thenaturalone’s BodyBlog

I recently received a message from one of my good bodyspace friends informing me that he received an email from someone who claimed to be me and even had my bodyspace link on his email, trying to sell a fat-loss product called Acai Fire. The name listed on this email was Greg Latterdale. The email address he sent this email from was thenaturalonebb@gmail.com. THIS IS NOT MY EMAIL ADDRESS! I am in no way way shape or form connected with this individual or this product he claims to sell! I’m absolutely discusted that this person would go out and try to lie to and rip off the good, honest people on this network, tarnish my name and integrity, and steal a recommendation that they did not earn! If you receive any emails at all regarding a fatloss product called Acia Fire and they claim to be me, The Natural One, then it’s a scam! This is not from me and more then likely this individual has plans to rip alot people off on multiple levels. DO NOT GIVE ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION TO THIS PERSON IF THEY CONTACT YOU! I ask all of my good friends here on bodyspace to please let me know if you have any information about this individual at all! I want this piece of human trash out of commision as soon as possible!!! Thank you all!

Sincerely,

Chad Shaw AKA-The Natural One

 For those of you who have read my story, you understand that I have some physical health issues that doctors swore would be the end of all my bodybuilding ambitions. The latest threat to interfere with my bodybuilding progress has been my right knee. It’s been an on-going problem. I was born without an anterior cruciate ligament in my right knee. On top of that my knee cap is laterally misplaced to the outside and the entire bone structure is deformed to the point where a typical ACL reconstruction is out of the question for me. As a result of these deformities, over the years I’ve suffered multiple knee dislocations and extensive cartilage damage that required me to have my entire medial menicus removed all together. Because of the lack of cartilage, stability, and excessive stress placed on the remaining ligaments in my knee due to over compensation, I’ve developed advanced arthritis in this knee. It was very discouraging because my leg training was always so limited so it was very difficult to develope my body in a symetrical and balanced fashion. I was desperate to find a way to remedy this problem that seemed impossible to deal with so I began doing some online research about different things that could help reduce inflamation, and strengthen conective tissues in the joints. I had tried all the glucosomine products on the planet with no success. I accidently came apon some information about an herb from India called Cissus Quandrangularis. I learned that this particular herb had been used the sports medicine field to remedy joint problems and other types of injuries. It has also been used for pain relief and healing in India for centuries. On top of this herb being praised as a natural healer it had numerous other benefits such as; strengthening tendons and ligaments, improving the nitrogen balance in the body, and lowering cortisol which is a destructive stress hormone that eats up muscle tissue. When your desperate you’ll try anything so I began searching for the best manufactures online who had the purist, most effective form of Cissus Quandrangularis out there. Over and over, the name USP Labs kept popping up. Every manufacture of course claims their products are the best so I did a search on customer reviews that were written by people that had tried USP Labs Super Cissus Rx. Every review was given a 5 star rating to this product and every person who tried it had great results. That’s all I needed to hear. I went and put in an order for several bottles to try. I began using this product 2 years ago. My last visit to my sports medicine doctor was sort of crazy. He was checking my knee and commented on how much more my quads were developed than before when he had seen me. He began asking me about my training and the exercises that I do and the amount of weight I use. When I told him his jaw dropped to the floor! He said " I have absolutely no idea how are able to do those types of exercises with weights that heavy and not have your knee just snap in half!" He said " there is no way you should be capable of doing half the amount you do with your knee in this kind of condition!" He told me that anyone else with the condition I have he would advice to not lift heavy on their legs in any way shape or form, but in my case I was some-how able to make it work and keep developing more muscle to my legs while keeping my knee intact at the same time so he said he wasn’t going to tell me to stop. The last thing he told me was "your a ticking time bomb ya know!" I just laughed and said "yeh, I guess I always will be." I strongly believe that had I not began using the Super Cissus Rx my knee would of crumbled by now. My pain has definately decreased and my recovery after intense activity has definately improved a great deal. Before I began using this product I couldn’t mow my lawn without having pain and swelling directly afterwards but now I can go to the gym and do a full heavy leg workout and then come home and mow my lawn and I won’t have anything except just very mild soreness. I want to make it clear that I am not sponsored by USP Labs. I just believe when you find something has helped you alot with a certain problem then it’s your moral obligation to let other people know about it so they will not be lost on what to do should they experience that same problem. I really believe that using Super Cissus Rx will be the difference of whether or not my career continues or has to end. This product has been a game changer for me. With the success I had with the Super Cissus Rx, I was anxious to try some of USP Labs other products. I was very impressed with the product Prime! This product is non hormonal and all natural. This is the first product I’ve tried that actually scared me because how quickly my strength increased while using it! The gains made using this product were very solid and well defined with noticable gains in muscle mass along with a reduction of body fat. For improved muscle hardness, increased vascularity, and preworkout energy, then USP Labs Jack3d and Anabolic Pump made an awesome 1-2 combination when I stacked these together. It seems as though the Jack3d has a much higher level of beta-alanine in it then other preworkout mixes because you can feel your body tingle all over after consuming it. Beta-alanine of course is a key bodybuilding ingredient that has been in the spot light as of late and best known for it’s ability to convert to carnosine and soak up amonia and lactic acid to delay the onset of muscle fatigue and improve strength and intensity while training. I believe these supplements are a game changer for natural athlete’s. I want to make it clear that there is no such thing as a miracle bodybuilding supplement that transforms you over-night! Success in bodybuilding is a multifaceted effort that require consistancy in high intensity training, proper nutrition, adequate muscle recovery time, and of course good supplementation. Inconsistancy with any one of these aspects will subtract from your possible progress. I know there are many supplement companies out there and I have good experiences with a few, however, most I have not. I will be keeping USP Labs on my short list of supplement companies that have given me the best results. Just a little advice; please write supplement reviews and let other people know what products have worked for you and which ones have not. Thank you much! Best of luck to you all with your training!

 I think it’s safe to say that for those of us who are working to build better bodies through bodybuilding and or fitness, out of all the muscle groups we work so hard to develope, the muscles of the arms seem to be the most universally admired. When ever a bodybuilder is asked in public to make a muscle, it’s always the biceps they’re referring to. Right now at the age of 34, I’ve got 22 years of drug free bodybuilding training experience and have sorted through the all the various styles of arm training that exist to figure out which methods are effective for a drug free bodybuilder and which ones are not. Most people tell me that my arms are my most outstanding feature and I receive tons of messages from people requesting information on how to improve arm developement. People are always shocked to find that out of all my body parts, I train my arms the least. You don’t need to spend hours training arms each week to develope impressive arm muscles. On the contrary, I believe about 95% of natural bodybuilders who want bigger arms are not getting bigger arms because they are over training them. It’s also interesting to me that many people who lack arm developement are told by personal trainers to double or even triple the volume of their arm training to acheive better results and are greatly dissapointed when they put forth all the extra effort and have nothing to show for it. Why is this? Thre reason is because the biochemical resources that our bodies use to build muscle are strictly limited and any amount of training beyond the precise amount that it takes to build muscle will merely subtract from your progress. The key to building a great set of arms is high intensity training combined with adequate recovery periods that give the body enough time to produce muscle. Keep in mind that unless you use chemical enhancements, you can train intensely or you can train long but you can’t do both. The body is not naturally equipt to replenish all the biochemical resources necessary to build muscle during and or after long intense training sessions. Your goal when you go to the gym to lift weights should be to stimulate muscle growth, not to see just how much strain your body can endure. If you want to see meaningful progress then you need to go in and train intensley for the precise amount of time it takes to stimulate muscle growth and then get the hell out. This shouldn’t take but 30 minutes in most cases. One important thing that people forget is that the arm muscles are hit very hard indirectly when you train other muscle groups. If you don’t believe me then ask Dorian Yates who completely ruptured his bicep during a set of heavy barbell rows, or I’m sure you or someone you know may of injured a shoulder or tricep muscle doing bench presses. The arm muscles even get exerted statically during other movements where the biceps or triceps arent going through a full range of motion, like lateral raises for example. Even though the deltoids are the primary muscles being worked there is still alot of exertion on the biceps and triceps moving the arms outward with weight resistance. Static muscle tension can still be depleting even though your not taking a muscle through a full range of motion. For example, try doing a set of barbell curls with a strained abdominal muscle. Your not doing a sit-up but I bet the pain in your strained ab muscle will stop you dead in your tracks! What I’m getting at here is that it’s very easy to overtrain the muscles of the arm. It’s true that genetically we all recover at slightly different rates, however, one thing that remains the same amoung us all is the biochemical reactions that need to take place in order to build muscle. Done naturally it’s somewhat of a lengthy process. After an intense workout on a muscle, that muscle is in a state of undercompensation, (it has less than it did before you trained it.) Now via a series of chemical reactions the body must compensate (put back what was already there), before it can overcompensate (put back more than was there before) which means add more muscle! Depending on how deep of an inroad you cut into that particular muscle this process could take weeks to occur! So what type of arm workout should be done in order to get positive results? I recommend a very intense low volume routine for arms. When I say intense I mean very intense pushing to all out 110% muscle failure. High intensity training is important because the training must threaten the physiology of the muscle in order for the body to trigger an adaptive response. Ounce the body adapts to a certain type of stress it no longer needs more muscle to keep pace with that particular stress so then the intensity must be increased ever further. I’ve found that using super sets and partial repetitions are a great way of doing this. I’ve made tough men cry with the brief but intense arm workout I’m about to show you. It’s based on a routine that was practiced by Larry Scott, the very first Mr. Olympia who in my opinion had perfect arms. There is some modifications I’ve made to make this more effective in my opinion. This routine will involve using a straight bar for preacher curls. Stay away from the E-Z curl or cambered bar because it’s counter productive to building the biceps as it causes the hands to be placed away from the supine towards a prone position limiting the contaction of the bicep muscle. Before doing these supersets, go ahead and perform at least two warm up sets, 1 light set and 1 medium set for just enough repetitions to get the muscles and joints warm but do not push to failure on them! Since your first bicep exercise will be double arm palms facing up dumbbell curl using a preacher bench, do this exercise to warm up your biceps. After you train your biceps then go ahead and perform 2-3 warm up sets on a cable tricep press down to get the triceps warmed up before training them. 

1ST SUPER SET! (GO FROM ONE EXERCISE TO THE NEXT WITH NO REST BETWEEN SETS!) YOU WILL NEED TO SELECT YOUR WEIGHTS YOUR GOING TO USE AND HAVE THEM READY ALONG WITH A PREACHER BENCH IN WHICH YOU WILL BE DOING THESE EXERCISES ON. USE HEAVY WEIGHT THAT YOU CAN HANDLE FOR ABOUT 6 REPS.

EXERCISE 1. Double arm dumbbell preacher curls (palms up), 6 full range reps + 3 short range partial reps (lowering the bar from the contracted position about 3-4 inches). EXERCISE 2. Preacher curls using a straight bar, 6 full range reps + 3 partial reps, EXERCISE 3. Double arm hammer style dumbbell preacher curls (palms facing in), 6 full range reps + 3 parial reps. DONE!  Your biceps should be swollen up like big blood baloons!

2ND SUPERSET! IN THE SAME MANNER AS BICEPS, GO FROM ONE EXERCISE TO THE NEXT WITH NO REST! GET SITUATED BY A TOP CABLE PULLEY AND ATTACH A STRAIGHT BAR TO IT. GRAB A FLAT BENCH AND PLACE IT THE LONG WAY IN FRONT OF YOU AND HAVE IT FAR ENOUGH OUT THAT YOU CAN FACE THE BENCH AWAY FROM THE PULLEY AND GRAB THE STRAIGHT BAR AND PULL IT ALL THE WAY DOWN SO THAT YOUR KNEELING ON THE FLOOR WITH YOUR HEAD DOWN AND YOUR ELBOWS RESTING ON THE FLAT BENCH. KNEELING DOWN IN THE STARTING POSITION YOUR ARMS SHOULD BE AT A SLIGHTLY HIGHER LEVEL THEN YOUR HEAD. WITH YOUR ELBOWS RESTING ON THE BENCH YOU WILL PERFORM TRICEP EXTENSIONS IN THIS POSITION.

EXERCISE 1. Kneeling tricep cable extensions, 1 set of 6-8 reps till failure. EXERCISE 2. Standing tricep cable pressdowns (facing the cacle pulley this time and keeping the elbows at your side.) Perform 6-8 reps till failure. DONE

Now do 1 more exercise for just one set not in superset fashion though. Grab 2 different flat benches and place them parallel to one another and place your palms behind your body supported on the edge of the 1st bench and then place your heels up on the other bench so that you can bend your elbows and lower your body towards the floor and perform dips. You can also hold a dumbbell beween your legs just above your knees or have a partner balance some plates on your lap for added resistance. These are called weighted dips.

Do 1 set of weighted triceps dips going through a full range of motion using enough weight to limit your best effort to 8-10 reps.

Now your done with arms! I’ve given a lengthy description but this workout goes fast! You should be done in 20-30 minutes including the time it takes you to set up the weights! Try this arm workout just 1X per week and see what happens. Be sure to record in a journal everything you do including the amount of weight you use and also your reps you complete. You can compare from one week to the next and see how your strength is improving which means your muscles are growing! When your sets are feeling less intense like the current weight your using isn’t causing you to fail within the rep ranges listed then you will need to add more weight to keep the intensity level high for maximum muscle growth stimulation. Keep in mind that when your strength increases and the poundages you lift increase, then that stress will cause an even deeper inroad into the muscles recovery ability thus requiring more recovery time in order to keep making gains. When you hit a sticking point where your strength isn’t increasing then it’s because your muscles haven’t had adequate time to recover yet so when you’ve reached this point I’d recomment adding an additional 1-2 recover days between all weight training workouts from that point on. After doing this you should start seeing progress again.

Just a quick overview of the workout:

Biceps- 1 set of double arm preacher dumbbell curls, 6 reps + 3 partial reps + 1 set of straight bar preacher curls, 6 reps + 3 partial reps + 1 set of double arm hammer style dumbbell preacher curls, 6 reps + 3 partial reps.

Triceps- 1 set of kneeling cable tricep extensions, 6-8 reps + 1 set of standing cable tricep press downs.

-1 set of weighted tricep dips 8-10 reps.

If your struggling to get your arms to grow, give this simple yet intense routine a try and watch your arms explode! Remember that more isn’t always better, the precise amount is what is best! 

Most of us work hard to take care of our bodies and are very regimented in doing the right things to try to make them stronger and healthier. We nurish our bodies with high quality nutritious foods, we take top quality supplements, we keep putting good things in our bodies so that we can get the most out of them while at the same time we cut back on refined and processed foods loaded with chemicals, saturated fats, sugars and sodium, ya know all the bad stuff. We drink alot of water and take in plenty of dietary fiber to help remove waste and toxins so that our system’s are more efficient, but what about our minds? Are we nurishing our minds as well as our bodies? Our mind is the single biggest thing that holds us back from meeting our goals! Consider this. We live in a society full of stress and lots of bad news. Often times when we are exposed to negative and unpleasant situations these negative thoughts and feelings begin to fill up our minds, polluting them. As these negative thoughts fill our minds, any pleasant, positive or ambitious thoughts get shoved out leaving us with minds full of negativity and doubt. Its seems so easy to put good thing in our bodies and keep bad stuff out of them by why is so hard to do that with our minds? After all, aren’t we trying trying to be as efficient as we can possibly be? I rembeber dealing with all these horrible injuries and disease. My body was seemingly defeated, I had top of the line medical specialists tell me that because of my health problems and also the extent of the injuries to my body that I could never be a bodybuilder or even lift weights again! Talk about mind pollution!  Hearing these negative words really depressed me and got me down for quite some time. Yes my body appeared to be defeated but my mind was not! I desided that I wasn’t gonna be just another lame medical statistic. I desided I was gonna beat these health problems, overcome them and become a bodybuilder just like I had always dreamed! Apparently my body didn’t know that it wasn’t supposed to get better. Through positive thinking I was able to filter all the bad and negative stuff the doctors had told me out of my mind and fill my mind with positive thoughts, knowing that all things are possible and my body could and would heal and I could look forward to that day that it was and be able to persue my dreams. It was the great Arnold Schwarzenegger that said " The mind controls the body, the body doesn’t control the mind." I couldnt agree more! if we can just take time each day to really focus and create a filter in our minds that remove those negative thoughts about what ever they may be, like thinking, gee.. I’m so far in debt I’ll never be financialy stable, or this illness has the best of me and there’s no way I will get better or even, I have the worst genetics, I’ll never be able to lose weight and have an attractive body. We need to then fill our minds with positive thoughts like, I know I can find a better career and make more money so I’m financialy stable, I know my body is sick right now but it’s only temporary and I know I’m gonna get better, and yeh I’m overweight now but I know I can find the right resources to come up with an effective game plan to lose this weight and be healthy and have an attractive body! So as the saying goes "you reap what you sew." I know that this changing the way we think can be difficult in a world where there are so many things that are wrong. However, I believe everyone of us can be much better off and get much more fulfillment from our lives if we make a conscious effort to rebalance our mind so that they filled mainly with positive thoughts while the bad ones that hold us back are filtered out. 

If you have a rough time sticking to a lower carb or lower glycemic index diet because of wicked sugar cravings then you may want to try this recipe for protein cookies I just made up to try and actually turned out pretty good. I’d also like to note that in no way shape or form I’m I like Martha Stewart, however, when it comes to sticking to a diet that supports muscle gain and fat loss, a little creativity can go a long ways. Here is my recipe-

1. First pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

2. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl

-1 cup of wheat bran, -1 cup of oat bran, -1/2 cup of ground flax seed, 4 scoops of your favorite vanilla flavored whey protein isolate, 1 Tsp of cinnamon, and 1/2 Tsp of apple pie spice. Now mix everything up together in bowl.

3. Add the non-dry ingredients to the bowl

-1 whole egg, 2 cups of unsweetened apple sauce, 1 Tsp of vanilla extract, and 3 Tbsp’s of almond butter. Mix all ingredients together until batter forms. If batter seems too dry like it needs more moisture then you may add a little more unsweetened apple sauce until the consistency is satisfactory. The batter should be somewhat moist and chunky.

4. Now spray cookie sheet down with nonfat cooking spray, then take a medium spoon and spoon the batter onto the cookie sheet forming each cookie into a semi-flat circle about the size and shape of a medium sized coffee cup lid. Leave about 1 inch between cookies. Bake at 350 for 13-17 minutes depending apon thickness of cookies.

Makes about 16-20 cookies.

Approximate nutrition per cookie-

calories - 88, protein - 9 grams, carbohydrates - 8 grams, healthy fats - 3 grams, dietary fiber - 3 grams.

Be sure to store in refigerator, there are no preservatives in this food.

I meet so people that are battling with their own bodies to lose weight and remain unsuccessful. Most them will say that they are doing everything right but they just can’t get any meaningful results. While so many people who are trying to lose weight think they are doing the right things, are they really? Here are a few reasons that people aren’t losing weight as they feel they should.

1. Carbohydrates are too high. Alot people I meet think they are doing a good job keeping their carbs low when in reality they are consuming alot of hidden sugar carbohydrates. People really buy into these food and snack companies that promote so called healthy foods and snacks. Beware! Some examples are alot of cerials, crackers, yogurt, chips and cookies and even breads that are advertised as being a healthy addition to the diet when in fact they are loaded with simple sugars. Daily consumption of these types of food will make weight loss very tough. Nearly all cold cerials are loaded with excessive simple sugars. The only ones that are worth eating are the original all bran and fiber one. Be sure to read lables of these products and check out the sugar content. Some of the yogurts out there will have a sugar content that is comparable to a king sized candy bar! Chips and crackers and cookies should just be off limits all together, none of them will support a weight loss diet. And no it doesn’t matter if they are baked they’re not good for you. Again take a look at the ingredients and nutritional information. 

2. Carbohydrates are too low. When carbs are cut back too far it creates higher levels adrenaline and cortisol in the body which will work against fat loss. I’d say never go under 60 grams in a day. Just try and make sure they come from low glycemic sources such as green veggies and unrefined grains.

3. Water retention. Taking too much sodium and not drinking enough water to flush that sodium out will make you retain water and bloat. Try not to get too carried away with the salt shaker!

4. Your body could be in a transitional stage. Your body will sometimes go through a period of adjustment just like a thermostat, your body could be resetting it’s internal temperature to catch up with amounts and types of fuel it’s getting. This will sometimes happen to me when I begin a lower calorie weight loss diet. Sometimes I will actually gain a few pounds the first couple weeks until my body resets it’s thermostat and then at which point I begin shedding fat.

5. Are you overeating? Too many calories beyond the maintainance and growth needs of the body will make us gain weight. Try to increase the amount of nutrients while decreasing the amount of calories consumed. Stick with nutrient dense foods and make every calorie count.

6. Are you undereating? Yes that’s right, too few calories will through your body into a metabolic meltdown in which your metabolism will come to a screaching halt. This is the bodies way of protecting itself from starvation. Try eating 5-6 small nutrient dense meals per day to prevent this. Some of the fatest people I’ve ever met eat just ounce per day!

7. Your not being consistant with your training? Both weight training and cardio! Weight training because it will keep more fat off your body in the long term because as you add muscle your metabolic rate increases. This happens because muscle is active tissue, it burns calories 24/7. Your muscle is your metabolism! Just like an engine in a vehicle. The bigger the engine the more fuel that is burned. The bigger the muscle, the more fat that is burned. Cardio training will burn fat and calories on very short term basis but effectively when done with consistancy.

8. Do you have food intolerances? Many people have problems being able to digest or they are allergic to wheat, milk, sugar, peanuts, soy, eggs, and corn. Some other offenders are artificial sweeteners, especially aspartame (Equal), citric acid which is in soda, alcohol, and glycerine which is found in alot of protein bars. Eliminate the suspected food for a couple weeks and see what happens.

9. Are you taking medications? Many meds can interfere with weight loss, especially anabolic steroids or other steroid medications like predisone is one of the worst. There are many other types of Rx drugs that can cause weight gain. If your taking any medications check with your pharmacist or doctor.

10. Are you eating enough protein? If your protein intake is too low then your body will break down it’s own muscle protein which means your metabolism will slow down. Remember, your muscle is your metabolism!

Take these things into consideration if you are currently losing the battle to lose weight and try to make the necessary adjustments and see if your progress improves. Best of luck!

What a standard that has been set in the world of  bodybuilding! By that, I’m talking about the standard that has been set by the bodybuilding magazine industry that  has literaly created the bodybuilding profession and made it what it is from right around the year 1965 up till now. Over the duration of this booming bodybuilding magazine industry millions apon millions of readers have put complete faith into everything that is printed in  these magazines and followed all the information they provide as a blue print on how to build the perfect body. Where does this lead all these inspiring bodybuilders to be. Well first clue, just look around. How many Jay Cutler or Ronnie Coleman look alikes do see combing the streets? Or lets lower the scale and ask how many Dave Draper or Larry Scott look alikes do see out and about? Well, if your like me, the answer is 0! Or if you have seen any of these look alikes it would far and very few between. Why would this be? Well, with all that vast knowledge of the pro bodybuilders printed in all these magazines telling all of us what workout to follow and what supplements to take you think there would be alot more amazing physiques walking among us. The answer to this is very simple. All these magazines are full of crap! The fact is that these magazines have abandoned the needs of normal people wanting to build muscle and lose bodyfat and have invested  strictly in pro bodybuilders and pro competitions that are dominated by very heavy drug use! These magazines are huge frauds and have done enormous disservice to the sport and also all the consumers who purchase these magazines. They print workouts that will never work for an average person or drug free bodybuilder because with out heavy steroid use there’s no possible way you could recover fast enough to get anything meaningful out of these workouts. Then you’ll also find page after page of fraudulant advertising by supplement companies that have heavily juiced bodybuilders endorsing them, claiming to use these supplement and suggesting that you might be able to see similar results as what they do if you would only buy all the supplements that they say they’re using. I think it’s very sad to see the bodybuilding industry become what it is. Unfortunately people will continue to read these magazines, believe what they read and follow the advice thats given. This will result in countless injuries, wasted money and great deal of disappointment. For those who are aware of the drug use and want to take that route and try to reach pro status, well the success would be very short term and the consequences could be devastating later on down the road. It’s also worth mentioning that I ounce spoke to an IFBB Pro bodybuildier who told me that  his drug bill which included steroids, growth hormones, insulin, and diuretics ended up costing around $200,000. per year. He explained to me that this was about the average cost that a pro bodybuilder would spend in 1 year on drugs. Take this into consideration the next time you read about the workouts and the supplements that the pro bodybuilders in the muscle magazines use. I will say that I have to give the Magazine Planet Muscle some credit for providing some good information on bodybuilding for those who choose to do it the natural way. They do still feature some drug laden pro bodybuilders but at least they’re making some attempt to cater to the needs of normal people and natural bodybuilders.  

As you probably know everyone and their brother, sister and cousin has a book out there about how to lose weight. There’s the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet, nutri system, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and the Hollywood diet just to name a few. With so many different theories and ideas about weight loss it’s no wonder why it remains to be the single most confusing topic out there in terms of health and fitness. So which diets or weight loss plans actually work? Well, to tell you the truth, they all work to a certain point. The one common denominator of every single weight loss diet plan out there is that they all are reduced calorie diets. Any time you go on a plan where you maintain a calorie deficit diet for an extended period of time rather than flying by the seat of your pants eating whatever, whenever, then you will most definately lose weight. In the bodybuilding world the low carb diets are most popular for fat loss. And yes low carb diets do work well but they work by being a calorie deficit diet. An average person would be better off by reducing the portion size of all the macronutrients, that is fat, carbohydrates, and protein in order to cut calories, lose weight and still obtain a well balanced diet. Bodybuilders on the other hand will do better on a lower carb diet with more emphesis on protein in order to provide maximum building blocks to preserve and build the muscles which are constantly under a heavy work load and reducing carbohydrates and saturated fats in order to minumize  total bodyfat content at the same time which makes a bodybuilders situation more unique in this respect. However, taking extra supplements is an absolute must in order to obtain a well balanced diet when carbohydrate intake is low. Lots of fiberous carbs should replace startchy carbs. By fiberous carbs I mean lots of green leafy veggies like broccoli, asparagus, spinach, green beans, and mixed greens. This is important to provide low glycemic index carbohydrates which will provide energy with out causing big surges in insulin that will lead to bodyfat storage, they also provide vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. A multivatamin, essential fats like flax oil, extra virgin olive oil, fish oil, and extra calcium and vitamin C need to be supplemented on a daily basis. Also branched chain amino acids and creatine ethylester should be taken before and after workouts to provide more energy and enhance muscle recovery and also keep blood sugar levels more stable. A good whey protein isolate supplement can very helpful to control food craving and also help fullfill the craving for sweets. Whey isolate is good to bridge the gaps between meals to keep up energy and also to take along with branched chain amino acids and creatine ethylester after your workouts to further enhance muscle recovery. Now in case your wondering why I suggest creatine ethylester as apposed to creatine monohydrate, it’s because creatine monohydrate requires alot of sugar to be taken with it in order to absorb which wont help fat loss on a low carb diet, creatine ethylester doesnt require sugar to be absorbed. It is also a good idea to try to take in smaller food portions on a more frequent basis to have a more optimal effect on increasing your metabolism. While it is important to reduce calories, it is also important to try to take in 5-6 small food portions per day composed of mainly lean protein sources and fiberous carbohydrates like green leafy vegetables. Eating in this manner will help preserve muscle tissue better which will keep your metabolic rate higher. The idea here is to increase the amount of nutrients you take in while reducing the amount of calories. The bottom line is that it isn’t one particular nutrient or one single thing you eat that makes you fat. It’s any calories consumed beyond your bodies maintenance and growth needs is what makes you fat. The idea is to create an energy deficit in the body which will force it to have to rely on stored bodyfat for energy. You make this happen simply by burning off more calories than you take in during the day. This means cut back on calories and increase the amount of exercise you do. Simple mathematics really. There’s 3600 calories in a pound of fat. With the modifications you make in your life style to do more exercise and eat fewer calories you may complete one week with a negative calorie balance of 3600-7200 calories. This means that you lost 1-2 pounds of fat. If you gain 1-2 pounds then you have taken in 3600-7200 calories during the week that your body didn’t need. Success here depends strictly on discipline to make a valid effort to cut back calories and keep up on a regular exercise plan. The more consistant you are with these two things the greater extent of weight loss you can achieve. I will be the first to admit, trying to lose weight is not fun, nor is it always  comfortable because in order to be cosistant on a weight loss plan you have to constantly turn down unhealthy food. That is a big reason why americans in general are becoming increasingly over weight, is because there is far too much unhealthy food available in way too many places. How often you turn away from these unhealthy food opportunities will reflect just how serious you are about creating a lean healthy body. All I can say is, the next time your boss brings in dounuts to work for a job well done, having the lean, healthy, strong, muscular body you’ve always dreamed of will feel 1000 X better than that dounut will taste! Be strong, stay disciplined and the rewards will be great! 

I remember 14 years ago after having learned about the negative consequences of overtraining as it applied to me personally I began a workout that involved training each muscle group on a less frequent basis. I had been training each muscle group 3 times per week and I had all the signs of over training, lack of muscle and strength gains, chronic fatgue, chronic muscle soreness and joint pain, insomnia, depression, restlessness, and lack of ambition for training. I altered my routine so that I was training each muscle group just ounce per week and doing half the amount of sets per bodypart as what I did before. It was crazy after that, my gains began to sore, I gained more muscle and more strength, my drive to train hard went through the roof, my muscle and joint pain went away, and wasn’t always tired anymore, I actually had energy! After following this new program for several weeks, one of the regulars at the gym noticed how much heavier weights I was suddenly lifting and approached me and asked me how I could possibly be lifting weights that much heavier so suddenly and I told him that I was drastically over training before working each muscle group 3 times per week and now I was training each muscle group just ounce per week and now I was making great muscle gains due to the fact that I was giving my muscles that much needed increased recovery time in order recuperate and produce muscle size and strength gains. He laughed and responded back to me " Yeh well that type of training your doing might help you gain strength, but theres no way your gonna gain much size training each muscle group just ounce per week." I then said "Oh really? Well ok, if don’t get bigger by getting stronger, than how do you get bigger? By getting weaker??? Thats right in order to get your muscles bigger they must get stronger. There is a very direct relationship between muscle size and muscle strength. On that note, make no mistake about it, as long as your getting stronger your moving in the right direction in order to get bigger. Train smarter not harder!

In terms of our diets, there is no subject in this category that has caused more confusion and controvery for people than  protein supplements. I decided to write this blog to shed some light on this subject in order to straighten out some of the confusion in regards to protein supplements. What kind of protein is the best kind to use? Are they all the same? When is the best time to take protein supplements? Are there advantages and disadvantages to using different proteins? Lets begin with the most popular of all proteins, whey protein. Not all whey proteins are created equal. Sometimes you do get what you pay for. You may know that whey protein is derived from cow’s milk. Cow’s milk has two different types of protein. Casein protein about 80% and whey protein about 20 %. The difference? Whey protein contains natuaraly higher amounts of branched chain amino acids and glutamic acid which greatly enhance muscle recovery and nitrogen balance. About one-third of our muscle tissue is composed of branched chain amino acids and roughly 10% of fuel required for muscular activity which can lead to more intense training sessions and also better muscle recovery which means better muscular gains. One other advantage to whey protein is that it is much more soluble than other protein sources so its a very fast acting protein that can deliver a fresh flood of amino acids to hungry muscle tissue in a matter of minutes. Levels of blood amino acids will peak about 1 hour after ingestion and return down back to pre-meal levels in around 4 hours. These qualities make whey a great post workout protein to use after workouts during that time sensitive window of opportunity of about 45 minutes when the muscles can super- saturate with nutrients like amino acids to begin the recovery process. With whey protein you get a much higher concentration of amino acids delivered in a much faster time frame than you would casein or caseinate protein. Now lets take a look at the different types of whey protein the compositions of each kind. First, lets look at sraight whey powder which is roughly just 11-14% protein, 63-75% lactose, and 1-1.5% milk fat. Not the best choice because all that lactose will cause some gastrointestinal disturbances and the actual protein content is very low, respectively. Then probably the most commonly used whey protein seen on the market in most whey protein supplements is whey protein concentrate. The actual protein content can vary between 25-89% depending on the quality. Lactose content can be anywhere from 10-55%, while the milk fat content can be from 2-10%. Finally, lets look at whey protein isolate. Here we have an actual protein content of 90+% of actual protein with the lactose content being very low around .5% and also the milk fat content at around .5%. There you have it, when searching for a good between meal and post workout protein, then whey protein isolate will be your best bet where you’ll get the best bang for your buck. Read the ingedients to find the protein origin of a product before you buy it! Now what about casein and caseinate proteins? These are the slowest absorbed and digested of all the proteins. Not to say that these proteins are bad, however, they should be reserved as pre-bed time proteins in order to help support a positive nitrogen balance to keep the body in an anabolic state throught the night while sleeping. These proteins will take as long as 8-10 hours to run through your system so never use them before a workout as they will keep blood in your stomach for a long period of time to slowly digest the slow absorbing protein. You don’t want blood in your stomach when your training, you want the blood in your muscles! Consider this information the next time you go to place an order for a new protein supplement to add to your regimen. I hope this information is helpful. Best of luck!