E-zine #23: Staying Lean and Looking Full

TRY THIS AT YOUR NEXT WORKOUT:

Have you been bench pressing forever and noticed that you’ve reached a plateau in strength and muscular gains? Has your squat weight reached a sticking point, your quads appearing as though they haven’t changed in months? Well, maybe it’s time to drop those movements for a while and replace them with something else.

It can be tough to drop those core exercises, but it can also be very much worth the sacrifice. Rather than worrying about huge bench press numbers, get them out of your head. If you feel like you really need to press for your chest, try decline presses. These can actually feel easier than bench presses, provide the same, or better, gains and can have much less effect on your rotator cuffs. If you’re really willing to experiment, you can even drop pressing all together for a while and try dumbbell and cable flyes, and maybe throw some wide-grip dips into the action.

Squats can become a major burden also, but they’re an extremely hard move to delete from your routine. These and bench presses are big ego movements, but big numbers don’t always lead to big gains, so don’t be afraid to try something new. Hack squats are a great replacement. They can take much of the stress off your spine and still allow as much, or even more, range of motion. They also isolate the quads a bit better than squats. To really get a good quad burn, and to warm up your knees, try a couple of high-rep warm-up sets on leg extensions.

To follow the ITRC training program in ‘Train, Eat, Grow,’ get a copy of the latest issue of IRONMAN. For more on POF training go to www.ironmanmagazine.com and get a copy of the new book ‘Train, Eat, Grow: The Positions-of-Flexion Muscle Training Manual.

NUTRITION TIP FOR STAYING LEAN AND LOOKING FULL

No doubt you’ve read some of the recent articles on bison meat (http://www.northstarbison.com) that have been published in IRONMAN. Chances are you may have even read some of the nutritional findings in recent news magazines, such as the ‘New York Times,’ which state the benefits of eating grass-fed meats over grain-fed. A very basic overview is that these meats have less fat, and the fat they do have is better for you. Grass-fed meat tastes a whole lot better too. Plus, red meat is known to have a good deal of creatine in it. Be it the creatine, or other unknown micronutrients, I don’t think it can be argued that eating red meat seems to keep muscle much fuller looking, helps to maintain strength and seems to make you feel bigger and better when it’s a regular part of your diet.

Supplement use can also help with keeping your muscles at their fullest. Although most people use a low-carb diet when getting or staying in shape, there’s really nothing wrong with increasing your carb intake at appropriate times. The best time is right after a hard workout with a post-workout recovery drink, like Muscle-Link’s RecoverX (http://www.muscle-link.com). It’s packed with everything you could need in a post-workout meal, and all the carbs it has will be rocketed right into your muscle cells to help transport all the nutrients, as well as giving them a nice, full appearance. You can kick it up another notch or two by adding CreaSol and Ribose Size as well.

For more info on ribose, go here >>

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This Special Report was submitted by Jonathan Lawson
The IRONMAN Training & Research Team
www.ironmanmagazine.com

The ITRC Training Newsletter is not intended as training advice for everyone. You must consult your physician before beginning any diet or training program. You may forward this email to as many friends as you want, but do not photocopy or reprint this report in any format without the written permission of the copyright holder.

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In the NEXT Issue of IRONMAN…

Our next issue will get you growing as never before. We have an unbelievable superfeature that includes 100 amazing mass-building tips. It’s an encyclopedia of muscle-building info you’ll want to keep forever’everything from quad-blasting tweaks to arm-swelling techniques. We’ll also have a wild look at Bill Pearl and Chuck Sipes back when they were bending iron bars and blowing up hot water bottles for stunned crowds. Mucho macho stuff here, gang. And John Little outlines the Heavy Duty one-workout-a-week program. Watch for the outrageous October IRONMAN on newsstands the first week of September.

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