Uncategorized

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.

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.

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.

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.

When people ask me how to gain weight the first thing I ask them is if they do deadlifts. If you are trying to get big but aren’t including deadlifts in your program you are wasting your time. There is simply no more effective mass building exercise than the deadlift. From your neck to your calves, nearly every muscle in your body gets activated and receives a powerful growth stimulus from deadlifts. Not only is the deadlift the most effective mass building exercise there is but it is also the most basic ,and has the greatest carryover to the… continue reading.

This is a great article by a colleague of mine and I guy I have the utmost respect for, Steve Maxwell. It reinforces what I have always said about doing sprints, strongman conditioning, playing sports, etc to get in shape instead of just mindlessly pumping away on the stair climber. To see that Steve practices what he preaches check out his pic to the left and take note of the fact that he is FIFTY FIVE years old! ——– By Steve Maxwell One morning, while observing a female endlessly running the treadmill-to-nowhere-fast, I realized… continue reading.

By Jim “Smitty” Smith When you think about the most basic abdominal exercises, the first one that pops into your head is probably planks. Planks are where a person lays out into a push-up position but instead of being on their outstretched hands, they rest on their forearms. In this position, the athlete or lifter will remain for a specific length of time. If the time exceeds one and a half minutes that is considered pretty good. The benefits of planks include rehabilitating a back injury, glute activation, developing proficiency for bracing the torso with intra-abdominal pressure and an… continue reading.

If you have been around the Iron Game for a while, there is one name that comes instantly to mind when people discuss leg training. That name is Tom Platz. “The Golden Eagle” is widely regarded as having the most massively muscular legs in the history of bodybuilding. His thighs measured a whopping 35 inches and were shredded to the bone. Tom’s program that created those unforgettable wheels revolved around one exercise and one exercise only; the barbell squat. If you want to add some serious mass to your legs you had better familiarize yourself with this… continue reading.

One of the most popular, faulty and dangerous myths espoused in nearly every muscle building program is that you must use a full range of motion on every exercise in order to achieve maximal growth. Supposedly you have to take each movement to the fully stretched position and then finish in the fully “peak” contracted position. If you don’t you will never get huge… or so they say. Without getting all technical and scientific let’s just look at a few real world examples to see if this advice makes any sense at all. Starting from the… continue reading.

I want to extend a huge congratulations to our first ever Muscle Gaining Secrets Transformation contest winner, Kyle Matthews. Kyle did an incredible job, and through hard work and dedication made incredible changes to his physique and dramatically improved his strength. I was in contact with Kyle throughout the transformation contest in our private forum and was extremely impressed with his work ethic and desire to excel. He is an inspiration and deserves the big prize. continue reading.

While most doctors and health professionals try to scare you into avoiding sodium at all costs, this could actually be the worst advice around for anyone looking to enhance their performance or build a better physique. In fact, there are studies which have shown that moderately high levels of dietary sodium produce very few negative effects or are not actually linked to hypertension and other diseases and conditions. For most of my athletes and clients, eating too much sodium is never a problem; it’s actually consuming too little sodium that is the problem. Once… continue reading.