Is today your day? Ask yourself. Really looking inside yourself and ask yourself. Will today be the day you Put up 300 pounds on the bench? Will today be the day you get that new job or make the grades you need in school.

Make it your day. Go out there and get it. Work hard. Train hard. Live hard. There is no room in this "New World" Of ours to be soft and weak. To be dumb and uninformed.

Build your body. Shape your mind. Use  exercise and reading to do it. Only you know how far you can go. Only you know if you have what it takes. When you wake up you have two choices. Stay in bed and be a pussy or get up and go get it. This life can beat you down. It can be unfair and cruel. That doesn't mean we have to take it.

Strength. Real strength comes from within. You either have it or you do not. It is not something you can buy. You may not be at the strongest but you have something. Work with it. Build on it. It is the foundation of your life. It is your salvation from weakness and stupidity.

I don't think I knew real strength until I left High School and went into The Marine Corps. There strength was not about how much you bench pressed but how much you could take. I learned from the very first day of Boot Camp that it was a matter of having a sharp mind and a strong will.

My first year there I was put through Hell that the people in "The World" would never know. Miles of Pain that only those who lived through it could ever really understand. Nights of Hunger and Cold that cut through your bones. Heat in the Desert that could cook your brain. Loneliness that buried me deep.

These were the times when I had to reach down deep and hold on to my sanity and keep the will to be a Marine alive.

Around this time I really got into the works of Henry Rollins. His books, spoken word and Music were an inspiration. It spoke to me. In a corny way I thought the books were written as a guild book to follow. The way he depicted the pain of life's daily grind, and how to overcome life and become stronger using it's own hardships against it. It all seemed so very real to me. I became obsessed with the reality of it all. Life became my trip.

One piece especially stood out above all the rest.  That was The Iron. It was an article originally published for Details Magazine. It was and is the one thing that I think I can truly say got me through those years in the Military and helped shape my outlook on life in general.

I read all the time. I read whatever I could. I would read technical manuals about my occupational specialty and leadership. Marine Corps and Military History. I read novels and classics. I educated myself on physical fitness and diet. I began to train. I lifted weights and learned about supplements.

I learned over the years that it took hard work and time to become strong and that strength comes in many forms not all physical. Life has never handed me a hand out. I worked for what I have. Although I might not be as successful as I would like just yet, I have come along way. Traveled a long winding road from the scared little 125 pound boy who went to Parris Island to the 200 plus pound man I am today.

People often ask to train with me. They ask what they can do to be in better shape or have better arms or chests. I tell them that no matter what advice I tell them, if the desire is not there they will never go far. They can never achieve their goals.

I used to look up to Rollins and Frank Zane and Arnold or who ever. I used to want to be like them. That's all bullshit. You have to be yourself. You have look up to you. Your role model should be yourself. In the end that is who you are doing it for. Not the girls or the other guys or anybody. You should be doing it for yourself.

 

Training/Diet

I train every body part once a week. I used to train them all twice a week but I reach unbreakable plateaus and didn’t know why. I thought that if I trained more I would get stronger. I would train hard all week and by the next week could hardly put up what I had the week before. I was not giving my body enough rest.

Your muscles need time off to grow. They do not grow when your training. They grow after when they are in recovery. Reducing your workouts to each part once a week allows your body time to grow muscle and recoup. You also have to remember that your muscles are all in support of each other. Your tri’s help your chest when you bench. Your abs help your legs and back when you squat, and so on. So even if you are isolating a group once a week, they are getting worked on the other days of your workout as well.

Getting enough rest and sleep is very important to avoid injury. I many times have gone to hit the Iron hard with little to no sleep. Not only do I run the risk of dropping a dumbbell on my head but I get a shitty work out as well.

If you are going to the gym just because you have too, so you will not miss a work out is admirable, but you are wasting your time if you are that tired. You are running the risk of injury and not getting any pump. It’s better to miss a day and get rest so you come back and hit it hard when you are better rested and more likely to put the intensity into it.

Intensity is the name of the game. If you go from exercise to exercise, checking it off in your workout log like a grocery list, you are cheating yourself. Just because you do the workout doesn’t mean you will get bigger. You have to want it. You have to hit the gym like it is the first time and last time you might ever get to. You have to make every rep and set count. Checking your breathing, and flexing the muscle. But it is not just a physical game. It is very much a mental game. You have to have a strong will to have a strong body.

Will power can crush your bodybuilding or fitness dreams. It is real easy to say that you had a hard day at work and you are tired and can’t go to the gym. True, you don’t want to go to the gym worn out, but is it really because you are that tired or because you are lazy.

People I train often are lazy. They start off gung ho. After a week or two of hitting it hard, they feel sore and tired. They dread the pain that is coming in the gym. So they figure that they can reward themselves with a little break from the action. This gets them nowhere. Every time you quit on yourself it gets easier to do it next time.

If you are a beginner, it is a hard long road. You are not going to see a change the first week or month maybe. It may take time. Nothing comes free. Hard work in the gym will pay off. I know that for a fact.

But often time the pain is not the biggest down fall. The diet is. America lives in a fast food culture. Burger king and shit food like that is a staple mark in peoples diet. Soda, candy and all that other stuff that comes in a fast little easy to use container.

This shit will kill you. No shit. It is the biggest problem with guys in the gym. They think if they hit it hard in the gym they can eat what they want. You will never get anywhere like that.

More and more Americans are obese. The number of fat children is alarming. But still parents feed their children fast food and sugars. Americans sit in front of the Television of computer instead of going outside or doing something active. So by the time they get to a trainer and they hear that they have to change what they eat, they freak. It is often more then what they bargained for.

I prepare all my meals for the day to take with me. If I don’t, I make sure I have the money to get clean food. I eat for size so I must consume a lot of food everyday. It is rather expensive. I try to eat 2g of protein for every pound of body weight. That is roughly 400g of protein a day.

Hard boiled eggs, tuna and other fish as well steak and chicken fillets. Yams, whole grain cereals and vegetables. It all adds up. There are a lot of ways to supplement your meals. I like to eat Met-rex bars. They have about 27g of protein in them and are quick and easy. You can carry them with you on the go and are sold in a lot of places. However they are expensive in the store. I suggest buying them in bulk on- line. It saves some money.

I also love whey protein. Easy to make shakes twice a day can give you 100g of protein. Whey shakes are good if you don’t have a big appetite or can’t carry steak and eggs every where you go. They come in a verity of flavors, all of which taste like shit so don’t worry about being choosy. I like to have one in the morning and one right after my work out. It is good to have a meal high in protein after a major workout.

You have to watch carbs. A lo t of people today think that carbs are bad. That you should totally cut them out of your diet. That is the last thing you should do. You have to however, watch what types of carbs you eat and when you eat them. A fat bowl of pasta before sleep is not good. But for a lunch snack with some grilled chicken is excellent. Try to eat your carbs earlier in the day. Your body will have time to burn them off. Or before a big workout or cardio.   

Be aware that if something is said to have low sugar but is high in carbs, it is the same thing. Carbs break down into sugars.

Drinking. I used to love to drink beer. In the Marines or in the NYC music scene, I was a boozer. For many years even as a serious health person I still drank. For this reason my abs were never wash board since I was 20. I poisoned myself with the amounts of alcohol I was drinking.

Alcohol turns into sugar fast and it makes you retain a lot of water. I always looked puffy and bloated when I was drinking. So as of last year I stopped with the help of a friend. Not that I had a real problem with it. Just I knew some folks who do. It feels good to be able to help and give someone support. For me there was no question about it. It was keeping me back and hurting my training. So it went.

Since I have shredded this year down to were I am the most define I have been in five years. I feel great. Save money and have energy. I still go to bars. But now I drink diet coke or seltzer.

Like I said. You can train hard as you want in the gym, but if you eat like shit you will never gain the results you are capable of.

Knowledge is Power

The best ways to keep up with the latest training and supplements is to read the trades. Muscle and Fitness is a great one. There is also a Muscle and Fitness Hers for women. Flex is another great read full of great pictures of current and past bodybuilders both pro and amateur.

Hitting the websites is another great way to stay updated on things. You can get great deals on Supplements and other needs online. There is an endless amount of sources of info. Not all good, but use your judgment as to what to try and what you might think works for you.

Going to the bookstore and investing a few bucks in some books will help you a lot and give you the advantage. It never hurts to learn. There is so much out there. So many ways to try out to see what works best for you.

Seeking advice from a personal trainer is always wise. Even if you can’t afford to train with one. There are also floor persons at most gyms willing to teach you or help you with form and give you advice. So don’t be afraid to ask. I can’t hurt. However if you go with out answers to questions, that may hurt you in the end.

 

 

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