I mean anyone can gorge on foods like pizza and donuts and gain 20-30 pounds in just a few weeks but that’s not a attractive physique now is it?

So what are some of the possible reasons why you aren’t growing?

1. You’re afraid of getting fat.

Pretty boy Abercrombie bodies need not apply. Ok before I get into this let me say that I am not advocating anyone get as swole as Jay Cutler. That’s not attractive to women and most people don’t desire to get that big. I’m also talking to people that want more muscle than a Abercrombie model, more or less, the Men’s Fitness look. That’s a good look.

Not My Goal For You

My Goal For You

Simply put, you’re afraid of getting fat. You think that if you eat too many carbs or calories  that you’ll gain an enormous stomach.

You need the calories from clean foods. The same that you’d eat when you diet and you’ll be all set. Provided that you’re training and doing some cardio, you’ll be ok.

2. You’re eating too much protein.

Ok, before you write me off as some looney, let me explain.

We all know how important protein is. As a matter of fact, it’s the only food that by itself can change how we look.

So the magazines tell us that we need to eat an absrub amount, like 2 grams for every pound of bodyweight that we have.

That’s a lot of chicken and powders.

But what they don’t take into account is that you’re also eating carbohydrates and fat. Carbs help the protein that we eat to work better. Our body actually needs less protein because it uses more when we have carbs in our diet.

If we don’t use the protein it gets turned to glucose and treated like extra carbohydrates.

So half the protein that your pounding is actually causing you to add body fat. Crazy but true.

Here’s some other thoughts

-You’re not eating enough fruits and vegetables. Your body becomes more acidic with protein and you’ll need to counterbalance that so that your body is in an optimal environment.

-You’re taking too many supplements. Stick with the ones that works. Beta-alanine, creatine monohydrates and BCAA’s.

-You’re not eating enough post workout. Your body can use more calories in the post workout window then you might believe. Take it from me, you want to have a large meal after you train. Make it your fun meal of the day.

Its been a good few weeks im cutting weight like I wanted to However I feel like I have hit a small change in my progress ,,, So I started a new concept with my diet im trying a carb cycle . Which is 3 days of few carbs . Carbs coming from only eggs , lean meats and veggies . Then I go back on my regular diet. Third day on the diet and woke up to go to posing class pretty lean today … Alot of what will be lost at first is water (Four grams of water per gram of carbohydrate approximately)… Im a little nervouse about being to lean for the Arnold but lean enough for my first figure debut …Im really excited about the Arnold headed out there March 3rd … Very excited to see old friends and meet new ones …..Wish me luck i have 11 days to dial in Thanks for all the support xoxox

Lacey Lynn

So that got me thinking, what are some good supplements for endurance?

I initially sought out an old Chinese Olympic training secret, mushrooms. Cordyceps, which is a mushroom extract, has been touted for years as a way for athletes to increase their oxygen delivery. I’ll say that I give it a 4 out of 10, I noticed some slight improvements but I didn’t take it long enough to really test it out. So for the sake of not just throwing out random supplements, here’s a breakdown of the classes of supplements for endurance.

1.Energy Drinks

Not your typical Red Bull type drinks, I’m talking about strength training based supplements. These are the ones that the guys who grunt loud drink before they train, you know. They usually contain caffeine, yohimbine, yerba mate, green tea and various amino acids like beta-alanine.

The verdict: I’ve never tried them but they are fantastic for a one time fix.

2. Blood Boosting

These won’t give you a Floyd Landis like effect but these energy supplements will work. Iron is the first place that everyone looks and it can increase oxygen delivery but unless you are deficient in it, you don’t need it. Cordyceps, like I mentioned above as well as another mushroom extract Reishi both get the job done.

3. Carbs On The Run

This isn’t breaking news but carbohydrate sources like waxy maize and dextrose provide quick energy bursts. You normally see this in various liquid glee supplements.

4.Bars

While I’m normally not a bar fan, I do feel that when one needs quick energy, these are the way to go.  Since most bars are laden in carbohydrates, they fit the bill when it comes to needing a quick boast.

5. Stimulants

Like caffeine and green tea that we mentioned above, these stimulants block various fatigue processes. I’ve also found yerba mate to be more effect than caffeine or green tea.

1. The world needs less cardio.

Not the b.s. about high intensity vs low intensity, both get you ripped. Cardio should be our last resort to losing bodyfat. Not our first, like so many claim. As a matter of fact, If you’re training hard enough and in some cases long enough (which I do not advocate), you can get pretty darn lean without cardio.

Only do cardio when you can’t lose any more weight. Everytime you hit a weight loss plateau, raise your cardio.

2. Fat doesn’t burn fat

I LOVE fish oil. Anyone that knows me knows that. I don’t buy that it helps you burn body fat. Let me take a step back. I know that it is very powerful for minimizing the insulin response of food and making our cells more receptive to insulin, through those mechanisms we’ll burn fat. I know that CLA has shown some promise in various studies.

Flip the coin though, those advocating large amounts of healthy fats on diets are usually taking other things as well. I’m not saying that it isn’t important, we just don’t need any more than 20-25% in our diet.

“Insulin is a potent stimulus for fat storage in the presence of large amounts of dietary fat.”

So even if we’re taking a large amount of healthy fat and eating some carbs, we’ll still gain fat.

3. I used to hate carbs, I don’t anymore.

I’m not saying that they are the best because they aren’t. More often than not, they do nasty stuff like increase our body fat and raise inflammation in the body. That is, if you abuse them. Take carbs out of your diet and you won’t get a pump in the gym, you’ll look stringy and you’ll lose a ton of weight overnight…then stop.

Moderate amounts of insulin promote the storage of glycogen and amino acids into muscle and inhibit fat storage.

Isn’t that the point of any diet? Save the muscle and burn the fat. I feel better on a low carb diet of about 200 grams per day while dieting than I ever have.

4. We really don’t need to drop our calories by that much.

I read a blog post one time online from someone trying to get abs. He was on, in his words, a 1500 calorie diet from a “dieting guru” (term used very loosely and interchangeably with “someone that reads studies all day”) and doing a full body routine.

Do you know what his thyroid (the potent regulator of your metabolic rate) looked like? Look at the image of a shriveled up grape below for an idea.

Add in the caloric burn of a full body routine and you can guess how he felt.

Here’s my point.

We really don’t need to drop our calories that much. Aim to reduce your intake by 600 calories per week  until you can’t lose fatand you’ll lose about 1.2-1.5 pounds of fat per week.

That’s my rant. Thanks for reading. If you’d like to add to the rant, please do so in the comment section.

Q: So you get the call that you need to be ready for a photo shoot in 5 days. It’s a big opportunity for you so you take it. Now you’re photo ready year round but you’re not as tight as you’ll be on the day of the shoot. What are some of the first things that you do with your diet to begin this process?

A:Generally if I am trying to get ready within 5 days and I am trying to tighten up I will cut my carbs completely, cut all sodium and sugar intake and all my foods will be high in protein. There is also some skin lotion creme that I use now that is great. It is called Thiomoucase which helps to rid water deposits from your skin. I will rub this in the specific areas where I am carrying a lot of water. My cardio sessions are little longer than 25 to 30 minutes. I may increase the cardio sessions to 40 to 45 minutes to help me drop some extra water and weight. It is very easy for me to drop weight and water within 5 to 7 day period if I need to. If I follow these steps for the next 5 days I will drop a minimum of 7 pounds. I also will take a natural diuretic pill called Taraxatone 5 days prior to shoot day which also helps me rid water from my body as well.

Q: Now I know some guys who don’t wear socks and underwear to their shoots since they don’t want any lines from elastics being seen in the shoot. What do you wear the day of a shoot and how do you decide what to wear in the actual shoot (assuming the magazine doesn’t give you clothes)? Are their any unwritten rules as to what not to wear (excessively baggy shorts etc etc)?

A:As a fitness model it is important to have many options because sometimes you never know what you will be wearing. So I bring everything from baggy shorts to form-fitting under-armour shorts to a variety of different color shorts. The more you bring the better you are for the client you are working for. I am kind of like a female when it comes to fitness shoots as I bring as much as I can. Always have as many options as you can in regards to shorts, shoes, socks, etc

Q:What’s your nutrition like the day of the pphoto shoot How many meals do you typically get in before the shoot and what do they consist of? Do you make sure you last meal is ,say 30 minutes, pre-shoot?

A:The first thing I eat is oatmeal in the morning the day of a photo-shoot and then I have protein bars that I bring to the photo shoot to snack on during breaks. I am not someone that likes to eat heavy the day of the photo-shoot. I want to be as dry as possible and I generally don’t need that much food in my system the day of the shoot to be 100 percent functional. My reward from completing a great shoot is to pig out on food after the shoot.

Q:Do you deplete water like you normally would for a show and consume none on the day of? Do you take mini-breaks during the shoots to snack on rice cakes, prunes or bananas for energy? You don’t need to be contest hard since the photographer can help a lot, especially with black and white photos but what do you do?

A: I generally deplete water 24 hours before my shoot by drinking coffee and at times taking a taraxatone water pill. Coffee is a natural diuretic and is great for eliminating water out of your body. So I do definitely deplete the same way as I do when getting ready for a contest. My goal every time for a photo-shoot is to be ripped as I possibly can be. As I said before I can only snack on protein bars during breaks of the shoots which allows the sugar to bring out the vascularity in my body.

Q:Last question, color. If someone is pale or doesn’t have a dark enough color what should they do? Obviously they should try to tan if they have a few days notice but should they use any type of tanning lotions?

A:Obviously being African-American I don’t have to deal with this issue so I have no clue or knowledge on tanning lotions and what to use because I don’t have to use anything whatsoever…smile! My friendly advice to anybody going to a photoshoot is to always come in tanned. That is the kiss of death if you come to a photoshoot unprepared as you may not get that opportunity again. This is a small industry and people talk so always come as prepared as you can

Another great piece with Obi! For more information about Obi check out his website here

Problem: Your eating too much protein.

Fix: Start rotating your nutrients.

I love protein powder, probably more so then others. Don’t get me wrong, I eat my chicken and beef and turkey and I feel better when I eat whole foods but when I’m dieting I just love the taste of protein powder better. Sad really but I digress. Most physique folks like us tend to over consume protein because we think we have to.

Not that it’s bad for us ( it isn’t) but you have to look at each of the three macronutrients (protein, carbs and fats) as pieces of a puzzle. Every piece might not fit in a certain spot that you want them to fit but they fit none the less. We’re so focused on the need for more protein that we can’t see the forest past the trees. Yes, we do need more protein when we diet because our need for amino acids increases but too much protein will be converted to glucose and spike blood sugar, in the same, albeit smaller, fashion as carbohydrates.

What happens when the excessive glucose starts floating around our body and can’t be stored in our muscles? We get fat especially when we consume moderate amounts of fat during a low carbohydrate diet. So you should begin to see that every macronutrient has its place in our diet.

It’s not as simple as saying “when carbs go up then protein goes down” either.  We focus on eating what we have to instead of eating to fuel our efforts in the gym that day so just deciding to lower protein slightly and raise your carbs a little bit is like deciding to take your eyes off the road when driving here or there. Eventually you’ll crash.

I’ve put together a complete manual detailing, step-by-step, how you would set-up and use a calorie rotation diet to achieve your ultimate level of leanness while maintaining your muscle mass. Here’s just one of the many examples of individuals that have used my system with great success.

Click Here For More Information On The Fat Loss Diet

Problem: Your Eating Too Many Meals

Fix: Eat Less

Hold on, before you jump to the conclusions that I’ve gone loco, hear me out.  The general thought process is that one should consume 6-7 small meals per day in order to lose weight. Generally speaking, this works. If you’re someone that doesn’t eat enough and/or eats the wrong foods then splitting your food intake up into 6 meals with better food choices will go a long way.

What happens if you’re someone that eats a large amount of protein or carbohydrates with your meals to maintain your muscle mass? Better yet, let’s back up slightly.  Say you have a good amount of muscle mass, you would need to eat more. At 6′6 230ish I need to consume 6 meals or so a day or else I won’t be able to function. That’s just what happens when you have more muscle, you either deal with it or get small.

So is there an advantage to eating 3 small meals versus 6?  Rather than repeat myself, I’ll copy a selection from a previous article that I wrote called small meals and your metabolism (check it out for a more in-depth look at this topic).

“That being said, the main positive thrown out when people suggest that you eat every two to hours is the thermic effect of food (TEF). Basically everytime you eat your body will need energy (calories) to break down the food. the TEF is dependent on the food that you eat. Protein is the highest and wiill account for about 20-25%, while carbs will be 5% an fat being around 3%.

So everytime you eat, your body responds according to your food intake. The problem start with our thinking of TEF. If we’re on a 1500 calorie diet, for example, and we eat 300 calories over 5 meals (I just threw out a random calorie number here) or eat 500 calories over the course of three meals the net TEF at the days end is going to be the same. The only difference is going to be the blood sugar spike, either we spike it 3 or 5 times.

We can either give our metabolism a small or big shot. The entire theory of multiple small meals came about years ago with the though process that since you were eating 6 small meals the chances of adding bodyfat would be lower then 3 small meals.”

Problem: Your training doesn’t support your diet.

Fix: Take an objective look at your training and make changes.

This is a nutrition article so I don’t want to get too far away from your diet but we tend to look at nutrition and training as one whole big thing as opposed to synergistic pieces.  Most people, from average individual to gym rat to hardcore athlete focuses on what we do in the gym as the thing that will cause the biggest change.  We do curls for big arms.

Unfortunately, that’s a completely incorrect way of viewing your training and diet.  Your training supports your nutrition. Why are most people fat? It’s not because their doing low intensity cardio as some internet fitness people will have you believe. It’s because they aren’t causing their body to deplete itself of the stored calories that are making them fat.

This goes across the board for hardcore physique people and the average individuals just looking to burn some fat. Your diet could be picture perfect but if you aren’t matching your depends in the gym to your nutrition then your just repeating the cycle. It’s why high intensity exercise has become so popular lately, no one’s training hard enough.

Problem: Your forcing yourself into a box

Fix: Do it your own way.

Ok,you may be slightly confused here. This happens to everyone, even the top guys at the natural and unnatural levels will hire a adviser or coach to help them lose bodyfat. People don’t want to think and just follow templates that aren’t personalized.  Heck, you can go online and find 100 diets to try tomorrow. Stick with them and you’ll get some results but they won’t help you.

Again, take me for an example. If I followed a typical low carb diet, I’d eat the same amount of carbohydrates on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (the days I lift) as I would on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday (low intensity cardio and off days). Can anyone else see the problem in that?

Maybe you’re following a dieting that’s causing you to feel great part of the time and awful for the other half. Are you going to stick with the diet just because you feel ok 3.5 days per week?  Of course not, but you like the results?  Don’t stay in the dieting mold, fix it, break it.

Click Here For More Information On The Fat Loss Diet

Dude had some gross back fat…

Now I know you might be thinking that not everyone can or wants to be all ripped up and shredded and I feel you on that. Just because I like it, doesn’t mean you do and I respect that.  One universal truth that I’ve found, regardless of if you  want a flat stomach or to be shredded, is that no one wants back fat and everyone want to know how to lose back fat.

So what’s the 411 on back fat? What is it and why is it there and what can we do about losing back fat?

Back fat is simply just adipose tissue, like the rest of your external fat. So stop stressing and thinking that it’s something foreign and different and thus difficult to deal with a la Alf.

Why do you have back fat? Well to say it in the nicest way possible, it’s the same reason why you have some  fat that you’re not down with or why you’re abs aren’t looking the way you want them to. Simple because you’ve spent a specific amount of time just storing nutrients (carbs and fats) without the need for your body to burn those calories as energy. You overate for too long.

So now you need to discover how to lose back fat as easy as possible ( this is one of the best articles on the site for how to lose fat). Well, you first have to check your training. If you’re not into back training, then you need to get familiar with it right now.

I’m not saying that back training is going to immediately turn fat into muscle, because it won’t. What it will do is help burn your back fat because unlike lower back fat, upper back fat can be burnt off quickly because the body doesn’t want to store it there. It’s not as stubborn as lower back fat. So start working on upper back movements like rows, chins and deadlift right away.

Great, but what about lower back fat, fitness expert?

Well I’m not going to get into the specifics of the diet, that’s in the article that I mentioned earlier and you can also check out this article on a six pack diet.

But…..

Here’s some quick tips

1) Do your cardio. This isn’t the time to debate which kind of cardio is better, you need to do it after your weight training to burn your maximum amount of calories. If you can’t stand to do it every day then just start cardio cycling but do cardio now (here’s a video on interval training that will help you). The best cardio is the cardio that you do.

2) Take your fish oil, at least 9 grams per day. Fish oil is the king of supplements, especially when it comes to losing back fat due to its ability to keep blood sugar stable and low.

3) Worry less since the more your worry the more you overeat and the more you add fat. Try some of these herbs to lower cortisol. I know you might think that it’s not a “real” or “hardcore” answer but it’s the truth. People that worry overeat and gain more fat.

4) Take your B vitamins. Smoking, drinking, stress and a poor diet (or being around smoking and drinking and stress) are the four biggest factors that contribute to B vitamin depletion in our body. Not only are B’s needed for proper hormone function but they greatly enhance your fat and carbohydrate metabolism, amongest other things.

5) Dump coffee for tea like Kelly dumped Zach (but don’t go after Jeff, he was tool).

6) Deadlifts, stiff leg deadlifts and sumo deadlifts for 8-10 reps will work wonder for working your low back(here’s how to deadlift).

7) Stay away from the superman exercise. Most people make the mistake of thinking it will help their low back from both a physique and health point of view but it won’t. Leading low back researchers Dr.Stuart McGill has estimated that this exercise places 4000 pounds of pressure on the low back. It’s terrible in the same way that every Superman movie has been terrible since Christopher Reeves.

Not Cool

Very Cool

Keep your sugar low with low carb foods and healthy supplements like alpha lipoic acid and chromium.

9) Train your abs hard (you can follow this six pack abs workout) but understand that training them all the time won’t do the trick alone.

So there it is. Hopefully next time that I go to the beach and want to relax, I won’t get awoken with fear ( I had the jaws theme running in my head) because someone caused a shock and awe moment. On a more serious note, I know everyone from guys in bathing suits to women who want to button their bra (hey now!) want to get rid of back fat now, follow this guide and you’ll lose back fat fast.

I’d really love to know your thoughts so if you’ve enjoyed the article, would you please leave a comment.

It’s all in the preparation

Don’t get it twisted, when you see the winner or the person who gets all the magazine ads, it’s because they tracked every calories and every amount of fat, carbs and protein that went near their mouth. They never missed a training session and they didn’t whine about doing cardio. Do you know the biggest, most brutal thing that they faced? It was the mirror.

Be honest with yourself and you’ll get fantastic results.

Everyone assumes that a bodybuilding contest diet needs to be 12 weeks long.  Simply because that’s what the pros do. Well in all honesty, that doesn’t make much sense. You need to examine how long that you need to diet to get the best results for you. If you have 30 pounds of fat to lose, 12 weeks might not be enough. Don’t miss this, the success of a diet depends on how much muscle you maintain. Drop your calories by more then 1000 more more then a few weeks and you’ll be in a world of hurt.

In my experience, you can lose 2 pounds per week consistently and keep all of your muscle. So give yourself enough time, if you try to push it to the upper limit for this rapid weight loss effect that doesn’t exist you’ll run the risk of losing your hard earned muscle. While 2 pounds is the upper limit, you should try to shoot to lose 1-1.5 pounds per week, just to be careful.

What’s your type?

Don’t be so quick to follow some basic template. If you’re an ectomorph that is lean year round, you really won’t need to push the diet until the latter part of the diet. If you’re an endomorph that has always been chubby then you know you need a little more time. Listen to your body and don’t rush into a basic bodybuilding contest diet.

Shreds over size

What does the typical person walking down the street want to have? A shredded stomach or to be huge? While there’s a small percentage that wants to be overly muscular, the majority will want the shredded stomach. Those dudes want a six pack diet. That’s the same for bodybuilding contests. Judges want you to be ripped and not the biggest dog.  So your goal needs to be to retain as much muscle as size and lose as much fast as possible. Let’s take a look at how to manipulate the macro nutrients to get leaner.

Protein

Protein and bodybuilders go together like peanut butter and jelly. Enough of that, we’re talking about bodybuilding contest diet stuff, not sandwiches. The most important nutrient, protein is broken down to amino acids during the digestive process. Amino acids are needed so that protein synthesis and muscle building can occur. Protein spares muscle tissue during times of stress a.k.a bodybuilding contest diets, since it can be broken down to glucose.

What gets missed by most people is that protein isn’t as muscle saving as carbohydrates are. So the fear of carbs is misplaced. Your body wants to store protein, not burn it for fuel. As a result, protein has a great fat burning effect on the body. Protein can raise your metabolism.

The great carb fear

If you have probably assessed your body and have been honest with yourself then you shouldn’t have this immediate need of fear. If you want to lose the most fat in the shortest period of time then go ahead and get on a ketogenic diet, your body will switch from burning carbs to fat and you’ll lose fat but you’ll have a harder time maintaining muscle.

So if you can lose fat faster that way then why keep carbs in your diet? Carbs can spare muscle so much better then these moderate or high fat approaches. Even keeping a small amount of carbs in the diet can cause the body to store amino acids the way your body wants them to be stored and that’s in the form of new muscle.

Another issue with most bodybuilding contest diet approaches is that the guru doesn’t give any attention to maintaining exercise intensity. Even a small amount of carbs will give our body enough glucose to maintain optimal energy levels. If we jump to a zero carb diet, our body has to use amino acids for fuel and that increases the chances of muscle breakdown. How many carbs do we need? More to come later.

Yet another benefit of carbs is that carbs release insulin. Insulin is muscle sparing and also reduces stress hormones such as cortisol. These stress hormones want to eat up muscle tissue so we need to keep them low. Lastly, carbs keep our muscle ceels hydrated. A hydrated muscle cell is anabolic muscle cell. Think about it carbohydrate. Carbs hydrate the muscle cell.

Now I do like ketogenic diets for bodybuilding, please don’t get me wrong. I do think that they will result in the most fat being lost when compared to a low carb diet week by week. If we remember what our goals are for a bodybuilding contest diet, it’s to lose fat and build muscle. So we’re not just focusing on losing fat.

So I wouldn’t advocate a keto diet right away, if you have your precontest diet planned out then you might want to include a keto diet toward the end.

Know Your Fats

Yes, it’s true. Fats are involved in almost every single process in our body, they are needed. Our body wants to use fat for energy since it’s the best form of energy. Every 1 gram of fat will contain 9 calories. Good from a low carb stance but awful when you look at completely eliminating carbs from your diet. When we go on a low carbohydrate diet, our testosterone production will drop, which is why we need fats to synthesize more testosterone. On a low calories diet, our body will shut off the production of testosterone to “save” us.

Fat is needed to make cholesterol which then produces testosterone, so viewing fat is bad is incorrect and keeping it low in a diet is even worse. In that same breath, fat can be stored as bodyfat very easily. So we need to have a trade off of enough fat for energy and but not enough fat for adding bodyfat.

Most research studies done on fat in diets have shown that fat should be around roughly 30% of daily caloric intake in order to raise testosterone. With fat at 30% of your calories in your bodybuilding contest diet, you’ll be hard pressed to store bodyfat.

Don’t get so caught up on testosterone though, it’s a small piece of the puzzle and there are numerous other hormones that are essential for losing bodyfat and building muscle. Plus if you raise fat too much (above 30-40%) you won’t have as much of a need for carbs and fat, as you can tell from above, that would be a mistake.

So those are the basics of setting up a bodybuilding contest diet. Now onto actually designing a diet.

Q: What are the best sets and reps for muscle building?

The best sets and reps for beginner muscle building programs is three to four sets of ten to fifteen reps. While this is the typical recommendation, it works the best for beginners since it teaches the central nervous system to recruit more muscle fibers as well as provide the proper stimulus for the body to grow.

Q: What are the best exercises for muscle building?

When you start out on a beginner muscle building program you need to understand that the best exercises are movements like deadlifts, squats, lunges, dumbbell bench presses, rows and chin-ups. They recruit the most muscle and therefore will help you grow. Don’t ignore isolation movements though, as they are needed fully develop individual bodyparts.

Q: I’ve read that after a workout I should have a meal of protein and carbs. Is that true?

Yes, after a intense workout you should consume a meal of liquid protein and carbs. Waxy maize or dextrose are too fast carbohydrates that enter your bloodstream quickly and pull the protein powder taken with them into your muscle cells so you can recover and grow.

Q: What type of cardio should I do that won’t hinder my muscle building?

On a beginner muscle building program the best type of cardio to do is interval sprints two to three times per week. Intervals will help you to consume more food while making it easier for your body to store the carbohydrates you eat as new muscle instead of bodyfat.

Q: What advanced muscle building techniques should I use?
Don’t worry about using advatange muscle building techniques too quickly. They are good but for the first two months you train, your body will grow at a exceptional rate. After that time period you can lower your reps to around six to eight and possibly raise your set to four to five.

Q: How many days a week should I workout?

A beginner muscle building program should have you in the gym for no more then four days per week. if you are training individual bodyparts then four days a week is fine. A four day a week split would look like this.

Day One

Chest and triceps

Day Two

Back and biceps

Day Three

Off

Day 4

Shoulders, traps, abs

Day 5

Legs and calves

Day 6

Off

Day 7

Repeat day 1

Q: How much protein should I eat?

Rather then addressing it again, here’s a in-depth article that will answer the question, how much protein do you need.

1. Eat less carbs. Seriously, most people are amazed by how they feel and the water weight that they drop when they change both the quantity and quality of the carbs that they eat. You can notice differences in a few short days.

2. Drink more water. More water in means more water out.

3. Ditch the coffee, it makes you sluggish and eventaully makes your workouts weaker.

4. Stop dressing like a tough guy. I don’t care if everyone else at your local bar is doing it. Sometimes those skin-tight Ed Hardy or Abercrombie shirts aren’t for everyone. Wait a few weeks and follow this list and you’ll look better then everyone who wears them. All those shirts do is make you focus on your negative body image now.

5. Start doing interval track sprint 3 x per week now.

6. Just because you worked out doesn’t mean your post workout carbs need to be ice cream. Focus on quality sources of protein and carbs in your six pack diet.

7. Skinny isn’t sexy, ripped is. If you’ve ever said “I want to be skinny” then you need to eat more protein and add some muscle.

8. Try to get 8 hours of sleep a night and focus on your nighttime nutrition.

9. Spending 30 minutes of doing crunches isn’t the proper way to set up a six pack ab workout.

10. Drink more water.

11. Use a killer arm workout program to build some arm size quick. Sexy arms equal a sexy body.

12. Stop wasting your time by trying 100 different workouts. Stick to one plan.

13. Don’t follow the diet advice of some pro athlete or genetically blessed cover model who never had it hard.

14. Listen to your body.

15. Invest in a good quality Branch Chain Amino Acid drink and use it during your workout.

16. A beer or two a week will hurt you.

17. Your weekends are probably the reason why you can’t lose stomach fat.

18. Have a cheat meal or a cheat meal or two on Saturday night at your last meal or two of the night. Not in the morning.

19. Bacon with eggs is still bacon.

20. Make a vision board and put up a picture of your ideal body. Seriously, look at it everyday until you’ve attained that body.

21. You need to eat every few hours if your body is telling you to.

22. Just because you used a program in the past doesn’t mean that it will work for you now.

23. Train your legs.

24.Buy a kettlebell to keep in your basement for those days when you don’t want to go to the gym.

25. Drink more water and less coffee.

26. Stay focused on your goal no matter how long it takes you to get there.

27. Remember, everyone likes a set of six pack abs. Don’t stop until you get them.

28.Vegetables and fruits can radically improve your body and your health.

29. Don’t get caught up on the latest supplement hype.

30. Determine how much protein you need and stick with it.

31. Stop wondering why you don’t have someone else’s “perfect” body and focus on yourself.

Bonus tip: Let nothing stand in your way and let no one tell you that you shouldn’t be working out that much or eating certain types of healthy foods. Let’s do this!

Can you add any tips that I might of missed? Leave a comment below.