After viewing the muscle building infographic, make sure you read the article at the bottom. [Read more...]
June 7, 2012 By
May 16, 2012 By
Get Your Butt Out of the Hole – How To Improve Your Squat
Today’s article comes to us courtesy of Jarlo Ilano, PT, MPT, OCS, physical therapist and co-founder of Gold Medal Bodies.
Squats. I love ‘em. There are probably some states and municipalities where they’ll let me marry them. I’m sure my wife would understand, she knows what they mean to me.
Like with any great love, it was transformative. I was your typical ectomorph asian kid (interesting aside, Teddy Roosevelt called Filipinos “his little brown brothers”. Hard to be offended though, since it was Teddy fricking Roosevelt). Then came squats, like a revelation from the heavens:
“Thou shalt gain thirty pounds of muscle from putting weights on your back and bending your knees!”
Thunderbolts and lightning, it was a big thing.
Tale as old as time: Do your squats, eat more than you can stand, repeat as needed, and you’ll grow. I was lucky enough to learn that early and not get too distracted by everything else.
I was also lucky enough to dial in my form from the start. Attribute it to starting early enough as a kid or genetic heritage, but squatting butt to heels was no big deal. The ability to get to the full range of motion allowed me to get maximal gains from my lifting. Because it was so natural, I didn’t think anything of it. [Read more...]
April 23, 2012 By
Fitness and the Internetz: Battling Objectivity, Rationality, and Even Our Own Psychology
A few days ago, my good friend Dick Talens of Fitocracy.com graciously tagged me in a Facebook thread he started that opened many a can of worms. When I read his questions the first time through, I knew it would yield a ton of opinions, thoughts, rants, and some eventual trolling.
Dick’s basic question was the following:
“Why are people quick to get upset (butt-hurt) when you tell them there’s a better way to do something OR that what they’ve been doing is likely not the best method for their goals?”
I don’t want to go exactly into the same things he asked, but I will touch upon them.
Before I go any further, I want to make something clear – I don’t have the answers as to why we act a certain way. I’m merely expressing my thoughts and would like to use this as a springboard for discussion.
April 1, 2012 By
The Beginner Lifter: Starting Points and Avoiding the Potholes
A lot of questions I receive on a weekly basis pertain to getting started in the weight room – particularly the young guys (but also the female beginners now and again) looking to go from zero to hero in a matter of weeks.
There are so many websites, books, people and opinions that you can reference when it comes to the process of actually getting started, so I’m going to cover some resources I think are highly useful, along with some practical experience working with beginners.
First, let us state what a beginner is.
A beginner is someone who is new to strength training, and has very little to no experience navigating the typical gym setting of barbells, dumbbells, machines, and cardio equipment.
Also, according to the strength standards, a beginner is someone able to add weight to the bar every single workout.
A beginner is also someone who has not tapped much, if any, of his or her genetic potential for muscle mass or strength gains. Now due to this second classification of a beginner, they could very well have experience in the gym, lifting weights and going through the motions, but if they never gain any appreciable strength or mass, they’re still labeled a beginner, simply because they ain’t made much progress. [Read more...]
