femalemuscle.com by lori v. braun
Rob Wilkin's Articles - bodybuilding Go
Rob Wilkins - An Interview With Strength Coach Ian King
bodybuiling guide

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KING - Simple - if you have a need that is not being met, and a supplement meets that need - it is effective. Generally speaking creatine is the most effective, being what I call the greatest supplement breakthrough in my lifetime. But it can over time lose its impact. At the end of the day, I would be as interested, if not more so in knowing what foods were being consumed, so supplements need to kept in perspective. Speaking from an international perspective, the capitalistic nature of the US has resulted in 2 industries having an incredible influence on attitudes and behaviour in US strength training - the supplement industry and the equipment industry. I appreciate this environment, but the reality from my perspective is that both these tend to be over-rated in America. Training and food are more important than equipment and supplements.

RW - It's quite common for people to train for at least two hours. How long should the typical workout session last?

KING - For the drug free athlete (chronological, training age and dependent upon goal) I would recommend 20-40 minutes, not including warm-up. Short? Sure! Want to grow? Just do it.

RW - There seems to be a lot of confusion on how many days a week a natural athlete should train in order to maximize his/her potential. How many training days per week would you recommend to the average weight-training athlete?

KING - The drug-free athlete should train a maximum of 4 days per week on a 4 day split routine. The so-called 'hard-gainer' and/or the older (over 35 yrs.) should consider 3 days per week. If you have a crazy lifestyle (stress or party), then train 2 days per week. Forget more than 4 days per week no matter what.

RW - Due to time constraints, if you had to choose between weight training and aerobic exercise, which would you choose and why?

KING - Without a doubt strength training. Broader impact on body, greater impact on longevity and quality of life.

RW - When discussing recovery, many articles fail to mention the importance of the central nervous system (CNS). Please explain the role of the CNS and its role in muscle building.

KING - The nerves fire the muscles. When the nerves get low on their fuel, they can't work. So not only do the muscles need to recover, but so does the nervous system. I haven't seen a lot of quantification of this system but experts in the world of athletic preparation commonly quote that the CNS takes 5-6 times longer than the muscles to recover. Because the CNS is common to the whole body, lack of recovery of the CNS is one reason why you should not train more than 2 days consecutively (generally speaking, in strength training). Your CNS is unlikely to recover, despite the fact you are training different muscle groups. This concept is totally overlooked by those training a split routine more than 4 times a week. Not even anabolics can ensure adequate recovery of the CNS. Muscles can be willing, but the lead to the spark plug is off!

RW - In regard to weight training, how important is nutrition and what percentage of proteins, carbs, and fats would you recommend for a person trying to maintain bodyfat levels of 10-15%?

KING - People talk percentages all the time and I find this boring. Unless you regularly count your calories and other nutritional assessment, how do you know what you are using and therefore the cause-effect? Don't bother talking percentages until you do this. It is academic until then! Over and above this, I believe that there is a lot of variation in individual response so I avoid generalizing. But for those who love numbers and generalizations, I lean towards 40/40/20 prot/carb/fat. But that is just a generalization.

RW - As a coach for Olympic athletes, is it now considered the rule for all athletes to incorporate some type of strength training to their training program? Pound for pound what group of athletes do you consider the strongest?

KING - This question is nice, but reinforces a stereotype. For the record, I don't care how strong the athlete is - I just want them to do what they need to win! If this means being super strong, great. If it means being super flexible and weak, great! Unlike some strength coaches, I don't feel the need to focus on strength exclusively or to use strength levels to justify my success. Just look at the scoreboard. I have been in programs where colleagues have said, "But he doesn't make them strong." Good, if they aren't getting strong it was because I didn't want them to work on this component at that time! Realistically, if an athlete has a range of imbalances and you go out and simply make them stronger, you may get a nice warm feeling but you have done nothing but damage the goods. But to answer the question...weightlifters.

RW - There seems to be an endless debate on what is best for optimal muscle growth, training with weight machines or free weights. Please give us the lowdown on this hotly disputed topic.

KING - Both work. I prefer free weights for me and my clients but there is a time and place for everything. So I don't think machines are bad, and certainly not as bad as being promoted in current paradigms. I just see their role as a smaller player. This is more of an issue for sports training than bodybuilding. Unfortunately the American influence from the supplement and equipment industry has driven a cultural belief that machines and supplements will do it for you. How you train is more important. A training device or piece of equipment will not do it for you.

RW - In your view, why do some people's physiques never change even though they never miss a workout and maintain a well balanced diet?

KING - Probably because they never miss a workout. There is a critical balance between being disciplined and being inflexible. Never missing a workout is usually symptomatic of someone who is training to meet their emotional needs, and when the training decisions are being made for reasons other than what gives the best physical results, you will receive compromised training. It is important to understand your emotional state, and ensure that your training decisions are not being made to meet your emotional needs. It actually takes a lot of emotional maturity to say - "I feel a bit tired, so I don't think it would be wise to train today," or to take a week's rest. Most suffer from the insecurity "I will shrink if I miss one day let alone a whole week!"

These emotional insecurities result in overtraining. Particularly for clean athletes, unless you are prepared to take your rest weeks and respect fatigue as it arises, you will always overtrain. This is why I tell clean athletes that athletes using drugs make the same mistake, but the drugs cover up for it to some extent - but even in the latter case, this decision making process based on meeting emotional needs still creates an impediment to progress.

The bodybuilding/fitness industry is a unique phenomenon. Can you imagine a facility called "Joe's Dental Center" where there are a hundred dentists' chairs and members of the public paid $10 per session to operate on themselves? Or "Downtown Legal Center" which provided a row of tables equipped for self-use? Most people hire dentists, doctors, lawyers etc. to provide professional advice to get it right. Yet the majority of gym users feel they can design their own workouts - no wonder there is a low success rate!

If I err when training a client, in either volume, intensity or frequency, I can detect that within a day and make an adjustment to training. If I can make an error on occasion, I can safely say that most laypersons make an error EVERY training session, don't have the skills to detect the error, and even if they did suspect an error, don't have the skills to adjust.