View Poll Results: Whose essay did you prefer? (Winner receives bonus prize.)

Voters
5. You may not vote on this poll
  • The Solution

    5 100.00%
  • G Novacheck

    0 0%
Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 27
  1. #1
    Managing Dir., Rx Muscle Forums Curt James's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Big Jeff's Family Restaurant, 815 Fremont Ave, South Pasadena, CA
    Posts
    50,069
    Rep Power
    2149336

    Default Rx Muscle Writing Challenge is on!



    Quote Originally Posted by Timbo89 View Post
    (snip) What I think would be a great idea, and get some activity going is an article writing challenge - members would be given a topic (or not, whichever) along with a deadline (snip) and then the forum members could have access to each article and vote for a winner. The winner could have their article published in the articles section and on the homepage of RX muscle. I see it as a win-win.. the forum interaction may be increased slightly, and RX gets free content. Who would be interested in something like this?

    Quote Originally Posted by Curt James View Post
    Thank you, Timbo! Sounds like a great idea.

    I'll make a list of some supplements from my IronMagLabs stash and offer one item as a prize as well.
    Details/Rules:

    Quote Originally Posted by Timbo89 View Post
    (snip) deadline would be next Friday? The thread could then be closed and have a poll open over the weekend and announce the winner on Monday?
    • You choose the topic!
    • ONE ESSAY PER CONTESTANT!
    • Submit your essay by posting the entire text in this thread. Pictures may be included to illustrate your words or emphasize your points. Pictures/images, however, are not necessary.
    • No word count, however I doubt crazy short or crazy long will garner many votes.
    • Members choose the winner via voting in a poll (to come)!
    • Deadline: Friday, April 4, 2014 @ 8 p.m. EST
    • Poll created and voting open for the weekend!
    • Winner announced: Monday, April 7, 2014 @ 11 p.m. EST
    • Prizes: Three members will receive an XXL IronMagLabs t-shirt (Note: Only one t-shirt will be allowed for an overseas or Canada member! Hey, I'm footing the bill here. You pay the shipping sometime. Trust me.)

    I'm extending the entry time to about two weeks for members to submit their essay instead of a shorter deadline for submissions. Good luck!

    Additional comments/Disclaimer: Not everyone will be a winner. Sorry, welcome to Earth. Winner (if they want to receive the IML prize) must provide their P.O. Box or other mailing infoz by pm or email to yours truly. Other details to be juggled, added, deleted, whatever, but there will definitely be a prize awarded and delivered free of shipping or any fee to the prizewinner.

  2. #2
    OLYMPIAN The Solution's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Erie, PA
    Posts
    15,366
    Rep Power
    2148163

    Default

    Just wrote this the other day:

    Tips to a Successful Gaining / Bulking Diet

    Even though the summer is upon us, not everyone is getting beach ready, not everyone is trying to shed a few pounds on the beach, there are still going to be those who are trying to add some size and fill out their frame. In this article I am going to go into detail on some mistakes, what some people may think is optimal for gaining mass/muscle, and some other perspectives from other coaches out there regarding what they believe in, and what they feel is an optimal thing to do when chasing gaining weight and gaining lean body mass. To all of those who are competitors and trying to grow into a weight class this may be a beneficial article (Currently doing the same myself growing into a middleweight from a lightweight), so this advice is based off my findings and also what I have seen other contest prep coaches do in the offseason.

    The key to gaining is giving your self-adequate time. Most often the #1 mistake regarding bulking or gaining or keeping in shape is setting unrealistic goals and a timetable (Gaining too fast which causes more pains than you would think). People think it can be done overnight, in a few weeks, or even in a month. That is going to depend on what you start out (weight and physique wise) and what you are trying to achieve. Think about this for a second. As a natural trainee who has some experience under his belt and is not very new to lifting the amount of muscle you will truly make in a year will be no more than around 10-12 pounds if you have spot on diet and training. Lets face is, most of us are human, we are not going to be able to nail every single meal and every single training session like we would like. Things come up, family events come up, and vacations come up and may set us back. Now while you may be bulking or gaining this may be easier than cutting, but for some they under estimate when they cannot track calories, or as we all know eating out is quite expensive and to get in loads of kcals (good calories) when eating out you will be paying a bit more than you would want for some extra protein like chicken, steak etc. The bulking game is a patience game just like cutting, lean mass does not happen right away, and will take some time to lay more muscle onto your frame. First thing is first lets start by establishing what we should do help measure our intake.

    Since we are trying to gain we must first try to establish our BMR and TDEE which are essential to let us know what we burn literally sitting on our butt all day (BMR = Basic metabolic Rate) and TDEE (The amount of kcals you burn in a 24 hour period). While using online calculators are great, they are just that an online calculator, don't place a lot of faith in them because it will spit out a number for you. This is where you need to do a lot of “Trial and Error” Which is the most optimal thing to do. Start with a number say your BMR Is around 2000, and you want to slowly gain, start with 3,000 kcals. There are so many variables that will change what the individual should consume. Think about how often you train (Frequency), amount of volume you use (the more volume the more glycogen depletion), Amount of cardio (More cardio = more calories burned), how much you weigh, how tall you are. These are all important and play into the main scheme of things. Lyle McDonald has a great equation which I will reference below:

    “Energy In (corrected for digestion) = (BMR/RMR + TEF + TEA + SPA/NEAT) + Change in Body Stores
    “ Very simple showing you that the amount of kcals you eat (Energy In) = BMR (Basic metabolic rate + TEF + NEAT (exercise and non exercise activity).

    My personal belief unless you are going to use “Enhancing” supplements that you should try to meet your fiber, protein, and fat minimums first and foremost
    1g/lb of Protein (if you weight 200 pounds then 200g)
    at least 20% of your diet coming from Fats (so .2)
    and the rest carbs.

    Now lets say you need 3000 calories and are 200 pounds
    200 pounds = 200g of protein = 800 kcals
    20% of 3000 = 600kcals which /9 = 66.6 Which we could run to 67g
    and the rest carbs (Around 400g)

    some people will not respond well to a higher carb diet and that is fine, you can simply adjust by adding a higher fat intake (Say 25-30% and lowering your carbs. We have to remember in a caloric surplus that more protein is not always better. More protein will just be stored like any other macronutrient in a caloric surplus, but carbs and fats are more protein sparing once are minimums are met!

    Next we will talk about training for gaining. Now the crazy thing is there is no difference, in all honesty you should still lift heavy (Type I Muscle Fibers) and lift in the hypertrophy rep range (Type II Muscle Fibers). Why? Because no rep range is going to make you grow, using all rep ranges will make you grow. We have to realize that in a surplus we do have a little more leeway than when we are in a deficit and can use a bit extra volume due to extra glycogen, and we can get carried away with excessive training techniques like drop sets, accumulation sets, rest pause sets, forced negatives, iso tension and so forth and so on. When dieting our calories are limited, our recover is impaired and we have to be wise with how much cardio and training we are doing to balance and preserve our muscle mass. For those who may be new to training I would suggest looking into these programs:

    Starting Strength
    Madcow 5 x5
    5/3/1

    These are all very simple and easy programs which only take a google and you can get spreadsheets and outlines for them. I would highly suggest sticking to a 5/3/1 Boring But Big setup which focuses on the compound lifts (as all new lifters should focus on) and getting down adequate form and range of motion. Remember its not about how much you lift, but also how good your form is and stimulating the proper muscle. Training full body 3x a week would be optimal for newbies to make sure they are getting in good gym time, but also good rest time to help with their gains. Remember we grow “out of the gym” not “in the gym” if our caloric needs and diet do not match our training our goal will never be achieved.
    As one becomes more experienced in training I would suggest looking into more upper/lower routines or more frequent routines.

    Lyles Generic Bulking Routine (Right off bodyrecomposition.com)
    West Side for Skinny Bastards (Upper/lower with hypertrophy andpower days)
    5/3/1 and more advanced alternatives than Boring but big.

    Once the trainee would have a good 1-2 years of fundamentals built up over time these would be good considerations. Mostly all of them focus on an upper/lower (Deadlifting/squatting at least once a week) and hitting each muscle group almost 2x a week because the 5/3/1 may be overlapping with accessory work for the other muscle groups after performing the complex lift.

    After you get a good 3 years in your system then I would venture into more advanced routines that you may see pro bodybuilders or those who you look up to running for instance:

    Layne Norton’s PHAT routine
    Smolov (For Squatting)
    Shieko (29, 37, 30, 40) These are all very popular but high volume.
    CUBE (powerlifting)

    These routines may be a bit advanced and require some kcals and also some good knowledge on lifting, but if you try to jump to something advanced right away you will burn out, it wont lead to results, and lead to more headaches than you would want.
    Since we have covered training and caloric needs lets also talk about some things we should consider in the offseason as well. Some people like to run their calories the same everyday, and if they stall they just simply increase kcals, while others (since we are human) like some moderation. And this is where refeed meals/refeed days, or cheat meals could come into play. I personally enjoy one meal off my diet per week of whatever I want. If I want to go out with a friend and grab Chinese I just replace one meal with that and move on for the day, have a slice of cake with it and call it a day and back on my diet. Some people cannot control themselves off a cheat meal in the middle of a day and will continue to eat junk the rest of the day because they blew their diet and hitting their calories, this is where I would suggest using your cheat meal as your last meal of the day so once you are finished there is nothing left to eat and you can move on to tomorrow and then get back on track with your diet.

    Some contest prep coaches still like to use Refeeds even in the offseason and even in a surplus that is a great way to add in some extra kcals and spark some growth IMO. For instance someone is on that baseline diet we talked about above.
    200g of protein, 400g of carbs, and 66g of fat. On say a lagging bodypart day that individual will lower protein a touch, lower fat a touch and increase carbs. A general rule of thumb I like to do is drop protein 20-25g, fat 5-10g and increase carbs 125-150g

    So this would look like on the refeed days:
    175g Protein, 525g of carbs, and 55-60g of fat

    Now the kcals are a bit higher (which is the point of a refeed) and also since we may be hitting our minimums of fiber/fat and maybe a bit shy on protein the surplus of kcals will cover what we are missing in the end.

    These are good tactics we could use in the offseason to help spark our growth and continue to aid in lean gains since we are still “Tracking” our intake, and knowing what adjustments need to be made if we stall or if we gain too fast (cut back on total kcals everyday or cut back on the refeeds).

    Some quotes I want to finish this article with are stances from other bodybuilding coaches or contest prep coaches and their importance towards lean mass.

    John Meadows on the subject:

    “Bulking up (getting fat) = eventual decreased insulin sensitivity at some point, still waiting for someone to explain to me how you can grow faster (muscle) in this state.

    You also have to consider how the person stores bodyfat too, some people store it pretty evenly so they can get a little chunkier, some people like me store it in one area in globs. These people have to be really careful because it is already hard to get that area down, now you go add 5% fat to it...prepare for 12 weeks of hell. Getting that tough area down will likely hurt other areas.

    It's also knowing your body. Eventually you get to a point where you keep raising calories and you aren't even sure if you are even gaining muscle, you can just see fat accumulation. Gaining 5 lbs of fat to gain 1 lb of muscle is a bad idea. You will lose that 1 lb of muscle trying to get the 5 of fat off.

    Getting fat over and over can make getting leaner harder each time. If you overdue it, then have to kill yourself to come down, what do you think your body's first response is going to be when you start your next diet? Yes, survive and hang onto that fat.

    I personally don't see any reason to get above 12-15% for most guys. Ultimately it will depend on where you start to lose insulin sensitivity, pumps decrease, muscle start getting softer, etc. There are signs if you know what you are looking for.


    Brian Custodio:

    “I read a lot on here and contrary to what people think I hate no one on here. I just have different opinions from my trials and errors. I will never hover above stage weight as others do cause I feel as no improvements to weak parts can be made. Sure you'll get harder and look better but you still never improved your physique. You actually made your weaknesses more noticeable. How many really competitive guys stay lean year round? Not many! Cause muscle cannot be added without fat accumulation. This wasn't towards anyone in particular but just seeing a trend lately. But you all have to decide, do you want to gain 3lbs a year and in 5-7yrs climb a weight class? Or live a little wilder and climb 10-20lbs a year and climb a weight class in 2-3yrs (then solidify that weight)? Each has their tradeoffs.


    Lyle McDonald on Muscular Potential: (And his Chart)
    I am not sure if I came up with this idea on my own or stole it from somewhere else (probably a combination of the two) but, in a slightly different context (how quickly can someone gain muscle), I have often thrown out the following values for rates of muscle gain.
    Year of Proper Training Potential Rate of Muscle Gain per Year
    1 20-25 pounds (2 pounds per month)
    2 10-12 pounds (1 pound per month)
    3 5-6 pounds (0.5 pound per month)
    4+ 2-3 pounds (not worth calculating)



    Shelby Starnes on Gaining Size in the offseason

    “Generally speaking, I believe you should always be able to see at least an outline of your abs even deep in the off-season. The fat at the lower back “love handle” area should also be kept to a minimum. For most people this means a max of about 12% body fat or so. I’m not big on numbers and measurements, though; I just go by the mirror. How you look is more important than a number.

    For those that really want to push the envelope, such as a bodybuilder looking to jump up a weight class, I believe it’s acceptable (and sometimes even advisable) to get a bit heavier, but 15% body fat is about the max. If you allow yourself to get that high, make sure to allow extra time for dieting afterwards.
    Another important factor to consider is where you feel socially and psychologically comfortable.

    Bodybuilding should be enjoyable (though challenging), so if staying lighter and leaner makes the journey more palatable to you, then by all means do it. You’ll never be consistent in your efforts if you hate how you look and feel in the off-season.
    If it drives you nuts to try to stay relatively lean in the offseason, then just do your best and save the dieting for pre-contest time. Not everyone has the same motivation and drive year-round. Just remember that your progress will mirror your effort, assuming your effort is intelligently planned.
    Last edited by The Solution; 03-24-2014 at 09:37 PM.
    2013 & 2014 RX Member of the Year
    2014 RX Muscle September Member of the Month


  3. #3
    Managing Dir., Rx Muscle Forums Curt James's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Big Jeff's Family Restaurant, 815 Fremont Ave, South Pasadena, CA
    Posts
    50,069
    Rep Power
    2149336

    Default

    Thank you for participating, Bob!

  4. #4
    Moderator Hoss06's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Posts
    7,158
    Rep Power
    2147878

    Default

    Good article, Bob.
    Training / Prep / Off-season coach: Kevin McDowell / Extreme One
    Journal: Hoss06 Training Journal

  5. #5
    OLYMPIAN The Solution's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Erie, PA
    Posts
    15,366
    Rep Power
    2148163

    Default

    Took a little bit from some of the big dogs on here and put my words in there together, i have done interviews with some others (Layne, Alan etc) and could of chimed in their stance, but it would of been too many words/letters to post in here. was a 6 page article in essence.
    2013 & 2014 RX Member of the Year
    2014 RX Muscle September Member of the Month


  6. #6
    Managing Dir., Rx Muscle Forums Curt James's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Big Jeff's Family Restaurant, 815 Fremont Ave, South Pasadena, CA
    Posts
    50,069
    Rep Power
    2149336

    Default

    Well, as it stands (no other entrants), you currently have yourself an IronMagLabs t-shirt -- artwork by Jerry Beck!



    ^^^^ Click artwork to visit IronMagLabs.com!

    Three t-shirts up for grabs with one of those I'm willing to ship overseas.

    Enter today! Any topic! One entry per member!

  7. #7
    RX MEMBER G Novacheck's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    24
    Rep Power
    0

    Default

    I'm in ..... kinda ...... I'll contribute, lol. I wrote this 2 years ago for my company. I'll donate it to the cause. Not to seem ungrateful Curt, the shirt won't fit me, so let me just submit this as non qualifying but for educational purposes. It was geared to the general public, not our crowd so much. Its probably 3 articles, but since I'm not playing for prizes, its ok

    BACK TO BASICS

    There is a reason we have been bench pressing and squatting for 50 years. These lifts undeniably build muscle. A Shake Weight has not created any Mr. Olympias, neither has a Power Plate, nor has an Ultimate Pushup, and definitely not a Bowflex. It seems that everyone is trying to find a shortcut to the physique of their dreams. Whatever happened to good old-fashioned hard work and discipline? We have become a lazy society and everybody wants the rewards, but nobody wants to put in the work.

    I have been in the fitness industry for over a decade. There are no shortcuts. There are no quick fixes or magic pills. This is a lifetime commitment, a lifestyle, if you will. Yes, round is a shape, but not usually the shape anyone in their right mind desires. Don’t get me wrong. It’s certainly to be expected that the priority that people place upon training to improve their appearance, increase their strength, and, hopefully, enhance several health parameters is going to vary as widely as the variance we see in waistlines.

    Not every man wants to be on the Olympia stage. Not every woman wants to look like the girl on the cover of Oxygen magazine. However, for those men who strive to look like a real bodybuilder and those women who also strive to look like a fitness model, there is no substitute for consistency, hard work, and time committed to training.

    In this article I’m going to get back to the basics of the three fundamental components of any training program that will produce notable improvements in one’s physique. The three fundamental components of a solid training program are training, nutrition and supplementation.

    TRAINING

    Training, both cardiovascular and progressive resistance weight training, is obviously a large part of the equation. Each and every time I go to the gym to train, I have to endure the almost painful sight of watching countless numbers of men and women spin their wheels performing ineffective weight resistance and cardiovascular exercise, which is a familiar scene in every gym and health club across America.

    I have been a member of the same gym for almost six years. Since day one, I would witness the same people, day in and day out, month after month, year after year, spending thousands of hours over the years making little or no progress. Very few people made any remarkable improvement in their appearance, yet, unfortunately, most of these individuals looked exactly the same or even worse. It seems like a ridiculous proposition that someone would train for six years without seeing any favorable change in his or her appearance.

    The combination of my passion for the sport of bodybuilding and having attained substantial physical, mental and emotional benefits from my years of hard training creates a feeling of frustration within me when I see people, who appear to be willing to put forth some effort to achieve a goal, continually fail because they just don’t have a clue about how to achieve success.

    First, you need to take a big picture view of your exercise regimen. Mine is structured around a year-long cycle. This is the style of training that is best suited for my personal goals. I have both an “on season” and “off season” exercise protocol that focuses around competing at the National Bodybuilding Championships at the end of the year. For the first four months after that competition, I train more like a power lifter. I concentrate primarily on barbell movements, utilizing heavy weights with a lot of rest between sets. It takes several months of eating lots of quality food and training heavy to add the smallest bit of muscle. During this time I will only train three to five times a week. I will keep the volume low and the intensity very high.

    This strategy is designed to add as much mass to my frame as I can. I am sure all of you know a “bodybuilder” who is on a endless roller coaster of continually alternating between bulking up for a couple of weeks followed by cutting up for a few weeks. Lifters who do this lack any real discipline and usually fail to develop a training and nutritional protocol that makes sense. The endgame for these guys is a pudgy appearance, during their so-called bulking phase, which alternates with an almost skinny appearance, during their so-called cutting up phase.

    During the next four months of my yearly cycle I will train like a bodybuilder. This style of training provides the look most of men strive for. This is usually a good year-round training schedule for most men. I will be training five days a week, hitting every muscle group once per week. Any muscle that I have amassed so far I will be trying to keep before the dieting commences.
    The next phase then begins 16 weeks out from the National Bodybuilding Championships, which is when the hardcore training begins.

    I usually try to incorporate three daily cardio sessions and two daily weightlifting sessions. I train six days a week, and take one day off; not because I want to, but because my body needs me to. I typically disappear from society for these four months, as this becomes my only focus. Most muscles are trained once per week, but some of my weaker body parts will get a second weekly training session. Cardio begins at 20 minutes, six days a week, and goes all the way up to 150 minutes per day, six days a week. I train all year long for just ten measly minutes on stage. That’s all I get. I have a ten-minute window in which to showcase the physique that all my hard work produced.

    Now that you have a basic understanding of what my training consists of, maybe I can help you shape that to fit your goals. You first have to ask yourself what part of my training cycle is best suited for your current goals? Are you trying to gain muscle, burn fat, or just maintain your current physical state? First, you need to determine how many days a week you are going to train. When I was 19, I used to lift for three hours a day, six days a week. More is better, right? Wrong. I didn’t know anything back then, but I was willing to put forth the time and effort.

    If you’re trying to add muscle, three to five days a week in the gym is where you want to be. You don’t grow in the gym; you grow when you sleep and eat. Get in the gym, hit it hard, and then get out and go eat. In my opinion, your lifting sessions should be 40-80 minutes long. If you’re trying to lose body fat, you don’t need to be lifting five or six days a week, but you need to be doing cardio that often. Cardio sessions should be between 20-90 minutes. Besides frequency, volume and intensity are the other two factors that can be manipulated in your training sessions.

    Your muscles contain glycogen, which is the fuel that powers your muscles. Within the first 12-20 minutes of your workout you pretty much deplete most of your glycogen stores, after which your body extracts more glycogen from your liver to carry you through the rest of your workout. Therefore, the first 12-20 minutes of your training session are the most beneficial. If you get on a treadmill to “warm up” for 15 minutes, you’ve just robbed yourself of the most valuable minutes needed for hard training. I always make my first exercise a heavy, complex movement while I still have all of my strength.

    The purpose for heavy, complex movements is to create substantial structure tearing within the protein contractile units responsible for actual muscular contraction. After your heavy movements, the remainder of the workout will be geared towards trying to get as much blood into the muscle as possible to saturate the damaged and inflamed muscle tissue with needed nutrients and remove cellular waste to expedite the recovery and growth process. Depending on the size of the muscle group I am training, I will do 12-20 sets per body part. The bigger the muscle, the more sets it takes.

    A few years ago, I made a change in my training that I have maintained ever since. I broke up my leg training into multiple days. Think about it this way. Your legs are half of your body. Most people train legs once a week and they use the other four days to train just their upper body. The legs are half the body and need just as much work as the upper body. Therefore, I highly recommend splitting your leg training into two days: quadriceps (thighs) on one day, and hamstrings on another day.

    NUTRITION

    Nutrition is the most important part of your training program. The majority of people that go to the gym don’t go for health reasons, but rather to augment the way they look (vanity). So, if we agree that we train for the purpose of changing our appearance to some preconceived “new me,” we also need a meal plan that works toward that same goal. For example, fruit is very good for you. It contains natural sugars, tons of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. However, if your goal is to lose body fat, then fruit is bad for that specific goal. Therefore, understand that simply because something doesn’t belong in your diet doesn’t mean that it’s not good for you. It just means that, for your specific goals at this time, it doesn’t work.

    In my opinion you need to be eating four to five small meals per day. Obviously, most people do not have time to prepare and eat five meals a day; however, these don’t have to be three-course meals. One meal could simply be a protein shake and another could be a turkey sandwich. Eating four to five times a day can be easy with a little planning, preparation and discipline. Your body doesn’t care what food tastes like, smells like or looks like. Your body only distinguishes food as energy.

    Therefore, if your body only gets two servings of energy each day (as does the typical person who eats only lunch and dinner), then your body acclimates itself to having its daylong energy needs being met from just those two feedings. Ergo, as soon as you put that food in your body, your body will store it, because your body knows it has to make it last a long time. On the other hand, when you get into the habit of putting food in your body every few hours, the body will tend to burn the ongoing supply of energy it anticipates it will continue to receive from its succession of meals. Thus, the frequency of energy supply to your body has a direct influence on your metabolism.

    Now let’s take a look at what you should be eating for those meals. We all know there are three basic categories of food: protein, carbohydrates and fats. In my opinion, protein intake should stay consistent throughout the year; lots of it, making it the largest portion of your diet. Fat intake should also stay consistent throughout the year. Therefore, we now have a very simple math equation that dictates that you will manipulate the amount of carbohydrates you consume to either gain or lose weight. During muscle growth and maintenance phases, carbohydrate intake should be high.

    Conversely, when dieting to lose fat, you must limit your carbohydrate intake. To maintain your weight you will want 65% of your calories to be derived from protein, 25% from carbs, and the remaining 10% from fats such as oils and nuts.

    Does this mean you can’t have pasta? No, of course you can have pasta; it’s actually pretty good for you. However, you need to have a plate of meatballs or chicken and a side of pasta. The meatballs are the dish, not the noodles. Have a plate of chicken with a side of rice or a side of potatoes. I believe that, for those serious about a meal program to optimize the development of muscle, the meat portion of a meal always needs to be the biggest part of the meal.

    The easiest way to begin a food plan is with five meals a day (three food meals and two protein shakes). Specifically, that would consist of breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a shake in between each meal. If you’re trying to lose fat, you should only mix your shakes with water. Women often complain about drinking HUGE shakes and still being full for the next meal. These shakes don’t need to be huge, but rather 4oz of water with a scoop of isolate; yet enough to let your body know it is continually being fed to crank up its metabolism furnace.

    On the other hand, if you are trying to put on muscle mass, then you might want to consider making those two shakes with milk. Two scoops of *My Company Isolate* in 20 ounces of milk yields about 600 calories. Two of those a day and that’s an extra 1,200 calories per day that you are now ingesting, and the only thing you did was add a couple of shakes to your diet.

    Real whole food is a little harder to prepare and more time consuming, but it is better for your body than a protein shake. Therefore, if you are able to eat five whole food meals per day, then by all means do so. However, if you are a typical American with limited time, which means you are struggling to prepare just one meal a day, then supplements are the only way to go. Protein shakes are simple to make, quick to consume and nowadays actually taste pretty darn good. No more excuses. You do have time to prepare and drink a shake. Your body is counting on it.

    SUPPLEMENTATION

    Nutritional supplementation is the final facet of your training program. The supplement decisions you make truly matter. Therefore, make them wisely. The sources of those supplements are also just as important. Unfortunately, most supplement consumers have no idea where their supplements come from or anything about the company that manufactures them. Let’s pull back the curtain on the supplement industry for a moment.

    **** Edit of my company’s positions ******

    CONCLUSION

    Although there appears to be a bunch of information in this article for you to digest, it all comes down to understanding the three fundamental aspects of developing a successful training program to finally get the results you are looking for. Hopefully, you will find that this article provides a good outline for building a sound training program that will fit your wants and needs. You should now be ready to outline your goals for the next month, six months, or year, and follow these simple rules while drawing up a plan of attack!

  8. #8
    RX MEMBER G Novacheck's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    24
    Rep Power
    0

    Default

    This post represents I'm not good with a computer
    Last edited by G Novacheck; 03-26-2014 at 10:09 PM.

  9. #9
    Managing Dir., Rx Muscle Forums Curt James's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Big Jeff's Family Restaurant, 815 Fremont Ave, South Pasadena, CA
    Posts
    50,069
    Rep Power
    2149336

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by G Novacheck View Post
    This post represents I'm not good with a computer
    No, no. That's perfect! Thank you for participating.

  10. #10
    Managing Dir., Rx Muscle Forums Curt James's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Big Jeff's Family Restaurant, 815 Fremont Ave, South Pasadena, CA
    Posts
    50,069
    Rep Power
    2149336

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by G Novacheck View Post
    I'm in ..... kinda ...... I'll contribute, lol. I wrote this 2 years ago for my company. I'll donate it to the cause. Not to seem ungrateful Curt, the shirt won't fit me, so let me just submit this as non qualifying but for educational purposes. It was geared to the general public, not our crowd so much. Its probably 3 articles, but since I'm not playing for prizes, its ok
    Well, if you're one of the three essays or articles voted in the top 3, you can always accept the t-shirt and give it to a smaller friend! Your decision, of course. Again, thanks for participating!

  11. #11
    RX MEMBER G Novacheck's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    24
    Rep Power
    0

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Curt James View Post
    No, no. That's perfect! Thank you for participating.
    lol. I double posted it. I didn't know if you could delete a post, so I just edited and deleted everything. I have no issues claiming it, ha

  12. #12
    Managing Dir., Rx Muscle Forums Curt James's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Big Jeff's Family Restaurant, 815 Fremont Ave, South Pasadena, CA
    Posts
    50,069
    Rep Power
    2149336

    Default

    Deadline for entries is Friday!

  13. #13
    Managing Dir., Rx Muscle Forums Curt James's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Big Jeff's Family Restaurant, 815 Fremont Ave, South Pasadena, CA
    Posts
    50,069
    Rep Power
    2149336

    Default

    The Solution with Tips to a Successful Gaining / Bulking Diet and G Novacheck for Back to Basics will each be awarded an XXL IronMagLabs t-shirt for their contributions! Thank you, gentlemen!

    Please private message me your P.O. Box or other mailing address. Or you can send me your addy via e-mail to [email protected]


  14. #14
    Managing Dir., Rx Muscle Forums Curt James's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Big Jeff's Family Restaurant, 815 Fremont Ave, South Pasadena, CA
    Posts
    50,069
    Rep Power
    2149336

    Default

    Place your vote in the poll to see who wins a bonus prize!

  15. #15
    RX MEMBER
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Posts
    1
    Rep Power
    0

    Default

    Nice article. Enjoyed reading! Good luck

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  

X vBulletin 4.2.3 Debug Information

  • Page Generation 0.24099 seconds
  • Memory Usage 7,631KB
  • Queries Executed 26 (?)
More Information
Template Usage (45):
  • (1)SHOWTHREAD
  • (1)ad_footer_end
  • (1)ad_footer_start
  • (1)ad_global_above_footer
  • (1)ad_global_below_navbar
  • (1)ad_global_header1
  • (1)ad_global_header2
  • (1)ad_navbar_below
  • (1)ad_showthread_firstpost_sig
  • (1)ad_showthread_firstpost_start
  • (1)ad_thread_first_post_content
  • (1)ad_thread_last_post_content
  • (6)bbcode_quote
  • (4)block_html
  • (1)block_threads
  • (1)facebook_footer
  • (1)facebook_header
  • (1)facebook_likebutton
  • (1)facebook_opengraph
  • (1)footer
  • (1)forumjump
  • (1)forumrules
  • (1)gobutton
  • (1)header
  • (1)headinclude
  • (1)headinclude_bottom
  • (15)memberaction_dropdown
  • (1)navbar
  • (4)navbar_link
  • (1)navbar_noticebit
  • (1)navbar_tabs
  • (3)option
  • (1)pagenav
  • (1)pagenav_curpage
  • (1)pagenav_pagelink
  • (2)pollresult
  • (1)pollresults_table
  • (15)postbit_legacy
  • (15)postbit_onlinestatus
  • (15)postbit_wrapper
  • (3)showthread_bookmarksite
  • (1)sidebarext_temp
  • (1)spacer_close
  • (1)spacer_open
  • (1)tagbit_wrapper 

Phrase Groups Available (6):
  • global
  • inlinemod
  • postbit
  • posting
  • reputationlevel
  • showthread
Included Files (38):
  • ./showthread.php
  • ./global.php
  • ./includes/class_bootstrap.php
  • ./includes/init.php
  • ./includes/class_core.php
  • ./includes/config.php
  • ./includes/functions.php
  • ./includes/functions_navigation.php
  • ./includes/class_friendly_url.php
  • ./includes/class_hook.php
  • ./includes/class_bootstrap_framework.php
  • ./vb/vb.php
  • ./vb/phrase.php
  • ./includes/class_facebook.php
  • ./includes/facebook/facebook.php
  • ./includes/facebook/base_facebook.php
  • ./includes/functions_facebook.php
  • ./includes/functions_bigthree.php
  • ./includes/class_postbit.php
  • ./includes/class_bbcode.php
  • ./includes/functions_reputation.php
  • ./includes/class_block.php
  • ./includes/block/html.php
  • ./vb/context.php
  • ./vb/cache.php
  • ./vb/cache/db.php
  • ./vb/cache/observer/db.php
  • ./vb/cache/observer.php
  • ./includes/functions_notice.php
  • ./includes/block/threads.php
  • ./packages/vbattach/attach.php
  • ./vb/types.php
  • ./packages/skimlinks/hooks/postbit_display_complete.php
  • ./packages/vbforum/bbcodehelper/table.php
  • ./packages/skimlinks/hooks/showthread_complete.php
  • ./mobiquo/smartbanner.php
  • ./mobiquo/include/classTTConnection.php
  • ./mobiquo/smartbanner/head.inc.php 

Hooks Called (80):
  • init_startup
  • database_pre_fetch_array
  • database_post_fetch_array
  • friendlyurl_resolve_class
  • global_bootstrap_init_start
  • global_bootstrap_init_complete
  • cache_permissions
  • fetch_threadinfo_query
  • fetch_threadinfo
  • fetch_foruminfo
  • load_show_variables
  • load_forum_show_variables
  • global_state_check
  • global_bootstrap_complete
  • global_start
  • style_fetch
  • global_setup_complete
  • showthread_start
  • cache_templates
  • cache_templates_process
  • template_register_var
  • template_render_output
  • fetch_template_start
  • fetch_template_complete
  • friendlyurl_clean_fragment
  • friendlyurl_geturl
  • fb_canonical_url
  • fb_opengraph_array
  • parse_templates
  • fetch_musername
  • notices_check_start
  • notices_noticebit
  • process_templates_complete
  • showthread_getinfo
  • strip_bbcode
  • forumjump
  • friendlyurl_redirect_canonical
  • bbcode_fetch_tags
  • bbcode_create
  • bbcode_parse_start
  • bbcode_parse_complete_precache
  • bbcode_parse_complete
  • showthread_poll_start
  • showthread_polloption
  • showthread_poll_complete
  • showthread_post_start
  • showthread_query_postids
  • showthread_query
  • showthread_postbit_create
  • postbit_factory
  • postbit_display_start
  • reputation_power
  • reputation_image
  • bbcode_img_match
  • postbit_imicons
  • postbit_display_complete
  • memberaction_dropdown
  • pagenav_page
  • pagenav_complete
  • tag_fetchbit_complete
  • forumrules
  • showthread_bookmarkbit
  • navbits
  • navbits_complete
  • build_navigation_data
  • build_navigation_array
  • check_navigation_permission
  • process_navigation_links_start
  • process_navigation_links_complete
  • set_navigation_menu_element
  • build_navigation_menudata
  • build_navigation_listdata
  • build_navigation_list
  • set_navigation_tab_main
  • set_navigation_tab_fallback
  • navigation_tab_complete
  • fb_publish_checkbox
  • fb_like_button
  • showthread_complete
  • page_templates