Posts Tagged ‘gain muscle’

107 Protein Shake Recipes

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

Need protein powder?

Shakeology

Check out Shakeology – it’s not just your average protein shake!

  • Whole-food ingredients curbs cravings and burn stored fat
  • Over 20 phytonutrients and antioxidants
  • Reduces risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke
  • Probiotics to assist digestion and nutrient absorption
  • Tastes awesome mixed with plain cold water!!

Click here to order or learn more about Shakeology.

If you are looking for a pure protein powder, check out Optimum Nutrition. Optimum Nutrition protein powder comes in about 20 different flavors, and is available in 1 lb, 2 lb, 5 lb, and 10 lb containers.

Click here to order or learn more about Optimum Nutrition.

Protein Recipes for Weight Loss, Muscle Gain, and Kids

Update 2/22/2011: With the addition of Shakeology, we now have 107 recipes including both the Greenberry and Chocolate flavors. There’s not too much nutrition information listed here, but you can figure out from the ingredients if the shake is meant for weight loss or weight gain… just use your brain.

Here are 70 107 different protein shake recipes. I have also included some links to a couple of the best protein powders on the market. Shakeology is nutritionally the healthiest protein powder I’ve ever found, while Optimum Nutrition produces the highest quality pure protein powder at an economical price. They have 1 lb, 2 lbs, 5 lbs, 10 lbs, and packets. Choose from over 20 flavors.

And now, without further ado…

Here is the List of 107 Protein Shake Recipes

(more…)

Men Have a Distorted View of What Women Find Attractive

Monday, November 15th, 2010

Attention men! This just in: you don’t need to gain 30 pounds of muscle in order for women to find you attractive.

Women Swooning

I found this post from back in the year 2000 about a Harvard study in which college-aged men were asked to pick their ideal body from a group of images. Most men chose the body with 30 pounds more muscle mass than what they currently had.

A group of college females were then asked to choose which of the body images they were most attracted to. The majority of the women picked a body with 15-30 pounds less muscle than the men picked.

What a conundrum!
(more…)

6 Supplements for Increasing Strength and Muscle Mass

Friday, November 5th, 2010

6 Muscle Building Supplements

For those who workout endlessly in the gym looking to increase their strength along with their muscle mass, starting with the right workout routine and proper diet is the first step. After a while, even with the best conceived diet and exercise plans, many do find that they hit plateaus which is when they start to look towards dietary supplements.

(more…)

The Arnold Schwarzenegger Protein Shake

Thursday, October 14th, 2010

Arnold Schwarzenegger was a tank. He instinctively knew how to eat and how to train. His philosophy on whole food meals and snacks are accepted today as the best way to construct a weight gain diet, a fat loss diet, or even a regular healthy diet for a non-athlete.

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger

From the earliest reports on his nutritional theories, Arnold believed that the average person needs a half of a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day, and that a bodybuilder needs at least one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight each day. However, he did not recommend drinking 4 glasses of protein powder mixed with water to get all of that protein, and neither do I.

(more…)

Gaining Muscle and Losing Fat at the Same Time

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
Your Questions
Your Questions

I get plenty of questions in various comments throughout the website, but I also get comments and questions via the Project Swole Contact Form.

Generally I address those questions through e-mail, but often I do not have the time to reply to each and every question personally.

The category, Your Health Questions is a more proactive approach to answering your questions so that everyone can benefit from the Q & A.

Jake asked:

“Hey Steve, First I wanted to say thanks so much for taking the time to make this article. I just had a question. I am 16 and 6’4″ and about 200 LBS. I love doing cardio and used to be extremely overweight but i started running and eating right and it all shed off.

I have been working out on and off for about a year and a half now and I have found it pretty easy to put on muscle as long as I stay dedicated to the workout which is also my biggest problem. I have petty much the opposite body type of Taylor Lauter because I am taller and bigger built were he is shorter and was very skinny when he started. So I would thus like to lean out at the same time as i build muscle to achieve that lean muscle look.

My question is that if i were to take in less calories and carbs than recommeded for me but still took in the right amount of protein to build muscle, could I still bulk up and lose fat at the same time to achieve that leaner muscular look?”

(more…)

How to Deadlift

Friday, July 30th, 2010

How to Deadlift

How to Deadlift
How to Deadlift

Deadlifts are one of the primary, fundamental exercises for all serious weight training programs. Deadlifts work 100% of your legs and they require functional stability from 95% of the rest of the muscles on your body. Using proper form, deadlifts will help you get stronger, gain more muscle, and burn more calories than any other single exercise after the squat.

Deadlifts build lower back and hamstring strength, and they teach you to keep your lower back tight against a heavy load, which is critical to avoid injuries when lifting objects from the ground or floor. Unfortunately, this is also why deadlifts have gained a bad reputation of causing a variety of injuries, including spinal injuries and hernias.

(more…)

Occlusion Training Also Works for Large Muscle Groups

Friday, July 23rd, 2010
Kaatsu Training
Kaatsu Training

You may have read my post on occlusion training (or Kaatsu training) from a year ago. If not, the basic premise goes something like this:

Occlusion training refers to blood flow restriction (BFR) to small muscle groups like the biceps and triceps, then using single-joint resistance training with 20% of a 1 rep max. The results produced up to a 300% greater increase in strength and up to an 800% greater increase in muscle thickness, over the subjects who used traditional strength training methods.

The initial reported study had noted great results for BFR exercise in small muscle groups using single-joint exercises. For example they measured the results of occlusion training on the biceps after 2 weeks of biceps curls.

At Project Swole, we are more interested in the results on large muscle groups using multi-joint exercises, such as the bench press, squat, or deadlift.

So today’s question remains: does occlusion training increase the strength and size of large muscle groups during multi-joint exercises, when blood flow is restricted from the extremities?

(more…)

Does Coffee (Caffeine) Help You Build Muscle?

Thursday, July 1st, 2010
Your Questions
Your Questions

I get plenty of questions in various comments throughout the website, but I also get comments and questions via the Project Swole Contact Form.

Generally I address those questions through e-mail, but often I do not have the time to reply to each and every question personally.

From now on I want to take a more proactive approach to answering Your Health Questions by posting them separately in the blog. This way we can be sure that everyone benefits from the Q & A.

Joe wrote:

“I have heard that too much caffeine can be detrimental to muscle growth because of its tendency to increase cortisol which has catabolic effects. That being said, it also stimulates testosterone production, so its actual effects are a little unclear. Here’s a little medical study I found on the web to back it up:

Dose effect of caffeine on testosterone and cortisol responses to resistance exercise.

Just curious if you’ve heard anything along these lines and I’m interested to hear your take on it.”

(more…)

The Taylor Lautner Workout for Twilight: Eclipse

Thursday, June 17th, 2010
Click here to qualify for free movie tickets to Twilight: Breaking Dawn!

The Taylor Lautner Workout

Here we go again! The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is coming out at the end of the month – June 30th if I’m not mistaken, so it is time to examine the developments in the physique of our buddy Taylor Lautner for this, the third installment of the Twilight Saga.

(more…)

How to Save Time Building Muscle

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Swole Fitness Tips

You want to save time building muscle and losing fat. You want to put in as little time as possible, using as few days out of the week as possible, and get the most bang for your buck. In that case you should exercise only when you can maximize your returns on time invested. Here’s how:

(more…)