Today I’m going to show you a few cool exercises you can do with the TRX Straps. Everyone knows by now that I am a huge fan of heavy, traditional exercises like squats and deadlifts, but for years I have always preached the value of bodyweight exercises and moving your body through space. This elicits a higher level of neuromuscular activation and helps you build muscle and develop strength faster. Most of my workouts include some kind of big heavy barbell or dumbbell lift and a bodyweight exercise (or two, or three), often done with the TRX Straps.
TRX Exercise #1: Bicep Curls
TRX Exercise #2: Triceps Extensions
TRX Exercise #3: Inverted Rows
TRX Exercise #4: Low Ab Pull In’s
Get your TRX Straps today and take your training to the next level.
– No matter what the gurus tell you, most people who can’t squat properly will benefit from flexibility work. Assuming it is not simply a strength issue, if you stretch the hamstrings, hip flexors and glutes your squat depth and form will usually improve. Over the last 15 years I have had numerous kids who were unable to squat without their butt tucking under at or below parallel. One of the ways to fix this is with stretching. I know, call the exercise police. Or the functional gurus or whoever else it is that polices this type of illegal behavior.
– Certain exercises are volume exercises and certain exercises are intensity exercises. Most people don’t understand this until they have been training for many, many years, and even then some of them still don’t get it.
Deadlifts are an intensity exercise. You can’t do a lot of volume on them because it’s impossible to get motivated to do so and because you won’t be able to walk for a week. Not only that, but most people can not maintain proper form for high reps, especially when done for multiple sets. Deadlifts are meant to be done heavy. If you don’t… …continue reading.
Summer’s just around the corner. T-shirts will be coming off and bathing suits will be going on in just a few weeks. So I know that a lot of you are thinking of ways to get lean in a hurry. What you don’t want to do, however, is sacrifice any of your hard earned size or strength; right?
So how do you get ripped for summer, improve your athleticism for games of beach volleyball and football, while staying big and strong at the same time? Simple… you sprint. Flat ground sprints, hill sprints, sprints with a sled and sprints while pushing a Prowler.
Don’t waste your time jogging or doing any other traditional forms of slow, boring cardio. That will sap your strength and eat away muscle tissue. Just look at skinny, flabby, weak marathon runners for proof. Would you rather look like that or like a jacked and ripped Olympic sprinter?
Hugh Jackman was just on the radio recently talking about how he got in shape for Wolverine. He was discussing how he did sprints because he knew that jogging was bad news. Hugh told the interviewer, “Jogging wastes your muscles, you gotta run sprints.” While Hugh doesn’t have… …continue reading.
You fucken anglo saxon piece of white trash shit. Your fucking vitamins and supplements have made whatever is left of your brain soft and mosh. You piece of pathetic English white shit. Your mother and father must have been even more fucken stupid and brainless than you. They were so fucken dumb, they decided to fornicate and have you, as if we needed another rude mother-fuckin retards on this god forsaken planet. May they both rot in hell, where I hope you are headed some time soon.
Take your fucken supplements up your anus you filthy fucken animal.
Nicholas Polyzos
nicholaspolyzos@yahoo.ca
Nicholas, my brain has always been soft and has always liked to mosh. A face like mine is the product of spending way too many hours in a mosh pit as a youth. Thank you very much for reminding me.
I am actually half Scottish, not English. But a very good guess that was though; especially since I have such an Italian last name. Perhaps you saw the lion tattoo and just confused the country. All those United Kingdom fuckers look alike, right? You guessed right on the white part. Although you might think twice about… …continue reading.
A few years ago I was at a fitness conference with over 500 of my peers. After the final speaker of the day was done someone came up to me to comment on my Public Enemy t-shirt, noting that PE was his favorite rap group as well. Soon minutes became hours and I realized I had never met someone who was as obsessed with music as I was before until that very day.
Keith Scott became a great friend of mine that day and has remained one ever since. What I discovered shortly after was that not only is Keith incredibly knowledgeable about music but his in depth understanding of the human body is unsurpassed. Keith quickly became my go to guy whenever I had an injury or had a question about one of my clients that was dealing with some type of pain or restriction. He helped me with old ankle, elbow, shoulder and lower back injuries and got me in the gym training and feeling better than I had in years.
I couldn’t possibly count all the times that I have called, emailed or texted Keith about some type of injury situation and he has always come through… …continue reading.
Question: Hey dude…
read on ur blog and twitter about consuming olive oil for extra calories etc….is there a proper way to do it?
I tried one tsp today and came damn close to throwing up and gagging…lol!
Help a brother out…
Matthew Blacker
Answer: Matthew, you gotta man up. Olive oil really isn’t that disgusting. You could always mix it in a shake but the easiest and quickest way is to just take a tablespoon or two straight down the pie hole after each meal. There are other holes that it works in as well, but that’s another story for another day.
Question: Hey Jason, Keep up the good work. I wanted to pick your brain for a second. When I lift weights and train myself I normally mix a scoop of protein with Gatorade while I lift weights and as a post workout drink I mix a scoop of protein with lowfat choclate mik!! Same thing that I tell my clinets. Any thoughts on that? Your book on the Truth About Supplements was spot on by the way!!!!
What is your opinion on all the coaches being on the BCAA, Betaline Kick and… …continue reading.
By now most of you who are familiar with my training know that I am a big fan of lifting heavy. There is simply no faster way to get big and strong. You go heavy on the big exercises like squats, chins and deadlifts, you eat like a man on a mission and you maximize your recovery ability by limiting stress, stretching, foam rolling and sleeping a lot. When you do that and make consistent increases in bar weight and scale weight you will end up a much larger version of yourself six months from now.
BUT…
If you want to build muscle consistently and without plateau or injury, you can’t go heavy all the time. Your joints and central nervous system need a break every now and then. Even the elite athletes that I train take several months per year off of heavy lifting. And they still get great results. While squats and deads are the two best muscle building exercises around, they also take a toll on your body. Your spine and knees will thank you if you lay off of them from time to time. Or at the very least do a one or two month phase… …continue reading.
My Uncle Rory from Scotland was the only guy on either side of my family who could be considered big. Neither of my parents has ever weighed more than 140 pounds and nobody on either side, except me and my brother, ever even made it past 185. But Uncle Rory was different. He was not only big, he was massive. He also taught me quite a bit about how to gain muscle fast.
My family and I went to Uncle Rory’s house for a backyard barbecue one summer day, as we had a million times before. When we got there I went out to the garage gym looking for him and found Uncle Rory in the midst of his workout. He had just done a set of deadlifts and was pumped up to even larger proportions than normal.
“Haallo wee’yan. How ye gittin’ on?”
I was set to enter high school the following month but I was still the “wee’yan” (little one) to Uncle Rory. Come to think of it, anyone was little compared to Uncle Rory.
We sat and talked for five minutes or so and he then excused himself to do another set. He banged out a… …continue reading.
With summer rapidly approaching I’ve been getting lots of questions about which conditioning methods will help you lose fat fast and get in playing shape without compromising your size or strength, and exactly when should you do them.
First of all, I recommend a strength training schedule of Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This leaves Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday or Sunday for conditioning and/or playing. To start you should be training on a four way upper/lower split. This means that you have two upper body days and two lower body days. You train three days per week rotating through the four workouts; so some weeks you will do upper body twice and other weeks you do lower body twice.
As summer nears and you are doing more conditioning and running you may want to switch over to an upper/ lower/ upper split. Therefore you will train upper body on Monday and Friday and have only one leg workout per week, on Wednesdays. This will be plenty since you will be doing a lot of sprinting which will take care of your leg work. Any more than one direct leg workout per week when you are sprinting multiple times per week,… …continue reading.
Here’s a quick list of a dozen simple muscle building tips that you can start using immediately.
–If you are a beginner or intermediate do full body workouts.
–If you are advanced do upper/lower splits.
–When in doubt do more chin ups, dips and pushups. These are still the best upper body mass builders around and nothing is bound to replace them any time soon.
–Most guys will make great progress with three weight training workouts per week. More than that may lead to recover issues for some people. Others will be fine but the fourth day won’t necessarily provide significantly better results in many situations. Also, remember that mental recovery is just as important as physical. You will usually be more excited and fired up to go to the gym three days a week than four. Especially if this is something you plan on doing for the rest of your life.
–If you train four days per week it’s best to not have two back to back training days more than once. So train on Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat or Mon, Tues, Thurs, Sat.
–As the great strength coach, Ethan Reeve once said, “I have yet to find… …continue reading.
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