The Secret To Building Massive Arms

Fitness internet sensation   Bradley Martyn has broken the  several times with his freakish feats of strength and agility. And it’s not just incredible, it’s pretty damn entertaining too. Most recently, One of his  post was reportedly viewed more than 20 million times on Facebook. Martyn’s  YouTube channel is filled with stunts, like when he squatted 315 pounds while standing on a hoverboard (and nearly breaking it), as well as workouts, tips and tricks on how to build a massive pump or simply improve your strength. We talked to Martyn about his training and his antics in this week’s edition of FUELED. 

What’s your height and weight and of course, what do you bench?

I’m 6’3″, 260lbs and can bench press roughly 430lbs, although I haven’t maxed out in a long time. A better question is asking somebody how much they can bench, squat, and deadlift. A lot of people can bench, but you don’t find as many who are serious about all three. If you have a big bench, but can’t squat or deadlift much, then what’s the point? 

What’s a typical day of eating look like for you? What fuels your body?

This varies as it all depends what my current schedule and goals are. A lot of people ask me this question because they think that if they copy what I eat that it will help them. The truth is, we all have different needs regarding nutrition and what I do probably won’t work for anybody but me! There are times where I’m so busy with work that I only eat 1-2 large meals per day. This can be something like Chipotle or In-N-Out Burger. If I told somebody that’s what I eat then they’ll probably get fat. The part they don’t know is that I know how many calories I need, and pay attention to my macros to fill those calories as well. So they see me eating Chipotle and think they can too! Even though it’s Chipotle, I’m still very much aware of my total nutrition on the day, and always eat according to my goals. There are other times that I eat several meals a day and space them out accordingly. Each meal is prepped in advance and considered “clean foods” in that they aren’t loaded with what many consider “junk” like fast food. So I don’t have a specific foods, or meals that I eat habitually. My habits are paying attention to my body, and adjusting my food intake accordingly. If somebody can do that, then they are on the right track. 

Describe an average week of training for you

What are some must-have items always in your gym bag?

The only things in my gym bag that are not my brand (BMFIT) are my adidas olympic weightlifting shoes and my headphones. Otherwise all things are now BMFIT as I’ve worked hard to supply the tools and accessories that I have always used myself. I would say that any good gym bag needs the following: belt, lifting straps, wrist wraps, knee sleeves, and a water jug. There are other tools and accessories that you could put to good use, but I would call that list the essentials. 

What’s your secret to building massive, sculpted arms like yours?

What advice can you share with guys looking to build big mass and get stronger?

Be patient! The first thing that people need to understand is that the accumulation of muscle mass and strength isn’t easy and takes time. Focus more on small goals and work to achieve them. If you can slowly get better then that all adds up! I get asked how somebody can look like me and how long it took me to get the results that I have. When I tell them that I’ve been working out and eating right with a passion for almost 15 years then they usually have this sadness that comes over them, as if it’s not attainable. The truth is that some may never be able to “look like me” or other fitness people that they get motivation from. That being said, everybody can make improvements to their physique, no matter their level of experience, age, or current body type. Instead of rushing to look like somebody you see in the magazines or social media, it’s important to just focus on building a better you. If you can consistently (and slowly) improve your physique then all those results add up! You’ll be surprised what you look like after putting all that time and work in. Like most things in life, enjoy the process more than the final result. If you can do that then you’ll do nothing but get better, and maintain your results along the way. 

Are there any workouts you hate doing? Why?

I love working out! I would say that I hate doing core exercises the most. The entire industry has convinced people that they need to do a bunch of random core workouts. They use these exercises to sell the idea that they need to do that in order to get abs. The truth is that abs are accomplished more with the diet than they are with working out. If you want something to strengthen the core then you should give squats and deadlifts a try! Core workouts are not bad to do, but they are boring and overrated, so I don’t like to do them very often. 

SOURCE…www.askmen.com

Eat Cheese, Live Longer

A recent study published in the journal Nature Medicine reported that eating cheese — specifically the aged kind containing the compound spermidine, as found in blue cheese — was linked to a longer life in mammals when tested on mice.

“The mice do not only live longer when we supplement spermidine to the drinking water, but they are also healthier in terms of cardiac function,” Frank Madeo, co-author of the study and a professor at the University of Graz in Austria, told Medical Daily.

The study observed 800 Italians and found that those who ate more cheese had lower blood pressure, a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and 40 percent lower risk of heart failure.

SOURCE…www.nypost.com

6 Basic Principles Of Using Food As Medicine

In 1973, when I was a researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health and beginning to become interested in alternative therapies, I met Shyam Singha, a London-based Indian osteopath, naturopath, herbalist, acupuncturist, homeopath, and meditation master. Shyam had gleaming yellow eyes and flowing black hair, and wore impeccably tailored Savile Row suits or floor-length, orange silk gowns.

Lecturing, he paced the front of the hall like a panther. A brilliant, challenging, occasionally terrifying trickster, he became my guide to the frontiers of healing. Together Shyam and I cooked meals that astonished my taste buds, raised my energy, and lifted my mood. The fast, “chaotic” breathing meditation he had learned in the Indian mountains pushed me through fear and anger.

Shortly after meeting Shyam, I was crippled by a back injury. The orthopedists were issuing dire warnings and getting me ready for a surgery I didn’t want.

Desperate, I called Shyam in London. “Eat three pineapples a day, and nothing else for a week,” he said.

I thought the phone had gone bad, and then suspected, not for the first time, that he was mad. He repeated it and explained, using principles of Chinese medicine, how the pineapple would “work on your lung” which was the “mother of the kidney,” and that the kidney was “connected” to the back. It made no sense to me then, but I knew that Shyam knew many things that I and the orthopods didn’t.

And I really didn’t want back surgery.

Amazingly, the pineapple fast worked. Later, Shyam suggested I eliminate gluten,dairy, sugar, red meat and processed food to relieve my occasional allergies, asthma, and eczema. That worked, too.

Ever since, I too have been committed to using food as medicine. Soon I was reading scientific studies that were validating the therapeutic power of traditional remedies and suggesting the need to eliminate or cut down on foods that had become staples of the standard American diet. I began to prescribe nutritional therapies for my medical and psychiatric patients.

By the early 1990s, I had decided it was time to teach what I was learning to my students at Georgetown Medical School. I asked Susan Lord, MD, my colleague atThe Center for Mind-Body Medicine, to join me. To honor Hippocrates, who coined the phrase, we called our course “Food As Medicine,” and it quickly became a hit with med students.

The students experimented with diets that eliminated sugar, gluten, dairy, food additives, red meat and caffeine. Many felt less anxious and more energetic; they slept and studied better and learned more easily. They shook their heads at how little attention their curriculum paid to nutrition.

A few years later, Susan and I made an expanded version of this course available nation-wide, to medical school faculty, physicians, other health professionals and anyone who was interested in improving her own nutrition.

Together with the dietician Kathie Swift, we created exactly the course we wish we’d had in school — one combining impeccable science and traditional wisdom, presented in the most interesting, practical user-friendly way. We called it “Food As Medicine” (FAM)

The course is comprehensive, but the basic principles are simple and straightforward:

1. Eat in harmony with your genetic programming — i.e,. the way our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate.

This doesn’t mean conforming to a strict Paleo diet, but rather following the guidelines it suggests. Consider a whole foods plant-based diet with as little processed food and added sugar as possible.

Ideally this means consuming far fewer grains (understanding that some people can’t tolerate wheat and other grains at all); little or no dairy (even if you don’t seem intolerant to it); cold water fish like salmon, sardines and mackerel as the preferred animal product; and far more intestine-activating fiber — we consume a paltry average of 15 grams a day; our Paleolithic ancestors took in 100 grams.

2. Use foods rather than supplements to treat and prevent chronic illness.

Whole foods contain a number of substances that work synergistically and may be far more effective than supplements that just deliver one of them.

Why take the powerful antioxidant lycopene in a pill when you can eat a tomato that contains both lycopene and a number of other antioxidants, along with vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that work together to prevent heart disease by decreasing cholesterol and lipid levels and stopping abnormal blood clotting?

3. Combine your nutritional plan with a program to reduce stress and raise awareness about how as well as what we eat.

Stress inhibits and interferes with every aspect of digestive functioning and with the efficient use of nutrients. Stressed-out people can’t make very good biological use of even the most healthy diets.

Learning to eat slowly and mindfully will increase your enjoyment of meals, reduce your consumption of food (most of us eat so fast we don’t have time to register signals from our stomach that we are full), and help you make food choices that are better for you.

4. Understand that we are all, as the pioneering biochemist Roger Williams pointed out 50 years ago, biochemically unique.

We may be the same age and ethnicity, have very similar health status, ethnicity, and income, but you may use 100 times as much B6 as I do, and I may require 100 times more Zinc.

Sometimes we may need a nutritionally oriented physician, dietician or nutritionist to do specific, sophisticated tests to determine our deficiencies and requirements. We can always learn a great deal about what’s good for us by experimenting with different diets and foods, and by paying close attention to the outcomes.

5. Find a health professional who will help you begin treatment of chronic conditions with nutrition and stress management (as well as exercise) rather than medication.

Except in life threatening situations, this is the sane, common sense way to go. The prescription antacids, Type 2 diabetes drugs, and antidepressants that tens of millions of Americans use to decrease acid reflux, lower blood sugar, and improve mood, only treat symptoms and do not address causes. And they have very significant and often dangerous side-effects. If they are only prescribed, as they should be, after a thorough trial of non-pharmacological treatment, they will rarely be necessary.

6. Don’t become a food fanatic.

Use these guidelines (and others that make sense to you), but don’t beat yourself up for deviating from them. Just notice the effect of a questionable choice, learn, and return to your program.

And don’t waste your time and energy judging others for what they eat! It will just make you cranky and self-righteous, stressful emotional states that will ruin your digestion. And it sure won’t do those other people any good.

SOURCE…www.mindbodygreen.com

Why Fitness Pros Are Obsessed With Apple Cider Vinegar

Check out this powerful tid bit of knowledge ! Now we all know they say  an apple a day may keep the proverbial doctor away, but a daily splash of apple cider vinegar may be just what your trainer ordered. Fitness pros are gung-ho on the ingredient’s better-body powers, and for good reason. Here’s why:

How It Helps: “Apple cider vinegar has a positive impact on gut health because it’s anti-microbial. It helps to break down bad bacteria and feed the good,” say New York City-based master trainer Josh Stolz.

“My digestion improved when I added it to my diet so I started recommending it to clients. One had chronic bad breath that may have been linked to an imbalanced digestive system, so I got her on a daily apple cider vinegar protocol and her breath, digestion, and skin improved within weeks.” Consistent ingestion of apple cider vinegar has been tied to moderate weight loss as well. “Some studies suggest the acetic acid in it can boost satiety between meals so you may eat less,” says Brian St. Pierre, R.D., a fitness and nutrition coach with Precision Nutrition.

How To Try It: Stir a couple teaspoons into a glass of water and sip before meals. Another trick: Add 1 to 2 tablespoons to seltzer water then add stevia to taste (optional). “It’s like drinking a non-alcoholic, non-caloric sparkling cider,” says Stolz, who advises keeping your daily ACV dose to 2 to 3 tablespoons max.

Some advocates favor the pungent tonic first thing in the morning, but pairing it with your starchy meals may be your best bet. “Research shows apple cider vinegar can help prevent blood sugar spikes because it interferes with starch and carbohydrate absorption,” says Stolz. Pros agree that reducing the glycemic response in the body is especially important if you’re diabetic or have insulin resistance, but anyone can benefit. Notes St. Pierre: Ingesting it with a higher carbohydrate meal can decrease post-meal blood glucose levels, which can also lower inflammation and protect blood vessel linings.

Yet another super-worthy stat: Apple cider vinegar enhances the nutrition of bone broth. “Add it to the bones, water, and seasonings—1/8 cup for 1 pound bones, ¼ for 2 pounds of bones, and so on—about a half an hour before boiling. This helps pull more minerals from the bones,” says Stolz.

Why fitness pros are obsessed with apple cider vinegar
SOURCE..http://news360.com