Training

Here is a brief summary

1. Becoming a bodybuilder at the highest level requires the use of powerful pharmaceutical substances that have been linked to organ failure and premature death.
2. Although massive use of anabolic steroids is evident, other pharmaceuticals such as insulin, growth hormones and diuretics can contribute even more to health problems.
3. A distinction must be made between use, misuse and abuse when it comes to bodybuilding pharmaceuticals. We are now seeing the consequences of the latter in bodybuilders from the nineties and the first decade of the 21st century.

Dead in 5 years

In the 1980's, Dr. Robert Goldman began asking top level athletes if they would make a proverbial deal with the devil if he would guarantee them victory in every competition they entered...but also guarantee their death within 5 years. Goldman consistently found that the majority of these athletes would gladly make such a deal. This phenomenon became known as "Goldman's Dilemma".

Lean and muscular bodies

Professional bodybuilders are only known within a relatively small community that follows this niche sport. So one has to wonder why so many willingly risk their lives and health for success. Is it for money? Fame? Or are they simply rolling the dice to build more muscle and lose more fat than the competition?

Massive abuse of anabolic steroids, growth hormones, insulin and diuretics are some of the main factors believed to be responsible for the disproportionate number of lean and muscular corpses. For a sport that at its core involves good nutrition, body fat loss and training, why do we see so many bodybuilders dying at an unusually young age for similar reasons?

The goal is muscle, not health

"Most guys think nothing bad will ever happen to them. But watch out. You're going to see more and more serious heart problems and worse as these guys hit 40."

- Mike Matarazzo, professional bodybuilder

Matarazzo had triple open-heart bypass surgery at age 38, a heart attack at age 41 and died at age 47 while waiting for a donor heart.

He was at the height of his competitive career in his early thirties, when "mass monsters" dominated bodybuilding and he claimed to have eaten up to 7 pounds of red meat a day during his bulkiest days. But during the years leading up to his drastic physical decline, Matarazzo was one of the few pros who spoke openly about what the underlying cause was - the amount of anabolic steroids and related substances necessary to become a successful professional at the highest level.

Matarazzo's public statements regarding the negative effects of bodybuilding pharmaceuticals may sound far-fetched to some, but there is anecdotal and scientific evidence to support his view. It is an indisputable fact that numerous top level bodybuilders have died from some variation of "natural causes" - often a heart attack or some form of organ failure - before reaching 40. A handful didn't even reach 35. Some top pros have come close to 50, but few pass 55 without serious health problems. Try to find a dozen healthy IFBB pros who competed successfully in their nineties. You won't have much luck.

The predictable reaction

When a bodybuilder dies of organ failure at a young age, the predictable reaction you'll hear from bodybuilding fans is: "He suffered from a pre-existing condition and would have suffered from the same problem regardless of whether he became a teacher or a bodybuilder." The big question, however, is whether pre-existing conditions are exacerbated by excessive use of performance-enhancing substances? And would these competitive athletes have lived much longer if they had not used these substances? Or is it the massive abuse of these pharmaceuticals in combination with the rigorous mass-building and dieting phases for numerous competitions that ultimately led to these health problems?

There will certainly be cases where underlying natural causes were the key factor in a death, but it seems to be more of a common, unfortunate excuse whenever a bodybuilder or figure athlete dies.

Reward of extremes

Bodybuilding began to separate from training for physical fitness in the fifties. Building muscle gradually became a more important goal than athleticism, strength and speed. The fact that anabolic steroids found their way into gyms in the sixties was no coincidence.

A lower body fat percentage at a higher body weight meant building more muscle and the more this look was rewarded, the more competitive bodybuilders began to strive for it. Health became a secondary consideration. It would probably be more accurate to say that it's not the use of steroids that kills people, but the abuse of them. And it is probably also true that other pharmaceuticals associated with bodybuilding carry a higher risk than anabolic steroids.

Insulin, growth hormones and various diuretics became increasingly popular starting in the nineties and these substances tend to have a poorer benefit to risk ratio.

The consequences of "leaner and more muscular"

In the early nineties, a significant shift was observed in the field of bodybuilding in terms of the ideal body. Dorian Yates defined a new standard and his competitors tried to follow suit as the term "mass monster" entered the sport of bodybuilding, describing never before seen massive body weights and extreme definition accompanied by an extremely low body fat percentage.

The long-term results of this era are what we have witnessed over the last few decades: Consequences that are catching up with more and more bodybuilders in the form of health problems that range from mild to fatal. No, not every professional has had these problems. And it's not always the most muscular guy or one of the best pros who struggle with this either, but their use of performance enhancing substances is consistent enough to draw some conclusions.

The studies

A 2014 study investigated a possible link between anabolic steroids and cardiovascular function. The results of this study suggest that users of massive amounts of anabolic steroids are more likely to suffer from irregular heart function and have a higher mortality rate compared to steroid-free strength athletes. A 2012 report in the American Journal of Cardiology looked at nearly 50 different studies examining the effects of anabolic steroids on cardiovascular and metabolic function. This report came to similar conclusions: Anabolic steroid use may be a significant factor in heart-related deaths.

Another study, published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, looked at the incidence of kidney disease among steroid-using bodybuilders over a 2-year period and found evidence of disease in the majority of strength athletes, some of which was irreversible and incurable.

Professional bodybuilders and other athletes

Unlike bodybuilding, deaths of other professional athletes are not associated with performance-enhancing compounds to the same extent. Physical wear and tear and damage resulting from collisions in contact sports and the use of party drugs are considered to be major contributing factors in these deaths.

Performance-enhancing pharmaceuticals is a term that the general public associates with anabolic steroids, even though it is a general category. Which includes everything from insulin to EPO - a blood doping and endurance enhancing drug - to stimulants. We know that the use of such performance-enhancing compounds is widespread in professional sports such as baseball, football, soccer and MMA. But sports such as cricket, car racing, cycling and wrestling have also been in the headlines due to the abuse of performance-enhancing substances.

That professional athletes seek every possible advantage and recovery method, even when it is prohibited in their sport and by law, should not surprise us. In 2014, the Public Library of Science published a report that examined the mortality rate of active professional wrestlers. The data was collected from 1985 to 2011 and showed that wrestlers were three to four times more likely to die than the average person between the ages of 30 and 50. Cardiovascular disease and drug overdoses were responsible for a large majority of these deaths and wrestlers were 15 times more likely to die from a cardiovascular-related cause and 122 times more likely to die from medication or drugs than non-athletes. Over the past 15 years, roughly one in five wrestler deaths has been linked to a party drug overdose.

A study published in the American Journal of Cardiology in 2012 examined the mortality rate of NFL football players and found that these athletes had only half the mortality risk of non-athletes of the same age. However, not surprisingly, football players were found to have significantly higher rates of neurological and skeletal muscle-related diseases.

Use and abuse

Thirty years ago, the average non-professional athlete was not interested in using anabolic steroids. However, walk into most weight rooms and gyms today and you'll be surrounded by a handful of steroid users - whether they look it or not.

One look on the internet will lead you to countless recreational athletes discussing plans for their first, second, third or fourth steroid regimen. These are not people who want to make a living with their muscles or win competitions. They are simply recreational athletes who want to look better.

With steroids, use and abuse are very different things. Those who use anabolic steroids are those who achieve results through healthy eating and training. Those who abuse anabolic steroids massively are those who combine eight different compounds a week because they think their 130 kilo idols are doing the same. The last are those who will generally show up as victims in statistics.

The last call: The dead

In the sixties, the Iron Man editor penned an editorial to address the abuse of anabolic steroids in bodybuilding and warn readers not to use these substances.

In the 50+ years since this article was published, numerous bodybuilders have abused steroids and other performance-enhancing substances and paid the ultimate price:

1. Mike Matarazzo: Regular top 10 IFBB pro from 1992 to 2001. Four-time top 5 finalist at Night of Champions. Died of a heart attack in 2014 at the age of 47.
2. Dan Puckett: 1st place at the 2006 NPC Collegiate National Heavyweight Championships. Died of heart failure in 2007 at the age of 22.
3. Scott Klein: Four-time NPC Heavyweight competitor (1995 and 1997), two-time NPC Super Heavyweight competitor (1998 and 2000). Died of kidney failure in 2003 at the age of 30.
4. Robert Benavente: Competed in several NPC competitions 1994 (teen class) through 2003 (1st place in Southern States). Died of a heart attack in 2004 at the age of 30.
5. Trevor Smith: Bodybuilding author and coach. Never competed, but weighed over 180 kilos. Died of a heart attack in 2004 at the age of 30.
6. Andreas Munzer: 13 top 5 finishes from 1986-96, was considered a "pioneer" in the use of diuretics for a super hard and defined look. Died in 1996 at the age of 32 from multiple organ failure.
7. Mohammed Benaziza: Seven-time Grand Prix winner in 1990 and 1992, 1st place at the 1990 Night of Champions (beating Dorian Yates), two top 5 finishes at the Mr. Olympia (1989 and 1992). Died in 1992 only a few hours after the Grand Prix Holland at the age of 33 from heart failure.
8. Daniele Seccarecci: IFBB competitor from 2007 to 2013. 2010 entry in the Guinness Book of Records as the "heaviest competitive bodybuilder" with 297 pounds. Died of a heart attack in 2013 at the age of 33.
9. Luke Wood: IFBB competitor from 2001 to 2008, frequently made it into the top 10. Died in 2011 at the age of 35 from complications following a kidney transplant.
10. Chris Janusz: Amateur competitor, nutrition coach and competition preparation coach. Died in 2009 at the age of 37 from unspecified causes.
11. Art Atwood: Regular top 10 finalist at IFBB competitions from 2002 to 2004, including a first place finish at the 2002 Toronto Pro competition. Died of a heart attack in 2011 at the age of 37.
12. Mat Duvall: Four-time top 3 finalist in the NPC Super Heavyweight division (1999, 2001, 2002, 1st place 2003). Died of a heart attack in 2013 at the age of 40.
13. Ed Van Amsterdam: European champion in the mid-nineties, regular top 10 IFBB finalist in 2002 and 2003. Died of a heart attack in 2014 at the age of 40.
14. Fannie Barrios: Two-time Jan Tana winner (2001, 2002). Three top 8 finishes at the Ms. Olympia (3rd place in 2002). Died of a stroke in 2005 at the age of 41.
15. Charles Durr: Six top 5 NPC and IFBB finishes from 1988 to 1999. Competed in the 2004 IFBB North American Championships. Died of a heart attack in 2005 at the age of 44.
16. Anthony D'Arezzo: Three-time Top 10 NPC Heavyweight (1993, 1994, 1995) finalist. 1st place at NPC New England in 1997. Died of a heart attack the night before a competition in 2006 at the age of 44.
17. Greg Kovacs: Competed in several IFBB competitions from 1997 to 2005. Was known as one of the bulkiest off-season competitive bodybuilders who regularly weighed over 400 pounds. Died in 2013, at the age of 44 from heart failure
18. Ron Teufel: 1978 IFBB Mr. USA. Second place behind Samir Bannout at the 1979 World Amateurs. Top 10 IFBB competitor in 1981 and 1982. Died of liver failure in 2002 at the age of 45.
19. Hans Hopstaken: NPC Masters competitor in 1998 and 1999, IFBB competitor in 2000 and 2001, including two top 5 finishes at the Masters Olympia. Died of heart failure in 2002 at the age of 45.
20. Frank Hillebrand: Lightweight champion (1987, 1989), multiple top 10 IFBB finishes from 1990 to 1993. Died of a heart attack in 2011 at the age of 45.
21. Alex Azarian: NPC competitor from 2002 to 2009, including five wins. Training, nutrition and competition preparation coach. Died in 2015 at the age of 45 from unspecified causes.
22. Ray Mentzer: IFBB competitor from 1979 to 1982, including 1st place at the 1978 Mr. USA, and several top 3 finishes. Died of kidney failure in 2001 at the age of 47.
23. Nasser El Sonbaty: Regular top 8 IFBB competitor from 1990 to 1992, consistent top 4 finalist in competitions from 1993 to 1998, including a second place at the 1997 Mr. Olympia and a third place at the 1995 and 1998 Mr. Olympia. Died in 2014 at the age of 47 from complications of heart and kidney failure.
24. Don Ross: Amateur competitor from 1965 to 1972, professional bodybuilder from 1973 to 1980 with 10 top 5 finishes. Died of a heart attack in 1995 at the age of 49.
25. Mike Mentzer: Consistent top 3 IFBB pro from 1975 to 1979, including second place finishes at the 1976 and 1977 Mr. Universe, a first place finish at the 1976 Mr. America and a first place finish at the 1979 Heavyweight Mr. Olympia (but finished behind Frank Zane in the overall standings). First professional to achieve a perfect score in a competition. Died of heart complications in 2001 at the age of 49.
26. Don Youngblood: NPC and IFBB Masters competitor from 1994 to 2002. Second place at the 2001 Masters Olympia and winner of the 2002 Masters Olympia. Died of a heart attack in 2005 at the age of 49.
27. Stoil Stoilov: NPC and IFBB Masters competitor from 2005 to 2014. Died in 2014 one week after a second place finish at a national level competition at the age of 49.
28. Terri Harris: Regular top 5 finalist at NPC and IFBB competitions from 2002 through 2012, including multiple first-place finishes in 2011 and 2012. Died of a heart attack two days after a competition in 2013 at age 50.
29. Ed Kawak: Five-time Mr. Universe (1982-1985, 1993). IFBB competitor in 1996 and 1999. Died of a heart attack in 2006 at the age of 51.
30. Vince Comerford: Amateur competitor from 1984 to 1986. 1st place in the middleweight division at the 1987 NPC Nationals (finished behind Shawn Ray in the overall standings). IFBB competitor in 1989 and 1990. Died of a heart attack in 2014 at the age of 52.
31. Greg DeFerro: 1979 IFBB Mr. International, five top 4 finishes in IFBB competitions from 1981 to 1984, including a second place finish behind Lee Haney at the 1983 Night of Champions. Died in 2007 at the age of 53 from heart disease.

The death match?

These bodybuilders are thankfully still alive at the time of writing, but have had or are struggling with serious health issues.

1. Tom Prince: NPC competitor from 1995 to 1997, including a first place finish at the 1997 Nationals. IFBB competitor from 1999 to 2002. Suffered kidney failure while preparing for a competition in 2003 at the age of 34. Retired from the sport in 2004 and received a kidney transplant in 2012.
2. Don Long: NPC Lightweight (1992) and Heavyweight (1993 to 1995). Regular top 10 IFBB pro finalist from 1996 to 1999. Suffered kidney failure in 1999 at the age of 34. Received a kidney transplant in 2002, which failed in 2003. Participated in several IFBB competitions from 2006-2009. Received another kidney transplant in 2011.
3. Flex Wheeler: NPC competitor from 1989 to 1992, one of the best IFBB professionals from 1993 to 2000 with 17 first places. Triple second place at the Mr. Olympia (1993, 1998 and 1999) and two top 4 finishes at the Mr. Olympia (1996 and 2000). Suffered from kidney failure and "officially" retired from the sport in 2000 at the age of 35. Competed twice more including a seventh place at the 2002 Mr. Olympia (allegedly natural) and a third place at the 2004 Mr. Olympia. Received a kidney transplant in 2003.
4. Orville Burke: NPC Heavyweight in 1996 and 1997 and Super Heavyweight in 1998. Regular IFBB Top 10 competitor from 1999 to 2002, including a first place finish at the 2001 Night of Champions and a first place finish at the 2001 Toronto Pro. Two top 10 finishes at the Mr. Olympia. Fell into a coma for 6 weeks in 2002 at the age of 39 after complications from surgery.
5. Mike Morris: NPC competitor from 1990 to 1997, IFBB pro from 2001 to 2005, retired from competition in 2005 at the age of 35 after developing kidney problems.

References

1. Akcakoyun, et al. Long-term anabolic androgenic steroid use is associated with increased atrial electromechanical delay in male bodybuilders. Biomed Res Int. 2014.
2. Achar, Suraj, et al. Cardiac and metabolic effects of anabolic-androgenic steroid abuse on lipids, blood pressure, left ventricular dimensions, and rhythm. American Journal of Cardiology, September 2010;106(6):893-901.
3. Herlitz LC, et al. Development of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis after anabolic steroid abuse. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2010 Jan;21(1):163-72.
4. Herman, Christopher W., et al. The very high premature mortality rate among active professional wrestlers is primarily due to cardiovascular disease. PLoS One. November 2014; 9(11): e109945.
5. Baron, Sherry L., et al. Body mass index, playing position, race, and the cardiovascular mortality of retired professional football players. American Journal of Cardiology, September 2011, Volume 109, Issue 6, 889 - 896.
6. Connor, J, et al. Would they dope? Revisiting the Goldman dilemma. Br J Sports Med. 2013 Jul;47(11):697-700.

By Chris Colucci
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/pharma/big-dead-bodybuilders

There is no shortage of programs designed to help you get stronger. There are also some good programs that aim to help you induce hypertrophy and get your muscles to grow. Unfortunately, you usually have to choose between these two goals, or at least put one of them on the back burner while you focus on the other.

Well, I've decided to put an end to this dilemma. I've put on my thinking cap and developed a program for those of us who want to get stronger and more muscular at the same time.

Strength and Mass 2.0 is unmatched, superior, incomparable and quite simply the best hardcore program ever developed. This program will make all other hypertrophy and strength programs obsolete. You will never need or want another program again...at least not until version 3.0 of this program is released.

I hope you didn't think I was serious when I said that. I would never try to lure you in with such exaggerated promises. Even if the last paragraph was complete nonsense, Strength and Mass 2.0 is a good, solid program that will work for the vast majority of those who follow it correctly.

The strength and mass conundrum

Conventional wisdom tells us that training for muscle mass and training for strength are two different things. Take a look at the training programs of top powerlifters and top bodybuilders. They are as different as night and day. So how do we solve this conundrum of how to get muscular and strong at the same time?

Heavy weights and low reps (1 to 5) are the undisputed king for maximum strength gains. The key is to subject the muscle to high amounts of tension. High amounts of tension equals strength gains.

Getting experts to agree on what is best to induce hypertrophy is a little more complicated. However, it is generally accepted that anything between 10 and 20 repetitions works best when it comes to mass gains that make the skin taut.

This is provided that a significant number of sets are performed with these repetition numbers. It's safe to say that the foundation of hypertrophy training is to expose the muscles to a high volume of training.

But let's not forget the repetition range of 6 to 10 repetitions. Conventional experts say that this is a good repetition range if you want to get stronger and more muscular. The fact is, however, that if you were to train exclusively in this repetition range for all your sets, you would probably only get a little stronger and a little more muscular.

However, you would severely limit the levels of strength and hypertrophy you could achieve if you included other repetition ranges in your training program. The 6 to 10 repetition range is great, but it is not the panacea that many make it out to be.

Some try to solve this problem with programs that use periodization. In these programs, you train with heavy weights for a few weeks to maximize your strength. Then you move on to training for a few weeks that is geared towards maximum hypertrophy.

One thing I don't like about this approach is that strength tends to diminish during the hypertrophy phase and mass gains often slow down during the strength-only phase. In addition to this, you have to wait many weeks (at least one phase of each of these cycles) to make useful progress in both areas. Call me impatient, but I want to improve both at the same time.

To alleviate my impatience and the impatience of my clients, I developed the program described in this article. It incorporates high levels of tension to maximize strength, as a good powerlifting program should. It also uses higher volume and more repetitions to maximize mass gains, as most hypertrophy programs do.

Both parameters are covered each week, so you'll quickly achieve both goals. The program is elegantly simple, but don't let that fool you. The results you will achieve in terms of strength and mass gains will surprise you.

Heavy day, light day

To get really strong, you will train each muscle group with one heavy training day with low repetitions per week. To build maximum muscle mass, you will train each muscle group with a light training day with high repetitions per week.

That's right, you will train each muscle group twice a week - not three times a week as is the case with most full body training programs, not once a week as is the norm with many pure bodybuilding programs, but twice a week.

This frequency and the varying stimuli from training session to training session will give you the best of both worlds. This is exactly what I wanted to achieve - to give you an excellent strength and mass gain inducing training program in one package.

The program: exercises, sets and reps

Monday: Upper body heavy

Notes:

• Rest for two to three minutes between sets of the same exercise.
• Place your elbows out to the side when bench pressing.
• Use a wide, horizontal grip for the T-bar row. Your grip width should be the same as for the bench press.
• Feel free to use some momentum from your legs on the last two repetitions of the shoulder press.
• If you are not strong enough to do pull-ups with your own body weight, you are welcome to use bands, a pull-up machine with support or the help of a training partner. Using lat pull-ups instead of pull-ups should only be a last resort.

Tuesday: Lower body light and abs

Notes:

• Rest 60 seconds between sets.
• Pause 15 to 30 seconds between leg presses.
• Consciously use your gluteus when moving upwards during deadlifts. Go up until your torso is at a 15 degree incline relative to the vertical to maintain tension on the target muscles.
• Take wide steps on the walking lunges for 30 steps/reps (15 per leg) per set.
• Use extra weight on the crunches if needed to keep the number of reps per set under 25.

Wednesday: No training

Thursday: Upper body light

Notes:

• As with the light training session on Tuesday, the pause intervals should be 60 seconds.
• Avoid raising your shoulders during side raises. Make sure you hold the dumbbells straight in the highest position and avoid pointing the little finger down and the thumb up.
• When doing dumbbell tricep presses, avoid hyperextending the arm in the highest position, which would take the tension off the triceps. Lower the dumbbell until your forearm is parallel to the floor with your elbow bent to about 70 degrees.

Friday: Lower body heavy and abs

Notes:

• The rest intervals for squats should be two to three minutes and can be longer if necessary.
• Be a real man and perform deep squats. If you only do half squats, don't tell anyone that you are using my program.
• Place the rack pin in the rack deadlift so that the bar is about 8 to 10 centimetres below your knee at the start of the movement.
• Pull your shoulder blades back at the highest position of the deadlift.
• Your feet should be angled downwards when performing the leg curls
• Perform true hanging leg raises by moving your feet up to your hands while tilting your pelvis back. Don't just tense your glutes and lift your knees upwards.

Saturday and Sunday : No training

A few specifics

The specified number of sets does not include warm-up sets. Make sure you warm up sufficiently, but avoid exhausting yourself too much before your work sets. One or two easy sets should be sufficient, especially if you have done some flexibility training beforehand.

To reduce the risk of overtraining, you will only train four days a week. To further reduce the risk of overtraining, you should not perform forced repetitions. On the heavy days, you should be able to perform your last repetition in good form without having enough reserves for another repetition.

On the light days, finish your sets one or two reps before reaching muscle failure. Holding back and not going to the last one is something I find difficult and it might be the same for you, but your patience will pay off in the form of continued gains.

One of the most important and yet easiest ways to ensure continued progress is to keep a training diary. Keeping accurate records will allow you to plan your progression intelligently.

As a general rule, you should try to increase by either 2.5 kilos or one extra repetition every other workout or two out of every three workouts. Trying to improve at every training session would quickly lead to stagnation or even regression.

The rest intervals I suggest are general guidelines. Rest longer when training with low repetitions if necessary and train with shorter rests when training lightly if necessary. Use your recovery between sets as the ultimate guide and not the clock.

A little leeway

Can I use other exercises in this program? Of course you can, but then it's no longer this program. No, seriously, if you make sensible changes, such as dumbbell incline bench presses instead of dumbbell bench presses on the reverse incline bench, then you won't distort the program.

But if you're talking about replacing squats and deadlifts with lighter exercises or doing more sets for the arms, then you're generating your own program that may or may not work. If you replace exercises with others, make sure you replace them with something comparable. I have chosen these exercises for a reason.

You can of course add one or two injury prevention exercises such as rotator cuff exercises. These don't usually interfere with recovery and can help you become less prone to injury.

Due to the nature of this training plan, I think you can and should use it for longer than most other plans. I would say that 10 to 12 weeks is optimal. If you feel that this program is beyond your recovery ability, then you can take a recovery break in the week 6 or 7 range, during which you only do about 70 to 80 of what you are capable of doing on each set. You will start the next week stronger than before.

A short summary

Even though this is a very good training program, it is not the holy grail of training - which of course is not true for any program. However, if you change the exercises regularly and modify the repetition scheme a little, then this four-day program with alternating light and heavy days can work for a long time. So don't use this exact program for too long, but feel free to use the template for many months in a row as long as it brings results.

by Clay Hyght

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/blending-size-and-strength-20

Here's a quick summary...

1. while many think CrossFit makes exercisers weak, the average CrossFit Games competitor is very impressive
2. some CrossFit girls have better bodies than some figure athletes - even without dieting
3. there's something magical about being able to perform an explosive exercise when you're metabolically exhausted and your heart rate is skyrocketing
4. Performing submaximal exercises that focus more on speed and work density, as you do in CrossFit, is a great way to build muscle
5. CrossFit can get you lean fast without even remotely focusing on nutrition

I have a secret. I trained almost exclusively CrossFit last summer. I competed in Olympic weightlifting competitions, powerlifting competitions and bodybuilding competitions... and now I can say that I am also a CrossFitter. I trained three times a week at CrossFit Levis and then worked on my strength and Olympic weightlifting exercises on my own. I kept a CrossFit training journal during this time. And one year later, I would like to present it here: My CrossFit training journal along with a few recent observations.

Why I decided to give CrossFit a try

1) I worked with a lot of CrossFit athletes this year and helped several prepare for the Canada East Regionals. I've helped some with Olympic weightlifting and others with their overall training. I can tell you this: I've coached figure athletes who take their nutrition, cardio and training to the extreme and a lot of the CrossFit girls I work with have better body development than these figure athletes...and that's without dieting. And a former Canadian national bodybuilding champion I worked with has now started CrossFit training and she looks better than she did when she was bodybuilding - not just better, but more muscular and stronger.
2 I used to believe that CrossFit made girls look great and men look skinny - in addition to losing strength. I no longer believe the latter, as some of the CrossFit competition athletes are quite strong. The average CrossFit Games competitor can snatch 245 pounds, clean and jerk 335 pounds, deadlift 550 pounds and perform squats at 450 pounds - and several CrossFit athletes can perform overhead squats at 300 pounds and front squats at 400 pounds. Four of the guys I train can snatch over 225 pounds, which is pretty darn strong!
3 And take a look at top CrossFit competitive athletes Dan Bailey, Neil Maddox, Rich Froning, Jason Khalipa. These guys look badass - big muscles, athletic look and lean. The average height to weight ratio for the top guys is 180 cm, 88 kilos and 8% body fat or less. I know you're considered a weakling on the internet if you weigh less than 90 kilos, but in reality an average height, very lean body at 90 kilos is very muscular. Heck, the last time I competed in a bodybuilding competition, I weighed 85 kilos.
4 CrossFit has done more for Olympic weightlifting than Olympic weightlifting itself. Any sport and training model based on snatch, clean and jerk, deadlift and push press (standing shoulder press with momentum from the legs) can't be that bad.
5. i do some workouts with my wife and there is something quite sexy about seeing a woman perform deadlifts, deadlifts & push presses and snatches that really helps to reignite the passion in a marriage!
6. i hate not being good at anything, which is especially true if it's workout related.
7. i have always believed in the maxim "leaders lead from the front, not the back." believed. And I've always lived by the credo of not asking anything of a client that I can't do myself. You may not be at the same level, but you should be physically able to do what you ask of them. And having worked with a lot of CrossFit athletes, I felt bad not being able to lead from the front.
8. 5 years ago, I suffered from a virus-related myocardiopaty that led to heart failure. For two years my heart only functioned at 20 to 30% of its original efficiency. This was something that is hard to accept for someone who was athletic. It affected my training and my quality of life. This experience made me realize how important a strong cardiovascular system is. I also believe that my cardiovascular health (or lack thereof) greatly affected my ability to build muscle. Every time I exceeded 100 kilos, I felt really bad and had to reduce my weight.
9 I've always believed that training density is one of the most important factors when it comes to getting a maximum training response from your workouts. In CrossFit, training density is the most important element. Each training session is based on performing a certain amount of work as quickly as possible or as much work as possible within a given time window. This sense of urgency that this workout creates can be as powerful as adrenaline.

That was the reason I wanted to give it a try.

May - Things I learned from my first month of CrossFit

1 - I had gotten lazy with my own workouts. I stayed in my comfort zone far too often and only really pushed myself when I really needed to improve quickly (e.g. before a video shoot).
2. my cardiovascular system is both better and worse than I thought it would be. Better because I found out that I am capable of going way past the point where I thought I would die and worse because I think dying would feel better.
3. some of the workouts have been very beneficial to my own body development goals (My ideal is Georges St. Pierre with 10 to 15 pounds of extra muscle mass). However, some are also very counterproductive and make it harder for me to achieve my goals.
4. training to be good at CrossFit will do more to build the body I want than simply doing CrossFit. I think this is one of the reasons the guys and gals at a top level have such great bodies - they do CrossFit workouts, but they also do plenty of strength training.
5 I know that my methods for building strength are more effective than the methods used by even the top CrossFit athletes. I also know that the type of work performed during productive (for my goals) CrossFit workouts will do a lot to help me build quality muscle and get leaner. A combination will give me everything I want from my workouts.
6. it's fun to learn new heavy skills like handstand push-ups, muscle-ups and the like, but you don't need them to build the ultimate body. If there's one thing I don't like about CrossFit, it's the complexity of some of the skills. I understand that being prepared for anything is the driving concept, but if your goal is simply to get more muscular, leaner and stronger, then these advanced skills aren't necessary.
7 There is something magical about being able to perform an explosive exercise when you are metabolically exhausted and your heart rate is at 200 beats per minute. Being in such a strained physical state activates powerful survival mechanisms - when you perform strength and power training in this state, you generate a very powerful growth stimulus that cannot be achieved in any other way.
8. for the first time ever I had a sore latissimus muscle and my latissimus has grown significantly. I have always hated pull-ups and therefore avoided them. I have found that a daily workout of pull-ups using strict pull-ups kipping pull-ups, butterfly pull-ups and pull-ups on rings at a non-maximal level works better than anything else when it comes to building my latissimus. The strange thing is that I didn't feel my latissimus particularly strong while performing these exercises - but even more so the next day! This made me think again about some things that I had considered to be absolute truths.
9 CrossFit does indeed have a fairly high risk of injury. Even as someone who has studied training techniques, I tended to take shortcuts during WODs. It is important, in my opinion, to train the big basic exercises used in CrossFit as part of regular strength training sessions to make proper technique as much of an automatism as possible.
10. during a CrossFit training session you reach a state of deep focus that allows you to do things you didn't expect. For example, at one point I found it very hard to breathe and was close to passing out, but I ended up doing one of my most technically sound reps of snatches at about 10 pounds less than my current max weight. Experiencing this type of tunnel vision is something you can learn to transfer to strength training sessions to make them much more productive. I can also use my wife as an example. During regular strength training sessions you couldn't get her to move 135 pounds on deadlifts (due to the "big" plates on each side), but during a WOD she went up to 225 pounds.
11 My capacity to perform a heavy workload in a state of metabolic exhaustion has improved dramatically - and much faster than expected. In addition to my training, I do two workouts at the Levis CrossFit Box with my wife. I'll be honest - during the first week I thought I would never manage to finish - or even survive - the training sessions. Two-thirds of the way through the workouts, I was gripped by a sense of panic. However, by the second week I was actually able to complete a training session with good results instead of just surviving and by the third week I felt so much better after a training session that I wondered if I had done the training session correctly as I felt so good at the end!
12. i got slim fast! I am slimmer than I have been in the last 5 years and I didn't even pay attention to my diet to achieve this. I'm actually eating a lot more carbs now. After the first week, I ramped up my carbohydrate intake to make sure I could recover sufficiently. My daily food intake is as follows. Please note that this is not a dietary recommendation. I am not planning anything and I am certainly not a gluten hater.

• 6 sirloin hamburgers (150g carbohydrates)
• 3-4 scoops of a weight gainer (roughly 114-152g carbohydrates)
• 6 scoops of protein powder (30g carbohydrates)
• 14 rice crackers (112g carbohydrates)
• 2 Finibars (80g carbohydrates)
• A few berries (roughly 20-30g carbohydrates)

That's between 520 and 540 grams of carbs per day and sometimes I even get to 600. Not bad for someone who used to be afraid of getting over 50 grams of carbs per day.

13 Despite my biggest fear, I haven't lost any strength - I've actually gotten stronger on many of my exercises including pull-ups, overhead presses and deadlifts. I was also able to increase my strength in power snatches. My powerlifting has stayed the same, mainly due to not being able to train hard because of an old elbow injury I sustained when I overdid it on rings.
14 I am almost indestructible at weights in the 60 to 75% range. Before that, I could do tons of sets of 1 to 2 reps at 90%. But I couldn't handle higher reps or workloads. To give you an idea, let me mention that when I tested my deadlift performance after three weeks, I was able to do 60 reps with a weight in the 70 to 75% range in under 8 minutes. That may not sound huge, but that's one repetition every 8 seconds. And to be honest, I could have gone on and on. I also performed 60 reps of neck presses with over 225 pounds in just under 9 minutes.
15. my latissimus and shoulders improved the most. I've always had good, round shoulders, but for some reason I had lost some mass, shape and strength around those muscles over the last 2 years. I'm guessing this was caused by a significant reduction in my overhead training (in favor of bench presses) and chronic shoulder inflammation. To be good at CrossFit, you need to be super efficient and strong overhead, which is why I had to shift my focus more towards overhead press strength, away from the bench press. This has paid off. I've been doing a lot of overhead training with high reps, which seems to be more effective for building shoulders than max weights. Latissimus growth was something that came naturally, as I had to get good at pull-ups, which were a part of virtually every workout I did in the CrossFit box.
16 I lost fat in my upper and lower back - areas where fat is usually super stubborn for me.
17 I feel a lot better. I used to have energy slumps and even borderline depressive episodes. I attribute this to messed up brain chemistry. As it turned out, however, I was just out of shape. I feel more energized and excited to do things. I'm not at the point where I enjoy visiting my in-laws yet, but I'm sure that will come.
18 I feel athletic. I walk differently. My movements seem more fluid and confident. I look like a different person when I approach and it's not even from the physical changes.
19 My body weight hasn't changed much, although I've gotten leaner. I started at 215 pounds, which is pretty much my normal weight, and after four weeks I weighed 213 pounds, but I had lost a lot more than just 2 pounds of fat. So much for the fear of shrinking down to 180 pounds within a few weeks.
20. the sport that will benefit the most from a gainer is training for CrossFit. Not only was I able to recover from some brutal metcon workouts with ease and still move heavy weights during my strength training sessions, but I never felt physically wiped out. I only had muscle soreness once and that was after a training session where I had performed 64 reps of power deadlifts with 185 pounds in CrossFit training and then an hour later used 295 pounds in push presses during my regular strength training session. I got a sore trapezius muscle, but that was about it.

June - Observations during the second month

1. a tough month of training is behind me. I can say that this form of training is addictive and I can well understand why CrossFit is so popular. It really sucks when you do it, but it's the pride you feel and the sense of accomplishment that is hard to beat. As for my training results, I love what I see and how I feel.
2. during my second month of training, I've observed and learned a few more things that I want to share with my readers. I have always felt like the average reader of this site. I want what he wants and I like what he likes. I like to be strong and muscular, but I also love to be lean and feel athletic. I have said that my ideal body image is Georges St. Pierre's body with 10 to 15 pounds more muscle, but considering what is happening with my body, I might change that statement to 20 pounds more muscle.
3) While I expected to get leaner with this type of training, I was also worried about losing some muscle mass. Ultimately, decreasing the volume of my general strength training and increasing the volume of metabolic conditioning training was going to result in a loss of muscle mass. I was willing to live with this, but so far I'm downright shocked by the results. I certainly haven't lost any muscle mass and may even have gained muscle, which is evident from the fact that I am much leaner while my body weight has remained fairly stable. This tells me two things:

a. The amount of strength training/heavy training needed to build strength and muscle mass is much less than I previously thought
b. Lighter resistance training can actually stimulate growth if you push yourself hard enough.

4. after some deeper analysis of my self-perception, I realized that being super lean is more important to me than being super bulky. Don't get me wrong, I want big muscles and you can't achieve the look I want without a good amount of muscle mass, but it's always been my main goal to look like a walking anatomy chart. The problem is that every time I've tried to get this lean in the past, I've felt really bad during the process. I had no energy and lost strength. Why? Because with the type of training I was doing, I was achieving fat loss by reducing food/carbohydrate intake (sometimes very drastically), whereas now I am achieving the same whilst eating just as much, if not more than during the muscle building phase.
5. my back, shoulders and legs have definitely improved the most. What I really love is seeing my back getting really lean! As I mentioned before, it would normally take an extreme diet to get better definition in the back area, but now I'm seeing a lot of division just from working out. My shoulders are a lot rounder, which is cool because in the past the round shape of my shoulders was the first thing I lost while dieting. My legs are bulkier, but that's also not surprising since I do four squat workouts a week plus Olympic weightlifting exercises plus complexes.
6 I've taken to doing daily pull-ups and dips on rings to improve my relative strength. I believe that by doing dips on rings daily, I am able to maintain the mass of my pecs even though I almost completely avoid bench presses. This has led me to the conclusion that dips can be a better muscle building exercise for the chest than bench presses.
7 This is the first time in my life that I really like the way I look. I think that most of us who get serious about working out do so because we are not happy with the way we look. I am no different here. Even when I was bodybuilding I didn't like the way I looked. This could have been because once I achieved the level of leanness and muscularity I wanted, I felt so bad about myself that I saw everything in a negative light. I can safely say that now, for the first time, I look good and feel good at the same time.
8. The more I experience it, the more I believe that submaximal training, which focuses more on speed and training density, is a great way to build muscle. This is especially true for Olympic weightlifting exercises, which is why I've decided to go a little lighter on my Olympic days (I build my overall strength on strength days anyway) and focus more on complexes and EMOM training (every minute on the minute). I feel like this gives me stronger overall muscle gains while making my technique more solid and being easier on my nervous system.
9. you definitely need to ramp up the carbs! Not only will you not get fat on this program, but carbs (the right ones) will actually help you get leaner because they can help you train harder.

July - CrossFit Marathon

Want to hear something even crazier than Christian Thibaudeau training CrossFit? How about Christian Thibaudeau taking part in a 24 hour CrossFit marathon?

You may have noticed that I have an "all or nothing" attitude. Moderation is not my nature. So after less than two months with this type of training, my wife and I decided to sign up for a 24 hour CrossFit marathon organized to raise funds for a town that had been nearly half destroyed by a boxcar explosion.

The event lasted for 24 hours and a training session was carried out every hour. We were split into two teams, so we had to complete all six training sessions - one every four hours. My wife and I stayed in the gym the whole time apart from two short breaks when we went home to feed the dogs. It would be a lie to say that we slept, because sleeping was physically impossible.

When I arrived at the weight room, I noticed that a lot of people knew me. Some knew me because I had trained them in Olympic weightlifting and others knew me by reputation. Everyone was surprised to see me as they knew nothing about the "shift in my training preferences".

Therefore, when it was time for the first training session, I felt a lot of pressure. My heart rate was about to collapse before the workout even started. In addition to this, the training sessions were randomly selected, so it was not possible to assign specific training sessions to team members as we did not know the order of the training sessions in advance. This made things even more difficult. As it turned out, I had to perform a workout called "Fran", which consisted of 21 thrusters (95 pounds), 21 pull-ups, 15 thrusters, 15 pull-ups, 9 thrusters and 9 pull-ups for time. This workout may look pretty innocent, but the problem is that you can barely breathe during the workout. The thrusters are the absolute worst exercise when it comes to breathing and then you have to perform pull-ups during which deep breathing is almost impossible as you can't lift your chest.

I made the mistake of doing the first 21 thrusters as quickly as possible. While I finished first, I was panting heavily as I ran to the pull-up rack. This was due to the lack of breathing and elevated heart rate at the beginning. I managed to get through the whole thing, but promised myself I would never do this training session again.

My second training session was even worse:

• 18 toes-to-bar
• 16 push-ups where you lift your hands off the floor for a moment after your chest touches the floor
• 14 pull-ups (chest to bar)
• 12 dips on rings
• 10 pull-ups
• 8 handstand push-ups
• 6 pull-ups (chest to bar)
• 4 deadlifts and deadlifts with 155 pounds
• 60m walking lunges with 45 pounds overhead

The whole thing went pretty well - apart from falling down three times while doing the handstand push-ups (I hadn't trained this exercise before), but I was really disappointed when I saw that the next training session (the training session that another team member was supposed to do in my place) tested the 1RM weight on deadlifts. I would have liked to have done that.

I also did quite well in my third training session, which consisted of 5 rounds of the following exercises:

• 200m Farmers with a 20 kilo weight plate in each hand (held at the hole)
• 20m Bear Crawl (running on all fours)
• 10 box jumps (90 centimeters)

The next training session consisted of 5-4-3-2-1 with power reps and kettlebell snatches. I would have done quite well here too, but my wife had to do this workout and I can proudly say that her reps looked very solid. In the next round, I pulled a workout that was made for me: "Isabelle", which consisted of 30 repetitions of 135-pound snatches. All eyes were on me and I was expecting a very solid performance.

Sadly, luck was not on my side. After the first 10 reps, where I felt like I was doing snatches with an empty bar, my right quadriceps started to cramp really bad. I wasn't able to put any weight on my leg without feeling bad cramps. I paused, drank 3 liters of water, waited 10 minutes and then tried again. Sadly, most of the others had finished by this point and were resting.

The rest of this experience lies behind a veil. I am someone who usually wakes up at 4:30am and goes to bed at 8pm. On this day, I also woke up at 4:30am, but I finished my last training session at 3:00am. I don't respond particularly well to sleep deprivation. I ended the day with a training session that was tailor made for me, but by this point I was struggling to stay awake and alive, so I can't really say I dominated this training session. The most important thing I learned during those four weeks is the value of Loaded Carries. I was reminded of this when I had to do a training session at CrossFit Levis that included 5 rounds of a 400 meter farmers walk with 24 kilo kettlebells. Then, two days later, I performed the Farmers Walk at the CrossFit Marathon. My forearms and trapezius probably doubled in size afterwards.

Okay, I'm exaggerating, but the Farmers Walk had a huge impact. And I've also found that this type of exercise can teach you to breathe correctly during intense efforts. When you're doing conditioning/strength capacity training, breathing is something that is highly undervalued, yet crucial for optimal performance. I will make sure to incorporate more Farmers Walks into my training in the future due to their impact on body composition, muscle mass and breathing technique.

It was all going so well...

Back to the present... My CrossFit experience ended after the third month. That's when my health problems started. I won't cover those in full here, but suffice it to say they stopped my momentum.

Now what?

I've spent some time rebuilding some of the muscle mass I lost during my time in hospital. To achieve this, I have started regular heavy training again. Now that my strength base is slowly coming back, I'm focusing on Olympic weightlifting exercises again. I am also doing plenty of strength training. I train the two Olympic weightlifting exercises every training day, doing pulls on day 1, presses on day 2 and legs (squats) on day 3, followed by a non-training day before repeating this cycle.

I use the tried and tested 5 x 5 system for my strength exercises. My goal is to do 5 sets of 5 repetitions with the same weight and if I can do this, I increase the weight. I never reduce the weight. On some sets I might only do 3 or 4 reps, but that's fine and just means I won't increase the weight on the next session.

Will I train CrossFit again? Probably. Not to the same extent as last summer, but when my strength levels are back to where I want them to be, I'll start working out again with my wife once or twice a week at CrossFit Levis. I need to prepare to get my butt kicked hard, because unlike me, she hasn't stopped CrossFit.

By Christian Thibaudeau
Source:https://www.t-nation.com/training/bodybuilder-goes-crossfit