Now that our office and gym is renovated, the holiday hours at the local gym can’t ruin my workouts for the week. It’s pretty nice to have the freedom to workout any time I want without having to work around the busy time at the gym, or holiday hours etc.

Consistency with your workout is the cornerstone of achieving real muscle growth, and getting the look and shape you desire.

Each Workout Adds to the Last

This got me thinking of how inconsistent most people really are with their workouts.

When I talk to people about working out, it seems rare to find an individual who has been working out seriously for more than a few years without a major layoff of some sort.

In some cases it’s a major injury, or some other physical ailment that has put them on the sidelines. But for the most part people just don’t stick with it, they’re just not consistent.

It’s more common to find people who workout for a year or two, then fall off the wagon for a year or two than it is to find someone who is dedicated and consistently going to the gym year in and year out with no major time off.

Part of this consistency is also a consistency with the style of the workout and the goal of the workout. Some people abandon muscle building for other forms of training like athletic training, or they get into running and the like.

In other words, being consistently inconsistent doesn't count!

These departures from muscle building are fine if you really want to explore those other styles of training.

But in the end, the more consistent you are with your training, and specifically moving towards a goal of building your best body the better your results will be.

It seems that there is at least some cumulative effect to training. In other words, the number of sets and reps you do each workout matter…and the number of workouts you do each week matter…and each month, but also each year.

If two people of the same general height and size set out to gain as much muscle as they can…10 years later the person with the better results is likely the person who simply was more consistent with getting their workouts done week after week, month after month, and year after year.

It really is a lifestyle and not a phase that you just go through at some point in your life.

This doesn’t mean it has to take over you life and become your identity, but rather it’s just a small part of what makes up what you are.

The 3rd Adonis Index transformation contest started yesterday and it’s not too late to enter today.

You can go to this link to find out how to enter: Transformation Contest

Here is a look at some of our previous contestants:

Pierre was one of the first winners

Ron won the overall at the first contest

Rich finished second overall in the second contest

Nate also won cash in our second contest

The result of two contests...amazing

(sorry ladies this one is for guys only…venus index is coming in October, there will be a contest for the women then)

So why bother entering a contest anyway?

1) It gives you a clear time frame to set your sights on

2) Gives you motivation to make a serious change in your body in a short period of time

3) Teaches you to challenge yourself and support others who are competing to challenge themselves too

4) Introduces you to a community of rare people who have entered and completed a contest (most people will never try this sort of thing and will never know how much their body can really change)

5) Teaches you what is truly possible when it comes to changing your body when you put your mind to it

6) You can win MONEY!

I’m sure there are dozen’s of other personal benefits you can get from competing in a transformation contest and they’re all good.

This is why we hold frequent transformation contests and they’re getting bigger every time.

Look, I can build you a workout, I can show you how to do it, I can write as many motivational blog posts as possible, and I can give you the best nutrition and fat loss program and information around…BUT I can’t make you follow any of it.

That part is up to you.

The best I can do is give you money of you follow what we say…and that is what the contest is for. I’m simply asking you to follow our recommendations take a couple pics and collect your winnings!

If you’re serious about changing your body don’t wait another day, make today the day it all changes. (and for the girls make mid october the day when the Venus Index workout comes out!)

John

An example of what steroids can do. Jose Canseco, the only honest man in baseball.

So I guess the general theme this week is “hormones”. So the next topic that we’re going to cover was sent in by Jason and this is about steroid muscle vs natural muscle.

This is a tricky topic because most celebrities, athletes and bodybuilders don’t admit or disclose the drugs they use so it’s hard to match a look with the drugs it took to get that look.

In other words, even though certain athletes have openly admitted to steroid use we still don’t know how much they used, for how long and most of all, we can never know for certain how big, strong and lean they would have been if they didn’t use.

So we’re left guessing and putting together the puzzle with only some of the pieces and no idea what the puzzle picture really looks like.

If you’ve been around the steroid sub culture or used them for any length of time they you have a good idea of what they can do and how your body will change…and how fast it will change.

You also gain some appreciation and insight into spotting other steroid users. There are a few characteristics that just become obvious if you’ve been on the inside.

1) Rapid strength gain. It’s pretty obvious when a guy is using drugs because is overall strength and the rate of is strength gain are massively accelerated.

2) Rounding bloated look. the muscle bellies of a guy on steroids seem to have a rounder, fuller more bloated look that natural guys can never really achieve. This is a subtle difference that many non users wont notice. But guys in the know can pick it out pretty easily as they can remember when they had the same effect and also know that it’s impossible to get that effect without drugs.

3) Overall size. There is a limit to natural muscle growth and when you see a guy who is simply far too big for his frame it becomes obvious that he’s using some extra help to get there.

4) Facial bloating. Many steroids will change the look of the face giving it a slightly fuller/bloated look. This is a dead giveaway for many guys.

These are just some of the visual cues that a guy is using steroids.

Natural guys who want to build muscle should try not to use a steroid induced look as their ideal that they’re shooting for. With that said it will be difficult to know if the person who you are role modeling uses drugs or not. The 4 guidelines above are at least a start to know if you’re chasing an ideal that you simply cannot catch without drugs.

If you don’t want to use drugs then you need to find a body image ideal that is drug free so you can set your expectations accordingly.

If you you do use drugs then the sky is the limit and the more you use the bigger you’ll get. But the quality of your look will still come down to conditioning and how and what you use and how much you use.

The bottom line with drug use is that the person with the best genetics to begin with will still look the best given the same amount of drugs (I’m talking competition level here).

It doesn’t really matter to me which path you’re on, it’s your body and its your rules so knock yourself out. I don’t believe anyone else has the right to tell you what you can or can’t put into your body. It’s really the only piece of property you have in the world that is mostly yours (and even with that the gov still tries to tell you what you can and can’t do with it)

Anyway, the point is to try and set a body image ideal that is consistent with what you’re doing to achieve it.

For guys and muscle building it typically boils down to:

a) Whether you are using drugs or not

b) Finding a body image ideal that was built using drugs or not

That latter is the tricky part as most steroid user’s don’t broadcast their use. The only way to know for sure is if you know them personally.

John

“I’m starting my weight loss program today”

“I’m back on track…starting today”

Eventuall you have to leave the starting box...

Being in a perpetual starting position is just another way of saying that you’re standing still. You may recognize what I’m saying about those people around you who are always ‘just starting’ something.

But those same people never come back 3-4 months later when they’re ‘finished’ the program.

Sadly for most people they’re forever stuck in the starting blocks. They desperately want to do something, but somehow are frozen in place and can’t get going.

This inability to follow through is not because of a lack of discipline, or a physical inability to get things done…it’s rooted in a belief system.

All of our actions are preceded by a belief. In the case of weight loss or getting in shape many people are stuck with a belief that they simply do not deserve to lose weight or get in shape. As bizarre and contradictory as that sounds this is something people learn and it becomes ingrained into their subconscious over time.

Changing this belief system is the key to getting out of the starting blocks and actually getting into and finishing the weight loss and exercise race.

Changing beliefs like this is what you might call a paradigm shift, and it’s at base of both the Adonis Effect and Eat Stop Eat.

If you haven’t read them I suggest you do, if you already have them, re-read them to remind yourself why you workout and why you at least think twice about how you eat and look.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m going to be offering a coaching program to help get you out of the starting blocks and into the race for both weight loss and muscle building. I’ll be posting more details in the next few weeks, but if you’re interested in getting a gentle nudge (or maybe a good old fashioned kick in the ass) to make your weight loss and fitness dreams a reality I might just have the foot your looking for!

Email me at john(at)adoniseffect.com and we can discuss further.

John

Unlike this road, our muscle growth does have a finite limit.

The largest muscle size you can ever achieve is determined in combination by your genetic predisposition and your workout pattern, consistency, effort, and to a lesser degree nutrition. Beyond that you can push closer to your limit by using anabolic drugs like testosterone and it’s derivatives, Growth Hormone, IGF-1, Insulin and others.

However, even those individuals who use any or all of these drugs will eventually reach a limit as well.

The human system (any biological system for that matter) can only adapt to a finite and specific amount of stress until it eventually breaks down.

This is a well known phenomenon and is an example of hormesis (not to be confused with homeostasis)

Hormesis is the concept that a given stressor (such as exercise) can force the system to adapt in a positive manner but the amount of stress that compared to the benefit/reaction is not a linear relationship but rather a curved relationship.

In other words, there is an amount of exercise that is too little and an amount that is too much and an amount that is just right.

The ‘just right’ zone is where you want to be to stimulate muscle growth, and as you get stronger this zone changes.

You need to do more work and more often to continue to grow over time. This however reaches a limit at which point the entire system breaks down (over training).

Most people don’t do enough work to ever reach a true state of over training so this really isn’t an issue.

The key to stimulating maximum muscle growth is pushing the upper edge of the ‘just right zone’ without ever going over it.

John