Strength and Physique

Q: I am a member of the Canadian Forces Military Police branch. I have just come off of a medical category due to a lower back/sacroilliac (SI) joint injury from a training accident. That being said, I'm finally off medical leave and able to get to the gym. Running is something I am not good at both due to sports induced asthma and my injury (it gets really sore and tired around the 20 minute mark). As well, I have been working to develop core strength to regain stability in the region of my injury. With that being said, I began to look online for programs or tips on training for cops. I came across a couple articles you wrote and thought that I would attempt to contact you. Basically I am seeking some assistance in not only regaining my fitness level but surpassing it.  As a fellow police officer and from your articles, you seem to have a keen sense for what is physically necessary of us. Plus, you made mention of "looking" the part which does assist in dealing wit...

Q:  Hello, I'm an ectomorph that has been lifting for around six months now. I have been working out 4 days a week hitting each muscle group once with 2-3 sets for each. I will say that I have become more cut and put on a little weight, but with school and work currently I find it hard to make it 4 days a week and would like to condense down to working out 3 days a week.  I've noticed that your workout plan is designed for body types such as myself. My main concern is that I'v never tried pyramids before, and I'm not sure how to come at 10 8 6 15 routine. For example, I can currently bench 145 for three sets of 10. How would I incorporate this into your pyramid routine? Would I start with lighter weight increase by 5 until I get to 15 then drop to light weight again for the last 15? Any help is greatly appreciated. I would love to start this routine next week.  - M. Patterson   My Answer: Pyramiding is quite easy. All you do is add more and more weight fr...

I know it's been awhile since I've posted a real entry, one where I'm not answering the same questions over and over. But I've been quite busy as of late. The biggest cause of busy-ness? My 6 month old daughter, of course. It's been hard juggling work, writing, working out and family. So I've been following the training principles in Training for the Busy Bodybuilder to keep myself in shape. If you have an extremely busy lifestyle, then having a home gym makes life much more convenient. I wrote about the basics for the home gym in a previous post , but I thought I'd follow-up with a post on "home gym extras." These are pieces of equipment or exercises that, if you have the extra money and the extra strength, should purchase and perform: 1) Kettlebell- A lot of people go crazy bat shit over kettlebells. They think kettlebells cure everything from ectomorphism to obesity to cancer. But the bottom line is that kettlebells are tools, th...

Q:  "How many sets per body part is recommended if you are doing a total body workout? I usually do compound movements (e.g. I do a total of 18 to 20 sets of chest exercises for the week)." - W. Williams   My Answer: It depends on a number of things. For one thing, how many other body parts are you including in these full body workouts? If you go with the bodybuilding standard, then you have 8-9 body parts in which to hit:  Chest  Back  Shoulders  Biceps  Triceps  Quadriceps  Hamstrings  Calves  Abs  That doesn't leave you with very many sets per body part. Two to three sets per muscle group is really all you can do. This is perfectly fine for beginners and older lifters. But for those who've been in the Iron Game for awhile, 2-3 straight sets doesn't do much.  There is a way to get around the low set total and add some needed volume. I go over this in my article "Supercharging H.I.T." an excerpt from Neo-Classical ...

Q:  I've read your article about shoulder workouts as well as many others, and I have a question. I really appreciate if you can spare some time to answer it. I heard from almost everywhere that you can get wider shoulders by working out. I have a very slim body (56 kg, 172 cm tall, 24 year old male) and very narrow shoulders. The width of my shoulders is only two times of the width of my head (1/2). I checked this ratio by measuring photos of a man with broad shoulders, and this ratio is usually 1/3. I know it has a lot to do with genetics, but how much exactly can you add to your shoulder size by workout? Someone told me that you can add 2 centimeters to each side at a total of 4 cm maximum. Even if that's true, by working out my deltoids I will also work my trapezius muscles as well, even if I don't want to. And the growth of the trapezius makes your shoulders look narrow, because it gives your shoulders an angle to the ground rather than being nearly parallel to ...

I have a few articles out there in queue with a number of magazines. It's hard to keep track of them, so every so often I'm surprised when I see one pop up. Most mags don't let you know if they're going to print your article or not. One time I went to a Barnes and Noble, picked up a mag and thought to myself, "Here's this stupid ass magazine that didn't want to publish my..." [thumbing through the pages] "... well what do you you know? They picked up my article! Aww, that's great... Hey wait a minute... they didn't pay me! Those cheap, thievin' bastards." Of course, at the time I was new to freelancing and didn't know that mags pay after the article is in print or online. Anyway, I have a new article at T-Nation: Controlled Overtraining for Muscle Growth

Q: Your Return to Copland write-up was pretty slick. I plan on using that for my next training block. You mention that prison guards should go a different way in their training. How about a blog or article concerning that kind of training program for guards? I did some searching around the net and could not find one article concerning the matter. It's a new frontier? Hope to see it sometime. Catch you around. -Shane My Answer: As I mentioned in the article, those of you in corrections would probably do best with a powerlifting program. You deal with inmates all the time in confined spaces, so pure strength and physical size are traits that would enhance your job. The reason I didn't write an article specific to correctional officers and deputies manning county jails is that the program really would not be any different from a powerlifting program. In other words, there is nothing specific to the physical demands of corrections that require anything beyond that of ...