The Muscle Couple is always looking around at the beginning of every year for new and exciting breakthroughs in the supplement industry.

We think we found one worth mentioning.

P28 High Protein Bread

Check out the Nutritional Label and you will see the protein grams are greater than the carbs.   A big positive in our eyes.

It also lists ingredients from oats, flaxseed, sunflower seed and millet and contains a solid blend of omega-3 EFA’s.   It’s cholesterol free and a good source of fiber as well.

We see this product as a great source of carbs and protein as a pre or post workout snack.   You can obviously also get additional protein when making healthy sandwiches adding leans meats like Turkey or chicken.

TMC envisions eating this toasted with Egg White in the morning.  Yumm.

You can order it at the link above.  We also assume it is/will be available at supplement discount sites online.

Feel free to leave comments on the blog letting us know what you think of the product.

MIHWCS

The Muscle Couple is happy to see Anh motivated and excited to to get her pre-pregnancy figure back.

Here is her current:

Diet-Abs and Cardio Routine:

• 8AM-1 VPX Meltdown
  

• 8:30AM-Cardio for 30minutes (Stairmaster at Gold’s Gym or Stationary Bike @Home)-Moderate Intensity for first two weeks)

• 9AM-Protein Shake with Udo’s Oil (30gms Protein with 14gms Fat Udo’s Oil)

• 11:30AM-1 VPX Meltdown

• 11AM-Breakfast-Egg Whites with turkey and spinach/ or Oatmeal with Whey Protein(25-35gms P, 40gms C, 10gms F)
• 2:45PM 1 VPX Meltdown

• 3PM-Muscle Milk Lite (20gms P/9gms C/5gms F)
  

• 6-7PM-Dinner-Lean Protein with green veggies/salads (25-35gms P/30-40gms C/20-25gms F (EFA’s hopefully)
  

• 8:30PM-Abs(Hanging Leg Raises or Lying Contracted Rectus Crunches)

• 10PM-Muscle Milk Lite or Oatmeal with whey protein (20gms P/5gms F/25gms C (if Oatmeal)

Currently Anh weighs 118 pounds.

Her ideal weight is about 110 pounds(lean and toned)

Target Macronutrient %’s Daily:

Protein: 120-140 gms

Carbs: 130-150 gms

Fat:  45-60 gms

Total Kcals Targeted Per Day

1480-1500

12.62 kcals per pound of bodyweight

As her cardio becomes more intense and she adds resistance training we’ll add protein and kcals in the form of “The Muscle Couple Mix” when training.

In the next installment we’ll detail her Vitamins and Supplements and also her “normal day” taking care of Alexandra and Gabriella.  We’ll also attach some photos of what she currently looks like.

MIHWCS

The Muscle Couple is very exited to see Anh return to her pre-pregnancy form again.  Officially she got the go ahead from her OB and she resumed light cardio training yesterday.

Our goal is to completely chronicle her return:

• Before Photos
• Current Photos
• Diet
• Supplements
• Cardio
• Weight Training
• Photos and Videos documenting the transformation
• Her Diary

Here are photos of her the night before she gave birth (December 16th, 2009).  (And yes we’re showing you her in her bathing suit so everybody can see full details of her skin/body/physique etc)

Tomorrow we’ll show photos of how she looks “right now”.

After that we’ll provide her current cardio routine, diet and supplements.  She won’t resume focused resistance training for at least 3 weeks why she builds up her endurance and core strength again.

Thanks for following.  Feel free to leave questions on the blog about anything relating to her quest.

MIHWCS

The Muscle Couple hit up the LA Fit Expo on Saturday January 23rd and we took a lot of photos.

We snapped some shots of some celebs and also took shots of booths we thought offered true value in either their product or their message.

We are going to do a couple of separate blogs on some of the new products/clothing lines we checked out in the very near future.

We also recently purchased a new Panasonic Lumix Digital Camera and we are FLAT AMAZED at the Clarity-Resolution and Brilliance of the Pictures.

We highly recommend our camera for anybody looking for something under $300 that shoots Hi Def Digital Video(with zooming capability in High Def) and takes the best quality pictures possible as good as higher end Canon’s and some lower end XLR’s.

For now enjoy some of the photos.

Momski Holding Gabi @ The Fit Expo

Gabi is Having a Grand Time!

The Incredible Hulk is in his 60's and looks AMAZING! Still ripped.

Anh and Ironman Magazine's Lonnie Teper

Daddy and Gabi taking in the scenery.

Marcus's Arm is bigger than Gabi!

The Gracie Brothers- Mixed Martial Art Masters at the Champion Nutrition Booth

TMC is Back in Action!

MIHWCS

The female half of The Muscle Couple begins her journey back to “super mo(m)-del” condition on Monday.

Before we start revealing her”Before Pictures”, I thought it would be inspirational to see herself from photos of 11 months ago.

These establish a solid benchmark she is focused to improve upon.  Nobody is rooting harder for her than Daddy. 

Make it happen wifey!

March 24th, 2009

MIHWCS

The Muscle Couple has received lots of requests from readers asking what my training partner Greg Gastelum is eating and when to have gained so much muscle mass in such a short time while utilizing Rest Pause training.

To provide the requested data, I’ve enclosed Greg’s own thoughts on the matter:

From: greggastelum@yahoo.com
Date: January 21, 2010 11:26:05 PM PST
To: musclecouple@gmail.com
Subject: Greg’s Diet

IMO, most people don’t know the importance of a what a diet is and the importance of how it influences your fitness goals.

80% of what you want your body to look like will come from your diet

20% is what you do in the gym

<TMC comment>Greg knows of what he speaks. 

Don’t get me wrong. Formulating a workout program and following it on a consistant basis is essential, but your diet is where the majority of results will be acheived. Each individual needs to figure out what their realistic fitness goals are and create a diet and workout program geared towards those goals. Diets and workout programs go hand in hand.  Whether its gaining, losing, or maintaing weight, you should identify what to expect in terms of your body and the changes it will go through during any of these phases of dieting.

My particular diet at this point in time is geared towards gaining size. “A gaining phase” that consists of 3-4,000 calories a day.

Every “real food” meal and protein shake consists of 60-70 grams of carbs 30-40 grams of protein and 20-25 grams of fat(EFA’ as often as possible)

I always have at least 3 “real food” meals a day. What I mean by “real food” is not protein shakes or protein bars. Real food is always best due to the body having to break down and metabolize the solid food which ultimately improves and speeds up BMR.

I only use protein shakes under the following conditions:

when I don’t have time for a real meal,

immediately after I finish a workout and want protein and carb nutrients to be absorbed quickly to replenish muscle glycogen,

or if I’m just too full from my previous “real food” meal to eat another.

Most people who are serious about training eat 6 meals a day consisting of 3 “real food” meals, and 3 meals consisting of protein bars or shakes.

Everybody wakes up and goes to bed at different times, so a general rule of mine is to eat every 3-3 1/2 hrs from the time of waking up, except after your post workout shake where u ideally want to eat a “real food” meal 1 -1 /2hrs afterwards.

GREG’S TYPICAL DIET DAY

7:15-7:30am. Due to the bodys “fasting” period during sleep, I have a protein shake as soon as I wake up for quickest absorbtion.

9:15am “real food” meal

12-12:30pm I have a protein shake/bar or if possible/willing/able to have a “real food” meal.

3:30-4:00pm “real food” meal.

5:30pm. Workout. I usually have a small protein shake (a shake consisting of half the carbs, proteins, fats)  before my workout. Essentially The Muscle Couple Mix

7:15pm post-workout shake.

830pmish “real food” meal.

11:30pm shake w casein type protein due to its slow absorbtion properties, then go to bed.

As you can see for yourself, Greg truly understands proper nutrition and is doing a great job with his diet.  It will be very interesting to see how much more improvement he makes over the next 2-3 months.

Feel free to ask questions or leave comments on the blog for Greg.  We will make sure he replies to any question relevant to his diet and exercise program.

MIHWCS

The Muscle Couple is working on some really good blog material right now.

We are set to launch Anh’s return to “Fitness Model” condition on Monday of next week.   We’ll be outlining everything she will be doing including:

• Diet
• Supplements
• Skin lotions/creams
• Cardio
• Resistance Training
• Pictures
• Videos

For now TMC is dealing with the uncertainties of life first hand.   Dealing with them is actually making us grow stronger as family.

Always remember your family should come first no matter what setbacks or obstacles you currently face.    Worry about taking care and providing for them before all else.   If you do, everything else will naturally fall into place.

Always Cherish and Take Care of Your Family!

Much more from us soon!

MIHWCS

We’ve all heard it so many times in our life, but it truly bears repeating and remembering especially when it comes to spending time in the gym.

“You Learn Something New Everyday”

Gabi "learned" about taking a bath for the very first time in this snap!

While training with Greg the last 5 weeks, I have learned much from him.   Hand spacing, better technique, holding muscles in contracted position longer, new exercises etc.

He has also learned much from me as indicated by the pictures in the previous blog.   Collectively our knowledge pool grows greater each and every training session.   We both try and take mental notes while watching the other perform the lift/movement and then point out flaws or areas where improvement can occur.  We have also decided that we’d make every effort between us to come up with a Blog Idea at every single training session.  Even if it’s just a basic paragraph, content is king and the goal of the TMC site is to offer valuable content as often as possible.

The moral of this story is that you should look to improve in much the same way.  If you train with a partner, watch and study their technique.  Be your partner’s constructive critic.  If you train by yourself, take notice of the people with the physiques you most aspire to.  Go up to them and ask them for pointers or advice.

You’d be surprised at how often advanced lifters are willing to help people learn and grow.  Do it with tact and professionalism.  Don’t be the guy or gal who stares glossy eyed at a physique you admire giving them a sense you are a weirdo or stalker.

The sooner you observe what’s going on around you and make a conscience effort to incorporate the “new view/observation” into improving your training, the faster results will occur and continue.

As you can see, content is now coming again.

Anhski has only one more week before she can begin low intensity cardio.  And she will be back on the road to “Fitness Model Momski”.   You can be sure we’ll be documenting this for all the Mommies to see.

Stay tuned!

MIHWCS

The Muscle Couple shot some photos today from our Chest-Back and Ab training day.

Due to Anh still being ‘in-active” from the pregnancy, Jay has been training with a very good friend: Greg Gastelum.

Both of us have made some excellent gains, but Greg’s results have been dramatic.

He’s been training for about 5 years consistently but his physique has made a transformation in the last 5 weeks since he started using TMC’s Rest Pause program.

Check out the photos to see for yourself.  (Unfortunately we don’t have any “Before shots” but he’s honestly put over an inch of muscle mass in just about every upper body muscle) His supplements include Creatine, Glutamine and BCAA’s.  Most of his results can be attributed to his improved nutrition and incredibly enhanced metabolic demands from the intensity of the Rest Pause training.

I’m incredibly proud of Greg’s results and he is living proof that this type of training works and produces results quickly.

Greg has very good symmetry and lower pec development

Greg has good genetics but his intensity and focus will allow him to achieve an amazing physique soon

Good Thickness and Width

Amazing density and change in only 5 weeks on this Rest Pause Program

Here are some photos from our training session today.

Jay is pretty close to his leanest physique ever.  He weighs only 193 pounds and owes it to many days of “two-a-day” cardio.  (We apologize for the quality of the photos as we are shooting from a Blackberry Storm 2 which is only 3.1MP.  Apple image enhancement can only do so much at 3.1 resolution. 

Enjoy!

Cardio really is the key to razor thin skin and low sub cutaneous fat!

Greg's best area right now is his upper back and shoulders.

Jay squeezing out one last rep on the assisted dip machine.

Greg taught me this core movement and it's an epic ab and lower trunk stabilizer destroyer!

MIHWCS

The Muscle Couple sometimes talks in terms of:

1RM or One Rep Max.

We often forget we have beginners and advanced trainers alike reading our site.  We thought early January would be a great time to explain this in lay terms.

1 Rep Max is the amount of weight you can lift for one rep in perfect form on an exercise.

Once you determine your 1 Rep Max  you can start figuring out what your sets and reps should be to gain muscle mass especially when performing intensity techniques like rest pause.

For example:  You can lift 245 pounds for one rep on the Incline  Machine Chest Press.   You want to perform Rest Pause sets at 70% of your 1RM(1 Rep Max).

245 x .70% = 171.5 Pounds.

Once you understand your 1rM on most lifts, it’s easy to program and “continually progress” by charting your weight and reps as you manipulate the % of 1 Rep Max to get stronger.

To make it really easy on everybody, we offer this wicked cool website that does all the calculating for you:

Calculate Your 1 Rep Max

We have been slacking but our website’s unique visitation is demanding we offer more content.

So our promise to you is to make sure we have fresh content at least 4-5x per week for the next couple of months.   There is a lot of sick stuff coming.   Please keep checking back regularly and you will be rewarded.

Have a great weekend!

MIHWCS