GLEN PACYNA'S DORM ROOM

New Years Resolutions
Your holiday guide to the new techniques
of building quality muscle!

By: Glen Pacyna


A new year brings many things. The ball has dropped, the confetti has fallen, the champagne has been sipped, and the lists of RESOLUTIONS have been made! Now, you may be asking yourself “What exactly is a resolution?” Well I will tell you, there are many definitions to the word “resolution”. It could mean the quality of detail in an image or contrast; it could mean the expression of collective opinion. But resolution to me means the process of resolving, determination, or even a solution. There are many ways to complete your new years resolution. In this article you will find the key components to achieving that winning physique that you’ve always wanted. I’ll go over the goal in itself, and how to set a goal, and how to reach that goal. Also, you’ll get to see some of the best work out routines and exercises used to build the foundation. Careful guys and gals, this is not your regular chest/tri’s and back/bi’s split! Then after you’ve learned all the tips and tricks I will share some of my recipes to stay lean, bulk up, or even loose that unwanted weight before beach season! Please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in the upright and locked position, your going on the busiest year of hard work yet!

The first step to succeeding in this year’s body transformation is to set a goal. Not just any goal, a realistic goal. I can not even begin to tell you how many times after my first bodybuilding contest I said “That was great! Next year I want to gain 40lbs and get shredded and come back and win!” Zzzz…oh sorry I was in my dream world again. To me a gain of 40lbs of pure quality muscle was not realistic, don’t worry I realized this already. The first thing to do is set a goal that you know you can achieve. Let’s say you wanted to put some size on while staying pretty lean, make a goal of say 5lbs. Setting a goal like that at first, your more likely to reach that goal then say 20lbs. Being in a gym all day long, I am a witness to this 24/7. Most people join the gym the first week of the New Year and by the end of January, you might not see them again. Ok, so work gets busy and the kids have homework so why not take a night off from the gym? But then the next night a buddy calls you up looking to go for a burger and fries, why not take a night off, I’ll just go tomorrow and work twice as hard. I think that after all of those excuses are said and done I believe some people set their goals too high, and when they don’t reach them they become disappointed and lose hope, and finally give up. When you set your self up for a goal and you reach that goal, you feel better. However, when you don’t reach that goal you start to lose sight of it. Start off with something simple. For example, I have a few new years resolutions of my own which I’ll share with you. Whether it is paying off a credit card, or gaining 5lbs of muscle, put money away for a vacation, or even just taking more time to relax from the gym or my café all of my goals are realistic. I would much rather reach a few small goals than if I were to only reach one big one. If you looking to lose weight, start off by trying to lose only 3-5lbs. After that you can alter your aspirations, or change up the flow and go for another 3 or another 5. Losing the weight is just as hard as gaining the weight. After I competed in the 2007 UIBBN World Championships in Madrid, Spain I went crazy! I went on the “sea-food diet”. If I saw it, I ate it. To be honest, I gained about 10lbs of nothing. So when it comes to weight gain the time, energy, and food you put into your body reflects your results. So take it day by day. Even if you’re looking to work with a personal trainer, you could work with them say once a month and then twice a month or even just once a week. Commitment is the key and motivation drives your commitment. I have come to realize when you commit to one thing completely; it is easier to carry that over to something else. When it comes to motivation only you can control it. As corny as it sounds, after every season I take a picture of me from my last contest of the year, put it in a frame on my wall. Now next to that picture I take a blank piece of paper and draw a big question mark in the center and hang that next to the previous picture. Why you ask? Throughout the year, my motivation comes from those picture frames. I want to be better than the year before so the “?” I look at every day lies in my hands. So, start small and commit to your goal and keep the motivation no matter what you have to do, and that’s the difference between achieving your goal and “Oh, I’ll just work out harder tomorrow”.

With proper nutrition comes proper training. Nothing works better than consistency. Obviously we all know that you don’t get results over night. If we did, I would have beat Jay Cutler at this years Olympia. Just kidding! One thing I try and tell people is I can’t tell you what to do. I tell them that I can’t tell them, interesting philosophy I know! You have to see what works for you because as we all have learned, everybody’s body is different and it can change like the weather. When I train, I don’t necessarily do just chest and just biceps or just back. I like to hit every muscle group from a different angle. As you’ll see when you read my training regime, every thing may be different even if it looks the same. When working muscles not always are fibers working with your movement. Just like when you take bench press. Not only can you do flat bench but you can do incline and decline to hit the fibers all around. Same when it comes to shoulders, whether its front raises, side raises, cable raises, upright raises. The same thing when it comes to your reps and sets. We all know the heavier the weight and less amount of reps, begins hypertrophy. The high weight and high reps speeds up your metabolism and starts fat loss. Going back to the word consistency, once you find the training techniques that work for you, you need to stay consistent. As the saying goes, “don’t fix what’s not broken”. If it works for you don’t start doing something else. Change it in moderation. Work from different angles and change your reps and sets around. You need to keep your body guessing. I’m a firm believer in that. When you do the same thing, day in and day out, your body absorbs that like a sponge. That one time you do something differently, your body is going to react. Good or bad your body will react. If you get good reactions you should keep up the pace. If you notice no gains after a while, then its time to go back to the drawing board and try something else. Now I will display my training routine for off season and pre contest.


OFF SEASON

My split ranges anywhere from a 2 day on, 1 day off routine or to a 1-1. Reps are triangle style meaning I start at a moderate weight and go for 12-10. After that I add more weight and focus on 10-8 and finally my last set I keep near 8-6 reps. My rest in between sets can be anywhere from 1-2 minutes. Now in between sets and between those 2 minutes I recommend dynamic stretching. That way you’re allowing blood to enter your muscle. Allowing the blood to enter your muscle more freely is an important factor for muscle growth.

Day 1-Back, Triceps, & Hamstrings

-Dead lifts
-Seated Rows
-One Arm Rows (every other week)
-Upright rows
-Lat Pull downs
-Lat Pull over’s
-Tricep Pushdowns
-French Curls or Dumbbell extensions over head
-Leg Curls
-Seated Leg Curls

Day 2-Chest, Biceps, & Shoulders

-Incline Bench Press to activate pectoralis major
-Decline Bench Press to activate pectoralis minor
-DB Flyes
-Cable Crossovers (brought up from floor or brought down from top)
-Dips
-Incline Curls to allow maximum contraction on biceps
-Hammer Curls to work bicep bacchius
-Shoulder military press
-Side lateral raises mixed with front raises to activate dormant muscle fibers

Day 3-Legs and Abs

-Leg Press
-Squats (mixed with hack squats every other work out)
-Lunges
-Leg Extensions
-Standing Calf Raises
-Seated Calf Raises
-Oblique Twists
-Ab Crunches
-Leg Raises
Now your probably thinking to yourself, what kind of scheme is that? Oddly enough in between a busy work schedule and environment, it works for me. The key is to hit every muscle group with intensity. After any of those days I have no energy to work out the next day, allowing my body a day of rest after a grueling work out. Most trainers and bodybuilders and fitness competitors believe the winning ingredient to succeeding your goals is high intensity. Combining high intense work outs with a consistent plan with get you the results to any goal you are looking to achieve this year.

Diet, supplementation, and nutrition play just as an important role in building muscle as the work outs do, if not more. Any of the tops pros will tell you, before stepping foot in that gym you should get a steady nutritional intake of carbohydrates, protein, sugar, and yes even fat. And no not the 1/4 pounder from Wendy’s, even though it contains all of them in a convenient tasty combo with fries! Ok, ok, we all know about how we should eat 1.5g of protein per pound of body weight you are with just as many carbs if not more. Chicken, steak, fish, cottage cheese, protein powder are excellent forms of quality protein. And we also know that oatmeal, rice, pasta, and some fruits are excellent forms of carbs. Sugar…where do I start? Yes, it makes life that much sweeter. Fat is found from almonds, some fish, peanut butter, almond butter, and other CLA products and such. Now you need to know how to piece them all together. Forty percent of your daily total intake should come from protein as well as carbs so with that other twenty percent you need to incorporate fat and sugars. After that you probably know the rest. Now I’m going to give you some brief recipes from supplements and your everyday foods that you can scramble through out the other 364 days left this year. During the year I spoke with a lot of different people on a lot of different things and one of the most popular was what supplements can I use to get bigger? I was then able to share my knowledge. I have a few pre-work out drinks as well as a few post work out ones.

Pre Work Out Drink
1)ABB Diet Turbo Tea w/ Scoop of Optimum Nutrition’s CGT (creatine, glutamine, taurine)
2)ON Vassive NO w/ cup of club soda…perfect soft drink!

Post Work Out Drinks
1)Carbo Force-your favorite flavor with 2 scoops of vanilla Whey Gold Standard blended to perfection!
2)”Strawberry Blonde” pineapple juice with ON Serious Mass weight gainer and 2 fresh strawberries

Now your ready. You can unbuckle your seat belts, please do not feel fulfilled until the year has come to a complete end. Now that 2007 has to come to a close and 2008 has emerged, start off on the right foot. Combine the key elements you have just learned about and use it to your advantage. For more recipes, hints, and help feel free to email Glen directly at QualityShakesCafe@hotmail.com or check out our myspace page at www.myspace.com/qualityshakescafe.

Have a happy and healthy new year!