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Whether excessively endowed with rolls of extra fat or just a little off your ideal shape, there are certain non-negotiable body transformation rules that will enable you to achieve the size and conditioning you want and get you in your best shape ever. With summer almost here, now is the ideal time to get serious about your physique goals.
WHEN TALKING RATIOS AND APPLYING PRIORITY, YOU MUST APPLY 100% EFFORT TO TRAINING, ANOTHER 100% TO NUTRITION AND SUPPLEMENTATION, AND YET ANOTHER 100% EACH TO REST AND MENTAL ATTITUDE. IN OTHER WORDS – THERE IS NO SLACKING IN ANY AREA.
A proper combination of resistance training and cardiovascular work will, aided by enough quality nutrients supplied in the right quantities and at the right times, be primarily responsible for promoting the stimulus necessary for muscle growth and optimal fat burning. The take home message here is that for your summer shape up program to work, you must combine all training facets, including rest, recovery, supplementation and mental approach, along with the requisite training and nutrition.
Though nutrition may be central to training success, a half-hearted approach to hitting the iron will produce few, if any, fresh muscle gains. Undermining the effectiveness of many training plans is the intensity with which we execute and target each muscle group – training intensity really matters when it comes to muscle gains.
THE TRUTH IS, MOST OF US ONLY SCRATCH THE SURFACE OF OUR TRAINING INTENSITY CAPABILITIES, HARDER TRAINING CAN ALMOST ALWAYS BE MANAGED.
By punishing our muscles from the first rep to the last – with no coasting – we stimulate more muscle fibers and create the anabolic conditions needed for super-compensation, or more fully, the extent to which our muscles respond to the enforced overload our gym sessions promote, ultimately becoming larger and stronger.
Once we have properly depleted our muscles (and, make no mistake, we damage our muscles in the gym, and rebuild them when at rest), we must devote enough time to their repair. Since a larger muscle is a more metabolically active muscle, the more recovery and growth we can achieve, the more efficiently we obliterate our fat reserves, both during cardio activity, and when at rest. In fact, as will be noted in the program below, weight training and nutrition will bring about most of the lean body mass gains you will achieve. Cardio,while necessary for fat loss, is also extremely catabolic (muscle wasting) and if misused will take away from our muscle building efforts, rather than serve as a primary fat burning agent.
Without a mindset conducive to conceiving, and truly believing, you can achieve all of your goals, along with the ability to ruthlessly pursue, schedule and following each in turn, your plan may prove unattainable.
KNOWING WHAT YOU WANT, AND HAVING THE WILL AND PERSEVERANCE TO ACHIEVE IT, ARE TWO DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT PROPOSITIONS.To properly structure, balance, and rigorously chase your goals you must be able to switch between tasks with ease and continue to press forward despite any hardships or setbacks faced along the way. Developing a stage-ready or beach-worthy physique is not for the faint of heart. Though many try, few truly succeed. You must be part machine, part human, and part animal in your approach to doing all that is necessary to train with full force, eat all prescribed meals, achieve complete rest, eliminate all outside distractions, and visualize nothing but success.
To ensure optimal hormonal health and consistent fat burning results, work in one cheat/high calorie day per week during which three carbohydrate grams per pound of body weight may be consumed and 1-2 meals may comprise any off-limits foods you fancy (each meal totalling 800 calories). Such high calorie days are an effective way to elevate the metabolic rate, restore thyroid function and (with the inclusion of saturated fats) boost testosterone levels. Trial this approach for 2-3 weeks to see if it works for you; depending on your body type and metabolic rate you may need to schedule two of these days per week or one every 8-10 days. Vary the overall caloric intake of this diet based on your present body fat levels and dietary requirements. For example, if your body fat levels exceed 13% (for males) or 20% (for females) and you find it difficult to lose weight, calories may need to be scaled down accordingly, or adjusted up if your BF levels are in the single digits and/or your body type is more ectomorphic. This can be done by modifying carbohydrate and fat intake accordingly. Protein is to be maintained as prescribed. It is encouraged that you mix and match the following meal options to ensure a varied nutrient intake, and adherence to your diet.
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