New Guy Here - Hello!

MuscleHacker

Hi everyone,

Good to be here. My name is Mark McManus, I run a site called MuscleHack. Just found this forum when looking for a UK based bodybuilding community to participate in.

I love to workout and eat right. I am constantly learning and passing on any effective strategies to others.

One of my favorite topics is nutrition and I'm a big advocate of low-carb nutrition with a controlled carb-up period. I've seen from personal experience how anabolic this approach is and so I'm passionate about sharing it. It also happens to be the most effective way to strip off fat and preserve lean muscle IMHO.

Anyway, I'm getting carried away. Good to be here - look forward to chatting to you all.

Mark McManus

Tall

Welcome to the board

MuscleHacker

Cheers mate

cellaratt

Welcome aboard it's snowing in VT

Nath

Yeah man, welcome aboard!!!

Tall

Hi Mark,

Been having a look through your site. Some interesting points of view.

A few questions for you:

Why do you beleive 5 days a week to the be optimum number of days to workout?

In your example back routine deadlifts aren't included, any reason why?

Why you only feel that 8-12 reps is a suitable rep range?

How did you reach the conclusion than High Protein, Low Carb, High Fat should be followed for 5 1/2 days before embarking on a 36 hour refeed?

You don't seem to eat alot on your low carb days, 5 eggs, and 2 chicken wraps between 6.30am and 4.30pm - I'd starve on that. In fact I'd eat that before lunch... Any particular reason why you have so few kcals before your 4.30pm meal?

Young Gun

In his own words on 4 - 6 reps ...

'My problem with that is that it’s too damn hard to get good form when performing each rep with a weight that heavy i.e. If I’m curling a dumbbell so heavy that I can’t get any more than 6 reps, I find my form sucks!'

Tall

Low reps for Bi's? Thats a new one on me.

steveg

welcome to MC

MuscleHacker

Just got back here. Didn't realise there were as many replies.

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

I believe in training 1 - 2 body parts per workout so this works out at 5 days.

I don't recommend anything to anyone that I don't do myself, that way I can keep integrity. Having said that, deadlifts are great. I don't deny that I don't place a lot of emphasis on my back.

I don't feel it's the only suitable rep range. It is the best however for hypertrophy. It also allows good form and a fuller range of motion. I go into 8 - 12 reps for building muscle more here.

BIG question. Read this article or look up some work by Mauro Di Pasquale (Anabolic Solution for bodybuilders), Lyle McDonald (Ultimate Diet 2.0), Dan Duchaine (Underground bodyopus) and others that sing the praises of this dietary approach.

No, in that post you're quoting I had the following between those hours

6.30am Breakfast - Scrambled Eggs (3, 4 or 5 depending on hunger) - made with cream not milk. I have this with a decaff coffee with cream, sweetened with splenda.
10/11am - Low-carb wrap filled with chicken, cheese & mayo & a ‘Go-Lower’ bar.
1pm/2pm - Low-carb wrap with tuna & cheese & Peperami bar.
4.30pm - Celeriac fries or any combination of cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage with steak or pork (2 fillets). I like this with melted butter on top or ranch dressing.



Butter, cheese, mayo, double cream - there are a LOT of calories in those. 100 grams of the mayo I use is around 720 calories

Again, thanks for the welcome everyone.

Mark