Posts tagged gym
arfabear
Thank you! Here are shots of my legs for the last three months; while smaller, they’re definitely more defined. I kinda like it :D
The absolute best pre-workout drink I’ve ever tried is Mesomorph by APS. The energy and pump you get from mesomorph is far more intense than any other pre-workout drink. Perhaps because it contains a stimulant similar to meth, and thats why Amazon.com no longer sells it.
If you can’t find Mesomorph, my next favourite stimulant/NO-boosting/pre-workout drink is Jack3D.
If you’re having trouble sleeping or can’t take stimulants (like me), try Hyper Shock by Myogenix. Same skin-tingly pumps and NO-boost without keeping me awake till 4am.
Regarding ethical dilemmas with sports supplements/steroids, I highly recommend watching the documentary Bigger Stronger Faster ($2 rental on Amazon, free on Netflix). The supplement industry in America is not regulated, so we often have fringe products like Mesomorph that contain meth-like substances, pre-anabolic supplements that the liver converts into weak steroids, or (more commonly) products that don’t work at all. There are only a handful of substances that actually have medically-researched results.
Creatine, Whey, some NO-boosters, BCAAs…when taken correctly, these legal supplements improve recovery time, muscle growth, and increase strength. Is it really unethical to use supplements that are available to everyone? Nope.
Steroids are very powerful drugs; they can reverse injuries, cut recovery for burn victims by 90%, aid with muscle growth, and increase white blood cell count for HIV+ folks. Completely unethical in professional sports, but I’d be lying if I wouldn’t want to watch an all-steroid olympics or World’s Strongest Man competition. My personal stance on steroids is that they can be very helpful when used responsibly.
I am not someone who would use steroids responsibly. I’ve spent much of my life romanticising steroids as a way to grow free from my skinny body. I don’t consider myself someone with an addictive personality, but knowing how my BDD works, if I started a cycle I would not stop. Moreover, because of my high blood pressure and cholesterol, I’m exactly the sort of person you would hear about in the news overdosing on steroids and dying of a heart attack.
The temptation is overwhelming, but the health risks for an at-risk person like me will always keep steroids a fantasy.
I’ve had a few folks ask me for an outline of my current training routine, from sleep, supplements, protein, to the workout. This routine is suitable for folks who want to lose fat without sacrificing muscle in their weight loss, or for people that want to simply maintain. This regimen has worked so well for cutting fat while maintaining muscle, that I’m going to try using it when I bulk by adding more calories and a complex carb like quinoa.
This is a pretty rough overview of my daily routine. (Sundays excluded, because thats cheat day). I have only been doing this routine for the last three weeks and can’t fully vet it yet, but initial results have been promising.
The Daily Routine
- 10:00pm - 08:00am: sleep (goal is 8-10hrs)
- 08:00am - 08:30am: breakfast superfood shake, AEG stack
- 11:00am - 11:30am: eat lunch, protein shake, AEG Stack, Animal Pack Daily Vitamin
- 01:00pm - 02:00pm: gym (read about my new workout here)
- 02:00pm - 02:10pm: post workout shake
- 04:30pm - 04:45pm: eat meal, protein shake, AEG Stack
- 08:00pm - 08:45pm: eat dinner, protein shake
- 09:45pm - 10:00pm: bedtime shake, AEG Stack
- 10:00pm - 08:00am: sleep (goal is 8-10hrs)
Diet Guide
My cutting diet is a traditional carb-restrictive diet:
- No simple carbs (breads, corn, fruit, rice, etc)
- No fruit (it’s important to emphasize this, but we can have not-sweet fruits like tomatoes and avocado)
- No milk, soda, or juice. Ever. No exceptions. (Fructose and HFCS cause the body to produce albumin, which binds to testosterone and makes it inert)
- No artificial sweeteners. They’re worse for you than the real thing. (Put down that diet snapple tea, pup)
I follow this carb-restrictive diet Monday through Saturday, where Sunday is cheat day. Cheat day is this glorious day where I am required to eat carbs and junk food till I feel sick. (Photos from previous cheat days here and here). It’s important to do cheat day to prevent your body from going into starvation mode, slowing down your metabolism and making your body cling to fat. Binging on carbs after restricting yourself from them triggers a cascade of hormones; your hypothalamus is happier, your thyroid is happy, you make more testosterone, and your metabolism stays high. (Note that you can’t just binge on carbs all the time, this metabolic response only happens after carb fasting).
I’m also trying to get more probiotic rich foods (like kombucha, kraut, kim chi, etc) into my diet because of the numerous benefits they provide for weight loss, muscle gain, and keeping you happy.
Supplement Legend
Breakfast Shake
The recipe for my superfood breakfast shake can be found here. I’ve started adding a cup of frozen spinach to my breakfast shake as spinach is high in lipoyllysine which has been found to increase GLUT4 transport of nutrients to surface muscle tissue. (This means more of the food you eat becomes muscle instead of being stored as fat).
Normal Protein Shakes
My protein shake is a combination of 70g Optimum Whey Protein, 10g L-Glutamine, 15g Creatine Monohydrate, and 10g BCAA.
Bedtime Shake
Sleep is a fasting period of 8-10 hours, so it’s important to eat a protein that is not so quickly digested. Pup introduced me to Casein Whey and I now use that for my bedtime shakes. It’s disgusting tasting.
Daily Vitamin
I take the Animal Pack Daily Vitamin with a meal each morning. The can says you should take two, but that seems unnecessary.
AEG Stack
Based on Timothy Ferris’ alternative to the Ephedra Stack (PAGG), the AEG Stack is an interesting combination of three supplements:
- 500mg Alpha Lipoic Acid: ALA is pretty amazing, it’s a powerful antioxidant, free-radical hunter, it recycles vitamin C and E, and removes toxic metals from the body (mostly iron and mercury). But for our purposes, the most interesting thing ALA does is it acts as a nutrient partitioning agent, directing glucose preferentially to muscle tissue and away from fat tissue in people who exercise. (Source). In short, ALA diverts nutrients to your muscle tissue while starving your fat cells.
- 400mg EGCg: is the active ingredient in Green Tea that increases your resting metabolism 4-6%. It also decreases GLUT4 transport of nutrients to fat cells and causes fat apoptosis. Fat cells commit suicide when you take EGCg. Reducing the overall number of fat cells (instead of just decreasing their size) will prevent you from rebounding when you go off diet.
- 600mg Garlicin: This 2003 study took two groups on a high carb diet, one was given a high allicin supplement. After 3 weeks, those taking the allicin supplement did not gain weight, compared to those without the supplement that did gain weight. I couldn’t find the method of action for allicin and preventing fat gain, but Timothy Ferris says it worked for him, so I’m taking it too.
needle
I’m doing a completely new routine based on the Colorado Experiment. Casey Viator performed the Colorado Workout for four weeks and gained ~63-pounds of muscle while losing ~20lbs of fat. On average, he gained 4lbs of muscle per workout. His results are astonishing.
No steroids were involved during the Colorado Experiment, but Casey is a genetic freak. His results are insane. That’s not to say the workout didn’t return results for normal folks. A 63-year-old man was able to gain ~24lbs of muscle (and lost ~15lbs of fat) in four weeks as well.
Pup and I are trying a slightly modified version of his workout during our cutting phase, and so far we’ve both seen fat reduction and slight increases in a couple of measurements. (My chest is up two inches). However, we probably won’t get such dramatic results as out cutting diet doesn’t have the nutritional capacity for such muscle growth.
Just like my diet, I’m hesitant to recommend this workout until I see concrete results. Buuuut, if you really want to try it, here’s the gist:
- 4-5 exercises per muscle group per day.
- 1 set to complete failure for each exercise.
- Negative reps only
- 5-seconds down tempo for each rep
- When you can’t do the up/down, hold the weight till your muscles fail.
- Rest 1 minute, move to next exercise.
The tricky part is pushing yourself to failure. You need a workout partner to ensure you’re not just giving up because it hurts, but actually giving up because your body physically cannot move the weight anymore.
How do I get a butt like yours?
I get this question all the time. Usually I just point people to my leg workout, but it seems like it’s time to get into the details of proper rumping.
Nature VS Nurture
Let’s be honest, some people have the right genetics for a big butt. Like my friend Phil, my pup, or every black dude. I’m part Filipino; we are a people known for our horrible food and tremendous lower body strength (necessary to scale coconut trees laden with feral cats, for dinner).
Genetics asside, I think that the physical activities you do in your teens sets the tone for your body as an adult. I rode my bike EVERYWHERE growing up. Mom wouldn’t even give me a ride to my 6AM AP Physics class in the next town because our school didn’t offer it. I didn’t play any sports, I didn’t try in PE, but I did ride my bike everywhere. Now, as an adult, when I ride my bike, my thighs explode with size and I can’t wear pants.
I sincerely believe that the sports and activity level you have as a kid determines your body and metabolism as an adult. Thats not to say you can’t change your body-fate, but it’s much easier when you’ve started with a good baseline.
If you’re in your teens and reading this, do sports that relate to the body you want when you’re older. I wish someone would’ve told me that so I didn’t develop the body of a video gaming anime nerd and spend my adult life hating my body.
Okay, but what can I do about my butt now?
So you weren’t a speed skater growing up or weren’t born with a bubble butt. There is hope. Genetics be damned.
If you don’t already have a leg workout, you can use mine (here is another leg workout). The key movements for building your butt are (in order of you should do this now):
- Squats
- Good Girls / Bad Girls
- Deadlifts
I’m not going to explain how to do Squats or Deadlifts. They are basic movements that everyone should know and there are thousands of YouTube videos on how to do them. If you have a bad lower back, try sumo squats or box squats.
When doing Deadlifts or Squats I try and focus on lifting with my butt. It might take a while to get used to lifting with that muscle group, so try starting with a low weight and try doing the movement with mostly your butt. I am not a personal trainer. This is probably bogus.
Not bogus, however, are Good Girls / Bad Girls. Or, the abductor/adductor machine. This is how you get the ass shelf. I find that rhythm is very important with this machine. I can max the weight out easily, but doing reps in a 3-seconds-out/1-second-in tempo really makes it more effective.
spencestar
You want Waxy Maize.
My powerlifter friends turned me onto this supplement when I was just starting out and could get my calories up to meet the cardio I was doing each day. It’s a by-product of corn processing and is practically all carbs and calories.
It’s extremely cheap and very good at putting on weight. Just mix it into your protein shakes or take with juice when you wake up.
notactuallyabear
I started bulking in August when I was 220lbs, but I wasn’t taking it very seriously, and didn’t really start gaining weight till September, and then I hit 260lbs around New Years.
I’m supposed to bulk August through February, then cut through April, then maintain, and start bulking again in August. Repeat.
My bulking is ending a little early because my gains lately have been more fat than muscle, and the diminishing returns have been making me depressed. Also, eating all this food is really darn expensive.
Anonymous
I’m not really sure how much I spend on supplements right now, but it’s a lot. Bodybuilding is an expensive hobby.
The supplement industry is rife with misleading marketing and false promises of rapid gains. There are only a few supplements worth investing in:
Whey Protein
My favourite these days is Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Standard. It has the best Cholesterol/Protein/Carb ratio for it’s price point and mixes very well (super important). Optimum Nutrition also has the most honest labeling. After reading some scary Consumer Reports and an exhaustive test of protein powders on Reddit, I made the switch. Some of the cheaper protein powders don’t actually have as much protein as they’re advertising, or use fillers that have lead in them. Besides being poisonous, lead will make your gains slower.
Creatine Monohydrate
Unlike protein powder, almost all Creatine is the same, so just get the cheapest you can find. Just make sure it’s Creatine Monohydrate, and not one of the many permutations of Creatine. These variants are advertised as working faster or not making you feel bloated (isn’t that the point?), but my personal experience is that they work just as well as the much cheaper Monohydrate version.
Daily Vitamin
This goes without saying, but you must have a daily vitamin in your supplement regimen. The most complete vitamin pack I’ve found is from Animal. The dosing says two packs a day, but one is enough if you’re eating a complete diet.
When I was taking two packs a day, it turned my sweat yellow, and I sweat in my sleep, so after a week there was a yellow outline the size of my body in my white bed sheets.
So embarrassing.
danielsaysno
I do three minutes of cardio a day while bulking. I have an extremely fast metabolism and only do cardio to warm-up my body before a workout. Anymore than this and I lose weight…rapidly.
Back when I was riding my bike to the gym (20mins cardio) I could lose ten pounds in a week if I didn’t eat enough.
It’s also important to remember that the more muscle you have, the higher your base metabolism will be. The FDA “average” caloric intake is 2,000 calories per day…and that was fine for me at 120lbs, but at 260lbs I need more than 8,000 calories a day just to maintain my bodyweight!
Anonymous
How far should you go?
You should go all the way.
10lbs/year is a really slow rate of growth. You should audit your diet, workout routine, and sleep schedule. These are the most common reason folks don’t grow.
Diet:
Are you eating enough calories/carbs/protein to sustain muscle growth?
- You should aim for twice your body weight in grams of protein each day. (Eg, If you weigh 200lbs, eat 400grams protein per day). Your body can only absorb ~70grams protein per meal, so split protein intake over meals throughout the day.
- If you aren’t gaining weight each week, you should increase your caloric intake 10% each week till you start seeing gains. This is your caloric gaining baseline. (Eg, starting at 2,000/cal/day, add 200/cal/day each week till you start gaining weight. I didn’t gain weight till I was eating ~8,000/cal/day).
- You should evaluate your caloric intake every 20lbs since your metabolism will increase to accommodate your new weight. The bigger you are, the more you will need to eat. So increase your calories as you get bigger.
- Carbs are important for muscle recovery. You need to eat them when bulking. You can minimize fat gains by eating “good carbs” (like whole grains).
- Read about my diet here
Workout Routine:
Are you working out correctly for hypertrophy?
- Cardio is catabolic to muscle growth. You shouldn’t do more than 30minutes of cardio a day or your muscle growth will slow down.
- Don’t train for more than an hour a day. Doing more than this is overtraining and will make you smaller!
- Make sure your workout is balanced. Don’t do every body part each day. Split your routine into body groups.
- If you don’t see results in a couple months (and your diet/sleep are perfect), try a new routine.
- See my workout routine here
Sleep Routine:
Are you getting enough rest to grow?
- Your body releases growth hormone during REM sleep.
- Unless you’re a sleep hacker and can trigger REM at will (eg, Uberman Sleep), you should aim for 8-10 hours of sleep each night.
- Do not sleep more than 10 hours. This slows your metabolism.
- Make sure you take breaks during your workout week. (Eg, workout Monday-Friday, don’t workout Saturday-Sunday).
These are all little tips I’ve picked up from personal trainers and reading Mens Health. I can be wrong. But these things work for me. Every body is different, so I encourage you to research and see what works for you.
Good luck!
My trainer’s methods are unorthodox, but he gets results.
isaac-ray
I’m sorry, Isaac-Ray, but these questions are a little absurd.
How did you get so popular on the internet?
I’m not popular. Really. Half my readership are my parents. (Hi, Mom, happy birthday, love you).
It doesn’t matter, because I don’t blog to be popular; I blog because my handwriting sucks and I don’t know how to enable comments on my paper journal.
It seems like the most popular blogs do well because they feature original and compelling content (like stormdthecastle or wedontknowjack) or curate content using their refined taste (like needle). Depending on where you start blogging, you will have a better chance of becoming popular based on your blogging style. For example, Creators have a hard time standing out on LiveJournal or Blogger because EVERYONE IS A CREATOR on those platforms. All new and original content becomes noise. Meanwhile, it’s very difficult to be a Curator on tumblr because EVERYONE IS A CURATOR because of the reblog button. So it’s better to Create on Tumblr. Hence why I moved here from LiveJournal.
How can I get bigger quickly but still safely?
You can’t. It took me 5+ years to gain 100lbs. If I knew how to grow that big in a week, I would’ve been doing it for months.
If you’re patient, you can get bigger slowly. I have posted my workouts, diet, and supplements on my blog, but I encourage everyone to research and find what works for them. Every body is different.
If you’re impatient, you can do steroids. I’ve read it’s possible to gain 30lbs on just one cycle. What a fantastic short-cut. The dangers of which are the only thing keeping me from bloating myself full of them.
Anonymous
No, I was bigger when I was younger. Yes, I was even skinnier when I was younger. I’ve gained about 100lbs since I started working out when I turned 18.
Here’s my progress from 2008 to 2011:
And here’s a comparison of me at 140lbs VS 230lbs:
Anonymous
Generally, yes: doing cardio will inhibit your gains while bulking.
Nevertheless, there are some tricks you can work into your cardio routine to minimize the effect on bulking:
- Don’t do more than 30 minutes of cardio at a time. More than 30 minutes is catabolic to muscle tissue.
- Do cardio after weight lifting. Besides helping flush out lactic acid (making you less sore the next day), doing cardio after weight lifting means more energy for the important workout.
- Eat extra calories to compensate for those lost doing cardio. Cardio doesn’t burn as many calories as weight lifting, but you should still try to make up the difference to minimize loss.
causeloveissuchanoldfashionword
When I’m not sure about a product, I just check bodybuilding.com. They aggregate all reviews into an average score…which is really helpful. Otherwise, I just stick to what I know I like.
Mesomorph is the absolute best pre-workout drink, imho. It also tastes like watermelon-scented bile. But it gives you crazy pumps (packaging says “skin shredding pumps,” but you will not rip your skin taking this stuff)…so the taste is inconsequential.
Weigh In: 220.6 lbs
I’m certainly more defined, but I have lost considerable size. Frustrating! I’ve also reached my mental capacity for body anxiety, and can no longer continue “cutting” because of how small I feel. THEREFORE, I am officially beginning bulking. Starting today.
Alexies’ routine is out, I’m going back to my old bodybuilding routine…but I’m changing the order of muscle groups to how Alexies does it. Seems to make much more sense. Triceps and Chest on the same day? Of course! Duh!
Diet is going back to my good ‘ol bulking regimen of excess calories and protein. Will post diet logs shortly and a new routine hopefully.
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