No Time To Get In Shape Part IV, By: Hugo Rivera

Hi there. This week in our final Part of the series No Time to Get In Shape we will discuss what to do when you can easily do more than 12 repetitions of pushups, as well as the best diet to use in order to re-sculpt your body.

Beginning with the issue of Pushups, once you can easily do more than 12 repetitions, you have a few options:

1) If you are not interested in getting more muscle mass in the Chest Area, then go ahead and continue to increase the number of repetitions that you can do in this exercise.

2) If you are interested in getting more muscle size you will need to perform dumbbell presses in the floor. The only drawback is that you will not be able to perform the movement in its full range of motion (therefore, you will not be able to get a good stretch in your pecs) as the floor will stop you from lowering the dumbbells any further.

Perform the exercise in the following manner:

a) Lie face up on the floor with your legs flat on the floor and a dumbbell in each hand.

b) Hold the dumbbells together at arm's length above your shoulders, your palms facing forward.

c) Inhale and slowly lower the dumbbells out until your elbows touch the floor.

d) Exhale and return the dumbbells to the starting position concentrating on contracting the pec muscles.

3) Purchase a small exercise bench and perform the dumbbell presses there. In a bench, the only difference is that you will lower the dumbbells until they are in line with your torso.

By using dumbbells for exercising the chest, you are able to increase the resistance as soon as your body gets used to the previous one. In that manner, you keep progress moving forward.

The second topic of today's article is Nutrition. Nutrition is the second most important component of the formula for re-sculpting your body (The first one being training). Without a good diet, you may kiss your dreams for an awesome looking body goodbye. Training and Nutrition must go hand in hand. I am not talking of starvation here when I refer to the word diet. When I talk about diet, I am referring to food choices. Do you know that if you choose the correct foods and combine them correctly you will be able to eat up to 6 times a day while increasing your metabolism, losing fat and firming up muscles?

For those of you starting out a nutrition program, check my nutrition basics page at http://www.physique-engineering.com. Over here in this article, I will just concentrate on how to create a diet program that will work for you.

First let's start out with the rules of a good nutrition program:

1) It should favor smaller and frequent feedings throughout the day instead of two or three large ones. Why? Because when you feed your body several times a day, your metabolism increases. Therefore, you burn more fat. Frequent feedings are of particular importance since after three to four hours of no food your body switches to a catabolic state(a state in which you lose muscle and gain fat!). The body believes that it is starving and it starts feeding itself on lean muscle tissue and it prepares to store calories as fat. Bad scenario! Besides, frequent feedings also keep your insulin levels stable thereby providing you with constant energy levels throughout the day as well as keeping cravings at bay.

2) Every meal should have carbohydrates, protein and fat in the correct ratios. Having a meal that is not balanced(for example, a meal that is all carbohydrates) won't yield the desired results. Every macronutrient has to be present in order for the body to absorb them and use them properly. Without boring you with the effect of food on the body's biochemistry, let's just say that if you only eat a carbohydrates in one meal without anything else, your energy will crash in about 30 minutes and your body will be storing whichever of those carbs that were not used for energy into fat. Conversely, if you only eat protein, you will lack energy since your body will not have a source from where to create it. In addition, the ratios for each particular macronutrient have to be correct in order to get the results you want. A good macronutrient ratio is the following:

45-40% of your calories should come from Carbohydrates.

35-40% should come from Protein.

20% should come from Fats.

Check out my site in order to see how to combine food to achieve this ratio.

3) Don't drink juices or regular sodas. They are full of carbohydrate calories that add up really quickly without you even noticing! Drink water instead. Visit my page to see the benefits and the importance of water.

4) Be Prepared.

Preparation is crucial to the success of your dietary program. If you are not prepared, you will fail! The reason for this is that life is too hectic nowadays to be eating six times a day without a little bit of preparation.

What my wife and I do is that we prepare our food the night before and store it in individual containers that we purchased at the supermarket. Each container has a place for complex or simple carbs, a place for fibrous carbs and a place for protein. Also, protein shakes are prepared the night before and stored individually in containers that we also purchased at the nutrition store. When the following day comes, all I have to do is take out the container that has breakfast, heat it up and eat. Then I grab the container for lunch and two protein shakes, stick them on the cooler and go to work. I always take my 50 ounce water bottle everywhere I go too. No need to dehydrate and die at work. When I come home, I take out the container for dinner, re-heat it, eat it and prepare the food for the following day (after washing the containers; of course).

If you think you will be able to stick to the plan without being prepared, believe me, you are in for a surprise. You will either end up eating the wrong kinds of food, or missing meals. You will definitely end up spending more money because eating out is not cheap. Therefore, remember to be prepared!

5) Use a protein powder.

In this day and age where we are so busy and always in a hurry we need convenience. There is no way that most of us could eat six real meals a day. There is where protein powders are a great help. It is much easier to have a breakfast a lunch and a dinner and three protein shakes in between. That way, you can have breakfast before going to work, a protein shake in your first break, lunch, a protein shake in your 2nd break, dinner after getting home from work and a protein shake before bed.

The protein that I like to use in my shake is Whey protein. There are several reasons for this. In the words of Laree Draper (Former Mr. Universe Dave Draper's wife) taken from one of her posts from Dave's IronOnline e-mail group (to join this fine group go to http://www.davedraper.com/iron-online-email-group.html) "whey proteins are highly digestible and have a better amino acid profile even than egg whites. Let me say that again: whey protein has the highest biological value of any protein. It's absorbed, utilized and retained better. This higher biological value makes whey more tissue sparing, making it a benefit to people as they diet, age, overtrain or have illnesses or disease. And the B vitamins we added activate the enzyme activity for proper amino acid metabolism.It's high is the BCAA's which are the aminos most oxidized during exercise and may decrease muscle soreness thru its quadra-peptides which have pain killing qualities. It assists in recovery from athletic activity and may contribute to bone cell growth, potentially strengthening all the bones in the aging human body.

Aside from the tissue repair qualities found in other proteins, whey protein is an immune system enhancer - it boosts the body's ability to fight infection and in some studies has been shown to even inhibit the growth of cancer cells. Intense training lowers immune system response, whey boosts immune response - it's hand and glove for us as weight trainers.Whey assists in building up the body's own antioxidants by raising the levels of glutathione, an essential, water-soluble antioxidant that protects the cells and neutralizes toxins. It's a first line immune system defense; it inhibits the growth of iron-dependent bacteria, scavenges free iron, can block the growth of pathogenic bacteria and yeast, can stimulate the beneficial intestinal micro flora and has antibacterial properties.

Sub-fractions of whey concentrate stimulate insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) production (closely tied to growth hormone) which increases muscle and tendon strength and contributes to injury repair. Casein and colostrum, which we added, are apparently factors in the IGF stimulation in the body as well, but the studies are sketchy. The added casein (calcium caseinate) inhibits whole body protein breakdown - it's anti-catabolic, which whey protein is not. Note that I said "stimulates" IGF-1. Major difference: your body's own production of this is potent, taking IGF orally is useless it appears.Whey also stimulates the release of cholecystokinin (CCK) which decreases the appetite. Getting Ripped in May, anyone?

Whey isolates, by the way, do not produce these benefits. The acid process required to make the isolate does increase the protein content over whey concentrate, but destroys the sub-fractions (the lactoferrins, beta-lactoglobulins, immuno-globulins, etc.) which are some of the more potent immune-system and antioxidant features of whey proteins. As we age, these sub-fractions become more important. My [limited] understanding is that the whey isolate process is more expensive - so in that the labels may be true - but since it damages many of the features we consider the most valuable, we made the easy decision to use whey concentrate as our exclusive whey source.

On the other hand, protein labels that guarantee a certain percentage of these sub-fractions are not accurate as these sub-fractions are dependent upon uncontrollable circumstances such as feed, rainfall, breed of cow, age of cow, etc. So if your protein makes precise percentage claims: bogus, I think.30 grams of whey protein a day can do all this."

I could not have said this any better myself. What I like to do for my shakes is to mix 12 ounces of skim milk with 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 scoops of whey protein, 1 tablespoon of flaxseed oil and a banana (you may mix any fruit of your choice). I have this mix three times a day. Right now I am using Optimum Nutrition's All Natural 100% Whey. However, I am waiting on a superior whey protein product that is about to hit the market produced and designed by Dave and his wife. It has been enhanced with antioxidants and other nutrients that enhance the inmune system. In addition, they have personally ensured that the whey is of the utmost quality and taste. It will only be available through their web site in at http://www.davedraper.com. Last thing I heard it will be ready in a month. I'll keep everyone posted. As soon as it comes out I plan on switching.

As a final note on this topic, remember that depending on your bodyweight, you will need to adjust the quantity of the ingredients from the protein shake recipe. Remember that I am 190lbs at a height of 5'5" with below 9% bodyfat. Most people should start with 1 scoop of protein in 8 ounces of skim milk with 1 teaspoon of flaxseed oil and half a banana or any other type of fruit. If allergic to milk, then use 8 ounces of water, 1-1/2 scoop of whey, 1 teaspoon of flaxseed oil, and a full banana.

6) Have a cheat day once a week.

This could be a double edged sword but I will present it anyway. If you are someone that absolutely needs to cheat, then do so within reason only once a week. Have anything that you have been craving for the whole week. This cheat day serves to increase your metabolism and prevent it from slowing down. You see, the body, as soon as it sees a change in the diet, will start losing fat. However, if you keep the diet the same all of the time then in order to avoid losing more fat, the body will lower its metabolism so that only the calories that you are taking in get burned. That is why most dieters hit a plateau. The secret to avoiding this is by increasing calories on one day in order to shock the metabolism and stimulate into burning more fat.

If you are like me and once you cheat, you lose control and cheat is such a manner that is counterproductive to the program (that is why I call it a double edged sword) then instead increase your calories slightly (500 calories extra per day) over the weekends using good foods in order to provide the stimulation that we just talked about.

Here is how my diet program has been looking lately:

Meals 1, 3, & 5

Protein shake consisting of:

1-1/2 scoops of whey protein

12 oz of skim milk

1 banana

1 tablespoon of Spectrum flax seed oil

Meals 2, 4, & 6

Chicken sandwich consisting of

2 whole wheat slices of bread

lettuce/tomato

8 ounces of chicken

Beverages: Plenty of water (1-2 gallons a day)

Saturday and Sunday Diet:

More of the same but slightly larger protein intake and carb intake to shock the metabolism. That way the body keeps responding to the diet.

Basically I followed the same diet described above and added the following:

Meals 1, 3, & 5

Same as above plus an extra 1 scoop of protein to the shakes and 1 light all natural yogurt that contained 0 grams of fat, 10 grams of protein and 22 grams of carbs.

Meals 2, 4, & 6

Same as above plus fruit salad consisting of fresh bananas, mango and pineapples. Also added an extra 2 ounces of chicken to the sandwich.

Remember that depending on your weight you will need to adjust the serving sizes as necessary. Also note that I drink no alcohol whatsoever. Alcohol has 7 calories per gram and is readily stored as fat. In addition it lowers a person's testosterone levels. There is no room for alcohol in this type of program.

I believe that all of the information above (along with the information posted on my nutrition page) will give you all the knowledge necessary to come up with a great diet plan that will get you in the best shape of your life.

One last thing before I go is to remember the importance of rest in this program.

I’ll make this topic really simple. You need 7 - 9 hours of sleep each night in order for your body to run efficiently. Deprive your body of sleep and you'll have lousy fat loss. As a bonus, you also get muscle loss which lowers your metabolism. The reason for this is because without enough sleep the body stops producing anabolic hormones (Muscle Producing/Fat Burning Hormones; e.g. Testosterone and Growth hormone) and starts increasing the production of catabolic hormones (Muscle Destroying/Fat Depositing Hormones e.g. Cortisol). Also, you will lack the energy and focus to get through your workouts. To top it off, there is research that indicates that a lack of sleep creates cravings and binges in addition to hardening of the arteries which leads to heart attacks. If you don’t think that you have enough time to sleep, then turn off the TV and make the time!