Weight Vest

Recently Bret Contreras asked me for my top three assistance lifts that bring up the bench, squat and deadlift. I’m not a big fan of the barbell bench press by any stretch of the imagination (the military press is a far better, more functional, safer lift) but if someone wanted to bring it up and asked for my help here’s what I would recommend, along with three lifts to bring up the squat and deadlift as well… Bench Press Rack Deadlift/ Inverted Row- To bench press a lot of weight you need a big, thick, strong upper… continue reading.

All too often I walk into public gyms and see skinny guys plugging away, doing set after set of the worst, time wasting exercises possible. That’s why, today, I’m going to show you the most effective exercises per body part starting from the traps and working our way down to the calves. Remember that the most important factor in all of strength training is progressive overload. So forget about all the other confusing nonsense and work to get brutally strong on these exercises. When you can move head turning weights for ten reps you will be big. continue reading.

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.