To get big in size, I read a lot about “bulking” and “cutting” which is a popular method in bodybuilding but will I experiment with that? You know what “bulking” and “cutting” is. “Bulking” is when bodybuilders deliberately eat a lot of calories and fat and stuff to get big. They kind of get fat on purpose for a while and then they cut down all the fat which is “cutting”. I’ve read about this and I don’t think I’ll do it this way.

I’m just going to keep doing what I do. Eat a lot of protein foods, healthy carbs and healthy fats. Keep avoiding sugars, bad fats and avoiding processed foods like the plague which I have been doing.

For my nutrition, I do eat mostly clean… I don’t eliminate all bad food completely. Once in a while I like to drink a Gatorade, a soda like a root beer or ginger ale and I’ll have ice cream once in a blue moon. I’ll also eat out once in a blue moon too like have pizza or Chinese or something. While doing bodybuilding and fitness, it’s still okay to eat junk food sometimes, just in moderation, ya know? Just don’t overdo it. I also like to eat Cliff Bars on the weekends so I can keep having the protein.

As far as protein powders  and supplements go, I don’t touch any of that stuff anymore. I used to drink protein powders but it was getting too expensive to buy that stuff all the time and plus I can’t drink that stuff for my own reasons. I just get protein from real foods like fish, steak, chicken breast, tuna and sandwich meat like smoke turkey breasts or roast beef would be the best for bodybuilders. For dairy products, I’m trying to avoid as much as possible except the only dairy products I’ll touch are cottage cheese and Plain Non-Fat Greek Yogurt which are perfect for bodybuilders. Yeah, I do eat a lot of vegetables and fruit too which is important. For breakfast, it’s either egg whites, healthy oatmeal and sometimes I like to eat healthy cereal like Shredded Wheat and I’m starting to try out Kashi Go-Lean which is pretty good. Kashi Go Lean is pretty popular in bodybuilding industry so I’m starting to try that out for myself which I only have on the weekends sometimes.

Yeah, I eat mostly clean which I feel good doing and feel proud. If you want to know why I have low body fat and visible abs this is probably why. Like they all say, “Abs are made in the kitchen” which is true. You can do all these ab crunches all you want to which would help a bit but eating clean is key to getting lower body fat. I’m just going to keep eating like this all year round. I won’t do “bulking” and “cutting” ’cause I think it’s lame and doesn’t sound too safe to me.

To get big in size, all you have to do is workout in extreme intensity and eat healthy most of the time, you’ll get ripped in a short time. Trust me.

The popular fitness guru, Scooby wants you to believe that muscle building is a slow process which is actually true but to a certain extent. That is just according to him… that’s how he sees it. Everybody is different. Sometimes bodybuilding is fast for some people and sometimes it’s slow for some. It all depends on the person’s genetics. Scooby wants you to believe it’s a slow process for everybody. That’s why you shouldn’t trust his advice. Bodybuilding can be quick for some even without steroid use. It is possible you can build big muscle in a short time.

I’ll just continue to eat a clean nutrition all year round and continue to do what I do. Lifting hard and working hard. I’m doing real good so far and proud of myself.

Kev

This pic was taken yesterday morning. I would say that I’m starting to look like a bodybuilder finally. I wasn’t lying when I say that my chest is finally getting some development and I would say that’s a bodybuilder chest for sure. I’ve got a good six pack going, my arms are pretty big and here I am trying to show my quad work after a good leg workout.

I’m feeling ripped a lot lately so I had to take this pic to show off my progress. I know it might sound a little egocentric but I really like what I see in the pic. You see, when you want to get a good chest development, you gotta do the pushing and squeezing movement both and I see it’s working. Lifting heavy and training with intensity will get you good development.

I’ll post more progress pics sometime soon but next time I’ll show full body progress pics by taken pics of myself wearing nothing but boxers.

My 4 day a week routine is going great and I vow to stick with it even through the Fall & Winter. Have a ripped body all year-round.

Kev

When I first started bodybuilding years ago, I experimented with dead-lifting for a little while but then I gave it up for some reason, and now I’m back at it full time. I’ve been sticking with it each week and going to stick with it each week. Some of you may ask, what’s my personal record of dead-lifting? Well, I’m not a super-heavy dead-lifter yet, I’m just taking my slow time and not getting ahead of myself. A lot of men in the gym will have a huge ego and get lifting heavy right away which could explain why so many men in the gym do dead-lift in horrible form. I see a lot of guys in my local YMCA gym do dead-lift in horrible form. Some of them do it good and some of them don’t. So if you’re asking what my personal record in dead-lifting goes, I would say I can lift a dead-lift barbell at 120 lbs. so far. I did that yesterday early morning for my back day. I used the bumper plates and all. For my 120 lbs. dead-lift I lifted for 4 sets and 8 reps. for each set which is pretty damn good.

Ya know, when you get into dead-lifting you have to do it in perfectly good form. If you don’t do it in good form, you’re going to mess up your back and blow it out pretty bad. I’ve been doing dead-lifting for more than several weeks now and been lifting kind of heavy doing them and getting heavier every week. I do my dead-lifts in the best form possible.

How did I teach myself to do the dead-lift? Well, I didn’t have a trainer teach me. I didn’t have a workout partner. So the only way I could learn how the dead-lift workout is by youtube admittedly ’cause there are some great videos that teach you how to do it well.

I remember  a long while back that I made a post that it was “bad to slam” weights down on the floor and I understand why a lot of lifters do it now. With dead-lifting it’s completely okay to slam the weights down when you bring it back down ’cause that’s why they call it the “dead-lift” to begin with, right? I mean, how can you drop a dead-lift quietly? You have to slam it down. That’s how a lot of dead-lifters do it from what I see.

Other than that, the dead-lift is the best workout for sure. I’m loving it. My back is feeling really strong, though. I can see it. My back isn’t injured at all. Sometime I’ll have to upload progress pics of my back ’cause I’m sure my back is more muscular than ever before. I haven’t seen it for myself yet but I will check out my back when I take pics of it. I’ve been doing dead-lifting every week, lat-pull downs and seated cable crossovers.

When you want to have a jacked back, you got to work out all of it. The lats, the middle back and the lower back. I’ve been doing that every week. Lifting kind of heavy on everything too… a little over a hundred pounds ’cause if I lift lighter than that then it would feel light for me. I’ve got to lift heavy so I can lift to failure on the last rep and I’ve been doing that a lot too.

I’m now beginning to think that back day is my favorite workout day, it really is. A lot of people do dead-lifting on leg day ’cause the dead-lift is a major hamstring workout too but I do dead-lifting on back-day and don’t bother doing hamstring workouts on leg day. That’s how I do things.

Yep. My dream is to have a wicked jacked and muscular body. I’m not afraid to say it. I feel I’m already there but still though, I got a lot of work to do. I’m just getting started still.

Kev

I was just doing a little researching on this. On how society treats bodybuilding and like the title says, it isn’t good. It is strange how people treats bodybuilders as if they are conceited. Ya know, people treat bodybuilders like they are a bunch of egomaniacs and arrogant meatheads who only love themselves and their bodies.

Here’s an interesting article that talks about this:

Why Do Bodybuilders Get the Cold Shoulder from Society?

Ya know something, society really does treat bodybuilding in such a negative direction. I don’t know why. People really do like to put down bodybuilders in a negative way… especially the more successful bodybuilders and the ones with the great physiques. I’m sure they go through so much negative crap from people all the time.

I remember when I first started putting up my shirtless progress pics, right away people started criticizing. I’ve gotten things like, “put a shirt on” and had a bunch of nasty trolls pick on my physique. I’ve gotten mostly positive feedback on my bodybuilding physique over the years and I continue to get positive feedback.

Some may find it weird that bodybuilders and gym rats post shirtless pics online and women post half naked photos of themselves to show off their progress but do we do this stuff for ego like they say? No. We post half naked progress pics of ourselves just so we can show off what we work so hard for. That’s what bodybuilding is for, you see.

There’s a misconception going around where people think we love our bodies so much that we gotta show the whole world and they think we’re full of ourselves. That is not why we all show off. We show off simply because we can’t tell how our bodies look so we post progress pics as a way to get feedback whether good or bad. We want people to do the judging for us. Ya know, I can’t tell how my body looks at all and when people say, “You look good”, that’s when I know I’m going somewhere in bodybuilding. You know you’re going somewhere in bodybuilding when people give you kind compliments. We do it ’cause like I said we want to show people our hard work and dedication. This should be something as being positive but for some reason society doesn’t treat this positively. Everybody wants to give us negative shit instead.

When bodybuilders have a successful physique like a ripped and buffed body, chances are they are going to get accused of using steroids. All bodybuilders pretty much get accused of that from what I’ve seen. If you go to any Fitness guru channel in youtube, you’ll see someone telling that fitness youtuber that they’re a juicehead. It’s insane, ya know? I can’t stand it. I’ve always believed that you can get a big and muscular body naturally.

Another thing I want to get off my chest is that when people want to look muscular, people mistakenly believe that we just want to look and act like tough guys. My thoughts? Hell to the freakin’ NO! A lot of bodybuilders aren’t violent people at all and they don’t act tough at all either. Many bodybuilders can be some of the nicest and down to earth people you’ll ever meet.

Some may also say that you shouldn’t call yourself a bodybuilder unless you’re in competition. That’s another big LOL for me. I call myself a bodybuilder and I am one. As long as you’re lifting weights and building muscle, you’re a bodybuilder no matter what. Doesn’t matter what level you’re at, you’re still a bodybuilder.

It’s nuts. When I first started bodybuilding and when I first started telling people around me that I was gonna get into it — right away people started criticizing, doubting me and blah blah blah… you get the deal. I’ve had people telling me in the beginning that I will never get ripped, well look at me now. Here I am… ripped and buffed and feeling really excellent! I’m loving it! People should be proud of bodybuilders and should be treating them positively. I still get critics and doubters even to this day. People want to criticize the way my physique looks, even if I eat healthy people want to criticize that too and people want to criticize the way I workout even if I know what I’m doing.

The trick is you don’t want to listen to negativity. Just continue to do your thing. Do things your way and your way only no matter what anyone says. Don’t listen to the doubters ’cause they’re just jealous, in my opinion. You are going to get jealous people after you for sure.

We bodybuilders are trying to do something positive with our lives. We want to live healthy lifestyles and that’s not an ego thing at all. Yeah we do love our bodies, no doubt but we try our best to be humble about it. I can’t tell how I look at all and if people say that I look great, that’s fine. If they say that I look horrible then that’s fine too. I’m doing this to be healthy and to please myself. I do want people to like my body, but I’m gonna let other people do the judging.

We’re not a bunch of arrogant, douchey egomaniacs and meatheads like people say. We’re just regular people trying to improve our lives positively and that’s what it’s all about. We want to inspire ourselves and hopefully inspire other people as well.

Kev

I’ve been bodybuilding for a little over 10 years now, pretty much. I haven’t gotten that much injuries. Once a long time ago, I went to the doctor ’cause I had a really bad strain and it took me out of weightlifting for several weeks. I’ll never forget that. After that, I learned that lesson and tried not to get injured again. Admittedly, I’ve had a few more minor injuries like on one of my shoulders and a few other parts but they healed pretty quickly.

There is a way to never get injured in the gym again. How? Well…

#1) Workout in good form, always – yep, this is the big one. Very important if you don’t want to get injured. One way of injury prevention is being able to workout in perfect form on every rep. If you’re lifting reps in sloppy form then you’re probably lifting too heavy and need to lower the weight some. Lift weights that you can handle. I’ve been lifting kind of heavy but at the same time, I lift weights that I can handle and can do fine without hurting myself.

#2) Always perform each rep in full range motion – No half repping. Meaning performing the rep half-way and not doing it fully. I see people in my local gym doing half repping all the time. It’s crazy. That’s just inviting for injury.

#3) Full concentration – When you’re lifting you gotta keep your full concentration in at all times. Like watching what you’re doing only and focus. Don’t pay attention to what other people are doing in the gym and don’t talk to people during your sets. In my local gym, I see people chatting with each other during their workouts all the time and that’s real bad. Amazing how a lot of people don’t pay attention, I see it all the time.

#4) Lifting way too heavy (aka lifting weights you can’t handle) – I understand that people need to lift heavy to build those gains and get more mass and all that stuff but sometimes you need to leave your ego at the door, ya know? A lot of guys in your local gyms always feel the need to lift super heavy when they don’t need to. I do lift heavy but not that heavy. I still lift weights that I can handle and lift ’til failure on the last rep. To me bodybuilding is not really about seeing how heavy you can lift. I’m not too worried about that really. I’m more worried about getting more gains and becoming the best shape of my life. If you really feel the need to lift super heavy then get a good spotter. Amazing how many guys out there lifting super heavy and they don’t use spotters at all. I see it all the time in my local gyms. Guys egos in the gyms are so huge that they don’t think accidents will happen. Crazy.

That’s about all I can think of but there are plenty of bodybuilding articles and videos about injury prevention on the internet so you can look those up.

When I go to the gym, I do lift kind of heavy but I haven’t been injuring myself at all lately which feels good. I’m not injured at all even if I been lifting heavy all summer. That’s because I always keep my focus on and workout in perfectly good form. I take every aspect of bodybuilding very seriously now even the smallest things.

My 4 day a week routine is still going good. I’ll be doing leg day tomorrow which will be my third day this week. My goal is to get bigger and there’s a saying out there that goes, “If you want to get big, you eat big” which is true. I’m going to do more research on calorie intake and all that stuff. I’ll have another blog post on this soon.

Back to injury prevention, it is pretty crucial and it’s amazing how many people in gyms don’t care. A lot of people in gyms get injured and most of them will never admit that. A serious injury can take you out of bodybuilding for a month or longer. You got to lift responsibly and take it seriously always ’cause too many people don’t.

Kev

Doing regular bench presses isn’t for everybody in the gym. Everybody is different. I’m  probably one of the very few who don’t even like bench pressing on a flat bench at all. Maybe I just think benching is just uncomfortable for me, ya know?

I prefer doing mostly dumbbell work on most of my workouts, though. I love dumbbells. Even Chris Jones here says you should do the squeezing and pushing when it comes to dumbbells. I’ve been doing both with dumbbells for a long while now — it is effective. Bench press doesn’t give as much muscle contraction, dumbbell presses and dumbbell flyes do. I’ve been doing dumbbells for chest every week now and it feels good. I’ve been getting results and feeling it. I also do cable crossovers sometimes and that’s a good workout too.

Yeah, doing both the squeezing and pushing movement for the chest is imperative if you want to get more definition.

If other people want to do regular bench pressing, that’s fine by me… it’s just not for me. Like I said, I like dumbbells more. Dumbbells are more powerful and more effective. I’m doing all I can to develop bigger pecs; it’s just gonna take some time. Who knows, maybe I already have decent pecs already. I just gotta post new progress pics and I will soon toward the end of the summer.

I’m going to do chest day at the gym tomorrow and I will do dumbbell presses, flyes and cable crossovers like usual. I’ve been lifting kind of heavy on everything too.

Kev