Written in 2006 For Todays Man magazine Remember when exercise used to be fun; when you used to get endless hours of physical activity each week without ever dreading the thought of it? Remember when you used to be able to break out into a full sprint without the fear of pulling a hamstring? How about when you could stand up from your chair without your lower back hurting? Oh, to be young. Or maybe it’s actually what we were when we were young…athletes. Sure as we get older we lose muscle mass and flexibility but this can not be… continue reading.

“People think if they’re working 14 hour days that they are getting more done. WRONG.  If you work for 11 hours and then do something physical for 3 hours, you’ll be far more productive in those 11 hours than you’d be in 14 hours.  It takes energy to make energy- otherwise you’re just sitting at your desk in a daze, feeling overwhelmed by all the things you think you need to do.  And then that goes on for years and it comes time to retire, but you’re so out of shape you still can’t do anything… continue reading.

By John Alvino If your goal is to lose fat and build muscle as fast as possible, it is absolutely crucial that you focus your efforts on maximizing your production of the powerful fat burning hormone known as growth hormone (GH). GH is released by the pituitary, and GH levels in the body tend to peak during puberty, and then slowly (yet steadily) decline with age. GH plays a key role in the building and/or maintenance of muscle, as well as the burning of body fat. continue reading.

It happened again this morning, another victim claimed by the flat bench press. My buddy called and told me he tore his pec while benching heavy over the weekend. It didn’t shock me at all. This lift has been destroying shoulders and tearing pecs since the beginning. Back in the golden days of the Iron Game, when the military press was the upper body exercise of choice, nobody ever heard of rotator cuff injuries or pec tears. It was only after the bench press achieved extreme popularity that shoulders and… continue reading.

I was talking to my buddy before the big UFC fight this weekend and he said he hoped that, if nothing else, Brock Lesnar’s success would help make more people realize how important maximal strength training is for MMA. I couldn’t have agreed more. To this day there are still tons of guys who scoff at heavy strength training for combat sports. Conditioning is the most important quality a mixed martial artist or amateur wrestler needs, so that tends to be the main focus of a large majority of combat training programs while the strength… continue reading.

I finally got the ok from the doctor, yesterday, to go back to training. Nothing overhead and no heavy pressing, but I can ease my way back into everything else and finally start regaining all the weight I have lost this year. It’s been a long time and I couldn’t take much more of it. I feel like it’s Christmas morning right now and can’t wait to get to the gym today. I got a question about music yesterday and since, along with training, that is my favorite subject… continue reading.

Recipe courtesy of Metabolic Cooking Makes 2 Servings Ingredients • 8oz shrimps, shelled and deveined • 1 tablespoon macadamia oil • ½ teaspoon paprika • Pinch cayenne pepper • 2 cloves garlic, crushed Directions 1. In a skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté the shrimp and garlic. in the oil for about 5 minutes until it’s pink. 2. Sprinkle the paprika and cayenne over it. 3. Cook for about another minute and serve. Nutritional Facts (Per Serving)  … continue reading.

Excuses are everywhere. We’ve all got them and use them more than we should. I’ve been guilty of this and I’m sure you’ve probably been an offender at one time or another, yourself. But we need to stop. No one wants to hear them and no one gives a shit. Below is a list of some of my favorites. –I don’t squat because they’re bad for the knees. –You’re not supposed to squat below parallel. — I don’t need to do legs because I run and go on the stairclimber. –I’m just getting back into it. (For two years?!) –Today… continue reading.

By John Alvino During my entire 16 year career as a professional fitness coach, I have experimented with every imaginable exercise protocol on myself and my many clients. This tireless journey has helped me to perfect a fat loss system that delivers unparalleled results. My fat loss subjects have included young and old, men and women, obese and those who just want to lose “the last 10 pounds”. Actually, the only group that I never worked with was identical twins. That is, until now. Just recently, I had two twin brothers (Angelo and Phil) hire me… continue reading.

When I first started training, I didn’t know any better so I went to the gym and did all the machine exercises and isolation movements that I saw everyone else doing. I figured these would all lead to fast muscle gain and I would be huge in no time. My dad knew a steroid-using Italian guy named Tony who owned a gym and competed in several bodybuilding shows. He asked Tony if he could write me a program and Tony obliged. I was bursting with excitement and thought this would be the difference maker in my training. I met… continue reading.

As most of you who have followed my writing for a while know, I have never been a big fan of protein powders. That’s because most of the junk available on the market today is made from extremely low quality protein and contains cheap fillers, artificial sweeteners and other dangerous chemicals. I learned this first hand a few years ago when I paid a lab in New Jersey to test the top selling protein powders at the time. Most of these brands… continue reading.

By John Alvino When most people attempt to perform ab workouts at home, they usually just lie on the floor and engage in a marathon of crunch repetitions. This all too common approach will never lead to a well-balanced set of six pack abs. First of all, the basic crunch will only provide a marginally positive training effect for beginners. Once you get strong enough to crank out sets of 50-100 or more, the resistance the crunch provides is simply too little to provide a training effect. And secondly, the crunch only works the abs… continue reading.

I’m sure by now that many of you are familiar with the word tempo when it comes to training for fast muscle gain…Right? No? Well, I wouldn’t feel left out or get too worried about it because it is a fairly useless concept. Tempo, in the training world, is the speed at which you perform your reps in a given set. Therefore, the correct terminology should actually be rep speed. It is typically displayed in a three-digit code. The first number represents the eccentric or lowering (also called the “negative”) portion of the rep, the second… continue reading.

Question: What should hardgainers do for their abs? Answer: Hardgainers do not need any direct ab training. If you are doing a lot of big exercises like squats, standing presses, deadlifts and chin ups, what is doing a few sets of stability-ball crunches going to accomplish that hasn’t already been done? All of those compound exercises involve the abs and all of the core musculature tremendously. For hardgainers, adding in more volume in the form of… continue reading.

By Patrick Beith & Latif Thomas On a daily basis I receive emails from newsletter subscribers asking variations of the very same question: What is ‘step over drive down?’ How do you ‘step over drive down?’ What does ‘step over drive down’ actually do? I think you understand what I mean. And this is a great question that clearly needs some further explanation. The only way to get faster is to learn to apply more force to the ground. Simple Physics state that every action has an equalAnd opposite reaction. So it stands to reason that the more… continue reading.