It’s the trend that just won’t die. Have a few conversations at a few parties, and you’ll get an earful about how consuming carbs will inevitably lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, double chins, double bellys and, ultimately, death. Carb phobia is even more pervasive among active women. Men say I cant eat carbs. I blow up. Women say I cant eat carbs I gain weight. I cant eat, I do cardio for hours and hours and still don’t loose weight!!!!

This is a shame, because in my experience, active women and men have the least to gain by going low-carb—and the most to lose. Carbs also provide many benefits, particularly to those who train with intensity. Like me

The key is to know the difference between different types of carbs and when to consume them. Here are six reasons you shouldn’t fear carbs, and my personal tips on what you should do to get the most from this maligned macronutrient. So sip on those BCAAs and enjoy the following tips.

1 CARBS CAN FUEL INTENSE TRAINING

Intense training leads to immense gains. But you can’t have a dance party without any dancers—and carbs are, without a doubt, the partiers of your body. They provide most of the energy you need to really dial it up, and without them, intensity quickly becomes misery. Cutting carbs too severely can leave you feeling lethargic, perhaps even miserable.

INTENSE TRAINING LEADS TO IMMENSE GAINS. BUT YOU CAN’T HAVE A DANCE PARTY WITHOUT ANY DANCERS—AND CARBS ARE, WITHOUT A DOUBT, THE PARTIERS OF YOUR BODY.

To have enough fuel to light up your workouts, I recommend drinking a shake with protein and powdered carbohydrates before or during your workouts. Another tried-and-true approach is to eat a small meal of carbs such as potatoes or yams an hour or so before training.

However you get them, consuming carbs during this window will help power you to better workouts.

2 CARBS HELP SPARE PROTEIN FOR BUILDING MUSCLE

One thing you may not know about protein is that it can be converted into blood glucose. I said “can be,” not “should be.” In fact, the last thing you want is for valuable protein to undergo this conversion because there aren’t adequate carbs around. Sure, you might lose some weight, but much of it will be from a loss of muscle. You need to have a lot of muscle mass to make a long-term, low-carb diet worth the effort.

The best way to prevent this from happening is to consume an adequate amount of carbohydrates each day. I recommend about 2 grams per pound of body weight when the goal is to maintain body weight or add muscle, and closer to 1 gram per pound when dieting.

I usually eat the majority of my carbs at two times: around workouts and when I’m really hungry. When I’m hungry, I eat fibrous veggies in big servings.

So unless you have a very good reason to do it, think twice.

3 VEGGIES PROVIDE YOUR BODY WITH CRUCIAL MICRONUTRIENTS
I have a rule about diet plans: If it recommends you cut out all carbs, including vegetables, don’t follow it—ever!

While most versions of what people call the paleo diet includes fibrous vegetables, other diets recommend cutting even highly nutritious carbohydrates. Even if you’re not cutting them out entirely, you’re often limiting them or weighing them out using complicated ratios.

Limiting fibrous veggies is for the birds! Aside from being filling, these are among the best sources of many vitamins and minerals. Your body needs these micronutrients to fight free radicals, the damaging chemicals caused by stressors such as intense training.

I HAVE A RULE ABOUT DIET PLANS: IF IT RECOMMENDS YOU CUT OUT ALL CARBS, INCLUDING VEGETABLES, DON’T FOLLOW IT—EVER!
Your sweat carries away vital minerals such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, and potassium when you work out, all of which are needed for growth, recovery, exercise performance, and overall health.

4 CARBS PROVIDE FIBER FOR ENHANCED HEALTH AND FITNESS
Regardless of whether your current goal is building muscle mass or losing fat, you need fiber—and plenty of it.

Fiber not only helps improve overall health, it also fills your stomach (and your toilet) and provides satiety between meals. It’s crucial for building and maintaining a healthy environment in your gut, as well—all of those healthy microbes eat fiber, too!

While you can take fiber supplements, they’re not a suitable replacement for the fiber you get from whole foods. In addition to fruits and vegetables, eat enough root vegetables, beans and legumes, and nuts and seeds. This is non-negotiable!

5 CARBS BOOST POST-WORKOUT RECOVERY
So you consumed enough carbs that you felt great going into your workout. Long story short, you crushed it—and now you feel crushed!

This is when more carbs can help you. Insulin gets a bad rap these days, but the truth is that at certain times, it definitely has its uses. For instance, post-workout, the insulin that gets released in response to the carbs you eat acts as an anabolic hormone, helping to drive protein to muscle tissue for better growth and faster recovery. This is why bodybuilders often consume sugar after they work out.

You don’t have to go that far, but you should definitely refill your carb tank with glycogen—the form of sugar your body stores up for energy—after depleting it through hard training. After all, you still have to make it through the rest of your day and to your next workout!

6 CARBS ARE DELICIOUS

This is news to nobody! Aside from what they do for us, carbs are popular because we all love to eat them. Women who train intensely often underestimate this aspect of carb consumption. We often cut carbs too drastically because we love being disciplined in our approach, but we end up feeling awful. Our bodies need to feel good to maximize growth and performance. This isn’t about being miserable!

Of course we’ve all experienced that tasty, regretful evening with Ben, Jerry, and all of their delicious mixed-in friends. Have they helped expand waistlines across the world? Of course! But newsflash: This isn’t the only way to get your carbs.

Consume enough carbs every day to feel good and fuel your body to smash your goals, and it’ll be easier to resist the lure of the freezer case! That’s a win any way you slice it.

But all of this is just advise. You can do whatever the fudge you wanna do!

Keep Punching and growing strong,

Crystal aka Barbell Barbie NY

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No matter how driven you are, if you stay in this game long enough, you’ll eventually run into a period where you just aren’t as motivated to go to war with the iron as you used to be. It could be many factors that contribute to this such as illness of cancer, heartache of a breakup, bills, worry of life, school, work, family.This can be the result of outside influences. Perhaps your social circle. Ok, well you get the point!!!

Sometimes the reasons are internal. You’re frustrated with your lack of progress and seem to be getting injured constantly. Or maybe training is just starting to seem a little too much like work.

I’m sure when you first hit the weights your enthusiasm and desire were strong. I was no different. As long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be big and strong. I remember as a child seeing some hot looking model on a Muscle and Fitness Hers Magazine and immediately thinking, “That’s how I want to look!”

By the time I was 16 years old I was training regularly with makeshift weights and doing anything that I thought would help me achieve my goals. I trained hard all year round throughout adolescence and high school, regardless of the sport I was playing.

While in the ROTC I’d even train while we were in the field by doing chin-ups from tree branches or push-ups with a loaded pack on my back, and invented many other ways to keep training under less than optimal conditions.

Even when I was going to School, working countless hours and raising a family at the same time, my motivation to train and compete never wavered. Beyond the issues of family life, beyond the pain of living in the ghetto, I was free when I trained.

Despite being as driven as I was, I eventually reached a place where the hunger suddenly wasn’t there. My goals didn’t seem as vital as they’d once been. Surprisingly, it happened at the least logical time.

It was just over four years ago when I experienced my first real lack of motivation and what I later realized was essentially psychological burnout. Oddly enough, I was coming off some great finishes and things couldn’t have looked better for me.

Yet in spite of all these factors, for the first time in my life I suddenly lost that deep desire to go to war with the iron. Fortunately, I was able to rekindle my desire. Here are the key strategies I used to keep the fires of motivation burning within me.

Focus On Your Goals
maintain-motivation
My goals have always driven me. On days I come home from work feeling exhausted and stressed, instead of crawling into bed I think about my goals and how rewarding it will be to achieve them. I know that if I continue to work hard that it’s only a matter of time before they’re realized. You were not born to mediocre. You have greatness inside of you and its your right to show it to the world.

I thrive on winning, and there’s no bigger high for me than celebrating a victory at a big competition or achieving a goal that’s been a long time coming. I live for those moments, and I know the only way they’re going to happen is if I work harder than everyone else trying to beat me. You have one life, one chance, one body. Make it Count!

Remember Your Critics

Next to my goals, my critics motivate me more than anything. There are few things in life as rewarding as proving a naysayer wrong. I’ve been told all my life that I’d fail. I have always been told your a mistake, Your too short, your too tall. Your too skinny, your too fat. Your too much of this and not enough of that. Early on, many important people in my life, like my coaches, teachers, and my peers would dismiss my aspirations; even my own friends and family members have mocked me at times.

Sometimes I’d hear about it through others or overhear someone else’s conversation, but often it was said to my face, as if my dreams were ridiculous and completely impossible. As painful as this was, it stirred a resolve deep within me.

I developed the mentality that if someone told me that I couldn’t do something, I was immediately determined to prove them wrong. Even now while I’m training, in between sets I’ll think about those that have said that I’d never achieve anything and then visualize doing exactly what they said couldn’t be done.

Surround Yourself with Like-minded People

Good training partners are invaluable. I’ve been fortunate enough to train and with some of the strongest girls around and many of these individuals have become my closest friends. We’ve pushed each other further than we thought possible – at times maybe even a bit too far – but there’s no doubt that training with a group of guys or girls like this can increase your odds of success ten-fold.

No matter how bad of a day you may be having, with the right group of girls or guys it’s nearly impossible to not give 100% every time you set foot in the gym.

We’d feed off each other’s energy and competitiveness, which often led to challenges within the group. Usually it was only for pride or bragging rights, but sometimes money would be thrown down on the gym floor to try to get each other to push even harder, especially when one of us might not have been having our best day.

The key was having guys within the group that not only wanted to succeed themselves, but also wanted the others to succeed just as bad or even more. While none of us ever wanted to lose a challenge, there was never any jealousy or back stabbing. We all supported one another 100% and were elated over each other’s success.

If a new guy came into the group and exhibited selfishness or looked for his own success at the expense of another’s, he was quickly given the boot, and over the years that happened more than once.

Unfortunately, our lives have lead us to different places and today we’re spread all over the country, but we all stay in touch and continue to support and motivate each other.

When All Else Fails – Take a Break
Motivated
No matter how bad-ass or hardcore you might think you are, the possibility of burnout still exists. I learned this the hard way. While many top competitive lifters would schedule breaks after big meets, I was always the type of guy that was back in the gym a day or two after a competition, no matter how beat up I felt. I saw any amount of time off as a wasted opportunity for progress.

Yet despite that level of drive, I reached a point after more than two and a half decades of training and over ten years of frequent competitions where I suddenly experienced a lack of motivation. While there were a number of factors in play, I realize that my penchant for pushing myself at a relentless pace led to an inevitable psychological burnout.

I was in the middle of preparing for a big meet when this feeling of apathy began to creep up within me. It started slowly but grew steadily, and soon my training was uninspired and lacked the usual intensity.

Shockingly, my training cycle was still going well, so I decided to compete as planned, but with the lack of desire and focus, I was called high on all three squat attempts and I bombed out of the meet.

The worst part about failing to get a single lift was that afterward it didn’t even bother me. Instead of feeling immense disappointment and immediately resolving to do better, I experienced a sense of relief as if a great burden had been lifted from me.

Never having experienced this before, I saw it as a clear indication that it was time to walk away from the sport I’d been passionate about for so long. While my decision was rash and probably extreme given the situation, it seemed perfectly logical to me at the time.

I soon realized that all I really needed was a break. Along with my recent success had come an increased level of expectations and pressure. Without having allowed myself any type of break, it was only a matter of time before I started to feel overwhelmed and my desire faded. As simple as it sounds, it was a revelation for me.

However, it only took three weeks of not setting foot in a gym or picking up a weight. I woke up one morning and my desire for lifting had returned and in spades. I couldn’t wait to chalk up my hands and get back under a heavy bar. I immediately threw on my training clothes, ran to the gym, loaded up the bar and picked up right where I’d left off less than a month before.

Motivation, Discipline, Commitment, Strong Habits Get you to where you need to be.
The road to success is hard and lonely guys. You have one life, So make the rest of your life the best of your life.

Your friend and Coach,

Crystal aka Barbell Barbie. NY

References:
https://www.t-nation.com/training/how-to-stay-motivated
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/after-work-gym-motivation
http://www.mensfitness.com/training/5-ways-to-get-motivated

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1. Avoid junk food altogether.

No more McDonalds, Burger Kind, KFC and kebab. Junk food gives you “empty calories” and unneeded weight loss.

2. No more beer.

A tough one for many. Beer can be fattening if had on a regular basis.

3. Eat only until satisfied. Too many people eat and eat and eat even if they’ve had enough. Eat only till you’re satisfied.

4. Drink a glass of water before you start a meal. Water naturally needs some space so that you feel fuller without actually having to stuff yourself.

5. Boil your vegetables instead of cooking them, or even better, eat them fresh.

6. Go on a juice detox.

7. Get some good sleep. Sleep is vital to body rejuvenation and repair so make sure you get some good sleep and keep your timings consistent. Lack of sleep can contribute to lack of weight loss.

If you’ve got some “different” tips for creative weight loss, please share them…

As always this is just advice. You can do whatever the fudge you wanna do

Have a blessed weekend and Great Valentines with your loved one!!

Your friend and coach,

Crystal aka Barbell Barbie NY

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No ifs, ands, or buts: If you want a nice butt, you must train for it. If an Olympian wants to be the fastest swimmer, longest jumper, or most precise marksman, she has to train for it. The swimmer isn’t going to swim twice per week, then head over to the archery range a couple times, and follow it up with a few hours of sprint drills. She’s going to swim until mastery is achieved.

The rules are no different when it comes to building a strong, round pair of cheeks. But there’s an additional upside here: Prioritize butt-building—namely getting your glutes beastly strong—and your entire body will look incredible.

For that reason alone, it’s almost your duty to train that booty, and train it well. Here’s how to build stronger glutes and get that desired physique:

PICK WELL FOR YOUR POSTERIOR
Set up your workout regimen to directly correlate with the outcome you want. If you want a better booty—and more important—a better body, you need a program that matches that goal. Sounds simple, but so many workouts performed by women are way off the mark, even when they are designed specifically for women. Don’t even get me started on the typical “bro-gram” that many women do in the gym.

Glute building is different than powerlifting. Muscles don’t know weights, they respond to mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and muscle damage. It’s not about how much weight you can move, it’s about how much weight you can move with the glutes. Having said that, the stress you apply to your glutes needs to increase over time, whether that’s weight, time under tension, volume—whatever. You won’t improve your glutes if they never have to adapt to new stimuli.

BETTER GLUTES TRAINING REGIMEN
Put together a workout to help you get started. Note that 66 percent of the exercises target the glutes from multiple angles. The remaining percentage involves compound upper body exercises.

For best results, do a full-body workout that includes some glute work four times per week.

Don’t focus on how long you train, but how efficiently. A typical training session can last between 45 and 60 minutes. Don’t let this year pass you by. Control your health and wellness. We have one life. Lets make the most of it! Never stop! Never settle.

But all of this is just advise. You can do whatever the fudge you wanna do

Keep growing strong,

Crystal aka Barbell Barbie.NY

References:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/97293-butt-exercises-women/
http://www.my-health-site.com/butt-busting-exercises.html
http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/butt/exercises/our-top-10-exercises-to-tone-your-butt/

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