7 Keys

© Scott Marcaccio http://scottmarcaccio.com

1

http://scottmarcaccio.com

Copyright © 2011 Scott Marcaccio. Some Rights Reserved. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. You are free to copy, distribute and display the work granted you attribute the work to the author. The work is not to be used for commercial purpose, nor can it be altered, transformed or modified from its original state. To view a copy of this license, go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. Contact me at [email protected] Visit my websites at: http://scottmarcaccio.com http://MultiplyYourMuscle.com Disclaimer and Legal Notice The information in this book is for educational purposes only. None of the information, tips, ideas, or methods described are to be taken as medical advice. I am not a doctor. The information I present is based on my experiences and my interpretations of said experiences. If you have health issues or suspect you might, consult with your doctor before beginning any kind of exercise regimen or new diet. The author does not accept any responsibilities for damage or liabilities, perceived or real as a result of this information.


2

Table of Contents

Where It All Started… ............................................................................................ 3

The BIG Picture ...................................................................................................... 7

Consistency Is Your Best Friend ............................................................................ 9

Strong Like Bull .................................................................................................... 11

Breakfast Of Champions ...................................................................................... 15

Be Master of Mind rather than Mastered by Mind – Zen proverb ..................... 17

Size matters not, ... Look at me. Judge me by size, do you?” - Yoda .................. 19

Plan, Do, Review ................................................................................................. 21

No Excuses! Start Now. Don’t Stop. .................................................................... 23


3

Where It All Started… Have you ever started to learn something new and discovered how

much fun and happiness you can get out of it? That was my experience

with lifting weights. In January of 2005, I set out on a journey that

changed my life forever. I was weighing in at a humble 135 lbs. at just

less than 6’0” tall. Needless to say, I wasn’t getting much attention

from the girls I wanted and started to feel depressed and introverted.

It all started when I was 16 years old. Two friends and I were sitting in

my basement watching the very first season of The Ultimate Fighter. A

guy named Mike Swick was getting weighed in and I thought to myself,

“Holy crap, what would it be like if I could look like that?” I was inspired

to get muscular for the first time in my life.

The first trip to hit the weights wasn’t

pretty. I walked into a commercial

gym with my friend Paul, who

outweighed me by about 40 pounds

and had been lifting for almost a year

already. We walk over to the smith

machine, where he proceeds to put a

25 pound plate on each side so he

could teach me how to bench. I

proceed to almost crush my face.

Embarrassing as it is… I had to start

with the bar.

I was lean from playing soccer and

hockey… but I had A LOT of work to do. I had the strength levels of a

newborn baby. Let me take you through my transformation…


4


5


6

Fast forward 5 years and I make my living teaching you how to get in

the best shape of your life. I now have a physique that many would kill

for. There were no steroids or prohormones involved – I did this

entirely through putting the time and the work in, day after day. My

inner world has changed along with my outer – I’m infinitely more

confident, more outgoing, and happier with myself.

I’m going to let you in on seven of the biggest things I’ve learned over

my last five years of my body transformation. If you continue to apply

and use these techniques every single day, you’ll soon discover the

power behind them. With these new mindsets that I’m about to reveal

to you, you’ll be able to achieve and perhaps even surpass results you

only dreamed of… far faster than you ever realized was possible.

Feel free to send this to everyone you know who could use it, they’ll

get access to the free e-course as well by registering through

http://www.MultiplyYourMuscle.com, so send them there. Enjoy the

book! Make sure to visit my personal blog at http://scottmarcaccio.com

for the latest updates on everything related to helping you get in the

best shape of your life, and be incredibly happy doing so.


7

The BIG Picture

You probably have a goal physique in mind – a picture in your

mind of what exactly you would love your body to look like. I

want you to think of yourself as starting at the base of the

ladder with where you are right now, today. At the top of that

ladder is your goal physique. This ladder symbolizes your

journey.

When it comes to getting to your goal physique, you’ve got a

few different areas you need to get keyed in on. You have your

nutrition (your right leg), your workout routine (your left leg),

your sleep and central nervous system stress (your left arm),

and your supplementation (your right arm).

Have you ever tried climbing a ladder with just one leg? With

no hands?

What you need to understand is that it isn’t just killing it in the

gym, or stuffing your face, or sleeping 9 hours a night that’s

going to get you there. It’s how everything you’re doing ties in

together.

The interesting thing is that not only do these different areas

work better together, but they amplify each other. If you’re

well-rested and full of clean calories, you’re going to have an


8

awesome workout. If you’re dragging by on 3 hours of sleep

and you’ve managed to get down a protein shake and a pop-

tart today… not so awesome. Each area interacts with all of the

others.

The truth is… they really cannot work separately. At least not

for long.

When I started out, I figured I would lift some weights a few

times a week and get jacked. I was sleeping about 5 hours a

night thanks to late night computer gaming, I was eating Rice

Krispy squares for breakfast, and I had no idea what protein

was.

My saving grace was that I am an extremely curious guy, and I

loved to read. So I read, and read, and read, and started

making changes to my nutrition which was my biggest block to

the physique I wanted.

Now, any person just starting in the gym who pushes

themselves outside of their comfort zone should see at least a

10-15 pound weight gain if they keep at it. After that, they’ll

stall out unless they change something.

Stay completely focused on your end result and get all of

these areas working together. When you’re missing out on

any of them, your results will take much, much longer.


9

Consistency Is Your Best Friend

The biggest reason most people fail at putting muscle on is…

They’re damn inconsistent. They’ll eat like a champion one day,

and like an anorexic model the next three. They’ll workout for

a week and then take two weeks off.

Why? They’re just not seeing the results they want!

Here’s the key - You usually won’t see the results until the

majority of the work is already done. The effects of your

choices aren’t noticeable right away. When you make the right

choice, you won’t see the results today. When you make the

wrong choice, you won’t see the results today.

When you hit the gym, have a killer workout where you push

yourself harder than you’ve ever pushed before, go home and

drink your post-workout protein shake and carbohydrates

exactly as you’re supposed to… do you wake up the next

morning with pounds of new muscle?

If that was the way it worked, even your grandma would be

hella swole. That was the right choice though, wasn’t it? It

was… and if you keep making those right choices, and keep

crushing it every day, that’s when you will start to get the

results you want. There are things happening behind the

curtain that we aren’t aware of.


10

What You Should Be Focusing On…

The most frustrated people I know are the ones who gauge all

of their progress on their results. If you stay focused on the

actions, and take those actions day in and day out, that’s when

they start to add up to results. The results come LAST –

remember this! Consistency in taking action needs to be your

best friend.

One powerful technique you need to start using immediately is

to create an accountability sheet. Write down 3-5 of the most

productive actions you could take today. For example, one of

your goals may be to drink three liters of water. Another one

might be to have three protein shakes through the day.

Every night you should review this sheet and check off the

actions you took. If you didn’t take the action, why didn’t you?

See if you can identify a specific event or thought that makes

you not take that action. That’s called identifying a trigger. A

trigger basically is an event, thought, or action that gives you

permission to start a habitual response.

Continue to track your progress through the week. It’s the

simple little daily actions that add up to huge results – focus on

the most productive of those actions and make them non-

negotiable.


11

Strong Like Bull

For the average trainee, heavy training with lower volume is

much more productive over the long-term than volume

routines where you do countless sets and focus on feeling that

blood flow in the muscle.

Just to define the term volume for this next piece: if you just

started lifting weights, it’s referring to the amount of sets and

reps you do in a typical workout. A few sets in a rep range of 1-

5 reps would be considered very low volume, whereas 30 sets

in a rep range of 12-15 reps would be considered very high

volume. Keep in mind that most common resources explaining

how to gain muscle typically use volume on the high end, which

I totally disagree with being effective for most people… as far as

getting quick, lasting results is concerned.

If you train volume for your first six months or year of training,

it may look like you’re putting on quite a bit of muscle.

What is ACTUALLY happening is this in initial volume training:

Your muscles are getting bigger due to sarcoplasmic

hypertrophy - basically they’re getting better at storing water

and carbohydrates. It’s something that looks like muscle, but

you’ll only have a small, small percentage of that size come

from actual muscle growth.


12

Second, you’ll start getting stronger, and you think it’s because

of this “muscle” you put on. What’s actually happened is that

your untrained central nervous system is now becoming better

at recruiting muscle fibres (can recruit a higher percentage of

your total fibres during a lift) and this causes strength gains.

It’s a perception thing that traps a lot of people – why do most

guys using volume plateau after 15-20 lbs of weight gain? This

is why. Your body can only get so efficient at storing water and

carbohydrates - you need to build some muscle at some point

to continue to gain.

Speaking of building muscle, here’s the principle you need to

adapt to. If the weight on the bar isn’t consistently going up

by 1-5 pounds per week on your lifts, it’s going to be very

difficult for you to make long-term sustainable gains. If you’re

not keeping track of your numbers and trying to beat them

every single workout (yes, bring a physical logbook to the gym

with you) than there’s a very high chance that you’re going to

be about the same size next year as you are right now.

You’re not always going to be making constant progression of 5

lbs. every week (if that was true we would all be benching over

400 pounds in just over a year!), but you will get far, far

stronger following this approach than the typical one.

The typical approach is this: “Oh great, I got 135 pounds for 8

shaky reps with help from my spotter on the last 3. Time to


13

move on up, let’s put a 25 pound plate on each side.” This

sound ridiculous and stupid, but if you go to any gym and watch

people, this is what the majority of people do. Use the small

weights and focus on constant progression!

A few weeks ago, somebody asked me in a forum why I was

so sure that strength was better than volume, especially for

new trainees. Let’s look at this logically – here was my

response (well, it was a bit of a rant…☺)

“If everyone's routine is working SO AMAZING for them (and

most people are doing high volume), why do 95% of people

never make anything more than noob gains and look the same

year after year in the gym?

Because if the WEIGHT ON THE BAR ISN’T GOING UP, you ARE

NOT forcing your body to grow. If 18 sets are so good, why not

do 30? Why not do 100?

Look at Steve Michalik, Mr. America back in the day – he has a

set of articles called “Intensity or Insanity” about how him and

his partners used to do 100 sets per body part in a workout,

work out until they threw up, and so on. Here’s the thing:

He was absolutely no bigger than anyone else on stage...

interesting!

What if all you did were pull-ups, dips, bench, squat, deadlifts,


14

and military press.

Week after week you pounded away at those numbers.

You were then 3-4 years down the road doing pull-ups with

bodyweight + three 45 pound plates for reps, doing Dips with

bodyweight + four 45 pound plates for reps, benching 315 x 10,

deadlifting 495 x 10, squatting 405 x 20, and your military press

was 225 x 8.

Do you honestly not think you would be extremely well-

muscled at this point? Strength is the most obvious factor

preceding fast muscle gains as long as nutrition is suitable!

Just some food for thought... what the pros do shouldn't be

what WE do. We don't have world class genetics, most of us

aren't using steroids and hormones, and most of the

professionals didn’t get to the size they’re at by lifting like a

kitten doing tricep kickbacks with a pink 20 lb. dumbbell.

When it comes to gaining muscle, think about muscular

overload – can you honestly tell me that pumping some blood

into your muscles with light kickbacks or pushdowns for high

reps is going to cause your body to want to add and carry

dense, thick muscle? After putting on more than 70 pounds of

muscle myself… the answer is no. Get strong. Gain muscle.


15

Breakfast Of Champions

The most important thing when it comes to nutrition is your

habits. Right now, you have a general, habitual diet that you

might follow. Perhaps you always eat out for lunch, or maybe

you always have cereal for breakfast.

The key to overhauling your nutrition is to keep it in line with

your habits. Most guys will try to throw everything they know

out the window when they start and immediately start eating 6

meals a day… and fail miserably.

A much better approach is to take the “tweak” mentality. Start

with a protein shake with your cereal. Do that for a week.

What if you made one small tweak like that every week for a

year? 52 chances to completely overhaul your diet... and you

will look like a completely different person.

Look at nutrition the same way you look at your gym routine!

You want to only tackle challenges that your discipline muscles

can handle. Once they get a little stronger, keep tweaking and

adding those small changes in.

Learn something about nutrition. You can spend years on

forums picking up bits and pieces, or you can go to a resource

that has all of the information for you to immediately start


16

learning from. My favorite resource for new clients to read is

the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle e-book. Read my review at

http://scottmarcaccio.com/burn-the-fat-review/ – this book

will give you an incredibly useful knowledge that you can start

to apply immediately if you’re trying to lose fat, see your abs, or

if you’re just trying to limit fat gain while gaining muscle.

A big issue for many people is just getting in the calories every

day, especially if they start out skinny and weak like I did.

Here’s a quick list of some top foods that you can throw in your

diet that will lead to optimal performance and mass gain while

limiting fat gain. Keep an eye out for more resources on this

topic on my website, as I have some in depth articles coming.

Examples of Calorie Dense Foods • Farm Raised Meats (Beef, Chicken, Pork, Turkey, Elk,

Bison)

• Any kind of sweet potatoes, or sweet potato noodles

(vermicelli, find in asian grocery stores)

• Nut Butters – Natural Peanut Butter, Almond Butter, etc.

• Whole Eggs, especially farm raised free range eggs.

• Olive Oil, Macadamia Nut Oil – use a LOT on everything.

• Whole Milk (use lactose pills if needed)

• Coconut Milk (use for curries, stews, and liquid base in

shakes)


17

“Be Master of Mind rather than

Mastered by Mind” – Zen proverb

I typically spend about five hours training my mind for every

hour I spend at the gym. I used to spend zero hours training my

mind and countless hours at the gym. My results are far better.

When you take the time to calm and empty your mind, things

become much, much easier. It gets easier to ramp up the

intensity in the gym, it gets easier to fall asleep at night, and it

gets easier to hit your meal goals day in and day out.

Obsessive-compulsive thinking is incredibly common-place in

bodybuilding and people involved in the fitness industry.

There’s so much conflicting advice in this industry that it’s easy

to start questioning yourself and what you’re doing. We’ll

cover more on how to beat this in a few paragraphs using the

Plan, Do, Review technique.

If you miss a workout once in awhile, stay focused on the

present. Regret is totally and utterly useless. In the grand

scheme of things, whether you worked out three or four times

this week doesn’t matter.

One big factor that many people overlook when it comes to

training is stress levels. If you’re running around all day under


18

a lot of stress, your body will be releasing catabolic hormones

that will not only limit your ability to gain muscle, but you will

store food as fat far easier. Even the thought of all that hard-

earned muscle getting replaced by fat might be stressing you

out! Fun stuff…so by adopting a more peaceful, focused

mindset, you’ll be eliminating yet another big sticking point that

could potentially stop you from getting to your goal physique.

Take the time to write your thoughts down in a journal when

you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed. Take the time before

bed to just sit and be. You are where you are, don’t get lost in

the past or the future.


19

“Size matters not, ... Look at me. Judge

me by size, do you?” - Yoda

This is something that I feel is so, so important. This section is

straight from my heart. If you’re not into that, move on to the

next section. If you don’t take anything else from this book,

take this point. Your body is basically a walking pile of rotting

flesh. If you tie up your whole identity with your body, you’re

setting yourself up for devastation, stress and depression

when your body starts to age or you get injured. If you base

your happiness on if you “look big” today, you’re going to be in

for a hell of a shock when you get to your first physique goal.

This is a sport about never being satisfied. You can always get

stronger. You can always get bigger. You can always get

leaner. Accept this fact and take pride in the progression, but

please, get some other hobbies and satisfaction from other

areas of your life.

Most people who aren’t into this sport really don’t care if

you’re 7% body fat rather than 10% body fat. Most people

won’t care that your arms broke the 17” barrier. That’s fine -

you’re probably not into the sport of competitive knitting.

Same concept. You probably don’t care if Granny Fasthands

just beat the world record on making a quilt. Inspire people,

don’t tear them down or brag.


20

Understand that every time you start talking about a new

personal best in the gym in conversation with a non-lifter, they

will often cringe inside. Get out of the gym once in awhile and

try new things. Meet new people and try new foods. Expand

your mind and expose yourself to new experiences. You’ll be

far happier down the road and probably more successful and

passionate in the gym.

This summer I was planning to do a low intensity cardio session

in the gym and some stretching. It was such a nice day out

though that I thought I’d mix it up. I strapped on my Vibram

Five Fingers (shoes that feel like you’re barefoot), and went

sprinting through a local forest trail with my East European

Shepard. I completely lost track of time. It was hands down

one of THE most defining, exhilarating moments of my life – an

amazing peak experience. Embrace new things.


21

Plan, Do, Review

There’s a very simple philosophy you need to adopt if you want

to get to your goal physique in the shortest amount of time

possible. Plan, Do, Review.

In the planning stage, you will physically write-down the plan. I

like to plan in 12-week increments – enough to see what’s

working and what doesn’t work. This step is to just set some

measurable marker of progress and a clear target in the

future. Here are some great questions to ask:

• What tweaks am I going to make to my diet over these 12

weeks?

o What do I do if I’m not gaining/losing weight?

• What routine am I going to do in the gym?

• How am I going to keep track of my progress?

• Where in my day do I have time to clear my mind?

In the doing stage, you start crushing it. Get in the gym, crank it

out. Eat like a champion. It’s as simple as getting started on

the plan you outlined in the prior stage, and not stopping.

Here are some things I would suggest in the doing stage:

• Take a full set of pictures every two weeks for the review

stage.

• Keep a logbook in the gym – focus on beating your lifts

every time that workout comes up again.


22

• Track your diet for a few days on www.fitday.com to get a

general idea of what is actually going into your body so

you can experiment with this later if needed.

In the review stage, this is where you see what works and what

didn’t work. This simple system is all about the constant

process of adapting and seeing what works for your body.

Here are the questions you want to ask yourself:

• Did I make progression based on the scale and my

numbers in the gym?

• What are the pictures telling me? Do I look bigger, leaner,

etc.?

• What did I find extremely difficult to do?

• What stressed me out about this?

• What can I change in the next plan based on these

answers?

The Plan, Do, Review system will help you kick ass. Once you

get to the review stage, simply adjust accordingly based on the

feedback you got, and repeat. Turns out this whole gaining

muscle mass thing is pretty easy if you come at it strategically.


23

No Excuses! Start Now. Don’t Stop.

It’s time to start your journey. You’ve started the mental

transformation needed to start or re-start your journey in

reading this book, and through the e-mail course you’ll be

receiving through Multiply Your Muscle, you’ll have all of the

pieces you’ll ever need to build the physique of your dreams.

We’re all different and there are no ultimate answers in the

fitness arena, and yet when you take these core principles and

apply them to your life and journey, in addition to what else is

coming through the Multiply Your Muscle e-mail course, I

have no doubts that you will accomplish far more than you

ever thought possible. Keep an eye out on your inbox for the

next lesson!

If you found this book helpful, I’d love for you to share it with

anyone you know who needs to read it and spread the word!

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep

our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in

the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.”

-Helen Keller

7 Keys

Documents

scott marcaccio http

stay focused

protein shake

dont care

25 pound plate

rep range

military press

45 pound plates