What a peculiar question I thought.   Who would gain weight by simply drinking a cup of coffee?  Then I realized that maybe it’s not common knowledge about what types of coffee people are referring to or in particular, how that coffee is prepared.

Can You Gain Weight from Coffee IF:

… you drink straight black coffee (caffeinated or decaffeinated) without anything added?  The answer is NO.  Like drinking water, straight black coffee without any additives of any sort, contains no calories and therefore you cannot gain weight.  You might over consume caffeine or too much water but any weight will be purely water and expelled thru natural processes.

Can You Gain Weight from Coffee IF:

… you add in milk, sugar, dairy creamers, whipped cream, chocolate or any other type of additive that contains calories.  Adding in a single cube of white granulated sugar can add 9 calories.  A single cube isn’t much.  Add in some milk or creamer and you’ve added more calories.  Doing some simple math:

Brewed coffee with 2 tablespoons of half & half can equal 41 calories.  Not a big deal depending on who you are but it’s quite easy to consume enough to add in 100 calories per day.  100 calories a day, 7 days a week and you’ve got an extra 700 calories a week.

At first it might not seem like much but over the course of a month, you can easily add a pound or two of unwanted fat.

If you are at all into the fancy brewed coffees with milk, sugar and other additives, you can have a single drink that is over 320 calories!  That’s easily enough to gain weight.

Can you gain weight from coffee?

You sure can IF you start adding in the various delicious substances available today.

I’m shocked that a single coffee with cream and sugar from Dunkin’ Donuts adds up to a whopping 120 calories!  Just 1 small a day and the weight gain would be minor but significant over time.  The quickest way to lose the weight if you have this type of habit is simply to find some great tasting straight black coffee (try 100% Kona; nice and expensive too) and you’ll lose weight by doing absolutely nothing.  Even consuming 1 less per day if you have a bigger habit that 1 small could make a significant difference over a month.

Sometimes but not always, the easiest way to burn fat without losing any muscle or exercising more is portion control.  You save a few bucks, you lose some weight and you literally do nothing different except to curb one habit, by one portion.  It may not be the miracle solution but it can make a difference depending on your current habit and consumption.

Can you gain weight from coffee just seemed like a strange question at the time but after some consideration from the various scenarios and given that many people are not aware of their portions, the calories in the beverages they consume or even the various additives, it became clear that something as simple as drinking coffee could put extra pounds on you over time.

The quick solution is to be aware of your coffee consumption and if you are using any additives (especially with calories of any sorts) to monitor your intake and adjust as necessary.

Marc David – CPT
“The NoBull Muscle Guy”
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding

Natural Bodybuilding with Marc David

With the explosion of the modern internet and growing number of experts giving you rehashed but slightly twisted fitness information, we’re all way past fitness overload.

Getting past a plateau can be a huge hurdle if you are trying to continually make some type of progress in your workouts.

This means that you should use every option at your disposal and be as efficient as possible in the gym in the time allotted.  Even more important, sticking to the basics with slight overload variations can get your past your sticking points without resorting to insane high intensity workouts or crazy exercises that are better suited for a circus performance.

One small note before we get started …

Watch Scott Tousignant Squat 365 Pounds!

with a little help showing off squats with resistance bands as help from above.

Remember what 4 time Mr. Universe Bill Pearl said … “Does the muscle really care what mode is used to stress it past capacity? The important thing is to successfully stress the muscle past capacity – the mode is of secondary importance.”

Since squats seem to be always touted as one of the few exercises you should do, you might as well learn some variations on them to get past sticking points or at the very least, to make them more interesting.

Here’s just a few exercises I’ve used heavy duty resistance bands on:

• lying leg curl
• tricep pushdown
• lat pulldown
• single leg smith lunges
• seated leg press

A few experts have been touting the importance of using resistance bands for some time.  Here’s just a few reasons why you might want to consider investing in a set of high quality bands for some of your free weight exercises:

1. Squats with Resistance Bands

Take an old school, mass building, quad hobbling movement like the traditional barbell squat and using resistance bands, you can change it into a concept called Variable Resistance.

Resistance training can take one of two possible paths.  Constant and Variable.

Constant:

In a constant situation you take a free weight and at times the weight being resisted against will change.  For example, the number of fibers used at the top of a squat is significant different from the bottom.  That’s why most people have a sticking point at the bottom because you are pushing 100% of the weight.  As you rise, you push less and less as your skeleton takes the brunt of the weight.

Variable:

In the same example if you were to do squats with resistance bands as Scott demonstrates in the video above, at the top, the bands are pulling down with force.  As he gets to the bottom, the bands are adding nearly nothing and it’s all free weight.  As he rises, where it normally would be easier as you rise up, the bands now add resistance.

Depending on the bands, the length at which they are stretched, the force applied can change.

I like to make my workouts as brief as possible.  And I don’t just mean in terms of time.  Getting more work done with each set, making it harder and progressive is the key to growth.

“It’s not how short you make it; it’s how you make it short.”

Sometimes creativity pays off in the gym.

2. Without progression, you have nothing

It’s a simple fact of life that in order to progress, one must change.  In terms of building muscle, this means progression.

You could add more and more weight to the bar.  But once you hit sticking points, this is where creativity comes into play and using resistance bands might help you get past a stuck point by making the exercise progressive in some shape or form.  Even if it’s just a bit harder at the top to stand straight as more weight pulls down, that can be progressive overload, enough to force adaptation.

There is no substitute for hard work

I’m all in favor of taking breaks, or taking a break from training.  But in order to progress and take it to the next level, you must work harder over time on a semi-consistent basis.

There are no real long-term lasting shortcuts to building muscle except hardwork, dedication and time.

One technique can make all the difference

The next time you are in the gym, you might want to learn more about using resistance band specifically applied to free weight exercises.  I’m not talking about rubber tubes here folks.  I mean the REAL heavy duty bands!  Here’s the two brands I’ve used with great success in the past.

• Sorinex
• EliteFTS

Benefits of Resistance Band Training

One major benefit to using resistance bands is an adjusted mechanical load.  When you lift a free weight object thru a range of motion, the load does not change during the movement.  It’s a constant mass and provides different stimulation at various points within the movement.

To use “muscle heads” who want to build the most muscle, it means that half of the movement of any given exercise isn’t providing optimal stimulation and maximum overload.  I take this to mean 50% or so is not optimized.

Think of the squat.  You are stronger in a quarter squat than a half.  And stronger in a half than a full.  The sticking point of most squats is at the bottom.  As you get higher, the load transfers off the muscle and onto joints.  But what if there was a way to make the load variable?

By using a combination of resistance bands and free weights at the same time, you can overload the whole range of motion!  The free weight will provide the greatest overload the initial point while the bands provide resistance at the finishing portion.

Eccentric Maximum Overload

There’s been chatter about the eccentric (stretching portion; fighting against gravity) as being the real growth simulator in a given movement.  Without giving into that conclusion, the bands offer more resistance in the eccentric portion than free weights alone.

In the example of the squat, as you come down, the bands add to the acceleration.  They are pulling down with great force.  Gravity + the bands.  As you fight against that to stay in control, you are overloading the eccentric portion of the lift vs. free weights alone.  This puts tremendous stress in the eccentric portion of the lift that gravity alone does not provide.

Let’s get focused

We can all use help getting more results from our workouts.

I’m a fan of resistance bands used for specific portions of the workout.  I know that they work because it simply adds variable resistance to a exercise to make it harder.  Making it harder is the formula for improvements.

Do you have more suggestions for getting results? Drop them in the comments.

Scan Me!

Marc David – CPT
“The NoBull Muscle Guy”
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding

Natural Bodybuilding with Marc David

Map of Energy consumption (kcal/person/day) per country in 2001-2003. World average was 2800 kcal/person/day. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Why are kids fat?

The other day I overheard two people at my gym talking about why they think kids today are fatter than 20 years ago.

I think it’s a bit more complicated than pointing to more access to a soda.  But what do you think?

Why are kids fat?

I’d like know your thoughts on the issue.

Marc David – CPT
“The NoBull Muscle Guy”
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding

Natural Bodybuilding with Marc David

A friend told me the other day:

“What’s the point of dieting? I go on a diet, I avoid certain food that I like, I eat less and watch the pounds fall off. I am very happy with myself; with my dedication, with my success over my appetite. Then it takes a few months or a few years and I’m right back where I’ve started. So why go through all this? My body apparently is happy to be at this weight. ”

But are you?

It is not only about the way you look, it’s about health. Research shows over and over again that a restrictive calorie diet in mice results in healthier and longer living animals. The regularly fed mice became fat, grew older sooner and their coat was matted, turning grey and shedding. The others, those who got less food were leaner, looked healthier and their coat was shiny and retained its color.

So, it is probably healthy for human beings to be a little less heavy than our bodies feel comfortable in.

Because our bodies are such intricate machines, they are ready for different kinds of disasters. If a virus or bacteria attack the body, the white blood cells are sent to fight the intruder. When we inhale large particles, our body reacts with a sneeze. The body’s ultimate ‘survival kit’ is the fat it is storing, mainly around the waist, for leaner times.

This fat accumulates in fat cells that split and divide to be able to store more. The old ones do not disappear. The fat coats inner organs as well. To be ready, just in case the calories you intake would amount to less than what it needs to operate.

And the circle continues – more fat, heavier mass, less air, less physical activity. Less physical activity, less calories spent, easier for the fat to accumulate.

Back to my friend.  I’ve seen her shed some and gain some. I’ve seen her happy in lean times and miserable when she gained the weight back. This yoyo of gaining weight and shedding is so unhealthy for our hearts, doctors tell us.

• It’s not about the kind of diet you are doing; it’s about your life style.

• It is not about the amount of food you are eating, it’s about the kind of foods.

• It’s not about being in the optimal weight as far as some chart indicates, but being in the optimal shape as far as your body is concerned.

• Dieting and exercise are not something that has to be done periodically, but all the time. Shedding weight and keeping it down means a change of lifestyle.

There are hundreds of diets on the market; low calorie diets, low carb diet, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, The South Beach diet, Pritikin, Ornish, Attkins. The list goes on and on. There are diets that tell you to eat by your body type, by your blood type, or by your body shape. It does matter, for your health, what method you’ll be using to shed the pound, but to keep the pounds off, you have to be physically active.

The way to get your body in the right shape is to exercise. It has to become a priority on the list of things you have to do today. Any physical activity that raises your heart rate and leaves you a little bit breathless will do. Being healthy sometimes means pushing yourself to the uncomfortable zone for a few minutes. But the endorphins the body releases in this case will more than make up to it.

That is what my friend did. She likes walking and she does it for at least one hour every day. She also discovered she can combine walking with another love of hers, books. Something she had no time to do lately. Now she downloads the books on to her iPod and listens to them while walking.

Krisca Te works with Open Colleges, Australia’s leading provider of TAFE courses equivalent and fitness courses. When not working, you can find her actively participating in local dog show events – in support of her husband.

Natural Bodybuilding with Marc David

Pan Fry Salmon from Metabolic Cooking

It’s late on a Friday night and I suddenly get “volunteered” to make dinner.  I’m an honest person and truth be told …

• I’m not a chef
• I don’t like to cook
• I eat because I need fuel
• I’ve never ever attempted to pan fry salmon

I look around the kitchen and without an idea, I think to myself…

“You know Marc, you printed out that Anabolic Cooking cookbook and it’s in the bottom drawer.”  I quickly grab the copy (it cost $47 to print in B&W at Office Depot but let me finish the story)…

All I’ve got is a bag of frozen Atlantic Salmon for my protein.  I’ve got some sweet brown rice that I can make in my rice cooker, and a fresh salad that I picked up from Whole Foods.  I skimmed the cookbook for FISH and found a pan fried salmon recipe called Walnut Crusted Salmon.

Sounded interesting and I’m a cinnamon and walnut fan.  The directions looked simple enough and there wasn’t going to be a huge mess to clean up.

I didn’t know the first thing about how to pan fry and I didn’t have the time to do some massive research on Google to figure it out.  I used my powers of a public education to guess that pan frying probably meant…

Pan Fry = Medium High heat on a non-stick pan.

I thawed the salmon, made the topping below and pan fried the salmon.  5 minutes per side exactly at medium high heat and it was flaky as described and cooked thru.

The crackling of the walnuts, cinnamon and pan fry salmon made this amazing smell in the air.  When the rest of the family entered the house, they wanted to know what smelled so darn good!  I’d never attempted to pan fry salmon and here I was, doing exactly that for the first time and successfully I might add.

The Pan Fry Salmon recipe below, codename Walnut Crusted Salmon makes makes 4 servings.  I sprinkled the mixture on both sides the best I could.

Ingredients for Pan Fry Salmon:

• 4 Salmon Filets (6oz each)
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup Walnuts, crushed
• 1 pinch of Cinnamon

Easy Step Pan Fry Salmon Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix walnuts and cinnamon

2. Coat salmon filets with walnut-cinnamon mixture

3. In a non-stick pan, coated will olive oil, pan fry salmon on both sides for 5 minutes or until the fish begins to flake

Nutritional Facts for Walnut Crusted Salmon: (Per Serving)

• Calories: 319
• Protein: 34g
• Carbohydrates: 3g
• Fat: 19g

Quick Tip for this tasty pan fry salmon recipe:

Serve with Green Salad!

Overall Impression of the Pan Fry Salmon named Walnut Crusted Salmon

Delicious!  I’m a fish fan anyway but the cinnamon and walnuts that were cooked into this were amazing.  The leftovers were just as good, maybe a bit better.

You can lean how to make this pan fry salmon recipe and loads more (beef, chicken, fish) along with some vegetarian options by following some really simple directions.  I’ve found that most cookbooks don’t cater to bodybuilders or even those who are fitness minded looking for optimal muscle building meals.  Many cookbooks offer up healthy recipes or semi-nutritious options but are severely lacking in protein.  As a recreational bodybuilder, I want my meals to contain a fair amount of protein, some fats, maybe some carbohydrates but they need to taste great.

Most of the time when I eat salmon for lunch, I do the unthinkable.

Thaw and Microwave!

You shudder I know.  It’s drab and boring.  However, these meals make me look like a professional chef when clearly I am not.  I’m not making meals that are wowing people every time or myself but it’s nice to have a reference cookbook specific to my needs as a protein seeking bodybuilder.

In a bind and can’t figure out what to cook?  Need some ideas?  Can’t cook?!  Not a problem.  Just download the report below and get started with 10 delicious, healthy recipes right now.  This is from Dave Ruel’s Anabolic Cooking cookbook with over 200 muscle building, fat burning recipes.

Here’s to some happy cooking some pan fry salmon or whatever else you fancy.  You don’t need to be a chef to make some amazing recipes.

• FREE

Natural Bodybuilding with Marc David

Question:

My girlfriend is doing Weight Watchers and she says my diet is to restrictive.  She likes Weight Watchers because it is based on points,  She feels this allows her more freedom of choice.  I am trying to create a livable way of eating forever.

Answer:

Hate to break the news Mike but … She’s right!  (sort of)

One nice thing about Weight Watches vs. any type of traditional macro-nutrient bodybuilding type plan is freedom of choice and ease of use.  Based on a few factors, you are given an allotment of points per day.  You can use those points however you want but as you’d expect, high calorie items are going to cost you dearly.  They encourage lots of lower costs items like fruits and vegetables that have fiber to fill you up.  It goes along the same lines as a bodybuilding diet.

However, what I’ve witnesses from my friends who are Weight Watchers members is they don’t necessarily eat healthy, they reserve points for binge eating and body composition is rarely if ever discussed.  I’m sure this varies by trainer so I’m not making snap judgments against Weight Watches but it’s a drawback in my opinion.  It’s all about losing the weight and from personal observations, most of time, it’s a fair amount of muscle that goes along with the overall weight loss.

Eating less than you consume is the basic law of thermodynamics to burn fat but with points, you can skip meals, eat less and save them for margaritas later that night and still come in under your daily calories.  That’s a huge difference in thinking in my opinion.

On the other side, a bodybuilding diet does not have to be restrictive.  In both cases, points or not points, the goal is to eat less than you burn, hence you hopefully “lose weight.”  There’s nothing that says you cannot use a traditional bodybuilding style nutrition plan and add in some high point items.

Truthfully, there’s not much of a difference except there’s no point system in most meal plans you’ll find for what’s classified as restrictive bodybuilding diets.  I believe most people who use Weight Watchers give less thought to the actual food consumed vs. the bodybuilding type that even if they could eat that chocolate chip cookie, they think beyond the calories and dive a bit deeper.

In the end, you could follow a Weight Watchers plan, follow a weight exercise plan and ensure your protein needs are being meet and be extremely successful.

If you look at bodybuilding cookbooks like the Anabolic Cookbook, you’ll find that a restrictive bodybuilding diet is merely a limitation of your own cooking abilities.

As with anything there are exceptions.  If you were to train for a bodybuilding competition and attempt to achieve an ultra-low percentage of body fat, you would be somewhat restrictive in your eating.  And by this I mean, even if your coach were to put you on a very high carbohydrate diet for intense training while dieting down, you’ll want to reserve every precious gram of carbohydrates for fuel for recovery and training.  You’d opt to skip that beer or wine so you could consume more food such as a sweet potato where you may get the same amount of carbs but in a different capacity.  This is more of an extreme example but as you tweak nutrition beyond just being fit, you will be somewhat restrictive if you want to survive the ordeal.

Question:

What do you feel is the key to maintaining your fitness level year round. I have found the biggest obstacle is the weekends, especially during the summer when their are plenty of barbecues and family functions. 

Answer:

The easy answer is making your nutrition and exercise into routines (habits) without being one of those overly obsessive annoying food cops that can’t stop thinking about food and talking about food and telling you what you’re eating is awful.

Some tips for maintaining a fitness level year round (could be a blog post itself):

• Making the little things like meal planning and prep into routines which become habits
• Develop a love for exercise (so much so that you miss it when you don’t do it)
• Develop portion control
• Eat slower; drink more water; add vegetables with fiber to ever meal for satiety
• Check your protein levels; bump them up if necessary.

I’ve seen laundry lists of tips for going to family functions and barbecues but the best I ever saw and one I’ve used on a cutting cycle even at holiday times was to …

Eat Before You Go!  Have a meal about an hour before you go so that you essentially snack or have much smaller portions as your hunger has already been satisfied.  Not to the point where you are stuffed and can’t touch any more food (no need to be rude) but enough that it becomes a snack vs. a full blown overindulging meal.

I’ll repeat that I’ve seen hundreds of articles and sites on this topic alone and all of them are trying to get to to modify behavior in order to make healthy eating and exercise a routine.  When your attitude about food changes, you won’t need to be convinced to not overindulge because it will be against your nature.

In my opinion, all these online behavior modifications are soon forgotten by all but the singularly focused individual.

If you eat a meal before any such event, you eliminate the hunger sensation and that eliminates your desire to eat too much.

Question:

I have come to believe that you can’t label foods good or bad, I do enjoy beer, wine, pizza, etc.  Finding the balance seems to be the hard part.

Answer:

Technically you can label some foods as bad.  Trans-fats for example is a bad food with no redeeming qualities for your health.  But I get your point!

If you know roughly how many calories a day you need, then you don’t have to much worry about elimination of certain foods.  You can have 6oz of wine or a single serving of beer and have six pack abs.  You can have your cake and eat it too.  The problems aren’t good foods vs. bad foods as much as how much of any food you consume.

Rather then eliminate foods, just start to be aware of portion controls and how much of anything you are eating.  You’ll soon start to have a bit less wine, one less beer or half the slice of cake.  If you make a habit of over eating, you won’t be able to escape the ugly reality of eat more than you burn and you gain weight.  That can happen even on the cleanest of diets.

Pizza can be very good if made from scratch and it would rival a “healthy” meal elsewhere loaded with things you don’t know may be on it.  Another reason to learn how to cook a little bit at home.

If you haven’t seen it, check out the Bodybuilding Recipes section of this blog.

Simile modifications to traditional recipes can yield excellent results.

Finding the balance is the tough part but when your desire to look and feel different becomes a priority and that is on your mind all the time, you will start to do everything in your power to make it happen.

Personally I love wine!  I don’t eliminate it from my diet.  But I don’t like drinking a bottle as I don’t like how I feel, or look or workout the next day.  That negative mindset when it comes to overindulging, saves me 99% of the time without me even thinking about it.  I’ll drink my glass or two and be done.  I simply don’t want more.  It becomes a bit of an issue when I am looking to get much leaner and be restrictive and eliminate all alcohol from the diet.  That’s when it really isn’t a balance and it’s more of a short term forced action.  Which for a short time period works but it’s not sustainable in my situation for the long term.  Finding that balance is key.

Marc David – CPT
“The NoBull Muscle Guy”
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding

Natural Bodybuilding with Marc David

I used to live with a woman who was naturally good. I’m not talking morally (although she was as upright and trustworthy as can be) and I’m not talking socially either – though she was consistently funny and  delightful in about equal measure. No, I am talking instead of her natural desire to maintain a healthy lifestyle. She was the kind of woman who, on a summer’s day when the sun shone beatifically and there was just the whisper of a breeze in the air would exclaim: “Ooh! I’ve really got the urge to go jogging!” And here’s the thing: she would actually go.

Reader, I have a confession to make. I’m really not like that at all. If I had my druthers, a beautific summer’s day would not mean a hearty run in the park followed by a salad populated with local organic produce. No, my ideal time would be to draw the curtains, and become one with my Arrested Development box set and a multi-pack of Mars Bar ice-creams. I cannot help it, I am not one of nature’s exercisers. Still, I genuinely envied my housemates’s lust for life, the outdoors and healthy living. We talked about it, over some organic sweet potato hash browns and I was surprised to learn that she had not always been the Jane Fonda-esque dynamo that I knew, loved and was psychotically envious of. The key, she assured me, was to ‘work a combo’ that is to say, combine an unpleasant activity (running) with something that makes you inescapable joyful, and then make one seem unimaginable without the other. For her, it was getting the moment after a run where she could jog into a newsagent and buy herself a Mini Milk. A Mini Milk is a small milk-flavoured ice-cream stick that is only 30 calories, contains a nice gram of protein, and, according to my housemate, “tastes exactly like my childhood.” It was a special reward for her hard work and diligence and it went some way to helping the muscles rebuild after her exertion. “All you have to do is find your Mini Milk.”

After careful consideration and watching my housemate head out the door dressed in an oversized and rather stained  pink t-shirt that proclaimed her participation in the  2006 North Norfolk Marathon, I decided that my Mini Milk would have to be fashion. If I was going to claw back some well-being by sputtering round the park, red-faced and exhausted, my outdoor clothing was going to have to be without peer. My goal was to look stylish and possibly a little bit from the future. Luckily, in recent years, fitness clothing has undergone a bit of a renaissance and there have been a million different designers, working to make getting sweaty that little bit more sexy. I knew I needed to find the outfit that was going to get me outside and a little closer to the fitness dynamo that I know resides in me somewhere. Stella has been designing some very glorious and very expensive fitness outfits for Adidas in order to commemorate the 2012 Olympics, so I feel very much like I’m riding the sport fashion zeitgeist when I heartily recommend something like this:

If you have the budget and would quite like to look like a young gazelle effortlessly running along a romantic cliff face then this aqua hoodie, sports leggings and overcoat ensemble will see you right. The trouble is that it’s difficult to justify spending £70 plus on leggings. It’s pretty easy to replicate this look when you’re on a budget. The key is to concentrate your spending power on the shoe (believe me, you don’t want cheap running shoes – I speak not as a Carrie Bradshaw figure, but as someone who has known the horror of shin splints) and then improvise the rest. Why not bring that Portlandia thrift-store aesthetic to your fitness wear? Try and imagine Courtney Love in spandex. Let it happen. You’ll thank me.

For instance, this running top is from Adidas too but it costs £15 instead of £95 and is in a cheery canary yellow. Just grab yourself a Sharpie (approx cost £1.99) and draw yourself some designer slogan-ry and presto! Instant indie fashion cachet.

This is just in concept form but I think you’ll agree it hits the right inspirational notes. I feel more active already. I feel like I could run fast and run far. Well, at least to the shops and back.

Stacie Field is a comedian, a blogger and loves the outdoors.   From a distance. Having said that, she is quite fond of her Berghaus fleece.

Natural Bodybuilding with Marc David

If you’ve recently made the decision to put in some time and effort to improve your body, weight lifting is definitely an exercise that you should be doing to see optimal results.  No other exercise form is going to be as effective for changing your body as weight lifting will be so if you’re looking to make a transformation, this is the solution for you.

Getting started with weight lifting can feel slightly intimidating at times however, so by having a solid game plan in place, you can make sure that you get off to the right start.

Let’s go over the basic things that you must know to get going.

Get Your Doctors Approval

The very first thing that you should do before you even begin weight lifting is to make sure that you get the go-ahead from your doctor.  It’s vital that you make sure that your body is physically ready to begin such an intense workout program and you don’t have any pre-existing health concerns that you need to look after.

You’ll gain a huge sense of peace of mind by getting yourself checked out first before beginning.

Begin With No Or Very Little Weight

The next thing you should be doing is starting with no weight or very little weight as you begin with the workout program.  This will allow your body a chance to get used to the nature of strength training movement patterns and ensure that you understand proper form.

If you go loading up weight too quickly off the start, that’s going to put extra stress on the body that you are not prepared to deal with and could lead you to move into a movement pattern that puts you at a severe risk for injury.

Start with no more than 10 pounds if you must use weight and focus on perfecting your form first.  Once you feel completely comfortable that you are using proper form at all times, then you can begin to increase the weight level.

Sequence Your Exercises Correctly

Next, it’s also important that you pay attention to exercise sequence.  Note that there are two main types of exercises that you will be doing in your strength training routine, compound movements and isolation movements.

Compound movements are going to be those that work more than one muscle group at once.  So this would include exercises such as squats, lunges, deadlifts, shoulder presses, the bench press, and bent over rows.  These exercises should be the foundation of your workout program as they will offer the most benefits overall and should come at the very start. You’ll need the most energy to complete these movements, so placing them first ensures that you aren’t in a fatigued state.

Then after the compound exercises are completed, you can move into isolation exercises.  Isolation exercises are those that only work one muscle group at once.  So this would include movements such as the bicep curl, the tricep extension, the lateral raise, the front raise, the leg extension, and then hamstring curl.

Do these later on in the workout when you are just finishing up to reach a final point of fatigue.

Machines Versus Free Weights

One question that many people who are new to weight lifting ask themselves is whether they should use machines or free weights to complete their exercises.  The answer at this point depends largely on personal preference.

Many people who are new feel far more comfortable using machines since they will guide them through the action pattern, ensuring that they use good form.

On the flip side, some people find machines to be uncomfortable and would rather self-direct the movement, therefore free weights is the superior choice.

Over the long haul free weights do tend to have more advantages than machines, so in time that’s what you want to gravitate to, but when first starting out, don’t feel bad if you’d like to start with machine weights.

It’s a perfectly acceptable way to begin your weight lifting journey.

Remember To Rest

Rest is a very commonly overlooked element by many beginners.  You’re excited to get your new program going and as such, think the more often you workout, the better.

Avoid this train of thought.  While it’s important that you are maintaining good consistency in the gym, if you’re strength training too much and not resting enough, very little progress will be made.  Remember, the body is being broken down in the gym with each and every exercise that you perform.

It’s when you’re out of the gym resting that you’re building yourself back up stronger so that when you enter the gym again, you can lift more weight.

If you don’t give yourself sufficient time to get this rest in, you aren’t going to be growing back stronger and could risk overtraining.

Take at least 48 hours between working the same muscle group again and then also make sure that you aren’t going any more than two days in a row without a day off.

As a beginner, you must give your body that recovery time it needs.

Think Nutrition

Finally, don’t overlook the importance of nutrition.  Once you start weight training, your body is going to be demanding more nourishment than what you may have given it in the past, so start paying attention to the meals you’re consuming.

Your protein requirements will go up slightly, so focus on plenty of lean protein sources, and make sure that you aren’t shunning carbs.  Carbohydrates are what will supply the energy the muscles need to build themselves back up and to also get you through each workout session that you do.

If you find that you’re going into each workout session feeling very depleted and low in energy, this is a clear signal that you aren’t eating enough carbs and need to increase your intake.

So there you have the main need-to-know facts about strength training.  If you can be sure that you follow this information as you design your first training plan, you can feel confident that you’re stepping forward to success.

Shannon Clarke,  is a certified personal trainer and nutritionist for over 8 years with a With a Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science from the University of Alberta in Canada.  She writes for many professional publications including Bodybuilding.com, AskMen.com, and FitRated.com, where her focus is on writing a weekly in-depth blog post with tips and tricks to help you live a healthier life.

Natural Bodybuilding with Marc David

K-E Diets: Using a Feeding Tube to Lose Weight

A new era of dieting is upon us as reported by ABC (and picked up by 900 fitness blogs already) called the K-E Diet.  Previously the HGC Diet put the fitness world into an uproar because it preached 500 calories a day and sometimes using an injection of a “pregnancy hormone.”

Lead it to innovative architects of modern wizardry to bring us a new and soon to be controversial diet called the K-E Diet.  Although this diet has been around in Europe for years and recently is making headlines in the United States.

What is the K-E Diet?

The K-E diet, which boasts promises of shedding 20 pounds in 10 days, is an increasingly popular alternative to ordinary calorie-counting programs. The program has dieters inserting a feeding tube into their nose that runs to the stomach. They’re fed a constant slow drip of protein and fat, mixed with water, which contains zero carbohydrates and totals 800 calories a day. Body fat is burned off through a process called ketosis, which leaves muscle intact, Dr. Oliver Di Pietro of Bay Harbor Islands, Fla., said.

Side Effects of the K-E Diet

• bad breath
• some constipation

Bad breath from ketosis (which is an old school method of shedding pounds in the bodybuilding world) is not unusual.  The constipation is because in this liquid drip of protein and fat there is no fiber.  That presents a world of issues in itself.  You need good sources of fiber for long term health.

What People Try the K-E Diet?

Meet Jessica Schnaider who tried the K-E Diet.

“I don’t have all of the time on the planet just to focus an hour and a half a day to exercise so I came to the doctor, I saw the diet, and I said, ‘You know what? Why not? Let me try it. So I decided to go ahead and give it a shot,” she said.

How Much Does the K-E Diet Cost?

Around $1,500 for 10 days

Here’s my thoughts on the K-E Diet specifically….

Once again, people are severely misinformed about nutrition and exercise.  It doesn’t take an hour and a half to get the job done.  You can make significant progress in about 45 minutes, 4 (four) times a week.  There doesn’t have to be excessive cardio either or starvation type diets.  Small cuts in your daily requirement of calories is all it takes.

However, people are always looking for the easy way out.  No time and they need to be in super shape for a wedding.  Which begs the question.  Who are you marrying that requires this and if your spouse doesn’t have any issue with it, there’s something for Dr. Drew.

Does this K-E diet stuff work?

Define work and then define your success criteria.  Ketosis is a quick way to burn fat.  High protein helps preserve muscle.  Quick super low calorie diets will get you shedding pounds at lightening speeds.  If you define work as losing weight and success as losing weight quickly then it works.  If you define it the way I do (a quest to be healthy) then extreme diets like K-E Diet have no place in my arsenal of fat burning tools.

Most people rebound and gain it all back and then some.  Especially on the K-E diet where it’s liquid foods.  800 calories for the long term is unsustainable except for the most ODC hardcore (insane, crazy) individuals.  Most people will return to their old ways and gain the weight back and then some.  It will take a rare person to use this K-E diet and learn proper nutrition and exercise in order to keep the weight off for years and get back on track.  Sadly, most won’t as those taking this diet challenge are misinformed to begin with from the very start.

Hopefully by next year we can see a Reverse K-E Diet where the tube goes up the other end.  I mean if you think about it.. Jessica said…

“I had to give excuses to people who were asking are you sick? And I was like, ‘No, I’m not sick, I’m not dying, I’m fine.”

But if this tube were up the other end, nobody would be the wiser and nobody would ask such questions!

Frankly I always wanted to create the Alcohol Diet.  If you think about, skipping all the health concerns, you could have a gin and tonic every 2-hours hours with a freshly squeezed line and be way under 800 calories.  At $1,500 you could get some of the finest gin available!

At this point, there’s not much else to say about the K-E Diet.  People are going to try it.  There will be hundreds of success stories like with every type of diet and a few people who will keep the weight off.  The majority will fail and look to the next thing.  A few may run into medical complications and I can only hope they have insurance as not to cause me (a taxpayer) to foot the bill for their unwise decisions.

I might be onto something here.  What do you think of the K-E Diet or any of these starvation type, short term diets where people are looking for quick results almost at any cost?

Natural Bodybuilding with Marc David

The acronym “Keep it simple stupid” or “KISS”, has been used for decades by the military, business schools, medical schools, and in countless other areas where unneeded complexity should be avoided at all costs. In the military, adding complexity where it’s unnecessary to complete a mission will get people killed. Adding complexity to a business venture where it is not required will often get you fired or see your company go down in flames. Adding complexity, or looking for complex answers to simple problems, in medical settings can cause a loss of life or unneeded suffering. I am sure my readers have also experienced situations in which complexity added to situations that didn’t require it, led to disastrous results.

One area where most people fail to follow the KISS system is in their approach to fitness, nutrition, or supplements. In fact I find people seem to gravitate toward adding complexity to their approach when it comes to building muscle or losing fat. Not coincidentally, it’s the people who take the most complex approaches to their nutrition, supplements, and training who are always the most confused and least successful. They focus on – and subsequently worry about – minutiae that prevent them from seeing the big picture and making the type of progress they desire. It often leads to what is referred to “paralysis by analysis.” The vast majority of people would have better results, not to mention less stress, if they simplified their approach to losing fat or gaining muscle. It’s not rocket science, brain surgery, or even rocket surgery!

Yes, there are times when complex approaches need to be used to get advanced athletes, such as pre-contest bodybuilders and Olympic track athletes, prepared for an event. These people make up, at most, 1% of the population. The rest of the world needs to worry less and act more.

Why is complexity a bad thing? The issue is variables.

Adding too many variables makes things more difficult, especially when trying to figure out why something is working or why it’s not. Variables are an essential part of science. We don’t need to go into great depth on this topic, so don’t worry. I do, however, want people to appreciate how variables affect the outcome of their successes or failures in bodybuilding or fitness related endeavors.

So what is a variable? According to one of my textbooks:

“Scientists use an experiment to search for cause and effect relationships in nature. In other words, they design an experiment so that changes to one item cause something else to vary in a predictable way. These changing quantities are called variables…”

There are different types of variables (e.g., confounding, independent, dependent, controlled, etc.) but we are not going to worry about that right now. So how does this all apply to the KISS approach? The more complicated you make your approach to your goals of gaining muscle or losing fat, the more variables you have to control for. That is, for every new bit of complexity you add, you have to be able to account for it in terms of the results, or lack thereof, you experience.

Confused? Here’s a simple example:

Last week you changed your diet, added in three new supplements, and changed your routine, then three weeks later you notice you have made no improvements (i.e. you didn’t lose any fat, or you didn’t gain any muscle, or whatever). Why? It’s impossible to know! You added too many variables into the equation and now you’re unsure what went wrong – which means you won’t be able to make appropriate changes to correct it. Conversely, let’s say you did lose fat or gain muscle with the changes. Great, but do you know which of the changes you made resulted the positive outcome you experienced so you can reproduce it? No, no you don’t.

So, Lesson #1 is: never change more then one or two variables at a time so you can track what worked – and what did not work – from the changes you made. Most people find writing it down in a note book or online journal is the best way to keep track of their progress. When you write it down, you can see the effects that changes in your diet, training, or supplementation have on your body composition, strength, etc.

KISS and those ugly variables

On my forums, it’s not uncommon for someone to post a question like “I added supplement X, Y, and Z to my supplement intake, added an extra day per week in the gym, and reduced my calories by X. Why am I not seeing progress?” My response is “…too many unknown variables to answer that question” which translates into “how the hell should I know?”

Why do people make so many changes at once? I suspect it’s due to the “I want it now” syndrome. Making permanent changes to your performance, physique, and health, takes patience, planning, and a willingness to take things one step at a time and assess what is working and what’s not working in the overall plan.

Clearly, the KISS approach fails to be effective as more variables are added to a program. It also fails to be KISS. How can you keep it simple if it ain’t simple to begin with?! The more complicated the program, the more variables there are to keep track of – which makes success far less likely. This basic idea was appreciated and understood by history’s greatest minds. For example:

“Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

- Albert Einstein
What was the father of Relativity saying? Be it math, science, nutrition, or life, Keep It Simple Stupid wherever possible, but don’t simplify it to the point where it’s no longer effective or true. In my own writings, be it articles or books/e-books, I make every attempt to keep the information and message as simple as possible. However, I often see popular books and diets that are in fact too simple. They don’t want to confuse people, so they simplify things to the point that their advice is no longer correct and has little value to the reader – thus, Einstein’s warning. Oversimplified statements like “carbs are bad” or “fat is bad” or “do weight lifting for big muscles and aerobics to burn fat” are among the gems we all see. Problem is, those statements are dead wrong! A line between simple and too simple must be drawn.

OK, back to the KISS approach…

It’s not possible for me to go through every example of how to take a KISS approach to your training, nutrition, or supplement intake, but I will attempt a general discussion of each.

KISS and training:

One of the most common mistakes I see in this area is what I like to call the “I have tried everything and nothing works” syndrome. My response is always “have you tried sticking to one program long enough for it to actually have any effect?” The answer is usually a guilty sheepish facial expression. Let me be honest with you: even an average uncomplicated program you are consistent with is far more effective then any high-tech, super-advanced program you fail to be consistent with. One simple program you follow consistently for a year is always better then the five high tech programs you tried in 6 months where none of them were followed long enough to have a positive outcome. Simple programs such as: weight training Monday, Wed, Fri, and aerobics, Tue, Thurs, and Sat, with Sunday off, whilst varying your exercises tend to work well for the majority of people.

Are there better programs out there? Of course, but the vast majority of people follow routines that are overly complicated, take too bloody long, and are simply unneeded.

I also see a dependence on less productive movements in the gym over more productive choices. I see people doing reverse Romanian lunges while the squat rack gathers dust in the corner. Was that you I saw the other day?

KISS and supplements

You don’t need them. Bet you never thought you would read that coming from me did you?! Let me qualify that statement: does a person need any supplements to achieve the basic goal of either adding muscle or losing fat? No, no they don’t. Can supplements help the process? Can supplements potentially speed up the process? Can supplements potentially offset some of the negatives? Can supplements help optimize the effects of exercise and diet? The answer is yes in all cases. The problem, however, is that I see far too many people under the impression that the next wiz bang “cutting edge” supplement is going to make some huge difference to their appearance while their diet and workout are put on the back burner or set low on the priority list. They are constantly looking for that one supplement that’s going to make all the difference while they ignore their nutrition and training! I see it all the time and frankly, it’s frustrating.

Remember, KISS. Focus on your training and your nutrition – then worry about supplements. Start off with the basics, like a good multi vitamin, a source of essentially fatty acids (EFA’s) and a good protein powder post workout, then add additional supplements over time depending on your goals, such as creatine when trying to add muscle, or ephedrine and caffeine when focusing on fat loss, and so on. The shotgun approach many people take rarely works, wastes money, and adds complexity (remember our conversation on variables above) where it serves no useful purpose.

I love supplements. I take a dozen or more supplements every day of my life. I have designed them for supplement companies, spoken about them at various conferences, been involved in the published research of supplements, and built my career on them, so I am not some anti-supplement zealot by any means. However, I do speak with people all the time who outline a long list of supplements they are taking (many of which have been shown to be totally worthless) while their diets stink and their training programs are a joke. Don’t be one of these people! Don’t think for a second there is any one supplement out there that will make or break your success. Realize that supplements are exactly that; supplemental to a good diet and intelligent exercise program.

KISS and nutrition

Finally, we make it to nutrition. Nutrition is a potentially complex topic, and just as importantly, it’s a highly emotional topic for many. No place do I find such clear examples of people adding complexity where it’s not required. Again, there is a small segment of people that will benefit from – and require – advanced nutritional approaches, such as pre-contest bodybuilders, pre-race marathon runners, or even the average person seeking to get to very low bodyfat levels. Does the average person who needs to get into better shape and lose perhaps 20 – 30 lbs. (or more) need to follow advanced nutrition concepts? Of course not! Can the average person benefit from techniques more advanced dieters (e.g., bodybuilders, fitness competitors, etc.) might employ, such as cyclic ketogenic diets, refeed days, carb cycling, and other approaches? Of course! Do they require such strategies to drop some fat and get into shape? No, no they don’t. That’s why I tend to offer well thought out, healthy, and easy to follow approaches to nutrition in my e-books and offer more advanced approaches to people who want to take it to another level.

Simplicity + consistency = success

The above is what I consider the basics of the KISS approach to nutrition, supplements, and training. You will have to fill in some of the blanks as it applies to you specifically. If you are making steady predictable progress, great, stick to it. If however you are not making progress in your goals to add muscle and or lose fat, or some other goal, then you may need to sit down and seriously rethink your approach to the problem. Is there added complexity where you know it’s not needed? Are you relying too heavily on supplements to achieve your goals? Do you find yourself doing exercises that are less effective then the good old fashioned basics, like squats, deadlifts, and bench press? I can’t answer those questions for you, but hopefully I’ve made you think – which is half of the battle. You know what they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him think!

Will Brink is the author of Bodybuilding Revealed which teaches you how to gain solid muscle mass drug free and Fat Loss Revealed. which reveals exactly how to get lean , ripped and healthy completely naturally. Both e-books come with access to his private forums and numerous tools to aid you in either endevour.

Natural Bodybuilding with Marc David