October 11, 2012 By

Upright Rows Alternative Using Bands + Band Front and Lateral Raises

I made a quick video to give a demonstration on how to use bands for upright rows. The reason for doing this is because one of my original beta testers of LGN365 sent in a question about how to do upright rows that didn’t bother her wrists.

This is a complaint, although not too common, but worth addressing and correcting, if possible. If it’s not the wrists, it’s shoulder discomfort when doing the movement.

I tried to explain the proper way to do them with bands, but thought a video was a much better idea to show how I do them. Also, I’m working on my editing skills, so it was good practice.

I also managed to demonstrate front raises, which really need no explanation on how to do them.

I’ve also demonstrated side lateral raises, both from the front and the back. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Random Thoughts, Training
August 28, 2012 By

Break The Monotony, and Level Up Your Fitness Routine

Have you ever found yourself dreading going into the gym because you’ve been doing a similar routine for a few months? Ever start skipping your training sessions because of the boredom sometimes associated with doing a routine for too long?

If so, I have something I want you to consider, and that’s breaking your typical routine.

Before I go into the specifics, I want to make something very clear here. The path to long term progress and success in fitness is a consistent, and diligent effort.

So don’t ever get caught up in the whole ‘you gotta shock the muscles’ type of thinking, because if you’re constantly changing all variables on a weekly (and for some, daily) basis, you’ll never have a good record to pull from.

And you cannot make progress if you lack consistency.

The reason we have routines is for assessment – look back over the time period and assess your results. What went well?  What sucked?

Figure that out – then fix the errors. Change something for the better.

But if you’ve been a long time reader here, I’m sure you already know that.

Today I want to tell you exactly how to do this, along with some examples of how others do it, specifically – those from the Fitocracy community.

If you’ve ever gotten bored with your routine, I want you to try the 7-Day Cure

7-Day Cure

One of the best things I ever did for my personal training routine is this: I let go. Every 6-8 weeks, I’d completely let go of what I was doing. I’d throw the programing out the door for 1 week only.

And for that 7-day period, I’d do whatever I wanted to, really.

If I were doing an upper/lower split over 3 days per week, I’d go to the gym more frequently – maybe 5 days per week.

Instead of doing the typical low-rep sets of 3-8 reps, I’d opt for higher-rep versions with very short rest periods. I’d basically just do pump training.

Or… I might speand some time doing more conditioning-oriented stuff, like hammering a tire, pulling the sled, or jump training. The video below is a good example of me, RogLaw and Andrew Griffin doing such a thing:

The whole point was to break the cycle – snap out of it, so to speak – and just do something different for a change. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Training
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...]

Filed Under: beginners, Rehabilitation, Training
December 7, 2011 By

The Official JCDFitness Recomp Manual – Coming Soon

Wow, I’ve actually made some headway with this recomposition guide!

That’s right, I’ve been working on the JCDFitness Recomp manual I referenced in my last series of articles.  Segment taken from the last article:

In the last few posts, I mentioned the idea of me going to work on a manual for body recomposition.  I’ve been working on the content, training programs, diet calculators and am almost to a point of a pre-release of sorts.  I will give some more information on that next week after I wrap some stuff up and get a few things ironed out.

And we are finally to the point of pre-release.  Aside from having most of the content outlined and written, I’ve been at work putting together a handful of training programs, diet guidelines and I’m ready to put them to the test.

The plan for the full release is sometime after the first of the year.  I say sometime because I want to spend as much time required making it the best it can be.

And how do we do that?

I need you to test out my training methods, the diet calculators, and in turn provide me feedback in case I need to add, remove, or improve anything for the final release.

As a result, I’m creating a closed beta version of the guide and will open it for a short time (will most likely close on Monday afternoon or when I reach maximum capacity).

JCDFitness Recomposition Manual Beta Test

To ensure everyone gets the most out of the training and diet methods presented in this guide, I need to get some more feedback.  So far, I’ve used similar methods on current and past clients with much success, but I want to expand my reach.

And that’s where you come in.

In the previous articles about our fitness struggles, many stated their problems with consistency, coaching ourselves, having too many choices, and the simple issue of getting it all together to make our efforts work for us.

I understand these are real problems and my goal is to help alleviate these – but more on that in a second. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Goals, Training
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