Tag: fitness tips

3 Keys To Building Muscle And Burning Fat At The Same Time

Post author By Remson
Post date May 1, 2017

3 Keys To Building Muscle And Burning Fat At The Same Time

One of the biggest myths in fitness today is the belief that you can’t build muscle and drop body fat at the same time, atleast not a substantial amount. Because of this belief, it is a common practice to alternate between 3 different phases known as bulking, cutting, and maintenance. My goal here in this article is to simplify the process and explain the 3 keys to building muscle and burning fat at the same time.

The Vicious Cycle Of Cutting & Bulking

This vicious cycle will have you bouncing back and forth from one extreme to the next. You want to get lean and sexy, so you neurotically cut calories in efforts to drop weight fast. You drop the weight, and a clothing size or two. You feel good about it for a bit, but the feeling fades when you realize you look flat. You’ve gotta put some muscle on, and add some shape to this now thinned out physique. Popular opinion says you’ve gotta eat big to get big, so you begin doing just that, over eating. You hit it hard in the gym and pack on some good size, but only a small portion of it being actual lean mass. Ladies and gentlemen, the vicious cycle of bulking and cutting.

Debunking the calorie myth

Before we go any further I need to clarify what calorie is and is not. A calorie is not a form of nutrients, it is actually a measure of thermo energy. To be specific it is the energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water through 1 °C. Basically food works in the body much like how gas works in your car. The fuel heats up creating a caloric output (energy use). The more “calories” we consume, the more potential caloric output we have.

Understanding that, we can now see that the only purpose for increasing calorie intake is to have more usable energy. Whatever potential energy we have left over is stored in either the liver, muscle tissue, or fat cells. If you have your calorie surplus too high, you’ll gain body fat. If your calorie deficit is too low, you’ll lose muscle. Sounds simple enough, but this is actually where calorie counting falls on its face.

Are all calories created equal?
Does it matter where the calories come from?
How do you calculate how many calories you need?

I’ve often had clients drop body fat and increase muscle mass by increasing their food intake, so what’s the missing link here?

Quality Over Quantity

When thinking about food, quality comes first. The quality of your food is its macro and micro nutrient balance. A good example of this would be fruit vs cake.

Cake has little to no nutritional value, and very high in “calories”. Cake is known to be fattening because not only is it high in “calories, its also low in fiber, so you end up eating way too much of it before actually feeling full.

Fruit is low in “calories” but loaded with vitamins, minerals, and fiber which greatly improve energy, recovery, and digestion. This means more muscle growth and fat burn.

The 3 Keys To The Right Gains & Losses

1. NITROGEN SURPLUS

Consuming protein increases the nitrogen levels in your body. This nitrogen is what builds the muscle tissue in the body. Simply put, you will build muscle as long as you have a nitrogen surplus in the body during recovery. Studies show that the optimal consumption of protein per day for muscle building is 1.5 to 1.8 grams per kilogram of lean body mass.

2. TRAIN INTENSE & TIME EFFICIENT

Your training sessions should be fairly quick and intense, typically within 40 – 45 minutes. Having long drawn out training sessions can drastically reduce performance and inhibit your recover because of over use to the nervous system. Your body only has but so much fuel available at a given time so make every minute count.

3. RECOVERY

The body builds muscle at rest almost entirely when you sleep, which is why the best thing you can do for muscle growth is sleep. The body also metabolizes the most fat at rest in order to generate and stabilize your hormones and other functions. Its pretty much impossible to get the results you want without sufficient recovery.

Leave a comment below! Let me know what info you’ve found most useful here and feel free to ask if you have any further questions. Thanks for reading!

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Tags bodybuilding, diet strategies, fat loss, fitness tips, muscle growth, nutrition plans, power building, powerlifting, training strategies, weight loss, weightlifting

Nutrition & Supplements

6 Key Benefits Of Fasting

Post author By Remson
Post date April 30, 2017

Tribe By Noire

6 Key Benefits Of Fasting

Fasting is one of those things that are really beneficial to us, but is often confused with starvation and regarded as unrealistical and dangerous, so I want to clear some things up and tell you about the 6 key benefits of fasting.

Fasting Vs Starving

Let’s establish the difference between fasting and starving here because there is a huge difference. Just because you feel hungry doesn’t mean you’re starving. Starving basically means undernourished. When you’re starving you’re not getting the nutrition that your body needs which causes some pretty serious health issues.

Ironically in my years of coaching I’ve come to learn that a great deal of people are undernourished even though they eat consistently. There are two main reasons for this.

Your diet does not contain enough of the nutrients you need.
You have digestive issues that keep your body from absorbing and using the nutrients you consume.

On the flip side there is fasting that acts as solution to these problems. Fasting does not necessarily restrict what you eat, but restricts when you eat. You basically set a time frame of when you don’t eat, but there are ways to consume enough nutrients without breaking your fast. The nutrients I’m referring to is micro nutrients, meaning vitamins and minerals.

6 Key Benefits Of Fasting

1. FASTING HELPS WITH FAT LOSS

Fasting is an extremely effective way to lower your body fat percentage. The way this works is there are 2 main sources of energy that your body uses called fat and carbs. Both of the energy sources get broken down into a simpler form called glucose which is what your body operates on. Carbs are the body’s preferred source of energy because its easier to convert into available energy. Fasting allows the body to burn through all of the carbs, and start converting and using fat as energy at a much higher rate.

2. FASTING HELPS IMPROVE INSULIN SENSATIVITY

Insulin sensitivity is major factor in maintaining an efficient energy balance and body fat percentage. Basically insulin sensitivity is the rate out how effective your body is at utilizing blood glucose for energy. The pancreas releases insulin into the bloodstream to collect glucose and transport it to where its needed. Fasting increases the efficiency of this process, which comes as a great benefit to people struggling with fatigue, weight gain, and diabetes.

3. FASTING IMPROVES THE METABOLISM

Its a common belief that not eating for long periods of time can slow down your metabolism, but fasting actually does the complete opposite. Eating constantly creates a lot of work for your digestive tract which over time can cause a slowdown or even a complete burnout. Fasting gives your digestive tract a break from the constant workload thus giving it a jump start to work much more efficiently.

4. FASTING IMPROVES BRAIN FUNCTION

There have been many scientific studies that show Fasting improves brain function because it boosts the production of a protein called brain derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF. BDNF triggers brain stem cells to convert into new neurons, and triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health. This protein also protects your brain cells from diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

5. FASTING IMPROVES THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

fasting improves the immune system by reducing free radical damage, regulating inflammatory conditions in the body and starves off cancer cell formations. It is very difficult for the body to focus on both digestion and recovery which is why when you get sick, your appetite diminishes. Fasting allows the body to concentrate on recovery much more effectively.

6. FASTING PROMOTES LONGEVITY

Contrary to popular belief, the less you eat, the longer you live. Numerous scientific studies show that in both animals and humans, a reduction in food intake results in an increased lifespan. Aging is caused by a slow metabolism and a lack of recovery from cellular damage. The combination of all of the previously listed perks of fasting result in a body that stays younger for longer.

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I’ve created this platform to help you become the most powerful version of yourself through fitness, plant based nutrition, and mindset coaching.

Tags diet strategies, fat loss, fitness tips, muscle growth, weight loss

Fitness & Training

The Best Training Routine For Muscle growth And Fat Loss

Post author By Remson
Post date April 30, 2017

The Best Training Routine For Muscle growth And Fat Loss

There are those who train and there are those who just workout. Working out is great and all, and its better than just sitting on the couch binge watching your favorite tv show, but training is where the real progress happens. Training implies programming, following a routine to reach a specific goal with efficiency. In this article I’m going to go over the 3 main types of training routines for muscle growth and fat loss as well as the best training routine for muscle growth and fat loss.

The 3 Main Types of Training Routines

THE BODY PART SPLIT

This is where you train each specific muscle group once a week. This is most commonly used by body builders. The purpose is to isolate and stimulate a specific muscle or muscle group as much as possible in a given session and let it recover for the rest of the week. Doing this can help you fine tune your physique specifically for aesthetics on stage. Here’s an example

Monday – Chest & Triceps
Tuesday – Back & Biceps
Wednesday – Rest
Thursday – Legs
Friday – Arms
Saturday – Accessory work
Sunday – Rest

The body part split will vary according to what muscles you want to focus on the most and what your schedule will allow.

UPPER & LOWER SPLIT

With this type of routine, your training days will alternate between upper body and lower body. This will allow you to hit each muscle group at least twice per week. This type of training routine is ideal for anyone needing to practice specific movement patterns because of the increased training frequency of each muscle group. Here’s an example

Monday – Lower Body (Squat & Deadlift)
Tuesday – Upper Body (Bench Press & Pull Ups)
Wednesday – Rest
Thursday – Lower Body (Deadlift & Squat)
Friday – Upper Body (Bench Press & Rows)
Saturday – Accessory work
Sunday – Rest

FULL BODY

From what I’ve seen in my own clients and the studies I’ve read, full body routines are the best type of routine for overall weight loss. Each training day combines upper body and lower body exercises, preferably back to back to raise and sustain the body’s metabolic rate. The higher your metabolic rate is, the more glucose and fat you burn. Here’s an example

Monday – Deadlift & Chest Press
Tuesday – Rest
Wednesday – Squat & Push Press
Thursday – Rest
Friday – Box Jumps & Farmers Carries
Saturday – Rest
Sunday – Low intensity distance walk

The Best Of Both Worlds

In my 11 years of coaching I’ve had the ability to test hundreds of different programs with hundreds of different clients, and from that experience I’ve been able to learn what works most.

The body part split works best to build lagging muscle groups, but it definitely isn’t the best way to cut body fat or improve movement quality and strength.
Full body has shown incredible results for weight loss, but muscle growth tends to be slow with this process which means this isn’t ideal for aesthetic purposes.

THE WINNER

The Upper & Lower Split reign supreme in my book. Whether you’re a beginner, or advanced, fat, skinny, or in between, this routine has got you covered. This is a type of routine that mostly use for myself. When I want to gain mass, I just increase the weight load and calorie intake and when I want to lean out, I just increase the rep volume, lower the weight a bit, and drop my calories by a few hundred.

Subscribe, leave a comment and let me know if you’ve found this information useful, or if you have any other questions. Thanks for reading, family!

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Tags bodybuilding, fitness tips, power building, powerlifting, training strategies, weightlifting

Fitness & Training

6 Signs Of Over Training In The Gym

Post author By Remson
Post date April 30, 2017

Tribe By Noire

6 Signs Of Over Training In The Gym

Ambition is a great thing of course! We get pumped and we go after what we want every chance we get, but it seems sometimes like we can never do enough. The question is though, are we doing too much? Here’s 6 signs of over training in the gym.

1. Trouble Sleeping At Night

Here’s usually where it starts. You get that weird feeling where you’re tired, but you can’t get your body to settle down. You might feel your heart racing like you’re on tons of caffeine. This is a result of excessive stress to the nervous system and hormone imbalance.

2. Increased Fatigue

This of course goes hand in hand with a lack of sleep, but is not exclusive to a simple bad night’s rest. This increased fatigue can last for an entire week depending on how long you’ve been over training and to what degree.

This type of fatigue doesn’t just feel like sleepiness, or muscle soreness. It feels more like complete exhaustion physically and even mentally.

3. Loss Of Appetite

Over training can disrupt your hormone balance to the point that it causes you to even lose your appetite. Your metabolism slows down drastically in order to dedicate more energy to re-establish homeostasis, which is the body’s natural balance.

4. Muscle Loss

For the body to repair and grow muscle, it has to be in a balanced state. Over training causes you to be in a state of chronic inflammation and this is what causes muscle loss.

5. Increased Body Fat

Not only does over training impede muscle gain, but it also can come coupled with an increase in body fat. Fat storage in the body comes from either stress, or poor diet, which ultimately stresses the body anyway.

6. Joint Pain & Injury

These two things are a huge indication that its time to lay off the grind for a bit. If you’re starting to feel new pains in your joints that you haven’t had before, you’re over training. If you ignore the signs, you run the risk of all kinds of injuries. These types of injuries are called over use in juries.

Tennis elbow
Runners knee
Shin splints
Shoulder impingement

These are some just to name a few. My advice is to slow it down now and get some deep tissue massages.

*Train from a place of self love, not from a place of frustration for where you are now.

Tribe By Noire

I’ve created this platform to help you become the most powerful version of yourself through fitness, plant based nutrition, and mindset coaching.

Tags bodybuilding, fitness tips, power building, powerlifting, weightlifting

Fitness & Training

6 Benefits Of Heavy Weightlifting

Post author By Remson
Post date April 29, 2017

6 Benefits Of Heavy Weightlifting

The human body has the ability to adapt to almost any environment, and or lifestyle. An adaption can be anything from weight gain, to sweating, to a nice bronze tan. You actually have a great deal of control over the way you respond and adapt by way of your lifestyle and habits. What I want to talk about today are the 6 benefits of heavy weightlifting. Let’s get started!

1. Rapid Strength Gain

It is obvious but necessary to mention the strength gains from heavy weightlifting. Human beings have an incredible potential to lift over 2.5x their body weight. Imagine how easy day to day activities would be with that kind of strength and how developing that kind of strength would benefit you as you age. I don’t know about you, but I damn sure don’t want to be shrimped up in my senior years.

2. Accelerated Muscle Gain

Your body is literally shaped by muscle, which means that in order to get “in shape” you have to develop muscle. It is impossible to tone anything on the body without developing some muscle. The reason why heavy weightlifting is so beneficial to muscle gain is the direct effect it has on your CNS (central nervous system). Your brain sends signals through your CNS, which creates muscular activation. In order to grow muscle, you have to first stimulate that muscle through forms of resistance training which provoke muscular activation. As resistance increases, activation increases, causing more stimulation and more stimulation, increases the opportunity for more growth.

CNS+ACTIVITY+STIMULI=GROWTH

3. Greater Fat Loss Capability

Fat is more than just belly rolls, cellulite, love handles, and a double chin. Fat is an essential energy source that serves many life sustaining functions such as brain function, digestive health, hormone stability, tissue regeneration, etc. The problem people face is that they store too much of it because their body isn’t using it.

Fat metabolism is your ultimate goal to the freedom of a flexible diet and the confidence in knowing that the donut you want won’t go straight to your belly. So how do you metabolize fat? How can you start using it? The answer is simply to make your body use it! Remember fat is fuel for your body and brain. Heavy weightlifting forces your body to breakdown fat and use it for the energy to not only lift the weight, but also to recover from lifting the weight. You’ll be burning fat and calories all day after you’re done at the gym, and even more so, while you sleep.

4. Increased Bone Density & Connective Tissue

Two of the biggest things your body is going to need to sustain a heavy weightlifting lifestyle is strong bone and connective tissue. When I say connective tissue, I mean tendons and ligaments. Tendons connect muscle to bone and ligaments connect bone to bone. Muscle is meant to take the bulk of the tension, but none of it will last long without the support and integrity of dense bone and connective tissue. Your body was design in a way where once the body is exposed to consistent weightlifting, it will adapt by growing and strengthening those two things as well. This makes weightlifting a great asset to anyone needing increased bone density and connective, especially women, being that they typically lose more bone density as they age and run a higher risk for osteoporosis and arthritis.

5. Stabilize Your Hormones, Brain & Gut Function

I see so many in their 30s and 40s suffering from low testosterone and high estrogen, and woman who struggle with fat retention and weight gain due to excessive estrogen and low testosterone. Understand that neither testosterone or estrogen are exclusive to any gender, only that the levels are different between the two.

Testosterone is a great contributing factor in muscle gain and fat loss, and if too low can cause fat retention in the torso, inhibited muscle retention, erectile dysfunction, etc. Estrogen is greatly responsible for the shape of the female body, the stability of the menstrual cycle. Having an imbalance with it can cause the following.

excess fat retention in the lower body and arms
late period and severe cramps
inhibited muscle gain
low libido and more

Insulin is a hormone released from the pancreas that supports sugar metabolism. Lack of insulin can cause the following.

rapid fat gain
low energy levels
diabetes and a whole lot of other problems.

The list goes on, but the point is that heavy weightlifting, causes the body to adapt in ways that bring everything to a stable and efficient level in order to support and sustain a healthy and strong lifestyle.

6. Higher Self Esteem & Mental Toughness

The feeling you get from strength is like endless victory and invincibility! No average person is going to willingly walk up to a huge weight with overwhelming vigor and start working. To rush toward challenge like that takes a strong positive mindset and you don’t just get like that over night. Living the Strength & wellness Lifestyle and getting over and under some heavy weight on a consistent basis is going to train your mind to be strong as well as your body. That kind of strength spills over to every aspect of your life whether it be in the work place, socially, even dating and intimacy. Get on a good strength program, get in the gym, and start growing!

Thanks for reading, I appreciate you.

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Tags bodybuilding, fitness tips, power building, powerlifting, weightlifting

Fitness & Training

Top 10 Fitness Tips for Beginners

Post author By Remson
Post date April 27, 2017

Top 10 Fitness Tips for Beginners

You’ve decided to start living the Strength & Wellness Lifestyle and I salute you for that! The biggest question is, where do you start? I’ve put together a list, just for you. My top 10 fitness training tips for beginners. Let’s begin!

1. Be Clear On Your Intentions & Commit To A Specific Goal

All of the worlds greatest achievements were attained through clear intent and a solid, unwavering commitment to a specific goal. You’ve got to truly decide what it is that you really want and go for it, without looking back. My advice to you is to sit down in front of a sheet of paper and write down and even draw what you want. Collect pictures of what you want from anywhere you can find. Now take all those things and put them together in a large picture frame or bulletin board, and hang it up somewhere where you’ll see it everyday. That my friend, is a Vision Board!

*No one ever learned how to swim with only half their body in the water.

2. Choose A Mode Of Training That Aligns With Your Goal

Your goal and intention serve as the direction in which you move. Your mode of training will determine how efficiently you move toward your goal. When you’re choosing a mode of training, think about how that mode of training relates to your goal. If you’re trying to get strong, you wouldn’t really want to spend most of your time on a cardio machine, just like if you were trying to drop body fat, you wouldn’t have a diet of sugary, toxic foods.

*When crossing a body of water, bring the boat, not the bus.

3. Make A Training & Nutrition Schedule

You got to get organized! Not having an organized schedule means guaranteed failure. The same way you have to be to work on time, is the same way you have to train and eat on time. Before you even step foot in a gym or pick up a weight, sit down and make a daily, weekly, monthly, and even annual schedule. Go out and get a planner and start filling that thing out!

*Our entire solar system runs on a set schedule, so why shouldn’t you?

4. Learn How To Program For Yourself

Programming is the science behind how to manipulate cause and effect. Sets, Reps, Tempo, Effort, are just a few factors in programming. Familiarize yourself with what works and use it. The better you get at your programming and understanding how it works, the easier it will be to get any result you want. The knowledge of programming is one of the main components to breeding a champion.

*The worlds greatest technology is valued by the effectiveness of its programming.

5. Learn Proper Technique & Habits

I see people all the time, in every gym, struggling along in such painful fashion, due to terrible technique. Don’t be that person who looks like an idiot because you never took the time to learn how to do it the right way. Bad technique results in failure, frustration, injury, and humiliation. Get coaching from someone who actually knows what they’re doing and knows how to teach form.

*You wouldn’t get on the road and drive without a license, so why would you get in the gym and fool around without training?

6. Be Consistent

Consistency is a major component to success. The little habits you have and efforts you make on a day to day basis have a compounding effect, which add up over time. Consistency builds momentum and momentum converts into ease of progressive movement. The only grind you should have is the big push in the beginning, in order to develop good habits, but once you have those good habits, your process becomes subconscious. F.Y.I it takes 21 days to develop a habit.

*Its like pushing a car. The worst thing you can do is stop pushing and then start again.

7. Stick To The Basics

My years in coaching has made it quite clear to me that simplicity is the most efficient way to create a positive result. Its very difficult to maintain any kind of consistency with something that’s complicated. Most people get burnt out and quit on complicated routines because we as human beings can only keep up with and process so much at a time. Any great mentor will tell you to follow the KISS method (Keep It Simple Stupid)

*Not even something as complicated as juggling is possible without a simplifying method.

8. Do Not Get Side Tracked By More Advanced Training

The biggest struggle with sticking to the basics is distractions. Let’s say you see someone in the gym who looks like what you’d kill to be and they’re doing something advanced and amazing. You think to yourself, “What if I started doing what they’re doing? Maybe I’d be like them and reach my goal faster!” I don’t blame you for having the thought, but understand that they didn’t start with that, they had to earn the right to do that advanced training by nailing the simple stuff first. Take your time and be patient, you’ll get there.

*Don’t be the cat chasing the laser pointer.

9. Cultivate A Positive State & Stay In It

Living the Strength & Wellness Lifestyle is all about staying in the state that allows you to do so. Your thinking dictates everything you do, so its important to control what thoughts enter into your head on a daily basis. There is no room for self doubt, jealousy, frustration, or laziness. Be conscious of the shows and music you watch and listen to and make sure you’re not loading your mind with useless garbage. Read and educate yourself daily, listen to personal development and mindset audios daily.

*You wouldn’t willingly choose to drink dirty water, so why would you willing choose to consume dirty thoughts.

10. Be Relentless

I don’t know how to explain this other than saying, “Be Relentless!” Go hard for what you want and never let go! I don’t care how tough your life is, DO NOT QUIT!!!

*No one has ever celebrated a quitter!

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Tags fitness tips, mindset, training strategies