We asked Charles, “What has been the greatest and worst thing you’ve seen in the fitness industry since you started 32 years ago?”  His reply was, “The Internet.”  It’s great because of all the free information but horrible because more than 95% of the information in completely wrong.  This got me reflecting…. 

My personal journey has cycled through three phases of focus – Body, Business and Brain.  From 1998-2006 I was all about the Brain (University, certifications, courses etc), then from 2006-2010 I really dedicated myself to learning the business side of the industry, then in 2011 I was all about the Body and competed four times. Now in 2012 I’m back to the Brain and spending a fortune on new courses and getting around the smartest people I can find.  In my experience, it’s hard to focus on Business, Body, Brain all at once because you spread yourself thin.  I prefer to put all my eggs in one basket, via cycles, and get the most out of each one.  Focusing on one speciality at a time has proven successful for me.   I share this because Charles superiority of knowledge exposed how little I know (in the big picture) and although I know more than 97% of the population that’s not good enough for my standards. If you’re growing, you’re dying.

I’m so grateful for people like Charles who have dedicated their life to being extraordinary and after spending five days, I can’t image where I’ll be (and where you’ll be if you stick along for the ride) after an entire year of more courses and classes.

Alright, here are the takeaways from the last day! And here’s a pic of the amazing new friends I met from Canada, United Statues, Finland, Italy and Australia:

1. Jumping your meals from five to six a day makes a big improvement in hypertrophy. Jumping your meals from six to seven meals a day makes a HUGE improvement.  Seven is your magic number skinny guys!  There’s your next experiment!

2. A quote from Henry Ford, “Everyone who works for me is smarter than me.”  How does this apply to your life?

3. Consistency in eating patterns is another MEGA limiting factor in muscle growth and lack of fat loss.

4. The two sports that abuse steroids the most? Tennis and cycling.  I’ll give you a simple way to spot steroids in sports.  If there is money there is juice. Hockey has the least amount of juice of any sport. The Kenyan runners are legit. It’s hard to detect steroids in other sports because the athletes don’t lift weights. If bodybuilders didn’t lift weights you would never know they are on steroids.

5. Carnitine is the number one under utilized supplement in bodybuilding.

6. Charles fertility boosting stack for men: 10g of carnitine (various types), 6 caps of Uber C (his specific Vitamin C product) and 180mg of zinc.  Carnitine will increase your sperm volume and the Vitamin C will make them swim!

7. If you struggle to make the right diet decision ask yourself, “Would a caveman eat it?”  Another way to look at this is, “If it doesn’t fly, swim, or walk or it isn’t green, don’t eat it.” This rule helps many people learn basic nutrition principles instead of following a rigid diet.

8. The most UNDER UTILIZED tool in athletics?  A professional stretcher.  His tip for guys who can’t find the motivation to stretch? Hire a really attractive girl to come stretch you and you’ll become compliant to the program no problem! Or join a stretching class with all females (for you single guys).

9. Infra red saunas are good for muscle growth because they boost growth hormone.

10. On a scale of 1 to 10, Charles rates a foam roller a minus 27 for being effective!  In his opinion, it’s a complete waste of time because most foam rollers are not hard enough to be effective.  Spending $100-200 on a ART therapist is the equivalent of 200 foam roller sessions. To understand his perspective, Charles is all about EFFICIENCY.  So, you’re not a bad person if you use a foam roller, he just feels it’s low on the chain for effectiveness.

11. Stretching 20 minutes a day for five times a week is useless and leads to no gains. For those who stretch 20 minutes a day. Has your flexibility REALLY improved?

12. To see a significant improvement in your flexibility: 6 hours a week for 3 months. Then 1 hour a week for maintenance. This is not research based this is the protocol he’s found effective with his athletes.

13. If you stretch between sets, be sure to contract the muscle for 2 seconds before starting your next set.

14. If you’re a trainer or coach: never overwhelm the client. People retain 10 seconds of info and the less info you provide the more they will retain. For example, when teaching technique, Charles uses three words or less per set.  One tip per set.  So if I’m doing horrible looking lateral raises his first cue might be, “Sit up tall.”  Next set, “Straighten your arms.” Next set, “Slower on decent.”

15. Rotate your personal trainers!  Every personal trainer favours certain techniques.  One train might be a stickler for tempo but not full range of motion.  Another trainer might be the opposite.  By working with different trainers you get exposure to each of their specialities. For those without trainers, rotating your training styles is critical.

16. YOU are your own worst coach.  We tend to favour the things we already do or are good at or like doing.

17. Dark haired and dark eye males need a higher dose of stimulants for a response. Blonde hair and blue eyes need a lower dose of stimulants for a response.

18. The BIGGEST mistake fitness professionals make is when they STOP LEARNING.  This was powerful to hear from a man who has 32 years experience and apart of hundreds of Olympic medals.

And I think that’s a great place to wrap up because, as you know, I’m a huge believer in the motto ALWAYS BE LEARNING!

Again, I know they’re many sound bites in my report and not many were in context so if you need clarification then ask.  I’m flying home from Rhode Island now and can’t wait to put my new info into action (after I take the next five days off to grow!). We were told we would all gain 5-7 lbs of lean body mass in the next five days so I’m going to bed with anticipation like it’s Christmas Eve!

Thanks for following the week with me and maybe one day you can join me at a Hypertrophy Bootcamp!

Vince Del Monte

Wow… 12 workouts done and 3 to go!

Today can be defined in two words: Hurt Box

DOMS from the triple day quad workout Tuesday kicked in this morning.  Literally, my knees buckled with every step … so did the 16 other students as we wobbled to the gym for triple day ham/glute/lower back work focusing on relative strength, functional hypertrophy and finishing with a Japanese Drop Set (which MURDERED me)… you can see the road kill pictures below…

The highlight of the day was having Charles discussing program design and organizing 15 different aspects for hypertrophy in a continuum from “intensification” to “accumulation”.  Absolutely brilliant info that helps athletes recover, grow and progress.

Ready for the takeaways?!

1. Virtually EVERYTHING can be explained (and make more sense) along a continuum.

2. Most people have difficulty interpreting info because they see the world through a straw.

3. The fastest way to make muscle gains is using a 2x a day training split.

4. When training 2x a day, your cycles should not exceed 10 days before unloading volume for days. Then you can repeat.

5. If doing double day workouts, keep the evening workout shorter than the morning workout.

NOTE: I know this double day muscle work is going to sound counter intuitive and I have pages of notes and protocols to do my best to answer questions. I’ll be testing these methods out on myself shortly and reporting results… Charles has more than a decade testing this protocol and convinced us it’s superiority.  YEAH!!!!!  Just when you think you’ve tried it all… Nope!  More to come…

6. With training twice a day you would do a CNS style workout in the morning (will potentiate more fibers for the evening) and a METABOLIC style workout in the evening.  For instance, your am workout would be something like 12 sets of 1-3 RM (100-175% effort via eccentrics) and the evening session would be something like giant sets.

7. Any type of multi session training needs at least 4 hours between workouts.

8.  68% of the population make progress on splits that look like A + A + A etc  (basically doing the same workout all the time). The majority of people reading my blog are probably no longer in that 68%.  The next best split is a A + B + A + B so you would hit each muscle group every 5 days. We’re talking about hypertrophy here.  No Nonsense Muscle Building users will know this is how the first 6 months is designed and how it works so well.

9.  High variation workouts only work for 1 out of 11 people and that 1 person is a “gifted freak of nature”.  In short, too much variation often backfires unless you’re that gifted freak.  When I say “gifted freak”, think Michael Jordan.

10. Determining how long to do a hypertrophy based program is EASY to figure out: Don’t stop doing it until you stop growing.  For some that may be 2 weeks and for others than could be 12 months.

11. If you don’t feel like having sex with your wife then you’re adrenal glands are fried.  For non married guys, if a Victoria Secret commercial does not catch your attention, your adrenal levels could be in the toilet. Adrenal supplements can fix this.

12. Everybody responds to over training different.  Some people’s immune systems get shut down (signs of this are getting emotional i.e. you start to cry when you watch a Bounce commercial), some peoples joints get really sore, some people lose their sex drive (adrenal shut down).  Each type of overtraining can be fixed, usually with supplements.

13. Tonight I did a Japanese Drop Set… MURDER.  ABSOLUTE MURDER! And I did it on the Pendulum Leg Press that forces your heels to touch your ass…. at the END of the day.  You pick your 5 RM and take it to 25 sets in sets of 5.  So basically 5 drop sets of 5 with your 5 rep max on EACH mini set!  If done properly, you’ll puke and crawl into the fetal position sucking your thumb.  I was so sick afterwards I could not eat anything for 2 hours.  Can anyone tell me why this would have happened to me?  Here’s what the Japanese Drop Set  did to most of us…

14. “If you don’t dread going to the gym, you’re NOT training hard enough.”  I know you don’t want to believe it but it’s true.

15. If you’re overtrained with VOLUME, you take naps while driving!

16. If you’re overtrained with INTENSITY, you can’t sleep at night.

17. Plantar flexion (pointing your toes) will “disengage” your calf from assisting and isolate your hamstrings more.  Next time you do any variation of a leg curl, point your toe and you’ll see it’s harder.  I’ll explain the anatomy in another video.  Pointing your toes will bring your calf into assist so you’ll be able to lift heavier (but less isolation on hamstring).

18. Pointing your toes outwards puts more emphasis on the biceps femoris. Pointing your toes inwards puts more emphasis on the semibraneous and pointing your toes outward puts more emphasis on the semitendinous.  You can NEVER isolate one of the hamstring muscles, just shift the emphasis.  In application, to get strong hamstrings, vary your toe position. I just gave you SIX (6) different options to your hamstrings training with one exercise (leg curls).

Glad you’re enjoying these updates!  It’s my goal to run my own Muscle Camps in the future so you can have a similar experience I’m having.  I’m so so blessed and appreciative to be around people like Charles Poliquin, Ben Pakulski, and his amazing instructors Derek and Ryan.

Let me know if you need any clarification or have further comments or questions below!

Vince Del Monte

We covered three different hypertrophy protocols for arm training while emphasizing multiple angles on the strength curve to reach the end results of bigger arms.  I am absolutely grateful for the opportunity to be around individuals who have made this line of work their life calling so they can make my life better and I can hopefully do the same for you,

Okay, here are today’s take aways…

1. Every arm exercise moves through a force curve – the stretch (fully extended) position, mid range (where you are strongest) and the shortened (fully contracted) position.  Isolating different points of the strength curve makes a huge difference in hypertrophy.

2. Arnold (probably intuitively) got this correct. If you study his workouts you’ll notice he uses many exercises to stretch the length, overload the mid range and strengthen the contraction.  Maximize Your Muscle members know this style of training as Positions of Flexion (as coined by Steve Holman of IronMag)

3. It’s “Tricep(s)!” not Tricep….”

4. Slight cervical extension is needed for max strength while training because when you flex your neck forward you won’t get max activation of all the muscles innervated by C1-c7.  In short, when you train, keep your neck neutral or very slightly extended back.  Once you look down or flex your neck forward, you’ll lose a good percentage of strength immediately.

5. The lateral head of the triceps is the lazy ass of the three. It requires loads of greater than 85% to be activated.

6. The long head head and medial head of the triceps are the work horses.

7. The more your elbows are away from the mid line of your body, the more lateral head.

8. For the majority of the population the typical individual has fast twitch triceps. (The greatest hockey players will typically have slow twitch muscle fibers as it contributes to accuracy.  Hockey goons have fast twitch biceps (yank the guy in) and fast twitch triceps (to pummel the guy in the face).

9. The best tricep extension of all time is a decline tricep extension with chains. (I’ll show you why in a video some time).

10. Heavier weight (reps of 2-3) on chin ups, before your bicep work, will potentiate (activate) more work in the elbow flexors (biceps).  Before you train biceps next, do 5 sets of 2 (heavy weight on chin ups) and then go train your lifts. Get ready to set some PBs!

11. Biceps are climbing muscles. Start climbing trees

12. Trying to learn anatomy through text books is like training to learn how to fight by watching Bruce Lee videos.  At some point, you need to get in a real fight!

13. The best way to learn anatomy is through dissection courses. Google search “anatomy with cadavers for strength coaches” and start learning about the human body with a 3-D view.

14. Charles talked about his breakthrough with knee rehab.  His secret? Squatting balls to the hells = bulletproof knees.  I’ll be taking future courses to understand this better in the future. Note: this does not apply IF you’re currently injured.

15. The BIGGEST limiting factor for skinny guys who want to build muscle: APPETITE.  Your appetite will dictate how big you get.  Ben reminded us that three of the guys who have the biggest appetite he knows also happen to be the biggest bodybuilders – Kai Greene, Victor Martinez and Ronnie Coleman.  In short, the guys who build muscle the FASTEST have huge appetites.

16. Certain volume training (think high rep leg workout) can lead to a high level of acidity.  Balance your pH levels with a greens drink.

17. The sports that deplete glycogen the fastest are judo, speed skating and wresting.

18. The average weight training workout burns 350 calories.

19. Want to get the best carb sources for your carb powder?  Find out what the guys in the Tour De France use.  We’ll be using what they use right now in about 15 years from now!

20. Look at supplements like this.  The supplements you take pre workout will determine how strong you are. The ones you take while you train will determine your work capacity and the ones you take after your workout will dictate your recovery.

21. You probably know this but Red Bull is the biggest scam of all time. I believe at least two of the ingredients are stimulants but those sneaky bastards put in another ingredient called taurine – a supplement that is a “downer”. In short, it can put you to sleep.  Taurine kicks in after the stimulants have got you wired taking you down and causing you to want to drink another one!  Stop drinking Red Bull!  Don’t ever buy a pre workout supplement with taurine in it.  You’ll fall asleep in the locker room.

I know there were a lot of sound bites and some of the points are not put in context so if you need any clarifications about anything, let me know below.  Your comments, feedback and questions are always welcome.

ALWAYS be learning!

Vince

The nickname for Day 2 was Dropping The Hammer of Doom on the Lower Body!

When it was announced my team of three would be doing three quad dominant workouts in one day I thought, “How is that even possible?”  Especially when you’re training the same muscle group each session.  And especially since I never considered myself a masochist.

Completing three workouts a day on the same body part (I’m predicting) is going to be the “a-ha” moment of the week and I don’t think any of us thought we could make it through. So far we have… but we still have another leg day on Thursday so maybe I should shut up. If you’re thinking…

Are we sore? Oh my gawd yeah.

Did I want to crawl into the fetal position, suck my thumb and call my Mommy?  By the 25th set of the first workout, yup!

Isn’t this over training? Absolutely. But it’s strategic and brief.

Will I recover?  Of course!

We’re all listening to the wisdom and experience of Charles and sticking to his precise peri nutrition protocols and increase bumped up nutrient intakes by 50% overall normal requirements.

Plus, we’re in groups of three so the moral support is awesome. I’m in a group with two Alpha Males and we’re having a blast pushing each other to the brink of death.

Here are some of my take aways from our in-class sessions and nazi-style workouts…

1.   Pre Workout Stack: 40grams of BCAA, 5grams of Carnitine (l-carnitine and acetyl-l-carnitine from tartrate), 1 electrolyte pack, beta-alanine.  I had this stack three times today!

2. BCAA increase blood sugar while we train, are strongly anti-catabolic, require no energy to digest (maintaining growth hormone levels), increase cortisol (cortisol provides energy) insulin and growth at the same time, increase insulin sensitivity, and increase androgen receptivity.  Best way to take BCAA caps is to put them in a cup and carry your cup around with you. If you can only afford one supplement, BCAA is your best pick.  Plus, if you have a sensitivity to dairy, throw away your protein powder (unless it’s lactose free) and just use BCAA.

3. When hamstrings act as a knee flexor, you utilize more slow fast twitch muscle fibers. When hamstrings act as a hip extensor, you utilize more fast twitch muscle fibers. Therefore, your knee flexor exercises should be more explosive, lower reps and heavier. And your hip extensor exercises should be more controlled, higher reps and moderate weight. 

4. Quads have mixed fibers for the average individual. In short, the average individual has a various distribution of muscle fibers so to get your quads to grow you need to use a wide variety of rep ranges.

5. The fastest way to break a muscle growth pleateau is with Eccentric training.Notice the hanging clamps with weights on them? Once you hit the floor, those clamps fall off so you can travel down with more weight than you come up with. Incredible!

6. Research almost never tells the whole story. For example, we know that having sugars during a workout is excellent to replenish your muscle glycogen but the insulin spike blunts growth hormone production.  So here’s the lesson: If you really want to become a student of exercise you need to read further into the research and science to be able to see the entire story.

7. The best exercise science research comes from Findland, Germans, Andrew Fry, William Kraemer and Lawerence Weiss.

8. When doing eccentric training the rule is that you prescribe a tempo and the tempo DICTATES the load. You know you’re doing eccentric training properly if you’re shaking uncontrollably at the end.  If you did a 10 second eccentric on squats, you’re still in control on the last second of the last rep.

9. Bodybuilding is the easiest concept in the world. Essentially, the goal is expose your body to a stimulus it has not figured out how to handle yet.  Do you think I’m going to make gains of of 3 a days?  Yup!

10. Critical Drop Off Index: During hypertrophy work (your goal is to gain size), when your strength drops off by 20% in a workout, that means it’s time to stop the workout. During CNS work (your goal is to gain strength), when your strength drops off by 7% it’s time to stop the workout.

11. An indication of a REALLY flipping amazing coach is if he can help you gain strength without your body weight going up weight classes!  Perhaps, the biggest challenge of a strength coach.

BONUS TIP: When you squat boys you squat “Balls to the heels” as one of the instructors yelled. Yes, your balls should touch your heels. Slightly bigger balls is an not cheating.

12. Specialized eccentric training should not make up more than 20% of your yearly volume and should not be introduced until after 2 years of base.

13. Too much eccentric training makes you stronger but also slower.

14. Good coaches will always change their philosophies as they evolve.

15. If you’re not experiencing severe mental anxiety and depression after two weeks then you’re not training hard enough! This was a huge “a-ha” moment.  A typical bench after a set…

16. Soccer players have the fewest “athletes” in professional sports… One of the worlds highest paid soccer players can not do 4 chin ups. Another onne of the worlds highest paid soccer players has the record on his team for clean and jerk. 72kg.  That’s good if you’re 15 years old … and a girl.

17. In a locker room of 63 professional baseball players, Charles was reminded that 5 of them looked relatively fit.

18. The majority of professional athletes are not as fit as you think. Many are simply genetic freaks.

19. Here’s what one of our instructors, Derek, yelled out to one of the groups on leg press when the intensity dropped, “50kg on the leg press has never been a heavy weight in the history of weight lifting. We’re not making history today. Get your “blank” act together.” 

20. Muscle modelling occurs from eccentric training, not concentric training.  If you’re failing to control the weights on the negative portion then you’re wasting your flipping time. Go home and take up chess.

21. Don’t train with Charles Poliquin. You’ll want to commit suicide.

22. Big Ben Pakulski is sitting at 130kg and 5.1% bodyfat!  Charles did his BioSig and he’s a beast!  Ben pushing on on the fifth exercise of a 5 exercise giant set. 20 reps with no pause at the bottom or top is a recipe for setting your quads on fire.

23. I bailed three times while doing 10 second eccentric squats because my hips are too tight.

Six workouts down and nine to go. Keep praying for me. Comments and questions below!

Instructors:
Charles Poliquin
Ben Pakulski
Derek Woodske
Ryan Fanley

Welcome to my daily report of the 2012 Hypertrophy Bootcamp!  Here’s how we were greeted:

“Over the next five days you’re going to learn FIFTEEN (15) hypertrophy methods.  Each day we’ll train three times and each time we train you’ll learn one new method. After the next five days you need to take five complete days off.  No deload day or “active recovery”. Nothing. The next five days you’ll each gain 5-7 pounds of muscle. Any questions so far?”

The 17 students from Australia, Finland, Canada and the U.S. drooled with anticipation…  Where have you been all my life Charles?!

Today we went through three workouts for chest and back starting off with a Modified Hepburn method in the morning and then ending with giant sets in the evening.  Here are some sound bites from the notes. Feel free to test my new knowledge behind the WHY of each of these methods:

1.  During CNS (central nervous system) training forced reps are used for one thing and one thing only…. To save your friends life. Otherwise, forced reps are not permitted during CNS training. Why? Because forced reps increase acidity which decrease force production. Plus forced reps lead to bad form and bad form with heavy loads can lead to injuries.

2. There are three categories of people in the gym:

- Those who know a lot of theory but don’t have a flipping clue of what they are doing.

- Those that have a lot of experience but are misguided by horrible theory and concepts.

- Those that have theory AND enough experience to created desired changes and responses.

3. Training makes you weaker and smaller. At the end of this 5 days I’m going to be skinnier.  The goal of your training is to train so hard you make yourself “skinny” so when you recover you “supercompensate” and become bigger.  Why does that make sense? The more stress = the more growth… IF you recover and if you recover then you’ve experienced the “training effect.”

4. CNS workouts in the morning (the one we did this morning consisted of 13 sets of 3 reps) potentiate (excite) the CNS, which in turn helps you recruit 5-7% more muscle fibers in the afternoon.  This ONE tip got me my moneys worth.  Heavy training in the morning. Volume training in the evening.  5 days on. 5 days off.  You can only do these double or triple day sessions for 1-2 cycles max. Drug assisted individuals might be able to handle three of these cycles if their sleep and nutrition is perfect.

5. Our Pre Workout Supplement Protocol: BCAA  + Carnitine + Beta Alaninine + 1 electrolyte pack.  I’ll talk about WHY this stack is so powerful in the future.

6. Best way to train CNS system is EXPLOSIVE REPS (as fast as you can) with 4 second negative.  Why is explosiveness necessary? Because we are trying to recruit the fast-twitch muscle fibers that have the greatest potential for growth.

7. If you’re on a tight budget the only supplement you need is BCAA (for muscle growth).  BCAA increase blood sugar while you train, increase insulin, cortisol and growth hormone at the same time, increase insulin sensitivity and androgen receptor receptivity (your ability to uptake testosterone and utilize it).

17 students from around the world!

Lunch was sponsored by Whole Foods – My body was so fried after the FIRST workout I had no appetite and had to wait to eat my chicken, veggies and salad. I couldn’t even eat the yams.

What we did after the first workout. Slept on the floor!

One cool thing: Unlimited access to supplements pre, during and post workout.

Dumbbells with spinning handles! Everything in 1 kg to 160kg in 1 kg increments!

Tomorrow I’ll get you more action shots!  My back and chest are still shaking and I have virtually no appetitive tonight which is a sign of being overstressed and overtrained (today). No doubt!  Looking forward to sharing this amazing experience with you.

LIKE it up if you want more updates. Questions and comments below!

Every time I talk about gaining muscle without fat at a rapid rate, my Inbox gets slammed with criticism like this:

“Gaining 12 lbs of muscle in 21 days is IMPOSSIBLE!” 

  “You can’t even make those kind of gains on steroids!

  “Do you think I’m going to fall for this marketing hype?!”

Ah, the Internet. How far we haven’t come!

Below is a QnA article I did for a fellow skeptic to clarify a number of his intelligent questions about Lee Hayward and I’s 21 Day Fast Mass Building System.

It’ll clarify all the misinterpretations of the claims and show you how over 6,000 users were extremely happy they opened their eyes to a new approach to building muscle.

Question: What is your definition of “muscle”?

Answer: FAT FREE MASS. The human body can manufacture (under optimal training, nutrition, supplements and recovery) anywhere from .25 to 1.0 pounds of dry muscle tissue a week. So we’re talking 2 to 4 pounds per month and this can be higher or lower based on the individual.

Understand, when you increase muscle size (Dry Muscle), you’ll also be able to increase glycogen AND water storage in those new muscles.  More muscle equals more water and glycogen.  This is all considered FAT FREE MASS and it’s weight that will make you look awesome.

So when we say you can gain “12 pounds of muscle”, we’re NOT referring to 12 pounds of dry muscle, we’re referring to 12 pounds of dry muscle AND glycogen AND water.  Fat free mass!

Question: So the premise of the 21-Day Fast Mass Building is to increase FAT FREE MASS (also known as “lean body mass”)?

Answer: Correct! That’s the problem, everyone perceives “muscle” as something different. You hear “rock-solid muscle”, “ripped muscle”, “lean muscle mass”, “lean body mass”, “shredded muscle” and when we reference muscle, it’s “fat free mass”.

Question: In No Nonsense Muscle Building you promote “bulking up” and then “cutting down” Do you still endorse this method?

Answer: Yes! It’s simply ANOTHER road map.  When I wrote NNMB in 2005, I was simply unaware of the concept or science behind cyclical bulking.  Just like actors sills evolve with time, my knowledge evolves too.  I
always caution NNMB users the DEGREE of the bulk. No where in NNMB do I tell users to bulk to the point of getting fat. I always recommend adding muscle while maintaining a four pack.

Question: So how is 21 Day Fast Mass Building different then NNMB?

Answer: Essentially, instead of bulking up for 16 to 48 weeks and then cutting for 8 to 16 weeks, the 21-Day FMB uses CYCLICAL BULKING which consists of shorter bouts (2 to 12 weeks) of bulking, mixed with shorter (1 to 4 weeks) of cutting.

Question: What the hell is the point of that?

Answer: By cycling your bulking, and cutting protocols into shorter bouts, you can take advantage of various metabolic swings that occur in response to bulking and cutting — and optimize your body’s response to each.

Question: Give us an example.

Answer: Okay. Recall the time you wrapped up a long bulking cycle and started cutting. Wasn’t it amazing how fast the fat was stripped off your body? It dropped away quickly, and with little effort. But after time, the rate of fat loss slows dramatically — and ends in some cases.

Question: What causes this to occur?

Answer: Adaptation is the cause. Once you start your cutting phase after the bulk phase, your body is in a prime state to strip of unwanted fat as there are several factors working in your favor.

Question: What are those factors?

Answer: Your metabolic rate is cranked as a result of the surplus of calories — your levels of T3, leptin, and other hormones which contribute to metabolic rate and fat oxidation, are all cranked as a result of the surplus of calories, in response to handling all the calories you’ve been crushing!

Once you drop calories during a cut phase, you quickly experience fat loss because of all these factors working in your favor. Your metabolic rate is higher than ever, and burning up calories like a wildfire tearing through a dry forest; however, as all good things must come to an end, the body begins to adapt to the drop in calories by reducing T3, leptin and other factors — which will, in turn, cause the metabolic rate to decline, and that’s when your fat loss comes to a screeching halt.

Question: What happens when you cut for a long time and then start bulking?

Answer: The opposite! Recall the time you wrapped up a cutting phase (or maybe you even did a photo shoot or competition) and started increasing your calories again. You rapidly put on size. Much of this is due to the fact that calorie restriction will increase insulin sensitivity. Increased insulin sensitivity in muscle tissue will help partition calories toward muscle and away from fat, thus making it easier and faster to gain muscle relative to fat.

Question: Any more info to gain muscle without fat?

Answer: It’s critical that when you transition from bulking to cutting (and vice versa), you will want to take advantage of the metabolic swings we discussed above — before your body is able to adapt to the change. So, when going from a bulking to a cutting phase, we’ll literally cut your calories in half, which will allow you to burn more fat than if you cut your calories slowly, as your body will simply lower your metabolic rate to match your slowly-dropping calorie intake…and vice versa.

When transitioning from a cutting phase to bulking phase, we’ll double your calories to take advantage of the increased insulin sensitivity.

I DO NOT recommend doing this after a really, really long cutting phase (12 to16 weeks) because your metabolic rate will be so depressed that you will be primed to store more body fat. Short cutting cycles, as prescribed in the 21-Day Fast Mass Building, will not depress one’s metabolic rate enough to cause any fat gain.

Question: What is the optimal cutting and bulking cycle in your system?

Answer: We’ve named our brief “cutting phase” the primer phase, and it lasts 7 days. We have named our brief “bulking phase” the overload phase and it lasts 14 days. This is the nutritional premise of the 21-Day
Fast Mass Building and then we have a specific workout protocol to accompany the nutrition.

Question: Do you recommend experimenting with the length of the cycles? 

Answer: We give our users permission to experiment with the length of each phase AFTER they have done one 21-day phase as we prescribe. Pay close attention to how your body responds.

Question: How many 21-day cycles do you recommend?

Answer: I strongly believe that MULTIPLE cycles back to back will produce better results than just once through.  At least 2-3 cycles (42-63 days) will make your body more responsive to the metabolic swings.

END OF INTERVIEW

To read more about cyclical bulking as it’s prescribed in 21 Day Fast mass Building Click Here

And as always, LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW.

As you probably know, Ben was The Man who dialed me in for four fitness model shows in 2011 and while he’s been helping take my body to an entirely new level, I’ve been helping him in a “behind-the-scenes” capacity to launch his online fitness business just like I helped my wife launch FlaviliciousFitness.com this past year.  What you probably don’t know is that our relationship started off in the “student-teacher” fashion.  I was the student. Ben was the teacher.  The Maximal Body Molding captures our first two hours of 1-1 coaching on camera.

==> Maximal Body Molding <——- Your Free Gift! 
In this two hour DVD (that costs me $300 and retails for $69.95), Ben exposes the forty most common exercise mistakes and shows you how to FIX ‘EM! This was my first exposure to Intentions and learning new ways of fully shortening & lengthening a muscle through it’s full range of motion.

After eight years of training, I thought I had seen it all and learned it all… After this DVD, I felt like I was back in the gym for the first time…

==> Maximal Body Molding <——- Your Free Gift!

Enjoy your free gift.  I’ll be back soon with some more free gifts and awesome new content.

Talk soon!

Vince

P.S. If you haven’t picked up MI40 yet, for a limited time you can get it HERE for a special discount, before the price goes up again in the new year.  And I always like hearing from you so feel free to introduce yourself below and let me know how I can give you a hand.

#2 Technique: BEN PAKULSKI DEMONSTRATES NOS WITH 200 LBS

#3 Technique: BEN PAKULSKI EXPLAINS THE MAGIC OF 40

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While testosterone production is genetically regulated and genetically determined, and while genetic coding is not yet within our ability to manipulate and control, we do have the ability to influence genetic expression and, therefore testosterone production by manipulating three factors: exercise, nutrition and supplementation.

Many endocrine doctors recommend having your testosterone levels checked immediately if you have reduced levels of sexual desire, which eventually leads you to your doctor with a telltale complaint, “I can’t get an erection.”  If you have borderline testosterone scores, it’s advisable to raise your levels with exercise, fat loss, stress-control, nutrition and sleep before considering hormone therapy.  The sooner you start working on maintaining on higher levels in your 20s and 30s, the better chances you’ll have higher levels later on. Let’s examine ten tips to get your juice up – safely.

1. Eat Pro-Testosterone Foods

To boost testosterone levels, it’s first critical to eat foods rich in the mineral zinc. Zinc has been called “the man mineral” for a reason – it makes or breaks your testosterone production.  In addition to being zinc-rich and pro-testosterone, some of the foods listed – specifically beef – are rich in B-vitamins and growth factors that promote anabolism, while others like nuts and seeds contain beneficial fats and even have anti-inflammatory enzymes that limit exercise-induced inflammation damage and promote rapid exercise recovery and muscle growth.  Here are your top pro-testosterone foods: oysters, chicken, beef shank, pork chops, plain low-fat yogurt, wheat bran, wholemeal bread, cashew nuts, pumpkin seeds and baked beans.

2. Consume Cruciferous Vegetables Like…

Broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, bok choy and kale, which may boost testosterone levels. These foods are high in the chemical Indole-3-Carbinol.  Scientific research shows that I3C acts on the testosterone metabolizing enzyme and is converted into the chemical 3,3-diindolyl methane (DIM).  it’s thought that I3c and DIM may favorably impact testosterone profile by by hydroxylating estrone into 2-hydroxyestrone and 2-methoxyestrone.  Both of these are supposed to weaken and excrete estrogen from the body via the urinary tract.  Even if they don’t exert positive testosterone effects, the antioxidant power of these foods is likely to contribute to muscle growth – so eat these vegetables anyways.

3. Join The  Mediterranean Club 

If you had to rank the the world’s populations in terms of pure hairy-chested maniliness, chances are the Greeks, Sicilians, and  Cypriots would rank in the top.

So it should be no surprise that an eating plan similar to the classic Mediterranean diet, deriving about 25-40 percent of its calories from fat, is optimal for increasing for maintain your testosterone levels.

Cholesterol is the building the block of testosterone, so it makes sense that a meat-eating, cholesterol-consuming diet would yield more of the big T than a vegetarian diet. Duh.

Interest in the Mediterranean diet started in the 1960s, when researches observed that people in the olive-growing regions lived longer, had less heart disease and fewer heart-attacks, and had fewer incidences of many cancers (including prostate cancer, the 2nd most deadly for men).

Most of the fat in the Mediterranean diet comes from olive oil, meaning most of it is monounsaturated. The protein comes from fish, eggs and cheese. The carboydrate comes from the whole grain bread, pasta, and rice as well as from fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables. The diet has little saturated fat and virtually no refined or sweetened
carboydrate.
4.  Add Nuts To Your First & Last Meal Of The Day 

Nuts are good for your nuts. Various research studies insist that the overall consumption of fat, especially monounsaturated fats, increase testosterone. Nuts, such as almonds, walnuts, cashews and pecans contain great “healthy” fats as well as the essential fatty acids necessary to boost testosterone levels.  Eating a hand full each day will significantly help create a balanced diet as well as the possibility of increasing your testosterone.

5. Have Morning Sex (assuming you have a partner willing)

On top of burning a few extra calorie each morning, just having an erection increases your testosterone. And you already get a surge of testosterone when you wake up, so this will bump it up even further.

6. Say Bye To Booze 

I can see the eyes roll and hear the groans! To maintain a healthy testosterone count — and titanium erections — cut yourself off after two drinks when you do indulge in some alcoholic beverages . Binge drinking will kill your testosterone levels.  Alcohol affects the endocrine system, causing your testes to stop producing the male hormone. That’s one reason drinking often causes you to go limp at the moment of truth.  Alcohol also has a fat-storing, muscle-wasting mechanism related to the work of the stress hormone cortisol. In short, you can’t drink your suds and become a stud too.

7.  Stop Surfing for Porn at 2 a.m.

My favourite indication of a goods night sleep is waking up with your sheets pitched as a tent. Sleeping less than seven to eight hours a night can throw off your circadian rhythm. That’s why it’s no wonder your testosterone levels are higher in the morning after a good night’s sleep. So if you’re working long hours, surfing dirty websites, clubbing till wee hours in the morning, don’t be shocked if your sex drive starts to take a crash.  Strive for 7-8 hours of quality sleep a night.

Want To Experience The Power Of Optimized Testosterone To Build Lean, Hard Muscles & Gain Unbeatable Strength? Learn Ten Additional Steps To Boost Testosterone By Clicking Here   

If you want to build your back, go back to the basics and develop a strategy for back training that combines all the old-moves with the knowledge and techniques you’ve learned over the years.  Let’s take a closer look at three classic, old-school back exercises that my wife, Flavia “Fitness Diva” Del Monte and I put together for you this weekend. Enjoy!

If you have questions on any of them post them below!