“How can I gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?” That’s right up there with “How do I get six pack abs” as one of the most frequently asked fitness questions of all time. The problem is, when you ask it, you get all kinds of conflicting answers – even from experts who are supposed to know these things. So what’s the deal? Is it really possible to lose fat and build muscle simultaneously?

I love the stuff that shows up on You Tube. This video is classic! Vintage Vince Gironda, circa 1947 – before the steroid era. THIS is what bodybuilding should be, could be and still can be… the natural, classical physique.

Why do you sometimes feel in such control of the iron that the weight feels light even though the bar is loaded with more than you’ve ever lifted before? Why do you sometimes get a skin-stretching pump and FEEL every fiber in the muscle you’re working as if you have a pure mind to muscle connection? Why do you sometimes feel mega-motivated, as if you could bench press an apartment complex and take on the world? Why do you sometimes slip into a “cocoon of concentration” during your training, as if you had gone into a trance, allowing nothing to distract your from accomplishing the task at hand?

The answer is…

I’m often asked what my body measurements are and/or what are the ideal measurements for a bodybuilder or a classical muscular male physique. Believe it or not, there are actually many formulas for determining the “ideal body proportions.” On the other hand, you might want to take them with a grain of salt…

Ok, so I did a month of Zercher Squats. As a challenging “strongman” exercise, it rocks. As a bodybuilding exercise… I’m still debating…

How many aspiring bodybuilders do you know who desperately want to compete, but who keep saying, “Im not ready”… “I need more muscle mass”? But how do you really know if you’re ready? How do you know what you will look like when the layer of winter adipose comes off? Naturally, bodybuilding is about muscle mass. Muscle mass is one of the criteria for judging so if you ain’t got any, you ain’t ready. However, you don’t have to be the size of Jay or Ronnie to be ready. For example, at 5′ 8″ or 5′ 10″ and 175 lbs, you’d never even make it onto the IFBB stage let alone be competitive. But in some of the local and natural competitions, you might very well WIN the whole darn show if your conditioning were on point. But you will never know unless you say “damn the critics,” make the committment, get yourself ripped and get up on that stage…will you? In today’s post, I answer a reader’s question, “Am I Ready to compete?”

My last several posts were about leg training, so I thought I’d continue on that theme today. I was going through my archives of old articles I’d written and came across this one that was published in IRONMAN magazine several years back. This program, called “unconventional leg training” proposes that you do some things that are often viewed as completely backwards… such as as your heaviest set first rather than the reverse (aka “regressive sets” an old Tom Platz favorite), or “ascending sets” which are the exact opposite of the immensely popular descending (drop) sets technique. Give these methods a try. You might curse me at first (from the pain you have to endure), but you can thank me later when your thighs explode with muscle growth…

The pump is the short-term sensation you get during training when your muscles fill up with blood faster than the blood can leave the area, making the muscles appear fuller and larger. It’s a tight, swelled feeling, often accompanied by an increase in vascularity. Pump workouts generally involve medium (8-12) or higher (13-20+) repetitions, supersets/trisets/giant sets, and/or brief rest intervals between sets. But is going after the pump really necessary for muscle growth?

When I met natural bodybuilder Nino Savona and saw how fantastic he looked, despite having to walk on crutches, a lot of questions popped into my mind about his training, such as: How did he get so ripped? How does he train? Does he do any cardio? If so, how, what kind and how much? Does he train his legs? If so how? For two perspectives, I posed these questions both to Nino, and to his trainer…

Nino Savona is a man on a mission: To prove to himself and others that the crutches he’s walked with since he was eight years old cannot stop him from doing anything he wants to do – even training and competing in bodybuilding – and to inspire and motivate a lot of other people along the way.