Hold the dumbell in your right hand. As you lift the weight, use your left hand to tap your right bicep gently. Really focus on where you are tapping and contract that muscle as hard as you can. I find this easier to do when I’m using heavier weights. You’ll be surprised at how much stronger a contraction you can get using this method.

You can use this for all of your exercises, but it’s a little difficult to tap when you’re doing your bench, squat, deadlift and row, so get your training partner to tap the right area for you. If you don’t have a training partner, you can still benefit by tapping the area just before you pick up the weight. If you aren’t distracted, you should be able to keep that muscle in your mind’s eye while you stagger under the crushing weight

This works by helping you feel the exact fibers that you are trying to activate and helping you focus your muscle contractions on the exact muscle you are trying to exercise. Using heavy weights causes you to build more muscle because it forces a stronger muscle contraction. Tapping used correctly also forces a stronger muscle contraction, leading to the same result. The main thing is not to be distracted by the hot chick or buff guy working out next to you.

The first step to figure this out is to keep a food diary. Yeah I know it’s a pain in the @$$, but if you’re serious about getting those massive guns, you just have to quit making excuses and do it. You’re in for a huge surprise if you haven’t kept a food diary before.

Get an old exercise book and just record for every meal:

1. Meal time
2. Food eaten
3. Size of each portion
4. Calories consumed
5. Approximate Protein/Carb/Fat portions

Think that’s easy? Think again. But you only need to keep this up for a week. By then you should see a trend in your eating patterns.

You should be getting in 5 or 6 meals a day. Forget the old nonsense we’ve been ingrained of the “three square meals”. Our bodies aren’t designed to take such a food hit. Go for more, smaller meals.

Look at how many calories you’re consuming a day. Are you not growing fast enough (half a kilo of muscle a week is probably the absolute max you could achieve)? Add more food. Are you growing fast, but most of it is fat (some fat gain is unavoidable)? Cut down the calories from carbs/fat. If you’re still not happy with the results, change the balance to more protein, less carbs/fat.

The ideal ratio of calories from protein/carbs/fat when trying to build muscle will be around 40% protein, 50% carbs, 10% fat. But only use that as a starting point. If your body responds better to a different combination (some people are carb sensitive), then definitely go with that. After all, this muscle building gig isn’t about following a set formula, it’s about building muscle. That’s the only goal we care about here.

Now go and get huge!

• Ectomorph = “skinny”
• Endomorph = “round”
• Mesomorph = “athletic”

This test will give you an idea what your body type is. Bear in mind that no-one is 100% in any category. I am a mesomorph with some ectomorph characteristics. It is really worth actually doing the measurements and working out what category you are in. For a long time, I thought I was an ectomorph because I was always so skinny. After doing the measurements, I realized I was actually a starved mesomorph and have made significant gains in muscle since then.

So What Does That Mean For You?

Believe it or not, if you want the best results, you have to work around your body type. For example, ectomorphs typically have a higher amount of slow-twitch muscle fibers, which are usually associated with endurance sports. Mesomorphs typically have high amounts of fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are more power & strength. Endomorphs generally have a lot of fast-twitch muscle fibers, but they also typically have a difficult time shedding fat.

Exercise Program Bias

To build muscle and be able to show off your fantastic buff and ripped body, you should consider tailoring your program like this, depending on your body type:

Ectomorph - really cut down on the cardio. Right down to 30 minutes 2 or 3 times per week. Make sure you eat lots of good food regularly (6 times per day). When I say lots, I mean huge amounts. If you’re not hating the sight of food already, you’re gonna… Then you’re gonna love it because of how great you start to look. Don’t get into junk food (even though you probably are already). Eat clean, weight train heavy 3 days per week. Do cardio if you have to, then rest up and watch your body grow.

Endomorph - do the exact opposite of the ectomorph. You should be trying to do cardio 5 days per week. Believe it or not, it is often as hard for an endomorph to do enough cardio as it is for an ectomorph to eat enough food. Don’t get jealous. Work with what you’ve got. When that spare tyre is off, you’ll have much more muscle and strength than the ectomorph could ever hope to get. You should also be weight training heavy 2-3 times per week, because muscle burns fat, so the more muscle you have, the less you’ll have to work at burning off the calories. Eat 6 times per day, but be stricter on your portion sizes and stay away from sugar like it’s a bad eighties hairdo

Mesomorph - you have it both the easiest and the hardest. It is hardest for you to build a truly awesome body BECAUSE it is easiest for you. Mesomorphs burn fat like it’s a heretical book in the Spanish Inquisition and build muscle almost by looking at a loaded barbell. You will benefit most from a balanced plan. Workout heavy a few days per week, do cardio on the other days and eat clean 6 times per day. Your main challenge is to write a plan (I recommend 12 weeks at a time) and then stick to it. You think you look good now, but how much better would you look if you actually took advantage of your excellent body type? Go on, get off your butt and build your dream body.

No matter what body type you are blessed with, there is a bright side. Learn to get past the weaknesses that come with your body and let’s all look fantastic together.

Choose a time and place you can be alone and uninterrupted for 15 minutes. Find a picture of a guy or girl that looks the way you want to look. Make sure it really is how you want to look – it’s worth taking the time to find. Get a piece of paper and a pen (you can use your computer, but somehow it becomes more real when you write it down) and set a 15 minute timer (don’t rely on checking a clock, set a timer. If you need a free one, use this one). Turn your phone off, close down your email, facebook, twitter and anything else that could distract you. Close your eyes and just be still for a few moments, breathing deeply.

My Visualization Image

Get out the picture you found. Imagine yourself looking like that. Imagine that’s the body that stares back at you when you look in the mirror.

Still imagining you see that body in the mirror, write down your answers to the questions below. They are not in any particular order. Just write as many answers to as many of the questions as you can in the 15 minutes. It is a brain storming session, so don’t think whether an answer is “good” or not, just write.

• What do you think when you see your body looking that good?
• How do you feel when you look like that?
• What thoughts go through your mind when you picture yourself walking around like that? To the shops… to the beach… to a party… ?
• What do your friends think when you look that good?
• If you have a significant other, what do they think of your new look?
• How do you feel when you catch a cute girl/guy checking you out?
• How does the extra energy you have improve your life?
• How does the extra strength and confidence improve your life?
• Why do you want to look like that?
• How badly do you want to look like that?
• What are you prepared to give up to look like that?

Take the full 15 minutes, even if you think you haven’t got any more answers. Don’t look back over your answers yet, except to inspire more answers…

Once the time is up, look over your answers. You can use these as motivation to get the body of your dreams. Take the picture you got earlier. If it has the person’s head, crop it because we are programmed to look at a person’s face and you only want to focus on the body. For a free photo editing program, I have used and recommend Photo Filtre.

Take the photo and stick it up wherever you will see it regularly – on the fridge, above your desk, on your set of drawers, your computer wallpaper – using the most powerful answers to the above questions as the caption for the photo. Try to use a different answer for each place you put the picture.

Try to do this exercise every few weeks. You’ll soon notice a whole new energy flows through your workouts, you’ll be eating better and you’ll see great results much quicker than otherwise.

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• Day 4
• Day 5
• Day 6
• Day 7

Looking back on the week that was, this is what I learned, in no particular order:

• Going hard every day causes you to adapt quicker that I thought possible;
• By working out regularly, you can overcome DOMS;
• Being sore shouldn’t be a reason not to train or to train light;
• A training schedule that seems impossible can become possible just by going hard at it and sticking to it;
• An alternative to the 30, 60 or 90 day plans is the 7 day plan, just to get you moving;
• If you are struggling to make gains, take one week to do something you think you can’t and just go for it. You might surprise yourself;
• You can increase strength significantly in only one week;
• The 300 challenge is great for boosting your metabolism;
• Doing a workout outside is a great way to add some variety to your training schedule;
• As a whole body workout, the 300 challenge is a fantastic way to figure out which body parts are lagging and need to be focused on;
• No matter how hard you think you are training, you always have that little extra to give; and
• Before training, setting your mind to really push yourself on your most difficult exercise is a great way to perform well at that exercise without compromising your performance on the others.

I highly recommend you take on the 300 challenge for yourself. I was fitter and stronger after completing it. Maybe you could be too. Don’t let the intensity scare you off. Just do it

I knew that to beat yesterday’s time, I had to improve my floor wipers. For some reason, they were not too difficult today. I guess because my abs aren’t nearly as sore as they have been. I also made it through the box jumps without a rest, which all adds up.

Surely I'm not the only one who wants to look like this?

I think I figured out why my elbows were so sore: towards the end of the last set of pullups, I’ve been hyper-extending my elbows at the bottom of the lift, then trying to throw myself back up (no feet on the floor, but kicking my legs for momentum). Is this cheating? I think as long as your feet don’t touch the floor, it’s not cheating. I know that I could have rested for ages and still not been able to pull myself up right even for one at the end. The first set of pullups was fine every day – no problems getting through them with strict form. It was only the last set, after I was exhausted.

It’s good to have completed the challenge and I may do it again some time, but for now, I just need to rest I feel like you do when you’ve just played a really hard soccer game in the heat and even though you won, you just don’t care – your body just wants to go slow for a change. I’ll do a proper post on what I learned from doing this challenge, but with all the Easter services starting in a few hours, I’m not sure when I’ll be able to do it. Hopefully Saturday.

You Gotta Fight The Pain

First mission objective accomplished! I completed today’s challenge in 19 minutes 46 seconds. Oh my gosh the last set of pullups were hard. I was a gasping mess with 5 pullups to go, looked at my watch and saw 19:30. With my arms screaming at me to stop, I managed to fight through the pain and got there just in time.

Every day has been strange, and today was no different. I don’t understand this, but for some reason I had extreme difficulty pushing through the pain barrier (except on the last 5 pullups and that was different). I wasn’t even hitting total positive failure and still just couldn’t keep going. If I were a beginner, it would make sense, but I’ve been lifting for years and never had a problem going to positive failure. Perhaps it was because the temperature was around 30 degrees celcius…

Yesterday’s time was really good, and I knew that to beat it I’d have to get quicker on the floor wipers. The hardest part about the floor wipers is that it’s hard to breathe when you’re doing them. The way the exercise works, both your ribcage and diaphragm are constricted. Sure the exercise is difficult, but being oxygen deprived makes it a lot more so.

I struggled to string a decent set of pushups together, only managing 5-7 after the first 10. On other days, I’ve gotten to 20 or 30 before the first rest. I caned it on the box jumps, though, racing to 30, taking a few seconds to catch my breath, then finishing off the rest. I picked up a minute there, I think.

Now that I’m getting stronger, this challenge is turning more into a fitness challenge, rather than a muscle challenge. Interesting…

Praying for the strength to continue

Wow, I didn’t think I’d be able to beat yesterday’s time, but I finished the workout in 22 minutes 20 seconds! The time to beat is 20 minutes and I’m almost there. Very happy with the progress.

The floor wipers were slightly easier today. They are still the hardest part by far, but I’m needing less rest in between. The first set of pullups are also getting easier. It’s so strange.

I don’t know whether I need worry about this yet, but my elbow and shoulder joints are starting to get pretty sore right where the muscle attaches to the bone, particularly on the left side. I’ll have to keep an eye on it. It may be that the challenge is starting to take its toll The last set of pullups were really painful and I lost a lot of the time I’d gained.

Other than the joint pain, my body feels like when you worked out really hard and heavy three days ago and the DOMS are just starting to fade. Only 2 more days and I’m done. Really hope my body can stay together long enough to complete the challenge and break through the 20 minute mark.

Seeya tomorrow for hopefully the good news that I’ve broken through 20 minutes

The slowest exercise for me is still the floor wipers, but they weren’t as difficult today as yesterday. I also got through pushups a lot quicker today than before, but the big change was in the initial pullups. I got through them much faster, even though my shoulders were aching. I almost managed to get through all the deadlifts without a break. Got to 40 reps, but failure set in big time and I had to stop. It’s a good feeling to be getting stronger & faster at this challenge.

This is what I'm aiming for. How about you?

The strangest thing seems to be happening. I thought by today, half way through the challenge, that I’d be so sore that I’d go slower. But the opposite is happening. Four days in and I only have mild DOMS. It’s fantastic. Each day is slightly easier than the day before (as you can see by the times), even though I’m hitting the exercise just as hard. I’ve also noticed I’m getting fitter, recovering quicker from being out of breath.

The muscle pump you get from doing this workout is amazing. Sure you could do other, less intense exercises to get a pump, but it’s just such a great feeling seeing yourself grow in such a short time.

I’ll take a break over Easter, but I’m already looking for my next one week challenge

I completed the 300 workout today in a time of 28 minutes 57 seconds. A full 2 minutes 45 faster than yesterday. I’m pretty sure it’s because I got through the deadlifts and the box jumps much quicker than yesterday.

Combining exercise with the great outdoors. Is there anything better?

Today (Sunday) was pretty full, with church in the morning, followed by my wife’s uncle’s 50th birthday. We didn’t get home until almost 6pm, so I didn’t have a lot of time to mentally prepare for today’s workout. Also, there was a lot of food at the 50th and I didn’t have time to digest properly before the workout. A couple of times I thought I was going to make a pitstop, but it was all good

In today’s workout, other than the floor wipers and pullups, it didn’t feel as hardcore as the previous 2 days (but throw those in and I was wrecked after). I guess it’s clear what body parts are lagging for me! Maybe I should recommend this challenge as a way of figuring out what body parts you need to work on – just wait for the third day and see what’s hurting the most

My lower back started hurting quite a bit towards the end of the deadlifts, so I’ll have to keep an eye on that. Pullups at the end of the workout were so difficult I could only manage 3 or 4 reps at a time and the last 5 I had to do one at a time, with a rest in between. I can shave a few minutes off my time just by getting better at pullups.

Feeling good about the next 4 days. Just gotta keep the nutrition and the rest up. Seeya tomorrow.

1. Because I had completed the 300 test yesterday, I already had the belief that I could do it again.
2. I was more prepared this time – yesterday I forgot my water bottle and towel (for the grass).
3. I did more reps without a break.

In today’s session, I found the deadlifts to be the “easiest”. It’s is probably because I do them regularly. I officially hate floor wipers and whoever put those 25 pullups at the end of the workout is truly a sadist

My body is telling me that I won’t be able to complete a full week of this, but I’m not going to give up, no matter how painful it gets or how long it takes for me to haul myself out of bed.

I’ve been going to bed early each day (10:30 pm) and getting up at the same time (7 am), so that’s going to help me get through this. I’m also making sure I’m getting enough nutrition to support this challenge. Am I regretting the decision to take on this challenge? Not at all. It gives me incredible satisfaction (not to mention a massive pump) completing each workout. I highly recommend anyone go for it.

If you really feel like a challenge, let the world keep up to date with your progress and cheer you on. Post a comment saying you want to participate and I’ll email you author login details to this site. You can post to this site and let us support you and cheer you on.

I completed the workout in 39 minutes 24 seconds. The hardest exercise for me was the pullups. Because I’ve been hitting the (home) gym a lot lately, I’ve recently grown to 105 kg (230 lbs) and so I’m still not used to my body weight. They also took the longest because I could only do a few before being forced to stop. I definitely felt the after effect of the deadlifts when I did the box jumps. It was weird. The easiest exercise by far was the dumbell clean & press. The weight on that was too light, even for the end of the workout. But that’s the weight I’ve chosen, so I’ll stick with it for the rest of the week. The floor wipers really hurt too.

I was completely drained after the workout and could barely move for about half an hour. I had done as many reps as I could of each exercise, then rested til I could just face continuing, kept going until I could do no more, rested, etc. After the deadlifts, I was seriously out of breath, but got that under control reasonably quickly.

Verdict – great workout (even though it’s meant to be a strength/fitness test), but left me really hungry. Not long after I finished, my wife came home with some roast chickens, so I polished off one of those.

25 x Pullup
50 x Deadlift x 40 kg (88 lbs)
50 x Pushup
50 x Box Jump x 30 cm (12 inches)
50 x Floor Wiper x 20 kg (44 lbs)
50 x Dumbell Clean & Press x 10 kg (22 lbs)
25 x Pullup
Total = 300 reps.

Now I know those weights aren’t that heavy and I could probably go twice as heavy… if I had hours to complete the workout, but the goal is to complete it within 20 minutes and I know that I’ll struggle to complete it in 40 minutes even at these weights.

So you can see what each of these exercises involves, I’ve listed the videos below.

Pullup:

Deadlift:

Pushup:

Box Jump:

Floor Wiper:

Dumbell Clean & Press (like the one in the video, but with a dumbell, rather than a kettlebell, coz I don’t have any kettlebells):

That all reminded me of the 300 workout (particularly the tire flipping in the video on Gym Junkies) that I’d looked into when the movie 300 came out. This is what I’m talking about:

The “300 test” was designed as a one time test for the actors in the movie as Mark Twight explains here. It wasn’t meant to be a workout in itself. It was meant to be a benchmark to test oneself.

This is the 300 challenge:

25 x Pullup
50 x Deadlift
50 x Pushup
50 x Box Jump
50 x Floor Wiper
50 x Kettlebell Clean & Press
25 x Pullup
Total = 300 reps.

The rub is that you have to do all that as fast as you can with 20 minutes being the benchmark for a pass.

So here is the challenge I set for myself today – to go one week completing the 300 challenge every day in as short a time as possible. Starting today. I’ll keep you updated with my progress.

Here they are, in no particular order (as perfect balance rules out ordering).

photo credit: d_vdm

Key 1 – Visualize

Often overlooked, how do you know whether you are on track if you don’t know where you are going. It is important to think about what you want to look like, picture it in your mind, ask yourself:

• how would it feel to be that person?
• what sorts of clothing would that person wear?
• what exercise would that person do?
• what would that person eat?
• why does that person look the way they do?
• why do you want to look like that person?
• who do you know looks like that person?
• where would that person train (eg on the beach, in the gym, in the mountains, etc)?

Then go through magazines, do a google image search, whatever you need to find pictures of your ideal body. Then put those pictures up in places you will see in your ordinary day – maybe as the wallpaper on your computer, behind your mirror, in your training bag, etc.

Get a trusted friend to take photos of you with as little clothing as you are comfortable wearing. Compare the photos to the pictures you found. What needs work? Examples may be:

• Are your shoulders too thin?
• Do you need a “six pack”?
• Are your legs/arms too wide/thin?
• Do you need to thicken that neck or bring it in?

Figure out exactly what the differences are between how you are and how you want to be. Your legs might already be perfect, so why would you focus on making them better (just train to keep them looking the way they do)?

Now whenever you train, think about that ideal body and notice how yours begins to mirror it.

photo credit: Rob Beyer

Key 2 – Exercise

You didn’t seriously think you could achieve the body of your dreams without exercising did you? After figuring out the visualization key, you should know what exercise you need to do. If you are overweight, you should focus more on cardio (running, swimming, cycling, take up a team sport, etc). If you are underweight, you want to do as little cardio as you can until you are close to your goal and focus rather on resistance (weight) training to build up your muscles.

There are many different forms of exercise, so I don’t propose to cover them right now. Some of the free exercise routines I recommend for beginners include:

• 5×5 Beginner Strength Training Program
• Comprehensive resource for different workout ideas
  
• A medical doctor’s take on burning fat exercises
• A “mythbusters”-like take on how long you need to exercise to burn fat

I have also bought and read all the top paid programs and the best in my opinion is:

• If you are underweight – Muscle Gain Truth by Sean Nalewanyj. He has just done a revision recently making a fantastic all around program, though it remains more focused on people who have difficulty gaining weight.
• If you are overweight – Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto. This is the program most of the others are based on. Unless you are underweight, this is the program for you.

Exercise is important, but must be done in moderation – if you don’t do enough it will take longer to achieve results, but if you do too much you will “overtrain” and destroy all your hard work. Get used to listening to your body – after some time you will work out if you are overdoing it. If in doubt, it’s better to err on the “overtraining” than the “undertraining” side of things – we humans are genetically lazy, so unless you are one of these hardcore types who loves pain, turn off the TV, shutdown the computer and train for another half hour.

photo credit: [ cas ]

Key 3 – Nutrition

Atkins diet, cabbage soup diet, dairy free diet, high carbs diet, low carbs diet… the list goes on endlessly. There are really only three things you need to know when you work out your nutrition plan:

1. How much you need to consume per day to maintain your body weight;
2. Whether you are trying to gain weight or lose weight; and
3. Garbage in = garbage out.

To calculate how many calories you need to consume to maintain your body weight, see this free calculator. It takes into account your age, height, weight, gender, body fat percentage, etc. If you don’t trust it, compare the results to the calculator used by the well renowned Mayo Clinic. I prefer the first one because the Mayo calculator doesn’t take into account body fat percentage. I use and recommend AccuMeasure for testing your body fat percentage if you want to go that far. If not, just know that for guys, if you can’t see your abs, you are at least 10% body fat. Girls are slightly higher.

If you are trying to gain weight, increase your daily intake by around 250 calories (approximately one chicken breast or three slices of bread). If you are trying to lose fat, decrease your daily intake by about 250 calories.

I recommend going through a free calorie count database and working out how many calories are in your food, or you could check the label on the packet if applicable. Don’t slavishly count calories or you’ll quickly lose motivation to continue your new lifestyle. Just get a sense of how much you can and should eat and go with that.

Remember – garbage in = garbage out – I don’t care who you are, if you eat a lot of junk food, you aren’t getting the nutrients you need. Try to aim for fresh vegetables, meat, salad, fruit, cut down on the dressings and sauces and grill, steam or boil rather than fry. As Jamie Oliver once said: “season to taste, not season til you can’t taste”.

photo credit: marcuzzo

Key 4 – Rest

Not much needs to be said about this other than your body transforms into your dream body while you are asleep. Sleeping heals the microscopic tears you inflicted with that weights session and allows your body to flush away the impurities gathered during the day.

Work out how long your body needs to sleep, then get it. Go to bed a little earlier and feel the difference. Your body works best when it is in a habit – pick your bed time then stick with it – get up at the same time every day (including weekends). Once your body is used to the habit, you won’t believe the energy you’ll have.

photo credit: Mikelo

Key 5 – Motivation

What keeps you going?

• Do you feel pumped listening to your ipod when going for a run?
• Is food a good motivator for you (be very careful with this one or you’ll go back to old habits)?
• How about shopping – will you buy that dress in a size or two smaller, so that you HAVE to lose the fat to fit into it?
• Are you someone who loves to get out to the wild and do things rough for a few days?

Find your motivation and use it for its full worth to drive your success.