|
Creating a
Diet That Works For You
by Paul DeSimone
|
Click image for a
larger view |
 |
 |
Diets can be boring and almost
impossible to follow when the holidays come around. Not to mention
some diets can destroy your lifestyle. In my own life I have found
that dieting can cause major problems with having a girlfriend.
Girls always want to eat out, and go to the movies. It’s tough to go
to the movies with a girl, and not buy her a large coke and popcorn
with extra butter. Most of us do not have girlfriends who work out,
and compete. So for us there are some major fights and major eating
choices. Some times dieting can not only be boring it can also be
dangerous. I recently met someone who destroyed there gastronomic
system by dieting there own way. I suggest no one follows and tries
a diet they just read in a magazine. Instead hire and pay someone
who knows what they are doing (me). Dieting the right way can not
only be rewarding, it can also be healthy and fun. Learning to cook
new things is always a great way to make a relationship grow closer.
Girlfriends always want to be
taken out to eat, and that is a fact. Weather your girl is 100 lbs
soaking wet or 1 biscuit shy of 250 they like going out. I think
they like spending your hard earned money. So one way to combat this
is, have a cheat meal one day out of the week. This way you can
fulfill your obligation and not feel guilty about it. It also shows
them that you do care about there needs. Another way to keep the
girlfriend at bay is to cook at home. Instead of going out to eat
tell her lets stay in and make a nice meal. This can work to your
favor after dinner. Cooking can be a fun time together and you can
control the ingredients in your food. Searching for foods at the
supermarket or ingredients to spice up your meal is also a fun time.
Remember you can also use this meal as a cheat meal. Whip cream on
isle 4 is always a nice desert idea. Girls always want to eat
something sweet. So buy it and make something that is low in sugar
but tastes sweet. My girlfriend rather eat a brownie then a real
meal. So make her some protein brownies, they are easy to make. Just
use brownie mix substitute the whole eggs for whites, instead of
sugar use applesauce, and use water instead of milk. Also add
optimum any whey protein, and splenda. They will taste just like
real brownies except they will have 1/3 the calories. Or if your
girl like ice cream you can always get low carb ice cream or low
sugar ice cream. Then there is Jell-O and sugar free cool whip.
These both can be combined to be almost a calorie free desert. Just
make sure you are not eating this stuff 8 weeks out from a contest.
When diets go bad it can be
really bad. Diets can be dangerous and in some cases deadly.
Following a diet too high in red meat can raise cholesterol levels
and when combined with anabolics it’s no wonder why so many athletes
are dying from heart attacks. In the past five years we have lost
some of the best power lifters, and bodybuilders from heart attacks.
Dieting for a contest should not be dangerous it should be healthy
and systematic. Foods should be in place to supply the body with the
nutrients it needs, and the work outs should supplement the diet. In
layman’s terms there needs to be synergistic coherency between your
diet and your training program. This is where most diets fail. Most
peoples training programs are not fit for there diet. They either
over train, or under train and there diet does not give them adamant
energy supply. Most people also don’t know how to supplement while
dieting. There are three different types of diets.
1. The short diet is used for a
contest or vacation. This diet is usually calorie constricted and
does not last longer than 12 weeks. This is also known as yo-yo
dieting. This type of diet can lead to diabetes, High cholesterol,
and asthma. Usually it will run in your family and this type of
dieting over time will bring out these illnesses. Most people think
you’re born with asthma but more people develop asthma from being
overweight.
2. The low carb diet is used
during contest, or to shed body fat quickly. This diet can also be
dangerous and can not be a long term diet. It usually falls into the
short diet but can also be considered its own entity with south
beach, Atkins, and other low carb diets. Low carb dieting depletes
the body of carbs or sugars and turns your body to burn fat as
energy. Your body will burn excess body fat and will also burn the
food coming in. But this diet can not be tolerated for a long period
of time. Brain function depends on sugar and insulin the most
powerful hormone in the body also needs sugar. These two important
factors make this diet a bad choice for any one who is not obese.
This type of dieting is also known to cause diabetes, high and low
cholesterol, asthma, sleep apnea, and sleep disorders. I have used
this diet several times and when I stopped I rebounded extremely
hard. Meaning I gained back more weight than I had lost. Most people
find this to be a very useful diet for very short term goals but the
rebound can be debilitating. Also consuming huge amounts of foods
high in cholesterol is not a good idea. Cholesterol is not burnt and
used for energy. It is stored in the organs as a hormone.
Cholesterol is a hormone similar to that of testosterone and
estrogen. It is the main reason why we have an epidemic of obesity
in America.
3. The high carb low fat diet is
totally opposite from the low carb diet obviously. It uses almost no
fat while all carbs come from different sources. This diet usually
renders an immediate loss in water weight but no significant fat
loss. Because your body wants to store some fat, the body will not
burn any of the stored body fat instead it will use the carbs as
energy. If there is not enough energy then it will burn some fat and
some protein. A loss in muscle mass and size is usually immediate
with this diet. This diet will also tend to make the body look
almost blown up. Even though your weight is going down, your skin
will look like it is flushed. This is do to the low levels of
lipids, and vitamin e. Which help the skin to keep its elasticity
and color. Fats also help to keep water away from the skin, so the
skin tends to look thicker. This diet usually causes people to loose
contests and come in looking flat, bloated, or just like they didn’t
diet. I used this diet several times over a 2 year basis and looked
completely horrible in those 2 years. Never use this diet ever it
just doesn’t work. It may cause diabetes and other sugar related
diseases.
So if all these diets fail what
should I do to diet. There is a simple answer to this all these
diets work in some way. The easiest answer is you need to have some
sort of balance between your fats and carbs. You need to constantly
change your fat and carb ratios. So that your body will continue to
burn body fat and not muscle. You need to keep your muscles worked
and rested. I know that sounds weird but its true, learn to train in
a manner where you can train hard but you can also recuperate. You
have to learn how to diet correctly or you will never get to where
you want to be. Most people think you can just diet and train and do
a bodybuilding contest. Try it; it’s much harder than that. You just
don’t diet and train, especially as you get older things don’t just
fix themselves. If you diet wrong as a teen it will catch up to you
as an adult. Choose to eat clean year round, make your bulking up
foods at home in the off season. Try not to go to Wendy’s or
McDonalds, or where ever you eat out. If you really want to look
good spend some money on a diet and work out from a trained
professional. Make sure they practice what they preach also. Always
consider the source when you are reading something. Just because
someone says something is true doesn’t make it the truth. I have
tried so many diets in my life and the answer was always right in
front of me. Eat the right foods, green vegetables, chicken, fish,
egg whites, eat low glycemic carbohydrates like yams, sweat
potatoes, red potatoes, and oatmeal, eat fats that are not from
animals like nuts and beans. Keep your sodium low and your water
intake high. Train with intensity not insanity, and always listen to
your body. If you’re dieting and you want to hire a professional
give me an email.
10 Easy
Techniques To Bigger Arms
by Paul DeSimone
Arms are the most noticeable
body part that any bodybuilder can have. They are probably the most
rewarding body part that you can build. But the arms are also the
most over trained. Using these 10 simple steps will make your arms
swell to new proportions. Follow the steps, train hard, and always
eat enough food.
Step 1. Always change your hand
position when doing biceps. The triceps pushes while the bicep
pulls. So changing the positioning will allow your biceps to be hit
from all different positions. With out interfering with your bodies
natural pulling system. For instance using an ez curl bar, put your
hands on the inside grips instead of using the normal mid grip. This
will allow you to hit the peaks of your bicep with much more weight
then concentration curls. Now looking at a regular straight bar,
using a super wide grip you can hit the outside heads of your bicep,
a place where most bodybuilders lag. This is a great way to change
up your routine with out really changing the exercise. It will also
allow a beginner to really focus on 1 particular part of the arm.
Experienced bodybuilder can perfect his arm by using this technique
by working on his or her weak points. This technique is really only
used for the biceps.
Step 2. The triceps is nearly
67% of your total arm. Working on this muscle will definitely
increase your arm size. I would suggest doing two major exercises,
heavy push downs with the triangle bar, and close grip bench. Both
of these exercises are much more effective then dips, and skull
crushers. I have never done a set of skull crushers in my life and I
have massive triceps. In fact I built huge triceps on push downs and
close grip bench mainly. Using these two exercises as the main
staple to your arm work out will not only make your arms grow, but
it will make your other lifts like flat bench, and shoulder presses
go up.
Step 3. Always flex your biceps
and triceps during a workout. This will not only push blood into the
muscle but it will also increase your awareness to your weak points.
Make sure that you don’t just pose your bicep, hit those side
triceps shots. You should also have someone watching your posing.
This will help you to get a second opinion.
Step 4. Work your biceps and
triceps on the same day. Though some people enjoy working there
biceps with back or chest, it’s actually better to train them with
triceps. You can really work on the muscle this way. I never liked
working triceps with another body part. I always noticed a better
pump when I worked biceps and triceps on the same day. Train your
biceps and triceps together and use the same amount of sets for
both. Doing monster sets with biceps and triceps also works great
try it.
Set 1 bicep ez curl bar med grip 100 lbs 16 reps
Set 1 tricep push down triangle 120 lbs 20 reps
Set 2 bicep ez curl bar med grip 120 lbs 14 reps
Set 2 tricep push down triangle 140 lbs 16 reps
This type of work out will give
you the arms you want.
Step 5. When you work out either
biceps or triceps do negatives. The negative is the most overlooked
training principle. You need to focus on the negative of each rep
for a least one exercise during your bicep and tricep workout.
Especially if your weak point is your arms, use negatives to get
over the hump. Try it, and watch your arms grow.
Step 6. Heavy ass weight will
improve the size of the bicep and tricep. But you also can not
overlook getting extremely strict reps. I have always used heavy
weights in my ez curl bar, and tricep push down. Some times cheating
to extremes on these exercises. But I always follow it up with a
strict shaping exercise like concentration curls on a preacher
bench. I also would do single arm reverse pull down for the triceps.
As Strict as possible on the shaping exercises. Make sure you train
the big exercises like the curls, and pushdowns with as heavy as
possible. Never ever do more weight than you can handle though.
There are limits too training heavy and cheating to just plain old
looking stupid and cheating. I once did a 365 ez curl for 6 reps at
extreme gym in Tampa Florida at 6:00 pm year 2000. The whole gym
stopped and watched me do it. It was pretty intense, by no means
were those curls strict, but they were effective.
Step 7. Look at what you’re
doing. I can not stress this point enough most people work out in a
t-shirt and sweatpants. You should wear a tank top or sleeveless
shirt. Watch your arms contract; look at the way your bicep head
expands when you lift the weight up, watch as it stretches as you
bring the weight down. You need to look at these things so you can
fix problems that may occur. Some people have a short tricep on the
inner head. How would you know how to fix this problem if you can’t
see your self training your triceps. Are you going to wait till your
10 weeks out from a show to fix it. I hope not, you need to fix
these problems in the off-season so that when contest comes and
you’re dieting down you don’t have a set back. Wear a tank top
please!
Step 8. Visualization is another
important key that people do not think about. There are two
important factors in creating great arms. 1 is genetics you can not
control that one, the second is visualization. Visualize how you
want your arms too look, and then figure out your genetic look. Work
with both; so that you can achieve the best looking arm that you
possibly can create. If you are genetically lagging in your arms it
does not mean you can not have great arms. It just means you need to
find out different ways to sculpt your arms. Using all the info
above will help. Visualize how you want your arms to look, then find
a bodybuilder with similar arms. Cut out his picture and put it up
in your room, every day you pass that picture you will be reminded.
When I was in high school I had a picture of Aaron baker in my
locking hitting a double bicep shot. That guy was my inspiration for
a long period of time.
Step 9. This is by far the most
overlooked aspect of training and probably one of the most abused.
Always and I mean always do some type of short walk, or jog 5-10 min
long before working out. This will increase oxygenated blood and
will make your pump last
longer. Trust me on this one
don’t ever stretch your biceps, “ohh my gosh” I get queasy when I
think about doing it. Never ever stretch your biceps, it does more
harm then good. You can make a bicep vulnerable to damage. The
tricep can be stretched but it should not be stretched for a long
period of time. Always warm up with 5-10 min of cardio to ensure
that the body will be ready and warm. Instead of stretching do some
light sets to work up a pump, and to warm up your muscles. Never
ever start with your max or a heavy weight.
Step 10. This is one that most
bodybuilders will laugh at. Make sure you do bench press, squats,
dead lifts and cleans in your every day workouts. Why the hell did I
include these exercises on 10 simple tips to increasing arm size.
For one did you ever see a power-lifter with absolutely horrible
arms. I have only seen them with either week bicep or week triceps.
Why well look at it this way when you do bench you also do triceps.
When you do squats you’re doing your biceps and triceps while your
hold the bar. When you do dead lifts you’re using both biceps and
triceps. When you clean and press you’re also doing biceps and
triceps. These exercises will also make your stabilizer muscles
stronger which will increase your power on curls, and push downs.
Believe me your arms will grow if you include these lifts in your
training. You are not a power-lifter so you don’t need to do tons of
weight. Just do what you can handle but get something out of it.
While you’re at it you will be helping your bicep and tricep to
grow.
If you follow all ten of these
simple techniques you will not only have great arms, you will also
have fun working out. Try these and let me know what you think of
this article I would like to see some before and after pics. Here is
my basic arm workout.
Ez curl bar med grip 6 sets 2 warm up 20 reps, x2 . 16reps, 14,reps,
12 reps, 8 reps
Atlantis preacher curl machine 3 sets 20 reps , 12 reps 10 reps all
negatives
Tricep push down triangle 7 sets 3 warm up sets 20x3 16 reps 12 reps
10 reps 8 reps 6 reps
Tricep close grip bench 3 sets 12 reps , 8 reps , 4 reps
Bicep curls cable 3 sets 16 reps, 12 reps , 10 reps
Tricep over head pulls 3 sets 16 reps , 12 reps, 8 reps
That’s the way I work out my
biceps most of the time, I also have a couple video workouts that
show these techniques. Drop me an email and let me know what you
think! |
