Awesome Article interesting read

Skip LaCour continues to be a role model for me and thousands of other natural athletes around the world. He recently published and article discussing the secrets to success in natural bodybuilding and dieting! Really great read

Here is the shorter recap:

1. Don’t think of being drug-free an insurmountable obstacle preventing you from building a great physique. You first must believe that it is indeed possible to create some amazing things with your physique without drugs. You must believe there is still a way to accomplish more with your physique even if you’ve had some pretty good gains in the past. Immediately separate yourself from those negative people who say it is impossible for you to do so.

2. Don’t worry about who’s taking drugs and who is not. The battle to become your very best is always against yourself—not against anyone else who is using drugs. Whether or not someone else is using drugs has no bearing on what you can and can’t accomplish with your own physique. Worrying about who is on drugs, however, can have a seriously detrimental affect on everything you are trying to do.

3. Be patient. If you want to reach your full genetic potential without using drugs, you must look at your bodybuilding endeavors like the elite natural bodybuilders. You must look at your bodybuilding efforts as a series of long-term lifestyle choices. Instead of only setting short-term goals like seeing how huge you can get by next summer, create a clear vision of what you want to look like after five more years of living a disciplined bodybuilding regimen.

4. Develop certainty and confidence on a day-to-day basis with the training and eating habits you choose. Whatever strategies you choose, get the most out of them by exerting extraordinary effort. Make up for what others perceive as disadvantages with your exceptional work ethic, mindset, training habits, and eating regimen. When looking for a good workout routine or eating plan, look to one of the successful drug-free bodybuilders you admire most for guidance. That way, you won’t have the convenient excuse that your plan didn’t work because you are training naturally. You’ll begin with a little more certainty and look a little bit more closely at your level of commitment if things don’t work out for you as quickly as you’d like.

5. Be persistent. Even though you train without drugs, become relentless in your pursuit of finding a series of effective strategies that will help you reach your outrageous bodybuilding goals. Keep searching for the right answers. Who knows? Maybe the next one you try will launch you into a new level of massive growth.

6. Train with intensity. Training hard does not mean the same as training with intensity. Intensity can be described as giving 100 percent of your mind, body, and soul in every exercise, every set, every repetition, and every workout. Intensity means pounding the weights in a way that is so darn taxing that every single set ends in absolute failure. In other words, you have absolutely nothing left in reserve when the set is completed—not a 1/2 of a rep, a 1/4 of a rep, or even a 1/8 of a rep more. Intensity is maintaining this high standard of performance throughout an entire workout. Never be satisfied with your level of performance in the gym. Continually strive for the always improving, seemingly barely out-of-reach incredible standard of intensity when you train.

7. Train hard all year long. You must train hard in the gym and eat the right foods all year long if you really want to reach your ambitious goals. You don’t have steroids or other drugs to compensate for mediocre, inconsistent training and eating habits.

8. Keep the number of calories you eat relatively high. You must control your metabolism if you want to duplicate the success of the top drug-free bodybuilders. Keep your caloric intake relatively high. Make your body gear its metabolism up—and prevent it from ever gearing down. If you have an average or slower metabolism, eat a lot of food and do a lot of cardiovascular training to keep your metabolism running hotter and more efficiently. If you have a faster metabolism, you must be extremely
committed to eating frequent meals that contain more nutrient-dense calories.

9. Stay relatively lean all year long. In the off-season, eating efficiently is what will build muscle. Do not eat to get fat. Do not eat to stay lean. Eat to build muscle. Consistently feed yourself high-quality protein for muscle growth and enough carbohydrates to keep you feeling strong. After prioritizing those needs, consume as much food as you feel comfortable eating while still managing your body fat levels.

10. Place a heavy emphasis on protein consumption. Protein is the most important nutrient for building muscle without drugs. Without enough high-quality protein, you are not going to grow at the rate you deserve to grow—and I don’t care how hard you train in the gym. Make protein powder and meal replacements the foundation of your supplementation program.

For the full article, please click: www.skiplacour.com/secrets.pdf