Lets Be Honest (for fun)

Let's have a chat. Please, make yourself comfortable. Let's discuss why you REALLY want to get big. Going back to my first post ("Your Drive"), I asked you to ask yourself what drives you in the gym. You might say I want to get big for athletics or I want to look intimidating or you just want to satisfy yourself with your gains.
Be honest. You want the muscles to attract the ladies.
Well guess what? So does everyone. Everyone, boys and girls, who go to the gym want to look better for the opposite sex. They want to lose weight and get tighter (thinner), or they want to get absolutely ripped.
Every day I see people come into the gym talking about their goals. However, they also talk with their buddies about sex. I'm not saying everyone who walks in the gym is looking for a better body for better sex.. but a majority do.
Fellas listen up. I've talked to a number of girls in the gym this past week, and I've asked them which male body parts satisfy their viewing pleasure the most.

Arms win out. The first response I received from every girl was "arms,” and "big arms." The arms are followed by the chest and abs for a close second place tie. In third comes you shoulders and back. However, there were a couple girls that said they really enjoy ripped backs.

With this said, don’t just go out and workout your upper body. Always work your bottom half regardless of your intentions. However, keep in mind these results. Chicks dig big arms. This should drive you to take that extra step. You should want to follow every step I’ve written out in order to get big.

I guarantee the tips, workouts, and eating habits I have shared with you will not only satisfy the opposite sex, but will blow their minds. After CONSISTANTLY following my steps you will be the guy all the girls want.

It’s true. Every ripped, in-shape guy that walks through the gym is always in a good mood. Working out and staying fit is a great way to balance your life. Keep up the hard work and you will be happier, healthier, and hey, you might just get lucky.

Tips and Secrets For Gaining Muscle

All of the information revealed in my earlier blogs our vital to your success in the gym. I'm writing this post to fill in all the spaces and critical points I have left out. Not everyone is a fan of reading pages and pages about how to do something. Because of this notion I am trying to keep my tips as short and concise as possible. Here it is. The absolutely crucial tips and secrets you must follow in order to reach your goals.

The first tip-- push each exercise set to near failure. Failure means you could not do one more repetition in a set because of fatigue. If you shoot for a specific number of reps, your mind will prepare your body to reach that number. In my experiences, if you work out this way you will not reach your fullest potential. I see guys in the gym everyday who shoot for a specific amount of reps. This guys (like you) have much more potential. For a 3-set exercise, you could start off with a heavy weight for 15 repetitions in the first set and then reduce each set by 2 so that your last set is 11 lifts. Even as you tire, you should attempt a maximum effort for each set.

The second tip—Please, for my insanity, write down your progress. If there is anything you learn from my blog, it is to catalog your work out. You absolutely, positively must keep a training journal for each and every session that you perform in the gym. The quickest way to add muscle to your frame is to consistently increase the amount of weight that you lift and the number of repetitions that you perform for each of your exercises. How can you tell if you’re really getting stronger if you don’t write it down?

The third— To make sure that your muscles stay hydrated, you must drink plenty of water. Dehydration can happen easily if you train hard. A dehydrated muscle, takes longer to repair itself than one sufficiently hydrated.

Drinking a sufficient amount of water not only increases your vascularity (more visible veins), but it will also help to quickly remove toxins from the body. Protein generates metabolic waste products that must be dissolved in water. Without enough water, the kidneys cannot efficiently remove these wastes. This is key.

The fourth— Rest is the most overlooked "skinny-guy secret." If you don't rest, you won't grow. Your body does not build muscle in the gym, it builds muscle while resting!

The fifth— The keys to successfully gaining weight and mass is eating enough calories, training hard and then resting. No diet adjustments will make up for lack of rest. If you train hard in the gym, then you should be resting your muscles as much as possible. If you do not give them time to rest and repair, you will not grow. Period.

The sixth— The secret to gaining muscle mass fast is CONSISTENCY. You can have the best diet, the best training schedule, join the best gym that has the best equipment, but without consistency it's all worthless.

Separating the Boys from the Men

We’ve all done them before-- the pretty boy workouts. I’m talking about the 20 minutes bike warm ups, the one-arm triceps extensions, and the cable fly’s. These exercises are commonly found in the lifting magazines you read, and as you read and follow along with the exercises you find the buffed up muscle men who you aspire to be.

Ten minutes later, you turn on the TV to a college football game. You notice the sixty plus college athletes on each team and their bulging ripped bodies along with their blazing speed and strength. And again, you aspire to have that body of a college football athlete.

The question is: do you know the difference between the two? What’s the difference between the pretty boy and the college football athlete? Their workout regimens are completely different. Now, whichever way you want to work out is completely up to you in the end. However, I’ll tell you, if you really want to get big you’ll workout like the college football player.

When you see the pretty boys in the gym lifting, they are almost always doing an exercise that attacks only one or two muscles. As they lift, you can tell they may not be putting in 100% into that lift, or maybe they’re talking to one of their friends as they lift. Then they’ll sit down and drink a protein shake. I’m not for one second saying that there are not some pretty ripped guys in the gym who perform these lifts, but I will reveal later why they may not be the best for your body.

On the other hand, you’ve probably never seen a college or professional football player lift unless you’ve been in their gym. When football players lift, they do not sit down. They walk into the gym hyped and completely focused and walk out almost collapsing. They do not wonder around or screw around with others. They move from each exercise like a disciplined army of warrior athletes. They prepare at the highest level and practice at the highest level so that they play at the highest level. This is the mentality you need to have in order to get truly big. Move from lift to lift and work at the highest level and you will receive results of the highest level.

If you decide to work out like the pretty boys, you may or may not reach your goals. I mean, look at yourself now. Are you where you want to be? Have you been working out like the pretty boys? Obviously you have if you’re reading this blog.

Here’s another way to look at it. Most pretty boy workouts attack one or two muscles. If you continue to attack each single muscle at a time, you will decrease movement in your body. Each muscle will individually become too big to the point where you cannot turn your neck, reach backwards facing forwards, or extend your arms to your sides. The reason football players workout the way they do is to increase their speed and strength on the field. If you work out like a football player you will be able to do anything and also look and feel huge.

Have I convinced you? If not, read this again because I’m telling you it’s true. If you really want to get big, work out like a football player.

Shown above is the workout routine LSU performs. Compare their lifts with yours. See the difference?

Supplements

I’m sure you’ve seen them at the gym. The strange blender bottles containing various colored liquids. You see lifters suck them down before, after, and during their workouts. You then find out that this may be their secret. STOP RIGHT NOW.
Before buying any bodybuilding supplements you need to read this. The bodybuilding supplements companies are greedy bastards. One supplement company president said, "I can put sugar in a pill and sell it as a muscle builder and bodybuilders would still buy it."
If you want to pack on muscle you’ll need to coax your body into turning the majority of foods you eat into pure muscle, without getting screwed over by faulty supplements. How? You can do this with the following supplements. I’m not suggesting this; I’m flat out saying that without them your chances of adding big muscle is highly unlikely. This is your equation for 24/7 protein coverage.

Whey Protein and Casein Protein

Gold Standard whey and casein protein is America’s best selling protein combination (and for a good reason- it really works). If you want to get big, the right way, without using artificial supplements this is the way to go. I’ve been using this combination for a couple months now and I have gained up to 15 pounds in muscle.

Whey: Daytime. Whey Protein Isolates are 90% pure protein by weight. They are the purest and most expensive form of whey protein that exists. That’s why they are the first ingredients you read on the 100% Whey Gold Standard label. By using Whey Protein Isolates as your primary protein source, you’re able to pack 24 grams of the purest, muscle-building protein per serving, with a lot less of the fat, cholesterol, lactose, and other stuff that you can do without. To learn more about this product you can go to wheygoldstandard.com.

Casein: Nighttime. These proteins are pH sensitive and gel in the acidic environment of the stomach. As a result, it can take more than twice as long for caseins to be broken-down into their amino acid subcomponents than whey and other proteins. Because of their unique time-released qualities, caseins are aptly described as anti-catabolic or muscle-protecting proteins.

See “The 10 Pound Meal Plan” blog to see these supplements in action.

The 10 Pound Meal Plan

This plan was given to me by one of my college football coaches when I played at George Mason University. The plan was designed for a 180-pound me with a goal of gaining 10 pounds of muscle in one month. Each meal, with the exception of the afternoon snack, offers multiple food options to accommodate particular preferences. I was instructed to mix and match various options throughout the month or stick to my favorites.

You will notice that the program has an abundance of nutrient dense food. I am familiar with a number of athletes who consume high calorie diets and complain that they just get fat. This is because they consume nutrient dilute foods or empty calories. Empty calories serve no purpose in building muscle mass. They are not used efficiently and are more likely to be stored as fat. The high calorie diet is only effective if it is one which is abundant in nutrients. It is known that most supplements can only exert their positive effects when an ample amount of dietary protein is consumed. It is also a must that carbohydrate intake be high enough that it is the sole source of energy, allowing protein to be used for its primary functions and not energy purposes.

Notice that the diet incorporates many aspects of an excellent nutritional program. Among those are: adequate intake of nutrients, balance of nutrients, low intake of sugar, fats and salt, supplement intake, and a variety of food sources. Notice that the diet also consists of
foods that are economical, convenient and very available. They also have outstanding nutritional value. You should try to incorporate all of these aspects into their own personal
nutrition program.

When my coach handed this plan over he said, “You MUST follow this plan exactly. I mean you cannot cut any corners. You may seem overwhelmed with this plan at first, but after a few weeks it becomes a habit, and a lifestyle. It will become easier to follow once you see results. You will NEVER want to skip a step.”
In other words, as I’ve been saying: I’m not suggesting this. I’m flat out saying that without them your chances of adding big muscle is highly unlikely.

Eating the Right Foods

Eating the right foods to feed your muscles and fuel your physical endeavors can be compared to an expert level Sudoku puzzle: confusing and frustrating, and you don’t want to meet the guy who’s good at it. However, eating right is arguably the most important ingredient to getting big.
Maintaining optimum nutrition is essential to building a strong, massive physique, yet it is the most neglected element in the average lifter's program. Without super nutrition, all training efforts are a waste of time. Nutrition also has an impact on the efficiency of supplements. The idea is clear; food plays a major role in the acquisition of muscle mass. The first thing we need to do about our nutritional program is get excited about it. Realize that eating better will help us reach our weight training goals. A person must really be motivated to eat super nutrition or they just won't follow through. If the enthusiasm is not there, you might follow the diet for a week or two; real gains come by following the diet for months or even years.
The most important part of that is having the good food you need, when and
where you need it. Regular trips to the grocery store are a must.

See “The 10 Pound Meal Plan” to see an example of the proper foods to eat, and when to eat them.

Your Drive

So, you really want to get big, huh? First and foremost, you need to ask yourself (seriously), do you REALLY want it all? You may be thinking- Hell Yeah. I want the massive biceps, the chest of awes, the dramatic V-shape shoulder to waist ratio, and the killer, washboard six pack abs. Well before you can attain these things, you must follow these tips and secrets in my blogs.
This blog is for the men out there who are consistent lifters, but can’t seem to find that edge in order to truly achieve their goals. In my posts I will reveal the pieces you need in order to gain that edge. I am not simply suggesting tips or secrets to get big- I am flat out telling you that without them your chances of attaining your goals are highly unlikely.
If you want it all, it takes extreme commitment to diet and intense training. Along with a consistent mind set.
The FIRST key to getting big- is in your head. If you set your mind to something, you can indeed achieve it. Have confidence. Have a role model you can look up to. You need a drive- something that will keep you working harder and harder EVERYTIME you work out.

Personally, I lift to have a bigger, chiseled body. I want to reach 200 lbs in muscle weight (currently 185). I'll admit it. I want to be like the fitness models in Men’s Health, Muscle Fitness, Exercise and Health, and so forth. Who doesn't? I also lift in order to gain that competitive edge in the sports I play. I want to be the best, so I work out the best. I try to model my confidence around Muhammad Ali. I have that mindset during every lift. The key is while lifitng, challenge yourself.

Talk to yourself in your head.

“Get that last rep, because the other guy won’t”
“You want that chiseled body? You want bigger muscles? Then don’t give up. Keep going”
“You want that girl to notice you and your enormous muscles? Then get on it. Work harder.”

Finding a drive that keeps you working harder and harder every time you step in the gym is the first step in getting big.