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...
Five Boner Friday – Over-40 Training Advice, Frequency, Workout Times
1. Most over-40 training advice is bullshit. There are 40-somethings in the best shape of their lives and 30 year-olds (even 20 year-olds) that would get winded just touring a Planet Fitness. So there's a whole lot of individual context there. Over-40 type advice should focus less on exercise and more around managing stress. Now stress has become a vague buzz term -- I think of it as managing...
Reframe Time: Similar macros, similar “results,” but…
"Health Washing" is a pet peeve for many health advocates. It's when food companies try to position highly processed packaged foods as "healthy" by slapping irrelevant or dubious nutritional claims on the label such as, "100% natural, gluten-free, made with all-natural ingredients" and so on. Smarmy practice. Though I can't help but pity the fool who rationalizes crushing a dozen Oreos a day...
Five Boner Friday – Big Bag of Random Edition
1. The other day I showed up at the gym for what was supposed to be a heavy squat workout, but.. ...after just a few warm up sets it was abundantly clear my lower back still wasn't recovered from the previous leg workout. So I switched to machines and single-leg work for higher reps. Success. That’s how you “listen to your body.” Calling audibles in terms of exercise to get a training effect...