By Brandon Cook

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives,
nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
-Charles Darwin

If you have a great memory, then you should remember that on our homepage we stated that gaining muscle is simple and that all you need to do is four things. Well, in case you forgot, here’s the recap:

In theory…

GAINING MUSCE IS SIMPLE…

All You Need to Do is These Four Things:

1.             Believe that it’s Possible for You
(Have the Proper Mindset and Beliefs)

2.             Give Your Body the Stimulus it Needs to Grow
(Through Optimal Training)

3.             Supply the Necessary Building Blocks
(Via Quality Nutrition and Supplementation)

4.             Then Sit Back and Let Your Body Grow
(By Utilizing Various Rest and Recovery Techniques.)

Well, right there on the homepage we gave you the good news and the 4 Pillars of Rapid Body Transformation! Then we gave you the bad news……

The HARD part is DOING these four things…
consistently and correctly, day-in and day-out!

Welcome to Reality! J

Okay, that’s not really bad news… it’s just that it requires a certain mind-set and amount of discipline to incorporate these habits into your daily lifestyle. Making a transformation does require a smidgeon of self-sacrifice, but the little things you give up will typically be things that are holding you back and limiting you anyways. Of course you still may consider them fun… but I digress.

Small Habits Can Change Your Life

Small habits can change your life… for better or worse. Therefore it makes sense to replace any bad habits that limit and defeat you with positive habits that will empower you and allow you to create the life you truly want to live. The choice is yours and your results will be largely dependent on your ability to adapt and embrace positive change. Reread the quote at the beginning of this article.

Humans and all animals to a degree are creatures of habit. We get stuck in our routines and daily patterns. It is these tendencies that have created the body and life that you now find yourself in. So take a good look at your life and decide if what you have is what you truly want. Is this the experience you desire? If so, then change nothing.

However, if you are less than ecstatic about your body image or life situation… then it is up to you and you alone to change it. Whining and complaining will get you no where. No one is coming to save you. No one else really cares; they are too concerned with their own dilemma.

The only savior in this world is the one that stares back at you in the mirror every morning. It is this person that you must depend on. It is this person that has the power to change your circumstances. It is this person and only this person that can summon the desire, willpower, discipline, and passion to achieve success in whatever form success is desired.

Success is nothing more than the realization of the goals you have set forth. As long as you have set an attainable goal and are working towards its achievement, then by definition you are a success. You are never a failure until you quit trying or give up hope. Your victory must start with self-victory and that means your ability to master the self. You must learn to take control over your self, over your thoughts, over your words, over your actions. In doing so, you achieve self-mastery and with it the ability to create the life you desire.

Apply this self-mastery towards integrating the four pillars into your daily habits and watch your body and life transform rapidly. The speed and degree of the transformation lies in your ability to embrace change and use it to your advantage.

The 4 Pillars of Rapid Body Transformation

It’s interesting to note that a pillar is a structure of support used in architectural design, but the term has often been used in literature to describe a fundamental principle or practice that lies at the core of a subject: in this case gaining some muscle mass and making a rapid body transformation. So, these are the core principles you must understand if you are serious about making a transformation.

This is the introduction to a series of articles that will explain these vital and important principles in more depth. They are simple, yet vital concepts that are necessary for building a solid foundation for muscular growth. Basically: if you want to GAIN MASS and transform your body… then focus on these four areas and achieve balance and mastery in them. Again, here they are:

The First Pillar is Develop the Proper Mindset. Now a lot of trainers barely touch on this topic, but in my opinion it is one of the most important aspects of becoming a success in whatever field you desire… strength training included. The mind leads the body! It is the helm that steers the ship. If the mind is wild and out of control… then your ship will probably crash, sink, and you will drown… along with your hopes and dreams of creating a muscular body. The Buddha once said: “With your thoughts, you make the world.” They didn’t call him the awakened one for nothing!

The Second Pillar is Engage in Optimal Training. Optimal training… what the heck is that? Optimal training is the ability to create a sound, balanced, intelligent training program for your specific body type. That is to say a training program that will allow you to progress from an untrained beginner to a ripped, muscular god-like warrior who is as strong as he looks. Optimal training covers everything from proper warm-ups to dynamic mobility to functional weight training, to interval training and beyond. It’s knowing what to do and why you are doing it.

The Third Pillar is Embrace Quality Nutrition. Okay, let’s cut to the chase! You are what you eat. You become what you eat. If you eat small YOU be small. If you eat like crap, you’re gonna look like crap. Just go to any fast food restaurant and observe the health and condition of the people that eat there. Is that what you want? Most people fail to grasp the true purpose of eating. Instead they view it simply as a source of pleasure. They eat only what tastes good to them and are rarely concerned with the nutrient quality of their food. What these people fail to understand is that your food is your fuel for life. Do you think they put the cheapest, lowest octane gas in the top fuel dragsters? The answer is NO! They use only the best fuel. Why don’t you?

The Fourth Pillar is Maximize Your Rest and Recovery. As an ectomorph, this is probably one of the most important principles to grasp regarding body transformation. Your muscles do not grow in the gym. Training is only a spark that signals the brain to grow more muscle. Whether the muscle grows or not depends on if your body was given the nutrients and the opportunity (aka time) to heal and grow. If you short-circuit the recovery process, not only do you short-circuit your results, but you also set yourself up for injuries and burn-out that only lead to frustration. For ectomorphs the recovery process is longer, but there are several strategies for helping the process along if understand the importance of doing so.

Well, there you go… the four pillars of rapid body transformation. These are the four areas you need to get a solid grasp of if you want to take your health, physique, and life to a whole ‘nuther level!

The Synergy of the Four Pillars

As the weeks pass we will cover each of these pillars in more depth and I will reveal the details and specific tips and techniques you can use to take full advantage of each pillar. You see the four pillars work together synergistically, so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

The Syngery of Multiple Pillars is Undeniably Strong!

Your mindset feeds your training. Your training feeds your mindset, which further drives your dietary choices. Your rest and recovery enhances your training, and your nutrition enhances your recovery and so on. The effects of each pillar continue to compound, each supporting one another and enhancing the results.

When you develop the proper mindset, you will be in the proper state of being to make fast, steady progress in every area of your life. Self-doubt and uncertainty will be a thing of the past. You will have the confidence and firm belief to know that you can and will succeed. That faith and certainty will lead you to engage in optimal training and put forth the necessary effort that is required to stimulate the body to promote hypertrophy aka muscle growth.

Your mindset and hard training also leads to higher self- esteem and self-respect, which makes you love and appreciate your body more than ever before (even if it is not perfect.) Therefore, you now take your health and nutrition more seriously and realize it is in your best interests to eat high quality, natural and organic whole foods that provide your body with the essential vitamins, nutrients, enzymes, and phytochemicals that it needs to build and repair its cells.

This in turn further helps your training and gives your mind and body the fuel it needs to focus on realizing its goals in life. You also understand the importance of maximizing your rest and recovery in between training sessions, which allows your muscles, joints, connective tissues, and nervous system the time they need to grow, adapt and strengthen.

With all four of the pillars in place you now have more than enough support and energy to sustain your efforts, prime your body for growth, and transform in every aspect of your life. Your transforming body is like a dream come true and it further skyrockets your confidence and belief in your self and your capabilities. Thus, allowing you to face any challenge life may throw at you.

Herein lies the power of the four pillars!

Brandon Cook

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About the Author:

Brandon Cook is creator of The Awakened Warrior Blog, and co-creator of HardgainerMuscleBuilding.com, a website specifically designed to teach the hardgainer the laws and scientific principles for building a classic, muscular and functional physique.

HargainerMuscleBuilding.com features a free email class covering the basic principles of training naturally, eating a nutritious, muscle-building diet, and understanding the truth about supplements. The website is filled with free articles, videos, and the programs you need to create your ideal body.
Please visit us at http://hardgainermusclebuilding.com

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