It’s not your fault that it’s a struggle to experience a jaw-dropping body transformation.

I would argue that the supplement, bodybuilding and diet mafia are responsible for your problems by hiding the truth from you.

It’s the same as pharmaceutical companies that are keeping you sick by treating the symptoms and never treating the actual cause of the disease.  As you know, the reason they do this is because they want us to be sick so that we will continue to buy medications.

Lots of clients I initially consult with can’t understand why they can’t change their physique.  They think they have bad genetics, a messed up metabolism or it has something to do with their age. Let me make something crystal clear to you right now – it’s not your fault, and I’ll explain why in a moment.

I Wish…

…that you just landed from Mars, and could avoid every muscle magazine, diet book and every supplement ad. If you were able to stop listening the magazines paid spokesmen and buying into their lies…

You would immediately have an UNFAIR ADVANTAGE during your body transformation and over the rest of the world out there.

You would easily be able to double your progress in half the amount of time…

Hopefully you don’t have to learn the hard way and waste thousands of hours and thousands of dollars on books, products and pills orchestrated by marketing geniuses.

That’s one reason I created my website.   I got fed up with all the hopeful and frustrated people literally wasting their hard-earned money on bogus and useless bodybuilding supplements and short term gimmicks. I even see my own family and friends (some of them are even personal trainers) getting screwed by the greedy marketers in the fitness mafia who are selling JUNK that only leaves you further from your goals while they laugh all the way to the bank.

1. I’m angry with the WEIGHT LOSS MAFIA:

Here is a list of diets that have made MILLIONS of dollars yet have a 90% failure rate…

• Low Calorie Diet
• Atkins / Low Carb Diet
• Low Fat Diet
• South Beach Diet
• Detox Diets
• Weight Watchers
• Jenny Craig & NutriSystem
• Acai Berry Diets

Can you say overwhelming and confusing?

There is so much misinformation in the weight loss and diet industry it’s sickening.   In order to finally lose your belly fat and completely change the course of your health, you must forget all of the worthless information that is in the media today. If any of these diet programs worked so well would our planet be so overweight and unhealthy? Think about this for a moment – as a society we have never eaten like this in history yet we are more unhealthy than we have ever been.

Here is the reality – 90% of all the diet books at your book store are the EXACT same.  You want to know the secret to writing a best selling diet book?  It’s simple…

Be DIFFERENT!

You need to be only slightly different!

All you need is ONE UNIQUE HOOK and you have an instant bestseller.  90% of your content can be the exact same as the last best-seller as long as you have a catchy name with a unique hook that has not been published before.

So if 90% of the diet info is the exact same as the last book – what makes you think that the 10% difference is the magical and miraculous solution this time?  Come on, you’re smarter than that.

2. I’m angry with the SUPPLEMENT MAFIA:

I recommend you stop wasting hundreds and thousands of dollars on the following so-called muscle building supplements.

• NO-Xplode
• Animal Pack
• Muscle Milk
• Syntha-6
• Super Pump 250
• Cell Mass
• Hydroxycut Hardcore
• Lipo 6
• Higher Power anything
• SciVation Xtend
• True Mass
• Anabolic Halo
• NaNO Vapor
• L-Glutamine Powder
• Bulgarian Tribulus
• Fountain of Youth Human Growth Hormone
• Acai bull shit juice aka glorified fruit juice
• Max CLA
• L-Tyrosine Powder
• HMB Fuel
• CLA All Natural
• Myostatin Blocker
• Liver Tablets

…do you really want me to keep going? I think you get the point.

Almost all bodybuilding supplements DON’T WORK and are a complete joke filled with artificial flavours, fillers, binders, glue, chemicals and poor absorption rates that costs a supplement company $3-10 to produce and sell for $50-100!

Here’s how it works.  If you want to create a commodity product (low cost and high profit) then your cost for practically ANY supplement (protein powders are more expensive) is about $3 on average.  If you’re paying more – you’re getting ripped off.  If a supplement company is paying about $10 on average then it’s actually half decent!  Crazy eh?

So to summarize – it costs the mafia $3-10 to make.  They sell it to retailers like GNC or your local supplement story or online store you buy from for about $23-24.  They sell it to you for $50-100!  You see why the supplement mafia is laughing all the way to the bank?

Want to know the scary part?  The next new supplement designed just for you, has the same crap in it that the last supplement had in it and the cycle will never die until we stop becoming suckers.

3. I am angry at the Bodybuilding Mafia aka Muscle Rags…

You’ve read all the major bodybuilding and fitness magazines, books and videos that rehash the same old BS each and every month…

• Flex
• Iron man
• Muscular Development
• Muscle & Fitness
• Musclemag International

…and others

Every bodybuilding magazine is owned and operated by a supplement company, which is why these mags look like massive supplement catalogs.  The pages are filled with drug abusing bodybuilders who tell you to train for up to 2-hours a day that only leads to muscular losses.

Every bodybuilding magazine claims they have the answers. But in fact, it is their job to keep the real answers from you so you continue to buy the supplements on the next page.

Follow their advice to gain weight, build muscle and increase strength, and you’re guaranteed only one thing. 6 months from today, you will look just like you do now! And you’ll be pissed off.

Imitating the training pro bodybuilders works for the genetically gifted and drug user but  has no practical relevance for average people like you and me.

People who are without gifted genetic potential, and don’t want syringe scars in our butts.

Not only is this training advice useless, but it will cause over-training, injuries and illness.

The so-called “experts” will not tell you that drugs and genetics were responsible for curing their problem of being a hardgainer.  They claim it’s the supplements and “better training.”

Give me a break!

Even The “Free” Sites Are Not Spot Clean…

Heck, even the best free bodybuilding sites on the Internet have hidden intentions.  I won’t mention any names but do you ever wonder how a “free” bodybuilding site can afford to pay it’s writers $2,000 to $3,000 an ARTICLE?  Or how they can afford to put half their staff on six-figure contracts?  One word: SUPPLEMENTS.  Free bodybuilding sites are cleverly disguised supplement stores.  I’m not saying it’s right or wrong – I just want you to be aware of what’s happening and why they are so happy to give you free content.  They know you’ll buy their brand new supplement that has 10x bigger profit margins than selling books and DVD’s – it’s easy money for them.

And this is why I get mad at people who say, “I can get the same information for free at so-and-so site.” I won’t argue, some of the free sites hire the best fitness authorities in the world and deliver some of the best content which I think is great.  Heck, some of the guys are even my close friends.  Just be aware that every one of their articles is cleverly disguised around marketing supplements to support their programs when their programs would work just as well without the supplements.

Is Everyone Out To Scam You…?

There are a small handful of magazines and supplements who still follow a moral compass and I applaud those individuals who have our best interests in mind.  I have nothing against companies profiting and making money as long as their is greater value exchanged to the end-user.

Ever since my eyes were exposed, I vowed to never hide behind stock photography; a well crafted sales page that over promises and under delivers or a cleverly disguised supplement store.

Behind all the deceit, greed and scams in the fitness market, I swore that I would be in the small handful of honest and passionate fitness trainers who make their living helping people, just like you, transform their lives with a no-nonsense approach.

I wouldn’t be able to continue crusading against the mafia, almost 3-years later, If I was scamming people.  You would not be reading this letter because I would have been out of business almost 3 years ago.

Anyways, the good news is you’re finally here and you can avoid the problems above by sticking with us. You know that I am the one website that will tell it to you straight.

I’m Not Trying To Twist Your Arm…

I’ll admit – my No-Nonsense system is definitely not for everyone.  It’s not for wimps, over-analyzers, complainers, know-it-all’s or tire-kickers. It requires a level of commitment and seriousness that most just can’t cut.  The truth is that my stuff will work extremely effective if you fall into the following categories;

1. You’re angry.  Not just at the mafia but angry and frustrated about your current level of progress.

2. You’re sick and tired of spinning your wheels and looking the way you do in the mirror.

3. You’re fed up with this ridiculous plateau you’ve hit and you know you deserve more for how hard you work.

Before you can start learing how to get six-pack abs and discover the truth about what it really takes to build a beach-worthy abdominal section, you must first expose the lies, myths and rumors. Before we talk about how to get six-pack abs, the right way, we must re-program your hard drive and empty the trash can of garbage you have been fed.

Because of all this hyped up and misguided information – even among so-called ‘fitness experts’ – you should skeptical of discerning about all abdominal training equipment and programs. Let’s first eliminate the top four ways not to get a six-pack:

Learning how to get a six-pack does not require expensive workout equipment promoted through obnoxious infomercials. You can’t flick on the TV anymore without seeing two new abdominal exercise machines being promoted at once. There are so many of them, that if you get suckered into these ‘ab workout’ gimmicks, you will be broke quicker than Ben Johnson sprints the 100 m dash! And get this: Of the $520 million dollars a year spent on exercise equipment, abdominal machines get a $208 million dollar piece of the pie!

Learning how to get a six-pack does not require thousands or even hundreds of crunches a day. So much for the Brittany Spears ab workou! Crunches are decent but totally overused and associated with more being better. Crunches is a very general exercise and general exercises get general results. Excessive floor crunches shorten the abdominal wall, pull your head forward and emphasize poor posture. They also involve a very low level of stimulation which negelets adequate muscle fiber recruitment.

Learning how to get a six-pack does not involve starvation diets. Starvation diets starve the muscle when instead, you should be feeding the muscle. Guess what happens when you starve your body? Your metabolism shuts down out of survival and causes your body to store fat. Your body must get energy from somewhere so guess what gets sacrificed? That’s right, your precious muscle which is in fact responsible for a maintaining a high metabolism. Starve your muscle – great logic!

Learning how to get a six-pack does not require fat burning pills. What did the last weight loss pill you bought do for you? The same thing the next one is going to do – nothing! Except give you a thinner wallet but not a thinner waist line. The entire concept of taking pills to ‘burn fat’ is built on a sandy foundation and misleading because diet pills only treat the symptons and not the root cause. Without focusing on the root problems of a flabby mid-section, like nutrition, lifestyle and proper training, you will just end up where you started – farther away from having a six-pack for summer instead of closer.

If just landed on earth from Mars today, and were able to avoid these four completely wrong ways to build a six-pac, than you will have an advantage over the rest of the world and be one enormous step closer to taking your shirt off with pride!

Carlos Larsen

The thing to remember is that whenever you are trying to work your core, everything works, for a certain period of time. Everything from high reps, low reps, weighted work, bodyweight work, stability ball exercises, and BOSU ball exercises – it all works until your body adapts and says, “This is easy, I’m not going to change unless you give me a new reason to adapt.”

Your ab training should be progressed from stable floor work with your body weight to a unstable surface with weighted work. Progressing to movements that will reduce your base of support as much as possible are the best ab workouts because they will call into play all the muscles within the core, especially those really deep that stable floor work can not target.

Such examples of floor ab exercises that would do this would be crunches, sit ups and leg raises. Eventually you want to do these same exercises against gravity, then a load and then on unstable surface like a stability ball. Body weight exercises like “front planks” and “side planks” should be the foundation of a core program and progressed to one arm planks in the frontal and side planes and then eventually on a stability ball or BOSU ball for further recruitment.

The best ab workouts to make your abs “pop” would be a variety of weighted movements. I’m sure you’ve skinny guys with a flat stomach but no “eye popping” abs, which is because they have not developed the actual abdominal muscle, just like every other body part. Part of getting nicely chiseled abs is going to be developing the muscles underneath the fat, and weighted ab crunches with cables or on a stability ball with a heavy dumbbell will do this best.

During all your ab workouts be sure to get a full stretch during the eccentric phase of your ab exercises. Going through an entire range of motion on the way up (if doing a crunch on the floor or ball) is not necessary, however, you should be “crunching” your upper abs onto your lower abs during each rep to maximize the burn, recruitment and full development.

The one weighted exercise you will not find in my programs is weighted side bends, as this could make you look wider in the waste, distracting from creating a lean image.

One concerning question most people have is regarding lower ab workouts, typically the most troubling spot. Yes, hip flexion (emphasis more so on lower abs) is important to perform and should be done first in the workout but the reality of the matter is that you cannot specifically separate your abs into upper and lower components. Whenever you perform any type of ab movement you should automatically be focusing on working both the upper and lower portion at the same time.

Good exercise to definitely direct a little more force into the lower area would be the progression of lying leg raises, lying leg raises on a incline and eventually hanging leg raises fully vertical. Lying leg raises on a stability pull is also an extremely challenging and advanced exercise to create razor sharp abdominals.

Finally, the last thing to consider is when you are going to perform your ab workout is training frequency. Again, generally speaking, the more the better assuming your abdominals have recovered. Whether you want to perform it at the end of your workout, before your workout, during your workout or on a day of it’s own is up to you. My ab workouts incorporate all methods depending on if you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced. Some theories of that warn you not to start with abs is because abs work as a synergistic muscle for so many of the other exercises you’ll do, if you pre-fatigue them before the start of the workout, you may not progress as much during the rest of your workout. I don’t agree with this and if you’re abs are your weakest link then they should be given first priority when you are the most fresh, the start of your workout.

Incorporating a specific ab workout is only a small part of the battle – diet, lifestyle and overall caloric expenditure through weight training and cardio are the true building blocks to creating a sexy and desired mid section.

Carlos Larsen

If you want to get ripped this summer and get turning heads from all the guys who want to be like you and from all the girls who just WANT you i recommend getting a copy of Vince Delmonte’s Guides, No Nonsense Muscle Building & Your Six Pack Quest

I didn’t realize how much “abuse” I would take when I exposed the “supplement industry” a few years ago and then went on to recommend some of the “basic” bodybuilding supplements I DO use.

LOL

I guess this can be perceived as “hypocritical.”
Fair enough. I’m like you and can get easily frusturated with the conflicting supplement advice and advertisements out there and it’s hard for ME to find people I should trust too.

The supplement industry is loaded with fraudulent claims, bogus products that sometimes aren’t even what they claim to be, and lots of ineffective products (even when they ARE what they claim to be).

Despite these problems, I’ve always contended that there ARE a handful of useful products out there, and certainly some honest companies mixed in with the abundant scam artists.
Today’s discussion will be around Prograde Nutrition, the one company I’ve found that is actually honest and sells only research-proven products.

This company has been in the making for about 4 years now, and was built by a group of fitness professionals whose main goal was to try to fight against the problems in the supplement industry and offer an honest solution without the hype and without the loads of products that have no research behind
them and don’t work.

Let’s discuss some of the typical problems with supplements, and how to avoid them and choose the right products that will actually get you results.

Problem #1 with supplements: Ever since the passing of the 1994 Dietary Supplement and
Health Education Act (DSHEA) in the US, supplements have been excluded from federal regulation.

One of the negative aspects of this is that certain unscrupulous companies could now pretty much get away with putting anything they wanted in the bottle because it did not have to undergo quality control testing to make it to market. Their label didn’t even have to match what was in the bottle, since nobody is policing them.
The only way to catch these companies was for independent testing firms to run tests on their own dime to find out which companies are honest and which are fraudulent.

Prograde solved this problem by requiring that all of their products go through High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) testing to guarantee what they say is in the bottle is TRULY in the bottle, and delivers the desired results.
Their manufacturing plant is also a GMP certified manufacturer – “A” rated facility to assure quality.

Problem #2 with supplements: One of the other major problems I’ve had with the supplement industry are falsely hyped up claims about “miraculous” results with their products giving you the false hope that your body will turn into a fitness model’s within a couple weeks of using their “miracle pill.”

Well, we all know by now that most of these products do very little, if anything to actually create results in the body. Even if some of them have minor positive effects, it does not address the underlying cause of the problem in the first place, and results will never last in the long run without lifestyle changes to both your exercise and nutrition habits as a whole.

In response to this, the founders of Prograde made sure there was absolutely no hype or ridiculous claims… only a very limited line of the most effective research-backed products without any BS or confusing “stacks”.

Problem #3 with supplements. Most people overlook this problem when buying vitamins and supplements. The fact is that your body does not properly absorb nutrients from artificial sources as is common with many supplements and vitamins.

Once again, I asked the founders of Prograde to respond to this. I was happy to find that their products are actually extracted from whole-food sources instead of artificial sources, meaning better absorption in your body.

They even purchased a 2500-acre farm in mineral rich soils in sunny Florida where all of their raw materials are grown. I must say…I’m impressed!
Problem #4 with supplements:

Another problem I have with typical supplements is this…

The normal scenario when someone buys supplements is that they may go to their local supplement/vitamin store and they are given advice by some high school kid making $7/hr who has no education whatsoever in nutrition.

Do you really want to put your health in the hands of some kid who is simply telling you that you need to get such and such supplement because he saw something about how great it was in a magazine advertisement?

Once again, the founders of Prograde solved this problem by assuring that all of their products were designed by professionals in the industry — dietitians and nutritionists who carefully analyzed which products actually are beneficial and which are a waste of time and money. They then narrowed their line of products down to only a handful of the most effective.

They also have decided that their products will never be sold in stores because they don’t want unqualified store clerks with no education in nutrition to recommend products for your health. That’s why you can only obtain them from their website, so you know you’re getting them from qualified professionals in the industry.

Problem #5 with supplements: The problem is quite simply this… YOU DON’T NEED THEM for optimal health, IF you’re eating right.

The fact is, you don’t need supplements as long as you eat a well rounded diet full of unprocessed whole natural foods, lots of variety, high nutrient density, lots of fruits, veggies, whole unrefined grains, eggs, beans, nuts, seeds, organic meats, fish, etc, etc.

The problem is that most people don’t have time or don’t make enough of an effort to eat this type of optimal diet with proper balance and super-high nutrient density.

In this case, I concede that supplementation has many benefits for people who struggle to eat right all of time and may be missing many essential nutrients.

To solve this problem, the founders of a Prograde Nutrition have actually formulated their men’s and women’s formulas with extracts of natural whole foods instead of synthetic sources. They even use whole food extracts from broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, wheat grass, alfalfa, artichoke, chorella, kale, collard greens, papaya, grapefruit, tomato, omega-3’s, and dozens more.

Well, I think that’s enough for today.

I’ve been using these supplements for the past 12 months and although I can’t say they have performed miracles, I have not been sick in over a year, my recovery is incredible, and I never suffer from energy lows.

Carlos Larsen

I was spending $200 a month on stuff like:

• Creatine powders, pills and liquids…
• Pre and post workout protein powders
• Pre bed protein powders
• Weight gain protein powders
• Testosterone boosters
• Branch chain amino acids
• Glutamine
• NO2 formulas (which were just new on the scene)

And probably some other ones I’m forgetting…

I won’t lie.  At first, it was really exciting buying the latest “breakthrough” bodybuilding supplement.

I remember one ad promising “7 pounds of solid muscle in 7 days” and that was one of the tame ones so it sounded more believable.

My Mom always said I was gullible.

Maybe you can relate?

After dedicating myself to a strict supplement routine and choking back mysterious mixtures and drinks that were supposed to give the physique of my dreams I noticed the only thing changing was the amount of money adding up on my credit card.

I didn’t notice a single friggin difference in muscle size.

That’s when it stopped getting exciting and started becoming very frustrating.

Eventually I ran Vince Delmote’s Muscle Gaining Guide which showed me how to eat and train and I gained 19 pounds of lean muscle mass in the very first month I took his advice.

And his advice didn’t include any magical bodybuilding supplements.

I was getting ripped and muscular without supplements.  Go figure.

Vince Delmonte revealed to me that some Utah Senator, Orrin Hatch, is the guy to thank for all the wasted money I flushed down the toilet because he chose not to regulate the supplement industry so that bodybuilding companies (and any supplement company can put anything they want in the bottle without FDA approval).

The God’s Honest,
No Nonsense Truth is this…

90% of the bodybuilding supplements on the market Don’t Work!

In this next video I’m going to share with you from the Bigger, Faster, Stronger documentary you’re going to discover that most supplements cost LESS than three dollars to produce.

Want to know their dirty little secrets?

Watch this video to find out how they are getting away with blatantly lying to you and robbing you out of your hard earned money.

As you’ll see, the supplement company does not care about you.  Sure, maybe a  small handful of companies have half-decent products but why look for a solution from an industry that has failed to earn our trust over and over?

In my Inbox, I get a lot of feedback defending the “good guys” in the supplement industry and I would like to believe there are some really high quality products out there but when I see a video like this, I really lose all my trust and hope.

After watching that video, I have 3 questions for you…

1. How do you feel about supplement companies being able to make products for $1-2 and than selling them to you for $60?

2. What do you think of the supplement industry being unregulated and not needing FDA approval?

3. Why do you justify buying supplements when you know that supplement companies can easily put out low quality products?

It’s no wonder the supplement industry is a 24 BILLION dollar industry – anybody can make them and we keep buying them because we’re pathetically desperate!

My Philosophy On Bodybuilding Supplements:

1. Even IF certain supplements are high in quality, I never expect them to work miracles.

2. I’ll ask myself, “What am I trying to get this supplement to do that my training, diet and lifestyle can not?”

3. I’ve lost 90% of my trust in the supplement industry.

4. I’m so skeptical that even when a new product comes out and it’s from someone I trust, I’m not even interested in looking into it because I’ve wasted enough time and money in the past only to be disappointed.  I never did like rejection.

5. I know that my body is not getting what it says on the actual bottle and I can’t believe what the store owner says because (for the most part) they just want to sell you the product they have the biggest profit margins.  I know this because I used to date a girl from GNC who explained how each month they made an inflated commission to promote the “product of the month.”

6. I’ve never seen a friend muscle up on supplements or hear someone say, “I got big because of this supplement…” Have you? Seriously, all the guys I know who are really muscular and strong have at least one of the following commonalities…

• they either have amazing genetics.
• they have used drugs.
• they have a true love for good old fashioned training.
• they live and breath a healthy bodybuilding lifestyle.
• they have been consistent and committed to their goals since they started.
• they are not afraid of hard work and have put in their dues.

7. Lastly, you just don’t know what you’re putting in your body. You don’t – no matter what it says on the bottle -how in the world do you really know if it’s good or bad?

Lets Be Honest..

Do you think any company is going to admit the truth about their absorption rates and manufacturing process? Why gamble your health and money on supplements if you’re not confident in the return you’re getting for your investment?

Instead, I would encourage you to put your efforts into the 90% that DOES work.

1. A structured and progressive training program.
2. A healthy and balanced eating plan.
3. A lifestyle that provides 8 hours of sleep each night.

If there is anything you get from reading this email, it is the message that you don’t need to waste your money on useless and potentially damaging and dangerous supplements ever again.

Want to know the scariest part about the supplement industry?

The next new supplement designed just for you, has the same crap in it that the last supplement had in it and you’ll probably buy it.

I really hope not because after you start following Vince’s program you’ll have lots of more money in your pocket to start spending on all the women (or your special someone) who are suddenly giving you lots of attention!

Click on the link below to grab your copy today

Start getting shredded. The natural way:
No Nonsense Muscle Building <—- Get Your ULTIMATE Healthy Body Today

If so, how much?

If so, what kind?

Sick and tired of trying to bulk up but only adding more fat to your midsection?

Check out this 4 minute video lesson on how I incorporate cardio into a muscle building routine and answer all these questions.

Don’t worry, if you need to lean down, I have some great tips in this video for your routine too.

Yes, you know that but nobody shows you specifically HOW to recovery.

Typically, after almost all of my upper body workouts, I am so tight and gorged with blood I can barely take my shirt off and bring my hands to my hair while showering!

Not good, because when you have a 12 hour shift up next!

How Muscle Soreness Occurs

If you have had a similar experience than I applaud your workout intensity. If you have NOT had this experience than I have to question your workout intensity!

There are three main theories that result in muscle soreness.

Most muscle soreness occurs immediately following an activity and than has a delayed onset effect. Immediate muscle soreness is due to a buildup of metabolic by-products such as lactic acid and a lack of sufficient oxygen (ischemia).

Delayed onset muscle soreness (D.O.M.S.), which begins 24-72 hours after an activity, is not yet determined.

There are three theories which will have an impact on the degree of muscle soreness:

1. Muscle Damage.

As a result of repetitive contractions, microscopic tears occur within the muscle fibers themselves creating pain and leading to inflammation, which creates more pain.

2. Damage To The Connective Tissue.

Microscopic tears occur in the connective tissue particularly as a result of eccentric contractions, which are contractions in which the muscle lengthens rather than shortens. Downhill running and the lowering portion of the exercise is also know as negative work or eccentric work.

3. Ischemia/Spasm Cycle.

The lack of oxygen and build-up of metabolic by-products causes pain which causes the muscle to spasm. This further reduces the oxygen available, increases the metabolic by-products, and the viscous cycle continues.

Muscle soreness will occur when you push your limits, ‘out do’ yourself and expose your body to unaccustomed stress.

Combine this with either repetitive movements for extended periods of time; using jerky or explosive movements; stretching beyond normal range of motion and/or repeated eccentric contractions and OF COURSE your muscles are going to be sore.

You just kicked the crap out of them!

***To Relieve Muscle Soreness ***

To decrease muscle soreness you need to focus on the following:

1. Increase the blood flow and oxygen to the damaged area (to facilitate the breakdown of metabolic by-products, and the removal of debris, and to speed nutrients to the cells for healing).

2. Relax the muscles. Experiment with the following activities to determine which one helps reduce and relieve your soreness the quickest. Most likely it will be a combination and the sooner you do them after you train, the better.

A. Static Stretching.

Focus on slow and gradual stretching. Stretch each muscle just to where you begin to feel the stretch then hold that position until you feel the muscle let go. Do not bounce or force the muscle unless you want to create more harm than good.

B. Light Exercise.

Muscles that are not used will become stiff and take longer to become pain free. Gentle, non-stressful exercise will increase the circulation and relax your muscles.

3. Massage.

Good old fashioned massage acts much like light exercise or gentle stretching by increasing your circulation and coaxing the muscles to relax. The differences are that with massage you need do nothing other than simply enjoy, and the massage therapist can locate and work with those areas of your musculature most in need of attention.

4. Cold.

Cold water or ice breaks the pain/ischemia/spasm cycle by increasing the circulation and interfering with pain signals. Ice is also an excellent anti-inflammatory agent and will greatly speed healing. I run my muscles under cold water for 3-10 minutes after a workout.

5. Alternating Hot and Cold.

Since the thought of hot often seems more soothing it is included here, but in combination with cold. Hot water will relax muscles and increase circulation but will also increase inflammation and swelling within muscle fibers.

Therefore it is important to alternate with cold and end with cold. This can take the form of a sauna and swim, a whirlpool and cold plunge, a hot and cold shower or a hot bath and ice.

After 3-10 minutes of cold, run the hot shower on your legs for 1 minute. And than repeat a few times.

6. Movement In The Pool.

Water supports your muscles and makes them easier to use. If you are extremely sore it will be easier for you to use your muscles in the pool either walking, stretching, or gently swimming.

I trust that is more than enough to speed your recovery and return to battle!

The volume of interest I receive from skinny guys who wish to build their mid-sections is more than enough evidence to disprove the false reality of, “I should be able to ’see’ my abs if I have low body fat.” I’m sure you know of a friend who is completely scrawny, yet, without a shirt, on he has zero abdominal definition! To me, that would be salt on an open wound.

Abdominals Are A Muscle, Too!

You want your arms to be bigger, your shoulders to be broader and your chest to be fuller, correct? And what is the solution to making these muscle groups increase in size? High intensity weight training, overload, consistency and a healthy surplus of calories. Starting to sound familiar?

The same goes for your abdominals. Your abdominals are a muscle group that requires the same formula and attention and are not any different. For some reason many consider abdominals to be a ’special’ body part that requires a different set of rules and a completely different formula for training. Abdominals were not given a ’secret code’ to crack. To get thick, dense abs – those ones that ‘pop’ out – you must train them with intensity and overload. Here are some practical tips you can apply to your program so that you can be the ‘man’ or ‘gal’ at your gym with a ripped and muscular six-pack!

Prioritize By Sequence

If your abs are your worse body part, then why do you keep training them last, at the end of your workout? Which muscles groups will receive the highest priority when you train? The ones done at the start of your workout or the ones done at the end of the workout? Of course, the ones done at the start of the workout while you have the most energy and focus. If abdominals are the muscle group you wish to prioritize, then don’t be afraid to disagree with the ‘experts’ who say “Never train your abdominals first because you’ll weaken your core muscles for the rest of your workout…”. I completely disagree with this and often reply, “Show me the evidence.” The typical response is “Nobody does abdominals first…”. That is pure BS. This just supports the notion that many people who work out don’t ever question what they hear or do. They want to be spoon fed answers and follow the trends of others without thinking for themselves. I ALWAYS train abdominals first in a workout if they need the highest attention.

Prioritize By Frequency

What’s going to receive better results? A muscle group that is trained one time a week or two times a week (assuming you are recovered prior to the second workout commencing)? Of course, the muscle that is trained 2x a week. The more stimulus on a muscle, the more growth. That is why professional athletes are professional athletes. They have conditioned their bodies to such a high amount of stress that they are able to train more frequently.

How often you train your abdominals is based on the inverse relationship of intensity and volume. The harder you train your abs, the more rest they need. The less intense you train your abs, the more frequently you can train them! If your goal is rehab or injury prevention, then you will be able to train them often with more frequent and lower loads. If your goal is to make your abs more muscular and dense, then a higher load and less frequency would be ideal. If your goal is maintenance, then a medium load and frequency would be ideal. Refer to this table:

If building a sexy six-pack is on your ‘to do’ list for 2008, then start training abdominals 2-4x a week. I will teach you in a moment how to split your abdominals up into two different days based on movement.

Divide Your Abdominals Into Two Separate Workouts

To train your abdominals safely and effectively you must know the basic movement patterns of your abs and train them within all sub-categories:

• Truck Flexion (upper abs)
• Hip Flexion (lower abs)
• Rotation (obliques)
• Lateral Flexion (obliques)

The majority of books and articles you have read revolve the bulk of the ab exercises around trunk flexion that is better known as ‘upper ab’ exercises. A full sit up is a perfect example of this.

Bill Starr in his 1976 classic ‘The Strongest Shall Survive’ wrote that the abdominals “…can be strengthened in a wide variety of ways. Sit-ups of all types, leg raises, truck rotation movements all involve the abdominal muscles to a different degree…”

I wouldn’t be surprised if the abdominal program you are following right now is based on one movement – trunk flexion. I am guessing that your primary goal is actually to have a well-defined and sculpted six-pack, so I have provided a sample abdominal program to break it up into a four day program:

Even though you are training each movement twice per week, you will perform different exercises for each workout.

Use A Variety Of Functional Exercises

The Top 3 Hip Flexion Exercises:

1. Lying Hip Raise
2. Incline Hip Raise
3. Hanging Hip Raise

The Top 3 Trunk Flexion Exercises:

1. Swiss Ball Crunch
2. Weighted Swiss Ball CruncH
3. Weighted Cable Crunches

The Top 3 Rotation Exercises:

1. Russian Twist
2. Weighted Russian Twist
3. Weighted Cable Crossover

The Top 3 Lateral Flexion Exercises:

1. Lateral Flexion on back extension machine
2. Lateral Flexion with medicine ball over head
3. Lateral Flexion with medicine ball and twist

Each of these exercises progresses from basic to intermediate to advanced. I suggest you master the first exercise of each before commencing to the next.

Conclusion

You now have all the tools and resources you require to start building a set of eye-popping abdominals. Customize your own abdominal workout and post it in the comments for others to compare and learn from.

If you liked Vince’s No Nonsense Muscle Building guide, you will love his No Nonsense 6 Pack guide.

You know who I am talking about, don’t you?!  ”That guy” or “that gal” who is at the gym 4-5 x a week but does not look any different than last month or even last year!

What the heck is happening here?

My first guest is that they are not giving their a body a REASON to change.  What is that specific reason?

“That guy” or “that gal” is NOT getting stronger from week to week.  Assuming you’re bulking up on clean calories then you should be getting more muscular and thicker if you are moving from the small weights to big weights.

Are you getting stronger from week to week?  I firmly believe that muscle size follows strength.

When was the last time you saw a guy who could bench press 300 pounds with a small chest and small arms?  When was the last time you saw someone dead lift 400 pounds without any density in their arms, traps, back and legs?

It’s called a “tempo.”

A tempo is the rate that you move the weights.  You might move your weights “slow and controlled” or you might move them “fast and aggressively.”  Both speeds of lifting have different results on your muscle fibers and rate of development.

To be honest, if you have been training longer than 4 years and really in tune with your body and how your muscles “need” to feel to make gains then you might NOT need this lesson for today.  If not, keep reading…

Incorporating a tempo into your workouts is one of the simplest and most powerful tools to ensure you are  INVESTING time at the gym rather than SPENDING time at the gym!