Welcome to the VPX Sports Supplement Blog

** I eat 4000-5000 calories per day before a big race adding fuel and gaining size, 3000-4000 calories per day on normal (non-race prep) days. I weigh 235lbs now. The following Meals & Snacks are spaced out 2-3 hours all day from waking to bedtime.

** To GAIN muscle MASS you need to at least be eating 10 calories per pound of desired body weight at the minimum so if you want to be 210lbs ripped, and that’s fair and logical for your bodytype and frame, then you need to eat at least 200x10 = 2100 calories daily spread out throughout all 7 meals/snacks below.

Last week, for Week 1, I had you go “Heavy” with 5 circuits 5-10 reps but this week I want you to use “Medium” Weights, aim for 4 circuits of 10-15 reps! Your goal should be to be getting muscle pumping burn about 65-75% of the way through each set and barely be able to get a 15th rep because of muscle bursting pumps! Using medium weights will trick the muscles, since they are expecting heavy weights like last week, and you will crush this workout with some serious intensity!

Week 1 - (Warm-up before each workout with a 10 minute walk, then stretch the muscles you plan to obliterate!)

Fast 5 is one of my favorite supplements to use intra-workout, not only because of its amazing taste (Blue Razz), but because it supplies the correct ratio of BCAA’s needed to retain muscle mass! The second most abundant amino acids found in muscle tissue (the 1st being glutamine) are Leucine, Isoleucine, and Valine. They make up approximately 33% of all muscle tissue. During exercise, BCAA's are broken down and used for energy. Because they are so easily broken down and your body cannot produce them on its own, supplementation is needed to sustain sufficient amounts in your blood stream. If the amount of BCAA’s flowing through your body becomes depleted and not available during exercise, your body may turn to your muscle tissue for fuel (known as gluconeogenesis). We want to avoid this at all costs! So the million dollar question is: how do we maintain a high level of BCAA’s during exercise to prevent this muscle catabolism? The answer is to over saturate your body with BCAA’s through SUPPLEMENTATION. By maintaining optimal levels of BCAA's through supplementation, you can protect muscle tissue, thus maximizing muscle growth!

Besides training, which causes a break down in muscle tissue, there are two other important ways your body causes muscle damage. With these other ways there are measures you can take to prevent damage from happening. During weight training, the body has a natural feed-back loop of recovery and adaptation, making it an overall anabolic process (with proper nutrition and supplementation). Some clinical ways to test for muscle damage is by identifying biochemical markers such as CPK, LHD and 3-methylhistidine since they can be readily found in urine and blood samples when the muscle tissue is broken down or torn. Another way is to test for free radicals and cortisol levels in blood plasma; these are the areas where you can put forth an effort to prevent catabolism.

My philosophy behind weight training can be summed up in one phrase. “In order to succeed in the weight room you must fail!” What do I mean by this? You must reach failure with the rep range and weights you are using. Reaching failure, in my mind, is the most important rule due to the fact that it promotes the most muscle growth. A lot of lifters go into the gym and do 3 sets of 10 reps on, for example, bench press. They increase the weight each set and seem to still finish with 10 repetitions. Maybe that last set they struggled to reach 10, but what about the first two sets? Basically, they wasted 10 minutes of their time with too many warm-up sets. Instead of reaching failure and breaking down muscle tissue, this particular lifter fatigued their chest by messing around with a lighter weight on the first two sets. Therefore, the end result finished with less weight being used on their heaviest set because the muscles were too fatigued from the excessive warm-ups. Don’t get me wrong - it’s great to warm up, as everyone should to avoid injury, but to fatigue your muscles before your heaviest sets is just counterproductive.

Doing the same type of workout day-in and day-out can get dull and discouraging for even the most dedicated person. If you are looking to add a little variety to your upper body routine or train grip strength, I strongly recommend you give rock climbing a try. It is a great way to work the upper body, grip strength, build confidence, meet amazing people and see a variety of beautiful places!