Blog is moving!

Good day everybody.

I have decided to create my own personal website that is more professional and has a better domain name, I have also added a blog to it.

I will be a lot more consistent on it and post regularly with great information and the inside life of me.

So head over to www.alexmuller.org and www.alexmuller.org/blog for my new blog!

Regards

Alex Muller 2 weeks out from competition.

Training and posing is going exceptionally well, my routine is complete and feeling confident.

Im very tired, but thats due to the low carb diet. At the moment my diet looks like:

240-250g Protein, 160g Carbohydrates, 40g Fat - The carbs will be dropping within the next week to get me even leaner.

Training is 6 times a week, consisting mostly of supersets and dropsets with 45min medium interval cardio post workout.

Here as some pictures to update you on my progress.

5 weeks out from competition.

I'm competing for the very first time on the 21st July 2012. I'm will be doing the juniors over 75KG divisions.

My training and diet has changed quite a bit, instead of doing PHAT I'm not training high intensity, 7 days a week with 30min moderate cardio after every session. Training schedule looks like this.

Day1: Back
Day2: Shoulders + Triceps
Day3: Legs
Day4: Chest + Biceps

Repeat.

My diet contains higher protein, but with less carbs and fats. I am getting in about 3000 calories a day which consist of 280-300g Protein, 300g Carbohydrates and 70-80g fat a day.

Leg pics!!

Thought I would show you my legs before I start cutting for contest prep.

Third week of doing Layne Norton PHAT training!

Progress picture after 3 weeks of doing PHAT training.

Picked up about 2kg so far and strength is going through the roof.

Build Monster Mass

This is an article from Simplyshredded.com with an 8 week diet and supplementation plan on gaining muscle. I recommend anybody to read and implement these strategies, especially hard gainers, ectomorphs and those hitting a plateau.

http://www.simplyshredded.com/monster-mass-build-the-perfect-beast-with-this-maniacal-nutrition-and-supplement-formula.html

Build muscle without a gym!!

If you do not have a gym membership, or away on holiday and cannot get to a gym, no problem you can still stimulate your muscles and build lean muscle.

Chest, Triceps and Shoulders:


The pushup is one of the most common types of body weight exercises that is easy to perform absolutely anywhere. There are different variations of the pushup that can target different muscle groups.

• Standard Push-up:We all know this one. Hands a little more than shoulder width apart, feet together, back straight. Works chest and triceps. do 10-20 reps of 3 sets.

• Wide push-ups: Same as the standard push-up except your arms are a lot more than shoulder width apart. Do 10-20 reps of 3 sets.

• Diamond/narrow push-up: With this push-up your hands will be touching each other in the middle of your body. Do 5-20 reps of 3 sets.

• Front/side lateral raise: Get a heavy object(large water bottle, brick, bag full of heavy things) and standing straight, and keeping your elbow straight raise the object in front/next to you until your arm is parallel to the ground, lower it and repeat. Do 10-20 reps of 3 sets.

westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com

Back and Biceps:

• Pullups/chinups: Find a structure where you can get a strong grip on. Like a door frame, a lateral pole/beam or you can buy equipment that hooks into a door frame where you can do different variations of pullups. A wide grip with your palms facing you focuses on your lats where a narrow grip with your palms facing away from you focuses on the center of your back and your biceps. Do 5-10 reps of 4 sets.

Legs:

• Squats: Stand with your feet just slightly shoulder width apart, your head up and your back straight. Bend your legs until 90 degrees then come back up. If body weight squats are too light you can put a weighted backpack on. Do 10-20 reps of 3 sets.

• Lunges: Find an area where you can do 20 lunges. Hands on your hips, feet together. Take one big step in front of you and lower your body until your back leg's knee touches the ground, then come up and repeat. If they become too easy add a backpack with weight in. Do 10 reps per leg of 3 sets.

• Calf raises: Stand with the ball of your foot on the edge of a stair, lower your ankle and raise it as high as you can, pause for a second and repeat. If this gets too light you can hold something heavy in your hand. Do 20-30 reps of 4 sets.

http://www.exercisegoals.com/images/bodyweight-squats.jpg

Abs:

• Bridge: Go into the push-up position but instead of using your hands to keep up, put your fore arms on the ground and together. Keep your back completely straight and abs tight. Do this for as long as you can for 2 sets.

• Hanging leg raises: Using the place you do pullups, hand from a height. Put your legs together and keeping the rest of your body as steady as possible raise your knees/feet and repeat. Do 10 reps of 3 sets.

• Crunches/sit-ups: Lie on the floor, bend your knees and bring them up. Put your hands behind your neck and slowly raise your body until your chest touches your knees. Do slow controlled movements. Do 10-20 reps of 2 sets.

I would do a upper/lower body split that would look something like this.

Monday: Upperbody
Tuesday: Lowerbody
Wednesday: Abs
Thursday: Upperbody
Friday: Lowerbody
Saturday: Abs
Sunday: Rest.

Remember because you do not have a lot of resistance you need to do these exercises with a slow and controlled movement, achieving maximum contraction in the muscles.

If you do these exercises at home on a regular basis you can certainly achieve some great results with putting on some muscle and strength. Just remember nutrition plays a major role in fitness.