WE ARE WHAT WE ABSORB...

Sounds strange right? We have all grown up hearing the saying ‘we are what we eat’ but to be honest, it doesn’t quite work that way.

Remember being at school? I know I’m making you think way back now but I remember having 2 hour classes back to back but after about 30-40 minutes I would lose my concentration and start messing around in class. The remaining time in class was an utter waste because I didn’t really absorb or learn anything else after those 30-40 minutes had passed, instead I just became bored of the class and teacher teaching it.

So how does this apply to nutrition...........?

Say I cook a piece of chicken and in terms of protein it is worth 70g. An average male would adsorb between 25-30g. However if that person that trains a lot he can absorb from 35g maybe even 40g (Please put in mind this amounts are just so you guys can get a general picture). 

But what happens to the rest of that protein? 

It becomes waste, extra calories your body will have to get worked up to burn so there isn’t any real value in eating that amount. It would make sense to use that amount of protein to make 2 meals because otherwise you just making your body go under unnecessary strain in order for it can get rid of the protein that it won’t absorb.

The body likes things to get absorbed quickly and easily without a lot of stress. That is why the metabolism works faster when you eat small frequent meals, rather than bigger infrequent meals. I mean it’s pretty simple if you think about it for a sec and the best example is the Formula 1 cars.

Their tanks get filled up with fuel after a certain number of rounds, it is never filled up completely to begin with because if it was it would mean more weight for the car and the car would not go as fast. The same theory applies to our metabolism in a way. Therefore my advice is to keep meals small and spread throughout the day.

A typical male can have approximately 25g-40g of protein per meal, 150g to 250g per day. However this does depends on a number of factors such as body type/activity/needs/target.

A typical female can have approximately 15-25g per meal, 80 to 120g protein per day. This also depends on the female’s body type/activity/needs/target.

In terms of carbs and fat intake im not going to go there im just keeping things plain and simple.

If you guys want any advice, tips etc..... just drop me a message here or find me on Twitter or Facebook Nick Anthony

Love peace and big mucsles.

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.

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

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Peace and Love and big muscles

Sets and Reps... Is Less More?

About seven years ago, I discovered a gym in London called Muscle Works. I'm sure you have heard of it, but for those who don’t know, this gym is one of the leading bodybuilding gyms in the U.K. It's like a mecca for those who bodybuild. The owner is Savvas, or Uncle Sav as I affectionately call him, and he also is Cypriot. This gym has the best atmosphere for training. It is a proper, old school, hard-core gym. It's a no-bullshit gym. You can see the hunger in its patrons to be the best. It is a very competitive atmosphere, and it is a great place to feed from the motivation in the air.

http://www.muscleworksgym.co.uk/

Anyways, Uncle Sav and I were discussing the amount of sets per exercise. This was back in a time when I would do 3 sets of each exercise which, if you do the math, added up to 12 sets. Basically, 3 sets of 4 exercises. He asked the question none have asked before as we have all been mainstreamed to do the 3 sets since we began our exercise routines. "Why three?"

I didn’t know what to answer. It was something I had placed little thought into before. He pressed further: "If 3 is good, 4 is better, and 6 will be the real deal, so why not do 6 sets per exercise?"

At that point, he introduced me to the concept of over-training [more on this subject to come]. It is important to pay careful attention to your body and the feeling you have after each set. It can be true that after the second set, you have reached your "peak" and any set thereafter would only mean over-training. In other words, you would push your body into catabolic state. This, as any bodybuilder would agree, is exactly the opposite of what you are trying to accomplish. It would be working backwards instead of forward. So, the question then remains: How can we prevent pushing our bodies into catabolic state while still working hard enough to reach our goals?

Too much of a good thing, as is always the case, turns into a bad thing. It is important to focus on intensity moreso than quantity, back to the old adage about quality being superior to quantity. This is especially true in all aspects of fitness, whether you are building muscles or maintaining firmness. The biggest detriment to reaching your desired physical condition is over-training. It is important to pay attention to the signals of your body. When your muscles feel fully pumped, and the burning sensation is prominent, learn to stop. It is sometimes difficult to realize that it is time to stop because we often train with our hearts instead of our brains [more on this topic to come]. Our instinct is to keep pushing ourselves and fight through the pain, to feed our ego with our impressive number of sets and weights, but ultimately, the important thing (our goal) is being pushed further and further away from us.

So, instead of paying so much attention to our egos, we should pay more attention to our bodies, and we will reach our goals more effectively, save our energy for other aspects of our life, and we will be happier and in better physique. But by doing that extra rep, which we are conditioned to do, might actually backfire, and you lose what you achieved in that exercise.

Give one-hundred percent in two sets (instead of three or more) lifting your full weight capacity, doing the maximum reps at that weight... in other words, your 100%, would be equal of doing 3 to 4 sets of 60% or less.

Less is better at the end of the day for achieving our fitness goals. High intensity, less training. Make that your new mantra.

Love and Peace and big muscles.