Written by Ron Harris
24 January 2017

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The Ultimate V-Taper Workout

Dallas McCarver Shows You How

 

 

A Long Wait – But Well Worth It

 Dallas McCarver is probably the poster boy for “Good things come to those who wait”. Nearly three years passed between his winning the 2012 North American at age 21 and his pro debut in late May 2015, winning the California Pro.

 

His focus from 2012 onwards was essentially the core of what many feel bodybuilding is— to get bigger overall. “I did put special emphasis on my quads and hams and getting more front-to-back thickness with my chest and back, but overall I felt that if I just kept growing and kept my proportions roughly the same, given my frame and shape, I could put a pretty good physique together for the pros.” And that he did, joining the elite group of men who have walked away from their debut with first place.

 

Growing While Keeping the V

 Dallas weighed in at 241 pounds at 6’1” for his North American win back in 2012. For his California Pro win, he was around 265 and in better condition. That means his net lean mass gain was even greater than the 24 pounds of scale weight would indicate. In his long off-season in quest of that needed mass, his weight climbed to a high point of 310-312 pounds. I’m not done with the numbers yet, folks, so get ready for the final shocker. When he won the North American at 241 pounds, his waist measured 34 inches. At his recent California Pro win with an added 24 pounds of bodyweight, it was only 33 inches! How was that possible? As we said, he was leaner. But most bodybuilders are incapable of gaining significant size without some of it going to their midsection. Dallas never felt that was inevitable, and in fact he was always conscious of keeping his midsection as small and tight as he could. “To me, if you gain two inches around your chest, two inches on your quads and inch on your arms, but two inches on your waist, you failed,” he opines. “You haven’t made your physique better, you just made a bigger version of the same exact physique.”

 

Dallas did credit a change in his nutrition habits that helped him not only maintain, but improve his taper. “In my football days and early on in my bodybuilding career, I would eat so much that I almost felt like throwing up,” he says. “Eventually, I found that if I cut back on my protein intake, it would not only allow me to eat more carbs and good fats, but I didn’t have that bloating that comes with so much food and waste in you.”

 

He doesn’t take all the credit for being able to stay fairly lean at all times. That goes to his naturally fast metabolism. “I diet on 5,000 or 5,500 calories, which is more than a lot of guys eat even when they are trying to bulk.”

 

Many trainers tell bodybuilders to avoid certain exercises that they feel will add bulk to the midsection, but McCarver doesn’t shy away from any. “The only thing I won’t do is abdominal movements using heavy weights,” he notes. “Why would you want to have huge abs? That’s going to make your midsection thicker.”

 

Keys to the V: Back, Delts and Abs

 As much as some of us poke fun at the Men’s Physique division, those guys do have it right in terms of what to focus on to create the most dramatic V-taper possible in your physique: the back, the shoulders and the abdominals. Since Dallas has one of the best tapers around in pro bodybuilding today, we had the rookie demonstrate his favorite ten exercises for accentuating the V-taper.

 

1) Wide-grip Chin-ups

 Dallas considers this a bread-and-butter movement of back training, and starts every workout off with it as a general warm-up. “I don’t do them to failure, and I don’t add weight,” he says. “I do them to loosen up the shoulders and open up the scapulae, and warm up the back, shoulders and biceps.” Oftentimes, he will revisit them later in the workout when they are tougher, and use them to build upper back width.

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2) Seated Cable Rows

 From workout to workout, Dallas will alternate seated cable rows with T-bar rows. “I pull low, right to the navel, so the focus is on my lower lats and the Christmas tree,” he notes. “I like the cable row because of the smoothness of it, and how it allows me to emphasize both the stretch and the contraction.” For best results, he keeps his torso upright as shown, rather than allowing it to lean forward or backward.

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3) Lat Pulldowns With Dual Handles

 Dallas uses several variations of lat pulldowns, choosing different grip attachments at various workouts. He is partial to the dual handles shown here. “With the length of my arms and how wide my shoulders are, a standard narrow grip attachment doesn’t allow me much of a range of motion,” he explains. “Using two handles that I can pull apart as I pull down allows me to open everything up more.”

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4) Behind-neck Smith Machine Press

 It’s practically sacrilegious for bodybuilders to press behind the neck in 2015, lest their rotator cuffs explode in a spray of blood and gristle. Dallas doesn’t feel this is a dangerous exercise at all. It’s his favorite, in fact, and he does these at every shoulder workout. “You have to use less weight than when you press to the front, which is actually safer on your joints,” he points out. “You also have to stay upright rather than leaning back as most guys tend to do pressing to the front, so it forces better form. If you lean back at all doing these and start turning it into an incline press, you’ll whack your head with the bar.”

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5) Dumbbell Lateral Raises

 This is a basic movement for getting those round, capped delts we all want. Dallas likes to keep his pinkies raised up, and doesn’t lead with the hands as many do, but rather the elbows. “I used to do three to four sets of 12-15 reps, but I found I got better isolations and contractions by going higher with the reps. Now I do two sets of 20 reps with four to five partials.” He’s also lightened the load to focus more on isolating the medial deltoids. “In the past, I went as heavy as 100s with pretty awful form,” he admits. Now he sticks with 40s or 50s at most.

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6) Cable Lateral Raises

 The cable version of the lateral raise allows for resistance and stretch in the bottom segment of the range of motion, and also lets Dallas achieve a full contraction at the top of the rep. “Leaning away from the weight stack like I do changes the resistance curve,” he tells us. “At the completion of each rep, I can also shift the stress to the very top of the side delt.”

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7) Single-arm Front Raises

 McCarver also likes to change the angle on front raises, by performing them lying facedown on an incline bench. “If you did them this way standing, the dumbbell would be over your head at the end of the rep and you would lose that isolation on the front deltoid,” he notes.

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8) Hanging Leg Raises

 Few abdominal exercises are as tough as the hanging leg raise, particularly if like Dallas, you have some serious meat on your legs to weigh them down. He will do these either hanging, as shown, or on the bottomless elevated chair I’ve often heard called a “captain’s chair,” on which you support your bodyweight on your elbows and forearms. In either version, he raises his legs straight up until his feet are roughly at the level of his top row of abs. “I raise my legs up until my abs are fully contracted, and I’m not really thinking about where my feet are,” he adds.

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9) Floor Crunches

 Every ab workout for Dallas starts with some type of crunch, the most basic of all abdominal movements and one that requires absolutely no equipment. His reps typically start off higher and diminish slightly as the sets proceed. “It usually goes something like 25-30 reps, 20-25, 15-20 and 15-20,” he says. These are not ballistic reps. “I see people doing crunches and sit-ups fast, and they are totally missing out on the real benefits,” he notes. “I come to a full stop at the top of every rep as I’m blowing out the air, flexing the abs hard. That’s how you really engage the abdominals.”

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10) Rope Crunches

 Rope crunches are a very common ab movement, but most people face the weight stack. Dallas prefers facing away and positioning his body a bit further away to allow for a full stretch of the abs at the top. “Any muscle should be worked through a full range of motion that includes a good stretch as well as a good contraction, even the abs,” he explains. Dallas keeps the reps higher not only because he doesn’t want to build big, blocky abs, but also because low reps do nothing for him here. “To me, the abs are kind of like the calves— until I get to at least 15 reps, I don’t feel any kind of pump and burn at all.”

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The Shape of Things to Come?

 From his California Pro win in May Dallas had just had four months to prep for his Olympia debut. There he finished a creditable 13th, although most had him in the top ten. With all the talk about returning to a more classical look and punishing big guts in the wake of Arnold’s blistering commentary back in March in Columbus, I had to ask if he felt the sport would truly move in that direction now. He wasn’t sure. “I look at it sort of like a car show,” he says. “You have your big-frame cars like the Buicks and the Impalas, you have your smaller sports cars, your Mustangs and Corvettes and Chargers. They are all in different classes and they all have their own devoted fans. There will always be a demand for the big, freaky physiques that may not have the best lines or taper. I personally would not mind if judging trends swung more toward symmetry and balance, and away from distended guts.”

 

 In the meantime, there are lessons to be learned from this 24-year-old rookie pro from Tennessee. He managed to add very significant amounts of muscle mass in all the right places, kept his waist small and in the process, dramatically enhanced his V-taper. If that sounds like something you’d like to do as well, pay heed to what he does.

 

Dallas Training Split*

 Day 1: Quads – a.m.                                  Hams and calves – p.m.

 Day 2: Chest – a.m.                                   Biceps and some triceps – p.m.

 Day 3: Back

 Day 4: Shoulders and traps – a.m.            Triceps and some biceps – p.m.

 *Rest days are taken as needed. Typically, Dallas will train two or three days in a row before taking a day off. Morning workouts are done at 12:30 p.m., and evening workouts take place at 7:00 p.m.

 

Dallas’ Complete Contest History

 2011 NPC Hub City Fitness Quest       Junior Heavyweight and Overall Champion

 2011 NPC Battle at the River               Super Heavyweight and Overall Champion

 2012 IFBB North American                  Super Heavyweight and Overall Champion

 2015 IFBB California Pro                     Winner

 2015 IFBB Mr. Olympia                        13th

 

Dallas McCarver’s ‘Get Ripped Fast’ Diet*

Wake:       1 serving Thermonex, 4 oz. black coffee

45 minutes cardio (treadmill, StepMill, elliptical, bike or outside walking

 

Meal 1:      2 whole Omega-3 eggs, 10 egg whites, 1/2 cup Cream of Rice

+ 45 minutes – 1 serving Nitrix 2.0 Pre-workout

 

Weight Training Session #1

 

Meal 2:       10 oz. chicken breast, 1 cup jasmine rice

 

Meal 3:       10 oz. tilapia, 10 oz. sweet potato

 

Meal 4:       10 oz. chicken breast, 1 cup jasmine rice

+ 45 minutes – 1 serving Nitrix 2.0, 1 serving N.O.- XPLODE Pre-workout

 

Weight Training Session #2, 20 Minutes HIIT Cardio

 

Meal 5:        10 oz. tilapia, 1 cup jasmine rice

 

Meal 6:         12 oz. tilapia, 1 cup asparagus

*All supplements by BSN

 

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