Road to the 2018 Toronto Pro Supershow With Juan Morel

Get Ripped Without Fasted Cardio, Front Squats: Free Weight vs. Smith Machine, Shoulder Blast for Weak Delts

Pros and Cons of a Fast Metabolism

Pros: I am pretty well known now for having one of the fastest metabolisms in the sport. The best parts of that are that I get in shape fast, and I can eat a lot of food when I diet. I’m never hungry at all, and I hear about these other guys who can’t even sleep because they’re starving. I don’t have to go low carbs at all, ever. I eat high protein, high carbs and moderate fats all the way through.

Cons: But it’s not all good! It takes a lot of food for me to hold my weight, and even more to make any gains. Not being hungry might sound fun when you’re dieting, but eating every day at the scheduled times even though you aren’t hungry isn’t so fun. I do get sick of eating so much. And there are times when I somehow drop weight that don’t even make sense. For instance, I was out in the Dominican Republic for a week one time. We were at an all-inclusive resort, and let me tell you I was punishing that buffet several times every day! Fried foods, desserts … you name it and I was eating it. I was even ordering room service at night for more food. I left New York at 285 and figured I would be about 290 when I got home. Nope— try 283! So I am grateful to have a metabolism that makes it easy for me to get shredded without suffering, but just so you know, there is a flip side to it.

Get Ripped Without Fasted Cardio?

Hi Juan, I’m currently dieting without doing fasted morning cardio. Literally I have no time for it. But my day job is very active, and I can spend eight to nine hours every day walking up and down the roads. To me, that’s enough for a cut. I’m just looking to get single-digit lean, not competition ripped, just unflexed abs ripped. Do you think this will work? So far I’m losing fat fast, so I don’t see the need to stress myself with fasted cardio. I’m beginning to think it’s not that important now, especially for those who are very active all day.

I believe you can shed fat and get in shape without fasted cardio. I have done preps with and without it. For the Tampa Pro, I just did my cardio after training, not once in the morning; and I got ripped! I say if you’re getting leaner every week doing what you’re doing and you’re happy with the result, don’t change it until you hit a plateau.

Front Squats: Free Weight vs. Smith Machine

I noticed you do free-weight front squats. I used to do those too, but they felt uncomfortable for me once I got past four plates per side. Now I do it on the Smith machine and it feels better. Have you tried fronts on the Smith, and how do you like it?

First off, props to you for being able to go over 405 on front squats— that is no joke! Front squats are more challenging if you don’t have the right “groove” holding it across your shoulders. It can feel like the bar is crushing your windpipe! You need to play around with it until it feels right. Yes, I tried front squats on the Smith machine a while back and I didn’t like it. I’m more of a free-weight guy. The annoying thing is how the bar can rotate while you’re squatting on the Smith and catch itself on one of the safety latches. But that’s me. If the Smith works better for you, then stay with it.

Shoulder Blast for Weak Delts

Since my shoulders are a weak body part, and my back, legs and arms are strong, do you think this split is good? I train arms and calves twice per week.

Monday:           shoulders
Tuesday:           arms
Wednesday:     legs and calves
Thursday:         chest, one exercise each for front and side delts, and two for triceps
Friday:               back, traps and two exercises each for biceps and calves
Saturday:           off
Repeat

One more question: do you think that the inner chest can be stimulated into growth, because my inner chest sucks! The outer, upper and lower parts are all good.

The split looks good; I don’t see anything wrong with it except that you probably don’t need to be doing arms twice a week if they are a strong body part like you say. If you develop them too much before your shoulders catch up, it’s only going to make your shoulders look even smaller by comparison. For delts, I say do a lot of laterals and different types: seated and standing with dumbbells, machines and cables. Pick three for every workout and do four sets each, making the last set a double or triple drop set. Don’t bother doing anything for front delts unless those are week, which I doubt they are. Do behind-the-neck presses, preferably standing, and lots of volume! Don’t be afraid to do six to eight sets of those, with reps being anywhere from 20 to eight as you increase the weights on each set. As for chest, I do believe you can work the inner chest with exercises like chest busters (incline dumbbell presses where you hold the ‘bells together the whole time) or close-grip presses. Make sure you squeeze hard at the top of every rep. That area can definitely get thicker if you work hard on it and make sure you feel strong contractions. Don’t just lift the weight.

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