Vince Delmonte isn’t the type to give you a hug and tell you that it’s ok to have that skinny, weak body – that it’s not your fault. Within his No-Nonsense Muscle Building program is a certain amount of tough love. Vince doesn’t have a lot of patience for excuses. He doesn’t want to hear them. Sure, you get to where you are, partly due to genetics, metabolism, and a hoist of other factors that you may not have control over. But one thing Vince does from the first page on in his program is he works hard to ingrain in your head that the only applicable excuses for maintaining that less-than-spectacular physique are laziness and ignorance.
He wants you to quit wasting time on negativity, and instead understand reality – the reality is that you can in fact gain considerable muscle mass once you understand how to train and diet to gain considerable mass, that if you follow through and “execute” the program he has prepared for you, you will succeed. Vince comes at you from the perspective of the “fitness model physique” as opposed to the big, bulky “bodybuilder physique.” Vince is, in fact, a successful fitness model competitor. You will see things emphasized in his program that is ignored or barely covered in similar programs – things like flexibility training, endurance training, and muscular balance.
Delmonte Before and After No-Nonsense Muscle Building
But make no mistake, the primary focus of this program is getting the significant muscle to stick on the skinny guy. Vince presents a core muscle gain strategy that has been proven to create the best results both for himself and for his personal training clients. It is as he describes it, “The Skinny Guy’s Secrets to Insane Muscle Gain.”
No-Nonsense Growth Principles
Once he has you excuse-free and correctly convinced that you are in control of your muscle gain destination, Vince puts forth the 9 growth principles that his workout methods are based on. Quite simply, any and every significantly successful muscle-building program adheres to these principles. It is when trainers misinterpret, forget about, or are unaware of these principles that their training results suffer.
These are principles that you must understand and correctly implement into each and every one of your workouts if you want to make 3big gains. Vince does a very good job of explaining each principle and making absolutely sure you “get” what he means by such things as working with intensity, heavy weights, and progressive overload.
A few of the principles have as their base the necessity of proper rest and recovery. Failure to allow the body to recuperate is a major reason why trainers find their training producing minimal results. Vince spends quite a bit of time drumming into his trainee’s heads the importance of recovery. He devotes an entire chapter to techniques designed to accelerate recovery.
He also devotes a chapter to hormones. While you understand the significant role that hormones play in building muscle, you understand the importance of optimizing your hormone levels. Vince’s dieting and training recommendations are designed to maximize your muscle-building hormones.
The Training Program
Author of No-Nonsense Muscle Building Vince isn’t giving you a simple routine and sending you to the gym… this is a periodization program with cycles. Unlike the typical HIT-based program where the focus sticks primarily to heavy weights at a certain rep range, Vince’s periodization has you changing sets and reps in an effort to prevent adaptation and stimulate different muscle fibers. Each phase builds to the next.
At first glance, the workout program may seem a bit complicated. It will take a couple of reads to get a grasp on exactly where it is taking you (trust me though, it is taking you towards some impressive gains). Fortunately, Vince includes access to a member’s area for his 52-week workout plan. You’ll find a calendar there where all you do is click the date and that day’s workout is laid out for you, complete with animated exercise descriptions and tips for correctly performing those exercises.
With this addition, the workout plan becomes clear and there is no question as to what you need to be doing with each workout to achieve your goals. For the most part, the program has you in the gym for 3 quick but intense full-body workouts each week. However, an emphasis is placed on individualizing your program and Vince helps you determine if your performance is indicating that a lighter schedule may suit you better. Methods for accurately determining your intensity and progress are taught.
Other things Vince covers in the training section include flexibility training (he has you stretching to increase flexibility from day one), minimizing muscle imbalances (evening up the strength between your strong and weak sides), and specialty workouts aimed at your weak spots. The weight training program starts you at the basics and then eases you right on up to some very advanced techniques.
There is an emphasis throughout the training section (and the entire ebook) on teaching you to learn to listen to your body, and to use the powers of intuition and instinct to guide your training decisions. Without question, it is when trainers learn exactly what, why and how various stimuli affect their unique bodies that they truly get the key to positive and significant physique change.
Cardio
Meanwhile, Vince recommends that the truly skinny avoid cardio for the first four weeks (or up to 10-15 lbs. of muscle has been added), cardio does play a major role in his training recommendations thereafter. While this program’s primary purpose may be to help people gain muscle, there is just as much emphasis placed on cutting fat to achieve a very impressive lean muscle physique.
Vince presents a complete cardio section, covering the various methods and techniques most effective for fat loss. But Vince isn’t just recommending cardio when your training focus is on fat loss – he’s recommending you make it a part of your mass gain phase. He shows you how cardio (when approached correctly and in measured amounts) can help build muscle (and reduce fat gain). Good stuff.
Dieting
The first thing Vince is going to pound into your head is that if you are failing in your efforts to gain weight, then you don’t truly understand energy balance and/or the power of eating the right foods at the right time. In other words, Vince is telling you that if you want to gain muscle, you have to better your eating habits. The first step to a productive muscle-building diet is calculating the amount of calories you need to consume and what foods you need to eat. Vince gets down to the technical details of just how to come up with the starting point for your diet (from RMR to TEF).
But if you get lost here that’s okay – Vince gives you access to an online calculator that does the work for you. Just plug in your measurements, activity levels, and goals (you have 4 to choose from – Maintenance, Cutting, Progressive Weight Gain, and Advanced Weight Gain) and it brings the numbers back to you. You might be surprised at how high those calorie intake numbers are but…
Vince’s transformation with No-Nonsense Muscle Building was featured in Maximum Fitness. One thing is clear, and this is what makes Vince’s dieting section uniquely valuable: He understands that dieting to gain weight is easier said than done. He works right through all the objections that skinny people throw at the suggestion of consuming a big diet. Everything from “lack of appetite,” to “fast metabolism” to “I already eat a ton.” Vince doesn’t sugar-coat the fact that you are going to have to eat significantly more to significantly increase your muscle mass. But he doesn’t stop at stating this, he shows you precisely how to get it done.
He takes you through everything from cleaning out your kitchen to grocery shopping for your new diet. He tells you how to condition your body to accept your new diet, and how to gradually replace your current eating habits with positive habits that are going to positively affect your health (and, of course, the size of your muscles).
Vince takes you extensively through nutrient timing – explaining the critical times your muscles are going to be asking for nutrition and how to get them the nutrition they need. He provides his 10 No Nonsense Nutrition Rules for Insane Muscle Gain. If you can handle these rules, the dieting just got a lot simpler.
Follow them and you’re putting yourself on the fast track for some serious gains. If you want it even simpler, just follow the provided sample diets. Vince gives you a full 84 days of sample meal plans at each diet level from 2,000 to 6,000 calories. You can’t get it any simpler than that.
Supplements
Vince isn’t a fan of fancy supplements or the people who market them. He provides a good warning to ignore everything that you hear from those that are trying to get you to spend big money at the supplement store. While supplementing is optional with the program, Vince zeroes you in on a short list of supplements that can truly help. He tells you what supplements like creatine and glutamine do for the body and how to best use them to help you towards your weight gain goals.
Vince doesn’t like the store-bought MRPs and weight gainers as an option. He does, however, place value on supplementing your diet with nutrient dense shakes. Instead of store-bought shakes, he provides instructions on how to make your own weight gain shakes and gives you some of his favorite recipes. For a little blending time, you get a much less expensive, much more nutritious, and even much better tasting shake. Great stuff.
Notable Bonuses
Reading this ebook, you quickly understand that Vince isn’t just presenting a program that happened to work for him (which is what a lot of the muscle building programs are). Instead, Vince is an experienced personal trainer. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach.
Vince understands that different people face different challenges. He has experience helping people overcome their specific challenges. This makes the fact that you have 3 months of personal training help via email a particularly valuable bonus.
As already mentioned is the 52-Week Intensive Workout Plan. This is online access to a site where you get presented with your own workout schedule – you simply click the date and get back a printable workout plan for that day, complete with illustrations and tips for each exercise. It also records your results so you can refer back to it – a great help to keep you moving in the right direction.
Also previously mentioned is the Empowered Nutrition 84-Day Meal Plan. Vince goes beyond the call of duty here and presents a full 12 weeks of meal plans at each of the 5 calorie levels (2,3,4,5, and 6k). These give you six meals each day with a lot of variety. Each meal has preparation directions and there is a grocery list for each week. This is true “Healthy Mass Gain Dieting For Dummies.”
Also included is access to Vince’s Insane Muscle Simulator. This is a really handy tool, giving you quick access to animated illustrations of over 100 of the top mass building exercises, and comes complete with tips to make sure you are performing each one at maximum effectiveness. Another nice bonus is Vince’s Supplement Files.
Here Vince gives you a list of the specific supplements including brands that his research and experience have shown effective. Vince also includes an audio version of his Unforgivable Bodybuilding Sins, unlimited updates to the program, and access to a few teleseminars which talk about muscle building (I haven’t had the opportunity to listen in on one yet).
Optional Upgrade Bonuses
On the order page, you will be offered the option to upgrade your purchase to the “Powered Upgrades Package.” Vince gives you several more bonuses if you go this route… First up, Vince presents a detailed cutting plan with No-Nonsense Fat Cutting. This is a plan to get seriously ripped in short order. Not for the timid, this is an advanced plan for a competition-quality definition.
Vince adds to his meal plans (which are, again, simply excellent). He includes a full 84 days of planned meals for vegetarians at three different calorie levels and 84 days of “cheap” bodybuilding meals at 4 different calorie levels. Vegetarian meals are great for the no-meat crowd. And while I’d argue that it costs a lot less to eat big and healthy than it does to eat small and crappy, Vince gives those on a serious budget a no-excuse path to big muscle gains.
Also in the arsenal for upgrade purchasers is the entire ebook for downloadable audio. If you aren’t a reader, you can simply listen on your iPod or in the car. And, not to be forgotten, Vince bulks up his personal email consulting for a lifetime. This means that 10 years from now when you’re wondering exactly how to get another 5 lbs. of muscle onto your already impressive physique, you have Vince’s knowledge and experience just a click away.
If I Had to Complain
In certain places, the ebook seems a little disorganized. Part of that is undoubtedly due to the fact that this program takes a somewhat unique approach to training. This approach is one of periodization which is a bit more complicated to explain.
Vince does tie it all together with the help of his member’s area. There isn’t a listing of alternative exercises. While this shouldn’t be a problem for the trainer heading to a reasonably equipped gym, it can present a stumbling block for the home-based trainer.
Conclusion
You can quickly tell that Vince’s past history as “the skinny guy” has left him with a great passion for helping others reach their muscle-building goals. You can quickly tell that his experience as a personal trainer has provided him with a great deal of experience to draw from.
If you are convinced you can’t gain quality muscle weight and attain that dream physique, I’m willing to wager that Vince can convince you otherwise. Vince takes every single excuse, every single bad habit that leads to the skinny, weak body and systematically replaces them with the positive thinking and positive habits that build and maintain the world’s awesome physiques.
From goal-setting to dieting to weight training, Vince provides you with the detailed plan you need to make a dramatic physique transformation. He shows you exactly why laziness and ignorance are the only things holding you back. He replaces ignorance with knowledge and laziness with confidence.
Vince literally presents you with a daily step-by-step plan for achieving your muscle-building goals. He has planned out every meal and every workout for you. All you have to do is follow along. If you can do that, be prepared to accomplish some amazing things.
