Lagging Body Parts and My Approach

My approach to lagging body parts

April 5th, 2019

Everyone has a few, we all know what it is, and if you claim you don't have a weak body part, you're lying to yourself.    For me personally its my entire upper body.  From the waist down, things aren't terrible; I've grown a decent set of wheels so far.   But my upper body, more specifically my chest and shoulder area?  That's a total different story.   We all have different reasons as to why we have different lagging body parts weather that be from us not training that body part hard or often enough, maybe its a structural issue with your body not allowing certain muscles to grow correctly, could be a mind to muscle connection issue where you just don't really "feel" the target muscle contracting.   Whatever the case is, its important to recognize that we all have these issues and they are fixable with discipline and hard work (like anything in this sport).   Now with that being said, this post won't be telling you how to fix your structural issues, or your mind to muscle connection problems, instead what I've laid out here is my nutrition and drug approach to lagging body parts along with my opinion on why these things work.   

Disclaimer:

I hate to keep harping on this but I want to make things clear that this is just simply my opinion and what I've found works for me and other around me.  I am not saying this is the end all be all for lagging body parts!

Other Disclaimer:

This is assuming you know how to train properly, you have the right amount of training frequency, adequate rest, etc.  This is only half of the equation to bringing parts up!

Now that i've gotten that out of the way and somewhat covered my ass, I can start digging into my theories and approach.  

Recognizing you have a problem is always the first step.... I know you've heard that one before lol.

This is no different.  When deciding to be a bodybuilder, you need to have the eye.  What I mean by that is you need to be able to look at yourself and pick apart the weaknesses and the strengths.  You need to be able to say to yourself that you have a weak chest if that's the case.  Your body is only as good as your WEAKEST body part.  Remember that saying, it will be a common, on going theme in this blog.  

Once you have recognized your weak body part, you can now accept it as a challenge and move forward with building your physique.  

The most important variable-  Outside of proper training and training frequency**

I'd consider the most important variable nutrition leading up to and post training.  

The foods we choose to eat the night before, and leading up to our training directly effect our performance and energy output, as for the foods we choose to consume post workout; Those will aid in recovery and muscle building.  

Nutrition is king of all when it comes to this sport we already knew that.  But can proper nutrition timing take you over the top compared to the person next to you? I believe so.

I'll keep it simple and list my pre workout, intra, and post workout meals/protocols below.  

Pre workout-

2 scoops gatorade powder

3/4 cup cream of rice

1 tablespoon cashew butter

16 ounces egg whites

Before gym-

10ius insulin

driving to gym-

50 grams carb rice crispy

intra-

grape juice-32 ounces

gatorade powder-2 scoops

pepto pro-30 grams

creatine-6-7 grams

salt

post

2 scoops gatorade powder

3/4 cup cream of rice

16 ounces egg whites

10 ius insulin 

One thing that isn't added up there is the 30 units of long acting insulin I took this morning around 8:30am.

So one thing you'll notice is there isn't much change in my diet compared to other days.   I usually keep things the same and add very small variable on weak days.  Notice the extra gatorade powder, and the insulin.    These are small things I like to do to really help my body shuttle more nutrients to the area.  Insulin really helps me fill out and get a crazy pump.   My theory is if I have blood that's filled with high quality nutrients and I can deliver it to that area effectively then, I'm in business.  I'll continue with the same general idea for the reminder of that day.   All of my protein will be lean sources, fat free.  I'll shoot for 100-150 grams of carbs per meal and along with that I'll use 5-10 units of insulin whatever I feel is necessary for the meal.   During this time I'm keeping my dietary fat super low.  Simply because insulin has the tendency to store everything, so I don't want my dietary fat disposed of in adipose tissue.  Days like today I'm aiming for somewhere in the range of 700-1,000 grams of carbs.  

The second large variable I like to consider- 

Rest days.

When are you planning your rest days?  Your rest days should be full of purpose and have rhyme and reason as to why they are there.   

Two different ways to approach rest days, and I'll give my short opinion on each one . 

Day before lagging part-

this could be great for someone who plans to use their entire rest day to prepare for the training thats to come tomorrow.  That would mean resting all day as much as they could (naps, feet up etc) and eating around the clock.  I find that this is a great way to get a good "preload"of carbohydrates and calories into the body.  Both before and after have their pros and cons to them.

For this specific chest session today I was coming off a rest day feeling super fresh! I had also eaten fairly low carb yesterday in hopes to get a large response from today.

Day after lagging part-

This is my current favorite approach and I'll explain why.  

During training I like to push things pretty far and go as hard as I'm mentally able to that day.  Of course that varies, but generally I'd like to think I train fairly hard.  That's of course only in reference to myself because I do think the term "hard" is relative.  After training what I deem as a relatively hard session, my body is starving for calories and a lot of them.   Now of course we can all assume my energy expenditure was greater since I'm trying harder on these days to bring up the body part.  So with that being said, I use that to my advantage.   Post training my metabolism is usually extremely amped up and I'm ready to crush calories.   Those calories have one destination!  That destination is to go repair everything that I just tore down in the gym.  Now we all know our bodies don't repair muscles immediately and it usually takes a day or two for our body to fully recover.  With that being said, having an off day after training a weak body part allows the body to rest and use the calories consumed all day to repair and rebuild the weaker body part.  

That was my .2 cents on that topic.

Thanks for reading!

Have a good day!


Let me know what your approach is to weak body parts!

-Justin