Xtreme Fitness For Life!: 2012 Journey to Lean Mass Gain!

Hey everyone so this is the post that i will be updating as frequently as possible, sometimes with my schedule i will be too busy but i want to try and document this whole journey for all you guys. as you all might have heard i just finished my round 10 hybrid with beachbody products bring my total days with these programs to 900! that is amazing! i started beachbody back in 2010 and i never thought it would have gotten this far. i still remember my first ever day of P90X Chest and Back, i remembered saying this is crazy there is no way! well 900 days later and i am in the best shape of my life feeling great! these workout programs really gave me a whole new outlook to life. Before beachbody i was always a big time weight lifter and never did really any cardio except for swimming. I also thought healthy food was a salmi sandwich, with dorittos, and for desert a cookie. WOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED! i can't imagine giving my body those crappy quality things now a days! i still have treat meals oh yea! but 90% of my diet is totally clean. wow that was a lot of rambling lol. Anyway back to what this post is about. Since i have gone 10 rounds now with my major focus on P90X, it is time for something new! that is where BODY BEAST comes in! for the rest of 2012 i will be on a goal to gain at least 10 pounds of lean muscle. for a lot of you that may not seem like a lot but i am a hard gainer and i also refuse to gain the easy way by eating crap. i will only be giving my body the highest quality ingredients except for treat meals every now and then. I would be greatly happy if i could add 10 pounds while maintaining low body fat, i want to keep body fat around 6 or 7%.
Current Stats: 125 pounds 5'7 (i have a small frame to begin with) 5% body fat.
Current Calories Set at 19 calories per pound of body weight 2500 to start with and upping another 100 till i'm happy with the amount, hoping to get to around 2800, but hey if i still am not gaining i will up it even more. The goal is to gain period.
so there you have it the blog will continue down below. Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions, and if your joining me in my journey to lean mass for the rest of 2012 let me know! i would love to have people share there input!

October 16th!!! -wait what? "where did you go Shawn!?!?"
Hey guys i am writing this because for now the Beast journey is over. Asylum 2 is out now and i am hybriding that with body beast now to take sports performance to new levels and i'm including weekly beast workouts to maintain the size i have gained. i wanted to post my results for you guys tho so that i can show you that this program works! here is what i gained!
- Gained 5 pounds of lean mass (that was my goal)
- maintained around 6% bodyfat
- added .5 in on each arm!
- added .5 in on each calve!
- chest went up 1 in!
- waist stayed the same!
- upper legs increased by .5 in!

My Caloric Amount Taken in for each phase and Ratios all macros are ordered in (P/C/F).

Build Block: 2500 Cals 35/45/20

Bulk Block: 2400 Cals 40/40/20

Beast Block: 2300-2200 Cals 45/30/25

Supplements Used:

Shakeology

ON Gold Standard Whey

Results and Recovery Formula

Suma Powder

Glutamine

Multi Vitamin

Vitamin D3

Super B Complex

Fish Oil

CLA

Daily Food Journal Starting in August 2012:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/fausey14?date=2012-08-06

I am super happy with these results! I am not a big fan of being huge because i like being lean but i wanted to add a bit of size and this program did just that! So whats next you ask? as i stated before i am taking on another hybrid with Beast and Asylum Vol 2! the goal for this round is to get my performance back that i sorta lost from lifting heavy for 90 days. for example before beast i could easily jump up on a pull up bar and knock out 25+ full hanging no kip pull ups well when i finished beast i could only get around 12 without kipping so thats my main goal. to get my pull up endurance back! and i know Asylum Vol 2 will help achieve that. My life has become a lot more busier lately so thats why i haven't blogged as much lately and i am sorry about that. I hope you guys are still using my site and taking advantage of all the great info i have up here for you guys. Like always if you ever have any questions at all just shoot me a message (email facebook, ect) and i will always get back to you. Well for now this daily blog entry is on hold ut i hope you guys enjoyed this while it was going on, my goal was to provide you with the best info and knowledge i have about this stuff and i hope it helps everyone who took the time to read it. For now this is Shawn- Signing off. But i will be back......

Peace, Fausey. :)

September 3rd, 2012 - Recovery week is over and I'm back to finish strong!

HAPPY LABOR DAY EVERYONE! I am back from my recovery week! My recovery week went awesome, Bringing back some good P90X2 routines is just what my body needed after doing 5 weeks of straight heavy bulk workouts. I also had time to think and plan what will be doing after i finish this round of Beast. First off tho today was day 61 of this round and it starts the BEAST PHASE! with Build Chest and Tris. Here are the numbers for today and i am quite pleased with them!!!
Single Set
-Flat dumbbell press: 35/40/45/35 (drop-set)
Superset
-Incline Flys: 25/30/30
-Incline Press: 30/35/35/30 (drop-set)
Giant Set
-Close Dumbbell press: 25/30/35
-Partial Flys: 25/30/35 for 4 reps then dropped to 25's
-Decline Pushups: 15/12/10
-Cable Flys: just added more resistance to each set for 3 sets
Single Set
-Scull Crushers (bar not included in weight) 20/30/40/30 (drop set)
Superset
-Tricep Kickbacks: 15/17.5/22/17.5 (drop set)
-Tricep Push ups: 15/12/8 (dropped to knees a couple times to just finish reps
Superset
-Max dips (legs were elevated on bench the whole time) (focused on slow and controlled tempo reps)
-In and Outs for a minute
Calfs
one leg calf raises: 35lbs for 20 reps, then dropped weight for 15 more reps.
standing dumbbell calf raise rotated for drop sets of just body weight, 20 reps weighted, 20 reps body weight, repeated 3 times. Maxed out on body weight calf raises for 60 reps.
Cool Down
And there it is! great workout! Now to give you a sum up of what my next plan is once i finish BEAST. Asylum Vol. 2 should be out by the time i finish this round so my next round is going to be a hybrid with P90X2, Asylum Vol. 2, and Body Beast! It is going to be a killer hybrid! Goal for that round will be to build back all the performance i lost from pretty much lifting heavy for 90 days. But i also want to maintain the size i have built so i will be incorporating Body Beast in that too. Also speaking of Asylum the new infomercial was released this last week and i am in it multiple times! Pretty freaking cool to see myself on TV :) you can watch the infomercial Here! well i know you were all probably expecting a huge blog today, but it is Labor day and i want to relax before work starts again tomorrow so i will leave you with some of the photos taken at my day 60 photo shoot, Enjoy this holiday everyone and lets finish this last phase out strong! ;)

Calories For Today are set for: (May not be exactly right because dinner will be at parents tonight, but pretty close tho)

For the rest of my meals just go to my food diary. and follow me on twitter too for pictures of my meals and i also tweet lots of tips and tricks too for you guys. and if you are looking for a coach, sign up for free! and you will be coached by me and have access to only things that my teammates can use. just click here to join!

August 23rd, 2012 - Sleeping in is a great thing!, Common myths busted about post workout nutrition and an old Ab favorite of mine!

Wow do i feel totally refreshed today! I decided to sleep in this morning an extra hour so when i woke up i still had 20 min before i had to get ready for work so i hit up day 53 of this round with P90X+ Abs/Core plus. I know i said i usually don't do any Beachbody ab routines because i like to do my own ab stuff but there are a couple videos i still really enjoy and once of those is Abs/Core Plus. that routine is about 20 min long and it hits the abs from every angle, including hanging from a pull up bar. That is one of the best ab routines in my opinion, that along with tones first ever beachbody program "Great body guaranteed" the ab routine in that is probably one of my all time favorites because the burn in that one is just incredible! i wish tony still did ab routines like he used too…. but since that workout is so old i will just post the video of it here since it is on youtube lol. TRY THIS WORKOUT! YOU WILL LOVE IT! I actually believe this workout is really what gave me the defined look i was shooting for. i do this routine every saturday morning fresh out of bed.

So yea as you can see it looks super old quality and the exercises are just old fashion but i tell you, this one is awesome! Tony if you are reading this blog please, please, please come up with some more routines like this one that actually work the abs and not just the hip flexors :) thanks!

Alright with that out of the way. today i want to talk about "post workout nutrition" also for the fact that i am getting a lot of questions on what to take post workout and such. first off tho i want to clear up some of the common myths about post workout nutrition that i see a lot of!

1st myth: "Post workout nutrition is the most important meal of the day"
False! - Yes post workout is very important and should not be looked over but i see way to many people saying it's the most important. In my opinion and from what i have studied and learned is that if you had to choose one meal a day to be the most important it would be Breakfast. look at the work Breakfast and break it down. If you do that you will notice that it actually says Break Fast which means- Break the fast. You have fasted for more than 8 hours and your blood sugar is low and most glycogen is depleted. You need to break the fast with a very balanced breakfast. The best thing to follow for breakfast to start the day out right is to take in about 30-40% of your daily carbs for the day in that meal, keep protein balanced at about 40-60 grams, and take in enough fats to feel full and regulate hormone level which will vary for everyone but i keep it to 12-20 grams of fat (depending on my current caloric intake). so for example lets look at what i do, for me i shoot for 100 grams of carbs, around 45-50 grams protein, and 12-15 grams of fat for breakfast. that meal will fire my metabolism off for the day and get me started off right. as the day goes on since i have a desk job i keep my starch carbs to 3 servings a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) all other meals are pretty much full on primal and low carb. Of course if you have an active life style this approach wont work for you and you will need a lot more carbs throughout the day to function at your best but for all you desk job people like my self, this is what i have found that works to remain lean, and build quality muscle.
lol kinda got off track of the original post so lets move on shall we ;)

2nd myth: "Post workout is the time where you can eat tons of sugar and not worry about it being stored as fat"
False! - This is one i see SO MANY PEOPLE DO! Yes you can take in a good amount of sugar but no you should not just eat a TON! here is the formula i follow and have researched and learned about for post workout nutrition "take your body weight and times it by .25 that is the amount of carbs to take in post workout" and then divide that number in half and that gives you the amount of protein you should take in" so lets look at me as an example (130 pounds X .25 = 32.5 Round that to 30 grams of carbs and then dived that and half = 15 grams of protein) thats the rule i follow, and a lot of my clients follow it too. This is the one meal where fats should be excluded or a very small amount. Fats will slow digestion and this is the time where you do not want that happening so try and keep fat low to none if you can post workout.

3rd myth: "Don't count your calories and macros for you post workout nutrition, they get sucked up and used by the body so fast that they don't matter"
This is once again FALSE! - Track your post workout nutrition like any other meal is tracked. A calorie is a calorie, don't just think that post workout nutrition just gets sucked up by the body and the calories magically disappear LOL.

Those are the 3 big myths of post workout nutrition that i hear the most and wanted to cover today. If you got questions let me know!

I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday! this week went FAST! love it! I might do 30 min of yoga later tonight just to get some yoga in, but for tomorrow i really don't know what workout i am gonna do yet. I think i will hit up Build legs since i have been doing build workouts all this week so far why change it lol. Plus i am feeling refreshed again after this sorta day off so i should be about to hit legs with power and strength tomorrow! WHATEVER IT TAKES! damn i love the Quote! it just goes so well with so many challenges we face everyday in life. well thats all i got for you guys today. Tomorrow will be Build legs and another LEPTIN RE-FEED! can anyone say SWEET POTATO PANCAKES!!!!!! YUM! LOL alright guys i will talk to you all tomorrow! And i want to leave you with some very good words of advice. Don't be afraid to sleep in, in the morning if you feel you really need it. missing a workout will not harm you in anyway and will actually help you in the long term! So sleep! Peace :)

Pre 20 min ab routine: half banana with salt and cinnamon, glass of water
post ab routine: 3/4 scoop whey, 1 tsp suma, 1 tsp of glutamine

Breakfast: egg white omelet (1 cup whites) with veggies, 2 whole eggs over easy with a slice of Ezekiel toast, side of fruit (a peach, raspberries, blueberries) and Black Coffee.

Nutrition is set today at: (low carb day)

August 22nd, 2012 - Build Back and Biceps is such a killer! & Tips for you guys trying to gain lean muscle!

Hey guys! wednesday is here! that brings me to day 52 of this Round. Today when i work up i felt pretty good so i went ahead and hit up build Back and Biceps and that routine about killed me this morning but here is the good news! Weights went up! since that first block of build workouts! Even tho my energy wasn't at it's highest i still was able to lift heavy and thats an awesome sign that my plan and approach is working! One thing i am not liking tho is how my pull up numbers are going down. Thats one reason after this round i am going to be doing an X2 hybrid so i can build my functional fitness strength back up. One of the reason my pull up numbers are low tho is because i do each rep in a slow and controlled tempo, i actually did a temp of 2-2-4 today and it nearly killed me, no wonder i was only getting around 7 reps per set. Here are the numbers for today.

Single Set Dead Lifts: 25/35/40/35 (drop-set)
Super Set
Dumbbell Pull Over: 40/45/50/40 (drop-set)
Pull Ups: 7/8/7 (struggled big time today, but did them in a slow tempo)
Giant Set
EZ Bar Row: 50/70/90
One Arm Rows: 35/40/45
Reverse Fly: 10/10/10
Single Set Close Grip Chin Up 30 seconds each: 3 sets (30 seconds rest in-between each set)- did with a slow tempo
Single Set Seated Bicep Curls: 15/20/25/20
Single Set 1,1,2 Hammer Curls: 15/17/20
Single Set Neutral EZ Bar Curls: 20/30/40/30
Final Move 2 rounds Airplane Cobra: 30 seconds each time), max towl pull ups between each set.
Cool Down

So yes that was defiantly hard and since i am just pretty much destroyed after that, I have decided i am sleeping in tomorrow to atlas get 7 hours of sleep and then i will hit up patience yoga routine (30 min total) before work. I need a recovery day so thats just what i'm going to do. I might even try to get to bed earlier tonight too, not sure yet about that tho, i like my late night TV shows :)

Today i want to discuss a very popular topic going around right now and that is "Tips for hard gainers to gain weight and keep body fat low." Specially since a lot of small guys (like myself) are trying to build muscle right now and as i go through the many groups on Facebook i am in right now that are dealing with body beast i see a lot of hard gainers making mistakes and doing some things wrong so i want to clear up the confusion for all you hard gainers and pack on muscle the correct way and the lean way.
FIRST OFF: HOW MANY CALORIES ABOVE MAINTENANCE DO I NEED TO GO TO PACK ON MUSCLE?
- this is a very important part of it, i see tons of people doing this wrong lately so i want to correct it right here right now. First off you have to find your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) and you can use a TDEE Calculator online to find that out. so here is an example; 130 pound male ectomorph with a TDEE of about 2500 calories. so that is his maintenance level with activity factored in. Now this guy wants to put on about 10 pounds of muscle to get to 140. The proper way to do that is to only go on a slight caloric surplus of 300 calories a day, so that gives us around 2800 calories. This will allow you to gain strictly muscle and barley any fat at all.any more than a 300 calorie surplus and you are now approaching a not so safe level where you could add body fat. I see a ton of people lately just going on these crazy calorie surpluses and now 6 weeks into the program they put on over 8 pounds! and the part that is driving me crazy is they are saying that it is mostly muscle. that is simply impossible, it's so much harder than that to put on muscle. Body builders take years to put on quality mass. trying to rush that into a 3 month program is just asking for a rapid rise in body fat. SO HOW MUCH WEIGHT CAN WE GAIN IN 3 MONTHS DOING JUST A SMALL 300 CALORIE SURPLUS? It's not much, its about one or 2 pounds a month! so in 33 months you could be up 3-6 pounds and i guarantee those pounds will be QUALITY WEIGHT. It will take longer to make gains going on a small surplus but the reward of that is awesome! for one you wont have barley any body fat to cut after your lean bulk, You can maintain your cardio strength, and you can look and just feel good! what is not to like about that plan!?!? Alright moving on to the next part. WHAT IS THE BEST TEMPO WHILE LIFTING TO GAIN SIZE?

There are many schools of thought on this subject but i will mention what works best for me and my clients. The best tempo that i personally see the best results in size with is a 2-2-4 tempo, let me explain: a 2-2-4 tempo is 2 seconds on the centric movement of an exercise, 2 seconds holing the stationary part of the movement, and 4 seconds on the eccentric movement of the exercises.
Example of this during a pull up would be: 2 seconds on the way up, 2 second hold at the top, and 4 seconds on the way down.
The focus is really set on the Eccentric part of the movement or the negative part of the movement in simple terms. That is the tempo that will lead to SIZE.
So those are the major tips for right now, i am running short on time and have to get this blog updated so i will continue in on this subject in another blog. Let me know if you guys have any questions and also My Meal Custom Meal plans launched today! and people have started receiving there very own personal plan! so if you are interested and want more info on how you can get a custom made meal plan fit for you and your lifestyle that will get results, just click here. thats it for today folks, talk to you soon. peace :)

Calories for today are set at:

Pre Workout: 2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 tsp Suma, 118 grams of banana- with salt and cinnamon. workout was 30 min later

Intra Workout: Green Tea- brewed with just water and ice.

Post Workout: 1/4 serving R&R, 1/2 scoop whey, 1 tsp Glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma

Post workout meal: 30 min after workout.

60 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 10 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

August 21st, 2012 - Speed and Agility! wow do i miss cardio! lol

Hey everyone. hope your week is going good, looking forward to tomorrow being wed (half of the week over!) anyway lets get down to it. Today was day 51 of this round with my cardio day today so i choose to do Asylum Speed and Agility. It was a great workout! really makes me realize how much i miss doing asylum workouts lol and i hate cardio! but for some reason i have actually been looking forward to it lately, probably the fact that my body is just burnt out and tired from lifting heavy almost everyday. I have been trying to think what i am going to do once i finish this round and i think i am going to be doing a P90X2, Asylum, and Asylum 2 hybrid! (Asylum 2 is due to be out at the end of september so it should be out by the time im down with this round. I wont be doing Asylum 2 tho as a whole because i did Asylum 1 as a whole and really screwed my body up, and screwed my metabolism up too. My body got so used to doing cardio that when i accomplished the 30 days of it, i went back to lifting and i was never satisfied and never felt like i had a good workout and i felt like i always had to have that cardio high at the end of a routine which was not good, plus when i stopped doing all the cardio i added fat back fast! thats why i don't recommend doing that type of exercise for a whole program, and thats also why i choose to keep cardio to one or 2 days maximum during the week. But anyway i think a hybrid with P90X2, Asylum, and Asylum 2, with a couple Body beast workouts thrown in to keep muscle will be excellent! i think i will start a group on Facebook and see who all wants to join me through my hybrid. When i get the schedule made i will be sure and let you guys know, it won't be for a while tho because i need to know what workouts Asylum 2 will have before ii can right out a hybrid but i have to say I am EXCITED! Im also excited to get back to P90X2 routines, i feel that i have lost a lot of that foundation and i miss that! doing body beast has really made me realize how much i love functional fitness lol Don't get me wrong i love lifting heavy but i also love being able to do tons of real athletic moves, and all this lifting heavy has just been really taxing on my body.

speaking of my body being taxed i think it's time for a recovery week. I am just mentally, and physically drained. nothing against the Body Beast schedule or anything i just feel they really messed up by not incorporation a recovery week at all. For me i need a recovery week about every 4 weeks and if i don't listen to my body i really start feeling broken down and thats kinda how i feel right now. I think i'm going to finish this week with laid out workouts and then next week do a recovery week based off of P90X2 foundation phase routines so i can give my body a bit of a rest.

Also i want to talk a little more about my personal ab routine today. Since i got so many people asking for it yesterday i thought i would atleast let you guys know the exercises i do. The routine tho is still only for people on my team and that have purchased something from me but here is a list of moves that i incorporate in my routines, usually my routine consist of 4-6 exercises repeated 3-4 times so here is the list of exercises i use and place in my routines.
-straight leg, leg raises
-Ab roller wheel
-Decline deep crunch
-Decline deep rotating crunch
-Double crunch
-Russian Twists
-stab ball crunches
-hanging leg raises
-Stomach vacuums
-Planks
-Pikes
those are just a few i can pull fresh out of my mind that i use pretty frequently. you will notice that they are nothing fancy just good old fashion exercises that have been around for years and still work amazing.

Well tomorrow i have scheduled Back and Bis and i know it is going to be a hard one. When i wake up tomorrow i am going to listen to my body tho and if i can't feel that i will have enough energy to do it i will just do X2 core instead or something like that. You have to listen to your body people! don't get so set on a schedule that you end up hurting yourself. Its not worth it and so much better if you just listen and do something else that feels right. I know i sound like a broken record with the part of listening to your body but i just can't stress how important it is.

Pre workout

2 glasses water, 2 scoops Energy and Endurance, 1.5 tsp Glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma, workout was 30 min later

Intra workout: Green Tea in cold water and ice

Post workout: 1/4 results and recovery formula, 1/2 scoop of whey, 1/2 tsp glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma

Breakfast: egg white omelet (1 cup whites) with veggies, 2 whole eggs over easy with a slice of Ezekiel toast, side of fruit (a peach, raspberries, blueberries) and Black Coffee.

Nutrition is set today at: (low carb day)

August 20th, 2012 - Weekend Recap & A change In The Way Im Working My Core.

Hey Guys!!! long time since i blogged lol, I have been super busy lately so i just have had no time, so today is going to be a recap!!! first off lets start with friday, friday was day 47 of this round with Bulk legs. The workout went well, not great but not bad either, here are the numbers for that routine.
single set
Front and Back Lunge: 15/22/25
Progressive Set
Squats: 25/30/45/45/30/25
Force Set
Suma Squat: 45/45/45/45/45
Progressive Set
Split Leg Squat: 50/70/90/90/70/50
Superset
Stiff Leg Deadlift: 25/30/40/30
Side to Side Lunges: 15/15/15
Superset
One leg calf raises: 50 reps using the 30's for the first 25 reps then dropped the weight to just body weight to finish up reps.
Decline Sit Ups for the first ab move then finished off with russian twists for the second ab move with a 25 pound weight plate, legs locked on bench so my feet wouldn't come off the floor.
Cool down
Nutrition was set at: Leptin Re-Feed

As i went through this routine i felt that i was getting boarded from this since it was like my 4th week in a row doing it, and i am exercise bipolar lol, i constantly have to switch things up or i get bored so something is going to need to change, i will get to that in a bit. Friday was also my 3rd week in a row with a leptin re-feed and i have to say i am freaking loving them ha ha, i am close to 400 grams of carbs on my re feed days then the next day i wake up super ripped and pumped! no bloat or anything, love it! plus having sweet potato pancakes for dinner with red wine and a side of veggies was so good and so rewarding!!! (pic to the right).

Then moving onto saturday day 48 i had Bulk Shoulder and Bulk Arms and that combo is always fun!!! kept my weights pretty much the same but it was a great workout, here are the numbers.

Bulk: Shoulders
Superset
Lateral Raise: 12/15/15
Arnold Press: 17/25/30/25 (drop set)
Progressive Set
Upright Rows: 20/30/40/40/30/20
Superset
Alt. Front Raise: 10/12/15
Plate Twists: 15/12/12
Progressive Set
Reverse Fly: 5/10/10/10/10/5 (incorporated rest pauses)
Superset
Callahan press from X2: 25/25 (max reps in allowed time)
Plank Twists: 30 seconds for 2 rounds
Bulk: Arms
Progressive Set
Standing Curl: 15/20/25/25/20/15
Single Set
Tricep Extensions: 35/45/50/40 (drop Set)
Force Set
Wide EZ Bar Curl: 30/30/30/30/30 (weight of bar not included)
Single Set
Skull Crusher: 30/30/40/30
Progressive Set
Hammer Curls: 15/17/20/20/17/15 (each Arm)
Progressive Set
Tricep Kickbacks: 15/17/2020/17/15 (each Arm)
Final Move
Decline weighted Crunches using a 15lb: 30 Reps

Damn that combo is fun lol Saturday i sorta messed up my nutrition tho, usually the day after a re feed i go back to moderate level carbs (200 grams for me) but the way i screwed up was i usually aways have a sweet potato in my post workout meal but since i had lined up lasagna for my dinner that night i decided to take out the sweet potato and save the carbs for dinner well then when it came time for dinner i was feeling like trying to make a primal lasagna since i have always wanted to and i had the free time so i decided to go primal (with the exception of corn) and then after dinner i noticed i only had like 170 grams of carbs for the day! lol of course because of that screw up i woke up sunday and felt flat and all depleted with no pump ha ha, lesson learned- stick to the ratios you have lined up for :)
Nutrition was set at: Mistaken Low carb day lol

Alright then moving onto sunday- day 49 it was my off day and thank goodness because i needed it! nothing really new on sunday, the regular foam rolling, stretching, and prepping my meals for the week.

that brings us to toady! day 50 of this round and since i could not take another week of the same bulk routines i decided to go back to build. so today was Build chest and triceps, here i want to metion something new i am trying. Usually i do a 1o-15 min ab circuit before my lifting in the morning but i have decided to try something totally different, one thing about doing abs in the morning is its really exhausting especially when you do it at 5am, also my legs are always tight in the morning so usually my weekly ab routines would be scheduled like this;
mon- abs
wed- abs
sat- abs
well now i have decided to work the core at night 30 min before bed, this allows me have my legs loose so i can do more dynamic exercises like straight leg raises and not cramp up, so now this is what my ab training looks like on schedule;
sunday night- abs
tues night- abs
thurs night- abs
training abs at night is something totally new to me but i needed to change something up, as most of you know i don't really usu beachbody ab routines anymore because i have learned most of them just focus on the hip flexors and work the abs second, i have created my own ab circuit routines using the best old fashion way to truly work the abs and by doing my own routines i am not set to a time limit due to a video, i can take as much time as needed to get however many sets and reps i want- thats another thing that lacks with BB ab routines. Once in a while i will throw a BB ab routine in but not very often, if you are on my team and have purchased something from me, message me and i will send you my personal ab routines. I tell you what tho working my abs last night instead of this morning was really weird lol i have never done that before, i have always worked abs before my workout in the morning, but the thing i liked about it though was that since it was at night and i wasn't limited to only 10-15 min like i am in the mornings i was really able to take my time and contract the core properly with every move i think my routine took like 20 min last night, i think this was a smart change for me. Plus another bonus is in the morning i get 15 extra minutes to sleep in or foam roll before my workout starts! hey every little bit helps :) so thats the main change i am making, that and switching back to the build routine for a bit because exercise bipolar was kicking in with the bulk routines lol.

well thats pretty much all i wanted to cover today, oh and also a good friend of mine David meant The BEAST over the weekend (pic to the right) and i had him ask him for me "when was the best time to take Suma and how much does he generally recommend?" well Sagi reported back that he recommends it with breakfast and later on in the day sometime with another meal, about 1-1.5 tsp a day which is close to what i am doing currently, looks like its working to me :) anyway hope you guys have a good rest of your monday. I will be trying to Blog more this week since i am a little less usy so if you have a topic you want me to blog about shoot me a message. Peace out!

Calories for today are set at:

Pre Workout: 2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 tsp Suma, 112 grams of banana- with salt and cinnamon. workout was 30 min later

Intra Workout: Green Tea- brewed with just water and ice.

Post Workout: 1/4 serving R&R, 1/2 scoop whey, 1 tsp Glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma

Post workout meal: 30 min after workout.

60 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 10 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

August 16th, 2012 - Yoga day! and Why Everyone Should Do Yoga.

Hey guys i can't believe it's already thursday! This week is just flying by! anyway today was day 46 of this round and i had some much needed yoga today. I decided to do Yoga MC2 from the one on one series since it has been a while since i have done that one. I really enjoy that yoga routine, some of the holds in that routine are really BRUTAL but after you finish that, you feel like a million bucks! I'm so glad that i am adding yoga back in weekly, before i started Body Beast i was getting in a bad attitude of just skipping it most weeks but now since i have added it back it i just feel so much better, Quote of the Day is from Tony Horton Himself- "Don't Skip The Yoga" and for your viewing pleasure i found a video of todays yoga routine on youtube with tony saying it :)
I hear all the time; “why do we have to do yoga”, “yoga is boring and to long”, “there’s no calories burnt in yoga, what’s the point?”

Well I’m here to tell you to stop complaining and do the yoga. During my first round of P90X I hated the yoga and I would skip yoga days, and guess what by not doing the yoga my results really suffered, I also got injured during those first 90 days with several knee injuries and I credit that to skipping the yoga. During my second round of the X I added yoga in and from that round to toady I always do yoga once a week, yoga has so many benefits, here are only a few but there are so many more.

1.) Stress and tension reduction2.) Mental clarity and focus3.) A greater sense of purpose, peace, harmony.4.) Increased fitness and muscle tone5.) Improved strength, balance and flexibility6.) Improved posture, alignment and grace7.) Increased lung capacity, breathing quality8.) Improved digestion and circulation9.) Better quality of sleep.10.) Improved Spine Health

If you have ever done yoga then you know that Tony Horton calls it the fountain of youth and for a good reason, yoga helps to keep you and your joint young so you can perform at your best.

Back in May of 2011 during the 30 days of strict Asylum I really missed yoga and i even lost some of my flexibility as soon as the 30 days were over I started yoga back up and then the soreness and fatigue was gone.

I’m not here to tell you that you have to do yoga but i just wanted to list the great many befits of it, and I hope now you will at least give it a chance, if you find yoga boring do it outside and get in touch with the planet and yourself, or do yoga in a dark room for some relaxation I’ve done both and yoga days really are one of my favorite days of the week.

Namaste ;)

Pre Yoga: 2 glasses water, 1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 tsp Glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma, yoga was 10 min later

During Yoga: Green Tea in cold water and ice

Post Yoga: 1/2 scoop of whey, 1/2 tsp glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma

Breakfast: egg white omelet (1 cup whites) with veggies, 2 whole eggs over easy with a slice of Ezekiel toast, side of fruit (a peach, raspberries, blueberries) and Black Coffee.

Nutrition is set today at: (low carb day)

August 15th, 2012 - Bulk Back! and Im Back From My Day Off :D

Hey everyone! first thing is first i want to appologize for not blogging yesterday. I have been super busy with my day job and have had no time. Anyway tho down to business now! Quote for today is "you are always stronger than what you think you are" and with the said- Today was Day 45 of this hybrid, HALF WAY THERE! i have to say how much i love this program, i know im not doing the program exactly as laid out but over 80% of my workouts currently are Body Beast so i think i am doing pretty well. Anyway tho, i woke up SORE this morning. i don't quite understand it but somehow my lats were sore! and i haven't worked back in 7 days, so i was trying to think of what caused it and then it hit me how i have been adding in sets of planks while watching tv at night for about a week now, and when you do planks proper it is the ultimate total body/ core exercise. So yea i was sore but i still pushed hard today and upped some of my weights even! With that said here are todays numbers.

10 minute trainer abs (20-12)

Superset

Dumbbell Pull Over: 40/45/50/40

Pull Ups: 10/10/10

Progressive Set

Bent Over EZ Bar Row: 50/60/70/70/60/50

Force Set

One Arms Rows: 40/40/40/30/30 (tried to keep 40's all the way through but wasn't happening)

Single Set

Deadlift: 30/40/45/30

Superset

Bent Over Flys: 10/10

Renegade Rows: Used 25 pounds and rowed side to side for 30 seconds each time.

cool down

Since it is late in the day already, there is no blog topic today, but im hoping to get something up for you guys this week, i've just been super busy at work and then when i get home i don't feel like blogging lol. Well i'm gonna go get ready to fix dinner and relax for the night, i am beat! tomorrow is day 46 and i will be doing Yoga MC2 (one on one yoga) have a nice evening guys.

Calories for today are set at:

Pre Workout: 2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 tsp Suma, 118 grams of banana- with salt and cinnamon. workout was 30 min later

Intra Workout: Green Tea- brewed with just water and ice.

Post Workout: 1/4 serving R&R, 1/2 scoop whey, 1 tsp Glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma

Post workout meal: 30 min after workout.

60 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 10 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

August 13th, 2012 - Bulk Chest- Not my best at all today and how to Prep your food for the week.

The Title says it all today, day 43 of this hybrid. I just couldn't get into it today, the workout sucked today. But oh well at least i got it done and maintained my numbers from last week. I don't have a whole lot of time today so i kinda have to rush this blog today because i also want to cover tips on how to prep your meals for the day. here are the numbers.

10 Min Ab Circuit

Superset

Incline Flys: 25/25/30

Incline Press:25/30/35/30

Force Set

Rotational Dumbbell press: 25/25/25/25/25

Progressive Set

Incline Press: 25/30/35/35/30/25

Combo-set

Close Grip Press To Fly: 17/22/25 (went up)

Final Sets

Decline Push Ups: 15/12/12 (burnt out!)

Cable Flys: 1 set of 15 (light resistance)

Russian Twists with weight (feet under bench so i could lean back more.): 30 seconds with 8 pound med ball arms straight out.

Ok today i want to cover advice on how to prep your meals for the week. As you can see from my pic to the side, those are my meals that i eat throughout the week. This is not all my meals for the week but a good amount of them i just wanted to show a general idea. So here are the steps you should take.

1. Calculate and log all your meals a week ahead of time in an online meal tracker like myfitnesspal.

- usually Saturday sometime i will sit down and track every single one of my meals for the week in myfitnesspal, i set it up with the ratios and calories i want for the week and then that way i just have to stick to the list of foods for each meal, if its time to eat i open up the easy app on my phone, look at the meal, then just go grab it out of the fridge and eat- simple as that.

2. Have all your container ready and set out on a table while you cook your food.

- sounds simple but it really makes a difference when your organized, and it will take a lot less time.

3. Go shopping and then fix all the food. Perishable items like eggs or fish should only be cooked a day in advance and never more as they get bad fast. I suggest going with pork loins, chicken, steaks- those types of meat can be fixed 7 days in advance and be fine. Plus those are easy meats to cook with not a lot of prep time.

4. while the meat is cooking, steam all your vegetables (i use the microwave, it takes a lot less time) the veggies wont take long so you can then pack the amount you want in each container.

5. Once the meat is done cooking let it set 5 minutes before you cut into it as it will release liquid and mess up the weight of it when you measure out your servings plus you want all that extra flavor.

6. Get your scale and start weighing the meat (i choose to way mine after cooked, i know a lot will disagree with me but it is just easier.) the amount you put in each meal will be determined by your individual caloric needs.

7. Now you decide what your starches for the week are. This all comes down to how active you are. More active= more carbs, less active= less carbs, i have a desk job so i don't need a ton. I choose to go with Sweet Potatoes, and quinoa for my carbs, occasionally brown rice too. I choose to only eat starchy carbs with breakfast, lunch, and dinner (those are the times where i need the extra glycogen and balanced blood sugar levels. All my snacks for the day is just a combination of whole eggs, steak, pork, sometimes fruits like apple, peaches, berries, also almonds, and of course my shakeology everyday.

8. Once you have the carb source (if you add it) next is healthy fats, you can choose any type of fats you want to add, i choose to use- avocado, whole eggs, and almonds.

9. then once you did that you can choose your seasonings and spices/ sauces you want to add, i add- cinnamon, cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper, curry, ect, then i also top most of my meals with mustard and salsa, also Chalula hot sauce is a favorite. The only times i don't add the salsa and mustard is a week before a photo shoot. (to cut sodium)

10. Then the last thing to do is grab your phone open up the app and double check each meal with whats on your app and make sure things match up, once everything matches up your done! It takes me usually 3-4 hours on sunday mornings every week to prep all my food. It might sound Obsessive but if you want to reach your goals you must have a plan. Only people that are prepared with succeed in reaching there goals, always have a plan ahead of time. The weekend is when i still track my food but i allow some cheat foods to mix it up and keep my body guessing. I really don't stress on the weekends to much. But during the week im like a hawk, i have a target and i always try to eat clean throughout the whole week. lol i have no idea where the "Hawk" came in there, i am trying to type this as fast as i can so im a little rambled with my words :D That is pretty much the just of prepping food for the week, if you guys have any questions, please just let me know, i would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Calories for today are set at:

Pre Workout: 2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 tsp Suma, 118 grams of banana- with salt and cinnamon. workout was 30 min later

Intra Workout: Green Tea- brewed with just water and ice.

Post Workout: 1/4 serving R&R, 1/2 scoop whey, 1 tsp Glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma

Post workout meal: 30 min after workout.

60 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 10 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

August 11th, 2012 - Bulk Shoulders & Bulk Arms with STRENGTH and POWER TODAY!

It's Day 41 of this 90 day round and i had Bulk Shoulders and Bulk Arms! This is my new saturday workout! HOLY SHIT!!!! THE PUMP WAS HUGE TODAY! yea that leptin Re-Feed yesterday really took me to a whole new level today, i was able to up my weights on some things that i usually struggle big time with, no struggle today tho i felt Freaking Excellent! Here are my numbers for today!

Bulk: Shoulders

Superset

Lateral Raise: 12/15/15

Arnold Press: 17/22/30/25 (drop set) (WENT UP!)

Progressive Set

Upright Rows: 20/30/40/40/30/20 (need to buy more plates! lol)

Superset

Alt. Front Raise: 10/12/15 (went up!)

Plate Twists: 15/12/12

Progressive Set

Reverse Fly: 5/7/10/10/7/5

Superset

Callahan press from X2: 25/25 (max reps in allowed time)

Plank Twists: 30 seconds for 2 rounds

Bulk: Arms

Progressive Set

Standing Curl: 15/20/25/25/20/15

Single Set

Tricep Extensions: 35/40/50/40 (drop Set) (went up!)

Force Set

Wide EZ Bar Curl: 30/30/30/30/30

Single Set

Skull Crusher: 30/30/40/30 (need more plates!)

Progressive Set

Hammer Curls: 15/17/20/20/17/15 (each Arm)

Progressive Set

Tricep Kickbacks: 15/17/2020/17/15 (each Arm)

Final Move

Decline Crunches: 30 Reps

THAT WAS INCREDIBLE!

ok since it is the weekend i got other stuff to do so no blog topic today i just want to end with a quote today that i think really goes along with this routine. "The longest and toughest journey are normally the most rewarding" it is always a journey in this fitness lifestyle and it will be challenging at times and it will take you to a whole new level sometimes, the main thing is stick with it, never give up and the rewards will be so incredible that you your self won't believe it. Have a good weekend guys, tomorrow is rest day and then monday starts week 4 of the bulk block, Cya Monday :)

Breakfast:

65 grams Gluten Free Oats, 1/2 banana, 1 cup berries, 10 raw almonds, 1.5 scoops whey, 1 tsp glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma. Workout (2 hours later)

Intra Workout: green tea (cold water and ice)

Post workout: 1 fresh peach immediately after, then 10 min later, 1 scoop shakeology, 1 scoop whey, 1tsp glutamine 1/2 tsp Suma, frozen raspberries, Ice.

Nutrition For Today is Set at: Maybe not the most accurate because dinner is at the parents tonight but i will try to keep it close to this:

Peace :)

August 10th, 2012 - Bulk Legs! BOOM! ENERGY BACK! Thanks to YOGA :)

Day 40 is here! wow these 90 days are going FAST! I feel absolutely incredible today, I got my regular 6.5 hours of sleep woke up this morning and felt good! Yoga was defiantly the right choice yesterday. My body rewarded me for listening to it yesterday with a great amount of energy for today! Once i had my pre workout (specified below) i did some sun salutations and then got right on my rumble roller, i spent the next 45 minutes working out the kinks to prep for the leg extravaganza that was going to be taking place lol. The workout was great today! i even upped my weights on some things! There were times today where i just yelled after a set because the pain of this workout is just tremendous ha ha. Today is Friday! so you know that that means!!! Leptin Re-Feed day :) shooting to take in around 340 grams carbs today to get leptin levels up again. It's sorta funny. Me personally i like eating low carb so much more than high carb, for one i eat more on low carb (tons and tons of veggies!!!) and the other reason is because i get to eat a lot more fat! YUM! the thing about these leptin Re-feeds is it just gets boring eating carbs and proteins with very little fats. But it's only one day a week though and its good for me. A lot of people follow low carb for a long time and don't do a leptin re-feed and that will come back to haunt you if you don't. Leptin levels are so important for those looking to get super ripped, maintain a healthy metabolism, and still maintain somewhat full muscles even when going low carb (due to the extra glycogen being stored on a leptin re-feed). So my recommendation is if you follow a more primal lifestyle (naturally low carb) and you workout almost daily, i highly suggest doing a re-feed atleast once daily, the more lean you are the more often you need to re-feed. If you are 10% BF (male), or 15% (female) or below i recommend 1-2 re-feeds a week, and if you are above 10% (male) or 15% (female) around 15-20% i would recommend a re-feed every couple weeks. anyone that is above 20% (male) and above 30% (female) should not do a fe-feed and just stay at a calorie defect until reaching the body fat levels recommended then you can add a re-feed. Hope you guys found that little tip useful. Alright so here is my numbers for today! and it's Flex Friday :)

single set

Front and Back Lunge: 15/20/25 (up 5 on last set)

Progressive Set

Squats: 25/30/40/40/30/25 (same, need to get more dumbbells or plates or something, maybe i will use my curl bar)

Force Set

Suma Squat: 45/45/45/45/45 (up 5)

Progressive Set

Split Leg Squat: 50/70/90/90/70/50 (same)

Superset

Stiff Leg Deadlift: 25/30/35/35 (Drop Set was just a rest pause for today) (same)

Side to Side Lunges: 15/15/15

Superset

One leg calf raises: 50 reps using the 30's for the first 25 reps then dropped the weight to just body weight to finish up reps.

Decline Sit Ups for the first ab move then finished off with russian twists for the second ab move with a 25 pound weight plate, legs locked on bench so my feet wouldn't come off the floor.

Cool down

I am limited on time today so i don't have a blog for you guys but i hope you all have an awesome weekend! Keep Beasting in your workouts, keep eating the right amount of calories, and above all get the sleep needed for recovery. I usually don't blog on saturdays but since i am doing bulk shoulders and arms tomorrow (saturday) i might at least blog my numbers for the workout. not sure yet though. Just depends if i got the time ;) well like always if you have ideas for future blogs for me to write, just shoot me a message! I need ideas people lol my mind can only think of so many topics before i run out of ideas. Peace out :)

Pre Workout: 2 glasses of water,1 scoop E&E, 1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 tsp Suma, 100 grams of banana- with salt and cinnamon. workout was 1 hour later

Intra Workout: Green Tea- brewed with just water and ice.

Post Workout: 1/4 serving R&R, 1/2 scoop whey, 1 tsp Glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma

Post workout meal: 30 min after workout.

75 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 6 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

Nutrition For Today is Set at: (Leptin Re-Feed)

Peace :)

August 9th, 2012 - A Day of Much Needed Yoga! - and How To Live Life and Still Be Ripped!- (IIFYM)

Good afternoon everyone! i am feeling so much more better and refreshed today! It's day 39 of this round and today it was X2 Yoga! i have really been lacking in my yoga so it was so nice to get back to it today! I can't not explain how much better i feel today after that session. I have decided that thursdays are going to be my yoga day again! I was doing it sundays sometimes but on sunday i just kept putting it off and it was not getting done lol. Hopefully since i am taking it easy today i will be able to go hard tomorrow with Bulk Legs! Before i get to todays blog topic, i wanted to go over some things that are soon coming in the near future for people on my team (and that have purchased something from me) Coming soon:
1. A video explaining the proper way to train abdominals for proper symmetry and development.
2. A new service i'm starting called- "Anytime Fausey" (you guys will love this!)
3. My personal meal plans, you can order them now (just click here to view the page) but i have been super busy and haven't had a lot of time to work on them lately but they will be coming :D
4. Recipe PDF Booklet will be made within the coming months.
5. A New Welcome PDF that my team members get and this one is totally redesigned with everything in it you need to reach your goals. Still a current work in progress but will be designed soon.
6. Private Skype Chats! You make the appointment with me and we will talk live on video chat! :)
- Do you see why it really pays to be on my team now!!!!!
And these are things that everyone can take advantage of (you don't have to be on my team for these)
1. Follow my twitter account (i get tons of questions daily on fitness and since a lot of them are the same, i will be posting the questions as tweets and answering them on there so everyone can see them!) click to follow!
2. A hybrid i am putting together that includes P90X2, Body Beast, and Asylum!
3. My shakeology Recipes! Page is being created!
4. The food Pyramid Redesigned by me! The way that people should be eating! The USDA has nothing on me ;D The USDA designed a general food pyramid that they think applies to everyone! that is not the case, different life styles require different diets! But don't worry Shawn is here to finally have the variety people need!
5. Working on creating a way better website! Stuff will be a lot easier to find and put in categories!
- And as always i always take reader submitted ideas and add them to my list so if you guys have anything you want to see, shoot me a message!

Alright Todays blog is a reader submitted request. The question is;
"how to manage multiple cases of beer while maintaining a six pack?"
I had to laugh when i read that question as it falls along with a lot of the questions i get. They usually go something like "shawn i want to party but i want to still have my abs, how do i do this?" or "shawn help! i am going out to eat at an unhealthy restaurant and i don't want to gain fat!"
LOL! This blog will cover how to still have a life and still look ripped :)
The first thing you guys need to understand is that 1 or 2 cheat meals (not days) are not going to hurt you in any way, at the end of the week it's all about if you ate a surplus or if you ate a deficit. Now the Second thing you guys should learn is the term IIFYM (if it fits your macros)- now I DO NOT ALWAYS AGREE WITH THIS! because i like eating whole healthy foods but IIFYM is useful tho sometimes when it comes to going out with friends and the random going out to unhealthy restaurants throughout the week that so many people do. Let me explain IIFYM- this is a method of eating that a lot of body builders do, i have even herd of some using this on a cutting diet eating at fast food places and getting crazy ripped! IIFYM is simply saying that the body does not know the difference between a order of french fry and a baked sweet potato (measured to the same amount of course) and that as long as you hit your macros daily you will be good. Now like i said before i don't follow this rule because i don't eat crap! but the times i do use this is when i know i will be eating a not so healthy meal or enjoying some food i don't usually eat. Remember i eat close to 95% clean every single day! even my re-feed days are close to 95% clean, i don't like eating crap because i then feel like crap. But IIFYM is what i use when i do cheat. SO HOW DOES ONE DO THIS? ok here is an example- a guy has a set level of calories currently for 2000 with p/c/f as 45/30/20 (a simple cutting plan) this guy plans all his food a day in advance (just like i do) and after his mid afternoon snack he gets a call from a friend saying they want to go to a restaurant. This guy had his supper ready to eat and prepared of 6oz chicken, 120g sweet potato, and about 1/4 avocado- roughly 40g protein, 30g carbs, and 10g fat. so this guy after he is done talking on the phone would simply put that meal in the fridge for another time. and then once he knows where they are going to eat, lets say a mexican restaurant, he simply goes online finds that restaurant and finds calorie estimations for those meals they offer, he then would first find the amount of protein to order, and he sees that they really just offer different types of pork so he finds how many oz equal close to 40g of protein and makes a note, then he also sees the pork has about 20 grams of fat for that serving- he has to then make a note to not take in anymore fat grams for the day or he would be over his set amount for the day (he had a protein shake planned with natural peanut butter for his late night snack- now he just simply takes out the PB ) so back to the meal- he has protein and fat covered now he just needs the carbs, and he is craving some tortilla chips so he finds the calculations that equal the same amount of carbs for the chips and he has some left over where he can order a side of brown rice! BOOM! there it is! he is now able to go out with his friends and still hit his ratios for the day. Now i know you are thinking this sounds really obsessive and OCD sorta but this really comes down to how committed you are! I never used to know any of this stuff i just worked out daily and ate whatever i wanted- what came from that? good muscle but also i had a decent amount of fat! even being an ectomorph i have to keep track of what i eat. i know exactly what my body needs for it to function and look its best. The ones with the results in this lifestyle are the ones that have the commitment, yes it takes work, and yes it is hard, but anything in life worth doing is not going to be easy- that right there is what separates the Elite from the standard person. Ask your self- "How much do you really want to reach your goals?" Now of course i don't track all the time, i love cheat meals and enjoy them freely! but in moderation, that is key. The times in the year where i don't track are- Birthdays, Holidays, special occasions, and Planned cheat meals. Remember this: Cheat meals are ok as long as they are planned and as long as you don't take advantage of them. Simply plan your cheat meals in advance and don't deviate off course until that meal comes up. Those are all simple rules to follow to remain lean and still enjoy getting out. You only live life once :)

So with that said there are a couple tips i use when i know i am going to be drinking a lot that night lol.
1. drink twice the amount of water you usually drink on that day.
2. between each beer, just down a glass of water.
3. try to stick to only eating protein, veggies, and healthy fats while drinking.
4. The day you are going to be drinking, eat low carb.
5. This is the most important one, HAVE FUN!
also here is a myth buster for you- the myth that when you drink alcohol it tells the body to store whatever you ate as fat, that is simply bull crap and not true at all, if this was the case i would be over weight lol, i love to joy a beer with my dinner atlas a couple times a week. The simple truth is Calories in V.S Calories Out. If you take in more then you burn you gain weight, if you take in less you loose. It's the basics of the science of Thermogenic's, there is no such thing as a certain food or drink that makes you fat, the only thing that matters in terms of gaining is if you took in a surplus. Macronutrients determine where that weight comes from, rather it be muscle or fat but thats a blog for another day ;)

by the way if your trying to drink and still stay in your ratios, the food diary posted here below (click on it to make it bigger) was the food diary from last weekend, i through a party and had drank a little but at the end of the day i still had hit my macros almost perfect! (i just didn't feel like cheating on that day) Yea i only drank like 4 beers but i have goals and i'm committed! Decide, Commit and you will succeed. That formula is designed for success!

Tomorrow is Bulk Legs! and you know i hate training legs but i'm actually kinda looking forward to it, theres something about those split squats that i really like lol. ok well if you have any questions like always- just chime in and i will always get back with you, and if you have a topic you want me to blog about just hit me up. also if you wouldn't mind voting for me as a mens health cover model, i would greatly appreciate it, the page syncs with your Facebook, so just click here and vote! i think i am on page 3 (it's the same pic as my Facebook profile pic, thanks! :)

Pre Yoga: 2 glasses water, 1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 tsp Glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma, yoga was 10 min later

During Yoga: Green Tea in cold water and ice

Post Yoga: 1/2 scoop of whey, 1/2 tsp glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma

Breakfast: egg white omelet (1 cup whites) with veggies, 2 whole eggs over easy with a slice of Ezekiel toast, side of fruit (a peach, raspberries, blueberries) and Black Coffee.

Nutrition is set today at: (low carb day, a little lower on cals than i would like but hey- it happens)

August 8th, 2012 - Bulk Back But not my best... and All about the Circadian Rhythm and how it effects you.

Today Was day 38 of this round with Bulk Back and i also through in 10 min trainer abs (before the workout). The word of today for me is TIRED! I have no idea why but the workouts this week have just really sucked for me, i just don't have the same energy as previous weeks, this is a sign telling me that i am not getting enough recovery time. Back before i had a job and could sleep 8-9 hours every night i had a super amount of energy, i would do close to 1.5 hour workouts almost everyday and i just felt good all day long, well since i have a job now blah… I can only get up to a maximum of 6.5 hours and this really makes me have to adjust my workout length or the times of week where recovery has to increase. I have scheduled Bulk Shoulders for tomorrow and beast abs but nope, i am going of course because i am just exhausted, i am hitting X2 yoga tomorrow thats all. Recovery is so important i can't stress it enough people. When you feel tired during the day and can't wait to sleep every night- that is not normal human behavior! Humans are supposed to be able to have sustain energy throughout the day with a couple natural drops in energy due to the Circadian Rhythm (i will explain that more in a bit) but they should not be tired for the majority of the day. That is a sign that you are training to much and not getting enough recovery. Im not to that level yet because i am smart and know when to deviate off course and do a recovery routine. Something very interesting that i am noticing with this program is that others are experiencing the same type of fatigue i am. I was on Youtube last night watching some of the other people that i am currently follow do this program also and i noticed they are also really feeling fatigued. I honestly think Beachbody made a bit of a mistake with this program. I really think they should have included more rest days. or even a recovery week. Think about it- The Beast Huge Schedule has you working out about 6 days straight in a row for 6 weeks with no scheduled recovery week! You also go from block to block with no recovery week! I know Sagi knows what he is doing, and i totally trust this program i am just a little confused that there is not more recovery time. when your lifting heavy 6 days a week that is just hard on the body and the Mind and especially for the folks like me that can't get the recommended amount of sleep needed every night. With that said i still absolutely love this program and the science behind it. I am seeing great gains even with the decrease in my sleeping schedule. So with that said here are the numbers for today.

10 minute trainer abs

Superset

Dumbbell Pull Over: 40/45/50/40

Pull Ups: 10/10/10

Progressive Set

Bent Over EZ Bar Row: 50/60/70/70/60/50

Force Set

One Arms Rows: 30/30/30/30/30

Single Set

Deadlift: 30/40/45/30

Superset

Bent Over Flys: 15/15

*note- bad form on this weight, will lower a bit next time.

Renegade Rows: Used 25 pounds and rowed side to side for 30 seconds each time.

cool down

Alright for today i have chosen to Blog about the "Circadian Rhythm" First off WHAT IS THE "CR"?
- It is defined as any type of Biological Process that runs in a 24 hour time span and everyone is born with it. Its basically a rhythm the body goes through every 24 hours, and everyones body runs on it's own unique "CR". STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND?
- Then ask yourself this question- Have you every noticed that during every day you have a point where your energy seems the highest? and do you also feel that there is a reoccurring time span where you just feel tired? Everyones answer should be yes, otherwise you are not a biological creature lol. Everyone in this world runs in there own "CR". The interesting thing is that everyones is unique. Have you ever been to a friends house for a late night party or hang out, and then your friend you notice has a lot of energy and all you want to do is sleep? That is the "CR" taking place in these times. Your "CR" is at it's low point during the day and your friends "CR" is functioning for the high of the day. SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? HOW CAN THIS HELP US IN OUR FITNESS?
one of the biggest questions that i get almost weekly is "what is the best time to workout?" well this comes right back to the "CR" you should schedule your workout for the time in your own Circadian Rhythm where you have the most energy. For me my high during the day is in the morning, thats why i choose to do 4:30am workouts. If you are having trouble figuring out when your natural high is during the day this is what you should do; pick a day out of the week and just go through ur day writing down how you feel personally every hour of the day, and do not workout on this day you want to find your natural high and low points for the day and if you workout on the day you are trying to figure that out it will effect your energy levels and you wont have a clear reading then. So once you go a day writing out how you feel every hour of the day you should have a clear understanding how your body functions in a 24 hour time span. You may even want to do this 2 days in a row to make sure things match up. ALRIGHT THAT SOUNDS PRETTY COOL, SO IS THERE ANY OTHER BENEFITS TO KNOWING YOU CIRCADIAN RYTHM?

a matter of fact yes there is. once you figure out your "CR" you should try to base every day activities to fit your rhythm the best you can. You can actually eliminate stress levels and cortisol levels when you listen and follow your Circadian Rhythm! One of the biggest problems in this world and why there is an obesity epidemic also is that we are not listening to our "CR" When you decide to go off course of your rhythm you will notice negative things resulting in the body because of it. here is a example' a guy in his 50's that has his natural high in the morning, and wants to sleep at night. This guy is working a 3rd shift job so right there he is not obeying his rhythm. His body wants to sleep at night but he has to work. If you think you can change your Rhythm you are wrong! nothing in life can change your "CR" Your rhythm starts when your a fetus in the womb and it ends when you die. During that time it never changes, so this guy that is not listening to his circadian rhythm now is experiencing all types of health problems, he is noticing that he gets sick easy, he is gaining weight even when eating a pretty healthy diet, and his personality goes from positive to almost negative all day long, resulting in random mood swings. I call this effect the negative or other side of life- it's pretty much the dark side of yourself that is taking over. It sounds pretty weird and untrue and a lot of fictional bull crap but i can assure you it is the truth. It is one of the reasons there are so many problems in this world. Can you imagine if we lived in a world where everyone followed there Rhythm to a T? If that was possible the world would be totally different, there would be less crimes, people would be able to maintain a heathy weight, Personalities would be geared toward more positive attitudes, and that list would go on and on. The sad thing is though that trying to follow your Rhythm to a T is almost impossible in the life challenges we face everyday, everybody has to adjust there life to fit there jobs and family and right there is the reason that trying to follow your rhythm to a T is just impossible, wouldn't it be great if we could adjust our work schedule for our Rythms? that would be freaking awesome! With that said though you can seriously improve your quality of life through trying to listen to your rhythm as much as you can. And one of the main things you can do is try to get the amount of sleep needed for you and try to plan your most activities on the high parts of your day. The Chart i posted here (click on it and it will make it bigger) is a great example how the Circadian Rhythm functions, remember the chart above is just an example and everyone's times will be different but it is a general outline that gives a good idea what to look for when trying to figure out your Rhythm. So do you notice how i follow a big rule of making sure to listen to my body? Now you all know how important the Circadian Rhythm is. You can also listen to your body by not getting so attached to a workout schedule too. What i mean by that is lets say you have Asylum Vertical Plyo scheduled for your workout but you wake up and you just can't get your head in the zone for it, and you feel like doing yoga instead, make the decision to do yoga and listen to what your body is telling you because your body will never choose the wrong answer :) This is why i am not one to schedule workouts in advance, and why i kinda plan the workout for the day either the night before or even when i wake up. sometime i will have a workout scheduled totally opposite from what i end up doing lol, you just have to find what works for you.

I hope today's blog helped you out. Don't be upset that you have to go off the schedule and do more recovery if you need it, thats no big deal and your body will thank you by being able to function better. Tomorrow is X2 Yoga for me and i am looking forward to it! time for a day of recovery that way on Friday i should be able to come back and hit Bulk legs with intensity! Enjoy the rest of your wednesday and as you go through the day today- listen to how your body is feeling and try to accommodate with it with your daily activities, with your meals, and when you feel you are most positive and focused. If you do that you will notice how you will have less stress and just feel like a totally redesigned person. It's truly a magical thing that the great lord has blessed us with. Peace :)

Pre workout: 2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 tsp Suma, 1/2 tsp Glutamine, 115 grams banana with salt and cinnamon, workout was 40 min later

Intra workout: green tea with cold water and ice

Post workout: 1/2 scoop whey, 1/4 serving results and recovery formula, 1tsp glutamine powder, 1/2 tsp Suma.

Post workout meal: 30 min after

65 grams gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 10 raw almonds, cinnamon, sliced frozen peaches, and tons of berries, with black coffee

Nutrition for today is set for:

August 7th, 2012 - Interval Cardio Day and How To Design The Ultimate Hybrid for Total Health and Wellness.

Happy Tuesday everyone, I hope your Monday was a good one, mine certainly was! The words of wisdom from me today is don't be so attached to something that you are afraid to change it. If something needs changed in your fitness or your life for that matter than change it, do not be afraid of change as it a lot of times can improve everything! Today was day 37 of this body beast hybrid and I was craving a short but intense cardio interval session today so I hit up insanity fst and furious (20 min of pain) and then I through in overtime afterwards just for a little extra. I can honestly say my cardio sucks! Right now lol, this routine really took me out of my comfort zone from all the heavy lifting I have been doing and it is truly amazing how fast you loose cardio when you don't use it. I may not be a fan of cardio but I certainly like to have the ability to do some. Remember if you are trying to get huge then limit cardio but if your like me and don't want to be huge you can still have one or 2 small cardio sessions a week and still build great muscle. I try to keep it only to one cardio interval session a week tho since I'm mostly an ectomorph and don't need a ton of extra cardio.

Alright for today's blog, it was requested by a friend of mine, the subject today is if I was going to make a dream hybrid from every workout program- how would I do it and what would I include? I have done a total of 10 rounds of Beachbody programs and more than half have been hybrids. I believe hybrids are the best because you can gear them toward whatever goals you presently have and you can include in your hybrid the pros from certain workouts all into one hybrid. For example the classic p90x/ insanity hybrid. It includes the strength training that insanity lacks and it include the cardio intensity that p90x lacks. So from all the programs I have done how would I design the mother of all hybrids for total health and wellness?

- THE ONE THING THAT MATTERS MOST FOR A PROPER HYBRID IS A PROPER WORKOUT SPLIT.

This is the first thing to consider on when designing a hybrid and also the most important thing, you have to make sure you are training your total body throughout the week and also giving it enough recovery days. After that You have to figure out how many days a week you want to strength train, how many cardio, core days, and how many rest, yoga, and stretch days. A proper hybrid in my opinion should have at least 3-4 heavy resistance workouts a week where you hit every muscle once, with the exception of abs, calves, and for me shoulders- shoulders are a week point for me so I actually try to hit them twice a week, everyone is different tho and might be lagging in a different section, you can allow yourself to work that body part that lacks a little more to help with development. Also I recommend at least one day a week of interval type cardio (example: asylum workouts, insanity month one workouts, p90x+ cardio, and even some one on one with tony interval sessions are good. What I like to do is rotate weeks so one week my cardio day would be intervals and then the next week it would be a plyo type workout instead. Cardio and plyo are both beneficial so I would rotate weeks with them. Next is leg resistance days, I usually schedule those for Fridays and rotate between body beast leg workouts, p90x leg routines, total body routines, and I will even throw asylum strength in on Friday sometimes for a leg routine, it really just varies with the leg days because legs is my least favorite do I constantly switch it up to help stay motivated. Last but not least is core, yoga, and stretch/ rest. Core is a tough one for me to work in every week, I usually do core on Thursday's or an additional workout through in sometime during the week, I don't do a core routine every week but I try to atlanta every other week. The core routines I use are- balance and power, x2 core, core synergistics, back to core, insane abs, and abs core plus. When it comes to abs I work abs 3-4 times a week and I only spend about 8-10 min on them. Some times I use Beachbody ab routines and I also just do my own 10 min circuits too somedays, it's just whatever type of mood I'm in that day. Same goes with calves I usually work them twice a week, one time at the end of a resistance workout for 10 minutes and the other when I work legs on leg day. Yoga, rest and stretch are either included on Thursday's, Saturday's, or Sunday's, I try to include yoga every week but sometimes I just can't fit it in but most weeks I always am sure to hit up at least 30 min of yoga, when it comes to stretching I don't schedule a day for stretching anymore because I stretch and foam roll every night for about 30-60 min after dinner so for me that takes care of stretching, and Sunday's are always rest days for me. So in an example this is how I would base the foundation of a hybrid geared toward health and wellness, you will notice how I rotate things every other week because otherwise I would get bored, I never do the same workout two weeks in a row.

Monday- resistance, and abs(chest, and back/ chest, and triceps/ chest, calves)

Tuesday- cardio/ plyo (a short intense cardio workout, or a longer but less intense cardio routine like plyo.)

Wed- resistance, and abs (arm or back routine)

Thursday- resistance and yoga (this is the day I hit shoulders for 30 min and then usually try and add at least 30 min of yoga.

Friday- leg resistance day or a total body day when I'm just not motivated enough to do legs.

Saturday- this day really depends on what I feel like doing, sometimes it's a core routine, sometimes yoga, sometimes another resistance upper body routine, and I usually hit abs for 8-10 min too on this day. I call Saturday's as my misc days- a whatever I'm feeling type of day.

Sunday- rest and recovery

So there you have it that is how I would gear the mother of all hybrids for total health and wellness this is how I plan all my splits because it just works for me and I am able to stay motivated. if you can't stay motivated it means that your hybrid is not working, a hybrid should be fun and something you don't mind doing every day, constantly switching it up so you don't get bored is another important thing. Since I have almost every Beachbody program (except pump, bbl, clx, turbo fire, ect (those are ones that I personally don't need) I can really make fitness a thing to look forward to every morning because lets face it at 4:30am in the morning if you are not looking forward to your workouts you won't stick with it, I have a giant workout library and I can pretty much throw anything into play, that's the fun of really having variety :)

Well there you have it, if you have additional questions for me on this subject just let me know, as I know a lot of that sounds confusing but it really is hard to explain hybrids because there are so many options available. In a couple days I am going to post up a hybrid schedule I have designed that incorporates p90x2, body beast, and Asylum, this hybrid will be geared toward taking that muscle you just built with body beast and really putting it to use and taking oh results to a whole new level, it will incorporate the best of the best, stay tuned for more on that as I think you guys will love what I'm coming up with. Tomorrow I am hitting up bulk back with some abs- looking forward to this one as it is one of my favorite bulk routines.if you guys have something you want me to blog about just let me know. Peace out :)

Pre workout

2 glasses water, 1 scoop Energy and Endurance, 1 tsp Glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma, workout was 30 min later

Intra workout: Green Tea in cold water and ice

Post workout: 1/4 results and recovery formula, 1/2 scoop of whey, 1/2 tsp glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma

Breakfast: egg white omelet (1 cup whites) with veggies, 2 whole eggs over easy with a slice of Ezekiel toast, side of fruit (a peach, raspberries, blueberries) and Black Coffee.

Nutrition is set today at: (low carb day)

August 6th, 2012 - Bulk Chest! and how do you know if you are stressing your Central Nervous System?

It's Monday people... Gosh i hope this week goes fast, mondays are just such a blah day... Anyway tho today was the 3rd week of the Bulk Block with Bulk Chest! I kept weights the same as last week and i felt thats just what was needed. Guys don't be afraid to keep the same weights you used last time, focus on form and squeezing the muscle. That is what the pros do, they don't constantly up there weights all the time. They stick with a series of weights that challenge them from 2-4 weeks and adjust as needed. If you think upping the weights every week is going to make results come faster- you are wrong, the thing that will bring results is when muscles are under a lot of tension for time, thats when you will start to develop the physique you have always strived for. Now if you are in this program more for strength and not just body building then ya you can up your weights more often but for those of us that train more like a fitness model, the Time under tension and form is key. Alright lets get to the numbers for today then.
- 10 Min Ab Circuit
Superset
Incline Flys: 25/25/30
Incline Press:25/30/35/30
Force Set
Rotational Dumbbell press: 25/25/25/25/25
Progressive Set
Incline Press: 25/30/35/35/30/25
Combo-set
Close Grip Press To Fly: 17/20/22
Final Sets
Decline Push Ups: 15/12/12 (burnt out!)
Cable Flys: 1 set of 15 (light resistance)
Russian Twists with weight (feet under bench so i could lean back more.): 30 seconds with 6 pound med ball arms straight out.
*note- Obliques are really coming in strong!

alright today i wanted to do a blog about the CNS (Central Nervous System) The CNS controls and coordinates all physical activities of the human body, it is how we pretty much do anything in life, also the CNS manage how we handle things in life, and stress levels ect. So since the CNS has to do with everything physical for the human body you can probably see how exercise effects it then. I want to start this by talking a little how i felt on Friday evening last week.. and how a lot of you are probably feeling at this time in the program, and explain why it's happening. Friday as you all now was my Leptin Re-Feed and i took in a total of 350 grams of carbs that day. After my last meal on Friday i really just hit the wall, it was about 11:30pm at night and i just wanted to relax, energy levels were super low! Which was really strange since i took in 300+ grams of carbs that Day! so what gives!?!?! It's called stressing the CNS. The current workout split i did last week just did me in, a stressed CNS is something everyone has to pay attention too, a bunch of different body functions will be affected when the CNS is stressed, this is why training all the time with super hard and intensive training is a dumb idea. Some people really may not even know they are stressing the CNS because they are releasing so much dopamine and serotonin from all the heavy exercise (the feel good drugs released during exercise.) that they can't even notice some of the signs. a lot of people will just start to feel tired and lethargic for the rest of the day and think it's just because of how good there workout was. But in reality your really stressing the CNS. So HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU ARE STRESSING THE CNS? ask yourself these questions;
1. Once your workout is done for the day do you have pretty steady energy or do your energy levels drop pretty fast after the initial high of the workout is over?
2. Do you feel that your strength is not increasing and you just keep having bad workouts?
3. Is it hard for you to stay motivated for a workout? and do you try and talk yourself out of it?
4. Are you still progressing in fitness results without having to diet crazy hard and do tons of cardio?
SHAWN "THIS SOUNDS LIKE OVER TRAINING? WHATS THE DIFFERENCE?

Overtraining is when you have hit a level in your training that you just can't seem to surpass. You feel tired all the time, your more hungry than usual, your sore, and you just feel you have hit a giant wall. you can recover from "overtraining" by resting and doing stretching and yoga. Yes you can fix the fact that your stressing the CNS with the same things but here is where the differences are- when you overtrain your body simply can't recover from workouts and you get weaker "physically" when you stress the CNS you actually notice problems in your life outside of working out. you will find it hard to focus on things, your attitude towards things will be pretty much negative for anything, you will start to make stupid decisions in life with your family and friends, and plus you will affect your immune system big time, and be a lot more accessible for illness and disease. So how can you fix a stressed CNS. Should you just stop working out for a while? No if you stop working out your physical abilities will heal but when you return back to training it won't be long till you stress the CNS again. SO WHAT SHOULD I DO? you have to figure out a better workout split that allows your CNS to recover properly and get stronger from ever workout. A Good split to follow is where you workout each muscle once a week (with the exception of calves and abs, those can be trained pretty much as much as you want) and include a day of active recovery (like yoga) and a day of rest. If this still does not correct the problem simply shorten your workouts maybe you were doing an hour before well shorten that to 30-40 min and see if that helps. SO HOW DO I KNOW IF WHAT IM DOING THEN IS CORRECTING THE PROBLEM OF STRESSING THE CNS? you will know within a week of training- you will be able to lift heavier, you will notice results start to really progress again, your appetite will feel more balanced. and outside of all that, you will feel better doing you daily life activities, you will have a more positive attitude toward things, you will feel onto of the world :) if you want to extend the length of your workouts try doing a week of shorter workouts that are intense and then the next week a little longer workouts but less intense. you shouldn't train long workouts with super high intensity, for weeks on end, that will lead you right back to over training and stressing the CNS. Last friday when i was super tired even after all the carbs i knew that was a sign that my current split is just to taxing on my CNS so this is what im trying this week to see if i can correct the problem;
mon- bulk chest, 10 min abs, 10 minute calves
tues- insanity fast and furious, 10 minutes core
wed- bulk back, 10 minutes abs
thursday- bulk shoulders, beast abs
friday- bulk legs
sat- bulk arms, and 30 min of yoga
sun- rest
Im going to try that for this week and see how it goes. These last 2 weeks have just been hard on my body and have taken way to much out of me. I will leave you guys with that today. Tomorrow i am just going to hit up a nice 20 min insanity fast and furious just to get the heart rate up and i will probably hit up 10 min of core training too. I will talk to you guys tomorrow, please if you have something you want me to blog about let me know!

Calories for today are set at:

Pre Workout: 2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 tsp Suma, 110 grams of banana- with salt and cinnamon. workout was 30 min later

Intra Workout: Green Tea- brewed with just water and ice.

Post Workout: 1/4 serving R&R, 1/2 scoop whey, 1 tsp Glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma

Post workout meal: 30 min after workout.

65 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 10 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

August 3rd, 2012 - What Body Type Are You? and Is your nutrition right for it, and are you training correctly?

It's Friday!!!! I wanted to post a video that i think is appropriate with today lol, tip of the day- Know your limits and don't push so hard you pass out ha ha. Alright now to business. Today was day 33 of my hybrid with bulk legs! I went UP big time in weights today! I am so feeling it! Thank goodness today is a leptin re feed :D so if your not following me on twitter yet, head over to my twitter profile, I am posting all of my re feed meals on there today. Any way lets get to the numbers for today, i am really happy with today, I kept my form great too even tho I was lifting heavier.

single set

Front and Back Lunge: 15/20/22

Progressive Set

Squats: 25/30/40/40/30/25

Force Set

Suma Squat: 40/40/40/40/40

Progressive Set

Split Leg Squat: 50/70/90/90/70/50

*note- This destroyed me! Absolutely loved it! Pushed to my limit on this today!

Superset

Stiff Leg Deadlift: 25/30/35/30 (drop Set)

Side to Side Lunges: 15/15/15

Superset

One leg calf raises: 50 reps using the 30's for the first 25 reps then dropped the weight to just body weight to finish up reps.

Decline Sit Ups for the first ab move then finished off with russian twists for the second ab move with a 6 pound med ball- arms straight out twisting, legs locked on bench so my feet wouldn't come off the floor.

Cool down

So as you can see, I upped some weights today! After that last set of those split squats I cursed out and hit the wall lol that was probably my testosterone taking over there ;) but hey- whatever it takes!

For todays Blog i was going to discuss testosterone but i want to cover something else today. I have decided since i have been getting a lot of questions about body types lately i will do a blog explaining what the Differences are. First off there are 3 categories; Ectomorph, Endomorph, and Mesomorph. Everyone in the world is put into at least one of those categories, can you be more then one? yes you can be. Here is what each body type is defined as.

Ectomorph- These body types are the guys that are real skinny, they have super fast metabolisms, they have a very hard time gaining weight, and especially gaining quality muscle. This is the Hard Gainer Category, and Ectomorphs do not need a lot of cardio, an ectomorph should stay away from doing lots of cardio and mainly stick to lifting hard and heavy with a 5 day split, They can also eat a lot more carbs and stay lean, especially if there lifestyle is active. They should eat about 16-20 X there body weight in calories to maintain and to bulk they can even up it past 20 cals per pound. A ratio around 30/50/20 (p/c/f) generally works well for them.

Endomorph- This is the body type that gains weight very easily, They gain fat very easily, and also gain muscle pretty easy but have a hard time with loosing fat. This is the category of people that need to do a lot more cardio and really watch there diet, they should include HIIT training and steady state cardio atlas 3 times a week. Endomorphs should really watch the carbs i recommend a ratio of 45/35/20 (p/c/f) and about 2-15 calories per pound to maintain and when trying to build muscle while not gaining to much fat they should only increase to about 16-17 calories per pound of body weight.

Mesomorph- This is The body type that a lot of us admire, They gain muscle very easy, they also add some fat but they generally can shed fat very easy. A lot of the Models you see (not all models, some models) are Mesomorphs. They generally need to keep cardio in there split for at least a couple times a week, but they don't need a lot. To maintain they should eat around 16 calories per pound of body weight, and to build muscle they can up that to 18-19 calories per pound, and mesomorphs can very with ratios that work for them but generally speaking it is around 40/40/20 (p/c/f).

So there you go that is the different types of body types there are. I would classify me as an ectomorph with a couple mesomorph genes too. I have a hard time gaining weight, but i choose to keep carbs balanced around 35-40% of my diet. If i had an active life style i would up it but i don't so in my opinion there is no need for those extra carbs, i do re feeds once a week tho to keep leptin levels up so i don't slow my metabolic rate and im able to keep lean all year round so that is the little part of me that is Mesomorph, i am mainly an ectomorph tho. I wanted to do this article today because a lot of people have been posting there 30 day result photos so far with the program and some people seem to be upset there body isn't changing the way they want it too. Here is a tip for you, STOP COMPARING YOUR BODY TO OTHER BODY TYPES you will never be able to change the type of body you are classified as. Here is what i recommend to keep you motivated, find a famous body builder or model that is your body type and use them as your inspiration, endomorphs should never look to admire an ectomorphs body because it is not going to happen. and endomorphs or ectomorphs should never admire mesomorphs, they will never be able to achieve the same level of muscle a mesomorph can achieve. Im not saying this to put anyone down. I just want people to realize reality and don't set goals that are not realistic, of course you want your goals high because you always want to achieve the best possible, just be realistic with them.

There I hope i didn't put anybody down with that post, i just wanted to help some people and hopefully give people a better idea of what they should category them self as. anyway this brings us to the weekend! I am wore out from this week and sleep is going to be amazing tonight lol. Tomorrow i will be hitting up my regular chest, back, and balance session and sunday just some yoga/stretching/foam rolling. I hope you all have a Good weekend. Also please if you guys want to hear me blog about anything just shoot me a message. I would love include it! Im sure others could benefit from your suggestions too. ok well im done, this blog is long enough, time to eat another high carb meal! yes! keep on twitter for all my updates today!

Pre Workout: 2 glasses of water,1 scoop E&E, 1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 tsp Suma, 112 grams of banana- with salt and cinnamon. workout was 1 hour later

Intra Workout: Green Tea- brewed with just water and ice.

Post Workout: 1/4 serving R&R, 1/2 scoop whey, 1 tsp Glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma

Post workout meal: 30 min after workout.

75 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 5 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

Nutrition For Today is Set at: (Leptin Re-Feed)

Peace :)

August 2nd, 2012 - Is your Goal Body Building? or Powerlifting/ Strength? Theres a difference?

Hey everyone happy thursday! I seriously felt like the Hulk Today! anyway today was day 32 of this hybrid with Bulk Shoulder and Bulk Arms. Slept a half hour longer today because my body just needed a little extra so i woke up at 5am and had my pre workout combo, didn't have a lot of time to stretch so i pretty much just got right into it. I really like this stack, the reason i am stacking them is so i have an extra day in the week to fit in X2 chest back and balance, and this stack just seems to work well. I was a lot smarter on weights today for shoulders than i was last week. I got a way better pump because of it. With that said here are my numbers for today.
Bulk: Shoulders

Superset

Lateral Raise: 10/12/15

Arnold Press: 15/25/25/20 (drop set)

*note- Still weak at the press but its a work in progress at least.

Progressive Set

Upright Rows: 20/30/40/40/30/20

Superset

Alt. Front Raise: 7/10/12

Plate Twists: 15/10/12

*note- Plate twist a 15 pound was too much lol, i think 12 worked best.

Progressive Set

Reverse Fly: 5/7/10/10/7/5

Superset

Callahan press from X2: 22/25 (max reps in allowed time)

Plank Twists: 30 seconds for 2 rounds

Bulk: Arms

Progressive Set

Standing Curl: 15/20/25/25/20/15

Single Set

Tricep Extensions: 35/40/45/35 (drop Set)

Force Set

Wide EZ Bar Curl: 30/30/30/30/30

*note- perfect weight selected! felt the burn, and finished all the reps with good form! Huge Pump after this one!

Single Set

Skull Crusher: 30/30/40/40 (no drop set, just a pause and another set with 40 because i need to get more small plates lol)

Progressive Set

Hammer Curls: 15/17/20/20/17/15 (each Arm)

Progressive Set

Tricep Kickbacks: 15/17/2020/17/15 (each Arm)

Final Move

Decline Crunches: 30 Reps

Today for my blog i want to discuss the difference between strength Building and Body Building. Your probably thinking "shawn those are the same things" well i'm here to tell you that they are totally different. I have seen some people recently post that after several weeks of Body Beast they feel they are not as strong and can't push there max weight anymore. The reason for this happening is because Body Beast is a Body Builder Program. It is Designed to Allow you to gain a decent amount of strength don't get me wrong but it's main purpose is to Give you a good physique - of course your nutrition has to be in tune for that to happen tho along with good workouts. The difference between a Body Builder and strength builder is that a body builder mainly shoots for appearance goals while strength builders first priority will always be gaining as much strength and pushing the heaviest weights, they don't worry about the appearance aspect as much as a body builder does. They train totally different too.
A Body builder will train a lot of times with a 5 day split, and target reps from 8-15, a strength builder on the other hand is usually taking more rest during the week to recover properly to push more weight, and they train from a rep range of 6-10. So the next question to ask yourself which approach you would like to take. Is all you care about gaining massive strength, or do you like training for the purpose of appearance. The choice is totally up to you. For me its a little of a mix, let me explain- I train as a Body builder usually with a 5 day split, but i don't just care about appearance tho, i like to have some go with my show lol if you have show and no go what is the point :) so for me it's not about pushing crazy heavy weight, that is not my goal, my goal is to have the body builder appearance (not the huge body builders just like a model, lean) but i also want to be able to do a lot of gymnastic things like a variety of pull ups, hand stand pushups ect. that is how i approach it. The choice tho like i said is totally up to you, you should also use your lifestyle to determine what way you are leaning toward too. for example a graphic designer like myself has no use for the muscle that a power lifter can achieve lol i would simply break chairs when i would sit down in them at my desk if that was the case ha ha :D And you certainly would not see a professional line backer do a cutting diet just so he could see his abs lol. You see what i mean. Fitness should be geared to what you need in life not something that you would like but have no use for. So back to the original topic- If you are a power lifting and want massive strength gains stop doing Body beast lol you simply will not gain crazy strength with a program that is designed for a body builder. The only exception to this is if you are weak when starting body beast then yes you will gain muscle and strength but that is for people who are not already strong when they started. Am i upset that you can't gain a loofa of strength with this program? No not at all, if i was looking to gain crazy amounts of strength i would be eating a lot more and i wouldn't be doing Beachbody programs, i would be going to a gym doing the foundation moves for strength ie; squats, deadliest, bench press ect. Body beast is perfect for me because it supports my goals of the Physique i shoot for and i also can maintain greta strength with it, and that paired with some P90X2 functional fitness routines for me is perfect. I hope this clears up some of the confusion that is going around with people loosing some strength from Body Beast.

On a side note i wanted to mention some things i am experiencing using Suma Root Powder.For everyone that has been following you guys know this is like only my 4th day on Suma (1/2 tsp pre workout, 1/2 post) I can already feel a difference from it. For one i feel as if my metabolism is a lot faster! and i have a fast metabolism to begin with lol. I also have been sleeping all through the night with not muscle cramps or anything, and my energy for workouts is off the charts! today when i got done with my routine i felt i had the strength to just smash through walls like the Hulk ha ha. I feel as if my testosterone has increased too. Tomorrows blog will be more on Testosterone Information since i feel that some people need a clear understanding of how important testosterone is for everyone, yes even women need a little testosterone. I think thats a decent right up for today, tomorrow is Bulk Legs! second time around on this one! I have some ideas of some exercises where im going to take the weight up and im excited and a little to try it lol but with that said if my form starts to suck i will drop the weight to a safe level but i am going to try going pretty heavy tomorrow because tomorrow is a Re-feed day! and that means for me over 300 grams of carbs!!! i have decided that i am going to start doing re-feeds every friday just to see how much of a change and impact it has. If you did not read my blog yesterday about Re-feeds then read it! they will take you to a new levels as long as you give them time to work of course tho. alright well i think im going to leave it at that for today. If you guys want me to blog abbot a certain topic just let me know, all requests are welcome!

Pre workout

2 glasses water, 1/2 scoop Whey, 1/2 tsp Suma, 120 grams banana, workout was 15 min later (running late, due to sleeping in lol)

Intra workout: Green Tea in cold water and ice

Post workout: 3/4 scoop of whey, 1/4 serving R&R, 1 tsp glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma

Breakfast: 65 grams gluten free rolled oats, 1/2 banana, berries, cinnamon, egg white omelet (1 whole egg, 1 cup whites, pepeprs, spinach, parmesan cheese) Black Coffee

Nutrition is set today at:

August 1st, 2012 - All About Leptin Re-Feeds!

Hey everyone! Happy wednesday! half way through the week. anyway today was day 31 of This hybrid with Bulk Back, and Beast Abs. Bulk Back is a favorite of mine no doubt. Super intense and amazing pump through it. I kept my weights pretty much the same as last time and that felt just right. I tell you what though that force set after those ez bar rows is just brutal! Here are the numbers from today

Superset

Dumbbell Pull Over: 40/45/50/40

Pull Ups: 10/10/10

Progressive Set

Bent Over EZ Bar Row: 50/60/70/70/60/50

*note- I love this set! My arms and back were toast!

Force Set

One Arms Rows: 30/30/30/30/30

*note- The pump after this move was incredible! next time i will use 35's

Single Set

Deadlift: 30/40/45/30

Superset

Bent Over Flys: 12/15

Renegade Rows: Used 25 pounds and rowed side to side for 30 seconds each time.

cool down

so as you can see it doesn't look too bad on paper but then when you go at it my gosh is it intense. Also remember all of that is crammed into only 30 min too lol.

Anyway i want to blog about something today that i haven't talked about in a long time. the Subject today is Called "A Leptin Re-feed" those of you that know what i am talking about are probably pretty happy about this subject :) and all others of you are probably thinking "leptin what!?!?!" I will start from scratch here so everyone knows exactly what im talking about ;)
First: what a leptin Re-feed is. This is a day where you increase carbs from 50%-100% over what you usually take in, Protein is lowered to about 1.2-1.5 grams per pound and fat is kept low for this one day around 15% of your total calories.
Second: What is the benefit of this? When you get to a lean level of body fat and when you follow generally a low carb diet most of the time, the body over time will slow it's metabolism, and your results will begin too slow, pretty much what is happening is leptin levels (a hormone in our body that is responsible for keeping our metabolism run correctly) get too low from dieting for too long or eating too low of carbs and when that happens we generally have a hard time at loosing that last bit of fat, you know what i'm talking about; the fat that just sits there and never seems to go down at all, (for me that troublesome area right around by belly button) everyone has a different place where they tend to store that annoying bit of stubborn fat. The benefits of doing a day with higher carbs will reset those levels causing the body raise leptin back to normal and you will be able to continue burning body fat when you resume to your regular diet.
GREAT SO I CAN EAT A BUNCH OF JUNK FOOD ONE DAY A WEEK?!?!?
NO!!!!!! this re-feed day is not a day to eat a lot of crap, everything you eat should be clean in my opinion.
WHAT DO WE EAT THEN!?!?
-Carbs! and clean sources of them. I usually use a lot of sweet potatoes on my reefed days, that and gluten free oatmeal. I also usually use this day to eat some pasta! since i don't usually eat pasta. as long as your carb sources are clean you will be all set.
A BUNCH OF FRUIT OK?
- You don't want to spike your insulin level and too much fruit will tend to do that, no fruit won't make you fat but since you will be taking in so many carbs this day, if your insulin spikes too much you will store some of those carbs you have eaten, try to limit fruit to 2-3 servings for this day. The point is to carb up without spiking insulin too much thats why low glycemic carbs work best.
WHAT ARE LOW GLYCEMIC CARBS, IF YOU DON'T MIND EXPLAINING?
Oatmeal, sweet potatoes, brown rice, quinoa. also some others are whole wheat whole grain products but those have a little higher glycemic index than the previous selection, there still fine tho to include on a couple meals for the re-feed tho. The main thing to watch is just don't let sugar levels get out of control.
SO HOW DO I SET UP A RE-FEED DAY?
- First you have to find your maintenance calorie level (which you should already know) if you don't know it you can use my article on my blog "how to dial in your nutrition" then once you figure out your maintenance level, add 200-500 calories depending on how lean you already are (more lean= more cals, less lean = less calories added) next we have to figure out the ratios of P/C/F, for a proper re-feed i suggest using a ratio balance of 30/55/15 or even 25/60/15 so in an example would be somebody that has a maintenance of 2200 cals and still has a decent amount of weight too loose, they would increase that to 2500 cals and take in 343g of carbs, 187g of protein, and 41 grams of fat (30/55/15).
HOW OFTENS SHOULD I DO THIS?
- This depends on how lean you already are, the more lean you are the more often this needs done. here is what i recommend
10% body fat or less= 1-2 re-feeds every 7 days.
10-20% body fat= 1 re-feed every 7-14 days.
anyone above 20% should not worry about re-feeds and just worry about being in a defecit till they get leaner, then add in the re-feeds to take your leanness to the next level.
SO DO I TRAIN ON THIS DAY?
- Totally up too you, The point of this day is to reset leptin not burn up calories, for me when i do a re-feed i plan it on days where i am training the largest muscle in my body that why i can make good use of all that extra glycogen, For me it would be on a leg or back day as those are the largest muscles in the body. some people choose to only do low intensity training, the choice is really up to you what you think feels best.
IS IT OK IF I WANT TO TREAT MYSELF TO A CHEAT MEAL ON THIS DAY?
- Yes, that is totally fine but with that said make sure you keep your fat low!
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO KEEP FAT SO LOW ON THIS DAY?
- The main source of fuel the body uses for energy is carbs, the secondary source the body chooses is fat, and the third source it chooses for energy is protein. so on this day if you eat a lot of carbs and fat the body will simply burn the carbs and store the fat for future use! thats why one should never take in a lot of fat with a lot of carbs, thats a recipe for disaster.
SO ON THIS DAY I SHOULD DO HIGH CARB, MED-LOW PROTEIN, AND VERY LOW FAT? IS THAT CORRECT?
Yep you got it! this approach will take your body to a completely new level of definition. I use this plan 1-2X weekly to help keep me lean all year round since i generally eat lower carbs throughout most days of the week. here is a screen shot of a re-feed day that i use. (click on it to make it bigger)

Also if you want more evidence why you should do Re-feeds here is an article from Mark Sisson! He even recommends them! Alright since this was a long post i will make this re-feed post into a blog page of it's own so you all can get to it with a lot more Ease.
I hope you enjoyed todays article i think a lot will benefit from it. If you wouldn't mind sharing my website to others too i think it would really help other that are having trouble with reaching there goals. you also would be helping me a ton too :) Tomorrow is Day 32 with one of my favorite combos! Bulk shoulders and Bulk Arms! Oh and on a side note i am doing a Leptin Re-feed this friday, since i haven't done one in a long time. SO if your a follower of mine on twitter i will be posting each pic of each meal.
alright i think i'm done for today lol talk too you guys tomorrow.

Pre workout: 2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 tsp Suma, 120 grams banana with salt and cinnamon, workout was 40 min later

Intra workout: green tea with cold water and ice

Post workout: 1/2 scoop whey, 1/4 serving results and recovery formula, 1tsp glutamine powder, 1/2 tsp Suma.

Post workout meal: 30 min after

65 grams gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 10 raw almonds, cinnamon, sliced frozen peaches, and tons of berries, with black coffee

Nutrition for today is set for:

July 31st, 2012 - Wow Suma is Awesome!

Ok I don't have a lot of time to blog today but today is Day 30 of This Hybrid! can you believe it! 30 days already! I hit up Insane Abs from insanity today and Lucky 7, a total workout of about 45 min, perfect! and exactly what i needed. I really like that Lucky 7 workout it is a beast when done correctly, if you haven't tried it yet i highly reccomend it! I want to talk today about Suma Root, today was my first day of using it with pre and post workout, (1/2 tsp pre and 1/2 tsp post) this really made a difference today for y workout. Insane abs have a lot of moves that work the hip flexors and or me my hip flexors cramp up pretty easily but today they did not cramp as much! It was weird. I felt a lt more agile and just felt better, this was only my first time using it too! I can't wait to see the benefits of this over time. My prework mix today was; 1 scoop E&E, 1/2 tsp glutamine, 1/2 tsp suma. That was perfect for a cardio routine. Im not using the Beachbody Suma i am using a suma powder i purchased online, that shipped right from California. The smell of Suma is really good! the taste is chalky but i liked it actually! I am going to continue to use a total of 1 tsp daily for about a month and then see how my progress is with it, i might then start doing 2 tsp a day. Im going to read more up on this tho since this is a supplement that i am totally new too. Here is the link from the Place I ordered Mine. $22 for a 1 pound bag is awesome! Also Yesterday was my second day with the "new and improved shakeology" the taste was still new to me but it was a lot better the second time, This may perhaps grow on me after all lol. I notice with the new shakeology i stay full a lot longer, and the energy is a lot better too. Maybe i was wrong with my first thoughts on this blend :) Im going to continue to see if it keeps improving and i honestly think my taste buds will adjust to it just fine. I really don't have much else to talk about today, Kinda a boring blog today i know but hey not everyday can be a masterpiece lol. Tomorrow will be day 31 and i have scheduled Bulk Back and Beast Abs for tomorrow, so i should have a better blog for tomorrow, enjoy the rest of this tuesday guys.

Pre workout

2 glasses water, 1 scoop Energy and Endurance, 1/2 tsp Glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma, workout was 30 min later

Intra workout: Green Tea in cold water and ice

Post workout: 3/4 scoop of whey, 1/2 tsp glutamine, 1/2 tsp Suma

Breakfast: 45 grams gluten free rolled oats, 1/2 banana, berries, cinnamon, egg white omelet (1 whole egg, 1 cup whites, pepeprs, spinach, parmesan cheese) Black Coffee

Nutrition is set today at:

Weekend Recap! & July 30th, 2012 - Bulk Chest! and this time with lighter weights- a much smarter approach.

Happy Monday everyone, hope you all had a great weekend, Lets start with a review of the weekend first shall we. First off i had to share a pic of this amazing dinner i had on Friday- Pork roast with veggies, sweet potato, and corn on the cob fresh from the garden! and a glass of red wine, later that night i ended up falling asleep super early as i was tried and the week just wore me out, sleep was much needed.
Saturday was Day 27 of My hybrid and i once again hit up X2 chest Back and Balance. My numbers went way up on that routine! i was so surprised! especially since i have been gaining mass lately i thought my performance would lack on body weight exercises but wow was i surprised. I had great energy and i powered through that. The rest of saturday was relaxation time, i headed over to my parents house for a family steak dinner and it was awesome! You got to eat like a Beast to be a beast :)

I also enjoyed a beer well i was there, and yea i kept it only to one this time lol, A lot of people question me on why i drink so much red wine with my dinners. The simple answer is I like red wine, it is not a treat food as i drink it with a lot of dinners, the Resveratrol in Red wine is a superfood, here are just some of the many health Benefits of Resveratrol; Cancer Fighting properties, Anti Aging effects, increase blood flow to the brain and throughout the body, and helps with keeping heathy eyes, those are just some of the many health benefits from it. Yes it has alcohol in it but if your like me you like to enjoy life with a nice drink :) Plus red wine just about compliments any type of diner. Now i'm not saying go off and drink a whole bottle but a glass or two will not hurt ya. alright back to the rest of saturday, I slept for a good 8.5 hours on saturday night and wow did i need that, i wish i could get more sleep through the week but unfortunately it's not practical with my job.
Calories for Saturday were:

Sunday was day 28 of this hybrid with a much needed REST DAY. Tats exactly what i did too, Sunday i prepped my meals for the week, mowed my dead lawn lol (has not rained much here lately, but it needed mowed badly) and last but not least relaxed! Xbox, TV, and More Xbox :) I get asked quite often how much i lower my cals on rest days, the answer is i eat when i am hungry, on sundays i listen to my body and it tells me when to eat, i only ate around 2000 cals yesterday and thats fine, i was satisfied with that amount, no need to put extra fuel in the tank if your body is not asking for it. I also wanted to show a little collage i put together of my progress so far.
as you can see this program works, Yea i am not following the schedule to a T because i add my own ab routine in 3-4 times a week, and i add some yoga, and chest back and balance from X2 but the majority of my workouts are body beast routines, and It's working! I weighed in yesterday and still really haven't gained anything but i am noticing body changes so i will take it, remember weight is just a number listen to the mirror over the scale.
Calories for Sunday were:

Alright now today was day 29 of this hybrid with Bulk Chest! this was my second time doing this one and i defiantly improved from last week. last week i went way to heavy and form was terrible, not today! I went lighter today and left my ego at the door and i am so glad i did. i was able to have a lot better form and a lot better pump! the highest weight i lifted today was 35 pounds!!!! usually i press with 45 and 50's but my form was not good so i dropped weight and focused on form. weights are just a number after all, your body does not know how much weight you are lifting it only knows how much resistance and effort it is to lift the weight. A lot better numbers today overall, i still had to drop the weight in the force set for a bit to recover but the point is i am trying my best. here are my numbers for today.
- 10 Min Ab Circuit

Superset

Incline Flys: 25/25/30

Incline Press:25/30/35/30

Force Set

Rotational Dumbbell press: 25/25/25/25/25

*note- Still struggled badly with this and had to take some mid set rests but i got it done.

Progressive Set

Incline Press: 25/30/35/35/30/25

Combo-set

Close Grip Press To Fly: 17/20/25

*note- this move still makes my thumbs cramp up lol weird!

Final Sets

Decline Push Ups: 15/12/12 (burnt out!)

Cable Flys: 1 set of 15 (light resistance)

Russian Twists with weight (feet under bench so i could lean back more.): 30 seconds with 25 pounds

I am glad i am not stacking any of these workouts, i have thought about adding Bulk back to this but there is just know way, i am spent after this. sticking with one Bulk routine a day, except for shoulders and arms, i liked that stack.

I still don't have a set schedule in stone yet for this Block, I am kinda just figuring it out as i go along, tomorrow i am gonna hit up Insanity Insane Abs, it's a short 30 min mix with a little cardio and a good session of abs. I haven't done that one in a long time so it will be nice to do that. Im really keeping cardio low for this block, i want to see the changes it has on my body, good or bad i want to see how my body responds to less cardio. I think Tuesdays are just going to be a misc day too like saturday too just throw whatever i feel like in need in that day, sometimes it might be cardio, sometimes core, sometimes total body, i just want to mix this up even more while keeping cardio low of course.

On a supplement note- My Suma is going to arrive today! it should be on my deck when i get home from work! Tomorrow will be my first day of using it, i will start by adding a tsp of it with my pre workout half scoop of whey, eventually i will be adding another tsp to post workout but i don't want to shock my body right away yet with this new ingredient.

Another note- Yesterday was my first day trying the new and improved Chocolate Shakeolgy. and if you saw my facebook post yesterday you already know i don't care for it lol. Im not going to repeat myself here but if your curious just look at the post i made with the 54 comments! lol I have a lot of people that agree with me too, some people against me but the majority are sided with me, I sure do love my followers! :D I have decided to give this pack of shakeology 30 days tho and maybe my taste buds will adjust, i still have some of the old formula but that will be saved for special occasions lol so sad that thats the last bag of the good stuff!!!! I sure hope beachbody makes this new version taste better tho. If i can't get used to it tho i will be trying out the Vegan chocolate since i have heard a lot of people seem to like that version. I just don't understand why they wanted to change something that was already great! Ok im done talking about that, like i said if you want to know everything said just look on my facebook wall. I think i am going to end this blog here for today. Enjoy the rest of your monday my friends. Also For people that are waiting on receiving there custom meal plans from me they are coming along a little slower than i thought they would but man o man they are cool, you guys are going to love them, i am also including a list of tips with the meal plans with tons of my personal tips that i don't reveal to the general public ;) That should be a reason right there to join my team and take advantage of the amazing opportunity, if you want to know more about the custom meal plans just click here. Alright folk thats it for today, stay strong my friends :)

Pre workout: 2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 112 grams banana with salt and cinnamon, workout was 30 min later

Intra workout: green tea with cold water and ice

Post workout: 1/2 scoop whey, 1/4 serving results and recovery formula, 1tsp glutamine powder.

Post workout meal: 30 min after

65 grams gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 10 raw almonds, cinnamon, sliced frozen peaches, and tons of berries, with black coffee

Calories For Today are set to:

July 27th, 2012 - Bulk Leg's Freaking Awesome Routine! & It's FLEX FRIDAY! :)

Alright lets get down to it. Today was day 26 of my Body Beast Hybrid with Bulk Legs, this was my firs time doing this one and i actually really enjoyed it! I know i went too light on some of the moves today but i didn't want to push to heavy for my first time doing the routine. My favorite move in this routine is the split leg squat progressive set! I was so scared for that move because of the things i have heard but that move was awesome! what i really liked about it was that it did not hurt my knee like the bulgarian squat does so i was able to go lower and really felt good. next time i do this routine i will really push a lot more weight on some of these moves. but here are the numbers for today.
single set
Front and Back Lunge: 15/20/22
*note- really did not like this move, it hut my knees so i had to modify by not going as low but hey - whatever it takes!
Progressive Set
Squats: 25/30/40/40/30/25
*note- i liked this move a lot! i think i found the right amount of weight too for it. running out of dumbbells tho lol i will need to get more weights soon or more plates.
Force Set
Suma Squat: 40/40/40/40/40 (good weight for the first time through, could probably add more and i will with time.)
Progressive Set
Split Leg Squat: 20/30/40/40/30/20
*note- went way too light, i will be pushing those numbers up a lot more next time.
Superset:
Stiff Leg Deadlift: 20/25/30/25 (drop Set)
Side to Side Lunges: 15/15/15
*note- Side to side lunges were hard lol my inner thighs are thanking me right now for that one ha ha.
Superset
One leg calf raises: 50 reps using the 30's for the first 25 reps then dropped the weight to just body weight to finish up reps, the pain in my calfs was incredible!
Decline Sit Ups for the first ab move then finished off with russian twists for the second ab move with a 6 pound med ball- arms straight out twisting, legs locked on bench so my feet wouldn't come off the floor.
Cool down

I really enjoyed this one, Build legs is a lot harder on my knees so im glad there are 2 leg routines. This program is just so well balanced! If you are still thinking about getting this program- JUST DO IT! you will not regret it. Legs are one thing always overlooked and you see a lot of people that skip leg days, DO NOT SKIP LEG DAY, I hate training legs, but i do it every week. Working the legs will boost your testosterone more so than any other workout, sure working arms is the most fun but arms boost no where near the amount of testosterone as legs. I'm not talking about plyo or cardio either, yes those are good but you need to train legs hard and heavy for the testosterone boost. One Sagi says in this workout was that he loved having huge legs because everything else is huge then. that is so true, when you work your legs, you are increasing over all muscle mass all over the body and you will get bigger that way. You also increase your metabolic Burn too when working legs hard and heavy which will in turn keep your metabolism revved for hours and hours. Have you ever noticed on leg day when you feel like you could eat the whole house and still be hungry? I have! and that is because working the legs really spikes that metabolism, and yes more than cardio does for you cardio junkies out there :)
This brings us to the end of the first week of the Bulk Block! I am loving this Block, the schedule i am still working on, but after some trial and error we should be all good. If i am ever able to come up a a good schedule lol i will for sure post it. Tomorrow i will be hitting up Chest Back and Balance again from X2 and then sunday a little yoga and some foam rolling. I don't know if i am going to blog tomorrow but I will be back for sure on monday with Bulk Chest! Keep following me on twitter tho because i post a lot of little updates pretty frequently so if your not following me yet, just click here.
On a side not my May 2011 Asylum Transformation Video on Youtube has surpassed more than 50,000 views! that is truly incredible! Thanks to everyone who complimented me and supported me. My followers are the best :) For those of you that haven't seen it yet, Click Here. It's also amazing to just think how far i have come in one year. 1 year ago i thought i was in the best shape ever but wow did i crush that myth, I am in superior shape now than i was then, since last year i have really dialed in my nutrition, and really found what workouts work best for me and i have built my knowledge a ton! Remember People Knowledge is an endless thing we can always improve more and more on. There is nothing that stops us from learning more and expanding our horizons, and never think you know it all because you don't. It is impossible to know it all but hey what would be the point of life if we knew it all. Thats one of the best parts of life, continuing to grow our knowledge and try new things and experiment, thats how you reach YOUR ULTIMATE GOALS IN LIFE but another thing to remember tho is don't just stop there, KEEP GROWING and improving and you will crush through your goals. And that is one of the most glorifying feelings ever, when you crushed a goal that seemed impossible to even think about it. I hope you all have a great weekend, see you guys again on Monday for Bulk Block Week Two with Bulk Chest!

Pre Workout: 2 glasses of water,1 scoop E&E, 1/2 scoop whey, 112 grams of banana- with salt and cinnamon. workout was 1 hour later

Intra Workout: Green Tea- brewed with just water and ice.

Post Workout: 1/4 serving R&R, 1/2 scoop whey, 1 tsp Glutamine

Post workout meal: 30 min after workout.

75 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 10 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

Nutrition For Today is Set at:

Ok the first words I have to say to you today is I AM SORE! Day 25 of My Body Beast Hybrid with Bulk Shoulders and Arms, here we go: I slept all the way through the night last night from 10 to 430 (usually I wake up once or twice to use the bathroom) I was so tired I slept all thru the night, that for me is a sign that I am not getting enough sleep. Especially since I wanted to switch off my alarm. But I got up hade 1/2 whey shake, and banana and got ready for a stack of shoulders and arms. OMG this stack destroyed me! It was a little over an hour long, I first hit up my personal 10 min ab circuit and then I did bulk shoulders first then followed right after with bulk arms (two 30 min routines totaling an hour) this one will work you folks. After the routine I was covered in sweat! Which was weird for only doing a shoulders and arms routine. One thing I have to figure out tho is how to schedule my weeks for the bulk phase, this week the way I am doing it- something just feels off, here is what I used for my schedule this week;

Mon- Bulk chest/ personal 10 min ab routine

Tues- beast cardio am and lucky 7 pm

Wed- bulk back/ beast abs

Thursday- bulk, shoulders, bulk arms/ personal 10 min ab routine

Friday- bulk legs

Saturday- chest back and balance

Sunday- yoga/ stretch/off

So while it may look ok written down on paper, I just feel over trained right now and I still have legs to hit for this week! I'm thinking about moving legs to Thursday, then shoulders and arms on Friday, but then I would be doing bulk back and bulk legs on back to back days! That's 2 of the biggest muscle groups back to back, hmm I really need to think how i want to schedule this. It's hard because I have to make sure and get chest back and balance and yoga in weekly because I refuse to loose those routines, those 2 are so beneficial and I can do crazy things because of them, I just have to play around with the schedule more and figure this out. With all that said lets get to today's workout numbers, you guys should know the rep numbers by now, if not look further in the blog.

Ab Circuit 10 Mins

Bulk: Shoulders

Superset

Lateral Raise: 10/12/15

Arnold Press: 25/25/25/15 (drop set)

*note- way to heavy weight of starting out on the Arnold press, could not up it anymore than 25 pounds, i am weak at this move, i found what i have to work on.

Progressive Set

Upright Rows: 20/30/40/40/30/20

*note- weight was perfect! i love this move! and my traps are feeling it!

Superset

Alt. Front Raise: 7/10/12

Plate Twists: 10/10/10

Progressive Set

Reverse Fly: 7/10/10/10/7/5

*note- Reverse flys were hard but i really enjoyed the move, it will hit a part of my shoulder that i lack strength in and have been working on building a lot lately.

Superset

Superman Stretch: 30 seconds for 2 rounds

Plank Twists: 30 seconds for 2 rounds

Bulk: Arms

Progressive Set

Standing Curl: 15/20/25/25/20/15

*note- that last set of 15 reps with the 15's were hard, really struggled!

Single Set

Tricep Extensions: 35/40/45/35 (drop Set)

*note- defiantly a favorite move of mine, i used to do these in high school all the time. This move will build serious size in the tricep, i have great triceps because of this move.

Force Set

Wide EZ Bar Curl: 30/30/30/30/30

*note- perfect weight selected! felt the burn, and finished all the reps with good form! Huge Pump after this one!

Single Set

Skull Crusher (another old high school favorite!) : 30/30/40/30 (drop Set)

*note- need to get a couple more plates so i can add more weight on this move.

Progressive Set

Hammer Curls: 15/17/20/20/17/15 (each Arm)

*note- this move will pump you up!

Progressive Set

Tricep Kickbacks: 15/17/2020/17/15 (each Arm)

*note- Tricep Strength is COMING BACK! everything i have lost due to cardio is coming back! love this program!

Final Move

Decline Crunches: 30 Reps

WOW! Finished!

As you can see that routine is just a beast! I really like the stack of those two I just have to figure out what day to schedule it on. I think I'm going to read over the schedules of some of the body builders that I follow and see how they schedule there weeks, there has to be an easier way to approach this.

On a side note today is the first day of taking CLA, I'm starting with taking 2 grams a day (the same with my omega 3's) and I will see how that works over a month then I will see if I have to adjust that amount at all after that. I have read that 2-3 grams a day works best so we will see. I wish I could have started the Suma today too but that won't get here till Monday.... But I am so excited to see how that works, I think my plan with the Suma will be to add a tsp in my pre workout whey shake, and then after about a couple weeks of doing that I will probably start adding in another tsp in my post workout shake of whey, r&r, and glutamine. I have read the most beneficial times to take it are pre and post workout but if you add too much too soon before your body gets used to it you will feel nauseas. So I will up the dosage over time. This program is seriously taking my body to a new level. I am noticing more and more strength all the time, and i am building back strength i haven't had since high school. Anybody who is afraid to lift heavy and abandon cardio really should just relax and try something new, i feel fantastic. I have found the way that my body and genetics prefer to train. Listening to the body is really a magical thing people, God created us as very efficient well oiled machines, we just have to listen to them to know how to use them for the best of there ability, problems arise when we don't listen, But when we we listen Great things can happen and you will amaze yourself of what is possible.

Thought that would be a good note to leave you guys on today :) tomorrow is really a super dreaded workout..... here it comes, Bulk: Legs! i have heard very scary things about this routine but i am going to take it on full force and hopefully be able to walk afterward lol Im sure tomorrows blog is going to be a good one!

Pre workout: 2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 122 grams banana with salt and cinnamon, workout was 40 min later

Intra workout: green tea with cold water and ice

Post workout: 1/2 scoop whey, 1/4 serving results and recovery formula, 1tsp glutamine powder.

Post workout meal: 30 min after

52 grams gluten free rolled oats, 1/2 banana, berries, cinnamon, om;et (2 whole eggs, 1 cup whites, pepeprs, spiniach, parmesan cheese) Black Coffee

Nutrition for today is set for:

July 25th, 2012 - Bulk Back! Short but Intense! Love it! & Cardio Or weights? Which Is Better?

Happy wednesday guys! The week is already half over, awesome! I hope you are all having a great week so far. Today was day 24 of my body beast hybrid and today I had bulk back and beast abs (abs first) two words describe this routine- Totally Awesome! I love this one! Let's be real tho there haven't been one routine I have not liked tho yet lol bulk back is just a 30 min workout but just like bulk chest it is short and intense with very little rest, I actually broke a sweat today doing back! I've said it over and over again but I will say it again ha ha, extra cardio is not needed for this program if you are pushing hard enough. The thing I really loved about this routine was the sequence,it was set up perfectly to blast every part of the back. On Monday I had thought about stacking bulk chest and back but I decided to just do the chest and I'm so glad I did not stack them. There is a reason that these are shorter workouts, and that they are split body part, if I would have stacked them I could not have pushed the same weight as if I just split the routines up on different days. The only one I might stack is shoulders and arms, I'm actually thinking tho that I will do bulk shoulders as my early morning workout, and then when I get home from work take on bulk arms. That way I split the routines up just enough to recover properly to lift big, but i'm not sure, tomorrow i will stack them and see how it works, then next week i will know. I am loving that these workouts are shorter, it has really made me realize all this time with p90x hour long routines are really just too long for proper muscle growth, that is one reason it is so hard to build muscle with p90x, it's easy to lean down with p90x but when it comes to mass gain, you should keep workouts short and intense around 30-40 min. There was actually an article on T-Nation that I read yesterday that talked all about it, click here to view that article. Those of you that think hour long routines are more effective will maybe change your mindset then :) trust me it was hard for me to believe too that shorter routines are better but after doing it for several times now I really feel so much better, I feel as If I have more energy thought the day, and I can recover so much faster too. When I was doing P90x routines all the time I was training for around 60-80 min and for one I could just not build mass and second I was more tired throughout the day. This program is totally changing the way I am thinking about fitness and I love it! Sagi really does know his stuff, this is the first program I have ever done where I really look forward to almost every workout (except legs lol) it has made me re-discover how much love and passion I have for just good old lifting weights.

As you can see the pic to the right (taken this morning) shows that you don't need to do a ton of cardio to remain lean, i have really kicked cardio latley and still maintaining around the same body fat% and i feel awesome. so much stronger than when i was doing lots of cardio. Here are my numbers for today's routine, you guys should know the reps by now, if you don't- look further in the blog

Superset

Dumbbell Pull Over: 40/45/50/40

Pull Ups: 10/10/10

Progressive Set

Bent Over EZ Bar Row: 50/60/70/70/60/50

*note- I love this set! My arms and back were toast!

Force Set

One Arms Rows: 30/30/30/30/30

*note- The pump after this move was incredible! next time i will use 35's

Single Set

Deadlift: 30/40/45/30

Superset

Bent Over Flys: 12/15

Renegade Rows: Used 25 pounds and rowed side to side for 30 seconds each time.

cool down

That was seriously an intense routine, that force set with the one arms rows was just kick ass! I only used 30s today but I had no idea how hard they were going to be so I did not want to try and lift to much my first time through this one. Next time I will up to 35s.

Today I want to talk a little more about how cardio will not benefit when building mass, lately on Facebook I have seen some people complaining how that there cardio is dropping and they really miss getting a super high heart rate. These words are for those people "when building mass cardio has to be set aside, too much cardio will just cause you to go into a catabolic state even with proper diet and supplementation." the simple truth is yes you will loose some cardio but this is something you have to decide for yourself and ask yourself this question- what are your current goals? Do that and then set your routines and nutrition geared toward making that goal happen. Do not set a goal of gaining mass then add cardio in more than a couple times a week because your afraid of getting fat. Lifting heavy weights builds muscle, increases testosterone and human growth hormone, all those things burn calories at rest, and decrease body fat over time, and not to mention an awesome physique. Cardio is good for the heart (thats why everyone should do a little cardio at least), burns calories only during and a short time after the workout is over, causes the body to go catabolic, and over time you end up with a too lean cardio physique, also your body adapts to cardio very easily so lets say all you do is cardio then decide to stop, at first your going to gain back a lot of body fat because your body was used to all the cardio. those who primarily strength train burn most of there calories at rest so that isn't an issue for people who lift heavy.

It might be hard to believe but the more intense you exercise (cardio wise) the more you are hurting your physique. But that is the simple truth. The best physiques are truly mastered by weight training with just enough cardio (1 or 2 days of 20-30 min of HIIT or 1 or 2 days of steady pace cardio no more than an hour long with heart rate no higher than 70% of your max) that is truly the best way to build the body you want, the body that scorches calories at rest and can push heavy weights and best of all not spend a lot of time in the gym and can enjoy life more :) I know how i want to train. But of course that choice is up for you too make. Words of wisdom for today are- You should enjoy how your are working out, if you don't find it fun your doing it wrong, if you don't like lots of cardio and you like lifting more often (me lol) then do it, life is to short to make yourself do things you don't enjoy doing, theres so much stress in life anyway why cause yourself more stress? if you like doing lots of cardio then do it, if you like lifting then lift. The choice is yours my friends :)

Pre workout: 2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 120 grams banana with salt and cinnamon, workout was 40 min later

Intra workout: green tea with cold water and ice

Post workout: 1/2 scoop whey, 1/4 serving results and recovery formula, 1tsp glutamine powder.

Post workout meal: 30 min after

75 grams gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 10 raw almonds, cinnamon, sliced frozen peaches, and tons of berries, with black coffee

Nutrition for today is set for:

July 24th, 2012 - Cardio Super Early! Super Weird Night... also going to start 2 new supplements.

Good morning everyone! Wow last night was weird! Ok let me explain, first off today was day 23 of my body beset hybrid with beast cardio and later today I am going to throw in lucky 7, before none tells me "shawn I didnt think you do doubles?" this is not a double, the two workouts together are less than an hour so in my book that is one workout. A double would be doing to hour long routines. Ok back to the story- last night I was surprisingly pretty sore from that chest workout, even tho it was 30 min it obviously hit my chest hard. So I spent last night foam rolling while watching Master Chef (I love that show!) then I want to bed at my normal time around 10pm this is when it gets weird, I woke up (not knowing it was only 12am and went to the bathroom and for some reason I thought it was 430am (a normal wake up for me) so I put in my contacts and had my pre workout which is energy and endurance from Beachbody and I started doing my usual warm up which is some sun salutations and stretching for about 30 min, once I finished that got my intra workout ready (green tea) and then walked into my workout room and happened to glance at my phone and saw it was ONLY 1230am!!!!! At that time I was a little pissed because I had already taken my pre workout and I was no way in hell ever going to be able to fall back asleep so I decided to just start the workout lol, yep Whatever it takes! The workout was good, had plenty of energy and finished it with energy left, so then I had the decision to just get lucky 7 over with then or try and go back to bed and save lucky 7 for later on in the day, I decided to go back to bed lol, and let me tell you trying to go to sleep after taking energy and endurance and after finishing a cardio workout, sucks!

Usually I fall asleep within 5 min once I'm in bed but OMG my body was fighting everything I threw at it to try and stay awake, finally after twitching for what seemed forever I got to sleep! I woke up at 530 am and I tell you what I was So HUNGRY! I had not eaten anything since the night before the only thing I had taken in was E & E so I fixed myself a decent size breakfast or eggs oatmeal, fruit, and coffee and I felt so much better. That was the. First time I ever did a workout then went to sleep right after without taking in a post workout and my body was freaking out! Lol oh well.

It is what it is. At least the workout is done, and I will just tackle lucky 7 quick when I get home from work this afternoon, it's only 20 min anyway. It was no doubt a weird night tho that felt so long! I wonder how much sleep i got last night, i honestly have no idea, thank goodness for coffee! I tell you what from now the first thing I do when I wake up from now on is too look at my alarm, this will not happen again lol.

On a side note I have decided to add some new supplements in and see if they help me at all, I used to take glutamine for a long time but then stopped about a year ago, well recently I have decided to add it back in and see if my recovery speeds up. Then I also am adding in 2 new supplements, the first one is CLA I have been reding a lot about it lately- it stands for conjugated linoleic acid which is found in mainly meat and dairy products, it is a supplement that many body builders use especially when going lower on carbs because it help utilize fat more efficient as fuel, those are the claims, I ordered some so we will see if it works, if it does I will add it in to my supplements full time, I will let you know what I think of it after I go through the first bottle. And the last one I have decided to add in is Suma! And no it's not the Beachbody brand, I decided to order a 1 pound bag of the powder from a place in California. I have read the powder is better absorbed by ur body and plus beachbody's Suma was a little ridiculous when it came to what they are charging for a 30 day supply. Suma also known as Brazillian ginseng is a root found in south America it has a history of treating illnesses, improve immunity and hormonal banace, and increase the body's self-healing abilities. It's also been said to have cancer fighting effects. With all that it has also been said to be a stress reliever, treat chronic fatigue, also an anti inflammatory, has been known to help people with arthritis, also an aphrodisiac, and therese even more benefits! - it's also known to be an effective treatment for high blood sugar, helps cure poor circulation, and also provide more oxygen to the cells which is very beneficial to people who exercise!

With all those benefits said to happen- how could I not try it out?!? I will report back with if I notice any difference after using it for a while, also if any of you want to see the supplements I take every day just click here! I have a whole blog page dedicated to what I use.

Pre workout (at 12am!!!!)

2 glasses water, 1.5 scoops Energy and Endurance, workout was 30 min later

Intra workout: Green Tea in cold water and ice

Post workout: Sleep! (no supplements taken Post Workout.)

Woke up at 5:30: 3/4 scoop whey protein, and 1tsp glutamine.

Breakfast: 52 grams gluten free rolled oats, 1/2 banana, berries, cinnamon, om;et (2 whole eggs, 1 cup whites, pepeprs, spiniach, parmesan cheese) Black Coffee

Nutrition is set today at:

July 21, 22nd, 23rd- A weekend of Getting Drunk, Huge Hangover, then Bulk Phase Started today, Bulk Chest, Are you ready?!?!

Oh ok wow do I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. Let's get right into it. Saturday was day 20 of my body beast hybrid. I decided to hit up x2 chest back and balance again. I struggled a little today tho with some things, I say on a scale of 1-10 it was probably a 6 so it could've been worse but it was no where near my best. Saturday my other part of my family came home to visit an also had a wedding to go too. This is when it got fun lol, went to the wedding and got crazy drunk lol drank a ton! I don't usually do that but I was in the mood to drink so I did ha ha. Besides the drinking I kept pretty clean at the wedding, I had lots of beef, chicken, corn, green beans, and some apple sauce on the side with a side salad. I hadn't eaten In nearly 3 or 4 hours except a hard boiled egg in between, so I was hungry and ate a ton. Then the drinking began, honestly I have no idea how much I drank considering we just kept getting refills of a giant pitcher of bud light. Yep good times lol. Anyway I drank a lot got crazy drunk and then the wedding cake was sliced an I had a piece of the spice cake, so good! Surprisingly I had enough discipline when drunk to keep it to a slice.

So then more drinking and dancing was going on (at least there was lots of dancing to burn some of the calories off lol. And then hunger struck again and I found pretzels. I have no idea how many of them I ate either, probably a decent amount. After we got home from the wedding there were some of our hot peppers on the counter and me being a drunken rebel decided to just eat 5 or 6 of those damn things, wow that was dumb, the heat from the peppers kicked in and water just wasn't doing the trick. I had an extra hard boiled egg I had brought so I ate that and my mouth was still on fire, pulled the fridge open looking for the healthiest option and found a tubaware of fresh melon cut up! Score! I ate almost the whole container lol, and then I saw some 2% cottage cheese in there and had several spoonfuls of that and then I downed another glass of water and totally just fell asleep.

Nutrition was really a guess for Saturday but I tried to track the closest I could, this will be a metabolic reset day lol.

Woke up on Sunday feeling like I was hit by a truck and then ran over by an ongoing car ha ha. The hang over sucked! So I started the day with my natural hang over cure (usually I have some results and recovery formula to cure a hangover but I was not at my house so I didnt have it available so I just drank 6 glasses of water and fixed a giant breakfast and lots of coffe! After I was starting to feel better me and my brother and law went frisbee golfing and surprisingly it was 2 of the best games we ever played lol. It was also a hangover cure! After that I was feeling pretty good again.

The rest of the day was good, got to see my grandparents, grilled sausages and brats and had homemade corn on the cob, delicious!

Later I left the parents to go back home and I spent the night pre cooking my meals for the week and just relaxing, no yoga was done, I foam rolled a little tho while watching tv.

Nutrition for sunday was:

Alright that takes care of the weekend and catches us back up. Today was day 22 of my body beast hybrid and it started the Bulk block with Bulk Chest. And I also added in an ab circuit (10 min total time on abs) bulk chest is just a 30 min workout but it is a killer! I'm glad this phase is a long one because I think this week it is really going to be a week to get a feel for the right weights that need to be used. Today I miscalculated big time! I was picking to heavy weights and lots of the reps i did not even complete and it was a sloppy mess today, but still a good workout. Here are my numbers for today

Reps go from 15/12/8 and sometimes a superset, progressive sets go with 15/12/8/8/12/15 reps, and force sets are 5/5/5/5/5 for reps

- 10 Min Ab Circuit
Superset
Incline Flys: 15/25/30
Incline Press:35/40/40
*note- drop weight on presses, 35s was way to much to start on.
Force Set
Rotational Dumbbell press: 30/30/25/25/25
*note- Drop weight on these too, form was terrible, forget your ego shawn!
Progressive Set
Incline Press: 25/30/40/40/30/25
*note- drop weight here too! i was doing half ass reps, come on shawn you know better!
Combo-set
Close Grip Press To Fly: 20/22/25
*note- picked too heavy of a weight to start, did not get all the reps, my thumbs also kept cramping up, hmm.....
Final Sets
Decline Push Ups: 15/12/12 (burnt out!)
Cable Flys: 1 set of 15 (light resistance)
Russian Twists with weight (feet under bench so i could lean back more.): 30 seconds with 15 pounds

-It was short but intense, i might try stacking Bulk Back with it next time, not sure yet.....

Alright i know i was talking 3rd person there but i honestly have to forget my ego. Half assing reps does nothing! I should know better! But the thing is it was my first time with this routine so yea next week I will defiantly get more out of this routine because I am going lighter.

The one thing I love about this program is the fact it is showing how much strength I have lost since being in high school, I might look super fit but these workouts are really showing how weak I have become by just doing p90x based routines for about 3 years now. Now I am not knocking P90x or other beachbody programs, I love p90x and I can do 20+ pull ups and lever pull ups because of it, I have never been able to do that before, but with that said I was able to bench and squat pretty big weights in high school and I was also 15 pounds heavier then, but since then I have focused on core, circuit training with weights, and even insanity workouts, and with time I have dropped to much weight and I lost too much strength, that is really a disappointment to think about specially since I am young and these should be my strongest years of my life, but I am so happy about this program because I really am hoping to increase my strength back to what it was in high school, while still maintaining what I have received from P90x and P90X2, the thought for the day is even though you are lean and ripped, ask yourself- are you as strong as you were before? If not you may want to add more strength training back in and decrease cardio because heavy training in my opinion is one of the most beneficial things you can do. P90X was the starter for me, it taught me what I needed to know, If it wasn't t for that I have no idea where I would be right now, and tony is still my number one trainer, he is the one that changed my life. But remember people variety is the spice of life, don't just do cardio, don't just do weights, and don't just do core. You need all those aspects of fitness to be the best you can be. Beachbody is awesome for that very reason, they have programs for whatever your goals may be.

On a side note I have officially launched my custom meal plans! If you want more info on how you can get a custom made meal plan fit for you and your lifestyle that will get results, just click here.

Pre workout: 2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 112 grams banana with salt and cinnamon, workout was 40 min later

Intra workout: green tea with cold water and ice

Post workout: 1/2 scoop whey, 1/4 serving results and recovery formula, 1tsp glutamine powder.

Post workout meal: 30 min after

75 grams gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 10 raw almonds, cinnamon, sliced frozen peaches, and tons of berries, with black coffee

Nutrition for today is set for:

July 20th, 2012 - Legs! & Ask yourself- Are you overtraining?

Yes it is officially friday! The week is almost over! Time for the awesome weekend! Why do the weekends always seem to fly by tho?!?

Anyway today was day 19 of my body beast hybrid, I had build legs today, I will say it again this workout is one of the hardest routines you will ever do lol it is just plain brutal! Lifting heavy and moving at a fast pace all early in the morning at 530am sucks ass ha ha. But when you finish you feel great! Usually I work abs on Friday too but I said screw it, legs was enough. The last few sets in build legs work the abs anyway so it's no big deal. Plus not only that but all the squats and lunges work the core tremendously. Anyway woke up this morning still extremely sore from head to toe, I haven't felt this soreness since I lifted in highs school and when I used to be on the water polo team for my high school. I also am starting to feel the effects of not getting enough sleep, I get 6 to 6.5 hours on a good night, but with my schedule thats the most I can get during the weeks, I sleep in on the weekends tho to try and make up for what I have lost. Not getting enough sleep really effects your whole life, not just your workout performance. I have felt just really irritated this week for some reason, the only thing I can think of is not getting enough sleep. I had no problem doing P90X workouts with this much sleep, even my insanity days prior to this program were fine on the same amount of sleep. That just shows that lifting heavy takes your training and metabolic rate to a whole new level. Your body can't recover from these workouts like it does when you train light weight with a lot of reps. That's why when you have a rest day, TAKE IT! Even if you think you have the energy and stamina to do a workout on a rest day, avoid doing it. You will regret it later on in the week when your body is run down if you do not rest. Also when you don't rest, it lowers your immune system and raises cortisol levels, both of which you should avoid. A couple signs that your body is run down and you are producing cortisol is;

-hungry all the time

-tired all day after you work outed out

-energy levels low

-lower belly fat accumulation

-decrease in muscle mass

-sore all the time

-falling asleep at odd random times of the day

-craving cheat foods

-decrease in sex drive

-more acceptable to illness and diseases.

Those are the main signs of having too high of cortisol but the list does continue.

So what should you do if you have or start to see some of these signs?

The easy answer is REST. Watch tv, play video games, go see a movie, read a book, do some yoga, stretch, I don't care what it is as long as its not exercise or anything that puts the body into having more stress.

Alright I know that was a long rant lol but it was so necessary to share because to often people do not rest enough and that will lead to problems later in life, I have experienced it, that is why I always make time to rest and relax, this hit me hard in June of 2011. I will explain how it hit me as soon as I post my numbers for today lol.

Single Set Sumo Squats: 30/40/50/40 (drop-set)

Super Set

Alternating Lunge: 20/22/25

Step Ups with Back Lunge: 20/22/25

*note- Still had to take id set breaks, these are tough.

Giant Set

Parallel Squat: 30/40/50

Bulgarian Squat: 15/17/15 *note this move is hard on my knees so i modify and don't go as low.

Straight Leg Deadlift: 30/40/40

Giant Set

Single Leg Calf Raise: 30/30 for 30 seconds each leg

seated calf raise: 35/35 for 30 Seconds

In and Outs (Abs): 30 Seconds both rounds, Plus i added in 30 reps of weighted double crunches.

bonus calf raises (wanted to work calves a little more) standing with 30's in each hand, 50 reps, then 50 reps drop set with no weight.

Cool Down

Alright awesome workout that was but now back to my rant lol. In May of 2011 I had done my first (and last) round of straight Asylum (after pic to the right), I went from 7% body fat too 4.5% in 30 days, I looked fantastic but that was before I knew how to listen to my body, after asylum I tried to go back to weight lifting but when ever I would finish a weightlifting workout I felt that I needed more, I felt that the high heart rate was missing and I always felt I had to get my heart rate high, Sony would finish a strength workout and then right after I would do 39 min of cardio almost every day! My strength sucked big time! I might have been the leanest I ever been but I was not strong. I hated how much strength I had lost. After this all happened and I witness the bad effects that cardio had did to me I decided to just force myself to stop doing cardio, I lifted again, got back to including yoga in my weeks, and also an extra day of stretching within the first couple weeks body fat was rising and I actually was feeling better than I ever have before. This was when I first noticed how important it is to listen to your body. I had went from 4.5% body fat to 6% and I was feeling good, I had built my strength back. After I had reached my goal of strength back again, I decided to just add back in one day of cardio a week. And that's what I have been doing ever since and I feel great, I now listen to my body and force myself to rest because I do not want to screw my system up again. If you have touts that you are over training, please ask yourself if you have any of the symptoms and if you do, focus on a stress release system, and I guarantee you will feel so much better, and be a lot more healthier.

I hope you guys got something out of today's blog, I know how important it is to exercise daily but sometimes there can be too much exercise, remember too much of anything in life is never a good thing, even when it comes to fitness. Tomorrow will be day 20 of this hybrid and I think I am going to hit up chest back and balance from X2 again, that way I can keep up performance with gaining mass. I have a busy day tomorrow, since my other part of my family is coming home so I cannot guarantee there will be a blog tomorrow but I will try my best. If your not following me on twitter yet, you should be lol I post tips up there and a lot of my meals throughout the day, just click here to go to my twitter. Also today or tomorrow I am going to officially release my custom meal plans. A full blog will be posted on that when I have it ready :)

Nutrition is set today at:

Pre Workout: 2 glasses of water,1 scoop E&E, 1/2 scoop whey, 100 grams of banana- with salt and cinnamon. workout was 1 hour later

Intra Workout: Green Tea- brewed with just water and ice.

Post Workout: 1/4 serving R&R, 1/2 scoop whey

Post workout meal: 30 min after workout.

75 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 10 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

July 19th, 2012 - Shoulder Day! and Exciting New Things Coming soon!

Hey everyone! Happy Thursday! One more day of the week left! Then the great weekend :) I have decided I'm going to wait to see the dark night rises till next weekend tho because I want good seats, and I hate a packed places lol. Wow I woke up this morning just sore all over, my legs, my lower back, my shoulders, my chest, quads, and even calfs! Which is weird since half of those muscles I didn't work yet this week lol. Today was day 18 of my body beast hybrid and I had build shoulders, this routine is one of my favorites. I love working shoulders, which is odd because shoulders are a weak link for me, but one of my favorite quotes is "your only good at what you do often, and you become great when you work on the things you struggle with most." one of the reasons I love working shoulders is because shoulders is the base of a good physique, if you do not have nicely developed shoulders everything else will look off, but for those that train the shoulders in all directions, those are the people that have that body building beast look too them, and that's what we all want :) Sagi says it himself in this workout "if you have big shoulders you have a small waste" plus the shoulders are a very artistic muscle when they are well developed, the striations in the delt, and then that connects to the triceps, that is what makes an arm look well developed. Plus another thing I really like about is workout is that you really work the back of the shoulder (the rhomboid) a lot too, so many people just focus on the side of the shoulder and the front and what happens is then you develop a better chance for injury as you age because you didn't develop the whole shoulder. Plus when you work the back of the shoulders that really builds that upper back, and combined with well developed traps, it is a look we all strive for. The shoulder really is what makes a physique golden. Now with all that said lets get to my numbers for today, I decided to lower weight on the presses today to focus more on form and I'm so glad I did, it felt so much better, sure I could probably push 10 pounds more than what I did but my form would have been off, and also keep in mind that lifting heavy in the morning (to heavy) can result in a better chance of an injury. If you workout later in the day you are more warm so yea you can probably get away with going a little heavier then but for those of us that have to get it done super early please focus on form and forget your ego,many just lift to your best ability. Think of it this way if you can get through your workout without feeling like you tweaked something then you are doing it right. If you walk away feeling like something is a little messed up or tweaked that means lower those weights and remember to really focus on form. I know I say it a lot! But it is one of the most important things to remember when you train like this- FORM IS KING!
remember each set starts with 15 reps then 12 reps then 8 reps, and sometimes a drop-set.

Single Set Shoulder Press: 20/25/30/25

*note- Lowered the weight from last week and focused on form, so much better.

Super Set

Lateral Raise: 12/15/20

Upright Row: 20/30/40/30

Giant Set

EZ bar Underhand Press: 30/30/40

1,1,2 Front Raises 7/10/10

Rear Delt Raise: 7/10/10

Super Set

Standing Dumbbell Shrug: 30/40/50/30

Dumbbell Scap Trap: 15/15/15

Super Set

Sagi Six-Way: 7/7

Tuck & Roll one round, then 2nd round i did decline sit ups: 15 reps/15 reps (on a decline bench)

Bonus

Callahan Press Burn Out (a move from P90X2)

25/22/20/17/15 (awesome way to burn out the shoulders!) (each weight was done for as many reps till failure and then dropped weight and did the same thing till i finished with the 15 pound dumbbells.

Cool Down

Nutrition Is feeling good, I was a little worried yesterday when I felt my stamina dropped a little that I wasn't eating enough but I had great stamina today so it must have just been an off day yesterday. I really think my late night shakeology recipe is doing the trick, I mix 1 scoop shakeology, 1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1tbsp natural peanut butter, cinnamon, ice, and water and I have that 2 hours before bed, I have been sleeping amazing at night using that and I feel I have great energy for the mornings workout too. Yes shakeology has carbs but seriously shakeology is the healthiest thing you put in your body all day so you do not have to worry about that turning to fat. Plus shakeology is LOW on the glycemic index, perfect for any time of the day. Plus I love being able to look forward to an amazing tasty chocolate shake every night :) if you want more infor about shakeology just click here and it will explain all the reasons why everyone should be taking this amazing whole food supplement. Plus the formula is updated and this months orders are receiving the new formula which has Moringa in it! One of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet! And for only $4.50 a day! I know I sound like a salesman but I'm not trying too, I don't make a lot of money at all and I struggle in this economy like everyone does but I still buy shakeology, I have taken it for almost 2 years now and I know it is completely worth it, I have seen and feel the benefits.

Also more good stuff coming soon to Xtreme fitness for life! I am working on a blog to explain this in detail but for now I will leave you with this. Have you ever wished that you could just set a goal- rather it be gain mass, get lean, get contest/ vacation ready, or just maintain and just have a diet plan that works for your life style and enjoy the foods and really see changes? Well for anyone that Is on my team and HAS bought something from me, your dreams have come true :) customized meal plans are now in the works. Blog coming soon!

I thought that might get you excited :) talk to you guys tomorrow! Tomorrow build legs! Gosh that's a brutal one but I will beast it out! All the way!

Calorie intake For today is set at:

Pre Workout: 2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 86 grams banana, Workout was 30 min later.

Intra Workout: Green Tea- brewed with just water and ice.

Post Workout: 1/4 serving R&R, 1/2 scoop whey

Post workout meal: 30 min after workout.

Omelet (2 whole eggs, 1 cup whites, spinach, bell pepper, Parmesan Cheese, spices) topped with tomato slices. and a 1/2 cup oatmeal with 1.5 cups of frozen berries, cinnamon, and black coffee.

July 18th, 2012 - Back and Biceps, a fantastic PUMP!
Hey everybody today was day 17 of my body beast hybrid, and it was build back and bi's and beast abs. I woke up this morning super sore from plyocide yesterday. My legs were so tight, after I took my pre workout meal I spent the next 30 minutes doing simple sun salutations and other stretches to loosen up. Finally after about 30 minutes of stretching and a little yoga I felt loose enough to get started. Tackled beast abs first as my warm up then jumped right into back and bi's. Today's workout was interesting because while some moves killed me worse than they usually did, other moves I did better on lol. The thing when your goal is to gain lean mass is to really make sure you squeeze each rep and not just go thru the motions. That was one thing I focused a lot on today and I really felt it. I tell you what tho. Those three sets of close grip chin ups right after that giant set is just BRUTAL! That always destroys whatever strength my back has left, and then you still have biceps to train! Today I also realized what my favorite exercise in that whole routine is, it is the 1,1,2 hammer curls. The pump after that move is incredible! Even when you use lighter weights, that move is a complete beast. Here are the stats of the workout today.

remember each set starts with 15 reps then 12 reps then 8 reps, and sometimes a drop-set.

Single Set Dead Lifts: 30/40/50/30 (drop-set)

Super Set

Dumbbell Pull Over: 40/45/50/40 (drop-set)

Pull Ups: 10/10/10 (struggled with the last set!)

Giant Set

EZ Bar Row: 50/70/80

One Arm Rows: 30/35/40

Reverse Fly: 12/15/15

*note- Stamina really lacked today for some reason during this set.

Single Set Close Grip Chin Up 30 seconds each: 3 sets (30 seconds rest in-between each set) Arms totally shot, focused on just slow controlled reps.

Single Set Seated Bicep Curls: 15/20/25/20

Single Set 1,1,2 Hammer Curls: 15/17/20

Single Set Neutral EZ Bar Curls: 20/30/40/30

Final Move 2 rounds Airplane Cobra: 30 seconds each time), 10 standard pull ups between each set.

Cool Down

Pre Workout: 2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 120 grams of banana- with salt and cinnamon. workout was 30 min later

Intra Workout: Green Tea- brewed with just water and ice.

Post Workout: 1/4 serving R&R, 1/2 scoop whey

Post workout meal: 30 min after workout.

75 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 10 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

Sorry guys this blog is shorter today, i don't have a lot of extra time today, so this was just going to be a quick update of today. Tomorrow is Build Shoulders- another favorite of mine! Hoping to be able to press heavier weight tomorrow but we will just have to wait and see.

Nutrition is dialed in today with:

July 17th, 2012 - Plyocide! aka- Death By Jumping!

Good afternoon everyone. Hope you all are having a great Tuesday. Today was day 16 of My Body Beast hybrid- P90X2 Plyocide was on tap for my routine today. Wow it felt good to go back to that routine. I haven't done that one since I finished the second phase of X2 back in February! It totally kicked my ass today, I finished in a giant sweaty mess. I'm so happy that I moved my cardio day back to Tuesday instead of Friday like in the Beast schedule. For me I only do cardio once a week because I'm an ectomorph and don't really need it to maintain. But the main reason I do it, is it just feels good after your done, it's a great way to start the day ad it wakes you up and prepares you for the whole day, and plus it is good for your heart, yea there are some other benefits like the calorie burn and stuff but unless you have a whole lot of weight to loose, cardio is not something that is needed all that often. I used to be obsessed with cardio and even tho I was at 4.5% body fat and was super lean, my strength sucked, big time! That was after I had finished Asylum back in May of 2011, it took me forever to get off that cardio high, but finially I was able to cut it back to once a week and it's been like that ever since. I'm so much stronger now and healthier and feel so much better at around 6% body fat. Here is the tip of the day, do not get caught up in numbers. In body fat or on the scale, yes those are good ways of tracking your progress but what I recommend you do for the majority of the time is every morning when you wake up, ask your self these questions before you start the day; how do I feel? Am I happy with my appearance? And most importantly am I happy with the quality of my life right now at this moment? If you ask yourself those questions and all the answers are yes, then you know that you are on the right path. If some of the answers are no, then focus on trying to improve those parts of your life. Life is everything you make it out to be. You can choose to just let life pass by, or you can make it one of the most wild rides and best things ever. The choice is yours :)

Alright that was the life lesson of the day today. Now for how the routine went today.

The first thing I noticed was that my cardio was down big time from what it usually is but that was to be expected since I have laid off it for a couple weeks now. The next thing I noticed Is that since I have been focusing on more mass development my plyo performance really suffered compared to what it was when I had finished P90X2 back in march of is year. That just goes to show that if you don't use it, you loose it. That is why variety is the best approach when it comes to fitness. That is another reason I am so happy I made the decision to make this a hybrid, that way I get the best of both performance, and lean mass gains. perfect combo to have!

Pre Workout: 2 glasses of water, 1.5 scoops Energy and Endurance. Workout was 30 min later.

Intra Workout: Green Tea- brewed with just water and ice.

Post Workout: 1/4 serving R&R, 1/2 scoop whey

Post workout meal: 30 min after workout.

Omelet (2 whole eggs, 1 cup whites, spinach, bell pepper, Parmesan Cheese, spices) topped with tomato slices. and a 1/2 cup oatmeal with 1.5 cups of frozen berries, cinnamon, and black coffee.

Nutrition is dialed in today with:

This is a low cycle day so carbs are lower then usual just to mix it up and keep my metabolism guessing. This is one of my main tricks i use to stay lean year round. I have a starch with breakfast, and a starch with Dinner (for energy for tomorrows workout) and those are the only starches i use on low days. Tomorrow is Beast Back and Biceps, i love that workout! defiantly my favorite! Talk to you guys then.

for the rest of my meals just go to my food diary. and follow me on twitter too for pictures of my meals and i also tweet lots of tips and tricks too for you guys. and if you are looking for a coach, sign up for free! and you will be coached by me and have access to only things that my teammates can use. just click here to join!

July 16th, 2012 - Make Use of Sugar, don't waste it! & Form Is King! Do Not Listen To Your Ego!
Good Monday morning everyone! Wow this weekend went way to fast, Yesterday was day 14 of Body Beast and it was a rest day for me so i took advantage of it and just did some nice yoga, and foam rolled, man that felt awesome, specially after the 3 workouts the day before lol now before you guys freak out that i did 3 workouts on saturday let me explain. As all my followers know i never do more than one workout daily and i stand by that strong, i hate doubles and can't stand when i see people post that they do them. With that said on saturday since it is national ice cream month, I went out and celebrated with a good size brownie flurry Heres a Pic ;)

from the best ice cream place in town. It was delicious and after i ate it i was not guilty at all, i train hard so that treat was needed, well later when i got home at 11pm at night i was super hyped up from all the sugar i had, and i just could not sit still so i decided to make use of the sugar and try out Lucky 7 from the bonus Beast workouts. I absolutely loved that workout and will use it for future cardio. So once i finished that 20 min blaster i still was hyped up lol so i though what else i could try out since i still had sugar i wanted to partition to my muscles instead of just letting it get wasted. So i decided to try out Bulk Arms, its only 30 min and i was craving a good arm pump, and OMG after that routine my arms were jacked! My muscles had sucked up a lot of that sugar, and made great use of it! keep in mind this was at 12am at night and usually i would be dead tired but damn that was one of the best workouts i have had in a long time, now i'm not saying you should do this all the time but hey if you have extra sugar you consumed, put it to good use and pump some iron, it feels amazing! and you can lift some pretty heavy weights.after that routine i was in need of some protein before bed because my arms were shaking after that. So i whipped up a protein pancake (1/2 scoop whey, 1/2 cup egg whites) topped with 1/2 cup cottage cheese (2%) and some cinnamon, then i fell asleep 30 min after this. I slept amazing too. I was happy i had no workout on Sunday :)
... Anyway today was Day 15 Of Body Beast Build Chest and Tri's and 20-12 Abs (one on one series). This was the 3rd time doing this workout and i still love it! Sorta funny tho the first week i did this workout i had used the highest amount of weight but my form was bad, every week my weight has gone down and i have decided to focus on form instead, plus lifting in the morning at 5am really impacts my ability to lift a lot so instead of just going thru the motions to push a super heavy weight i have decided to just drop my amount of weight and focus on form. I get a way better pump anyway when i do it that way. I wish i had time in the afternoon for this workout, i think i could lift more then but my schedule just does not allow it. Oh well, i'm not a body builder and don't want to look like one so i don't mind pushing lighter weights :) Anyway lets get on with my numbers for today.
remember each set starts with 15 reps then 12 reps then 8 reps, and sometimes a drop-set.

Single Set Dumbbell press: 30/35/40/30

Super Set

Incline Flys: 25/25/30

Incline Press: 25/30/40/30

Giant Set

Close Grip Press: 25/30/30

Cable Flys (decided to sub these in for partial flys today): Resistance bands used for the amount of reps.

Decline Push Ups: 12/10/10 (reps)

Single Set Tricep Extensions: 15/17/25/17

Super Set

Tricep Kickbacks: 15/17/20/15

Close Grip Push Ups: 12/10/9 (went to my knees a couple times)

Final Set

Max Dips (with Feet on Bench): Slow and controlled reps today with a couple mid set breaks

In and Outs: 1 Minute

Double crunch: 40 reps

Pre Workout: 2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 1 banana with salt and cinnamon.

Intra Workout (during): Green Tea (cold water and ice)

Post Workout: 1/4 serving of Results and Recovery Formula, 1/2 scoop whey.

Post Workout Meal 30 min later

75 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 10 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

Calories for today are set at:

July 14th, 2012 - A Day For A P90X2 Favorite!

Happy Saturday everyone! hope you guys are having a great day! Today was Day 13 of my Body Beast hybrid schedule, notice i said hybrid, i was going to do this whole program at first but recently i have just noticed that i was loosing valuable core strength and my cardio is suffering a bit, well i have worked to damn hard to just let that slip. So with that said i have decided to make tho 90 day round a hybrid with P90X2 and a couple insanity/Asylum workouts (not very often) with the main program being the BEAST. My goal is still to gain weight and muscle for the rest of 2012 but i refuse to loose the core/gymnastic strength and cardio endurance i have built over time. My schedule is going to vary weekly because im still trying different combinations but i always log all my workouts on the WOWY super gym calendar so if you want to follow me just go to my profile and click on my workout calendar (Click Here). I hope you guys understand why i am doing a hybrid, i wanted to do this whole 90 days at first but i just have missed my P90X2 workouts. Anyway todays workout was Chest, Back and Balance from P90X2, this workout is an all time favorite of mine, it's just body weight training and has a gymnastic type of theme to it, i love it! The workout went awesome today! my numbers are up! and that amazed me considering i was lacking on P90X2 for a while now. some numbers were down like levers and impossible's but overall it was a great workout, here are my numbers if anyone cares (reps)

Pull Up X: 17
Plyo Stab Ball Push Ups: 26
Core Crunch Chin Up: 12
Push Up Side Arm Balance on med balls: 22
Levers: 12
4 Ball Push Up: 25
Switch Grip Pull Up (switched while hanging): 12
Impossibles: 8 then Dropped the Stab ball then did 12 more reps with just med ball
L Chin Up (closed grip): 12
3 Ball Plyo Push Ups: 17 a little break then 6 more reps
Vaulter Pull Ups (switched while hanging): 10
Elevated feet Stab Ball Push Up: 25 then dropped stab ball and pumped out 12 reps decline
Plyo In and Out Pull Ups: 12
Swimmers Push Up (lost core strength big time on these): 10 reps, then did 10 more with just raising arms
4 Grip Pull Ups: 12
double wide med ball push ups: 30
Double Wide Pull Ups (no Kipping): 11
Chata Rocker Push Ups: 8, took little rest, and got 5 more reps.
Towl Pull Ups: 12
Plyo In and Out Push Ups on Med Ball: 20
Bonus-Towl Pull Ups (maxed out): 10
Cool down.

I also tried incorporating a little green tea during my workout today too, which i though helped a lot! i am going to continue to use it during workouts (in cold water with ice).

I love saturday workouts because its the one day a week where i can eat a big breakfast when i wake up then just let it digest for about 2 hours and then workout. I function best doing it that way, but with my work schedule during the week it does not allow me the time to do that. But thats life, we deal with it and find other ways around.

Breakfast (pre workout- 2 hours before)
75 grams gluten free oats, 65 grams banana, 1 1/2 scoops whey, 2 cups of mixed berries, 10 raw almonds, cinnamon. and black coffee.

Post workout
1 scoop chocolate shakeology, 1 scoop whey, sea salt (to replenish electrolytes), cinnamon, nutmeg, sliced frozen peach, 30 grams banana, 1 cup raspberries.

for the rest of my meals just go to my food diary. and follow me on twitter too for pictures of my meals and i also tweet lots of tips and tricks too for you guys.

Nutrition Is Feeling Great! I am so happy i made the modifications to my diet. Oh i have also decided to add back in a starch carbohydrate with my dinner, even tho it's the last meal of the day, i feel i function better with my workouts when i have a little bit of a starchy carb with dinner, it will either be 1/2 cup (cooked) quinoa, or 120 grams sweet potato. Caloric level is a little under 2400 with ratios 40/40/20 rotating on cardio/ rest days with 45/35/20 (p/c/f). At this rate it is going to take longer to gain mass but im more interested in not loosing any functional fitness while going thru this program. Im not a body builder and i don't want to look like one. I don't mind being a lean guy, I want to add some more lean mass but nothing crazy because i feel i function better being lean and feel better being lean. With all that said tho i love the Body Beast program and it's going to make this hybrid all the better. Heavy weight lifting, a little Hitt with insanity/ Asylum, and the functional training of P90X2, this hybrid has it all. well i think i covered everything i wanted to cover today. thanks everyone that is following and sharing my blog, i really appreciate it. Tomorrow is just some nice yoga and stretching and boy do i need it. Talk to you Guys tomorrow, Keep BEASTING it out there :)

Calorie intake and ratios are set today at:

July 13th, 2012 - Cardio and Abs day- with a little bonus
Hey Guys sorry it's a late update today, i have been busy with work but i have some time now so i will update you all. Today Was Day 12 of Body Beast; Cardio and Abs, and i also was feeling like i wanted more after cardio so i through in Asylum Overtime. Umm yea Overtime was not needed i have no idea what i was thinking. I pushed play on over time and was only able to actually follow along with not even half of it lol, i was on the floor for most of it. Honestly i have no idea why i even added it. It was probably because of the sustained energy i got from the E&E Pre workout :) But anyway Beast Cardio was good, i love that routine, I actually went off my planed schedule today tho lol, I originally had total body scheduled but my mind set was ready for the cardio so i went with that again. This workout is truly one of my favorite cardio routines, it might be only 30 min but gosh it is one hell of a good routine.

Pre Workout today was 1.5 scoops Energy and Endurance, and 2 glasses of water. Workout was 20 min later.

Post Workout was .25 serving Results and Recovery Formula, and 1/2 scoop whey.

for the rest of my meals just go to my food diary. and follow me on twitter too for pictures of my meals and i also tweet lots of tips and tricks too for you guys.

Nutrition Is great today! I feel better already since i went back to a balanced 40/40/20 or 45/35/20. I am really happy i made the switch. I got a lot of people messaging me yesterday about why my protein level is so high. My body works well with high protein, i feel good with it. I have taken in high protein ever since i started this journey back in 2009. Do i believe the health risks that supposedly come from high protein? Nope not at all. I have done my research and i have found taking in high protein is not a big deal as long as you drink plenty of water, and take in enough Omega 3 healthy fats. The only time kidney problems will start happening is if you exceed a ridiculous level of 400-500 grams protein. I take in 220-250 grams a day and thats what i feel good with. One of the great things about high protein diets is you feel satisfied after meals and you are not constantly hungry. Also another bonus is 15-25% of the protein in each meal is burnt automatically by the digestive track even while you are doing nothing! which is great for a guy like myself that sits a at a computer while at work all day. This is a short blog today but at least i got to explain a little more of the benefits of high protein, and crushed some of those insane myths out there. If you guys have any questions just let me know.

Todays Calories Set at:

July 12th, 2012 - Shoulder Day and Smart move with Nutrition.
Today Was Day 11 of Body Beast; Build Shoulders. I have got to say this routine totally shows how weak my shoulders are, which is weird because i have very nice Delts. That just goes to show that even tho a muscle may look good it can be extremely weak. The one exercise i have always had a difficult time with and still do is the military press with dumbbells, i just have the hardest damn time with getting the weights up on that one, and the max weight that i can use at this time is only 35 pounds! makes me a little mad that i struggle with that but everyone has strength and weaknesses. i might not be able to press much but when it comes to pull ups i can easily pump out 20 + when fresh so my back is a strong point for me. All this means is that shoulders are going to take more work for me and i will eventually hopefully be able to up my weight but it is what it is. Now before i start rambling on about changes in my nutrition i will post the results of todays workout. then if you care to here about my nutrition rant you can keep reading :)
remember each set starts with 15 reps then 12 reps then 8 reps, and sometimes a drop-set.

Single Set Shoulder Press: 25/30/35/30

*note- I struggled big time and just barley got 8 reps with 35's, but it is a work in progress.

Super Set

Lateral Raise: 12/15/20

Upright Row: 20/30/40/30

Giant Set

EZ bar Underhand Press: 30/30/40

*note- i need to pick up some more weight plates so i can add more weight to the EZ bar.

1,1,2 Front Raises 7/10/10

Rear Delt Raise: 7/10/10

Super Set

Standing Dumbbell Shrug: 30/40/50/30

Dumbbell Scap Trap: 15/15/15

*note- lowered weight on scap trap from last week so i could focus more on the iso hold at the top of the movement, got a lot more out of it this way.

Super Set

Sagi Six-Way: 7/10

Tuck & Roll: 15 reps/15 reps (on a decline bench)

Bonus

Callahan Press Burn Out (a move from P90X2)

25/22/20/17/15 (awesome way to burn out the shoulders!) (each weight was done for as many reps till failure and then dropped weight and did the same thing till i finished with the 15 pound dumbbells.

Cool Down

Yep great workout! now for those of you that are still reading time to talk nutrition! In yesterdays blog i posted that i was really rethinking this high carb approach since i don't have an active lifestyle and i asked for all your opinions on what i should do. "should i follow the program with the recommended high carb approach or should i do what i know works for my body and lifestyle?" after talking to a lot of people yesterday on there thoughts on this i have decided to go back to what i know works. a simple 40/40/20 ratio and around 2300-2400 cals. Your probably thinking "shawn your so young and skinny, you need to put on mass brother! Eat!" I realize this but i also know that my body just does not work well with high carbs, i feel lethargic, lazy, bloated, and not lean. I love feeling lean, light, full of energy, and just better all around. I want to thank David Swanson especially! yesterday after he read my blog he messaged me on facebook and said the following "After reading your blog brother here is my opinion. A guy I know named Fausey tells me all the time" listen to your body" that's my advise when it comes to your macro ratios. We both kinda end up as Beachbody lab rats-experimenting with evolving fitness & nutrition constantly . If the current macros are not feeling right change it up next week.

This message really hit home with me. Instead of actually listening to my body i was listening to a book that came with the beast workout program, and i really wasn't thinking, I had thought yea this approached worked well for these guys it must work well for me. BROKE MY OWN RULE!- "Live your life with your own unique way of living, never focus on copying what other people do in life and never expect the same results, to each is own and each and every person has a different style that works for them.'' This is one rule i always preach and then i go and break it lol. not anymore. I know what works for me and i am sticking with that! So since i have changed my whole approach i will update you guys on my new meal plan below. you will notice that all starches are kept to the mornings now. I used to always have a starch at dinner to help with the next mornings workout but that was when i was doing more endurance type workouts like P90X and X2, those workouts require more carbs because they are so endurance based, Body Beast is a totally different animal. These workouts are about lifting heavy and not so much endurance even tho the legs routine and some of the others include a lot of endurance to get through lol! But since it is mainly lifting heavy the body does not need as many carbs unless your goal is to get ridiculously massive then yes high carbs is a good idea, but after doing some research this week, the best way to lean mass gains is with a High Protein, Medium Carb to Low Carb, and Medium fat. This was great to read about because honestly i love eating low carb, and i have seen my best results in the past while doing this, i feel so much better eating higher protein and fats. When i was eating high carb i never felt satisfied after my meals, but when my meals contain a lot of protein and a pretty good amount of fat i feel satiated and full after the meals. of course everyone is different tho so don't just go and think that because my body does not work well with the high amount of carbs that your doesn't either, try high carbs for a week or 2 and see how you feel, if you feel great then stick with whats working if something does not feel right change it and move on. Also use carbs for energy, that really is what they are for, if you are like me and have a desk job maybe you should consider lower carbs because your body does not need as many as say a construction or factory worker needs, there needs will be a lot different because there energy expenditure is far greater than the rest of us with more laid back desk jobs. here is an outline of my new meal plan and how it will look.

Wake Up 4:30am
Pre workout- 2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 1 banana (126 grams), sprinkled with salt and cinnamon. (no whey will be taken on cardio days just E&E with water will be consumed on those days.)
Workout 30 Min-50 Min Later depending on the day
Post workout- 1/4 serving Results and Recovery Formula, 1/2 scoop whey.

Post workout Meal (30-45 min after workout)
75 grams gluten free rolled oats, 10 raw almonds, 1 scoop whey, frozen peach slices, and a lot of mixed berries, and some cinnamon.

Lunch- 11:30
5-6oz chicken, 1 whole hard boiled egg, 1/4 avocado, 150 grams sweet potato, tons of veggies

Mid Afternoon Snack- 2:40
Option 1- 1 cup of egg whites, 1/5 avocado, 1 turkey burger 4oz, spinach, bell pepper, tomato sliced.
Option 2- 1 cup greek yogurt, 1/2 scoop whey, 8-10 raw almonds, 1/2- 1 cup of berries, cinnamon.

Late Afternoon Snack- 5:30pm
1 scoop Shakeology, 1/2 scoop whey, cinnamon, nutmeg, 1 tbsp Natural Peanut Butter, 1/2 cup of cottage cheese (113 grams)

Dinner- 7:30 or 8:00
Option 1- 6-8oz Chicken, a whole plate full of mixed veggies, 1/4-1/5 avocado, parmesan cheese.
Option 2 6-8oz Fish, a whole plate of mixed veggies, 1/4-1/5 avocado, parmesan cheese.
*note sometimes i will add either a half cup of Cottage cheese, of Greek yogurt to these meals, depending on how hungry i am.

Bed 10:30pm

There you go that is my new nutrition plan. I know i will feel so much better this way. And if i happen to feel i need more carbs i will add them. I will update my Meal Plan Page with this info so that it is not so hard to find. If you guys have any comments, questions, or concerns let me know, i love to here all your guys input. Also if you guys don't mind i really want to get my website out there for more people to discover because i feel so many people could benefit from my tips. If you wouldn't mind sharing this page i would greatly appreciate it. thanks so much guys. Also if you want me to blog about a certain topic let me know i always am open to everyones ideas. And i'm sure other people would benefit from your questions as well. Alright i think this blog is long enough lol. I will talk to you guys tomorrow.

Todays Calories Set at:

It feels good to be back to what i know works with my body :)

July 11th, 2012 - Back and Biceps: Defiantly a FAVORITE!
Today Was Day 10 of Body Beast and it was one of my favorites of the program, Build Back and Biceps and Beast Abs. This workout is just awesome, it is everything that i used to do back in my high school days of weight training, seriously many memories of being back at the gym are coming back and i am loving it. I know i have said it before but thanks so much Beachbody for this program. Don't get me wrong i love P90X and X2 but it just feels fantastic to be back to my roots of good old fashion heavy weight training. with all that said here is how the routine went today. you will noticed i dropped weight on some moves so i could have better form, i let my ego out of me and i lifted the best weight that would allow me the best range of motion and it felt so much better to do it that way than lifting too heavy and cheating my form. and you will also notice i upped some weight too.

remember each set starts with 15 reps then 12 reps then 8 reps, and sometimes a drop-set.

Single Set Dead Lifts: 30/40/50/30 (drop-set)

Super Set

Dumbbell Pull Over: 40/45/50/40 (drop-set)

Pull Ups: 10/10/10 (struggled with the last set!)

Giant Set

EZ Bar Row: 50/70/90

One Arm Rows: 30/35/40

Reverse Fly: 12/15/15

*note- Very happy that i decreased weight on the one arm rows, form was so much better than last time.

Single Set Close Grip Chin Up 30 seconds each: 3 sets (30 seconds rest in-between each set) to be honest no idea how many reps, it was a super low number, struggled big time on this chin up today. took a lot more rest than what is in the workout. But my arms were shot by the time i got to this exercise.

Single Set Seated Bicep Curls: 15/20/25/20

Single Set 1,1,2 Hammer Curls: 15/17/20

Single Set Neutral EZ Bar Curls: 20/30/40/30

Final Move 2 rounds Airplane Cobra: 30 seconds each time), 10 standard pull ups between each set.

Cool Down

Now to talk about nutrition. I am really starting to think about changing my ratios, I am fighting hard to keep my mind set to eating high carbs but mentally this is just hard. I function so much better and personally look better when being on a medium carb plan around 40% of my daily calories but being at 50% is just starting to feel like over kill. If i had an active lifestyle i would not mind it so much but i do not have an active lifestyle, I have a desk job, and even outside of work my life is not active, my activity comes from my workouts everyday so being on this high carb plan just does not feel right for me. I want to stay the coarse of this program but at the same time i don't want added fat gain. I feel that the best thing for me is to go back to a ratio of 40/40/20, but keep calories high at 2500. It just fits my lifestyle so much better than the higher carb. But i don't know yet, i really wanna give this program a full chance to work. gosh i do not know if you guys have any advice i would love to hear it. thanks shoot me a message on here in the comments or email me at fausey14@gmail.com or if you have me added on Facebook shoot me a message there. I am going to finish up this week still on the 35/45/20 plan at 2500 calories but sunday when i check my weight and body fat %t i will decide if i want to keep it with higher carbs or go back to what i know my body likes. but still keep calories high just different Macro Ratios. Let me know guys. I want to here your opinion. Especially from those of you that have desk jobs and not active lifestyles.

Pre-workout meal was

2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 1 banana sprinkled with salt and cinnamon. workout was 30 min after this.

Post-workout was

.25 serving of results and recovery formula, 1/2 scoop whey.

Post workout meal 30 min later

75 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 10 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

for the rest of my meals just go to my food diary. and follow me on twitter too for pictures of my meals and i also tweet lots of tips and tricks too for you guys.

Calories are set today at:

July 10th, 2012 - Build Legs Never Gets Easier!

Today Was Day 9 of Body Beast and it was good old Build Legs, wow! once again this routine kicked my ass! If i haven't said it before i will say it again, this routine is the hardest workout i have ever done. And i have done them all, i have done insanity , i have done asylum, but this workout is so different than any of them because you are lifting heavy while moving at a fast pace, anytime you put those two together you end up with a monster routine! The soreness has not set in yet but last week i started noticing it 2 days after the workout, so im not out of the clear yet :) speaking of soreness i want to go over something today. Lately i have been seeing a bunch of people post that they are not getting as sore the second week and then because of that they decide to do double workouts! here is the thing guys. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE SORE TO GROW NEW MUSCLE AND IMPROVE STRENGTH. why do people think they have to get sore from working out all the time? It is called muscle memory once your muscles get used to certain lifts they will not be as surprised as the first time you did the routine so you will not be as sore but even tho your not as sore you will still make great gains. I hate seeing all these people dong doubles till they can't walk, THAT IS NOT A GOOD HABIT TO GET INTO. I have done that in the past and all i did was loose muscle mass over time and i actually lost strength because i was pushing to hard. Also when you double up on workouts is when cortisol starts being produced and that is something you want to AVOID. Cortisol makes your body hold onto fat stores and use muscle as fuel, not a good thing. So please people if you get anything out of todays blog, please don't do doubles, you are hurting yourself more than helping. Focus on one workout and push hard for that one workout and then focus on nutrition. Alright i promise i'm done ranting now ha ha onto the workout here is how the routine went today. most weights stayed the same as last week but this workout was ridiculous so i am happy with maintaining what i used last time.
remember each set starts with 15 reps then 12 reps then 8 reps, and sometimes a drop-set.

Single Set Sumo Squats: 30/40/50/40 (drop-set)

Super Set

Alternating Lunge: 20/22/25

Step Ups with Back Lunge: 20/22/25

*note- Heart-rate was sky high, and i was forced to take some mid set breaks

Giant Set

Parallel Squat: 30/40/50

Bulgarian Squat: 15/17/20 *note this move is hard on my knees so i modify and don't go as low.

Straight Leg Deadlift: 20/40/40

Giant Set

Single Leg Calf Raise: 30/30 for 30 seconds each leg

seated calf raise: 35/35 for 30 Seconds

In and Outs (Abs): 30 Seconds both rounds

bonus calf raises (wanted to work calves a little more) standing with 30's in each hand, 50 reps, then 50 reps drop set with no weight.

Cool Down

one more thing i wanted to mention too- i can't say how happy i am to have a rumble roller! i foam rolled for over an hour last night on just my legs to help prepare me for this routine today and i'm so glad i did, it really helped me feel more smoother today with each movement and my range of motion was a lot better too, one of my new goals is to foam roll every night for at least 30 min. I believe it is one of the most useful tools you can have. If you don't have one yet go get one, and spend the extra money for the rumble roller, it is so worth it.

Nutrition was great today again. 280 grams of carbs is getting easier to take in, and i actually started to feel like i had more energy today, maybe my body is getting used to it finally lol, still feeling bloated but hey i'm dedicated to give this program my all, even if it means being a little bloated :)

Pre-workout meal was

2 glasses of water, 1 scoop Energy and Endurance, 1/2 scoop whey, 1 banana sprinkled with salt and cinnamon. workout was 50 min after this.

Post-workout was

.25 serving of results and recovery formula, 1/2 scoop whey.

Post workout meal 30 min later

75 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 10 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

for the rest of my meals just go to my food diary. and follow me on twitter too for pictures of my meals and i also tweet lots of tips and tricks too for you guys.

Calories are set today at:

July 9th, 2012 - Back to Chest and Triceps!
First off i want to apologize for not blogging yesterday, i was busy pretty much all day preparing for the week with all the normal life stuff like laundry, cleaning the house, prepping all my meals for the week and so on, you get the idea. Anyway yesterday was my off day and i did Recovery and Mobility from X2, good old foam rolling that i really needed! I feel so much more better today so im glad i did that. I weighed my self yesterday and checked Body Fat % (i do every sunday morning right when i wake up after going to the bathroom, and before drinking anything) Weight is exactly the same and body fat is exactly the same lol so you know what that means right? yep Upping the calories more this week :) My Calories were good yesterday too, i did not eat as much but i am following my own rule of eat when hungry, no need to force food down when your not as hungry. yesterdays Calories were;

Now for today, today was Day 8 of Body Beast, Build Chest and Tri's and i also thru in old fashion Ab Ripper X (before the weight workout), I Slept pretty good last night, got about 6.5 hours of sleep so that was a good night for me, usually i only get 6. woke up had my pre workout did some sun salutations and foam rolling for about 30 minutes then i jumped into the workout. This workout went so much smoother today because i had an idea of where i was weight wise, this also makes me glad that with my schedule i am doing 4 weeks in the build phase instead of the 3 weeks so i have more time to work on things. One thing i did notice in todays workout tho was i was really struggling and form was failing on some of my sets, so next week i might drop weights just a little to make sure i am going deep enough in range of motion and proper form. Putting my ego in the closet. Proper form is key when building mass, if you are just going thru the motions and focusing on pushing the weight your gains will suffer and you likely could get injured. another thing is i am pushing these heavy weights at 5am in the morning, i likey could push a lot more if i just worked out later in the day but my schedule does not allow it. Even tho i can't push as much in the morning i will try and get the most out of each workout even if it means dropping weights a little to focus more on form. with all that said here are my numbers for today, remember each set starts with 15 reps then 12 reps then 8 reps, and sometimes a drop-set.

Single Set Dumbbell press: 30/40/45/30

Super Set

Incline Flys: 25/25/30

Incline Press: 30/35/40/30

Giant Set

Close Grip Press: 25/25/30

Partial Flys: 25/25/30

Decline Push Ups: 12/10/10 (reps)

Single Set Tricep Extensions: 17/20/25/17

Super Set

Tricep Kickbacks: 15/17/20/15

Close Grip Push Ups: 12/10/9 (went to my knees a couple time)

Final Set

Max Dips: lasted for 50 seconds then could not push back up lol

In and Outs: 1 Minute

That was a super intense workout. I might have not gone up very much in weight but oh well i don't care, the point is to just push the hardest you can and do the best you can, forget the rest, after all don't feel disappointed if you couldn't lift as much or only lifted the same weight- your muscle's don't know what weights you use, weight is just a number, what counts is that the last reps were difficult, if you can do that you are all set :)

It took me a long time yesterday to plan out this weeks meals to hit my ratios and caloric level of 2500 and 35/45/20 (p/c/f) but after a lot of working on it i figured out a plan that should work. Carbs are now at 280 grams a day! for me that is a ton! i have always in the past kept carbs to 200-220, so this is very different and my body still has not adjusted but i figure it will start adjusting after this week. that will be 2 weeks on high carbs and my body should balance out, still some bloating but defiantly getting better. the main thing i am concerned with is feeling tired. a lot of people have more energy on high carbs well not me lol they make me feel lethargic and lazy, thats probably due to the fact tho my body was used to low carbs. we will see after this week of eating 280 grams a day tho how i feel, if by the end of the week my energy (outside of working out) sucks then i will have to re-adjust some things. Im going to play it out tho and see what happens for a while tho.

Pre-workout meal was

2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 1 banana sprinkled with salt and cinnamon. workout was 35 min after this.

Post-workout was

.25 serving of results and recovery formula, 1/2 scoop whey.

Post workout meal 30 min later

75 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 10 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

for the rest of my meals just go to my food diary. and follow me on twitter too for pictures of my meals and i also tweet lots of tips and tricks too for you guys.

Calories are set today at:

Also i wanted to mention if anyone is interested in starting this program shoot me a message and i will get you hooked up! this is literally the best program i have ever done.

July 7th, 2012 - Misc day of Pull Ups and Push Ups

Hey Guys sorry about a late update for today, I finally had some down time so i will do a quick update of today. today was day 6 of Body Beast and my lean mass gain plan. I decided today would be a good day to do 30-15 from the one on one series. It's push ups and pull ups and it's one of my favorite routines. Usually when i do that one i go for reps but since i am in a gaining stage, I decided to focus on tempo and isolation so instead of doing 30 push ups per set i did 12-15 reps but each rep was slow and controlled. same went with pull ups instead of focusing on getting to 15 reps i only did 8-10 per set, but every single rep was held with a contraction and isolation at the top of the movement. When you do it this way you seriously get pumped up. You also burn out of energy a lot faster. Some quick notes about todays routine tho. for one i was just not feeling it today, it was one of those days where at least i did it, but it was not a good workout, i just was worn out with each set really fast and it just wasn't good lol the point is tho i tried my best and finished it. We all have off days, theres no getting around them, we just accept them and move forward. quote from tony that i love is "The past is history the future is a mystery" Also i just don't feel that my body has adapted to a high carbohydrate diet yet. I am feeling tired and sluggish from eating a bunch of carbs. Hopefully my body adjusts, i will give it 3-4 weeks, by then if im still feeling this tired i will lower my carb intake back down to 35% of my total calories, that is where i usually keep my carbs at and i feel a lot better with a lower amount. But im giving this a chance, it is just taking a little longer than i thought for my body to adjust. I hate feeling tired after eating a lot of carbs when i actually should have lots of energy lol. oh well everything should balance back eventually. I have also decided to bump my calories up to 2500 now too, ratios are staying 35/45/20 (p/c/f) we will see how i feel at that level and adjust from there. I really feel my metabolism kicking in lately which feels awesome! Tomorrow is my rest day thank goodness i need it badly! I will defiantly be foam rolling and throw some yoga in too to stretch out. I feel tight all over after this week of lifting heavy. You will notice tomorrows calories will be lower but that is because on rest days i am not as hungry as days when i train, if i get more hungry tho i will just eat more food. The point is to give the body enough to build but not to much where it will store for future energy use. thats pretty much all i have to say about today.

Todays calories were:

July 6th, 2012 - Day 5, Cardio Day! INTENSITY Is The Name
Today was day 5 of Body BEAST and today was Beast: Cardio and Beast: Abs. If you think this routine is easy think again. This was hard! this in my opinion is as hard as one of the first month Insanity workouts and if you don't think it is tough look at your form and your intensity and then ask yourself if your pushing hard enough. some moves i simply could not last the whole minute. like the press squats with a hold every 20 seconds. my legs were sore going into this and that move just torched my legs even more. and plyo pushups with a hold at the bottom every 20 seconds that one just took everything i had to make it thru and i didn't make it thru lol i had to take a mid set break on that move but oh well, this program continues to bring out weaknesses that i can now focus on more. this routine does not disappoint. It is Short and only 30 Minutes, but INTENSE. I did Beast Abs first then jumped right into cardio and in total it is about a 45 minute workout, perfect! I also really enjoy all the moves in this workout, theres a lot of old fashion moves and even some core moves i recognized from P90X2 combined with a little plyo even. after this workout i really felt it in my core. and some of the moves my heart rate was ridiculously high, i don't wear a hear rate monitor but i know my body and it was super high almost the whole time thru. The breaks come too just at the times when you need them which is perfect because you allow your heart rate to drop and then you rocket it right back up, this was a true interval HIIT cardio workout which is super beneficial for burning fat. Especially when trying to gain muscle. This was the last beast routine till monday then week 2 starts.

I was going to do yoga tomorrow but i have been thinking how i don't want to loose any of my pull up or pushup strength during this program so i have decided saturday (tomorrow i will be doing 30-15 from the one on one series, but it wont be 30-15 i am going to focus on tempo and not reps. tempo and isolation is what build hypertrophy (size) and that is what i want, i will focus on 4 count pull ups, and 4 count pushups instead of reps. I know some people are going to question why i am adding this routine in and my response to you is that while this program is Awesome! There are certain things i can do because of some of Tony's routines and i love being able to do those things, like; lever pull ups, plyo pull ups, switch grip, ect. i am moving yoga to sunday and then monday starts week 2 of the Beast.

Nutrition for today is Set around 2300-2400 calories with 40/40/20 (p/c/f) ratios this being a cardio day i like to drop my carbs a bit just to mix my ratios ups and keep my body guessing. If i get hungry today i will eat more. I have been getting questions on why my calories are only in the 2000 range for building mass, the simple answer is even tho i am going for mass gain i want to minimize fat gain so the only way to do that is eat enough of a surplus to build but not so much you body has left over to store. the way i eat is simple, I have a set calorie limit for each day that i go off of, if i get more hungry i eat more and if i don't there is no reason to eat more. i see so many people just eating a ridiculous amount of calories trying to put on mass and thats fine if you don't mind the fat gain to come with muscle. My way is a slower way of building mass but that is what it takes if you want to keep fat gain low. that is also why i am on this mass gain plan for the rest of 2012, Body Beast is only a 90 day program and yes you can build a lot of muscle in 90 days but to do that calories have to be ridiculous and that approach will gain muscle but fat with it. Since i am doing this lean mass gain for the rest of 2012 im only shooting for 10 pounds of muscle but it will be lean muscle added with minimal fat, some fat will be gained but i don't mind because i know i should have a little hight body fat % anyway. plus if you put my height and weight and Body Fat % in the Equation for figuring out calories for Body Beast i am right where i should be actually.

Pre Workout today was 1.5 scoops Energy and Endurance, and 2 glasses of water. Workout was 20 min later.

Post Workout was .25 serving Results and Recovery Formula, and 1/2 scoop whey.

Calories are set at:

Someone decided to buy us pizza for lunch so ratios have changed some but still pretty good.

This was good!

July 5th, 2012 - Day 4, Say HELLO to Shoulders!
Today was day 4 of Body BEAST and today was Build: Shoulders, Shoulders have always been a weak link for me so i am really hoping i can build them up with this program, and from what i witnessed today, this program is going to do just that! After a late night of partying and lighting off fireworks i got home at 1130 and was in bed by 12am, i set my alarm to give me at least an hour more sleep since i knew todays workout was only going to be 30 min, and i try and get at least 6 hours of sleep a night. but for some reason i woke up a half hour before my alarm was set to go off so apparently my body is used to running on low sleep lol. anyway got up and had my normal pre workout did some sun salutations, foam rolling and stretching for 15 minutes and i got on with the workout. This workout may be short but it is intense! there is very little rest in this workout so i was forced to drop weights a little more than if i would have more rest in between sets. 30 seconds in-between moves is the killer. you have no time to actually rest because as soon as the set ends you have to set up the weights for the next one and that in it's self is a workout ha ha. but anyway i had a monster pump after this routine and it was a nice way to finish out the heavy lifting for the week till ext monday. tomorrow is cardio and abs, saturday is yoga, and sunday is rest/ stretch and then it starts all over again lol. let me also tell you i am so sore and drained, these workouts are taking everything out of me and i am loving that! this challenge is exactly what i have been looking for. My metabolism is also really speeding up again. i am becoming hungry every 2 hours so next week i will be upping calories again, and that is a good thing! Here are my stats for the routine today. remember each set starts with 15 reps then 12 reps then 8 reps, and sometimes a drop-set.

Single Set Shoulder Press: 25/30/35/30
*note- I usually can press 40-45 for 8 reps but there is such little rest between sets that i had a hard time with 35s, but hey it's a work in progress.
Super Set
Lateral Raise: 10/12/20 *note- arms were straight out for the first 2 sets then with the 20s i had a 90 degree angle and did a fly so i could lift heavier (a couple people in the video did that too)
Upright Row: 20/30/40/30 *note- i have to get faster at changing the weights on the EZ bar i am rushing and still falling behind. stupid clip collars lol.
Giant Set
EZ bar Underhand Press: 20/30/40
1,1,2 Front Raises aka freaking ridiculously hard!: 5/8/10
Rear Delt Raise: 5/8/10
Super Set
Standing Dumbbell Shrug: 30/40/45/30
Dumbbell Scap Trap: 25/25/25
Super Set
Sagi Six-Way: 8/10
Tuck & Roll: 15 reps/15 reps (on a decline bench)

Yep it was short but awesome! i have lots of work to do but it at least is a great start. I can't say how happy i am back to be doing old fashion lifting again!

Pre-workout meal was

2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 1 banana sprinkled with salt and cinnamon. workout was 35 min after this.

Post-workout was

.25 serving of results and recovery formula, 1/2 scoop whey.

Post workout meal 30 min later

75 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 10 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

for the rest of my meals just go to my food diary. and follow me on twitter too for pictures of my meals and i also tweet lots of tips and tricks too for you guys.

Calories are set today at:

also to note body is finally adjusting to a high carbohydrate diet, still bloating a little bit but feeling less lethargic and having more energy. My muscles are seriously appearing bigger tho because of the increase in glycogen and i love that! today was the last super high carb day for the week because it is also the last heavy lifting day of the week. friday, saturday, and sunday ratios are dropping to 40/40/20 with 2300-2400 cals (i will add more if i feel hungry tho) then next monday i will be going right back to high carbs and calories at ratios 35/50/15 or 30/50/20 (p/c/f) with 2500 cals (possibly more if i feel i need them). this process is called cycling it's where i train heavy and eat big for all my heavy days then reduce back to a balance of Macros for the weekend, this process is a slower process of putting on mass but it reduces fat gain greatly so for anybody not wanting to put on a bunch of fat with muscle i suggest trying this approach, it has worked wonders for me in the past. (also i will allow myself 1 or 2 cheat meals during the weekends.) well thats all i got for todays blog but hit me up if you have any questions.

July 4th, 2012 - Day 3, Happy 4th and Good Gracious Im SORE!
Today was day 3 of Body BEAST and today was Build: Back and Biceps and BEAST Abs! I absolutely love training back and biceps so i was excited to have this one for today. slept in today till 730 because i don't have to work today so i could take my time :) had my pre workout, and did some foam rolling and sun salutations for 30 mins to warm up and stretch out because i am SORE today. my legs are absolutely torched, and my traps kill! now for my review of this workout: this workout will bring back memories of lifting in the gym old school when you were back in high school and the pump you get from this routine is crazy awesome. the hardest part for me in this workout was going from a giant set right into a set of chin ups for a straight 30 seconds, can you say WOW! that was crazy when i looked at the time and it said there was only 30 seconds of rest in-between sets! i was totally out of energy by then but i still had biceps to train! the move that destroyed my biceps was 1,1,2 hammer curls. THAT SERIES IS INSANE! 15 reps made me want to punch a hole in my wall because it burnt so bad lol then EZ bar curls with a drop set. yah i was totally toast after that. here are m numbers for today. remember each set starts with 15 reps then 12 reps then 8 reps, and sometimes a drop-set.

Single Set Dead Lifts: 25/30/40/30 (drop-set)
Super Set
Dumbbell Pull Over: 40/45/50/35 (drop-set)
Pull Ups: 10/10/10
Giant Set
EZ Bar Row: 50/60/70/60
One Arm Rows: 40/45/50
Reverse Fly: 8/10/12
*note- this set killed me, form was dropping on one arm rows, will decrease a bit next time and focus more on contraction rather than reps.
Single Set Close Grip Chin Up 30 seconds each: 10/8/8
*note- i was toast by the time i got to these so i decided to do each rep slow and controlled rather than going for high reps.
Single Set Seated Bicep Curls: 15/20/25/20
Single Set 1,1,2 Hammer Curls: 15/17/20
*note- biceps were huge after that set! and that was crazy hard!
Single Set Neutral EZ Bar Curls: 20/30/40/30
*note- i had pretty much nothing left for this move but i still tried my best and got the set reps, the drop set on that took everything i had to get the final reps.
Final Move 2 rounds Airplane Cobra: 30 seconds each time) and to wrap it up: 10 final pull ups (what in the world was i thinking lol)
Cool Down
Wow that was defiantly my most favorite and challenging back and bicep routine i have ever done. if you are on the edge about getting this program don't be! this is probably the most fun i have ever had with a program next to P90X2 even! I am really finding my love for good old fashion lifting again! I LOVE THAT! it has kinda got lost in all the P90X and insanity i have done leading up to this, but now coming back to my roots of just heavy lifting is just fantastic!

Pre-workout meal was

2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, 1 banana sprinkled with salt and cinnamon. workout was 35 min after this.

Post-workout was

.25 serving of results and recovery formula, 1/2 scoop whey.

Post workout meal 30 min later

75 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 10 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

i have planned a giant steak dinner tonight to celebrate the 4th so i can't wait to eat tonight! might have some alcohol tonight too. not sure yet :) so ratios might change a little but no big deal.

Calories for today are set at:

July 3rd, 2012 - Day 2 LEGS = OMG!
Today was day 2 of the BEAST and today was Build: Legs, alright anyone that knows me knows that i dread training legs lol i am an upper body type of guy but let me tell you this routine ROCKS! It is a 38 min workout and when you watch it it looks like there is a lot of rest, today doing the workout tho that is not the case ha ha you go from one set to another set to another set and you move FAST! my heart rate was sky high and i was covered in sweat within the first 15 minutes of the routine. when i was done with the routine which let me just say again only 38 min! i looked like i had jumped in a pool lol. i sweat as much in that routine as i do when doing an Asylum workout! Before todays workout i was really worried this program wouldn't get my heart rate up that much and i would loose endurance and possibly gain a bit to much body fat. now after todays workout i realize that is NOT THE CASE! this routine was cardio and endurance mixed with heavy weights! can you say HELLO!!!! whenever you mix lifting heavy weights and fast paced exercises your calorie burn will be huge!!! let me restate this IF YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT GAINING BODYFAT DURING THIS PROGRAM AND LOOSING CARDIO ENDURANCE- DON'T BE! Also remember this is coming from a guy that is in good cardio shape with insanity and Asylum. so with all that being said lets get to the workout. remember each set starts with 15 reps then 12 reps then 8 reps, and sometimes a drop-set.

Single Set Sumo Squats: 30/40/45/40 (drop-set)
Super Set
Alternating Lunge: 20/25/30
Step Ups with Back Lunge: 20/25/30
*note- this was extremely hard! heart rate was sky high! very little rest.
Giant Set
Parallel Squat: 30/35/45
Bulgarian Squat: 15/17/20 *note this move is hard on my knees so i modify and don't go as low.
Straight Leg Deadlift: 20/30/30 (could have added more weight on last one ut didn't have enough time to put more plates on)
Giant Set
Single Leg Calf Raise: 30/30 for 30 seconds each leg
seated calf raise: 30/30 for 30 Seconds
In and Outs (Abs): 30 Seconds both rounds
Cool Down

This is a great leg routine, probably one of the hardest workouts i have ever done.

Pre-workout meal was
2 glasses of water, 1 scoop Energy and Endurance Formula. 1/2 scoop whey, 1 banana sprinkled with salt and cinnamon. workout was 35 min after this.

Post-workout was
.25 serving of results and recovery formula, 1/2 scoop whey.

Post workout meal 30 min later
75 grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 10 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

Calories for today are set at:

*note- Started feeling more hungry today, metabolism is starting to fire rapidly again, probably due to working legs today but i also sense there is a metabolic increase too from these workouts since they use such heavy weights and since they move in such a fast pace. i will let my body adjust to caloric amount and ratios for rest of week before adding in more tho, just so my body does not go into shock with too many calories. Carbs are super high today and i am feeling good, a little bloated but that is to be expected with the change of ratios.

for the rest of my meals just go to my food diary. and follow me on twitter too for pictures of my meals and i also tweet lots of tips and tricks too for you guys.

July 2nd, 2012 - THE BEAST STARTS!
Today was the start of Body Beast and todays workout was Chest/Tris and Beast Abs. The workout was excellent! this brings me back to my old fashion lifting days in high school. Its all about doing "Whatever It Takes" to get the job done. Chest/ Tris is a great workout. You start with training chest for the first 30 min with heavy presses, flys, and pushups. You incorporate Progressive sets, Giant set, and super sets and this one PUMPS YOU UP! these are the weights i used today. the reps go for 15/12/8 and sometimes theres an added drop-set of 8.
Single Set Dumbbell Press: 30/35/40/30 (drop-set)
Super Set
Incline Fly: 20/25/25
Incline Press: 30/35/40/30
Giant Set
Close Grip Presses: 25/25/35
Partial Flys: 15/20/25
Decline Push Ups:12/12/10
Progressive Set Tricep Extensions: 17/20/25/17 (drop-set)
Super Set
Single Arm Kickbacks: 15/17/20/15
Close Grip Push Ups: 12/12/10
2 Final Moves
Dips: for 1 minute, lasted for 45 secs, mid set break and finished up the minute
In and Out Abs on bench: 1 Min (No Breaks)
Cool down.

I also through in Beast abs (before the chest workout) (i always work abs before actual workout, that way i don't slack and lay it off at the end :)
I made some modifications with Beast abs tho, the first move (crunches) i changed that to hanging leg lifts, and the last move (beast abs, you spell beast) i did Double crunches in place of that move. (a double crunch is where knees are up and feet on bench 90 degree angle and when you crunch up you also hip thrust at the same time, it works wonders for the abs, its way better than just a regular crunch because it hits the lower abs too. the rest of the routine i did the way was laid out. its a nice little 10 min ab routine.

Nutrition is going great today. since just coming off a lean plan i didn't want to up my calories to fast and put my body into shock lol so im gradually upping them. for today i have set 2350 with macros 40/40/20 (236g pro/ 238g car/ 50g fat)
eventually i am working up to a ratio of either 30/50/20 or 35/50/15 (p/c/f) im not sure yet which one i will go with. still working out the numbers. It's just an experiment for now. i will continue to gain more knowledge as the journey goes on.

Calories for today are:

pre workout was 2 glasses of water, 1/2 scoop whey, and 1 banana (126g) sprinkled with salt and cinnamon for theromogenic and potassium to sodium balance benefits. workout was 45 min after consuming this.

post workout was 1/4 serving results and recovery formula, and 1/2 scoop whey.

30 min later post workout meal was 70grams of gluten free rolled oats, 1 scoop whey, 1 cup berries, 1 cup sliced peaches, and 10 raw almonds, and Black Coffee.

remember if your goal is mass you have to have a lot of carbs in your post workout meal to refill glycogen to repair the muscles for growth taking them from a catabolic state (cutting) to an anabolic state (growing). for the rest of my meals just go to my food diary. and follow me on twitter too for pictures of my meals and i also tweet lots of tips and tricks too for you guys. I hope you guys enjoy following my journey. It's going to be a great year to build MUSCLE!

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2012 Journey to Lean Mass Gain!

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