2 Simple Steps To Ripped, Shredded Muscles

Picture this scenario...

You've been training your tail off for the past 4 months, trying to pack on as much muscle size as you possibly can. You've bulked up considerably and are quite happy with the size you've been able to achieve.

There's just one problem...

Along with all of that solid, lean muscle you've gained, you notice that you've also packed on some excess body fat in the process.

Let's face it, no matter how "huge" you might be, no one wants to be walking around with a soft, smooth and flabby body. After most trainees have finished their "bulking" phase, they decide that it's time to "cut down" and strip off the excess body fat that they gained due to their high calorie, muscle-building diet.

How do they usually go about this?

They lighten up the weights and perform higher reps.

This has always been a widely accepted method of “cutting down” and if you ask most trainers in the gym they’ll tell you that “heavy weights bulk up the muscle and lighter weights define the muscle”.

Do you want to know the reality behind the “light weight and high reps” method of obtaining a ripped and defined physique?

It is completely, totally and utterly DEAD WRONG.

It couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, there is no logical basis for this way of training whatsoever, and whoever dreamt up this downright ridiculous way of thinking has caused the vast majority of lifters to waste their time and impede their progress in the gym.

Let me clear this up once and for all: you CANNOT spot reduce. In other words, it is physically impossible to target fat loss from a specific area on your body. Performing bench presses with light resistance and high repetitions will not magically burn fat off of your chest or cause it to appear harder and more defined.

Every single time you wrap your hands around a barbell, dumbbell or cable, your goal is to stimulate as much muscle growth as you possibly can. There are no special, secret weightlifting exercises that will “define” your muscles or cause them to become more “ripped”.

Training with weights builds muscle mass, end of story.

So how exactly do you “define” a muscle?

The only way to “define” a muscle is by lowering your body fat percentage in order to make your muscles more visible. Body fat reduction can be achieved in two ways:

1) Modify your diet.

You'll need to create a slight caloric deficit within your body to stimulate the fat burning process. This can usually be achieved by lowering your overall caloric intake to around 11-13x your bodyweight and focusing on consuming smaller meals more frequently throughout the day. This will keep your metabolism naturally raised at all times and will keep your body in a constant fat burning state.

2) Perform proper cardio workouts.

Let go of the traditional method of moderate intensity cardio in 30-45 minute durations. If you want to maximize your body’s fat burning capacity and also minimize the muscle loss that inevitably accompanies a fat burning cycle, focus on shorter, 15-minute cardio workouts performed 3-5 times per week at a high level of intensity.

That’s all there is to it, folks. Take the notion of “light weight and higher reps” and throw it right out the window, down the street and around the corner. Following this misguided method will only cause you to lose muscle mass and strength, and will not assist you in burning fat or defining your physique.

MuscleGainTruth.com

Best regards,

Sean Nalewanyj

The 5 Golden Rules Of Staying Injury-Free In The Gym

Listen, if you want to get big, you have to train big.

Entering the gym and simply going through the motions without a sweat just isn’t going to get the job done. You have to overload those muscles with heavy weight and high intensity if you want to see real results. This is without a doubt the most effective means of stimulating muscular growth.

Muscles grow due to a natural adaptive survival response, and if you don’t give them a damn good reason to grow, well, they won’t.

While training hard and heavy may be awesome for your muscles, it can be trouble for the health of your joints and connective tissue. This is simply the reality of intense weight training, and while there are no guarantees that you will be able to completely avoid getting injured, you can certainly take specific steps to lessen the chance.

An injury is the absolute last thing you could ever hope for, as it will stop you dead in your muscle-building tracks.

Down below I’m going to outline my “5 golden rules” when it comes to minimizing the risk of injury. If you can honestly say that you implement all 5 of these into your training program, then your risk of getting hurt will be much lower than someone who does not.

1) Always perform a thorough warmup.

A proper warmup is the single best thing you can do to minimize your risk of injury. This simple 15-20 minute process will prepare your mind and body for the hard work to come by increasing blood flow into the surrounding connective tissue and by lubricating your joints. I would recommend that you perform 5 minutes of light cardiovascular exercise before each workout followed by 4-5 warmup sets for your first major exercise of the routine.

2) Always train with proper form.

This should go without saying. Every exercise that you perform in the gym should be done with proper form and technique in order to keep the stress off of your joints. If you start squatting or deadlifting with a rounded back, jerking the weights around in a ballistic manner or performing dangerous exercises you are almost guaranteed to hurt yourself at some point.

3) Always train within your own personal limits.

Weightlifting is a personal battle, and letting your ego take over is almost always a recipe for disaster. It doesn’t matter what the guy next to you is benching and it is completely irrelevant to your training program. You must always use weights that you can handle and control with proper form, and if you start piling on the plates to impress the people around you, you’ll be stretching your limits and putting yourself in a very vulnerable position.

4) Always know when to quit.

If you cannot complete another rep of an exercise using proper form, the set is over, plain and simple. Put the weight down and rest up for your next set. If you start using huge amounts of momentum and jerky body motions to crank out a couple of extra reps, you’ll be on the sidelines before you know it.

5) Never ignore your aches and pains.

When you’re motoring along through a training program and are making progress from week to week, the idea of quitting just seems impossible. This can sometimes lead us to ignore those obvious injuries and pretend as if they aren’t really there as we often “work through” the pain and hope that it magically disappears.

More often than not, it will only get worse. If you feel that something definitely isn’t right and can sense that you probably shouldn’t be training, Get the problem checked out by a professional and then take the proper measures to heal. While it may hurt your progress in the short term, the overall long-term effect will be a positive one.

MuscleGainTruth.com

Best regards,

Sean Nalewanyj

Why Your Muscle Pumps Have Nothing To Do With Your Muscle Gains

Your back is firmly planted on the bench as you wrap your chalked hands around the cold, steel bar. Your training partner helps you un-rack the weight as you power the bar up and down, squeezing your chest and triceps on each grueling rep. You complete your 6 repetitions, re-rack the bar and stand up.

Your chest feels tight and engorged with blood. You take a look in the mirror, thrilled with how full and vascular your pecs appear. You feel strong, powerful, healthy and motivated to blast through the rest of your workout with your newly achieved “pump”.

Let’s face it, a pump feels incredible. For those of you who aren’t quite sure what I’m talking about, a pump is the feeling that you get as blood becomes trapped inside your muscle tissue as a result of resistance training. The muscles will swell up and increase in size, vascularity and tightness.

There is certainly nothing wrong with achieving a pump in the gym, and it is simply a natural result of intense weight training. However, contrary to what the majority of weightlifters may think, a pump is in no way indicative of a successful workout. Anyone who uses the intensity of their pump as a gauge for the effectiveness of their workout is making a costly error.

On countless occasions I've heard lifters raving about the massive pumps they get in the gym as they share methods for achieving the best pump possible. "Dude, this will give you a crazy pump!" If you have already been working out for a decent amount of time then you know exactly what I'm talking about. While a pump does feel extremely satisfying, just remember that it means very little in terms of muscle stimulation and growth.

A pump is simply the result of extra blood within the muscle tissue. Think of it this way: if I took a pair of 10 pound dumbbells and performed 300 reps of a bench press movement, I would achieve an incredible pump. If muscle pumps meant muscle growth, then super light weight, ultra high rep programs would be the most effective way to grow. Any serious lifter with half a brain knows that this simply is not the case.

Do you want to know how to truly gauge the success of a workout? Here it is…

Take your workout records (in terms of weight and reps) from the previous week and compare it to the current week. Did you improve? Were you able to either increase the resistance slightly on each exercise, or perform an extra rep or two?

If so, you had a successful workout, regardless of how much blood you were able to pump into your muscle tissue.

Building muscle mass and strength is all about training with 100% intensity on every given set and then striving to improve from week to week. If you are able to consistently achieve this, your muscle size and strength will increase faster than you ever thought possible, with or without a pump.

MuscleGainTruth.com

Best regards,

Sean Nalewanyj

8 Of 8 Things You Must Do To Build Maximum Muscle Mass

#8 - Understand that application and consistency is EVERYTHING!

You can have the most effective workout schedule possible, the most intelligent diet approach available and the most intimate understanding of muscle growth from every possible angle, but without the inner drive and motivation to succeed you will get nowhere, and very fast.

Just as the famous saying goes…

“Knowing is NOT enough. You must APPLY!”

Those who make the greatest gains in muscular size and strength are the ones who are able to continually and systematically implement the proper techniques on a highly consistent basis.

The people who see serious results and end up with standout physiques are the ones who can consistently execute all of the little daily tasks that must be completed in order for success to be had.

Building muscle is a result of the cumulative effect of small steps.

Sure, performing 1 extra rep on your bench press will not make a huge difference to your overall results, and neither will consuming a single meal. However, over the long haul, all of those extra reps you perform and all of those small meals you consume will decide your overall success.

If you work hard and complete all of your muscle-building tasks in a consistent fashion, all of those individual steps will equate to massive gains in overall size and strength.

It is those who are willing to persevere that will succeed.

It is those who are willing to rise above laziness that will end up with impressive results.

I mean let's face it, everyone wants to be strong and muscular. If this is the case, why isn't everyone strong and muscular? It's because only certain people have the proper drive and motivation that it takes to get there.

Do you have what it takes?

How much does a powerful, defined, muscular physique really mean to you? Are you willing to put forth the required effort in order to reach your goals?

If you answered “YES”, then good for you! Digging down deep and finding the necessary motivation to take a stand and make a change is the most important step of all. I can’t force this upon you, it’s something that you’ll need to create on your own.

This report has armed you with 8 very powerful, effective muscle-building principles that you can start applying to your program right away.

Here’s a quick recap of the 8 points that we covered…

(1) Provide your body with a surplus of calories by ensuring that your caloric intake exceeds your caloric expenditure.

(2) Consume the right types of calories from the proper food sources every 2-3 hours throughout the day.

(3) Increase your water intake.

(4) Keep a detailed record of every workout that you perform.

(5) Be prepared to push your body to the limit.

(6) Avoid overtraining by limiting your overall workout volume and by providing your body with sufficient recovery time in between workouts.

(7) Stop placing so much of your emphasis on dietary supplements.

(8) Understand that consistency is EVERYTHING!

MuscleGainTruth.com

Best regards,

Sean Nalewanyj

7 Of 8 Things You Must Do To Build Maximum Muscle Mass

#7 - Stop placing so much of your emphasis on dietary supplements.

If you really think that pills, powders and drink mixes are going to build your body for you, you’re in for a huge disappointment! It continues to amaze me how much value and emphasis the majority of trainees place on “the latest breakthrough pill”.

Everyone is always asking me…

“What’s the best creatine out there?”
“How much weight can I gain from this whey protein supplement?”
“I have $200 a month to spend on supplements… what should I buy?”

Stop the madness!

A supplement is just that… a supplement.

It is there to supplement your diet by filling in the missing gaps and by providing you with greater amounts of specific nutrients that will slightly speed up your progress. Supplements are NOT there to do the work for you and will only play a small role in your overall success in the gym.

Stop falling for the multi-million dollar ads that talk about the latest “revolutionary breakthrough” that will allow you to build 25 pounds of muscle while you lie on the couch.

As advanced as we’ve become as a society, the basic rules of hard work and dedication still apply. If you want to change your physique, then hard training in the gym and a consistent diet plan is the only true way to get there.

Now, this doesn’t mean that I’m AGAINST the use of supplements; I’m merely against the over-use and over-emphasis of supplements. There are a few good, solid, effective products out there that I do recommend, but only as a small part of your overall approach.

My 5 “recommended” supplements include…

1) Protein supplements (whey protein, meal replacements, weight gainers and the occasional protein bar)
2) Creatine
3) Glutamine
4) Multivitamins
5) Essential Fatty Acids

I’m not going to talk about all of the specific benefits of each product in this report, but if you’re looking to accelerate your progress in the gym and achieve the best results possible, then those are the only 5 products that I would truly recommend.

I’m a big believer in the basics, and the plain fact is that most trainees are way more concerned with their supplement programs than they really need to be. It’s only natural, I mean, who wouldn’t want to pound back a couple of “orange-flavoured creatine cocktails” and watch their biceps explode through their sleeves?

Unfortunately it just doesn’t work this way. If something sounds too good to be true, then it usually is.

Hard training and a consistent diet is your only ticket to long-term success!

MuscleGainTruth.com

Best regards,

Sean Nalewanyj

6 Of 8 Things You Must Do To Build Maximum Muscle Mass

#6 - Avoid overtraining by limiting your overall workout volume and by providing your body with sufficient recovery time in between workouts.

This is one of the most common and most deadly mistakes that almost all beginners run into. They naturally assume that the more overall work they perform in the gym, the greater their results will be.

Heck, when I was a beginner myself I thought the same thing.

Who can blame us for thinking that?

In almost all aspects of life this basic logic holds true. If you want to perform well on a school test, you need to maximize your studying time. If you want to improve your skills in a specific sport, you need to practice as much as possible.

When it comes to training for muscular size and strength, you can take this basic logic and toss it right out the window, down the street and around the corner!

The key thing to realize is that your muscles will NOT grow larger and stronger if they are stressed beyond the point of recovery. Remember, training with weights is merely an activity that sets the wheels in motion; it “sparks” the muscle growth process and “tells” your body to start building new muscle tissue. But the actual growth process takes place away from the gym while you’re eating and resting.

If you disturb the recovery process, muscle growth will not be carried out.

Overtraining is your number one enemy! Your goal in the gym is to perform the minimum amount of work necessary in order to yield an adaptive response from the body, and not a THING more.

You can avoid overtraining in the following ways…

1) Limiting the number of days you spend in the gym each week – I would recommend that you perform no more than 3 weight workouts in the same week.

2) Limiting the number of sets that you perform during each workout – You should perform a total of 5-7 sets for large muscle groups (chest, back and thighs) and 2-4 total sets for small muscle groups (shoulders, biceps, triceps, calves, abs). And remember, this is total sets per WORKOUT, not per exercise.

3) Limiting the amount of time spent in the gym – Each workout should not last for any more than 1 hour. This time frame comes into play beginning with your first muscle-building set and ends with your final muscle-building set.

4) Limiting your training frequency for each muscle group – Each specific muscle group should only be directly stimulated once per week in order to allow for full recovery time.

If you’ve been following the “more is better” mentality then you may find it hard to let go of, but believe me, as long as you train hard, you do NOT need to train often or with very many sets and exercises. In fact, performing too much work may actually cause your muscles to become smaller and weaker.

Perform only what is absolutely necessary and not a single exercise, set or rep more. Forget about all of the high volume routines that you see in the muscle magazines and posted all over the Internet.

Building muscle is about intelligently triggering your body’s growth mechanism and then getting the heck out of the gym and growing.

Nothing more, nothing less!

MuscleGainTruth.com

Best regards,

Sean Nalewanyj

5 Of 8 Things You Must Do To Build Maximum Muscle Mass

#5 - Be prepared to push your body to the limit.

If you think that building muscle is going to be a walk in the park and that you can simply enter the gym, “go through the motions” and then go home, you are sadly mistaken.

The reality is that if you want to experience any appreciable gains in muscle size and strength, you’re going to have to be prepared to train hard. This is one of the key factors separating those who make modest gains from those who make outstanding gains.

Most people just plain don’t train hard enough!

As soon as the exercise starts to get difficult their spotter jumps in and starts helping or they put the weight down altogether.

BIG mistake!

The gym is a war zone, and if you want to be victorious, you must be willing to endure the battle.

Your muscles grow because of an evolutionary, adaptive response to the environment. Intense weightlifting is perceived as a threat to your survival, and the body responds to this by increasing the size and strength of the muscles to battle against the threat. Therefore, in order to see the most dramatic response in size and strength, you must push your body as hard as you safely can.

This can be achieved by performing all sets in the gym to the point of concentric muscular failure…

Concentric Muscular Failure: The point at which no further positive repetitions can be performed despite your greatest efforts.

There are 2 main phases to every exercise that you perform: the concentric and the eccentric. The concentric is the “positive” portion of the exercise (such as the “pushing” movement of a bench press) and the eccentric is the “negative” portion of the exercise (the “lowering” movement of a bench press).

Your goal in the gym is to perform each exercise to the point where no further concentric repetitions can be executed using proper form despite your greatest efforts to do so.

This is very challenging and will require a lot of mental toughness on your part. I’m not going to sit here and feed you a pack of lies by saying that training for muscle size is an easy task. It’s not!

Anyone who tries to tell you that training to failure is easy is flat-out lying. But if you’re serious about changing your physique and seeing serious results, this is simply what needs to be done.

Training to concentric failure will place the greatest amount of stress on the musculature and will produce the most dramatic “artificial threat” possible.

Some argue that training to failure is not necessary in order for muscle growth to occur, and the truth is that they are absolutely correct. You could never train to failure and over time you would still see gains in muscle mass and strength. The only true requirement for muscle growth to occur is progression.

However, (and that’s a big however) if you’re like 99% of the population, then you want to experience those gains as quickly and efficiently as you possibly can. While training to failure isn’t necessary for growth to occur, it IS necessary if you want maximum growth to occur in the shortest period of time possible.

MuscleGainTruth.com

Best regards,

Sean Nalewanyj