Building a barndoor back
The scene is ubiquitous; walk into any gym and you will be greeted by congregations of guys huddled in one corner doing bicep curls and crowds of more guys in another corner doing bench presses. Sightings of deadlifts or chin-ups being performed are rarities in most gyms. The truth is, understanding of proper back training among the general gym population is shockingly inadequate. Ask your average garden variety gym rat what he does for back training and you’d probably get “oh, just a couple of sets of lat pull downs” as your response before he returns to his 200th set of biceps curls. A completely developed, thick and wide back is an awe-inspiring sight, much more than a large pair of biceps. Truly, possession of a well developed back separates the boys from the men.
Rule No. 1: Use a ‘thumbless’ grip when training your back.
One common problem that most people face when training their backs is that they are unable to feel their backs working. At the end of the session, most tend to end up with sore and pumped biceps but ‘cold’ and generally unfatigued backs. One simple solution would be to use a ‘thumbless’ grip for all back exercises. A ‘thumbless’ grip is simply not wrapping your thumb around the bar and gripping the bar only with your fingers. You will find it easier to focus on pulling with your back as a ‘thumbless’ grip impedes excessive bicep involvement. One really good trick to start feeling your back working would be to get on the lat pull down machine and select a light weight. Grip the bar with a ‘thumbless’ wide grip and with your arms at full extension, start tensing your back. With your arms still straight, pull your shoulder blades downwards and together. Once you have tensed your back, start pulling the bar towards your clavicle to perform your rep but focus on pulling your elbows downwards rather than focusing on pulling the bar down. This may seem pretty complicated but back training does require visualization of the area you are targeting. Once you get the hang of it, it’ll become second nature.
Rule No. 2: Perform proper chin-ups in every back training session.
Every great back has been built with chin-ups. What most people don’t know is the proper way to do a chin up. The form is simple: hang from a bar with a pronated (palms facing away from you) ‘thumbless” wide grip. Both hands should be gripping the ends or very close to the ends of the bar. At the start position, there should be full extension of your elbows with you at a dead hang (i.e. not swinging to prevent use of momentum to perform your rep). Now pull yourself up slowly without swinging till your chin clears the bar, pausing for just a second at the top to retract both scapulae. Most trainees who are unable to perform proper chin ups believe that the lat pull down machine makes for an adequate substitute given the visual similarity of the lat pull down to a chin up. Unfortunately, while the lat pull down is a good exercise for mixing up your back routine (READ RULE NUMBER 5), it will NEVER be able to trigger the same degree of muscle activation or growth as chin ups. If you are only capable of performing 2 proper chin ups each time, so be it. Perform multiple sets of 2 reps till you reach your target rep number. Never abandon chin ups for the siren song of the lat pull down machine. Far too often have I seen guys pulling the entire weight stack on the lat pull down machine for reps with wings so unimpressive, Colonel Sanders would be ashamed. Show me anyone who can perform 10 proper chin ups with a 20kg plate chained to his waist and I’ll bet he has one jacked back.
Rule No.3: Do deadlifts.
Deadlifts are absolutely necessary to building a complete back. Most people think that they are just an exercise for the lower back. In truth, the deadlift works the entire back, increasing both your back thickness and width. To get the most out of deadlifting, do not let the weights rest on the floor when performing your reps. Lowering the bar to a mid-shin level and repeating for reps will ensure tension is maintained in your back. Another crucial point would be to force your shoulders back and thrust your chest out at the top of the movement and squeeze your shoulder blades together for a good 3 seconds. Standing upright and holding the heavy bar for 3 seconds will pull your shoulder girdle downwards, working your upper traps and squeezing your shoulder blades together will ensure you work the mid/lower regions of your trapezius. Also, I do not believe that you have to pull from the floor to benefit. All deadlift variations are great for working your back, e.g. rack deadlifts, deadlifts using the smith machine. Deadlifting to back training is like…heck I can’t think of a worthy enough analogy. Just do them.
Rule No. 4: Build your back, not your ego. Use weights that you can really handle.
This is a common problem with weight training in general, not just back training. In a predominantly male gym environment, the testosterone driven urge to be the alpha male causes most guys to toss dumbbells (that are way too heavy for them) around in a sloppy fashion. Back training is much more difficult than training other muscle groups simply because you can’t see the area you are training. With back training improperly performed or neglected by most, most trainees have very poor motor control of the muscle groups of the back and so, the moment excessive weight is used, your biceps will be activated (simply because you will have far superior motor control of your biceps compared to your back) to take over the lift and your back ends up untrained again. A vicious cycle is then set up with excessive weight being used each session causing the back to end up untrained each time and progressively getting weaker with poorer motor control. Most people struggle to perform 10 proper chin-ups (READ RULE NUMBER 2 AGAIN). The reason for that? These trainees are trying to pull their entire body weight up to clear the bar with the 2 small heads of biceps brachii. There is hardly any activation of the massive muscle mass of latissimus dorsi, easily capable of lifting far greater loads that biceps brachii. Master control of your back muscles and when you do, you’ll be surprised at how easy chin-ups become.
Rule No. 5: The back comprises a complex group of muscles. Vary your exercises to target all muscles from all angles.
Proper training of your back means training your latissimus dorsi, your trapezius, your erector spinae, your posterior delts, your rhomboids, your teres major and your rotator cuff muscles. As you can see, the back is made up of so many muscles and so should deserve much more attention than the beach muscles (i.e. chest and biceps). In order to completely train your back, your back routine should have horizontal (e.g. one arm dumbbell rows, bent over barbell rows) and vertical pulling (e.g. chin ups, lat pull downs) exercises. 3 vertical and 3 horizontal pulling exercises (3 sets per exercise) for 8-10 reps per set should suffice for most people. As with all types of training, vary the order and selection of your exercises every 4-6 weeks to keep your routine fresh and your muscles guessing. Also, another tip which applies to all training, start with your free weight compound exercises first (e.g. deadlifts, chin ups) when you are fresh and move on to machines later. The truth is, most of your back exercises should be free weighted anyway; use machines sparingly.
Rule No. 6: Train back on a separate day.
Most guys have no qualms spending every session in the gym doing only bicep curls and bench presses, relegating back training to just a set or two of lat pull downs as an afterthought. As discussed earlier, the musculature of the back is massive and so requires a considerable training volume to stimulate growth. Personally, I feel that any back session with less than 14 work sets performed is inadequate. Just a word of caution though; go over 18 sets and risk overtraining. Keep your volume to between 14 to 18 sets per session to be completed within 1 hour. The back can be targeted with different exercises to either increase its thickness or width. You may have heard some exercises described as being able to increase your “back width”; such statements are really half truths because you can’t really change the shape of a muscle with a specific exercise however certain exercises (e.g. chin ups) favor recruitment of certain muscles (latissimus dorsi) which when hypertrophied would increase your back width. Personally, I train my back once a week and alternate between a “thickness” and “width” session from week to week. On “width day”, I would place great emphasis on chin ups and perform up to 120 chin ups. I would still perform deadlifts, albeit with less weight and a lower volume. Likewise on “thickness day”, deadlifts would be the order of the day.
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Unless you are a professional bodybuilder with 22 inch arms, for most people, wearing a long sleeved shirt would obscure any arm or chest development possessed. But with proper back training, regardless of what you wear, there is just no concealing a massive gnarled V tapered back. Back training may seem arduous and painful but trust me, the payoff will be worth it.
BCAA supplementation for optimal muscle protein synthesis
A while back, I came across this paper by written by a University of Illinois PhD candidate, Layne Norton (www.biolayne.com). The paper was discussing BCAA, more specifically leucine, supplementation to maximize muscle protein synthesis. First, a little background information on Layne Norton. In addition to possessing an in-depth knowledge of nutritional science, he is also a lifetime natural pro bodybuilder in the States. Who says brain and brawn don’t mix? I accord much respect to all rounded high achieving individuals. Anyway, back to the topic at hand. BCAAs, or branch chain amino acids; what are they? Let’s start with the basics first. All proteins are made up of little building blocks, called amino acids. There are 20 amino acids and some of them are classed ‘essential’ and some ‘non-essential’. What does that mean? Simply, ‘essential’ amino acids are essential because the body cannot synthesize them and so we must obtain them from our diet. Valine, Leucine and isoleucine are 3 essential amino acids and are also branch chain amino acids. So what’s the big deal with BCAAs? Well, they make up 1/3 of muscle protein, serve as fuel sources during periods of (muscle) cellular starvation and play pivotal roles in muscle protein synthesis. As you can see, BCAAs are incredibly important for any strength training athlete. Coming back to Layne Norton’s paper, it was shown that of the 3 BCAAs (valine, leucine and isoleucine), leucine might be the key amino acid responsible for triggering muscle protein synthesis. Simply, higher leucine levels in your bloodstream -> more muscle protein synthesis. In fact, the anabolic effect of eating a steak, for example, might be due to the leucine contained within the steak. The salient recommendation of the paper was for the consumption of leucine supplements (3-4gm each time) between your regular meals to maintain optimal levels of muscle protein synthesis. However, a caveat should be raised. I am not recommending that you run out, buy a bucket load of BCAA powder and start shovelling it down your throat like there is no tomorrow. There is a limit to how much you can stimulate muscle protein synthesis and further consumption of leucine supplements when levels in your bloodstream are already high, is pointless. Layne’s paper proposed that the total daily protein intake (e.g. 200gm for a 200lb/90kg bodybuilder) should be split up into fewer meals (4 or 5) rather than more meals (e.g. 7 or 8). So in summary, the main points from this paper are:
1) Eat 4-5 protein rich meals over the day to obtain your required protein intake (1gm per pound of body weight)
2) Supplement with 3-4gm BCAA powder between meals to optimise muscle protein synthesis
Hope you all found Layne’s paper as interesting as I did!
“How often should I go to the gym every week?”
By: Victor Dmitriyev.
2007 NPFCA/IFBB
Australasian Body Building Champion,
“How often should I go to the gym every week?”
Hello my dear friends, hope you’ve all been really well and thank you for taking interest in reading my first article for ProteinDirect.
In this column I would like to answer a very common question I get asked: “How often should I go to the gym every week?” I will answer it from a bodybuilder’s point of view and you can then selectively absorb what is relevant to you and your training style. I hope it leads you to ask more questions you need to know the answers to in order to succeed.
Let me please remind you that my body is not a product of superior genetics, secret training methods or a rich supplement company endorsement. I have built myself from a soft 75 kg Ecto-Endomorphic body type started to train at home with the most basic equipment or lack of it and very poor knowledge of how some 15 years ago. I am now 105+ kg with under 10% body fat. But, of course once upon a time I also wondered about how frequent does it take to train to build a magnificent physique and even though I was told “more isn’t better” I, like EVERYONE else, overtrained time after time for many years. Which brings me to a question: “Do you train for the sake of training? Or train to get the best physique possible in the shortest possible time”. Now, I don’t like the “shortest possible time” bit because it may imply a short cut, but I used it to stress the importance of striving for efficiency in every day that we spend in the gym. So, please let me expand on Quality vs Quantity and I’ll come back to why the ‘chase’ of fastest gains possible is a risky business.
So, why do we go to the gym in the first place? The idea of weight training revolves around hypertrophy - a concept familiar to most of you that are reading this. Basically, hypertrophy occurs when damaged (during training) muscle fibres are able to recover beyond their pre-existing state, e.g. get stronger and larger to be able to cope with the physical stress they’re subjected to. This process, on top of many others already occurring in our bodies, requires sufficient quality nutrition, time and quality rest - sleep. Without that this process is impossible and all kind of adverse effects will eventuate. I have found that a very simple example as a car analogy is very well perceived by most people. For example, if we’re running our car at high RPM for a long enough time, we will eventually face a sequence of problems such as quickly running out of fuel, overheating, and possibly even blowing the engine resulting in extensive repairs. To avoid that we need to stop to refuel, cool the engine, check for coolant, oil and possible leaks etc… you get the gist. The point I try to make is do not go training for the sake of “training” just because your program tells you so. So many, guys especially, frantically train for too long and too often with naive hopes of shortening the time between skinny or chubby body to sculptured lean physique that turns heads. What’s worse is they do it without a nutritional and training plan and most importantly without a thought, just for the plain sake of it. A well designed program must take into account variables and be flexible. We are NOT machines and if your body screams for rest you must allow it to recuperate so it, can function at it’s peak again.
Please question yourself about why is it you do something and everything, whether it is fitting that extra session, or performing extra set or drop set, or if your training partner screams at you “two more reps” or if you weren’t able to fall asleep at a reasonable time or haven’t slept properly for days, or if you recently had stomach troubles, not being able to digest the food you eat etc. Please don’t get locked into the trap of “If I don’t train, I’ll lose my gains or I’ll become fat or will go back to skinny again”, which ever it may be - I assure you, it doesn’t work like that. By taking enough rest you will come back stronger, wiser, bigger, leaner, reduce the chance of injury, you will enjoy training more and ultimately you will transform into the physique you want sooner. I call upon you to become one with your body and learn, or re-learn to listen to what it’s telling you. I believe we have enough in-born intelligence to know what’s best for us. Today there’s abundance of easily accessible information out there to educate yourself and make your own choices.
I believe with our busy work or study, or both combined schedules we’re already being subjected to a great deal of stress. Training should be looked at as another time of our day (I chose ‘time of our day’ over the word “activity” to reiterate the importance of efficiency in our training as we’re all in a rush to be successful) when we intentionally place stress on our system. Not only physical, but stress on our central nervous system and organs that are now working overtime to sustain and repair our being. We all function on action vs reaction principle. You give your body stress and it will let you know it needs rest and time to recuperate from that. If the recovery time isn’t sufficient it will not be able to perform at it’s peak or even worse you will come down with a flu or anything else your body will pick up when it’s not able to fight off the viruses due to being punished for too long. The trick is to be able to recognise those symptoms and so many of us don’t or have forgotten how to listen to our bodies. Let’s look at how overtraining is interpreted on Wikipedia:
“Overtraining is an emotional, behavioural and physical condition that occurs when the volume and intensity of an individual’s exercise exceeds their recovery capacity. They cease making progress, and can even begin to lose strength and fitness.” That’s right, not only physical but emotional and yes, you will go backwards in your progress if overtrained. “Symptoms of overtraining include:
Persistent muscle soreness (Delayed onset muscle soreness)
Persistent fatigue
Elevated resting heart rate
Increased susceptibility to infections
Increased incidence of injuries
Irritability
Depression
Loss of motivation
Insomnia
Altered sleep patterns
Decreased appetite
Decreased libido
Weight loss
Breakdown
Decreased sports performance
Loss of concentration”
Unfortunately I have done all of the above, every wrong decision and every ridiculous scenario imaginable because I just love to train and I was too proud to decline the challenge. My training partners over the years will confirm that I trained after having only one hour of sleep or not at all, trained for up to 5 hours a day, I have trained twice a day, every day, 7 days a week plus two-three hours of cardio a day leading up to my first competition. I have made myself lose nearly 30 kg in less than fourteen weeks. I have force-fed myself and luckily that only for a short period of time I have let myself become bulimic. I have done all these stupid and dangerous things due to lack of knowledge, compulsive disorder or just as an experiment to learn from and avoid future mistakes or because of a promise I made to someone to be there for them, because they relied on me. I may have come out stronger in the end, but I definitely wasted a lot of time, energy, money and may have even shortened my cellular life and life span. So please learn from my mistakes, apply common sense and learn to listen to your body. Learn about overtraining and recognise the symptoms. Tell your closest person about them and ask them to remind you if they see behavioural changes in you. Simply “attending” the gym will not see you achieve your goals. It takes an assertive person with a good game plan to be successful in reaching their goals in and out of the gym. Follow this rule and you will notice how many people do not make a single change to their bodies in years, yet they are there every time, every day looking like they know what they’re doing.
I recommend training no more than 4-5 days a week depending on experience and intent. 2 days on 1 - 2 days off and repeat. Do not be afraid to take the second day off if you’re not up to it today. Once in the gym make sure your time is used efficiently. Opt for 45 minutes to an hour at a time, keeping it concise and to the point. Remember, unless you’re an experienced and enhanced bodybuilder, you probably will NOT recover from solid two hours session in time for the next workout. Two hour sessions are just too much even for the elite bodybuilders. Lift smart with good form and safety, keep the intervals short enough to catch your breath and regain focus - no more, no less (roughly a minute or a minute and a half). Training with higher intensity over a shorter duration will optimise your hormones for a more anabolic environment and will promote fat oxidisation resulting in leaner gains. Did I also mention that by training this way and recovering from every one of your workouts you will actually get stronger? Do not train the same body part every day with exception of calves, it’s counter-productive.
If you’re beginner, train using compound or otherwise known multi-joint exercises like squat, power-cleans, military press, bench press and lunges and forget about isolating muscles like you see bodybulders do. You will benefit greatly from compound style training and will not cut yourself short of gains like in the case of focusing on isolating body parts where specific gains may be more prominent at first but the foundation and functional strength aren’t there creating further body imbalances and making a window for injuries.
For a more advanced trainers with a couple of years experience I recommend choosing one major and one or two minor muscle group for one session starting from prioritising lagging body parts and rotating your workouts making sure you cover your whole body in a week. Body building takes a lot of patience and time, be prepared to make bodybuilding a life long commitment. This will ensure you will work to a plan, think about what and why you’re doing and achieve small goals at a time eventually resulting in achievement of a long term goal.
It’s a great journey!
Until next time, have a safe and productive training.
Best wishes,
Victor Dmitriyev.
2007 NPFCA/IFBB
Australasian Body Building Champion,
3rd Place Elite Open Winner.
More product updates
As you noticed by now, we have introduced new sizes and also new packaging. Due to the Christmas/New Year break we are having a little delay introducing the new products and sizes.
Soon, all our smaller bags (other than the original 20kg bags which are packed by the manufacturer) will come in the 2.5kg size. You will be able to purchase our products in 2.5kg, 5kg and 10kg lots.
The products we are introducing are chocolate flavoured (already available) and vanilla flavoured WPC, as well as chocolate and vanilla flavoured WPI. Once again the new sizes for all products will be 2.5kg and when you order 5kg or 10kg at a time you will receive a small additional discount and still only pay $7 for delivery
We expect all new products to be on sale by the end of January.
Changes to the website and new products coming up
Hi all,
This is Julian the manager of ProteinDirect.com.au First of all thank you all for supporting ProteinDirect We continue to grow and nothing gives me more pleasure than seeing repeat customers. I will try and post a few more articles in the next few days but for now the priority is coming up with the new exciting website which will have a few new sections as well as a few new products.
Not only are we changing the website but also the packaging. I’m waiting for the new bags to be delivered but here’s a sneak peak of what the new bags will look like. It may be a month before we get them in.
One other product that will be new (kind of) is the whey protein isolate (WPI). We’ve been selling WPI from one of America’s most advanced whey protein manufacturers but due to the big drop in our currency it would be extremely expensive to continue to supply this product. We will therefore be replacing the American WPI with New Zealand made WPI which will be supplied by New Zealand’s largest and most advanced whey protein manufacturer so you will get the finest New Zealand WPI available on the market.
And we know it’s about time we released some flavoured whey proteins. We got quite a few emails asking us about: “When will you start selling flavoured proteins?” We will start selling flavoured WPC of American origin which is made entirely from a single source of American Grade A Milk. This is the same high quality WPC which we’ve been supplying for months now. You’re probably asking why is it that we are continuing with the American made WPC and not the American made WPI. There are a few more manufacturers of WPC than there are WPI. This means there is increased competition and we can still get a good price even with our weaker dollar.
So, in about a week we will start selling flavoured WPC in chocolate only and then in another week we will also have vanilla WPC. Although we know it is impossible to please everyone when it comes to taste (we sometimes get the complaints “it’s too sweet” or “it’s not sweet enough” etc) we are very confident that the bigger majority will like our chocolate and vanilla flavours. By the way, the chocolate flavour is made using West African cocoa beans so once again we won’t be taking any shortcuts.
We can’t deny the undeniable which is that flavoured protein tastes better than the unflavoured protein. At the same time remember, unflavoured protein will always be the better value product as it costs less and it will give you a higher protein percentage and less fat and carbohydrates than the unflavoured one.
In the meantime please feel free to email us if you have any questions. We are also asking you to please email us any suggestions you have so we can offer you a better service here at ProteinDirect. Let us know what you would like to see added on our website or what you would like changed.