Welcome to Bodybuilding Times

Hello and welcome!

I decided to call this blog "Bodybuilding Times" for two reasons:

1. I want to build muscle hence the "bodybuilding" component.

2. It's the journalist in me. I love to read newspapers and follow the news so the word "times" just fit in naturally for me.

What's this all about you ask?

Well, for me, it's to chronicle my journey with gaining mass and muscle. I am not just doing it for exercise and to get stronger, but I want to change the way I look. Call me vain if you will, but I really like the look of a muscular physique. As Sisqo (of "The Thong Song" fame) once said, "The hard body never goes out of style." I agree because a muscular body just looks damn good! Of course, I don't have one right now as I have been making half-hearted attempts to increase my size over the years.

I'll start out by giving you a little background about me:

This is me, in Hawaii in 2006, age 25, still skinny.

I'm 28 years old, 6'4" and a weigh a little more than a buck fifty (167 pounds to be exact). I am thin and have never made an earnest attempt to increase my size and gain weight nor have I really pushed myself in the gym. In scientific terms, I am an ectomorph because I am tall and skinny. I have a fast metabolism and have trouble gaining weight as a result. However, I can get fat if I'm not careful with my diet. I have been like this most of my life and to be honest with you, it has been a source of self-consciousness with the way I look. My parents are thin as well including my sister so I am fighting genetics here. Yet, it's a fight that I want to win and hopefully will.


I'm certainly not an expert on any of this and everything that I do, I've learned on the Internet and from others. When I work out, I always go with the idea of slow and controlled movements to really maximize the results. It also helps to prevent injury because I am not jerking the weights and prevents cheating because I am not using momentum.

When people hear of bodybuilders, the word steroids comes to mind. I am a firm believer that you can gain muscle without them and instead I take other supplements as a result. Currently, I take protein which helps to promote muscle building and recovery after a workout. I take 2 scoops of this after a workout and then another 2 scoops before bed. According to AnswerFitness.com (http://www.answerfitness.com/335/take-protein-before-bed/), taking protein before bed helps to blunt catabolism (muscle breakdown) while you are sleeping. The recovery part means that whatever muscle was being worked on that day, can recover quicker so that it can be worked on again sooner.

I also take another supplement called creatine which is a vasodiolator which helps you workout harder and longer by increasing oxygen to your blood stream and boosting your energy levels. Creatine is very powerful because each 25 mg scoop contains 176 mg of caffeine. Don't take this close to bedtime or you will have a sleepless night!

Last but not least, I also am eating more, at least 5-6 meals a day. This is hard - I'm used to the standard 3 a day (sometimes 2 if it's the weekend and I've slept in). I basically eat in between meals and eat things like bananas, apples, yogurt, cheese and potato chips. This has been pointed out to me over and over as one of the key things to gaining mass.

I started a blog like this on WordPress but it was a halfhearted attempt. I saw the blog of another person tonight and became inspired to start it up again and give it all my go - just like my bodybuilding!

Stay tuned for the next update!