Pfau Fitness

Should I Train to Failure?

2012-03-10T11:58:00.000-05:00

We all know that to gain muscle, you need to lift with intensity. If you aren't pushing yourself in the gym then you can't expect to make progress. Progressive overload is the key factor in determining if your training will yield muscle gains. Progressive overload is just a fancy term for gradually increasing the stress placed on your body during your workouts over time either by increasing the amount of reps you can do with the same weight or increasing the amount of weight you can handle. Basically, if you bench 185 for 10 reps on January 1, 2011 and still bench 185 for 10 reps on January 1, 2012, you haven't made progress.

The question that remains is whether or not you must be training to failure to grow. So many professional bodybuilders preach that if you aren't training until absolute failure then you aren't working hard enough. They say that the last rep is the the only one that matters since it's the one that pushes you the most and recruits the most muscle fibers. Well, if professional body builders say training to failure is best, then it must be true, right?

Wrong!

It makes sense that if intensity is important, there is nothing more intense than pushing your body to the point where it physically can't do another rep. However, pushing your body like this every workout can do more harm than good. Not only does repeated failure increase your body's release of catabolic hormones such as cortisol, but it puts greater stress on the CNS which can lead to longer recovery times. Longer recovery times mean that you can't train effectively as often. You may think you are ready to train but your CNS is not. This will cause your progress to stagnate which goes against the goal of making continued progress for the long term.

You may be thinking that professional bodybuilders like Branch Warren and Dorian Yates train to failure and it has worked for them. The issue here is that they are using copious amounts of drugs which significantly helps their body recover faster. If you are natural, your body can't recover at nearly the same rate.

Think About It

Manual laborers such as construction workers often develop a decent amount of muscle just by working their job. Construction workers don't dig with a shovel until they physically can't keep digging. They don't swing an axe until their arms give out yet they still develop muscle. This is evidence that failure is not a necessity for growth. Instead, they perform these activities short of failure but for extended periods of time. This shows that multiple sets short of failure produces results.

Look at it this way. Let's say that right now,you know with 100% certainty that your 10 rep max on bench press is 185 pounds. You cannot do an 11th rep. A week later, you bench 185 again. After your 10th rep, you know with 100% certainty that you can do an 11th rep. What benefit is there to doing the 11th rep if you know for a fact that you can do it? Other than just proving to yourself you can do it, there is none. You have increased your strength by being able to do that 11th rep whether you physically perform it or not. If you do that extra rep, you will fatigue yourself and the rest of your workout will suffer. Instead, you can stop a rep or two shy of failure and then bang out another few sets with the same level of intensity. Once you hit one set to failure, it's impossible to finish your work out with the same level of intensity.

Let's look at one more example similar to manual laborers. Olympic lifters have very developed physiques yet they don't train to failure because it will alter their technique. Also, a lot of Olympic lifts don't have an eccentric portion which makes it almost impossible to reach failure. Despite Olympic lifters not reaching failure, they still grow which is just another piece of evidence that failure is not necessary for growth.

So What Does This Mean?

I'm not saying training to failure is bad and shouldn't be done. I'm just saying that training to failure isn't the secret formula that it's made out to be. Training to failure can and should still be done but not every set and not necessarily every work out. It's more effective to stop 1 or 2 reps short of failure for most sets. Then, either on your last set of your exercise or last set of your entire workout, you can hit failure. If you accidentally hit failure on your first set is that a big deal? No, of course not. The key point here is that training to failure isn't bad. It produces great results. It's just not required or recommended to do all the time in order to grow. Progressive overload is the real key to success and doesn't require reaching failure to be achieved.

Cardio: A Necessary Evil

2012-03-03T15:36:00.000-05:00

Most of us enjoy weight lifting but when it comes to cardio, we begin making excuses. Cardio is boring, monotonous, and worst of all, hard. However, it is still important to do cardio and with so many possible ways to do it, there really is no excuse to avoid it.

Why Do Cardio?

The main reason to do cardio is to be healthy. Although achieving a good physique is nice, if you don't have your health, it doesn't really matter. Cardio has a vast amount of health benefits. Most importantly, it keeps your heart healthy. If health isn't enough to motivate you, there are still plenty of reasons to do cardio. Some of these include improved sleep, increased metabolism, improved recovery, improved hormone profile, and reduced stress.

Types of Cardio

There are many different types of cardio. Not every form of cardio is right for every person. You need to find a method that you can safely do and most importantly, enjoy enough to continue doing in the future. Some are more effective than others.

Low Intensity: This type of cardio is when you keep your heart rate between 30-40% of your maximum heart rate. Since the intensity is low, you can do it for a longer duration. Anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes is recommended. Whenever you see someone walking on a treadmill, this is the type of cardio they are performing. If you do choose to walk on a treadmill, do not hold onto the machine! I can't count the amount of people I see everyday who crank the incline all the way up but then hold onto the machine. Sure the calories may tally up a bit quicker but by holding on, you are canceling out the incline and getting the same workout as if you walked on no incline and didn't hold on. You can perform low intensity cardio on any piece of cardio equipment or simply go for a walk outside.

This cardio is really more beneficial for someone who hasn't done cardio for a while and isn't in very good shape. It's a good way to get your body accustomed to some type of cardio exercise before you move onto something harder. However, many non beginners and professional bodybuilders do this type of cardio as well and in my opinion, it's because they are either lazy or misinformed. A common misconception out there is that low intensity cardio burns more fat than higher intensity cardio. It is true that low intensity cardio burns a higher proportion of fat during exercise than high intensity cardio. However, over a 24 hour period, the amount of fat burned is equal between both methods. Over a longer period of several weeks, low intensity cardio burns less fat. For this reason, I would only do low intensity cardio if you physically can't do anything else due to either low energy or poor endurance or you are too lazy to do anything harder.

Moderate Intensity: This type of cardio is performed by keeping your heart rate between about 50-70% of your maximum heart rate. This is obviously more intense than low intensity cardio and therefore the duration is shorter. Anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes is recommended. Jogging would be an example of this form of cardio but you could also use any piece of cardio equipment or even swim.

Moderate intensity cardio is superior to low intensity cardio because you can burn the same amount of calories as low intensity cardio but in about half the time. Additionally, by increasing your heart rate you will be able to increase your cardio vascular endurance a lot more than you could by walking. If time or endurance isn't an issue, then you will see similar results with either method.

High Intensity: This type of cardio is performed by keeping your heart rate between 80-85% of your maximum heart rate. Due to the intensity, you should only perform it for short durations of around 5 to 20 minutes. An example would be running.

High intensity cardio is good for someone who is training for a specific goal such as trying to improve speed for a sport. It's also good for someone who doesn't have the time or patience to do cardio for an extended period of time. It is also superior to both low intensity cardio and moderate intensity cardio for increasing cardiovascular endurance and lean mass. It also causes your body to burn more fat for a longer period of time after you are done exercising which will lead to more fat loss over time.

High Intensity Interval Training(HIIT): With this type of cardio, you switch off between low intensity and high intensity intervals. Real HIIT involves sprinting. That is, you go as fast as you possibly can for 10-20 seconds and then slow down for about a minute before repeating. If you are really sprinting, you shouldn't be able to keep up the pace for more than 20 seconds. However, it is difficult to go as fast as you possibly can if you are using a machine for HIIT. If this is the case, you can go as hard as the machine will let you for 30 seconds and then slow down for 30 seconds and keep repeating. You can play around with the intervals to find out what length of high and low intensity intervals you prefer. Some options for HIIT are sprints, car pushes, jumping rope or any piece of cardio equipment at the gym.

In my opinion, HIIT is the most superior form of cardio. It has the same benefits as high intensity cardio. That is, it is better than low and moderate intensity cardio for increasing cardiovascular endurance and lean mass and it also causes your body to burn fat for a longer period of time after you are done performing cardio which leads to more fat being burned long term. The only difference between HIIT and high intensity cardio is that HIIT may be less monotonous but both produce almost identical results.

Fun Activities: Not all cardio has to fall into a specific category. If any of the above options are just too unappealing to you, then try doing something that you actually enjoy. Play a game of basketball, ride a bike, go for a hike, swim, play volley ball, walk a dog, or jump rope. Do anything that will get your heart rate going. The point is that you will be having fun while getting the benefits of cardio. If you are trying to compete in a contest or lose a substantial amount of weight, you will probably need to pair a fun activity with one of the above methods for the best results but it's still a great start.

How Often?

This is highly dependent on the type of cardio you do and your goals. Low intensity cardio can be done more often than high intensity cardio. Additionally, if your goal is to lose 2 pounds per week you should probably do cardio more often than someone who isn't trying to lose any weight. You can do cardio 7 days per week if you want to but I would recommend 4 to 6 days for either low intensity or moderate intensity and 2 to 3 days for high intensity or HIIT.

How Long?

This is also dependent on both the type of cardio you are performing and your goals. Rather than look at the length of your cardio session in terms of time, I prefer to look at it in terms of calories burned. It doesn't matter if you do 20 minutes of moderate intensity cardio or 40 minutes of low intensity cardio if your total calories burned are the same. For HIIT or high intensity cardio, I would stick with somewhere between 5 and 20 minutes.

Supplements

Although supplements aren't necessary, there are some that can help improve your endurance and preserve muscle. Any BCAA product will do. I personally have found Controlled Labs Purple Wraath to make a difference in terms of endurance. Some other supplements than can help are Scivation Xtend
and AI Sports Nutrition RecoverPro . Simply take a serving of any of these about 10-15 minutes prior to cardio for the benefits.

When to do Cardio

One of the most common misconceptions regarding cardio is that fasted cardio is more effective for burning fat. This has been proven to be incorrect. In fact, you actually burn more fat by eating before you do cardio. Ideally, cardio and weight training should be separated by hours if not a day. A perfect situation would be to do cardio in the morning and train again at night or do cardio on off days. However, for most people, this doesn't fit their schedule. The next best option would be to perform cardio after your work out since you don't want it to hinder your work out by doing it before. The only time I would do cardio before your work out is if it's very low intensity.

Cardio and Bulking

Many people use bulking as an excuse to refrain from cardio but this is a mistake. It's important to keep your heart healthy no matter what your physique goals are. If health isn't enough to motivate you, then do it because it will aid in muscle recovery, help utilize nutrients, stimulate your appetite so you can eat more, and burn fat so that you make leaner gains. It will also keep you in cardiovascular shape so that when you decide to cut at a later time, your stamina will be somewhat decent. Cardio will not hinder your progress whatsoever. It will only help. Three cardio sessions aiming to burn 300 calories per week or a couple of HIIT sessions on your off days is sufficient.

Cardio and Muscle Loss

Another misconception is that cardio causes you to burn muscle. Although it's possible that excess cardio can cause some muscle loss, it's not exactly the cardio that is the culprit. Muscle loss is a result of the rate of weight loss. That is, you are more likely to burn muscle by losing 2 pounds per week than 1 pound per week and you are more likely to burn muscle by losing 3 pounds per week than 2 pounds per week. If you are losing weight at a slow pace, it doesn't really matter how much cardio you are doing. You won't lose anymore muscle than if you lost the same amount of weight without cardio. If you are bulking or even maintaining your weight, then you are at virtually no risk of losing muscle.

Conclusion

Summing up, cardio should be done by everyone no matter what your physique goals are due to the health benefits. There are various forms of cardio including low intensity, moderate intensity, high intensity,HIIT, and fun activities. The frequency and the length of your cardio sessions depends on the type of cardio you are doing and your goals. Ideally, your cardio sessions should be separated from your weight lifting sessions but if your schedule doesn't allow it, it's best to do your cardio after your work out. Bulking is no excuse not to do cardio as it has a number of benefits even if gaining weight is your goal. Additionally, cardio doesn't really burn muscle despite common belief.

Fixing Uneven Arms

2012-02-25T17:23:00.001-05:00

Naturally, everybody has one dominant arm over the other. If you are a righty, chances are you have gone your entire life doing everything with your right hand and as a result, your right arm will be stronger and probably bigger too. The good news is that there are some ways to even them out. The bad news is that it won't happen over night. As someone who once had his right arm 1.25 inches bigger than his left and now has his left arm slightly bigger than his right, I've learned a few things over the years to solve this problem. It's best to start trying to even them out now because the more uneven they get, the longer it will take to fix.

Ditch the Barbells

You always hear that barbells are a mass builder and they should be used as much as possible. It may be true that they are excellent for building strength on power movements but they are also the number one cause of uneven arms. Barbells allow your stronger arm to take over the movement and you may not even realize it. Switch to dumbbells for all of your bicep and tricep exercises to allow each arm to be worked more evenly. For example, instead of barbell curls and skull crushers, do dumbbell curls and dumbbell skull crushers.

Work Each Arm Separately

Building on the previous tip, not all exercises are done with a barbell but that doesn't mean your arms are being worked evenly. Exercises like machine preacher curls and tricep pushdowns don't use a barbell but still work both arms at the same time which means that one arm can dominate. For these exercises, you should work each arm separately to ensure that one arm isn't doing more work.

Weaker Arm First

When working your arms separately, it's important to start with your weaker arm first. This way, you know when to stop with your stronger arm so that you get an equal work out with each arm. The whole point of working your arms separately is to ensure you get an equal work out with each arm. If you do more with your stronger arm, you are defeating the purpose.

Work Each Arm Equally

This is probably the most important tip. Some people try doing extra sets with their weaker arm or do more weight and more reps. This isn't a good idea. You should use the same weight for the same reps and same sets or else you may end up over training one side and under training the other. Go with the weight that your weak arm can handle for the desired amount of reps and just do that with your strong arm too. Over time, they will even out.

Use Weaker Arm More

This may seem weird, but try to use your weaker arm for some more everyday activities. Open doors, carry groceries, drink water, eat meals, etc. with your weaker arm. It will help you become more comfortable using your weaker arm and over time will help you become more comfortable using it in the gym which will allow for better mind muscle connection.

Other Uneven Body Parts?

Arms aren't the only body part that can be uneven. Legs, chest, and even your lats can develop unevenly. These body parts are a bit tougher to even out because the best exercises for these body parts aren't possible to do with only one side at a time. For example, squats are the best exercises for legs but you can't do them one leg at a time. Pull ups are the best exercise for lats but you cant do one armed pull ups. In situations like these, I would recommend still doing your basic exercises like squats and pull ups but after that, do only exercises where you can hit each side separately and use the above tips. For example, after you do your squats, you can do dumbbell lunges or single leg leg presses. After pull ups you can do dumbbell rows or one arm cable rows. For an uneven chest, you can follow the above tips for the most part since dumbbell bench press can replace barbell bench press for the most part.

Conclusion

Summing up, uneven arms are a problem that a lot of people have and they can be evened out with time and patience. You should switch from barbells to dumbbells, work each arm separately, start with your weaker arm first, work each arm equally, and try using your weaker arm for some more everyday tasks. These tips can be applied to other uneven body parts too but it is a bit tougher since you don't want to skip out on the best exercises just to try to even out a body part.

Intermittent Fasting

2012-02-18T12:42:00.000-05:00

The main obstacle for the majority of people trying to reach their fitness goals is finding a diet plan that works for them. It's often very difficult to find a diet plan that fits both a person's lifestyle as well as their eating preferences. I already discussed one diet principle called If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM) discussed here. Now, I'm going to discuss another diet that has been gaining a lot of popularity called intermittent fasting.

What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting isn't exactly a diet. It's more of a different way of eating. The way it works is you go a certain length of time without eating(fasting) and it is followed by a window of time where you consume all of your food for the day. The length of the fast as well as the frequency of the fast varies depending on which intermittent fasting plan you choose to follow.

Proposed Benefits

Studies have shown that intermittent fasting can:

-Reduce blood glucose and insulin
-Preserve muscle
-Decrease body fat
-Lower inflammation
-Lower blood pressure
-Reduce oxidative stress
-Increase protection against neuro-degenerative diseases
-Increase alertness
-Increase fatty acid oxidation
-Keep metabolism strong

Despite these possible benefits, my personal opinion is that none of these should be your main motive for choosing to follow intermittent fasting. The real benefit is the freedom it allows you with your eating. Rather than be focused on eating every few hours, you can completely forget about food for a large portion of the day. You can be more productive with your time by not wasting it preparing meals multiple times per day. It also allows more freedom when you go out for dinner with your friends and family because you have a greater amount of calories saved up.

Options

The is no one way to practice intermittent fasting. You can fast for as little as 16 hours or as much as 24 hours. You can fast everyday or you can do it only a couple of days per week. An important thing to keep in mind when reading about intermittent fasting is that not everyone following it weight trains. There are a lot of people who use it to lose weight and don't even work out. A person who lifts weights shouldn't follow the same method as someone who doesn't. I will go over a few different intermittent fasting options below but there is only one that I would actually do as a weight lifter.

24 Hour Fasts: This method is more geared for people trying to lose weight who don't necessarily participate in weight training. The fast is 24 hours followed by a very short feeding window where you eat just one meal. For example, you would eat your dinner at 7 pm and then not eat again until 7 pm the next day. This is better for people who don't weight train and have a slower metabolism. Their total calories for the day may only be around 1,600 which is very doable in one meal. I wouldn't recommend this for people who work out because with only one meal per day, you either have to train fasted or not have a post workout meal. Neither is optimal.

Every Other Day: With this method, you don't fast every day. It's similar to the 24 hour fast except you only do it a few days per week. For example, on Monday you could follow intermittent fasting and eat just one meal at 7 pm. On Tuesday you would eat normally and then on Wednesday you would fast again and only eat one meal at 7 pm. This is a slightly better option for weight lifters because you could set it up so that your fasts are on off days and your normal days are on training days. This will allow you to have pre and post workout nutrition on training days but reap some of the benefits of intermittent fasting on your off days.

Leangains Method (Reccomended): As a weight lifter, this is the option I would strongly reccomend if you choose to follow intermittent fasting. This is because it is the only method that structures your meals in a way to provide proper pre and post workout nutrition.

This option calls for a 16 hour fast and an 8 hour feeding window. In those 8 hours, you would typically have 3 meals which includes a pre workout meal, a post workout meal, and another meal after that. The largest meal of the day is your post workout meal.

Ideally, you should fast during the night when you are sleeping and continue your fast through the morning and break it in the early afternoon. This is because for most people, it's easier to skip eating in the morning when you aren't that hungry anyway and it allows you to go to bed full. By having your feeding later in the day, it gives you something to look forward to. It also allows your eating schedule to line up easily if you choose to go out for dinner. If you have your feeding early in the day, now you are fasting at night which blocks you from being able to enjoy a meal with friends and family. Keep that in mind if you choose to have your feeding early in the day.

There are a few options you have with the leangains method. You can have one pre workout meal, two pre workout meals, or train with no meals and only BCAAs. Here is a sample of each one.

One Pre Workout Meal: If you have a flexible working schedule, this method is the way to go. It allows you to train in the afternoon and fast in the morning.

12-1 PM: Pre-workout meal consisting of 20-25% of daily total calorie intake.
3-4 PM: Training
4-5 PM: Post-workout meal (largest meal).
8-9 PM: Last meal before the fast begins

Two Pre Workout Meals: This is a more appropriate method if you work a 9-5 job and can't eat your largest meal during the day and can't train in the afternoon.

12-1 PM: Pre workout meal one consisting of 20-25% of daily total calorie intake.
4-5 PM: Pre-workout meal two roughly equal to the first meal.
7-8 PM: Training
8-9 PM: Post-workout meal (largest meal).

Fasted (not recommended by me): This is for people who train very early in the morning but don't want their feeding to be too early in the day. You train only on BCAAs which still counts as part of your fast. Your feeding doesn't begin until you have your post workout meal. In my opinion, your training will suffer if you do this as well as your recovery. I wouldn't follow intermittent fasting if this is the only method that fits your schedule.

6 AM: 10 grams BCAAs
6-7 AM: Training.
8 AM: 10 grams BCAAs
10 AM: 10 grams BCAAs
12-1 PM: Post workout meal (largest meal of the day) begins 8 hour feeding window
8-9 PM: Last meal before the fast.

Here are a few key points to keep in mind if you choose to follow any of the leangains methods.

1) Hit Your Macros: Intermittent fasting doesn't mean you no longer have to hit specific macro nutrient goals. Your macros should be the same whether you follow this type of diet or not. Ideally, you should have most of your carbs pre and post workout and your last meal should have less.

2) Off Days: On days you don't train, your first meal of the day should be your largest meal rather than your second. As with any diet, it's usually a good idea to lower carbohydrates on your off days and raise fats a bit.

3) Diet Soda, Coffee, Sugar Free Gum: You are allowed to drink zero calorie drinks as well as chew sugar free gum during your fast.

4) Meal Frequency Doesn't Matter: Remember, the main benefit of this type of diet is the freedom it allows you with your eating. Although people generally eat three meals, you don't have to if you don't want to. The above samples are just examples. You can adjust the times and amount of meals however you would like.

5) Don't Drastically Alter Your Fasting and Feeding Windows: Your fasting and feeding windows should remain constant everyday . You can change it by a couple of hours but you shouldn't drastically switch it on a daily basis. The only exception would be if you get a new job or something comes up where you need to completely change your schedule. If that happens, change your fasting and feeding windows and then consistently follow it.

Best To Use When Bulking or Cutting?

Intermittent fasting can be used for both bulking and cutting but it is primarily geared for people who are trying to lose weight or maintain their weight. This is because when you are cutting, your calories are restricted which makes it a lot easier to eat all of your food in a smaller amount of time. It's also nice to eat larger meals that are satisfying rather than eat several small meals that don't fill you up. If you are bulking, it may be easier to spread your calories throughout the day. However, if eating all your calories in a smaller window is not an issue, go ahead and use intermittent fasting.

Conclusion

Intermittent fasting is a different approach to eating that some people may find easier to follow than the more traditional ways of eating. There are various health benefits associated with it but the main benefit is the freedom it allows you with your eating schedule. Although there are many possible methods of intermittent fasting, the leangains method is the only one that I would recommend for a weight lifter as it provides proper pre and post workout nutrition. It's important to remember that any of these methods can be tweaked to fit your schedule. You can fast 16 hours, 13 hours, 18 hours, 20 hours or whatever you choose. The whole point is that you are now free to eat without worrying about a meal schedule. If you are uncomfortably trying to fit one of these into your schedule then it is defeating the purpose.

Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar

2012-02-11T16:33:00.001-05:00

When it comes to supplements, the truth is that most are useless. Outside of a select few basics mentioned in my previous article Should I Take Nutritional Supplements?, most supplements not only fail to live up to their claims, but they are very expensive as well. A supplement that has been getting a lot of recognition as of late is Apple Cider Vinegar. Not only has it been living up to it's claims for me, but it's dirt cheap. Amazon has it here for only $2.40.

What is Apple Cider Vinegar?

All vinegar is a product of fermentation. Fermentation is a process where the sugars in a food are broken down by bacteria and yeast. After the first stage of fermentation, the sugars turn into alcohol and as it ferments further, it turns into vinegar. Apple cider vinegar is a product of pulverized apples. The main ingredient of apple cider vinegar is acetic acid. However, it also has other acids, vitamins, mineral salts, and amino acids.

Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar

There are many benefits of apple cider vinegar but for the purposes of this article, I will focus on only those related to helping you improve your physique and appearance.

Thermogenic Fat Burner: The majority of over the counter fat burners are theromogenics. Thermogenic fat burners work by increasing stimulation to the central nervous system. They raise the body’s heat levels which causes an increase in the amount of calories and fat that the body burns off. Apple cider vinegar is a thermogenic fat burner and can therefore help you lose weight.

Appetite Suppressant: When eating a restricted calorie diet, it's highly likely that you will be hungry all the time. This may cause you to cheat. If you aren't hungry, then there is a much better chance that you will stick to your diet. Apple cider vinegar can help you do just that by helping to suppress your appetite. Apple cider vinegar has a water soluble fiber called pectin. It is believed that pectin absorbs water and fills the stomach. As a result, you will feel more full.

Treat Acne and Improve Skin: Apple cider vinegar can be used both topically and orally to treat acne. This is the reason I began using it and it definitely helped. Although I have never used it topically, I have been using it orally with great success. After just a few weeks, my skin was less oily, smoother, and most importantly, had no pimples. I still get the occasional pimple but apple cider vinegar has definitely improved my skin tremendously. You can also put apple cider vinegar directly onto pimples to help them go away faster.

Reduces Water Retention: Even if you are lean, you may look a bit smooth if your diet is high in sodium. Apple cider vinegar has potassium in it which is responsible for balancing the sodium in your body. By balancing your sodium, you will reduce the amount of water your body retains and appear leaner. Additionally, a proper balance of sodium and potassium is necessary for normal functioning of both nervous and muscular systems.

Improved Digestion: Apple cider vinegar can help improve digestion especially in metabolizing proteins. It enhances the action of hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes. As a result, it can help relieve bloating and gas known as "protein farts." It also acts as a detoxifier meaning that it clears the body of any toxins.

Various Health Benefits In addition to these benefits, apple cider vinegar can used to treat allergies, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart burn, sore throat, gout, the flu, fatigue and arthritis. It can help with almost anything.

Dosing

The dosing for apple cider vinegar is not set in stone and the recommendations vary. Personally, I take 2 table spoons 3 times per day with meals. If you are using it for the thermogenic affect, I would shoot for a total of 6-9 table spoons per day. If you are just looking to use it as a general health supplement, then 3-6 table spoons per day should suffice.

Tips on Taking Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple cider vinegar has a strong taste and smell and is very acidic. You aren't going to actually enjoy drinking it. It's best to dilute it in some water rather than drinking it straight due to the acidity. You may also want to use a straw to avoid having it touch your teeth since it can temporarily weaken your enamel. It's best not to brush your teeth directly after using it since your enamel is weaker after the apple cider vinegar touches your teeth. If you can't handle the taste even diluted in water, you can try mixing it with some honey and sugar to make it taste better. You can also mix it in a drink other than water to neutralize the taste. If even after doing all this you still can't manage to drink it but would still like to reap the benefits, the good news is you can buy it herein capsules.

Conclusion

Basically, apple cider vinegar is a great supplement for overall health but has specific benefits for people trying to improve their physique and appearance. It can be used to help you lose weight by acting as both a fat burner and appetite suppressant. It can help improve your skin and get rid of acne, reduce water retention and ensure proper nervous and muscular system function, and improve digestion. Outside of bodybuilding benefits, there are a tremendous other possible benefits as well. For the price, there is no reason not to try it. Get it at Amazon today.

Should I Cut or Should I Bulk?

2012-02-04T18:21:00.000-05:00

The most popular question among weight lifters is "Should I bulk or should I cut?" This question is posted on bodybuilding forums daily due to the fact that the person asking the question never gets a clear cut answer. Unfortunately, that's because there is no clear cut answer as to whether you should bulk or cut. The answer is highly individual and is determined by your goals, lifting experience, and level of patience and comfort.

Goals

The most important factor in deciding whether you should bulk or cut is what your goals are. If you are going for a lean and athletic look then it doesn't make much sense to bulk. If you are training to get bigger and stronger for a sport then it doesn't make sense to cut. No one can tell you what your goals are so it doesn't help much to ask a stranger what you should do.

What if My Goal is to Get Big AND Lean?

The problem is that often times your goal will require both a bulk and a cut and you aren't sure which one to do first. This is the case with most people and if this is your case, there are some guidelines to follow to help you decide.

Lifting Experience:

This is the main factor in determining whether you should bulk or cut. A complete beginner can add muscle at a much faster rate than an intermediate or advanced lifter. For this reason, if you are a beginner, 9 times out of 10 the answer to whether you should cut or bulk is bulk. The only exception would be if you are significantly over weight (over 20% body fat). If you are over weight, you should cut.

Beginners: As a beginner, even if you would like to be leaner, the best approach is to bulk first. Your body is primed to add muscle and you can add as much as 30 pounds of muscle in your first year. Take advantage of this opportunity and try to put on muscle. As long as you are under 20% body fat, you should bulk. As tempting as it may be to cut down to look good at the beach during the summer, try to resist. You won't have very much muscle anyway so look at this as an an investment of your time so that you can look great at the beach next year.

Intermediates: At this level you should have built a solid foundation. I consider an intermediate lifter someone who has been lifting anywhere from 2 to 10 years. It has more to do with the amount of development your physique has and not so much how long you have been working out. You won't be able to add muscle as quickly as if you were a beginner so this is where you should follow what I call the 12% rule. This rule says that if you are below 12% body fat you should bulk and if you are above 12% you should cut. Assuming your goal is to be bigger, there is not much of a point in cutting if you are under 12% since when you bulk in the near future you will most likely wind up right back at 12%. It's just wasted time. If you would like to be bigger but are above 12%, it would be a good idea to cut a bit to get down to the 12% mark before you continue bulking. This is because your hormones are at a more optimal level at the 12%-15% body fat level and also because if you are already fat at the beginning of your bulk, by the end you will look pretty sloppy. This doesn't mean that once you get above 12% you should cut back to 12%. It's just a starting point. At no point should you need to get above 15% body fat though. If you do, it would be a good idea to cut back down a bit before you continue.

Advanced: At the advanced level, you have been working out for a significant amount of time and have built a pretty impressive physique. You don't really need to bulk or cut at this point. You are in more of a maintenance and fine tuning mode. You already have the majority of the muscle you will ever have if you stay natural. All you need to do is make minor adjustments to attain your goal physique. If you would like to be 8% body fat all the time, then cut to 8% and maintain. If you like being around the 10% mark then you can stay there. If you think you look and feel best at 12%, then maintain there. No one else can tell you what your goal physique is.

Patience and Comfort

An overlooked factor as to whether you should bulk or cut is your level of patience and comfort. Sometimes the most efficient path to your desired physique isn't the most pleasant. For example, let's say you are 150 pounds and your ultimate goal is to be 200 pounds. That goal can take more than five years and the best approach would most likely be to bulk slowly for five years until you have enough muscle and then finally cut down. However, five years is a long time to bulk. During that time you may want to see how you look shredded even if you aren't quite at your ultimate goal yet. That's completely fine but it will obviously extend the length of time it will take you to reach your goal physique. Therefore, the more patient you are, the less bumps in the road there will be and the quicker you can reach your ultimate goal. Ultimately, you should never do anything you are uncomfortable with. Don't gain too much weight because someone else thinks you should. Even though it might be the best approach in the long run, you still need to weigh the short term effects as well.

Conclusion

Summing up, whether you should bulk or cut is highly individual. It is determined by your goals as well as lifting experience and level of patience and comfort. In most cases, a beginner should be bulking. An intermediate lifter should base the decision of whether to cut or bulk on the 12% rule. That is, bulk if you are below 12% body fat and cut if you are above. Even with these guidelines, nothing is set in stone and there are always exceptions. Ultimately, you need to decide what you are comfortable with even if it goes against what this article or anybody else says.

If you need help deciding whether you should bulk or cut, like Pfau Fitness on Facebook and send me a message. In your message, tell me your goals, how long you have been lifting, and provide some recent pictures and I can help you decide.

Training When Sick: Alright or a Bad Idea?

2012-01-29T10:15:00.001-05:00

It's that time of the year. Winter is upon us and everywhere you look is a person sneezing and coughing. We try our hardest to avoid these people to prevent ourselves from getting sick but sometimes it's just inevitable. After weeks of avoiding the germs, you finally come down with something. Now what? Should you still train?

General Guidelines

First off, if you are contagious and train at a public gym, you shouldn't train while you are sick out of respect to the other members. Gyms are already a germ infested environment. Spreading more germs around isn't helpful or considerate to the other members.

If you are not contagious, then there is a chance that you can still train. If your illness is above the neck such as a cold, you are free to train. It may be annoying to work out with a cough and runny nose but you are safe in doing so. If you have something below the neck that affects your chest like pneumonia, it is not safe to train and can actually be dangerous. I'm speaking from personal experience here. A couple of years ago I had pneumonia and attempted to come back to the gym sooner than I should have. I did a set of deadlifts and couldn't catch my breath after. I got light headed and it took me a few hours to feel normal again. Learn from my mistake and stay away from the gym with any sickness below the neck.

Just a Cold: How to Approach

If you just have a cold, the good news is that you can train. In fact, research has even shown that training while sick can help you get better faster. Exercise has been proven to strengthen your immune system to a certain degree. A person who does no exercise will generally have a weaker immune system than someone who exercises regularly. However, people who train excessively tend to harm their immune system.

What this means is that you should decrease the intensity if you decide to train while sick. You should avoid failure on all exercises and try to keep the duration of the work out under an hour. If you do cardio, avoid anything high intensity such as HIIT. Stick with low to moderate intensity cardio for no more than a half hour. If you do this, you will probably recover from your cold a little quicker. If you are someone with the mentality that you must go all out every time you are in the gym, then you are probably better off just taking the week off and waiting until you fully recover to avoid making it worse.

Preventing Future Illness

No one is immune to sickness so no matter what you do, you will get sick again in the future. All we can do is minimize the risk of getting sick again by taking a few precautions.

1) Get Enough Sleep: Getting enough sleep is essential for your immune system. Without enough rest, your body won't be running optimally and you will be more exposed to sickness.

2) Wash Your Hands: You have been hearing this since you were a kid and probably still don't always do it. Everything you touch has germs. Think about where your cell phone has been and how many times a day you touch it. Think about how many times a day you go to the bathroom, how many people's hands you shake, pumping gas, etc. Your hands are dirtier than you realize and if you touch your face after, you are just asking to get sick.

3) Get Your Flu Shot: There is no reason to risk getting the flu when a simple shot can prevent it. It won't prevent other illnesses but the flu is pretty intense. If you can eliminate the chance of getting it, you should do it.

4) Supplements: There are certain supplements that if taken regularly, can help strengthen your immune system. These include both vitamin C and vitamin D3. These won't really do anything if you are already sick so it's best to take these year round for the benefits. NOW Foods Vitamin C and NOW Foods Vitamin D-3. is what I use.

Conclusion

To sum everything up, if you are contagious you should stay out of the gym out of respect to the other members. If you are not contagious, then you can train if you have a sickness above the neck like a cold but you shouldn't train with something below the neck like pneumonia because it can be dangerous. If your sickness is indeed above the neck, then training can actually help you get better a little faster. However, that is only if you back off the intensity since going too hard can just hurt your immune system and make it worse. To help prevent future illness, you should get enough sleep, wash your hands regularly, get a flu shot, and take both vitamin C and vitamin D3.

5/3/1: Simple Routine For Size and Strength

2012-01-21T17:20:00.003-05:00

Just like any weight lifter, I'm always on the lookout for next best routine. When I look for a new routine, not only do I want one that will give me solid results in both size and strength but I also want to enjoy the work outs as well as fit them into my schedule conveniently. 5/3/1 meets all of these requirements and it is probably the reason it has gotten so popular lately.

Overview of 5/3/1

If you are used to doing a lot of volume, 5/3/1, created by Jim Wendler, will be a bit of a shock. This routine is centered around the big 4 exercises. These include the squat, bench press, military press, and deadlift. After those exercises, you perform a few accessory exercises. You work out 4 days per week and each work out starts with one of the big 4 exercises. You do 3 sets per exercise and the reps and weight varies depending on which week you are on. The overall principles are to start out light, progress slowly, focus on compound exercises, and break personal records every work out.

Program Layout

Like I already said, you will work out 4 days per week and each work out will start off with one of the big 4 exercises. The order of work outs should be deadlift day followed by bench day, squat day, and military press day. It doesn't matter which day you start your cycle with but the order should be the same. For example, you can start your week off with military press day and then follow it with deadlift day, bench day, and squat day. Each workout cycle lasts 4 weeks. On week 1 you do 3 sets of 5 reps for all of the main exercises. On week 2 you do 3 sets of 3 reps and on week 3 you do 1 set of 5 reps, 1 set of 3 reps, and 1 set of 1 rep. However, on the last set of each exercise you are supposed to go all out. Even though the routine says you should be doing a certain amount of reps, that only applies to the first two sets. For example, on week 1, you are supposed to do 3 sets of 5 reps but on your third set if you feel like you can do more, keep going until you can't perform another rep. The fourth week is a deload week and you do 3 sets of 5 reps on all 3 sets. Don't go all out on your last set.

To determine the weights you will be using for the big 4 exercises, you need to know your 1 rep max. If you don't know it exactly, just use an estimate or test it out before you begin the program. Do not set your max too high or else you will be defeating the purpose of the routine. Once you have your max, take 90% of that and use that new number as your max. Remember, starting out light is a key aspect of this program.

You will then take your 1 rep max (which is really 90% of your true 1 rep max) and use that number to derive the appropriate weights for each work out. The percentages for each week are as follows:

Week 1: First set is 65% of your 1 rep max, second set is 75%, third set is 85%. For example, if your max for bench press is 225 pounds, you first will take 90% of that which is 203 pounds. Then, you will take 65%, 75%, and 85% of 203 which is 132, 152 and 173 respectively. Since it's week 1, you will do those weights for 5 reps on the first two sets and at least 5 reps on your last set.

Week 2: First set is 70% of your 1 rep max, second set is 80%, third set is 90%. Using the same example as above, if your max for bench press is 225, you will be using 203 as your max. 70%, 80%, and 90% of 203 is 142, 162, and 183 respectively. Since it's week 2, you will do those weights for 3 reps on your first 2 sets and 3 or more reps on your final set.

Week 3: First set is 75% of your 1 rep max, second set is 85%, third set is 95%. Going back to the same bench press example above, if your max for bench press is 225, you will base the numbers off 203. 75%, 85%, and 95% of 203 is 152, 173, and 193 respectively. Since it's week 3, you will do 203 for 5 reps, 152 for 3 reps, and 193 for at least 1 rep but you will do as many as you can do.

Week 4: First set is 40% of your 1 rep max, second set is 50%, third set is 60%. Using the 225 pound bench press example, you will still be using 203 as your max. 40%, 50%, and 60% of 203 is 81, 102, and 122 respectively. Since it's week 4 which is your deload week, you will do 5 reps for all 3 sets. These weights will feel extremely light and the work out will almost feel like a waste. It's supposed to feel that way and it's an important part to ensure you continue progressing.

Progression

At the end of the 4 week cycle, you will add 10 pounds to your max for your lower body lifts (squat and deadlift) and 5 pounds to your max for your upper body lifts (bench press and military press). Keep in mind that you are adding this to the number you have been using for your max which is actually 90% of your true max. Going back to the 225 max bench press example, since you have been using 203 as your max, you will now use 208 pounds and perform the same calculations we did above using that new number.

Since you are beginning the routine by basing your numbers off of 90% of what your true max is, you should be able to get significantly more reps than the prescribed number for your final set for your first few cycles. You may be tempted to bump up your maxes quicker to "catch up" but you shouldn't do that. The key is to progress slowly. Leave your ego at the door.

Assistance Exercises

Assistance exercises are the exercises you will do after your perform your big 4 exercise for that particular work out. The goal of assistance exercises is to strengthen weak areas of the body, help increase the big 4 lifts, provide balance and symmetry to both your body and training, and help build muscle mass.

A common question people bring up is whether they should deload the assistance exercises on the deload week. The answer is yes. The purpose of a deload week is to take a step back let your body recover. If you push hard on the assistance exercises but deload the big 4 exercises, you are defeating the purpose.

As far as which exercises to do, you should choose compound movements. These include exercises such as dips, pull ups, push ups, dumbbell rows, barbell rows, t-bar rows, dumbbell bench press, incline dumbbell press, dumbbell shoulder press, barbell incline press, lunges, hack squats, leg press, good mornings, glute ham raises, sit ups and leg raises.

There are several options you can follow as far as the lay out of your assistance work.

Option 1: Boring But Big

In this option, after you do your big 4 exercise, you stick with that exercise for another 5 sets of 10 reps. It would look something like this:

Bench Day:

Bench Press: 5/3/1
Bench Press: 5 sets of 10 reps
Barbell Rows: 5 sets of 10 reps

Squat Day:

Squats: 5/3/1
Squats: 5 sets of 10 reps
Stiff Leg Deadlifts: 5 sets of 10 reps

Military Press Day:

Military Press: 5/3/1
Military Press: 5 sets of 10 reps
Pull ups: 5 sets of 10 reps

Deadlift Day:

Deadlifts: 5/3/1
Deadlifts: 5 sets of 10 reps
Hanging Leg Raises: 5 sets of 15 reps

Option 2: The Triumverate

In this option, you do a total of 3 exercises including the big 4 movement. You should be smart with your exercise selection to make sure you hit everything equally. It would look something like this:

Bench Day:

Bench Press: 5/3/1
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 5 sets of 10 reps
Barbell Rows: 5 sets of 10 reps

Squat Day:

Squats: 5/3/1
Leg Press: 5 sets of 10 reps
Stiff Leg Deadlifts: 5 sets of 10 reps

Military Press Day:

Military Press: 5/3/1
Dips: 5 sets of 10 reps
Pull ups: 5 sets of 10 reps

Deadlift Day:

Deadlifts: 5/3/1
Good Mornings: 5 sets of 10 reps
Hanging Leg Raises: 5 sets of 15 reps

Option 3: Lazy Man

With this option, all you do is the big 4 exercise and then leave the gym. There is no accessory work. I wouldn't recommend this but if you are crunched for time, it's not the worst way to train.

Option 4: Periodization Bible by Dave Tate

This is my favorite option. With this method, you choose 2-4 assistance exercises depending on the day. Although the program doesn't involve any bicep or calf work, I added some in. It looks like this:

Bench Day:

Bench Press: 5/3/1
Barbell Rows: 5 sets of 10 reps
Incline Dummbell Press: 5 sets of 10 reps
Barbell Curls: 3 sets of 10 reps
Skull Crushers: 3 sets of 10 reps

Squat Day:

Squats: 5/3/1
Stiff Leg Deadlifts: 5 sets of 10 reps
Leg Press: 5 sets of 10 reps
Seated Calf Raises: 5 sets of 10-12 reps

Military Press Day:

Military Press: 5/3/1
Seated Dumbbell Press: 5 sets of 10 reps
Pull ups: 5 sets of 10 reps
Dips: 5 sets of 10 reps
Hammer Curls: 3 sets of 10 reps
Tricep Pushdowns: 3 sets of 10 reps

Deadlift Day:

Deadlifts: 5/3/1
Hack Squats: 5 sets of 10 reps
Standing Calf Raises: 5 sets of 10-12 reps
Hanging Leg Raises: 5 sets of 15 reps

Option 5: Bodyweight

With this option, you just do body weight exercises. This option is good for someone trying to remain athletic while increasing strength. The set up would look something like this:

Bench Day:

Bench Press: 5/3/1
Push Ups: 100 total reps
Pull Ups: 75-100 total reps

Squat Day:

Squats: 5/3/1
Body Weight Lunges: 100 total reps
Sit Ups: 100-200 total reps

Military Press Day:

Military Press: 5/3/1
Pull ups:75-100 total reps
Dips: 100 total reps

Deadlift Day:

Deadlifts: 5/3/1
Glute Ham Raises: 50 total reps
Hanging Leg Raises: 100 total reps

Final Thoughts

Overall, I really like the simplicity of this routine. It's very easy to fit into your schedule and I have made strength gains every work out. It can be a great routine for both size and strength with all of the assistance work variations available. The deload every 4 weeks seems a bit excessive but it really helps keep you motivated. Just knowing that after 3 weeks of hard lifting you will need to back off makes you push that much harder for those 3 weeks to get the most out of it.

To purchase the complete book written by Jim Wendler himself, check it out on Amazon.

Deloads and Weeks Off

2012-01-14T15:34:00.000-05:00

A topic that brings a lot of controversy is whether or not taking time off from the gym is helpful or not. Opinions range from the viewpoint that you should never take any time off no matter what to taking a week off every 8-12 weeks is optimal. I believe the best approach is using a combination of scheduled deloads and periodic weeks off.

Deloading

Most weight lifters have heard of deloads before but are uninformed on how to properly do them. A deload is basically a one week period to give your body a break. During this period, you reduce your training volume and intensity. A deload is critical for lifters to prevent themselves from burning out and to continually make progress long term.

There is no set in stone way to perform a deload. The layout is entirely up to you. You just need to make sure that you are backing off from what you usually do. My recomondation is to do 60% of the weights you did the previous week for the same amount of reps. For example, if you squatted 225 for 8 reps the previous week, do 135 for the same amount of sets of 8 reps. Do this for every exercise for each of your work outs for one week. You are going to feel like it is a waste of a work out and you may even be embarrassed by lifting such light weights. You need to accept the fact that this is a necessary step to continually make progress moving forward.

When to Deload

Recommendations on when to deload vary. Some people say you should take one every month whereas some say every 2-3 months and others say do it when you feel you need one. I believe every 8 weeks is a good amount of time. It's a bad idea to wait until you think you need one because by then it's usually too late. The point of a deload is to prevent yourself from burning out. If you wait until you feel you need it, then you are already burnt out and a one week deload might not be enough. It's better to force yourself to take them sooner rather than later. It might feel like a waste of time but the truth is that your muscles and strength won't disappear from lifting lighter for one week. In fact, just the opposite may happen and you will set yourself up to make better gains long term.

Week Off

Unlike a deload, a week off is a one week period where you don't step foot inside the gym. However, the purpose of a week off is the same as a deload. That is, it's a period of time to give your body a break in order to prevent your body from getting burnt out and to enable yourself to continue making progress in the future. A week off is a mental break as well. Whereas during a deload you are still in the gym, a week off is a good time to think about something else for a change.

How Often to Take a Week Off

If you are properly deloading often enough then you shouldn't need to take too many weeks off. I would take two full weeks off per year roughly six months apart from each other. The week off should replace your deload week for that cycle so you wouldn't be doing both. Try to schedule the week off during a time when it would be difficult to work out anyway. During vacations or during finals would be a good time.

Conclusion

Basically, all weight lifters should deload as well as take complete weeks off from the gym. You may feel like this is a waste of time but it's not. One week of light work outs is not going to cause you to lose muscle and your body will appreciate the break. Your body isn't meant to train hardcore day in and day out for years. The intense lifting will catch up to you eventually if you don't take preventive measure to protect yourself. It's much better to take little breaks along the way than be forced to take an extended break when something bad happens in the future. After all, we are in this for the long haul.

To Cheat or Not to Cheat?

2012-01-09T09:58:00.002-05:00

One of the most common questions I get is "is it okay if I have a cheat meal?" The answer to this question depends on several factors. A cheat meal actually can be beneficial in the right circumstances. However, it is up to the individual to determine if a cheat meal will indeed be beneficial and if it is, how to properly implement it to obtain the benefits.

The approach to a cheat meal is different whether you are bulking or cutting so I will discuss the approach in each scenario.

Cutting

Due to the restricted calories when cutting, your body will not be able to run optimally for the duration of your cut. What I mean by this is that as you are following a continued caloric deficit, your metabolism will slow down, your muscles will become depleted of glycogen, and your hormones will not be at optimal levels. All of these factors can lead to strength loss and a lethargic feeling.

A cheat meal can actually help combat all of these problems. Some signs that you could use a cheat meal include:

- Continued bad workouts
- Feeling cold more often
- Fat loss has stalled despite dropping calories and increasing cardio
- Feeling irritable
- Lack of motivation

You need to be honest with yourself. If you are experiencing at least two of these signs, then you can have a cheat meal. If you convince yourself that you are experiencing these signs just because you want to cheat, then you will just be hurting your own progress.

A cheat meal that is high in carbohydrates can temporarily boost your metabolism, replenish glycogen stores, and increase the fat burning hormones such as leptin. Despite taking in more calories than normal, you can still lose weight due to your metabolism speeding up from those extra calories. Your metabolism will then be elevated for the next couple of days which should help you continue to lose weight. On top of that, the extra calories will provide you with extra energy which should enable you to have more intensity during your work outs.

Implementation

The cheat meal is not just a meal where you eat whatever you want. You should plan what you will be eating in advance to ensure that the cheat meal is accomplishing what it is supposed to be accomplishing. The meal should be high in carbohydrates, low in protein, and moderate in fat. The reason carbohydrates should be high is because they have the largest effect on metabolic rate and are responsible for replenishing your muscle glycogen. The meal should be approximately 500 calories higher than the meal you would normally eat.

You should have your cheat meal the day before you train your weakest body part. This way, you make sure you have the most energy to train that body part and you have extra nutrients for that body part to repair itself. I also suggest replacing your last meal of the day with the cheat meal. The reason is to control temptation. If you cheat early in the day, you are much more likely to continue cheating throughout the day.

In most situations, you should only have one cheat meal every 2 weeks. I wouldn't go on a set schedule though. Once you begin experiencing the signs of needing a cheat meal, you should begin planning it. Just don't have more than 1 per week. Cutting is supposed to be hard. Some suffering is expected. If you are noticing that you aren't feeling any better the day after your cheat meal, try bumping up the extra calories in the meal from 500 to 750 or even 1,000.

Bulking

When bulking, cheat meals don't have any physical benefits. Your body is in a calorie surplus already so a cheat doesn't stimulate your metabolism any further. That doesn't mean you shouldn't have cheat meals though. Although a cheat may not have any physical benefits, it can have great mental benefits. Restricting yourself day in and day out can take a huge mental toll on you. The restrictions may even lead you to snap eventually and cause you to binge. It's better to have an occasional controlled cheat meal than an uncontrolled binge.

Implementation

A controlled cheat meal once per week is perfectly acceptable. The key word here is controlled. If you eat significantly more calories than usual, you can do a decent amount of damage in only one sitting. I would try to plan the meal in advance so you know what you will be eating. Otherwise, the meal may turn into a binge. The meal should replace one of your regular meals. I would try to replace your last meal with the cheat meal because if you cheat earlier in the day, you will be more tempted to continue cheating for the rest of the day. As a general rule, I wouldn't go higher than an 500 calories over your usual allotted calories for the day in your cheat meal. The extra calories can come from any macros you want because unlike cutting, this meal is just to satisfy your cravings. It isn't going to provide any physical benefits.

Although I wouldn't cheat more than once per week, on a bulk you can afford to cheat more than that. Your muscle gains will be the same. You will just pack on more fat with it. If you are mentally strong, you can cheat much more infrequently. As an alternative to a cheat meal, you can try fitting a food that you crave into your macros for the day. This way, it isn't really a cheat meal but you will satisfy a craving anyway.

Conclusion

A cheat meal can be beneficial both when cutting and bulking. When cutting, those benefits are physical and mental whereas when bulking the benefits are just mental. In both situations, I would recommend planning the cheat in advance and replacing your last meal of the day with the cheat to ensure you don't end up cheating for the whole day. A cheat meal can be a useful tool but be careful not to abuse it.

Transition Between Bulking and Cutting

2012-01-02T18:42:00.002-05:00

Hopefully by now you are an expert on both bulking and cutting. You are well on your way to knowing exactly how to maximize your muscular gains and getting into the best shape of your life. There is is just one more aspect that we need to cover. How do we transition from a bulk to a cut and from a cut to a bulk?

From Bulking to Cutting

At the beginning of a cut, it's very common to get anxious and want to see progress at a faster rate than what is possible. People have a tendency to drop calories drastically and do a lot of cardio from day one in hopes of shedding off the fat as quickly as possible. This is a huge mistake. Although it's understandable that you want your abs to show sooner rather than later, cutting calories too quickly and doing too much cardio can make your cut miserable. By making such a drastic change, your metabolism will take a huge it and slow down. Now that your metabolism has slowed, the amount of calories you are eating is the new amount that your body needs in order to keep losing weight whereas it would have been higher if you didn't make such a drastic change. A similar thing happens with cardio. Your body may get used to the amount of cardio and now needs that amount in order to continue to make progress. The problem now is that you don't have much room to make adjustments when you stall.

The correct approach is to bring calories down slowly and start off with just a little bit of cardio. You may not even want to lose any weight for the first two weeks. First, just bring calories down to maintenance for a couple of weeks. After that, drop calories by another 200-250 per day and add in 2-3 days of cardio. Worst case scenario is you don't lose any weight. If that happens, you just need to drop calories a bit more and do a little more cardio. It's not a big deal. The opposite situation would be that you start off dropping calories by 1,000 and doing cardio 5-7 days per week. Now, if you stall, you don't really have much room to adjust any further. You are already eating very little and doing a lot of cardio. If you lower your calories further or do more cardio, you risk harming your metabolism and burning yourself out. You will then need to bring your calories back up in order to repair your metabolism just so you can start cutting again in the future. Lower your calories slowly and introduce cardio little by little to ensure your cut goes smoothly. It's always better to make too small of an adjustment rather than too big because you can always adjust further in the future. When you make too big of an adjustment, it's much tougher to reverse it.

From Cutting to Bulking

By the end of a cut, it's highly likely that your appetite is through the roof after being on restricted calories for so long. You probably also rather take a bath in ice water than do another second of cardio at this point. On top of that, you may feel small after dropping a chunk of weight and seeing your clothes fit a bit looser. All these factors lead to wanting to jump right into a calorie surplus immediately to start making gains.

This would be a terrible idea. After cutting, your hormones and metabolism aren't at optimal levels due to eating a restricted amount of calories for an extended period of time. If you immediately stop doing cardio and increase calories substantially, you will put on a nice chunk of fat pretty quickly. Your body simply isn't in the right condition to add muscle just yet. It doesn't make too much sense to put the fat back on in a couple of weeks that you just spent months trying to lose. You can make the muscle gains you are hoping for and remain lean at the same time. You just need to follow the correct approach.

The proper approach is to take it slow. After all, a bulk is a long term process. It's much better to set yourself up for a successful long term bulk than to jump right in and regret your mistakes for the remainder of it. You need to get your hormones and metabolism back to optimal levels so that you can make muscular gains. To do this, you should first bring your calories up to maintenance. Keep calories at maintenance for a couple of weeks and in the meantime, you can begin tapering down cardio. Don't cut it all out at once though. By increasing calories slowly, your metabolism will begin to recover. Depending on how lean you got, you may even continue to lose some weight while you begin increasing calories. This would be an ideal situation since it's a sign that your metabolism is burning through the extra calories as it repairs itself. After the initial two weeks of eating your maintenance calories, you can then begin increasing calories above maintenance slowly in increments of 100-200 and eliminating cardio little by little if you choose. You should continue to do cardio throughout your bulk for a variety of benefits so don't cut it all out at any point. At this point, your bulk has begun. You should continue to increase calories in small increments as your weight gain stalls.

Conclusion

To sum everything up, taking it slow is always the way to go. When going from bulking to cutting, making drastic changes can severely hurt your metabolism and ensure that your cut is a miserable one. When going from cutting to bulking, making drastic changes will reverse most of your cutting progress in a matter of weeks. It's always better to underestimate your adjustments rather than overestimate them. An underestimation can always be adjusted further but an overestimation can't be undone too easily.

Shed the Fat, Keep the Muscle

2011-12-26T21:13:00.003-05:00

Whether you are a competitive bodybuilder, want to look better at the beach, or just want to shed a few pounds before you continue your bulk, you will be forced to go on a cut at some point. Believe it or not, cutting is actually a pretty simple process. Despite the process not being too difficult, it is imperative to know how to properly cut to avoid disastrous results.

Rate of Weight Loss

Unlike bulking which is a very slow and tedious process, cutting is actually much quicker. Not too quick though. You should aim to lose between 1 and 2 pounds per week. Ideally, you should lose 1 pound per week. This will keep any potential muscle loss to a bare minimum. However, most people have a weight loss deadline to meet so the good news is that you can safely lose up to 2 pounds per week without worrying too much about muscle loss. Do not lose anymore than 2 pounds per week unless you are over 25% body fat and substantially over weight. The leaner you get, the closer to 1 pound per week you should lose. As you get leaner, the risk of muscle loss increases.

Cardio

Believe it or not, you do not need to do any cardio to lose weight. You can do it through diet alone but I would not recommend doing so. Cardio is simply a tool to burn calories. You should use it to help you reach your desired calorie deficit. If you choose not to do any cardio, then you will need to eat even less to hit your calorie deficit.

As a general rule, I would aim to hit 50% of your calorie deficit through diet and 50% through cardio. This means that if you are trying to lose 1 pound per week, you should burn roughly 250 calories per day through cardio and the other 250 should be from your diet. Although 500 is the average calorie deficit per day, the more important number to hit is your overall calorie deficit for the week which would be 3,500 if your goal is to lose 1 pound per week. This means your daily calorie deficits can vary as long as the weekly deficit is the same. (Throughout this article, I will talk in terms of calorie deficits per day just because I think it is easier to visualize it daily rather than weekly). Since your weekly calorie deficit is more important than your daily calorie deficit, you don't need to do cardio everyday. Instead, you can aim to burn twice the amount of calories per cardio session but do them every other day.

The type of cardio you do doesn't really matter because the goal is simply to burn calories. You can do HIIT, low intensity, moderate intensity, or a combination of both. Focus on burning a certain amount of calories and then stop. Fasted cardio is a bad idea though. You should always have a meal in you prior to cardio. Fasted cardio puts you at a greater risk of burning muscle and doesn't burn any extra fat. In fact, it may even burn less.

Macros

As I have stated in every article regarding diet so far, macros are the single most important factor in reaching your goals. Since you should be aiming to lose between 1 and 2 pounds per week, you need to create between a 500 and 1,000 calorie deficit per day. You can do this through diet alone or a combination of diet and cardio.

Before you can figure out how many calories to eat for a calorie deficit, you need to know what your maintenance calories are. If you don't already have a general idea, here is a calculator to get you started. You can never trust an online calculator so you should just use it as an estimate. Using this number, subtract your desired calories to reach your deficit. For example, if your goal is to lose 1 pound per week and you are burning 250 calories from cardio per day, then your deficit should be your maintenance minus 250. Meanwhile, you should weigh yourself without clothes on in the morning once a week to see what your weight is doing. If you didn't lose any weight, then your initial maintenance estimate was probably off and you need to create a larger deficit by either subtracting more calories, doing more cardio, or both. If you lost more than your desired amount, it is probably best to keep everything the same for an additional week or two since your body usually drops a few extra pounds the first couple of weeks while transitioning into a cut. This has a lot to do with losing water due to eating less carbohydrates and less sodium. If after two weeks you are still losing more than you hoped, you can add some calories back in or do a little less cardio to slow down the weight loss. To do all of this this, it is extremely important to have a reliable scale. I recommend this one.I've gone through five scales over the last couple of years and this is the first one that gives me consistent readings. It's not expensive and pretty aesthetic looking too. You don't even need to tap it to turn it on.

Once you have your target number of calories, you should figure out your macros very similarly to how you would if you were bulking. Your protein should be either the same or slightly higher and your carbohydrates and fat should be lower. Aim for 1.25 grams of protein per body weight and .4 grams of fat per pound body weight. The rest should be carbohydrates. Let's take a 180 pound male who's maintenance calories are 2,500 as an example. If he wants to lose 1 pound per week, he should burn 250 calories per day through cardio. That means there is a 250 calorie deficit through diet which puts him at 2,250 calories per day. He should eat 225 grams of protein and 72 grams of fat. That leaves 175 grams of carbohydrates. Keep in mind these numbers are very general. Some people do well on low fat and some do well on low carbohydrates. Feel free to adjust the numbers to see which you like more. As you get deeper into your cut, you should subtract calories from your carbohydrates and fats. I personally subtract fat first. Once I my fat reaches .3 grams per pound of body weight, I leave it the same and only subtract carbohydrates from that point forward.

Meal Frequency

You don't need to eat 6 small meals per day but you can if you would like. The frequency of your meals won't have any effect on your progress. When cutting, you are going to be hungry most of the day. For this reason, I rather eat fewer, larger, more satisfying meals than a bunch of smaller meals that leave me hungry. It's personal preference though.

Nutrient Timing

Just like meal frequency, nutrient timing will not have an effect on your progress. You can eat carbohydrates when you wake up or before you go to bed. Your progress will be the same. However, I do recommend eating a larger portion of your carbohydrates around your work outs. This will provide you with more energy so you get the most out of your work out. I'd recommend having approximately 30% of your carbohydrates before your work out and 30% after. The remaining 40% can be spread out however you would like. Although eating carbohydrates before bed won't hurt your progress, I would avoid eating them then simply because there is no reason to give your body fuel before you go to sleep. Save those precious carbohydrates for during the day when you need the energy.

Work Out Routine

During a cut is not the appropriate time to switch routines. Whatever routine you used to build your muscle is the routine you should use to keep your muscle. Commonly, people start doing higher reps and give up the heavy weights. This is the biggest mistake you can make. You need to continue lifting heavy if you want to keep your muscle. You are already eating in a calorie deficit. If you combine that with lifting light weights, you aren't giving your body any reason to keep your muscle. It is important to continue lifting as heavy as possible in order to give your body a reason to keep your hard earned muscle.

Supplements

Don't bother with fat burners. There aren't any over the counter fat burners that will give you any noticeable fat burning effects. The only additional supplements I would add on a cut are a pre work out supplement if you don't use one already and BCAAs. The pre work out supplement will give you an energy boost when your diet is failing to give you the energy you would like for an intense work out. A couple of pre work out supplements I recommend are Controlled Labs White Flood and MusclePharm Assault

BCAAs can help to prevent muscle loss. You can drink them during your work out as well as before cardio. I would recommend either Scivation Xtendor AI Sports RecoverPro. One serving during your work out and another serving 5-10 minutes before cardio is enough.

Conclusion

To sum everything up, cutting really isn't too complicated. Cardio is very beneficial but not required and your macros should be similar to your bulking macros but with less carbohydrates and less fat. As you get deeper into your cut and your weight loss stalls, you should subtract calories from your fat and/or carbohydrates and increase your calories burned on cardio. Your weekly calorie deficit is the most important number to hit but it may be easier to break it down daily instead. Meal frequency and nutrient timing is irrelevant and entirely personal preference. You should not change your work out routine and continue lifting heavy to give your muscles a reason to stay put. Additionally, fat burners are unnecessary but pre work out supplements can be helpful to provide some extra energy and BCAAs can help in preventing muscle loss.

If you have any questions or need anything clarified, feel free to leave a question in the comments.

The Art of Bulking

2011-12-21T17:41:00.004-05:00

Perhaps one of the sweetest sounding words to a bodybuilder's ears is the word "bulking." Traditionally, bulking has been associated with being able to eat any food you desire. It's a period of time dedicated to stuffing your face for the purpose of putting on weight. Gaining fat is not an issue because it can be stripped away later. Although this process may sound enticing, the traditional method of bulking is severely flawed. Bulking is more complicated than just stuffing your face and putting on weight. Unless you want to end up disappointed with your results, you need to do it correctly.

Clean vs. Dirty

Two common terms for bulking that are often tossed around are called clean bulking and dirty bulking. The definitions of these two types are debatable but the way I define them are as follows. Dirty bulking is trying to gain weight without taking fat gain into consideration. Clean bulking is trying to gain muscle while limiting fat gain as much as possible. Dirty and clean don't refer to your food choices since you can get fat eating nothing but healthy foods and you can make quality gains eating a mixture of healthy and junk foods. It just refers to the quality of the weight you put on.

Dirty Bulking Makes No Sense

The logic behind dirty bulking is severely flawed. It calls for gaining anywhere from 1 to 2 pounds per week in an attempt to ensure your body is putting on as much muscle as possible. The problem here is that a natural lifter can only put on between .25 and .5 pounds of pure muscle each week under ideal circumstances. If you are gaining even 1 pound per week, you are looking at half a pound of fat gain per week. If you think that you can add muscle at a faster pace than I'm saying, look at it another way. 1 pound per week is 52 pounds in a year. No one is going to put on 52 pounds of pure muscle in a year. If you do gain 52 pounds in a year, you will be fat. I can guarantee it.

The Proper Way to Bulk

A clean bulk is the only type of bulking that you should do. With this method, you should only be aiming to gain between .25 and .5 pounds per week. It seems like you will be gaining at a snail's pace but look long term. At .25 pounds per week, you will be gaining a little over 1 pound each month. That sounds like nothing but over the course of a year, it's 12 pounds. If you are new to lifting (lifting less than 2 years), you should aim to gain closer to .5 to .75 pounds per week. This is because your body can put muscle on at a faster rate when you are a beginner. After the 2 year mark, that is when I would switch to .25 pounds per week.

The Benefits of a Clean Bulk

There are two main benefits to gaining at this slower pace. The first one is that you will stay lean year round. You don't need to be worried about a surprise pool party or vacation to the beach since you will always be relatively the same body fat percentage. Perhaps the most important benefit though is the fact that you will never need to go on a prolonged cut ever again. With a dirty bulk, you are setting yourself up to need a 6 month cut in order to shed off the excess fat. During those 6 months, you will end up losing some muscle as well as the fat. With a clean bulk, you aren't going to be accumulating much fat if any at all. In fact, you may even get leaner. Instead of wasting half the year just trying to lose fat, you can focus on gaining muscle year round. As a result, you will be making twice the amount of progress by clean bulking. It's possible that you may need to throw in a mini cut every once in a while but it will not be nearly as dreadful as the long, drawn out cut that would be required for a dirty bulk.

Implementation of a Clean Bulk

Now that you know you should only be aiming for roughly .25 pounds a week (or .75 if you are new to lifting), you need to design your diet to ensure that is how much you will be gaining. To gain .25 pounds in a week, you need to be eating at a 125 calorie surplus per day. Since there are 3,500 calories in a pound, a quarter of that is 875. That 875 calories spread evenly over the 7 days in a week comes out to a 125 calorie surplus each day. If you are shooting for .75 pounds per week, your daily caloric surplus should be about 375.

As far as how many calories and what macros you should eat, refer to my article Diet: The Basics. To sum up the points in that article, first you need to find out your maintenance amount of calories. If you don't have a general idea, you can use an online calculator like this one. Once you have a rough estimate of your required maintenance calories, you should eat that amount of calories everyday for two weeks. Meanwhile, you should weigh yourself without clothes on in the morning twice a week to see what your weight is doing over those two weeks. If you are the same weight after two weeks then you have found your maintenance. If you lost some weight then your maintenance is higher and if you gained weight then your maintenance is lower. Adjust accordingly for another week or two until you get your weight to stabilize so you know you have found your maintenance. Once you know how many calories to eat to maintain, you should add 125 to that number to get your total required calories in order to gain .25 pounds per week. Once you have the total amount of calories to eat, you need to break down the macros. Generally shoot for 1.25 grams of protein per body weight and .45 grams of fat per body weight. Fill in the rest with carbohydrates. Lets take a 180 pound 18 year old male as an example. His protein should be 225 grams and his fat should be 81 grams. That yields 1,629 calories. If he has determined that his maintenance amount of calories is 2,500, he should be aiming for 2,625 calories per day which leaves 250 grams of carbohydrates.

In order to track your calories accurately, you should use a food scale at least initially to judge how much of each food equals a portion. Something like this will do. Additionally, to track your weight gain progress, it's important to have a reliable bathroom scale. There is no need to pay for a fancy, expensive scale. This one hasn't failed me yet.

As far as food choices, it is always best to fuel your body with quality foods to ensure optimal health and performance. Some good sources of carbohydrates include rice, oatmeal, pasta, and potatoes. Some excellent sources of protein include eggs, fish, chicken, beef, whey, and turkey. A few foods to provide healthy fats are nut butters, nuts, and olive oil. You don't need to limit yourself to these foods. The important aspect is to hit your desired macro nutrients for the day. That is what will determine whether your bulk is successful or not.

Conclusion

To sum everything up, a clean bulk is the way to go to put on quality muscle mass. It will enable you to stay lean year round while actually helping you make faster progress by eliminating the need to go on a prolonged cut. You only really need to gain .25 pounds per week once you have been lifting for a couple of years and .75 pounds per week if you are new to lifting. It's perfectly fine if you decide to gain at a slightly faster pace than this. Just be ready to do a few mini cuts at some point. A dirty bulk is certainly easier to follow but your results with a clean bulk will be far superior. By eliminating the need to go on a long term cut, you enable yourself to be in a calorie surplus year round to make muscle gains.

Train Legs: Even if all you Care About is Upper Body

2011-12-16T17:33:00.001-05:00

Let’s face it. Most guys you see in the gym are not bodybuilders. They are simply guys looking to get into shape so they can look good at the beach. It’s understandable that these beach lifters wouldn’t want to train legs. After all, legs aren't even visible to everyone else and they are the most physically and mentally draining day in the gym. Building a huge pair of wheels requires a tremendous amount of discipline. A good leg workout will have you out of breath the entire time and will make you feel like throwing up. Why should you put yourself through this torture when having developed legs is not one of your goals? Well I’ll give you an over looked important reason why you should train legs anyway and it’s not because of the “anabolic hormones” released while squatting.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the phrase “if you want a big chest and arms you should squat.” The theory behind this is that when you perform a compound exercise like squats, your body releases both GH and testosterone which therefore will help build muscle everywhere and not just in your legs. This is a huge misunderstanding. It’s true that some GH and testosterone gets released by squatting but the amount is so little that it is insignificant. Those levels aren’t sustained for long periods of time anyway and that small insignificant increase will return back to normal within hours of completing your workout. Basically, squatting doesn't really increase any hormones in your body.

Sorry for breaking the news to you that you aren't really getting an anabolic response from squatting. It's fine though because there is a better reason to train legs. By training legs, your whole body will remain leaner all year round. Think about it. Legs make up half of your body. You commonly hear that under ideal conditions, your body can only put on .25 to .5 pounds of muscle per week. If you are only putting on .25 pounds of pure muscle a week, then you can cut that number in half if you aren’t training legs. You are now looking at .125 pounds of muscle per week or 6.5 pounds of muscle a year assuming you are doing everything correctly. If you continue to try to gain weight at a rate of a .5 to 1 pound a week, your fat gains will be much higher. Rather than excess calories be used to add leg muscle, they will be stored as fat. If those numbers mean nothing to you then just look at leg day as an extended HIIT cardio session. HIIT has been shown to be great for fat burning and training legs is like 45 minutes to an hour of HIIT. Your heart rate increases during sets and then slows down while you rest. This keeps your metabolism going strong for hours after your workout which will enable you to burn more calories throughout the day.

From personal experience, I can guarantee doing legs will keep you leaner. When I first started training, having a well developed pair of legs was not one of my goals. I trained 4 days per week but didn't train legs at all for roughly 6 months. In that time I put on 20 pounds which is about .8 pounds per week. This is a perfectly acceptable rate of weight gain yet my body fat levels increased dramatically. I thought about it after and realized that I couldn't expect to gain quality muscle at the same pace while only training half of my body. That's like answering half the questions on an exam and expecting to get them all right. It just can't happen. I learned from this and after a 6 month cut to lose all the excess fat I accumulated, I decided to bulk again for 6 months but this time I trained legs. In 6 months I put on 20 pounds again. However, my body fat percentage only increased slightly.

To recap, even if you are lifting just to look good on the beach, you should train your legs. It will enable you to stay leaner and that will make you look better at the beach. You may even decide to compete one day and it will be nice to step on stage with decent looking legs. I was a beach lifter when I started but now I actually enjoy training legs and they are one of my better body parts. Give it a shot. It's worth it.

5 Myths Exposed

2011-12-11T10:10:00.002-05:00

The fitness industry is flooded with hundreds of myths. No matter where you go, you are bound to run into a self proclaimed fitness expert who tells you the new "magic" exercise for getting a six pack or a special food that you "must" eat. There are just too many myths to get into all of them today but I'm going to go over five in particular which seem to be the most relevant.

Spot Reduction: This refers to the ability to burn fat in a specific area of your body. Perhaps you are going to the beach in a couple of weeks and want your abs to show. Who cares about losing fat on your legs, no one will see them anyway right? Unfortunately, you can't control where your body will burn fat. No matter how many situps you do, you won't be burning anymore belly fat. The situps will burn calories but those calories won't be stripping directly off of your abs. Everybody burns fat differently. You may be lucky and lose all your fat from your abs first. I'm one of those people. Some people may lose fat steadily throughout their bodies. Others will lose fat in their back before their front and some will lose fat in their lower half before their upper half and vice versa. It's highly individual. The only part that applies to everybody is that you can't choose where you lose the fat.

Toning: This refers to making a body part more "toned" or leaner usually through high rep exercises. This myth probably started with the belief that by doing more reps, you are burning more calories and therefore losing more fat. Unfortunately, this logic is flawed. You can't make a body part leaner by doing higher reps. You may be burning slightly more calories by performing an extra couple of reps but those extra calories will make a negligible difference in your fat loss. The only way to lose fat is by changing your diet. Keep doing your high reps if you truly enjoy it but don't expect to get much out of it.

Cardio and Bulking: I can't even count all the times I have heard a person say that they haven't done cardio in months because they are bulking. Bulking is no excuse not to do cardio. Health should be the number one concern before achieving your goal physique. A couple of sessions of cardio per week can go a long way in maintaining a healthy heart. If health is of no concern to you, then do cardio because it will aid in muscle recovery, help utilize nutrients, stimulate your appetite so you can eat more, and burn fat so that you make leaner gains. It will also keep you in cardiovascular shape so that when you decide to cut at a later time, you won't have the stamina of an obese elderly man with bronchitis. Cardio will not hinder your progress whatsoever. It will only help. Three cardio sessions for 20 minutes after your work outs per week or a couple of HIIT sessions on your off days is sufficient.

Soreness and Muscle Growth: I know I'm not the only one who wakes up the day after a solid work out and checks to see if my muscles are sore. It's easy to get caught up in believing that sore muscles means you had a solid work out. However, soreness is not an indicator of growth. Soreness is a result of performing exercises that your body isn't accustomed to doing. That's all it is. Think about it this way. If you change your routine completely one day, you will most likely be more sore than usual the next day. If you do the same routine every week for a month, your soreness the next day will gradually decrease and may even disappear all together in a few weeks. Does this mean you are no longer getting a benefit from your work out? Of course not. You are still getting the benefits. Your body is just more accustomed to the routine so you aren't getting as sore.

Carbohydrates at Night One of the most common pieces of advice you will hear is not to eat carbohydrates after 8:00 pm. It is believed that since you are no longer active at night, the carbohydrates won't be burned as energy and instead will be stored as fat. This is false. You can eat carbohydrates whenever you want to. Carbohydrates eaten at night are no more likely to be stored as fat than carbohydrates eaten for breakfast. The important factor is your overall macro nutrients for the day. As long as your total macro nutrients for the day are the same, eat your carbohydrates whenever you want to. Now, if you are very inactive at night, it might make sense to eat less of your daily carbohydrates then simply because you don't need as much energy. Eating more carbohydrates before and after your work outs may lead to better overall performance so keep that in mind when planning your diet. Just don't be afraid to eat carbohydrates at night.

If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM): Fad Diet or the Real Deal?

2011-12-06T17:34:00.006-05:00

A common topic floating around the fitness industry as of late has been IIFYM. This stands for "If It Fits Your Macros." The three macro nutrients are carbohydrates, protein, and fat. If you need a refresher on what macros are, check my previous article called "Diet the Basics" where it's discussed further. The premise of IIFYM is that you can eat anything you want to as long as it fits into your allotted macro nutrients for the day. By anything, I mean anything. You can eat your favorite candy bar, ice cream, pizza, cake, cookies as long as it fits into your macros. The bold term is what you have to remember. In a world where everybody seems to be looking for the easiest path to results, it is understandable that a lot of people seem to ignore the bold part of that sentence and either dismiss IIFYM as incorrect or blame it for their poor results.

How it Works

Basically, once you have determined your allotted macro nutrients for the day, you can fill those needs with any food you want assuming you are also taking in a sufficient amount of micro nutrients (vitamins and minerals) and fiber. As an extreme example, if someone has determined they need 300 grams of carbohydrates for the day, they can choose to fill this need with nothing but oatmeal or pure sugar. It makes absolutely no difference in terms of body composition. What this means is that your weight loss progress will be the same whether you are eating the sugar or the oatmeal. However, if one were to fill their carbohydrate needs with sugar day in and day out, they would most likely develop other health problems. So now what?

Moderation

IIFM is not an excuse to eat everything in sight. It simply allows some dietary freedom. It allows the occasional treat to be enjoyed by dieters. I see a lot of people misinterpret IIFYM and think it's an excuse to eat fast food several times a day everyday. This is not the case. You can fit a Big Mac into your macros everyday if you would like but you would be sacrificing your other meals for the day. Let me show you what I mean. A Big Mac has approximately 30 grams of fat. If you are trying to lose weight and are only eating a total of 45 grams of fat a day, you just had almost 70% of your allowed fat for the day in one meal. Now you have the rest of the day with only 15 grams of fat. Therefore, it is very difficult to actually fit in all the foods you would like to eat everyday into your macros. Moderation is the key.

How to Implement

The best way to implement IIFYM is to incorporate it into a healthy diet. You should still eat your typical healthy foods such as oatmeal, brown rice, nuts, lean meats and such but those are not the only foods you need to be eating on a diet. Once you have a healthy diet established, if you would like to replace some of the carbohydrates and fat in the oatmeal everyday with a candy bar, you can do it. You can follow an 80/20 approach where 80% of your diet is typical healthy foods and the remaining 20% is food you would not normally eat on a diet. You can also follow a "cheat day" approach where you eat a typical diet all week and then one or two days a week you follow a diet with the same macros as your normal diet but with different foods. It's up to you. The key is to make sure you are still eating healthy while allowing some freedom as well.

Things to Keep in Mind

1) Body Composition Does Not Equal Health: When IIFYM followers say you can eat whatever you want as long as it fits your macros, this is strictly in terms of body composition. Someone eating sugary cereals and bacon may look the same as someone who chooses brown rice and almonds but their internal health is probably different. Body composition isn't everything. You still want to keep your blood pressure and cholesterol in check otherwise it won't matter what you look like for long will it?

2) Accurately Counting Your Macros: If you aren't accurately counting your macros, then you have no way of really knowing how to fit a new food into your diet. This is why you must have a food scale. I use this one and it gets the job done. If you are just "eye balling" your food and estimating your macros, then you might end up replacing that food with another food that you estimate and the two may not even be close. For example, you might be estimating your oatmeal to have 50 grams of carbohydrates. In reality, it may have 40. Now, you decide to replace the oatmeal with Lucky Charms but the Lucky Charms may really have 70 grams of carbohydrates due to your estimation error. You just replaced 40 grams of carbohydrates with 70 grams of carbohydrates. Weighing your food will avoid this error.

3) Don't Trust Restaurants: A lot of restaurants give out the nutritional information for their menus. However, these numbers can't be taken seriously. They are fine to get an estimate but if you are seriously trying to nail your macros exactly, then you need to consider a meal at a restaurant a cheat meal even if you think you have accounted for the macros based on their given nutritional information. Is a slice of pizza always the exact same size with the same amount of cheese and sauce? Is your Chipotle burrito exactly the same size every time? Of course not, but the nutritional information they give is always the same.

4)Sodium: IIFYM does not account for sodium. Although sodium has no effect on body composition, varying your sodium intake will affect how much water your body holds and can cause you to look smoother and more bloated on certain days. This doesn't mean IIFYM doesn't work and you got fat. It's just an indication that your sodium intake is inconsistent. If you don't want this to happen, keep your sodium levels at a moderate level and don't vary it too significantly from day to day.

Conclusion

To sum up, IIFYM is not a fad diet. It's simply a misunderstood concept by people looking for an easy way to dieting. Unfortunately, there is still no way of dieting on nothing but your favorite treats. However, there is a way to work these treats in moderately to keep you sane.

Versa Gripps: An Absolute MUST Have

2011-12-03T15:33:00.001-05:00

You are in the gym. You are all ramped up to do some heavy pulling. Heavy metal music is blasting on your IPOD and now it's time for some heavy sets of deadlifts. A decision has to be made. Should you use a double overhand grip or mixed grip? I have a better idea. VERSA GRIPPS!

Why You Should Use Straps

Versa Gripps are a much better version of lifting straps. Some people are against using lifting straps claiming that they hamper your ability to build natural grip strength in your forearms. This argument makes absolutely no sense to me. You are doing deadlifts to build up your back and legs, not your forearms. If you are capable of lifting a certain amount of weight but your grip is holding you back, then you are basically putting your body through the most grueling full body exercise for the sole purpose of building up your forearms. Think about it this way. If you are capable of doing bicep curls with 50 pound dumbbells but you have a wrist injury which makes it so you can only do 25 pound dumbbells without pain, are you getting much of a benefit from doing those 25 pound curls? Not really. Same thing with deadlifts and any other exercise where your grip may give out first. If you can barbell row 225 pounds with straps but only 185 pounds without, then use the straps! Train your forearms separately at the end but don't sacrifice your back and leg work out because you want your forearms to get bigger.

Versa Gripps Instead of Regular Straps

I used regular lifting straps for three years and thought they were the greatest invention ever. I immediately became stronger on all my back exercises and my back significantly improved since I was able to take my forearms and biceps out of the movement. One day during a heavy set of dead lifts, my straps tore. I ignored my friend's advice to get Versa Gripps and got another pair of straps instead. After another couple of months, the straps tore again during a set of dead lifts and I almost hurt myself. I decided enough was enough and decided to try Versa Grippsinstead.

Versa Gripps are much easier to use than straps. Rather than waste time wrapping them around the bar, they lock on tightly in seconds. There is no wrapping involved. Versa Gripps are made of a stickier material so they actually stick to the bar and don't slip at all. The easiest way to describe this is it kind of feels like I have a Spiderman grip on the bar. Lastly, unlike straps, Versa Gripps are actually comfortable on the wrists since they provide wrist support. They may be a bit more expensive but they are easily worth the price since they will last for years. Do yourself a favor and pick up a pair of Versa Gripps PRO Seriestoday.

Intermediate Routine: P.H.A.T.

2011-12-02T17:40:00.001-05:00

Have you ever noticed those guys at the gym who seem to look exactly the same today as they did five years ago? I see these people all the time and it baffles me. They have been doing the same exact routine day in and day out for a decade and then wonder why they aren't making the progress they think they should be making. I'm going put this in very simple terms. Do not expect different results from doing the same thing! If you haven't made progress in a year doing the routine you are on now, what makes you think this next year will be any different? Make a change before you end up like the guys at the gym who have wasted the last ten years.

Training Each Body Part Once per Week

I would say approximately 80% of people working out train each body part once per week. I don't know where this method originated but my guess is that it's due to the fact that most professional bodybuilders train this way and this method somehow trickled its way down the chain to the average weight lifter. It's fine to listen to advice from a professional bodybuilder but I would take their advice with a grain of salt. Why you may ask? Well, there are two reasons. The first is that they have a bit of help from banned substances. The second and most important is that they have elite genetics. They have the best muscle building genetics in the world. Whether it's fair or not, any routine they follow will yield results. For the rest of us, we need to do everything as optimally as possible to get the results we want.

P.H.A.T: A Different Kind of Routine

P.H.A.T stands for Power Hypertrophy Adaptive Training. There are many variations you can follow, but a standard format is as follows. In the beginning of the week, you have 2 power days. The first power day is for upper body and the second power day is for lower body. After those 2 days, there is a rest day followed by 2 or 3 hypertrophy days.

On the power days, you are basically training like a power lifter. Your mentality coming into the gym should be ready to lift heavy weights. You will focus on big power movements for your lower body such as squats and deadlifts. You will do barbell bench press, barbell rows, and military press for your upper body. Your goal should be to stay in the 3-5 rep range for 3-5 working sets on the compound movements. Since the goal is to lift as heavy as possible, rest as long as you need to in order to be completely ready for your next set. After the compound exercises, you should do a few sets of assistance exercises for smaller body parts such as hamstrings, calves, and arms in the 6-8 rep range. Assistance exercises include calf raises, hamstring curls, barbell curls, skull crushers etc.

On hypertrophy days, you are training like a typical bodybuilder. These workouts will probably be very similar to what your old routine entailed. You should lift in the 8-15 rep range, rest between 1-2 minutes per set, and only go to failure on the last set or two of each exercise to prevent yourself from burning out too quickly. You should be doing significantly more volume on these days than your power days. I would recommend not training to failure at all for the first two weeks on this routine to let your body adapt.

Sample Layout

Monday: Upper Power Day
Tuesday: Lower Power Day
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Chest/Arms Hypertrophy
Friday: Legs
Saturday: Back/Shoulders Hypertrophy

I personally prefer to put arms and shoulders together and back and chest together on hypertrophy days. It's entirely up to you.

Sample Routine

Monday: Upper Power

Barbell Bench Press: 5 sets, 5 reps
Barbell Rows: 5 sets, 5 reps
Military Press: 5 sets, 5 reps
Barbell Shrugs: 5 sets, 5 reps
Barbell Curls: 3 sets, 6-8 reps
Skull Crushers: 3 sets, 6-8 reps

Tuesday: Lower Power

Barbell Squats: 5 sets, 5 reps
Stiff Leg Deadlifts: 5 sets, 5 reps
Calf Raises: 3 sets, 6-8 reps
Hamstring Curls: 2 sets, 6-8 reps
Leg Extensions: 2 sets, 6-8 reps

Thursday: Chest Arms Hypertophy

Incline Barbell Press: 3 sets, 8-12 reps
Flat Dumbbell Press: 3 sets, 8-12 reps
Decline Barbell Press: 3 sets, 8-12 reps
Machine Flys: 3 sets, 12-15 reps
Preacher Curls: 3 sets: 8-15 reps
Dumbbell Curls: 3 sets, 8-15 reps
Cable Curls: 3 sets, 8-15 reps
Over Head Dumbbell Extensions: 3 sets, 8-15 reps
Dips: 3 sets, 8-15 reps
Rope Press Downs: 3 sets, 8-15 reps

Friday: Legs

Hack Squat Machine: 3 sets, 8-12 reps
Leg Press: 3 sets, 8-12 reps
Dumbbell Lunges: 3 sets, 8-12 reps
Glute Ham Raises: 3 sets, 8-12 reps
Lying Leg Curls: 3 sets, 12-15 reps
Leg Extensions: 3 sets, 12-15 reps
Standing Calf Raises: 3 sets, 10-12 reps
Seated Calf Raises: 3 sets, 12-15 reps

Saturday: Back/Shoulders

Lat Pulldowns: 3 sets, 8-12 reps
Straight Arm Pulldowns: 3 sets, 8-12 reps
T-Bar Rows: 3 sets, 8-12 reps
Cable Rows: 2 sets, 8-12 reps
Dumbell Shoulder Press: 3 sets, 8-12 reps
Dumbell Lateral Raises: 3 sets, 8-15 reps
Rear Delt Machine: 3 sets, 8-15 reps

**Keep in mind this is nothing but an example. Choose your own exercises. I just gave this so you can visually see the layout of the routine.

My Experience on P.H.A.T.

Since I am suggesting you guys try this routine, it is pretty obvious I have had success with it. I trained each body part once per week for 3 years and although I made progress, it was extremely slow. After I switched to P.H.A.T, I put on 7 pounds of muscle in 6 months. I made better progress in 6 months on P.H.A.T. than the previous couple of years doing a standard routine. However, this takes a toll on the body and I would suggest you only follow this if you have been training for 1-2 years already.

Like I said earlier, I prefer doing chest with back and arms with shoulders but the layout I gave is how it is typically done. I would suggest super setting biceps with triceps so that the work out doesn't take as long. You can do the same thing with leg extensions and leg curls. Currently, I am following a 4 day version of this routine. My power days are similar to how I have them above but rather than have 3 hypertrophy days, I have 2. I have an upper body hypertrophy day rather than a separate chest/arms and back/shoulders day. To fit this all into about an hour, I do less sets than I would if I had 2 separate hypertrophy days. I'm doing this simply because after being in the gym 5 days a week for so long, I felt like my body needed an extra day off. Feel free to try any variation of this routine but please, whatever you do, stop training each body part once per week! It's just so much less effective and you could be making a lot better progress. I know that change can be scary but you won't regret the switch. Feel free to ask any questions if you need me to clarify anything.

First Supplement Give Away!

2011-11-29T22:26:00.003-05:00

Welcome to Pfau Fitness' first supplement giveaway! This will be the first of many. For the first one, I will be giving away a tub of MusclePharm Assault. The flavor is fruit punch and there are 40 servings in the tub. The picture above is what you will be getting.

How it Works

All you have to do is follow my blog with any of the valid accounts accepted such as Google or Yahoo. Once you do that you are automatically entered. On the last day of the contest, you will be assigned a number. I will then plug the numbers into a random number generator and a winner will be chosen. If you refer a friend, I will assign you more than one number so that your chances of winning improve. For example, if you are number 3 and you refer two other friends who also follow my blog, I will assign you the number 3 along with 4 and 5. At the end, if the numbers total 100 for example, you will have three slots. You can refer as many people as you would like to increase your chances. Just make sure you comment this post with the name of the person you referred so I know.

Restrictions

There are none. Any age and people from anywhere in the world can win.

End Date

The contest will end on Christmas Day and a winner will be chosen by the day after at the latest. The winner will be posted here and be contacted for shipping information.

GOOD LUCK

Should I Take Nutritional Supplements?

2011-11-29T18:01:00.006-05:00

A supplement is exactly what the name suggests. It is something to supplement your diet. They are by no means necessary but there are some basic ones I would recommend for anyone just for general health reasons. I'm going to break the supplements into three categories: essentials, helpful, and unnecessary.

Essentials

These are supplements that I think everybody should take whether they are a bodybuilder or someone trying to be healthy. You can theoretically meet the requirements of these supplements through your diet but very few people do which is why I believe everyone should take these.

1) Fish Oil: Fish oil is the one nutrient that is almost impossible to get enough of through diet. Unless you are eating substantial amounts of fatty fish, chances are you aren't getting nearly enough essential fatty acids. Fish oil pretty much does everything. It impacts overall health as well as controls inflammation, promotes fat oxidation, inhibits fat storage and more. I recommend getting a combined 2.0 grams of combined EPA and DHA per day. A standard fish oil capsule contains 180 mg of DHA and 120 mg of EPA which means you would need to take 6-7 capsules per day. I like Controlled Labs Orange Oximega Fish Oilbecause each capsule is highly concentrated so you don't need to take as many. 2 capsules of these a day will suffice.

2) Multivitamin: It is very difficult to get all of your required nutrients through diet. It is even tougher for athletes because they need increased amounts of vitamins due to their frequent training. Even if you believe you are meeting your vitamin and mineral needs, a multivitamin can be had for a reasonable price and it's good insurance just in case you are falling short of certain nutrients. I personally use Controlled Labs Orange Triad
because of the digestive and joint support. However, if you just want a more basic multivitamin I like Sportpharma Multi V,Optimum Nutrition Opti-Menor Optimum Nutrition Opti-Women,and NOW Foods ADAM.

3) Vitamin D3: Vitamin D can be made by the body through exposure of the skin to sunlight but many people are deficient due to lack of sun exposure from constantly being indoors or living in a cold weather area where sun exposure is kept to a minimum. Being deficient in Vitamin D can impact your testosterone levels and immunity. Therefore, I recommend taking 2,000 to 4,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day. Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin so you can take too much of it. More is not better so stick to the range I recommended. I personally use NOW Foods Vitamin D-3.Take 1-2 of these a day and you're all set.

4) Vitamin C: No one likes to get sick and Vitamin C can prevent it from happening. When you are in the gym several times a week, you aren't exactly exposed to the most sanitary environment. Vitamin C gives your immune system an extra boost and I can honestly say I rarely have gotten sick since I started using it. I recommend between 1,000 to 3,000 mg a day. Unlike Vitamin D, this is a water soluble vitamin so if you take more than you need, you just pee it out. Take 1 to 3 of NOW Foods Vitamin Cper day and you should be covered.

Helpful

These are supplements that are not necessary but I would still recommend to anyone trying to build muscle and lose fat.

1) Protein Power: Protein powders have been a staple of athletic nutrition for decades. However, it is important to realize that protein powders are not magic. Whether you get 25 grams of protein from chicken or a protein shake, there is no difference. I remember thinking that I was going to get huge over night just because I had a protein shake and that is just completely wrong yet there are people who think this way. Obtaining all of your protein needs can generally be done with nothing more than food but protein powders can provide convenience and flexibility for people having problems meeting their protein needs. They can come in handy when traveling and bringing food is a hassle. The only type you need to use is whey. You can use casein as well but it is generally not utilized as efficiently by the body and is more expensive. My personal favorite is Gaspari Myofusion.It is by far the best tasting protein I have ever had. If you mix it into your oatmeal, it is even more delicious. Some other ones I also like are Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Standardand Xtreme Formulations Ultra Peptide Whey.If you want to try casein protein, I'd go with Optimum Nutrition 100% Casein Protein.As for how much to take, just use enough to fill in the gaps of your diet.

2) Protein Bars: Protein bars are essentially a protein powder in bar form. They can be used as a snack or as a meal replacement on the go when packing meals can be a hassle. However, the majority of the protein bars on the market have crappy ingredients. The only two that I would suggest are Quest Bars and VPX Zero Impact Bars.Quest bars are more of a snack meanwhile Zero Impact Bars are heavier and are a meal replacement.

3) Glucose Disposal Agent (GDA): This is one that a lot of people may have never heard of. I was a non believer until I tried one myself. GDA's enhance nutrient uptake into cells by increasing the efficiency of insulin. They help maintain a stable blood glucose level, resulting in more efficient use of body fat for fuel. They enable you to eat more carbohydrates without feeling bloated and they give you a sick pump in the gym. My personal favorite aspect is that they help you stay more pumped up and vascular throughout the day. I don't endorse many types of products but GDA's are one I seriously think everyone should try. The one I use as a staple in my supplement stash is Genomyx Slin-Sane. I have gotten a bunch of my friends to use it and they all love it as well. You can also try Anabolic Innovations Glycobol but I prefer Slin Sane.

4) Branch Chain Amino Acids(BCAAs): Many studies have found that BCAAs and specifically leucine is critical for stimulating skeletal muscle growth and protein synthesis. BCAAs also decrease fatigue during high-intensity exercise. They can also aid in the prevention of muscle loss during periods of of dieting. My recommendation is if you are in a calorie surplus, you can do without them since you are getting plenty through your diet. If you are trying to lose fat and are in a calorie deficit, I would use them in order to preserve muscle mass. Take 10 grams during your workouts and another 10 grams 10-15 minutes before you do cardio. You can't go wrong with either Scivation Xtendor AI Sports RecoverProas a slightly more affordable option.

5) Creatine: Creatine is one of the most proven and backed supplements on the market today. There have been countless studies proving both its safety and effectiveness. It is used to increase the amount of creatine phosphate you have in your muscle tissue. Creatine phosphate is than used to replenish ATP which acts as a quick energy source for activities that require quick bursts of energy such as strength training, weight lifting and sprinting.The more creatine phosphate you have on hand, the more ATP can be replenished during bursts of all out effort. What all that basically means is it allows you to push out a couple of extra reps. It also saturates your muscles with water which will make you look a little bit bigger and fuller. I recommend 3-5 grams of creatine monohydrate per day. Other forms of creatine exist but they are not nearly as proven as monohydrate. You can take it before or after your workout and with your first meal of the day on non training days. Something basic like Optimum Nutrition Creatineis perfect. If you want to spend a little more money for a more effective product, Gaspari Size On Max-Performance and Gaspari Size On Pre-contestget excellent reviews. Size On is a creatine product with some extra goodies added in as well. Use Max-Performance if you are bulking and Pre-Contest if you are dieting since it doesn't have carbohydrates. Unlike taking plain creatine monoydrate, if you choose to go with Size On, drink it during your workouts. It's not necessary to take it on off days.

6) Pre- Workouts: Pre-workout products are probably the most popular supplements among gym goers. Although they do not produce any direct results, they can aid you in getting the most out of your workouts by providing you with more energy. I don't use any myself because I have enough energy from my pre workout meal alone but for those who need an extra jolt of energy before they hit the gym, pre-workout supplements can be a big help. If you are new to pre-work out supplements and would like to try one, I would start off with Controlled Labs White Flood. If you want something a bit more intense, try Usp Labs Jacked, or BPI 1.M.R.Another one that has gotten popular is MusclePharm Assault. When taking these products, make sure you stick to the recommended dosage until you are sure you can handle a higher dose. It's good to cycle these off after every couple of months so your body doesn't get used to it.

7) Joint Support: When you are lifting heavy weights or doing any form of physical exercise, your joints are taking a pounding. You may not feel any joint pain at the moment but taking a joint supplement before pain sets in is a good way to preserve your joints long term. The joint supplements I recommend are chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine sulfate. They both provide the building blocks for connective tissues and have been shown to help heal certain types of joint injuries such as arthritis. MSM can also help. I recommend 1.5 grams per day of each glucosamine, chondroitin and MSM. Like I said earlier, I take Controlled Labs Orange Triad as my multi vitamin because it already has joint support in it. If you would like to take a joint supplement separately, then I would go with NOW Foods Glucosamine Chondroitin with MSM.

8) Beta-Alanine: Beta-alanine basically lets you train harder and longer. It can increase muscular strength and power output, increase muscle mass, increase anaerobic endurance, increase aerobic endurance, and delay muscle fatigue. I recommend taking 4 grams per day. You will most likely notice a tingling sensation when you take it. Don't be alarmed. This is normal and will subside in a few minutes. Something basic like NOW Foods Beta Alaninewill do.

Unnecessary

Most supplements on the market fall into this category. I'm not going to list all of them because there are simply too many. Anything not listed above will most likely fall into this category. It includes stuff like fat burners, growth hormone boosters,and testosterone boosters. Just because I did not include a specific ingredient doesn't mean it doesn't work. I just prefer to stick to the basics and let my training and diet take care of the rest.

Genetics: The Most Pathetic Excuse

2011-11-27T23:58:00.001-05:00

Do genetics play a role in achieving the body of your dreams? Yes they do. However, the role they play is over exaggerated. Typically, lazy people use the excuse of poor genetics as the reason they aren't achieving their goals when in reality it's their poor diet and training style. When I first started working out, people told me to quit because my genetics sucked. Now, people tell me I look the way I do because I have amazing genetics. Ironic isn't it? I'm going to show you my transformation and prove to you that genetics play a miniscule role compared to hard work and dedication.

This is what I looked like before I touched a weight. People would describe me as "skinny fat" which is probably the worst possible scenario. I had no size yet I wasn't even close to being lean.

After 6 months of intense lifting and dieting, I made pretty good progress. I was still skinny but at least I was lean now.

After another year, I bulked up and made the mistake of getting too fat. Unfortunately, I didn't have the right information and regretted my decision to get this fat.

After another two years of bulking and cutting, I was finally approaching my goal physique.

From this point, I decided to do my first competition and this is how I looked.

I then bulked the correct way and looked like this.

After that, I decided to compete again and got the leanest I've ever been.

The goal of this post was to show you that with hard work, you can get the body you want. If you look at my first picture, you would say I have bad genetics. If you look at my last picture, you'd say I have good genetics. While genetics play a role in certain aspects, they should never be an excuse to not give it your best effort. Otherwise, you are selling yourself short.

Diet: The Basics

2011-11-27T22:16:00.009-05:00

Diet is by far the single most important aspect of achieving your fitness goals. Whether you want to build muscle or lose fat, it comes down to diet. You may be working out consistently, but if you aren't feeding yourself properly you won't see results. It's one thing to be committed to going to the gym a few times a week for a total of five or so hours but it's another to commit yourself to a diet. The gym only takes up several hours a week. Dieting is a 24 hour, 7 day a week process. It's truly a lifestyle and it's what separates people who achieve their goals and those who don't.

Find Maintenance Calories

First and foremost, you need to find out how many calories you need in order to maintain your weight. Here is a calculator to give you a general idea.

You can never trust an online calculator so what I would do is use it as an estimate. Eat that estimated amount of calories everyday for two weeks. Meanwhile, you should weigh yourself without clothes on in the morning twice a week to see what your weight is doing over those two weeks. If you are the same weight after two weeks then you have found your maintenance. If you lost some weight then your maintenance is higher and if you gained weight then your maintenance is lower. Adjust accordingly for another week or two until you get your weight to stabilize so you know you have found your maintenance. To do this, it is extremely important to have a reliable scale. I recommend this one.I've gone through five scales over the last couple of years and this is the first one that gives me consistent readings. It's not expensive and pretty aesthetic looking too. You don't even need to tap it to turn it on.

Choose a Goal

Now that you have a rough idea of how many calories you need to eat to maintain your current condition, you can adjust that number for your goals. If you are trying to gain weight, I recommend you add 300 calories a day to your maintenance. If you are trying to lose weight, I recommend eating 500 calories below maintenance. There are 3,500 calories in a pound. At 300 calories over maintenance, you will be gaining about .6 pounds a week. At 500 calories below maintenance, you will be losing a pound a week. Your body can lose fat a lot faster than it can build muscle which is the reason I recommend a higher deficit than surplus.

Macros

Macros stands for macronutrients. There are three macronutrients. These include: carbohydrates, protein, and fat. We will refer to them as macros from this point forward. Calories are made up of these macros. Protein and carbohydrates each contain 4 calories per gram and fat contains 9 calories per gram. Keeping track of your macros is what will determine if you reach your weight goals or not. If you are serious about keeping track of your macros accurately, you absolutely must have a food scale. I've been using this onefor the past two years and it hasn't let me down yet. Without measuring your food, there is no way of actually knowing how much you are eating. You don't need to use the scale all the time if that seems a little too obsessive for you. Use it for a couple of weeks until you get an idea of how much of each food equals a serving and then eyeball it after that. You may be surprised how off your initial estimations are without the scale.

Calculating Macros

Now that you know what macros are and how important they are, you need to figure out how much you need. This is very individual but I will give you guidelines for each.

Protein: You should eat 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight. The leaner you are, the higher up on this range you should eat. For example, if you weigh 180 pounds and are of average body fat, I would eat 1.25 grams of protein per pound. This is equal to 225 grams of protein per day.

Fat You should eat between .3 and .5 grams of fat per pound of body weight.If you are trying to gain weight, I would aim for closer to .5 grams per pound but if you are trying to lose weight I'd aim closer towards .3 grams per pound. For example, if you are 180 pounds and trying to gain weight, you should eat 90 grams of fat per day.

Carbohydrates I saved carbohydrates for last because this is where the majority of calorie manipulation will take place based on your goals. You simply fill in the rest of the required calories with carbohydrates once your protein and fat needs are met. Using the 180 pound person example, if that person were to eat 225 grams of protein and 90 grams of fat, that equals 1,710 calories. I got this number by doing 225 grams of protein x 4 calories per gram + 90 grams of fat x 9 calories per gram. Let's assume this person has a maintenance calorie level of 2,500. This leaves 790 calories of carbohydrates to maintain. Since there are 4 calories per gram for carbohydrates, this equals 198 grams of carbohydrates. However, this is simply to maintain. If this person wanted to gain weight, he would add 300 calories from carbohydrates which yields an additional 75 grams of carbohydrates. Therefore, the macros for this 180 pound person trying to gain weight would be 225 grams of protein, 90 grams of fat, and 273 grams of carbohydrates. If this person were trying to lose weight, he could subtract 75 grams of carbohydrates rather than add them. However, I would most likely choose to lower carbohydrates just a little bit and lower fat towards the lower end of my recommended range but you may prefer lower carbohydrates.

It can be difficult to keep track of all of this by hand so I would use a website like FitDay to help. It let's you add all your foods and create new ones if they aren't already in the system.

Meal Frequency

Now that you know how much you should be eating, the question is when should you be eating. There are a lot of myths surrounding this issue. You may have heard that six small meals spread throughout the day are better because it keeps your metabolism revved up all day. This is wrong. It doesn't matter whether you eat six small meals, three medium sized meals, or even one huge meal a day. All that matters is you hit your target macros for the day. Meal frequency is personal preference. I prefer four to five meals a day because it gives me a balance of decent sized satisfying meals and somewhat frequent eating throughout the day. Six meals a day isn't wrong but the only reason you should follow this protocol is if you truly enjoy eating that way. Personally, I don't like six meals because I can never eat enough in one sitting to be satisfied and I always have my next meal on my mind since it comes up so quickly.

Meal Timing

Meal timing also has some incorrect information surrounding it. You may have heard not to eat carbohydrates after 8:00 pm or else it is stored as fat. This is simply not true. It does not matter when you eat your calories. I prefer to eat a decent amount of carbohydrates for breakfast, before my workouts, and after my workouts and then taper them off later in the day. I simply do this so that I have more energy for my workouts and during the day. I don't need so many carbohydrates at night since I'm a lot more sedentary. If your lifestyle is more active at night than during the day, then I would definitley eat more carbohydrates then.

Beginner Workout Routine

2011-11-27T14:53:00.003-05:00

As a beginner, your body is ready to change rapidly. During the first 6 months of a person's lifting career, what I like to call "noob gains" are experienced. This is a period of time where your body will make a substantial amount of progress due to you not being used to any sort of stimulus before this point. Even if you don't know what you are doing, you will make progress. You can look at this in two ways.

1) Since you can pretty much do anything to make progress, you can take it easy and do whatever you want since you will make gains anyway.

or

2) Use this once in a lifetime opportunity to make a substantial amount of progress.

Unfortunately, most people go with option 1 but not by choice. It just simply works out that way. I'm going to give you my routine recommendations for someone who is in the position to take option 2. Just because you have already been working out for a little bit doesn't mean these recommendations don't apply to you. If you are a beginner, this is still applicable. The only difference is you may not be able to reap the full benefits as someone who hasn't stepped foot in a gym yet. I'm going to give you my recommendations for what kind of routine to follow and a sample routine of what I would do as a beginner.

Full Body Workout Routines vs. Splits

Ask anyone what their workout routine is and 9 out of 10 people follow some sort of split. They do something along the lines of chest on Monday, back on Tuesday, legs on Wednesday, arms on Thursday and shoulders on Friday. Just because most people do it does that make it the best way? Of course not. I believe everyone can benefit greatly from a full body work out, especially beginners. Why? Like I said earlier, your body isn't used to any sort of training at this point. There is no reason to dedicate a full day to a body part and do 15 sets when at this point you will get results from much fewer sets. Additionally, by doing fewer sets, you will be able to train the same body part 2-3 times a week which allows extra growth phases. Think about it. If you train chest on Monday, your chest is mostly recovered by Wednesday and maybe Thursday at the latest. Why wait until next Monday to train it again when you are ready to go much sooner? Rather than do 15 sets once a week, you can do 3 sets 3 times a week and take advantage of the extra growth periods each week.

Strength vs. Size

Strength and size result from different types of training. It is possible to get stronger without getting bigger and it is possible to get bigger without getting stronger although this is a bit more difficult. However, for a beginning lifter, strength should be your primary focus. How many ripped 180 pound guys do you see benching 100 pounds and squatting 150 pounds? I'll answer than for you. None. You need a certain level of strength to be able to add size at first. As long as you are getting stronger and your diet is in check (which I will discuss at a later point) you will make strength AND size gains. Don't worry about this distinction until you have at least a year of lifting under your belt.

Sample Beginner Workout Routine

From what I have already said, you can tell that what I recommend is a full body work out three times a week. Here is an example.

You will work out on 3 non consecutive days. For example, you can do Monday, Wednesday, Friday or any other 3 days as long as there is a day between them. You will have Workout A, Workout B, and Workout C. Each work out will consist of 4 compound exercises and two isolation exercises of your choice. The compound exercises will be for chest, back, legs, and shoulders and the isolation exercises can be anything of your choosing. The rep ranges will vary with each work out. Here is a template:

Monday (Workout A)

Flat Barbell Bench Press: 3 sets 5 reps
Barbell Rows: 3 sets 5 reps
Seated Military Press: 3 sets 5 reps
Barbell Squats: 3 sets 5 reps
Barbell Curls: 2 sets 5 reps
Skull Crushers: 2 sets 5 reps

Wednesday (Workout B)

Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 3 sets 8 reps
Deadlifts: 3 sets 8 reps
Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 3 sets 8 reps
Leg Press: 3 sets 8 reps
Standing Calf Raises: 2 sets 8 reps
Tricep Rope Extensions: 2 sets 8 reps

Friday (Workout C)

Decline Barbell Bench Press: 3 sets 12 reps
Weighted Pull ups (or bodyweight): 3 sets 12 reps
Standing Military Press: 3 sets 12 reps
Hack Squats: 3 sets 12 reps
Preacher Curls: 2 sets 12 reps
Dumbbell Lateral Raises: 2 sets 12 reps

You should follow this workout routine for 2 months at a minimum. The most important thing to remember is to add weight to the bar every work out. If you aren't getting stronger then you aren't making progress. Plan and simple. The 2.5 pound plates are your friend. Don't feel embarrassed to use them. As for training to failure, not every set should be to failure. I would stop a rep or 2 short of failure and hit failure on your last set but make sure you use a spotter. The template I gave is just an example. Do not feel the need to use my exact exercises on each day but you can't go wrong if you do. Stay consistent and I guarantee you will see progress. If your bench, squat, deadlift, and military press goes up significantly, you WILL be bigger.