Home

- Grow Bigger Biceps And Triceps with the 7-3-7 Method
  March 5, 2021UncategorizedWorking your arms gets tedious after a while. I know I get bored of the same curls and pushdowns in my training program. There’s nothing with curls and pushdowns, but we need a new stimulus to get those muscles growing! The human body adapts and compensates during exercise. What was once difficult is now much easier, as your body has become more efficient. This is where “muscle confusion” comes in. It’s not that we need to “confuse” our muscles and do random workouts each time to expect growth. What we want to do is increase the stimulus so that our body adapts and grows. In comes the 7-3-7 method….. Time under tension (TUT) is king for hypertrophy training. Mechanical tension in the muscle is the main driver of hypertrophy and therefore muscle growth. In order to get the most mechanical tension in your muscle, we have to overload it completely. This means increasing the volume and relative load. How do we do that? Introducing the 7-3-7 technique. How to Use the 7-3-7 Method Pick a weight you can curl for 7 repsShort rest, pick a heavier weight and curl for 3 repsShort rest and curl the first weight for 7 reps What we’re doing here is taxing our central nervous system (CNS) with the heavy weight and to potentiating our muscles. We want our bodies to adapt to a new stimulus and trigger muscle protein synthesis. The first seven reps activate the muscle and pump blood into the muscle belly. This helps potentiate the muscle and prepare it for hard exercise. The heavy 3 reps stimulate the recruitment of motor units, which contributes to muscle growth. The last 7 reps are excruciating and the most difficult. This is how to grow big arms! The Problem with Arm Training Here’s the issue with arm training. Your triceps and biceps are often used for pushing and pulling movements. This is why triceps are paired with chest workouts and biceps with back workouts. Your arms can handle more volume than you think! The major action of your triceps is to extend the elbow joint (think of skullcrushers). Your triceps have 3 heads: the lateral, medial and long head. Of all of them, the long head of your triceps is the largest. Pushdowns primarily work the medial and lateral head, while any tricep exercise overhead (like a cable overhead extension) will use the long head. Your biceps in comparison have two heads, the short and long head. Your biceps are responsible for flexing at the elbow joint and rotating the forearm. Any pulling movements (rows) you’ll nail your biceps just due to the nature of the program. Hammer curls will hit the long head (outer portion) while supinated curls will hit the short head. Why do you care about all of this? Chances are you don’t work out as hard as you think, especially your arms. With the 7-3-7 technique, we can guarantee you’re hitting your arms with enough volume and load. Volume is the total number of sets and reps you perform, and load is relative weight. This isn’t strictly limited to biceps, hit your triceps too! For any tricep pushdown exercise, you can use the 7-3-7 technique....
- The Ultimate Bodybuilding Guide to Fast Food [2021 Edition]
  February 18, 2021Bodybuilding / NutritionFast food and bodybuilding just don’t mix, but what happens if you desperately need a cheat meal? You should already know how bad fast food is for your body, but let’s say you want to indulge: what do you eat? Updated for 2021 There’s been so many time you’ve probably missed a meal and you’re about to head to the gym. So you’re gonna do it anyway… I’ve been in the situations many times before, I’ll be on the road for a while and realized I haven’t eaten in hours. Going home to eat boring rice and chicken sounds appetizing, but let’s treat ourselves. I’ll show you the best fast food restaurants and meals to eat at if you want to keep your gains and get ripped Ignoring the obvious, fast food is one of the worst things you can put into your body. High in saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories, it’s nutritionally dense but cheap. Available pretty much every time and everywhere, fast food is ubiquitous. You can’t enter a mall or drive down the main street without seeing the Golden Arches. Read our article I’ve spent over $2500 on Protein Powders, These Ones Taste Good – The Best Tasting Protein Powder If you’re out traveling or just plain hungry, you’ve probably thought about getting a nice delicious, greasy, cheesy hamburger but you don’t. You don’t because it’s shit food and your plain chicken breast and broccoli hits your macros better than it ever could. The macro composition of fast food is literally garbage, high in processed carbohydrates and low in protein. Our goal here: get the highest quality and amount of protein, limiting fats with medium carbs. Sure a Whopper has 28g of protein, at the expense of 660 calories. But let’s say you want to indulge and treat yourself, what do you eat? Let’s jump in to the best fast food choices that bodybuilders would eat. Best Food Choice at McDonald’s for Bodybuilding Crispy Chicken Sandwich470 calories20g fat27g protein45g carbohydrates McDonald’s has that oh-so-good smell that you can get a whiff of it a mile away and know what restaurant that is. The goal here is to stay as lean as possible, so let’s avoid the beef and anything that is deliciously crispy. Breading, for example, is just extra calories (and carbohydrates!) and more surface area for oil to absorb. What we got here is a lean piece of meat, grilled chicken, and some actual veggies like red and green cabbage, and carrots. It’s the best choice, with higher protein than fat and a reasonable calorie amount. For 2021, McDonald’s USA got rid of their grilled chicken options (wtf) and they’re back to crispy. We went from 37g protein to 27 grams. If you’re outside the USA, you might have grilled chicken options so eat that instead of breaded! Less surface area for the breading to soak up deep-fried oil (yuck). Taco Bell Oh my, I could go on about my love for Taco Bell but we’ll save that for another day. It’s cheap and salty, what’s not to like. There’s not much macro nutritional difference between these two, so choose whatever is tastier (hint hint, it goes moo!). Taco Bell has a wide menu but the other items don’t add much more macros (in trade for higher fat content). These are the “best” items you can get from Taco Bell while keeping it somewhat lean. Chicken Quesadilla520 cal29g fat28g protein35g carbs Beef Hard Taco170 cal10g fat8g protein13g carbohydrates Honestly, I thought the beef soft taco would be the winner here, but it was very close. A beef soft taco has 190 calories and 4 grams of carbs more. But hey, you’re a bodybuilder eating at a fast food place, let’s give some room for deliciousness. To show you how much I love Taco Bell, here’s me a while back eating 2400 calories worth of food. Oh you’re going to love the macros too, let me break it down: 2480 calories102g fat93g protein304g carbohydrates6050mg sodium Suffice to say, I felt terrible after but it was 100% worth it. Thankfully I went to the gym later that day and the pump was unreal. I looked into it more and came to the realization the pump was so good because of the amount of sodium and potassium in the meal. This was the basis of my article Adding Salt to Your Preworkout. Burger King Best option: Original Chicken Sandwich (unfortunately) 662 cal39g fat28g protein47g carbs The home of the iconic Whopper burger when you want a burger, you go to Burger King. The best option we have here is a Grilled Chicken Sandwich. Notice a trend here? Chicken without breading is your best choice when you’re looking for fast food. See below Grilled Chicken Sandwhich (without mayo)360 cal7g fat39g carbs36g protein Updated for 2021: Burger King has decided to get rid of grilled chicken options (like McDonalds here). Aside from the chicken nuggets (which have an okay macro composition if we’re talking fast food), the Original Chicken Sandwich is your best choice. For less fat, I’d recommend to have no mayo sauce. But let’s say you want to indulge; what do you eat? If you’re really hating your insides on a particular day, the highest caloric item you can order from Burger King is a Triple Whopper with three 1/4 pound patties. Loaded with 1070 calories, 60g of protein, 70g fat and 51g carbs, this is half of most people’s daily calorie intake in one sitting. Delicious beef Triple Whopper1070 calories70g fat51g carbohydrates60g protein Wendy’s Wendy’s Frosty’s are to die for, especially when you dip your fries in it. Wendy’s motto is “fresh”, meaning never frozen burgers. This sounds good, considering most if not all fast food restaurants freeze their product. But let’s compare two iconic fast food menu items, Wendy’s Dave’s Single burger and McDonalds Big Mac. As you can see, not a huge difference between the two. I myself was a little surprised the Big Mac had less fat due to the Special Sauce since that’s such a staple of the burger. Thankfully Wendy’s still has a grilled chicken burger with decent macros as well, especially protein. Of all the fast food restaurants, Wendy’s is a solid choice (did I mention the frostys are delicious?) Grilled Chicken Sandwich360 calories9g fat34g protein35g carbohydrates KFC World Famous Chicken, Chicken On The Bone (breast)Breast390 calories21g fat39g protein11g carbohydratesDrumstick130 calories8g fat12g protein4g carbohydrates Home of the KFC Original Recipe chicken with 11 herbs and spices, KFC is the go-to spot for fried chicken. Their chicken comes in a convenient bucket so you can sit on the couch and watch Rich Piana videos as you try to hit your macros for the day. No beef on the menu, so all you got is chicken, picnic salads, and lava cakes. The best item on their menu that isn’t too high in fat in relation to protein is their chicken drumsticks and breasts. KFC does have sandwiches, but at the moment they don’t have any grilled products. If anything, you could peel the crispy skin off the drumstick to save you some fat. Updated for 2021: This is still the best option from KFC! Best Fast Food Breakfast for Bodybuilding But what about breakfast? Most fast-food restaurants now serve breakfast (for some reason…), making it even easier to start your day off wrong. The best breakfast fast food choice for bodybuilders is the Egg McMuffin from McDonald’s. Taco Bell and Burger King both serve breakfast items, but none of them can beat the macros and lower calorie content of the Egg McMuffin. Egg McMuffin 290 calories11g fat16g protein29g carbohydrates This wraps up 2021’s version of the best fast food for bodybuilders. I don’t eat clean 100% of the time, so it’s a nice treat getting a greasy beef burger now and then. As long as it’s an occasional treat and not an everyday thing, it won’t be too bad on your body. Plus it’s a great way to relieve the stress from dieting all the time. Something that isn’t talked about often is the amount of mental math and fatigue you endure when you’re constantly counting macros and calories. Meal prep is one way to skip the hassle, check out my article on Painless Bodybuilding Meal Prep....
- The Big Lie Of Bulking
  December 29, 2020Bodybuilding / NutritionSwole, Jacked, Buff…Or FAT? “You sure you need that fourteenth piece of pizza bro?” “Dude – I’m BULKING!” How many times have you heard the concept of having to bulk first, and then cut in order to look good? On paper it makes sense – you eat big, lift big, get big. You become a raw powerhouse during the bulking phase and shed the fat during your cut. The reality? Most dudes end up looking like the Michelin Man during their “bulking phase”. Don’t go on that perma-bulk Look, I’m not making this up. You look around the internet and you’ll see plenty of guys bragging about their “dirty bulk” and how they’ll “get shredded in summer” (which they never do). I’m also not telling you this acting like I’ve never done it. I’ve been there myself multiple times. I first used this method to bulk up from being 6’3 160 lbs to 206 lbs in about a years time. The problem was that I turned into a chubby marshmallow, not the Arnold Schwarzenegger lookalike I was hoping for. My diet consisted of endless amounts of pizza, Mcdonald’s dollar menu items, and pretty much any other high calorie food you could imagine. You Need To Stop Chasing Numbers On The Scale… Literally all I cared about was if that number on the scale was going up. As long as I weighed more than I did last time I was happy. Weight means absolutely nothing. Pictured below is me at 210 lbs on the Michelin Man diet, compared to me at around 190 lbs on the “I want to look good” diet. See the difference? I ACTUALLY thought I looked good and was getting “jacked” in the left picture. Even though I was nearly 20 lbs lighter in the right picture I looked way better. My arms and legs even measured bigger. This is proof of just how deceiving the scale can be. If you want to look good, the answer is not just shoving whatever shitty food you can down your throat, and justifying it with the excuse of “bulking“. And that’s exactly what it is. An excuse. It’s an excuse to be lazy. An excuse to eat like shit. An excuse to look like shit. It’s easy to believe that eating another piece of pizza is actually healthy for you when you’re buying into the bulking lie. Let The Mirror Do The Talking… If you celebrate when looking at your gains on the scale, but feel like shit when you look in the mirror you’ve got a problem. The mirror doesn’t lie. The scale does. Don’t forget why you are working out in the first place. I bet it’s one of two reasons. Be healthy. Look awesome. Eating garbage food with zero regard for your health accomplishes neither of these goals, yet for some reason it’s the go-to strategy for younger guys looking to gain muscle. Ok, So How Do I Bulk Properly Then? “Easton, you’re sitting here making me feel bad for eating all of this pizza, but what do you propose is the right way to bulk then?” Want the simple answer? Eat real food. Lots of it. Food like eggs, steak, beef, chicken, fish, rice, vegetables… You know this already. It’s not a secret. There really are no secrets in the bodybuilding world. You more than likely understand the basics of diet and you don’t need me to break down the importance of protein, carbs, fats, etc… You need to get honest and just start eating real food. Does it come prepackaged? Is it loaded with sugar? Do you order it through a drive through? Does it come in a square box covered in cheese and pepperoni? NOT real food. I’ll be honest – you can also get fat eating these foods. It’s a LOT harder to do it though. You’ve probably heard of the dieting concept of “If It Fits Your Macros”. If not, the kindergarten explanation is that your body requires a certain number of calories and macronutrients in order to sustain itself. If you go over on calories, you gain weight. If you’re under, you lose weight. You build or lose muscle depending on your macronutrient intake. This means that you can eat pretty much whatever you want (so long as it fits your daily limits) and still reach your fitness goals. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal right? It is. If you have insane discipline and incredibly strong willpower. If you’re able to eat every single meal, counting every single calorie and macronutrient then it works. The problem is that, again, it becomes an excuse to eat junk and be lazy. I focus on living my life and enjoying it – not spending so much of my precious time counting calories. Let me be crystal clear on that. I enjoy life. I recommend you do the same. I’m not saying to never again eat these foods. Just don’t shovel them down your throat while lying to yourself about the reality. When you’re eating real, whole foods it’s very easy to reach your appropriate macronutrient goals without overeating and getting fat. The other thing is that real food doesn’t have to be boring. There are so many ways to cook healthy, real food that will get you jacked. You want to get big? Eat lots of real food, cut out the garbage, cut out the sugar, get in the gym, and watch the MIRROR – not the scale. It really is just common sense but with all of the “bro-science” on the internet, it’s easy to fall prey to the bullshit. It’s your choice, you can join in on the Internet “look how much I weigh” circle jerk, get fat, and destroy your health… Or you can eat real food and look great. I think I know which one you’ll pick! 😉...
- Train Intensely With Banded Bench Press: 1 Trick To Increase Your Bench
  June 3, 2020Bodybuilding / Chest Workouts / ExercisesIncrease your power and velocity now with banded bench press for greater chest gains. We all know how to make an exercise more difficult: add weight to the bar. But what if we cut the weight in half and added resistance bands? What you get is an exercise that puts constant tension on your muscles (growth!) and challenges your central nervous system (CNS). Arnold bench pressing without resistance bands, sad day Using resistance bands for more mechanical tension isn’t something new, but isn’t in the mainstream. It can be tricky to set up, nevermind there are few people who even know how to use it in their lifting program. I find it’s more popular in powerlifting circles, as it’s a way to increase vertical velocity (squatting for example). Used correctly, banded anything is a staple in increasing the load on your body without increasing the load itself (weight used). Why Banded Bench Press Just like any new exercise, banded bench press is a way to stimulate your body and increase muscle growth. Over time, your body becomes accustomed to movements and becomes really efficient at it. This is the reason why curling 10lb dumbbells when you first started lifting was really difficult, but now it’s easy. This makes it necessary to make changes to your lifting program, whether it be load, time under tension, direction change or rest times. These changes are calculated and are the reasoning behind what trainers call “periodization“. Periodization is using specific exercises in a training program (however long the length) to keep constant stimuli on the body, as a method to further progress. We want to accustom our bodies to exercise and stimulate muscle fibres over and over again to gain the most amount of muscle possible (but make sure you get enough sleep). But after a few weeks of the same load/sets/reps, your body becomes efficient at that exercise, making it easier. This is where progress is halted and you plateau. Sometimes adding more weight to the bar just isn’t possible week over week. Eventually, you’ll hit a wall and you’ll have to change a variable in your training program. Rest pause sets are another method of increasing the difficulty of an exercise, but it doesn’t get the benefits of resistance bands. Benefits of Banded Bench Press Okay, let’s jump to the nitty-gritty. Banded bench press increases the mechanical tension in your muscles. But why do you care? Mechanical tension has been shown to be related in the change of muscle size. The more time spent under load, the more time the muscle receives mechanical tension. Time under tension is the amount of time a muscle is under stress or work. If you slow down a rep on the eccentric, that’s time under tension right there! While there’s still tons of science being researched in regards to muscle growth and the different pathways that it leads to it, mechanical tension is only one part of the equation. So taking it all in together, we can increase the difficulty of the exercise while decreasing the load (weight on the bar), and also increase the time under tension. Banded Bench vs Chains There are a few reasons to use resistance bands for bench press versus chains. Let’s break it down here. When you add chains to a barbell, it becomes the heaviest at the top of the movement. There are many different weights of chains you can use, versus single resistance bands. Chains on bench press are effective to help you with the lockout, at the top of the movement. As you are driving the bar up, the chains come off the floor adding resistance to the bar. What about time under tension (TUT)? If you want to work on the top portion (1/3) of your bench press, use chains! Specificity is what you want here: if there’s a problem with the top third of your bench press, then work the hell out of that top third! If you use resistance bands, there is constant tension throughout the entire movement. As soon as you unrack the bar, that resistance band is pulling that bar down. As the resistance band is stretched at the top of the movement, tension is at the highest. You will most likely have to cut the weight by at least 30% to account for the band pulling you down. Best Bands For Banded Bench Press Okay so now you want to try banded bench press at the gym, but you don’t have any bands! That’s okay, here are the ones I recommend on Amazon: These aren’t your normal “booty” resistance bands. These ones are thicker and have resistances up to 125lbs. Made from natural latex, these are great for banded bench or banded deadlift. These are multi-use as well, I’ve used these ones for banded bicep curl and banded deadlift! Doing It I would recommend starting with cutting your normal bench press weight by 50% and adding the first resistance band. Complete a set of 10 reps and re-assess. The bands will fatigue the hell out of you! You’re going to be working harder with half the weight! Depending on your goals in your training program, you may want to use a stronger resistance band. Loop the band over the bar, and tie it to the rack (not bench). Here’s me on bench press with bands. The bands are looped around the bar and tied to the rack (looped through). You can also see that I struggle with the tension too! It really makes you work on stabilizing the lift at the top of the movement. The band should be fairly tight on the bar. Make sure it’s tight enough once you unrack the bar too (so it doesn’t slip and fall off!). Conclusion Banded exercise anything is a great tool to add to your training program. I would add bands to one mesocycle in a training program, as fatigue can add up quickly. You can’t progressively overload as easily since the bands increase in difficulty exponentially. Don’t rely on resistance bands increasing your bench press too much though. If you’re weak without bands, you’re weaker with! (Make sure you’re eating enough protein too)...
- Why Your Ab Workouts Are Too Easy
  May 26, 2020Exercises / BodybuildingIf you’ve been doing every ab exercise known to man and still don’t have a 6 pack, I’ve written this article for you. If your ab workouts are too easy, keep reading… A lot of us start working out to see results, which includes getting a six-pack. Counting our macros, running around the block fifty times and saying no to donuts are all things you’ve had to do to get that six-pack you’re after. But what if after all this time, your ab workouts are getting easier and easier? After a while, it may just seem like cardio to you. To really see your abs, it’s all about body fat percentage. You just can’t see your abs if you have a thick layer of fat on top of them. That doesn’t mean that you don’t train them of course. Your core (which is just more than just your “abs”) is composed of many superficial and deep muscles. The more you can engage your core, the more efficient your lifts are. Your core is used to stabilize your lower trunk with your upper trunk, so the stronger you can make it, the more efficient and effective lifting is. Ab Exercises Not Challenging You’d be surprised by the number of people that can blow through my fitness classes, doing all the ab exercises and not even breaking a sweat. Just like any exercise, when you do it over and over again (without changing variables), your body adapts and gets really good at making it efficient. So, you keep doing your ab exercises and it gets easier and easier each week. GREAT, but now what? You need variation and/or load. Sit-ups easy? Do weighted sit-ups or cable crunches! Whew what an easy ab workout, time to go home and eat an entire container of ice cream (you deserve it) You should be performing ab exercises in ALL planes of movement. Think about it: how transferable is a plank to real-life applications? Never! This means ab workouts that are rotation, anti-rotation, upper abdominals, lower abdominals and isometric exercises. If you’re only doing planks and dead bugs, you’re missing out on so many other killer core exercises! Or are you cutting it short? Reverse crunches are great, but if you’re only doing 2 sets of 15 seconds, there’s no point. For my in-person clients, I like to set time for core exercises instead of reps. That way it’s easier to track in the long run, as well as self-servicing. Your Hip Flexors Are Taking Over This is a huge understated one. For lower abdominal exercises, your hip flexors can take over and compensate in the exercise itself. This results in you not “feeling” the ab exercise and progressing nowhere. What are your hip flexors? Your hip flexors are a group of muscles that includes the iliopsoas, tensor fasciae latae, pectineus, sartorius, adductors, gracilius, rectus femoris, and the gluteus. Pretty much a bunch of muscles to move your pelvis. These muscles greatly affect your posture, leading to things such as lower crossed syndrome. If you have a desk job, or literally any job where you’re sitting for long periods of time, your body overcompensates for hip flexor usage. Those muscles are “shortened” when sitting, which can become tight over time and lead to injury. For an abdominal exercise like a leg lift, when your legs are nearest the floor your hip flexor muscles are being engaged. What we want to do is remove the hip flexors usage, and just use our core. We want to engage the deeper layers of our core, limit or remove our hip flexors. How can we get the most from core workouts? We can activate our hamstrings and glutes which limits hip flexor recruitment. The perfect exercise for this scenario is the Janda sit-up We activate our glutes by driving our heels through the ground, and the deeper layers of our core by full-body extension (see the video). We also want to stretch our hip flexor muscles, notably your psoas and adductors. The easiest way to stretch your psoas is the lying psoas stretch. Lie on the floor face up and flatten the small of your back towards the floor. Contract your abdominal muscles (think about touching your navel to your spine) and bring one knee to your chest. Keep your lower back and other legs on the floor (or as close to as you can!). Hold for 30 seconds and repeat 5-10 times. No Load (Bodyweight Is Doing Nothing) This is very similar to my first point but I’ll go a bit deeper. Remember when you first started working out and everything was super heavy and difficult? Then after a few months, things got easier and you progressed? Chances are if you kept curling that 10lb dumbbell for months on end, you wouldn’t progress and wouldn’t be here today. That’s why we change the lifting variables, load (weight) in this case. If we use the same load mechanics for an exercise, over time our body compensates and gets really good at it. Yay! That’s a great thing. Remember when you first got to the gym and you just started sweating looking at the dumbbells? Your body compensates and becomes more energy efficient. This means lifting those 10lb dumbbells is no longer super challenging as your body has adjusted. But you’ll reach a point when curling those dumbbells doesn’t give you the same results you initially had. What do you do? We increase the load! You can only get so far with bodyweight exercises. Push-ups are great, but once you get to 25 then what? The next milestone is 50, then 75 then 100. Unless you some load the exercise up (plate on your back) you can just keep doing pushups until the cows come home. How do you add load to an ab exercise? Start holding stuff! Honestly. For sit-ups, hold a plate or dumbbell and raise it overhead as you sit up. If you’re doing a Russian twist, use a heavy medicine ball. Cable crunches are another great exercise that you can modify the load used. Obviously, you want to make the exercise difficult, but since we are putting stress on our spine in crunching movements, be careful in choosing too much load. You want to safely control the eccentric and concentric portions of the exercise, again, staying in control the entire time. This will lead to more motor recruitment, which leads to more muscle activation and down-the-road muscle growth....
- Foam Roller Guide To Rolling Your Back
  April 15, 2020BodybuildingMassaging sore muscles has been a thing forever, then came myofascial release. Foam rollers have become an essential tool in fascia release, aiding in recovery and blood circulation. Foam rolling may also relieve your back pain if you do it right. Does Foam Rolling Work In The First Place? To give you the non-bullshit answers before we get into things, you might have doubts about foam rolling itself. There is much debate about whether foam rolling even helps or is necessary for recovery. Since it’s essentially just a “massage”, what’s the difference? Foam rollers aim to help blood circulate due to the pressure applied, and your body’s response to that pressure. Foam rollers also help move lactic acid out of the muscle, aiding in recovery. There are numerous studies (see the bottom of this article) going back and forth about the general outcome of foam rolling. Some show positive performance with foam rolling during and after exercise, while some show no or minimal benefit (considering alternatives such as massage, acupuncture, etc). Take it at face value, there are minimal downsides to foam rolling. If it doesn’t work, then oh well. Tap Here to learn the best stretches for your chest workouts – Level Up Your Workouts! Which Foam Roller Is The Best For Your Back? The hardest thing you’re going to find with foam rolling your back is finding the right position to roll with. What can help is finding a foam roller that has a higher ridge depth. Some foam rollers are too big, so you will want one that is small and versatile. Since you only want to roll your back and not other muscles, you’ll also need a roller with ridges (versus flat). Foam rollers that don’t have as deep ridges won’t “dig” into the muscle as much compared to one with higher depth ridges, and may not be as effective. Having said that, these ones do hurt more compared to softer ones I will admit. After a while, you do get used to it and it becomes a “good pain“. Where To Foam Roll For Lower Back Pain Here’s the secret: you don’t foam roll your lower back. Your lower back doesn’t have the support like your upper back does, making it risky to put a large amount of weight on. Your lower back isn’t as strong as your upper back so you must approach it with caution. “Okay so if I don’t roll my lower back, what do I do?” You foam roll your piriformis and glutes (that’s your butt). Muscles are a lot more connected to each other than you think. Pain in your knee doesn’t necessarily mean it started there, it could be coming from your quadriceps muscles. A tight and unrelaxed muscle can “pull” on another, resulting in muscle tightness and eventually pain. How To Foam Roll Your Glutes Doing it: With one foot flat on the floor, cross your other leg so it is on top of your knee. Leaning your body weight onto the foam roller, make sure to have direct contact with your glutes with the foam roller (not bones). Your lower back pain might actually be pain originating in your glutes instead. For that, you’re best to foam roll your piriformis muscle. The piriformis muscle helps in the lateral motion of your thigh from the hip. A piriformis muscle spasm can put pressure on the sciatic nerve and cause similar symptoms and pain as sciatica. There are no bones or solid structures to protect your spine when you rolling you are foam rolling your lower back, potentially increasing your risk of injury. As well as over rolling one muscle over another. Remember how I said how everything is connected? Foam Roller or Massage Ball? For at home work, the foam roller is the best recovery equipment you can buy for a low cost. It’s a versatile piece of equipment that you can even use during exercises. For rolling smaller muscles and getting deeper into tissues, I’d recommend a massage ball. For example, it’s very difficult to roll your lateral deltoid (side shoulder muscle) with a foam roller but much easier with a massage ball. I launched the Myo Ball earlier this year with great success. The Myo Ball is a versatile massage ball at an even more affordable price. I wanted to give the gift of recovery to every one, since it doesn’t need to be expensive. The best thing about massage balls is that you can hit places a normal foam roller can’t reach. Muscles like your shoulders, chest and glutes are much easier to target using a massage ball. I even created a guide on how best to use it: If you have access to foam rollers at your gym, a massage ball might be a better purchase for you. They take up less space in your house, plus you can bounce them on the floor (also fun). If a massage ball is the best for you, here’s the one I recommend found on Amazon: Best Foam Rollers For Under $20 Okay so you’re on a budget but you want the best possible recovery from the gym. Foam rollers and massage guns can really run up there, ranging all the way up to hundreds of dollars. Here are the best foam rollers for under $20, that way you don’t break the bank and can spend more money on protein powder. Help! My Foam Roller Hurts Like Hell! I scream like this when my foam roller hurts Okay so your foam roller hurts like hell and now you don’t want to use it? Well, that’s the name of the game, to be honest (haha). A foam roller will apply direct pressure to muscles, if they’re sore then you’re essentially compressing a sore muscle so it will hurt. If it still isn’t working for you, a foam roller without ridges is the answer. Here are the ones on Amazon I recommend: Studies A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Foam Rolling on Performance and Recovery https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6465761/ An Evidence-Based Approach for Choosing Post-exercise Recovery Techniques to Reduce Markers of Muscle Damage, Soreness, Fatigue, and Inflammation: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29755363 Foam Rolling for Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness and Recovery of Dynamic Performance Measures https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4299735/ EFFECT OF DIFFERENT FOAM ROLLING VOLUMES ON KNEE EXTENSION FATIGUE https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5159632/...
- Feeder Leg Workout: 20 Rep Squats
  April 12, 2020Leg Workouts / Bodybuilding / ExercisesIn the context of the gym, suffering through a workout means growth. If you really want to reach that next level, you’re going to have to push yourself. There’s no way around it, it’s a fact of training. 20 rep squats are the answer if you want tree trunk size legs. You’ve heard of Feeder workouts for chest, but have you heard of Feeder workouts for legs? Probably not and there’s a reason why. It’s really fucking hard. Why 20 Rep Squats? The premise around 20 rep squats is you pick a weight you would do for 12 reps but squat for 20 reps. Sound intense? Because it is. It will promote hypertrophy muscle growth due to the sheer volume you’ll be doing. Just like feeder exercises, it forces blood into the muscles resulting in mind-blowing pumps. 20 rep squats are a great exercise to build muscle endurance capacity. What that means is that it will help promote muscular endurance, allowing you to lift for longer periods of time. You’ll be forced to reinforce good squat posture and even better motor patterns. Warming Up for 20 Rep Squats Warming up is going to be crucial here and I’d spend more time warming up here than lifting. Injuries increase when a proper warmup is neglected. Banded X Walks Start with Banded X walks, check them out here: You’ll want larger and longer resistance bands here. The ones that most use would be too small. Here are the ones I recommend found on Amazon: X Band walks will help you warm up your adductors, found on the inside of your leg. Squats are secretly an adductor exercise, so it only makes sense to warm up your adductor muscles. But why should I care….. Adductors and abductors both help you maintain a neutral pelvis as you walk, and even when you squat in the gym too. For example, if your left adductor is weaker or tighter than your right, this can cause a hip shift. Your hips will move as a way to compensate for the tight muscle, shifting the load (the goddamn barbell on your back) and increasing your risk of injury. Strong abductors and adductors help prevent knee valgus, which is your knee caving inwards during squatting. Knee valgus can occur when your adductors (inside of the thigh) are stronger than your abductors (outside of the thigh). Knee valgus can lead to knee problems, ACL tears and IT band syndrome if not addressed properly. Foam Rolling Your Legs Just like rotator cuff exercises, I find that most people spend too much time foam rolling before and after exercising. While there are some studies showing general improvement in training performance when foam rolling, it is just a tool to use. It can work for some, but not for others. As of writing this article, there is no concrete evidence showing the guaranteed benefits of foam rolling. However, just like any muscle tissue, your legs can benefit from self-myofascial release. To put it simply, fascia is the connective tissue that connects muscles together. Over time if you are inactive or perform poorly in certain planes (eg, overuse on one side versus the other), fascia can become “stiff” and immobile. Myofascial release can help by releasing contracted muscles and increasing blood circulation throughout the body. Direct pressure is applied to certain muscle groups or individual muscles to help the fascia return to its normal, fluid state. Foam rolling your vastus lateralis (outside part of your quad), hamstrings and glutes help your body increase blood circulation, thus priming you for exercise. Leg anatomy You don’t need to spend a lot of time foam rolling either, as long as you make it a normal part of your routine. You can foam roll your leg for 1-2 minutes per muscle before warming up, so there’s no excuse for not foam rolling. Here’s the foam roller I recommend, it’s compact and found on Amazon: How To Add 20 Rep Squats To Your Workout After spending time warming up, you’re ready to squat hey? Here’s how to add 20 rep squats into your routine: Keep a week or two leading up to 20 rep squats light. You don’t want to fry your CNS a week before adding something intense to your programWorking sets should be around 60-75% of your 1 RM (eg, if your 1 rep max for squats is 305lb, that would mean working weight between 183lb-228lb)Rest times are whenever you’re feeling you’re good to go (not out of breath, energy ready to go, etc)Add 20 rep squats for no longer than 6 weeks into your current workout routine (any longer and your CNS will be fried)Twice a week is most likely enough volume that you can sustain. Keep other leg exercises at low volume for the durationMake sure to eat enough beforehand (tons of carbs) and hydrate during your workout sessions Recovery Prepare to cry after doing 5 sets of 20 squats Chances are you’re going to be sore as fuck after 20 rep squats. Hell, for most people bodyweight squats are difficult enough! Recovery is going to be crucial here because if you’re sore for too long, it’s wasted time that could have been used to lift instead. Starting with your diet, ensure you’re hitting your protein goals (1.6-2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight). The amino acids in the protein you’re digesting will help you in the recovery state and repair muscle tissue, and most importantly promote new muscle tissue growth. Check out my other article on the best tasting protein powders. (there’s no use buying protein if it tastes like dirt) Quality sleep will be absolutely required here since the muscle growing process is when you’re sleeping, not working out. If you get crappy sleep, you get crappy growth! During deep sleep, your body will secrete human growth hormone (HGH) which aids in muscle growth and regulates your metabolism. A supplement like ZMA will help you with better sleep, which means better recovery! Better recovery means better strength and better gains of course. Adequate energy (calories) will have to be accounted for too, especially carbohydrates for energy. You might want to consider eating in calorie surplus from the sheer amount of exercise volume (sets and reps) you’ll be doing. I would recommend adding foam rolling to your post-workout exercises, as it can aid in recovery and reduce delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Muscle soreness will most likely still occur (unless you’re a robot), but it can be lessened with adequate recovery protocols and foam rolling. Download The Feeder Workout PDF (FREE!) * indicates required First Name Email Address *...
- Best Stretches For Your Chest Workout
  January 30, 2020BodybuildingStretching before working out has proven performance results and that’s something you should do before working out. Stretching your chest has proven performance benefits, and you’re only missing out…. …..but most people don’t warm up and jump right in. Injury prevention should be #1 when you’re lifting. Since if you injure yourself, you can’t lift. Seems pretty straight forward. In this article I’m going to go over stretches that are best performed before your chest workout to get the best out of it. What’s Involved With Chest Pressing? Let’s break the topic down, which will then funnel into the individual stretches. During chest pressing movements (eg bench press, dumbbell etc press), several muscles are used simultaneously, namely your pectorals (chest, duh), triceps, and deltoids (shoulders). What About The Differences Between Barbell And Dumbbell? Different tools and different demands are put on your body when using dumbbells versus barbells. Range of motion, instability and size are all different factors to consider when using either or. Dumbbells can potentially give you a greater range of motion since you’re not restricted bar the bar on your chest. For beginners, dumbbells can be more difficult due to the instability of the shoulder. You may spend more time and effort trying to hold the dumbbells up in the air that you do actually doing chest pressing. The fixed hand and wrist position of a standard barbell bench press can cause issues and be an exercise to avoid at the gym. Dumbbells can be the solution. I know for myself when I had wrist pain, I avoided barbell bench press and used alternatives like the dumbbell hex press, since it uses a neutral grip. Dumbbell Hex Press Quoting from a study from Journal of Sports Sciences, vol. 29: Across the whole exercise (both eccentric and concentric phases), Saeterbakken et al. [4] reported significantly greater biceps and less triceps muscle activity using dumbbells for the bench press compared to using a barbell or Smith machine. They reported no differences for anterior deltoid and pectoralis major muscles. Based on their results, it is plausible that the activation differences previously reported between varying angles of inclination during press exercises with barbells and Smith machines may be less when performed with dumbbells. https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jsm/2013/612650/#B4 So we can see that triceps can be used more in barbell chest pressing but the demands are mostly the same. 100lbs in your hand is still 100lbs. Rear Deltoid and Pec Stretch The easiest way and my general go-to stretch is band pull aparts with a latex or rubber band Grab a light to medium resistance band and pull it apart at chest level 10-20 reps for a stretch of your chest and the back of your shoulder, your rear deltoid muscles. Here are the bands I use, Fit Simplify Resistance Loop Exercise Bands on Amazon: The band pull apart is versatile in that it can be used at multiple angles to target different muscles. Pulling at a 45 degree angle helps you target shoulder (deltoid) flexion, while pulling the band overhead helps you target your triceps. Rotator Cuff Stretches There’s tons of rotator cuff exercises you can do (I mean tons), but let’s narrow it down to particular planes of motion. I often see people in the gym spend too much time performing rotator cuff exercises. Yes there is a place for prehab work (to prevent injuries), but on the other side you don’t want to constantly hammer your rotator cuff with heavy loads. How Your Shoulders Work Your shoulder joint is pretty much floating around making it very unstable. In fact, your shoulder isn’t a single joint but a group of ligaments, tendons, muscle and bones. The function of your rotator cuff is to keep itself centered in the glenoid as the shoulder moves. Since it is a ball-socket joint, it provides many axis of rotation. You can lift a cup from a table and bring it towards your mouth, or shoot a basketball, as this showcases the range of motion of the shoulder joint. Since it is very mobile, that also makes it very unstable. Shoulder strengthening exercise Shoulder Flexion For a shoulder flexion exercise, a great one is resistance band pull apart at a 45º angle. Hold a resistance across your chest at a 45 degree angleKeep one end of the band above your headWhile holding the other end, stretch the band across your body, having the lower arm move past your torso You’ll get shoulder flexion at the bottom of your bench press, when the bar is nearest your chest. This is a great shoulder warmup exercise that I perform on every time on chest workout days. For something like this, you want to choose a resistance band that has a medium to medium-light resistance. As I mentioned earlier, you don’t want to hammer your rotator cuff, and even more so, since this is a warmup exercise you don’t want to be using all your energy. External Rotation External rotation is rotating away from the centre of the body. “Why is external rotation needed?” you ask. Well, it is necessary for healthy and strong shoulders. External rotation would be used in an exercise like a dumbbell shoulder press. If you have crappy body mechanics, limited external shoulder rotation is going to make normal everyday activities and exercises that much more difficult. This study (link) shows that life is negatively impacted when shoulder stability and strength is compromised. For external shoulder rotation, I recommend banded W’s Hold the band underhand, elbows at your side. Doing your best effort, keep your elbows pinned to your torso as you stretch the band outwards. Chest Dynamic Stretch Exercise Wow that’s a mouthful. Okay so it’s actually just getting 1 to 2 sets of chest flyes, either machine, dumbell or cable, for 20 reps. It pumps blood to your chest, getting it all fired up for a killer workout. Now the difficult part is you want to fully target and activate the muscle but without turning into into a full-blown set itself. You could spend an entire gym session doing chest flyes and get no where. Dynamic warmups should mimic the real life applications and getting the muscle or muscle groups ready for action. Another option for a dynamic chest warm up is 2-3 sets of 8 of machine chest press. Its enough volume to activate your chest and shoulders, but not too much that you’ll be fatigued. Conclusion Whatever you exercise or workout you do, warming up is crucial and in fact there are proven performance benefits of doing so. You’re only missing out on gains if you don’t have a proper warm up....
- Basketball-sized Shoulders: Here’s how to get ’em
  October 13, 2019Bodybuilding / Arm WorkoutsSo, you want boulder shoulders huh? You press, you flail, you lateral raise and still nothing. “Where’s my shoulders??” you scream. You want bigger, boulder shoulders? This is your guide to bigger and wider shoulders with the best shoulder workouts. Keep reading. Let’s take it back to basics. Your shoulder is comprised of 3 “heads”. Just like your triceps have three, and biceps two, you shoulder has three different heads. There’s the front delt (used in many pressing movements), side or lateral delt (used in lateral raises) and the rear delt (used in many back exercises). Shoulder muscle anatomy Best Shoulder Exercises To Get Big Barbell Shoulder Press Oh baby. Nothing else makes you feel like a monster than lifting some heavy-ass weight over your head. The barbell shoulder press is a mass-building exercise that you need in your program if you want big shoulders. Nothing says “that guy lifts” than huge basketball-sized shoulders. The barbell shoulder press, either standing with a barbell or seated in a smith machine, works the front deltoid (hint hint thats the part you want bigger!) For best results, load it up with heavy weight. Get your small accessory shoulder work in (lateral raises, rear delt flyes, etc) and go apeshit on the barbell shoulder press. Front delts respond best to heavy weight, usually under 12 reps. Any more than that and it’s more of an exercise in pain tolerance. A proper workout program should also include specific warm ups for each exercise too, as a way to reduce injury and prepare the body for lifting. Behind The Neck Barbell Shoulder Press Nothing else made my shoulders feel so good than behind the neck barbell pressing. If you have crappy mobility, this is not an exercise for you. Just as barbell shoulder press, the difference here is that the bar is lowed to behind your neck (usually to about ear level). For some, this is more of a natural pressing movement since you’re pressing the weight straight up instead of in-front of you (normal barbell press). Behind the neck pressing nails your shoulders that barbell shoulder press may not. Since it’s force you to come “back” more (rather than having the bar in front of you), it hits more of your lateral and posterior (side and rear) delt more. Dumbbell Shoulder Exercises Dumbbell Shoulder Press Next to the barbell shoulder press, the dumbbell shoulder press is the second best choice for getting huge, boulder shoulders. This exercise is great because it helps you build stabilizing muscles, making any pressing movement easier and more efficient on your joints. You can do this exercises seated, but you can do it standing for an ultimate gym power move (don’t say that though). Dumbbell Front Raise If you want a rock-solid pump, the dumbbell front raise for you. Since it’s not a pressing movement, this exercise is best done in the higher rep range (15-25 reps). Alternate reps but you’ll get a mind blowing pump. Aim for 3-5 sets of 15-20 reps with a good moveable weight. It’s a smart idea to get heavy pressing movements in for shoulders and fill in the gaps with high-rep shoulder work. How Many Times Should I Workout Shoulders? This, like all other questions pertaining to frequency of workouts, will always be subject to change. To cut the BS and give you an actual answer is once or twice a week. Your front delts will get taxed in pressing movements (think bench press) so you’ll be hitting shoulders on chest day. That leaves the rest of the week. If you demolish your shoulders, your chest work will suffer. Stick to higher rep work if exercising shoulders affect your chest workouts. Rear and side (lateral) delts are used much less in lifting, unless you’re doing specific exercises that also use the muscle, such as upright rows. Depending on how well you recover, rear and lateral delts can be hit 2-6 times per week. Rear delts, like biceps, can be hard to biomechanically target. Having said that, it makes it difficult to overload and annihilate the muscle. Side delts have a very fast recovery, allowing you to hit the muscle group even by the next day. That’s not to say if you did heavy lateral raises you can hit it again the next day. Listen to your body and recover appropriately. If you stick with the original recommendation of working out shoulders once or twice a week, you can structure your program in such a way that you get heavy pressing work in one day (front delts), then higher rep work on another day (rear and lateral). This way your workout program is balanced and you hit all heads of the shoulder, thus creating that mass you’re after. What Workouts Cause Shoulder Impingements? All of them unless you warm up properly and have proper form. Unless you are somehow prone to shoulder impingements, usually it’s a sign of improper technique and/or not enough warming up. It could also relate to limited mobility, which could cause improper form due to muscle tightness or imbalances. Looking over my lifting career, I use to damage my shoulders and then I’d be out of the gym for a while. Looking at it now, I can realize my warm up program sucked. Now I perform some rotator cuff exercises as well as some lighter shoulder exercises (band pull aparts, front raises) and I’m injured much less. Bodyweight Shoulder Exercises This is a tricky one that isn’t as easy to target the shoulders with just bodyweight. Since shoulders are primarily used for pressing movements, with just bodyweight there’s not much to press. Handstand Pushups Certainly not the easiest to perform, but by the far most effective for bodyweight shoulder exercises. The body position of a handstand pushup is the upside down version of the position you’d be in if you were dumbbell pressing. The trick here is getting yourself up the wall…and not falling over. The set up for the handstand push up is easy: facing away from a wall, walk yourself up the wall with your feet. Keep your legs straight as possible, leaning slightly against the wall. Keep hands at outside of shoulder width and press!...
- Effective Workouts for Seniors and Older Adults
  May 14, 2019ExercisesAge is just a number, isn’t it? As you age, your joints and muscles become more brittle and more prone to injury. What’s the best course of action? Exercise of course! Workouts for seniors and aging adults are important to help you lubricate your joints and help with joint-related pain. As you age, cartilage naturally deteriorates. Bone mass also decreases, increasing the risk of breakage. It’s a natural process of life that happens to all adults as they age. Muscle mass decreases which also results in reduced strength. In this article I’ll go over the common issues you’ll have as you age and the best workouts to help improve mobility and overall strength. Just because you’re aging doesn’t mean you have to feel like it either! What is cartilage and why do I care? Cartilage is the connection tissue used for joints. Without cartilage, your joints would be bone to bone and be very painful. Cartilage is made up of synovial fluid and water. As you add load to a joint (let’s say your knees during a back squat), the fluid stored within cartilage is redistributed as to cushion the weight (as you lower and raise the barbell). This helps “soften the blow” and allows more fluid (hehe) movement. With such diseases like osteoarthritis, the cartilage can be completely broken down and your joints rub bone to bone, making movement very painful. While not conclusive, it has been show that regular exercise can reduce the overall damage to cartilage in a lifetime. This gives to the saying “motion is lotion”. Common Problems Among Older Exercising Adults and How to Fix Them Think about all the movements you perform in a normal day. Getting up, lying down, stepping up, placing items on a shelf. The most common pain in older adults is usually knee and shoulder. And guess what? You use those joints the most. Let’s start with the knee first. Knee Issues First and foremost lets start with your legs. You’re going to use your legs the most in daily life, so you better protect them now before they get worse. Generally speaking, most people use their quadriceps more so than their hamstrings because, well, it’s easy and the most convenient. If you’ve ever barbell squatted and have knee pain, chances are you’re not engaging your hamstrings as much as you could. When you’re not engaging your hamstrings (or even glutes in this example), all the lifting is done with your quadriceps instead of splitting the load with the other muscles in your legs If knee pain is going to happen, think about investing into knee wraps. They provide constant support and stability to your knee. IT Band Syndrome The IT (iliotibial) band can also be a cause of knee pain. It’s a common issue among those with knee pain, called IT Band Syndrome. What happens is your IT band (which is a whole bunch of connective tissue) rubs against a part of your femur, resulting in knee pain. Easiest way to deal with it? Foam rolling! In this case, your IT band is not muscle tissue but connective tissue that connects muscles together. Foam rolling can be effective for IT band syndrome. The way to do it is to foam roll your vastus lateralis (outside of your quads) and your hamstrings (biceps femoris). For a complete guide for foam rolling for your back, read my other article HERE Shoulder Issues Next to your knees, your shoulders are secondly used the most. From lifting to rotating, your shoulders do a lot more work than you think. Strengthening the muscles around the shoulder (similar to strengthening the hamstrings to take the load off of the quadriceps) help easy the pain and take the load off that the shoulder is carrying. Unfortunately, if you have osteoarthritis there’s not much you can do other than try to regain some flexibility in your shoulders. With osteoarthritis, the cartilage wears down protecting the joints and can cause immense pain. If shoulder pain is due to flexibility or rotator cuff damage, there are some remedies available. Strengthening the muscles around your shoulder as mentioned, such as your rear deltoid muscle and your upper trapezoid muscle can increase stability until you can add a load to your shoulders. At Home Workouts for Seniors Not everyone has the time or money to visit a gym. Having said that, it doesn’t mean you can’t get a good workout in. Latex resistance bands are an excellent alternative to visiting the gym and perfect for rehabilitation work. These are the bands I use, I wrote a review about them HERE. Band pull aparts are one of my go-to warm ups for mostly everything upper body. Easy to do and a good stretch before jumping into things. Assuming you have a gym membership, here are low-impact workouts to help protect your joints and strengthen your muscles. Leg Workouts for Seniors Warmup Walking Lunge (use dumbells or kettlebells for added difficulty)Glute bridge walkouts for hamstring stretchingGlute bridge for glute stretching prior to liftingLight incline on a treadmill Workout Horizontal Leg Press – 3 sets of 12-15 repsLying hamstring curl machine – 3-4 sets of 12-15 repsLeg Abductor machine – 3 sets of 12-15 reps (highly recommended to maintain hip motion)Kettlebell swings – 2-3 sets of 12 reps Upper Body Workouts for Seniors Warmup Resistance band pull apartsChilds pose (yoga)Scarecrow rotator cuff warmup Workout Chest flyes using cables – 2-3 sets of 12 repsRope facepulls – 3 sets of 15 reps (highly recommended)Dumbbell row on incline bench – 3 sets of 12-15Barbell bicep curl – 2-3 sets of 12 repsSeated dumbbell shoulder press – 2-3 sets of 12-15 reps (use light weight here!)Dumbbell shrugs If you start now, you can help strengthen your joints to ease the pain in the future. Generally, use a light weight so you can complete all reps and sets of the exercises. As with any shoulder injury, the last thing you want to do is make it worse....

Latest And Trending