A Load of Doggcrapp: Is Dante Trudels Doggcrapp Training

System The Next Big Thing In Bodybuilding?

Lets not call it a revolution yet, but if the 70s were the era of Arnold (double splits, high
volume) and the 90s were the years of Yates (high intensity, low frequency), then this
decade may be remembered as the age of Doggcrapp.

Try to ignore the name for now; instead, consider the fact that not only has DC become an Internet
bodybuilding board phenomenon, but DC disciple and pro bodybuilder Dave Henry has acquired 30 lean
pounds in less than three years. Thats a lot of Crapp. We interviewed DC mastermind Dante Trudel to
learn about Doggcrapps rapid growth and why its adherents grow so rapidly. Trudel, 38, grew up in
Massachusetts and currently lives in Southern California with his wife, Dianne. He co-owns the Internet
supplement company Trueprotein.com. At 61, he now weighs a muscular 280, but when Trudel began
bodybuilding at age 20, as he jokes, he was a wispy 137 after a good meal and with four rolls of quarters
in my pocket.
After developing his low-volume rest-pause training style and experiencing his greatest
growth, Trudel tutored his friends, who saw similar rapid results. From 1993 to 1995, he
published a cutting-edge bodybuilding newsletter called Hardcore Muscle.
However, it wasnt until Trudel posted his theories on an Internet discussion board six years ago that his
ideas began to spread. Unfortunately, he used the screen name Doggcrapp for what he thought would
be his only post. Much to his surprise, he was deluged with questions, his original post grew to 118 pages
and his writings were copied and pasted all over the Internet.
Sad to say, Im stuck with the moniker Doggcrapp, Trudel laments with a laugh. If I
could do it all over again, trust me, I wouldve gone with a much cooler screen name.

What was your early training like?

I did the good ol boys programs I saw in the magazines, jumping back and forth according to the latest
article. It took me two years of six meals a day and training hard just to look normal at 190. It kind of
sucked that I had to gain 50 pounds to look normal, but I had a never-say-die attitude. I went three-anda-half years barely missing a meal, and if I did miss one, Id get up at 2 AM and cook it. I really believe
that bullheaded consistency in eating put the 50 pounds on me more than any type of training I did.

How did you first develop DC?

After three-and-a-half years of obsessive-compulsive volume training, I started to read everything I could
get my hands on concerning nutrition, supplements and training even abstracts and lab studies. I got to
the point where I thought, Jeez, there is no rhyme or reason for what people are doing bodybuildingwise.
It seemed to me that everything was done with an I must do inclines, declines, flat bench, flyes, cable
crossovers and pec deck or I wont grow mentality. I thought about what makes a muscle grow, what
would make it grow faster, and to absolutely stop thinking in this I want to be big so bad Ill overthink
and overdo everything concept. Why do people think in terms of annihilating myself into rigor mortis in
todays workout instead of progression and recovery over weeks, months and years? I started stringing
together workouts with a game plan instead of winging it and hoping I was doing the right thing. I was 23
when I scrapped everything and reverse-engineered it. I broke it down, took out all the things I felt were

just fluff, and there for ego and obsessive-compulsive satisfaction, and created a planned powerbuilding
attack.

How fast did you grow when you first started DC training?
As soon as I got down to the brass tacks of what I felt worked and what didnt, I started gaining again. I
had been stuck at about 204, and then after I got my head out of my ass and attacked this like a chess
game, I consistently gained. Ive been over 300, but currently Im 280. I told my wife I will slowly take it
down to about 260 and stay there. I reached my goals, proving to myself that with my extreme
ectomorphic qualities I could attain a certain level through incredibly hard work and consistency. Now, I
want to learn to tap dance just kidding.

What are the basic principles of DC?

Heavy progressive weights

Lower workout volume but higher workout frequency

Multirep rest-pause training

Extreme stretching

Carb cutoffs later in the day

Morning cardio

Higher protein intake

Blasting and cruising phases

Explain why continuously gaining strength is the essence of

DC training.
I believe he who makes the greatest strength gains [in a controlled fashion] makes the greatest muscle
gains. Note that I said strength gains. Everybody knows someone naturally strong who can bench 405 yet
isnt that big. Going from a 375 bench to 405 isnt an incredible strength gain and wont result in much of a
muscle mass gain. If someone goes from 150 to 405 for reps, that incredible strength gain will equate to
an incredible muscle mass gain. Ninety-nine percent of bodybuilders are brainwashed that they must go
for a blood pump, and those same 99% stay the same year after year. Its because they have no plan.
They go in, get a pump and leave. They give the body no reason to change. A power-bodybuilding game
plan stresses continually getting stronger on key movements, and the body protects itself by getting
muscularly larger. If you never get anywhere close to your ultimate strength levels, you will never get
close to your utmost level of potential size.

How does the three-exercise rotation work?

Pick the three best exercises per bodypart you can rest-pause generally those in which you
can safely make maximum strength increases.

For example, close-grip bench presses are better for triceps than kickbacks because you should be able to
make more incremental improvements over a longer period. The three exercises will be rotated, using only
one of them each time you train that bodypart. If someone only does one exercise over and over, he
plateaus on it very quickly. Ive experimented with this multiple ways, and the three-exercise rotation can
keep you from plateauing for a long time.

How important is a journal?

Its crucial. You must always write down your weights used and reps done, excluding warm-ups, in a
logbook. Every time you go to the gym, you have to continually beat your previous weight, reps or both
even if its just by five pounds or one rep. If you dont beat it, you lose that exercise from your threeexercise rotation. This adds grave seriousness to a workout. I have exercises I love to do, and knowing Ill
lose them if I dont beat the previous stats sucks!
If you get to a strength sticking point, you must turn to a different exercise for that
bodypart and get brutally strong on that new one. Looking at that piece of paper and
knowing what you have to do to beat your best will bring out the best in you.

What training split do you recommend?

My usual recommendation is workout A chest, shoulders, triceps, back width and back thickness and
workout B biceps, forearms, calves, hams and quads. I recommend this bodypart order because it puts the
hardest bodyparts you have to train back and quads last in your workouts. This is contrary to conventional
wisdom, but after doing deadlifts or a widowmaker for quads, youre not going to have the same energy
for training anything else. The two-workout rotation is done three times over two weeks on a Monday (A),
Wednesday (B), Friday (A), Monday (B), Wednesday (A), Friday (B) schedule. This creates more growth
phases. The guy next to you is training chest on Monday and then waiting a week before training chest
again two growth phases over 14 days. You, on the other hand, train chest three times in 14 days. He
trains chest 52 times a year and grows 52 times, while you train chest 78 times a year and grow 78 times.
Youre doing only one exercise, out of your three rotated exercises, per bodypart each
workout while Joe Gymguy over there is doing incline barbell presses, flat dumbbell
presses and Hammer Strength decline presses in his chest workout today. Youre doing
the same exercises hes doing over two weeks, but youre growing at a much faster rate.

For DC, does it matter if someone is a beginner or

advanced?
DC isnt for anyone who hasnt been lifting hardcore for at least three years. You have to know your body
well and your way around a gym before shifting to something this intense.

Why do you stress low workout volume?

On this schedule, you cannot do 12 to 16 sets per bodypart. Lower volume is the only way you can recover
to quickly train that bodypart again. Besides, once a growth response is met during a workout, anything
you do past that point is pretty much delving into your recovery and catabolizing muscle mass, so I dont
want to take one step forward and half a step back. There are many ways to build muscle. In simple
terms, Im using extreme high-intensity [rest-pause] techniques, which I believe increase a persons
strength as quickly as possible. Along with that is lower volume, for quicker recovery and as many growth
phases as possible in a years time.

Explain how a DC rest-pause set is performed.

Most of the sets are in the 11- to 15-rep range, although sometimes its higher or lower, depending on the
bodypart, exercise, safety and health of joints. Every rest-pause set is done with three failure points. A
hypothetical incline bench 11- to 15-rep set would start with eight reps to failure, rack the weight, take 15
deep breaths, unrack, two to four reps to failure, rack the weight, 15 deep breaths, unrack, and a final one
or two reps to failure.

Should every bodypart be rest-paused?

Most quad exercises and back-thickness exercises are not rest-paused due to safety reasons. These usually
involve incredibly large poundages and, as you grow fatigued during a rest-pause set, its easy to lose
form. I dont want someone T-bar rowing 250 and pulling from a bent rest-pause dead stop and getting a
serious injury. For quads, I usually recommend a brutally heavy set of four to eight reps followed, after a
rest, by a 20-rep set with less weight, but still heavy. I call that 20-rep set a widowmaker. Once you do
it, youll have no question why.
For back thickness, I recommend a brutally heavy set of six to eight reps followed, after a
rest, by a slightly lighter set of 10 to 12, going to failure both times.

How many warm-up sets?

Whether its one warm-up or five, take as many as you need to get ready for your all-out working sets.
This all depends on the person and how advanced he is. For example, if someone was going to rest-pause
405 for incline presses, then his warm-ups might go something like this: 135 for 12 to 20 reps, 225 for 10
to 12,275 for 6 to 8,335 for 4 to 6, then 405 for an all-out rest-pause set of 11 to 15 reps. A bodybuilder
using a lot less weight may need only two warm-ups before his rest-pause set.

What is extreme stretching, and what are you trying to

accomplish with it?
Extreme stretching can have myriad benefits if done correctly: recovery, fascia size and potential
hyperplasia, which is still only theory. It can change your physique in pretty dramatic ways [especially your
chest, triceps and quads]. It should be done only after the bodypart has been worked. I recommend
extreme stretching for every bodypart except calves, and thats only because the way I have people train
calves already has an extreme stretch built into it. Basically, you want to get into a deep stretch and hold it
for 60 to 90 seconds. These are very painful. Ill walk you through a quad stretch. You just got done quad
training, so take an overhand grip on a barbell fastened in a power rack about hip high and simultaneously
sink all the way down. Push your knees forward and under the barbell until youre on your toes basically a
sissy squat. Now straighten your arms and lean as far back as you can, and hold that stretch for 60 to 90
seconds. Its going to be excruciating for most people.
Do this one faithfully, and in four weeks your quads will look a lot different than they used
to.

How important are static contractions?

I like to get people confident in the ability to handle big poundages, instilling the mentality that they are in
control of the weights and not vice versa. For this reason and for time under tension purposes, some
trainers should do a static contraction or static reps short two-inch range of motion reps at the end of their
rest-pause set.

How should trainers use cardio?

In the offseason, if you train three days a week, then do cardio on the four off days. If more people took
that approach, you would have fewer offseason bodybuilders looking like sumo wrestlers. Cardio is a very
individualistic thing, so its hard for me to say do this in an article without knowing a great deal about
whos reading it. Ive found that if people who have a difficult time gaining weight do cardio walking on a
treadmill or around the neighborhood first thing in the morning, appetite and muscular weight gains
become nonissues. Id have them get up, take in either branched-chain amino acids or a scoop of protein

powder, do their cardio and then eat the days first meal. The old wives tale that you cant gain muscle
mass if you do cardio is the biggest bunch of crap.
If done right, cardio is a huge weapon in a bodybuilders arsenal.

What are the basics of the DC nutritional philosophy?

Use a higher protein intake 1.5 grams to upward of 2 grams per pound of bodyweight.

Drink at least a gallon of water daily in direct relation to your protein times bodyweight ratio. For
example, if you take in 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight, drink at least one-and-a-half
gallons of water daily.

Except for postworkout carbs, most people should take in no carbohydrates after 6 PM, primarily so
morning cardio is done with lower glycogen levels.

Eat either protein and carbs or protein and fats, but dont mix up those components greatly. You
dont have to be absolutely meticulous with this, but its a generalized way to keep most people
from creating insulin spikes and driving fats toward adipose tissue.

Meals that are protein and carbs are usually eaten in this sequence: protein first, fiber and veggies
second, carbs last. This is simply because about half the time youre so full after the steak, salad
and broccoli that you dont eat all the carbs, and for bodyfat control, thats a good thing.

There are some individuals who should eat mainly protein and fats because they are so carbsensitive, and other people who should take in carbs only pre- and postworkout. Its one of those
things where I have to ask a lot of questions of the person, and I come up with a game plan.

Basically, I try to trick the human body into getting larger by becoming a muscle-building fat-burning
machine. In the simplest of terms, if youre 180 and want to weigh 200, youd better eat like a 220pounder to get there. I say eat and train like a 300-pounder, cardio like a guy who is 8% [bodyfat] and
shore up all excesses with carb cutoffs, food combinations and key supplements green tea, etc.

What are blasting and cruising phases?

I recommend people train all out for six to eight weeks [blasting] and then take a 10- to 14-day period
[cruising] in which they remove one meal per day and do only maintenance training. During the cruise,
only go to the gym two or three times, go through the motions with straight sets and try out some new
exercises you might switch to if youre close to strength plateaus on any current ones. Guys come off that
10- to 14-day cruise like rabid dogs chomping at the bit to get blasting again. Blasting and cruising must
be done. You cannot train all-out all the time without overtraining. Blast and cruise back and forth all year
long.

Let me play devils advocate.

Our muscles cant see the weight or count the reps; they only react to stress. As long as I
keep stressing them enough, why do I need to get another rep or use another five
pounds? Why cant I stress my muscles as much as a DC adherent with, say, supersets or
drop sets or new exercises?

I think I can answer that best by asking the readers a question. Would Ronnie Coleman, or
any top pro, be the size he is today if he stayed lifting the same light weights he started
with when he was a beginner?

What its all about

Bodybuilding is all about creating continual adaptation. The number of exercises you can do per bodypart
is finite. How many good quad-building exercises are there? Six, maybe? The number of sets volume you
can do is finite or infinite if you want to spend the next 3,200 hours straight in the gym. As for supersets
or drop sets or whatever, after you do them this time, what are you going to do next time to make sure
you went above and beyond the supersets and drop sets you did this time? Anyone reading this can giant
set squats, leg presses, hack squats and lunges, and they will be blown out and sore as hell for the next
few days. They could do that exact same workout with the same exercises and weights every leg workout
for the next year and theyd be blown out and sore for days each time.
Are they really going to gain any leg mass after the second or third time? No, because
nothing has changed in the parameters to cause an increase in muscle size.

What is pretty much infinite in training? Poundage.

You take a key exercise up to an extreme strength plateau, and at that very point, switch to a new key
exercise and get brutally strong on the new one; you do that continually. That repetitive progression that
youre held accountable for in your logbook is the key game plan to get to point B where you want to be
from point A where you are at the absolutely quickest rate possible.

Weve covered a lot of ground. What one thing would you

most want people to take away from this article?
A lot of what bodybuilding is about for many people is obsession-compulsion instead of deductive
reasoning. I would like people to start thinking of how to get to point B from point A in the shortest route
possible. I am not claiming to have built a better mousetrap, but I think Im showing how to catch the
mouse quicker.

Dantes teachings have taken me to the next level. Most people hit plateaus, but this style
of training is all about progress. If theres a plateau, you move around it and keep going.
Its all about getting progressively stronger. David Henry

Ive been doing Doggcrapp since shortly after the 2006 Ironman. Im not sure Im going
to stick with it precisely. Im still into more of Dorian Yates style, but there are things Ill
take from Doggcrapp. I really like the rest-pause sets, and the widowmakers for legs
have been brutal. I do think the Doggcrapp philosophy that gaining strength is the key to
gaining mass is 100% correct. Mark Dugdale

Example Of A Doggcrapp Cycle

The exercise numbers (in orange) correspond to individual workouts. In our example, only the five
number-one exercises are done in the first workout, only the five number-two exercises are done in
the second workout, etc.

Each working set is preceded by one to five warm-up sets.

The additional set of 10-12 reps for rack and regular deadlifts, as well as the 20-rep additional
widowmakers for quads, is performed after a rest and with lighter (but still heavy) weights.

Abs can be trained on any day, typically with one warm-up set and one working set to failure of
both a crunching movement and a leg-raise movement. Working sets can be either rest-pause sets
for 20-30 reps or straight sets for 15-20 reps.

Exercise & Reps Per Working Set

A Workouts
Chest

1 Incline Smith machine presses 11-15 rest-pause

3 Flat-bench barbell presses 11-15 rest-pause

5 Hammer Strength chest presses 11-15 rest-pause

Shoulders

1 Military presses 11-20 rest-pause

3 Medium-grip upright rows 11-15 rest-pause

5 Smith machine shoulder presses 11-20 rest-pause

Triceps

1 Close-grip bench presses 11-20 rest-pause

3 Lying triceps extensions 15-30 rest-pause

5 Machine dips 11-20 rest-pause

Back (Width)

1 Hammer Strength 11-15 rest-pause underhand pulldowns

3 Front wide-grip pulldowns 11-15 rest-pause

5 Close-grip pulldowns 11-15 rest-pause

Back (Thickness)

1 Deadlifts 6-9 9-12

3 Rack deadlifts 6-9 9-12

5 T-bar rows 10-12

B Workouts
Biceps

2 Barbell drag curls 11-20 rest-pause

4 Seated dumbbell curls 11-20 rest-pause

6 Machine curls 11-20 rest-pause

Forearms

2 Hammer curls 10-20

4 Barbell wrist curls 10-20

6 Cable reverse curls 10-20

Calves

2 Leg-press toe presses 10-12

4 Machine donkey calf raises 10-12

6 Seated calf raises 10-12

Hamstrings

2 Lying leg curls 15-30 rest-pause

4 Sumo leg presses (feet high and wide, press with heels) 15-25
6 Seated leg curls 15-30 rest-pause

Quadriceps

2 Squats 4-8 20

4 Hack squats 4-8 20

6 Leg presses 4-8 20
All calf exercises are done with an enhanced negative portion of the rep. Each rep consists
of five seconds of lowering down to a full stretch, a 10- to 15-second hold in the stretched
position, then rising onto the toes.

Workout Schedule

Notes:
The numbers 1 through 6 correspond to the exercise numbers in the Doggcrapp cycle
chart. Follow a pattern of A and B workouts for the bodypart split. Beginning with week 3,
this pattern repeats, starting with the #1 exercises.