clarence bass 'Ripped' series of books

[Crotalus]

Any of you guys read these and do you recommend them or are they the same old thing re-hashed another way ?

 

[BigTEX]

Any of you guys read these and do you recommend them or are they the same old thing re-hashed another way ?

I have Ripped 2 and Ripped 3.
Clarence Bass advocates a near vegetarian low fat diet.
He also does 2-3 weight lifting workouts a week with cardio almost every day.
So his approach is a little different than the standard hi-protein diet with
4-6 day bodybuilding split routine workouts, but obviously it does work for him, so
ya got to give him credit.

What is my opinion of his books.....well they are good, but it depends
on what you want to do. If you're an older guy, or fat loss is your main
concern, then the "Ripped" series of books would be the way to go.
But if you're younger and want to pack on the muscle mass, I'd stay
with a hi-protein diet and more weight-lifting.

His books are good and there are lots of good recipes in Ripped 3.
They are worth getting. I wouldn't pay retail for em though.
I'd look around on EBAY. I got both of my books for less than $5 ea.

 

[Crotalus]

Appreciate the reply ...

I'm about as big as I'm going to get 'naturaly' at 52 and though 186 at about 12 % BF at 5'6'', I'd like to be leaner but can't seem to drop anymore fat ... even when eating almost nothing. I'd like to see myself at 9% if possible so I was curious about what his approach was. But I'll tell you what if cardio everyday is the secret , I'll stay where I am at 12% and be satisfied as nothing bores to death like cardio. I do an intense cardio session following the weights at the gym and work a heavy bag at home - if I can't do it my adjusting the diet more , then so be it. It's not like I'm 30% BW and desperate ...

My abs are always there , but I know a harder, better defined look always looks better ... though the Clanence lean look is too small and lean for my tastes.

After leaving his site , E-Bay was my first stop and believe it or not, the 'Ripped series' was there , but even more unbelievable was the price that was being bid for the three was HIGHER than you could buy them for on his site brand new !

Thanks again for the response .

 

[BigTEX]

Appreciate the reply ...

After leaving his site , E-Bay was my first stop and believe it or not, the 'Ripped series' was there , but even more unbelievable was the price that was being bid for the three was HIGHER than you could buy them for on his site brand new !

Thanks again for the response .

Do a search on EBAY for item 5529770442
All 3 books....no bids.....starting at $1

 

[Crotalus]

I guess you can tell I'm no E-Bay expert ! :icon_lol:

Why didn't that turn up when I did the search ?? I typed in Claence Bass and his books came up , only with someone who already has bid $41.00 , and with shipping that will come to over the retail price of them brand new, on the Bass site. WTF ??? :think:

I don't know what I did wrong and you did right to find that deal, but I owe you dinner ! But get me before I do a Bass diet or you'll just be getting cerely and carrot sticks .

Thanks again !! :thumbsup:

 

[former_SlimJim]

His ideas on diet are very similar to what many had been preaching from the 50's up until the early 90's. It's high carb, ultra low fat, and low protein. When I was a distance runner I had that same mentality and it worked fine for endurance training - of course I ran on average 7 miles a day and weighed 129 lbs at 6' tall. This is just the opposite of what most bodybuilders need. I think with all of the cardio and low protein that he recommends it would be hard to maintain muscle mass.

I resently decided to cut for awhile and couldn't get the weight to come off by cutting back my meals. This has never been a problem in my past. I was hungry all the time too. I picked up my girlfriend's Adkins diet book and started reading through it. Now I am following his diet and am losing weight and feel full all the time. Over the last 2 weeks I've lost 6 lbs - 1 1/2" off my waist and my skinfold calipers tell me it's all fat loss.

 

[Crotalus]

Thanks for the tip on the Atkin's diet book. I never give these diets 'in-the-news' a thought as every time you turn around , there's another one claiming to be the best. So usually anything talked about on TV I see as hype and ignore it.

I don't eat much at all and have no problem staying away from the junk, but even so it seems while eating next to nothing I still can't get below about 12-13 % BF. I do some intense cario following my HIT weight workouts ( had to skip the bike today as my lower back was fried ), but like I told Tex , if Bass advocates 45 minute areobic sessions 7 days a week I'll have to be sadisfied with my current BW level because I'm not that bad to subject myself to that crap.

I'm sure Atkins has fifty books - which would you recommend I check out ?

Thanks alot .

 

[former_SlimJim]

Yes, I am not much into fads either. It was only frustration that caused me to pick up my girlfreind's diet book and read it. It all made sense though and it works for me. The book that I read is the Dr. Atkins "New" Diet Revolution. It's just the newest edition of his original book. This is the link to it on Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060081597/qid=1098974890/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-9413508-6024950?v=glance&s=books

 

[Crotalus]

Thanks ... I'll look into it.

As far as the high carb / low fat and protein diet, that's the way I've always eaten throughout my training years. I followed this way of eating because that's what was recommended by the same guys who's training methods I followed.

I trained low volume / high intensity which worked for me so I followed their diet plans as well.

I think I started to eat accidentally in an 'Adkins way' two years ago for a summer and it was the leanest I ever was. I think I'll start back to that now.

One question for you guys on areobics .... I do a couple short, intense sessions for cardio purposes as I've always seen trying to burn fat by exercise as almost usless.

I look at how little calories I burn on either the bike or staimaster when I'm done and it's so ridiculous I can't believe it's even worth thinking about doing for becoming leaner. I'll see after climbing for 10 intense minutes that I didn't even take care of the tablespoon of low fat salad dressing ... it's a joke. :frustrate

Yeah, I can see if one were to spend an hour a day on one of those boring machines , but it's much easier and less time consuming to keep my mouth shut and push the plate away. Maybe I'm all wrong on this ... if so , straighten me out with the way you see it and your experiance.

Thanks for the info. :thumbsup:

 

[former_SlimJim]

I take it you've read alot by Jones and Darden. I personally use a HIT style of training too, but I'm a big believer in free weights over machines. I also don't agree with their diet recommendations. As far as the cardio goes, look into High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). If you can't tell, I'm a big "intensity" fan. The following is a link to the thread I've been writing in about it.

http://anabolicminds.com/forum/showthread.php?p=193411#post193411

 

[DieTrying]

Thanks ... I'll look into it.

As far as the high carb / low fat and protein diet, that's the way I've always eaten throughout my training years. I followed this way of eating because that's what was recommended by the same guys who's training methods I followed.

I trained low volume / high intensity which worked for me so I followed their diet plans as well.

I think I started to eat accidentally in an 'Adkins way' two years ago for a summer and it was the leanest I ever was. I think I'll start back to that now.

One question for you guys on areobics .... I do a couple short, intense sessions for cardio purposes as I've always seen trying to burn fat by exercise as almost usless.

I look at how little calories I burn on either the bike or staimaster when I'm done and it's so ridiculous I can't believe it's even worth thinking about doing for becoming leaner. I'll see after climbing for 10 intense minutes that I didn't even take care of the tablespoon of low fat salad dressing ... it's a joke. :frustrate

Yeah, I can see if one were to spend an hour a day on one of those boring machines , but it's much easier and less time consuming to keep my mouth shut and push the plate away. Maybe I'm all wrong on this ... if so , straighten me out with the way you see it and your experiance.

Thanks for the info. :thumbsup:

You couldn't be more off on the cardio/aerobic issue. Yes it is pretty amazing how few calories you burn while exercising when compared to the amount of calories in typical American foods, but the benefits of aerobic training are so great that it is amazing. What you need to realize is that aerobic activity not only burns calories while you are exercising, but also helps your body to utilize fat sources for the rest of the day. For example, if a trained athlete and an untrained athlete were to run , at the initial start both would have a close Respiratory Quotient (% of CHO vs. fat sources), but as the race goes on the trained athlete would begin using fat sources much faster and much more efficiently, despite the fact that they may be going at equal intensities. Endurance training trains your body to become efficient at using fat sources for fuel, despite the fact that they are slow systems.

 

[Crotalus]

I used both weights and machines but right now the only machine I'm using is the Hammer Row because I like a chest support. The dumbells are fixed and stop at 120 or I'b be doing 1 armed rows which is what I prefer.

Thanks for those HIIT interval articles . Now that sort of thing I could see myself getting into. Those 45 - 60 minute stationary bike / treadmill stuff just isn't for me. I haven't read the articles but am going to . I'll also be looking for that Adkin's book you mentioned.

The thing that bothers me about these low carb diets is looking at what I always saw as 'healthy' foods like rice, baked potatos and fruit as stuff to avoid . The summertime without fresh fruit I think would suck.

 

[DieTrying]

The thing that bothers me about these low carb diets is looking at what I always saw as 'healthy' foods like rice, baked potatos and fruit as stuff to avoid . The summertime without fresh fruit I think would suck.

Theres a reason why these things are considered healthy foods. I don't understand why you feel you need to cut carbs (although most fruits are not optimal).

 

[Crotalus]

Theres a reason why these things are considered healthy foods. I don't understand why you feel you need to cut carbs (although most fruits are not optimal).

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Great , that's fine with me. For the last 15 years I've went with a high carb / low fat and protien diet.

I started to think low carb might be something to think about since no mater how little I ate I couldn't get below 12 % BF.

I'm getting Bass's books soon as the E-bay bid is over and look forward to seeing what he has to say. FSJ said he'e been experiancing the same siort of thing about being stuck at a certain BF level no matter how far he dropped the calories and that the low carb Atkin's diet helped him alot.

So, I thought about looking into that also. He does suggest dropping most carbs for the most part, doesn't he ? I'm just going by what I hear since I have notr read anything on it yet.

I'm trying to drop to below 10% and looking for a way of eating that will do it so I'm asking for other's experiances.

 

[DieTrying]

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Great , that's fine with me. For the last 15 years I've went with a high carb / low fat and protien diet.
QUOTE]

I would agree with the high carb part, but not the low protein. IMO, low/no carb diets are just a bad idea. I've done all sorts of things with altering carbs from eating NO CARBS AT ALL (very bad idea) to only eating carbs around a work-out. All these diets worked OK to a point, but the problem is that they worked for all of the wrong reasons. While in ketosis, I promise you will have a shitty appetite (I did) and part of the reason you lose weight is not because you're burning more fat sources than carb sources, its because your under maintenance. It is basic physiology.

The big reason why people think that you lose weight while on low-carb diets is because "you're burning more fat sources than carb sources." Big deal.... sitting here behind a computer screen, most people are burning more fat than carbs (around a 55/45 ratio).The problem is that when you're body doesn't have glucose, ATP-CP, Glycolysis, and Oxidative Phosphorylation (Krebs Cycle/Electron Transport Chain) ALL SLOW DOWN..BASICALLY WITHOUT CARBOHYDRATES, NOTHING IN YOUR BODY WORKS VERY WELL(fat burning included)...and you can feel it.

Unless somebody has a serious health or hormone-related problem (probably less than 5% of all obese), there is no reason why anybody should be on a crazy 1400 calorie, low-carb diet. And at that point you should be under a doctor's supervision.

 

[Crotalus]

You seem to know what you're talking about .... appreciate the response.

What do you think of what Bass recommends ? Someone said on his eating plan you might have a hard time mantaining mucle size .

If you were in my situation and couldn't seem to drop much more fat with an already low enough caloric intake , what would your move be ... and please don't say 60 minute mind-numbing treadmill or stationary bike twice a day ... please, LOL.

What do you think of the interval stuff FSJ is doing ?

 

[DieTrying]

You seem to know what you're talking about .... appreciate the response.

What do you think of what Bass recommends ? Someone said on his eating plan you might have a hard time mantaining mucle size .

If you were in my situation and couldn't seem to drop much more fat with an already low enough caloric intake , what would your move be ... and please don't say 60 minute mind-numbing treadmill or stationary bike twice a day ... please, LOL.

What do you think of the interval stuff FSJ is doing ?

I don't know much about Bass' recommendations. Reading from what BigTEX wrote, it seems like he may sort of be on the right track for the general public that doesn't care about muscle mass..A vegetarian type diet is much better than a high fat diet IMO. The problem here for you is that you care about muscle mass. PROTEIN NEEDS TO BE HIGH!

HIIT/interval cardiovascular bouts work well but a lot depends on the type and amount of anaerobic training you're doing. Nobody ever needs to do 60-minutes of cardio twice a day. I agree that none of it is fun, but it is important. Whats really going to make the difference is your diet.

 

[size]

Bass is ripped.

 

[Crotalus]

You read all the time that weight reduction should go well at a 2 lb a week reduction rate ; safe and reasonable rate I guess. I've never tried to reduce just bodyweight but am looking to reduce body fat % over the winter to below 10% if possible.

Is there any ' rate' to shoot for here , like 6% , 4% , 2% a month ? I'm higher than I thought I was ( 14% ) and have given myself the entire winter to get to 10% or below. Is this reasonable level in that time frame ?

BTW, my cardio session 'problems' are over ! I tried HIIT the other day and LOVED IT !!! I did it on a bike for my first time and looking forward to trying it
next time on the stairmaster. I can't believe I actually am looking forward to the next
cardio session as pure boredom was the problem for me and HITT is not boring !