Question regarding Dumbbell vs Barbell for Chest day and how often should I mix it up?

Usually I do Dumbbell Flys+Press on straight bench, incline and (decline - sometimes) & Cable Crossovers
Might swap out decline and replace with some DB pullovers

From what I'm aware, I should swap in some barbell press in there to work more of my delts and upper pecs?

This post was edited by ArtofApocalypse on Sep 22 2014 01:28pm

Barbell Presses should definitely be worked in. DB's are great for stabilizers, but BB is superior for raw strength. I like to train both each session myself.

Regarding this, I've been doing exactly as described and haven't been lightheaded since. Thanks

You're very welcome. Keep up the good work.

The new natural flavor they got was not that good imo, finally tried it today for the first time. The Natural Pro Complex was fine with water but this new one i can tell the difference by a lot.
Might have to try out that muscle milk since you recommended me that a couple times.

This post was edited by Hboy on Sep 25 2014 05:54pm

Thank you so much! for my carb up yesterday I had 2 cups of oatmeal, fruit, 6 cup of brown rice, 100g maltodextron.

normal sweat at the gym, i wore a longsleeve in the sunshine today, and felt like a normal person, no gagging before heavy sets or when taking my vitamins. holy fuck it feels so good. thanks a lot man! looks like no more gluten from now on though, oh well =p

Great to hear it. A gluten free diet is fairly easy to accomplish though.

There are a TON of gluten free breads, pastas, cereals, etc.

Quinoa is tremendously versatile and is used in many pasta products that are gluten free.

Of course, you have things like rice, beans, lentils, fruits, veggies (including potatoes), oats, etc - and ANY derivative thereof (rice pasta, corn cereal, etc)

hey raynor, i'm mostly looking for some macro/daily caloric intake advice for a buddy. i've made decent gains using a program called "fierce 5s" and by following some of alan aragon's macro recommendations. and now my buddy wants help making his own gains. i'm kind of stuck here because he has a good amount more fat than i had when i first started so i'm not sure if this makes that much of a difference? his goal for the these upcoming winter months is to increase size and strength. but he also doesn't want to gain any weight, maintaining is fine along as is gaining size. he is around 6'0 and 210lbs ~25-30% body fat.

all of the daily caloric intake calculators i use for him show that 2900-3000 would be a good maintenance amount. if it's not too much/too little then how do these macros look to you? 180g protein, 375g carb, 85g fat

i'm just unsure because i've heard these calculators can overestimate your caloric needs if you have such a high body fat percentage.

also, if it matters, here's the "fierce 5s" program i'm suggesting he use.

Mon-wed-fri

alternate workouts...add 5lbs each week for upper body and 10lbs for lower body each week.

Workout A
Squat 3x5
Bench 3x5
Pendlay Row 3x8
Reverse Flies 3x10
Calf Raises 2x15/Tricep Pressdowns 2x10 Superset

Workout B
Overhead Press 3x5
Lat Pulldowns 3x8
Deadlift 3x5
Leg Curl 3x8
Ab work 2x15/Bicep Curl 2x10 Superset

Hello there.

First of all, if your friend has relatively high bf% (25-30%), he will definitely want to keep the calories alternating based on workout or non-workout days.

Given his stats, I would say no more than 2,200 cals on NON-WORKOUT days, and no more than 3,000 cals on WORKOUT days.

The macros should be somewhere along the lines of:

300g carbs, 250g protein, and 80g fats (workout days 3K cals)

and on non-workout days -

250g protein, 170g carbs, 60g fats (2,200 cals)


The reason for the dramatic drop in carbs on non-workout days is because his glycogen stores will already be full, and being sedentary will NOT deplete them. Excess glycogen and he will see increased body fat, simple as that.



The workout routine should be fine, however.

awesome, makes sense! thanks

on another note, i've been reading (uh oh) about how some people suggest cutting to less than 15% bf before bulking. they say the body will synthesize protein better. whereas bulking above 20% bf the body has a tendency to create more fat than it otherwise would. this seems interesting for not only my friend but my future bulking/cutting plans. was wondering if this is something you subscribe to and if so, is it worth it for my buddy to lose some fat first? this would obviously change his diet but what about the workout program?

interesting stuff i feel like i should have researched a long time ago.