“I know I should stretch… blah, blah, blah… but why bother? I just want to get big and muscular. And besides I don’t want to look like some skinny twisted up yoga master.”

(Note: I hope I didn’t offend any skinny twisted up yoga masters who may be reading this )

Well, one thing you probably didn’t realize is that when stretching is properly integrated into a weight training program it can actually speed up your muscle growth. In this blog post I’m going to outline several unique stretching exercises that are designed to stretch the connective tissue which surrounds the muscles, and there by expand the fascia and enable the muscles to grow bigger and stronger.

The connective tissues that surround the muscles is very tuff and hugs the muscle fibers tight. This can actually constrict expansion and growth. For muscle hypertrophy to occur the surrounding fascia needs to be stretched and become more pliable in order to give the muscle fibers room enough to expand grow bigger.

Even if you haven’t seriously focused on stretching before, the muscle mass that you have built up to this point came about from the stretching and expanding of the muscles encasing tissue. During your workouts when blood is being pumped into the muscles, the surrounding connective tissues are being stretched, that’s why you get that tight feeling we call “the pump”.

The ideal time to stretch for increasing muscle mass is right after you’ve trained a particular bodypart and the muscles are “pumped up” and feeling tight.

At this stage the connective tissues are already being stretched from the blood volume in the muscles, and then by manually stretching the muscles as well, you get a double whammy effect and this really increases the muscle fibers growth potential.

There are basically two types of stretching that you can do to expand the fasical and surrounding connective tissue, active stretching with weights and static stretching.

Active Stretching With Weights

Active Stretching with weights is where you include exercises in your routine that work the muscles in the fully stretched range of motion. Some good examples of this include:

- Dumbbell Flyes for chest.

- Pull Overs for the lats.

- Preacher Curls for the biceps.

- Overhead Tricep Extensions for the triceps.

- Shrugs for the shoulders / traps.

- Stiff Leg Deadlifts from the hamstrings and lower back.

- Bench Lunges for the quads.

- Standing Calve Raises for the calve.

Now there are plenty of other exercises that I could add to the list of active stretching moves. But I think you get the idea. Each of these exercises allow you to lower the weight all the way down and really feel a deep stretch in the muscles at the bottom of each rep. To really emphasis the stretch you can hold the bottom position of each rep for a couple seconds while you do these exercises in your workouts.

Static Stretching

Static stretching is the more traditional form of stretching that most people are familiar with. For example, bending over and touching your toes is a good static stretch for the hamstrings and lower back. With static stretching you want to go to the point of discomfort and then hold the stretch for 30-60 seconds.

Ease into it at first, don’t rush into it and push yourself to the point of excruciating pain and risk pulling or tearing the muscles. As you become more accustomed to stretching your pain threshold will improve and you’ll be able to hold the stretches longer and stretch deeper.

Here are some static stretches that you can do at the end of each bodypart workout.

- Chest, shoulders, biceps.

Extend your arm and hold a poll or some other sturdy stationary object with one hand. Then rotate your body away while keeping your posture upright. Keep going until you feel a good stretch in the chest, shoulders, and biceps. Hold this for 30-60 seconds and then repeat with the other arm. Do this stretch at least twice for each side.

- Lats, chest, biceps, triceps, rear delts, and upper back.

This stretch is quite simple, just grab a chin up bar and hang from it for as long as your grip will hold out. You’ll pretty much feel the stretch throughout the entire upper torso. You can repeat several times with different grips (i.e. wide, narrow, underhand, overhand, etc.). This is one of my personal favorite stretches that I do often.

- Lats and chest.

Grab a bar or machine handle that is about waist high. Simply extend back as shown in the picture until you feel a good stretch in the lats and chest. Hold this for 30-60 seconds, take a quick rest and then repeat again.

- Front Delts

Similar to the previous exercise, using a bar or machine handle that is waist high, grab it from behind, palms facing backwards, and step forward until your feel the stretch in your front deltoids. Hold this for 30-60 seconds, take a quick rest and then repeat again.

- Triceps and lats

Extend both arms overhead, then bend one arm down behind your head and grab your elbow with the opposite hand. Pull your elbow until you feel the stretch in your tricep and lat. Hold this for 30-60 seconds and then repeat with the other arm. Do this stretch at least twice for each side.

- Quadriceps

Using a leg extension or seated leg curl machine, set the foot roller pad so that it is just lower then the height of your butt. Put the pin in the full weight stack so that the pad doesn’t move. Then hook your foot over the pad as shown in the picture. And lean back and down until you feel the stretch throughout the quads. Hold this for 30-60 seconds and then repeat with the other leg. Do this stretch at least twice for each side.

- Hamstrings

Extend your leg on a weight machine, rack, or some other object that is a bit higher then waist height. Straighten your leg and lean forward until you feel the stretch in the hamstrings. Try to grab your toes if you flexible enough, if not then just reach out as far as you can. Hold this for 30-60 seconds and then repeat with the other leg. Do this stretch at least twice for each side.

- Lower Back and Hamstrings

This is pretty straight forward, just bend over with your legs straight and touch your toes. Hold this for 30-60 seconds, take a quick rest and then repeat again.

Well there you have it… some simple stretches that you can incorporate into your workouts. The way you would do them is after you train a particular bodypart you would go through the above list of stretches and perform the ones that stretch the muscles you just worked. You DO NOT have to do each and every stretch after every workout. Just stretch the muscles that you trained. And then as you go through your workout cycle you’ll train and stretch each and every muscle group.

The actual time commitment to doing these stretches is minimal we are only talking about 10 minutes at most at the end of your weight training. But I can guarantee you that if do these stretches on a regular basis you’ll see noticeable improvements in your muscle fullness and separation within the next 6-8 weeks.

There was a record number competitors with 65 men and women competing in the show.
That’s A LOT of competitors especially considering that we are a pretty small province population wise.

Both my girlfriend Trish and I competed.
I placed 3rd in the Light-Heavyweight Division. But the BIG success was with Trish, she won The Figure Short Class, The Figure Masters (over 35 class), as well as the Figure Overall Title.
I’m super happy for her!

Below are a few pics from the show as well as some that I took Sunday the day after the show.
I’ll be posting up some more pictures as we get them. There were lots of photographers at the show, but not everyone has their pictures uploaded yet.

Click on the images to see the full size photos.

P.S.
Besides Trish and myself competing, we also coached 4 other competitors who competed at the same show this past weekend. All 4 of our coaching students made incredible physique transformations over the course of their pre-contest training.

I’ll be posting up some of their “Before” & “After” pics over the next week and share some insights as to the diet & training strategies that worked the best.

So stay tuned for that!

This is going to be my 13th bodybuilding competition… Lucky Number 13 LOL

Things are going pretty good, I’m pleased with my progress thus far. Over the past few months I’ve dropped over 20 pounds of bodyfat while actually gaining some lean mass.

Below are some pictures that I took tonight during my posing practice…

The full album is posted on my Facebook page at:
Total Fitness Bodybuilding Facebook Fan Page.

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If you’d like to learn some advanced training & diet tips for maximum fat loss, then I highly recommend you check out my Extreme Fat Loss DVD program.

This covers in detail the exact Fat Loss Diet and Training Cycle that I’m personally using RIGHT NOW to get ripped for my up coming bodybuilding competition.

One the DVD I break down exactly what you need to do on a daily basis with regards to your diet, supplements, and your workouts to quickly lose that stubborn bodyfat and get a lean, tight, athletic physique.

To get more information just click on the link below:

Click Here For More Info…

Unfortunately high quality protein foods are also some of the most expensive foods in the grocery store. Things such as lean cuts of meat, chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, dairy, etc. can really add up. Especially when consumed in the amounts needed for a good muscle building diet.

Now there are several ways that you can be a savvy shopper and save money on your protein foods. But one of cheapest ways to get a lot of protein is to go get it yourself.

Saving Money On Protein…

This past weekend I went out in search of some high quality protein with my dad and my uncle and we were quite successful!We went out Cod Fishing in my home province of Newfoundland and brought in a good catch. Cod is a white fish and is a great source of lean protein. In the grocery store Cod sells for about $7 a pound, it’s one of the more expensive fish. Over the course of our 2 day fishing trip we caught a total of 21 Cod fish. Now I never weighed them all out, but let’s just say it’s enough to stock a freezer with fish for a while. And besides getting a good stock of protein food, the fishing trip was a lot of fun and a great opportunity to spend some quality time with my dad and uncle… If you are an outdoors man yourself who likes to fish and hunt then you are already familiar with what a great source of quality protein you can get from these activities.

But Fishing Can Be Expensive…

If you are NOT into fishing and hunting and you try to jump into it just for the sake of saving money on protein… It isn’t going to pan out too well. The start up costs can really add up.

When it comes to fishing; if you had to go out and buy a boat, motor, fishing gear, etc. then that would cost a heck of a lot more than any savings that you would get from catching your own fish. In this case you would be better off buying your fish at the grocery store.

However, you probably know some people personally (i.e. family, friends, co-workers, etc.) who are outdoors men and who are into such activities. In cases like this just ask them about their past fishing / hunting trips. Every single outdoors man LOVES to tell stories about their adventures. And during the conversation you could mention how you’d like to try this yourself sometime and simply ask them if you could join them on a fishing / hunting trip in the future.

Very often they would be happy to have the company and an extra hand helping out. So you could tag along with them and borrow their supplies. That’s exactly what my dad and I did this past weekend. We went along with my uncle, who is a fisherman, and we used his fishing gear.

My uncle goes out fishing pretty much everyday of the fishing season. So he will catch more than enough fish for himself. He’ll keep what he needs and share the rest with family and friends.

So even if you are not interested in going out fishing yourself, you could ask around and you maybe able to get some cheap (or free) fish from local fisherman in your area.

Big Game Hunting…

Another great source of fresh protein is from game hunting. Right now it’s moose hunting season here in Newfoundland. And a moose can easily provide 300-400 pounds of meat. That’s A LOT of meat for a single family, so more often than not people who hunt moose will share the meat with family and friends.

While I don’t hunt moose myself, I still usually get a small freezer full of moose meat every fall that friends and family will give me.

So again, if you are into hunting then you can stock your freezer full of quality lean protein. And if you are not a hunter, just ask around and you maybe able to find some cheap (or even free) game meat from local hunters in your area.

Conclusion…

The best thing about getting your protein from fishing and hunting is that you are getting the real thing. This is natural food. No added hormones or chemicals like you often get from the synthetic fed farmed fish & meat that’s found in the grocery stores.

So by just asking around and looking outside the box it’s possible to stock your freezer full of lean protein, add some variety to your diet, and save some cash in the process!

And if you happen to be an outdoors man yourself… Please feel free to post a comment below sharing your experiences (i.e. the types of fish and game you get, etc.)
Heck, you can even share your “Biggest Fish Story” if you like…

P.S.
You can see some more pics from our fishing trip on my facebook page at:
Lee’s Fishing Trip Pictures…

We started off by driving the old Route 66 from Santa Monica, California to Chicago, Illinois.

This was the best part of the trip by far, it’s almost like going back in time as a lot of the towns and communities have been kept they way they were back in the mid 1900′s.

If you have never driven Route 66, then I’d highly recommend you add it to your “To Do” list. It’s the ultimate road trip!

After we finished Route 66 we drove east, crossed the Canadian border in Maine, drove across Atlantic Canada, and then took the ferry across to Newfoundland.

Below is an overview of our Cross North America Road Trip.

I’ve posted pics from our road trip on the Total Fitness Bodybuilding Facebook Page, just click on the links below to see the pics…

Santa Monica Pictures

Route 66 Through California Pictures

Route 66 Through Arizona Pictures

Route 66 Through Arizona & New Mexico Pictures

Route 66 Through Texas Pictures

Route 66 Through Oklahoma Pictures

Route 66 Through Kansas & Missouri Pictures

I’ve still got a lot more pics to post up, I should have them posted within the next few days.
So you can check back for those…

Keeping Fit While Traveling

During our road trip we did keep with a pretty good workout and nutrition plan. Now I’ll admit that we were not following a strict pre-contest diet plan or anything like that, so we had some flexibility. But we kept active with regular workouts and ate healthy the whole time.

Here are a few of the things that we did to keep consistent while traveling…

- We kept a cooler with us and stocked it with protein bars, trail mix, cottage cheese, and fresh fruit. That’s what we snacked on during the day in between meals.

- We had protein powder and greens powder and we had a couple drinks each day. Usually 1 in the morning and 1 in the evening.

- When we’d eat out at a restaurant we would start each meal with a large garden salad. This allowed us to keep lots of green veggies in our eating plan.

- When ever we had a combo meal that offered french fries, we asked the server to substitute vegetables or a garden salad instead. Fries are one of the worst things you can eat for piling on blubber (high-carb & high-fat all rolled into one) you are best skipping them altogether.

So even though our eating plan wasn’t super strict, it’s still was quite healthy by applying these simple tips.

In addition to that we also hit up several gyms along the way for regular weight training workouts.
I’ve posted up a couple training videos that we shot along the way at the following links…
Back Workout, Leg Workout, and Upper Body Workout

And when we couldn’t get to a public gym or a hotel gym for a workout we would workout in our hotel room with bodyweight exercises and rubber fitness band exercises. If you are looking for good quality rubber fitness bands, I highly recommend the Body Lastic Bands at: www.BodyLasticBands.com

Now while this certainly helped us maintain our level of fitness during our road trip, both Trish and I are really looking forward to getting back to normal and kicking our training up to the next level.

I’m getting the competitive itch once again and I think there’s another bodybuilding competition in store for me this fall. I’ll keep you posted with more details about that…

all the best,
Lee

If you were to ask the average guy at the gym what body part he’d like to develop the most. You can bet that the CHEST would rank pretty darn high. In most cases it’s a toss up between wanting to build up the Chest, Arms, or Abs as the main “show off” muscles of the body.

Well in this blog post I’m going to share my #1 best chest training tip for building thick muscular pecs. This particular tip is the reason why my chest is one of my best developed body parts today.

In fact it’s so well developed that I can balance a beer bottle on my chest!
(This makes for a cool party trick)

Note:
Drinking beer doesn’t help build up your chest. But the occasional cold one every now and then won’t hurt…

Now the cool thing about this tip is that it doesn’t require any equipment, it can be done virtually anywhere, and it only takes a few minutes per day…

Want to know what this killer chest builder is?
It’s push ups, yes that’s right, basic old Push Ups!

You see before I got involved with serious bodybuilding workouts I trained in martial arts for 5 years. And like many martial artists I focused a lot on bodyweight weight conditioning exercises, one of which was push ups (and lots of em!)

I literally did push ups every single day as part of my martial arts training. This high frequency muscle stimulation made my chest to grow like crazy! In fact at my peak I was able to pump out 100 push ups non-stop in a single set.

Even today I still like to include high volume push ups as a regular part of my chest workouts. And I’ll literally finish off every chest session with 100 total push ups. I’ll just hit the floor and rep out as many push ups as I can, rest a minute, rep out push ups again, rest a minute, etc. and keep going until I bang out 100 total push ups.

Simply doing high rep push ups like this at the end of your regular chest workouts will work wonders for most people in helping them bring up stubborn pec muscles. But if you really want to quickly pack some meat on your chest, than I’d suggest you do what I did when I was younger, and do daily push ups as part of your workout routine.

All you have to do is every morning do 1-2 sets of push ups until failure. Then every evening do another 1-2 sets of push ups until failure. Do this in addition to your regular workouts in the gym.

Even though daily push ups may seem like a lot of training volume, and you may be afraid that it will cause you to “overtrain”, trust me it won’t. Your body is tough and will adapt by building a bigger stronger chest in response to this extra workload.

In fact I challenge you to give it a try for just 1 month. I can pretty much guarantee that if you stick to this on a regular basis for just 30 days you’ll see some major improvements in your chest development.

And if you’d like to get 3 more killer training tips that will help you pack on lean muscle mass while burning off that stubborn lower abdominal fat, be sure to check out this killer video presentation that my buddy Kyle Leon has put together for you at:

I’m writing this blog post while sitting in Toronto airport and waiting for my connecting flight back home to Newfoundland. I just spent the last few days hanging out at the 2011 Arnold Classic Bodybuilding & Fitness Expo with the 21-Day Fast Mass Building Transformation Challenge winners. As you may recall, back in January we held a “before and after” muscle building transformation contest and the grand prize was an all expenses paid trip and VIP tickets to the Arnold Classic Sports Festival Weekend.

It was an incredible weekend and all the guys who attended the event with us had an absolutely awesome time. This is by far the biggest sporting event in the world with Athletes from across the globe competing. If you’ve never been to the Arnold Classic before it’s defiantly a “Must DO” thing. I know all of our transformation winners who went with us were stoked about experiencing this event for themselves first hand.

I’ve posted up over 100 pictures from the event on my FaceBook Page at: http://www.facebook.com/total.fitness.bodybuilding that you can check out for yourself. I’ve also got a cool little video clip of our Transformation Winners posted below…

We treated our 21-Day Fast Mass Building Transformation Winners to a first class weekend…

–>> We went to the VIP meet and greet with the pros on Thursday night and finished up with a few drinks at the hotel bar.

–>> On Friday we went to the Expo for the day and later that afternoon we treated our guests to BBQ Buffalo dinner, then went to watch the Ms. International Bodybuilding, Figure, Fitness and Bikini finals.

–>> Saturday we went to the Expo again. Then hit up the best steak house in town for the most mouth watering steak and lobster dinner, then watched the Arnold Classic Bodybuilding & Strongman finals. And we finished off the night at the Arnold after party with the pros at one of the hottest night clubs in town and we all had “one too many drinks” LOL.

–>> Sunday we took in the Arnold VIP training and nutrition seminar with Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. Then headed over to snatch some last minute deals at the Expo, and we finished off the day with a delicious Italian pasta dinner.

Needless to say it was an action packed weekend!

Click Here to see the full photo album.

Click Here to see the full photo album.

I’m flying down to Florida today to get a mini-escape from this cold Canadian winter. It’s perfect timing too because we just had a snow storm yesterday and that added to my motivation for some warmer weather.

While in Florida I’m going to be hanging out with good friends and fellow muscle building coaches:
Vince Del Monte (The Skinny Guy Saviour)
Dave Ruel (The Muscle Cook)
Mike Westerdal (The Critical Bencher – 600+ pound bench press!)
Elliott Hulse (The Lean Hybrid Strongman)
Joel Marrion (The Xtreme Fat Loss Coach)

Just in case you are wondering what my tag line is…
They call me: The Savage Beast who was born in a cave and raised by Wolves!
(Don’t ask, it’s a long story that’s 99% fictional but fun non-the-less.)

Anyway, each one of these guys practices what they preach and they know their sh!t. I’ve personally learned a ton of killer tips and tricks from each and everyone one of them. Which in turn makes me a better muscle building coach and allows me to pass on even more valuable muscle building and fat burning strategies to you.

Even though I’ve been working out since 1990 and competing in bodybuilding since 1995, I’m not so thick headed to think that I “Know It All” when it comes to bodybuilding and fitness. I’m constantly reading, studying, and learning new things from a variety of different sources. I feel that it’s my duty to keep up to date with the best muscle building tips in order to better serve my personal coaching students and online followers like YOU.

Now while we all work hard… We like to play harder!

And quite honestly I have no freaking idea what crazy adventures lie ahead for me while hanging out with these guys in Florida. It’s almost like watching an action movie, you know there is going to be high intensity adrenaline charged adventure, but you just don’t know what…

I’ll just give you a quick recap of some of the highlights of 2010′s adventures…
(This is how I played hard last year.)

Competed In The Atlantic Canadian Bodybuilding Championships
(Won The Best Poser Award!)

Did Jeep Safari Tour in Cuba

Rode a Camel in Cuba

Watched the UFC live in Montreal

Went on Niagara Falls Jet Boat Tour (1500 horse power jet boat!)

Did an 8 Day Motorcycle Road Trip Accross Newfoundland

Watched the Mr. Olympia Live in Las Vegas

Drove a Lotus Elise @ 200km per hour through the Arizona Desert

Went Sky Diving In Las Vegas

Went Zip Lining In Mexico

Went Surfing In Mexico

Those are some of the highlights of 2010. It’s been one kick ass year that’s for sure! So I can only imagine what 2011 has in store. It has already started off with launching the best selling muscle building program of 2011 The 21-Day Fast Mass Building Program!

And to go along with that, there is one BIG Adventure coming up very soon… The Arnold Classic Expo and we are going to be taking the top 10 physique transformation contest winners from the 21-Day Fast Mass Building Program to hang out with us at the Arnold Classic in Columbus Ohio March 3-6th.

So if you are one of the serious action takers who has already come on board and are currently in your very first 21-Day FMB Cycle… Give it all you got and who knows, maybe you could be hanging out with us very soon and creating your own kick ass adventure stories. It’s going to be a blast!

We want to see you Work Hard & Play Harder as well

By Lee Hayward and Vince Del Monte
Creators of 21-Day Fast Mass Building

Three months ago we knew that any promise of a significant amount of muscle – above the norm – would set off a lot of peoples BS detectors, scream hype, scam and raise some concerns and critique. We knew people would look at our new program and say, “That’s impossible…”

Well, for the past ten-years, we’ve both been in the business of doing the impossible and today you get a chance to see a small handful of the results from users of our Test Group we recruited a few months ago.

If you’re skeptical about this then you need to…
Check out these UNREAL results from REAL people!

“Joey Gained 10 lbs of Pure Lean Mass in his 1st 21-Day Cycle PLUS another 4.2 lbs of Lean Mass in his 2nd 21-Day Cycle!” If you were ever interested in gaining lean muscle while keeping the fat off, you owe it to yourself to try this new program Vince and Lee have designed! Before trying the program, I was already impressed by the science behind the theory – rebound weight is something I have already experience after competitions and photo-shoots but I never used it in a strategic way to build muscle. When I was asked to be a test subject in this group, I was definitely not passing up that opportunity. I used the 21 Day Fast Mass Building program immediately after preparing for a recent magazine photo-shoot I had in Toronto Ontario at the end of November 2010. After 1 week cutting, I began the 2nd phase (2 weeks bulking) and by the end of the 21 days I had packed on 10lbs of pure lean mass while still keeping my abs. I basically kept my conditioning and definition all while filling up my depleted muscle glycogen stores and watching my muscles expand as they soaked up the extra calories. Unbelievable! The best part is that normally while bulking continuously, I find it hard to constantly consume excess calories and my body starts to feel slightly sluggish after about 2-3 weeks, but I felt great cycling calories over the weeks and it kept my metabolism in muscle building mode. My biggest fear was losing size or my metabolism slowing down during the fat loss week, but I actually looked better (and bigger) after the 1 week fat loss phase and since it is only 1 week, my strength and endurance did not suffer and the priming phase allowed me to pack on lean mass in phase 2 without worrying about fat gain. Cycling training and calories in this way has captured the famous ‘rebound effect’ bodybuilders and fitness competitors have been using for years. Without a doubt, this program is the perfect strategy for staying lean while gaining lean muscle. Joey Vaillancourt Author, Bones To Buff Quebec, Canada

“Brent Gained 55 Pounds On His Bench & Kept His 6-Pack Abs!” Hey Lee! I’ve used your Blast Your Biceps program before and loved it, it helped me get bigger and stronger all over (not just in the biceps). But I have to say your 21-Day Fast Mass Program is even better! I’ve been following your Hardcore Bodybuilder Workout routine exactly as you outlined it in the program and the results have been incredible. I’ve set new personal strength records on all my major exercises and I still have my 6 pack! Just to give you some examples: My deadlift has gone up by 50 pounds. My squats have gone up by 35 pounds. And my bench has gone off the charts by going up by 55 pounds. Again those are increases in my actual workout weights, not just a 1 rep max thing. I’m super happy with everything! Thanks for everything, this program is awesome! Brent Martin St. Phillips, Newfoundland

“Jeff Gains 26 Pounds Of Muscular Bodyweight!” Note: Jeff Nippard used the Anabolic Amplifier Effect to rebound and gain mass after competing (and winning the junior division) at the Newfoundland Provincial Bodybuilding Championships on November 20th. Hey Lee! The program looks great man! It’s something that I haven’t really seen before and it definitely works for putting on size, that is for sure. Anyhow, this is how my rebound gains has gone so far… Saturday November 20th – 138 pounds Tuesday November 30th – 164 pounds That’s up 26 pounds gained since the show! My rebound has been excellent so I can definitely say the Anabolic Amplifier theory works! My strength has been great in the gym as well. Thanks! Jeff Nippard Paradise, Newfoundland

“Dietrich’s ‘better than bulk’ transformation lands up 7.6 pounds of muscle in 21 days!” For roughly the past 10 weeks (after having gotten down to under 5% Body Fat) I was working on putting on some size – basically bulking. I made some fairly decent gains but noticed that they were starting to level out, which meant I was about to hit a plateau. Enter Vince and Lee’s new diet. I was planning to do a bit of cutting, but figured this would be a nice way to finish my current mass gain phase. Man, I just loved it! I decided to follow a 1 week primer phase, 2 week rebound phase, schedule. The cutting was fairly laid back, since carb intake wasn’t restricted that much. Then once I put myself in a caloric surplus my gains went through the roof – while still saying relatively lean! I think that if I would have been in a caloric deficit for 2 weeks, and a surplus for 1, my lean muscle gains may have been cleaner, and that I might have gained a little more mass, as I noticed that my gains started to even out as I went into the final week of the diet. I decided to stick to a clean diet, only having allowed myself to have one cheat meal. Another thing which I did was I incorporated some post-workout cardio. It wasn’t too much, just about 10 mins of steady pace walking on a steep incline. I did this to avoid any ‘spillage’ of carbs/energy, which would result in fat gains. I think this is what helped me stay relatively lean. I think that this diet is perfect if you’re hitting a plateau in your mass building phase, or as a finisher to such a phase – kind of like a last hoorah. Overall, the diet really surprised me. I didn’t expect to make the gains I did in such a short time, let alone such clean gains. This is definitely something I’ll be using in the future. From: 20th November to 4th December Initial Weight: 185lbs Initial Body Fat %: 8% Fat: 14.8lbs LBM: 170.2lbs Final Weight: 193lbs Final Body Fat %: 8% Fat: 15.4lbs LBM: 177.6 lbs Dietrich Marquardt Hobart, Australia

“Ian Packed On 14 Pounds Of Ripped Muscular Mass!” Hey Lee & Vince, Thanks for coming out with this program it’s a brilliant system, In fact I actually used this style of training and nutrition cycling to prepare for my most recent fitness model competition in Toronto Canada. To give you some feedback about my personal results I got down to 166 pounds after following the low calorie phase and after I rebounded from the high calorie phase I shot up to 180 pounds and was looking bigger and fuller then ever. I’ve been using these micro bulking and cutting cycles over and over again and I find them very effective for building lean muscle mass while keeping the bodyfat low. Ian Graham AthleticBodySystem.com Dublin, Ireland

“Jon Gains 18 Pounds Of Muscular Mass While Getting Stronger All Over” Note: Jon Chafe used the Anabolic Amplifier Effect to rebound and gain mass after competing at the Newfoundland Provincial Bodybuilding Championships on November 20th. Hey Lee, After going through the low calorie depletion phase and the high calorie rebound phase I’ve gained 18 pounds. I feel great with the results my body feels bigger and stronger than ever before, I am more vascular than I have ever been, and I am still quite lean. I’ve been able to add at least 30 pounds to my workouts for the stronger muscle groups, legs, back, and chest. I have been able to add an extra at least 10 pounds to the smaller muscle groups like my bi’s and tri’s and shoulders, depending on the workout! Thanks, Jon Chafe St. John’s, Newfoundland

“Personal trainer gains 3.6 KG of muscle and looks bigger, better, harder & leaner!” I wanted to be on the test group because I hit a plateau that needed destroying, and destroy that plateau is exactly what I did with help from Vince and Lee’s programme. I am a previous customer of Vince’s and I trust him completely! I’m happy with the results and will be repeating this programme in the future! I started at 79.2kg with 18% BF Finished at 82.8kg and 18.2%BF Saying that though, it was recorded with impedance, my body looks bigger, better, harder, and leaner. My chest measurement has increased 2″, legs 2.5″, arms and calves 1/2″ in the space of the program. Kirt Huddersfield, England

“Brandon Packed On 27 Pounds & His Strength Went Through The Roof!” Note: Brandon Green used the Anabolic Amplifier Effect to rebound and gain mass after competing at the Newfoundland Provincial Bodybuilding Championships on November 20th. I went from 168 pounds up to 195 pounds after going through the whole rebound process. Strength is through the roof, personal bests in everything. Barbell shrugs= 405 lbs, was doing 220lb before. Plate loaded incline chest press 340 lb, was doing 230lb. Alternating dumbbell curls 55-60 lb, 35-40 before. Basically every exercise has gone way up. I love it. I feel way better, more energy, and it’s like I always have a pump. Only thing I didn’t like was I got pain in my legs where they were growing so fast and stretching. Brandon Green St. John’s, Newfoundland

“63-year old gains 3 pounds of lean muscle and loses 6 pounds of fat after 2 rounds!” Here are my results from two 21-day cycles: First round: Start 177lbs at 13%BF Phase 1:174.8lbs 12.5%BF Phase 2:174.4 lbs 11%BF Second round: Start 174.4lbs 11% Phase 1 – 172.2 lbs 10%BF Phase 2 174.4 lbs 10%BF Testing out a nutritional strategy to gain lean muscle while keeping down body fat was intriguing to me. My metabolism seemed to have stalled while bulking over the last several months so I wanted to see if there was a way to “confuse” my metabolism and get it fired up. Knowing I would be on a low calorie diet for one week then two weeks of a high calorie diet is an interesting concept so I wanted to be a part of the test group to see if this was an effective way to gain lean muscle. I found a side benefit from this strategy was an increased appetite when I began Phase 2. Previously, my appetite was almost nonexistent and I had issues trying to consume the amount of food needed to bulk. Bruce Macdonald Durham, NC USA P.S. I’m 63 yrs old just in case you forgot! LOL

“This way of eating and training is definitely worthwhile and gets results.” Personally, I think this program was a positive experience for my body both physically and mentally. After bulking properly for two weeks it’s common to get the “I’m getting fat” feeling, however, my following this up with a cut up week you get rid of this feeling and you also lose fat in the process. This way of eating and training is definitely worthwhile and will get results. My B.F was not measured after but before I was 8.5%, I’m guessing around 7.5% after. My weight (KG) before this was 87.5kg and after I was 90kg so I’ve definitely gained muscle and lost fat. Jordan Earl Auckland, New Zealand

“He can do 10 extra chin ups, bench 15 more pounds and added 6 pounds of lean mass!” Hey Lee. I just wanted to say thanks. I finished the 21-day mass building program and it improved my mass/strength a lot. I used to weigh 115 when I started your program and now just tipped the scale at 121. My max bench press was 135 but now I after just 21 days I maxed out at 150 pounds! My chin-ups increased from doing 9 and now can literally do 19 in a row. I have been following the program exactly as outlined right from the start and it works awesome. I am supper happy and very grateful that I used it. If you have any other programs or anything I would love to try them out in the future. Thanks again, Michael DiNardo Snellville, Georgia

This is just a small handful of extraordinary results from our Test Group who put our program to the test to show you that we’re not liars, we’re not crazy and that we are telling the truth. You WILL achieve similar results with the new 21-Day Fast Mass Building Program… we guarantee it.

As you’ve seen in the updates the last few days, this program is completely different than else you’ve ever tried before. People are gaining anywhere from 5… 10… 15… and even 20 pounds of pure muscle (remember, pure muscle means FAT FREE MASS)… and they continue gaining muscle the more 21-days cycles they complete. Oh yeah, and don’t forget about how many of our success stories lost fat too!

And get this… we are 100% committed to your success. We refuse to let you fail and go through life struggling to build the lean muscular body you deserve. This IS the year that people start noticing you and respect your presence just because of your incredible physique.

Over the last few days we’ve been getting hundreds of emails from ambitious people all around the world who want to know what comes with The 21-Day Fast Mass Building Program and how they get this system into their arsenal.

That’s what you’ll discover tomorrow… we’re going to reveal what exactly comes with the program and we’ll also tell you about a chance to WIN a Free Copy of that soon-to-be released 21-Day Fast Mass Building Program.

Don’t miss that update!

Here’s to making your fastest and most impressive results!

Lee Hayward & Vince Del Monte

P.S.
As always, let us know if you have questions and feel free to ask any of the success stories questions. We’ll ask them to stop by the blog to answer any specific questions you might have.

At the beginning all you have to do is be consistent with your workouts and you’ll make steady gains from week to week. Even if you screw things up and make mistakes with your workouts, you’ll still make muscle building gains as long as you’re consistent. All that matters is that you are providing unique muscle stimulation, and your body will respond by growing bigger and stronger.

This usually keeps up for a few months or so, but then all of a sudden…
BAM! Your workout progress comes to a screeching halt!

Your body just stops growing. What’s happening here is that your muscles have adapted to the level of stress you’ve been providing them through those basic workouts. When this happens you can keep going through the motions, doing the same routines over and over again, but all you’ll do is maintain your current level of muscular development. You won’t build any new muscle.

You’ve hit a PLATEAU…

This is very frustrating because it can seem like you are doing everything “right” in terms of being consistent with your workouts, eating properly, taking nutritional supplements, etc. But you are not making any progress to show for your efforts.

Most of the regular gym members that you see day after day, are stuck in one HUGE long-term plateau.

How can you tell?

Just watch their progress. Most of the regulars at a typical “fitness gym” will do the same type of workouts, lift the same weights, and basically just stay the same physically week after week, month after month, and year after year.

They are caught up in the habit of working out consistently (not a bad habit mind you) but they are not making any substantial progress forward in terms of getting bigger and stronger.

Now fortunately for you, I’ve got a solution to this problem. You see my friend Joey Vaillancourt has a FREE Report that shows 7 killer tricks for busting out of a plateau and getting back to making Fast Muscle Gains!

For the regulars who have been following me online for a while, you’ll probably recall that I did an interview with Joey a couple months ago. He’s a really smart guy and a fellow Canadian as well…
You know us Canadians will never steer you wrong, eh… LOL

Joey’s a former “skinny-fat” ectomorph who has totally transformed his physique from being skin and bones… to being buff and muscular!

Just check out his “Before” and “After” pics below…

It’s quite an impressive physique transformation to say the least. The guy knows what he’s doing and it shows in his results. Anyway, just click on the link below to download Joey’s FREE report:

7 Fast Ways To Bust Any Plateau

If you’ve ever went sky diving before than you already know what an insane adrenaline rush it is. But for those of you who have never done it before, let me try and explain it to you…

Imagine jumping out of a perfectly good airplane at 15,000 feet and free-falling at 130 miles per hour (that’s over 200 kilometers per hour).

The feeling of acceleration is the most intense rush I’ve ever experienced in my life, words can’t do justice to explain how crazy it was!

And then all of a sudden you feel the breaks slam on as that para-shoot opens up, and you can let out a sign of relief as you enjoy the breath taking scenery while you descend to the ground.

That’s what I had the opportunity to do this morning, but again words can’t begin to explain it, you have to experience it for yourself!

I’ve posted up some pictures of my sky dive on my FaceBook fan page.

Click Here To See The Full Album Of My Sky Diving Pics!

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Life’s too short to be average…
We’re only going through this world once so grab life by the horns and live it up!

So please let me know what are some of your “Bucket List” goals are that you want to achieve in this lifetime, you can post them in the comments section below.

It’s A LOT more satisfying to say “I’m so happy that I did it !”
Rather than having regrets and saying “I should have did it.”

So go ahead right now and post your goals below, it will only take a minute.

And as an extra special incentive…
If I get at least 100 comments to this blog post, I’ll post up the full video of my sky dive jump so you can see just how shit baked scared I really was… But I went ahead and did it anyway…

Newfoundland has some of the best motorcycling in the world in my opinion. The scenery is beautiful, there are lots of hills and twisting turns, and very little traffic once you get outside the city. During our trip we met bikers from all over North America who came here for the great riding.

This was an awesome way to spend some quality “father & son” time together. I’m very fortunate to have a good friendship with my dad. He was the one who helped me get my start working out back in 1990. In fact if it wasn’t for his help and encouragement none of this “Total Fitness Bodybuilding” thing would even exist. For my first 8 years of bodybuilding my dad and I would workout together in our little home gym as training partners. I even did my first 3 bodybuilding competitions training in our little home gym. After that I moved out on my own and started working out in a public gym. My dad was a big inspiration for me to workout when I was younger, and he continues to be a big inspiration. At 60 years old he still hits the gym 4 days a week and can hold his own with most guys less then half his age.

Even though he’s never competed in a bodybuilding or powerlifting competition, he represents what the real “Total Fitness Bodybuilding” lifestyle is all about. Which is living life to the fullest by keeping healthy and active through consistent workouts and proper nutrition. That’s worth a lot more in the real world then any competition trophy collecting dust on the shelf.

I’ve got lots of pics from our road trip posted in a photo album on my FaceBook page at:
Newfoundland Motorcycle Road Trip Pictures

The main reason I’m here in Niagara Falls is to attend my good friend Vince DelMonte’s
wedding. I’m sure you know of Vince, he’s the author of the best selling
No Nonsense Muscle Building Program.

Special Note:
Right now Vince is running a special deal where you can try out his complete “No-Nonsense Skinny Guy Muscle Building Program” for just $1… I personally think Vince is nuts to be offering this program for so cheap, but you can check it out for yourself at: http://www.VinceDelmonteMuscle.com <<-- Get it here for $1

Anyway, Vinny is getting hitched tomorrow and I’m super happy for him.
But I’m also using this whole trip as an excuse to take a mini-vacation for myself

I’ve never been to Niagara Falls before and I have to say it’s absolutely beautiful here!
My girlfriend Trish and I got in early Wednesday morning and spent the last few days
checking out the sights and indulging in some fine cuisine…
I highly recommend Brazilian BBQ it is absolutely delicious!

But the highlight so far was yesterday when we took a Jet Boat ride up the Niagara river.
What a rush going up steam and battling the rapids in a 1500 horse power jet boat.
I’ve attached a few pics below…

You can see us, we’re sitting in the middle of the boat on the left hand side.

If you ever visit Niagara Falls I’d highly recommend this. It’s just something you gotta do!

Imagine going out with your friends this weekend and indulging in a big ole pig out feast of pizza, a couple of beers… and oh what the heck, let’s toss in a few donuts in the mix as well for good measure

Then imagine waking up the next morning in BETTER Shape then you were the day before… WTF?

Sounds like some Bull S%$t diet scam right?

Well, that’s exactly what I did the night before our post bodybuilding contest photo shoot and check out the ripped conditioning in the pics below…

Not too shabby eh?

Now granted the pizza and beer didn’t get me in that kind of shape “duh!”… But by including strategic “cheat & re-feed meals” throughout your fat loss diet will help speed up your results, fill out your muscle glycogen, make you look bigger, fuller, more vascular, and more ripped.

This stuff is all very common stuff among experienced bodybuilders and fitness competitors, but for the average folks who are new to dieting for fat loss the whole idea of eating “junk” and getting leaner sounds crazy… But when done properly – It Works!

However, the key is to do it *properly*…
If you screw up you’ll just end up looking like a bloated fat pig (not good).
But if you do it right the results will blow your mind!

Lucky for you my good friend Joel Marion has broken down the entire process into a
Fool Proof No Fail Step-By-Step System with his brand new…

“25-Day RAPID Xtreme FatLoss Program!”

This is a highly strategic system that incorporates cheat days, fast days, depletion days, and strategically timed exercise in the most ideal combination to yield the fastest possible results.

The “Official Release” of the Xtreme Fat Loss Program is not until next week, but Joel is running a $30 OFF pre-sale on the entire system from now until midnight this Thursday May 6th.

So if you are looking to kick-start your summer off right with a rapid 25 day fat loss program this is the program you’ve been looking for.

Click Here to get your very own copy of the “25-Day RAPID Xtreme Fat Loss Program!”

And as an extra bonus of my own I’m going to add in a FREE copy of my own “Extreme Fat Loss DVD Program” to everyone who orders Joel’s program via the link below:

http://www.XtremeFatLossProgram.com

On this DVD I outline exactly what I did with regards to the foods I ate, the workouts I did, and the supplements I took to get in my most ripped to the bone shape ever.

I’ll take you on a personal tour of my very own kitchen, give you the behind the scenes sneak peek inside my supplement cupboard, and basically spill the beans on everything you need to know to blast away stubborn bodyfat and get that ripped six pack just in time for summer.

This will give you the best of both worlds…
Kick start your fatloss program with 25 days of Rapid Results!

And then continue making progress with my Bodybuilding pre-contest style fat loss program for as long as you need to get absolutely ripped to the bone shredded!

The only catch is that you need to order right now through the link below and then e-mail your clickbank receipt and shipping address to get your FREE DVD sent to you via rush delivery…

http://www.XtremeFatLossProgram.com

Bottom line, I wouldn’t recommend this program to you if I didn’t believe in it 110% – So if you’re up for a rapid results 25 day fat loss challenge, this is the best choice for you. And right now, you can get it before *anyone* else while saving $30 off the regular price and getting an extra FREE DVD bonus program to boot… That’s a killer deal!

Click Here to get started on your very own Fat Loss transformation right now!

http://www.XtremeFatLossProgram.com

I just wanted to share some killer “Pumped Up” workout gym pics with you.

I just got these pics today and posted them up on my Total Fitness Bodybuilding Facebook Fan Page