6 months ago I was a 2 pack a day smoker that hadnt worked out in 5 years.  I didnt know anything about nutrition, or at least very little.

Now, here’s this guy that has lost 60 pounds, put on all sorts of muscle that wasnt there before, has a knowledge of nutrition and it’s growing daily.

What the heck happened??

This is all I know. When I started P90X, I made the decision to finish it. I was able to lose a lot of weight, and once I saw that it was possible, I didnt want to quit. I wanted to keep going, learning more, pushing myself. I want it to be second nature. I feel it’s something that we never got an education in. Sure there was gym class, but I’m talking about the whole ball of wax.

If exercise, nutrition, and health aren’t all deeply related, I dont know what is. Now as a society, it’s second nature to drive, there are many many things that we do as second nature now. Why shouldnt exercise and nutrition be one of those things? We certainly cant keep feeding the medical monster that we’ve been building.

It wasnt a quick over night thing, and I’m no where near done.  It’s something that I enjoy doing now.  I know that I’m taking care of myself, I’m building a nice little Beachbody Coaching business, and I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in… and getting better all the time.  So why wouldnt I want to chase after that?

I’ve got more energy than I think I’ve ever had in my life!  I’m actually busy, but I feel like I have more time than every.

Ok, well that’s my update for tonight.  Hope all is well!

If you want to know as soon as it comes out, just sign up for me as your coach for free at the top of the page, and I will be sure to let you know the moment it comes out, after I order mine first that is :)

Look at this chart.  Dont even just look at it, really soak it in.  300 million people in this country.  That’s almost 80 million people

In addition we have new health care legislation that was just passed in order to give everyone healthcare and to supposedly lower healthcare costs overall.

If the statistics remain the way they are, it doesnt matter what legislation we put through for healthcare, the costs are going to be astronomical. Why? Obesity causes disease and health problems. The excuse that talks about beauty not being skin deep, big boned, its not hurting anyone, and all of the other ones are out the window. This is where the rubber meets the road.

We need to start taking responsibility for ourselves and say “What I do directly effects my health”

We need to work out, we need to eat right, we need to get rid of all the chemicals. I dont care what your political alliance is, it is just common sense.

Where will we be at when we reach 50% obesity?  Or when we reach 75%?  Where can we go from here?

Do we even care about our children’s futures? It’s not dramatic, its just plain truth.

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Get Extreme in 2009, with ChaLEAN Extreme. www.extremely-fit.com

Here are some before, during, and after shots of my first round of ChaLEAN Extreme. I am going for round 2 now, and you should JOIN ME! I’d love to have you on the team :) www.beachbodycoach.com/fitambition

The first step to developing a strong, sculpted, and healthy body is to create a fitness plan that you can stick to without becoming overwhelmed or discouraged. And, understanding what your muscles need and what steps you can take to promote muscle building is important in helping you achieve quicker results.

1. Choose a workout routine that focuses on higher volume with medium intensity. Volume is defined by the number of sets and repetitions you perform, while intensity refers to the amount of weight you lift. It is recommended that you choose a weight that allows you to perform several sets of 10-20 repetitions for each exercise. If you are able to complete only 8 repetitions, then decrease the amount of weight you are using. However, it you are able to perform 30 repetitions, then you should increase the amount of weight you are lifting. For maximum benefits, it is important to make sure that you ‘train to failure’ or work your muscles until they are fatigued, and you are barely able to finish your repetitions. Since your muscles will tire during the workout, you may also want to decrease the number of repetitions by two per set so that you complete 15 reps for the first set, 13 for the second set, and 11 for the third set.

2. Stretching should be an important part of any workout routine. Proper stretching releases tension and helps with muscle recovery. Weight training can be very stressful on your muscles, so stretching before and after a workout will help strengthen, lengthen, and warm-up your muscles, reducing the risk of injury and allowing them to repair more quickly.

3. Eat enough protein. Muscles are made from protein, so if you want to build larger, stronger muscles, you need to make sure that you provide your body with enough of this important nutrient. Protein will help with faster recovery and give your muscles what they need to repair and rebuild after a workout. Insufficient protein may limit your results and cause you to feel fatigued during and after a training session.

4. Drink enough water. Water is vital to maintaining good health and is an important key to digestion, temperature regulation, joint lubrication, and the transportation of nutrients throughout the body. Water is also directly related to your endurance and energy level, which can effect your ability to complete a workout or perform exercises properly. It is important to not only make sure that you replenish fluids during and after a workout, but you should also be drinking enough water several hours prior to an exercise routine since it protects your joints from the stresses of heavy lifting and helps your muscles work more efficiently. If you want to build muscle mass, you need to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of pure water.

Knowing how your muscles work and understanding what you need to sculpt and tone will help you get the most from your fitness programs. Following a few muscle building tips can help you create a training program that fits your lifestyle and will allow you to increase muscle mass and develop a strong, toned body.

About Author
http://health-and-fitness-needs.com is your online guide to attaining optimal health and fitness. Get your body in top shape today with owner and editor Dan Fowl’s muscle building tips.

I enjoy cycling. It’s great exercise and great fun. But I can tell you for sure, if I had the beast above I’d sure do a lot more of it :)

WORKOUT RULES

4. Stop listening to every ridiculous piece of advice you hear in the gym or read on a message board.

Recently a client of mine informed me that someone in the gym stated that he was training all wrong and he needed to train 5-6 days a week, and aim for more reps during his workout. Somewhere in the range of 15-20 reps per set.

The person giving the advice was quite confident about his recommendations, and he had an impressive physique that typically elevates him to the elusive “listen to me if you want to look like me” level in the gym. He was bigger than my client, so even though my client’s “intellectual” mind knows that advice is absurd; his “unrealistic dreamer” mind took this information very seriously. So seriously that he changed his program and didn’t inform me until a week or so later. This particular person had been making great progress on his current program, yet he allowed this one person’s comment to overshadow that progress and convince him that his program was inadequate. This is a mistake and it showed in his lack of further progress.

In addition, don’t judge the validity of what a person says by how they look. Just because the guy is huge doesn’t mean he is spewing pertinent advice for you. Many people that have big physiques are big despite of their training, not because of it. I know some huge guys that know very little about training and dieting correctly. They can do whatever and still gain muscle; unfortunately we are not that way, so we much approach things in a more intelligent way.

5. Workout Infrequently

This is the most difficult concept for many to grasp simply because it involves less action, instead of more. When we get motivated and start a new program, it’s natural to want to do something. We want to train and train and train. Thinking all along that the more you train, the more muscle you will build. Unfortunately, this could not be farther from the truth.

More training does not equal more muscle growth. Understand that the purpose of weight training is to stimulate muscle growth. That takes very little time. Once that has been done, the muscle needs to be repaired and new muscle needs to be built. That only happens when you are resting. You do not build muscle in the gym, you build muscle when resting! If you never give your body any essential “non active” time, when will it have a chance to build muscle? Think about that.

Now, add in the fact that you have a difficult time gaining weight and the importance of rest increases. Individuals who are naturally thin and have difficulty building muscle tend to require less training and more rest.

6. Focus on Multi-Jointed Lifts

Multi-jointed exercises are those that stimulate the most amounts of muscle fibers. Unlike isolation exercises which only work individual muscles, multi-jointed lifts work many different muscle groups simultaneously. For those needing to gain weight, this is ideal because these lifts put your body under the most amount of stress. This is the stress that will shock your nervous system and cause the greatest release of muscle building hormones. This results in increased muscle gain all over the body.

You can still do some isolation work; however it should not be the focus of your workouts, and should only come after your multi-jointed lifting is complete.

7. Focus on Using Free Weights

Free weights are preferred over machines for many reasons, but most importantly because they allow the stimulation of certain supporting muscle groups when training. Stimulating these stabilizer and synergistic muscles will allow you go get stronger, and ultimately build more muscle faster. Yes, some can most likely still build large amounts of muscle using machines, but why make it more difficult if you already have a difficult time gaining weight?

8. Lift a weight that is challenging for you

Building mass involves lifting relatively heavy weight. This is necessary because the muscle fibers that cause the most amount of muscle size growth (called Type IIB) are best stimulated by the lifting of heavy weight. A heavy weight as one that only allows you to perform 4-8 reps before your muscles fail.

Using a lighter weight and doing more reps can stimulate some Type IIB fibers, but again if you have a difficult time gaining weight, why make it more difficult? You need to try and stimulate as many as you can with the use of heavy weights.

9. Focus more on the eccentric portion of the exercise.

When you lift a weight, it can be divided into three distinct periods. The positive, the negative and midpoint. The concentric or “positive” motion usually involves the initial push or effort when you begin the rep. The midpoint is signaled by a short pause before reversing and returning to the starting position. The eccentric, or “negative” portion of each lift is characterized by your resistance against then natural pull of the weight.

For example, when doing push-ups, the positive motion is the actual pushing up motion. Once you have pushed all the way up, you hit the mid point. The negative motion begins when you start to lower yourself back down. Most would simply lower themselves as fast as they pushed up, but I recommend extending and slowing down this portion. Slowing down the eccentric part of the lift will help to stimulate more muscle growth. It actually activates more of the Type IIB fibers mentioned about in Rule 7.

10. Keep your workout short but intense.

Your goal should be to get in, stimulate your muscles and then get out as quickly as possible. It is not necessary to do large amounts of exercisers per body part trying to target every muscle and hit every “angle”. This should only be a concern of someone with an already developed, mature physique who is trying to improve weak areas.

If you have no pec, don’t concern yourself with trying to target inner, outer, upper, lower or whatever. Just work your chest. You should do no more than 2-3 exercises per body part. That’s it. Doing more than that won’t build more muscle, faster. In fact it could possibly lead to muscle loss. Long training sessions cause catabolic hormone levels to rise dramatically. Catabolic hormones are responsible for breaking down muscle tissue resulting in MUSCLE LOSS. While at the same time, long training sessions suppress the hormones that actually build muscle.

If you don’t want to lose muscle during your workouts, I suggest limiting your sessions to no more than 60-75 minutes MAXIMUM. Less if you can.

11. Limit your aerobic activity and training

Honestly, I do not do any aerobic activity when I am trying to gain weight. This is mainly because it interferes with the important “non-active” time my body needs for muscle building and recovery. I do understand that people have lives and other activities that they don’t want to give up, so it must be kept to a minimum. It won’t hurt your progress as long as you don’t over do it. If you find that you are doing more aerobic activity weight training, that’s overdoing it.

I also don’t recommend it because people tend do it for the wrong reasons. Many start aerobic activity because they believe it will help them to lose fat. While that is true, it won’t do so on a high calorie mass diet. To lose fat, you need to be eating fewer calories.

12. Don’t program hop

Here’s how it usually happens. You’ve just read about a new exercise or workout that is supposed to pack on the mass. Now, even though you had already started another training program a few weeks ago, you are tired of it and really want to start this routine instead because it sounds better.

I call these people, “program hoppers”. They are very enthusiastic when starting a new program, but they never follow it long enough to actually see any results. They are easily distracted and love to drop whatever they may be doing to follow the latest “hot” workout or exercise.

My advice is don’t do it. This is a bad habit that never leads to a positive outcome. Understand that it takes time for any program to work. To be successful, you must follow your program consistently. Yes, there are many different training methods and interesting routines out there, but you can’t do them all at the same time and jumping around won’t allow enough time for any of them to actually be effective for you. Pick one that is focused on your current goal and stick with it. There will be plenty of time to try the others later, but NOT NOW.

In Part 3 of this article, I will cover your eating rules and guidelines to MAKE SURE you know how AND what to eat to build muscle mass.

I love being part of things that change lives for the better. That’s probably why I love being part of my church so much. Currently we have a Higher Education program that helps people develop skills to get jobs, and we are starting up a Financial Peace University to help people get their finances straight and provide them with tools and education.

That’s why I love being part of Team Beachbody. Even this morning I had a woman come up to me and tell me how much weight she has lost with Body Gospel. She is really transforming her life and health as well. I love getting emails or facebook posts from people telling me how much weight they have lost, or how much better shape they are in. You can just hear the excitement in their voices and what they are saying.

I have a completely different look at health now. Health is not merely not being sick or having a cold. It is your body thriving and functioning well. It is being at a healthy weight and also being physically and emotionally fit. It is amazing how much all of them tie in together. Since I’ve gotten in shape I havent been to the doctor in I dont know how long. My mental state has improved unbelievably. I feel I’m able to take on challenges I’ve never been able to take on before.

I love seeing people set free from all sorts of bondage that they are under, and Team Beachbody has helped me to do that in another form.

So to all of my friends and customers out there. Keep pushing, you can do it! And I’m so happy to be here for you while you are doing it. I really do thank God for this great opporutnity.

Keep it up everyone! Together, we will see lives changed all over!!

It’s not winter time, but it is time to talk about the white death, sugar. It’s just all around bad for you. With the things we have done to our food and the amount of sugar we consume on a daily basis, it’s no wonder we are in the sad shape we are in currently. Over sugared, and nutritionally defunct.

“…Refined sugar is void of all nutrients, consequently it causes the body to deplete its own stores of various vitamins, minerals and enzymes. If sugar consumption is continued, an over-acid condition results, and more minerals are needed from deep in the body to correct the imbalance. If the body is lacking the nutrients used to metabolize sugar, it will not be able to properly handle and rid itself of the poisonous residues.”

“These wastes accumulate through the brain and nervous system, which speeds up cellular death. The bloodstream becomes over-loaded with waste products and symptoms of carbonic poisoning result.”

Now this doesnt really sound like a product that I want in my body. I’m not sure about you, but for me that’s enough warning signs to put the soda down.  But maybe it’s just not that easy to put the soda down?

“…If you have any doubts as to the detriments of sugar (sucrose), try leaving it out of your diet for several weeks and see if it makes a difference! You may also notice you have acquired an addiction and experience some withdrawal symptoms.

…Studies show that “sugar” is just as habit-forming as any narcotic; and its use, misuse, and abuse is our nation’s number one disaster. It is no wonder when we consider all the products we consume daily which are loaded with sugar! The average healthy digestive system can digest and eliminate from two to four teaspoons of sugar daily, usually without noticeable problems, (that is if damage is not already present). ”

One 12 oz. Cola contains 11 teaspoons of sugar, and that’s aside from the caffeine. It’s the sugar that gives you quick energy, but only for a brief time due to the rise of the blood sugar level. But the body quickly releases a rush of insulin, which rapidly lowers the blood sugar and causes a significant drop in energy and endurance. It is easy to see why America’s health is in serious trouble.”

It’s time to kick the can. Even diet soda changes your ph balance. Get with the water program. If you need some flavor put a piece of fruit in it. Try a bit of everything a wedge of lemon, strawberry, lime, cucumber, kiwi, or anything else you would like.

Excerpts from http://macrobiotics.co.uk/sugar.htm visit them for more info.

Stay thirsty my friends, and stay away from sugar!

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