Ruys' 2010 Training/Progress Log

[Ruys]

I spent last week working at a youth leadership camp (hence no posting) where we work flat out all day (20 hours +). The food there was great but I just couldn't get enough of it and, with all the running, I came back looking incredibly skinny and about 3-4 kg lighter. I was pretty bummed and thought I'd metabolised a heap of muscle, but I've been eating properly this week and getting back in the gym this week and have rebounded really well.

I was almost tempted to keep it going until the INBA Melbournes but it's a little too far away and I've got bigger fish to fry this year. Anyway the lesson I've learnt is that it's a lot harder to burn muscle than most bodybuilders would have you believe. 

[Ruys]

Since I haven't got around to taking any pics since I dropped a bit of weight I thought I'd throw up a link to a pic that a mate put up on facebook from Saturday. This was the weigh-in for the bench press comp round in our Australia Day Olympics (that weren't held on Australia Day lol).

[Fadi]

You've got superb arms Ruys, you really have mate. Few more years and you’ll be looking at no less than an incredible 22" or so monsters. I think you're naturally gifted in that department. You just need to eat...more!


Fadi.

[Ruys]

Thanks mate, I really appreciate the kind words. You're absolutely right though, I need to be eating a heap more food. Over the next month I'll be working on a new diet and training regime that I'll be posting up for feedback. I don't know whether it will get my arms to 22 inches but they'll be a damn site closer than they are now. 

[xpl0sive]

very nice arms dude. Good shape to them.

[Ruys]

Thanks mate. How's your training going? You sorted that pain out?

[xpl0sive]

Which pain would that be? I've got a few of them! lol. Pinched nerve in my upper back, tennis elbow in right arm, just to name a few lol. Still training though. I did take last week off...diet sorta went off-track, but I still look alright. Using this week to get back into the swing of things, get my diet back in check and figure out how I should be training when I officially start contest prep next week.

Gym owner is helping me prep, and I'm doing a training camp with Warren Clampitt on the 28th of this month. Diet-wise, I'm not really changing much at the moment...just removed one carb meal in the late afternoon (replaced the carbs with Broccoli). I'm relying more on traning to get me lean instead, and have started hitting the cardio with full force. When that proves to be not enough, I'll then begin to lower my calories.

[Ruys]

Good stuff mate.

I was referring to the pinched nerve you asked about on bolex. I had tennis elbow pretty bad last year and it took me a while to get over it. I managed to train around it ok, I just dropped the weights a heap and really focussed on the contraction and good form. I pretty much determined that the cause was getting slack with my form on back exercises, especially relaxing too much at the bottom of db rows and letting the weight jerk my joints around.

I think what you're doing diet-wise is spot on. I'm leaner now than I was all last year purely because I've been training more intensely. The training camp with Waz sounds great, I'm sure you'll learn heaps. 

[xpl0sive]

Yeah, the pinched nerve seems to be a lot better now mate, thanks for asking. I'll occasionally feel a bit of pain for a minute or 2 randomly, then it goes away. Haven't felt anything all week though so that's good.

the tennis elbow only bothers me when I do skull crushers. Even with warm-up weight, it hurts. What I do is use a wrist-wrap and wrap it around my forearm tightly just before the elbow. Also, when I do the movement, rather than do them like most people where you lower the bar to your nose/forehead and press back up, I bring my arms way back behind my head, and sort of press on an angle, with the bar staying behind my head...if you know what I mean. Doing this keeps the tension on the tri's, rather than the joints as it would if you were to do them the normal way (pressing vertically). This combination seems to help me a lot and I can actually do the movement with very little discomfort.

As for diet, yeah, you're right. You look better when you can eat more and still drop bodyfat. You can drop a ton of bodyfat, but if there isn't enough glycogen in your muscles, you simply will not get enough seperation and create that deep, cut, shredded and hard look. My approach to my prep this year is quite different to last year...but I don't want to hijack your thread lol I'll just create my own and discuss my diet/training in detail.

[Ruys]

I'm starting up a new training program and kick up the eating starting next week which is the beginning of my assault on the IFBB Vics in October. I'll try to keep updates on my progress as regularly as I can. Any input from would be appreciated.

Here's the training:

Monday - Legs
Squats
Hack/Front Squats
Lunges
Extensions
Leg Curls
Calf Raises

Tuesday - Chest + Abs
Flat Press
Incline Press
Dips
Incline Flyes
Lower Abs
Upper Abs/Obliques

Wednesday - Basketball

Thursday - Back + Hamstrings
Deadlifts
DB Rows
Lat Pull-Downs
Cable Rows
Stiff-leg Deadlifts

Friday - Arms
BB Curls
Alternate/Incline DB Curls
Reverse Curls
French Curls
Dips
Tricep Push-Downs

Saturday - Shoulders + Calves + Abs
DB/BB/Smith/MC Press
Vertical Rows
Side Laterals
Bent Over Laterals/Rear Delt MC
Calf Raises
Abs

[Ruys]

Here's a vague outline of the diet that I knocked up today. It's a work  in progress and no doubt will evolve a lot over the coming weeks.

Meal 1
6 eggs
1/2 cup uncooked oats
Yoghurt + Fruit

Meal 2
185g tin tuna in oil
4 rice cakes

Meal 3
125g uncooked pasta
300g mince beef or chicken breast
Veggies

Meal 4
MPI shake in milk
4 rice cakes
3g fish oil

Meal 5 Pre WO
Pre Workout Extreme
15g WMS

Meal 6 Intra WO
15g WMS
10g EAA's

Meal 7 PWO
40g Hydro WPI
30g WMS

Meal 8
1/2 cup uncooked basmati/white potato
250g steak
Veggies

Meal 9
MPI in milk
3g fish oil
ZMA

[xpl0sive]

Hi mate,

Gonna give my input on both your training and diet if you don't mind.

Training - looks the goods, except I would put stiffies on leg day, seeing as your other leg exercises utilise hamstrings, and doing 2 type of deadlifts in one day is overkill. On chest day, I would give priority to the incline press over flat press.

Diet - I would ditch the MPI in meal 4, and save it for night time only. It digests too slow for daytime use. I would sub this for either lean meat, or whey concentrate if you can't get a solis meal in. I would also have the MPI in water at night. Other than that, looks quite good to me. It's a bit different to what I would do, but then again I train in the morning and diets can change quite a bit depending what time you train. At the end of the day, you know your body better than anyone else, and you've done this before, so you know what works for you and what doesn't.

[Ruys]

Thanks mate, you've made some good points on the training. I knocked it up fairly quickly and was cutting and pasting things all over the shop so some things ended up a bit messed up. I'm going to be training hamstrings and calves twice a week but the stiff leg deads should definitely be on the leg day and the leg curls on the back and hamstrings day. Thanks for pointing that out.

I've always done flat presses before incline but I guess now is a perfect time to change it up and hit the upper pecs first. Hopefully not having fatigued front delts should help me push out a bit more weight on the inclines.

On the diet I forgot to point out that this isn't supposed to resemble anything of a cutting or lean bulking diet. It's simply building on what I have been eating in order to get my protein intake and overall calories up in order to gain size. The shake in the arvo is there because it is fairly close to my training time and I don't train as well or feel the effects of my supps as much if I have solid food in my stomach. To be honest it may not strictly be MPI, it will just be whatever Marcus sends me (it just wont be WPI).

I'm also making this diet as tasty as possible and will not be meals like some broccoli sitting next to a chicken breast and a pile of rice with some fish oil for fats. I'm going to be trying to make decent recipes based on the ingredients listed and adding veg and limited condiments if I need. I'll also be cooking with a fair bit of extra virgin olive oil and macadamia oil. I'll make sure I post up any recipes I think a worthy of sharing.

Thanks for the input Nuri, you've been a big help.

[xpl0sive]

No worries man. The diet does look quite tasty, and certainly more appetising than what I'm eating at the moment! I'm keeping my pre-contest diet really boring and simple, but only because it is easier to follow and manage. I would love to make the meals a little more enjoyable though. I pretty much eat to get in shape and don't really enjoy my food anymore lol.

Regarding the flat presses, I too used to always do flat presses first, and at one point got my bench upto 2 and a half plates per side. I had nothing to show for it though. I still did it as flat bench was always made out to be the thing of chest exercises, but eventually I got sick of not having a thick chest, despite lifting a decent amount of weight. Had great shoulders though. I came to the conclusion that it was all hype and that flat bench is overrated. I get much better chest stimulation from incline presses than I ever did from flat presses. At the moment, I do incline work exclusively, with the exception of weighted dips, and have been doing this for quite some time and my results have been far greater than anything else I did for my chest, which has always been a lagging area for me. My friend seems to think there is a big improvement in my chest, and this is coming from someone who sees me all the time...so for someone who sees me on a regular basis to notice the difference, it must be significant.

I'm in no way saying that flat bench is rubbish or useless, it definitely has it's place, I just think incline is a superior exercise, therefore I would always hit incline first. These days I train with higher frequency anyway, and hit muscle groups more than once a week, so I usually seperate incline work from flat/decline work. What I've also found is that pre-exhausting the pecs with flyes and then hitting bench works really well too.

[Ruys]

It's completely different because you're preparing for a comp and I'm bulking, but I'm really trying to avoid getting to the point where I dread having to eat again. I've been there before and it sucks ass. I figure if I can work out a way to combine all the crap we eat into something that tastes okay, then it really can become a lifestyle that wont leave me in a shit mood 24 hours a day.

I'll get what you're saying regarding the presses. Everyone has exercises that work for them, and to an extent I think flat presses work for me, I've just been doing them first for far too long. I have tried pre exhausting with flyes before and it really doesn't work that well for me, but I do find that the presses pre exhaust my chest nicely for dips though.