Work in Progress

Figuring out where to start this blog entry is proving to be a bit difficult, although I already know everything that I want to say. This may be a bit premature, as with most things I set out to do, but I’m in the mood to write so might as well do so now, and then tell you if I change my mind about it later.

I have been trying to gain weight, (muscle mass), for what seems to be forever now, (A little while realistically) and it has now dawned on me in a very practical way that my mindset about the whole thing was erroneous. Maybe my mindset was not that erroneous but the practices I employed or failed to employ certainly were.
Fast forward all my bla-bla-ing to the point. Which is, the simple, and true, tried and tested way to getting bigger muscles.

1. Have a sensible work out program which you consistently adhere to for an extended period of time.

2. Rest sufficiently

3. Nutrition…

Eating Clean 

I want to speak a little about nutrition because I think that this has been an area that I have been giving insufficient attention.

Misconception 1: I’m training, and I have a high metabolism hence this is license to eat pretty much what I want.

This I have found is wrong as it will only make you fat. Fat you will have to waste time taking off (why put it on in the first place?) Whereas you could be busy putting on muscle.

The Truth: Eating clean. healthy food is actually essential to achieving your goals, monitor your fats, monitor you sodium, sugar and cholesterol. Get the needed calories from nutrient rich sources, eat 6 times a day.

The last is imperative and  proves to be much more difficult than I imagined at first. On a good day I get to 5, most days I eat 4 times a day.  Eating so often is a task, and I  have nothing on my account. Can’t imagine how I am going to pull this off when school starts back.

What inspired me to speak about this is the fact that I tried both ways, eating liberally and eating clean and the difference is, your body fat remains lower with the later and the gains are still present, if not greater than the former. Mountain man had something right when he coined the term "eating clean and lifing hard."

Lifting Hard

No cutting corners when it comes to this one for me. You absolutely have to push yourself each time for each exercise and each body part if you want to see any progress whatsoever, some people might have different experiences but this is mine. You have to work for every inch, ever half inch, every centimeter of muscle girth. I’ve noted that strength may come but size isn’t as willing to come as strength. You have to grab the bee-otch and take it by sheer force, or it will continue to elude and mock you.

I’ve read a few opinions on the subject from other people who are  either fat (automatic disqualification), trying to look smart or sell something, but those who are honest and have done it for themselves, will tell you that there is no magic formula to getting big the right way. On the issue of supplements, thats another story which I don’t care to tell - but for the all natural bodybuilder nothing beats the philosophy of eating clean and lifting hard.

- and for goodness sake get some sleep

*Achooo!!*

Man where did i get this blinking cold from? I usually do when I sleep badly and its going around but this time I caught it from nowhere? Why is it whenever I make progress in my consistency this happens I ask myself. Always sets back my training.

I didn’t let it happen this time though. Being on this site has been great so far, keeps me motivated. Didn’t want to write in my blog how I failed to work out for the past 2 days because of a stupid cold. So I worked out tonight, did chest and shoulders, and I took some new pics.

In case you’re wondering. I am naturally susceptible to colds for some strange reason, when I was younger I was asthmatic and very allergic, exercising has helped virtually eliminate the symptoms of those things mentioned earlier unless I step out of line and mistreat myself. One more point on the effectiveness and necessity of exercise, and other healthy habits

*sniff sniff*

My lats are probably the most under developed muscles in my body and it’s bothersome to me. Each time I train them, I never feel like I am targeting them properly. All this is very frustrating, worse is that my left side is visibly smaller than my right and noticeably weaker, this makes me unable to perform certain exercises at a heavy enough weight to train my right side effectively, and when I do feel like I have, there is barely any soreness in the lagging left side, which I take to mean that it wasnt trained effectively.

Bah! I know this means that I will have to train my left side by itself so it could catch up, and the whole left side of my body generally, but I feel like I can barely train enough just to get bigger, I don’t want to waste time trying to make my left side catch up, why can’t it just get with the program and catch up by itself?!

Sculpting your body into what you want it to be can be really annoying at times indeed especially where symmetry is concerned. And the ironic thing is that I have a really good eye for symmetry.