Fitness Facts

Slow down, your form is horrible and quit eating so much! I love the saying that goes, “perception is reality.” I use it all the time. However true that may be, in bodybuilding, perspective is also reality – a harder, colder, crueler version of the  truth. The reason that's so is because in our world – especially in a Golds gym in the late 80s -  there's never a shortage of willing comparisons. In any given scenario, where two guys are training near each other in tank tops, there is an inevitable comparison going on in the mirror. Anyone who denies it is full of shit. One guy is looking at the other and neither thinks they're equal. Each will think they look either better or worse than the other, not the same. Not ever. Thats because there's no motivation in equality. In the gym, the guy who looks better wants to keep looking better and the guy who doesn't look as good is going to wan to improve. How much is a matter of the age old combination of a strict diet and training hard and training smart. Neither of which I was doing that well as a young buck when I first fell in with the inevitable eight-time Mr. Olympia, Lee Haney.  One of the nicknames I was given at the beginning of my career was “Fat Boy.” That’s what Lee Haney called me soon after we first met. I had just moved to California. Ed Connors – one of the original Gold's gym franchise owners -  recruited me to manage one of his Gold’s Gyms. The pay wasn’t great but he sweetened the deal by giving me a few points, so I had an equity stake in the gym. I wasn’t the only one for whom he did this. He liked to hire young guys who came to California to take their bodybuilding career to the next level, because he knew it would attract serious customers to Gold's Gym.. He wanted his gyms to be the place where serious lifting and training was taking place. I really didn’t have to attract anyone to the Gold’s Gym I managed. It was already full of major players. For example, the other manager was a man named Steve Borden. He would later go on to achieve great fame as the professional wrestler known as Sting. That’s where I met Albert Beckles. He had a longer journey to arrive in California than I did. He was born in Barbados, but started his bodybuilding career in England. He came to the US to turn pro and in 1971 he won the IFBB Mr. Universe title. He set the record for most appearances in the Mr. Olympia contest. It’s hard to believe he was able to compete for that title thirteen times—he placed in the top five, six different times. He came in second to Lee Haney twice. That’s the kind of worker he was. Ms Olympia, Cory Everson, worked out there, too. She was one of the first female bodybuilding superstars and won Ms. Olympia six years in a row. She got her start back in Madison, Wisconsin, where she was a multi-sport star for the Badgers. Jeff Everson, a great competitive bodybuilder, was her trainer and when the two got married and came to California, her career took off.  Another Mr. Universe, Bertil Fox, also originally from the West Indies, trained there. So too a did a bunch of other top industry names - Tom Platz, “Dr Squat” Fred Hatfield,  Hulk Hogan, Lee Haney, James Brian Hellwig, better known to the wrestling world as the Ultimate Warrior. Rick Wayne was there. Born on the island of St. Lucia, he was a pop singer and a professional bodybuilder, but was also famous as a great writer, editor, and TV personality.  I could go on and on with a who’s who list that trained there -  I didn't even get into the Hollywood actors who showed up there. In the midst of all that comes this 255-pound kid from New Jersey, named Rich Gaspari. If for  nothing else, I was admitted into the fold because, for my size – for any size, I was one strong dude. As part of my workouts, I would squat 775 pounds, bench 520 pounds, and do curls with 200 pounds on the bar. I was as  strong as anyone in there, but not necessarily impressive with my physique. I think I had 30 or 40 pounds of fat hanging on me. I was still eating a dozen eggs, drinking a gallon of milk, and downing a jar of peanut butter every day. I thought I had to bulk up as much as possible if I was going to have enough mass to compete against naturally larger competitors. So every time I competed, I had to starve myself to show any cuts.  Somewhere in that hollowed, celebrity laden, gym I had somehow managed to get into a conversation with Lee Haney where how much we weighed came up. He said he weighed something like 260. I said that I also weighed 255 or 260, whatever it was, and Lee said, “yeah, but you're a fat boy!” In that booming, deep, unmistakable, southern voice of his that resonated through the ear drums of every single person in the gym – even if they were in the shower. From that moment on, until I did something about it, my nickname - bestowed upon me by who would become one of the greatest Mr. Olympias of all time - was “Fat Boy.” But, Lee didn't just make fun of me. He took me under his wing and encouraged me to change everything about my training. He also got me to dramatically improve my diet. I cut out a lot of the fat. I started eating more often, with at least a little protein every meal. I had already suffered a number of injuries due to the amount of weight I was lifting. Lee got me to cut back and taught me that the muscle doesn’t know weight—only failure. You don’t have to bench more than 500 pounds to take your chest muscles to failure. My form was bad and I was jerking the weights to move them. He got me to slow down and squeeze the muscle on every rep. The results were immediate and dramatic. He taught me to “stimulate—not annihilate” my muscles. I was always a hard worker, but my training strategy wasn’t focused on anything but using brute strength. Lee taught me to channel my limitless energy he (claimed I was foaming at the mouth when it was workout time) and my enthusiasm into great form. Not only did I achieve greater success earlier than anyone thought was possible, It was Jeff Everson who got rid of the nickname “Fat Boy” after my first Mr. Olympia. After that I became known as the “Dragon Slayer.” So, work hard today, but slow down. Lower the weight and focus on your form. Squeeze every rep and get everything you can out of your workout. Your muscles will thank you!  

So, you want to work for Gaspari? Maybe you don't.... Not a day goes by that doesn't include at least one person inquiring about working for my company. However, once they get an idea of the hard work and discipline I expect from my employees and athlete reps, many of those inquiries disappear. Somehow, there's an idea circulating in our industry that a sponsored athlete is entitled to free money that doesn't require much in the way of hard work to get.  That may be true for some companies, but not mine. Work ethic is the number one most important quality any aspiring sponsored athlete could posses. And, I'll tell you why.... During my competitive career, there wasn't much money to be made in the form of prize money, and there was only a few extra bucks available as a sponsored athlete. It was pretty evident that bodybuilding wasn’t a sport that was going to make me rich. Although the health and fitness boom had begun, it didn’t have the pervasive market presence it does today, and bodybuilding only represented a small slice of the pie. The relative paucity of financial opportunities available in bodybuilding is one of the reasons I love sponsoring athletes. We have both amateurs and professionals in our lineup of sponsored athletes, and they do a lot for us. My philosophy of working with athletes is a little different than that of other companies—and it is based on what my dad taught me as a kid: it’s all about work ethic. I want our athletes to do well financially and I pay them well. I don’t want them wondering whether or not they're doing the right thing in pursuing their passion. If they work hard, I treat them like the valuable asset they are. I don't want them to have to worry about finances, like my generation of bodybuilders did. I want them to be successful now, and I want to help them set themselves up for a smoother transition than I had  to life after competition. The most important thing out of all of it though is my desire to help them learn the value of hard work. What that means is that I only hire workers. I’ve had agents and athletes approach me over the years to become part of Team Gaspari and many times I've had to turn them down. Not because they aren’t talented and successful, but because they don’t want to work like my team does. A lot of companies give contracts and write checks to bodybuilders and other athletes with pretty low expectations. Maybe they have to do a formal photo shoot or two, and then make three or four appearances a year to say they use their product. If that's your idea of how an endorsement contract works, then don't come knocking on my door. I expect my athletes to work! Three or four appearances per year is a joke. We require four or five per month!  Making appearances isn’t just about showing up with a smile on your face. You have to be in top shape, you have to be good with people and you have to have expert knowledge of Gaspari products before you get on a microphone, or in front of a camera, and represent my brand. I’ve heard some competitors who want us to sponsor them say, “That’s a lot of work!” I just laugh. No, it's not.  My dad laid brick and stone six days a week.  That’s a lot of work! You have it made. We’re not just about appearances though.  We want athletes who are active, not only on social media, but also the sport. We want competitors who actually compete. One of the toughest jobs in my company is effectively managing our athletes’ appearance schedules around competitions and the hardcore, focused, training schedules that lead up to any event. It's a fine line, but an athlete's competition means as much to me as it does to them. And the harder I see them working the more support they get.  The reward we get is obvious: positive publicity for Gaspari Nutrition. What do they get? A nice supplemental income that allows them to commit wholeheartedly to their sport and at the same time, the opportunity to build their own brand. We really do want our team members to be more successful competitively, financially, and in notoriety than they ever could on their own. I'm well aware of the sacrifices they make, I made them too. The difference is, I want it to be better for them than it was for me. All I ask for in exchange is discipline and hard work. I have a very simple point in all this: nothing worthwhile in life is easy. I guess you could win the lottery, but those who come into easy money usually can't handle it and end up broke, or even worse off than before they won the money. The vast majority of “lucky” people simply can’t handle all that “easy money.”  They think they can get rich without working hard for it, and will then have the discipline and understanding to manage all that wealth. Sorry, life doesn’t work that way, and I'm not going to fool athletes with a cush job so they can end up worse off after their athletic career than before. I teach them about the value of hard work. What I can offer your competitive and professional career has tremendous value, but you have to work for it! Because it's worth is. Nothing worthwhile in life is easy.

Even though more people lose than win, success stories seem to be a dime a dozen. No one really talks about losing, and no one really talks about getting back up, but we should. But, before we do, I think we should actually define winning. In a foot race, that's a petty easy thing to do, but in life and in business it's not so cut and dry. Measuring success is, too many times, measured in dollars. Well, I'm here to tell you that's not the case. Vision, passion and drive will bring you success in business. If you can mange your business successfully, the money will come. Money is nothing more than a score card – a byproduct of success, not the definition of success. Business is hard. Staying in business is even harder. Staying in business for decades is like landing on the moon. A lot of people see a guy running a business and they see that he occupies a big building and has a bunch of employees and he drives and cool car and lives in a nice house in a desirable area, and they think, yeah, he's got it made – he's successful. But, those material things are only what you see on the surface. How you get there is a journey that, for many businessmen, a trip down a long, lonely, bumpy road. This is not a story about the nuts and bolts of making money. It's a about the mind set that bred my success; it's a story about the bumps – getting knocked down and getting back up. When people see “Rich Gaspari,” they see one of the most prolific bodybuilders of the 80s and early 90s, and the owner of Gaspari Nutrition, a global brand that's been around for 25 years. And it's easy to understand why. Before I built my $100 million company, I had accomplished just about everything I set out to do in competitive bodybuilding. I won the Mr. America title (now known as the NPC Nationals), the Mr. Universe, Professional Mr. World, I won the first Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic, and took 2nd, not once, not twice, but three times in the biggest and most coveted contest title in professional bodybuilding – the Mr. Olympia. Even though people believe the line Ricky Bobby made famous in Talladega Nights, “if you ain't first you're last,” it's not true. If you come in second place to Lee Haney, an absolute freak of nature, not to mention my longtime friend and training partner, you still have a lot to be proud of - if you know you did your best - and I knew I had. By the time 1993 rolled around, my injuries had caught up with me and my professional bodybuilding career was clearly over. So, I did what a lot of retired bodybuilders do, I opened a gym. Unfortunately, I hadn’t dug very deep into how to set up a business, how to make a business plan, I didn’t know the real costs of running a business. I assumed that my work ethic and optimistic spirit would be enough. But, it wasn't. I hadn’t really prepared myself for the transition from being a competitor to being a businessman. I hadn't made a ton of money as a bodybuilder and, as a result, my gym business was severely under capitalized. I was bleeding money. Before I knew it, the number at the bottom of my combined personal and business balance sheets was shrinking faster than I could think. I needed to get out from under owning the gym, but I couldn’t find a buyer. Things quickly went from bad to worse. Eventually, to my great embarrassment, I went bankrupt and lost everything. There I was, a 34 year-old, former professional bodybuilder, with an impressive mantle full of titles, trophies and awards and I was dead broke. Thankfully, I had a very supportive mom and dad who let me move back home to start over. I felt sorry for myself—but not for long. That’s not how I was raised. I put on my game face and began the slow and painful process of rebuilding myself. I worked as a personal trainer and sold supplements on the side. Because of my years as a bodybuilder and all I had learned first-hand and through my voracious appetite for knowledge of nutrition, I started working with a supplier to develop my first Gaspari supplements. I took a look at the industry and believed it was time for an upgrade – it was time for me to make my mark. After seven or eight months I was gaining some momentum in rebuilding my life, my finances and my new business. I actually began to see a light at the end of the tunnel and I knew it wasn't the train. Before long I had expanded my operations from the basement and took over Mom’s garage to use as my warehouse. That may not sound like much, but I was darn proud of my progress. Then, one day an electrical problem set my mom’s house on fire and it burned completely to the ground. Thank God no one was hurt and she had insurance. It covered rebuilding the house and replacing her belongings. But I lost all my competition memorabilia and my entire supplement inventory, which was not insured. And just like that, I went from the frying pan into the fire! I’m going to tell you the story of how I rebuilt my business in another blog - it’s a good story. And, believe it or not, I had other setbacks I'll also tell you about another time. But,right now I want to plant in your mind a seed. It’s my definition of a winner. A winner, in my book, is someone who gets back up after they get knocked down. Even if they have to live in their mom’s basement, with tragedy to follow. If they get back up, they're a winner. A loser stays down. A winner gets back up, no matter how many times they fall flat on the ground. I am such a positive, energetic, person that people are surprised to find out the number of setbacks I’ve had. When you're smiling on the cover of a magazine it doesn’t tell the story of injuries and other hardships. I have a lot to be proud of to be sure. But, if there’s one thing I would brag about, it's the fact that I got back up when I was down. I got knocked down and I got back up. Be it in business, in life, in your athletic pursuits and other competitions, victory is never final - defeat is. The best thing you can believe is this simple truth: you can always be a winner. All you have to do is get back up. It happens in that second. Even as you rise, you win.

A sports dietician would probably say that nutrition for athletes would seek the same ultimate goal as general nutrition – insofar as that ultimate goal being, of course, good overall health. However, within the confines of good overall health an athlete is able to train hard. Hard training athletes expose themselves to nutritional needs that non-athletes don't usually face. So, in constructing an athlete's meal plan, not only must the tenets of good health be followed, but an athlete's diet should also consist of specific nutrient densities that satisfy the unique requirements generated by the sports they pursue. So, to answer the question, do sports nutrition and general nutrition have the same goals? The answer is both yes and no. Nutrition for non-athletes is traditionally fairly basic. It pretty much boils down to maintaining acceptable body composition through a calculation of the traditional “calories in” vs “calories out” formula to satisfy base metabolic rate, (with any additional activity factored in), and dispersing those calories over a balance of macro nutrients from clean, fresh, wholesome food sources. Throw in a daily multi-vitamin/ mineral complex and some fish oil and that's good for 90% of the population. In fact, if 90% of the general population followed such a simple, non-athlete meal plan, our national health would soar! A balanced diet of healthy foods and maintaining favorable body composition is by far the best, most effective and proven path to good health. At this point, nutrition for athletes takes the divergent path. Depending on a variety of factors that include: the type of exercises being performed, number of training sessions per week, physical requirements of the chosen sport’s weight requirements. Is the athlete training for strength, power, speed, endurance, a combination? Are they male, female, old, young? All of these things and more must be factored in when a sports dietician calculates an athlete's diet. One of the biggest differences you'll notice is that an athlete's meal plan will undoubtedly include a greater amount of protein. Protein, specifically the amino acids it contains, are the essential building blocks of muscle. Growth and repair of muscle tissue is a constant, ongoing and absolutely vital process for an athlete. If the minute amino acids, particularly essential amino acids, reach a level below what the body needs, muscle growth and recovery come to a screeching halt and performance (strength, speed, size) suffers tremendously. So, right off the bat, the most assured goal of athlete nutrition is consuming more quality proteins. Many athletes supplement their protein requirements with with high quality protein powders (https://gasparinutrition.com/collections/protein-powder) from whey, egg, casine, and vegan sources to insure they have the building blocks on board that their bodies need to perform at 100%. The next nutritional goal the sports nutritionist must consider is the predominant fuel source the athlete is going to consume in his meal plan. Complex carbohydrates and good fats provide the energy the athlete will need to exact maximum performance. To make a long story short, in its most simplified explanation, carbs burn faster than fats. Thus, the energy fats provide are sought for sports requiring more endurance, while athletes requiring explosive energy will typically need more carbohydrates in their meal plan. At the end of the day, nutrition for athletes boils down to assembling a meal plan geared to good health and increased performance, with the emphasis on good health. That being the case, it's hard to argue that sports nutrition and general nutrition would not seek the same ultimate goal.

The term “snake oil” has long been associated with any dietary supplement that made health claims, usually devoid of proven supplement facts, of their product. The concept goes back to the pioneer days, when a traveling salesman hawked an anti-inflammatory, made from a proprietary blend that contained actual Chinese water snakes. Based on today's supplement facts, the stuff worked. High in omega-3 fatty acids from the snakes, daily supplements made from the snake oil actually reduced inflammation and eased the symptoms associated with arthritis. It wasn't long until an enterprising pitchman decided to make his own snake oil and travel town to town selling it. However, due to the paucity of Chinese water snakes being raised in the boom towns of the wild west, his proprietary blend used rattlesnakes. This of course was devoid of any scientific fact that would demonstrate that the rattlesnake supplement represented a reasonable facsimile for the original brand with the Chinese snakes. He made a show of it though. His sales pitch reportedly included taking a live rattler out of a sack, slitting it open and dropping it into a pot of boiling water. Little to none of the rendered snake made it into the bottle though. It was filled, mostly, with nothing more than mineral oil. Thus giving birth to the “snake oil salesman.” Today, claimed benefits of dietary supplements have to follow guidelines spelled out in the dietary supplement regulations contained in the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA). From what's contained in “proprietary blends,” marketing and label claims, claimed supplement facts, and more, are subject to dietary supplement regulation under DSHEA. Since DSHEA's genesis in 1994, the FDA has taken an ever increasingly active role in regulating dietary supplements. This makes snake oil label claims much more difficult today. Copy and content writers have to be extremely careful when choosing their words so as not to make “drug-like” claims; claims of a “cure” for any kind of illness or disease, or basically, any definitive claim that the product does anything specific. Because, if it did, it would be a drug. And therein lies the rub. Today, dietary supplement manufacturers are relying on the very same kind of peer reviewed and published scientific literature to formulate their dietary supplements as the drug companies use to support their drug formulas. Effectively, however, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classifies supplements as “foods,” while the chemicals derived from that exact food are considered drugs. A good example is that valerian root extract is sold (legally in the health food store) as a dietary supplement that “might help you relax and fall asleep,” while the valium derived from it is a drug, requiring a prescription (from a doctor who is registered with the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) to put you to sleep, and is listed under schedule three of the DEA's list of illegal drugs. In other words, you can go to prison for illegally possessing, trafficking and distributing it. But, can you go to prison for making false health claims about your proprietary blends? Actually, you can and several people have. So, the snake oil element of claims made today of the health benefits of dietary supplements is pretty minimal. There's always going to be an unscrupulous element to any industry; dietary supplements are no different. But, the industry is certainly not without regulation. As with anything you consider adopting, your daily supplements should be subject to scrutiny. If you chose your supplements from companies with marketing promotions that suggest realistic expectations, based on credible science, then you'd be pretty hard pressed to consider you're buying snake oil.

“Work ethic” seems to a be a perception difficult to share. One man's version of hard work could seem like a vacation to another - the “your workout is my warm-up” philosophy. It's a pretty common belief that, if you come from a family of immigrants, you have been instilled with a pretty powerful work ethic. It's pretty hard to argue with that. Anyone who has traveled to America since the turn of the century (the 20th) perusing a dream only realized that dream by working hard. Those born with the proverbial “silver spoon” in their mouths are routinely accused of not appreciating what they have because it was handed to them. That may be true for some, but I can't imagine seeing an arial view of the 405 freeway, during evening rush hour, and not being grateful you're not sentenced to ten trips a week, as nothing more than scale on the endless red and white snake that agonizingly creeps through the LA basin and across the Fernando valley. After all, “motivation” is the fuel of hard work. “Keeping it” is just as hard as “making it.” Maybe harder when faced with an alternative as horrendous as being an LA commuter (when it's not locked down). The point is, regardless of where - or on what end - of the spectrum you may stand, hard work is the common denominator that binds us. Hard work is the difference  between making/ keeping it and not making it or losing it. And, nowhere is that more evident in the physiques we seek to build. Work ethic, or lack thereof is by far the limiting factor in building or not building your body; not to mention maintaining it.  The 90's has long been revered as the most prolific in bodybuilding. During no other period before, or since, have we seen the lineups on stage so deep. The symmetry, the lines, the conditioning were all brought to levels so high that the greatest of the greats today couldn't stand next to them. Unilaterally, the opinions fostered by those who follow the sport all boil down to hard work. The Gods of the era look at those clawing their way to the top today and say, “you call that clawing??? Shiiiit.” And that does seem to be the consensus. They just don't work as hard today. Of course such a statement is ripe for blowback from those who think they're throwing down like an animal twice a day. And they may  be right. Or, totally deluded. Reality probably leans heavily toward the latter, because of the obvious fact that the 90's era lineup still hasn't been reproduced. I'm sure there are guys out there truly working hard. But, for whatever reason, very few of them are bringing 90s era proof to the stage.  Perhaps you could say that the 90's separated the old school from the new school. It might be the most fair way to look at it. The trick for the old schooler though  is to maintain the old school ethics and stay relevant today in an era where “old School” is a bit misunderstood. Without walking a mile in someone else's training shoes it's hard to fathom. More than a few guys are doing it though. One of them is Mike O'Hearn. This is not the place to get into why or how he's a model of a bygone era as well as a force today. He does that in a great interview with Rich Gaspari and John Romano, on Fitness Fame & Fortune (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mike-ohearn-fitness-fame-fortune-ep-11/id1507989923?i=1000476076915). A previous episode with CT Fletcher also gives you a great example of the old school work ethic and how it breeds success (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ct-fletcher-drops-few-f-bombs-on-rich-gaspari-john/id1507989923?i=1000474588632). At the end of the day, your success will all boil down to a couple of things: hard work and a little luck. How can you best quantify “hard work?” That's easy. All you have to remember that no matter how hard you think you're working, your competitor is working harder. If you can think like that, nothing will stop you.

The best three-day workout routine is the one you're going to do three days a week. It's absolutely pointless to embark on a fitness program, with a well researched list of exercises for a three day workout routine, if you're not going to do it consistently, three days a week. I'm emphasizing “three” because it’s a screaming deal if you can get away with it. Devoting a three-day workout routine to a seven day week is a pretty paltry commitment, considering what you intend to accomplish. And that's really the issue. What is the purpose of this fitness program? If your goal is to build a bodybuilder physique, there is pretty much little you can do with a three-day routine of even the best mass building workouts. Unless you can commit to training all day long for those three days, building mass with just a three day workout routine is going to be, for most people, disappointing. That's not to say it can't be done. Certainly, there are bodybuilders who have applied the high intensity training philosophy to their bodybuilding workout plan, and were able to pack on some mass, as well as gain strength. But, they are the exception, not the rule. The level of intensity you'd have to generate to pack on mass in just three days a week is legendary to say the least; not many people can do it, at least not long enough for it to bear fruit. If that's still the direction you want to go, then the list of exercises you're going to do is pretty small. You're going to have to stick to the basic compound exercises and train your body to failure every time you train. Like I said, the list of exercises is going to be small. A three-day workout routine would be split into two days, focussing on your upper body; one of those days devoted to pulling moves, and the other to pushing. The third day would be legs.   Your routine would look something like this: Monday – Upper Body - Push: Bench PressSeated Shoulder PressWeighted DipsRope Triceps Extensions Tuesday – OFF Wednesday – Upper Body - Pull: DeadliftsSeated Pulley RowsWeighted Pull-UpsBarbell curls  Thursday – OFF Friday – Legs: SquatsLeg ExtensionsHamstring Curls Hyper ExtensionsSeated CalvesStanding calves  Saturday – OFF Sunday – OFF Sets and reps are going to vary based on the individuals, their level of training, and the time available to spend in the gym. You also have to remember, there's a time commitment for food shopping, meal prep, and rest. There's also no allotment for cardio. If you intend to gain strength and muscle mass with just a three-day a week commitment, you're going to have to cover all the bases and make the time you do spend in the gym count.

“If you stay ready you don't have to get ready” - Suga Free People always ask me how l get so lean? My answer is simple, l stay lean. If I stay lean I don' t have to get lean. Right? I mean, that's pretty simple. Ah, but is it? A casual stroll through the domestic terminal of your basic international airport, in any city (my de facto example of the most diverse cross section of America), and you will find an extraordinary number of people who don't pay attention to Suga Free, cuz, they ain't ready. Well, maybe for a pie eating contest, but nothing remotely espousing a healthy body fat level, let alone anything to the extreme that we expect from a bodybuilder. So, stay lean?  Yes, if you want to be lean, stay lean. I was an obese kid and I've stayed lean for over 40 years.  If there's anyone who doesn't have the genetics to be lean, it's me. If I can do it anyone can do it. If that was a cliche, here come the rest of them: “yeah, easier said than done.” “Easy for you to say, you workout all the time.” “I can't diet.” “I have bad genetics.” Blah, blah, blah......  All you're doing by saying and falling for that crap is affirming a negative. Our sport is full of people who have overcome the most incredible adversity and accomplish the most amazing things, including getting shredded. Most of us have no adversity to overcome, except that which we create for ourselves, and can't seem to uncover any part of a six pack, let alone the whole thing. Staying lean is not rocket science. It merely requires that you stay, with the exception of the odd cheat meal once or twice, a week, on a diet. Period. All the time. By diet, I don't mean eating like a bodybuilder. I mean eating like a dieting bodybuilder. “Oh, but that's hard.” So is buying a Ferrari, unless you have the money. Dieting is easy, if you have the discipline. And, discipline – or willpower -  is a matter of one thing – a decision. A very simple decision: Do I stay on my diet or not? The problem is that your brain gets in the way. Let me give you an example.  Let's say you climb into bed after a long hard day. You're dead tired. You could fall asleep the second your head hits the pillow – which, you've fluffed and arranged just exactly how you like it. Your head sinks languidly into it, you wriggle your body one last time into that amazingly comfortable position you and the sandman love, you've maybe even tucked another pillow between your knees. You're an inch from dreamland. Then, you look up and realize you left on the bathroom light. What do you do? What few of you will do is just get up and turn off the light (you guys are probably pretty lean too). Most of you will hem and haw and needlessly complicate the issue, and procrastinate because you just don't want to get up out of bed, especially if it's cold. Some will actually just leave it on! It's a simple decision though, just get up and turn off the light! Like the saying Nike made famous, just do it. Dieting to stay lean is no different. Most of you reading this know that and know damn well what it takes to stay lean. You now there's no magic pill, no magic drug, no magic method, nothing secret. The matter is doing what it takes -  doing what's hard, doing what's uncomfortable. Problem is, humans like to be comfortable and do what's easy. You can't have it both ways. You want to stay lean? Then you know what to do. It's a simple choice – just like getting up out of bed and turning off the light. Unfortunately, temptation rears it's ugly head and then, the next thing you know, you're just another squishy American strolling through the airport. You know that in order to stay lean you have to eat good, clean, healthy food, in a favorable macro ratio, and burn more than you take in, so that the body will liberate stored fat to make up the difference. Simple. The only problem is just doing it. So, what do we do? Come up with excuses of course. And some are pretty good: “I have kids and the junk they eat is always in the house” (why do you buy it for them?), “Diet food is too expensive” (duh), “No time to prep the food,” “I have no energy on a diet,” “I get too hungry,” “I get hypoglycemic,” “I crave pizza.....” Blah, blah, blah. It's all meaningless bullshit. Suck it up buttercup. Everything desirable has a price. If you want to stay lean, quit complaining and just do it. It's either that or stay fat. Simple equation: Diet = lean. No diet = fat. (remember the bathroom light). Now, here's where the big debate that has raged for decades comes in. One camp says “calories in calories out.” This basically means that if you eat fewer calories than your base metabolic rate indicates, you'll lose weight. It doesn't matter what you eat, so long as you create a calorie deficit. The problem here is “weight” is an ambiguous term. You can hack off an arm and get back on the scale and it will read less. You get the desired intent, but the effect is not too good. What you want to lose is not “weight” but rather, body fat. Which brings us to the other camp. They say that if you eat only “clean” food – lean protein, complex carbs and healthy fats, you can eat all you want and, with adequate exercise, you'll lose body fat. The only problem with either camp is that they're both only partly right.  If you want to become, and stay, lean what you need to do is eat a balance of high protein, moderate good quality fats and few complex carbohydrates, spaced out over five to six small meals a day with a total calorie count somewhat less than your base metabolic requirement.  It's important that you keep a nice even flow of nutrients coming in so that your body does not perceive starvation and slow down your metabolic rate. This will not only stymie fat loss, but also muscle growth. So, just how much below your base metabolic rate should you eat when you consider your activity level? Too low and your body will strive to hang on to those reserves you have on board, too high and you wont lose fat. Unfortunately, there's no specific formula for this, it's a matter of trial and error. If you use an accurate measure of your body fat each week, you'll want to lose between 0.5 – 1.0% of body fat per week. Slow and steady. Once you arrive at your desired body fat level, gradually increase the size of your meals until you level out where you feel and look lean. Then stay lean.  A little help from high quality supplements? Absolutely. But, they're NOT the answer. Of course they can help and I can swear they make a big difference. But, the work and the sacrifice is going to be 85% of the deal. Luckily, modern silence has given us supplements that can help the fat burning process. Not only fat burners, but also low calorie protein powders offering complete protein with few calories or added fats, and quality vitamins and minerals to make up what a calorie restricted diet may leave out.  At the end of the day, it's going to be exercise, a well constructed, low calorie meal plan, combined with state of the art supplements, dedication, consistency and discipline that is going to deliver incredible results that can last and last and keep you lean. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you.

For some reason, many bodybuilders believe they have to turn themselves into a giant pumpkin during the off season in order to build any muscle. They believe, “you can't grow muscle when you're dieting.” Oh my God..... To find a greater pile of bullshit than that you'd have to visit a cattle ranch. That is such utter nonsense. It's true that you could not eat enough on a diet and not gain muscle, but it's not necessary to gain fat in order to gain muscle. All my clients gain muscle leading up to a bodybuilding show while losing body fat. All of them, men and women, doesn't matter. I always crack up at the big puffy bodybuilder who gains 50 pounds during the off season and then diets off 48 of it by show time. Why gain 50 pounds for a net gain of two? Why not gain five pounds and have all of it be muscle? What you need to understand is that the body signals the building of muscle as part of its survival mechanism. It doesn't grow muscle because you want a killer double biceps pose. It grows muscle, and only grows muscle, in response to progressively greater gravitational stress. The greater the stress your body endures the greater the adaptation. This was actually proven 2700 years ago by the world's first bodybuilder, Milo of Croton, who roamed the hills of southern Italy with a bull over his shoulder.  Milo was perhaps the best wrestler in world at the time, having won ancient Greece's triple crown of wrestling a staggering seven times and the Olympic games five times. The secret to his incredible strength was the bull. Not the kind of bull you get from the broscientists online these days, but an actual cow. Milo picked up the critter shortly after it was born, slung it over his shoulders and walked the hills behind his farm until he couldn't carry it any longer. He did this every day. As the calf grew, so too did Milo. And so was born the progressive resistance principle.  What Milo proved is that in order to grow muscle the body must be subjected, repeatedly, to an ever increasing work load it cannot accomplish with the stock muscle allotment. In order to survive that stress, it builds muscle  to become stronger and adapt.  And, that is IT. Other than some kind of rouge genetic factor, there is absolutely no other reason whatsoever your body will build muscle. In fact, the body will strive to get rid of muscle it's not using. If you doubt me, stick your arm in a cast for six weeks and see what you haver left after you cut it off.  It will only build muscle if it needs it. And, if the stress is grave enough, it will build that muscle no matter what, even if calories are restricted. You have to remember that a pound of fat has 3500 calories. If you weigh 200 pounds and you're at a fairly moderate 10% body fat, that means you have 20 pounds of fat on your body, that equates to 70,000 calories worth of potential energy on board, in addition to what you eat. So, unless you have zero body fat, your diet can consist of very few calories and you'll still have plenty of energy calories on board to keep you going. It might not feel very good, but you're not going to starve. And, if you're taking in the right nutrients, you're not going to lose muscle, in fact, with proper nutrients and stimulation in the gym, you'll grow muscle, even if calories are restricted. As far as proper nutrients go, protein is going to be king. Building muscle requires protein, particularly the essential proteins, also known as essential amino acids, particularly the branch chain amino acids. These nutrients are termed “essential” because the body does not produce them, or does not produce them in adequate amounts, requiring you get them either from your diet, or high quality nutritional supplements.  Building muscle requires building blocks. The more you have on board the better your chances of building muscle. But, you also need to keep the machine well oiled. So, in addition to the amino acid element, you will also benefit from complete protein powders, vitamins and minerals and  joint care supplements.  Growing muscle without getting fat is as possible as it is tedious. You have to work at it – hard. But, with consistency and attention to detail, you'll build it without having to battle pounds and pounds of unnecessary body fat.

“Intensity” is one of those terms that's as subjective as it is ambiguous, if not just completely downright misconstrued. It is, however, the apex requirement in your list of things you're going to have to learn to generate if you intend on using your tine in the gym to  increase your strength/ performance.  Every athlete knows this. In fact, it is widely accepted among the fiteratti that the best athlete is the one who can focus the hardest, concentrate, and generate the most intensity. Every single world class athlete known to man is prone to this formula. There are literally no exceptions.  The problem with intensity, particularly maximum intensity, is that you can't just tell someone to go do it – lift with intensity. Unfortunately, it's as vitally important to athletic success, as it is difficult to describe. When asked to define intensity, you might want to offer to define something easier instead, such as  love, hope, God.....   Intensity is on another level. Mostly because the more you generate, the more it hurts. Your brain's inclination is to make you stop doing what hurts. In this case, the notion to stop must be replaced with “keep going,” “Don't' Stop!,” “Five more!” And so on.  And that right there is the difference between the champs and the also-rans. Suffering.  Intensity hurts. High intensity hurts a lot. But what's “a lot?” Surely one man's “a lot” is not another's. If you ask a woman if child birth hurts “a lot” she'll probably say it does. Yet, we see women with seven kids. So, it can't hurt that much, or can it? So, it depends on what you can tolerate. Now, I'm certainly not comparing a high intensity workout to child birth (a true high intensity workout should make childbirth feel like a rough pedicure) however the underlying pain threshold is just as confounding. Some women breeze through it while some women – if you've ever spent a few hours in a delivery ward – seem to have a bit more of an issue with it.  Now, the wisecrack I made a second ago about the pedicure goes to subjectivity. Surely childbirth is excruciating, however, the point is, you've got to make some kind of imaginary threshold, because “intensity” is far more a mental infliction as it is a muscular one.  No matter how big and strong you are, eventually, gravity is going to win any battle with the iron. It is at that moment – when will is overtaken by physics -  that the peak deployment of intensity has been reached. Think of hanging off a bar on a tower crane 1,000 feet in the air. Eventually, gravity is going to be responsible for decorating the concrete below with a nasty splattering of your blood and guts. The moment before that happened, its safe to say that 100% intensity  was applied to your grip strength.   So, childbirth, popping off a crane tower to your death and training intensity should be thought of in the same breath. Metaphorically, of course. But in practice in the gym? Back in the day, a typical leg workout has many times ended with a lifter being crushed in the power rack, dragging himself across the floor on his elbows, heaving his last seven meals into the garbage can and writhing on the floor until his nose stops bleeding (I have pics). Extreme? Yes. Intense? No question. But, is it necessary?   And therein lies the rub...  As far as the human body goes, strength/ muscle gain is a survival mechanism. The body is not interested in the muscle you want, it's only concerned with the muscle it needs. The way to convince the body it needs more is by generating intensity. The greater your training intensity, the stronger the message the body receives. That, and that alone, is the stimulus for muscle growth.  What are some of the signs you're exhibiting maximum intensity? 1 – vomiting during workouts 2 – nose bleeds during heavy lifts 3 – intense soreness in the days following a workout 4 – Cramping  5 – Difficulty walking or going up and down stairs after legs 6 – Profound muscle growth and increased athletic performance So, forced reps, negatives, partials, rest-pause, drop sets, static holds..... Whatever you can employ to drive your intensity to the point where your muscle literally fails – like right before you pop off the 1,000 foot tower crane. Or, for you ladies, the searing pain of childbirth. The point is, while the pursuit is physical, the game is mental. The brain decides what's enough, not your body. It's you job to do the convincing.  Greater intensity = greater results. How you generate it is your game.

Pondering whether or not a 30-minute workout is enough to build muscle is a bit like wondering if 30-minutes is enough to cook a meal. Sure, it could be. Depending on who you are. It could also be a disaster. Clearly, it's what you do with those 30-minutes that may or may not trigger muscle growth. Whether it be a good circuit workout, “popsugar” workouts, or whatever 30-minute fitness thing you can come up with, the reality is, that it's largely irrelevant. What is relevant – the only thing that's relevant. - is exercise intensity. And I'll tell you why.... The human body enlarges a muscle group by either one, or both, of two processes. The first is called hypertrophy - the enlarging of existing muscle fibers. This is the body's first response to prolonged and progressive physical stress. In the acute phase, the body pumps blood to the muscle being exhausted, bringing it more oxygen, more glucose and releasing creatine phosphate stores to help generate more energy. This is known as a “pump.” You literally feel your muscle engorge with blood, veins popping out (if you're lean enough to see them) and you can feel your skin tighten. It's an absolutely real and undeniable response. As the pump ebbs later on, while you're resting, the extra pumped in blood leaves the muscle, and with it goes all kinds of undesirable cellular rubble that you created when you tore down your muscle during a period of intense stress (your workout). During the subsequent recovery period, an increase in protein synthesis will take place, utilizing various essential amino acids, particularly valine, that got pumped in with the extra blood, to build complete muscle cells, which gradually enlarge individual muscle fibers. Now, if the continued and ever increasing stress persists into days and weeks, the body eventually becomes inefficient. It cannot keep up with the increased demand being placed upon it and it cannot satisfactorily recover in the given amount of time. The next response the body initiates in order to survive is the activation of satellite cells that live on top of the muscle fibers. These satellite cells then multiply and join together, while absorbing a host of nutrients and various hormones, to create new muscle fibers. This is called hyperplasia. It's important to note, that the birth of new muscle through hyperplasia, merely falls into the fray. Like an escalation of troops in a war. It will immediately be subject to the effects of hypertrophy – if the stress continues to be progressive, prolonged and intense. You also have to remember that this is merely the stimulus side of building muscle. The actual growth takes place while you rest and recover. The object of going to the gym is to convince the body it needs more muscle, but it's not where the muscle is built. You get swole in bed. So, the question is, actually: is 30-min enough time to stimulate the body's adaptive survival response, to initiate hypertrophy and subsequently - hopefully - hyperplasia? Any time such a question is asked, it can only logically be answered first with “it depends.” That's because it does. It depends not only upon what you do during that 30-minute fitness session, but also, and I say more importantly, how you do whatever it is you're doing. And that, my friends, is it - distilled all the way down to the very essence of what it takes for the body to build muscle – intensity. As I eluded to earlier, building muscle has nothing whatsoever to do with your desire for big biceps. The body builds muscle for one reason and one reason only – survival. Increased muscle mass is a survival response to a specific physical stress. The only way to get your body to build muscle is to keep it under stress. The question is, for how long? There is the theory of “time under tension” which infers that the longer the muscle is under tension, the greater the stimulus to increase muscle mass. While this is to some degree true, the “time” part of it is a bit ambiguous and leads to tremendous inefficiency, which ultimately mitigates recovery time. “Time under tension” is another way of quantifying reps and sets. To how many reps and sets do you subject a muscle in order to stimulate the growth response, and is 30-minutes enough time to do it? When you set out to put together a good circuit workout, what is your goal for reps and sets? How do you figure that out? Ask any successful bodybuilder how many reps and sets they recommend to build muscle and you'll get a different answer every time. This is because, without a universally accepted and tangible goal, anything anyone can suggest is – at best – vague, ambiguous and inefficient. How many reps? 8? 10? 12? 15? How many total sets per body part? 10? 20? 30? And who's right? “Jay Cutler is Mr. Olympia and he did This.... Yeah, but Ronnie Coleman is also a Mr. Olympia and he did this, this and that....Well, Lee Haney is another Mr. O and he doesn't follow either of those philosophies, he does XY and Z....” Who's right? They all are ranked the best in the world! Well, one bodybuilder – who never became Mr. Olympia, but should have - actually popularized the most logical answer to this question. The most obvious point to stop a set is when the muscle fails. He took that point a bit further and insisted that you really only need to do that once. In1978, Mike Mentzer became the only bodybuilder in history who, to this very day, has ever scored a perfect 300 to win the Mr. Universe. Mentzer popularized the “one set” theory, originally proffered by Nautilus founder, Arthur Jones. As the theory goes, the most logical point to stop a set is when the muscle can no longer execute the message sent from the brain to contract. According to Jones, via Mentzer, once you have reached the point where there is a momentary interruption in the neurological firing between the brain and the muscle being contracted, you have reached the most logical end of a set. And, anything more, or less, is a waste of time. This is the ultimate execution of intensity, and the most successful way to build muscle. Dorian Yates lent credence to that concept by winning six Olympias in a row using short, high intensity, workouts. That's not to say it's the only way, just the most efficient. Remember, muscle growth happens during rest. Your objective should be to minimize the amount of time it takes to stimulate muscle growth and maximize the amount of time spent recovering, so you can grow. If you're interested in the health benefits of some kind of 30-minute fitness program, you can probably accomplish something in that amount of time, but you're not going to get big. So, to adopt this Heavy Duty style of training - where one set taken to failure per exercise - it's entirely possible to stimulate the body's muscle growth messaging in 30 minutes. The only problem is, most people who set out to find “failure” merely find fatigue. Failure – true failure – lies well north of fatigue and the searing pain associated with getting there has been equated to having a tooth drilled without novocaine. This makes the concept of “failure” a bit too subjective, and a bit too masochistic for most tastes. That's why volume training is more popular. But you'll have to spend much more than 30-minutes training that way to build muscle. Which, is inefficient and shortens the amount of recovery time you can devote to growing. And, of course, it certainly doesn't hurt as much. Nevertheless, the fact has been well established that, within the confines of 30-minutes, it is entirely possible to convince the body it needs more muscle. So, yes, a 30-Minute Workout is Enough To Build Muscle. It just depends on your ability to manufacture intensity. Same goes for you guys with a personal trainer. A 30 minute personal training session can be enough to stimulate muscle growth. As long as your trainer is mean enough to push you there.

Creatine, more specifically, creatine monohydrate, is one of the most studied dietary supplements in history. Reams of peer reviewed and published research indicate numerous ergogenic benefits of creatine supplementation, as well as eating creatine rich foods (meat). Depending on how you cycle creatine, and how much creatine a day you take, the apparent gains in muscle mass have caused many a coach to wonder if creatine is a steroid. Well, right off the bat, creatine is not a steroid, or even a drug. It's a naturally occurring compound of three amino acids, (glycine, arginine, and methionine) that the body manufactures, as well as utilizes from a diet of creatine rich foods. In the human body, creatine is found mostly (95%) in skeletal muscle. (The rest is distributed by the bloodstream to the brain, testes, and other tissues). Creatine’s primary metabolic role is to combine with a phosphoryl group to create creatine phosphate, which is used to facilitate the conversion of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in the production of energy, when protein, carbs and fat are oxidized. The result, of one phosphate being lost from ATP, is a new compound called ADP (adenosine di-phosphate), which the body will use to convert back into ATP using creatine. So, the process starts with ATP, the conversion of ATP to energy leaves us with ADP. Add creatine and the body reforms ATP and stores it in the muscle, providing energy when you need it. When researchers gave test subjects creatine, they noticed that very little of it was excreted. This means that the body actually does store it - in muscle it turns out. This means that supplementing with creatine, or at the very least, eating a diet in creatine rich foods can help energize longer, harder, workouts. Creatine supplementation can help further increase ATP so you can workout harder. This is really important for athletes whose activities rely on short, fast, explosive movements. Your onboard supply of creatine phosphate is the body's preferred source of energy when you perform such anaerobic activity. Apart from the intense power they're able to generate on creatine, what bodybuilders love about creatine is the way it attracts water to muscle. Hydrated muscle not only looks bigger and more pumped, but hydration plays an important roll in protein synthesis in muscle. Research on creatine has also demonstrated benefits that can benefit anyone, not just athletes. Better bone density, glucose metabolism and brain function have also been notably improved with supplemental creatine. Loading creatine, while not completely necessary, does bring on its effect sooner. The recommended creatine dosage for the loading protocol is a five day period of 10 - 15 grams a day (split into two or three doses to avoid stomach upset) to saturate the muscle and then back down to 5 grams a day for maintenance. There’s a lot of talk about how to cycle creatine and if it’s necessary. While there’s certainly no adverse affect to taking creatine for the rest of your life, the body does tend to regulate itself. Over time, your body will strive to maintain only the creatine levels it needs, not how much you need to keep your pump. So, it is conceivable that your body will excrete some of the excess creatine from supplementation or downgrade the number of creatine receptors, or a little of both. That being an accepted argument, it would be best to stop taking creatine for three - four weeks after an eight - 10 week cycle, then go back on. You can cycle creatine on and off like that indefinitely. As far as creatine safety goes, to date, there is absolutely no credible research that demonstrates any danger to using it. Naturally, if you exceed the recommended dose you could have some digestive disruptions, but that’s true for just about anything. When you look at any of the reams of research that exist on creatine, you should remember that well over 90% of that research has been on creatine monohydrate. While the supplement market is rife with supplements containing creatine malate, nitrate, and buffered creatine, there is no research that demonstrates that any other form of creatine is any better than monohydrate. So, is creatine a safe supplement? It absolutely is, and it's effective too!

Many a hard training athlete has taken part in the debate, either for or against, as to whether or not the naked egg can stand up against a slab of beef steak, as far as protein sources go, or do the egg macros in that plate of scrambled eggs fall short? It's an age old question really. Athletes are hell bent on finding the best protein sources and the comparison is inevitable. And, that's just as far as food goes. When it comes to supplemental protein, egg macros are always held in high regard – even higher than whey in some cases, with athletes continually debating the best egg white protein powder, or what goes into making the best egg protein shake. It wasn't always like that though. Back in the day, even the best egg white protein powders made horrible tasting, lumpy, egg protein shakes. Modern technology has revitalized the egg protein powder market with great tasting, easy mixing products that make it easy, not to mention enjoyable, to get the nutrients out of eggs. But, are eggs as good a source of protein as a beef steak, or other animal source proteins? Dietary protein is made up of chains of amino acids. The proteins from animals - poultry, fish, beef, pork, lamb, game meats and eggs are considered “complete proteins” because they contain all of the amino acids that your body needs – including the nine essential amino acids that your body doesn't produce. To further highlight the importance of complete proteins is the fact that the body can only benefit from complete proteins. Incomplete protein is pretty much useless as far as muscle growth and recovery are concerned. Gram per gram however, meat is heavier in protein content than eggs. Eggs on the other hand, can be a healthier and more versatile alternative to meat. A gram of whole egg contains about 1/8th of a gram of complete protein. Conversely, a gram of meat (flesh of any animal) has about a 1/5th of a gram of complete protein. So, as you can see, in a gram-to-gram comparison, meat contains more protein than eggs.   I emphasized “whole egg” above because most of you are obsessed with not eating egg yolks. So, you have to remember that a large whole egg contains about six grams of protein, just a little over half of which come from the white. You throw out the rest with the yolk along with other beneficial nutrients. Just to get the same protein as a whole egg, you have to eat two egg whites. It's not unusual to see athletes throwing down 10 – 12, or more, egg whites at a sitting. Another thing to keep in mind is that, compared to meat, what eggs lack in protein they make up for in cholesterol. One large egg has about 3.5 grams of fat and 140 milligrams of cholesterol. A 3 ounce serving of animal flesh ranges between 1.5 to 5 grams of fat and 50 to 60 milligrams of cholesterol. What's interesting though, is that while saturated fats are known to increase cholesterol, the egg macros, while higher in cholesterol than meat, eggs reflect fewer saturated fats. The only other food I know of that contains high cholesterol, but is low in saturated fat is shrimp and other shellfish. It's kind of an odd dichotomy, but nevertheless prudent, that people with high cholesterol should avoid both egg yolks (the obvious) and shrimp (the not so obvious). However, those people with normal cholesterol, can not only eat shrimp, but should also not be tossing all the yolks because they think they're high in saturated (bad) fat – because they're not. And, because the nutrients in eggs are contained in the yolk, including all the valuable vitamins and minerals you get from the egg. So, it boils down to calories. Many athletes go by the “four whites and a yellow” ratio when they construct their egg meal. This gives them all the complete protein contained in the egg whites, a bit more from the yolk, and all the vitamins and minerals, with less fat. But, a lot of lifters don't want to worry about how many calories are in one scrambled egg and they just go online and look for the best egg protein powder. (https://gasparinutrition.com/products/proven-egg?variant=33802534584451) At the end of the day though, a complete protein is a complete protein. It doesn't matter if it comes from a cow, a fish, an egg or a 3LB plastic tub. So, are eggs as good a source of protein as beef steak as far as protein quality goes? The answer is yes.

Do you want to look like you can bench press 300 pounds, or do you actually want to be able to truthfully say that you can bench press the 300 pounds?

 

Dan Palacios of Kinetic Training in Davie, Florida takes Team Gaspari members Alex, Aliona, Melissa and Alex through a training regiment designed for military personnel and policemen to improve their tactical skills. This outdoor workout works all muscles in the body for complete physical conditioning!

Rich Gaspari takes Jose and Alex through an old school chest and back superset workout, just like the sets he used to do to prepare for the Olympia and the Arnold Classic.

Sports nutrition is basically pretty much like it sounds - nutrition for athletes. The essence of the concept being that a sports dietician, or the athlete himself, constructs a specific athlete meal plan that will spell out precisely what the athlete's diet should consist of, based on the specific nutritional needs the pursuit of his sport presents. There can't be enough stress put on the fact that, first and foremost, it's the athlete's meal plan that sets the stage for how well his performance will be affected.  There can't be enough stress put on the fact that, first and foremost, it's the athlete's meal plan that sets the stage for how well his performance will be affected. Depending on the sport, an athlete's nutritional needs will differ. For example, a strength athlete will need a higher protein appropriation in his meal plan; an endurance athlete will  need more quality fats; while athletes who require explosive bouts of energy – such as sprinters – will need more complex carbohydrates. And, of course, for many athletic pursuits, it's not so cut and dry and a variety of factors have to be considered when you calculate what an athlete's diet should consist of. Optimum sports nutrition insures that the body has the nutritional building blocks on board it needs to both fuel performance and aid recovery. Generally, sports dietitians agree that the overall goal of sports nutrition is to satisfy two important areas where an athlete's nutritional needs differ from non athletes. These are distinct because one cause the other: performance and the recovery from it. Optimum sports nutrition ensures that the body has the nutritional  building blocks on board  it needs to both fuel performance and aid recovery.  Complex carbohydrates from natural sources such as whole grains, potatoes, yams, fruit, etc. are converted by digestion into glucose. The  conversion of these particular carb sources is slow and sustained, which results in stable blood glucose levels. This not only supports the immediate performance requirements, but also replenishes glycogen stores in muscle, the liver, and the brain.  Dietary protein from fresh eggs, poultry, fish and lean meats deliver vital amino acids that aid in performance and recovery of muscle. While the body can manufacture most of the amino acids it needs, there are several which the body must have have but does not produce, or produce in sufficient amounts and must find them in the diet. Ironically, it's these very essential amino acids that are the most depleted through athletic training and competition. Clearly then, an athlete's meal plan must contain adequate complete protein choices, preferably from animal sources, to maintain the increased amino acid requirements of athletes. Vegan athletes bring a whole other element of complexity to the equation when it comes to deriving sufficient complete proteins, without suffering from a mountain of excess calories carbohydrate combining brings. But, that's an entirely separate topic for another day. For the purpose of this discussion, natural, complete, protein sources  - from animals – is what will be considered in an athlete's meal plan to deliver all the amino acids the body needs for optimum athletic performance and recovery.  Finally, dietary fats, from unsaturated “good” sources are vital for energy production and metabolism maintenance, not to mention the fact that, just like we have essential amino acids, there are essential fats the body must have, but does not produce, that must be derived from dietary sources. Long considered the enemy of a healthy diet, because they were just termed “fat” and lumped in with all the bad saturated fats that are the scourge of the American diet, good fats from unsaturated sources, such as cold pressed oils, nuts, seeds, and the essential omega-3 fatty acids (DHA and EPA) from fish, are vital for energy production, tissue repair, nervous system and brain function, joint maintenance, reducing  inflammation, and supporting immune function. All of which represent an elevated level of importance in an athlete's meal plan. Vegan athletes are also going to be confronted here with another reality of sports nutrition when it comes to getting enough ALA from plant sources - that must be converted into adequate quantities of  DHA and EPA (the only omega-3 the body uses) to support athlete nutrition. But, again, that's another level of complexity when it comes to determining what an athlete's diet should consist of and is a topic for another discussion.  There is no argument against specialized, balanced, nutrition for athletes, and is an essential element of effective, sensible sports nutrition. Ultimately, caloric requirements to effect maximum performance, while maintaining acceptable body composition will be regulated  with the athlete's meal plan. This usually requires some trial and error and attention paid to cause and effect. But, there is no argument against specialized, balanced, nutrition for athletes, and is an essential element of effective, sensible sports nutrition.