ASK THE GURU ARCHIVES – Daniel Duchaine

I must be the fattest “lean” guy in the world. I have 8% bodyfat, a 32-inch waist, but I still have love handles. What’s wrong with me?

Your waist size is a combination of three things: the width of your hips, how thick your oblique muscles (your outer abdominal muscles) are, and the most obvious, how much fat you have around your waist. Although many nutritionists and coaches gauge leanness with overall skin-fold measurements, I don’t rely on overall bodyfat percentages, as I know some men with 15% bodyfat look just as lean as others who have only 8% bodyfat (if the fat is uniformly distributed and not accumulated only at the waist).

It seems the majority of men don’t appear lean until the fat around their midsections is gone, and in most males, this “middle” fat is the last to thin down while dieting. So when I ask for a “leanness evaluation” during a telephone conversation, I ask for only one “reading”: the skin fold at the abdominal area in millimeters.

Lean natural bodybuilders usually have abdominal skin folds of between six and eight millimeters, depending on how “tight” their skin is. One of the bad things about aging is skin elasticity declines, and loose skin pulls upper abdominal fat downward and makes you look fatter. The best way to avoid such sagging is to not get fat in this area, as that stretches the skin out. Also stay out of the sun or at least use a sunscreen. As to your “fat” 32-inch waist, let’s analyze your problem. Find some skin-fold calipers, and do the pinch reading on the fat between your belly button and hipbone. If it’s over eight millimeters, you need to lose some more fat. Another test (but you’ll need someone to help) is to pull the skin that covers your shoulder blade upward and towards your armpit. Tight, elastic skin is quite resistant to this pulling. But if your skin elasticity isn’t great, not only will you be able to pull quite a bit of skin upward, the abdominal skin fold done during the “pulling” will be significantly less.

If your “fat” 32-inch waist is simply fat, then you have all the tools to reduce it. If your skin is overly loose, then you’re pretty much out of luck (unless you’re willing to have plastic surgery, and this particular procedure involves some more-than-usual postoperative pain).

I just saw this guy in my gym named George Turner. He’s over 70 years old, and he looks better than I do, and I’m 40. What do I have to do to look that good when I’m that age?

I have followed the career of George Turner, who, even at 70, has a full head of hair, great upright posture, an amazing amount of muscle for his age, and great skin tone.

He still competes in bodybuilding contests, in the Master’s division. He was adamant about being antidrug decades before it was an issue. So how can we duplicate his success?

There are three obvious things: keep training, don’t get fat, and maintain your natural anabolic hormone levels.

Let’s examine each one:

Keep Training – Many bodybuilders don’t stop training because they’re lazy but because the decades of poor weightlifting choices have compromised their joints. Shoulders, elbows, and knees can stand only so much punishment. Gymnasts have it happen to them in their early 20′s. Football players have the problem in their 30′s. But with proper training, bodybuilders can preserve their joints even into old age. Remember, research shows the best muscle growth happens in a rep range of 8 to 12. A powerlifting routine will sometimes make you impressively strong, but your joints may suffer in the process.

If a particular exercise causes joint pain, simply replace it with another slightly different exercise. There’s no extra benefit in doing shoulder presses or lat pulldowns behind the neck. And even if Larry Scott and Franco Columbu claim to have developed their biceps by using a close-elbowed, wide grip on the barbell preacher curl, it doesn’t mean you have to “get used to it” when your elbows feel like they’re popping out of their sockets.

Everyone has a different definition of “joint trauma” exercises. A severe injury when you’re young can follow you all your life. Even though it was exhilarating to do heavy-duty-type training, it took years for me to repair the damage. And even after all this, my shoulders make so many noises (clicks and pops), it makes me nauseous.

Not Getting Fat – When you’re young, the body is resistant to extreme changes of weight. But the repeated stretching and shrinking of the skin doesn’t last forever. Try blowing up a party balloon and deflating it a few times and see what happens to the rubber-elasticity goes away. So the less stretching and shrinking, the better.

And of course, the cardiovascular benefits of staying lean are obvious. As we age, we tend to become more comfortable and more sedentary.

You might have great gym workouts but do little else in the way of activity. Find other recreational activities that are physical. Even golf or bowling are better than television-channel cruising.

Maintaining Your Anabolic Hormones – You have the potential of being in better shape than Mr. Turner. Many doctors recognize that the decline of testosterone, growth hormone, and insulin sensitivity are not just “part of getting old” but are signs of disease-and treat them as such. And we’re blessed in America because we have a very avant-garde supplement industry that makes available a myriad of effective remedies that may boost testosterone, growth hormone, and maintain insulin sensitivity.

Whenever I try to increase my calories to gain weight, my face breaks out, and I’m not a kid. I’m 30. But when I go on a low-calorie diet, my face clears right up. How do I build big muscles, not big zits?

Some research has shown that varying the ratios of macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, and fats) can affect some enzyme-driven steroid transformations. For example, the reduction of regular testosterone to the nastier dihydrotestosterone (DHT) by the 5-alpha reductase enzyme can be inhibited by eating at least 40% of your daily calories as protein. So analyze your macronutrient ratios; you may be eating this much or more protein while on low calories. And when you’re trying to gain weight, this protein ratio drops to less than 40%. So try eating 40% of your calories from protein during your weight-gain period and see whether or not your acne diminishes.

I should point out that the negative part of eating this much protein is more testosterone is converted to estrogen (which may be beneficial in clearing up your acne, as estrogen is a potent anti-androgen). Lucky for us, we can combat this extra estrogen with any of the naturally occurring anti-estrogens available on the supplement market (e.g., saw palmetto and chrysin). Another potential bonus of eating a higher protein diet for long periods is this very well may preserve your hairline as you age.

Dan Duchaine is the author of ::  BodyOpus :: Original Underground Steroid Handbook, :: The Underground Steroid Handbook II ::  the Underground Steroid Handbook 1992 Update and numerous articles in the health and bodybuilding magazines for over 25 years! He has gained worldwide notoriety as the “Steroid Guru” due to his outspoken opinions on the use of performance enhancing drugs, and he has appeared on 20/20, Geraldo, The Ron Reagan Show, Now it Can Be Told, and even 60 Minutes. Duchaine is regarded as one of the most knowledgeable experts on real world facts about bodybuilding. Daniel Duchaine passed away on January 13th, 2000. RIP.