Lifting like a dad…
So, if we did nothing but diet and LSD, we’d be skinny fat.
I’m sure you’ve seen that meme on Facebook of the bag of bones marathon runner next to the muscle-bound sprinter with less than 8% body fat. Yea, well, it’s not that drastic, but I promise you that if you just perform LSD and diet, you won’t be happy with your results. No one, I repeat no one, wants to go through all of that work just to be skinny fat.
Remember, Alex Viada said multiple times in big, bold letters that LSD will only work IF you’re lifting and consuming enough protein. If not, all of the bad stuff you heard about LSD is pretty much true.
Moving on to the lifting…
First though, I need you to repeat after me…
I am not genetically blessed to add slabs of muscle onto my skinny (or fat) frame so I cannot lift like the guys in the magazines or at the Crossfit games.
I am not going to take steroids so I cannot lift like the guys in the magazines or at the Crossfit games.
I have a job, family, and one hundred other obligations so my diet, sleep schedule, and stress levels are all over the place at times so I cannot lift like the guys in the magazines and at the Crossfit games.
Good.
Now, let me introduce you to Dan John. Dan was an All-American collegiate track athlete turned strength coach turned professor turned philosopher. He’s written 10+ books on strength training and dieting and regularly speaks at the biggest exercise conferences every year. Being in the game for 30+ years, he has an amazing talent for making really complex things really simple. The last time I saw him present, I walked away with one thing written in my notes from his lecture – DUH!
Being the nerd that I am, I have all of his books. As I was reading through Alex’s workout templates in his book, I was somewhat shocked at the lack of volume during his lifting days. That reminded me of one of Dan’s most popular books Mass Made Simple. So when I finished taking notes from Alex’s book, I jumped into Dan’s book with the thought – If I was wrong about cardio, I may be wrong about lifting too.
Dan’s go-to program to add slabs of muscle on just about anyone is ridiculously simple. And, apparently, it works really well because he wrote a book about it, Mass Made Simple. It’s a 6-week program that only contains 14 workouts. Yes, you heard that right – 14 workouts over the course of 6 weeks. What’s even crazier is that each workout only has a handful of exercises: 2-3 upper body movements, a core exercise, a complex, and 20 rep squats. According to Dan, that’s all you need to make your muscles grow like weeds.
Of course, those 20 rep squats reminded me of another book I read by legendary hardgainer bodybuilding coach Stuart McRoberts. Yes, I had a Slumdog Millionaire moment. He too was a fan of low volume 20 rep sets for hardgainers. So when I finished Dan’s book, I jumped into the three books I had from Stuart about his methods – Brawn, Beyond Brawn, and Brawn: The Series.
Stuart was adamant that most regular guys (you know, those with jobs, a family, and who don’t have 1000mg of testosterone coursing through their veins) were lifting way too much and focusing on the wrong things. And, it was because of that, that we never got the results we hoped for. Instead, he recommended two to three weekly workouts (preferably two) that were full-body workouts using just the core lifts. According to Stuart, our singular focus should be adding weight to the bar on the big lifts every 1-2 weeks, even if it’s just a pound or two. Slow, steady progress with ample recovery = smashed goals.
Of course, I’ve been doing body part and upper/lower splits for the last 20 years so I was still a little hesitant, even if Dan and Stuart had god-like reputations in the fitness community. You know.. Those workouts where you didn’t leave the gym until you were either swollen like a hot air balloon or you could barely lift your arms to drive home. That’s almost 20 years of chasing the pump and pain…
So, I turned to an arrogant, eccentric fitness researcher named Lyle McDonald just to make sure it was worth the effort.
There’s a lot to be said about Lyle. Many of it is not very good. Apparently he suffers from bipolar disorder and has quite the temper. If he sees a fitness coach making claims that aren’t supported by research, he’ll attack them, friend or foe often using four letter words/slurs. He’s ruthless and nasty.
However, he has an amazing ability to not just read research studies, but also to break them down, find the weaknesses in the studies, and then synthesize the data. If you’ve never read a study before, you’re lucky. Not only are they extremely boring to read, but, scientists being scientists, they try to use the biggest words they can possibly find (I’m sure they’re great at Scrabble), which is annoying. On top of that, the mathematical models they use to evaluate the results are college calculus on steroids. Researchers have been known to pick the model that shows the results they want so it takes a keen eye to spot the errors. Hence, why I rely on someone as vile as Lyle to evaluate it for me.
Again, being the nerd I am, I have all of Lyle’s books. In particular, his books A Guide to Flexible Dieting and The Protein Book are stellar. However, he has yet to write a book on muscle-building, as he’s primarily a fat-loss guru. The good news is that he puts his thoughts on hypertrophy on his blog for free.
And what do you know, what’s the first article that pops up….. Lyle’s review on a study published this year entitled, “Evidence of a Ceiling Effect for Training Volume in Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength in Trained Men – Less is More?”
In brief, the researchers compared the effects on muscle mass and strength in trained men using 5 sets vs 10 sets vs 15 sets vs 20 sets per week per muscle group.
Before I tell you what they found, notice I italicized the word trained. That’s significant because often research studies will be performed on beginners, and as we all know, newbie gains are amazing. Just starting out, you can go from bench pressing 115lbs to 225lbs in 6 months.. Beginners, like those who juice, can grow on just about any program so it’s hard to differentiate if what the researchers intended to study really worked or they just used a population where anything will work.
Now, if you’re using trained, drug-free men, that’s dyn-O-mite! You can pretty much extrapolate the results to the DadBod world.
So , what were the results?
In the authors’ own words.. “The results bring evidence of an inverted “U shaped” curve for the dose-response curve for muscle strength. Whilst the same trend was noted for muscle hypertrophy, the results did not reach significance. Five to 10 sets per week might be sufficient for bringing about optimal gains in muscle size and strength in trained men over a 24-week period.
Surprise. Surprise. It looks like I was wrong again. Dan and Stuart were right. The research world appears to agree with the real world for DRUG-FREE dads = less is more.
Just as I was finishing reading that sentence, I had another Slumdog Millionaire moment. I remember reading Easy Strength by Pavel and Dan John years ago. If you don’t know Pavel, know these things:
He’s popular enough to only go by one name.
He brought the kettlebell to the U.S. from Russia.
He reminds me of Ivan Drago from Rocky, although less intimidating yet more deadly.
He trains men and women in special forces in both the U.S. and Russia.
In that book, he described Allyson Felix’s strength training regimen before she became an Olympic gold medal sprinter, record holder, etc. It was ridiculously simple- a few sets of trap bar deadlift, a few sets of push presses, and a few sets of a core exercise. Now, Allyson is obvious a genetic freak, but if that’s all she needed to deadlift over 400lbs and win gold medals, I’m sure it’s good enough for you and I. Right?
So where does this leave me with regards to my lifting sessions?
Two lifting sessions per week. Each session between 30-45 minutes.
The first day I’m hitting trap bar deadlifts for one big set of 20 reps. I’m following that with 2-3 sets of bench press for 8-10 reps supersetted with 2-3 sets of dumbbell rows for 8-10 sets. I’m going to follow that with 2 sets of rack deadlifts at knee height for 10 reps supersetted with dumbbell incline flyes for 12-15 reps (because my pecs need help). That’s it.
On the second day, 3 days later, I’m hitting the squat for one set of 20 reps. I’m following that with the seated barbell shoulder press from the racks for 2- 3 sets of 8-10 reps supersetted with chins for 2-3 sets for 8-10 reps. I’m going to follow that up with some heavy barbell holds for 2 sets of 60 seconds supersetted with seated cable flyes for 2 sets of 12-15 reps. Dunzo.
That’s it. My focus is adding at least 1-2lbs to the bar on my core lifts (trap bar deadlift, bench press, row, shoulder press, squat, and chins) every 1-2 weeks.
I’m so adamant about that I went out and bought 0.25lb, 0.5lb, and 0.75lb plates so I don’t have to make 5lb jumps every 2 weeks (slow and steady, remember).
So overall my schedule looks like:
Sunday – Off
Monday – Lift
Tuesday – LSD 30 minutes with strides/surges
Wednesday – HIIT 30-45 minutes
Thursday – LSD 30 minutes Recovery Run
Friday – Lift
Saturday – LSD 60 minutes
That means I only have to hit the gym for my two lift days and my HIIT day for a weekly total of about 90-120 minutes. Everything else I can do from the comfort of my home or outside.
Simple right?
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