Q: I usually assume most artists are skinny or out of shape guys like computer nerds… but when I saw your picture you looked like a WWF wrestler. I workout myself and I was wondering if you could share with us your regiment and more importantly your diet and/or supplements. For instance I stick to a complex carbohydrate diet and I take creatine. I lift weights every 3 days yet I go all out. My main exercise are bicep curls and dips with a weighted belt. Also, I was wondering if you could share with us people’s reaction (such as fans or industry professionals) to your stature when meeting you. Artists get pinned with words like “emotional”, “sensitive”, “touchy” and I think it’s great that you potentially battle the stereotypes of creative types.

A: I understand what you mean. I do get some odd reactions when meeting someone who knows what I do but has never seen me before because there is a certain stereotype people have in there heads for artists, and especially cartoonists. We are supposed to be introverted, moody and emotional so therefore correspondingly weak and either skinny or puffy.

That is of course, ridiculous.

The physical demands of your job don’t much play into your physique or level of fitness anymore unless it’s an extreme case. Someone with a very physical job like loading heavy objects into trucks all day are going to be physically bigger because they develop their muscles in response to the load they are required to carry, but also because they had to be big and strong in the first place to do the job. Most people have jobs with a lot less physical demands, so their fitness (or lack thereof) is entirely in their own hands. With that in mind, I doubt there is much or any difference in the percentage of artists who are in good shape as opposed to those who are not than in any other profession.

Actually when it comes to comics, I know a lot of comic book artists who are in to weightlifting and working out and look the part. My good friends here in Minnesota Tom Nguyen and Doug Mahnke are well known comic book illustrators. Tom has competed in body building competitions and is totally jacked, and Doug has been weightlifting all his life and most recently competes in powerlifting, holding a few records in the state for his age/weight bracket. There are a number of cartoonists from the NCS who also are no slouches in the gym. “Pearls Before Swine”‘s Stephan Pastis is buff, both Glenn and Gary McCoy of “The Flying McCoys” & “The Duplex” are weightlifters and Pulitzer prize winning editorial cartoonist Mike Luchovich is in great shape. So is “One Big Happy” artist Rick Detorie. There are many other examples, some not so overly muscular but many who run, swim, play sports or otherwise keep themselves in good condition. “Rhymes with Orange” creator Hilary Price, who I ran the streets of Havana with when we visited Cuba as part of a cartoonists envoy last year plays league hockey… I’d think twice about messing with her. My point is there are a lot of individuals who would fit the category of bucking the “wimpy artist” stereotype.

For me, I got into weightlifting seriously when I first started doing caricatures at a theme park near Chicago, IL in 1985. I roomed with several other artists who were into pumping iron… one of whom was the afore mentioned Doug Mahnke. Under their guidance I started working out, stuck with it for several years but never got very big. I was too young and my metabolism ran too hot back then. I didn’t eat properly either. I tore a rotator cuff muscle working out in the basement of a townhome I shared with some college buddies one winter, and that derailed me for over 10 years with only fits and starts in the gym after that. Then middle age caught up to me and in 2001 there was a flabby, overweight guy staring back at me from a mirror, and I got serious. It’ll be ten years this summer that I got back into the gym, and other than another rotator cuff tear (this one I got surgery on) I have been regularly in the gym for a decade. Thanks to a slower metabolism and smarter eating habits I packed on about 25-30 lbs of muscle and lost 35-40 lbs of body fat, transforming my physique. When I graduated high school I was 6′ tall and went about 175 lbs soaking wet. These days I fluctuate with weight and body fat levels depending on what sort of routine I am on. When I am doing endurance and “cutting up” routines to lose weight/body fat I can go as low as 205 lbs, and at the end of a mass building phase the biggest I ever weighed in at was 242 lbs. I average around 220. Here’s a pic of me from right before my rotator cuff tear at about 230 lbs… I’m approaching that size again now:

My routines change around a lot. I will train for endurance for a while, then transition into hypertrophy (putting on muscle size) for a while and then transition to strength and power, and then back. I work out four days a week with weights, and sometimes work in another day where I just run or do interval sprints for cardio. Right now I am at the end of a mass building phase, the first big one since my surgery two years ago in March, and am at 225 lbs. Here is my current routine:

Monday: Shoulders/Arms

• Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press- 12 reps x 3 sets
• Lateral Raises- 12 reps x 3 sets
• Upright Rows- 12 reps x 3 sets
• Front Raises- 12 reps x 3 sets
• Standing Barbel Curls- 12 reps x 3 sets
• French Presses- 12 reps x 3 sets
• Seated Arnold Curls- 12 reps x 3 sets
• Push downs- 12 reps x 3 sets

Tuesday: Legs

• Squats- 12 reps x 3 sets
• Reverse Lunges- 12 reps x 3 sets
• Leg Press/Calf Raise Superset: 12 reps x 3 sets (15-20 reps for calves)
• Stiff Leg Deadlifts- 12 reps x 3 sets
• Leg Extensions/Leg Curls (machine)- 12 reps x 3 sets

Thursday: Chest

• Incline Dumbbell Press-12 reps x 3 sets
• Flat bench Dumbbell Press-12 reps x 3 sets
• Dumbbell Flys- 12 reps x 3 sets
• Decline Smith Press- 12 reps x 3 sets
• Standing Cable Crossovers- 12 reps x 3 sets
• Dips- 12 reps x 3 sets

Friday: Back

• Deadlifts-12 reps x 3 sets
• Lat Pulldowns- 12 reps x 3 sets
• V-Bar Rows- 12 reps x 3 sets
• Close Grip Lat Pulldowns/Shrugs Superset- 12 reps x 3 sets
• One Arm Dumbbell rows- 12 reps x 3 sets
• Rear Delts- 12 reps x 3 sets

I will throw in core stuff a couple of times a week, and the occasional cardio work.

Next week I will vary some of the exercises a bit and do 4 sets of 10 reps for each. Then I will begin the transition to strength and power by doing progressively fewer reps and increasing the weight, until I am doing only 4 or 5 reps per set. That will take 5 to 6 weeks. Then maybe back to endurance.

As far as supplements go, I used to take everything under the sun. Now I am smarter, and only supplement a few things I am positive make a difference. Here’s my supplement list in order of importance:

1. Whey Protein- A must have staple. No way could I eat all the protein I need to consume eating whole foods. I good rule of thumb is 1 g of protein per pound of body weight. That means I need to consume 220 g of protein a day… and really if I want to build muscle I should be ingesting 300 grams a day. That’s almost 3 lbs of chicken breast or 50 whole eggs! Whey protein is the best overall choice IMO. It does a whole host of good things besides giving your body the building blocks it need to repair your work-out damaged muscle, including immune system boosting and contributing antioxidants. Whey protein is quick to digest and peaks quickly in your blood, making it an ideal pre/post workout supplement. Look for a whey protein containing a lot of “isolates”, as they are the most pure and concentrated form of whey protein available. It contains 90 percent or more protein and very little (if any) fat and lactose. Another good protein is “casein” protein, which is much more slow digesting so better for later in the day. It doesn’t peak as quickly or as high in the bloodstream as whey, but it stays around almost twice as long giving you a steady trickle of protein for longer. I sometimes have both, and do whey pre and post workout and then casein in the afternoon. My brand of choice for whey protein is Gold Standard 100% Whey by Optimum Nutrition. No side effects.
2. Creatine- There are few supplements out there that work as advertised, but creatine is one of them. Without getting into the scientific details, creatine is basically a substance that your body uses to replenish one of the types of fuel your muscle cells need to contract, called ATP. Creatine enhances the ability of the muscle to maintain power output during brief periods of high-intensity exercise by replenishing the ATP in your muscles faster. It also has a nice “volumizing” effect because it also pulls water molecules into your muscles as well, causing them to be fuller and bigger. I’ve tried a lot of different creatine products, but my favorite in called CellMass by BSN. It’s a creatine ethyl-ester product, which is a (some would say controversial) technology that allows for a much higher absorption of the actual creatine than standard creatine, most of which degrades in your stomach and never reaches your bloodstream. In order to get around this with standard creatine, you have to first “load” it, meaning consuming huge quantities of it for the first week and then after loading still take a lot of it to get any absorption. You also have to take it with a lot of insulin-spiking sugar so what does get to your bloodstream gets pushed into your muscle tissue. I really hate taking all that stuff. CellMass is a single scoop, no loading, and the grape flavor actually tastes pretty good. I’ve gotten good results with it. No side effects other than the occasional digestive issue.
3. BCAAs- Branch Chain Amino Acids are the “Building Blocks” of the body. They make up 35% of your muscle mass and must be present for molecular growth and development to take place. Eight are essential (cannot be manufactured by the body) the rest are non-essential (can be manufactured by the body with proper nutrition). Besides building cells and repairing tissue, they form antibodies, they are part of the enzyme & hormonal system; they build RNA and DNA and they carry oxygen throughout the body. Absolutely crucial supplements. I take Optimum’s BCAA 5000 Powder. No side effects.
4. NO- Short for Nitrogen Oxide, this supplement is basically the amino acid L-Arginine. It increases blood flow and improves muscular fullness through vasodilation and oxygen delivery to your muscles. It opens the blood pathways more fully, allowing more blood to flow to your muscles faster, delivering more needed oxygen during workouts. The increased bloodflow also causes a natural “pump” to your muscles making them bigger and harder after a workout. The problem with NO supplements is that most of them also contain high levels of caffeine and stimulants, which I don’t like as they increase my heart rate during a workout, and I am fully capable of bringing my heartrate to the tipping point all by myself, thanks. I little caffeine gives you some pep, but most NO products are loaded with it. I like to combine two NO supplements, both from the same company. I mix half a scoop of NO Shotgun with half a scoop of SynthaSize, both from VPX. NO Shotgun has the caffeine, and SynthaSize is the same product without the caffeine. Together I get the NO benefits with just enough stimulants to get me going to the gym. No side effects.
5. Glutamine- This the most abundant amino acid found in muscle tissue. It helps prevent muscle wasting and improves recovery. You’ll find it in a lot of supplements already, but I take a scoop pre-workout anyway. Crucial muscle building amino acid. No side effects.
6. Beta-Alanine- This is another amino acid that has been shown to increase the concentration of carnosine in muscles, decrease fatigue in athletes and increase total muscular work done. It lessens the “burning” sensation that you get when doing intense workouts and allows you to get that extra rep or two in… which is where all the growth starts. There are other benefits. Even though CellMass has come beta-alanine in it, I supplement additionally pre-workout. I was using a product called H-Blocker for a while but it was hard to take… too much of it and it digested badly. I’m switching to a pure beta-alanine supplement called Beta Alanine Plus from Higher Power. Side effects- this can cause an odd reddening of your ears and a tingling/heat sensation called paraesthesia. Harmless.
7. Testosterone Boosters- Testosterone is the male hormone that dictates how big and strong you get (it’s a little more complicated than that, but close enough). At 44 years old, my testosterone levels are not what they were at 18… or 25… or even 35. You have two choices in trying to increase your testosterone: take illegal steroids or supplement with legal compounds that purport to naturally stimulate your own body’s testosterone production. Despite accusations by some people, I have never taken any illegal steroid or supplement of any kind, and never will. The cost health-wise is too high. That said, I do take a few natural test boosters: I’ve at times taken tribulus terrestris, ZMA, Eurycoma Longfolia and assorted others. Do they work? Well, I don’t have my testosterone checked very often (okay, EVER) but I will say I feel more aggressive at the gym and have had success actually gaining muscle mass after 40… which isn’t easy without steroids. Maybe they are nothing but placebos, there are certainly plenty of studies refuting the claims they effect test levels at all. My take: WHO CARES. They don’t cost that much and have no side effects, so have at ‘em.

Thanks to Stephen Busfield for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me your questions and I’ll try and answer them here!

Q: I’m a college student, and I have very little time as it is, but I also freelance and am about to start drawing caricatures at a theme park for the summer as well… so I have a lot on my plate. Recently I’ve put on a few pounds (more like 20ish…), because I haven’t been eating well or exercising like I used to, because I don’t have the time. My question to you is, how on earth do you find time to make it to the gym, or not eat garbage all the time?

A: The quick answer is… I often don’t find the time to eat right and get to the gym. In the heat of major projects and late nights I will turn to comfort food and eat at odd hours, plus miss gym time as I work very late and can’t make it to the gym at my usual 8 o’clock a.m. time. Right now I’ve got the double whammy of dealing with a major shoulder injury which I will be having surgery on next month. I’ve lost some muscle and gained some wieght recently as well, so I feel your pain.

That said, I’ve found the key to being consistant in any workout/health routine is to not allow slips to derail you. It’s easy to just give up when you’ve missed some time. However you need to get back on that horse, even if for a while you are barely getting anything done. I missed all last week in the gym and ate badly as I was doing this crazy job with an insane deadline and I was up until 4 am every night and slept until 9 am then back to it. I finished the job Thursday and even though it would have been easy to not go into the gym on Friday and just get back to it Monday, I dragged myself to the gym anyway at 8 am. That first time back after missing some time is the hardest one.

Thanks to Kelton Hamm for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!

It’s been some time since I’ve written about working out. Actually weightlifting and bodybuilding have been a big part of my life for over 5 years now, every since I saw how fat and out of shape I was at age 36 and decided to do something about it.

My trainer, Ryan Branson, left Lifetime Fitness a little less than two years ago and after a year or so of being part of an independent co-op sort of gym just opened his own studio in Eagan, MN. It’s a smallish space right now but there are plans to expand when another tenant next to him vacates their part of the building in a year or so. Ryan is a great trainer, who has kept me focused on my goals and kept me from injuring myself by working around my various ailments and past injuries. No mean feat as I have bad knees, a partially torn rotator cuff and I.T. band, barbed bone spurs in my AC shoulder joints and tendinitis in my wrists and biceps tendons. Despite all that, we maintain a 4 days a week rotating periodization program that changes frequently to keep the body guessing and continues to make progress.

Here are some pics of Ryan’s new studio, Renegade Personal Training and Fitness:

The equipment is necessarily a little limited right now due to space, but it’s got all the important stuff. We have to be creative in order to do some things, but that can lead to new gains as you use angles and movements that your body has not gotten used to or even attempted before. I did front squats for the first time last week, and I’ve got the bruises on my front shoulders to prove it.

Right now we are at the end of a mass building phase, one of three or four I undergo every year to bulk up and build new muscle. That usually involves heavy weights and lots of big, compound movements, as well as a lot of calories. It must be working, as I am currently weighing in at 242 lbs… my all time heaviest. I wish I could say it was all muscle, but there is always a certain amount of fat gain as well when you bulk up. I’ve got a little more muffin-top than 6 pack right now, not that I ever get cut enough to have a 6 pack anyway. I hate dieting. We will probably follow up with a short transition program of two weeks or so before doing an endurance phase where I will drop a lot of bodyfat and some muscle as well, but the net gain will be a certain amount of permanent muscle (at least as long as I continue to work out) and hopefully less bodyfat overall.

Here’s an example of a workout from my current routine that I did yesterday. This was a chest/back/triceps “push-pull” workout where we superset (doing one exercise immediately after another with almost no break) a “push” movement for chest with a “pull” movement for back. I’ve got pictures of some of the movements.

Superset:
- Bench Press: 4 sets x 8 reps
- Pull Ups: 4 sets x 8-12 reps

Flat bench press

Pull up at the top of the movement

Superset:
- Dumbbell Incline Press: 4 sets x 8 reps
- Lat Pulldowns: 4 sets x 8 reps

Incline Dumbbells using a decline ab bench!

Nice face, Popeye!

Lat Pulldown- top of movement

… at the bottom. Looks like I am leaning too far back.

Superset:
- Dumbell Flys on Ball: 4 sets x 8 reps
- Bent Over Dumbbell Rows with twist: 4 sets x 8 reps

Dumbbell Flys on the ball… good core movement as well as for chest

Bent Over Dumbbell Rows- Bottom of movement. The “twist” is when I pull
the dumbbells up to my chest. I start with my knuckles toward the mirror,
then I twist my hands so I end up with my knuckles facing out to each side.

Superset:
- Tricep Rope Extensions- 4 sets x 8 rep
- Overhead Tricep Dumbbell Presses- 4 sets x 8 reps
- Dumbbell Shrugs- 4 sets x 8 reps

I usually do deadlifts as well on back day and do some abs at the end but I had to cut out after an hour today to get some work done for a deadline. I try to never skip a workout but I do sometimes have to compromise them to limit my time spent in the gym if I am up against the Dreaded Deadline Demon.

Weightlifting is a passion and a way of life. You have to be committed to put up with the pain and soreness that is inevitable if you want to make gains. I find it both rewarding and a great stress reliever.

It’s been a while since I posted about my workout routines. Briefly, about 5 years ago I got motivated by some shocking pictures of a fat, middle aged guy with my face and got back into the gym for the first time in many years. I’ve been working out ever since with a personal trainer, currently Ryan Branson who operates out of a studio gym in Burnsville, MN. I do a constantly changing periodization program that switches from endurance to hypertrophy (mass building) to strength and power.

This summer I spent mostly in a high endurance/cardio program designed to give me a break from building size while at the same time dropping bodyfat and building my endurance and ‘wind’. It was a grueling program and I lost a fair amount of size and strength doing it. Not my favorite thing to do but you have to switch tracks like that to keep your body guessing and resetting for another round of the heavy stuff.

For about the last month I’m back to a mass building program. Currently we are doing a decending rep/increasing weight routine. We started out at 3 sets of 12 reps per movement for two weeks, then 3 sets of 10 reps with heavier weight the next, followed by this week of 4 sets of 10 reps of each movement. In the next few weeks we’ll be dropping to 8 reps, then 6, then 4 as the weights really start going up. I work out 4 days a week doing back, chest/biceps, legs and shoulders/triceps on separate days. We are concentrating on the big compound movements like presses, deadlifts and squats.

One of the interesting things about bodybuilding is that your body has a ‘memory’ when it comes to strength and size. Once you build up to a certain level of strength and mass, your muscles will remember that level and after taking some time off to do a different routine they will get back to that remembered level a lot faster than it originally took to reach it. Right now after only four weeks I am close to my peak size. I don’t do measurements but just eyeball it and use the scale to keep track of mass. I’m just a few pounds off my heaviest weight with minimal gains in body fat (some is unavoidable).

Here are some pictures of some of the movements in my chest/biceps routine:

Incline chest press, mid-movement. This builds the upper chest.

Dumbbell flys, mid-movement. This builds the outer chest.

Decline cable crossovers, top of movement…

… at the bottom. This builds the inner and lower chest.

Dumbbell twist curls, bottom of movement…

…near the top. The “twist” is a rotation of the wrist from bottom to top. At the very top my knuckles will be pointing at the floor with my palms up. This develops the bicep “peak”.

Seated dumbell curls, also with a twist.

Taking a breather….

This routine also includes flat bench presses, dumbbell mid presses, kettlebell power swings, upward cable crossovers and wide grip barbell curls.

Gaining mass is hard work, and not just in the gym. Your diet needs to be strong or you will just be spinning your wheels. I have to make sure I get some good quality protein and low-glycemic carbs in every three hours all day long after a heavy workout. If I miss a few meals my body goes from muscle-building mode to starvation-prevention mode, and will not only store fat from the smallest amount of ingested calories, but will cannibalize the muscle tissue itself as fuel. That is a waste of all that effort. That’s also a lot of food to eat all day.

At 41 I can tell it’s a lot harder to recover from workouts than it used to be, so I don’t know how long I can keep it up. Right now I still enjoy it and it’s nice to be in good shape this late in life, especially considering I sit on my ass for a living. Also I do not get messed with in bars and my daughters boyfriends are scared to death of me, which are nice bonuses.