Vegan and Vegetarian Overload!
If you subscribe to other fitness and muscle building groups, you are no doubt being inundated with talk about vegan and vegetarian diets.
I’m getting several emails every day from colleagues I otherwise respect highly for their fitness advice. And they are all asking me to promote their latest vegetarian diet plan!
Let me say two things:
a) I think it’s a bit of a farce b) I am not going to try to sell you a vegan diet plan in this post! I mention the second point because it’s very tempting – (more…)
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Ten to twenty years ago, wrist straps were common in the weight room. Now I hardly ever see them. What’s changed?
I think lifting straps have been unfairly maligned by “strength coaches” as being too “bodybuilder-centric”. While I’m more into body building than “bodybuilding”, I think wrist straps do have some value…
When Is It Ok To Use Wrist Straps And When Is It “Cheating”?
There’s one view of this debate that says essentially this:
VIEW A: “Never use wrist straps because if your natural grip strength can’t handle a certain weight load, then you weren’t meant to do that heavy of a lift. Work on your grip strength, don’t cheat with straps.”
Another view is this:
VIEW B: “Since the point of weight training is to maximize the total stimulation for particular muscles, and since lifting heavy has been shown to be better than lifting light, you need to do everything you can to lift the maximum weight. Use wrist straps any time your grip fails sooner than the muscle you are focusing on fails.”
I know many of you hate me when I say not to do biceps curls. You almost scream (though I might call it a whine) “I have to do biceps curls and who is this Darrin guy to contradict what I’ve been taught my whole life? Big biceps = real man! How else am I supposed to get big biceps????”
(Or if you don’t scream or whine at me, you start heading towards the “unsubscribe” link).
I know some of you are tired of hearing that you shouldn’t do biceps curls.
Yet you want bigger biceps.
“So What Can I Do To Get Bigger Arms?”
If you haven’t read Why I Don’t Do Curls, do that now for some context.
But that doesn’t mean you have to live with small arms.
Instead, here’s what you do.
1. Do chin ups. (supinated grip, palms toward you); biceps are a primary muscle group here but the good news is that this is a compound movement; your lats and shoulders also get some action 2. Do pull ups. (pronated grip, palms away); hits the biceps from a different angle, though biceps are secondary 3. Do rows, including variations (are you seeing a common theme here related to The Big 7?) 4. Do deadlifts. Larger biceps are (more…)
Continue reading about How To Build Big Guns (Biceps), Without Curls, In 8.5 Simple Steps
We all want nice abs.
But let me tell you, if your belly sticks out farther than your chest, then you are wasting your time with abs exercises.
As a guy, if you are 15% bodyfat or more, you aren’t going to see your abs even if you spend 1 hour a day on crunches, planks, leg raises, swiss-ball what’s-it-called, or blow-torch-ab-belly-scissor sprints. (Ok, I made that last one up, but you’ve probably seen some over-hyped exercises by some fitness model promising that you’ll have a beautiful stomach if you just do 8 minutes a day of this special exercise – it’s a lie!)
Seriously, and honestly, stand up next to a mirror. Without sucking in your gut, does your bellow stick out farther than your chest? No cheating now!
(Of course, this test only applies to guys. For women, well, I guess your belly shouldn’t be sticking out farther than your chest unless you are pregnant, but you can still read on…)
Does Your Stomach Stick Out More Than Your Pecs?
If not (meaning, your stomach is not too flabby now), then adding abdominal exercises could be worthwhile. Because you are likely lean enough that you can start to see your abs.
But if you’ve got a big belly, all that time doing abs work is a waste because your fat is covering it up!
And no, doing abs exercises (no matter which ones) isn’t going to help you lose fat.
For fat loss, you need a good diet, a good muscle-building program so you burn more fat even while resting, and a decent cardio program.
I’d like to think that continuing to read WorldFitnessNetwork.com will help you make consistent progress. But let’s face it – this is a free blog and people aren’t as motivated by things they get for free (unless you are part of the LeanLifters premier membership). You might benefit more, and faster, from something like Tom Venuto’s Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle.
I mentioned yesterday that he’s having a special deal that includes lots of additional free reports but that expires today – July 17 – so if you learn best from a 300+ page ebook by a true expert that I am humbled to be associated with, do it quickly. You can learn more here: http://worldfitnessnetwork.com/burn-the-fat-feed-the-muscle/
But this post isn’t about Tom.
This is about you.
And your time.
Just like I tell guys “Don’t Do Biceps Curls Until You Can Do 15 Consecutive Chin-Ups“, I’m saying to you now…
“Don’t Do Abs Exercises If Your Belly Sticks Out Farther Than Your Chest!”
Said differently, if you have belly fat, your time is better spent on learning how to eat right to lose fat, lifting weights to build muscle in the rest of your body (especially legs), and increasing the intensity of your cardio.
Ok, you probably understand that you can’t see your abs underneath fat.
But I bet you are clinging onto some hope that doing 100 (more…)
Continue reading about Belly Protrude Farther Than Chest? Don’t Do Abs Exercises!
This is a short article to set in stone the 7 most important weight lifting/weight training exercises. I’ve mentioned them several times in various posts, and also in several of my ebooks, but let’s get this defined once and for all.
Note – these are not necessarily in order. We’ll save the debate about which “one” is the most important for later…
The Big 7
- Squat
- Deadlift
- Chest Press (Bench Press)
- Rows
- Chin-up/Pull-up
- Military/Standing Pres
- Dips
There are many variations to each of these. Dumbbell versions, barbell versions, seated vs. standing, different grips, different angles, etc.
But the key things about this list:
a) they are all compound movements, not isolation exercises
b) together, they hit every major muscle in the body (yes, they (more…)
Continue reading about The Big 7 – The Seven Most Important Weight Training Exercises
Count me among those who poo-poo biceps curls.
But not because they are useless.
No, I totally disagree with the Strength Training gurus out there who dismiss curls because they are “not functional”. That’s a silly argument.
They are indeed functional. In fact, even though I favor chin-ups over curls, curls are far more functional. When’s the last time in real life that you had to lift something with one arm, bending at the elbow? I bet a lot. Compare that with how often you need to reach above you with both arms and pull something down that is working against gravity. Not so much.
That doesn’t mean I favor curls. Quite the opposite.
My two criticisms are a) the meat-head mentality that often accompanies the guys in the gym doing curls b) inefficiency of biceps curl workouts, whereby the chin-up works multiple muscles and thus has a higher return on your time investment
My advice: don’t look to curls until after you can do 15 chin-ups. (Uh, and that means without resting and with your chin OVER the bar, not just touching; and with lowering your body all the way – no credit for partial movements here!)
Ok, I Admit, I *Did* Do Curls Recently…
I did curls for the first time in a very long while. I was at a commercial gym and was waiting for the hotel shuttle and had some time to kill. But it reminded me of why I don’t regularly do curls:
- Many other guys at the gym spent 30% of their workout doing curls. They look silly and didn’t get much real work done. (And another 30% of their time was on bench press, by the way.)
- My biceps were already mighty tired after (more…)
We went over the 8.5 Types Of Thinkers While Weightlifting last week. What you think about while lifting is critical for your progress.
This week, let’s talk about what you should be thinking about!
What Type of Thinker SHOULD You Be?
So now you probably have a little more insight into the type of thinker you naturally are. But I’m here to tell you that you need to become more focused in your thinking and become part of the Elite. Even if you are already super focused, you can get moreso.
All success, in every endeavor, starts in the mind first. Every success guru from Napoleon Hill to Stephen Covey to Tony Robbins, etc. talks about how your frame of mind and the thoughts you intentionally put there impacts whether you succeed or fail.
The same holds true for lifting.
During your workout, you need to monofixate one thing – performance.
- Before your workout starts, look at your training log from the previous workout. Quickly imagine yourself doing today’s exercises. Set goals for a few of the exercises. (I’d say set goals for every set, but I admit that might be asking too much.) Repeat any mantra you need to repeat to get yourself in the zone. This step is really important because it sets your mental frame. And, if you are doing supersets or triplesets, you will have very little resting time and so resetting your mental tone will be harder. Do it now.
- During your warm up, do a body inventory to make sure every muscle you’ll be using today is ready.
- During every set, as you are lifting, tell yourself
- “This is the only set that matters so I have to give it my all”
- “Think about your form and getting full range”
- “Mentally imagine the muscle areas you are you doing are getting bigger/more defined/less flabby/whatever your physique goal is”
Continue reading about What Do You Think About When You Lift? Part 2 of 2
Editor’s note – There is so much monthly science news when it comes to muscle fitness, that it’s probably hard for you to keep up. In these occasional posts, I’ll summarize various items of research in the past 90 days or so. I’ll cite the official reports so that the hard-core of you can read the science for yourself. But for the rest of you, these summaries should save you some time…
More Evidence That Muscle Strength Reduces Mortality Rate
Research covering 10,000 men over about 19 years shows that the death rate was lowest for the group with the greatest muscular strength. This includes death from cancer, death from cardiovascular disease, as well as a large category of “death from all causes”. This was reported in British Medical Journal, 2008;337:a439
They measured “strength” as the one-rep maximum for bench press and leg press (I sure wish they had used squats, but anyway…).
Plus, for the cancer mortality and the “death from all causes” in the stronger group was reduced, regardless of cardiorespiratory fitness. But as you can imagine, the mortality from cardiovascular disease was partially tied to cardiovascular fitness.
Increasing strength makes you live longer!
Fruits and Veggies Increase Muscle Mass?
This is a bit contrary to what most muscle gurus talk about. Most of them say to avoid fruits, and some even say to limit your veggies. I personally think they are nuts. But their point is that fruits contain too much cheap carbs (fructose). And the anti-veggie crowd is usually part of the ketogenic crowd (high protein, high fat, near zero carb diet).
But there’s too much evidence of overall health benefits to fruits and veggies. And now I found a study that might link muscle mass itself to including those in your diet. In American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 87, No. 3, 662-665 scientists from Tufts University found such a linkage in over 300 older adults (>65 yrs) over a 3-yr study. The group that ate only proteins and grains had more (more…)
Continue reading about Science News For Building Lean Muscle – July 1 2009
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