Millions of people around the world lift weights regularly and tons of teens want to get huge to impress the girls at the beach, so imagine how many people want to become a bodybuilder or think of becoming a bodybuilder, loads!  So is it competitive?  Yes, very, and is there a lot of money in it when you are a pro, some, but still a lot of Pro’s struggle and it is only the very top few that make a great living out of it as it is not a mainstream sport.

Unless you have incredible genetics, that means narrow hips, wide shoulders and thick legs you are unlikely to make it, although some have in the past like Frank Zane, it is very very hard.  Look at bodybuilding magazines and compare yourself to people in the same weight and age categories as you and see how you compare.  If you beat him and become number one of most shows you will still struggle to pay the bills, you need to be right at the top to make a good living.  Look at Kai Greene for example one of the top 10 bodybuilders in the world, he still finds it hard to find enough money to eat.

Don’t give up everything to become a pro bodybuilder, if you give up college and you don’t make it as a bodybuilder what do you have to fall back on, the only jobs available will be bouncer work or removals.

Enter contests and see how you stack up against the competition, speak to pro bodybuilders and ask them what they think of your chances to become a pro is, thats what I did.  When I seriously wanted to go all the way I asked a Pro to look at my physique and tell me what he thought my chances were.

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Becoming a male fitness model

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If you have developed a great looking muscular physique then you may be surprised at how easy it is to get some work, muscular athletic guys with well defined abs are in demand.  You do not need to be a huge bodybuilder to become a male fitness model but you certainly need to have definition and some quite thick muscle mass.  The most important thing is the abs, all the companies want killer abs, that means defined blocky abs not just a trim looking waist.  If your a muscular male you are much more likely to get work in fitness modeling than in fashion modeling, you will not get paid as well as fashion models but there are much more job opportunities.

Your first jobs as a male fitness model won’t pay well, lots of guys go in for fitness modeling to impress their friends and girlfriends, or to put pictures on their personal training website to help boost their personal training career.  Fitness photographers will either pay you a flat fee for your photos upfront or go 50:50 on the sale of the photo with you afterwards.

Getting fitness modeling jobs relies heavily on location to, you need to really be in a major city like London where you can easily travel to photo shoots, if you live too far away they will often not be interested as you may find it difficult to get to locations on time regularly.

Some pointers in the right direction-

• Mail your unsolicited photos to the editorial staff at magazines.
• Email your photos to fitness photographers who do the photos for major fitness magazines.
• Don’t worry about being in the perfect shape in your photos, the photographers can tell what you will look like coming up to the shoot so if your bulking currently it’s not a problem.
• Make sure your photos you send in focus on your abs and make sure to include a face shot.
• If asked for body part photos make sure to include just that, don’t put your head in that same photo it distracts from the muscle group and makes your muscle look smaller.
• Send in your body measurements with your photos e.g. arm size, neck size, chest size, height, weight etc

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I used to perform cheat sets regularly so that I could apply the maximum amount of weight possible to the muscle, however, after pulling my neck rather badly recently I tend to avoid them.  Although I have been training for over 10 years, and I certainly would not recommend them to beginners, I pulled my neck as with cheat sets you swing the body it is very easy whilst doing this to pull a muscle.  If you keep proper form it is unlikely you will get an injury, I believe by keeping proper form and thinking about it at all times you are unlikely to get an injury throughout all your years of training.  I have met bodybuilders who have injuries regularly, these bodybuilders that spring to mind do cheat sets all the time and tend to have poor technique.  I have met bodybuilders with great technique and form who have never had one injury in the past 20 years.  One injury can put you out for months, is it worth it when you can get the same results, if not better from avoiding this type of working out.

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One of the great sources of protein eaten by bodybuilders for decades is egg whites.  Consuming egg whites can be tricky and risky, first you have to crack all the eggs, get rid of the yolk, and put them in a glass to drink also with the risk of getting sick if the eggs are not in good condition.  Liquid egg whites can now be purchased from companies like Eggnation where you can buy egg whites in cartons or packets, these egg whites are tested to make sure they are safe and healthy to eat and can be drank straight out the carton.

Since companies like this consuming egg whites has been allot more appealing to me and I have tried Eggnation’s egg whites and now include them in my diet every other day. If you like egg whites like me, then this is a great company to check out, you will get similar results from a regular protein powder, protein powder will actually most likely be better at giving you better results than egg protein however I take it along with many other people because I have always liked eggs as a natural source of protein and have found them to give me great results for years, its a personal preference.

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Heres a great game to challenge your mates to and its a great way to get in shape to.  Get down in a press up position place a deck of cards in line with where your chin will come down to the ground.  Flip the top card over placing it facing upward to the right of the deck.  Whatever number is on the card you must do that number of press ups.  Ace is 13 King 12 Queen 11 Jack 10 and so on.  You can play this by yourself having a break after each time you finish but is much better to play with other people, here you can see it being demonstrated on Youtube.  This type of press ups is a popular game in prisons hence it being named “Prison press ups.”

Allot of people who are a bit hard up at the moment tell me their diet is suffering because they can’t afford the good foods, this shouldn’t be a problem even when times are hard there is no reason you can’t get good sources of protein.  Below is a list of cheap good quality protein sources.

• Canned tuna – you can buy these in packs of 5 and they are really cheap
• Cottage cheese – buy a large tub very cheap
• Peanut butter – buy a tub probably around £2 have a tablespoon a day
• Eggs – one of the best sources of protein – Read about the healthiest way to cook your eggs
• Brown rice – one of the best sources of good carbs and protein, you can buy this in huge bags for very cheap

Read our “Sources of Vegetarian proteins” for more cheap food that is high in protein.

As you can see from above the items you need in your diet that I constantly mention in my articles in this blog are very cheap so not having much money doesn’t mean you don’t have to eat well.  The luxuries like steak, fish, chicken etc can be left till you have more money but you will certainly not suffer.  When I had little money as a student I lived of brown rice and tuna and that was when I was in the best shape of my life.

Isolating muscle groups is one of the most important things when weight training.  As a personal trainer I instruct my clients on the best ways to isolate muscle groups so they can really work parts of that muscle they have never felt worked before.  Many bodybuilders for years never isolated muscle groups correctly and 99% of people in gyms think they are isolating muscle groups but are nowhere near the isolation I am talking about.  Below are examples of how to isolate different muscle groups through different isolation exercises.

Tricep over head extension

Standing with one arm raised in the air vertically holding a dumbell, lower the weight down behind your head keeping the top half of your arm vertical, push up to full extension at the top.  To isolate this muscle group in the best way get your personal trainer or spotter to push directly on your top half of your arm keeping it vertical.  Make sure you stand up straight and don’t swing the body to lift the weight.

Bicep curls

Stand holding a barbell hip width apart, perform a bicep curl from resting position to bring the bar 6 inches from your chest and then lower to resting position.  To isolate the bicep the best always after each rep return to resting position and at the top clench the bicep as if you were posing your bicep in front of a friend.  By returning to a relaxed position after each rep the arm has to go through the full contraction, if you keep it tensed you are only performing part of the rep.  Its the same as doing pull ups, it easy to come half way down and pull yourself back up but coming to the relaxed position at the bottom of the rep and pull yourself back up, much harder.

In London there are tons of great restaurants but here are a few great ones to get in those high protein meals, most of these restaurants are walking distance from Personal training studios W10.

Nandos - Nandos serve great tasting, well cooked, high protein chicken.  You can pick your chicken sizes and I can promise you they have stuff on the menu to satisfy the stomach of the hungriest of people. (£10 per head)

Gauchos – Great Argentinean steaks, I normally have a medium rare steak 500gr with spinach, a great healthy high protein dinner. (£30-£40 per head) – Which is the best type of steak to eat?

Rodizio Rico – All you can eat Brazilian barbecue, they will keep coming to your table here with food until you say stop.   Endless portions of assorted meats straight of the skewer at your table.  I highly recommend this place for groups of people over 4 but is still great just for 2. (£20 per head)

Only lift as heavy weights as you can still keep good form with whilst lifting, unless you are training the “cheat set” way then you can go much heavier but for most people this shouldn’t be the case.  The whole point of not lifting heavier than what you can keep good form with is so that you don’t injure your self and you ensure great isolation of the muscle group you are trying to work out.  If you are doing bicep curls and the weight is too heavy you will naturally swing your back to lift the weight, this will work the back not the bicep which you are trying to isolate.  Below I have listed common movements people make when trying to lift heavy weights that reduces the isolation process.

• Swinging back in bicep curls – works out back and less the biceps – Read how to do the “perfect bicep curl” for more info.
• Shoulder press doing mini squats to lift weight – works out legs and less on the shoulders
• Bench press pushing up with shoulders – works out shoulders and triceps more than chest.  Most people do this you need to really think about isolating the chest and pushing the chest through out the whole movement as the shoulders and triceps easily take over.  Read 10 ways to improve your bench press for more info.
• Lat flyes swinging the body and not getting to the top of the rep- works out traps allot more than the side of the deltoids.

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A client of mine at Personal training studios W10 asked me recently “How strict does my diet really need to be to reach my goals?” this was following her recently reading an article by a London personal trainer saying what to avoid eating at christmas.  Many personal trainers give their clients extremely strict diet advice both in person and to the general public when writing in a paper.  These strict diet measures certainly display a personal trainers in depth knowledge in fitness nutrition and to many people they may be happy with the extra advice feeling they are getting their moneys worth but is it really necessary?  I personally don’t think it is.  Most women when they come to us want to slim down to look good in a bikini, they don’t want to be a bikini model.  If you give people extreme diet measures they often won’t follow them, yet, if you give them diet measures that are less extreme but eases them gradually into a stricter diet they will most likely keep it up thus getting results.  Most people still can drink on the weekends, most people still can eat out once or twice a week but just need to pick the right drinks and food, this does not mean only having one drink on a night out and never eating a square of chocolate and this does not mean only eating turkey slices at lunch.  I often read articles in fitness and bodybuilding magazines that say you should never really eat protein bars because they are high in sugar and fat, I used to agree with this when I was trying to consume huge amounts of protein a day, but for people consuming one or two protein bars a week they are hardly going to notice much of a bodily difference by switching to protein powder.  Yes, protein powder is much lower in fat, but the convenience of unwrapping a protein bar vs blending a protein shake, its obvious the protein bar is far more time effective.  Strict diet measures are very easy for personal trainers to follow and professional athletes as this is what we do for a living and have time to do, but someone working from 7-7 each day with little time off needs a simpler diet to get results.  If they are trying to get down to very low body fat percentage then they will need to pre make most meals each day and keep to a very strict diet but the average client of ours should be able to find their diet in local shops and restaurants.

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