldown, and takes a grip with both knuckles facing toward each other as shown. As he pulls this down toward his face, both his side and rear delts get a final, searing torch. “I really believe in high volume and the importance of a pump for stimulating growth, and this is the perfect way to cap off those two heads of the shoulders.”

 

The 5-Week Split
 After trying many different body part combinations and frequencies, Brandon has arrived at one that seems to work perfectly for him. For three weeks, he trains every body part twice a week. Then for two weeks, he reels it back to training everything once a week. “The first phase works well, but near the end you start to get overtrained. That’s when you switch to training body parts less frequently and adding more rest, so you can recover. By the end of each phase, I’m really looking forward to the next one, and so far the results have been fantastic.”

 

5-Week Training split

Weeks 1-3
 Monday:              Quads, hams and calves
 Tuesday:              Chest and back
 Wednesday:       Shoulders and arms*
 Thursday:            OFF
 Friday:                  Rest
 Saturday:             Quads, hams and calves
 Sunday:                Chest and back, etc.                      
 *It isn’t unusual for Brandon to skip this training day every other rotation, as shoulders and arms are very much strong points for him already.

Weeks 4-5
 Monday:              Chest
 Tuesday:              Back
 Wednesday:       Legs
 Thursday:            Shoulders and arms
 Friday:                  Rest
 Saturday:             a.m. Quads         p.m. Hams and calves
 Sunday:               Rest, repeat                      

Shoulder Routine
Active Warm-up                                 Rotator cuff exercises, cable upright row/external rotations/press
Smith Behind-the-Neck Presses         4 x 8-10
Cable Upright Rows and Presses       4 x 10-12
Seated Dumbbell Laterals                   4 x 10-12 partial, 10-12 full-range
Press-outs                                         4 x 10
Rear Delt Machine                              4 x 12
High Cable Rear Delt Pulls                  3 x 12