Dennis Wolf Q&A | He Covers Offseason Calories, Journals, Diet Soda & More
Dennis Wolf Q&A
He Covers Offseason Calories, Training Journals, Diet Soda & More
What exercises have contributed the most to your biceps and triceps development?
Because my shoulders tend to take over a lot of times, I found that exercises for biceps with my shoulder braced on something so it couldn’t take the stress away was best. The two exercises I found worked best at accomplishing this were one-arm dumbbell curls on a preacher bench, and preacher curls using either a straight bar or an EZ-curl bar. For triceps, I got most of my size from doing skull-crushers and weighted dips.
When you take breaks from training, do you still worry about eating every two hours and getting in a ton of protein, or do you not even think about it?
I do like to take about a month or two after a contest to relax and let my body heal up and recover fully from the rigors of the prep. I also want to clean out and detox my system. A big part of that is reducing my overall food but especially my protein. During prep, I take in an average of 500 grams a day. If that sounds excessive, it’s still less than two grams per pound of bodyweight, because I start my diet around 290 and wind up at about 270 pounds. So for about a month, I only eat about 100 grams a day. I definitely don’t eat every two hours, either. For one thing, I’m either not training at all or I’m not training too hard. When I’m not training hard and heavy, I find my appetite goes way down. For another thing, diet food is very clean and goes right through me. When I relax and go off my diet, I eat meals with more fat and sugar in them and these keep me feeling full much longer. I will eat four times a day at the most, and on some days I only eat three times.
Do you drink diet soda? Do you think it’s OK to have, or should I just drink water or Crystal Light? I love Diet Coke, but I have been hearing things about how the sweeteners might not be good for you over time.
If you look in my refrigerator, you’ll see cans of Diet Coke all the time— and I also drink Diet Dr. Pepper and Diet Sprite pretty often too. In the past I used to drink a lot of Crystal Light. I still drink it sometimes, but I get sick of it pretty fast because it’s so sweet. I don’t think it’s bad to drink these diet sodas as long as you are also drinking plenty of water. I drink a gallon and a half of water every day. Are the sweeteners bad for you? I don’t know. One day I hear they are and another day I hear they are safe. Unless you are eating 100 percent organic food every day, you’re eating and drinking a bunch of weird chemicals anyway— pesticides, preservatives, hormones and who knows what else. All I know is that diet soda and Crystal Light help me satisfy my cravings for sweet things when I am dieting, so I’m not about to stop. I probably have two or three cans every day.
I have seen a few of your training videos, and I’ve never seen you write down your weights, sets and reps in a journal or notebook. Did you ever do that? Do you think it’s worth doing for most people to keep track of their workouts?
I never did it. If you are trying to get stronger, it would be a great idea because you have it right there in your notebook to see what you did last time. I have a good memory and I know how much weight I need to use. Plus, I’m not trying to get any stronger now. I just want more muscle maturity and detail. I say I have a good memory, but for some reason I am terrible with names. I can meet someone and just the next day if I see them again, a lot of times I can’t remember his or her name! It’s embarrassing. If I ever do this with one of you guys, please don’t take it personally. Or, wear a name tag and I will be sure to know your name!
How many calories is the most you think you have ever eaten in one day? I read years ago that Victor Richards used to eat 30,000 calories a day! Do you even think that’s possible?
Yes, I think a person could eat that much. I have seen TV shows with these people who weigh 1,000 pounds or more and lie on a mattress like a big blob because they can’t move. When they show how much stuff they eat in one day, I think it’s close to that amount. I don’t know if Victor Richards ate that much. If he did, he must have had the best metabolism in history not to get fat. And if it was all clean food like chicken breasts and rice, he must have had the best appetite ever, because it takes a ridiculous amount of clean food to make 30,000 calories. The most I’ve ever eaten in the off-season was 4,500-5,000 calories a day. When I diet for a contest, I gradually come down to 2,900-3,000 calories. For most people, stuffing themselves way past what they need would not do anything but get them fat.
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