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Traditional Bodybuilding Approach vs. Reverse Taper Dieting

February 20, 2014 by

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 3.

Traditional Bodybuilding Approach vs. Reverse Taper Dieting

Whether you Forward Taper or Reverse Taper to achieve your final look. Rest assured there's some hard work and effort involved.

Whether you Forward Taper or Reverse Taper to achieve your final look. Rest assured there’s some disciplinek and effort involved. Are you working SMARTER or HARDER?

Today’s podcast with John Barban and Brad Pilon compares the two dieting styles of traditional bodybuilding’s  “Forward Tapering” to the Adonis approach of “Reverse tapering.”  The key discussion points of the podcast were provided via a research paper studying natural bodybuilders preparing for an upcoming competition. Other items of interest that were measured caloric intake, exercise time, body fat levels, hormonal levels, etc.

The data from the research paper on the bodybuilders was fairly comparable to the data submitted by our prior Adonis Transformation Winners.

 

Traditional Bodybuilding Approach

“Forward Tapering”  is when you begin dieting at a HIGHER calorie level and continually DECREASE your calorie intake as you get leaner.

This is the traditional bodybuilding approach to preparing for competitions.  Most contest prep plans span between 12-20 weeks.  The goal is for the bodybuilder or competitor to “peak” or look their very best on the day of the show.  There are several tricks a person can perform to hit their “peak” or final look.  It normally begins with drastically cutting calories and increasing their cardio to resulting in depleted glycogen and fat levels.  More advanced preps might include sodium loading/depletion, water and/or carbohydrate cycling.

However most of these efforts are short-lived and hard to maintain because the effort it took to achieve that look is not easily sustained.  Unfortuately, if a competitor does not have a post-contest gameplan they are at risk of  the dreaded “post-contest rebound.”  Some have even ended up looking worse than before they started their prep.

 

Reverse Taper Dieting

“Reverse Tapering”  is the OPPOSITE,  you begin dieting at a LOWER calorie level and continually INCREASE your calorie intake as you get leaner.

 This Adonis Lifestyle approach is SIMPLE, but it’s not EASY.  It requires discipline upfront, when there is no deadline looming in front of you.  Your hard work is done in the begining and provides more room for you to make adjustments as you progress in your transformation.  The Reverse Taper  approach also focuses more on  calorie deficit through eating LESS food as opposed to eating MORE food and doing MORE exercise.

 

It’s Not a Competition, It’s a Lifestyle

Most people who would be opposed to this approach simply have to win the “mental” battle in their mind to believe that this process is more efficient and sustainable.  If they trust the process they can avoid the longer exercise periods needed to create a caloric deficit with the traditional bodybuilder approach. 

John and Brad truly deliver in this podcast, discussing the in’s and out’s of the “Fitness Competitor” lifestyle.  In conclusion, both of these approaches have proven results.  But the question you must ask yourself, are you working SMARTER or HARDER towards the pursuit of you fitness goals?

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Filed Under: body image, diet, exercise, health, Model, Muscle Building, Sage Advice, Shape, Transformation, Uncensored Podcasts S03, Weight Training, Workout Design Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

“State of the Adonis Union” Inaugural Address by Allen Elliott

April 27, 2012 by

“The State of The Adonis Union is getting stronger.  And we’ve come too far to turn back to the couch.” – Allen Elliott, Adonis Lifestyle Ambassador

My Adonis Lifestyle Journey began when I made the Watch List in Contest AT3. I received tremendous support from members of the AI/VI community to pursue my fitness endeavors. After winning the AT7 Open Level 2 Contest Category I'm inspired to support and motivate others to begin their own Adonis Lifestyle Journey.

Hello, my name is Allen Elliott and I’d like to share my “Adonis Lifestyle” Story with you. While stumbling upon the Adonis Index website over three years ago, I could’ve never imagined the incredible amount of success and personal satisfaction this system has provided for myself and my fitness endeavors. As an ex-athlete, I’d hear the horror stories’ of guys who started off in great shape only to be de-railed later in life & never recovering.  Now that training for performance was no longer a goal or requirement, I was desperately looking for direction.  I found the Adonis Index Systems  to be straightforward and applicable to anyone desiring to improve their overall “Look” as opposed to specific performance training.

After completing the First Week of Workouts, I took the plunge and never looked back.  Training exclusively with Adonis Index Systems, I have competed and placed with top honors in Natural Bodybuilding/ Men’s Physique Fitness Competitions, graced the runway in several prominent fashion shows, and have published work as a fitness model. Following the Adonis Lifestyle has given me unstoppable confidence to pursue my fitness goals with a relentless tenacity.

Allen Elliott | Fitness Model Comp Card || Credits: N3K Photo Studios | Bertron Anderson Photography | Michael Martin Photography

When John contacted me and asked if I would like to become a guest blogger on the site, I was deeply honored and graciously accepted his offer. My Goal while giving back to the Adonis Index Community is to: Supply, Train, and Build.

Supply–As a guest blogger, I will post helpful tips for contest preparation, provide insight on making the transition from an AI Contest to a “Live Show”, and share updates from my Journey in the World of Fitness Modeling.

Train–I’ll also be active in the AI forums to chat with members about training styles, body-part specialization within the AI system, and any other topics that may arise that I can help with.

Build–Preparing for the road ahead, John and myself are masterminding to bring you the next Adonis Index workout.  This advanced workout will show you how I prepare for Fitness Competitions and Model Photo-Shoots, Adonis Index Style.

As we carry forward the plans and programs to better help you achieve your fitness goals I’d like to remind you to enjoy your fitness journey, the results are worth the effort. Stay Tuned! The best is yet to come.

Allen Elliott

Filed Under: body image, Contest, Fat Loss, Featured Articles, Goals, Muscle Building, Podcasts, Reviews, Weekly Guide, Workout Design Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Steroids The True Stars of Bodybuilding and Fitness

May 10, 2010 by

The true stars of bodybuilding, pro and amateur sports and fitness competitions aren’t the people, it’s the drugs. Many top athletes, bodybuilders, fitness models and even celebrities are on some combination of various physique enhancing drugs.

The following list is just an example of some of the drugs a typical bodybuilder might use to build muscle or reduce bodyfat.

Oil based testosterone injectable

Water based testosterone injectable

Testosterone derivative tablets (dianabol, anadrol, anavar etc)

Injectable testosterone derivatives (deca durabolin, winstrol, primobolan)

Growth Hormone injection

Insulin injection

IGF-1 injection (insulin like growth factor)

Oral clenbuterol tabs/liquid

T3 (thyroid hormone)

HCG (Human chorionic gonadotropin)

Diuretics (oral and injectable)

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but rather the most commonly used and popular ones.

Bodybuilders are the extreme and set the stage for what the upper limit of use and abuse is. From there fitness/figure models, pro athletes and celebrities who use drugs will be using some lesser combination of the same drugs that bodybuilders use. This is the trickle down effect from the extreme.

In todays podcast we discuss how pervasive drug use is in bodybuilding circles and how it’s obscures our perception f what we think it an attainable ideal body shape, size and proportion.

John

P.S. For a good example of a steroid free bodybuilder vs a known steroid user check out this link: EUGEN SANDOW

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Filed Under: Featured Articles, Podcasts Tagged With: , , , ,

Forget Insulin for Muscle Building

October 14, 2008 by

One of the biggest things I regret about my younger bodybuilder days is when I used to take upwards of 150 grams of glucose after every workout.

Not just carbs..150 grams of straight dextrose.

At the time, I thought that more insulin meant more muscle.

Turns out…this was a mistake.

Insulin may be an important factor for muscle growth in young rodents and possibly in human children, but studies have shown convincingly that insulin is not required for protein synthesis in adult human beings.

In fact, according to a research paper published in the American Journal of Physiology, you need to get your insulin levels up to about 10,000 times normal levels to get an anabolic response.

10,000 times higher – There is not a post-workout shake in existence that can do this!

To make matters worse, having chronic high levels of insulin has been linked to the development of colorectal and pancreatic cancers.

The bottom line is, you don’t need high insulin to build muscle, and purposefully jacking up your insulin seems to have more negative health implications that it does positive.

So you can forget about forcing yourself to drink those crazy high carbohydrate post workout meals – It’s your workouts (not your post workout carbs) that dictate the size of your muscles.

BP

Filed Under: Sage Advice Tagged With: , , ,
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