Monday – Shoulders & Traps

Set 1 – Overhead Press (4 mins rest)

Set 2 – Dumbbell Lateral Raises (no rest) followed immediately by

Overhead Press (4 mins rest)

Set 3 – Dumbbell Lateral Raises (no rest) followed immediately by

Overhead Press (1 min rest)

Set 4 – Overhead Press (Now take 4 minutes rest before hitting the traps)

Set 5 – Cable Shrugs/Trap bar shrugs or alternatively, Dumbbell (or EZ bar) upright rows (2 minutes rest)

Set 6 – Cable Shrugs/Trap bar shrugs or alternatively, Dumbbell (or EZ bar) upright rows (2 minutes rest)

Set 7 – Cable Shrugs/Trap bar shrugs or alternatively, Dumbbell (or EZ bar) upright rows

Notes: It will prove very beneficial to perform your overhead presses while seated at smith machine. This is because the muscle fibers of your shoulders will be so FRIEDthat it will be hard to maintain balance will performing this movement with free weights.

Tuesday – Legs

Set 1 - Barbell Squat (4 mins rest)

Set 2 - Barbell Squat (4 mins rest)

Set 3 - Leg Press (4 mins rest)

Set 4 - Leg Press (3 mins rest)

Set 5 - Leg Extensions (3 mins rest)

Set 6 - Leg Curls (4 mins rest)

Set 7 - Seated or Standing Calf Raises (2 mins rest)

Set 8 - Seated or Standing Calf Raises (2 mins rest)

Set 9 - Seated or Standing Calf Raises

Note: While squats and leg presses are great exercises, don’t skip the leg curls and extensions. Only these exercises can place maximum resistance to the quads and hamstrings in the fully contracted position or peak contraction point i.e. that point in the range of motion where all of the muscle fibers are recruited.

Wednesday – Chest & Abs

Set 1 – Flat Bench Press (3 mins rest)

Set 2 - Pec Deck (3 mins rest)

Set 3 - Pec Deck (no rest) followed immediately by

Flat Bench Press (4 mins rest)

Set 4 - Pec Deck (no rest) followed immediately by

Flat Bench Press (Take 5 minutes or more if you need it before proceeding to abs)

Abs

Set 1 - Weighted Sit-Ups (decline if you are strong enough) (2 mins rest)

Set 2 – Weighted Sit-Ups (2 mins rest)

Set 3 – Weighted Sit-Ups (2 mins rest)

Set 4 – Leg Raises or Reverse Crunches if you don’t have access to a leg raise machine (2 mins rest)

Set 5 – Leg Raises or Reverse Crunches (2 mins rest)

Set 6 - Leg Raises or Reverse Crunches

Note: Building the abdominal muscles requires no special exercises. The ones above are recommended because they place a lot of resistance on the abs at the Peak Contraction Point (P.C.P.) i.e. your spine is rounded and your abs have shortened and hardened to their full potential. Any exercise that achieves this is good. Some gyms have dedicated ab stations that fit the bill very well, go ahead and use them if you wish.

An example of an inferior ab exercise would be the ‘plank’ because the abs aren’t ever brought into the P.C.P., nor can the resistance be mathematically increased over time for progressive gains.

Thursday – Back & Biceps

Set 1 -Deadlift (4 mins rest)

Set 2 -Deadlift (4 mins rest)

Set 3 -Barbell Row (2 mins rest) optimized form really works best for barbell rows

Set 4 -Barbell Row (2 mins rest)

Set 5 -Lat Pullovers (pullover machine) or Decline Cable Pullovers or Seated Cable Rows (2 mins rest)

Set 6 -Lat Pullovers (pullover machine) or Decline Cable Pullovers or Seated Cable Rows (Take 5 minutes or more if you need it before proceeding to Biceps)

Biceps

Set 1 - Cable Preacher Curls (2 mins rest)

Set 2 - Cable Preacher Curls (2 mins rest)

Set 3 - Cable Preacher Curls (No rest) Proceed immediately to next set in superset fashion

Barbell Curls (straight barbell not EZ bar) (2 mins rest)

Set 4 - Barbell Curls (2 mins rest)

Set 5 - Barbell Curls

Note: Allow a little controlled movement in your barbell curls, especially at the end of the set

Friday – Triceps

Set 1 - French Curls (3 mins rest)

Set 2 - French Curls (3 mins rest)

Set 3 - French Curls (4 mins rest)

Set 4 - Tricep Pushdowns (3 mins rest)

Set 5 - Tricep Pushdowns (3 mins rest)

Set 6 - Tricep Pushdowns

Note: I haven’t included any dedicated exercises for forearms in this cycle. More than likely you’ll be experiencing muscle soreness in your forearms before you get to Friday. However, if you wish to work them directly, throw in 2 or 3 sets of wrist curls on Friday after your triceps.

All credit goes to MuscleHack

Thanks Mark

Cortisol in extreme, and in the long-term could be damaging. It lowers your immune system, it increases fat storage, and it encourages your body to store fat, well isn’t that great?  If you want to build muscle this hormone will work against you. This is why we body builders do not encourage cardio because this hormone gushes into your bloodstream. I’m not sure why but my theory is that when we were cavemen, this hormone let you use your muscles, and fat as an energy storage. So it gave you a boost back then when running for food, or a predator but now when you’re trying to gain mass this is bad.

These are some of the side effects from too much cortisol

Stops the synthesis of protein to make it virtually impossible to build muscle.

Makes your body retain water

Reduces bone formation

Makes you able to retain memory better only if cortisol has just been put into your system

Increases your blood pressure significantly

Shuts down your reproductive system

I’m not saying to get rid of cortisol, I’m saying its good to relax, but this is also just one way of bragging how nice of this hormone is just because of mental, emotional stress.

Some ways you can reduce cortisol is going out and taking deep breaths once in a while. To really give you an effect, sit down, have your back straight, and meditate.  Focus your breath and out breath through your nose. Ask yourself how does it air feel passing by through your nose. Is it warm, is it cool? Most importantly anchor yourself to the moment by listening what you are not aware of. Listen to your heart. All these techniques have the ability to grind the mental chaos away. Usually we are stressed when we have a huge work load on top of use.

If this technique fails there are a couple of herbs you may take if your stress levels persists.

• Saint Johns Wort-Anti depressant. Works as an SSRI, uptakes your serotonin levels so you don’t feel as depressed.

• Valerian root Calms the central nervous system. If taken for a long period of time then the herb loses its affect on you.

• Passion Flower Is a relaxant, a little weaker than Valerian. Increases testosterone by destroying estrogen.

• Ginseng Improvement in thinking boosting resistance to viral infections Increasing resistance to the effects of stress, and Improving circulation and preventing disease.

• Magnesium Cortisol is increased when when levels are low

• Black tea Helps you recover once cortisol levels have dropped

If you are feeling extreme stress then I’m assuming you wouldn’t even be seeing this be keep in mind I am not your  professional doctor.

That is that. These are some of the remedies I have used when I’m stressed. Even if you are not in stress, its always good to go into deep relaxation especially when you excersise. Remember though anything in excess will cuase harm. It only takes 100cups of water to make your heart stop beating. This is called overosmosis.

Corn is found virtually everything. You’ll find it in your cheese, your peanut butter, canned food like fruits,  cereals, juices, anything that will make your fruit taste sweet even, gasoline, batteries, cows, meat, and  chicken.  You find it your chicken becuase thats all they feed the animals, corn. This is all they feed your cows.  Companies do this becuase the profits, and to them you are not important. If you keep this in mind we are walking cornstalks. You might be saying ok corn really isn’t that bad right, but when you remember everything is extreme is bad motto then yes corn is deliciously bad for you.  Corn is a grain, a carbohydrate. In case you haven’t checked out Gary Taubes Good Calories, Bad Calories, You’ll realize why you’ve been gaining weight.  Carb’s convert into glycogen very easily and if you don’t use that energy guess what? You’re going to gain on weight.

Things to look out for

-Corn Syrup

- High Fructose Corn Syrup(the really bad stuff)

This is the stuff that is really bad, and really cheap. It doesn’t even taste good in my opinion. High Fructose Corn Syrup is sooo processed that some even say that it turns into mercury. Don’t believe me though look it up for yourself. This is the reason companies are going crazy with telling the customer there is no corn in the product. More and more people are being informed and they are getting prepared for their downfall. We are the voters, and every time we go to the supermarket we make a choice, and we can make a choice whether we want to support the corporate marketers, or not by buying items that say that has sugar cane, or not eating sugar at all. Drink tea. Tea is loaded with anti-oxidants, and eventually you’ll get used to it. Its just a habit. Just as parents gave soda to little kids they didn’t really like it, they got used to it. Little kids have nothing to compare. Just as if you came into this world and had no idea what hot meant when you were somewhere cold, how could you have a preference?

What to buy?

-tea

-water

-whole foods(found on the sides of the supermarket)

-Look  at the ingredients, and avoid anything that says corn.  (good luck if its in a box )

What this all means

Just take care of your body. You’re body is your vehicle it does everything you tell it to. It doesn’t have a mind of its own and starts saying oh I don’t want to go up those stairs I’m too tired. Thats your ego saying that, not your body. You body  is a servant and I think it time that it gets what it deserves.

Pre- workout  5 grams of Creatine

Post work out Elite Protein 24g

Breakfast:

3 eggs, and bacon.

1 Banana

Snack consists of a V8. You can include almonds, a fruit, vegetable. Just make sure its not something to heavy like white breads.

Lunch: A piece of meat, fish, or chicken(its up to you)

A fruit such as an apple

Snack

Dinner: Chicken or Steak or Fish

One cup of milk

One serving of vegatbles

Snack: Cereal

Banana

Oreo’s

Milk

The high rate of meals is to get your metabolism going. This does NOT mean to eat more. This is just to spread out the meals so your body is constantly getting the energy supply instead of dumping it to your blood stream, getting a spike and crashing.  On the other hand you don’t want to eat nothing at all becuase that will slow down your metabolism. Maybe not overnight, but it will definitely show on your body over time. On the next post coming up I’ll show you what exercise that helped me the most.

The old nutritionist age would are recommend for you to eat nutrients, and eat fewer calories, and a million of other things.  Boy were they wrong, because apparently it hasn’t helped America one bit. I mean just look around you’ll see people who have more weight, and more weight, and the creepy part is that it is becoming “normal”.  Nothing that the nutritionist have told you has worked. We have many of them, and many people not losing weight, but with jaw dropping stats about diseases. People in America have twice as much diseases as the French.  So the key term a  meal,not a diet a meal, is balance. Not too much not too little much of food.

So you want to get fit huh?

First things first you change the way you think about yourself. Look up some self-improvement sites.  You might hate yourself, and you might succeed but the part where you hate yourself can be changed. Instead love yourself for who you are, and in that process comes a transformed body inside out. Look up The Work. To change your thoughts.

Many people think that by eating less you will lose weight.  Some people go to the trainer and say look I go to the gym everyday and I don’t eat anything. Is there something wrong. No silly your metabolism slows down when you eat less. that’s you bodies natural way of protecting itself from starvation.  This also doesn’t mean to eat like a pig either.

Following this simple chart will help you lose weight, and have more energy throughout the day.

Your first meal should be tea, with 2-3 eggs scrambled with your choice of meat. If you prefer beef, or ham, its your choice. On top of that take one of oat meal. To finish off your breakfast eat one apple.

2nd meal

Your choice of potatoes, past with fish, chicken, lean beef with a cup of steamed vegetables, and one apple. Its important to switch the meals often so you don’t get bored of the food, and don’t fry the vegetables. Frying destroys the nutrients in the  your food.

3rd meal

A protein shake 1 scoop of you are a girl, and 2 scoops if you are a guy. Buy a huge 2 pound container of protein. It will save you money in the long run. You’ll be using this a lot.  Usually its called whey protein.

4th meal

Chicken or lean meat/ with any greens ex broccoli

Well there you have it you very own program to lose weight if you are working out. Food is the most important part of a diet. Its more important than the workout itself. Keep in mind to eat mostly things that are not frozen. Buy things fresh.

Make sure you drink lots of water.

Protein is the best way to lose fat.