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How to Increase Mind-Muscle Connection

There’s a lot that competes for your attention in today’s society. For example, work never seems to give us a break, thanks to technology. Many of us are glued to our mobile phones, constantly checking emails or getting texts. This is also the case when it comes to our health and fitness: there are many distractions that may take our focus away from the exercises we are performing and can interfere with the quality of our workouts. If you’re watching television, checking your phone, daydreaming about your “to-do” list, or listening to podcasts while you train, this might reduce your concentration on the weight that you’re lifting. This graphic explains how to reduce these distractions and increase your mind-muscle connection: […]

2020-08-06T12:01:57-04:00
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Occlusion Training with BFR Straps – Blood Flow Restriction for Size & Recovery

A couple of weeks ago I was cleared by my surgeon to begin training “normally” again, ie: I can reintroduce my regular training program and exercises but using lighter loads. In addition to my regular full body training program I will be performing additional isolation work for my arms, shoulders, and abs on my “off” days. In this article I’ll describe the training strategy I’m using for my arm isolation workouts: Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) training. BFR training is also referred to as occlusion training which involves wrapping your upper arm to restrict venous blood flow return (without impeding arterial blood flow into the muscle), which keeps the metabolic by-products of training pooled in the muscle longer (including growth factors such and anabolic metabolites like lactic acid, testosterone, IGF-1, GH, etc). This supports hypertrophy while using lighter weights, which is perfect for me at this point in my recovery. [...]

2020-06-06T17:04:50-04:00
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Basic Home Workout for Beginners

Many of the clients I see are starting out with minimal training experience and are working out in their own home. As people progress with their strength and fitness they often prefer to get a gym membership or to purchase exercise equipment for their home gym. I already have videos demonstrating gym workouts as well as how to set up a kick ass home gym, but beginners typically don’t need access to a lot of equipment to get started. In the video below I demonstrate a basic beginner home workout using only one’s body weight, a resistance band, and an exercise ball: […]

2020-08-06T12:06:20-04:00
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Strength and Power Training for Fighters

In this article I want to cover a few fundamentals of strength and conditioning for combat sports that I recently shared with my friend Jason from Precision Striking. First I’ll discuss exercises to develop base strength, then move on to power movements and conditioning exercises. But before I get into that, here are some key points related to this topic. […]

2020-06-11T12:59:48-04:00
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Core Training For Beginners – Effective Ab Exercises and Routines

GUEST POST from Paul Vandyken With the fitness culture becoming more popular and more people becoming aware of the benefits of working out, a large variety of people from different walks of life are now hitting the gym. Many of these people are looking for effective exercises and routines to train their abs in the hopes of developing a strong core or to get a six pack. Unfortunately, what many don’t realize is that you can potentially injure yourself by performing exercises incorrectly or by choosing the wrong exercises. However, if you know what you’re doing and you do it the right way, you can achieve the result you’re after. […]

2020-06-06T17:37:12-04:00
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Fat Burning Ladder SuperSet Workout

What the heck is a Fat Burning Ladder workout? A Ladder Workout is a training technique that I often use, especially with bodyweight / calisthenics workouts. It’s also one of the training methods I will be introducing in my upcoming ebook/ video program, Bodyweight MASS Builder. It’s a high-intensity, high-volume super-set workout that will build muscle, increase muscular endurance, and burn fat. It’s a simple but challenging form of antagonist supersetting that you can apply to almost any exercises, but which I find particularly well suited to body weight exercises. Here’s how you perform this workout protocol: choose two exercises, typically one pushing movement and one pulling movement (antagonist muscle groups), OR a lower body exercise paired up with an upper body exercise, and you super-set these two exercises, moving back and forth between them with minimal rest. But here’s where the ‘ladder’ technique gets interesting: you begin with only ONE repetition on one [...]

2020-06-08T17:04:42-04:00
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How to Keep the Fat Off after You Lose It

Why the Biggest Losers Regained The Weight A few weeks ago there was a “Biggest Loser Study” that was getting a lot of media attention. It basically showed that 6 years later the majority of the contestants on the show had regained most of their weight. Even worse, it also revealed that their metabolism was slower than it was previously. For more details check out the Research Review of this study on the Precision Nutrition site at www.precisionnutrition.com/the-biggest-loser-study. The unfortunate thing is that this study paints a dismal picture that it’s impossible to sustain fat loss over the long term. Of course, the mainstream media loves these types of stories and they jumped all over it. However, that conclusion is absolutely false. The Biggest Loser Study failed to fully explain why these individuals regained most of the weight. We need to ask the question: “What mistakes are they making on the Biggest Loser program [...]

2020-06-06T17:43:21-04:00
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Slow the Hell Down! Fast vs Slow Velocity Training

We’ve all seen it … the gym rat swinging heavy dumbbells and calling it “bicep curls”; or rocking back and forth with the full stack on the lat pulldown; or bouncing a heavy bar off their chest on a bench press, pounding out some fast reps. There’s also those people who treat weight training like “cardio” – firing off dozens of reps at lightning speed with very light weight. What do they all have in common? Besides the fact that most of them are probably injured in some way, they are are all performing their resistance training at a fast tempo. Now I admit that I’m generalizing when I describe everyone who performs fast reps as “ego-lifters” with crappy form… there are many experienced lifters who practice decent exercise technique but train with a faster tempo. However, the point of this article is to question whether that is the optimal [...]

2020-06-08T17:06:15-04:00
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How to Fix your Feet – The Benefits of Barefoot

What if I told you that there is one neglected body part that you could strengthen which would lead to an increase in full body strength and mobility? It might not be what you expect. I’m talking about your FEET. If you suffer from foot, ankle, knee, low back pain, or related problems including shin splints, bunions, heel spurs, plantar fasciitis, ‘fallen’ arches, or Achilles tendonitis, then this article should be of particular interest to you. Your feet may be holding you back from becoming stronger. The feet are the body’s base of support. During exercise, sport, and most daily activities, force enters the body through your hands and feet, with the feet supporting the bulk of this workload. However, whereas most people understand the importance of grip training and how strong hands contribute to a strong upper body, our feet are often neglected. Most people just shove their feet [...]

2020-08-06T10:12:48-04:00
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