Never thought I’d be interviewing one of my idols so soon in my journey.

But if you believe you can achieve anything!

Me and Kodi had a super fun filled podcast it was absolutely hilarious!

We also hit on topics of nutrition, supplements, training methods, and so much more!

Full video drops on YouTube and Apple Podcasts tm at 1pm eastern standard time!

The audio will be dropped on buzzsprout tm at 1 pm eastern standard time!

Make sure to go check it out! 💪🤟🏻💯

Calories and macronutrient intake meeting out specific needs is our primary recovery method.

If we had a pyramid or hierarchy of what is most important. This would be at the bottom being your foundation.

I know what you’re thinking too but I get my protein in. I’ll be fine! Well no you won’t.

If you’re hitting your protein but in a hypo-caloric state (calorie deficit) you can experience

• 20% calorie deficit shown to decrease protein synthesis by 19% following a meal.
• 500 k cal deficit for 5 days decreased protein synthesis by 27% and resistance training only restored rates to resting levels
• Increased rate of protein used as fuel source (incensed rate of protein degradation)
• Decree in mTOR signaling (contributes protein synthesis), Increase in AMPK signaling (contributes protein degradation)

We can have the right protein amount but if we don’t have our other macro nutrients in check we won’t be hitting our calories.

Finding out energy expenditure and matching that with your proper calorie needs is the primary thing that drives your results.

All other nuance stuff is inferior to hitting your proper calorie mark for whatever your goal is.

SPECIAL GUEST PODCAST EPISODE! 🔥

On this episode me and @shelbylong10 discussed the benefits of fitness on your physical and mental health!

We also touched base on bulking, cutting, and our favorite time of “season” when it comes to fitness/bodybuilding.

We also touched base on how fitness didn’t just help us with recovery and with physical health… but impacted our mental health, and gave us more discipline, confidence, and so much more.

Fitness can help you release chemicals like dopamine and seriously improve your mindset. It can also help clear your head, improve sleep quality, and in a sense serve as a form of therapy!

It’s been an absolute privilege to coach and help this guy transform into the man he is now! This is only the beginning!

Go follow @shelbylong10 on instagram to follow his journey! ⚠️

Thank you guys for the continued support! I couldn’t do this shit without yall 💪💯

Love you guys! ❤️

Coach Alistair: Owner and Head Trainer of Beyond Barriers Training and Nutrition! ✌🏼

Should you bulk, cut, or maingain

• First off all of this depends on your goals. If you’re looking to bodybuild I would say maintaining is not the way.
• You will see slower progress and if you’re looking to be serious about the sport you’re going to want to be taking your off season seriously and GROWING.
• That doesn’t mean eat everything in sight and throw out a plan though.
• Take a calculated approach to your off season just like you would prep. It won’t be as rigorous but you want to have a method and plan to progress.
• Don't let yourself get sloppy
• But don’t get complacent and caught up in being “lean “ year round.
• If you’re looking to maintain aesthetics and you workout for stress relief, fun, and to boost your confidence I would say maingaining is the way.
• My definition of maingaining would be eating at maintenance calories or doing a lean bulk

-Ive done tons of videos on maintenance calories but a way to roughly calculate your maintenance calories is by using BMR

• BMR = 10 X YOUR BW IN LBS
• Ex: 10 X 200 lbs = 2,000 kcal
• Then multiply your BMR by your activity factor to get your maintenance calories
• 2,000 X 1.3 acitvty level (SEDENTARY PLUS 3-6 DAYS OF WEIGHT LIFTING) 1.3-1.6
• Activity factors range from
• Sedentary plus 3-6 days weight lifting week 1.3-1.6
• Lightly active plus 3-6 days o weight lifting week 1.5-1.8
• Active plus 3-6 days if weight lifting 1.7-2.0
• Very active plus 3-6 days of weight lifting 1.9-2.2
• Now to bulk you want to 
• 10-20 percent calories addition
• Upper end for beginners
• Lower end for advanced
• You should expect between 0.25-0.5% weight gain each week
• To cut you want a 20-30% calories reduction
• Lower end for low body fat and advanced level ( these individuals usually have more muscle mass so they need a less decrease in food to start so that muscle sticks around better)
• Higher end for high body fat and beginners
• Should expect 0.5-1.0% weight loss per week
• So again to overview bulking is the way to go in the offseason as a bodybuilder and obviously cutting would be prep but those numbers would vary/be different depending on the athlete (PED usage, genetics, etc.)
• If you’re working out to maintain quality of life, have fun, and just be jacked and shredded id say maingaining would be the way for you year round but its whatever floats your boat!

References

J3 University Nutrition Modules

Lenzi, Jaqueline L.1; Teixeira, Emerson L.1; de Jesus, Guilherme1; Schoenfeld, Brad J.2; de Salles Painelli, Vitor1,3 Dietary Strategies of Modern Bodybuilders During Different Phases of the Competitive Cycle, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: September 2021 - Volume 35 - Issue 9 - p 2546-2551 doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000003169

Schoenfeld BJ. The mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and their application to resistance training. J Strength Cond Res. 2010 Oct;24(10):2857-72.

Wilson J, Wilson GJ. Contemporary issues in protein requirements and consumption for resistance trained athletes. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2006 Jun 5;3:7-27.

Wilson GJ, Layman DK, Moulton CJ, Norton LE, Anthony TG, Proud CG, Rupassara SI, Garlick PJ. Leucine or carbohydrate supplementation reduces AMPK and eEF2 phosphorylation and extends postprandial muscle protein synthesis in rats. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2011 Dec;301(6):E1236-42.

Moore DR, Robinson MJ, Fry JL, Tang JE, Glover EI, Wilkinson SB, Prior T, Tarnopolsky MA, Phillips SM. Ingested protein dose response of muscle and albumin protein synthesis after resistance exercise in young men. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Jan;89(1):161-8.

Wilson, J. M., Lowery, R. P., Joy, J. M., Andersen, J. C., Wilson, S. M., Stout, J. R., ... & Rathmacher, J. Wilson JM, Lowery RP, Joy JM, Andersen JC, Wilson

Choose your hard 💯

-

Life is hard any way you put it

-

It’s hard to budget but, it’s also hard being broke.

-

It’s hard to make a relationship work but, it’s also hard to go through a breakup.

-

It’s hard to be in shape and have a healthy lifestyle but, it’s also hard being out of shape, unhealthy, and unhappy.

-

Life is about choosing your hard. Do you want to do the little tasks everyday that seem “hard at first” or on days your tired or do you want to ultimately wake up full of regret one day....

-

Personally I think regret is the harder option of the two... but ONLY YOU CAN DECIDE FOR YOURSELF.

-

I love you guys and hope you’re having an amazing day ❤️

-

Coach Alistair ✌🏼 

Today I am diving into why recovery is so important and the different factors of recovery! I hope everyone is having an amazing day!

TUNE in if you have an extra 15 minutes today because this is an AMAZING EPISODE full of juicy INFO!

Sources:

J3 University Lesson: Fatigue/Recovery/Adaptation

McGlory, Chris et al. “Skeletal muscle and resistance exercise training; the role of protein synthesis in recovery and remodeling.” Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) vol. 122,3 (2017): 541-548. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00613.2016

Yamagishi, Takaki1,2; Babraj, John1 Active Recovery Induces Greater Endurance Adaptations When Performing Sprint Interval Training, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: April 2019 - Volume 33 - Issue 4 - p 922-930 doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000002787

Things I wish I knew about training when I first started my fitness journey

Training approach’s are tools Drop sets, progressive overload, etc

Instagram workouts are for clout

Consistency is key

Muscle confusion is BS in my opinion to a certain extent

Food is more important than training

Just because you train like your favorite athlete doesn’t mean you’ll look like them your body has a different anatomy and make up...aka muscle insertions etc

There is no way to alter your muscle structure you can enhance its actual shape but you cannot train your way into changing the way that your a muscle is in reference to your physiology

FORM AND STRENGTH GO HAND IN HAND

DO your OWN RESEARCH TAKE EVERYTHING WITH A GRAIN OF SALT

 Learn to LOVE what you HATE

To be a champion you have to learn to love what you hate

To be successful you have to learn to love what you hate

To start that business you have to learn to love what you hate

RECONDITION YOUR MIND TO LOVE BEING UNCOMFORTABLE

When life starts throwing tough situations at you stop saying WHY ME and I CANT

START SAYING WHY NOT ME and I CAN

To be a champion you’re gonna have to love hard work

To be successful you’re gonna have to love long days

To be wealthy you gotta learn to love budgeting and saving

TO be great or successful at anything in life you have to love what you might HATE

YOU have to be willing to be uncomfortable to GROW

you have to actually want to be uncomfortable because you know you’re growing fro those painful situations

SO if you’re ready to quit don’t get started 

If you’re not ready for pain don’t get started

If you’re not ready to be told NO and YOURE NOT GOOD ENOUGH by a million different people a million different times DONT GET STARTED

If you aren’t ready for long nights and early mornings BY YOURSELF DON’T GET STARTED

If you aren’t ready for THE GRIND

DON’T GET STARTED
 
 LEARN TO LOVE THE PROCESS
 
 ITS CALLED A GRIND FOR A REASON
 
 THIS SHIT ISN’T EASY
 
 ITS NOT SUPPOSE TO BE
 
 YOU HAVE TO GRIND IT OUT EVERYDAY
 
 WHEN YOU’RE DOWN
 
 WHEN YOU’RE STRESSED
 
 WHEN YOU WANT TO  QUIT
 
 THAT WHY ITS CALLED THE GRIND

Its not going to be easy and its not going to be a paved road like OKAY GO DOWN THIS PATH AND DO THIS AND YOU WILL MAKE IT

ITS GOING TO BE HARD

BUT THATS WHAT SEPARATES THE TRUE CHAMPIONS FROM THE REGULAR PEOPLE

CHAMPIONS LOVE WHAT OTHERS HATE
 
 THEY LOVE THE PAIN
 
 THEY LOVE THE GRIND

Wanna build your upper chest?

Implement some incline movements!

Your chest is made up of four different muscles!

The pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, serratus anterior and subclavius.

The pec major is going to be the largest muscle of the four.

Therefore more development you have in this area of your chest.

The bigger it will look.

How to target your Pec Major (Upper chest more)?

INCLINE MOVEMENTS!