Steve Konopka is currently a professional football player for the Philadelphia Soul Arena Football Team. He plays DE and OL measuring 6'5 at a weight of 290 lbs. He has acquired NFL experience with the New York Giants in 1999. Graduated from Central Connecticut State in 1998 with a degree in Exercise Science. Konopka is co-author of The Lean Mass Program and Critical Ripped Program. Kono was voted team lineman of the year for 2005.

"Kono" is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to supplements. He'll most likely know the answer to your question right off the top of his head, without having to look it up. If you have a question regarding supplements, stacks, or training feel free to visit "Kono's Corner" in the Muscle Forum to ask him a question. Best of the forum QnA will be archived in this section.

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Q: Hey what's up. Early before the football season started, about 1-2 weeks before, I stretch some ligaments in my knee badly. The inner and outer parts of my knee were injured badly. It's been almost 15 weeks and my knee still hurts, what can I do to help it. I've been working out alot, running, walking, hopping, skipping, squating, and stretching. I started icing up everyday up until a month ago because that seemed to make me feel the pain more.

About 5 weeks ago at football practice I got hit weirdly. The guy came to tackle me and hit me on my left side (from my neck down to my arm). I caught an immediate "stinger" in my left side and the pain was bad. My arm felt as if it was going to go numb. I went to therapy and they gave me a Theraband to work the nerves in my shoulder that had bundled up. Do you have any other ideas of what I can do to heal it. I've been icing it doing light dumbell presses and shrugs, cause that's about all i can do because my arm feels so weak.

THANK YOU, LUCUS JACKSON

Kono's Answer: Hey whats up man? You really need to talk to your trainer and see a doctor. You sound like you need a mri for your knee and some better therapy for your stinger. P.T. will be a big help. Doing the wrong therapy for your knee could make it worse or even worse heal wrong! I am assuming you are in high school? You should really talk to your parents about seeing a doctor right away. 15 weeks for any injury is a long time for it not to be healed!!!! Good luck

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Q: Hey kono I was wondering what is a good creatine capsule , nitiric oxide capsule, and pre work out such as which one no shotgun or no xplode?? sorry to ask three questions at once but I would like to hear your oppinion. thanks a lot I appreciate it. Jordan

Kono's Answer: Whats going on Jordan? A good creatin capsule is cex 5000 by VPX or Krealkalyn 1500 by Sci-fit. For a pre-workout drink my favorite one is fierce by San nutrition. No-shotgun and No-explode are both good supplements but I have had better results with fierce. Feirce doesn't make me sweat as bad as the others. I sweat enough I dont want to risk dehydration. Also Fierce seems to last longer for me instead of giving me a huge rush and wearing off it is a steady stream off energy and focus! If you are taken creatine and a No product I would just go with V-12 turbo by San as well. It has 4 grams of tricreatine malate, 2 grams of betaine-glycocyamine, 2 grams of taurine, 1.5 grams of akg, and 1 gram of n-acety-l-glutamine. Everything all in one scoop it is very convienent and I am very impressed with the results I have had from it. Good luck KONO

Q: hey kono I'm a redshirt fullback at the u of iowa hawkeyes I was wondering how to get bigger arms by training bi and tris together will help me getr bigger arms? also I was wondering if growth factor one is a joke or actually see some results. if you couls I would appreciate if you would email me. thanks for your time I appreciate it.

Kono's Answer: For an athlete I would stay away from the growth factor 1. It isnt a joke there are just a lot of other in supplements a football player should be spending his money on first. Stick proteins, glutamine and a creatine supplement. My favorites are V-12 turbo by san nutrition, 100% whey by optimum nutrition, and ast reaserch's gl3 glutamine. You can train bis and tris together for a good pump. But if your lifting for football you should be doing heavy training anyways your arms should be going from heavy benching, pushpress, hangcleans deadlifts and things like that. I f you need more at the end of your bench days add 3 sets of dips to failure if you get over 15 reps add weight. Also for tris add 3 sets of pushdowns 10-12 reps adding these to your football routine should bring out the horse shoes. As far as bis on your hang clean or back workout add 3 sets of barbell curl 10-12 reps and 2 sets of concentration curls 12-15. Your guns should be swellin up in no time! Good luck with your training! KONO

Q: Kono, Ok, I have a few more frustrations and questions for you when you get a chance. I am happy with my supplemt stack right now. I've dropped from about 218 to 200 and staying around the same as far as strength goes. I had to take a few weeks off to heal up a sore shoulder, but just about back to where I was when I stopped. Anyway, I'm trying to eat as well as I can being deployed and I'm busting my butt running 5 miles a day, but I can't seem to lose my gut. I know I should do more in the way of an ab workout, but I absolutely HATE working out abs. SO, I need some advice... How can I lose this fat around my waistline with a minimal ab workout. Do any of the topical fat burners work? Oh, and as far as supplements....I'm taking a multi, cell mass, nitrix, no-xplode, axis ht, and es-50. Sorry for rambling and thanks for any help....again. Matt

Kono's Answer: Matt, keep eating as clean as possible! Makes sure you are eating enough and frequently enough. If your body is starving or you restrict your calories for to long your body hangs on to the fat because it doesnt know when it is going to get more. 5 miles a day is a lot. Make sure you are getting enough protein and you are eating it every 2 hours or so. This will keep your metabolism in high gear. I got some good news for you, all the abs exercise in the world are not gonna show your abs off. Not until you shed the fat of them first! Everyone has a 6 pack they just can't see it under the belly fat that is over it. The only way to see them is to burn the fat off first. The only way to do that is through cardio and diet. Try adding some high intensity cardio a couple times a week. Try some sprint intervals. Sprint 50 yards and walk back and repeat 8 times each session add another sprint or add 10 more yards. High intensity cardio burns a lot of calories and builds muscle. Every see the physiques on the sprinters body at the olympics? Still do abs though to keep your core strong 4 sets of 20 reps 3 days a week should be good just change up the exercises.

The topical fatburners are crap I dont care what company comes out with a new super cream or solution they just do not work. The only time to use them is when your at 3% bodyfat and about to go on stage in a few days. Then when your that lean the little bit of water the do remove will be noticable. Best fatburners tight by san nutrition, blaze by san nutrition, red line by vpx, hydroxycut hardcore by muscle tech, Hot rox by bio-test, lipo 6 by nutrex.

A great stack is blaze san nutrition, cla by prima force 3 grams a day, and lipo 6 by nutrex. These three will really get your body burning that fat off. Also look for our new critical ripped program it is our best fatburning program ever! From cover to cover nothing but diet, training and supplements for burner pounds of fat off to get that peeled look! KONO

Q: Hey Kono, ive been reading your Q&A and i had a few questions. im an undersized lineman (5'9 215lbs.) im gonna be a senior, i started my junior year but i got pushed around a little bit. i want to put on 10 or 15 more pounds by the season. Ive been using 100% Whey by ON and i put glutamine in it.I lift 3 times a week and run and do speed training 3 times a week and take sundays off. i wanna try Myodrive cause ive read about it a few times in ur Q&A, do u think it would be good to help me but on the muscle i want to?

Kono's Answer: Myodrive is a very good supplement to help gain some quality muscle. Make sure your eating enough calories to gain weight, you have to eat more calories than you burn off in training for that to occur. Multiply your body weight by 18-20 and that is a good estimate for calories you should be eating. Keep your calories clean no fast food or candy bars in between classes! For your workouts train heavy with compound and olympic lifts. Bench press, squat, hang clean and push press should be your best friends! Also train your core at least 4 days a week. All your power comes from your core and it is often neglected or just thought of as doing some abs. Make sure you spend time working on your quickness if they cant catch you they can't push you around! KONO

Q: Hello Mr. Konopka. My name is Dan, Im 16 years old from Michigan. Right now i weight 195 pounds at 6'0ft. tall. I bench 295lbs, but see the problem is..theres fat that i want to get rid of! I ordered the "Critically Ripped Book" awhile back, but all over the critical bench website it says that high reps will not work on getting you ripped, but in the book it says to do high reps, so i am confused. I would like to start dieting right and cardio right, along with lifting too get ripped for the summer. Which starts in about 8weeks and it takes that long. I have some defination, but abs are pretty important to me, and bigger muscles. Could you please help me out or give some tips on excersices to do if possible. Thank you for your time and hoping to hear from you Bye!! Dan Tinkle

Kono's Answer: Dan, I'm not to sure where on the site it says that high reps with propper diet and cardio won't get you ripped. The idea behind the higher reps is to burn more calories while you are training. Higher reps with the propper program will be your best bet to get ripped quicker! Stick with the program and train hard! All phases of the program are just as important as the others. I have no doubt when you are done with the program and if you trained like an animal you will be really excited with your physique change. Try taking a before and after picture to see where you are at. Every day before you train like a mad man look at that picture and say I gonna change that. Same thing when you want to pig out on some ice cream or something bad remember how hard you are working. Sorry it took so long to get back to you we have been very busy with the new programs! Feel free to hit me back if you need any more help! KONO

Q: Hey Kono,

I currently weigh 205lbs. and plan on dieting down to about 180-185lbs. What kind of strength loss should I anticipate with this decrease in weight? For example, my current incline bench goes 225x8, 225x6, 225x4, 225x4. I know each person is different, but I thought you might be able to give me a guesstimation. Thanks

Brandon

Kono's Answer: Brandon,

When you are dieting down don't worry about your strength otherwise you might start hindering your main goal which is getting ripped. In my opinion for every 10 lbs you drop you lose about 5% in total strength. I know some people won't agree with that but after 4 or 5 weeks of hard dieting you really lose energy and endurance. If someone is just cutting back a little and not doing cardio 6 days a week there isn't much of a loss. But you also wont get that lean!

One thing to think of is if you want different results then you are getting from your training now, you should train differently. For instance it sounds like you are training for strength and size from the rep scheme you provided. To get lean you need to train to get lean, so dont worry if you can't do 225 x 4 you shouldn't be doing that low of reps anyways. Higher reps, supersets and cardio are a lot more important. We just launched our new CRITICAL RIPPED PROGRAM and it is awesome to say the least. You might want to check it out, it will take all the guess work out of dieting down. KONO

Q: Hey Kono,

I have been reading about creatine and have found that there is sort of a debate as to wether or not caffine reduces the beniffits of creatine. I have found some that say caffine hinders the effects of creatine, and some say that it actually helps give better results. What is your take on all of this? If it does have a negative effect, would a cup of coffee in the morning reallly affect this, or would fat burning/energy supps. affect this?

Also, I have been using your Lean Mass Program with great results. I had gotten too busy with college and work and neglected my training and my diet. This program has really kept me on the right track and gotten me motivated again. I do have a question about some of the exercizes, becuase I work out at home. I don't have access to some of the machines that are in the program. For example, would it be ok to replace leg presses with squats? I also noticed that later on in the program, it sometimes calls for a machine excersize after a free weight exercize. Like, doing leg press after squats and doing machine presses after bench press. Do you have any suggestions for these?

Thanks for your time.

Ben

Kono's Answer: Ben,

With the creatine too much caffeine can affect the monohydrate version. Caffeine is diuretic and creatine monohydrate pulls a lot of water into the muscles. A cup of coffee in the morning wont hurt it if you take your creatine later on in the morning or afternoon. Try a krealkalyn or ethyl easter creatine fat burners and caffeine will not affect those types of creatine as much. I love V-12 turbo by san nutrition or cex by vpx. Krealkalyn 1500 by sci-fit is also a good choice. For any kind of creatine you should try not to take your fat burners at the same time.

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