Guestpost Adelfo Cerame I am Back! Training Nutrition Future Bodybuilding Plans Plus New Training Videos!

Note: Adel and Adelfo are not one and the same person. Adel is the guy behind the SuppVersity. Adelfo Cerame is the wheelchair BB who has documented his past contest preps here.

My Progress and back development this off-season

Author: Adelfo Cerame Jr., Wheelchair Pro Bodybuilder

I’m Back! "I", thats me, Adelfo Cerame and "back" means - at least for now "Just for today…" but who knows what the future has in stock for us ;-)

I know it’s been a while but I’ve just been really busy nowadays and to be honest it’s just been really tough to come up with new topics to talk about nowadays so I figure I would give my SuppVersity following an update on my off season progress as well as training and diet. 

Training: This is how I train

I’ve kept my training regimen pretty simple, focusing on compound lifts (for me that would be just your bench press and seated row), and accessory work to help me improve my main lifts, so nothing too fancy or much different from what I used to do previously (read more in Adelfos previous guestposts). I’ve learned that I can get much more frequency and volume accomplished by keeping my lifts simple. I may only perform 4-5 exercises per training session but I get a lot accomplished volume alone, and frequency.

My main focus this off-season has been my back, so I’ve been frequently hitting my back with rows, rows, ... and rows ;-) And its finally paying off: I’ve been really able to see the progress in my back development come up, and I really feel it’s due to the frequency and volume I’ve been training them at.

As you will see below, I have one heavy pull exercise (Pull Day 1) and one heavy push exercise (Push Day 4), and the rest of my exercises consists of higher reps/volume. I implement RPE’s (learn more here) into my training so there are no given sets on most of my exercises since the volume is auto regulated.

RPE Training = Let your Rate of Perceived Exertion be your guide: I wrote a brief description of RPE training in one of my past blogs (read it!) but if you’re interested in learning more about auto regulated training; I suggest checking out Reactive- TrainingSystems.com by Mike Tuchscherer.

The RPE (=rate of perceived exertion) determines the weight/intensity and sets I complete per exercise and will eventually determine the overall volume I do for the day.

Some more pullin ;-)

Push Workouts

Pull Workouts

If you’re curious why I have one pull exercise on my push days is because again my focus this off season is bringing up my back, so any opportunity I can get to add frequency to my back, ill take advantage of, plus I rest in between most my training session, so I feel I get enough time to recover.

Nutrition - This is how I eat

Well, You guys’ are probably wondering if I’m still following an intermittent style fasting protocol, but nowadays I’m more on a "eat when I want" type protocol but still taking into account my caloric intake and macronutrient goals for the day.

I’ve really seen no benefit with doing an IF style protocol during my off-season especially while being on a caloric surplus. 

But me being a creature of habit, I do still tend to have my first meals around noon but not by choice but by convenience and life schedules, however if I can get a chance or feel like eating earlier in the day, I’ll eat.

As of now my numbers look like this: So these are the ranges I’m hitting during my off-season but I usually tend to eat more as well, so if I’ve hit my numbers for the day and I find myself still wanting to eat something, then I’ll eat ;-)
• Kcal: 2700-2800
• Fats: 60-80g
• Carbs: 350-400g
• Protein: 190-220g
• Fiber: 25-55g

It has been 6 months post contest so far and I have about 6 or so months left to go until I start preparing for my first pro debut which would be the Houston Pro next October of 2014.

That’s the show I’m aiming for but again I would have to check in with coach Alberto to evaluate my progress and see if I’ve made the improvements I needed to, to be able to compete. I’m not just looking to fill a spot on stage, I want to be competitive, so if I’m not ready, then I’ll prolong my off-season until I am ready. This has been the longest off-season so far for me.

This is actually my first "real" off season

Like I mentioned in previous blogs; I’ve never really got the opportunity to experience a true off-season just due to always prepping for shows and being sidelined for a year in 2010. This year I’ve really benefitted from this off-season so far because I’ve put my body in a great environment to build strength and grow (environment as in finding a healthy body composition that’s maintainable and that your body can agree with, and embracing a little bit more body fat in order to provide cushion for the joints to support the heavy loads I’m trying to lift). And just allowing myself a longer off-season is just giving my body time to get stronger and time to get bigger.

-- Yours Truly, Adelfo Cerame ;-)

A final note from the editor: If you want leave Adelfo a message or question in the comment area. I am pretty sure he will be happy to chime in on whatever you want to discuss - Adel

The Acute 24h Effects of 3 Types of High Intensity Circuit Training on Testosterone Cortisol in Young Trained Men

Its obviously to have the 24h effects on testosterone and cortisol than only those measured after the workout , but can we make solid conclusions based on the additional data?

In spite of the fact that the acute testosterone and cortisol response to exercise appears to have little direct effects on the overall training outcome (Schoenfeld. 2013), acute increase in cortisol and reductions in testosterone, i.e. a decrease in the testosterone:cortisol ratio is a classic feature of overtraining and can very well blunt, if not reverse the beneficial effects of exercise on your health and body composition.

Against that background a recent experiment that was conducted by researchers from the University of Chieti-Pescara in Italy could be of great interest to everyone who is performing high intensity interval training on a regular basis. Why?

Well, in contrast to previous studies, Blasio et al. investigated both the acute and 24h effects of a high intensity interval resistance training regimen in trained young men.

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Study Indicates Cut the Volume Make the Gains!

To characterize the effects on heart rate and hormonal responses the subjects, eight trained, healthy trained men (28.61 ±3.51 yrs), performed three different workouts which had the same exercises, the same load and number of repetitions for each exercise, but different exercise order, recovery and speed of execution.

• RANDOM workout: the assigned goal was to complete the assigned repetitions respecting only two duties. The first one was don’t stop until all of the repetitions were completed; the second was that there were no assigned order of execution of exercises and no assigned consecutive repetitions to complete.
  
  Participants were thus free to choose both the order of exercises and number of consecutive repetitions for each exercise (i.e. 2 repetitions of kettlebell swing, 10 repetitions of medicine ball slam, 20 repetitions of squat, 4 repetitions of spin with Bulgarian bag, etc.).
  
  No recovery period was assigned, except the time necessary to move from a station to another, and no speed of execution of exercises was assigned: participants were free to choose the preferred speed. 
• LADDER workout: respecting the following order of execution, kettlebell swing, medicine ball slam, spin with Bulgarian bag, squat, pull-up, burpee, participants had to complete the total repetitions according to a pyramidal scheme (e.g. 1st lap 10 repetitions at each exercise, 2nd lap 9 repetitions at each exercise) until the total number of repetitions of each exercise was executed.
  
  Each lap of the circuit was followed by 1 minute of recovery. No speed of execution of exercises was assigned: participants were free to choose the preferred speed. 
• AS SOON AS POSSIBLE (ASAP) workout : respecting the following order of execution, kettlebel swing, medicine ball slam, spin with Bulgarian bag, squat, pull-up, burpee, participants had to complete the total volume in six laps executed as soon as possible.
  
  During each lap participants had to complete the sixth part of total number of repetitions of each exercise without rest among exercises. Each lap of the circuit was followed by 1 minute of recovery.

Salivary samples were collected before and after each workout, at 11:00 p.m. and at 7:00 a.m. of the following day. Salive was also collected during a non-training day. Similarly, before and after the workout, plasma lactate was measured while a beat-to-beat heart rate recording was executed during each workout. Cortisol (C) and testosterone (T) were measured in salivary samples.

2h before the workouts the subjects who had to abstain from sexual intercourse, stimulants and alcohol from 2 days before to the experimental days and until 9:00 a.m. of the following day, consumed a standardized meal that was lower to 400 and consisted of 33 cl of water, 35 cl of orange juice and two 30 g energy bars (Power Sport Double Use, Enervit, Milan, Italy).

Lets look at the results

While the protocols elicited the same heart rate response (the major part of each workout was spent between 80 and 100% of maximal heart rate, confirming the high cardiovascular intensity of the workouts), they elicited different hormonal and lactate variations with the LADDER workout producing the lowest lactate increase and the RANDOM workout eliciting the highest lactate, cortisol and testosterone increases.

Figure 1: Relative changes in hormone and lactate concentration in response to the workouts (Di Blasio. 2014)

When C was considered in ratio with T no significant differences have been shown among workouts-induced variations. Results of the analysis of covariance, executed on significantly modified variables, confirmed that basal hormonal and lactate values did not influence their variations.

When they studied the effects of workouts on prolonged hormones production (i.e. until the morning following the morning, di Blasio et. al. found that observed that observed that

"C had both time (F=179.723; p < 0.001) and group × time effect (F=10.942; p < 0.001): while during non-training day there is a physiological decline of C production at 11:00 p.m., during training days its decline is not present but seems to have a continuous increase from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m." (Di Blasio. 2014)

For the testosterone production the authors found both time (F=443.340; p < 0.001) and group × time effect (F=3.254; p=0.008) even if the group × time effect seems determined by the samples collected at 7:00 p.m., so that the effects cannot be ascribed fully / exclusively to the workout.

Figure 2: 23h hormone profile after the RANDOM, LADDER, ASAP workouts on a control day (di Blasio. 2014)

What is most interesting, though, is the cortisol to testosterone ratio. It shows the greatest inter-group differences and could potentially be of great physiological relevance (Crowley. 1996). In that, the LADDER workout has the most negative effect, as it will totally blunt the natural decline of the C:T ratio at noon.

In case youre planning to incorporate circuit training into your schedule, make sure to have a huge chunk of beef after your workouts ;-) - "Post-Workout Steak "Supplementation" (135g of Lean Beef) Augments Improvements in Body Composition In Response to 8 Weeks of Circuit Resistance Training" | more

Bottom line: As usual, it is difficult to interpret the results in order to make concrete practical recommendations. The lactate and hormonal data does yet suggest that the "random" order, i.e. a training that involves a self-selected exercise order and rep speed, as well as little to no rest between exercises is the least, the ladder training, with its decreasing 10, 9, ... rep numbers and one minute rest between each lap of the curcuits is the most metabolically demanding workout.

Whether and to which extend this translates into an increased risk of overtraining, let alone increased muscle and strength gains, on the other hand, remains to be seen. In view of the overall effect on lactate levels and the C:T ratio, though, the study does suggest that you better be careful with high intensity circuit / interval resistance training sessions and give your body adequate time to rest and recover | Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Crowley, Michael A., and Kathleen S. Matt. "Hormonal regulation of skeletal muscle hypertrophy in rats: the testosterone to cortisol ratio." European journal of applied physiology and occupational physiology 73.1-2 (1996): 66-72. 
• Schoenfeld, Brad J. "Postexercise hypertrophic adaptations: a reexamination of the hormone hypothesis and its applicability to resistance training program design." The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 27.6 (2013): 1720-1730.