A Simple Review

I recently finished my latest indulgence in the fitness world; Mass Made Simple by Dan John.  Needless to say I'm excited to start this program.  It will be a lot different of a routine then what I'm used to.  Currently I'm running a full body heavy weight, rest, full body light weight routine.  Dan's routine consists of a full body every two days, with a warm up or stay loose day thrown in on one of the two rest days.    So it looks like I'll be doing a lot of heavy lifting as Dan bans any weight plate thats not real.  Real weight plates in his book consist of a 45lb plate or a 25lb plate.  Also a lot of squatting.  Too much squatting.   I hate squatting.  If I was a short stalky dude I would love it.  But I'm tall, tall and lengthy.  Tall guys get the short end of the stick (hah) when it comes to moving weights.  We have to move the bar a lot further then you vertically challenged folk.  Moving the bar further requires more energy, more muscle activation, we have to go lower when we squat down and higher when we come back up.  It's not fair.

Other than the high rep squats, the brunt of the routine is done with what Dan coined as a "complex";  He defines a complex as a series of lifts back to back to back where you finish the reps of one lift before moving on to the next, the barbell only leaving your hands once all the lifts are completed.  For example day one I will be doing the following complex:

Barbell row x 3
Clean x 3
Front Squat x 3
Military Press x 3
Back Squat x 3
Good Morning's x 3

I will do all these exercises for 3 reps back to back with out dropping the bar.  I will do 3 sets of this.  followed by one set of 30 rep squats.  Yikes!  As the training progresses, more sets and heavier weights are added also some variations to the above complex... You people may see me walking funny for a few weeks.

As far as the nutritional portion of this book goes, I was pretty disappointed.   Dan basically recommends taking supplements I've already been taking (Fish oil & creatine)  followed by eating more fiber and eating more protein.  He doesn't give a ratio or macro nutrient guide or caloric goal. He basically just says to eat more peanut butter & jelly sandwhiches and add an apple to your meals   Not the most in depth nutritional advice if you ask me... However I am fairly excited to start the workout regimen.    My results may be skewed as I am going against Dan's advice in one area.  He recommends to quit any sports or endurance activities that maybe consuming too many calories.  Currently I'm playing softball 3 times a week and basketball once a week.  I've been able to maintain my current body weight so far while adding in these sports this spring, so I don't think thats an issue.  If worse comes to worse I'll add more calories to my already absurd amount.  Maybe a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or two..