Bullet Proof Guide For: Bodybuilding, Fitness, Exercise, Supplementation, Diet, Training, & Mechanics

PRODUCED BY MY BODYBUILDING NETWORK

TOM MIONE

Table of Contents

Chapter One: Energy And Metabolism.............................1

Chapter Two: Muscle Terminology.................................24

Chapter Three: Defining Strength..................................55

Chapter Four: Weight Training.......................................64

Chapter Five: Muscle Hypertrophy Process.................117

Chapter Six: Principles.................................................138

Chapter Seven: Excessive Training..............................165

Chapter Eight: Determining Repetitions, Sets, And Frequency

...............................................................................................  170

Chapter Nine: Supplements, BCAA’s, Protein, and sorting through fact and fiction   183

Chapter Ten: Summary.................................................218

Chapter one

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Energy and Metabolism

odybuilding, training, and fitness isn't a hobby; it's a lifestyle. The most important distinction is that in order to live the life,

you must understand all of the dynamics that your training will require. This starts with understanding body mechanics. When you train, you are impacting the body in several ways. The body begins to change at the cellular level, allowing more energy to be released with less oxygen. Heart function improves, and the capillaries proliferate, allowing a more efficient flow of oxygen and nutrients. The muscles, connective tissues, and bones that are involved in a particular physical activity strengthen to accommodate improved proficiency at performing the activity. Over time, the body's composition changes (e.g., fat mass may decrease while muscle mass increases), and movements become more efficient. Also, heart rate and blood pressure drop. The more informed you are, the better you are at understanding all the elements that go into becoming a champion or the best YOU can be. This starts with you educating yourself and learning how to develop appropriate fitness and health plans for the desired outcome you seek. The training effect would not be possible

without sufficient energy to bring about the positive muscular, cardiopulmonary, and metabolic adaptations. But where exactly does this energy come from?

Let's First Start To Discuss Energy

Before we dive feet first into the journey of becoming the next Mr. or Mrs. Olympia, it's important to understand how the body works; all of the components, functions, and collaborations that take place internally. The more you know about your body chemistry, the better prepared and armed you will be at achieving your desired outcome. So let's take a look at how the human body generates and creates energy. This is where every single first step should start. Knowing how you generate energy and how to control your energy are vital. Energy is the biggest conduit that makes it possible for you to meet, exceed, and control your fitness goals. The major problem is, what can be done to generate more energy? How can I feel more motivated and able to sustain a workout? The answer is simple. All food sources contain proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, sugars, and starches, and the cells of our bodies need them all. Carbohydrates refer to sugars and starches that the body uses as fuel. Fats are compounds that store energy. Proteins are important components of cells and tissues; they are large, complex molecules that comprised of amino acids. Protein is the building block of muscle building. We will get deep into the macro indexes later on, but for now, it is important to know what amino acids are, and their role. Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are discussed in more detail later on as well, but let's not get out over our skis or put the cart before the horse. We will discuss the vital role that they play, and how to use them to our advantage later on in later chapters.

Virtually all humans and animals eat plants and other animals to obtain the energy required to maintain cellular activities. The body uses carbohydrates, fats, and proteins to provide the necessary energy to maintain cellular activity both at rest and during activity. So we are going to dive deep into how we can use this to our advantage. How

we can harness this energy to produce muscle, stamina, clean striations, and generate new muscle hypertrophy. Some of these terms may be new to you but be rest assured that you will be a subject matter expert in all of them by the time you're finished with this book. Just concentrate on one simple ideology. The More You Know, the More you GROW. So let's dig right in.

All cells require energy. The body must have a way of converting carbohydrates, fats, and proteins into a biologically usable form of energy to fuel physical activities and provide the structural components of the body. The capability to run, jump, and lift weights is dependent upon and limited by the body's ability to transform food into biological energy. These physical abilities are further contingent upon thousands of chemical reactions that occur throughout the body all day long. Collectively, these reactions are known as metabolism. Your metabolic rate is a direct derivative of the caloric intake you are suppling yourself, as well as the caloric output IE: activity, working out, fitness-related actives, etc. These various chemical reactions taking place in the body need to be regulated to maintain balance. The body consists of trillions of cells, which are organized into tissues, organs, and systems. The body's components work together in a synchronism manner to maintain this balance. Metabolic activities are constantly taking place in the cells in your body and must be carefully regulated to maintain a constant internal environment.

METABOLISM.

What is it? Can I do anything about it?

Plenty of people blame their weight on a slow metabolism, but what does that mean? Is metabolism really at fault here, and if that is the case, can't I just boost up my metabolism to burn more calories? The answer is both yes, and no. Metabolism is indeed linked to weight. But contrary to common belief, slow metabolism is usually not the cause of excess weight gain. Though your basic energy needs are influenced by your metabolism. However, the quantity of food

and drink you consume along with how much physical activity you get are the things that ultimately determine your weight. Always remember the golden rule—caloric intake versus caloric output. If you are in a surplus, meaning you are consuming more calories than you are burning, your rate of metabolism will slow down, leaving excess calories to be stored away as fat. This is also vice/verse on a deficit.

Metabolism describes the manner in which the body transforms your drink and food into energy. In the course of this complex biochemical process, calories obtained from food and beverages combine with oxygen to produce the energy needed by the body to function. The body needs energy to function appropriately, even when you are resting. This is because the body needs energy for all its hidden functions, which include breathing, adjusting hormone levels, growing and repairing cells, and circulating blood. The number of calories used by the body to carry out these basic functions is known as the basal metabolic rate — metabolism. Many factors define your basal metabolism; they include:

The composition and size of your body. Larger and muscular people burn more calories, even when resting.

Your gender. Women usually have more body fat and less muscle than men of equal age and weight; therefore, women burn less calories than men.

Your age. As you grow older, the volume of muscle in the body begins to diminish, and fat becomes the bulk of the body weight. This slows down the rate of the body burning calorie.

The energy required by the body to perform the body's basic functions is fairly constant and doesn't easily change. Apart from your body's basal metabolic rate, two factors can affect the rate and amount of calories burned per day: The first of these is called Food processing (thermogenesis). This reveals that all of your digestion, absorption, transportation, and storing of what you eat or drink also burn calories.

The process of digestion and absorption of food and its nutrients utilize roughly 10 percent of the calories you get from the protein and carbohydrates that you consume. Next is physical activity. Physical activities and exercises are activities that require movement. Playing tennis, taking a walk to the store, running down the street, or even doing a brisk walk are all examples of physical activities. Physical activity and exercise is, without a doubt, the most variable factor in determining the number of calories you burn.

Metabolism and how it Applies to your Body Weight

You may be tempted to blame your metabolism for weight gain. However, because metabolism is a natural process, your body has many mechanisms that regulate it to meet your individual needs. A medical problem, which reduces the rate of metabolism, such as having a thyroid gland that is underactive (hypothyroidism) or Cushing's syndrome can result in gaining excess weight; though it is not common. Gaining weight is complicated. It's possibly as a result of the combination of genetic makeup, composition of diet, hormonal controls, and how the environment impacts your lifestyle, which includes sleep, stress, and physical activity. These factors lead to an imbalance in the energy equation. When you consume more calories than you burn, you gain weight.

Although it looks like some people find it easier to lose weight easily and faster than others, everybody loses weight when they eat less calories than they burn. Losing weight requires you to create an energy deficit by consuming less calories or burning more calories by engaging in physical activity or both. While you can't really control your basal metabolism speed, you have control over the number of calories you burn. When you are active, you burn more calories. In fact, most of the people who are seen as having a fast metabolism are merely just more active than others.

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You can burn more calories with:

Regular aerobic exercise. Engaging in aerobic exercise is the most efficient way to burn calories. It includes activities such as walking, bicycling, and swimming. As a general goal, it includes a minimum of 30-minutes physical activity in your routine daily.

If you are looking to lose lose weight or you are hoping to reach specific fitness goals, without a doubt, you will have to engage in more physical activities. If you find it difficult to set time aside for longer workouts, you can consider doing 10-minute chunks of activity throughout the day. Remember that the more active you are, the more the benefits you derive.

Strength training. According to experts, strength training involves engaging in strength training exercises for a minimum of two times per week. It is important because it is helpful in counteracting muscle loss, which is associated with aging. Furthermore, since muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissue, muscle mass is an important factor in losing weight.

Lifestyle activities. Every movement you do, no matter how small, burns calories. Every day, engage in activities that will require you to move and walk than you did the previous day.

Opting for the stairs in place of the elevator more often and parking farther away at the parking lot are simple ways of increasing physical activities and burning more calories. Activities, which include gardening, washing your car, and housework, help burn calories, and promote weight loss. Don't buy into the Hype of a Miracle Diet Pill. Forget about considering dietary supplements as a way of burning excess calories or losing weight. Products claiming to help you speed up your metabolism are often nothing more than a hype, causing undesirable and harmful side effects. Anyone who claims that a pill can take off 30 pounds in 30 days is a snake oils salesman. The Food and Drug Administration doesn't verify the safety

and effectiveness of dietary supplement manufacturers. With this in mind, these products should be viewed with skepticism and caution. Always inform your doctor of any supplements you are taking. There is no shortcut or easy way to weight loss. Diet and physical activities remain the foundation for losing weight. Consuming less calories than you burn is the key to losing weight. The golden rule that you should ALWAYS factor in and commit to memory is simple: Caloric input verses Caloric output. Later, we will go into the deep end of the pool with this, but for now, just commit that to memory.

Through metabolism, the body sustains itself and adapts to the environment. Energy is needed by the body in order for metabolism to take place. The body derives its energy by breaking down nutrients such as glucose, the key circulating sugar in the blood, and the main source of energy for the body. Ketone bodies are bodies produced as intermediate products of fat metabolism. Lactic acid is a byproduct of glucose and glycogen metabolism in anaerobic muscle energetics. From here, it is important to understand amino acid: These are protein's building blocks. Twenty-four amino acids make up the countless number of different proteins. We will dive much deeper into Aminos, branch chains, and their vital function in your quest for reaching the body you desire. Fatty acids: A large group of monobasic acids, especially those found in animal and vegetable fats and oils.

Several biochemical processes make up the body's metabolism. They can be categorized into two general phases: anabolism and catabolism. Anabolism and catabolism take place constantly and simultaneously. Nevertheless, they have different magnitude, which depends on how active or inactive one is, and when the last meal was eaten. The body experiences a net growth when anabolism surpasses catabolism. However, the body experiences a net loss of body substance, which may result in a loss of weight and tissue when catabolism exceeds anabolism.

Anabolism involves reactions that chemically combine various biomolecules in order to produce larger and more complex ones. The

creation of new cellular material, which include as proteins, enzymes, new cells, cell membranes, and the repair/growth of several tissues, is the final result of anabolism. In muscle tissues, energy is stored as glycogen and/or fat. Anabolism is essential in the maintenance, repair, and growth of tissues.

Catabolism refers to the chemical reactions involved in the breaking down of complex biomolecules into smaller ones that are used for energy production and recycling and excretion of molecular components. The energy required to transmit nerve impulses and contractions of the muscle is provided by catabolism.

HOW CAN I MONITOR MY METABOLISM

Until recently, there was no affordable and easy-to-use home testing method designed for athletes to measure key metabolic parameters. Measuring the state of nitrogen metabolism allows you to determine whether protein intake is sufficient and also whether certain supplements are being sufficiently ingested to improve nitrogen balance. Currently, there is a freshly developed testing tool, which uses nitrogen balance testing and fat metabolism status to measure the metabolic waste product in urine. They are easy to use and offer a means to tune your training and nutrition programs finely. Several tests will provide an economical way to determine testosterone and cortisol levels in the body by analyzing saliva. When the body is overtrained, there is an increase in cortisol levels. Cortisol refers to the catabolic hormone responsible for stimulating the breaking down of muscle tissue. Excess cortisol content in the blood ultimately leads to the wastage of tissue and a negative balance of nitrogen. Therefore, when there is a high testosterone/cortisol ratio, anabolism prevails. However, a high level of cortisol and lowered ratio indicate overtraining. Testing the testosterone/cortisol ratio helps you determine whether the body is in a state of overtraining or not.

Thus, you will be able to come up with the right training approach,

whether to increase training intensity or to take a couple of days off. One of the best ways to really understand your metabolic rate is through a handheld portable indirect calorimeter, which is used to measure  oxygen  consumption  ( O2) and to determine resting metabolic rate (RMR). Remember, the rate of oxidation or the burning of the calories is not the same for carbohydrates, protein, and fat. The food you eat can either be burned to liberate energy, converted into bodyweight, or be defecated. If you place a dome over a lit candle, cutting off the oxygen source, the fire will go out. Similarly, the ability of the body to go through oxidation is contingent on oxygen. The body burns more calorie if it gets more oxygen.

Nutrition monitoring is vital in taking care of your overall health. It is increasingly more important when you are dealing with diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and obesity, as well as conditions that place patients at risk for malnutrition, such as cancer, burns, trauma, infection, obstructive lung disease, and HIV.

Macronutrients refer to nutrients required by the body in large quantities in the diet; they include carbohydrates, fat, and protein. When macronutrients are taken alone, they leave the stomach at different rates of time. Carbohydrates empty from the stomach the quickest. For this reason, pure carbohydrate drinks taken during exercise can get into the bloodstream fast and replenish glucose—the body's primary energy source. Proteins empty from the stomach next in time sequence, and fats take the longest to empty out. When carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are consumed together, they get mixed up, causing the stomach to take longer to empty. The stomach normally takes 1 to 4 hours to empty, depending on the amount and kinds of foods eaten.

While the intestines are known as the primary location for absorption, the stomach can absorb some nutrients as well. The stomach can absorb water, glucose, alcohol, aspirin, some other drugs, and some vitamins, such as niacin, among other things. The fact that water and glucose can be partially absorbed through the

stomach is a benefit for quick replenishment of these nutrients during exercise. Some popular sports drinks take advantage of this fact and contain glucose as an ingredient. Another popular ingredient is fructose; on the other hand, it is slowly absorbed. Complex carbohydrates may also be added to sports drinks because they release glucose at a slow rate as they are digested. Glucose ingestion can help spare glycogen stores, but it must be ingested within a half-hour of exercise, or it can cause an influx of insulin, which will upset energy generation during exercise. The stomach only begins the process of breaking down complex molecules. The complete digestion of these substances occurs farther along in the digestive tract. Complex molecules are broken down into their smaller components (e.g., proteins into amino acids). This breakdown process, also called hydrolysis, continues in the intestines when the partially digested material in the stomach enters the small intestine through the pyloric sphincter muscle. At this stage, it is called chyme.

Calculating Caloric Expenditure

The single biggest question that is asked by all is, do you know how many calories you burn every day? You ought to know if you are intentional about losing weight. When you know your number, you can calculate your energy balance and figure out the quantity of food to eat daily. You must reach a negative energy