Chennai Strength Kings
Sunday, January 22, 2012
4 Keys to Unleashing the Beast Within
Before we get to the actual post... We'll learn and reinforce some basics, shall we?
Gaining muscle is called hypertrophy. How do we make that happen? We must cause concentric muscle failiure.Only proper form, range of motion when practiced during a work out session will ensure concentric muscular failiure, thereby leading to maximum hypertrophy.
In other words, form / technique and adequate range of motion - positive & eccentric is a prerequisite to get your dream physique. That's how I would advice any body to train. Get a basic 3 or 4 day split and start training slowly. Another point that is not emphasized enough is you must stick to a routine and be consistent.
Now on to the post, with so much information and so many options / opinions, people tend to forget the basics. The aim here is to stick to the basics, while still getting results, with a simple but steady plan.
What are the 4 common keys that differentiate a normal guy (like you) and an actor, (like Surya) or an athlete who has a Great physique and consistently maintains it?
1) Goal(s) - You need to have a goal, training with weights is only a means to an end. So dig in deep and define your goal before you start working out.
2) Personal Trainer - You can see the best results only with personal attention and motivation, and the technical know-how from a person, who has done it, sweated, toiled and bled in the gym. Alternately, if you're the self-made type, then get yourself motivated consistently.
3) Proper Nutrition / Recovery - Get your facts on nutrition right... Learn about how to eat, what to eat, what proportions to use. You can not discount the time needed to rest and recover from your workouts.
4) Synergistic Workout Plan - Last but not least, you must get a customized work out plan to fit your goal(s). If you choose a random workout or a split routine used by a body builder (who is advanced, then you are discounting a lot of factors here).
Bonus - Take action - Sitting on your butt won't help, hit the gym and work out hard... Work out with heart. Like I always tell people, fitness is not a 3 month / 6 month crash diet or workout stretch. It is a life style, if you want to be fit all through your life, eat healthy and work out consistently.
No Pain, No Gain... And without brawn, you can't hustle ! ;)
Gaining muscle is called hypertrophy. How do we make that happen? We must cause concentric muscle failiure.Only proper form, range of motion when practiced during a work out session will ensure concentric muscular failiure, thereby leading to maximum hypertrophy.
In other words, form / technique and adequate range of motion - positive & eccentric is a prerequisite to get your dream physique. That's how I would advice any body to train. Get a basic 3 or 4 day split and start training slowly. Another point that is not emphasized enough is you must stick to a routine and be consistent.
Now on to the post, with so much information and so many options / opinions, people tend to forget the basics. The aim here is to stick to the basics, while still getting results, with a simple but steady plan.
What are the 4 common keys that differentiate a normal guy (like you) and an actor, (like Surya) or an athlete who has a Great physique and consistently maintains it?
1) Goal(s) - You need to have a goal, training with weights is only a means to an end. So dig in deep and define your goal before you start working out.
2) Personal Trainer - You can see the best results only with personal attention and motivation, and the technical know-how from a person, who has done it, sweated, toiled and bled in the gym. Alternately, if you're the self-made type, then get yourself motivated consistently.
3) Proper Nutrition / Recovery - Get your facts on nutrition right... Learn about how to eat, what to eat, what proportions to use. You can not discount the time needed to rest and recover from your workouts.
4) Synergistic Workout Plan - Last but not least, you must get a customized work out plan to fit your goal(s). If you choose a random workout or a split routine used by a body builder (who is advanced, then you are discounting a lot of factors here).
Bonus - Take action - Sitting on your butt won't help, hit the gym and work out hard... Work out with heart. Like I always tell people, fitness is not a 3 month / 6 month crash diet or workout stretch. It is a life style, if you want to be fit all through your life, eat healthy and work out consistently.
No Pain, No Gain... And without brawn, you can't hustle ! ;)
Labels: 4 Keys, Adage, BB, Body Building, Chennai, Kings, Strength, the beast, Unleash
¶ 10:34 PM 0 Comments
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Celltech - Review
Initially I got rave reviews and more requests for reviews, for tearing apart, this supplement called Cell Tech (by Muscle Tech). The original review is posted below, again... for your reading pleasure,
The article tells you "what is REAL" and "what is marketing" effort and how you can substitute the entire celltech supplement with a simple whey + creatine combination.
The supplement is highly recommended by Jay Cutler, 4 time Mr.Olympia Contest Winner... :D
What follows is an unbiased review, the author neither stands to gain or lose from the negativity presented here about the supplement.
The supplement industry is a billion dollar industry, yes, a billion dollar industry and not a million dollar industry. The manufacturers will do anything and tell any amount of lies to make you buy their products. It is called marketing. The point to take away from this review will be, if you know what you are consuming from a scientific point of view... you will be able to judge the supplement better. Plus whenever you buy a supplement for the first time, ask around and always ensure the supplement provides result. This supplement has provided results for 1 out of 8 people I enquired with. All of them had used it and I decided NOT to buy it. So I became curious and interested in the ingredients.
After consuming their supplement you will not become like that, not any thing close to Jim Cordova. He has trained with a lot of heart and he didn't get "this" body sculpting entirely with a single supplement (i.e; Cell Tech). Osmodrol is just a healthy mix of Isoleucine, Glycine, Lysine, Valine, Arginine & other amino acids in negligible quantities. The Insulodrive is my favourite "word", hahaha ! How they came up with this word for a "glucose" thing is beyond me. Insulodrive will spike your insulin levels and help you "ingest" the creatine better. Lipoic tech is Alphalipoic Acid, which is not an essential nutrient and acts an antioxidant like Green tea extract.
The article tells you "what is REAL" and "what is marketing" effort and how you can substitute the entire celltech supplement with a simple whey + creatine combination.
The supplement is highly recommended by Jay Cutler, 4 time Mr.Olympia Contest Winner... :D
What follows is an unbiased review, the author neither stands to gain or lose from the negativity presented here about the supplement.
The supplement industry is a billion dollar industry, yes, a billion dollar industry and not a million dollar industry. The manufacturers will do anything and tell any amount of lies to make you buy their products. It is called marketing. The point to take away from this review will be, if you know what you are consuming from a scientific point of view... you will be able to judge the supplement better. Plus whenever you buy a supplement for the first time, ask around and always ensure the supplement provides result. This supplement has provided results for 1 out of 8 people I enquired with. All of them had used it and I decided NOT to buy it. So I became curious and interested in the ingredients.
Now, the supplement is a mix of Creatine, Amino Acids (BCAA) and Lipoic Acid. What the description says from the supplement labels... The supplement contains CreaPro3 (creatine mix), Osmodrol (ha!), Insulodrive (my favourite) and Lipoic Tech. When you consume the supplement it will provide 360 calories to you. We know for a fact that all standard creatine monohydrate manufactured with GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) will be under the famous Creapure™ brand. Prolabs, Dymatize, Optimum Nutrition, British Standard Nutrition et al use the Creapure™ (Creatine). The idea that Creatine always represents a steroid, often not true. This point alone will require a post of it's own. The modern supplements that have appeared after 2007/08 have used Ethyl Ester Malate (or Creatine EEM) since it has been proven from recent tests that it mixes much faster and effectively in to your blood stream over it's predecessor Monohydrate.
The supplement has some fancy and ridiculous terms which we are debunking, here and now, to make you understand that they are not selling you a magic pill / magic powder. Their creatine mix is okay, but it is not ground breaking or "scary" like anabolic steroids (marketing hype).
After consuming their supplement you will not become like that, not any thing close to Jim Cordova. He has trained with a lot of heart and he didn't get "this" body sculpting entirely with a single supplement (i.e; Cell Tech). Osmodrol is just a healthy mix of Isoleucine, Glycine, Lysine, Valine, Arginine & other amino acids in negligible quantities. The Insulodrive is my favourite "word", hahaha ! How they came up with this word for a "glucose" thing is beyond me. Insulodrive will spike your insulin levels and help you "ingest" the creatine better. Lipoic tech is Alphalipoic Acid, which is not an essential nutrient and acts an antioxidant like Green tea extract.
How Cell Tech Works: Creatine gets ingested faster with Aminoacids (with Insulodrive / LipoicTech)
Two questions at the juncture will be, how to substitute this less useful supplement with an effective supplement stack? and Is Creatine EEM the future?
Supplement stack recommendation: Creatine (Prolabs), Whey Protein (Precision Engineered) and a Glutamine / Carb / Egg combination with PRO3WEC (Millenium Neutraceuticals)
HINT: Using a multivitamin and calcium tablet daily helps too, as your normal diet can not provide the adequate amount of essential vitamins / calcium for day to day life.
HINT: Using a multivitamin and calcium tablet daily helps too, as your normal diet can not provide the adequate amount of essential vitamins / calcium for day to day life.
The cost of Cell Tech Hardcore is 40 USD which is equivalent of 2,000 INR. The above stack can be purchased for Rs.2,500 INR - you get more consistent and correct dosage of "pure creatine" and "whey protein with isolates" and Glutamine, to fight catabolism.
Creatine Question: Hmmm, this is like asking whether RX100 is bad because it is older than RX135?
I mean sure, the stickers and the added CC makes Yamaha's new bike sport more bling... but in a drag race, the RX100 can put down Pulsars at ease. Similarly, the monohydrate variant of creatine is certainly more researched, tested and proven to be effective until date. The newer variant has been around for only 2 years or so... The fact that Monohydrate can be faster soluble with sugar/glucose... than EEM begs the question... is EEM really revolutionary? or just another gimmick :-/
I mean sure, the stickers and the added CC makes Yamaha's new bike sport more bling... but in a drag race, the RX100 can put down Pulsars at ease. Similarly, the monohydrate variant of creatine is certainly more researched, tested and proven to be effective until date. The newer variant has been around for only 2 years or so... The fact that Monohydrate can be faster soluble with sugar/glucose... than EEM begs the question... is EEM really revolutionary? or just another gimmick :-/
You must understand that supplements are just that, a supplement. It can not replace your unhealthy eating pattern / habit and make you look like Arnold, Jay Cutler or Ronnie over night. Lot of body building supplement manufacturers promote their own supplements through allied magazines. There's a chock full of ads in magazines like Muscles & Fitness and Flex. What we fail to understand is that our bodies, our eating habits, our climate and a lot of factors are not stressed in those advertisements. The advertisement's sole aim to sell you their claims. Eat with some discipline and maintain a healthy diet. Work out with some heart because there is no shortcut to a fit body. As the old timers always put it right smack on your face... No Pain, No Gain !
P.S: There were a lot of hate mails and I heard that Muscle Tech took notice of my article once. It is good to be heard in a public forum like the Internet. If the big guns at Muscle Tech are reading it now, I request them to come up with a better stack or sell us a "loaded" cell tech instead of simply naming it hardcore ;)
Thank You!Labels: Adage, BB, Body Building, Cell Tech, Chennai, Creatine, Glutamine, Hardcore, Kings, Review, Strength, Supplement, Whey
¶ 9:46 AM 2 Comments
