Fitness

Question: If someone’s trying to build muscle, is there any benefit to including sets of 50-100 reps, either with lighter weights as a “burnout” set, or with moderately-heavier weights done to failure and then continued in a rest-pause fashion? Answer: For beginners, absolutely not. I actually do the opposite of what a lot of people recommend with beginners who are trying to build muscle; I keep their reps low, not high. Until they master the skill of a complicated exercise like a squat or deadlift I would never risk exposing them… continue reading.

Today we have a great guest post from one of the top fat loss experts in the world, John Alvino. 5 Ways to Burn Fat Fast 1) Don’t decrease calories by more than 15% below your maintenance levels. This is one of the keys to maintaining all of your muscle mass during a fat loss phase. If you have a time constraint (weigh in for sport, wet t-shirt contest, etc), you may have to decrease your calories further than 15%. In these rare cases, you can decrease calories as low as 25% below maintenance, but… continue reading.

Here’s a quick list of a dozen simple muscle building tips that you can start using immediately. 1)  Do Full Body Workouts as a Newbie As a newbie you need frequent exposure to strength training for two reasons. The first is that you will be too weak to do any kind of damage that will demand longer recovery. The second is that you need to learn the lifts. When learning anything you want to do it more often than less. Three workouts per week consisting of a lower body compound movement, an upper body push and an upper body pull… 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… continue reading.

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 than simply moving your limbs around a fixed object and helps you build muscle and develop strength faster. Most of my workouts include some kind of big heavy barbell or dumbbell lift for… continue reading.

Barbell- Squat, Deadlift, Military press Dumbbell- 1 Arm Row, Flat Dumbbell Press, Dumbbell Military Press Bodyweight- Pistol Squat, Chin Up, Dip Kettlebell- Clean, Snatch, Swing Sandbag- Shouldering, Zercher Squat, Walking Lunge Keg- Clean, Overhead Press, Snatch Medicine Ball- Chest Pass, Soccer Throw, Rotational Throw Log- Clean, Clean and Press, Bench Press Suspension Straps- Pushups, Inverted Rows, Ab Fallouts Swiss Ball- Flat Dumbbell Presses, Flat to Incline Dumbbell Presses, Sledgehammer- Overhead Swing, Rotational Swing, Forearm Exercises Power Wheel- Handwalking, Alligator Pushup, Pike or Ab Roll Out Thick Ropes- Rows, Tug of War, Battling for Conditioning Fat… continue reading.

Guns, jacks, pipes, hooks, pythons… Whatever you call them, the fact remains that most guys want to know how to build bigger arms. While they are nowhere near as impressive, rarely seen and as intimidating as a big set of traps, you still don’t want to have and extra six inches of space in your shirt sleeves; that’s for sure. So the question is how do you go about building bigger arms? The answer is not as simple as you might assume. If it were easy, you would see tons of guys walking around with 18 inch… continue reading.

Today we are going to discuss how to improve on chin ups. Chin ups are one of the best overall muscle and strength building exercises around. The problem is that many beginners can’t do a single rep and many intermediate trainees can not seem to progress on them no matter what they do. One very simple solution is to get a big rubber band and loop it around the bar to assist you, as shown in the accompanying video. Start with a strong enough band that allows you to do 5 reps. When… continue reading.

Many people live in constant fear that too much cardio will cause them to lose muscular size and strength. Therefore they just decide to spend their lives fat, out of shape and unhealthy. They’d rather have one foot in the grave at all times than walk around any smaller or weaker. Growing up a skinny maggot I certainly understand this fear as it dominated many years of my life. These fears are not unfounded as too much cardio will, indeed, eat away muscle tissue and cause strength losses. But that’s traditional, steady state, outdated lame-o cardio done on a machine. continue reading.

Question: I am a little confused about how to set up my conditioning workouts and what the guidelines and parameters should be. Could you help me out with that? Answer: Ok, when discussing conditioning the first thing that needs to be asked is what is your primary training goal at the moment? If it is to get huge and strong, then conditioning must be limited and can not interfere with your main workouts. If you… continue reading.

It has often been said that you can’t lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously. That statement is actually incorrect. Beginners can do it. Even guys who have been training for a long time who make drastic changes to their diet and their workout programs can do it. You can’t do it for extended periods of time, but it can be done. For example, if you are currently doing traditional steady state cardio, switch to sprints. Sprints have an anabolic effect and do not produce cortisol… continue reading.

In a dream come true I was able to spend my Valentine’s Day at home with my girlfriend eating an amazing dinner, and dessert consisting of homemade chocolate coconut pudding (made with the best protein powder on the market) while watching NBA All Star Saturday Night. Now that’s my kind of Valentine’s Day. I text messaged a few friends and told them to enjoy their price fixed dinners with the crappy holiday menu and that they could catch the highlights on Sports Center in the morning. I used to never miss this event but… continue reading.

Ever since I first discussed the importance of “the power look” and how important it is to earn respect and separate you from the pencil necks, I am repeatedly asked about how to build big traps. The best trap building exercise is the deadlift. One need look no further than the massive trap development of elite powerliters to see how effective this exercise is at building these intimidating muscles. Pussyfooting around with light weights will never get the job done. You need to deadlift heavy weights (with picture perfect form) for sets of 3-6 reps. A good goal for most… continue reading.

By Alwyn Cosgrove I presented on Real World Fat Loss at the 2007 Perform Better event in Rhode Island and the 2008 NSCA conference. As part of my presentation I talked about my “story” – why I became fascinated with fat loss and effective fat loss training — and the need to destroy the myths that surround the topic — and why it keeps me up at night scouring journals for new information. I believe that behind every person who is trying to change something — or present something new… continue reading.

Question: I have a question about how to build big calves. Mine are like string beans and I can’t get them to grow. Got any good suggestions? Answer: Whenever people ask me how to build big calves, I immediately check their training volume. High volume works best for calves. They are probably the hardest muscle to build, and if you chose the wrong parents getting them to grow is gonna be a bitch. continue reading.