On a diet? Dealing with this Thanksgiving stress in a healthy way

Thanksgiving week.... This can be a very stressful week for people on a diet -- especially for people with binge history. It's like a perfect storm of triggers: disruption to the regular eat-sleep schedule often travel and sleeping in strange (sometimes very strange) beds abundance of food, including childhood trigger foods lots of family (and you don't get to pick your family, another reason...

Five Boner Friday – The Calm Before the Turkey Edition

1. Thanksgiving next week... ...and for many that means a few days break from the work-sleep-eat-train routine, especially if you're travelling. To help getting back into rhythm AFTER the holiday much easier, treat this "weekend before Thanksgiving" as an extension of your workweek. So this weekend and into next week, eat, sleep, and train like you're crushing your 9-5. Then "enjoy" a couple...

Five Boner Friday – Unimpeachable Edition

1. I feel bad for young men who listen to some douchebag manhood guru on Twitter... ...and think a script for Testosterone will magically solve all their problems -- in the gym, at the office, on Tinder, etc. Listen. If you don't know how to eat, sleep, train, live, and think (yes, THINK) a true “bodybuilding” lifestyle -- or have never done so for months, even years, CONSISTENTLY -- then start...

Five Boner Friday – Got More Boners Than the Bradys Got Bunches Edition

1. Got elbow pain? The older you are, the more you need to rotate movements. I love-love-LOVE brachialis-specific work (reverse curls, hammer curls, narrow grip overhand pull-ups) but they can certainly beat up the elbows. Hmmm. Thick biceps & forearms or pain-free elbows? Such a conundrum. The best advice if you're old is to change elbow flexion exercises every few workouts, even if things...

Mondays are crazy hectic. Here’s a quick tip.

Mondays are crazy hectic. Because EVERYTHING starts on Monday. School, work, kids activities, the diet (ha!) and of course, hitting the gym (usually for International Chest Day). Some people stack so many "starts" into a Monday they barely have time to breathe. And when things get a bit too rushed, often it's the Monday workout (or the diet) that gets skipped. Now one day missed is just one day....

Five Boner Friday – 30 days of calf raises, fitness punchlines, daily rhythms

Hide your kids, hide your wife, and hide your husband edition. - - - 1. Rhythm is everything. The more daily rituals you have in your day, the easier it is to relax and execute at a high level. Examples might be: Sleep/wake times Morning dog walk Cooking same breakfast Same workout time, even pre-workout coffee Reading with the kid. It’s not really what you do that matters — it’s having set...

5 Tips to Avoid Screwing Up Your Bulking Plans

Folks sometimes complain that "bulking and cutting" (overeating to gain muscle & fat, then dieting down for net muscle gain) doesn't work. That's just not true. It's like saying "squats hurt the knees and bench presses hurt the shoulders." No, squats and bench presses DONE POORLY (OR BY THE WRONG PERSON) hurt the knees and shoulders. In other words, a bulk and cut cycle that's more like "eat...