It’s been a while since I’ve done a random thoughts post. From now on I will try to do them more frequently just because there is no off switch on my brain and I think about a lot of really wacked out shit.
- I always found it funny that there are books, movies, lectures, etc. about what women want, when one simple word can describe what men want– blowjobs. That’s it. Preferably sloppy. We’re easy. You heard the Mel Gibson tapes. That’s all he wanted. And when he didn’t get one he was none to pleased.
- Why wouldn’t homeless guys in New York walk south or even to the west coast for the winter? If you have nothing but time on your hands who cares how long it takes? You could be chillin by the beach instead of in a box on 53rd and 2nd. Makes no sense to me.
- Why can’t people figure out how to open and close a door at night when others in the house are sleeping? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that you twist the handle all the way and pull the door until it quietly hits… …continue reading.
“No, no, just squat straight down really fast and drop your ass all the way to the floor. Move your feet and hands a little wider. Now just rip the bar up off the floor and stand straight up.”
I cringed in pain as I watched two college aged kids deadlift a couple weeks ago at the gym I’ve been training at in Cali.
“Dude, it feels like my back is gonna break.”
And indeed it was coming close.
I continued writing in my training journal and prepared for my squat workout but I couldn’t look away from the car wreck happening just off to my left.
After a few more sets I snapped out of high intensity pre workout mode and got into coaching mode.
“Can I help you guys out here?”
“Yeah, man. Please do.”
I introduced myself to Luke and Billy and proceeded to explain what they were doing wrong and went on to coach them on deadlift technique for the next thirty minutes. I’m always hesitant to do this because I don’t want to come across as a douche or insult anyone. But I couldn’t stand by in all good conscience and let these poor… …continue reading.
1) Before you even get to the gym make sure you have a muscle building workout plan. You can’t get there and just wing it if you want to see serious results.
2) Psyche yourself up on the way to the gym by visualizing the workout in your head. See yourself going through each of your exercises and dominating the weights.
3) If you train at a public gym, where it’s more thank likely that they will be playing Usher and similar R&B tunes that will make you wanna clean out your ears with a gun, make sure you have some good training songs loaded on your iPod.
4) Train 3-4 days per week. Which one is optimal? Three always works best for beginners. For everyone else you need to determine what your schedule and recovery ability will allow. If you play a pick up sport regularly throughout the year or participate in kickboxing or surf a few days per week, three days is probably your best bet. If you do no other physical activity outside of the gym (no sprints, no walking, biking, nothing) than four days might be a better idea for you.… …continue reading.
Question: Are there any natural supplements that could raise my testosterone levels? What about lifestyle choices?
Answer: Firstly, as far as supplements go you have a few different options. Take note that, as with all supplements, not everyone will get the same results from the following products.
Maca is a cruciferous vegetable grown in Peru that contains plant sterols which have been shown to block and control the production of estrogen as well as boost testosterone production. In the past I would have told you that for maca to be effective you need to use 3-6 tablespoons per day of the whole maca root powder, not the extracts and not capsules. However, Dr. Wong, who I have great respect for, has recently come up with an awesome new maca product in capsule form which I have found to work quite well in everyone I’ve tried it with. And taking the capsules is a lot better than choking down six tablespoons per day. You will need to stick with this regimen for at least four weeks to see a positive increase in testosterone production. Click HERE for Dr. Wong’s new high strength maca supplement.
Zinc has also been… …continue reading.
What’s up guys? Sorry for the lack of posts the last week or so. Jen and I left Renegade in the trusty hands of my brother and good friend, Mark Crook and rented a place on the beach in Santa Monica, CA for five weeks. To say we’ve been super busy since we got here would be a bit of an understatement. The first day we went to Six Man in Manhattan Beach which is basically the biggest beach party in all of Los Angeles County and was a great time.
Since then I’ve met with a few clients, had dinner a few times with Chad Waterbury, met up with Valerie Waters another night, Dr. Chris Mohr and his wife Kara another and we spent last night with Tyler and Rob English who were in town for the Perform Better. On Saturday night we ventured up to the Hollywood area (man do I hate the 405) to watch the UFC at my friend Laura Prepon’s house where I had the pleasure of getting massaged during the fights, by her sister, Dani who I grew up with. Massage, food and UFC all at once. It was the trifecta that… …continue reading.
What a difference five years makes. I go out to bars about three times per year instead of three times per week. I hate staying up late and drinking these days, preferring instead to stay home, read a book and be in bed by 10:30. I’ll hardly touch a piece of food that isn’t organic or 100% natural. I’ve gotten rid of my microwave and toxic pots, pans and food storage containers. I only drink the purest water I can out of Sigg bottles, and even have a filter on my shower head. I threw out all my regular sun screens and soaps and whatever other harmful crap I had in the house. Basically, I’m an absolute health nut like the bodybuilders and strongmen of the early 1900’s. I know it sounds crazy to associate bodybuilders with health but that was actually the case way back when.
My life has changed drastically in the last few years with all of the above paling in comparison to the biggest change.
But to explain what I’m talking about let’s start back even further…
After college my obsession with strength training and fitness was growing at an astronomical rate. So much so that… …continue reading.
Once you’ve been training more than a few years the need to deload on a somewhat regular basis becomes more and more prevalent.
How often you do so depends on your training age, strength levels and injury history. Eastern Bloc countries and countless other successful lifters have had great results by training hard for three weeks and deloading on the fourth week.
It’s a pretty widely accepted formula and has been proven time and time again. So there’s really no need to try and reinvent the wheel. Three weeks hard, one week deload is my standard go-to-recommendation.
There are other options, however, and if you have only been training for a couple of years you won’t need to worry about deloading just yet. Beginners can go a few years without deloading. Eventually you’ll want to start with 12 weeks then work your way down to 10 and so on. When you get a little more advanced some people might be able to go 6-8 weeks hard before deloading. If you’re more of an early intermediate lifter, eight weeks may be a better option for you. If you’re more advanced and go eight weeks you might want to consider deloading for… …continue reading.
Guest Post by Scott Sonnon of Tactfit Commando
We’ve known for years that muscle tissue is highly active metabolically, and it helps us burn more calories during the day. So more muscle equals better fat burn, right? Unfortunately that’s only partly true — and not to the extent we once believed. A pound of muscle is now thought to burn an extra 6 calories per hour (as opposed to the 25 or more per hour we once believed). You’d have to pack on an awful lot of beef to make much difference.
But that’s only one side of the equation. Muscle mass provides a number of other important benefits, foremost of which is better management of insulin. Insulin is your “storage” hormone. Its job is to transport fuel into your cells. The higher your ratio of fat to lean tissue, the less sensitive your lean tissue becomes to insulin. Basically, when your body fat percentage creeps too high and insulin comes knocking, your lean mass stops answering the door. If you see a vicious cycle in all of this, you’re right!
One way to encourage your muscles to start answering the door again is through resistance exercise aimed at… …continue reading.
If you know me you know I like to keep things simple. I’m a big believer in the 80/20 rule. Focusing on too many things and making too many changes at once is always a recipe for disaster and will undoubtedly lead to lackluster results.
So when people ask me for some tips on how to get lean I tell them two things- diet and sprint. Pretty simple stuff.
Diet is really 80% of getting lean but that’s another topic entirely. Today we’re simply gonna focus on hill sprints for fat loss. Mainly because not enough people are doing them and many of those who are, are doing them all wrong.
If you are new to sprinting you need to take it easy. I mean reeeeaaaally easy. If the last time you ran a sprint was the week before senior prom you need to be very cautious or you’ll probably get hurt.
If this describes you I’d start with hill sprints. Why hill sprints? Well, firstly, because Walter Payton did them. And most of us should strongly consider doing whatever Walter Payton did just because he was that awesome. Because he was my favorite athlete growing up (along with Michael… …continue reading.
Since there was quite a bit of interest in and positive feedback on Chad’s fat loss system I decided to get him to write a quick article for us today on the top 5 fat loss myths.
Check it out…
Fat Loss Myth #1: Low intensity cardio is great for burning fat and boosting endurance.
Jogging for an hour is a complete waste of time. So is any form of cardio that forces you to do the same repetitive movement over and over. When your muscles have to continuously contract for 30, 45, or 60 minutes, that energy has to come from somewhere. The body is stubborn and doesn’t want to burn fat for energy so it eats up your muscle instead. This immediately kills your metabolism and it robs your body of strength and athleticism.
The key to quickly getting ripped is by doing exercises that stimulate your metabolism all day long. Research by Tremblay shows that high intensity cardio is significantly more effective than low intensity cardio because it forces your body to keep burning fat and calories after you stop training. And research by Tabata proves that just a few minutes of intense cardio will boost… …continue reading.
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