HANSEN AND SANOWS OVER 40 FORUM

Hey Everyone,

Since there are so many questions from many of you guys (and gals) about training and nutrition for the Over 40 crowd, I was asked to start my own thread on this subject. I will be posting articles relating to nutrition and training specifically for those Over 40 on this thread. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them here.

Remember, you're only as old as you feel!

John Hansen

The Importance of Recuperation

How much rest you need from each workout varies as you get older. When we are younger, we can train almost every day and thrive off the exercise. We can even train each muscle group 2-3 times a week because the recuperation factor is much faster.

When I started training at the age of 14, I had no idea how many days a week or how often I should train. I read the book “Pumping Iron” and they detailed the training routine that Arnold was following in preparation for the Mr. Olympia contest in the book. Arnold was training each muscle group three days a week and he was training six days a week, sometimes twice a day. This is the training routine that Arnold Schwarzenegger was following:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday – Chest, Back (morning)
Abs, Legs (night)

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday – Deltoids, Triceps, Biceps (morning)

Since my goal was to develop my physique to look exactly like Arnold, I decided to follow his exact training. Since I was a freshman in high school, this meant I had to get up at 5:00 am in order to get my morning workout in and then train right when I got home from school.

Even though I was grossly overtraining for a beginner, I still gained 20 pounds of muscle in my first year of training. When I started training the summer before I began high school, I weighed a skinny 135 pounds. The following summer, I had increased my weight to 155 pounds.

Arnold had a question and answer column each month in Muscle Builder magazine at that time and I would anxiously read it every month. One month, Arnold was asked a question about how many days a week one should workout if they wanted to bulk up and gain muscle mass. Arnold responded that the ideal routine to get bigger was to train four days a week, training each muscle group twice a week. He said that the training routine he followed to get ready for the Mr. Olympia contest (the same training program I was using) was designed to refine his physique for a competition, not to build muscle mass.

Realizing my mistake, I immediately changed my training routine. I began training chest, back and arms on Monday and Thursday and legs and shoulders on Tuesday and Friday. Now, I was training each muscle group twice a week as opposed to three times a week. The extra recuperation time allowed my muscles to get stronger and, as a result, bigger.

When I began competing in bodybuilding contests as a teenager, I went back to the six days a week training when I was getting ready for a contest. In between contests, I would cut back my training to four days a week. I competed a lot as a teenager, entering 10 shows in three years.

When I reached 20 years of age, I was no longer eligible to compete in the teenage competitions and I knew I needed to get much bigger before I entered the open category against the big boys. I needed to bulk up!

For my bulk up period, I returned to the four day a week program, training each muscle group twice a week. I changed my routine so I was training all the “pushing muscles” twice a week and all the “pulling muscles” twice a week. Here is how my routine looked:

Monday, Thursday - Chest, Deltoids, Triceps, Calves
Tuesday, Friday - Legs, Back, Biceps, Forearms

Since I was concentrating on using the basic exercises like squats, deadlifts, barbell rows, power cleans, bench presses, incline presses, etc, my workouts were long and grueling. They would last over 2 ½ hours each session and I was exhausted after completing each workout.

By focusing on the basics and pushing myself to train as heavy as possible for 6-8 reps each exercise, I began to add more size and strength. I went from 175 pounds (my weight at my last teenage contest) to 205 pounds in only six months. From here, I continued to gain mass and bodyweight and I added another 25 pounds over the next year, reaching 230 pounds by the time I was 21 years old.

Now that I had developed the size and bodyweight that I needed to compete in the open men’s division, I changed my training program to allow for more recuperation. Instead of training my whole body over two days, I stretched out my training program over three days instead. Here is how my new training program looked:

Day 1 – Chest, Arms, Calves
Day 2 – Abs, Legs
Day 3 – Deltoids, Back, Calves
Day 4 - Rest

This new program allowed me to train my legs by themselves. This made a big difference because the legs are such a demanding and large bodypart. They require lots of weight and high intensity in order to properly train them and it was a nice change of pace to train them alone instead of with back and biceps.

Using this routine, I was training each bodypart every four days instead of three days. I placed third in the heavyweight class of NPC Illinois State at 22 years of age and was starting to develop my physique by training the body over three days instead of two.

The following year, I made another change to my training program. I decided to train my body over four days instead of three. Now, I would be training each bodypart every five days instead of four days. I found that as I increased my muscle size and strength, I needed more days of rest before training that bodypart again. Here is how my new routine looked:

Day 1 – Chest, Triceps, Calves
Day 2 – Abs, Legs
Day 3 – Delts, Traps and Calves
Day 4 – Back, Biceps

I was 23 years old at this point and I made great progress using this routine. After training like this for a full year, I won the NPC Illinois State Championships and the NPC Mid-America Championships. I liked the idea of training the body over four days because I was able to really train each bodypart intensely without training too many muscle groups in one workout.

Over the years, I stayed with the four day training split but I began to add more rest days as I got older. The first change I made was to insert a rest day after two days of training. This gave each muscle group six days of rest instead of five. This is how I modified my training routine:

Day 1 – Chest, Triceps, Calves
Day 2 – Abs, Legs
Day 3 – Rest
Day 4 – Delts, Traps and Calves
Day 5 – Back, Biceps
Day 6 – Rest

I continued to train like this until I reached my mid-30’s. At this point, I decided to add yet another rest day to give each muscle group a full seven days between workouts. I now took two rest days after training back and biceps. Since I was now on a seven day routine, my workout schedule fit in well with my work schedule and it became easier to plan each week around my workouts.

Monday – Chest, Triceps and Calves
Tuesday – Abs, Legs
Wednesday – Rest
Thursday – Delts, Traps and Calves
Friday – Back, Biceps
Saturday – Rest
Sunday – Rest

One other difference I noticed as I got older was that my joints and tendons needed more time to rest than they did when I was younger. If I tried cutting back on the rest days so I was training each muscle group more frequently, I would feel the pain in my joints. My elbows and knees would protest if I trained each muscle group with less than 6-7 days between workouts.

If seven days of rest was too much for some muscle groups, I was able to get around this problem by adding a light, pumping workout for that same muscle group only 3-4 days after training it heavy.

For example, when I was competing in 2004, I needed to bring up my legs to match my upper body. In order to give this muscle group more work without straining my knees or lower back too much, I added in a “light” leg workout on Saturday, 4 days after my heavy leg workout on Tuesday.

For my light leg workout, I would start off with 3-4 sets of leg extensions but I would do them for high reps in order to get a burn and pump in the quadriceps. After getting a great pump in my quads (and fully warming up my knees), I would superset leg presses for high reps with sissy squats. The leg presses would further pump up the legs and the sissy squats focused on developing the muscles of the upper thighs. Three to four sets of his superset would really engorge the leg muscles with blood without straining the lower back or knees with heavy squats or leg presses. To finish off my workout, I would do 3 sets of dumbbell lunges to finish off the quads and train the glutes.

When I competed in the contest, I was pleasantly surprised to see my legs much improved with more development in the upper thighs and a more pronounced leg sweep. In fact, I won the overall title against two other competitors who were very ripped and conditioned but had inferior leg development in comparison to me. There was no doubt in my mind that the second leg workout in the week helped to add in more detail and sweep to my legs which made the difference when it came to winning.

I recommend this practice of adding a second, “light” workout for any muscle group that is lagging for those who follow a once a week program for training each muscle group. For the other muscle groups, training each bodypart once every six to seven days seems to be ideal for complete recuperation and less stress on the joints and tendons.

Awesome!

Hey guys Im not the writer John is but I will try to answer your questions to the best of my ability,which hopefully won't be to bad coming from this old man haha. Between John an myself theirs about 60 yrs of experience an knowledge to answer you guys an gals with, an for me working with John will be a honor!

Carb Cycling

Everybody knows the importance of carbohydrates when it comes to building the body. Carbs are the preferred source of energy by the body and anyone who has followed a low-carb diet for an extended period of time knows how much of a difference carbohydrates make when it comes to energy and power.
In addition to providing energy, carbs also help in the muscle recuperation process. Carbohydrates are stored in the muscle cells as glycogen and your body draws on this glycogen as a source of fuel during a workout. After a workout is completed, carbs are shuttled into the muscle cells along with amino acids to repair the damaged muscle tissues.
However, carbohydrates are also viewed as the enemy when it comes to creating a lean, muscular physique. Too many carbs equals too much bodyfat. Those who are attempting to lose fat are told to also lose the carbs from their diet in order to accomplish their goal.
With so many conflicting viewpoints on the issue of carbohydrates, what is the most beneficial method of using carbohydrates in the diet? One method that many bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts employ is the Carb Cycling method.

What is Carb Cycling?
Carb Cycling involves varying the amount of carbohydrates consumed in the diet in order to achieve the benefits of carbohydrates without taking in too many carbs, which can lead to fat deposition on the body. In other words, you consume enough carbohydrates on the days you need them for energy and muscle recuperation and then you cut back on your carb intake on the days you don’t require as many carbohydrates.
Carb Cycling can be used when you are trying to get bigger and bulk up or if your goal is to get cut up and lose bodyfat. If you eat a lot of carbohydrates every day in an attempt to get bigger, you may consume too many carbs and end up adding unwanted bodyfat. Although a little bodyfat is acceptable when trying to gain weight, you don’t want to put on more fat than muscle.
If your goal is to lose bodyfat, you don’t want to go to the other extreme and cut your carbohydrate consumption back so much that you sacrifice muscle tissue. Carbohydrates are necessary for energy during your workout and they do greatly enhance the recuperation process. If you don’t eat enough carbohydrates when trying to get more ripped, you will eventually end up losing muscle.

Carb Cycling for Losing Fat
There are many methods to use when cycling carbohydrates. One approach to use when eating to lose fat is to consume a low amount of carbohydrates for a certain number of days (usually 4-7 days) before eating a high number of carbohydrates for one or two days. The low intake of carbs is designed to essentially “starve” the fat cells to achieve the ripped look. Carbing up again on the high carb day will re-fill the glycogen stores of the muscles and stimulate the metabolism to continue the fat-loss process.
Another method of carb cycling to use when dieting to lose bodyfat is to eat more carbohydrates on the days you train and less carbs on the days you don’t train. I personally use this method of carb cycling myself when I am dieting. I eat as many as 200-210 grams of carbohydrates on the days I train and I limit my carbs to 150-160 grams of carbs on my rest days. I discovered that alternating my carbohydrate intake like this tends to increase my metabolism and speed up my fat loss.
Example of Carb Cycling
Monday – Training Day – Consume 210 grams of carbohydrates
Tuesday – Training Day – Consume 200 grams of carbohydrates
Wednesday – Rest Day – Consume 150 grams of carbohydrates
Thursday – Training Day – Consume 200 grams of carbohydrates
Friday – Training Day – Consume 210 grams of carbohydrates
Saturday – Rest Day – Consume 150 grams of carbohydrates
Sunday – Rest Day – Consume 160 grams of carbohydrates

Average Weekly Carbohydrate Intake – 183 grams

Carb Cycling for Adding Weight
Although the idea of alternating your carbohydrate intake is ideal for losing bodyfat, it also works when trying to add bodyweight and gain muscle. Eating more complex carbohydrates is one of the keys to getting bigger and adding muscle tissue. Protein builds muscle tissue but adding more carbs to the diet helps to increase glycogen storage in the muscle cells as well as providing more energy for the workouts.
When eating to gain weight and get bigger, it is accepted that some bodyfat will be added to the physique. After all, it would be an impossible and frustratingly slow process to add only muscle tissue without adding any bodyfat. Building muscle requires more calories than normal. An excess of good quality protein, carbohydrates and fats, as well as calories, puts the body in an anabolic state after stimulating the muscles with intense weight training sessions.
Eating an excessive amount of calories and carbohydrates day in and day out may result in too much bodyfat deposition, however. Although those with fast metabolisms may need to eat a lot of calories and carbohydrates every day in order to get bigger, some people are better off cycling the amount of carbohydrates they consume to add more muscle without putting on too much fat. Here is an example of how carbohydrate consumption can be cycled during a bulking up diet:

Bodyweight Carb intake-4 days Carb intake-8 days
160 240-280 400-560
170 255-298 425-595
180 270-315 450-630
190 285-333 475-665
200 300-350 500-700
210 315-368 525-735
220 330-385 550-770
230 345-403 575-805
240 360-420 600-840

This chart estimates your carbohydrate consumption based on bodyweight. On the lower carb days, you would eat 1.5–1.75 grams of carbohydrates for each pound of bodyweight for four days. After the lower carb days, you would increase carbohydrate consumption to 2.5-3.5 grams of carbs for each pound of bodyweight for an eight day period.
These low and high carb days can be adjusted depending on your goals and metabolism. If you find that you are gaining fat too quickly but still want to eat a higher carb diet to add more muscle and size, you can alternate four days of lower carbs with four days of higher carbs. You may need to experiment a little to find out the program that works best for your body and your goals.

Carbohydrates are a valuable component in the search for a better physique. To get the maximum benefit from carbs, give Carb Cycling a try to increase muscle mass without adding unwanted bodyfat. Your body will thank you!

What I've always suggested is to go by your bodyweight and not just a set number. I recommend .7 grams of carbs for each pound of bodyweight for your non-training days and .95 grams of carbs for each pound of bodyweight on your training days. For example, if you weigh 200 pounds, you would consume about 140 grams of carbs on your rest days (.7 x 200) and 190 grams of carbs on your training days (.95 x 200). This is an unscientific method of mine but it's worked good for me and my clients. Just remember to increase your protein if you are cutting back your carbs and trying to lose bodyfat. I would suggest 1.25 to 1.5 grams of protein for each pound of bodyweight. If you weighed 200 pounds, you would eat 250-300 grams of protein per day.