There is one big “problem” everyone will face when trying to get really lean and stay muscular. To get thin and scrawny is no big deal: just eat less calories and exercise the shit out of the fat cells. What you end up with is a six pack but also way less muscle. So unless looking like a ballerina is your goal, you got to stop being reasonable. To get lean and I mean real lean, not Hollywood lean where a flat stomach is considered a true six pack, you cannot eat for performance or for energy. Why? Because you are supposed to be in an energy deficit you see! What happens when you expend more energy than you take in? You get TIRED! YES! So, if you never get tired or feeling exhausted, it’s obvious your body is all good and not really in need to burn more fat than usual.

It’s critical to keep your strength in the gym as you lean out. Yes, I know, it does not make sense, with less calories supporting your training it should be normal and ok to be a little more moderate with the intensity right? It should be advisable to train a little lighter? I know many people believe so, but I am really not one of those! I do not care if you physiologically are less optimated to train intensely due to calorie restriction. I do not care you have not had your regular pre workout carbs.

Everyone is strong when you eat for energy. Training with the muscles full with carbs are more fun than having to push through workout after workout being more or less depleted or drained. Of course it sucks you got to PUSH through that mental barrier that tells you to slow down, get yourself some rest, slack a bit. It takes way more discipline to see beyond that and not blame the diet for dragging your feet in the gym!

So, how can you train hard if you don’t supply your body with a perfect amount of calories for performance? Well, you just refuse to accept the laws of nature! You got to believe you are as strong as ever. The dieting is a kind of meditation. You get stronger the more you do it. Successful dieting and the results that come from it make you a lot more mentally powerful than most other things or tasks in life. Dieting strictly requires being able to see beyond the moment and you need to be able to shut out the brain’s attempts to stop you from pushing 100%.

Every time you go to the gym you set yourself up for a battle. Yes, you are going to battle against your own laziness or will to slack. Stop checking yourself on how tired you are, how exhausted you feel, all that does is hypnotizing you to feel it even more.

It’s natural to feel worn out when you are trying to get really really lean. No human body wants to be that way so of course it will try to resist you! If it was easy everyone would look the way you wanna look.

This song makes me so happy!

LISTEN TO SWING BOP

I heard Schwarzenegger made some deep cuts in the health department to improve California’s financial state. On the news they interviewed a mom with a cancer sick kid who was under treatment thanks to some kind of special insurance for 50 bucks a year. And now they were gonna cut that option out, kick out enrolled kids. Scary what happens to those kids. If they get real sick and their families cannot afford it they cannot get treated to get well again. It’s horrible to imagine what it feels like to be a parent and explaining to your kids there is nothing to do for them… what a horrible turn of life.

In this country where you got to have insurance on the insurance and backup on backup and coverage on the coverage and an extra plan in case it does not get approved via your insurance company, I wonder how one even dares to be even the slightest unhealthy out of personal choice. All obese people who refuse to see what they are doing to their bodies due to laziness and ignorance, what if the insurance companies just stopped cover them at all. Since I moved over from Sweden I’m way more cautious with my health and protect myself better because I do not want to end up with huge medical bills. And even though I’ve got insurance, who knows what they’ll approve or not….

When they screen people for insurance, it would be a nice perk to get a better price on the deal if you are healthy and stay in excellent health.  I think more people would go exercise and think a little more about what they eat if they had some insurance company big brother watching over them to see they do somewhat good.

My way of weight training is plain and old-school, I stick to the classics, I work on improving the classics, when I get stuck or hit a plateau I work more on the classics. I do the same thing more or less day in and day out. Shame on me maybe but I was never interested in reinventing the wheel or trying to invent new versions of exercises. I don’t need it to keep it interesting. Now, it happens that I have quite a few moves up my sleeve that may not be that common, but whatever those may be they never built my body, all the squats, deadlifts, pullups, dumbbell rows and shoulder presses did.  My back did not get thick and wide from doing pullovers and cable rows, my shoulders did not come from lateral raises and none of the funny hip exercises I supplement my routine with sculpted my butt LOL.  In the time you are looking for that special exercise or routine to make you reach a new fantastic level of physical perfection, you may forget that muscle density and volume comes from repetition. Consistency. You go in, work your ass off, repeat and repeat until the cows come home.  Those who can see the beauty in going to the gym for therapy for the body and soul will have patience enough to reap the harvest of it. Training reflects your life in general: how many things don’t you go do every day more or less? You eat more or less the same every day right? And you do sleep too every day. And go to the bathroom. How do you keep those things interesting? LOL nah, you don’t have to work on that do you. Just add training to be one of those things. Weight training is more an inner journey, you learn about yourself. But it is not six flags. The gym for me is not “ooh wonder what’s gonna be exciting today!!!”, but it does not mean I do not enjoy it. quite the opposite.

LOL can you imagine looking at your life when you die and you see how you went to the same squat rack week in and week out to do the same thing over and over. MAN, you gotta LOVE something you do that often!

Middle Easy Web July 2009

http:/middleeasy/.com

Click the link to get directly to the contest!

Is going to the gym and eat somewhat healthy the perfect solution to a “perfect” body? well, no it isn´t. Those two good habits are just mandatories and obvious rules for the game. You cannot just walk in to the gym without a plan, grab a few dumbbells and start lifting. Chances are you will pick a pair that are too light they won´t challenge you. And most people stick with those weights because they want to succeed and accomplish every set in the gym. Hey, something went wrong there you see. You are supposed to FAIL in the gym, you are supposed to STRUGGLE, you are supposed to be uncertain about wether you will make it or not. I´m not saying you should be sloppy daredevil, no not at all, everyone must know their limits, but those are almost always set way too low to start with.

You gotta have a DESIRE to get stronger, a desire to go for the 50´s instead of the 45´s, there must be a surge for pushing the limit, to put the pin in the cable stack further down, there got to be a fiery need to put on another pair of plates and to rep out another two reps because why? Yeah because you can and because you didn´t last time.

You gotta be THINKING of the weights you are going to kill, you gotta have those movies in your mind where you are the strongest, the baddest, the meanest one in the gym and you are being serious. There cannot be any interest in seeing what other people lift who are weaker, no you gotta look up, up, only being interested in those who are way stronger, tougher than you are. And then you gotta wanna beat them.

The drive, the need to have a body everyone would wanna have is something coming from within too. You must love to discipline yourself, you must love the need to say no to what everyone else thinks is almost a human right to eat (read sweets, junk, crap). You must love the feeling of feeling like you own the world because your body is a piece of art and you cannot have any issues with what you gotta do to get it or to keep it. You must LOVE doing it.

And then you need to feel totally ok or even more, yeah you gotta feel HAPPY and PATIENT with the fact you must be doing all this for every day for a long time to get even close to what you wanna achieve. If you say YES to all this you´ve got what it takes to get it.  Because this is what it takes. Dedication and Determination.

I see my life as a training camp. A training camp without a clear goals, no specific climax to reach, no awards to to win. I practice to stream my focus and energy in the right directions and minimize my wasting energy on unnecessary matters. I work on remembering positive people, comments, meetings, statements, experiences and I work on forgetting things said or written to me in anger or in frustration.

I’ve mentioned before I am convinced this is the last life I’m living since I do believe in soul reincarnation. This is the last station I’m waiting at so I better perfect my tasks.

Years ago I stopped desiring materialistic things and that was a burden falling off my chest. Now I want experiences and encounters, conversations and meetings. It’s wonderful to see money for what it is: a means to be able to go where you want to go. But it all starts and ends there. Why have money on the bank if you won’t use it? Money is better used fresh lol.

I don’t want to own a house, a new car, things in general. I have no more than three four dear belongings and that list I prefer to keep short. If you cannot remember all your belongings you’ve got too much stuff.

After all this ramble what did I want to say with this? Well, nothing really. I had a fantastic back workout this morning and a terrific cardio workout at night.

Like I told you today would be a better day and even though I did not do as you suggested to get happy fast: meaning carbing up, beat someone up, get drunk and laid, well, I managed to get to a happier place by being patient til the morning arrived. And it did.

Lately I’ve been back to really wanting to add some muscle. I felt so scrawny for a while. So, I took biceps back in to my workout routine plus I added more work for all muscles more or less. I will do this for a while before my next time off come september.

Right now I am on my way to the gym to deadlift and work hamstrings. My mom is coming over from Sweden in the next days too. I’m gonna teach her how to train.

how’s it goin’, what’s goin’ on, hey whaddup, hey what’s new aaaah I’ve had it with the unnecessary greetings that spit out from people’s mouths way too often. I know it’s a cultural thing, I’m a Swede and should adapt to this, but I just cannot stand up for saying “nothing is going on” or “GREAT!” or “cannot complain, can’t complain”. Is it just me who don’t feel the need to ask these questions? If I REALLY want to know what’s going on I will damn sure ask it with some sincerity! I’ve tried to act like I did not hear the “what’s up”, but then the person asking keeps on asking. Now, the other day another SWEDE asked me the same thing in Swedish. And I told him I do not care for those expressions. He got all offended. And I don’t care he did either so end of that story.

Today I have not wanted to talk to anybody, I have been angry with the world. I don’t want to give a shit to any energy suckers out there. I don’t want to talk about my training. I don’t want to explain what I do. I don’t want to sell lies and ride on people’s dreams. Not today anyway.

I’ve had it with stupid people who don’t THINK. Who cannot answer a question. Who cannot even decipher a question from a statement. Today I’m sick of everyone who THINKS they have it all figured out.

I’ve had it with materialistically rich people who want to get DEALS like they NEED it. Hey, I enjoy PAYING whatever the price if I can afford it because that is luxury to me, not getting a greedy deal because I am cheap! I’m sick of people who think they can buy me, who think they can buy a new body, who THINK they can change in a week.

I’ve had it with people who try to push other people down to look better themselves.

Yeah today I would not want to be one who talks to me for the very first time. I just bought a BOB the body bag to punch the hell out of every time I need to get rid of adrenaline. That should clearly tell how mad I am today. Tomorrow I’ll be nice again, but today I am PISSED.