VD: I agree with both of you guys, but I think people should realize
that eating a ton of calories without getting the proper vitamins, minerals,
and fiber is kind of shooting yourself in the foot. Your body won't be
able to assimilate all that much if you're not focused on the quality
of the food.

So before anyone increases the calories, I think they should look at
exactly where all those calories are coming from.

Let's say a client of mine is eating 3,000 calories a day, and we want
him to get up to 3,600. I'm going to have him go back and examine every
single meal before we do anything else. I'll have him look at the little
details, like if he could be getting omega-3 eggs instead of normal ones,
or if he could eat organic vegetables instead of the ones with all the
pesticides. And I think once you make all those changes, then you can
increase the actual calories.
TM: That's an excellent point and one most guys wouldn't even consider.
Let's talk training for the skinny guys. Kick us off, Vince.
VD: The first thing
I want say is that "do what works for you"
is some bullshit advice for beginners. It's like Michael Phelps telling
an eight-year-old that if you feel like doing backstrokes today, then
do some backstrokes. Guys need a plan. They need a program and guidelines,
and they need to know the principles that are going to contribute to
the majority of their results. They have to know when to work on technique,
strength, endurance, or hypertrophy.

So it's a bit of a cliché, but I think guys
need to find a great program, trust it, and stick to it for at least
12 weeks. Don't jump around too much. See what you learn about your
body during that time and gain some leverage. When you figure out what
works for your body, then you can easily tweak the next program you
do. A lot of guys are jumping from one program to the next with no
new knowledge about how their bodies respond to each stimulus.
JD: I agree completely. Too many guys try so many fucking programs at
once, it's like they have ADD. Most of the programs out there work if
you train hard enough. If you're eating enough and busting your ass,
then you're going to get bigger and stronger if you've got a decent plan
in place.

But I get a ton of emails where guys tell me they're
doing my
"Westside
for Skinny Bastards" program but throw in Jim Wendler's 5-3-1 template and Charles
Staley's EDT combined with some of Thibaudeau's techniques. I write back and say, "You're
fucked."

If you combine 20 different great programs, and
do them all at once, you're going to get shitty results. You have to
stick to one thing for a while. Give it a solid eight to 12 weeks and
I guarantee you'll get results. In fact, if you were to use the
"Skinny Bastards" template and constantly tweak the exercises
and set and rep scheme, you could stay on that program the rest of your
life.
VD: Right on! But here's something else to consider: After the guys
have followed great programs for a couple of years or so, I think they
should have the courage to make their own decisions. A guy should know
what applies to his body and what doesn't, and should have the ability
to tweak the program to his needs.

For example, if your back is your weakest muscle
group and you know you should be prioritizing it, and you're following
an awesome program from Thibaudeau that says to do chest at the beginning
of the week and back on the last day of the week, you should know to
change the days around. You don't need to email or call him and ask
if it's okay. You should know your body better than he does.
TM: Good point. Joe, you've written three different versions of
"Westside for Skinny Bastards." Do you still train athletes
with that basic template?
JD: It's evolved over time, but the bulk of the workout is the same.
Max-effort training is still the best way to get stronger and look better.
I really believe that maximal strength builds the foundation for all
the other goals guys have.

But don't get me wrong — I do high-rep stuff with the skinny guys.

If you take a genetic-freak athlete who's absolutely jacked and did
a muscle biopsy, you'd see a predominance of type IIB muscle fibers.
These guys respond very well to max-effort movements. But skinny guys
are usually more slow-twitch. Because they're not as neurologically efficient,
they'll respond better to higher reps — six to 12.

In terms of frequency, three or four times a week is all they need in
the gym. If you feel like you could train every day, you're probably
not training correctly. My facility attracts really motivated guys, and
I actually have to convince them not to come to the gym on their off
days.
CW: I agree with what Joe's talking about, for sure. I also want to
point out that I don't think a guy's results are necessarily from a specific
method, but rather an internalization and adherence to a few basic principles.
Maximal strength, as Joe points out, is huge.

I also don't think that a skinny guy should worry about single-joint
or isolation movements if he only weighs 160 pounds. Your rhomboids or
your medial deltoids just don't merit that much attention when you're
that skinny.

I also think guys need to spend more time on their lower body. Not equal
time. More time. With my clients, loading the spine and doing
heavy squats and deadlift variations has really caused a tremendous anabolic
response.

That's another reason why my conditioning stuff is usually posterior-chain
and lower-body dominant. Even if our equipment is nothing more than a
rock on a beach, we're going to use it to stimulate as much of our bodies
as we can. We're going to move heavy, fast, and frequently. We're not
going to do curls with the rock. We're going to push-press it, front
squat, and throw it overhead as far as we can and then sprint to it.
TM: Wouldn't conditioning be the last thing on a skinny guy's mind?
Wouldn't that burn too many calories?

CW: The type of conditioning I do is so dependent on strength that I
haven't seen any muscle loss from it at all. We're not swimming
or jogging here. We're moving heavy things for a repeated effort and
more reps, or we're doing some intervals. You're getting a great
anabolic response because you're moving something heavy, loading
the spine, and not encouraging your body to become smaller or more efficient.


TM: Joe, I know you've got some interesting thoughts on lower-body training.
Care to share?
JD: Allow me to steal a line from Alwyn Cosgrove when I say people either
overreact or underreact to everything in the fitness industry. The answer
is really right in the middle.

It's definitely true most guys don't train their legs, and if they
do, it's the shit they see in the mirror. So I give a lot of credit to
Louie Simmons, who really popularized hamstring training through box
squats, reverse hypers, and everything else. It was like a light bulb
went off in the heads of thousands of guys.

But then guys stopped training quads altogether
for fear of being "unbalanced."

For an athlete, or a guy who's trying to look good, the quads are just
as important as the hamstrings. A lot of kids will gain 15 to 20 pounds
within a two-month period by just focusing more on their legs, especially
the quads. Hell, if you want three muscle groups that will put some size
on your body, it's gotta be your ass, hamstrings, and quads.

I'm a huge fan of single-leg movements like Bulgarian split squats and
barbell reverse lunges. If you walk into my gym at any hour I guarantee
you're going to see someone with their back leg on a bench, holding dumbbells
to their sides or a barbell on their back. It sucks and it's hard as
hell, but the weight just pours on.
TM: Vince, anything to add here?
VD: I think it's really important to alternate a strength phase with
a volume phase every three to six weeks, and to focus on biofeedback
cues.

It may sound simple, but in a strength phase your
primary focus should be lifting as much weight as possible. You've
got to focus on how strong you're feeling and not worry about how much
of a
"pump" you're getting.

But when you switch to the volume phase, you need to focus more on what
you experience during those reps, and on accomplishing more total work.
You shouldn't really care about how heavy it is, but how heavy it feels.
Really try to establish that mind-muscle connection.

I think one of the most important things to realize is that you're going
to have to work your ass off to get where you want to be. But it's kind
of like saving up a million bucks. Are you going to go into debt again
after you've worked so hard to get to that point?

Gaining appreciable amounts of muscle requires doing things that may
be considered obsessive by your friends. It may cause you to re-examine
your social life and your daily habits. But it's only temporary. When
you get where you want to be, you'll have a completely different mindset.
It's definitely easier to maintain and keep growing once you've achieved
your base, but it's an all-out war in the gym and the kitchen until then.
TM: All right, last question. Give my your biggest, baddest tip for
skinny guys looking to shed their medium-size T-shirts for good.

CW: Something that I've done
before with my guys is to give them a cheap watch with a countdown timer
that goes off every two hours. Wherever they're at, they have to drop
down and do 20 push-ups and polish it off with a Metabolic
Drive protein bar.
Sure, you'll look stupid doing pushups in the middle of Sears, but who
cares? Carry a protein bar with you wherever you go and I guarantee you'll
never be hungry.
TM: Damn, Craig, that's messed up. What about you Vince?
VD: If I could make a blanket rule, I'd have all skinny guys stop counting
reps and stop following a tempo. Your greatest enemy is thinking too
much. Let's eliminate that altogether and focus on training intensely
to stimulate growth. I want my guy completely out of his comfort zone.
Take whatever program you're following, start with weights that are five
pounds heavier than you did last week, and do as many reps as possible
for each set.

The only thing I want you to track is your rest period. Use a stopwatch
and keep it honest. It's okay if you don't finish the workout and end
up vomiting in the washroom after 10 minutes.
TM: Wrap us up, Joe.
JD: Two meals per week, I want my skinny guys to do what I call Hour
of Power. This means for the duration of one hour they have to shove
as much food as they can into their body without puking. I don't care
what they eat — anything goes.

I've found this caloric influx two times per week actually helps skinny
guys shock their muscles into growing. It also helps with their recovery.
I recommend doing the Hour of Power on Wednesday and Sunday, or any other
day you have off from lifting and can afford to be a bit sluggish for
a few hours.

But no puking! You'll lose precious calories.
TM: Awesome tips. Thanks for participating, guys.


Nate Green is the author of Built
for Show: Four Body Changing Workouts for Building Muscle, Losing Fat,
and Looking Good Enough to Hook Up,
which is available in bookstores nationwide.



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