When To Shovel It In

Today, my coach put the hammer down.  He watched me in my last set of squats, and told me bluntly something I already knew in the back of my head:

"Seth, your form looks great.  Your speed is good, your depth is great, and as far as technique goes everything is fine.  But there needs to be about 50kg more on that bar, and the only way that's going to happen is YOU HAVE TO EAT MORE!"

(imagine all that with a thick spanish accent, even though he's like half Chilean and half eastern European.)

Now, I was repping 110kg.  That's about 245lbs, and I was squatting it so deep my butt was basically touching the ground.  My max is around 140kg, or 310lbs, to the same depth.  For skinny little me, that's not bad, and others might be happy with those numbers.  But when it comes down to it, I really should be cleaning 110, easily.  My leg strength is lacking, and in all honesty it's really ticking me off.

Squats and food go hand in hand.  When people Olympic lifters diet down, their squat is usually the first thing to go.  Then the clean, and finally the snatch.  The more leg dominant the movement, the more it will suffer from calorie cutting.  I've been stuck at around 163lbs of body weight, and I knew I needed to bump up my calories (from 3200), but hearing it so aggressively from my coach put me in high gear.  I shoveled down about 4 grand today, and will try to hit close to that with each successive training day.

But enough about me.  How can I relate this back to you?  Well, I'd like to let you in on the little hints your body might be giving you that it's about time to increase caloric intake.  They're pretty easy to spot, but not necessarily isolate as a diet issue.  And let me tell you, I experienced ALL of them, without any real clue as to why for the longest time.  DON'T make the same mistake I did:

Constant Fatigue (despite adequate sleep):  Sure, this could be a bunch of things.  But if you know you're getting AT LEAST 8 hours per night, are healthy without disease, and haven't changed much in your training recently, you can probably guess that your body is running on fumes.  Increase caloric intake by a few hundred calories, and see where that takes you.  I can almost guarantee you'll INSTANTLY feel better.

Strength Decrease:  If your lifts aren't going up  (and again, you know that other factors aren't to blame), it's time to put a little more food on your plate.  Don't be afraid of another sweet potato, or another helping of chicken and rice.  You'll thank yourself for it when the very next day your bench feels better than ever.

Injuries Won't Heal:  OK, this one could be for several reasons, and you shouldn't immediately attribute it to malnutrition. That being said though, eating too little will definitely not aid in healing.  It's very likely that a muscle tear, strain, or general aches and pains will get worse the more undernourished you are.  I noticed recently I've been having more and more strange pains in my legs that were never there before and appeared for no apparent reason.  Every day I've increased caloric intake, they've been barely noticeable.  I'm not sure what the details are on this one, but running low on food can show itself in strange places.

ALWAYS HUNGRY:  Well this one seems obvious, however many people fail to eat more even when their body is screaming for more food.  Listen, if you're getting a clean diet of complex carbs, lean proteins, and healthy fats, and are still hungry at the end of the day, don't be afraid to eat more.  If your food is nothing but quality, then your hunger pangs are definitely not false/fake.  Feed your body when you need to.  It's as simple as that.

Name Calling:  Yeah...I'm constantly getting called "skinny" by my coach.  Pretty obvious incentive to eat more.

Eating more can be daunting, but like I've said before, as long as you're eating clean, and training hard as hell, you will NOT be disappointed with the results.  Your body won't be able to afford to put on much weight as fat, and the little that does show up will live in the shadow of massive muscles.  I can't wait for that day, believe me.

Good Luck!

Pushing Through Fatigue: Don't Be A WIMP!

It's been a while since my last article, and for that I apologize.  School has kept me quite busy, especially as the semester is wrapping up.  But today, I wanted to address a topic I see far too often among my friends looking to get healthy, fit, strong, ripped, or whatever else you might want to call it.  And that, of course, is the topic of fatigue.  You know, tiredness, soreness, yawning-ness....yeah I just made that word up.  But you know what I mean.  It's that feeling you have the day or two after a really hard workout, where you crawl out of bed, open your eyes, and realize that you want nothing more than to skip today's scheduled workout and curl up on the couch with some chocolate milk and a bowl of cereal.  Your muscles hurt, your brain can't think, and you feel so inflexible that it wouldn't be out of the question to attempt to loosen your muscles with a rolling pin.  So what should you do?  You know you have to work out -- you have a goal you have to meet.  But you're sooo tired, and maybe your body is crying for rest.  Which should take priority?  Your long term goal, or your aching back?

Well, honestly, it depends.  Sure, there are times when you should take an unscheduled day off and occupy the couch like it's your J-O-B.  But, my loyal readers, you won't be happy with what I'm about to say (or maybe you will, I don't really know.)  When it comes down to it, THOSE TIMES ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN.  If you've been on your workout plan for a while, and it's been working, your body probably can handle the workout for that day, even if it doesn't feel like it.  Heck, I work-out 9 times per week, nearly three and a half hours a day (two sessions.)  If I'm not walking into the gym a complete zombie, then I know that day will be absolutely fantastic.  When push comes to shove, you NEED to learn how to push through fatigue if you're going to get anywhere fast in your workout.  If it's not your rest day, it's time to push yourself to your max.  Will it be the same maximum level that you had on a good day?  Probably not.  But as long as you're giving it your all, that's enough.

But I can hear you yelling at me "WHY!?!  Why should I force my way through the crappiest, most painful feelings I've ever known!?!  What are you doing to me??"

First of all, calm down.  Second of all, I'm going to ask you, as politely as possible, to suck it up.  Listen, lifting weights hurts.  It makes you big, strong, and ripped, but it hurts.  It's fun, BUT IT HURTS!  If you're not feeling at least a little pain the day after, you're not working hard enough.  And to answer the question as to why you should push through the pain, the answer is quite simple:  It forces your body to adapt to heavier, more frequent loading.  It doesn't just "suggest" to your muscle fibers that they grow bigger and stronger, it FORCES them too.  If you're pushing your muscles to the point where they start screaming "NO MORE!!!" to you the next day, then laugh in their face and push them harder.  If you do, I can almost guarantee two things will happen.

FIRST:  You will make GREAT progress.  Heck, I'd say have of the personal records I've set have been on days where I was so sore and tired I couldn't think straight.  Something about fatigue brings out the animal in people.  You tell me, would you rather lie on your bed, nursing your wounds?  Or lift heavier weight for more reps than you ever have before?

SECOND:  Your muscles will probably just shut up and work.  Sure, you may be in pain now, but unless it's sharp, violent, strained-a-muscle type pain, it will go away when you start forcing your muscles to lift weight again.  You will almost always be sore somewhere if you're working out at least 3 days a week.  It's futile to avoid working sore muscles, and it's not harmful if you do lift with the same muscle groups again even while they're recovering.  Like I said before, this will force even greater muscle gain, and you'll see quick progress.  Once you warm up and start lifting, I can almost guarantee all that pain and fatigue will take a back seat to the task at hand, which of course is getting bigger, stronger, faster, and leaner.  Sounds great right?


So working through some of the worst fatigue can give you some of the best gains.  We know this now.  But how can we avoid some of that pain and fatigue in the first place?  Well, if you spend a little more time devoted to active recovery work, I bet there won't be nearly as many days where it hurts to pick up your coffee mug, or takes actual effort to keep your eyelids open.

Stretch:  After a heavy workout, static stretch your muscles thoroughly, ESPECIALLY your legs.  The bigger the muscle, the more frustrating it will be to combat post workout tightness the next day.  You can keep things loose and flexible by spending about 10 minutes after your workout really stretching those muscle fibers, which will aid in recovery speed, and will actually help strength gains overall.  Plus, you'll be more flexible, allowing for better form and less chance of injury.

Massage/foam roll/lacrosse ball:  If you can get someone to give you a massage, do it.  If you can't (which probably will be the case), do some foam rolling on your sore muscles, or if you're feeling frisky use a lacrosse ball and really dig in.  Caution, THIS WILL HURT!  And when it hurts, you know you're doing it right.  Massage goes an extraordinarily long way toward helping muscles recover.  It loosens them up, and encourages fresh bloodflow to places that usually don't get too much, especially if they're tight as a drum.  This bloodflow will allow the muscles to receive better nutrition and hydration, and will help them to grow bigger and stronger, faster.  After the massage/rolling session, I bet you'll feel a million times better too.

Lacrosse ball rolling...like foam rolling, except 10000 times more painful (and effective...)

Post workout nutrition:  This one is a well known technique, but should NEVER be overlooked.  Immediately after a workout, consume a fast acting protein and a few carbohydrates to ensure your muscles IMMEDIATELY have the nutrients they need to start rebuilding themselves.  This will go an extremely long way in ensuring you aren't sore the next day, or at least not nearly AS sore.

Diet/nutrition in general:  If you're working yourself to your max, you need to keep your entire diet taylored toward recovery and growth-- lots of protein, quality carbs, and healthy fats.  Don't cut calories down, or you'll definitely feel it in your muscles and general level of fatigue.  Clean foods go a long way, make sure to eat lots of chicken, vegetables, fruits, and fats like nuts and oils.  Heck, what am I talking about, I've got near a million articles all on food.  CHECK THEM OUT!

Pre-workout supplements:  Sometimes, even after everything, you need a little kick in the butt.  A good pre-workout supplement can supply this with a respectable dosage of caffeine, nitric oxide, and creatine, which when combined give you a flood of energy, usually more than enough to kick you out of your funk and into lifting mode.  I would suggest Cellucor C4, or Assault by MusclePharm.  Both great supplements.

Fatigue, annoying yes, crippling?  NO.  Of course, it's up to you when you hit the gym.  But I'm here to tell you that your body isn't always right when it says you're too tired to hit the heavy stuff.  In fact, it's usually wrong (not ALWAYS, but usually.  You'll have to find your own threshold, but again, usually it's MUCH higher than people think.)  Push through the pain and see great results.  Now how can I hammer this point home?  Hmmmm....

Don't be a WIMP!

Good Luck!

Rest Day Diet

The day has finally arrived, that sweet 24 hours of relaxation and recovery.  Your scheduled rest day, where you say adios to the gym for a little while and maybe can actually get a few things done for once.  Or maybe you'll just sit in front of your TV, relishing in that sore feeling you have all over proclaiming proudly that you DID push yourself in the gym, and you have earned that two hour shower you're about to take.  It's a great feeling, isn't it?

But hold on a minute, you've just realized something.  You've spent all this time carefully calculating your diet to tailor to your workout schedule.  What about the days off!?!  How much are you supposed to eat, and what foods are suitable for such lazy circumstances?  Should you eat as much food as when you're cranking on the weights or sprinting on the treadmill???  Who knows!?!  And at this point, on the couch, you're probably thinking "holy crap, this rest day might just throw MY entire diet off, and all MY progress out the window!"

First of all, that's ridiculous.  One day of eating, no matter the food, doesn't change a thing.  And as long as you eat clean and well timed meals, you have literally nothing to worry about.  However, this concept of rest day nutrition is an interesting one, and is quite important to consider.  I mean, what should you eat when you're not hitting the gym, and what should the caloric numbers looks like compared to a workout day?

Let me define for you what a rest day really is.  It may be nothing more to you than a day to tend to your sore muscles and tired eyes, but to your body, it's MUCH more than that.  Over a week of working out, not only have you broken down loads and loads of muscle fiber, you've also depleted glycogen stores quite considerably.  And that sore feeling you have?  That's your muscles telling you they've been heartily damaged during your lifting escapades.  People used to believe that it was something called "lactic acid buildup," but several studies have shown that it's actually just torn up muscle fiber that's making you achy all over.  Fun stuff, right?

Your body uses a day of rest to take whatever nutrients it has at its disposal to replace and rebuild what you've smashed, broken, and depleted, namely muscle fiber and glycogen stores.  Now you may be slightly confused as to why your body needs a rest day to actually complete this task, because after all, isn't your post workout protein shake and added carbohydrates for exactly this purpose?  Sure they are, and they do a great job of repairing muscle as quickly as they can and refilling glycogen to manageable levels.  But your body isn't a miracle worker, and can't repair 100% if you're hitting it day after day after day.  It takes time to rebuild and refuel, and therefore after one whole week it has fallen noticeably behind.  Your rest day is a day to catch up, a day to let your body finish the job (until next week, that is...).

So all this talk of rebuilding and replenishing should be giving you a pretty good idea of what you need to do to help your body repair efficiently.  The bottom line is, to recovery fully, your body NEEDS NUTRIENTS.  That's right, you NEED TO EAT.  There's this stupid thought floating around that if you're not working out that day, then you don't need increased protein levels, or a good amount of complex carbs, or clean, balanced meals in general.  That's truly ridiculous!  For your body, this isn't a day of rest, it's a day of furious work to fix the damage YOU caused it.  So your first rule of thumb when it comes to eating on off days:  Don't skimp on the healthy, nutrient dense foods.  Get a lot of lean protein in there, and complex carbs like oats, veggies, and wheat.

But what about the actual AMOUNT of food?  Like the number of calories?  Well, first off, like I've said before, I'm not a calorie nazi.  I truly believe you can eat a LOT of extremely clean, nutrient dense food and be in much better shape than someone who's counting every single calorie they consume.  But I understand the importance of keeping general trends in view, and if you're dieting strictly then it is probably a good idea to have a number in mind.  So I'll offer this advice.  If you're looking to lean out, lose some body fat, tone up, etc, then on rest days I would suggest consuming 200-300 fewer calories than on a training day.  This is a simple thing to do, and most people already are following this rule by omitting their post-workout shake on rest days.  No workout, no shake, right?  Seems pretty obvious.  If you're looking to cut a few more calories out, consume a few less carbs in the evening, and you should be set.  Again though, you do need to get those glycogen levels back up, so the same number of carbs as usually consumed in the morning shouldn't change for rest days.

What if you're looking for size, or strength, or both?  Well, as a strength athlete myself, I feel comfortable telling you guys looking to get bigger and stronger that rest days aren't an excuse to cut back on the calories.  You can eat as much as you do on training days, and possibly even slightly more.  After all, if you're constantly lifting heavy, you'll need those extra calories to rebuild for another hard week of lifting.  Think of it as your chance to catch up!  YOUR BODY GROWS WHEN YOU REST, NOT WHEN YOU LIFT!  Chug some milk, have a sweet potato, and watch those PR's fall like dominoes in the coming weeks.  Obviously, keep your intake under a semi-scrutinous eye, but don't skimp.  Depriving your body will only hamper your gains.

Taking a rest day?  Don't forget the milk!

My favorite rule of thumb though, and perhaps the most important, is to listen to your body and its needs.  I'm actually often much HUNGRIER on rest days than lifting days.  Why is this?  Exactly what I told you above.  When you're not lifting, your body jumps on the opportunity to replenish.  This will cause a huge hunger that isn't normally there when working out, as lifting and cardio can actually stifle appetite to a noticeable degree.  If you're hungry, eat.  Make it clean food, and you're golden.  Simple, right?

A side note:  Drink LOTS of water on rest days.  Water helps in all sorts of ways, it will aid in nutrient absorbtion, it will rehydrate you after a long week of sweating it out in the gym, and if you ARE looking to cut the calories back a little on non-workout days, it will help keep you full.

There you have it.  Hopefully now your rest day won't be such a confusing time for you, and you can actually enjoy that soak in the tub.  Just as a side note, if you're really sore, I suggest first warming up your muscles with a hot shower or some dynamic stretches, then foam rolling or static stretching to loosen up your muscle fibers.  This will definitely help nutrient absorption, plus you'll feel a whole lot better.

Enjoy your time off, don't stress the little things, and as always, GOOD LUCK!

The Short Term Key

Short term goals are some of my best friends, and through writing this article I hope they become some of yours as well.  These little goals are not only easy to think about, but are easily achievable!  That's right, they're goals that you have a very good chance of achieving quite quickly.  Ahhh, doesn't that sound nice?  Accomplishment.  Love that feeling.

And conveniently, they're probably the best stepping stone to that long term goal looming dramatically over your noggin, constantly in your thoughts, keeping you awake at night (muahahahaha....).

But seriously, consider the short term goal your sword, to slay that giant beast.  The bat, to knock down that wavering pinata.  The axe, to hack at that massively daunting oak.  You get the idea.

First, let's define what a short term goal means in OUR situations (at the gym, of course).  They can easily be applied to lifting weights, cardio, flexibility training, even diet!  And the best part is, they keep you on track, keep you coming back for more day in and day out.  And probably their most important job is to keep you feeling good, accomplished, and satisfied.  Let's find out how to start setting some short term goals, shall we?

What can you do now?  This statement is purposely quite general.  What are your current strengths, skills, flexibility, calorie/nutrient consumption, etc.  How do you stack up?  Maybe you bench 190lbs for 4 reps.  Maybe you can jump on a 36" box 5 times in 8 seconds.  Maybe you eat 2500 calories a day and want to lose 3 lbs.  You're only going to know where you stand if you make an effort to record these type of things!  Write them down!  Put them on a note in your ipod (I have one on my iphone entitled "Current PR's"!  Make a voice recording!  I don't care which, just make sure you record your abilities, because if you don't I can almost guarantee you won't make progress (or nearly as much as you could.)

How do you feel?  This one's a little bit harder to fathom, but not too hard to grasp if you really put some thought into it.  After you did those 4 reps of 190lbs on the bench press, how did you feel?  Were they extraordinarily easy?  If that's the case, why the heck did you stop?  Were they super duper hard?  Was it your MAX? How about that diet?  If you're eating 2400 calories, how full do you feel throughout the day?  Are you starving?  Bloated?  Tired?  MAKE NOTES OF THESE THINGS AS WELL.  These feelings are important in order to set short term goals effectively.

What's your long term goal?  Remember what I said in my New Year's resolution article?  Set a long term goal that's challenging.  Make yourself work, reach, exert near maximum effort as often as you can while avoiding injury.  How do you plan to impress your friends (and more importantly, yourself), if you don't have to power yourself to a higher, fantastic level?  Be ambitious.  Record a goal for yourself that you can be seriously proud of when you complete.  Write it down, and PUT IT WHERE YOU CAN CONSTANTLY SEE IT.  You need constant reminders to be successful.  It's human nature.


Now, set your first short term goal! You've got all the factors in place to be able to set your first short term goal.  Now keep in mind, there's still an art to this.  Don't make it an immediate short term goal.  At the earliest, make it for tomorrow.  For the beginner, I'd suggest either weekly, or bi-weekly goals.  Monthly is a little lengthy, and gets to be vague.  Let's look at the examples above, and set some goals for those people:

If you bench 190lbs for 4 reps now, how about 195lbs for 4 reps next week?  Easy enough to do, eat right and get proper recovery, and you'll be there in no time.

Do you run for 10 minutes now at 7.0 miles an hour?  Aim for an extra minute next week, at maybe 7.2 miles per hour.  Or better yet, add another thirty seconds every two or three days.  Maybe only 15 seconds!  How easy is that?

How about the diet one.  If you consume 2400 calories now, and feel hungry, replace 200 calories of a guilty  "snack" food (like Tostitos) with 100 calories of some sort of bean salad, or a handful of peanuts.  Simple!

And the great part about short term goals is that they ADD UP QUICKLY.  It's easy to look at a short term goal and scoff, thinking the whole time about "so what if I squat 5 lbs more than last week."  It's 5 little pounds!  But if you could do that all year (which would be extremely difficult, but isn't unachievable,) you'd be squatting over 250lbs more than you did at the beginning of the year!  WOW!

But what if you fail?  Don't sweat it!  If we all hit every one of our goals every single time, we'd all be Olympic champions!  Recover, recuperate, regroup, re-motivate, and try again in a day, or two, or a week.  Don't lollygag, but don't rush into it.  It's really like walking a tight rope.  Push yourself, but on a consistent and realistic basis.

Finally, let's cover the topic you're all probably considering.  What if you don't set any short term goals?  Well, everybody works their own way, but you have no idea how many people I see go into the gym and do the same exercises every day, doing the same number of push-ups, same number of squats with the same weight, and same amount of time on the treadmill.  They don't have goals, they just want to say they go to the gym, and convince themselves that's all that matters.  Blahhh...boring...and believe me they won't get far.

How about those who have the big goal in mind, but no little ones?  Well, I've heard a lot of people say they want to bench 350, but don't go about getting there with any sort of routine or consistency.  They're dumb about it.  And what happens?  They get sidetracked, tired, burned out, and inevitably...FAIL.  Sure, there are exceptions, but in my opinion those exceptions are few and far between.

So that's the scoop.  Short term goals are what bring the big, crazy goals into perspective.  They're stepping stones across the huge waving river (there I go with the analogies again...).  Set them, and start seeing that sweet, sweet progress.  

Keep setting goals.  Keep breaking records.  You'll be surprised at how far you'll get.  Good Luck!

New Year's Resolution: Doing It Right.

Time for that inevitable post, regarding the most inevitable yearly subject with health and fitness: The "New Year's Resolution".  It's always there, nagging in your face, making you feel bad about yourself when things don't go as planned.  And they never seem to, do they?  It seems like whenever you get rolling on that goal, whether it be big or small, something comes up, and suddenly it takes a back seat to the rest of life.  And when the next January 1st comes sauntering back up the calendar, you remember back on that goal of yours and feel like crap when you realize how you didn't complete it.  Heck, you might not even have come close.  Why does that happen every year?  Why can't, just once, that goal be something you can grasp, complete, and feel great about?  Well, chances are, you're approaching it wrong.

What do I mean?  Well, there are several little seemingly minuscule details that can turn an achievable goal into something vague and inapproachable.  And they really are just little things, mindsets, schedule changes, or details about the goal itself that turn them froFuf m something amazing and inspiring into a demon-like monster, too scary and daunting to really tackle.  Here are a few ways to make sure that you ACTUALLY REACH YOUR GOAL this year, and god will you feel great when you do.  Ready to start?  

First of all, aim high.  That's right, HIGH.  Make it something you have to work toward.  There's a saying I live by (well, workout to), that if you're 100% confident you'll make the lift, it isn't heavy enough.  While this isn't always true, it has a lot of value in all sorts of daily applications.  If your goal is too attainable, sure you might complete it, but what have you really....attained?  Not much, if anything.  Want to lose two pounds?  Great!  Two to four weeks later you might be done, look in the mirror, and say, hell, I don't see a difference.  Why not aim for 10 lbs instead?  Or even 20 lbs?  Maybe more!  WORK HARD!  Make your goal something you really have to reach for, and stay committed.  Do you have any idea how amazing it will be to look in the mirror twenty pounds later to see that lean, mean, sexy machine?  You need to want it, to crave it, to make it your mission.  Attack with vengeance! After all, wouldn't it be nice to be the ONLY one of your friends who actually achieved their goal this year?

Life isn't easy.  Neither are the goals worth achieving.  The drive to complete the questionable and daunting tasks in life are what separate champions from the meek and average.

Second, I find quantitative goals to be more easily graspable.  Think about it.  I'll give you two common "New Year's Resolutions", and you tell me which one is easier to grasp mentally.  First resoltion:  "Eat Healthier and exercise more."  Second resolution:  "Lose fifteen pounds and hit the gym 4 times a week for one hour each session."  By the time the year is through, which one will you be able to look back on and say "I did that," to?  Definitely not the first one.  Well, sure, you could say it, but there's very little actually merit to thinking you ate healthier.  You'll have very little way of knowing actually how much healthier you ate, and how much more often you visited the gym.  Chances are you won't have done much of either, considering the goal is so vague to start.  Make it quantitative, numerical, and in other words, "recordable."  You can record time spent at the gym, calories consumed, weight loss, and easily see what we all commonly refer to as PROGRESS.  Progress is what keeps you pushing.  Visible, obvious progress.  Numbers are what count here.  Numbers.

Third thing to remember is that no excuse is good enough.  I don't care what comes up. 

-Genetics aren't a good enough excuse to blame on your slow weight loss, or poor strength, or a bad mile time.  

-While I agree that work can sometimes be a killer, it's not hard to slip in even half an hour of workout time in the morning, evening, even the middle of the night.  

-Sure family is important, but hey, it wouldn't be hard to include them in some fitness goals, would it?  Go for a hike, a swim, a run, a climb, I don't care, just get out there and work!  

And don't get me started on age.  Have you seen Tony Horton?  If not, google image him (in fact, I'll just save you the trouble here).  He's fifty something!  It's never too late, you're never too old, get those joints moving.  

Yup, Tony Horton.  He's 53 actually.

You have to want it, and in the end no excuse will explain why you didn't reach your goal.  I read a newsletter posted weekly by one of the top weightlifting coaches in the country, Nick Horton, and let me just say he writes some pretty inspiring stuff.  One of the greatest quotes I've read he posted just today, in his New Year's Resolution article:

"Every gym in the country (including my own!) braces itself for the New Year’s Rush. We get new clients in larger numbers than any other time of the year. And by March, nearly every one of them has already quit.

It is not just expected, it is built into the business model.

Putting in hard work in the beginning is meaningless if you're going to throw it all away the instant "real life" starts to rear its head on you. Being busy is not an excuse, having a family is not an excuse, neither is "it's not the right time".

At some point, every person who actually meets their goals learned the biggest lesson of them all:

Consistency requires a PERMANENT lifestyle change."

There you have it, wrapped up in a nutshell.  If you really want to achieve something amazing, no excuse is acceptable.  No matter the cost, you must integrate your goal into your life.  That's how it works, and that's how people become great.  If you put some real thought into it, it's not as hard as you think, and I GUARANTEE YOU CAN DO IT.  

To end this article, I'll share with you my goals.  I am a weightlifter, therefore they involve weightlifting, which is conveniently quantitative.  

I want to clean and jerk 150kg.  

I want to Snatch 100kg

I want to Back Squat 181kg 

I want to get in under a professional weightlifting coach

I want to be at least a lean 175lbs

See?  Quantitative goals.  And by posting them here, I've shown you my very last tip.  Force yourself to see your goals every single day.  Show them to other people.  Create some pressure to achieve what you set out to achieve.  Pressure is what keeps people going, because at the end of the year, people will look at you and say "Hey, did you lose 20lbs?  Did you hit the gym as many times as you said you would?  Where's that six pack?"  And you don't want to let them down, do you?

Try hard, push through the tough times, and never give up.  You are capable of more than you could have ever imagined.  GOOD LUCK!

Get Big, The Right Way

Sometimes, if you want something done, you just have to man up and do it.  I'm sorry ladies, but I don't believe this article will too strongly apply to you (there's always the occasional exception, but I'm speaking to the majority here).  I know a ton of guys out there wanting to get all big and strong, burly and beefy.  It's a common goal, one that many males wish to accomplish as soon as they possibly can.  Unfortunately, getting big isn't so simple, and there are thousands out there doing it wrong, or not doing it at all, day in and day out.  Getting big the right way takes work and commitment.  It takes sacrifice and determination.  And above all else, it requires a lot of food, and, as Ronnie Coleman (7 time Mr. Olympia) so famously put it, "lifting heavy ass weight."

So where do you start?  How do you jump on that muscle building train?  First of all, you have to realize that a good mass building regiment will require a change in diet and exercise routine.  Let's talk diet first.  A lot of people just think that to get big, you have to eat big.  OK, I can follow that train of thought, and to a certain point I will agree.  When it comes down to it, IF YOU WANT TO GET BIG, YOU NEED TO EAT BIG.  

What does eating big really mean though?

Well, in most general bulking terms, eating big means eating around 500 calories OVER your maintenance calories, or the caloric value at which you can maintain your weight.   There's a lot of room for little nuances here and there, but this is the most general formula.  And most of the time, it will relate to about a one pound increase in body weight per week.  Later, I'll describe what else you need to be doing to make the most of those extra calories, and ensure to a certain degree that you're putting on as much muscle as you can.

Where should these extra calories come from?

Well, the uneducated meat-head would most likely scream out...PROTEIN!!!  While there's value in that statement, and while you should consume more protein, the calories should really be a mix of nutrients that fit into your macros (remember macros? If not, here's my article about these wondrously useful little things: http://foodguru802.blogspot.com/2011/10/macros-what-they-are-and-how-to-use.html ).  I would suggest starting with macros that are pretty close to around 55/25/20 (55% of daily calories come from carbs, 25% of daily calories come from protein, 20% of daily calories come from fat).  You'll need to determine the actual amounts yourself, depending on the calories you calculate you'll need to take in.  Here's a free calculator that can help determine your daily caloric needs:

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

Here's the deal.  Bulking requires experimentation to determine what your body responds to best.  If you go a few weeks on a new diet and find you aren't gaining weight, YOU HAVE TO CHANGE SOMETHING!!!!  You won't gain weight if you don't find the right diet.  Either eat more, or change around your macros.  Sometimes something as simple as a few more daily carbs can kick start the weight gain.

If you gain for a while on a certain diet, then stop, most likely you need to increase your calories.  Go slowly, add another 100 or 200 every day and see what happens after a week or two.  Also, keep your macro ratios consistent.  They were working...right?  Don't bulk too fast, or you'll end up putting on unwanted bodyfat.  Though that's another point I should probably cover.  DON'T BE AFRAID TO PUT ON A LITTLE FAT.  To get big and strong, sometimes you need to sacrifice that perfect six pack.  If you're depressed about this, remember that if you're as skinny as a pole, abs don't count anyway.  You can always cut fat later, and with a higher muscle density, it will be much easier in the long run if you ever do decide to lean out.  If you're eating big, a little fat will inevitably show up.  Keep an eye on the mirror as well as the scale, and if you feel like you're putting on too much, either change your caloric intake, or your macros.

What are the best bulking foods?  Well, I like clean, slow bulks.  That's what I've been on for a few months now.  I'm not looking to pile on the weight, I just want a slow, steady gain.  So I eat big, but I eat as clean as I can.  My favorite bulking foods are:

Sweet Potatoes:  A great complex carb source, and without a doubt will help to put on quality mass.

Peanut Butter:  If you want to put on weight, peanut butter is your best friend.  It's easy to eat, and very dense in calories.  Get the natural stuff, and you'll get a whole heaping of healthy fats and proteins as well as a bunch of quality calories.  Quality calories=quality mass.

Mixed Nuts:  Same deal here, lots of calories for not that many pieces.  Easy to eat, and will help the weight come on nice and steadily.

Oatmeal with Whey Protein:  My favorite breakfast food.  Lots of complex carbs with a whole heaping of protein, will fuel those muscles and help them grow quite quickly.

Chocolate Milk:  Packed with calories, simple carbs, and an awesome blend of whey and casein protein that will feed your muscles for long after a workout.  Drink a glass with lunch, or more optimally, after a heavy workout.  You can even add some whey in there.  If you have a blender, you can add some peanut butter too.  Get creative!

What about meats?  Well I still eat very lean meats, like fish, chicken and turkey, but you can throw a few more caloric meats in there if you want.  Enjoy some steak, or pork every now and then, especially after a tough workout.  It'll really add mass quickly due to the high caloric value and protein density.  Not to mention it's amazingly delicious.

To finish off the diet section, I just want to say one more thing about clean bulking.  It's a great idea, and a noble one, but for some, it just doesn't work.  Honestly, if you're a hard gainer (gain weight extremely slowly if at all, no matter how much you seem to eat), you may need to throw a few "questionable" foods in your diet.  Enjoy a heaping plate of pasta with meat sauce a few nights a week, chow down on that burger or pazo, and have a big glass of chocolate milk a few times a day.  And keep spooning that peanut butter down your piehole.  There isn't a person on earth that can't eat enough to gain weight, so stop complaining that you can't put it on.

I will suggest clean bulking every day of my life, but "dirty-bulking" has its place, and has been known to work wonders for the impossibly skinny.  My advice? Stay as clean as you can, but don't be afraid of a big, greasy, meat packed burger once in a while.  You're trying to pack it on...right?

EXERCISE ROUTINE:

Now I don't want to make this section quite as long, however it has the potential to go on forever.  Let me start by saying this:  If you want a serious mass building routine, head over to bodybuilding.com, or look at some of Mark Rippetoe's stuff, or...well basically you HAVE TO DO YOUR RESEARCH.  I don't have the perfect routine for you.  Chances are no one does, you'll have to improvise, and see what works best.  But I'll give you the general gist of things.

THE BEST MASS BUILDING EXERCISES ARE COMPOUND MOVEMENTS

What does this mean?  It means squats, deadlifts, standing presses, bench presses, and more squats.  You want to use every muscle in your body in every single rep, with heavy weight.  The mass building rep range is generally 5-8 reps, though I've seen people recommend as little as 1-3 (though this is more strength training territory.)  Load up the weights, and push yourself with every set.  This is the only way to ensure that all those calories you're consuming go to where you want them to:  your muscles.

Why are compound movements the best?  First of all, they use a TON of muscles.  Second, they activate your biggest muscles (leg and back muscles) which in turn release testosterone which encourages maximum muscle growth.  Keep those weights heavy, and the intensity high.

Anatoly Pisarenko squatting as deep as possible

Franco Columbo completing a deadlift with textbook perfect form

If you're a hard gainer, and are having an extremely hard time putting on mass, here's what I suggest.  Cut your workouts a little short.  Do a couple fewer sets (but make the ones that you do count for double), so that you burn a few less calories, and those calories can in turn go toward rebuilding a bigger and stronger you.  It's that simple really.  Oh, and one more thing.  CUT CARDIO.  If you are already a hard gainer, cardio won't help.  If you really want to keep that treadmill in your workout, make sure you're eating like a horse.  I mean it.  A bull even, or an elephant.  Scarf those calories.

So there you have it.  The most basic ideas behind getting big.  As you may have seen they're not even close to one-size-fits-all, but like anything, it's a start.  Head over to bodybuilding.com if you want some real great mass building tips, and DO YOUR RESEARCH.  Like I said, getting big takes commitment.

Eat big, lift big, be the beast.  Good Luck!

High Fructose Corn Syrup: Killer Sweetness

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  Processed food ISN'T GOOD FOR YOU.  Even some who eat it realize this.  Lean Cuisine, Ramen, TV dinners, powdered donuts, whatever name it goes by, it's packed with chemicals, sugar, salt, and other nasty things that'll get you heavy quite quickly.  The devil is in the ingredients, and there are a few that can cause some real damage to your body.  The one I am particularly wary of these days is High Fructose Corn Syrup, or HFCS for short.  It's a sweetening agent used in more foods than you or I could think of off the tops of our heads.  It's EVERYWHERE!  And the more processed a food is, the more likely that it contains this devilish little chemical.  But what exactly is this stuff, and why is it so bad?

HFCS, as stated above, is a sweetening agent.  More specifically, it's a replacement for sucrose, or natural sugar.  It achieves the same sort of taste as sucrose, making foods sweet and yummy without needing overly huge amounts of the stuff.  But why do companies use it, when they could just use sucrose instead?  Well, what do most large scale corporations want to cut down on drastically at every little twist and turn in their manufacturing, shipping, and marketing processes?  Hmmmm...COST perhaps?  Guess what!  Sucrose gets really expensive here in the US because of all the import costs associated with it.  HFCS is by far the cheaper option, and therefore is used in thousands of places instead of sucrose.  And in all honesty, although I'm not big on sugar, pure sucrose is far healthier than this stuff is.

It's interesting too, because in general sucrose and HFCS aren't that far off from each other chemically.  They are both composed of two different sugars, glucose and fructose.  Sucrose is 50-50 glucose and fructose, where as HFCS is 58% fructose and 42% glucose.  Surprisingly though this seemingly insignificant percentage of difference adds up big time.  Here's a quote from Livestrong.com about an animal test confirming what we've all been considering:  

"For a long time, researchers debated whether high fructose corn syrup was different from other sweeteners in its effects on human health. To test this assertion, a group of researchers from Princeton University fed rats a diet high in HFCS. They published their results in a 2010 issue of the journal "Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior." In the study, the HFCS caused abnormal increases of body fat, especially in the abdomen, and circulating levels of triglycerides in the blood. 

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/546302-high-fructose-corn-syrup-hardening-of-the-arteries/#ixzz1dmS7BHRR"

This extra body fat is caused by the larger percentage of fructose in the chemical, which can only be processed by the liver.  In fact, the fructose in HFCS can bypass the digestive process that normally breaks down other, similar sugars, and goes straight to the liver.  This is because unlike in sucrose, where fructose and glucose are bonded together, in HFCS they are free from each other and therefore can be readily absorbed into the bloodstream with no digestion needed.  The fructose gets processed into triglycerides, which in layman's terms means they accumulate as fat.  The more fructose, in this case, the more fat.  If you weren't convinced by an animal study (which I rarely am, considering rats and humans are very different creatures), here's another study that was done on humans, from alternet.org:  

"In a study conducted by University of California researchers, 16 volunteers were given a strictly controlled diet including very high levels of fructose. Another group was given the same diet but with high levels of glucose (regular sugar) replacing the fructose. Over 10 weeks, the volunteers that were given fructose produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. The control group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar replacing fructose, did not have these problems."

Such fast changes in ten weeks?  WOW!

  Here are a few more reasons why you should try to avoid HFCS whenever possible:

Hardening of the arteries:  Because of the excess triglycerides HFCS helps to produce, your artery walls can begin to harden from excess fat.  This can lead to heart disease, something you DO NOT WANT in older (or younger) age.  

Obesity:  As is evidenced by what has already been said so far, HFCS is one of the largest links to obesity out there in modern society.  The evidence keeps pouring in that those who consume more food and drink containing HFCS have much larger risks of becoming obese.  In fact as HFCS was introduced into mainstream processed foods back in the 70's, its increased usage has almost exactly mirrored the increase in obese individuals.  Because the unbonded fructose in HFCS is almost immediately absorbed into the bloodstream (with no other digestive processes), it's easy to see why it can cause so much fat gain so quickly.  

Keeps You Hungry:  HFCS plays another role in weight gain, this one much more devious, as you might not even know it's happening.  Our body has a few well designed "full" triggers in it that help us to realize when we've eaten enough for our metabolic needs.  One such trigger is called ghrelin, an enzyme secreted by the stomach to cause hunger.  In normal food consumption, ghrelin is eventually neutralized or "shut off" in order to let us know that we're full.  However HFCS does not deactivate ghrelin, and therefore can prevent us from knowing when we've eaten enough.  That's not good, especially on a diet.  

Other health effects related to HFCS include: Pancreatic cancer, kidney stones, and hair loss.  It's not something you want to consume much of, that's for sure.

Here's a final word of warning.  HFCS can hide in foods you might not expect, and may be doing more damage than you think.  Here's a few foods that contain HFCS that may have slipped under your radar:

Bread:  Many breads, even the 100% whole wheat variations, contain HFCS.  These slices can sabotage your otherwise healthy sandwhich.  The solution?  Spend a little extra time in the grocery store and read the ingredients on a few different brands.  Some are made with NO ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS, and these are the brands you should buy.  Trust me, that little extra time will help bigtime.

Canned/Bottled Drinks:  Yup, you guessed it.  Soda, and other main stream energy drinks usually have HFCS in their ingredients.  They'll pull you in with flashy colors and claims of electrolyte replenishment, but believe me they won't do you much good.  Again, read the ingredients, and choose wisely.  Usually nothing beats good ol' water.  

Cereal:  Even your breakfast may be sabotaged!  Many Kelloggs products contain HFCS, including Raisin Bran and Rice Krispies, two very famous breakfast cereals.  However many bran-flake variations include HFCS as well, so don't think you're off the hook just because you're getting high fiber.  READ THE INGREDIENTS!!!

Crackers:  Nabisco Wheat Thins contain a good amount of HFCS, which is unforunate because I love the things.  Watch your consumption of little appetizer type foods, as they can usually add up quickly, and if they contain the bad stuff then you're in for some trouble with your diet.  I'll just keep saying it I guess, to hammer it through your head.  Read....the...ingredients......PLEASE.  

Sauces/Salad Dresssings:  Last but not least, many popular sauces contain HFCS, including A1 steak sauce.    Also, salad dressings are quite famous for large amounts of HFCS, another reason to keep your salad dry (read my healthy salad article here:  ).  And you know what I'm going to say next.  In fact, I'm not even going to say it.  Just do it.  Please.  

Here's a list of many, many, MANY foods that contain HFCS.  The list is by no means complete, but gives a good idea of how this artificial sweetener has infiltrated our diets:  http://www.accidentalhedonist.com/index.php/2005/06/09/foods_and_products_containing_high_fruct

Bottom Line:  HFCS might be hard to remove from your diet completely.  That's ok, because accepting it's there and making an effort to avoid it will make a HUGE difference.  Just try to get a good majority of it out of your mouth, and I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised by the difference.  You'll have done your body a world of good.  

READ THE INGREDIENTS....and good luck!!!!

A few references:  

http://www.alternet.org/story/144816/high_fructose_corn_syrup_proven_to_cause_human_obesity

http://www.livestrong.com/high-fructose-corn-syrup/

http://www.ajcn.org/content/79/4/537.full

http://www.healthybrainforlife.com/articles/healthy-food/high-fructose-corn-syrup-a-sweetner-to-avoid