Thor Bjornsson (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson) plays Gregor Clegane in the hit HBO show Game of Thrones and his massive size isn’t based on a small diet plan.
The Mountain Who Rides posted on Instagram his entire meal plan:
7:30am Breakfast: Eight eggs, 200g of oats, blueberries, strawberries and avocado.
9:30am Second Breakfast: 400g of Beef, 400g of sweet potatoes, and a handful of spinach and greens.
11.50am: Glutamine and BCAA.
Noon Lunch: 400g of chicken plus 400g of potatoes, with greens and some fruits.
2:00pm Snack: A shake consisting of 50g oats or sweet potatoes, 2 bananas 150g Kelloggs Rice Krispies, frozen berries, a handful almonds, peanut butter and glutamine .
On Tuesday, Thor posted a video of himself on Instagram lifting 705lbs
2:30pm: Strongman training and more supplements.
5:30pm Snack: 60g of protein and two bananas.
6:00pm Dinner: 500g of beef with potatoes and greens.
8:30pm Second Dinner: 500g of salmon plus 500g of sweet potatoes.
10:30pm Late Night Snack: Six eggs with avocado, almonds and peanut butter.
Thor says that he drinks a lot of water throughout the day, plus juices to get in more calories. He also added that in addition to this massive food intake, he also snacks on more protein or a few more raw eggs in the middle of the night.
The Icelander has been Europe’s Strongest Man two years running and has placed in the top three of the World’s Strongest Man for the past four years. Perhaps, he’ll take the crown for the World his next go at it.
This is definitely a dietary lifestyle that isn’t for everyone!
One question that often plagues bodybuilders is whether or not to use steroids. They want to know how effective steroids actually are compared to staying natural. Also, they are concerned by the risks. By reading this, you’re taking an important step to educating yourself prior to answering this question for yourself.
HOW EFFECTIVE ARE STEROIDS?
Simply said, a “steroid” is an “anabolic steroid” which is a man-made substance that has similar effects to the body as testosterone, including increased muscle growth, strength, leanness and recovery.
While testosterone itself is the best known steroid, there are many others that are quite popular among athletes and bodybuilders, including:
Nandrolone
Stanozolol
Trenbolone
Oxandrolone
Deca Durabolin
Dianabol
Methandrostenolone
Boldenone
Oxymetholone
Drostanolone
Each of these have unique profiles in terms of potency, toxicity, side effects and synergism. They are combined in various ways to create different types of steroid “cycles” for different purposes and goals.
As I heard one popular bodybuilder say, “It takes a lot of hard work to build a top-tier physique, but it also takes a lot of drugs.”
The fact is that you can only build so much muscle and get so lean naturally.
One scientific study performed at Maastricht University found that during a period of 10 weeks, individuals who practiced resistance training while on anabolic steroids gained 4 to 11 pounds of lean muscle mass. Individuals who did weight training while using anabolic steroids gained 16 pounds of lean muscle mass in just 6 weeks.
There have been numerous studies on steroid use. The below graphic shows the results from a study at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.
43 men were divided into 4 groups
Group 1: Placebo with no exercise
Group 2: Testosterone with no exercise
Group 3: Exercise only
Group 4: Testosterone with exercise
All of the men were given a standardized diet to follow and the exercising subjects squatted and bench pressed three times per week for a total of twelve sets of six reps, with varying amounts of weights lifted in each workout. Muscle size was measured by MRI and strength was determined by actual one-rep maxes.
After 10 weeks, here’s what happened:
As you can see, the men who took testosterone and exercised gained 3x the amount of muscle mass compared to the men who exercised only.
As a sidenote: the men used 600 mg of testosterone per week, which is a moderate dosage by today’s standards.
RISKS OF STEROID USE
Steroids may not be as dangerous as some people think, yet anyone who uses steroids and thinks they are safe and harmless is “whistling past the graveyard.”
Some side effects of steroid use are reversible and some are not. Permanent damage is definitely possibly.
For example, reversible changes include testicular atrophy (shrinking), acne, cysts, oily hair and skin, elevated blood pressure and “bad” cholesterol levels, increased aggression and lowered sperm count.
Irreversible damage includes male pattern baldness, heart dysfunction, liver disease and gynecomastia (breast development aka “man boobs”).
Another downside of steroid use is the risk of biological and psychological addiction. 30% of steroid users develop a dependence syndrome. This occurs due to the “invincible” feeling while on a steroid cycle, opposed to the “low” they get on an off-cycle.
Some people argue that you can mitigate or even eliminate the risks of steroid use if you properly manage your drug cycles and health, but that is wishful thinking.
Every time you inject or swallow steroids, you put a lot of stress on your body and there’s a chance something can go very wrong.
For most of you guys out there, CARDIO sounds like a 4-letter word. When I first started training, I was told not to do cardio because I’d lose gains. I looked over at the treadmill with a big grin on my face and waved goodbye.
Years later, I finally was told the truth: steady-state cardio offers some serious advantages for lifters. Once I started incorporating it into my routine, I actually improved my performance in the weight room. True story.
TRAINING THE ENERGY SYSTEMS
To understand the value of steady-state cardio for lifters, we first need to understand what fuels our body. Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) is the currency our muscles use to pay for the work we do. ATP is the most basic form of energy and without it we’d be downright screwed.
We have 3 main energy systems we rely on to produce ATP:
ATP-PCr system: This system kicks ass, but can only do so for six to ten seconds at a time. It’s the fastest at producing energy, but requires more time to recover.
Glycolytic: This system is the intermediate one. It can hit hard and fast like the ATP-PCr system, but can’t sustain that for more than about 120 seconds of true work.
Aerobic: This bad boy is awesome when it gets going. It takes longer to get up and running, but it’s incredibly efficient and you can count on it for hours at a time.
High intensity forms of cardio such as sprints, and other HIIT-type training, work the ATP-PCr and glycolytic energy systems. This form of exercise is quick, dirty and straight to the point. You burn through a ton of ATP and glycogen in a short amount of time and you need longer to recover.
Aerobic cardio, on the other hand, can seemingly go on forever. Once you’re in the aerobic system, you can crank out ATP for hours on end thanks to its superior ATP production.
BENEFITS OF CARDIO
The most obvious point of cardio is that is easily improves body composition. In terms of physical development, the combination of resistance training and aerobic training is unmatched. This is likely due to the fact that resistance training increases metabolic rate, while aerobic training decreases hunger levels. Improved body composition also leads to increased leptin and insulin sensitivity, as well as increased testosterone and lower estrogen levels.
ADD CARDIO TO YOUR ROUTINE FOR NEW GAINS
One of the most long-standing arguments in the lifting world against aerobic training is that it wastes away muscle tissue. Lifters who have put in countless hours of work are worried they’ll see all of their hard work for their gains disappear. Poof!
This concern is a given and one that does seem to be a reality. But when done correctly, aerobic training won’t be responsible for destroying your gains in the weight room. In fact, it might be just what you need to move beyond the progress plateau.
If you’re still concerned, the perfect options for you would be cycling, swimming, rowing or even some time on the (dreaded) elliptical. The higher impact the cardio, the more muscle loss that’s likely to occur.
On occasion bodybuilders train large muscle groups such as legs and chest very intensely, often to the exclusion and neglect of other body parts. This selective training can result in muscular imbalance in which some muscles become stronger than others. This increases the risk of injury. From an aesthetic standpoint, the physique looks fitter and more proportional when all muscle groups are developed to their fullest potential.
DON’T NEGLECT THESE:
GLUTES
The key to developing the glutes is to perform specific exercises that isolate the major muscles of this area: the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and the gluteus minimus.
Here are several exercises that directly work the glutes:
Glute squat: Take a stance slightly wider than shoulder width. Descend slowly – past the point at which your thighs are parallel to the floor – while keeping your weight on your heels. Sit back as you move through the exercise. This action keeps the leverage and emphasis off the frontal thigh and squarely on the glutes. Slowly return to the starting position. Keep your glutes tight throughout the exercise.
Reverse hyper-extensions: Lie face down on the hyper-extension bench so that your legs are extended off the bench and form a right angle to your torso. Keeping your glutes tight and your legs together, lift your legs upward in an arc. Squeeze your glutes even more tightly as you reach the contracted position. Lower the legs in an arc.
Leg press with glute emphasis: To work the glutes on the leg press simply take a wide stance and place your feet high on the platform. Press up and down in a single, continuous movement. Keep constant tension on all working muscles as you push through the exercise.
Stiff-leg deadlift: This exercise is a pure glute-isolation movement. To begin the exercise bend forward and arch your back. Stretch your hamstrings at the bottom as you pick up the weight. Keeping your legs straight or slightly bent, slowly lift the bar.
At the top of the movement tighten your glutes, drive your hips forward and lock your knees. Then slowly return to the start position, pushing your abdominals toward the floor. Pivot at the hip joint and not with your lower back. Keep everything tight in the process.
ERECTORS
These muscles border each side of the spinal column. In people with poor abdominal tone, the erectors can become weakened and inflexible – a condition that can increase the inward curve of the back. This tends to lead to back strain and ultimately lower-back pain. Because strong abdominal muscles help support the spine and keep the back in proper alignment, a good idea is to regularly strengthen the abs as well as the erectors so that lower-back conditioning can be achieved and maintained.
Here are two exercises that will accomplish this:
Ab isolation: The type of abdominal exercise I recommend requires a partner and a slant board. Get into position by first hooking the insteps of your feet under the padded roller or bar at the top of the board. Then have your training partner lie face down behind you on the slant board. This position forms a cushion for your lower back and also secures the hip joint and lets you better isolate your abs during the exercise.
Clasp your hands behind your head and lift your torso up toward your knees. Keep your ab muscles completely tight and pulled in as you curl forward. Crunch down at the top of the movement. Then return to the starting position using the strength of your erector muscles. Be sure to pivot over your partner and not at your hip joint. Get a good stretch at the bottom of the movement.
Hyper-extension: This exercise is an excellent one for strengthening the lower back. Hook your heels under the hyper-extension apparatus so that your torso can move freely up and down. Clasping your hands behind your head, lower your torso toward the floor. Then slowly lift it up until your torso is parallel to the floor.
TRAPS
The trapezius muscles (known as the traps) are kite-shaped muscles that extend from the base of the neck down to the middle of the back. The traps deserve extra attention in training because they help support the shoulders and can be seen from the front of the physique.
The three best exercises for developing the traps are shrugs, lateral raises and behind-the-neck presses.
Shrugs: This exercise directly stresses the trapezius. Take a dumbell in each hand and hold them on each side of your body. Lift the dumbells while imagining being able to make your shoulders shrug as high as your ears. You can also perform shrugs with a barbell. Lift the weight using the strength of your traps. Be sure to squeeze your traps hard at the top of the movement. Lower the barbell and repeat the movement.
Behind-the-neck press: Sit on a bench or seat and take a wide grip on the barbell. Drop your shoulders and flex your lats. Press the weight to an overhead position and straighten your elbows. Then push the weight back slightly but without arching your back. This entire action isolates your delts. All the emphasis is right on your shoulders and traps. Lower slowly and repeat.
Lateral raise: With a dumbell in each hand and arms held along the sides of your body, lift the weights upward to about shoulder level. Keep your elbows rotated back. At the top of the movement lower your shoulders. Together the elbow and shoulder positions keep the stress firmly on your deltoids. Lower the dumbells and repeat.
FASCIAL STRETCHING
Fascial Stretching
To continue making gains you should incorporate my technique of fascial stretching – intense stretching between sets when the muscle is fully pumped – into your workouts. By opening up the area between the fascia (a protective sheath of connective tissue) and the muscle it surrounds, fascial stretching dramatically enhances muscular growth, size, separation and strength.
When the fascia is stretched the muscle underneath has more room to develop. Stretching also gives the muscle better shape, with more convolutions. As a result, muscular separation improves too. The overall effect is larger muscles and better separation between muscle groups.
Fascial stretching elicits responses in muscle groups that have reached sticking points in training. If you have a certain muscle that still seems at a stalemate in size, strength or appearance, then stretching that muscle will help you overcome these frustrating plateaus.
In addition, stretching loosens tight muscles, which tend to trap lactic acid. Lactic acid is a waste product that accumulates in muscle cells during hard training. When lactic acid builds up, muscular fatigue is the result. Stretching helps release lactic acid from muscle cells into the bloodstream so that lactic acid doesn’t interfere with muscular contraction. This loosening effect of stretching also helps you breathe better during workouts, thereby increasing your oxygen utilization for improved energy levels.
Fascial stretching is not a gentle, touch-your-toes type of exercise you might associate with conventional stretching. As the stretch begins the body part being trained is guided into position, stretched past the point of pain and then held in that position for about 10 seconds. You should exhale and relax as you go into the stretch. Do not hold your breath.
Bottom line: Pay more attention to your forgotten muscles, adding fascial stretches into your workout, and you’ll start making greater gains in size and symmetry in no time at all.
I hope you’re not one of those guys that think, “If I train hard in the gym, the drinks I had from partying this week are cancelled out.” Think again. I truly hate to burst your liquid beer bubble, but alcohol can impact your body’s ability to burn fat and also lead the way to severe health problems down the road.
Alcohol is a toxin, plain and simple. When you down a few beers, your body on the inside immediately goes to work to break it down. Alcohol (ethanol) is broken down into Acetyl CoA and NADH by an enzyme . What does this medical mumbo-jumbo mean for an athlete like you? Is booze actually even worse for athletes than it is for couch potatoes?
With the new Star Wars movie hitting theaters soon, I found it appropriate to fully engage jedi mind tricks. It’s time to use the power of the force to beat your food addiction.
Food is a drug. This is an undeniable fact. Like cocaine, you can become physiologically addicted and the body shows withdrawal symptoms. The body will also feel a “high” in the brain after consuming food. Eating when you’re emotional (stressed) produces real, physiological relief like taking a Valium.
People are still suggesting to use willpower and discipline to fight cravings and beat food addiction, but that isn’t the solution.
You need JEDI MIND TRICKS.
Your entire approach has to be different from just “fighting it.”
Figure Out Your Eating Type – Then Dominate It
In Mindless Eating, by Brian Wansink, PhD, he cleverly put many of us into five main categories based on our eating habits. Although categories aren’t new, his “catchy” category names can help you remember which kind of eater you are.
A. The Meal Stuffer – Meal stuffers eat primarily during mealtimes, but they stuff themselves and eat to excess. They often eat so quickly that they’re uncomfortably full after. These are the people with “great appetites” and often go back for seconds.
B. Snack Grazer – Snack grazers reach for food whenever it’s available. Convenience is usually the main reason. In other words, when food is available, they will constantly eat it as long as it’s there. Snacking is sometimes a nervous habit or something to do when bored. It’s popular for them to snack when watching TV, on the computer or reading.
C. The Party Binger – Party bingers usually work in corporate environments. Food is either a backdrop for business or fun and it’s easy to lose track of how much they eat or drink. Lots of social events, happy hours and business meetings equals lots of food and eating out.
D. The Restaurant Indulger – Restaurant indulgers are people who frequently eat out a lot at restaurants. Sometimes these are young college kids, other times they’re professionals who work a lot and don’t want to/don’t have time to cook. Thus, they eat out every day. Or, they simply enjoy restaurants – they eat whatever cuisine they want and don’t have to wash dishes. Restaurant dining is their simple life luxury.
E. Desktop/Dashboard Diner – Desktop diners speed eat while multitasking on the computer or driving. They usually do it to save time, but also do it just to avoid the hassle of getting a real lunch. These people often eat alone and are more focused on the tasks they are working on opposed to what they are putting in their mouth.
Now that you know your own eating type, avoid going to the dark side. Prepare for these situations by having escape plans and strategically build your day around them.
An easy secret is to: (1) know your cues, and (2) avoid them. Spend time for 1-2 weeks recording a few things in writing:
What time of the day do I crave food?
What moods make me crave food?
In what situations do I usually over eat?
With what people do I usually eat the wrong foods?
What places usually end up causing craving? (Do you pass a bakery on your drive to work and “have” to eat a morning bagel with cream cheese?)
Swap the routine. So, let’s say you know that you eat food when you’re bored. Every time you start to feel bored, find something to do. For example, if you’re at home and you’re tempted to stream Netlix and grab a bowl of popcorn, instead turn off the TV and go for a walk around the neighborhood. Or, make a task list of home chores that need to be done and start checking them off one-by-one. Be productive.
Do you suffer from mental chatter? I know that I do. I have a lot of self-talk going on when I try to fight food cravings. The more you focus on trying to talk yourself out of something, the stronger it becomes and the more it steals your attention. One of the easiest things you can do in regard to your mind is change your mental chatter.
Instead of looking at the ice cream and saying to yourself, “Oh man, that is my favorite flavor and tastes so good, ” tell yourself the truth, “I know I can’t have just one bite…I’ll eat the whole thing.” Next, remind yourself of your goals, “I will feel down on myself and totally regret this.”
I find that it’s helpful to not just “think” these thoughts, but to verbally say them. The mind is powerful, but what you say is even more powerful. Hear yourself say, “I don’t eat french fries or any fried foods” or “cheesecake will kill my gains.” It will quickly become part of your identity and pretty soon your mental chatter will end.
This doesn’t mean you can never eat a treat again. First, you need to fully control the addiction. Never “reward” yourself with food. Though it may seem impossible now, once you stop eating unhealthy foods, your body will eventually stop craving it. Sugar is the biggest food addiction, so when you conquer that one, be proud of your accomplishment.
The force is strong with you. Stronger than you think.
We all know that January is the time of year when the gym is packed to maximum capacity. Bodybuilders easily consider this the most dreaded month at the gym. You can’t find a bench, people are curling in the squat rack and weights are all over the floor.
Thankfully, the “New Year’s resolution” members get weeded out within a month or two if they even make it that long. There are a few that actually hold strong to their new fitness promise and stick with it. Bravo! But, the year is far from over. It’s only August, yet this is month many newbies start to burnout.
Ironically, this is also the time many old-school hard hitters get a bit tired. It’s the end of summer, after all. We’ve been playing in the sun with our shirts off, showing off our ripped physiques and tearing it up with the weights. When the shirts go back on, some of us tend to take it a bit easier on the bench.
Here are 4 of the best tricks to avoid workout burnout:
1. Stop Being A Hater
You don’t like to squat because your knees hurt. You don’t like to bench press because your gym partner benches more than you do. You don’t like to do push-ups because you think they’re pointless. The list goes on and you sound like a baby. Sure, we all have specific workouts we hate to do. Many guys dread leg day and you’ve seen plenty of photographic proof: guys with huge tops and small bottoms. What you hate is usually what you’re worst at, so push yourself harder. Don’t injure yourself, but don’t make excuses either.
2. Stop The “Deja Vu” Routine
Every week is the same: Bicep Mondays, Tricep Tuesdays, Leg Wednesdays, Chest/Back Thursdays and Shoulder Fridays. You’ve got to mix up your workout routine before you drag yourself into the pits of dreading your workouts. If you keep doing the same thing over and over and over again, you’re going to bore yourself (and your muscles) to the point of no return. Changing up your workout routine will not only perk up your gym days, it will break you out of any plateaus.
3. Stop Over-training
Did you know that stress hormones (primarily cortisol) reach abnormally high levels when you over-train? You’re also more apt to plateau. Athletes must put their bodies under a certain amount of stress to increase physical capabilities. If the stress loads are appropriate, then the athlete’s performance will improve. If the stress loads are inappropriate, then the athlete will enter a state of over-training and burnout. If you think you’re going to get better gains by over-training, think again.
4. Stop Being Your Worst Critic
Yeah, you heard me right. Stop beating yourself up. When you’re working out, you need to be a positive coach and your biggest fan wrapped into one. Push yourself harder without sounding like a sadistic drill sergeant. Don’t look in the mirror and hang your head in shame because you don’t look like Arnold. Just remember that the days you are most confident you’re going to lift better and also enjoy being there. It should be the time in your day that you’re proud of yourself and what you’re accomplishing.
Workout burnout is all too common and happens every day. I’ve known plenty of guys who were once at the top of their game only to get burnt out and lose it all. They went back to square one and nobody wants that. The gym became more of a thing they “had” to do opposed to something they “wanted” to do. These four tips will help you keep the gym in a positive perspective and also optimize your time while you’re there.
Every time you walk onto the weight floor, you’ll see guys using bad form or doing exercises that make you cringe. Those are just two of the many possible ways that lead to huge setbacks in terms of gains. We all make mistakes in the gym, yet some are not as obvious as others.
To save yourself time, get faster results and make your workouts more effective, avoid these following 8 mistakes:
1. WAITING FOR EQUIPMENT
Lines at the gym are bound to form during peak workout hours. The best option is to head to the gym during off-hours either early in the morning or after 7 p.m. once the after-work crowds have finished. No matter how busy the gym is, you should never have to stall your routine in order to wait for equipment. Come prepared with a Plan B routine to stay moving rather than wasting your time waiting for a bench to open up.
Dodging the pre-workout warmup is a surefire way to injure yourself when you hit it hard at the gym. Have a dedicated warmup that involves bodyweight exercises like lunges, squats, pushups and jumping jacks to elevate your heart rate prior to attacking the weights.
Cardio can be detrimental when done at the wrong time. Completing a 30-minute job before a set of heavy squats may increase your heart rate and act as a warm-up, but by the time you get under the bar, you’ll be fatigued which can lead to poor form or potential injury. Get your form-intensive lifting session done first, then hit the cardio area.
According to Jason Ferruggia, head strength coach at Renegade Strength and Conditioning, “most guys should be in and out of the gym in 60 minutes, including warm-up, cool-down and a good lifting session.” To make that possible, avoid wasting precious moments in between sets of an exercise. Wear a stopwatch or use an app on your phone to limit yourself to under a minute. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you finish your workout.
If you leave your core work until the end of your workout, you’re likely to cut it short. When you’re tired and nearing the end of a lifting session, the last thing you will want to do is multiple sets of planks, side planks and leg raises. Instead, get the core training out of the way early by incorporating the same moves in between exercises.
Although it may seem trivial in terms of your overall routine, leaving your water bottle at home forces many guys to head to the water fountain in between sets. The result – wasted time in between exercises. To keep your workout going strong, bring your own bottle and fill it up beforehand.
Walking onto the weight floor without a plan for your workout is like heading into the grocery store without a shopping list. You’ll end up aimlessly wandering back and forth, spending way more time than necessary. Your plan of action should be well-thought out in advance. Include the exercises, sets and reps as well as the order you want to do them in so you can plan your route around the gym floor.
Doing the exact same workout week after week will prevent new gains and lead to burnout. Failing to impose any new challenges on your muscles – such as increasing the weight you use or number of reps your perform – simply helps keep them the same size, whereas pushing yourself harder than you’re accustomed to will actually motivate new muscle and strength.
It’s not too late to correct your mistakes and push the gas pedal to speedy muscle growth. Knowledge is power. You now know 8 stupid mistakes to avoid in the gym. Now it’s time to learn about the 8 ways to lose muscle: read now
If you’re weight training, your goal is to gain muscle, not lose muscle. Unfortunately, some guys make disastrous mistakes that cost them precious gains. If you’re hitting it hard at the gym and not seeing the muscle growth you should be seeing, read this list. You may recognize that you are guilty of some of these.
1. YOU DON’T EAT ENOUGH
While extra calories can mean extra belly fat, if you’re lifting consistently and correctly, most of what you’re taking in should be converted into muscle. The truth is that your muscles will never grow without a surplus of calories. For a lean guy looking to put on muscle mass, 2,000 calories a day won’t cut it. In fact, this kind of restricted diet is actually the ideal recipe for losing muscle tissue and sparing fat as it causes the body to shift into starvation mode and shed calorie-consuming muscle. It also makes you store fat for emergency energy. And the less protein you eat, the less of a chance you give your muscles to recover after a workout.
There are three ways that cardio typically cancels out muscle gains: doing it too often, doing it for too long or doing it on an empty stomach. In general, daily cardio sessions simply burn too many cumulative calories to allow you the surplus you need for muscle mass. The same can be said for sessions that last 45 minutes or more.
Breaking your training down into chest days, back days and arm days overworks some muscles and neglects others. It’s an old-school way to train, meaning it’s incredibly outdated. Most guys still do it and may make gains for awhile, but their progress eventually comes to a halt usually due to injuries. Body-part routines also prevent your biggest muscles from ever learning to work together in the kinds of coordinated effort you need to lift really heavy weights.
Boring? Definitely. But stretching has been shown to speed up recovery and increase a muscle’s range of motion, making more room for muscle fibers to grow. Simply lifting weights will increase your risk for injury and severely limit your ability to move athletically and with proper form.
It’s true that eating infrequently is nearly as bad as not eating at all. When you go more than three hours without food, your metabolism slows significantly. When that happens, every time you do get a meal, there’s a good chance that a large percentage of it will be stored as fat. Why? Blame your body. Without food, your body slips back into starvation mode and starts to think it needs to hold on to every calorie it can get.
Chugging a protein-and-carb mixture after your workout starts the recovery process immediately, replenishing lost glycogen (your muscles’ energy stores) and providing the nutrients your body requires to repair muscle and grow more of it. Skipping the protein shake and casually waiting an hour or more for your next meal is like ignoring a cry for help.
Sleep is when muscle repair happens. Getting 6 or fewer hours of shut-eye a night limits your body’s natural production of crucial muscle-building chemicals, such as growth hormone. Too much activity outside of your workouts, such as playing sports, all-night parties and extra stress – which are fine in moderation, but dangerous in excess – also cut into muscle gains.
Doing the exact same workout week after week will prevent new gains and lead to burnout. Failing to impose any new challenges on your muscles – such as increasing the weight you use or number of reps your perform – simply helps keep them the same size, whereas pushing yourself harder than you’re accustomed to will actually motivate new muscle and strength.
It’s not too late to correct your mistakes and push the gas pedal to speedy muscle growth. Knowledge is power. You now know 8 ways to lose muscle. Now it’s time to learn about the 5 forgotten muscles you can’t ignore: read now
It’s not rocket science to know that building muscle aids in boosting testosterone. One of the characteristics of high-T males that is most commonly documented is their drive toward dominance and reactive aggression.
Some people are prone to rage more than others, but anger is a feeling that many of us could use a bit of help in handling. The choices we make when angry can often come back to haunt us, but the cycle is hard to break. Anger has power – but there are healthy and unhealthy ways to deal with that power, from letting it control you, to wielding it in a way that spurs you on to something positive.
Here are 5 ways to tame your inner raging bull:
1. Do the Opposite – Remember that Seinfeld episode when George turned his life around by doing the opposite of what he thought he should do? Well, think of this as the Seinfeld approach to anger management. Do the opposite of what you feel like doing when you’re mad. Instead of lashing out, develop empathy. The next time you feel like swearing at the guy who cut you off, just remind yourself that few people are jerks on purpose. You’ve probably been guilty of doing the same thing a time or two.
2. Blow Off Steam Wisely – After you’ve acknowledged your physiological response to anger, trying to tell yourself to stay calm is one of the worst things you can do (second only to being told to calm down). As a human being, you’re programmed to act out when you feel threatened and angry. You need to release the rage in a healthy way so do what you already love: push-ups, bicep curls, squats…hit the gym and take it out on the weights.
3. Choose Your Words Carefully – When anger’s talking, steer clear of using the words “never” and “always.” Such as “You’re always telling me what to do!” or “You never let me hang out with the guys!” Not only are you stating inaccurate accusations, you’re alienating people who might otherwise work to find a solution. Once you’ve cooled off (refer to #2), try expressing how you feel in a direct, non-confrontational way.
4. Rest Your Body and Mind – Sleep helps you function at your mental and physical best. In fact, good sleep improves your mood, your immune system and even your metabolism. When you don’t get enough sleep, your body produces more stress hormones. A lack of sleep significantly ups your chances of blowing up at someone.
5. Drink Responsibly – When you’re thinking, “Damn. I need a drink,” think again. The trouble with alcohol is that it doesn’t relieve high anxiety or anger issues and could actually make them worse. In some people, drinking when super tense can underscore the dark side of whatever stressed them out and push them over the edge. If you’re stressed to the max and know alcohol can bite you back, grab your iPod and cool off (refer to #2).
In a nonstop world of challenges pushing you from annoyed to enraged, remember the toll anger takes on your health. If left unchecked, anger clamps down on your blood vessels and can even promote impotence. Not good. Plus, strong negative emotions mess with your blood pressure and hormone function and provoke inflammation. To make the change for a better mood, figure out what makes you happy and start doing it as often as possible.
