Body Composition

I know that it has been a while since I've posted anything, but time has been very scarce for me lately. Today I wanted to talk about calories and diet. There are some changes I want to make to my program to help me improve both my gains and my body composition. By body composition, I am not talking about fat ratio, but about actual muscle density.

To understand what I want to talk about, you have to understand a little about muscle composition. Muscles aren't all one piece; they are made up of thousands of fibers, each of which are made up of individual cells. Each cell in a muscle fiber can store nutrients, including water and fat. The water is good, and some fat is necessary, but bloating the cell with unnecessary fats can impair its function. Also, between the muscle strands, is tissue that can store fat. This fat can be burned as energy when doing slow twitch exercise, but isn't used for fast twitch exercise. In short, for a bodybuilder, this is wasted space in our muscle that only contributes to softer, less defined muscle formation.

Now, on to the diet changes that will help with my composition. I have always been a proponent of excess caloric intake in order to have plenty of energy for muscle building. I still believe that you need the calories, but nowhere near the amount that I believed before. Studies show that it is even more important to figure in what kind of calories you ingest than the amount. The old axiom of calories in equal's calories out has become a wives' tale. To put it simply, carbohydrates have a rate of digestion. If the rate is high enough, you will absorb an excess into your body that will become fat. The slower digesting carbs however, will be burned as they are digested with the excess being excreted by the body. The more refined a carbohydrate food is, the faster the absorption rate. In essence you get the theory that white foods are bad because they are overly refined. Simple sugars get absorbed even faster, thus they are almost an instant fat food. High glucose corn syrup is the worst, being absorbed instantly and stored instantly making this an immediate fat. Fats are fast absorbing as well, but are a mandatory diet requirement. The key is to make sure you get the right kinds of fat, omegas 3 and 6.

Protein is very slow absorbing and thus very hard to utilize. It must first be broken down to an amino acid level by the liver making less than 20% of your protein consumed usable by your body. Almost no protein calories are ever turned to fat because of the slow digestion rate. You take what you need and crap out the rest. Consequentially, protein is a very poor energy food because it is almost never converted to either fat or glycogen.

My new diet plan is going to be hard for me. I am still formulating the exact foods, but it amounts to a simple strategy. I burn off approximately 180g of carbohydrates per day. My maintenance level of protein, the amount I need to keep the muscle I have, is the same 185g per day. If I change either number, then my body composition will change for the good or bad. In order to gain the muscle I want, I will have to increase my protein to 370g of protein a day, this will give me around 7.4g of usable amino acids in my blood stream after muscle maintenance that can be used to build new muscle. Since I am taking in this amount of protein, I will be burning more carbs to digest, process, and utilize this protein excess. This will amount to around 37g more carbohydrates per day to avoid deficit. So, in short, I will be raising my protein intake to 370g per day and my carbohydrates to around 220g per day. I plan to choose my foods wisely, picking carbohydrates that are very slow digesting, such as whole oats, whole wheat, and legumes. For the protein I will have to rely on "super" foods, such as egg whites and fish. The challenge is getting to this protein level without exceeding my carbohydrate level. This should give me optimum muscle density without messing up my energy levels.

I will spend a lot of time over the next week playing with my diet plan. I will post my results here within the next few weeks to let everyone know how it worked out and what I did to get there. Until then, train like a freak!

Train Like A Freak

As Promised, I wanted to give everyone my current training program. This is an advanced training program for people that have just hit a wall and can go no further. I have just recently switched to this schedule after hitting 205 lbs and around 12-14 pbf. For supplements I use BSN products almost exclusively. Pre-workout I use NO-Xplode about 30 minutes prior to workout. Post-workout I use Cell Mass, take 2 amino acids (optimum nutrition), and my multivitamins which are Opti-Men. Within thirty minutes of my workout I drink a protein shake, Muscle Milk, and take my Axis-HT. I also take Axis-HT with lunch and dinner. Around an hour before bed I use Cell Mass again and take two more amino acids. Just before bed I take one serving of Syntha-6 protein powder, it's sustained release blend and helps me recover through the night.

I try to eat at least six meals a day. Since I work out at 5:30 am, it's a little rough to eat pre workout, but it's important enough that I pull it off. I get up at 4 am and eat organic oats with fruit to give me plenty of complex carbs to get through my training session.

Meal Schedule

4am Organic Oatmeal, fruit, glass of skim milk

Post WO Muscle Milk Shake

10am Two servings of organic oatmeal with 2 scoops protein powder and 2 tablespoons of flax

1pm 8 ounces of lean meat, 2 servings of veggies, and two whole grain carb servings such as whole grain bread

4pm ¼ cup of nuts and ¼ cup of raisins

7pm 8 ounces of lean meat, 2 servings of veggies, and two whole grain carb servings, usually brown rice

9pm Syntha-6 time released protein shake

 

If I feel the need for a snack between meals, I usually grab a handful of nuts of dried fruit. I particularly love dried cranberries.

 

Now, on to my workout schedule. I always begin each workout with 10 minutes on a recumbent bike in order to get my heart rate up and to warm up my muscles. I aerobically pump up the muscle group I will be working for the session. Below is my schedule, though I will leave out the amount of weight I am using because when you train you should leave your ego at the door…form not mass. I don't want anyone to try more than they can manage. I start with Lower Weights to warm up and then do 4 additional sets of each movement, increasing the weight each set. I target 8-12 reps, but go till exhaustion. After each workout I do ten minutes of abs.

Monday: Chest- wide grip bench press, Incline Dumbell Press, Decline Dumbell press, Cable Crossovers, Cable Flys

Tuesday: Back- Wide Grip Lat Pulls, Cable Rows, Cable Stiff Leg Dead Lifts, One Arm Rows

Wednesday: Shoulders- Military Press, Upright Rowing, Reverse Cable Flys, Shrugs, Frontal Raises, Lateral Raises

Thursday: Legs- Deadlifts, Leg Extensions, Leg Curls, Lunges, Leg Press

Friday: Arms- Superset bi and tri- Curls/Close Grip Bench, Hammer Curls/EZ Bar Skull Crushers on Decline, Close Grip Curls/Reverse Cable Press, Reverse Curl/Cable Press, Wrist Curl/Reverse Wrist Curl

Saturday and Sunday are recovery days, time to play with the kiddo and with the wife.

I try to squeeze in a little cardio when I can, but honestly I don't have the calories to burn for cardio. During a cut session, I will do cardio for 30 minutes 3 times a week just to burn off some extra calories.

 

I hope this helps some people. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. Just remember what BSN says about training…Train Like A Freak…110% every time!

People are often misled when it comes to starting a resistance training program. They believe that all they will have to do is throw weights up into the air over and over to become a Herculean figure. There could be nothing further from the truth. Resistance training should be approached very seriously and scientifically. Of every sport out there, weight lifting has the highest injury rate. From pulled muscles and strains to blown tendons and slipped discs, lifting injuries range from painful to crippling.

The first rule in starting any training program is making sure you don't over do it. You can't just jump in and throw weights around. You have to take things slowly. Start out with calisthenics, push-ups, crunches, lots of stretching. After you have those muscles used to doing work and those tendons limbered up, you can start to do actual lifting. I recommend a solid six week period just getting ready for the weights.

The first six months is by far the most exciting. You will feel more strength every single time you work out. During this period you aren't really gaining any muscle, at least not much. You are training your nervous system to use the muscles that are already there. This is the period where you will go from a sixty pound bench press to over a hundred pounds. Nothing is more exciting. Just keep taking it slowly, make sure that you aren't lifting too much weight. Warm up before your workouts and stretch out thoroughly. The usual workout in this time period is upper body three times a week with one exercise per muscle group. Lower body should be done on the alternating days, twice a week. You can get away with this for the first six months because you aren't tearing down the muscle as much as training yourself how to lift.

After this period is over, you will usually start to hit walls. This is because your nervous system is trained and the muscle is starting to grow. At this point it's time to change your strategies. Stack on the weight a bit more heavily and shoot for exhaustion at around eight to ten reps. If you can do more than that you aren't breaking loose those muscle fibers. Also during this time period you will need to change your recovery strategy. On the average, it takes muscle around 72 hours to recover from a proper workout. This means that your three day a week program will cause you to loose muscle mass as your muscles will never heal from the prior workout.

Supplements while during these periods should be kept simple and to the basics. That is all you will need. A gallon of water a day, a good multi-vitamin such as Opti-Men, 1g of protein per pound of body weight, and a sensible diet filled with lean meats, healthy fats, fruits and veggies, and whole grains. Sticking to these few basics will give your body all it needs for maximum growth. Forget all the hype on the other supplements. They may work great for an advanced body builder with advanced needs, but you are still at the stage where your body has not hit its limits. Save your money and keep it simple.

Later I will post a nice, simple, intermediate workout to start at week six through month six. Until then, keep lifting.

Pre-workout Drinks, A Review

As the science of exercise and nutrition advances, different phenomena arise that can change our exercise results drastically. The latest in the constant stream of products on the market are pre-workout drinks. These drinks claim to give you a burst of energy for your workout, allowing you to push yourself harder than you normally could. They also claim to increase the "pump" you get and dramatically improve your gains in muscle.

I have been using these drinks for just over a year now. I have tried several of them with mixed results. Here I will review the three that I like best, the benefits I received from each, and the bad side effects; after all, there is a down side to everything.

Third Place- SuperPump 250. This drink promises to increase your lean mass with your first workout, cause rapid and measurable full muscle pumps, promote mental focus and maximum energy, enhance full body vascularity. What it offers is of course creatine, which will give you more muscle energy and create fuller muscles. It has an insane dose of B vitamins, L-Arganine to increase nitrogen levels for greater oxygen transport, along with just about every body building chemical out there compounded into one powder. Many of these chemicals are based more on reputation that clinical trials. I tried the product for a week and it did give me a very good pump, high energy levels, increased vascularity, and unfortunately the runs. Evidently, you can have too much of a good thing. This stuff shot right through me and made it tough for me to even complete a workout without running for the bathroom. If you have a hearty constitution and think your stomach can handle it, the product is sound. Just be careful and start out with low doses to see if it agrees with your system.

Second Place- Nitric Blast. I loved this product. It is the usual blend of creatine and vitamins, along with some herbal suppliments. To the mixture they add electrolytes and some very nice recovery elements, such as glutamine. This product did not give me stomach cramps and there was no flushing side effect you sometimes have with pre-workout drinks. It gave me a steady energy level through my workout and seemed to increase my recovery time as well. The only down side to it was it lacked the mad energy rush that I love and the muscle pump increase that I shoot for. I would say that for anyone with a sensitive stomach, this is a real winner of a product. Two thumbs up!

First Place- N.O.-Xplode from BSN. If you want good solid science in your corner, BSN has the products for you. So far, they have never let me down and this product is no exception. Massive amounts of B Vitamins combined with their own creatine blend, which doesn't get lost in your stomach like many others do, are a great base in this drink. Add to that L-Arganine for massive pumps, electrolytes for endurance, and a patent pending absorption system and you have a real winner. This product gave me a combination of unparalleled energy rush, insane muscle pumps, and explosive strength to get through my workout. Over the course of the day I felt less drained from my workout and could still function at a full pace. Though it did upset my stomach mildly the first week, that side effect wore off quickly. I would recommend this product to anyone that can handle it. It does what no other product can; it does what it says it will do.

There you have it, my little review of pre-workout aids. With any of them, start slowly to make sure you can tolerate it. Over time you can increase to the full dosage if your body says it's ok. Just remember the first rule of exercise and fitness, listen to your body, it knows what it needs.

Until next time, keep on lifting.

How Much Can A Body Handle? (Overtraining)

Training time vs. Recovery time is one of the hardest lessons I have ever had to learn. When I started working out I went with the old tradition that you give your body a day to recover after you workout. I was doing upper body in one full workout every other day. The fat fell off, I got more muscular, and about five months in, I got injured. My arm felt like something was tearing where my forearm and elbow met. I took a couple of days off and iced it frequently. It still didn't heal up. Finally I broke down and went to the Doctor about it. Three months later my tendon strain, also known as "golfer's elbow", finally healed up. But it still gives me twinges from time to time.

This was the first of my many lessons on properly exercise and recovery. Over time I have come up with some fast rules to govern my training to make sure that I do not have any more injuries and to get the best results from my training.

1) Muscle recovers faster than tendons and ligaments. While a day may be sufficient for some of your muscles to recover, your connective tissues need more time. Your recovery time should take into account the weakest link in your body, not the strongest.

2) Larger muscle groups can recover faster than smaller ones. The golden rule is, if you want real results, do not train smaller muscles intensely more than once a week. This is primarily your arms. These muscles also get worked in almost every other exercise. Over training them will prevent them from growing at the maximum rate and can even cause them to shrink.

3) Take day off from the weights for your body as a whole to recover. It takes time for muscles to regain their glycogen and ATP levels in order to give 100% during a workout. Anything less than 100% is a waste of time.

4) Take at least one complete day off from all training every week. This is a day for rest and healing, not just for the body, but for your mind as well.

You do not make any gains during a workout. It is the recovery that gives us the gains we seek.

After much reading, study, and trial & error on my part; I have found the perfect routine for me. It has given me better results in the last two months than I have had in any six months preceding it.

I begin each workout by warming up for ten minutes, full body movement with concentrated movement of the muscle group I intend to work in that session. After my warm up, I stretch for another ten minutes. The better a muscle is stretched the less chance of injury. A muscle will also recover faster when properly stretched as blood will flow through that area more freely; more blood equals more nutrition.

Monday- Chest and Back- I do four exercises for each group with a total of 13 sets per group. This gives me a good solid workout, hitting each muscle group from several angles.

Tuesday- Legs- I start with dead lifts since I don't have a squat rack in the house. After four sets, I begin the focused training, doing 4 more exercises at 4 sets each. I try not to overdo my leg training as I am on my feet at work, climbing ladders and walking, for twelve hours a day. My legs don't get the full time off they need for recovery.

Wednesday- Shoulders and Neck- Once again, four exercises per group but only 12 sets total. I try to take it a little easier on the end with my neck exercises. Your traps are a bit smaller and can't take as much punishment.

Thursday- Active Recovery Day- I do about 30 minutes of cardio and a full 30 minutes of stretching.

Friday- Arms- This is the hard one for me. Your biceps, triceps, and forearm muscles can not take long duration exercise. You should limit your workout to 10 sets on each group. I always want to work them longer because of the pump I get. Instead I have to make myself work them more intensively but not as long. The results have been fantastic.

Saturday- this is a repeat of Thursday.

Sunday- REST, complete rest.

At night, Tammy and I also get in a solid abdominal routine and some cardio when I don't have to work. This has been so good for me all the way around. I'm growing stronger and getting bigger so much faster than ever before. The reason for the success is simply RECOVERY.

What a Difference a Year Makes

235 pounds

This is how I looked until I changed my lifestyle a year ago August.

195 pounds
This is me today.

Trust me everyone, if I can do this, anyone can. It only takes a few basic changes to do it along with a bit of work and consistency.

1) I stopped sucking down cokes. No more empty calories and no more high fructose corn syrup.

2) I work out on a set schedule. I don't miss a work out no matter what.

3) I concentrated on building muscle instead of cardio. The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns just for maintenance.

4) Other than the cokes, I started eating a diet higher in protein and lower in carbs and fat. No more fried foods, no more junk foods. Lots of grilling (my favorite anyway). I eat six times a day in smaller portions and keep a steady 5000 calorie diet going. I didn't want my body going into starvation mode, I wanted it to use up the calories I was eating instead.

5) I do everything in my power to stay focused. I keep a fat picture of me up at work and look at it when I feel like pigging out on junk food. I try to seduce my wife with my body regularly, how she looks at me is a big indicator of the progress I am making. I do a lot of lifting up at work that no one else can do just for the comments I get. In other words, I show off a LOT.

That's the basics in a nutshell. I'll get back with more specifics on my workouts, philosophies, supplements, and diet soon.

A Fresh New Start

I know all of my friends have already read enough about me to know my recent past. For everyone else, I will give a breif recap. I grew up quite athletic. At the age of nineteen I was a fourth degree black belt in karate and was very much into fitness, specifically weight training. I got married in my early twenties and after my son was born, I pretty well gave up on my fitness persuit.

A year and a half ago, I hit rock bottom for me. I was over 230 pounds and looked like I was pregnant, not too attractive in a man. My wife lost the physical attraction aspect of our relationship, she no longer wanted to jump my bones, so I decided to do something about it.

Over the past year and a half I have completely changed the way I live, I don't call it a lifestyle, I call it life. I have gone from a 230 pound whale with 30% body fat to a 195 pound god with less than 10% body fat. No small feat for such a short amount of time.

I am starting this blog to help me keep my perspective on what I have accomplished and what I want to accomplish. I hope that what I have learned in the past and all of the things I will learn in the future will help others to become better at their own physical endeavors. If one person takes something from me and it helps them, then I will be satisfied that this blog has served it's purpose.