There it is again: the “M” word. Every fitness magazine is plastered with promises of a J-Lo body through genetic-busting tips, workouts, recipes and diets. But what is your metabolism? Can it be increased? Slide off that physio-ball and let’s find out!
Everyone has a genetic metabolism, or rate at which your body burns calories. It is controlled by hormones which are in turn affected by many processes in the body. True, we are all placed on the continuum between cheetah-like and snail by our parents, but in fact, we can affect it greatly. Think of your metabolism as a range. You may average a certain amount of calories used per day, but how you eat, what you eat and your activity level can elevate you to the top of your genetic best or can plummet you to the rocks of yo-yo dieting forever.
The first thing you can do is make sure you’re not deficient in micronutrients that support metabolism, such as the B-vitamins. Along that same line is to not miss workouts because you’re ill. The immune system is constantly bombarded by free radicals – every cell in the body takes about 10,000 hits per day. Antioxidants neutralize these assassins and even slow down the aging process – another enemy of metabolism. Top-rated neutraceutical company, Pharmanex, owns the patent rights to the only device that can quantify your cellular antioxidants: the Biophotonic Scanner. Their LifePak total micro-nutrition formula has clinical studies proving significant elevations in tissue antioxidant levels – an amazing breakthrough in supplementation. Take a multi-vitamin/mineral supplement that you know reaches the cells of your body.
Consuming enough protein is the next most important thing to raise your metabolism. Protein takes more energy to digest (you actually burn more calories to digest it compared to other foods) and also stimulates the production of glucagon, your best-friend hormone that tells body fat cells to give up their strangle-hold on fat. This is a key element in all the studies that show higher protein intake, even when calories are the same among study groups, leads to faster weight loss.
This one is so cliché that I’m almost embarrassed to list it. Almost. But, it’s true; eating smaller, more frequent meals does lead to more efficient metabolism. As mentioned in regard to protein, digestion takes energy. You use calories to digest, absorb and assimilate food. The more often you eat, the more calories you burn through digestion, but don’t have “duh” moment on me – that doesn’t mean you should eat more calories all day long – you should split your proper, planned food intake into smaller, more frequent meals.
Number four on your way to metabolic bliss: eat! The fastest way to slow your metabolism down is to diet too hard. Starvation diets (around 500 calories or less) can decrease your metabolism by up to 50%!! No joke. Even the most physiologically sound diet will gradually lead to a slow decline. I encourage a moderate (weekly) splurge meal to prevent this if my client is consistent with the specific program I have designed for him or her.
And the number one thing (drum roll…) you can do to supercharge and bulletproof your metabolism is exercise! Not only do you burn 300 – 500 calories per hour, but you build calorie-burning muscle, create new mitochondria (energy-burning “power plants”) in your muscle cells and increase cardiovascular health and efficiency that leads to even easier body fat loss. Exercise is a key variable in long-term metabolic management.
So, there you have it. The foundation of metabolic health and consistency in your body will be laid solidly by your commitment to living out these five habits. Get busy, get lean, get healthy and enjoy life more!
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
10 Critical Steps to Permanent Weight Loss (Women)
Think of building blocks; the foundational elements being first and being built upon. I’m going to give you 10 steps that if conquered one at a time, will create an unshakable tower of understanding and control.
The first step is deciding how much food you need. Everyone has a genetic metabolism, or rate at which your body burns calories, and is controlled by specific hormones. We even have a genetic amount of body fat cells and genetic levels of a hormone that controls hunger. My point is that we’re all different. A one-size-fits-all diet may not be right for you. Creating that total calorie picture can’t be glossed over lightly – it is the foundation of your success. Each step in that process is discussed next, but this is where many people can save time by getting help. In a country of do-it-yourselfers, we all choose what we’ll do on our own and what we’ll hire an expert to do. You may mow your own lawn, but pay someone to change the oil in your car. You may cut your son’s hair but you wouldn’t take out his appendix – hopefully you would “hire” a doctor to do that. People hire me to get them lean and teach them how to stay there. That makes the first step easy and accurate.
Though we’ll revisit the components of food in a bit, the second step in getting lean is spacing your food appropriately through the day. The cliché of eating smaller, more frequent meals is correct. The body can actually only utilize a small amount of calories at a time – approximately 300 to 500. When more than that is consumed we’re storing body fat. Now, that’s a normal process because between meals we then use that stored energy – IF we give our body a chance. If we keep eating and snacking too much we may not. With smaller meals, we not only avoid new fat storage, but we keep energy levels more stable with less blood sugar highs and lows.
The third block in building success now reaches into actual food – carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are the body’s preferred source of energy. They are quickly broken down into glucose, or blood sugar. Being your body’s first pick for a food source, if we eat all our body needs – even if from very healthy sources – we don’t need a secondary source, and we all want that to be our stored body fat. We must limit carbs, but not by too much. Too low of a carbohydrate intake will slow the metabolism down and eventually make it very, very easy to regain body fat. Very low- and no- carb diets are not a good way to lose weight. The right amount per day will help you maintain energy, keep your metabolism high, and support weight loss. Most women need to start with a carbohydrate intake (in grams – just like the food fact panels note) equal to the amount of lean body mass (in pounds). A 150-pound woman with 115-pounds of lean body mass, may want to start with 115 grams of carbs per day.
Dietary fat is the next most important macronutrient in the body fat loss process. We store excess fat as fat, period. Yes, there are essential fatty acids found in fish oils and some plant oils that are healthy for us, but I’m talking about burgers, potato chips, heavy salad dressings, and all those things that can ruin in otherwise great meal in a restaurant or fast-food stop. If you’re getting more than 20 to 25% of your calories from fat, you’re going to have a hard time losing body fat. For most women, that would equate to 25 to 35 grams of fat per day when dieting.
Protein rounds out the actual food selections that we can make in our diet and though I rank it third out of three macronutrients, it is still vital. We can all live without much protein, but when protein is increased to 80 to 100 grams for women (and sometimes 100 to 125 grams for very active women) many good things happen. First, hunger goes down. Protein slows digestion, decreases carb cravings, increases fullness, and can stabilize energy levels. Secondly, it provides the amino acids necessary for the immune system, all cell repair and replication, muscle recovery, and quite literally, every chemical process that occurs in the body. Lean, grilled or baked meat sources, low-fat cheeses and yogurt, and high-quality protein shakes are your best bet.
Those are the first five steps that can create a foundation for permanent weight loss. We all need to know how many calories our body needs per day, how to space that food out and structure our meals, and finally how much and what types of carbohydrates, fat, and protein are best going to accomplish that goal. Now we can spend some time on some easier, less structural aspects of eating.
A major study comparing different diets revealed that the most successful dieters on any diet had one common trait. They all tracked their food intake. I feel like Gomer Pyle jumping up and shouting, “Shazaam, Shazaam!” For those of you under 35-years-old, let me translate that to “Tru dat,” with my do-rag and gold chains in place. In other words – and I know you’re thankful for “other words” after that attempt at humor – you have to know what you’re eating if you want to be successful. This is HUGE! Sally, my client who lost 75-pounds, tracked her food on a color-coded Excel spreadsheet with reports and graphs…she’s a college administrator. I’d settle for a post-it note in your pocket, but just track it. A life-changing amount of education will happen as you make yourself look up foods and learn what it takes to keep your food intake where you can lose and then maintain your weight. You’ll find you can be flexible, enjoy infinite variety, and even splurge as long as you keep your food intake where you need it to be. That makes it “real life” – your life.
How many times have you heard that drinking more water is good for you? Maybe even good for weight loss? Well, it’s true. A more hydrated body can be more efficient metabolically, cut cravings, and even make you lose faster. Get in the habit of drinking a glass of water now and then even when you’re not thirsty. When you are thirsty, don’t slam a diet soda; drink a glass of water and save flavored drinks for sipping on, not guzzling. When you’re hungry – drink a glass of water. That may cut the amount of food you eat at the next meal or even delay the timing of a snack.
Take your vitamins. The American Medical Association recommends it and the fact is that out of 21,500 people surveyed in a government study, not a single person consumed even the meager RDA of all 10 of the most necessary nutrients daily. Many vitamin deficiencies can lead to inefficient metabolic function, can increase hunger, and of course, ultimately cause disease.
Knowing that you’re now tracking your food and you’re on a great plan, I want you to become a scientist. Experiment with your food intake. What happens if you decrease this and increase that, move this here, replace this with that…. Some find that they can accelerate their weight-loss pace by manipulating those variables – as long as they have enough working knowledge to do so. It’s not a good thing to blindly follow a diet. What happens when you’re done? If you didn’t learn anything, you likely gain weight back because all you know is how you ate before, which made you gain weight, and how to diet on Mr. Bestseller-of-the-month’s new diet.
The final piece of the puzzle; the tenth step to long-term success is exercise. I know it’s not exactly a nutrition factor – but it is. We’re searching for an energy balance. We have a certain amount of calories we’re going to use in a day and we eat a certain amount. If we burn an extra 500 calories, we may not even have to eat any less. Of course, if we do eat less and exercise, we lose faster. The strength and lean muscle mass gained create a better metabolism and a healthier body for the long haul, while you’re burning calories to get to your goal faster. Exercise is a big deal. Find something you like and stick to it.
Write out these ten steps on a note card and as you start moving toward a better way of eating, make sure you start at the beginning and create a good foundation. You know; that whole building on sand versus rock thing you learned in Sunday school. You’ll be glad you took the time to do it right!
The first step is deciding how much food you need. Everyone has a genetic metabolism, or rate at which your body burns calories, and is controlled by specific hormones. We even have a genetic amount of body fat cells and genetic levels of a hormone that controls hunger. My point is that we’re all different. A one-size-fits-all diet may not be right for you. Creating that total calorie picture can’t be glossed over lightly – it is the foundation of your success. Each step in that process is discussed next, but this is where many people can save time by getting help. In a country of do-it-yourselfers, we all choose what we’ll do on our own and what we’ll hire an expert to do. You may mow your own lawn, but pay someone to change the oil in your car. You may cut your son’s hair but you wouldn’t take out his appendix – hopefully you would “hire” a doctor to do that. People hire me to get them lean and teach them how to stay there. That makes the first step easy and accurate.
Though we’ll revisit the components of food in a bit, the second step in getting lean is spacing your food appropriately through the day. The cliché of eating smaller, more frequent meals is correct. The body can actually only utilize a small amount of calories at a time – approximately 300 to 500. When more than that is consumed we’re storing body fat. Now, that’s a normal process because between meals we then use that stored energy – IF we give our body a chance. If we keep eating and snacking too much we may not. With smaller meals, we not only avoid new fat storage, but we keep energy levels more stable with less blood sugar highs and lows.
The third block in building success now reaches into actual food – carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are the body’s preferred source of energy. They are quickly broken down into glucose, or blood sugar. Being your body’s first pick for a food source, if we eat all our body needs – even if from very healthy sources – we don’t need a secondary source, and we all want that to be our stored body fat. We must limit carbs, but not by too much. Too low of a carbohydrate intake will slow the metabolism down and eventually make it very, very easy to regain body fat. Very low- and no- carb diets are not a good way to lose weight. The right amount per day will help you maintain energy, keep your metabolism high, and support weight loss. Most women need to start with a carbohydrate intake (in grams – just like the food fact panels note) equal to the amount of lean body mass (in pounds). A 150-pound woman with 115-pounds of lean body mass, may want to start with 115 grams of carbs per day.
Dietary fat is the next most important macronutrient in the body fat loss process. We store excess fat as fat, period. Yes, there are essential fatty acids found in fish oils and some plant oils that are healthy for us, but I’m talking about burgers, potato chips, heavy salad dressings, and all those things that can ruin in otherwise great meal in a restaurant or fast-food stop. If you’re getting more than 20 to 25% of your calories from fat, you’re going to have a hard time losing body fat. For most women, that would equate to 25 to 35 grams of fat per day when dieting.
Protein rounds out the actual food selections that we can make in our diet and though I rank it third out of three macronutrients, it is still vital. We can all live without much protein, but when protein is increased to 80 to 100 grams for women (and sometimes 100 to 125 grams for very active women) many good things happen. First, hunger goes down. Protein slows digestion, decreases carb cravings, increases fullness, and can stabilize energy levels. Secondly, it provides the amino acids necessary for the immune system, all cell repair and replication, muscle recovery, and quite literally, every chemical process that occurs in the body. Lean, grilled or baked meat sources, low-fat cheeses and yogurt, and high-quality protein shakes are your best bet.
Those are the first five steps that can create a foundation for permanent weight loss. We all need to know how many calories our body needs per day, how to space that food out and structure our meals, and finally how much and what types of carbohydrates, fat, and protein are best going to accomplish that goal. Now we can spend some time on some easier, less structural aspects of eating.
A major study comparing different diets revealed that the most successful dieters on any diet had one common trait. They all tracked their food intake. I feel like Gomer Pyle jumping up and shouting, “Shazaam, Shazaam!” For those of you under 35-years-old, let me translate that to “Tru dat,” with my do-rag and gold chains in place. In other words – and I know you’re thankful for “other words” after that attempt at humor – you have to know what you’re eating if you want to be successful. This is HUGE! Sally, my client who lost 75-pounds, tracked her food on a color-coded Excel spreadsheet with reports and graphs…she’s a college administrator. I’d settle for a post-it note in your pocket, but just track it. A life-changing amount of education will happen as you make yourself look up foods and learn what it takes to keep your food intake where you can lose and then maintain your weight. You’ll find you can be flexible, enjoy infinite variety, and even splurge as long as you keep your food intake where you need it to be. That makes it “real life” – your life.
How many times have you heard that drinking more water is good for you? Maybe even good for weight loss? Well, it’s true. A more hydrated body can be more efficient metabolically, cut cravings, and even make you lose faster. Get in the habit of drinking a glass of water now and then even when you’re not thirsty. When you are thirsty, don’t slam a diet soda; drink a glass of water and save flavored drinks for sipping on, not guzzling. When you’re hungry – drink a glass of water. That may cut the amount of food you eat at the next meal or even delay the timing of a snack.
Take your vitamins. The American Medical Association recommends it and the fact is that out of 21,500 people surveyed in a government study, not a single person consumed even the meager RDA of all 10 of the most necessary nutrients daily. Many vitamin deficiencies can lead to inefficient metabolic function, can increase hunger, and of course, ultimately cause disease.
Knowing that you’re now tracking your food and you’re on a great plan, I want you to become a scientist. Experiment with your food intake. What happens if you decrease this and increase that, move this here, replace this with that…. Some find that they can accelerate their weight-loss pace by manipulating those variables – as long as they have enough working knowledge to do so. It’s not a good thing to blindly follow a diet. What happens when you’re done? If you didn’t learn anything, you likely gain weight back because all you know is how you ate before, which made you gain weight, and how to diet on Mr. Bestseller-of-the-month’s new diet.
The final piece of the puzzle; the tenth step to long-term success is exercise. I know it’s not exactly a nutrition factor – but it is. We’re searching for an energy balance. We have a certain amount of calories we’re going to use in a day and we eat a certain amount. If we burn an extra 500 calories, we may not even have to eat any less. Of course, if we do eat less and exercise, we lose faster. The strength and lean muscle mass gained create a better metabolism and a healthier body for the long haul, while you’re burning calories to get to your goal faster. Exercise is a big deal. Find something you like and stick to it.
Write out these ten steps on a note card and as you start moving toward a better way of eating, make sure you start at the beginning and create a good foundation. You know; that whole building on sand versus rock thing you learned in Sunday school. You’ll be glad you took the time to do it right!
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Carb Cycling
I typically bulk for 5-10 weeks depending upon how I progress and then cut anywhere from 2-4 weeks.
The idea is that during bulking you increase your metabolic rate, leptin, T3, etc and so when you start cutting you are able to lose body fat much faster than normal. Anyone who has ever dieted for more than 4 weeks has experienced this effect.
The first few weeks you lose a lot of body fat quickly, but after that your body fat loss slow dramatically as your metabolic rate slows.
During cutting your body becomes more sensitive to insulin so that when you begin bulking again you are better able to tolerate carbohydrates and remain leaner. Therefore, by doing this you should be able to stay leaner while gaining muscle than you would if you just straight "bulked up" for say six months.
The idea is that during bulking you increase your metabolic rate, leptin, T3, etc and so when you start cutting you are able to lose body fat much faster than normal. Anyone who has ever dieted for more than 4 weeks has experienced this effect.
The first few weeks you lose a lot of body fat quickly, but after that your body fat loss slow dramatically as your metabolic rate slows.
During cutting your body becomes more sensitive to insulin so that when you begin bulking again you are better able to tolerate carbohydrates and remain leaner. Therefore, by doing this you should be able to stay leaner while gaining muscle than you would if you just straight "bulked up" for say six months.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Bulking Diet Progress
I've noticed a slight gain in my upper body development after increasing my caloric intake. My strength has increased as well. I just have to consume more calories on leg and back days since they require more energy. I still have to make some more adjustments to my diet but it'll be alright. I'm still afraid to gain some bodyfat especially in the abdominal area but it's a bulk cycle so I can't complain. I just have to do it if i want to gain some serious mass!
Slow Back Workout
Today was back day and it was pretty intense. The weight used was not heavy but the speed of our lifts were pretty slow which made it a lot harder. Alot of squeezing at the top with slowing downwards. This is another micrcycle that will help with little back detail. I am lacking in the upper and mid back so this will definitely help.
deadlift 175 x 3 x 12
Hammer row 55 x 3 x 12
hammer reverse grip pulldown
reverse pec dec
deadlift 175 x 3 x 12
Hammer row 55 x 3 x 12
hammer reverse grip pulldown
reverse pec dec
Monday, December 3, 2007
Motivation
Alright, just saw my buddies show (Excalibur 2007) and he placed 2nd. Should have gotten first but you all know the politics behind bodybuilding. Just being at the event got me hyped up to even gain more mass. I might hold off on the competition for a bit to gain some serious size. I am lacking lower body development so I have to concentrate on that along with my lower chest. I have to prioritize those two body parts. I've come up with my macro number which is 180protein/350carbs/60fats. I may bump my carbs a bit on leg and back days since they are bigger muscle groups. I just have to start recording my food intake and see what numbers work for me. It's a long road ahead but I gotta do what I gotta do! It's been a struggle through trial and error and I finally understand the importance of macro nutrients. Nutrition is key in gaining mass or getting ripped. Training comes last. Well, I will keep things updated since school is out.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Thanksgiving Will Power
Just had my first meal. I did my best to control myself. Did pretty good. I will eat a small portion again in 30 minutes. I figure I'd eat every three hours just to feed my muscles with aminos.... today is a low carb day so i'll have 2 more servings of carbs and some mad turkey the rest of the day. happy eating!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Bulge
Alright, I've gained about 10lbs since I returned from Japan mid September. I got a slight bulge in my stomach but it's all good! It comes with the territory when you're on a mass phase. As long as I throw in some cardio 3-5 times a week, I'll stay pretty lean. I may have to cycle my carb intake a bit. I may be taking in too much on days I don't train. I'm also lacking in the fiber department so I'll up that as well. I weighed in @ 178lbs today. I may go up to 185 by the end of the month!!!
Another chest day
Got in the gym about 4 today for a chest workout.
Incline smith 200x10x5
Decline BB press 175x10x5
Pec Deck
superset
Machine dip
pushups 54x1
Incline smith 200x10x5
Decline BB press 175x10x5
Pec Deck
superset
Machine dip
pushups 54x1
Monday, November 12, 2007
Another Leg Day
Just got back from leg training.
Smith Squats 315x8x4
Single leg ext 150x10x3
Leg curl 120x12x4
Single leg legpress 180x12x3
THat waqs pretty much it. Not too bad. Although I didn't get much sleep over the weekend, my workout was pretty easy...time to eat and grow!
Smith Squats 315x8x4
Single leg ext 150x10x3
Leg curl 120x12x4
Single leg legpress 180x12x3
THat waqs pretty much it. Not too bad. Although I didn't get much sleep over the weekend, my workout was pretty easy...time to eat and grow!
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Carbs, Fat, Protein
Low-carb diets have been the rage for a couple of years now with the reincarnation of Dr. Atkin's theories from the 70's. Actually, giving him all the credit wouldn't be appropriate; ketogenic (high-protein, low-carb) diets were introduced much earlier though he was the first to popularize them. Once again, they're the latest repackaged diet fad with several new authors touting the benefits and myriads of followers who have switched from counting grams of fat to counting carbs.
The most important thing to understand about carbohydrates is that they are the body's primary source of energy. All carbohydrates, whether classified as sugar, starch, or fiber, end up being digested into glucose, the smallest form of sugar possible, which the body then uses for energy. Your body can convert protein and fat into glucose, but it's very arduous process, thus the body will always use the much easier carbohydrates first. If the body's preferred energy source, carbohydrates, is all supplied through food, you won't force your body to use a secondary source. If our goal is to lose weight, then you want your body fat to be used for energy. This is why decreasing your carb intake is the easiest way to lose body fat. When you drop your carbohydrate intake lower than your body needs AND your overall caloric intake is lower than your body needs, you force your liver to convert stored body fat into new glucose for the body to use. This mechanism, gluconeogenesis, now provides the glucose necessary to make up for the deficiency caused by eating fewer carbohydrates.
This fat burning state, once started, will continue as long as you keep your carbs at the appropriate levels. If you binge on carbs for a day or two, you will refill all of your glycogen (stored carbs) stores in your body and you will have to deplete them once again to get back to burning body fat. This is one reason dieters often fail to see results. After a few days of dieting, they have successfully depleted their glycogen stores and are just about to dive into body fat usage, but they binge. Frustrated, they restart the diet, depleting glycogen, and binge again. Instead of ever going full force into a long run of fat burning, they just flirt with it and then back out. A large part of this is very physiological. When your body is using stored carbs for energy during the first few days of dieting, it's not that difficult to maintain. You'll cross a line, however, when your brain gets nervous about glucose levels getting too low so it will cause you to get hungry, possibly weak and shaky, and some will also experience headaches and fatigue. This is your brain's way of making you eat carbs. These powerful cravings usually result in major binges like an entire box of cereal, a gallon of ice cream, etc. If, however, you don't give in, your body is forced to start converting stored body fat into glucose and you rebound with incredible energy and decreased hunger. This is due to your glycogen levels rising, and the good news is that your body fat is disappearing! Once you've made it through the tough transition, stay there and burn fat!
I recommend specific amounts of carbohydrates to my clients based on their age, gender, activity level, body structure, and goals. You should create a specific carbohydrate deficit in your diet to make sure your plan will give you consistent and precise levels of body fat loss. I'm completely against the super low-carb diets because the lower you drop your carbs, the more you will also break down muscle tissue. You'll also end up decreasing your metabolism slowly until you have a difficult time losing weight at all. As soon as you begin eating carbs again, the body fat is regained at a rapid rate. Studies have shown that prolonged low-carb diets make your body so insulin sensitive that it will convert carbohydrates to body fat at a rate up to ten times faster than normal! Know anyone who went on one of these diets only to regain all their weight back? Long-term studies concluded that over 85% of those dieters do!
So, carbs are the key to losing body fat, but you still need to eat enough to buffer against muscle loss and metabolic decline. I usually recommend a small re-load once a week or so with a controlled increase to keep from slipping too low into depletion. I don't like the popular cheat day or cheat weekend mentality, because too much damage can be done in that length of time. You can completely take yourself out of the fat burning mode, even store some new body fat, and now you're starting all over. Instead, a single meal with foods that you've avoided can actually be helpful metabolically without taking any steps backward in your goals. A few pieces of pizza, a steak, a cheeseburger and fries, or a stack of pancakes with bacon and eggs can be had once a week and actually be helpful. Good fat, bad fat; have you heard these opposing terms expressed in the same sentence yet? Though the American Heart Association and registered dieticians still ignore the role of dietary fat in nutrition, there is mounting evidence that some degenerative health problems can be avoided if essential fatty acids are consumed in the right amount. And, there is solid research affirming the fact that the right fats in the right amount will actually make you lose body fat faster!
To understand fat, let's look first at its role in the human body. It certainly is obvious in its role as a secondary stored energy source. If we eat too many calories and our body can't use them all, the food is converted to cholesterol and triglycerides and ultimately stored as body fat. However, fat plays a role in many other processes in the human body. Your brain and nervous system is about sixty percent fat by weight. The myelin sheath covering the peripheral nerves are made from fat. Enzymes that help repair DNA and RNA within every cell are made from fat. Every single one of the trillions of cells in your body use fat to create and repair the cell wall. Several hormones in your body are cholesterol-derived hormones. So, as you can see, fat actually plays a role in the function and health of our bodies.
As necessary as I have made fat sound, it is important to know the difference between fats that actually fulfill these health-necessary roles and those that just contribute to unhealthy levels of cholesterol and body fat storage. The major division in fat categorization is saturated versus unsaturated. Saturated fat is primarily found in animal protein such as dairy products, eggs, beef, and pork, while unsaturated fats are found in plant sources like olives, almonds, flax seeds, and fish such as salmon. Saturated fat is very hard for your body to break down and use because they are long-chain triglycerides.
Structurally, this means they are very large with long chains of carbon molecules and the body doesn't process them very efficiently. They raise blood cholesterol levels, which increase atherosclerosis and heart disease and end up being stored easily as body fat. Unsaturated fats are short and medium-chain triglycerides which are processed very easily and are used efficiently in the body processes described. Many of these unsaturated sources contain the essential fatty acids that most of us are deficient in. The best sources of unsaturated fats and essential fatty acids are fish oil (salmon,) olive oil, canola oil, flax seeds or flax seed oil, evening primrose oil, borage oil, and other plant sources. Decreased cholesterol, decreased risk of arthritis, heart disease, and some cancers, and decreased risk of some neurological disorders have all been linked to the consumption of these essential fatty acids.
So, what does this have to do with permanently losing body fat? One of the roles of fat is the production of certain hormones like testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone. These reproductive hormones also play a major role in how much muscle tissue our body maintains and how many calories we burn per day. Studies have shown dramatic decreases in base hormone production when these good fats aren't consumed in high enough amounts. This can curtail body fat loss efforts significantly. Dietary fat also slows down the digestion of carbohydrates as I discussed in last month's article. Fat takes longer to digest and can slow the absorption of carbs which will keep blood sugar more stable which decreases hunger and increases energy. It's a very good idea to space your dietary fat intake evenly throughout the day. As healthy as unsaturated fat is, there still is a limit to how many calories you should consume per day to accomplish body fat loss. Excess good fat can still end up stored as body fat. You'll also get a decent amount of saturated fat from your diet even if you eat very lean sources of protein. The leanest protein sources such as chicken breast still have about one gram of saturated fat per ounce. So, you may not have to go overboard in adding unsaturated fat to your diet, but you'll still want to leave room for some due to the health benefits. I usually recommend approximately 20-25% of someone's total calories come from fat when trying to lose weight.
It should come as no surprise that in today's quick-fix economy of thinking, bodybuilders, fitness competitors, and athletes are looking for short cuts to muscle gain. Just tell me what's important; give me the Cliff-note version! We all want to maximize our results with the least effort. I can certainly appreciate anyone wanting maximum results, but maximum results are the fruits of maximum effort. Ever hear of that �you reap what you sow� stuff? Yeah, it's actually true; a universal law. I think it comes between the �law of gravity� and �if you eat a Big Mac before you squat, you'll probably puke.� So, in the pursuit of muscledom, building a foundation of knowledge to support your training can eliminate years of wasted time.
Nutritionally speaking, protein is a large part of muscle growth. Protein is made up of amino acids and amino acids are stored in muscle tissue, stimulate muscle tissue growth, and repair muscle tissue. I'm sure this isn't news to anyone reading this column. However, there are several principals of protein utilization that you may need to work harder on and collectively they will give you results proportional to your consistency in following them. In order of importance, the principals are- 1)Volume of protein 2)Frequency of protein 3)Protein quality 4)Amino acid utilization 5)Consistency
VOLUME OF PROTEIN is the first step that you must establish in creating the best environment for muscle growth. Remember that protein is broken down into amino acids and they are the key for repair and growth. There is a level of amino acids that your brain dictates should be circulating in the blood at all times. Even though muscle growth may be your biggest goal in life, your brain needs amino acids for millions of chemical reactions taking place in your body every second! If there is a shortage in your blood stream, your brain simply harvests more from �storage.� Your liver stores a short supply for second-by-second needs, but the motherlode storage site is your muscle tissue. So, every time your blood stream is low in amino acids, more hard-earned muscle goes down the drain! This is what is coined as a �negative nitrogen balance.� Amino acids are nitrogen compounds. Eating enough protein per day is essential for providing these amino acids from your diet instead of your delts. So, simply stated, your muscles will receive the amino acids they need to recover, but it's up to you to either supply them from food or they will be taken from muscle somewhere else in your body.
How much protein is required per day? This is a question I explored for my Master's Thesis and found it only controversial if you look at extremes. A vegetarian who claims you can live on thirty grams a day is correct. A bicep-bigger-than-brain gym thug who says five hundred grams a day won't kill you is also correct. If you are not active, not seeking to gain muscle, and don't mind your body having very little muscle holding your skeleton together, eat 30-50 grams a day. If you want to convert extra protein into body fat, stress your kidneys, and create an acidic body pH (good for disease and illness) then I suggest over 500 grams a day. If you are active, seeking muscle, training hard, drink plenty of water, and want the best recovery, then I would go with 1-1.25 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass per day. For example, if I weigh 200 pounds at 10% body fat, then my lean body mass is 180 pounds. I would eat 180 - 225 grams of protein per day. If you are dieting and perhaps hitting cardio aggressively, you may want to jump up to 1-1.5 grams per pound of lean body mass to make sure you're sparing muscle from being used as energy. If you have any general health, liver, or renal conditions, your physician should be asked before making any changes to your nutrition. These suggestions, however, are very safe and effective for keeping amino acid levels from dipping for long periods of time.
FREQUENCY OF PROTEIN consumed throughout the day is closely associated with the overall amount you eat per day. Each time you eat protein, your stomach digests it into amino acids and they are released into the small intestine for absorption. Blood levels of amino acids start rising allowing your recovering muscles to use them for repair and growth without having to harvest them from other areas of your body. Once that protein is digested and absorbed, blood levels of amino acids start leveling off and can get too low (negative nitrogen balance) unless you eat protein again. If you don't, your body simply starts stripping other muscles to �feed� the muscles that need the nutritional support (the ones most recently worked.) This robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul scenario occurs in more hard-training people than you can imagine. I believe it's the number one reason most don't ever reach their full genetic potential. Amino acids are simply shifted around the body workout to workout. Staying in a positive nitrogen balance requires eating enough protein per day, but it also requires eating protein consistently throughout the day.
The common solution is to eat every three hours. This certainly eliminates a great deal of �dead space� when your body is going without dietary protein, but it can be improved even further by addressing the quality of protein in your diet.
QUALITY OF PROTEIN takes over where frequency leaves off. There are a handful of rating systems that attempt to tell us the value of the protein we eat. Most still use the Biological Value Scale (BV) though the Protein Digestibility Corrective Amino Acid Scale (PDCAAS) is the latest and probably most complete. These scales simply tell us how much of the protein is going to be used by our body. Meat sources rank the lowest because the digestibility of the protein from the meat fiber (animal muscle) isn't as complete as something like whey isolate. The isolate is processed, removing things like lactose, leaving a more pure source of protein with a lower molecular weight. It's easier to break down and more of it gets absorbed.
The molecular weight of the protein dictates how long digestion has to occur before the amino acids can be used and to some extent how much will actually get absorbed. Another key to protein quality, however, is the type of amino acids that are in the protein source. Almost every protein imaginable has pros and cons. One protein source may be high in some amino acids but lower in others when compared to another source. It is a very good idea to get your protein from a variety of sources. If you want to go a step further, I would even recommend alternating whole food and engineered food meals. Whole food protein takes longer to digest, tends to fill you up due to sheer bulk, and allows you to craft other good whole foods into the meal (carbs, fat, fiber, etc.) Consuming a protein shake or bar between whole food meals is more convenient and you get the benefit of that particular protein source on a scheduled basis. Due to digestive physiology, it's more efficient to alternate meals in this manner and the net result is more time in a positive nitrogen balance.
AMINO ACID UTILIZATION has a lot to do with protein quality and, as you've already learned, protein frequency. In review, getting protein into your body at regular intervals is critical to keep amino acids available for your recovering muscles around the clock. But, remember that different protein sources contain different amino acid profiles. Most of us are going to have chicken, turkey, fish, and some red meat as our protein staples. We also choose from the same supplemental protein sources available on the shelves of our gym pro shop or health food store. My goal would be that you become as educated as possible and learn to separate marketing hype and true ingredient quality. Some very inferior protein products are best sellers in the industry due to overwhelming self-promotion.
My last article explored protein blending and my bias towards this is due to amino acid utilization. Not every company has the ability to research or even has a food scientist or staff member educated enough to create unique formulations, but this is a frontier that can lead to dramatic increases in muscle growth and recovery. The principal that led to my development of a five protein blend is based on the fact that different protein sources have different amino acid profiles and molecular weights. This affects how fast or slow the amino acids leave the stomach and enter the small intestine for absorption. In essence, the gastric emptying intervals can create a functional �time-released� buffet of amino acids for your muscles to draw upon.
To summarize every step simply, start with the right volume of protein for a day. Next, break that protein intake into evenly spaced, frequent meals. Alternate and vary the type of protein sources to vary the amino acid content. Include high quality supplemented protein because of it's high biological value rating. Starting big and working down through the details is all aimed towards keeping amino acids flowing into your blood stream as continuously as possible. Staying in this positive nitrogen balance is what will give you maximal results.
CONSISTENCY with this type of nutritional detail management is what will pay off big time. If pay this much attention to your nutrition only part time, you'll get part time results. If you do it as perfectly as you can, then at the end of this year you may have spent 20% more time in a positive nitrogen balance then last year. Maybe 50%?! Would you take a 20% increase in potential muscle gain? How about adding that up for the next five years; what would you look like then? Sow massive effort and you'll reap massive rewards.
The most important thing to understand about carbohydrates is that they are the body's primary source of energy. All carbohydrates, whether classified as sugar, starch, or fiber, end up being digested into glucose, the smallest form of sugar possible, which the body then uses for energy. Your body can convert protein and fat into glucose, but it's very arduous process, thus the body will always use the much easier carbohydrates first. If the body's preferred energy source, carbohydrates, is all supplied through food, you won't force your body to use a secondary source. If our goal is to lose weight, then you want your body fat to be used for energy. This is why decreasing your carb intake is the easiest way to lose body fat. When you drop your carbohydrate intake lower than your body needs AND your overall caloric intake is lower than your body needs, you force your liver to convert stored body fat into new glucose for the body to use. This mechanism, gluconeogenesis, now provides the glucose necessary to make up for the deficiency caused by eating fewer carbohydrates.
This fat burning state, once started, will continue as long as you keep your carbs at the appropriate levels. If you binge on carbs for a day or two, you will refill all of your glycogen (stored carbs) stores in your body and you will have to deplete them once again to get back to burning body fat. This is one reason dieters often fail to see results. After a few days of dieting, they have successfully depleted their glycogen stores and are just about to dive into body fat usage, but they binge. Frustrated, they restart the diet, depleting glycogen, and binge again. Instead of ever going full force into a long run of fat burning, they just flirt with it and then back out. A large part of this is very physiological. When your body is using stored carbs for energy during the first few days of dieting, it's not that difficult to maintain. You'll cross a line, however, when your brain gets nervous about glucose levels getting too low so it will cause you to get hungry, possibly weak and shaky, and some will also experience headaches and fatigue. This is your brain's way of making you eat carbs. These powerful cravings usually result in major binges like an entire box of cereal, a gallon of ice cream, etc. If, however, you don't give in, your body is forced to start converting stored body fat into glucose and you rebound with incredible energy and decreased hunger. This is due to your glycogen levels rising, and the good news is that your body fat is disappearing! Once you've made it through the tough transition, stay there and burn fat!
I recommend specific amounts of carbohydrates to my clients based on their age, gender, activity level, body structure, and goals. You should create a specific carbohydrate deficit in your diet to make sure your plan will give you consistent and precise levels of body fat loss. I'm completely against the super low-carb diets because the lower you drop your carbs, the more you will also break down muscle tissue. You'll also end up decreasing your metabolism slowly until you have a difficult time losing weight at all. As soon as you begin eating carbs again, the body fat is regained at a rapid rate. Studies have shown that prolonged low-carb diets make your body so insulin sensitive that it will convert carbohydrates to body fat at a rate up to ten times faster than normal! Know anyone who went on one of these diets only to regain all their weight back? Long-term studies concluded that over 85% of those dieters do!
So, carbs are the key to losing body fat, but you still need to eat enough to buffer against muscle loss and metabolic decline. I usually recommend a small re-load once a week or so with a controlled increase to keep from slipping too low into depletion. I don't like the popular cheat day or cheat weekend mentality, because too much damage can be done in that length of time. You can completely take yourself out of the fat burning mode, even store some new body fat, and now you're starting all over. Instead, a single meal with foods that you've avoided can actually be helpful metabolically without taking any steps backward in your goals. A few pieces of pizza, a steak, a cheeseburger and fries, or a stack of pancakes with bacon and eggs can be had once a week and actually be helpful. Good fat, bad fat; have you heard these opposing terms expressed in the same sentence yet? Though the American Heart Association and registered dieticians still ignore the role of dietary fat in nutrition, there is mounting evidence that some degenerative health problems can be avoided if essential fatty acids are consumed in the right amount. And, there is solid research affirming the fact that the right fats in the right amount will actually make you lose body fat faster!
To understand fat, let's look first at its role in the human body. It certainly is obvious in its role as a secondary stored energy source. If we eat too many calories and our body can't use them all, the food is converted to cholesterol and triglycerides and ultimately stored as body fat. However, fat plays a role in many other processes in the human body. Your brain and nervous system is about sixty percent fat by weight. The myelin sheath covering the peripheral nerves are made from fat. Enzymes that help repair DNA and RNA within every cell are made from fat. Every single one of the trillions of cells in your body use fat to create and repair the cell wall. Several hormones in your body are cholesterol-derived hormones. So, as you can see, fat actually plays a role in the function and health of our bodies.
As necessary as I have made fat sound, it is important to know the difference between fats that actually fulfill these health-necessary roles and those that just contribute to unhealthy levels of cholesterol and body fat storage. The major division in fat categorization is saturated versus unsaturated. Saturated fat is primarily found in animal protein such as dairy products, eggs, beef, and pork, while unsaturated fats are found in plant sources like olives, almonds, flax seeds, and fish such as salmon. Saturated fat is very hard for your body to break down and use because they are long-chain triglycerides.
Structurally, this means they are very large with long chains of carbon molecules and the body doesn't process them very efficiently. They raise blood cholesterol levels, which increase atherosclerosis and heart disease and end up being stored easily as body fat. Unsaturated fats are short and medium-chain triglycerides which are processed very easily and are used efficiently in the body processes described. Many of these unsaturated sources contain the essential fatty acids that most of us are deficient in. The best sources of unsaturated fats and essential fatty acids are fish oil (salmon,) olive oil, canola oil, flax seeds or flax seed oil, evening primrose oil, borage oil, and other plant sources. Decreased cholesterol, decreased risk of arthritis, heart disease, and some cancers, and decreased risk of some neurological disorders have all been linked to the consumption of these essential fatty acids.
So, what does this have to do with permanently losing body fat? One of the roles of fat is the production of certain hormones like testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone. These reproductive hormones also play a major role in how much muscle tissue our body maintains and how many calories we burn per day. Studies have shown dramatic decreases in base hormone production when these good fats aren't consumed in high enough amounts. This can curtail body fat loss efforts significantly. Dietary fat also slows down the digestion of carbohydrates as I discussed in last month's article. Fat takes longer to digest and can slow the absorption of carbs which will keep blood sugar more stable which decreases hunger and increases energy. It's a very good idea to space your dietary fat intake evenly throughout the day. As healthy as unsaturated fat is, there still is a limit to how many calories you should consume per day to accomplish body fat loss. Excess good fat can still end up stored as body fat. You'll also get a decent amount of saturated fat from your diet even if you eat very lean sources of protein. The leanest protein sources such as chicken breast still have about one gram of saturated fat per ounce. So, you may not have to go overboard in adding unsaturated fat to your diet, but you'll still want to leave room for some due to the health benefits. I usually recommend approximately 20-25% of someone's total calories come from fat when trying to lose weight.
It should come as no surprise that in today's quick-fix economy of thinking, bodybuilders, fitness competitors, and athletes are looking for short cuts to muscle gain. Just tell me what's important; give me the Cliff-note version! We all want to maximize our results with the least effort. I can certainly appreciate anyone wanting maximum results, but maximum results are the fruits of maximum effort. Ever hear of that �you reap what you sow� stuff? Yeah, it's actually true; a universal law. I think it comes between the �law of gravity� and �if you eat a Big Mac before you squat, you'll probably puke.� So, in the pursuit of muscledom, building a foundation of knowledge to support your training can eliminate years of wasted time.
Nutritionally speaking, protein is a large part of muscle growth. Protein is made up of amino acids and amino acids are stored in muscle tissue, stimulate muscle tissue growth, and repair muscle tissue. I'm sure this isn't news to anyone reading this column. However, there are several principals of protein utilization that you may need to work harder on and collectively they will give you results proportional to your consistency in following them. In order of importance, the principals are- 1)Volume of protein 2)Frequency of protein 3)Protein quality 4)Amino acid utilization 5)Consistency
VOLUME OF PROTEIN is the first step that you must establish in creating the best environment for muscle growth. Remember that protein is broken down into amino acids and they are the key for repair and growth. There is a level of amino acids that your brain dictates should be circulating in the blood at all times. Even though muscle growth may be your biggest goal in life, your brain needs amino acids for millions of chemical reactions taking place in your body every second! If there is a shortage in your blood stream, your brain simply harvests more from �storage.� Your liver stores a short supply for second-by-second needs, but the motherlode storage site is your muscle tissue. So, every time your blood stream is low in amino acids, more hard-earned muscle goes down the drain! This is what is coined as a �negative nitrogen balance.� Amino acids are nitrogen compounds. Eating enough protein per day is essential for providing these amino acids from your diet instead of your delts. So, simply stated, your muscles will receive the amino acids they need to recover, but it's up to you to either supply them from food or they will be taken from muscle somewhere else in your body.
How much protein is required per day? This is a question I explored for my Master's Thesis and found it only controversial if you look at extremes. A vegetarian who claims you can live on thirty grams a day is correct. A bicep-bigger-than-brain gym thug who says five hundred grams a day won't kill you is also correct. If you are not active, not seeking to gain muscle, and don't mind your body having very little muscle holding your skeleton together, eat 30-50 grams a day. If you want to convert extra protein into body fat, stress your kidneys, and create an acidic body pH (good for disease and illness) then I suggest over 500 grams a day. If you are active, seeking muscle, training hard, drink plenty of water, and want the best recovery, then I would go with 1-1.25 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass per day. For example, if I weigh 200 pounds at 10% body fat, then my lean body mass is 180 pounds. I would eat 180 - 225 grams of protein per day. If you are dieting and perhaps hitting cardio aggressively, you may want to jump up to 1-1.5 grams per pound of lean body mass to make sure you're sparing muscle from being used as energy. If you have any general health, liver, or renal conditions, your physician should be asked before making any changes to your nutrition. These suggestions, however, are very safe and effective for keeping amino acid levels from dipping for long periods of time.
FREQUENCY OF PROTEIN consumed throughout the day is closely associated with the overall amount you eat per day. Each time you eat protein, your stomach digests it into amino acids and they are released into the small intestine for absorption. Blood levels of amino acids start rising allowing your recovering muscles to use them for repair and growth without having to harvest them from other areas of your body. Once that protein is digested and absorbed, blood levels of amino acids start leveling off and can get too low (negative nitrogen balance) unless you eat protein again. If you don't, your body simply starts stripping other muscles to �feed� the muscles that need the nutritional support (the ones most recently worked.) This robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul scenario occurs in more hard-training people than you can imagine. I believe it's the number one reason most don't ever reach their full genetic potential. Amino acids are simply shifted around the body workout to workout. Staying in a positive nitrogen balance requires eating enough protein per day, but it also requires eating protein consistently throughout the day.
The common solution is to eat every three hours. This certainly eliminates a great deal of �dead space� when your body is going without dietary protein, but it can be improved even further by addressing the quality of protein in your diet.
QUALITY OF PROTEIN takes over where frequency leaves off. There are a handful of rating systems that attempt to tell us the value of the protein we eat. Most still use the Biological Value Scale (BV) though the Protein Digestibility Corrective Amino Acid Scale (PDCAAS) is the latest and probably most complete. These scales simply tell us how much of the protein is going to be used by our body. Meat sources rank the lowest because the digestibility of the protein from the meat fiber (animal muscle) isn't as complete as something like whey isolate. The isolate is processed, removing things like lactose, leaving a more pure source of protein with a lower molecular weight. It's easier to break down and more of it gets absorbed.
The molecular weight of the protein dictates how long digestion has to occur before the amino acids can be used and to some extent how much will actually get absorbed. Another key to protein quality, however, is the type of amino acids that are in the protein source. Almost every protein imaginable has pros and cons. One protein source may be high in some amino acids but lower in others when compared to another source. It is a very good idea to get your protein from a variety of sources. If you want to go a step further, I would even recommend alternating whole food and engineered food meals. Whole food protein takes longer to digest, tends to fill you up due to sheer bulk, and allows you to craft other good whole foods into the meal (carbs, fat, fiber, etc.) Consuming a protein shake or bar between whole food meals is more convenient and you get the benefit of that particular protein source on a scheduled basis. Due to digestive physiology, it's more efficient to alternate meals in this manner and the net result is more time in a positive nitrogen balance.
AMINO ACID UTILIZATION has a lot to do with protein quality and, as you've already learned, protein frequency. In review, getting protein into your body at regular intervals is critical to keep amino acids available for your recovering muscles around the clock. But, remember that different protein sources contain different amino acid profiles. Most of us are going to have chicken, turkey, fish, and some red meat as our protein staples. We also choose from the same supplemental protein sources available on the shelves of our gym pro shop or health food store. My goal would be that you become as educated as possible and learn to separate marketing hype and true ingredient quality. Some very inferior protein products are best sellers in the industry due to overwhelming self-promotion.
My last article explored protein blending and my bias towards this is due to amino acid utilization. Not every company has the ability to research or even has a food scientist or staff member educated enough to create unique formulations, but this is a frontier that can lead to dramatic increases in muscle growth and recovery. The principal that led to my development of a five protein blend is based on the fact that different protein sources have different amino acid profiles and molecular weights. This affects how fast or slow the amino acids leave the stomach and enter the small intestine for absorption. In essence, the gastric emptying intervals can create a functional �time-released� buffet of amino acids for your muscles to draw upon.
To summarize every step simply, start with the right volume of protein for a day. Next, break that protein intake into evenly spaced, frequent meals. Alternate and vary the type of protein sources to vary the amino acid content. Include high quality supplemented protein because of it's high biological value rating. Starting big and working down through the details is all aimed towards keeping amino acids flowing into your blood stream as continuously as possible. Staying in this positive nitrogen balance is what will give you maximal results.
CONSISTENCY with this type of nutritional detail management is what will pay off big time. If pay this much attention to your nutrition only part time, you'll get part time results. If you do it as perfectly as you can, then at the end of this year you may have spent 20% more time in a positive nitrogen balance then last year. Maybe 50%?! Would you take a 20% increase in potential muscle gain? How about adding that up for the next five years; what would you look like then? Sow massive effort and you'll reap massive rewards.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Another Off Day
Today was another off day from brutal training. However, I did go in to do some abs and 15 minutes of cardio. Since I'm doing 4-5 days of cardio a week, I believe 15 minutes is sufficient.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Back Training
ANother brutal back day. Got in the gym a bit late but started right away.
Cable row/smith deadlift/hammer strength row 10x3
Pulldown/v-grip pulldown/chins 10x3
closegrip pulldown/machine row 15x3
Today was pretty much a superset day. Got tons of blood into my muscles which felt great. For some reason, I felt like I was out of breath. I've been incorporating cardio 3-5 days a week so my lungs should be good. Maybe it's because I gained 10lbs this year?
Cable row/smith deadlift/hammer strength row 10x3
Pulldown/v-grip pulldown/chins 10x3
closegrip pulldown/machine row 15x3
Today was pretty much a superset day. Got tons of blood into my muscles which felt great. For some reason, I felt like I was out of breath. I've been incorporating cardio 3-5 days a week so my lungs should be good. Maybe it's because I gained 10lbs this year?
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Chest Day
Alright, today was chest day and it was pretty brutal.
Incline BB press 175x8x3
Smith Bench press 195x10x3
Pec Dec 150x10x3
superset
Dip 10x3
My pecs felt pretty swoll from the workout.
Incline BB press 175x8x3
Smith Bench press 195x10x3
Pec Dec 150x10x3
superset
Dip 10x3
My pecs felt pretty swoll from the workout.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Leg Training
Holy shiznit! Today was another brutal leg day.
600lbs on the leg press for 20 reps x 3
DB SLDL toes inverted w/ 45lbs for 12 x 3
Single leg curl w/ 50lbs for 12 x 3
Leg curl drop set from 130/100/70
Calf Raise 300lbs 3 x 8
That was pretty much it. I'll be sore fo sho tomorrow!
600lbs on the leg press for 20 reps x 3
DB SLDL toes inverted w/ 45lbs for 12 x 3
Single leg curl w/ 50lbs for 12 x 3
Leg curl drop set from 130/100/70
Calf Raise 300lbs 3 x 8
That was pretty much it. I'll be sore fo sho tomorrow!
Morning Cardio
Another week has begun and it's my first cardio of the week. It's almost 7am. I had a coop of BCAA and a cup of coffee. I'm just waiting for the coffee to take affect. I'll be incorporating 20 minutes of cardio this morning with an incline of 3-6 and a speed of 2-3mph. Don't want to go too high on the incline today because it's leg day.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Off Day
Well, I'm off to the gym for abs and cardio. Did pretty bad on food intake yesterday and this morning. Went to the Pantry in Downtown and grubbed on turkey sausage omlette w/hashbrowns.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Shoulder Training
Well, today was shoulder day and we killed it. We started off with incline rear laterals supersetted with incline rear cable laterals, then db laterals supersetted with upright rows, and incline front db raise supersetted with front plate raise, and then we finished off with machine shoulder press. Boy were we hurting! Well, I'm off north this evening for some good ol grubbing!
Friday, November 2, 2007
Mass Phase
I've been on a mass phase for the past 2 years and finally gained 20lbs and only 4% body fat. That's pretty darn good compared to how I gained weight back in 2003. I mostly gained body fat back in the days. Now, I've been eating pretty good. A little cheating here and there but not junk food. I mostly consume sweet potatoes, brown rice, pasta, broccoli, steak, chicken, fish, and peanut butter. My current weight is 176lbs. I'm shooting for 180 by the end of the month. From December, I will be on a cutting phase presumably for 12 weeks. It will be hell but I'll do my best. I'll probably be in the best condition of my life. I'm shooting to compete in March and this will be my first show. My goal is to step on stage between 155 & 160lbs. I want to keep as much muscle mass as possible. The past two years on my cutting phase, I wasn't really smart with my nutrition and ended up losing a lot of my mass. I also incorporated too much cardio.This time around, I'll be doing less cardio and focusing more on protein and dark green veggies.
Arm Day
Well, it's 1pm and i'm mentally preparing myself for todays arm workout. let's see what dayne has in store for the workout. We might do a monster set because that's what we did for back the other day. i'm still feeling the after-effects of it. I'll be eating my third meal in 30 mins. I'll have a lean burger patty w/ 1 sweet potatoe, a cup of brocolli, and a tbsp of olive oil. This will definitely help me to fuel my workout. Well, I'll post my workout later on this evening.
Holy crap. It's 5pm and just returned from the gym. Our training was sick! We did all monster sets.
1st workout
close grip bench
rope pushdowns
reverse cable
2nd workout
bb curl
seated hammer machine curl
db hammer curl
3rd workout
db french press
weighted dips
kick backs
4th workout
cable curls
concentration curls
high cable curls
we did 3 sets of all above exercises with 2 minutes rest between sets. I don't think i'll be doing these for a long time! I'll be hurting tomorow on shoulder day!!!
Holy crap. It's 5pm and just returned from the gym. Our training was sick! We did all monster sets.
1st workout
close grip bench
rope pushdowns
reverse cable
2nd workout
bb curl
seated hammer machine curl
db hammer curl
3rd workout
db french press
weighted dips
kick backs
4th workout
cable curls
concentration curls
high cable curls
we did 3 sets of all above exercises with 2 minutes rest between sets. I don't think i'll be doing these for a long time! I'll be hurting tomorow on shoulder day!!!
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