As a beginning powerlifter and bodybuilder, I was misguided in many ways when I was trying to set up my diet. I would read about different ways to calculate calories or use the numbers that the “experts” recommended, but the numbers never matched up. Some recommended a low fat diet while others recommended a ketogenic diet with high fat. Some resources recommended protein at 1g per pound bodyweight, others said higher or lower. I will share with you what I’ve learned over the years and outline a generalized approach to setting up a base plan diet when your goal is to bodybuild or powerlift.

If you’ve ever been to the gym, you’ve probably heard or been asked this before: “What supplements are you taking, bro?” Yeah, that question. Typically, the first go-to choice for many young lifters is pre workout powder. Why is this? What is a pre workout? Why would a lifter take one? Let me cut to the chase and answer these questions.

It’s been 8 weeks since The Cage and I can still play it back in my mind. Most people know that I was hospitalized after my event with Steve Johnson. I was diagnosed with Rhabdomyolysis, the breakdown of damaged skeletal muscle into the body. This, in effect, causes the release of myoglobin into the blood stream. My case was severe enough to shut down my kidneys. I also suffered acute liver damage due to a misdiagnosis at the ER in Ohio. Subsequently, I spent 5 days in a hospital bed hooked up to IVs in excruciating pain. To this day, I can still feel pain in my lower back muscles and experience numbness in the area. Looking back though, I don’t think I would change a thing.

I have yet to meet someone who didn’t make mistakes when they first started bodybuilding. Maybe they trained arms every day or ate 500g of protein per day. We all have some crazy early methods that likely weren’t very productive for our future goals. I made some specific mistakes as well, but I will share with you the big picture ones because those will be more helpful.