BodyBuilding Principles with Shelby Starnes Vol. 4 – Nitty-Gritty Cardio

Sure, you can always pick up unsolicited advice from your local locker room guru, but what are the chances of it actually being good advice?

Unfortunately, the odds aren’t in your favor. That’s why we gave renowned nutritionist and successful bodybuilder Shelby Starnes his own column to answer your questions.

In this installment, Shelby tackles every cardio question you could possibly come up with to get leaner and increase your work capacity.

Read the full article here

Author: Shelby Starnes

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Soak It Up

by Mike Scialabba

By now we've all heard of pre-workout nutrition and post-workout nutrition, and hopefully, if you've got all your dumbbells in a row, you're doing both of those things in your efforts to get thick. However, I'm still not seeing enough athletes spending any time on 'peri-nutrition'.

The term 'peri' means during or around. In this instance, peri-nutrition would be the calories you'd be consuming during your workout. Why would you do that? Because you want to be thick!! We know the body breaks down sugars and proteins during intense weight training.

Our goal for pre-workout nutrition is to try to maintain adequate levels of blood sugar and proteins in order to prevent our body from breaking itself down once our sugars have run dry. Along side that, our goal with post-workout nutrition is to attempt to replenish muscular glycogen levels, while stimulating insulin to transport proteins into the muscle cells along the way.

With peri-nutrition, you're adding aid to the cause of both of those two actions. You'll be further preventing muscle catabolism, and making it easier for glycogen to be replenished, while taking good care of your anabolic thresh holds.

How to do it

Mix up 2 scoops of AtLarge Nutritions Opticen with about 1 liter of water. Begin slowly sipping on it 10 minutes prior to your training, and continue sipping throughout the duration of your training. That's it!

Follow that up with another dose of Opticen or a dose of Maximus and reap the rewards of stronger workouts and better mass gains!

If you have any questions on this article, feel free to post them on the forums here: Soak It Up discussion thread

Mike is the Director and Owner of the Missoula Underground Strength Training Center located in Missoula, Montana. He’s an Expert Strength Coach and has been in the business for nearly a decade working with hundreds of individuals utilizing conventional and unconventional training methods. Be sure to check out his blog!

Physique Friendly Recipes to Spice up Your Diet

by Allen Cress

Whenever most hear the word “Diet” the automatically think how awful it’s going to be because all they think they can eat is plain chicken, bland egg whites, or dry potatoes. This just isn’t the case and it’s unfortunate because it will drive most people away from eating healthy and achieving the physique they always wanted.

The whole “healthy food tastes bad” is a myth and an excuse not to stick to a diet. Everyday there are people who are eating healthy foods to get leaner, bigger, stronger, and improve performance and they do so by eating foods they actually enjoy. If something tastes good you are more than likely to stick with it and enjoy the entire process.

Believe me I’ve been there. I’ve eaten all that terrible bland food, but there came a time when enough was enough. So I decided to start playing around with different mixtures, spices, seasonings, condiments, etc… that were all cosmetically friendly as well as fuel to the fire to keep performance high. So now I’m going to give you a few of my favorite recipes that will not only taste great but help you achieve that lean athletic physique so many of us are striving to achieve.

Depending on your current diet you may need to adjust the amounts accordingly.

The All-in-One Pancake

Ingredients:

• 3 Large Shredded Wheat biscuits
• 2 cups of Liquid Egg whites
• Ground Cinnamon
• Walden Farms Calorie free syrup

Cooking Instructions:

• Crumble up the shredded wheat biscuits into a mixing bowl
• Pour in the liquid egg whites and mix together and let stand for 5 min
• Lightly Spray a 6-8 inch skillet with olive oil and pre-heat on medium
• Pour a thin layer of the mixture into the skillet and let it cook for 2-3 minutes or until it starts to solidify on top or you start seeing bubbles.
• Flip the pancake and let it cook for about 30-45 seconds on the other side.

(Macro breakdown: Protein 50grams, Carbs 55grams, Fat 2 grams)

After they are done sprinkle some ground cinnamon on top and then pour the desired amount of Walden Farms calorie free syrup on top!

Note: You can also pre mix the ingredients and cover them while letting them sit in the refrigerator overnight so its ready to go in the morning.

Baked Fries

Ingredients:

• 2-3 medium red or gold potatoes
• Season All
• Ms. Dash Garlic & herb seasoning

Cooking Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
• Wash and dry the potatoes
• Slice the potatoes into ¼ to 3/8 inch pieces
• Lightly spray a cookie or baking sheet with olive oil (if you hate washing dishes as much as I do cover the sheet with aluminum foil)
• Place the potato slices on the sheet and season with the Season All and Ms. Dash Garlic & Herb seasoning.
• Bake for approximately 25-30 min depending on the oven and thickness. Then flip and cook an extra 5 minutes. The longer you cook them the crispier they are.

Once they are done dip them in Ketchup and you have some healthy physique friendly fries!

These are just a couple of recipes I use consistently during the off season as well as my contest prep to increase muscle mass or get shredded to the bone. Hope you enjoy!!

If you have any questions on this article, feel free to post them on the forums here: Physique Friendly Recipes to Spice up Your Diet discussion thread

Allen Cress is a multi strength sport athlete as well as a highly sought after trainer.

Allen owns Maximum Performance Training, LLC where he offers both online and one-on-one training. He has an eclectic variety of clients ranging from bodybuilders to high school, college, and professional athletes. He also works frequently with injured clients referred to him by both orthopedists and physical therapists.

Live From the Forums - Who's Talking About What

Westside Bench

By changing ME exercises every week or so, you can lift @ 100% and more each week. That is the essence of the conjugate method. Maxing every week develops maximum strength quicker than any other method. Always hit a max effort the next time the lift comes around in the rotation.

Check out the discussion here - Westside Bench

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Protein Supplements and Calorie Counting

Losing weight is all about calories in vs. out, so the bottom line is that you NEED to cut out the crappy fast food if you want to lose weight. Dropping protein shakes out as an excuse to eat other foods sounds a little odd and in any case shakes should be incorporated into your diet.

Check out the discussion here - Protein Supplements and Calorie Counting

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Just a Barbell and a Bench

Getting bigger and stronger doesn’t always take a lot of equipment. Most lifters just starting out in their garages will only have access to a bench, a bar and some weights. But that doesn’t mean they can’t make progress if they are determined enough. This thread can give you ideas on effective workouts with limited equipment.

Check out the discussion here - Just a Barbell and a Bench

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Gaining Weight without Getting Fat

In order to get bigger you will have to eat more than your maintenance calorie levels. You need to cut down on the fats, eat enough carbs to give your body energy and to help with recovery, and consume as much protein as you can. Try to keep it as clean as possible if you do not want to gain fat.

Check out the discussion here - Gaining Weight without Getting Fat

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Circus Dumbbell and Incline Bench

Strongman Tom Mutaffis is preparing for another competition. He has posted another video of his recent training efforts. Watch him press the circus dumbbell and do incline bench with 300 lbs for reps. Strong lifting and very motivational.

Check out the discussion here - Circus Dumbbell and Incline Bench

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Knee Sleeves

Forum members discuss knee sleeves for comps that don’t allow knee wraps. Do the higher end sleeves have any carry over or are you just as well off buying a cheap pair for warmth?

Check out the discussion here - Knee Sleeves

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Live From the Forums - Quote of the Week

“Consider it a blessing your leg extension machine broke. Open chain exercises like that really set you up for injury or imbalances in the future” – Raleighwood

Check out the discussion here - Broke My Leg Extension Machine