Great Bodies 2012

So ok. This year, the theme of the body building competition is about the movie 300.. (It obvious with the helmet motif)

This will be held in Dusit Hotel (Thani) in Pasay Road on Wednesday (August 8, 2012). Ok, so how do I feel? Hmm.. Well, my hopes are not sky-rocketing unlike last year. It's because I wasn't been able to present  on last year's November (I lose.. x_x). But still, I am giving my best to get my best appearance this coming Wednesday because the judges are giving their decisions based on what they have seen. And since the actual presentation will be held on November, its obvious that most of the participants will still have some fats else they will lose muscle on the long run.

I got my application today in Megamall because I'll be representing that branch. I was given a miss-aligned photo-copy of the application form because they don't want to give me the real printed application form. Maybe they are looking forward to other people but who cares. 

This is my fight and I will come to participate every year. I also got Wee Kiat to give me advice on how will I  be the best while staying natural.

A friend of mine told me that most of the competitors are using anabolic steroids. So goodluck with me being  natural.. Kung baga sa gulay I'm the Organic. Haha!

Anyway, I'll still remain natural. Maybe, I can improve my posing.

Diet for the Summer 2012

Ok, so I've been sick last week (got a bronchitis) and didn't have to workout because of the problem. Well, after a week of sick leaves, I have decided to start my diet again.

So here's what I have in mind.

Early morning before going to work. I take my Oxylite capsule and take a walk outside for 30-45 minutes. Sometimes I run. I do this on an empty stomach.

After that, I return home and eat my breakfast. This meal has the most carbohydrate of the day.

Then I ride the FX or my motorcycle to go  to work. Once arrived, I eat again but mostly meat and eggs. No rice.

At lunch, I eat again and still no rice..

After lunch, I drink my whey protein shake for 1 scoop.

Then I drink my vitamin C.

I eat again before going out of the office to go to the gym.

I have my shake while working out.

After working out, I also do another set of cardio for 30 minutes. either thru bike or threadmill. Which one is available.

Then I take 2 BCAA tablets, 1 protein shake, and 1 tbps of creatine.

I will go home after and eat meat again with no rice.

Then I go to sleep.

Creatine and its benefits

Hayyz, para san ba't merong Creatine? Lagi ko itong nadidinig sa mga newbies na nag-ggym or kahit na sa mga medyo familiar ng mukha sa gym.

Benefits of Creatine

Unang-una, mabuti ang Creatine sa ating katawan! Sino ba naman ang ayaw madagdagan ang kanilang lakas sa pagbubuhat ng weight gym at makarecover kagad ng muscle nang masmabilis kesa sa usual while staying natural (no steroids)?

Ang Creatine is eh isang amino acid na ginagawa ng ating katawan. Sa pagkaka-alam ko eh ang Creatine eh merong mabigat na ginagampanan sa paglalabas ng ating cellular energy sa pag-gagawa ng adenosine triphosphate (ATP) sa ating muscle. Kapag walang ATP, muscle contraction is not possible. Ang pag-inom ng Creatine eh nakaka-increases ng muscle stores and may increase muscle strength and improve exercise performance.

Sa ating pagkain, ang Creatine eh makikita sa karne at sa isda na ating kinakain (although cooking destroys most of it). Creatine claims to increase energy, power output, and enchances muscle size and strenght. I myself experienced this. My bench press increased from 120 lbs to 200 lbs! Medyo nga nakakatawa minsan kase nagkakaron pa ng mga bulto ng tao sa paligid para lang panoorin akong magbuhat ng weights. (Well, xempre sa side ko eh ginagalingan ko talaga para mai-demonstrate ang proper form despite the heavy weight.)

Meron din akong mga nabasang articles about Creatine at meron ngang significant gain in physical performance in high-intensity exercise ang na-obserbahan with creatine doses of 20 to 30 g/day, but more recent research is indicating that similar performance benefits are possible with much lower doses in the range of 2 - 5 grams/day (though benefits may take longer to be noticed).

Dosage of Creatine

Ang usual na paraan sa pagtake ng Creatine eh ang 2-phase cycle.

1. first 5 - 10 days eat Creatine 20 - 25g/day (Loading Phase)

2. incoming days is eat Creatine 2 - 5g/day (Maintenanace Phase)

Ang pag-absorb ng Creatine sa ating katawan eh masmapapaganda kung sasamahan natin ng high-carbohydrate drink such as fruit juice. The best time I take this is after work-out kasama ng whey protein. Yung fruit juice eh para tumaas ang insulin natin at masmapabilis ang pagttransport ng Creatine sa ating mga muscles.

Cycle

Me mga ibang tao na nag-cycycle ng Creatine at isa ako sa mga iyon. Ang ginagawa ko ay.

1. 1 month akong iinom ng Creatine.

2. 1 month na hinde ako iinom ng Creatine. Tapos take ulet ako for 1 month and so on and so forth.

^ I do this to prevent my body from adopting to creatine supplementation and I will still have the potency of its effect. Naniniwala kase ako ng pag nag-adopt na dun ang katawan ko eh hinde na magiging ganun ka-epektib ang Creatine.

What type of Creatine to take?

Maraming mga type ng creatine pero I would suggest that you get a Creatine Monohydrate. Choose yung powdered form. Yung kulay puti na walang amoy o lasa. Para itong sugar pero hinde. On my experience eh I took Dymatize Creatine.

Sa pagtatake ng Creatine, I would suggest as well that you should drink lots of water. Drink every now and then. If you can drink a gallon of water a day then its good! Kailangan mo itong gawin kase humahatak ng tubig ang Creatine papunta sa ating mga muscles kaya dapat nating panatilihing hydrated tayo.

Cheat to have a better body..

Sometimes, it's good to have a cheat meal. Like eat your favorite hamburger or pizza. Anything! You basically cheat for your sanity specially when you've been dieting for quite awhile and you need to have some mental rest.. Anyway, no ones getting fat for eating oily and sweet food for a day only.

When you cheat, you need to take a look at yourself in the mirror...

If you're very fat, your not allowed to cheat. Haha!! Lose more fat first!!

If you can see the first 2 abs on your stomach then you can cheat for one meal only once a week. Hey! One meal only.. not ONE DAY.

If you can see your 6 pack abs then you can cheat for one day or two.

Cheating is good because:

• You can refill your muscle glycogen and have more strength. You can observe that your muscle looks tight and big. Plus you can lift heavy weights! When you cheat, its best to train on that same day. Train your weakest muscle on that day.
• You can rest your mind and release all that stress about how many grams of yams you should eat.. Is your meat lean? Are you sticking on that every 2-hour meal? etc.. etc..

Improve your looks: Add some muscles! (My first time)

Few years ago, my plain body looks just like an ordinary guy you can find on the street. Worse, I don't even got that abs that most bystanders posses. I enjoy being a couch potatoe. I love playing computer games such as PS2 and XBOX (that time, today I have PS3 and XBOX 360 <3). Then on my second work, we got a free gym in there and that's where everything started.

I trained there for the first time and our good "City Service" guy named Joel thought me few exercises. My God! I only trained for 45 minutes and my body ache like hell for 1 whole week! I can't lift a piece of ball pen after and I cannot even straighten my arms and preferred it to be curled only just like a T-rex. 

My body that time is designed to just sleep and eat and was shocked because of the gruesome training. I only use a max of 10 lb. dumbbells and I even need a spot on it. Pathetic huh?

After a week, I didn't became downhearted of what happened. I trained and another "City Service" guy named Bert lectured me some nutrition backed up with science.

So basically, body building is the product of EXERCISE and NUTRITION at its best! You can't have the body you like when you only got one of the factors. Perseverance is the key.

He thought me some points to remember:

• Drink your whey immediately after workout. You only have 1 hour window to drink whey. This is the  time when your body absorbs more nutrients because it was utilized during the workout and requires immediate source of nutrition to repair damaged tissues.
• Eat heavy breakfast to cut your body in a catabolic state. This is a status where in your body will break down your own muscles to be converted to energy because you didn't eat the whole time you are sleeping. You can eat high carbohydrates like rice, protein from eggs or meat, and low on fat.
• As the time goes by, it fewer carbohydrates. Cut the carbohydrates at night because you are more likely less active and the carbs will not be used and the body will store it as a form of body fat.
• You can take a whole day break after a workout. 
• Example:
• Monday - Chest and Biceps
• Tuesday - No Workout
• Wednesday - Back and Triceps
• Thursday - Now Workout
• Friday - Legs and Abs
• Saturday -No Workout (To have time to bond with family and friends)
• Sunday - No Workout (To have time to bond with family and friends)

If you got questions, don't be shy commenting on this blog. I'll respond immediately.

Diet:: How to lean down after you got big!

The body is made to survive and not made to become a model figure. So what I'm trying to say is that you cannot have the benefit of both worlds unless you kept on tricking the body.. When the body is having surplus of calories you can gain muscle but it is inevitable that you will also gain body fat. This also goes the same when losing body fat.. You also lose muscle in the process.

So how can we have a lean body while maintaining the muscles? This is by exercise and cardio. You need to lift heavy weights like you used to when you are building muscles so your body will think that you need to retain those hard-earned muscles because your environment demands it. What I do is this:

• Early in the morning before going to work, I jog for 30 minutes on an empty stomach. Yes, don't eat anything but you can drink water only. This is to burn body fat.
• I eat small meals every 3 hours.
• I eat a meal with carbohydrates 2 hours before the workout.
• I do lift weights at the gym often 6 exercises in 12 reps for 3 sets each.
• I do my cardio after I did some weight lifting to burn body fat.
• I drink my whey protein shake and eat a small banana or any sugary/starchy food.

So what about the meal plan?

Here's what I do..

My weight: 164 lbs

Then I multiply it by 13, so 164 x 13 = 2132 calories, this is my maintenance. But since we need to lean down, we need to lessen it..

So minus 600:

                     2132 - 600 = 1532

Then I do my protein calculations, since we need at least 1.4g of protein per pound, it goes like:

                     1.4 x 164 = 229.6g.

And based on my previous post, there are 4 calories per gram of protein, so it appears to be like:

                     229.6g x 4 = 918 calories

Then for the fat, yes we need to eat fat as well but only the healthy ones like nuts and oily fishes.

So I get my maintenance calories then I need to multiply it by percentage of my body fat. Say, my body fat is 23%, it will go like this:

                     1532 calories x .23 = 352.36 calories

And based on my previous post, there are 9 calories per gram of fat, so it will go like this:

                     352.36 calories  / 9 = 39.151g of Fat

So we need to add the 2 (Protein and Fat) in terms of calories.

                     918 (from Protein) + 352.36 (from Fat) = 1270.36 calories

Then we'll subtract it to our reduced calorie intake:

                     1532 - 1270.36 = 261.64 calories

The remaining calories will fall to our carbohydrate intake. And based on my previous post, there are 4 calories per gram of carb. So let's check it out:

                      261.64 / 4 = 65.41g

So, to lose weight we need to take:

Protein: 229.6g

Fat:: 39.151

Carbohydrates: 65.41g

So how can you apply it to your diet? I would suggest that you should go the fitday website or any website that has details of the food you want to take. Take a look at their protein, fat, and carb measurements. Decide how much food (ounce, kilo, scoop) you want to take per day then sum it all up until it reach the recommended number of nutrients in grams that we calculated above. After that, divide it to the number of times you want to eat per day. More like spread it along the day.

Hint: When it comes to protein, take in more beef since it's much more dense in protein per gram compare to fish and chicken. But you can eat those 2 as well to have variety. As for the carbohydrates, take in fiber rich food such as whole wheat products, brown rice, sweet potatoes, and yams. For fats, take in nuts and oily fishes like Salmon, Tilapia, etc.

What do I eat to have a leaner body?

We cannot have a great physique like Piolo Pascual’s if we aren’t eating the right food at the time. I am making sense right? It’s like the building blocks of constructing the house whereas the workout in the gym acts as our carpenters. We can’t build a house if there’s no materials to be use.

So here’s my thought. We basically divide our nutrition by Protein, Carbs, and Fat sources that you need to build your body.

We need to eat a total of 6 small portions every 2 hours a day.

Note: The calorie content:

a protein has 4 calories,

a carb has 4 calories,

a fat has 9 calories,

an alcohol has 7 calories (so avoid this as much as possible.)

Sources of Protein

• Salmon
• Tuna
• Haddock
• Lean Beaf
• Lean Hamburger
• Crab meat
• Lobster
• Turkey
• Whey protein
• Shrimp
• Cod
• Buffalo
• Deer
• Egg Whites
• Steak
• Chicken
• Lamb
• Whole Eggs
• Casein Protein
• Cottage Cheese
• Milk
• Low Fat Free Cheese
• All other types of fish

Carbohydrates and Veggie Sources

• Oats
• Whole Wheat Pasta
• Yams/Sweet Potatoes
• Beans
• Whole Grain breads
• Waxy Maize Starch
• Whole Grain Pasta
• Sugar Free Oat packets
• Milks
• Fruits
• Brown Rice
• Ezekiel Breads
• Spinach
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Onions

Fat Sources

• Raw Unbleached Almonds
• Almond Butter
• All Natural Peanut Butter
• Macadamia Nut Butter
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Salmon
• Whole Eggs
• Fishoil
• Various Other Nuts
• Evening Primrose Oil
• Avocadoes
• Borage oil

Of course, we need protein supplement to build and maintain our muscles. We won't grow big if we're not having enough protein. You can search your favorite whey protein brand in the custom search below. Say.. just type 'whey'.

You can also burn extra fat by taking in fat burners! The burning of fat will be like easy by taking this herbal supplements. How about search your favorite supplements for fat burners? Say.. just type 'fat burners'.