The NxLabs Body Challenge Blog

Archive for January, 2009

Getting Started

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

It seems the question I get asked most often is: “What’s the best program for (insert goal here)?” To which I almost always reply: “Well, that all depends …”

At which point the individual asking the question usually wanders away either pissed off or confused (usually both), reinforcing my belief that the typical gym-goer isn’t really looking for the truth but rather quick sound bites that will help make ‘em ripped, stronger or HEEYYOOOOGE. Unfortunately, folks with short attention spans and unwillingness to learn usually end up spinning their wheels, doing the same 10 year-old program their buddy’s cousins’ next-door neighbor did!

See, everyone is looking for the secret. That one tidbit of information or workout program all the really massive guys use to look the way they do. Ultimately, there’s no such thing. Believe me, I have wasted what seems like years and thousands of dollars on magazines promising to make me grow like a weed. I listened to so-called guru after guru who looked great but almost always led me down the wrong path. Fortunately, I didn’t give up and I continued to study and read and learn until I found what works.

Here’s a story that clearly highlights this phenomenon. A few years back I was training with a buddy who was in the throes of a brutal pre-contest diet (read: he was miserable!) After a particularly difficult workout, we were approached by an eager, young fellow who was looking to glean “the secret to getting big.”

“What do you guys do to get so big?”

Now, before I could start into my practiced response – “Well, that all depends …” – my buddy jumps in and points to his post-workout carb meal of mashed yams and says, “Carrots, lots and lots of carrots, at least a pound a day!” Thinking the young guy was going to realize it was a joke, I didn’t say anything, but watched him walk away with a quizzical look. Thinking nothing of this, the weeks went by till one day we were approached by this fellow again, only to see his skin had taken on a distinct orange coloration!

So what’s the moral of the story? (other than: don’t bother dieting, bodybuilders!) There is no secret program. There is no magic tool. It’s all about finding what works for you as an individual. There exists infinite variations from person to person and body to body to suggest somehow a magazine-published workout performed by an Olympia contender with freakish genetics can build you a similar physique. No matter how diligently you follow his plan, this is ridiculous! Everyone is different; what works for him will not likely work for you.

What, then, is an eager, young aspiring athlete like you supposed to do? Simple – read, listen and learn everything you can. However, make sure your BS meter is well-calibrated and turned on. The old adage about things seeming too good to be true, will serve you well here. Ask questions of everyone, especially someone who claims to be an expert, including myself! A genuine expert should be willing to take the time to answer your questions regarding his or her advice and not expect you to blindly follow it ‘cause he or she is always asking questions of others! To that end, join me at this same spot next week where I’ll do my best to answer your questions and provide some basic tools to get you started on your quest for a lean, powerful and muscular physique!

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Posted in Body Challenge, Competition 101, Training | 4 Comments »

Your Nutrition Must Support Your Goals – Part 2

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

If you’re seriously after optimal progress in either direction – fat loss or muscle gains – you’ll do far, far better if your nutrition supports those goals. If you’re chasing fat loss, again, you need to be eating in a deficit (we’ll go into more specifics on how to set up a fat-loss diet shortly). If you want to pack on some beef, you really need to be eating a lot.

There’s an old saying that says if you’re not growing, you’re not eating enough and honestly, for the most part, it’s true. The biggest reason more people don’t get bigger and stronger is that they simply do not have enough calories/energy coming in to 1) sustain them, and 2) support the growth and maintenance of new muscle tissue.

So let’s say you want to get in shape for the NxLabs Hardcore Bodybuilding Challenge and need the full six months to transform your physique and reach your goals. I suggest you take a look at yourself, do a hard assessment and determine what you need to do first. With 24 weeks, you have the time to split up those weeks into different sub-goals to reach your overall goal. Maybe you start out trying to add some size, while minimizing fat gains and then you transition into trying to get ripped while maintaining some of the newly earned muscle. Or maybe you have a lot of fat to lose in which case you want to jump right into a fat-loss program. Maybe you’re in desperate need of more muscle. Regardless, the bottom line is that your training, your cardio, what you do in the gym, while important, is going to end up being secondary to ensuring that your nutrition supports your physique goals.

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Posted in Body Challenge, Body Science, Nutrition, Training | 1 Comment »

Your Nutrition Must Support Your Goals – Part 1

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

One of the biggest mistakes people – both males and females – make in their pursuit of physique improvements, whether that is fat loss or muscle gain, is not ensuring that their nutritional program supports their goals. Sounds logical – doesn’t it?

If you want to lose fat, you have to eat in a way that supports fat loss. If you want to gain muscle, you have to eat in a way that supports muscular gains. Yet look around your gym. How many people ever really look much different? I’d say not too many. It’s not for lack of trying in the gym, as I’m sure you see many of the same people week in and week out and they certainly appear to be working hard. They’re lifting weights, they’re doing their cardio, but for some reason, they don’t look much different. Why? Nutrition! Their diet doesn’t support their goals.

Now if you stopped and asked any one of these individuals what their goals were, they might say they’re trying to get bigger … and leaner. That’s what most of us tend to want, but the problem is trying to do both at the same time. I’ll keep this simple, but basically, to lose body fat you have to be in a caloric deficit at the end of the day. You can get there by dietary restriction (eating less calories than your body requires to maintain its current weight); by exercise; or by some combination of both – the latter being optimal.

Contrast that to the goals of gaining muscle. You need to be in an energy surplus to gain muscle. That begs the question – how can you be in a caloric deficit and a caloric surplus at the same time? You can’t. They’re mutually exclusive positions. Now maybe you’ll argue the point of simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain with me – what we affectionately term a “recomp” – but let me try a little logic. First the easy one: does it make sense that the body would be forced to call on fat stores (an energy reserve) when it’s getting a lot of calories? There’s no reason to.

On the flip side, when you’re eating in a deficit, your body is trying to survive. You’re not providing it with enough energy to sustain itself, hence the need for it to call on fat reserves to maintain metabolically active tissue and bodily functions. Ok, pretty straightforward. But to bring some logic back into the equation, does it make sense that your body would go through the trouble of adding more metabolically active tissue – muscle, which needs to be grown AND sustained – when it already doesn’t have enough energy/calories to sustain its present self? The process of adding size to the body is an energy costly process. That’s a huge strike against those who state their goals as being simultaneous fat loss and muscle gains. More often than not, you’re going to be disappointed.

Now does that mean that one can’t ever gain muscle while simultaneously losing fat? No, it doesn’t. However, it is very unlikely unless you fit into one of the following categories – you’re a “newbie” just starting out, you’re coming back from a lay off and as such are basically in a de-trained state, or you’re new to “effective” training.

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Don’t Ignore Your Legs!

Monday, January 19th, 2009

I don’t care what gym you go to, we’ve all seen that guy – he’s been working out for a few months and is starting to make some gains, but something is missing. Unfortunately for him, he’s neglected a very important muscle group and he’s starting to look like a flamingo.

Sure no one wants to focus on their lower body when they first start out, because it’s not a showcase muscle group and let’s be honest, leg training is both taxing and painful. I know I’m not painting a pretty picture here, but you know you’re committed to this sport for life on the day you wake up excited to jump into the power rack and start dusting the floor with your ass by doing full-range squats. Besides, if you can stomach eating tuna from the can on a daily basis, you can churn out a gut-wrenching leg workout routine once a week.

When you’re choosing leg workouts, try compound or multi-joint exercises that hit the legs as a unit. While there are benefits to isolation or single-joint exercise, like leg extensions and hamstring curls, the inherent challenge of full squats (a.k.a. back squats) will keep you focused on days when lifting has become a chore. Vary up your workout to make sure the gains in your legs match those of your upper body.

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Balancing Your Guns

Friday, January 9th, 2009

The front biceps pose or the “double gun shot” is the one pose that everyone has “hit” at some point in their youth.  Find me a kid who hasn’t done it into a mirror and I’ll guarantee you he doesn’t have arms.

It’s in our DNA to show off the size of your bi’s.  That being said, don’t forget your arms are comprised of more than one muscle group. The triceps (the muscle group on the other side of your bi’s) and the brachialis (which is found underneath the bi’s) are muscles you’ll have to focus on for full arm development.  Sure we all want to focus on our biceps because it’s an easier muscle to show off, but keep this in mind: The triceps make up two-thirds of your arm and developing the brachialis will help push out your biceps to give you a greater peak. So if you’re looking to build an impressive set of arms, then don’t forget about these muscles!

For your triceps, try doing close-grip bench presses, dips and variations of triceps extensions. While performing hammer, concentration and preacher curls for your brachialis (Note: These exercises will also stimulate the muscle fibers in your biceps). And remember, it’s not always about the exercises we like to do, it’s also about what we need to do.

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