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Get better result than
weightlifting straps or gloves!
Getting Ripped!
The Perfect
Bodybuilding Routine
(part 1 The
Theory)
by
Joe Meeko
Joe Meeko has an amazingly simple understanding of diet and
nutrition. In this first of 4 part article he tries to develop in the reader the
importance of diet to become successful in bodybuilding.
This is his original article as he wrote it for
midwestchristianbodybuilding.com
In my teen years, in wanting to become a
bodybuilder I would read all the articles in the bodybuilding magazines on how
the top Professional and top ranking Amateur Bodybuilders got to the top.
Almost every one of those top guy’s
or gal’s would write about their WORKOUT routine that made them so successful in
their bodybuilding careers. I would try each one of their routines for many
months at a time, and for some even a year and found that I didn’t get much
results. I did however get more and more frustrated because I wasn’t making the
gains that they claimed they did from those supposed “secret or special”
routines they were selling the people on to follow. I got little or no results
by following the routines that they were doing.
Time went by and I just kept on reading those articles and
tried just about everyone else’s routines that I thought had a great body part
that I wanted to duplicate - like Plats on legs, Boyer on his arms, Mentzer on
his back, Meeko on his abs “just kidding”:) etc. I followed those routines and
trained as hard as I could. I never missed a workout and I trained exactly as
they wrote it to the “T” but I still didn’t get the results they were getting.
Why? Because they left out one minor or should I say major detail about how they
goy so big and ripped - their DIET.
I thought about it logically after reading a very small article in Iron Man
magazine that someone was so gracious to write that explained how this calorie
thing worked in the body. It wasn’t a big article because it didn’t have to be.
The article made sense in that if you're not gaining any weight or adding muscle
you couldn’t have been taking in enough calories or food in order to grow. It’s
a plain and simple law of how our bodies work. Listen to this! - if you take in
more calories than you burn up the human body will gain weight, or if you burn
more calories than you are eating you will lose weight - it’s that simple!
I was training two hours a day, 6 days a week and was doing an awful lot of
sets. I was determined to get big and look like those guys in the magazines. I
didn’t realize that I was burning up a huge amount of calories during those
workouts. I also was blessed with an extremely fast metabolism that allowed me
to lose weight at will. The fast metabolism was a good and bad thing, which I’ll
explain a little later. However, at the time, my fast metabolism seemed to be my
pr oblem. I couldn’t
gain weight very easily so I knew what I had to do - EAT MORE.
It all came together then in my mind that if I wanted to get big I had to eat
more food. So I did just that - I ate and ate, but just eating to fullness in my
stomach wasn’t enough. I still didn’t gain that much size or weight so as to
satisfy me. The gains weren’t bad, but I wanted more - as much muscle size and
body weight as I could possibly get without getting too fat.
I had to resort to force feeding myself with anything I could get my hands and
eyes on. I would eat anything that had a lot of calories in it. Pizza, red meat,
steak, hoagies or subs, bacon sandwiches, whole eggs, pasta, weight gain drinks,
protein shakes - anything I was hungry for I ate. I would eat the “good clean”
protein and carbohydrate foods first like the steak, fish, chicken, pasta, rice
etc. and then proceed to the junk food that was still appealing to me, even
though I was stuffed to the gills. I wanted to make sure I was supplying my
muscle cells with enough good protein and carbohydrate foods before I got too
full. I then could eat the junk foods afterwards to supply myself with the extra
calories needed to grow and put on weight. It's always somewhat easy to eat some
type of junk foods after you eat good clean foods due to the extreme
psychological effect junk foods have on all of us. I would actually eat until
the point that if I even thought about food I felt like vomiting. I’m sure just
about everyone has experienced that feeling at one time or another in their
lives.
I would just lay on the couch and watch TV or study my college books for my
degree in Real Estate. I had a small coffee table to my side filled with Quarter
Pounders with cheese, Big Mac’s, pizza, anything that would stimulate my
appetite mentally and I would force feed myself as soon as the peak vomiting
feeling would go away. Just the thought of taking another bite of a cheeseburger
would make me feel like heaving it up. So I would rest until the peak sick
feeling went away and then I would take a bite out of something else that
stimulated my appetite. I know it’s a very uncomfortable feeling to feel like
this, but after a while you get used to it. It’s all part of the mental
conditioning you need to become good at anything in life. I just applied that
will power to food and bodybuilding.
Bodybuilding is about 80% DIET than anything else - EVEN WORKING OUT. Trust me
on this I know what I’m talking about here. I’ve been there and wasted a lot of
time trying to find that perfect workout routine.
And guess what? There is no such thing as a secret or perfect bodybuilding
routine! As long as you stimulate the muscle into growth by hard resistance
weight training you will grow IF YOU LET THE DIET DO THE REST.
Anyone can gain or lose weight and build muscle if you just eat correctly and
more or less of the proper foods. It’s the truth - You are what you eat and
nothing more.
I trained exactly the same off season when I was bulking up trying to gain more
muscle between shows as I did while I was DIETING down to get cut-up for a
Bodybuilding contest or show. I know many will not believe this and still try to
find that perfect workout routine, but I have no reason to steer anyone wrong
and I am telling the truth. ALL I CHANGED WAS WHAT I ATE when preparing for a
show; it’s that simple.
Now getting back to why my fast metabolism was a hindrance in the beginning of
my career and was a BLESSING in the future. It did take me many years of force
feeding myself in order to gain muscle size and weight, but when it came time
for a show I was able to lose weight and get cut-up at will. I could go from 267
lbs. down to 232 lbs. Or less and ripped-to-the-bone in 6 weeks. I did however
stretch the diet out to 3 months so I could slowly phase into the diet rather
that go bone dry or super strict with my foods. But I could have done the latter
if I wanted to. I actually used to do just that in my first few national level
shows. I then found out how easy it was for me to get cut so I then took my time
on the diet instead of going super strict for the entire duration of the diet.
It’s harder to hold a peak for a show than it is to stretch out a diet for a few
more months in order to get that super freaky cut look. So it is much easier to
slowly faze into a diet for a few months rather than cram it into 6 weeks or
less. Most Pro Bodybuilders diet for about 4 months for a national or worldwide
level competition. I didn’t have to, thank God.
God blessed me with a metabolism that allowed me to get cut at will or slowly
get cut if I wanted too. It’s a lot easier on the brain and body to slowly cut
out certain foods one at a time as time goes by on a per-contest diet schedule.
The hardest thing about a diet for most is the mental aspect of it and not the
physical discomfort felt by some of always craving food. They kind of work
together hand in hand though to dig and tempt you to want the foods that you
know you can’t have - sounds like Satan to me!
Getting back to the other Bodybuilders. They did grow much faster than I did
size wise, but they had a more difficult time of dieting and getting cut up than
I did. Ask any one of them and I’m sure you’ll get the same answer of what is
harder in Bodybuilding - Training or Diet? Most will say it’s the diet. I could
eat pre-contest diet food as much as I wanted and still got shredded or cut-up.
The other guys went to bed hungry and had to restrict how much they ate at each
meal. I thank God for my freaky fast metabolism now even at 44. My metabolism is
still fast and I have to eat junk occasionally just so I don’t get too small.
Many young Bodybuilders today are trying to put on pure muscle without getting
smooth - which in my book is impossible to do. I believe most people think that
top notch Bodybuilders look like they are in contest shape all the time, and as
most of you know they don’t. You have to sacrifice being a little smooth, or for
some, major smooth or even a little fat in the off season in order to
continually grow and produce ever increasing muscle size. The reason for this is
so you can add body weight so you can handle more weights while working out in
order to grow muscle more quickly.
If you try to gain just good quality ripped muscle like you would want to look
like during a bodybuilding show your gains will be very small and you will
struggle to gain even a few pounds of muscle in a entire year of hard training.
There’s nothing wrong with looking a little smooth off season - it’s all part of
the Iron Game and we all went through it mentally and physically.
Many people are under the impression that you can change fat into muscle or vice
versa and that is impossible - a wives tale, a myth. You are born with so many
muscle cells and so many fat cells and you can’t change that. All you can do to
either one of those type of cells is swell them up or shrink them down. You're
stuck with what you have and can’t change it. Obviously the goal is to swell up
the muscle cells and shrink the fat cells. The ONLY way this can be achieved is
through DIET. Muscle cells need protein, carbohydrates and water to swell up
along with resistance weight training. Fat cells need fat, salt and water to
swell up. Just stay away from fat and the fat cells will shrink. Eat enough
protein and carbohydrates and train religiously and the muscle cells will grow
and swell up - it’s that simple.
Part 2 of the perfect
routine>
Joe
Meeko
Mr. Universe
Mr. America
Mr. USA
Mr. North America
Mr. Pan America
Mr. Eastern USA AAU & NPC
Please Visit Joe Meeko site
http://www.power-grips.com
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