For those who have never seen Planet Muscle, It is a great magazine! Jeff tells things like it is! This is a article out of PM.
To Get BIG, You Gotta Dream BIG!
(by Mike Pierron)
Never let it be said that I don't dream big. I am 6'5" after all. But one thing I don't do exactly is amaze easily. That being said it never ceases to amaze me, that every time I visit Hooters, (I do have to eat well on my extensive travels for scientific research), I overhear 3-4 guys rambling on and on about pumping steel. While that is not odd, I hear the same thing each time, guys languishing forlornly over their lack of muscle growth. Call it crying in their beer.
Of course, such intellectual banter is indeed, conducted over the inhalation of pitchers of less than fine ale and platters of spicy high protein buffalo wings, both depressants in my view. So, lest it be obvious, there's an oxymoron situation here to building big muscle.
Closer listening suggests that our beer guzzling would-be Jay Cutler's know that they are just barely training semi-seriously. So even though it???s only a few times here and there, and there isn't much actual planning, (time given to rest, progression and optimal nutrition), still, they unreasonably expect to out-Coleman the Chief of Physique, in both strength and size.
It doesn't work this way. When we say, ???fly on the wings of dreams???, we don't mean Buffalo wings at Hooters.
Here's a fact check about life - success or growth in any situation, is always directly related and closely linked to personal motivation.
This is why I???d like you to review my Big 5. I've found through business, training and personal experience, that these Big 5 should be revered for better progress and more muscle. If you have practiced them, revisit them and actuate them again--you will be surprised how much they help you.
The Big-5 To Gain Muscle!
1: Serious Nutrition
Besides hard blistering training and good sleep (a lot of good sleep), this is numero uno'. Every normal person I know would rather eat "real food" than drink it (i.e. protein shakes, etc.), but it is almost impossible to take in 1-2 grams of protein a day per pound of bodyweight (or even per kilogram), without supplements.
So how serious are you about training? Are your monthly supplement expenses over $200.00? If they are, take a muscular bow, you are getting serious. If not, why not? Why is nutrition so important to dreaming (and getting) big? Well, the thing is --this whole growth thing is geometric. The faster you gain, the more motivated you become, the harder you train, the bigger you get, the harder you train, etc. Success breeds success. So, do what the best do - eat 4-6 times/day with good nutrition, featuring some of the best proteins each time, like milk isolates, whole egg, BCAA, creatine and glutamine, from the Blue Ribbon Group of Planet Muscle.
And, don't be shy. You got to really load baby, the whole nine yards. By the way, Planet Muscle is garnering the reputation of the serious magazine when it comes to real nutrition. Right now you???re reading right!
2: Training Exercise and Gym Variety
Yes, variety is the spice of life! Try alternating gyms even if it costs a couple hundred bucks more a year. (Contact Eva Savealot). Why new gyms? Remember, the hottest girls 'over there' have not seen you yet! Think I'm lying? Besides new babe scenery, secondly, (and much more importantly), a change in scenery gives you new strength.
Use different machines, (better machine choices) and new and different exercises etc. Try higher reps still with heavy weight if you have been going with low reps. Variety is useful here, and should give you renewed vigor to attack the cold steel.
To get big, think big. Constantly look for new or different gyms to spice up and motivate your workouts and better ways to do exercise.
3: Try a Training Partner
Now I consider myself right-brained (creative) and highly self-motivated myself, so I like/prefer to train alone. But, perhaps you are like me in that regard, but still long for more serious training and growth, if so, consider a training partner.
In fact, put it high on your list, because so many people I know swear by them (or swear at them). Training partners seem to work so make one work for you.
Naturally, it's very important, though, to find a training partner who is dependable and possesses a similar level of enthusiasm and knowledge and - one who motivates you. Don't let someone suck your motivational juices dry and provide little if any benefit to you. Remember WIIFM???(what's in it for me).
The best training partners are highly motivated, goal oriented and can even be of the opposite sex. Of course, if you can arrange it, train with Craig Titus or Kevin Levrone - or gee, maybe Melissa Coates.
4: Visualize Yourself with Gorilla Muscles
I'm a huge dreamer when it comes to positive visualization. Study photos of a bodybuilder who has the body type (structure, height and weight potentially), that resembles your own. Find pictures of them in their favorite poses, competition condition, etc.
Visualize those photos, maybe look at them right before your workouts. (Doing so while playing emotional music can help get you motivated too).
Your mind is your most powerful tool (it should be you most powerful tool and if your 'other' tool is more highly regarded, you have some problems).
Okay, if used properly you can actually burn these picture into your subconscious and then let your creative side, the "I can create that look given time and proper training" attitude take over. After a while, (it's proven) your mind will not be able to distinguish between the two images. (You will become that image.)
When I train, my image is big Arnie (Schwarzenegger not Palmer). Why not? Arnie competed at 6'2" 235-lbs at his biggest, but started out downright thin as a young lad romping through the Back Forest. I am 6'5" and 250 lbs. (and natural) and when I compete I go in at much less than 10% body fat too. Not bad for a guy who also was once skinny and although I never romped through an Austrian Forest, I do go to Hooters in the off season. Hey-Arnold probably did too.
So this is an important one. Use visualization as a big positive. Don't compare yourself to others at the gym. We all have different goals and your true competition is in the mirror -as in yourself. Dream and see yourself as the big winner - all the time.
5: Weak Wardrobe
Perhaps you might see this as my real oddball one. But the way you feel about the way you look is a lot more important than you might imagine to building 19" biceps rocks. Several years ago, Robby Robinson, a great IFBB pro (and perhaps the best-built over-50 bodybuilder ever) was questioned why he always wore a T-shirt that was ripped to shreds, when he trained. Robby responded that the way he dressed when he trained was absolutely critical to his training and physique success. If his outfit (and subsequently his mind), were not fired up to blast up some big iron, he could not train at all, and usually didn't!
When discussing the concept of my editorial with Jeff Everson at the Olympia, he commented to me once about a thin over-trained guy he knew. This guy was Mr. Perpetually irritating, and who was in the gym every day doing the same thing. He trained in shorts big enough for a World Sumo Champion, (read - down to his ankles). He wore a shirt so baggy, he must have had a hard time just finding his arms to train them ---- well, when he asked Jeff why he was not getting bigger, Jeff responded with a smile, but matter-of-factly, "weak wardrobe," and walked away.
Jeff, Robby (and I) agree, bodybuilding is the ultimate visual, (disregarding Tyra Banks promenading in the semi-annual Victoria Secret $2.99 bra and panty sale), so wear something new, different and uplifting (so your lifts go up, not a bra). Dress in something that motivates your ass. And gee, it doesn't just have to motivate you because you can see mounds of striated muscle through it. Whatever does the job.
I remember some of my best workouts were wearing a sweatshirt with a huge picture of my children on the front, smiling. But do wear something that motivates you. Motivation is internal and it should cause a "positive emotional response" and must give you strength, by definition. You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.
Always dream big and use the Big 5 to help those big dreams make your biggest body! And stay away from the Buffalo wings.
Mike Pierron is 6'5, 250-lbs, and a natural bodybuilding NPC Masters champion. He does eat at Hooters occasionally, but skips the wings. While really working at being a full-time husband and father, he also is a motivational speaker. Mike's firm, DREAM BIG, is in the business of inspiring others to reach and experience success. You can reach big Mike at drmbig.com.
To Get BIG, You Gotta Dream BIG!
(by Mike Pierron)
Never let it be said that I don't dream big. I am 6'5" after all. But one thing I don't do exactly is amaze easily. That being said it never ceases to amaze me, that every time I visit Hooters, (I do have to eat well on my extensive travels for scientific research), I overhear 3-4 guys rambling on and on about pumping steel. While that is not odd, I hear the same thing each time, guys languishing forlornly over their lack of muscle growth. Call it crying in their beer.
Of course, such intellectual banter is indeed, conducted over the inhalation of pitchers of less than fine ale and platters of spicy high protein buffalo wings, both depressants in my view. So, lest it be obvious, there's an oxymoron situation here to building big muscle.
Closer listening suggests that our beer guzzling would-be Jay Cutler's know that they are just barely training semi-seriously. So even though it???s only a few times here and there, and there isn't much actual planning, (time given to rest, progression and optimal nutrition), still, they unreasonably expect to out-Coleman the Chief of Physique, in both strength and size.
It doesn't work this way. When we say, ???fly on the wings of dreams???, we don't mean Buffalo wings at Hooters.
Here's a fact check about life - success or growth in any situation, is always directly related and closely linked to personal motivation.
This is why I???d like you to review my Big 5. I've found through business, training and personal experience, that these Big 5 should be revered for better progress and more muscle. If you have practiced them, revisit them and actuate them again--you will be surprised how much they help you.
The Big-5 To Gain Muscle!
1: Serious Nutrition
Besides hard blistering training and good sleep (a lot of good sleep), this is numero uno'. Every normal person I know would rather eat "real food" than drink it (i.e. protein shakes, etc.), but it is almost impossible to take in 1-2 grams of protein a day per pound of bodyweight (or even per kilogram), without supplements.
So how serious are you about training? Are your monthly supplement expenses over $200.00? If they are, take a muscular bow, you are getting serious. If not, why not? Why is nutrition so important to dreaming (and getting) big? Well, the thing is --this whole growth thing is geometric. The faster you gain, the more motivated you become, the harder you train, the bigger you get, the harder you train, etc. Success breeds success. So, do what the best do - eat 4-6 times/day with good nutrition, featuring some of the best proteins each time, like milk isolates, whole egg, BCAA, creatine and glutamine, from the Blue Ribbon Group of Planet Muscle.
And, don't be shy. You got to really load baby, the whole nine yards. By the way, Planet Muscle is garnering the reputation of the serious magazine when it comes to real nutrition. Right now you???re reading right!
2: Training Exercise and Gym Variety
Yes, variety is the spice of life! Try alternating gyms even if it costs a couple hundred bucks more a year. (Contact Eva Savealot). Why new gyms? Remember, the hottest girls 'over there' have not seen you yet! Think I'm lying? Besides new babe scenery, secondly, (and much more importantly), a change in scenery gives you new strength.
Use different machines, (better machine choices) and new and different exercises etc. Try higher reps still with heavy weight if you have been going with low reps. Variety is useful here, and should give you renewed vigor to attack the cold steel.
To get big, think big. Constantly look for new or different gyms to spice up and motivate your workouts and better ways to do exercise.
3: Try a Training Partner
Now I consider myself right-brained (creative) and highly self-motivated myself, so I like/prefer to train alone. But, perhaps you are like me in that regard, but still long for more serious training and growth, if so, consider a training partner.
In fact, put it high on your list, because so many people I know swear by them (or swear at them). Training partners seem to work so make one work for you.
Naturally, it's very important, though, to find a training partner who is dependable and possesses a similar level of enthusiasm and knowledge and - one who motivates you. Don't let someone suck your motivational juices dry and provide little if any benefit to you. Remember WIIFM???(what's in it for me).
The best training partners are highly motivated, goal oriented and can even be of the opposite sex. Of course, if you can arrange it, train with Craig Titus or Kevin Levrone - or gee, maybe Melissa Coates.
4: Visualize Yourself with Gorilla Muscles
I'm a huge dreamer when it comes to positive visualization. Study photos of a bodybuilder who has the body type (structure, height and weight potentially), that resembles your own. Find pictures of them in their favorite poses, competition condition, etc.
Visualize those photos, maybe look at them right before your workouts. (Doing so while playing emotional music can help get you motivated too).
Your mind is your most powerful tool (it should be you most powerful tool and if your 'other' tool is more highly regarded, you have some problems).
Okay, if used properly you can actually burn these picture into your subconscious and then let your creative side, the "I can create that look given time and proper training" attitude take over. After a while, (it's proven) your mind will not be able to distinguish between the two images. (You will become that image.)
When I train, my image is big Arnie (Schwarzenegger not Palmer). Why not? Arnie competed at 6'2" 235-lbs at his biggest, but started out downright thin as a young lad romping through the Back Forest. I am 6'5" and 250 lbs. (and natural) and when I compete I go in at much less than 10% body fat too. Not bad for a guy who also was once skinny and although I never romped through an Austrian Forest, I do go to Hooters in the off season. Hey-Arnold probably did too.
So this is an important one. Use visualization as a big positive. Don't compare yourself to others at the gym. We all have different goals and your true competition is in the mirror -as in yourself. Dream and see yourself as the big winner - all the time.
5: Weak Wardrobe
Perhaps you might see this as my real oddball one. But the way you feel about the way you look is a lot more important than you might imagine to building 19" biceps rocks. Several years ago, Robby Robinson, a great IFBB pro (and perhaps the best-built over-50 bodybuilder ever) was questioned why he always wore a T-shirt that was ripped to shreds, when he trained. Robby responded that the way he dressed when he trained was absolutely critical to his training and physique success. If his outfit (and subsequently his mind), were not fired up to blast up some big iron, he could not train at all, and usually didn't!
When discussing the concept of my editorial with Jeff Everson at the Olympia, he commented to me once about a thin over-trained guy he knew. This guy was Mr. Perpetually irritating, and who was in the gym every day doing the same thing. He trained in shorts big enough for a World Sumo Champion, (read - down to his ankles). He wore a shirt so baggy, he must have had a hard time just finding his arms to train them ---- well, when he asked Jeff why he was not getting bigger, Jeff responded with a smile, but matter-of-factly, "weak wardrobe," and walked away.
Jeff, Robby (and I) agree, bodybuilding is the ultimate visual, (disregarding Tyra Banks promenading in the semi-annual Victoria Secret $2.99 bra and panty sale), so wear something new, different and uplifting (so your lifts go up, not a bra). Dress in something that motivates your ass. And gee, it doesn't just have to motivate you because you can see mounds of striated muscle through it. Whatever does the job.
I remember some of my best workouts were wearing a sweatshirt with a huge picture of my children on the front, smiling. But do wear something that motivates you. Motivation is internal and it should cause a "positive emotional response" and must give you strength, by definition. You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.
Always dream big and use the Big 5 to help those big dreams make your biggest body! And stay away from the Buffalo wings.
Mike Pierron is 6'5, 250-lbs, and a natural bodybuilding NPC Masters champion. He does eat at Hooters occasionally, but skips the wings. While really working at being a full-time husband and father, he also is a motivational speaker. Mike's firm, DREAM BIG, is in the business of inspiring others to reach and experience success. You can reach big Mike at drmbig.com.
