Steak and Veg

A great meal to tuck into after a long day at the gym, not only is it tasty and satisfying, but it is packed full of nutrients to keep you growing and recovering until the next gym session.

The steak is packed full of protein and excellent mass-building food sources such as iron, zinc and B vitamins. Red meats have a high calorie per serving ratio, making it an excellent choice for hard gainers looking to pack on some serious size. The irpn also aids recovery times and will help keep you firing on all cylinders in the gym tomorrow. The veg also supplies the other essential vitamins and contributes towards your five a day. Especially the mushrooms which have very low total calorie and carbohydrate levels which make them the ideal add on, not to mention that they're fat free. Their main selling point is that mushrooms are a great source of vitamin D.

Add them all together in a meal and you have a great meal for those looking to gain some serious size in the muscle department and yet if eaten once a week it shouldn’t lead to serious body fat gains. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized steaks
• 200g mixed vegetables (boiled from frozen)
• 50g mushrooms
• 50g red onion

Explosive press ups

Press ups are one of the most under-rated exercises out there, and yet still one of the most commonly known moves. The press up can be applied in many different forms to target different muscle groups; chest, triceps, shoulders, core and also can be performed at incline/ decline positions to give different results.

 This particular version of the press up will help to boost not only the fast twitch muscle fibres in your chest and triceps, generating your explosive power, but is also a great cardio workout if performed in an interval training style. It really helps with compound moves such as bench press and chest press as well as improving your reflex arch in your triceps for that explosive edge.

I suggest performing the move in 30-45 second intervals for 3 sets with a 30 second break in between sets to get the best out of this training. Check out the video below to see how to do this power boosting move!

Abs Circuit 2

One of the best ways to train your abs is in circuit form. This allows you to target all aspects of you core muscles from lower back, to obleaks and abs as well as hitting them fast. The following circuit should boost your abdominal gains and get you that 6-pack in time for summer.

Station 1 – sit ups

Station 2 – the plank
Station 3 – abs cable twists
Station 4 – hanging leg raises
Station 5 – side planks (half the time each side)

Timing and duration:

Beginners – The circuit should be completed twice at 45 second intervals per exercise with suitable weights for the cable twists (7.5-10kg) with no rest in between each exercise and around 1-3 minutes rest between each circuit.
Advanced – The circuit should be completed 3 times at 1 minute intervals per exercise with suitable weights for the cable twists (12.5-20kg) with no rest between exercises and 1-2 minute intervals between circuits.
 
To add a little extra effort try adding a medicine ball to the sit ups, or holding a light dumbbell between your feet for the leg raises, remember NO PAIN = NO GAIN!

Cottage cheese and tuna

Okay so it maybe doesn't sound like the most delicious snack you've ever read about but it is crammed full with essential nutrients that your body needs to grow and develop. It also sticks to a good ratio for protein to carbs of almost 2:1.
This is a great snack to have after your workout as it contains 22 grams of carbs which will help to replenish your blood sugar levels with good low GI carbohydrates reather than a high glucose alternative. It is also crammed full of protein with 43 grams of protein for 3 different sources, ensuring that your body gets all of the amino acids it need to get into an anabolic state.

Simply get around 65 grams of cottage cheese (half a small tub) and spread on one round of whole meal toast (50grams). Then open one tin of tuna (125 grams drained) and tuck in.

8 body building nutrition essentials

1. Egg whites There's a reason why every successful bodybuilder in the world incorporates egg whites into their diet. With a protein to fat ratio of 60:1, egg whites are unquestionably one of the purest forms of protein in the world. This magnificent muscle-building food also possesses an extremely high biological value - meaning that a large proportion of the protein absorbed from egg whites is readily utilized by your body in protein synthesis. Egg whites also contain very few carbohydrates and are a source of vitamins and minerals.

2. Turkey

To pack on pounds of serious muscle, lean meats such as turkey breasts should be a staple in every bodybuilder's diet. Aside from providing an excellent source of high quality protein, they are also extremely low in saturated and trans fats. Because of the low fat count, turkey can be incorporated into multiple meals throughout the day for an excellent source of protein. It is also easily available food sources that can be prepared a number of different ways - providing the opportunity for a variety of meal options.

3. Fish

Although the recurring theme so far has been to eat foods that are low in fat, fish is one exception to this rule. Of course you want to stay away from saturated and trans fats, but your body still needs essential fatty acids such as omega-3 to help support the muscle-building. Cold water fish such as salmon, tuna, and sardines are an excellent source of protein and healthy fats. Canned fish packed in water also comes in very handy because it provides a quick source of protein when on the go.

4. Beans & Legumes

If you are serious about building muscle, you can't ignore the power of beans and legumes. When people typically think of bodybuilding foods, they immediately refer to various lean meats, but what they don't realize is that the bean is a delicious and highly nutritious source of protein and fibre. Fibre is essential to maintaining a regular and normal healthy bowel movement as well as proper insulin response - which is critical to muscle growth as both functions aid in absorption and use of various nutrients and supplements ingested by bodybuilders. Kidney beans in particular are a very popular choice as they provide nearly 14 grams of both.

5. Lean red meat

Lean ground beef and cuts of red meat are excellent mass-building food sources rich in protein, iron, zinc and B vitamins. Red meats have a high calorie per serving ratio, making it an excellent choice for hard gainers looking to pack on some serious size. However, because red meats do possess a higher level of saturated fats, they should not be consumed on an everyday basis. Lean red meats are best incorporated into a weekly diet of chicken turkey and fish - adding a little variety to your weekly nutrition plan.

6. Slow-Burning Carbs

Muscle isn't built with protein alone. You also need a good source of slow-burning carbohydrates to fuel and sustain your muscles. Slow-acting carbohydrates found in foods such as oatmeal and sweet potatoes make the best pre-workout snack. Why? Well, when you exercise, muscle glycogen (carbs stored within your muscle) becomes the main source of fuel. As glycogen levels decrease from hard training, your intensity begins to decrease and more importantly, your body begins to tap your muscles for a source of energy thereby causing them to degenerate!

7. Water

When it comes to muscle builders, the first thing to come to mind is meat. But the number one item that should be in your arsenal is water. Just think about it - 70 percent of your body is made up of water. Your muscles, tissue cells and ligaments all contain water. And most importantly, your life force - blood - is made up substantially of water. When it comes to building a massive physique, you need to keep yourself in the most anabolic state possible and that is why many bodybuilders recommend drinking 10 litres of water a day. Staying hydrated also keeps your muscles full looking.

8. Whey Protein

Now there’s one extremely important supplement that is more than worthy of being included on this list - whey protein. When it comes to packing on pounds of muscle, it is generally recommended that your protein intake be approximately 2-3grams of protein per kilo of bodyweight. But this is a very high level to reach on ‘normal’ food alone so you need to be supplementing your diet with whey shakes or incorporating it into your meals, like adding a scoop to your porridge or in a Smoothie. But when bulking remember that it’s probably better to use whey as an extra meal rather than as a replacement, and vice versa for shredding diets.

DDT

This week I thought I’d address the problem that faces a lot of athletes and body builder beginners. This mainly revolves around not understanding what you want or how to achieve what you want, mainly due to false rumours and mixed information.

Firstly I should point out that there are two posts already on this topic on the blog, the genetics page and the post ‘rep rules’. But I’m going to address the three main things that help me with my aims and training every single day, and that’s D.D.T.

D = Diet

You have to get your nutrition right if you want to see the improvements quickly and feel the muscles growing as you train. Emphasis on seeing the improvements because you will find that once people start bulking diets they immediately start to pig out on anything they can reach so long as it has over 5 grams of protein in it! But this doesn’t help because you’ll either end up bloated and not wanting to train today because you don’t feel well, or don’t want to look fat in the gym. Or you’ll cover any muscle gains with an extra layer of blubber. Similarly you need to do the same if you are shredding, don’t just eat nothing all day, give your muscles the protein and other nutrients they need whilst managing the carbs and fat levels.
In my opinion Diet is the most important part to get right because you could lift all the weights you want but if you don’t give your body the tools to recover and grow, your beat.

D = Dedication

You need to be dedicated. If you have a training routine STICK TO IT! Don’t procrastinated and say ‘oh its okay I’ll do it tomorrow’ because it wont help and if anything you’ll just encourage yourself to procrastinate on more days. I’m not saying get in the gym and train till you drop every day. But stick to your routine or you’ll never get where you want.
Also if you aren’t seeing any improvements after a week, don’t just give up. Especially if your trying to gain size or strength it takes far longer to see the results than you think but if you can stick at it the gains when they come are worth it.
So get in that gym and get working now! Also those people who want to get bigger and then when they train and are sore or stiff the next day, THAT MEANS ITS WORKING!

Don’t give me the whole oh I hate legs day… as ZYZZ says ‘You ****ing love leg day. You can’t wait to ****ing squat’ You wouldn’t be training your legs like that unless you wanted them to grow!

T= Training
You need to get your training right if you want to make gains, get shredded or get fit. This is where the previous posts come into play. You need to research what your genetic type is first and what training works best for you. Then look at what your goal is, to loose weight, gain muscle and size, get fit… and then see what rep range, cardio sessions and weight you should be doing and do it!

Getting the right training is vital otherwise you’ll end up wasting your money on nutrition and your gym membership because you aren’t putting dedicated hours of work in/ your doing the wrong things!

So in future remember the vital DDT!