By Skip La Cour
Six-Time National Champion Bodybuilder
Owner of Skip La Cour’s Mass Machine Nutrition

Everyone hopes to have a great workout every time they step into the gym. But, if you want to be the most effective and efficient with the time you invest training, simply hoping will not get the job done.

The best way to get what you want out of your workout is to first identify exactly what you want to accomplish before you even get to the gym.

What’s most important to you when it comes to your training sessions? Have you taken the time to specifically determine what a “great workout” means to you?

There are many factors that could contribute to a great workout. Components such as the amount of weight you lift, how many reps you perform, if you set personal records, the quality of form you use, how well you stimulate the targeted muscle group, if you get a good pump, how quickly you get and out of the gym, your level of concentration and focus, and for some people, how much connection made with gym friends and getting through an entire workout without quitting could all make a workout a great one.

Which components of a workout are the most important to you and how do you prioritize those components? You usually won’t value each one of them the same. Some are more important to you than others—and that’s perfectly acceptable. How you prioritize the importance of all these factors will definitely have an impact on your results.

Have you taken the time to figure this out and aim for it during every session?

For example, if one person’s highest priority is the quality of his form and he has made the decision that he will never sacrifice quality of form for the sake of lifting heavier weight, he can expect to experience a certain level of achievement. His results will more than likely be quite different than a person whose number one goal is to lift the heaviest amount of weight humanly possible—regardless of how sloppy the form he uses becomes. If a third person strives for proper execution, with form effective enough to stimulate the muscle group being trained with the heaviest amount of weight possible, he can expect results different than the two previous training approaches mentioned.

The person who doesn’t want to socialize in fear it will hamper his focus and concentration will produce different results than the person who sets out to both connect with his friends and pound-out a decent workout at the same time.

So, after listing what’s most important for you to achieve during your workout, arrange what you’ve decided upon in their order of priority.

I evaluate the quality of my workouts by my effectiveness, performance, and mental focus:

Effectiveness. My number one priority when I evaluate my workouts is how well I hit the targeted muscle group during every set. Did I stimulate the growth process by feeling the weight exactly where I wanted? Or, did I incorporate other body parts to help me perform the repetitions? Did I give every set everything I had inside of me and work every set to absolute failure?

Performance. After I make sure I’ve overloaded the exact muscle group I targeted, my next priority is peak performance. I evaluate my performance by how much weight I lifted, how many repetitions I performed with that weight, what kind of form I used, and if I was in a groove, flow, or zone. How close did I come to the most weight I have ever lifted for each exercise? How close did I come to the most reps I’ve ever performed with that amount of weight? Was the form I used during each exercise the happy medium between very strict and sloppy that as I was aiming for? Did I feel fluent or was every inch of every rep a battle? Again, I only value these components if I have first hit the intended muscle group and worked every set until absolute failure. Who cares how much weight I lifted if I didn’t stimulate the right muscle group? I certainly don’t!

Mental Focus. The level of mental focus I achieved and maintained during my workout is the next component I evaluate when I determine the quality of my training session. How well I concentrated during every exercise, the amount of courage and determination I exhibited, and how efficiently I moved from exercise to exercise all contribute to my mental focus. Was I enthusiastic when I trained? Was my mind only on my workout or did I let situations outside of the gym distract me? Did I go for a challenging amount of weight or did I rationalize and settle for less based on a little fear or even laziness? Did I do any excess talking that broke the flow of the workout? Usually, when you are mentally focused, you are going to have a great workout—but that’s not always the case. Being mentally focused is great. You can have all the best intentions in the world but fail to be effective or perform well in the gym. I’d rather be less focused and get the job done well rather than be super-determined but unable to produce significant results.

How about you? Have you already consciously figured these things out so you can take control over your training and win on your own terms?

Invest in the quality of your workouts by taking the time to determine what’s most important to you, prioritize what you’ve decided upon, and set out to execute them during every workout—and make every one of them a great one.

Train Hard—and Think Big!

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Here’s Your BLUEPRINT for Bodybuilding & Training Success. . .

Bodybuilding & Training MASTERY: Step-By-Step “The Mindset and Actions of a Champion” Audio Seminar Course

In this step-by-step, extremely organized audio seminar course, your Coach Skip La Cour meticulously takes you through all of the physical, mental, emotional, and psychological steps that you need to earn the body you REALLY want. And, he does so in a manner that only a Seasoned Champion and Master Teacher can.

This audio seminar course is over 13 hours and 30 minutes and includes THREE (3) SPECIAL BONUS eBOOKS!

Download the sound and workbook files immediately after ordering and begin your road to bodybuilding and training MASTERY TODAY.

Click here for more information.

“The more a person thinks about anything in life, that person can’t help but become better at it. It’s inevitable.”

–Skip La Cour

• Get the coaching and guidance DIRECTLY from Skip La Cour that you need to finally get to the next level. Get the personal assistance that you must have to get from where you are now with your bodybuilding and training efforts—to where you really want to be.

• Training, Nutrition, Nutritional Supplementation, Mental Toughness, Motivation, and effective Lifestyle and Organization Strategies are presented in a structured manner and based on your personal goals and priorities.

• Assignments designed for your personal level of experience and progress are given to you on a weekly basis.

• You’ll have direct accountability for your progress to your coach, Skip La Cour.

• This personal weekly one-on-one coaching program FORCES you to step up and work toward your goals on a consistent basis.

• You will FINALLY get this important area of your life mastered.

• You will stop WASTING your limited time and valuable energy.

• You will FINALLY end your confusion and overwhelm.

• You’ll start making the bodybuilding and training process simple and extremely effective at the same time. You’ll learn how this is done in a manner that only an experienced Master Coach like Skip La Cour can teach you.

• The structured coaching sessions will FORCE you to follow successful daily habits and the self-imposed standards that you’ll create with Skip La Cour’s guidance.

• Your Coach Skip La Cour will answer all of your pressing questions on a weekly basis.

• You’ll be able to proceed with the certainty and confidence that you absolutely must have to succeed.

• This exclusive coaching program is designed for both men and women who are young, older, and any age in between.

• Skip La Cour’s Weekly One-on-One Coaching program caters to every level of your bodybuilding and training experience. Whether you are new to the process, just trying to build a little muscle and lose body fat, become more disciplined, or want to win a bodybuilding contest, this program will work PERFECTLY for you.

• All of the strategies that Skip La Cour’s outlines for you are based on your life’s priorities and values. You’ll never be given a set of “one-size-fits-all” action strategies.

• By the time your coaching sessions are completed, you’ll know exactly what to do, how much emphasis to put on what you do, and when to do it.

BONUSES!

• You’ll get a 20% discount on all of Skip La Cour’s Mass Machine Nutrition supplements that you purchase online at the MassMachineNutrition.com web site during the entire time period of your coaching sessions.

• You’ll have the opportunity to have the training footage that you post on YouTube.com analyzed by Skip La Cour once every month. You’ll be able to download and save the “Personal training session with Skip La Cour” video with his voiceover instructions to review and learn from forever.

• MP3 audio files for every single coaching session are available to have recorded and downloaded. You’ll have the opportunity to review and learn from these audio files for years into the future.

Click Here NOW to Apply for One-on-One Coaching Time Slot

Hello. It’s your coach, Skip La Cour.

There’s so much bodybuilding and training information out there for you to process, isn’t there?

As a result of all of this information, there’s a lot confusion out there too.

Ultimately, all of this bodybuilding and training information can lead to massive overwhelm! Maybe you have already experienced this angst?

That’s a shame because I see so many people who are driven to succeed and enthusiastic about doing so. They just don’t know what to do, how to do it, or when to do it.

These ambitious people are more than willing to do the work required to succeed.

They just don’t know how to prioritize their efforts and where to put most of their attention. All of the information floating around the internet and in the fitness books and magazines gives you the impression that EVERYTHING is critical to your success. If you aren’t doing it ALL, you get the impression that you are going to fail miserably.

I have an internet message board where I answer questions from teenagers who are new to bodybuilding and training. An unsolicited random message board poster jumped in to inform everyone who was asking me questions:

“Hey! You don’t have to ask him those questions. You can get all of the answers just by doing a Google search.”

Yeah. Right. Good luck with that.

You probably already know by now that, when you do a Google search for the answers to your bodybuilding and training questions, you’ll get dozens of different answers by dozens of different questionable “experts” or fitness internet marketers who are determined to sell you something. Even worse, it’s painfully obvious that most of the “gurus’ out there are more interested in their own self-importance and internet fame than your success.

All of this information leads to that same confusing, frustrating, and overwhelming “rollercoaster ride” of negative emotions.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you knew EXACTLY what to do and EXACTLY when to do it? Wouldn’t it nice to know how much importance you should be putting on each facet of the bodybuilding and training process? Then, it would just be a matter of being motivated enough to do what you already know.

The responsibility for your success and failure would still be firmly in your own hands but you would have the peace of mind knowing that all of your hard work, time, and energy would NOT be wasted.

That’s the ideal position to be in.

Wasting our hard work, time, and energy is the biggest fear most of us have when it comes to our bodybuilding and training efforts.

That uncertainty and lack of confidence is what destroys most people’s motivation and drive.

EVERYONE can use a coach to help them stay focused on their goals. EVERYONE can use a coach to constantly remind them who they really are, what they really want, and what they are truly capable of achieving.

How many times in your life have you been really excited and determined to accomplish some special goal but, after some time had passed, you just stopped pursuing it?

At the beginning, you would think about accomplishing that goal almost every waking moment of the day. You did whatever it took to make your goal a reality. You were almost obsessed, weren’t you?

Then, something strange happened. For whatever reasons, you let a couple of weeks slip by without thinking about your goal too much and maybe even stopped taking action altogether. Life just seemed to get in the way.

You weren’t going to let a short lapse in focus stop you though. No way! You reminded yourself just how badly you wanted it, snapped back into the right mindset, and jumped back into the disciplined habits you needed to succeed.

At least you did for a little while.

Before you knew it, the time you let slip away without taking action was no longer a couple of weeks. It was a couple of months. Eventually, it was a couple of years!

That goal that you were once so determined to achieve somehow became a distant memory.

“Oh yeah. I was really fired up to take my body to the next level but somehow I just forgot about it!”

 

Those are the thoughts that went through your head when you saw someone who was a lot like you—but that person had an awesome and truly inspiring physique.

Can you think of a goal or dream that you had in your life that you were determined to MASTER at one time—but you forgot about how important it was to you? It wasn’t that you didn’t want it anymore, it was just that your normal lifestyle patterns took priority. Instead of focusing on that special goal you KNEW would take your life to the next level, you were forced to only concentrate on the day-to-day grind of your everyday life.

What was it for you in the past? Golf? Bowling? Going for that promotion at work? Starting your own business?

Maybe for you right now, it’s your bodybuilding and training efforts?

Here you are right now looking at the same body in the mirror that you aren’t satisfied with. It doesn’t matter how many times your friends tell you how great you look, you KNOW that you are capable of achieving so much more.

For me, that goal was playing the piano. I always dreamed of playing the piano like a rock star in front of a group of my friends at my own house party. I would imagine seeing their impressed and surprised faces when they discovered just how awesome I was.

Unfortunately, I’ve never had that experience. That dream of mine has never become a reality yet. I’ve never witnessed those impressed friends at my house party. I’m almost embarrassed to tell you how many times that I started and quit playing the piano in my life.

I have been fortunate enough to have mastered my bodybuilding and training efforts through my dedication, consistency, and discipline for over 20 years. In that time span, I have also become a master coach and motivator because I made it my goal to become that person many years ago. When I do my Weekly One-on-One Coaching Sessions with extremely passionate and committed people who just haven’t quite “gotten it” yet, I often think about just how lucky they are to be investing in such an extremely valuable program.

Let me correct that. They weren’t “lucky” at all. They TOOK ACTION.

These committed and driven clients of mine took control of their destinies. They didn’t just sit back and let time pass them by.

They’re not going to have any regrets. They took action and took advantage of an opportunity to master their bodybuilding and training efforts with an experienced and knowledgeable Coach.

The more a person thinks about anything in life, that person can’t help but become better at it. It’s inevitable.

I sometimes wonder:

“What if I had a piano coach who made me accountable for MY OWN dreams? What if I had committed myself to speaking with him every week on the same day at the same time?”

That “piano coach” would have lined out assignments to do every week that were specifically designed for me at my level of experience. That piano coach would have told me EXACTLY what to do and EXACTLY when to do it. I wouldn’t even have the burden of putting together an effective and efficient plan. That would be a plan that I really wouldn’t have had enough experience or knowledge to do in the first place.

If had my weekly Coaching Call on Tuesday, let’s say, I’d think about that session for the rest of the week. When Sunday and Monday rolled around, I’d start thinking about my upcoming session and how I’d better have my assignment done. If I let life get life get in the way, I would have been forced to feel the pain of telling my coach that I didn’t follow through. As you already know, pain is a powerful motivator! It’s one thing to let myself down. To be honest, that’s an entirely different situation for me than letting someone else down. Is this true for you too?

Knowing me, the pressure, accountability, and potential embarrassment would have made me find a way to get all of my assignments done. I would have done whatever it took—and I’m certain I would have played the piano in front of my friends at that house party by now.

If you are determined to build a better body and improve your bodybuilding and training efforts, invest in my Weekly One-on-One Coaching Program today. Let’s get started next week.

Don’t live with the pain of regret a day longer. Take action NOW!

BONUS #1: One Extra Month FREE

The first five (5) people who respond to this email and sign for Weekly One-on-One Coaching Sessions with me will get an EXTRA MONTH of coaching absolutely FREE. I will just add another month at the end our scheduled time together.

BONUS #2: 20% Off Skip La Cour’s Mass Machine Nutrition Supplements

Those people who sign up for the Weekly One-on-One Coaching Program will get a 20% discount when purchasing my Mass Machine Nutrition supplements from the MassMachineNutrition.com web site for entire time period of our coaching sessions.

BONUS #3: Get Your Actual Training Footage Analyzed By Skip La Cour Once Every Month

You’ll have the opportunity to have the training footage that you post on YouTube.com analyzed by me once every month. I will voiceover my comments on a newly created video. You’ll be able to download and save the “Personal training session with Skip La Cour” video to review and learn from forever.

BONUS #4: MP3 Audio Files for Every Single Coaching Session.

You’ll have the opportunity to have recorded and downloaded sound files of your coaching sessions to learn from for many years in the future.

DISCLAIMER: My Weekly One-on-One Coaching Program is NOT for everyone. My time is extremely limited I’ll only invest what little time I have with the most dedicated and committed students.

Just because you have submitted your payment does NOT guarantee that you have one of these weekly coaching time slots reserved. Your commitment and payment are just the FIRST steps.

Here is what you need to do RIGHT NOW to get your coaching sessions scheduled:

1. Make your commitment and submit your payment. Every month on the same day during the length of our time together, your credit card will be charged automatically.If you are not accepted in the Weekly Coaching Program, your payment will NOT be processed at all. No refund to your credit card will be needed because your payment will never be processed on my end of the transaction unless you are accepted into the program. Your bank may “reserve” the initial charge on your credit card—but the funds will not be actually taken on my end of the transaction unless you are accepted into the program.
2. Email me your preferred day of the week and time of day  to skip@skiplacour.com. This is the time and day when you can have your session every single week without exceptions. Please make sure that you include you time zone.
3. I will send you a series of questions asking you exactly what you want to get out of the coaching program. Take your time and think about your answers. Remember, you are competing with many other people from all around the world for these limited time slots.

Three-Month Program
$349.99 a month

Sale Price Only
$299.99 a month!

Six-Month Program
$299.99 a month

Twelve-Month Program
$249.99 a month

Click Here NOW to Apply for One-on-One Coaching Time Slot

Good Luck.

Train Hard. Think Big.

Skip La Cour

skip@skiplacour.com

© Copyright 2012 Skip La Cour Consulting. All rights Reserved.

By Skip La Cour

Oftentimes, our enthusiasm and desire to build our physiques makes us want to train as long and as often as we possibly can. This is especially true when we’re dealing with those stubborn body parts. If reaching our bodybuilding goals takes a little extra effort, we are usually more than willing to put in that extra work.

Unfortunately, that is not how the muscle-building process works. After training to a certain point, your body will no longer benefit from your effort. In fact, you will actually be doing your body more harm than good.

“Overtraining” is a somewhat difficult concept to grasp because it’s not how most things in life work. Most of the time, the amount of effort you put into a particular endeavor will directly correlate to the results you are able to achieve. However, this is not true when it comes to developing your physique. “More is not necessarily better” is what we are warned by the training experts.

When will a person know if he or she is overtraining? How does overtraining actually feel? What are the indicators that can tell a person whether or not they are overtraining? What would be considered the “right” amount of training and what amount is considered too much? How often and how much should a person train—in order to be the most effective?

From my personal experience and the training habits I’ve witnessed in others, most of us have the tendency to train too much. Although this is especially true with people who have been training for five years or less, it occasionally applies to more experienced people training in the gym as well.

Finding the “right” amount of training—and not falling subject to overtraining—is a gradual learning process. The only way you can shorten this learning process, in my opinion, is to find a good role model or teacher and put your blind faith into what he is telling you.

The only way for you to learn and truly understand for yourself what overtraining feels like is by first training with what you instinctively believe is the right amount. Then, you must force yourself to train with significantly less volume for a period of time. You can then feel the contrast between the two approaches. You can compare the actual difference and measure your results. Taking this route, however, can be mentally challenging and quite time consuming.

Some experts try to quantify overtraining by using physical indicators such as loss of strength, change in blood pressure, rise in body temperature, and loss of appetite. The experts also point to mental factors such as lack of enthusiasm and concentration in the gym.

Because of the tremendous ability of your mind to adapt to the physical and mental conditions around you, those indicators might not be reliable. In other words, your body may be just fine—but your mind may be weak. If we are honest with ourselves, we can all relate to the mental limitations I’m referring to, can’t we? I’m sure we have all experienced a lack of desire that we wanted to label as overtraining, haven’t we?

You’re into the bodybuilding lifestyle for the long haul, aren’t you? I believe the only true way you can actually feel the “right” amount of training sooner rather than later is through hands-on experimentation. Invest a month or so and cut back on the volume of your training. Force yourself to train less frequently and do fewer reps—no matter how difficult it may be. Work hard to become just as intense and effective with less work. Limit yourself to one hour of weight training during each session. If what you have planned can’t fit into that hour, then you are training too much.

When it comes to learning the meaning of overtraining for yourself, I’m certain the month or so you invest experimenting will pay huge dividends in the long term.

Train Hard—and Think Big!