Brandon's Fitness Blog

Mind Over Muscle to a Hard Body

short_wizz — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:31:08 +0000

Introduction

Achieving the success of having a spectacular body is no feat for slackers, but is within reach of everyone that is willing to put their bodies to the test and that are more than willing to fulfill their desires of looking extraordinary.

One must remember three key elements when building their physiques:

1. Efficient Training

2. Smart Dieting

3. Adequate Rest

Training

Everyone knows that training is an integral part of bodybuilding. Many have asked, “What exercises do you perform in the gym? What does your split look like? How many sets and reps do you perform?”

Every time I reply, “It depends.”

Everybody has a different genetic make-up, different schedules, and different abilities. Because of this, I recommend people to listen to their bodies. My routines are constantly changing. This keeps my body constantly guessing and free from the unwanted plateaus that can occur from repetitious routines.

Because I’ve been a working college student ever since I began lifting weights, my schedule is constantly changing. Some semesters I am able to go the gym every day while others I have to keep a three-day split. I prefer working out with a “3 days on/1 day off” approach.

My split looks like the following:

Day 1: Back and Abs

Day 2: Chest and Abs

Day 3: Quads, Hams, and Calves

Day 4: Rest

Day 5: Biceps, Triceps, and Abs

Day 6: Shoulders and Calves

Day 7: Back and Abs

Day 8: Rest

This split is strategized to allow for optimal resting time between each muscle group. I also try to get at 10 reps in each set. Sometimes I may only get 8 and sometimes I may get 12. As long as I keep it between 8-12 reps, I progress nicely. Once 10 reps becomes easy, I increase weight for that exercise. If I feel as if I’m going to plateau, I drastically increase my weight or reps to shock my muscles into growing. I play everything by ear and mainly listen to what my body is telling me.

A Typical Back Workout:

Wide grip and close grip pull-ups (weighted)

3 sets of 10 reps each

Deadlift

1 warm-up set
Pyramid 3 sets of 10 reps
Increase weight every time

Cable Lat Pull-down (Wide Grip)

Pyramid 3 sets of 10 reps
Increase weight every time

Cable Lat Pull-down (Close Grip)

Pyramid 3 sets of 10 reps
Increase weight every time

Barbell Rows

Pyramid 3 sets of 10 reps
Increase weight every time

Close-grip Cable Rows

Pyramid 3 sets of 10 reps
Increase weight every time

A Typical Chest Workout:
Bench Press

1 warm-up set with light weight for reps of 20
Pyramid 3 sets of 10 reps
Increase weight every time

Incline Dumbbell Press

Pyramid 3 sets of 10 reps
Increase weight every time

Decline Bench Press

Pyramid 3 sets of 10 reps
Increase weight every time

Flat Bench Flys

Pyramid 3 sets of 10 reps
Increase weight every time

Weighted Dips and Push-up Superset

1 set of weight dips immediately followed by push-ups to failure

Cable Crossovers

Perform if needed

A Typical Leg Workout:

Leg Extensions

1 warm-up set of 20 reps
3 sets of 15 reps
Increase weight each set
2 sets of 20 reps w/Legs close together

Leg Press (Increase weight on each set)

1 set of 20 (regular stance) for warm-up
1 set of 12 (regular stance)
1 set of 10 (regular stance)
1 set of 8 (regular stance)
2 sets of 20 (close stance)- Decrease weight by half for these

Smith-Machine Squat

1 warm-up set of 20 reps
3 sets of 10 reps
Increase weight each set
1 set of 20 reps of sumo squats (lighter weight)
1 set of 20 reps with your legs close together (lighter weight)

Stiff-Leg Deadlift

3 sets of 10 reps

Standing Leg Curls

3 sets of 10 reps

Calf Raises

Preferred method of training

A Typical Arm Workout:

Arm day is all about supersets! Key word: SupersetClose-grip bench press w/ Dumbbell Curls

3 sets of 10 reps of each exercise
Would look like this:

Close-grip bench press, then immediately go to Curls
Rest
Repeat

Skull Crushers w/ Barbell Curls

3 sets of 10 reps of each exercise
Would look like this:

Skull Crushers, then immediately go to Curls
Rest
Repeat

Cable Flat-bar Pull-down w/ 1-Arm Cable Curls

3 sets of 10 reps of each exercise
Would look like this:

Pull-down, then immediately go to Curls
Rest
Repeat

Tricep Exercise of Choice

3 sets of 10

A Typical Shoulder Workout:

Shoulder Press (Barbell or Smith-Machine)

Warm-up
3 sets of 10 reps
Increase weight each set

Dumbbell Shoulder Press

sets of 10 reps
Increase weight each set

Lateral Dumbbell Delt Raises

3 sets of at least 10 reps
Last set is a drop set

Front Dumbbell Delt Raises

3 sets of at least 10 reps

Seated (Bent Over) Rear Delt Raises

3 sets of 10 reps

Barbell Shoulder Shrugs

Warm-up
3 heavy sets

Dumbbell Shoulder Shrugs

Optional

Nutrition

Bulking up is quite easy to do, but much more optimal when done with clean/healthy food. Because most people are interested in getting the 6-Pack Abs, I’ll explain my cutting diet. To bulk, I pretty much add more carbohydrates to my cutting diet.

The Diet

Basic Info

Consists of high protein to curb the appetite, moderate fat, and a low amount of carbohydrates so the body uses stored fat as energy instead of storing it.
Usually the body uses carbs as the main energy source, but when carbs are depleted, the body must get its fuel from other sources. This other source will be your body fat.

Try to eat 4-6 meals a day.

6-8 meals a day is optimal, but a lot of times nearly impossible.
If you can eat every 3 hours, the results will be better.

The meals must have a low amount of calories.

If eating 6 meals a day, 250-300 calories per meal is optimal for weight loss.

Never go below 1200 calories per day. This can trick the mind to believe that you are starving. When in starvation mode, the body readily stores everything as fat….not good.

If you skip a meal, do not eat more the next meal.

Be sure to have 1 cheat meal a week (not a cheat day).

These can either consist of adding more “good” carbs to a meal or eating simple/bad carbs instead.

This will cause a spike in your insulin and replenish glycogen stores in the body. This is needed so the body does not stop burning fat by going into a starvation mode. It is a brain/mind trick to keep your body “happy”. Plus it is very nice to have something to look forward to at the end of the week after a week of dieting.

Splurge, but splurge within in control and reason.

I typically splurge/restore my body every 7 to 10 days, but every 4 days would work for a typical dieter.

Food Sources

~~Stay away from food items formatted like this.~~

High protein food items:
Chicken
Turkey
Extra Lean Red Meat
Fish
Tuna
Salmon
Tilapia
Egg Whites
Whey Protein Shakes
Legumes
Cottage Cheese

Fat sources:
Almonds
Natural Peanut Butter
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Avacado
Legumes
Other Unsaturated Fats
~~Egg Yolks~~
~~Red meat with high saturated fats~~
~~Fast Food~~
~~Dairy products~~

Carbohydrate sources:
Regular Oatmeal
Sweetened with Splenda
Brown Rice
Sweet Potatoes
Legumes
Limit the following to one meal (if any) per day:
        Whole Wheat Pasta
        100% Whole Wheat Bread
               - Preferably Stone Ground
Green Vegetables
~~White Rice~~
~~White Bread~~
~~High Glycemic Fruits and Vegetables~~
        ~~Pineapple~~
        ~~Watermelon~~
        ~~Corn~~
        ~~Squash~~
        ~~Etc…~~
~~Chips~~
~~Flour tortillas and other flour-based products~~
~~Sugar~~
        ~~Cakes~~
        ~~Ice Cream~~
       ~~ALL Sweets~~

A Typical Day:

7am:    6 Egg whites, 1 yolk
            ½ cup of Oatmeal
            Small banana

10am: 2 scoops of Whey Protein
½ of a serving of Almonds

Lunch: Grilled Chicken Salad
            1 Tablespoon of Dressing of Choice
            2 slices of wheat bread
            No Croutans
3pm (Pre-workout):     2 scoops of Whey Protein
            ½ to 1 cup of brown rice5pm (Post-workout): 1½ scoop of Whey Protein

1 scoop of Casein Protein


40 grams of simple carbohydrates such as white rice

Dinner: 6-8oz. of Tilapia (or 6-8 oz. of any good protein source)
            Green vegetable(s) of choice

Snack: If you want a snack at night, make it a healthy fat or a protein source. You don’t want to put any kind of carb in your body at night. Carbs are used as energy. When not used (such as in your sleep) it is stored for later use. The only problem with it being stored is that it is stored as fat.

Rest

Allowing your body enough time to recuperate is often overlooked. For optimal results, eight hours of sleep each night is needed. Everybody should ALWAYS get at least six hours of sleep although eight is better.

If the muscle group you are planning to work out for the day is still sore, don’t work it out. It’s probably not through healing. Muscles don’t grow in the gym, but outside the gym with proper nutrition and sleep.

Bodybuilding is a 24 hour/7 days a week lifestyle. Train to grow, eat to grow, and sleep to grow. Not only will your body transform, but so will your mind. Grow big and grow strong – inside and out.

Changing My Life

short_wizz — Sun, 25 May 2008 06:05:20 +0000

Changing My Life

When I first started lifting weights my freshman year of college, I had no clue how much of an impact it would have on my life. I never knew that by exploring the fitness world, my views of myself and how I go about living my life would change.

Nothing feeds my mind more than breaking down my body day in and day out, twenty-four hours a day by living and breathing bodybuilding. People always ask me, “Why do you put yourself through all of this torture? And for what? Is it worth it?”

Hell yeah it is worth it! Lifting weights keeps me alive. When I step foot in the gym, everything on my mind disappears. It’s just me and those damned weights. It’s my time to forget the world. It’s my time to think. It’s my time to prove to myself that I can be better than I was yesterday. It’s my time to work hard and my time to break a sweat.

Going to the gym gets me through the toughest times. It challenges me. It dares me. It gives me strength and it gives me power. Not only the strength to lift a barbell, but the strength to be “me”. I can go out in the world and be proud of what I have accomplished inside and outside of the gym.

When no one is there, the weights are. They never change. They never let me down. They keep me safe. They keep me healthy. While I’m waking up at 6am so I have time to eat an extra meal, do extra cardio, or cook my other 6-7 meals for the day, others are in bed mocking me…wondering why I am “torturing” myself. Why? Why do I do it? It makes me feel good. It makes me happy. Too many people go through their life without happiness. Too many people do not have the drive to accomplish even the simplest of goals. Bodybuilding gives me goals. Bodybuilding gives me hope. Bodybuilding teaches me to never give up.

Not only does bodybuilding teach me about myself, but it gives me the opportunity to help others. It gives me the opportunity to make others smile and to make new friends. These opportunities drive me even more. It creates a passion - a passion to better myself and a passion to help others.

Bodybuilding is a gift to me and I never take it for granted. I don’t know what I’d do if it was taken away from me. As I lift weights, the weights lift me up. They feel the emptiness that I sometimes have. They make everything in life okay.

Bodybuilding has changed my life. Bodybuilding is still changing my life. Even though a lot of people do not understand how much it impacts me, I still push on. I still can’t wait to go into the gym. I still learn every day. I still can’t wait to break a sweat and push myself to the edge. Even though no one understands, I happily live on.

Getting into Shape for the First Time (Determination)

short_wizz — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 06:11:07 +0000

Getting into Shape for the First Time (Determination)

Over the past couple of years I have learned more than I ever thought I would about my body, fitness, and nutrition. What did I learn you ask? Well I learned how to put on a substantial amount of mass, while maintaining a low body fat percentage. That’s a lot easier said than done. All it took was determination. Let me repeat that word: determination. Join me as I take you along my journey the past two years. Hopefully you’ll learn something in the process just as well as I did.

The Background

Two years, 3 months ago I started my first year of college. I was 5′6 and less than 130 lbs. I had no interest at all in lifting weights or getting into shape for that matter. I was in love with skateboarding and that’s where I put all of my attention. What I did not know was that my skateboarding journey was going to come to a halt. And what a halt it was. I broke the 5^th metatarsal in m foot which put me out of the sport for a couple of months.

During this time I decided that I needed to focus my attention on a new hobby. I was taking a health and fitness class that semester which required us to exercise once a week. Once I got into the gym I started to see the “buff guys and wanted to be like them. The buff guys get the girls right? Talk about some inspiration. The only problem was that I had no clue on how to achieve a muscular figure. What did I do? I mimicked what the big guys did in the gym. I performed some of the same exercises as them and did a lot of machine exercises. I was afraid of getting hurt so I stayed away from a lot of free weights except for dumbbell curls. I took a vicious approach to getting my biceps bigger. I worked them out every day. Was this the right thing to do? Probably not, but it worked for a while. While I was focusing on my arms (mainly biceps), I was neglecting my legs due to my foot injury.

My foot injury wasn’t getting any better, but I could tell a noticeable difference in the size of my upper body within the first three months of lifting weights. I was going to the gym every other day for about an hour at a time. I would supposedly be doing a full body workout in that amount of time, but now having more experience, I’ve learned I was only working a couple of muscles by doing bicep curls, chest flies, and rows. I may not have been doing it completely right, but I had DETERMINATION. I did not give up and kept on working out which produced descent results.

It wasn’t until about a year later that I started to watch what I was eating. I wanted a six pack so my gut had to go. I did not have a clue of what to do. My foot injury was still reoccurring so running was out of the picture. So I relied on my diet. I started cutting out things little by little. Over the course of a year I was adding and cutting different things to achieve the diet I am now on.

The Start of a Diet

The first thing I started cutting was food high in fat and soda beverages. I ate a lot of “Fat Free products not realizing that a lot of them are potentially just as bad for you as the regular food items. All I drank was water, and I drank a lot of it. Once I cut out fat I started fixing a healthier breakfast. I would buy the “healthy cereal and fat free milk. Nothing else changed much and neither did my body. What else could I change? I started eating a lot of protein (I didn’t buy protein powder until many months later). I would fix chicken or tuna almost every night. And to my surprise I started growing:growing fast! I was adding decently lean muscle, but I was still wasn’t happy. I needed to cut down just a little more. So I quit eating my cereal for breakfast and opted for 6 egg whites with one yolk. I also had some toast and jelly with it. This was always a great way to kick-start my day. What did I change next you ask? Carbs. I no longer ate regular white carb products. I relied on 100% whole wheat not to mistaken with regular “wheat products. My body started looking a lot better, but there was one more thing I needed to do. I had to cut out my sugar. Once I did that everything started coming along nicely.

My Diet Now:

I eat 6 small meals a day.

Breakfast always consists of 6 egg whites w/1 yolk, and usually a bowl of oatmeal.

I try not to eat bread if I can help it.

I eat 1.5x grams my body weight in protein.

I rotate my carbs

            High carb day (1-1.5x grams my body weight)

            Low carb day (Approximately 70-100 grams)

            No Carb day (0-30 grams)

I eat a little bit of fat every day. It usually comes from nuts.

One thing I have never done is count calories. If I follow the protein and carb amounts my calories will be about right.
Here’s a run-down of a high carb day:

            Breakfast: 6 Egg Whites w/1 yolk, a bowl of regular oatmeal, and a pear.

            Lunch: Tuna, cucumbers, pickles, and an apple.

            3^rd meal: Pre-workout protein shake with oatmeal or rice.

            4^th meal: Post-workout protein shake with oatmeal or rice.

            Dinner: Chicken pasta with turnips and a fruit.

            6^th meal: Casein shake 30 min- 1 hour before bed.

The Workout:

I do not work out on no carb days. I’m usually in the gym on every other day though. Just remember, it’s always good to take a week off after a couple of months of lifting.

Monday (High Carb Day): Back, Biceps, and Abs … 4 to 6 exercises each.

Tuesday (Low Carb Day): Chest and Triceps … 4 to 6 exercises each.

Wednesday (No Carb Day): Nothing. May be a little cardio.

Thursday (High Carb Day): Legs and Abs … I keep my Ab exercises simple. I just stick
                                                      to the basics.

Friday (Low Carb Day): Shoulders … 6 exercises

Saturday (No Carb Days): Nothing. May be a little bit of cardio again.

Sunday (High Carb Day): Same as Monday or take the day off. Listen to your body!

The Supplements:

I’m not the type to experiment with supplements so I stick to the basic stuff.

1. Whey protein powder: Optimum Nutrition makes a great 100% Whey powder that produces great results and also has a great taste.

2. Casein protein powder: I take Optimum Nutrition Pro Complex PM or their Casein protein at night before bed.

3. BCAA’s: Amino acids are the building blocks or protein. These increase protein synthesis so take them in the morning with breakfast and with your post-workout shake.

4. Creatine: Not necessary but helps in the recovery of muscles by supplying your body with ATP.

5. Multi-Vitamin: Make sure you get all the nutrients and vitamins you need. Your hard working body needs to be replenished and to get all the vitamins you need you’d have to eat a lot more than what you should. Stick with the vitamin.

Conclusion:

No one is born with the knowledge of getting fit and becoming healthy. As you can see, I learned from trial and error. I suggest that you read article after article on the bodybuilding.com website. I learned so much from these articles and it has helped me on my quest in attaining the body I desire. I still have a long ways to go, but I am determined to continue to learn and grow. Get a goal. Strive to achieve the goal. Work your butt off. Learn. Keep learning. Grow. It’s all about determination. Good luck!