CRAZYMUSCLE.COM Blog

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The reason why most people choose to go on a diet or exercise is not because they are concerned about the amount of unsightly muscle on their body. It is a sad fact that this is the idea that most people bring to losing weight.

As a result, they drop pounds but those pounds come from losing muscle mass, which weighs more than fat. The good news is there are ways to maintain your current muscle mass while still losing weight.

The main mistake that most people make during an attempt at weight loss is to cut back on caloric intake too substantially. This is logical because you gain a pound in weight for every 3,000 calories you consume and don’t burn. Unfortunately, this is the worst tactic you could try if you don’t want to lose muscle.

In primary case there is storage of fat in your body, which is for the need as an energy supply depot in case you suffer from starvation due to short supply of food. That is what it is called when you are not eating enough to sustain your life.

When you stop taking in calories your body would automatically start using up these stockpiles but that’s the case,you might think that. Those are the emergency, last resort rations.

First, your body is going to convert your muscle mass into energy and that’s going to slow your metabolism so you don’t need as many calories in the first place which makes it harder for you to lose weight.

A better plan is to gradually reduce your calorie intake and let your body adjust to the changes. For example, you might reduce your calories by 10% the first week, another 10% the second week, and so on. This prevents your body from going into starvation mode.

You must perform the proper exercises in order to burn fat and not muscle. To focus on cardiovascular workouts, is what most fitness instructors and health advocates are going to tell you. It will help your heart and lungs get stronger so you can do more exercise without getting worn out, so it’s a good way to start.

However, you need to add some weight training to that recipe at least 2 to 3 times a week. That way you’ll be replenishing lost muscle and adding new muscle mass. This is good because muscle requires more calories than fat. If you have a lot of lean muscle mass in your body, your metabolism is going to increase which means you’ll burn off more calories and lose weight.

When adding a little weight training into the routine, improved muscle tone is an added benefit you will notice. When people lose weight and don’t exercise properly, they end up flabby.

While plastic surgery can help with that problem a lot, those procedures are expensive and come with a lot of risk. Exercising while you lose weight is the best way to increase your muscle tone and to prevent loose skin.

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DHEA - Dehydroepiandrosterone

I hope you’re ready for a school lesson.  Don’t worry, I’ll try to keep it interesting.  This is the stuff that really matters when it comes to muscle development and overall body sculpting.  What most people don’t realize is that there’s only so much that a protein can do.  Protein supplements are great products, and we recommend you use them.  However, what do you do when you’re getting plenty of protein in your diet?  What about when your limiting factor isn’t protein?

Enter hormones.  These little guys signal your body to start and stop the metabolic pathways that control muscle, fat, bone density, and even moods.  You can’t ignore them!  Think of this – if you’re eating enough protein to fuel 180 pounds of muscle, but your hormones are only maintaining a balance in your body of 160 pounds of muscle, where does that extra protein go?  Well, it either passes through you or gets stored as fat.  We’re going to begin looking at hormones in depth, to help you maximize your potential and make your efforts as effective as possible.  Lets get started…

DHEA (Dehydroepiandrosterone) – DHEA is made in the adrenal gland.  It has anabolic effects – in other words, it signals your body to build up.  It directly stimulates androgenic receptors, and is also eventually converted into testosterone by the metabolic pathway.  You want more of this to build up your muscle mass and strength.  However, a word of caution – if you supplement this, you HAVE TO WORK OUT HARD.  Excess DHEA can be converted into estrogen.  You want this converted to testosterone – not estrogen.

How can you maximize your DHEA for huge muscle explosions in growth?  You want this product – Annadrall.  Use this baby on your bulking phase for 3 months, then cycle off.  Remember when you’re taking it to get enough good fats in your diet – the Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids.  These can be found in walnuts, fish, and flax.  Work out with INTENSITY.  Good luck and prepare for a transformation!!!  More hormone info to come later.

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Anytime I see Terry Crews in a movie, he’s hilarious.  I think I first saw him in a movie dancing and waving these glow-sticks around – I forgot what movie that was, though!  Anyone remember?  The brother is YOKED.  He was a linebacker in the NFL.  Anyways, there was talk of an A-Team remake in the works, and that Terry Crews might play BA Baracus!  He’d be awesome for it, of course.  So I did some reminiscing about Terry Crews, and found this nugget of goodness.  Gotta try this workout…

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So what if everything you knew about dieting was wrong?  What if our theories today about eating were as wrong as they were back in the 60’s, when everyone was supposed to eat 6-11 servings of carbs a day? 

Well, that’s what we’ll be taking a look at today.  If you read about bodybuilding at all, you’ll know that it’s recommended that you break your eating into 4-6 small meals a day.  That way, your body never gets too hungry, which signals it to start storing fat.  Right?  Also, by keeping your meals small, you prevent excess calories from a meal from becoming fat.  Right?  Seems so logical.  The model is so basic – like your body is a tube with a bucket at the bottom.  Just don’t get the bucket too full.

I was looking around the other day and I came across this site.  It introduced me to intermittent fasting.  Here’s the basics on intermittent fasting.  You limit your eating to 8 hours of the day and don’t eat for the other 16 hours.  During the 8 hours, you can drink water, but that’s it.  Here’s some guidelines:

• On a workout day, make your first meal meat, veggies, and a fruit.  Don’t make it a big meal.
• After your workout, have a big meal.  Add good complex carbs in this meal, like rice, pasta, or potatoes.  You can even have a dessert, as long as it’s not high in fat.
• On a non-workout day, eat low/no carbs.  Focus on high-protien and high-fiber meals.
• For the last meal of the day (either workout or non-workout), try to eat a slow digesting protein, like casein.  This can come in egg protein or non-fat cottage cheese.

So why should this work?  What’s the physiology behind this?  First off, it should be noted that there is a lack of solid research on this method.  Aside from that, the theory of it is building off of my post on insulin.  By incorporating a fast, you are increasing your body’s sensitivity to insulin.  Increased sensitivity to insulin means less insulin floating around in your body during the day.  Less insulin during non-workout times means less nutrients going to building fat.  Then, but focusing your insulin and carb levels to after workouts, you maximize nutrient uptake to your muscles, while keeping your carb uptake low at other times of the day.  Get it?

Looking at the results some of his clients are getting, there may be something to it.  There are some very impressive physiques going on there. 

I tried it, and I couldn’t stick to it.  I was hungry after 16 hours – CrazyHungry.  After reading around on his site, he mentions that it might take 3-4 days for your body to get used to the different eating schedule, but that it gets much easier from there.  I’ll go back on it and keep you guys posted with the results.

Another note, this diet is obviously for your cutting phases, not your bulking phases.

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Will we see Sean Sherk return to form?

I don’t know about you guys, but at one time Sean Sherk was one of my favorite fighters.  Seeing the tenacity of this guy was awesome – he was a 5′6″ bowling-ball of muscle, rightfully earning the name “Muscle Shark”.  His takedowns and slams were a thing of beauty.  I never believed that he did steroids.  After seeing his UFC All Access clip, my respect and admiration for him went up even more.

So what happened?  Why can’t I get excited about him anymore?  Well, the biggest thing for me is this – when did Sean Sherk decide that he was a boxer?  This guy has a crazy explosive takedown, but in the last three fights, he’s barely brought it out.  Instead, he’s stood up with his opponents and gotten into striking matches.  More often than not, he’s come up on the short end of things – pun very much intended.  Due to his stockiness, he usually is at a reach disadvantage. 

So why is he doing this?  My guess is that he wants to “please the fans”.  Sadly, this means the masses of uneducated people out there that think an omoplata is somthing you order at Dennys. 

Hey, I’m a fight fan!  I don’t just want to see two guys throwing punches all the time!  I’d watch boxing for that.  I think back to his fight with Hermes Franca, which really wasn’t that long ago.  Sherk was booed after it, but I thought it was a masterpiece.  Sherk seemed to effortlessly take Franca down, pass his guard, and get into superior position.  It was like watching a master at work – Franca was completely outclassed and only managed to get in one good knee on Sherk.

Fast forward 3 fights later and we have 3 striking matches with BJ Penn, Tyson Griffin, and Frakie Edgar.  While Sherk is certainly no slouch in striking, the grappling game was noticibly absent.

So what does Sherk need to do to turn the tide and get this fan back on his bandwagon?  Glad you asked.  Here’s the list:

1. Stop caring what the crowd thinks.  Yes, yes, it’s all about the fans, and fighters are ultimately entertainers.  But hey, you can’t please everyone.  What wins fans in the long run is winning.  They’ll learn to appreciate the grappling, takedowns, and ground dominance.
2. Bring back the takedowns.  Sherk’s striking game would be improved if the opponent was worrying about takedowns at the same time.  Sherk’s takedowns are an explosive, exciting part of his game.  He fights way better when he is the aggressor taking the opponent down, not being taken down.  This strategy also maximizes his advantage in conditioning, since the guy on bottom uses much more energy than the guy on top.  On top of that, takedowns are often what wins rounds in judge’s eyes.  To go with this…
3. Incorporate judo takedowns.  Sherk needs to add judo and sambo takedowns to his game.  The double-leg takedown has exposed him to knees to the head that were so hard they shook my TV screen. 
4. Add more fakes, feints, and variety.  Sherk appears to be telegraphing his moves.  In his fight with Frankie Edgar, he relied on the left hook way too much.  Frankie could see it coming, while he mixed up his own striking game.  Sherk also didn’t put together combinations more than 2 punches.  Then when Sherk did finally shoot, with 10 seconds left to go in the 3rd round, it was not exactly a surprise.  In a game of millisecond reactions, variety of attacks is crucial.
5. In general, be more agressive.  Be an animal in there.  You just get the sense that he’s thinking too much.  I want to see Sherk just get in there, crush ‘em, and whoop some ass.

So Sean Sherk, this is coming from a fan.  I want to see the old Sean Sherk again!  No – make that, I want to see an even better, new and improved Sean Sherk. 

Ouch. Any other way to take someone down?

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The most important hormone?

Surprisingly, not many people who are trying to improve their fitness know about insulin. Protein? They know you should eat a lot of it. Creatine? They know it gives you an extra boost. Carbs? They know you should limit them if you want to lose fat. But insulin? Well, they know that diabetics have to inject it, it has something to do with blood sugar, and also something to do with making me sleepy after meals. So what exactly is insulin, what does it do, and why is it important for bodybuilders?

Insulin is a hormone. It is made in your pancreas. Its role in the body is to regulate the uptake of nutrients into cells. So insulin is a very anabolic (building up) hormone – many would say it’s the most anabolic hormone there is. Since it’s helping to take up nutrients, which cells is it taking the nutrients to? Mainly two types: fat and muscle. In case you’re new, we want muscle – not fat. So what affects insulin levels? The main ways to influence insulin levels are diet and exercise.

Diet

Diet, as you might guess, plays a huge role in determining the effect of insulin on you. In general, foods that are high in non-fiber carbohydrates (sugar, rice, potatoes, white bread) will cause your insulin level to spike up. Eating foods that are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids (fish, walnuts, soy, flaxseed oil) will increase your sensitivity to insulin, which over time will lower your insulin levels.

Exercise

Resistance training will also increase your sensitivity to insulin, which will keep your insulin levels lower. Strength training has a greater effect on insulin levels than aerobic training.

So how do we apply this if our goal is to maximize muscle and minimize fat? The basic idea is this: raise your insulin level when your muscles are in a state to take in nutrients. Keep your insulin levels in check when your muscles are not ready to take in nutrients.

Immediately after a workout, go ahead and eat carbs – even simple ones. You want to raise your insulin levels now – your muscles will be in a state ready to absorb all those nutrients for some growing time! At other times, when you haven’t worked out, limit carbs to fibrous carbs only, like vegetables and some oatmeal. Consider carbs as your reward for working out! You can also take Equipoison 250 at this time, which mimics the effects of insulin.

There’s a lot more (and I mean A LOT more) to be said about insulin, so make sure you come back later for more info!

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Squats are foundational to overall strength and mass

Let’s face it – if you’re reading this blog, you probably love to hit the gym.  Weights are your friends.  After work or school, when you step in the weight room you have to stop yourself from saying, “Honey, I’m home.”

So what’s your objective in there?  Are you looking to get a sleek, toned physique?  We all see like that in there – nothing wrong with that at all.  In fact, they should check out our CB or Clen offerings – right up their alley.

On the other hand, we see the hardcore lifters.  You know who I’m talking about – maybe you are one.  These guys are built like a brick house.  Slap one on the back and you feel like you’ve slapped a mountain.  If you’re asking yourself, “What do these guys know that I don’t?  How did they get like that?” then you’ve come to the right place, because I’m going to shed some light on it.

Here’s the key – compound exercises.  When you see the slim guys working out, where do you see them?  Usually, they’re on the nautalis equipment or the machines.  They’re getting busy with the bicep curls.  When you see the real big, strong lifters working out, where do you see them?  Doing squats, deadlifts, cleans, and of course, the bench.  They might be doing the machines or dumbell isolation exercises, but that’s AFTER they’ve worked their compound exercises.

So why do compound exercises work so well to develop that size and strength?  There’s two reasons for this:

1. Compound exercises allow you to lift more weight.  If you’re going to increase muscle size and strength, you MUST do this one thing: increase INTENSITY.  Lifting the same typical weight – say 70% of your max – over and over again is not going to push your muscles to grow.  Even if you add sets upon sets.  Intensity is what signals your muscles to grow, which ties in to the next reason…

2. Compound exercises cause the body to release growth hormones.  Growth hormones and testosterone are released according to the total muscle mass being exercised.  Because compound exercises use multiple muscle groups, they cause your body’s endocrine system to signal to your body that it’s time to grow.

Because compound exercises are targeting your endocrine system, combining them with one of our Retabol, Parabol, Dianobol, or Annadrall products is a killer combo!  These products are going to fuel and trigger your endocrine system for explosive gains in mass and strength.

How should you go about adding this to your workout?  Well, to add strength, you don’t need to do a ton of reps.  And you definitely don’t need to go to failure!  That’s a good way to get injured with one of these exercises.  If you’re new to these exercises, pay attention to your body and give yourself some time to break it in to these exercises.  You may have really strong legs and shoulders, but lacking lower back strength.  You need to give your lower back some time to play catch up to prevent injury.  Remember – your body will break at its weakest link!

The classic workout for serious strength gains is 5 X 5.  That’s 5 sets of 5 reps each.  Work yourself up to maximum intensity!  Here’s a great workout you can implement for massive gains:

• Monday: Squats (heavy)
• Tuesday: Benchpress (heavy)
• Wednesday: Deadlift (heavy)
• Thursday: Squats (light)
• Friday: Benchpress (light), weighted pull-ups (heavy)

If you really want to increase your power gains, focus on these and skip the isolation exercises.  Devote that time and energy to the compound exercises.  Let us know how it’s working out for you!

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