Secrets to a Lean Mean Bodybuilding Machine

[FitnessPhotos]

I was torn between this title and "Getting Back To Basics"; but in the end I figured more people would read a thread hoping to find some "secret" to getting a lean and muscular look. The truth is - there are no secrets; it's all right there in the basics. Everyone wants the short-cut, hell, most of the things I am going to discuss everyone knows, but fails to follow and then look for shortcuts to compensate for their lack of progress.

If you want to loose weight and gain mass all you have to do is follow the basics; forget the gimmicks and don't believe those quick fix ads. I won't tell you anything you don't already know in the back of your head; but if you can't do even the basics you'll never get where you want to be.

1. Eat More, Not Less.

How many people make the mistake of thinking that weight loss means eating less? If I eat less, I'll lose weight is the biggest myth I know of for weight loss. Sure, deprive your body of the nutrients it needs and you'll loose weight - but not just fat, you'll lose that muscle mass you are so eager to build, too.

Our bodies adjust to their environment - just like when your body sweats in an attempt to cool down because it's overheating, your body will slow its metabolism in an effort to store fat when you starve yourself and eat irregularily.

To loose weight - burn fat - you need to increase your metabolism and get your body burning more calories.

When I first got measured to determine how many calories my body is burning I was "most efficent" burning fat calories at a heart rate of 103 - I was burning 5.6 calories, 3.7 of them fat. At my "peak" fat burning potential, with a heart rate of 118 I could expect to burn 284 fat calories in an hour.

Fast forward to today and I am burning 9.3 calories at a heart rate of 116, 7.7 calories from fat. My "peak" fat burning heart rate is now 116 with a fat calorie burn rate of 462.

What does that mean? It means that today I burn alot more calories with the same amount of effort as when I started. My "anaerobic threshold" has gone from 147 to 166 and my body went from burning 981 total calories in an hour at my AT to burning 1,415.

When I started I was a slug; I had put on alot of weight over the years and I made all the mistakes one could make - I didn't eat well, I didn't exercise properly and for the 6 months prior to my first test I did all the things I used to do when I trained wrong. Fast forward to today and with a combination lifting routinue and cardio I've made significant progress in the Battle of the Bulge.

Okay, so how do you get your body to process more calories and help you burn off more fat? By eating more, not less. More of the right foods, that is! You need to increase your metabolism by eating meals with more frequency, making good choices and exercising portion control. Try eating 4-5 times a day, small portions and skip the butter, dressing and other things that kill a meal.

We live in a Super Size society - you have to resist the temptation to eat 3 or 4 servings of food at a sitting. It's okay to have a treat, but that should be the exception and not the norm.

2. Eat breakfast.

This goes with #1, but deserves it's own mention. You cannot get your body to process food properly when you constantly skip breakfast. I used to think I was doing good by not eating breakfast, but then by lunch I was starving and eating twice the food I should have been. By eating breakfast you can balance out the amount of food you eat, avoid that "starving binge eating" and increase your body's metabolism.

Try ceral with low-fat or skim milk; or my favorite, 4 egg whites and 1 egg on dry white toast. Just don't skip it; it really is the most important meal of the day.

3. Pay attention to the labels.

How many of you drink protein shakes? When do you drink them? What do you mis with it? Have you ever looked at the label beyond just the number of protein grams you are taking in?

Most shakes are labeled as being mixed with water. I used to mix mine with skim milk and fruits into a shake; never giving a thought to the amount of calories I was taking in. Did you know that you can take a 250 calories protein drink and turn it into a 600 calorie shake?

How about the foods you eat - do you get mayo on your sandwiches? Order burgers from a place that uses butter to toast their buns? How many portions are you eating when you take a plate of food?

Make better choices; watch for "hidden calories" - those you add to your meal without even thinking about it. Order dry toast/buns, skip the oil and butter, 86 the mayo. Eating well doesn't mean giving up the things you like, but it does mean eating smarter.

To loose 1 pound of fat, you need to have a deficit of 3,500 calories. Set realistic goals - 1-2 pounds of weight loss per week. Don't try a fad diet expecting to loose 5-10 pounds a week - you'll just put it back on (everyone I know who tried has, anyways). Do it the right way, gradual and using good eating habits that can last a lifetime and not just 4-6 weeks at a time before the binge eating starts.

I know a guy who eats 5 meals of 1 cup of brown rice and 8 oz. of chicken every day; ugh. I don't know about you, but I couldn't do it. Picking the foods I like, but eating proper portions and balancing what goes on it or around it has made a huge difference for me. I have found that I love hamburgers and skip the cheese altogether; there was a time I couldn't think of a burger without the cheese. But that one slice of cheese is a fat buster.

Read those labels, folks; they are critical for knowing just what you are putting into your body.

4. Full body workouts.

How many people do you know at the gym who only seem to work chest and arms? I know these guys at my gym, I see them maybe twice a week and all I ever see them do is arms and chest. Nothing else - as if those were the only body parts that mattered. Add in their chicken legs and you've got two guys who appear to want to do nothing but flex their biceps in the mirror and look like crap.

Do you have a "skip day"? If so, is it always the same body part you are skipping? Everything is connected - you want to improve your bench press, you need to work your back and shoulders. You want to improve your dead lift or squat, you need to work your core (abs). You should be hitting on every body part at least once a week.

5. Form is more important than weight.

So what if you can't do 60 pounds dumbell one armed curls. I'd rather see someone doing 20 pound dumbells correctly than see some idiot throwing out his back throwing 60s up. If you can't get 6 reps with proper form our of an exercise, you really shouldn't be going up in weight any more. Sure, some people train down to 3-5 reps, but for most people thats unnecessary.

Same guys I mentioned in #4 will do curls by only moving the weights 2-3 inches at a time. What kind of workout is that? You should be using the maximium range of motion to develop your muscles. Don't cheat just to get the weight you want - do it right.

Don't be that guy who lifts his ass so far off the bench while doing flat bench presses that you could put a phone book under him. Don't be that guy arching his back into a C shape while trying to do curls, either. Stand straight, keep your ass on the bench and do it right - even if it means doing less weight.

6. Supplements.

I have found my biggest gains in the past few months over anything else I have ever done simply by timing the intake of my supplements. It seems almost like a no-brainer, but timing of your supplements to when your body needs them most is critical for achieving maximium results.

My schedule works like this:

1 hour before I workout: 3g L-Arginine, 5g L-Glutamine
Start of workout: water bottle mixed with 5g-10g of Creatine Monohydrate (drink half of bottle at start of workout, other half during)

Immediately after workout: Mega MRP Sport Meal protein drink (mixed with water in shaker). 40g protein, 5g Glutamine and 3g of BCCAs (among others).

I follow this every day and have seen measurable results in doing this. Watch out for those Creatine mixes that add a ton of carbs to their mixes; skip those and go straight for the Creatine-only stuff - no carbs, no calories.

Again, stick to the basics and avoid the "gimmick" pills you see on the market.

7. Cardio.

Do you skip cardio and just lift? Well, don't expect to loose that jelly roll if you do. You need to elevate your heart rate if you want your body to process more calories. It's not enough to just lift and eat right, you need to get your body moving; burn some calories.

Get on the treadmill, even if it means heaving a half mile into a run. Trust me when I tell you that you'll be amazed how quickly your body responds and within a couple weeks you'll be doing a mile easy. Pick something you like or are interested in; I love going to spin classes and riding my bike. I hadn't riden a bike since I was a kid before I tried a spin class and that lead to me buying a road bike and now I'm riding 40-50 miles at a time. I even tried swimming for a while and enjoyed it. With winter coming I'll probably do some treadmill work in preperation for a 13 mile event my wife signed me up for at Disney in January.

Just get moving - get your heart rate up and burn those calories. If you want, try "Zone Training"; it's helped me alot and I almost always have my heart rate monitor on while doing cardio.

8. Change it up!

Do you do the same exercises day in and day out? You may do a killer arm workout, but have you tried armwrestling someone and found yourself sore the next day? Or swinging a golf club? or a bat?

Your muscles get used to the exercises you do - sure you can do more weight, but you need to "shock your system" by changing it up every so often. By doing so you can shock your muscle into being used in new ways and promoting more growth. I try to drop one exercise each month and replace it with a new one for each body part. I find myself with sore muscles those first few days, but I love it because it means I'm working something differently.

Look at your routinue and see where you can substitute an exercise for each body part with a new one and see how it makes you feel. If you aren't feeling it, then change it again as it might be too similiar to what you were doing.

9. Set Goals.

Set short term and long term goals; make them realistic. I used to get my body measured every 30 days, I liked seeing the progress as my waist got smaller - and when it didn't, I knew I wasn't working hard enough and had to do better. I'm not a big fan of the scale - as you build more muscle you will offset weight loss with fat which weighs less. I went from 236 at 19.9% body fat to 236 and 18% body fat - a 2% loss of body fat while maintaining the same weight.

Check out if your gym offers any kind of health assessment; get checked on a regular basis and measure your progress. The best times are the first few months as your body responds to your exercising.

10. Be Consistant

Setup a workout schedule - doesn't matter if its 30 minutes or three hours, three days a week or 6 days a week; just come up with one that you can work with according to your schedule. You don't get the results you want by workingout once a week or blowing off too many workouts, you need to get your heart rate going and push some resistance if you want to drop the weight or build muscle mass. Sure you want to make sure you give your body time to rest, but working out every so often or when you can find the time isn't giving your body rest.

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I'll be adding more as I go; I'm just putting this all down in writing. But the key here is that there are no short-cuts; it's all about the basics. If you are looking for a quick fix, you'll only end disappointed. You need to dig deep, set goals for yourself and apply the basics if you want that lean musclar look.

I know because I'm been lean and I've been fat - I've tried the short cuts and at the end of the day, it's all about building a foundation you can live with day-to-day and balancing your body's needs with the amount of effort you put out.

[Adonis]

Amen!

[Crowbarski]

Dude, you hit it right on the head. I feel like you wrote what's been in my mind the last few months. Like you, I used to be a good athlete, in shape at about 200 lbs. In 2000, I quit playing hockey and proceeded to gain 80 lbs over the next 5-6 years. Well, this spring I said "enough". I started in April at 280 and am now at 245 (6 ft. tall) I work out with a 4 day split going Monday (Chest/Tri's), Tuesday (Back/Bi's), Weds. Off, Thursday (Shoulders), Friday (legs). Sometimes I may mix in an extra hit for a bodypart that feels recovered, but I am going to be 40 next month and I don't want to overtrain. I do cardio HIIT for 20 minutes after each work out, usually eliptical or cross trainer. I have a pretty bad back condition so treadmill and high impact are not good options for me. I feel like I have been kind of struggling the last month or so with no real fat loss or gains in strenght/mass because of my work/travel schedule. My diet hasn't been as clean, nor have I been as dedicated to not cheating. Your post has helped to fire me up again. I had already rededicated my self this week to getting back to how hard I was working the last few months, so thanks for the inspiration!

[FitnessPhotos]

Glad to hear it - that's all I can hope for.

I am 236 at under 18% body fat; hoping to reach 16% before the holidays. I started at 260 as my size 38 jeans no longer fit me and was disgusted at how far I had gone since my early lifting days; now I'm in a size 34 on the loose side.

It's taken me two years to get here; alot of sweat and some of the same old habits that slowed my progress. This post is as much for you as it is for me - keeping me from slipping into old habits by putting down my "lessons learned".

I train 6 days a week - every week. 5 days of lifting for 45 minutes - M-Shoulders, T-Back, W-Legs, T-Arms, F-Chest. I do spin class on M-W evenings for an hour. I usually hit the bike trail for 40-50 miles on a weekend or go to a spin class. I need to add more cardio as I'm just doing the same thing; need to run to shock my system again and running should do the trick as I was up to 3+ miles at my tri earlier this year and then dropped it.

Oh, and I'm 40, too.

[Insex]

Originally Posted by FitnessPhotos

The truth is - there are no secrets; it's all right there in the basics.

That is so true.

[lXl FouLacY lXl]

Awesome Info.

[Riddle]

Great info. Most people would see much greater gains if they just remembered to stick to the basics instead of trying to get all fancy.

The only thing I think should be added is this:
Just because a pro bodybuilder does it, doesn't mean it will work for you. If you never played baseball before, and wanted to hit like Barry Bonds, would you step into a batting cage facing 95 mph fastballs? No because you wouldn't hit a single ball and wouldn't get any better in the process. It would be better to start off against slow pitching you could hit and then work your way up. The same is true for bodybuilding/strength training. Just because a pro (or any other advanced lifter) does a 6 day split program doesn't mean you should. And just because a pro consumes 2g protein for every lb doesn't mean you should either. The number one reason is, pros are all using more juice than a tropicana plant. This allows them to work out so frequently and is the reason they need so much protein. The number two reason is that pros have usually been lifting for well over a decade before achieving their physiques. The average weight lifter could never see gains on a program like theirs simply because we're not at that level and most aren't on juice. Also, the average weight lifter that consumes that much protein will piss out more than he even uses. Every beginner always wants to start off with a split program because they read it in muscle and fitness or some other crap source. They want to do chest/tris, back/bis, and then have a leg day. This workout is appropriate for an advanced lifter who needs to mix it up a little to keep seeing gains, but is not how you should start out. If you can't even bench your body weight or squat at least 150% of your body weight, you shouldn't be worried about anything else except for the basic compound lifts. Master those and then incorporate more isolated exercises into your workout. In essence, don't worry about doing hammer curls when you can't even do 2 pull ups.

[Doughboy]

How did I miss this sticky?
Nice 1 FP