BSN Challenge Week 1

What’s up my readers , today we‘ll talk about the week that has passed.

So as you may or may not know, I have been taking part in a challenge, made by BSN and Bodybuilding.com.

Anyway, this was the first week of the challenge.

It was a pretty good week, although my training intensity wasn’t so perfect, as I was a little bit sick from the previous week.

But that’s ok, I tried to do my best and I had good workouts.

I went 4 times to the gym and worked each muscle group twice.

As you may or may not know my training split is :

1. MON (Chest, triceps, shoulders)
2. TYE (Back,Legs,Biceps)
3. WEN Rest
4. THUR (Chest, triceps, shoulders)
5. FRI (Back,Legs,Biceps)
6. SAT Rest
7. SUN Rest

 three exercises for each muscle group.

Now let’s move on nutrition !

Alright, my plan was to be in caloric surplus for the week, by 100 calories, 2400 calories.

My Workout days were 2550 calories and my Rest days 2200.

Workout Days :

• Carbs : 260-270 gr.
• Protein : 190-200 gr.
• Fats : 60-70 gr.

Rest Days :

• Carbs : 160-170 gr.
• Protein : 190-200 gr.
• Fat : 60-70 gr.

Saturday morning , I wake up, went to bathroom and then checked to see how we are going on the scale.

It said ….

151.2 pounds (68.6 kg)

Which is 0.2 pounds (0.1 kg) more.

This might be water, or glycogen or anything.

Anyway, I believe I am in the right direction, obviously it will be better if I had gained 0.2 pounds more, but let’s see what the next two weeks have to offer.

My nutrition plan is going to be the same for the upcoming week also.

I don’t want to rush anything, being patient is very important, i ‘ll check my weight in a week ,Saturday and see what it will say.

One more thing I want to mention, two years ago I didn’t want to bulk, cause I was fear that I will gain fat, I didn’t wanted that at all.

But now I learned that building muscle without being in caloric surplus and steroids-free person isn’t going to happen !

Maybe if you are newbie to weightlifting.

Anyway, so if you are also this type of  guy don’t stop your gains just because you are afraid of  being in caloric surplus.

If you decide to bulk up and see your self  a week after not so vascular don’t panic and say that you gained fat.

Not at all ! Don’t panic people !

You just have more water due to the increase in carbohydrates,

You can’t be ripped year around, it’s not healthy and you aren’t going to build muscle.

It’s like constructions, if you don’t put the concrete you can’t build a building, the same rule applies on muscle development, fat is the concrete. You are going to gain a bit of fat, but not from the first week.

If you do it carefully and eating healthy and nutrient dense foods you aren’t going to gain much fat and when its time, you cut for a month or two and you reveal all the hard work you put on !!! 

And let me tell you, it will be epic !!!

So come on guys its Bulking season !!!

Although this doesn’t mean eating whatever your see on sight !

You can follow the 80-20 rule or even better the 90-10.

Let me explain what that means

It means that 80-90 % of your meals will be clean foods and 20-10 % will be a cheat meal.

This will keep you on track and keep your diet in check.

Hope I helped and rethink your nutrition philosophy.

If you have any questions feel free to ask at kostkopanos@hotmail.com

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Recipe : Banana Oat Pancake

Banana oatmeal pancakes

Ingredients :

1)  4 egg  whites
2) 1 mediun banana
3) 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt
4)1 cup of old fashioned oats
5)Cinnanon *
6)1-2 teaspoons sweetener *

    *Optional

Instructions :

1. Smash the eggs into a mixing bowl (no, without the cell) and separate the yolks.
2. Now start wisking it, i prefer to do it cause the pancake is fluffier and rise a little bit more.
3. After wisking it, you add the oats, you start mixing the oats with the egg whites until they combine.
4. Then you will add the banana (smashed)
5. With the banana add the yogurt also,and the seasonings.
6. Now stir it for little until all the ingredients compine together.
7. Preheat the pan on medium to low heat .
8. When it's hot enough (when you drop water it makes bubbles), put 1 tablespoon of olive oil and spare it all over the pan.
9. Now  it's time to put the butter into the pan, spare it to cycle it.
10. Check it out after 1 minute to see if it's ok from the bottom and flip it !
11. Be careful thought it wants some training !
12. Enjoy !!!

 Nutritional facts :

 Whole recipe :

 Calories : 570

 Protein : 30

 Fats : 7

 Carbs : 83

I eat this 1,5 hours before training. It's amazing and you feed your body

If you want to adjust it you can, for example if you want more carbs to put a little bit more oats or banana.
If you want more protein add more yogurt,  egg whites or even protein powder .
If you want more fat add some yolks, peanut butter, anything you like
I don't have fats cause it's pre workout meal  and fats slow down even more the absorption, so it isn't very convenient for me.

Well that's it guys, i hope you give a try my recipe and like it.

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Lean Mass Phase

Hello Art of six pack !

Today we'll talk about what my nutrition plan is, as well as what my goals are.
As i said in previous post  i am currently doing (something like a) reverse diet (in my opinion).
 But anyway let's go to details

All right, my caloric surplus on weekly basis will be 100 calories.
You might think it's little, but for me i think it will work.
In any case though, trial is the best you can do.
Bodybuilders have spent years of trials and error in order to find the best nutrition and training plan for them.
So i will monitor my weight every week and see where i will be.

For three weeks i will be eating 2500 calories on workout days and 2250 on rest days.
On workout days my carbs will be 10-15 gr more tha before.
That's 260-270 grams.
My protein almost the same , 190-200 gr.
And my fats 60-70 gr.
Now , on rest days my carbs will be 160-170 gr.
My protein and fats will be the same as on workout days
Pr : (190-200) Fat : (60-70)

When hitting the iron (icon)my split will be the same.

         MON (Chest, triceps, shoulders)

         TYE (Back,Legs,Biceps)

         WEN Rest

         THUR (Chest, triceps, shoulders)

         FRI (Back,Legs,Biceps)

 three exercises for each muscle  group.

I hope i gain muscle  in the upcoming weeks.
About the weight gain i believe 0,5-0,7 kg (1-1,25 pounds) per month is great for me.

Oh i almost forgot it    !
I am very exited, cause i will take part in a Challenge , created by Bodybuilding.com and BSN
Its a challenge with a duration of 6 weeks.
In this time you have to do your best in order to bring an improved version of yourself.
It has two options, either you bulk up or shred fat. I choose the bulk.
Anyway, somewhere in December they will anounce the winners!

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Cutting Phase Done, Now what ?

What's up my reader's, today we 'll talk about my cutting phase and what's coming next.

Let's start from the beginning, as i said in another post , my cutting phase started somewhere in March and ended in October.
It was an pretty interesting experience, with struggle at some points, but when you looking in the mirror and seeing an improved version of your self, you are so happy .
You have accomplished one more goal, and you like your self even more !!!
Cause you improved it and that's what i am looking forward to do !

The start was tough, not because of food  but because i didn't knew what to do. And keep in mind that i knew my calorie maintaince level.
I was searcing  on the Internet information about how to cut.
I was confused at the beginning, but then i figure it out.
The problem was that i was seeing carb cycling and which at the time i didn't knew it's a different thing.

If you don't know what carb cycling is,  let me tell you.
It's a way of manipulating carbohydrates, in order to lose fat and build muscle  at the same time , sounds awesome doesn't it.
Although it's great for fat loss,  when it comes to build muscle , i believe lean bulk is your best bet.
Anyway so you cycle your carbohydrates, 1 High carb day (2-2,5 gr per pound), 3 Low  days (0,5-1 per pound) and  3 Medium days (1,5 gr per pound)
Fat intake should also cycle, opposite to carbohydrates. When you have high carbs you should keep fat intake minimum, and when low carbing your fat go up . When medium , aim about 20 - 25% of your total calories.
Protein can be the same same for convenience, but if you don't mind you can also change it.
When High carb your protein will be the lowest of the week (1-1,1 gr per pound)
On the other hand when low carb,  you will have the highest (1,5-1,7),the medium (1,25-1,4)
Rate of fat loss should be about 1 pound per week.
If you don't lose for 3 weeks decrease your calories.
On the high carb day your calories will be in excess of maintenance level,  in order to kick start the fat loss progress.
When restricting calories your metabolism slows down .
But weekly you must be in caloric deficit.
I will be posting a article about cutting prety soon  , with even more details.

After that break let's keep going....  Where was i ,  oh yeah, so i read  a lot of articles and finally had a idea of how to start. Believe me that was the toughest thing.
In the beginning i didn't monitored my macronutrients closely, only the carbohydrates and of course the calories.
I started with a deficit of 100 calories, you might think it's too little, but for me it worked prety well, i lost 1 pound the first week, zero the next and zero the next one. So i maked another deficit of 100 calories.
In the third week i said "i must hit the macros "
From that point on, my fat loss Kickstarted !!! I was watching not only the carbs but protein and fat also.
 *And for the history, i wasn't trying to have enough protein, on the contrarary, i was trying not to pass the consumption.
My carbs were spreaded : 35% pre workout
                                          20% post workout(Simple)
                                          25% post workout 2(Complex) (1 hour from your 1st post)
                                          20% for the rest of the day.
 *For my personal preference this 20% i had it at breakfast .

My protein was prety much spreaded evenly.
About fats, i consumed them whenever i wanted expect pre and post workout.
Cause they slow down  the absorption of the carbs. Witch isn't bad, but when you are going to workout you want to absorb all of them, especially if you cutting.


Now that we covered nutrition, let's talk about cardio.
As i said before  ,in the beginning i was doing two sessions per week.
But then i changed it to every Sunday by doing Hiit
My training split is and was : MON (Chest, Triceps, Shoulders)
                                               TYE (Back,Legs,Biceps)
                                               WEN Rest
                                               THUR (Chest, Triceps, Shoulders),
                                               FRI (Back,Legs,Biceps), three exercises for each muscle  group.


For the past two  weeks i have been on higher calories. More specifically 100 more on weekly basis.
On rest days i am consuming 2000 calories. With carbs at 1 gr per pound.
In addition to that i have carbohydrates in my other two meals. When I was cutting i consumed only in breakfast  80 grams of carbs.
On workout days i am 15 gr more in compare to last week of my cut.
I checked my weight and it was stable at 151 lbs(68,5 kg).
For the upcoming week i am going to increase my calories another 100 and my carbs (only on workout days by 10-15 grams).
 Of course if the weight changes i am going to adjust it.
 If i gain more than 0,5 pound (0,200 kg) then i 'll drop the calories.
 If i lose more than 1 pound (0,400 kg) i will increase the calories by 100.
 After establish the nutrition plan i will check my weight after 1 week.
 I weight in every week and right after i wake up and of course go toilet .

Well that was it folks.

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Mistakes made & Lessons Learned 1

What's up my viewers, so today I have a little surprise  for you !

The blog will have a special article category which will have some of my experiences i had and what i learned from that.

Of course the name will be "Mistakes made & lessons learned"

So let's start!!! 

All right,  today's post will be about my third year of training.

I will talk about my WRONG approach to "bulk" and how this affected me, counting macros good or bad and my first ever cutting phase . 

Let's begin with the bulking.

In the past years i didn't monitored consistently my weight,  but i was stable in the 64 kg, somewhere i believe . As i said in another post, i didn't knew anything about nutrition and i never attempted to gain weight,  my phylosophy was to train and eating protein at every meal to support new muscle . I didn't want to get any fat at all. But this year i was more "suspected" about nutrition, i learned things about bulking and i pretty much had an idea .

Now let's move to the first mistake, finally , some of you, might say, if you just want to read the mistakes and lessons just go down where i summarizing.

But before you go, i just want to tell you that, i was also this type of guy, searching for headlines and not the full description.  But thankfully for me i realized that reading the full article is more beneficial.

So,  normally i was eating two sandwiches with turkey and some feta (Greek cheese).
One day I said to include a fruit, and so i was taking an apple with me.

One day the apple was small so i said take two to balance it.  But that wasn't the only problem

Before that, my Sundays was pretty low in calories as i was waking up prety late so i didn't had much meals

But this changed , i had much more meals and the calories were higher also.

The result was to gain weight, and increase my fat %  
The feeling you get when you see yourself having love handles  Anyway i learned my lesson and started counting macros better and somewhere in March i started my  first cutting phase .  It was pretty weird as i was very confused on how it is done.
I didn't have any knowledge on that subject. I was searching on the Internet, trying to find how is it done.

This brings me to the 2nd lesson learned, i noticed that when i was tracking macros and trying to hit them precisely , my fat loss progress run wild   

Now let's talk about cardio ,  in the beginning of the cut i was doing two sessions per week immediately after my workout. 

My split was MON (Chest, triceps, shoulders) (Cardio)
                    TYE (Back,Legs,Biceps) 
                    WEN Rest
                    THUR (Chest, triceps, shoulders) (Cardio)
                    FRI (Back,Legs,Biceps)
My cardio was on Monday and Thursday. As you see they were the day before Legs.

Big mistake, your cardio must be separated from your leg training by 24 hours at least.
So i changed it to Sunday, by doing Hiit!

Lesson learned  & mistakes made :

1)Increase in calories (Sudenly) .  ( Watch  your calories people.)

2)Cardio too close to leg training (Must be 24 hours apart minimum)

3)Counting macros persistently (not trying to go overboard) helped me lose fat faster.

So pretty much that was it, hope you enjoyed and benefit from it

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The canvas of six pack

So here we are!!!
But before...  Let's go for a little to the past,  where all began!!!
I have been thinkingfor quite some time the idea  of sharing my thoughts , my stories , and trying to motivate people to get into the fitness lifestyle.

 Just like others made for me,  cause as 1 of the rules of Fitness says "Give something back".

Ohby the way let me introduce myself,my name is kostas, i am 18 years old and currently studying in university   (you all know what that means...  

Early rising   ). 

I have to admit that one of the reasons I 

am writing today and have in my property this physique    (not  trying to be arrogant)is because of my dad (i feel like a i am standing on the stage and receiving an Oscar

When I was a child  (10 -14) my dad was hitting the weights  and i was telling him to go with him but i was too young to lift weights so i forgot it (from my psychological experience  i am guessing that i wanted to be with my dad) I love you dad(Sorry  for being sentimental)    Anyway let's go away from the Oscar receiving psychology...(I hope you forgive me )

 And suddenly it hit me.It seems that the spark was still there inside me for years and smoulding.

 So i told my dad and he said ok  let's go and ask. I started lifting at the age of 15,  i was so sore the next day that with every move i was doing i was in pain    
My first year was pretty good,I maked gains and transform my self from a skiny shy person to a athletic not so shy. 
In the gym i was feeling great, not shy at all !!!  i had so much confidence
The weightlifting changed not only my body but my life also ! I am more social now (so why not YOU too !!! ) I encourage you to start and i guarantee that  your life will never be the same !!!  
The 2nd year was even better, i had some knowledge, i taken care of my nutrition  (no cheats at all ),my training...  
And we came to the  3rd year which was a awesome year. 
This year i was studying for my exams to go to the university   in addition to that i had to take exams for proficiency...  witch i succeed .
 This year was really tight for me,  but despite my liabilities i was still weightlifting. In fact my training was always on, i might missed 8 training days in total,  and my nutrition was outstanding, sweet potatoes, brown rice, you name it,protein at every meal and no cheats. If you want something bad enough , you can make it happen. This applies for everything not only achieving a great body. 
After the flash back ,let's go to today and what the future holds(what i hope at least) . 
This blog is going to represent my personal contribution to the fitness lifestyle. 
There will be a variety of posts, from articles to stories. 
And all of them will serve a purpose , MOTIVATE people , show them that they CAN and they WILL ! 
My dream is to see this blog become the 1# in fitness and motivate million of people per year not only for fitness, but for hole other reasons , from fitness to business. I also have been thinking about having clothing in my blog someday. 

Now let's go to our goals, for starters i want to have viewers who will visit me, and when a post goes by they can't wait to read it , not necessarily a crazy number, (if they are 5 you welcome).
Secondly i will try to increase this number with my continues work.

 Let's say i hope you guys like my blog, and become a part of it. Let's Start !!!

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