Image Credit: this lucid moment
Article by Jason
You know you need to do it… you know you need to quit eating crap.
It wasn’t easy for me either, but I’ve done it. In fact, I went for an entire year of my life without eating any sugar at all (more…)
Image credit: wok
I did my first article of shame in late November of last year. Well, I’ve been back to the magazine rack, and I’ve got another wonderfully educational article to share with you.
Today’s article of shame comes from Maximum Fitness For Men. The tag line on (more…)
Continue reading about Article of Shame- Cut 5,000 Calories in A Single Day!
This is the second part of a 2-part article by guest author Cameron Stache. See this for Part 1. Cameron currently works as a Fitness Coach/ Assistant Fitness Manager at the Rush Fitness Complex in Greensboro, NC. He’s pursuing his Exercise Science degree and plans to use this degree (more…)
This is a guest article by Adrian Bryant, who has an interesting take on “real” muscle vs. “fake muscle”. I’d love to hear what you think of this!
So What is Real Muscle & How Do You Build It?
- Real Muscle vs. Fake Muscle
Real muscle or what is technically called myofibrillar hypertrophy is what you get when your actual muscles get bigger and you can expect to gain 1-to-5 pounds of real muscle each month and…
The best way to build more real muscle is to Do compound exercises with heavy weights that are over 80% of your 1-rep max for about 3-to-8 reps to tear down your muscles to make your body have to repair and rebuild your “real” muscles into bigger and stronger ones but…
To Look Your Best You Also Need To Build Fake Muscle
Fake muscle or what is technically called sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is what you get when your muscles get pumped up BIG real fast (just like a balloon) by being able to hold more water weight and other stuff in it like carbs (glycogen), creatine, blood and other energy sources and…
Join the forum discussion on this article, or comment below.Continue reading about The Difference – Real vs. Fake Muscle
In my house, we talk about what the basic macronutrient value of a food is: carbohydrate vs. protein vs. fat. Some of my kids are old enough now to start thinking about the quality of the macronutrient (i.e. different types of fats, types of carbs, etc.) but still, the basic macronutrient content rules.
And even though fruits and veggies are a type of carb, we put them in their own category so that the kids don’t confuse them with the same macronutrient as donuts!
But one thing that I see out in the world that infuriates me is when people say, “I need some protein – let me grab a yogurt.”
Yogurt Is A Carb
UGGHH!!
Yogurt is NOT a protein, it’s a carb!
Yeah, it’s got some protein in it (usually not much, like 7 or 8 grams).
But look at the carb content: anywhere from 20 to 40 grams, depending on brand and flavor.
If your food source is in a 3:1 ratio of carbs:protein, that is a carb.
Generally, low-fat or non-fat yogurts have more carbs (mostly sugars added for flavor).
I’ve written before that (more…)
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This article was written by Jason.
I hate the basics.
It doesn’t matter what it is, we simply don’t want basic things in life. Nobody wants to go out and buy a basic car if they could afford something nicer. We don’t like to have basic computers or basic cameras either… we want the fast computers or the cameras will all the hi-tech features.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting more than the basics. We don’t want to live basic lives, we don’t want to buy things that are the bare-bones basics, and we naturally want something more than a basic workout that gives basic results.
In addition, no matter how important it can be to learn the basics rules about whatever you are doing, learning the basics can be a real pain.
I remember taking a basic golf course in college. The teacher made us learn the basics of each golf swing by having us practice every day without a golf club in our hands. I became so frustrated by pretending to play golf each day that I wish I had a real club just so I could smash something with it.
Everybody in my golf class felt that way. We all wanted to learn how to play golf, and just sitting around all day looking at the most basic movements was a real frustration. It’s the same thing with anything we pursue; we naturally want to move beyond the basic level as quickly as possible.
Going to the gym isn’t much different either. You don’t want to have a basic body — you want an amazing body, right? So why would you do the basic exercises if having a basic body isn’t what you want?
That’s why I don’t like using the word “basic” to describe the most useful exercises… it’s very misleading.
The Accelerated Course
It’s just too easy to get caught up in all the details of what we’re trying to do in life. We often waste our time doing all the little things when there’s something big that needs to be done first.
It’s like trying to sweep the floor in your house when there’s a big elephant in the living room that won’t stop crapping on the floor. Take care of the big things first, and then the small details will be easy.
I get the feeling that a lot of us are doing the same thing in the gym. We’re trying to focus on the little details of our workouts like putting some little line on our biceps or a little “cut” in our shoulders. These types of exercises do have their place, but focusing on the details doesn’t get you very far in the beginning.
So why not take the accelerated course when you’re in the gym? You’ll get where you’re trying to go much faster, and you’ll even pick up a lot of the details along the way.
The strange thing is, (more…)
Continue reading about Your Workouts Will Always Suck Without These
This is the first part of a 2-part article by guest author Cameron Stache. Cameron currently works as a Fitness Coach/ Assistant Fitness Manager at the Rush Fitness Complex in Greensboro, NC. He’s pursuing his Exercise Science degree and plans to use this degree to either work at a large college and be a strength and conditioning coach, or go into ergonomics. If you are interested in brands Cameron supports, check out http://cstache.qhealthzone.com .
- What Is Foam Rolling?
The technical name for foam-rolling is Self-Myofacial Release (SMR). Most people just call it by foam-rolling because it’s easier to say and it’s more well-known as that. I am going to refer to it as SMR for short. SMR has been used in physical therapy for years. It has only recently become main stream in the fitness realm though.
SMR is primarily used to correct muscle imbalances in the body. As we go through our normal (outside the gym) lives we develop some imbalances. An imbalance reduces muscle strength and posture, thus increasing your risk of injury, especially when those imbalances are accentuated by heavy loads as in lifting weights.
It works basically like a deep tissue massage. When rolling across a muscle you apply pressure to the muscle spindle. The muscle spindle is what reflexively contracts your muscle when it stretches too far or too fast. (Technically, that’s how your muscle contracts. It doesn’t really shorten. The muscle itself actually lengthens the muscle spindle then contracts it. Some food for thought: While your muscle may appear shorter when it contracts, in one or more of the three planes of motion it may actually be lengthening. That is how your muscle remains tense.) By using the muscle spindle as self-applied force on the muscle, it will cause it to stretch because you are holding a segment in place while it is pulling from the other end of the muscle.
What are the benefits?
There are multiple uses for foam-rolling your muscles. First, there is relief from soreness. A person who foam-rolls targeted muscles after a workout is less sore than someone who didn’t. Second, is for proper posture. Most people really don’t think that this is a big deal. However, as Darrin has stated before, strength is more neurological than it is muscle size. People with less muscle imbalances have better posture. This means that opposing muscles are neither too long, nor too short; thus able to fire with proper effort and timing. That allows for greater neurological communication and further increasing strength, without any lifting at all. The increase in core strength gained by the correct posture also gives the third benefit; injury prevention.
What muscles can be foam-rolled?
There are multiple muscles that can be foam-rolled. When rolling (more…)
This post is part 2 of a 2 part series. In part 1, Starvation is Not the Answer, we talked about how under eating can slow down your metabolism and make you fatter.
Here’s a piece of information that some of you will be glad to hear – Eating enough food each day will help you to keep fat off of your body. You are going to have to forget the idea that cutting fat comes from just eating less food; it’s simply not the truth.
This is the part that is hard for many people to accept when you are trying to cut some fat. Switching to smaller and more frequent meals throughout the day will actually cause your metabolism to stabilize.
You might be eating more food overall throughout the day, but eating even amounts of food throughout the day will help you to keep your metabolism higher. The key will be to make the following things happen:
1. Feed your body: Like we discussed before, (more…)
