Articles

Behavioral Aspects and the Effects of Different Diets

May 31, 2011 By JC Deen 21 Comments

Today’s article is a guest post from the editors (Dan, Jonny, and Yusef) of Propane Fitness. Read on and enjoy.

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Behavior and diet. It’s a funny thing – even the most rational and controlled of people can be blown over by our basic desires. What is the best diet for gaining muscle? What is the best diet for losing fat? The one that you stick to.

When you read about an optimal diet approach, that’s fine and well. But we are human, some of us have a bottomless stomach, have a weakness for cheesecake, can’t stand vegetables, and so on. Equally, often a diet consisting of 6 small meals a day can simply encourage, rather than eliminate hunger, making those hair-line fractures in your will-power become a gaping crevice, only to be filled with kilo upon kilo of as much Ben&Jerry’s as you can afford.

Lets examine some different approaches as they relate to our quirks from a behavioral perspective

Intermittent Fasting

This approach has been getting a lot of attention recently. Lots of supporting research and dramatic results, including some of our own transformations.

Advantage

Great for the hedonist: those who enjoy big, satisfying meals, makes dieting much more tolerable. Great results in fat loss and lean mass gain, optimising your growth hormone and insulin sensitivity. What’s more, eating during the late afternoon and evening can really help with staying alert and productive during the early hours while encouraging relaxation in the evening. If we said to you that you can eat large meals (>1000kcal), a good amount of carbs and even the odd dessert all while getting/staying lean and being more productive for most of the day would say no? – that’s IF in a nutshell.

Disadvantage

Due to the nature of intermittent fasting there is the potential for bringing out latent eating disorders if not kept under control. We’ve experienced some people getting into a binge-fast pattern. Note we’re not saying that this could create an eating disorder, but could potentially exacerbate any tendencies towards bingeing. A good measure against this that we’ve found is preparing food ahead of time, if you’re set to break the fast at midday, rather than raiding your fridge and cupboards, gorging on anything you lay eyes on prepare a substantial meal earlier in the day consisting mainly of lean protein and vegetables, once you’ve eaten a satisfying meal the temptation to binge will be greatly reduced. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Diet

Why Fitness Should Complement Your Life – Not Rule It

May 20, 2011 By JC Deen 17 Comments

JC Deen and Alan Aragon, no charge for the extra jib.

On Facebook, I asked the question:

So, I’m going to write about ‘fitness marketing’ and it’s effect on females OR OR OR how my training has evolved over the last 6 months to accommodate my goals and work life. which one would YOU like to read first?

Most people were interested in how my training has evolved to fit my schedule and demands of my current lifestyle.

Don’t you worry though; I’ve been gathering some resources for the fitness marketing piece and will write that one in due time.

But before I get into how my training, diet, and fitness goals have evolved to fit my lifestyle, I’d first like to get you to think a little bit about why we’re doing this stuff anyway. For many of you who may or may not know my story, I’ll share it briefly so you can know the place from which I speak.

As a kid growing up, I was chubby and out of shape. Then as I got into athletics, I shed some fat, got skinny, and then eventually started to get strong during my football days (but never really attained the body composition I was after). [Read more...]

Filed Under: Motivation

JCDFitness T-Shirts Have Arrived

May 11, 2011 By JC Deen 8 Comments

Self portrait of JC courtesy of my beloved iMac

Greetings my fellow JCDFitness readers. The last month has been incredibly busy with work, finishing up the spring semester at MTSU, and getting ready for summer fun and travels. Speaking of fun, I’ll be at the Fitness Summit with my bros Alan Aragon and Roger Lawson come this weekend in Kansas City – so if you can make it out, I will personally buy you drinks until you forget your name Saturday night. Promise.

Now that the summer is here, I don’t expect anything to slow down too much, but I’m happy to be able to focus more so on the site, writing, and doing more and more for all of you.

As the title suggests, the t-shirts are finally ready for order. Thanks to all of you who voted on the designs and for being patient as we got everything sorted out!

As of now, they are on pre-sale and we plan to start shipping within a few weeks. I’m glad they’re finally ready and I have my awesome friend June to thank for coming up with the idea for these tees. So if you’re on twitter, go harass her for me.

Here are the two final designs you can choose from:

The fabric is American Apparel, which I really like. They’re soft, light and feel great. I should say they do run a tad small. I will be sporting a large most likely (I’m 5’8″ and around 190lbs).

For the first 20 orders, you’ll get a free FitMarker wristband ($4.49 value) to go with your new gear!

T-shirts are $20 with free shipping in the US and an extra $10 for shipping internationally. Originally, we thought it would be free shipping everywhere, but due to rising fuel costs, there was nothing I could do in this regard.

I will create a more detailed sales page here soon, you know, the fancy ones with photos and page-long testimonials so I can hard-sell you on all the reasons you need one of these tees. I will use all the slimy marketing tactics the fitness gurus use to swindle you out of your money!

Okay, I am kidding. I won’t use all of them as you can see I didn’t end the t-shirt price with a ’7′ so no need to worry about regretting your purchase later on.

As for the votes, I did promise that two JCDFitness readers would get a free shirt.

The lucky winners are

Marcie – this comment

Stephon – this comment

I’ve gone ahead and emailed you both for your mailing address, size and shirt preference.

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**On another note, I was contacted by a GNC rep because they’re coming out with a new product called Phenom which is a coconut water supposedly infused with all types of goodness (vitamins, minerals, etc) to aid in recovery. While I have not tried it out yet(I’m waiting for some samples in the mail), the branding is cool and it looks like it might be a decent product.

Again, I cannot comment on the taste right now because I haven’t received mine. If you’d like to get a free sample, just go to one of their blog posts and place a comment as you normally might do here at JCDFitness. They have some rules though, so make sure you adhere to them if you want the goods.

Go ahead and pick up a shirt today – they’ll be in the mail shortly.

**I’m in no way affiliated or making any money through GNC.

Filed Under: Random Thoughts Tagged With: t-shirts

My Life in Training – A Reader’s Story

May 3, 2011 By JC Deen 15 Comments

As many of you may or may not know, Facebook (add me!) is taking over the world. While it’s easy to get lost in the sea of apps, games and other ridiculous stuff on the site, I’m incredibly happy that I’ve decided to be more active on there as of late.

It’s mainly because I’ve gotten the chance to develop some pretty cool relationships with my readers and other fitness enthusiasts – more so than I have been through just my writing and email.

I’ve been incredibly busy the last few weeks with work, finishing up my academic semester at MTSU (I’m actually typing this from the library right now), planning for the summer travels and other fun stuff I have planned for the site.

So today’s guest article is by a young guy I’ve been getting to know as a result of being more active on Facebook and I couldn’t be happier to publish this post on his behalf. I see a lot of myself in Jordan – mainly his drive and open-mindedness at such a young age, as well as his minor obsession with psychology and personal development.

So, without further rambling, here are some words of wisdom from the up and coming Jordan Syatt who now writes a ton of awesome articles at SyattFitness.com. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Guest Articles

The ABC’s of Advanced Booty Creation

April 25, 2011 By JC Deen 19 Comments

Today’s article is a continuation of last week’s piece I did on building a bigger backside. Today, my partner in crime, Roger Lawson, will be schooling you on some more movements you can add to your booty-building toolkit.

So without further ado, I’ll let Roger take it from here.

While reading JC’s latest post, a beast deep within my soul was awoken from its slumber. Was it the odd combination of chicken, broccoli and cinnamon rolls that I ate hours early? Nay! It’s the fact that a strong and powerful set of hindquarters is a topic that is near and dear to my heart, and because of this I go by many names.

The Sultan of Seat

The Bishop of Buns

The Chief of Cheek

The Forger of Fanny

Call my what you will, but a butt hater I am not.

Enough of the jibba jabba. I’ve come bearing bountiful gifts, so let’s open this bag and get right to it. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Build Muscle, Training Tagged With: butt builders, Strength Training

Azz Builders, Rump Shakers and Money Makers

April 20, 2011 By JC Deen 24 Comments

awesome image credit: April Greer

While ancient techniques in physique development are constantly on the rise, I felt it was time to bring out some more of the recent discoveries I’ve found to work wonders at making the backside much thicker and stronger.

In the past, I’ve discussed some issues many fitness enthusiasts often experience when it comes to their training protocols. Mainly, it’s the problem of overworking the muscles we see in the mirror and neglecting the ones we rarely see.

It all boils down to vanity, but when it comes to long-term progression, physical health, and injury prevention, it’s pertinent that we work those muscles we don’t see in the mirror.

That’s right. Today we’ll be discussing some movements to help you build the wondrous buttocks, and hamstrings. Last week, I received a text from one of my girlfriends that read

“hey! I need a butt-building workout!” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Build Muscle, Female Fitness, Muscle Gain

Why You Should Never, Ever Give Up

April 11, 2011 By JC Deen 32 Comments

I remember the very first time I wanted to give up.

The air was thick as mud and my olfactory nerves were being incessantly pounded by the smell of freshly cut grass with every breath I furiously fought for.

I thought I was dying, but in reality, I’d just never exercised before. I was fat, out of shape and my favorite meal was a bologna and cheese sandwich with a large bag of Doritos.

I’ll never forget the other kids running laps around me during my first ever football practice. I was ashamed, confused, and disappointed that I just wasn’t cut out for athletics as I’d began to believe before the practice had barely started.

I had to sit out the rest of the practice because I couldn’t catch my breath after one lap around the field. Once it was over, one of my football coaches approached my mother and said “Ms. Deen, I’m afraid little JC isn’t going to make it – he couldn’t even think about keeping up with his peers. We think he may have a bad case of asthma and you should probably have it checked out before he continues.”

I’ll never, ever forget it.

She stared him straight in the eyes and said “that’s bullsh*t – he’s just fat and out of shape. He doesn’t have asthma and he’ll be here every practice no matter what.”

I was only 10 years old. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Motivation, Popular Tagged With: just do it, Motivation

Fast Food – It’s Easy and I Love It

April 7, 2011 By JC Deen 35 Comments

A few weeks ago, my roommate walked in on me eating a stack of pancakes, McDonald’s burgers or something equally dense in calories.

He asked “How do you get away with eating like this and is it what you’d recommend to your clients?”

And it made me really think about it for a second. So here is my response, in article form.

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Lately, with work, school, playing web designer, fitness consulting and my own personal tri-weekly training, I am finding it rather difficult to get the kcals I need on a daily basis. Before the end of the year, I was eating just about everything I could get my hands on to get my squat, bench and row numbers to go up.

Nowadays, I am lucky to just get enough food to hit my maintenance requirements. And the funny thing is, most food just doesn’t seem appetizing anymore.

Okay, so it’s not like eating is hard. It’s really not, at all. But for me, when I get real busy and stress levels soar, unlike many who resort to eating, I just don’t. Then, the extra busyness cuts into my regular meal times and I forget to eat altogether.

So, when I think to myself “oh, I haven’t eaten anything in the last 14 hours,” I’m grabbing something quick and easy so I don’t have to cook. I know this may sound awful and like I suck at planning. But I have my priorities – and cooking a meal that a chef would be proud of every night is just not one of them.

Now enters my infatuation with fast food.

So, in my world we have two forms of the stuff.

Those are it’s really easy to insert into my pie-hole food choices and the typical fast food burger joints.

So, to give you an idea of how I’ve been doing it lately, let me give you an example of my typical meals on a training day and an off day. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Diet

Make The Most of Your Off Days

March 22, 2011 By JC Deen 22 Comments

“So tomorrow, I have an off day, what should I do for training?”

“Nothing, it’s called an off day for a reason,” is my usual reply. However, over time and through experience, testing out my tolerance for volume and activity levels, I’m finding that some sort of activity, even on off days can be beneficial both physically and psychologically.

I’m rarely of the absolutist crowd because there’s almost always an exception to every rule. In the past, when I was young and dumb, I only saw in black and white. There was no grey – no middle ground.

Believe it or not, moderation was once foreign to me. I won’t beat a dead horse, as I’ve plenty of articles and even an entire e-book detailing my experiences as a budding fitness enthusiast.

But a question that often comes up is “what is acceptable in terms of activity on the days between your heavy strength training sessions?”

It all varies but I’m going to cover some options for those of us who love to be forever active. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Questions, Training Tagged With: mobility, off days

Body Recomposition Without Counting Calories?

March 14, 2011 By JC Deen 20 Comments

So you wish to alter your body composition, for the better, without counting calories?

It’s impossible, most people say. I beg to differ.

But first let me preface by saying this approach is not going to be for everyone. In fact, it’s probably not for the majority, at least not at first.

It’s something I’ve messed with on and off for the last year while hardly even realizing what I was doing.

I suppose it started last fall – I’d just moved into a new apartment right off campus. The walk to my first class took about 10 minutes and then I spent the majority of my day walking around from class to class. The only time I drove was to the grocery store or back to Nashville for the weekend.

For the first few weeks, I had to make some major adjustments to my intake. Expenditure was through the roof as I clocked some of my walking to be anywhere from 4-6 miles per day depending on how often I went back to my apartment. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Build Muscle, Diet, Motivation Tagged With: calorie counting, Muscle Building