It was Tuesday night, about 11:00 pm, when my wife returned home from picking up her sister at LAX. Gold's Gym closed at midnight. I figured that with a quick sprint on my bike to Gold's I could have a good 30 minutes to work my back. That would suffice as long as I didn't rest much between sets. So I went for it.

I made it to the gym right on schedule at 11:30 PM. The gym was fairly dead except for a handful of the hardcore members getting  in their late-night workouts. The Smith machine was free so I started my back workout with one-arm bent-over Smith machine rows with no rest between sides. I just switched from arm to arm. (To read a description of this exercise, check out page 262 in my book, Encyclopedia of Muscle & Strength. I'll also do this exercise as a M&F Raw! video in the near future.) After a couple of rounds of this the fatigue set in and I decided to strip off some weight.

As I was removing plates, I watched a young guy with a good build perform deadlifts out of the corner of my eye. Before I could start up again, he approached me and asked, "Would you mind watching my form?" I said, "Not at all, but what exercise are you doing?" Of course, I was thinking in the back of my mind, "I'm losing precious time on my own workout." But I never miss the opportunity to help someone who asks for assistance. He replied, "Romanian deadlifts." Then he proceeded to do standard deads. When he finished the set, I told him that he was actually doing regular deadlifts and that if he wanted to do true Romanian deads he should use less legs and more hips. I showed him the basics.

Then he referred to a laminated workout pull-out. I asked to see it. Turns out it was from my Freq Out program in the August 2009 issue of Muscle and Fitness. I said, "I actually wrote that workout." He replied, "Really?!" I said, "Yeah, I'm Jim Stoppani, senior science editor for Muscle & Fitness." He looked rather surprised and a bit skeptical, so I showed him my ID. Then he asked me some other questions he had on the program. As we talked, he told me his story. His name was Joe and he was preparing to return to Iraq. Yes, return. He was in the infantry and his last duty in Iraq left him with a broken back and injured shoulder, resulting from a buddy throwing him down a full flight of stairs in an effort to save him from taking a few rounds of gunfire. Joe avoided getting hit, unlike the buddy who saved him, but he suffered the injuries from the fall. But he has made a great recovery, which his doctors attribute to the fact that he was so strong and in such great shape before the injury. That and the fact that he incorporated weight training in his recovery as soon as possible after the injury.

Joe showed me his photos from Iraq on his iPhone as I managed to sneak in a few sets of pulldowns and seated rows before the gym closed. It turned out to be a real lousy back workout. But it was the best lousy back workout I had ever done. After all, I got to personally help a longtime M&F reader and a true hero. That's what this job is all about, but it's not often that I get to see those I help in person. So what if one back workout wasn't the most intense workout I could do? I have plenty of other opportunities to train back. Who knows when I'll have the next opportunity to personally help out an M&F reader.

Let's move on to the QnA's.

Hey David: Thanks!  You gained 25 pounds in a little over a year?! The proof is in the pudding, as they say. Given that, I'd say your program is working very well for you. Who cares what works for every one else. The key is finding what works for you. One question I have is about your rep ranges. Do you ever change them up from 5 reps per set? That is really the only change I would suggest you make. Keep up the great work!

Hi Will: Welcome to the M&F Family and thanks for the congrats. I have a great program for you. Pick up the October issue of Muscle & Fitness magazine and turn to my article Shock Training on page 108. This workout will build power, strength and muscle size. Let me know if you have any questions about it.

Hey Joel: Thanks for the great idea of putting the QnA's in a separate section. I forwarded your idea to our internet team. We'll see if they can develop a section for this. In the meantime, this format will have to suffice. : )  

Typically, when you have a muscle area that is lagging in development, it is often due to genetic factors. However, that is not to say that you can not bring up the lagging area with proper training. Just be realistic in how much you'll be able to bring up that area and realize that it will take a LOT of focus to bring it up. That means that not only will you need to use the proper exercises to target that muscle area, but you'll also need to do those exercises at the right time in your workout and use the proper intensity-boosting techniques to use with those exercises. The close-grip bench press and dips are great overall triceps mass builders, but are not the best exercises to isolate the lateral triceps. That's because these are multijoint exercises that use, in addition to the triceps, other muscle groups like pecs and delts. Rope triceps pressdowns, on the other hand, are a great exercise to target the lateral head. Just make sure you use a long-enough rope attachment so that you can keep your torso upright when get to the bottom of the move and your arms can fully extend to the sides of your thighs. The black, thick rope attachments with the rubber ends that most gyms have are not long enough to properly hit the lateral head. Another tip on this exercise is to try a thumb-over grip. That means, don't wrap your thumb around the rope. This will help you to use less forearm muscles and help you fucus on pushing the weight down with just the triceps, particularly the lateral head. Since you have a large left lateral head than right, I suggest you do one-arm rope triceps pressdowns. That way the right arm has to do all the work on its own and not ride along while the stronger left triceps takes over. Doing the one-arm version also helps to prevent the rope from being to short, as you will stand to one side and bring the rope down to your side. Start with right arm and let it determine how many reps you will do on each set. I suggest you use a technique on these known as Extended Sets. That means after reaching failure you continue the exercise, but with a slight change in biomechanics that makes the same weight easier. For example, do triceps pressdowns with a rope to failure. Then immediately remove the rope attachment and attach a D-handle attachment and continue doing as many reps as possible with the same weight using an overhand grip. Start your triceps workouts with four sets of these using a weight that allows you to complete 8-12 reps. Follow with 3-4 sets of close-grip bench presses for 8-10 reps per set. Be sure to watch M&F Raw! #20 - Close-Grip Bench Press to make sure your grip is correct on these. On the last set of these, do 2 rest pause sets. That is, after reaching failure, rack the bar and rest 15 seconds, then continue to failure. Rest another 15 seconds and continue to failure again. Next do triceps kickbacks as these are another great triceps lateral head exercise. However, I suggest you do these with a cable to keep the tension on the lateral head throughout the full range of motion. Do these with a rope attachment to keep your hand in the neutral position. Do four sets per arm, without resting, and just going from arm to arm. Again, start with the right arm. Choose a weight that allows you to complete 15 reps on the first round. If this isn't enough to have your triceps blasted, you can finish with 2-3 sets of triceps dips. However, if your triceps are too fatigued to allow you to do more than 5 reps on dips do cable triceps dips as seen in M&F Raw! #9 - Cable Triceps Dips. Do these for 12-15 reps, doing one drop set on the final set. That is, after reaching failure, drop the weight by 20-30 percent and continue to failure. Be sure that you do NOT do this workout after training any other bodypart and do it first in your workout. You can follow it with biceps or legs.

Hi Michael: Glad you like the power cardio workout...it works great! I'd follow the Power Cardio up with a whey shake and some fast carbs. But since it's only done for fairly short duration, I would stick to about 20 g whey and 20-40 g carbs.

Hi Brian: I will DEFINITELY keep the M&F Raw! coming. Yeah, a LOT of guys have trouble with their calves. I never had great genetics either for building huge calves. However, I have found a few tricks that have helped to bring them up. The most important trick is variety. As you said, certain things worked, but only for a few weeks. That's why you want to constantly change it up...every single workout. Go heavy one workout, very light another, moderate weight another. Do as low as 5 reps per set in heavy workouts, and as high as 100 reps in light workouts. Also consider how you can hit your calves in your cardio workouts. Try running hills (outdoors or on the treadmill), go bicycling, especially up hills, and try jump roping. I also suggest you ad some power training to your calf work. That is, doing quick and explosive reps with light weight. One great exercise to start your calf workout with that develops power and can help to build bigger calves are what I call Calf Jumps. These are similar to the jumps that ballet artists do, where you have very little bend in the knees and most of the explosiveness of the jump comes from the ankles. Do 2-3 sets of 5-10 reps at the start of your calf workout. This exercise will train your calves to call on more of the fast-twitch muscle fibers, the ones that grow the biggest.

Hi Cade: That is definitely a solid cardio program of HIIT. The only questions I have are regarding your progression. How long have you been doing this? Is it getting easy? One thing you need is to constantly make it more challenging. So the only change I would suggest is to start shaving time of the walk intervals and make up the time shaved off by doing more total intervals. For example, change the one-minute walk to 45 seconds. Since you do 10 intervals, that cuts off about 150 seconds, or just over 2 minutes. So add an extra interval or two, doing 11-12 intervals total. Then eventually drop the walk time to 30 seconds, and again add another one or two intervals. Make sense?

Hey Jason: Thank you so much for the kind words and support. I am thrilled to hear that you appreciate my articles, book, and videos. It especially means a lot coming from a kinesiology major! Shoot me an email at jimstoppani@gmail.com and I can help you get more info for your project.

Hi Joe: Glad to hear you are enjoying my articles and my book, Encyclopedia of Muscle & Strength. I really like Gaspari's SuperPump 250. Definitely stick with that if it's working for you. Don't worry about the 20-beta-ecdysterone. It works well, when you get a good form of it, but it's not critical. You can definitely substitute the exercises with dumbbell versions and still get similar results.

Hello Ignacio: I am happy to hear that the M&F Raw! videos have been very helpful. You definitely need to eat above your maintenance calorie level. So in my opinion, eating about 300-500 calories above maintenance is the best option for putting on muscle mass and strength. Yes, I am always happy to share my workout routines and I offer them all the time. If you scroll through my blogs, you can see some of the workouts I do. Also, any training routine I put in Muscle & Fitness Magazine is a workout that I personally use and prescribe. The October issue on newsstands now has three workouts I frequently use: Shock Training on page 108, is a program that builds power, strength and mass. Power Cardio on page 138 is a great cardio workout that also builds muscle power. And Suicide Kings on page 190, is another cardio workout I do when I want to get outdoors. Both Power Cardio and Suicide Kings can also be found in my M&F Raw! training video series. In addition, you can see more of the routines I use in my book, Encyclopedia of Muscle & Strength.

Hi Robbin: We're all glad to hear that you're a loyal fan of M&F. Thanks for the support! I love Dymatize Elite 12 Hour Protein. You can definitely use that in place of Optimum Nutrition 100% Casein.

Hey Teddy: I train formally in kempo, but we also do a lot of MMA training (Jiu Jitsu, Judo, etc...) to be better, well-rounded fighters.