Announcement;

If anyone is intrested in competing in a bodybuilding competition then please read on. The gym in which i work out at, Ron Capodanno's Muscle Mill, located on main street in milltown, new jersey, is holding its annual mid atlantic natural classic and fitness show. There are all different classes to enter from teen to masters, and also a fiqure competition for women.There will be several guest posers that night, one of which will be my training partner, ted tenzlinger as well as the two thousand and five team universe overall winner, jose raymond. For the women as well as the men there will be shannon dey, an i.f.b.b. pro also. The date is may thirteenth, at the east brunswick high school, 380 cranbury road, in east brunswick, n.j. For more information or directions you can call the gym directly at (732)-828-4004.
Even if you are not into competing in a bodybuilding show it wouldn't hurt anyone to come out to experience a show just once. It may even inspire you to see the hard work and trouble that the competitors go through just to go on stage for ninety seconds, it really gives you an appreciation for their courage and determination.Just as when i leave a music concert after watching a band that i love, i cannot wait to go home and play my guitar, maybe you too will be inspired to get going with your workout goals or even get bitten by the bodybuilding competition bug.
Anyway, the doors open at six p.m. and the show starts at six thirty, we hope to see you there!

The road to pittsburgh, cont.'d;

This is a picture of my training partner, ted, as of march twenty fifth, two thousand and six. This was taken following a pretty hard biceps workout and well away from the show in july. As you can see, ted is still in the process of putting on muscle and we are gearing up for a two week tour of pure torture, the last two weeks before we embark on the final phase of this heavy workout cycle. These past several months have all been leading up to this last part of the heavy workout phase where we will employ a four to six rep per set scheme to try and build a little more power before we go onto the higher rep phase which will lead up to getting ready for the pittsburgh show.
Ted has been making some major gains in size as well as strength over this mass building phase and i think he has even surprised himself on occasion! Last year at this time he was a little more bloated and was at the same body weight, this year however, he is weighing in at around two hundred and sevevty three pounds and is only at around ten to twelve percent body fat! He is bigger and harder than last year and we are on course to come in much bigger for the pittsburgh show.
Even though we are a little bit ahead of schedule that does not mean that we can relax at all. We could easily fall behind schedule at any moment so we must stay vigilant with his diet and training and try to stay ahead of the game. We can leave no stone unturned when it comes to pittsburgh, this is a national stage that ted is going to step onto and the competition will be fierce. I am going to do my best and try to give ted any edge that i can by reading all of the latest training advances as well as employ some old tried and true methods and go above and beyond what everyone else may be doing in hopes to help ted bring home the victory he is so hungry for!
As we get closer to the show i will post pictures of ted to allow you to see the transformations taking place and i will also give you some insight into the grueling workouts and diet regiment that ted will be going through. I will also be dieting and working out with ted throughout the whole phase so i will be able to give you first hand information about the nature of the mind and body during the cutting phases. Please stop back each week for more information regarding every aspect of training and working out for men and women and before you know it you too may be able to start getting ready for your own show. Even if you have no desire to enter a bodybuilding show and just want to look better and feel better about yourself, well, the information contained herein can help you with that also, until then, "Train hard and Smart".

Supplements in the news;

Recently the wall street journal published an article blasting the benefits and safety of vitamins and supplements.Once again the media has gone and done a news story without the backing of any scientific data, as was the case when the media went on an all out war against ephadrine. Millions upom millons of people throughout the world use vitamins as well as herbs on a daily bsis and in some parts of the world, such as china, this has been in practice for hundreds of years.
What the wall street journal failed to mention was the fact that without certain vitamins being ingested on a daily basis, over a prolonged period of time, deficiencies will result in severe disruptions within the body and even possibly conclude with fatal results! Of course, at the other end of the spectrum is the possibility that if too much of a ceratin vitamin is ingested over a prolonged period, the same ending could result. That is highly unlikely though, considering the fact that such an enormous amount of any one vitamin would have to be ingested over a long period of time and such an amount would cause reactions in the body to allow the person to know something is amiss, well before any severe negative reactions would occur.
I am always skeptical of the news media when it comes to its reporting of vitamins or health news. At one time it was reported that coffee was bad for our health and the next week it was reported that coffee was good for our health, but neither report had no science behind it! That is why it is good for us to become educated consumers and to experiment and to read as much as humanly possible any and everything we can get our hands on about health and supplements. In this day and age of computers, it is a great time to be alive and to be able to go online to seek out the information that we need to be able to make educated decisions about our own health and the future of our bodies. Anyone who has been working out for any length of time, as well as taking supplements, already knows what i mean and would find the wall street journal article comical!
Do some research to find what works best for your body, look to many resources before you make any decisions and read as much information as you can. I also find that talking to people at your local gym helps a great deal as well, then take all of that information and then make your health decisions.A little information goes a long way when it comes to working out and the health and well being of yourself and those around you.With the right information we will all be around for many years to come, possibly able to live longer than those who came before us.

The mind in powerbodybuilding;Part 2;

It is said that "attitude is everything", and this is a very true statement.This week i would like to introduce you to something i use known as positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement can come from one of two places, inner or outer. By this i mean that some of us can find the drive that we need to get throught the workouts on a daily basis inside of ourselves, self-motivation, while others need to find that drive by an outside force or out-side motivation. These are just the terms that i use, and you can come up with your own buzz words to describe your own drive mechanisms, be they inner or outer!
In my mind i visualize the way that i want my body to look over the course of my training as mentioned previously, i have broken down my long term goals into sub-goals and i have made a detailed plan of 'attack' as to how i am going to go about getting my body to look the way that i want it to. Even though i may not look the way that i want to at the moment, positive reinforcement from my own mind keeps me going on the right track towards my goals on a daily basis. I know that with the passing of each grueling workout, i am one,small, step closer to achieveing my ultimate goal of having my body look in the mirror the way that it does in my mind. Whenever i don't feel as though i can go on to get that next rep i dig deep inside myself and find the courage to go on!
My training partner,ted, and i use a combination of both inner and outside motivation. Although we are self-motivators,we rely on each other on those days when we need an extra little push to get ourselves up to the challenge of that day's grueling workout.

Dieting; Part 2;

I stumbled across a site on the internet which had an article entitled "Is there an obese personality". Some experts claim that those who become overweight have a distinctive personality that predisposes them to gain weight. It goes on to describe several characteristics that this type of person would have, they are; a lack of self worth; a lack of self control or compulsive behavior; emotional liability; a tendency towards depression.All of these traits seem to work hand in hand keeping someone from achieveing their goals, not just with weightlifting but in life as well.In some severe cases, professional help is waranted, but in a lot of cases, a good set of plans would go a long way in helping anyone overcome these obstacles, holding them back from rising to any challenge set forth in front of them!
I've read many books on the subject of depression and anxiety and came away from those books with several simple, helpful, hints to overcoming any of the fore mentioned obstacles.In most cases, drugs only make things worse by masking the problems instead of solving them, of course that is for you and your doctor to decide and in some extreme cases, as i've stated previously, drugs and therapy seem to work best in worst cases. Some doctors as well as patients look for the "quick fix" and only want to go on drugs to try to solve their problems and without a lot of hard work, as i said, it doesn't solve a thing. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a recently introduced form of therapy, although it has been around for quite a while, only now has it been widely introduced into a lot of doctor's therapy practices.It involves some exercises to "retrain your brain" into thinking a different way about most things that affect you negatively. With proper training and consistency, anyone is capable of doing so!
For starters, sit down with a blank sheet of paper and a pen and write down one realistic goal that you want to accomplish over the next month, one goal you want to accomplish over the next six months and one goal you want to accomplish over the next year. Keep in mind that rome wasn't built in a day and neither will your weightlifting goals be accomplished in a short amount of time, dedication and consistency are two of many important ingredients.Also, be realistic with your goal setting, ask a close friend for help and constructive critisicm with your list.If your goal is to lose fifty pounds total, break that down into small sub goals and try to aim for the realistic sub goal of six to ten pounds of weight loss a month.
I stress the word realistic because if you set your standards too high then you will only become discouraged and quit before you accomplish anything. Also, If your bone structure as well as a few other variables are not in perfect harmony, then all of the weight training in the world will not get you to the cover of muscle and fitness, but that doesn't mean you can't go through life feeling good about yourself on a daily basis! Try and discover, through trial and error what works best for you and try to do activities that you enjoy either by yourself or with a friend or whomever gets and keeps you motivated to stay consistent with your training. It's always a better motivator to know that you will let someone down if you don't show up for today's workout or walk! Keep coming back each week for more information and before you know it you will be surpriesd at what you see in the mirror, until then, train hard and smart!

The road to pittsburgh;Part 2;

My training partner, ted, began training with me around the fall of two thousand and four, shortly thereafter, he decided to train very seriously to get into shape to enter the northeast bodybuilding championships in late two thousand and five.Ted was in great shape at the time that he began to train with me although he lacked certain attributes of size in some places and it was my job at that point to bring up those areas that needed work.In the months that followed, i put ted through some of the heaviest and hardest workouts, he said, of his life! Twelve to sixteen weeks out from the show, ted went to train with another trainer for the "cutting phase" of the regiment, this trainer, glenn, is one of if not the best guy for the job! Glenn has many trophies to his name as well as many championships have been won by those he's trained over the course of many years! I have much experience training for size but i lack experience when it comes to the cutting phase and i wanted ted to have the best trainer for his best chances of doing well when the show came around. This year, however, under the close eye of glenn, i will be staying with ted throughout the cutting phase all the way up to the show, so it will be a learning experience.
Ted has put on quite a bit of muscle since the show last year and we are not done yet! I have until may first before this year's cutting phase begins, and i plan on doing all that i can to pack on as much muscle as possible for the show. The show in july is a national show, so the competition will be fierce and that means i cannot leave no stone unturned when it comes to training! So far, we are a little ahead of schedule, but that schedule could fall fast if a close eye is not kept on it, in other words we cannot relax at this point and we must keep hitting the weights as hard as possible all the way until may first! I hope that you will come back each week for updates on ted's training and developments and i'll share with you some of our training secrets over time, until then, train hard and smart!

Dieting; Part one;

On a regular basis i cruise the internet searching for news about dieting and nutrition. Today i came across an article that i found quite intresting. It began by stating the fact that most new year's resolutions are thrown by the wayside by this time of year and most of those resolutions had to do with losing weight or getting into shape. Most of the people making those resolutions had good intentions when they made those promises to themselves but have come to find that they have not even begun to climb the ladder of success when it comes to dieting or losing weight.Even in the gym where i workout, i hear more excuses as to why someone cannot do something rather than hearing just one reason as to why someone can do something!I'm sure that if you really try, anyone is capable of achieveing any goal that they set their mind to and instead of trying to come up with excuse after excuse as to why you are not able to achieve a goal, try coming up with a reason as to why you are able to achieve this or any goal you set your mind to!
Everywhere i look, on the news and in magazines, are adds and news reports about the epidemic of obesity in our society.Is it that we are a country of lazy good for nothings or are we unable to accomplish anything that has to do with our health? I am not convinced that either is the case!If you look around, we are definitely not a nation of good for nothings, because when we put our collective minds into something there is nothing that we can not accomplish! The same holds true when it comes to our health.If you ask me, then the problem seems to lie in the fact that if anything is holding back the american public from getting into shape it is the problem of too much information being thrown into the faces of the people.People are so confused as to what to do or which diet to follow that they just give up and it doesn't have to be as complicated as it seems!In the weeks to follow i will give you proven methods from experience that work and that are simple to follow with just a little effort required on your part! So stay tuned, as for now start by taking a walk every night with the one you care about in your life or a friend and cut back on the sweets and i'll tell you more soon.Until then, train hard and smart!

The mind in powerbodybuilding;

In this blog it is my goal to touch upon all aspects of training and relate to any and all persons that work out in some way.I will, however, elaborate on all topics in future blogs and i hope that you will return each week to read and learn all that i have to offer from my experiences over my fifteen plus years of working out.
This week i want to introduce to you the mind and how it is connected to your body and if used correctly, how it can speed progress towards your weight training goals! in Blair Whitmarsh's book,"Mind and Muscle", Blair makes a point that i find worth sharing with you, "What separates superior athletes from good athletes is mental preparation and attitude during training and competition".There are many aspects that relate to the mind and working out such as: Concentration,self-assesment,positive reinforcement,relaxation,visualization, to name a few.I will try to introduce each one of these to you and how you can imploy them into your training to get the most out of each and the most out of your training!
Visualization is a tool that i use on a regular basis and have taught to my training partner, ted, and we have found it to be very useful in our arsenal to get the most out of our training.It is said that if you can see it in the mind than it can become a reality, and i've found this to be the truth.Just before i do an important lift i visualize the lift so much so that i almost feel the bar in my hands and the knurling from the bar grinding into my palms. I go through the lift as if i am really doing it and i can see it very clearly in my mind and more times than not i am succueeful in my attempt at that lift! It may ,however, take some time to perfect this exercise so don't be discouraged if it does not come easy at first, anything worth having does not come easy, but once you have practiced this exercise for a little while, you will find that it gets easier each time that you try it.Any of the books regarding the mind and muscle in my profile are good to read and contain many exercises to help perfect the art of visualization.Come back next week for more information, until then train hard and smart!

Supplements:

I am a big believer in supplementation. Very few people are capable of having such a perfect diet as to get all of the nutrients their bodies need on a daily basis from food alone. Not to mention the fact that over farming and harmful pesticides contribute to the depletion of even more valuable vitamins and minerals from the soil. Even if you only workout moderately, your body still needs more than that recommended by the recommended daily allowance (RDA).
So start by taking a full spectrum multi vitamin and mineral supplement each day,i try to only ingest capsules and the vitamin shop or gnc has good store brands that are inexpensive and complete.For those of you working out, you may want to add some extra l-glutamine, in powder form, and i think creatine is a very good and scientifically backed supplement as well.Although, creatine monohydrate does not sit well in my system, i opt to take creatine citrate, but monohydrate is not a bad choice if you are capable of ingesting it.
I do not want to leave out the fact that everyone should still try to get as much good solid well balanced food into their system as much and as often as possible.I eat every two hours and i try to get between four to six thousand calories a day. Of course, not everyone has the same goals as i do, but with my help you will be knowledgable enough to use this and other information to customize your own diet and supplementation plan that works best for you! If there are any specific topics that some of you need addressed please e-mail me through the e-mail contact when you click on my profile.Please stop back on a regular basis for updates on all topics related to weight lifting and our road to the pittsburgh nationals! Until then train hard and smart!