Preventative supplementation;

Recently an article caught my eye on the internet that stated that alzheimer's disease has climbed up into the seventh place spot in 2004 among the nation's leading killers. Heart disease, cancer, and stroke were the three leading killers. Of course genetics play a role in the chances of anyone getting any of the fore-mentioned diseases, however, there are ceratin lifestyle changes that must take place in order for anyone to prevent the onset of these diseases, regardless of their genetic predispositions. If someone in your family has had any of these diseases there is no guarantee that anyone else in the family will also get the same diseases, as with life itself there are no guarantees.
I have seen the effects of alzheimer's disease first hand when my grandmother was in her late eighties she began to forget the basics of life and only began to remember certain episodes that took place many years previous. In basic terms, alzheimer's disease affects the brain and there is no better time in the history of the world, in my opinion, to be alive then now! The advances in medicine in this and the previous century have given birth to a host of amazing new preventative techniques to help us all fend of the effects of diseases, possibly stopping us from ever getting them or delaying the onset of the diseases.
Moderation is the key to a long life, in my opinion, as with any aspect of living, indulging in any food or activity for prolonged periods of time will have a negative effect on the body and the mind. There are plenty of scientific studies to be read about the benefits of a good well balanced diet and i will not bore you with a long lecture and large scientific words that are hard to understand, i am here to educate you not confuse you! Every study is different when it comes to how much fruit and vegetables to ingest on a daily basis, and to think that ten servings a day of both is feasable is just not common sense. I have a hard enough time consuming the protein and carbs i need without trying to choke down ten servings of fruits and vegetables. However, if you are able to eat some fruits and vegetables each day then please do, instead of that candy bar go for the apple. To sum up the best points i've broken it down as such;
1. Stay away from processed foods as often as possible, try to bring lunch with you instead of stoppong at a fast food resturant.
2. Try to avoid saturated fats, read labels on the foods that you purchase and try to pick the best one and stick with it each time you need a snack.
3. Avoid sugar whenever possible, i use splenda in my coffee and my baking dishes whenever possible.
4. Purchase and take every day a well balanced multi vitamin and mineral supplement.
5. Try to keep stress to a minimum as much as possible in your life.
6. Try to eat only complex carbs and stay away from simple carbs such as those found in sugar.
7. Drink as much water as you can on a daily basis, start with a quart and work your way up to a gallon, for small adults and a gallon and a half for those of you that work out and sweat a lot.
Start out slowly and make small changes and soon you will not only begin to feel better, but look better as well. Remember, the outside of your body is usually a reflection of what's going on inside.

The mind in powerbodybuilding;

It has been quite a challenge, going from the heavy low rep workouts to the current moderate rep workouts and then on to the high rep workouts in a couple of weeks. The mind set is quite different, to say the least. I have been doing some cardio work all winter so i am allright when it comes to cardiovascular fitness. However, those of you that neglected the cardio aspect of your training over the winter months are, i'm sure, feeling it now!
Do not fret, however, it all takes a little time as i am sure that you are well aware for you to get up to speed for the higher rep workouts and on to the treadmill afterwords, but it will get better. The mind set, as i said, is as important as the workouts themselves. I even thought that i would be having a harder time making the transistion from winter to summer but i am getting ready mentally to look the best that i ever have in my entire life! This is the biggest i've ever been and now when i diet down over the next several months, i cannot wait to see what "lies beneath". I already have a pretty good idea what i am going to look like when i get to my goal weight for summer and i should look pretty damn good, if i do say so myself! I did not let myself get too out of shape over the winter so it is easy to see how much muscle i put on. Considering the fact that i got to lift some heavy weights and i did not gain too much sloppy weight, i am visualizing myself to look very good for the summer season.
Every winter workout has led us up to this point and nothing was done without a goal in mind as to what we wanted to accomplish. Yes, even in the dead of winter i knew exactly what i was going to look like this summer because i kept my mind's eye on the prize! I never walk into the gym ready to accomplish nothing, every workout is another chance to get our bodies one step closer to our goals and we leave nothing to chance and take full advantage of the time in the gym that we spend each day. Every meal is planned and prepared the evening before the following day as well as the liquids to be drunk all day.
Preparation is the key, along with consistency and just plain hard work! Always keep your goals close at hand and when you feel like eating that jelly donut just look to that piece of paper for strength to fight the craving and it will pass. Just keep asking yourself, "how do i want to look this summer and will this jelly donut help me or hurt me", i think you can answer that for yourself!

Announcement; Correction;

I am sorry to announce that my training partner, ted tenzlinger, will not be guest posing at the may thirteenth show as previously announced. Everything else about the show will remain the same. Ted realized that it would not be in his best intrest to guest pose at the show in may with his national show only less than two short months away from that point. He would have to diet down for the guest posing show and then gain back the weight and then diet back down for his show in july and this might hurt his chances at the national show. We do not want to take any chances due to the fact that the show in july is very important for ted's possible bodybuilding career and if ted does well there, who knows where he might be headed in the future!
Our apologies go to anyone who was looking forward to seeing ted at the show but i will be posting pictures on a regular basis as well as the pictures from his show in july. Hopefully, there will be a show closer to home in the near future after the july show and everyone will get the chance to see ted in person.
Nonetheless, the show will still be worth seeing and i would still urge anyone to attend the show on may thirteenth, two thousand and six at the east brunswick high school. For more information about competing or tickets, please contact the gym at (732)-828-4004.

Cycling your workouts;Part 2;

I guess it's safe to say that the winter season is finally over and spring has sprung! Which means it's time to put away all of those bulky sweatshirts and get out the shorts and short sleeve shirts. If you are like my training partner, ted, and i, then you are getting ready to begin your cutting phase of your training regiment, however, if you all of a sudden put on your t-shirt, the one that wasn't tight last year but currently is, you realize it's time to get going to the gym to work on that body for summer.
Last week at a convience store, i was asked the general question by a patron about how he should go about losing weight. It was then i realized that there is no easy or quick answer to that question. I tried to think quick and not go off on some long lecture about working out and i tried to be as simple and precise as possible. So i proceeded to tell him to go about slowly changing his lifestyle by getting and staying active and to watch what he was eating on a regular basis.
Working out is not something you can do for a while and then just quit, i am sure a lot of people wish that was the case. Losing weight and getting into shape should be a life long process and should also be enjoyed as well. Juat ask any pro athlete if he or she is good enough at their respective sport and if they are still in need of practice. Any good athlete will tell you there is always room for improvement and the learning process never stops in weight training or life in general! As i mentioned in the previous entry, variety is a necessary component.
Ted and i are in a two week transistion phase which takes us into the cutting phase which begins on may first. We will stay in this phase all the way up to his show in july. All of the heavy and hard workouts are behind us and now comes the refining stage to see how well we put on muscle over the winter months. No more eating everything that isn't nailed down, our diets will be strict and get stricter as the show gets closer. Just because the heavy workouts are over doesn't mean the workouts get any easier, on the contrary, the workouts get faster, more intense, the rep ranges increase and the rest periods get very short. In short the intensity of the workouts go up a notch or two but in a different way when compared to the winter workouts. This will help us "uncover" all of the muscle that we hopefully put on over the winter and by the time the day of the show comes, ted should have nothing between his skin and the muscles of his body, except the veins and striations of the muscles. Keep in mind also that this time of year gets even more difficult due to the fact that ted's calories get restricted as well as mine,but the intensity of the workouts must remain high in order for us to burn every last little amount of bodyfat between the skin and the muscles.
I guess that you could come to the conclusion that there is no easy time of year for us or an offseason when we can slack off and just workout with no real goal in mind. There is alway something to be accomplished in our workouts and every day that we enter the gym is another chance for us to make that goal be one step closer. I always like to say,"Every day we put our heads down and run into the wall of progress as hard as we can and some days it moves, some days it doesn't, that just means we must try harder next time".

Cycling your workouts;

Over a long period of time my training partner, ted and i, have been in a constant stage of heaviness, which means we are going heavy all the time for the past ten months since his show in sempetber of two thousand and five. We are trying to pack on as much mass on to his frame as we can in hopes of adding some of course, mass as well as some muscle maturity. Our rep schemes have been in the six to eight area range and have stayed there for quite a while now, which is not always a good idea unless you know what you are doing. We always mix up our workouts to keep things fresh and to keep the muscles guessing and unsure of what is to come.
The human body is an amazing machine, if you work the same body parts on the same days each and every week over a long period of time, the body will actually know what to expect and refuse to grow after a short time. A good rule is to cycle your workouts every six to eight weeks and then change up the workout entirely. There are numerous ways to change up things; Shorten your rest time in between sets, start the week or workout with a weak bodypart; try new exercises; even doing an entirely new workout away from bodybuilding, i call it active rest, such as mountain biking or running on the beach.
When the time comes that you know your body well enough to be able to train instinctively, or in other words you know what you are capable of and on any given day you can predict how your body will react to the forced placed upon it, you can then change your workouts on a daily basis just as ted and i are currently doing. The only thing that remains a constant are the rep ranges that we decided beforehand for this cycling period.
In the gym i see a lot of people doing the same exercises, so much so, that i can predict what their workouts will consist of even before they begin. Trust me, i don't spend a lot of time watching other people working out! It's just that people get strong at an exercise and they don't want to stray away from what they are good at, but you have to in order to get your body to adapt and grow. Just as you may be strong at the bench press right now, you need to do another exercise until you are strong at that one and keep going until you are strong at every exercise and then you will see some serious growth begin to take place.
I look at things in this way, i am hoping that whatever we are doing that is different, one of ted's competitors may not be doing and that may give us the edge we need in order for ted to do well in his upcoming show in july. Even if you are not training for a show or athletic event, would't it be nice to see some results for all the hard work that you put in day after day in the gym? So, don't be afarid to mix things up every now and then, remember, variety is the spice of life, even in the gym!