Greg Doucette

• GearDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

  Resistance bands

  Only the big three get bands. Asked whether he programs band-resisted work, he said he uses it on squat, bench and deadlift and on nothing else, because everywhere else he would rather push a set with forced reps, a drop set or a superset.

  Source: Fit World Blog: Q&A With IFBB Pro Greg Doucette
  View item: Resistance bands6/62On record from 6 of 62 tracked people: 4 do it, 1 recommends it, 1 has discussed it
• GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.

  Leg press machine

  Heavy rows did less for his sumo deadlift than the leg press, he said, since what carries over is strong legs and a lower back that is still fresh. Hip surgery changed how he uses the machine: after reinjuring the hip he stopped bringing the weight down to parallel.

  Source: Fit World Blog: Q&A With IFBB Pro Greg Doucette
  View item: Leg press machine3/62On record from 3 of 62 tracked people: 3 do it
• GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.

  Indoor bike trainer

  Posting after an 88-minute Zwift race over several mountains, he said a new racing bike had just put him into the B division on a personal best for watts. He guessed his old trainer had been under reporting power, meaning he had burned more calories than he thought, then allowed that the new one might be the wrong reading. No brand named.

  Source: Greg Doucette on Facebook: new Zwift racing bike
  View item: Indoor bike trainer2/62On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it
• GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.

  Bench shirt

  Through his powerlifting years he lifted raw until it was time to peak. A loose bench shirt came out about a month before a meet for his heaviest set, then a tight one for a couple of sessions right before it, and afterwards he went back to raw. Shirts are cheating, he said, but fair once everyone is doing it.

  Source: Critical Bench: Interview With Powerlifter Greg Doucette
  View item: Bench shirt1/62On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it
• GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.

  Squat suit

  Suit bottoms went on for squats and deadlifts around six weeks out from a meet, tightening as the date came closer. Getting the hang of the suits was the hardest part of the sport for him. His advice to anyone starting was to compete raw for a meet or two first, since a suit only takes you as far as the raw strength under it.

  Source: Critical Bench: Interview With Powerlifter Greg Doucette
  View item: Squat suit1/62On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it
• GearRecommends$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.

  Home gym

  Thousands of home gym products do nothing for a physique, he says, so the book lists the few he thinks earn their space alongside workouts that need none of them. Waiting until the gear arrives is, in his framing, just a way of not starting.

  Source: gregdoucette.com: The Home & Hotel Hypertrophy Handbook
  View item: Home gym7/62On record from 7 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 2 recommend it

• BookRecommends$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.

  Harder Than Last Time! The Complete Muscle & Strength Training Manual

  Sold by experience level on his own site, the manual gives 50-plus pages on how to train before the programs land, four per level, split by goal and by whether a session gets 60 or 90 minutes. Cardio and diet guidance are folded in, which he notes most training books skip.

  Source: gregdoucette.com: Harder Than Last Time training programs
  Visit gregdoucette.com (opens in a new tab)1/62On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it
• BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

  The Circle Diet

  Keto, paleo and carnivore work, his page grants, but only temporarily, and that gap is what he says this book fills. It is his own product: a download of more than 140 pages of dietary techniques and strategies, sold from his store with refunds refused.

  Source: gregdoucette.com: The Circle Diet
  Visit gregdoucette.com (opens in a new tab)1/62On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it
• BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

  The Home & Hotel Hypertrophy Handbook

  Written for travel and thin hotel gyms, the 80-page handbook he sells himself covers training when equipment is the limiting factor: nine programs by level, printable worksheets, an exercise library by muscle group, and 20 pages on tempo, time under tension, rest and deloads.

  Source: gregdoucette.com: The Home & Hotel Hypertrophy Handbook
  Visit gregdoucette.com (opens in a new tab)1/62On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it
• BookRecommends$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.

  The Ultimate Anabolic Cookbook

  His own cookbook, sold through his site, is now on a 3.1 edition: over 180 recipes, more than 60 of them new to this version, each carrying its nutrition information. Protein-heavy pancakes, bars and smoothies run through to dessert, and the pitch is that anyone can follow them.

  Source: gregdoucette.com: The Ultimate Anabolic Cookbook 3.1
  Visit gregdoucette.com (opens in a new tab)1/62On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it

• SupplementRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

  Protein powder

  Advising athletes training through Ramadan, he put eggs and whey protein in the fast-digesting camp for the meal that breaks the fast, next to fruit and rice. Slower protein such as steak he saved for the pre-dawn meal, so amino acids keep releasing through the day.

  Source: The New Arab: How to stay in shape during Ramadan lockdown
  View item: Protein powder18/62On record from 18 of 62 tracked people: 13 do it, 3 recommend it, 2 have discussed it
• SupplementRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

  Melatonin

  Among natural sleep aids he singled out melatonin when the subject was broken sleep during Ramadan. The article notes it sells over the counter in the US and needs a prescription across the UK and Europe. No amount was given.

  Source: The New Arab: How to stay in shape during Ramadan lockdown
  View item: Melatonin4/62On record from 4 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it, 3 have discussed it

• AppDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.

  Zwift

  Bike racing took over after he stepped back from bodybuilding. He told Mike Matthews he races on Zwift, is always on the bike and had raced the day before. Cycling gives him something he can still improve at: he says he is far weaker than he was, and that he had to find that satisfaction somewhere other than his physique.

  Source: Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews, episode 963
  Visit zwift.com (opens in a new tab)2/62On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it

Structured routines and practices with a defined method.

• Resistance trainingDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

  Back in his powerlifting years he described training the whole body every four to five days, squat, bench and deadlift on separate days, with about half of each session spent on those three lifts. Intensity rather than volume is what he said gets people strong, and he ran higher reps in the off season to let joints and old injuries settle.

  Source: Critical Bench: Interview With Powerlifter Greg Doucette

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• Protein-forward eatingDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

  Prepping for several bodybuilding shows, he said he was eating a low-calorie, high-protein diet, which had also dropped him back into the 82.5 kg class for powerlifting. He was chasing both sports at the same time.

  Source: Critical Bench: Interview With Powerlifter Greg Doucette

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• Training close to failureDoes itFREE, no cost

  Bands go on squat, bench and deadlift and nowhere else. Everywhere else he says he would rather push a set further with forced reps, a drop set or a superset, and his advice on quad work finishes with training very hard, then resting long enough to give the next effort everything.

  Source: Fit World Blog: Q&A With IFBB Pro Greg Doucette

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• Body recompositionDoes itFREE, no cost

  Bulking is one of the biggest mistakes people make, in his view, and he says he has never done it. Off season runs at roughly 3,500 to 3,800 calories with body fat near 10 percent; a diet phase averages 3,000 to 3,300 and takes him to about 4 percent for a stage.

  Source: Fit World Blog: Q&A With IFBB Pro Greg Doucette

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• Sumo deadliftDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

  Hip surgery took squats away from him, so the sumo deadlift carries that load instead and he credits it for most of his glute development. Deeper squats hurt, he says, and he stopped taking the leg press down to parallel after reinjuring the hip.

  Source: Fit World Blog: Q&A With IFBB Pro Greg Doucette

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• Tempo trainingRecommendsFREE, no cost

  Asked how somebody should build the outer quad, he said to keep the exercises they already do but lower the weight at half the speed they raise it, and to keep the reps high enough that a set runs past 40 seconds. Too little time under tension is the fault he named elsewhere in the same interview, alongside using weight too heavy to control on the way down.

  Source: Fit World Blog: Q&A With IFBB Pro Greg Doucette

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• Progressive overloadRecommendsFREE, no cost

  The catchphrase is also the method. His training manual spends 50-plus pages on mindset and on how to progress in both the short and the long term before any program starts, then specifies sets, reps, rest times and intensity for each exercise so the next session has something to beat.

  Source: gregdoucette.com: Harder Than Last Time training programs

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Recurring behaviors recorded in public statements.

• Pre-workout musicDoes itFREE, no cost

  The playlist shifts week to week, but Pitbull is the one he named as reliable for getting himself worked up before a heavy session.

  Source: Fit World Blog: Q&A With IFBB Pro Greg Doucette

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• Batch cooking proteinDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.

  Meal prep barely registers for him. An hour a week cooking in bulk, then two to five minutes per meal after that, was his whole answer when asked how long it takes.

  Source: Fit World Blog: Q&A With IFBB Pro Greg Doucette

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• NappingRecommendsFREE, no cost

  Broken sleep raises cortisol and ghrelin and leaves the next day hungrier, is how he explained the problem to the reporter, so his answer for Ramadan was short naps spread through the day, while carrying on with any natural sleep aid that already works.

  Source: The New Arab: How to stay in shape during Ramadan lockdown

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• Calorie and macro trackingRecommendsFREE, no cost

  Diet plans his team writes are built on target calorie ranges rather than one fixed number, with hundreds of meal options that fit inside them, guidance on meal timing and frequency, and instructions for handling social meals. Flexibility is the pitch, not precision.

  Source: gregdoucette.com: Custom diet program

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• Personal trainerRecommends$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.

  For a lifter trying to reach the next level, his advice was to hire a coach or train with other lifters, and to never stop asking questions. He also called training alone one of his own weaknesses, since being the leader meant he never had a partner to learn from.

  Source: Critical Bench: Interview With Powerlifter Greg Doucette

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• “It feels absolutely amazing to have set a Guinness book world record. I have been dreaming about holding a Guinness record ever since I was given my first Guinness book when I was a kid. I am 40 years old, and only weigh 210 lbs but with 30 years of hard work, determination and dedication I was able to achieve my dream of owning a Guinness World Records title.”

  On Sumo deadlift

• “I NEVER bulk, That’s one of the biggest mistakes people make. I stay in good shape year round. off season calories is around 3500-3800. When I diet I eat on avg. 3000-3300 calories per day.”

  On Body recomposition

• “Do all the exercises your currently doing but try to lower the weight at half the speed that you raise it. also keep the reps high enough so that the sets take 40+ seconds.”

  On Tempo training

• “I believe that intensity not volume is the key to getting strong. One other factor that separates my workout from most is that I believe in doing higher reps in the off season in order to build bigger muscles and allow for joints and injuries to heal.”

  On Resistance training

• “I've accomplished a lot in my fitness career. I have achieved just about every goal I have set for myself. My new passion is being able to use all that I have learned over the years to help other's achieve their goals too.”