Dr Eric Helms has decided to stap on the bodybuilding stage again, after 9 years of focusing on other things - completing his PhD, publishing books, and of course, putting on lean body-mass in the off-season.

After returning to the sport of bodybuilding with full force, he has completed what has so far been his easiest, most balanced show-prep diet.

The lessons learnt from this process can probably be applied to the 'regular' diets that us, mere mortals go through when getting ready for the summer, doing mini-cuts, or what not.

0:20 - Does Eric Helms sing?

1:37 - Where Eric currently is with his contest prep/competing

3:10 - Can regular fitness enthusiast can learn something from a contest prep dieter's experience?

6:00 - Where did the contest prep start? What was your body-fat percentage, body-weight, etc.

11:08 - Eric's genetics for bodybuilding

16:15 - Eric's heaviest & biggest physique in the off-season, and how much muscle did he put on in 7 years?

how good are Eric's genetics?

19:30 - Eric's diet set-up: how big was the calorie deficit, rate of fat-loss, and the approach to food tracking

25:00 - Why do you have to go so low in calories, and why can some people diet on such higher calorie amounts?

28:10 - Food choices to manage hunger on low calorie days

32:00 - Accepting hunger during the diet

40:44 - How earlier contest preps compared to this one

48:30 - You didn't lose ANY strength during your contest prep?!?! How? How did your training look lik

1:02:40 - How will you transition out of your contest dieting, into the offseason? Will you try to maintain a leaner body-fat percentage?

Our blog and courses:

www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com

Eric's resources:

https://3dmusclejourney.com/

Books.

https://muscleandstrengthpyramids.com/

How fast should you gain weight during muscle gaining phases? How long should you go before you do a mini-cut? These are the questions we discuss in this video with Thomas Campidell (@campidellcoaching) , in Part II of our discussion.

Time-Stamps:

0:00 - Things to consider when deciding how fast to go

2:22 - Committing to a gaining phase and not going back and forth between cutting and gaining too much

3:40 - Signs when you should stop bulking

5:00 - Talking about looking worse during bulking and more..

6:52 - Should you cut or bulk? - once and for all :D - different situations

8:25 - What if you're on a beginner? Cut or bulk?

9:45 - Intermediate trainee who's in dilemma if they should cut or bulk

Our blog and courses:

http://www.sustainableselfdevelopment...

The SSD Facebook community:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/sustai...

You can check Thomas out at:

www.campidellcoaching.com

On insta: @campidellcoaching

In this video we discuss our biggest mistakes & regrets with bulking and dieting phases with Thomas Campidell.

This video was recorded in our room at Das Gym Vienna!

Time-Stamps:

0:30 - When we started training and our initial goals

5:43 - The 'ideal year' for body-recomposition

7:50 - The benefits of bulking/gaining phases

10:11 - The downsides to perma-cutting

10:56 - Starting body-fat percentages for bulking

13:05 - Insulin sensitivity, inflammation and body-fat percentage

14:50 - How you look better over time at higher body-fat percentages

15:45 - Some benefits of somewhat higher body-fat percentages

18:08 - Conclusion on the ideal body-fat percentage

Our blog and courses:

http://www.sustainableselfdevelopment...

The SSD Facebook community:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/sustai...

Thomas Campidell:

@Campidellcoaching on instagram

What are the pros and cons of using steroids/performance enhancing drugs? What is the most responsible way of using them? What are fat burners, dianabol, or trenbolone? And, who should even consider using these substances? This is the topic of discussion today with Dr. Mike Israetel and my buddy Szoták Andrei from the Muscle Engineer podcast.

Time-Stamps:

2:06 - What are the results someone might expect from a starters-cycle?

12:18 - What are the 'softer' and what are 'more advanced' drugs/substances?

23:32 - Dianabol and other oral drugs - how do you know if what you're using is legitimate

28:35 - Is there such a thing as a 'free lunch' with drugs? Permanent results, minimal side-effects?

37:22 - Are there 'unavoidable' side effects with steroids?

42:05 - How much muscle can you keep after stopping steroids?

45:50 - Fat burners - what should you know about them?

52:31 - How nutrition has to change when taking drugs

57:57 - Some more talk about bodybuilding tradition with nutrition

1:02:55 -Genetic Gift - People who look like they are on gear but they aren't

1:14:30 - Why would someone use gear?

1:24:05 - Where you can learn more about all this

Our blog and courses:

http://www.sustainableselfdevelopment...

The SSD Facebook community:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/sustai...

If you want to learn more about this topic, you might enjoy Broderick Chavez's resources:

https://www.teamevilgsp.com/

The first few weeks of cutting/fat loss are often the hardest from a mental/psychological perspective, whereas its the toughest physiologically. Many things play into this, but one of the most challenging things is the "skinny-fat" phase in the beginning, where you're dumping a lot of glycogen and body-water alongside with the fat you're losing, which gives you a soft, depleted, small look.

As you'll find out from this video, its quite normal, and its a temporary condition only..

0:00 - Updates on my own fat loss thats happening at the moment

3:28 - Physiological and psychological challenges during fat loss

5:12 - Physiologically, dieting is easy in the beginning and gets harder over time

6:25 - Psychologically, dieting is HARDER in the beginning and gets easier over time

6:53 - The "skinny-fat" phase in the beginning of a cutting phase

8:45 - Conclusion on fat loss momentum

Our blog and courses:

http://www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com/

The SSD Facebook community:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/sustainableselfdevelopment

Got a good question about the minimum number of training days to make about 90% of the total gains you'll ever make. Good question, let's cover it!

1:20 - The difference between getting 90 and 100% of your gains

3:00 - The difference between training 2-3 or 5-6 times a week (benefits of each)

6:15 - The gains you may never get from minimalistic training

8:29 - The workouts (breakdown)

11:54 - Conclusion on the minimum number of days to make 80-90% of your gains

Our blog and courses:

http://www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com/

The SSD Facebook community:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/sustainableselfdevelopment

In this video I'm providing some extra clarification to my recent video on 'Realistic Physiques you can Achieve Naturally within 3 years'.

I'll discuss how it is really possible to achieve similar levels of physique development in 3-4 years as someone else achieved in 10.

Time-Stamps:

0:00 - Intro

0:45 - What my previous videos title should have been

1:03 - Are the physiques I showed there (Brad Pitt, Ronaldo, Eric Helms, Mario Tomic, etc) realistic?

1:55 - Emphasizing that everyone will end up looking differently, even with the same amount of muscle/leanness

2:55 - How long does it really take to achieve your top physique? Starting the breakdown

3:17 - A graph illustrating how muscle building happens over the years

4:24 - What you're really wondering about when youre asking "How long does it take to achieve my genetic potential"

5:30 - The goals you set after you've built most of your physique

6:45 - How 3-4 vs 10 years of training looks like in terms of results

8:00 - What do I mean by "Optimal" Training?

Our blog and courses:

http://www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com/

The SSD Facebook community:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/sustainableselfdevelopment

In this video I'd like to present to you what realistic expectations are for someone to achieve in about 3-4 years, without using drugs and without being extremely gifted.

Many people ask the question: 'Can I look like this guy without using steroids?'

As you'll see in this video, that's often not the best question to ask.

Time-Stamps:

0:00 - Intro:

1:00 - Why asking the question 'Can I look like this guy' - is not the best question to ask

1:20 - What makes us think that someone has a great physique

2:30 - Discussions about individual genetics, muscle insertions, proportions, etc

6:10 - How long it takes to develop most of your physique

The examples:

8:45 -Brad Pitt from fight club

10:00 - Brad pitt in Troy

11:20 - Cristiano Ronaldo

12:55 - Eric Helms

14:42 - Jeff Cavaliere

15:24 - Two other guys (don't know who they are)

16:45 - Menno Henselmans

18:20 - Mario Tomic

19:10 - Alberto Nunez

20:16 - Jeff Alberts

21:00 - Jared Feather

22:30 - Radu Antoniu

23:22 - Myself (Abel)

And SUBSCRIBE friend!!

Our blog and courses:

http://www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com/

The SSD Facebook community:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/sustainableselfdevelopment

For the past 4 months I experimented with bumping up my training volume to levels where it hasn't been before. While in general I prefer lower to moderate levels of volume for sustainability, enjoyment and lifestyle flexibility, I felt like I owe an experiment like this not just for myself, but for others I'm advising on the topic.

I learnt a fair amount on the topic in this time period, and in this video, I'll share the 6 most important lessons. There are certainly positives and negatives alike to talk about...

Time-Stamps:

0:00 - Talking about my general recommendations and past experience, and what prompted me to try a higher volume approach

2:00 - First lesson: it is actually doable!

2:34 - The importance of eating enough with higher volumes of training

4:40 - The importance of gradual increases in volume

5:30 - Changing what's comfortable to handle over time

7:40 - The psychological benefits of higher volume training

8:03 - Faster progress during high volume training

8:17 - The negatives - the first one is, it's hard to stay motivated with high volume training over the long term

10:01 - The more volume you do, the injury risk goes up

10:58 - A philosophical dilemma: is the faster progress actually worth it? It's a very complex question...

Our blog and courses:

http://www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com/

The SSD Facebook community:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/sustainableselfdevelopment

Oh, it all comes to an end. After 4 months of eating big, training hard, gaining strength and losing my appetite, it's time to put an end of this massing phase.

It was a lot of fun and a lot of interesting lessons were learnt, which I'll be sharing in this video. For the upcoming time period, expect lots of videos on fat loss, since that will be in the front of my mind mainly:)

And hey, once again, feel free to guess my future weight at around 12%-fat, if you haven't already! :D

Time-Stamps:

3:00 - Eveluating whether my bulk was successful or not

4:00 - Faster rate of weight gain due to food experiments

6:00 - Eating became a bit of a chore by the end of this gaining phase

7:00 - The benefits of a faster rate of weight gain

8:30 - What made me decide to start cutting

11:32 - How long I plan on cutting and the total number of cutting days I'll allow in 2019

12:55 - My strategy for this upcoming cut

Our blog and courses:

http://www.sustainableselfdevelopment.com/

The SSD Facebook community:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/sustainableselfdevelopment