Question: I’ve read that stretching before your workout lowers your power for about 15mins after the stretch, which is the bulk of the lifting session. Is that true? If so, should I be stretching at all before my workouts? Thanks! -SSgt Carol L. Miller Jr. Answer: Carol, it is debatable how long this negative effect lasts. I don’t recommend stretching statically before training unless you absolutely need to in order for you to get into certain positions. This means that if you have chronically tight hips and can’t squat properly without hitting a few… continue reading.

Many times I hear this excuse from people who do absolutely no exercise at all. They say they have no time to train. They feel and look terrible yet they have no intentions of doing anything about it. I was at the park doing some sprints a few days ago and saw a guy there pushing his kids on the swings. When they got off the swings and went to play on something else the guy, in his mid forties, went over to the chin up bar and attempted to do a single rep. He couldn’t even get half way… continue reading.

“I have been trying to gain muscle all my life. It is probably one of the hardest things I or, for that matter, anyone has tried to do naturally. It’s frustrating, time consuming, and with so many people telling you so many different things downright impossible to know what is the most effective way to build muscle without the harmful use of steroids. However, I have come across a program called Muscle Gaining Secrets that truly is geared toward the hard-gainer, the guy that is dedicated and has tried everything he can to build muscle with… continue reading.

What is it about the owners of public gyms that makes them think that people want to listen to… TECHNO when they train? How does techno equal training music? I don’t get it. Am I the only who is bewildered by this phenomenon? Who gets fired up to lift heavy weights to this crap? Isn’t this what guidos in wife beaters pump their fists to in clubs at 4am? Or did that fad die in the 90’s? I don’t know, but I do that Eminem was right when he said (in Without Me) “Nobody listen to techno!” So public gym… continue reading.

A good friend of mine asked me yesterday what my top ten albums to train to were. After much thought and deliberation, here is what I came up with. Note that live albums and greatest hits were not allowed; strictly studio albums. Although it is blasphemous to mention their name in public and usually results in your being labeled a douchebag, and Fred Durst was the worst excuse for a rapper ever, Limp Bizkit did make some pretty good music to train to for a couple years there. 1) Rage Against The Machine- Rage Against The Machine 2) Rage… continue reading.

Today I’m gonna put training on the back burner and discuss my other biggest passion in life which is music. The state of music today can be quite dismal at first glance. Every Tuesday when new albums are released I log onto iTunes and buy at least 30-50 new songs. I check the new releases, grab some stuff there and then end up spending a half hour searching out other stuff that somehow makes its way into my account. When I look at the top ten charts though, I’m usually sickened. T-Pain? Colby Calliat? Souljah Boy? Baby Bash? Fergie? Good… continue reading.

Well, all I have to say is, “nothing but results.” Your program has not only allowed me to have better time management, but has given me more of a life. I used to work out 5-7 days a week up to over an hour at most times. Every year I would get sick sometime around the months of March and late in the year in November and December, obviously due to overtraining. Now, I get to spend more time focusing on my studies for ministry, and spend more time with people than… continue reading.

Yesterday, as expected, I ruffled a lot of feathers and generated a lot of positive responses with my post about why intervals suck. Some of you love doing intervals and others were in full agreement with me about their effectiveness. If you love doing intervals then you should continue to do them. Doing something you love doing will always improve your results. If you have very limited time, then you might want to opt for some kind of interval training as well. That is one of the benefits that the proponents of intervals sell- get twice the results in half… continue reading.

By Brad Pilon The theory of Starvation Mode is something that fuels Obsessive Compulsive Eating in North America and throughout the world. To use a very basic definition, Starvation mode is when your metabolism supposedly slows down when you don’t eat enough calories. More often than not this definition is used to support very complex diet programs. These diets will tell you that not eating enough food will cause you to store more fat. Right after delivering this pseudo-science message of fear they then tell you the only solution is to keep eating, and here is the catch, you… continue reading.

This is an old but very popular post from earlier this year. The email responses to this post were definitely among the highest of the year so I thought I would repost it for anyone who might have missed it. It was written the day after Randy Couture won the UFC world heavyweight title. ********* Last night, UFC legend Randy Couture came out of retirement and won the world heavyweight title at 43 years old. And some people’s excuse for why they are not stronger or bigger or leaner or a better athlete is because they are… too old?… continue reading.

In the gym today we did one of my favorite back exercises. I don’t know what it’s called because I made it up. Before I get 26 emails from people telling me they made it up or they do it let me state that I made it up in “my own mind,” meaning I had never seen it done before and just came up with it one day. Maybe you did the same and I apologize ahead of time for upsetting you. If I write it in a program I usually call it… continue reading.

Many of us may remember watching Arnold training his back with seated cable rows  during that scene in Pumping Iron and thinking “Oh my God! He’s gonna break his spine with form like that!” Actually, half of us probably had that reaction. Those that watched in horror as Arnold rounded his spine were the “smart and educated” lifters. I know this because I was one. We were taught by several gurus about how dangerous this type of thing was so we just laughed as the greatest bodybuilder of all time ignorantly did his rows. “Imagine if Arnold… continue reading.

I constantly harp on the importance of getting stronger and continually striving to lift heavier weights. It’s the most surefire way to make long term progress. Adding more sets and decreasing your rest periods and adding intensity techniques are short term approaches and can not work forever. The only thing that can is getting stronger and lifting heavier weights. There are two particular muscle groups, however, where this principle doesn’t always apply. These muscles are the neck and the forearms. While you should strive to get stronger and improve your lifting poundages on neck and forearm exercises, there will come… continue reading.

Recipe courtesy of Metabolic Cooking Makes 2 Servings Ingredients • 2 sirloin steaks (4oz each), cut in strips • 1 tablespoon olive oil • 1 small onion, diced • 1 clove garlic, crushed • 2 diced tomatoes • 1 teaspoon ground ginger • 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar • Salt and pepper Directions 1. Place the oil in a large skillet and brown the steaks in it over medium-high heat. 2. When both sides are well-seared, add the onion, garlic, and tomatoes. continue reading.

Working in the fitness industry has to be the worst occupation in the world when you’re at a party full of people you don’t know. At least 75% of them will ask you about how they can lose “this” or tighten up “right here.” My favorite is when a 187 pound woman with a plate full of doughy, greasy food asks me how to get a body like Jessica Biel. By about the fourth such inquiry I usually start looking at the drapes and wonder how long it will take me to fashion a noose out of… continue reading.