Many guys (and gals) who go to the gym have no issue with lifting weights (unless it's squats, everyone loves to hate squats). The truth is, lifting iron is the easy part. Anyone can do it if they put their mind to it and have a desire to better themselves and improve the quality of their life. With the exception of maintaining proper form while lifting, lifting weights is easy! No, lifting isn't the problem at all. The hard part is eating.
Sure, anyone can eat food, it's easy and we have to do it to survive. The hard part is eating "tactically" when attempting to build lean muscle. You can lift weights all day, but if your diet and general nutrition isn't up to snuff, you will see little or no muscle gain what-so-ever. Not a cool situation to find yourself in, that's for sure. The real problem, it would seem, is that people can't seem to figure out what diet is right for them. Or more appropriately (because I hate the word "diet"), they don't know how many calories to eat, how much protein to take in, or what kind of carbohydrates are right for their goals.
Now honestly, I could write a book about proper bodybuilding nutrition, but that's not possible because I have a day job already. What is possible, however, is giving you a link to the nutrition software that I use to build my own nutrition plans. The easy part is building the nutrition plan. The hard part is maintaining it, and eating at the right times. It's possible, sure, thousands if not millions of people do it every day in pursuit of the ultimate body. It's just a pain in the butt, sometimes, that's all. As far as expense is concerned, the most inexpensive software I've found, and subsequently (because I'm a cheap kind of guy) the software I use, is the Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer program. It makes it inherently easy to design a nutrition and food-schedule around your body type, fitness goals and lifting habits/schedule.
Click here to visit the Somanabolic Maximizer site now
Monday, May 2, 2011
The truth about six pack abs
In this day and age, it's all about looks. You can't get to the top without looks, you need to look like this, or like that. It's all quite vain, but that's life. One of the biggest and most popular fitness related markets is the six pack abs market. There are literally thousands of companies out there competing for your attention and hard earned dollar. And they all seem to say the same thing: "Buy our product to get six pack abs fast!". If only it was as easy as they claim! There's more to abs than doing sit ups and crunches all day - Much more. Read on to follow my journey into the realm of fat loss, diets, and rock hard abdominal's.
First, let me get something out of the way beforehand. You already have abs. They are right there. Lift up your shirt and look where your abdominal muscles are. They've been there the whole time. You just can't see them. The truth is, almost everyone has tight, hard abdominal muscles. But most people will never see them. The hard truth is that the key to a six pack isn't sit ups and crunches. It's fat loss. Your abdominal's don't really start becoming visible until you have around 10% body fat or less. In order to achieve such low body fat numbers, you need to follow a healthy diet and partake in significant amounts of cardio exercise. It's a sad fact of life, but to look good, you have to work for it.
The truth about the abs is that they are 90% nutrition, and 10% working out. Without a proper fat-loss specific eating and cardio routine, you will never see your natural, beautiful abdominal muscles. In fact, working your ab muscles out in the gym all the time without focusing on decreasing body fat can actually make you appear fatter. If you build up a muscle without decreasing the fat that sits on top, the fat will expand, giving you the appearance of a bigger tummy. Sure, the abs will be big and beautiful, you just won't be able to see them!
First, let me get something out of the way beforehand. You already have abs. They are right there. Lift up your shirt and look where your abdominal muscles are. They've been there the whole time. You just can't see them. The truth is, almost everyone has tight, hard abdominal muscles. But most people will never see them. The hard truth is that the key to a six pack isn't sit ups and crunches. It's fat loss. Your abdominal's don't really start becoming visible until you have around 10% body fat or less. In order to achieve such low body fat numbers, you need to follow a healthy diet and partake in significant amounts of cardio exercise. It's a sad fact of life, but to look good, you have to work for it.
The truth about the abs is that they are 90% nutrition, and 10% working out. Without a proper fat-loss specific eating and cardio routine, you will never see your natural, beautiful abdominal muscles. In fact, working your ab muscles out in the gym all the time without focusing on decreasing body fat can actually make you appear fatter. If you build up a muscle without decreasing the fat that sits on top, the fat will expand, giving you the appearance of a bigger tummy. Sure, the abs will be big and beautiful, you just won't be able to see them!
Building lean muscle without the fat
The holy grail of anabolism is building muscle without also building body fat as well. For decades, it was believed that this was impossible, that no one could ever hope to add muscle without adding fat stores as well. In recent years, several diet and nutrition developments have been made. These have indicated to scientists and body builders alike that building lean muscle without the fat is possible.
What it comes down to is macro nutrient levels, eating at the right times, and taking in the perfect amount of calories, protein and carbohydrates based on your somanatype (body type), fitness goals, and workout style. Following diet plans provided by magazines will certainly put your body into an anabolic (muscle building) state, however they are not custom tailored to your body type or fitness goals. The end result is muscle and fat gains. Muscle is difficult to build, and easy to lose. Body fat, however, is easy to gain, and hard to lose. Even worse, once you have gained a fat cell, it's with you for life. You will never be able to get rid of it. Empty fat cells make it easier to gain body fat, which is exactly what you don't want.
The key to gaining lean muscle without the fat, lies with your diet. It has been said that body building is 90% nutrition, and 10% lifting weights. And that number is about as accurate as it gets. Simply put, there is no "universal" nutrition program. The only way to maximize your body building efforts, while keeping body fat at bay, is to follow a 100% customized nutrition program, that has been designed specifically for you and your goals. Up until recently, doing this meant spending your hard earned dollar to see a body building specific nutritionist. Not a cheap exercise. Today, there are several different programs out there that will automatically and accurately create nutrition programs geared towards you, your body type and your goals. I'll be blogging a bit more in the future about some of the programs that I have had success with, one of which is the Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer. There are other programs out there, but I'm definitely a big fan of the Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer. It was the first (and only) custom nutrition program I have ever used, I doubt I will ever switch.
Take care and check back later for more lean muscle info!
What it comes down to is macro nutrient levels, eating at the right times, and taking in the perfect amount of calories, protein and carbohydrates based on your somanatype (body type), fitness goals, and workout style. Following diet plans provided by magazines will certainly put your body into an anabolic (muscle building) state, however they are not custom tailored to your body type or fitness goals. The end result is muscle and fat gains. Muscle is difficult to build, and easy to lose. Body fat, however, is easy to gain, and hard to lose. Even worse, once you have gained a fat cell, it's with you for life. You will never be able to get rid of it. Empty fat cells make it easier to gain body fat, which is exactly what you don't want.
The key to gaining lean muscle without the fat, lies with your diet. It has been said that body building is 90% nutrition, and 10% lifting weights. And that number is about as accurate as it gets. Simply put, there is no "universal" nutrition program. The only way to maximize your body building efforts, while keeping body fat at bay, is to follow a 100% customized nutrition program, that has been designed specifically for you and your goals. Up until recently, doing this meant spending your hard earned dollar to see a body building specific nutritionist. Not a cheap exercise. Today, there are several different programs out there that will automatically and accurately create nutrition programs geared towards you, your body type and your goals. I'll be blogging a bit more in the future about some of the programs that I have had success with, one of which is the Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer. There are other programs out there, but I'm definitely a big fan of the Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer. It was the first (and only) custom nutrition program I have ever used, I doubt I will ever switch.
Take care and check back later for more lean muscle info!
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