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Written by Craig Titus
25 April 2007
As a serious bodybuilder, what type of insulin should I use with my GH? How much would you recommend? I'm 5-7, 220 pounds, 12 percent body fat, I have 19-inch arms and a 33-inch waist.   

Insulin is a very dangerous hormone. It's the strongest and most powerful anabolic hormone known to mankind. This is a subject I would rather not even talk about in MD. I've been asked many questions about insulin use, and I can only say that it can result in someone hurting themselves very badly. I just don't want to be responsible for something like that.  

This is not an issue to be taken lightly. If you plan to mess around with insulin, you need to do more research and talk to your family physician about it first. Find out what can happen if things go wrong; you've got to know the ramifications ahead of time. You should also talk to some diabetics to find out exactly what insulin is used for, then go from there and see if you really want to do it. Insulin use is so dangerous, and that's why it's not even a subject I talk about in my seminars.

If you decide to use insulin, you need to understand that even one mistimed meal can put you into a diabetic coma, or worse. Just one, man.  Here's a story for you. A friend of mine was taking a growth hormone- 16 IUs of Nutropin per day- and one time he injected it under the skin in his stomach and went to sleep. What he didn't notice was that by mistake he had grabbed his insulin bottle and not his growth hormone! Thank God he woke up in time.  He went through the sweats and shakes and was going into insulin shock right as he woke up. He was blind in one eye, slurring his words and shaking like he was freezing. He called a buddy to take him to the hospital, but when he realized his mistake, he started downing Cokes and managed to stop the reaction. He came so close to going into a diabetic coma! This guy is a very close friend of mine, and this incident affected me greatly. That's why I don't even like talking about using growth hormone, let alone insulin.

I know that guys who take insulin do it in different ways. Some take 20 or 30 IUs in one shot after training, twice a day. Some take it in smaller increments of 10 IUs throughout the day, which to me seems a better way.  This way, when the reaction hits, they don't have to worry about eating enough carbs to cover it, or killing themselves if they don't. But if you're slamming 30 units and half a tab of Glucophage, then you better be ready to fuckin' cover that with some carbs! If you're not hungry and you don't eat some carbs in time, you're fucked. That has happened to too many people, so be very careful. Get all the information you possibly can on this shit before you dabble in insulin.

BARRIER BUSTER
I'm 20 years old and have really started to get into lifting weights. I've been hitting them hard for about a year and was wondering if you have any suggestions about how to get over plateaus. Every time I start to make noticeable gains, I'm cock-blocked by constant plateaus. I'm very frustrated. Here I am eating five or six meals a day and lifting six out of seven days a week, hitting every body part twice a week. So, why am I plateauing? Am I overtraining? What about supplements to take me to the next level?   
    
Listen, I know how it is. Hitting a plateau is aggravating! Whenever you reach a plateau, the first thing you've gotta do is figure out what made you plateau to begin with. You've got to analyze everything you're doing, because getting stuck can result from many different situations. It doesn't sound like you're overtraining, but you're probably not getting enough sleep. I'm not too big on the theory of overtraining, anyway, but I'm definitely a believer that bodybuilders aren't getting enough rest. Why don't you try to incorporate a couple of hours of napping into your daily schedule? It would definitely help with your training. I would also suggest adding another break between your training days to incorporate one more day of rest. By taking a nap and incorporating one more day of rest, I think you should overcome your plateau. If that doesn't do it, then you're going to have to look at your caloric intake next. Maybe you're under- eating. I'm pretty sure that with the additional day off between training days and a little more rest, you'll be fine.

Supplements are really important. Go out and get yourself some Pinnacle Juiced Protein and incorporate that into your diet. Adding extra protein calories will speed up your muscle recovery. Also, stock up on some Juiced Creatine and use it before and after training. A lot of people only use it before training, but I like using it before and after in order to maximize cell volumizing and really utilize the supplement. Of course, you should always take a good daily multivitamin and mineral supplement. Training can really stress out your immune system and you need to keep up your defenses to ward off a cold or flu. Nothing can pull a kick-ass bodybuilding routine onto the sidelines faster than catching the flu. To me, that's worse than a fuckin' plateau, because at least I can still train.

SORE SET
Hey Craig! I've been lifting for years, but here's my problem. Should I tear it up in the gym with multiple sets once a week for each body part (and be sore for days), or should I do one to two sets per body part, hitting them three times a week with little to no soreness? I'm using the same weight in both types of workouts and a rep range of eight to 10.

I do multiple sets in each workout. I keep my training very basic. I've used every training method there is, but I've found that I like doing multiple sets and reps per workout. With my training schedule, it takes four days to do my whole body. I train two on, one off. That means I rotate each body part so it's worked twice in one week every so many weeks when the rotation comes around. This is a very effective schedule and I don't think you can overtrain this way. Doing multiple sets per workout for each body part is so much more effective than doing just a few sets.  

Train hard, train consistent and try doing the four-day split. Your schedule would look like this: Work your chest and bi's the first day; quads, calves and hams the second day; then take a day off. Then, start with your shoulder and triceps; back and traps the next day; and then take a day off and rotate back to day one. This rotation means every week one body part will get worked twice during that week. Using this effective workout will prevent overtraining.
Day 1  Chest, Biceps
Day 2  Quads,Hams, Calves
Day 3  Off
Day 4  Shoulders, Triceps
Day 5  Back, Traps
Day 6  Off
Day 7  Repeat Day 1

If you're only doing a couple of sets, then it sounds to me like you're definitely under-training. Stick to the multiple sets.
Soreness is something that should go away after so many weeks of training. If it doesn't go away, you're doing one of three things wrong:  
1.    You're doing too many sets for your body and for your genetic makeup.
2.    You're not getting enough rest.
3.    Your caloric intake is not high enough.

You could even be suffering from a combination of all three. You have to work on all three to get at a synergistic level, so try adjusting yourself based upon these principles. But the soreness should go away after a few weeks of training.