Copyright © 2020, 2018, 2017 John Doe Bodybuilding
All rights reserved.
This book is licensed for your personal use only and may not be sold or
given away.
No part of this book may be reproduced, displayed, modified or distributed
without the prior and express written permission of the publisher.
All inquiries to help@johndoebodybuilding.com
Originally published in 2017 by Superdrive Publishing Limited
www.johndoebodybuilding.com
ISBN-13: 978-0-9990261-0-6
MEDICAL DISCLAIMER
The author of this book, John Doe Bodybuilding, is not a doctor.
The contents of this book are intended for informational and educational purposes only and not for the
purpose of rendering medical advice. The author and publisher holds no responsibility, nor liability,
for any such action taken from the information provided in this book
The contents of this book are not intended to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or
treatment.
Please consult your physician for personalized medical advice. Always seek the advice of a physician
or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition.
Before taking any medications, over-the-counter drugs, supplements or herbs, consult a physician for
a thorough evaluation. John Doe Bodybuilding does not endorse any medications, vitamins or herbs
nor do we condone the use of illegal drugs or using drugs for an unintended purpose. A qualified
physician should make a decision based on each person’s medical history and current prescriptions.
The medication summaries provided do not include all of the information important for patient use and
should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice. The prescribing physician should be
consulted concerning any questions that you have.
LEGAL DISCLAIMER
The possession of anabolic and androgenic steroids is illegal without a prescription in most countries.
Furthermore, the possession of human growth hormone and other performance enhancing peptides is
illegal in most countries. Please check with local and state laws before ever attempting to purchase,
sell, or possess anything discussed in this guide. This guide is strictly for entertainment and research
purposes only. Neither the author of this guide, nor the owner of JohnDoeBodyBuilding.com, will be
held liable for any legal consequence or outcome concerning information provided within this book.
Again, this book is strictly for entertainment and research purposes only!
NO-BS
BODYBUILDING
THE JDB BIBLE FOR ADVANCED
HEALTH AND FITNESS
J O H N
D O E
B O D Y B U I L D I N G
NO
BS
BODYBUILDING
THE JDB BIBLE FOR ADVANCED
HEALTH AND FITNESS
CONTENTS
ChAPTER ONE
Welcome to the No-BS Bodybuilding...............................................................1
ChAPTER TWO
All About Your Hormones and Blood Labs....................................................4
Symptoms of Low Testosterone........................................................................................................6
How to go About Getting on Testosterone........................................................................................6
Total testosterone and free testosterone count...............................................................................7
Estrogen and estradiol levels in men ......................................................................................................8
Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG)...........................................................................................9
Testosterone Replacement Therapy Through Your Doctor...........................................................10
How Long Will it Take to See/Feel the Effects of Testosterone?..................................................11
Cholesterol Levels.............................................................................................................................12
Red Blood Cells and Donating Blood............................................................................................13
Liver Values........................................................................................................................................14
Kidneys........................................................................................................................................................16
Protein as it Relates to Kidney Function........................................................................................18
Taking a Proactive Approach to Kidney Health............................................................................18
Triglycerides..............................................................................................................................................20
Precautionary Measures for Overall Health ......................................................................20
The Basics of Being on Testosterone Replacement Therapy and Staying Safe..........................22
Blasting HCG....................................................................................................................................26
HGH Levels and Replacement Therapy........................................................................................26
General Overview and Conclusion on Hormone Replacement Therapy....................................28
ChAPTER THREE
Hitting Roadblocks and Deciding Where to go with Bodybuilding..........30
This is Where This Chapter Really Begins.....................................................................................32
You Can Do More Than You Think You Can.....................................................................................34
The Point of Diminishing Returns...................................................................................................35
Sacrificing Health for Wealth ................................................................................................................36
It’s Never Too Late to Reinvent Yourself.........................................................................................37
Change of Routine and Gym............................................................................................................38
Bodybuilding Based on How You Feel...........................................................................................39
Changes in the Diet Based on Motivational Levels.............................................................................41
Listed Below is an Example of Transitioning from an Extreme Diet to a More Lenient Diet....42
More Meaning Behind Cheat Meals...............................................................................................43
Deciding What You Really Want Out of All of This.....................................................................44
ChAPTER FOUR
Dieting Strategies for Success.....................................................................46
Metabolic Jumpstart for Skinny-fat Trainee 140 - 165 lbs Who is Exercising......................48
Metabolic Jumpstart for Someone 165 - 180 lbs Who is Exercising.......................................50
After 2 Weeks on That Routine......................................................................................................51
Diet for Overweight Trainee 160 - 180 lbs.................................................................................52
Intermittent Fasting Approach.......................................................................................................52
Example of an Intermittent Fasting Approach for Someone 160 - 180 lbs................................53
An Intermittent Fasting Approach for Someone Over 180 lbs................................................53
The Double-edged Sword with Intermittent Fasting..................................................................54
Traditional Body Fat Loss Approach for Someone 160-180 lbs (Low Carb/Moderate Fat).....55
Traditional Body Fat Loss Approach for Someone 180-220 lbs (Low Carb/Moderate Fat)....56
Traditional Body Fat Loss Approach for Someone Over 220 lbs (Low Carb/Moderate Fat)....56
Low Carb/High Fat Approach for Someone 140 - 160 lbs..........................................................57
Low Carb/High Fat Approach for Someone 140 - 160 lbs.........................................................58
Carb-Cycling for a Low Carb/High Fat Approach.......................................................................58
Typical Carb-up Day for 140 - 160 lb Trainee on Low Carb/High Fat Approach...................58
Low Carb/High Fat Approach for Someone 160 - 185 lbs........................................................59
Typical Carb-up Day for Someone 160 - 185 lbs.....................................................................60
Low Carb/High Fat Approach for Someone 185 - 220 lbs.......................................................60
Typical Carb-up Day for Someone Who is 185 - 220 lbs..........................................................61
Typical Low Carb/High Fat Approach for Someone 220+ lbs.................................................62
It’s More Food Than You Thought?................................................................................................62
What About the Post Workout Meals?........................................................................................63
Swapping Meals Around During the Day...................................................................................63
Things to Consider When Extreme Dieting...............................................................................64
The ‘Eating When You are Hungry’ Approach.............................................................................65
Vegetable Intake..............................................................................................................................65
Reverse Dieting and Building Quality Muscle Mass................................................................66
When to Begin Reverse Dieting.....................................................................................................67
Here is an Example of How I’d Eat When Reverse Dieting........................................................68
Where to Place Cheat Meals During Reverse Dieting...............................................................68
Extreme Diets Call for Extreme Cheat Meals.............................................................................70
ChAPTER FIVE
Training Insight and Dieting Tactics Explained..........................................71
The Work Weight Used Will Have Vast Differences in Your Training.........................................74
Listening to Your Body - The Real Deal..........................................................................................76
The Difference Between Hunger and Obsession..........................................................................77
Caloric Intake as it Relates to Age................................................................................................77
Negative Calories..............................................................................................................................79
Real Dieting Tactics Explained.......................................................................................................79
Foods That I Eat While Dieting to Lose Body Fat........................................................................80
First Things First, Tupperware or Freezer Bags?..........................................................................81
Cooking Meats...................................................................................................................................81
Cooking Carbs...................................................................................................................................83
Dieting to Build Muscle..................................................................................................................84
So, Where to Start Eating When Trying to Build Muscle?.........................................................85
Realistically Evaluating How Much Fat You’ve Gained When Growing...................................86
How Many Meals Per Day?.............................................................................................................87
You Do What it Takes.......................................................................................................................89
Dieting Down and Building, or Building and Then Dieting Down?..........................................89
When Enough is Enough and a Wake-up Call..............................................................................90
Don’t Believe Everything You See and Hear .................................................................................92
There are More People on Steroids Who Look Like Shit Than People Who Look Good.....93
Dieting to Bridge the Gap...............................................................................................................94
ChAPTER SIX
Anabolism while Maintaining Conditioning and Supplementation.........97
1 Hour Prior to Gym Time (Approximately 9 AM for Me)..........................................................99
Additional Supplementation for Results.....................................................................................101
Post-workout Nutrition Guidelines..............................................................................................103
The Social Aspect of Post-workout Nutrition............................................................................104
Intra-workout Nutrition..................................................................................................................104
BCAAs (Branched Chain Amino Acids).......................................................................................105
Do You Need Supplements?........................................................................................................106
What Supplements Do I Place the Most Emphasis on?.........................................................106
GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid)........................................................................................107
Phenibut...............................................................................................................................................107
Injectable Vitamin B-12.............................................................................................................108
L-Arginine............................................................................................................................................108
Dandelion Root...........................................................................................................................108
Joint Support Formula (Glucosamine, MSM, Chondroitin).................................................109
Multivitamins......................................................................................................................................109
Creatine................................................................................................................................................110
Apple Cider Vinegar (Raw Organic) & Baking Soda............................................................110
Protein Powder.............................................................................................................................111
Fish Oil..........................................................................................................................................112
Finding Ways to Make it All Consistent......................................................................................112
ChAPTER SEVEN
Fat Burners...................................................................................................115
Non-Stimulant Fat Burners............................................................................................................116
Thermogenics..........................................................................................................................................117
Taking Fat Burners When All Bets Are Off..................................................................................118
Fat Burners Before Bedtime.........................................................................................................119
Hemorrhoid Cream, Epsom Salt Baths and Static Cling Wrap...............................................120
Dieting is Always the Key..............................................................’.............................................120
Cardio for Fat Loss from My Perspective....................................................................................121
Strength Levels as They Pertain to Fat Loss.............................................................................122
The Anabolic Rebound from Extreme Fat Loss Diets.............................................................125
ChAPTER EIGHT
The Real Deal with HIT (High Intensity Training) Routines....................126
Change of Pace between High Intensity Training and Volume Training.............................127
Leg Training with HIT Style..........................................................................................................131
My Leg Workouts............................................................................................................................131
Weekly HIT Routine Template......................................................................................................132
HIT Principles..................................................................................................................................133
Rest Pause Training.......................................................................................................................133
Extreme Stretching.........................................................................................................................134
Static Holds.....................................................................................................................................134
Super-Slow..............................................................................................................................................134
The 1-Minute Dip............................................................................................................................135
The 1-Minute Chin-up....................................................................................................................135
Rep Count and Rest Periods with HIT Training........................................................................135
Warm-ups Within a Set (Only to be Used by The Advanced Trainer!).................................136
So How Does a Typical Split Involving HIT Principles Look for Me?...................................137
When to Discontinue HIT Training...............................................................................................138
Mixing HIT Training into a High Volume Routine.....................................................................138
JDB’s Top High Intensity Routines..............................................................................................139
JDB’s Max Muscle High Rep HIT Routine...................................................................................139
Bodyweight Emphasis HIT Routine.............................................................................................142
JDB’s Front/Back/Leg Routine.....................................................................................................144
The Reps and Sets on JDB’s Front/Back/Leg Routine............................................................145
What Exercises to do on JDB’s Front/Back/Leg Routine?......................................................146
Example JDB Front/Back/Leg Routine Template......................................................................147
The Full Upper Body/Lower Body Split......................................................................................148
HIT Versus Volume as an Aging Trainer....................................................................................150
ChAPTER NINE
Volume Routines for The Aging Male and Seasoned Trainer.................151
The Process of Give and Take .................................................................................................152
Forget Everything You’re “Supposed to Do”...............................................................................152
The JDB Anabolic Flip-flop Routine..............................................................................................154
JDB’S 5 Round Volume Circuit Routine......................................................................................161
JDB’S Max Growth Volume Training............................................................................................164
JDB’S 4-Week High Rep Shock Routine.....................................................................................167
The JDB Joint Healing/Rejuvenation Routine.............................................................................171
Key Points to Remember when Volume Training the JDB Way................................................173
ChAPTER TEN
No Bullshit Muscle Building.......................................................................175
In the Beginning..............................................................................................................................177
Taking Care of Your Body While Growing..................................................................................186
Letting The Chips Fall Where They May.......................................................................................187
John Doe’s SCT Training Routine................................................................................................188
Your Two Days off between Workouts.......................................................................................192
ChAPTER ELEVEN
Living a Healthy Emotional Lifestyle........................................................193
I Could Have Been Anything I Wanted to Be...........................................................................194
Quality Over Quantity.....................................................................................................................195
Change up The Daily Routine.......................................................................................................198
Laugh More......................................................................................................................................199
Explore More....................................................................................................................................201
The Day to Day Living Situation...................................................................................................202
Adjusting Your Training as it Pertains to Your Life Schedule..................................................203
Success is Largely Determined by Your Character not the Endeavor....................................205
Stop Getting Angry over Things You Cannot Control..............................................................205
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
CHAPTER ONE
Welcome to the No-BS Bodybuilding
The JDB Bible - It’s about taking your body to the next level and enhancing your life
through self improvement made on a consistent basis. It’s about breaking through
wall after wall and defying the odds of aging, injuries, and taking your health into
your own 2 hands. Nobody is going to be as concerned about your livelihood as you
should be, so the time to get serious is right now!
Do you think life doesn’t throw a gauntlet at everyone from time to time? Nothing
in life is all peaches and cream, being able to consistently work out and focus on
nutrition takes a lot of effort as you get older. Anything from college to work, family,
unexpected events popping up, pretty much anything and everything can happen in
your life at any given time. You can roll with the punches and keep moving forward
or you can cave in; those are the only 2 options. Most people will cave in. I’m here
to show you how to NOT CAVE IN.
The JDB Bible is for the aging male who wants to look and feel young again, the
1
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
guy transitioning into a time when balancing fitness with life becomes a little more
complicated, but most importantly this book is for the guy who has been in the gym
for several years and just doesn’t know what to do with his body anymore or which
way to turn. I’ve been that guy before and it’s difficult to stay motivated.
With all that being said, this book has been written by someone who has been
there and done it. Dilemmas you are faced with I have been faced with. My life
is not perfect, if anything it’s far from it, but I always seem to find a flame in the
burned out ashes and keep pushing.
Who knows, maybe my purpose in life is to help enhance yours by sharing my own
experiences with you. By sharing my struggles and knowledge I can pretty much
help anyone in the fitness field. I’ve made this book into an “in the trenches” style
training, nutrition and health manual where we focus on the fight and a strategy to
win the fight.
I’m beginning to notice a trend with the general population lately. That trend is that
of the aging and middle aged population taking proactive measures to be healthy
and youthful again while the younger population experiences health issues and
sickness far before these issues should arise. The testosterone levels of young males
are on the downward slope while middle aged males are becoming more active and
undergoing hormone replacement therapy in order to improve the quality of their
lives and perform on a higher level.
Think of me as your trainer in the corner during a boxing match. You’re getting
your ass kicked and don’t know how to keep pushing forward to win the fight, and
all of a sudden you get some advice that makes you come out swinging and winning
one of the final rounds by way of knockout!
Of course nothing worth having comes easy and I do not cater to the weak. If
excuses is your game then you need someone else to follow other than JDB. I’ve
been through hard times and hard times make hard individuals.
Take 2 pieces of steak, one piece of steak is filet mignon and the other is the
toughest cut of steak you can find. If you beat that tough cut of meat enough with a
2
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
hammer you can make it tender enough to cut with a fork. I’m that cut of steak that
has been beaten down with a hammer. Therefore I do not care about how hard you
think something is, I’m simply here to educate you and show you the way. It’s hard
for everybody so get that out of your mind right now.
The JDB Bible is about a mission and your goal is to carry out that mission every
day. The mission is over when you’re dead. There is no reason to ever give up until
it’s your time. I’m sorry but I’ve seen far too many people with the odds stacked
against them who put in work to feel any inkling of remorse for people who think
it’s impossible simply because “it’s hard.”
There are people with missing limbs out there getting it, people who are poor
with no weight equipment, people going through grieving the loss of loved ones,
homeless people, and people who have been denied their freedom who are getting
a physique and practicing health and fitness everyday. Chances are there is no
reason you have to hold back from getting what you want. There are only excuses
and in this book we trample over excuses and hold ourselves accountable before
everything else.
Are you ready to start fighting and stop being stagnant? Are you tired of reading
about every fad diet and workout that seems unrealistic long-term? Then come with
me and let me introduce you to the mind frame of a life-long warrior!
This is the nitty gritty, between the lines, behind the scenes information that you
will not find in any other fitness book or latest magazine article. This is the mind
frame of a real bodybuilder with real life responsibilities and walls to jump just like
you. This isn’t the squeaky clean kitchen with every appliance and perfect dinner
recipe. This is the raw and the real! This is your blueprint for neck breaking and
jaw dropping physique development and total life annihilation by using fitness and
nutrition as your home base.
THIS IS NO-BS BODYBUILDING, THIS IS YOUR BIBLE FOR ADVANCED
HEALTH AND FITNESS!
3
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
CHAPTER TWO
All About Your Hormones and Blood Labs
I’m not here to sell you on something that is an uphill battle in terms of what you
can use without establishing the root of a problem. The bottom line is that as we
age our natural testosterone and levels of human growth hormone decline. This can
begin happening as early as 25 years old, but more likely to happen once we get into
our 30’s and beyond.
Some people are lucky enough not to experience this hormonal decline until they
get much older, but as a vast majority I’d say that most guys will want to get their
hormone levels tested if they’re over the age of 30 years old or are having symptoms
of low testosterone.
Testosterone controls much more than just erectile function and sex drive, it’s
pretty much the mainframe control center in a man’s body! Testosterone controls
everything from our outlook on life, self esteem, confidence, focus, rest and
recovery, rate of fat burning, anxiety levels, and sexual drive and performance.
4
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
I can remember when my testosterone was very low and what I went through. It
was terrible to say the least. I had this anxiety that was so terrible I just could not
relax no matter what I tried to do to cope with it! It was like this feeling of walking
down a dark alley about to get in a fight with someone pretty much 24/7.
I started losing focus on my conversations with people, my eye contact and
engagement became worse with them, and I started developing a brain fog. My
confidence had hit rock bottom and I started to think my wife was cheating on me.
There was no indication of her doing that at all, but I had somehow convinced
myself that she was up to something.
When my testosterone levels were low my life became terrible in almost every
way imaginable! My workouts suffered, my relationship suffered, and life had no
enjoyment at all. My life became so bad that it go to a point where I moved out
of my house until I could get on hormone replacement through a doctor and feel
normal again!
So many people think that having to take a shot once every week or two for the
rest of your life is terrible, but they have no idea about the quality of life between
someone who has their hormones looking right and someone who continues to walk
around with low testosterone and/or high estrogen!
Testosterone has been made out to be the enemy over the past few years, with
desperate lawyers trying to file class action lawsuits against pharmaceutical
companies, people blaming issues such as cancer and blood pressure on testosterone
replacement, and people telling everyone on testosterone that they’re going to have
a heart attack and die young!
Much of this is absolute nonsense and if you go about hormone replacement
properly then the risks for any adverse health effects are extremely low. But it’s
critical that you do things properly and go through all of the necessary steps to
use testosterone safely. If used properly then testosterone can vastly improve your
quality of life as well as your appearance and performance in the gym! Women
use progesterone when they go through menopause, so why wouldn’t a man use
testosterone if his levels are low?
5
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Symptoms of Low Testosterone
• Extreme fatigue
• Irritability
• Brain fog
• Decrease in sex drive or no sex drive
• Trouble burning fat off
• Loss of strength
• Slower time healing from muscle breakdown
• Increased injury frequency
• No feeling of self worth/depression (the world seems pointless to you, like
you have no meaning)
• Increased risk of estrogen side effects such as gynecomastia or symptoms
of gynecomastia (breast tissue development from low testosterone and high
estrogen
• Infertility
• Decreased erection quality and frequency
How to go About Getting on Testosterone
The first thing about getting on testosterone replacement therapy is getting your
hormones checked. What you want to tell your doctor is that you want a full hormone
panel done, not just a total testosterone count. Sometimes all they’ll do is a total
testosterone count and that’s just not accurate enough to make a proper assumption
on whether or not you need replacement testosterone. You may want to do some
research and find a doctor that specializes in anti-aging or go see an endocrinologist.
A good doctor will prescribe testosterone based on patient symptoms and not just a
hard number on paper.
A full hormone panel includes testosterone count, free testosterone count, estrogen
and estradiol levels, luteinizing hormone (LH levels), follicle stimulating hormone
6
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
(FSH levels), and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG levels). When it comes to
having your level of growth hormone tested this is done through an IGF-1 test and
it’s usually a test that needs to be added onto a normal hormone panel. It’s important
to tell your doctor that you also want an IGF-1 test if you’re curious about your
levels of human growth hormone.
Low levels of human growth hormone can have a detrimental effect on sleep as
well as fat burning efficiency and also speed up the appearance of aging. To put it in
simple terms, higher levels of HGH will mean looking and feeling younger longer!
But it’s extremely difficult to find doctors who will prescribe HGH, and even if
they will the cost is usually so astronomical that most people who aren’t wealthy
wouldn’t even consider it.
Total Testosterone and Free Testosterone Count
Your total testosterone count is the level of total testosterone in your body based
on the testosterone that is attached to the 2 proteins albumin and sex hormone
binding globulin, and the amount of testosterone that is not attached to protein. The
testosterone that is not attached is called free testosterone and this is the amount
that’s readily available for your body to use.
So just because you have an average total testosterone level by no means warrants
you not to still be in need of supplemental testosterone. Many doctors do not
understand this. This leads a lot of men into not knowing what’s wrong with them
because they feel terrible, yet keep coming back with an average testosterone level.
What they’re not taking into consideration is the levels of free testosterone as well
as total testosterone.
A total testosterone count that is in the normal reference range for an adult male is
between 220 ng/dl - 1070 ng/dl (or 9 - 38 nmol/L). A normal free testosterone level
for an adult male is considered anywhere between 50 - 210 pg/ml (or 174 - 729
pmol/L).
Low testosterone can also be a cause of infertility in males as well as erectile
7
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
dysfunction.
Estrogen and Estradiol Levels in Men
You might be wondering why I’d be talking about estrogen here when it comes
to speaking about hormone levels in men. Well, just as a woman’s body has a tiny
amount of testosterone, a man’s body has a small amount of estrogen. The small
amount of estrogen in a man’s body is necessary to function properly. The key here
is establishing the right balance of testosterone:estrogen.
Too much estrogen can lead to atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and pose
additional risk for stroke and heart attack, while too little estrogen can increase the
risk of osteoporosis and brittle bones.
There are several other negative health consequences from estrogen levels that
are either too low or too high in men and it’s very important to overall health and
well-being to get these levels in proper range. It’s more important the older you get
and you might be surprised to know that you have an increased risk of death from
low hormone levels.
Estradiol is to estrogen what free testosterone levels are to testosterone. It’s the
amount of estrogen that is bioavailable in the body and not bound to anything.
So it’s very important to know the levels of each when getting your hormones
checked, and if your estrogen or estradiol is too high or too low, proper measures
such as supplementing with an aromatase inhibitor such as Arimidex (Anastrozole),
Arimistane, or Aromasin (Exemestane) or determining a further root cause to the
problem may be necessary.
Estrogen levels that fall too high out of normal range or too low can make you have
all of the same symptoms of low testosterone. Your testosterone could be through
the roof, but if your estrogen is too high then you’ll feel like garbage! It’s the same
as having normal testosterone and estrogen levels that are too low!
An aromatase inhibitor is something that is used to lower existing levels of
8
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
estrogen or prevent formation of additional estrogen through the process of
aromatization. By using an aromatase inhibitor someone can lower estrogen levels
while simultaneously raising testosterone levels into an acceptable range.
Some men will use aromatase inhibitors on their own and not need supplemental
testosterone to achieve normal levels of testosterone and estrogen. Much of what
route you take to correct a hormone deficiency depends on how out of whack it is
and also how your lifestyle is. For example, men who are overweight and drink beer
will most likely have higher levels of estrogen and lower levels of testosterone.
Estrogen is most easily bound in abdominal fat so usually an overweight male who
isn’t active will have a higher estrogen level. Drinking alcohol lowers testosterone,
so if someone changes their lifestyle they might be able to fix the issue when it
comes to improper hormonal balance.
Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG)
Sex hormone binding globulin (or commonly referred to as SHBG) is a protein
that serves as a hormone transporter. It’s also an indicator of fertility levels in men.
When a man is infertile, often times his level of SHBG is thrown off and needs to be
corrected before he can get a woman pregnant.
When someone is taking testosterone replacement therapy their fertility odds go
down drastically, although studies have shown us that even men on TRT have a
50% chance of still being fertile. So don’t think that just because you’re on TRT
that you cannot get a woman pregnant, because it can still happen! It’s certainly
not out of the realm of possibilities. For those of you wondering about fertility
possibilities after steroid use, let us not forget that there are plenty of bodybuilders
with children, including Arnold Schwarzenegger!
There are fertility specialists who can prescribe drugs to improve fertility in males,
but my suggestion for anyone with low levels of testosterone who is planning
on children is to avoid testosterone replacement therapy unless it’s absolutely
necessary. There are other drugs you can have prescribed that will raise testosterone
9
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
and fertility levels before having to resort to testosterone therapy. If you don’t plan
on having children or are already done with that stage in your life then testosterone
therapy in my opinion will give you a higher quality of life.
Testosterone Replacement Therapy Through Your Doctor
From everything I’ve gathered from people, testosterone replacement is an area
that a lot of doctors try to avoid. Maybe it’s because of liability issues or maybe
it’s because they just don’t know much about testosterone replacement, but a lot of
doctors who should be prescribing testosterone to their patients are shying away
from it. Rather than sending patients to a specialist or an endocrinologist, they’re
simply telling patients that they don’t need testosterone replacement based on
their testosterone count as it relates to a reference chart. A good doctor doesn’t just
make a judgment call based on a reference number, but they should also consider
symptoms and patient feedback as well.
If a patient claims they have no energy or sex drive then a good doctor should take
this into consideration. If overall testosterone count is normal but free testosterone
count is low then there is more to the picture than just one reading. So many health
“professionals” fail to realize this!
My advice is to work with a doctor who is familiar with testosterone and antiaging. If you are even borderline low then it’s best to get a second opinion from a
specialist. A lot of doctors will take this approach of trying to put you on something
short term in hopes that the testosterone level will rise and hold there even after
discontinuation of the drug. This couldn’t be further from the real solution to low
testosterone as someone could get! This is absolutely an absurd approach to helping
someone with low testosterone and not a realistic way of treating the issue at all.
Yes, some drugs such as Arimidex and HCG can improve testosterone levels while
on the drugs, but it’s extremely rare that levels will hold normal after discontinuation
of these drugs. The only way I see that being a realistic scenario is if there is a
chance of a full recovery and the person prescribed these medications is recovering
from a short term drop in testosterone, not a long term problem. If you’re someone
10
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
who has used steroids over and over again and you either haven’t recovered before
the next cycle or you’ve been on them consistently for over a year then I’d say
your chances of any sort of permanent recovery are slim to none. Most men have
diminishing testosterone levels from the process of aging alone, and if you’ve taken
additional hormones that have further shut you down, the idea of making a full
recovery from some short term approach is very unrealistic to me.
A lot of doctors will want to put their patients on that androgel testosterone cream.
I think that stuff is garbage. Not only is it bad for your skin, it’s bad for anyone you
come in contact with such as your children or your significant other. It’s also not a
steady delivery system that is consistent; it’s a cream!
If it were myself I wouldn’t even consider this garbage. I’d go straight for the
doctor who was willing to prescribe me injectable testosterone and let me do it on
my own! There is simply no reason to have to come into a doctor’s office every 2
weeks for a shot of testosterone, other than them hitting your insurance or wallet
or you’re just afraid to suck it up and try injecting yourself. Either way it’s pretty
stupid if this is something you’re going to be on for the rest of your life, if you
choose to have a normal life anyways!
How Long Will it Take to See/Feel the Effects of Testosterone?
If you are testosterone deficient and put on TRT then it’s probably going to
take about 3 weeks before you begin to experience the full effects of being on
testosterone. You may notice small changes before this point day by day, but it’s
usually around the 3 week mark that you definitely notice an improved sense of
well-being and even some rapid physical changes as well.
It’s not unusual for guys who were testosterone deficient to pack on 10 - 15 lbs of
muscle mass while losing body fat in the first 4-6 weeks of testosterone replacement
therapy! You will notice huge improvements in strength, a boost in metabolism and
fat loss, and an overall better view on your life and self image. You won’t realize
just how half empty your glass was until you get your testosterone levels back up to
speed!
11
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Cholesterol Levels
I’m not a doctor or scientist, but what I can share with you is my own personal
experience from being on testosterone replacement therapy under a doctor’s care. I
have personally been on TRT now for the past 6 - 7 years.
When I was put on testosterone through my doctor he automatically put me on
simvastatin at 10 mg/day as a cholesterol control measure. I have taken 10 mg/day
of simvastatin now for the entire duration of my TRT so far. Cholesterol is probably
the one area that can be of the biggest concern for someone taking testosterone on a
regular basis. You may not notice a negative impact on cholesterol for a while while
taking testosterone, but from everything I’ve gathered and the people I know who
are on TRT, sooner or later those cholesterol values get a little out of range.
Your HDL (high density lipoprotein cholesterol or “good cholesterol”) will drop
lower and your LDL (low density lipoprotein cholesterol or “bad cholesterol”) can
rise up higher than normal range. The ratio of good to bad cholesterol is more of
an indicator to health issues over the total cholesterol reading, however usually the
ratio is more obscured with a higher total reading. It’s extremely important to take
the right precautionary measures to keep your blood levels as normal as possible
while using testosterone replacement therapy. When you get your blood labs back
you want to look at your cholesterol values as well as your ratio. Usually under the
ratio reading there will be a chart that says “chances for increased risk of future
cardiac event” and what that means is how much at risk you are for a heart attack.
Personally speaking, my good cholesterol usually comes in on the low side, and
my bad cholesterol comes in normal range, but at the high end of normal range.
However, one thing I’ve found out is that readings fluctuate more as I’ve gotten
older. I’m not old by any means, but I can tell you that at 37 years old my readings
fluctuate more than they did when I was 30 years old.
This means that factors such as a healthy diet and being in good physical shape
are even more important when you’re using testosterone! You have to remember
that nature didn’t intend for us to have testosterone levels like we were 18 years old
12
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
throughout our entire life! But it’s certainly a nice feeling and having seen my peers
walk around looking and feeling absolutely miserable, I do not regret getting on
testosterone replacement therapy through a doctor’s care.
Red Blood Cells and Donating Blood
Another important thing to keep an eye on during TRT is your level of red blood
cells. Your hematocrit reading is the level of your red blood cells based on overall
volume of blood, and if your hematocrit gets too high then your blood becomes like
sludge or motor oil. The thicker your blood becomes, the more at risk you are for
a stroke or a heart attack. If your hematocrit is too low then it’s an indicator of low
iron in your body.
One thing that I would suggest for anyone on testosterone replacement therapy is
to donate blood on a routine basis. In most donation centers you have the option of
donating either whole blood or what is referred to as “power reds” or “double reds”
where they take twice as many red blood cells as a normal donation. When donating
blood you’re only allowed to donate every 56 days for whole blood or every 112
days for double red cell donations. It’s extremely important to get in the habit of
doing this early on, because if you wait too long there is a strong possibility that
your blood is too thick for a donation center to accept. When that happens, a doctor
will need to order a blood draw and you won’t be able to donate to a donation center
until this reading is in normal parameters.
The creation of new blood is thought to be one of the major reasons that women
statistically outlive men. When a woman has a menstrual cycle her body loses blood
on a regular basis. With the creation of new blood, toxins are flushed away from the
organs and this creates a healthier environment for your body. Donating blood is
just a wise idea.
I was a little squeamish about donating blood the first time I did it, I’ll admit that
much. I don’t mind having things injected into me, but I’m not excited about seeing
something leave me. I was a little nervous the first time I did this, but I took the
plunge and went straight for the double red blood cell donation on my first blood
13
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
donation.
When donating blood you are required to fill out a questionnaire before you can
just donate. You will be required to fill out this questionnaire every time you donate.
There are questions on there pertaining to having unprotected sex, sex with the same
sex, history of tattoos and past illnesses, and questions pertaining to travel outside
of the country. There are also questions on receiving blood transfusions in the past.
Another question they’ll ask is if you’ve ever used a needle to take anything that
wasn’t prescribed to you, shared needles, and if you’ve ever taken steroids.
Answering yes or no to these questions doesn’t automatically disqualify you from
donating blood, but answering yes to some of them will definitely disqualify you
from donating blood, and possibly disqualify you from EVER donating blood. I’m
not 100% on what disqualifies you and what doesn’t, but I damn sure know that I
wouldn’t admit to anything that would likely disqualify me.
After I donate blood I usually feel pretty good. I have never felt light headed or
fainted, never felt a noticeable decrease in energy levels, and I’ve pretty much just
went on with my day after the donation was over with. I wouldn’t suggest running a
marathon or working out with 100% intensity that day, but it’s certainly not as bad
as people make it out to be from my own experience.
Liver Values
Your liver values are another area you definitely want to keep in check. While
taking a shot of testosterone doesn’t pass directly through your liver, your blood
certainly does. So you cannot totally rule out ALL EFFECTS on your liver when it
comes to taking any medication. However, is just taking testosterone in replacement
amounts going to have a drastic change in liver values? Probably not.
When it comes to your liver you have 2 main tests that measure the enzyme
response in your body to damage. The first measure is called ALT, which stands for
alanine transaminase. This measures the enzymes used by your body to metabolize
protein. When your liver is damaged more of this enzyme is released into your
14
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
blood and is a good indication of possible liver damage.
The second test is referred to as an AST test, which stands for aspartate
aminotransferase. This is an enzyme that is found in other parts of the body such
as your heart and muscles and isn’t always a direct indicator of liver damage. This
test could show a possible health issue somewhere else in your body. Since the liver
processes just about everything in the human body it’s a test that is often combined
with the ALT enzyme test to more accurately pinpoint a health concern.
Now, here is the kicker: elevated liver values are rarely a marker of liver damage
in people who exercise regularly and intensely. Since intense exercise constantly
breaks down muscle tissue it’s not unusual to have an elevated liver count when
going in for routine blood labs. My liver has consistently stayed about 20-30 points
higher than a normal reference cutoff range for over the past 10 years in a row.
Every time I go in for lab work it almost always comes back around the same count.
A lot of doctors fail to realize that this isn’t an accurate measure for people who
exercise intensely!
Other tests on liver function include bilirubin testing, albumin testing, and ALP
testing (alkaline phosphatase test). Bilirubin is a waste product made by the liver
based on the breakdown of red blood cells in the body, so a high bilirubin level is an
indicator of a liver that’s not functioning properly.
Albumin is a protein that is made by the liver that is responsible for transporting
nutrients and hormones throughout your body. When levels of albumin come back
low it’s usually a more direct indicator of liver damage. This means that your body
isn’t working properly to transport essential vitamins and nutrients to all of your
tissues.
Alkaline phosphatase is an enzyme test that can show blockage of bile ducts and
possible bone disease. When ALP levels come back higher than normal this may
warrant additional testing to be performed to rule out other health issues, however
high ALP levels are most likely a sign of liver damage.
15
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
It’s extremely important to take care of your liver because it’s involved in almost
every process of the human body! Everything from waste excretion, blood filtration,
hormone and nutrient transportation and production, bacteria removal, and fighting
off infections and sickness can all come back to the liver. Without a healthy liver
you have absolutely nothing and you can forget the gym or making any changes at
all to your body!
I constantly see people abusing oral medications and taking things that are liver
toxic over time. Some of the things people take are intended to help them physically
and cosmetically, but in the long run what is the cost? Without a good liver nothing
will help you, so I suggest never taking any liver toxic drug without knowing its
possible effects on your organs and never taking anything long term or without
knowing the negative consequences.
Kidneys
The kidneys are responsible for filtering waste products from our blood as well as
excessive fluid from our bodies. Kidneys also play a vital role in controlling blood
pressure in our bodies. One of the important things concerning kidney function is
that often times you won’t know you have a kidney issue until you’re already in
kidney failure. Kidney failure can happen all of a sudden (acute renal failure) or
over a long period of time (chronic renal failure).
Acute renal failure is usually caused by toxins, drug abuse, and/or severe
dehydration and can often be corrected if treated in a timely manner. Chronic renal
failure is a bit more serious and will usually be irreversible. The kidneys aren’t
quite as resilient as the liver is and they don’t heal themselves like the liver can.
It’s extremely important to never abuse oral medication and always drink plenty
of water to help your body flush itself out on a routine basis. You want to stay away
from harsh diuretics and be mindful of what you put yourself through just to try to
look good. Nothing is worth sacrificing your health just to look good for a short
period of time.
16
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
When it comes to kidney tests you have several different tests that are performed
on a routine blood lab. Kidney testing includes BUN (blood urea nitrogen), serum
creatinine, protein in your urine (microalbuminuria testing), glomerular filtration
rate (GFR), and possibly a 24 hour creatinine clearance test (although this isn’t a
standard test performed in routine blood labs).
The BUN (blood urea nitrogen) test is a test that determines how well your body
breaks down the protein from the foods you eat and metabolizes the protein. Protein
is removed from your blood by your kidneys and the more protein you consume the
higher the BUN level usually is. It’s not unusual to have a higher than normal BUN
level from eating a bodybuilding diet since these diets are higher in protein. My
BUN is consistently high but it’s not THAT MUCH over what is considered normal
range. But then again, bodybuilders aren’t normal people either. My BUN has been
a little higher than a normal reference chart for as long as I can remember.
Before I delve more into kidney function tests I just want to make it clear that an
accurate measure of kidney function takes a lot more than just one specific test,
especially for bodybuilders!
Let’s talk about serum creatinine levels next. Your kidneys are what’s responsible
for removing creatinine from your blood. When creatinine levels come back high
it’s possibly an indicator of impaired kidney function or kidney failure. Your serum
creatinine levels are what’s used to help calculate the glomerular filtration rate in
your body. Your glomerular filtration rate (GFR) determines how much kidney
function you have left and what stage of kidney failure you’re in if that’s the case.
Factors such as age,gender and body mass are also used to help calculate the
glomerular filtration rate, and often times bodybuilders will be more difficult to
properly assess based on just a few routine tests in normal blood labs. For this
reason a doctor may order what’s called a 24 hour creatinine clearance test. A 24
hour creatinine clearance test is where urine is collected over a 24 hour period to
determine exactly how much creatinine is in the urine and how well your kidneys
are processing creatinine.
As we get older it’s normal for kidney function to decrease. To what degree it
17
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
decreases is the main concern. Sometimes it’s a little more complicated than just
going by a specific number on a test when you consider all factors involved. This
is especially true when muscle mass comes into play more than the average person
who undergoes testing.
Protein as it Relates to Kidney Function
I’ve heard over the years that the amount of protein you consume has no effect
on kidneys and it’s all a myth. I’m going to give you my personal opinion on this
one after a lot of research. First off, the necessary protein requirements for building
muscle are extremely over-exaggerated nowadays. I see no reason to consume more
than 1 gram of protein per lb. of bodyweight to try and build muscle, We can look
at other cultures who consume far less protein than we do and they can still build
impressive amounts of muscle.
I was recently studying the diets of Africans in terms of muscle building and I
was surprised to see just how little protein was actually involved, and many of the
physiques I was looking at were impressive to say the least! They consume very
little animal protein and when they do consume protein it’s usually from fish or
trace amounts in other foods that are mostly carb heavy, such as wheat, cassava
tubers, and potatoes.
Now, here is where I stand on protein and kidney function. If you’re consuming
enough water then I don’t believe a little excessive protein is going to be harmful for
your kidneys, providing you’re not already in an impaired state of kidney function.
Once your kidneys are in a damaged state then yes, I believe protein can further
damage your kidneys. Like all things in life, moderation is the main key here! I’d
stick to the 1 gram per lb. of bodyweight rule and drink plenty of water on a routine
basis as a bodybuilder. These claims of needing 2-3 grams of protein per lb of body
weight are a little ridiculous if you ask me.
Taking a Proactive Approach to Kidney Health
The 2 biggest issues that can cause kidney damage are high blood pressure and
18
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
diabetes. If you have high blood pressure and/or diabetes then it’s extremely
important to take care of your kidneys and your overall health. It becomes extremely
important to drink enough fluid, get enough rest and recovery, and avoid taking
certain drugs and medications that can increase your blood pressure and/or blood
sugar.
When it comes to testosterone replacement therapy it’s never actually been proven
that the use of exogenous testosterone has an impact on insulin resistance. While
corticosteroids almost always cause insulin resistance, anabolics just don’t fall into
the same category. There is some speculation that they disturb blood sugar but there
are no conclusive studies proving it. However, there are cases where people who
were overweight and/or had diabetes had improved their blood sugar control when
using testosterone replacement under the care of a doctor.
Blood pressure is the other big issue concerning kidney function. It’s extremely
important to keep your blood pressure under control for your kidneys as well as
your heart. I see a lot of people who try to fight having to go on medication to
control either blood pressure or blood sugar and I used to be one of these people
myself concerning diabetes. Let me tell you something, there are some things that
you simply cannot out-diet or out-exercise. If you need the medication then you
need it, stop trying to fight something that’s a losing battle. If you value your life
then take the damn medication!
Aside from consuming adequate amounts of water, I like to take cranberry extract
everyday to help shield my kidneys. I simply take 1 cranberry extract tablet every
morning as part of a staple supplement regimen to help ensure good kidney function.
There are certain staple supplements I take on a daily basis such as a multivitamin
and fish oil, and cranberry extract falls into the same category. I would sooner run
out of protein powder before I quit taking these staple supplements on a regular
basis. A couple other supplements someone on test replacement may want to
consider taking would be niacin and/or baby aspirin to help keep the blood a little
thinner. This will help keep hematocrit in check, aside from donating blood. A safe
dose for a long term aspirin regimen is 81 mg/day taken from a baby aspirin and
niacin at 1,000 mg/day.
19
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Niacin usually makes the user extremely flush after ingestion, so it’s recommended
to start lower with smaller dosages 2 - 3x a day to equal at or near 1,000 mg. You can
also use the “no flush” niacin version and take 1,000 mg once daily. Aspirin in the
form of a baby aspirin should give you all of the heart attack and stroke preventative
measures without causing damage to your stomach like a regular adult dose aspirin
would over an extended period of time.
Triglycerides
Triglycerides are another area you want to look at when it comes to evaluating your
blood labs. Triglycerides are the level of fat found circulating in your bloodstream.
A high triglyceride level can have a negative impact on your heart function and can
contribute to future cardiac problems or heart attack. Often times a high triglyceride
level is accompanied with a high total cholesterol level, since both concern levels
of fat in your blood.
Precautionary Measures for Overall Health
Does the biggest and most muscular individual live the longest? NEVER! Whether
it’s fat, muscle, or both, your heart and organs still need to support that weight.
The longer you carry around excessive mass, the harder your heart works to pump
blood to your entire body. Think of your body mass as it relates to carrying bags
of groceries around. The larger you get the more it becomes like carrying bags of
groceries around all the time for your heart!
What we are seeing in terms of bodybuilder deaths right now is nothing, because
bodybuilders up until the last few decades never stayed the same size into their later
years. Bodybuilders were also not using the insane amount of anabolic steroids
that competitors of today are using. So the fatalities just aren’t common enough to
be a warning sign for most people. But they’ll be coming very soon, you can mark
my words on that one. Bodybuilders of yesterday were lucky to live past the age of
70 years old, and the ones who kept more overall mass usually suffered an earlier
demise.
20
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
You don’t have to be enormous to be an incredible bodybuilder! Some of the
greatest builds I’ve ever seen had come from guys who weighed under 200 lbs!
Let’s put bodybuilding to the side for just a minute here and mention that just the
aging process alone can cause more random spikes and falls in your blood work.
Now put bodybuilding, drugs, and medications into the equation, and the bloodwork
results can get even more obscured! That is why it’s so important to put your overall
health before anything cosmetically.
I personally do not feel my best when I’m my leanest, nor do I feel my best when
I’m heavier either. I feel my best when I’m right in the middle and going through
the daily efforts to maintain health and fitness without going overboard one way or
the other. However, as a bodybuilder, someone who enjoys seeing visual results,
and someone who doesn’t like being stationary in activities I partake in, I do lay the
hammer down for results on a regular basis. But this isn’t the entire year, there are
times when I know when to back off.
If you don’t get blood labs done then you’ll never know if the time for you to back
off is present or not. You may be a walking heart attack and don’t even know it. If
you have anything you care to live for such as family, life enjoyment, or would like
to continue going to the gym and working out, then I’d strongly suggest having
routine blood labs done! If you’re considering testosterone replacement then at the
very least you should pay out of pocket to have blood labs done every 6 months.
Even if you have to pay out of pocket due to lack of insurance this is very important.
Not to mention, do you think looking good and muscular is something that’s free?
Hell no, this is a lifestyle and to many people it’s a luxury! That type of thing doesn’t
come cheap!
I don’t care who you are and how old you may be, cardio should never be
neglected! The only time I ever suggest cutting cardio out for short periods of time
is for young guys who are hardgainers with extremely fast metabolisms. Everyone
else is excluded from this scenario and I have everyone else always do cardio on a
regular basis. Your heart is the #1 muscle in your body that you need to take care of.
Without it there is no health and fitness!
21
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Sleep is another area that you should be concerned with in regards to lifespan
and overall health. As a general mass population our sleep is getting worse and
worse. People are working more hours, staying more stressed out, and sleeping
worse and worse. What’s even worse is that when people have time to get proper
rest they ignore that available time because they’re too busy on social media or
getting distracted by trying to have a social life through computer technology, due
to not having a real social life! So what is the cost of trying to live like that? Easy,
sleep and recovery!
I try to get it through people’s heads all the time: you cannot do everything that
everyone else does and make health and fitness a top priority at the same time!
While I’m not claiming that your body nor the gym should be your #1 focus in
life, you can still make your overall health the most important focus in life without
spending all of your time doing so. It all comes down to priorities and managing
your time. And if life isn’t allowing you to make any sort of time to prioritize health
then maybe it’s time to change the way you live.
I see so many people putting money before everything else in their lives. While I
understand that money is a necessity to live comfortably, you have to define what
“living comfortably” really means. Because I see plenty of people who should be
living comfortably with the money they make and they’re living in a self-made hell!
If someone walked up to you right now and offered to make you rich in exchange
for 25 years of your life, would you do it? Remember that question every time you
think about not having any time for yourself. Material items are nice but without
your health they don’t mean a damn thing!
The Basics of Being on Testosterone Replacement Therapy and Staying Safe
I want to be as straight-forward as possible when I talk about being on testosterone
replacement. When it comes to testosterone replacement therapy there are 3 main
components of long term therapy. The first is obviously testosterone dosing, which
for most people is anywhere from 100 mg - 250 mg per week. This all depends on
what your doctor feels is necessary and/or what your doctor will let you get away
22
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
with. Some doctors feel that 200 mg per week is more beneficial to their patients
than just 100 mg per week. Some patients will require 200 mg per week where
others will simply benefit from 200 mg per week although they could get by on a
lesser amount to still stay in a normal reference range.
For myself, 200 mg per week is what I take. I’m prescribed 200 mg of testosterone
per week, and before every blood test I simply take 2 weeks off in order to come in
low enough to show a normal to a low/normal range so there are no red flags with the
doctor nor the insurance company. Some doctors will require their patients to come
in once every 2 weeks for their shot, and this is something I strongly discourage.
One shot of testosterone cypionate every 2 weeks just isn’t often enough to keep
you leveled out. Usually around day 10 or 11 you’ll begin to feel like you’re falling
off a little.
Doctors will have their patients come in every 2 weeks because either the patient
doesn’t want to inject himself, the doctor’s office wants to ding your wallet and
insurance, or the doctor will not provide the appropriate prescription resources for
the patient to inject themselves in the comfort of their own home. If this is the
case then I strongly advise finding a new doctor. Having to go in for an injection
on a biweekly basis is extremely inconvenient and not a realistic way to live the
remainder of your life. Trust me, it seems bad enough sometimes just going to the
pharmacy or having to have prior authorization forms faxed over to the insurance
company and pharmacy every so often.
The second main component of testosterone replacement therapy is an aromatase
inhibitor. An aromatase inhibitor is a drug that will prevent too much estrogen
formation or knock down already existing levels of estrogen. In most cases
anastrozole (arimidex) is prescribed to use alongside of the testosterone. Aromasin
is another aromatase inhibitor that may be prescribed in place of arimidex. They
both do pretty much the same thing.
Most guys that I know who are on TRT are using 1/2 mg of arimidex 2 - 3x per
week. It doesn’t take much to keep you in normal range on your estrogen levels and
taking too much can knock estrogen levels down too low. This can cause sore joints,
lack of energy and sex drive, and an overall ill feeling that can often be accompanied
23
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
by depression. It’s a very similar feeling to not having enough testosterone in your
system. It’s important to look at your estrogen levels when you get your routine
bloodwork back because this will help determine your aromatase inhibitor dosing
or whether you need an aromatase inhibitor or not. Some guys can get away with
not using it for very long periods of time while others will need it. The blood work
is the determining decision maker in this case.
The third component of TRT is a drug called human chorionic gonadotropin
(HCG). HCG is an injectable hormone that helps your body stimulate luteinizing
hormone. This is primarily used to keep testicle shrinkage to a minimum and also
helps with ejaculate volume and fertility rates in men who are using testosterone
replacement. Some doctors don’t see a need for HCG but I strongly suggest using
it. I feel that if we can keep our bodies functioning at least somewhat closer to
normal then we’ll feel better overall while using synthetic testosterone. HCG use
will still promote testicular function despite being on testosterone replacement and
it’s a wise addition to your TRT protocol.
Now, I’m sure this may be different in other areas, but my experience with HCG
has been troublesome concerning my local pharmacy. I used to get prescribed
2,000 iu per month of HCG. My doctor wanted me to use 250 units injected twice
every week for a total of 2,000 iu per month. My insurance covered my testosterone
however didn’t cover my HCG. So it was expensive enough to pay for it out of my
pocket. Well I’m not sure if the HCG diet craze ruined things or what happened, but
all of a sudden the pharmacies in my area stopped dispensing injectable HCG and
went with a nasal spray form instead. Not only that, but the price of the nasal spray
skyrocketed beyond the cost of the injectable version I used to use!
It may be different in your area, but I ran into trouble with HCG and had to resort
to using an online pharmacy. The online pharmacy is much cheaper and they offer
larger vials of HCG also. The trouble with trying to use HCG at a maintenance
dosage is that once it’s mixed with bacteriostatic water it’s only potent for about 30
days. This means that if you have a 5,000 unit vial then 3,000 units of the HCG is
wasted once the powder is mixed with the bacteriostatic water needed for injection
with an insulin syringe. Because all of the HCG powder and water is mixed in 1
vial, it’s impossible to separate a specific amount of HCG powder and save it for
24
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
reconstitution later on. If you order a 2,000 iu vial then you don’t have to worry
about this issue because your vial will be gone in 30 days before the HCG loses its
shelf life.
Now, there is one thing you can do to preserve your HCG once it’s mixed. You can
preload insulin syringes with HCG and stick them in the freezer. The freezer will
prolong the shelf life of the HCG after it’s mixed. The HCG will thaw out within a
couple of minutes after pulling an insulin syringe out of the freezer: it usually thaws
out quickly just from the warmth of my fingertips.
If you get your HCG from a pharmacy and have to reconstitute it yourself (mix
bacteriostatic water with the powder) then it’s important to know how to mix it.
I’ve mostly mixed 5,000 iu vials of it myself. The easiest way is to fill your vial of
powder with 1 ml of bacteriostatic water (the same as 1 cc of water). Next, make sure
you’re using 1 ml insulin syringes to inject with. A 1 ml insulin syringe is labeled
10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90,100 on the syringe barrel. These numbers represent
units, but the units are all relative to the amount of powder to liquid. Therefore if
you fill your entire 5,000 iu vial with 1 ml of water, this amount would equal out to
100 units on your 1 ml insulin syringe (or a full syringe worth of water).
If the syringe is labeled by every 10 units then that means that if you filled your
syringe to the 10 mark it would be 500 units of HCG. So if you wanted to use 500
iu per week of HCG which is normal TRT protocol for HCG use, then you’d simply
fill your 1 ml syringe to 5 units and inject that twice a week (ie: Mon/Thurs). This
would yield 500 iu of HCG per week.
The reason you want to split your shots up twice per week is because you don’t
want the synthetic boost of testosterone from intratesticular stimulation to warrant
additional estrogen release into your body and increase the risk of gynecomastia
(formation of female-like breast tissue). This shouldn’t happen unless a user is
extremely prone to developing gyno, but taking the arimidex will almost always
prevent this possibility when taken in appropriate amounts (such as 1/2 mg twice
a week of Arimidex). That’s right, HCG can cause gynecomastia itself if you’re
susceptible to developing gyno and not using an AI (aromatase inhibitor such as
Arimidex, Aromasin, Arimistane).
25
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Blasting HCG
Ok, to be 100% honest with you guys on HCG, most of my experience with HCG
is from blasting HCG in larger amounts for shorter durations of time, as opposed
to staying on 500 units of HCG constantly. I’m just sharing the way I normally
do things here. I will blast 2,500 iu per week of HCG for 2 weeks in a row (5,000
iu in 2 weeks) and then discontinue use for about 10 - 12 weeks before doing it
again. I will inject twice weekly at 1250 iu per shot. The reason for this is simply
convenience. I spoke about having to freeze insulin syringes preloaded with HCG,
well I think that is a pain in the ass and I’d prefer not to have my freezer full of
preloaded needles. So I will run a larger amount of HCG for 2 weeks as opposed to
using just a little bit regularly. It’s extremely important to increase your AI dosing
during HCG use if you’re going to use HCG this way. Again, this is to avoid any
possible gynecomastia, and larger amounts of HCG require larger amounts of
countermeasures to stay safe. So if this is the way you’re going to use your HCG
then my advice is to use 1/2 mg to 1 mg of Arimidex every day as opposed to just a
1/2 mg 2 - 3x per week under normal TRT protocol.
I will simply ramp my AI use up during the 2 weeks of my HCG blast and then
revert back to my normal dosing during TRT. I’ve found that by using HCG this
way I can retain good testicular function and testicular size. There is nothing wrong
with using HCG on a regular basis and it’s probably superior to blasting HCG, it’s
just not convenient in certain circumstances. For fertility rates I would strongly
suggest using HCG regularly over blasting it on occasion. If fertility isn’t an issue
for you and you don’t have access to smaller vials of HCG then blasting it may be
the best option to get the most out of it in your case.
HGH Levels and Replacement Therapy
Our human growth hormone (HGH) levels naturally decline as we get older. This
is primarily the reason that our sleep gets worse, we become more inefficient at
burning body fat, and the process of aging takes over. We lose the elasticity of our
skin and begin to look older, our injuries heal much slower, and our overall sense of
26
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
wellbeing and general attitudes towards life change.
This is all because of lower levels of human growth hormone in our bodies and/or
lower levels of testosterone. Much of the time they both begin to diminish around
the same time. Your level of human growth hormone is determined by your IGF-1
level in your body. IGF-1 (insulin like growth factor) is what is produced from your
liver based on your growth hormone production from your brain. So if you would
like to know what your level of human growth hormone is then you need to tell
your doctor that you want an “IGF-1 test.” This is usually a separate test aside from
what’s tested on a normal hormone panel and it needs to be specifically ordered
by the doctor. Your IGF-1 level will be the determining marker of your level of
human growth hormone. I’m 37 years old myself and my levels have come back
consistently low for the past couple years now so I’d be a good candidate for HGH
treatment.
HGH is extremely expensive! Let me rephrase that: REAL HGH IS EXTREMELY
EXPENSIVE. There are plenty of people out there manufacturing underdosed and/
or fake HGH now due to the extreme demands of the drug and all of the notability
it’s received over the recent decade. A lot of doctor’s offices are not even prescribing
HGH due to liability issues. Usually you’re going to need to go to an anti-aging
doctor or an anti-aging clinic and get your levels tested and then get your script
through them. This is extremely expensive! For example, I called one anti-aging
clinic and to get a prescription for just 10 units per week of HGH would have cost
me $1200 a month! That is $1200 for just 40 units of human growth hormone!
The average adult male will be using 2 iu of HGH per day for 5 days on/2 days off
pattern. This 2 iu’s per day will help reduce body fat, improve sense of well-being,
and promote good sleep and a more youthful appearance over time. It will appear
as if father time begins moving backwards when you start using HGH, but it comes
with a very high cost! If you don’t have an extra $10,000 a year to spend on your
body then you have no business messing around with HGH.
I would only recommend using pharmaceutical grade HGH that is acquired
through a pharmacy. A lot of what you hear people using just isn’t real and if there
is any legitimacy to it at all it’s extremely underdosed, so you have no idea what
you’re really using. Real human growth hormone isn’t something you’re going to
27
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
use for a few hundred dollars a year, trust me!
Some anti-aging specialists will prescribe HGH secretagogues rather than HGH
itself. A secretagogue is an injectable peptide that will stimulate your own pituitary
gland to release more of it’s own HGH. You see, we still have HGH as we get
older but our brains just don’t continue to release it. Therefore the secretagogues
stimulate this part of the brain to release more HGH into our systems when we use
it. Again, many secretagogues are fake as well. I’d recommend going through an
anti-aging clinic to use either HGH or an HGH secretagogue. The most common
prescribed HGH secretagogue is called sermorelin. It’s still expensive but not to the
degree of using human growth hormone.
Whichever route you choose to go you should just know that HGH replacement
is incredibly expensive but it can change the quality of your life. There are many
celebrities who use it and are looking far younger than they really are. There are
many other people out there who know the difference in life between having good
levels of human growth hormone and having low levels of human growth hormone.
If this is an area that you’re interested in then the first thing you need to do is to get
an IGF-1 test through your primary care doctor. If you come back on the low side
then the next step is to find a legitimate anti-aging clinic and take your interests
there, because chances are your regular doctor isn’t going to mess with this. Also,
insurance most likely won’t cover this because it won’t be looked at as a necessity
but more as a luxury. So plan on spending some money!
General Overview and Conclusion on Hormone Replacement Therapy
Hopefully this chapter has informed you about hormone replacement therapy and
what to keep an eye on in your blood labs. As I said earlier, I’m certainly not a doctor
or scientist, but hopefully I have been able to give you enough knowledge to begin
the process of at least asking some questions and seeking out hormone replacement
if you are deficient in this area.
This is certainly a part of bodybuilding but more importantly, it’s a part of living
a quality life into your middle to later years. I wouldn’t want to know what life is
28
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
like without being on testosterone replacement therapy. I can still perform in areas
many others cannot, and I walk around and see all of these people who look and
act miserable on a daily basis, and all I can think to myself is, “Geez, what’s wrong
with that guy? I’m glad I don’t act like that!” I ask myself that question but in reality
I know the most likely answer is his hormones are off and he feels terrible. Look at
everyone who is in good shape versus everyone who is not in good shape. Which
group do the happiest people fall into? That’s right, the people who are in shape and
practice a healthy lifestyle!
29
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
CHAPTER THREE
Hitting Roadblocks and Deciding Where to go with
Bodybuilding
I got into bodybuilding in my mid teens and like most kids that age my primary
goal was building size. I just wanted strength and overall mass and I wanted people
to know who I was. I wasn’t exactly the most popular guy in school, in fact I was
far from it. My classmates knew who I was but there was nothing I really felt like I
excelled in.
I was turned off of team sports at a young age due to some coaches who took all
the fun out of the game at an age that I don’t believe you should be so hard on kids. I
never felt like I was given a fair opportunity to develop any talent on the field when
it came to team sports. When I got into trying to build my body it was like “This is
all me and it’s working, I’m getting results!” So I just kept going with bodybuilding
and made it my primary influence in life.
Of course as we get older life can get confusing. I moved away to start fresh and
30
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
worked some manual labor jobs with plans to live in North Carolina long enough
to get in-state tuition and finish college. Well, it didn’t work out that way because I
really never knew what I wanted to do. On top of that, I was so busy trying to find
myself and work on personal things in my life that I never felt I had that I just put
off going back to college. I eventually went back for 1 semester and got straight A’s
across the board but I never finished. College seemed a lot easier after I experienced
the real world and what falling on my face really felt like. I just didn’t know what
I wanted to do at the time. Eventually fitness would become part of my income as
well as my passion.
I never gave up bodybuilding. It was always there for me. It was there for me when
I had nobody, it was there for me when I felt like working on something, and it was
there for me during times of confusion and depression. One of my biggest fears
in life was that I’d never amount to anything and that no girl was going to see any
potential in me. I lacked confidence at first, but as I got further along in bodybuilding
and learning to take care of myself life became a little less confusing. Bodybuilding
would eventually become what I was known for. People in town would see me out
somewhere and say something like “Hey, aren’t you that guy who works out at the
gym over on xyz? Were you the guy who was in the grocery store the other night on
such and such avenue?” I was becoming somebody, and if bodybuilding was how I
had to do it then in my mind at least I was doing something and moving forward in
at least one area of my life.
After competing in several bodybuilding competitions throughout the years
and becoming more aware of the extreme measures it took to go anywhere in the
bodybuilding industry I began reevaluating my life. During this time I met my wife
and stepdaughter and eventually I decided that I wanted more out of life than just
muscles. I wanted to be able to support a family and eventually have kids of my
own. I eventually got an actual career and worked my way up the chain as fast as I
could but I never quit bodybuilding. I stayed involved with it and still competed in
competitions with a wife and stepdaughter. I always did what I had to do in order to
provide. Whether it was working extra hours or taking on a side job, I did what I had
to do to keep up a family and continue bodybuilding at the same time.
I just enjoy bodybuilding and nowadays it’s more of a stress reliever than anything.
31
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
I think it’s human nature to always want more and I wanted more out of life as well
as bodybuilding, so my efforts to build a better physique DID NOT STOP! But I
would learn ways to continue to enhance my physique while taking on more in life
outside of just going to the gym.
That is the basic background of where my mind was from the beginning of
bodybuilding up until about 26 years old. What started as a dream and the only big
influence in my life would eventually become the very thing I needed to mold my
character into that of work effort, consistency, confidence, and perseverance.
This is Where This Chapter Really Begins
I’ve talked to friends who have always stayed involved with the gym and are now
in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. One of the things we all have in common is this; we
want to continue to get in better condition but we are looking for manageable ways
to do it and not give into everyday pressures that seem to want to pull us away from
the gym.
It gets very confusing sometimes. One of the crossroads I became faced with was
that I knew the extreme measures I had taken in the past to get to where I had gotten,
but how could I continue to get better without being as extreme?
My health became more of a concern to me and dropping several thousands of
dollars a year on supplements just wasn’t something I wanted to do anymore.
However, I didn’t want to just throw in the towel on bodybuilding. Bodybuilding
was something I had always enjoyed so I didn’t want to just give it up, but how
could I continue to get better despite toning down the supplemental side of things?
I’ve seen myself as big as 263 lbs before (I’m 5’9” tall) and I have photos of
what I looked like in the past when I was ripped up. The big question for me was
“Could I ever come close to that again now that I have a family, career, and other
responsibilities in life? Could I ever come close to that again seeing in how I didn’t
want to use as much gear as back then?”
There was only one logical answer I could eventually come up with; I needed
32
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
to change my goals! This is the point where I began looking at a lot of classic era
bodybuilding physiques. I got away from the look of bodybuilding today and steered
more towards the bodybuilding look of yesterday. It was like a slap in the face
and I became enthused about bodybuilding once again! “A tight waist, a V-taper,
a muscular look that was respectable but didn’t look like a circus act, and building
my body the way I truly thought looked good is now what I wanted” I thought to
myself.
Why would you limit yourself to just some standard of today? I say to develop a
look that YOU WANT. The look I wanted was 200 - 220 lbs in lean condition and
I wanted to have defintion year round. Even if I looked thinner with my shirt on
I wanted to be that ace card under the clothes! When the shirt came off I wanted
people to be like, “Son of a bitch, I had no idea that was underneath that shirt!” In
my opinion this is the gold standard of bodybuilding, it’s when the muscles take on
the illusion, they take on that 3-D look that can only come from years of hard work
and development. It was no longer just about how big I could get but about overall
quality!
If you’re in a place like I was and you’re confused about which direction to go
with bodybuilding, my honest advice is to look at the physiques of yesterday or
look at what you think you could possibly achieve with your build. Stop looking
at some monster on youtube who has devoted his every dollar and waking moment
to bodybuilding and start focusing on what YOU CAN BUILD! It became easy for
me: at 263 lbs I was a bloated whale and anything under 220 lbs I was in shape and
had abs. So the goal then became refining my body to be a BETTER AND BETTER
200 - 220 lbs, and there does come a point where the scale is just a number and not a
direct reflection of the look and the illusion you can create.
As I said before, health had become more of a priority to me than just being large.
If you look at most bodybuilders who had an early demise they stayed heavier
throughout their years. The heart does not like this, whether it be muscle or body
fat, the heart still has to support it. I would like to be around to see my kids grow up
and hopefully see grandchildren someday. Yes, people can often talk tough and say,
“I’m not afraid to die, when I go I go” and throw health to the wayside, but when a
health scare comes up they’re almost always singing a different tune. Most people
33
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
do not want to die. I’ve talked to people who were in the process of dying and every
single one of them were afraid.
Therefore my outlook on bodybuilding has changed from just being the biggest
guy around to being that ace card under the shirt who still had his health. But how
would I go about doing that? I had to make changes and hopefully they’d work and
I knew they weren’t going to be easy. It’s very difficult when you’re known for
being big to having people say, “Are you still lifting weights? You look like you’ve
gotten pretty thin lately.” I now joke with them about it and say things like, “Yea, I
gave it up, too much going on in life now.” But in my head all I’m thinking is, “You
have no idea what you’re looking at or what’s underneath this shirt!”
You see, I know bodybuilders when I see them. I can usually tell when a guy is
lean just from his facial bones. Someone could be wearing a hooded sweatshirt and
baggy pants and I can usually tell what sort of condition he is in. I’ve seen enough
bodybuilders over the years to know what I’m looking at and the opinions of people
who don’t know bodybuilding shouldn’t matter! Other people’s opinions shouldn’t
matter if you’re trying your best and doing what YOU CAN DO. So you have to
learn to not give a damn and as long as you’re on the path that you want to be on
then forget about them.
You Can Do More Than You Think You Can
Back in 2009 I decided to compete again after taking 5 years away from
competition. My son was just born and looking back on it the timing was ill. But
something told me that I needed another challenge. On limited funds and limited
amounts of supplements I started preparing 14 weeks out from the contest. This
would be the competition prep that would totally change my opinion on just how
effective strict dieting really is.
The first 6 weeks into my prep I didn’t even have a cheat meal. I just ate straight
through the diet the way it was laid out and stuck to the path to lose the most body
fat possible. In a short 6 weeks I had totally changed my look. I thought to myself,
“Man, if I’ve done this much in just the first 6 weeks then what’s going to happen in
34
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
the next 8 weeks?”
It’s not all about what someone is taking. This was the most committed to
any diet I had ever been at that time. Ask anyone who knows bodybuilding and
they’ll all tell you the same thing...“DIET, DIET, DIET, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE
MOTHERFUCKING DIET!” Yes, supplementation definitely helps, but the point
of diminishing returns is a lot tighter than most people think.
The Point of Diminishing Returns
There is a point of diminishing returns with just about every piece of the
bodybuilding puzzle. It’s there with the diet, it’s there with the training, and it’s
certainly there with supplements! Have you ever backed off of your diet and
training a tad bit just to realize that although you may not have been in top shape,
you weren’t as far from it as you thought you’d be? I’ve been there...many times.
There comes a point when you have to put so much more into bodybuilding just
to get a hair better. It’s not like it was in the beginning anymore and you don’t just
transform over the course of a month. It’s like you have to push the pedal to the
metal just to get a little bit better. I don’t care who you are, these periods of pushing
the pedal to the metal aren’t going to be all the time. Things in life come up and
priorities change at different points in time.
Any time I was starting a new job or in the process of moving, the gym life
took a hit. It had to take a hit, if it didn’t then I’d remain stagnant in life. Lets
face it,bodybuilding can be an extreme lifestyle at times. Bodybuilding diets
and training become more extreme as you’re more developed, when you were a
beginner it didn’t take the same stimulus to make your body respond to training
and eating because you were new to it all. IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO BE 100% WITH
YOUR DIET AND TRAINING ALL OF THE TIME. I don’t know a single person
who doesn’t have periods where they back off. You can still be involved with the
gym and eating properly but it may not be to the same degree as if you were trying
to make a drastic visual change in a certain amount of time.
It’s important to recognize the need to back off from the gym and the eating regimen
35
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
at the appropriate times. A lot of guys lose things in life because they couldn’t back
off when they should have, only to regret it after it was too late. Suicide among
middle aged bodybuilders is not uncommon. It’s easier to consider taking your own
life when you’ve devoted your entire life to bodybuilding, only to realize that it’s
left you with nothing in the end. “The glory days are over and now I’m left with
nothing, screw it...”
Sacrificing Health for Wealth
You see it all of the time now, guys who make a ton of money but pay no attention
to health and fitness. They can buy all of the most expensive cars, clothes, homes,
exotic vacations, but if they took their shirt off they’d be laughed at. The type of
women they attract are women who are shallow and take advantage of them and
when one suckers them for a bunch of money they’re too stupid not to make the
same mistake again! But they’ll do what they’ve always done, they’ll go out and
make more money and deal with more stress.
Chances are they’ll die young, have children who could care less about them,
and never truly live life the way they wanted to live when they reflect back on
things. They’ll look back on what they’ve done and they’ll have regrets but they’ll
probably never admit them to anyone.
Look, I’m not saying not to make money here. Money certainly takes stress off
life when you can pay all of your bills and still have enough left for fun. But money
can cause stress in life too. I’m not rich by any means financially, but I’m extremely
wealthy in the quality of my life. I live a lifestyle most people don’t live and I have
plenty of time to enjoy life. If I wanted to go out to dinner every night of the week
and eat a T-bone steak I could do it (although I don’t). I place more emphasis on the
quality of my life over simply a number in my bank account.
There are too many people sacrificing health for wealth. I’ve learned that in
business there are 3 types of people. You have the guy on the lower end who is
making just enough to get by, the guy in the middle who makes enough to live
comfortably BUT DOES NOT LIVE COMFORTABLY due to long hours of work
and working to manage a business that makes someone else rich, and then you have
36
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
the guy making a ton of money.
The worst place to be is the guy in the middle. This is the guy with limited to no
free time, a comfortable income his wife can spend when he’s away working all
week, and who usually needs some form of pills or alcohol to get him through the
week. He has no other release! Fitness? Hell, what’s that?
The guy at the top was probably the guy in the middle at one point. He broke out of
the middle and made it to the top because he realized that being stuck in the middle
held no life for him. If you’re the guy stuck in the middle then you need to break
out of that or you can forget a life with less stress and ever getting in shape. Every
time you start to get in shape something will pop up and stomp it out. Longer work
hours, more stress, more meals eating out, it’ll just consume you! Sometimes a
career change can be scary but certainly a blessing in disguise.
It’s Never Too Late to Reinvent Yourself
Health and fitness can be a great way to reinvent yourself. Sometimes you need to
sit down and really think about the type of person you want to be. I’d imagine that
most of us do not want to be the type of person who falls weak in life and relies on
things like drugs and alcohol to get us through the day. It’s extremely difficult as
we journey through life and try to prosper in certain areas that make who we really
want to be a thing of the past. While I don’t think there is such a thing as the perfect
job, I think there is such a thing as manageable jobs that allow us to live a higher
quality of life.
Even if it’s not necessarily a career change you need to reinvent yourself, you can
start changing your mindframe to be that of a winner and not a loser. Dwelling on
mishaps and hurdles in life will only cause negativity. When you think negatively
and are surrounded by negativity you eventually become that...negativity. People
don’t want to be around someone who is a drag, winners hang with winners.
I recently had a guy who lost his job tell me that he was considering suicide. I
said to him, “That’s nonsense, why are you talking like this?” Unfortunately this
37
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
was the type of person who had constantly created his own burdens in life. He just
couldn’t wrap his head around the big picture. If you wake up each morning and
tell yourself that life is terrible then you are setting yourself up for failure no matter
what happens! This guy had just went through a breakup after a 10 year relationship
and now he lost his job. Can we say “clean slate?” The only way you can go from
rock bottom is up! But without a shift in your mindset it’ll never happen!
Sometimes it takes starting small. I always try to live by the +1 rule, and that
rule is pretty basic: +1 is always greater than 0. Anything during your day can be a
+1, something as simple as complimenting someone or helping someone put their
shopping cart back for them is a +1. From +1 you begin to build on that each day.
That is how you get your ass out of a slump. It’s just like working out, you didn’t
just start out bench pressing 200 lbs did you? No, you probably started out small
or maybe you did a set of push-ups, that was a +1 and from that point throughout
months and years of training your +1 became +1000. That’s bodybuilding and that’s
life also.
Reinvent who you are if you’re unhappy. Bodybuilding and good nutrition is a
great way to start this process! Nobody ever said it was going to be easy but small
steps turn into giant leaps. Ask yourself what is possible within your means, and
instead of sitting back and playing the blame game I’d start jumping over those
hurdles in life that are preventing you from being the type of person you truly want
to be. I’m no different than anyone else and I’m still struggling to jump those hurdles
myself.
Change of Routine and Gym
I’m sure you’ve heard this before and you already know this, but let me just expand
on what is common practice when it comes to changing your workout and eating
routine. Most people will advise you to simply change your workout routine to
avoid becoming stagnant while trying to accomplish your fitness goals.
I say to take it one step further and change workout times, location, and possibly
change the entire diet and training scheme altogether. If you have been eating 6 times
38
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
a day for several months then drop it to 3 - 4 meals/day. If you have been intermittent
fasting for the last few months then change it up and start eating breakfast again! If
all of your cardio has been indoors at the gym then take it outdoors or partake in a
new activity such as cycling, swimming,kayaking, or walking trails. This not only
breaks up the monotony of the same old workout habits but it gets you experiencing
more in life than just going to the gym. It may get you out and about, you’ll meet
new people, and life can seem a little more exciting and meaningful.
I myself will occasionally switch gyms for this very reason. Something as simple
as a new crowd of people, different equipment, and a new location can re-energize
your workout motivation. I consider myself a nice guy for the most part but
sometimes we can see others in the gym that we know are going to come up and
chat us to death and derail our workouts. A lot of people love to vent to others about
injuries and every other reason THEY CANNOT DO SOMETHING. Sometimes
you just need to get away from all of that. If you’re able to change workout times
then this is at least a start. Avoiding people like this can help your own workouts.
You don’t have to be an asshole about it when trying to avoid them, what I like to
say is something like, “Well let me get started here, I have limited time to work out
today, good seeing you.” Let that be that, and start training.
Bodybuilding Based on How You Feel
I’ve found that it’s often best to train based on how you feel. If it’s cold outside
and your body feels cold then do something to warm it up before you lift weights.
There is nothing wrong with doing cardio for 20 minutes before working out as a
way to wake your body up before touching the weights.
If you cannot comfortably get your arms behind a bar to do squats then maybe you
need to focus more on flexibility. I would consider spending more time stretching or
possibly taking a class such as yoga which will force you to stretch and hold poses
for an hour straight. I’ve found yoga to help avoid injury, give me a better sense of
well-being, and feel looser overall.
Bodybuilding can make you tight and rigid as your muscles become more
39
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
developed. You need a counter measure to that extreme in order to continue training
at a higher level and avoid injury. Yoga would be that counter measure in this case.
It’s also a good idea to get deep tissue massages once in awhile as well. Even
if it’s just once a month you’ll benefit from them. You simply cannot continue to
go hard, hard, hard, all of the time. 1 of 2 things is going to happen here: you’re
either going to start training smarter and being proactive about avoiding injury and
feeling good, or you’re going to fuck something up and be forced to slow down or
potentially stop. Most guys in the gym will have to be forced to sit out, there are
very few who will be open minded enough to do something like a yoga class or get
regular massages. I mean, why do any of that when you can just buy more steroids
with that money instead right?
You may be like me and find that there are certain routines you used to perform that
just don’t work so well anymore. Something you did 10 years ago that made you
grow may only make you burnt out and tired now . There’s no rule against taking
a day off in between workouts or taking a day to train light or just perform cardio.
Just because you aren’t lifting 130 lb dumbbells today doesn’t mean you won’t be
able to next week. This isn’t like it was in the beginning where you made advances
from progressive overload on a regular basis. Those days are long gone, it’s now
imperative to take 2 steps back to take another leap forward and you’ll find that
you’ll be doing this in almost every facet of the training lifestyle. Everything from
workouts, frequency, dieting and recovery will need to be scaled back at times.
The good news is that just because you scale back in one area doesn’t mean you
cannot get ahead in another. For example, let’s say you cut back on your weight
training frequency but increase your cardio frequency and do more stretching for
several weeks...you’ll probably be shocked at how much stronger and fresher you
feel when you throw more weight training back into your regimen!
Everyone always asks me how many hours or days I spend in the gym each week.
I can never answer that accurately because it’s always changing. I may be in there
5 days one week and just 2 days the following week. Don’t get me wrong, I love
bodybuilding, but sometimes I have a lot to handle and I need to find a way to make
bodybuilding work with more obligations at certain times. I’ve done enough to
40
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
know that diet is the bulk of the equation, as long as the food intake is there and
you’re attentive to it then the workout frequency is always secondary to the dieting
process. You simply don’t out-train a bad diet!
Changes in the Diet Based on Motivational Levels
Another thing I’ve found to help me with continuing to make progress with my
body is to change the diet when I’m bored with it. It’s so common to see either a
high fat and low carb diet or a low carb and high fat diet, and people think that you
need to do one or the other almost exclusively. You really don’t need to, and I switch
back and forth throughout the year myself. I honestly switch up the diet just to deal
with the monotony of it all sometimes.
People act like if they eat an apple instead of oatmeal for breakfast it’ll kill all
progress, or if they need to drink a whey shake in place of a meal then they won’t
perform as well in the gym the following day. While I’m not an advocate of living
on supplements, I can tell you that doing something like this on occasion isn’t going
to hurt you at all. I also believe that when you give yourself a little mental freedom
sometimes it transfers into your performance. When you feel good you often
perform good and when you feel like shit then you’re going to perform like shit. So
why feel like shit all the time? If you want to eat an orange once in awhile then eat a
fucking orange, it’s really not a big deal!
Yes, while there are certain templates and guidelines I follow on the regular, there
are always those times on occasion when I do something different to break up the
boredom. I may go from eating oatmeal with breakfast to eating a couple slices
of whole wheat toast w/ peanut butter on it instead. I may throw cottage cheese
in my last meal of the day instead of egg whites, or I may eat a couple apples a
day instead of rice or potatoes. There really is no magic diet here, the magic is all
in what you can stick to and be consistent with. The common theme here though
with WHATEVER WAY I EAT IS: I’M CONSISTENT AND I EAT 90% CLEAN
ALMOST ALL YEAR LONG!
It’s important to hold yourself to an extreme diet in order to do something extreme
41
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
in a short time-frame, but it’s more important to just eat healthy on a consistent
basis regardless or not if some of these foods are considered “perfect bodybuilding
foods.” You may have bought a Rotisserie chicken that was already cooked at the
grocery store instead of eating home cooked boneless/skinless chicken, or bought
a protein smoothie when you were out running errands and in a jam instead of
consuming your own whey protein powder at home. Do not always look at things
like this as something that was lost, it may in fact be your next gain!
We are looking at the big picture here; you aren’t going to go balls to the wall every
single day until you die. Even professional bodybuilders who make a living with
their bodies do not go all-out the entire year! You need to take a break sometimes, so
just because you scale something back for a little while you shouldn’t be bothered
by doing that.
Listed Below is an Example of Transitioning from an Extreme Diet to a More
Lenient Diet
Extreme Diet A
Meal 1 - 11 egg whites, 1 whole egg + 1 cup oats
Meal 2 - 2 scoops whey protein in water, 1 cup of brown rice
Meal 3 - 8 ounces of chicken, 8 oz baked potato
Meal 4 - same as meal #2
Meal 5 - same as meal #3 only adding in 1 cup steamed broccoli
Meal 6 - 11 egg whites, 1 whole egg, 1 cup steamed broccoli
Replacement Diet B
Meal 1 - 4 whole eggs w/ hot sauce or salsa on them, 1 cup cooked oatmeal with
42
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
a banana stirred in
Meal 2 - 2 scoops whey protein blended in ice and skim milk (switch to a different
protein powder/flavor from diet A) 1 piece of fruit
Meal 3 - 1/2 lb cheeseburger made with lean ground beef and monterey jack or
pimento cheese on whole grain bun w/ lettuce, 1-2 cups of whole wheat pasta
salad
Meal 4 - same as meal #2
Meal 5 - 2 pieces of fish pan fried in olive oil, 1 medium sized yam w/ cinnamon
on it
Meal 6 - 1 cup of 2% cottage cheese, 2 handfuls of almonds or walnuts, large
salad w/ dressing of choice
You can easily see that replacement diet B is the more well-rounded diet. Diet B
would be more appealing to most people anyways. Both diets have their advantages
and disadvantages. While diet A would be better for cutting up, diet B would
probably be better for building new muscle! Diet B would also probably be easier
on your sanity!
Also, when you perform something such as diet B for a while, when you go back
to something like diet A, your body will respond better to the diet foods again. Once
you eat diet food all the time your body will become accustomed to it. It’s necessary
to back off sometimes in order to get the results you’re going for. Remember, this is
a marathon here.
More Meaning Behind Cheat Meals
Cheat meals for myself are now based more behind my family than just eating
a junk meal because I feel like I need one. There are things I do with my family
where it’s just easier to come off the diet for part of that day or maybe the entire day
43
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
altogether.
For example, my son loves to ride dirt bikes and go camping. To him, dirt biking
and camping is the most exciting and important thing in existence right now!
It’s extremely difficult to eat clean when I’m setting everything up for camping,
working on bikes, and trying to stay attentive to my son. It’s also very tough to
make him stop riding his dirtbike in order to eat anything.
So on days like this do you know what I do? I say fuck the diet. The most you’ll
see me do on a day or a weekend like this is drink a few protein shakes. Other than
that I eat like your average person. I usually have a few weeks in between trips like
these to eat as clean as I want to, so a day or two of straying off the path isn’t going
to kill me.
To me it’s pretty simple: I can always get the diet and physique back but I cannot
get that time with my son back. When my son grows up and when I’m too old to do
as much as I can now, the last thing I want to say is, “I never did anything with him
because I was too worried about my body all the time.” I think when you learn to let
it go every once in awhile for your time with family then your family will respect
what you do, not resent it.
So my cheat meals have more meaning to them than just me feeling like I want to
eat something like pizza. I’d say about 95% of my cheat meals involve my family
or some event with them where it’s easier to come off the diet and just eat whatever.
It doesn’t hurt my physique at all because I don’t do it often enough. I keep the diet
tight in between doing things with them and let it go a little when I do something
with them. This allows me to still have a life. This also allows them to have a life and
have fun with me. There isn’t much of a point in spending time with your family if
you’re going to act like an asshole. And say what you want, but when you’re dieting
and you’re hungry...you aren’t as happy as you could be and you know that!
Deciding What You Really Want Out of All of This
To wrap this chapter up, I guess the message I’m trying to get across here is to
44
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
decide what you really want out of all of this. Is it worth having abs in order to have
nothing else? Or is there possibly a more manageable way to achieve a damn good
body while achieving greatness in other areas of your life as well?
Is part of your income based on how you look or is this just something you do
as a hobby or a lifestyle? Maybe you do this so you can be healthy and perform
better at the physical elements in life. Whatever the case may be, I’ve found that
it’s important every once in a while to put it all into perspective and ask yourself if
you’re going about doing this the right way or the wrong way. You’ll know in your
gut if it’s the right or wrong way, follow your gut instinct!
45
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
CHAPTER FOUR
Dieting Strategies for Success
Ok, so if you’re reading this guide then chances are you’ve already tried dieting
in the past. Let me just clarify what I mean by the word “dieting”. Everything
is a diet whether it’s geared towards building muscle, losing fat, or in some rare
circumstances doing both at once. Some diets are more manageable than others and
what it all really boils down to are two key factors: what you can sustain based on
life responsibilities and how much you can stand.
In my younger days I had to eat like a cow to build any muscle, I’m talking like
5,000+ calories a day consistently. As I got closer to age 30 the calories didn’t need
to be as high to make small gains or simply maintain what I had already built. As
we get older the general rule is the amount of calories necessary to sustain physique
changes become lower due to our slower metabolic rates throughout the aging
process. This is true in building muscle or cutting body fat. What once took me
5,000+ cals per day to grow now takes me around 4,000/day to grow. But most of
my growing is over with. After over 20 years of bodybuilding I have pretty much
46
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
attained the bulk of my size.
Not to mention, my goals have changed now. I no longer desire to be a monster
carrying around 250+ lbs of body mass. I’m perfectly content with a quality 200220 lbs that is lean almost year round. This may be you and it may not be you.
It’s all about what your ideal physique is. Another determining factor here is your
level of development as it relates to your age. Even if you’re someone in his 40’s,
50’s or 60’s who is not as seasoned in the gym or has still never put on what you’d
consider an adequate amount of muscle, the caloric ranges you need are probably
much different than someone who is 20 years old. We also want to take health into
more of a consideration here. Your body reacts a little different as you age anyways,
so loading up on simply “calories” isn’t necessarily how I’d go about it. We want
the foods to be mostly nutrient dense foods that your body can utilize and not just
garbage for the sake of increasing calories!
Let’s first talk about where you’re currently at and what your goals may be. The
bulk of people I work with just do not eat enough good foods. They either don’t eat
enough good foods, don’t eat enough period, or are currently doing some sort of
“lazy diet” where they fast for most of the day and have put their bodies in a mode
of stagnation, despite even eating clean sometimes.
I suppose the easiest way to begin this chapter is to talk about the different body
types and how they relate to your age. Let’s begin with what I like to call “skinnyfat”. This is the guy who has a naturally thin build but has average to above average
body fat. Where he may have been once leaner in his younger days, now the
sedentary lifestyle and/or eating wrong may have crept up on him and he is at a
crossroad on whether to build muscle or cut body fat first.
The good news for someone like this is he can actually do both initially. The scale
may drop some but it doesn’t mean he isn’t recomping his body and losing fat and
gaining muscle at the same time, ESPECIALLY if he’s been out of the gym for a
while! The scale may also jump up in weight as he’s gaining muscle while losing
fat. It’s really individual specific and up in the air in the beginning of the dieting
process. The deal with most guys in this category is they simply have their body in
starvation mode and it’s holding onto whatever it can because the body believes it’s
47
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
starving due to such infrequent eating and possibly a slower metabolic rate caused
by this.
The very best way to break this cycle is to begin eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner,
and make sure the meals are whole food meals with the proper nutrients. From that
point they’d want to include 1 - 2 healthy snacks between main meals. If you fall
into this category then you shouldn’t be as nit-picky just yet. What I mean by nitpicky is that whole eggs in place of egg whites are fine, lean ground beef in place
of fish is fine, and quality carbohydrate sources such as rice, oats, potatoes, and
fruit consumed sparingly is where you’d want to start. This type of person would
also want to consume healthy levels of good fats, as would most people trying to
eat healthy. A guy who is skinny-fat and trying to jumpstart physique development
doesn’t need to be as concerned about mixing carbs and fats just yet (despite articles
and studies telling us not to mix carbs and fats in the same meals).
The first couple weeks of eating may not be comfortable if you fall within this
category. It’s going to take a couple of weeks for your metabolism to kick into
overdrive and you may feel like you’re eating at times you’re not hungry. This is
perfectly normal and if you can hold the food down then just eat it!
Metabolic Jumpstart for Skinny-fat Trainee 140 - 165 lbs Who is Exercising
Meal 1 (breakfast first thing in morning) - 3 whole eggs, 1 cup of oats (dry
measure)
*** Tip - Pour hot water over oats and eat like cereal. It’s faster. Use sugar free
maple syrup for flavoring. You can substitute oats for 2 servings of instant grits
if you’d like
Meal 2 (lunch) - 1 chicken breast OR 4 - 6 ounces of fish OR 1 medium sized
hamburger patty, 1 bowl of white or brown rice OR 1 medium sized baked potato
(sour cream/butter is fine) 1 apple or banana
Meal 3 (dinner) - Same as meal #2 but add large salad w/ romaine lettuce or 1 48
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
2 cups steamed broccoli
Once accustomed to this diet:
Add in a small meal between meals #1 & 2, and another after meal #3. These
meals can be either a protein shake mixed with water OR skim milk, a tuna
packet, OR another 6 - 10 oz of meat (chicken, fish, lean steak, lean ground beef)
Add a healthy fat source to this small meal such as: 2 handfuls of mixed nuts OR
almonds, 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter, OR 2 tablespoons of flaxseed oil
OR extra virgin olive oil.
By adding the healthy fats to the protein you will slow down the absorption rate
of the protein and your protein source will carry on further throughout the day.
By week #3 the diet will then look like such:
Meal 1 (breakfast) - 3 whole eggs, 1 cup oats (dry measure)
Meal 2 - 1 to 2 scoops whey protein in water or skim milk, 2 tablespoons of
natural peanut butter
Meal 3 - 1 chicken breast or 4 - 6 ounces fish OR medium sized hamburger patty,
1 bowl of white OR brown rice OR 1 medium sized baked potato (or yam) 1
apple OR banana
Meal 4 - same as meal #3 but add large salad OR 1 - 2 cups steamed broccoli
Meal 5 - 1 to 2 scoops whey protein in water, 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
(yes, drink it off the spoon)
My advice is to continue on with this diet until you begin seeing results and
thereafter until hunger levels become higher. From that point if energy levels begin
to dip you’ll want to replace some of your healthy fats for complex carb sources
such as potatoes, yams, oats, or rice. Fruit should be consumed sparingly, one or
49
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
two meals a day is fine but my advice is to avoid eating too much fruit since it does
contain sugars that aren’t as beneficial as complex carbohydrates.
Essentially this will turn into 5 meals rather than 3 meals and 2 “healthy snacks”.
However, if your schedule doesn’t allow this type of eating then continue on with
your 3 main course meals and possibly add in a 3rd healthy snack between lunch
and dinner, something you can eat quickly.
As far as straying from the diet and having “cheat meals” my advice is to do
things in a manageable way. When I first began really dieting (trying to eat clean for
definition/fat loss) I would have 2 cheat meals a week and I’d space them out evenly
about 3 - 4 days apart from one another. I could realistically stick to that and I was
still able to drop to an insanely low level of body fat and retain a lot of muscle. I
usually always have at least 1 cheat meal a week, even now. Dieting can eventually
cause depression and strength loss when you go too long without a filling meal.
It can also cause you to go out of your mind sometimes, so however you need to
arrange your cheat meals just do so in a manageable way. It’s probably not a good
idea to take an entire weekend off and eat junk though.
Metabolic Jumpstart for Someone 165 - 180 lbs Who is Exercising
Depending on your height you still may consider yourself skinny-fat if you’re
165 - 185 lbs. My advice on starting a diet would be to follow a similar pattern as
outlined above for a 140 - 165 lb male, however calories will need to probably be
slightly adjusted upwards.
Here is a good start to get you going:
Meal 1 (breakfast) - 4 whole eggs, 1 cup oats (dry measure, pour hot water over
them and eat like cereal, it’s faster. Use sugar free maple syrup for flavor if you
want)
Meal 2 (lunch) - 6 - 8 ounces of lean ground beef, chicken, fish, OR lean steak, 1
medium sized baked potato OR yam OR 1 cup of white or brown rice
50
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Meal 3 (dinner) - Same as meal #2 except add in 1 - 2 cups of steamed broccoli
Meal 4 (right before bed) - 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter, 1 - 2 scoops
whey protein in water
After 2 Weeks on That Routine
After an initial 2 weeks adjusting to that diet, try adding in an extra meal between
breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner (or both). These meals should either be 1
serving of protein and some healthy fat (such as almonds, mixed nuts, extra virgin
olive oil, coconut oil, flaxseed oil) or a quality complex carbohydrate source such
as rice, potatoes, yams, or oats.
This is then what the diet would look like:
Meal 1 (breakfast) - 4 whole eggs, 1 cup oats (dry measure)
Meal 2 (mid-morning) - 4 - 6 ounces chicken, 2 scoops natural peanut butter
Meal 3 (lunch) - 6 - 8 ounces lean ground beef, chicken, lean steak, OR fish, 1
medium sized baked potato OR yam OR 1 cup of white or brown rice
Meal 4 (dinner) - Same as meal #2 except add in 1 - 2 cups steamed broccoli
Meal 5 (right before bed) - 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter, 1 - 2 scoops
whey protein in water
***Limit cheat meals to 1 - 2x per week
If you end up having to add some food together to make up for a meal then it’s fine.
I understand that there are going to be days where your schedule gets crammed and
you may miss a meal. It’s mostly all about calories in versus calories out, but if you
fall in this category it’s about getting enough calories in that you’re body doesn’t
think it’s starving and in turn holding onto stubborn fat! As long as you’re trying to
eat a little more frequently most days then you should be on your way to losing fat
51
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
and building some muscle!
Diet for Overweight Trainee 160 - 180 lbs
Let’s say you’re not skinny-fat but just “fat”. Well as you probably already
understand, just the process of eliminating bad foods at first combined with
exercise will drop the weight fairly quickly. But what you need to understand in
your circumstance is that 1 of 2 things usually needs to be taken out of the diet and
those are either fats or carbs (or possibly both to a large degree based on your level
of body fat) I usually suggest eliminating fats first while taking carbs down, but we
do want to keep a small amount of fat in the diet for hormone production (if you’re
on testosterone it’s not as big of a deal).
A diet such as intermittent fasting would not be a bad idea if you have trouble
staying within boundaries of food intake since intermittent fasting only allows you
to typically eat during an 8 hour window of the day. I have seen many people drop
weight very quickly through intermittent fasting, but after the initial weight loss
I’d highly suggest doing a more traditional diet throughout the day rather than just
eating in a “window”.
Intermittent Fasting Approach
Foods will only be consumed between an 8 hour window while skipping breakfast.
The normal window for intermittent fasting is from 12 noon - 8pm. During this time
frame you should be conscious of your food choices and try to eat clean foods and
no sugars (with small portions of fruit being an exception). It’s been my experience
that many people who do intermittent fasting still do not eat clean enough; they
strictly reduce overall caloric intake by only eating in this 8 hour window. Because
of the nature of this diet there is only so much you’re going to consume in an 8 hour
window, therefore most people WILL LOSE SOME BODY FAT when doing this
diet.
The biggest issue with intermittent fasting is I’ve seen a lot of people lose muscle
mass as well due to not consuming enough healthy foods and protein. There usually
52
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
comes a point when changing to a more well-rounded diet throughout the entire day
is necessary to retain muscle or build new muscle. But if discipline is an issue then
it’s not a bad way to start a diet.
Example of an Intermittent Fasting Approach for Someone 160 - 180 lbs
Meal 1 (noon) - 1 hamburger, 1 serving of fruit, 1 potato
Meal 2 (5pm) - “Whatever is for dinner that night”
Meal 3 (8pm) - “2 scoops whey protein in skim milk or water, serving of fruit
OR complex carb such as potato, yam, or rice
While I cannot tell you exactly what most people eat during intermittent fasting,
I’ve simply provided this as an example to show you that despite dinner being
“whatever is for dinner that night” it’s still unrealistic to break 2,000 calories a
day in most cases. When someone has been overeating for a long time, the simple
process of creating this window for eating along with slowly trying to eliminate bad
food choices will allow for fat loss, especially when consistently exercising and
burning off additional calories.
An Intermittent Fasting Approach for Someone Over 180 lbs
Ok, to put it simple, whether you’re 185 lbs or 350 lbs, the person with more body
fat has more stored energy to burn (there are 3,500 calories in 1 lb of body fat).
Therefore fat loss should come on even faster, especially since there may be a larger
calorie deficit than compared to someone who is 160 - 180 lbs based on what an
extremely overweight individual usually consumes. While meals MAY BE higher
in calories due to increased size and what that person is accustomed to consuming
daily there should still be a huge deficit in calories while dieting like this. I cannot
tell you exactly what someone larger would eat on a typical day of intermittent
fasting. Even if they are eating out, if they’re eating in moderation and only based
on the 8 hour window of eating, chances are they’ll still drop body fat relatively
fast. Cardio exercise is very important to perform as well due to the calorie burning
53
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
benefits it provides even long after the session is over with.
The Double-edged Sword with Intermittent Fasting
Ok, I’m going to be totally honest here with my true thoughts on intermittent
fasting. It’s a lazy ass way to diet and one I’d only recommend to someone extremely
overweight or someone with little dedication to nutrition. This diet is more for the
type of person who isn’t going to prepare their meals or go through the hell it takes
to attain a killer physique!
You see, a lot of overweight individuals have gotten that way because they skip
out on breakfast, load up on lunch, and then eat a large amount of food later in the
evening or “snack” throughout the day on garbage. Therefore I’m partially against
a diet that still has them skipping breakfast like they had been doing (possibly for
several years) and still only giving them about 2-3 times a day to eat.
I just see the chances of overeating being more likely when you’re limited to only
2 - 3 meals a day, or at a minimum I could see someone doing this for a few days,
straying off the path, doing it for a couple more days and then fucking up again. But
if you just need some sort of boundaries to start with then this diet could possibly
kickstart progress.
My mentality is this: stop being a fat-ass and do whatever it takes! Start cooking
your damn food, make time to eat a real meal rather than a bag of chips and watching
television, and get to the gym!
If skipping out on breakfast is what made you over-eat for lunch and dinner then
what’s happened is you’ve trained your body to become a slug. Your metabolism is
at a standstill because you’ve been starving yourself half the time and over-eating
the other half!
So do whatever it takes, even if it’s uncomfortable at first. I just see too many
chances for mother nature to take over on an intermittent fasting approach, and in
my opinion it’s easier to fall off every few days with this approach than a smooth
54
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
and steady diet throughout the day that possibly kicks metabolism into overdrive
rather than creating “limits” on eating.
Traditional Body Fat Loss Approach for Someone 160-180 lbs (Low Carb/
Moderate Fat)
There is probably going to be some trial and error here to see whether a low fat
approach or low carb approach is better for you. I have lost fat doing both of them.
It’s fairly simple: your body just uses one source of immediate energy instead of
another, either fats or carbs for immediate energy. I would suggest starting with a
controlled carb and low fat approach.
Meal 1 (breakfast) - 6 egg whites + 1 whole egg, 3/4 cup of oats (dry measure)
Meal 2 (mid-morning) - 1 scoop of whey protein in water or skim milk, 2
handfuls of almonds or mixed nuts
Meal 3 (lunch) - 6 ounces of chicken OR fish (or 1 can or packet of tuna fish),
3/4 cup rice
Meal 4 (late afternoon) - same as meal 3
Meal 5 (dinner) - 1 scoop of whey protein in water or skim milk, 2 tablespoons
olive oil OR flaxseed oil
Meal 6 (before bed) - 6 egg whites + 1 whole egg, 2 tablespoons natural peanut
butter, 1 - 2 cups steamed broccoli
I would start here for a fat-loss approach and as you get leaner you may find that
you need to adjust calories upward or further cut down on carbs or fats to continue
getting leaner. The measures you must take to get to the point where you have good
visible abs become more extreme as you continue to diet down.
You may also find that an adjustment upwards in nutrients is essential at this
55
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
point because your metabolism is firing faster and it’s necessary to adjust nutrients
upward in order to maintain muscle mass. I always suggest a gradual increase or
decrease in either carbs, fats, or both rather than doing anything drastic within a
few days. It usually doesn’t work out in your favor when you drastically adjust
something overnight after you’ve been accustomed to it for so long.
Traditional Body Fat Loss Approach for Someone 180-220 lbs (Low Carb/
Moderate Fat)
Meal 1 - 8 egg whites, 1 whole egg, 1 cup oats (dry measure)
Meal 2 - 2 scoops whey protein in water or skim milk, 2 handfuls mixed nuts or
almonds
Meal 3 - 8 ounces of chicken, fish, or lean steak or ground beef, 2 spoons extra
virgin olive oil OR flaxseed oil
Meal 4 - 1 cup oats (dry measure), 8 ounces of chicken, fish, or lean steak or
ground beef
Meal 5 - 2 scoops whey protein in water or skim milk, 2 spoons extra virgin
olive oil or flaxseed oil, 1-2 cups steamed broccoli
Meal 6 - 8 egg whites, 1 whole egg, 2 spoons natural peanut butter
***While I cannot categorize everyone 180 - 220 lbs as needing this EXACT
AMOUNT of food, this would be a good starting place for someone who has
never seriously dieted before. You will find that you may need to take out or add in
calories. A lot of this is going to be based on an individual’s metabolism, age, and
how much body fat they’re carrying. This should be solely a template used to get
started on trying to make some fat loss progress.
Traditional Body Fat Loss Approach for Someone Over 220 lbs (Low Carb/
Moderate Fat)
56
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
For anyone over 220 lbs I would suggest a diet similar to the diet for someone
180 - 220 lbs. There comes a point when we have to take lean muscle mass into
consideration over just bodyweight. Remember, you are simply trying to sustain
muscle mass while losing body fat here. If someone is extremely overweight all that
means is that they will have more stored body fat for energy until they begin getting
much leaner. This doesn’t necessarily mean I’d put someone on a 4,000 - 5,000
calorie/day cutting diet simply because they were 150 lbs heavier than someone
else. Hunger issues shouldn’t be as drastic since more of your stored body fat will
be used for energy.
This is the reason it’s not uncommon for someone this overweight to lose 10 15 lbs in their first week or two. In most cases a 2 - 3 lb loss of fat per week is
considered the healthy normal range, but when dealing with people with larger
amounts of body fat I wouldn’t even go by that until they drop to under 20% body
fat. Hell, even I can lose 5 - 8 lbs in my first week of dieting and I stay on the leaner
side year round. You certainly cannot count the first week into the 2 - 3 lb/ week
“healthy fat-loss range”. There are far too many other factors involved, everything
from metabolic changes to fluid retention alongside actual fat weight.
Low Carb/High Fat Approach for Someone 140 - 160 lbs
Some people may be more sensitive to carbohydrates than others. You’ll probably
already have a general idea if you’re sensitive to carbs, but I’ve found that most
individuals have picked up body fat due to a poor diet and not necessarily just being
“carb sensitive”. But this may not be the case with some people, they really may be
in fact carb sensitive. Usually guys who are naturally heavier are more carb sensitive
than others. Endomorphs (naturally larger framed and heavier throughout most of
their life) are usually more carb sensitive than mesomorphs (good balance of lean
muscle to low-moderate body fat) and ectomorphs (naturally very skinny and very
lean). The process of aging can have a huge effect on how the body responds to
carbs though.
As we get older our bodies naturally become more insulin resistant. People of
almost ANY body type will find that carbs can creep up on them as they get older.
57
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
In any event a low carb approach will cut body fat off almost anyone. The key is to
balance the low carb approach with minimal muscle loss and it’s crucial that you
include enough healthy fats for energy as you drop your carbs down extremely low.
Low Carb/High Fat Approach for Someone 140 - 160 lbs
Meal 1 (breakfast) - 3 whole eggs, 3 slices of bacon
Meal 2 (mid-morning) - 1 scoop of whey protein in water, 2 tablespoons of
flaxseed oil
Meal 3 (lunch) - 4 - 6 ounces of salmon, 2 handfuls of almonds
Meal 4 (dinner) - 4 - 6 ounces of lean ground beef, chicken, or steak + 3 - 4 rice
cakes
Meal 5 (late evening) - same as meal #3, add 1 - 2 cups steamed broccoli
Carb-Cycling for a Low Carb/High Fat Approach
Something you’ll figure out when you’re doing a carb deprived diet is that you
may lose strength and energy after the first few days. If you feel completely wiped
out and the diet is starting to have a major impact on your training and energy levels
then you may want to cycle a moderate amount of carbs back into the diet every 3 4 days or so. When cycling carbs back into your diet I’d recommend taking the bulk
of the fats out of the diet for the day of your carb loading.
Typical Carb-up Day for 140 - 160 lb Trainee on Low Carb/High Fat Approach
Meal 1 (breakfast) - 6 egg whites + 1 whole egg, 1 cup of oats (dry measure)
Meal 2 (mid-morning) - 1 cup of rice or medium sized baked potato or yam, 1
scoop whey protein in water
58
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Meal 3 (lunch) - 1 cup of rice or medium sized baked potato or yam, 4 - 6 ounces
of chicken, fish, or lean steak
Meal 4 (mid-afternoon) - 1 cup of rice or medium sized baked potato or yam, 1
scoop whey protein in water
Meal 5 (dinner) - 3/4 cup of rice or medium sized potato or yam
Meal 6 (right before bed) - 1/2 cup rice (white or brown) 6 egg whites + 1 whole
egg
***You’ll have to play with the carb cycling a little bit to figure out what works
best for you. While some may need to carb up every 3rd day, others will not find it
necessary until every 5th day. Also keep in mind, a lot of this is about how much
you can tolerate. When I’m doing a low carb diet, just because I feel like some carbs
every 3rd day doesn’t always mean I can’t tough it out for another couple days.
You’ll find that these times of “toughing it out” is usually when your body makes
bigger changes.
Low Carb/High Fat Approach for Someone 160 - 185 lbs
Meal 1 (breakfast) - 3 to 4 whole eggs, 4 slices of bacon
Meal 2 (mid morning) - 2 scoops whey protein in water, 2 handfuls of almonds
or mixed nuts
Meal 3 (lunch) - 6 to 8 ounces of salmon, 2 tablespoons of flaxseed oil
Meal 4 (mid afternoon) - 6 ounces of chicken, lean ground beef, or fish, 2
tablespoons of natural peanut butter, 2 cups of steamed broccoli
Meal 5 (dinner) - 8 ounce steak, 3 rice cakes, 1 - 2 cups steamed broccoli
Meal 6 (pre-bed) - Same as meal 3
59
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Typical Carb-up Day for Someone 160 - 185 lbs
Again, just like outlined above for someone smaller, you may find that a carb-up
day every 3 - 4 days is beneficial for your strength and muscle retention as well as
your sanity! Some guys can go a week straight on low carbs while others will need
to carb back up every few days to avoid muscle loss. Much of this is specific to
each individual. Again, fats are dropped back down on carb-up days to keep caloric
ranges from going overboard. You may find that the carb-up days are not necessary
until you get past the first few weeks on the diet.
Meal 1 - 7 egg whites + 1 whole egg, 1 cup of oats (dry measure)
Meal 2 - 1.5 cups of white or brown rice OR large baked potato OR yam, 2
scoops whey protein in water
Meal 3 - 1.5 cups of white or brown rice OR large baked potato OR yam (sweet
potato), 6-8 ounces of chicken of fish
Meal 4 - 1 cup of white or brown rice OR medium sized baked potato OR yam,
1-2 cups of steamed broccoli
Meal 5 - 3/4 cup of white or brown rice OR 6-8 oz baked potato OR yam
Meal 6 - 1/2 cup of white or brown rice, 7 egg whites + 1 whole egg
Low Carb/High Fat Approach for Someone 185 - 220 lbs
Next we’ll talk about a low carb/high fat dieting approach for someone 185 - 220
lbs. While caloric intake is adjusted slightly upward from someone smaller, you’ll
see that it’s not that much different from someone who falls within the 160 - 185
lb category. Again, the reason for this is because we are taking into account actual
weight of lean muscle tissue and not just fat weight. The extra fat will be used
as stored calories to begin being utilized as energy, so bridging the gap between
different body weights is not as much as you’d think, the diet falls very similar
60
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
to that of someone slightly smaller than you may be. The difference is that if this
individual has more muscle mass then what you’ll essentially end up with is a more
muscular person with less body fat than what they started off with.
Meal 1 (breakfast) - 4 whole eggs, 4 slices of bacon
Meal 2 (mid-morning) - 2 scoops whey protein in water, 2 handfuls of almonds
or mixed nuts
Meal 3 - 6 - 8 ounces of salmon, 2 tablespoons of flaxseed oil
Meal 4 - 6 - 8 ounces of chicken, fish, or lean ground beef, 2 tablespoons of
flaxseed oil
Meal 5 - Same as meal #2 except add in 1 - 2 cups of steamed broccoli
Meal 6 - 4 whole eggs, 1 - 2 servings of cottage cheese (either 2% or 4%), 2
tablespoons of natural peanut butter
Typical Carb-up Day for Someone Who is 185 - 220 lbs
Meal 1 (breakfast) - 1 cup of oats (dry measure, run hot water over them and eat
like cereal to consume faster, use sugar free maple syrup for flavor if necessary)
8 egg whites, 1 whole egg
Meal 2 (mid morning) - 1.5 cups of white or brown rice OR large baked potato, 2
scoops whey protein in water
Meal 3 (lunch) - 8 ounces of chicken or fish, 1 cup of white or brown rice OR
large baked potato OR yam
Meal 4 (mid afternoon) - 6 - 8 ounces of chicken, fish, or lean ground beef, 1 - 2
cups of steamed broccoli, 1 cup of white OR brown rice OR large baked potato
OR yam
61
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Meal 5 (dinner) - 3/4 cup of white or brown rice, 2 scoops whey protein in water
Meal 6 (before bed) - 1/2 cup of oats (dry measure), 8 egg whites + 1 whole egg
Again, carb-up days will largely depend on the individual, how much fat they have,
and how long they can go without feeling too drained and depleted. Some may find
a carb-up day necessary once every 3 - 4 days while others will be able to consume
a low-carb/high fat approach for a week straight. Most of this will depend on how
much body fat that individual is carrying and how much strength and muscle they
can retain while dieting. Also, body type is largely taken into consideration when
considering a typical carb-up day. Ask yourself what body type you were most of
your life. If you were naturally an ectomorph (someone skinny and leaner naturally)
then a carb-up day may be necessary more often than someone who is naturally an
endomorph (a person who was always larger framed with extra body fat).
Typical Low Carb/High Fat Approach for Someone 220+ lbs
If you’re 220+ lbs then follow the diet laid out above for someone 185 - 220 lbs
and make adjustments where you feel necessary. Again, what we want to take into
consideration here is the weight that is actual lean muscle mass when deciding an
appropriate nutrient and caloric intake. Chances are you’re not carrying much over
200 lbs of actual muscle tissue unless you’re extremely enhanced through anabolic
steroids and/or human growth hormone). In such a case you would want to adjust
nutrients upwards through protein and healthy fat intake first. Meals where you
consume meats should be adjusted upwards to 8 - 10 ounce portions rather than 6 8 ounce portions, and fats should be adjusted upwards of 3 tablespoons of flaxseed
or olive oil instead of 2 tablespoons. You may find adding an extra 1 - 2 eggs with
your morning and nightly meals to be beneficial during both a low carb/high fat
approach and your carb-up days. See above diet for someone 185 - 220 lbs and
make slight adjustments where you feel necessary.
It’s More Food Than You Thought?
To a lot of you this is going to look like a ton of food no matter what category
62
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
you fall within. This is very common whenever I begin working with somebody, it
looks like a ton of food! They’ll tell me that it’s extremely difficult to consume the
amount of foods I have listed with the diets. The biggest reason for this is because
their metabolism is too slow and what I’m throwing at them is a 180 degree spin
from how they had been eating! It’s perfectly normal to feel like this is too much
food the first 2 - 3 weeks on these diets. But hang in there! After toughing it out for
the first 2 - 3 weeks what most people will find is that they start getting hungrier
and this is exactly what we want! This means the diet is working and that person’s
metabolic rate is beginning to kick into overdrive!
What About the Post Workout Meals?
I know what you’re probably thinking and that is, “What about the post workout
meal? Everything I’ve read says that I should consume simple sugars and protein
powder for my post workout meal!”
Well my friends, let me let you in on a little secret here: IT’S A GIANT CROCK
OF BULLSHIT!
While there is nothing necessarily wrong with protein powder and some form of
simple carbs for recovery post workout, there is also nothing wrong with whole
foods and other carbohydrate sources outside of simple carbs (such as rice, potatoes,
oatmeal rather than just simple sugars!) I know, I know, everything you’ve read
claims that a protein shake with simple sugars such as dextrose is the perfect post
workout meal. I cannot tell you the last time I’ve consumed dextrose sugar with
a shake for my post workout meal. Usually it’s whole foods such as steak and
potatoes, chicken and rice, or it could be fish and oats. Eating whole foods over just
a simple shake and simple sugars HAS NOT HURT ME AT ALL when it comes to
post workout nutrition.
Swapping Meals Around During the Day
The world isn’t perfect and there is no such thing as a perfect diet. If you have
limited time for a meal and let’s say your diet calls for 8 ounces of fish or chicken
63
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
and 1 cup of rice for meal #3, there is nothing wrong with swapping that meal out
for a protein shake and almonds and pushing the other meal back later in the day.
I frequently do this myself, you have to make the diet work with your life! I’ve
found that as long as the daily food intake meets the diet then it doesn’t matter much
which meals are consumed at what times of the day, simply because our bodies
operate on a continuum. Our bodies do not say to us, “But hey, you gave me protein
powder and an apple for meal #3 instead of chicken or steak!” Our body works on
not what we’ve consumed that day, but what we have consistently consumed for the
entire week or month. CONSISTENCY is always the common element here! So if
you’re looking at one of the above mentioned diets and thinking that there’s no way
you could fit that food into your day, just ask yourself if there are meals you could
swap around to make the diet easier. And by all means, if you need to substitute
something easier and more realistic in place of 1 - 2 of those meals then isn’t that
better than doing none of it? Use the diets as a template or guidelines, but make
whatever diet you choose to do fit into your life.
Things to Consider When Extreme Dieting
If there is one thing I feel that’s necessary to explain here it’s the importance
of health while dieting in any fashion. Whether your approach be low carb, high
carb, low fat or high fat, there can be risks associated with any approach when
it’s done long term. There is a reason for carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, cholesterol
and protein. When you take out one of these or add one in excess then there can be
health issues that can occur without you even knowing it.
For example, I know that when I go very low carb and higher fats/cholesterol
then my cholesterol is going to go through the roof. There is only so long I’m going
to take out carbs and substitute them with fats before my cholesterol jumps high.
Without getting blood work done I might never know it until I had a heart attack.
Cholesterol can also elevate in some people anytime they lose a large amount of
weight really fast. While this isn’t the case with everyone it’s inevitable for some.
The body needs some healthy fats to function properly. If you take out healthy
fats for too long you risk conditions such as heart disease, harmful fluctuations
64
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
in triglyceride levels, decreased testosterone production, and conditions that are
believed to increase the risk for developing type 2 diabetes (since most fat deprived
diets are higher in carbohydrates & over time the body can become insulin resistant).
I don’t believe in doing any extreme diet longer than around 8 - 12 weeks. I think a
much better approach to dieting for body fat loss would be to slowly lose the first bit
of weight through a caloric restriction but still doing a diet that is a little more well
rounded, or doing a quick jump start and then adding back in foods in moderation
after the first few weeks. Yes, you can cut some fats and carbs (or one more than the
other) but these should not be totally taken out for months on end unless the person
is extremely obese and they’re seeing steady health benefits from this along with
cosmetic improvement.
The ‘Eating When You are Hungry’ Approach
Sometimes I’ll do this myself to change things up. I’ll forget all about the number
of meals I eat per day and I’ll strictly eat when I’m hungry but eat clean. I will forget
all about the “rules” of not mixing carbs and fats in the same meals or eating once
every 3 hours and I’ll just go based on what my body is telling me to eat. This can
bring about new results and additional fat loss every once in awhile.
When you’re accustomed to eating every few hours then all of sudden you throw a
monkey wrench into the mix it can be beneficial. It’s beneficial in the same manner
that someone would benefit from eating small meals more frequently as opposed to
just 2 big meals per day.
This may be a good approach for you to do in between more traditional diets.
Vegetable Intake
Vegetables do not fall into the same category as regular carbs and I have no limit
to how many veggies I consume a day. They’re great to fill the stomach up when
you’re hungry and although I probably don’t eat them enough there are no rules as
to how many I consume a day when I’m dieting.
65
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
It’s a wise idea to eat 1 or 2 meals with vegetables even when not dieting to lose
body fat. Remember that overall health always comes first here!
Reverse Dieting and Building Quality Muscle Mass
Something that isn’t talked about as much as dieting for fat loss is what’s called
reverse dieting. Reverse dieting is when you’ve been doing an extreme diet for
awhile and then you slowly begin to add foods back in that either weren’t part of
your diet before or maybe aren’t considered diet type foods to begin with. This is
normally done slowly and gradually to avoid gaining unwanted body fat.
Reverse dieting can have a huge effect on anabolism and can also further increase
fat burning. There can come a point with any extreme diet where your body gets into
a mode that is stagnant and it seems impossible to make any further adjustments to
continue cutting body fat. You walk around depleted and tired but your body just
isn’t burning fat at the same rate it wanted to earlier on in the diet.
Reverse dieting is great for you mentally because just the addition of more variety
of foods makes the dieting process seem much easier. Even when the foods thrown
into the reverse diet are clean it feels like almost a cheat meal because you’re not
used to eating a large variety of foods. This is also relative to how you were dieting
before and what you were eating. For myself, foods like cottage cheese, Ezekiel
bread with butter, fruit, and high quality milk are like cheat meals in themselves.
Not to mention, this is also healthy and I don’t recommend extreme dieting nonstop.
One thing I’ve noticed from reverse dieting is that I’ll often look leaner when I
first begin doing it. Not only will I look leaner but I’ll start looking leaner AND
bigger. There is something to be said for throwing in certain foods that your body
has been without for awhile. The key factor with reverse dieting is initially setting
yourself up to take advantage of the foods you begin to rotate back into the diet.
Something else I’ll frequently do when I begin reverse dieting is I’ll back the meal
frequency down a bit and eat a little more per feeding. This is another twist in the
66
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
diet that seems to boost my metabolism since my body isn’t used to this. I rarely eat
a meal that I’ll feel full from during the majority of the year, so this is also a nice
mental break for me as well. There is only so much I’m going to feel like eating in
one sitting and when the meal frequency drops from 6 meals a day to 3 - 4 meals
a day my calorie count is not much more than it was while extreme dieting but it
feels a little more manageable because I’m eating in a manner where I can go longer
between meals without feeling quite as hungry.
When to Begin Reverse Dieting
Reverse dieting is best done after you’ve leaned down to a point where you can
clearly see your abs and you’re very lean. I will begin reverse dieting when I’m
very lean and I’m about as far as I want to go mentally with fat-loss. When I speak
about the mental part of this I’m speaking about getting to the point where it’s
affecting my mood, my workouts, and my sense of well-being. When I get sub
10% body fat I begin to get tired and often times my workouts just don’t feel like
the best workouts. It’s pretty much a state of trying to endure the training regimen
while continuing to eat strict and get leaner and mentally push through fat loss
barriers. But in this process it can be easier to get depressed feeling, harder to get
motivated to start other projects, and harder to sit down and focus on anything. It’s
like you’re physically exhausted but wired at the same time. Once this state feels
like it’s becoming impossible to manage and you’re not feeling good anymore then
you may want to consider reverse dieting.
You see, most people are hot and cold with their nutrition. They’re constantly flip
flopping back and forth between dieting hard or totally going off the diet and getting
fatter again. Reverse dieting is a way to continue training hard and looking good but
allowing yourself a bit of a break from the severe restrictive nature of most diets. It
also promotes strength and anabolism since your body now has nutrients it’s been
denied for a long period of time! It’s not unusual to begin reverse dieting and start
lifting much heavier weights and getting insane gym pumps, even when calories
aren’t much higher than they were on an extreme diet!
I really have grown to dislike the word “bulking” because most people who bulk
up pack on too much body fat. I like to think of reverse dieting as a way to volumize
67
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
muscles and “clean bulk”. Or you can think of a “lean bulk” as reverse diet instead.
When I think of it like this my mind is more focused on eating clean while slowly
reintroducing certain foods that are beneficial for health and strength rather than
just eating in a manner to pack weight on the scale no matter what the quality of that
weight gain is.
Here is an Example of How I’d Eat When Reverse Dieting
Meal 1 - 4 whole eggs, 2 slices of whole wheat toast or ezekiel bread with butter,
1 piece of fruit
Meal 2 - 8 - 10 oz of chicken, fish, or steak, 1 piece of fruit, 1 baked potato w/
sour cream, 2 slices of whole wheat toast or ezekiel bread w/ natural peanut
butter
Meal 3 - 16 oz of lean ground beef or steak, 1 baked potato or yam, 1 large bowl
of steamed broccoli, 8 oz of 2% milk (“Fairlife” milk, which has 50% less sugar
and more protein than regular milk), 1 piece of fruit, ½ of an avocado
Meal 4 (before bed) - 2 servings of 2% cottage cheese
Where to Place Cheat Meals During Reverse Dieting
I prefer to place my cheat meals as part of the post workout meal when I’m
reverse dieting. As you can probably see from the above layout, the diet itself isn’t
necessarily “dirty” as it’s just more calories per meal and a little more variety per
meal when compared to a more traditional fat-loss diet.
When it comes to cheat meals I really try to put them as either part of my post
workout meal or my total post workout meal, and I try to still eat something with
some sort of health benefits to it. For example, a bacon cheeseburger and french
fries would be more beneficial than ice cream or pizza when it comes to a cheat
meal. So let’s say I had just finished working out and my wife wants to go out to
eat lunch with me. I will replace meal #2 with a large cheeseburger and maybe a
68
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
few french fries and then wait until dinner time to eat again and go right back to the
sample diet I’ve shown you just above this.
When you place the cheat meals as your post workout meals, the food is going to
be better utilized by your body and not as much (if any) will go to stored body fat.
Again, this is also a nice mental break when doing a cheat meal post workout and it
can definitely help your relationship and sense of well-being and well-roundedness.
Let’s be honest with ourselves here: most women do not want to stay home and eat
canned tuna and veggies all the time and they’d prefer to be with someone who can
still occasionally go out and have fun.
I just went to a gourmet burger restaurant with my wife after my workout the
other day, and I had the best burger I’ve ever had in my life and we split an IPA draft
beer. Afterwards we went to a coffee shop and got a couple small coffees and then
went to the capitol building downtown and sat on a concrete ledge and looked at
downtown as we drank coffee and talked. Then we walked around for an hour and
burned some of the food off. Then I went home and had sex and passed out in the
bed. Sounds like a pretty nice day right?
Now take someone who refuses to do this once in awhile. They come home
miserable, they eat the same shit, they don’t do anything with their wife or girlfriend
(if they even have one) and they wonder why their life isn’t exciting and everyday
feels exactly the same. Well genius, it’s because you’re doing the same shit every
day!
Like I’ve said before, there are merely diet and training guidelines I follow,
but THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS PERFECT EATING! Going out for a
cheeseburger and splitting a draft beer is a little different for someone who is lean
and has abs over someone who is fat and does it all the time! There are plenty of
chances to stick to the daily grind and eat strict when you’re by yourself or at work.
There may not always be plenty of chances to go out for a burger and have fun with
someone else. All I’m saying here is that life can be short. Don’t diet your life away,
but don’t eat it away either! When it’s time to work then it’s time to work, but know
when you can back off once in awhile too. It’s not going to hurt you once you can
69
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
harness and control it!
Extreme Diets Call for Extreme Cheat Meals
If there’s one thing I’ve found with dieting it’s that the more strictly you diet clean
then the more extreme the cheat meals will need to be. For starters, we don’t want
you to just have 1 slice of pizza for a cheat meal because all that’s going to make
you do is crave more junk when you return to eating clean.
My approach is that if you’re going to cheat, cheat hard! Now, this is really all
dependent on how hard I’m dieting, but as a rule of thumb to me, more extreme
diets call for more extreme cheat meals or an entire day off the diet. If I have been
dieting for several weeks then I may take 2 days in a row off the diet to further
reset my metabolism. I’ve found that this often helps me continue to make progress
during fat-loss.
So I say if you’re going to have a cheat meal then eat enough of it that you don’t
want it again for a long time. You can eat a bunch of junk one day and think you’re
going to be full for a very long time and 2 days back onto the strict diet you feel like
you’re starving again anyways! But at least that brief period of sanity was given
back to you and you’ve done something that is going to further benefit you in the
long run, since bodybuilding is a marathon and not a sprint.
You will find that there are times when you can push the pedal to the metal and diet
your ass off and there are times when it’s beneficial to take a more lenient approach
that allows you to live life a little more. This is bodybuilding...there is no finish line!
70
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
CHAPTER FIVE
Training Insight and Dieting Tactics Explained
Everyone is searching for that perfect workout routine aren’t they? What is the
perfect number of sets to perform for an exercise? What is the perfect number of
reps or how long should I be in the gym for? What is the perfect diet?
I’m going to tell you something that you’ve probably never heard anywhere else
before...IT ALL WORKS. Yes, the defining factor with whether or not it’s going to
work for you is your drive. The programs and diets all work, it’s up to you to make
them work. I’ve done it all guys, high reps, low reps, high sets, high volume, low
sets and high intensity, and I’ve realized that it all works if you push yourself. Your
body only knows that it’s pushing itself, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a standing
barbell curl or a preacher curl. It doesn’t matter if it’s a stiff legged deadlift or a
lying leg curl, if you create the intensity then your body will respond, PERIOD!
Once you understand the fundamentals of dieting and training then the rest is just
going from one approach to the other, knowing that it’s all going to work. Why do
71
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
we continuously change our approach? That’s easy, to stay motivated and involved!
If your routine was constantly the same 3 exercises over and over again with the
exact same rep scheme you’d grow bored and it’d be easier to give it up.
Powerlifting is a great example of change. The big 3 exercises of the squat, bench
press, and deadlift are always the staple of the routine, but look at how much extra
work and change goes into progressing in these 3 lifts? All of a sudden the big 3 lifts
become so much more than just the big 3 lifts. There are many pieces of the puzzle
that go together with these lifts! Maybe one day you work on rep speed and another
day you work on a certain part of the rep? When you see these guys using chains,
bands, and accessory movements that transfer more power into the big 3 lifts then
all of a sudden it adds a whole new element than just the bench, squat, and deadlift!
Bodybuilding is just as complex, maybe more complex when you consider the
nutritional side of things. Yesterday I consumed an incredibly large amount of food
and not the best foods either. I was just coming off an 8 week low-carb diet and I
was insanely hungry and I gorged out on anything and everything I could find at
dinner time.
To be 100% honest and transparent with you this is what I ate yesterday:
Meal 1 - 3 whole eggs and 3 slices of bacon
Meal 2 - protein shake and 2 spoons flaxseed oil
Meal 3 - 8 ounces of salmon and 2 spoons flaxseed oil
Meal 4 - T-bone steak and a bag of pork rinds
Meal 5 (Are you ready for this?) - 1 slice of pizza, 3 sugar cookies, 3 chocolate
chip cookies, 2 corn dogs, potato chips, 12 fudgesicles, 3 bowls of taco soup,
30 units of rapid insulin and 30 units of 24 hour insulin (I’m a diabetic, do not
duplicate this if you’re not diabetic).
Meal 6 - protein shake, 4 tablespoons of peanut butter
72
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
I went to bed at 1:30am and woke up at 11am this morning. I went to the doctor for
my 6 month routine appointment shortly after I woke up. On the way back I stopped
and had a ham and cheese omelette, 2 slices of toast and hash browns at about 1 pm.
That was my first meal of the day. I know, totally against common bodybuilding
practice right? Trust me, one late meal isn’t going to hurt jack shit.
I went to the gym this evening and my strength was through the roof. The extra
calories and fluid retention caused an incredible surge of strength and my work
output was far higher than usual. Was all of that food from the night before a waste?
NOPE, SURE WASN’T! Without doing that I would not have lifted the way I had,
and the added poundages I worked with had burned off more calories because it
took more energy for me to do so.
Today I’m back to clean eating outside of breakfast. I will continue to eat clean for
a very long time. Nothing was lost from what I had done last night and everything
was gained from added sleep, today’s workout, and the axe I threw into the routine
from eating that ridiculous meal last night! Now, the key is not to do this on a regular
basis. But what my point is here is that one day of overeating will cause nothing lost
in the grand scheme of everything I’m doing. My body told me it was starving and I
listened to it. My body needed more sleep and I listened to it.
I got on the scale this evening and I was actually down 3 lbs from what I was at the
day prior, I looked fuller and more pumped, and I felt better in the gym. Although
sluggish during the daytime my workout was intense and it woke me up.
I’m once again prepared to go through a time of caloric restriction and continuing
to attain a hard physique. There is nothing lost when you listen to your body once in
awhile. This isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon.
When it comes to my training, as I said before I will constantly flip flop back and
forth between a high volume and low volume approach. I had just got finished with
a phase where I was training my muscle groups very often throughout the week
with high reps and short rest phases. Now I have switched gears to performing just
4 - 5 exercises a workout and doing heavier workloads with more intensity during
my heavy sets. I will probably keep most sets to an 8 rep range for the next 4 weeks.
73
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
It all works, bodybuilding is constantly changing based on what you’d been doing,
what your body is telling you, and what your body needs in order to perform at a
higher level.
There is a difference between going through the motions and actually getting
involved in the sets. Engaging yourself in the sets and putting total mind into your
body is different than just going through sets to get a workout finished. There is
a big difference between just lifting weights and losing touch with everything
around you and focusing 100% on the muscles working to push/pull the weights.
This mind/muscle focus is what is going to give you those dense muscles that have
volume and “pop.”
I’m always changing my approach in the gym and with the diet process. I may cut
my carbs out for 8 weeks and then I may add them back in while keeping calories
the same as they were on my low carb approach. I may add in extra days of cardio or
I may take it completely out for a little while to help my recovery. Hell, I may take
4 - 5 days off lifting altogether and just do cardio and hit the sauna. There is always
something new I’m adding in or taking out. I’m the type of bodybuilder who goes
by the mirror more than the scale. The mirror gives you the true picture of what’s
going on, not the scale. The scale can do anything, it could jump 5 lbs and you’ll
look better, it could drop 10 lbs and you’ll look better. The scale could drop 10 lbs
and you look worse. It’s a toss-up and it’s really all about knowing your body and
what it needs.
As I have stated before, the ultimate determining factor with your results is going
to be your drive and intensity. If you just go at the gym as a regular part of your
routine then expect “regular results.” I don’t want average results, I want to be above
average, so it’s critical that no matter what approach I’m using, I put everything into
those sets and into muscle control and focus on top of my diet.
The Work Weight Used Will Have Vast Differences in Your Training
This is something that is extremely important with changing your body and I
cannot emphasize this enough! Your work weights will have vast differences as you
74
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
change your body. It’s imperative that you do not let this get the best of you. The
weight lifted is nothing more than a tool to work your muscles. It’s impossible to
drop large amounts of body fat without losing some muscle and strength. If you are
hung up on being the strongest guy in your gym then chances are you’re not going to
make many changes with your physique other than gaining body fat along with any
new muscle you may gain! If there is one thing I’ve realized throughout my years
in the gym it’s that the further along you are in bodybuilding, the more the weights
used in training will fluctuate. It’s nothing for me to be lifting 125 lb dumbbells one
chest session and using only 80 lb dumbbells the following workout. This is normal
and largely dependant on current diet and recovery ability.
It’s also impossible to gain more muscle without adding on SOME body fat unless
you’re a new trainer or using extremely large amounts of performance enhancers
and I’m talking about amounts that are far beyond safe and healthy. Fat loss and
weight loss is evident with almost all professional bodybuilders. If losing body fat
didn’t come with a loss in weight and muscle mass then these guys wouldn’t be
dropping 30 - 40 lbs for a competition. If the guys at the elite level are losing weight
and size to get shredded then that says something for damn near everyone trying to
cut body fat. If you do not have the size to play with at least 20 lbs then I would not
suggest for you to begin cutting just yet. Unless you stay extremely conditioned
year round then you’re going to need an excess 20 lbs on your frame before you
begin dropping body fat, otherwise you’re going to look too small when you’re
shredded up.
I did not begin a serious fat-loss diet until I weighed 225 lbs at 5’9” tall. So from
140 to 225 lbs the focus was solely on gaining muscle. That’s an 85 lb gain before
even worrying about seeing good abs and getting shredded! That is commitment
and I understood that I wasn’t going to do everything all at once from the beginning.
I kept a relatively decent waistline but I’m sure some fat gain came with it from
time to time.
My first cutting experience dropped me down to 193 lbs. From that point forward
each time I would try losing body fat I’d look harder and much better than the first
time around. This is the case with almost anybody, the process of dieting time and
time again will yield a harder and more quality look each time. You’ll also be bigger
75
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
with a leaner look most of the time you go through this process more than just
once. You’ll also learn what works and what doesn’t during the dieting process. Just
because you diet down once doesn’t mean you used the best approach, you’ll learn
different approaches that work better for you as time goes on. Keep an open mind
and try them!
Listening to Your Body - The Real Deal
Most of the time you need to listen to your body, but sometimes you need to stick
to the gameplan and ignore it. When I talk about listening to your body I’m speaking
in terms of the workouts and recovery. When it comes to diets, if we all listened to
our bodies we’d be eating cookies and drinking milk whenever we got hungry! So
just know that some of the processes of hunger and fatigue are normal with dieting,
and being hungry is also normal when growing muscle. The 2 common themes
with gaining muscle and losing fat are going to be hunger. If you’re eating to grow
then eat when you’re hungry, and a lot of the time you’re going to need to eat when
you’re not hungry as well. When dieting for fat-loss then often times when you’re
hungry to need to ignore it until it’s time to eat again (and eating clean when hunger
strikes).
All of the diets that claim “lose x amount of lbs without feeling hungry” is sales
pitch bullshit! I have NEVER dropped into single digit body fat without feeling
hungry...NEVER. What eventually ends up happening is that I’ll feel physically
hungry but not hungry stomach-wise. What I mean by that is I’ll feel drained like
I need some food, but I’m not starving like someone with no food in their stomach
would feel.
What is hunger anyways? It’s really all relative. In my opinion, if you’re reading
this and you had an upbringing that wasn’t extremely poor then you have never been
hungry a day in your life. Hunger is when people begin having health problems from
a lack of calories. The body is extremely resilient to food intake and adaption, and
if you aren’t like one of the children who are starving in those commercials you see
on television, you’ve never been hungry a day in your life. Put that into perspective
for a second; so you’re a little hungry when trying to drop body fat? Ask yourself,
76
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
are you really THAT HUNGRY?
The Difference Between Hunger and Obsession
I’ve found that there is a difference between hunger and obsession. You see, much
of the time we think we are hungry it’s not so much hunger as it is obsession. We
have been raised on certain foods and it’s common to have these foods everywhere
we go. Whether it’s donuts at the office, fast food places on every block, or a
combination of eating with traditional values such as sitting at the table with family
and eating what they’re eating, it’s normal to have good tasting food constantly at
our disposal. So when that good tasting food is taken away it’s common to confuse
the way we used to live with actual hunger. A lot of the time it’s not hunger we’re
facing, it’s the fact that something we’re used to has been taken away.
I found this to be true when I would feel hungry and then go do something to
distract me. Whether it was going fishing, going for a walk, or watching a movie,
when I would distract myself by doing something different then all of a sudden I
didn’t feel hungry anymore. I could be fishing at the river and I wouldn’t even think
about food. That is the difference between REAL HUNGER AND OBSESSION
WITH FOODS. If you’re journeying into a cutting phase then try to remember
this from time time when you think you’re hungry. If you’re eating a healthy and
moderate calorie deficit then you often aren’t as hungry as you think you are. You
have enough stored body fat to use to provide energy and ward off hunger! It’s not
until you get EXTREMELY LEAN that you experience real hunger. But if you’re
still double digit body fat then trust me, you aren’t as hungry as you think you are!
Caloric Intake as it Relates to Age
I remember reading a small publication that legendary bodybuilder Frank Zane
used to release monthly. I cannot remember the name of it, but it was a great resource
to read and it came as a small pamphlet monthly in the mail. I was younger when I
read this and it was something someone let me borrow.
I’ll never forget this article where he explained his daily diet. His daily intake of
77
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
food seemed like VERY LITTLE. When I say very little, I’m talking like 1,100 1,200 calories a day! The first thing I thought was that he was lying and had not
actually taken the time to list exactly what he was eating daily, because I found it
extremely hard to believe that someone who was active could get by on as little as
1,100-1,200 calories a day.
Here is what I wasn’t taking into consideration; his age. Although still probably
on the low side of caloric intake, he was in his mid 60’s at the time and I’m sure
while purposely consuming smaller amounts of food, he just didn’t require as much
as someone half his age would. I have found the same to be true for myself. It
seems like every decade calls for a smaller caloric intake in order to maintain health
and feel energetic. There certainly comes a point where dumping large amounts of
excessive calories on a consistent basis can make you sluggish. You can get to a
point where you just don’t feel healthy doing that.
Where I used to need over 4,000 calories a day to maintain my muscle mass, I can
get by on 3,000 calories nowadays to maintain close to the same amount of muscle
mass as back then. If you have never seriously dieted before then you may not know
what your daily caloric requirements are in order to cut body fat or build muscle.
I would stat by using the basic TDEE formula (total daily energy expenditure) and
either subtracting 500 calories from that to try to lose body fat or add 500 calories
to that to put on more muscle. Your total daily energy expenditure is the amount
of calories you burn in the processes of staying awake, walking around at work,
digesting your food, and basic daily activities. It’s made up of your BMR (base
metabolic rate), TEF (thermic effect on food, basically the cals burned digesting
food) non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), and thermic effect of activity
(TEA, how many cals you burn exercising beyond normal daily activity). When
you add all of these factors up you will get your total daily energy expenditure.
I would suggest going online and plugging in your information into a TDEE
calculator, there are many online that can be found from a simple search. Also, keep
in mind that some of these variables will change as you ramp up your metabolic rate
through exercising and putting on muscle mass (since muscle is a fat metabolizer).
78
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Negative Calories
Something that is rarely talked about in bodybuilding and exercise is “negative
calories.” Negative calories is when you put your body in such a ramped up
metabolic state that you actually burn OUTSIDE of the calories consumed. So let’s
say you eat a meal consisting of 400 calories, in a negative caloric state your body
will burn through the 400 calories and tap into an additional level of stored calories
(tapping into stored cals through stored body fat). A negative caloric state is one
reason why the TDEE calculator isn’t always accurate or dependable. It’s simply a
starting point to get an estimated guess of where you should start a fat-loss or muscle
building diet. The further along you get one way or the other, the more the number
of calories can fluctuate beyond just simply adding or subtracting 500 calories from
your TDEE. Sometimes during a diet calories need to be ramped back up after
undergoing several weeks on the diet. And sometimes while building muscle and
eating excessively, 1,000 calories more than your TDEE isn’t always 1,000 calories
more because of variables beyond what we can clearly see or accurately measure.
Real Dieting Tactics Explained
You may have read about health food recipes in magazines or books throughout
the years or maybe you have looked through a “Beachbody cookbook” or something
along those lines. Forget all of that garbage because it’s NOT REALISTIC! Look
at how many ingredients some of those recipes call for and you’ll realize that it’s
pretty far fetched to be doing that on a daily basis! I’m here to give you the real
deal on dieting for success and preparing meals in a manageable way. Fuck all of
that other nonsense, it’s written by normal people who don’t look any different
than anyone else. We aren’t looking for average here, if that were the case then you
wouldn’t have gotten this guide in the first place!
This is battle, there isn’t anything comfy about this! But through the struggle you’ll
develop new levels of comfort and the process of food preparation will become
second nature and won’t even feel like work! Let’s start with the basics of healthy
food choices, and then we’ll get into the easiest ways to prepare them. I believe
that a diet should be 80% clean if you’re trying to build muscle, and 90 - 95% clean
79
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
if you’re trying to lose body fat. While building muscle mass there comes a point
where you just need added calories and adding 20% of “dirty foods” isn’t going to
hurt you. It’s nothing you can’t diet off quickly. When dieting to lose fat you need
to be going mostly clean. Dirty foods is another relative term, because dirty for me
would be pasta while eating dirty for someone else might mean ice cream. You need
to know your body and how it responds to eating different foods.
Foods That I Eat While Dieting to Lose Body Fat
• Chicken
• Lean steaks (sirloin, london broil, top/bottom round, shoulder, NY strip)
• Lean ground beef (80% lean if I’m going low carb, at least 90% lean if I’m
going moderate carb/low fat)
• Fish (most commonly tilapia, swai, salmon, orange roughy, swordfish, shark,
tuna fish or tuna steaks)
• Pork chops
• Cottage cheese
• Rice (most commonly brown rice for me)
• Baked potatoes
• Yams (or sweet potatoes)
• Eggs or egg whites (sometimes both)
• A high quality protein powder
• Broccoli
• Asparagus
• Oatmeal
• Grits
• Quick oats (the packets of oats with sugar in them for post workout meal
recovery)
• Fruit (consumed only on occasion)
• Flaxseed oil
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Almonds
80
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
• Mixed nuts
• Natural peanut butter
First Things First, Tupperware or Freezer Bags?
I did away with tupperware containers years ago. I hate washing them, the lids get
mismatched, and I simply do not need them with having a microwave nearby. I use
freezer bags instead. Freezer bags are easy, they cost $2 a box and after I use one
I just trash it. I can put a lot of food into a 1 gallon freezer bag, more than I can fit
into a tupperware container! I simply pull out what I need and place it on a plate (or
paper plate if you’re on the go). If I’m currently weighing my food then I’ll bring
a digital food scale with me during the day. I pull out the food, weigh it, and then
transfer to a plate and eat it. Simple!
If you do not have the availability of a microwave or a refrigerator nearby then you
might need tupperware with your food already portioned out inside the tupperware
containers. If you have a refrigerator and a microwave at work then I would use
freezer bags and then just transfer to a refrigerator once you get to work. I will
use a large cooler for transport more than needing it to cool anything. I pull my
refrigerated foods in freezer bags out in the morning and transfer to the cooler. The
dried goods such as oatmeal, vitamins, apples, and potatoes can be thrown in the
cooler quick before leaving out in the morning (or whenever you leave for work/
school, etc).
If there aren’t bowls or plates at work or school then you may consider packing
them into your cooler. If your plan is to eat out every meal then good luck, your
results will fall short most of the time. Take a good look around at eating out...very
few places are healthy and even what appears healthy is cooked in unhealthy oils
and full of sodium.
Cooking Meats
While some of this may be redundant for some of you, some people truly don’t
know how to cook food. I’m here to help you.
81
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Chicken - cook in oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or so. Rinse chicken
off with water first, season the way you want (seasoning will not hurt you in
moderate amounts since you’re consuming no added salts throughout the rest of
the day) Rubbing a little olive oil on your chicken will help make it more moist
to eat, but this depends on how much fat your diet calls for)
(Chicken can also be grilled but this may take an extra 15 - 30 minutes on the
grill, depending on temperature and flame)
***Fastest way to prep chicken- cut into small cubes and pan fry like they do in
the Japanese restaurants, use cooking spray or olive oil and season to taste
Fish - fish doesn’t normally take as long to cook and 20 minutes at 350 degrees
baked is good for MOST fish.
***Tip - The microwave is the best way you can eat salmon. It’s fast, doesn’t
make the salmon dry, and you’d be amazed at how good it tastes and how fast
you can eat salmon when microwaved. Your average 6 - 8 ounce salmon fillet
can be cooked for just 3 1/2 minutes in the microwave. Try it, you’ll thank me for
this one!
Steaks - Steak can be pan fried, baked, or grilled. For fastest cooking, pan fry
in cooking spray ( or cut steaks into cubes), flipping whole steaks once or twice
during the cooking process. Learn to eat it medium to medium rare, it has more
protein, nutrients, and flavor when cooked this way. If cooking in the oven, a
good 20 minutes at 350 degrees is all it should take. When grilled, it takes about
10 - 20 minutes depending on how done you like it. I only flip mine one time on
the grill and it’s done in about 10 - 15 minutes.
Ground beef - 350 degrees in oven for 20 - 30 minutes. For fastest cooking,
simply microwave your ground beef for 3 - 5 minutes and eat it. (note; you won’t
get sick once the meat reaches a certain temperature to kill off any bacteria, even
if it looks bloody you’ll be fine!)
Pork chops - While I don’t consume pork often, it doesn’t hurt me to throw it in
the mix once in awhile. Pork chops should be baked at 350 degrees in the oven
for around 20 - 25 minutes. On the grill it will take about 20 - 30 minutes. I do not
pan fry pork chops, but that’s just me.
82
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Cooking Carbs
Potatoes and yams - Heat oven higher for potatoes, go with 420 degrees and
cook average size potatoes for roughly 45 minutes - 1 hour and 15 minutes (I’ve
found that yams need to be cooked a little longer than white potatoes) It’s faster
to cook them if they’re cubed.
(Wait for potatoes to cool before throwing in freezer bags, they’ll burn a hole in
your freezer bags if they’re too hot)
***Tip - The fastest way to prepare potatoes is to slice them up in thin slices
and scatter them over a plate. Microwave for 5 minutes, then eat them like
potato chips and dip in ketchup or some other condiment of your choice such as
barbeque sauce. Now, the trick is to just touch the potato to the condiment to get
SOME FLAVOR. We aren’t dowsing our potatoes in BBQ sauce here! This is a
very convenient way to prep potatoes when you’re short on time. I did this every
day when preparing for competitions. I simply weighed my potato first and then
sliced it up and scattered it over a plate and microwaved it.
Rice - I boil most of my rice and occasionally use the instant rice bags. A rice
steamer is definitely a good way to go in order to prep a bunch of rice and not
have to babysit it on the stove. With regular boiling of rice (not instant rice bags)
you simply bring water to a boil, pour in the rice, reduce heat to medium, and
cook until water is absorbed and gone.
With instant rice, most of it takes about 10 minutes to cook AFTER the water has
boiled.
***Tip - Rice - To pound that rice faster and add some variety, stir in some low
sugar or sugar free applesauce with your rice, you can slam it!
Oatmeal - Bring water to a boil, then add oats. Reduce heat to low/medium and
once the water is absorbed and gone your oats are done. This takes about 10
minutes, “steel cut oats” take about 30 minutes which is why I don’t eat them.
***Tip - The fastest and easiest way to eat oats is to simply measure out the
dry amount in a bowl, pour warm water over them and eat them like cereal.
They’re not as thick this way and you can eat them faster...MUCH FASTER! I’ll
83
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
occasionally use sugar free maple syrup for flavor, simply stir it in and eat them!
You can slam a cup of oats in about a minute or two, unlike trying to eat thick,
boiled oatmeal. I actually NEVER boil my oatmeal, I don’t have time for that
shit!
***Tip - Apples - While most people just eat an apple as is, if you want to change
it up a little, then slice an apple up, put some cinnamon and splenda (or other
sugar free sweetener) on the slices, and microwave the apple slices for about 3
minutes. This is a nice alternative to oats or grits with breakfast meals sometimes.
Grits - While grits aren’t as common in a lot of places now, I live in the south
and grits are everywhere here! I switch back and forth between oats and grits,
whichever one I’m sick of eating then I’ll switch to the other. To cook grits
you simply bring water in a pot to a boil, then SLOWLY stir in grits so they
don’t clump up. Reduce the heat to a simmer and then once the water is mostly
absorbed your grits are done.
Steamed broccoli - Pour frozen broccoli into a bowl, microwave for 5 minutes
Asparagus - Pan fry in cooking spray or olive oil, usually asparagus takes a little
longer to pan fry, roundabout 20 minutes or so
Dieting to Build Muscle
When eating to build muscle carbs are #1, not protein! I’m sick and tired of protein
intake becoming over-exaggerated everyplace you read up on it nowadays. Carbs
are what fuels a muscle and shuttles nutrients and water to a muscle. What is a
muscle made of? About 75% water. CARBO-HYDRATE...hydrate the muscle!
Protein is the last nutrient the body wants to use for energy.
Fats are #2 when it comes to building muscle. Fats are needed for hormone
production (while far less fats are needed if someone is on testosterone replacement
therapy), slowing down protein absorption at other times of the day when necessary
(besides post workout nutrition, when fast protein absorption is beneficial) and fats
are also helpful for cognitive function and a healthy functional brain. Healthy fats
can also help speed up your metabolism.
84
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Protein is #3 when it comes to building muscle. While consuming adequate amounts
of protein is necessary to build muscle, these amounts have become extremely
over-exaggerated. Protein is not listed as #3 for building muscle because it’s not
important, but it’s listed #3 here because it’s not AS IMPORTANT as consuming
enough carbohydrates and fats. Once you have enough protein to facilitate growth,
any further amount of protein consumed becomes irrelevant. All you’re going to
do is piss out excess protein and make it harder for your kidneys to digest it. While
it’s not scientifically proven as to what degree of protein intake is harmful to your
kidneys, it is scientifically proven that people with kidney disease cannot consume
as much protein due to further damage from doing so. I look at it like this; there are
a lot of older bodybuilders with kidney issues who end up on dialysis. Personally I
believe there is truth to excessive protein and long term kidney damage.
So, Where to Start Eating When Trying to Build Muscle?
It’s simple; you start by consuming more carbohydrates and fats. You may find it
beneficial to have more meals that aren’t typical diet foods such as cheeseburgers,
pizza, subs, and pasta dishes. I always lived by the rule of 80% clean and 20% dirty
when it came to building muscle mass. So if you’re normally eating 6 times a day
and 42 meals a week, this means that roughly 34 of those meals are clean and 8
meals are “dirty” or meals simply for added calories. This means that 1 cheat meal
every day is not uncommon and a very realistic approach to gaining muscle mass.
I’m not making this shit up here, I DIDN’T GO FROM 140 LBS TO A LEAN 220
LBS BY EATING NOTHING BUT CHICKEN AND RICE!
Remember to consider factors such as age, health, and body composition when
eating to grow. Someone with a slower metabolism will probably get by on lesser
cheat meals when trying to grow, someone over the age of 40 may get by on lesser
amounts to grow, and someone who is naturally an endomorph (naturally bigger,
bigger boned, slower metabolism but builds muscle easier) will get by on less to
grow.
The easiest way that I’ve found to grow is to consume your required nutrients first,
then eat the added food at the tail end of the meal OR simply substitute one of the
85
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
diet meals for whatever you feel like eating. This doesn’t have to be complicated,
make it simple and eat 5 healthy meals a day that are moderate in calories, then eat
1 cheat meal somewhere in between. Or simply organize your diet in the number of
meals that you have an opportunity to eat, whether it be 3 meals, 5 meals, or 7 meals.
You do what works for you and puts size on your frame. If you’re not growing then
you’re probably not eating enough or you’re so far beyond your genetic limit that
almost any further growth is impossible.
Realistically Evaluating How Much Fat You’ve Gained When Growing
I see this all the time, guys are getting paranoid about gaining fat before it ever
happens! While clean eating is largely a part of bodybuilding and overall health
it’s necessary to consume more calories than you burn off in order to grow. It’s
impossible to get the caloric abundance precise to just grow muscle without adding
body fat since you need to be in a consistent state of eating beyond maintenance
caloric intake.
What a lot of guys can’t wrap their heads around is that they aren’t gaining as
much fat as they think they are. We are all the most critical of ourselves and it’s
very easy to look in the mirror and think we are getting fatter than we really are. I
always lived by the rule of going by the waistline when trying to grow muscle. If
the waistline isn’t moving then most of what is gained is muscle and not fat. Since
the abdomen is the easiest place to store body fat it’s also the fastest place to start
seeing the belt moving. In my 20 years of bodybuilding my waistline has never
exceeded 36”. Even when I was my biggest at 263 lbs my waist never broke 36”.
When I first began building muscle in my teen years my waist was around 32” at
140 lbs. Today I am a lean 220 lbs and my waist is smaller than 32”. So give a few
inches here and there, most of my gains have been muscle.
There are short periods of time when your waist will get bigger. But the look of
“just getting fat” was never something I have experienced in all of my years of
building muscle. You have to understand that even if your waistline budges a few
inches, the look of broader shoulders, a wider back, and a bigger chest is not going
to make you look fat just because your belt moved a couple of notches. Furthermore,
86
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
when you diet down and your waist gets tighter you’ll still have broader shoulders,
a wider back, and a bigger chest than before. When you do this enough, this is when
the illusion begins taking effect. That illusion can be that of someone with a 32”
waistline that appears to be much smaller because everything else has helped create
more of the “V-taper.”
When eating to grow it’s important not to overanalyze everything. I say it’s best to
keep it simple and use your waistline as a reference point as to how much fat you’re
actually packing on along with the muscle gains. A lot of people would be shocked
as to how much they can gain before the waist truly begins to move.
Another point to consider is that many guys have been under-eating for a long
time. Now that they are eating enough food it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s all
going to go to body fat. What’s more than likely going to happen is the muscles are
going to suck up all of those added nutrients they’ve been deprived of and they’ll
experience rapid strength and mass gain with VERY LITTLE fat gain!
You cannot have a food phobia when it comes to eating to grow! If you have been
under-eating while working out then it doesn’t matter what type of workouts you do
or what chemicals you put into your body... you simply WILL NOT GROW! You
can look for any tool you can find; the newest workout routines, the hottest new
supplements on the market, steroids and human growth hormone, but if you don’t
eat enough then you simply WILL NOT GROW!
How Many Meals Per Day?
You don’t have to eat at least 6 meals a day to diet down or build muscle mass.
I repeat, YOU DON’T HAVE TO EAT 6 MEALS A DAY TO DIET DOWN OR
BUILD MUSCLE MASS! Although 6 meals a day is a common theme when you
look at most bodybuilding diets, it’s not a dealbreaker if you eat less frequently.
I have talked about the body operating on a continuum earlier on, let me get into
that a little more here. There are numerous studies that claim the body doesn’t
absorb more than around 30 grams of protein at one time. I believe the body is going
to absorb what it needs and this has been proven with world class bodybuilders in
87
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
the past.
One bodybuilder that comes to mind is Serge Nubret. Serge Nubret was a
professional bodybuilder from France who only consumed 1 - 2 large meals a day.
His meals would be considered asinine by most people. He would eat up to 3 - 4
lbs of meat in one sitting along with beans and rice and whatever else he was eating
during his bodybuilding prime. Serge ate clean foods but he said “I never dieted a
day in my life, never drank protein powder, and never counted sodium or calories.”
The man literally ate the way his body told him to eat and he pretty much out-trained
any fat gains because his workouts took about 4-5 hours of his day. He stayed in top
shape year round.
He did no cardio but his rest periods between sets were extremely brief (usually
30 seconds) and he did around 2,000 sit ups every morning. He did the sit ups for
“overall health” and not just to work his abs. To Serge, performing this many situps was a marker for his conditioning more than deliberate abdominal work. Now,
I’m certainly not saying that it takes 4 - 5 hours in the gym everyday to achieve a
world class physique, nor is doing that many sit ups necessary. My point is this;
everything he did pretty much defied scientific studies showing us that his approach
wasn’t successful. The man had one of the best physiques bodybuilding will ever
see and he went totally against the grain! He trained light, he trained often, and his
meals were a 180 degree spin from how most bodybuilders eat.
What one man can do another man can do. That tells me that even if you only have
a couple chances to eat during the day, it’s still very possible to develop an incredible
body. But what you have to understand is that you’ll need to be eating a very large
amount of food per feeding and that this is probably extremely uncomfortable for
most people to do. It’s certainly not an approach I myself would take. But like I said
before, this continuum your body operates on doesn’t discriminate between 3,000
calories a day throughout 6 smaller meals or 3,000 calories a day throughout 2 giant
meals. The body is an amazing machine, it’s very resilient and also adaptable. I’ve
just seen too many examples of guys going against the grain and still developing
incredible bodies to think it cannot be accomplished by going outside of common
practice! I don’t care what studies or science says about things, when there are
living and past examples of people who have done it by thinking outside of the
88
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
box then there has to be some truth to it! Yes, genetics certainly play a huge role in
bodybuilding, but we are all human and nobody is put on this earth as a robot.
You Do What it Takes
I’ve drank eggs before, I started eating foods I would have never have eaten prior to
bodybuilding and I have put myself through what seemed like hell at times in order
to develop my body. I do what it takes to develop my body. I find pleasures in other
areas of life outside of just eating. You have to always have nutrition and training in
the back of your mind to be able to do this. When it comes to bodybuilding it’s all
pretty much black and white to me; you do what it takes to get results or you don’t
do what it takes and remain the same. One thing I will attest to is that periods of
feeling uncomfortable eventually become new levels of comfort and a way of life.
Bodybuilding is a lifestyle, it’s a 24/7/365 days a year deal. When you want it bad
enough you go through the struggle.
Dieting Down and Building, or Building and Then Dieting Down?
This is a hot topic and a question I’m sure many of you have had at one point or
another. It’s sort of like the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg?
To make this as simple as possible, I recommend which route to take based on
experience. If someone has been in the gym for several years and has built a good
amount of muscle and is of average to above average body fat I recommend them
to diet down and then build up. This is because the body will respond better to
the nutrients after the diet and growing will be easier. They’ll create a better state
of anabolism when they reintroduce more food and they’ll increase their insulin
sensitivity, which will turn them into a nutrient shuttling machine!
If someone is newer to working out then the goal right from the start would be to
build muscle mass first. You cannot define a body with no muscles so it’s pointless
to try to “cut up” right from the jump. I also prefer them to take advantage of the
beginning phase of bodybuilding when it’s much more likely to build muscle and
lose fat at the same time. Well it’s almost damn near impossible to do that with
89
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
seasoned trainees, it’s very possible in the beginning!
Even if someone is average to above average body fat, if they’ve never been in
a gym or have taken awhile off then I suggest they focus on strength and building
muscle mass from the start. This may not always come with much fat gain (if any)
simply because they’re ramping up their metabolism and creating a better state of
fat burning from increasing muscle mass (since muscle is a fat metabolizer).
So to simplify all of this here is what I’d recommend:
1. No experience or haven’t lifted in a long time - Focus on building up right
away, fat loss will come naturally as you gain muscle mass
2. Experienced and average to higher than average body fat - Diet down first
to create a more anabolic environment to grow
3. Extremely overweight (Whether having experience or not) - Diet down
while focusing on increasing strength. You have the extra stored energy to get
stronger during caloric restriction
When Enough is Enough and a Wake-up Call
When I train anyone I tell them all the same thing right up front. Bodybuilding
is all about how much you can go through. When they get to the point where they
cannot go through anymore without it seriously impacting their life negatively,they
need to realize that enough is enough.
If you’re a natural trainer then my hat is off to you, bodybuilding is difficult for
anyone but as a natural there are definitely more limitations and hurdles to jump in
order to make any type of progress, whether it’s building muscle or trying to shred
up!
I don’t walk around and look at people and categorize them as being “natural or
enhanced.” I just know a good physique when I see one and I personally don’t care
90
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
how they got there. That’s on them and their personal choices in life.
If you’re a natural trainer then the best thing I can tell you is that you can still
build one hell of a body, but there is going to come a point when you need to realize
that you’re approaching the genetic ceiling and just enjoy working out and living a
healthy lifestyle! Most natural trainers of average height will not break beyond 200
lbs in lean condition. There may be a few extremely gifted individuals who can, but
I’d say 95% of natural trainers can expect to attain around 175 - 200 lbs in single
digit body fat as their genetic limit.
If you’re someone who dabbles in performance enhancement then be aware of the
implications it can have on your life and learn to control your life. I’ve seen many
guys destroy their relationships, lose things, and get caught up in dealing steroids
to support their own use. Due to the expensive lifestyle of using large amounts
of anabolics and HGH many will resort to selling steroids and/or doing unethical
things in order to support their drug use. Yes, I’m talking about prostitution here.
But even without considering the real “ugly side of bodybuilding” you should be
aware of the negative ramifications of something as simple as just dieting. Dieting
to extremes can cause depression, irritability, and an obsessive-compulsiveness
that can drive people and opportunities away from you.
You may find that anything less than average body fat or anything over what looks
naturally achievable to have a negative impact on your life. Some people can walk
around in single digit body fat and live with it while others will turn into complete
assholes. Some can deal with packing on 50 lbs of muscle while others will let it
destroy their lives. And a lot of the time it’s something you won’t even realize until
you fall on your face a few times, and some will never realize it. They may never
realize it or they won’t want to admit it, because bodybuilding is what they’ve
become and it’s their only identity in life.
All I’m saying here is to keep your head on straight. If using certain compounds or
supplements turns you into an asshole then avoid them. If dieting beyond a certain
body fat level makes you unbearable to be around then know when to quit. But let’s
not forget about the positive impact bodybuilding can have on your life as well. It’s
91
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
all about harnessing the positive and avoiding the negative. And yes, I’ve learned
some hard lessons in the past about this. I’ve said terrible things I didn’t mean to
say to people and I’ve had times when I was completely out of my head. It’s not
worth all of that. Being 5% body fat or 250 lbs of muscle doesn’t mean shit if you
can’t conduct yourself in a positive way!
Don’t Believe Everything You See and Hear
Unfortunately there are plenty of people in the bodybuilding industry who are
so desperate to sell you on something that they’ll start believing their own lies.
You can pull up certain individual’s channels on youtube and see this all the time.
There will be a guy in his late 40’s who somehow defies the aging process and is
a shredded 250+ lbs and he’s claiming to be all natural. He chalks up his progress
to “penitentiary style workouts”, good genes, and the right over-the-counter
supplements.
While everyone else starts dropping in testosterone levels as they get older,
somehow this individual is “so gifted” that he continues to look like something out
of a bodybuilding magazine and he is supposedly natural. Look, I personally don’t
give a damn if someone is natural or not, but what I do give a damn about is some
idiot profiting off of lies and deceit. There are plenty of sell-outs in the bodybuilding
industry and these people are making a ton of money off people who want to get in
better shape and just don’t know any better. They’ll try to sell you on training when
they know damn good and well that they could throw anything at you and if you’re
not using what they’re using then you’ll never look close to that. They know this
and they simply do not care. They don’t care about you changing, they don’t care
about giving you everything they can (including the truth), all they care about is
themselves. Yet, these people have thousands of followers, sometimes millions!
The truth is this; people don’t want the truth, they want to continue to waste money
and believe it can be done the way their hero says it can be done. As long as their
dream is alive then they’ll ignore the truth and continue to waste time and money.
That makes a lot of sense doesn’t it? I used to be one of them, I wanted so badly
to believe that it could be achievable on just training your ass off and eating right.
92
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
While great things are achievable from training and eating properly, what these
guys are trying to sell isn’t achievable just from training hard and eating right. It’s
pretty far from it!
There are More People on Steroids Who Look Like Shit Than People Who Look
Good
Perhaps one reason people lie about using steroids is because they know that
steroids alone aren’t what makes a good body. In all my years in the gym I’ve seen
far more guys who look like shit while taking steroids than guys who actually look
good. I’ve seen more bloated whales covered in acne than guys who had solid, lean
physiques that looked respectable. Most of the guys I’ve ran into who were using
steroids looked like fat country boys. These are the type that love to take the most
bang for the buck. Anything that helps them take up more space is a good steroid to
use. They love Dbol, Anadrol, trenbolone, and taking high levels of testosterone. A
lot of them develop gynecomastia and can’t even take their shirt off without feeling
embarrassed.
They don’t take the time to research anything and they pop as many pills as they
can with no regard to health. You know what that creates? You got it, a body that
looks like whale shit!
They can’t look good because they can’t commit to eating properly. They pop
some pills, take a shot, go workout, and then run through McDonald’s for a post
workout meal of french fries and a milkshake! They’ll never get a good body
because they’re too pigheaded to learn how. They have no idea what their blood
pressure or cholesterol is at, they have no idea that their hematocrit level is through
the roof, and they simply continue on their wreckless endeavor to whatever they
think is greatness. I don’t teach recklessness, I teach good bodybuilding that will
make incredible physiques through hard work, discipline, and the right diet and
performance supplement stacks (if someone wants to go that direction).
The very last thing I want to do is to hurt anyone by giving them bad information!
93
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Dieting to Bridge the Gap
This was a topic that didn’t really hit me to write about until getting further along
with this chapter. You see, when most people diet they diet like a yo-yo. What I
mean by that is they will diet extremely strict in order to get to where they want to be
but then when it’s no longer sustainable or they’re just plain sick of dieting strictly
they’ll totally go off an eating regimen rather than switching to a more realistic one
that is still healthy.
This was very hard for me to do in the past because the only time I clearly saw a
goal was when I was cutting up and dieting very strictly. But once the diet was over
with I’d revert back to eating massive quantities of food and gaining back larger
amounts of body fat.
As I got older I started to realize that this wasn’t a good way to diet down. All I was
doing was eating like a yo-yo dieter and when I’d rebound it wasn’t always pretty!
Although I’d gain a large amount of strength back and blow up like a balloon all
I pretty much was doing was going back to where I was before cutting down, and
then it seemed like all of that hard work was for nothing.
I think a much better approach to how to eat after discontinuing a strict fat-loss
diet is to simply change the foods around but still eat healthy. Now, I’m going to
be honest with you here and tell you that RIGHT AFTER dieting extremely hard
for several weeks I will completely go off any sort of regulated eating regimen for
about 2 weeks afterwards and pretty much eat what I want. I will binge eat in order
to get that out of my system. I really won’t get fat when I just do this for 2 weeks
after a diet. What happens is my muscles will blow up and I’ll feel like someone
gave me my life back. It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and not
having to worry about what I’m going to eat and when I’m going to eat it is very
nice. But this is short lived. I’d obviously gain large amounts of body fat if I did this
for very long. So after a couple weeks of doing this I’ll revert back to clean eating,
just different foods.
After you’ve eaten that much chicken and fish for several weeks in a row, and
94
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
felt hungry most of the time, the last thing you want to do is go right back to eating
chicken and fish all the time. So when this happens I’ll switch the protein source
to something like lean ground beef, possibly an extra protein shake a day, or tuna
and relish, ground turkey, or maybe some tuna fish and relish stirred in. It’s just
something different than what I did for several weeks on end while extreme dieting.
For my carb sources I’ll bring in things like greek yogurt, multi-grain english
muffins with natural peanut butter on them, flavored packets of grits, or more fruit
rather than just potatoes and rice all the time. I’m sure you get the idea here. All I’m
trying to do is find a way to continue eating relatively healthy but switch the food
choices enough to still keep me in some sort of boundaries to avoid gaining too
much body fat.
This is what I call a bridge diet. It’s simply a way to eat that keeps you going until
the next time you want to cut back down and look super lean. During a bridge diet
I’ll still have either 1 off day from the diet or 1 or 2 cheat meals per week. Honestly
it’s probably an extra cheat meal per week over what I was doing when dieting so
strictly.
Changing the foods up is also a great way to keep your body from getting used to
the same sort of diet foods all the time. Your body will get used to those same foods
and stop responding as well,so it’s not a bad idea to change it up for several weeks
in between those periods of dieting so strictly.
Once you’ve built the bulk of your musculature you’re going to find that it’s more
beneficial to stay on the lean side of things than it is to go for an additional 20 lbs
of just body weight. The weight you might gain doesn’t matter if you’re going to
end up at the same size once you peel it all off again. I’ve found that it’s even
more beneficial to focus on staying leaner for the guys on TRT. The testosterone
replacement will help hold onto more muscle mass year round anyways, so there
really is no more reason to bulk up to such extreme measures, and those measures
you need to take to build more become so extreme that for many people they’re
simply not worth it.
Remember, testosterone replacement therapy should be done under a doctor’s
95
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
care. It’s extremely important to understand your blood labs and know exactly what
you’re dealing with. Things like cholesterol levels, liver profile, and hemoglobin
count all become more important to keep close watch over when supplementing
with testosterone. If you do things the right way then I believe you can stay safe and
live a better quality life.
96
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
CHAPTER SIX
Anabolism while Maintaining Conditioning and
Supplementation
Many of you are probably already in top physical condition. You may be at the
point where you’ve gained pretty much all of the muscle you’re going to gain
unless you take extreme measures that most people aren’t willing to take. Usually
these measures include more time, a negative impact on health, and a huge financial
sacrifice to achieve what isn’t exactly obtainable without creating a major financial
sacrifice on a routine basis. There are people walking around who have literally
dumped over a million dollars into their bodies.
What is anabolism? Anabolism means to build something. It’s very hard to build
your body up if you’re dieting to lose fat, which ultimately breaks it down over
time. In this chapter I will talk about how to retain the most muscle while dieting or
possibly even build new muscle during short bursts throughout a long term strategy
to stay leaner than average body fat! This will be more beneficial to guys who are
already lean, but even if you’re not that lean now you’ll want to revert back to this
97
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
chapter once you get lean and would like to maintain muscle mass while in that
state!
So you’re at the point where you don’t know where to go with bodybuilding. You
may have been at this game for many years and to expect the same results on less
would be highly unlikely. This is the point I eventually got to and the big question
was “How can I continue to perform and get results without creating a burden on
my family as well as myself?” It’s very difficult when you’ve seen yourself at the
top of your game in the past and now the question is how do you stay motivated?
I have found it more beneficial to stay conditioned most of the year and take the
small gains wherever I can get them than to continue on the rollercoaster of what’s
considered “bulking and cutting.” Yes, there are times throughout the year where
I’m not as defined because I’m eating more. There are times when I’m not quite as
strong because I’m dieting harder, but the extremes of the two just aren’t as drastic
as they used to be.
I began to experiment with ways to maintain conditioning while still trying to stay
big and pumped up. Like I said, I’ll take the small gains when I can get them, but the
days of packing on 20+ lbs of muscle in a year are over with. I’m going to give you
a realistic example of just how hard it is to gain new muscle after your first decade
of consistent training and eating. I had a body analysis done a few years back and
one that was done the year prior to that.
During that year I had eaten properly and trained my ass off. Do you know how
much muscle I had gained after 1 year of giving it damn near everything I had? Are
you ready for this? I gained a whopping 2.2 lbs of net muscle gain. That is 2.2 lbs
of muscle after 365 days of consistent eating and training! This was a pretty good
indicator that my growing days were closing in and ending.
So I started to take a different approach to it all. My new goal was to refine my
physique and create the illusion that I was larger than I was. This is done by creating
muscle density and lines. You start to work on balance, conditioning and symmetry
rather than simply “taking up space.”
98
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
One of the things I began placing more emphasis on was my pre-workout and
post-workout nutrition, along with my pre and post workout regimen. My regimen
consists of muscle cell volumization, vasodilation, and nutrient shuttling/efficiency.
As you may have read from the past articles I’ve written, I am a diabetic. I use
insulin and without insulin I cannot keep a normal glucose range. I’m done asking
myself why I developed late onset diabetes, I just deal with it and still continue to
kick ass!
One of the things I take advantage of is my insulin use pre and post workout. I’m
not recommending anyone who isn’t a diabetic to do this, I’m simply sharing what
I do around my workouts. I consume the bulk of my carbs pre and post workout.
My goal here is maximum muscle pump during my workouts and quick nutrient
shuttling both pre and post workout.
1 Hour Prior to Gym Time (Approximately 9 AM for Me)
• 1 meal consisting of 60 - 80 grams of carbs though a combination of simple
and complex carbohydrates (packets of instant flavored oatmeal), 40 - 50
grams of protein through egg whites or occasionally a protein shake
• 4 - 5 iu of rapid insulin
• 7.5 mg of Cialis (for vasodilation effect and pump)
Cialis is a HIGHLY UNDERRATED addition to health and a pre-workout formula
in my opinion. The benefits of Cialis are huge (not just erections here). Cialis is a
mild anti-depressant, great for lowering blood pressure, and has a huge benefit in
epithelial effects on the body (increased blood flow through its effect on soft tissues
in the body). Cialis is also shown to improve the testosterone to estrogen ratio in
men. It’s not talked about as much in the bodybuilding community, probably because
if something doesn’t promote a 20 lb gain in muscle mass most bodybuilders chalk
it up as useless. I have used cialis for the past 3 years now at maintenance dosing of
7.5 mg per day per doctor script. I have noticed no negative effects from cialis, and
if I go without it for a little while it’s not like I cannot get a normal erection.
99
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
• Coffee OR energy drink (energy drink consisting of caffeine, L-leucine,
L-carnitine, taurine, vitamin B12) Sometimes I’ll stop by the store and buy a
“Zero carb Monster energy drink” if I don’t drink my powdered energy blend
at home.
***WORKOUT FOR ABOUT 60 - 90 MINUTES***
***Post workout nutrition will consist of another 6 - 8 units of fast acting insulin
• Post workout meal will be a combination of fast and slow digesting carbs,
usually a Japanese grill with a Teriyaki steak bowl (steak and probably 60 80 grams of rice) and a lemonade (for the fast carbs through simple sugars)
• Sometimes I’ll go to a Chipotle grill and get a steak or chicken bowl and a
lemonade, again probably 60 - 80 grams of carbs through rice and additional
fast carbs through the lemonade
After the workout it’s back to a normal diet of low carbs, moderate protein intake
and some healthy fats (most of the time it’s around 80 - 100 grams/day of healthy
fats)
***IF YOU DON’T TAKE INSULIN, FOLLOW THE SAME PROTOCOL
MINUS THE INSULIN. DO NOT TAKE INSULIN UNLESS YOU NEED
TO USE IT AND ARE A DIABETIC. DO NOT USE INSULIN WITHOUT
BEING UNDER A DOCTOR’S CARE. INSULIN USE WITHOUT PROPER
PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES CAN KILL YOU! DO NOT TAKE CIALIS
WITHOUT CONSULTING WITH YOUR DOCTOR FIRST!
This is just an honest and open look at what I do for my pre and post workout
regimen MOST OF THE TIME. The exception to this is when I’m trying to get just
a little more shredded, in that case the goal is to use as little insulin as necessary
since insulin can store more body fat, especially for someone who doesn’t need to
take it.
100
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Additional Supplementation for Results
Creatine - 5 - 10 grams pre-workout
70% of creatine users respond well to it while 30% are basically non-responders
to creatine supplementation. Creatine is affordable, helps shuttle fluid to muscles
(remember, muscles are 75% water), and can aid in pump and recovery from
demanding workouts. Creatine can improve strength and increase ATP levels in
muscles (available energy). It’s claimed to increase human growth hormone
production but I’d have to say these claims have limited backing to the actual
effectiveness of creatine doing so.
When it comes to creatine there are several different versions of it available now.
You have creatine monohydrate, ethyl ester, buffered creatine,conjugated creatine,
liquid creatine, tri-creatine malate and micronized creatine.
I have used a few different versions in the past and I stand by good ol’ fashioned
creatine monohydrate. I saw NO DIFFERENCE with other creatines and in my
opinion they’re nothing but hype and a waste of money. Monohydrate is cheap and
works just fine. I was never a big creatine responder to begin with though, but I do
occasionally use it. Some guys get strong as hell on it though.
Niacin - Recommended dose pre-workout: 500 - 1,000 mg
Niacin has been shown to cause an increase in growth hormone secretion during
and shortly after weight training. It also helps with vasodilation and pump. I’d start
at 500 mg a day your first week with it because it can cause flushing and a hot/
tingly sensation. After you assess your tolerance to it then you can bump it up to
1,000 mg pre-workout, but I would not go any higher than 1,000 mg. There is a “no
flush” version of niacin available if you cannot tolerate the flush and tingly feeling
of regular niacin. Niacin will also help with your blood flow and can lower blood
pressure when taken regularly.
L-Arginine - Recommended dose pre-workout: 2,000 - 3,000 mg
101
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
L-arginine can assist in gym pumps by opening up blood vessels and allowing
for an increased nitric oxide effect in muscles. By allowing increased blood flow
within muscles you can get a better gym pump and increased nutrient transport to
muscles to promote a better gym pump. This pump may stay with you for hours
after completing a workout. L-arginine is also shown to be a good aid for erectile
dysfunction and I have found this to be true. I do not have erectile dysfunction but
I’ve noticed that when taking L-arginine my equipment looks a little fuller and gets
up easier.
Agmatine sulfate - recommended dosage pre-workout of 750 mg, 15 minutes prior
to gym time
Agmatine is a byproduct of L-arginine and it’s claimed to be the “big brother”
to L-arginine or the “new L-arginine.” It provides the same muscle pumps as
L-arginine but it’s the synthesized byproduct of L-arginine, so it’s effect is faster
and more direct. Agmatine has other benefits to it that are claimed to be superior
to L-arginine. Some of these benefits are that it serves as a mild antidepressant,
increases faster transport of glucose in muscle cells (which in turn promotes a better
insulin sensitivity) and is claimed to stimulate the pituitary gland to cause more
release of human growth hormone.
Agmatine makes perfect sense on paper, but I honestly could never tell a difference
between supplementing with agmatine versus L-arginine. I stick to L-arginine
myself, the research on agmatine sulfate just isn’t conclusive enough for me to
believe it’s superior to L-arginine. Yes, the studies say it’s more effective, but I base
my conclusions from my own personal experience. I’ll stick with L-arginine for
now.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO COMBINE ALL OF THESE PRE-WORKOUT
SUPPLEMENTS
As I stated above, my pre-workout regimen is solely what I prefer. Long term
insulin use can lead to diabetes and uneducated use can lead to hypoglycemic
episodes, coma, and death. I’ll talk more about insulin use later on.
102
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
A good pre-workout stack for someone who doesn’t use insulin or Cialis would
be:
• Niacin- 500 mg - 1,000 mg
• L-arginine- 2,000 - 3,000 mg
• Creatine monohydrate - 5 -1 0 grams
• Caffeine- 200 mg (equivalent to 2 cups of coffee or 1 large cup of coffee)
• ***You can include Cialis at 7.5 mg if you want
Post-workout Nutrition Guidelines
I have done a bunch of different things for post workout nutrition in the past. I’ve
consumed 80 grams of dextrose sugar and a protein shake, I’ve eaten candy and a
protein shake, I’ve drank a soda and had a steak. I’ve eaten oatmeal, rice, potatoes,
apples... if it’s some form of faster acting carbohydrate then I’ve probably tried it.
You’re going to read a lot about this “30 minute magical window” to take advantage
of when it comes to getting your post workout nutrition in. Everywhere you look
now people want to talk about the magic 30 minute window. In my opinion this is
highly overrated! I cannot even tell you how many times I have put off eating for
over an hour post workout. Whether it was going grocery shopping, running other
errands, or handling something else instead, I have frequently put off eating for at
least an hour post workout and IT HAS NEVER HURT ME ONE DAMN BIT!
If you’re using insulin then this is not something you want to do. After that insulin
shot you need to be eating something within about 15-20 minutes. Some days I just
wait to take my shot before I eat after my workout, it may not be within 30 minutes
of my workout.
I like to make things simple, everyone nowadays wants to overcomplicate the
process. To me, as long as I’m getting a decent amount of protein and carbohydrates
post workout then whether that be from a shake, a steak, chicken, oatmeal, rice,
potatoes, or faster acting carbs isn’t really an issue. Honestly, most of my post
workout nutrition comes from whole foods and a combination of complex and
103
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
simple carbs (such as a Teriyaki grill bowl and a lemonade).
When I’m dieting harder I probably won’t eat out as much, but I can still stay
VERY LEAN by eating out post workout and then everything else during the day
are foods that I prepare on my own.
The Social Aspect of Post-workout Nutrition
Although this is probably not necessary to add in here, I feel like it may benefit
some of you. I’m usually an easy going, happy-go-lucky guy. I enjoy conversing
with most people and sometimes I don’t like feeling like my life is too one tracked.
I also enjoy being outdoors on nice days. So this is a big part of the reason I will eat
out after a workout. I get to enjoy life a little bit and it adds another element to the
meal other than simply “post workout nutrition.” Sitting outside on a sunny day and
having a relaxing meal makes it easier for me to go hard at the grind the remainder
of the day. Maybe you and a gym buddy can grab some food post workout? Or
maybe it’s the perfect date idea for a woman at the gym. You simply tell her that
you’re going to go grab some food after the workout and see if she wants to go with
you. This makes it casual and not so much a date to her. It’s a good way to rope them
in if you’re single. Just my advice!
Intra-workout Nutrition
There has been a lot of talk about “intra-workout nutrition” lately. I have
experimented with this as well and from my experience I think it’s only beneficial to
keep blood sugar levels stable. I use insulin myself so when I began experimenting
with pre-workout insulin use this was something I would incorporate into my
training. I did it mainly to keep from dropping my glucose too low. I would inject
my insulin pre-workout (1 hour prior to working out) and eat some carbs and protein
about an hour before training also. Then I’d simply mix some amino acids into
some sort of beverage that contained about 30 - 40 grams of carbs and sip it during
my workout.
I no longer do this because I have my insulin use down more precisely pre104
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
workout. The common way of doing intra-workout nutrition is to consume some
sort of protein drink along with simple carbs during the workout. I do not like this
and I have never added protein into my workouts because the way I see it is this:
your body is already working to lift weights, why would I want to place the added
work on digestion as I’m trying to work out?
To me it’s like eating too heavy before a training session. It makes you sluggish
and slows you down. Have you ever noticed how sometimes when you work out on
less of a meal pre-workout your workout is actually better? This is the way I look
at adding protein into a workout. Some simple carbs are one thing, adding protein
is another and despite what many “bro-science” experts will say, I go based on
how I feel. I’m not a big one for intra-workout nutrition and I look at this as a little
obsessive compulsive. You’re eating prior to training and after training, now you
want to eat an hour before the gym, an hour later during the gym, and then again
right after the gym? It honestly seems like a little much to me. A carb drink to fuel
muscles during a lift is one thing, adding protein to your stomach during a lift is
another. You may not agree with me here and that’s fine, this is solely my opinion
based on my own experience.
If you have the tendency to go hypoglycemic during a workout or are using
insulin pre-training it’s one thing, otherwise I wouldn’t bother with this. There have
been incredible physiques built over the past several decades and they didn’t drink
protein powder during a workout.
BCAAs (Branched Chain Amino Acids)
BCAAs are just overrated, I’m sorry but they are. There are thousands of guys
out there right now who are walking around with a gallon of water mixed with
some BCAAs and all they’re doing is pissing them out! Many people will also use
BCAAs while doing fasted cardio to try and retain muscle mass during a diet for
fat loss. Maybe you feel this works for you but I find it an absolute waste of money.
First off, if your diet is right then you’re getting your BCAAs. Second off, your
protein powder has BCAA’s in it. And lastly, I’ve never noticed anything different
with my physique from constantly drinking BCAAs throughout the day! At one
105
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
time I had experimented with BCAAs mixed with Gatorade during my workouts
and thought it probably worked for me, but looking back on things it was simply
the pump from my insulin use before my training. When I dropped the BCAAs I
saw not ONE DAMN DIFFERENCE! I noticed no difference in a rate of growth,
no muscle loss when dropping BCAAs, NOTHING! I never got a damn bit bigger
from walking around with a gallon jug full of water and BCAAs mixed in with it!
I don’t even walk around with a gallon of water, I drink water with my meals and
occasionally between meals. I probably hit 3/4 - 1 gallon a day, but I don’t walk
around with a gallon to make sure. Did Arnold, Franco Columbo or Lou Ferrigno
walk around with a gallon of water all day? I doubt it. I’d say they had some pretty
good physiques wouldn’t you agree?
Do You Need Supplements?
Do you need to use supplements? Absolutely not! In fact, most people who rely
on supplements are using them to compensate for a bad diet! Put it this way, I’ve
seen more guys who use nothing with better bodies than guys who use supplements
AND steroids! The bulk of steroid and supplement users don’t even look good!
Yes, some of them who use them properly along with a good diet look great but
I’m speaking about the majority here. You don’t need protein powder, creatine, or
BCAAs. What you need is a grocery store and a good plan of attack in the gym. I
use protein powder for cost and convenience. I already eat extremely disciplined
and healthy, and sometimes I don’t even use protein supplements at all. I talked
to a professional bodybuilder one time who was sponsored by a giant supplement
company. He told me, “I have jugs of that stuff sitting in my pantry, I haven’t drank
a shake in about a month, I just like to eat.” That is the cold, hard truth about the
reality of how effective supplements really are.
What Supplements Do I Place the Most Emphasis on?
This is a good question and I have a great answer! I place the most emphasis
on supplements that help me attain a greater pump in the gym and supplements
that help me sleep! Sleep is recovery, so in essence I place a strong emphasis on
recovery supplements.
106
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid)
GABA is a depressive neurotransmitter which helps increase growth hormone
efficiency, relaxation, and promotes a deeper sleep and a faster REM state of sleep.
GABA is great for relaxing at night and I sleep so much more sound on it. It’s cheap
and highly effective. If you aren’t getting good sleep then try supplementing with
GABA. I simply use one capsule a night before bed, just use it in whatever manner
the dosing directions tell you on the bottle. The best part about GABA is that I don’t
wake up groggy feeling like some other sleep supplements can do to me.
Phenibut
Phenibut is another supplement that is widely used for sleep and relaxation. It can
cause a euphoric state when taken in the right amount and is a good substitute for
alcohol. Phenibut should not be taken with alcohol! It’s something I’d take if I was
going out to a club or bar and wanted to be social but didn’t want to drink. In some
countries phenibut is classified as an RX drug and is not legal to possess.
Phenibut just lays you back. The problem is you can get used to it fast, so it’s only
really effective when taken a couple times a week. Another problem with phenibut
comes with a double edged sword. It makes you more sociable and happier, but
it seems to make me more groggy during the first half of the following day when
I dose it at night before bed. Don’t get me wrong, sleep is great on it! But I know
the next morning I may feel a little more tired for the first few hours. However, it
puts me in a mood where I’m happy and things don’t seem to bother me as much.
I have found that I do better taking a moderate dosage of phenibut combined with
1 cap of GABA about an hour before bedtime. But phenibut is a good supplement
and something I’ll continue to use. Where phenibut definitely shines for me is when
I’m dieting strict and hungry. Taking phenibut helps take the edge off the dieting
process and seems to make it more manageable. I don’t care what people tell you,
dieting can make you hungry and as you get leaner there are times where your
irritable and so hungry that you’re out of your mind! Phenibut is something that can
make this process somewhat more realistic.
107
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Injectable Vitamin B-12
I bet you didn’t see this one coming did you? Oh no, an injectable vitamin,
someone call the cops! Vitamin B-12 has a very minimal effect in oral administration
compared to the injectable form. Injectable B12 can give you added energy that
is sustainable and steady as opposed to popping B-12 pills. It’s available through
prescription or online of you look hard enough. What you want to do with B12 is
take 1,000 mcg once a week for 4 weeks to build your levels, then from that point
forward you can just inject it once a month. Your first 10 ml vial of it will last you 7
months, since you’ll be using 4,000 mcg your first month during loading, and from
that point on just 1,000 mcg per month. After that first vial and your 4 weeks of
loading it, additional vials will last 10 months each! A small price to pay for feeling
more energetic right? I use 1ml insulin syringes to inject my B-12 with, I draw it
out of the vial with a larger gauge syringe (such as an 18 - 23 gauge) then I simply
pull the plunger out of the insulin pin and backload the insulin syringe (since it’s
almost impossible to draw up through an insulin syringe). This will make injections
painless and also help avoid scar tissue. Anytime we can avoid scar tissue is a good
thing! Remember to always talk to your doctor before using anything like injectable
vitamin B12.
L-Arginine
As I talked about this earlier, L-arginine is good for increasing the nitrous-oxide
effect in the muscles (the pump). I place a large emphasis on my pre-workout
regimen and L-arginine is beneficial for me during my workouts. It also stacks
extremely well with GABA since both of these supplements promote more natural
GH release. We want as much GH as we can get as we get older since levels begin
to take a dive.
Dandelion Root
Dandelion root is most commonly used as a natural diuretic and can make you
drop a few lbs of water weight and this can promote a leaner look. There are other
benefits to taking dandelion root other than just dropping some water weight.
108
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Dandelion root can help with blood sugar control, removal of waste products from
your liver and gallbladder, and provide magnesium, calcium, potassium, and iron.
It’s one of those supplements that can be considered a staple supplement for overall
health as well as a leaner look. Usually the recommended dosage for dandelion root
is 1 gram per day which is usually the amount in 1 - 2 capsules in most brands of
dandelion root.
One question you may have about taking dandelion root is its effects on
dehydration. Dandelion root is something that is extremely mild and shouldn’t
dehydrate you if you’re drinking enough water. It’ll help your body cycle out water
and waste products without being overly aggressive.
Joint Support Formula (Glucosamine, MSM, Chondroitin)
I highly recommend using a joint support formula if you are exercising on a regular
basis, especially if you’re over the age of 30 years old. Not only do joint support
formulas help to lubricate the joints, but they help to fight and avoid inflammation.
Even if you aren’t currently experiencing joint pain, using a joint support formula
is a great preventative measure to avoid possible aches and pains that can come on
from intense exercise under workloads. I would also categorize a joint support as
one of my staple supplements.
Multivitamins
Multi-vitamins are just good to provide any essential vitamins that you may
not have gotten from your diet that day. I must be honest here about vitamin
supplements. Don’t fall victim to these expensive vitamin packs. They are sold
under the impression of “super-nutrition.” The late Mike Mentzer once said it best
when he said “There is no such thing as super-nutrition, there is only adequate
nutrition.” Big time supplement companies are selling these expensive vitamin
packs and trying to sell you on “super-nutrition” which is complete bullshit! Do
you know why you piss green after you take these vitamins? It’s because you’re
pissing out 90% of it and your body isn’t using it! It’s a total waste of money if you
ask me, I see nothing wrong with a cheap multi-vitamin such as Centrum. Nobody
109
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
is growing because they’re taking these expensive vitamin packs, that’s for damn
sure!
Creatine
While some people don’t respond as well to supplementing with creatine (I’m
one of them) I’ve seen many people that do. Anything that can increase ATP in the
muscles, help inhibit myostatin (the protein that shuts down growth mechanisms)
and cause even a slight increase in GH production is a good supplement to use.
While I don’t think I respond to creatine as well as others, it’s so inexpensive now
that I see no reason not to add it into my supplement regimen. Like I said before, I
just use regular creatine monohydrate. When I’m trying to get extremely lean then
I ditch the creatine because it does cause me to hold onto a little water. But I’m
speaking in terms of trying to get sub 10% body fat here. Most of the time it’s not
going to have an impact on my look unless I’m going for a short term look that is
much more defined than what I carry around the remainder of the year.
Apple Cider Vinegar (Raw Organic) & Baking Soda
You probably have already read about this one, but apple cider vinegar and baking
soda is good for keeping your body in an alkaline state. When you properly balance
the pH of your body it’s extremely beneficial from an all-around health standpoint.
Keeping your body alkaline will help keep you from getting sick, help with blood
sugar control, and provide an environment in your body that makes it extremely
hard for cancer to manifest itself, since apple cider vinegar contains high amounts
of polyphenols which help fight free radicals in your body.
Raw apple cider vinegar is also shown to improve cholesterol, help with
indigestion, improve skin complexion, lower blood pressure, and serve as a mild
appetite suppressant
Providing an alkaline environment for the body is even more important when
you’re bodybuilding because all of the waste products from muscle exertion. Think
about what your body produces every time you lift weights...lactic acid! Acid is the
110
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
enemy here, we want to keep our bodies balanced. What I do on a daily basis as a
staple regimen is consume 2 teaspoons of baking soda and 2 tablespoons of apple
cider vinegar mixed with water to nullify the strong taste of the vinegar. It’s a cheap
addition to a supplementation regimen and I think it’s an important one when you
consider the additional food intake bodybuilders take in throughout a large portion
of their lives.
Protein Powder
I use protein powder more for cost and convenience than anything. I don’t always
have to have it and God forbid I run out of it for a week before I buy more of it. There
are plenty of good brands of protein out there now, and my advice is to find one that
you like and is easy on your digestion. The purer form of protein is going to be your
whey isolate protein, however most proteins are now sold as a blend of isolate,
concentrate, and possibly caseinate. Whey isolate is more expensive because it
goes through a more extensive manufacturing process and it doesn’t contain nearly
the amount of lactose and fat that whey concentrate and caseinate do. If you’re
lactose intolerant then you want to stay away from concentrates and casein protein
and stick to pure isolate protein powder. Whey concentrate contains more lactose
and this isn’t always a bad thing. The protein concentrate has more overall health
promoting effects since it’s not as broken down as whey isolate, but the flipside of
this is when you’re trying to go for an extremely defined look whey concentrate can
create a film over your abs. But unless we are talking about trying to get to sub 7 8% body fat here it’s negligible to me unless you’re lactose intolerant.
Whey caseinate is the slowest digested protein because it binds to the stomach
more and takes longer to break down. This is beneficial when used as a time released
protein or when taken before bedtime to provide a steady flow of amino release over
a longer period of time. While peak concentrations aren’t nearly as high as whey
concentrate or isolate (about 30% of peak concentration levels when compared to
whey concentrate and isolate), the slow breakdown can provide a steady amino
releasing environment during times when you’re fasting (such as during sleep).
This is why cottage cheese is so common for bodybuilders to eat in the evening,
because it contains whey caseinate and is slowly digested.
111
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Most of your proteins are going to contain a blend of isolate and concentrate and
this is a good protein for most users who aren’t lactose intolerant. It’s a cost effective
protein blend that will provide a direct release as well as a steady 3 - 4 hour release
of aminos after consumption.
To put it simply, my take on protein powder is this: If I’m trying to get shredded
for a competition then I’ll switch over to pure isolate as the show draws nearer, if
I’m just trying to look good and lean the rest of the time then I use the affordable
blends of protein powders on the market. For most people the blends are perfectly
fine and until you get sub 7 - 8% body fat levels you can’t really tell a difference in
your appearance from one to the other.
Fish Oil
Fish oil is extremely heart healthy and it’s actually one of the only supplements
that is proven to help cut body fat with no change in caloric intake or exercise
frequency. I use the fish oil capsules myself because I don’t want to taste the stuff
or burp it back up. I try to use 6 grams of fish oil a day as a staple supplement. Fish
oil capsules are commonly dosed at 500 mg and 1,000 mg per capsule, so I use 6
capsules of 1,000 mg fish oil every day. Fish oil is fairly cheap and it’s a healthy
addition to a good diet and exercise regimen, ESPECIALLY WHEN TRYING TO
TORCH OFF BODY FAT! However, as cheap as fish oil can be, I wouldn’t go with
the cheapest brands. Some fish oil can be fake and contain olive oil or they can be
too high in mercury, which becomes a toxin to your body.
Finding Ways to Make it All Consistent
If there is one thing I want people to take away from reading this chapter it’s this:
You’re only going to do extreme dieting for so long at any given time. Aside from
that you need to find ways to make a healthy eating regimen in between these time
periods of going to extremes.
Anabolism while maintaining conditioning for me is placing more emphasis on
pre and post workout caloric/nutrient intake and supplementation and then being
112
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
more conservative throughout the rest of the day. Think of this as a way to have great
workouts and a couple satiating meals but without going overboard throughout the
entire day. This is exactly how I eat during times when I’m not slaving it out with
strict diets all of the time! You may also find this approach allowing you to actually
eat cleaner rather than going clean a few days and then binge eating on junk and
throwing a monkey wrench in your progress.
Am I eating at a Japanese steakhouse or a Chipotle grill for my post workout meal
all year long? No. There are times when I’m not eating out for 10 - 12 weeks at a
shot. My post workout routine isn’t always insulin, a Japanese steakhouse and a
lemonade. There are times when my carbs are cut lower than that and I simply eat
my post workout meal at home. There are selective time periods during extreme
dieting mode where I may not consume any carbs post workout at all! But these
times are very selective and few and far between. Usually I have SOME FORM of
carbohydrate post workout.
I’m just trying to expose to you what I do in between these periods of extreme
dieting, and believe me when I tell you that I’m not the only one. Not everyone you
read about is eating exactly what they claim they are or using what they claim to be
using! They’re usually just trying to tell you something that leads to a sales pitch.
They could give a fuck about you and your results. Someone needs to tell the truth
in this industry at least once in awhile!
Find a way to make a consistent healthy eating pattern for yourself. You may find
it easier to buy fresh meat and seafood from a grocery store every couple days rather
than an entire bag of frozen fish. This will allow you to feel like you have more of a
choice when it comes to dieting.
One day you may feel like making a vanilla protein shake in a blender with
strawberries and a banana instead of eating fish and rice. This is still far better than
falling off a diet altogether and binge eating. Maybe you can eat the same foods day
in and day out most of the week and then just take a couple days here and there to
have something different in order to break up the monotony of dieting.
I’ve found this to be beneficial when it comes to overall sense of well-being and
113
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
also if you have a family. Remember that it’s not healthy to be under about 8% body
fat. Getting under that level of body fat is strictly for cosmetic reasons and usually
short-lived. You will be more injury prone by being that lean, weaker in the gym,
and more tired throughout your day.
To sum it all up, you can find ways to have a happy medium, the best of both
worlds! You can still have visible abs and a defined body while going through this
process of give and take a little here and there. Once you get used to it you’ll find
your own system for staying strong while relatively lean year round if you want to
be! You could diet a little tighter for just a few weeks and look much leaner, or you
could let it go just a little bit and get much stronger without gaining much (if any)
body fat at all. Sometimes throwing foods back in will make you look even better if
your body has been deprived for too long!
I also want the lifestyle bodybuilders to know that the staple supplements and
good diet always come before the exotic supplements. What I mean by that is that
I’ll always put my staple supplements before using anything else. If I don’t have the
staples then I don’t need anything else. Supplements like joint formulas, vitamins,
fish oil, and apple cider vinegar will actually benefit my health as well as my
performance. The same cannot be said for all supplements. Health first...without
health there is no bodybuilding!
114
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
CHAPTER SEVEN
Fat Burners
When it comes to using fat burners to accelerate results for leaning out I think a
lot of them are simply misused. The diet always comes first and most people simply
don’t diet hard enough to get much benefit out of fat burners.
Where fat burners really shine for me is when they’re used on top of a metabolism
that’s already burning like a furnace from dieting while blunting the appetite at the
same time. I see no reason to use fat burners if you’re holding too much body fat
before introducing them. There is simply no reason you cannot get down near 10%
body fat before using them and if you cannot be disciplined enough to drop that low
with diet and hard training then fat burners probably aren’t the answer.
I also believe in only turning to help when I’ve exhausted other resources
preceeding the need for additional help. Therefore diet is #1 here, training is #2, and
supplementation with fat burners is #3.
115
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
There are all sorts of different fat burners on the market now and other fat burners
on the black market that aren’t over the counter that have more extreme effects. One
point I want to make is that there are 2 ways to diet down: preserve as much muscle
as possible so you actually change the way you look or lose weight as quickly as
possible and end up a smaller version of what you were to begin with. I prefer the
first route. Anytime I ever used something to accelerate fat loss quicker than what
my body naturally wanted to lose from dieting and training alone I ended up losing
too much muscle in the process.
Now, once I get down to “already fairly lean” where it’s like pulling teeth just
to lose an additional few lbs this is where fat burners come into play for me. It’s
only those final 4-6 weeks of a strict diet when I’ll use fat burners and in the past
I have competed in bodybuilding competitions and have used nothing in terms of
fat burners. When you diet and train hard enough it’s possible to achieve extremely
low levels of body fat without the use of fat burners. To my knowledge there
weren’t over the counter fat burners at supplement stores back in the golden era of
bodybuilding and the guys back then got pretty shredded so I don’t really think fat
burners are even a necessity now unless you’re using them to take off that last little
bit or as an appetite suppressant.
Another major reason for not throwing them in until the very end of your diet
is because you want every possible attempt to preserve muscle during caloric
depletion. I know guys who won’t even use caffeine when they’re trying to build
muscle mass due to it’s effects on the body burning through more calories and it’s
negative effects on sleep. I myself do not go to this extreme because I’m like most
other people who enjoy coffee too much to drop it out. The most difficult part about
avoiding caffeine is it makes it easier to want to eat more junk, at least for me
anyways.
Non-Stimulant Fat Burners
There are supplements out there that are non-stimulant fat burners and they work
under the premise of shuttling fat through the body based on natural metabolic
pathways and freeing up fatty cells through compounds that do not stimulate adrenal
glands. L-carnitine is probably the major ingredient in most of these fat burners,
116
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
followed closely by raspberry ketones, DHEA, 5-HTP, seaweed extract, rhodiola
rosea, cayenne pepper, and a few other new ingredients that are shown to accelerate
fat loss through trials and studies.
In my honest opinion non-stimulant fat burners are not all they’re cracked up to
be. If you’re extremely sensitive to stimulants or simply cannot handle the feeling
of stimulants then a non-stimulant fat burner may be your best option, but it’s been
from my own experience that they do VERY LITTLE. Many of the ingredients
(especially L-carnitine) just do jack-all when taken orally and most of the product is
broken down before it can do much of anything. The few non-stimulant fat burners
I’ve used in the past made me feel like I could have gotten the same results from a
simple placebo. I saw hardly anything from them and for all I know the continued
dieting was what was bringing me around more than the addition of the fat burner.
This is just my opinion on non-stimulant fat burners and I won’t be wasting my
money on them again. But hey, that’s just me.
Thermogenics
A thermogenic fat burner is a fat burner that actually raises your heart rate.
When you’re on a treadmill or stairclimber what happens? Exactly, your heart rate
becomes elevated and you begin burning body fat. The effects of the heart rate
elevation continue on throughout the next few hours and your body begins to start
breaking down fat.
When you take a stimulant your heart rate becomes elevated throughout much
of the day. This isn’t exactly a healthy way of doing things and thermogenics are
something I’d limit. I look at my heart like a light switch and I’m only going to
flip the switch on and off so many times before I blow a light bulb. Thermogenic
fat burners just aren’t something I’d stay on all the time. Once in awhile during a
very strict diet I will use them, but even at that I tend to use fat burners that have a
more well rounded blend in them rather than just fat burners that are loaded to the
gills on caffeine. Sometimes the further you diet down the worse your thyroid gets
at efficiently burning calories and you become this stagnant slab of starvation who
doesn’t efficiently utilize food as well anymore.
117
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
This is where a fat burner with thyroid support is good to use. There are plenty
of decent brands out there. All I’m telling you is to be careful as to how many
stimulants you’re dumping into your body. I see some guys who drink coffee, want
to use a fat burner pill and also use a pre workout that’s loaded with caffeine on a
daily basis. When you start to add up all of the caffeine it’s dangerous and guess
what? You’re interrupting the most efficient method of burning fat there is which is
good sleep!
That’s right, most of our bodies fat burning properties take place in our sleep, and
too many stimulants can ruin sleep! So again, just enough to get the job done is my
motto here as well. And I wouldn’t constantly stay on fat burning supplements or
drugs often. They should only be used to bust off that last little bit of body fat.
Taking Fat Burners When All Bets Are Off
Taking fat burners when all bets are off, what do I mean here? I’m talking about
the final month of a diet when you’re sleeping like total shit no matter what and
you’re pushing in any way possible to get that last little bit off body fat to come off.
This would be the difference between going from 8% body fat down to 5-6% body
fat.
Usually this would only be for someone who is trying to prepare for a specific
event. By this point in a diet you’re going to be completely miserable and there are
no 2 ways around that. You’re just flat out hungry, and because you’re hungry your
body doesn’t want to sleep well. What was once a comfortable 7-8 hours of sleep
per night can drop down to 4-5 hours a night. Many will use sleeping aids to help
fall asleep during this time.
This is the point where trying to lose additional body fat honestly just isn’t healthy
and it’s strictly for cosmetic satisfaction or something short-lived like preparing for
a physique or bodybuilding competition or possibly a photo shoot.
Fat burners are beneficial during this time because they help give you additional
118
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
energy while dulling hunger. They will just help keep you going through this last
month of a living hell. As I said before, this is certainly not an enjoyable process
when it gets to this point. Exercising may seem like a task and no longer enjoyable,
strength will suffer, and the diet process itself can make you depressed. You may
also notice a loss in sex drive, even if you’re taking supplemental testosterone.
In any species the process of reproduction is only natural when conditions are
favorable for survival. When your body fat levels are getting this low there is no
signal sent to your body to reproduce. This is when it’s no longer healthy and this
is usually the modern day standard of what looks like health and fitness now. It’s
really not though, it’s a pipe dream to get you to continue to chase something that
isn’t quite what you thought it was once you get to that point!
Fat Burners Before Bedtime
I’ve spoken of this before in the past, but for those who haven’t read about it then
I’ll explain it again right here. One trick to bust off extra body fat is to take your
fat burners right before you go to sleep. You can do this with any thermogenic,
but you need to do it RIGHT BEFORE GOING TO BED! Not an hour before, not
20 minutes before, I mean right before your head hits the pillow, this way you’re
asleep before it kicks in.
What this does is it makes the fat burning compound start working during a fasted
state. It’s not the healthiest thing to do because this is during a time when you
should be sleeping and your heart rate should be slowing down. But again, this is
during a time when all bets are basically off and you’re trying to get as lean as you
can possibly get. This isn’t something you want to do when you’re still 15% body
fat, this is reserved for when you already have abs, you’re already vascular, and
you’re just pushing for that last little bit. Put it this way: I haven’t even done this in
about 5-6 years now. The last time I did this trick was preparing for a bodybuilding
competition back in 2009.
Hemorrhoid Cream, Epsom Salt Baths and Static Cling Wrap
No, I’m not talking about hemorrhoids here, I’m speaking about tightening up
119
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
your skin. I’m sure some of you may have heard of these tactics before, but for the
ones who haven’t allow me to explain. Again, this is reserved for people who are
already extremely low in body fat, if you’re not low enough in body fat then these
tactics are nothing more than a waste of your time. You should already have clearly
visible abdominals before doing any of this.
Twice a week when I’m very lean I’ll take epsom salt baths to help tighten my
skin up. Then in the evening time before bed, I’ll rub preparation-H hemorrhoid
cream on my abdomen and then wrap static cling wrap around my trunk to hold in
the cream. Then I’ll go to bed with that static cling wrapped around me and when I
awake the next morning I’ll throw it away and shower off the preparation-H cream.
I may do this every single night the final couple weeks of the diet. I’ll be sure to rub
the preparation-H on my sides, my abdomen, and possibly my lower back. Then I
wrap it and go to sleep.
This is the point of body fat loss where you start asking yourself about your level
of sanity. This is beyond what most people are willing to go through and just like
the fat burners before bed trick, this isn’t something you’d see me doing unless I
was preparing for something more than just getting healthy and dropping body fat.
Dieting is Always the Key
I’ve seen guys who have dropped to insanely low levels of body fat from diet
and training alone. These are the kind of guys who stand up there next to other
guys who have used fat loss drugs and other products such as thyroid hormone and
HGH to lose body fat, and often times the guys who simply out-dieted his fellow
competitors looked leaner and harder!
I think the real key to losing body fat is simply discipline. We all have those times
where we get hungry and it’d be easy to cave in and eat that slice of pizza or cookie.
The ones who are so committed that they say “NO” at any and all costs are the ones
who get the leanest. The other night I woke up at 1:30am and the first thought I had
was, “I bet that ice cream in the freezer would be good right about now, it’s only
6 or 7 hours before my day off from the diet begins.” As bad as I wanted to eat a
bunch of ice cream and go back to bed I refused to give in.
120
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
When you go through these periods of saying no to caving in on the diet, it’s times
like these that you get real results! Where everyone else gives in and eats the junk,
you simply say no. This type of willpower prevails over anything you could put into
your body when it comes to getting lean and mean!
Cardio for Fat Loss from My Perspective
I don’t believe in living on a treadmill or a stair climber. You’ll see herds of people
every new year flocking to the cardio equipment in hopes of losing insane amounts
of fat when many of these people are simply wasting their time. They’re wasting
their time for of a couple of reasons. The first reason being that any deficit they
create in daily caloric intake they’re going to replace anyways due to a lack of
willpower with eating strict and in limited portions. The second reason is because
their cardio workouts turn into muscle catabolism from over-training.
I believe in cardio solely to keep my metabolism firing and stay hungry. I also
believe in cardiovascular training for all around health and a healthy heart. But
usually 3x a week on cardio is good enough for me, especially since most of my
cardio is high intensity cardio (ie; stairclimber intervals, brisk walk on steep incline
treadmill, hill sprints, etc) High intensity cardio is superior to me because of the
aftermath of the high intensity cardio. You simply burn more calories long after
the cardio session is over with. High intensity cardio just turns your body into a fat
burning machine and you don’t have to live on a piece of cardio equipment.
Doing enough to work up a good sweat 3x a week for 20 minutes, combined with
a clean diet is plenty to be healthy and burn body fat. I also do not take long rest
periods in between sets in the gym so my heart rate stays elevated during my entire
weight workout as well. Sometimes if the weight workouts are intense enough I’ll
do very little cardio for several weeks at a time. I’ve had plenty of people I’ve
trained in the past where I’ve told them to drop their cardio out altogether the last
month of dieting. They always have the same reaction when I tell them to do this,
they’re basically saying “Why do you want me to drop cardio?”
121
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
I will have some people totally drop out cardio because they’re already as lean as
they’re going to get before catabolizing their muscles. From that point on it becomes
more of a matter of letting the diet bring them in and working on maintaining as
large of a muscular look as possible with little body fat. More often than not once
they cut their cardio out they actually get harder looking and their muscles become
fuller. Again, this is only the case with people who are already extremely lean and
they’ve put in enough work leading up to this point of being able to drop cardio
totally out of the picture. It’s short-lived and only for the tail end of dieting. They’re
not going to diet this hard forever and at some point cardio will resume.
Cardio frequency also relates to how strict I’m eating. I can only get away with
limited to no cardio when I’m eating extremely disciplined and taking very short
rest periods between my sets involving weight training. It’s not realistic for me to be
eating so tight that I can neglect cardio all the time. So during much of the year I’ll
increase my cardio frequency to 5-6x per week as opposed to only 3x/wk or none
at all if I’m eating very little and training hard. I’ve also noticed that as I get older
the cardio becomes more important. Sometimes the added cardio actually gives me
more strength for my weight training and helps give me more energy throughout
the day.
Strength Levels as They Pertain to Fat Loss
You’ll never be as strong when you’re at your leanest. I repeat...you’ll never be as
strong when you’re at your leanest! I don’t care how much protein you’re eating or
how infrequent your training sessions are to allow adequate recovery, when your
body fat levels get very low your strength is going to drop. If everything is done
properly this shouldn’t be drastic until the last month of an extreme diet phase.
What I try to do is maintain as much of my strength as possible until around the
final 4 weeks of dieting. At that point it’s very important to listen to my body to
avoid getting injured. There simply isn’t the same amount of fluid around my joints
to protect them as there was when my body fat wasn’t as low and my energy reserves
and recovery reserves just aren’t there. It’s sort of impossible not to overtrain when
you get to an extremely low level of body fat because you’re depleted no matter
122
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
what. Sleep has become harder to get, energy levels just aren’t there, and you’re
pretty much pushing through workouts without necessarily having great workouts
when your body fat levels are as low as I’m talking about here. The process during
the last month of dieting to get this low in body fat is honestly pretty miserable.
You’ll look your best when you feel your worst.
If you were to go backstage to any bodybuilding competition you will not see
upbeat people who feel good. You will see guys who are walking around like
zombies and doing something as simple as tying their shoes takes a lot of effort for
them. Most people will not want to get to this sort of low level of body fat, I’m just
trying to give you the truth here. The truth of the matter is that the guy on the cover
of that fitness magazine with a great big smile on his face isn’t really smiling on the
inside. If that smile could talk it would be saying, “I’m pretty hungry and miserable
but right now I have you all fooled!”
In the final stages of losing that last bit of body fat all bets are pretty much off
in terms of how strong you are. This is the point when overall strength should not
concern you and the weights you’re using should not bother you. If you normally
bench press 315 lbs for reps then expect to barely hit 315 lbs for a single max rep,
and what you once did with 315 lbs for reps you may even struggle to do with 225
lbs. If you’re just as strong in single digit body fat as you were walking around
fat then you’ve probably done something wrong along the way, unless you’re just
naturally a very lean individual genetically. But I’d say that 95% of trainees will be
much weaker than normal during the final month of extreme body fat loss. I have
NEVER stayed that strong in my final month of dieting for insanely low levels of
body fat.
This goes back to one of the main concepts of this book to begin with: finding
that happy medium between health, musculature, athleticism, and being lean. You
may find that it’s easier to have shorter phases where you gear your training either
towards strength, fat loss and/or athletic performance. There is a good reason that
people who play professional sports don’t look like bodybuilders. Even people in
sports of endurance such as boxing, mixed martial arts, crossfit, and triathletes do
not hold the same extreme amount of muscle:body fat ratio as bodybuilders do
and this is for a very good reason. Their performance will never be the same when
123
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
training strictly for cosmetic changes as it would be for sports performance. You
need to decide what lifestyle is for you, and many of you may have to stop and ask
yourselves if this is really where you’re trying to go with working out and nutrition.
It’s certainly not for everyone, but if you’re trying to be the type of body that turns
heads everywhere you go then you better believe that there is much more sacrifice
than what anyone else is putting into their sport.
When a basketball game is over with you can go get a burger and fries. When a
football game is finished you can go eat chicken wings and worry about restoring
energy levels that were expended on the field to maintain your mass for football.
When the gym is over with you have to continue throughout your day dieting and
focusing on the goal at hand, since everything involved in bodybuilding is a 24/7
endeavor. As much as I’d like to make this a grey area sometimes, it’s pretty black
and white; you either accept the fact that this is something you want to do and eating
strict at times comes with it, or you accept looking the way you do and being more
comfortable with other parts of life.
There is no reason you cannot be large and muscular and have a great body without
resorting to certain extremes as I’ve talked about here. This is all relative to the
way you want to look. There are times when I like to be a better combination of
size to being lean rather than being strictly cut up. There is a level of body fat that I
personally think is too low and doesn’t look as good to me. I prefer the nice balance
of walking around with decent abs but large looking rather than just having the best
set of abs and quad separation around. I suppose this is what got me looking more
at old-school bodybuilders than new age bodybuilders. I prefer the look of the guys
from back in the golden era of bodybuilding. With that being said though, they still
busted their tails far beyond what most people go through now just to look large at
7-8% body fat as opposed to some of the guys now who drop to levels of body fat
that are near death.
The Anabolic Rebound from Extreme Fat Loss Diets
I’ve talked several times about taking 2 steps back in order to take another step
forward. If there is another benefit other than walking around looking extremely
124
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
ripped up for a short period of time, it’s that when you go back to eating more food
you’ll most likely look larger at a leaner look than you did before.
The same way as you look better and better from dieting down over and over, the
same can be said for building back up from dieting. Now, rather than building back
up to where you were at when you began dieting at an average or above average
body fat level, you may find that you get back to that size while looking leaner and
harder than before you began strictly dieting. From this point forward you may also
find that the extreme dieting phase has allowed you to grow larger than you had
grown before. Your body will go into a huge state of anabolism when rebounding
from a strict diet and the gains that you’ll experience after a diet are gains that are
similar (if not more extreme) than running a cycle. Food is very anabolic in itself,
and when the body craves food after it’s been denied for so long it just goes crazy
once it’s reintroduced.
So even if you have no desire to be a bodybuilding competitor or to walk around at
body fat levels that extremely low, you should know that the rebound effect in itself
may be well worth the effort of dieting strict for a few months.
Always remember to put your diet first. Everything else is secondary to your diet!
125
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Real Deal with HIT
(High Intensity Training) Routines
Johndoebodybuilding.com is what is considered a niche bodybuilding website. I
get more involved in the mindframe of the bodybuilder and I try to educate people
on bodybuilding and nutrition rather than just providing “one-size-fits-all” styles of
eating and training. The truth is this: there are no perfect diets and workout routines!
Take all of the bullshit you read in your latest issue of “bodybuilder magazine” and
throw it in the trash can, it’s useless!
With that being said, what I can tell you is what I’ve found works for me on an
experienced to advanced level of dieting and training. I can tell you what has worked
with dieting and training as it revolves around the working individual and someone
with other obligations in life outside of just going to the gym! In this chapter I will
provide you with workout tactics and templates that I have used and currently use
to continue to make progress in the gym. Many of the outlines you’ll read in this
chapter are bits and pieces from other workouts and principles that are already out
there and some of them are my own adaptations and workout routines.
126
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
You can feel free to modify any of these templates to suit your individual needs
and to fit into what you’re able to physically accomplish. Remember, THERE IS
NO PERFECT ROUTINE WHEN IT COMES TO WORKING OUT!
Change of Pace between High Intensity Training and Volume Training
The ongoing debate of whether high intensity workouts or volume workouts has
been going on for over 6 decades now and I doubt it’s going to end. Some people
prefer high intensity training and a low volume approach while others are partial
to a high volume and moderate intensity approach. Truth be told, I do both. I will
switch off to whatever it is I haven’t done in awhile and then after doing that for a
few months I’ll switch back to the total opposite. Let’s begin with the high intensity/
low volume approach.
The advantages of a high intensity/low volume approach are:
• The ability to push heavier weights for higher reps due to increased recovery
time between workouts and a lower number of sets
• A better way to increase work output through DOUBLE PROGRESSION
(increasing both work weight and reps every workout)
• Ability to work muscles multiple times a week because of a lower set count
and increased recovery time
• The mental satisfaction of truly pushing yourself beyond what you think you
can do
• Shorter workouts/more days off, that work better with time constraints and
other obligations in life
• Faster gains in size and strength
127
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
• The ability to warm up in a way that doesn’t hamper working sets taken to
failure
• Being able to do full body splits (or full upper body/lower body splits)
Disadvantages of a high intensity/low volume approach:
• Increased risk of injury for inexperienced trainers who don’t know their body
• Quick burnout from constantly “raising the bar” on work weight and rep
count (I’m only good on a HIT approach for about 6 - 8 weeks MAX)
• Nervous system fatigue that may require additional days off to recover
• Often difficult to perform without a spotter or in a crowded gym (especially
if you superset more than 1 exercise and are doing an exercise to total failure
and beyond)
A high intensity training style is when you put more intensity into a given set
rather than holding back for set after set. So typically we aren’t doing multiple
warm-up sets which hinder our overall ability to take our one working set to failure
and beyond. Many of you may already be familiar with this style of training. Most
commonly each exercise contains a few progressive warmups and 1 working set.
Workouts can be done in traditional body part splits, full body splits, full upper
body or full lower body splits. There are no rules here, however I myself am partial
to full upper body split routines 3x/wk.
Let’s say we are beginning the workout with a chest exercise. I’ll use incline
dumbbell presses as an example here. The typical warm-up sets would be the first 3
sets of the exercise, but a couple of these warm-up sets aren’t going to be just light
warm-up sets. They are sets that are going to quickly prepare you for your 1 set that
is taken to maximum intensity and failure (or failure and beyond with the assistance
of a spotter).
128
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
You want your first set to be a light set of 12 reps. Your next set will be a moderate
weight for 8 - 10 reps, and your third warm-up set would be a weight that would
normally be considered work weight but you’ll only be performing 3 - 5 reps,
therefore it’s not considered a “working set.” Now, the final set is your working
set. This set you will increase the weight and you’ll take this set to absolute failure.
It’s the type of set where if someone put a gun to your head and told you to do more
reps then you’d do more reps! After this set your exercise is finished, you have done
everything you could do that day on that given exercise and anything else would
actually be detrimental and not beneficial.
Example for myself:
Incline Dumbbell presses
Set 1 - 50 lb DB’s x 12 reps
Set 2 - 75 lb DB’s x 8 reps
Set 3 - 100 lb DB’s x 3 - 5 reps
Set 4 (working set) - 125 lb DB’s x 12 - 15 reps
After this chest exercise is complete I have a couple of options here. I can go
perform a different chest exercise in the same fashion as the first exercise, or I can
move on to a different muscle group. I frequently do full upper body splits where
once I complete one exercise for chest I will move onto a different muscle group
such as my back. Then I’ll move to shoulders and then onto biceps and triceps.
This would be the fashion of a full upper body routine using an HIT style of
training. Because I didn’t do every little exercise for chest, I’m able to return to
the gym in the next couple days and hit every muscle again, only I’ll pick different
exercises for my next workout.
The other option I have is to do a traditional split routine using HIT principles. So
let’s say I’m working chest and biceps, I’ll do 2 - 3 different exercises for chest and
129
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
another 2 - 3 different exercises for biceps. The rest of the week would fall under
a traditional split routine only hitting muscle groups once per week rather than
multiple times per week. I’m honestly partial to full upper body splits though. I like
to work my muscles 2 - 3x/week, and when I know I’m just doing 1 set to absolute
failure it lights a fire in me and motivates me.
Below is an example of a typical full upper body HIT split for me (for my back I’ll
do an exercise for lat width and an additional back exercise for back thickness such
as any rowing motion, because the back is such a large muscle group).
JDB Full Upper Body Split
Exercise 1 - Chest
Incline DB presses
Exercise 2 - Back width
Wide grip lateral pulldowns
Exercise 3 - Back thickness
T-bar rows or bent over barbell rows
Exercise 4 - Shoulders
Overhead shoulder press machine
Exercise 5 - Biceps
Standing DB curls w/ both arms at same time
Exercise 6 - Triceps
Tricep pressdowns
Exercise 7 - Abs
3 sets of decline sit-ups, 3 sets of hanging leg raises (abs are the exception to
the rule, I perform multiple sets using bodyweight) I usually do 25 reps per set.
WORKOUT IS COMPLETE!
I’ll take a day off after this workout and when I return to the gym I’ll work all of
130
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
these upper body muscles again, only I’ll use different exercises. Again, I’ll take a
day off after that and then return to the gym and do this same routine again, only I’ll
do different exercises than the first 2 days. After 3 rounds of this I may return to the
same exercises as the first day. I’ll try to increase work weight, reps, or both. A lot
of times I’ll increase in both because strength comes on quickly when working out
in this fashion!
Leg Training with HIT Style
You’re probably asking yourself where legs come into play here? I will pick one
day right after one of my full upper body HIT splits to perform a full leg workout.
While I will train my upper body a few days a week I’ll limit legs to just once/wk.
Legs are such a large muscle group that I don’t need to perform them as often. I’ve
tried the full body HIT routines, and for myself and my own recovery abilities,
they’re just too demanding. I prefer to split upper body and lower body up for
recovery purposes. You may be able to include legs into a full body routine 2 - 3x/
wk and make it manageable, but for myself, time constraints and recovery are an
issue with doing both in the same workout.
My Leg Workouts
Leg training here falls into the same category as my back training. Because legs
are such a large muscle group, just performing a single exercise for legs just isn’t
enough for me. My leg work is divided into leg extensions, lying or seated leg curls,
a press movement such as leg presses, hack squats, or barbell squats, and something
for calves.
Typical Leg Day for Myself Using HIT Style Training:
Exercise 1 - Leg extensions
Set 1 - 50 lbs x 12 reps
Set 2 - 100 lbs x 8 reps
131
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Set 3 - 175 lbs x 3 reps
Set 4 (working set) - 240 lbs x 15 reps
Exercise 2 - Lying leg extensions
***Performed in same fashion as leg extensions
Exercise 3 - Leg press
***Performed in same fashion as leg extensions
Exercise 4 - Standing calf raises
***Performed in same fashion as leg extensions
Note: my next leg workout will consist of a different exercise for my pressing and
calves. If this week was leg presses and standing calve raises, then next week will
be barbell squats and seated calf raises. Some exercises such as leg extensions and
lying leg curls may remain the same within consecutive workouts, but I will play
with rep range a little and go higher reps one day, lower reps the next (although low
reps for me is still considered 8 - 12 reps). I simply do a rep range of 8 - 12 reps and
beyond because it’s safer for me.
Weekly HIT Routine Template
Day 1 - Full upper body
Day 2 - OFF
Day 3 - Full upper body
Day 4 - OFF
Day 5 - Full upper body
132
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Day 6 - Legs
Day 7 - OFF
Repeat weekly cycle
Remember, this is simply a template. You have the ability to do any exercise
you feel suitable. Whether it’s flat chest presses, fly’s, concentration curls instead
of standing DB curls, or front squats rather than back squats, THERE ARE NO
LIMITATIONS HERE! I do however like to come back around the following week
to one of the same exercises so I can see the strength progression in that exercise.
If you feel as if you need an extra day to recover then there is no harm in taking it.
Mold this workout style into a way that works best for you.
HIT Principles
I spoke earlier of “failure and beyond”. What is meant by failure and beyond? There
are certain things you can do to increase workout intensity that aren’t necessarily
more sets, yet they’re exercises involving maximum intensity and muscle fiber
recruitment but not typical sets.
Rest Pause Training
Rest-pause training is when you have hit absolute failure on a given exercise and
you rest just a brief 10 - 15 seconds before trying to complete a few more reps.
This is where it’s a wise idea to have a spotter or use a machine if you do not have a
spotter. I will do up to 2 rest pause phases at the tail end of my working set. I will do
my working set to failure, rest a brief 10 - 15 seconds and try to get 3 - 4 more reps,
then again rest 10 - 15 seconds and see if I can get another 1 - 2 reps. Think of this as
an “add-on” to your set. I do not do more than 2 rest-pauses per set and I do not use
this for every exercise/workout.
133
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Extreme Stretching
Extreme stretching is when you hold a stretch under a weight for a period of 1
minute or so. This method of intensity was popularized and made mainstream from
“DC training.” A good exercise that comes to mind is the DB fly or fly machine.
You simply use a moderate weight and lower it into the lowest stretching position,
then simply hold it there for 1 minute. This can be painful yet extremely effective at
providing growth. It’s difficult to do this for every muscle group and you may need
to get creative. For example, on quads I will simply sit on the floor on my knees
and lean back to stretch out the quads for 1 minute. Like I said, you may need to get
creative here!
Static Holds
A static hold is when you lift a weight halfway up and hold it in place for a given
amount of time. I usually go 1 minute on these. You simply hold the weight at the
halfway up position and struggle to hold it there while the clock ticks down. Yes,
it’s a downright bitch but quite effective at working the static part of your strength
and helping provide overall strength during your lifts. I mostly use machines for my
static holds due to the safety factor of doing these. If I have a spotter I’ll occasionally
do it with free weights but 9x out of 10 I’m using a machine for these such as a
hammer strength press or nautilus machine.
Super-Slow
Popularized by the late Mike Mentzer, “super-slow” is a set of 4 - 6 reps where
the rep speed is extremely slow, providing maximum muscle stimulation during the
lift. Typically you want to take 10 seconds to go up with a weight and another 10
seconds to go down with it.
So let’s take a standing barbell curl for an example here: you’ll do the curling
motion up in a slow and steady 10 second count, then return down (eccentric phase)
for an additional 10 seconds. Obviously you will have to use moderate weight here,
you aren’t going to be doing this with a normal heavy working weight. There is
134
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
also a danger factor when attempting these type of sets with a heavier weight than
you can handle for that sort of rep tempo. Super-slow is brutal but highly effective.
Actually, come to think of it I’ve never seen anyone else in the gym doing it...unless
they were training with me.
The 1-Minute Dip
“The 1-minute dip” can be a real bitch for most trainees. I believe this was
popularized by Boyer Coe. This is where you perform a single dip taking 30
seconds to go down and another 30 seconds to come back up. It’s all about total
muscle control here and maximum muscle fiber recruitment. You may need to start
off slower and do 15 seconds down and 15 seconds up, working your way up to
the full 1-minute dip. This can be performed as a finisher for a workout or as an
initial exercise performed before the remainder of the workout. I usually do this
after training my triceps. I occasionally flip-flop the order and start from the bottom
going up and then down as opposed to beginning at the top.
The 1-Minute Chin-up
This is a bicep exercise that is highly effective at stimulating biceps into new
growth. Just like the 1 minute dip you’ll perform a single chin-up (palms inward)
taking 30 seconds to go down and an additional 30 seconds to lift yourself up. You
can also change the order to start from going up to down. You can do this as a
beginner to a workout, a finisher, or midways through your routine. I usually do this
either before or after my other bicep work. For some people this 1 exercise will be
all that’s necessary for a total bicep workout! They’re extremely challenging and
for myself they’re much harder than the 1 minute dip!
Rep Count and Rest Periods with HIT Training
It’s very important to use a slower rep speed with HIT training because you aren’t
doing a traditional warm-up as you would a more traditional routine. A solid 3 4 second negative is critical when performing almost every exercise of an HIT
routine. Some exercises such as deadlifts, bent over rows, and pulldowns would
135
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
be an exception, simply due to the danger factor of the stabilizer muscles involved
and the extreme demands these exercises can place on tendons during the negative
portion of the movement. But for most other exercises a slow rep speed is where
it’s at. It’s all about time under tension when training in this fashion. This style of
training is not for the beginning bodybuilder, it’s for the bodybuilder who is already
fairly well developed and knows his/her body.
As for time between sets, I’d recommend a shorter rest period to take advantage
of fat burning during your workouts. Just because you’re not on a treadmill doesn’t
mean you cannot burn large amounts of body fat with HIT style training. Shorter
rest intervals will mean that your heart rate will become more elevated which will
help burn body fat. On upper body exercises I’d recommend a 30 - 45 second rest
between sets and for lower body I’d recommend 1 minute of rest between sets on
your presses, possibly 30 - 45 seconds on accessory work such as leg extensions,
leg curls, and calf raises.
Warm-ups Within a Set (Only to be Used by The Advanced Trainer!)
One of the basis that is behind HIT training is doing “just enough work” to prepare
a muscle for all-out-war. That means that if you can warm up with less work, then
your working set has the ability to be taken further into heavier weights for more
reps. You aren’t taxing yourself before the main set here.
You do have the ability to warm up within a working set. This is done by doing the
first few reps at a slower pace and then by rep #4 you’re into the working set itself.
The first few reps are all that’s needed for some highly advanced trainers who are
extremely familiar with their bodies. For example, let’s say I want to complete a
full upper body split in under 30 minutes. I will load up to a working weight right
away while being conscious of my first few reps being the actual warm-up.
I have started off squats with 405 lbs before. I simply take the first few reps slower
and I may go a little shallow on them, thereafter those first few reps I’ll go ass to
the grass and bang out as many as I possibly can. That’s it, squats are complete
and I’m on to a different exercise! This is something I’d only recommend to about
136
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
5% of lifters out there, because without being extremely familiar with your body
and your abilities this could be a dangerous set! This also isn’t the sort of thing I’d
recommend to an older crowd with tendon and arthritis issues. Even if you don’t
fall into that category I’d use this technique very sparingly!
So How Does a Typical Split Involving HIT Principles Look for Me?
This would be a typical full upper body day for me in more detail, including
some high intensity principles within the workout:
Full upper body split with HIT principles
Exercise 1 - Hammer strength machine incline press - 3 progressive warmups,
1 work set of 12 - 15 reps, after failure I’ll rest 15 seconds and then do 3 - 4 more
reps, rest another 15 seconds and do 1 - 2 more reps. I’ll include RPT (rest-pause
training) with this exercise.
Exercise 2 - Wide grip lateral pulldowns - 2 - 3 progressive warmups, 1
working set of 12 - 15 reps, followed by a 1 minute static hold. I’ll pull the
weight halfway down to the chest and just hold it steady for 1 minute. This will
be around 80 lbs lighter than my working set.
Exercise 3 - Bent over rows - 2 -3 progressive warmups and 1 working set for
10 - 12 reps, followed by RPT x 2, rest 15 seconds after failure than try for 3 - 4
more reps, then rest an additional 15 seconds and do 1-2 more reps. (Remember,
think of RPT training as an addition to your main working set, not an additional
set)
Exercise 4 - Side lateral raises - 2 progressive warm ups followed by 1 main
working set (No HIT ADD-ON WORK HERE, IT’S NOT NECESSARY FOR
EVERY EXERCISE!)
Exercise 5 - Tricep pressdowns using rope - 2 progressive warm ups followed
by 1 main working set of 15 - 20 reps, take 1 minute rest and follow up pressdowns
with “The 1-Minute Dip”
Exercise 6 - Standing DB curls - 2 progressive warm ups followed by 1 main
137
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
working set of 15 - 20 reps, take 1 - 2 minutes rest and perform the 1 minute chin
up as my add-on
Exercise 7 - Optional abdominal work (Remember, abs are an exception to the
rule. I’ll do multiple sets with just my bodyweight)
When to Discontinue HIT Training
I myself simply cannot do HIT style training for more than about 6-8 weeks at a
time without a break. It becomes very demanding on your body and the constant
increase in weights lifted and reps becomes taxing over the course of 6-8 weeks.
I think the more advanced you are the quicker this style of training is going to
creep up on you. Someone who has never done it before may find that they can do
it for several months and make great progress, for someone highly advanced they
may hit a brick wall after the first 4-5 weeks of doing it.
Once you begin to hit a stopping point for a few workouts straight in either
weights lifted and/or reps, it may be time to put HIT on the back burner and switch
to something else for awhile. This is when I benefit from switching to a higher
volume approach. A high volume/high frequency approach is actually my way of
taking a break (since I’m using lighter weights), not taking things more extreme!
Mixing HIT Training into a High Volume Routine
Remember, I said there are no rules here! There is nothing that says you cannot
mix up some of your HIT training with volume training. Often times what I like to
do is “throw an axe in the middle of a workout.”
What I mean by throwing an axe into a workout is that you’re just throwing
something off-the-wall at your body halfway through a workout to shock it. So let’s
say I was doing your typical split working 2 different body parts on any given day.
It wouldn’t be unusual for me to throw in a 1 minute dip or 1 minute chin halfway
through the workout.
138
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
It also wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for me to do some rest pause training for
1 or 2 exercIses either. Just because the routine itself isn’t high intensity training
doesn’t mean I cannot mix in some HIT principles into the workouts. I do a lot of
different things in the beginning, middle, or end of a workout. A lot of the time I’ll
just throw something in there out of left field and go at it.
I may do a single set of push-ups to absolute failure at the end of the workout, or
I may do it at the beginning of the workout. There are no rules here, if something
challenges me then I know my body is going to try to adapt and compensate for the
challenges I’m throwing at it.
JDB’s Top High Intensity Routines
Here are some HIT routines that will definitely bring on the results if they’re
accompanied by a good diet and/or enough food to grow. They will also prove
extremely effective at holding onto muscle mass while cutting. The length of time
that you can stay on any of these routines is going to be based on how much you can
tolerate without burning yourself out. Even when training HIT style, it’s easy to get
burnt out once you get to a certain level of intensity and have made a certain amount
of gains. For most people I would think 6 - 8 weeks would be a good length of time
to stick to any of these training routines. As I’ve said before, I’ll actually switch to
volume training to give myself a break, where your average person would think
someone training in a higher volume fashion would be pushing their pedal to the
floor during that time, but it’s exactly the opposite for me!
JDB’s Max Muscle High Rep HIT Routine
Day 1 - Chest/Back
***Warmup on treadmill or stairclimber for 20 minutes
Incline smith machine or DB press - 1 warm-up set of 12 reps w/ light weight,
2nd warm-up set of 8 reps w/ moderate weight, 3rd warm-up set w/ a heavy
weight for 3 - 5 reps (this would be a weight that could be considered “working
weight” if you were to take reps higher, but you’re stopping at just 3 - 5 reps)
139
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
then 1 working set of 8 - 12 reps, taken to absolute failure
Standing cable crossovers, pec deck machine, or incline or flat DB fly’s - 2
sets of 20 reps (moderate weight performed for maximum squeeze and muscle
contraction, not necessarily taken to failure)
Wide grip pull-ups - 50 reps, taking as many sets needed to get to 50 reps total
Deadlifts - 5 sets of 5 reps (pyramiding up in weight until your 5th set is taken to
failure, but only go to failure every other week since the deadlift is so taxing on
your body, on your alternate weeks you have a lighter deadlift day)
Seated cable rows w/ parallel grip - 2 sets of 20 reps (moderate weight
performed for maximum squeeze and muscle contraction, not necessarily taken
to failure)
Day 2 - OFF
Day 3 - Legs/Abs
***Warmup on treadmill or stairclimber for 20 minutes
Leg extensions - 2 light warm-up sets of 20 reps/set
Barbell squats or leg press- 5 sets of 8 - 12 reps (taking last set to absolute failure,
if it’s more than 12 reps then add more weight next time)
Lying leg curls - 4 sets total, 12 - 15 reps/set, your first 3 sets will be a light
weight warm-up, moderate weight warm-up, and a heavy warm-up, then your
final set will be a heavy working set
Straight leg deadlifts w/ barbell or holding DB’s - 2 sets of 20 reps (lighter
weight, focus on squeeze, maximum muscle contraction and stretch at the bottom
part)
Standing or seated calf raises or calf press machine - 1 set of 50 reps, using
up to 2 rest-pauses within the 50 rep set (you fail and rest a brief 10 - 15 seconds,
then continue on, then repeat 1 more time if necessary to get to the 50 reps)
140
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Decline sit-ups - 5 sets of 25 reps
Hanging leg raises - 5 sets of 25 reps
Day 4 - OFF
Day 5 - Shoulders/arms
***Warmup on treadmill or stairclimber for 20 minutes
Side lateral raises - 2 sets of 20 reps as a warm-up for shoulders
Seated overhead DB press or machine shoulder press - 4 total sets, first 3
sets are done as a light weight warm-up x 12 reps, moderate weight warm-up x
8 reps, heavy warm-up x 3 - 5 reps, followed by a single heavy set of 8 - 12 reps
to absolute failure. Your sets will be a 3/4 rep range where you DO NOT lock
out on the reps, this will protect the shoulder joints and keep you away from
shoulder impingement! Stop the movement about 8 - 12” short of lockout. Your
AC joint in your deltoid can deteriorate from heavy weight causing bone on bone
movement with less joint cushion to protect you. This joint is where the shoulder
comes into the collar bone and it’s a very common injury for bodybuilders. It’s
a nagging injury that requires an orthopedic shoulder scope when it gets bad
enough. This is where they go in and grind away some of the bone ends so the
joint has more room to move. You want to avoid needing this surgery if you can
help it. That is why I suggest a 3/4 motion where you stop short of lockout. It’s to
protect your AC joints in your shoulders.
Bent over lateral raises or reverse pec deck - 2 sets of 20 reps (using a
lighter weight done strictly for squeeze and maximum muscle contraction, not
necessarily performed to failure)
Standing DB curls (curl both DB’s at the same time) - 2 sets of 20 reps (not to
failure)
Preacher curls - 2 sets of 20 reps (not to failure)
Standing tricep pressdowns - 2 sets of 20 reps (not to failure)
141
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Lying tricep extensions done with a low cable (use V-bar attachment and
position a flat bench in front of a low cable pulley) - 2 sets of 20 reps (make
sure to use a slow rep speed and squeeze your arms as hard as you can)
Day 6 - OFF
Day 7 - Repeat the cycle
Bodyweight Emphasis HIT Routine
Day 1 - Chest/back
Push-ups - 5 sets of 25 reps
Low incline smith machine press - 5 sets of 5 reps (performed heavy)
Wide grip pull-ups - 5 sets, as many as you can do per set, every set is to failure!
T-bar rows or hammer strength row machine (pick a row machine) - 5 sets
of 5-8 reps
Day 2 - Cardio day
20 minutes of high intense cardio (think stairmaster, hills, wind sprints)
Day 3 - Shoulders/arms/traps
Side lateral raises w/ DB’s - 2 sets of 12 - 15 reps
Alternate front raises w/ DB’s - 2 sets of 12 - 15 reps
Overhead DB presses - 4 sets total, the first 3 sets will be a light weight warmup of 12 reps, moderate weight warm-up of 8 reps, heavy warm-up of 3 - 5 reps,
then 4th set will be a heavy set of 12 - 15 reps which will be taken to absolute
failure, using a 3/4 rep range to protect shoulder joints (don’t lock out at the top)
142
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Close grip push-ups - 5 sets of 25 reps
Standing ez-bar curls - 3 sets of 4 - 6 reps using a 10 second negative and
10 second positive on each rep (you’ll need to go lighter here than you would
normally go due to the slow rep speed and time under tension)
Shoulder shrugs holding 45 lb plates or an olympic barbell in each hand
(I like the plates myself, but if you don’t have plates with holes in them for grip
then use barbells) - 3 sets of 20 - 25 reps/set
Note - The shrugs done with just plates or barbells will allow you to get a full
range of motion and to get the very best height and squeeze during the pull,
squeezing at the top of the movement and pulling as high as you can is what
matters the most here
Day 4 - Legs
Walking lunges as a warmup - 3 rounds at 3 minutes per round
Barbell squats or leg press - 5 sets of 8 - 12 reps (only failing on last set)
Bodyweight squats - 1 set of 100 reps (stop at 100 reps, no high intensity
techniques here)
Lying leg curls - 3 sets of 25 reps/set (pyramiding up in weight each set until last
set is to failure)
Standing or seated calf raises - 5 sets of 15 reps
Day 5 - Abs/cardio
Decline sit-ups - 5 sets of 25 reps
Hanging leg raises - 5 sets of 25 reps
Cardio - 20 minutes of stairmaster
Day 6 - Abs/cardio
143
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Hanging leg raises - 5 sets of 25 reps
Decline sit-ups - 5 sets of 25 reps
Cardio - 20 minutes of stairmaster
Day 7 - Repeat the routine
***Perform cardio as you feel necessary during routine, so if you personally feel
as though you need more frequent cardio for better results then you be the judge on
that
JDB’s Front/Back/Leg Routine
Ok, keep an open mind here for a minute and bear with me. A lot of the things
I talk about will look unorthodox to some of you and they are. There are a lot of
myths and lies floating around about building muscle that simply aren’t true.
When I speak of “overtraining” I’m talking more about destroying the nervous
system than I am the muscles themselves. When you’re training with a lower volume
it allows for a higher training frequency per muscle groups without hindering your
recovery ability. I have occasionally done things such as hitting the same muscle
group 2 days in a row, doing pull-ups every single day for several weeks on end (or
at minimum doing them as a warm-up before attacking a different muscle group)
and changing meal frequency along with a change in the routine at the same time.
Remember, there is no perfect way to eat or train. Try to get out of this mindframe
of analyzing every tiny detail because often times it’ll only end up driving you
crazy! You can overthink everything to the point where you aren’t even sure about
what the hell you’re doing anymore.
This routine is a great change of pace. It’s a perfect balance between hitting
different muscle group in the same workout to help stay motivated, maintain
recovery ability, while still allowing you to train frequently. I developed this routine
(as far as I know) for a change of pace between traditional high intensity training
144
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
and volume training. I wanted a simplified system to stay motivated and keep things
realistic but interesting at the same time. I came up with the front/back/legs routine.
It’s quite simple...
The routine is basically this: all of the muscles facing your front on day one (chest,
biceps, front delts, abs, quads, side delts can be optional either on front day or back
day and rear delts are on back day) and all of the muscles on your backside on
day #2 (back, hamstrings, traps,calves, triceps) and on day #3 you will take the
day off of weight training. I personally would use day #3 for some high intensity
cardio, sauna session, or a yoga class to help increase flexibility of muscle fascia
and recovery. Now, on day 4 you will do a leg day all by itself, only this leg day will
consist of mostly presses or squats and light accessory work like leg extensions and
lying leg curls. You’ve already hit the quads and hams already in the week, but it’s
ok to hit them again.
In this case we simply flip-flop the intensity on our leg day and put our effort into
the pressing motions more than the extension or leg curling motions (although we
touch on those exercises lightly to still stimulate the legs as a whole). The next day
you will be back to your front body day following your leg day. Then it’s another
day off weights, then picking back up the next day in the same pattern of back of the
body day and the next day it’s leg day again.
So to make this basic, it’s always going to look like this; front day, back day, day
off, leg day. Then front day, day off, back of body day, leg day. Then it’s another day
off. It’s always going to be the pattern of front body day, back body day, day off.
You pick up back with the rotation wherever it lands after your day off.
This allows some of you leg haters to really hone in on your leg development while
training your upper body in a very exciting and motivating manner! I personally
love this routine because I feel like it involves so many different angles of training
while still being kept in a simplistic template!
The Reps and Sets on JDB’s Front/Back/Leg Routine
I usually do just 1 exercise per muscle group on front body day, and on back body
145
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
day I’ll do multiple exercises for my back and just 1 exercise for traps, triceps, rear
delts, hamstrings and calves. The back is such a large area that I really try to hit
more exercises for that. I’ll do a pulldown or pull-up exercise, a rowing motion,
deadlifts, and possibly reverse grip pulldowns or pull-ups as well.
I really try to smash my back on that day because the workout on that day takes
less time than the other days, so I can devote more time to focusing on my back. As
for rep count, that’s going to be up to you, but here is how I typically do it: Warm-up
sets are the same fashion as your traditional HIT method (1st set 12 light reps, 2nd
warmup is 8 moderate weight reps, 3rd warmup is 3 - 5 heavy weight warm up reps)
and the final set after the warm-up sets is your set that is taken to failure/muscle
annihilation! Then it’s on to a different exercise.
While this routine may seem difficult to understand, it’s not hard in practice,
however it will leave you tired and the day off after 2 days on is extremely necessary
for recovery. This workout regimen will also make you very hungry and strength
gains will come on rather quickly from the high intense work sets and recovery
involved with each muscle group.
One thing I’m sure a lot of you are wondering is why you would be working legs
the day after just working hamstrings? Or why you would be working your back the
day after your biceps? Because a lot of you probably have this idea drilled in your
minds by now that you can only work certain muscle groups on certain days.
LET IT GO...
Get this garbage out of your mind that you cannot work back the day after biceps or
do leg presses the day after doing lying leg curls. Do you know how many extremely
heavy squatters and bench pressers do those same lifts multiple times a week? A
LOT. The sun, moon, and stars don’t always have to be in the same alignment for
you to get results! Free your mind from that bullshit and treat each day as if it were
a new day and nothing the day before should impact it. Yes, you may get a little
sore the first week or two since you aren’t used to it, but the body adapts to almost
anything pretty quickly.
146
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
What Exercises to do on JDB’s Front/Back/Leg Routine?
I’m going to be 100% honest here and tell you just the way it is...whatever exercises
you want! I cannot tell you exactly what exercises to do because it’d make me a liar,
my exercise selection changes often. For chest I may do smith machine incline
presses one workout, and the next workout I’m doing flat dumbbell bench press.
I may do bent over rows one day and the next time I hit my back I’ll do a hammer
strength machine row instead. I’m sure you get the idea. Don’t limit yourself on
exercise selection, do what you want and what keeps the workouts motivating.
Doing the same shit all the time gets boring! However, just keep in mind that we
are doing muscle groups twice/wk so there is no need to destroy a muscle with
more than 1 exercise per day for that muscle. Give it just enough to respond to the
stimulation and watch the results roll in!
Example JDB Front/Back/Leg Routine Template
Day 1 - Front of body day
• Low incline smith machine bench press
• Standing ez-bar curls
• Reverse grip ez-bar curls (for brachialis)
• Front delt raises w/ DB’s
• Overhead shoulder press machine
• Leg extensions
Day 2 - Back of body day
• Wide grip lateral pulldowns
• Bent over barbell rows
• Deadlifts
• Reverse pec deck for rear delts
147
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
• Standing plate raises for traps
• Side lateral raises w/ DB’s (optional; side raises can be performed on either
front day or back day, I would alternate! This is the one exception to the
program since the muscles are on the side of the body)
• Tricep pressdowns w/ rope
• Behind the back wrist curls w/ barbell
• Lying leg curls
• Seated calf raises
Day 3 - OFF
Day 4 - Legs
• Barbell squats OR leg presses
• Leg extensions w/ light weight (not done to failure)
• Lying leg curls w/ light weight (not done to failure)
• Light weight calf raises, seated or standing or machine press
Day 5 - Repeat Day 1
Day 6 - OFF
Day 7 - Pick back up with Day 2 of the cycle!
Stay on the same schedule of front/back/off, then legs, front, off...back, legs, off,
etc etc.
Note - Things such as cardio, sauna sessions, yoga classes, hot tub, massage, or
anything other than weights CAN BE performed on your off days. I would do as
you feel necessary and energetic for. You may need the entire day off to do nothing
physical and be away from the gym altogether, or you may still feel like going to
the gym. I myself like to take days like these as therapeutic days to take care of my
body. It only helps avoid injury and improve sense of well-being!
148
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
The Full Upper Body/Lower Body Split
Sometimes doing a full body workout in just one workout session is too taxing
and it’s easier to split up upper body and lower body days. This is especially the
case if you’re trying to prioritize leg development more and hit legs more than once
a week. In this workout you’ll follow the same template for the full upper body split
only every other day will be leg day rather than full upper body again.
So it’ll look like:
Day 1 - Full upper body
Day 2 - Leg day
Day 3 - Off
Day 4 - Full upper body
Day 5 - Leg day
Day 6 - Off
Day 7 - Repeat
Remember to keep your workouts limited to just one exercise per muscle group
for everything on upper body day except back. For back it’s important to have at
least 2 different exercises, one for back thickness (a row or deadlift) and another for
back width (such as a pull-up or pulldown motion).
On leg day you should focus on several exercises since your legs are the largest
muscle group in your body and it’s impossible to stimulate the legs enough with
just one exercise.
So for legs you have your presses, extensions, lying leg curls, and calves as your
149
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
main exercise points. Feel free to branch out and throw your own spin on your
workouts. You may choose to do hack squats instead of regular squats, walking
lunges rather than leg curls, or step ups over leg extensions. There are no rules here,
you need to think for yourself and do what you feel works for you. There is also
something to be said for keeping workouts interesting and motivating!
HIT Versus Volume as an Aging Trainer
So to give a basic recap of this chapter, I do HIT routines when I’m recuperated
and ready to blast some intensity again, and I do volume routines with less weight
and more frequency as a way to give my body conditioning, but also to recover from
the HIT routines. The HIT routines are far more demanding for me than volume,
despite not being in the gym as often or doing nearly as many sets.
Find out what works for you. You may be a fan of HIT and you may not be. Also,
remember that “heavy weights taken to absolute failure” is all relative. Just because
heavy weights to you may only be 50 lb dumbbells and not the 100’s does not mean
that you can’t do HIT training at any age! HIT’s good for elevating your heart rate,
it’s good to slow your rep speed down and make an intense set more injury free, and
it’s a nice change of pace from living in the gym.
The #1 thing for anyone to remember here is to think for themselves. My routines,
methodologies and diets are here to help educate you and serve as templates and
guidelines, but it’s up to you to fine tune everything. You can only figure this out by
jumping into it! So let’s get going and stop waiting around for results!
150
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
CHAPTER NINE
Volume Routines for The Aging Male and Seasoned
Trainer
Getting older sucks, you can do your best to feel young and healthy but the reality
of it is that you’re never going to feel like you’re 20 years old again. The body
isn’t producing the same hormones it once produced and even if you introduce
them synthetically it’s still never quite the same. The risk for injuries also goes up
drastically! There may be certain exercises you once did that you cannot perform
anymore or limitations you need to be aware of to avoid further aggravation of an
existing injury and to prevent new injuries from happening.
A high volume routine that is geared towards working the muscles more than the
nervous system, strict form during exercises, and sets that are often discontinued
before muscle failure may be the way for you to go. Often times when we recover
from working out, it’s our nervous systems that need the recovery more than the
individual muscles themselves! You can seriously break your body down from
intense workouts. As I said in the previous chapter, I like to switch to a high volume
151
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
routine when I need to give my body a break. I cannot even tell you the last time I
have taken a set to true failure, but I’m able to work my muscles 2-3x every week
and feel fully recovered. For myself I find that I benefit more from working &
stimulating muscles more often throughout the week, but not taken to measures
considered overboard in any given workout.
The Process of Give and Take
This is where training smarter comes into play while training the same muscles
often. I do not always train a muscle to the same level of fatigue as I did the last
workout. Often times I simply “touch” on a muscle group. For example, today’s
workout may be chest and back. I might take chest to 4 - 5 different exercises of
12 reps/set, with very short rest periods of 30 seconds between sets. I won’t use
weights that are so heavy that I cannot recover in 30 seconds. Now, when it comes
to back I may only do 2 different exercises performed extremely light, I’m talking
about baby weights here, but done with maximum muscle contraction and squeeze!
I’ve worked my chest, I’ve stimulated my chest, but I’ve simply “touched” on my
back and didn’t do anything that would put much of a dent in my recovery ability.
The next time I’m in the gym I will annihilate my back and just touch on my chest
(maybe only 2 chest exercises performed very light). This will be the fashion I will
train every muscle group during high volume routines. It’s constantly a process of
give and take. I have found this way of working out to help me avoid injury and it
helps me just feel good overall.
Forget Everything You’re “Supposed to Do”
I’ll say it again, THERE ARE NO RULES IN BODYBUILDING! Usually there
is this common denominator in most workouts you’ll read about. “Don’t train chest
the day after shoulders, it’ll take away from your chest strength: don’t train biceps
the day after back because your biceps get hit from working back as well: don’t do
triceps the day before chest” and the list goes on and on! I’ve learned to drop all of
that shit and treat each day like it’s a new day.
152
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
The body wants to function as a whole unit. I’ve found that when I forget all of
that common nonsense that I’ve read about I just continue to get results. Does post
workout nutrition really matter within 20 - 30 minutes of finishing a workout? Do
you have any idea how many times I’ve gone grocery shopping directly after the
gym and put off eating a post workout meal for at least an hour? It doesn’t hurt me
a bit!
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, the body operates on a continuum. Your
body doesn’t just say, “Well this is what he did for me today so let’s respond.” Your
body responds to what has been done consistently for weeks and months.
Sometimes my workouts are freestyle type workouts where I walk into the gym
and work out based on how I’m feeling that day. The splits can be a total 180 degree
turn from what most people do. I will work legs with chest, I’ll work shoulders
with back and calves, I’ll occasionally work arms 2-3 days in a row (again, not full
out arm routines but “touching on them” a few days in a row sometimes). When I
learned to train around how I felt my body just responded...very well!
You’ll see all of these routines where heavy work is performed first and lighter
work or “burn out sets” are performed as finishers. I’ll occasionally do the complete
opposite and work lighter at first and then do a heavy move as a finisher to shock
my system. I may begin the workout with bodyweight work and then transition into
weighted sets. I may run the rack on dumbbells with no rest between sets and perform
over 100 reps in a row. I have no rules when it comes to how I train sometimes. A lot
of the routines you read about aren’t even what someone is doing on a regular basis.
But how do you draw out a workout plan when it’s constantly changing? You cannot
map that out for someone in a magazine, it’d take the entire publication to explain
it! Therefore things that “look good” are laid out for you while trying to lead you to
believe that that is the “best new workout.” It’s all bullshit... total bullshit!
Truth be told, it all works and your diet is 90% of everything. You’re either eating
enough to grow, eating in a deficit that allows you to cut fat, or eating in a manner that
allows you to recomp and make changes to your body without necessarily seeing
the scale reflect the fat loss because you’re feeding muscles nutrients they’ve been
deprived of while burning body fat. Remember that muscle is a fat metabolizer!
153
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
As I stated before earlier on, a lot of the time when I perform a volume routine
it’s to actually give my body a break from high intensity training. I’ve also found
benefits to not going to failure and simply increasing sets during these periods, not
to mention the positive effects it has on my joints and healing tweaks and minor
pains. I don’t care who you are, once you’ve been in the gym long enough you’ll
always seem to have some sort of minor nagging pain. The key is to work around
the pain and hopefully get to a point that it goes away.
I’m going to list several volume routines that I may do, although they may not
be exactly what I’d do. Again, most of my volume approach is based on how I
feel and I cannot list EXACTLY what I do because it’d make me a liar. So feel
free to make slight modifications that you may feel necessary to accommodate
your individual performance and recovery abilities. Some of this is going to look
extremely unorthodox and straight out of left field. Keep an open mind here, you
may just grow muscle and cut body fat with some of these routines!
The JDB Anabolic Flip-flop Routine
In this routine you will drop all leg training for 4 weeks while hitting upper body
muscles often. Your legs are the largest muscle group in your body and make up half
of the body. The theory behind this routine is to drop leg work for 4 weeks to create
a greater anabolic response when reintroducing them into the routine. I’ll try to
hold as much size as I can without working my legs for a month straight, then when
I reintroduce leg work I’ll work my legs twice a week and push my upper body back
to just once/week for upper body muscles. Bare with me, the routine is complex...
Day 1 - Chest/arms
• 6 sets of low incline DB presses (not going to failure, pyramiding up in
weight each set) 12 reps/set
• 3 sets of low incline DB fly’s @ 12 - 15 reps/set (no set taken to failure)
• 3 sets of cable crossovers @ 15 - 20 reps/set (no set taken to failure)
154
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
• 1 set of push-ups (as many as I can do until I completely fail)
• standing DB curls (both arms at same time) @ 6 sets of 12 reps (stopping
before failure)
• Standing hammer curls w/ DB’s @ 6 sets of 12 reps (stopping before failure
on all sets)
• 3 sets of rope pushdowns for triceps @ 12-15 reps/set (not going to failure)
Day 2 - Shoulders/arms (volume on triceps, “touching” on biceps)
• 6 sets of side lateral raises using DB’s @ 12 - 15 reps/set (not taken to failure)
• 2 sets of alternate front DB raises @ 15 - 20 reps/set (not taken to failure)
• 4-6 sets of overhead shoulder press machine such as Nautilus or Hammer
strength machine (performed using moderate weight done for pump) 10 - 15
reps/set (not taken to failure)
• 2 sets of reverse fly’s using pec deck machine @ 25 reps/set (possibly taken
to failure but light weight at a high rep count)
• 3 sets of “super-slow” curls using preloaded EZ-curl bar performed for 4 - 6
reps/set (remember, I occasionally throw in an HIT principle with volume
work) You will use a light-moderate weight and take 10 seconds to curl up
and an additional 10 seconds down. (you’ll go to absolute failure here)
• 6 sets of tricep rope pushdowns @ 12 - 15 reps/set (not taken to failure,
strictly done for pump)
• 4-6 sets of close grip bench press or close grip incline press for 8 - 12 reps
(using a weight that you can handle but keeping rest periods 30 seconds
155
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
between all sets)
• 3 sets of 1 arm pushdowns using no handle, just grabbing cable end and
squeezing for max contraction throughout movement (I use 10 - 20 lbs) @
12 - 15 reps/set
Day 3 - OFF
Day 4 - Chest/back (“touching on chest” and annihilating back!)
• 3 sets of incline hammer strength presses @ 8 - 12 reps/set (slow reps)
• 3 sets of cable crossovers @ 15 - 20 reps/sets
***Next exercise below is the “axe” thrown in the routine
• Wide grip pull ups - 1 set of 1, 2nd set is 2 reps, 3rd set is 3 reps, 4th set is
4 reps, 5th set is 5 reps, 6th set is 6 reps, 7th set is 7 reps, 8th set is 8 reps,
9th set is 9 reps, 10th set is 10 reps...then work your way back down in same
manner with rep count corresponding to backwards count, so back down to
9 reps, 8 reps, 7 reps...all the way back to a single rep. (If you fail going up
then stop at your failing point and begin your count backwards)
• 1 arm hammer strength row machine OR 1 arm DB rows performed for 3 - 5
sets of 8 - 12 reps
• Seated cable rows performed for 3 sets of 20 reps
• Deadlifts (I limit my deadlifts to every other week) 5 sets of 5 reps (only last
set done to failure)
Day 5 - Shoulders/traps/arms (“touching on shoulders” heavy arms)
• Side lateral raises @ 3 sets of 12 - 15 reps (training very light for max squeeze)
156
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
• Seated overhead DB presses @ 8 - 12 reps/set (performed very light, I may
get to 45 lbs?)
• 3 sets of shrugs @ 25 reps/set holding 45 lb plates or light DB’s (range of
motion and squeeze is more important than weight, pause each rep at top for
2 seconds)
• Standing DB curls (both DB’s same time) @ 5 sets of 8 reps (using heavier
DB’s this time, last set to failure)
• Standing hammer curls w/ DB’s @ 5 sets of 8 reps (heavier DB’s than earlier
in the week, last set to failure)
• Skullcrusher/press for 3 sets of 12 reps using EZ-curl bar and narrow grip
(you do a skullcrusher followed directly by a close grip press, that counts as
1 rep, weight should be challenging enough you fail close to the 12th rep of
your final set)
• Tricep presdsdown using bar or V-bar @ 3 - 4 sets of 8 - 12 reps (using
heavier weight than earlier in week)
Day 6 - OFF
Day 7 - Repeat the routine, possibly change exercises
(ie: wide grip lateral pull downs instead of pull-ups, bent over rows in place of
deadlifts the following week, concentration curls instead of standing DB curls, get
creative!)
***After initial 4 weeks on that routine, you’ll add legs back into your routine for
phase #2, scale back upper body work to once a week per muscle group!
Day 1 - Legs
• Leg extensions performed for 6 sets of 15 - 20 reps (not going to failure)
157
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
• Lying leg curls performed for 6 sets of 15 - 20 reps (not going to failure)
• Barbell squats performed for 5 - 8 sets of 8 - 12 reps/set (last set to failure)
***Below is the “axe in the routine” exercise (HIT principle)
• Seated calf press on hammer strength machine or using leg press as calf
raise performed for 1 set of 50 reps utilizing 2 rest-pause phases during set
if necessary, trained with heavy weight! (for myself ie: 30 reps straight w/ 6
plates per side on calf press machine, rest 15 seconds, then another 12 reps,
rest 15 seconds, then another 8 reps)
***Note; if you need to substitute squats with smith machine squats, hack
squats, or a squat machine then feel free to do so, some people have preexisting injuries that get aggravated from free weight squats
Day 2 - Chest/biceps/abs
• 3-5 sets of chest press machine @ 8 - 12 reps/set, last set is a drop set for 3
drops (a drop set is when you fail at a certain weight, then lower the weight
and keep going. Each time you lower the weight and continue is a drop. “3
drops” means you are failing 3 times after your initial set with a lighter weight
each time. For example, if I was to use 150 lbs on a chest press machine and
fail, I’d then lower it to 120 lbs and keep going until I failed, then lower it to
90 lbs and continue on until I failed at that weight, then one final set of 60 lbs
taken to failure. That would be 3 drops
• 3 sets of pec deck fly’s @ 8 - 12 reps/set (performed heavy, last set to failure)
• 3 sets of cable crossovers @ 20 reps/set (last set to failure)
• 3 sets of preacher curls using EZ-curl bar or preacher curl machine @ 12 - 15
reps/set
158
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
• 3 sets of standing barbell curls performed @ 8 - 12 reps/set
• 1 set of 100 reps per arm w/ very light dumbbell (maybe 5 - 10 lb DB?) 1 arm
at a time
• 3 - 4 sets of 25 reps on decline sit ups followed by 3 - 4 sets of 25 reps on
hanging leg raises (bodyweight only! Your abs naturally get larger as you
age, bodyweight ab work will keep waistline tight)
Day 3 - OFF
Day 4 - Back/shoulders
• Wide grip pull-ups in same fashion as first 4 week routine (sets 1 - 10, then
backing down from set 10 - set 1)
• T-bar rows or bent over barbell rows performed @ 3 - 4 sets of 8 - 12 reps
• Reverse grip lateral pull downs performed @ 3 - 4 sets of 8 - 12 reps
• Seated cable rows performed w/ light weight for 2 sets of 20 reps
• Side lateral raises performed for 3 sets of 8 - 12 reps (heavier than in first 4
week phase)
• Overhead DB or machine presses performed for 3 - 4 sets of 8 - 12 reps
(performed heavier than first 4 week phase, moderate weight and only partial
reps if you have shoulder issues. Stop the rep about 8 - 12” short of lockout
to protect the shoulder joints from impingement)
• Front raises with preloaded weight bar or olympic bar performed for 2 - 3
sets of 20 reps (heavy weight not necessary to stimulate front delts as they
get hit indirectly through chest work and shoulder pressing)
159
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Day 5 - Legs/triceps
• Leg extensions performed for 3 - 4 sets of 12 - 15 reps
• Lying leg curls performed for 3 - 4 sets of 12 - 15 reps
• Leg presses performed for 5 sets of 20 reps (last set should be to failure)
• Standing, seated, or calf press machine for 3 - 4 sets of 20 reps
• Overhead DB extensions (1 arm at a time or holding 1 DB with both hands)
performed for 3 - 4 sets of 8 - 12 reps (performed heavy)
• Standing rope pressdowns performed for 2 - 3 sets of 20 reps (light weight
done for maximum squeeze and contraction)
***Below is the “axe in the routine” exercise (HIT principle)
• 1 minute dip
Day 6 - OFF
Day 7 - OFF
Day 8 - Repeat the cycle
Change of exercises is fine (ie: hack squats for barbell squats, wide grip pulldowns
in place of pull-ups, deadlifts in place of bent over rows, etc etc)
REMEMBER: Although this routine looks like a lot of volume, keep in mind that
not everything is performed extremely heavy and you should be using shorter rest
phases to keep intensity high. We are simply using short rest phases to provide most
of the intensity with this routine! I’d limit rest periods to 30 seconds between most
160
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
sets.
You’ll probably notice a huge jump in strength when you add legs back into the
routine and scale down the frequency of the upper body work in phase #2.
Although this may not be exactly what I would do in the gym every day it would
be very similar to something I WOULD DO. I’m frequently changing exercises
myself, almost every workout to be honest with you. Again, feel free to make any
modifications to this, use this as a workout template!
JDB’S 5 Round Volume Circuit Routine
This is a circuit volume routine that may take the monotony out of some of your
past workouts. It’s also a great routine if you’re working through joint pain and
trying to get in better condition without heavy weights. The exercises revolve
around “rounds” and the routine is meant to be performed with only rest phases
taken between rounds. This may be difficult to perform in a crowded gym, you’ll
need available equipment to go back and forth between without people holding up
your workouts. This workout will get your heart rate pumping and very little to no
cardio will be necessary while performing this routine. Only individuals who are
able to push themselves will be able to complete the routine since some of the sets
are “as many as you can do per set” and you have to force yourself go the distance!
A push up isn’t like a bench press, you can think you’re going to fail and blast out 3
more reps, it takes some real balls to tackle this sort of routine!
Day 1 - Upper body circuit (take 3 minutes rest between each round, perform 5
rounds)
• Exercise 1 - Low incline or flat DB presses, barbell, or machine presses for
8-12 reps
• Go directly to exercise 2 > Wide grip pull-ups for as many reps/set as you
can get
161
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
• Go directly to exercise 3 > Seated cable rows for 12 - 15 reps
• Go directly to exercise 4 > Overhead DB, barbell, or machine press for 8 - 12
reps
• Go directly to exercise 5 > Bodyweight dips for as many reps/set as you can
perform
• Go directly to exercise 6 > A set of decline sit-ups for as many reps/set as you
can get per set
***Rest 3 minutes and repeat 4 more times
Day 2 - Lower body circuit (take 3 minutes rest between each 5 rounds)
• Exercise 1- Barbell squats, leg press, or squat machine for 8 - 12 reps
• Go directly to exercise 2 > Bodyweight squats X 25 reps
• Go directly to exercise 3 > Leg extensions for 12 - 15 reps
• Go directly to exercise 4 > Straight leg deadlifts for 12 - 15 reps
• Go directly to exercise 5 > Standing or seated calf raises for 12 - 15 reps
***Rest 3 minutes then repeat 4 more times
Day 3 - OFF
Day 4 - Upper body circuit/ bodyweight day (take 3 minutes rest between each 5
rounds)
162
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
• Exercise 1 - Push ups, as many as you can get per set
• Go directly to exercise 2 > Chin ups (palms facing you), as many as you can
get per set
• Go directly to exercise 3 > Close grip push-ups, as many as you can get per
set
• Go directly to exercise 4 > Wide grip pull-ups (palms facing away from you),
as many as you can get per set
• Go directly to exercise 5 > Handstand push ups using a wall, as many as you
can get per set (substitute overhead DB presses if you have shoulder pain on
handstand push-ups)
***Rest 3 minutes and repeat 4 more times
Day 5 - Lower body circuit/stamina day
• Exercise 1 - Body weight squats for 25 reps
• Go directly to exercise 2 > Walking lunges w/ bodyweight for 3 minutes
straight (use a watch)
• Go directly to exercise 3 > Lying leg curls for 12 - 15 reps
• Go directly to exercise 4 > Walking lunges w/ bodyweight for 3 minutes
straight
• Go directly to exercise 5 > Leg extensions for 8 - 12 reps a set
• Go directly to exercise 6 > Walking lunges for 3 minutes straight
163
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
***Rest 4 - 5 minutes and repeat 4 more rounds (this will be your most
challenging day, just the walking lunges alone will take 45 minutes of the
workout)
Day 6 - OFF
Day 7 - OFF
Day 8 - Begin routine again
You’re probably going to find this routine more challenging in practice than it
looks on paper, particularly your lower body/stamina day! What I like about
this style of training is the endurance it builds and the ability to give your joints
a break from heavy-weight routines. When working with bodyweight on a lot
of the exercises it feels more natural and the body lifts it’s own weight without
added force on the joints that a traditional weight routine can do at times. Don’t let
bodyweight exercises fool you, you can develop some serious strength with your
own bodyweight! When you go back to a different routine you may find that you’re
a lot stronger than you were before!
I’d recommend doing something like this anywhere from 4 - 8 weeks. Some will
want to do it for 4 weeks just for a change of pace, others who continue to progress
will want to carry on an additional 4 weeks. I myself wouldn’t go more than 8 weeks
with it. Paired with a good diet, this routine can help you develop a hard physique
and kick calorie burning into overdrive!
JDB’S Max Growth Volume Training
You are probably experienced enough by now to know that working the larger
muscle groups stimulate the most growth. I’ve had times in the past where I’ve
totally neglected direct arm training and had gained size on my arms due to the
larger muscle groups sending my entire body into new growth! The body grows as
a whole unit, you want proof? Try working the hell out of your arms and not gain
any weight and see if your arms grow much at all. You’ll probably notice very little
if any arm growth if you neglect larger muscle groups. In this routine we will focus
164
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
on the 3 major muscle groups that are responsible for the fastest growth. Yes, we
will touch on some accessory work but it’ll be limited during this routine in order
to focus on recovery for our larger muscles. The staple of the routine will be chest,
back, and legs.
Day 1 - Legs/abs
• Leg extensions performed for 2 sets of 15 - 20 reps w/ light weight as a
warmup for the knees
• Barbell squats (or leg press if squats aggravate your back) performed for 8
sets of 8 - 12 reps (taking 2-3 minutes between sets, pyramiding up in weight
each set, last set is all-out to failure)
• Decline sit-ups for 3 - 4 sets of 25 reps, hanging leg raises for 3 - 4 sets of 25
reps
Day 2 - OFF
Day 3 - Chest/ biceps
• Incline or flat bench press (or use DB’s) performed for 8 sets of 6 - 8 reps per
set (taking 2-3 minutes rest between sets, only go to failure your last set)
• 3 sets of flat or low incline DB fly’s for 8 - 12 reps per set (don’t go to failure
here)
• 3 sets of standing barbell curls for 10 - 12 reps/set (only go to failure your
last set)
Day 4 - OFF
Day 5 - Back/triceps
165
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
• Deadlifts performed for 5 sets of 5 reps (only go to failure once every 3 weeks
on your last set, only perform full deadlifts from floor every other week,
alternate with rack deadlifts from knee level on opposite weeks. On rack
deads you will kick reps up to 8 - 12 reps/set for 5 sets, NOT TO FAILURE
ON ANY SET!)
• Wide grip pull-ups w/ bodyweight or weighted pull-ups - 5 sets of 10 reps (or
as many sets as needed to get to 50 reps, use weight once you can get to 50
reps on your own from only 4 - 5 sets)
• Seated cable rows (performed on weeks where you deadlift off floor) 3 sets
of 8 - 12 reps (pyramiding up in weight each set, last set should be failure)
***During weeks when you do rack deadlifts you will substitute seated cable
rows for bent over rows with barbell, perform bent over rows for 5 sets of 8
- 12 reps
• Tricep pressdowns w/ bar or rope performed for 3 - 4 sets of 8 - 12 reps
Day 6 - OFF
Day 7 - OFF
Day 8 - Start routine over again
***I would perform a routine like this for 8 - 10 weeks
When you look at this routine you’ll notice some accessory work is left out of
the routine. This routine is more similar to a power style routine and we aren’t as
concerned about hitting muscle groups from every little angle here. What the goal
is with this routine is overall mass and total body stimulation! Your body is like a
window and we are throwing a rock through that window. The rock will put a hole
in the window, however the entire window will crack. Your entire body will crack
from the rock we throw through it with this routine. You may not find this to fit your
166
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
individual needs. I will tell you this much: there can come a point when we can
get too wrapped up in isolation style routines and sometimes the real solution to
continuing to progress is to go back to the basics! The basics have always worked
for most trainees! Although there are only a few exercises here I’d really consider
volume, I categorized this as a volume routine based on those exercises. You will
want to be sure you’re consuming enough calories here to grow, while some guys
who are already carrying average to above average body fat will want to curve
calories a little more downward. Much of this is also going to depend on your body
type. If you’re naturally skinny then you’ll need to eat more, if you’re larger framed
you may not need to eat as much. I cannot tell you exactly how much food you need
unless I was to work with you and see you. You may need to play with your diet a
little to get it down.
JDB’S 4-Week High Rep Shock Routine
I’m sure you’ve probably heard by now that you cannot grow from higher rep
ranges. It’s common consensus that rep ranges in the 1 - 5 rep range are more for
strength, the 6 - 12 rep range is for hypertrophy (muscles growing) and anything
higher than that turns into solely a cardio workout. To that I call BULLSHIT!
Almost any advanced level bodybuilder I’ve talked to who carried a serious
amount of muscle tended to agree that higher rep ranges work for muscle growth
when occasionally thrown into a routine. This can be perfectly evident with pushups and pull-ups. Why is it that some of the guys with the biggest chests and widest
backs seem to perform an incredibly high amount of push-ups and pull-ups? How
do inmates build such impressive physiques using strictly bodyweight work (in
most scenarios) performed on a consistent basis for an extremely high amount of
reps?
Again, many of my principles and ideologies on bodybuilding go “outside of the
box.” These aren’t things I just decided sounded good one day, I’ve performed
them and I’ve gotten great results from them. Let’s say for years and years you
have always done what you were “supposed to do.” The same old rep schemes and
workouts, the same old exercises, and the same common nutrition practices that
167
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
everybody else does is what you’ve been doing. Don’t you think you might benefit
from going outside of all of this “normal practice” and dive into something that puts
an extreme shock on your body? Muscles aren’t hard to figure out, they respond to
stress and a new stimulus and they grow larger and stronger.
While I wouldn’t suggest such an insanely high rep routine for a long period of
time, this high rep shock routine may be just what you need to kickstart progress
once again! You’ll notice that sets aren’t typically as many since the rep ranges are
high, and you’ll also notice days where you will back off these high reps in one
particular exercise to allow you to better perform high reps on a different exercise.
Again, this is sort of a flip-flop principle here and if there was ever a high rep shock
routine to assist in new development then this would be just that! Obviously you’re
going to have to lighten the workload a bit to perform some of the sets with reps this
high. You may find that you need to stay at the same work weight for all high rep
sets due to the extreme demands on your muscles.
Day 1 - Shoulders/arms
• Side lateral raises performed for 3 sets of 40 reps per set
• Seated overhead DB presses or machine overhead presses performed for 3
sets of 8 - 12 reps
• Front bar raises (using preloaded bar or 2 DB’s at same time) performed for
3 sets of 30 reps
• Bent over rear delt raises w/ DB’s or reverse pec deck for rear delts performed
for 2 sets of 30 reps
***”Axe in the routine” on next exercise
• Run the dumbbell rack for curls, 5 lb DB’s x 5 reps, 10 lbs x 10 reps, 15 lbs
x 15 reps, 20 lbs x 20 reps, 25 lbs x 25 reps, 30 lbs x 30 reps, etc. (go up until
you hit your limit, for myself 30 lbs x 30 reps is about the ceiling right now)
168
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
No rest between sets, you go straight through and do both arms at the same
time!
Bicep work is complete!
• Tricep pressdowns with rope or bar done in same fashion as biceps (10 lbs x
10 reps, 20 lbs x 20 reps, 30 lbs x 30 reps, etc)
Tricep work is complete!
Day 2 - Legs/abs
• Leg extensions performed for 3 sets of 30 reps
• Leg presses performed for 5 sets of 25 reps
• Lying leg curls performed for 5 sets of 25 reps
• Standing or seated calf raises performed for 5 sets of 25 reps
• 3 sets of decline sit ups performed for 50 reps/set, followed by 3 sets of
hanging leg raises at 30 reps/set
Day 3 - OFF
Day 4 - Chest
• 3 - 4 sets of incline, flat, or decline bench press (or DB press) x 12 - 15 reps
per set (training relatively heavy)
• 3 - 4 sets of cable crossovers performed at 25 reps/set
• 3 - 4 sets of low incline or flat DB fly’s at 20 reps/set
169
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
***Rest for 5 minutes
***“Axe in the routine finisher for chest” listed below:
• “The 1 song push up set” - You will play a song on your headphones and you
will perform push-ups throughout the entire duration of the song. Forget rep
count here, the goal is to keep going throughout the entire song. You may
need to adjust hand positioning at times, stop for a brief 10 - 15 seconds to
partially recover, do partials, Hindu push-ups (youtube it if you don’t know
them) whatever you need to do in order to continue to pump out push-ups
for the duration of the song then just do it! Take a look at how pumped your
chest is after you’re done!
Day 5 - Back/traps
• 5 sets of 25 reps on wide grip lateral pulldowns
• 4-5 sets of 20 reps on seated cable rows using parallel grip
• 5 sets of 6 - 8 reps on row machine or 1 arm DB rows (heavy weight here, use
wrist straps if necessary)
***Remember, I occasionally do my heavy work AFTER lightweight high
rep work to further overload the system!
• 5 sets of 25 reps on shrugs either holding 45 lb plates or using moderate
weight DB’s (the plate shrugs work best for me, they allow the weight to get
closer in line to my traps and I can shrug higher, but you may need to use
DB’s if you don’t have plates with holes in them to grab) You want your traps
to come up to your ears at the top range of motion, use a mirror if you need
to.
• Light deadlifts for 3 sets of 20 reps (I’m talking like 135 lbs here for myself,
and I’m a 600+ lb deadlifter)
170
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
***Optional - Hyperextensions with bodyweight in place of deadlifts if you
have issues deadlifting
Day 6 - OFF
Day 7 - OFF (or if you’re recovered enough begin day 1 again)
Day 8 - If you didn’t start over on day #7 then begin routine again on day #8
***After 4 weeks on this routine back off rep count and switch to a different routine
The JDB Joint Healing/Rejuvenation Routine
Sooner or later you’re going to have joint pain in the gym, especially as you get
older. When this happens you can either continue to train through the pain and risk
hurting yourself more or you can take a more proactive approach to recovery and
totally revamp the workout. Taking a month or two off from the way you traditionally
train and trying something new isn’t going to take away your size. You’ve probably
been walking around at your size for many years and it’s not going away in just 2 - 3
months because you backed off a little.
In this routine it’s important to use slow reps and focus on time under tension
rather than heavy weights. You will also incorporate yoga classes into your routine
as well to assist with flexibility and blood flow. 2 days out of the week your workout
will be a yoga class. The other 2 days of the week will be full upper body and full
lower body days, and the remaining 3 days of the week will be the sauna followed
by some light cardio.
Here is a template of the workout I’m speaking of:
Day 1 - Sauna for 30 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of moderate paced walking
on treadmill or exercise bike
Day 2 - Full upper body
171
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
• Chest - Incline or flat chest press machine using 3/4 rep motion (working
only the beginning 3/4 of the rep, stopping about 8” short of lockout) 3 sets
of 8 - 12 reps using a slow rep speed
• Back - Wide grip lateral pull downs or pulldown machine, performed for 3
sets of 8 - 12 reps using a light weight and a slow rep speed
• Back - Seated cable rowing using overhand or parallel bar grip for 3 sets of
8 - 12 reps using a light weight and slow rep speed
• Shoulders - Side lateral raises (done standing or seated) with dumbbells or
cable machine for 3 sets of 8 - 12 reps, performed with a light weight for
slow rep speed
• Biceps - 3 sets of 15 - 20 reps of standing ez-bar curls or dumbbell curls
(alternating or both at same time)
• Triceps - 3 sets of 15 - 20 reps of standing rope pressdowns (using a lightermoderate weight that you can get a good pump from and squeeze the muscle
hard, I find that usually 40 - 50 lbs on a rope pressdown is what feels best for
me personally).
Day 3 - 1 hour yoga class
Day 4 - Full lower body/abdominal work
• Leg extensions as a warm-up for the knees - 3 - 4 sets of 12 - 15 reps, not
going to failure
• Leg presses - 5 sets of 15- 20 reps (not training to total failure, good form and
deep motion)
• Lying leg curls - 3 - 4 sets of 12 - 15 reps (stopping 1 - 2 reps short of failure)
172
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
• Seated calf raises or standing calf raises - 5 sets of 15 reps
• Decline sit-ups- 3 - 4 sets of 20 reps
• Hanging leg raises or reverse crunches on a bench - 3 - 4 sets of 20 reps
Day 5 - Sauna for 30 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of moderate walking or
exercise bike
Day 6 - Sauna for 30 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of walking or exercise bike
Day 7 - 1 hour yoga class (or swap this day with a cardio day to meet yoga class
schedule)
The above routine will serve to help you feel energetic and vibrant. It’s a great
routine for stimulating muscles enough to grow or maintain but it won’t beat you
down. With the added cardio and stretching from yoga you’ll probably find that you
feel incredible, sleep better, and begin to overcome pre-existing injuries you may
have had.
There are also studies showing that 30 minute sessions in the sauna can increase
your level of HGH in your body. The extreme heat exposure causes more GH
release.
Key Points to Remember when Volume Training the JDB Way
1. The volume training is used more as a break from intensity than something
more extreme, despite more sets than there are in traditional high intensity
training.
2. JDB’s volume training focuses on repeatedness for conditioning more than
giant infrequent workloads for growth. It’s a safe way to train when your body
needs a break.
173
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
3. Volume workouts or JDB’s joint healing/rejuvenation routine are intended to
help you feel as good as you look, not to simply over train you by pushing you
to total failure on everything and burn your candle at both ends. These routines
will be perfect to use in between high intensity routines.
174
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
CHAPTER TEN
No Bullshit Muscle Building
This chapter is going to be brutal honesty with straight-forward muscle building
approaches. When I ask someone who trains under me what their goals are, 9 times
out of 10 I’m going to hear, “I’d like to build muscle and lose some body fat”.
For a new trainee or someone who has been out of the game awhile, this is a very
short-lived scenario. It’s very difficult to do both at the same time. While it’s very
possible at first, it’s going to be an unrealistic, short term situation. When it comes
to bodybuilding, wouldn’t you admit that professional bodybuilders are probably
some of the most knowledgeable people in the game? Or if not, they’re at least
being trained by some of the most knowledgeable people in the game! How many
of these guys actually gain weight as they get more conditioned? They’re few and
far between.
Most of these athletes are going up in weight and size in the off-season and
coming down in the competitive season. They probably have a lot more tricks up
their sleeve than the average Joe. So the idea of some weekend warrior or amateur
175
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
bodybuilder gaining loads of muscle while trimming his body fat down at the same
time is extremely far fetched unless he’s taking extreme pharmaceutical measures,
and I’m talking about EXTREME: as in more money than most people make per
year that is spent on just their bodies!
The only real difference between a hard-gainer in his teens and one in his 30’s or
40’s and older is possibly their hormones. Someone from late teen years throughout
late 20’s will most likely have average to high-normal testosterone levels, while
someone who is 10 - 20 years older may still be a hard-gainer but have lower
testosterone making it more difficult to build new muscle and/or lose body fat. This
isn’t to say it can’t be done, but results will be mediocre and much, much slower.
(See chapter 2 on hormones).
I think the best approach for explaining to you about how to build muscle is to just
give you my experience here, and it’s a lot of experience so I hope you’re ready to
take everything in and put it to good use! First off, forget everything you’ve ever
read on muscle building and open up your mind to what I’m about to tell you here.
This is a game changer that will not only change your entire outlook on building
muscle, but it’ll give you an edge that many people don’t have.
Once hormones are figured out (and I say this because they’re the body’s mainframe for chemical and physical processes such as muscle building, fat loss, and
nutrient utilization) then you can dive into what I’m talking about here.
For starters, forget about eating clean every meal. I don’t mean throw it all to the
wayside here, but there is a strong chance that everything you’ve tried before never
gave you enough calories to grow in the first place! You thought you did it all right
didn’t you? You bought the newest and most expensive supplements, you made
sure you had enough protein in your diet, you got decent sleep, and you hit the gym
religiously only to come up short again and again! Maybe, just maybe...you did
what everyone else always does: the mainstream garbage that gets passed around.
Whether it be the same exercises, the same rep scheme, trying to max out on your
bench press every week, or trying to build on a foundation you never had, there is
something that many people just aren’t getting right when it comes to building new
muscle.
176
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
I’m going to be real here in no-bullshit JDB fashion. I’ve been in this game for
over 20 years now. I’ve used over 400 lbs on the bench press before, done squats
with 405 lbs into the 20’s for reps, done deadlifts with 500 lbs x 12 reps, and bent
over rows with over 365 lbs for reps. I’ve eaten a lot to get big, and I’ve eaten less
than maintenance level calories to get more defined. One thing I’ll tell you is this:
nobody ever got big eating like a bird and lifting like a wuss, that I can guarantee
you! I do not understand why so many people don’t understand this. If you put
someone on nothing but tuna fish and salads they’ll never be as strong as someone
eating pasta and cheeseburgers! Yet, people either don’t believe this or don’t want
to believe this because it’s not being advertised in mainstream bodybuilding! Well
I’m not mainstream and I’m here to tell you what really works!
In the Beginning
You need to train with progressive overload, plain and simple. If you’re not making
progress in either adding weight to the bar, more reps, or adding body weight to the
scale then you’re going nowhere. Everyone wants to overanalyze things nowadays
and they’re becoming their own opposition in the gym. If the scale isn’t moving
up then it’s pretty damn simple to me: eat more! If it’s still not moving up then eat
more than that. Sooner or later you’re not going to have any choice but to grow.
But what do most people do? The reality of it all is they’ll stick to that game
plan for 2 days, then they’ll think to themselves they’re getting fat.Then they
further confuse themselves by telling themselves they really never wanted to look
that muscular in the first place. “Yea you did, quit lying to yourself”. Stop making
excuses, because you and I both know damn good and well that if you walked into a
restaurant and every good looking female turned her head to look at you then you’d
feel pretty good about your hard work. So let’s squash that bullshit right now! To
hell with average, if you wanted average then you would have picked up a Men’s
health and fitness publication, not this no-bullshit guide. You ever wonder why
people get an actual subscription to those magazines? It’s because they can’t do it
and they need a magazine to tell them how to dress, how to act, and how to work out
in just 12 minutes a day! People who fall for this shit will always be weak when it
comes to building a solid physique. These publications will never tell you the truth.
177
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Ok, I really don’t want to admit this, but I need to keep it honest with you. I’m
going to give you a rundown of what I did today from morning until bedtime. You
tell me how “traditional” this looks to you. Yes, this is the guy in the photos speaking
and the guy on the cover of this book. Although this isn’t what I did preparing for
some of the photos here, this is what I did just today:
• Woke up and ate breakfast at 8:30am - 8 egg whites + 1 whole egg, 2 packs
of instant grits in microwave
• 10 ounces of chicken and a 10 oz yam 2 hours after breakfast
• 2 - 3 hrs later - 2 packs of pop tarts and a protein shake
• WORKOUT from 1:00pm-2:30 pm before leaving to pick my son up from
school
• Went grocery shopping after picking my son up from school, ate an apple
from grocery store, a protein shake, roughly 10 ounces of green apple
gatorade, all consumed in my car well over an hour after my workout.
• Dinner was red potatoes and onion soup mix scattered across them with olive
oil, and about 16-20 oz of ground beef patties with pimento cheese on them,
no bread.
• Purchased 10 Greek yogurts today, I’ve eaten 8 of them already (between
4pm-10pm)
• Before bed I had a 4 egg omelette with cheese and 2 servings of cottage
cheese
DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A TRADITIONAL MEAL PLAN TO YOU? Because
it’s really not one. Nobody mainstream is telling you that they’ve eaten 8 greek
yogurts in one day and had not 1, but 2 packs of cinnamon pop tarts or over 16
178
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
ounces of ground beef in 1 feeding! But this is brutal honesty speaking! This is just
one random day for me in the world of muscle building, and even at that, most of
my gains are coming to an end. I’m far beyond my genetic limitations and it’s very
difficult to break through any walls anymore.
But lets just say there is still room for you to grow. Not only may you need to
increase your calories but regular workouts just MAY NOT be the answer for you.
Sometimes people respond to different things in the gym in different ways. For
example, I’ve never been a low rep trainer. I respond to high reps, I like high reps,
and a rep range of 12 - 20 reps/set is fairly normal to me. Some people respond well
to sets of 5 reps. You’ll figure out what works for you in due time.
I’ve changed up my routine in almost every way possible to continue to get
results and more importantly, stay motivated! When it comes to growing or even
maintaining size far beyond what’s normal you have to keep changing things up in
order for your body to keep responding.
Here are 10 things I would consider when it comes to building new muscle:
1 - Eat heavy for 3 - 4 days at a time and then diet strictly for 2 days following
so you don’t get sluggish. When I say “eat heavy” I’m talking about things such
as pasta, oats, burgers, a few slices of pizza, or a sub here and there. This is really
anything for high calories.There is nothing wrong with foods like a hibachi grill,
chicken wings, taco’s, or most other high calorie meals. I’d still still away from
simple sugars, but don’t be afraid to eat outside of the normal diet-type foods here.
You want all of the necessary building blocks of muscle (mainly protein) but you
want a high calorie count as well. After a few days of heavy eating switch it up to 2
days of strict dieting so your body doesn’t become too sluggish. Do not set any rules
on foods outside of getting 1 gram of protein per lb. of bodyweight on your days of
heavy eating. I would eat 4-6 times a day and a couple of those meals would be high
in calories. Something like a rice and steak bowl with sour cream and cheese would
be fine. For dinner I may eat a giant cheeseburger with french fries. The rest of the
day is clean foods that are consumed every few hours. Often times what I’ll do is
switch to a paleo diet for a couple days in a row after a few days of heavy eating.
This paleo diet will let my body adjust back to “getting in motion”.
179
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Think of your body like gasoline and fire. Gasoline can only ignite if it has the
right amount of fuel to oxygen. Too much fuel and too little oxygen and it’s too
rich. When you take those couple of days to eat lighter after your few days of heavy
eating it’s sort of like giving the gasoline enough oxygen to light off! It will help
you add some muscle but keep you from gaining too much fat. It basically wakes
you up and revitalizes you after the few days of heavier food consumption.
2 - Bodyweight exercises are not to be ignored. How many out of shape people
do you see regularly performing pull-ups, sit-ups and push-ups? Try none! When
you carry around a gut it’s pretty difficult to perform sets of sit ups, dips, pull-ups
and push-ups! Think of performing bodyweight exercises as your need for more
food becomes more necessary. Make the two work hand-in-hand. Get out of this
mindframe that eating a lot is going to make you fat when in reality your body is
like a machine putting off a higher work output. I’ve seen cyclists and swimmers
consume twice as much food as a lot of bodybuilders and they’re not fat! The food
may help you perform better and there is some performance involved in muscle
building here as well. I have found that mixing bodyweight work into a weight
training regimen actually makes me bigger and stronger! I read about some pushup routine someplace and decided to give it a try one time. It stimulated my appetite
like crazy, I ate more, and I found that when I returned to my normal weight training
I had gotten stronger!
This was one of those inmate type workouts. The sets of push-ups basically started
with 20 reps a set and ended up at 20 reps a set. In between those sets of 20 reps was
the real killer! After your first set of 20 reps, your next set was 1 rep. Then you did
19 reps your next set, and the following set was 2 reps. Then you did 18 reps your
next set and the following set was 3 reps. You are to continue this pattern until the
opposing sets pass each other and you go back up in reps in one set as you go down
in the other.So the set that started off as 20 reps ended at just 1 rep, and the set that
started off as just 1 rep ended up at 20 reps. Each opposing set counts down and the
other counts up. I think it’s a total of 420 reps. My goal became to complete these
420 reps in a faster time each time. I got it down to a total of 17 minutes and 20
seconds total.
This push-up workout left me sore for days and it skyrocketed my appetite. So
180
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
I’d go back to eating heavy for a few days followed by 2 days of paleo dieting. If
you don’t know about paleo dieting is, I’m going to make this brief and simple for
you: If foods didn’t have a mother or grew from the ground or a tree then they’re
off limits. So it’s mostly meats, poultry, fish, yams and greens on those couple days
where I’m cleaning everything up and allowing my body to play catch-up. Again,
think of your 2 days of low calories or paleo dieting as adding oxygen to your
gasoline so it’ll light off!
3 - Progressive resistance for newer trainees, time under tension for seasoned
trainees. To put it simple, if you aren’t seasoned in the gym or if you have been
out of the gym a long time then you need to focus on adding more weight to the bar
each workout. PERIOD.
If you’ve been in the gym year after year, for several years, decades, and you’ve
consistently fed yourself a well balanced diet for muscle building then time under
tension is the way to build any new muscle if there is muscle left to be built! You
need to put the effort that most people put into 5 separate sets into just 1 of your sets.
Do not be afraid to run up the rack for dumbbell curls. I occasionally do standing
dumbbell curls with 5 lb dumbbells for 5 reps, then 10 lb. dumbbells for 10 reps,
then 15 lb. dumbbells for 15 reps, then 20 lb. dumbbells for 20 reps, etc etc, until I
fail! That would be considered 1 main set! Get all of this “3 sets of this, and 2 sets
of that” shit out of your head! You’re beyond that level now and it’s going to take a
more intense approach to grow along with proper nutrition.
That’s just one example of what I’m talking about here when it comes to time
under tension. No, I’m not going to give you a specific “breakthrough muscle
building routine” concerning this because it doesn’t exist! I’m giving you the right
frame of mind to think for yourself here!
Other time under tension things I do are pauses in my reps, slow rep speeds, or
faster “pump style reps” for extremely high reps. Basically the muscle is under
constant tension for a few minutes here is what I’m getting at.
• Pauses in reps - You have brief pause phases in each rep. (ie: You perform a
bench press and pause halfway up for a couple seconds, complete the press,
181
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
then pause halfway down for a couple seconds, then all the way down. Repeat
for a given rep count but add in these pauses on each rep).
• Slow rep speeds - Slow down your rep speed. Try a true 4 second negative
and a true 4 second positive on occasion as well. I do both slow negatives
and positives. Sometimes I reverse the order of things and make my positive
slower than my negative. This may take some getting used to, but try doing
a 4 second negative and a 10 second positive sometime. Tell me how much
intensity it takes to do that!
• Pump-style training - pump-style training may look like half assed form to
people who don’t know any better, but it’s really all about pushing as much
blood as you can into your muscles. Just because rep speeds ,may be faster
doesn’t mean this does not create time under tension, because my pumpstyle training is done for a very high amount of reps. For example, I may
do skullcrushers with 10 lb. dumbbells for 100 reps straight as a finisher,
and for that I’ll do faster style reps. I may use 10 lb dumbbells for single
arm standing dumbbell curls and I’ll keep my rep speed quick, but since I’m
doing such a high rep count, the muscle is still exposed to time under tension.
You with me so far here? Good!
4 - Nutrient timing for faster gains in the gym. Let’s take 2 different individuals
and feed them the evening before an intense weight workout. One of them will eat
nothing but salad and skinless chicken, and the other one will get to have a pizza.
Who do you think will lift more weight the next day? If you said “the guy who ate
the pizza” then you’re correct. Try eating a heavy meal the evening before a major
muscle group is trained. You’ll probably find that you perform harder and heavier
the next day you train. I’m not sure why people refuse to believe this but it’s true!
One thing you may want to try doing is timing your nutrient/caloric intake around
your larger muscle groups. So the evening prior to a large muscle group such as legs,
back, chest or shoulders, you may want to consume the bulk of your daily calories
then. After the workout is over with revert back to eating clean while minimizing
calories so you don’t pack on too much unnecessary weight. But make no mistake
here, you want the extra fuel for the harder workouts and the larger muscle groups!
I’m not making this shit up because it sounds good, it’s actually quite the opposite
of what you’ve read in many other places.
182
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
There is no drug, supplement, or magic solution to replace eating to grow! Eating
enough to grow is #1 when it comes to building new muscle. It’s pretty simple here
to me: if I eat less food then I get weaker, if I eat more food then I grow stronger!
Simple and to the point!
The key is to take the gains where you can get them and also to recognize the
limitations you may have due to genetics or lack of hormonal environment for
continued results. Food is extremely anabolic but it only works with the right
stimulus! You don’t want to overeat through your training, you want the intense
training to create the need for more food and to continue on that path so you don’t
just get fat. But definitely do not have a food phobia when it comes to eating enough
to grow. I eat a lot, it’s not all squeaky clean foods, and I don’t eat the same all year
long! Try timing most of your higher calorie meals before a big workout or RIGHT
AFTER the workout so most of that food gets used for recovery and not stored as
body fat!
5 - Know when to back off. You may be doing too much in the gym. The real
answer to your growth may not be doing more but doing less. Some people just don’t
know when to quit! They’re like wiry squirrels always running around but never
getting anywhere. Try backing off the workouts and limiting yourself to just 45
minutes a workout. Maybe you need to start lifting weights every other day instead
of 2 days in a row. You may get stronger by actually backing off or doing cardio on
opposing days to weights. It’s easy to become our own worst enemies sometimes
and what you think is not enough may actually be too much. Have you ever seen
someone who is addicted to exercise? I have seen people who are constantly in the
gym and look like complete shit! Your obsession with something simply doesn’t
change science. So you can remain that average looking individual who spends
every single day in his happy place, or you can be that jacked motherfucker who
turns heads wherever he goes. I know which one I like being!
Hell, pick up a new hobby if you have trouble staying out of the gym. I keep going
back to yoga as a suggestion on your days away from the gym, but a new hobby
could be anything. Maybe you could get a puppy and take time with your dog, or
get into gaming, gardening, whatever floats your boat! This really may also help
psychologically as well. I think sometimes the gym being the primary focus of life
183
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
isn’t healthy and being more well-rounded and open to doing new things can make
life more interesting!
6 - Consider changing gym times and/or location. Sometimes you just need
a different element to your training such as a new gym time or a different gym
location. I’ve had certain gyms where it became very difficult to get a good workout
in due to either people constantly interrupting me to talk, lack of enough equipment
for the large crowd of people, or just a wuss environment in general. You also may
find that changing your workout time will help. For example, I enjoy working out
in the morning time, but I know that I’m stronger in the gym in the evenings. When
I’ve given myself a chance to hydrate more, have a few more meals in me before
working out, I’m just stronger. So even though I prefer to work out in the mornings,
sometimes I’ll hold off until the evenings in order to have better workouts. You may
find this to be the case with yourself as well. I have to admit though, building new
muscle isn’t my primary focus in life right now, so I still prefer morning workout
because I feel it’s a great way to get in motion and get my day started! But for short
periods of time, sure I’ll change workout times on occasion.
7 - Get rid of as much life stress as possible. I’ve found stress to absolutely
destroy gains in the gym. It’s so difficult to gain muscle when you’re constantly
worried about something! I’ve found myself letting go of things in life that have
stressed me out. Everything from cell phone plans that are too expensive, car
payments I don’t need to take on, and stupid short term gratifications that I will
regret the next day, I am trying to drop all of that shit! I realize it’s easier said than
done I’m certainly nobody perfect, but I realize that some of these outside stressors
can destroy progress in the physique department. And on top of that, stress just kills
people! It’s the #1 killer in life right? So the answer to all of this is to kill the killer
and continue to get huge! You may need to start small, but I’d suggest dropping all
bullshit which does not matter. I just went back to a prepaid phone with no internet
on it. Do you know why? Because it’s a fucking distraction to me!
8 - Take 1 week off after every 6 weeks in the gym. This one is going to take
some discipline for most people, but your body will thank you. After pounding the
weights hard for 6 weeks in a row it’s a wise idea to take a solid week off. Take that
week to focus on anything other than lifting weights. Take up jogging, clean out
184
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
your garage, detail your car, just do ANYTHING other than go to that gym for a
solid week straight. This doesn’t mean you need to come off your diet during this
time, you just don’t need to be in the gym during this time. This will give you new
motivation instead of just obsession, it’ll allow your body to heal and your joints to
recover, and it may just engage you in something different to give you some spice
to life again during this week away.
I love using cars as analogies to our bodies, probably because it’s so easy to
compare a machine to trying to operate like one. If you have a car and drive it as
fast as it’ll go every time you get inside of it, do you think it’s going to last long
without having something break? Your body is similar in this manner, drive your
car fast enough without a break and something might go wrong. This is even more
important as we get older. Let’s be honest here, shit falls apart faster when it gets
older, be smart!
9 - Stop thinking you don’t have enough to grow with! I’m beginning to see
this more and more now: guys are thinking that they just don’t have enough raw
material to grow. In their minds there are no amount of supplements, hormones, or
vitamins and minerals that seems to be enough to get the job done. So what do they
do? They don’t even try to do some of the things I’ve talked about in this book! It’s
easier to just sit on their asses and constantly think they don’t have what everyone
else has in order to gain progress. This is a stupid mentality and even if it were true,
don’t you think that at least TRYING would yield a much more quality physique
that’s closer to their maximum potential anyways? Hell, take a look at prisoners
who only work out with body weight and on food with little nutritional value! They
make gains and stay in shape because they try! Stop being a pussy and make the
best with what you have always!
10 - Quit when you physically quit, not when your mind says it’s hard! This
one here may not be for everyone, but I’m sure some people definitely fall into this
category. There are some people who will stop doing a set when the set begins to
feel hard, not when their body is physically unable to continue. Their mind will
make them quit before their body will give out and this is something you need to be
aware of. Different people have different pain thresholds and some can take things
to extremes more than others, but I believe if you started seeing yourself quit when
185
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
you truly gave out physically then it would empower your mind. The mind is a very
powerful thing and with bodybuilding you can train your mind to tell the body it’s
not over with until it’s truly over with!
So you probably know which type of person you are. If you hold back then you
probably have a suspicion in the back of your mind that you’re holding back. Maybe
you don’t ever hold back...if this is the case then you need to practice rule #5 more.
All I’m saying here is to just be honest with yourself. If you’re not pushing your
body to new limitations then you’re not going to grow to your maximum potential.
It’s as simple as that!
Taking Care of Your Body While Growing
You have to remember something here: the body grows when it’s subjected to
stress. This often means that you’re going to be sore, tired, and under nervous system
and mental stress as your body tries to adapt to new demands that stimulate muscle
adaption and growth. It’s extremely important to take care of your body during
these phases, especially as you get older. I usually try to dedicate one day a week
to things like yoga classes, massages, or sitting in a hot tub or sauna at my gym to
loosen myself up. I cannot begin to explain how beneficial this is for someone who
is going hard in the gym on a consistent basis!
Even if you don’t have access to some of the therapeutic measures I’m talking
about here, you can still substitute them with certain things like using a tennis ball
to roll on for a massage, stretching out at home instead of a group class, and using
one of those plastic body suits to sweat easier to remove toxins from your body.
There are things you can do yourself here, you just need to be dedicated enough to
do them. Your body will only thank you and if you’re like me you’ll find that you
feel better from doing some of these things and end up in a better mood afterwards.
Our mood is a direct reflection of how we feel, so if we feel all tight and bound up
and stressed all the time then it’s going to radiate off of us! People don’t want to be
around that type of person!
I stay sore quite a bit when I’m working out to try to yield new muscle growth.
186
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Even sometimes when I don’t think I’m sore I’ll realize I really was after a massage
or when I put sports gel on a certain area. I often use something called Tiger Balm
or Blue Emu to rub into muscles. The Tiger balm heats the area up and it just feels
good, where the Blue Emu makes the area feel cool. They’re pretty much both
intended to do the same thing and relieve the soreness in an area. So this may also
be something you’d want to consider when trying to train harder and/or heavier.
Letting The Chips Fall Where They May
I’ve found that over the years it’s better to just let the chips fall where they may.
What I mean by that is this: whether you’re trying to gain size or trying to shed body
fat, there is only so much you can do. You cannot change your genetic makeup,
bone structure, or what type of physique you were born with.
If you’re putting forth the effort and going through all of the necessary motions
then it’s all you can do! When it comes to letting the chips fall where they may, I’m
also speaking in terms of realizing that whatever is happening is a direct result of
what you’re doing nutritionally and training-wise, so stop getting to these points
where you fight it and change your mind so quick.
I see this more with guys who are dieting than anything else, but I also see it with
people trying to grow. They get 2 or 3 weeks into a regimen and they start second
guessing themselves and talk themselves into changing something. God forbid
someone loses strength when cutting up, or gains a few pounds of fat along with
new muscle! Before they can really see anything dramatic they will change their
minds and all they do is continue to run in place!
Don’t do this. You know it’s going to take time to develop some of the physical
features you want, so there is absolutely no reason to throw in the towel on your
goals or let a few weeks of changing something up play with your head. The ones
who can stick to the gameplan seem to usually come out with the better look from
what I’ve seen.
I’ve never personally known anybody who has built muscle without putting
187
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
on a small amount of body fat, nor have I personally known anyone who lost a
tremendous amount of body fat and made strength gains during this time. I talk
about SCT training (super conjucate training, where muscle and fat loss can happen
at the same time) but what you have to understand here is that Super Conjucate
Training is really just shorter phases of building to cutting. It’s not like you do both
in the same week. However, because these time periods are shorter it appears you’re
doing both at the same time. But this form of training is for advanced athletes who
have spent years and years in the gym and have developed the bulk of the size they
want to put on. For the advanced athlete, I have included a basic rundown of this
workout for you, as seen in one of my articles on JDB.
John Doe’s SCT Training Routine
So after a few guys asking me to elaborate more on my training system, I will
be more specific with the routine outline. I say “outline” because nothing is set in
stone here. You may find that modifying it works better for you.
A lot of my routines are a combination of many different routines and principles all
rolled into one. But it seems like every time I break away from this sort of training,
I always revert back to it because for myself this is what gets me results fast!
Ok, so guys want to know what to do in the gym every 3 days with this program.
Here is the just of things, you will be doing a workout that stimulates your whole
body, while flip-flopping between high intensity training and powerlifting
principles.
The meat and potatoes of your training will be bench, squat (or heavy leg press)
and deadlifts, but we will still hit the entire body and assistance movements as well.
This is sort of a combination between Mike O’Hearn’s power bodybuilding, Mike
Mentzer’s HIT, and DC training principles, 3 routines rolled into 1.
Now, every workout you will add in one of 3 things, either rest pause training, a
static hold, or extreme stretching.
188
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
For those who don’t know, a rest pause set is where you do as many reps as you
can, then when you fail you rack it, rest a brief 10 - 15 sec and go again for 3 - 4
more, rack and rest another 10 - 15 sec and go one more time for another 1 - 2 reps.
Use a spotter!
A static hold is after your sets you lower the bar halfway and just hold in place for
a goal of time, I like to do 1 minute static holds myself. Again, have a spotter on
hand.
Extreme stretching is when you hold a deep stretch under weight for a minute, for
example a DB fly motion while holding the bottom stretch of the movement for a
minute. It can be grueling. I alternate between different methods each workout.
Ok, so how are we rolling all of these principles and bits and pieces of these
programs into one super routine for strength and size? Let me lay it out for you, like
I said nothing is set in stone here, but...
This is a 2-week layout of how I would train in this fashion:
Day 1 - Full body, high intensity training with static holds
*** = work set, rest are warm ups, weights listed are what I use, adjust to yourself
• Chest – Incline bench 1 – 135 x 12 (light warmup), 2 – 225 x 10 (moderate
warm up), 3 – 275 x 5 (heavy warmup), 4 – ***315 x 10, followed by 1 min
static hold with 225
• Shoulders – Military DB press (delts warmed up from bench, so only 1 warm
up set to gauge what I’ll use for a work set based on how I’m feeling with the
warm up with moderate weight) 1 – 65 lb DB’s for 12, 2 – ***90 lb DB’s x 15
reps, followed by 1 min hold with 65 lb DB’s
• Back width – Lateral pulldowns 1 – 120 x 12, 2 – 140 x 10, 3 – 180 x 5, 4 –
***260 x 15 followed by static hold with 160
189
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
• Back thickness – Seated cable rows (feeling decently warmed up, only 2 warm
ups here) 1 -120 x 12, 2 – 180 x10, 3 - ***280 x 15 (I won’t do a hold here, as to
not tax my biceps too much, I don’t hold rowing movements)
• Triceps – I may do skullcrushers, or tricep pressdowns, or 1 arm DB extension,
any of these, but I’m going to throw out a wild card and do something
unorthodox here, dips until failure, no warm ups, tris already warmed up from
bench and shoulders, and just using bodyweight
• Dips – Bodyweight 1 – x 54 reps (next time go for 55 reps, may be a few weeks
until I get around to them again, wrote down in logbook)
• Biceps – Straight bar curls 1 – 40 x 12, 2 – 70 x 10, 3 - ***90 x 20 (I train
my bi’s for squeeze and reps, no reason to use heavy weights and risk tendon
injury)
• Possibly followed by static hold with 40 lbs x 1 min leg press - 1 – 4 plates/
side x 12, 2 – 7 plates/side x 10, 3 - ***10 plates /side x 22 reps, followed by 1
min hold with 6 plates
• Lying leg curl - 1 – 60 x 12, 2 – 80 x 10, 3 - ***120 x 18, followed by 1 min
hold with 80 lbs
END OF WORKOUT!
Now I know what you’re thinking here, what about abs, calves, forearms, etc?
Relax, you’ve done enough to stimulate your body as a whole, we can touch on
those things throughout other workouts, you don’t need to do EVERYTHING each
workout, just enough to send signals to grow!
Day 2 - OFF
Day 3 - OFF
Day 4 - Full body with powerlifting basis (you will pick either squat, bench, or
190
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
deadlift and always start with one of those when you’re fresh!)
Here is an example:
• Bench Press (7 sets of 3) 1 - 135 x 3, 2 - 225 x 3, 3-275 x 3, 4 - 315 x 3 5 325 x 3, 6 - 330 x 3, 7 - 335 x 3
Follow this up as outlined above on your first day, but different exercises, you’ve
already performed chest, so just do the rest of the routine now. For example, if you
did lateral pulldowns last time, this time do close grip pulldowns, if you did seated
cable rows then this time do bent over rows, etc. Same fashion as above, the only
difference is you started with a powerlifting routine this workout)
Day 5 - OFF
Day 6 - OFF
Day 7 - Same fashion as workout #1 listed above, yet DIFFERENT EXERCISES!
So this day may be incline hammer strength machine instead, or bodyweight pullups for max reps instead of pulldowns, or DB rows instead of bent over barbell
rows, or hammer curls rather than barbell, etc.
THIS COMPLETES THE FIRST 7 DAY CYCLE
NOW ONTO WORKOUT #4 – Same fashion as your powerlifting routine,
only this time either squats or deadlifts, 7 sets of 3 reps, followed by the regular
routine, only going back to same exercises from day 1, trying to beat them by either
increased weight or reps or both. Don’t forget to throw in either a static hold, a rest
pause set, or extreme stretching following your 1 work set for each muscle group. –
SO AS YOU SEE AFTER EVERY 3 DIFFERENT WORKOUTS, YOUR BACK
TO WORKOUT #1 AND YOU START OVER, BUT EACH WEEK WILL BE A
DIFFERENT POWERLIFTING INITIAL EXERCISE/SETS.
191
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
If you did 7 sets of 3 on bench, the next week is going to be 7 sets of 3 on squats,
the following week 7 sets of 3 on deadlifts. You are touching on a powerlifting
routine while still performing higher reps for volume within the same program.
Your Two Days off between Workouts
Take 1 of those 2 days and go to the gym, only you use this as “therapy/recovery/
cardio day”. For myself this would be a brief 15 min ab session, 20 - 30 min cardio,
20 min in sauna or jacuzzi, NO WEIGHTS! Maybe only abs but NO WEIGHTS!
So there it is, that’s my kickass routine! So I guess I have to name it since everyone
names their stuff. Hmmmm…what should I call it? I’ll call it “SCT Training”
which stands for “super conjugate training”. Conjugate training means you’re
training for size and definition in the same time frame, you’re training all aspects of
bodybuilding at once.
Yes, it can be done, but you need to fine tune things a little more.
The diet - OK, we want definition, but at the same time we want gains and do not
want to lose strength here. My advice would be to pack in the food/cals the day you
train with weights, and diet your ass off the other 2 days in between. Once every 3
days there is nothing wrong with a Big Mac or a pizza, the 2 days in between that
you will revert to a contest type diet!
192
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Living a Healthy Emotional Lifestyle
I don’t think anyone gets involved with nutrition and bodybuilding with the
intentions of making their life worse, but sometimes this happens. When you let the
lifestyle become such an obsession that it controls you, it can start pulling things
away from you and causing you to miss out on some great opportunities in life.
It took me a long time to figure that out. The problem with becoming so regimented
and obsessed with bodybuilding is that the daily grind becomes very repetitive and
can make life boring. I’ve been there myself; my body has looked great but my life
felt like something was always missing.
You begin to evaluate your life and many people begin to think that fitness has to
be their only sense of self-worth and identity when that simply isn’t the case. I have
found health and fitness to better serve as a foundation in my life rather than the
revolving daily theme that gets in the way of accomplishing other things.
193
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
It can be extremely hard to break habits, even when we know that we need to
break them in order to fulfill another void in life. It’s like you know that you need to
change something but you’re so used to doing the same thing that it seems like you
can’t break free from it in order to change.
I think a lot of people have this idea in their minds that they’re either going to
worry about money and success now and put off fitness and health until everything
is just right, or they’re not going to worry about money and success until later and
get fitness right first. There is no wrong path here, but it’s wrong when you feel a
certain way and you don’t follow it!
I Could Have Been Anything I Wanted to Be
I could have been anything in life I chose to be and I’m done “what if ing” the topic
to death. We do what we want to do and if we didn’t want to do it then we wouldn’t.
People are going to drink beer because they want to drink beer. Maybe they aren’t
happy with their life and alcohol is their only available escape within their minds,
but either way they’re buying it and consuming it because they want to!
They can sit there all day and tell you they could have done this and that, but the
reality of it all is they made the choices in life they made and if they refuse to work
hard enough to get out of what they’re in then they’d sooner drink beer instead of
doing something different. So don’t let this thought fool you.
At the same time I understand that there is no perfect job and as humans it’s always
in our nature to want more, so no, I don’t think anyone is EXACTLY where they
want to be in life.
I always loved the gym. I had chances I could have broken away from it and went
on to become a doctor, an attorney, or whatever else I thought would have been
a decent job. But it’s not me and I chose not to go that direction. But make no
mistake about it, there certainly wasn’t anything stopping me from doing something
different, I just chose this path instead.
194
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
I always wanted to be involved in fitness and nutrition and I loved it so much that
I basically made it my job. It took a long time to make this my job and it took a lot
of research, experience, and trial and error. But I chose to go through it because I
enjoyed it.
I also had a passion for writing and getting my word out to people. So when I
combined the two of these things it was exactly what I wanted to do. But like I said
before, I could have gone in any other direction, and I still could. I would suggest
going in whatever direction you want to travel, not just the direction people tell you
everyone else is going.
Quality Over Quantity
I believe in the quality of life over the quantity of life. I’ve been there and done
things before that are supposed to make people happy, but I was never happier in
the long run. Anything from buying new cars to boats, clothes, and most other items
that people think would make someone happier just never filled that void.
I started to think about the purpose of life. What is life about anyways? Is life
about gaining and winning until we die? Is life more about laughter and fun? Well,
it all depends on who you are I suppose.
To me, life is about those little moments that we never forget. Those moments that
pop up unexpectedly and result in some sort of positive emotional response that we
never get out of our head are the defining factors in a quality life to me. The more of
those moments I have stored in my memory bank the better my life is.
How often do we limit ourselves because in our minds nothing is just right? It’s
never the right time to do anything is it? I’ve been there before myself so I can
relate. It seems like there are times we limit ourselves from actually having a life
because we never feel prepared enough. The reality of it is that we never will be
prepared enough. You grow into situations, not prepare for them until it’s time to
finally unveil who you really are.
195
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
It’s like starting a new job. Do you just walk in on your first day and have everything
go perfect? No, there are going to be challenges and issues that you do not know the
answers to. You have to work to figure it all out. You grow into the situation. Life
and fun is no different, but part of the fun is the unknown!
Not too long ago I went out with my wife for an evening. I just finished an extreme
stretch of strict dieting and decided that I wanted a bagel and a coffee, so we drove
to Bruegger’s bagels and we had bagels and coffee. From that point I picked a
direction and just drove. I used to do this a lot back when I lived alone and spent
a lot of time alone. I’d pick a direction and just drive, having no idea what would
happen.
Well, as we drove down the highway we started playing music trivia with each
other. We always do this, we’ll take turns picking a song and ask each other what
movies the song was featured on. Sometimes we’ll ask each other what a memorable
song was from childhood or we’ll say, “pick a song from the 80’s that was ridiculous
and cheesy.” It could be anything!
So we drove along for a while listening to music and just laughing our asses off
together. Being the impulsive guy that I can be sometimes, I just said to myself,
“Fuck it, I’m driving to the beach.” So I drove down to the beach and right as I saw
the ocean the sun was setting and it was a beautiful sight!
Ok, now we are at the beach and it’s too cold to swim. So we go into a bar and
have a few beers. I don’t want you to get the wrong impression of me, but I will
occasionally drink a few beers despite being so much into health and fitness.
Especially when I go out of town because I enjoy trying local beers that I cannot
normally get.
So there we are at the bar drinking a few beers and having a blast. The people to
the right and left of us end up knowing some of the same people we know, and the
conversation just flowed with them. They were very nice people who were just out
and about having fun like we were.
So about 2 beers into it my wife says to me, “I don’t want to go home, let’s just
196
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
stay here.” I told her that we couldn’t stay there because we were going away the
following weekend and I didn’t need to book a hotel 2 weekends in a row. She said
to me, “We will just sleep on the beach, the hell with it!” So I confirmed with her
that she really wanted to go through with that and then I ordered another beer. There
was no going home at this point.
So there I was laying on the beach at midnight with my wife telling me what a
horrible idea it was. I said to her “Look, you’re the one who came up with this fucking
idea so just put your head down and go to sleep!” You guys have to understand that
I had no blanket or pillows here, all I had were 2 hooded sweatshirts that were only
in the car based by a coincidence!
She says to me,”why did you let me come up with this idea? You shouldn’t have
listened to me!” And then we just started laughing. It was like there we were, no
real plan ever involved that evening other than “fuck it.”
While it wasn’t the greatest sleep that night, I will never regret making that
impulsive decision to drive down there with no plan in mind. I’ve been married
for almost 14 years now and most people who have been married for that amount
of time don’t do things like that. It’s awfully nice to have someone on a beach at
midnight telling you they love you. I can’t buy that.
It always felt like the most memorable events and the funnest things that I ever did
really didn’t have a price tag on them. Well, at least not much of one anyways. Yes,
it takes gas to drive places and sometimes it takes a few bucks for lunch someplace,
but I’m not talking about a small fortune here to go out and have fun!
There are way too many people now coming up with every excuse NOT TO DO
SOMETHING than looking for any way they can. Think back about being a kid,
how many times did you go places and do things with no plan in mind? It seems to
me like I did it a lot and it also seems to me like most of the time it never failed! I
rode my bike 40 miles around a lake one day with a friend and had about $5 to my
name, no helmet, and no cell phone. To this day I still remember the cool pockets
I’d hit riding through some of the hills and I still remember having a bag of hot fries
and a Dr. Pepper to drink for lunch. I was 13 years old, I remember what I had for
197
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
lunch that day!
But look at people as they get older...they get weaker. Instead of just going camping
with a tent they tell themselves they cannot go unless they have a travel RV, a brand
new $60,000 truck to pull it, and $5,000 to spend on the road. So rather than using
what they have available to them, they simply won’t do it and convince themselves
their life sucks! Well I don’t ever want to live that way. Where there is a will there is
a way!
Change up The Daily Routine
Trips and vacations are nice, adventures are fun, but most of us cannot do that
every day. Most of us stick to the day in and day out grind, and I’m not saying that
it’s not good to have a routine. But I’m also not saying it’s good to have the same
routine indefinitely either! Sometimes a simple change of routine can help make
life rewarding and more interesting.
I will frequently change things when I get too burnt out with life. These may not
always be big things either. I will change the music I listen to, the directions I travel
to places, something in the diet (or possibly try eating someplace I’ve never been if
it’s a cheat meal). Changing the routine for me could be anything! Small changes
like getting in bed at a certain time and reading a new book also help too. This sort
of change promotes sleep and recovery for me!
I started noticing that my entire day plays off of how my morning went. I’m pretty
sure a lot of people are like this as well. Think about it for a second, when you wake
up and are active and have tasks at hand then the rest of your day doesn’t seem that
bad right? Now try waking up after sleeping in, nothing on the agenda, and no goals
in mind; the day feels like “BLAH.” The day just sort of feels wasted right?
I have found that walking my dogs first thing in the morning is a great way to wake
up. I go into the back room to grab their leashes while I’m half asleep and they’re
going nuts from excitement. So this basically forces me to wake up because one
of my dogs will pull me to the ground if I’m not awake enough (bullmastiff) and I
198
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
sense their excitement so it sort of gives me excitement to face another day too!
Walking the dogs and a cup of coffee as the sun comes up isn’t a bad way to start
your day! Hell, if you don’t have a dog then try just going for a walk someplace on
your own. I will occasionally do the craziest stuff in the morning time. I like being
outdoors and there is something about nature that revitalizes you and gives you
energy. Even when I go through periods of severe caloric restriction and fatigue,
sometimes just being outdoors gives me a newfound energy!
I have thought about getting involved in martial arts lately just to get into
something new and give me another focus in life. It’s also great cardio when you
get into certain fighting styles like Ju Jitsu, Judo, or Krav Maga. I thought that this
could serve as a couple cardio sessions per week and I’d also be learning something
new. Sometimes just the process of learning something new can make life so much
more exciting!
Think about when you first became involved in building muscle. It motivated you
to get up and do something didn’t it? I know what it did for me, I finally felt like I
had found something that made life great. As I journeyed further and further along I
learned that branching out into other areas of life often helped bodybuilding.
Remember that mental health is just as important (if not more important) than
physical health. Another fact to consider here is stress levels. Stress doesn’t always
have to come from a hard day at the office. Stress can come from the monotony of
life, feelings of being unaccomplished in something, lack of social interaction or
entertainment, and many other very small elements that you probably don’t stop
and think about much.
Laugh More
People just don’t know how to laugh anymore. It’s like that old saying “Laughter
is the best medicine” has been long forgotten! I don’t know how some people can
have fun in life when they’re serious all the time. Sometimes it’s beneficial to just
lighten up and laugh. Laugh about anything, laugh about anyone, just make up
199
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
something in your head and laugh for God sakes!
If you’re having a bad day then watch a comedy or a standup show, that usually
helps me feel better. Sometimes my family and I come up with our own songs
or stories and just laugh at each other. We could be driving down the street and
someone will take a song on the radio and make their own lyrics up and try to make
the rest of us laugh. I guess that’s the creative side of me coming out once in awhile.
A lot of bodybuilders are serious people and I’m no exception, but I’d like to think
I laugh a lot more and I’m a bit more of a joker than a lot of bodybuilders are. I’m
like the kind of guy who will take his shirt off after eating a giant pizza and push his
stomach out like he’s pregnant just to laugh at himself.
Laughter is also a great way to deal with stress you know? Sometimes life can feel
like it’s clamping hold of you in a vise and there is nowhere to turn! It seems like
we can get ourselves in these situations where WE THINK we can’t get out, but
there is always a way out. I think what happens a lot of the time is we become so
consumed with something that is going on that we don’t step back and see the big
picture sometimes.
You might have had an argument with someone or something happened to you
during the day that put you in a foul mood. Now, what happens is that everything
seems like it’s going bad, when in reality it’s simply your perception based on just
one bad experience that changed the way you thought about everything! This is
why I say to start your day off with a positive action!
But everyone has emotions and life isn’t always peaches and cream. It’s how we
go about things and adapt and overcome that defines us. These actions and frame
of mind are what define success and quality over mediocrity and monotony to me.
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it’s hard to change your attitude when something
negative happens. It’s like arguing with someone, it takes a big person to just drop
it and start fresh and forget it ever happened. It takes a big person to do this with
most things in life that are negative, but the more you practice it, the better you’ll
get at it. In due time, people will see this and have more respect for you because it’s
certainly not an easy thing to do!
200
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
In the meantime, laugh more, it’ll only help!
Explore More
I’ve always been an adventurer, but I’ll admit that there was a part of me that didn’t
like exploring things I didn’t know anything about. Say for instance that I mainly
listened to rock music and there was a live jazz night downtown. It would be harder
for me to go to that event because I don’t know anything about jazz music. But if I
just went to it I may realize how much fun it actually was and maybe I could learn
something. Who knows, I might be riding around in my car listening to nothing but
jazz music for the next week! Sometimes you just have to explore things and give
them a chance.
I used to laugh at yoga classes. I thought yoga was only for hippies, stay at home
moms and elderly people. Then one day I just said the hell with it and tried it. Not
only did yoga kick my ass but it helped me with bodybuilding! I became more
flexible, stronger, developed a new pain threshold, and it helped to deload my body
from built up stress. I slept better, my back felt better, and I had a huge sense of
increase in well-being. Yoga never appealed to me because I didn’t understand it,
but after trying it out and having an open mind I actually enjoyed it.
Exploring life could fall into so many different areas for me. Think about how
most people are; they never get into anything new. Even if you’re not great at
something it never hurts to get involved in something new and learn from it! A lot
of bodybuilders could care less about what other people are doing. If they’re not
into bodybuilding then they could care less about getting to know about something
they’re involved in. I’ve learned to enjoy learning about things that other people are
into. Hell, I had a 45 minute conversation one day about playing the bagpipes with
a guy and I know absolutely nothing about bagpipes. But I think they sound really
cool and I respect how much work would go into getting proficient at something
like that!
I understand that there are only so many things that we can be involved with, but I
think that keeping an open mind to what others find interesting is a good way to learn
201
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
something. Some people want to know about bodybuilding and they’ve never set
foot in a gym before. You may be the influence that drives them to become involved
in bodybuilding just like they may be the influence that drives you to become
involved in what they’re passionate about. I think if we were all more willing to be
open and explore more in life we would find that we have more in common with
some people than we think. So I say to explore more and this may help enhance the
quality of your life. Even if you just picked one new thing every couple of weeks it
would make life more exciting. You don’t have to be a perfectionist in everything
you do to have fun with it. But trying is a good start!
The Day to Day Living Situation
The day to day living situation is what comprises the majority of the quality of
life in people’s lives. Stress is the #1 killer in life and some of the things we stress
out about aren’t even big until we make them a big deal. There are many different
factors that stress us out that we can change if we really thought about it.
For example, so many people don’t get enough sleep anymore. I’m guilty myself
of this. I have been better about this lately, but I used to wait until I was practically
falling asleep before I would actually go get in the bed and lay down. This isn’t
good and it doesn’t give me that downtime to relax as much. It’s like I would be
going 100 mph and then just crash. When I finally got into the bed I’d be asleep in
under 2 minutes.
What that caused was a perfect setup for a hectic morning where I’d wake up
without enough time to really wake up in a manner I wanted to. Instead of walking
the dogs and enjoying a cup of coffee it was balls to the wall and 100 mph again first
thing in the morning. So my morning and nights were going 100 mph, my gym time
was going 100 mph and in between I would struggle to stay awake.
Sometimes overtraining can cause restlessness too. You’d think it would be the
total opposite of this, but when your body is in such a state of being overtired and
training simply takes place from obsession rather than actually feeling good it’s a
recipe for disaster. This is when the lifestyle isn’t always healthy.
202
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
Think of your body as a light bulb. You’re only going to turn it on and off so
many times before it blows. When the light is turned on you need to give it time
to be turned off as well. In this case I’m speaking in terms of relaxing and finding
ways to destress your body in other manners aside from just exercising. Sometimes
exercising can be what produces the stress.
The constant breakdown of your body on top of not enough rest and relaxation can
become detrimental rather than beneficial. If you want to avoid blowing a fuse then
there is going to come a point where you need to change up the daily routine so it’s
more conducive to a healthy lifestyle outside of the gym as well as in the gym.
Something else to consider when trying to live a healthy lifestyle is the practice of
living like a minimalist and avoiding the negative daily influences of consumerism
and short-term gratification that many people fall victim to. Some of the things that
we think make life better only distract us from a clean sense of mental focus and
well-being.
I think there are times when it’s beneficial to slow down and evaluate the day to
day living situation. I’d much rather do a few things each day that have meaning
than multiple tasks each day that distract me from living the way I really want to
live.
My theory on life is that if I’m going to be busy then I’d at least like to be busy
doing things that benefit my life and not over complicate it. Some people seem to
think that life is all about how much more they can take on without dropping dead,
but this can be detrimental to bodybuilding and mental health. Of course there are
times when things are hectic and they seem unavoidable, but as a whole I believe
the day to day living situation should be enough balance of calm as it is to being
rushed.
Adjusting Your Training as it Pertains to Your Life Schedule
The only good training routine is the one that you can stick to consistently. I
know people from all walks of life who work in all different types of jobs. I’ve
203
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
seen enough different examples of bodybuilders who succeed in different types
of training to know by now that there are many different approaches to develop a
quality physique.
Not everyone with a great body lives in a gym! There are world class physiques
out there that are only in the gym 2 - 3 times per week, while there are others who
are in the gym 6 - 7 days per week. Most people have an idea of what is realistic
for them before getting involved in any type of training regimen but many fail to
recognize it. This is nothing more than a short term recipe for falling off the wagon!
What happens is that rather than staying consistent with what is realistic they go as
hard as they can until they can’t take it anymore, then they completely fall off!
You have to find that balance between all elements of health and fitness as it
revolves around other obligations in life. Some people have more obligations than
others and that’s just the path they chose. But by no means is that a reason not to be
fit and healthy! I can attest to changing your workouts as training revolves around
life.
I’ve gotten great results training once every 3 days before. I’ve prepared for a
bodybuilding competition while training just once every 3 days before. I still got
shredded and I was still very muscular. But people just seem to get this thought in
their minds that unless they can be in the gym every single day then they cannot
develop a great body and that’s simply not true.
So my advice is to follow the routine that works for you. Also, with that being
said there is a lot of value in learning how to think for yourself. This is one of the
major reasons that I come at training from a reader’s perspective rather than just
my own. I understand what it’s like having responsibilities that involve more than
just yourself. So when I talk about something such as a diet or workout routine it’s
really more like me saying to you, “This might work for you and this might not, but
if you think this can work for you then here is a good template to follow.”
I want everyone to know that the bottom line with bodybuilding success is whether
you’re challenging yourself or not. Just because you’ve only done a 30 minute
workout as opposed to a 90 minute workout does not dictate whether or not you’ll
204
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
see good results. It’s all about what you’ve done in that 30 minutes that determines
that!
If you are reading this and you feel like there are certain life changes that can
benefit you, I understand that this doesn’t happen overnight. My best advice is to
work on what you can in order to establish a more suitable life to health and fitness
and in the meantime do what’s realistic gym-wise and diet-wise. I think that’s a
much better approach to making this all work than waiting until everything is “just
right.” Nothing to me ever felt just right until I looked back on it. It’s sort of like
when my son was born. All I thought to myself was, “Man, I don’t know if I’m
ready for this yet”. But you just make it work and you step up to the plate and swing.
I think that’s with anything in life; you lay down or you step up and swing!
Success is Largely Determined by Your Character not the Endeavor
A lot of people live life out of fear. Remember how I talked about being a kid
and riding my bicycle around that lake? There was not an ounce of fear in me
when I rode that 40 miles around the lake. All my friends and I saw was the goal at
hand that day. In anything we partake in when it comes to life, it’s ultimately our
character and mindset that determines whether or not we will win or lose. There is
an expression that goes something like “Even when I lose I win.” This is precisely
what I’m talking about here.
There are people right now who think that if they lost their job then their life
would come to an end. Whether or not this is true is all in your mind. A fighter will
keep on fighting and what is a setback today may be what propels them forward
tomorrow. In the beginning of this book I spoke of 2 pieces of steak. One piece is a
fillet mignon and is tender as can be. The other piece is that rough cut of steak that is
on sale. When you pound that rough cut of steak enough it becomes tender enough
to cut with a fork. When you go through enough in life you become that tough cut of
steak that is able to be cut with a fork.
Stop Getting Angry over Things You Cannot Control
205
NO - BS BODYBUILDING The JDB Bible for Advanced Health and Fitness
If anyone out there is guilty of this it has been me. I used to blow a fuse over
everything and all it did was set my day up to walk around pissed off at the world.
There are always going to be those things in life that we can’t change. This is one
reason why I don’t watch the news much. I cannot control a mass shooting, political
decisions, or a war overseas. There is simply no reason to walk around upset over
things I cannot control and let these influences ruin my day.
If we all took the time to invest more in ourselves rather than our hatreds in life,
then life would seem so much more fulfilling! I finally woke up and realized that
a lot of these negative influences caused a domino effect in my day. My attitude
towards one thing that upset me would ultimately set the rest of my day up for
perceived negativity and failures on my end. Even if something went right I would
somehow find the negative in it. This isn’t healthy and once you start doing it then
it only gets worse. You become your own worst enemy and if you don’t make a
change then life isn’t going to be rewarding no matter what you make happen.
For every negative you feel try making a positive to block it out. That’s what
I started doing and my life got better. Instead of looking for flaws in everything
only look for the positive. When you only look for the positive in people and
circumstances then your entire outlook on day to day living may change. I know it
works for me and I’m sharing this because I’m not perfect. Everything I talk about
is something I’ve been through or something I’m going through. I’m sure if I’ve
gone through these things then maybe some of you have too. I’m simply sharing
with you my outlook on a quality life.
206
TRAIN WITH JOHN DOE
The truth is that most people want to get in awesome shape, but the information they
are getting is not right for them at that given point in time.
There are a number of ways to diet and to build muscle. But the reality of the situation
is most guys are leaving SO MUCH on the table.
If you aren’t getting the results you want, let someone with almost 20 years of
experience in the field of training and nutrition assist you.
•
Anabolic priming before building/cutting and how to do it
•
Staying strong while in a calorie deficit
•
Real world dieting strategies
•
Cost-effective ways to cook and shop
•
Time management and achieving a super physique with limited time
•
Insulin - how to set yourself up for it, and take full advantage of it
•
Proper ways to use performance enhancers and limit legal risks
•
Proper hormone replacement and interpreting your bloodwork
•
Preventative care with your body
Get it from someone who doesn’t feed you a pack of lies just to take your money!
Inquire about a training program at http://johndoebodybuilding.com/coaching/
OTHER BOOKS
VISIT JOHNDOEBODYBUILDING.COM/BOOKS
Becoming The Bull
Building Huge Muscle, Getting Ripped and Taking Life by the Horns
Part autobiography, part training/reference guide, John Doe Bodybuilding takes you through
his first interest in bodybuilding as a teen, to his first competition and on to adulthood as a
family man. Doe provides practical advice on training, diet, supplements, steroids, lifestyle
and even dating.
Straight from the Underground
The JDB Bible for Advanced Health & Fitness
John Doe gives an inside look at all of the nutrition and training practices he uses in his daily
life.
John takes you though testosterone replacement therapy and ancillary drugs to use with TRT
to stay safe and perform at your best!
Shredded Ops
Building The Extreme Physique
Shredded Ops is an in the trenches training routine that is like no other routine out there.
This program was developed based on advanced principles of weight training that involve:
workout intensity, routine periodization for growth and recovery, and a simple and effective
diet strategy for real results.
Let The Blood Spill
The Bodybuilding Routine That Forges Warriors
Let The Blood Spill is the best bodybuilding program for the experienced gym goer because
it’s packed full of different ways to generate higher levels of training intensity as you battle
your way to an incredible physique through this hellacious regimen!
This training program is a complete program with everything laid out for you so you can follow
alone with no guess work involved!
FOLLOW JOHN DOE
Get the latest NO-BS free articles
and information!
Visit the JDB blog at:
https://johndoebodybuilding.com