Attention to detail

greetings good people...and the rest of you who showed up. Today I just wanted to say a couple of things about reps. I had an epiphany the other day. Its pretty simple when you break it down. You skeleton is encased within your muscles. Muscle contractions cause your skeletal system to move. If you want to cause a change or an effect in a certain area, figure out how the arrange your body in a manner that the muscles in that area contract. Repeat that process repeatedly and you'll get to be more efficient in that movement. You'll became more efficient in the movement because it will me easier for you. Why? Because you've programmed the muscles to recognize the movement, also because the muscles that have been repeatedly performing the movement have gotten stronger. If those muscles have gotten stronger then, a number of thing may have occurred. A the muscle group has gotten bigger, B the muscles are more dense, more muscle tissue packed in, or C they have gotten leaner, so they're operating more efficiently without the excess fat that they've been carrying around, or D a little of all three. This mainly depends on your diet and the resistance your applying.
It all really boils down to the reps though. The little brush strokes that make a master piece special. A workout is just a series of sets and reps rearranged to achieve an effect on the body. These little soldiers are all very important, to the greater cause. You aim should be to try and completely contract the muscle, be efficient at firing as many of the muscle fibers as possible, and making them work through the negative portion of the rep. To a certain degree. Based on the different loads, the negative maybe a slightly slower decent then if you would just drop it. If your conscious of it, and you start to get to know your body when you lift, you'll recognize the difference. You never know which rep is going to be the growth rep. You probably never knew such a thing existed...but it does, so now keep your eye out for it, an now I can't predict where it resides either, I know it lives between 10 and 40 and it feels like a little explosion went off..actually like a bang snap, and you instantly know you'll be better because of it. It starts with attention to detail from the first rep to the last though. I have a couple of videos on my face book page, check them out, might give you a little more insight in to where I'm coming from. Thanks for your time, an give it a try one day... and close your eyes. Feel whats going on.

Super Stack

Recently in an article posted on Muscular Development online magazine, there was a discussion on the fat reduction benefits of caffeine. They also mentioned the best ways to maximize the benefits, and listed green tea as one of the best stacks for it's use in fat loss. Now to me this was not breaking news material. It was a friendly reminder though, because although I probably worked out at least eight times last week, and rode at the very least 80 miles last week, I've probably only taken my caffeine green tea supplement about four times. Yes the supplement I have is called caffeine plus. The plus is the green tea extract. So reading the article just made put that habit in the post workout whey protein shake category, meaning the religious category. It's like putting on my gloves and wrist wraps before I train. Meaning if I got um, there as integral to the process as working out. I like to start the day with the caffeine plus, we'll call it. Sometimes I have two separate products. Nothing fancy either. One day my wrestling coach had a long morning before practice, and I asked him if he wanted some caffeine. He asked me what kind meaning in what. I responded just caffeine as I grinned and pulled out a bottle with big bold letters that said caffeine on the side. Besides the lipolysis benefits, which means utilizing fat for energy, it also grants you instant focus in most all situations you can feel the benefits moments after consumption. I work nights as well so I gave the disclaimer, most cases. There were a few instances went I was training for a fight, that after three training sessions and an hour into a four hour shift, a little caffeine goes a little way. So anyway, that what I have to say about Caffeine plus and to hear what the experts have to say copy this link and check it out. Remember its the little details that make a lasting piece of fine art.

http://www.musculardevelopment.com/content/view/1860/51/

the Over training Trap

Hey people, how we doing today? Excellent, I'm sure. Today I'm going to talk to you about over training. I used to call it the myth of over training, but as you all know, most myths are a bastardised version of someones truth. Like the werewolf, and aliens, and Excalibur, oh, don't get me started on Excalibur, I could be at it all day. The truth is most people would have no idea how to even begin to over train. They barely know how to train, train! The people who might wander into the neighbor hood of over training, are the true workout enthusiast. The ones who truly love the feeling of hard work. Its easy for them to fall in to the trap of over training. Its because it seems like play to them. In reality its more like under resting then it is over training. It sounds alot like the same thing but its as much psychological as it is phsiological. Your nervous system needs to calm down from firing full blast everyday, and your body needs enough time to move a little bit further in the repairs that never seem to be complete.

Now I'm quite certain I've been in this neighborhood before. I recognise some of the landmarks, and the ugly architecture. I figure out I was in over trainingville when I got sick on Saturday. All week, I've been feeling run down, and my joints have been crying bloody murder. Now, to let you know how I got here, I train hard everyday, over the years my body has adapted to the punishment I put it through. If I were actually trying to grow bigger, it would be impossible based on the amount or lack of rest I give my body.fortunate for me, I'm only concerned with growing better, as opposed to bigger. The factor that changed was my cardio. I'm currently preparing to fight in late November December, so I'm doing more cardio, throw in a night job. Oh and my main form of transportation is a road bike...with pedals. Next thing you know your check engine light is on, the alignment on your robot is drifting to the left.

So there in lies the problem, the solution, I'm going to asses the things, I can alter, Boxing, no, jui jitsu, no, weights, maybe. Lets examine the maybe. I lift pretty heavy for a rep count of over ten for most sets. Slash the weight, slow down the reps go for form, and not to failure. Perhaps, just use resistance bands and body weight for a week. Instead of 40 mins to an hour, 25 mins light cardio and full stretch. Take a forced day off. Maybe go for a ride, zero resistance training. That's what my over training recovery week is gonna look like apparently, thanks for taking the time for helping me out with that. Oh, feel free to use it yourself when ever you feel that your check engine like might be about to come on, should be enough to keep you sane, and get your robot back in alignment at the same time.

If you have any topics that you want me to form an opinion on or if your interested in individual or group training please contact me on Facebook, or email at auku51@gmail.com. Right now I'm working as the strength an conditioning coordinator for the Brazilian Top Team, at Bodies in Motion is West LA, also I train privately at Soneca Martial Arts located in Brentwood.

http://www.sonecamartialarts.com/
http://www.bodiesinmotion.com/ClubTemplate.aspx?map=2&LocId=58

Thanks for your time, here's a cool article about protein intake. I skimmed over it and it seemed pretty solid. Until we meet again work hard and be easy.

http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_nutrition/six_things_you_need_to_know_about_protein?utm_source=weekly_dose&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tmuscle

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.—Theodore Roosevelt

Cleansing: Fact or fiction part I

I'd like to apologise for the false advertisement. There's not going to be any myth busting here. I'm just going to give you my opinion on something that until this morning I knew very little about, and now I know a little bit more. Cleansing. We've all heard about it, know someone who's gone through the process, someone who loves it. Someone who hates it. Heard about someone who lost forty two pounds on lemonade and Ms. Butter worth alone. was proposed a question by one of my clients. Kiea come up to me and says "your next blog should blog about cleansing". And I think to my self, "that's an awesome idea" then I think,"perhaps I should form an opinion about cleansing first". So that brings us here. A good friend of mine is a trainer, and before she starts training a new client, she requires the to do a cleanse. I think she's a great trainer, so I figured it would have some merit, but I feel the need to gather information for myself before I can confidently pass it off to others with the stamp of confidence that is my opinion. Now before I go any further, I plan to try a supplemental cleanse myself next month. That's going to be part two of this topic. But the research that I gathered, pretty much stated that virtually anyone can stand to benefit from a cleanse. It you smoke, want to loose weight, have a skin condition,bad breath, add, history of cancer. It pretty much covered the whole gambit of issues why anyone would want to make a healthy change in there life.
Another thing is, when you think of cleanses, the first thing that comes to mind is the master cleanse, or the lemon cleanse. Now I also know someone who made it about four days on that cleanse, and talking to her, it pretty much sucked. To me it didn't make sense. Then again in my lifestyle, the fact the I feel the need to lift weights everyday, it's just logical to have a ready supply of protein to build and repair. It explained that the lemon juice provides the vitamins while the maple syrup provides the energy. I can see how someone can loose weight off of that, and I may attempt it my self just to see if it's an option should I have to burn muscle. I generally don't recommend burning muscle, but being a competitive athlete, and one who carries very little body fat, sometimes, in situations that require weight restrictions you have to take extreme measures. The body remembers the form where it was currently at its equilibrium, so it's not hard to gain it back once you establish a base line. Which is another reason why I believe that this particular cleanse as a weight loss strategy is faulty. What do you really think is going to happen after you get off of a lemonade diet for a week and a half....Exactly. Your going to go food zombie. What do zombies think about? Brains. What will you think about? Food...Only food. Until your are completely and totally satisfied. Who knows when that'll happen.

Now that was just my thoughts on the master cleanse, but I haven't written off cleanses as a whole. I think that a couple times a year cleansing is definitely a great idea, it is said to cleanse your mind and your body of toxins. Based on the results I get from my trial, it may be something I incorporate from here on out. If you wanted to read up on cleanse, I got the information from http://naturalmedicine.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_cleansing
I normally use more than one source, but I felt that the article was informative and thourough. If your interested, check it out, read it thouroughly, and read the correspondence, it's important to hear what other people just like you think about the subject, not just the author. Alright, that's pretty much it. Be good, and make the right choices.

Knowledge is Power

Welcome back people. Yesterday when I was writing my blog about fat burning supplements, I came across some interesting information about carnitine which I shared with you. I also stumbled across some interesting facts about fish oil. Everyone knows it contains essential omega-3 fatty acids which have a lot of benefits. EHA and DHA are also found there and aid in burning body fat.The omega-3s work by transforming to prostaglandins when they enter your body, which is a hormon like substance which causes thermogenesis, which is heat production by the body as a means utalize fat for energy. So that and the carnitine information, I found extremely useful. I've probably read that information about ten times, that's probably the main reason I began using those supplements in the first place, but rereading those is going to be the reason that I take them off of the shelf and renew my diligence regarding my usage of them. So the bottom line is, whenever you hear something is the bomb, and it's the next big trend in health and fitness, do a little research, and you might agree. It'll tell you how and when to properly utilize the supplements, but also it will give you an insight as to what's going on in there when you take the red pill, so you won't be so surprised like Neo. Bad form Morpheus, bad form. Arm yourself with some form of knowledge each day and by the end of the month, you'll be more informed then most trainers that just got into the game. You could buy a fitness magazine, and read one article a day until the next issue comes out. Try it, and let me know what you think. Until then, be easy.

Feel the Burn

Hey everybody, I hope all is well in your world, or on the verge of getting there. Today I'm going to say a few things about Fat loss agents. First off, I'd like to say that fat burners to work. You should consult your phacision before trying them like any other suppliment. But, when I just have to get totally lacerated, I accept no substitute. Although, when I do have to have a substitute, or want to use something in conjunction with a fat burner, I will take a serving of caffeine. It gives your metabolism a kick start and I recently found out that it binds to fat cells and help to prevent it from being stored. Green Tea extract is another friend of mine that gets to ride shotgun, on the road to Cuttstown U.S.A. The extract works by inhibiting the enzyme responsible for breaking down norepinephrine, which is the neurotransmitter that plays a pivotal role in regulating the metabolic rate. Lastly, Carnitine. Now where I'm pretty huge on the first two, carnitine, is a close third. I might have to try it separately to try and better gauge the effectiveness of it.The science behind it states, that it aids in fat burning by transporting fat into mitochondria of cells where it is burned for fuel.It is also said to enhance testosterone's anabolic potential, turning on the muscle building machines. Now that I said all that, I may have to put carnitine a notch higher. That's pretty much it. Remember that there is no supplement for hard work, so get in the room, move the weight. Then move your body around at an elevated pace for no less then twenty minutes. Do that three to four times a week, and the results are sure to please. Alright people, lets be better.

Build Your Robot

Greetings. Welcome back. I was about to work out the other day and like most days, when I'm about to workout, which actually are most days, I was super excited. But on this day I had to run errands, actually work, and the travel time in between. I noticed after a fashion, that is was getting annoyed with the fact that I had not began my workout yet. Then I thought back to my days a the University of Arizona and remembered sneaking out of the weight room, early. Shortly after my football career was over, I started down a new path. I no longer had the predetermined workout sheet based on my previous maximum lifts. I would just go to the gym, target a body part and play around from a couple of hours. I did the lifts that I really enjoyed, the ones I was really strong at, and most importantly the ones that got the best results. It became my hobby, it no longer seemed like work. Some people forget that that's why we should be doing this, because its awesome and it makes you feel strong and confident, it might even allow you to live longer, not to impress Larry Moe and Curly sue. So again the magic happens when working out stops feeling like work, so I don't know if any of you ever put together a model anything, but it's pretty damn fun, watching something physically materialize out of little ittie bittie parts. You have all the parts, you've got the instructions if you look in any magazine, or on the Internet, and you've got the rest of your life to pimp your Robot to your standards.

Pack Mentality

Hey, welcome back. Today I'm just going to say a few things about like minded individuals. Some, maybe even most of you are used to working out by yourselves. I'm the same way. When I first started personal training full time, I was required to stay at the gym a certain number of hours a day. Like a shift, almost like a real job....Yeah, pretty weird huh. Never the less, me being the progressive guy that I was, I decided to take that opportunity to try and construct the best physique that my genetic structure could handle, and document that process so that it could be duplicated simply by following the blue prints that I was laying out. Ha! Naw, at the time I was simply playing around on my lunch break, I did however, map out my workouts prier to blastoff, just to make sure I was hitting all the areas that I wanted to tune up. That helped my learn how to build programs, now it takes seconds, and often evolves on the fly. But I would workout by myself. I recorded my sets and reps, and although it was considerable weight I was moving, I may have limited my self by not using a spotter for about fifteen months. I recently over the past six months acquired a couple of workout partners. I say acquired because, I don't know how it really happens, sort of like, we work in a couple of sets and its like what time we doing this tomorrow. Now, for me the positives out weight the negatives of having a workout partner. For some, a negative is that is, should something pop up, and the have to go at it alone, they get spoiled by leeching off of someone Else's motivation and its hard for them to manufacture there own spark. You never want to loose that. The only negative for me is pace, sometimes I hit a groove, and I can bounce from exercise to exercise and blast non stop for forty minutes. Then again that is for the smaller body parts and just when I'm doing detain stuff. The big iron, it helps physiological, to have that support when you grab the scary weight, and to stretch yourself to achieve your ultimate potential, you simply must brave the scary weight, but, pay attention this is the important part, there's no sense in getting severely jacked up doing so. One workout partner is optimum, two is the max, any more and it just slows things down way too much. Power lifting, might be a different story. You can also gain motivation from them, when people are having mindless conversations about nothing, you guy and gals can talk about your goals, you can bounce ideas off of each other, some people reminisce about when they were in the best shape of there lives, and what shape there willing to accept this go round. The most important part is when you make that commitment to a friend to embark on that journey, for that span of time it actually is a commitment, and sadly alot of people will honor a commitment they make to another person before a commitment they make to their self. who knows the physiology behind it? Use it though, partner up, pick a path and climb. When ever your dawg needs a hand reach out, or simply bark it out with him.

the Rule of Three

Welcome back, today I'm gonna saw a few things about what I like to call the rule of three. Totally just made this up, but it's based off of a concept that I've been toying with for a few years. First off, I absolute love the the gym. It's my work place, its my garage, its my Max. You know like the Max. You know from saved by tha....never mind. Its where my peeps are. But when I graduated from college, and was in the credit card retention business, I didn't think I could justify paying for a gym membership, so I slowly built my home gym. I may get into that whole thing on a later blog. Anyway it was pimp, I had a pull up/dip rack in my little studio, still ranks as the best home gym investment in the history of my world. Anyway back on track. The rule of three simply states this. If you have a piece of cardio equipment, exercise through three commercial breaks, or blast hard and cruise during the breaks. Some times if you watch three scenes on a DVD that's enough, they do have to be longer scenes. The goal is to knock out an extra twenty or thirty minutes of exercise either first thing in the morning, or before bed. I might not do it right before bed, but it would be later in the day, as a second workout of if I couldn't make the gym. The rule also applies to resistance, you can play with the idea and mix it up. Three exercises, to failure. Three sets for three exercises, round robin them so one body part recovers while the other is working. An example of one combination I'm doing on some mornings is push up crunch combo. I'll push to close to failure, which is generally around thirty five or forty flip over and knock out, about thirty crunches, I then resume my push ups, switching my hand placement in an effort to tax the muscle from a different angle, I also switch the type of crunch that I preform. I complete four sets of each. It's a great way to start the day, even if I'm super sore, it would help to get the blood flowing back into those muscles and it alleviated some of the soreness. So if you wanna burn an extra couple hundred calories remember the rule of three, you might wanna implement it a couple times a day.

Time waits for no man...not even me

Today I'm just going to ramble about the topic of time until I feel satisfied that I've utilized mine wisely. Actually its just two or five points. First off, It waits for no one, not even me. I remember a couple months ago when it was winter and we had just started the new year. Why it seemed like just yesterday the Pittsburgh Steelers became the world champs for a record setting sixth time. Ha!!! That's the cool part, there's also remember back in 89 when I was the captain of Polk High's State Champion Water Polo team. All the girls would come to the pool just for a glimpse of me in my speedo. Now that glimpse would give the girls nightmares. That type of stuff is hard to unsee! The good news is you still have time... at least most of you do. You have the rest of your life to get your robot running smoothly, and looking groovy. You don't have to be all Austin about it, but why seriously, why not put together a plan where you set aside a hour four or five days a week to ensure that you look the best you possibly can and I heard it might even be good for you, You know what some dude once said, it could help you live longer. I don't know though, dude was pulling bugs out his hair and eating them. He coulda been crazy is what I'm saying. Then again he coulda been on to something. Sorry, rambling again.
Next point, is every now and then work against the clock. I have an iphone, one of the great miracles of modern technology, one feature I like to use when I work out is the alarm clock. I used it the other day. I was pressed for time all day, and I still hadn't worked out after my last client. So I set my alarm for thirty minutes. Thirty minutes is not very long in the real world, or in the workout world, but just like the real world if your are deliberate and efficient you can get an impressive amount of work done in that time frame. The trick is to not stop moving. I ended up doing biceps, triceps's, a little bit of shoulders and I've been trying to get a little bit of calves in everyday, and I guess that counted. Also I got my cardio. If you don't think your heart is thumping from lifting weights, do twenty crunches, twenty push ups, twenty body weight squats, and twenty chair dips, non stop.
Just like the real world, you wont let your loser friends drag you down, don't do it in the room. They may not even be losers. They just might not have the same ideals and goals that you've set for yourself and for your time in the weight room. They might just consider making the trip to the gym enough to satisfy there, thirst for exercise. They try to workout by osmosis or by association. Don't get sucked into the conversation about UFC hundred plus, or by this weeks game of the century, both things you have a strong opinion about, and would love to blast about for twenty minutes, two minutes is too long. Get back to work and catch um on the flip side.

Make a Blueprint

One thing I'd like to caution people against, is working out without a plan. Its like going on a road trip without a destination. It may be a fun trip, but if you don't know where you're going, then you're chances of getting there are slim to none. Make a plan, have a blueprint of the structure your trying to construct. Look at yourself in the mirror, get used to your image. Take an inventory of your strengths and weaknesses. This can be athletically, or cosmetically. Athletically figure out the muscles that power the movements that your trying to gain more proficiency at, then next step is to find exercises, that strengthen, those muscles then tax them. ascetically, its about being honest with your self and addressing that weak upper chest and that cottage cheese above your hamstrings, and the handle bars of love. Gotta be brutally honest and recognize the situation for what it is, and what it is, is a desire for change. Create that mental picture, whether it be a chest like Arnold, a butt like be yonce, or simply a body like Fergi, imagine with each rep the targeted body part is being folded into the desired shape, soon that vision will become a reality.

Get a little mental

You don't have to be a high level telepath to move things and create things with your mind. As a matter of fact I strongly recommend that you start attempting to immediately. Work smarter and harder. Put your mind on each and every rep, focusing on turning on each and every muscle fiber. Before long you'll begin to activate the dorment muscle fibers and start to access the strength levels that have been within arms reach all along. That's when the magic happens. It may not be accompanied by fire lightning or even a measly spark, but once you start moving the big iron for the sets and reps that you moved the little iron, your bodies gonna start to do it's own version of an autobot getting ready to roll out. Next time, if I don't come up with something cooler to write about we'll go over the benefits of mental pictures and goal setting.

Summer is Here

Yes ladies and gentlemen, summer has once again managed to sneak up on most of us again. The plan and schemes that were drawn up New Years eve, have long since been laid to rest. There's just not enough time for plan A now. You see, plan A required about three months of moderately hard work and dieting. So you could put the finishing touches on for the summer. Now that its already here you might as well simply start preparing for the rest of your life. The good news is, you got the rest of your life to get it right. Hope up in the drivers seat of that proverbial wagon, and strap in. Its gonna be a great ride. If you stay on the right course there are safe exits where you can stop, take a look around without falling off, and having to regain your footing and having to climb all the way back into the drivers seat. I'm currently looking for new candidates to educate in my art of body sculpting. My goal is to show people that there is an artist inside each and everyone of us, and to guide more people along the path toward becoming the co creator of there greatest master piece. If your interested, Please email me at auku51@gmail.com, You can also message me on Face Book. Again I'm Austin Uku and if you Don't ya better know ask somebody.

Learn to cook homie

The war to stay sexy is fought on two battle fields. On home soil and on native territory. At the Batcave and in the mean streets of Gothom. For the most part it's won and lost in the kitchen. The best advice I can give someone whose trying to get into shape is to build a life style around things that they enjoy eating. I say life style instead of diet for a reason. Diet implies, that once you reach a certain goal, be it, a dress size or number on a scale, then you can go back to your same old eating techniques that got you x amount of lbs over your desired weight. Oh and I don't go by weight by the way, simply and example. Anyway, here's what we're gonna have you do. Go to you local barn and boarders, or whatever mega coffee serving sit down and chill book store is closest to you. Check the cook book section, may be in wellness. Find three books that specialise on healthy diets. Then go to the magazine rack and do the same thing. Grab a cup a mocha ladie dadie, and skim through them, see which one rings closest to your core. Buy or steal sed book or periodical. Then the next time you go shopping for groceries, pick one recipe to master. Get the ingredients, along with the other ingredients of things you barely know how to cook, then come home and have at it. Each time you go shopping is another opportunity to learn how to cook another meal. do this for about two months and you should have your core meals, meaning the three or four meals that are healthy, taste good, and you can fire them off with your eyes close. Me personally, I have about three meals that I cook on a weekly bases, but truthfully, its more like two. You have your meals to sustain yourself, you can save the variety for your night on the town with your lady or dude as Bosa Nova, where everything is good. Anyway, that's all I got for ya, and don't be afraid to put some of that good food you just learned how to cook in Tupperware, and show it a good time on the town. That's a tale for another time. Until we meet again, stay thirsty my friends, Gone.

the Supply Run

The simplest way to make dieting not seem like a diet is to eat food that taste good. So simple a caveman could do it huh? Caveman pissed. Ha! Anyway, whats a caveman gonna do anyway besides pout? OK, seriously, I'm gonna start being serious here. Not everything that taste good is bad for you, its just a matter of finding those things, those four meals that are pretty easy to cook, and those couple of restaurants, whose chicken salads you can stand, or yogurt or fresh fruit etc to get you through the in between time when your on the road. Design a life style for your self shoe a little discipline, and BAM! Couple months later your sex appeal just shot up 16.5%, and seriously who can't use 16.5% more sex appeal. Your in the game, wondering why the bad guys are mean mugg'n you. So to reiterate, first step is decide what you like to get, phase two, research that list kind out if it is good for you. Phase three stuff not on the good list is researched to see if there is a healthy alternative. Now if there no need to get all bent outta shape and pouty. We just slide those items into the cheat bin. Once a week, or every four days, depending on how active you are and what your goals are, you can give yourself a guilt free cheat meal. Not a day of carnage, a meal, maybe even seconds. Then get back on course. I do mean guilt free, don't you dare tarnish that moment by feeling guilty for even a second. It will psychologically aid you in staying on course if you use this reward method. No there are various different people who call themselves experts on diets, I do not count my self as one of them. I eat well, and I for the most part know whats good to eat and whats not, but the whys are still some what off a mystery. I pretty much have just built patterns, and have adhered to them. Knowledge is power as you all know. I'm currently reading the Ab's diet eat right every time guide, and its letting me know that I've been on the right path, but also why. This book will help you design your new lifestyle. They have a website also, I'd check it out if I was you. I was like one item into putting up a grocery list of mine until I realised it was in some kind of short hand that at this hour seemed alien to me, anyway, you get the gist of it, if not then the list probably wouldn't have helped you anyway. Make a battle plan, and keep the fortress stocked up.

It's mine and I'm keeping it!

Me, I'm all about muscle. Its Austin! Looks cool, like a freaky suit of armor, or some futuristic exo skeleton. When properly cared for and stretched it helps to create a grace in motion. It also acts as amazing engine that burns fat thus keeping the machine, keeping on. The goal of everyone who begins this endeavor of athletic training, body sculpting, or body building, should be to keep as much of their hard earned muscle as possible. Recent studies have stated that a pound of muscle is only burning six calories as opposed to fats 2, but that's not really the point. You don't want to step backward. Due to the stressful lives that we live and the additional stresses we place on ourselves by working out, staying up late, yada ,yada ,yada. You all know what your doing. Stressing over things we can't change. Our bodies release a stress hormone called cortisol. Its supposed to help bring our bodies back into homeostasis, but depending on our levels of stress, it can run amok. Like angry little robots, rebelling against their human oppressors. They begin to tear down the masonry that you just constructed, burning the drapes. Its a mess. Some things that you can do to keep cortisol levels in check are through supplementation. I've recently adopted the habit of taking ZMA before I power down. ZMA is zinc/magnesium designed to replace deficiencies caused from exercise and stress. I also like to take about 40 grams of a time release protein with about a quarter tea spoon of glutamine powder before I go to bed. I slowly feeds your body throughout the course of the night. You could also add a scoop of natural peanut butter. The fat in the peanut butter is going to further slow the digestion. Now, most of us sleep for between five and ten hours. Ten is extreme, and extremely lucky. Optimal is eight, so that your body can recover. Its not just recovering, its actually fasting as well. So when you get up in the morning, more then likely that measly shake is long gone and your body has renewed its feast upon itself. To end this unauthorized party, I have a shake consisting of about 20 grams of whey protein with the quarter tea spoon of glutamine. That's pretty much it. If you wanted more of the sciency information on cortisol check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisol
and for more information on ZMA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZMA_(supplement)

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.—Albert Camus

Alright people, go out there and channel your inner Austinness, yes it is a word, and go get it!

Oh by the way, feel free to forward this to anyone that you feel could benefit from it, lets see how big we can build this thing.

Careful planning

What up people? Today I wanted to address the issue of meal planning. Not necessary nutritional timing, but simply making a plan to eat during the days weeks and months, yada, yada, yada. You want to start off by monitoring your self during one of your busy days and one of your lighter days. Notice how your body feels, wither your hungry, and when the hunger monster springs its well disguised ambush on you. Also note your energy levels during the day. Once you know the average times when you hit these walls that's when you can make a viable plan to combat them.

Big meals. On the weekend cook all of your food for the week. If not all then have a set meal that you can stand to eat almost everyday when on the road. You may not even have to prepare it, you can get by if you just devise a system where slapp'n it together in about six , or seven minutes is nothing. I started this about two months ago and seriously, it hardly seems like I'm dieting. I basically eat a variation of two meals, the first is a breakfast burrito type deal, the second being a burrito, burrito type deal, substituting eggs for a lean meat. Either chicken, beef or turkey. Turkey being the ideal seeing as though its the leanest choice. I begin by dicing up veggies ant the start of the week. Bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, and such. Keeping those in a plastic container for storage. Now I've adopted grating my own cheese. If possible low fat cheese, but truth be told, I personally am not a fan of cutt'n corners on my cheese. I'll save a few calories somewhere else, better yet, I'll burn a couple more. I season and brown the meat, then I saute the veggies. In a separate pan I'll place a whole wheat tortilla over a glaze of olive oil, I then cover the surface of the tortilla with the cheese, place the veggies and meat in, the cheese melts the tortilla hardens and it actually becomes more of a taco then a burrito, but whatever, you get my drift. I dig it. But that's my system that's what works for me, you have to come up with a system that is efficient for you. I say efficient because most of you probably already have a system.....problem is, your system sucks. Where people fail in there diet is when there out in the world. The goal should be not to spend money on food when your not in the grocery store. Wise man once said, "the more you cook, the better you look". I really can't remember if I was the first wise man that said it, but dammit I'm say'n it now! It'll say you money you'll look Austin, I'll be great, everybody wins. So get you some rubber ware or tupper made or whatever there storing food in now, make a plan and eat better. Aight people, hope you have a Austin week, an well talk soon, gone.

The bonus

Today I wanted to address the bonus. The bonus can be one of many things. It can be a bonus set, a bonus rep, a bonus finishing exercise, ala a widowmaker, where as you put your body through one last kick ass set, of say, twenty plus, Simply to show it whose the boss. Naw, I'm just kidding, there are many different reasons someone would want to perform burn out set at the end of a workout. The most important being to fill the muscle with blood causing it to swell up with nutrients an such.
Anyway before I get off track. Do a little bit more each day, soon what you used to think was enough, when previously you were on the verge of death, won't seem all that bad at all in no time. Alright everyone be Austin and have a awesome workout, or was it be...never mind. Gone.