bodybuilding diet jeff seid

i'm david otunga, wwsuperstar, lawyer, and actor. ♪♪♪ i earned my bachelor'sdegree in psychology from the university of illinois and,following that, i managed a cognitive neurosciencelab at columbia university. now after that, i went toharvard for law school. and after earning my jd atharvard, i landed a job at the top law firm inchicago, sidley austin. and then realitytv came calling.

so i starred in vh1's"i love new york 2." so after that, it was, like, "wow, i have thisnew-found fame. what should i do?" i want to become aprofessional wrestler. a graduate of the harvardlaw school, david otunga. next step was the wwe. i debuted in 2010 on a new show,"nxt," and now i'm a star in raw and smackdown.

i didn't alwayslook like i do today. growing up as a kid in elgin,illinois, i was short, i was chubby, i had thick glasses andmake things worse, i did pretty well in school so igot labeled a smart kid. actually the smart chubbykid with the thick glasses. so kids used to make fun of meall the time and call me names like "nerd" and "dork" whichactually don't really sound like that bad in themselves but atthe time, like, they really affected me.

and people used tojust push me around. i would look around and i wouldsee these other kids who weren't getting picked on and it seemedlike everybody was just so athletic and sobuff and i wasn't. i was like, "i don't understandwhat i'm doing wrong or what they're doing right." i got it in my head whatif i start working out. i can have those muscles too. i just need to start training.

so around my freshman year, idecided all right, i'm gonna start taking the gym seriouslybut i didn't know where to start. so my best friend, rob, hisolder brother had an old weights set. it was the old plastic-coatedcement basically and so i got a couple of those from him and anez curl bar and i just started out doing ez curls every night. i would do sets often; ten sets of ten.

that was my thing. and then the next night i woulddo pushups, ten sets of ten and then i would slowly increase it. and i did this for maybe,ah, maybe 3 or 4 weeks. and i kind of felt betterbut i didn't necessarily see a difference. and then i remember one dayduring the summer, rob and i were at the mall and wesaw these girls from school. and i knew one of them.

she was an upperclassman andhappened to be in one of the same classes with me. this girl comes over to me andshe's like, "hey, david, what have you been doing?" and she grabbed my arm and she'slike, "you're starting to get muscles in your arm." i was shocked. i said, "wait. what?" she's like, "oh, you're startingto get muscles in your arm."

i was like, did this girl justcompliment me and say that i had muscles in my arm? that was it. all i could think about in myhead was, "oh my gosh, it's working. it's working and peopleare seeing my results." and after that, i couldn't even,you know, hang out at the mall. i wanted to go straight home andhit more pushups and more curls because now i knew it wasworking so it motivated me even

that much more. and from then on, itwas like my thing. i would come home from schoolevery day and before i did my homework, i would work out. i'd work out for an hour ortwo and then hit the books. every day. it's amazing wheni think about it. just that one single complimentled to so much because after that, working out becamemy lifestyle, you know?

i did this every day throughschool, at high school, and then when i went to college, ialready was in a great routine so i thought, "why mess it up? let's keep going." and there was a gym right by mydorm so i would go every day and work out and then study. i carried it all theway through law school. even when i worked at the firm,i used to take my lunch breaks and go straight to the gym, comeback, eat my chicken breast at

my lunch table and workthe rest of the night. and then even now the crazything is, working out has become my life. like, that's my job. as a ww wrestler, part of it isworking out and having a great physique. and then now i'm doing so manyother things in body building and fitness, and i sit back andi just think, "wow, it's so cool that all of this came from mejust deciding i wanted to change

and i wanted tobuild some muscles." and then somebody complimentedme and let me know that it was being a professional wrestler,i have to be in top physical condition. i mean, what we do in theretakes so many years of practice, conditioning,strength, i mean, you name it. it's one of the hardest thingsi've ever done in my life. i mean, basically, i getmy butt kicked every night. and in different cities all overthe world, i'm getting my butt

kicked in front of them. but, at the same time, i haveto look good and i know that i'm gonna get my butt kicked againthe next night so i have to be in shape and my body needsto be able to withstand it. so because of that, i have tobe able to train around injuries and to make sure thati stay injury-free. now i don't know how muchyou guys know what goes into becoming a ww superstar but onthe average i have to work out 5 to 7 days a week.

luckily, i'm able to finda gym everywhere we go. that's my first priority. as soon as i land and get offthe plane, the first thing i do is go to the gym and work out. even if i have a match thatnight, i know that i need to work out so i'll work out hardbut i'll give myself enough time to rest up before the match. my week starts on wednesdays. i usually fly home wednesdaymorning and, on my way home from

the airport, i stop bythe gym and i train legs. now wednesdays, i'm super tiredbecause i always take the first flight home but this is mytoughest workout is legs, and i just hammer it. next day is thursday. this is typically a chest dayand i'll go in and i'm rested. i have a great workout. now the next day is friday. fridays, i usually fly back outon the road to do live events.

the first thing i'll do is i'llfind a gym and, typically, this is gonna be a back day. it's gonna be heavydeadlifts and all kind of rows. then i have the show that nightand then we'll drive to the next city, which nowtakes us to saturday. i'll sleep for afew hours, wake up. first thing i do, i find a gym. and now it's gonna be chest, andit's gonna be upper chest and shoulders.

gonna hammer this out. we're gonna have the show thatnight and then i'm gonna drive to the next city. by now it's sunday morning. i may take sunday morning offbecause our shows are earlier but i'll still tryto get in the gym. and this might be somethingsmall, even if it's just abs or calves or cardio but i usuallylike to get in there and do something.

and we'll have the show sundaynight and then i'll drive to raw for monday. first thing i do, go to the gym. now my cycle is repeated. so [laughing] there's no excuses in my book. if i can go, anybody can go. i train pretty muchlike a bodybuilder. i've always considered myself abodybuilder at heart, you know,

that's how i got into trainingalso was reading a lot of the bodybuilding magazines. so i'll go in with a specificmuscle group i want to work that day. and i typically use moderatevolume like 8 to 12 reps and probably about 5 to 6working sets per exercise. however, this changes dependingon how my body feels that day and whatever injuries i'mworking around, which is another thing, i'm very fluid withmy workouts and my plans.

i know what i want to do, iknow what body part, but the exercises aren'tetched in stone. let's say, forexample, i'm gonna do arms. and i go in there and i'mthinking i'm gonna do straight bar curls but then i look overand they have, like, a really cool preacher curl bench. i'm like, "wow, i like that. okay, maybe i'll goand i'll hit that." or maybe they have the armblaster, which nobody uses but i

love. i'll grab that and i'll justcrank out some sets and i'll get a great pump doing what ifelt like doing than if i forced myself to go and do straightbar curls and i wasn't really feeling that hot about that day. so i'm very big on ifsomething's telling me to do that, i'll go and do it. and i also believe in when i'mdoing an exercise, sometimes i'll do, like, a lot of sets,like, i might hit my six working

sets and still, like, be reallyinto it, i'm really feeling this today, the mind-muscleconnection's there, i'll just keep going. i might do ten sets. a big part of being professionalwrestler is your endurance and your wind. you have to have greatendurance, great cardiovascular conditioning. however, i don't really enjoydoing cardio so the best way i

do it is in the gym ishorten my rest periods. i finish a set and i put theweights down just long enough to get a few deep breaths and theni'm right back at it in the next set and it keeps yourheart rate up the whole time. my rest periods are anywherebetween 30 to 60 seconds so i'm constantly moving in the gym. and one of the things i starteddoing was wearing a heart rate monitor so i see what the zoneis i want it in, the beats per minute, and i tryto keep it there.

so i'll check and i'll see,okay, it's dropping a little bit, i'll do, you know, a setof jumping jacks even and then start the next set. and i always haveto have my music. i cannot train without music. and i have my play list set up. depending on what the workoutis and, you know, i have certain songs that are more intense,they build up in intensity by the time i'll get to certainexercises and certain sets.

each workout i gointo, i usually have a goal. depending on what it is, i wantto outdo my previous workout. now it isn't always more weight. it might be more reps with acertain amount of weight or it might be getting my heartrate up faster or getting more quality reps in of a certainexercise but there's always something that i'm reaching forbecause, i mean, you need some motivation. i look at myself inthe mirror a lot.

like, i'm always in front ofthe mirror studying myself. and i see, what doi want to work on? say i'm, you know, want to buildmore definition in my triceps, i'll go right to the mirror andjust do pushdowns right in it and just watch it the whole timeand look at it and just imagine how i want it to look and itlooks great, you know, just in the mirror, just right there,flexing it and it's, like, that's what drives me is to havethe best body i can and if i see something on my body iwant to change, i do it.

maintaining a healthy physique,you know, starts in the gym but that's only 1 or 2hours out of your day. it's what you do the restof the 22 hours of your day. now a lot of thatis gonna be eating. so nutrition is so important. i think nutrition is asimportant as maybe 70%, 80% of, you know, your overall health. i don't view it as everbeing on a diet because i'm not. this is my lifestyle.

i eat healthy, i eat likethis 365 days of the year. and i mean, i have tobecause of my profession. i always have to be in topphysical shape, whether i'm on tv or whether i'mat a live event. and if people come up to me inthe airport, they know who i am. they see david otunga, theyknow they're expecting me to be ripped. i have to be ripped. i mean, what if they want to seemy abs or something like that?

i got to be ready. i can't say, "oh, youknow, give me a few weeks." i never know what opportunity'sgonna come, you know, when a photo shoot may pop up,so i try to stay ready. i typically eat a high-proteindiet to help build muscle, all lean meats, you know, low fatand moderate carbohydrates. i usually opt for complexcarbohydrates like sweet potatoes, oats, fibrousvegetables and greens. i try to plan my meals aroundwhat i have scheduled for that

so obviously, the first thingi'm gonna try to do is work out. so i'll either go on anempty stomach if i have the opportunity to work out firstthing in the morning or, if i know it's gonna be later onin the day, i'll usually have oatmeal, which is gonnahelp fuel my workout later on. now immediately after the gym,immediately after my workout, i have a protein shake. and now i strive for about 50grams of protein, branched-chain amino acids, and somefast-acting carbohydrates

then too. and then about an hour later,i'll have another meal and it's usually gonna be probablysome lean chicken breast or lean fish--i've been eating a lot oftilapia lately--with some sweet potatoes. and then about 2.5 to 3 hourslater, i'll have another meal and this is a lotof times steak. and also, depending on what timeit is, i'll alter the carbs. i may have, you know, sweetpotatoes or something else but

then, if i know it's gettinglater in the day, it might just be vegetables or a salad andthen the following meal, it's gonna be pretty much the samebut now the carbs are almost completely cut out so it'sjust gonna be the lean meat. but i always eat cleanthroughout the week and then i'll give myselflike a cheat meal. it's--sometimesit's a cheat day. 'cause, you know, i'll get home,i have a 3-year-old son and he wants to have, you know, pizza,hamburgers or ice cream so i

want to be able toenjoy that with him. and also it helps keep mysanity, like, it's my reward for eating so healthy throughout theweek, i can kind of, you know, relax a little. supplementation is a hugepart of nutrition as well. i mean, you try to get all yourvitamins and minerals in the solid foods you eat butit's difficult to do that. so taking supplements willhelp you supplement that. for example, protein.

i need at least a gram ofprotein per pound of body weight. so for me, that's about 250grams of protein each day. if you're on the run, you know,you may not have time to sit down and have a nutritious meal. you may look around andall you see is fast food. but if you have your proteinpowder there, you can have a quick shake and that's gonnakeep your metabolism going. it's gonna keep your proteinintake up and it's gonna help

you build muscle andfight fat at the same time. but then there's also thingsthat you need more of like branched-chain amino acids. i'm, you know, ahuge believer in those. and you normally get thosethrough steak but, like i said, there's only so muchsteak you can eat. but if you get the powderedform, you can mix that right in your protein shake. it's so easy.

and then multivitamin. i think everybodyshould take a multivitamin. i just recently started takingit, like the past couple of years but i wish i hadbeen doing it before. it makes me feel so much better. and fish oils. that's another one that's great. it's great just for your jointsand actually will help you lose body fat as well.

if i had to recommend only threesupplements, i would say number one, above all, is protein. whey protein. you need protein. whey protein, caseinprotein, it doesn't matter. but you need protein. number two, i'm gonna say thebranched-chain amino acids. you need that to go alongwith the protein to get the full benefit of it.

and number three, this is one ihaven't used in a long time but creatine. creatine phosphate works,you know, like, if you're just looking to get big, creatineactually will help and you'll notice the difference from it. for guys just starting out andgetting into the gym, i can't stress howimportant supplements are. like, i noticed that when ifirst started working out i wasn't taking any supplementsor even, you know, taking my

nutrition seriously at allbut i was still growing. however, once i realized thevalue of good nutrition and, you know, supplementation, i juststarted growing like crazy and i loved it. one of the biggest things ican stress is do your research. i mean, know what your goal is,know what you're trying to do. are you trying to build muscle? are you trying to tone up? are you trying to lose fat?

are you trying tobuild endurance? whatever it is, you can do itbut do your research and learn about it. find out what other people aredoing who have been successful at that. find out what supplementsthey're taking, you know, but always do your research, that'sthe best answer i can give anybody. bodybuilding and fitness, justworking out, has added so much

to my life. it's helped me to reachdreams that i never thought were possible. it helped me towork hard in school. helped me to work hard in work. and even in athletic endeavorsand in wwe, but also it's helped me even in acting. like, i look at it when i get ascene, and say, "okay, this is an exercise," and i'll hit itwith different sets of reps

going through my lines,going through my lines. and also since then, i've hadappearances on "oprah" talking about, you know, mytransformation and just following my dreams andeverything that i've done. i booked my ownappearance on "oprah." i mean, obviously, my fiancã©e isjennifer hudson and so i've been on there with her before but itwas a major moment for me when i booked my own appearance to talkabout reaching my own dreams. so i encourage all of you outthere, reach for your dreams.

whatever it is, go after it. if it's, you know, in fitness,if it's transforming your body, go after it. you can do it. and i'm always hereif you have questions. you can reach me on mytwitter, @davidotunga. i love answering questions aboutfitness and nutrition and you can find me on facebook. and you can check out mybodyspace and also you can see

bodybuilding diet jeff seid,

me every week on monday nightraw on the usa network and also on friday nightsmackdown on syfy. and if you want to get moredavid otunga content, check out bodybuilding.com.