Adelfo Cerame - Road to Wheelchair Championships: Four Tips to Survive the Post-Contest / Post-Dieting Jojo-Effect

Image 1: Would have been a disgrace to compromise this physique!

With me being pretty busy, I was actually about as curious as to how Adelfo got along the past couple of days, as you probably are. While we did discuss his training regimen in quite some detail, there was hardly enough time to discuss future dietary changes and - although I could obviously pretend otherwise - Adelfo does not even really need my advice, since he knows very well what is best for him!

So, I guess, I won't keep you on tenderhooks any longer and have him tell you how he evaded the post-contest jojo and kept his wickedly... ah, pardon, "disgustingly" ripped self amidst truckloads of gyros pita sandwiches, falafel, baba ganoush and baklava!

Surviving “post-contest”/ “post-dieting” destruction!

Last week I gave you a sneak peek on my training regimen for the next 2 weeks and promised you the low-down on its nutritional complement for today... well, and as you all should know by now, I stand I am a man of his word, but before I get lost in too much details, I thought it would be nice to give you an overview of how I successfully avoided the dreaded post-contest binge and thus prevented myself from totally destroying all the work I have put into my physique over the past couple of weeks.

You already know that I had planned to go on another famine phase, the low protein low calorie phase, I have learned about in Rob Regish's Blueprint, which, when combined with my regular intermittent fasting routine, allowed me to fulfill almost all my food cravings for the entire week after my contest, without any significant water and none of the dreaded fat-gains, you usually see when you "over-re-feed", or let's call it by its name, binge, after weeks of dieting.

How I prevented “post-contest” self-destruction.

A non-negligible plus certainly was that I did not cut my calories so drastically in this prep, to begin with. Averaging 1,400kcal even at the very end of my contest prep, I was still way above the 1000kcal or even 900kcal regimen from previous preps - and yes, I made the same mistakes as so many of you and your friends may have been making: I also cut calories way to drastically in the past.

Cutting calories is necessary, cutting them to drastically is simply dumb: Whenever you get that low, calorie-wise, the aftermath is just horrible. No matter how steady you try to up your calories (and let's be honest, usually you don't do that anyway), the drastic cut will have slowed down your metabolism so profoundly, that it will take weeks if not months to get back to normal. And while it may have taken some time, I have learned my lesson once and for all and am more than determined not to make that same mistake ever again.

Consequently, the "post-contest syndrome", as I would like to call it, was not bad at all. Although I went the usual route of just eating all the foods I was craving from the moment the show ended, those cravings did not last me a week or even two, like they can, when you have really been starving yourself. Consequently, it was not all too difficult to use my brain and stick to a couple of simple rules I had come up with in advance to avoid doing too much damage to my physique - rules, of which I believe that they could be just as useful for you as they were for me, so that I decided to share them with you:

1. Tame your cravings right away: I had already eaten my bagels, rice cakes, candy bars and a combination of other carbohydrate + fat type foods all throughout the day of the show; and even had burgers and fries after pre-judging. That really helped with keeping the cravings at bay, so that after the night of the show, I wasn’t really that hungry anymore, but I was thirsty as f***! So I stopped by a liquor store and bought a six-pack of Guinness to quench my thirst ;-) I had a small meal after that and, being somewhat disappointed, got a more or less good night's sleep.
    
2. Use intermittent fasting to avoid eating 24/7: I had planned that beforehand and stuck to my decision to get back on my IF protocol right on the morning of the next day.
    
3. Try to keep a 50%/50% balance between good and trash foods: I kept, or tried to keep a good 50/50 balance with half of my caloric intake coming from the same whole foods, I ate during my whole contest prep... obviously, I am only human, so I ended up with something more along the lines of 30/70, but with the intermittent fasting (16h fast, 8h feeding window), I kept the damage under control and was very flexible as far as my food choices esp. on the first meal of my feeding window were concerned. So, if I felt like having Lebanese food, I didn’t hesitate to go eat some (dunno, why, but for some awkward reason, gyros pita sandwiches, falafel, baba ganoush and baklava were one of my biggest cravings).
    
4. Set a max. 7-day limit for the feast and follow it up with a famine phase: After the week of satisfying my food cravings, I jumped on a 5-day famine/detox phase before going back to my "regular" diet, again. After months of rigorous dieting and those 7-days of pigging out, my digestive system needed a break, and - as Rob Regish explains in his Blueprint in quite some detail - it is also a good way of reminding your body not to be so wasteful with all the good protein you are feeding it the rest of the year... and did I mention that after the binge and the subsequent 5-day famine, my body looked like I was ready to step on stage, again?

Obviously, not all of you will be dieting and cutting water for a contest. You won't be eating french fries and burgers after the pre-judging and I don't know if you like Guiness. In the end, all that does yet not really matter - even if you just had to look good for your blind-date, your wedding or your school reunion - those four simple yours can come handy, whenever you have been dieting and feel the urge to binge.

Reverse dieting - going back up at the correct pace

Image 2: Looking at those pictures there is little doubt that Adelfo's four tips work(ed) outstandingly well. But, let's be honest, would he suggest you copy them, if they did not? I don't think so ;-)

After you have successfully staved off the the worst rebounds and "survived" the famine, you do want to get your calories back up again. I mean, you might just say, "Hey, the USA Wheelchair Championships are on June 23, 2012, Adelfo! So why don't you just keep rolling on your current caloric intake for the next 13 weeks and see how that goes?" Yet while this would certainly be an option, I have been talking to Adel aka Dr. Andro about this and he agreed that it would not only be very difficult to conserve the form I am in for more than just a month, but also - and this was what I was thinking as well - that I would be giving away the chance to pack on another few pounds of lean muscle mass.

My current plan is to gradually increase my calories (the majority coming from the starchy carbs and fruits the reintroduction of which during my contest diet has been nothing but beneficial), to the point where I am gaining muscle at a relative constant rate without compromising the outstanding form I am currently in. Obviously there will come a point where eventually I will have to stop increasing and gradually cut it back down to peak for my show, but the initial target, Adel and I both thought would be realistic, is ~2000kcal/day. As of now, I am still 50-80kcal shy off the 1,800kcal mark I have been hovering around for quite some time during my previous prep - in the end, we will see how, or I should say, if the plan going to work out ;-)

Meal timing, caloric and carb zigzagging

Meal timing is something that will be of huge importance in this context. Especially in view of the fact that I want to take advantage from the glycogen replenishing and performance enhancing effects of an increased (yet still overall below the recommendations of the ADA) carb intake, I will carefully plan the lions-share of my carbohydrate intake in the hours immediately post- and around my workouts. Thusly, I want to keep the partitioning of carb-deried triglycerides into the fat cells minimal by just having my muscle and liver glycogen stores suck the carbs away - from a scientific perspective this may be an over-simplification of the underlying physiological processes, I know, but as a practitioner you do not have to understand all the metabolic details to make good use of this strategy, which does still require that you gradually increase the amount of calories and carefully monitor how your body reacts to each and every change.

Table 1: Macronutrient ratio and timing on training days

At least to some degree, it is always a matter of trial and error until you eventually figure the right numbers out - those numbers that allow you to build muscle without sporadically gaining (better even losing) a few fat molecules ;-) Caloric ZigZagging is something that can support you in this effort, because it will help you to match your caloric intake to your expenditure and place the majority of your carbs on your workout days. For me this means that I will lower my total calorie and my carbohydrate intake on non-workout days, keep my protein intake constant and increase my fats a tad.

Table 2: Macronutrient ratio and timing on rest days

The data in table 1 and table 2 give you an idea of how the net result will look like. And in case you are wondering why my training-day carbohydrate macros are a bit odd, it's because I have started using Myotropics' new flagship product Physique 2.0. It's a high protein (40g) meal replacement which contains ~17g of those the novel fast absorbing, slow digesting carbohydrate source, Dr. Andro wrote about months ago. I am honestly, very psyched about having the opportunity to take its ability to help you burn fat while to a test - the version I have here is something like a beta for the Myotropics athletes, the final version, which will have an improved flavoring system, should yet be available at your favorite supplement store very soon.

On my own account (by Dr. Andro): If you follow Adelfo's link to the new Myotropics blog, you will notice that, aside from his own recipes, you will also find a handful of selected SuppVersity articles over there. This is part of an agreement I have with Vince Andrich, whom many of you probably know as one of the hosts of the BodRX show to which I have contributed in the past, as well. With me being 100% free on which articles I repost to promote the SuppVersity and Vince getting some quality content for Myotropics' new website, this is a win-win situation for both of us, which, and I hope I do not even have to point that out, is not going to change my overall very critical stance towards the supplement industry - even so, it appears as if Dr. Connelly and Vince Andrich have been reading the right blogpost, when they came up with the ingredient profile of their new product *rofl*

For the mean time, I suggest you go and take a look at my latest recipe, the "Post-Workout Locomoco", which is part of a new series I am writing for Myotropics' blog page. You don't have to worry though, there is no chance that you are going to miss any of those, since I will always post a link to them here in my weekly SuppVersity posts and when worse comes to worse, you still got my facebook page, where you will always find links to all the latest news, pics and obviously blogposts ;-)

Adelfo Cerame - Road to The Wheelchair Nationals '12: Experience and Intuition Distinguish Bro from Pro

Image 1: If Einstein had been into bodybuilding, he'd have loved how Adelfo approaches his contest prep.

Science certainly is a serious business. Nevertheless, even Einstein was convinced that, at the end of the day, "intuition" and "experience" is what distinguishes the average scientists, who spends his life in one of those sterile labs doing what philosopher of science T.S. Kuhn once called "normal science", from a genius like Einstein, who scribbled his theory on the photo-electric effects, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize, on a few sheets of paper in the course of a transatlantic cruise. And though I assume Adelfo won't like it, if I call him a "genius" (and I assume for a future pro bodybuilder the comparison with Einstein is not very flattering, anyway), intuition and experience are two things our man at the 2012 Wheelchair Nationals in Florida has in abundance, which is why I will now sit back, relax and let the "pro" do the work ;-)

4 Weeks in - Let's See Where We're at!

Week 4 is almost a wrap, and as I promised last week… I have new progress pictures and 2 new videos for you. We'll start with the pictures, because - even in the age of digital cameras and even smartphones with (supposedly) "high definition", stills like those in image 2 are unique (and necessary) in that they give you the time to really judge your progress - taking weekly (more often is neither necessary nor advisable) pictures is thus a must-do not only for a competitive bodybuilder, but for everyone who wants to take his physique to another level.

Image 2: Progress pics, front - September 2, 2011 (left), pre-contest experimentation phase; October 24, 2011, 4 weeks into the contest prep (img Adelfo Cerame, 2011)

For those of you who are catching up, I did not start my contest prep until the 1st week of October, so the September photos were taken while I was still in my bulking phase and still trying to experiment and to adjust my raw foods intermittent fasting dietary regimen to my individual needs. The lighting is a bit off between the two comparisons, but after 4 weeks, I can see a slight, yet visible improvement in my abdominals - it’s not much, but in view of not having been in a caloric deficit, yet (I'll be going there next week), this is certainly noteworthy.

Image 3: Progress pics, back - September 2, 2011 (left), pre-contest experimentation phase; October 24, 2011, 4 weeks into the contest prep (img Adelfo Cerame, 2011)

The biggest improvement I have noticed though are related to my back. I don’t know how much of the difference is due to the lighting or maybe just because I put my hair up, ... but I honestly think that I was able to put on some decent size - looks like the switch to an EDT-type training style with all the grueling, but obviously productive compound moves was already paying off…

"Opinions, please! What do you guys think? Honestly… I’d like to here some of the readers’ opinions. Am I just seeing things? Or am I really making improvements?  [Comment Dr. Andro: You can either use the "comment" function at the bottom of the page or contact Adelfo directly via Facebook if you want - the latter also holds true if you have specific questions or are interested in dietary counseling]

Like I did mentioned last week, I do feel a lot harder, tighter and fuller. The typical "side-effects" everyone I've talked two who has implemented Rob Regish's interpretation of "escalating density" training into his regimen is "complaining" about.

Showtime! Adelfo hits the gym again...

A pros pros training. Let's get to my latest training videos, now. We shot the videos Wednesday night! They are in fact so brand new that I did not even have the time to get sore, yet ;-)

Video 1: Adelfo is incorporating static holds at the end of each set, a technique he has adapted from Rob Regish's Blueprint (Adelfo Cerame, 2011)

Before I start my EDT Block, I always start off with some static hold movements. As you can see in the video, I do five reps and then hold the weight up, after the last one without going to full lockout (this is obviously important, unless you want your joints, instead of your muscles, to do the work ;-). When I began incorporating this technique from the Blueprint into my regimen, I used to add 4 plates on each side and just do one static hold without the extra reps, but I have noticed that the tension on a decline hammer strength machine is a lot different from a free weight decline press (the tension is a lot heavier on free weights). Thusly, I wasn’t getting enough tension with just one static contraction, because the hammer strength machines does a lot of the additional stabilizing work, you would be doing if you were performing this move with free weights.

Image 4: Even the best blueprint will need some tweaking to become your blueprint for success.

A brief note by Dr. Andro: This little "tweak" to the original "Blueprint" Adelfo has come up with is further evidence of what I mentioned two weeks ago, when Adelfo and I were on Carl Lenore's Super Human Radio. Adelfo is the kind of guy who does not follow (even good) advice blindly. He has exactly the kind of Einstein-ish "intuition" and "experience" which distinguishes an average trainee, who relies on his "gurus" to take him to the top (which obviously seldom happens), from a professional bodybuilder, who takes responsibility for his own progress.So, whatever your personal goals may be, whether you are an aspiring bodybuilder or just an average Joe or Jane wanting to look good naked - always remember: success comes from making a blueprint your blueprint!

Being assisted by the hammer strength machine does yet not mean that you cannot hit the pecs hard - it's well possible that the opposite may be the case, because you are eliminating some of the weaker links... So even if I am doing only 3 instead of 4 plates on each side the pump and the pain during the static hold tell me that I am sending that growth signal you should strive to trigger whenever you are at the gym... after all, muscle growth not exhaustion is why (I assume) most of you will be at the gym.

"I am always tailoring my workout to my very specific needs"

And just in case you are now asking yourselves why I am not just doing the static holds with free weights then, the answer is simple: It's a safety issue. When I use free weights, I do not have the luxury to plant my legs and feet to th ground, which would give me that extra stability I need. I depend solely on my core to balance myself. I have to focus on balancing the weight and myself at the same time. So you can just imagine if I lost balance while trying to lift 3 plates on each side - therefore, the most I ever did after my injury on a free weight bench, was 2 plates on each side. And while there will be a video of me doing free weight bench presses somewhen in the near future, as well. For now, I want you to take a look at me performing my favorite EDT block (video 2)

Video 2: Adelfo doing incline presses and DB rows on the third of on of his EDT cycles (Adelfo Cerame, 2011)

I perform these push-pull combinations right after decline press static holds on the hammer strength machine. Being able to move as fast as I can from one exercise to another, this combo allows me to really make the most of my time at the gym. This video comprises only one of the many cycles I try to do within the 20 minutes given…(if you have not followed the whole series, you can read up on my EDT regimen here). The video, I think, shows the third of the cycles, each of which consists of a one push and one pull exersice

"I do a set of incline presses, then I superset that with DB back rows."

My goal with each EDT block (comprising two exercises each) is to try and complete as many cycles as I can within the 20 minutes. Last night I got up to 7 cycles and with each cycle, I lift as heavy as I can for 4-6 reps. If you do the math - 7 cycles à 4 reps does not sound so much, but you must also count the reps from the superset.... so that you are doing 56 all-out heavy (!) reps within 20 minutes… Then you have another static hold exercise, and another EDT block… remember what I said about not exhausting, but stimulating a few lines above - well, sometimes the former just works best by doing the latter ;-)

Image 5: A Philly Cheese Steak Wrap, the latest delicacy from Adelfo Cerame's personal cookbook.

Adelfo Cerame's Cookbook - Philly Cheese Steak Wrap: With the great feedback I am receiving on the recipes, Dr. Andro and I have decided to include one page of the repertoire I have come up with for me, as well as for the clients, I am doing dietary counseling for, as a regular part of each of my blogposts. Today's recipe is a tribute to all of you (and many of my clients) who are no big fans of raw food eating - and let's be honest, if you are doing it correctly "cooked" food can be both healthy and delicious as well. Not being a raw foodist, paleo eater, south beacher, or whatever else people affiliate themselves with… I eat nutritionally dense whole, natural foods (well, maybe with some exceptions on my cheat/reefed days ;-), of which I have found that my body cherishes extra bucks the ingredients may cost me.

A pros pos ingredients, here is what you will need for the one and only ...

Adelfo Cerame Philly Cheese Steak Wrap

• 1 La tortilla Low Carb / High fiber tortilla (12g fiber/6g carbs)
• 6 oz lean grass-fed sirloin steak
• 1 tbs. real mayonnaise
• 1 string cheese
• Bell peppers & onions (optional)

Macros: 43g protein/ 6g carbs/  16g fat - bon appetit!

Looking back at the first month: "So far everything has gone smoothly!"

Image 6: Adelfo 10-8 weeks out from 09’ WC nationals (Adelfo Cerame, 2009)

Although we still have a couple of days left, I want to take the chance and review this first month of my contest prep. What is kind of exciting is that I have noticed that the way I look as of now is actually how I looked 10 to 8 weeks out during my 09’ contest prep (see image 6), and this is the time during prep where I usually felt rushed and began to drastically cut back on calories, because I felt there wasn’t enough time to achieve the level of competitive leanness I am expecting of myself. And though the drastic cuts did not affect me during the prep, it affected me after! And for those of you who have made extreme cuts before know what I’m talking about.... But anyway back on topic.

Next month (i.e. next week, already) I will actually begin to drop my caloric intake. This month I was at 2,250 calories, which is my maintenance calories. Next week I plan to start out with a ~15% calorie deficit from my caloric maintenance, which is about 1,912 calories. That's not much, but with the way I am looking now, eating at or even above maintenance, I expect to see some changes. If my body does not react the way I expected, I can still adapt my caloric intake in the course of the next four weeks, so that I will be able to reach my first long term goal, which is getting almost stage ready by January. By that time, March comes around real quick and I just want to have the luxury of knowing that I’m ready. But I’ll blog more about that next month and also write more about wheelchair bodybuilding in general for those of you that weren’t aware that there is such a thing ;-)

Adelfo Cerame - Road to The Wheelchair Nationals '12: After the Famine the Training Starts to Escalate!

Image 1: Adelfo Cerame Jr. survived the famine ;-)

Another Thursday, a busy one that is not over with this blog post, but will go overtime on Carl Lenore's Super Human Radio, where, today at 12pm EST, you will be able to hear Adelfo Cerame Jr. and my humble self, Dr. Andro, chitchatting with Carl about Adelfo's contest prep, his raw foods diet, intermittent fasting and much more. So don't forget to tune in live (update: click here to download podcast) And in case your boss doesn't like it when you listen to Internet ratio shows in the office, I will post the link to the podcast, as soon as it is going to be available. In the meantime, I'd suggest you read up on whether or not Adelfo survived the self-inflicted famine that had befallen him in the last week ;-)

Low calories + low protein = no hunger, no sluggishness, no visible muscle loss and no acne!

As those of you who have been following my weekly updates (a new installment appears every Thursday) here on SuppVersity know, I picked up a technique I read about in Rob Regish's Blueprint and kicked the hot phase of my contest prep off with a famine/detox protocol. The idea behind this initially counter-intuitive dietary intervention was to give my digestive tract, as well as "Mr. mTOR" on his "AMPK/mTOR seesaw" (if you aren't familar with "Mr. mTOR" and his unique "toy", you got to read up on Dr. Andro's latest blogposts on Intermittent Fasting) a well-deserved rest, in order to reset and improve my body’s ability to absorb and utilize nutrients more efficiently. In combination with strenuous training, the famine signal, which is obviously a novelty for a bodybuilder who has been focusing almost religiously on getting his share of protein in every few hours for years, is supposed to shock and alarm the body. It's similar to what a beginner will experience, when he is first hitting the gym - stress-induced super-compensation is the name of the game.

Figure 1: Macronutrient break down (protein, carbs, fats in g) famine and regular training day - what a difference!

With a calorie intake way below what it will look like even at the end of my contest prep, I expected to be hungry all the time. Much to my surprise (yet actually in accordance with what I had read in Rob Regish's "Blue Print"), the 5 days on fresh pineapples, raw carrots and vegetable juice (V8) weren't so bad at all. Being an "Intermittent Faster" for quite some time now and thusly accustomed to going without food for longer periods of time, I did not even feel particularly hungry. My performance in the gym did not suck and I did not feel sluggish, either. What I did notice, though, was how my skin cleared up. By day three on this low calorie, low protein diet the acne on my chest and back had cleared up - quite astonishing for someone like me who has had issues with body acne for most of his life!

A Guru of my own - wandering in Gironda's footsteps

I broke the famine/detox on Saturday afternoon and treated myself to a Brazilian BBQ buffet. If you’ve never been to a Brazilian BBQ restaurant… it’s a meatgasm of all you can eat: cuts of rib eye, sirloin, brisket, lamb, duck, rabbit… and the list goes on! For the first 48 hours I loaded up on protein and quality carbohydrates, drank lots of water and popped liver tablets throughout the day. "Liver tabs, what's that?", if you are now asking yourselves that question, you probably belong to the post-Gironda generation. Vince Gironda, the "Iron Guru", himself, swore by those dessicated liver tabs for their high content of quality protein and highly bioavailable vitamins and micronutrients. While this may have been in the days before protein powders, BCAA caps and mega-dosed vitamin supplements became widely available, I feel like this completely natural nutrient blend still has its merit. As of Monday, I went back to my daily maintenance calories.
 

Image 2: This is what a  Brazilian BBQ looks like. Certainly, a decent contrast to a famine. So, just in case you ever happen to be starving, I guess now you know where to go to refeed yourself ;-)

When I first started experimenting with IF last month, I mentioned that I wasn’t really keeping track of my calories or numbers. This has obviously changed with the beginning of my contest prep. After all, intermittent fasting is a dietary strategy, but no magic bullet that will give you the body of a bodybuilder if you eat like a pig - when on stage 0.1% body fat make the difference, between victory and defeat, calories begin to count again. Accordingly, I began keeping track of my calories and macronutrients, again, in order to make sure that I am hitting my numbers: For the next two weeks my goal is to keep my calories around my caloric maintenance to take advantage of the super-compensation process I hope to have triggered by the short famine phase.

After those two weeks, I will evaluate my physique, take measurements and go from there. In that I will diverge from the usual approach, where you are gradually decreasing your calorie intake from week to week, and use what you may call "caloric zig zagging" instead. In essence, I hope to be able to forestall metabolic adaptation processes (it should be obvious that we are talking about reductions in energy expenditure, here) by keeping my energy/calorie intake up during my training days and using my off days to create the caloric deficit which simply is a necessary prerequisite to bring your body fat level down into the unquestionably unnatural lower single-digit range, where veins start popping and striations begin to show, where "normal" people would not even know they had muscles ;-) ... but as I said, I’ll figure out the details, based on the results of the next two weeks.

EDT = Escalating Density Training - well, why not give it a shot!?

Image 3: Adelfo's personal EDT blueprint right from his secret training diary ;-)

I have also decided to make a major change in my training routine: For the next couple of weeks, I will be experimenting with static holds and EDT, i.e. escalating density training. At first I was very hesitant, because I am so used to common split routines, muscle-isolation and all those specialization and isolation stuff you read about in the muscle mags. After some conversations with Rob Regish, who happens to offer additional advice to all readers of his "Blueprint" on the Blueprint Forum, and some research of my own, I have convinced myself that the intense antagonistic training style of EDT could work particularly well for someone like me, who, partly due to my handicap, usually doesn't do any regular "cardio" training during his contest prep and wants to rely on strength training and nutrition, exclusively, when dieting for a show. Being short and intense it could help burn off calories while building or maintaining the muscle mass I already carry.

A pros pos intense: EDT is a program or training system that challenges you to do the most work per unit of time, which is supposed to be an optimal stimulus for muscle growth. Each session consists of two antagonistic or push/ pull exercises (for example, 1 chest exercise superset w/ 1 back exercise and 1 biceps exercise superset w/1 triceps exercise). You have 20 minutes for each exercise (which is called the PR Zone or personal record zone), to perform as many reps as you can. The goal is to try and beat your personal or PR zone, every workout session. Now, if you have not tried it yourself, two exercises, 40 minutes of training... that may not sound very intense... believe me, my experience from Monday's workout tought me otherwise: EDT is fast paced and intense. I was sweating and breathing hard, like I was running sprints back and fourth for 20 minutes. I haven’t felt like that in a long time from a weight training session…

And for those of you that are wondering. "Hey, and what about your other body parts? Deltoids, triceps, the individual heads, etc.?" Honestly, when you’re hammering your chest and back constantly within those 20 minutes… I can assure you that you WILL feel that your deltoid, triceps, and biceps are getting hammered just as well. And FYI… you cannot change the shape of your muscles or restructure your muscle bellies by exercising body parts from certain different angles - you may be able to make up for minor imbalances, but when it's all said and done, all you can do is shed off the body fat and showcase what you have made out of the body God gave you.

Abs, abs, abs,... is that all people want?

You think you could use some advice on your own training, diet and supplementation regimen and want it from someone who obviously knows what it takes to build muscle and lose fat? You can reach out to Adelfo via Facebook.

Before we close this weeks update, a brief note on a topic many of you appear to be interested in: My, or I actually I think you are more interested in YOUR abs ;-) I get a lot of compliments and questions on how I get my abs so defined, people ask me what type of exercises I do or think that I spend the whole day working them out. To be honest, I don’t do any special exercises or different varieties of abdominal workouts, as you see some people do. I keep my abdominal workout simple, just your basic cable crunches using a rope. People don’t realize that everybody exercise his abdominals on a daily basis... you cannot do squats, deadlifts, shoulder presses, benches, etc. without them! During each rep, your abs got to work - they are stabilizing your body, whether you realize it or not, your abs will gets their share of stimulation.

Now, obviously, I depend a lot more on my core to hold me up and balance myself, since I cannot use my gluteus and legs. When it comes to "training" abs, this is an advantage, because I am utilizing my core more than most "healthy" people do, just to keep my posture up and balanced... I let my diet take care of the rest!  Always remember: Abdominals are built in the kitchen, but that’s stuff for one of the next installments ;-)

Adelfo Cerame - Road to The Wheelchair Nationals '12: Starting Off With a Shocker - A Five Day Famine to "Detoxify" and Prime Your Body to Grow

Image 1: Adelfo at the '09 Wheelchair
Nationals - not only without a bruised
biceps, but also in better shape than
some pro-bodybuilders ;-)

It's Thursday and you know what that means: Adelfo Cerame Jr. is back at the SuppVersity for one of his "seminars" ;-) Well, I guess if this was a real University, I'd invite invite him as a guest speaker to one of our colloquiums and would announce today's lecture as a lesson on how the pros learn from other pros - or, in other words, how above all bodybuilding veterans have to constantly expand their arsenal of proven dietary and training strategies, if they want to stay on top of everyone's game. As you will see, for Adelfo, this turned out to be quite a detoxifying experience...

Back for good - so let's get started!

It's a strange feeling, on the one hand, I know that the weeks to come are gonna be tough. You cannot take your contest prep lightly, if you really want to win. On the other hand, however, I am really excited! The week off did me good! I feel refreshed and all my nagging aches and pains has disappeared... and no I did not lose any muscle... ;-)

Image 2: Adelfo has been digging Rob Regish's blueprint lately. If you are interested in a sneak peak I suggest you listen to Rob on Carl Lenore's Super Human Radio:  Blueprint, Calorie ZigZag, Breaking Plateaus

I've spent the last week wisely and have really streamlined my plan of attack. And, as you would have expected, I've come up with a few minor tweaks to my dietary regimen that have been inspired by suggestions I picked up in Rob Regish's Blueprint in the past week. It's always good to check which dietary and training strategies have worked for others and the "famine/detox" protocol Rob outlines appealed to me as being a sound foundation not only for what Rob calls "the best workout design to make the fastest muscle gains" *lol*, but also to reset my own metabolic switchboard in the first week of my contest preparation. And, in the end, what do I have to lose? If it works, I have another powerful "weapon" in my ever expanding contest prep arsena - if it doesn't work, I've found yet another dietary tweak that works for some, appears sound and scientifically valid, but just is not form me, as an individual. It would be great, if some magical "one size fits it all" solution would make trial and error obsolete, but after all, your success in the bodybuilding world will always depend on knowing what works best for you, or the very client you are working with.

Cerame + Regish = Raw Foods, intermittent famine/detox ;o)

For the past five days I've now been following my modification of Robb Regish's "famine/detox" protocol, which prescribes a very low calorie intake (<1,200kcal, famine) with minimal protein intake (<50g, which as you know is still more than enough if you asked the USDA ;-) and A LOT OF WATER. The idea behind this five day phase, as Rob states it, is "to initiate a mild state of muscle tissue breakdown in order to accelerate the entire protein turnover cycle". Something that - also in view of what Dr. Andro has been writing about the AMPK/mTOR seesaw in the last installments of the Intermittent Thoughts - makes a lot of sense to me.

Image 3: Do you remember the time, when you were a new booty in the gym and the gains came easily?

It's similar to when you were a new booty in the gym, lifting weights for the first time. Do you remember the first couple of months, when you were making really good gains and building tons of muscle? Awesome, wasn't it? It was enough to look at those "heavy" (what was heavy for you back then) dumbbells and bang, you biceps grew ... but then as the months and maybe even years went by and you eventually became a veteran to the iron game, you noticed that you're not getting those same gains as you did when you first started. Am I right? Of course, I am, because this is the way things are - unfortunately.

Now, if you think about it - what were the underlying reasons that, as a rookie, you grew like crazy, although you may have been making all those mistakes every bloody beginner is making? And then, when finally you got a good routine set up and your diet and supplementation in check, your gains began to slow down, like you were hitting an invisible wall?

Well, when you're new to weight training, you are literally shocking your body in each and every training session, your body screams "WHAT? I have to lift that?" and yet, bang!, you still squeeze out another rep - super-compensation is the name of the game and it is working so damn well in the beginning, simply because about everything you do in the gym is "new" to your body. After years of training neither the next 5 pound plate on the barbell nor another 20g of protein per day are going to produce anyway similar productive shock moments. It is in this scenario, where a bodybuilding veteran could benefit from something that may initially appear completely counter-intuitive: a famine phase!

5 days of fruits, veggies and gallons of vegetable juice

Image 4: Not what you would expect a bodybuilder to eat...and, actually, that is what could make it work - it's about change and giving your digestive system and the mTOR pathway an extended (beyond intermittent fasting) break.

So, I've been eating tons of fruits (pineapples) and veggies (carrots) and drinking gallons (well, I've been trying ;-) of vegetable juice (V8), in order to prime my body for a short growth spurt at the beginning of my prep. Training-wise, I've put a deliberate focusing on strenuous weight training; trying to really deplete my muscles, without overdoing it on negatives or static holds.

Interestingly, I have not noticed any negative effects from my low calorie, low protein detox protocol so far. I am strong as an ox and guess that this may in part be due to the fact that my body has already accustomed to tap into its (still visible ;-) fat stores, in the course of the preceding weeks of intermittent fasting. No hunger pangs, no serious cravings... and that despite the fact that I live by a Lucille's BBQ, so I'm smelling that shit every time I stroll outside! And... don't get me wrong... it smells damn good ;-) But I just brush it off... and trust me 2 years ago I would've went postal!

"Detox" or well deserved rest - the main point is that it works

What I am noticing, though (although this could of course be in my head) is that I now as the end of the famine approaches, I have gotten pretty flat, which would obviously make me look less jacked... but hey, isn't that the way every scrawny beginner looks like, when he makes his best gains? And after all, doing a "cleanse" - I'd prefer the expression "giving your digestive tract a break" - from time to time is a healthy thing to do, anyway. And when could be a better time to let your bowel rest than right after you gave your muscles a break from the gym?

With all the high protein food we consume (especially a bodybuilders diet) and the occasional processed poison that we eat for our cheat days, our tummies work about as hard in our "off time" as we are when we are in the gym. It seems only reasonable, that this could eventually take a toll on our digestive system and lead to malabsorbtion and constipation - I mean, it's not for nothing that digestive aids sell like crazy in the bodybuilding community... and you know, what is best for you? You have me as a 150lbs guinea pig, who will be reporting back on the real world results of what, at least on paper, certainly appears to be a promising "dietary self-chastisment", next week and in the weeks to come ;-)