When a student asked Charles Poliquin his best single dietary tip for optimal leanness, energy and sustained mental focus, he told us to try the rotating meat and nuts breakfast. My coach, Ben Pakulski, introduced me to the Meat & Nuts Breakfast in prep for the 2011 WBFF World Championships & I can testify to increased metal focus, less craving and more focused energy. Not to mention 4% bodyfat. Why... 

When I was invited to the Hypertrophy Bootcamp, I didn’t actually think it was a a REAL bootcamp! I thought it was primarily lecture. Nope!  Fifteen “balls to the wall” workouts in five days! Three chest and back workouts Monday; three quad workouts Tuesday; three arm workouts Wednesday; three hip workouts Thursday and three shoulder workouts Friday. Afterwards the reoccurring comment... 

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... 

After yesterdays three quad workouts, getting out of bed this morning fight like an Olympic event. After todays three arm workouts, I will be shocked if I have the ability to style my hair tomorrow morning! 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... 

Day 2 Report from Charles Poliquin’s 5-Day Hypertrophy Bootcamp in Rhode Island 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... 

Day 1 of the 5 Day Hypertrophy Bootcamp, East Greenwich, Rhode Island! 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... 

Yesterday I shared the rules and protocols behind my muscle building diet and today we’re going to show you the muscle building foods with a sample meal plan.  Be sure to read yesterday’s blog post before this one.  Don’t worry about the portion sizes of the meals, which are details provided in the muscle building diet post. Instead, understand the logic behind each decision.   Meal... 

How To Customize Your Own Muscle Building Diet By Vince Del Monte Before customizing your own muscle building diet, your general goal should be to gain a half-pound to two pounds of muscle each week.  That is two to four pounds of muscle each month. To accomplish this weight increase, you will need to gradually consume an extra 500-1000 quality calories a day above your basal metabolic rate and exercise... 

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...