Achieving Muscle Hypertrophy the 5 Step Plan.

This post is for all you guys that have a hard time achieving Hypertrophy or in simple terms muscle growth. It is one of the most desired things we strive to achieve in our fitness lifestyle. lets face it who doesn't like to have big arms and a nice V-Cut back. Muscle growth tho is not an easy thing to achieve, and it is especially not easy for those of us that are hard gainers, i am going to provide a list of 5 steps that you can follow to help you get to your goals.

Step 1- Come up with a goal to stay motivated
the first step may seem simple but this is where a lot of people go wrong right at first and that can screw them up later on in the process. the majority of guys will set a goal of gaining 15 pounds of muscle in 3-5 months. that is just not a realistic goal to set unless you don't care that you add tons of fat too! Go to a grocery store and pick out 15 pounds of beef and imagine that distributed on your body. that is a ton of weight! a realistic goal would be 5 pounds of muscle in 3 months that might not sound like a lot but it is a great deal of muscle, and also when you have a small goal like that, the chances of gaining fat are not a lot at all and thats a great thing! so come up with a realistic goal to keep you motivated and stick to that goal do not change it. stick to the plan.

Step 2- Focus on nutrition more so than the workouts.
you might be thinking that nutrition comes second to weightlifting when gaining muscle but you could not be more wrong. Nutrition is key! to gain muscle you have to eat at a calorie surplus. you can not gain muscle while eating at a deficit, you will lean out when eating a deficit but not gain muscle. also eat 5-6 meals daily (around every 2-3 hours). so how do we determine how much calories we should eat? read this post first and it will explain how to calculate things. here is an example of a 150 pound guy that is 6 feet tall; his Daily active Burn is 2700 calories and he wants to gain mass so i add an additional 500 calorie surplus and that gives us 3200 calories that he should shoot for. after a few weeks ask yourself how you are feeling and how have the results and gains been, if you need to then you can adjust the calories accordingly, another easier way you can find your starting level is multiply your body weight by 20, it's not as accurate but it will give you an idea at least, in this case if you did the math (150 X 20) that gives you 3000 calories which is 200 calories lower than what the Harris Benedict Equation Gives you but it is still a good starter.  now the next question I'm sure you are asking yourself.......


What Macronutrients work?

-when gaining muscle carbs are your friends not the enemy. when the goal is muscle gain the body will need a high amount of carbs to fuel those heavy lifting sessions. shoot for 40-50% of your daily calories coming from good carbs. no this does not mean you can just eat whatever carbs you choose, make them healthy complex sources.

-Next is protein you may be thinking that you need a ton of protein but once again your wrong lol shoot for 1 gram at minimum of your body weight and 2 grams maximum of your body weight. a good one to follow is 1.5 grams of protein X your body weight in pounds. so a 180 pound guy would eat around 270 grams of protein, a 150 pound guy would eat around 225 grams- you get the idea. protein should be from 30-40% of your daily calories.

-Last but not least we have fat. this is where you have to be careful. as you know i am all for a diet that is higher in fats but when your taking in a high amount of carbs you cannot take in a high amount of fat at the same time or that fat will be stored as fat. you may be thinking that "but shawn i have read studies that eating fat does not mean it will turn to fat in the body" that is true if your carbs are low then yes lots of fat is fine but if carbs are high your body will be using carbs as fuel not fat. so how much fat should you have? i suggest shoot for half your body weight in grams so a 150 pound person would eat 75 grams of fat daily. keep fat from 20-30% of your daily calories.

So a typical Total for this 150 pound guy would be
3200 calories (35/45/20) (P/C/F)
280 Grams Protein
360 Grams Carbs
71 Grams Fat

Step 3- Adjust your workout schedule to your goals
so many of us are used to training hard all the time and bringing tons of intensity into every workout. well when your goal is to gain muscle you have to adjust this. when hypertrophy is your goal you can't be doing tons of cardio. you need a lot more rest also to recover properly, a good key to remember is give a muscle 48 hours to recover before you train that muscle again. here is a good layout you can sub workouts into (keeping in mind the 48 hour rule)

Monday- Resistance (upper Body)/ Abs

Tuesday- Short session of HITT Cardio (40-45 mins max) (Asylums- Speed and Agility, and Vertical Plyo work great for this, also the month one workouts of insanity achieve this too. stay away from the insanity Max workouts tho, those will shred the hard earned muscle you are working on building)

Wed- Resistance (upper Body)/ Abs

Thursday- Yoga/ Foam Rolling muscles you have worked so far this week

Friday- Resistance (lower Body)/ Abs

Saturday- Resistance (upper Body)- use this workout to work one of the same muscles you have worked already in the week, focus on the muscles that come hardest for you personally. for me i like to work my shoulders and chest 2 times weekly as i feel those need more work. this will very for everyone.

Sunday- Rest Day and Foam Rolling

Step 4- Time to make adjustments to the exercises you are doing

P90X is great! and all the exercises are great! but if your goal is muscle gain you have to intensify some things. here is a list of exercises to modify.

Pushups- Slow Count, usually when doing pushups you just go fast and don't really pause, well now you should do a 2-1-3 count. 2 on centric, 1 on isolation, and a 3 count on eccentric, what that means in simple terms is count to 3 on the way down, pause for a second, then count to 2 on the way up. If your used to doing 30-40 reps for pushups you can kiss that goodbye when doing this lol your 30-40 reps will turn into 12-18 reps when done right.

Pull Ups- Use the same format as pushups (2-1-3) (reverse because you are working as you pull up instead of down)

During all weight moves keep your weight up and shoot for 8-10 reps for all exercises.

Step 5- Recovery!

This step is so important! that so many people overlook. to gain Hypertrophy you need to recover, that means shoot for 7-8 hours of sleep every night. i understand that is difficult for some of us. i only get 6.5 to 7 hours on a really good night, but i try my best to always get as much sleep as possible and i always sleep in on the weekends to give my muscles extra recovery and make up for some of the sleep i lost during the week.

So There it is! a 5 sep plan for you to follow when gaining lean healthy mass. as always if you have any questions feel free to contact me. I always get back with my people :)

also if you liked the post and my website for that matter please share on your facebook wall. i am trying to grow this great community and i need your guys help. thanks so much!

How to Dial In You Nutrition, Everything You Need To Know

One of the many questions i get from people daily is; how many calories do i need daily? and What macro ratios should i follow? well i am going to explain everything you need to know right here. so grab a pencil and paper and be prepared to write stuff down lol.

First question is "How Many Calories Do I Need Daily?"


First what we are going to do is use the "Harris Benedict Equation" the WHAT!?!? don't worry it is not rocket science and easy math, take it from a guy that is terrible at math ;)

English BMR Formula

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years ) Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )

Metric BMR Formula

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kilos ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) - ( 4.7 x age in years ) Men: BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kilos ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) - ( 6.8 x age in years )

Now we know exactly how many calories to Eat daily to maintain our weight. Now what do we do if we want to add weight or loose weight? Simple

Now since you know how many calories you burn daily doing absolutely nothing lets factor in the exercise:

Harris Benedict Formula

To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows: If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2 If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375 If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) (this is the category most people that do beachbody programs fall into that also don't have a crazy active life style with a desk job- i am in this category) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55  If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725 If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

- to add weight (bulking diet) or put on 1 pound a week (healthy weight gain with minimal fat gain) simply add 500 calories onto your daily caloric needs. so an example is a guy that has a daily caloric needs of 2500 and wants to put on muscle should eat 3000 calories a day. thats a lot of food but it will work, as long as it's healthy whole clean food.

-now for those of you who want to loose weight simply Subtract 500 Calories from your daily needs (but never go below 1500 if your a male and never go below 1200 if your a female) so lets say we have a girl that has a daily needs of 1800 calories but wants to loose weight. simply subtract 500 from that and you have a healthy 1300 calories that she can eat daily and loose one pound a week (healthy weight loss)

Second Questions is "What Macro Ratios Should I Follow For My Goals?" 

Before i can answer that i have to explain what a macronutrient is. ready for your Biology lesson for the day ;) Macronutrients are what all our food is made out of in life, it consist of a Protein, Carb, and Fat. every food in life has a Macronutrient Profile to go with it.

So what's next? how do we use the Macronutrients or track them? and why are they important? Shawn theres so much to learn! don't worry fellow classmates i will explain this all in simple terms so you all know how to go about this.

Alright first you need to know what ratios go good for each goals that people set for themselves, all the following ratios in this article will be labeled in the order of %protein/%carbs/%fat.

Fat Shredder Ratios

These are the ratios you will follow if you want to burn fat and loose weight. i am going to provide a variety here that you can choose from, since everyones body is different you will have to experiment to see what works best for you.

50/30/20

50/25/25

45/30/25

45/35/20

all these ratios support the same goal of fat loss but i realize everyone is different and different things work different for different people. so you can try the above and see what works best.

Energy Booster Ratios

If you are happy with your body fat and want to go into a muscle building/ maintenance level this is the stage for you. these are the ratios i follow.

40/40/20

40/30/30

30/40/30

45/30/25

40/35/25

these are all maintenance levels that everyone should eventually transfer too, these are ratios that can be used for life unlike the fat shredder which you should only be on temporarily since the higher protein can be bad on your kidneys and liver if your on it too long.

Endurance Maximizer Ratios

This level of macronutrients is not for everyone, this is for people that want to gain weight, and people that train a lot with active lifestyles. Even though i workout daily i have a desk job and a not so active life so these ratios i will probably never follow but for the high endurance runners, or muscle builders this diet is perfect. make sure all your carbs are clean tho!

30/50/20

20/60/20

25/55/20

again remember this is not for everyone, but some this will work wonders for you! If you have an Active Life Try it!

You are probably thinking what in the world do all these numbers mean!?!?!? settle down now lol i am getting to that.

Third Question "How Do I Calculate My Macronutrients?" 

Things to keep in mind are:
Protein has 4 calories per gram.
Carbs have 4 calories per gram.
Fat has 9 calories per gram.


With all that in mind now you have to do the math to figure out your ratios. here is an example;
A male with calories of 2400 on the "Energy Booster" Plan (40/40/20),
first i will do .40 X 2400 then divide that by 4 (4 calories per gram of protein/ Carb) = 240 grams of protein.
Carbs have the same amount so in this case it is also = 240 grams of carbs.
then for fat we take .20 X 2400 divide that number by 9 (9 calories per gram of fat) = 53 grams of fat.
so there we have it this male is going to eat 2400 calories with 240 g pro/240 g ca/53 g fat.


here's a fat shredder diet example:
(So on a 2,000 calorie diet with fat shredder %, you will want 1,000 cals from protein, 600 cals from carbs, and 400 cals from fat.  This would mean 250g protein, 150g carbs, and 45g fat).


Fourth Question "How in the World do i track this stuff daily?"
There is a simple answer for this and that answer is www.myfitnesspal.com all you have to do is sign up and make an account (it's free) then once you have an account go to the goals and update the goals with the ratios that you have calculated for yourself. and Wola! it's all done for you automatically then. just track your food daily and all the math will be calculated for you. Like magic :)


I really hope this blog has helped you and also explained all the confusing stuff in simple terms. After you do this stuff for a while it will become second nature and you will be able to do it easily. if you guys have any questions at all feel free to contact me, email, facebook, or comment here i check them all and always will get back to you ASAP. Thanks for taking the time to read this! And one favor i ask of you is if you could share my website on your facebook wall, i want to grow this great community and it would be so helpful if you could all help me share the great info on this site. thanks again!


Peace, Fausey

P90X2 90 Day Results!

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Day 90 is Finally here! it has been a long journey but i have enjoyed every second of it. below are my final comparison pics. now since i have officially finished the program the way it was laid out, i want to review the whole program as a whole.

Review of Phase 1
Phase one is the "Foundation Phase" and these workouts are focused on developing your Core strength. now when i say core i am not talking just about the flashy six pack. there is way more too core strengthening than just that, the true core is your whole torso front and back, many of life's injuries come from a weak core and these phase one workouts will no doubt strengthen the whole core. this foundation phase is perfect for the start of X2. Each workout in this phase have the main emphasis on core. the schedule is laid out quite well. however in the first phase i believe that the 2 rest days are not needed. one rest day is plenty for the first phase. these workouts are hard in a new way, not so much as intensity (except for X2 total body, plyocide, and balance and power) but the focus overall on balance in the first phase is crazy and as you get to day 30 you really notice an improvement in the way you function in real life activities. It also really helps with functional fitness the foundation primal movements that we are supposed to be doing. so how were my results after phase 1? here are the pros: my core strength was taken to a new level, i also just felt i had a better posture when doing regular activities, the schedule is designed well and i was never bored during this phase. now here are the cons: i lost quite a bit of overall strength in my muscle, my abs lacked proper symmetry and definition, 2 rest days are not needed by any means, you can sub in a heavy weight training day on one of those days. so those are my overall thoughts about the first phase, my actual appearance results were very little, and like i said i lost symmetry in my definition in my abs because the actual ab training is not designed real well and puts way to much emphasis on lower abdominals and not so much on obliques and the upper rectus abdominal muscles. when i train abs usually i always train in a sequence and hit every part of the abs, that will create proper symmetry. well as good as your genetics will let you. Everyones abs are genetically different so if you think you can change the shape of them sorry you can't. for my actual performance results tho this phase increased balance and posture greatly! my overall score for the first phase of X2 is a 7.5 out of 10.

Review of Phase 2
Phase two is the "Strength Phase" this was my favorite phase probably of the whole program. if you are a regular P90X schedule guy then this phase will probably be your favorite as well because it is most like the traditional P90X schedule. however there still is 2 rest days in this phase and i once again only believe one is truly needed. i believe that you can sub in whatever workout you want in place of one of those recovery days. foam rolling really does the body wonders in this phase. this is the phase where i would set aside an hour every night while i watch my evening shows to foam roll, I love the rumble roller and swear by it. it is pricey but if you are an avid exerciser i highly recommend the rumble roller it is truly a magical experience :) The workouts in this phase are so fun. my 2 top favorites are Chest, Back, and Balance, and X2 Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps. those are amazing workouts and i always look forward to them! i also really enjoy V-sculpt. here are the pros of this phase: your balance will continue to improve, your strength gains are gained back from what you lost in Phase one. you train abs (or should i say core 3 times a week which is what i usually do) and X2 ab ripper has really grown on me. my appearance results were pretty much back to normal from what i had lost. now for the cons: even though i like X2 ab ripper it still does not train them totally perfect but it does a decent job of it. if it integrated one hanging ab move, one more twisting motion, and one more upper motion then this would probably be my favorite Ab workout to date. when i ad this workout to a hybrid i will ad in those 3 things and it should be an almost perfect way to train abs then. my next con is that this phase after 6 weeks is very repetitive with some of the same workouts weekly, by the 5th week i never wanted to do Plyocide, and Base and Back again because i was just bored of the routines. they should have made 2 varieties of these workouts so we could sub them in and out like the other workouts, i would have happily paid more too for that option without a doubt. during this phase i actually had lost some of my pull up numbers! now i can't totally blame X2 for that because during this time of the program i had started a new job (graphic designer, and web manager at local newspaper) so while it's great i have this new job it has really sacrificed some of my results. being at a desk all day does compromise results without a doubt but it is also the fact that i went from being able to eat 5-6 meals a day with about 2500 calories, to only 3 big meals a day and my daily shakeology with only about 2200-2300 cals. But you know thats life and I'm doing the best i can so to me it doesn't matter that my results are not as good as they have been, at-least i'm still healthy and fit and making a steady income :) Other than those things i really enjoyed this phase and i give this phase an 8 out of 10.

Review of Phase 3
Phase 3 is the "performance Phase" this is the newest phase to all of us regular P90X fans. the workouts in this phase are unlike anything you have ever done. they are based of the science of P.A.P (post Activation Potentiation) this basically means a strength or power move followed by an explosive move, then an isometric move, 4 exercises repeated 4 times and that equals one Complex, a PAP workout has 2 Complexes. I absolutely loved this phase! my greatest gains were achieved with this phase. It does get repetitive doing the same PAP workouts over and over but the workouts them self are really fun and they actually seem to go really fast even though it's an hour like the rest of the workouts. your constantly moving in PAP so you break out in this massive sweat and feel amazing when your done. in this phase my pull up numbers have gone up, and my balance and stability muscles were really improved on. the pros of this phase: the workouts are tons of fun, the workouts go by really quick, these workouts get your heart rate sky high in short intervals perfect for burning fat and sculpting lean muscle, your core will be strengthened even more when these workouts are done right. now for the cons: i think it would have been awesome if they had created 2 more videos of PAP to add to sub in, they could have easily done that and wish they would have. but these workouts will be great for a hybrid because you can easily sub in different moves in place of the ones in the video so they will work for the foundation and something to go off of. there was a lack of ab training once again that i feel should have been addressed but PAP does have plenty for your core keep that in mind. thats really the only bad things i can say about the final phase. I really enjoyed this Phase! and probably made the greatest gains in performance just like it was designed to do so. my overall rating for the final phase is an 9 out of 10.

Ok now for my overall score of the Whole P90X2 program as an average. I loved the program but i felt it lacked quite a bit of stuff that should have been addressed in the production of this program. the main things it lacked was, heavy weight training, heavy leg training, proper symmetry ab workouts, and another disk that we could have subbed in place of Plyocide to bring more variety and escape boredom. with all those factors in the game i am giving P90X2 a total score of a 7 out of 10! if you are hesitant about picking this program up i think you should do it. this program is totally worth it even with the things it lacked i have learned so much that i can now integrate into other workouts. plus the technique of foam rolling learned in the program is totally worth it. I have never felt better in my joints and muscles since i have been using it, so worth it! so if you got the money pick this program up! you will not be disappointed that you did.

so as you can see i have enjoyed this 90 days. but i am so ready to go back to my hybrids, i will defiantly be incorporating these X2 workouts in my future hybrids! so that finished up a total of 9 rounds now! 810 days of Beachbody programs total now! I can't wait to start my new hybrid i have ready to go now! it is going to 90 days of workouts that will range from P90X, P90X2, one on one, and Asylum. The main goal in this hybrid is to get balanced again from what i lost with P90X2 and maintain all the benefits i have received from X2. even though i gained a lot from X2 i believe my hybrids are the best thing for me.

well this wraps it up for another blog, i hope this has given you some info on how good this product is, and hopefully you choose to buy it because there was a lot of science that went into this! and i do believe this is one of the best Beachbody workouts ever designed to date! if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment, or send me an email, or Facebook message and i will always get back to you. and another thing if you are not part of my on growing fitness team then join! it's completely free click here to join! and you will get insider only access to my tips and tricks to living a healthy lean life! Peace Out :)

Shawn Fausey