In my last post, I talked about my friend and client Josh, and his amazing success story. Josh had the worst possible “body type” (skinny, fat and weak) imaginable for achieving the goals of gaining lean muscle, increasing strength and losing body fat.
Yet, against the odds, he achieved all three simultaneously. How did he pull it off? Well, first of all, Josh refused to give up on himself. He was disciplined, motivated and passionate about overcoming the physical limitations that his DNA had so graciously “blessed” him with.
However, all the discipline and motivation in the world won’t do a single thing for you if you don’t have the right nutritional protocol and training program to back you up. That’s where I came in!
So in this post, I’d like to go a little more in depth on what I did to help Josh pull off the impossible. Let’s start with his training protocol:
Training volume- In most cases, alternating phases of high and…… …continue reading.
It is a widely accepted fact that your genetics dictate a huge portion of your life. Some genetic traits (eye color, height, sex, etc.) are basically set in stone (barring some Frankensteinish surgery) and should be accepted.
But there are many other genetic predispositions that, with the right plan and some determination, can be completely and dramatically altered. For instance, someone may be predisposed to being weak and skinny. Without a doubt, this person will have a more difficult time achieving and maintaining a strong and muscular physique than someone who is genetically blessed.
Notice that I said, “more difficult” and NOT impossible. With the right plan and some hard work, one can absolutely defy his or her physique’s “genetic pull”. In fact, I have worked with countless “genetically cursed” people over the years who were able to achieve amazing physiques and impressive levels of strength.
To better illustrate this point, I will use my client and friend, Josh, as an example. When I met Josh, he…… …continue reading.
This past weekend, I spent some time with my old friend and former training partner, Mike. He was one of the best training partners I ever had. He showed up early, he was strong and he was always ready to bring it. I loved training with him. His passion, dedication, consistency (and borderline lunacy) was exactly what I needed in my early twenties.
Eventually our schedules conflicted and we were forced to train on our own. Sharing a relentless pursuit of strength and muscular size/definition, we mercilessly continued to pound the iron four days per week. Then the day came when I felt myself slip from the state of indestructible youth. Let me explain.
For years, I had benched between 365-425 lbs each and every week, depending on the rep range being utilized. Then one particular Monday, while I was grinding out a heavy rep, I felt something tear in my shoulder. I took an immediate trip to the orthopedist, and the MRI he gave…… …continue reading.
Pull ups can be found in just about every routine that is geared towards increasing upper body strength. The spectrum of trainees who use this movement is very broad. Kids in gym class, weekend warriors, and even Olympic gymnasts perform pull ups on a regular basis. Because of its exceptional popularity and reputation, one would assume that people make great progress from doing them.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. Not even close. In fact, I can tell you that most people get nowhere from doing pull ups. However, trainees stubbornly continue to do them because they think that’s what they are “supposed” to do. I was certainly guilty of this for years.
You see, when I first started training some 25 years ago, I could easily crank out sets of 15 pull ups. I was even the pull up and flexed arm hang champion in junior high school.
Can you imagine how much better I thought I would get from years of structured and…… …continue reading.
I have recently been asked by two of my coaching clients, “what tempo should I use on each exercise”?
For those of you who are not familiar with the word “tempo” in weight training, it refers to the speed at which you perform a repetition of a particular exercise.
Strength coaches and authors use tempo prescriptions in order to help ensure that each set lasts an optimal “time under tension” for the trainees’ specific goal.
Time under tension is basically the length of time that a muscle experiences tension from the beginning of a given set to the end.
Sports scientists have stated that for optimal hypertrophy, sets should last between 40-70 seconds. Because of this recommendation, many experts have advocated using a slower rep speed to ensure that a set will last for the optimal time under tension.
However, I happen to know many strong and jacked dudes who have never performed a set lasting anywhere near 40-70 seconds. The question is, would these jacked…… …continue reading.
It is no secret that in order to achieve any training related goal (size, strength, structural balance, performance, etc.), you should be training the hip extension movement pattern.
There are many different hip extension exercises to choose from but the king of the jungle has been and always will be the bent knee deadlift.
There are only two basic styles of a bent knee deadlift: conventional style and Sumo style.
Which one is better? This question has practically been argued to death. That’s why I decided to write this post and give you my opinion, based on my 20 years of coaching these lifts.
At first glance, the two lifts appear to be very similar. They both involve lifting a barbell off of the floor until you’re body is in a vertical position.
There are, however, two major differences between these two styles: the width of stance and the width of grip.
In the conventional style (Fig. 1), I recommend setting your feet close together…… …continue reading.
Doing the greatest exercises should produce the greatest results, right? Well, in theory, the answer is yes. But in practice this is not always the case. You see, some exercises are so effective at recruiting a maximal amount of motor units and for allowing maximal loading that they are difficult to recover from.
Do them too frequently, too intensely or with too much volume and you are sure to overtrain, get nowhere or worse yet, get injured. In other words, the most effective exercises, done incorrectly, will lead to the worst results.
The worst offender of this counterintuitive law is the bent knee deadlift. Although, I usually prefer to keep things simple, giving you the ultra basic advice of deadlifting hard, heavy and weekly will certainly not produce sustainable results.
So what should we do? Do we cut deadlifts out of our routine?
Definitely not! Deadlifts done with the proper parameters can contribute to muscle hypertrophy, pulling strength and performance better than any other exercise…… …continue reading.
Those of you who know me know that I am very goal orientated. I like having clear goals, developing a roadmap to achieve them and following the plan with tenacity. This is true in most aspects of my life and it is definitely true when it comes to training.
I can say with certainty that most of my training success was made possible by the fact that I always had a crystal clear plan of what I wanted to accomplish and how I intended to accomplish it.
But I am not alone. In fact, I have found that just about everyone who actually achieves a noteworthy training related goal — whatever that goal may be — has a specific plan of attack in place before they even begin. People who tend to “wing it” without a vision or a plan usually end up getting nowhere…and fast.
Here is a seldom asked yet very important question: Why put your time and hard work into an endeavor…… …continue reading.
Have you ever hit a wall in your training that seemed to stop your progress in its tracks? Did it seem like no matter what you did, you would spin your wheels at best?
Well, if you’re stubborn like me, you probably decided to dig deeper and work even harder. I applaud your tenacity, but unfortunately (and I learned this the hard way), forcing yourself through a plateau never works. To the contrary, this tactic is usually counterproductive.
If working harder isn’t the answer, then what can you do? The answer is simple yet completely counterintuitive.
Here’s your solution: Take a step back in order to take two steps forward. In other words, lighten up your training for a short period of time. Believe me, I realize how psychologically difficult this can be. But in reality, you have two options. The choice is yours:
Option A- Continue to push towards your goal and get nowhere, or worse yet, get injured and burned out.
Option B-…… …continue reading.
A good set of stairs has always represented something magical to me. Due to my lifelong obsession with Rocky, running up a steep flight of stairs has always symbolized overcoming an intimidating and overwhelmingly difficult life-obstacle.
Throughout my childhood, I ran up and down a local (and oh-so memorable) set of stadium stairs quite often, and drew a lot of inspiration and self-confidence from it. Little did I know that I was engaging in one of the best fat burning exercises and also one of the best conditioning drills in existence.
Believe me, after 20 years of being in the biz, I have tirelessly experimented with every possible fat loss/conditioning protocol imaginable, yet regardless of what I try, a good stair running workout still reigns supreme.
Now, before you go out and start sprinting up the nearest staircase, read on to discover how to best perform a stair running workout. Don’t get me wrong, just simply running up and down a good flight of stairs…… …continue reading.
