What is Maintenance?

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic: Maintenance

 

What is Maintenance?

How do you enter maintenance mode? How long should you stay? Discover the answers to these questions and more.

What is maintenance?

The real answer is that you’re never actually just sitting in one spot at the exact same weight, and bodyfat %. You’re always fluctuating a little bit throughout the day, and throughout the year.

Maintenance is more of a transient state that you can dip in and out of when you you’re not necessarily trying to gain more muscle or burn more fat.

You can ‘hold’ and maintain a certain level of bodyfat and muscle for a given length of time and then get ready to push it hard again.

 The step-wise progression

In all the body transformations I’ve ever seen it’s always a step-wise pattern. This means you will improve for a given amount of time. Then you’ll need to take a break. Once you feel ready you can push forward again. The amount you move forward is dependent on your goals and how hard you expect to push things.

Thinking about maintenance is also about managing expectations and where you expect to go based on the energy you’re putting forward.

Moments of maintenance happen for many reasons including lifestyle factors, seasonal changes, periodic moments of being sick, and even generalized stress.

For example over the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday season you may simply set a goal to just make it from nov to jan without gaining fat mass.

In this case you’re actually working to just maintain, and you’d probably have to consider it a win just to make through the holidays without gaining fat.

Maintenance is a mode you go into throughout the year, and it’s normal to go through phases of  “muscle growth vs muscle maintenance” and “fat loss vs maintenance.”

In this podcast we discuss what maintenance is, how to define what it is and how often you should expect to be in maintenance mode.

-John

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The “Flexible” vs “Structured” Approach to Nutrition & Training

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic: The “Flexible” vs “Structured” Approach to Nutrition & Training

 

At what point does too much structure hinder your progress and lead to information overload?

At what point does too much structure hinder your nutrition & training progress and lead to information overload?

 

Continuing from our last episode on Optimal vs. Practical Training,  today John Barban & Brad Pilon take this topic a bit further by discussing which is best? Is it either a “flexible” or “structured” approach to nutrition & training.

As stated in our last article with the rise of obesity it’s safe to say that an emergency is on our hands when it comes to our health and we must take action.  But what nutrition & training advice should we follow to become consistent obtain successful results?

The information on diet and fitness becomes more and more daunting. From nutritional strategies consisting of: macro/micro nutrients, slow/fast proteins, what foods are good, what foods are bad, and the highly controversial thoughts on meal timing, a person could become easily susceptible to information overload.

Things aren’t much better on the training side of the house as we are faced with a myriad of factors to take into account. Ranging from: Workout Intensity, Volume, length of actual workouts, and the rest/recovery period.

While some structure is necessary how much structure do you actually need?

In today’s UNCENSORED training, you will also discover:

  • With consistency, effort, and patience anyone can change their look significantly in one year
  • Why structured metric goals along with a more relaxed approach to diet and fitness makes you successful
  • How to determine the level of structure you need
  • How the structure you need is a continuum
  • How fitness products sell too much structure with goals that are too vague
  • How Top Level athletes follow extremely strict regimes for a specific purpose that is unsustainable to the average person
  • How too much structure and restrained dieting will slow down your progress
  • How there is a minimal amount of structure needed for each individual
  • For diet the first level of of structure should be how much you eat
  • People spend so much time on diet structure that they miss the point that what matters is how much they eat
  • How to manage your diet so that it is less structured
  • How to manage your training so that it is less structure

 

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The Downfall of Hero Worship

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic: The Downfall of Hero Worship

 

How does Hero Worship skew the reality of our physique goals?

How does Hero Worship skew the reality of our physique goals?

Bigger, Faster, Stronger… but at

what cost?

In the world of entertainment and sports, performance means everything.  So much so that the individual’s who have achieved a superior level of performance in their respective profession are often referred to as a “Hero” by fans and followers alike.

There is no doubt that they have dedicated a tremendous amount of time & effort into becoming the “very best” at what they do. Although this is quite admirable, is it wise to compare ourselves to our favorite hero?

This podcast is unique, because it was spurred from another podcast in which Joe Rogan (from The Joe Rogan Experience) in a highly controversial interview with Victor Conte (from the BALCO scandal) , reveals the widespread use of doping and performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in entertainment and sports.

This is one of the many examples in which the  views and opinions of our favorite heroes have become jaded once discovered that PEDs played a role in their success.

So…How does Hero Worship skew the reality of our physique goals?

These questions and much more will be answered in John Barban’s & Brad Pilon’s discussion on “The Downfall of Hero Worship.”

They will provide further insight and analysis into this growing investigation of PEDs and what it means for the person whose looking to improve upon their physique.

In today’s UNCENSORED training, you will also discover:

  • Why your favorite hero should serve as a source of inspiration, not imitation
  • Why self-diagnosing will become more prevalent as science and technology develops
  • What are the benefits of Vitamin & Mineral Profiling
  • How genetics play a role in achieving optimum performance
  • The impact of The “Use or Lose” Mentality on entertainment & sports
  • How different athletes’ are tested depending their sport
  • The Culture Difference between “Bodybuilding” and “Entertainment/Sports Performance”
  • If strength will help determine your looks
  • How to determine your ideal Body-Image Model
  • What are some of the benefits of a Transformation Contest
  • The psychological impact of taking progress pictures and undergoing a photoshoot

 

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Nutrition & Training Triage: Optimal vs. Practical vs. Ideal

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic: Nutrition & Training Triage: Optimal vs. Practical vs. Ideal

 

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What is the Optimal approach for nutrition & training? What is Practical? What is Ideal?

When it comes to nutrition & training advice, how do you sort and prioritize what’s best for you?

 

The medical term known as triage, means the determination of priorities for action in an emergency. However, this word is from a french origin and is also defined as the “action of assorting according to quality.”

Both of these definitions are applicable to John Barban’s & Brad Pilon’s discussion on defining what is optimal, practical, or at best Ideal.

With the rise of obesity it’s safe to say that an emergency is on our hands when it comes to our health and we must take action.  But what nutrition & training advice should we follow to attain optimal results?

The ever growing amount of new supplements coming to market only makes this task more daunting. From nutritional strategies consisting of: macro/micro nutrients, slow/fast proteins, and the highly controversial thoughts on meal timing, a person could become easily overwhelmed.

Things aren’t much better on the training side of the house as we are faced with a myriad of factors to take into account. Ranging from: Workout Intensity, Volume, length of actual workouts, and the rest/recovery period.

Why all these things may be optimal, are they ideal or even practical?

Today’s podcast will strive to analyze the ever moving target  known as optimal and provide you with ideal advice to build muscle within your lifestyle.

 

Panel of judges

Each nutrition & training expert has their own opinion on what is optimal. Whose advice is right or you?

In today’s UNCENSORED training, you will also discover:

  • Who you really are comparing yourself to
  • How to prevent goal hi-jacking when someone else’s optimal advice is presented to you
  • How Drugs and Genetics skew the curve of optimal
  • How to debunk a fitness claim  giving optimal device
  • Where Top Level Strength & Conditioning coaches get their training advice from
  • How research papers and marketing claims justify their nutrition & training advice to appear optimal for the masses
  • If optimal nutrition & training actually exists and what that actually looks like
  • Whether Hollywood has an influence on what is considered optimum
  • How to manage your ideal training schedule
  • How to focus on your specific results

 

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Is Fasting Bad for You?

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic: Intermittent Fasting, Intermittent Feeding and Gender Differences

Could Fasting Actually be Bad for You?

What are the Benefits of Intermittent Fasting?

Could one benefit be a goal to achieve 0% BF?!

Of course not!  When incorporating fasting into your lifestyle you should know what to expect and understand why you are doing it.  Do you want to create room for extra weekend calories? Or use fasting as a tool to lose one additional  pound each week?

When our friend Eric tried fasting at about 7% body fat before his competition he could hardly push to the 24 hour mark and felt terrible. Was this a surprise? Not really.

If you are already ripped, you can’t expect to fast four times a week for 24 hours.  The less body fat you have the more your body will try to “protect it”.

This is something most people don’t realize and even major fitness articles are wrong when they state “Fasting doesn’t work” or  “Intermittent Fasting is Dead” and so on.

Truth be told, intermittent fasting has become quite popular in 2012.  As the trend follows with everything that receives a lot of attention and popularity, there is always some negative feedback attached as well.

Today, we will analyze a blog post from a woman who tried fasting and misunderstood the effects of dieting on her hormones and blamed fasting for being unhealthy. We will also cover her false conclusion of a famous mice study on fat loss and fasting.

John Barban and Brad Pilon will also show you the difference between intermittent fasting and intermittent feeding and explain which is more useful as a fat loss or bodyfat maintenance tool.

In today’s UNCENSORED training, you will also discover:

  • Different fasting protocols you can follow and how to determine which one will fit you the best
  • How to make (intermittent) fasting sustainable
  • Discover at what point you have to reduce the frequency and length of your fasts
  • How to optimise the whole process of dieting so you get the results, feel good, and don’t burn out
  • Learn whether there any “side effects” of dieting or  intermittent fasting/intermittent feeding
  • What steps to take when you read other blog posts about intermittent fasting and want to remain objective
  • How to take into account your limits when training, dieting and fasting
  • What fundamental questions to ask yourself when you reading an article/journal which quotes a research study
  • The second part of the  Eat Stop Eat lifestyle you can’t forget about
  • What the signals indicate you to stop fasting
  • The difference between intermittent fasting and intermittent feeding and when to use them

 

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Men’s Guide to Eating for Muscle Gain

Here’s the next episode of the UNCENSORED Podcasts Season 2.

Today’s topic: Eating for Muscle Gain and Fat Storage

How much do you need to eat to build muscle?

How Do You Store Fat?

When we eat more calories than our body can use we begin to store those extra calories as fat. Although this process occurs  in  both men and women, the primary locations of fat storage differs betweeen the two genders.  For example, men tend to store fat in the stomach region while women in the hip/thigh region.  This genetic predisposition of fat storage leads to a variety of  body types or shapes: “Apple, Pear, Banana” just to name a few.

As a person begins to exceed the standard Body Mass Index (BMI) range their body shape eventually balloons into a rounded appearance.  Nevertheless, there is a popular belief amongst  people that even if they are below the BMI range known as obese, their body shape  is dictated by their genetic predispositions for fat storage.  However, this is only partially true.

There is no category of body shape that will restrict you from building  muscle only in a certain area.

Once you lose the  fat necessary to achieve the lean, ripped look we begin to look very similar to one another.  What will make the biggest difference is the size of your muscles. Everyone will look different at their ideal numbers of course, but the overall body shape will be the same. Once you lose the fat,  your body’s  fat storage patterns become irrelevant.

So it’s up to you, you can choose whether to let your genetic predispositions  dictate how you store fat or change your physical appearance through strategic training and add more size to your frame.

How Much Do You Need to Build Muscle

The second part of this podcast (maybe the more important to you) is about the amount of food/calories you need to consume to build muscle.

We’ve already explained why bulking is a bad idea, hell even Pilon tried bulking up slowly in the last podcast.

So it would seem that overeating doesn’t help. So what’s the answer then, how much do you really need to eat to avoid undereating, but also overeating? What do you have to do?

If you are asking yourself those questions you are missing  two critical  factors to your success.

The two factors that must be taken into consideration are birth and/or training age.

A 17 year old guy who just started training is a different case compared to a guy who is in his late 40s and has been training hard for the last 15 years.

Which is exactly what Brad Pilon and John Barban are going to discuss today. So, if that is something that interests you, just scroll down to log inside the AI cockpit and listen to this episode.

In today’s UNCENSORED training, you will also discover:

  • Whether there is anything you can do to improve your physique besides fat loss and muscle building
  • What  BMI/BF% range you will  need to be under to allow your muscles to dictate your body shape
  • What waist  percentage of your height is still safe for “bulking
  • Whether there is actually an amount of calories you need to eat to build muscle
  • What determines how much you need to eat to build muscle at the rate you want
  • Learn what  stubborn fat is  and whether it’s any different from the rest of your body fat
  • What it means when people store fat in as opposed to around the muscle
  • What it takes to add more muscle if not bulking
  • What role does birth and/or training age  play in your diet if your goal is building muscle
  • What do you do after you get to your ideal numbers? Do u need to keep training or Is it possible to grow even more?
  • How to eat for muscle gain according to your waist and shoulder measurements, when to stop and when to eat more to avoid under eating

 

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