Lifting takes a large amount of effort. Building a good physique can often take years to achieve. All this work must be motivated by something. For some guys, this motivation comes from wanting increase their value as a man to women. The logic often is that a better physique equals better chances when trying to get a girl. This logic is partly true but when broken down is not so simple. The relationship between how good your physique and…
Pine pollen is one of the more mysterious supplements taken for building muscle and improving health. This supplement grabs attention for claims such as its ability to double testosterone and significantly elevate muscle recovery. These claims of boosting testosterone have been backed up by men who have taken pine pollen and found TRT-like impacts on their sex hormones. The reason for this profound impact of pine pollen on male sex hormones is that pine pollen contains phytoandrogens. Phytoandrogens are…
Burning calories quick is a common goal among weightlifters, bodybuilders, fitness enthusiasts, and everyone else who want to burn off fat to look better and be more healthy. By burning calories, you can leave more room in your diet for food when cutting which will make it easier to stay in a calorie deficit. The hardest aspect of losing fat for most people is sticking to your calories. By doing more cardio, this will allow you to stick to…
There are many people who go to the gym and lift weights without following any thing more than a simple split. While a split can certainly make you gains and even training without any plan or split can also make you gains, these are not optimal approaches to accomplishing your physique and strength goals. The main advantages of following a training program are periodization, variance in exercises, more control over strength gains, consistent progress, and higher accountability. These are…
The amount of protein that is needed for muscle growth is constantly debated about and fuels one of the largest sources for myths in the fitness and supplement industries. The reason for the confusion over optimal protein intake is that there is a confliction between studies and recommendations from trainers and fitness experts. Most studies that are done on protein intake are designed to find what the minimum amount of protein needed is for people to stay out of…
There are many people who train for several months at a gym then become disheartened because they realize how their body responds to lifting is not the same as others. While everyone has an equal opportunity to workout, not everyone has an equal starting point. This unequal starting part is based off genetics. The two main ways that genetics impact how well you can build muscle are through genes that affect hypertrophy and your unique muscle insertions. There are…
While the training that breaks down muscles is done in the gym, and the calories that repair muscle are made in the kitchen, the actual recovery that builds muscle is done in the bedroom. Without sleep, not only would your gains suffer, but you would also die and function terribly up until that point. The body is capable of going over 50 days without food and over 20 without water but can not function for more than 11 days…
A common practice among serious weightlifters and bodybuilders is to meal prep. Meal prep is the practice of cooking and preparing the meals for the rest of the week before the week begins so you don’t have to cook on each individual day and it’s easier to stick to calories. This method of prepping meals is an easy way to streamline the process of tracking calories, hitting macros, and making food by doing it all at once on only…
Creatine is an amino acid that, along with protein, is one of the overall most common supplements in the bodybuilding and fitness industry. There are many different claims and beliefs about what creatine is and what it does, but ultimately it is a dietary supplement that is sold and used to increase the amount of the amino acid creatine stored in your muscles. Creatine is naturally found in foods like fish and steak. Old school bodybuilders were rumored to…
Volume eating is a method of selecting and consuming foods that are high in volume without a high calorie requirement. By using volume eating, you can eat large amounts of food without increasing your calorie intake significantly. Since these foods are high volume and low on calories, you will be filled up more than if you had eaten other, low volume foods that contained the same amount of calories in them. Most high volume low calorie foods are high…
