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Dexter Jackson

Coming soon

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Dorian Yates

Dorian Yates, in my humble opinion, ushered in the mass monster era of bodybuilding (the picture to the left is of an earlier version of Yates). He was a great champion, having earned the top spot in the Mr. Olympia six times in a row, from 1992 to 1997.

Known as “The Shadow,” Yates was a beast in the gym.

His last win, and last competition, was the 1997 Mr. O, in which he competed with a torn tricep.

Dorian retired in large part, it’s said, due to many acute injuries.

He’s been outspoken on steroid use.

Yates now runs a nutritional supplement company.

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Build Mass Without Side Effects

by Anonymous

Question: I am very lean and my body weight is very low compared to my height. So please guide me to increase my body mass safely without any side effects.

Answer: You are certainly not the first – nor will you be the last – person to experience this issue!

My standard answer is if you are not gaining weight, then you aren’t eating enough. It is a simple math problem.

Building muscle is a little different. You have to actually exercise by overloading your muscles and then letting them rebuild so that they are bigger and stronger than before.

But putting on weight is simply a math problem:

Eat more calories than you burn.

It really is that simple. Now, I know. It’s extremely difficult to eat a lot of food for a lot of people; I used to be the same way. I used to eat so much that I literally puked it all out. It was absolutely horrible!

You will need a good protein supplement, preferably made of whey concentrate. Prograde makes the best on the market, so you may as well pick some up right now.

Eat 6 or more times a day, including plenty of protein and fat from eggs, milk, beef, fish, fowl, and nuts. Make sure you eat a lot of green vegetables and fresh fruits, too.

For short periods of time (3 to 6 weeks), you can eat up to a dozen eggs and a gallon of milk per day. Don’t start off with this volume, though — build up to it!

Get in the gym no more than 3 days a week and exercise using only compound movements like squats, deadlifts, chinups, bench presses, rows, and overhead presses. 3 sets of 6-10 reps.

Don’t do any abdominal work and rest as much as possible. Sleep at least 8 hours a night. More if you can. Take a nap after lunch, too.

The trick is getting your metabolism to slow down, stimulating muscle growth, and eating as much as you can to effect the weight and muscle gains that you so desperately desire.

It IS do-able. I put on over 60 pounds in one year using those methods above.

You can get more details by getting my Hardgainer Manifesto course.

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Image credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Ronnie_Coleman_8_x_Mr_Olympia_-_2009_-_7.png

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Chris Dickerson

Chris Dickerson, best known for his incredible calves, won the Mr. Olympia in 1982. He also won a string of IFBB Grand Prix’s in the 1980s.

His career spanned 4 decades, beginning in the 1960s and culminating in a 1994 Mr. Olympia Masters win.

Dickerson trained for most of his competitions with legendary Bill Pearl.

Today Dickerson lives in Florida where he continues to train, conduct seminars, and correspond with current athletes.

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Bodybuilding for Beginners

Bodybuilding for beginners is where you start your muscle-building future. You’ll want to start out with the right exercises, the right diet, and the right recovery programs.

Muscles grow as a result of overloading them, feeding them, and letting them recuperate, so that they grow stronger and bigger over time. You need all three components (exercise, nutrition, and rest) to make any gains. Two out of three is not good enough.

It is at this stage where you learn the basics of bodybuilding.

Bodybuilding Basics

First things first! You want to hit the weights, and I don’t blame you. Just don’t forget about the other two pillars (and don’t forget about mindset – which won’t be a problem when you’re starting out but it will when you hit your first sticking point).

Exercises

In your first month, these are the exercises you want to do (just watch, don’t necessarily listen to the recommendations):

• Squat (1 set of 20, abbreviated 1×20)
• Bench Press (1×10)
• Chin-ups (1×10)
• Shoulder Press (1×10)

Lift on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, or every other day. This gives your muscles time to recover, adapt, and grow.

On your rest days, do your normal thing. If you like to run, run. If you ride a bike, ride a bike. On your workout days, try to just lift weights.

Of course, this may be a bit impractical. If you’re on a high school football team, you will practice every day. There’s no getting around that.

However, this makes it all the more important to really do nothing on your off days (like Saturday and Sunday).

Your body and mind need the rest. There is a strong central nervous system (CNS) response to weight training.

After one month, add one set to each exercise and stick with that for 3 months. Add weight when you can, in the smallest increments possible.

In many cases, beginning bodybuilders find that they can add weight every single workout to almost every exercise. If you can – great. If you can’t, that’s great, too.

Everybody gains strength at different rates. Consistency at this point is king.

Diet

My experience tells me that eating a “normal” diet is best, supplemented as needed with in-between meal snacks. Stick to wholesome, whole foods. Organic when possible.

Eat a variety of foods, like beef, chicken, eggs, milk, and fish for your protein sources. Grains, vegetables, and fruits for your carbs. You needn’t worry much about fats, as if you cover the protein category, you most likely won’t be lacking in fat intake.

Do not, however, try to go on a low- or no-fat diet, even if you’re overweight. That’s a really bad idea. Once you begin limiting your fat intake, your body goes into survival mode and begins hoarding the fat you do eat. Worse yet, it begins conserving your body fat.

The results are often counter to your objective – you gain fat.

To summarize: Eat 3 meals a day with 2 or 3 snacks in between. If you feel hungry, eat more often. If you can’t eat that often, do the best you can. If time isn’t on your side, mix up a meal replacement shake (MetRx is great) in the morning and carry it without you throughout the day.

At this point, supplements aren’t really necessary, outside of a good protein supplement (like the aforementioned MetRx – pick it up at Trader Joe’s) and multi-vitamin/mineral tablet.

Rest & Recovery

This is one of those very “iffy” areas. Everybody – and every body – has different needs when it comes to rest and recovery.

So these are general guidelines:

• Get 7-9 hours of sleep
• Rest as much as you can when you’re not working out, unless you’re overweight
  • In that case, do some steady-state cardio on off days
• Don’t do any “extra” weight training – stick to the guidelines above
• If you feel like you’re tired all the time, get more rest – you will find a way (take a nap)