Can’t Feel My Hammies! Q: What’s the best way to make the hamstrings kick in if I’m not feeling them enough during workouts? A: The hamstrings have a dual function: They work to both flex the lower leg and extend the hips and trunk, but let’s first look at lower leg flexion. If you’re not feeling the hammies when you do lying leg curls, it might be because you’re getting too much help from the gastrocnemius, which assists the hamstrings during leg flexion. Try this: When you curl your lower leg towards your butt, dorsiflex (point your toes towards your body). This allows the gastrocemius to kick in and help you lift heavier resistance than you might be able to do just using your hamstrings. When you lower the weight, plantar flex your foot (point the toes away from the body). This “deactivates” the gastrocnemius so the hamstrings have to do all the work on their own. Take one second to raise the weight, and 3 to 5 seconds to lower it. You’ll feel it. As far as feeling the hamstrings when you’re using them to extend the hip/trunk, it’s usually a case of using too much weight. For stiff-leg deadlifts, good mornings, reverse hypers, and glute/ham raises, try rep ranges of 12-15. Again, take one second to raise the weight and 3 to 5 seconds to lower it. That should work. – TC Luoma Abracadabra: The Appearance Of Abs! Q: Are visible abs a sign of strength or starvation? A: Strength isn’t a great indicator that someone will have visible abs, and while diet (or what you call starvation) can play a role, there are people who have ab definition even when they’re not dieting. The truth is, abs can be a sign of multiple things. Here are six variables that affect their visibility: 1 – Genetics The science of abs is pretty cool. Christian Thibaudeau has explained how some people – even when they get lean – won’t be able to see their abs because their abdominal muscle bellies aren’t naturally thick. He’s also explained tendinous attachments (they’re what create the lines between abs) and how they can play a role in the amount of separation you see between abdominal muscles. In short, they determine whether you’ll have a 4-pack, 6-pack, or 8-pack, no matter how lean and muscular you are. It’s genetic. 2 – Training Those who don’t genetically have thicker ab muscles will need to do more work to hypertrophy theirs. Diet alone won’t cut it. The abs are a muscle group, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Train them directly with resistance. The big lifts alone won’t cut it. 3 – Body Fat There’s a point when, even if you DO have developed abs, they won’t be visible if you’re carrying too much body fat. No amount of ab training will make them visible if they’re underneath several inches of adipose tissue. 4 – Digestion Some people say chronic digestive distress can lead to increased body fat around the midsection. I’m not sure I buy that. But I will say that stomach distension and pressure in the gut (from gas, constipation, undigested food sitting in the stomach, etc.) can make your belly protrude. And extreme protrusion alone will make ab separation less visible, unless you flex hard. So even if you’re someone who’s lean enough to have abs, slow motility and poor digestion can simply make it harder to display them. 5 – Water Retention Ask any fit woman when she wants to get professional photos taken and there’s a good chance she’ll schedule it around her period. Why? Because there are a handful of days every month when we retain more water than usual, and it can affect the appearance of our midsection. But even men experience water retention for various reasons. Sometimes both males and females will use diuretics before big events in order to manipulate water and increase definition all over, including the abs. 6 – Skin Tone Ab definition is slightly more visible when you have a tan. It just makes what you have easier to see. This is especially true if you’re lean enough to have ab definition, but you haven’t been able to build much muscle thickness there. So if you’re pale skinned and you have a shadow of an ab or two, try slapping some fake tanner on and see if that makes them a bit more visible. To recap, having visible abs mainly depends on what your mom and dad gave you, how much muscle you’ve built in the midsection, and how lean you are. Contributing factors may include digestion, water retention, and skin tone. – Dani Shugart The No-Bench, No-Rack Workout Q: I’m trying to ditch the gym membership and build a home gym. Right now I only have a barbell, no bench or squat rack. What can I do for variety? A: I’ll assume you have a pile of plates and you’re already covering the basics: rows, overhead presses, deadlifts, curls, etc. If a rack is beyond of your budget right now or just takes up too much room in your garage, then spend about 75 bucks on a portable landmine setup. I like the Post Landmine from Rogue. Of all the gadgets that come and go in the fitness world, I think the landmine-type
Origin: Ask Us Anything 05

“Oral” Bioavailability Q: If a female lifter (not on gear) sleeps with a guy who runs gear, is she in danger of failing a drug test? A: This is a question that probably goes through every woman’s mind the moment she decides to copulate with a gearhead. Even if she’s not an athlete, she probably can’t help but wonder if she’s going to wake up with a beard and a puzzling urge to check her NCAA bracket. As far as transmission of steroids through intercourse, it’s possible that a tiny bit of hormone catches a ride in the spermatic fluid. After all, untainted prostatic fluid normally contains trace amounts of estrogen, FSH, and testosterone anyhow, along with a good number of prostaglandins. It’s even been hypothesized that the vagina absorbs some of these prostaglandins, and since prostaglandins modulate neurotransmitters, they can possibly improve a woman’s mood (1). However, even if there were steroids in seminal fluid, it’s pretty much impossible that the 2 to 5 cc’s of seminal fluid in the average ejaculation would contain enough steroids to budge the needle on a sex partner’s drug test. And even if the fluid did contain some steroids, the contact between the juiced juice and vaginal tissues is usually brief because of plain ol’ fluid dynamics (liquid flows downhill). Much of the same is true of oral sex with a steroid user. While there was recently a report of a woman going into anaphylactic shock and almost dying because she swallowed some amoxicillin-tainted sperm (she was allergic to penicillin and its analogs), steroids are a different situation. It only takes a few molecules of something to elicit an allergic reaction, but absorbing a detectable amount of steroid through oral sex is probably impossible. For one thing, if the steroid in question is testosterone, you’d have to absorb at least 200 mg. of the hormone for it to overcome the first pass effect of the liver. That’s generally a whole cc of testosterone, which would mean that half of the volume of the hypothetical steroid user’s semen was steroid. Not very likely. Other steroids are built to survive the first pass effect, but still, there’s no way the semen would contain enough steroids for anyone to fail a drug test, or experience any steroidal effects at all. – TC Luoma No Gains, Bro! Q: My gains have stalled. What do you suggest? A: We get this (extremely vague) question often. It’s tough to answer since we don’t know your main goals, your age, or even if you’re a girl person, a boy person, or one of these people who identifies as a lesbian parakeet. But here’s some general advice: 1. Do the opposite. There are tons of great training programs here on T Nation, but the best one is probably the one that’s the most different than the one you’re doing now. Here’s an example. Back in 2005, not-yet-a-Dr. Chad Waterbury introduced a training system based around doing 10 sets of 3 reps. Not 3 x 10, but 10 x 3. And T Nation readers who adopted the program reported great gains in muscle and strength. Now, there’s more to the program than the set/rep scheme, but doing 10 x 3 was radically different than what most lifters were used to doing. It presented a new challenge, recruited motor units that had been largely dormant, ramped up force production and, in short, “shocked the system” and triggered new adaptations in size and strength. So take a look at how you’ve been training for the past few months. Now, do the opposite: Always do 12-15 reps? Then load up the plates and do 3-5. Always train super heavy for low reps? Then lighten it up and shoot for 60 seconds of time under tension for each set. (Set a timer and try not to poop out your spleen.) Always use barbells because “free weights are best?” Switch to a mostly machine-based program. Always do decline barbell presses? Do inclined dumbbell presses. Train 6 days a week? Train 3. Or vice-versa. You get the idea. Or just adopt someone else’s program. I know, I know, the internet experts often advise people to avoid “cookie cutter” programs, but they can be valuable. Any program from the T Nation archives is probably going to push you harder than you push yourself. And it’s probably going to force you to try some new things. 2. Do something that excites you. Several T Nation coaches have said it: Training very hard using a substandard program is better than lazily going through the motions on the “perfect” program. Take 6 weeks off from what you “should” be doing and train in way that gets you amped up. Maybe you’ve been training like a bodybuilder because hypertrophy is your main goal, but powerfully swinging around kettlebells looks damn fun at the moment. So do it. (We won’t tattle on you.) You’ll get better in other ways, and after a while you’ll be itching to do slow negatives, set-extending partial reps, and pump workouts again. 3. Examine your diet. Keep a food log. After a week, figure out the average number of calories you consume per day. Now add around 300 to that. Take tape
Origin: Ask Us Anything 4