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 Dr Buff
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| A Tale of Two Competitors... |
| 02.13.2012 07:53:50 | |
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There’s an old saying that goes, “In life, the only thing constant is change”. In the field of personal training, a term I coined years ago goes, “The only thing constant is, ‘People come, and people go…”. I learned years ago that change is inevitable. Even if we stand perfectly still and do absolutely nothing, change is occurring. Philosophical perhaps, but true. I also learned that no matter what I say to or do for an individual, if that individual chooses to leave, he or she will leave. End of story, no more questions. So how are these two statements related, you ask?
Last year I picked up two new female clients, both gearing for competition. I spent approximately 3 hours with each woman initially, doing a body composition, going over their life and lifestyle, and working to dial each in for her respective spring show(s). Two women, two consultations, two customized, individualized plans…piece-o-cake! Both walked out happy. I set up a training program for each as well, to ‘define’ what they needed to do as a competitor. Even though they were training, they weren’t really ‘training’ competition-style, if you get my drift. I figured, a couple of sessions on a bodypart or two in which they needed to bring up would be sufficient to get their heads in the game. I ran both through a leg workout. Both cried. Not because I did something magical or insane, but simply because I pushed them outside their comfort zone. I elicited a pain they’d never experienced before. Both couldn’t walk for several days and did the ‘potty drop’ when using the bathroom (if you’ve never done the potty drop then I can honestly say you’ve never trained legs HARD). Here’s where their paths diverged…
One competitor was changing weekly. Literally every time I saw her, I saw improvement. First week, her face is looking thinner. Second week, I could see slimness in the shoulders and arms. Third week, legs and butt were getting smaller. Fourth week, waist was tapering. Week by week, change was occurring – inevitable. The food plan I’d dialed her in on was working perfectly. There was little alteration to it each week as long as we were seeing progress. The cardio was at a constant 90 minutes a day. Body comps every couple of weeks validated the changes that we were seeing, meaning her %BF was dropping while gaining or holding lean. Finally, this last week I didn’t like what I was seeing. She looked ‘flat’…smaller but not tighter. I also noticed that her strength was dropping excessively. I always expect some loss in strength but this drop over a week’s period was too much. We did a comp this past Thursday and sure enough, she’d lost some lean. As I explained in a previous blog, doing body comps is simply a validation of what I’m already seeing in the mirror and feeling in the gym. I reviewed her foods, increased her total calories slightly, adjusted her macronutrients, and sent her on her merry way. Each day I expect an email check-in, along with me visually seeing her during her workouts to ensure that we’re heading in the right direction. I’ll comp her in a week, but I’ll be able to tell in a couple of days if the changes we made were correct. Again, the comp will simply validate what I see or don’t see.
The other competitor, on the other hand, hardly changed at all. I was administering weekly and bi-weekly comps on her but they showed little progress. One week I’d see a bit of a change in her face and body, but then the next week things would return to ‘normal’. Every week or two I would change her foods. Now here’s the interesting thing…no matter what I did, I didn’t see change. You might remember from a previous blog me saying that you can’t change a variable and not see change – that’s goes against the laws of physiology. You can’t be driving down the road at 55 mph, press on the gas and increase the speedometer to 65 yet still have the car roll at 55 – not possible! Yet each week I’d change a variable and nothing would happen. Increase in calories – no change. Decrease in calories – no change. Add carbs, cut carbs, add protein, cut protein, you name it, each comp there was literally no change. I’m racking my brains trying to figure out where I’m going wrong. With everything I’ve learned over the years, there are only two possible scenarios that could be happening…either I don’t know what I’m doing or the person is cheating. Rather than say the person was cheating, I’ll simply say that I couldn’t figure her out. Frustration set in for her and we eventually came to a mutual parting of ways. Hey, I’m not too egotistical to think that I work for everyone. Go back to my second statement, “People come, and people go..”. People hire trainers and coaches for results. I didn’t get her the results she was after so she left. I’m not upset. Y’win some, y’lose some. Here’s hoping that the next coach can dial her in. I couldn’t.
The ‘constant’ in the two statements in the first paragraph is that people continually come and go in our lives. That’s the inevitable change. As a Fitness Professional and Competition Coach, I’ve trained thousands of individuals. I wish I could say that every single one is still with me. Heck, I’d be rich if that were the case. Unfortunately, the reality is, people hire trainers for several reasons, the primary one being results. If you’re a personal trainer or competition coach whose clients are not seeing progress, recognize that something is amiss. Either they’re cheating and lying to you or you don’t have them figured out. Either way, corrective action needs to be taken. If you can’t help them, perhaps someone else can. Let them go. And on the flip side, if you’re a client who isn’t getting the results you want (and you’re not cheating…), recognize that and beg out.
Two clients, two totally different outcomes. Life goes on…peace…
The Dr.
David "Dr. Buff" Patterson, MPE, CSCS, CSTS 253-576-4859 - Mobile http://www.TheDrBuffExperience.com/wordpress http://www.facebook.com/drbuff http://www.facebook.com/TeamBuffedBods http://www.facebook.com/thedrbuffexperience "Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"
Tags: Craig Productions | Emerald Cup | Bodybuilding | Figure | Fitness | Bikini | Dave Patterson | Competition Coach | Personal Trainer | Fitness Professional | training | results | nutrition | cheating | diet | discipline | Mindset | Dr. Buff |
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| Dr Buff
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| Get Into Auto-Pilot |
| 02.04.2012 07:18:00 | |
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I cannot take credit for this. This is from Roger and Ally Baker of RAB Fitness over in Kennewick, WA. Truer words were never spoken of a competitor and Competition Coach!
"In case you forgot, here's the thing about being a competitor... you wake up every day knowing that you may or may not see changes in the mirror [or] on the scale... and this does not shake you. It may be WEEKS before you see any changes. Some weeks will be awesome. Some not. Instant gratification is not in your vocabulary. You've heard this before and I'll say it again, THERE IS NO OFF-SEASON! That means that you REALIZE the dedication, sacrifice, time, sweat [and] tears that will go into this even in the dead of winter when no is looking or even paying attention. Now, this isn't something that I can just tell you and you will learn. Only time and experience will teach you this. So, if you are the one that is out there struggling today...take a deep breath, remove yourself from in front of the mirror, and get into auto pilot. Because this is just the beginning and if you stick to the plan.... you will be rewarded... " Roger/Ally Baker – RAB Fitness
Roger and Ally NAILED it on the head with this one! Look, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – if you wanna be a competitor – a GOOD competitor - then you’d better be willing to do what others won’t, don’t, and can’t. It’s not about motivation. It’s not about inspiration. It’s not about the trophy or the glitz and glamour of the night show. It’s not about size and muscularity and freakiness or anything else. Competition is preparation, pure and simple. Oh sure, we end up on stage looking our absolute best (or at least that’s the goal) but the contest is not about the end result. It’s about the journey – it always has been about the journey and it always will be about the journey. Several sayings that I’ve coined over the years and use on my website goes like this:
“Many competitors want to win. Do work first. Do not put the win before the work!” David “Dr. Buff” Patterson
“You’re not always going to win, but you sure as hell better train like a winner!” David “Dr. Buff” Patterson
Do me a favor – re-read Rog & Ally’s post one more time, this time with conviction and purpose. Read it out loud! Take every word to heart because, trust me, they both have! You don’t get to the caliber of either of them without hard work, discipline, and sacrifice. There IS NO instant gratification. There IS NO easy workouts. And there sure as hell IS NO OFF-SEASON! Not an off-season, not an off-day, not an off-hour.
Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday, traditionally a day of feasting and festivities. All I can say is, if you wanna put yourself in the best possible position to take first place, then you’d better enjoy the festivities without the feast! Some of you will get this…many of you won’t. And it will show onstage on April 20th or 21st, trust me. Personally, I’m gonna watch the game, but all by myself, at home, in my chicken and salad and green beans and yams and potatoes and rice infested house. No temptations. No struggles. Just me. Is it worth it? That’s the question each of you will have to ask yourself Sunday morning…”Is this worth it?” What do you CHOOSE to do in two days? Because remember, no one is holding a gun to your head. It will be your choice – it always has been and it always will be. If the choice is to ‘stick to the plan’, then as Rog and Ally said, “You will be rewarded…”. Peace…
The Dr.
David "Dr. Buff" Patterson, MPE, CSCS, CSTS 253-576-4859 - Mobile http://www.TheDrBuffExperience.com/wordpress http://www.facebook.com/drbuff http://www.facebook.com/TeamBuffedBods http://www.facebook.com/thedrbuffexperience "Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"
Tags: Craig Productions | Emerald Cup | Bodybuilding | Figure | Fitness | Bikini | Dave Patterson | Determination | Goals | Mindset | Thoughts | training legs | setbacks | Dreams | Visualization | Journey | Posing | training | intensity | focused | disciplined | drive | work ethic | hard work | persistence |
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| Dr Buff
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| If It Ain't On The LIst, Don't Eat It! |
| 02.01.2012 00:10:03 | |
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Last blog I promised to write on nutrition, so here we go. Even though I’ve written dozens of blogs and probably hundreds of articles on nutrition over the years, and written quite a few on this site over the past 3 years, there’s always a new competitor who doesn’t know this game. And I also know that one person’s way of saying something just might make sense to a reader over another person’s writing style. What I’m saying is not new, not revolutionary, and definitely not the gospel on nutrition, but if it can help someone, then I’ve done my job. So lemme see if I can help that one person…and perhaps remind others of where they should be and what they should be doing in their own nutrition.
This past weekend we were 12-weeks out from the 30th Anniversary Emerald Cup. At this point, unless you’re roughly 12 lbs. or less out from your show, you should be 100% on task. What does that entail? Well…before I get into that, let me say that the number of ways to diet down are as many as the styles of Martial Arts…everyone has their own style, and they all think their style is the best. I’m not gonna argue with anyone on what the ‘best’ way to diet down is. I’ve said this many times, “All diets work, and all diets fail…”. What I WILL say is, find out what ‘plan’ works best for you and stick to it. Quit jumping from one competition diet to another. That’s why you shouldn’t get fat in the first place – so you’ll have enough time to experiment with different plans until you find the one that works best for you. Secondly, know your body type. That will typically tell you what plan(s) fall in your diet-sphere. Finally, if you need help, find someone who’s knowledgeable in ALL the ways of dieting down – not just the one way in which he/she dieted down. That way, if/when you get stuck, your competition coach will know how to take the appropriate action to get you coming down again.
I’ve seen it too many times before…a trainer who does decent in a show decides to become a ‘competition coach’ and toss his/her hat into the ring. I don’t have a problem with that as long as the trainer possesses enough knowledge and information to help ALL his/her clients – not just the ones built like him or her. Otherwise the competitor client ends up on a cookie-cutter routine or an exact replica of what the trainer does. Not smart. Not good for the competitor. Just last year I picked up 3 people whose trainers, although nationally qualified, didn’t have a clue on how to dial their people down. Sometimes the most dangerous trainer is the brand new one. As my professor, Dr. Hacker, used to constantly tell us, “A little bit of knowledge can be dangerous…”. I’ve helped many a competition coach through the dieting down stages of their clients because they (the coaches) were lost. The client stalled and the trainer didn’t know which way to go with him/her. Heck, even I still get mystified over a client every now and then. But this blog isn’t about trainers, so back on point…
We learned last blog that with 12 weeks to go, one could easily drop 10-12 lbs. of bodyfat on 1 to 1-1/2 hours of cardio and clean foods. 13 to about 20 lbs. would take around 1-1/2 to 2 hours with clean foods, while 21 or more lbs. probably would take at least 2 hours a day. Now I know some of you are wondering or questioning this info…well…I’m a cardio person, so that’s what I do and teach. But that doesn’t mean I don’t know the other ways. If you’re not a cardio person, then you’d better be ready to drop those total calories, and especially those carb calories to lean out. And if you’re a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) person and you’re pushing hard enough (and your calories are dropped enough) you can get by on one session of 30 minutes...but you’d better be ready to bust your butt, and I mean bust it HARD for that to happen. So are we clear on the cardio/no cardio/long cardio thing? I know em all, so if you need any explanation on whether you should use this or that method, holla.
Realizing that everyone is different, and this is just general information, I can’t categorically say where you’re at on the continuum and what you need to do unless I see and comp you. So I’ll use me as an example and everyone can adjust accordingly. I just cut my oatmeal to 25 gm wt with a slice of Dave’s Killer Bread as my starch for breakfast. My protein is either egg whites with some turkey breast (that amount’s classified…) or chicken. I eat what THIS body needs, realizing that I’m not a mass monster, and I know how my body works, and I know my timeline. Since my cardio is still only 45 minutes in the morning, I’m s-l-o-w-l-y dropping my starchy carbs and replacing it with Parrillo Performance’s CapTri – a medium chain triglyceride that’s called the ‘fatless fat’. It processes and acts like a carb in the system, making dieting slightly more tolerable. I only take my starchy carbs so low up to 8 weeks out and then I up my cardio to one 60-minute session. Then I’ll see how the body is responding and stair-step the carbs/cardio cuts until I achieve the look I want. All of this is assuming this ole’ body will hold up to the rigors of contest dieting…
The rest of my meals are simple – protein, veggies, carbs, in that order. I adjust as I need to based upon my timeline. What you have to understand is how to manipulate your macros, meaning we’re all eating protein, veggies, and carbs…the question is, how much do YOU get to eat, and what’s your ratio compared to mine compared to Joe’s, Sally’s, Bertha’s and all the other competitors. Another question you have to ask is HOW MUCH do I get to eat in relation to everyone else? If Big Bradd gets to eat 750 cal/meal and I try to eat what he eats, I’ll blow up faster than your kid’s summer beach ball. Now do you see why I don’t like and don’t do cookie-cutter diets? If no two people are exactly the same, how is it possible for those same two people to be on exactly the same food plan…especially if one is a 5’4”, 135 lb. female and the other is a 5’10” 195 lb. male? It’ll never work. Either one will dial in beautifully and the other will look like crap, or they’ll both be off their macros and neither will dial in to their best look.
Every person I work with, I get as much detailed info on their life and what they’ve done in the past to give me clues into what ‘plan’ will work best for that individual. Some are similar, no doubt, but some are totally way out there. For example, last year I had Gerry Bernabe, the bantamweight overall winner at the Wash. Ironman pretty much doing what he wanted until the final 3 weeks or so. His body was a genetic marvel so the best thing I could do for him was to get out of his way until the last few days and then dial him in. Barb O’Dell, on the other hand, (the Most Inspirational Award at the Ironman for having lost 180 lbs. on her way to the stage WITHOUT surgery or drugs…) had to start doing double cardio sessions 18 weeks out as her body was stubborn in releasing fat. I was wracking my brains trying to figure out how to keep her from stalling as her normally obese body was fighting her every step of the way once she got below 200 lbs. It may seem easy, but it’s not. When you’re dialing in a dozen plus competitors, let’s just say that good note-taking is highly recommended. There’s no way I can remember everyone’s individualized food plans, and when I don’t keep track, it shows!
IN GENERAL, I can tell you that many of you will fall into the 3-8 oz. of protein/meal based upon size, muscularity, sex, lifestyle, etc. Being off an ounce or two over the course of your diet doesn’t seem like it’s a big deal, but it can be the difference between 1st and 3rd come contest day. That’s why it’s important to know your body and understand your macronutrient ratios and amounts. Your veggies are easy – unlimited amounts for the majority of you. If you need an amount, then go with 7-10 oz. (that’s 150-200 gm wt for you metric people). The starchy carbs are the lil’ tricky creatures. Some of you might do well with large amounts, some with literally none, and some dispersed in small amounts throughout the day. Again, it would be unwise of me tell an entire readership what to do and expect it to work for everyone. But I can tell you that once you find that magic number of carbs that YOUR body needs, you’ll know it within a week – guaranteed! And once you find your numbers, then follow it! Don’t be haphazardly changing things up thinking you know better than your coach or you read this or that saying this is what you should do. FOLLOW THE PLAN!!! If you’re doing your own diet, you HAVE to give it about a week to 10 days to see the effects of it. You’ll know in that period of time if it’s working. If not, make subtle changes. If you’ve hired a coach, do what the coach says! That’s the only way your coach can determine what’s working for you and what isn’t.
Well, that’s about it for this blog. I’ve got just some chicken to eat for my last meal. I might have half of a Parrillo Protein bar right before bed…don’t’cha just hate those people who can still eat literally right up to bed and still diet down…peace…
The Dr.
David "Dr. Buff" Patterson, MPE, CSCS, CSTS 253-576-4859 - Mobile http://www.TheDrBuffExperience.com/wordpress http://www.facebook.com/drbuff http://www.facebook.com/TeamBuffedBods http://www.facebook.com/thedrbuffexperience "Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!" Tags: Competition Coach | Foods | nutrition | Craig Productions | Emerald Cup | Bodybuilding | Physique | Figure | Fitness | Bikini | Dave Patterson | Determination | Goals | Mindset | Thoughts | training legs | Visualization | training | focused | disciplined | drive | succeed | Dr. Buff | David Patterson | The Dr. | The Dr. Buff Experience | competition | crossfit figure cardio contest prep | coaching |
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| Dr Buff
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| Time to kick it up a notch... |
| 01.26.2012 06:26:16 | |
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12 weeks this Saturday. That’s it. That’s all the time we have. It’s an eternity – 3 months – but it’ll fly by faster than the F-18’s that scrambled out of Portland last summer when President Obama was in Seattle and some idiot invaded restricted airspace…airborne and over Seattle in less than 6 minutes I heard. That’s how fast these 12 weeks will seem to disappear.
If you’ve been on task then you have nothing to worry about. If you knew your timeline and adhered to it, you’re in good shape. But if you’ve been naughty…well…you’ve got some work to do. Let’s take a look at where you should be on the continuum timeline…
If we’re looking at how much fat we have to lose, the formula is simple – we can safely and realistically shed 1.5 to 2 lbs. of bodyfat a week. That should translate into .75 to 1% change in body composition. It’s extremely difficult to drop more than 1% of fat/week unless you’re on the dark side. That’s a blog for another day. But rest assured that a 1% change is quite a bit to change in 7 days…and to do that you’ll have to be literally perfect. The formula is simple – lose 2 lbs. of fat a week with 12 weeks to go – 24 lbs. of fat loss with minimal lean mass loss. If you have more than 24 lbs. to lose, well…you’d better plan on more cardio or even less calories or more drugs to get that fat off!
Even though losing the 24 lbs. is simple, it’s not easy. You’ll have to be perfect – beyond excellent – to make it happen. Losing 2 lbs. a week in my book means doing 2 hours of cardio a day (or expending the equivalent in HIIT cardio in a 30-45 minute period, which is DAMN HARD…) and probably dropping most of your starchy carbs out except for the oatmeal at breakfast. Not fun. Expect to suffer. Expect to suffer hard! As far as I’m concerned, cheat meals are a thing of the past. I know many individuals and trainers will disagree with me, but time and time again, I’ve seen people who ‘cheated’ through their contest diet and people who held their diet, and in just about every instance, the person who held looked significantly better. There’s a great short video out by Dave Palumbo and Kevin Levrone that says it all, in case you think I’m just stupid and don’t know what I’m talking about. Start at about 3:40 and run to the end…it’ll open your eyes if you haven’t already seen it…and it’ll re-awaken you if you have. I know it did and continues to do so for me every time I watch it. It doesn’t ‘motivate’ me, but rather it gets my head on straight on what I have to do to accomplish what I said I wanted to do – come in looking my absolute best for my last show.
I’m not saying that when the time is necessary, you plug in some starchy carbs, such as yams, potatoes, rice, beans, etc. But I am saying that the free-for-all food fest on a Friday/Saturday/or Sunday evening needs to fall by the wayside. Just humor me for a sec, will ya…if you have say, 30 lbs. of fat to drop in the next 12 weeks, why in the world are you taking in unnecessary fat every weekend? I understand the Anabolic diet, the Paleo/Caveman diet, and all the other so-called ‘best-way-to-diet-down-for-your-show’ diets. If you or your trainer wants to do that, and it WORKS for you, then you can click out and be about your merry business. But if you’ve done that in the past and went in your show fat, and you’re wanting to do that again this time, that sounds like the definition of insanity to me…doing the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome.
There will ALWAYS be a small percentage of the population for which ANY crazy diet will work – heck, it worked for the individual who ‘invented’ it…or did it? How many times have you seen a current picture of the person who SWEARS by this or that diet and they’re in great shape because they’ve been following it for years? Unless it’s lifestyle-oriented, I’d be willing to bet very few if any. Diets in which you have to severely restrict calories or do really dumb, stupid things to diet down are setting you up for a tremendous rebound effect post-contest. You’ve worked hard to get in the best shape of your life, and then two weeks after the show you look like a bloated beach whale about to deliver…doesn’t make sense to me. But I digress…back on point…
The goal is to be at a point to where you only need to lose 1 to 1.5 lbs. of fat/week. That makes the ‘suffering’ bearable. If you’re at a point to where you only need to lose about a pound a week, then you’re sittin’ pretty. At this point you still only need one cardio session a day. It could be the 30-minute HIIT (and please understand that a true HIIT will leave you exhausted and dripping water on the floor…) or a 45-60 minute HISS (High Intensity Steady State – you’re working in a range of 80-90% of your VO2 max as opposed to going into your anaerobic zone on the HIIT – if you don’t understand, hit me up and I’ll explain in more detail). Your foods are in order with no cheat meals added in. The goal is to be at your contest look a couple of weeks out and just coast into the show doing the water, carb, and sodium (if you do that) manipulation thing. In other words, you wanna make life easy for yourself. I absolutely HATE to put people on more than 2 hours of cardio a day…all that means is they were behind the power curve by waiting too long to get serious about their contest diet or their foods are waaaay off which usually means they’re cheating. Either way, they just increased their own misery and run the risk of either dropping out of the show or never doing another show again.
Personally, I prefer to stay within 10 lbs. of contest weight. Part of the reason is because I’m old. I don’t want to stretch out my skin any more than absolutely necessary. Heck, in a few more years I’ll be saggin’, baggin’, and draggin’ due to Father Time gettin’ in bed with me…I don’t wanna have him visit any sooner that when he’s supposed to. The other is because I’ve learned. I learned 20+ years ago that as a drug-free competitor, my contest weight, regardless of what I do, is around 160-162 lbs. As I’m aging it’s dropping a bit. But at 57 years old, I don’t expect to ‘bulk up’ in the ‘off-season’ and miraculously gain an additional 10-15-20 lbs. of muscle. C’mon…seriously? If that were going to happen, don’t you think it would’ve already happened?
I’m at 5-6 lbs. to lose to make contest weight/look. That’s assuming I haven’t lost any more lean mass due to aging. Life is good right now. Next blog I’ll go into a bit more detail on what foods you should be eating. As I say to all of my people who are dialing down, “If it ain’t on the list, don’t eat it…” Peace…
The Dr.
David "Dr. Buff" Patterson, MPE, CSCS, CSTS 253-576-4859 - Mobile http://www.TheDrBuffExperience.com/wordpress http://www.facebook.com/drbuff http://www.facebook.com/TeamBuffedBods http://www.facebook.com/thedrbuffexperience "Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"
Tags: Emerald Cup | Bodybuilding | Dave Patterson | Dr. Buff | Determination | Goals | Mindset | training | intensity | focused | disciplined |
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| Dr Buff
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| Pavlov's Dog Theory applied... |
| 01.18.2012 14:49:57 | |
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Yesterday afternoon one of the independent trainers who leases the use of my facility had one of his clients in. The trainer’s client was nice. Talkative but nice. I was in the middle of my workout and I guess he didn’t quite understand gym etiquette rules – the number one rule being “You don’t talk to a person in the middle of a set, especially when he’s in full contest prep mode for the Emerald Cup”! Newbies…gotta love em, huh? N-E-Whooo…after about the 4th time of me ignoring him (I’m never rude or mean…I just continue to ignore people during the set, and when I’m done I casually look over and ask, “Did you say something?” By the 3rd or 4th time they usually ‘get it’…) he left me alone until the end of the workout. Then came the flood of questions. Now mind you, this is not my client. I, for the most part, deliberately stay out of the gym when other trainers are in there to avoid awkward situations such as this. But sometimes life gets in the way and I’ve gotta get my workout in when I can get it in, and yesterday was one of those days. The conversation first started off in the form of a statement…
Him: “You’ve got a great gym here, Dave!”
Me: “Thank you…appreciate it…”
Him: “Really nice – love the layout, pictures, sayings, and especially the privacy! I hated going to that other gym we used to train at.”
Me: “Thanks…”
Him: “Hey, can I ask you something?” (This coming while his trainer is standing right there…the trainer looks at his client, then me).
Me: “Yea…what?”, I cautiously reply. I’ve always been of the mindset that I don’t ‘steal’ clients from other trainers, and because of that philosophy, I shy away from answering questions from new lifters who have trainers. No, I’m not egotistical – far from it! But I do have a Master’s Degree in this field and over 37 years’ experience as a trainer, competition coach, and competitor, going up against an early 20-something, 2-day certified trainer in my own gym – game over if I want it to be.
Him: “What’s your take on cardio? I mean, how much do you do and what do you think I should do?” His trainer now has that deer-in-the-headlights stare as he looks at me…
Me: “Personally, I do 45 minutes every day – been doing that for years…but for you I recommend you ask your trainer. He can answer that for you”. The trainer kinda breathes a sigh of relief…
Him: “Yea, but we’re in the same age group (we’re both in our 50’s) so I was wondering if I need to do something different because of my age…”
Me: “[Your trainer] can answer…that’s an easy question…”.
I tried to get out of the gym but the client kept asking questions. I kept referring him back to his trainer, but this dude was really pushing for answers. I even tried to defer the conversation to the trainer but he was in over his head. Finally the client started talking more than asking questions, so I just listened. He got on the topic of foods (doesn’t everybody?) and said, “I gotta tell ya, Dave, one of the best meals to have for dinner is…” and then goes off on this in-depth explanation of food preparation with wild hand gestures, wide-eyed looks, excitement, animation, and all the other adjectives. I listened for a few minutes as he described how to make an Italian dish with yada, yada, yada…finally I stopped him.
Me: “You’re a food addict.”
Him: “Huh?”
Me: “You’re a food addict…you’re addicted to food! Listen to you – you’re getting more and more excited as you talk about and describe how to make the meal.” He looked at me with this incredulous look. “You’re Pavlov’s Dog.” Laughter…
“I’m serious – you’re Pavlov’s Dog theory in human form. You’re literally salivating as you describe the food dishes. You’re so excited it’s crazy!”
Him: He pauses for a second as he’s thinking…”Wow! I never looked at it that way! Yea…I guess you could say I’ve got a love affair with food…”
We continued the conversation for a few more minutes and then I bugged out. After I came in the house I realized that at the seminar I held this past weekend 3 of the participants got up to share their story and they all said the same thing – “I’m addicted to food!” Now this is no revelation to me. I mean, I deal with people and their foods on a daily basis. But with everyone dialing down for the EC and Vancouver, I thought it might be a good thing to see if you too have a ‘Pavlov’s Dog’ mindset.
Do you constantly think about your next meal? Are you literally foaming at the mouth as you count down the minutes to ‘chow time’? If so, you might be Pavlov’s Dog! Do you post to FB every time you get ready to eat, while you eat, and finish eating? If so, then you just might be a Pavlov Dog. Are you on a weekly cheat meal (a better question is why in the world would you need a cheat meal this far out?) and all you can do is talk about your cheat meal all week long leading up to your cheat meal like it’s your last meal on Death Row? Yea…you know it…you’re probably a Pavlov Dog. Are you looking at every McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, and every other fast food sign you drive by with unabashed wanton lust in your eyes and mouth watering? You just crossed over into the Pavlov’s Dog Zone. Do you get a ‘contact high’ every time you pass candy, chips, or donuts? Bow-Wow…
C’mon people, it’s just food! While I can appreciate a good meal, especially a good home-cooked meal, the thought of food is not all-encompassing and literally orgasmic to me. Food is fuel, pure and simple. It’s energy to allow me to replenish what I just expended or get ready for what I’m about to do. I don’t have a love affair with food. Now I know this isn’t gonna sit right with a lot of you, but you’ve gotta understand the task at hand here and how the mind works.
If all you do is think and talk about food during your contest diet, you’re gonna have one hell of a hard diet! Yes, we’re gonna talk about it, yes, we’re gonna get sick of the foods we eat, and yes, we’ll be so glad when the contest is over. I’m not gonna sit here and lie to you and say that the commercials won’t become more appealing as I get closer, and that pizza contest night will be oh so good, but as long as I’m on task, they’re bearable. But the one thing I’ve learned NOT to do is continually talk about food to every single person I meet during the day. I don’t blast out on FB to all who’ll listen (and to those that don’t really care as well) every morsel that goes in my mouth. If all you do is think about food, talk about food, and write about food, then food will be a major issue for you. Self-fulfilling prophecy will kick in for many – they’ll sabotage themselves because they’ve got food on the brain. You’ll start justifying a small piece of this, a little bite of that, a slice or taste of this…and the next thing you know it’s showtime and you’re still 5-7-10 lbs. away from stage look, all because of your Pavlovian ‘addiction’ to food.
Your thoughts instead should shift to how you’ll look contest day. See yourself as you want to see yourself onstage that morning, and I promise you the foods and meals will be more bearable and tolerable. Talk about anything BUT foods. Learn to control your foods and your thoughts about foods rather than let foods control you. It’s hard. For many it’ll be a learned behavior. It’s sorta like learning how to speak positively and upbeat instead of negatively and gossipy. It CAN be done. It’ll take work, but once you learn to change your thoughts and focus by changing your behavior the food issues will fade…and your onstage look will improve!
If you find yourself breaking out into a sweat, getting anxious, excited, all shakey, almost panting and turning in circles over the anticipation of your next meal…I got a bone for ya…I’m just sayin…peace.
The Dr.
David "Dr. Buff" Patterson, MPE, CSCS, CSTS 253-576-4859 - Mobile http://www.TheDrBuffExperience.com/wordpress http://www.facebook.com/drbuff http://www.facebook.com/TeamBuffedBods http://www.facebook.com/thedrbuffexperience "Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"
Tags: Craig Productions | Emerald Cup | Bodybuilding | Dave Patterson | Mindset | Thoughts | setbacks | Visualization | disciplined |
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| Dr Buff
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| Bodybuilding's 30 Biggest Lies - Continued |
| 08.04.2011 13:52:18 | |
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‘Sup lil’ Weedhoppahs? So it’s been a busy couple of weeks for me. Got the new website up-n-runnin’ and in my humble opinion, it looks pretty good. Developed and designed by Joyce VanSeters of www.joycevanseters.com it’s a great site that I can now blog on, add pics, comment on things, and keep everyone informed of what’s going on in The Dr.’s world. Check it out and bookmark it or add it to your ‘favorites’ list at http://www.TheDrBuffExperience.com/wordpress. You can also sign up for my monthly newsletter at http://joycevanseters.us1.list-manage2.com/subscribe?u=010646483bf459763d911253f&id=ea18c7df6f. What’s in the newsletter? Stuff that won’t be on the website…geez…J And don’t forget to ‘like’ my fanpage on FB at www.facebook.com/TeamBuffedBods.
Speaking of TBB, the next group posing and nutrition workshop will be held this coming Sunday, August 7th at 11 am at MY Fitness. This workshop is open to ALL competitors who want to improve their posing skills and possibly need help with dieting down. You don’t have to pre-register, just show up. Private sessions are also available to help develop that crowd-pleasing choreographed routine or help you polish your ‘Model-T’ Figure walk. You can never start practice too soon or practice enough. I know of too many individuals who actually lost their show because their posing and stage presence wasn’t on point. Please don’t think that you can learn proper posing on your own…and please don’t think that you can learn it in one or two sessions. A couple of my new students found that out today. “Wow…this is a lot harder than I thought…” was one of the comments from a figure gal. We only have 7 ½ weeks until the Washington Ironman. Trust me - someone will need every single day of that practicing their posing, routine, or presentation.
Okay…on to the good stuff…haven’t written on ‘Bodybuilding’s 30 Biggest Lies’ in over 7 months! Time to finish out this series. You can catch up or re-familiarize yourself with previous blogs by going back in time on the pages. For those of you that are new or haven’t read any of these blogs, ‘Bodybuilding’s 30 Biggest Lies’ was written in 1993 by Bill Phillips, the owner of Muscle Media 2000 and known more recently as the head honcho for the ‘Body For Life’ challenges. The information is as relevant today (with slight editorial modifications) as it was back then. When something is right, it’s right, and stands the test of time. Philips got it right. Let’s get right to em…
#22. BODYBUILDERS REPRESENT THE EPITOME OF HEALTH AND FITNESS. The ultimate irony that the NPC and IFBB is facing in trying to get bodybuilding into the Olympics is that while every athlete in every other sport is presumably the healthiest they’ve ever been so that they are able to compete athletically and break records, the bodybuilder is so weak and drained a day or two before the show, and even weaker after pulling water the day of the show, that he or she would have trouble fending off the attacks of an enraged MinPin. The weeks of constant dieting including very low carbohydrates, workouts that continually tax the body almost beyond recovery, up to two (or more) hours a day of cardio, and quite often, a constant influx of potentially harmful drugs (think long-term here, folks) and diuretics (think fetal position onstage, folks) have brought most of them to total exhaustion.
And think about the huge amount of food some dark-side bodybuilders eat. In all the longevity sites in the world where people routinely live to be one hundred or more, the only common denominator is that they all either under-eat or eat just enough to meet their daily caloric requirements. By ingesting less food, they ingest less harmful chemicals, and fewer free radicals are formed in the body. The average national-level and professional bodybuilder probably eats at least four or five times what these aforementioned people eat. As a result, bodybuilders often suffer from high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Plus, with all that extra mass, the heart has to work that much harder and will probably stop beating years earlier than it was designed/programmed to. That’s why professional bodybuilding is the ultimate act of vanity (hey…don’t hate the messenger – I’m just typing what Phillips wrote almost 20 years ago). It was done strictly to fulfill some misguided notion of the superhuman ideal, and health was not even a consideration. Almost without exception, these guys and gals are not the healthiest come contest day, and they’ll probably be among the first to tell you that if they’re honest with themselves. However, weight training and consuming a nutrient-rich diet is very healthy, as long as it is not carried to extremes or excess.
I tell all my people that bodybuilding is the one sport where you’ll look your absolute best and feel your absolute worst if you’re on task. You have to suffer to truly dial in for a show. How is that the epitome of health and fitness? Big Joe DeRousie, who just got back from the USA’s this past weekend, did an interview while down there. The question was posed to him, “Did you suffer the last few days prior to this show?” Joe answered, “To get the level of conditioning needed at this level, you have to suffer for quite a while…” Hats off to Joe for achieving a level of conditioning that few reach, but in many of his ‘right before and right after the show’ photos, you could literally see the fatigue, pain, suffering, and tiredness in his face and eyes. I don’t think that Joe will disagree, but if you don’t hear from the Good Dr. any more, that means Joe no likey what Mikey said. And for the record, in the Dr.’s humble opinion, Joe should have EASILY placed in the top 5, if not the top 3. I hate to say that the nationals are still a bit political, but Joe was freaky hard…and overlooked in the first callout. He wasn’t known. But they know him now. And as Roger Baker said, “We all remember what happened the last time Joe lost…” Don’t make Hulk mad…you won’t like it when Hulk get mad…
#23. TRAINING WITH WEIGHTS CAUSES YOUR MUSCLES TO GET TIGHT AND HINDERS FLEXIBILITY AND, CONSEQUENTLY, ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE. If anything, weight training, when done properly (slowly and using a complete range of motion), increases flexibility. Many athletes now engage in weight training in order to improve their performance in their chosen sport. Witness professional basketball player Dwight Howard, pro football player Terrell Owens, and even Tiger Woods, or any number of track athletes, gymnasts; the list goes on and on.
This lie goes all the way back to the 1930’s. Companies that were selling isometric exercise programs by mail were trying to convince people not to exercise with barbells, simply because it wasn’t practical to send weights through the mail. So they made up the “muscle-bound” lie. This lie might have been fueled from the feeling of ‘tightness’ that accompanies an intense workout. If the workout was intense and a sufficient number of muscle fibers were recruited and microscopically damaged, then even the normal tonus (the normal amount of contraction experienced by a relaxed muscle) is more than enough to cause a feeling of tightness. The tightness is compounded by the ‘tugging’ of the tendons on the muscles. Add to that the DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness), that sore, painful feeling you experience that limits your ROM (Range-of-Motion) and you now know why people are afraid of lifting weights. Stretching, however, would do much to alleviate this tightness, and stretching is a recommended part of any kind of athletic pursuit.
In literally every other sport, stretching is incorporated into the athletic endeavor, yet bodybuilders routinely walk into a gym, and ‘warm-up’, ‘loosen up’, and ‘stretch’ on the weights. I’m guilty of this…have been for years. And now I’m paying the price for it. But I’m hoping to increase flexibility and ROM by going to Hot Yoga a couple times a week. Seems to be working at this point.
Well, that’s about it for this classroom session. Time to grab a bite to eat, kick back, watch a lil’ tube, and then hit the sack to start it all over again. 7 weeks and counting…make it do what it do, little ones…make it do what it do! Peace
The Dr.
253-576-4859 - mobile http://www.TheDrBuffExperience.com/wordpress http://www.facebook.com/drbuff http://www.facebook.com/TeamBuffedBods "Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"
Tags: Dr. Buff | Dave Patterson | David Patterson | Bodybuilding | Figure | competition | Posing | choreography | The Dr. Buff Experience |
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| Dr Buff
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| Competition Coaches vs Personal Trainers... |
| 07.20.2011 22:46:14 | |
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There’s a world of difference between a trainer who prepares clients for competition and gym trainers. I just picked up a couple of new competitors who learned that the hard way with their old trainer. I’ve written and blogged numerous times on this subject. Don’t get me wrong, I hold nothing against a personal trainer – heck, I AM one, but first and foremost, I’m a competition coach. I have been for over 35 years. It’s what I do – dial competitors in for shows. I’d like to believe I do it well.
This blog was written by Ivan Ribic, the co-promoter of the Empire Classic in spring and the Night of Champions in the fall. Ivan’s been in the competition game for years. He wrote this on his own site several days ago and I immediately called him and asked if I could post this as a guest-blog on the Craig Productions site. It’s a great read – I literally couldn’t have done a better job myself. Direct and to the point, Ivan cuts to the chase on hiring and following your competition coach. Notice I said ‘COMPETITION COACH – not personal trainer! While Ivan uses the word ‘trainer’, keep in mind that you’re hiring a competition coach, someone who’s been in the trenches, done well, and have the credentials to back it up. Learn the difference, know the difference, experience the difference. Enjoy Ivan’s blog…and take his advice…
“Trainers vs Trainees
Trainers . . . would I recommend them? Absolutely! Even the best trainer would be well served by an expert pair of eyes and an outside perspective if they themselves were competing. Having all the knowledge of diet and training in the world still will not be enough if you cannot look at yourself objectively and make appropriate changes. This is hard to do when you see yourself every day. This is not to say that you can’t compete without a trainer and still do well, but in my experience, the vast majority of competitors who step onstage and look phenomenal used an expert [competition coach] to guide them through the process.
While there are literally thousands of trainers at our disposal, it’s important to remember that different trainers specialize in different disciplines. While your local gym personal trainer might have some experience in competition, the vast majority don’t specialize in it. Taking an average overweight, out-of-shape person and getting them moving is a whole different game than taking an in-shape, active person and whittling them down to contest condition. Before you settle on a trainer, ask them to provide a portfolio of other clients who they’ve trained for competition. If their previous clients looked great on stage then you’re on the right track. If not, you may want to reconsider. Stage competition goes beyond just conditioning as well. A good competition trainer will not only be able to assist with diet and training but also with posing, stage presence, [choreography], suits, tanning and all of the other little details that make a winning physique stand out on stage.
Timing is everything. If you plan to compete, I recommend contacting your potential trainer as far out as possible. A lot of times trainers are called 10 or 12 weeks out from a show. That doesn’t leave them much time to figure out how your body responds and what they need to do to get you where you want to go. There’s nothing wrong with getting in touch with a trainer a year out from competition. Get a consultation, have them evaluate your weak points and then give you some direction on what to work on. While the last 12 weeks are going to be the most critical to your conditioning, the proceeding year is important for building a solid foundation. If you're thinking of competing next spring or even next fall, now would be a great time to start talking to trainers about starting a program.
The most important thing!!!
. . . if you skipped past everything else I wrote, I hope you’ll listen to this: If you’re paying a trainer to train you then do EXACTLY what they tell you to. A good trainer has an entire plan that comes together to produce a final result. Changing any part of that equation, no matter how insignificant you might think it is, will change the final result. This means eating exactly what they tell you to, when they tell you to in the amounts they tell you to. This means doing the same type of cardio for the same amount of time on the same days that they tell you to, etc. If you’re not following part of the program, then you’re not following any of it.
If you let self discipline slip and do something that is not part of the plan then you owe it to your trainer and yourself to tell them what you did so they know what’s happening with your body. I’ve seen trainers pulling their hair out because a client’s body isn’t responding the way that it should only to find out months after the competition that their client was off doing their own thing and not following the program exactly. If you don’t understand why your trainer has you doing something, ask them. If they know their stuff they’ll be able to tell you exactly why.
Keep in mind that people’s bodies respond differently to diet, water, etc. If you are following the plan 100% and step on stage and are retaining a little more water than you’d like to, chances are your trainer will know just what changes to make for the next show and can dial you in even better next time. But what if you’re retaining a little water and your trainer didn’t know about the half bag of Doritos you used to sodium load on Friday? Do you think they’ll be able to improve your condition on the next go-around? Probably not.
Once you’ve found a trainer you want to work with and established a plan, be consistent with it and be honest with your trainer. You’re paying them to help you but they can only do that if you follow the program and are up front with them about the details. Over time, your trainer will understand your body and habits even better than you do and be able to help you achieve a top-notch physique.”
Great blog, right? My sentiments exactly! With less than 10 weeks to go for the Washington Ironman, if you haven’t already done so, NOW is the time to contact me. As your one-stop shopping center, I can help you with diet, posing, presentation, choreography of bodybuilding routines, music editing, suit selection, mental training, and any and everything else associated with competition. Visit my new website at http://www.thedrbuffexperience.com/wordpress/ for more information or call me at 253-576-4859. We’re also accepting new members for TeamBuffedBods. Contact my agent, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and request an information package. Good luck in YOUR contest prep…peace!
The Dr.
253-576-4859 - mobile http://www.TheDrBuffExperience.com http://www.facebook.com/drbuff http://www.facebook.com/TeamBuffedBods "Tell me you will...tell me you won't...don't tell me you can't!"
Tags: David Patterson | Dave Patterson | Dr. Buff | The Dr. Buff Experience | training | competition | coaching | Bodybuilding | Figure | Bikini | nutrition |
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| Dr Buff
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| Nothing Great Comes Without Sacrifice! |
| 05.02.2011 05:57:53 | |
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Jack Sandberg, a friend and fellow competitor who resides over in Spokane, posted a short motivational/inspirational video on FB on the bodybuilding mindset and lifestyle. You can watch the whole thing at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-GBxpLQsek&feature=youtube_gdata_player. More than just watching the video and seeing the swollen bodies and listening to the music and getting all pumped up over the incredible physiques, I chose to listen to the words they’re saying. Is anything coming out of their mouths that make sense or is it just rambling gibberish. To be perfectly honest, this one was a good one.
If you’ve been a reader of my blog for any time now, you know that I’m into the psychological component more than anything else. Everything starts with your mind. We conceive in our minds. We believe in our minds. And then we go out and ACT on our thoughts in our mind. In the video, Kai Green spoke words of truth – truth that I’ve been saying for years and years. Truth that any athlete with the competitive mindset possesses. Truth that we hear a lot, read a lot, and possibly even quote a lot on FB these days. But speaking the truth and living the truth are two different things. Do you just speak the truth or do you live the truth?
After my last blog I received a text from Big Joe Derousie. I typically don’t get very many responses. My blogs aren’t designed for or written for responses. Many times I’ll even tell you I don’t want a response. I’m more of the ‘in your face’ person – I want you to think about what you’re doing, and even question why you’re doing it, even if it makes you feel a bit uncomfortable. I want you to dig deep within your soul and ask, “Is this what I really want? And am I truly ready to work…no…bust my BUTT for it?” I want you to ‘get it’ – to get the fact that this is not easy, and many times this is not necessarily fun, but the reward at the end is oh-so-sweet even if no other person gives you accolades or compliments you for a job well done. I want you to understand that “The challenge is from within, the opponent is yourself, the reward is private, and the victory is having met the challenge!”
Joe’s text read, “Hey Dave, its Joe DeRousie. Just read your last blog. “To be number one you have to train like you’re number 2.” Bro, first thing I thought of was losing to Roger [Baker] by 1 point at the 09 [Emerald] Cup. I looked great, but was still 2nd. That loss was the best thing that could have happened to me. It pushed me to another level that allowed me to bring that dominant physique to the stage in 2010. I could have just tried to roll with the momentum I build in 09, but wanted to leave no doubt whose show it was last year! Everyone still wants to know what I did to make such a jump in a year. You said it perfect: hard work, discipline, determination, drive desire, focus, and commitment. Can’t beat that stack if you tried!” Well said, Joe!
Kai Green, who is, in my opinion one of the most creative bodybuilding posers out there, had some great lines. You could hear the feeling, the emotion, and the passion in every word he spoke. I listened to him several times and finally decided to transcribe his words and put them in this blog.
Kai’s first quote said, “You need to get to work in accomplishing your own dream – fulfill your own goals. There’s something to be said for the person that stands on the side of life watching other people live it vs. being the person that’s out there doing a damn thing.” Truer words could not have been spoken. You can put up all the quotes you want on FB, but if you’re not working, then you’re not doing. And if you’re not doing, then you’re wasting time! Are you TRULY doing everything you can to make yourself YOUR best? If you set the bar, then dang it, at the very least jump up to it. Better yet, jump OVER it and then reset it! That’s what Big Joe did. I have no doubt that Joe will be successful at the national level, and then the pro level. He doesn’t just talk – he acts!
Jay Cutler (at least I believe it was Jay as they didn’t show the person talking but showed a quick clip of Jay…) said, “There’s no secret to it. If you wanna get bigger, if you wanna get stronger, the only thing holding you back is yourself.” I’ve got a couple of signs in my gym that ties in to what Jay said. The first one is, “The greatest challenge you’ll ever face is your own mind.” The second one says, “The only obstacle preventing you from achieving your goal is the belief that you have obstacles.” Are you guys gettin’ this? I’m not trying to motivate you – I’m trying to get in your head – to get you to understand that you, and only you, are ultimately responsible for the physique that steps onstage. Your trainer is a tool, a resource, a means to an end, but if you put all your trust and faith in your trainer and don’t do your part…well…it’ll show onstage. This leads us to our third quote by Kai…
“You have to save your own life. Nobody’s gonna be your savior for you. So we have to do what we have to do no matter what it is!” Putting this on ‘paper’ just doesn’t have the same impact that viewing it does. That’s why I posted the link. When I watched it I found myself nodding in approval. When Jeff, my workout partner doesn’t show up, I still train. When life situations arise, I handle my business and then I train. Regardless of what happens, I train. I am the master of my destiny. You are the master of yours. Handle y’business!
Finally, Kai ends the talking part with the following quote, “Champions are an example of what happens when you aspire to leave the plane of average thinking…when you dare to dream and you dare to go after that dream and you make these thoughts and ideas become something more than a dream.” We all have to have that internal push, people – the drive, determination, discipline, desire, focus, sacrifice, and commitment. We all possess the power to dream…we must dig deep for the power to succeed! Peace…
The Dr.
Personal Training Systems “There Are No Shortcuts!” www.personaltrainingsystems.net www.facebook.com/ThereAreNoShortcuts This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Mobile: 253.576.4859
Don't give me excuses...give me results!
Tags: discipline | drive | Determination | desire | focus | sacrifice | commitment | motivation | inspiration | succeed | Dr. Buff | David Patterson | Dave Patterson | The Dr. |
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| Dr Buff
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| The Bill Pearl Classic - Part II |
| 05.12.2010 15:14:40 | |
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America, I promised you last night that I’d cover my conversation with Todd Scott down and back. Unfortunately I’m old! That means that my memory, which once was sharp as a tack is now as dull as Oprah is round. Sorry…couldn’t resist…N-E-Whoo…I jotted down and will continue to jot down what we talked about, and as I remember, I’ll relay it to you. So let’s get started with what we convoed on. In no particular order…
We covered the high-fat vs. low fat diets. Todd asked me if I was a fan of the high-fat diet.
“Nope,” I replied. “I don’t care what you say, fat makes you fat. If you take too much of it in either during the day or at one time it’ll store as bodyfat. It’s that simple.”
“So you’re not in agreement with Dave Palumbo’s plan?”
“No. Are you?”
“No. I know of many competitors who follow it though. Some swear by it but most don’t get the results they’re looking for. They usually go into shows smooth holding that layer of bodyfat saying its water.”
“Don’t you just hate that? Competitors who are fat one week out tellin’ everyone “I just gotta drop this water and I’ll dial in…what a bunch of [crap]. Do you know why they’re not making progress?”
“Why?”
“Easy. There’s three somatotypes in the body – Ectomorph, Mesomorph, and Endomorph. Ecto’s are naturally thin. That’s me. I’m a true ectomorph. Let me stop lifting weights and I drop weight and muscle like crazy. Meso’s are naturally muscular – they’re the athletic type and build muscle easily. You’re more of a natural mesoporph. Endomorphs are naturally round and gain fat easily. Endomorphs are carb-sensitive and can gain fat from eating carbs just by smelling ‘em. So it only makes sense that an endo would do well on a high-fat diet as long as the calories are sufficiently reduced. But that diet-down plan wouldn’t work for me as I need carbs to hold onto my muscle. With you as a meso, it might work for you but then again, it might not…everybody’s different.”
“Yea, I know. [so-and-so] is on it and he got decent results but didn’t look as sharp as he should have. Another gal looked really smooth. I think Palumbo puts everyone on pretty much the same plan and adjusts just a bit to make it seem like it’s a customized plan.”
“Lots of online trainers do that, dude. I find it hard to believe that people pay big dollars for some guy or girl who lives in Florida or So. California dial them in and they’ve never seen em outside of a picture. Sometimes they don’t even get that – just some numbers, your credit card, and BAMM…there’s your “customized” workout. What a joke and scam. To me, the way it works is that if you get enough gullible people buying your plan, you’ll hit a few who dial in perfectly. Those are the ones you market to everyone else to make it seem like you’re the world’s greatest trainer.”
“I know! I like to have that person standing in front of me so I can pinch him or her and see how they look in the mirror. A one-dimensional picture can’t show me that to where I can give them my best input. I think it’s just a cookie-cutter type of mealplan.”
“I agree. So with that said, are you a red meat person or not?” This was another topic, America.
“Red meat doesn’t work for me. Again, as an Ecto I respond best to chicken, turkey, egg whites, and white fish. I eat red meat and it has a tendency to sit on me and within two or three days I’m all bloated and feel sluggish. How does it work for you?”
“I’m pretty much like you but I can eat it without the ill effects. I know that Dre and Turk are big red meat people…”
“Yea…Turk pretty much puts all of his people on red meat. He’s big on that…”
“I usually put the naturally muscular or people who have a tendency to gain bodyfat easier on red meat. It seems to work better for them.”
“Yup. That’s the Meso’s and Endo’s. I think that Turk just naturally attracts those types of competitors so he has good success with his people on red meat.”
“I’ll play it by ear myself…might start someone off on chicken and if they don’t seem to be making progress, switch em to red meat and see what that does. Sometimes you just gotta play with this stuff. That’s why I’m not a big fan of the one-diet-for anyone-or-everyone mentality.”
“Dude, I knew there was a reason I liked you! We think alike. I’m so tired of competitors saying that this plan or that plan is the “best” plan. You’ve gotta be smart enough to recognize when something isn’t working and knowledgeable enough to know how to correct it. You know what I can’t stand? The student who learns from you and suddenly wants to become the teacher. He or she only has one or two contests under their belt. What makes them think they’re now the expert? I still screw up every now and then and I’ve got over 30 years in this game.”
“I know. And the sad thing is, they only know one way to dial someone down – what they did. So now we have the blind leading the blind…so what’s your favorite protein foods?” Another topic…
“Well, my “big five” are fish, chicken, tuna, turkey, and egg whites – all white meats/foods. Whey and Hi-Protein blends are right under that, with red meats following. I place those two under the white foods because one can’t live off of protein shakes and we already talked about red meats.”
“Yea…I hear you. I have so many people who ask why they just can’t get their protein from shakes all day. I tell em that even though shakes give you the caloric and nutritional value, you don’t get the energy burn during digestion because of the partial pre-digestion of the shakes.”
“Yup…if people really understood the science of nutrition they’d realize that there’s nothing magical out there. You just gotta find out what works best for you and then do it. Why do these guys make it more difficult than that?”
“I know. So I’m assuming that you don’t work well with vegans…?” Moving on to another topic although slightly related…
“They’re the hardest to meal plan because they don’t or won’t eat meat for whatever reason, whether it be religious, personal, or whatever. They think they can get their protein in from combining starchy carb.”
“That’s so stupid! Don’t they even have a clue about the number of carbs they’ll be taking in if they tried to get their protein from combining say, beans and rice or beans and corn?”
“I know. Yea you can get 40 gms of protein a meal by creating the complete profile combining beans and rice, but you’ll also be taking in 150-200 gms or more of carbs. How do you ever expect to diet down with that amount of carbs? So what’s your favorite carb foods?” Another topic…
“Well obviously I’m an oatmeal person, and I love one or two slices of Dave’s Killer Bread. I just created a great recipe for yams, but I’m usually a rice and potato person. What about you?”
“I’m a brown rice person after oatmeal each morning. I love that stuff. But I know so many people who don’t like it for whatever reason – it’s too tough or crunchy, has a weird taste…they just don’t know how to make it. I take a little chicken bullion cube and put in the water with the rice as it starts to cook. I use a rice cooker so the bullion blends right in and absorbs into the rice. Man, it tastes so good…”
“I hate brown rice…”
“Like I said, lots of people just don’t know how to make it…”
“It’s not that…I just don’t like the taste. Besides, the difference between brown rice and white rice on the glycemic index is only 10 points. And who eats just plain rice by itself. So as far as I’m concerned, you’re okay in eating white rice if you combine it with protein, veggies or a little dietary fat…slows down the rate of absorption and lowers the glycemic index. You just have to know how much to eat for your physique.”
“True, true...but most people don’t know that.”
America, that’s it for tonight…I’ll continue tomorrow. Now I gotta say this. There’s no way I could remember word for word who said what, but I can promise you that everything I’ve written was said at one time or another. Remember, we were on the road for over 8.5 hours going down and right at 6 hours coming back up. We talked about so much stuff I can’t even remember it all. To be perfectly honest with you, this is just a snippet of what we talked about. I’ll catch ya’ll on the pm tomorrow…I’m out – peace! Oh…and don’t forget to hit me up for a friend on Facebook. The link is below. Holla at’cha boi…
The Dr. http://www.facebook.com/drbuff
Personal Training Systems “There Are No Shortcuts!” www.personaltrainingsystems.net This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Mobile: 253.576.4859
The concept is simple - lift weights, do cardio, and eat right. It's the APPLICATION the concept that's difficult!
Tags: Bodybuilding | Dave Patterson | work ethic |
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| The Craigs |
| Exciting news June 22, 2009 |
| 06.23.2009 02:18:05 | |
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I just finished talking with our webmasterdan and I have so much to tell you about!! As you can see, our site has a facelift! And we will be adding more and more new things to it! Starting this Thursday Posing Guru Dave Patterson will be blogging his contest preparations for the upcoming Ironman. You will be able to access him directly from our Ironman page or from the blog page. Dave is going to write about his training, dieting and posing from now up until he steps on stage. You will have an insight into his prep diary. For all of you Facebook fans, we will be having our own Northwest Physique Facebook. You will be able to post all of your contest prep and thoughts online from this catagory. I am so excited about this! I think it will connect all of us that are into competition with each other. I’ll keep you posted on the progress and let you know when it is live. And….coming soon to our site will be a weekly podcast on what is going on in our Northwest/Westcoast physique community. We haven’t decided on the format yet so send us an email on what you would like us to focus on. We’re open to ideas. Plus we will be adding a page where Washington Ironman and Emeraldcup competitors past and present can post their pictures (then/now) with information about themselves. This will let the audience know a bit more about you than the info that the MC gives. Those of you making a transformation can post your progress pictures. How fun is this all going to be??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited about the new changes with our site and our fantastic webmasterdan!!!!!!!! At this point we are focusing on the Northwest/Westcoast community but everyone is invited to put their input in. Don’t forget to read the Ironman blog (I just posted info) for up to the minute details on the upcoming Washington Ironman and checkback this Thursday to start following Dave Pattersons story! Tags: Ironman | Dave Patterson | Bodybuilding | website |
