Q&A with Stuart, Batch #3
Copyright 2006 by Stuart McRobert

CABLE CROSSOVERS
Q: I'm 155 pounds bodyweight, and love the cable crossover, but my pecs haven't grown for several years. What am I doing wrong?

A: You're in love with the wrong exercise! The cable crossover isn't a mass builder. Build your pecs first, which will require at least 20 to 30 additional pounds of muscle on your overall physique, and THEN you can try the crossover, to refine the mass. To build your chest musculature, confine yourself to the flat bench press OR parallel bar dip, AND perhaps a low-incline bench press, too. And you'll also need to use some of the best exercises for the rest of your physique. Then, focus on getting stronger, and stronger still. Adding 50 pounds to your bench press, for example, for six reps using correct technique, will do more for building pec size than any work on the cable crossover.

The questioner is typical of most bodybuilders -- he's training at a level he's not qualified for. It's no wonder that he hasn't gained any muscle for several years.

INCLINE DUMBBELL CURLS
Q: A training partner of mine uses 80-pound dumbbells for incline curls, and I use 45-pounders albeit in excellent technique, but his biceps aren't as well developed as mine. His technique is a bit sloppy, but still, shouldn't his biceps be bigger than mine?

A: I bet his incline curl technique is a lot worse than "a bit" sloppy. He'll be working his delts and pecs more than he's working his biceps, and using a big heave to get the dumbbells moving. He's on a poundage trip, rather than a biceps trip.

Most bodybuilders use more weight than they can handle correctly, and not just for curls; and as a result they don't work their muscles properly. That you have bigger biceps than your friend's, despite his manhandling bigger dumbbells, says it all.

Even when correct technique is used, and even when comparing two bodybuilders of the same size, one of them could be substantially stronger. There are a number of genetically determined factors that influence strength. Potential muscle size in only one of them.

The biggest muscles aren't the strongest, and the strongest muscles aren't the biggest. Nevertheless, train for strength, in correct technique, and see how far you can go.

FORWARD RAISE
Q: Do I need to include the forward raise in my program?

A: No. The forward raise, with either a barbell or pair of dumbbells, primarily hits the front deltoid. The bench press and overhead press give the front deltoid plenty of work. Typically, the front delts are better developed than the side and rear delts, and thus the front delts don't need further work. Provided you include a row in your program, your rear delts should be well worked. Include the lateral raise rather than the forward raise, and include the L-fly, too. The L-fly works the much neglected rotator cuff muscles, to help produce more balanced strength throughout the shoulder girdle and reduce the chance of injury to the shoulders.

CALF MACHINE OPTIONS
Q: I want to start training calves in my home gym. I need to buy one calf machine. Which do you recommend?

A: I wouldn't buy a calf machine. I'd keep the money for an exercise that can't be easily and safely done with free weights. For calves, I'd use the single-legged calf raise. I don't think any calf machine exercise can beat that one. All you need is an adjustable dumbbell, or a set of fixed-weight dumbbells, and a stable block at least four inches tall, or a step. Hold the dumbbell on the same side as the working calf. With the other hand, hold something at about chest height, for balance.

MASS MONSTERS
Q: I've been a fan of bodybuilding for many years. But over recent years it seems like bodybuilding has become more of a freak show than a display of aesthetically developed muscle. And I shudder to think of the damage today's mass monsters are doing to their health as they build such excesses. What do you think?

A: If you consider bodybuilding at the grassroots, it's still the greatest means by which people can transform themselves physically. And that's where my main bodybuilding concern rests -- helping to educate the average person on how to become the best he or she possibly can, while training naturally.

Bodybuilding at the elite competition level is where the mass monsters come in, to use your term. "Mass monsters" is, however, a relative term. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mike Mentzer and Bertil Fox were mass monsters in their era, but they wouldn't be by today's pro standards.

Even as a young man in the seventies and eighties, when I was a bodybuilding fanatic, I admired most of all the aesthetic, non-massive physiques of the time. Frank Zane was my favorite. I could relate to Zane. Relative to the average guy, Zane was big, but relative to Mentzer, Fox, and Schwarzenegger, for example, he was small. Although Zane wasn't a hard gainer, and he had great potential for bodybuilding, he didn't have the genetics for mass that most of his competitive peers had. He was successful because of his definition, aesthetics, balance, presentation, etc. But in today's world, where mass seems to rule, Zane at his best would probably not even place in an open regional competition.

Achieving bodybuilding extremes takes a great toll, as the individuals disregard their health. When young and vigorous, and seemingly indestructible, big risks are often taken with little or no consideration for future repercussions. Don't mess with your health! The older you get, the more you'll appreciate the importance of good health. For many people it's only when they no longer have their health that they fully appreciate the value of health. Don't be like them.

There are many former bodybuilders who messed up their health with drug and training abuse, and paid a heavy price. Past memories of how they used to look matter little if at all as they battle with major health problems.

If I could give only one piece of advice, to bodybuilders (and non-bodybuilders), it would be this: Look after your health, because it's your most important possession! Don't do anything that will undermine your health. Don't smoke, don't drink more than two or three beers or glasses of wine a day, don't take recreational drugs, and don't take performance enhancing drugs. Do eat healthily, exercise regularly and safely, and sleep well. And find work and relationships that make you happy.

While I made many mistakes with my training and nutrition when I was young, I never got into drugs. While I injured myself repeatedly from training ignorance and foolishness, I had enough sense to stay drug-free. Thus, now, in my middle age, I'm not having to deal with drug-related health problems, unlike many of my peers who, for example, took steroids.

Train for health and physique, not just physique -- that's what real bodybuilding is, in my view. This isn't an old-fashioned philosophy. It's a sensible philosophy. Health comes first. You may not believe it now, if you're young, but you will believe it later on, when you're not so young. Be the best you can, but WITHOUT taking any extreme measures.

You can have a brilliant physique WITHOUT being huge. Hardly anyone has the freakish genetics required for monster development. For average-height men, while you may need to be 250+ pounds at only 5% bodyfat to turn the judges' eyes today in big contests, "just" 190 pounds and 10% bodyfat will drop the jaws of almost everyone else. And that latter sort of physique would have won you big contests 40+ years ago.

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