True Weight Loss Starts With Strength and Growth - Part 1

Are you frustrated with busting your butt in the gym hour after hour, month after month, and year after year with little or no results to show for it? Are you frustrated with all of the conflicting information about how to train? I AM PROMISING YOU RIGHT NOW THAT IF YOU FOLLOW THIS ARTICLE TO A TEE, YOU WILL BUILD MUSCLE AND GET LEAN IN THE SHORTEST TIME POSSIBLE - GUARANTEED!!!

What does building muscle have to do with weight loss? Muscle is the furnace where fat is burned. Fat needs muscle to be burned off. It is the mitochondria of the muscle cell where it is burned. When your body needs to tap into fat for energy, it releases those fatty lipids into your blood stream so your muscle's mitochondria can utilize it for energy. Without the muscle, that fat burning source is majorly lessened. Also, the more lean muscle tissue you carry, the better your metaboic rate. The better your metabolic rate, the more calories you will burn in a day. The more calories you can burn in a day, the more weight you can lose.

I am confident that if you read and incorporate my advice, you will see me as a source for all of your bodybuilding, health, and fitness pursuits. By providing you with the truth and a plan that will work at least three times faster than anything else you have ever tried before, it is inevitable. My mission is to spread the word and educate as many as I can...whether that be just one, one hundred, or one thousand.

What I am going to uncover in this article is the basis for all my training. I did not create the following concepts that I am about to dispel to you. But, for over a decade now, I has taken the combination of scientific knowledge and real world trial and error (through not only training myself, but hundreds of others) and provided our industry with a no B.S. approach to weightlifting. I am giving you a very valuable tool - - a tool that has created some of the greatest drug-free competitors in our sport (Skip Lacour, Jeff Willet, Derik Farnsworth, and Earl Snyder).

Let me make note: I do not feel that there is ONE way to train. Obviously there isn't, as proven by the countless training styles of such great physiques throughout history. I personally think there is merit to all training styles and they should be incorporated in a "cycle training" method. The body is a very adaptive organism and to insure that we avoid the dreaded "plateau" as well as injury, changes should be made on a consistent basis.

The one true variable in all the phases of my cycle training approach is "overload." What do I mean by overload? That is what this article is truly about. Learn it inside and out, upside and down. Put it to use 1000% and reap the rewards from it. Overload is the #1 factor in all training.

How I Can Help You

If you are asking yourself, "Who is this guy and how can he possibly educate me?" I am pleading with you to not think this way and to give everything I write the opportunity to do for you what it has done for me and so many other bodybuilders in the world. Do not think that the more complicated and complex a training, dieting, or supplementation program is, the more effective it is. I know this for a fact because I have been there. I have done the high reps, the low reps, the volume training, and the high-intensity training. I have been on the Zone Diets, the Atkins Diets, and the South Beach Diets. I have used the Cybergenics, the Hot Stuffs, and countless other supplements... You name it in this sport of ours, I have tried it. I have been a personal guinea pig for it all (or at least most of it) for the last 15 years. What I have uncovered in the last five years is a pivotal way that all of us should train to get the absolute most out of our efforts and to maximize our dreams and our desires.... man or woman, young or old, genetically-gifted or the so called "hard gainer." (In a series of articles, I will uncover all of nutrition, supplementation, and more and will lay out, in detail, a plan for you to follow).

Here's the formula: I write it + you read it + you do it = maximum muscle in minimum time! I want to help educate as many as possible that have the same love for the iron as I do. So, with no further ado, let's start training for Maximum Results with Maximum Overload!

Overload Training

Before I dive in, I want everyone reading this to do one thing for the rest of his or her training life. Always, always ask yourself "why" you are doing something. If you do not have a logical, scientifically proven reason to your "why," do not do it. I tell you this because as I lay the program out for you, I will explain each principle in detail. You will not just walk away knowing the "what's," but you will be educated in the "whys."

To understand the principles behind Overload Training, you must first understand the physiological process of building muscle. One thing and only one thing is responsible for building muscle, OVERLOAD! What do I mean by overload? Overload is providing your muscle(s) with a stress that it is not used to or weight that has never been used before.

That is why so many people can train so many different ways and achieve some sort of muscular response from it. Some will do 6 reps, some 12 reps, and even some 15 reps or more. Some people use supersets, some straight sets, some drop sets. Everybody has their own way of how to build muscle and they all work to some degree.

How can that be?

If you are providing your muscle with more work (weight, reps, sets, etc) than it was previously used to, no matter how you stimulate it, it is going to respond with some growth.

So, why am I lecturing you?

Well if you are like me you are not after just some growth...you are after MAXIMUM GROWTH! And if you are anything like me you are after it in the shortest possible time. We are unfortunately involved in an activity that allows us to do things (for lack of a better word) "wrong" and still get some results. Do not settle for some. Train the BEST way possible and maximize your results.

The Cycle Training Approach

As mentioned, cycle training is your best approach. Cycle training allows you to avoid injury, avoid plateaus, train all muscle fibers for maximum growth, and stay mentally stimulated (just to name a few). I use a three phase system - Strength and Growth Phase, Muscle Stimulation Phase, and Fat Burning Phase. No matter what phase I am in or what the priority of the phase may be, one thing remains constant - the overload principle.

My Ultimate Cycle Training System always starts with a pivotal Strength and Growth Phase. Whether you train using a cycle training approach or not, the principles behind my Strength and Growth Phase should be respected and followed at some point in your training. In part 2 we will take a look at the principles behind this phase and the importance of strength and growth to fat loss.

Until then, you can get more information on my Ultimate Cycle Training Approach through my website - www.jimcipriani.com . Any questions, you can e-mail me at [email protected]. Tune in next time when I will show you how to train for Maximum Results. In the meantime, live healthy!

Copyright 2006 James Cipriani

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