BrandonM.B’s BodyBlog

 After years of addiction, my younger brother has finally gotten sober! He is taking it day to day, and I know that is because of the Lord Jesus Christ that he was able to make this difficult change to better his mental and physical health. I was once an addict too, so I know how hard this is, but God is good and able to help those who call upon Him in His name; no matter how big the problem!:)

  I saw something today in a blog, something about being obsessed with fitness at the expense at other facets of life..and I wonder; am I that kind of person? Am I obsessed? I’m not so sure, but I do feel deeply driven.

  The fact is, I do desire to be the absolute best I can be at this and my life actually seems to support that. I don’t have family nearby, I share a house with my brother and mother, that is the extent of immediate family. No girlfriend/wife and all my nearby friends are at the church. My mom is unemployed, and my brother and I combined make enough to get by with very little left over. After titheing, offerings and expenses I have just enough for the gym and  my supplements, which consisits of just whey protein and creatine, which I cycle on and off of. I work nights, which leaves me the mornings to train. 3 hours in the morning for training, afternoons for prayer and Scripture(and a nice nap) and nights for making$$$ (or bodyspace, if I am off that day) God has moved things around to help me acheive my dreams, so there is NO excuse to not succeed!

I’ve been driven to do this for a long time, even before I actually started! You could call it a need, to go beyond being fit and becoming a force of nature.  I see other guys at the gym, and they are more handsome, cooler and more smooth, they get the girls and they make more money; that is all fine. They have there blessings and I have mine, praise the Lord. But when they have more muscle or better strength, that is where I draw the line! To get that takes hard work and dedication, and that is where I will not be outdone, NO WAY! 

And that is where that deep driven desire comes in, I must OUTWORK them! When these guys reach their quitting point, when the pain is too much; that is where I am just getting started!  If I fail, it’s not because of my genetics, lack of coolness or anything God has chosen to give or not; but I fail by not USING that golden talent that the Lord gave me.  Work+Faith=results, everytime. The Lord God did not give us all the same genetic adtvantages, but He gave us the talent to work hard for what we want, and what you get out of it is what you put in, regardless of how you start out.

Yes, when it comes to this fitness thing I guess I am a little obsessed:)

 Yep, I have set some lofty goals for myself. I am happy and grateful for the progress I’ve made so far, but am I where I want to be yet? No! I have to be honest with what I want; I see the top physiques on this site and that is what I want to acheive, and I know from other great lifters taht there is still a lot of room to get stronger, just at the size i am now. There are two choices, we can hate on those who are succesful and make excuses for why we are not as succesful, or we can resolve to be fully devoted to doing everything it takes to reach our goals.

  The second choice is all about self accountability, to be mature enough to ask the question, "am I doing EVERYTHING that it takes?" I ask myself this, and while I have worked hard and done much of what I need to do, I can honestly say no, I haven’t done EVERYTHING to reach my goals. Some days are off and I feel down, sometimes nutrition isn’t on point, or I don’t get enough rest. The little things definately count!

I am getting better as time goes by, but in my walk with God, and in my bodybuilding/powerlfiting I need to be just a little more devoted, a little more disciplined, a little more focused. I’ve never been good at taking things a moment at a time, but that is what it is going to take. Every meal, every glass of water, every rep and set…not most of the time but ALL THE TIME!!!

This what I love to do and it’s time to be fully devoted and do EVERYTHING it takes!

 For those who have seen my profile, I stress faith but don’t talk about works much. Not that works are not important, in fact the Word of God says "faith without works is dead."  You need both! The reason I stress faith is because works without faith are pointless! Works are easy, it seems a linear and logical way to get into God’s graces. And faith can be very hard at times! But we cannot earn our way into Heaven. Faith is the foundation of works, you can build the most beautiful structure that people will marvel at; but at the slightest gust of wind it will collpase into an absolute ruin! Most important, "without faith it is impossible to please God." 

One thing I love about my church is that we are part of a great ministry, helping those in a desperate need that we Americans cannot even fathom. Many of us cannot actually be there overseas, but we help in little ways, be it financial or through prayer. No, we are not perfect and don’t pretend to be. But the Holy Ghost moves during our service, I’ve been in enough dead churches to know the difference! And I know that God moves through us because we have a pastor, God bless him, that preaches the Truth UNCOMPROMISED; and because we praise the Lord with passion giving thanks for what He has done. The Lord has blessed us MIGHTILY, because we have the faith and He knows our works.

  My profile was not set up to be a testimony to my own works, but rather the works of God. The most important being the giving of his perfect flesh and blood as provision for our sins. Our most dire need is salvation, for "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Without that little bit of faith, and without accepting the offer of salvation(repent,be baptized in Jesus name to cleanse sins, receive the Holy Ghost) works mean NOTHING!  In fact, God considers it an act of iniquity if you are trying to do His work without being baptized in his name!!! You are still covered in original sin, no matter how much you profess to be a christian!  Do not be deceived by Satan, if you don’t beleive me read the Word and study it diligently!

Ultimately, the whole of purpose of my profile is for thsoe who do NOT know Jesus, it is a testimony for THEM. I love to hear from fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, but I want those who have NOT found Jesus to hear my testimony, that you do need to be saved from sin but God has made a way for you because He loves you! He is alive and He is still doing miracles and I hope that others will come to knwo Him and love Him and most improtant BELEIVE HIM!

Thank you and God bless!

Praise the Lord Jesus for He is worthy, only He is worthy of all honor, glory and praise!  He is perfect and Holy in all His ways, bless His name! His wonderful work is going on all over the place, so start praising Him like never before!

  All of you who have faith in the Lord Jesus please, PLEASE pray for Dawn Ferguson. Her screen name is Drakie_1969. She really needs God’s help, if you see her page you will know that the Lord is pained over her, He weeps for her as He does for all who are in sickness and bondage. Pray that she is free from bondage, that He rebukes Satan and his angels for her sake; pray that she comes to know of God’s great love and that she comes to repentance and salvation. I have already prayed to the Heavenly Father in Jesus’ name and I praise Him, He has heard and His hand is already doing wonderful work! But I want all my brothers and sisters to pray too, and thank God; may He be glorified!

  If anybody has noticed, I have a link to a site, www.thehugsfoundation.com. I would like to tell you all about it and what it is the H.U.G.S. Foundation does.

The H.U.G.S Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) non-governmental, humanitarian organization specializing in helping disadvantaged and destitute women and children- especially in third world impoverished countries. Our objectives are to provide food, clothing, medical aid, shelter, ect., to abandoned, disabled, abused, and impoverished women and children world-wide. Their is a GREAT need for program’s like this and of course your support! 

Most children residing in mountains, jungles or inner cities do not receive medical care. Our H.U.G.S center in Iligan City, Phillipines provides free medical aid to hundreds of these precious children.  Millions of children are disabled as well. The potential of these physically challenged children is overlooked in many nations due to negative attitudes existing toward persons with disabilities.

Also, due to the AIDS epedemic in Africa, 12 million children have been orphaned.  Traumatized by the death of parents, stigmatized through associations with the disease and often thrown into desperate poverty, this growing army of orphans is reaching catastrophic proportions.

Thousands of childrens lives are cut short due to starvation, disease , and lack of medical treatment. While the majority of Western children are safetly tucked into bed each night by loving and caring parents, millions of children lie on the ground, tired and hungry with no one to care for them.

In addition, the attitude toward women in many third world countries is inexcusable! Countless women are severly persecuted, both mentally and physically, by their husbands or in-laws; producing lives with no purpose or satisfaction, and often resulting in premature death. Left to fend for themselves due to abandonment or death of a spouse, countless millions of women are left destitute. Gender inequality puts a severe burden on women that they cannot shake off on their own, including the responsibility of caring for their children or other family members. Most of the women are too poor to feed their own families. They often go without eating so their children may live.

Here are our programs and services:

1) Support of abandoned children through provision of food, clothing, medicine and orphanages.

2)Help given to abandoned, abused, and impoverished women through financial aid, motivational materials and seminars, and encouragement to assist them in living a meaningful life.

3) Physical therapeutic rehabilitation for indigent, crippled children and inborn or accquired handicapped adults.

4) Medical, surgical and hospitalization for indigent, differently abled children, and inborn or accquired handicapped adults.

5) Provision of assisitive devices for indigent, differently abled children and adults including: crutches, artificial legs, walkers, orthopedic shoes, orthoprosthesis, hearing aids, wheelchairs, ect.

6) Inclusive special education for hearing impaired, visually impaired, physically impaired and mentally challenged clients.

7) Provision of practical skills training and capital assistance for livliehood programs for adult differently abled persons.

8) Financial support for sports activities, exposure trips, and group camping related to disability.

Your donations go a long way!!! We have had success already in touching the lives of the the needy in the Phillipines, India, and Africa..but there is so much to be done! As Americans, we are very blessed and I know that EVERYBODY can afford to contribute something; even a little makes a difference. ALL donations go directly to these programs and our overseas volunteers, so it is a worthy investment.

Please find it in your heart to help! We can’t rescue everybody, but we can make a real difference to somebody and touch their life in a very positive way. I encourage everyone to visit the H.U.G.S. site to see the pictures and get an even clearer picture of the impact we can make

Thank you for your tax deductible donation to H.U.G.S.

Please make all checks or money orders payable to

H.U.G.S. Foundation, Inc. 6650 Lakeview Drive, San Antonio, TX 78244

As another eight week block comes to an end, it is time to review and reflect. There have been some progress in certain areas, and seemingly none in others. But I am learning how to not be down about it, but rather see this as a huge construction project, where progress must be measured one brick at a time. 

One experiment I tried was Tabata training, an ultra-intense approach which breaks up 6 exercise into 8 sets each; each set being 20 sec. of work then 10 sec. rest. It seemed promising, as my goal was to add leg size and increase deadlift/squat lifts. In theory the overload along w/ adequate nutrition would cause growth. However, i am not seeing progress there…HOWEVER, another look at it I can say that it has improved conditioning and kept me lean, which can only help with whatever path I choose next training lowerbody. So, while the goal I was aiming for wasn’t acheived, another benefit came from it.

One area of definate progress was adding 7lbs of mass, mostly upperbody it would seem. Also, adding 10lbs to my bench, which I WAS going for! And this is why I keep a training log!!! When something works, you want to have that recorded…while it is good to try different things it is nice to be able to look at the log and go back to something that you know your body responded well to. There was a period where my deadlift was climbing up every week; as I go back to the drawing board and come up w/ something aimed for that purpose I can check the rep scheme and % of 1RM max was using at that time and pick up on it again.

Bottom line, that powerlifting/bodybuilding takes enormous patience. Sure, there are the adds in Muscle & Fitness saying "build 8lbs of muscle in 14 days!" I am sure these products work, but I approach that w/ skepticism….I think you lose something when you accelerate your growth through all these products…something that we get from strength and conditioning training that goes beyond crafting a great body.  Building patience, learning to cope with failure, learning to find success at unexpected angles…Stuff like that is what makes this such a great sport!

I’ll admit, my focus isn’t as sharp as it should be…don’t get me wrong, I am hitting the gym and pushing the weights to where I need a nap afterwards:) But my goal focus was all over the place. I see these guys and think, ‘wow, i want to be big and carved up like that!" And then there’s Amanda Harris, and I think," wow, I want to be able to lift pound for pound like her"…and then it goes on and on, do I want to stay 150 and get stronger fro my size, or eat and lift 50 more lbs on me to look more impressive…Do I really want to take tons of products to acheive a certain look, is 200 lbs on my frame even healthy?? What should be fun is turning into stress!:(

But, just now I got a comment from Amysuds, and she suggested what I know in my heart to be true…when i am honest with myself I actually want focus on the powerlifting, because that is where my heart is at:)  Don’t be mad at me anyone, but I am not that into the idea of competing in bodybuilding…nothing wrong with it, but i should listen to my heart.

  The problem with bodyspace is that I get so fired up by what you guys are doing with your training, and the progress you make with lifts and physique…and since I am not up here so much, I get even more inspired by y’all! Both the men and women, wow…you guys are so amazing, truly!

So, I want to be able to do 100+ GOOD pushups, 30+ pullups, I want to squat and deadlift over 450lbs and bench 300+ at the size I am now, also to run a 5 minute mile….have a pro worthy carved steel physique and generally be great at everything fitness, it seems like a challenge truly worth the time and effort. But it is so hard to tailor a program to hit all those goals and maintain them. Any suggestions,lol?

Seriously, I know this will take YEARS to do…but I will give it my best, just like you guys are doing:)