Progression - 7/12/13 - Where I'm at, what I'm doing? SHOULDERS

Seriously this is my serious face; oh my gawww

I thought I'd take a little time to talk about where I'm at and where I want to be in terms of my physique and fitness goals for once. I'd like to do a show in the future, possibly in 2014, but I have a lot of work ahead of me and I still need to decide if I want to compete in a bodybuilding show, or physique. For those of you who don't know the difference to sum it up pretty quickly physique competitors are a smaller in comparison to bodybuilders, they wear swim trunks and generally go for that aesthetic "beach body" look, or that athletic look; and there is really no posing involved.

regardless of what I decide to do both require a ton of work, constant effort, dedication, and discipline both in and out of the gym and in the kitchen as well. Currently I'm trying to put on size as cleanly as possible (putting on minimal fat); right now I'm at about 210lbs at 6'3" and around ~14% Body fat. I'd like to put on 10-20lbs of clean mass over the next 3-6 months, and I'm also going to start incorporating  a lot of supplements into my regimen to help get me there so stay tuned for the reviews on those...

Having trouble developing my shoulders, we should start to see
some big changes in them very soon!

Right now one of my greatest weak points has got to be my shoulders, in terms of what they look like, I can't develop them to save the life of me. At work a couple of the trainers like to call me "Dove" because my shoulders look like that of a girl's in a Dove soap commercial, soft with no real definition, haha gotta love the people you work with sometimes. Although my shoulders are very strong they never seem to grow; it makes sense though as I hardly ever train them by themselves, and when I do it's only once a week. So for the past 3 weeks I've been hitting them twice a week and have been seeing decent results already!

Over the next couple of months I'll be keeping you guys updated on my overall progression and posting pics; hoping to see this transformation take shape soon!



I know these mirror selfies aren't the best, I'm gonna get a
permanent photographer; cuts the cheesiness in half at the least

Damn Good, High Protein, Low Carb Dessert - Super Easy to Make!

The other day my Mom had asked me to try this new dessert she had made; when I found out what was in it I said no way! One of the things it contained was ricotta cheese; I'm not a big fan of cheese at all, so when I heard this had cheese in it I thought there was no way it could taste good. I mustered up enough courage to try it and was reluctantly surprised out how delicious it was! Also, by no means am I one that likes to try new foods a whole lot, so if you're the same - don't worry, you'll like this!

There are ONLY 4 ingredients, 2 of which are optional...

• Ricotta Cheese (which is actually sweet tasting, and has the consistency of peanut butter almost, not what you would think of cheese at all)
• Reddi Whip
• PB2, non-fat, dehydrated peanut butter (optional)
• Shredded Coconut (optional)

It's super easy to put together, just throw a couple, 4-6, tablespoons of ricotta into a small bowl, throw in a tablespoon or two of PB2 and a pinch of shredded coconut and mix them in. Next just top it off with a little Reddi Whip to add a little more sweetness, and there you have it! The easiest and surprisingly good desserts to eat while watching your diet... try it out!

Get Out There and Make Some Friends... It's Summer!

Caught a neat little bit in a health magazine the other day titled, "Social Interaction Prevents Obesity" the entire thing is super short here it is word for word...

"Loneliness increase the risk of obesity, cancer, and premature death. A study on mice from the Ohio State University showed that social stimulation helped the animals convert energy-storing white fat to energy-burning brown fat. Consequently, the animals lost weight. Researchers achieved greater social interaction by housing 15-20 animals together rather than in individual cages. If these results apply to humans, you should strive for more social interaction rather than communicating with people on the computer or cell phone. (ScienceDaily, September 6, 2011).
<"Social Interaction Prevents Obesity." Fitness Rx Jan. 2012: 22. Print.>

So get out there either with your friends or by yourself and make some new ones! If you live on a coast then there's no better place then the beach this time of the year!

Does Weight Lifting Cause Acne?

Here's an interesting theory, when I was younger and when I first started lifting weights at around the age of 18 I would always breakout. Now there is so much else at play here than just lifting weights alone, but I will just put that after a day of heavy training, especially legs I would always break out with at least a couple of big zits. Now that I'm older though this has since subsided for the most part, but I'm curious to see if any of you experience this at all? I used to run a blog for a website based on the issues of acne called: pimpleplanet.com, check it out... I did write about this issue back when it was a big problem for me, you can scope out the article here:

http://blog.pimpleplanet.com/2010/05/weightlifting-and-acne.html

Gamma Labs G Fuel Review... Quick and Easy Pre Workout Energy

The other day when I was at 7/11 picking up a bottle of water they had these little packets on display on the door; they were only around like 75 cents a packet so why not try it out. I didn't know anything about the brand or the company and I wasn't even 100% sure what this was exactly until I read the back. It's pretty much a light pre workout or energy drink you can take before "playing" it says on the back. There isn't a huge and crazy ingredients list, just some vitamins, and a few other interesting things; there is 150mg of caffeine which actually isn't too crazy at all for most people, and there also is a really cool antioxidant complex that they threw into the mix as well.

I used it the other afternoon before the gym, just threw it in a bottle of water and it mixed very easily. I was never one to care about the taste of supplements, whether bad or good, it was just never a big deal to me, but I do know a lot of you out there do care so I will add that it tasted pretty crappy. Like putrid lemonade that had been sitting in the sun for a few days bad; it actually had my face cringing a little bit like I was eating some sour candy.

I really wasn't expecting much, but I'm surprised to say that this stuff wasn't too bad! I felt good shortly after taking it, and had a great workout; to me personally it felt like it was effecting my mood in a positive way rather than my strength or stamina for instance which is perfectly fine for me. I just felt in the zone I guess would be the best way to put it, like I was actually bumping my head every now and then when a good song on my ipod would come on.  Just keep one thing in mind though, I don't normally take pre-workout supps at all so my tolerance to them is very low; if you do normally drink them than you might not get crap out of this stuff; some of you may not even consider this a pre-workout at all! As I said before look at the ingredient profile, it's very light.

So if you don't like taking hard core pre-workouts for whatever reason, they get you too wired, edgy, you don't feel well, then I do recommend that you try this stuff as it's not as harsh!

The Story with Eggs

Depending on the size of eggs you get an average "large" sized egg has about 70 calories, 4 grams of fat, 0 carbs, and 6 grams of protein! Eggs are also an excellent source of vitamin D, B12, E, B2, and B5. Some brands like Egg Land's Best, my favorite, even have additional omega 3's added into their eggs; Egg Land's Best eggs also have 25% less saturated fat than regular eggs.

There's a catch though the fat adds up with eggs very quickly, as little as 3 whole eggs and you're at around 12 grams of fat! That's why a lot of people just go with eating egg whites, because there is no fat only protein. There is a problem with that as well though, as the yolk is the part of the egg that contains all of the healthy nutrients and vitamins! So people today tend to think of whole eggs as fattening when in reality they really aren't as long as you're watching what you're eating them with. Out of the 4 grams of fat in an egg approximately only 1 gram of that is saturated, or considered a "bad" fat, the rest is "healthy" fat; and there are a lot of studies out there backing that you need to eat some fat in order for the body to lose fat...

So all you have to do when eating eggs, is watch out for other fatty foods you could be eating them with, such as bacon, and cheese which add a lot of unneeded fat; also the more fat you eat in a sitting you need to be weary of the amount of carbs you're taking in, as there are a lot of studies out there as well saying that when you pair high amounts of carbs with fats it equals extreme fat gain! So try to balance everything out, here's an example for someone my size trying to get leaner while maintaining my muscle mass... 2 whole eggs, 3 egg whites, a very little amount of low fat cheese, and 1 -2 low carb whole grain tortillas (each one contains 5 grams of carbs).

How Many Times Should You Be Coming to The GYM Each Week???

How Many Times Should You Be
Coming to The GYM Each Week?

This is another question I get a lot from clients, and sometimes it surprises me when they expect to see results when they only come once to twice a week to train... Basically no matter where you are, old, out of shape, over weight, obese, never exercised in your life... anything less than 2 times a week isn't really going to get you anywhere and fast! I mean it's still better than nothing, but you really want to shoot for coming to the gym or working out 3-4 times a week for most individuals.

If you're new to the gym, exercise, just starting out, or just getting back into things from taking a long break I'd say its perfectly okay to train 3 times a weeks for the first 4-6 weeks. You'll see good results at only 3 days if you fall into this category as its new to your body and it's just enough to get it to change!

Now if you're more experienced, exercise every now and then, or even exercise frequently, you consider yourself in decent shape, or at least better than average, then you really need to be shooting for at least 4 days in the gym every week. That is if you're trying to improve your shape and figure... Otherwise you can still workout 3 days a week but you're not going to see much of any type of changes it's more so just maintenance work.

If you're in super good shape then you'd want to coming to the gym 4-5 days a week, but in my opinion, no more as I am a huge believer in rest and recovery! Just remember, changes don't physically happen at the gym, they happen when you're resting!

***Remember as well, that your workouts shouldn't last more than an hour - no matter how good of shape you're in!***

Don't forget that you should also be getting 30-60 minutes of light-moderate physical activity - even on days that you're not at the gym. Some great choices: a brisk walk, light jogging, walking the dog, swimming, bike riding and so on.