The next decision when going on a cutting phase, is whether or not cardio is even necessary? Weight training is actually more effective than low intensity cardio. Then there is HIIT cardio, which is much tougher to do, but is about as effective as weight training for fat loss. You would still have to do weight training for either form of cardio, to help preserve lean muscle preservation and strength.

So who should do cardio and when?

Most bodybuilders would agree that cardio is a pain. It is a nuisance and most would just rather stick to weight training only for their excercise. It is perfectly O.K no matter if you’re a newbie, or a veteran to start your cutting phase without any cardio. When you first start dieting, the act of restricting calories will be enough to start causing fat loss, even without cardio.

Eventually everyone will hit a fat loss plateau, which is when cardio will be a necessity. You can only restrict your calories so much, before you cause your metabolism to crawl to a halt. The cardio will allow a phenomenon called energy flux. Basically what that means is, you will lose fat more effectively if you eat more, but also burn more calories simulatenously. In other words, it is better for fat loss if you eat more calories and burn more, than to eat less calories and burn less simulatenously.

If you don’t want to do cardio while cutting, your fat loss will be slower. But bodybuilders often don’t want to hassle with the time and effort cardio takes and wouldn’t mind, even if the cutting phase took a little longer. You shouldn’t increase weight training to overcompensate for lack of cardio, that would cause more harm than good. You would wind up overtaxing the body putting you into overtraining state.

by Paul Johnson

To compound the problem, the next erroneous step many bodybuilders make is to add extra sets and reps to their workouts. Doing so is like throwing a weighted vest to a drowning man.

To build an effective nutritional plan, you must be aware of the nutritional components that will keep your body in a constant anabolic state. Certain foods contain key nutritional elements that are crucial to building a championship physique. Without this knowledge, you will find it very hard to apply proper bodybuilding nutrition to your lifestyle. Vitamin and mineral levels are essential components of the body that can take years to develop to their fullest capacities. This is why I say everyone is a bodybuilder. Your body is constantly building itself from the foods and liquids you consume. If you feed your body the right foods, water and supplements every day and train consistently-week-in and week-out, your body will gradually change. You will achieve your personal bodybuilding goals.

Besides water, here are the most important nutrients and micronutrients a bodybuilder needs:

1. Protein: Next to water, protein is the most abundant substance in the body. The primary role of protein is the growth and development of all body tissue. For the serious bodybuilder, I recommend no less than 1 gram of protein per pound of muscle. When preparing for a competition, this amount should increase to 1-2 grams per pound of muscle. There are 20 standard amino acids that make up the human body. The body can produce all, but nine. These nine are labeled the essential amino acids and all need to be present in proper proportions for optimal absorption. Major sources of protein, in order of quality, are whey, egg, milk, meat, fish, poultry and legumes.
2. Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are the major source of energy for cells, bodily functions and muscular exertions. Carbohydrates provide us with immediate calories for energy. This means carbohydrates are a must for the serious trainer. Many people think they should follow a low-carb diet because they want to look cut. In the short run, it seems to work, as limiting carbs will help you lose weight, but the quick weight loss is usually caused by a loss of water. Carbohydrates hold water-reduce the carbohydrates in your body and you’ll reduce the water your body retains. The result is not fat loss and is certainly not long-term weight loss. The only carbohydrates that should be avoided are the processed or chemically altered food products like French fries, white bread products, packaged snacks, cakes, cookies and a host of other man-made and manufactured products labeled as food. I guarantee that if you consume natural carbohydrates in the form of fresh fruits, vegetables and grain products, you’ll never feel the need to drink caffeine products or use pick-me-up stimulants.
3. Fats: Lipids (fats) are a concentrated source of energy. Fat is used to storing vitamin A, D, E and K. In addition, fat is necessary for the production of steroidal compounds such as testosterone in the body. Both protein and carbohydrates provide approximately 4 calories per gram, and fats provide approximately 9 calories per gram. Fat is a very important nutrient to the body and should never be excluded your diet. Some good sources of fat include olive oil, oily fish, eggs and nuts.

Non inflammatory acne is easier to treat than inflammatory acne. For black heads and whiteheads you can do the following:

Using a honey mask over the face once or twice a week has anti-bacterial agents which help fight infections and heal blemishes. You should also wash your face at least twice a day; Once in the day time and once at night preferably before bed time. And it’s also recommended that you use a special sulfur based acne soap for efficient cleansing.

Include a type of chromium in your daily diet. Chromium is known to heal infections on the skin.

Drink water daily. Yes drinking your daily glasses of water doesn’t just help you weight wise but it also helps keep your skin healthy.

Wash your pillow at least three times a week. Oils from your skin absorbs into the pillow case and oil is what cause acne.

Or when it comes to curing your acne you can use products at your local drug store like Neutrogena and Proactiv.

When it comes to more sever acne you will have to seek professional help or treating acne. Here a few treatment options you have available:

Chemical Rebalancing
Follicle Exfoliation
Use of Poultice Masks

There’s also the Three Day Acne cure. This product guarantees results within the next three days, it effectively clears up all types of acne and helps it stay away for good. You can also see your dermatologist to see whether this may be the product for you

Many of acne skin diseases leaves all kinds of scars, even after the healing process that keeps on affecting people. Why? Scars form as a result of collagen and fatty tissue that are displaced by infected and large pores. This is what happens with those suffering from cystic or nodule acne, but those with a mild form of acne whose skin easily discolors are also at risk of developing scars. We all want to keep scars at a minimum or better yet removing them all together.

The key solution to get ridding of scars is to prevent them all together. How can you prevent getting scars from your acne:

I know you have heard this a million times before: do not squeeze or pick acne bumps or pimples. This is very important. Why? An inflamed pimple or bump is full of bacteria so when you squeeze and pick it, it can rupture and the bacterium is spread further under the skin. This causes more breakouts. Then the rupturing can cause a scar because the facial tissue is being displaced.

Then there are all types of products available at your local drugstore you can get to open a block pore without applying to much pressure so you can keep them clear.

Take at least 1000 mg of vitamin C daily along with the recommended 8 glasses of water a day; this will help the body repair itself.

These are just a few ways you can prevent scarring during the healing process of your acne. What if you have scars right now, and have not done all you can to prevent them? There is definitely hope for you.

Acne Scar Prevention and Removal, one of the best books that describe the detailed process of removing scar there are several remedies it outlines. I will tell you just a few of them.

As you know there are several products that promise to remove acne scars. Some of them have proven beneficial to people and the others weren’t effective at all. A treatment found to work well was the Edgar Cayce scar remedy. Edgar Cayce was a well known physic in the 1800’s and early 1900’s who claimed to be able to channel answers to questions on different subjects such as health. He had several medical remedies, many including different types of oils.

1. Thou Shall Fail: I used to do 8-12 reps for all of my sets, even if I had it in me to do another rep or two. Now I rep it out until I can’t possible do another, and only then do I put the weights down
2. Thou Shall Think Wide: I’ve always been good at close-grip upright rows, but lately I’ve changed my grip. Now I take a wider grip on the bar because the wider you go, the more the middle delt is involved. The move is much harder than you’d think, and very humbling: I can do 225 pounds for the close-grip row, but I’m lucky if I can get 90-100 pounds for the wide-grip row.
3. Thou Shall Strap in: I use straps for my shrugs and upright rows because I don’t want to lose my grip with fairly heavy weights. I have pretty small joints, and my grip gives out long before the target muscle does. For example, I like to shrug with about 500 pounds on the barbell-without the straps my hands unravel a couple reps into the set.
4. Thou Shall Keep it Fresh: I never do the same workout twice. I change my exercises, the order, and the reps and sets. I also integrate machines into my workout, and do drop sets and forced reps to keep my body guessing and keep making progress. When your body adapts to a particular routine or exercise scheme, it’s time to make changes.

In bodybuilding, there seems to be a huge aversion to eating any fast food. My thinking is that some people just take it too seriously, and will sacrifice even the good stuff in life - like a bucket of KFC and a McDonalds once in a while - for fear of losing progress or just on principle. Bully for them.

I don’t know about you, but I like to enjoy my life outside of bodybuilding, and I do indulge in fast food - once or twice a week, sometimes. So what? My body is still in excellent shape, and is better than 99.99% of the general population, and that’s what it’s all about for me.

Let me tell you something: It’s not the food that makes you fat; it’s how much you eat.

You have no more chance of becoming fat or losing muscle by eating a hamburger than you would your average bodybuilding meal. It’s all about the calories, and nutrients and knowing what you are taking in - if the calories are the same, the protein is the same, and the carbs are the same, it’s all good.

Fast food is a reward. It shouldn’t be a way of life. People are going to argue ‘but fast food is of sub-par quality’ but that argument is absolutely moot when you realize that you are not necessarily eating fast food to gain muscle, but as a reward. It wouldn’t even matter if a hamburger at 500 calories was completely empty and devoid of nutrition (which is never the case anyway) because as a responsible person who dedicates 90 - 99% of their life and time to eating right, it’s going to have absolutely zero impact in moderation.

Fast food does contain useful nutrition, so maybe its sub-par compared to chicken breast, but a chicken burger is still going to be pretty good nutrition-wise. Some of the most legendary bodybuilders around eat a ton of fast food - Lee Priest for one. And before you shout: ‘But he does steroids!’, let me remind you that steroids only work to better assimilate the nutrients you take in into your system and put them to use. No steroid ever can, or ever will, turn crap nutrients into good nutrients.

Also, everyone assumes fast food is to blame for obesity, when its simply people who are lazy and greedy who are to blame. The facts are, people love a scapegoat and love to rally around and point the figure - particularly when it’s against The Man. But, in the case of fast food, the finger should be pointed squarely at the fat, greedy slob with 5 Big Mac’s and the bucket-size coke.

Conclusion: Unless you get a kick out of, or pride yourself on telling people you don’t touch junk food, there’s no reason why you can’t enjoy a little of what you always have - providing the absolute majority of your time and diet you are doing the ‘right thing’. I promise you, the negative impact on your body beautiful will be absolutely non-existent.

Estrogen effects on muscle gain:

So how can a female hormone help muscle gain? It does it through a variety of ways. Research has shown that it increases the mitogen activated protein kinase cascade, localized IGF-1, and an increase in system growth hormone levels.

The protein kinase cascade is an important reaction for IGF-1 and insulin to cause their anabolic effect. The raising of Growth hormone as a result of estrogen, also plays a synergistic role with testosterone and other anabolic hormones. Estrogen also helps in the process of retaining water, which can help cell volumization and ultimately leads to increased protein synthesis.

Does this mean then that increasing estrogen levels is a good thing for bodybuilders? Absolutely not. High levels of estrogen has a variety of negative health effects on males and will actually reduce muscle gains, if the ratio of estrogen to testosterone is high. What we are saying is that estrogen does help muscle gains, provided it’s in a near balanced ratio with testosterone(not very low or too high).

But the study, conducted by researchers at Texas A&M University, finds that the most impressive gains in muscle strength were achieved by study participants who had the highest cholesterol levels, rather than the lowest.

Those with low levels of cholesterol were taking cholesterol-lowering medications.

Fifty men and women between the ages of 60 and 69 were studied. They followed an exercise regimen that included stretching, riding a stationary bike and weightlifting three times a week for 12 weeks. All ate similar meals.

“One possible explanation is through cholesterol’s important role in the inflammation process,” the study’s lead investigator Steven Riechman, an assistant professor of health and kinesiology, said in a release.

“As you exercise, your muscles can become sore because they are rebuilding muscle mass. More cholesterol may result in a more robust inflammatory response. We know that inflammation in some areas, such as near the heart, is not good, but for building muscles it may be beneficial, and cholesterol appears to aid in this process.”

The scientists believe that cholesterol has an important role in muscle tissue repair - critical in building muscle mass. It shows that there is still a lot about cholesterol that we don’t know, Riechman said.

The study, announced Thursday, was published in the October 2007 issue of the Journal of Gerontology.

Role of Progesterone in causing gyno:

Progesterone is found in both males and females. It is a precursor to many important hormones in men and women. In women it plays a role in pregnancy and in breast growth. In men, excessive progesterone can stimulate breast growth, like it does with women. While Estrogen is normally the cause of gynecomastia under normal physiological conditions, Tren and other similiar steroids stimulate the progesterone receptors because they are not only anabolic steroids, but also of a class called progestins. Progestins are the synthetic forms of steroids structurally similiar to progesterone, that have the ability to bind to the progesterone receptor too. Deca and Anadrol also are progestins, but they also aromotize to estrogen, unlike Tren. Some bodybuilders coin the term “progesterone gyno”, to explain gyno from progestin steroids.

Progesterone Gyno Controversy:

There is a major debate among bodybuilders on this entire topic. Some believe that progesterone causes the gyno in Tren users. Others believe it is actually prolactin, the hormone responsible for lactation and breast growth during a women’s pregnancy. This may explain why some experience lactating on tren cycles. Others believe it is a combination of estrogens and either prolactin or progesterone, working all synergistically to develop gyno.

Who is right?

Many Research studies I’ve seen, show that estrogen plays a synergistic role with progesterone, prolactin, and in gynecomastia. Although some bodybuilders say it’s the prolactin or progesterone directly causing it, there is no studies to show gyno can develop without high levels of estrogen. Even IGF-1 and Growth hormone has been shown in studies to play a crucial synergistic role in the development of breast tissue. So I believe no matter what kind of steroid you take, lowering estrogen with anti-estrogens and avoiding stacking Tren with aromatizing steroids, is how you really prevent “Progesterone gyno”. With very low levels of circulating estrogen, it appears impossible or very difficult for progesterone gyno to develop.