If you have heard Dave and I ramble on Heavy Muscle Radio, you know I am a fan of the show, The Apprentice. As much as I may love the show, I have to admit that I thought the Trumpster was an idiot to have questioned Obama’s birth certificate. Ultimately, Obama produced it and Trump tried to save face by making outlandish claims. What he said was so dumb, I deleted it from my memory. Regardless, he looked like a goof. My favorite season of The Apprentice was the season that featured a team of “book smart” individuals against “street smart” people. It was a classic match-up, university education versus street education. The goal was to discover who was more business savvy, those who have learned about business or those who have lived business.
There are several alternative avenues of treatment that offer relief from many recurrent or lingering musculoskeletal issues other than mainstream medical treatments. The following is a list of alternative treatments that have specific benefits to individuals carrying above average amounts of muscle mass.
Extreme dieting is where a bodybuilder tries to get in shape as fast as possible, in the shortest time frame possible. There is no instance where I recommend extreme dieting. For maximum muscle retention, it's always best to take a patient and longer approach to dieting. It is for this reason that I advocate the 12-14 week contest prep. The longer you take to drop weight, the more body fat you will lose and the more muscle mass you will retain. However, for many reasons, bodybuilders occasionally have to get in shape in a very short period of time
Ripped to the bone, peeled, cut up and shredded. These are all different labels to describe the ultimate goal in bodybuilding; to discard unwanted body fat while maintaining the most muscle mass possible. The foundation upon which contests are won is the mantra of the caloric deficit. Of course, this deficit is caused by training, cardio and eating less calories. Every bodybuilder has figured that out. However, the caveat that most bodybuilders miss is that just watching calories or following the same diet all the time eventually fails. Plateaus are stubborn roadblocks where body fat seems to cling no matter how hard you train, diet or restrict calories/carbs. It is not if, but when a plateau will occur and this is undoubtedly one of the most frustrating parts of contest prep. Speaking from experience, when people hit a plateau, fat loss stalls and people usually freak out and abandon the plan
MUA is a safe, proven treatment that has worked for thousands of patients over the last 50 years. Many people are not familiar with MUA, including doctors. MUA is not new and it is non-surgical. I have been certified in MUA since 2006, and have been the Lead MUA Physician at our Georgia Center for 3 years. We have treated over 350 patients in that time period. Those patients include several bodybuilders, rugby players, professional MMA fighters, professional football players, and a professional boxer. High level athletes respond well because a lot of their chronic, recurrent problems are from trauma from their sport/activity that results in scar tissue/adhesion within tendons/ligaments/muscles thereby restricting movement and function.
“He looked incredible the week before the show, but awful on stage.” That’s what happens to a lot of bodybuilders who poorly time their peak, only to look better a week before competition or a week after competition! Getting ready for a show, primarily, requires one to systematically strip away as much body fat as possible without shedding valuable muscle mass. When you’re lean, extremely lean, you can do a lot of things that final week and actually see changes. That is, you can manipulate your water and carb intake to produce a fuller or harder look.
Q) In terms of getting lean, how important is counting calories?
A) I'll get right to the point. A lot of nutritionists still stick exclusively with calories as the one and only factor that determines a person's ability to gain fat or lose fat. They conceptualize or water-down the fat burning process to a simple math equation. I like to kid and say "That's why a lot of math teachers are fat." In other words, while mathematics are clean and concise measuring tools, when it comes to fat loss, they don't always work. Let me explain a bit more.
The 2011 competition season is fast approaching, with the kick-off of the LA Fit Expo, FLEX Pro, and the Arnold Classic. This year promises to be an exciting and unbelievable year filled with hot bodies, hard bodies and great performances! Are you going to be one of them?
Do you compete? Have you considered competing? Bodybuilding competition is at an all time high right now for men and women. It has never been more popular then at this time.In my last article, we touched upon the most common upper body injuries that I see in my practice. In this installment, we'll discuss the most common lower body injuries I see from lifting weights. For the sake of this article, we'll also include the lower back as part of the lower body.
First, let's cover some basic terms:
1-Sprain: Overstretching (partial or micro-tearing) of a ligament (connective tissue connecting bone to bone)
Late one night I was on the phone chatting with Dave Palumbo about everything from ketones to who's the biggest sham trainer in the sport. The conversation was about as fluid as the Mississippi . . . jumping from one topic to another at nearly the speed of light. It also doesn't help that I talk about multiple subjects at one time somehow believing they are all germane and interconnected to each another. Usually, after one of my all-over-the-place conversations, I realize that I'm not even making sense. This night, the back and forth banter turned to Paul DeMayo and I said, "Yea I worked with him too." Dave, and probably many of you out there, didn't even know that Paul was one of my clients. Well, I met Paul back in 1987; he came to visit me at Springfield College where I was studying the "guru" sciences.
On Heavy Muscle Radio last week - the World's Greatest Bodybuilding Radio Show- Dave and I bounced around training styles and what we feel was the ideal approach when prepping for a contest. Bodybuilders usually go a little crazy and alter their training so far away from their "off-season" training that it's sometimes unrecognizable. I think that's a huge mistake. I have always maintained that the training you did to build your body is the same training you need to do as you run up to a show. The hardcore and heavy training while dieting is, in fact, the main stimulus that allows the body to hold onto and keep that metabolic-boosting muscle while you drop calories to get ripped. If you make the mistake and "lighten up" on your workouts, and fall for the trap that more sets and reps will lean you down, often the muscle ends up looking lean, but lacks that crazy dense look.
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