There is a misconception that resistance training (weights) automatically make you BIG…

If it were as easy as lifting a few weights and you automatically got huge the gyms wouldn’t be packed with underweight men in their early 20’s trying to bulk up by lifting weights and guzzling down 1000 kcal weight gain shakes.

So I guess this article is going to go down two routes…

1. If you want to get bigger, You cannot expect to take a pill or drink some stupid powder and think you can get huge…

It doesn’t work like that…

A protein powder is a supplement… an addition to your current nutrition plan… you don’t compensate for eating crap foods and no protein all day by guzzling down protein shakes!

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You sort your nutrition out, eat enough CLEAN calories and then in addition to that and then use protein powder as a convenience on occasion… not as a cure.

2. If you don’t want to be ‘too’ big… do the same as above because you aren’t going to get ‘too big’ any time soon… it takes years of dedication, education and hard training to get BIG, you can get lean reasonably fast and look ‘muscular’…

Problem with getting lean when you haven’t got an appreciable amount of muscle mass is you will probably weigh a hefty 140 lbs and fall over on a windy day…

You see weights are a tool, it depends how you use them and what you eat with them… you wont get big if you don’t eat enough…you will lose weight…and that is some peoples goal…

You can’t naturally get TOO big… do you think it happens by accident… or with very little effort… one morning you just wake up and you look like Ronnie coleman?

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It doesn’t happen like that…

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On the flip side I get people pointing at the cover of a fitness magazine saying

‘I don’t want to get too big…maybe just as big as that guy’

As if it were a simple task…sometimes cover models and physique athletes are treated if they are lesser beings because they don’t weigh 300lbs…

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‘That guy’ is 185lb and shredded at about 4% bodyfat… years of dedication and hard work…not a physique you can just develop overnight…

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On a final note…I got an email the other day from somebody saying…

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‘I didn’t expect the ‘Athlete physique’ training system to be so difficult… I was actually looking for one of those ‘sissy’ 20 minutes 3 days/ week programmes that you take the piss out of in the athlete physique manual…’

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That’s why I take the piss out of them… because they don’t work!

Think about this one…

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Two people on the EXACT same training programme one with excess calories and restrict the other persons calories and PRESTO!!

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One will gain muscle and the other will lose fat it… Weights are a tool and can be used for fat loss or muscle gain but it depends on a number of factors…

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This is a theory I like to call ‘Micro bulking’ and ‘Micro Cutting’ and is one of the principles Ian used to build muscle and burn fat at the same time.

Check it out here >>> http://athletephysique.com

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A lot of people train twice a day and it sounds ‘hardcore’…

But in reality they are just TRYING to be hardcore…they want to be able to SAY they trained twice… either that or they THINK they are actually going to benefit from it.

With the exception of elite level athletes, or highly experienced gym goers, training twice a day is a load of nonsense… Athletes may have to perform a technical or team based session and a conditioning or strength session in one day but the certainly don’t train maximally twice per day. But for someone to perform a training session before work, say legs or ‘quads’ and then go and training hamstrings in the evening or likewise training back in the morning and benching in the evening… I call BS.

Let me explain…

Any big compound exercise i.e. bench press, squat, deadlift…anything that more than one joint is moving. Utilises a lot more muscle than the primary one.

I.e. whether you like it or not you are going to be even a little fatigued from the first session and the second session will suffer. Or even better you may ‘save yourself’ for the evening session and train submaximally in session the first one.

Ive also heard… ‘ill just do a little metabolic work this morning’

The little metabolic work would consist of max effort jumps, bodyweight exercises and sprints… or even steady state cardio…

The problem with this is two fold.

If you even devote half your effort to the session in the AM then the PM session is going to be effected…

The result: Two half arsed sessions…and over training… over train and you will get nowhere…

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One max effort session will always beat two half arsed ones.

If it were the other way around it wouldn’t be as bad, but it is still nowhere near optimal.

Truth is, the calories you burn during your training session are negligible.

It’s the calories that are burned after the training session while you are sitting on your arse on the couch that make all the difference.

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Likewise, nobody ever got bigger or put on muscle inside the gym. You damage the muscle and get weaker in the gym. You grow and develop when you are eating, sitting and recovering!

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Get it out of your head that in order to achieve any fat loss/ muscle building goals you need to spend an eternity in the gym.

You don’t…

You need to recover adequately, eat smart and in recovery periods you will either grow or lose fat… depending on you food intake…

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I repeat… training twice is stupid… eat less and leave the metabolic work out or…

End each training session with a specific workouts finisher that will burn fat for hours after you are finished training like in ‘Athletic Body System’.

Or add in a muscle building ‘gunshow’ or lagging bodypart pairing like in or the more advanced muscle building programme ‘Athlete Physique’

Thanks for reading…

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Bryan Kavanagh BSc CSCS

Co-author of

Athletic Body System and

Athlete Physique training systems.

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There is a quick intermission here in the seminar I’m at so I said I’d throw this up real quick.

I’m a clown and I didn’t book my connect flight before I left and I ended up stranded in Chicago for a couple hours which was interesting. But I did get an EPIC chicken fillet and vegetable dish…mushroom sauce and all for $12.

WIN

Got to Vegas early Thursday morning and wandered about for a while and went to do a training session in the Planet Hollywood ‘Timeshare’ building…It’s a new building and I sincerely hope the gym is just not finished because it was ridiculously under equipped.

Ended up just making do with what was there and doing the following:

A1: Heavy pulldowns,

B1: High rep push ups (Trying to fatigue the muscle so that the measly 50lb dumbbells might feel heavier… it didn’t work)

A2: Pulldown strip set (200lbs, 180, 160, 140, 100 all reps to failure)

B2: Push Ups decending metabolic pairing (10, 8, 6, 4, 2,)

Attempted to do some Dumbbell Incline chest press…DB’s were way too light so I had to do the unthinkable and use the MACHINES….<insert horror music here>

A3: Machine chest press

B3: Chest supported row … with silly 50’s again

Then I took the piss and done a set of every machine in the gym and started being a jackass and recording stuff…Nuisance isn’t the word…

Forgot to mention…client and good friend/famous guy I helped lose nearly 100 lbs in the last couple of months came with me to the gym…

We were in PURE night club Thursday Night night in Caesars palace and the new club ‘Vanity’ last night good laugh and I’m paying the price now, 3 hours total sleep in 2 days and then trying to concentrate doesn’t mix

We’re getting back to work here so I gotta go…

We are headed to a VIP Party in ‘Haze’ nightclub in ARIA nightclub later tonight…

We’ll train first I swear!

Snoop dog is playing a set which is going to be EPIC … Photos to come

I’ll keep you posted..

B

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I was supposed to be competing in the best shape personal trainer class in the show but because of lack of entries I ended up just eating chocolate and deciding to do a bench press competition after Marc O Neill OWNED the first timers section of the Bodybuilding section.

FAIR PLAY to Marc, I called him THAT DAY and asked him if he wanted to compete…

The competition started at 730pm and we arrived at 731pm…

No preperation, wearing his girlfriends tan, he looked AWESOME and owned the category..

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Then he OWNED me at the bench press competition too!! As you can hear from the video above…

‘i let him win’

GOOD MAN ROCKY!

http://athletephysique.com

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Happy St. Patricks Day

Hopefully you are all chowing down on salads and guzzling down a nice big water shaking your heads disapprovingly at all of the people that are polluted drunk…

Pah. I’m going to ALDI to get cheap whiskey now!

I’m joking…or am I?

Or am I drunk already…who knows…

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This time last year we done a SALE of ‘Athletic Body System’ on Paddy’s day and we made a FREE medicine ball ebook bonus for you all too… Great fun!

This year we are re-writing Athletic Body System, restructuring it and making it much more user friendly so stick with us on that one!

For Now I am proud to announce that we are having a 48 hour sale of the ‘Athlete Physique’ Physique Development System.

48 hours! Thats it!

We have reduced the price and we are leaving the added bonuses ‘The Gun Show’ and ‘Two Week Body Fat Blitz’ in there too!

Check it out here!

—> Athlete Physique 48 hour sale

Also, if you haven’t already, I Would Recommend signing up as you will get the free videos too!

—> Muscle Building Fundamentals

Its a WIN-WIN!

Get over there and take advantage because in 48 hours the sale is over!

I’m off to get some Whiskey…

Go Raibh Mile Maith Agat

Bryan

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