Q&A for: 23-Jan-06
1250. Q:
Howzit Mike. Great website.
I really like potato salad, but the thing is the main ingredients are mayo and potatoes. What is the best way to enjoy the taste of pot salad, and also get good nutritional value out of it.
Thanx man
A:
The two meals when you can afford to 'cheat' the most are your breakfast and the meal right after weight training. Breakfast is probably sort of weird for the potato salad, but it's OK after a good weight training session. Keys are to go easy on mayo and to add a lean protein source, such as skinless chicken breast or tuna. With that protein source and with not too much mayo (no more than 2 tablespoons) it should make a passable after-weights meal.
1251. Q:
Hey dude, how u going.
I have been working out with heavy weights for 16 weeks and am happy with the improvemts in both my body and its ability. During this time i smoked a lot of pot and would like to know specifically the effect of such pot in my system and on my progress to gettin a great body. I know health wise its a bad idea so i dont need comment on that aspect.
Thank you
A:
I am not aware of any studies that have been done on this. There are certainly many people who smoke pot on occasion and still benefit greatly from weight training, as you yourself discovered. I would guess, and it's entirely my guess, that smoking will do some damage to your lungs (similar to cigarette smoke) which will hurt your cardio and in-between set recovery ability over time. If it makes you lazy or hungry (leading to eating junk food), that can obviously be negative too.
1252. Q:
Hey Mike. I excersise 3 times a week, 50 mins a session. I would like to know if its better to do escalating wieghts (i.e. sets of 8kg, 10kg, 12kg 14kg) or to do all of the sets at max weight. And how many sets per excercise should i do.
Thanx for your time
A:
I would recommend doing top or near top weight for most or even all sets. In your example, if you can do 14kgs for, say, 8 reps, then 8kgs is way too little and just becomes a warm-up set. Maybe do 12kgs for 10-12 reps for 1-2 sets and then do 14kgs for 6-8 reps for 1-2 sets.
As to your second question, the number of sets per exercise is going to be determined by how much time you spend on your whole program. I strongly recommend whole-body training -- that means you have 4-5 major muscle groups: legs, back, chest, shoulders, arms (legs and back really deserve more time than shoulders or arms, but lets count them equally for simplicty's sake in this example). In your case you spend 150 minutes per week weight training, so that works out to roughly 30 minutes per muscle group. with roughly 3 minutes per set that allows you to do 10 sets per muscle group per week. Then you can split those 10 sets into 3 exercises of 3-4 sets or 4 exercises of 2-3 sets.
1253. Q:
mike some soccer players have muscle around thier chins and when u look infront of them it looks alittle like a double chin so is that considered a double chin
A:
Sorry, honestly not sure what you mean. But in any case, it really doesn't matter I think -- if it looks good to you, then doesn't matter if it's considered double chin or not.
1254. Q:
I am 24 years old 68 kgs 175 cms high and i have gained the last 4 kgs in 4-5 months with weight training(1kilo per month and before i was 64 due to a dieti made).I wanna try lose the last bit of fat on my belly.My body fat percentage now is 11,5.How many kilos should i gain in order to make diet again and lose fat slowly in order to achieve my goal?i wanna reach 10% after it.What would u suggest?
A:
You are actually in the best position to judge that yourself. Have you gained a noticeable amount of fat in these 4-5 months? Hopefully not because gaining 4 kgs in 4-5 months is just about the perfect pace. If you gained little or no fat, then I'd probably continue for a bit longer -- the more muscle you gain the more of a 'running start' it gives in the final assault on getting the six-pack. If however you have gained a good amount of fat already, then it might be a good idea to start cutting.
Another way to approach it is if you have a goal of having the six-pack for the summer, say by June. You should probably plan to cut back all the weight you gained and maybe a little more and allow 1 month to lose 2 kilos. So in case your goal is six-pack by June, then you can afford to spend another 1-2 months and gain 1-2 kilos, so you'll have gained 6kgs by beginning of March and then spend March-May cutting those 6 kilos back.
1255. Q:
When do u reach a point when u can hardly gain easy kgs anymore with bulkup?I have heard its after a year since u start it and by then u gain first kgs this way very easy and fast.
A:
That is definitely correct. As you bulk you'll have to eat more and more to keep gaining. It will also be the case that as you progress in your bulk you gain more and more fat and less and less muscle -- which of course defeats the purpose of the bulk for most people. This is not something you can avoid -- if one could continue easy gains forever, then everyone would be huge and buff after 2-3 years of training.
When this point of slowing gains comes will be different for everyone, but after one year is probably pretty common. You can't avoid this, but you can help yourself by doing little things right:
- Gain slowly! Even though early gains come easily if you gain too fast in the beginning you'll still gain a good amount of fat. 1 pound every 2 weeks is a good pace for gains in the first year and should be even slower afterwards.
- When you get to the point when you feel you've gained too much fat, stop bulking and start on a cut. You'll be able to cut some of the fat and you'll be able to regain the muscle you'll lose during the cut when you restart the bulk.
- Have 'maintenance' periods interspersed throughout the year when you neither cut nor bulk, but just let your body 'get used' to the new weight. This is also good time to do strength-specific training.
- Do HIIT.
1256. Q:
I only have fat little belly, I run every other day and do weight training. but I can not lose the belly fat. What am I to do
A:
The last bit of belly fat is by far the hardest to lose. It usually requires not only good weight training and cardio program, but also a very good diet. Read my Nutrition article to learn how to eat for optimal fat loss. Also, if you post your daily diet here with some detail, I can point out things that need changing.
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