Notes on Tom Venuto’s Hugo Rivera Interview – Part 2

Today I want to give some great tips that came from Part 2 of Tom Venuto’s Mega Interview with Hugo Rivera. If you missed the notes from Part 1, follow this link: Notes on Tom Venuto’s Hugo Rivera Interview – Part 1

As Tom Venuto said in his intro to the interview, “This interview is LOADED with tips you can take to the gym and dinner table and translate directly into better muscle gains and better fat burning results.” Here are some of the main points that I thought should be highlighted from this part of the interview:

• Going from obese to normal weight is by far the easiest fat lost transformation. Eat 5-6 meals of low glycemic carbs and lean protein.
• If going from normal weight to single digit body fat, you follow the same basic idea as the point above, but you have to be more precise. Increase cardio and only allow EFAs in your diet, no other fats.
• When going from upper single digit body fat to contest ready, you will need to really restrict carbs. Have one day of carb loading, but really restrict carbs the rest of the week. Also double up on cardio workouts.
• Quote from Hugo:
  

  “the more extreme you want to look, the more extreme your bodybuilding lifestyle will need to become.”

• For serious contest level dieting, Hugo recommends methodically reducing carbs and increasing cardio. He also recommends eating as much real food as possible and not just relying on shakes. For carb sources stick to oatmeal, brown rice, and sweet potatoes. Proteins mainly salmon and chicken.
• There is no reason to get lax in the off-season. Even in the off-season you should prevent your body from going above 10% body fat. Over time this will give your muscles better definition and hardness because it keeps the skin from getting too loose.
• You have to use whatever mental tactics you can to work through the ‘good pain’ of an intense workout. Quote from Hugo:
  

  The sooner you embrace the pain encountered during hardcore training, the sooner you will see your gains skyrocketing.

• Hard-gainers are mainly victims of undernourishment. In order to grow they need a much higher carbohydrate base than most people.
• Hard-gainers should base their diet on a 55% carbs, 25% protein, and 20% fat ratio. For calories, multiply body weight by 18 for a guideline. If this doesn’t yield results, slowly increase to 24 times body weight and a ration of 50% carbs, 25% protein, 25% fat.

As you can see, this part of the interview focused more on the nutrition side of things. Great tips from Hugo, and thanks again to Tom Venuto for conducting such a great interview! Part 3 coming soon!

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