NOBODY IS PERFECT AT THE END OF THE DAY WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES ITS IN OUR NATURE

I can honestly say that I have f&^%#@d up a decent amount of times in my life up until now. Some mistakes I am still paying for in one way or another, and others I managed to learn wise lessons from. The trick is to always move forward and never look back. There really is no point of looking back, it will just set you back. There is no point of thinking ‘what if’ or ‘maybe if I had done this’... sorry darlings, we do not have a time machine yet and thinking in this way is only a waste of time and energy in this day and age when we need as much as we can get. But I do believe that these mistakes and imperfections we have is a stamp of our originality and character – if we didn’t have them we would be a bunch of identical clones. And if anybody tells you that they never made any mistakes, they are lying. They are probably too scared to show their real self.
My message to you is yes, we all make mistakes. The sooner we accept them, the better it is for us because that is the only way to move forward towards better. Once a very respected English bodybuilder of the early ‘90s told me that if I looked back on my mistakes I probably wouldn’t be here right now, doing what I am doing...

Love, peace and big muscles always.

TO SUCCEED IN LIFE,YOU FIRST HAVE TO SEARCH WITHIN YOURSELF TO FIND REASON...

I was watching Kai Greene’s new documentary recently, and at the start of it he says that people who have a reason in life are the ones which succeed in life. But it is not enough for somebody else to give you a reason, you have to find it within; and that’s not easy.

So I did a little experiment, and applied it to myself. And I realised that when I have something to do for the next day, normally I will go to bed early and wake up early with that target in mind – that’s my reason. Usually that way, half of the battle was won because I knew what I was doing, and why and was not confused about anything. If you don’t have a reason in your life or goals, there is no real point in anything you do… you are probably just walking around like a headless chicken and are just burning time and living for the sake of it.

I guess to really put it out there, we are still animals… no matter of our appearance. And we need some sort of lines to follow in life because without those, we would get lost. But this doesn’t mean I am saying don’t enjoy life to the fullest… Im just saying you need those guide lines to give some sort of meaning to life.

Try it, get out there and find your reason if you haven’t already. You will see the difference.

Love, peace and big muscles.

SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO GO THROUGH 'THE DOWNS' IN ORDER TO APPRECIATE THE 'UPS' IN LIFE.

Once again I don’t know why the hell I am posting this, which is not really directly related to training or sports in general, but I do believe it might help some of you ... or at least give you something to think about.

So a couple of nights ago I was sitting at a friends house just chilling, and as always, there was a girl there nagging for a good hour about how her relationship, and how it’s not going anywhere and the guy is not showing any interest in her anymore. And basically I got inspired and turned around and told her: life is like a rollercoaster. When you are going up, it is the best feeling ever. But going down, it’s a different story :) Yet you need to go down to realise how good the going up was... it is just like a wake up call saying ‘hey, did you see how good that was?’ Almost like when you lose something special... and you realise it was special only when its actually gone.

It is just human nature that we think the grass is always greener on the other side, and we forget how green our own grass is. So what I am saying is, sometimes you should take time out to appreciate what you have before you lose it!

Love, peace and big muscles.

LIKE IT OR NOT THE BODY NEEDS REST AT TIMES

As time goes by, I learn more and more about my body. One of the most important things I have learnt so far is that sometimes resting is a must to achieve better goals. At times we might think we are a Ferrari, and that we can race ahead until our hearts are content, but even those cars need a servicing now and again.

I am writing this, because in these past, I had been getting injured more and more often. First there was my outer calf muscle, where I had fibers toughen during a heavy set of leg press exercises…. This set me back nearly a month of training legs, and I could walk without crutches for over 2 weeks – it made going to the toilet fucking hard! Lol. Next thing to happen was an injury to my front left delt during a heavy set of front presses on the smith. This time I had felt something after the set but didn’t accept that it could be an injury and that I might need some time off… and yes, I know that I am a stubborn when it comes to these things but I did pay the price.

I’ve been going to get laser treatments on my shoulder every day for weeks and I am still i was not quite 100%. Guess it seems that the only way for me to accept some good rest was to get injured… and if you burn the candle from both ends you will always end up paying the price whether you like it or not.

Its just like back in the day, when we were all in school and our teachers would tell us (or at least mine would) not to revise all night until early morning as nothing would stay in your head – just study a couple of hours a day because the brain needs some rest in order to remember and process all the stuff you have been reading.

So as I have said previously regarding training…. Too much of a good thing can actually be bad, and often we don’t realize what we have until something bad happens to make us step back and think. Just like with everything else in this world, we need to have some balance…

Love, peace and big muscles.

CRAZY WORLD

We meet many different people throughout our lives for various reasons. Sometimes we help them, and sometimes they help us, but the funny thing is that we often meet them in the strangest, most unethical ways, which is kind of crazy... but hey, we live in a crazy world.

Out of all those people, there will always be some that will be there for you – at some point you both share parts of yourselves which very few know, even though at times you where both frustrated with each other. This bond will hold for years to come. You may not be near each other, maybe you won’t see each other for some time, but as soon as you do, all that lost time will disappear in a second. It is what I call unconditional love... at any moment, in any place you will be there for each other.

As I said, we live in one crazy world... and most of us will lose the plot at one point or another, even though we don’t like to admit it. As for why I am writing this post today? There is not one straight answer to tell you the truth... so I will just leave it at that :)

Life is short and sweet, even though at times it may seem to be the biggest BS. We are all here for some reason, big or small, and there is always a reason we meet certain people. There is no point in holding onto anger of any kind, there is so much going on around you if you take the time to look, that to tell you the truth you really don’t need anything more than that. The real deal at the end of the day is to find yourself and be happy. Enjoy your life!

Love, peace and big muscles,

OVER-TRAINING: COULD TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING END UP BEING BAD?

Even the best of us will at one point or another be the victims of over-training. I guess it’s a bump on the road that we all have to go through, so that we can understand what it really means. The most common reason of over-training is letting ourselves get motivated by our feelings; then we stop thinking with our brain and we let our heart take over. The outcome is pushing yourself for that extra mile even though you have the gut feeling that you really should stop. It is just like the double bladed knife I mentioned in the earlier post.... leaning too much on either side and you could end up hurting yourself.

Another reason why people over-train is because they see advanced athletes and pro training like crazy; lifting heavy weights and doing long sessions of cardio with little difficulties. So they think they can do the same. But we forget that most of them have support which helps them recover faster than the average Joe, or that some of them are genetically gifted in such a way that over-training doesn’t really mean anything to them.

So what do you really have to do? You have to learn to start reading your body, and spotting the signs of over-training. There is no point in panicking, just take a step back, take that extra breath of air and think about:

1. How is your body reacting to the workout? Are there improvements or is it all going downhill?
2. Your strength; are you getting stronger or weaker?
3. How much recovery time do you take after workouts? Do you maybe need more?
4. Are you doing too much cardio?
5. How is your diet? Do you maybe need more calories or a more frequent re-feed?
6. What is your mental state like, are you feeling down?

7. Washed-put feeling, tired, drained, lack of energy?

8. Are you stressed?

9. Have you been sleeping well or are you walking around like a zombie?

10. How is your appetite? Has it decreased?
11. Are you bored of the same gym routine or diet?
12. When was the last time you really got away from the gym?

And yes, over-training has happened to me a number of times too. And I had to pay the price, as we all have to. Sometime this is a small price, but sometimes it can be a lot bigger. But hopefully this post will help some of you avoid over-training or at least be able to spot the signs of it before it happens!

Love, peace and big muscles.

SOME OBSTACLES ARE JUST STEPPING STONES FOR GREATER ACHIEVEMENTS...

I would say that over this past year or so, I really realized that nothing comes as easy as we are told it does when we are little. I guess it is a way of not scaring us away from our dreams. But now it seems that the closer we get to the targets we want to achieve, the more personal, physical and psychological obstacles seem to pop up, as if out of nowhere. Now I know that this might also be a good thing, because this certain pain lets you know that you are on track and doing well. Little obstacles cannot do anything to stop you, even though at the time it might seem like the end of the world and you may think that there is no way that you can really continue....It is all just a test of life to see how much hunger you have inside.

It is like when a hiker sets out on a hike up a mountain. He has everything figured on that map he is carrying and he is happy as a fat kid with cake. The start of the hike is quite easy, he has energy, his food and supplies. Towards the middle however, as the mountain steepens, he becomes increasingly tired. His energy supplies start running low and as the air becomes lighter it becomes harder for him to breath. This is the point where the hiker faces his first test: he can easily turn around and go back, and say it was too much for him. But what about that feeling of personal failure that he would carry inside? Or he could push himself, knowing that he just needs to press on that little bit more and if he does, he will feel like the first person to have reached the top of the mountain.

Just want to say, don't be scared of these 'obstacles' or pain. It is a way of building up your character, and testing to see how much you really want those goals or achievements... be they professional or personal, big or small...

“If there is a will there is always a way”
“The sky is the limit”

Love, peace and big muscles.

THE RUSH OF BODYBUILDING

The other day I was asked which part of bodybuilding gives you that certain rush, that makes you want to go further and further, achieving more and more. Is it the buzz you get from going on stage in front of all those people, is it simply feeling that certain energy... or is it altogether something else?

I told them that I really hate going on the stage. It is the worst part for me, maybe because I am kind of a shy guy, and I never really enjoyed it. The thing that actually keeps me going is the challenge of competing against myself; trying to lift that heavier weight, trying to push to that certain rep, trying to achieve that certain sense of self-accomplishment. It is all about seeing how dedicated you are on the diet, seeing how far you are going for the target you set and trying to be the best for yourself and no-one else. When you finally see yourself improving and notice the areas that you still lack in, you can just try to tie them all together so you can achieve that perfect image that you had in mind when you just started.

Basically, it comes down to the rush of seeing yourself evolve in the gym – all the way from day one until that certain set date. It is like your body is a lump of clay and you are the artist; slowly day by day you mould the clay into a certain shape adding your own details. Then, after a certain amount of weeks of putting your heart and soul into it, you end up with something that can be called your best.

I thought that I would post this blog to let you all know why I love this sport so much. It is truly all about challenging myself – I do it for myself and no-one else.

Love, peace and big muscles.

BODY FITNESS PUBLICATION

WHEN THINGS DON’T GO ACCORDING TO PLAN

Today I just realized that nothing is really carved into stone. There really are no set rules for diets or training... or for anything else in our everyday lives. The sooner we realize that every individual has different demands and needs – for an example, different people have different body types, different metabolisms, different characters – the faster it is that we can improve ourselves by adjusting things according to our individual needs.
This brings me back to school days when my teachers would ask me why I was not more like the quieter boys, who would study and not mess around so much. I answered that if we were all the same, the world would be a real boring place. We need individuality to spice things up a little so that the world does not become monotonous.
But getting back to the subject... the reason why I was inspired to blog about this topic is because today I had a certain workout planned for me. But when I arrived at the gym to get down to training, I didn’t have that certain edge needed to train as heavy as the program required; for some reason I felt weak and tired and lacked the motivation. So I adjusted the workout plan and trained lighter, with a faster tempo to exhaust the muscle as much as I could in order to get it stimulated. It really worked. Instead of only training heavy, I added pre and post exhaustion exercises and some dropdowns and the result was great. I really felt the muscle being trained.
So at the end, I just want to say that variety is the spice of life and nothing is carved into stone. Learn how to improvise your training and diets (and even your everyday life) to suit yourself rather than just following the written rules.

Love, peace and big muscles.

SHOULDERS,TRAPS AND TRICEPS WORKOUT

Here is my yesterday’s workout which I did with Razmataaz. It was shoulders, traps and triceps. We were both in a rush so we had to improvise some exercises a little, but overall I think it’s an ok program. Enjoy!

FRONT DELTS

Exercise one: (heavy)
Hammer strength shoulder press
2-3 sets warm-up. 20 reps nice and light with a full range of motion
4 working sets:
• Set one 15 reps
• Set two 8-10 reps
• Set three 4-6 reps (heavy)
On these three sets increasing weight to failure.
• Set four 15+ reps with lightish weight just to get a nice pump. Finish with static 15 sec

Exercise two: (dropdowns)
Standing D/B lateral raises
3 working sets which each set consisting of 3 dropdowns of 10-12 reps

Exercise three: (medium/heavy)
Reverse grip z-bar raises
3 working sets
• Set one 12 reps
• Set two 12 reps
• Set three 10reps

REAR DELTS & TRAPS

Exercise one: (dropdowns)
Seated rear delt machine 3 working sets which each set consisting of 3 dropdowns of 10-12 reps

Exercise two:
Hammer strength shrug machine (heavy)
3 working sets
• Set one 10 reps
• Set two 10 reps

Use heavy weight to failure on each set. Also try to touch your ear lobes with your shoulder and bend slightly forwards while squeezing traps on the top on each set.

TRICEPS

Exercise one: (pre-exhaustion)
Seated one arm cable over head extension
3 working sets
• Set one 30 reps
• Set two 20 reps
• Set three 15-20 reps

I used lightish weights on these three sets as it is just a pre-exhaustion exercise but I did increase slightly the weight in each set. DON’T FORGET THE FULL RANGE OF MOTION GOING FOR THAT STRETCH.

Exercise two: (medium/heavy)
Straight bar cable push down
3 working sets
• Set one 12 reps
• Set two 10 reps
• Set three 10 reps

Nothing special on this exercise. Just remember full range of motion in each set and increasing weight. Don’t cheat.

Exercise three: (dropdowns)
Ropes push downs 3 working sets which each set consisting of 3 dropdowns of 10-12 reps

Love, peace and big muscles.

DO GOOD GUYS AND ASSHOLES GET THE SAME RESPECT AT THE END OF THE DAY?

I have been thinking about this question for a while now. I feel that when you do something good, just out of the goodness of your heart, you often get the response ‘look at that idiot’ because you did something not wanting, or probably getting, anything in return. But if you are a real asshole to people, you are also labelled as an idiot.

So how do you win at the end of the day? Is the world turning us all into jerks? Well I hope not, lol. But the way things are going, it seems that the winners and the ones who get most respect are the jerks.

I gave this topic a lot of thought, and came to some conclusions of my own. A jerk or an asshole is a person with the absence of good in his life, or love to put it in more emotional terms. It is a person who is scared to show any emotion or feelings so he finds ways to put people down in order to make himself feel better. Because he doesn’t know good, and doesn’t see good he is always expecting something in return for whatever he does. And ultimately, he is never at peace with his inner self.

A good hearted person on the other hand, or the goody as they say in movies, is the person that has the good inside him, and will do good because he feels like it, and not because he wants something back. He is happy to do good, happy to see people achieve targets and goals and is not scared to show his emotions, helping people in whatever way he can. Basically, he is at peace with his inner self, and has no frustrations or hate or anger within him.

Not quite sure why I write this but it is something that has been making me think for a while now. Hope it will inspire some of you to be the good guy rather than the asshole! Make the world a nicer place...

Love, peace and big muscles.

WELL I GUESS IT IS TIME TO STOP THE TALK, AND GET TO WORK.

Moving on from philosophising about the sport and how it affects our everyday lives, I am posting a programme that I did, and that I though worked quite well. Here is my leg work out from last week. I was real happy with it – though of course, I know some you guys out there may say ‘hey you over-did this’ or ‘that could have been better’... and that’s ok. Improvements could always be made.

Anyway, here it is, hope you enjoy it, and feel free to post comments about it if you have tried it out.

Warm-up

Stationary bike for about 3-5mins, nice and light to get the blood flowing.

Quads

Exercise one:

Barbell squats (heavy) - feet to be positioned a bit wider than shoulder width

A warm up set of 20 reps nice and light with a full range of motion

4 working sets

• Set one: 10 reps

• Set two: 8 to 10 reps

• Set three: 6 to 8 reps

On these three sets increasing weight to failure.

• Set four: 15 plus reps with lightish weight just to get a nice pump

Exercise two:

Leg extensions (dropdowns)

• 3 working sets which each set consisting of 3 dropdowns of 12 to 15 reps

Exercise three:

Leg press (heavy) – feet in closed position

3 working sets

• Set one: 10 reps

• Set two: 10 reps

• Set three: 6 reps

On these three sets increasing weight to failure.

Exercise four:

Hack squat (dropdowns) - feet to be positioned shoulder width

• 3 working sets which each set consisting of 3 dropdowns of 6 to 8 reps with heavyish weight

Hamstrings

Exercise five:

Stiff leg dead-lifts with Barbell

• 3 working sets of 12 to 15 reps

Full range of motions going down as much as you can to feel the hamstrings stretch. Stay on a good, comfortable weight.

Exercise six:

Laying down hamstring curls (dropdowns)

• 4 working sets which each set consisting of 3 dropdowns of 6 to 8 reps with heavyish weight

Love, peace and big muscles.

WHAT IS THE BEST MOTIVATOR AND WILL IT GET YOU ALL THE WAY?

Hate and anger, finding peace and love within, or slowly seeing yourself develop into the picture you had in mind when you just started?

For me, being a bodybuilder or a fitness athlete is like a work of art. You start off with an empty, white canvas and you slowly give life to it by finding ideas and motivation to paint a picture to perfection. The picture can be anything you want it to be... colorful and full of live, or dark and mysterious...

But what really motivates you to reach that end goal? Personally, my biggest achievements were reached through hate and anger. However, this is not the healthiest means of motivation. In fact, it is a double-edged blade and it is pretty hard to balance in the middle; your strong emotions can push you over the limit and this can lead to you harming yourself. And then when all the anger and hate disappears, what keeps you going? For me, it is about seeing myself develop slowly from that white piece of canvas to a form of art which I am proud of, and also making my close ones – which help me reach my target goals – feel proud and enabling them to play a part in my success.

So at the end of the day, when all that frustration and hate is gone, the long term motivator is in finding peace within yourself. Because all that hate and anger which is such a strong motivator initially, doesn’t really last that long and is not healthy ... its expiry date comes as soon as you reach that certain goal. But the true winner is the one that continues achieving successive goals AND is truly happy inside, rather than just showing a fake happiness on the exterior.

So what is my conclusion? Well I guess I’ll leave it to you to decide. At the end of the day, there is no definitive answer and no-one can say that they know it all. I just share some thoughts with you which I hope may help you on your own path to success.

Love, peace and big muscles.

SETBACKS.

Even the best of us have setbacks, personal or professional, at some point in our lives. I guess it is a means of making you stronger, and getting you to realize how badly you want that certain target. It is also a way of shaking us down, and telling us that we are still human with feelings, and not just walking robots.

I’m writing about this because I also had a number of setbacks in life; times when I panicked and thought ‘this is it’. At those points, everything that I would usually say to my clients and my friends about overcoming obstacles and setbacks would just go down the drain. Just like when you are at school, and writing an exam, everything you had known before, everything you had studied, suddenly disappears when you are sitting staring at that blank paper.
I guess it is different when it happens to you from when you are simply advising somebody else. I just want to say that at the end of the day, we are all human and the true winner is the one who is able to overcome that setback, who learns from it, who gets better and stronger, and who is able to get right back on that track to achieving that certain goal in life... whatever it may be.

Love, peace, and big muscles.

HEAVY TRAINING VS LIGHT TRAINING

The quickest answer from most would be to lift as much weight as you can while doing as many reps as possible in good form, which really works to get a muscular physique eventually.

Basically overloading on your weights will stress the muscle which leads to small tears in the muscle that will build back and grow bigger with the proper rest and diet, of course, preparing you for the next heavy workout.
But as all things in life there is a limit, and the body finally stops gaining so much or so easily.
At this point is where another training principle comes in to shock us. Lift lighter weight with higher reps to stimulate the muscle differently into growth.

But can you really build muscle with light weights and high reps? Yes indeed!

Haven’t you ever noticed that pros as well as amateurs compete in their older ages and wondered how?

A couple of factors:

1. Supplementation/Diets

2. Better Training Methods

3. More Rest

4. And more precautions with regards to their health

Everybody has heard of heavy or HIT training (High Intensity Training) you gain muscle mass with this method, thick dense muscle, but even Dorian said that HIT training affected the length of his career and he eventually had to stop competing, so is training heavy with low reps ideal? At the end of the day it truly works however you pay the price. But would all these athletes achieve what they had if they did not train heavy? Well honestly it’s a big dilemma, I would say mixing it up they could have seen better results and endured longer careers, achieving even more.

To offer you one of my training principles as an example I train 3 weeks heavy low reps and then 1 weeks moderately light and high reps, I might even throw in a drop-down or super-set to shock the muscles even more and to spice up the workout regime.

In conclusion my answer is YES, even with light weights you can achieve muscle gains, the reason being that light training increases the number of red blood vessels feeding the muscles more leading to growth while heavy training does the opposite, decreasing the amount of red blood cells supplied to the muscle but on the other hand causing microscopic damage to the muscle fibers forcing them to repair and grow.

So at the end of the day MIX IT UP PEOPLE! and try to look out of the box don't be steroid types with your workouts do not limit yourselves. Just as I do. It’s safer due to a smaller risk of injury and you don’t really get bored of your workout, keeping things interesting. Remember variety is the spice of life!

The video below is with me,Neil Hill, Kris Gethin and Marika Johansson using the Y3T training principle for a quad workout

.

Peace and Love and big muscles

The Trainer...The Mentor... The Bodybuilder's Best Friend

Bodybuilding is not a solo effort by any means. Some might think that because its just you and the weights, and you and your diet, it is all about you. True achievers have people behind them to help them rise. Anyone who thinks he can do it on there own has a big ego and ultimately, his head will get in the way of his success.

When you are training for a competition, there is an entire support team in place that you may or may not appreciate. Roommates, lovers, parents, friends... they all share the same goal that you have, and in little ways, do their part to get you there. Ask yourself some questions and you'll be surprised. How did you learn your training routine? How did you perfect it and develop it? How did you develop your diet? Most likely, from people who know about the best ways to grow your muscles and the foods that provide the fuel for the highest success and they provide the advice willingly and kindly. Even your neighborhood butcher makes the extra effort to give you the cleanest, leanest meat. Some people help more directly. Your training partner pushes you on those days that you just aren't particularly bothered to [more on this topic to come]. As we all know, the fitness sport is extremely trying to your emotions and you often times find yourself mentally exhausted. The support from your close ones, partners, family... it really gets you through at the end of the day. The enthusiasm they share for you and that they cheer you on helps you feel good and the you get pumps the needed motivation into your program. The regulars and owners at the gym where you work out are probably among your biggest admirers, and maybe they open early to help you get your cardio in on time. I remember when I first started, dieting was one of the hardest areas for me, and I actually had my mother lock the kitchen door, hide the key, and on particularly difficult nights, lock me in my room. I know it sounds extreme, but you have to do what you have to do! The trainer is obviously the largest part of your support team because he puts you on the straight road.

One of the biggest fitness challenges that we encounter is our vision of ourselves.

The trainer might not know more than you in terms of muscle development, diets, and routines, but at a certain time when you compete, in the middle of your preparation, you go blind... you become like an adolescent who can't see the progress and your self-image suffers. Like a child with a mother, you need that guidance. Kai Green uses the analogy of the Rocky films, when Micky shouts at Rocky about how to fight when he's in the ring. Of course Rocky knows how to fight, but at that time in the ring, he’s blinded and he needs the extra help. Our trainer is our Micky, because in that moment, when we are getting ready for a show, you need the extra voice and eye to remind you to step forward or back, even though you know it already.

Where is the loneliness in the sport? If you reflect honestly, you will find your road cluttered with people who are following you wherever you want to go.

Peace and Love and big muscles.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK: Cheesecake

I'm feeling a little sweet lately so this week, my recipe satisfies the craving without the guilt.

CHEESECAKE SEMIFREDDO

1 jar of sugar-free marmalade (flavor of choice)

1 packet of Low-Fat Digestive Bisquits

1/2 stick of margarine

1 packet of low-fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese

Hand full of walnuts (or almonds)

The Crust:

Crush the bisquits. Soften margarine, and add to crumbs. Mix until pasty. (Sometimes, less margarine may be required to achieve desired texture). Spread paste onto a 9x9 inch pan.

Filling:

Soften cream cheese and add walnuts. Fill crust with mix. Spread marmalade to taste on top. Refrigerate for at least one hour or until firm.

Enjoy!

Love and Peace and big muscles.