Alex’s Guide to the Arcane Arts of
Nutrition and Exercise
“Just because they mock you doesn’t mean you’re inferior,
they just hide they used to be like you”
Disclaimers:
I wrote this book for a school project. If you read this book beyond April 2022, it’s most likely I
edited/added extra parts into it.
An effort has been made to ensure that the information in this book is correct. Consult a healthcare
professional before undertaking any diet or exercise regime. Your doctor knows best. Advice in this book
is not intended to be a full substitute for expert level medical advice from medical practitioners. This is a
book aimed to educate and is no way intended to be a “one size fits all” approach to evaluating one's
needs.
This book is not for everyone, and while the information in this book is considered to be backed by
scientific research; diet culture, lifting practices and mental health is an ever-evolving research topic
that can make theories and facts in the present moment can become less credible in the future. For this
reason, no absolute guarantees can be given in regards to results. I am not liable for any physical,
psychological, emotional, or financial damage the reader has suffered while using information in his or
her own way.
No liability is assumed by Alex Haydock, and all use of this information is purely based on the
responsibility of the individual.
Thanks for reading!
"He who knows no fear, knows no courage. I take mine from you. We are what
we fight for."
-The Hand (Furi)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS :
Disclaimer – 2
To Preface: Philosophy and Personal Advice section of the book
About Me - 5
The Introduction -5
Inspirations - 6
Four Pillars of Health - 7
Easy Mode To Life Pointers - 8
Struggles and Problems 8-9
What's your WHY? - 10
Keep it Realistic - 11
The Reality of being unhealthy - 11
What I preach - 12
Exercise and Nutrition: The meat of the book
‘Simple’ Definitions (and Gym/Weightlifting Lingo explanations + advice) 13-18
The Most Common saying I’ve heard - 19
Counting Calories -19
Genetics -19
Dieting Vs Training? How important is it? How do I lose weight? How do I gain muscle? 19-21
What are my maintenance calories? - 22
How many calories are in one pound of fat? - 22
Common misconceptions and myths – 22-23
Injury vs soreness after training -23
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Calorie Labels - 24
Calorie labels LIE! -24
Cardio -24
Training, regimens, and working out 25
Muscle groups and exercises to train them 25-27
Remembering what you're training for - 27
remember to track your goals and workouts - 27
training frequency+ recovery - 28
Flexibility/Stretching - 28
Gymtimidation 29
The Magic Formula - 30
The Final Page - Conclusion to the book:
Conclusion - 31
“Self sacrifice without the knowledge of any kind of limit. Self destruction
without the knowledge of any limit. Your guts should come from a bottomless
pit, it’s a fair trade to sell yourself to gain guts.”
-Chiharu Shiba (Baki)
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To Preface: Philosophy and Personal Advice Section of the Book
About Me:
Ever since I was little, I was exposed to people who valued and enjoyed their life. People who appreciated
how brief this life truly is and got after their own goals. They didn’t buy into the fact that you had to be a
certain type of “man” or certain type of “woman” and kept true to themselves, enjoying life no matter what
was thrown at them. It’s unfortunate that I only realized and understood the concept of contentment
through the enjoyment of life a couple years ago in my mid teens, but I’m still glad I got started in the first
place. Before up until the age of mid thirteen, I was living a life full of short-term happiness via social
media and instant gratification actions, most times neglecting my own health for many years. I realized as
a young teenager people who drift through life like this and only seek happiness via external sources feel
discontent with their past, and ultimately get nowhere in life. They get sucked into their own lives and
become background characters. So I made it clear to myself, I wanted to change. Realizing from seeing
people live their best lives not caring about what other people think, that my own actions dictate what type
of person I will grow up to be. For the past three years and onwards I’ve been striving to improve and
perfect not only my physical health, but various disciplines of health. Learning to view the world from
many different perspectives. Working out, studying philosophy, and learning from others have changed
the core of who I am as a person. With this, I want to help those who want to simply be better. Hope comes
from the strangest places. Using this knowledge I have obtained all throughout my life, I have written
down things in this book with the intention of giving people a chance to find this and apply it into their lives.
The Introduction:
People specialize in many things. Some take the degree in medicine, others will take a commanding,
almost leadership role as practitioners in various subjects. This book is not a book on medicine nor on
complex things such as that. This book is about what I have learned throughout my life translated into a
way that can be understood but not fully comprehended until you have experienced the same plights I
have. This book, for a lack of a better term is a challenge from me to you. I challenge you to live earnestly
and realize through perspective how you have always had the will to improve yourself this entire time.
You will learn, through intense knowledge, how to comprehend the philosophy of this book. Would it not
be possible to learn something as simple as personal philosophy? This is to say, This book is conquerable.
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Inspirations:
My life has been blessed with inspiration from every route I seem to take. They have blessed my
foundation with absolute glory. From values to personal philosophies, they’ve paved the way to who I am
as a person. Here is a list of recent inspirations:
-Miyamoto Musashi’s “The Book of Five Rings”
-Miyamoto Musashi’s “Dokkōdō”
-Keisuke Itagaki’s “Baki Series” (I encourage everyone to read this masterpiece)
-Hideo Kojima’s “Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance”
-Clarence Kennedy
-Jujimufu (Jon Call)
-Greg Doucette
-Solaire of Astora (“I am the Sun”)
-Derek Van moreplatesmoredatesdotcom
-The wonderful art of Sumo (Sumo Wrestling)
-Robert Eno’s “The Analects of Confucius” (2015 Version 2.21)
-Kakuzo Okakura’s “The Book of Tea” (Another encouraged read)
-Lao Tzu’s “’The Tao Te Ching’, translation by anonymous”
-Aziz “Zyzz” Shavershian “You Mirin’?”
-Said Sergeyevich Shavershian “Chestbrah”
-Tyler Steinkamp “Tyler1” (“YOU FIND A WAY”)
-Sumon Hofverberg “Thebausffs” (“we shilling”)
-Anton “RATIRL” (“My old ape brain would take this play...MY NEW ONE TOO”)
The list goes on..
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Four Pillars of Health:
Your health is an important part of your life. There are many things that dictate how your health is
managed and most importantly, how you feel about yourself. Simply put, there are four pillars of health I
will describe in this section. The pillar of Physical Health, Spiritual Health, Social Health, and Mental
Health. You need a mixture between all four of these for a healthy lifestyle. Why? Because you can’t
neglect them, a balance is needed for your life to BE at balance.
Physical Health: This pillar is about being active, eating well, all about taking action to refine your body
and preventing chronic illnesses. Exercise has been proven to PROLONG someone's life, meaning if you
maintain can manage to maintain staying active (Cardio and Exercise) all throughout your life, you will
live longer than someone that does not. Eat well, train hard, and you’ll obtain this.
Spiritual Health: This pillar is about not caring about what people think. It includes having a purposeful
life. If you can enjoy life as it goes and realize and actualize meaningful things in the world and disregard
the negativity people spread, you can obtain spiritual health.
Social Health: This pillar is about staying true to yourself. Its about our ability to interact and form
meaningful relationships with others in social situations. If you stay true to yourself in a social setting and
not let people get to your head, you are on your way to good Social Health.
Mental Health: This pillar is about “having a good mental”. Where you are able to enjoy life and balance out
life activities to obtain a mental and psychological resilience towards the stresses of life. Lifes got you
down? If you can say to life “No life, I won’t get down” and get back up, it is a sign of strong mental
resilience. There are multitude of things that impact your mental health. I’m no licensed therapist, but
help is always available and there are always people that will help you.
Maintain good balance internally and you will be able to balance your external life. From my perspective
living is the smallest and biggest thing one can do in life. It is an art form, and perfection of it results in
ones own perfection of life. Polishing the body is an amazing way to live and enjoy life. You may not be fully
aware of it, but your body is working overtime to keep you alive. It is truly a miracle that you are reading
this and comprehending these words, take time to reflect on this. However, improvements can always be
made whether it be physical or mental, find what your body and mind needs, and make adjustments to
your lifestyle.
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Easy Mode To Life Pointers:
1) Enjoy life.
2) Value your relationships.
3) Live your life on your terms.
4) Bring others around you up.
5) Appreciate how brief this life is, so really get after what you truly want and
6) Don’t buy into the type of man people expect you to be or prove yourself to anyone, be yourself
no matter the criticism or haters.
7) Change and a new life is always possible, no matter how far away it may feel or hopeless it
seems.
Struggles and problems:
This book is built upon giving practical information on what you can do to a variety of things. Muscle
building, losing the weight AND keeping it off etc. I’m not gonna say “eat this many macros, eat only these
foods, don’t eat this, yada yada.” The reality is, anyone can lose weight, and everyone can build muscle. The
main problem with weightloss is, PEOPLE REGAIN IT. Now this book is about changing your mindset so
you can for example: “Lose weight AND keep it off for good.” Look at the following:
“Focus on leveling up the skills and behaviors necessary to produce the desired outcome rather
than the outcome itself and you'll be surprised by the results”
-Omarlsuf (Omar Isuf)
Instead of focusing on the outcome, (lets say: "I wanna lose 10 pounds of fat”) focus on what you need to do
and what you can CHANGE, without worrying so much about the actual goal itself. Whether you get there
or not at the end of the day it’s not that big a deal. What does matter is the positive changes you’ve
implemented in your life, and the growth you can make from them by implementing them in different
situations all throughout your life. Just like most things the world of dieting and exercise can be rough at
first, but you get better overtime. You will find it like going for a swim. The first time you might’ve just
doggy paddled everywhere, didn’t know how to kick your legs and stay afloat. But by the time you’ve
practiced enough and stay comfortable in the water, you realize you can stay afloat without much thought,
and can focus on other things while swimming. A major problem most people face is that they don’t even
dip there toes in the water!
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They stop halfway or even don’t begin at all. So rather than focusing on an end goal, focus on what you can
do to IMPROVE to get to that END GOAL. Translating this into diets means you might have a rough time
finding the right recipes to use, how to cook them and struggle in counting calories. It'll seem so daunting,
there are a million options out there yada yada. Then, it gets easier. Your research on recipes and
knowledge on certain foods you get from eating them mean you can much more quickly fish out what
works for you, and in the end makes it easier for you in the long run. This is the essence of growth and can
make reaching the original goal so much more easier, because you’ve improved a skill you previously
were bad at.
Ask yourself, what are the things that will derail you such as foods, social situations or other behaviors
that have negative influences on your goals? Whenever people go to a social gathering like a party, bar or
wedding people generally end up binging on food. This directly impacts your goals and can make getting
your goals harder. The solution? Being more proactive. If you know you’re just going to binge on food (that
usually is loaded in calories), why not eat something incredibly filling beforehand that has low calories so
you don’t end up eating a lot at the party? It’s only natural that if you’re starving and food is place in front of
you, you’re going to eat it all. So just eat the biggest salad in the world or fill yourself up on something
that’s low in calories before you can fill yourself up with things that are high in calories and derail you
from your goal. This is just a specific example but it happens to a lot more than we think.
You will have struggles when creating a diet plan or workout routine or other struggles in life. The good
thing is you can learn from the struggles and apply and prevent it to be better the next time you do it. By
constantly learning and adapting to what works and what doesn’t you will be able to grow in no time. I’ve
layed out major groundwork in this book and by using this book and resources you personally enjoy and
find are useful can create programs and diets that can function for YOU! If something doesn’t work, find
what the root problem is and find ways to fix it. Approach it from different angles, get new perspectives on
it, and find a way to get there. If you plateau on a certain exercise and can’t reach that specific goal or rep
range, you find a way to get to it. You practice different variations, you lower the weight and hit higher reps
with controlled range of motion, you find a way. This can be applied to everything and everything. If your
diet is making you hungry all the time, find foods that are not only nourishing but filling while lowering the
calories (lower calorie dense food), you find a way. If you’re not in a good mood and have work to finish up,
you see what time allows you to do and contact people to help you through it. The final message is, YOU
FIND A WAY.
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What's your WHY?
The reality of most people is: They know what needs to change, but they don’t put any effort into making
that change. Ask yourself, why do you want to change? Do you want a better body to attract potential
partners? Is it for your physical health because you are overweight/underweight? Find the reason you
want to improve. Nurture this reason, it will be the foundation for you to grow upon. We live life and do
things for our own reasons. When life comes tumbling down and results in you being punched in the face
by life, clinging to this will help you stay motivated. Find your reason, why you go to the gym, why you
wanna change, why you wanna train. Learn to be yourself, and at the end of the day you'll grow from this.
You will meet new people and experience so many new things. It comes down to how motivated you are to
do what you wanna do in life. Remember, you only got one shot at this, its up to you. You’re not proving it to
me, not to anyone else, you’re proving it to yourself. Give it your all and show everyone the best version of
you that you can be. Chase your dreams and find contentment in your life.
You can see exercising and more conscious eating and so on as a chore, as difficult, as restriction of
'enjoyable food'. Or you can learn, and develop, and adjust yourself to foods that actually make you feel
revitalized, that actually feel wholesome, and taste far more complex and rewarding than processed
sugar. You can see it as a privilege to have the time and means to make your own meals, by your own
dedication to setting time aside. You can see the more limited eating as making the meals themselves
more valuable and satisfying to eat. Something to actually look forward to. You can see the limited effort
of working on your body transform your appearance into something to be marveled at, a pure biological
representation of discipline and health. You can see it as a privilege to have so much capacity to build
injury resistance, an efficient body, and well off organs, all for a greater and more functional body in your
old age. Whilst you are living your young life, would it not be hard to make small changes to impact greatly
the rest of your life? I know it will make you ache, and sometimes make you feel like it is unbearable at
times. This is the process of it all. As massively rewarding and pleasurable as doing all of this is, you can
see doing all of this as being “kind of difficult.” However, I know you can power through the tough times,
and do things even when you don’t want to do them. It will seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult
at first.
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Keep it realistic:
KEEP YOUR GOALS REALISTIC. We’re not all genetic freaks of nature that can pack on insane amounts of
muscle in a short time or lose extreme bodyweight and keep it off for good. When you’re playing with
weight-loss you’re playing with your health. Always remember, your health is everything. TAKE YOUR
GOALS SLOW. The holy grail of fitness advice personally to me is as follows:
“Get Halfway There”
This means if you’re at 200lbs and you want to get to 150lbs, get to 175lbs. Most times people set
unrealistic goals and are bummed out and become unmotivated when they can’t progress they want to.
With this logic, you will likely reach your goal and be proud of reaching it. For example when you get to
175lbs in this example and now you ask yourself:
“What now?”
That my friend, is the beauty of this logic. The skies the limit here. Now that you’re at 175lbs, remember
what your original goal was? Repeat after me:
“Get halfway there!”
Now your goal is 162.5lbs! That’s halfway from 175lbs and 150lbs. So you follow that diet plan and when you
eventually reach it, go even further! Get half of that, and then once you get that, get half of that! You do this
until you get your original goal. The beauty of this logic is, you can apply it to anything! If you want to bench
press 180lbs and can only do 140lbs currently, go for 160lbs first! Plan everything out, and progressively
get to your goal. Failing to plan, is planning to fail. Now, in most cases if you find yourself (for example) to
be at 175lbs and say, “No more, if I go any lower than its too unbearable, I’ll be hungry all the time and feel
like I have no energy.” Then stop, don’t let your original goal kill your body and health. If you find yourself to
be at 175lbs with full energy and motivation to get through your day, then that’s perfect. You found what
works for you, and now you can see and tweak other things to constantly improve yourself.
The reality of being unhealthy:
Obesity in basically every clinical sense is a bad thing. Obesity is associated in a leading cause of death in
a lot of major countries. It is also associated with diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and many other forms of
cancer. It is shown to make someone have a reduced quality of life, with poorer longevity and an early
death. Now I won’t ridicule anyone for who they are as a person (but lets be honest, the majority of people
will), however I will criticize the bad choices or misinformation someone puts out. Obesity and your
health is a choice. You are choosing what things go in your body, and what actions you take that can
dictate your health in general. Re-read and reflect on this.
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What I preach:
Body Recomposition (Recomp) or ’Maingaining’: This is an approach to dieting and exercise that aims to
lose body fat, while gaining muscle at the same time. This is done by using resistance training to gain
muscle while eating at a near maintenance caloric level. These two things will make you build muscle and
lose weight at the same time, while slowly replacing the lost weight with muscle. This works because the
process of building muscle takes a lot of energy. So if you eat at a maintenance caloric level while this
process is happening your body will need to find the first available energy source in your body, which just
so happens to be bodyfat (lucky enough it is easier for your body to use this as fuel rather than muscle).
So over the years your body will gradually become leaner and leaner and in this time you will progress in
the gym. It is to note that muscle naturally takes more calories to keep it satisfied/nourished, so your
maintenance caloric intake would also steadily increase with time, which is something to account for in
this diet. To start this type of dieting, you gotta be at a reasonable healthy bodyfat! Its just better in the long
run health wise. So if you are overweight, I’d recommend slowly cutting on a caloric deficit, reach a
healthy bodyfat percentage, then start maingaining. If you are underweight and have a severely low body
fat, enter a small caloric surplus and gain weight until you are a healthy body fat percentage. Ideal body
fat percentages are not the same for everyone. Sometimes the ideal 13%-15% body fat that someone can
achieve would be unbearable and IMPOSSIBLE to achieve for someone else. Also take into consideration
the type of sex you are. Women have different needs than men, and vice versa. Find what works for you
and listen to your body.
The next chapters of this book will cover things on a training and diet standpoint and provide facts ranging
from common dieting practices to getting the body of your dreams. This book is to help guide and direct
your life in a better direction. Be realistic with yourself, and you can be better than the previous version of
yourself! With that being said, I wish you good luck and health in the future! I'm glad I can help you on this
trip.
“With every step in the right direction you'll have to do less, until you finally don't have to
do anything anymore, don't want anything at all, without a thing to lose. Then you will
never be afraid again, you won't know pain and grief anymore, you'll never get sick again,
never be tense or restless; you will have no expectations so will experience no
disappointments ever again. Then you will be wise and invulnerable.”
-Anonymous (“Tao Te Ching” Translation)
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Exercise and Nutrition: The “Meat” of the Book
IMPORTANT NOTE: You have relationships with people, not food. We don’t try and court a banana.
‘Simple’ Definitions (and Gym/Weightlifting Lingo explanations + advice):
Macronutrients (Macros): Carbohydrates (Carbs), Fat, Protein and Water are known as macronutrients.
These nutritive components come from foods and drinks that the body needs to maintain the body’s
structure and internal systems. Our bodies generally need more of these nutrients in larger quantities
compared to micronutrients.
Carbohydrate (Carbs): Carbohydrates are sugar molecules found in food. Carbohydrates are generally
the body’s first source of fuel and main source of energy. Your body burns as energy carbohydrates, then
if those are depleted will burn off fat (do not get this confused with bodyfat), and then protein. The last
thing you’d want is to burn off protein, as it can even eat into your earned muscle on your body. Your body
break down carbohydrates into glucose while the food is in your digestive system. Different foods are
broken down differently, and it is generally the highest number you see in grams on a nutrition label.
Carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram. A note to keep in mind is that sugar is in just about everything
that’s processed nowadays. Try to keep it minimized.
Fats: Your body requires fats to survive. Not all fat is bad fat! Fats are needed in general for muscle
development and overall health. You shouldn’t overdo it with these guys, but it is needed in your diet for it
to be balanced. Fats have 9 calories per gram, which is a bit more than double what protein or muscle is.
There are good fats, and there are bad fats, I will describe both.
Good Fats: These little guys are the ones that are healthier than the bad fats. They are generally known as
‘monosaturated’ fats and the ones that are body especially likes. Good fats come with all sorts of sizes,
like with polyunsaturated fats that are rich in Omega-3 Fatty acids, which have been shown to help with
brain function alongside other benefits. Sources of good fats (please research on your own) are things
like nuts, avocados, fish and egg yolks.
Bad Fats: These little dudes are types of fat that should be eaten more sparingly. Saturated and trans fatty
acids can not only raise cholesterol, but they clog arteries which have been shown to increase the risk for
heart disease. Worry comes from artificial trans fats, which are extensively used in frying, baked goods,
and packaged foods. Be aware of what you put into your body and the effects it has on you. I am not going
to demonize fats but know the difference between them.
Protein (and muscle building): Protein is a key factor in building muscle known as ‘Muscle Protein
Synthesis’. Muscle is mostly made up of Protein, and water. Without much protein, there is not much
muscle. Protein is comprised of amino acids, these amino acids are used in an assortment of ways that
help you function and build muscle. The general rule for protein intake is 1 gram per pound of bodyweight.
Make sure you have an adequate intake of protein, especially at intervals throughout the day, to maximize
muscle building. Your body uses protein to repair muscles, rebuild muscle, and to BUILD new muscles.
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There are many forms of protein such as casein, whey, and others which generally do the same thing in
the body but last in the body differently. For example Casein protein can take upwards of 7 hours to ingest
fully, while whey is much less. Personally, you should always have protein in your body to maximize
muscle building and optimize ‘Muscle Protein Synthesis’. This however, is a suggestion I make to you, and
is not the case for everyone. Protein has 4 calories per gram.
Micronutrients (Micros): Vitamins and Minerals are things your body needs alongside Macronutrients, it
is necessary for energy production, immune system functionality, and a multitude of other bodily
functions.
Calorie (Cal): It is a unit of energy or measurement. For example, if I say this cookie contains 150 calories,
this is a way to describe how much energy your body would get from totally consuming it.
Your diet should include both Macronutrients and Micronutrients, they help your body function, there is no
reason you should skip out on these. You should also make sure your body is getting enough calories
daily, depending on your goals. When creating a diet and meal plan, make sure it includes this, it is
beneficial for you.
Range of motion (ROM): It is the measurement of the amount of movement around a specific joint or body
part. It's how far you can move joints in different directions, it's essential to have good range of motion not
only in health, but also when doing exercises to optimize training. Good form includes practically max
range of motion, and bad form is doing an exercise with bad or barely any range of motion. There are a
multitude of range of motion exercises online that can be done with absolutely zero equipment, it’s the
basics but we cannot neglect it! When performing exercises, it is common to see people say “Go for max
ROM!” or “Control your range of motion”. They mean practically the same thing in certain contexts but for
example in a bicep curl, a full range of motion is starting from a fully stretched position holding the
dumbbell, to curling it and having your forearm and bicep touch. Or, Going all the way down for a squat,
having the bar hit your chest in a bench-press, the list goes on. Not everybody can do the range of motion
of others, so keep note of what your body allows you to do and adapt your training to improve it alongside
your training regimen. A funny quote online is “Cheat on your girls, don’t cheat on your curls.” In this case
the term “cheat” means to not fully achieve maximum range of motion (aka half reps). Everyone's not
perfect, we don’t always fully achieve ROM all the time at the gym while working out, or doing everyday
things, but if you get better overtime that is what really matters.
Reps : This is short for “repetitions” Reps refer to the number of times you perform an exercise within a
set. “Half Repping” is commonly known as doing a repetition with not full or half range of motion.
Sets: A set is a cycle of how many reps you will achieve in a set of exercises. For example: You do 3 sets of
10 bench-press, so you do 10 reps of bench-press before re-racking the bar and taking a rest period.
“Yo, how many sets you got left?” (Someone asking how many sets someone would have until the machine
or equipment they are using is available for use)
Work-In: This is a method of using a machine or equipment that someone is currently using while the
other person is taking a rest period or break.
“Yo Clarence, you mind if I work-in while you're resting on the bench?”
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“Yeah, no worries Juji” (In this example, Juji is letting Clarence use the bench press while he is resting)
Failure: This is known as muscular failure among many other terms. When individuals talk about training
to failure they mean training to the point where you cannot do a rep or an exercise until your body is
physically incapable of doing it without help/aid. Training to failure also includes good form, so if you keep
going and perform reps with bad form or half repping this can be considered going “beyond failure”
because although you are not using perfect form, you are still trying to do repetitions. This is a method of
training for advanced/elite lifters who need to keep adapting their training to build muscle but is not
recommended for new lifters, good form over everything when you are starting out at the gym. An
example of training to failure is doing pushups until you cannot lift yourself up back up from the ground.
AMRAP (as many reps/rounds as possible): This is a type of set that is extremely common in a workout
regimen. Its very self-explanatory where you perform an exercise for as many repetitions as your body
allows you before you reach muscle failure. This is a method of developing muscular endurance and a
method of training to failure which can help more experienced and advanced lifters. There are many
forms of AMRAP workouts online, such as a chain of exercises done for a certain amount of time, or one
exercise performed until muscular failure (you can’t do it anymore).
One rep Max (1RM): This is referring to a phrase used by strength-building athletes and a phrase you will
hear in weightlifting competitions. A ‘one rep max’ is the max amount of weight someone can put on or
perform in one rep (repetition). In some cases an individual would think their 1RM is higher than it actually
is, this is because the individual would cheat on their rep, or have bad form and still count it as a
successful rep.
Ego Lift: This is a case when an individual try to lift an extremely heavy weight for the purpose of
impressing other people. This is usually done with extremely poor form and can lead to (in a lot of cases),
injury and permanent muscle or tissue damage. To note: Ego lifting will not give as much benefit
compared to an actual set of exercise with proper form.
Posterior Chain & Anterior Chain: The anterior chain muscles are located in the front of the body, while
the posterior chain muscles are on the backside of your body. They encompass different muscle groups
that can be trained. The posterior chain includes the hamstrings, the glutes (the butt), calves, the back,
the posterior deltoids, deltoids and some others. The anterior chain includes muscles like the chest
(pectoral muscles), abs (core), quadriceps (where your thighs are), hip flexors. These are not all the
muscles you can train however, but they make up a lot of muscles in your torso, arms and legs.
Spotter: A spotter is someone that can help you while doing heavy weights or to help you with your form in
an exercise. They make sure in case you fail or cannot perform another rep of an exercise you can
successfully bail out and prevent injury involving the heavy weights (ex: the bar crushing you and
breaking bones, barbell falling on you). Spotters can also act as motivators, saying encouraging things
while you are performing a set.
Bail/Bailing: This mainly infers to when doing an exercise with a barbell. If you cannot do a successful rep
or are reaching close to your max rep range but cannot complete the rep (due to muscle failure, poor
form, etc), you will bail or flee unscathed from the barbell. If you are performing a set of back squats and
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cannot get up from the down position, you will release the bar and go forwards to not risk injury. There are
many forms of bailing, and it is highly encouraged to learn the proper way to bail an exercise, just in case.
Gains: An extremely common slang term used by gym goers. It refers to the progress you or another
individual has made at the gym. Its mainly used to describe muscle gain but can be used in other contexts.
Examples like:
“Dude, Clarence has made some huge gains recently! He’s put on some size!” (Refers to Clarence gaining
muscle mass)
“I’ve made some insane gains in doing cardio, I ran a mile in under 8 minutes!” (Refers to this individual
making improvement or “gains” to his/her mile time)
Swole: Meaning someone extremely muscular looking, and someone who is built extremely well and big.
Shredded: Someone who is known to be ‘shredded’ is an individual who has a very low bodyfat
percentage. This is noticeable by veins, chiseled abs and impressively swole muscles. Although
shredded individuals have large amounts of muscle, they look smaller compared to someone who is
swole.
The Pump: The pump is what occurs when working out (resistance/weight training). It is a sensation of the
muscles temporarily enlargening due to a greater than normal blood supply. The pump is described in all
sorts of ways, but it is an amazing feeling to have that usually goes away a couple hours (1-2) after your
workout.
Bro science: This is a term for misinformation or a misinterpretation that is circulated among gym goers,
usually claims that are not backed up by science. Examples include:
“Gotta drink a protein shake right after a workout”
“Cardio kills your gains!”
“If you want abs just do crunches everyday!”
You get the point..
Cutting: This refers to someone who is trying to lose mass, usually body fat, by eating less calories than
their body consumes in a day. The lack of excess calories means the body must take energy (calories)
from sources on the body (usually fat stores) and use that as energy to be completely nourished. This is
an extremely popular form of dieting alongside bulking. Extreme cuts have the risk of losing muscle
mass, so the slower people do cuts the better.
Bulking: This refers to someone who is trying to gain mass, usually muscle, by eating more calories than
their body consumes in a day. The over excess in calories mean that the body can store these calories as
mainly bodyfat, but also (over longer periods of time) in muscle.
Calisthenics: Calisthenics are a form of training that involves using an individuals bodyweight as the
resistance in an exercise. Squats, lunges, dips, planks and many more are known to be Calisthenics
exercises. Calisthenics benefits include improving strength, flexibility and control in exercise. There are
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a range of Calisthenics exercises and variations that allow you to improve overtime, so choose the one
for your skill level (Example: Starting at a knee supported plank, then going to a regular plank then
advancing to a planche)
Superset: Supersets are a term used when two different exercises are performed back to back after one
another. The two exercises commonly target opposing muscle groups to make sure each muscle
exercised is having enough rest and to prevent overtraining.
Unilateral (Uni Meaning One): Unilateral exercises are movements using only a single arm or leg. The
purpose of doing unilateral exercises is to avoid muscle imbalances. During Bilateral (Bi Meaning Two)
exercises, it is very common for one limb to be stronger over another, so the weaker muscle isn’t
compensating for being weaker and is then trained weaker. Unilateral exercises are shown to prevent
this.
Compound exercise: Compound exercises are those that engage multiple groups of muscle at the same
time in one movement. They are known as a more efficient way of completing a workout as it saves time
working on multiple muscle groups per exercise. They help improve functional strength and help build
muscle all throughout the body. A popular example is the squat, where the quadriceps, glutes, calves and
core (abs) are trained all at the same time. However, while a squat is a great compound exercise, there
are muscles that get more targeted over others (the quadriceps get more strain than the calves for
example).
Isolation exercise: The opposite of a compound exercise where only one muscle group is worked on in a
movement/exercise. It is highly advised to maintain balance by training the opposite side as well (for a
left handed bicep curl, train the right hand after).
Hypertrophy: Hypertrophy is a term used to describe an increase in muscle cells and tissue. Training for
hypertrophy includes maximizing total volume lifted, improve control during exercise, working smarter
not harder, etc.
Supplements: Supplements are exactly that. They are used to SUPPLY nutrients that you may be deficient
in. There are many forms of supplements that are highly studied, ranging from multivitamins, protein
powder, casein, and caffeine.
To note: If something sounds too good to be true, it most likely is. Supplements are not magic, and while
they can help, do not rely on them to supplement all your body’s needs.
Concentric and Eccentric: Every movement we make while moving our body is either concentric or
eccentric. Concentric means the part of the movement that happens when the muscle contracts, while
eccentric is part of the movement where the muscle extends. When squatting for example, the concentric
movement is the ascent of your body (going up), and the eccentric is the other half of the movement
where you body lowers down. A negative movement also implies the eccentric aspect of an exercise. For
example in a bicep curl, lowering the dumbbell down (back to straight arm position) is the negative
portion of the movement.
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Time under tension (TUT): This refers to how long a muscle is under tension or strain during a rep and or
set. A high TUT means you decrease the tempo of reps in a set (an example being going slow on a descent
for a squat and going slow for an ascent) or increasing the number of reps in said set.
Progressive overload: This is a term that means consistently over a period of time that allows someone to
progress in strength, repetitions, technique, volume, TUT, rest periods or weight/resistance. This is
simply done by increasing one of these subjects mentioned overtime. An example would be increasing
the weight on a barbell, having a high TUT, having shorter rest periods, etc. It is not advised to always train
to failure and go all out to “do better than last time” as a beginner but tracking workouts and evaluating
yourself post workout is an effective way to find what you can improve. The gym and working out is about
improving, it is a marathon.
Rest period: These are periods of rest where you will not perform the exercise, typically taken after a set.
Rest periods differ from person to person, however the time you should rest should not be too long nor
too short. The intent of rest periods is so that you are ready for your next set, by giving a muscle time to
relax. It is typical to rest 1-2 minutes after finishing a set, and upwards up to 1-3 minutes changing
between sets (changing exercises after one completes all sets in an exercise).
High Calorie Dense Foods: For example, there is around 289 calories in 50 grams of almonds. This food
and others in this group means they are high in calories while being low in volume. These group of foods
are known to be popular for people who are bulking or want to gain weight (calorie surplus). Examples
include: Peanut Butter, Fatty Fish, Fatty Meats, Nuts, Donuts, Sodas, Candies, Butter, oils and many
others. These foods are very high in calories compared to the amount consumed and usually offer very
little nutritional value.
Low Calorie Dense Foods: For example, there is around 150 calories in 500 grams of watermelon. This
food and others in this group mean they are low in calories while being high in volume. These groups of
foods are very popular for people who are cutting or who want to be in a calorie deficit. They are a popular
way to eat food in large quantities, while staying low in calories. Examples include: Fruits, Vegetables,
Salads, Lean Meats, Chicken, eggs, Diet Sodas, Oats and many others. These foods have very little
calories compared to the volume that can be consumed
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The Most Common saying I’ve heard:
Ever heard the saying “Your body is a temple, treat it as such.”? You hear it on blog posts and
spirituality pages bla bla blah. It’s a common saying because in the world of physical health IT IS! Your
body does everything for you. Whether you know it or not it is keeping you alive 24/7, 7 days a week, 365
days a year. Lets make sure it doesn’t stop anytime soon yeah? This chapter covers dieting, exercise, and
misconceptions about dieting. The world of dieting/nutrition and exercise can be a daunting place, but it
really isn’t. This isn’t rocket science, but it could be! We’ll focus on the absolute basics, this is for the
absolute newbie who knows nothing about this. This also provides information for the more experienced
of you out there.
Counting Calories:
I want you to track calories in the foods you eat. I don’t want you to start counting every single minute
detail of every calorie you eat, I just want you to track what you eat during the day. By doing this you can
keep tabs on how many calories you get throughout your day, and it not only makes whatever goals you
have diet wise much easier to track but also see what you can do better to improve nutrition wise. You can
keep it old school and track what you have in a journal, but we have technology which makes it easier for
all of us. I recommend an app called Chronometer. You use it by scanning the labels of the foods you eat or
manually add what you are eating throughout the day. It has the benefit of tracking calories,
macronutrients and micronutrients, all so you can keep tabs on it. You can also add the biometric of your
weight so you can easily track your weight overtime.
Genetics:
Genetics are your foundation. They limit what you are gifted with at birth, what you can achieve, and how
hard it takes to eventually achieve results. This is the reality check, YOU DIDN’T PICK THE RIGHT
PARENTS! I'm of course joking but you see the point. Genetics limit a whole range of functions, from the
shape of your muscles, your bone structure and a multitude of other things. Don’t fret, you don’t need
perfect genetics to have an amazing healthy body, don’t let it get you down. Having good genetics makes
certain aspects of dieting and exercising easier, while having bad genetics can make the process harder.
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Dieting Vs Training? How important is it? How do I lose weight? How do I gain muscle?
Dieting and Training are important parts in achieving an excellent body. Without proper nutrition your
body will lack nutrients to perform simple tasks internally and externally, and without proper training you
will struggle to build muscle. The takeaway is to train hard to stimulate your muscle and body, diet
correctly to provide nutrients for growth and recovery, and ensure your body has enough time to recover
and rest. If you skip out on a certain part of this, you won’t get the results you’re trying to achieve.
The majority of people in the world, want to do two things with a diet and exercise plan.
1) Lose weight (get slimmer, leaner, have less body fat on you)
2) More muscles (you want the bigger bicep or glutes, you wanna look better!)
Leaner is better (usually), more muscle is better (usually), this applies to the majority of people. To lose
weight, you need to be in a Calorie Deficit. To get more muscle, you need to train and eat well. I will explain
both in order.
At the end of the day, a calorie deficit is what counts for losing weight. It is the law of thermodynamics!
Energy cannot be destroyed or created, it can only be transferred or changed from one form to another.
Here are some examples:
If you need 2500 calories as maintenance (how many calories your body would need per day without any
added exercise or moving around), and track that you ate 2800 calories, (lets say you’re bulking or you
wanna get up in size) if you do the math you have eaten 300 calories more than what your body would
need as maintenance and would gain weight (known as caloric/calorie surplus).
Or vice versa,
If you need 2500 calories as maintenance, and track that you ate 2000 calories, (lets say you want to get
slimmer, leaner, for health purposes etc. ) if you do the math you have eaten 500 calories less than what
your body would need as maintenance and would lose weight (known as caloric/calorie deficit).
To note: If you choose a diet you ENJOY that also allows you to be in a calorie deficit, you are guaranteed to
lose weight. The reason it must be enjoyable is because a diet is something you should be able to stick to,
FOR LIFE, It will fail otherwise. No amount of willpower can power through something like this for years
and years on end.
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To build muscle you need 3 (+1 that is vital) things.
Our bodies are made up of 60% of water, we need to replenish that on a daily basis by getting enough
water. The average amount a human should drink is around 2-3 liters per day. Muscle is pretty much just
water at the end of the day, so lets make sure your body doesn’t get dehydrated. Now protein is something
we get by eating foods, and an optimal protein intake to maximize muscle growth is 1 gram per pound
bodyweight. This should be very easy to get if you are regularly eating high protein foods a couple times
throughout the day. Chicken, Salmon, Fish, Beef, Eggs and Nuts all contain high amounts of protein, eat
the ones you enjoy and can be implemented in your diet. If you weigh 150lbs the optimal intake is 150
grams per day, not that hard to get per day. Protein will make the amino acids inside the protein fuel the
process for muscle protein synthesis and build the valuable muscle! Now energy is required, you can’t
build muscle without any energy in your body! If you can’t write a test without energy, you can’t build
muscle without energy! If you can’t lift a pencil to write your test, you can’t finish it. The same is applied to
muscles, if you have all the elements required but your body lacks energy, you can’t make it! Now these
are the three things you must have. The next element you need is very vital which adds to the optimization
of building muscle. It’s not really a requirement but it makes or breaks muscle building most of the time
(Just consider it to be needed). You need a reason for the muscle to grow, and stimulus. If you sit around
all day taking steroids, eating and drinking, watching videos all day, guess what, you won’t build any
muscle. It doesn’t work like that. You need to give the muscle a reason for it to grow, so it wants to grow.
By ‘want’ in this sense means forcing it to do something it doesn’t really want to do. By forcing it to do
something it doesn’t want to do, it has to adapt, grow and build. In this case, muscle will build accordingly
to what its adapting to. It’s progressive overload. You progressively over a period of time overload a
muscle and make it wanna grow and build muscle in order to adapt to the surrounding environment. That
was a mouthful, let me explain. Lets assume you are training correctly (time under tension, training
frequency, a good amount of volume, rest between sets, all the good stuff.), and assume you are eating
enough protein, energy and drinking enough water. The final step in muscle building is stimulating the
muscle to allow your body to build even more muscle because it wants to. The reason it is building this
muscle is because of that training stimulus. If you bicep curl 15lbs dumbbells for a long set of time, and
you slowly increase how hard it is (you can do that by getting 1 rep more and more, going slowly time
under tension etc etc). Your body will realize that “we will need more muscle in those biceps” because it is
thinking it will be beneficial for us. So it will build muscle in those biceps to make curling those dumbbells
easier. This is a biological response that calls the body to adapt to its environment, to make surviving
easier (which benefits us, because we’re getting more muscle!).
TLDR (too long didn’t read): Adequate Water Intake + Enough Energy + Protein + Good Training Stimulus =
Muscle
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What are my maintenance calories?
As of yet, there are no 100% accurate maintenance calorie formulas. As of now, there are guesses that are
almost always right and assumptions which have shown to be effective and will work just fine. Your best
guess at your maintenance is to go to a calorie calculator website, input your details (weight, age, activity
range, etc.) and use that as an estimate when creating your diet plan.
How many calories are in one pound of fat?
This is important. This is a huge thing to pay attention to. There are approximately 3,500 calories in one
pound of fat. So for example:
You are on a diet that everyday you are 500 calories under your maintenance. By the end of the week you
would have lost 3,500 calories (500 x 7 = 3,500). So realistically you would have approximately have lost 1
pound of bodyfat. This, is great! Aiming for 0-1 pound weight loss per week is fantastic. That’s 55~ pounds
in a year! Now of course sometimes in the real world the results can differ, and how fast you need to lose
weight can change depending on context, but this can be LIFE CHANGING for the average person.
Common Misconceptions/Myths
If you eat perfectly according to your Macros (Macronutrients) you will lose weight
Answer: False, if you eat all your macros and micronutrients perfectly you still can gain weight. Weight
loss is not dependent on macros or micros, it is dependent on your calorie intake. The reason we also
shouldn’t skip out on macro/micros is because they help maintain good bodily functions.
You can spot-reduce fat
Answer: False
It is very common online to see videos on “How to lose that stubborn bellyfat! Slim down those arms! Get a
slimmer waist!”. It is sad to see how they have millions of views and profit from misinformation and
spread lies to their viewers. Nonetheless, there is little scientific evidence that certain exercises or diet
models completely target one body part for fat loss. Reality is that where you lose bodyfat is dependent on
your genetics, and since we don’t have the same genetics this varies from person to person. For some
people will lose weight around their arms first, others thighs, etc.
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All Fat is bad fat
Answer: False
Not all fat is bad fat. As described in the “good fats” and “bad fats” portion of this book that not all fats are
the same. Do not be afraid of them, you need a balance of fats (alongside other macro and micronutrients)
You can turn fat into muscle
Answer: False
Muscle is very different from bodyfat and are two completely different things. One is comprised of muscle
tissue while the other is formed by triglycerides. This brings the question whether it is possible to gain
muscle while also losing fat? While it is impossible to completely convert fat into muscle, you can still
lose fat and build muscle at the same time. By being in a calorie deficit with proper nutrition and
resistance training it is completely possible to lose weight and gain muscle, although results will vary
from person to person.
Ill train like a bodybuilder to look like one!
Answer: False
Don’t think you can look like prime time Arnold Schwarzenegger or giants like Ronnie Coleman by
training how they did. They are blessed with genetics and devoted every second to like incredible. Training
like them can build muscle yes, but don’t expect to look how they do by training like them. Train according
to YOUR goals and to YOUR current level.
Injury vs soreness after training:
There is a difference between an injury and muscle soreness. When you first do resistance training at a
gym or other physical exercise place you might experience aches and soreness the day after. This is
commonly referred to as delayed-onset muscle soreness or DOMS. Pain felt during or immediately after
a workout is a different king of muscle soreness called “acute muscle soreness”. Acute muscle soreness
is a burning sensation that builds up during a workout because of metabolites and will usually disappear
after the workout or working set. Do not confuse DOMS with a muscle injury, they are vastly different and
will not require you to completely stop and take a break from whatever workout regimen you are doing.
Also, do not confused acute muscle soreness with ripping or tearing a muscle, you will know the
difference.
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Calorie Labels:
Calorie labels are the little nutrition labels you see all over foods in the supermarket. These tell you much
needed things to know like calories, serving size, and nutritional information. Knowing how to read these
is an incredible skill to have, as it can tell you what type of foods you will purchase alongside nutritional
info which help you track your diet. You should pay attention to the serving size of foods you consume as
sometimes you think you know how many calories you’re consuming when in reality you’re not.
Calorie labels LIE!
Simply put, calorie labels lie all the time, or try to deceive you. A sneaky way companies lie is directly
when they tell you the macronutrients of it. In the ‘macronutrients’ section of definitions I stated the
amount of calories in a carbohydrate, fat and protein. If you for example take how many macronutrients it
tells you and do the math, if it doesn’t exactly match up with what it says on the label, they are either under
or over reporting calories. Another example is in measurements when a nutrition label says ‘Cups’ or
‘Tablespoon/teaspoon’. Depending on the country you live in those measurements are different. In places
like the UK ‘cups’ are measured at 250ml, while in the US its 240ml. Not that big a difference but it can
make calorie counting not always fully accurate. Be careful when you’re measuring your food!
Sometimes when you measure ‘1 cup’ and the calorie label indicates that it is 115 grams, when you put it on
a food scale and the scale says something different, it is another sign the company is lying to you. Why do
they do this? Because they want the consumer to not realize the amount of food they are getting and to
also make people buy it more (if something is labelled as “only 90 calories per serving!” people are much
more persuaded to buy it). People are payed to sell their products, and they put a great deal of effort into
spreading misinformation if it means they get a profit at the end of the day. Be proactive about the foods
you bring home, and be wary of the lies companies tell you!
Cardio:
Cardio is an important topic and should never be overlooked in an exercise regimen. The heart is
considered one of IF not the MOST important muscles in the body. Cardio helps burn calories, can help
with cardiovascular health and can help people stay healthy all throughout their life. FIND A WAY FOR YOU
TO DO CARDIO. I suggest 150 minutes of moderate intensity cardio a week. Steady state cardio is a great
way to start. A jog, bike ride, playing various sports (tennis, badminton, walking on treadmill etc.) are
ways you can get your cardio in. The cardio shouldn’t be something that is extremely challenging to do, but
it should be something that increasing your heartrate slightly. Consider doing a sport you enjoy or find a
hobby that can help you get minutes in. You should be able to still speak with someone while you are doing
moderate intensity cardio, and this cardio shouldn’t make you feel sore the next day. You can
progressively overload your cardio if you wish to improve your cardiovascular health. If you have never
done cardio in your life before or are someone who has a hard time keeping up with the 150 minutes a
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week, find other ways for you to get your minutes in. Pushing yourself more and more will allow you to
progress, and slowly get better overtime. Find what works for you and find ways to improve!
Training, Regimens, and Working Out
When lifting weights the goal is to injure the muscle being worked on. Sounds scary, but its exactly what
we want to happen. Lifting weights and injuring the muscle just enough (by training) allows the muscle to
be repaired and triggers a response from the body that can develop new muscle to help prepare for the
next exercise/workout. Pretty magical right? Anyways, when it comes to training you’ll need resistance.
Muscles don't tear themselves by themselves. Exercises need a sort of resistance to be effective.
Resistance makes movements you do harder than if you were to do them without it. Examples can be
found everywhere. At the gym you have barbells, weight plates, dumbbells and more. You yourself can act
as a weight while doing bodyweight exercises (see calisthenics). Even everyday things like water jugs,
rice bags, and even your own friends can act as resistance for your next workout (make sure you get their
consent, don’t just lift them up randomly)! Be creative if you have no resistance to work with, buy heavy
things, fill a backpack with books, find boulders to move around, be creative! Choose what is available to
you and plan your regimen accordingly. As for making a regimen I will not give you any templates, but you
can find plenty online. I did not include any for many reasons, and I would not be able to list every
template/regimen available for every niche goal someone has. Find one that suits your needs, adjust it
accordingly, and implement my advice where it needs to be implemented, easy!
Muscle groups and exercises to train them:
I will list many exercises you can do at a gym or exercises that you can do right as home. This is not a
comprehensive list of EVERY exercise out there, but it covers a multitude of them. Even if I did not label an
exercise as (Every Variation), I assume you would take into consideration the variety of variations for that
exercise. Find what works for you. Train all muscle heads and all their separate parts as evenly as
possible! Try not to overwork one side/area/head over another, no one likes imbalances!
Back (Traps, Lats, Rhomboids Posterior Delt,
Teres Major, Infraspinatus, Latissimus Dorsi)
Most back exercises train a multitude of these
muscles at the same time, try to find a balance and
train all of them
Legs (I specifically mean the: Quadriceps,
Hamstrings and Glutes)
Pull-up (Every Variation)
Negative Pull-up
Barbell Row (Every Variation)
Deadlift (Every Variation)
Dumbbell Row
Chest-Supported Row (Every Variation)
T-Bar Row
Lat Pulldown
Back Extension
Squat (Every variation)
Sumo Squat
Goblet Squat
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Calves (consist of two muscles known as the
gastrocnemius and the soleus, make sure you
train each side evenly)
Triceps (consists of three muscles: the medial
head, lateral head aka triceps brachii, and long
head. Train each head evenly)
Biceps (made up from three separate parts: the
coracobrachialis, the brachialis, and the biceps
brachii. Also known as the long head, short head
and brachialis. Train each head evenly
Shoulders (made up of three heads: The anterior
head, lateral head and posterior head. Also in the
same order known as the front delt, middle delt,
and rear delt. Train each head evenly)
Chest (the pectoralis major consists of three
sections, the upper, middle, and lower chest. Train
as evenly as possible)
Walking Lunges
Lunges (Every Variation)
Split Squats)
Weighted Squats
Leg Press (Every Variation)
Leg extension (Quads)
Hamstring Curl Machine (Hamstrings)
Jump Squats
Side Squats
Standing calf raise (no equipment)
Standing calf raise (on elevated platform)
Standing 1 leg calf raise (no equipment or on
elevated platform)
Standing calf raise with weights (holding
dumbbells, a jug of water, heavy objects, etc.)
Seated calf raise (with no equipment, or with
added weights placed on knees.)
Dips
Push-ups (All variations target triceps, but
certain variations of push-ups target one muscle
group over another)
Tricep Presses
Tricep Extensions (with weights or band
resistance)
Tricep Kickbacks
Bicep curl (Every Variation)
Chin-ups
Negative Chin ups
Hammer Curl
Incline dumbbell curl
Concentration curl
High Cable Curl
Cable Curl
Lateral Raises (Every variation)
Shoulder Press (Every variation)
Front Raises
Push Press
Reverse Pec Deck Fly
Bent-Over Dumbbell Lateral Raise
Cable Crossover
Pushups (All variations target chest, but certain
variations and hand placements make push-ups
target one muscle group over another)
Chest press (All variations including different grip
placements target the chest, but certain
variations target one muscle group over another.)
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Abs/Core (made up of muscle groups such as: the
external obliques, internal oblique, rectus
abdominis and transverse abdominis. Ab
movements generally train the majority of
muscles in the abs. Train as evenly as possible)
Bench Press (every variation)
Chest Flies
Dumbbell Press
Cable Crossover
Plank
Side Plank
Planche
Flutter Kicks
Crunch
Reverse Crunch
Bicycle Crunch
Mountain Climbers
Dragon Flag
Leg Raise (Every Variation)
Leg Knee raises
Remembering what you’re training for:
Remember last chapters I asked “WHATS YOUR WHY?”, I’ll pose the same type of question, “ WHATS YOUR
PERSONAL GOAL?” I say this because I want you to train accordingly to your goals. If you want to gain
strength you focus more on lifting heavy weights with a lower rep range (4-6), training this way has a
higher chance of telling the body to get stronger, as it will need to adapt between workouts to lift the
future heavier weight. If you wanna improve muscle mass and care for hypertrophy more you train with
moderate weights and have a rep range of 8-13. The volume from each lift and the sheer amount of reps
you do will cause microscopic tears in the muscle that’ll be replaced with even new bigger muscle after
the workout. You can gain strength and build a lot of muscle at the same time, but dependent on your
goals, see what calls to you and make a workout regimen to help you reach that goal! I can say the exact
same for nutrition and diet. What type of body do you wanna have? Do you wanna lose the extra pounds for
good and keep it off while gaining muscle? Do you wanna gain weight because you are underweight? Pose
yourself these questions and see what steps you can make to achieve them. Find a goal, plan it out, attack
the root problem that’s making it hard for you to achieve your goal, and change your style of approach if
the root problem persists.
Remember to track your goals and workouts:
We all have goals for a reason! It is important to track your progress in various exercises, biometrics, and
take progress pictures of yourself to track how you look over time. It is also important to track each
workout so you can see what went wrong, make adjustments to your training regimen, and see your
progress! I recommend the app Hevy to track and create workouts. You can make workout regimens,
track in real time your progress while working out, and see your progress overtime listed in the graphs
they give.
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Training Frequency + Recovery:
Remember, you can push anything too far. Be mindful of overtraining in your workout regimens and be
proactive of how you are feeling during your workouts. That being said, for beginners I'd recommend you
start training every the 6 major muscle groups (Chest, Back, Arms, Shoulders, Legs, Abs/Core) once a
week. I’d leave a 42-72 hour window for recovery after training. This means you would train chest for
example then only train it in the next 42-72 hours, see what works for you! Overtime you will progress in
the gym, and when you are ready train each body part twice a week! Training each muscle group twice a
week is very optimal for muscle building, training body parts 3+ more times a week would be overdoing it.
Leave enough time for your muscles to recover from the previous workout to train them again, we don’t
wanna risk an injury!
Flexibility/Stretching:
The definition of flexibility is the ability to move a joint or series of joints in a pain-free range of motion. To
put it simply, it’s the act of moving your body (to a place it can or usually goes) while not feeling any pain
while doing so. While flexibility ranges from person to person, it is a factor in maintaining good joint and
body health (It also makes life so much easier). You move a lot throughout your day. Whether you like it or
not being flexible is always a good thing! I’m not saying you have to do the splits with girls in each of your
arms, but paying attention to your flexibility is an important factor in your daily life. You don’t have to
directly train flexibility by doing splits and some fancy circus tricks in the mirror, it’s just as simple as
getting a better range of motion in the day-to-day things! Stretching and flexibility is an important part of
helping with resistance training, as we place a lot of stress on ligaments and tendons while doing lifts.
Ensure you
-Instead of using your back to pick up that ball, squat down with knees and pick it up that way!
-Want to reach-that thing high on the shelf? Do it with the help of your tiptoes! Feel the stretch!
-Doing the dishes? Why not push your hips out and stand wider, flex those glutes!
The key point here is that you can get a good stretch to in most daily things in life, give it a try! Your joints
will thank you in the long run.
Do genetics play a factor in how flexible you can be?
No! You can be related to ancestor with no flexibility Billy who has to bend his knees to touch his thighs
and end up being an incredibly flexible individual.
Do I stretch at the beginning of a workout or at the end?
Stretching at the beginning of a workout is not fully proven to prevent injury, alleviate muscle soreness or
improve performance, so save a stretching session for the end of the workout!
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Gymtimidation:
Whenever you go to a gym or place to work out you may feel intimidated by others. They could be stronger
than you, better looking and leaner than you, etc. The reality is that you have to start somewhere. People
in the gym are not judging you and honestly the people that do are hiding their own insecurities that they
used to look like you (see cover page quote to know what I’m talking about). Most people are too busy in
their own heads and worrying about focusing on their workout. Most cases, people are worrying about
how THEY look and not about you.
Don’t compare yourself to anyone, compare versions of you to how you were previously. Especially don’t
try and “keep up” with anyone at the gym. Remember, you are the greatest actor and critic towards
yourself. Don’t get hung up on imaginary problems, you gotta focus on what's real. No one will judge you
as harshly as you judge yourself. You work out for YOU and for the benefits it brings, you’re not at the gym
to be competitive.
Remember, confidence comes from how you feel about yourself, this is to say it comes from within.
Confidence is internal, and your body is external. You do not need to be in tip top shape in order to love
your body. Confidence has nothing to do with what you look like, and everything to do with how you feel
about yourself. WE LOVE OUR BODY ENOUGH TO GROW AND IMPROVE IT.
“There is no mistake in it, it doesn’t matter if it an enemy or simply a sport. This man will
go all the way with spirit and guts and willpower alone. With the kind of spirit there isn’t a
limit that can hold this man back”
-Blue Tiger Gang Member
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The Magic Formula
I’d say a successful workout of resistance training (personally to me) would include the following:
-A brief warmup of 5-10 minutes moderate intensity cardio (to increase body temperature, get your body
ready for the workout)
-First set of the exercise going light as a warmup, having high time under tension, controlling the
movement all the way and having a good range of motion (to get the muscles ready for the next sets).
-Completing the set, achieving desired rep range and having an adequate rest period of 1-2 minutes.
Drinking water if I am dehydrated.
-Starting the second set, increasing the weight, and doing everything else exactly like the warmup set.
-Completing the set, achieving desired rep range, hydrating and getting enough rest.
-Repeat for third set and fourth (So in this example I have 1 warmup set, then 3 sets afterward).
-Fourth set making sure I go ALL OUT and try my HARDEST to get everything perfectly done.
-After the fourth set, I move onto the next exercise, then repeating all the above besides the warmup
cardio.*
-Finishing the last exercise and completing the workout.
*To note: If you already added weight at the second set after the warmup, don’t increase the weight at the
third set and onwards! Also, if I just did a chest exercise and warmed up in the first exercise, there is no
need to warmup in the second exercise. If it is another chest exercise, the muscle is already warmed up.
Only when you switch muscle groups in an exercise that targets a different muscle group you haven’t
trained during a workout do you need to have a warmup. If I did chest and move onto a chest exercise I
won’t do a warmup, but if I switched from chest to a back exercise, I would have a warmup set.
Easy enough right? This simple formula causes incredible strain on your muscles and makes me feel like
I'm DYING at the end of the workout! Give it a try!
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The Final Page - Conclusion
Conclusion:
If you’re reading this you either skipped to the conclusion, hoping for some super end game advice that
you’d think I put or completely read this book. To both of you thank you for reading! It’s amazing that this
has even reached your eyes in the first place. Hopefully things in this book can be applied in a beneficial
way to you. Life is an ongoing exercise, it’ll take time to adapt to it. It takes time, but it’s not impossible to
become even 1% better than what you were yesterday. To achieve this you must interpret things in ways
like no other. Find perspectives that are foreign to you and see fully what their interpretation is. You will
always grow this way.
-Train right, train hard.
-Eat the right foods in the right amount.
-Find ways to always progress.
-Push yourself, always.
-Keep learning, always.
-Stay true to yourself.
Reflect on conquering everything that’s in your path. You have more strength than you think. Try and stay
with me through this, I want nothing but your very best. It sure isn’t easy trust me, but nothing in life is
easy. Don’t doubt yourself, if you believe with your heart fully that this is the right course of action, nothing
will stop you. Sometimes we need to close our eyes, and let our heart decide the path we must take. Learn
from my mistakes in life, learn from yours, and learn from everyone else’s. Now go forth! There is nothing
that is strong enough to get through you! Hopefully I’ll see that shining radiance shine brighter than even
the Sun!
-Alex
“People have a very hard time being themselves. They’re acting how they think others
want them to act, not how they personally want to act“
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