When I was 18 I was in the weight room doing my own thing.  I was working out in a way that I thought was right.  We all start out with certain workout prejudices and false beliefs.  One of the biggest false beliefs of someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing is that lifting weights for several hours a day, several days a week is a good idea and that it is actually going to work.

That was me.  I would go to the weight room for hours on end, lifting weights, doing exercises I thought I should be doing, sets and reps I thought would help me get strong and big, and doing all that for a duration of time that I invented and thought to be productive.

And I was wrong.  I had the enthusiasm and commitment.  Those 2 are very important, don’t get me wrong, but I was working off the wrong blueprint.  Using the wrong blueprint to working out can cost you time and time wasted not doing it the right way to begin with.  I had false beliefs about working out that I needed to deal with first before I was going to make any real progress.

Fortunately, because I had the will, just like we all do, to succeed and actually gain some muscle and put some weight on my long, skinny frame, I eventually decided it was time to work out at a better gym (I was sneaking into my old high school weight room at the time) and I also reasoned that it would be a good idea to get some outside feedback of what I was doing, or doing wrong.

Funny thing was, I didn’t know I was doing something wrong, I just knew I wasn’t gaining that much weight or mass.  So when I had a session with a personal trainer who was a bodybuilder himself, and when it was over just one hour and 6 exercises later, I asked “that’s it?”.  He said “that’s it, that’s all you have to do.”  I was floored.

If working out for one hour a day, 3 days a week was going to help me gain weight, size, mass, and muscle, then what the hell bro?  That didn’t seem right to me.

There’s no way anyone should be allowed to have that kind of success with so little time commitment. That was workout prejudice #1, and that was just one misconception holding me back from getting what I wanted.

Workout prejudice #2.  I can eat whatever I want, as much as I want, and I should gain weight and muscle.  A common preconceived notion of skinny guys is “I can eat anything and everything and as much as I want, and I’ll never gain weight.”  It’s true, you probably can eat anything and everything you want when you’re skinny, but if you want to gain muscle, and if eating everything before hand wasn’t working, then you’re going to have to eat- differently.

I soon learned that all the microwaved hot dogs in the world probably wouldn’t help me put on quality muscle mass.  I needed to start eating lean protein, having a protein shake immediately after working out, and eating more often throughout the day to get a better body.  I started to choose more solid foods and less fast food or food with very little nutritional value.

I changed my workouts, working out for an hour a day, 3 days a week.  I did chest and triceps one day, back and biceps another day, and legs on the middle day of the week.  I changed how I ate, creating a more protein-centric diet to include post-workout recovery protein shakes.

A few months after this important life change, I left Houston TX and joined the Navy.

10 weeks in bootcamp taught me a few things about Navy bootcamp.  In Navy bootcamp, you’re not going to gain much muscle mass.  Also, you’re still going to exercise and be active all day long, which means burning calories, but you’re only going to get 3 meals, and you’re going to be hungry quite often.

After bootcamp, I learned that if I wanted to gain muscle mass, I’d need to lift weights, and also eat 5 or 6 times a day, and this turned out to be a good thing for me.

4 months of “A” school, the trade school for your job in the Navy, gave me some time, but not much, for lifting weights.

I’d go to school from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm with one hour for lunch and spend quite a few hours studying after that, leaving me a few hours at night to lift weights.

So I lifted weights 4 days a week, doing chest and triceps, legs, back and biceps, and shoulders on separate days.  I made some good gains, gaining about 10 pounds of solid muscle in 4 months.

When I went home on leave to Houston, it had been less than a whole year since I’d seen the personal trainer who gave me the 2 sessions that set me straight.

When I went in and said hi to the guy, his face lit up and he couldn’t believe what he saw.  He was genuinely surprised and impressed.  His name was Joey, and he was a bodybuilder originally from Louisiana.  He congratulated me on my progress.

It was a very satisfying accomplishment.  It felt good to succeed with working out and get on the right track in such a short amount of time.  It really paid off a lot investing even just a little in some effective workout information and training from an expert in the field of diet and exercise, and it pays dividends to this day.

Now getting attention and positive feedback is great on your body when you’re gaining muscle and succeeding, but it shouldn’t become the end-all be-all of your happiness or self-esteem.  Imagine becoming obsessed with and addicted to working out… this is a very common thing for guys succeeding in the weight room, believe it or not.

And that, along with a few other lessons I’ve learned, will be a topic in All the Secrets I’ve Learned About Working Out for the Last 13 Years: Part II.

See you then.

You don’t have to lift a finger and it tastes soooo damn good. It’s restaurant food, and yes, it’s awesome.

Is restaurant food going to make you fat?

Yes, and no.

Yes, restaurant food is heavily laden with fat. That is at least part of the reason why restaurant food tastes so good (and a big reason why the “healthy” items on the menu will never taste great and go largely unordered by the majority of patrons). Aiolis and sauces, cheeses and creme de-you-name-it.  Most all restaurant food is cooked in a lot of oil or butter too, because butter, oil, and salt all add a lot of flavor to meals.

Grilled dishes, fried dishes, deep fried dishes with extra awesome. They all taste like heaven and the chef knows how to throw it all together into one giant magical culinary work of art. The beef is roasted in its own juices and the pork tastes so good that it makes you wonder how anyone in the world could abstain from it. So is restaurant food going to make you fat?

The answer is yes, but only if you eat restaurant food once a day or more, or often enough to where it is a problem causing you to exceed your recommended total daily calorie intake. Truthfully, it’s going to be hard to get an awesome body, one that is fit, lean and ripped, by eating restaurant food very often. Having worked in many restaurants myself during my lifetime, I will say that most people that work in restaurants are not exceptionally fit, ripped, or lean- if they’re eating there too often.  It’s too easy to stick around work and have some clam chowder just because it’s there and you don’t feel like cooking.  But that little cup of hot fat is going to catch up with you.

I can’t stress how important it is for you to get used to investing a little time into preparing your own quality meals, even when you don’t feel like it.  Especially when you don’t feel like it!

As a matter of fact, if you want to have an awesome body, you’re going to have to get used to preparing your own meals. This is how you’re going to take control of your food choices and see just what goes into preparing a dish, and by this you’ll be able to monitor ingredients, calories, and ensure that you’re getting enough of the major food groups along with vitamins and minerals that your body needs.

So I Can Never Eat at a Restaurant Again?

Many successful bodybuilders, dieters, and fit people find that fitting in a “cheat” day helps maintain their sanity. For 3 days, they eat healthy and maintain their diet. On the 4th day, they eat sensibly and healthfully for 2 meals, and for their main meal, they eat whatever and however much they want, thus maintaining their diet, and their sanity.

No one wants to be a robot. So go, enjoy your restaurant food. Revel in your pan seared scallops. Declare triumph in your crab mash potatoes and New York Sirloin served medium rare dripping wet with yum. Exercise your own personal awesome with a piping hot bowl of freshly fried calamari, with assorted dipping sauces.

Just do it in moderation, and maintain your discipline when you’re not eating like this. Reward yourself for your efforts and your progress, and enjoy your life all the while getting more and more physically fit and attractive.

When you’re doing things very well 95% of the time, you’re giving yourself some wiggle room with your diet to enjoy a nice and well-deserved meal at a fine restaurant of your choosing.  So take it easy, and order what you want!

Just whatever you do…

Don’t Blame the Fat on the Restaurant

2/3 of all Americans are obese.  Diabetes is a big problem and we can only expect more of it with the rising rate of obesity over the last 30 years. A large contributor has been the increase in fast food and an increase in stress and commute times.

Only a few years back America experienced a backlash against the fast-food industry where many people blamed the restaurants themselves for the obesity problem.  They were probably motivated by such films like “Super Size Me”, where the documentary maker eats 3 meals a day at McDonald’s for 30 days straight.  In the film, the guy eating McDonald’s every day like this starts to become very ill by the end of his McDonald’s-only diet.

But how many of us really think it’s a good idea to eat 3 meals a day at McDonald’s?  I would venture to say most of us don’t.  However, this didn’t stop people from demanding that fast food restaurants create a special healthy section on their menu or giving people the option of substituting fruit slices for french fries, and who knows whatever else unappetizing options.

Here’s the kicker.  Americans demanded fast food restaurants create a healthy menu- and then didn’t actually order from them.  That’s right, people complained and blamed fast food restaurants for the obesity problem, but then once the fast food restaurants offered something healthy, and even put up information about how many calories menu items had, people still ate the number 2 extra value meal with fries and a coke.

Food for thought.  Horrible pun intended.

Return to No Nonsense Muscle Building

A lot of times guys ask, what kind of body do women like for a man to have?

Here’s an example of a man’s body that women love:

Yeah, that’s the dude from the movie Thor. Everyone has to admit he made a great young Thor. The wild thing is that he used to have a much slimmer, trimmer build. He was even close to skinny before getting his body in this kind of shape for the part of Thor.

Notice the broad shoulders and well defined pecs, big arms, and while we can’t see his legs in the pictures, he had developed very nice legs.  This is so important because women do appreciate a man to have a powerful lower body, and realistically, true strength and fitness is total body.  It’s not just working out your arms every time you step into the weight room.

If you want to work on getting a body like young Thor in the picture above, check out my review of a popular and effective muscle building program that I have used to achieve greater muscle mass, fat loss, and more confidence.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We’ve all heard that before. But why? Why is breakfast so important?

When you wake in the morning, the last time you ate is usually anywhere from 9 to 12 hours ago. Your body’s glucose levels are low, and your body needs fuel. It is at this crucial moment that you decide to fuel your body, and this satisfies the body’s energy needs immediately, keeping it in fat-burning mode and preventing it from going into fat-storing mode.

But who has the time, the energy, the desire, or even the appetite to make a healthy breakfast? I know how it is, you sleep until you possibly can not sleep one second longer before you have to get out of bed and get ready for work. I don’t know about you, but I love sleep.

Plus, you might not even be hungry. It’s so easy to say “I’m not hungry, I’ll save money, and by skipping a meal, I’ll even lose weight.” Well, unfortunately this strategy doesn’t work. And how many times have you substituted a sugary latte or coffee drink for breakfast, then felt hungry late morning and ended up eating an unhealthy snack?

Last year I decided to start having a healthy breakfast before going to work, regardless of how my appetite was, and regardless of how much time I had on the clock before I had to get to work. So, I decided I was going to get my nutrients, my protein, my vitamins, my fiber, and start my body off right no matter what!

I was glad I did. At work, I had more energy and didn’t feel as tired. I really felt like my body’s equilibrium was in proper balance, and when it came time to eat lunch, I wasn’t starving and ready to eat anything I could get my hands on!

So how did I do it? I started drinking a healthy protein and nutrient dense shake for breakfast. It took me about a minute to make, and I could take it with me in my car on the way to work. Not cooking breakfast + not getting that coffee and late morning snack meant extra sleep and more money for me, all while taking care of my body and losing weight!

When the late morning came, I felt like eating a small snack, but was by no means very hungry. So, I’d just have something small like a tasty protein bar. I was still on track, I was getting my requisite 4 to 5 small meals a day, and feeling sustained energy. No crash! None of this 5-hour energy hype either (which contains a lot of preservatives and is no substitute for proper nutrition).

All it took was the decision to do it. I’m so glad I did. Please, please, please… don’t skip breakfast! Do yourself and your health a favor and give it the nutrients it needs after a good night’s rest.

Here’s some absolutely fantastic meal replacement shakes that actually work.

For a nutrition plan that I will personally create for you that really works, has worked for others and myself, contact me at info@nononsensemusclebuildingxx.com or just fill out the form below. In the subject line put “health and wellness plan”. I look forward to helping you!

Remember, the stuff on this site works, my friends, but it’s up to you to do it!

Many people suffer from depression around the world.  It’s a very common problem.

What many people don’t know is that exercise is good for fighting depression.  In addition to professional medical advice and care, physical activity and exercise have been found to alleviate depressive symptoms in depression patients.

No one knows exactly how it works, but the brain emits endorphins during periods of extreme physical activity.  These endorphins are natural painkillers which the body uses to feel good.  And the inverse is true as well, periods of inactivity can be a cause for a bout of depression or negative moods.  Exerting yourself physically in an intense manner is a great way to increase testosterone naturally.  Testosterone is a chemical that the body naturally produces in both males and females which elevates mood and increases positive feelings.

The body is the sum of all its molecules.  Molecules in the body all have a vibrational energy at which they function.  The higher the vibration, the higher and healthier the body’s function.  Being active is good for the body, and focusing your energies on productive activities sharpens your body’s natural state of wellness and productivity.  The more active you are towards positive goals, the more likely you are to be highly aware, focused, and have a good mood.

Lifting weights, muscle building, intense physical exercise- are all good for the body AND for combatting depression.  On top of the discipline which most people with depression will find useful and helpful, the process of stimulating the body and its cells regularly will increase positive chemicals in the brain and body to help regulate mood naturally.  This is why it always feels good after you work out.  Your body feels cleansed and energized.

Consider what you can do if you have depression or anxiety.  Working out and eating healthy foods will work wonders for your physical and emotional state.  Don’t you owe it to yourself to be physically and mentally active?  Develop your faculties to their fullest and enjoy the benefits this lifestyle brings.

Behold, the 10 Commandments of Weight Gain and Muscle Mass

1. Thou shalt eat 1 gram of protein for every pound of your ideal body weight, per day.

2. Thou shalt eat a minimum of 4-5 times a day.

3. Thou shalt not complain that you are not gaining weight saying “I eat all the time and can’t gain weight”. You must learn what you are not doing right, and eating junk food does not gain an ounce of muscle.

4. Thou shalt work out in an intelligent manner according to a plan that has been proven successful for people with your same body type. Thou shalt pick a muscle training program and stick with it.

5. Thou shalt work out intensely, consistently, but not work out more than 4 days a week, for the body needs time to repair all the shredded muscle.

6. Thou shalt get at least 7 hours of sleep a night.

7. Thou shalt eliminate or greatly reduce bad habits preventing you from gaining weight, muscle, and testosterone.

8. Thou shalt not give up.

9. Thou shalt be patient and grateful for every ounce and every new pound of muscular weight you gain.  When you begin to succeed, thou shalt not let your success go to your head, and thou shalt not become obsessed with gaining weight, muscle, or pounds on your bench press.  Thou shalt not live in the gym. Thou shalt be a normal human being that enjoys life.

10. Thou shalt eat more raw fruits and fresh vegetables.

That is All.  Now Go, Go and Build Muscle With Your Bad Self. Enjoy the Journey to Muscledom and Glory in Your Manliness, for this is Good.

Say goodbye to the days of leisurely going about your weightlifting or exercise routine, spending way too much time in the gym wondering where the time went. Today we’re going to regain some recreation time for ourselves to enjoy while still accomplishing our fitness goals.

One of the greatest ways to build lean muscle fast while burning greater calories is to time your breaks in between sets and exercises.

Get in the habit of giving yourself a set amount of rest time in between your sets and reps when working out, regardless of what the workout is. Pick a set amount of time that you will give yourself to rest before moving forward with your routine. By doing this, you will make your workout more efficient, and you will find new ways to challenge yourself. If you maintain this kind of discipline, you’ll be in and out of the gym faster, you’ll be increasing your body’s endurance and stamina, and you will be eliminating distractions and bad habits that negatively affect your workouts.

How many times have you been working out and got distracted by a conversation or a phone call. By adhering to a disciplined, pre-set time for your breaks, you will find yourself blazing through your workouts in a new and more focused manner, challenging your body, and accomplishing your weight gain and muscle building goals even sooner.

Take action!

Start timing your rests between sets when you work out. Give yourself 1 minute or less of rest when you hit the weights and see how your endurance is affected. Get ready to build some stamina and make your time working out more efficient and productive.

Get a stopwatch or any device that has a countdown timer. It doesn’t have to be a stopwatch, it can be a watch with a timer, preferably electronic for convenience- it could even be your iPhone’s stopwatch or countdown function. I like to use a Coleman watch. They are pretty inexpensive and can be found at Target. They have a stopwatch and a countdown timer function.

Plyometrics represent a challenging and fast way to get an awesome cardiovascular workout while simultaneously developing fast-twitch muscle.  Why is this important?  Fast-twitch muscle is the visible, athletic muscle that you see in pro athletes like football and basketball players.  When you bench press, you’re pressing hard and fast, and lowering the barbell slowly to a moderate pace.  It is the explosive movement that puts great resistance on your body and your muscles and fosters major growth.  Plyometrics help you run faster, jump higher, hit harder, and develop greater power and agility.  And if done properly, they can be a great substitute for cardio.

Getting cardio while developing fast twitch muscle with Plyometrics

Usually with typical or traditional cardio like running 5 miles or getting on an exercise bike for an hour, the workout focuses on slow twitch muscle and low intensity over a long period of time.  If you need to know what someone with highly developed slow twitch muscles looks like, just take a look at a marathon runner and compare that to what a sprinter looks like.

The long, slow workouts at low to moderate intensity are fine if you don’t mind spending your time that way, but our bodies respond quite well to high intensity for shorter periods of time, and you can get even better results with your stamina, endurance, and yes, calorie burn while building explosive muscle!

One of the great things about plyometrics is that, just like sprints, regardless of your current level of fitness and athleticism, you can get a lot of great gains in a very short amount of time.  In as little as two weeks, you can really start to change your body with a regular dose of plyometrics.

I love how you can get an awesome workout completed in 40 minutes or less by doing plyometrics, get great cardio and improve your coordination, agility, and flexibility.  Whether you’re interested in gaining muscle or losing weight, plyometrics presents a fantastic opportunity for cross training that is sure to improve your body in countless ways.

I have been doing P90X and Insanity plyometrics for about a month now and really enjoy the benefits.  The workouts are extremely tough but they are fun and I realize just how productive they are.  I hope you’ll consider adding a day of plyometrics here and there in your fitness regimen to improve your body and more quickly attain your goals.

Here’s a video of some people doing a mere 4 minute segment of the Insanity 40 minute plyometric workout.  This is an example of plyometric cardio.  The results can be amazing.

Plyometrics can be done anywhere!

It’s time to take a serious look at my favorite of all exercises and the single exercise I would pick if I could only choose one for the rest of my life: sprints.

Sprints are without a doubt one of the single greatest exercises you can do for your body.

Sprints increase metabolism, burn fat and calories quickly, increase your body’s coordination, flexibility, athleticism, range of motion, practical strength, reflex and reaction time, and build muscle.  They can also be very fun to do.

Sprints require no equipment, no gym membership, and you can do them practically anywhere.  Sprints are a practical body movement with a real world application.  They force your body to become lean and muscular.  How many 100M runners in the Olympics have awesome bodies?  All of them do.

Running as fast as you can for short durations of time is very good for you.  It develops explosive power.  Sprints increase human growth hormone production and testosterone production in both men and women (which is a good thing because women’s bodies produce and benefit from testosterone as well).  Sprints build muscle.

When you focus all your energy and concentration on moving your body as fast as you possibly can from point A to B, you experience something very intense.  This is not sitting on an exercise bike in the gym for an hour and 30 minutes at moderate intensity.  This is all-out full speed highly intense go as fast and hard as you possibly can go- for about 10 seconds.  Putting this kind of load on your body and your muscles will yield something extraordinary in your body.

When doing a sprint workout, there are several ways to go about it. But regardless of which sprint workout you do, you must run as fast as you possibly can each and every time.  This is not the time to jog.

Designate a straight-line distance of approximately 60 yards or 50 meters.  Run as fast as you possibly can from the start to end point.  When done with your sprint, walk briskly back to the starting point.  Once you return to the starting point, sprint again as hard and as fast as you can.  You rest while you are walking back to the start point.  Do 10 sprints.

This workout is similar to the first sprint workout, only this time you’ll be sprinting about 30 to 40 yards up a significant incline.  Run as fast as you can from beginning to end, then walk back down and immediately begin another sprint.  Do 10 sprints.

Shuttle run sprints are the mother of them all.  This is by far one of the hardest exercise routines in existence. But if you can get good at these and learn to enjoy them, they can become a mainstay in your arsenal of exercises to seriously flatten your core abdominals while building lean, sleek, sexy muscle.

Designate a distance of 30 yards with a start and end point.  You will sprint as fast as you can back and forth between the start and finish point of the 30 yard distance.  Running down and back 3 times (180 yards total) counts as 1 complete set.  Rest 2 minutes exactly, no more.  Time your rests with a stopwatch.  Now do 4 more sets just like this.

If you have energy at the end, run 2 or 3 straight leg 50 yard sprints.

More info about sprints

I first learned about the benefits of sprints from a college athletic trainer at a major United States university.  His research had taught him that sprints are one of the core exercises that all college athletes do to increase their athleticism.  He noticed that in general the most attractive physiques for both men and women were found in the athletes that ran short distances for track and field.

After doing sprint workouts the first time, I was hooked.  I immediately recognized the value of the entire workout and have kept is as one of my main workouts that I do even to this day.  After a sprint workout, you really feel like you have been through a major event, you have really pushed your body hard and tested its limits.  This is EXACTLY what causes positive change in your physique and state of mind.

Sprints are a perfect addition to a sensible diet and workout plan.  I hope you’ll see the difference they make in your workout and fitness program.

Good luck and run fast!