The Truth About Building Muscle by Sean Nalewanyj

For all of you who don't know this is a book/program that expresses that their method is the best way to gain muscle. The sum the workouts is revolved around the 5-7 rep range and reaching muscle failure in every set. Muscle failure is when you can not humanly push out another rep, you want to reach this between your 5-7 rep, if you only manage to do 4 or less the weight is too heavy or do more that 7 reps the weight is too light. After you reach muscle failure in your set, you must wait 2-5 minutes to recover you creatine phosphate stores to be able to push out another set just as hard. You most definitely need a training partner, as each and every set you reach failure it can be quite dangerous if you drop the weight on yourself - Choose yourself a good training buddy!

The program was as followed a 3-day split; Legs & Abs - Chest, Shoulders & Triceps - Back & Biceps. Normally 12 sets per workout.

My review of the program:
Strength Gains: 8/10
Size Gains: 5/10
Time Effective: 7/10
Fun: 6/10

Strength gains where amazing, however size didn't increase as much as I would have hoped. It took me and my training partner close to a hour and half to finish the session, but only 3 times a week is not too bad. As for fun, I personally love amping myself up and SMASHING 5 reps of a HEAVY weight! However the 2-5 minutes rest is can be quite boring.

Feel free to post any comment and questions!

Current Diet

This is my current nutrition intake, I've included options both meal and portions so you can mix and match, for both your taste and your calorie intake. I work with Kilojoules(KJ) instead of calories - so to work it out divide the KJ by 4 to get calories. I'm not strict on Protein:Carb:Fat ratios as long as I get sufficient caloriies and protein to achieve my goals.

Breakfast - 2000kj or 500 Cal

-4 egg whites/ 1 yolk with 2 pieces of toast OR

-Oatmeal with sulatanas and almonds.

Mid-Morning - 700kj (WPI) or 2200KJ(Max's Supersize)

-Protein shake & 1 piece of fruit

Lunch -  2000kj

-Spaghetti/Pasta OR

- 2 cans of tuna (95g cans) and 1 small tub of yoghurt

Post-Workout - 500kj (WPI) or 2000KJ (supersize)

-Protein Shake

-MultiVitamins

Dinner - 2000kj

-Chicken breast or steak or fish with salad or vegs or sweet potato

Nighttime - 700kj (WPI) or 2200KJ (Supersize)

-Protein shake & piece of fruit

January 2011 Update

Started a new year starting a new body! My knee's are still going through rehab but I have quit the drinking and have started a 4 day split, trying out a new rep range of 8-10 as oppose to my old rep range of 5-7.

I am not happy with the method of dirty bulking, as I've gained too much size over a short amount of time I have also gained quite a bit of fat with it. In February, I plan to undertake Max's 12 week body transformation challenge, not really expecting to win but just to give me motivation, I plan on getting down to under 10% body fat, which roughly means losing 8kg whilst maintaining my muscle( or increasing it =]), and will start fresh May counting calories and 'clean bulking' to see if that works better for me.

I also start full time Personal Training at Fitness First in February, Wish me luck! And message me if you need a personal trainer : )

November and December 2010

These months were absolute crap for me (training wise), first week of November I had a nasal surgery because I had problems breathing through my nose (carried on throughout childhood) post-surgery it left my out of the gym for 3 weeks.

After the 3 weeks, I went for a run only to find that I had knee pains. Visited a physiotherapist and got told that i had pronated feet ( flat feet ) and that I had a muscle imbalance where my vastus lateralis was overpowering my VMO, because of this my knee's weren't tracking properly. And this left me from doing any exercise involving my knee's (cardio, leg workouts etc.)

Unfortunately, I spent these holiday months and the time off partying and drinking, wasting 2 months of training.

Progress up to start of November (8 weeks)

After the first 3 weeks, I gained a massive 13kg!! Which now I know wasn't all muscle, as it's impossible for a natural trainee to gain that much muscle in that short amount of time.

Here was the progress photo after 3 weeks:

I was 70kg with 9.8%BF - This was measured at my gym using their BIA Scales.

I kept on training hard every week for the next 5 weeks (8 weeks total) and my strength increased dramatically, Bench went from 45kg to 100kg, 60kg squats to 115kg squats, 60kg deadlifts to 120kg deadlifts and doing only a few chin ups to being able to reach close to 15.

This is a progress photo after 8 weeks of weight training:

Here I weighed 73kg with 14%BF which was measured by skinfold test at the Australian Institute of Fitness (as I was studying to become a personal trainer).

After Week 1

My style of training was inspired by The Truth About Building Muscle, I was currently taking Max's Supersize WPC Protein and training 3 times per week.

After the first week of training I gained 3kgs, here is a progress photo:

So I was weighing around 60kg, and body fat was still quite the same

September 2010 - The Start of the Journey

Up to now(Sept 2010), I've never really followed any weight lifting program to increase my size, strength etc. My lean, tone and skinny body was from the years of practicing martial arts.

Heres a picture taken off me:

As you can see I'm quite toned but very skinny, almost no mass on my chest, arms are decent, only thing going was some abs. I was 57kg with 6% Body Fat (BF), this was measured by sport science students whilst I spent a semester there studying Sport Science