The Mind Over Body Matter Letter

It seems like most men tend to wonder about this. After all, with all of the steroids and supplement crap out there that’s being pushed by industry… you’d think that anyone could be a 300 lb monster.

Of course, the next question is… why would you want to be?

If you’re like most guys, when you started working out you probably had a bodyweight goal in mind that was your target. When you were 170 pounds 180 was the goal. When you were 180 lbs 190 lbs was the goal, then there was the monumental day you hit 200 lbs when you were finally in the big leagues. 200 lbs is the universal cutoff point where you go from being on the all hands team to being one of the proverbial big dogs. From there 210 lbs became the goal, and then 220 lbs…it seems to never end. So this brings up the question:

1) Why do you want to be so big?

The answer is not one that most guys can quite put into words but they all feel it. The need to be bigger is rooted in a uniquely male instinct to exert dominance over other men. Physical dominance still reigns supreme in our world. Negotiating and talking can only get you so far until brute force takes over. At the end of every conflict and at the end of every argument is always someone who is either physically bigger or carrying a bigger stick, end of story. This could mean a one on one fight where the bigger man wins. Or nation vs nation where the bigger better equipped army wins. Either way physical dominance is still the way conflicts are resolved.

Every government rules its people by force, just think of what will happen to you if you don’t pay your taxes, men with guns will forcefully detain you until you pay them. Powerful countries also exert their will over other countries by military force (think of any current or past war).

The male instinct to possess physical dominance is one and the same as the instinct for survival and the need to be free. This is where the feeling of constantly needing to be more muscular or bigger comes from. However being the biggest guy clearly isn’t the answer, as even the biggest guys still want to get bigger, physical dominance isn’t necessary to succeed in our modern society. There is a more targeted way to design your workouts for a more specific goal.

It is pretty easy to see that in our modern society we have evolved past the need to physically dominant others to succeed in life. You can’t just fight and physically intimidate your way to a successful career, relationship, or any other aspect of your life. (Unless of course you are a professional fighter, which I’m sure most of you are not)

True success comes from SOCIAL dominance, not physical dominance, and there is a specific size and shape that has been proven to be the most socially dominant of all. Every guy has his own specific size based on his height that will command respect from other men and gain adoration from women.

This starts a snowball effect as other men notice that women are attracted to you and women notice that other men are jealous of you. It basically puts you at the center of attention in any social setting. This is a measurable physical size that is proven by attraction research to be the exact shape and size women most prefer and other men are most envious of. The measurement I’m talking about is the ratio of your waist circumference to your shoulder circumference. The exact ratio is 1 - 1.618 (which is also called the Golden Ratio). As you approach this ratio you will become more socially dominant whether you know it or not. This should be the goal of any workout program as it directly influences your career success, your relationships with women and your overall social status.

I suggest using a workout program that is specifically designed to bring you to your golden ratio and build your perfect body. It doesn’t matter where you are starting from, if you’re big or small, the goal should still be the same, a golden shoulder to waist ratio is the perfect male physique.

I have coined this ratio as your Adonis Index Score.

Discover The Adonis Effect and learn more about how to calculate your Adonis Index Score and start to build your perfectly proportioned body.

Hmmm… I would disagree with John… but why would I… lol.

Do you know which one is most important?

Alright people… there’s a new ‘up and comer’ in the muscle building world and it’s none other than “skinny guy champion”, Vince DelMonte.

Read this article, and then I’ll tell you afterward whether I think he’s full of shit or not.

Weight Lifting Rules For Skinny Runts
By Vince DelMonte

You wake up in the morning and look in the mirror. Pleased with your appearance? If you more resemble the appearance of a long distance marathon runner than a world class sprinter, don’t worry, you aren’t alone. You just need to start following these weight lifting rules.

There are quite a few guys who simply have trouble packing on the lean muscle mass. Whether their hormonal environment isn’t quite as favourable or genetics was just out to get them at birth, one thing is for sure and that’s that they need to follow a slightly different set of weight lifting methods than those who seem to grow muscle overnight.

Luckily for you, you’re taking the time to do your research about weight lifting so you won’t be destined to a life where it seems like a strong wind might knock you over.

First, one of the key factors that skinny guys need to remember is that they must avoid volume work at all costs.

Rule #1:

Get in the gym and get out! That should be your motto from this day forward. Repeat it. Breathe it. Live it. Weight lifting is a calorie expensive activity and you need all the calories you can get at this point. If you are burning it up in the gym every single day, how do you expect to grow? You won’t.

You grow when you are resting and generally, the skinnier you are, the more rest you are going to need.

Now, that doesn’t mean you should park it on the couch for a few days in between your workouts. It simply means that each weight lifting should not consist of set after set after set. Followed by a rest break to talk to that hot receptionist and then back to another twenty sets.

No, you’re workouts need to consist of ten-twelve or fewer sets where you are pushing yourself to the MAX. There is no room for sissy, light-weight work in your weight lifting program.

Which brings us to Rule #2:

Ditch the isolated exercises. Who needs them? You certainly don’t.

If your workouts normally include bicep curls, followed by tricep kickbacks, followed by leg extensions, followed by chest flys, followed by… you get the picture, you’ve got to change this pronto. Remember, you’ve only got so much time you are allowed to be in the gym for. Don’t you want to get the biggest bang for your buck? Likely you do, so that means focusing on compound lifts only. This includes weight lifting exercises such as squats, bench presses, deadlifts, rows and military presses.

Become friends with those exercises and you will have new muscles in the picture soon enough. Toss the five day split program, get yourself on a good upper/lower or full body workout program and you have found the key to unleashing new muscle mass.

Now onto the next significant point. Cardio.

Rule # 3.

I know, I know, you want to be big, but you don’t want to be fat. Let’s not worry about that at this point, because you and I both know you are a long ways from fat.

Gaining fat weight is going to be more a concept of diet than anything else so as long as you are being smart in the kitchen, you don’t need to perform hours of cardio to remain lean. Cardio is just going to further burn off precious calories that could have gone towards building you new muscle mass. For you, calories are a hot commodity and should not be spent on the treadmill.

If you want to keep up some cardio for general health sake, fine, but limit this to two or three twenty minute sessions per week - TOPS. And make it low to moderate intensity as well. The only place you are to be intense is in the weight room.

This leads to rule #4.

REST! You’ve put in your effort at the gym, fed your body with some good food and now what? Plans to go out partying all night with your buddies? You might want to rethink that. While you definitely want to maintain your social life while trying to gain weight - and you should - it should not come at the sacrifice of sleep.

Sleep is primetime when it comes to your body repairing itself and growing stronger so short-circuit sleep and you are short-circuiting your results. Just don’t do it. Period. It’s that simple.

Get ready for rule #5.

Technique. Ever seen that guy in the gym who is hoisting so much weight on his barbell for barbell curls that it looks like he’s got more momentum going on than the Gravitron at the fair? He’s pretty much working every muscle in his body except his biceps. Not so beneficial. Not only that, but give him two weeks and a hundred bucks says he’s out with back pain.

You must maintain proper form throughout your weight lifting, not only to prevent injuries but also to see the muscular gains you are looking for. If you cheat form, you are only cheating yourself. If you don’t know what proper form is yet, book a session with a trainer or find yourself a spotter who can help you.

And now, bonus rule #6

Find a mentor. You want someone who’s been there, done that. They used to be a skinny bastard just like you and they’ve managed to overcome the curse and now tip the scales and dominate the weight room. This guy will do wonders for your motivational levels. Don’t feel like lifting? Have a good look at his body. You’ll want to pick that weight up after that. Furthermore, he can let you in on some of his tried-and-true secrets that just might be key for you as well.

So to sum up your new approach to your weight lifting sessions - get in, train hard and with proper technique, get out, eat and rest. Repeat this process over a few months without getting distracted or becoming too much of a party animal and you will make this the year you change your dreaded skinny image.

Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain

He teaches skinny guys a new set of weight lifting rules, without supplements, drugs and training less than before.

Click Here for more info ==>

http://www.vincedelmontefitness.com

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Okay, so I agree with everything here EXCEPT the low intensity cardio.

Fact: Sprinters are jacked AND they all pretty much started out skinny. Plus, there’s new research that suggests that treating your workouts like a competition raises testosterone levels and thus… helps build muscle.

(More one that another time)

Let’s have a look at Vince’s No Nonsense Muscle Building, shall we?

First, Vince Delmonte does have a pretty good name in the industry… and I do know a few people that know the guy and they all have great things to say.

Which is a good thing.

(Truth be known, I’ll most likely meet up with him at some point this year…)

Here’s a cool video that I found:

Here’s the “skinny”… no pun intended.

There are a lot of ways to skin a cat… that’s for sure.

But, will No Nonsense Muscle Building stand up to the heat?

Well, like I said, I do know quite a few people around the industry so I did some networking and got Vince’s private email address.

Long story short… after I sent a pretty skathing message over to him… he replied back and told me to do my worst on any review.

(Funny, I do this shit all the time… lol)

Okay, this monster is 201 pages… no joke,

But it’s 201 pages of pure muscle building and nutrition bliss.

Sure, he probably goes a little over board with some of the stuff in the middle… helping you understand how specific factors effect your Testosterone levels, Insulin levels, GH levels, Cortisol Levels and Glucagon… which could lead to a little analysis paralysis… but from everything that I’ve seen…

… this package has a superb value.

So… if you’re a skinny runt that needs more muscle, you should go check out No Nonsense Muscle Building…

… oh, and tell Vince that Brad sent you and see what he says “Mwh ha, ha, ha, ha”…

Later

From my last post, we talked about how the body drops metabolism due to muscle wasting due to mis or disuse… and not a caloric deficit.

And, since my last post, Brad Pilon sent over this article for you to look over… it’s an interesting read to say the least…

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As you can imagine, after writing a book about fasting for weight loss, I’ve had an amazing amount of questions pouring into my In-box, with the most common question being about fasting and losing muscle. Most people are still very concerned that they will lose muscle if they don’t eat every 3 hours. My answer has always been, don’t worry, from my experiences if you are resistance training then you won’t lose muscle while dieting.

Then I received a very interesting question that went something like this:

“If calorie restriction doesn’t cause muscle loss, then what does?”

Great question. We all know that people who are bedridden and on a low calorie diet lose muscle. When I first starting writing Eat Stop Eat, and was running the idea past several dietitians for input, they all brought up stories of muscle loss in their patients who were bedridden and on a low calorie diet.

And since I am constantly saying that caloric restriction doesn’t cause you to lose muscle if you are working out, then that leaves being ‘bedridden’ (or ‘disuse’ as they say in research) as the cause of muscle loss.

Ever break your arm and have to wear a cast, or know someone who did? Do you remember how skinny that arm was when the cast finally came off? Put a cast on your arm and your muscles shrink faster then an expensive new shirt in the dryer.

There was no change in nutrition, only a change in the amount the muscles were used, and the muscle wasted away.

In fact, ‘casting’ is so effective at causing muscle loss that it has been used in research to study something called ‘disuse atrophy’ or muscle loss from lack of use.

In a study conducted at the University of Nottingham, 22 male and female studies had casts put on their right leg for two weeks. Their diets didn’t change, yet after only two weeks the cross sectional area of their quadriceps (the big muscles in your thigh) decreased by 10%.

No change in diet… but the muscle still decreases in size by 10%.

When you combine this information with other research that has shown that as long as you are working out and meeting some sort of caloric minimum, you won’t lose muscle, you can come to the conclusion that if you don’t use your muscles, then it really doesn’t matter what you are eating, the muscle is going to shrink. However, if you are using your muscles, then as long as you are eating at least 80 grams of protein and over 800 Kcals a day (The amounts found in a recent research paper), you should not be losing muscle mass.

Now, If by some fluke accident you do break your arm, the research from Nottingham found that supplementing with Creatine Monohydrate can speed the rehab process, helping you build back your muscle and strength quicker than normal.

Resources:

Hespel P, et al. Oral creatine supplementation facilitates the rehabilitation of diuse atrophy and alters the expression of msucle myogenic factors in humans. Journal of Physiology 2001;526(2):625-633

Bryner RW. Effects of resistance training vs. aerobic training combined with an 800 calorie liquid diet on lean body mass and resting metabolic rate. Journal of the American College of Nutrition 1999;18(1):115-121

Brad Pilon is a strength training and nutrition professional and author of “Eat Stop Eat”. You can read more of Brad’s work at http://nutritionhelp.blogspot.com, and you can learn about his book that is changing the way people think about eating by visiting Eat Stop Eat

Brad is also a co-author in the vaunted Adonis Effect For Men Total Transformation Program

Most beginners get great gains from any weight training workout, but soon after the initial gains everyone eventually hits a plateau. Experienced lifters know this and try just about everything to avoid plateaus.

Before we get to the 3 phases I am assuming you are consistent with your workouts and don’t skip days, cut your sets short, or avoid doing real work. If that is the case, it won’t matter at all how good of a program you are following, because you aren’t in fact following it. A good program is designed to be followed exactly as it is written, right down to finishing every set and rep in the exact amount of time it says.

Resting for 80 seconds when it says 60 won’t do, and doing 11 reps when it says 13 isn’t going to cut it either. The workout you are following will only work as well as your ability to follow it to a tee!

Ok now that we got that out of the way lets get to the 3 key phases that help you avoid plateaus in both muscle and strength gains.

1) Maximum Strength Phase - this is a phase where you are handling the heaviest weights you can, around 80-90% of your max, in the 3-7 rep range. Take longer rest periods of about 2-3 minutes between sets. This phase will force your muscles and tendons and nervous system to adapt to pushing maximum weight at the limit of your capacity. Every single rep should feel like a maximal effort. There is usually no burning feeling for this type of workout, just an overall muscular exhaustion.

2) Muscle Hypertrophy Phase - During this phase you are handling weight around 65-80% of your maximum and doing between 8-13 reps. Rest periods are around 1-2 minutes. These workouts usually drive alot of blood into your muscles giving you really big muscle pumps, it also stimulates expansion and growth of the muscle fibers. The sets should flow from one rep to the next building up a burn feeling towards the end and a flushing the muscles with blood.

3) Strength Endurance Phase - This is a muscle conditioning phase handling weights around 50-70% of our max, doing between 12-20 reps. Rest periods are very short between 45-90 seconds. This phase builds strength endurance, which means teaching your muscles to handle moderately heavy weights for long periods of time (This is differnet than cardio endurance that can lasts for hours). This phase is necessary to build up your muscles ability to deal with prolonged stress, low blood ph (that intense burn you feel), and overall muscle fatigue.

Each of these phases contributes to the effectiveness of the other. Stay on each for about 4 weeks (as your body adapts to your training very quickly) and continue to cycle through each one. I build these phases into all of the workouts I design as they are the essential building block to an effective muscle building program.

Click Here For Your Free Adonis Effect Sample

Have you ever wondered how we all can spot a person that just looks better? We can even recognize other shapes - a building or a sculpture that just looks ‘right’?

All people have an inherent ability to recognize beauty when they see it, but few have ever stopped and tried to describe and measure it.

There is a specific set of measurements and ratios that can tell you what the perfectly proportioned body looks like. Classic Greek and Roman sculptors like Leonardo da Vinci figured out these proportions a long time ago but over time, the concept has disappeared.

The 3 measurements you need to know to determine your ideal proportions in order to build a perfect body are as follows:

• Height
• Waist
• Shoulders

Research done on human anatomy, classic art sculpture, and the psychology of attraction tells us that there is a specific body shape and size that people will find most attractive and pleasing to look at. People that are close to this ideal size are generally treated more favorably, because we live in a society that is driven by beauty and perfection. Given the physical and social benefits of a perfectly proportioned body, aren’t you curious to know what your specific ideal size and shape is, and how to get it?

Starting with your height measurement, each person will have an ideal waist measurement and ideal shoulder measurement that equal your perfect body proportions. These are not up for debate. Scientific research indicates women will find a man most attractive when his proportions approach these ideal measurements. Most people have no idea what these measurements are or how to achieve them.

To start, you need to know where you are now compared to what your ideal is. Once you know your starting point you can determine how to go about getting to where you want to be. The fitness industry has always been striving for the perfectly proportioned look. However, until now nobody has managed to pin down what this “look” is, how to measure it, and how to get it.

I’ve created a workout that is based on bringing you to your specific ideal body shape starting with your current measurements. This specific and defined goal is the best way I have found to formulate an effective workout strategy that gets you to where you want to be.

Forget just doing weights to get big, or doing cardio to burn fat, I’m talking about a specific workout routine to build your body into its perfect form. To get bigger only in the right places and lose inches where you need to. This routine is called the Adonis Index Workout.

Click here to get your free sample workout

John Barban is the Author of the Adonis Index Workout, a specific method for building a guy’s body into its most attractive shape: the shape women find attractive and that creates social dominance with men.

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If you didn’t already know, I’m a part of this project too…