The Shadow - PSL Sponsored Log

[The.Shadow]

Want to help your biceps grow?

A mental cue that has helped me so much with all of my bicep movements is to contract my triceps at the bottom of each rep like this to ensure a full range of motion every time.

Next time you are training biceps, PLEASE try this out and let me know how you get on!

Also, sorry for the rubbish video! Just came across this clip and thought this was a point worth mentioning!

https://vimeo.com/171785754

 

[The.Shadow]

I remember clearly finally hitting 200lbs just as I met Jasmin Anderson in mid-January. Fast forward over 5 months to now and I weighed in this morning at... 200lbs. 5 months of day in, day out graft, for what? Is it worth it?

YES.

Honestly, this journey is so much more than the external physical manifestation for me. Training, the discipline, and extreme goals have been an amazing therapy for me in hard times. This lifestyle develops mental fortitude.

That mental fortitude is what allows me to keep pushing in times when things seem stale. I am hungrier than ever. 225lbs - I'm coming for you.

 

[The.Shadow]

Should transgender individuals be allowed to compete as their chosen gender in competitive sports?

In Alaska, a young man who has made the decision to identify himself as a female has been competing in track and field. Since, he has gone all state and has dominated the competition.

Males are biologically and physiologically superior to females in terms of speed, power, and even endurance and no amount of post-pubertal HRT will completely reverse that.

In my opinion, creating a gender-neutral competitive field will ruin women's chances of winning anything involving speed or power.

What do you guys (and girls!) think?

 

[The.Shadow]

Just got in a heavy push session before my big pizza refeed tonight!

 

[The.Shadow]

3:00am workout completed straight from last nights show. Now to travel to Luton to fly over to Italy for tonights show.
I love sleepless nights. I love working when nobody else is working. I love knowing that I am working harder than anybody else ever could, because somebody I love is depending on me. I will never rest knowing that I didn't give it everything I had.
Who is depending on you, and can you honestly say you are giving EVERYTHING you have to be successful?

 

[The.Shadow]

A TIP TO GROW YOUR GLUTES
(Men pay attention, girls like big butts too!)
When performing your stiff-legged deadlifts, instead of thinking of this as a pulling motion, focus on thrusting the bar out of the bottom position and squeezing your glutes hard at the top. Without sounding too crude, create the mental cue of humping the bar!
Please give this a shot and let me know if it helps at all!

https://vimeo.com/172488703

 

[The.Shadow]

Coach says 230lbs in 6 months... I'm ready for the challenge!

 

[The.Shadow]

"Are we going to sleep life away, avoiding failure at all costs? Or are we going to wake up and realize this: Failure is simply a price we pay to achieve success"

 

[The.Shadow]

3:00am leg workout with my partner tonight. I love an empty gym!

 

[The.Shadow]

Managed to get a quick push workout in between soundcheck and going on for tonights show.

I came out of the gym to see that my girlfriend had prepared my post-workout meal, ironed my clothes and got everything ready that I need to take with me tonight!

To have somebody that will go to the gym with me at 3:00am after 3 solid days and nights of work, travel across the country to see me, and above all believe in my dreams and support me endlessly is the best feeling in the world.

I challenge you all this evening to let somebody close to you know how much you love and appreciate them, no matter how awkward you might feel about it. You never know when it could be your last chance to tell them.

 

[The.Shadow]

A quick leg shot... From back day

 

[The.Shadow]

Caught mid-way through a Lats giant set.
For your metabolic work for Lats, try lining up 4 exercises in which lats are the prime mover, choose a different rep range for each movement, and hit each exercise one after the other in a giant set fashion
Try it out and let me know if it helps to grow your wings!

 

[The.Shadow]

WHY TAKE BCAA'S WHEN I CAN JUST TAKE LEUCINE?

I am seeing a trend recently of people choosing to supplement with Leucine alone in place of BCAA's.

So we know that Leucine is the BCAA that is most responsible for activating muscle protein synthesis via mTOR, so do we REALLY need isoleucine or valine?

The research says... YES

Some key reasons include:
Isoleucine and Valine are both essential amino acids that your body cannot synthesise by itself
Isoleucine helps to prevent fat gain and even enhance lipolysis via upregulation of the UPC2 and UPC3 enzymes
Valine increases endurance by competing with the uptake of tryptothan. (An amino acid that converts to serotonin - serotonin sends signals to the body that you are fatigued!)

 

[The.Shadow]

The quad pump after hitting some NOS sets last night/this morning was crazy!

Next time you hit some Leg Extensions, try a quadruple drop set sticking to 10-15 reps per drop and let me know how those quads feel!

 

[The.Shadow]

A little pad-work from this morning!

Just waiting for my shipment of Euros to land and then the next blast begins!

https://vimeo.com/173895662

 

[The.Shadow]

WHY THE ELDERLY SHOULD RESISTANCE TRAIN

To go along with the tonne of evidence we already have to support resistance training in the elderly, this newly published study showed in just 8 weeks:

large improvements in aerobic capacity. This is particularly important to note as due to reduced muscle function in the elderly, resistance training is one of the only forms of exercise that allows them to achieve this benefit.

improved glucose tolerance.

 

[The.Shadow]

The anti-GMO movement is massively growing in popularity both in the fitness industry and in the general population.

The fact is, if we stopped all GMO's today, and continued with our current eating habits in the developed world, more than half of the world would starve to death within two years.

GMO grains allowed us to feed more livestock for less money, which caused meat consumption in the west to rise due to its reduced cost, and the surplus of grains we had left over caused the world population to rise from 3 billion to what it is now.

If we ban GMO's now, all of the extra food we are able to produce as a result will stop. 80% of the worlds calories come from GMO grains today, so it's easy to see how devastating this would be.

In terms of nutritional value, the evidence against GMO's is inconclusive, and in fact for the most part genetically modified foods and proving to be MORE nutritious in many circumstances.

 

[The.Shadow]

SQUATS ARE KING.

Want big legs? Squat heavy, squat deep, squat often.

https://vimeo.com/174337159

 

[The.Shadow]

B E T A - A L A N I N E

Beta-alanine supplementation is hugely popular in the bodybuilding world, but is worth it?

The meta-analyses on the left showed a 2.85% benefit in performances lasting from 60-240 seconds.

The study on the right showed that after supplementing with BA, no statistically significant benefit was seen in performance markers such as total work capacity, time to exhaustion etc.

Judging by the research, unless you are doing a tonne of high-rep work, beta-alanine supplementation for the bodybuilder appears useless.

 

[The.Shadow]

A little lat spread from tonight... Whilst training chest

 

[The.Shadow]

HOW TO MAXIMISE LAT RECRUITMENT ON LOW PULLING MOVEMENTS...

1) Allow complete scapula protraction (let your shoulder blades stretch forward) at the bottom of each pull
2) Retract your scapula (squeeze shoulder blades together) at the top of each pull
3) Pull towards your hips
4) If using a dumbbell, laterally crunch slightly (twist your trunk) into reach rep

Next time you are hitting back, try this out and let me know if it helps at all!

https://vimeo.com/174681152

 

[The.Shadow]

As requested, a quick word on MK-677.

Although often mislabelled as a SARM, MK-677 is in reality an oral GH secretagogue.

Growth hormone and GH peptides such as GHRP2/6, CJC etc typically have to be injected to be utilised by the body, but MK-677 has been designed to withstand the pH of stomach acid and avoid being hydrolysed into an inactive form, and the research shows it does this very well.

MK-677 works by...
1. Increasing GHRH (growth hormone releasing hormone)
2. Amplifying GHRH signalling in the brain
3. Decreasing somatostatin (scroll back to my post on horny goat weed for a complete explanation of why this is so important)
4. Inhibits somatostatin receptor signalling

So what does the research say? One study found subjects taking MK-677 at 25mg/day increased their GH and IGF-1 levels by up to 89% in just one week!

What can it do for you? Increasing your GH and IGF-1 levels has so many benefits including...
1. increased lipolysis (fat oxidation)
2. Increased lean muscle tissue
3. Tightening of loose skin
4. Increased healing time of injuries

Clearly MK-677 is an extremely effective compound and does what it has been designed to do very effectively! If any of you have ever used MK-677 or plan to in the future drop me a DM!

 

[The.Shadow]

Good news... My new blast is on its way to me. This is going to put me in the 230-240 range in the next few months

I will announce the protocol when the pack lands. For now, here's some more pad-work. Working the slip and roll under.

https://vimeo.com/174932763

 

[The.Shadow]

Got to love an empty gym. Does anybody else like training in the middle of the night when nobody else is around?

 

[The.Shadow]

So, this isn't the update I was wanting to make but I have had a terrible morning. I have been looking forward so badly to my pack landing and starting my next blast and showing all of you what I've got.

This morning on my way to work, after working another job all night, I crashed and wrecked my car. It's costing me everything I have to repair as without my car I can't make any money. I am literally broke right now. I then get home to a call from the bank saying I must have accidentally put the wrong details into my international payment and the payment bounced back, and they are charging me $100 for handling it. So now i'm even more broke. I'm rock bottom right now but I will overcome and I will still accomplish everything I have set out to, this is just a minor setback.

I work all day, all night, train at 4:00am, back to work. I'm lucky to sleep one night per week right now. This, along with being so far away from my partner right now is honestly testing me. I know what I am capable of, this won't break me, but I will admit this is an extremely tough part of my life.

I really hope you guys days are going better than mine. The only way is up now. Best wishes to all of you.

 

[The.Shadow]

IS MY GROWTH HORMONE REAL?

Growth Hormone (GH) is the one of the most faked drugs in bodybuilding today.

A common misconception that is touted all over the bodybuilding forums is that if you can't afford to buy pharma grade GH, then you should just assume generic GH is 'half dosed'. This is simply not true. It is true however that unless you are getting pharma grade GH from a pharmacy, then you have no idea if it is real or not.

I'd just like to quickly mention these common methods of testing GH that are NOT reliable:
IGF-1 Test
Pregnancy Test
Serial numbers/Holographs

The only reliable method of testing GH we have available to us right now is using a private lab (such as MediChecks) to check your serum GH level in your blood.

Follow these instructions for an accurate reading:
Take your serum GH level fasted and check this result to use as your baseline
On a separate day, inject 4-10iu GH fasted and repeat the same test within 3 hours post-injection
Compare the results. If your GH is real, the second result will be greater and outside of the physiological range

The below picture was from a blood draw of 6iu Eurotropin GH from PSL. This shows the myth of non-pharmaceutical GH being 'half-dosed' to be false, as this blood draw is clearly comparable to the same dosage of pharma GH.

 

[The.Shadow]

A R T I F I C I A L . S W E E T E N E R S

With the heatwave that we have in the UK right now, I have received a handful of messages asking if diet drinks will cause weight gain/slow down weight loss.

The short answer is... No. They will not themselves cause you to gain weight, in fact, it's the total opposite!

The research shows diet drinks actually IMPROVED fat loss in controlled conditions due to curbing cravings, and increasing satiation from the carbonation amongst other things.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26708700/

Artificial sweeteners have been shown to cause a very small amount insulin secretion. Therefore, they may only inhibit fat loss in the case of all-out abuse, to a level I don't believe most people would be capable of. Even then, the effects would be minor.

So, don't feel guilty about drinking a few diet cokes today, and enjoy the sunshine whilst it lasts!

 

[The.Shadow]

Had a shot at rowing with the pulling-side foot forward last night.

I would say right off the bat that it creates a greater amount of tension under a lesser load than my previous rowing video.

If you have never performed your DB rows this way, give these a shot with a 4:0:1:0 tempo and let me know how you like it!

https://vimeo.com/175832923

 

[The.Shadow]

Today I challenge you to look in the mirror and ask yourself honestly: 'if today was my last day, would I want to do what I am doing today?' If you feel like sharing, please comment your answer below!

 

[The.Shadow]

Late night push workout last night in Manchester with my lifting buddy