I watched a Jamcore DZ’s video and I learned good stuff.

Spring is here and I see that everyone wants to be shredded to show off this summer. I think it’s interesting to explain the difference between be shredded or cutting phase and losing weight.

Be shredded or cutting phase comes from the bodybuilding’s field. After taking muscle mass, be shredded allows to show your muscles striated in detail.

People confuse be shredded or cutting phase and a loss of weight. When you do a good weight loss, you lose water and fat without losing muscle mass and bone mass. When you’re shredded or cutting phase, you lower your bodyfat to 5% to see your muscles in detail as a bodybuilder competing.

Please, women and girls, stop saying that you are shredded or cutting phase. Naturally you have more fat than men and that’s normal because it’s to feed the baby when you will be pregnant. Your body programmed for that and that’s normal. For a woman or a girl to be shredded, it’s necessary to take steroids like women who participate in bodybuilding competitions. A clean weight loss is excellent and sufficient for toning and having a beautiful body.

Let’s talk about weight loss. There are plenty of stupid draconian weight loss programs. These programs cause loss of muscle mass, loss of bone mass, slow down metabolism and create health problems. I wrote 2 articles about it, click here and there for Part 1 and Part 2 .

Wait

I agree with this point of view and I think it’s necessary to be patient before be shredded or cutting phase. Wait 5 years before doing your first cutting phase. Make a clean mass gain for 5 years. Jamcore DZ waited 7 years before to participate in his 1^st competition. At the 2^nd competition, he felt like he was flat net to his competitors. He waited 3 years before participate in his 3^rd competition. 10 years to gain muscle clean with a healthy nutrition to have nice muscle mass when he’s shredded.

So wait at least 5 years to have a healty muscle mass gain before to be shredded or cutting phase. Maybe you find that long but see the reasons :

1^st reason : Learn and understand how your body works.
2^nd reason : Learn the art of patience. You’re going to have trouble but all the best things are hard to get. You will realize each summer with your friends who will show off but your friends are flat. They believe that they have muscle mass but in fact they’re thin and dry and you arrive and BOOOOM !
3^rd reason : After 5 years when you’re shredded, it will encourage you for the next cutting phase. You know that you have to rest your body for several years by gaining muscles in a healthy way to have a better body for the next time. I know that there are people who want to be shredded after 2 years but the results are poor : less experience and more muscle loss because there aren’t enough muscles that was built so a small muscle mass visible. Me, the first time I was shredded, I was disgusted, I felt flat because I had a small muscle mass visible.

It’s depressing and most people when they’re in this situation, they think to take steroids to show off with pictures on social media. This is happening right now on social media.
4^th reason : The more you’re shredded, the more you will regress because you lose more and more muscles. When you’re shredded, you lose some of your muscles, this is the process. So if you do this every years or every 6 months, you lose each time a part of the muscles that you have built.

The most common question

To start, people who tell you that you can do this all your life are liars. When you start training, you do something new to your body several times a week. It’s like a romantic relationship with a girl. It’s beautiful and after 6 months, she starts to piss you off, you start to piss her off and after you breakup. For muscle mass, it’s the same principle. At first you’ll build muscles and you’ll change your composition’s body, it’s normal.

After a while (2-3 years), your body starts to adapt and you stagnate. That’s when you’re looking for a training system that suits you, you focus on muscle isolation during an exercise, you improve your recovery and you evolve slowly. Gaining healthy muscle takes time and you have to accept it.

At the beginning of your training, you’ll lose fat and water and gain muscle at the same time for 2-3 years and then you’ll stagnate. Most of people who gain muscle get fat because they eat too much and don’t do cardio. Cardio all year is important to help control your weight. When I say doing cardio, it means doing cardio at a middle level, not cardio at a high level to be shredded. Doing cardio while you’re gaining muscle helps you progress because you keep a metabolism that works.

Share this article if you think it can someone you know. Thank you.

-Steph

I read a Frederic Delavier’s book « Strength Training Anatomy » and I learned good stuff.

In bodybuilding, it’s really important to take into account individual morphological differences. Especially for squat and deadlift.

Squat and deadlift have a different muscular work for a brevilineal person and a rangy person

A brevilineal person has a proportionally long torso and short limbs. An rangy person has a proportionally short torso and long limbs. This has nothing to do with height, muscle development or adiposity. Which means that a person can be a small fat rangy or a tall skinny brevilineal.

A brevilineal person have facility for squat because their short femurs makes that the torso is little inclined. This limits lower back and hamstring tension. As a result, the movement can be done in relative safety and the brevilineal person can almost exclusively focus on quadriceps work. It’s for this reason that almost all squat champions are brevilineal. An impressive example is that usually dwarves monopolize podiums of small categories in powerlifting.

Rangy people have more difficulty to do squat because their long femurs makes that the torso is very inclined forward. This puts hamstrings, adductors and gracilis in a dangerous position. Rangy people must fight constantly to not be out of balance forward.

It’s also important to pay attention to the back’s position to avoid rounding the back. Having the round back causes serious spinal injuries like the famous herniated disc.

Rangy people doing this type of squat leaning forward works much muscles of gluteus maximus which have the function of straightening the pelvis, torso and all erectors spinae muscles that try their best to avoid the rounding of the back.

As a result, the squat for long limbs is excellent for developing powerful glutes and lumbar spine. On the other hand it requires a lot of concentration for the positioning of the body during the movement. It should be noted that more weights are heavy, the more dangerous the movement’s execution.

For rangy people who really want to work quadriceps, it’s advisable to use incline machine like « hack squat ».

Difficulties change side

For brevilineal people who are the kings of squat, there is a reverse medal. They have a lot of trouble to do deadlift.

Brevilineal people with short legs should bend their legs to take the barbell. Sometimes their femurs are almost horizontal and this position requires a lot of energy to start the movement.

On the other hand, rangy people can take the barbell with their legs half bent. With this position, quadriceps can us the maximum energy to start the movement. The morphology of the rangy people allows them to lift heavier weights than brevilineal people despite a tilt of the gluteus and erectors spinae muscles

It’s for this reason that almost all of the deadlift champions are rangy people.

Ankles flexibility

The ankles flexibility has a great influence on the squat’s execution.

Ankles flexibility may be influenced by musculotendinous limitation (such as significant calves retractions) or bone limitation. For example, if the dorsal flexion (the fact of raising forefoot) is limited, the squat technique is completely modified.

The lack of ankles flexibility limits the shifting of the shins forward and the advanced knees. This makes it necessary to squat with the buttocks very back and the back leaning forward, which has the effect of working intensely the gluteus maximus and the spine erectors muscles.

Squat with an excessive inclinaison of the torso put dangerously tension on the back muscles of the thighs, adductors magnus, gracilis and increase the risk of muscle tearing.

It should be added that the positioning of the femurs below the horizontal has the effect of rounding the back, which increases the risk of vertebral damage. This squat requires a lot of concentration for the positioning of the body during the movement because the more the weigh is heavy and more the movement’s execution is dangerous.

Be careful, whether for the squat or the deadlift, having stiff ankles make it difficult to flex our legs even if the femurs are horizontal.

Finally, the cantilevered that is more important for deadlift than squat, this is requires quadriceps to provide more strength to extend thighs on the legs.

To read Part 2, click here.

Share this article if you think it can help someone you know. Thank you

-Steph

During my vacation, I like to relax in the evening next to the ocean or sea. It’s dark, you see and you hear the waves and there are stars in the sky. When I see all this, I tell myself that I am a little thing in the universe. Do you already think of that ? The human being is small and fragile in this immense universe and this is a good time to become humble.

In life, there are times when everything goes well. Family, studies, work, relationship and you feel invincible, you feel like the king of the world. But looking at the universe, you realize that you are not very important for the universe and it made you humble. We are human being made of flesh and bone and we can disappear very quickly.

Water is very powerful ! You saw tsunamis, WOW ! Water exists for millions of years before I was born and before you were born. How can I feel better than water because without water a human being dies. This a good perspective to never feel too great, not to feel the king of the world and forget where we came from.

It helps growing to be humble to not forget why you’re doing this. Things you do in your life is to achieve a goal. My goal isn’t to have 1 billion readers per day on my blog, my goal is to help and encourage people to become stronger mentally and physically. I often say to myself : « Now I need more readers » and the fact of remembering my goal puts me on the right path.

When I do something, it’s to achieve a goal. What you do in your life, your career for example, is to achieve a goal that helps people. Do something constructive rather than do something cool. Sometimes there are people who wonder what to do to be a fitness model. I tell them : « I don’t know ! What is a fitness model ? what is it to help people ? What do you learn from this ? ».

You have to plant seeds in fertile soil. When you do something, don’t do it for reasons that look cool but for deeper reasons. Later you’ll have a lot of great things to improve your lifestyle, you’ll have a solid foundation when your tree will grow, you understand. That’s what I wanted to share with you.

-Steph

A) Remove the “Reset” Button From The Plan

What makes that Monday is special. It’s a magical day we can have better results ?

The fact that the calendar says that Monday is the start of the week doesn’t mean you’re going to lift more weight and burn more fat than Thursday.

Take 5 minutes to meditate on this: Monday is just a day.

Is it because it’s the beginning of the week of school or work, it’s the beginning of everything ? Once you have done this, you can start (restart) your program any day of the week and it’s easier to stay on track.

I have a friend who advised me to start my program on a Thursday. My motivation was boosted throughout the weekend to continue. Usually Monday is the chest’s day , in my case it’s another day of the week so that I have all benches for me.

I even know people taking Monday as a rest day. It arranges them for their job because, it’s a really busy day.

B) Learning To Make A Small Errors.

If you think that what prevents you from achieving your results is not to follow your diet at 100%, you’ve got minimized your foods mistake, minimized the impact.

Learn to manage your small food mistake means you’re comfortable with the fact that sometimes you’re cheating with food. People aren’t perfect, especially with food and eat half a cookie doesn’t ruin your body’s transformation.

If you accept that, it will be easier for you to continue your program rather than stopping for several days.

Your Health Is A Wealth

Look this situation: You’re traveling abroad and you lose 500.-. If you’re like most people, you’re not gonna spend the rest of your money anyhow, you will reorganize your budget for the rest of the trip. Your diet is the same.

Imagine that you have a bank account of calories. If you cheat, you spent your calories in some frivolous things. Once you have spent your money on “frivolous calorie”, done everything possible to stop spending anyhow. Start your budget with 300 or 400 calories per week and manages it.

You’re going to have discipline on your diet and have a different attitude on your diet and cheating. Of course it will take some time to tame these little mistakes and forget Monday’s mentality.

But your first step is to be aware and just read this article you have an inestimable value to help you make those changes that will help you to achieve your objecives.

Whether to remove the temptation to make a new start or attitude to cheat about food, your best plan is to solve the problem faster. 1 of 4 spoil food is not the end of the world, nor spoil 1 day of 7.

Develop a true understanding and using these concepts give you the best opportunity for success.

The diet you follow depends on your tastes and your goals but the above strategies will help you to stay on track.

Taking control of the Monday’s mentality and learn to manage small errors are 2 steps needed to avoid the worst disappointments and walk on the path of success.

Guide to be a Superhuman (Select a program and click on “Log in as a Guest”).

-Steph