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How did you get started with bodybuilding?

I always had a great appreciation for muscled guys and use to buy stacks of fitness magazines. Since the age of 28 I’ve been doing lifting on an “on and off” basis…However it was more off than on and never really achieved much success. Like many younger guys I also had more ego than brain cells and as a result experienced some bad muscle injuries on the road which kept me extended periods out of gym. I was also a dedicated surfer at this point, which resulted in further frequent muscle injuries (I used to like big waves…call it a adrenaline/ego thing!). However at the age of 41 things changed. I had a close call with death. It started with a simple flu, but nearly died and ended up in hospital for 7 days loosing nearly 10kg’s. At one point I had no detectable bloodpressure and was in a coma. This was a serious eye opener experience on more than just one level and turning point in my life. It made me appreciate life in a serious way. I started addressing many things in my life, one by getting serious about my health and muscle building and the other by becoming a person I like. I accepted Christ as my savior, which was a big turnaround for me. I was absolutely determined to not waste another single minute of my life but to grab life by the horns and live it, but in such a way that I like myself. All the previous years of playing with the weights and reading up in fitness and bodybuilding magazines was a great help at this point because I had a good knowledge base regarding dieting/supplementation and training techniques. It was just a matter of getting my act together, which I did. Sometimes a big change in one life, makes it easier to pull through than small changes, because you have so much more to loose. It certainly required a major shift in your mental focus, but once you have done that, it is actually relatively easily. However, my health prognosis after the hospital incident was not very good at all and it was a rocky road for especially the next 18 months. But I pursued. If I could not keep solid food down, the protein shake was closeby to help. I simply refused to take a step back, and year by year the health increased dramatically.

What is your training routine like?

There was many programs around that I could choose from, but since I’ve been educating myself in the fitness/muscle building field for the past 13 years, I decided to put together a routine that will suit me. I like simple programs and don’t believe in spending a lot of time at the gym. I do not socialize at gym and give me strict 50-60 minutes to workout (weights and cardio). I rest very little in-between but the whole routine is intense and I am exhausted afterwards.
MAINTENANCE PHASE AND BUILDING PHASE’s of my program
There are 2 parts to my training program, Maintenance Phase and Building Phase. These two phases are alternated continuously. I will be doing a Maintenance Phase for 3 months (12 weeks) and then switch to an intense Building Phase for the next 3 months (12 weeks) and then repeat cycle. When you start out, it is critical that you determine the weight size at which your point of muscle failure occurs at the 8th repetition (let’s call this weight size, your “failure weight”) for each exercise (excluding abdominals). This means the point where you fail to be able to make another repetition of the exercise. Make note of this “failure weight”, because starting off with your Maintenance Phase, you will be doing 12 reps with the “failure weight” minus 20 percent of the “failure weight”.
Hmm, OK that just sounds complicated, so let’s look at an example.
Let’s say you’ve determined that with Barbell Curls, you can lift 30kg and only complete 8 reps but fail on the 9th rep. Then in your Maintenance Phase you will lift 20% less of the weight (which equals to roughly 24kg) and do 12 reps in your each set. With your Building Phase you will revert back to 8 reps per set. Starting with each Phase, you must again determine your “failure weight” since this will (and must!) increase with every Phase. The 8 reps must then be done with your new “failure weight” reaching muscle failure on your 8th rep.
IMPORTANT:
When finished with a Building Phase, your lifted weight levels for the Maintenance Phase will be the ones that you’ve ended on in your last Building Phase. Do NOT reset these values. They must continually increase with your phases or you will not grow. It is a good idea to re-determine these “failure weight” at the start of each Phase.
So typically a year period will look like the following:
•Jan – March (12 weeks) Maintenance Phase
•April – June (12 weeks) Building Phase
•July – September (12 weeks) Maintenance Phase
•October – December (12 weeks) Building Phase
Obviously you can shuffle your months around to suit your own target dates. Traditionally December is warm beach weather and holiday season here in South Africa, so I want to make sure that I look my best in December and thus make sure that the month of December falls on the last month of a Building Phase period.

A typical weight training session will look like this:

•5 min warm-up
•30-40 min weight training
•10-20 min cardio

BASICS and important points

•Cardio stays the same during both Phases. After your weight lifting session, the perfect cardio would be to swim laps for 20 minutes. But since most of us have no access to such facilities, we have to consider the stationary bike or treadmill.
•Cardio must be done for 10 – 20 minutes. Preferably closer to 20 minutes. Do not make it much longer than 20 minutes even if you become very fit. Rather up the intensity to make sure you are most of the time in the fat-burning zone.
•Again here, please take it slowly. Start out slow for 5 minutes (on low intensity) and slowly increase it week by week. Allow your body to adapt.
•Please note: Too much cardio will slow your muscle growth drastically. Have you ever seen a muscled marathon athlete? Be careful, if u wanna grow, keep the cardio intense but not much more than 20 minutes per day.
If you are completely new to lifting, I suggest you do one of the following:
•Buy a basic guide explaining the mentioned exercises.
•By just “hanging” and talking to other guys in the gym, you can also learn a lot about the various exercises.
•Do some research on sites like www.bodybuilding.com You should be able to find nearly all you need on a site like this. You can also follow the following link for a complete set of exercises, descriptions and photo’s: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.htm
•Very important thought, is that if you are completely new to lifting, you MUST start out slowly. Start for example, by doing one set per exercise for the first week. Bump it up to 2 sets per exercise in your 2nd week and to 3 sets per exercise in the 3rd week and finally to 4 sets per exercise in your 4th week. Some rather severe muscle pain will accompany this. Endure buddy, it is a good sign, it shows you your muscles are listening and reprogramming for growth. If the pain becomes unbearable or influences your workouts, take some anti-inflammatory pills (Dicoflam is a good one), it will deal with most of the pain.
•During the Maintenance Phase, as already stated above, you will lift slightly lighter weights (roughly 10%-20% lighter) with more reps ( 12-14 instead of 8 ) . The actual program stays exactly the same for both Maintenance Phase and Building Phase.
•As part of periodization it is also important to keep exchanging (preferably on a monthly basis) your exercises with new ones for the same muscle group (Choose your exercises from: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.htm). Again, this keep the muscles guessing and growing otherwise over the longer term they may stop responding.
•During the Building Phase period, increase weight on all exercises on a weekly basis, forcing the muscles to respond and grow – kind off like a shock treatment. (Sure this will mean sore muscles, but soon you will learn to LOVE the feeling of sore muscles, because then you know that you had a good workout.) So last week you failed on the 8th rep with 30kg. Put on 32 kg and go and punish the muscles this week. Increase the weight like this on every exercise. If a 2kg increase is too much to handle, make it 1kg or even 500g, but do NOT stop increasing the weights. Younger guys will grow like mushrooms doing this. Our older folk are like good red wine, it takes some time but our muscles will respond.
•A set consists of 8 repetitions per exercise in the Building Phase (with muscle failure occurring on the 8th rep) and 12-14 reps with a 20% lighter weight for the Maintenance Phase.
•Typically rest for no longer than 2 minutes between sets. Actually the less you rest the better. But you must rest long enough for your muscles to recover to perform your next set.
•WARM-UP! Guys, the older you get, the more important is it to warm-up the muscles before training. You are warmed up when a light sweat appears on your forehead. This usually takes 5-10 minutes of light repetition lifting or aerobics. Be careful to consider stretching as warming up. A cold muscle may tear if you stretch it. Stretching is beneficial after a heavy set, not for warming up purposes.

Another note here: Shoulders are very prone to lifting injuries. Make sure you warm them up double well, just to make sure.
•Using caffeine pills or ECA type stack before your training may help you with energy levels while training. There is also some fancy energy boosting and cell volumizing powders on the market, which you can take before training. It is an expensive route but some of the products might be beneficial in providing focus and energy during your workout. Search sites like www.bodyBuilding.com to read up on products available.
•Training at gym or home? I do it at home. Sure you must have the right equipment and it could take some time to acquire it, but especially if you have serious family obligations (small kids/babies) it makes it much easier to work out at home. Home workouts only work if you are very focussed. If you struggle with motivation, then going to a gym or even getting a personal trainer might be a good idea.

Weekly Training Schedule

MONDAY – Chest & abs

Barbell Bench press – medium grip

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Barbell Incline Bench press – medium grip,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Barbell Decline Bench press – medium grip,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Butterfly/Pec Deck Fly

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Abdominal (ab) routine

Three different crunch exercises

AB Crunch machine,

Building Phase: 3 sets of 20 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 3 sets of 25 reps each

Air Bike,

Building Phase: 3 sets of 20 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 3 sets of 25 reps each

Standard Ab Bench/exercise mat crunch

Building Phase: 3 sets of 20 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 25 reps each

With the Abdominals (ab) routine, you must feel the PAIN, if no pain then you are simply NOT squeezing those abs hard enough! Abs is like any muscle group they must be train in low reps to the point of failure to grow. You are not gonna grow deep rippling abdominal by doing 200 crunches in a row…

TUESDAY – Shoulders & Traps

(Note: some people prefer to switch the shoulders and leg routine around so that legs are on Tuesdays and shoulders on Wednesdays.)

Lateral dumbbell raise,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Front dumbbell raise,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Dumbbell Shoulder press,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Dumbbell/Barbell Raise,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Dumbbell Shrugs

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Barbell Shrugs behind the back (optional)

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

WEDNESDAY – Legs

Barbell Deadlift,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Barbell Full Squat or Stiff leg Barbell Deadlift,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Lying Leg Curls,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Standing Calve raises

Building Phase: 4 sets of 15 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 20 reps each

THURSDAY – back

Close-grip Front Lat Pulldown,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Gironda Sternum Chins,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Lying T-Bar Row

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Back Extensions

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

FRIDAY – Biceps & Triceps

Biceps and triceps exercises are done in supersetting mode. Supersetting means doing different exercises back to back without any resting in-between the sets – Provides a great pump.

Alternate Dumbbell Curl,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Tricep Dumbbell Kickback,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Barbell Curls,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Cable One-arm Tricep Extension,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Alternate Hammer Curls,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Bench Dips (Triceps),

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Concentration biceps curls,

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Decline Dumbbell Tricep Extension

Building Phase: 4 sets of 8 reps each. Maintenance Phase: 4 sets of 12 reps each

Saturday – rest (feel free to do some cardio, but not required)

Sunday – rest (feel free to do some cardio, but not required)

POINTS OF NOTE

1. 45 minutes before training take 5g BCAA’s on an empty stomach. This helps to protect your muscles from being used as a source of energy during training, protecting your muscles. Yip you got it right, doing things the wrong way can actually result in your muscles shrinking!
2. 15 minutes before training take whey isolate 40g with water (milk not allowed here) as well as 5g Glutamine powder mixed into your shake. It is wise to add NAC and ALA to your pre-workout supplements as well. This Whey and Glutamine helps to feed your muscles during lifting.
3. If you can afford it, it is a good idea to include ALA (Alpha Lipoic Acid, 200mg) into your pre-workout supplements regimen as well. Their benefits for muscle building (and other health benefits) has been well documented (especially ALA) and many top bodybuilders use it this way. To read more about them, Just type “Alpha Lipoic Acid benefits” on Google. ALA have a positive effects on your immune system as well as protecting your liver. ALA also has a important and powerful effect on insulin blood levels, which in turn have a positive impact on your muscle building efforts.
4. Lots of water while training. Do not rely on going to drink water while training. You must have your own bottle of water with you while training and continually sip from it. I cannot stress how important the water consumption is for muscle building and dieting purposes. Cola drinks and coffee/tea is NOT a substitute for water. They have the OPPOSITE effect and dehydrate your body because they are a mild diuretic.
5. Immediately after training take whey isolate (40g) with water (not milk!) and a medium banana and 5g Glutamine and 200mg ALA. After training your body wants energy and fast absorbing protein. NO fat whatsoever must be taken, not even fat-free milk (which is also a slow release protein).
6. Do not leave out the banana since it is critical for your post workout nutrition. Although a banana is your first choice, you can also consume 200ml – 300ml fruit juice (apple) instead.
7. Again the ALA is optional but if you can afford it, it’s gonna make a difference with your muscle building efforts.

Other supplements?

•Creatine – one of the best supplements to take, although some people complain in makes no difference. Best is to take it with the whey shake directly after training. It is best absorbed when mixed with grapejuice. Some products include everything needed for optimal uptake so be careful to check packaging. Vitargo is generally assumed to be one of the better products.
•Flaxseed Oil – Take in morning with breakfast and at night with evening meal. Benefits to many to mention but overall a great supplement to take for both fat loss and muscle building.
•Saw Palmetto – protect that precious prostate, enough said. Take with breakfast.
•ZMA – good product for healthy testosterone levels, but be sure to take it on a empty stomach at night, 45 minutes before your last bedtime shake.
•ALA – discussed in point 2.
•Multi Vitamin – This is a very important part of your supplement regime. You need a potent combination. I suggest the following two: OPTI-MEN or Universal Animal Pak

When trying to cut down do you prefer to use HIIT or just normal cardio?

First I must state that I have never struggled to loose weight but simply from a health perspective I stick to my 20-min cardio after lifting. The main reason for my low bf% is that I eat VERY little carbs (like in VERY little!). I try to eat a fair amount of good oils (flaxseed oil, extra virgin olive oil, etc.) with every meal. It not only help the cholesterol levels but also in truth HELP you to loose fat weight (obviously when consumed in the right quantities).

Here follows my tips and tricks for low bf% levels

Again, lots and lots of water are critical for a fat-loss environment. High water consumption WILL speed up your fat-loss dramatically. Fat “metabolizes” easier in a high water consumption environment. If you are new to consuming lots of water, then the following is suggested:

•Start out slowly. Fade in your water consumption.
•Expect a lot of toilet runs until such time that your body gets used to the higher water intake.
•Headaches and bad skin could appear but will soon disappear. It is a sign of all the bad stuff being flushed and worked out by your body. You are on your way to become much healthier and your body realizes it.
•NEVER drink water from a plastic bottle after it has stood in the sun or warm environment. Extremely harmful chemicals get released into the water when sun, etc… heat up the plastic container
•NO carbs after 6pm! Your last meal just before bed MUST be a casein slow release protein shake containing near zero carbs. This rule applies irrespect of when you are training – midday or evening.
•Eating every 3 hrs (from waking up to going to bed) means your metabolism is firing continuously, which in turn mean you are burning a lot of energy. Do not underestimate these frequent meals for fat-loss environment. You will also start seeing that your stomach literally shrinks and becomes flatter because it has to deal with less food at a single time.
•Some people have done severe damage to their metabolisms through fad diets. For such people, it might take 1 – 3 months of frequent small meals just to correct their metabolism. U won’t see any benefit until such time that you have aligned and corrected your metabolism.
•Now you may say “but what about your energy levels because u eat so little carbs?” Very true! The trick I use is to inject me every other day (I’ve heard of people doing it on a daily basis) with Vitamin B12 (I use 1cc B-complex and 2cc’s B12 mixed in the same injection) into the bum. Yeah, I know, ouch! But the fact is it gives me a lot of energy and also help with metabolizing fat, thus helping you to cut easier.  (Note: B-complex injection is VERY painful, so it’s wise to mix it as above with vit b12.)
•Does this mean I always have enough energy? Nope! Remember I am 45! But it helps a lot!
•Getting cut inevitably means that you will feel drained of energy. Remember you are literally giving your body less than what it requires. But there is a golden line to be walked.

What is your diet like?

Let’s get one thing straight. No matter how good or hard you train, you will NOT grow if you do not get your diet sorted correctly. Diet makes up easily 80% of your muscle Building Phase success. If you don’t believe me, you WILL learn it the hard way. My diet is designed for a male person who generally does not struggle to loose weight and are only mildly overweight (generally with a BF% of lower than 20%). If you really struggle to loose weight, there is no getting away without weighing food. In such a case, I suggest joining a weight-loss organization to help you monitor you diet and fat loss. They should have plans available for people who want to focus on muscle building and if not, a dietician should be able to help you adapt your diet for muscle building requirements. Please note: The diet has been designed for a male of medium height (1.75m) and weight (77kg). For significantly shorter or taller individuals, the diet must be adjusted accordingly. If you struggle to do this please email me and I will see if I can help. Be warned: This is not a diet to loose weight without training. This will work great to loose unwanted weight BUT ONLY in conjunction with a dedicated and serious training routine. It is an easy-going diet without having to worry too much about sizes and weighing stuff. The diet is also designed in such a fashion to limit preparation time to the absolute minimum. Just to give you a quick overview, here follows 2 examples of a typical day dieting program. The first with training in the middle of day and the second with training in the evenings.

Typical day sample – training middle of day.

07h00  – (waking up) 1 scoop (20g) whey and 1 scoop casein (20g) protein shake with water.
07h30  – bowl of oats (80g uncooked weight) with fat-free milk and 2 tablespoons honey.
11h00  – 4 egg whites, 1 scoop whey (20g) with 400ml water & medium apple.
12h30  – 2 scoops whey (40g) with 400ml water & 10g Glutamine.
Workout: Directly after workout – 2 scoops whey (40g) with 400ml water & 10g Glutamine + 1 medium banana.
17h00  – 2 scoops casein protein (40g) with 400ml water.
19h00  – small evening meal. No starches.
•Only veggies/salad and protein (fillet, chicken or fish – 150g).
•No butter and very limited salt with veggies/salad.
•Use liberal (2 spoons) amounts of extra virgin olive oil with salad/veggies.
22h00  – (bedtime) 2 scoops casein (40g) shake with 400ml water.

Typical days sample – training in evening.

07h00  – (waking up) 1 scoop whey (20g) and 1 scoop casein (20g) protein shake with water.
07h30  – 4 wheetbix pieces with fat-free milk and 2 tablespoons honey.
11h00  – 4 egg whites, 1 scoop whey (20g) with 400ml water & medium peach.
14h00  – Large starch-free salad with protein (fillet, chicken or fish – 150g). Use liberal (2 spoons) amounts of extra virgin olive oil with salad.
16h30  – 2 scoops casein protein (40g) with 400ml water.
18h00  – (Just before workout) 2 scoops whey powder (40g) with 400ml water & 10g Glutamine
Workout: Directly after workout – 2 scoops whey powder (40g) with 400ml water & 10g Glutamine + 1 medium banana
22h00  – (bedtime) 2 scoops casein shake (40g) with 400ml water.

More Tips:

•It is critical that you do not eat starches after 18h00 in the evening. That means no rice, pasta, bread, rusks, potato, etc…
•The protein portion must be a solid food and is typically the size of your fist in volume.
•Critical that the protein portions must be fat-less. Choose chicken fillet, beef fillet or fish.
•Be careful to use sauces over protein. It adds a lot of unwanted calories. Rather use herbs and spices liberally and things like squeezed lemon juice, basic gravy sauce. Try also to cooked the chicken in orange juice for a tangy change.
•You are allowed a large salad portion. But we are only talking basic salad here, no fancy stuff. Only, green leafs, tomato, cucumber, gherkin, seeds, very little nuts and some parmesan shavings allowed. Use 2 spoons of extra virgin olive oil over salad. For a something different, also use Balsamic vinegar to taste. It goes especially nice with the olive oil.
•Cooked and raw veggies are allowed. Note: Potato and sweet potato does NOT fall into the veggies group.
•Butter and salt is generally a taboo. However, over veggies you can use a tablespoon of butter for taste purposes. You are allowed salt but very sparingly.

Points of note:

1.Try staying away from diet Carbonated drinks and too much coffee (only 2 cups allowed daily with fat-free milk and no sugar). Both these items act as a mild diuretic and means that you will have to drink even more water to replace the water lost as a result. Plus the sweeteners used in diet carbonated drinks is simply unhealthy!
2.Do NOT skip a meal. This is the no. 1 enemy for Building Phase muscles.
3.Do NOT eat more than the suggested amounts or you will gain fat.
4.Do NOT eat less than the suggested amounts or you will struggle to build muscles.
5.Eat your meals even if you feel full!
6.Your meals must be spaced between 3-4 hours apart.
7.Sorry, NO alcohol allowed during the week and weekends only one glass of wine or 1 beer per day. Alcohol is a big enemy of dieting and building muscles. Cutting it out completely is the best option.
8.Smoking? You cannot be successful at building muscles and continue smoking; the two opposes each other. It’s a great habit to stop if you wanna better yourself.
9.Sweets & chocolate. Sorry, but they are out.
10.Cheat meal? Once a week (only one meal). Do not stuff yourself (important), but have a sit-down meal and eat whatever your tastebuds feel like including your favorite dessert. Preferably leave this for the weekend.

Plans for the future?

I’ve had it with this athletic, slim model, 6-pack look. I want some serious size with some badass muscle (if God’s will). Maybe easier said than done…so let’s see what happens. I have no planes to take part in competitive bodybuilding, but do not exclude it totally either. Right now my time is best spend with my wife and kid.

Favourite Bodybuilders?

Gary Strydom, Lee Haney, Maruis Dohne

Favourite Quote?

True wisdom and knowledge start with reverence for God.

Bodyspace: http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/GertLouw

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