Saturday 28 April 2012

Greg Plitt


Greg Plitt is a fitness model, actor, and an ex-military ranger. In my opinion, he has one of the best bodies and physiques on this planet. He appeared on more than 100 magazine covers, in about 10 movies, and he owns a webpage which contains tons of his healthy food recipes and training videos.



Check out his other videos too, as the speeches that he gives are often very motivating.

Friday 27 April 2012

Gym fails compilation

Some of the fails are pretty brutal, some are funny. Glad nothing like this happened to me yet. What about to you?




Monday 23 April 2012

Brad Pitt's Fight Club diet

Brad Pitt's physique in movie Fight Club has become kinda legendary. Many people look up to it while trying to get fit. I'll cover Brad's diet and exercise routine in this article. The fact that his body fat was really low (~5%) made it possible, as he stated, to have awesome abs without doing any straight-ab exercise.








He did 3 sets per exercise - 15 reps per set with weight that would make the last one go to failure, and more reps when doing bodyweight exercises.
Short rest time - 60 seconds between each set.

Monday – Chest
75 push ups
bench press – 25, 15, 8 rep
nautilus press
incline press
pec deck machine

Tuesday – Back
25 pull ups
seated rows
lat pull downs
t bar rows

Wednesday – Shoulders
arnold pres
laterals
front raises

Thursday – Biceps & Triceps
preacher curl machine
ez curls cable
hammer curls
push downs

Friday – Cardio

Saturday – Cardio

Sunday – Rest

 Now the most important part - diet. He followed a very strict, healthy diet - eating 6 times a day, with only supplement being whey protein powder. It looked like this:

Morning snack:  canned tuna in wholewheat pita wraps.
Lunch:  2 chicken breasts, with 75-100 grams of brown rice and green vegetables.
Afternoon snack:  protein bar or whey protein shake and 1 banana (this was pre-workout time).
Post-workout snack:  another whey protein shake and 1 banana.
Supper:  grilled fish or chicken, more brown rice, veggies and a large salad.
Bedtime snack:  low fat cottage cheese or a casein protein shake.

 I recommend to watch this movie, if you already haven't!


Saturday 21 April 2012

Slovak bodybuilding

Very nice video made by Zhasni, which makes me proud to be part of this nation and makes me wanna work as hard as I can to represent it.


Thursday 19 April 2012

Kai Greene - I got a Dream

Kai Greene is the one whose videos I watch for motivation. His speeches, his life story, his personality is what makes him truly special in the world of bodybuilding.



Tuesday 17 April 2012

Stefan Havlik

I will start with one of my favourite bodybuilders - Stefan Havlik. Being from the same country as me - Slovakia - and being called The King of Slovakian bodybuilding, I always support him in international contests. Born in 1975 in Kosice, he's been training for about 15 years now.
His most notable achievement is winning Arnold Classic Amateur overall in 2012, allowing him to get his pro-card. He, however, declined it with words: "I'm gonna wait a few years until I can really compete with the big guys, I don't wanna be just a placeholder there."


You can get more info and all of his achievements on his facebook page


Best muscle building foods

There is food you should avoid, and there is food that you pretty much can't go without if looking to boost your muscles. Food rich in protein, food that raises your growth hormone levels, or contains important vitamins. Here are some examples:

Beef - not only it is a great source of protein, it also contains cholesterol, zinc, iron and vitamin B.
Brown rice - this whole-grain type of rice is slow digesting and provides you with energy long after you eat it. Furthermore, it boosts growth hormone.
Eggs - eggs are pure protein, and yolks also contain cholesterol - but don't be fooled, eating yolks is actually proven to lower your bad cholesterol levels.
Cottage cheese - another excellent source of protein which I have lately kinda fallen in love with, it is best to eat before sleeping as it contains casein - slowly digesting protein which will fuel your muscles through the night.
Milk - contains both whey protein and casein, so can be drank both before/after workout and before going to bed. Try to get organic milk which has 70% more omega-3 fatty acids than regular milk.
Oranges - have one before workout to boost your endurance, strenght and muscle growth.
Spinach, broccoli - both are good sources of glutamine and are considered one of the most "fit" vegetables that should be in everyone's diet.
Ezekiel bread - contains all 9 amino acids that body can't produce.


Branch Warren - No more sorrow

A tribute video to Branch Warren (recently won Arnold Classic). The music fits in perfectly too, so I liked this one very much. Check it out.


Monday 16 April 2012

My chest routine

As monday is my chest day, I thought I would quickly share my routine with you.

Decline smith machine press - 5 sets (pyramid) - this is probably my favorite exercise, I simply can't wait to do it
Incline dumbbell press - 3 sets
Dips (chest version)
Flyes - 3 sets

Going to failure in each set is crucial for maximum muscle growth, so try to do it. If you have trouble going to failure, ie many repetitions and still can't reach it, simply switch to higher weight. I also try to add atleast 2 kilos to my bench press every monday to see how much have I improved.


Post-workout tips

What is the best to eat after working out? With correct food and supplements, you can maximise the effectiveness of your workout. Who wouldn't want that?

Protein
There are two basic types of protein - whey and casein.
Whey protein is crucial for your post-workout growth. It is absorbed in body very fast and is able to supply your muscles with amino acids which build new muscle. 30 grams should be enough.
Casein is absorbed slowly. It will start getting digested after the whey protein has been used, so your muscles won't be starving. Try to have 10-15 grams.

Carbohydrates
Another important thing to have are simple sugars. They raise insulin level in body and help deliver protein and other nutrients into muscles. Your glycogen stores were also emptied, and sugars refill them. Amount to take varies on your weight and goal, 20-80 grams.

Creatine
Creatine will not only aid you in gaining mass and strenght, it also helps you recover and will be stored in your body for next workout. 3-5 grams is enough.


Saturday 14 April 2012

Diet: Bulking

This diet will enhance your muscle mass gains, but it will also make amount of fat stored in your body higher. Bodybuilders use bulking to gain more muscle, and then they switch to cutting diet before going on stage to get rid of the fat and to get toned.
Here is an example of bulking diet. Amounts of food depend on your weight.
Breakfast
Whole eggs
Oats
Coffee

Meal 2
Lean steak
Brown rice

Meal 3
Chicken
Sweet potato
Broccoli

Meal 4
Fish
Brown rice
Broccoli


Meal 5
Chicken
Sweet potato
Broccoli

Pre-workout
Tilapia
Brown rice
Coffee

Post-workout
Protein shake with creatine and glutamine

Meal 6
Lean steak
Broccoli


Diets


Your daily nutrient intake varies depending on your goal – do you want to lose excess fat? Gain lean muscle mass? Or both at the same time? In following articles I will give examples of different diets that might give you an idea about what balanced diet and organised eating look like. You can and should customise these to your own preferences and your body weight. However, you should always try and have the meal at the given time – skipping it or having meal 1 simultaneously with meal 2 because you didn’t have time will only slow you down from reaching your dreamy physique. 


Friday 13 April 2012

Water importance

Water is the single most important fluid for you. When you do not have enough of it, your whole body feels weaker. It is needed for every process in body.

1. Amount to drink
Generally advised is to drink 6-8 glasses per day. This, however, depends on your body weight and your goal. Higher weight and unordinary goals require more amounts of water. Every time you ask yourself how much you are gonna drink this day, the answer should be - more.

2. Water cleans body
It clears your body of toxins and other unneeded stuff. It's important while on protein diet to get rid of excessive nitrogen, urea, and ketones.

3. Liver
Your kidneys are dependant on water, and if they do not get enough of it, they can't function properly. Their job is then transferred to liver, which will process much less fat when doing both it's and kidneys' job, and will store the fat in body instead.
Water can also suppress your hunger and make you feel more full.

4. Fluid retention
Although it may logically seem opposite, water actually rids your body of excess water. This happens because of body getting used to receive a lot water every day, and it excluded the water stored in extra-cellular space. As a result of this, your muscles will get more toned and shredded.



High Intensity Interval Training

Often abbreviated as HIIT or HIT, this form of training can be applied to both aerobic exercises (cardio) and weightlifting. It is proven to burn more fat than classic exercising (CE), in the same or even less time.
While HIIT is a better way to burn fat, it is much harder to do than distance running. A person that's able to run 5kms by slow or medium paced jogging in one session might not be able to run 5kms by  HIIT.
The concept of HIIT is to alternate between sprinting and slow jogging/walking in ratio 1:2. I will give you an example of full exercise.

3 minute warm up - light/medium jogging
10x 30 seconds of sprinting followed by 1 minute of light jogging
3 minute cooldown - light jogging

After 5 rounds of sprinting/jogging you take a rest and walk for as long as needed - however keep it to minimum.


Thursday 12 April 2012

Speeding up your metabolism

Many people trying to lose fat reach for drastic methods like limiting their calories too much or even starving. In fact, it's bad for your body and doesn't help you to lose fat. Instead of starving yourself, you should try these tips:

1. Eating often
Try eating at least 5 times a day, or go for 6-7 if it's possible. Have a small meal every 2-3 hours, and never skip a meal - it will do no good. If you are at work or school most of the day like me, prepare your food the previous day or in the morning and take it with you. Note that the meals should be small - not the size you were used to before, when eating 3 huge meals.

2. Have a breakfast
Breakfast is the first meal of the day, the "starter" for your body. Have everything in it.
- for proteins you can choose eggs, milk or other dairy products - you can also go for a protein shake
- for carbohydrates, have a whole wheat bread, a banana, or any mix of berries
- for fats, I like to go for peanut butter or some fish

3. Protein
Eating protein with every meal will help you feel more full - as apposed to most of the diets which will left you hungry and crazy for more food. Protein also help body release and burn fats.



4. Drinking
Water. Drink it. And drink a lot of it. There's no better drink than water to keep you hydrated, and since it has 0 calories, you can have as much of it as you want. Suggested amount is at least 3 litres per day - but my personal advice is to go for 4-5 litres.

5. Sleep
Try to have a good night sleep - about 8 hours. If you wake up in the morning after a short and bad quality sleep, your body will be tired and incapable of processing calories, because it didn't get enough time to repair muscles and grow. This could lead to storing additional fat in the body and slowing your metabolism.