John Berardi - Gang of Five, Dec 2001 (Text Version)

Gang of Five - Dec 2001
By John M Berardi
First published at www.t-mag.com

Get a job!

Q. My true love in life involves both the scientific and applied knowledge of physique/performance enhancement. Could you point out some career paths that would allow me to make a living doing what I love? Also, what kind of training/education is required?

A. Mine too! Working in academia as well as the bodybuilding/sports nutrition industry is so cool for me. It's amazing to be doing what you love. For me this includes conducting university research, teaching undergraduate classes, writing for fitness and bodybuilding publications, designing nutritional supplements, consulting with sports nutrition companies, and consulting with professional and Olympic athletes. And these are just a few of the available options for you.

The road to achieving my goals, however, hasn't always been easy. For starters, no one really encouraged my decision to pursue this career. People always told me things like "there is no money in that" and "you'll grow out of all that muscle stuff". Well, as I now can attest, I certainly haven't grown out of it. And, even better, now I can afford all the muscle building tuna that I want.

Second, there is no clear path to a career in this field. You obviously need undergraduate university training, and lots of it. But you can't just sign up for a major in performance enhancement with a minor in supplement delivery systems. You have got to spend most of your time in classes that seemingly have nothing at all to do with physique or performance enhancement. Much of this time is also spent with professors that wouldn't know the difference between a power clean and a dairy queen. But don't let it discourage you. I made it through by taking every organic chemistry lecture note, every biochemistry tutorial, every physiology reading, and every pharmacology equation and trying to apply them (sometimes unsuccessfully) to training, nutrition, and supplementation. My suggestion would be to major in physiology and take minors in biology, chemistry, and/or biochemistry. It sounds brutal, I know. But us "science guys" have had to go through all this training to get to where we are today.

And if all those math and science classes aren't enough, after undergraduate training you will need graduate work; at least a masters' and preferably a doctoral degree. To really understand the research process, you need to go beyond the coursework involved in an undergrad diploma. Post-graduate work is the only real exposure to research that most students will ever have. Reading research isn't enough. You can't really understand research without ever having done any. It's like trying to teach someone how to do a power snatch without ever having done one yourself.

Fortunately, for your grad work, you can be more selective as to what you'll study. The most important thing with grad work is selecting a good research mentor. Select a graduate mentor that shares your interests, which is hard to do for guys like us, and you'll be loving life and will inherit a wealth of knowledge. Select someone who doesn't share your interests and your thesis might involve the migratory patterns of the white tailed sparrow. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I just couldn't care less about those little birds.

In the end, the key to getting involved in the scientific as well as the applied aspects of training and performance is to cram as much biology, physiology, biochemistry, and pharmacology information into your head as you can. If you're creative, you will figure out how to bastardize something from each of these fields and forge your way into a novel career path that involves your personal passion; human performance. Best of luck to you!

Is cardio really that bad?

Q. Various t-mag writers have come down on cardio as being counterproductive to muscle gains. Just how bad is it? Is there a way to do it so that it's not so catabolic? I ask because even with a 85 % clean diet, I start getting really smooth without regular cardio.

A. I've heard this question quite often lately and I think many people are misunderstanding the intentions of the T-mag writers. As usual, the bodybuilding audience has gone from one extreme to the other. I don't think anyone on the T-mag staff thinks cardio's the ultimate evil. Nor do we think it's as catabolic as malaria of HIV. Sure, excess cardio can be catabolic. But there is a difference between reasonable amounts of cardio and excess cardio. That's the distinction that has to be made. Remember, training is all about metabolic, enzymatic, and structural adaptation. If you lift weights with enough intensity the muscles will adapt and become better able to lift weights. If you do intense endurance training, your muscles will adapt and become better able to do endurance work. If you do both intensely, your body won't know what the hell to do. Typically, in this scenario, the cardio adaptation dominates (oh, the injustice!).

How about some recommendations? Although the distinction is probably dependent on the individual and would need to be fine tuned by each and every trainee, I usually recommend the following criterion for drug-free bodybuilders interested in gaining muscle mass while maintaining body fat percent (it's pretty darn hard to gain muscle and lose fat without pharmacology). Cardio should be done at an intensity of no more than 70% of HR max {(220-age)*0.70} and should not exceed 4X15-20 minute sessions per week. For drug free bodybuilders interested in maintaining muscle mass while losing body fat percent, I recommend 70% of HR max and 4 X 30min sessions per week. The bottom line is to do just enough to garner the benefits of cardio (both the aesthetic and health benefits) without doing so much that a significant muscular adaptation occurs in this direction.

Now as far as when to do this cardio, I always recommend cardio after weight training workouts for three reasons; for convenience, for lactate clearance, and because fat oxidation is probably very high at this time (I'm not a big fan of the AM cardio sessions). As stated, these recommendations are the max I would comfortably prescribe. Any more and you may be pushing yourself into a catabolic state. Also with too much cardio you will definitely be inhibiting your strength gain.

Sure, some people would argue even this amount cardio is unnecessary. And they may be right in asserting that diet alone or diet plus higher volume resistance training might be able to create enough of a calorie deficit to promote fat loss. But I'd much rather do the cardio so I can eat more food and not have to be so damn strict all the time (i.e. eat just about 85% clean as you mentioned you do). I just don't like skipping cardio and dealing with the pressure of trying to have the diet 100% "on" all the time. Also, since I train like a power lifter for a good portion of the year, during such times I eat lots of calories and do very few reps. When training like this, I need moderate intensity cardio, just to keep my physique from taking on the appearance of Fat Bastard from the second Austin Powers movie.

Bodybuilding or Power Lifting?

Q. I am very strong for my weight in the three power lifts, and some power lifters at my gym want me to do a meet with them in a few months. The problem is, I also like to do a lot of isolation exercises strictly for a better-looking physique. Do I have to really focus on just the power lifts to maximize my strength potential and ditch the 'bodybuilding' exercises?

A. What do YOU want to do? Are you interested in setting powerlifting records or would you rather train like a bodybuilder? That's the first decision you have to make. I've been training for a long time and one of the most important lessons I've learned is that we need to follow training programs that are fun and keep us motivated. If you don't like training a certain way, yet you do it day in and day out, you wont last very long in this game and you'll never make any progress. So decide which type of training you enjoy most and focus on that.

With that said, your friends are correct for the most part. You do have to make a choice. There are three problems with trying to focus on both types of training simultaneously. First, it all goes back to adaptation. If you train with explosive power, your neuromuscular system will adapt by making you stronger and more powerful. If you train with slow isolation movements, your neuromuscular system will adapt to slower training and will not be accustomed to explosive power. Train using both and the body's adaptive mechanisms are getting pulled in two directions and you can't really make the progress you desire in either direction.

The second problem is the time factor. If you're spending a lot of time doing isolation movements, you aren't spending time doing the lifts that will help prepare you for your competition. The neuromuscular system needs to be repetitively trained to learn movement patterns. So by spending less time learning these patters, you are minimizing your chances at power lifting success.

Finally, lets assume that time isn't a factor and that you do have the time to do both types of training for as long as you want to. Your next concern is recovery. There is no way that you will recover from the intense metabolic demands of all out bodybuilding training as well as the intense central nervous demands of all out power training.

With all this said, hope is not lost. I would like to mention that if you choose to go the power lifting route, you may be able to still spend some time (as long as it is minimal) doing isolation/bodybuilding training. Here are a few suggestions for incorporating some bodybuilding training into your power lifting program. First, let's assume you are training 3 days per week (M, W, F) using the power lifts. Well, maybe one day per week (perhaps a Saturday) you could head to the gym for 1 hour and spend some time doing what I call "metabolic training". Do all the isolation movements your little heart desires on this day of the week. This probably won't interfere with your strength gains and may actually help keep your body fat down and help maintain your skeletal muscle "metabolic and enzymatic integrity".

In addition, I know several power lifters who will incorporate a bodybuilding exercise or two at the end of their power workouts. However, they will slightly alter the tempo of the movements and the times under tension. Rather than long times under tension, they will do a few sets of 10-12 with moderate eccentric times (2-3 seconds), 1 second pauses, and very rapid concentric times (1 second). This helps to maintain that explosive neural drive. It also allows them to do some metabolic training that will promote larger increments of growth hormone and testosterone release.