Yes, we all know about wearables. Seeing as every second person seems to be wearing either a Fitbit or Jawbone device and counting their daily steps.

And, of course, the Nintendo Wii has been around for a while, getting people to golf, bowl and dance in the comfort of their own living rooms. Then, there’s the rise in personal training online or even taking part in classes that are streamed.

There are definite bonuses to VR – virtual reality. You can do in your own home, and that’s a big plus. For a start, you could exercise in your pajamas if you wanted. And when exercise opportunities are presented to you without you having to go anywhere, double bonus.

VR For Bodybuilding And Fitness

What about virtual reality’s applications to bodybuilding?

Not as simple, right?

While tech solutions such as a streamed class or online workout programs with videos can give you the ‘at-home’ and ‘do it anywhere’ versatility aspect, neither is truly immersive.

There is also the monotony element to consider. Go to the gym, pick up weight, lift heavy, repeat. It’s a formula that has not changed much in the last fifty or so years. Neither have gyms. Go into one twenty years ago, and it will not look that different from the one you walk into today.

Virtual Reality PT – Personal Trainer

One of the biggest ways VR could influence the bodybuilding and fitness game is through personal trainers.

Instead of having to go to the gym to get a personal trainer, or hire one to workout with you, you could simply slide on some glasses and the PT would be standing in front of you.

Customized Workouts And Exercises Plan

They could then direct you with what you have to do, show you the correct form, and guide you through your workout. In the long run, this could prove to be much cheaper and cost-effective. Not to mention the fact that you wouldn’t have to rely on anyone else’s schedule.

As well as this, the virtual trainer will have access to an extensive library of knowledge, not just of health and fitness, but of your personal history. This will mean they can create programs specifically for your needs and interestingly, possibly a more personal experience.

Workout Analysis And Feedback

The VR equipment would automatically log and analyze all of your workouts. Whilst a normal personal trainer is subjected to human error such as looking away or forgetting things. A computer doesn’t have this.

The computer could perfectly analyze your movement, let you know where you’re going wrong and what you need to do next time, then show you real-time footage of how to proceed from there. You could pull up data on your progression over time with graphs and tables alongside your goals and where you want to end up.

On top of this, you could combine apps to give you a complete, all-around fitness experience. Once you’ve left the gym that’s usually where your time with your personal trainer ends.

Yet, VR could link up with your phone to give you recipes and meals based on your workout. If you’re going for a more endurance-based approach, you might be recommended a higher-carbohydrate meal. If you’re looking for strength, it could suggest you some high-protein options.

The VR could also directly send to your phone how many calories you’ve burned or conversely, the app could tell your VR what you’ve eaten recently and the VR could base your workouts off of that – whether you need to work a little harder or hold back a little.

VR Workout Anywhere Experience

Another experience would be being able to pick where you’re running. Instead of just pounding the rotating rubber of the treadmill, you could run through California, Spain or Iceland.

Add in a dynamic treadmill that reacts to the terrain before you by adjusting the incline and the experience would be completely immersive.

What if you could also be involved in a different storyline every time you worked out too?

Instead of just running along the pavement you’re chasing an evil villain or directly in your favorite movie scene. Your workouts could have you solve a different mystery every time you exercised.

Imagine if your workout regime revolved around an entire storyline, similar to that of a game. Each time you put on your VR goggles you progressed a little bit further, did an extra mission or earned a new prize.

Game Or Movie Based Workouts

If you’ve ever played an MMORPG (Mass-Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) such as World of Warcraft, then you could even pick the class of your character. Imagine that each time you leveled up in your online world you were also progressing in real life, getting leaner, stronger, faster, more powerful, and all-around fitter.

You could drop weight as you solved quests, found treasure, and made online friends. You’d be learning functional skills that would translate into the real world.

If you could link the VR to other devices, then it could suggest workouts based on your favorite movies and TV shows. For instance, if you’ve just watched the latest Transformers movie and gave it a good rating, then the VR equipment might suggest to you a workout based around one of the plot lines – dodging rockets and giant mechanical feet as you try to find Optimus Prime.

Not to mention that the world of celebrity endorsements could be incredible. Chris Hemsworth’s workout routine for Thor is no longer just a set gym plan. It places you as Thor himself battling baddies and saving civilians. You could create your own character and become one of the Avengers.

What virtual reality offers is to take the addictive quality of video games and convert them into health and fitness benefits. Your body is the controller. The better you are at the game, the more your strength, flexibility and fitness gets because how you perform in the game depends entirely on your movements.

The fitness bit becomes secondary to the game. You’re so busy trying to better yourself and beat your virtual competitors (or whatever), that you forget you’re engaged in the process of building strength and fitness.

What Can Virtual Reality Offer Bodybuilders?

• It “gamifies” movement, using features from popular games, making exercise fun and addictive
• By focusing on the game, the user concentrates less on the exhaustive or difficult part of getting fit, so pain perception decreases
• They can take you into a ‘flow’ state, making time pass in a truly enjoyable way – unlike a gym where you might spend your time watching that second hand like a hawk
• Your movements will be tracked, so like those athletes and team members, you will get lots of feedback on what you did and tips for what you need to work on and improve.

Black Box VR Project

And like all brand-new shiny things, virtual reality has its champions. Take Ryan DeLuca. He wants to change the way people experience fitness, taking tech to a new level with his latest invention.

Who is Ryan DeLuca, you ask?

Someone with a LOT of experience in the bodybuilding world, seeing as he’s the guy who founded the mighty Bodybuilding.com, the world’s largest source of articles, videos, exercises, workouts, supplements and community, and a site that benefits from more than a million visitors every day.

As you might imagine, someone so immersed in the fitness world always wants to stay ahead of the game. DeLuca stepped down from his position as CEO of Bodybuilding.com two years ago. But he’s not someone to rest on his laurels, and since then he’s been looking at the concept of gyms and wondering how he can improve them. He and his business partner came up with Black Box VR.

Black Box VR offers a complete resistance and cardio training workout, designed by fitness experts and athletes. Three 45-minute workouts a week, the company claims, are enough to ‘skyrocket’ your fitness, while making it fun and enjoyable at the same time.

“You aren’t working out. You are saving the city. Or solving a mystery. Or finding the treasure,” the promotional literature claims. “You are inside your own movie, and as you reach out to pull that rope or lift the handles on the block, you’ll really feel them there. Functional fitness in a fictional world.”

The workouts, they say, will automatically move people towards their goals by refining the resistance, intensity, and speed based on an individual’s goals and their current progress. And they don’t allow plateaus.

The company has plans to set up flagship gyms in key areas – Manhattan and Beverley Hills. And their business model seems to be going down the licensing route, where gyms pay subscriptions to add Black Box VR workouts to their existing programmes. There are also franchise opportunities for those who want to open their own Black Box VR gym.

VR For Training

Athletes and sports teams already use virtual reality options for training. Someone can become fully immersed in the experience, and their movements tracked. The feedback will be detailed, allowing the person to learn and adapt their position and actions, improving how they perform.

The company, STRIVR, for example, claims to change the way athletes prepare for competition. Its immersive technology allows players to practice just as if they were out on the field, court or ice rink.

One of their success stories is Clemson’s star quarterback, Deshaun Watson [American football, university league]. He used VR to supplement his training with off-field reps throughout the 2016 season.

He watched and studied hundreds of situations, paying particular attention towards blitz pick-ups. The training paid off when Clemson played the University of Alabama, and Deshaun went 6-7 with 2TDs, and the team claimed its first national title since 1981.

STRIVR

What the STRIVR model teaches is that repetition is the key to learning. Their data suggests that users can increase reactions times by 20 percent, crucial in situations where every second count.

For athletes and sports stars, this means that everyone has access to the world’s best coach, the tracking helps improve performance, and the athlete receives an enormous amount of detailed feedback.

Training can be practiced in a small area, such as a garage and team players can work by themselves, instead of needing their teammates. There’s no doubt this is the future.

Increasingly, coaching bodies and sports teams will be making the most of this innovative technology in years to come. The only barrier will be how much money they can invest in such solutions. But it is likely virtual reality options will work out cheaper overall.

The Pros

Addictive Qualities Used To Advantage

No doubt, this kind of technology will spread. Black Box VR will find itself in competition with others soon enough. It promises much for the bodybuilder.

The overwhelming bonus seems to be the take on what is often regarded as the unhealthy aspect of video games – their addictive quality. We all know people who spend hours playing them, hunched over a console and hidden away in darkness, their eyes fixed on a screen.

If so many people can play games for hours, why not give them that game in a different form where they need to work for it?

Imagine looking forward to your workout! I can’t wait to lift weights, said not many people ever. I can’t wait to get back to that game and trounce the bad guy/win the war, etc.

Much more appealing, huh?

Challenges

However, there are issues that present themselves.

Availability And Price

The first and most obvious is that the technology is simply not up to scratch at the minute to provide a fully immerse experience of this quality. As well as this, any VR that could match these specifications is far out of reach for most people’s budget.

That’s okay. Money-making potential will always dilute the price of something to make it affordable for the many. Expect to see some kind of virtual reality offering in a gym near you soon.

Social Impact

There’s also the social impact. Many people prefer the personal touch of one-to-one training with a real-life human being.

Though you would possibly be able to meet up in the online world with your friends. Many of us go to the gym with a partner or in a group. If we’ve spent a whole day staring at a screen for work, would we really then want to meet our friends through another screen?

Even if the VR equipment simply projects additional aspects onto our real-world vision, such as by showing you your normal gym. But having a VR trainer beamed in front of you, there’s still a degree of separation created by the goggles.

Conclusion

We like virtual reality, but we don’t see it as THE solution for fit and healthy society. VR can’t replicate all the benefits of good, old-fashioned workout, but it can complement it.

It will be exciting to see how it develops once the trickle-down effect happens.

What is your opinion?

Let us know in the comments.

Resources:

1. Matthew Schnipper. “Seeing is Believing: The State of Virtual Reality”. The Verge. Retrieved 7 March 2017
2. Holly Brockwell (3 April 2016). “Forgotten genius: the man who made a working VR machine in 1957”. Tech Radar. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
3. “VR and vice: Are we heading for mass addiction to virtual reality fantasies”. Wareable. Retrieved 2016-06-19
4. Virtual reality Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality
5. Virtual Training for Football is Becoming a Reality https://onlinemasters.ohio.edu/virtual-training-for-football-is-becoming-a-reality/
6. Black Box VR Project https://www.blackbox-vr.com/about-us/
7. STRIVR Project https://strivr.com/sports/

The post Will Virtual Reality Change Bodybuilding And Fitness? appeared first on Muscle & Cuts.

Some of these are well known such as doing 1000 crunches a day to get abs and that weightlifting stunts your growth. Others are a little less well known like squats are the worst exercise for your legs or you shouldn’t ever overhead press because your shoulders will detach from your body.

Well, after today you should feel a little more comfortable in your fitness knowledge as we dispell some myths that could be getting in your way towards a better, stronger you.

1. Almost Anything About Crunches

Most likely everything you know about crunches is wrong about from that they work your abs. Are they the best ab exercise? No. Is the only way to get a six pack by doing hundreds upon hundreds of reps? Not at all. Will they give you a six pack if you’re still a little tubby? Sorry, but no.

Crunches are useful but they’re not the be all and end all when it comes to core training. If you want a six pack then the best thing you can do is lose fat and get in the gym. We all have abs and it’s only the layer of fat covering them that stops them from showing. If you’re in the gym doing large, compound movements then your abs will be engaged. Once you can see them is the time you can think about shaping them with different exercises. First, you need to just let them show and a good workout routine coupled with a healthy diet will do that.

Some of the best exercises for your abs are:

• Hanging leg raises
• Ab wheel roll outs
• Planks
• V-Sits
• Hollow body holds

2.  You Need To Do Cardio

Yes, cardio burns a lot of calories and is a great way of improving your aerobic fitness. Yet, you don’t have to do it. Cardio does have it’s time and place but it’s not necessary for losing fat. All you need to do to lose fat is to expend more calories than you’re taking in and you can do that in a variety of ways that don’t involve you slogging it out on a treadmill. Weight training can really get you working and there’s also HIIT (high-intensity interval training) which will let you blast fat in a much shorter time than you normally would with LISS (low-intensity steady state).

Also, it’s important to note that running isn’t the only form of cardio you can do. Cycling and rowing are both good options whilst swimming will work your entire body.

3.  You Can’t Have Fun If You’re On A Diet

Nobody likes cutting and trying to lose fat but also nobody likes their friend doing it because they seem to become suddenly secluded. You don’t need to hide away and keep yourself from fun events just because you want to lose your love handles. Losing fat doesn’t mean not eating out, never seeing your friends and only leaving the house for the gym. All it means is a little more moderation and being slightly stricter with yourself.

If you know that you’re going to go to an event with less than optimal food then plan it into your diet. Eat a little less during the day and then when you get there, make sure to have everything you want but don’t go wild. Nobody likes the person who turns up to a party and can’t drink because they’re on a diet so don’t be that person. All you need to be is sensible and that takes a little planning.

4. Only Using Supplements If You’re Bulking

Supplements are great for getting in anything that you may not be able to in your diet. A lot of people struggle to eat enough protein so protein shakes come in handy. Though, supplements don’t need to be used only if you’re trying to build muscle.

Protein is extremely satiating so fitting in a protein shake when you’re hungry can stop you from overeating on something else. It kind of works as a milkshake that will help you with fat loss. Not only this but because you’re on lower calories then your recovery will take a hit. This extra protein will help you speed up recovery. The same can all be said for BCAAs (branch chain amino acids).

Another important supplement is creatine. Creatine helps with ATP (adenosine triphosphate) production. ATP is the molecule we create when we need short bursts of energy. Jumping, sprinting and heavy weight for low reps will all use ATP. However, creatine has also been shown to improve cognitive performance and mental alertness. So, not only will you be able to work harder in the gym but also at work.

These 4 myths have hindered the progress of many bodybuilders and lifters. Break through the mistruth and become smarter and stronger.

Jarrett

The post 4 Fitness Myths That Are Getting In Your Way appeared first on Muscle & Cuts.

Muscle isn’t only for aesthetics, though. There’s a whole host of benefits for health, quality of life and longevity. As we get older these benefits matter more and more but are slightly harder to achieve. There’s never an age where some sort of strength training isn’t useful. Though, your diet matters a huge amount, as well as the food you can eat, can determine how much of an adaptation your body makes to your training.

There is no magic foods, supplements or one size fits all approach. It takes a little bit of learning and implementing guidelines to work out what works best for you. Looking at macronutrients (fats, carbohydrates, and proteins) and monitoring how much you eat will really help with muscle growth and fat loss.

Protein

Everyone knows that protein is one of the most important components of building muscle. The way it does this is through a process called muscle protein synthesis (MPS).

Many studies suggest that the younger you are then the more sensitive you will be to amino acids (protein) which create an anabolic (building) state within the body. This is why it’s far easier for younger individuals in the population to build muscle.

Down the other end of the spectrum, much larger doses of amino acids are needed for older individuals to build muscle and start MPS. The reason for this is down to the protein mTOR and the enzyme p70S6K which are the main drivers behind starting protein synthesis.

As well as this, there is an increase in oxidative stress as we grow older. When atoms lose an electron they travel around the body looking for another one to steal which can cause disaster in the body. The reason for this missing electron is oxidation and if this eventual stress of oxidation starts to affect cells associated with DNA then you’re in real trouble. Research has shown that diseases such as stroke, diabetes, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and cancer have all been linked to oxidative stress and free radicals.

How do you combat this? Antioxidants. Antioxidants aren’t actually a compound and instead the term describes the behavior of a certain food due to what is has inside it. Though, the most common antioxidant compounds you would have heard of include vitamin A, C, E, and beta-carotene. These antioxidants donate an electron to the free radicals so that they can be complete again. They can also repair damage to the cells caused by free radicals.

Also, eating a diet that is rich in protein will aid in reducing muscle loss associated with an increase in age. More specifically: the amino acid leucine. Leucine can be found in high amounts in tuna, egg whites, red meat and chicken.

Here is a quick guide to the amount of protein required at each age per day in order to build muscle:

• < 18 years: 0.6-0.8 grams per pound of body weight
• 19-40 years: 0.8-1.1 grams per pound of body weight
• 41-65 years: 1.1-1.3 grams per pound of body weight
• > 65 years: 1.3-1.5 grams per pound of body weight

That means for a 150lb individual the ranges at 18 years are 90g – 120g per day. For the same weighted individual at 65 years or over the ranges are 195g – 225g. That’s quite a difference!

Now, you don’t have to go crazy and start measuring all of your food. All you need to do is learn the rough amount of protein in each food and you can start to eyeball it. This isn’t a bodybuilding diet or a protocol that has to take over your life. Have fun with it.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are also known to positively impact muscle growth and the rate of muscle protein synthesis. Though contrary to what we’ve just learned about protein, as we grow older we will need fewer carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates influence muscle growth due to the hormone insulin. Insulin works to push amino acids to cells so as to begin muscular growth and repairing damage in the muscle. So, carbohydrates are still needed and are best paired with protein to really boost the anabolic effects of both macronutrients as well as prolonging the body’s anabolic response. Spikes in insulin are also associated with preventing muscle breakdown and muscle wastage.

The reason that we don’t need as many carbohydrates is because we are more sedentary as we grow older and our metabolic rate declines. You’re already getting the anabolic advantages from protein so it’s good to lower the amount that you eat.

Here’s a good guide to the number of carbohydrates you should be eating at your age:

• < 20 years: 1.8-2.6 grams per pound of body weight
• 21-40 years: 1.5-2.3 grams per pound of body weight
• 41-65 years: 1.2-2 grams per pound of body weight
• > 65 years: 0.8-1.7 grams per pound of body weight

This is all just for muscle growth and not fat loss. As you build muscle you unavoidably have some fat spill over due to the increase in calories. Some people can eat more carbs than others even at the same age and not have as much fat gain so if you feel like these levels don’t quite suit you then feel free to experiment by increasing or decreasing the amount you eat.

Fat

To replace the calories lost when you decrease your carbohydrate intake you’re going to need to start eating more fats. Yet, if you’re still young and consuming quite a lot of carbs then you’re going to want to eat less fat to stop fat spill over.

You may think that fat is the artery clogging, obesity causing substance that the media portrays it to be when in fact it’s extremely beneficial for the body in a wide range of ways.

Modern research has found that fat is vital for your body to survive and there are even certain fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) which can only be absorbed in the presence of fat. Fat has also been shown to increase levels of testosterone which is a huge driver behind muscular growth.

Good sources of fats are good quality animal fats, oily fish, avocado, olives, nuts, good quality dairy (if tolerated) and coconut. Bad sources of fats will come from vegetable oils and trans fats. Trans fats are fats which have ben structurally altered to act like a saturated fat. The reason why they’re so harmful is that saturated fats are needed by the body for a variety of reasons. If another fat comes in as an imposter and doesn’t possess the same qualities then it can cause a lot of trouble. Trans fats have been linked to a variety of health conditions including cancer.

Oily fish, in particular, is a great source of fat as it includes omega 3 fatty acids. These omega 3s help turn on genes which are involved in fat loss as well as helping to turn off genes involved in storing fat They also support a healthy thyroid, brain, and heart function.

Here are the recommendations for muscle growth per age.

• < 20 years: 0.25-0.45 grams per pound of body weight
• 21-40 years: 0.35-0.55 grams per pound of body weight
• 41-65 years: 0.45-0.65 grams per pound of body weight
• > 65 years: 0.55-0.75 grams per pound of body weight

Conclusion

You may find that your new diet is a lot more filling as both fat and protein are very satiating. Which is more filling to have at breakfast: 500 calories from eggs and bacon, 500 calories from toast and jam or 500 calories from cereal and skimmed milk? They all contain the same amount of energy but I would be my last dollar that the first option would keep you going for longer and make you feel the most full.

There’s never an age where you should stop chasing a healthier, stronger and more powerful body. Whether it’s to impress your friends, simply feel better with yourself or feel safer so that if you have a fall you can feel comfortable in the knowledge you’re less likely to break something and can get yourself back up again. Falls are one of the highest fears people have as they get old. The feeling of helplessness is something that nobody wants to feel. Nor does anyone want to feel like they have to rely on someone at all times. If you start looking after your body now then you shouldn’t have to face any situations like this.

If you’re looking to lose fat then the general rule is to eat less food in general or eat less high-calorie food. Junk and fast food need to be off the menu. You can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time but this only happens in individuals who are not used to training and have more fat to lose. Don’t expect to turn into Arnold Schwarzenegger after only a couple of gym sessions. Aim for more filling foods such as vegetables, whole potatoes and oats opposed to baked beans, chips, and toast.

You don’t need any special supplements or magic foods to achieve your goals. All you need is dedication, moderation, and consistency. If you make these three qualities a priority then you can achieve anything you want to.

Jarrett

The post How To Eat To Gain Muscle Mass At Any Age appeared first on Muscle & Cuts.

You don’t need to always take soreness as a bad sign. It’s just your body giving you a sign that it’s repairing, building and making you stronger. This is the period where your body adapts to the stimulus you’ve given it in the gym to make you fitter. Unfamiliar or particularly challenging exercises will do this simply because your body is not used to it and so if it doesn’t want to keep getting broken down it needs to build itself up. These sessions create small tears in the muscle fibers which are then fixed and improved upon in the recovery process.

This is one of the main reasons why a lot of people actually like DOMs because it lets them know they’re going to get stronger and closer to their goal. However, to improve this recovery process there are a few things you can do.

1.Use A Warm-Up

Before you jump into your heavy sets or vigorous routine you need to prepare your body for what’s to come. Your muscles need to loosen and warm up whilst your brain needs to be mentally prepared and focused. This is the time where you can start directing blood and oxygen to all the muscles that are going to be used.

A good way of going about this is with warm up sets. A lot of people rush through their warm up sets because they’re so eager to get to the heaviest weight possible. Yet, this is the time where you can prepare your mind and body for the lift ahead.

Try this on your next workout:

• 1 set at 50% of your working weight for the same amount of reps
• 1 set at 65% of your working weight with two fewer reps
• 1 set at 80% of your working weight with three fewer reps

Another great way of doing all of those things is with dynamic stretching. Opposed to the static form of stretching, dynamic stretching involves movement that aids in activating the muscles as well as improving your range of motion and coordination.

Try some of these before your next workout:

• Alternating glute pull-up lift

• Bodyweight reverse lunge

• Bodyweight single-leg deadlift

• Alternating Knee Pulls

This is also a great time to crack out the foam roller for getting out any remaining knots in the muscle, increasing the range of motion in your joints and reducing your chance of injury.

2. Ignore The Soreness & Jump In Any Way

Now, you may think that this sounds like the opposite of what you should be doing. In fact, training your muscles when they’re sore actually reduces the chances of soreness in the future and can help the body repair faster. This is all known as the ‘repeated-bout effect.’ All you’re doing is telling your body again that it needs to adapt and the more you tell it this then the faster it’s going to need to do it.

Yet, you should only train with light weights opposed to your normal. Save your heaviest weights for when you’re fully recovered.

For example, you may have done weight chin ups and found that you’re back is feeling fine but your biceps are taking a long time to stop aching. On your next workout, try including some light bicep curls just to create another stimulus and increase the rate of recovery.

3. Diet And Post Workout Supplements

Your diet will make all the difference when it comes to recovery. If you’re in a cut then you’ll be eating less and therefore, your body will take longer due to the lack of calories. Increasing your calories is a brilliant way of speeding up the recovery process which will happen when you enter into a bulking phase.

You also need to make sure that you’re getting enough protein. Protein is the macronutrient which really aids in muscle recovery. The protein kick starts the recovery process whilst the sugary carbs give your body the energy it needs for repair.

In terms of supplements, both whey and casein are good options if you’re tolerant of dairy. For those who aren’t, there are egg and beef proteins. For vegans, you will be able to find pea and soy, too. Also, we can’t forget about omega-3s as studies have shown that they provide great help in reducing both pain and swelling. Good post workout supplement with essential amino acids – BCAAs will be very beneficial and decrease the time it takes for your muscles to heal.

Of course, some DOMS is inventible but I encourage you to implement some suggestion I gave you in this article to recover faster.

Jarrett

The post The 3 Best Ways To Help Your Muscles Recover appeared first on Muscle & Cuts.

However, after reading this article things will change. Becoming the healthier, best-performing version of you will be a lot easier and any walls in your way will feel trivial.

So, without further ado, here are the most common obstacles and mistakes people run into when sticking to their new year’s resolution

1.Make Them Realistic

Many people make the initial mistake when deciding on a resolution. It’s easy to say ‘I’m going to lose 60lbs in 3 months’ or ‘I’m going to pack on 20lbs of muscle before mid-February’ but unless you’re superhuman these aren’t achievable.

Going too fast can actually be dangerous to your health. If you drop too low in calories from the offset then sure, you will lose weight but you’ll also become lethargic, sick and stressed as well as a variety of other problems. Your body will adapt to this drop in calories by trying to match your metabolic rate to your new caloric intake as a survival mechanism. Suddenly you’ll find that your weight loss has plateaued. What do you do then? Drop lower in calories and damage your body more. This can lead to eating disorders such as binging due to your body’s increased appetite.

Instead, you need to work in baby steps. Targets such as dropping a pound a week or adding half a pound of muscle are far more realistic. Taking out 200 calories opposed to 600 will be enough to drop fat and keep you healthy.

You not only need to think of yourself physically, but mentally also. A common resolution is to only eat ‘clean’ foods or going cold turkey from things like junk food, smoking or alcohol. Yet, if you’re so used to these activities then completely cutting them out of your life is going to be extremely stressful. Taking the long route by slowly taking them out of your lifestyle will be far easier to stick to and far more enjoyable. In the race between the tortoise and the hare, going slowly wins the race.

2. Don’t Give Up

This may seem obvious but often we wait for the first sign of weakness in order to completely jump ship. If goals were easy, then they wouldn’t be worth getting. Being overweight is one of the most prevalent risks of life-threatening diseases, if staying slim were as simple as trying then we wouldn’t have the obesity epidemic that we have now.

This goes the same for building muscle. How many people do you see wandering around looking like stage models? Not very many. So why do so many people expect to look like elite bodybuilders after a few weeks of working out? Building muscle takes a lot longer than losing fat so you have to be in it for the long haul. If you’re like most people who want to lose fat and build muscle then it’s going to take even longer.

If you’re the type of person who gives up when they step on the scale and your weight hasn’t changed then you need to keep in mind that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Building the body you aspire to have will take time, a lot longer than you probably think. Yet, through consistency and hard work then you will have it and it’ll feel better than you ever imagined.

3. Make Your Goals Known

It can be embarrassing to let people know about your fitness goals. You might worry that people are gonna think you’re vain or looking for attention. However, letting people know about your goals can be a key step in achieving them.

Think about it, you’re far more likely to stick to your goals if other people are checking in with you and asking for updates than if you’re going to the gym in secret and constantly avoiding social events because you don’t want people to find out your on a diet. Public accountability is the best source of motivation. You won’t want to fail and be known as ‘that person’ who doesn’t stick things out to the end.

So, tell your friends, family and post it on social media to let everyone know. Don’t be embarrassed about trying to become the best version of you. You may even inspire others to do the same and change for the better.

Jarrett

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Back in the day of Arnold, not many people had come out about their use of steroids, some did but it was when Arnold himself came out about it that sparked so much discussion around the topic and the sport of bodybuilding, which at the time, was not where it is now in terms of the amount of people who know about it and who are involved with it.

Arnold was competing in the “Golden Era” of bodybuilding amongst classic bodybuilders like Mike Mentzer and Frank Zane. He started training with weights at the age of 12 but really started bodybuilding when he was 15 years old and just five years later, he had won the title of Mr. Olympia, he then went on to win this contest seven more times in a row. Arnold Schwarzenegger had gained a lot of popularity not only from bodybuilding but from featuring in films such as Conan the Barbarian and the Terminator.

However, many people, especially those within the bodybuilding community, have been wondering whether or not Arnold had been using steroids during his competitive years.

So, did Arnold Schwarzenegger use steroids?

There are those who believe that he did not use steroids, however, there is a lot of evidence and accounts that say that he did. In fact, he was one of the only bodybuilders at the time to be quite open about his use of steroids, you see, during Arnold’s years, steroids were far more widely available, people during this time have said that it was very easy to get their hands on anabolic steroids, nowadays it is a longer and difficult process. For example, back then, you could easily get a prescription written by a doctor to be able to buy anabolic steroids hassle-free, the prescription did not even have to have any sort of valid medical reason, the reason for people trying to get prescriptions may have simply been something like “my football coach told me I need to gain some muscle mass”. If you were to try and buy anabolic steroids legally through prescriptions today, you would need a proper medical reason.

Another benefit for people using steroids back in Arnold’s time was the fact that they were not really sold on the black market, therefore the amount of fake or diluted products were kept to a minimum, this is also why some of the more classic bodybuilders did not experience a lot of the side effects that are nowadays associated with anabolic steroids. People now have to purchase their steroids from the black market where the products are created in underground labs so there is a higher chance of people going through some of the side effects.

There was actually a book that was publicised called “Arnold: An Unauthorised Biography” that was written by Wendy Leigh. It revealed Arnold’s use of steroids. The contents of the book show how he was exposed to steroids at a fairly young age however when it was publicised, it soon went out of print, people can only speculate the reason for this but of course there was going to be something that made the information in the book seem real because of the fact that it was stopped from being printed. This only makes it more likely that Arnold using steroids was more fact than fiction.

Quotation from “Arnold: An Unauthorized Biography”

“Marnul had learned about steroids and their dosages from Steve Reeves, whom he had first met in France during a 1952 vacation, and was willing to give Arnold the necessary injections of the steroid Primobolin, the champagne of steroids, two or three times a week. The injections began almost immediately after Arnold started training as a bodybuilder. So did steroid tablets, namely Dianabol. Austrian bodybulilder who trained with him remembers, “Arnold took steroids in doses that terrified the other bodybuilders. I saw him swallow eight or nine Dianabols at a time. Then he would take a gulp of milk, a handful of protein tablets, and while he was still swallowing and could hardly talk, say, ‘Right, now I’m ready!’ and start training.’ According to fellow bodybuilder Rick Wayne, steroids were still part of Arnold’s life in 1966, when he offered Wayne a month’s supply of Dianabol. Wayne also says Arnold confided to him that he had been taking steroids since the age of thirteen.”

Sergio Olivia, one of the great bodybuilders was asked by Brian D. Johnston about the use of steroids amongst him and bodybuilders of his time, this included Arnold. His interview response included things about how he believed it was a personal choice for people as to whether or not they wanted to use steroids but what he also goes on to talk about includes the fact that Arnold was one of the first people to bring steroids over to the USA. Sergio also talked about how he and people like Frank Zane, Larry Scott, Dave Draper and many others used steroids.

Quotation from interview with Sergio Oliva:

“Q: Could you relay your own experience with drug use?

Sergio Oliva: This is an area of great interest for people. I don’t care who wants to take steroids, because that’s a personal choice… that’s his life. Now, today, everybody has access to them. I even saw in one of the big magazines that Arnold denies having used them, but Arnold was one of the first to bring steroids over to America. And everybody in the old days used them: Zane, Columbu, myself, Arnold, Larry Scott, Harold Poole, Dave Draper, and even Steve Reeves. There’s no way to deny it. It wasn’t much, nothing like today. But the development of drugs is much different. I used decca and dianabol, and that was something really big at the time; and decca was not considered that bad. It was even prescribed by doctors to help make your bones strong. Today you have guys weighing 200 pounds, and six months later they weigh 250-300 pounds! So you know these guys are taking something unbelievable. When they say they haven’t taken any thing, you know that it’s phony.”

Although the abuse of steroids back then just did not really happen, in fact, if the kinds of dosages that have come out concerning Arnold’s cycle were true, he would be considered as a newbie to using steroids today. Nowadays, the amount of abuse that goes on with anabolic steroids is at an all-time high, back in Arnold’s day, if the sources are right about him using steroids, he was using them in an extremely safe manner, along with many other of the bodybuilders who he was competing against. It is easier in current times to tell whether or not someone is using steroids because of the fact that people notice they see crazy results within such a short amount of time because their dosages tend to be quite high.

If what was shown about Arnold’s dosages are in fact true, they may seem quite odd to someone on a steroid cycle today because of the fact that back then, it was common to pyramid up and down in terms of dosages, there are some disadvantages to doing this concerning the ability of the levels of testosterone in the body being able to recover properly. But during the Arnold’s time, they did not have this information and many people have speculated that if Arnold had access to the kinds of steroids that are available now, his supposed steroid cycle would look very different.

Arnold has now been seen in videos where he has admitted to using steroids however, when it comes to the drug testing aspect in professional bodybuilding and his experiences in this area, it can get sketchy as some of what he says comes across as misleading.

Because of the fact that Arnold is such an inspirational bodybuilder, bodybuilders today are left wondering whether or not he used steroids and if he did, what were the dosages and the type of cycles involved, others feel as though his bodybuilding success was down to him and not the steroids. There was always going to be some sort of secrecy surrounding the sport of bodybuilding in terms of steroid usage so at the time it may have been difficult for Arnold to talk about the subject because of the fact that he likely had other things on his mind such as focusing on winning his Olympia titles whilst also trying to publicise bodybuilding in a positive light. By mentioning the use of steroids during this time, it may have had a negative impact on Arnold’s goals of trying to get bodybuilding more known amongst the public as steroids have had a bad rap for the most part in things other than bodybuilding.

Many people are now asking themselves questions concerning Arnold’s use of steroids. Did he really use them in moderation? What steroids did he take? Etc. It has been said over and over from people that say that he did in fact use steroids that he did not ever abuse them, there may have been a number of reasons for this, including the fact that at the time, using anabolic steroids for performance enhancing reasons concerning muscle growth and strength gains as well as being able to lose body fat more effectively was something that was fairly new back then. Arnold and the people who he was competing against may not have wanted to push it too much when it came to using steroids as they may not have been fully aware of what the outcome could be.

There have been discussions where Arnold has said that he has used steroids, in these conversations he has mentioned that he used three main anabolic steroids, Dianabol, Deca Durabolin and Primobolan. It is still a mystery as to whether or not Arnold was using them year round or just when it came to preparing for contests but the majority of people believe that he was using it year round so that he was able to compete with the others who were going to be on that Olympia stage with him. There was some mention of steroids in the famous film “Pumping Iron” but nothing that was really substantial but it seems as though the combination of deca durabolin, primoblan and dianobol was his secret mix that helped him to achieve the kinds of results that he saw with his physique.

Having said all of that, it goes without saying that Arnold is a legend amongst the bodybuilding community because of the fact that he competed against some of greats like Frank Zane for example and managed to beat them eight times in a row. He also did an incredible amount for the sport of bodybuilding and is still a great ambassador of the sport by doing things such as the “Arnold Classic” which is now one of the biggest bodybuilding contests around today apart from the Olympia, so whether or not he used steroids during his competition days may not seem like too big of an issue for a lot of people because of the fact that he was competing against people who were also using those steroids. I think that for the majority of people, they are simply curious as to whether or not Arnold used steroids or not, he has now publicly came out about it but the details of his use are still to come out properly.

Jarrett

References:

1. Arnold Schwarzenegger Mr. Olympia title 1970 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Olympia

2. “Arnold: An Unauthorised Biography” Wendy Leigh,  Congdon & Weed, 1990 “Arnold: An Unauthorised Biography” written by Wendy Leigh.

3. Brian D. Johnston interview with Sergio Oliva. http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=149703673

4. Pumping Iron, Release date in USA January 18, 1977 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumping_Iron

Disclaimer: MuscleAndCuts.com does NOT support the usage of steroids. This article is solely for informational purposes and is NOT written by a medical professional.

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