Guidance?

[aficarra]

I'm 18 and training to compete in powerlifting for my college. I've never used an universal Animal product before and was wondering if i could get pointed in the right direction to achieve my full potential.
My current weight is 240
height: 5'9
Diet: As of right now im on a cutting diet so high protien and low carbs

My supplements consist of whey protien, casien protien, Force Factor (nitric oxide), and hydroxycut

Anything would be helpful and greatly appreciated. Thanks for all your help in advance.

Andrew Ficarra

[Shawn Rainey]

I'm 18 and training to compete in powerlifting for my college. I've never used an universal Animal product before and was wondering if i could get pointed in the right direction to achieve my full potential.
My current weight is 240
height: 5'9
Diet: As of right now im on a cutting diet so high protien and low carbs

My supplements consist of whey protien, casien protien, Force Factor (nitric oxide), and hydroxycut

Anything would be helpful and greatly appreciated. Thanks for all your help in advance.

Andrew Ficarra

Hey hows it going Andrew?

Well we could probly help you a lot better if we knew your current strength levels as this could give you and idea of what kind of training. Also being 18 years old there a ton of supplements you need unless your chemically deficient already. Main thing is eating right and working out hard.

What does your training look like?

Ill do my best to help, btw its always awesome to see someone new to the game of power lifting. You guys are who keep the sport going and make it so great.

[aficarra]

Hey hows it going Andrew?

Well we could probly help you a lot better if we knew your current strength levels as this could give you and idea of what kind of training. Also being 18 years old there a ton of supplements you need unless your chemically deficient already. Main thing is eating right and working out hard.

What does your training look like?

Ill do my best to help, btw its always awesome to see someone new to the game of power lifting. You guys are who keep the sport going and make it so great.

Well when on my mass gaining diet my bench sky rocketed to 335 but since i have ben on my high protien low carb diet i'm struggling to get 315. As for Squat and deadlift maxes i'm not entirely sure, The most I have ever gone on deadlift was about 405 and my squat is probably around 365.

My training split is sort of a bodybuilders where i try to isolate my muscle groups.

Monday: Back
Tuesday : Shoulders
Wednesday: Legs
Thursday: Chest
Friday: Arms
Saturday: rest day
Sunday: Cardio and abs

I usually do about 20 min of cardio after each of my wrokouts as well as some abs or i attend an abs class.
If you need any other info let me know.

[Shawn Rainey]

Ok as far as supplements your doing good, Just try to make sure your getting at least 1 gram of protein per lbs of LBM. you also could try tossing in some creatine, this has always worked wonders for me, but you will put on about 5 or so lbs of extra water weight. So if you need to cut weight right before a meet you need to stop taking it a few weeks out.

As your work out routine goes I would change it defiantly to make it more power lifter oriented to achieve maximal benefit out of it. Here I will show you what I do.

Monday - Back and Shoulders ( alternate weeks on Heavy deads and speed deads or use the speed dead week to work more accessory's. Should never do week after week of heavy dead lifting)

Tuesday - Speed Bench Day and Heavy Tricep
Wensday - OFF
Thursday - Squats ( Alternate weeks on Heavy and speed squats )
Fridays - OFF
Saturdays - Max Effort Bench and Light Tricep
Sunday - OFF

Heavy days most of your sets should be 3 reps with a max of 5 reps, and speed days I go any where from 5 to 12 reps most of the time maybe toss in my last set for a burn out if I feel squirly that day!

After a few weeks of strait weight you can add band and/or chains to your speed days, and you can change it up, one week would be just chains, next just bands, next bolth at the same time then back to strait weight ect.

just remember that changing your work outs will keep you from hitting as many platu's and also the bands and chains can defiantly help in avoiding injury. ( The injury thing is a whole new 10 paragraphs I can go into another time if you wish )

Oh and the reason I chose this layout for my work out is because of the key rest days and were they are placed within the cycle. This way you have full days off between your max effort days and major muscle groups. and the only one that doesn't is the back and shoulder day to the speed bench day. and since your not pushing past about 50% to 55% of your max it keeps the risk of injury to your shoulders to a minimum. Rest is one of the major keys to being successful in power lifting.

Just remember to keep the protein up and you could try some creatine. are you going down to the 220 class or 242? because if your intent is to lift 220 its not bad to train at 240 and cut to 220 if you have 24 hour weigh-ins like most org's do. If your planing on going 220 and there same day weigh-ins you need to get to 228 to 231. with 8 to 11 lbs to cut can be done safely and effectively to make weight and still keep your strength. If they are 24 hour weigh-ins 20 lbs cut isn't to hard ether to recover from. its more about timing and rehidrating as quickly as possible. I do this all the time.

Hope this helps..

[aficarra]

Ok as far as supplements your doing good, Just try to make sure your getting at least 1 gram of protein per lbs of LBM. you also could try tossing in some creatine, this has always worked wonders for me, but you will put on about 5 or so lbs of extra water weight. So if you need to cut weight right before a meet you need to stop taking it a few weeks out.

As your work out routine goes I would change it defiantly to make it more power lifter oriented to achieve maximal benefit out of it. Here I will show you what I do.

Monday - Back and Shoulders ( alternate weeks on Heavy deads and speed deads or use the speed dead week to work more accessory's. Should never do week after week of heavy dead lifting)

Tuesday - Speed Bench Day and Heavy Tricep
Wensday - OFF
Thursday - Squats ( Alternate weeks on Heavy and speed squats )
Fridays - OFF
Saturdays - Max Effort Bench and Light Tricep
Sunday - OFF

Heavy days most of your sets should be 3 reps with a max of 5 reps, and speed days I go any where from 5 to 12 reps most of the time maybe toss in my last set for a burn out if I feel squirly that day!

After a few weeks of strait weight you can add band and/or chains to your speed days, and you can change it up, one week would be just chains, next just bands, next bolth at the same time then back to strait weight ect.

just remember that changing your work outs will keep you from hitting as many platu's and also the bands and chains can defiantly help in avoiding injury. ( The injury thing is a whole new 10 paragraphs I can go into another time if you wish )

Oh and the reason I chose this layout for my work out is because of the key rest days and were they are placed within the cycle. This way you have full days off between your max effort days and major muscle groups. and the only one that doesn't is the back and shoulder day to the speed bench day. and since your not pushing past about 50% to 55% of your max it keeps the risk of injury to your shoulders to a minimum. Rest is one of the major keys to being successful in power lifting.

Just remember to keep the protein up and you could try some creatine. are you going down to the 220 class or 242? because if your intent is to lift 220 its not bad to train at 240 and cut to 220 if you have 24 hour weigh-ins like most org's do. If your planing on going 220 and there same day weigh-ins you need to get to 228 to 231. with 8 to 11 lbs to cut can be done safely and effectively to make weight and still keep your strength. If they are 24 hour weigh-ins 20 lbs cut isn't to hard ether to recover from. its more about timing and rehidrating as quickly as possible. I do this all the time.

Hope this helps..

I've heard of that split before but i've had some questions about it.
like What exercises do you do for your speed days/heavy days?
and on your off days do you do nothing? or do you do cardio and abs?

As for what class i would like to compete in is 220.
I apologize for asking so many questions i just like to get all my bases covered.

[ghost]

as far as training... Shawn has you going in the right direction.

as far as the packs, pick up some Animal Pak for your daily multi, some Flex... because our joints are ubber important. and some Pump. that should get you going to where you are looking to get.

[aficarra]

as far as training... Shawn has you going in the right direction.

as far as the packs, pick up some Animal Pak for your daily multi, some Flex... because our joints are ubber important. and some Pump. that should get you going to where you are looking to get.

Thanks victor, now just to make sure these won't show up on a piss test will they?

[aficarra]

Also what should my diet look like?

[ghost]

Thanks victor, now just to make sure these won't show up on a piss test will they?

None of our supplements contain anything illegal. I work for the federal govt and am piss tested monthly, and have been taking animal/universal supplements for 10 years.

[aficarra]

None of our supplements contain anything illegal. I work for the federal govt and am piss tested monthly, and have been taking animal/universal supplements for 10 years.

oh ok, I just wanted to make sure I am still new to Universal/Animal products

[Shawn Rainey]

oh ok, I just wanted to make sure I am still new to Universal/Animal products

yeah all the stuff here is good stuff, sorry when I was saying you don't need much as far as sup's go I was referring to the cycle pack stuff. animal stack, m stack, cuts and test. of course none of these are going to hurt you or be negative in anyway. but I would say get some of basic's they are a must for your joints and your body as a whole!

On your rest days if you do cardio and abs that is totally fine, you can do thou's if you want every day. Some people sometimes tend to lose strength thou when doing to much cardio. I really never saw a strength decrease. only thing that was bad for me when I was doing tons of cardio is my Gear didn't fit right, due to loosing some mass. if I loose just half an inch in the chest for example I notice a major difference in my shirt performance and the shirt doesn't always seem to stay where I want it.

As far as excersies I do for speed and heavy days, there a lot of the times the same. Speed days I normally keep the weights around 55% of my max. If I feel like I want more weight I will put on more chains. or add more bands. This will give you more weight at the top of the movement but much less at the bottom. This way I can concentrate on using maximal force in the movement. This will teach bar speed. This is key to increasing your strength curve and getting thou sticking points.

Basicly on Max Effort days for Bench I will just do about 6 to 10 sets of Heavy Benches with 3 reps each set. trying to get my last 3 sets at maximum weight for thous 3 reps for each set. then Ill do maybe 20 min of tri work. nothing hard.

On Speed bench day I will do more benches but with concentration on exploding with each rep. trying to toss myself off the bench with the force i put thou the bar. Remember to try to push your hands thou the bar not to push the bar. The Idea here is to build speed. then I will do maybe band push ups or chain push ups, then maybe band dumbbell presses. at least 60% of your day should be speed on this day then I normally finish with a few heavy tricep movement, cable press downs or kennellys or even close grip 3 or 4 board benches. and thous should be heavy weight.

[aficarra]

yeah all the stuff here is good stuff, sorry when I was saying you don't need much as far as sup's go I was referring to the cycle pack stuff. animal stack, m stack, cuts and test. of course none of these are going to hurt you or be negative in anyway. but I would say get some of basic's they are a must for your joints and your body as a whole!

On your rest days if you do cardio and abs that is totally fine, you can do thou's if you want every day. Some people sometimes tend to lose strength thou when doing to much cardio. I really never saw a strength decrease. only thing that was bad for me when I was doing tons of cardio is my Gear didn't fit right, due to loosing some mass. if I loose just half an inch in the chest for example I notice a major difference in my shirt performance and the shirt doesn't always seem to stay where I want it.

As far as excersies I do for speed and heavy days, there a lot of the times the same. Speed days I normally keep the weights around 55% of my max. If I feel like I want more weight I will put on more chains. or add more bands. This will give you more weight at the top of the movement but much less at the bottom. This way I can concentrate on using maximal force in the movement. This will teach bar speed. This is key to increasing your strength curve and getting thou sticking points.

Basicly on Max Effort days for Bench I will just do about 6 to 10 sets of Heavy Benches with 3 reps each set. trying to get my last 3 sets at maximum weight for thous 3 reps for each set. then Ill do maybe 20 min of tri work. nothing hard.

On Speed bench day I will do more benches but with concentration on exploding with each rep. trying to toss myself off the bench with the force i put thou the bar. Remember to try to push your hands thou the bar not to push the bar. The Idea here is to build speed. then I will do maybe band push ups or chain push ups, then maybe band dumbbell presses. at least 60% of your day should be speed on this day then I normally finish with a few heavy tricep movement, cable press downs or kennellys or even close grip 3 or 4 board benches. and thous should be heavy weight.

Ok thanks man i really appreciate all the help.
I just have one more question... What should my diet be looking like?

[ghost]

yeah all the stuff here is good stuff, sorry when I was saying you don't need much as far as sup's go I was referring to the cycle pack stuff. animal stack, m stack, cuts and test. of course none of these are going to hurt you or be negative in anyway. but I would say get some of basic's they are a must for your joints and your body as a whole!

while true, stak is not recommended for anyone under 25, and test is recommended for 21+


but the basics of Pak, Flex, Omega, Pump... always staples.

[Shawn Rainey]

while true, stak is not recommended for anyone under 25, and test is recommended for 21+


but the basics of Pak, Flex, Omega, Pump... always staples.

yeah I agree with you 100% that is what I ment by my 1st couple of posts, thanks for clarifying for me!

and I will give you some ideas on diet here in a bit, im just in the process of downloading videos from todays squat work out to post online so as soon as I get that up and my blog done for the day Ill get back to you on this....

[aficarra]

yeah I agree with you 100% that is what I ment by my 1st couple of posts, thanks for clarifying for me!

and I will give you some ideas on diet here in a bit, im just in the process of downloading videos from todays squat work out to post online so as soon as I get that up and my blog done for the day Ill get back to you on this....

thank you very much i appreciate it guys!

[Shawn Rainey]

Hey No Problem....

Basicly as far as diet goes It sounds like you have it down. High protein and low carb. Personally I pretty much eat what I want and eat a lot. Of course I try to stay away from just crap food thou, like brownies and candy and crap like that because its pretty much useless, but if I goto a movie or something I cheat, its ok I don't do it all the time. When im trying lose weight say for a meet Ill try to watch my fat intake a bit more but other than that I just eat as much meat as I can get in my mouth on a daily basis. At least 4 to 6 lbs of beef a day and probly a 2-4 lbs of chicken. of course thous can even be fliped floped as well. then I take in about 2 - 3, 50 gram protien shakes a day plus maybe half a gallon of milk daily and milk has decent protein content and other good stuff in it. Basicly Im not anal about what I eat unless I need to cut a lot of weight for a meet. Just try to stay away from the crap and work hard in the gym. If you do all that cardio that you plan on doing and all the lifting you will loose weight as long as you keep your fat intake down.