Adelfo Cerame - Road to The Wheelchair Nationals '12: Ambitious Short-Term Goals Pave the Way to Success.

Image 1: This guy likes to suffer - no, not
what you are thinking now ;-)

I don't know about you, but I cannot stand how people constantly complain about how bad things are, how hard they are working (mostly these are the laziest people I know), how little they are paid, how desperate the economy was,... you know the whole litany, don't you? Then, Adelfo Cerame's weekly blogpost is exactly the diversion you probably need today. I mean don't get me wrong. Adelfo is only human, so he likes to complain, as well. But believe it or not, this guy complains about not suffering enough!? So just to make sure you get this right. Adelfo Cerame Jr. aspiring future pro-wheelchair bodybuilder suffers, because he does not suffer enough... does not make sense? Well, I guess, I'll better have him explain his "problem", then ;-)


Goalsetting 101: Short-term goals keep you on track

You think you could use some advice on your own training, diet and supplementation regimen and want it from someone who obviously knows what it takes to build muscle and lose fat? You can reach out to Adelfo via Facebook.

When you want to achieve something in life, setting specific and testable goals is always the necessary first step. Mostly, you won't have any difficulties naming your long-term goals - in my case, for example the it is to win the 2012 Wheelchair Nationals. It is, however, also necessary to pick short-term goals in order not to lose yourself on your journey from A to B. After all, long-term goals are exactly what their name implies.... they are LONG. More often than not, you will feel that you have been working towards them for ages, which can become so discouraging that you end up in despair, negate all the small steps you have already taken and surrender to what you believe would be the "fate of the loser" that you are. Some people, on the other hand, react completely different. They become complacent, keep telling themselves how good they already look, how much they already achieved and how well everything worked out... obviously a completely different mistake, yet with similarly unrewarding outcome. To prevent these types of roadblocks, I have made a habit of setting up an exact time-line of short-term goals to accomplish. By doing this, I keep myself motivated, and on my toes (or in my case, on my wheels) to get to the one "distant" long-term goal of which you can lose sight so easily.

I am in week 7 of my contest prep, now. And, psychologically, this has been one of my easiest contest preparations, so far... this does not mean that it could eventually become tough further down the road, but based on my previous experience, I can usually tell if it's going be a rough cut pretty early on in my prep. When the hunger pangs, temptations and cravings are starting early, you know your in for a long cut. But so far nothing! No cravings, no temptations, and rarely any hunger pangs or none at all on most days of the week. I rarely even get excited or anxious on my designated re-feed / cheat days. I don’t feel sleepy, or tired, and my strength and energy is still up at the gym, and I haven’t been using any type of pre-workout, N.O. or creatine supplements, yet.

This is intriguingly easy - too easy!?

Ironically, the ease and smoothness with which things are rolling is what begins to scare me. Being used to the psychological stress, battles and mind games that I use to play with myself during dieting, I am constantly battling the thought that this ease is not what I am supposed to feel when I am dieting or preparing for a bodybuilding show… “If you’re not suffering, then you’re not doing it right!” But I’m not suffering. And yet I seem to be right on track or maybe even ahead of my schedule.

I mean, I do "suffer" the usual pain and fatigue you get while training heavy and intense, but if you remember the statement from Arnold about "da pump", Dr. Andro quoted a few blogposts ago, you will know that this kind of "pain" is what every serious bodybuilder is looking for. What I refer to as "suffering" is what the mental drain the incredible fatigue, the constant huger, the battle against cravings and hunger pangs... the kind of "suffering", when you you are dead tired from dieting so hard that you cannot even perform your daily routines... yet, thinking about it, even calling that "suffering" makes me feel somewhat ashamed. There are millions of people starving - these people have real issues, and people like you and me are complaining about something we are voluntarily doing to ourselves!? But anyway, let's get back to the topic at hand...

Image 2: Cream of Roast Beef, post-workout meal of the week.

Recipe of the Week: Cream of Roast Beef
(Post workout meal)

Ingredients:

• 7 oz roast beef (bottom round roast)
• 6 oz yam
• 5 baby carrots
• ½ c cottage cheese, topped w/ ½ c chopped apples, sprinkled w/ground cinnamon
• 2 tbs. low-fat sour cream
• 1 tbs. A1 steak sauce

Macros: 62g protein / 57g carbs / 20g fat

Quick tip: Personally, I eat more carbs around my workouts, but base all my meals on protein and fat on my off-days. So, if this was a rest day meal, I would take out the yam and replace the apples with a lighter fruit (lower in calories & carbs) like blueberries.

Raising the bar to outdo yourself: "Show ready" by week 12!

Since I’ve been cruising through my prep these past 7 weeks, I’ve decided to give myself a challenge or a short-term goal to prevent me from getting distracted and complacent, but to also keep me motivated (well I never really lost motivation, so I guess it's to add to my motivation) and give more light and focus to the real goal at hand, which is winning an overall title in March. The goal I picked is to be as close to "show ready" as possible by the 12-week mark, which should be Christmas day. Basically I’d like to be in the same type of condition Duong was in when he ended his 12 weeks (if you have not done that already, check out his amazing transformation in the SuppVersity Student Spotlight). Since it’s my first run at IF, I've been really gauging my progress with Duong's - from his macros, the type of foods he ate, to the schedule of his fast & feeding hours. I'm using Duong's progress as a checkpoint or marker, which means that if I am not in the same outstanding (or even better - sorry Duong ;-) physical condition as Duong was, when he hit his 12 weeks, then I need to pick up the pace and make some adjustments.

That being said, Duong gave himself "only" 12 weeks. I, on the other hand, deliberately started early and thusly do not have to cut my calories just as fast as he did ... it is nevertheless imperative that I do not develop the aforementioned complacency and eventually end up even worse than I would have when a relatively drastic, but short cut does not work out.

A log holds you accountable for your progress

My current plan is to maintain a daily caloric intake of 1.800 kcal/day until the end of November. This is in fact -100 kcal lower than the original plan. A plan, my instinct told me would not get me to where I decided I want to be by Christmas. Accordingly, I will drop my daily allowance to 1600 kcal/day in the first week of December '11. I am logging all my food and keeping track of all my calories and macros to a “T”, to be able to analyze which dietary tweaks worked, which didn't an which further alterations to my regimen will be most helpful.

Figure 1: Here’s an example of a program I made on my Macbook where I log my foods.

For the first month I was inconsistent with logging my foods. It was just easier for me to keep track in my head, but ever since giving myself this short-term goal, I made logging my foods just as much a priority as I do my training. Logging your foods and keeping track of your calories and macros also holds you accountable. You know every bite that you put in your mouth, so there’s no lying to yourself when you realize that you’re not making any progress, all the evidence is written down. When you look back and re-evaluate, you’ll know if you stuck to your diet or not... and what's more, logging my foods and keeping track of my numbers, soothes the feeling of "not suffering enough", it reassures me that I am doing everything to the literally "T" - no second guessing myself, no guilty conscious, and no elevated cortisol levels due to constant worries ;-)

It’s always a good idea to keep logs, especially if you’re just starting to learn about nutrition and dieting. Other than holding you accountable, food-logging helps you with learning about serving sizes, and how to count calories and macronutrients. And let me tell you, only when I began logging what I ate, I realized how little I actually knew about what I ate. Looking back four years, I have to admit that I did not even really know what a "protein" is, back in the days when I started.

Knowing your body and its limits is the key to success

On the non-dietary side of things, I noticed that I was getting a little burned out with the EDT in the course of the last week. My strength did not increase as much as it did the previous weeks, and I really felt fatigued the last training session of the week. So I took a break from EDT training this week and changed my workouts to a 5x5 routine, where I do 5 sets of 5 reps. I still lift heavy though. Depending on what muscles I train, I’ll do 7 exercises, and each exercise is 5x5. So for example on chest days, I’ll do 5 chest exercises and 2 triceps exercises, each exercise is 5x5, heavy. It felt pretty awkward going back to a regular split routine. I have gotten so used to the fast paced high-intensity EDT workouts that I wasn’t as hyped or amped during my workouts this week. Although I lifted heavy and intense (probably about the same if not more weight), I was not as mentally focused as I have been when I did the EDT cycles. I figure the best solution to this problem would be to alternate between a "regular" 5x5 split training and escalating density training regimen on a weekly basis. After all, the one week back on the "old" training split already paid off: my strength increased a lot! I guess after a few weeks without "classic" 5x5 training, my muscles were pretty shocked by what my brain tells me is an old hat ;-)

"In my opinion, classic cardio is way overrated and is for suckers!"

Image 3: Low-intensity cardio free! The only high intensity cardio I did during my prep in 09’ was hitting the heavy bag every other day for 30 minutes for the last 4 remaining weeks of my prep. I let my diet take care of the rest and suggest you do the same!

The comparatively low metabolic demand of 5x5 training also gave me the chance to pick up some 20-minute high intensity cardio during my rest days. I’m not a big fan of cardio, and I rarely do it, but when I do, I always enjoy doing high intensity cardio like hitting the heavy bag, doing sprints with my wheelchair or doing the burn machine (it’s a 10 pound hand cycle). I like to “get at it” for as hard as I can for 20 minutes, then I’m done. Don’t waste your time jogging on a treadmill for hours. That’ll get you nowhere fast (not even slow ;-)! Lift Heavy weights and do some sprints. That’s more productive and you burn more body fat than running on a treadmill for hour (assuming that you have your diet in check) .

You should never depend on cardio to transform your physique.

So whatever short- and long-term goals you may be setting in the course of the one week you will have to get along without another blogpost of mine, don't forget: "TRAIN SMARTER, NOT HARDER!"

Adelfo Cerame - Road to The Wheelchair Nationals '12: Experience and Intuition Distinguish Bro from Pro

Image 1: If Einstein had been into bodybuilding, he'd have loved how Adelfo approaches his contest prep.

Science certainly is a serious business. Nevertheless, even Einstein was convinced that, at the end of the day, "intuition" and "experience" is what distinguishes the average scientists, who spends his life in one of those sterile labs doing what philosopher of science T.S. Kuhn once called "normal science", from a genius like Einstein, who scribbled his theory on the photo-electric effects, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize, on a few sheets of paper in the course of a transatlantic cruise. And though I assume Adelfo won't like it, if I call him a "genius" (and I assume for a future pro bodybuilder the comparison with Einstein is not very flattering, anyway), intuition and experience are two things our man at the 2012 Wheelchair Nationals in Florida has in abundance, which is why I will now sit back, relax and let the "pro" do the work ;-)

4 Weeks in - Let's See Where We're at!

Week 4 is almost a wrap, and as I promised last week… I have new progress pictures and 2 new videos for you. We'll start with the pictures, because - even in the age of digital cameras and even smartphones with (supposedly) "high definition", stills like those in image 2 are unique (and necessary) in that they give you the time to really judge your progress - taking weekly (more often is neither necessary nor advisable) pictures is thus a must-do not only for a competitive bodybuilder, but for everyone who wants to take his physique to another level.

Image 2: Progress pics, front - September 2, 2011 (left), pre-contest experimentation phase; October 24, 2011, 4 weeks into the contest prep (img Adelfo Cerame, 2011)

For those of you who are catching up, I did not start my contest prep until the 1st week of October, so the September photos were taken while I was still in my bulking phase and still trying to experiment and to adjust my raw foods intermittent fasting dietary regimen to my individual needs. The lighting is a bit off between the two comparisons, but after 4 weeks, I can see a slight, yet visible improvement in my abdominals - it’s not much, but in view of not having been in a caloric deficit, yet (I'll be going there next week), this is certainly noteworthy.

Image 3: Progress pics, back - September 2, 2011 (left), pre-contest experimentation phase; October 24, 2011, 4 weeks into the contest prep (img Adelfo Cerame, 2011)

The biggest improvement I have noticed though are related to my back. I don’t know how much of the difference is due to the lighting or maybe just because I put my hair up, ... but I honestly think that I was able to put on some decent size - looks like the switch to an EDT-type training style with all the grueling, but obviously productive compound moves was already paying off…

"Opinions, please! What do you guys think? Honestly… I’d like to here some of the readers’ opinions. Am I just seeing things? Or am I really making improvements?  [Comment Dr. Andro: You can either use the "comment" function at the bottom of the page or contact Adelfo directly via Facebook if you want - the latter also holds true if you have specific questions or are interested in dietary counseling]

Like I did mentioned last week, I do feel a lot harder, tighter and fuller. The typical "side-effects" everyone I've talked two who has implemented Rob Regish's interpretation of "escalating density" training into his regimen is "complaining" about.

Showtime! Adelfo hits the gym again...

A pros pros training. Let's get to my latest training videos, now. We shot the videos Wednesday night! They are in fact so brand new that I did not even have the time to get sore, yet ;-)

Video 1: Adelfo is incorporating static holds at the end of each set, a technique he has adapted from Rob Regish's Blueprint (Adelfo Cerame, 2011)

Before I start my EDT Block, I always start off with some static hold movements. As you can see in the video, I do five reps and then hold the weight up, after the last one without going to full lockout (this is obviously important, unless you want your joints, instead of your muscles, to do the work ;-). When I began incorporating this technique from the Blueprint into my regimen, I used to add 4 plates on each side and just do one static hold without the extra reps, but I have noticed that the tension on a decline hammer strength machine is a lot different from a free weight decline press (the tension is a lot heavier on free weights). Thusly, I wasn’t getting enough tension with just one static contraction, because the hammer strength machines does a lot of the additional stabilizing work, you would be doing if you were performing this move with free weights.

Image 4: Even the best blueprint will need some tweaking to become your blueprint for success.

A brief note by Dr. Andro: This little "tweak" to the original "Blueprint" Adelfo has come up with is further evidence of what I mentioned two weeks ago, when Adelfo and I were on Carl Lenore's Super Human Radio. Adelfo is the kind of guy who does not follow (even good) advice blindly. He has exactly the kind of Einstein-ish "intuition" and "experience" which distinguishes an average trainee, who relies on his "gurus" to take him to the top (which obviously seldom happens), from a professional bodybuilder, who takes responsibility for his own progress.So, whatever your personal goals may be, whether you are an aspiring bodybuilder or just an average Joe or Jane wanting to look good naked - always remember: success comes from making a blueprint your blueprint!

Being assisted by the hammer strength machine does yet not mean that you cannot hit the pecs hard - it's well possible that the opposite may be the case, because you are eliminating some of the weaker links... So even if I am doing only 3 instead of 4 plates on each side the pump and the pain during the static hold tell me that I am sending that growth signal you should strive to trigger whenever you are at the gym... after all, muscle growth not exhaustion is why (I assume) most of you will be at the gym.

"I am always tailoring my workout to my very specific needs"

And just in case you are now asking yourselves why I am not just doing the static holds with free weights then, the answer is simple: It's a safety issue. When I use free weights, I do not have the luxury to plant my legs and feet to th ground, which would give me that extra stability I need. I depend solely on my core to balance myself. I have to focus on balancing the weight and myself at the same time. So you can just imagine if I lost balance while trying to lift 3 plates on each side - therefore, the most I ever did after my injury on a free weight bench, was 2 plates on each side. And while there will be a video of me doing free weight bench presses somewhen in the near future, as well. For now, I want you to take a look at me performing my favorite EDT block (video 2)

Video 2: Adelfo doing incline presses and DB rows on the third of on of his EDT cycles (Adelfo Cerame, 2011)

I perform these push-pull combinations right after decline press static holds on the hammer strength machine. Being able to move as fast as I can from one exercise to another, this combo allows me to really make the most of my time at the gym. This video comprises only one of the many cycles I try to do within the 20 minutes given…(if you have not followed the whole series, you can read up on my EDT regimen here). The video, I think, shows the third of the cycles, each of which consists of a one push and one pull exersice

"I do a set of incline presses, then I superset that with DB back rows."

My goal with each EDT block (comprising two exercises each) is to try and complete as many cycles as I can within the 20 minutes. Last night I got up to 7 cycles and with each cycle, I lift as heavy as I can for 4-6 reps. If you do the math - 7 cycles à 4 reps does not sound so much, but you must also count the reps from the superset.... so that you are doing 56 all-out heavy (!) reps within 20 minutes… Then you have another static hold exercise, and another EDT block… remember what I said about not exhausting, but stimulating a few lines above - well, sometimes the former just works best by doing the latter ;-)

Image 5: A Philly Cheese Steak Wrap, the latest delicacy from Adelfo Cerame's personal cookbook.

Adelfo Cerame's Cookbook - Philly Cheese Steak Wrap: With the great feedback I am receiving on the recipes, Dr. Andro and I have decided to include one page of the repertoire I have come up with for me, as well as for the clients, I am doing dietary counseling for, as a regular part of each of my blogposts. Today's recipe is a tribute to all of you (and many of my clients) who are no big fans of raw food eating - and let's be honest, if you are doing it correctly "cooked" food can be both healthy and delicious as well. Not being a raw foodist, paleo eater, south beacher, or whatever else people affiliate themselves with… I eat nutritionally dense whole, natural foods (well, maybe with some exceptions on my cheat/reefed days ;-), of which I have found that my body cherishes extra bucks the ingredients may cost me.

A pros pos ingredients, here is what you will need for the one and only ...

Adelfo Cerame Philly Cheese Steak Wrap

• 1 La tortilla Low Carb / High fiber tortilla (12g fiber/6g carbs)
• 6 oz lean grass-fed sirloin steak
• 1 tbs. real mayonnaise
• 1 string cheese
• Bell peppers & onions (optional)

Macros: 43g protein/ 6g carbs/  16g fat - bon appetit!

Looking back at the first month: "So far everything has gone smoothly!"

Image 6: Adelfo 10-8 weeks out from 09’ WC nationals (Adelfo Cerame, 2009)

Although we still have a couple of days left, I want to take the chance and review this first month of my contest prep. What is kind of exciting is that I have noticed that the way I look as of now is actually how I looked 10 to 8 weeks out during my 09’ contest prep (see image 6), and this is the time during prep where I usually felt rushed and began to drastically cut back on calories, because I felt there wasn’t enough time to achieve the level of competitive leanness I am expecting of myself. And though the drastic cuts did not affect me during the prep, it affected me after! And for those of you who have made extreme cuts before know what I’m talking about.... But anyway back on topic.

Next month (i.e. next week, already) I will actually begin to drop my caloric intake. This month I was at 2,250 calories, which is my maintenance calories. Next week I plan to start out with a ~15% calorie deficit from my caloric maintenance, which is about 1,912 calories. That's not much, but with the way I am looking now, eating at or even above maintenance, I expect to see some changes. If my body does not react the way I expected, I can still adapt my caloric intake in the course of the next four weeks, so that I will be able to reach my first long term goal, which is getting almost stage ready by January. By that time, March comes around real quick and I just want to have the luxury of knowing that I’m ready. But I’ll blog more about that next month and also write more about wheelchair bodybuilding in general for those of you that weren’t aware that there is such a thing ;-)

Adelfo Cerame - Road to The Wheelchair Nationals '12: Leaner, Tighter, Stronger - And All That Despite a Novel Sugary Twist to the Uber-Technician's Diet.

Image 1: Just in case you didn't listen to Adelfo on SHR, last week - he is still single, ladies!

Another week, another Thursday; and although I suppose that more of you have been waiting for Adelfo's update than for my humble thoughts on the latest anti-multivitamin campaign... ah, I mean respectable research on multivitamins ;-), I just wanted to let you know that I am at it. Expect the second installment of the follow-up on "Ask Dr. Andro: Are Supplements Bad For Me (1/2)" either tomorrow or on Saturday... fortunately, future pro-wheelchair bodybuilders like Adelfo Cerame appear to be more reliable than muddle-headed pro-physicists, who spent most of their free-time either in the gym or blogging away on exercise and nutrition science. So, "now, without further delay, let's get to" (I bet some of you will recognize this slogan ;-) Adelfo's third week of what I believe is going to be his last contest prep as an amateur *thumbs up!*

Adelfo Cerame Jr., the uber-technician

Week 3 almost in the books and... I’m feeling great! I’m really having fun with my EDT (escalating density training) routines and tweaking it in to my own. Through trial and error, last week, I was able to pick and eliminate what EDT combinations worked and didn’t work for me. I narrowed it down to 5 exercises that work really well considering my mobility, where I can quickly move from one exercise to another during my EDT block. With some help of my friend Dr. Andro I have compiled a graphical overview for you, always pairing one chest and one back or one biceps and one triceps exercise.

Illustration 1: Adelfo's favorite antagonistic supersets for his current EDT routine.

These are the 5 EDT antagonistic (push/pull) combinations that work real well for me, where I can quickly move from one exercise to another. I will try to get some video for next week (don't forget to come back ;-) with me doing one of my favorite EDT blocks.

Image 2: Adelfo's abs during a previous contest prep. Difficult to outdo, but he will do it ;-)

After the famine and with this escalation in training density, I am getting harder and stronger!

The videos probably won't be able to show that, but after the famine, I cribbed from Rob Regish's Blueprint and with the switch to this (for me) novel training style, I have also noticed that my body has gotten a lot harder, my skin feels tighter, and I feel a lot leaner... while this obviously is somewhat subjective, there is not doubt: I’m definitely getting STRONGER! Moreover, my waist is already at 31" and it looks like it can get down to 30" by next week… pure imagination? I wouldn't think so. I’ll try to take some quality photos of how my physique is looking for next weeks segment - promise!

My diet: A permanent construction site...

As for my diet… I have made some minor adjustments to keep things simple! When it comes to prep and my diet, I get really paranoid and over analyze everything from my nutrition to training. I don’t know why I get like this, but I always do every time I prep. The only way out of this misery is to keep things as simple as possible, so I decided to return to protein and fat (P+F), only, as the basis of the majority of my meals. The only meals that is going to have a "high" carbohydrate content (and low fat) will be my PWO shake and PWO meal. Knowing my own body best, I figured it would be wise to let it run on what it runs best, i.e. fats and give him those damn carbs it needs not to shut down and keep the performance up in the very window, where they will get stored, right where they belong, inside my muscle.

This also implies that I will stop doing my usual Sunday re-feeds for a while, because I feel that I get plenty of carbs post workout after this tweeks, so that - given my current caloric intake - I do not see any need for further refeeds (especially not carby ones). Up to know, this has worked out pretty well, I haven’t been feeling flat, my energy is up throughout the week, my metabolism seems to be up... moreover, I haven’t been feeling deprived of anything, so psychologically I’m fine, as well. The formula is easy:

no flat muscle + no lack of energy +  no metabolic shutdown + no cravings = no re-feeds

I am yet aware, that, eventually, somewhere down the road, I will start to incorporate re-feeds again. Probably every 2-3 weeks, at the latest, when I drop the carbs even in the post workout phase and switch to a strictly "ketogenic" diet.

Image 3: An image for those of you who forgot what table sugar looks like; and Alan Aragon's wisdom for those of you who still believe that only dextrose, or even waxy maize or Vitargo are tolerable PWO sugars.

A pros pos carbs, in case you are wondering what carbs we are talking about... we are talking about "white poison" - plain table sugar! I have been adding 5 tsp. of it to my post-workout shakes (and as you can see, I survived ;-) Originally, I wanted to use dextrose, but I really did not fell like forking over $6 for a pound of sugar. I’d rather spend that $6 on half a gallon of raw milk! [Comment Dr. Andro: A wise decision, but since I do not want to adorn myself with borrowed plumes, I just refer you to Alan Aragon's December 2008 Research Letter, where, in his article "An objective comparison of chocolate milk and Surge Recovery", he beautifully dissects, the dextrose (and other) myth(s).

So, what have I left to tell you? Ah, yes. As of lately I have come up with a new "all natural" growth promoting sleeping aid, it's a dessert I suppose the chefs among you will be interested in.

My pineapple chocolate cheesecake

Image 4: Healthy, all natural pre-bed nutrition - Adelfo Cerame's original Pineapple Chocolate Cheesecake (TM)

Ingredients:
• ½ c. cottage cheese
• 24g vanilla whey
• 1 tbs. heavy whipping cream
• ¼ c. of fresh chopped pineapples
• 1 tbs. of Walden Farms Calorie free chocolate syrup
• 1 tbs. coconut oil
  
  Macronutrient breakdown:
• 37g protein
• 10g carbs 
• 25g fat

How to do it:  Mix cottage cheese, vanilla whey and heavy whipping cream (you can blend it as well, if you prefer that). Pour Walden Farms Calorie free chocolate syrup over what you just mixed. Add the fresh pineapples on top, then pour 1 tbs. of melted coconut oil over your fresh pineapples and wait for the coconut oil to harden over the cold fresh pineapples (about 20 sec.) - You can wash this down with a cold glass of raw milk (which I do), and enjoy your anabolic sleep!

...hmm, what are you waiting for? I said "anabolic sleep!" ;-)

Adelfo Cerame - Road to The Wheelchair Nationals '12: After the Famine the Training Starts to Escalate!

Image 1: Adelfo Cerame Jr. survived the famine ;-)

Another Thursday, a busy one that is not over with this blog post, but will go overtime on Carl Lenore's Super Human Radio, where, today at 12pm EST, you will be able to hear Adelfo Cerame Jr. and my humble self, Dr. Andro, chitchatting with Carl about Adelfo's contest prep, his raw foods diet, intermittent fasting and much more. So don't forget to tune in live (update: click here to download podcast) And in case your boss doesn't like it when you listen to Internet ratio shows in the office, I will post the link to the podcast, as soon as it is going to be available. In the meantime, I'd suggest you read up on whether or not Adelfo survived the self-inflicted famine that had befallen him in the last week ;-)

Low calories + low protein = no hunger, no sluggishness, no visible muscle loss and no acne!

As those of you who have been following my weekly updates (a new installment appears every Thursday) here on SuppVersity know, I picked up a technique I read about in Rob Regish's Blueprint and kicked the hot phase of my contest prep off with a famine/detox protocol. The idea behind this initially counter-intuitive dietary intervention was to give my digestive tract, as well as "Mr. mTOR" on his "AMPK/mTOR seesaw" (if you aren't familar with "Mr. mTOR" and his unique "toy", you got to read up on Dr. Andro's latest blogposts on Intermittent Fasting) a well-deserved rest, in order to reset and improve my body’s ability to absorb and utilize nutrients more efficiently. In combination with strenuous training, the famine signal, which is obviously a novelty for a bodybuilder who has been focusing almost religiously on getting his share of protein in every few hours for years, is supposed to shock and alarm the body. It's similar to what a beginner will experience, when he is first hitting the gym - stress-induced super-compensation is the name of the game.

Figure 1: Macronutrient break down (protein, carbs, fats in g) famine and regular training day - what a difference!

With a calorie intake way below what it will look like even at the end of my contest prep, I expected to be hungry all the time. Much to my surprise (yet actually in accordance with what I had read in Rob Regish's "Blue Print"), the 5 days on fresh pineapples, raw carrots and vegetable juice (V8) weren't so bad at all. Being an "Intermittent Faster" for quite some time now and thusly accustomed to going without food for longer periods of time, I did not even feel particularly hungry. My performance in the gym did not suck and I did not feel sluggish, either. What I did notice, though, was how my skin cleared up. By day three on this low calorie, low protein diet the acne on my chest and back had cleared up - quite astonishing for someone like me who has had issues with body acne for most of his life!

A Guru of my own - wandering in Gironda's footsteps

I broke the famine/detox on Saturday afternoon and treated myself to a Brazilian BBQ buffet. If you’ve never been to a Brazilian BBQ restaurant… it’s a meatgasm of all you can eat: cuts of rib eye, sirloin, brisket, lamb, duck, rabbit… and the list goes on! For the first 48 hours I loaded up on protein and quality carbohydrates, drank lots of water and popped liver tablets throughout the day. "Liver tabs, what's that?", if you are now asking yourselves that question, you probably belong to the post-Gironda generation. Vince Gironda, the "Iron Guru", himself, swore by those dessicated liver tabs for their high content of quality protein and highly bioavailable vitamins and micronutrients. While this may have been in the days before protein powders, BCAA caps and mega-dosed vitamin supplements became widely available, I feel like this completely natural nutrient blend still has its merit. As of Monday, I went back to my daily maintenance calories.
 

Image 2: This is what a  Brazilian BBQ looks like. Certainly, a decent contrast to a famine. So, just in case you ever happen to be starving, I guess now you know where to go to refeed yourself ;-)

When I first started experimenting with IF last month, I mentioned that I wasn’t really keeping track of my calories or numbers. This has obviously changed with the beginning of my contest prep. After all, intermittent fasting is a dietary strategy, but no magic bullet that will give you the body of a bodybuilder if you eat like a pig - when on stage 0.1% body fat make the difference, between victory and defeat, calories begin to count again. Accordingly, I began keeping track of my calories and macronutrients, again, in order to make sure that I am hitting my numbers: For the next two weeks my goal is to keep my calories around my caloric maintenance to take advantage of the super-compensation process I hope to have triggered by the short famine phase.

After those two weeks, I will evaluate my physique, take measurements and go from there. In that I will diverge from the usual approach, where you are gradually decreasing your calorie intake from week to week, and use what you may call "caloric zig zagging" instead. In essence, I hope to be able to forestall metabolic adaptation processes (it should be obvious that we are talking about reductions in energy expenditure, here) by keeping my energy/calorie intake up during my training days and using my off days to create the caloric deficit which simply is a necessary prerequisite to bring your body fat level down into the unquestionably unnatural lower single-digit range, where veins start popping and striations begin to show, where "normal" people would not even know they had muscles ;-) ... but as I said, I’ll figure out the details, based on the results of the next two weeks.

EDT = Escalating Density Training - well, why not give it a shot!?

Image 3: Adelfo's personal EDT blueprint right from his secret training diary ;-)

I have also decided to make a major change in my training routine: For the next couple of weeks, I will be experimenting with static holds and EDT, i.e. escalating density training. At first I was very hesitant, because I am so used to common split routines, muscle-isolation and all those specialization and isolation stuff you read about in the muscle mags. After some conversations with Rob Regish, who happens to offer additional advice to all readers of his "Blueprint" on the Blueprint Forum, and some research of my own, I have convinced myself that the intense antagonistic training style of EDT could work particularly well for someone like me, who, partly due to my handicap, usually doesn't do any regular "cardio" training during his contest prep and wants to rely on strength training and nutrition, exclusively, when dieting for a show. Being short and intense it could help burn off calories while building or maintaining the muscle mass I already carry.

A pros pos intense: EDT is a program or training system that challenges you to do the most work per unit of time, which is supposed to be an optimal stimulus for muscle growth. Each session consists of two antagonistic or push/ pull exercises (for example, 1 chest exercise superset w/ 1 back exercise and 1 biceps exercise superset w/1 triceps exercise). You have 20 minutes for each exercise (which is called the PR Zone or personal record zone), to perform as many reps as you can. The goal is to try and beat your personal or PR zone, every workout session. Now, if you have not tried it yourself, two exercises, 40 minutes of training... that may not sound very intense... believe me, my experience from Monday's workout tought me otherwise: EDT is fast paced and intense. I was sweating and breathing hard, like I was running sprints back and fourth for 20 minutes. I haven’t felt like that in a long time from a weight training session…

And for those of you that are wondering. "Hey, and what about your other body parts? Deltoids, triceps, the individual heads, etc.?" Honestly, when you’re hammering your chest and back constantly within those 20 minutes… I can assure you that you WILL feel that your deltoid, triceps, and biceps are getting hammered just as well. And FYI… you cannot change the shape of your muscles or restructure your muscle bellies by exercising body parts from certain different angles - you may be able to make up for minor imbalances, but when it's all said and done, all you can do is shed off the body fat and showcase what you have made out of the body God gave you.

Abs, abs, abs,... is that all people want?

You think you could use some advice on your own training, diet and supplementation regimen and want it from someone who obviously knows what it takes to build muscle and lose fat? You can reach out to Adelfo via Facebook.

Before we close this weeks update, a brief note on a topic many of you appear to be interested in: My, or I actually I think you are more interested in YOUR abs ;-) I get a lot of compliments and questions on how I get my abs so defined, people ask me what type of exercises I do or think that I spend the whole day working them out. To be honest, I don’t do any special exercises or different varieties of abdominal workouts, as you see some people do. I keep my abdominal workout simple, just your basic cable crunches using a rope. People don’t realize that everybody exercise his abdominals on a daily basis... you cannot do squats, deadlifts, shoulder presses, benches, etc. without them! During each rep, your abs got to work - they are stabilizing your body, whether you realize it or not, your abs will gets their share of stimulation.

Now, obviously, I depend a lot more on my core to hold me up and balance myself, since I cannot use my gluteus and legs. When it comes to "training" abs, this is an advantage, because I am utilizing my core more than most "healthy" people do, just to keep my posture up and balanced... I let my diet take care of the rest!  Always remember: Abdominals are built in the kitchen, but that’s stuff for one of the next installments ;-)

Adelfo Cerame - Back on the Grind! Introducing the World's First Hypertrophy-EDT-5x5 Alternate Cross-Over Regimen!

Image 1: A classic physique, but a novel routine.

I guess, I don't have to tell you that our mutual friend Adelfo is fired up to get back to the gym. I guess if it had not been for the intermediate famine phase after the post-contest binge, he would hardly have endured the one week without drudgery, but alas, the time of laziness is over now and Adelfo is about to return to the gym. Yet not without a detailed plan of attack, not as "voluminous" (in the literal sense) as he had intended before our conversation, last weekend, but still a ton of grindingly hard work - exactly the kind of thing Adelfo loves and what helped him build, what may not be the most muscular, but certainly the most aesthetic physique I have ever seen on a wheelchair bodybuilder (let alone other athlete). But I guess, I will just let him tell you how he is planning to take this superlative to yet another level.

Back on the grind! But not without a few tweaks

"After taking a week off, your boy is back at it again for another 14 weeks!" *lol* Today is training day. No food, just weights - or put more simply: I will focus on the exercise part of my plan of attack for the next show. As Adel, aka Dr. Andro, already gave away in Part II of his "Step by Step Guide To Your Own Workout Routine" series (click here for Part I) I will give you the run-down on the training protocol we have workout out on the last weekend. It's more or less a work in progress, with a tried and proven workout-base, which has worked for me in the past, and some additions that are intended to make it even better. If that sounds confusing, just bear with me, you will soon understand, what I mean.

Image 2: If you have not seen them already, you better make sure to go to either RXMuscle.com or Adelfo's Facebook page to check out the pics Dave Palumbo's crew shot at the 2012 Sunshine Classics

Those of you, who have been following the "Road to Wheelchair Nationals" series, here at the SuppVersity, know that I have found some success in increasing my strength and lean muscle utilizing an EDT and 5x5 training type regimen even though I was on a caloric deficit for the most part of my prep. Up to now, I have never used this regimen on a "bulk", i.e. in a phase, where I consumed at least slightly more calories than I needed, but judged by my previous results, the results should be scary - obviously, in a positive sense ;-) For now, this will yet have to wait to the off-season. After all, the time to my next competition (~15 weeks) is not that long that I could afford to go really overboard calorie-wise.

Given my past experiences with this regimen, I would yet be a fool to skip the EDT + 5x5 regimen completely. So, I decided that it would be prudent to stick to what has worked and try to come up with a set of modification that would make it even more efficient. 

The thing I have come up with is basically a "cross-over regimen" (sounds funky, right? I guess I should patent the training system and sell it, then ;-) with a two-day 5x5 strength core that is combined alternately with two-day escalating density regimen or a newly developed three-day hypertophy protocol.

The key points and main changes of / in my new regimen:

• I threw out the static holds and added another EDT exercise to make it a total of 3 EDT exercises in 1 workout session, equaling 60 minutes total. I did this, because I felt the cost-benefit, in terms of the time I spent doing the statics and the results strength and size-wise were not worth, given that at this point of my prep I will still be consuming enough food to cope with a third escalating density superset, which would otherwise have extended my workouts into the 70min+ realm.
   
• I wanted to add hypertrophy-type workout into my regimen. Something I could alternate with the EDT workouts every other week. Firstly, to avoid overtraining on the metabolically demanding 2x60 min EDT sessions per week and secondly to add another unfamiliar growth stimulus. It has been some time that I did a "normal" bodybuilding split) and as much as I love low reps and lifting heavy, I feel that hypertrophy style training also has its benefits. When I’m lifting real heavy, my intensity and focus is just on strength and moving the weight. It’s really hard to focus on the mind to muscle connection, and the stretch and squeeze, when you’re trying to lift a lot of weight. This is where a hypertrophy style training excels. It allows you to focus on good form, the mind to muscle connection, and the stretch and the squeeze. I also feel that it’s a good confidence builder, because it allows you to appreciate the strength gains you make, from lifting heavy all the time - well, at least that is what it is for me: The way the weight suddenly feel so light, when you transition from the low reps with heavy weight, to a high(er) rep protocol with moderately heavy weight just makes me feel good.
   
• I wanted to work on my "new" problem area, the shoulders, which I have decided were the body part, where Neil beat me in Florida. I must admit that just doing the classic push movements, I may have neglected my rear and side delts and the results were particularly visible, when I hit the rear double biceps pose. 

In fact my decision to add additional shoulder work was part of the reason to a) add another EDT superset and b) (re-)incorporate a "classic" hypertophy split into my regimen, the first rudimentary incarnation of which looks as follows:

Figure 1: Week A of my new alternate cross-over training regimen (2x EDT + 2x 5x5)

Basically, in the first the first week, I’m sticking to my bread and butter regimen, which is EDT & 5x5. Call it a strength and conditioning phase, if you will. In the subsequent week, I will then replace the two EDT days on Monday and Wednesday with a classic three-day bodybuilding split, so that week B is slightly more hypertrophy-oriented, and will look like that:

Figure 2: Week B of my new alternate cross-over training regimen (3x Bodybuilding Split + 2x 5x5)

Overall this regimen is - and this should apply to any of your new regimen, as well (don't forget to check out the past and future installments of the "Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout Routine") - a "work in progress". I will stick to it for these first two weeks and think about adjustments, on either the training or the nutrition side of things, afterwards. Apropos, nutrition: If you are curious about what my intermediate "maximal muscle, minimal fat gain diet" is going to look like, I suggest you do not miss the next installment of my ongoing series, here at the SuppVersity!