I have thought about this blog for a while but with the Holidays there just never seems to be enough time to get everything done. Hell, it gets so bad that I usually make it to about the second week of the month and then just chuck the training and diet so that I can get everything else done and actually enjoy the Holidays. Otherwise, if I just try to push through and get all of my training and meals cooked it ends up being just another stress. So, I did finally manage to get to this blog even though it is coming up on 2am and I have to be up to take the family snowmobiling at 6am. You can bet this blog won’t be short, either, as most of you know I am terribly long-winded. Hey, we all have our shit and my being long-winded is not one of my worst traits, trust me.

So … you can consider the premise of this blog as thinking outside of the box and simply questioning what you know and what you have been told, taught, thought was written in stone, etc.. I am sure this will surprise some people but … I am simply going to think out loud and put my thoughts to text. I am not even going to say that I believe what I am about to write but that I am merely thinking … outside … of the … box. Why? Because only a fool would think he has it all figured out and I didn’t get to where I am by listening to other people. Rather, I got to where I am by questioning EVERYTHING. I encourage you all to do the same. Here goes …..

What if getting bigger had everything to do with your genetics and nothing to do with how you train? What if training your ass off was actually keeping you overtrained and not growing as well as if you trained like a pussy? What if strength progression had nothing to do with muscular growth? Or maybe it is related but …. nowhere near the end-all-be-all that we think it is? What if form had little to do with progress in the gym? Oh, my mind can be a fucked up place, sometimes. Let me break it down to a more simple context so that I can keep my thoughts as simple as possible.

We all know that genetics plays a huge roll in how tall you will get, how muscular you will get, how lean you can get, how well your structure allows for you to bodybuild, etc.. What if how you trained played little to no role in how efficiently you grew? Think about it: We have all seen a pro at some point train like shit and …. he is huge. Yet, we have all seen hundreds if not thousands of people train with great form and never look terribly impressive. Haven’t you seen a guy with huge legs, be it a pro or not, that doesn’t squat to parallel or below? I have seen skinny dudes squat their asses off and still have skinny legs. I have seen guys that squat twice what I squat and their legs suck yet mine are pretty damned good and my numbers would seem, by most, to be pretty sad. I will also add that steroids are on both sides of this equation as I have seen guys loaded to the gills on gear and they still suck while some of the best pros in the world are on less than most guys at your average state show. The steroid card can’t be played here.

Genetically speaking, haven’t you seen someone that can eat pretty much whatever they want to and stay lean yet someone else can damned near starve themselves and never even come close to being ripped? Women are almost always able to get ripped abs and a ripped back but their hamstrings and glutes can still be soft. How much does your genetic potential play into how lean you are going to get no matter the diet??

Isn’t it possible that form means very little in as far as results or growth are concerned? I think we can all agree that good form is the best proactive way to stay injury free but …. that has little to do with growth. When I say form I am also talking about rep speed, balance from left to right, bouncing, loose form, etc.. Think it’s possible? What about dieting? What if there is no difference in whether you go low carb, low fat or even low protein? We all believe that protein is an essential nutrient for growth and that protein needs to be high. What if it doesn’t need to be? I have seen people grow on very low amounts of protein. I remember competing as a natural middleweight when I was 22 and only eating 25g of protein per meal for 5 meals a day (along with carbs and some fat) and was in great shape. Dave Palumbo gets people ripped on low carbs and Chris Aceto gets guys ripped on low fat. I get people ripped after eating a day’s worth of waffles every week. What if it was more genetically related than it was the actual dieting protocol that you are using? Just sayin’.

I see guys train hard all the time and I have seen this for years. I have also observed that some of these guys are pretty big and, yet, some look the same year after year. In fact, some of the hardest training people I have seen were nowhere near the national level let alone a pro. When I say that I want to reiterate that the majority of guys that train balls out are nobodies when it comes to competing. At the same time, a HIGH percentage of the guys that I know that don’t train hard, at all, are huge and strong as hell. Seems odd to me so I wonder why? Do the guys that train harder than everyone else overtrain more or are most times in an overtrained state? That would explain them not growing much, right? At the same time, that same ideology would explain why the big guys are growing like crazy – they don’t have recovery issues because they are hardly ever overtrained. Maybe training like a pussy actually pays off. Wouldn’t that be a bitch? It might suck but …. isn’t it at least POSSIBLE? Speaking for myself I would say that my arms took off with new growth when I decided that I would train them less because they were a strong point and I wanted to give other body parts more of my recovery time and leave my arms to only a few sets at the end of my workouts. They inexplicably grew to the point that I was getting compliments on my arms all the time. When people asked me what I did for them I would just smile and say “you wouldn’t believe me if I told you”. I wouldn’t tell them, either. Why? They would have instantly had me pegged as an “easy gainer” and that was about as far from the truth as possible. Training less and growing more… hmmm…..

What about progression? What part does that play? Maybe progression doesn’t do shit, either, and is highly overrated. I mean, I have added 100 pounds to my bench and my chest still sucks. At the same time, those damned arms haven’t curled over a 100 pound barbell in 4 years and yet have grown tremendously. I was going over old log books this month and noticed that some of my biggest poundages were all the way back in 2001. Umm… I have grown quite a bit since 2001 and yet some of my weights aren’t anywhere near what they were that year. A few are but the large majority haven’t ever been what they were that year. I was curling 135 for some cheat reps in 1996 at a fat 200 pounds. I now compete at 198 and it is all I can do to get to that weight to compete and I can’t curl anywhere near that right now. My arms are likely over 2 inches bigger now than they were then. What gives? Kinda blows the progression idea out of the water, at least for me. I use myself as an example but ask yourself about your weights and how long you have been training? Does my situation apply to you, as well? I know MANY seasoned competitors that this is their story, as well. Just sayin’.

What if time under tension played a huge roll or a bigger roll than progression? What if none of it mattered but as long as you trained and used those muscles consistently and let them recover you would keep growing? Does a barbell really make you bigger than a machine? I could tell you of one pro that did pretty much 95% of his contest prep training on nothing but machines. Yeah, yeah, he’s a pro. That just backs up my point, though, so thank you.

I ask you to ask these questions because I am not sure that the little things matter as much as we may think they do. We tend to over-complicate things that don’t need to be over-complicated. This game may be incredibly simple: use your muscles, let them rest, grow and repeat. Instead, we are doing muscle biopsies to see if leg extensions work the fibers harder than a squat. Really? Why not just do them both? My point isn’t even to think out of the box, really. It is just to think for YOURSELF. Come to your own conclusions as you try to figure out what works for you and what doesn’t. Don’t hold onto something because someone said “that is the way to do it”. I tell my clients all the time to question me and never to feel as if they can’t ask me why. Paying someone doesn’t mean you do what they say without asking why or questioning them. Quite the opposite, really: You are paying them so they damned sure better explain things to you and because they are getting paid they should listen to your questions and answer them. Again, I am not using this blog to throw my opinions out there on what I just blogged about. I’m …… just sayin’.

Skip

It’s been a while so for those that follow my blogs regularly, I apologize for the delay. I had a lot on my plate the last couple weeks and have been having a hard time with the direction of my training and goals right now which brings me to the topic of this blog entry and it is called “I am old and I fucking cannot stand it”. The decisions that I have been making in my training and diet the last 8 weeks or so have been, at best, stupid, so I thought I might try to help out anyone else that may be in my shoes.
Here is the issue: I am a competitor. I am going to compete until the day I die. Now, that might be on stage at some point or it might just be with myself in the gym to see what I can continue to accomplish. No matter, though, I will continue to be competitive until the day I die. My big mistake was that in setting my goals for the next couple years I was trying to take an approach of a 25 year old. I can beat 25 year olds and I have beaten many of them. I am stronger than most 25 year olds and I am bigger, as well. Bitch is, I don’t have the innards of a 25 year old. I admitted it. It pains me but I admitted it. I feel quite a bit like I did when I sold my last Ninja and bought a minivan. There is something “old” about selling a sport bike and then hopping into your minivan and driving off. That is how I felt this weekend when I realized that my approach to the next couple years wasn’t logical and I admit that I was embarrassed because if anyone should know better, it would be me.
See, I want to still get bigger and stronger and … you know, offseason, meathead stuff. I want to move weight that I haven’t moved before and I want to be bigger when I step on stage again either next year or the year after. Isn’t that what everyone that competes wants? I have a small problem or obstacle, though, and that is I am coming up on forty years old and even more important that coming up on forty years old is that I have been training for twenty six years. I don’t think age means anywhere near as much as the amount of time you have been training. Forty isn’t that old until you factor in the twenty six years of training. I have forty year old muscle that is ready to rock and roll. Bitch is, everything that holds the muscle to the bone feels like it is eighty years old.
Repetition, in and of itself, is degenerative. You can squat perfectly and do deads perfectly but if you do them for twenty six years your joints are going to wear down. Cartilage starts to disappear and things like tendonitis seem much more common. I have been blessed with a relatively low amount of injuries over the years. Yes, I have battled with lowerback issues until this last year but other than a bicep pull in 2002 I have been bothered with only very minor injuries. As I get older, though, I FEEL every rep so much more than I used to. Muscle feels the same but knees and elbows and shoulders and even ankles are giving me problems almost all the time. Just recently I did something to my foot/ankle that made me limp for over 4 weeks. Even taking time off from the gym didn’t help it. Eventually, it started to get better pretty much on it’s own. I still don’t know what the hell I did to it.
In typical fashion I am sure you are wondering where I am going with all of this. See, I started to go down this path the last couple months with the plan of gaining some weight, going back to basics with my diet and making a pretty solid run to “bulk” for lack of a better term. I was going to go against the advice that I give to everyone about staying healthy and keeping your weight in check and making solid but slower gains. I just wanted to get away from dieting for a while and get away from shaving, tanning, cardio, etc.. I think I was kind of burned out after overdieting for my last show in May. I experiment all the time, as most of you know, so I was justifying this by saying to myself that I haven’t given this a shot since before 2002 and maybe I should give it another go and see how much size I could put on. I am sitting here at 240 and none-too-pleased with my current condition and health.
First, my strength is up big time. I love it. I am a low carb guy but the last couple months I have been so damned full from carbs that in the gym I just feel like my skin will split from the pumps. I feel great in the gym but …. shitty the other 22 hours of the day. I am putting up weights that I haven’t put up in a year or so and probably would blow by old PRs very soon. What is the problem? My joints can’t take it. My shoulders feel as if I might blow a pec at any point or on any rep. My knees? Don’t make me laugh. To say they are terrible is a gross understatement. I actually had to stop a quad session last week after the second set of squats had my right knee in pain. I tried to work through it and it wouldn’t let me.
Second, my condition is horrendous for what Skip is known for (sorry for the third person reference). I actually am uncomfortable with anyone seeing me without my shirt where usually I could care less. I have nerve pain from shingles, as most of you know, so when I am home working I never have a shirt on because it hurts my back. I will see one of my kid’s parents coming to the door and I have to jump out of my seat and put on a shirt to answer the door. God forbid someone see me in this condition. I have a gut that is so full of farts that I look seven months pregnant. Hell, I have to take a shit before I train for fear that if I don’t, I will pull something in my back. Sad? Just a little.
Lastly, and the most important to me, is that my health is not good. I am not going to die tomorrow (I don’t think) but I feel like my heart could blow out of my chest at any minute. I feel like Ricky Lake after going up even one flight of stairs. I think I breath easier when squatting than I do coming up from the basement. I had to go to the Doctor a couple weeks ago and for only the second time in my life my blood pressure was high. It was 147 over 98. That’s right, Satan had a grin on his face as I felt I had one foot in the grave. I can’t fit my fat ass in any of my clothes and when a 3X shirt is not nice and loose and comfortable, it is time to rethink your strategy.
I am not too proud to admit that I fucked up. I had this twenty something mentality that I was going to go back to basics, eat my ass off, train my ass off and gain some much wanted size. My new plan? VERY simple. I am going back to Skip training. I am stripping the fat, getting back in the tanner (I actually look white now) and I plan to shave this fur …. thing ….. that I have going on. Oh, and I am going to fire up the elyptical and start sweating my fat ass off on a daily basis again. I just can’t take it anymore and I feel like shit. I am constantly in a bad mood and I am sure it is related. It would have been so much easier had I made this decision after my last show and just stayed lean but … live and learn, I guess. I probably won’t make big gains this offseason but the truth is, I just don’t fucking care. Well, I don’t care about the gains more than I care about my health and how I look and feel. I feel my best when I am lean and in shape. My health is best at that point, as well.
I am coming up on forty, I have four kids and I have a successful business and a great wife. I am bigger than 98% of the people out there and even without making big gains I can compete successsfully at the state and regional level at any point. Hell, maybe I will do what I did in 07 and just decide to do a show 5 weeks before and then win my class. What I do know is that tomorrow is going to start a phase of my training that will have me much happier and healthier than I feel today. I am done with the size game. I have tried that game for 26 years and still haven’t won. I am now playing the “be ripped and healthy all the time and make people stare at you” game.

Skip

Oh my goodness… I think I touched base about how I come up with my blog ideas in my blog entry yesterday so … I was doing some plant work tonight in the front of the house and …. shut up Melissa, I know you did 96% of it with the kids but during that 4% that I was doing before getting on the computer to work I DID have something creep into my mind that occurred to me when speaking with a client not too long ago. So, buckle yourself in because I am going to go off on a rant here… (lights Dim) ….
Please, please promise me that you won’t ever think a pro card is the end all be all and please tell me that you aren’t going to be willing to compromise your integrity to get one. First, have you ever seen one? They are hilariously and stupidly uneventful and I am completely convinced that everyone that gets one looks at it, looks up, looks back down at it and thinks or says “are you fucking kidding me? THIS is the all elusive pro card??” It literally looks like a library card or something similar. It is flimsy and made simply of paper much like a business card would be. Trust me, you expect sooo much more and it is one big, fat let down. Now, I obviously know that people don’t hunt for a pro card for the card, itself, but for the status that it brings. Sad thing is, what exactly is that status? For some it can turn into money from sales of DVDs and guest posings, etc.. For MOST of the pros, it doesn’t mean shit and most pros can’t function without a “real” job and for some others it means doing things for money that their mother would either roll over in her grave if she knew or have a heart attack that would put her in a grave and THEN she would roll over due to what her son or daughter was doing to keep from having to work a real job. Oh, and isn’t that funny because that brings me to my point. Buckled in?
I have been in this business for a long time and I feel I have pretty much seen it all. I have seen the slutty women at the shows for years and I have seen the insecure guys that flex for 3 hours during a show and …. they are in the audience, not on stage, etc.. At times, this sport is so incredibly fucked up that I just have to laugh and think “did I REALLY trade in what could have been a lucrative future in baseball for THIS?” Then, I realize quickly that I am passionate about what I do and passionate about training and that I need to continue to do what I can to do right for the good people of this sport and there are a lot of good people out there, there really. They just get overshadowed by the complete screw ups in the sport and the industry. I have to say that even though I feel I have seen it all, I am still completely blown away by that person (and there are a lot of them out there) that SWEARS they are going to get a pro card and life is going to change for them. (Pink Floyd plays in the background: “hello, hello …. is there anybody IN there …. is there anybody home …. “) The answer is hell fucking no, nobody is home. If someone were home they would have told your dumbass to quit being so stupid, get a job and quit telling everyone how you got screwed at your last show or you would be a pro already…. Ok, I got carried away so I am going back on topic….
First and foremost and out of the gate I want to say that if you are working towards a goal of getting your pro card then that is your right and I have to respect THAT part of it. It takes a lot of work and a lot of time and money and … a lot of everything. It doesn’t come easy, for sure. It is always good to have lofty goals and I encourage everyone to set high goals for themselves. I am not here to talk about people that are driven and can balance things like a career, kids, a mortgage, etc., with chasing a dream. Those people have my utmost respect whether they will ever get close to a pro card or not. I am talking about the OTHER kind of person that chases a pro card. Yeah, if you read the rest of my blog and you see yourself or someone you know in it, hey, don’t come getting all pissy with me because it isn’t my problem or issue and, honestly, I just don’t give a shit to hear you complain to me. You can’t blame the guy that calls 911 to report your house is on fire after you were playing with matches – he didn’t burn down your house, you did. He just reported it. So, “Yes, 911 operator? I would like to report a dumbass…”
This sport is full of some of the laziest people on the PLANET. They are even lazier than my 17 year old daughter. My daughter is reading this right now saying to herself “no shit, lazier than ME??” For people that routinely train for a couple hours a day, do cardio, eat religiously, etc., you would think that they would have more energy than other people but a lot of the time they don’t. If I told you how many people I know that are sitting at home without a job because they aren’t willing to work while they “chase the dream” you would be shocked. I am going to add another disclamer here so that I don’t get some nasty email responses to this blog: Please know that I think it is one of the most important things that a parent can do to stay home and take care of their children instead of working and sending the kids to a sitter. I am a stay-at-home parent and I am incredibly fortunate to be able to work from home so that I can raise my kids and know what they are doing almost all of the time. I feel it is a priceless responsibility and one that should not be taken lightly. However, I am not talking about those people because those people have my utmost respect, too. Just make sure that you aren’t lying to yourself saying you are home with the kids and they are gone to school all day, either. That is still lame and lazy so… nice try. If you can’t get a job then you don’t count for this rant. If there are other extenuating circumstances, please know that you are the exception. I will be crystal clear that the type I am talking about are right here: If you stay home and don’t do anything because you don’t have kids or your kids are in school all day, and you are planning your next workout or making time to do cardio or get to the tanner, you are a loser. The rest of the world is working double time to balance a career, balance the family responsibilities and just get some TV time for themselves and yet you are just staying at home preparing for your big pro win which, at least statistically, won’t ever come. I know that last sentence doesn’t pertain to you because you are firmly convinced that all of your “hard work” at home all day is going to pay off in a pro card one day and you “will show me”, alright, but it ain’t gonna happen. It won’t happen because that isn’t the definition of working hard and God has a way of evening the score and keeping things fair. Hard work DOES pay off many more times than the easy road does. I just checked with God, himself, and he verified this for me. And don’t laugh at me, either. I don’t laugh at your God, so don’t laugh at mine.
If you are sitting at home planning on being a pro, what is the thought process?? What plan do you have when it doesn’t pan out for you? How long are you going to not work and stay at home doing nothing expecting that big pay off? What skills will you have to enter the work force if you ever do get it through your head that you aren’t going to be a pro?? What if you get divorced or your spouse dies, what will you put on your resume? You could always put something like:
Position: Lazy, narcissistic bodybuilder (sometimes referred to as “domestic engineer” for those that want to REALLY impress others and dodge their laziness)
Time frame: 1997 to present
Skills: Can fuck really well but otherwise, no real skills.
I think my point is being made here.
Being around a bunch of pros doesn’t matter, either. I train next to a lot of pros and have trained with professional athletes but I have yet to ever walk away a professional NFL player or a professional bodybuilder, by proxy. So, if you have a bunch of friends that are pros, I hope you are friends with them because they are good people and not just because they are pros. If not, you better hope THEY aren’t as shallow as YOU because when that day comes that you aren’t a pro and they realize you aren’t going to be one, you are still going to want your “friends” to be around, right?
It is sad, really. In fact, it is so sad that I almost hope those people DO get a pro card one day because they likely have so little respect for themselves that the pro card might be able to provide something to make them feel that they actually are successful. Even with the pro card, what’s next? Big money? LOL Don’t make me laugh. Maybe a 10k sponsorship for some shit nutritional company no one has heard of? Wow, the status of THAT would be pretty impressive. I mean, you could always spout off about how you are a pro and everyone should listen to you on message boards because, I mean, that has worked for some washed up pros, already, right? They get all hot and pissy with everyone because, dammit, they are a PRO bodybuilder or figure competitor, blah, blah, blah. They MUST know what they are talking about, right? Oh, brother.
Here you go, just have the pro card, really. If it makes you feel better, get it and enjoy it and tell everyone about it because I bet they would like to hear it considering you probably can’t carry on a conversation about anything not related to training, diet or nutrition, anyway. Remember: You don’t DO anything that would warrant an interesting conversation. You are one dimensional and, boy, are people like YOU fun to talk to. Woo Hoo!! I guess that would explain why and how bodybuilders hang out with bodybuilders – so they can talk about incredibly exciting current events like “what did you do for bis today?” or “should I have eggs with my oatmeal for breakfast or for lunch?” You know, fun shit like that to talk about.
I like to surround myself with well-balanced and interesting and successful people. Why? Because they have energy and they are fun to talk to because they can talk about a lot of different topics instead of basically just one. Some of my friends are bodybuilders and some don’t workout at all. I don’t pic my friends based on whether they workout or not, I pick my friends whether they are fun to be around and are motivating and exciting people to talk to and people that I can trust to be REAL people and not just someone that wants to be my friend because I am “Skip”. Fake people suck and so I leave you with this: Seriously, if a pro card is important to you then go after it. Just ask yourself: Who will be standing around you in support of you as a friend if you do eventually get the card? Will they be worth a damn and, more importantly ….. will you?

Skip

Oh, I’m having a moment.
I get my ideas for my blog entries from …. well, pretty much wherever and whenever they pop into my head. I don’t sit here and think “what do I write about tonight?” That is why you will find gaps in my blog entries so if you wonder why there hasn’t been an entry for a handful of days: I have not had a client or any of my friends say anything worth a damn to me to get my brain rock n and roll n. In short, it is the fault of my friends and clients, not me, when there are gaps in blog entries.
Earlier today I am on the phone with one of my clients and he is bugging the shit out of me, right? Just kidding, Shawn. Anyway, I digress….. I was on the phone with a “client” of mine that we will call …. let’s say his name is “Shawn” for the sake of this blog entry. Shawn asks a lot of questions because … well… he wants to grow like all hell during the offseason so he wants to understand why my approach will be the best way to approach his offseason or if he should hire someone like Scram from Scratchy Package or whatever the name of that made up business is. So, I am talking with him (speaking? or talking? Damn, this is where I wish I had that english degree) on the phone and he asks the million dollar question: How is it that you think I can gain as much lean body mass (muscle for you dumbasses out there) staying relatively lean than I could if I just ate my ass off and didn’t bother with how much fat I was putting on? And this, my friends, brings me to my blog entry on a Friday night when I could be out with my wife at the movies or a strip club or …. both. Thanks Shawn. Anyway, out of sheer obligation here are the nuts and bolts and the reasons behind my approach…..
First and foremost, Mr Shawn is older than shit so his health needs to be watched closely. Now, that is not to say that young guys don’t have to watch their health but young guys just don’t give a shit. I remember my 20s and I thought I was going to live forever and I thought that 40 meant you were pretty much half dead, anyway. Shawn is 36 or something close to that so he isn’t “old” but he ain’t no spring chicken, either. When you keep your body fat in check and keep it relatively low you don’t have to worry as much about things like high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, etc.. Hell, even things like cancer are significantly reduced by keeping body fat levels lower. Plus, you can pull WAAAY more ass when you are leaner so that might have been the kicker for Shawn, too, I don’t know.
Now, no one likely came to read my blog today for health advice and no one likely reads my posts on IntenseMuscle.com for longevity but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be smart about how you approach adding muscle mass, either. When you add muscle mass – forget about body fat – you are stressing the heart more. So, it is a safe bet that adding a large amount of body weight even when you are staying relatively lean is still a stress to the body. My advice is to keep the body fat lower so that the total weight gain is lower and that is the lesser of the evils when it comes to stressing the body’s systems.
You don’t care about health or longevity?? There are still so many reasons to stay leaner in the of fseason that I can’t possibly cover them all here but I will cover a few of the more obvious ones.
Eating cleaner (notice “leaner” is part of “cleaner” but just drop the “c” – I just noticed that and to think I don’t even get paid for these glimpses of brilliance) also allows the digestive system to work more efficiently. “Cleaner” means you are not only eating natural foods and a variety of foods but you are eating relatively low fat and the fat that you are taking in is “clean”, as well. The process of using clean fats as an energy source is a MUCH more efficient process than converting saturated fat to energy. We also can’t leave out things like milk and other dairy because those will also make digestion less efficient. So, you eat cleaner and leaner and your digestion is more efficient so that equates to more nutrients getting to your muscles and, thus, more potential growth. The alternative is dumping a bunch of food in and just letting the body sort it out. Yeah, real efficient. Nevermind the gas is so bad your wife will have an even bigger excuse to buy more ridiculously priced PartyLite Candles.
Aside from digestion there is the fact that the body functions so much better when it isn’t carrying excess bodyfat. Your natural hormone profile is in much better condition when you are leaner and your sleep will be that much more efficient, as well. I have seen it over and over with clients and with myself that the leaner you are, the less sleep that you will require. Sleep becomes more efficient the leaner you are so that the body can get done in, say, 5 hours what it normally would get done in 8 or 9 hours. I am sure that some of you reading this have experienced not needing as much sleep when you are leaner and even for those that have not, I would bet one of my kids (preferably the teenager just in case I do lose the bet I still come out on top) that most of you reading this that have been heavier at one time, noticed that you could sleep for 10 hours and still not feel completely rested. This is the same situation but in reverse: The body is not running efficiently while you sleep. Keep in mind that I am not even talking about things like sleep apnea that are known to have much higher incidence in people that are overweight. The amount of bodybuilders that are on breathing machines at night is startling to me and this is almost entirely bodyweight related (not always but in my opinion it is no odd coincidence that you don’t find skinny guys or real lean guys with sleep apnea).
“But Skip, how does this equate to more gains in LBM and how does this all measure up to just eating your ass off and growing that way?” There is no real good reason to gain 50 pounds of fat and 10 pounds of muscle. The people that do this are the ones that don’t know any better. I hear it all the time: “I just ate my ass off for the offseason and I grew like I had never grown before.” You got fat, bro. Yes, you grew but you got fat as hell and you are calling that “growth”. Nice try. Those same guys could have made the process that much more efficient by keeping track of their meals and working on timing and balancing calories in vs. calories out, doing some cardio and just plain showing some restraint. In the end they could likely have saved adding 20 or more of those pounds of body fat and yielded the same amount of muscle growth. For those same guys, it will suck to diet for a show when it comes time. Sorry you didn’t listen.
Some points that I feel are strongly recommended in the offseason: Cardio is an absolute necessity. It not only keeps your metabolism primed if the amount of cardio isn’t too high but it also can have you recovering faster between workouts. If you are leaner and your oxygen uptake is better you will get nutrients to where they need to be a lot more efficiently and that equates to growth. Eating leaner we covered, already, but timing is important, as well. You do have to remain above maintenance with your calories, obviously, but it doesn’t have to be 1000 calories over maintenance as that will not equate to more growth. Do you need to consistently add calories and take in as many calories as you can without gaining more bodyfat? Hell yes, you do. I never once said that eating like a bird would make you big as hell. You need to eat big but you need to eat as big as you can without gaining a lot of body fat. When you hear things like “eat big to get big” that doesn’t mean shoveling down the chinese food at a buffet and competing with your friends for who can eat more. That is just a fast track to man titties. So many people take the approach of “more is better” for so many things in this sport and food is one of them. Look, if you are already fat don’t go eating yourself fatter. If you are gaining strength in the gym but you feel it is slow and yet you can’t increase your calories because you are getting fatter, you are going to have to be ok with gaining slow. It sucks but get over it because I guarantee that eating yourself fatter is not going to have you growing any faster and the process of leaning down either for a show or just the summer is going to suck, ten fold.
When you approach the off season you want to go in with the idea of being able to work your calories up over weeks and months in increments that allows your body to adjust to the calories and hopefully to increase your metabolism to be able to handle more and more calories without gaining too much fat. If you increase calories by 1000 in a week, you are much more likely to gain body fat than if you increase by 1000 calories in increments of 330 every 2 weeks for a total of 6 weeks or even more. Go into the off season with the mission of being as healthy as you can be and looking like a bodybuilder instead of a “big guy”. The name of the game is size but you have to make sure that the gains you are making are quality gains. Control your off season by investing the time and effort into looking and feeling great instead of just shoveling the food in and hoping for the best.
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There is a fine line between getting ripped to shreds and overdieting. There is a balance of fullness and size to condition and I am beginning to wonder if I have taken it a little further than needed. Of course, I started to question this after my showing at the Jr USAs and started comparing pictures from as far back as 2003 and 2004 for comparison. I was in great condition those years and was tight as hell but nothing like I am now or in 07. I noticed that I had a fuller, rounder look to my muscles then and my skin wasn’t anywhere near as thin as it is now. I looked “prettier”, for lack of a less gay word. My condition from a leanness and dryness standpoint has blown away past condition and it concerns me. It seems that I may be rewarded for actually not getting into such extreme condition competing in the future. It is a tough call because I am known for condition but at what cost to the overall look?
I think in my quest for getting as ripped as possible I likely should have known that I wasn’t going to get into any better condition than in 07 and even if I did, it wasn’t going to be a “pretty” look. I also wonder what roll this extreme conditioning has taken on my overall size and growth in the offseason.
You have to figure: If you get emaciated for a show you are basically willing to give up muscle the last few weeks to get your bodyfat levels to such low points. I know I have to diet another 8 or so pounds before my back is ready for the stage and yet everything else was ready to rock and roll.
I see a LOT of these guys winning with what is to me subpar conditioning. I want to think that conditioning is rewarded as much as size but it is not and DAMNED SURE isn’t at the national level. Sure, you need to be conditioned and tight as hell but I am talking about the type of condition that few get into – the fringe condition that makes your jaw drop. In hindsight, I think had I come in as a heavy at the Jr USAs I would have done much better at least in placing than I did in the lightheavies. I am not saying this because the competition in the lightheavies was so good but because going after such extreme conditioning likely didn’t have me in my best shape. I could have been “prettier” at a higher bodyweight and not looked so overdieted. I don’t think I looked overdieted but I am speaking in relation to everyone else. It is almost as if the standards for conditioning are getting lower because the large majority of people in my class and in this show were not ripped to shreds, diced and sliced.
It will be interesting to see in the coming months and years but I see the conditioning aspect coming down even further and size and structure being a bigger part of the sport. I have to decide whether to play that game or to keep with going after that insane conditioning. Just remember that getting peeled is fine but if you are giving up muscle to get there and condition is all you are concerned with, you may be taking it a little bit too far.
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Oh brother… Just when I was being nice and maybe even getting soft, I remember that I have to post on this over-rated topic. I have been asked about this quite a bit, lately, so I figured I might want to get my thoughts and opinions up here for all to read and ….. know from now on that my opinions are fact because I said it. Obviously, when I say something it goes from mere opinion to fact. Yes, I am in one of “those” moods so you are just going to have to deal with it.
I read some blob of crap the other day that basically laid out in fancy jargon (well, fancy to bodybuilders, anyway, so obviously it was over my head) how the time after a show can best be utilized to grow muscle tissue like no other time of the year. Now, the pseudo-article went on and on about hormones and the bodily processes that were going to manufacture all of this new muscle in only a few short weeks and pretty much made it sound like it was even better than taking steroids. Problem is, a lot of people believe that this time is “magical” and they must take advantage of this growth spurt or miss out on pounds of new muscle. Where this came from, originally, I still don’t know. Wanna know what is REALLY going on in the post-show window? Yeah, I bet you do….
The post-show window is an excuse for fattys to watch their weight blow up after a show while they shovel calories into their pie-hole and tell everyone around them how much they are “growing”. Yes, your fat ass is growing but it isn’t muscle tissue. I get tired of this, really. I hear it all the time and it is always the same bullshit story: “I have put on 30 pounds since my show and it is all muscle”, etc.. Now, some people will put on a lot of weight and not be fat but it isn’t common and it doesn’t last long before they do get fat. They are simply filling out from the depleted state they were in while dieting. If you know anything about this you will know there is a point that it doesn’t keep going. At that point you just start to get fat. Those guys don’t bother me as much as the fat ones, though. It always seems the fat ones are the first ones to look in the mirror and not see how fat they are. Why is that? The fat is RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF YOU IN THE MIRROR and yet you don’t see it??? You look and think you are growing muscle tissue? You call yourself “smooth” and “I am holding water” and “I am bloated”, etc.. It amazes me what the mind will convince us of, sometimes.
Now, on paper this theory works out really, really well. I mean, hormones are ripe for gaining, appetite is there, etc.. However, if you spend any amount of time in this sport experimenting with different things you find out very quickly that just because something works out great on paper, doesn’t mean shit when it comes to applying it and getting results. The list of things that I have disproved over the years is sad, really. It is sad because I read all of those things growing up in the muscle magazines. What does THAT tell you?
Back to the fat asses…. I don’t care if you are fat and fat people don’t bother me. Fat people bother me when they don’t know they are fat or deny they are fat and try to pretend that it is muscle, instead. Why does it bother me so? Remember, I am a prep guy so I have heard it all. I get guys that come to me and tell me they are sub 10% and then I see their pictures and wanna say “are you fucking kidding me?” If your wife is having sex with you and you are on the bottom and she grabs a hold of your man-boobs like they are reigns on a horse, that is not muscle, ok?
Let’s cut to the chase, here: What you should be doing after a show is resting. You rest because if you are like most of us you have beaten yourself to shit to get ready for this show and your immune system is likely just about in the toilet. It is a very vulnerable time and you can get damned sick if you aren’t careful. I have had everything from bronchitis for 2 months to shingles that I still have nerve pain from, to this day. You need to rest, period. You don’t go back in the gym to push for new muscle that won’t grow no matter what you do, anyway. Take the time to let the injuries that you acquired during your prep, heel up completely so that you can come back at 100% and rip the gym apart. Spend some time with the wife or family that you had to put on the back burner while prepping and have a little fun – they deserve it. They put up with your ass for 12-20 weeks of your dieting. Act normal and have a chili dog without thinking to yourself “this will make me fat”. Go the entire day at the amusement park with your kids before you realize you better eat and grab a Mountain Dew and a pretzel just to make the nutrition Gods pissed. Enjoy yourself and rest – not just your body but your mind. Prep is psychologically draining as well as physically draining. Take care of yourself on both ends.

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I have been training for 25 years and competing for about 20 of those years.  I have trained people since I was in high school though hardly on the level that I do now.  I can’t stand cardio so I am pretty sure that most can’t stand it, either.  I could weight train for 4 hours a day if I had to (though I hardly have that kind of time – still, you get my point) but doing an hour of cardio makes me want to slit my wrists.  You just sit there and do the same damned thing 3000 times for an hour.  I have tried to come up with variations over the years and like most guys out there, you can bet I worked hard to convince my wife that I needed more “cardio” in the bedroom.  It didn’t work.  She told me that at only 7 minutes a session, I wasn’t going to get very lean that way, anyway.  Bitch.

After working very hard for quite a long time to try to figure out a way to enjoy cardio, I decided to conceed that it simply had to be done to get lean and that I better get used to it, so I did.  I strapped myself in, buckled myself up and with my head down the entire time (unless I am watching Dr Phil or Oprah – shut up), I would trudge through.  One day while staring at the floor I figured with everything I know about nutrition, couldn’t I find a way to rely on the diet instead of all of this cardio to get lean?  So, I started cutting back on the cardio and working harder at lowering calories and it was working well…. for me.  Problem was, it wasn’t working as well for all of my clients as it was for me.  I ended up prepping for a show in 04 and only did 6 cardio sessions, total and I was in incredible condition as this is what I am known for.  I figured I was on to something and even though I had some clients still requiring a lot more cardio than other clients, for the most part the majority of my clients were doing far less cardio than a lot of people out there and were consistently coming into shows in top condition.  Fast forward to 2007…..

My sister passed away unexpectedly in May of 2007 in her sleep.  It was pretty rough on the family and I didn’t train for a few months opting for the long-used coping mechanism of drowning your sorrows in alcohol.  After deciding one day that I had thrown my pity party long enough, I figured it was time to put down the brown bottles and get my very fat ass back in the gym.  When I came back into the gym I had only one mission, really, and that was to get lean.  I didn’t really care about how much size I got back but I wanted to get lean.  I decided to play with cardio again to see how increasing loads of cardio would work and figured it would likely speed up the process in combination with my diet.  I worked from single sessions into longer, single sessions and then into double sessions each day and was getting into pretty good shape again in only a matter of a few months.  However, I did notice that my energy was in the crapper and that I didn’t have the strength in the gym that I usually had but chalked that up to coming back with less focus on the weight training and more focus on getting the fat off.  As the weeks went on I kept losing strength but was getting very, very lean.  As most know, I decided at the last minute to get into the last show of the year here in Colorado and did very well.

Now, I have covered the “no cardio” or “very little cardio” phase and I have covered the “tons of cardio” phase and the difference in conditioning was very subtle – hardly different.  So, as I came into this prep season getting ready for the Jr USAs I figured the plan would be to start high with the cardio and if it was working, great, and to keep it going and if not, to cut it back and focus more on restricting calories.  Keep in mind that my brain works differently than most brains.  I want to learn and experiment no matter the situation and even though I might have a proven plan that I know will yield great results, I want to learn and try anything and everything that I can.  I started high and worked into double sessions as early as 15 weeks out.  I knew something was up when my weight wasn’t moving much, at all, and my condition was only slowing progressing – never mind that I was doing a ridiculous amount of cardio to the point that my leg training started to suffer.  I actually was over training my glutes and hams and this was getting in the way of my leg workouts even more so than my quads being exhausted.  I was perplexed because calories were plenty high, energy was high and my strength was great except for leg strength.  I decided I better re-evaluate and see if this much cardio was really needed.

At the same time, I had several of my current clients taking the same approach figuring we would get a jump on their condition by getting cardio higher, keeping calories higher and then after cardio was high, to only have to reduce calories as the show got closer.  Oddly enough, I had several clients responding about as I was:  not terribly well given the large amount of cardio.  Now, they were getting leaner but just not at the rate that you would think they would (or that I thought they would).   This obviously needed to be re-evaluated, as well.

I decided to cut the cardio drastically – about in half – and it took only about 2 weeks before things started turning around for me in my prep.  First, my leg training started progressing as my glutes and hams weren’t holding me back during leg sessions.  Second, the cardio was actually bareable in that I wasn’t feeling like I was going to drop over from both boredom and exhaustion.  It was when I cut the cardio to only 5 sessions per week of 1 hour that my progress started to move again and condition was improving at a much better rate.  I changed some of my client’s cardio plans and the same thing happened in all but one case.

My point to this very long entry is that doing a ton of cardio isn’t the “key” to getting lean or amping your metabolism, in my experience over the years.  As with everything else, it has to be balanced and be only a part of the overall picture or plan.  You would think that the more cardio you do the leaner you will get but I assure you that it is not that cut and dry.  There comes a point where the cardio is as efficient as it will get and when you do more than that, it becomes less efficient and becomes a bit of a waste of time and energy.  Just as you can go too low with your calories and slow your metabolism, it is my opinion that you can do too much cardio and, basically, do the same thing AND exhaust yourself in the process putting your muscle gains at risk of being dieted away, as well.  Right now I am only doing 5 hours of cardio a week and my progress and condition is great and the same thing is happening with clients, as well.

Use cardio as a tool instead of coming to rely on it for losing bodyfat.  Your diet has to be in check and just as you would cycle carbs or calories or adjust your diet in relation to what your weight is doing, you need to do the same thing for cardio.  There are many times that my clients will tell you that if they are progressing on any given week too quickly, I don’t usually up calories but rather have them cut some cardio later in the week from cutting the sessions in half to cutting them entirely.  It just depends on each specific situation.

The only thing worse than doing cardio and hating it is doing cardio, hating it and having it not work as well for you as doing half the amount of cardio you are currently doing.

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I have written about this in the past and figured it is so vitally important and so easily forgotten that I should bring it up again.  I get clients that approach me on occasion and they have the typical mentality that they want to blow everyone off the stage, dominate the show and leave no one standing.  It is great to hear that a potential client is so motivated and wants to pour himself or herself into a show leaving nothing undone.  However, words are just that and I don’t have to get into their background and information too much further, sometimes,  before I see that it is highly unlikely that this person will succeed.

Now, I  am not one to bust anyone’s dreams no matter how far-fetched I might think they are.  You could be training for one year and tell me you want to win the California State show and I would say that a goal like that can lock you into a zone where you can pour 100% into your training and show up in the best condition you absolutely can.  Remember, it isn’t my job or responsibility to predict whether you or anyone else will “win” or how you will place or even if you can be competitive.  I help you build a house that we plan to be the best house in the area.  If, while building that house,  you ask me what the market will be for your home in a year how the hell can I know?  I help people build.  I can’t possibly know who will show up and what their “house” will look like.  Point is, I will support you completely with whatever goal you set.  When I will shoot you down is when you come to me wanting the world and yet have no pattern, at all, that will even remotely predict that you can accomplish this.

What gives you away as likely not being successful at reaching your goals?  If you don’t have your life in order you can forget it.  I am not even talking about winning an insignificant bodybuilding show.  I am talking about ANYTHING you are setting your sights on and setting goals for.  First things first, this sport is expensive if you are going to do it right.  I am damned expensive and so if you come to me and you say,  “Skip, I can’t afford any supplements and I can’t afford that kind of meat because I had to pay you”, you are off to a really bad start.  This is your first sign.  You have to have your money in order and you have to be able to fund everything from the food to the supplements to the travel, etc..  You must know going in that you can handle it financially.

Next order of business?  Is your life a chaotic mess?  Your job killing you?  Extra hours?  Sometimes guys have all the money they need but they don’t have a lifestyle that allows for 100% commitment to get the training done, the cardio done, the tanning done, the posing practice, etc..  You can’t tell me 5 weeks into a prep that you can’t do double cardio sessions because you don’t have the time.  I don’t really care about your time.  I care about you getting into your best shape that you possibly can to represent you AND to represent the name that I have worked so hard to cultivate.  An addendum to this is travel for your job.  If you have spontaneous trips for 4 days at a time to other cities this isn’t going to allow you to prep the way that you need to.  Keep in mind that we aren’t talking about giving your best, here, we are talking about someone coming to me and saying that they want to dominate a show and destroy everyone.  There is a HUGE difference between doing a show for the experience vs. owning a show but that is for another blog.  : )

As there are a ton of variables that I could write about I am only going for what I consider the top 3 today and number 3 is likely the most important one:  You can’t have a spouse that doesn’t support you.  If I have a client that laughs and says his wife is a bitch: HUGE red flag.  First, he might be laughing but he is likely serious.  See, calling your wife a bitch and laughing at the same time allows guys to think that this is ok if they were somehow overheard saying it.  The typical response is “Honey, I was laughing”.  We might not be smart enough to put the toilet seat down but we are damned sure smart enough to know if we call you a bitch, there better be a smile married to it.  If your wife or husband isn’t on board, you are not going to succeed, period.  Why?  Because when you are dieting and cranky and shitty, you will want to pick at her for EVERYTHING.  You will make up things to give her shit about.  Plus, you have to keep in mind that the last thing she wants is to see you getting leaner and “hotter” because she already doesn’t support this and now you are catching other people’s eyes.  Trust me, that does nothing to encourage support.   It becomes a never-ending cycle of resentment:  You resent her because she doesn’t support you and she resents you because you are a prick to her every chance you get.

People say to me sometimes that they don’t understand how I can be enjoying competing with so much going on in my life.  With 4 kids, a business, competing myself and helping my wife compete it can get hectic but I have had more success now than when I was young and had far more time on my hands.  Why?  Structure and having my ducks in a row.  Financially, I am in a good place and my wife has been supportive of me for all of our 17 years so I am very fortunate in that regard.  I also have learned to manage my time as efficiently as possible because without doing that, I would literally have no time to train.  I simply have too many things to do in a day as a lot of you reading this also have to deal with.  It is time management and it sometimes has to be dead on with little flexibility for an entire day like on Mondays.  My kids know that Dad’s Mondays are rough and to take care of their business so that I can take care of mine.

Before you decide to step to the plate and hit a home run, make sure to assess your situation HONESTLY and ask yourself if you are in a position to focus on the show that you have set a goal for.  It just doesn’t make sense to set yourself up to fail.  Maybe instead of focusing on a show with 100% dedication you should first work to balance your life and THEN decide if taking on something like a show is a good idea.  Imagine what you could do if you turned that motivation from a show to your relationship or managing your time better?  Trust me, the pay off for the latter is far more than what it is for a show.  Plus, your wife or husband will win, as well.

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“4 things you will find at every bodybuilding contest across the country for the last 20 years, Alex.”

Listen, I get bored blogging or talking about the same shit over and over like how cardio is best utilized, what protein is the best (we all know that it is the TEAMSKIP blend from TrueProtein that even outsells Dante’s formula 3 to 1) or what exercise works the sweep of the quads the best.  I will blog about that boring stuff, too, but in the meantime I gotta reminisce a little bit and I gotta show my age a little bit and I gotta show how incredibly rediculous things in this sport can sometimes look.

Bodybuilders look in the mirror more than anyone else but yet we don’t see the stupid stuff that others are laughing at us for.  Let’s get something straight right now:  If you are still training in Otomix, give them back to Troy Zucolotto.  He can’t find them and he is pissed.  Gary Strydom called and he wants his string tank top back with matching yellow and black striped spandex – full length, yes, the ones that Stryper wore in the video.  It doesn’t matter how big your legs look it should be at least a misdemeanor to wear them to the gym.  I don’t want to look over and see your giblets crammed in spandex.  Oh God, Oh GOD…..  And one more thing:  weight belts shouldn’t be used as a corsett.  You use a belt to support your lower back for BIG lifts (and even that is debatable).  You don’t use it to hold your gut in while doing curls or kickbacks.

Even though I think that major crimes are committed in the gym, they are misdemeanors compared to the felonies I see committed OUTSIDE of the gym by bodybuilders.  Seriously, can someone teach bodybuilders how to carry themselves and how to dress??  I am here for you, guys and gals.  I am going to help you.  First, ditch the tight swinger shirts.  Nothing wrong with a big collar on your shiny shirt that says “I’m a disco fag” but let’s be real here:  It really does have to fit.  If I see a shirt so tight that buttons are being raped, I want to see it between 2 mammoth tits on a hot woman, not on you.  There is also the jean shorts and Affliction t-shirt combo that has just come out in the last year or so.  You can go to the department store and ask for it by name – “the white trash, Saturday night dress up combo”.  It is kind of like when people with money wear a Ralph Lauren polo shirt and khaki shorts but  yet …. it’s not.  It’s not because this is supposed to be their “go out attire” on a Saturday night.  A couple other things to consider not doing when you go out:  Please don’t pump up to go out.  That is just … really wrong.  No baby oil on the arms, either.  Another really bad idea.  Do not walk like your nuts are the size of bowling balls.  No one’s legs are that big and when you walk like that, no one THINKS you are walking like that because your legs are big.  Why?  Because we can all see the size of your legs you retard and they aren’t big.  If you want to look big, get big.  I know, odd, isn’t it?

I know, I know, you have all been waiting on the fanny pack and I left it for last.  Please, for the love of God, can someone explain to me why these are still being made?  Where does one acquire one of these?  Is there a store that sells fanny packs?  How can someone not know how stupid these really look?  Even I know how much my earpiece irritates the shit out of people so I take it out whenever I think about it so that I don’t look like a fool.  I am not terribly bright and even I have the ability to say “hey, I don’t want to look like a bodybuilding dumbass today”.

Now, I haven’t seen it yet but I have heard about it and I hope to God I never do see it.  After 25 years in this sport I have been fortunate to never have witnessed the guy that puts on protan to go out so that he looks like he has a tan.  Yes, it sounds rediculous but it happens.  That smell, as any competitor will attest, is so universally known that I don’t know what I would do if I smelled it at a club.  I would probably stand there confused for a minute wondering what that smell is and then when it hit me, I would SCRAMBLE for my phone because I would be TAKING A PICTURE OF THE DUMBASS THAT WAS WEARING IT SO THAT I COULD POST IT RIGHT HERE ON MY BLOG.  If you do the crime you better be able to do the time.

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Look, everyone that does what I do likely thinks they are the best in their field or industry.  I damned sure do.  However, how do YOU know who is the best or better yet who is the best for YOU.  There are a lot of nutritionists out there that can get you to your goal but …. can you function at work in the meantime because your brain is in dead mode?  Are you going to potentially ruin or hurt a relationship because you are being mean and bitchy all the time?  What about your kids?  Treat them like shit and they don’t care if you are dieting and certainly won’t understand that dieting = mom’s a bitch.  This brings me to my checklist of how do I pick the right prep guy/nutritionist:

1.  If his name rhymes with “blip” or “Sip” then you are ok.  : )  Ok, number 2…..

2.  Seriously, the first issue is what is the EXPERIENCE of the guy that you are considering working with?  Does he have hands on experience in the same area as your goals?  Example:  I know that if I was going to compete as a bodybuilder I would not care to work with someone that competed 15 years ago in a novice class because it is very possible that this guy doesn’t understand and can’t relate to being on stage and what it takes to get there.  I know that some say things like “well, they have put so many clients on stage … “.  Hey, I said ME.  If it were ME, I would want someone that can walk the walk and can relate, directly, to what I am feeling and going through during my prep phase for a show.

3.  This one relates to number two in that if you have someone that you want to work with that is a competitor, IS HE OR SHE GOOD AT WHAT THEY DO?  It sounds silly but there are so many people in Denver that call themselves prep guys and nutritionists but yet can’t get shredded themselves yet people PAY them for advice.  WTF???  lol  I have never understood that.  What is the thought process behind it:  “Um, that guy looks 5 weeks out but is going to take 2nd simply because he out-muscled most everyone on stage, oh, I gotta work with the fat guy”.  I don’t think I will ever understand that one.

4.  Obviously, PRICE  is an issue and an important one to consider during these difficult economic times.  You might find the perfect fit for a trainer and yet they are just too expensive.  Right now, we all have to watch our money a little closer and cut corners when we can.  Now, even though you have to consider the fees, what do you get for the fees that are listed?  If someone is 1000 bucks but someone else is 600, do you go with the 600 knowing you won’t get the attention that the 1000 dollar guy will give you?  Price isn’t always indicative of how good someone is but …. it is safe to say in MOST situations that the more expensive a trainer is, the likelihood of him being higher on the food chain in this sport is very likely.  I mean, if fees are high but that trainer wasn’t worth it, he would go broke because people wouldn’t pay that much or they would find out quickly that the trainer wasn’t worth the money and let everyone know about it and ….. the trainer would go broke quickly.   Word of mouth travels fast so the bad ones do tend to get weeded out that think they are worth more than they actually are.

Shop around.  Compare fees but ASK WHAT YOU GET for your money.

5.  DOES THE TRAINER DO TRAINING ON THE SIDE OR IS THIS HIS BUSINESS/LIVELIHOOD?  Speaking for myself, if I was not good at what I do I would damned sure not be able to afford to do it as my job/career until 5am every night (4am now so I have to hurry….).  You can bet that response time to questions is far higher when a trainer doesn’t have a “regular” job and does the training job on the side.  This has to be taken into consideration with price, as well.  I mean, if you pay more but you have your trainer corresponding with you several times during the day if need be, that price may be justified depending on the attention you are looking for.

6.  Is the trainer PASSIONATE  about what they do or just in it because it is “easy” and can make a little gear money on the side.  Ask questions but this one is tough to see ahead of time so references or word of mouth is going to be key for this one.  Ask others that have worked with this trainer what they think and whether they were supported and whether the process of working with that person was one that the trainer was invested in and not just working with as many people as they possibly can.

7.  Lastly, and this one is high on the list of importance and it is: METHODOLOGY.  In a nut shell, are you going to pay someone to starve you and torture you and help to put your career on the line along with your marriage or other relationships?  Some trainers still do the “eat less and do more cardio” approach thinking they are badass trainers.  All the while their clients are zombies.  Check the methodology of the trainer and find out if you get cheat days or cheat meals or higher carb “refeed meals” or in my case:  SkipLoading meals, etc..  Find out if they are known for no carbs or if they love carbs and keep fats real low, etc..

I am certain I could come up with more points to consider but just know before you go pay someone a grand to starve you and tell you how great you look and then put you onstage using diuretics and everything they can use to “get you peaked”, that you can ask and ask and ask more questions.  Just keep asking them.  I mean, they want to work with you, right?  It is your money, right?  Make them jump through a couple hoops by asking them everything you can think of so that there are no surprises.  You are the one paying so YOU are the one that deserves to be 100% comfortable with the person that you are accountable to for 10-20 weeks.

EDIT:  This also goes for people that aren’t even going to compete.  These questions are important no matter what your goals are.  It is your responsibility to make sure that you have the right trainer for your situation.

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