The Great Bodybuilding Debate

Who's side are you on? BroScience or Hard Science? Give me some feedback and embrace the debate.

Drinking Water and Why!

Let me ask you, how much water do you drink each day if you're honest with yourself? 

 

I would suggest to drink anywhere between 4-6 liters of clear water throughout the day to help improve your progress, let me explain to you why this is so important for faster results. 

Quicker fat loss

By drinking more water you instantaneously spike your metabolic rate which means you're going to be burning through more calories 24/7, ultimately equating to quicker fat loss. Some research suggests that increasing your water intake on a daily basis can elevate your metabolic rate by as much as 30%! This may not be totally accurate, but I do know it has a signifiant impact on your fat loss and it's pretty easy for you to apply today.

Problem With Calves?

There are multiple reasons why any muscle group is resistant to growth, this is no different when it comes to your calves. However, one of the most common factors which cause a huge percentage of people to struggle with calf growth is NOT what you might think. . . Ankle Mobility. 

It's very common to suffer from poor ankle mobility due to an extremely tight Achilles tendon. 

As a result, your range of motion within your calf muscles is drastically reduced which means you will struggle to get the contraction you need in order to fully stimulate the calf muscles. 

How often when you train calves do you find a lot of the pain is in the arches of your feet and the contraction within your calves is limited? To test this, see how hard you're able to make your calf muscle at full flexion. Potentially you'll find it's limited at best. 

To really make your calves grow you must overcome this issue. 

Here's a 3 step plan for you to significantly improve your ankle mobility and as a result make your calves grow better than ever before.

Supplement Review: PureBulk.com

PureBulk.com is supplement website that has some great products that my friends and I got to sample. They sent me a great care package and I was intrigued with some of the products they had. One thing I did notice right away was the products dissolved very easily. No clumps and unflavored. Which I like because you can mix it with anything and not get a nasty aftertaste like some other products. For PureBulk.com, they have products I've never seen before. Their delivery services are cheap and who doesn't love that. You have options on how you can have your products like capsules, bag, tub or even bulk. Take a look at the site and who knows what things you may see that you'll buy that to help you with your goals. Once again, PureBulk.com is the site to check out.

Why Fiber is Important

1. Insulin management 

One of the best things you can do in relation to your nutrition and general lifestyle is a focus on managing insulin correctly to optimise muscle growth, fat loss, and even performance levels. Having enough fiber in your diet will certainly help blunt aggressive insulin spikes which are key to managing overall insulin health. 

It does this by slowing down the speed at which the carbohydrates hit the blood stream and the rate at which they are broken down. 

2. Nutrient absorption 

If you are failing to consume enough fiber then you're ability to absorb and assimilate the other nutrients you are eating will be compromised, no question. High protein diets are naturally acidic therefore without enough fiber present this can disrupt gut health.

It's Grow Your Chest

Dips 

Some people don't have the shoulder stability or even the mobility at the shoulder joint to do dips pain-free. However if you can do dips then do them because they are one of the most underused mass builders for your pecs. With a slightly wider grip, with slow controlled negatives, they really place immense tension on your pec muscles and also lead to a great contraction of the muscle. You can also change the angle of your body to change the emphasis on different areas of your chest when doing dips.

Fat Loss Stack and Tip

Body composition is significantly affected by your ability to process carbohydrates/blood sugar. Here is the stack for you.
Fish Oils
Magnesium
BCAAs
Greens Powder
Chromium
L-Carnitine

Start and finish your day with a large serving of fiber. This will help eliminate toxins and stabilize blood sugar.

Step Our Game Up!

There's that moment in most people's lives when it comes to training where they begin to take this more seriously. The results are there for everyone to see once this happens, they go from being in decent shape to really fulfil their potential. 

Let us focus on making your time in the gym and outside of it more productive in getting better results, from today onwards.

There are MANY things you can do, here are 3 for you to apply instantly. 

1. Rest periods 

Are you resting for as long as you need or for as long as you should? Realistically, your rest periods should be no longer than 90-120 seconds between sets. By keeping a closer eye on your rest periods you are instantly going to increase the level of intensity you are working at. This will lead to added overload within the muscle, greater stress on energy systems, heightened oxygen debt and increased calorie burning.

Gut Health and Intolerance

Earlier in the week, we discussed the importance of rotating your foods, with one of the KEY reasons being gut health. The fact is if your gut health is optimised then your ability to absorb the nutrients you are eating is also optimized, leading to faster recovery, more muscle growth and even a flatter abdomen due to less bloating. 

Water retention can be another issue where there are digestive issues. 

The point is, it's crucial to your results!

Something which you really need to focus on identifying and addressing is intolerance or even mild sensitivities with specific foods as these are going to compromise everything.

Variety In Your Food Choices

Let's discuss the the variety of food. Many people stick to the same food all the time and you get bored of it. Here are some tips to help you out with your food choices.

Gut health (and general well-being) 

Serious gut intolerances are overwhelming, largely from eating the same foods day in day out, all day long. Chicken breast is the most common example of many eating this 6-8 times a day. By doing this, your gut can and will over time develop a sensitivity to this food, which is especially the case where protein based foods are concerned. 

From a general gut health perspective, it's also key to have a wide variety of foods in order to get a wide array of healthy bacterias, trace elements, minerals and vitamins which all contribute towards healthy digestion. You should NEVER be following a diet plan which only has a handful of foods, it's a recipe for gut issues and general health. 

There's also more opportunity to sustain gut health in the long run by having more variety because you can cycle between various food sources so you're never overloading the body with too much of the same thing, for too long.

Struggling In The Gym

You feel weaker than normal, your muscles aren't "firing" as they normally do and you just feel drained.

Many will just put this down to a bad day, but the reality is that there must be a reason for this to happen. Here are 3 common reasons why we see this happen.

1 - CNS Overload

If your central nervous system (CNS) becomes overloaded it will become fatigued which is going to have a very negative effect on performance in the gym. The CNS is the mechanism used to recruit muscle fibres properly, via motor units. Things like a lack of quality sleep, excessive stimulants, dehydration and poor diet quality all lead to CNS fatigue over time. Make sure that to avoid this you are ticking the boxes above.

Maximizing Anabolism

Here's 5 tips to increase being anabolic within your body.

1. Naturally increase testosterone levels by supplementing with zinc, adding some saturated fat to your diet and making sure you sleep properly. (IE: ZMA)

2. Don't skip meals, eating every 2-4 hours to ensure that muscle protein synthesis (MPS) levels are maximized which is the driving force of muscle growth. 

3. Train with added intensity, focusing on beating your numbers with different rep ranges to introduce new levels of stress on the body.

Prevent Being Sick

This time of year it's a pain in the ass for the illnesses, colds and flu which are about. If you catch a virus like many do this time of year, not only is it very unpleasant it's also going to make you miss the gym and go backwards. 

Here are 3 things you can do to boost your immune system year round to help decrease the chances of being ill. 

1 - Berries 

You should fruit in the diet, berries are particularly good for multiple reasons with one of the key points being their ability to boost the immune system. With their very high antioxidant levels and rich dose of Vitamin C they are perfect for keeping you healthy. Blueberries, acai berries and goji berries are all great choices.

Pre-Workout Nutrition

I would say between 60-120 minutes before work.

Here's why....

You need the nutrients to get into your system to help energize the body, and to support recovery when needed. For this to happen the food needs time to be partially broken down and of course for this to happen it's important you pick the right food. For instance, white fish over beef steak would be better pre-workout due to the fact its easily broken down.

Hormones

The endocrine system is one of the most powerful things you can learn to drive forward in order to maximize muscle growth. It is responsible for producing more than 20 major hormones and releasing them into the body. 

It can either become your best friend or worst enemy, depending how you treat it when it comes to getting the results you want. 

Here's an example of what I mean:

Testosterone, growth hormone and insulin are all VERY big contributors to positive changes in body composition.

Bigger Arms Biceps Training

There are so many different variations of curls which can all contribute towards building bigger, denser and thicker biceps for you. 

One of these training techniques I'm going to share with you now is performing straight bar curls on the cable machine while lying down. 

There are two key reasons why doing this can work so well as another bicep exercise to add to your program.

1. Lying down means that your back has to remain flat throughout the entire set which removes any potential of generating momentum from anywhere OTHER THAN your biceps. This will help isolate your biceps more, ultimately.

3 Diet Tips

Key principles of nutrition for you to take away and apply immediately.

Top 3 takeaway points for nutrition:

1. Calories

Calories do matter to both your fat loss and muscle mass goals, BUT all calories are NOT created equally. Some sources of calories are far better for you and nutrient dense than others, some digest easier than others and some just aren't any good for you full stop. By understanding this lesson you can manipulate your food sources to accelerate your progress.

Genetics

In short, genetics DO count, they DO make a big difference and anyone who says otherwise isn't been realistic. 

Genetics will dictate:

. Your ability to build muscle

. Your ability to gain strength 

. Your ability to burn fat

. Your structure 

. Your muscle belly fullness 

. Your muscle density

. How "grainy" you get 

But, this is on a sliding scale. It's not a case of "can" or "can't" - it's a case of how far you can go and there are many ways you can maximize your results and go beyond your genetic potential to an extent. 

The point is, even if your genetics aren't the best you can still achieve fantastic results!

Sleeve Busting Triceps

Showing you 3 ways to improve the growth in your triceps.

Triceps are two thirds of the overall size of your upper arm, so the secret to big ass arms is to build an impressive pair of triceps. 

1. Isometrics 

You know how much squeezing the target muscle during the isometric phase of your rep. With triceps this is especially the case because you are able to significantly increase the tension across the back of your arm and get more fibers Firing!!! 

When you do pushdowns try squeezing and holding with your triceps almost locked out (not fully to avoid elbow hyper extension) - you'll instantly notice the difference. This is one of the best tips you'll ever get for packing mass on to your triceps.

Recovery

Recovery is something many misunderstand and overlook. 

If you are serious about building muscle then you need to take recovery seriously, otherwise, you'll miss out!

In order for your body to produce more muscle tissue, it must recover properly first, growth simply cannot happen without recovery. 

There are multiple areas of recovery we can and will discuss over the coming weeks, but today I want to really address your CNS (central nervous system). 

The CNS is probably the most misunderstood and overlooked part of recovery.