Muscle Building 101

Whether you are a guy who wants a V-shape back or a girl who wants her bum to look spectacular, it is importnat to realize that without building some muscle, you will not be able to change the shape of your body. Now building muscle doesn't involve doing tons of cardio and eating like a bird, so the biggest challenge of muscle building is to say goodbye to the notion of looking very lean all year round. It may even involve putting on a little layer of fat. Notice that I say a "little layer" not a insulation layer of a polar bear. Building muscle has many health benefits. Among them are increased strength, higher metabolism, stronger bones, better posture and reduced body fat. Women are especially cautious about building phase as they tend to be afraid of "becoming bulky". In reality, it is much harder to build muscle for a woman than it is for a guy, as women tend to have much lower testosterone levels (unless they use anabolic steroids). So, those women who end up exercising with weights in a mass building program, tend to get slight increases in muscle, burn more fat and look much better and athletic.

Muscle building is based on three principles: Stimulus, Nutrition and Rest. During your workout, the muscle is stimulated for growth, if supplied with a proper nutrition (increased calories) it has the building materials to grow, and during rest (ie, good night sleep) the body switches on the hormones responsible for recovery. During the recovery, your body tries to compensate for the stress it had undergone during the workout by repairing the muscles and making them slightly bigger to make sure that next time you put them through a workout they would be ready to take the abuse. This adaptation will only happen with a presence of excess calories. That means that you will need to eat more quality fats, carbs and proteins.

Any of this will not happen if the stimulus at the gym is not sufficient enough. Your goal at the gym should be to bring your muscle to a maximal tension. Best way to describe maximal tension is when you are trying to move the weight but cannot do so without struggling. During the maximal tension, all the fibers are fired up. Bring the muscle to a mixmal tension a few times during the workout and it gets damaged. The damage I am talking about here is not a torn muscle or any kind of injury. I am talking about micro-tears in your muscle, they are small tears and are beneficial for growth, because when they heal they will overcompensate and become stronger.

There are two ways to increase muscle size a) use lighter weights, higher reps, b) use heavier weights, lower reps. The difference between the two is that higher reps that are brought to maximal tension will give you quicker results, as the muscle's capacity to store water and glycogen will increase. The disadvantage of that is that the size is lost quicker too, if you don't workout for a while. The method of using heavier weights with lower reps will increase the size of the mitochondria within the muscle and muscle loss size will be much slower. The drawback of this method is that the gains come slower as well.

From my experience, I have seen some great gains when I used both approaches in the same program. I would do it either one of these three methods:

1. Start Heavy Then Go Light: If I were to do legs that day, I would start with some heavy compounds like squats, and would go for 4-5 sets of 5-6 reps. Then I would go on and do isolation exercises such as leg extensions and leg curls and keep the rep range higher (10-12 reps, 3 sets each).
2. One Week Heavy, One Week Light: Keep all the exercises within 6-8 reps per set for one week, then shift the rep range to 12 reps per set the next week. Keep changing it and you will create a greate deal of confusion for you muscle. It will be harder for it to adapt and you will keep making gains.
3. Two Weeks High Rep, Two Weeks Moderate Rep, Two Weeks Low Rep, Deload: Another great program is when you go for 3x12 for two weeks, the next two weeks are 4x6-8 reps and last two weeks would be 5x5. Deload means that after the 6 weeks of training you reduce the weight and sets and go light for 2x15. The deload phase is necessary to repair the muscle and prevent overtraining.

Follow these principles to the T and you will make some great gains. Good luck!

Post Contest. An End or a New Beggining?

So you've dieted hard for your competition, carried out every single aspect of the strictly structured plan to come on stage at your best, hopefully placed and maybe even won the show... But what happens now that you got off stage? Many contestants don't even think about what they are going to do after the contest is over, finding themselves confused and lost. One thing is known for sure: a junk food festival is guranteed to happen. Now that the competition is in the past, you can finally indulge in foods that you have been craving all these long weeks of your prep. Yay. While you are at it, keep in mind that it can mess up your metabolism pretty badly. Enjoy.

In this article I am not going to tell you to avoid the junk food loading, as I know from experience that it would be absolutely impossible to avoid after the long term deprivation of comfort foods. Instead, I will make suggestions on how to create a post competition plan, in order not to ruin all what you have built and achieved for the competition. Follow the steps below and you will keep your gains and make great gains quickly, without stressing your body.

1. Limit your binge to 24 hours after the contest. Vigorous training, cardio, limiting carbs, restricting water, carb/fat loading and other precontest tricks are very stressful for your body. You end up being on a verge of starvation and dehydration. Your body at this point screams for nutrients. Strict dieting also takes its toll on your mental state. Some foods are actually have a narcotic effect on us, we end up feeling good after eating a burger or chocolate, due to the escalation of endorphins in our brains. This is why, when you come off stage you end up going straight to a junk food joint and order tons of those foods that would compensate for these cravings. At this point, you are actually are much better off consuming water, eating a good amount of lean proteins and healthy fats with a serving of vegetables that would replenish your body with the nutrients that had been lost. However, chances are that most of us would not feel up for eating a chicken breast and a salad (although, if you do that, I give your dedication a credit!). Therefore, if you binge eat, do it but limit it to only 24 hours and then get back to your diet the way it used to be 4 weeks out from the show. This way you will avoid storing fat and your body will recognize it as a refeed, which will replenish your muscle with glycogen taking you out of the catabolic state. If you stay in the binge phase for longer than 24 hours, you are risking to mess up your hormonal balance and metabolism longterm.
2. Set a calorie limit. Yes, I know, you are probably thinking that it means you need to diet again, but fear not, it isn't as bad as it sounds. During the prep you have been eating a deficit of calories to burn more fat. Simply bring the calories back to your maintenance level the first few weeks. This will help you to maintain the body you have built in the past weeks and will provide a steady recovery from the strain of the prep. You shouldn't feel hungry either, as you will supply as much calories as your body requires.
3. Replace your food. You have probably been eating the same foods for a long time now. Oatmeal, chicken breast, broccoli, right? Eating the same food multiple times a day for a long time may create sensitivities in your body, which can further develop into allergies. Simply replace your food sources to some other ones. For example, instead of sweet potatoes have some white rice, or instead of chicken breast have some veal, introduce new vegetables, etc. Just make sure that you stay within the calorie limit set in step 2.
4. Monitor your weight. Inevitably, after a contest you will gain some weight. Most of it will be water weight. As a rule of thumb you don't want to gain more than 5-10lb if you are a female and more than 10-15lb as a male, right after a competition. From then on, keep track on your weight and make sure that you don't gain anymore, unless you are planning to go on a bulking phase. For this purpose, a gain of 2-3lb a week is optimal.
5. Take a break. Your beat up body needs rest, avoid working out 10-14 days after your show.
6. Monitor your nutrient intake. Keep the protein to 1.5lb of your body weight, carbs should represent 150% of the carb intake during your prep, fats should be increased by 10-20 grams the first week after the competition. From then on, keep adding about 20-30 grams of carbs and 10 grams of fats every week. Monitor your weight and stop adding calories once you reach your target weight.
7. Don't forget the cardio. Yes you still should do SOME cardio, even offseason. It will keep your cardiovascular health in check and metabolism ticking. I am talking only about 2-3 sessions of 20-25 minutes of low intensity cardio a week. Do it, but don't overdo it.
8. Cheat if you want to. I am not a food nazi and like me some treats too. I think if you are craving something, there is a time and a place to have it. So if you are craving certain foods, dedicate a couple of meals a week to cheat meals and have these foods then. If you are too strict with your diet, it is really hard to keep up with eating healthy and sooner or later you likely to break down and binge. Everything in moderation.
9. Use supplements to enhance your recovery from the contest. EFAs, fish oil, greens, liquid chlorophyll, glutamine, milk thistle, evening primrose oil, multivitamins are all essential for your recovery from the draining process of dieting for the show. Make a good use of them to recover faster and you'll make a great comeback to the gym!
10. Set new goals: If you don't know where you are heading how are you going to get anywhere? After the contest is over, it is a great time to set new goals. It will keep you motivated throughout the year and it will be harder to fall off track.

After you followed all of the above steps, your gym performance should skyrocket and you should see some amazing gains, due to the rebound effect. Keep up with eating healthy and training smart and you will see great results fast. Bodybuilding is not just a sport, it's a lifestyle. The show might be over, but this only means a new start. Good luck!

Winston Invitational, Cobourg ON 2012 - Summary

The contest is over and I am back home with a heavy trophy and a second place! I am very content with my placing, I was up against some great competitors and am proud to qualify for Provincials.

That being said, not everything went as planned and I would definitely change a few things next time. My carb up was pretty moderate as I was being careful not to spill over. I started carbing up as planned, after my last depletion workout on Wednesday, with a bag of rice cakes and proceeded to eat sweet potatoes from then on. However, I shortly discovered that in order to get 550 grams of carbs from sweet potatoes I had to consume over 3kg of sweet potatoes. I think it was a bit of an overkill for my stomach and it gave me indigestion. I did not feel well at all on Thursday, and had to switch back to oatmeal, as it is a more carb dense food choice. By Friday I was fuller, but not nearly as full as I wanted to be. It didn't bug me, as I knew that the crap load on Saturday would take care of it. At 5pm I cut the water out and weighed in at 233lb at 7pm. We went for a steak and veggie dinner at around 9pm and when we came back to the hotel, I started to get vascular and dry. Friday night looked very promising.

I couldn't get much sleep at night, and woke up pretty drained for a spray tan session, at 530am. My breakfast before the session consisted of 2 boiled eggs, a few handfuls of Hershey's white chocolate candies and 2 Snickers'. By the time the spray tan was on I was very thirsty and dehydrated, I lost vascularity and was looking smaller than the night before. We went and got a huge breakfast that represented 4 egg omelet, 2 sausages, 3 waffles, 4 slices of bread with peanut butter and jelly, more Hershey's candies, 3 muffins and a few chocolates. Before the prejudging I had some more junk food, but it did not seem to fill me up anymore. The lack of water definitely played a role in it, I couldn't get a pump and the vascularity was gone, I felt very weak and tired. After the prejudging I had a liter of water with a slice of pizza and a few doughnuts. At this point I figured that I really needed the water to fill up, and had another 3 liters between the prejudging and night show. I also loaded more on 3 burgers, onion rings and doughnuts coming up to the night show. By the time I got on stage, I felt much better and was fuller and got some of the vascularity back. I finished my routine and the pose down, got the award and by the time I got off stage I realized that I still was filling up. Loaded up on some more junk on the way home too. Next morning I was looking much more vascular and bigger.

I figured out a couple things that I would do differently next time to come on stage fuller:

• I will not drop the water at all. Instead I will cut it back to 5-6 liters on Friday and keep it on Saturday at around 3-4 liters.
• I will start my junk load on Friday night around 6-7pm

Nevertheless, aside from the few setbacks during the carb up, I am pretty happy with my presentation on stage. The carb rotation diet was definitely a success, as I kept most of the muscle and came pretty lean. I might ease up on the cardio next time around as well, as I noticed that it did not help me much the last 4 weeks of the prep, but instead burned me out. I will only introduce it if I feel that I am not making progress from diet and weights alone.

Thanks everyone for following this journal, I hope this will help you achieve your goals and if you have any questions you can always contact me via emal:info@ivankfitness.com. Good luck with all your fitness goals!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ivan K

 

www.ivankfitness.com

PEAK WEEK: 1 week out from OPA Cobourg, ON

1 week out, October 15th.

Body Composition:

Weight: 236.4 pounds

Body Fat: ~3.5%

Diet: Lots of changes this week! Last week I have been dropping the carbs continuously throughout the week from 200g on Monday to 100g on Saturday. Starting this week's Monday I will:

• Cut out oatmeal, and stick to sweet potatoes as the only carb source. I prefer to eliminate carbs that expand in water (wet carbs) and stick only to the dry carbs at this point. It also eliminates the possibility of a negative reaction to the trace gluten that is present in oatmeal.
• Protein sources are: chicken breast, white fish, eggwhites. Will introduce sirloin steak during the carb up.
• Fat sources: last week I started taking a tablespoon of almond butter with each one of the last three meals. However, I found that by Sunday I started to hold a lot of water, which needless to say freaked me right out. I cut it out on Sunday and just had a couple of pieces of boiled, unseasoned salmon at a wedding I attended (which was perhaps the most delicious thing I've ever eaten, no joke). I didn't have any other fat all day afterwards. Today I noticed that the water retention subsided a little, which is a bit of a relief. I assume that the water retention happened due to either higher levels of fat that has been kept to a minimum for the most of the prep (although even 3 tablespoons of AB isn't a big amount fat at all), or because I may have a minor allergy to it. Either way, any oils coming from plants are out of the diet till the rest of the prep.
• I will do carb depletion/loading in the following way:

Mon: Carbs-80g, Protein-420g, Fat- trace amount, Water- 12 liters

Tue: C-80g, P-420g, F- trace amount , W-12 liters

Wed (pre workout): C-0, P-120g, F-0

Wed (post workout-carb loading begins): C-600g, P-120g, F- small amounts with each meal coming from the steak , W-12 liters

Thursday: C-450g, P-240g, F- same amount from Wednesday, W-12 liters

Friday (before 5pm): C-350g, P-180g, F-same as Wednesday, W-6 liters. I will cut the water out at 5pm.

Friday (after 5pm): depending on my condition I will either continue with eating sweet potatoes and lean protein, or if I feel flat I will go out and get something greasy and full of simple carbs and sodium (I am thinking of a disgustingly greasy burger with fries). After the water is cut out, the possibility of spilling over is minimal at this point. After that I may have another meal or two consisting of 50g of carbs and lean proteins.

Saturday: I will have a greasy and sugary breakfast, something like steak and eggs, doughnuts, pancakes with syrup, or whatever that was a taboo for the past 14 weeks. Ending a traditional carb load in such way should pack some extra glycogen in the muscle and increase vascularity.

Supplements: Dropped ephedrine and most of the caffeine, as it can interfere with the carb up phase. Will start a natural diuretic on Thursday and will be taking it all the way to Saturday morning.

As I am writing this, I am 5 days out from the show. This is the most important week of the prep and I need to make sure that I don't screw it up. I have stopped cardio, leg training and ab workouts, in order to minimize the water retention in this areas. I feel much more rested, even being on such a low amount of carbs. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I am to do carb depletion workouts. I will carry them out in a traditional way: 1-2 exercises per body part (back, chest, shoulders and arms), circuit training for 12-15 reps per set without going to failure. I am to do 3-4 circuits like this and start my carb loading right after the Wednesday's workout. My first meal post workout is going to be a pack of natural rice cakes (about 110g of carbs). The rest of the carb load will rely only sweet potatoes.

Yesterday I was holding quite a bit of water, which made me a bit nervous. However, after cutting almond butter I see a slight reduction in water weight. The lack of daily cardio may have played a role in it, as well. However, I am also pretty depleted at this point (my last refeed was 8 days ago) and am looking flat, so I am hopeful that carb load and cutting water will take care of this problem.

I am posing everyday for 30 minutes. Not a big fan of my front and back double bicep and side tricep poses, but side chest, lat spreads, ab and thigh look decent. Can't imagine that the day I have been preparing for over 3 months is just 5 days away!!!

That's it for now, next time I will be posting pictures from the show and how it went.

Until next week!

 

 

 

 

 

Supplements 101: Glutamine

• Increases muscle contraction abilities
• Promotes glycogen storage
• Protects immune system
• Promotes muscle building
• Prevents catabolism
• Elevates growth hormone

Sounds like a pretty cool supplement, huh? Glutamine is a must have supplement in any weight lifter's tool kit. Its benefits were valued in the realm of bodybuilding for years, but now this amazing supplement is finding its way to the mainstream. More and more athletes and recreational weight lifters are starting to use it and for all of the above reasons. Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the muscle. It is also the first amino acid to be released into the blood stream for the purpose of extracting energy. During extreme dieting and vigorous exercise, glutamine stores are getting depleted and it may take a while to replenish them without supplementation. Depleted glutamine stores can cause muscle catabolism (muscle breakdown). Good news is that whole food protein sources such as meat, eggs, nuts and dairy consist of 4-8% glutamine and you can get a good amount of it simply by eating right. However, glutamine also plays a big role in your immune system, which uses large amounts of it. So muscle tissue and immune system together require such high doses of glutamine that its supplementation is required.

Dosages vary from 5-80 grams daily. 80 grams a day loading phase was recommended by a famous strength coach, Charles Poliquin, who had given it to his athletes to repair their intestinal lining. This increased their abilities to extract nutrients from food and therefore to add muscle more effectively. I would strongly recommend try this trick, if you don't mind taking 10 grams of glutamine every 2 waking hours. The most appropriate time to take glutamine would be before and after the workout and upon waking, as these times are the most stressful ones. Personally, I take 10 grams on each of those times and it works wonders in terms of recovery, especially when I diet for a show. Try it out for yourself and enjoy the benefits!

www.ivankfitness.com

OPA Open in Cobourg, 2 Weeks Out!

2 weeks out, October 8th.

Body Composition:

Weight: 234.4 pounds

Body Fat: 3-3.5%

Diet: Refeed on Sunday, keeping carbs at 200g Monday through Wednesday. Thursday: 150g carbs, Friday 100g. Saturday will be another refeed, but this time a bit shorter, no carbs in the morning and 500g after the workout. Sunday will start the carb depletion. Cut out protein shakes, creatine and dairy just to play it safe and eliminate processed foods from the diet. From now on my carbs represent sweet potato, oatmeal and rice cakes (post workout, they will be eliminated on Saturday). Protein sources are chicken breast, tuna, tilapia and egg whites. Fats are only consumed for the last 2 meals and consist only of olive oil and ground flax seeds.

Supplements: All the same from the previous weeks.

Can't wrap my head around how close I am to the show already and that it has almost been 13 weeks of preparation. Pretty much I am counting this week as the last one, as no cardio, no leg or ab workouts are going to be present next week. I will post a detailed plan of the final days before the show next week.

I am up to 60 minutes of fasted cardio in the morning and 20 minutes of cardio after each workout. Have to admit that I am starting to feel a bit overtrtained, as my intensity during workouts is dropping. I can't lift as heavy anymore, which is not a big deal anyway, last thing I need right now is to get injured, so I'm working with moderate weights in a controlled and steady way bringing each set to failure. I also cut out big exercises like squats and leg presses, as they can make the legs to hold some additional water and instead have been doing "shaper" exercises like leg extensions, hamstring curls and lunges.

I still some water, so I will need to play my cards right when it comes to carb depletion and carbing up next week, as well as dropping water to appear dry onstage, but I have a plan and it should work as it did for my previous show.

I feel pretty tired but excited at the same time, will keep you posted about next week.

Until next week!

Best Back and Triceps Workout for Mass

This workout will bring up your lats and thicken your back, giving it  a nice V-shape. It will also make your triceps explode and make them grow. Bigger triceps = bigger arms in general, as triceps are 3/4 of your arm! Enjoy this video!

Back and Tricep workout:

1. Pull Over: 4 sets, (pyramid loading first 3 sets and
drop set on the last one). 15, 12, 8, 5/5/5
2. Pull Down: same as above
3. Seated Row: same as above
4. Superset: Overhand tricep extensions and
underhand tricep extensions, 3 sets, try to get 10 reps
in each exercise
5. Dips: 3 sets to failure