How often should I train with weights?

One time I was at the gym and a fellow who did not know what he was doing was jumping from exercise to exercise and machine to machine. I had a brief conversation with him and he told me "I'm gonna come to the gym everyday for 3 hours at a time cus I wanna get big", I did not caution him against it but it made me realize how misinformed some people are about building your body.

Most people think that the more you go to the gym and the longer you stay there the bigger you'll get, or that the more often you train a muscle the more it will grow, but this is far from correct. See, while most may think that we go to the gym to make our muscles grow, the fact is, we go to the gym to rip our muscle fibres apart. While we are at the gym what we want to do is tear the muscle fibres and engorge the muscles with blood so that the fascia, or tissue, around the muscle is broken down. When we go home, with proper nutrition and proper rest, that is when the body will heal the torn down muscles and will heal you bigger and stronger so that the body adapts to the increased stress you are putting upon it. So in essence, you grow muscles when you are resting, not when you are at the gym.

Now, many medical studies have shown that after weight training a muscle is healed within 36-72 hours depending on how hard the stress upon it was. I personally tend to lean to the far right of this spectrum. This means that if we break down a muscle, and go the next day to the gym to do it again as intensely, the muscle will not have healed by that time, and all we're doing is hindering recovery, thus, not allowing you to grow. So you can train with as much intensity as Mr. Olympia trains, but if you don't eat, sleep and recover properly, you will not maximize or make the gains that you were expecting. As with everything, there comes a point of diminishing returns.

So this brings us to the question, how often should I train?

And the answer is: everybody is different. I personally like training muscles twice a week with about 72 hours rest to each specific body part, but I have friends that do great on doing muscles once a week and some do them 3 times a week, you have many variables to factor in like nutrition, rest, and genetics. I lift weights 5 times a week as I find anything more is just overkill, but some people can do more and pack on muscle and some people grow great on only 3 days a week. I do think that training a body part 4+ times a week is overkill as it will not allow ample recovery if you are taking that muscle to full exhaustion.

Beginners should train their whole body with weights and use linear progression about 3-4 times a week with sessions of about 60-90 minutes, intermediates and advanced lifters don't need to ask this question because they should already know how to listen to their body and this will tell them their answer.

As for cardio, I do cardio on my off days so I never have a true day to just not do anything physical, but if you are truly pushing your body to its limits at the gym, some low intensity cardio will not "hinder" your recovery.



If you guys want me to write about a specific topic, experience or a specific supplement on this blog please let me know, your input and feedback is appreciated, comments can be made anonymous!

Do you need supplements to gain muscle?

If you are the least bit interested in fitness (which I hope you are if you are reading this blog), I'm sure you have come across the bodybuilding or fitness magazines upon news stands. We see a huge muscular man with veins popping out everywhere and muscle striations that look like stretched out plastic wrap. Now some may find that disgusting and others dream of achieving that look someday (that's a whole other topic). But if you open one of these magazines the first 50 pages are just advertisements, and after that every other page has an advertisement as well.

99% of these advertisements do not offer training equipment, or fitness clothing, but something we call "supplements." The dictionary definition of supplement is: something that completes or enhances something else when added to it. The key words here are "complete" and "enhance", NOT "CREATE." Some people think that the key to gaining muscle is using supplements, and some even take achievement away from others by saying: "oh he uses creatine" or "he's on whey protein." But what these people don't realize, is that, you can take all the supplements in the world but if your diet and your training are not appropriate to build muscle supplements will get you nowhere. 

Most of the supplements bodybuilder's or fitness enthusiasts use are already nutrients that come from whole foods, the problem is that many times  an individuals diet might be lacking certain vitamins and minerals from the whole foods and this is why we add supplements. For example, I am not a huge fan of fish so I do not eat it often, I choose to take capsuled fish oils. Or I do not have the money, time to cook, and stomach to eat  3-4 lbs of meat a day to get my daily protein, so I use protein powders. I also have eliminated most milk from my diet, so I choose to supplement with calcium. Do I need these supplements to be able to go to the gym and gain muscle? NO. Will I maximize my potential, have a healthy body and do everything in my hands to have the best physique I can achieve without using any supplements? NO. 

See, supplements can help your performance in the gym both physically and mentally. They also help your body repair faster from the beatings you give it in the gym, and help your body stay healthy. Every individual should tailor their specific needs and examine their diet to see what nutrients they are lacking and what supplements they can take if they want to better their performance and physique. 

Remember, supplements should never be relied on to make you gain muscle, they should just help you along the way. Some people spend massive amounts of money on supplements that don't really make a huge difference and that are too advanced for the person to even get the full advantage from them. Some supplement stacks end up being even more expensive than a whole cycle of anabolic steroids! and I will guarantee you that these will get you 10X more results than the supplements (Disclaimer: I am not condoning or promoting the use of anabolic substances). Make sure, before you take a supplement to research it and know how this is going to benefit you and check for reviews from the product on the internet. 

Here are some tips to get the best deals on supplements:

-Shop online.

-Buy in bulk if you already know and like the product, you'll always get a better deal.

-Always look at the ingredients and the dosages, just because a supplement has a good ingredient doesn't mean the dosage is high enough to even affect you.

-Look at the ingredients and see if it would be cheaper to get the ingredients separately and make your own mix of a certain formula.

-NEVER BUY A SUPPLEMENT WITHOUT READING REVIEWS FIRST! Just because the guy at GNC and the ad in the magazine says they gained 20 lbs of muscle off this product does not mean it's true.

-Always rely on whole foods and your training to reach your goals of a perfect physique.

If you guys want me to write about a specific topic, experience or a specific supplement on this blog please let me know, your input and feedback is appreciated!

How strong are you?

This is a question that everyone in the gym asks each other. More often in the way of: "how much do ya bench?" Now I've seen guys who have been training a year and can bench press over 300 lbs and guys who have been training many years and cannot bench press 300 lbs. While physical strength is an important variable in both bodybuilding and weightlifting, strength is relative to each individual. Someone who is 7 feet tall will have a much larger range of motion in a squat rather than someone who is 5 feet tall. They could move the same weight but that shorter person has to move it for a much shorter distance, this is just simple physics. And while at the gym most people will judge others and themselves by their physical strength, most don't care about someone's mental strength. I've never heard someone ask another person at the gym, "what daily things do you give up to be here busting your body up?" or "how much time away from your family do you sacrifice to be in pursuit of your ideal physique?" THIS IS WHY I HATE THE QUESTION "HOW [PHYSICALLY] STRONG ARE YOU?" 

I've seen many guys who are very strong and have great genetics, when they're at the gym they do great, but outside of the gym they lose the opportunity to reach their full potential. Guys go out partying every weekend, getting hammered, doing drugs, not caring about their nutrition or rest, and have inconsistent gym spurts. They'll quit the gym a few weeks, and come back for a few, and then quit for a few and then they come back etc. It's a never ending cycle. Now some of these guys are physically strong when they're at the gym, but they don't progress nearly as much as someone disciplined, even if the undisciplined one has better genetics. These people are mental weaklings. These people have no sense of discipline, and they'll start something a few weeks and quit because they think it's too hard.

 So what's the difference between them and someone with a very strong mind? the strong minded are the ones who are willing to reach complete exhaustion to reach their goals, every single day. The strong minded people are the ones who have one focus and one goal and do absolutely everything in their power to achieve their dreams. The people who are consistent and have the mind and discipline of a monk are the ones who succeed in what they choose. So remember, it doesn't matter how physically strong you are at this present moment compared to your gym mates, just ask yourself, am I doing everything in my power and have the absolute discipline needed to become the strongest, or biggest, or most muscular person I can become? If your answer to this is yes, I encourage you to continue with your fitness goals and giving it 100% of your mind and body and I will guarantee you, you will surpass the people that are mental weaklings, even if they seem to be more advanced than you now. So continually visualize yourself as having already achieved your goals, because your mind, is much stronger than your body. So ask yourself, what am I doing right now to help realize my goals?