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Nutrition & Training Triage: Optimal vs. Practical vs. Ideal

January 9, 2013 by

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic: Nutrition & Training Triage: Optimal vs. Practical vs. Ideal

 

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What is the Optimal approach for nutrition & training? What is Practical? What is Ideal?

When it comes to nutrition & training advice, how do you sort and prioritize what’s best for you?

 

The medical term known as triage, means the determination of priorities for action in an emergency. However, this word is from a french origin and is also defined as the “action of assorting according to quality.”

Both of these definitions are applicable to John Barban’s & Brad Pilon’s discussion on defining what is optimal, practical, or at best Ideal.

With the rise of obesity it’s safe to say that an emergency is on our hands when it comes to our health and we must take action.  But what nutrition & training advice should we follow to attain optimal results?

The ever growing amount of new supplements coming to market only makes this task more daunting. From nutritional strategies consisting of: macro/micro nutrients, slow/fast proteins, and the highly controversial thoughts on meal timing, a person could become easily overwhelmed.

Things aren’t much better on the training side of the house as we are faced with a myriad of factors to take into account. Ranging from: Workout Intensity, Volume, length of actual workouts, and the rest/recovery period.

Why all these things may be optimal, are they ideal or even practical?

Today’s podcast will strive to analyze the ever moving target  known as optimal and provide you with ideal advice to build muscle within your lifestyle.

 

Panel of judges

Each nutrition & training expert has their own opinion on what is optimal. Whose advice is right or you?

In today’s UNCENSORED training, you will also discover:

  • Who you really are comparing yourself to
  • How to prevent goal hi-jacking when someone else’s optimal advice is presented to you
  • How Drugs and Genetics skew the curve of optimal
  • How to debunk a fitness claim  giving optimal device
  • Where Top Level Strength & Conditioning coaches get their training advice from
  • How research papers and marketing claims justify their nutrition & training advice to appear optimal for the masses
  • If optimal nutrition & training actually exists and what that actually looks like
  • Whether Hollywood has an influence on what is considered optimum
  • How to manage your ideal training schedule
  • How to focus on your specific results

 

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Filed Under: body image, Goals, Muscle Building, Podcasts, Sage Advice, Uncensored Podcasts S02 Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Men’s Guide to Eating for Muscle Gain

December 5, 2012 by

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic: Eating for Muscle Gain and Fat Storage

How much do you need to eat to build muscle?

How Do You Store Fat?

When we eat more calories than our body can use we begin to store those extra calories as fat. Although this process occurs  in  both men and women, the primary locations of fat storage differs betweeen the two genders.  For example, men tend to store fat in the stomach region while women in the hip/thigh region.  This genetic predisposition of fat storage leads to a variety of  body types or shapes: “Apple, Pear, Banana” just to name a few.

As a person begins to exceed the standard Body Mass Index (BMI) range their body shape eventually balloons into a rounded appearance.  Nevertheless, there is a popular belief amongst  people that even if they are below the BMI range known as obese, their body shape  is dictated by their genetic predispositions for fat storage.  However, this is only partially true.

There is no category of body shape that will restrict you from building  muscle only in a certain area.

Once you lose the  fat necessary to achieve the lean, ripped look we begin to look very similar to one another.  What will make the biggest difference is the size of your muscles. Everyone will look different at their ideal numbers of course, but the overall body shape will be the same. Once you lose the fat,  your body’s  fat storage patterns become irrelevant.

So it’s up to you, you can choose whether to let your genetic predispositions  dictate how you store fat or change your physical appearance through strategic training and add more size to your frame.

How Much Do You Need to Build Muscle

The second part of this podcast (maybe the more important to you) is about the amount of food/calories you need to consume to build muscle.

We’ve already explained why bulking is a bad idea, hell even Pilon tried bulking up slowly in the last podcast.

So it would seem that overeating doesn’t help. So what’s the answer then, how much do you really need to eat to avoid undereating, but also overeating? What do you have to do?

If you are asking yourself those questions you are missing  two critical  factors to your success.

The two factors that must be taken into consideration are birth and/or training age.

A 17 year old guy who just started training is a different case compared to a guy who is in his late 40s and has been training hard for the last 15 years.

Which is exactly what Brad Pilon and John Barban are going to discuss today. So, if that is something that interests you, just scroll down to log inside the AI cockpit and listen to this episode.

In today’s UNCENSORED training, you will also discover:

  • Whether there is anything you can do to improve your physique besides fat loss and muscle building
  • What  BMI/BF% range you will  need to be under to allow your muscles to dictate your body shape
  • What waist  percentage of your height is still safe for “bulking“
  • Whether there is actually an amount of calories you need to eat to build muscle
  • What determines how much you need to eat to build muscle at the rate you want
  • Learn what  stubborn fat is  and whether it’s any different from the rest of your body fat
  • What it means when people store fat in as opposed to around the muscle
  • What it takes to add more muscle if not bulking
  • What role does birth and/or training age  play in your diet if your goal is building muscle
  • What do you do after you get to your ideal numbers? Do u need to keep training or Is it possible to grow even more?
  • How to eat for muscle gain according to your waist and shoulder measurements, when to stop and when to eat more to avoid under eating

 

IMMERSION Clients May Login and Download Podcast Here

Not an Adonis Index IMMERSION client? Click here to find out more… and hear a weird story too

Filed Under: Food, Muscle Building, Podcasts, Uncensored Podcasts S02 Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Phi-Life Series: Super Hero Marketing

November 26, 2012 by

Today we bring you a podcast from our phi-life series.

Today’s topic: The Danger of Super Hero Marketing

Do you think you can get as big as the Incredible Hulk? A lot of guys certainly believe they can even though they logically know it’s impossible.

So can you get as big as the Hulk?

Deep down we know we can’t get this big, but that certainly doesn’t prevent us from trying. This never ending journey of aiming to get as big as The Hulk includes steroid intake, falling for the myth of bulking and mega dosing supplements.

We have been exposed to Super Heroes our entire life. From a young boy reading  comic books to a grown-up watching the latest Super Hero movie.  Then finally,  once we begin to explore the world of  fitness we are introduced to the real Super Hero – bodybuilders.  These “Super Heroes” may not be able to fly, but their physique’s certainly reminds us of The Hulk.

This is where things start to head down hill for the “Average Joe.”

When we get into the fitness and bodybuilding community we (for some bizarre reason) wanna live like bodybuilders. We want the lifestyle of Mr. Olympia, so even though we are not him and never will be, we still live to train and eat…We’ve all been down that road. Which is completely contrary to what we now here at Adonis Lifestyle teach – Eat and train to live.

This is a dangerous path to be on, because suddenly it becomes your identity, you are the weird “fitness guy” who never goes out, doesn’t know how to have fun and often times isn’t even in such a great shape (shirt on big, shirt off average or fat).

Well, today we will look into this mindset and determine where it all began.  We will discuss what influences cartoon Super Heroes have and how they actually shape your your fitness goals and the perception of your own body.

Also in today’s podcast, John talks about his experience with a salesman trying to pitch the very supplements he developed!

You will also learn and discover:

  • What type of  environment the supplements stores create which always compel you to buy more supplements
  • The difference between “online” supplements store and supplements stores that are “brick and mortar”
  • There are only 3-4 important supplement ingredients that are used and sold… so why are there so many “other” supplements?
  • How people make billions by selling products that aren’t effective
  • Why people buy supplements even when there isn’t any scientific evidence it actually works
  • Whether you can actually look like guys in the fitness/bodybuilding magazines
  • What specific documentary movie you can watch to get a clearer picture about the fitness industry
  • Why supplements sell
  • Why guys wanna be larger than life
  • Why you continue to buy the  newest supplements even though the last one’s didn’t work
  • What is a “Pipe  Dream” vs.  what is actually attainable &  How this makes a world of difference in terms of marketing and driving sales
  • How supplements advertising works

Listen to the podcast here:

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Filed Under: body image, Muscle Building, Phi Life, Supplements Tagged With: , , , ,

DEXA Results from Slow Bulking and Muscle Imbalance Correction Training

November 21, 2012 by

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topics: Body Composition Analysis – DEXA Results

You can use DEXA scan to track down effectiveness of your training and diet.

From season one of uncensored podcasts you already know how you can use DEXA to track your progress.

But did you know that it’s also a very useful tool for experimenting with your body?

Check out how John and Brad used DEXA scan to measure effectiveness of the things they were trying in the last couple of weeks. Each of them tried a different thing.

John’s Experiment – Muscle Imbalance Correction Training

As you may already know know John can’t do barbell bench press, because off his shoulder issue. The last time he got his DEXA the results were astonishing, on his right side there was almost 2 pounds less lean mass (shoulder and arm). That’s a pretty big difference, it was obvious that the right side was significantly weaker and less developed.

Because of this, he decided to try to bring the right side back to normal, so both of his shoulders and arms would be balanced.

Now this is tricky, because if you just do barbell based exercises, one arm will work harder than the other and you will only make the problem worse.

So how would you go about it?

And how do you track such is small difference?

You can’t even go just by feeling and strength, you need to get another DEXA done to confirm the results.

John decided to create a specialized plan for himself and get another DEXA scan done at the end of this test to see what he could do about this.

As it turned out, you really can affect one side of your body and bring your lagging part back to normal to balance them out.

Surprisingly the answer wasn’t more weight, but more work and better muscle activation – as John shares in today’s episode, he had to take more time to warm up the right side to achieve the same activation throughout his regular workout.

Listen to the podcast for more information on this experiment.

Brad’s Experiment – Slow Bulking

As Brad confesses in today’s episode, he really wanted for bulking to work and I mean who doesn’t, eating more for more muscles? Sounds like a bodybuilder’s dream.

Well, the reality is different and rather boring.

In the past Brad has tried every way you could think of (and more) to make bulking work. He tried the standard 6 meals a day, 300 grams of protein, cheat days and even cheat weeks with 10 000 calorie intake and no result at all…well he did gain fat, but that’s not what he was really after.

So, it’s safe to say that bulking doesn’t work.

Then a couple months ago he thought about another way of trying bulking. He realized that each time he would try it, it would be a very quick process, never slow. So he decided to go about bulking up slowly, just a couple hundred calories here and there, he didn’t change his workouts, recorded everything and did a DEXA scan after the experiment was after.

If you wanna find out about the whole process and more importantly the results, go down and listen to the podcast.

In today’s UNCENSORED training, you will also discover:

  • How to prepare the muscles that you have hard time activating for the workout
  • How can you bring up a lagging part back up to balance it with the rest of the body if lifting heavier doesn’t help
  • What is slow bulking  and whether it can work for you
  • How you can get your goals hijacked with focusing on strength gains
  • Why it’s important to stop chasing weight at some point and what’s more important when the goal is muscle growth
  • How if you are not careful “body building” can turn into weight lifting and power lifting and why this is dangerous to your physique goals
  • Is there a relationship between being well trained at a certain movement/exercise and looking good? (The answer to this might surprise you)
  • How DEXA can help you see clearly through fitness disbeliefs and help you discover what truly works for your body and what’s just BS you should avoid

IMMERSION Clients May Login and Download Podcast Here

Not an Adonis Index IMMERSION client? Click here to find out more… and hear a weird story too

 

Filed Under: Food, Muscle Building, Podcasts, Uncensored Podcasts S02 Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Warning: Bulking Leads to Less Fab and More Flab

November 7, 2012 by

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic: Bulking

What is bulking?

In a nutshell,  bulking occurs when eating at a caloric surplus to gain muscle mass. However, in reality it’s just overeating resulting in fat gain.

On the left: What you expect from bulking; On the right: What you will actually look like after you bulk up.

Once you start thinking about bulking, you will realize that anyone who chooses to follow this approach is basically throwing away logic in the name of impatience.

We are naturally impatient so the idea of eating like it’s your job for the sake of gaining more muscle is tempting, but goes against the reality of how your body really builds muscle.

So why do so many people try to bulk up? If it doesn’t work,  why is it still presented as the standard way of building muscle by conventional fitness media?

The answer is quite simple, because this concept is highly profitable to certain companies’ and individuals.  It’s impossible to bulk up by yourself.  You will need a trainer to tell you exactly what to eat and supplements to take… and the rest of the story is self-explanatory.

In today’s episode John Barban and Brad Pilon talk about the conspiracy supporting the concept of bulking.

They will expose the fitness industry and show you that almost everyone is working against you and why it’s important to be aware of the truth if you hope to ever get in shape and build your ideal body.

Ever gotten this answer: “Just eat a lot bro and you will be big like me”? Today you will find out the real truth.

 

In today’s UNCENSORED training, you will also discover:

  • You will find out 3 reasons why there is something we call a “bulking conspiracy” that keeps this myth alive
  • You will understand how the people you meet every day in the gym are making it easy for your to fall for this myth
  • You will get your final answer on whether excess calories help you build more muscle or not (hint: there is a big difference in “make” vs “allow”).
  • You will know what happens to testosterone and growth hormone when you eat a lot of calories (this in fact proves that bulking is a bad idea and possibly dangerous to your health)
  • You will discover why trainers are forced to bulk you up (wanna take a guess why is that?)
  • You will find out why guys on steroids will not ever tell you they are on drugs (hint: and it’s most likely not because it’s illegal)
  • You will discover whether you can build muscle while “cutting”?

IMMERSION Clients May Login and Download Podcast Here

Not an Adonis Index IMMERSION client? Click here to find out more… and hear a weird story too

Filed Under: Food, Muscle Building, Podcasts, Uncensored Podcasts S02 Tagged With: , ,

“Bodybuilding” vs “Fitness”

August 24, 2012 by

“Bodybuilding” is a word that may conjure up thoughts of drugs, the idea of taking things to an extreme level and being excessive in nature in general. All of this is basically true, and bodybuilding as an idea has never been anything but exactly what the word means “building your body”. It doesn’t mean ‘being healthy’ or ‘being fit’, it’s not about performance metrics, or ‘fair play’ or anything else. It’s just building a body, pure and simple.

We should all be doing some bodybuilding in our routine.

I think a degree of confusion enters the picture when people try to match bodybuilding with health. But ‘health’ is essentially a meaningless term unless you define it’s parameters and boundaries and what you actually mean when you say the word. Most people can’t really put their finger on what they mean when they say the word ‘health’ or ‘healthy’ and especially so when they try to link it to bodybuilding in some way.

The inherent disconnect between the words ‘bodybuilding’ and ‘health’ give rise to the need for another words…enter ‘fitness’.

“Fitness” has two well accepted uses/definitions.

1. The survivability/adaptability of genes or an organism within it’s environment that allows it to successfully reproduce.

2. The ability of the heart muscle to deliver large volumes of blood to working muscles over an extended period of time is referred to as ‘cardiovascular fitness’.

It seems to me that the word ‘fitness’ gets used to describe all manner of things related to exercise, diet, performance, sports, and bodybuilding to describe things that it cannot describe.

Is a distance runner ‘fit’ compared to a powerlifter? Or are they both ‘fit’ for their chosen sport?

When you think of the word ‘fit’ or ‘fitness’ you likely have a mental image of a specific bodyshape, a lifestyle, the physical abilities of this imagined person and what the are like.

You probably imagine someone who has relatively low bodyfat, is muscular but not too big, can run 5k in a decent time, can lift above average weights, doesn’t smoke, only drinks occasionally, and maintains what most would call a ‘clean’ diet.

No doubt this is essentially the image that the ‘diet and fitness’ industry is selling. The word ‘fitness’ ends up being taken to mean more than its true definition. It becomes an idea of an entire life and identity instead of the true definition of what it really means (see definition 2 above).

“Bodybuilding” on the other hand is a term that tells you exactly what it’s trying to describe “building a body”…this includes all the warts and not so noble ideas that might come with it including drugs, extremism, and the odd subculture that surrounds it. And in most cases, bodybuilders don’t mind at all as they’ve never set out be the most ‘fit’ person, or the most healthy person…all they ever wanted to do was build their body…and that is exactly what they’re doing.

I think we can borrow identity and ideas from both words. I like building my body, I also like the idea of building up some degree of cardiovascular fitness for whatever potential ‘health’ benefits it might have and general sense of vigor and well being it might help produce.

However I don’t care to be the biggest or the fittest, as these are never ending paths.

You should always be looking for a balance between building your body, and building up your level of cardiovascular fitness.

Finding the sweet spot that produces the body and performance you want given the time you are willing to spend should always be the goal.

 

John

 

Filed Under: health, Muscle Building Tagged With: , ,
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