Can You Help Out Ryan Baxter?

You will see his chest and shoulder workout below.

Got tips for Ryan?  Post them in the comments section after you read over his routine.  I’m pretty certain that given the experience of this community, we can give him some pointers.

Ryan Baxter’s Beginners Story:

Hi Marc,

I’ve just started out at the gym and I’d like to share my workout with you so that the good visitors of Body Building Secrets Live can help me on where I’m possibly going wrong. I’ve started to notice some stretch marks which probably means I’m definitely doing it wrong.

I haven’t got a training partner and I’ve had no help devising a workout. All I’ve done is watch what other people are doing and ask them a few questions.

I’m naturally quite a puny guy so everything feels uber heavy to me and it seems like I need to work a lot harder than other people to get some results.

There’s definitely a difference in my body after three months but maybe not as much as there should be because there’s a strong possibility I’m doing it wrong.

The only supplement I use is whey protein which I got for half price when I weirdly stumbled across it by accident looking for gym deals in London.

My arms and back are coming along ok, but it’s the chest and shoulders that I want to ask for your guys’ opinions.

If I explain my workout, do you think you might all be able to give me some pointers about where I’m going wrong and some advice on how to make my workout better? Thanks in advance to any of you that can help out a brother in need!

Chest

When I first started going to the gym a guy told me to focus hard on upper chest so that when I start putting on some muscle my chest will be even rather than big round the sides and lower parts of my chest. Maybe he’s right, maybe he’s wrong, I have no idea. So here’s what I do with chest in the order I do it:

Incline Press: When I started I was pushing 12kg dumb bells and I’m now up to 24kg. I do 8 of these for 3 sets – not that I always make it to the eighth push. I incline the bench on the first notch up and I bring my elbows down so that the weights are almost resting on my shoulders.

Unknown Exercise: I don’t know the name of this one but I’ll try explain it as best I can. It’s almost like an incline press with the bench on the first notch up but the weights are twisted 90 degrees like you would hold the weight on a hammer curl. I push up from in line with my lower chest and twist another 90 degrees when I reach the top of the push to get a squeeze in my upper inner chest.

Incline Flies: I’m up to 12kg on incline flies but I’m not sure what angle I should be bringing my arms down. I feel a bit of a stretch in the part between my front delts and upper chest where I’m noticing the stretch marks. Could this exercise be the reason I’m getting them?

Flat Chest Press: I match 24kg on this one and bring my elbows down so that they’re at a right angle. But I see some people not bringing their elbows down as far as 90 degrees, more like 70 degrees before pushing back up. Which angle is most effective?

Flat Flies: I do 12kg on these as well. Again I feel a stretch in the same place I do under my arms when I do incline flies. I normally bring my elbows down further than 90 degrees because I can feel it more in the inner part of my chest that way. But should this affect whether or not I get stretch marks?

Decline flies: I use 10kg weights and decline the bench as far as it’ll go. I don’t feel a stretch under my arms with this one like I do with the other flies, probably because my arms won’t physically go back as far. I give the weights a twist at the top and I can really feel a squeeze in my lower inner chest.

These are the six exercises I do for chest.

Has anybody got any advice for some other exercises that will give me better results?

Shoulders

I do four exercises on shoulders altogether, all with free weights. I’m starting to notice the side of my shoulders getting wider (sorry for the lack of technical terms) but not much mass, just definition really. Here’s my shoulder workout:

Shoulder Press: I just pushed 20kg on shoulder press last night for the first time after starting on 10kg three months ago. I’ve pretty much doubled what I push on every exercise but don’t feel like I’ve gained the muscle to go with it.

Side Raises: I think it may be called drop sets for the exercises I do on side raises. I’ll do eight side raises with 10kg, then straight away pick up 8kg weights and repeat the side raises. I do this four times.

Front raises: I do exactly the same thing with front raises as I do with side raises. 10kg followed by 8kg for four sets each. I’m noticing a lump of muscle appearing at the front on my delts almost like the shape of a small ball. Is that as a result of this exercise and is it normal?

Reverse Flies: I think these ones are called reverse flies? It’s where you’re sitting on a bench and you lean over, bringing your arms away from you. My question on this exercise is, is it better to use a lower weight and bring your arms fully away from your body or is it better to use a heavier weight and not be able to fully straighten your arms?

I hope all of that makes some kind of sense? I’d be really grateful to any of you that can either give me some advice to fine tune what I’m already doing or some tips for new exercises that will help me develop more mass rather than just definition.

Thanks in advance to any of you who can spare a few moments to help a weights weed!

Sincerely,

Ryan Baxter

Can we help Ryan out?  Post your tips, advice, critiques below.  You can contact me if you’d like to do something similar with your own particular situation.  As a group, we can help.

Marc David – CPT
“The NoBull Muscle Guy”
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding

When used correctly a weight gainer can be a very effective way to put on weight.  Weight gainers will provide you with the protein, carbohydrates and fats needed to gain weight.  Gaining weight requires many things.  One of the big ones is calories in vs. calories out.  There’s more to gaining weight though then just eating a large amount of food.  You need to supply your body with the right amount of quality protein, carbohydrates and fats.

A weight gainer is a easier way to supplement your calorie intake to meet your daily needs.  Weight gainers should be used as no more then a meal replacement.  When choosing a weight gainer supplement, you should be looking for something within you per meal needs.  Now we have all been intrigued by the 2000 calorie per serving weight gainer supplements.  These are not the weight gainers you should be looking for.  A lot of these are loaded with sugar and can do more harm then good.  Eating in excess of your daily needs could actually have the opposite effect your looking for.  Instead of muscle mass you could end up adding more fat mass.

Make sure you check the protein/carb ratio, you want to make sure your choosing a weight gainer to fit your needs.  If your having a problem meeting your daily protein needs, you should be looking for something higher in protein.  If carbs are you problem, look for something a little lower in protein and higher in carbs.

Why Use a Weight Gainer:

Eating and preparing 6-8 meals a day can be a little inconvenient.  Its a lot easier to drink a weight gainer shake then cook and prepare a whole meal.  To gain weight you should be eating small frequent meals about every 3 hrs.  For most of us, eating that often can become almost impossible.  This is where a quality weight gainer can be very helpful. Weight gainers are usually loaded with calories, protein and carbs.  They are a great way to get in your daily macros on those hectic days.  They can be used as a meal replacement or in-between meals as extra calories.  If your having a hard time meeting your daily calorie needs, a weight gainer can be very beneficial for you.

If you are what they call a “Hard-Gainer” or if you have fast metabolism and have a difficult time gaining weight, a weight gainer would provide you with the extra calories need to grow.  When it comes to gaining weight, quality carbs are just as important as quality protein.  Weight gainers are a great way to incorporate complex and simple carbs into your diet.

If your looking to gain weight and overall muscle mass, a good quality weight gainer is just what you need.  When it comes to gaining weight, you have to consume more calories than you burn.  A solid approach is to add in a couple weight gainer shakes per day, as meal replacements or as in-between meals for some extra calories.  This will help maximize your weight gain.

When To Use A Weight Gainer:

Weight gainers are very versatile. You can take them anytime of the day.

Morning:  Your body is in a fasting condition upon waking from sleeping 8 hrs or so.  This means your body has not eaten protein and carbohydrates in sometime.  You need both protein and carbs to keep your body anabolic.  A weight gainer is a great way to feed your muscles first thing in the morning.

In-Between Meals:  A high calorie liquid drink can be taken in-between meals, they are easy to prepare and to consume.  Weight gainers are a great way to get in extra calories between meal and a great way to gain weight.

Post Workout:  The main mission post workout is to speed up recovery as fast as possible.  A protein/carb shake works slightly better for a post-workout meal as opposed to whole food sources.  This is the time when you want to feed your body with fast acting carbs and get amino acids into the muscle quickly.  Post workout is a prime time to use a weight gainer.

What To Look For In A Weight Gainer:

Calorie Level:  Pick a weight gainer that fits your calorie needs.  Make sure their are plenty of good calories, protein and carbs.  A good rule of thumb is: if your pre-meal calories are around 400-600, then select a weight gainer that offers that to you.  There’s no need to go overboard and start stuffing down some 1500 calorie weight gainer.

Price:  Unfortunately ,a lot of weight gainer are designed just to make supplement companies money.  When it comes to selecting a weight gainer, you don’t necessarily want to buy the cheapest.  But at the same time, you don’t want to waste a ton of money on one.  You want to do your homework here.  Find a  reputable supplement company, that fits into your means.

Protein:  Protein is made up of amino acids which are the building blocsk to building muscle.  Make sure the weight gainer you select has at least 40 grams of quality protein.

Protein-to-Carb Ratio:  Along with a quality protein, you should get a good amount of quality carbs.  This is where most people go wrong with weight gainers.  Like I have stated before, weight gainers are not much different then a meal replacement.  A good carb-to-protein ratio is 2-1 per serving.

Fats and Sugar:  Most of us get plenty of fat and sugar in our everyday diet.  There’s no real need to supplement more then needed.  Try to select a weight gainer with no simple sugars, no fructose, and no sucrose.  Also look for a weight gainer that keeps saturated fat to a minimum.

Pro’s vs. Con’s of A Weight Gainer:

Pro’s

• Can allow bodybuilders to get the calories they need without eating tons of food
• Higher amount of calories and protein than a standard protein powder
• Can encourage faster muscle and weight gain
• Can be less expensive then most whole foods
• Very convenient

Con’s

• Taking a to high of a calorie weight gainer should result in fat gain
• Could be high in sugars, fructose, sucrose
• Most taste terrible
• Serving size to big
• Saturated fats to high

Weight gainer supplements are no different then any other supplement.  They don’t have super powers, they are just calories.  When it comes to gaining weight you have to consume more food than you burn off.  This does not happen over night.  It takes years to build large amounts of muscle.  If your looking to help speed up your weight gain and muscle mass a bit,  a good quality weight gainer is just what you need.

Do you want to be a slave to numbers?

If so, keep counting those calories.  Let me know how that works out for you in say, 10 years from now.  The REAL secret to success was given to you at birth and over time thru family and society was manipulated.  It’s a little talked about principle called Instinctive Eating.

This skilled called Instinctive Eating is something you developed at an early age but for most of us, is forgotten or manipulated.  In simple terms:

Instinctive Eating is feeding the body when it’s hungry.

• When you are physically hungry (actual hunger pangs)
• When you lose the cognitive ability to focus and concentrate

It’s at this time your body is saying.. I AM HUNGRY!  Feed me.   As you age, you move out of this phase and instinctual eating is replaced by habitual or emotional eating.

Habitual eating is the eat 5-6 meals a day, 3-4 hours apart each and every day.  It doesn’t much matter if you are hungry or not, you have the clock, it says to eat, you eat.  You eventually lose touch with your internal body cues and more often than not, you aren’t actually hungry, but it’s time to eat and so you eat.  This is a classic problem with people looking to gain weight.  Chances are they are instinctive eaters anyway, they eat when they are hungry and they stop when they are full.  So gaining weight is unnatural.  They are told (by myself and many others) to eat, eat a lot, and eat often.  Which has the benefit of eventually allowing them to gain weight but without knowing this, they can lose that cue of actual hunger and instinctive eating.

Emotional eating is simply eating because you are:

• bored
• tired
• angry
• sad
• depressed

And these triggers elicit some response to eat.  It’s those looking for comfort foods.  This makes it really hard to establish a good, healthy relationship with food because it’s an emotional response and has psychological factors involved.

Does this mean calorie counting is useless?

Absolutely not.  It serves as a very good helper in the journey back to instinctive eating.

The Real Problem with Counting Calories is that most people learn this out of the gate and then never realize they need to re-learn the principles of instinctive eating.  Over time, they quit counting calories and potentially over eat or under eat again as they never established a healthy relationship with food or re-learned the cues of actual hunger.  The skinny guys loses weight as he gets bored with stuffing his face and the weight loss seeker goes back to habitual eating or emotional eating not really giving too much though to the process.

Need an example?

People are told they need to eat 5-6 meals per day, every day.  Some of those meals might be pre-workout and post-workout “snacks.”  But that assumes you are actually training.  What happens when you stop intense training and engage in unstructured  activity?  Maybe you are doing some body weight training and not trying to engage in heavy, continual weight lifting?  Maybe you’ve taken a break for a couple of weeks to recover?

Are you still eating like you training?  Still getting those 3500 calories for weight gain even though your training is easy to a base line routine?  At this point, you are a habitual eater and your instincts are telling you that 3 meals a day might be just fine but you keep plugging away, doing what you’ve always done.  You end up getting fatter and feeling a bit sluggish with all this food for an activity you are not doing.

This is precisely where instinctive eating comes into play.  It’s why you need nutritional periodization for your training.  You shouldn’t be eating the same during the pre-season or competition phase as you do in the off-season or unstructured phases but nobody tells you this.  They lay out a meal plan and you stick to it week after week regardless of your activity.

Do you know people who eat 6 times a day and never skip a meal but they don’t even train or aren’t training at the time?  I do and I wonder myself, if they are even aware of their behavior patterns when it comes to food.

Any long term success is dependent on YOU learning the basic cues of your body that is called Instinctive Eating.  When you train, your nutrition changes to support that effort.  When you take breaks or reduce the volume, your eating patterns should change as well.  As you go thru training cycles, you go thru nutrition cycles as well.  Counting calories is a useful process that can you some great perspective into your current situation and to help modify behavior but it’s not the end game.  If you believe you can count calories for the rest of your life and measure food, I wish you the best of luck.

Your real key to success is going to use modern tools to observe your behavior, to modify your nutrition to support your training and to adjust as necessary but the long term goal is to be in-tune with yourself not mindless number crunching and plowing thru food.

This is a pretty simple principle to re-learn but chances are you’ve forgotten it or been so involved in formula calculators that you are a creature of habit.  If you have questions, comments or concerns, let me have them in the comment box below.

Until next time,

Marc David – CPT
“The NoBull Muscle Guy”
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding

PS - If you are a number cruncher and love counting calories, there’s no downside.  You are continue to do so and be that exception.  This post is for those of us who are not math lovers and need to relearn the tools we were given at birth.

Ingredients:

• 1lb skinless chicken breast (diced)
• 1 bag frozen stir-fry vegetables (your choice)

Peanut Sauce:

• 1/8 cup natural peanut butter
• 1tbsp lite soy sauce
• 3tbsp water
• 1/4tsp garlic powder
• 1/4tsp ground ginger

Directions:

1. In a small bowl mix peanut butter, soy sauce, water, garlic powder and ground ginger together.
2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat, add chicken and cook until no longer pink inside. About 10 minutes
3. Remove chicken from skillet and set aside.  Add stir-fry vegetables to hot skillet and cook until no longer frozen and cooked through.
4. Add the chicken back to the skillet and add in peanut sauce mixture
5. Cook until sauce thickens about 3-5 minutes.

*Serve over your favorite rice.

Nutritional Facts: (Per Serving)

• 2oo Calories
• 7g Fat
• 9g carbs
• 28g Protein

Chicken, veggies and rice with a peanut butter sauce, oh my!  Very quick, easy, and very tasty.  I decided to go with the frozen veggies in this recipe just to help speed it up a bit.  By all means if you want to use fresh, go ahead.  I usually just use the green, red peppers and onions mix.  You can use whatever kind you like the best.

We have been eating this at least once a week anymore.  It doesn’t help that both of us are peanut butter junkies and I do mean junkies.  We have even made these without the stir-fry veggies and wrapped them in Boston lettuce, which is also excellent.  You could even experiment a bit and try them over pasta too, which I’m sure would be great.

The biggest problem I’ve found with this recipe is, that’s its so good you cant help to think your eating something bad for you.  Which isn’t the case here.  Just make sure you use Natural Peanut Butter not regular peanut butter.  I highly recommend this quick, tasty and very healthy stir-fry recipe.

Let’s face it.. gain weight is pretty easy when you put the numbers down on paper but it’s the behavior that limits people.  If I told you to eat X number of calories per day for your body weight, the math is the simple part.  It’s the following behaviors that must change in order for you to make changes.  For instance…

When somebody who is under weight is not eating enough but knows they need to eat a certain amount of calories per day to put on healthy weight, it’s not that math that trips them up, it’s the inability to follow thru with a plan.  Eating more, shopping more, preparing food is foreign to most.  It takes hours to days to form a habit and roughly 21 days to break a habit.  Did you know…

It can take 12-18 months for a behavior pattern to form to the point where it’s seamless!

Here’s the most common factors that can affect your ability to gain weight.  You make these into daily behaviors and break your current patterns and you are guaranteed to pack on muscle and weight.  So let’s begin.

Mistake #1: Not Eating Enough Calories

Just like gaining too much weight by eating too many calories for the energy expended, the same is true for the person who wants to gain weight.  They rarely eat enough.  It’s most likely because you aren’t eating enough calories to support long term weight gain.

This is really true for skinny guys who are “instinctive” eaters (they eat when hungry only) and do a lot of activity.  They stay skinny because in their minds they want this magical weight gain but haven’t formed the habitual eating pattern to get in the required calories.

This is where a weight gainer or a weight gain homemade shake can be helpful.  It’s far easier to drink more calories than it is to eat enough clean foods.  It can be extremely filling and for somebody who’s new to the process who’s trying to eat only healthy, clean foods, they are so full they find it impossible to continue to eat.

Getting in some liquid calories can ease the process of not consuming enough.  While I’m not a huge fan of counting calories, it’s helpful in the stages of weight gain or weight loss to have a number to shoot for on a daily basis.  Once you become more of a habitual eater (eating on a schedule as opposed to when you are hungry) the weight will come.  Then you can switch back to instinctive type eating when you have put on more weight.

Eating like a 200 lb bodybuilder when you are 130 lbs now is darn near impossible!  But over time, you’ll easily be able to eat that much as you grow, put on muscle and your body needs the fuel.

I’m not advocating over eating or putting on excessive weight.  But if you are trying to gain weight and you aren’t eating enough to support that effort, the weight will not magically happen.

Mistake #2: Bare Cupboards

If you don’t stock up on high protein foods and other such items, then opening up the cupboards to find them empty will really put a damper on your weight gain efforts.  It will be impossible to create healthy but high calorie meals.  You’ll find that eating more frequently won’t work if you open up the cupboards and find nothing to eat.

Grocery shopping will become a routine and allow you to have a variety of foods to choose from, make quick meals, create high calorie snacks and get your pre and post workout nutrition quickly and easily.

Looking at dorm rooms, college kids living off campus, you chuckle because all that lame grocery shopping your mom did to keep the house full of food is now on YOUR shoulders and it’s a routine and chore you must bear.  If you can’t keep food in the house, go online and have it delivered on a regular basis if possible.

Opening up the fridge, cupboards or pantry and finding nothing to eat puts you right into the daily spiral of not eating enough to support your training.  And over time, you’ll end up at square one again.  Making this mistake leads to the meal planning problem.

Mistake #3: Meal Planning is Non-Existent

Not enough calories is obvious as to why people don’t gain weight.  Not having the food is a given but failing to plan what to eat will limit your choices when it comes to meal time and it makes it more difficult to get in the required calories.

If you are opening up cupboards full of food (good) but have to do this several times a day (bad) it gets real old.  Eventually you fall back to old habits that create less stress and are easier for you to cope.

Meal planning doesn’t have to be difficult.  You can cycle between a couple of routine plans each day that give you the food you require.  Sounds boring?  It is!  But it’s planned and easy to follow.  If you are one of those people who wants a new, fresh, exciting meal every day, then I hope you either love to cook or have a chef.  Otherwise, you’ll need to have some type of plan.

What’s for breakfast, snacks, dinner, post workout, bedtime?  If you continually have to hunt around for food or try and devise a meal 6 times a day, you’ll go back to grazing not eating.  It becomes too much effort and it’s a recipe for failure.

Get a couple of basic, no-brainer, nothing fancy meal plans that hit your targets.  Adjust them as necessary and eat to a schedule.  When you go to pack you 5-6 meals for the day, you know exactly what to eat, you have it in stock and that’s how you gain weight.

It becomes routine.

Mistake #4: Lack of Food Variety

A huge mistakes is limiting the number of calories you’re eating dramatically and limiting vitamin and mineral intake…nutrients which are necessary for GROWTH!

At some point you will hear that you should increase the variety of your nutrition plan and there’s some very good reason to do so.

Meal plans can be routine and boring (in terms of different foods every day) but you need to include lots of different foods (colors help) to ensure you are getting a well balanced diet and offering up all the nutrients for optimal growth.

Americans eat somewhere along the lines of 50 different foods in their lifetime vs. other societies that eat upwards of 80 various foods!

Take the suggestions for a couple of meal plans per day, and ensure they have enough variety that you are eating a fair amount of foods that provide different minerals and vitamins.  You will want as many nutrients as possible and you won’t get that if you stick to the same things every single day without any variety.

Have a couple of plans that offer up enough variety will be easy to follow, easier to shop for but provide the nutrients necessary for growth.

Many of us are creatures of habit.  Especially those who don’t know how to cook!  And as such (if you grew up eating convenience foods) you leave out certain nutrients because you didn’t know about them or you never learned to cook a variety of foods.  If you overeat in one food group, you leave out essential nutrients necessary for full muscular development.

You can easily accomplish this by having different lean proteins, fruits and vegetables (color), whole grains and healthy fats at most meals.  Variety is the spice of life and the athlete who has a lot of variety will fair better than the one who does not.

Mistake #5: Infrequent Eating; Skipping Meals

Now most fitness experts will blast you for skipping meals saying it will put you into some catabolic state and muscle will be broken down.  It’s a huge sin to skip meals!  I’m here to say that’s not really the case.  You can eat 3 meals a day and gain muscle and gain weight but the real problem is… most people who are eating 3 meals a day probably aren’t enough enough calories and you may not be controlling your blood sugar levels.

There’s some pretty big debates on if eating six meals a day is necessary but beyond the fact that meal frequency has worked for decades for many bodybuilders, the issue with trying to gain weight is getting enough calories.

For example, let’s say you need 3500 calories or more a day to gain weight.  That’s roughly 1166 calories per meal!  For most of us, including myself, there’s no way I can eat 1000+ calories in a single sitting of decent food.  It’s much easier and realistic to break that up into 6 meals and eat around 583 calories per meal.

Eating frequently and not skipping meals is essentially to avoiding Mistake #1 which is not eating enough calories to support weight gain.  So unless you are following the classic bodybuilders and eating 3 1000+ calorie meals of steak, potatoes and such, you are going to need to split those meals up to meet your requirements.

Why do people skip meals?  Especially skinny guys and gals?  More often than not, they are instinctive eaters and eat when hungry and stop when full.  Which is perfect to maintain your current weight but you’ll need to break that habit if you want to change your eating patterns.

Mistake #6: Emotional Eating; Instinctive Eating

There’s 3 types of eating:  Emotional, Instinctive and Habitual.  Many people eat based on emotions (bored, sad, angry, tired, depressed).  Those end up with unwanted weight gain.  People who are looking to gain weight usually are very good instinctive eaters.  They feel hungry or they lose mental focus and they eat.  They stop when full.  They have a hard time packing on weight because they aren’t used to forming the habit of habitual eating.

Counting calories in the long term is a not a recipe for success but it does provide awareness and a useful tool to modify behavior.  The person who wants to gain weight will become a habitual eating.  Eating to a schedule.  Once they get to their target weight and it’s easy to maintain, the goal is to become an instinctive eater once again.  This time, you’ll eat more and probably more frequently at your new weight than before.

Eating as an athlete should follow the mantra “Eat to Train.”  Eating to allow your body to grow and produce muscle is vastly different from eating to curb hunger or out of emotions.  Performance Nutrition is an entirely different realm than eating for survival.

Your goal, should you choose to accept it is to become a habitual eater and then learn instinctive eating by listen again to your body’s cues.

If you can avoid these weight gain mistakes, you have a really good chance of gaining the weight you desire.  The process is simple but not always easy as it requires behavioral modifications.

Marc David – CPT
“The NoBull Muscle Guy”
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding

PS - Here’s an additional 6 Weight Gain Tips for you to follow.

PPS - Here’s a collection of the Worst Weight Gain advice that I sincerely hope you don’t follow.

Creatine cycling means using creatine for a period of time, followed by not using creatine for a period of time. If you use creatine monohydrate, cycling is important because it gives your body a break, so that it can “normalize” and regain homeostasis.  While creatine is a naturally occurring nutrient, having highly elevated levels in your body for extended periods of time is not normal and can put extra stress on your organs.  Any creatine that is not absorbed by the body is converted into a byproduct known as creatinine. The kidneys are then responsible for removing this excess creatinine. Drinking lots of water is vital while taking creatine because it allows your kidneys to do their job.

The other reason for cycling creatine is that your body can be come used to it and it may become less effective. Essentially, you may build up a tolerance to creatine the same way you would to many other things. Most people do cycle creatine for these two reasons.

You can load creatine at the beginning of your cycle to get faster results if your are some body who is concerned with cutting short any benefits by cycling off. The creatine loading phase can help your achieve your goals faster.

A typical creatine cycle lasts anywhere from 4-8 weeks. Most people cycling creatine monohydrate will take between 5-10 grams per day, however taking as little as 2 grams per day will still be effective. Typically people will cycle off creatine for at least a month after a 4-8 week cycle. However, some people prefer to take breaks as short as 2 weeks. It is really a matter of personal preference. If you don’t cycle off creatine at all then I highly recommended getting your kidneys checked by your doctor a couple times per year to make sure they are still functioning properly. Cycling off creatine will help you avoid putting ant unnecessary stress on your kidneys.

Creatine monohydrate is a very powerful and effective bodybuilding supplement that can help you reach your goals. I highly recommend cycling creatine monohydate to be safe. By not cycling creatine you are not guaranteed better results but you will put unnecessary stress on your body.

John McKiernan is a personal trainer who enjoys researching information on bodybuilding, supplements, diets, health tips, the benefits of creatine and more. He is the owner of Supplementhelper.com where he shares knowledge and advice about popular bodybuilding and health supplements.

Carbohydrates are your body’s main source of energy.  Carbs come from a wide variety of foods: breads, pastas, dairy products, potatoes and even pop-tarts.  Sugars, fiber and starches are the most common and abundant forms of carbs.

Simple carbohydrates like the ones found in fruits and dairy products are easily digested by the body.  Your body breaks down simple carbs to be used as energy, your body uses these up very quickly.  Complex carbohydrates which are found in foods like whole grain breads and brown rice, take a longer time for your body to digest.  Complex carbs give you a longer lasting energy.

Their is a newer system of classifying carbohydrates, its called the glycemic index.  The glycemic index ranks food on how they affect your blood glucose level.  Low Glycemic foods are taken into the bloodstream slowly allowing levels to remain stable.  High Glycemic foods cause a more rapid rise in blood glucose levels.

Pre-Workout Carbs:

Your pre-workout meal is one of the most important meals of the day.  If order to provide the necessary fuel to your workout, you need a slow digesting carb.  This will provide you with the intensity and strength needed to push yourself to the limit.

A Low Glycemic slow releasing carbohydrate (complex carb) will help you sustain your energy level throughout your workout.  Complex carbs take longer to convert to glucose, which will keep you blood sugar levels consistent and will provide you with the necessary energy needed to power through your workout.  A High-Glycemic carb or fast digesting carb is not the right choice for a pre-workout carb.  You will use this energy up very quickly and leave you burned out before your workout is complete.

Everyone’s nutritional needs are different, but on average most people should take in about 30-40 grams pre-workout.  Consuming a carbohydrate-rich food along with fast-digesting whey protein shake pre-workout, will help you perform better during your workout.  You should consume your pre-workout meal 1-2 hrs prior to working out.  This will ensure your food is fully digested.  Here a list of some Low-Glycemic carbs.

Low-Glycemic Pre-Workout Carbs:

• Whole grain bread
• Whole wheat pasta
• Old fashioned oatmeal
• Bran cereals
• Milk
• Yogurt
• Sweet Potato

Post-Workout Carbs:

Your body uses what called glycogen (stored carbohydrates) during your workout.  Glycogen is the primary energy source your body uses to fuel your workout.  It is very important to replace that glycogen as soon as possibly after your workout.

During your workout you are breaking down and damaging the muscle cells.  Your body needs to replace the glycogen used up during your workout, to help repair the damaged muscle cells.  To replace you muscle glycogen and avoid any further damage to your muscle, you should consume a high glycemic carb.

Consuming the proper post workout meal, will help your body repair and build lean muscle. While a whole food meal is fine post-workout, you may benefit more from a post workout shake.  Getting the necessary nutrients in, in the right amount of time, the post-workout shake is your best bet.

A post-workout shake should consist of whey protein along with a dextrose or waxy-maize supplement added in.  You also could just drink a Gatorade with your protein shake.  This is a great way to get a good amount of carbs in your body to help spike your insulin levels.

A good rule of thumb is to get a ratio of 2 to 1 carbs to protein, in your post-workout shake.  Most people need to get in around 40-80 grams of carbs post-workout.  You should consume your post-workout meal no longer then 60-90 minutes after you workout has been completed.  Here a list of some High-Glycemic carbs.

High-Glycemic Post-Workout Carbs:

• Dextrose
• Waxy-Maize
• Gatorade
• Brown rice pasta
• White rice
• White potatoes
• Bananas

If YOU are reading this … thank you because you are part of the audience of this blog.  I may be mostly focused in the United States (maybe because this blog is all in English or the fact I don’t use the metric system) but in any case, there’s readers all over the world in almost every country that are interested in health and fitness … specifically bodybuilding.

Most of the time, I’m speaking, you are listening (reading) and I never get to greet and meet the people who give me the energy to answer questions.  At times, it’s important to take a step back and thank those of you all over the world who spend a few minutes gleaning off the information on this blog.  It means a lot to me.

As my way of saying thank you for reading …please accept this downloadable PDF report called The End of Bulking.  No email necessary.  Just right click and save.

In this report, you will learn how to gain muscle without gaining an ounce of fat.

• Why almost all traditional methods of gaining muscle make you fat… and how you can add lean mass while staying lean ALL YEAR ROUND!
• The 7 pitfalls of the old “bulking and cutting” method and the 10 new “Holy Grail Body Transformation” methods for gaining rock-solid fat-free muscle
• Why women need these new muscle-building methods even more than men! (hundreds are already using this system to build sleek, lean, feminine muscular bodies, without looking “bulky”)

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TomVenuto explains how to you will learn how to gain muscle without gaining an ounce of fat.

Marc David – CPT
“The NoBull Muscle Guy”
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding

1.  Sweet Potato:

Sweet potatoes are one of the best vegetables you can eat.  They are readily available, inexpensive, and are packed with nutrition.  A great source of carotenes, potassium, dietary fibers, and a high level of antioxidant vitamins.

Carbohydrates are fuel for your body.  Sweet potatoes are a great source of carbohydrates.  When eaten 90 minutes before working out, it has been shown to boost performance.  They are a low glycemic carb, and they are slowly released into the bloodstream helping to regulate blood sugar levels.

The taste is the best reason of all to add sweet potatoes to your daily diet.  With a natural sweet taste they make a great addition to any meal. You can bake or boil them, or make them into french fries.  Sweet potatoes can even be added to your favorite pancake recipe.

2.  Spinach:

Spinach is one of the most nutritious foods available.  Low in calories and high in nutrients like vitamin A,K,D,E and a host of of minerals.  They are also loaded with flavonoids which act as an antioxidant which protects your body against free radicals.

Not only does spinach make you big and strong like Popeye it also improves overall bone health from the large amount of vitamin K.  One cup of spinach provides 1000% of the RDA of vitamin K.

They recommend boiling spinach to free up acids and allow them to leach into the boiling water, this also brings out a sweeter taste of the spinach.  Besides boiling them you can add them to your morning eggs for a spinach scramble.  Also try as a salad with some walnuts and your favorite fresh fruit.

3.  Walnuts:

Walnuts are the only nut that contain a significant amount of omega-3.  They are a rich source of heart healthy monounsaturated fatty acids, along with an excellent source of  omega-3 essential fatty acids.  Omega-3′s are known to help lower LDL (Bad Cholesterol) levels and raise HDL (Good Cholesterol) levels in the blood.  Besides the health benefits of omega-3′s, walnuts also have a high presence of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients.

Along with the number of health benefits walnuts also can help if you have trouble sleeping.  The body produces a hormone called melatonin which helps you feel tired.  Walnuts are a great natural source of melatonin.  They can make you feel tired and help ensure you get a good night sleep.  Try adding some walnuts to your dinner salad, fruit salad or just by themselves for a great night time snack.

4:  Blueberries:

Blueberries are the superstar of all fruits, known for the highest level of antioxidants of all fruit.  They are very rich in many vitamins and minerals shown to boost your immune system. Antioxidants keep your immune system strong to help fight off colds and bacterial communicable diseases.

Not only does the antioxidants from blueberries improve your immune system, it helps improve all body systems.  It has been shown that muscle damage following overly taxing exercises can be reduced through consumption of blueberries.

Blueberries not only are bursting with nutrition they are bursting with flavor.  Flavors ranging from mildly sweet to tart and tangy.  With less then a 100 calories in a cup they make a great addition to any protein shake, breakfast cereal/oatmeal or your favorite low fat yogurt.

5.  Honey:

Not only does honey taste great, it also offers some amazing health benefits.  The benefits range from an antiseptic, to antioxidant and even cleansing purposes.  Honey is a great immunity system builder.  The antioxidants and anti-bacterial properties in honey help you stay healthy and fight off diseases.

Honey is a great natural source of carbohydrates and is a great nature energy source.  The glucose in honey is quickly absorbed into the body and gives an immediate energy boost.  Honey has been shown to instantly boost the performance, endurance and reduce muscle fatigue of athletes.

Next time you feel low on energy, don’t go grabbing for one of those high sugar energy drinks.  Try adding some honey to your favorite hot tea or spread some honey on a piece of toast for a quick nature pick me up.

Paula Deen (the famous southern style recipe chef) is expected to reveal she has Type II Diabetes.  Not only but she received a multimillion dollar deal to become the new face of a Novartis drug used to help treat the disease. (confirmed)

Paula Deen’s diabetes announcement is even more surreal than expected

As you watch listen carefully…

• Diagnosed 3 years ago
• She’s already capitalizing on this deadly disease (book, website, drug contract)
• Now she’s an expert on diabetes and she’ll be there for you
• She’s compensated for her work (just like you at your job)
• Down plays the diet’s role in Type 2 Diabetes (stress, genetics, age, environmental, hereditary, races)

If you didn’t already guess, her show will slowly change venues to provide healthier meals. Her son, Bobby Deen, has already jumped on the healthier food bandwagon. Earlier this month, he launched the series, “Not My Mama’s Meals,” on the Cooking Channel, where he creates less fatty versions of his mother’s old-fashioned Southern recipes. 

Getting this disease is bad enough but in this case, it appears self-induced thru food over several years.  Which in many cases of Type 2 Diabetes, that’s how you get it.  It’s why your grandparents might have it now but they didn’t 20 years ago.  As people get older, they seem to stop eating correctly, turn to sugary foods (or fattier foods) and exercise slows down.  This in turn can lead to blood sugar issues and eventually mild to severe cases of type 2 diabetes.

The cure?

Pretty much what Paula Deen will eventually do.  Start eating healthier versions to lower the fats and sugars.  I have no doubt she’ll be advised to start exercising if she’s not already doing so.  Type 2 in most cases can be controlled thru diet and exercise.  All of us are susceptible really to this disease over time if our diets are poor and we don’t control blood sugars.  Even me, without a family history of the disease could technically create an environment in which I could be diagnosed with it over a long period of time.

Sadly, most people will opt for the big pharma route (taking a pill to regulate not cure) and continue their unhealthy lifestyles.  Far easier to pop and pill than to make honest life changes to attack the root of the problem.

Freedom of Choice?

Maybe but keep in mind that even if you believe that nutrition is common sense, it’s not common practice.  If somebody chooses to eat this way for years and eventually gets the disease and needs medication, is it society’s responsibility to provide a cure?

If you ride a motorcycle without a helmet, without insurance, knowing that it’s dangerous and you cannot afford surgery if you were involved in such a horrific accident, do you get to extend your hand and ask struggling families to pay for your poor choices?

Choosing to eat unhealthy IF you know it’s unhealthy puts a huge burden on society.  There’s no reason southern style food can’t be tasty and healthy.  When you are on a TV show with thousands of viewers and several cookbooks, I believe you have MORE of a responsibility to help educate your audience.  If they choose to ignore your warnings or modify the meals, that’s life and the freedom in action.

Doughnut Hambugers … but in moderation of course!

People wake up!  

You don’t need to go all organic and hippie when it comes to food but you do need to make better choices.  We all bear the burden of a growing Obesity Epidemic and such diet related disease.  I’m not saying you can’t indulge here and there or enjoy the occasional ”oh this is so bad for me meal” but if you continually engage in poor nutrition over years, it will catch up to you.

This is a shout-out to NoBull author, Mike Boyle who you can find on this blog and on Twitter.  Mike doesn’t give recipes for entertainment.  He creates delicious, healthy meals that are sustainable lifestyle.

Follow @mboyle01

Marc David – CPT
“The NoBull Muscle Guy”
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding