Enlightened Culture Podcast Eric Brito

I love the weight room. The weight room is similar to life. It is full of pain, suffering, failures, disappointments and setbacks. Many people avoid these things because the mind just wants you to be comfortable. If you want to build your body you got to break down your muscles but you soon realize the gym is much more than building muscle. Suffering is just part of the journey but we got to learn to embrace it. It will make us a better human being and you will quickly realize that life is much more than fame, vanity, material stuff. Things the weight room taught me : 1. Genetics don't matter 2. Embrace the Suffering 3. Stay Consistent. Have Patience 4. Its a lonely road. Program your mind to walk alone of this journey The weight room will help you improve in all aspects.

Building muscle takes a lot of hard work, patience, discipline, and sacrifice but if you follow these fundamentals you will reach your goals quicker. However, don't expect to see results overnight. Fundamentals of building muscle: 1. Lift weights - this is obvious, you need to break down your muscle in order for them to grow bigger 2. Eat protein - Protein helps repair and maintain muscle. Try to eat whole food to stay full for a longer period of time. Stay in a calorie deficit if you want to slowly build muscle and burn some fat. Intermittent fasting will help. 3. Sleep/ Recovery - The body needs time to fix and repair the muscle breakdown. People say you got to grind 24/7 but when you train you will feel even more tired. Only way to get the maximum benefits from lifting weights is to get enough sleep. 4. Consistency - Building muscle is a long process and will require to be patient. People want to see results overnight and when they don't dee the gains after 3 months, they quit. You got to push past the pain and keep going if you want to see changes in your body. Prepare your mind for war and your body will follow. 5. Progressive Overload - Each time you step in the weight room you are going to want to either increase the reps/ weights.... tension. Your body will eventually adapt to the weights so you need to keep tension on your muscles.

Building lean muscle is not hard but does require a lot of work. The real question is what are you willing to sacrifice in order to get the body transformation you want. This is going to involve hard work, discipline, and a lot of patience. Don't believe the fitness industry and the 6 pack influencers who drive Lamborghni's because they are selling an image. The fitness industry is just trying to sell us supplements and most of them are taking performing enhancing drugs. Eat good whole meal foods, drink water, lift weights, walk, pray, be grateful, laugh, cry, think... Everything starts in the mind. Change your mind, Change your thoughts and you will change your life. Prepare mentally for the war against yourself because the road less traveled is where you will find your glory.

Injuries are part of the process. Obviously it sucks when you look forward to lifting weights but you physically can't. The best we can do is try to prevent injuries with stretching etc. I'm 5' 10 and weigh 145 lbs and I've been cutting calories for the last 5 weeks. I started at about 156.4 lbs and have dropped 11 lbs with a cut of around 500 calories a day. I recently injured my thumb and I felt popping in my thigh so I took some time off to recover. Ive been running a Bulgarian inspired program for the last 4.5 months and it has got me to the strongest I have ever been. I have been focused mainly on squats and bench and my PRs shot up about 95 lbs on squat and 75 lbs on bench. Now with other activities I'm focused on I feel like the bulgarian program is taxing on my body because I started training martial arts and I already walk a lot. I still want to incorporate some bulgarian inspired principles but Im going start training a 3 day split(chest/legs/back) for about 5-6 days. I'm going start deadlifting again and on the days I don't deadlift Im going squat more. Injuries suck but we got to recover, heal, adapt and get back to work. I love this grind.

I'm 5 ' 10 and 150 lbs right now. I started this cutting phase on August 3rd at 156.4 lbs. My maintenance calories are about 2,650 calories and I cut about 500 calories. I feel like this requires a lot of mental toughness because sometimes you feel hungry. Just remember you aren't starving yourself but you will feel hungry. In the morning I take krill oil and drink a tea with ginger, lemon, and turmeric and do intermittent fasting until my first meal which is usually around 1- 2 pm. Drink a lot of water because that helps with the hunger. This a full day of eating 2000 calories. Dont forget to do some form of cardio which can just be walking and lift weights.

Many people don't truly ever enjoy their life once they become adults because they never find their purpose. Being programmed from a young age and being told what to believe in kills our creativity, confidence, and belief so we never actually pursue the real things that gives us satisfaction in life. It's up to us to realize that time is passing and each day that goes by is another day we can't get back so we might as well risk it and try to become what we want in this life. God gave each one of us a vision in life and its up to us to put in the work and create the blueprint in life. I would rather try and fail than to live miserable and with regrets.