This article, the first of several, contains just a few tips that can help with your endeavors to be the best you can be. Some relate to training, some nutrition and some supplementation. Perhaps you'll pick up something that will help you, perhaps you won't.
1. Learn
Well if you are reading this site you obviously are already doing this. Research is the key to building a physique. If you don't do research and accept one source as gospel you will probably spend the rest of your life doing 8-10 reps per set and taking creatine. But these things don't suit everybody. I learn something new about my body almost everyday whether it be rep ranges, exercises that work well of something to do with dietary intake. Bodybuilding.com is a great place to start to build you knowledge base but then expand it by using the internet and sites such as AST.com, and read magazines such as Ironman. You will never know everything and new things are being discovered all the time.
2. Drink low-fat or no-fat milk
Even if you are trying to gain weight don't drink full cream milk. The reason? When they take the fat out of the milk they need to replace it with something usually it is both protein and carbs but is slightly more protein than carbs. There is usually twice the amount of protein in no-fat milk than in full cream milk. But what about the fat and extra calories? Well even though milk fat isn't all saturated there are better forms of fat to gain on but there aren't too many better proteins to gain on.
3. For fat loss, walk don't run
What??? But you won't burn any calories, right? WRONG! Walking on a treadmill set to 15 degrees of incline burns at least three times the calories you burn on a flat surface. Also the pace you can walk at top speed on a great incline you would probably have to run to maintain on a flat surface. When I do my cardio I work at burning 20 calories per minute, to burn that on a flat surface I would need to sprint probably faster than I could run.
4. Rest
This one is simple. If you are tired or not feeling 100% take time off. Spend a couple of days or even a week away from the gym. Simple. You should take a week of every 8 weeks anyway.
5. Take arginine with your post-workout shake
2 grams in your post workout shake will make a difference of 30-40% in glycogen storage.
6. Use glutamine as a pre-workout stimulant
This one is probably only viable to the one or two millionaires out there but a large dose of glutamine (e.g. 80 grams) works as a stimulant. A safe, legal alternate to an ECA stack.
7. The 'pump' isn't everything nor is getting sore
A lot of people will tell you the pump is the only way to realize you are working hard enough, but in all honesty it really isn't. Think about it. It is pretty hard to get a pump in fewer than 12 reps as Vince Gironda suggests and I agree. Think of all those who train with singles and reps lower than 8, they make gains but I really doubt they get a pump. Mike Mentzer said if the pump meant anything, people who trained on a volume program would gain forever. Also a lot of people don't get sore. In fact most only get sore after a layoff. The only way to truly measure the success of a workout is if your poundages or reps increase from your previous session. Like the expressions 'you are only as good as your last game' or your last drink, you are only as good as your last workout.
These are just a few tips, I hoped they help you in someway or another.
Until next time,
Callum
callummahoney@hotmail.com
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