By Brandon Cook

“We all have great inner power. The power is self-faith. There’s really an attitude to winning. You have to see yourself winning before you win.”
-Arnold Schwarzenegger

“Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one’s potential.”
-Bruce Lee

The New Year is RISING and my plan for how to gain muscle mass in 2010 underway…. I’ve made up my mind to DO THIS and to increase accountability I’m documenting the whole thing on my body transformation page. Stop by and leave me a few words of encouragement and support.

The pressure’s on and I can already tell a BIG difference in my dedication to making a transformation this year just knowing that I’ve announced this to the world. I’m fully committed.  (more…)

By Brandon Cook

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
-Henry David Thoreau

“A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.” -Bruce Lee

History has a strange way of repeating itself and so I find myself in a similar situation today that I’ve faced in the past. I’ve come a long way since those early days, but I’m still not living the life I imagined for myself. Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m living a great life and am very grateful. It’s just that I know there is more for me to do, experience, and fulfill in this lifetime than the level at which I’m currently living. Can you relate?

I’m standing at the cross roads again. I’m not here to make a deal with the devil, but rather to choose a path. (more…)

By Brandon Cook

“In every adversity there lies the seed of an equivalent advantage. In every defeat is a lesson showing you how to win the victory next time.”
-Robert Collier

“The only use of an obstacle is to be overcome. All that an obstacle does with brave men is, not frighten them, but to challenge them.”
-Woodrow Wilson
In Body Transformation Part I, we peered through a window into my past to get a better understanding of the challenges and adversity I experienced early on. It was these trials that eventually led me to training, and the desire to transform my body and my life.

We will all face the heaviness of life at some point or another. The question is will we learn to grow, adapt, and overcome it or collapse under its pressure? (more…)

By Brandon Cook

“I’ve come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.”
–Tony Robbins 
 

“Study the past, if you would divine the future.”
–Confucius

 
First of all, I would like to thank all of you who have been following along on the blog and who have signed up for The Way to Mass E-class. Cory and I have been working hard to provide you with quality information from our own experiences, as well as, from the experiences of some of the top physique transformation coaches in the world.

In our effort to do JUST THAT we’ve decided to make some changes in our approach. I’m going to be making some changes to the blog (for starters) that I think will be an improvement over the way I’ve been posting. (more…)

By Brandon Cook

“Your mind is your instrument. Learn to be its master and not its slave. Meditation is the gateway, through which you arrive to the world of freedom.” - Remez Sasson

 “Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.” – Buddha

 In Part I of this series we began our exploration of the subconscious mind and took a brief look into what neuroscientists are learning about the ultimate potential of the human mind.

In Part II, we examined how our beliefs are impressed upon the subconscious and how they can affect who and what we ultimately become.

In this third installment, we are going to clarify how the subconscious mind can help us achieve our physique goals and learn how we can use meditation to access the gateway into the subconscious mind. (more…)

By Brandon Cook

“If you accept a limiting belief, then it will become a truth for you.”  – Louise L. Hay

“People are anxious to improve their circumstances but unwilling to improve themselves, they therefore remain bound.” - James Allen

In Part I of this series we began our exploration of the subconscious mind and took a brief look into what neuroscientists are learning about the ultimate potential of the human mind. In this second installment, we are going to examine how beliefs are impressed upon the subconscious and how they can effect who and what you become. (more…)

By Brandon Cook

“Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality.”
           – Earl Nightingale

“The world is a great mirror. It reflects back to you what you are.”
         -Thomas Dreier
  
 
The whole point of the First Pillar of Rapid Body Transformation is to develop the proper mindset (from the beginning) that will lead to success quickly and naturally. That way you can learn from other people’s mistakes and realize your goals that much faster.

Now, like many people (even myself in the past,) you may be tempted to skip over all of this mindset nonsense and get straight to the heavy lifting. “It’s all bull$#!! I tell you, hogwash, blah, blah, blah!”  (more…)

By Brandon Cook

“When you want something,
all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
         – Paulo Coelho

“We can change our lives. We can do, have, and be exactly what we wish.”
              – Anthony Robbins

We have reached a point where I would like to discuss the law of attraction. I’ve mentioned this in earlier blogs and even touched on the basics of universal law. Now we are going to expand upon this because I believe it holds a vital solution for achieving body and life transformation.

The people who are successful in life achieve their success because they harness the power of this law whether they realize it or not. That is not to say that they did nothing to earn their success! I’m sure they did. (more…)

By Brandon Cook

“Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made
from something they have deep inside them:
A desire, a dream, a vision.”
                                       – Muhammad Ali

“When your values are clear to you,
making decisions becomes easier.”
                                              – Roy Oliver Disney

So you want to pack on pounds of rock-solid muscle! That’s your desire… your dream…your vision. You sit there and just imagine what it would be like to look as tough as Ali, as solid as Frank Zane, or as Herculean as Steve Reeves… or whoever it is you admire.

“Oh how different my life would be if only I could look like that!” you may wonder. “All the girls would want me then. I’d be rich, famous, and cool. I would be the envy of all men and finally win the respect and admiration that I rightfully deserve.” (more…)

By Brandon Cook

“Men and women are not prisoners of fate,
but only prisoners of their own minds.”
                                        — Franklin D. Roosevelt

“When the ties that bind a human mind are broken,
A man is introduced to himself- the real self that has no limitations.”
       – Napoleon Hill

When I first started lifting I really underestimated the importance of a proper mindset. By proper mindset, I mean a mind that is calm, assertive, driven, optimistic, confident, persistent, disciplined, and determined to realize the goals, dreams, and purpose that it somehow conjures up, whatever they be.

In fact, when I first started lifting I was anything but those things.  Instead of calm I was angry, instead of assertive, I was passive-aggressive, instead of driven I was lazy, instead of optimistic I was pessimistic, instead of confident I was full of doubt. Basically I wasn’t a man, but a boy. (more…)