Natural Bodybuilding, Fitness, and Peak Performance

Junk Food Alternative

I’ve always been one of those guys who can hardly stay out of a bowl of chips once I’ve dipped into them at a party. Something about those crunchy, carb-filled potato slices that have been fried in grease and heavily salted; they’ve a way of beckoning even the most customarily disciplined among us. Just provide a good dip to go with them and I could be a walking starch and oil pump by the time I leave the gathering.


Well, someone recently presented me with a “junk food alternative” to the addictive party chip munching. It was during a conversation about Memorial Day weekend barbeque's in which I, admittedly, might have learned of this recipe rather belatedly; some of you may have already heard of this. Basically, it consists of using baked potato chips and replacing the dip with a concoction of plain nonfat yogurt mixed with French’s powdered onion dip. Supposedly, the plain yogurt is so neutral in flavor that the powdered onion dip will have it nearly tasting like the real thing.

Now, I’ve yet to try this particular “junk food alternative”. I’ll admit to being a bit skeptical about a “baked” potato chip. Isn’t frying those things in oil what gives them their flavor? You might as well attempt baking a French fry and try calling it the same thing. This just might have the effect of keeping people nearer the beer keg and away from the snack counter.

But the dip sounds interesting; kind of like a bodybuilding version of a junk food alternative. This might be worth trying without the baked potato chips. The high protein/low glycemic makeup of the plain yogurt could help to bring on satiation in someone (like myself) prior to realizing the entire bowl of chips have been consumed (by me alone). There’s nothing like protein in the stomach to help prevent the consumption of too many carbohydrates and fats.

If any of you have tried this junk food alternative, please let me know. Without having tested it, I’m not sure if it leaves one’s party guests thanking them or leaving any subsequent invitations collecting dust.

Body Building.com: Great Service – Fast Delivery

Body Building.com: Great Service – Fast Delivery

I was chatting with a guy at the gym the other day about the website: body buiding.com. We both agreed that this company has really nailed down the fast, courteous service and quick delivery formula. If you’ve had the idea of ordering items from body building.com and balked at the thought of repeatedly opening your mailbox and longing for the product to hopefully arrive, I recommend proceeding.

In fact, on Wednesday of this week, I’ll be doing a workout that will include my latest purchase from… body building.com. It’s one of my secret weapons for building lat muscles that just keep getting wider and thicker.

It’s a product called ‘The Hooker’.



Yea… I know; funny name. But it’s not the kind you see traipsing down a major boulevard in a big city wearing short-shorts in forty degree weather. We’re talking about a serious tool for taking your grip strength out of all pulling exercises. These “hookers” are more effective and easier to use than lifting straps to ensure your lats get fatigued before your grip strength does.

The only place I know to get them these days? You guessed it… body building.com.

If you decide to order them on the body building.com site, I personally suggest getting the original style rather than “The Hooker 2”. The original is heavier duty and will have the hooks that hold the bar ‘facing your palms’ – the way any hook-type strap should be designed. I can’t fathom why some are designed facing the opposite direction.

Now if I can just get body building.com to carry Plate Mates add-on weights. The combination of “The Hooker” and these magnetic add-ons can provide just the lat isolation and “micro-progression” that’s needed to build wings that flare off your back.

Small investment for a BIG return.

Burn Belly Fat with Muscle Building Smoothie?

One the tastiest muscle building (high protein) smoothies I’ve used for a long time consists of just three ingredients:

• One packet of Lean Mass Complex (Cinnamon Oatmeal flavor), by Prolab.
• At least a cup of frozen (partially thawed) frozen strawberries.
• A tablespoon of Olive Oil.
• About a cup of water 

Here are some terrific bodybuilding smoothie ingredients.

This concoction is low glycemic and, depending on how many strawberries are added, can carry an acceptable glycemic load as well. It’s a tasty little meal replacement that’s both filling and provides plenty of energy for a few hours.

A few months back, I began experimenting with adding plain low-fat yogurt to the mix. It’s actually taken some of the strain off my blender. Adding a liquid-based ingredient has that machine popping fewer screws and sending less electrical-burning smoke through the kitchen.

Haha – all kidding aside, I’ve noticed some interesting stuff about the yogurt. Even with a heaping slab (about 1 cup) of it thrown in with the other stuff, it doesn’t seem to put a crimp on efforts to burn belly fat and keep it off. This runs contrary to the effects I’ve gotten from using low-fat milk instead of the water. They both post about 140 calories per cup. Thus, it might simply be due to the fact that a cup of low-fat milk contains nearly twice the calories from fat as the same amount of yogurt.

A study done a few years ago showed evidence of yogurt’s power to help burn belly fat. Obese adults who added three servings of fat-free yogurt per day to their diets lost 81% more fat in their stomach areas than those on a non-yogurt version of the same diet. The results appeared in the April ’05 issue of the International Journal of Obesity.

Is it the calcium? Is It the extremely low-glycemic makeup of yogurt? Researchers aren’t really sure why yogurt can have this effect in helping to burn belly fat.

I can personally attest to its positive effects as an ingredient in this muscle building smoothie. It adds consistency, smoothness, flavor, and more muscle building protein. The additional calories provide longer-lasting energy and feelings of satiation. Better yet, these positive effects don’t seem to be nullified by the insidious waist-line expansion that would accompany the regular addition of some other calorie sources.

I highly recommend this muscle building smoothie to people on the move who want to burn belly fat. The carbohydrate sources in the Lean Mass Complex are of the low glycemic variety. The cost of the ingredients combined shouldn’t be more than your typical fast-food meal. And, unlike the fast-food choice – the yogurt just might help you actually burn belly fat rather than contribute to it.

Build a Big Chest by Using Your Common Sense

Are you getting a bit tired of the “build a big chest” advice that doesn’t pass the test of rational assessment? If so, you’re not alone. I keep seeing the same burned out advice that was merely ripped off from the bodybuilding magazines of the past ten years and regurgitated as chest building “secrets.” Even worse, some of this advice might not help you at all in your quest to build your pectorals.

Here’s the salient piece of advice you’re getting from today’s Internet bodybuilding gurus in order to build a big chest:

“Do pressing movements and don’t do flye movements.”

Funny, some of the top bodybuilders of yesteryear were said to have begun their best chest development when they dumped the presses in favor of flyes. I remember reading an article by pro bodybuilder Scott Wilson (back in 1987) which stated exactly that. He said his pectorals never made any progress until he eradicated the notion that pressing movements were the way to build chest size and flyes were the way to shape them.

I tend to listen to those guys more closely because steroid use was (at least) not as rampant back then as it is now.

Let’s bust the “build a big chest” only with bench pressing myth right now. How? By applying our common sense to the biggest alleged reason that bench pressing is the king of pectoral movements. Here’s the most widely purported reason:

“Pressing movements bring in the most muscle fiber recruitment and put the most overall stress on the chest muscles.”

The first part of this statement can fool you. It holds some validity only because presses are “compound movements” and they call the shoulder and arm muscles into play. However, if the additional muscle fiber recruitment can only be accounted for by bringing more muscle groups into play, then it’s not doing anything to help pectoral growth. Any weight volume on bench presses that’s being handled by your shoulders and triceps will be relegated to… well… helping you build your shoulders and triceps.

The second part of this statement is cancelled out by what we’ve just concluded. Bench presses DO give us more overall stress on the entire body. However, this doesn’t necessarily equate to more overall stress on the chest. There are individuals out there who have just the right genetic structure among their arm/shoulder/pectoral tie-ins so as to get good results from pressing movements in their quest to build a big chest.

By contrast, there are many in the ‘Scott Wilson’ group. These individuals get minimal pressing movement results in their efforts to build a big chest.

The remedy? Try using heavy flyes as the cornerstone of your routine to build a big chest.

The late Ray "Thunder" Stern (pictured above) had incredible pectoral development. His friends said he could perform incline dumbell flyes with 120 pounds in each hand. Amazing!

“But Scott, won’t heavy bench pressing make my body into an anabolic machine that oozes higher levels of testosterone?”

Oh boy, that’s a topic for another entry. Until then, you can get another dose of common sense with my entry called "Natural Testosterone and Workout Duration."